Almost a Family Picture....

After hours of posing, running back and forth from the tri-pod to the pose, breaking for bottles etc., the kids are voting on which picture will be our "family photo". We had one but Nolan wanted it redone...so we had another session.

I'm quite sure it will not be one of these:

Severe case of PPSS (Post Photographic Stress Syndrome)

Eager Expectations - A New Year's Reflection

Excerpted from an article I wrote for our local PWOC newsletter

My family teases me for having "calendar issues". At any given time I will have at LEAST five calendars in use at my home....two on the fridge, one in the bedroom, a desk top one beside the computer and a PDA in my purse. In addition to these calendars, I'm teaching two students how to use calendars (great way to learn so many things) and those daily lesson plans x5 can look suspiciously like a weekly calendar. No doubt about it, I like a well-thought out PLAN, and I probably do have calendar issues.

Are you a "first of the month" type of person? Do you love tearing off the old calendar page? With one mighty rip of the page, 30 days of past accomplishments, frustrations and, yes, failures are crumpled and left behind in the trash can. We get to move on! We get to START A NEW MONTH; a month with somewhat clean spaces and boxes. We get to choose how to fill those spots. We are faced with 30 days full of possibilities! Think of the awesome opportunity and responsibility of "tearing off" a whole year of months! May I challenge you to consider how God would have you fill some of those boxes? Would PWOC play a part in any of your plans?

Starting a new year can cause us a certain amount of uncertainty as well as excitement. We aren't sure what lies ahead in the upcoming year. There may be successes, failures, moves, deployments, joys, births and more that are unexpected as of 31 December 2005. BUT GOD knows the plans He has for you! Isn't that an awesome assurance? One of my all-time favorite verses is Jeremiah 29:11! "For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. (Oh, I can never stop with ONE verse )Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to ME, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find ME when you search for Me with all your heart (emphasis added) I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile." Jer. 29:11 - 14. Is your heart full of joy? Do you feel like you've been exiled? Regardless, the principle remains: God has a PLAN for you. It's a well-thought-out PLAN. It's a good PLAN, a PLAN for your welfare. God is not planning for your downfall - you can trust His PLAN - even if you can't see the purpose of all the details. God PLANS to give you a future and a hope!!!! Dear Sister, you are not hopeless! Are you searching for God with all your heart? He will be found. You can trust His mercy to walk with you along each step of the New Year; you can trust His loving-kindness to guide you. You can trust His strength to sustain you through any unexpected twists you may discover on your path in 2006. God wants to give you a future and a hope. A very basic definition for the Hebrew word translated hope is an "eager expectation". Are their areas of your life that you are clutching close to yourself? Why not consider handing them over to God and letting Him give you instead an eager expectation for the upcoming year? Do you sense an eager expectation in your heart? It's God's PLAN for you to have hope. It's God's plan for you to have an eager expectation for the things He will teach you and the ways He will guide you in 2006. If you find that you have no hope, will you make it a priority to spend time with your LORD today and ask Him for that hope which He promises those who seek Him?

Over 25 years ago I began to ask God to display His mighty miracle- power to turn me into a Proverbs 31 woman. May I leave one more exhortation with you? Proverbs 31:25 "Strength and dignity are her clothing and she smiles at the future." In the quietness of your heart will you honestly evaluate if you are smiling at the future? If not, God stands ready to calm your heart and to give you the grace to smile at the future...to even eagerly expect great things from Him for this year. Journals are great tools - you may want to take some time to write out a prayer to the LORD about those "eager expectations" He is impressing on YOUR heart for the year 2006.

As for those calendar issues, could it be that I'm subconsciously trying to find more time in the month?

Geocaching Pictures - 30 Dec 2005

Pictures simply would NOT open in the message below:

Thanks to Jen who emailed after reading story below and suggested how to do a group cache so that the cache isn't opened until all find it. {grin} I bet we would have eventually worked out a system....maybe.

Josiah opens Altoid Tin - Our first Cache

Picture seems representative of this current season of parenting! Little ones are being helped along by older ones...all taking steps towards independence and seemingly away from me.....I'm chasing behind trying to record their new adventures! {grin}

Josiah finds our second Cache (see it?)

Day Ten of Vacation – Part 2 – GEOCACHING

Geocaching has hit our home. Mike got a Garmin eTrex Vista C for Christmas and the kids got a Garmin eTrex. Mike spent spare minutes the last few days learning how to use the GPS units and I spent time asking questions of friends, like: “What do they mean leave something in the cache – what?”

To those who aren’t familiar with geocaching, it could best be described as a cross between 19th century treasure hunting and 21st century hide n seek. A cache is hidden. The owner of the cache logs onto http://www.geocaching.com/ and lists the coordinates of the cache, how hard it is to find, encrypts any clues they want to leave and gives a description of what they placed in the cache. You choose a cache, enter the coordinates on your GPS and set out. When you find the cache you sign in the log book, take anything you want and replace the items you’ve taken with like items. When you get home you go to the website and log your find and comments.

This afternoon we headed out to try to find our first three caches. I’m not sure how Mike picked them. I was all for finding the level 1 caches but he found the 3.5 ones for us. I think he picked the interesting sounding titles. We went to one that was outside a military cemetery in the really old section of town that we didn’t know existed. That cache was right near the road and Josiah found the actual Altoid container that was full of goodies. Arielle and Nolan voted to take a squishy, water-filled palm tree and we left a smiley face Italian Charm. I had navigated to this one and Mike had driven. Since I had no clue how to read the directions on Mike’s GPS I suggested that I drive to the second one. We headed out to find our second Cache in high spirits.

With Mike reading the directions – it does NOT say “turn right” etc….it’s an arrow headed towards a destination and you get to guess which way to turn and WHEN – I headed back onto the loop. We were surprised to eventually find ourselves back in our own neighborhood. This cache was called Chapel Hill and we couldn’t remember any chapel near our home…..but….if you go to the end of the dirt road and then hike about a mile on a dirt road and then take off across the cactus/mesquite infested plain….you see a lovely view of a chapel on a hill…and you find our second cache. Josiah AGAIN is the one who first spotted the hidden cache. This time we took a lens cleaner and left a bracelet. On our way out of this site we saw 5 deer. The sun was setting so we decided to save cache number 3 for another day. This one promised ducks and water…..THIS I’ve gotta find!

We had a BLAST with this. It’s family fun. It’s cheap. It got us outdoors and to two new areas of town we’d not seen before. We all enjoyed trying to follow the coordinates to the hidden container. I think this sport appeals to families with one or more outdoor-loving techno-geeks in them….we have several. {grin}

Some things we observed: In AK they grow fern…in TX they grow all manner of prickly vegetation. In AK the ground would have been covered in snow this time of year and in the summer you’d have to deal with Grizzlies. In TX the ground was covered with cacti, the weather was a wonderful 70* or so and in the summer you’d have to deal with rattlers. I, De’Etta, am planning more park and grab caches and mall caches for the summer….AIR CONDITIONING!!!! Personally, I learned that there are dire consequences to trying to “brush” cactus thorns off your pant leg with your hand. My hand was covered in the nasty things. Then I tried to bite a few thorns out of my hand and got a thorn stuck on the inside of my lip. We’ve decided to gather a geocaching backpack with water, Band-Aids, tweezers (for pulling thorns), garbage bag to haul out cans, bottles and such that we find etc. Stacia will ride in a back pack.

Below are some pictures of the adventure! {No, we didn’t take a family picture today. Tomorrow I will venture to Wal-mart and buy white t-shirts and then we’ll head out to find scenery for a picture}. Pictures won't upload will try again in the am.

Day Ten of Vacation – 30 December 2005

The day is off to a very slow start. It is currently 10:35 and 60% of our family is still in BED. I will let you guess which 5 are up. {grin}

We had discussed going out with the tri-pod to get a family picture while the girls are home. If we are going to do that it will have to be today or tomorrow. Sunday will be full and then they leave. I wonder what the day will hold. I wonder what the score of the Spurs game was and I wonder how long 60% of the family will pretend to sleep through the racket of the other 40% of the family. {big grin}

I’ve spent several hours searching for an “inductive survey” to use to study the Bible through this year. Most plans are going to take significantly longer than one year. I’m not looking for an in-depth inductive study of each book. I want a survey but more than a skim-the-surface survey. I want to get a deeper understanding of the overall context/structure of the Bible as a whole so that when studying and teaching specific books of the Bible I will have a good foundation to “hang it on”, a deeper understanding of the context of the book. Having spent all this time doing internet searches, praying, reading, enjoying my devotional time…it is time to hit the shower and see if any of these others can be raised. {grin}

Day Nine of Vacation – 29 December 2005

The day began early this morning with a drive to the local airport. Yes, Mom and Dad have left to fly back to the NW. This goodbye seemed harder for us than normal. I think this is in part because it foreshadows another goodbye we will be saying in a few days. Good – proper, beneficial….Bye – leave taking. It sure seems from my point of view that there isn’t much benefit in much of the leave taking we do. BUT I refuse to go there now! Maybe I’ll have “thoughts on saying Goodbye” on the 2nd of January. {grin}

We did have a blast with Mom and Dad. We hadn’t had both of them to our home since 2002. Mom did come up to AK in July of 2003. Always a joy to have family visit….

Back at home the kids spent a bit of time on the computer. THEN ::::Drum Roll:::: Bre, Krista, Josiah, Jamin and Jared prepared to board a bus and head to San Antonio with a student trip sponsored by the chapel. They’ll be attending :::drum still rolling::: a Spurs game! Poor Mike couldn’t go with them because he is duty chaplain. We are thrilled they were able to go. There ARE advantages of adult children being home.{grin}

The younger set and I (Arielle, Nolan, Zander and Stacia) met Mike for lunch, spent the afternoon at the Lake (met a family of boys from Kodiak Island, AK), picked Mike up at 5 p.m., and went to Mr. Gatti’s to eat and play. Zander has been waiting to get tall enough to ride the bumper cars (42”) He is a good inch past that tonight – so he got to ride. The lady asked if he knew how to work the cars before she turned it on. Mike told her that he’d be fine, he’d quickly figure it out. We laughed. He figured it out really quick and loved it. I didn’t have the camera with me – bummer.

The younger set, Mike and I are now going to watch Kid Movies that the older ones get tired of and then fall asleep. We’ll have to let you know tomorrow how the Spurs do. {grin}

While at the park I was able to read another chapter in *Third Culture Kids* and continue my search for some sort of guide to an “inductive survey” of the Bible. My goal this year is to study the Bible through instead of read it through. We’ll see.

Day Eight of Vacation – 28 December 2005

Mike had to run into the office for 20 minutes today. Read that 2 ½ hours. {Grin} The rest of us ran to the base park to make the most of the gorgeous 70* days. TX shines this time of year!!! While at the park our football unexplainably found itself in the top of a tree.

When we were all satisfied that we’d fully enjoyed the park we headed to Fort Concho. This is an AMAZINGLY restored Army Fort. Our guide was excellent. He had lots of great info to share and was humorous and entertaining at the same time. There was only our family of 13 and one other family on the tour. He tailored the tour to the children. We plan to go back and try to get some family pictures in front of one of the buildings or such…

The evening finds us enjoying each other, playing Star Wars Trivia (present for Mike and three older boys from Bre and Krista) and Mom and Dad packing for an early plane out in the morning.

Thus ends another full day.

All our Angels

Nolan calls everyone to school

Zander & Cannon - scary sight