Tacoma/Seattle

I just spent 3 1/2 glorious days in Washington State. I spent time with incredible friends, hiked in crisp, chilly weather, took in the brilliant fall colors, went to one of the largest REI's in the nation and toured two beautiful cities! What a wonderfully refreshing little retreat!!

What was that rainbow thing again?

I think God said that He set the rainbow in the sky as a covenant that He would never flood the earth again like He did in the days of Noah. By the end of 2 weeks of straight rain, I was starting to wonder if He had changed His mind. No, I wasn't in an ark floating, but the carpet in my sisters room was floating on top of the ankle deep water that filled her room.

300 gallons of water later...her floor is finally starting to dry. I would have taken pictures but I don't think she was in the mood. :)

Unfortunately, Sophia's flooded room was not the only thing ailing us at our house the last couple weeks. The roof was also leaking, our thermostat stopped working (not a good situation in an already hot and very wet environment) and we have an animal decomposing in the wall next to my room...yummy!!

The adventure continues....

One Tired Girl

So this year I took the plunge and decided to bring a student to school. Thomas is so gifted and talented - with the ability to do anything but he is not always very motivated...so I decided I would encourage him to be motivated by picking him up. This meant waking up at 6:45 a.m. and generally getting back to sleep by a little after 7a.m.

Well then Veronica -(I don't have any pictures of her) asked if I could pick her up as well. She lives near Thomas and is going to the same school. That seemed like a good idea because I really want to make in-roads into her family. This meant waking up at 6:40 a.m. and still getting back to sleep a little after 7 a.m.



Then I was talking to Amp (Thomas' brother) and found out that his bus stop is on the way to Thomas' school but it would be a 2-mile walk for Amp every morning to get there. The bus picks him up just a little earlier than the other two need to get to school so that means getting up at 6:30 a.m and getting back to sleep a little after 7:00 a.m.

Are you noticing the trend? The time is getting earlier and earlier...

Then...AJ has been having trouble at home and has been staying at Thomas' house. His school is 3 miles away. A bit of a walk to say the least. This didn't change my getting up time, however, it is 3 miles in the opposite direction...so now I'm getting home at 7:30.

Well then...AJ has been having trouble at home and has been staying at Thomas' house. His school is 3 miles away. A bit of a walk to say the least. This didn't change my getting up time, however, it is 3 miles in the opposite direction...so now I'm getting home at 7:30.

I think the word must have been spreading that Miss Ruth is a taxi driver because I got to Thomas' house one morning and 6 boys came piling out of the house...all going to different schools. Now not only does that mean I am up longer and longer...but 6 boys and one girl (Veronica) don't all fit very well in my little Corolla...so you guessed it...I had to make two trips. Not arriving home until almost 8 a.m.

This definitely does not happen every morning...but occasionally I am greeted with some kind of surprise like this when I get to Thomas' house at 6:40 in the morning. And let me tell you this tired girl often turns into one yucky, grouchy girl when I am met with all these unexpected surprises that are cutting into my sleep.

I could say that I am just tired and excuse my grouchi-ness away as a result of that...or the fact that I am caught unexpectedly off-guard or the fact that these kids are only thinking of themselves and will most likely not even be grateful (like most teenagers)...I'm sure I could explain it away on a lot of levels if I tried hard enough but really it just reveals my selfish, impatient, sinful nature which resides at the core of who I am. Under the right conditions I am an evil beast in my responses. This has not been pretty.

Anyway, I would love your prayers that God would deal with my sinful, impatient self in such a way that allows me to deal with grace, gentleness and perseverance with my kiddos.

On a side note...I know most people in the human world are up at 6:30 or earlier on a regular basis but unfortunately, I work late often not getting to sleep until at least midnight and if you know me well you know that I need a whopping 9 hours of sleep. I know that is sickening but I think God made me that way on purpose.