That exuberant little angel (front right) in 2005 became…

…the narrator in 2011.

The young boy who played Joseph in 2005…

…grew into the preacher in 2011.

See these two rising stars here.

Some day I will say “I knew him, I knew her when….”

I live one block from where I work, which makes my world quite small. Though I hear and read about the awful weather we’re having here in the Pacific Northwest, I pitter patter back and forth in my one-block commute twice a day, oblivious to the weather woes of those around me. Today is my day off, so I decided I’d hop in my little red puddle jumper and take a drive in the country to see what I could see.

No games on this field today, unless you’re a duck fan.

And look who I found in Forest Grove! He had come from the other direction, heading home for half a day between retreats. And yes, we planned to meet. That would’a been some coincidence, huh?

After lunch, we went our separate ways, though headed to the same destination: home!

Where is my gentleman to lay his coat across the puddle?

Raindrops conceal the restaurant’s identity.

On the drive home I slowed to snap this driveway/lake. Do you suppose the owners own a boat?

It all started a couple of weeks ago when I started making some Christmas presents for my young friends Liv and Sam.

I pilfered pictures of them from their mom’s Facebook albums and printed them on 11 x 17 paper.

Using some high-powered spray adhesive,

I attached them to a sheet of Borden’s foam board (easy to find).

With my trusty exacto knife, I trimmed the edges.

I based how many cuts on the age of each girl, guessing, of course, their level of puzzle expertise.

A nice stack for each one.

Then just one layer of Mod Podge to add stability.

All of this was fun enough, but the real fun happened today.

The little sweethearts came to the office (their grandma is my coworker Denise).

What is this? Of course you know, but their eyes were filled with wonder (not the awe kind of wonder).

Sam gets the idea.

Liv too.

Some “You can do it!” “Good job!” encouragement from mom, Abbie.

Victory!

Victory! And before you could blink, they had messed up the pieces to do it again.

And I just stood there and grinned.

For the Christmas season she pulls together various musicians to offer free concerts in the Portland area. It was especially fun for me this year because I’m acquainted with more than half of the group…even related to one! Living in one place for more than 17 years offers that benefit.

I walked around some during the concert, trying to get a couple of decent pictures for the church newsletter. Lighting is a problem added to the simple fact that I’m still, after all these years, an amateur photographer. But here are a few pictures to give you a sense of the event.

Little is much! These nine musicians filled the room with elegant sounds. Aaron Pruitt was credited in the program with only the piano, but his tenor voice added delightful vocals to the mix.

Bethany Cibolski sings high ?s without raising her eyebrows.

This is Wendy. There was no chance of getting a “still” photo of her!

I’m particularly fond of this picture because it captures four of the five that I know. Nate Macy on the left is my nephew; Nolan Staples on bass attends NFC and regularly helps with worship leadership; Jacob Jolliff on mandolin is the son of our friends Bill and Brenda (Brenda, a nurse at Friendsview Retirement Community, helped us sing to Mom as we kept her final vigil); and I’ve already introduced Wendy.

The audience. You might see someone you know.

I might have saved the best for last. This is Wendy’s daughter, V.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking? This girl might have a future.

Here’s director LaNeal looking over the assigned parts with our hostess, Lisa, as we gather for our dinner. Yes, our reading group shares a meal together each month before we discuss our book. Makes you want to join, doesn’t it? (I’ll let you sit in for me when we’re discussing books the likes of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces.)

LaNeal’s a school teacher. Need I say more?

After dinner we enjoyed our long-standing traditional book exchange. The rules are the same as white-elephant. I lucked out with a high number and could steal again—and keep—The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. Have you read it?

Reading glasses propped on our noses and scripts in hand, we dig into our roles.

Mrs. Pollifax wasn’t given a part, so he chilled out in the other room. (Yes, Mrs. Pollifax is a male cat, but people who name their female dog Mr. Darcy don’t have much room to wonder about that.)

We hadn’t anticipated the changes in the adaptation,

but fully enjoyed them nonetheless.

I don’t expect you to find this interesting, but I’m including this picture just because I want to remember the high finance that followed the reading. Settling up with our hosts for the books combined with egg purchases (thanks to their prolific chickens) made for a few exciting money-exchanging minutes. Yea, I s’pose you had to be there.

A year ago I started receiving a subscription to Cigar Aficionado magazine.

My only hint as to who might have sent me this “gift” was the name on the front. My sister is the only person left on earth who calls me Sharon (I’ve been Sherry since my first day of junior high), and if I were a betting person I’d bet a million dollars (not that I have a million dollars but I’d borrow it since I’m sure I’d win) she would not even think to send me this magazine.

Each month I’d receive another issue and each month I’d add it to the pile safely stored in the darkness of our entry closet. In my 66 years I have yet to draw my first puff of a cigarette, so you might wonder why I’d decide to collect them.

Oh, the suspense!

Here’s why. Today’s team Christmas white elephant exchange. Seriously. Wow!

Um. Guys. We’re ready to eat now.

Getting organized

Last week Wonder Woman Bethany (not the Bethany in my previous post, though she’s a wonder woman too) and a host of volunteers threw a garage sale on one of Phoenix’s worst weather days.

Earlier she had e-mailed me for the logo and the font so she could have this great sign made.

By the end of the day, the sky had cleared and the sale had cleared more than $1,200 for diapers and formula for the babies of Juarez, Mexico.

Meanwhile, down in the colonias outside Juarez someone had made a different kind of sign for a different purpose.

Grateful mothers take home supplies donated or purchased with donated funds.

And way up here in Oregon: When I got home from work last evening, I found two boxes on our front porch.

A pregnancy clinic up in Washington had discovered the Babies of Juarez website and asked where they could drop off expired formula.

So today I went to the local thrift shop to find a lightweight suitcase (2 bucks!) and loaded the formula up for our travels over Thanksgiving. Mauri weighed it for me—exactly 50 pounds, the per-bag limit on Southwest, who allows you to check two bags free!

I love when a plan comes together.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bonus sign picture:

The weekly newsletter I produce as part of my job at the church features an interview with an individual or couple or family one issue out of four. Yikes! That means every four weeks I have to call someone and invite myself to his or her home for an hour at a mutually workable time. That doesn’t sound very difficult but, trust me, I have to force myself to do it.

But then I get to meet people like the Morlands. Everyone has a story, and there I sat in their home, asking questions that led to learning way more than I could fit in the designated space. All fascinating. And I loved every minute of it. Why do I resist it so much?

The writing part is fun too. Thursday’s my day to pull together the pieces for Friday distribution. I needed some more pictures; it was dark the night of the interview. So I jumped in my car and drove back to the Morlands’ farm to shoot a couple.

With advance permission I opened the gate and entered the property. Welcome!

Good boy, good boy!

Making friends.

Tim came out to greet me and

share some hen fruit.

Here’s the interview.

You can see why I love my job. When I make myself do it.

This morning we showed up a little ahead of our call time to don our gay apparel: pink boas and clown ties from the dollar store. You see, our leader is celebrating his 6-5 birthday today, and we wanted to celebrate his way (low key, not too much attention/fanfare). So we just walked into the room and took our places, watching him react with big smiles.

Not everyone made it in time for the picture, but we enjoyed this little accessorized moment before getting down to the business of rehearsing. All in good fun!