The Agony of De"foot"

'Twas not enough 'tis size 9 wide

(All decency demands it hide)...

To plantar fasciitis prone

(As is its poor afflicted clone)...

It's biggest pig baits all to stare

(And marvel at its girth unfair)...

The coarsened skin across its sole

Well imitates the hide of troll...

One more misfortune I report...

Alas, a newly sprouted WART.

The Big Secret Revealed!

Remember what I was super excited about a few posts back??? Well, we vacated and now we're back and I can tell you all about it since it's no longer a surprise for my family.

(For those of you who don't know...our summer vacation tradition is that I plan it all out each year and no one else in the family has any idea where we're going nor what we're doing.)

Well, this year, we went to...

We climbed into the car Saturday afternoon and I told Jeff to drive to the airport. I'm so mean! They of course all thought that we were going to be getting on a plane. Wrong! We rented a car. And what a car it was!

This Mercury Mariner is likely the nicest car we will ever spend a whole week in. However, it was not the car I wanted since we would be driving 1600 miles and it only got 17 miles per gallon!!! Two months in advance I had reserved a car that got 33 mpg, but that car wasn't available. (What are reservations for exactly? Hmm?) So the car company gave us a free upgrade. Ha! Free my foot!

Alas, what could we do? I signed on the dotted line and we were on our way. It was a very nice automobile, complete with cruise control (which Jeff praised a number of times over the course of the trip) and leather seats (which sure came in handy when someone-who-shall-remain- nameless accidentally dumped a whole cooler full of water onto my seat).

Saturday was spent simply driving. I warned them all that we wouldn't be having any fun whatsoever until Sunday.

Sunday, we drove the Avenue of the Giants which is absolutely beautiful. We spent that night in Eureka.

Monday morning we left for Crescent City. On our way, we stopped at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. That is one of the loveliest places I've ever had the joy of walking through. I know it sounds ridiculous, but that area makes Yosemite look positively plain. The lush foliage is everywhere and it is breathtaking. I kept expecting to see a group of fairies fly out of the ferns or down from the mossy tree limbs above. It honestly didn't seem real. The pictures don't do it justice.


We spotted nine banana slugs on our hiking trail.These delightfully slimy looking creatures could be seen inching across the trail or curled up on fern leaves.


We continued on to Crescent City. There's an aquarium there with eels, fish, sea lions and a shark petting pool. Doesn't the little white seal look like she's smiling?


There's also a wonderful beach on which the surf has deposited huge piles of little pebbles. We plopped ourselves down and sifted through, looking for agates. We all found some and other beautiful stones besides.


It was a rather chilly day but we persevered for at least an hour, sifting and searching. It was kind of like sitting in a huge ball-pit (you know like the ball-pits that kids sink into at the play yards at Mc Donald's) and rather therapeutic. It was so exciting when you actually spotted an agate. (They're the somewhat transparent ones with the swirly-feathery patterns in them.)

On Tuesday morning we headed for Oregon. The beauty never stopped.


We toured the Oregon Caves and found what looked like alien spawn deep within the earth.



We ended up in Ashland where we saw "A Comedy of Errors" at the yearly Shakespeare Festival. It had a Wild West theme. Originally we had tickets to see "A Mid-Summer Night's Dream" but a lady at the box office told me it was a rather risque version so I prudently switched the tickets out for the more innocuous play. The theater was packed out and the company did a great job of presenting the comedy...even the kids enjoyed it.

We spent a second day in Ashland, wanting to take a break from the long drives. It's such a beautiful town. The kids found a snake as we strolled through Lithia Park. Here's Tobias and his new-found friend:


Thursday, we drove up to Crater Lake. There was still a grip of snow on the ground and unfortunately, the northern entrance was going to be opening the next day. (I had planned on exiting that way to get to Eugene, so that added another 45 minutes to our drive.)

By late afternoon, we were in Eugene, getting lost amongst all of the one-way streets with which Oregon is plagued. Then, one of the nicest of my planned surprises took place. We got to see our friends Shawn and Erin. They are a couple of incredibly talented people who are also fun to hang out with. If you want to hear their very original and awesome music, check them out on Myspace under the band name "Moher". Here they are with their dog, Guinness:



Ever seen a nutria? Here's one now:



Apparently they are "wannabe-beavers" and they roam free in public parks in Eugene. They're cuter than opossums!

Friday, we continued north on the I-5. Near Salem we took a side road to one of my newly declared favorite places on earth--Silver Falls State Park. It was quite a convoluted drive to get there but so worth it. We took about a four mile hike through more of that gorgeous greenery, but we had the added bonus of multiple waterfalls. It was nearly a perfect afternoon. The shady hike wasn't too rough and around nearly every corner was the reward of a stunning sight such as...



Can you see the people walking in the horizontal crevice behind the waterfall? That's how huge the fall is.

The hike was a bit muddy as you can see:



We barely found our way back to the 5 and continued on to Portland where we got stuck in rush hour traffic. (I guess arriving around 5 pm in a major city on a Friday wasn't the best plan.)

Call me asinine, but knowing that we were so close to a whole other state gave me the idea to plan our dinner that night for a restaurant in Washington just so we could say we went there. So, we hopped over the Columbia and feasted.



The next morning we set out to find Portlandia--an amazing copper statue that I read about online and wanted to see with my own eyes. She's really huge, kneeling on top of a building and reaching over the side.



After that, we reveled in the final excursion of our trip.We took a jet boat tour 20 miles up the Willamette to Willamette Falls in Oregon City.




Our boat's pilot took great joy in drenching us all with his 360 turns and sudden veers.



It was fun and beautiful, even a bit educational (shh, don't tell the kids.)

When it was all over, we made our way to Portland's airport, returned our rental and flew home where our own car was waiting for us. This was Delaney's first flight ever and she was quite excited about it.


When it was all over, we asked her how she liked it.

"Well, I was expecting it to be more like a roller coaster," she said.

(Thank God it wasn't!)

All in all, this was a fabulous trip and I recommend that anyone who has never been to Northern California and Oregon should go there as soon as possible. The beauty is astonishing. Jeff and I would actually like to move there though the practicality of that is quite questionable. We can dream, can't we?

Our Double Digit Diva

Wake up, Delaney. You're 10 years old!

Elementary School Musical 2

Delaney's stint as "Saloon Girl #1" is over. We're hoping that is the closest she'll ever get to singing in an actual bar. :)

Her whole class did great putting on the musical. I was so proud of Delaney because when it came time for her little solo, she stepped right up to the mic and sang out loudly.

We assembled her outfit out of dress-up clothes that she already owns. One funny thing was that out of about 10 "saloon girls", Delaney was the only one who wasn't wearing black and red. I didn't get that memo! So there she was on stage, decked out in purple and pink, surrounded by a whole gaggle of black and reddies.

I asked her later if she felt embarrassed about that.

She just smiled and said, "Nope. This way, I stood out more."

(Oh, boy...a shrinking violet, she is not.)

Apparent Myth #2

Okay, I've been putting this off for a long time because I fear that my writing abilities will fail me as I attempt to put this mental wispiness into words.

Please know that the following is not in any way meant to shame or chastise anyone. I only mean to exhort believers (myself included) to be wary.

Here goes...oh, man, I don't even know how to word it, um, okay...apparent myth #2: A genuine believer in Christ doesn't take God's Name in vain.

By "taking God's Name in vain", I don't mean shrieking, "Oh my God!" when you see your friend's brand new car. Rather, I mean attributing messages or causes to God that do not have their origin in Him.

Now, instead of launching into a lengthy diatribe, I shall tell a tale whence the appearance of this myth hath sprung.

Years ago, we knew a young woman who had just become a Christian. (I'll call her Chrissy.) A couple of months after she began to trust in Jesus, she told me that God had told her to stop going to the college she was then attending and to start attending a different college nearby.

Intrigued that this new believer felt she was so clearly discerning God's voice, I asked her how God had conveyed that message to her.

"He just told me," she said. "It was totally obvious."

To tell you the truth, I felt a bit jealous. I'd been a believer for years at that point and had continuously sought God's clear direction in multiple situations, and although I could regularly see His blessings in those situations, I didn't recall having experienced anything of which I could honestly say, "God told me."

Well, Chrissy enrolled at the new college and before her first semester was over, she announced that God had now told her to go to yet another college. You probably see what's coming so I'll just cut to the chase: over the next couple of years, Chrissy never finished a course of study at any college, she went on a mission from which she returned early and she held a number of jobs for just a couple of months each and all of this was supposedly due to God's direction. Each time that she would announce the new turn her focus was taking, she would hold the "God told me" banner up high for all to see.

I understand that God's ways are not man's ways and that we shouldn't put God in a box, yet if one was to watch Chrissy's life, one was likely to think one of two things: either Chrissy was wrong about God's directives OR God was one confused fellow.

I bring this up today because I see similar (though perhaps not as drastic) instances of this regularly. People at times give God credit for things that I'm not sure He wants credit for. People often say that God told them to do something that might have simply been one honorable option among many.

Yes, yes, yes, God can do whatever He wants, including telling His people various and multiple messages in regards to anything. I simply think we need to be very careful what we attribute to Him, not throwing His name around like a logo or a stamp of approval.

Even if a "false prophet" has the best of intentions, (s)he is still prophesying falsely. I won't bother speculating on the reasons why we take God's Name in vain in this manner, but the results can be that God looks bad to others and God can become highly displeased because of our own careless words. The Old Testament is full of God's declarations against those who said He had said things that He had never said.

Instead of saying, "God told me..." or "God wants me to...", why not say, "I think God may be directing me to..." or "It seems as if God wants me to...". That way, if I end up being obviously wrong, then I haven't besmirched God in the process.

Stress in Discernment:

Recently, a woman told me that God had told her to do something. I wasn't trying to challenge her, but my curiosity spurred me to ask her straight out, "How did He tell you?" If He truly had told her, then it seemed her answer would be a ready one which she would be excited to share with me.

She seemed a bit uncomfortable with my query, but responded that He told her by telling her. (Yeah, I didn't quite get it either.) I didn't want to upset her, so I didn't push the question and I simply listened as she went on to detail the rest of her situation.

A bit later on in the conversation, she exhorted me in my own life with, "Well, Aimee, if God tells you to do something then you need to do it!"

Uh...yeah, but the question becomes, how do I know if God is in fact telling me to do something?

I know that I am to care for orphans and widows. I know that I am to pay taxes. I know that I am not to steal. I know that I am not to gossip. These things are all made perfectly clear in Scripture.

However, much of my day to day life is made up of activities for which there are no clear directives in Scripture.

I used to stress about this, thinking (for example), "God needs to tell me if I should plan our trip to San Diego or to Morro Bay!" I'd seek direction in this and receive no obvious directives. Our lives would be altered in various ways through either trip, so why didn't God make it clear so we'd experience the alterations He wanted?

It greatly relieved my mind when I heard, "Love God with all your heart and do whatever you want." I love this little phrase that some may consider trite.

We can bring a lot of stress on ourselves trying to figure out what God's will is for whatever situation we are facing. When we do this, our focus turns inward: What am I doing wrong that's keeping me from hearing God's voice? Am I in some sin that is stopping my ears? I must be doing something wrong because I'm not getting any clear answers.

God is to be our focus, not ourselves nor even our own ability to figure things out.

Yes, I pray for guidance in whatever I seek to do, but if the way is not made clear (which it very often is not) then I can do whatever honorable option seems the wisest and best and not worry about it! God promises to liberally give us wisdom when we ask for it (James 1:5). What is wisdom? Webster's says, "insight, good sense, judgment". Wisdom is His promise to us, not a big, blinking, florescent, arrow-shaped sign that will obviously point out the "right" option. (Remember: Love God and do what you want!)

I could ramble on a bit more (and after I post this, I'll probably want to rewrite the whole thing), but God's telling me that it's time to stop. (Just kidding.)

I'd really love to hear whatever any of you have to say about this, even if you think I've got it wrong--just please use Scripture to prove your points if you're adamant about them. I know that some of you have had to make some much bigger decisions than I ever have and therefore have more experience in discerning God's will. Just remember, though, that I didn't say He doesn't tell us things, I simply said we need to be very careful about proclaiming that He has done so out of respect for Him.