We Have Arrived.....

August 25, 2014
Amarillo - Salida, CO


We went from 90 degrees to 63 degrees JUST-LIKE-THAT.....

......once I finally made it out of Amarillo.  It is my belief that there is this magnetic force around the city of Amarillo that sucks you back in about the time you think you're out.  Every time....E-V-E-R-Y.....S-I-N-G-L-E.....T-I-M-E I go to Amarillo, I get lost getting out of there.  Yesterday was no different.  FINALLY.....after the 3rd time past the Cadillac Graveyard, we overcame the magnetic pull and floored it out of there.  ~Sigh~

We made it past the Cal Farley's Boys Home in the middle of....SERIOUSLY....no where;

Made it over the Raton Pass that connects New Mexico to Colorado......

And then headed west towards Salida.  We've been all over Colorado in years past, but these was all new roads for us......slamming on the brakes to get a picture of the bison on the side of the road......

And watching the beautiful mountains we love SO MUCH coming into view....(Amarillo bug splat on the window and all)

 Awwwww.........and here we are....safe and sound in Salida, Colorado.

See the big "S" on the side of the mountain?  That's one of many places we are heading today.  It's called Spiral Drive and semi-treacherous......Now that we're in the Jeep and not on the trike, roll the windows up Charlie......we're kicking up some mud today!

First-Day-On-Vacation-With-My-Man-To-Colorado-But-Have-To-Go-Through-Flatlands-103-Degrees-Weird-Rainy-Amarillo-First

August 24, 2014  - Amarillo, TX

This is what an 8-hour drive between East Texas and Amarillo looks like.  Eight LONG hours of THIS.....

We actually got fired-up when we drove side-by-side with a train for a few miles....

So, since this was an absolutely, nothing-happening-here kind of day, I thought I'd throw you some pictures we took while on the way......It pretty much tells the story of First-Day-On-Vacation-With-My-Man-To-Colorado-But-First-Have-To-Go-Through-Flatlands-103-Degrees-Weird-Rainy-Amarillo to get there.......

Prayer and a kiss before pulling out of the driveway.....

Goodbye to the neighbors.....

Molly dubbed her spot before we were out of the neighborhood....next to the treats, of course.

And I dubbed my spot right next to my main squeeze, Charlie.....

Tomorrow.....well, tomorrow is........
Second-Day-On-Vacation-Leaving-Amarillo-Entering-Heaven-Happy-Happy-Oh-So-Happy Day!!! 

We're BAAAAAAAACK........

August 24, 2014


WE'RE BAAAAAACK........

The Jeep is loaded.....the scooter is bungee-corded to the bumper......and this little family of 4 are headed west today!

After three long years of death, broken hips and skin cancers, we are finally heading to Colorado for a couple weeks.

I must admit I've been a tad-bit leery to go back to this place we love.....this place we hold our face to the sky and breathe in the fresh, cool mountain air and whisper "Thank-You-God"......simply because I feared replacing my memories of being in Colorado in the motorhome and scooting around on the trike with memories of staying in a hotel and driving a minivan.

But I'm learning....learning to allow those memories to take a back-seat to the memories of tomorrow.

And this may, very well, be Murphy's last vacation.  

The little booger has congestive heart failure....like his dad, Chuck......they share this in common.  He's struggling a bit.....still has a bark that will send a shard of steel through your brain.....but reality bites and truth is, he doesn't have much time left.

But as we take one day at a time.....one moment at a time.....one second at a time....today, Murphy, Molly, Chuck and I are headed to Colorado......to hang off mountains....to breathe in the crisp mountain air and to feel GRATEFUL for getting to do this.

Oh, and did I mention, we're not taking the noisy, uncomfortable, butt-ugly minivan?  Nope, this little family of 4 is going in the JEEP!

Oh ya........

OURAY - Here We Come!!!

June 18, 2014

OURAY......HERE WE COME!!!!

 I am SO dang excited I can hardly stand myself.

We just made reservations to head back to Ouray, CO the end of August!  Remember me telling you....and SHOWING you.....the 362 pictures of the hair-pin turns going up, and then down....and then up again....the Black Bear Pass where the "path" was so narrow, the Jeep was scraping the side of the cliff walls and the best seat in the Jeep was the rear drivers side where your butt was hanging off the cliff when he had to back up to make the turn??   And did I mention there is NO road.....just a path where others have fallen off the cliff before you?

Oh ya......makes me giddy just typing those words!!

We are headed back there......but this time, no motorhome and no motorcycle trike....

Sad Sigh

But none of that matters......we are going back!!!!!  The only issue we are trying to figure out is how we will "communicate" with each other while on the road to Colorado.  

See, we have this handicap minivan that is NOISY......like....floor-has-been-modified-(lowered)-for-a- wheelchair-no-carpet-metal-shell NOISY.  And I have this husband who is hard of hearing....like.....deaf-as-a-doornail-must-use-sign-language DEAF.  Our conversations are beyond bizarre each time we ride in it and now we will be traveling 1000 miles each way.

WHAT TO DO???

After scratching our heads a bit on how best to handle this problem, I had a lightbulb moment.  I thought if we only had an intercom system like we had on our motorcycle helmets where we could talk to each other, that would work GREAT for us on this road trip.  The sound goes directly into our ears and I never once had trouble hearing Chuck crunching on his almonds and he never once missed me yelling at him while we had these on.

So........here's our solution.  WHALL-AAAAA!!!!

Can't wait!!!!!

To Struggle Is to Live

May 15, 2014

(Chuck with VA Doctor, Dr. George)

As I sit here, very early, watching the heavy fog lifting from the lake on this May 15, my mind travels back two years ago today.

I can actually tell you what I was wearing at this very moment two years ago....not that you care or want to know.....but I remember it that well.

It was a Tuesday and I was witnessing one of our best friends live out his last day.  His wife and I sat quietly with him that day, watching as his breaths became fewer and fewer.....praying God would pour out mercy and offer him relief from this horrible disease in a dimly lit nursing home room.  We sat most of that day next to him.....stroking his hand...his hair....and remembering all the crazy situations he and Chuck had gotten themselves into over the years and how she and I would always have to rescue them from themselves.

Just two weeks earlier, I had prayed this same prayer of mercy as Mom breathed her last breath.

Later in the day....this day two years ago.....I found myself rushing the 5 hours home from our dying friend's side to be by my own husband's side as the doctor gave us the news he had broken his hip and needed immediate surgery.

So.......why am I rehashing that difficult day two years ago today?  Because I have learned in these past two years, that life can be pretty crappy sometimes.....it will throw things at you when you're least prepared.....and ya,

LIFE.CAN.SUCK. 

And about the time you're ready to body slam yourself to the floor kicking and screaming "Why me?", along comes a beautiful purple iris that your Mom had given you a cutting from 5 years earlier....blooming for the first time......and you hear yourself say, "Awww.....Life Is SO Good".

See, although life can be a struggle most every day.....and this is coming from a woman who has a massive scar on the top of her head that closely resembles the State of Texas all from a tiny, ticked-off freckle....we are told to hold tightly to James 1:2-3, "When troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow".

LIFE IS GOOD....."because" of these struggles.

MY GRACE-FILLED FRECKLE....

MY GRACE-FILLED FRECKLE

How I love the blessing of Spring.....everything that was dead and dormant is new and renewed.  I never grow tired of sitting quietly in my favorite worn-out chair with the indentation of my butt on it literally watching the leaves bud out with a strong hot cup of coffee sliding down my throat watching the GRACE occur.   And that's exactly where I am right now as I talk to you, my friends.....the ones who love me in spite of myself.

This has been a difficult week......but a week filled with much GRACE.  I capitalize GRACE cause it simply deserves to be capitalized.  As many of you know, I am wearing hats these days.....cute, stylish, weird and funny hats.....not because I'm strongly battling chemo from cancer or a sudden case of balding.....but because of a freckle just inside my hairline on the top of my head.  A freckle.  No bigger than a dot made from an ink pen....but a very "quiet" skin cancer. 

Five....5.....cuts at what should have been a simple one, maybe 2-hour doctor office visit for Mohs surgery to remove this freckle a week ago Friday...moved into the 6-hour mark and a portion of my scalp shaved (yes...SHAVED) along with several inches of my scalp removed.  I'm not telling you this because I want your sympathy....although that's exactly what I did yesterday to my family as I texted them all begging for sympathy for which I now apologize.....(those dang drugs).....but because I want to share the GOOD.....the GRACE that came out of this past 10 days.  Yep....the GRACE.

I've never considered myself a very vain person.....I wear torn jeans to the grocery store, I wear minimal make-up, it takes me all of 46 seconds to fix my hair in the morning and I love buying my clothes from Goodwill.  But after about the 3rd cut on my head, I felt my bottom lip quivering, the salty sting of my tears rolling down past the surgical drape over my eyes as I heard the buzz of the shaver in that surgical chair.  Not because I feared dying or how much this would hurt.....but because of what I would "look" like to YOU.....and to myself.  And as I bit my lower lip so the nurse wouldn't notice me crying, I experienced the most amazing GRACE wrap It's arms around me....and settle me down.

Awww.......there's nothing a little GRACE can't heal.....even a nasty, gaping hole in the head where there once was a freckle.  But the GRACE in my life looks like the pictures I've included below....and GRACE looks like a make-upless, jump-in-her-car, barely-had-shoes-on friend named Pam that drove over just to hold me when I had a massive, extremely ugly, crying meltdown "just because".....GRACE looks like sterilized Goodwill hats purchased for me by sweet Cheryl so I had variety....and who even wore one with me to church so I wouldn't stand out.....and GRACE looks like the adorable little tike in the pew in front of me at church who made me laugh just as I was about to cry from hearing the song Amazing Grace because I'm LIVING Amazing GRACE....and GRACE looks like the family in love with each other two rows ahead of me as they worship together.....

GRACE looks like the beautiful hairstyle my dear, amazing friend FROSTY (yep, that's her name!!) gave me the day before the freckle was removed, that carries a heavy load on her shoulders that many of us would collapse under......GRACE looks like the dear friend/neighbor.....you know, one of those people we are lucky if we have even one of in this lifetime....and mine's name is BECKY.....who, even though she hates driving in the city, drove her bandaged neighbor through the canyon of Downtown Dallas at 5:30 on a Monday evening after a day of plastic surgery.....GRACE looks like food, mixed with doses of prayers, from neighbors and friends to feed my husband cause his wife is throwing up and doesn't want to wake up until everything is healed and hair has grown back (refer back to "Vanity" paragraph above)......GRACE is friends who doctor my wounds when most would puke looking at the wound much less touching it......and GRACE is the "smell" sense in all of us that makes us "smile" with the love of flowers from family that remind us they are there for us.  And most of all, GRACE is coming home to a wheelchair-bound man who would throw himself in front of a semi to save the life of a dog...or cat...or parakeet or even a scarred, hole-in-the-head wife.  That says a lot about a man.

I could go on for 15 more paragraphs and still not have listed all the GRACE's that came out of this freckle, but I know you are growing weary of reading (if you're even still with me here) and I have a CPA (remember him....the one I have to pray before talking to just to avoid an anxiety attack??) who really needs some questions answered by me, so I will end this conversation with you by saying thank YOU for your many forms of GRACE you showed me and my freckle by your prayers, for your encouraging words, for taking care of my husband, for feeding us, for loving us, for extending your arms to hold me up when I could barely stand.

I am certainly the most BLESSED and GRACED woman I know.

GROWING SEEDS: "Church Library"

Raise your hand if you didn't know our church had a Library…….  

I admit; we had been coming to this precious church for 3 years before I knew it had a Library.  Seriously.  I am the least observant person you'll ever meet…Ever.  But my lack of awareness aside, I have been pleasantly amazed at what I have stumbled on this week.  Our First United Methodist Church here in little old Mt. Vernon has a top-of-the-line, computerized, color-coded magnificent Library!  Yep, its got books for everyone from 1 to 99 years of age and it has amazing people making sure it stays that way.  Let me explain….

This week, I met a lady by the name of Lena Mae Reeder….aka Head Librarian of our "Debra Earl Library".  Have you met her?  If not, you need to.  I fell instantly in love with this darling lady.  She has been volunteering in the church Library for years until recently, when care giving duties at home have taken precedence.  Fortunately, Lenora __?___ stepped up as Assistant Librarian and has been filling the gap.  For years, they have been organizing donated books, checking them for condition, color coding them, labeling and logging them into the computer.  I dare anyone to find a church library better than ours anywhere within 100 miles.  You seriously need to check it out.

 

And while you're in there checking it out, check out the quality of the bookshelves….hand-crafted by none other than Harry Earl.  Yep, he and JoAnne provided the conference table and comfy leather chairs and his children even donated some of their Christmas money in years past to purchase books for the Library.  Tom and Susan Samples provided the very first Library computer which was later replaced by one purchased by Lena Mae's six kids when the original computer maxed out its storage capacity.

We may be a small church as church's go, folks, but we are HUGE in hard-working, behind-the-scenes, wonderful people.  What started out as a small, simple church Library many years ago, has turned into a beautifully hand-crafted, God-filled room of knowledge that we all benefit from.

But Lena Mae and Lenora can't do this alone; they need VOLUNTEER(s) who can donate a few short hours of their time each week to assist in computer input, sending thank you cards, printing labels and other Library duties.  Won't you consider giving the blessing of your time to keeping the Library alive and vibrant?  You won't believe the blessing you'll receive in return!

GROWING SEEDS: "Pebbles in Your Path"

Nobody trips over mountains. 

It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. 

Pass all the pebbles in your path 

and you will find that you have crossed the 

mountain.

Do you ever just lay on your back in the grass looking up at the clouds watching as they pass above you….their shadows slowly shading the earth your laying on?  You reflect on your life so far……the experiences that have molded you into the person you are today….the very person laying on the grass staring up into heaven.  

Moments of whitespace.  

Breathing rest into your soul.

For me, these moments are memories of how I arrived at this juncture in my life.  My everyday life.  My everyday life that has included hearing those agonizing words "You will never have that child you always dreamed of" and a failed marriage to an alcoholic and eventual death of that alcoholic……an alcoholic who died alone…..the gruesome details of that death I will let die with him.  

The dark seasons of our lives…….

I am haunted by that time in my life….questioning whether circumstances would have been different had I only gently guided his heart to Jesus….if I had only gently guided MY own heart to Jesus.  Questions of whether he got to know God before he breathed that last breath……all alone.

There's nothing special about my story……it's the same as yours.  This infertility and deceased alcoholic was a pebble I stumbled on as I climbed this mountain….and it is one of those soul conversations I have with myself as I lay, flat out on the grass looking into the heavens.  And like the hand of a good friend, I feel God's hand resting on mine as we lay quietly on the grass together……watching the clouds go by…..and he whispers, "Be-loved….if you falter, I'll just keep whispering it, close to your ear……this is the way - beloved - walk in it."

"I look up to the mountains - does my help come from there? 

My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth!

He will not let you stumble, the one who watches over you will not slumber."

Psalms 121:1-2, 3

Goodbye Dear Friends, Phyllis and Earl

Oh how you will be missed.....and never forgotten.

You have shown those of us who have had the privilege of knowing you, what true love and commitment is for each other.  You may not realize it, but people watch you......they watch you, Earl….how you gently hold Phyllis' elbow and carefully guide her, ready to catch a possible stumble at any moment.  And Phyllis….they watch the courage you have and how you handle a difficult disease such as Parkinson's with a smile and determination.  You never give up....you keep moving forward, never letting the disease define who you are.  I have never seen a better husband caregiver as I have Earl....ever.....and I have never seen a more determined, faithful wife as I have Phyllis.  You two go together like macaroni and cheese.

Chuck and I know all too well how difficult it is to close a chapter you aren't ready to close and to start a new chapter with only empty pages staring back at you.  There's something about the unknown.....about what tomorrow will bring when you are fighting to stay in the present, that brings you to your knees.  Don't ever forget that you are not alone in this next chapter; you have a gazelion friends here in Mt. Vernon who would be by your side in a moments notice.  That's the thing about friends; you have to BE a good friend in order to HAVE good friends.....and both of you, have been the best friends anyone could ever ask for.

So as you start the next chapter of unknowns, just know that we are sending you off with our love, our friendship and our prayers.  

We love you.

Chuck and Liz 

GROWING SEEDS: "Your Journey"

"Your journey has molded you for your greater good, and it was exactly what it needed to be. 
Don't think that you've lost time. 
It took each and every situation you have encountered to bring you to the now. 
And NOW is right on time." 
Asha Tyson

 

Do you sometimes wonder how you got to where you are?  How did you get to Mt. Vernon, Texas?  Born and raised here or maybe running from the city?  How did you get to First United Methodist Church Mt. Vernon?  Was it a fluke that you parked your car in this parking lot?  How did you come to marry the person you married?  Did you just decide to get married one day and grabbed the first person you saw?

See, I believe when we are true Christians, everything happens right on time.  What does it mean to be a "TRUE" Christian?  So often we call ourselves Christians, but are we really?  Would you sell everything you had if God asked you to?  Would you leave your family and serve as a missionary in Timbuk2 if God asked you to?  Would you talk about God to the card-carrying atheist down the street if God asked you to?  Awwww.....kind of makes you tremble a bit, doesn't it?  I know it does me.

But that's exactly the question we all have to ask ourselves.  Sometimes we struggle just getting dressed and making it to church on time much less serving as a missionary somewhere where the roaches are the size of a Jeep.  It's tough enough adding an extra $50 to our church giving much less selling everything we own and walking in faith.  But isn't that what Jesus defined a Christian as being?

I remember years ago, my prayers went something like this, "Dear God, forgive me where I have sinned and help me to serve You better.....but not in Africa or someplace dirty like that....Oh, and God....do you think You might encourage my boss to give me a raise?  I sure could use a new car."

Yep, I'm ashamed to tell you, that was my exact prayer.  But I also believe God knew I needed to go through this idiotic selfish time in my life to get to where I am today.  I'm a far cry from being all God wants me to be; a FAR FAR cry.........but I know that BECAUSE of my past experience, I can now answer "YES" to the questions above. 

It took each and every situation I have encountered in my life to bring me to the now......the good, the bad and the ugly......
and NOW, is right on time!