Hail to the Chief!

I'm still mentally applauding the State of the Union address by our beloved President! What a wonderful, noble, inspired, committed man. I still praise God regularly for such a man to lead our country in times like these. He doesn't back down, he doesn't give up, he doesn't give in, and he's not afraid to tell the truth! Yet he does it all with respect and decency towards those who oppose him. And I love Laura Bush, too. What a true First Lady she is! Gracious and supportive, strong without pushing any agenda of her own.

God bless America!

Monday Night Ruminations

So what's the buzz in Washington? Well, first of all, the everlasting rain and showers (still don't know what the difference is) continue, albeit interrupted by a little sunshine this afternoon. Secondly, everyone's very hyped about the Seahawks' upcoming Superbowl game. I've never seen such hoopla around here over one of our teams! I'm not a football fan by any means, but of course I'm proud of them and sure hope they win on Sunday! Thirdly, hmm...just some more unpleasant legislation being passed to give more special rights to a certain group. Not surprising, but conservative Christians sure aren't happy about it.

My student recital went well on Saturday. The music part lasted only half an hour! More time for cookies and punch, of course. :-) I felt pretty weary the rest of the weekend, even going so far as to take a nap on Sunday afternoon! I can't believe how quickly time is flying by these days. Maybe it's just me.

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding." (Prov. 3:5) This is a verse I've known forever it seems, but lately it's been especially profound to me. I realized recently that if I could see the future all mapped out and understand everything that's happening and had no questions, then how would my "faith muscles" get any exercise? Peter said that our faith is more precious than gold. Hmm...I guess that means lots of refining and testing. Anything that keeps me on my knees and casting myself upon God must be a good thing. Not that I have any huge trials right now, compared to some people, but I'm weighing various decisions and facing daily pressures that force me to continually seek the Shepherd. In the whole scheme of things, I'm just a little dumb sheep who has such a teeny perspective compared to His. How do I think I can possibly figure life out on my own? How can I think my strength and wisdom is going to achieve anything? "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." What a relief.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

Well, it's not as bad as some places, but it's cold and rainy and gray and unpleasant. Actually, it was sunny this morning and almost felt kind of springy, so it was a cruel disappointment to walk out of school around noon into the rain. Waaagh!

I'm feeling guilty for not writing in over a week, so I thought I'd better come up with something. I'm really taking a break from an arranging project. I'm arranging Holy, Holy for clarinet, harp, piano, and choir for my school's spring program. Craig, help!! Right now it's all on the computer and I'm just hoping and praying it will actually sound good altogether. I'm not accustomed to arranging for this kind of group hodge podge, but I suppose it's good practice. Not that I want it to sound like a practice project, but you get the idea!

Today after teaching I went to the Olive Garden with my friend Rachel to plan our church's Sweetheart Banquet. This will be the fourth banquet she and I (and sometimes her bro Nathan) have put together for the married couples in our church. It's always been a hit for the couples and a fun experience for us too. All the "children" over 15 help with decorating, meal prep, serving, music, etc. Rachel is the Food Coordinator/Director/Chef and I'm the Decorating Decorator/General Overseer or something like that. We've always done a romantic theme with red and pink hearts and candles and all that jazz, but this year I had the idea of doing an Italian restaurant theme. So THAT'S why we had to go to the Olive Garden for this meeting so we'd get some inspiration! (We joked about going to the Spaghetti Factory next week and Cucina! Cucina! the next! All for the sake of research of course!) We decided to go with grapevines for part of the decor (if we can get some). I think we should have some corny Italian music like "That's Amore," but I don't know if that would go over well or not. ;-) Or I could sing "O Sole Mio." As you can see, the ideas have been gushing forth like the Trivoli fountains.

This Saturday is my student recital. I think I have 14 participants this time. So my big focus this week is getting them all ready! I usually get almost as nervous as they do. There's so much to think about with harps and table decor and punch and students and programs and accompanying...I'm swamped!

Okay, that's all for tonight, folks. Gotta go finish some laundry now.

Who Am I?

You are the true hero(ine)! Sensible, steady and
mature, you are the lynchpin of your circle of
friends and family.

Male: At your
best, you are a dynamo combination of Mr.
Knightley from Emma and Colonel Brandon
from Sense and Sensibility. At your
worst, you may be briefly beguiled by silly
women (cf. Edward Ferrars in Sense and
Sensibility and Captain Wentworth's
behavior toward Lousia Musgrove in
Persuasion), but in the end, you'll win
through and end up with the proper heroine.


Female: You are Elinor from Sense and
Sensibility! Wise beyond your years, you
are all too aware of the folly of those around
you. You are "sense" personified,
and without you, things would certainly fall
apart.

Which Jane Austen Character Are You?
brought to you by

Of Sickness, Cops, and Old Churches

This was quite an interesting week. From Monday through Wednesday I stayed home sick. I haven't been that sick in quite awhile. The cold went way down in my lungs; I probably had a touch of laryngitis. I was happy just to sit still and let my body heal. On Monday I spent most of the day sitting in bed reading, listening to books on tape, and cross-stitching while faithful Cheeky purred next to me, glad of a warm companion. I felt enough improvement on Wednesday to know I could go back to teaching on Thursday.

What a blessing it was to be sick! The Lord knew exactly what I needed! It was a blessed three days of just being still and refocusing spiritually and emotionally. I was especially encouraged by listening to Anne Graham Lotz's message, "Just Give Me Jesus." I decided to claim that as my motto this year. Sums up a lot.

So I went back to teaching on Thursday very refreshed and full of peace and good will to all. Still blowing and coughing a bit, but nothing bad. I definitely didn't have a lot of energy. I guess I was feeling so relaxed that I relaxed my attention to things like speed limits. Now, I have prided myself on driving for ten years without ever being pulled over by a cop. That doesn't mean I've never done any speeding, but for the most part, I'm a pretty conscientious driver, a happy medium between my lead-foot dad and my super-cautious mom. ANYWAY, I had just turned onto a little country road on the way to a student's house. In a short distance the speed limit goes from 35 to 40 and 50. I think I usually just start accelerating up to 50 before I ever get there. But there I was, driving along, totally not thinking about my speed, when I spied a green sheriff's car parked off the road with something poking out the window that was quickly pulled in. Uh-oh. I had a sinking feeling as I glanced at my speedometer and saw I was going over 45 and then glanced at the speed limit. I slowed way down and watched my rear-view mirror. Was this going to be that dreaded day? Surely this guy didn't want to get out in the pouring rain and pick on an innocent girl like me. But sure enough, he pulled out behind me and turned on his lights. You've never seen anyone pull over as quickly as I did. I grabbed my license while he walked up to my window.

Fortunately, he was a pretty nice guy, almost apologetic when he said he'd clocked me at 47 in a 35 zone. He asked why I was going so fast and all I could say was that my mind was on other things. He said that and the rain don't make a good combination. He took my registration and license back to his car while I rolled up the window and fervently prayed that he wouldn't give me a ticket, though I knew I deserved it. After an eternity (maybe only a couple minutes), he came back and said the ticket was $132, but he was going to let me go with a warning. "You need to slow down!" he said, and walked away. "Thank you, Lord," I breathed. I arrived at my student's house a few minutes late, but very grateful I'd gotten off with just a warning!

On Friday morning I got a call from a guy who was referred to me by my friend Mike. His church desparately needed a fill-in soloist for their Saturday morning service. It was a Seventh-Day Adventist Church. This was a most unusual request, and though I still had some crud in my throat, I decided to go for it. I diligently practiced when I could on Friday, which was mostly in the car on the way to school. Well, to make a long story short, I went up to north Seattle this morning and sang at this church. It was an old, beautiful, very traditional church with a pipe organ, stain glass windows, wooden pews, etc. My contact person said they had a very high liturgical service and he was definitely right. The atmosphere was pleasantly worshipful and sabbatic, but have no fear of my converting. I'm not familiar with the tenets of the denomination, but one difference that was soon obvious was the role of women in church leadership. A prominent role. The senior pastor was a man, but for some reason, a young women delivered the sermon today. She didn't look any older than 22 or 23 and gave a message about "Embracing Diversity." It was uh, interesting. I wanted to point out a few Scriptures to her afterwards. I don't think anybody went away filled. I went away slightly depressed, sensing a certain deadness or something about the church. It made me extra grateful for the rich services I get to attend every Sunday morning, led by a man of God who studies the Word and presents it unadulterated. Well, anyway, my solos went well, PTL, and people seemed to be blessed. I'm glad I had that experience.

I've been loafing the rest of the day, feeling very squirrely and unsettled. Probably cause I already had three days off this week. Well, maybe I'll go watch a movie or something. Sorry this post is so long!

Here I Am

I can't believe I went over a week without blogging! But now I've got a cold, so I've taken the day off and have no excuse not to blog. Last week was busy with getting back to teaching, and then I was gone all weekend at a friend's wedding near Idaho.

Oh, my goodness, what an outbreak of the love plague, or whatever it is, there has been around here! Cupid is on the loose! My friend Chris got engaged the middle of December, then another girl I know got engaged a little earlier, then my friends Jeremy and Rachel started courting, and then I went to weddings on Dec. 3, 31 and Jan. 7. And another friend got married on the 6th, but I wasn't able to make it. Something is in the air! So far it's skipping over me, though.

On Friday, my parents and a friend and I made the six-hour drive to Eastern Washington to a little town on the border of Washington and Idaho. I'd never been over there before, so it was interesting to see the "other side." It's pretty different from Western Washington. We made it in time for a rehearsal for me. I sang "The Prayer" with another singer. On Friday night we had the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, and then a bridesmaid time back at the house where we all stayed. Do you think we got to bed before midnight? Noooo...zzzzzzzzzz. It was fun, though. Ruth is a dear friend, and we share many happy memories.

On Saturday morning, we got up pretty early to go to a beauty school to get up-do's. I never like those places. Most of the students looked like high school drop-outs with serious self-esteem issues, while the two guy students creeped me out with their multiple tattoos and piercings. I got a nice girl, though, who did a decent job curling my hair into a million curls and then putting it up in an elegant do. It was only $12.50, so it was worth any pain and suffering and obnoxious music.

Okay, I'll skip ahead to the wedding. Everything went pretty smoothly. I was a little uptight beforehand because I had several jobs. I accompanied a violinist for a couple songs for the moms and then the candlelighters. We were both bridesmaids, so as soon as we were done, we zipped back to the back of the chapel to get in line. I was first in line, so I scurried back, grabbed my bouquet, slipped my arm into the groomsman's, and marched on down the aisle. After I sang for the unity candle, I relaxed and enjoyed the ceremony more. It was a lovely, simple ceremony, and the bride and groom were properly radiant. We had to go to another building for the reception. The bride and groom traveled over to it an old Model A! Pretty cool. I knew hardly anybody at the reception, but still had fun chatting, eating, and uh, enjoying the entertainment. :-) (Don't you dare say anything, JM! Except to Rachel.) I ended up taking the reins for the busy matron-of-honor, who was tending to her baby. I mean as far as helping the bride and looking after luggage.

Afterwards, we bridesmaids went back to the house. On the way, we decided to zip into Albertson's for a pizza. Of course we were still dressed up and figured we'd get a little attention. We had to laugh, though, when we saw a whole bunch of prom girls inside! Not that we looked anything like their half-dressed, teenage selves, but it was kind of funny to see a store full of formally dressed girls buzzing around. Then we grabbed a chick flick and zipped back to the house to eat leftovers, talk, and watch the movie. I was so tired on Sunday. Probably why my sore throat developed into a full-blown cold.

So there's my exciting update.