Where to Begin?

It surprised me when I looked at the calendar and realized how long it's been since I've posted. There's been a lot going on so I'll try to update you without rambling on too much. 😊 

I took the header photo picture of Beth in front of the Brattle Book Shop when we were in Boston for Diana and Peter's wedding back in September of '21. We decided to go for a walk and when we got out of the hotel, decided to just go around the block. Then we came across this cute little book store.

Right after my last post I flew to San Diego to spend some time with my sister. We try to get together a couple times a year but as we get older it seems to be getting harder. We do our best to make it happen though.

While I was there she put her dog Nalla down. She was a German shepherd and had lost the use of her back legs. She was 12 years old and there was nothing that could be done to help her so it was time. It was really hard but I was glad I was there. Got to say good-bye to Nalla, and was a little distraction for my sister.

In spite of that, we played games, took walks around her small mobile home park, and laughed a lot.

I took this when they visited us in 2020

Bougainvillea! 

We don't have this in Seattle and it's so nostalgic when I visit San Diego

Parcheesi! This was our mom's favorite game

After I got home I realized I never got a picture of my sister and I, so here's one from when I was down there last year.

My flight home was delayed so I walked in the front door a little after 10pm Saturday night. Hadn't planned on going to church the next morning but had a meeting in the afternoon so ended up just going to that. We were preparing to host a large pastor's conference and each team was meeting to go over last minute instructions and training. For the first time in seven years, I wasn't part of the custodial team! I got to help with 'catering', which included serving the meal at the dinner Wednesday night, then making all the box lunches for the attendees and volunteers the two following days. Custodians are mainly independent and it was so much fun to work side-by-side with others!

The dining room ready for the Pastor's Dinner

Some of the servers waiting to bring out the salads

We left a little after 9:00 Wednesday night and were back there at 6:30 Thursday morning to begin making the box lunches. Our team leader said we needed to make 340 lunches - each day. That's a lot of sandwiches! We made a large assembly line and it took us about three hours to get them all done. Then we packed the boxes with a liner, sandwich, fruit, chips, cookie and napkin. All packed with prayers that the Lord would touch each heart and meet the needs of every person attending.

Saturday I sat in my recliner the entire day! We were told later that there were pastors and spouses, plus church staff from 115 churches at the conference. We continue to pray the Lord would encourage those pastors and staff members as they go back to their congregations and cities.

There's more to tell you but I'll close for now. I'm catching up on laundry today (we got the day off) and all those little things that just pile up after a while. 😊

Have a great week!