Little Girl Grown

How can that graceful, elegant woman be the freckled-faced giggle box I remember?

On June 23, 2007, Bobby again had the privilege of marrying off one of the kids of Christ Covenant. Sarah and Hawthorne had met as 12-year-olds and friends and family members might just swear they’ve been in love since then!

Their wedding was a traditional, beautiful affair. Now, the happy couple are making their home in Pennsylvania and I am missing Sarah already!

Theological Worldview Quiz

So...where on the theological worldview spectrum do you find yourself? Here's a quiz to help you answer that question.

Accomplishing a Life Goal

I remember watching the movie A Walk To Remember and being intrigued by the heroine's list of life goals - things she wanted to accomplish before she died. Already middle aged when I watched this, I nevertheless decided right then and there I was going to make my own list of life goals.

I have several. While out in New Mexico in 1986, I saw for the first time the end of a rainbow as it touched down in a field, colors splashing on the ground. I didn't know rainbows actually touched down! One of my life goals is to stand in the end of a rainbow.

I want to see the Northern Lights in Alaska.

I want to see Italy.

I want to write a book.

I want to see an owl in nature (not a zoo or wildlife display).

One of my goals was to see a bald eagle in the wild. Eagles are in far western Kentucky, but not around my home. As I mentioned in an early blog, I did see a bald eagle in flight while in Wyoming this year. But the Lord orchestrated much more than that for me a few days later!

My Mom had always wanted to see Montana, so on our trip to Yellowstone, my hubby surprised her by going over 100 miles off course just so he could take her up through Idaho and into Montana where we would enter Yellowstone through the West Yellowstone entrance. (Bobby really is a gem!) We would never have had a reason to go to the West Entrance of Yellowstone had we taken the direct route from Jackson Hole to the South Entrance.

We hadn't gotten very far through the West Entrance, when we saw rangers and a restricted area. No stopping, No parking signs were everywhere. Then we saw why. A bald eagle was nesting right by the road! The rangers were protecting the nest because if people were allowed to get too close, the parents might abandon the nest.

There it was - an eagle with two fledglings. The distance was a little too much for our camera, but I'm including the photos anyway!

Our last day in Yellowstone, we returned to visit our eagles. The day was overcast and the parent wasn't on the nest, rather he/she was across the road. However, Bobby did get a shot of the fledglings as they raised up out of the nest. The adult on a dead tree was absolutely regal!

We parked right beyond the restricted space and started talking to the lady ranger on guard at that end. She was amused/touched by the tears streaming down my face and allowed us to walk a little further than we were supposed to so we could get a better photograph. She told Mom and Bobby, "I've never seen someone cry over an eagle before!"

The Princess Bride Turns 20!

ABC News' web site has a photo profile of the stars of The Princess Bride 20 years later. (How can that be?!). Wanna feel old? Go here.

Devotions Revisited

A dear friend asked me to contribute some devotions for her discipleship group a while back. I was very diligent for a while, but haven't contributed any recently (sorry Rosie!).

Here are a few of my contributions:


CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?


In the Fall of 2004 by a freak accident, my eardrum was punctured. My first thought was, “I just became deaf in my right ear.” Of course, after the initial panic passed, I realized my right ear wasn’t deaf just injured. The next few weeks while my ear healed, I learned a great deal.

My hearing was intact in the ear, but with the hole in my eardrum I wasn’t able to isolate voices or specific sounds well. Too much information from the world around me was getting in. It was the strangest feeling. All this noise and yet I wasn’t hearing anything at all! When my hubby and I were at a restaurant, I had to put an earplug in the injured ear so I could hear his voice above all the din around us.

My sheep hear my voice. . . Let’s be honest, sometimes the din of the world around us is so loud, it’s hard to hear the Savior’s voice. When the world around us keeps getting louder and louder, we have to be sure we are not dependent on that Voice coming from outside – it needs to come from within. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee. We all need that earplug – the filter that helps us isolate truth from lies, the light that clearly shows the path ahead. [Read: Proverbs 2:1-9]


BEES


My husband and I came home from church on Sunday and out in our back yard, hanging from a branch of our redbud tree, was a big thing that wasn’t there just the night before! “What in the world is that?” my hubby and I asked each other in unison. Out came the binoculars and as it brought the thing into focus, we realized it was an ever-increasing swarm of bees on what looked like the beginning of a hive right there only several yards from our back door! We searched the phone book for bee removal services and I put on my shoes to go warn the neighbors to keep their kids away from our yard. My hubby grabbed the phone to call a local home supply center to see if there were any “do-it-yourself” options for the invasion of the bees.

And then. . . as he dialed the number, he said, “Alisa, look.” The thing was dissipating. Gradually, the mass of bees were flying away and the thing was unraveling like a snagged sweater. Within minutes, the thing was completely gone. We watched the swarm, twirling like a tornado, disappear.

We all have things. Things that perplex us. Things we don’t know how to resolve. Things that are, frankly, scary. But like the bees, our Creator controls all things.

Cast your cares upon Him for He cares for you. ~ I Peter 5:7


That’s more than a children’s Sunday School memory verse. That’s what we have to hold on to when we have to deal with things.