In Colorado Springs

I drove out to Colorado Springs today for the USAA (US Apostolic Alliance) Conference that starts tomorrow evening. Praise God the roads were clear and dry. After the freezing rain & snow that blanketed Kansas the past two days, that was truly something for which to be grateful!

[Side note: The willow trees the initial developer planted all over my subdivision did not fair well with the ice storm in Wichita. Lots of limbs down. Praise God, the one in my yard did not have any limbs break. I'm glad I spent the energy to trim it up last year!]

The drive out was "uneventful" - other than I really missed Mom. We made our first trip to Colorado to this same location, Colorado Springs, in 2001 for me to attend a conference and then spend a little time enjoying the beautiful scenery. We came back "through" Colorado twice more returning from trips further west. I did okay through the Kansas "flatlands" (because I have been all over Kansas various times without her), but as I got closer to Colorado I began remembering our times out this way together. I would see things that were pretty that we would have pointed out to each other, and there was no one with whom to share that anymore.

The good part is all the places we did go together and the things we did see. Besides our frequent trips to Florida & Branson, I would have never made the other trips (to S. Dakota, the Grand Canyon & other canyons in Utah, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Glazier, etc.), if it hadn't been for taking her to see them. The time we had together really was a blessing in so many ways.

But that was "the last season" of my life. Now it is time to focus on this season - and plan for the next one. :-)

I am looking forward to the conference & what God has to say to me while I am here.

2 Years Ago Today ...

It's hard to believe it has been two years since Mom slipped so quietly away from me.

I will always remember the calmness and peace of those last moments - after the months of struggle to battle back from the bleed on the brain. We won that battle. But her heart and lungs gave out in the process and we ended up losing the war.

Nonetheless, she was back "at home" - in our home, in her bed, as we had both always wanted it to be. And I can still see the look on her face as she gazed intently at a scene I could not see.

After all we had been through, I will always be so grateful to God that He allowed us that "at home" time. And that we both knew and were in agreement when "enough was enough" of all the meds and all the things to try to get better. We both knew it was time to let each other go.

And, yes, I still miss her ...

working on the "to do" list

Wow how time flies. I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted here. Guess I've been focusing on Facebook & other things. So, let me catch up a little.

I finally got the new roof on my house the first week of February. For those not from Kansas, waiting from September to February may seem like a long time. Last year was "a bad roof year" here. That means lots of hail damage. Not only did it get both of my roofs (the one on the house I was trying to sell and on my current home), it got lots of others as well.

For those of you who do live in Wichita, if you haven't had your roof checked you might want to do so. Often people do not realize they've had hail damage until the roof begins leaking. Better to get it replaced before that happens. Since I had a notice put in the homeowners association newsletter, at least four others have had their's checked and had enough damage for the insurance company to replace it.

Now that I have that done, I can start hanging pictures. Since they had indicated I needed to take them down while they were banging on the roof (which is, of course, by design connected to the walls :-), I used that as my excuse for not starting to get them hung. Now that excuse is gone.

My other two major jobs inside the house here were to re-caulk all the bathrooms and kitchen and to put knobs on all my cabinets and drawers. Today I "bit the bullet" on the caulking job. It's something I just never have been good at -- so I have NOT been looking forward to doing it. (Yes, you can translate that as "dreading it!")

Today, as I was about to start, I sent a reply txt to a friend and added a request for prayer because I was about to start the caulking job. I added, "Need Daddy God to show me how 2 do this right." As I was finishing up all the clean up tonight, I realized that He had! This is the first time that I have ever had it turn out looking "neat" (like it's supposed to!). And I did approach it a different way.

God is so good! And those of us who do not have a husband to pawn these tasks off on :-) or a father to teach us how to do them (which my dad couldn't have done, even if he were still alive), we learn how to turn both to Father ("Abba" really translates "Daddy") God & to our husband, Jesus.

I frequently talk with one or the other when I need to figure out how to do something around the house or yard - or even when I really need another hand. That may sound strange to some of you. But there have been MANY times over the years when I was struggling with something because I couldn't hold it and fix it or whatever (you know, those times when married couples call their spouse for an extra hand) and I would stop and ask my husband, Jesus, to give me a hand or send an angel or whatever. Then I would try "one more time" and "suddenly" be able to accomplish the task. He is a faithful Husband as well as faithful Savior and Lord.

Okay ... I've probably "wierded some of you out." Oh, well. That's my life. :-)

So, that leaves me two major jobs inside: hanging pictures and putting knobs on all the cabinets and drawers. For those who have not seen my house, realize that between the three bathrooms, utility room and kitchen that adds up to 45 cabinet knobs and knobs or handles for 22 drawers, some of which are long enough to need two. So that is not a quick or trivial task. It's likely the pictures will be hung first. :-)

And with the promise of spring there is the yard work. I thought moving to a patio home would get me out of that. My recommendation: be sure to read the fine print in the HOA covenants! [Okay, I did know this before I bought.] We are responsible for our beds and landscaping. The HOA dues only pays for the lawn care & snow removal. And my yard desparately needs relandscaping. So, I will be "starting" that this spring. It will likely take 2-3 years. One thing I want to do is put more lighting between the wall and the street - but will likely not get that done this year.

Ok. The clock says 11:30pm, but in a couple of hours we will "spring forward" and miss an hour's sleep. So I better get this posted and get off to bed.