Birds in the park

So I finally remembered to take the camera with me on a walk in the park! And actually, yesterday was the first day in a long time that I've been able to go to the park at lunch; I've been far too busy the last couple of months. But the major result is, I finally have pictures of the geese that decided I looked tasty.


So the geese you want to keep an eye on here are the white ones. I gave a wide berth to the entire group of geese here, not wanting to scare any of them (since we scared the geese on Saturday-- hate to make a habit of that) away from their, um, standing around. They were getting a serious amount of standing around done yesterday. So much, in fact, they were probably able to take today off from standing around and perhaps swim around a bit. Anyway, the white geese started out next to the shore, but as you can see, by the time I took this photo, they had advanced toward me quite a bit. The brown geese were more or less scattering at their approach.


So I did what any sensible human who has been chased by geese before would do: I retreated. I moved further away to a group of trees, thinking it would be a safe vantage point for taking pics of geese. Guess what: they followed me. I don't know for sure which one it was that had a death-grip on my trousers that fateful day, but apparently he told the others about the one that got away. And now they all want a go.




Although if I were to guess at which one likes me a bit too much, I would go with this fellow in front. My polite retreat didn't faze him in the slightest, as he only sped up to catch up with me. And I know already that he is capable of doing so. So after this shot I went on my merry way around the park, leaving the geese to get back to standing around. I peeked back a few times to see if they were still following me, and they did follow as far as the tree where I had been standing, and that's where they turned back. All I can suppose is that a) they want to scare me into bringing a snack with me when I step into their territory, kind of like a peace offering, or b) when they were goslings, their mothers warned them that humans eat geese, and they decided to get their revenge one day. And apparently I look like a potential target-- that's the problem with being short. To be quite honest, I am leaning more and more toward option (a), so if that is their objective, they are on the right track.

That's what I get for praying...

Okay, I have gone totally crazy on this thing. You'd think I would have run out of things to blog about. Normally I would have done by now, but my brain has been going at illegal speeds this week, so I still have plenty to share on my little bit of the internet.

So, the title of this post was inspired by the sermon (Or homily, if you will; I do think I like the word homily better. No particular reason.) this morning and then our community group this evening. The sermon text was John 10:1-21, too long to post here, but well worth reading through if you have a minute or two (though it shouldn't take even that long!). The verse in particular that spoke to me was: When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. I've been praying for ears to hear God's voice over the sound of the TV, the radio, the advertisements for everything under the sun, the subtle cultural hints that following God is not only boring, but downright dumb. And here is the answer, hidden in John 10: the sheep follow him because they know his voice. In order to follow the voice of God, I must know the voice of God. Back to the Bible and prayer I go!!

So, on to community group I went, all unsuspecting that our text would be Matthew 5:17-26, from the Sermon on the Mount. I had dozens of thoughts as we went through these verses, quite a few of which I shared aloud (kind of a rare thing for me!). But we spent a lot of time talking about anger, and it turns out I am not the only person in the group with an anger management problem. Surprise, surprise. So I shared a little bit of my struggles in this area with the group and asked for prayers. The thing that struck me the most (as it has done many times before) is that reconciliation is my responsibility. Regardless of who is at fault, it is always required that I go to work things out with my brother/sister/enemy/whoever. We talked again about that which I already know: carrying around anger with me only hurts me. The cool thing about this topic is, I was already praying about my anger issues for the past couple of weeks. God has really led me to the right place today!

Saturday in January

Well, I am totally liking the new Blogger! I've spent waaaaaay too much time playing with my template (templates, actually, since I have 3 blogs), and I think I'm liking it at the moment. And then I went back and added labels to all my old posts, good use of my time I know, so if you are wondering what I have to say about the weather in Lubbock, you have only to click on the label in the sidebar (as I understand it, since I've not tried it yet) and they all come up. Fun, fun, fun.

So Day 1 of the weight-loss challenge is going well-- we've managed to avoid overeating and even went for a walk in the cold. We went to the library, for two reasons: it makes a nice walk (about 3.5 miles), and Chad wanted to get a book. When we got there, though, we decided not to get a book because that meant we had to carry it home with us. So basically, we got really cold only for health reasons. :) Steaming cups of tea were in order when we returned home.

Also today, I made the first move toward making our home child-friendly for adoption: I moved some furniture out of the extra room, which will be the childrens' room, and even started a "Craft Box" for the children. Really, it was my old craft box, but it has not been in use since I got one of those nice wheeled 3-drawer cart things for my craft stuff. Today, however, I pulled out the child-friendly stuff from my cart and put them into the box. That's about it in terms of a child-friendly house, except we do have outlet covers in most of our outlets. We'll have to get some more for the rest.

Little bit of everything

So this post is going to be a random collection of my thoughts/observations from the last week or so, and I'm sure it will turn into a rant here or there, so be warned.


Chad and I enrolled in a weight-loss challenge offered by one of the local hospitals, apparently similar to "The Biggest Loser", with nifty prizes to the person who loses the greatest percentage of body weight. We have six weeks to get ourselves thin! Also, if anyone in/around Lubbock wants to join in, you still can on Saturday at the Lifestyle Centre at Covenant. Free T-shirt! Cool prizes!! Fun incentive to be healthy!!!


So since I've already mentioned a TV show, I think I'll move on to the "rant" portion of my blog post. (WARNING: If "American Idol" is your favourite show ever, skip ahead a few paragraphs.) So "American Idol" has started up again. Well, whoop-dee-doo. I would be so very neutral in feeling toward this little development, if not for the irritating fact that ignoring this show is not a simple matter of not watching it. No, because every morning show on the radio talks about it the next day (and also every other day, seemingly-- I don't even know what night it is actually on, because the radio talks about it so much), everyone at work is nattering on about it, my family watches it and they always want to talk about it, and, as a final blow, even the little children at church want to discuss it with me. Aaaaaaargh!!!

Now my beef is not with this show. There are lots of shows on TV that I don't care for. Here's my problem with this show: I go to church on Sunday and people are talking about it. I go to small group and people are talking about it. I go on Wednesday night and people are talking about it. I meet up with Christians at other times during the week (including at work) and they are STILL TALKING ABOUT IT. Is there nothing else going on in the world? No good works we could be doing? No people to pray for? Nothing? Have we nothing better to do than watch a show with the word "Idol" in its name??? The last time I checked my Bible, we were still supposed to be avoiding idols, correct? Yet it seems to me that Christians have grown so dull to the world around us that we don't even blink when a TV show blatantly claims to produce that to which our Lord is very much opposed! Not only do we not complain, but we watch it in droves. We are so in step with our culture we don't even see it-- this culture in which we are supposed to be different from everyone else. Where we are meant to be salt and light. And when I point this out to other Christians, their reactions (thus far) have ranged from laughing it off, to telling me I am overreacting.

And perhaps I am. Maybe the title of a TV show with a few years' run isn't worth getting upset about. Maybe its star will fade in a couple more seasons, as all TV shows seem to do eventually. Maybe I need to go hunt up those good works and do them myself, while everyone else is tied to their TVs. But what comes next? "Book of Daniel" came and went, thankfully short-lived. But what is the next TV project that defies God, and his people, to answer? For years, Satan has used Hollywood to his own purposes, subtly mocking God in shows ranging from "Star Trek" to "The Simpsons". And even when God is not out-and-out made a mockery, the lifestyles of your average TV character are anything but godly. "Everyone's doing it" is whispered-- or screamed-- out of our TV sets on a daily basis, and we let it happen. Maybe I'm overreacting, or maybe it's time to get rid of the TV and actually be different.


Okay, rant over! You can all wake up now! Stop cursing my name!


So now that the snow has melted, Lubbock has returned to as normal as we can be. A friend who works in a grocery store here in town told us about a woman who said, by way of explanation for buying enough food to see her family through until summer, "Well, even if the storm doesn't hit here, the trucks may not get through to make deliveries!" Yes, that's right, because everyone knows the grocery delivery trucks stop all deliveries north of the Mason-Dixon line from mid-November to mid-March-- and now they may include Lubbock in that embargo as well! Good heavens! In case you missed it, that was some pretty thick irony there. Being the daughter of a truck driver myself, I can tell you those people are as dedicated as the US Postal service when it comes to snow, sleet, and dead of night. If they can't make deliveries, their families don't eat, either, because they don't get paid. Also, tendency to jackknife aside, those trucks have huge wheels which generally can deal with 12 inches of snow, without too much difficulty. So much for the deliveries. Now if there had been enough snow to keep us at home (which there technically was, since Chad's work closed on Saturday and both of our jobs closed early Friday), Chad and I would have still gone to the store. It's only three blocks away. Our tiny little car may not be able to navigate more than a few inches of white stuff, but our feet can. And that, in fact, is exactly what we did on Saturday afternoon, just for the sake of getting out of the house for a while.

While on the subject, I would also like to mention that I went to the grocery store again last night, one week after the fateful evening of the store selling out of almost everything, people fighting over loaves of bread and gallons of milk, and customers waiting 30-45 minutes in line to pay. This time around, it was blessedly empty, only a few shoppers to be seen, the shelves were well-stocked, and I got right to the register and out! While there, I did take the opportunity to peruse the poultry section, and was enlightened (and also puzzled) to see that there is a sign advertising "Natural Chicken". Now I'm sure there is a healthy, organic, and otherwise expensive explanation to what the difference is, but I spent the rest of the evening pondering, Are the rest of the chickens "unnatural"? Are they all claymation chickens? Was Chicken Run correct in its depiction? If so, that should give the conspiracy theorists something to cluck about for some time to come-- this movie was not a children's film at all, but a cleverly disguised expose of the chicken industry!! We've all been bamboozled into eating unnatural chickens for years! No wonder the whole country is fat! Someone new to sue! Hip, hip, hooray!!!


Our Mission Fare last Sunday was quite a success, we felt rewarded for the amount of time we had poured into it! Not only ourselves, of course, but also every other booth coordinator, as well as the people running the whole show, and everyone else who helped out to one degree or another. I've wondered how many combined hours were spent on this project, but I'm not sure I want to know! It was a lot of fun, and quite a bit of money was raised for the youth group trip to Casa de la Esperanza this summer.


Okay, I've run out of hot air for this particular edition of the insane wanderings of Susan's unnatural brain (it has been hanging about with those chickens). Stay tuned!

It's snowing!

So the city of Lubbock is virtually shut down, paralyzed by the 12+ inches of snow that have fallen in the last 24 hours, expecting more to come. Freezing or starving are beginning to look like possibilities for many families across the city...

If you believed any of that, come closer so I can bop you on the head. We started hearing about our impending doom by snow earlier this week-- on Wednesday at work I heard everything from 4 inches expected, to 15. Now at 4 PM on Saturday, we've received about an inch. And yet, all the movie theatres are shut down, sporting events have been called off, and Chad had the day unexpectedly off work because the restaurant closed early this morning. Not to mention that a few dozen churches have cancelled services for tomorrow morning.

Perhaps the funniest bit of all this is that yesterday morning, the Lubbock school district cancelled school. Now on Friday morning, NOTHING had happened yet. No snow, no ice, no freezing rain. Now some sleet did start up-- after the time when school would have started, anyway. Yet they cancelled school based on an unfavourable weather report. I just would like to say: would that I had grown up here.

But alas, I did not. Instead I grew up in Indiana, where on a day like today, everyone goes on with life. No cancellations, no days off work, no wringing one's hands in woe, and especially-- and this is important-- no packing the shops the day before the expected arrival of the storm, stocking up as if for a seige. We had to go shopping on Thursday evening, we had no choice, because we had no food in the house. It was so packed, people were waiting 30 minutes or more at the checkout. Fortunately, we only had a few things, because we just wanted supper, so we only had a 15 minute or so wait in the express lane.

So, enough of that! My finger is healed up just fine from last Sunday's sewing experience, with the exception of some soreness. I was hesitant to have the doctor look at it on Monday, knowing that a fair amount of teasing from my coworkers was to be expected. On the other hand, I had so much fun telling the story over and over again, it was worth it to be made fun of a bit.

So I have a (mostly) free day, and here I am spending it in front of my computer instead of doing all the other stuff that actually needs to be done. Not exactly something new for me.

This sounds worse than it was...

This story that I am about to share with you may be both the funniest and freakiest thing that has ever happened to me. Seriously.


So, Sunday night I am sitting in my really cold house, working on a quilt. (Chad was at work, which is the reason he does not come into this story at all.) I was adjusting my fabric as it went through my sewing machine, trying to get a reasonably straight line and so forth. Suddenly, a sharp pain in my finger makes me both gasp and immediately stop the machine. Once the machine stops, I look at my left hand, and my middle finger is-- I am not kidding-- impaled on the needle. My finger got too close to the needle while feeding the fabric through, and the needle went through it and into my fabric. After a few seconds of astonished staring at my finger, I turn the wheel backwards to get the needle out of my finger, then start to pull my hand away from the machine to go clean it up. Can't do that, though-- because I have managed to sew my finger to the quilt and it is still attached via a couple of pieces of thread. Now I'm starting to panic a bit, because I don't want blood on my quilt. So I grab my scissors, cut myself free, and run to the bathroom, where my finger proceeds to bleed A LOT. Firstly (according to our head nurse), there are a lot of little blood vessels in your fingers, and secondly, I have two wounds for the blood to come out of. (Or one long wound, if you prefer to look at it that way.)

So I start washing my finger off, realise I still have two bits of thread stuck through it, pull those out, then look around for something with which to apply pressure and stop the bleeding. I wrap my finger in a towel long enough to get our first-aid kit out of the closet, pull out a gauze pad, rip open the package and wrap the pad around my finger. Meanwhile, I am alternating in thought between "Ow, ow, ow, ow" and "Who should I call to ask about this?". I work at a wound care centre, so I had plenty of options, and by the time I had my finger wrapped up I had decided on our nurse practitioner. But, of course, her number is not sitting next to my phone in case I decide to sew my finger to something. So instead I call our office, get the head nurse's number off the voice mail, and call her. Now that I have someone else to talk to, I start to lose it a bit-- but fortunately, she is one calm woman, so she said it would be fine, to put a band-aid on it and they would have a look at it at the office on Monday morning. So I put the band-aid on, go to investigate my quilt for blood (there wasn't any), finish the line I had been working on, and decide I was done sewing for one day.


So that's my story-- except that everyone at work today wanted to have a look at my finger. And that I have no pictures of this event, because I had neither a camera nearby nor the presence of mind to use it had it been sitting there. And I certainly wasn't going to pick up the entire sewing machine and carry it through the house just to get a photo of my impaled finger.

Time to update...

Or people may think I've fallen off the face of the earth! I do live on the upper storey of our apartment, but I am still gravity-bound, alas.

Anyway! My life is completely consumed at the moment with the upcoming Mission Fare at church (I'm "running", if you would call it that, the England booth. Only because that's the only booth at which I can serve hot tea and talk about football (not the daft American version) and it make sense.), the sheer tonnage of paperwork that CPS has very kindly sent us so that we can be on our merry way to fostering and adopting children, the half-a-dozen craft projects I have going at the moment (two quilts, one crocheted baby blanket, one crocheted curling-up-in blanket, and a couple of cross-stitches-- wow, that really is half a dozen), typing up some senior Bible bowl questions, reading Acts myself while I'm at it, oh and I'm still going to work every day. So when I started that list I thought I didn't have a lot going on, but having typed through it all, I'm thinking I need to stop typing and go do something else.

So. This is why no one has heard from me in a while. :) I'm really excited that we're doing Acts for Bible bowl this year actually, it's a great book to read (not that the others aren't, but I think everyone reading this knows what I mean). And I'm even more excited that my participation this year will be limited to what I do for senior Bible bowl. Don't get me wrong, I've loved doing it with the younger kids, but four years of helping with Bible bowl when we don't even have children in the program has taken its toll on my already unstable sanity. I was at the meeting for about 10 minutes tonight, when someone brought to my attention that an adult who actually needed to be at the meeting was instead supervising some kids watching a movie down the hall, so I switched places with her. And that 10 minutes was enough for me, really, to remember that it is probably just as much fun to participate on the fringes as on the inside. So we'll see.

Well, this has turned into a Bible bowl post, but I was so inspired by my brother's Bible bowl post that I had to talk about it. His group is doing 1 & 2 Corinthians-- can't say that I envy him at the moment. :)

And what have you done?

I was going to start with "So this is Christmas," but people may begin to think I'm looney if I do that, since Christmas is "so last week!" now. More looney, that is.

However, John Lennon's song has been kicking around in my head for a couple of weeks, ever since the day I looked it up online to listen (since I do kind of like the song) and got Chad addicted to it, too. He's been playing it in season and out of season (okay, just in season) since mid-December.

So, my husband being the inquisitive person that he is, Chad looked up all he could find about the song, Lennon's intentions in the song, what he said about it himself, etc. And it turns out (surprise, surprise) that this song is, in fact, anti-everything.

However, I am not entirely distressed about this fact. For one thing, the song is in my head, and try as I might, it won't go away. So I may as well embrace it. For another, it asks (however cynically) a very good question: What have you done?

"So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, a new one just begun."

What have I done with my year? Not a lot, I must admit. The turn of the year is a good time to evaluate priorities, attitudes, actions, life in general, etc. And when I think of the friends I could have encouraged, the strangers to whom I could have shown kindness, the prayers unsaid, the food wasted that I could have sent to the food bank, the time wasted on the internet that could have been spent helping someone, the snarky remarks I could have kept to myself-- what have I done? Lived another year for myself.

And I wish-- oh, how I wish I could say, "This year will be different!" But will it? It's not as though I don't think these same thoughts every year. Another year over, a new one just begun. Or about to, anyway. Can 2007 be the year I finally say, "My time on earth is too short to spend focused on myself." Is this the year I will encourage, be kind, pray, share, help, give, control my tongue? Is this the year I realise that time is a precious commodity, not to be wasted filling in endless "about me" surveys that (maybe) two people read or collecting friends on myspace? I look around at Christendom, and I see that (for the most part) we aren't getting it, and we don't seem to care-- our culture has produced a twisted form of following Jesus that makes it all part of the political game, that seems (to me) to be so divorced from the life that Jesus calls us to. Is this the year I step out in faith, telling God, "Use me!", regardless of how "weird" or "fanatical" others think such a move is? Is this the year I stop looking at the crowd, stop complaining about everyone else, and do something? Is this the year I take literally, "Love one another as you love yourself?" What about people who hate me? What about the person who cuts me off in traffic? What about people who refuse to take me seriously? What about those who are rude, crude, selfish, and (seemingly) a waste of skin? How do I love them?

However much I try to be an extrovert and enjoy myself with others, I remain very much a reserved person, just as happy at home as anywhere else, just as content being silent in a group as speaking-- how do I step out and encourage others? How do I let other people know they are important to me, and more so to God? When every fibre of my being is screaming at me to sit down and be silent, how do I reach out and help?

If only I had the answers to these questions.

So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, a new one just begun. What have I done? Nothing. Another year over. What a pity. Another year wasted, opportunities passed that may never return. A new one just begun. A chance for a fresh start. To be the woman God wants me to be. To live with others in mind. To put myself last.

Sad, isn't it, that is takes a song which the songwriter intended to be anti-everything to wake up these thoughts within me. It is my hope that I can face 2008 with very clear answers to, "So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, a new one just begun."

And if that isn't a New Year's resolution, I don't know what is.

Happy Boxing Day!

I feel obligated to update this thing every so often, even though I have a readership of two and absolutely nothing interesting happening in my life. (By the way, Lita and Sparquay, I do appreciate you! Without you I'd just be writing to air!) Having said that, sometimes when I browse these things it appears that no-one else has anything interesting to say either. So I suppose I'm not alone. :)

Merry Christmas!!

What is the point of that font, anyway? Seriously?

What I was going to say is:

Merry Christmas! Feliz Boxing Day! Blessed Kwanza! and last but not least... Happy New Year!

I would add Happy Martin Luther King Day, and perhaps Have a nice Valentine's Day, but I really hope to be on here again before either of those things happen.

I'm sitting in the cold, watching innumerable teens fight over a ball...

Last night... prepare to be shocked, amazed, and otherwise gobsmacked... I went to an American football game. In fact, I went to my second game in as many months. Don't worry, no aliens have overtaken my brain, I'm not having an identity crisis, and I certainly have not developed a liking for the game. But some good friends of ours have a daughter who plays in the band, so I have gone along with them to see her perform. And while we were there, the football team played, too. Imagine that. Now what I know about American football would probably fit into your average-sized thimble, so to me, I was watching a bunch of teenagers stage an organised fight. Having said that, it was a very close game (Frenship won 20-17), so it was pretty exciting.


What else, what else? That's about it, really. Tonight there's a parade, tomorrow I'm going to watch a musical put on by a church in town-- for me, this is a super-busy weekend. Plus I have a baby blanket that I still need to finish. So I should probably run along.

"November is the most disagreeable month."

And Little Women fans know the next line is, "That's why I was born in it." And I, naturally, disagree.

November! Well, it only has a few hours left, and then it's 335 days until it comes round again. I've felt this week as if the month has both dragged and flown. And here we are, upon another Christmas season-- only this year I am unprepared. Yes, I admit it, I neglected to buy an advent calendar this year. What will we do, I wonder, without our daily chocolate fix?

Oh, and if anyone related to me is reading this, you're not getting a Christmas gift. I wanted to let you know well ahead of time so you could get over your disappointment.

Yeah, so not a lot has happened in my little life. We have a busy month coming up, as does everyone, and so I say, November, we hardly knew ye. Next year try to keep your younger brother (December) from sneaking up on me like this.

I need more words...

A boy was killed in Lubbock this week. He was crossing the street and was hit by a car on Monday night, and they couldn't save him. I can't imagine what his parents are going through, in fact I don't want to. And this would have been another sad article in the paper for me, except one of the girls at church came to me before services this evening to talk about it. I really think she only chose me because I happened to be available, but for whatever reason, God put me in her path. What do you say to an 11-year-old who just lost a friend? I gave her a Kleenex, let her talk about it, and prayed for her (and got a bit welled myself while she was talking)-- what else could I do? Anyway, if any of you can spare a moment to pray for the boy's family and friends, I'm sure they could use it.

Moving, Retreating, and Driving

Wow, I can't believe how much has changed for us in the past two weeks. New car, new address, new washing machine, goodness knows what God has in store for us next. (Well, I hope it's a new job for Chad.)

We went to a marriage retreat a couple of weekends ago with a lot of people from church-- and some people from other churches. It was a great weekend, with lots of good information and re-connecting time. It was also really cool to hear from people we know well, and others we know but not so well, about their stories. We really enjoyed it.

As soon as we came back from the retreat, we started moving to our new flat, which we are now (mostly) settled into! And some really good friends of ours gave us their old washing machine, which delighted me to no end. It's so nice to get up in the morning and do laundry without having to leave the house. It's brilliant.

And finally, I am still totally enamoured with our car. It is awesome to have transportation-- and fortunately, there is not much chance of us taking this for granted. God has blessed us!

Big news!

I am here to announce, after 18 months (almost to the day) of being pedestrian/cyclists, WE HAVE A CAR!!! It is the most bizarre feeling, to be honest-- I keep thinking it's only loaned to us and we'll have to give it back, nope, it belongs to us! And I was going to take a picture of it to post on here, but I thought that was the height of sadness. However, I'm sure that thought will pass soon (hehe) and then I'll take the picture.

The only snag in the works is: until yesterday, I had never driven a standard in my life. And the new car is, as it happens, a standard. I phoned my father earlier today to tell him it's all his fault that I'm having to learn how to drive all over again 16 years after actually learning to drive (and 12 years after getting my license-- we lived in the country, that's the way it is, get over it). He didn't seem to mind that I'm blaming him for having to talk myself through something as basic as driving to the store. :) I'm sure I'll get better with practise-- if I don't, then I'm sure I'll continue to annoy the other drivers in Lubbock, few of whom can drive well anyway.

Also, we're moving in 10 days!

How exciting can Lubbock be, anyway?

Well, we've been back for a little while now, obviously. Turns out my posts about Scotland did not generate much interest, so from that I've deduced that 1. My friends are not interested in Scotland. or 2. Karla is the only friend who cares about me.

So, now that I know who loves me and who doesn't, here's a quick catchup on what we've been doing since we've been back:

My first day back at work was extremely unfun. I actually started crying within minutes of walking in the door, which I think really unnerved my supervisor, and pretty much everyone else, apparently, from their reactions. I am normally not particularly emotional, nor do I tend to be very affectionate toward others, so my poor supervisor was totally at a loss. She asked me, "Do you need a hug?" to which I answered, "No, I'm fine." But since I couldn't stop crying right away, she asked a couple of seconds later, "Are you sure you don't need a hug?" So I told her, "Well, you can hug me if it will make you feel better." She assured me that it would, so not only was I crying, but I was also hugged, which did not go very far toward making me happy to be there. My favourites were the people who came by to tell me "Welcome back," and didn't stop there, but went on to say, "Are you glad to be back?" I settled for telling them, "No," instead of adding "Go away!"

Anyway... a couple of Saturdays ago Chad and I participated in the Race for the Cure, and if there's anyone left in America who doesn't know what that is, you can click here to find out about it. Chad intended to run, but I wanted to walk, since I hadn't done any sort of training for it, but then the people I had planned to walk with decided they wanted to run, too. So I ended up walking with a girl who had been making conversation with us at the start line. We finished almost dead last, but I suppose someone had to be last...

That same Saturday we went with some friends from church to the corn maize, which is a few miles northwest of Lubbock. Every year, these people cut a maze in their corn field, and then other people come out to wander round in it. We ended up going in after dark, which apparently adds a whole new dimension to wandering round in a cornfield. But since I've never done it during the daytime, I have no basis for comparison. Anyway, we had lots of fun, then afterwards Chad decided to try the climbing wall that had just been set up, so he couldn't move his arms for three days. :)

Since then, the excitement in our life has been kept to a minimum! We are going to a marriage retreat with other couples from church at the end of this month, and then we are moving to a new apartment the day after that. Everyone we know has been expressing their sympathy at us moving, but we actually don't mind it much, so it all works out.

Headed home: Tuesday

I woke up from an extraordinarily uncomfortable sleep to find we were in London. Chad and I had taken the overnight bus, hence the reason sleep was so uncomfortable. We were in the upper deck of the coach (first time I had run across that combination), so we had a nice view of the London streets as we went through them, on our way to Victoria station.
We had breakfast in the train station, bought a final round of chocolates, and took the train to Gatwick. We were really early for our flight, so we had plenty of time to read the paper, or in Chad's case, to solve the Sudoku puzzles in the paper. It did take a long time to get through security, but we had expected that. The Gatwick airport is set up with a huge waiting area, surrounded by corridors to the various gates, with shops all around the sides. Passengers wait here until their flight shows up on the screen, then they go to their gates and wait. In some ways, I like it better than the system at, say, DFW or Houston, because all the shops are together in the spot you are waiting in, anyway, and there's no need to trek halfway across the airport from your gate just to find the McDonalds you were looking for.
So the flight back to Houston was 10 hours long, which I was not expecting-- apparently it's longer because of the jetstreams or something. Whatever it was, it was longer going back than coming, but it wasn't bad. The flight was actually quite empty, the flight attendents were fantastic, and the inflight entertainment kept me pretty well entertained.
Once through customs in Houston, when were were waiting for our flight to Lubbock, I was plagued by my age-old problem; my brain can only handle one accent at once. With my ears still ringing with Scottish, and English, accents, I had a hard time understanding the Americans around me. It's not so much that they sounded strange (although they did), it's just that I was expecting their words to sound differently. In any case, I did my best to shut them out. We got our flight back, a cab home, and I went straight to bed.

Day Eleven: Monday

Our last day in Glasgow! We went into the city centre with Pauline for a couple of hours. We had some last-minute souvenier buying to do, as well as getting some cookies, and generally hanging about with Pauline. I bought an enormous tea mug to use as work, because every morning I had been scrounging through the cupboards to get the largest mug available. Not a problem now. It turned out the cashier in the tourist centre was from Buenos Aires, and we didn't get the exact details of how she ended up in Glasgow, except that she had been working in Germany at one point, but liked Scotland much better. Well, of course. :)
So we finished up our trip with a final natter with Dawn, Anne Louise, and Daniel, over some really nice Indian. We were all packed up and ready to go when John came to get us in his race car at 9. They dropped us off at Buchanan Bus Station, and we were away.

Day Ten: Sunday

Sunday was a normal church day again, and I was reminded for a second time why I fell in love with Glasgow in the first place. You can find a friendly group of people anywhere, of course, but Glaswegians have something special that most other people don't. I can't quite put my finger on it or describe it, but I love these people, and I love this place.
On Sunday evening we went to West Mains again, saw the current aim students for a second time, and I was glad to see how much they like Scotland, as well. After church that evening, we went back to George and Jean's house. I've been in their house quite a few times, but their daughter gave me a tour anyway-- she really just wanted me to see her room, but pointed out all the other rooms for me as well. I taught Carla in Sunday school years ago, when she was a little girl, and it was fantastic to see what a lovely young lady she has become. Not that I ever had any doubt that would be the case. :)
So we had another natter with George and Jean, Sheena, who was there as well, and one of the aim students who also came round. Some old pictures were trotted out as well, and I wondered again, Was I really that skinny?

Day Nine: Saturday

On Saturday, after a nice lie-in for everyone, we went to Edinburgh with Dawn. After our usual catching the bus and trekking through the city centre, we bought our train tickets at Queens Street station and boarded right away, because we were just in time to catch the next train. The train journey to Edinburgh (and it's pronounced (Ed-in-burr-ah, not Ed-in-burg) is just under an hour, and it's quite a nice one. I really, really like the British rail system. The buses may be cheaper, but the trains are brilliant.
We started off by having a walk round the shops, and were rewarded for our trouble by coming across an international market-- I don't know if it is a regular thing or just a special occasion, but it was cool. They were handing out samples of various sweets (and real food as well), quite a lot of jewelry was up for sale, and my pal Dawn was brilliant enough to buy me a new bag. It's fantastic, this little bag, and perfect to carry while cycling, because it's shaped more or less like a messenger bag, just smaller.
As we headed back toward the royal mile, Dawn needed to go into a shop and buy an extra layer-- she was wearing a t-shirt and a jacket, and it was a bit chilly that day, so she was getting cold. So into a shop we went, had a look round, and she found exactly what she was looking for. On our way to the castle, we happened across a bagpipe player (not that he was hard to find) and got a couple of pictures and a bit of video of him playing the national anthem. The Scottish national anthem, that is, not ours.
The street that leads from the train station to the royal mile gets you to about the half-way point, so we decided to walk up it to the castle, then back down all the way to the Houses of Parliament, and then back to our starting point. This is a street, again, that I've been up and down numerous times, but there is always something else to see. This time around Dawn pointed out to us the national court-- I forget what it's properly called, but it's the highest court in Scotland. Tourist shops are also in abundance in the royal mile, and if we had wanted to do we could have bought everything we could imagine with a tartan or Scottish flag printed on it.
As we walked along, I was telling Dawn about the time that Keely, Nancy, and I got our photo taken with William Wallace on the royal mile, then we rounded the bend and there he was. I had thought before that he was part of the Edinburgh festival, but apparently he's out at other times, as well. Tourists-- and probably some locals, too-- get their pictures taken with him, and the money he collects goes to charity. As we passed by, Dawn commented that he's better looking than Mel Gibson (which he certainly is), which he naturally overheard. His answer was, "I'm grumpier, though, hen." He said something else as well, I don't remember what, but Dawn told me that he may not have known which of us had spoken if I hadn't answered her. Of course, with such a strong difference in our accents, there was no chance of him thinking it was me after that. Anyway, the whole episode was very funny, and it was quite enjoyable to see him out there again-- apparently he's been doing this for years.
So we finally made it up to the castle, which still had bleachers set up in the parking lot for the Edinburgh Tattoo (an annual bagpipe and drum display). We didn't go in, partly because we've all been in before, and partly because it has gotten rather pricey.
So back down the mile we went (it's actually more like a royal mile and half, these days, but that doesn't sound as nice), past all the various shops, bagpipe players, and street theatre performers, until we arrived at the Houses of Parliament. The Scottish parliament building has only been in existence for a few years, and has been a source of much controversy about the cost of building it. And while it is a nice building, on the outside it is certainly odd-looking. The inside is very nice, and the debating chamber especially is lovely, but I don't think its aesthetic qualities go very far towards reconciling most Scots to its cost.
After all that sightseeing and picture-taking, it was time to head back to Glasgow. We were going to the movies that evening in the city centre, so first we stopped off for some Chinese, since we had been walking all day. The movie theatre itself is brilliant-- I don't know how many stories it is, but unlike most American multiplexes I've seen, it is a multistorey building, with several screens on each floor, and stack ot escalators to get you to the correct one. There is also a glass elevator on the side of the building, which adds a whole new dimension of excitement to the moviegoing experience. The movie itself was not that great, but the theatre was brilliant.
After the movie was over, we got the bus back to Castlemilk. At least, that's where the bus was supposed to go. We were about halfway there when someone-- presumably children-- threw a rock or something at the bus, shattering four windows-- three downstairs and one upstairs. The poor driver had just come on for his shift as well, and he was quite panicked. As it was, everyone had to get off the bus, he had to call the police, speak to onlookers, and look after the one girl who was injured. So we went up to the next bus stop, since we were not needed at that moment, and ended up getting a taxi home. And so ended an otherwise nice day.

Day Eight: Friday

On Friday morning, Chad informed me that he was not interested in sightseeing-- apparently I pushed him to his limit by taking him to two old buildings in one day. So instead we visited a couple of parks.
To begin with, we walked down to King's Park. I've spent tons of time in this little park, since it was in close proximity to both of the houses I lived in while I was in Scotland. Since there were 2-4 people living in our houses at various times, it was a good place to go when I needed to escape from roommates-- or if I just needed some quiet time. Also there's a house in the centre, occupied by some very lucky people indeed who get to live in a park. How cool is that?
So after a few minutes of wandering, and examining the flower gardens, we decided that a really long walk was in order, so off we went to Queen's Park. I have no idea what the distance we actually walked that day was, nor even how much time it took us, I was too busy enjoying it. On the way we walked past Hamden Park, which is the Scottish national stadium.
Queen's Park is absolutely brilliant. It is quite large, and has attractions for just about everyone: bike trails, walking trails, two ponds, play parks, dog runs, etc. The main attraction for me, however, is the Viewpoint. There's a hill, more or less in the centre of the park, from which you can see most of the city. It's brilliant to stand up there on a clear day and look around, which is exactly what we did. There is also a very helpful information board that has a drawing of the skyline, and tells you exactly what you are looking at if you are facing any given direction. It's fantastic.
After admiring the city (and taking several pictures) we needed some chocolate (naturally). So we walked along to Somerfield, planning to buy some chocolate bars and some Cadbury mini-rolls.
We needed mini-rolls because, on Wednesday evening, we had brought some home with us to share. However, in the course of the evening and following morning, Chad ate about half of them himself, meaning that when Dawn got home Thursday evening, they were already gone. She teased Chad quite a bit about his chocolate-eating habits, so we decided to get some more to sit in the kitchen for when Dawn returned that evening. And that's what we did: after we got home, I arranged them in a Jenga-like stack on the kitchen counter, which did get a laugh from Dawn when she saw it.
Friday evening we went to Margaret's house for dinner. Dawn was also invited, as were John and Janet, so it a nice evening of nattering.