A (Computer) Chip Off the Old Block (Hard Drive)

We were at the lake this weekend and I had my first look at the next Bill Gates. Yes, Tyler finally noticed the laptop and got acquainted with the remote control (I mean the mouse...) and when I tried to take him away from it, he actually cried! I think I had a few tears in my eyes too.

Maybe someday he and I will hang out with matching notebooks, accessing the same wireless network, sharing files, sitting in recliners, drinking Mountain Dew and watching the Denver Broncos play football (all while the girls are at the mall of course...)

Somebody pinch me...

Tyler Has Arrived

What can I say, Tyler is just getting tired of his siters taking advantage of him. Here we see Tyler showing Rachel how he feels about having his blanket stolen from him. Look out girls, Tyler is finding his muscles...

Days of Summer

I cannot believe that summer is coming to an end. It always goes by way too fast for me, though I have to admit that this year it has seemed to really fly. I am normally one of those people who is ready for fall about this time of year. I am ready for sweatshirts, cooler weather, and believe it or not football, but not this year. I wish we had another month or so left of nice warm lake weather. One of the reasons I love the summer so much is because of the lake, it is just so relaxing to be there.

I got the chance this week to take the kids plus Abby to the lake for 2 days. My grandma and Aunt Linda are in town from Utah along with my cousin and her kids from Pennsylvania. We were all able this week to spend some time hanging out and catching up and watching the kids play together at the lake. This is the 3rd time this year that my kids have been able to play with my cousin's kids, Joe and Matt. We normally do not get to see them very often but it amazes me how well our kids get along.

The kids had a great time playing in the sand and even made some new friends from next door. After I tried to rinse sand off the girls, let me tell you there was sand in parts sand has no place being, we loaded into the car after two fun days and headed for home. About half way home I realized that I could actually hear myself think. Could it be that all 4 kids were sleeping? Yes, they were all out. Some peace and quiet and some country music for about half and hour, what else does a girl need?

Are You a Moth or a Cockroach?

I was listening to a message on my way to work this morning (103.1 FM) when the speaker said something that made me think:

"We're either drawn to, or repelled by, the light of truth."

He described how some of us want to hear the good news and our hearts are in a place to accept the things God has for us. But that others really have no desire to know the truth about God. They may call themselves "Christians" and may do outward things to suggest that they believe, but on the inside the connection is broken.

So what does the moth and the cockroach have to do with anything? It should be pretty obvious!

The moth has an affinity for the light. It spends large amounts of time flying toward the light, landing near the light and simply being in the light. Sure we get annoyed when we come home at night and there is a swarm of moths surrounding the entrance to our homes. Too often as we're swatting at them, one will inadvertently wind up in the house. But most of us don't "hate" moths. We co-exist and think nothing of it.

The cockroach on the other hand sends chills up and down our spines. They hide out in the dark, damp places of the house and you never really know what they're up to. At night when you flip on the light, they scatter - looking for the closest shadow or crack in the wall leading back into darkness. Most people "hate" roaches and will do whatever it takes to have them killed, exterminated or banished to the far corners of the earth.

I'll resist the temptation to take this illustration any further, because I've already made my point. Each of us falls into one of the two categories. We're either comfortable being in the light, or we're doing everything possible to stay in the shadows.

So what are you - a moth or a cockroach?

I Need a Vacation

Things at work have been a little on the hectic side lately...Probably because I have been doing two jobs for the past month or two.

Here's my dilemma: I spend 5 straight days looking forward to the weekend and then 2 days preparing myself mentally for the next week. Unfortunately, this means I have a hard time relaxing and the family only gets half of me during the weekend.

I need a vacation!!!

The picture above is from the resort Tammy and I stayed at during our honeymoon. It is the Couples Resort in Ocho Rios, Jamaica (now with free wireless of course...) and it's the last truly awe-inspiring vacation I can remember. Tammy and I promised we would be back in five years but unfortunately (three kids later) we're on our way to year six without making it back.

I guess I just need to practice the art of living in the moment - taking things one day at a time and making the most of the time I have with family and friends.

Mexico Places

This is a picture of the Back2Back campus where we stayed. We ate, slept and showered here everyday.

This is Douglas, one of the orphanages where we worked at. This is one of the buildings where the younger kids stayed.

This is Manatial De Amor, one of the other orphanages we worked at. This is where the boys stayed and the girls stayed about 6 blocks away.

This is one of the roads we walked on coming back from Douglas. These streets were really flooded from Hurricane Emily and then from the tropical storm that came through while we were there. As you can see our team tried to walk around the water as much as possible so that we did not have soaking wet shoes.

These two pictures are from the Rio. This was an area we went to and handed out donations. The people in this area live in utter poverty. Their homes are shacks and they basically have nothing. It was such an eye opening experience to see how some people live. It made me think w about how selfish I can be sometimes, complaining about the things I don't have.

These pictures are from Horsetail Falls. We went there the last day we were in Monterey. It was pretty cool, you walked up this trail and then this came into sight. It was beautiful!

The Things Kids are Scared Of

All of our kids have gone through stages where they are scared of something and it is interesting to me what those things are and how they are different for every kid. Last night we (or should I say I, Daryl was not all that excited about it) decided to go on a walk. It was a beautiful evening and I thought it would be fun to get the kids out of the house for awhile. We got the wagon and stroller out of the garage and headed out. Rachel started out in the wagon and we were not even out of the driveway yet and she started freaking out about all the little things that were in the wagon. Now the wagon was in the garage so there were little pieces of dirt and grass and yes some occasional bugs. The bugs were so tiny that you could barely see them, but she managed to find almost all of them. Once I had most of them out I just started telling her that everything else she managed to find was grass. That seemed to appease her.

We were about halfway through our walk, Allison has now joined Rachel in the wagon, when Allison starts getting concerned that the sun is going down and we better get home. Now it is only about 7:00pm at this time and still very light outside. I just tried to ignore her comments for awhile but she continued on, "Mom we better go home it is getting dark outside" is all I heard for about 5 minutes. Even after I assured her that it was fine and we had plenty of time before it got dark she still thought we should head for home. It finally took me telling her that we were headed for home before she rested her case. Daryl and I talked about whether she will be the same way about her curfew as a teenager. Will she say "I better get home it is almost dark" at the age of 16? Probably not, but with her there is always hope.

After arriving home way before dark may I add, it was bathtime. I piled all the kids into the tub and everyone got clean. Since it was almost 8:00pm by the time they got out and close to bedtime I decided to blow dry Allison and Rachel's hair. As I sat on the couch doing this Tyler just watched me. He basically did not take his eyes off the blow dryer. While the blow dryer was turned off he crawled over to the couch where I was sitting. I then turned it back on to dry Rachel's hair and started playing with him and turning the dryer on his hair for a few seconds. I got these looks of I am not sure if I like that. He tolerated me doing that for about 10 seconds and then it was full blown crying. He just sat on the floor and watched the dryer and cried. This is the same thing he does with the vacuum. The minute he sees the vacuum come into the room he just sits and stares at it and if it gets anywhere close to him he starts crying like crazy. Now if Allison did that I might have some sympathy since she did have a run in with the vacuum at about his age and still has a scar from it, but I figure Tyler will just have to get used to it. Okay so I am not that mean. I do put him in the chair while I run the vacuum with one of his sisters, that seems to appease him for now.

I am sure the day will come when they pretend like they are not scared of anything and will think they are invincible, so I should probably cherish these scared moments when the only thing that makes them feel better is being in mommy or daddy's arms.

Here's What I Think of That!

So Tyler was teaching me the finer points of negotiation today. He was in the middle of it when he stopped and said, "And if you don't agree with the person, just do this..."

Carter Is In the Building

Carter came over to play today! He was a little freaked out at first since his house is much quieter than ours, but he quickly calmed and decided to play with some of Tyler's toys. However, this didn't go over very well with Tyler, so we put Tyler to bed for naps. We'll just call it an "attitude adjustment."

Leadership Summit 2005

Well, as some of you know, I've been attending the Leadership Summit for the past three days at Granger Community Church in Granger, IN. The Summit is put on by Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, IL. Presenters included Bill Hybels, Rick Warren and John Maxwell. The Messages were well thought out and the overall theme was followed throughout.

My initial assumption was that we would hear information primarily focused on the development of "leadership" qualities. And while that was touched on, there were much more powerful themes being presented. You couldn't help but hear the following:

• The gospel
• The problems in the world today (AIDS, hunger, poverty, etc.)
• Our calling to meet the above needs
• What the church and others are doing to meet the above needs
• How leaders are succeeding because they have followed Christian principles in their churches/businesses
• How to manage our time/stress/energy in the completion of our callings

I really enjoyed two of the presentations on Day 2. Each sounded similar to clinical conferences I have attended. One guy even presented on the 4 parts of the self (emotional, cognitive, behavioral and spiritual) which is enough to make any counselor feel at home. I guess it's just good to know that even leaders of large churches and companies fall under the same psychological principles that I teach to people without jobs.

My overall impression of the conference was positive. I was refreshed, inspired and challenged to be more than I've already aspired to be. To focus less on success and more on servanthood. And to find my Holy Discontent (Bill Hybels described this concept as that thing that I feel in my spirit is wrong and needs corrected) and to do everything in my power to bring change in this area.

Rest of the Mexico Trip

Okay so I have been really lax the last few days and have not finished telling you about the rest of my trip so I am going to do it now. Just to warn you this may be a long one, so consider yourself warned.

Wednesday, July 27- Today was probably one of my favorite days. We spent the morning at Manantial de Amor (this was my first time at this orphanage) laying peat gravel on the playground for the kids. We then had lunch and had a birthday party for all the kids who had July Birthdays. This was fun to watch the kids eat cupcakes and open presents. From there it was off to Plaza Seasmo. This is an awesome water/amusement park for kids. We all got paired up with a kid for the day and I got a 3 year old girl named Ariel. She was such a cutie and we had a blast together that day. We played in the water for probably 2 hours or more and then rode some rides. The kids then left on buses and our group headed out to Tacos Fede for some dinner. This is a place well known in Monterey and the team went there last year also. Awesome dinner. Our team filled the whole place, of course it was a garage with a bunch of tables set up. It was lots of fun to be together as a team and eat some good food and drink coke out of glass bottles. I had so much fun today hanging out with Ariel, it is amazing how quickly you can bond with a child even though you can't speak their language.

Thursday, July 28- This was probably the most emotional day I had all week. We headed out in the morning to the Rio. This is an area in Monterey where the poorest of the poor live. The people actually live in shacks, it is so sad. One of our students was able to give his testimony and we then handed out donations to the people. It was amazing to me to see people who lived in utter poverty yet they still had smiles on their faces. I got back on the bus and just lost it. My heart just went out to those people. I had never seen such poverty and my heart just broke for them. We then returned to the Back2Back campus and the kids from the orphanages were waiting there for us. Sure enough I found Ariel and we spent the day in the pool and just hanging out together. She spent probably an hour pretending to give me a bath. She would get water from the pool and pretend to wash my hair and then wash my arms and legs and face. After we ate with the kids we had the privilege of listening to two kids give their testimony. What amazing stories they had. I sat there and just cried, they had been through so much in their short lives yet they were praising God and telling us to trust in Him. They then sang some worship songs and then it was time to say goodbye. I have to admit this was probably the hardest part of the trip for me. I hung on tight to Ariel until I had to put her on the bus and I cried the whole time. It was so hard to see the kids go, for you knew that you may not see them again. Ariel will always hold a special place in my heart and I hope that someday I will see her again.

Friday, July 29- Today we got up packed our bags and cleaned. We were the last group there for the summer so we cleaned it from top to bottom. We had lunch there, said goodbye to the staff and then headed out on buses for Horsetail Falls. We did not know where we were going, it was a surprise Corey and Lanette had in store for us. This was a really cool place, you hiked up this mountain and it was a huge waterfall. We then left there and headed to a hotel by the airport. We ate dinner at a restaurant that had American food, I had a hamburger, and then it was off to bed.

Saturday, July 30- Up early and off to the airport, our flight left Monterey at 10:00am. We got into O'Hare around 1:00pm and then took a school bus back to GCC. Said goodbye to friends I had made that week and said hello to my family!

This was a trip of a lifetime. I cannot explain here how this trip changed me but it did. I made a lot of new friends and got to know a lot of high school students who I had never seen before. I will never forget this trip and I just hope that I will get the chance to do it again.

I will post more pictures later, I just got my pictures back. So once they are scanned I will get them posted.

Best Friends Return

So the Callenders are home from vacation and therefore Allison, Rachel and Tyler have their best friends back. It has only been a little over a week since they have seen each other but you would have thought it had been months. Allison and Rachel could barely wait to see them. Tonight was date night for the Callenders so Jacob and Abby arrived just in time for dinner. As the 4 of them sat at the table eating all they could do was laugh at each other. They just sat for about 20 minutes and laughed at anything that was said. I have to admit it was really loud during this time and there were moments where I almost asked them to calm down, but then I found myself laughing with them. Best friends have been reunited, all is good!

The Crash Will Come

After a long weekend at the lake, the only thing the girls could find the energy to do was sit and stare at the TV for 1.5 hours of Monstors INC. While mommy and daddy cleaned the lake house, the girls tried to use as little energy as possible...

We called them by name, offered them ice cream and told them they could stay up all night - it didn't matter - they still wouldn't look at us...

Tubin' Solo

Allison decided she wanted to tube even though there was no one else to go with her. Mommy and Daddy rode in the boat and watched the big girl take her first solo ride (of course we were going so slow the boat was in danger of barnacle build up...)

Allison Finally Goes for Broke

This weekend at the lake Allison proved once and for all she gets the whole "holding your breath under water" concept...

Fun at the Lake

I just jumped on someone's wireless network down here at the lake... Isn't technology a wonderful thing?

Another Reason Why I Believe

I was having one of those spiritual/religious conversations with a friend recently - You know the one - where the friend expresses that they too believe in God and are spiritual, in the following ways:

• God is energy
• My god is the same as your God
• All roads lead to heaven
• At least I'm a good person
• Christianity teaches exclusivity and is therefore intolerant of others
• I believe god exists, but exerts very little influence over our lives
• I don't necessarily believe in a heaven or a hell
• Satan exists in peoples minds so we have someone to blame for stuff

Sound familiar? Have you ever talked with someone like this for any length of time? It's difficult because there is no common ground in the origins of our beliefs. We want to quote scripture, but they don't view it as being the infallible word of God. To us, the Bible is our guide into all truth. To them, truth is subjective - if you believe it to be true, then for you it is.

And so it happened that somewhwere in the middle of this fascinating conversation my friend made a comment that still echoes in my mind today. I was expanding on the Christian belief that all roads DO NOT lead to heaven - that the only true road is the one that passes by the cross. He was listening politely (though this is the part he believes to be intolerant and exclusive in nature) and then said in a very matter-of-fact way:

"Well, you know how it is, if I was in a plane that was going to crash, I would probably call out for Jesus to save me too. After all, isn't that what most people would do in that situation?"

I didn't flinch, and continued to listen to the statements that followed, but inside I was reeling. What had he just said? He does not believe in Jesus right now, but if faced with impending death, he just might be convincd that it would be prudent to call on Jesus to save him...

And that's when it hit me. This is yet another reason why I believe in Jesus Christ. It's the simple fact that many non-believers will suddenly believe when faced with death. Many of them do last minute business with God to make sure their affairs are in order before leaving this life. But the cool part is this: it really doesn't happen the other way around! I've never heard a story where a sold out Christian said, "Oh no! I'm going to die. I don't believe in God! I don't believe in God!"

Have you? If so, I apologize. But in my experience it just doesn't happen. Why? I really can't say other than to suggest that every person (on some level) understands the following truths:

• God does exist and is more than just energy
• Humans need God in order to be certain about eternity
• If we cry out to God, He has the power to hear us and save us

Sure people live their entire lives as if this is NOT true, but when faced with death and an uncertainty about eternal life, many recall the truth about their Creator as if it were burned into their minds with a hot iron.

Just another reason why I believe...

Mexico | Day 3 & 4

Okay so my husband is sitting here calling me a cheater since I am writing about two days in one blog, but day's 3 and 4 were pretty similar so I figured why not. Oh, by the way I need to throw out a thank you to Todd Ruth and Corey Mann. The pictures I am putting on the blog from Mexico are from the two of them. I wasn't allowed to take our digital camera so my pictures are still being developed. So thanks guys, you two rock! Now on to Day 3...

Monday, July 25- Normal morning routine. Up around 8:00am, breakfast, quiet time, small group time and then off to Douglas for the second time. Today I got to help make the kids happy meals when we first got there. We made ham and cheese sandwiches and then put them and a bag of chips, bottle of juice, cookies and some toys in bags for the kids. The kids at Douglas today were at VBS all morning and most of the afternoon so we put the bags in the frig and the kids were able to enjoy them for dinner. After setting up for our lunch and then cleaning things up from lunch I headed outside to do some manual labor. I helped backfill dirt along a wall where the sports court will someday be. To some of you this may sound like a piece of cake, but this was not just dirt. It was muddy and clay like with a bunch of rocks and pieces of cement in it. There were about 5-6 girls working on this one section. Some of us were using picks to chip away at the rocks and cement, some of us were picking up rocks and throwing them into the area we were backfilling and others were actually using shovels to backfill. We worked in this one area for quite a while but it was tons of fun. One of my favorite parts was when we found this huge cement piece that needed to be moved and it took almost all of us to move it, but we did it.

After we finished up our work for the day we got about 45 minutes or so to play with the kids. They had just gotten back from VBS so we face painted, blew bubbles, did crafts and just hung out with them. We then left and headed back to where we stayed for normal evening routine of dinner, showers, worship, debrief and then bed.

Tuesday, July 26- Same morning routine and then I was off to Douglas again. This was probably the hardest work day for me the whole week. In the morning I was put on a crew that was responsible for back filling along a cement wall again, but this wall was much bigger and there was a lot more to do.

At moments it felt like we were getting no where, but we continued to plug along with the help and encouragement from others. After lunch I got to help fill buckets full of cement to go along the sports court. This was a lot of fun and again I was able to work with some great friends. After finishing this task it was then time to play with the kids. I had a great time and had found myself looking forward to spending time with these kids. The kids at this home are the ones who never see family. There are normally about 100 kids there during the school year. Most of the kids go home for either the whole summer or parts of it. The 25 kids that were there this week are the ones who don't see family and never get the chance to go home. I really grew to love the kids at this home. My heart just broke for them and I wanted to do all I could to just show them as much love as I could in a week.

So at this point I am half way through the week. I was going to bed every night praying for Daryl, the kids, and those watching the kids. I was surprised at how well I was doing with being away from them all but I knew God was calling me to be in the moment as much as possible and I knew that He was taking care of my family. It also helped to have some good friends on the trip with me. It felt like being at GCC even though we were a few thousand miles away!

Mexico | Day 2

I know I know, I said I would do Day 2 yesterday, but I was with family and friends last night talking about the trip and then today when I did try to post I messed something up and lost everything I had written. I will say I am still trying to process everything I experienced that week. All I know is that I am trying to stay focused on Christ and follow his promptings no matter what. So with that said Day 2.

Sunday, July 24- We got up this morning and had breakfast, then quiet time and off to small group time. There were 5 total people in my small group-myself, one other leader and 3 students. I really enjoyed small group during the week and really got to know the others in my group. After small group it was off to church. The church service was 2 hours long and was entirely in Spanish. The message was being translated through headphones that we wore. My favorite thing about church was the worship. The songs they sang are songs we sing at church and there were moments when I could hear those around me singing the song in English while the worship band was singing in Spanish. It truly gave you a glimpse of what Heaven might be like one day!

This is a picture of all of us in front of the church.

After church it was off to Douglas, one of the children's homes. We call them orphanages here. We got there and brought in pizza for the kids, they rarely get pizza so it was a treat for them. After lunch we cleaned up a bit and then I headed outside to get to work. I worked the rest of the afternoon with Debbie and Corey Mann filling in concrete blocks that would be the outside of a sports court.

This was one of the days where it rained pretty good, but I managed to stay pretty dry. I have to admit it was kind of nice when it was cloudy because it kept it from getting too hot. After finishing our work at Douglas we headed back to where we stayed and had dinner, showers, worship and then some free time with the rest of the team.

This was a great day! I had so much fun meeting the kids at Douglas. I feel in love with this little girl named Pamela. She was way too cute. I found out later that she was actually the daughter of the family who lived there with the kids. It was also a ton of fun to work with Debbie and Corey and I found out I love cement work!!!!

Will the Real Tyler Please Stand Up

This will probably scar Tyler for life, but I needed to prove to all of you that he definitely has the potential to melt down just like any other child... Of course the girls did the same thing, but lucky for them it was pre-blogging days. We video taped them doing the same thing, but unfortunately it's analog and I don't have time to convert it into something usable here - sorry...

Mexico | Day 1

Well I am home. I arrived home from my first mission trip on Saturday around 4:30pm. What a week, I don't even know where to begin. I am definitely a different person. I asked God to change me while I was gone and He showed up and did just what I asked. I saw things this week that blew my mind and I cannot stop thinking about them. Even though I am home and back into the normal routine I find myself thinking of Mexico and the friends I spent the week with many times throughout my day. It was an awesome week and I want to thank each and every one of you who helped me financially or through prayer, I could never have had the experience I did without you.

I thought what I would do is go through my week with you a little at a time so you know what we did everyday! So here is the first day.

Saturday, July 23- I left my house around 7:00am. Todd and Jami Ruth (some of our great friends) came and picked me up so that Daryl did not have to drag all the kids out that early in the morning. I have to admit it was really hard to leave. I had said goodbye to the kids the night before but I still had to say goodbye to Daryl. I found myself crying and then the Ruth's showed up and I could see tears in their eyes (they had just said goodbye to their 6 month old son for the week) and then the tears really started to flow. I pushed through it and off we went. We met the rest of the team at the church at 7:15am. We got all of our stuff on the bus and loaded up into a bus and the church shuttle. The 49 of us headed out at 8:00am for Chicago O'Hare. We got on the toll road and were about 2 miles down the road and blew a tire in the shuttle. So those of us on the shuttle piled off while the tire was being fixed. Back on the road we got in no time flat and arrived in Chicago before the bus did.

We had a great flight, it took us about 3 hours from Chicago to Monterrey. We got off the plane in Monterrey and you could feel the heat. The Back 2 Back staff met us and we loaded into buses headed to the Back2Back campus. It was about a 45 minute ride. We got there unloaded the buses got ourselves settled into our rooms. All the girls were in one big room and the guys were in another. We then had dinner and then headed outside to the palapa for worship. We then had some time to talk about what our day would be like tomorrow and then basically off to bed.

Some of my thoughts about this day:

-Monterrey is surrounded by mountains which I did not know, it was really beautiful.
-Hurricane Emily had hit the week before we went and therefore some of the roads we took to get to the campus were flooded along with being really bumpy.
-Worship outside at the palapa was great. It was basically a hut outside with chairs set up. They had a worship leader on staff for the summer and he was great. It was awesome to worship with mountains in the background and some of your best friends by your side.
-I found myself thinking about my family and what they were doing and hoping all was well.

Tomorrow Day 2 in Mexico!