Lyle's Car

Being the wonderful parents that we are, we bought Lyle a much-wanted Jeep for his 16th birthday. I'm sure he will enjoy many happy times driving it around!! :0)

Double The Fun!

Since one of Lyle's BFF, Hannah, has a birthday on April 16th and his is April 18th, we Moms decided to "team up" and give them a double birthday party on April 17th.

We invited the whole sophomore class and had a great turn out. Here's the group picture (minus Jeff):

Hannah's family just moved to a new house on five acres, so we had it there. The party was from 4:00 to 10:00 p.m., and Hannah and Lyle were worried the kids would be bored. NOT!!!! They talked, ate snacks, played badmition, talked, ate snacks, played basketball, talked, ate snacks, went on a hike, talked, ate snacks, played catch phrase, talked, ate, had a silly string fight (BIG HIT!!), talked, ate pizza, played with bubbles, talked, had cake and ice cream, and opened presents.

Here's some pictures:

Hannah -- "Sweet" Sixteen

Lyle -- "Suave" Sixteen

Having fun with bubbles

A major silly string fight

Loneliness

How is it possible to sit in a room with 200 people and feel such overwhelming loneliness? It is possible; I experienced it this past weekend. Loneliness is not just about a person being alone. This world is a crowd. We all live in a crowd -- family, friends, parents at your child’s school, co-workers, fellow Christians, and our community. We are always getting connected with someone somewhere. But, the mere presence of other people is not sufficient enough sometimes for us to overcome loneliness.

This past weekend, I found myself in a room full of people I didn’t know. Other people seemed to know each other. Everyone was visiting and laughing, yet I felt so detached from it all. Somehow I just couldn’t relate to the crowd. I was on the fringe of things and didn’t quite fit in. This feeling may have been real or it may have been imagined, but it hurt nevertheless.

If we are honest with ourselves, I think we all have a longing to belong to the crowd: we want to be liked, to be significant, to be popular. When we speak, we want people to listen. We long to be in the “middle” where everyone is relating to everyone else. We want to “belong”, not because we are strong and self-confident, but because we are weak and don’t want to stand out.

I think a crowd of people can trigger an episode of loneliness because it magnifies the reality of a loss. (Example: A widow or widower feels the loss of their spouse more when they are in a group of married couples.) I honestly believe this is what happened to me. Don’t take this wrong because I LOVE my new church. I love the music, I love the genuine worship, and I absolutely love the “meaty” messages we hear each week. I would not want to be anywhere else! But, sometimes I miss my old church – the way it used to be. I miss knowing 90% of the congregation by name. I miss my church family. I miss my Sunday School class. I miss warm greetings and visiting after the service in the foyer. I miss people “loving on me”. And, because I’m human and struggle with pride sometimes, I’ll admit that I miss being part of the staff, being part of the “in crowd” that knows what is going on and feeling important (embarrassed, disappointed in myself, but just being totally honest!).

When I got home and my family was off to the movies, I had a meltdown. I just sat in the chair and cried. I’m sure a small part of it was the culmination of days of activity and too little sleep, but those feelings of loneliness and “not belonging” were soooo real. Then it was time to dry my eyes, thank the Lord for His goodness to me, remember all the things I have to be grateful for, and get on with my life!

National Honor Society

Last Friday evening, we attended the Redding Christian High School National Honor Society Spring Induction Ceremony. To be invited to apply for the National Honor Society, a student must have and maintain at least a 3.5 grade point average in high school, have a certain number of community service hours, have no disciplinary record, and pass an interview process.

We are so proud of Lyle and the hard work and discipline he puts into his school work and serving his community. Here's some pictures:

The four Sophomores that were inducted into the NHS
Trygg, Hannah, Lyle, and Garrett

Where Did That Little Baby Go?

Where did this little baby born on April 18th go?

Oh, he turned into this darling little three year old cowboy...

Who turned into this cute little 2nd grader...

Who then turned into this fun 5th grader...

Who turned into this handsome 8th grader...

Then the years continued to just fly by!! And...that little baby turned into a 16 year old...

WOW!!!! They say "Time flys when you are having fun." Time has flown, and I've had soooo much fun having a great son like you, Lyle!!! Happy 16th Birthday (one day late).

All That Jazz!

Tonight Hilary and I went to the Shasta College Community Jazz Big Band Concert. WOW!!!! It was AWESOME!!!! They will be having another concert on Wednesday, May 5th, at 7:30 p.m. I would encourage you to come if you like jazz/big band music. And, you won't believe this, the tickets are only $3. It was a packed house, so you have to get there early.

Hilary was standing in line to buy our tickets, when the man in front of her asked how many tickets she was buying. When she told him, "2 tickets", he gave her two. So, we got in for FREE!!

Besides having great music concerts, Shasta College also has a VERY CUTE usher who works on the right-hand side of the Auditorium:

I Miss Kim!!!!!

Blog Post Titles:

Mexico Missions Trip -- 0 comments

Easter 2010 -- 0 comments

The "Dam" Tour and A Bucket List -- 1 comment (Thanks, Faith!)

I miss Kim!!!!! I miss her comments!!!!!

HURRY HOME AND COMMENT!!!!!

P.S. I would love it if some others commented on my blog. All you have to do is have a google account, and that's easy to set up. Just use your e-mail address and create a password. It's free and simple!

The "Dam" Tour and A Bucket List

A couple of weeks ago, our friends Sam and Sylvia came up for the weekend. We ALWAYS look forward to a visit from them. We enjoyed Mexican food on Friday night to celebrate Sam's birthday, breakfast together on Saturday morning, and then took a tour of Shasta Dam. If you haven't been out to the lake lately, you should take a drive out there. The lake is now like 20 feet from the top, and it is beautiful!!

The dam tour was really interesting, and I enjoyed it so much. After the tour, we watched the movie in the Visitors' Center. It was great!! Towards the end of the movie, they interviewed a group of people that had worked on the dam.

Here's some pictures:

Three 3 Shastas: Shasta Dam, Shasta Lake, and Mt. Shasta

(I took this from the Vista Point with my little cheap camera.)

Can you believe I've lived in Redding all my life (50 years) and had never taken a tour of Shasta Dam? It got me thinking about other things I've never done, so I started a "Redding Area Bucket List". Here's what I have so far:

1. Eat at Jack's
2. Go to the Kool April Nites parade
3. Attend the Redding Rodeo
4. See the Sculpture Park at City Hall
5. Go to the Civic Auditorium to enjoy the Fourth of July fireworks
6. Go to a Farmer's Market
7. Eat at the French Gulch Hotel and look through the General Store
8. Go to Market Fest
9. Attend a game at the Big League Dreams Sports Park

Who needs to go on vacation? I have plenty to do right here in Redding!!! :0)

Easter 2010

We had such a wonderful Easter!! It started Saturday night with dying eggs. Tried to take pictures, but they were concentrating soooo hard on their eggs and wouldn't look at me:

I guess you're never too old to dye eggs!! And...you're never too old for an Easter basket filled with goodies. Grandma has always made Easter baskets for the kids, and this year was no exception. When we were at the Hallmark store the other day, my Mom was talking to the lady about Easter baskets. The lady had young grandchildren she was making baskets for. She asked my Mom what ages her grandchildren were, and she was surprised when my Mom answered, "16, 19, and 25". The lady replied, "Oh my, they still want baskets when they're those ages?" OH, YES!!!!

Grandma found these fun bubble wands to put in their baskets, and they were a big hit. The kids were outside for about 20 minutes blowing bubbles:

The last month at our church, we were encouraged to write the name of someone (on a post-it-note) we wanted to pray for and invite to Easter services. Then we posted them on each side of the Auditorium. Each week, during the singing, we could go up there and pray for several names. (Don't mind the guy with the bag over his head. It's our pastor being silly! It's the only picture I could find.)

Well, we were soooooo excited that the people we prayed for and invited came. Our neighbors, Bill and Pam, came with us. Ethan came and his parents came down from Weaverville to come to church with us. We had services at the Redding Convention Center. There were over 3,500 people at the three services. Most importantly, God was there!!! I sang in the choir, and I really enjoyed it. (I'm the third one from the left in the front row.)

Pastor Bill ALWAYS comes up with something spectacular for Easter, and this year was no exception!! He talked about their being a wall between us and God. He tried to break down the wall with various tools (each representing something). "Religion" cannot break down the wall, Morality cannot break down the wall, Good Works cannot break down the wall. Only Christ taking on our sins and dying on the cross is what can break down the wall. He ended up smashing this whole wall and finishing it off with a jack hammer!! You had to be there to really get the whole picture, but IT WAS AWESOME!!!! There were many, many salvation decisions and lots of "seeds" planted!!! Praise the Lord!!!!

After the services, everyone came over to our house for Easter dinner. It was so nice to get to know Ethan's parents and visit with them.

Mexico Missions Trip

Lyle left on Easter Sunday morning with a group of 46 high schoolers from Redding Neighborhood Church to go on a Missions Trip to Mexico. They will be working with a local church, hosting a Vacation Bible School and also doing several construction projects. He will be back next Sunday night.

We are very thankful to RNC for this opportunity they made available. There are soooo many advantages to Mission Trips:

• A better understanding of what it is like in other countries.
• A better understanding of people and their universal needs.
• More empathy for missionaries and the problems they face.
• A greater appreciation for what you have at home.
• More oriented to outreach when you return home, because of doing it there.
• A greater vision for missions.
• A greater commitment to Christ and His plan.

God really provided, financially, for Lyle to go. On the Sunday his $400 was due in full, he only had $310. We were praying like crazy, and at 11:30 ($ was due at a 12:30 meeting), someone gave me $100 towards his trip. Talk about last minute! :0) But, God always supplies!!

If you want to read about their trip and see daily pictures you can go to hmmexico.blogspot.com