Updates for 2005Q2 can be found in   http://www.bolzern.org/journals/vj2005Q2.html

Updates for 2005Q1 appear below with the latest information at the top.

Thursday, March 31, 2005 6:30 pm
We've been keeping busy working on our taxes.  We've got everything done that is currently due and still have our GCS company to go.  We've started on it but need some records that are in storage.  It has a different fiscal year so isn't due at this time so we can finish it up shortly.

Mark got a call from Chris this morning that he could use his help today so Mark decided to take a break from taxes and get some physical exercise.  While he's gone, I've got a number of things to do around the house.

We're planning to leave early next week to go back to Oklahoma to pick up our truck plus get the work finished on my tooth crown and a few other loose ends including Falecia Hinton's wedding.  We think we'll leave Monday morning.  The RV park said we could leave our vehicle here in the section that has not yet been opened for the summer.  They'll keep an eye on it.

Chris and Pamela invited us over yesterday evening for dinner and Mark's all-time favorite movie, Harry and the Hendersons.  Pamela cooked a lamb roast.  I think I yummed my way through the entire meal.  Which was good as lamb isn't Mark's favorite; he did a good job of praising the other dishes.  For dessert, we had chocolate mousse with strawberries.  I made a mousse last Friday for the last meal.  That's a dish I hadn't really been aware of, connecting it in my mind with the puddings they served on the school lunches when I was a kid.  But I've decided that this is something to investigate.

Monday, March 28, 2005, 6:69 pm
Brr...its cold.  Actually, it isn't that cold, still above freezing but we've had snow off and on all day.  We awoke with snow but then it cleared off with blue sky and sunshine.  However, the clouds have moved in again.  This was supposed to blow over but now they are saying it could snow for several more days.  Four inches is forecasted overnight.

The other day I wrote about receiving an email about pine trees having little crosses on them with the new growth at Easter time.  I've been hoping to see this phenomenon.  the pine trees most prevalent in Oregon are Ponderosa Pines.  I also saw something that looked to me like a Norfolk Island Pine.  I searched my email archives and found the original message to see exactly what it said and what the picture showed.  I have to say that I didn't see anything like this.  However, the pine trees in this picture has bunches of limbs that go upward so are probably a different type of pine tree.  Can anyone identify them?  The website on which I found the story is http://inspirationsfortoday.com/pinetrees.html

Deadlines are coming.  I've been gradually working on tax information.  Tomorrow we plan to go buy the current tax software we need and get serious.  We basically have the rest of the week to finish things up.  Next week we hope to be on a trip back to Oklahoma to the dentist to get my crown, get our truck and a trip to Branson which was paid for long ago.  We either use it or lose it.

Saturday, March 26, 2005 1:57 pm
The forecasted rain has arrived.  It's coming down intermittently so maybe it won't be too bad. I didn't sleep well last night, probably because of new surroundings and the stress of yesterday.  Mark says he would have slept well if I hadn't woken up and started bouncing the bed.  I first was coughing and then when I decided I was awake, I was screwing around in bed trying to reach my books on the floor.  Once the sun came up, I went for a walk.  The park map claims the perimeter loop around the park is 1/2 mile.  

We didn't hook up the sewer last night as it was dark by the time we got back.  Mark went out first thing this morning with the new hose.  We've been running on tanks this past week.  Which we couldn't have worked for so many days if we hadn't been able to shower inside the house.  We were still pretty full but certainly okay to drive here without dumping.

We headed up the road to a job fare Sunriver Resort was having today.  Mark wanted to see if they had anything he could fill.  They have a number of openings but nothing that really spoke to his skills. It was worth a shot.  They had a number of things I could do--but I'm accounted for, planning to work at the RV park in exchange for our rent.   It's not big bucks but at least places us in a regular park without any drain on the finances.  The exciting part is that they needed a "volunteer" water aerobics instructor so I'll do that several days a week, filling out the necessary hours at the registration/security booth.  I'm really excited that I'm going to "get paid" for exercising.

After we left Sunriver, since we were already "up the road" toward Mt. Bachelor, Mark wanted to go there.  It was an additional distance but we really enjoyed the drive and seeing the resort.  About halfway, it started snowing.  So we went from spring-like light rain to winter and back again in just a few minutes.  I was happy to get back to lower altitudes.  Bend is in the dry area of Oregon, east of the mountain.  Everyone has been telling us that Bend has been having uncommon weather, everything from sandstorms to heavy snow in the past week.  Guess we brought it with us from Oklahoma.  A produce stand has been set up down at the Wickiup Junction store and gas station.  Glad we showed up; the proprietor said weather had kept people away.  He didn't get rich off us but we did buy a few items that I can use this week.

Friday, March 25, 2005, 9:05 pm
Had an enjoyable dinner last night.  Even though we should have plenty more...it was our last evening being out here at the house.  Pamela made spaghetti with loads of ground beef (lots more than I normally put in it) salad and garlic bread.  They have an animal called a dragon lizard.  Pam told me to loosen up a little so I could have the experience of feeding it.  I didn't mind holding out lettuce leaves but I drew the line at touching meal worms.  I must say it was an okay experience.  

Yesterday was our official "send-off."  Good thing we had a nice evening because we woke up to a stressful day.  A water pipe Mark had opened the other day (and had carefully closed up again) burst during the night with the cold.  The barn was flooded.  The water swept through the middle of the barn and out into the corral.  The poor horses The big issue, of course, was the bales of hay that were on the floor where the water went.  Chris and Pamela went to town to get palettes while Mark and I mucked out wet miscellaneous  hay off the floor. We were all thrilled when the sun came out because the forecast was for rain.  We decided to clean the whole barn even though the wet stuff was just on one end. There was plenty of time while they were at the store.  Pamela later said she usually thoroughly cleans the barn in the Spring.  Since this is spring, at least we helped her get a jump on the job.  

Then we were able to put down a tarp on which to pile the good bales while we fixed a raised area. Half the hay had been on palettes.  Considering, it all went fairly easily.  Although I know it probably stressed Pamela about since technically her beloved horses were in danger. They can feed some of the wet hay but once mold sets in...  The pipe could have frozen at any time, even without our doing anything with it. They'll probably put a heat tape on it.  There's an electrical outlet.

I had already been working on doing my part to get Bussie rolling again.  One has to put away and take down anything that will go flying.  We'd planned to pull out yesterday morning.  We were finished with the barn by noon.  Mark started airing up the airbags so we could move enough to take up the leveling blocks while I finished putting my stuff way.   He's in charge of the computers and his "desk" stuff that is in the front of the bus--and everything outside.  I take care of the remaining 32 feet.  We've got a pretty good system except we didn't go through the checklist this time so he had to stop on the road since I'd forgotten to hook the file cabinets closed.

We pulled out about 2:20 pm.  I was a little peeved when Mark decided to take the route through the Forest.  I was really peeved when Bussie came to a halt out in the middle of nowhere.    I praise God every day for a mechanically minded husband.  Of course, we probably wouldn't be driving around in an aging bus if he wasn't.  The transmission had suddenly stuck in neutral, only going backward because of a slight hill.  I backed off; I was following in Tracker. We only saw three cars the whole time. One stopped to asked if we needed a phone.  But once again, Mark figured it out so we didn't have to call Good Sam's emergency services.  Turns out some wires had broken off the solenoid.  We got a few yards down the road by sticking them back on but ended up having to solder them into place.  Fortunately he has the tools and ingenuity.  We were stuck for only an hour before being able to head south to La Pine.  

We stopped at the truck stop for diesel for Bussie and gasoline for Tracker, then went to the Cascade Meadows RV Park .  By the time were got our business done and were into our space, we only had an hour before we needed to be back in Bend  to check out a job fare.  We figure it won't hurt for Mark to pass out his resume.  Therefore, we hurriedly cleaned up and ran out the door.  Later, on our way home, we stopped at Walmart to buy a 10 ft sewer hose.  We've been using our 20 footer but that's too long for the setup here.  Our last 10 ft hose sprang a leak right before we left Colorado Springs.

It is lovely to be home so we can head for bed pretty soon.

Thursday, March 24, 2005, 5:15 pm
Mark went to LaPine with Chris yesterday to work on the house Chris is renovating.  They got a lot done.  We intended to work today but Chris ended up spending his time in Lowe's buying stuff so didn't have time to go down to the house. We wanted to go down to LaPine anyway.  Mark stopped at the Cascade Meadows RV Park yesterday; they are looking for workers during the summer season.  Most of their needs were the type of stuff that I would do,  the type of work that I/we did last summer at Fountain Creek in Colorado Springs.  We decided to move in tomorrow so will find out more after we actually get there.  We drove around town some.  I found a website for the  LaPine Chamber of Commerce.

The good news is the phones do get Sprint Signal.  It's not real strong signal but at least it is regular digital instead of either digital or analog roam which is what we've been getting at Chris's house (if there is any signal at all).

It snowed off and on today.  We hope that it will be clear tomorrow when we need to make the 30 mile drive.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005, 8:05 pm
One of the things I did today was to cut my hair.  I'd trimmed the bangs a few weeks ago so it was time to do a real haircut.  I probably need to check on those little hairs at the nape of the neck.  I'd forgotten to take a hand mirror into the house.  I wanted to be able to cut it in a room with a floor without carpet

Chris introduced me to a book called The Sedona Method by Hale Dwoskin.  It's a secular work about dealing with issues in one's life.  While it contains concepts that I've seen and used before, it does handle the material in an easy to read fashion.  So I'm enjoying reading this and will have to think about it a little more.  My first reaction is that it leaves out God but at the same time uses a lot of principles that are Godly and should be a way of life for Christians.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005, 3:15 pm
We awoke to snow this morning.  Not a surprise since we new it was forecasted. It is above freezing so it is slowly melting.  Mark has been working on Pamela's computer today.  She needed to have her spam filters updated.  It's a nice day for being inside.  Chris did go off to a job site today but felt Mark shouldn't go because it would be slippery and he was mostly going to be doing prep work.

I had a mishap yesterday afternoon.  Mark had put down a can of apricots (minus the apricots wo I could drink the juice) by my computer.  I hit the fork and the can turned over onto my keyboard.  I tried to mop it up and soak up what went under the keys.  Mark says stuff gets sticky and sometimes the keys won't work, presuming that something doesn't short out.  They keys were sticking this morning but as I've used the computer today, they seems to be loosening up.  So I'm breathing a sigh of relief and praise God!

We had been checking out job opportunities in the area.  The weather is a deterrent to getting out but at least it hasn't been real cold.  We did go by the Chamber of Commerce and picked up the local info.  They did have some maps that show the main roads of the town.  So we're being able to get around okay.

I got a phone call from a Pastor in Durant, OK asking for information on Bobby Crow in Ciudad Victoria, Mexico where we went on our mission trip.  He'd heard about him and stumbled upon our website while searching for info on the web.  I'm glad we were able to help him out.  The Crow's church has a website but there isn't any personal information.

Sunday, March 20, 2005, 9:59 am
We've been on the run since we arrived on Tuesday late afternoon.  I have completed typing the Oregon Trip Diary .  I do need to read through and see if I have any glaring errors.  But it's there.

We're planning to go to La Pine with Chris and Pamela today.  Chris has property there and is renovating the house for resale.  They are doing most of the work themselves; I applaud them for that.  We went with them on Thursday.

I got up early this morning to cook some chicken.  Then I deboned the chicken pieces and put barley, rice and millet plus seasoning in to slow cook in the roaster while we are gone.  I will add some vegetables after we get back.  I bought salad ingredients and will make some scones.  Mark and I won the scone mix as a prize during the games at the Valentine party we went to on Feb 26th.

Thursday, March 17, 2005, 5:00 pm
Chris has property in La Pine and is renovating the house for resale.  They are doing most of the work themselves; I applaud them for that.  We went with them today.  The painters and ceiling guys had finished so we took down the plastic and tape that covered up stuff.  Chris had taken a tree down so we also loaded up some of the wood to bring back for the wood stove.

We moved Bussie over to where Chris and Pamela live as a temporary measure (rather than sitting in the Walmart parking lot). They live in what appears to be the country but it is several acre parcels that are still under a homeowners association. Pamela has six horses, three dogs, six or seven cats and a dragon lizard. Because of the homeowners covenants, we can't stay long; we anticipate going out to La Pine.  We'll be investigating other options.  But it's nice to be here with them for the short term.  

Yesterday we went to a orchestra concert at the High School.  Pamela's older daughter plays the violin.  It was a great concert, with students of all ages.  Since my neices play the violin and viola, I'm always interested in this type of performance.

We haven't seen much of Bend yet.  The mountains are to the west and absolutely beautiful.  Kind of reminds us of Colorado Springs.  The trees here are mostly something called Juniper Trees.  There are also Ponderosa Pines and some Birch.  I'm going to be interested to see if yellow crosses appear on the pines.  I assume many of you have seen the email that has been circulating?!  I think I can see what "they are talking about" but the weather hasn't warmed up enough for major new growth to occur.

Tuesday, March 15, 2005, 7:00 pm
We've arrived!  We'll stay in the Walmart parking lot tonight and then see what we need to do after that.

Monday, March  14, 2005, 8:00 pm
We've stopped for the night in Boise, ID.  Mark checked and found that there is a Super Walmart at the same intersection as the Flying J.  I plan to make a brief shopping trip either tonight or in the morning.  But first we want to check email and do our web  postings.

I have posted a Oregon Trip Diary .  I will continue to add to it as I am able.  Be patient; it's a work in progress.

Wednesday, March 9, 2005, 4:15 pm
My Tuesday appointment turned out to be only a dental exam rather than the first half of getting a new crown.   Fortunately, they had a cancellation for this morning so we could do the prepping and temporary crown.  At least I'm happy with the work they did even if we had communication problems in the beginning.  We plan to be back on April 7th to complete the work.

I said the other day that we are considering moving on.  Things have suddenly come together; we have decided to go to Bend, Oregon to visit Mark's brother Chris.   We haven't seen him since Mark's mother died in 2001.  We don't know how long a visit it will be. He said he'd even let Mark try his hand at roofing.   We understand that's a "young man's business;" Chris has been doing it for many years now and says it is very hard work.

So we're getting ready to take this trip.  There's always a lot to do, people to contact, etc.  We hope to be in Denver on Saturday and be able to see some of our friends there.

I don't know when I'll next be able to post to this journal.  I appreciate your checking it.  I expect it will be about 1 1/2 weeks.

Love to all of you--thanks for praying for our safety.

Monday, March 7, 2005, 10:15 am
My dental appointment to start working on this broken crown is tomorrow.  It is mentally being difficult because we have been considering moving on and we're having to deal with "teeth" appointments instead of just being free to go.

Just got back from doing laundry this morning.  It's a drizzly day but everything got dry on one cycle of drying (it costs a dollar for 45min-hr, depending on which dryer is available).  I asked the office manager about the Siamese cat which I haven't seen lately.  Jamie said the cat had gotten extremely sick; by which I assumed they they had to put it to sleep.  

Saturday, March 5, 2005, 7:39 pm
I've had a great weekend so far.  I went to the Lindsay Roberts Women's Conference at the Mabee Center.  Lindsay is the daughter-in-law of Oral Roberts of Oral Roberts University . Gayle Victory went with me.  It was fun to hang out with her and catch up.  Even though we talk on the phone regularly, we usually have only a basic exchange so we don't use up my daytime cell phone minutes.  She and Joseph often do things in the evening so we don't talk then.

There were four sessions: morning, afternoon and evening on Friday and morning on Saturday.  It was an interesting blend of teachings.  Dr. Bridget Hilliard of New Life Christian Center in Houston spoke on Divine Favor which could be considered the power of God using human tools.  It was very encouraging.  Lindsay Roberts' purpose was to stir her listeners to figure out and begin to use their potential. The website for her ministry at Make Your Day Count . Jordan Rubin on Garden of Life spoke on the need of the Christian community to set the example of good health.  Adlan Cruz , a pianist originally from Puerto Rico, entertained the audience with numerous songs and hymns.

After the last session, we grabbed a bite at Sonic with a coupon before I took Gayle home; she lives about half a mile from the arena.  After puttering a little and telling Mark about my day, I went to bed.  My eyes are extremely tired; they had really bright lights that were hot and glaring.  I didn't understand that but couldn't do anything about it... 

Thursday, March 3,2004 6:25pm
Mark and I have posted our newsletter to the web.  The email notification has been sent out.  I'm still addressing the postal copies but remainder of those should be in the mail on Monday.  If you are not on our mailing list, you may find the newsletter at February/March 2005 Newsletter .

Wednesday, March 2, 2005, 2:51 pm
We just got back from Spaghetti Warehouse where Kevin Borutski invited us to lunch.  That was really nice of him to take the time out of his busy schedule to encourage us about our various activities.  And to catch up a little on his life in Hominy.

It's amazing how we manage to fill up our days.  A man Mark met while volunteering at the Dream Center told Mark that he should meet someone named Tim Redmond (actually, he understood it as Redman).  The conversation never got any further than that because duty called the other man away.  Mark felt like the Holy Spirit told him to follow up even though we had no information except we assumed he attends Victory Christian Center which has three Sunday services at two locations.  We decided to go to the first service this past Sunday.  The first person we asked told us Tim Redmond attended the 10:00 am service.  Upon our arrival we asked the man at the information desk who led us to the section of the church where the family usually sits and enlisted the ushers to get us together with him.  We were amazed at how easy it was to find him--Praise God!  The men had a brief discussion and exchanged business cards.  Guess we'll see where it goes from there.

The City has been working in the area.  We've had our water shut off several days this week for 4-6 hours.  The RV park sends someone to knock on doors once they find out.  But of course, the message doesn't reach everyone--like it didn't the first time it happened over a week ago.  I do need to do laundry sometime; having no water is quite inhibiting for activities like that.  It may have to wait until next week. I've got the Lindsay Roberts conference to attend Friday and Saturday so won't be doing laundry then.  Fortunately we have a lot of clothes.

Saturday, February 26, 2005, 9:30 pm
Just got back from a Valentine Party at El Chico in Broken Arrow.  The HOGS Sunday School class was getting together.  Seems like there was about 25 people.  While waiting for the food, they played a few games.  One was Couples in the Bible.  Mark and I knew most of the answers.  It got embarrassing when no one else was raising their hands.  The games leader kept saying "that's what you learn at Bible School."  I wouldn't say that; however, we have read the Bible numerous times so it's just something one gradually absorbs.  Goodnight!

Thursday, February 24, 2005, 10:26 am
I spent part of the morning making phone calls about my tooth situation.  We considered going back to Denver but timing is always the issue, especially since it always takes at least two appointments.  Plus we may need to go to Lubbock when/after my father has his surgery.  I'm hoping my uncle in New Braunfels can give me some advice or assurance.  He's a semi-retired dentist, mostly doing dentures and partials these days. I have made an appointment with one dental practice that quoted a reasonable figure for March 8th.  I'm waiting for a call back and then I guess we'll take everything under consideration.

We had another appointment with Pastor Ed at noon.  I made an early lunch and then we walked to the church building.  It is a beautiful 41 degree day; it is less than a mile over to the church building.  Pastor Ed asked if we walked to save money or if we considered it a healthy thing to do.  Mark's response that "we would have walked yesterday if it hadn't been raining" didn't exactly answer the question.  But then he went on to say that we try to walk three miles a day.  I suppose that kind of answered that we consider walking a healthful thing to do.

I have completed reading Florence Littauer's Silver Boxes: The Gift of Encouragement.  This book gives basic information on simple words and actions that can bless others. The review has been posted to http://www.BBtJ.Org/reviews/SilverBoxes.html  

Wednesday, February 23, 2005, 7:00 pm
It's been a long week already.  Mark went to The Few Good Men seminar on Tuesday evening.  I was all set to wash dishes and clean house while he was gone.  Right after he left, I went to the sink only to discover there was no water.  I walked all around the RV, looking for leaks or other signs of trouble and found none.  I decided to not stress out about it or call Mark.  I didn't want him to come home instead of going to his activity.  And the problem would be waiting for him when he got back.  Besides, there were water-less activities I could do.  About 8:00 pm, I went up to the laundry room to see of anyone else was having problems.  A sign said that the city had the water turned off.  

I took a walk around the Park a couple of times before going home.  We actually did have water in our fresh water tank which we used before going to bed.  Sometime during the night the water came back on.  Mark said he heard a thunk with the pressure coming back on.

We spent part of the afternoon with Pastor Ed Lindgren of the Jesus Center.  We had asked for his input on our brochure and various other materials we are putting together.  He is giving us some good feedback.  Helping to put our thoughts in perspective.

We decided to eat an early dinner this evening.  While chewing on lettuce, the crown on one of my back molars suddenly broke.  I called our dentist in Colorado who recommended someone here in Tulsa, who so far I have not been able to find in the telephone book.  I will do some more research shortly.

Monday, February 21, 2005, 6:34 pm
This was laundry day.  Today was a holiday so there were more children than usual in the laundry room.  It includes a pool table and arcade games.

Friday evening I went to a meeting hosted by Prophetic Ministries.  One of my friends invited me. Miriam Hellman is a gifted teacher and actively works to save the lost.  They were to leave today to go to India as part of the continuing relief effort; they've been collecting stuff and funds to take. The "lecture" on Friday was about the great faith (his belief) of the Centurion in Matthew 8:5-13 .  We need to believe in God's promises.

Saturday was a full day.  I went to a women of the Handfuls of Grace Sunday School class at Grace Fellowship invited me to their February gathering. I made the mistake of not phoning to verify and arrived at the location to find no one there.  Fortunately Mark gotten phone numbers from on of the men.  I was able to call them and find out the new venue. I was surprised how well attended it was.  This time they didn't have a program; just visited and ate snacks.

In the afternoon, I met with people from the New Jerusalem Healing Rooms.  A healing ministry based on the teachings of John G. Lake. They're supposed to have a website but it doesn't seem to come up. However, if you are interested you might look at the Spokane Healing Rooms website. I was interested to see how they would handle ministry.  They provided good basic information and lots to think about.

After that, I went to a "Stamp Party."  Which turned out to be kind of like a tupperware party in that someone hosted the gathering and someone gave a sales pitch for the various items.  In this case it was selling the equipment to make craft projects.  It was interesting to to the sample projects.  I made a card which I have sent to my father.  Not many women showed up (probably since most of them had been at the morning activity) so I provided a warm body and got to know the ladies from Grace Fellowship a little better.  One of the Sunday School ladies was having this party.

Friday evening, Mark went with Joseph Victory on the Friday evening outreach at the Dream Center.  They went on the bus that picked up people at the homeless shelters and "tent city" by the River.  After services at the Dream Center, a meal is served.

My father's surgery on his shoulder has been rescheduled for March 2nd.

Wednesday, February 16, 2005, 5:32 pm
Mark and I have been working on our next newsletter.  We've realized we need to take some pictures.  Guess that will be one of our next projects.

I just finished a posted a review of John Hagee's book The Seven Secrets .  As I said in my review, if you only plan to read one book (other than the Bible) during 2005, this is one you should consider.  It is chock full of Biblical principles for "getting your head on straight" and how to live your life in alignment with God.

Tuesday, February 15, 2005, 11:07 am
It's a beautiful morning with the sun shining brightly.  It was 57 degrees when I got up--unseasonably warm weather for northeast Oklahoma.  Mark and I have been enjoying going outside without our coats for our afternoon walk with temps in the low to mid 70s.

I'm going to tell you something and you can think we're nuts if you wish.  A speaker we heard some time ago was talking about hearing from God.  That he believed that you can be led by the Holy Spirit/Ghost (HS).  (Yes, there are a number of methods by which you might hear from God.  I suggest you read my review on Steve Sampson's book, You can Hear the Voice of God .) The key is being tuned in for which one needs practice.  He said he and a friend used to practice by playing Hide and Seek with the Holy Ghost.  In other words, one would hide and the other would ask the HS to lead them to the friend.  Mark and I have been trying it by "hiding" at various spots around the RV park.  It has been an interesting experiment--and certainly a learning experience.  I do have to admit that I need more practice.

Yesterday morning, we took Bussie for a drive.  We're getting better at tearing down/setting up. We've done it approximately 20 times since we pulled out of Aurora on August 11, 2003.  We've gotten into a routine of how to put things away and who does what.  This time we drove up Hwy 169 past Owasso and turned around. Decided to stick to a road with which we were comfortable.

One thing I like about going for a rive is that I have to pick things up.  It helps me to rearrange. Yesterday I moved my keyboard back into the "living room."  I moved a bunch of stuff on my desk; now I'm having to find places for those items.  In moving things around today, I found an envelope that I'd lost some time ago.  Yippee!! You know how you can put things in such a safe place that it's never found again.  Now that the lost is found, I remember the reason why I put it with my old bank statements.  I just haven't picked up that particular bundle recently.  But now I can get that worry out of my life.

Sunday morning we decided to visit The Gathering Place.  As you know, we've been visiting churches here in Tulsa.  Saturday we had had lunch with Howard and Betty Bryant which caught us up a little but at the same time instilled a longing to see others.  One of the kids asked if we'd gotten a house.  I don't think everyone quite gets it that we consider Bussie as our permanent residence and don't plan anything different unless the Lord makes it plain that we need to do so.

We enjoyed getting to see everyone again.  Dave had returned from a tour that included parts of Texas, Colorado and Kansas.  It was great to hear about some of the things that are going on with Outreach for America and The Gathering Place.  We're glad we could contribute to their successes and look forward to the future.

Mark and I are both continuing our education.  Mark signed up for a 4 week seminar series at Grace Fellowship. It starts this evening. The first weekend in March, Lindsay Roberts is hosting a women's conference at the Mabee Center.  I had signed up on Friday; a friend called yesterday asking if I'd heard about it so I was happy to be able to say I'd already signed up.  Cindy Hinton also told me that she is organizing a group to drive in from Hominy.  I'd like to hook up with them.  It's a lot more fun to go to these type of activities in a group.  I'll have to figure out what the lunch plans are;  I'm hoping that the ladies will want to bring picnic lunches and sit out under the trees.  I always prefer that rather than have to hassle with traffic and finding a place to eat that everyone can afford.

I've got a turkey in the roaster oven.  I've been wanting to do that for a long time so I could make packages of meat that I can pull out of the freezer.  I'll have to get busy and debone it after it cooks.  In 1989, Sandy White gave me a recipe for a rice stuffing.  I made it this morning and stuffed the turkey.  Yesterday I made a cornbread recipe given to me by Florence McCulloch.  I've been wanting to make it so I could tell her I did so.  I always like to get back to people to let them know I've tried something and appreciated the effort they made in getting it to me.

Saturday, February 12, 2005, 7:50 am
I haven't really said much but I've been struggling.  I've proved over and over that I feel better and am more productive if I consistently get up early.  I used to be able to get up early without setting the alarm but that hasn't been happening.   With moving, winter time, lack of proper exercise, staying up late too many nights, etc., I've let myself get all out of sync.

I've been trying to get to bed earlier this week and setting my alarm a little earlier each day. I can tell that I'm already feeling better.  Even though we didn't get to bed as early as I would have liked last night, I woke up, wondered what time it was and then the alarm went off.  So I was going "Praise God!"  I got up, puttered for a few minutes, and then went out for my morning walk.

Mark helped me measure the distance around the RV Park.  Our calculation is that 4 times around is 3 miles.  It's been pretty hard to force myself out when the temperature is lower than freezing.  But today is was a mild 48 degrees so I put on my jacket and hat and enjoyed my trek.  I was looking forward to seeing the sunrise.  Unfortunately, it turned out to be an overcast rain with drizzle.  It didn't do much while I was out but started raining when I was almost home from the 4th round.  I'd been toying with the idea of taking the trail overlooking the river; however, the rain killed that idea.

Some people we'd met were having friends over yesterday evening; we were invited to join them.  Mostly people talked and played pool.  I was hesitant to play since I'm not very good but they were good sports and encouraged me to try.  I did sink two balls during the course of the evening.  so that gives me hope.  Then they wanted to go to a beer bar owned by some friends of theirs with live music.   The music and dancing were pretty good.  The smoke wasn't as bad as I expected; of course, the air around the dance floor is usually more clear.  We didn't stay real long as it was already past my bedtime and we finished the one bottle of Mike's Hard Lemonade that we bought.

Mark and I don't condone drunkenness, gluttony, riotousness and numerous other things.  But at the same time, we don't think we should sanctimoniously  condemn people for some of the choices they make. The Apostle Paul even told Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach's sake.  The Pharisees had a problem with Jesus because he frequented the homes of sinners.  Seems to me that those Pharisees had hidden sins.   It's up to us to work with God to root out our sins.

Today we have a lunch date with Betty and Howard Bryant, who are friends from The Gathering Place.  We're going to meet at Judy Ann's, a restaurant in Cleveland which is south of Hominy.  I'm looking forward to meeting Judy Ann, the proprietor.  The Bryants have lived in that area for over 30 years so know a lot of people.  It has helped us get acquainted a little.

I've got to get going but I wanted to say hello this morning.

Thursday, February 10, 2005, 1:11 pm
I posted a review of Laurie Beth Jones' Jesus, CEO: Using Ancient Wisdom for Visionary Leadership . Mark and I both thought that is was a great book with principles that can and should be applied to daily life and relationships.

Thursday, February 10, 2005, 10:00 am
I haven't really written about one thing that is going on in our lives.  My father was scheduled for surgery on a tear he has in the membrane near the rotator cuff on his shoulder.  At least I think that's how to describe it.

We had questioned the need for us to go in order to help.  As our rent is coming due, we could just pick up and move out there.  We asked him his preferences; he indicated that he was sure that everything would be fine and he'd rather us just wait before coming out.  My sister will be there during the surgery and my aunt was planning to come for 10 days to help drive and etc.  He thought he might want us to come visit after Maxine leaves.

Daddy just called that the doctor called yesterday afternoon that the EKG showed irregular heartbeat.  So they have postponed the surgery.  They've given him a medication that is supposed to level out the heartbeat.  Then in a week or so they'll do some more tests to see what's going on.  So we'll be praying about this and then see what we need to do when.

Tuesday, February 8, 2005, 5:42 pm
We just got home after helping Gayle and Joseph Victory with unloading their truck.  They'd been back to Colorado Springs to get the stuff they left in storage.  (And no, we didn't know them when we both lived in the Springs.--Had to come all the way to Hominy to meet.)  We'd promised to help them.  We had to get their car from where they'd left it while they were gone and then went back out to Hominy to pick up their puppies--plus do some errands that both of us needed to do while in town.

Gayle treated us to lunch at the Hominy Diner which is the last restaurant I needed to have eaten at every place (all six counting the Tee Pee Bar) in town.  I refuse to count the Katy Rail which closed down before we could get there--obviously we didn't keep them in business.  One of the specials was Chicken Fried Steak which rivals Turkey/chicken Pot Pie as being my favorite restaurant entree.  This was "home made"--none of that commercial, frozen food.  Needless to say, my tummy is happy this evening.  Then we went over to the Bryants to pick up Gayle's dogs and found Betty needed to take her dog to the vet (why is a long story).  Mark went off to "play" with Howard and I took the two women and three dogs to the vet.  Gayle decided to get shots for her dogs as long as we were making a trip to the vet anyway.

Wesley Ward, the pastor of the First Christian Church, was there looking for flea stuff for his dog.  He was one of the local pastors we'd met at the Ministerial Alliance meetings in Hominy.  He told me about the pre-Easter activities they have planned and the community Easter service to be held at Calvary Worship Center.  A representative from Calvary has recently begun attending the meetings.  It was great to have that opportunity to catch up.

After leaving the Bryants, we collected the Victorys car and then back to Tulsa to unload the truck in the rain.  It did lighten up long enough for us to get it done.  Joseph will take the truck back tomorrow.  So now we are home again and I'm writing about it.

Monday, February 7, 2005, 2:57 am
It's another overcast day in Tulsa.  We met a bus enthusiast at yesterday's Super Bowl Party so invited him to come see our RV bus.  As he had business in this part of town today, we settled on this afternoon.  While we aren't "bus nuts," rather looking at Bussie as a home that just happens to be on wheels.  However, it is nice to have John interested in seeing it as part of his transportation hobby.

Yesterday was rather long.  We did go to church at Grace Fellowship, attending Sunday School at the Handfuls of Grace class.  It was neat to be enthusiastically greeted by several of the class members.  I've been invited to attend a women's gathering in a couple of weeks.  I do think that I will do that.  One of the ladies (Cindy Myer's sister for those from CBC who read this) lives near us so I'll call her to see if she wants to ride with me. The class spent quite a bit of time giving praise reports; that was neat to hear.  They were discussing chapter 5 (on communication) of the book The Seven Secrets  by John Hagee.  Mark and I got it from the library last week.  He's finished reading it but I've been reading another book for which I hope to a review in the next couple of days.  

Pastor Bob Yandian is conducting a series on Divine Healing.  He went through scriptures in Matthew giving examples of the type of people and diseases that Jesus healed.  We were able to visit with several people before leaving.

Then we went to the Super Bowl Party in a part of Tulsa we weren't familiar with.  We had some trouble locating one of the streets on our Yahoo directions since we were coming from Southeast Tulsa instead of from home, thereby arriving in the middle of the directions from a different exit.  And we went looking for a grocery store to purchase our contribution to the food.  People spent the afternoon visiting, playing pool and pigging out on turkey sandwiches and snacks before settling down to watch the game.  Mark and I enjoyed being with a group and meeting some new people.  I had a nice nap during the first quarter but did see the rest of the game.  I should say that my eyes stared at the TV but they weren't trying to comprehend the mechanics of the game.  I do think it's interesting to hear the comments from the sportscasters.  Some people left during the game although most persevered and left as soon as it was over.  

During the afternoon one of the mentioned a neighbor having hit the "little green car."  I said that's us.  He said that he'd looked it over and didn't see any damage so hadn't tried to locate the owner. After I told Mark that, he also took a look and didn't see anything either.  Which was a relief since that's our only car these days.

Saturday, February 5, 2005, 11:35 am
Saturday seems to be the day for doing laundry.  One reason is that I normally stay at the laundromat and can use the weekend minutes on my cell phone to call my family without extra charge.  My father is having surgery to repair a torn ligament (or something like that) in his shoulder.  My sister is going down to be with him on Friday and the weekend.  My aunt Maxine is flying in to stay with him for a week or so.  She can drive him to physical therapy.  

I also talked to Maxine's daughter Evelyn today.  Evelyn and I are only a month apart in age.  I've been so grateful to be able to spend time with my cousins in recent years.  You may remember that I visited my Cousin Maureen in Oct 2003.  Hard to believe that's been over a year.  We don't have many cousins so I'm appreciating the ones I do have.

Evelyn asked me how we are going about getting acquainted with people.  I think the big "secret" is to just allow oneself to be open to new relationships.  I met a very nice woman at the Victory Women's Brunch.  She's been emailing me.  One of my friends introduced me via email to a friend of hers who moved to Tulsa recently.  We hope to get together during this next week.  When we visited Grace Fellowship , we "ran into" the sister of one of our CBC friends.  We've made a point to chat with people wherever we've gone, seeking common ground.  While most chance acquaintances don't ever turn into anything further, it's still an opportunity to witness for the Lord by leaving a positive impression.  

Wednesday, February 2, 2005 6:00 pm
This has been an eventful day.  I got an email from Sarah Grobe this morning saying that her mother-in-law, Jean Grobe, had passed away about 1:00 am.  She was diagnosed with cancer a few weeks ago with only a short amount of time to live.  Please pray for the family; it's difficult to accept this.  Sarah's husband, Gregg, is bearing the load.  He and Sarah are grateful for their strong relationship with God.  Needless to say, it's kind of bewildering to Gregg's father, Ken Grobe.  I'm sure he thought they could still have many years together.

It snowed this morning.  Mark and I went over to the medical clinic at the Tulsa Dream Center which is connected with Victory Christian Center.  I was running out of my blood pressure medication.  Their facility provides a number of services: medical, dental, food bank, clothing, teen outreach, Friday evening services, etc.  If Mark and I stay for any length of tim in Tulsa, we will consider volunteering there.  It is obvious they provide some much needed services in the north Tulsa area.

About noon, we suddenly heard a funny noise.  Mark said he saw fire through the curtain and looked out to see pieces of the transformer of the power station north of us flying through the air.  Our backup power supplies began honking at us.  We quickly got everything shut down.  Mark did call 911 whether he needed to or not.  We were surprised that it didn't take too long to get the electricity back on.  I didn't actually look at my watch.  But we had expected to be without power the rest of the afternoon.  We do have lights off batteries. Our propane heater would have kicked in and the fridge works on propane.  So it wasn't a worry that we had power off except that we couldn't use regular electricity.  I didn't mind not being able to vacuum but it's hard when we can't turn on our computers.  Yes, we could have turned on our generator but we generally don't use that since it would use fuel.

Monday, January 31, 2005, 6:21 am
Today would have been my mother's 74th birthday.  Do people ever get over having days when they feel like "Waaa, I want my mommy?"  I'm grateful to still have my father and my sister.  And lots of wonderful friends.  

Mark and I have been invited to a Super Bowl Party.  We had to go look up on the internet to see who is playing this year.  Hopefully all the winter weather on the east coast will be over with so everyone can enjoy the day.  The hostess is planning to cook a turkey to make sandwiches (sounds good to me) and said to bring something that would go with sandwiches.  I thought I'd make cole slaw.  I've been using cabbage these days as an inexpensive yet nutritious way to stretch food.  I chopped some into small pieces and put in salmon salad (like tuna salad but with salmon) the other day.  I was surprised how well it worked; made the salmon crunchy but the taste blended in.

I'm reading a book called Jesus CEO by Laurie Beth Jones.  The chapters are short--just right for reading in the bathroom (ha, ha) so one can meditate on what was said.  I look forward to reviewing it for this web site.  It's interesting how she applies actions/qualities that Jesus did into things can do in our life as leaders.  Everyone can be a leader.  This doesn't mean that we have to head Fortune 500 companies.  It means that we each should be the sort of person that another would want to emulate.  What Jones shows us is how to be that sort of person.  I'll let you know when I've completed and posted the review.

Sunday, January 30, 2005, 5:56 pm
Our satellite was off-line for more than 24 hours.  It was overcast on Friday morning.  Mark and I went out to do some errands.  It started snowing while we were out.  When we came back, our satellite link was down.  We weren't able to get it going again.  Mark finally called tech support yesterday.  They had him check a number of things but they didn't come to any conclusions.  Then suddenly it came back up again.  So we're not sure what the problem was.  It may have been the overcast conditions.  That's happened before but not for that long a period.  It was frustrating to be without the link to the outside world.  But fortunately, I could still do other things on the computer.

We're having a light rain.  It's supposed to turn to snow tomorrow.  If we do get under freezing tonight, it will be a mess out tomorrow.  We've promised to help some friends move tomorrow--so I guess we'll experience it in person.

This morning we attended church services at  Victory Christian Center .  That's the same group where I attended the women's brunch earlier this month.  You may be familiar with the Daughertys through their television program, Victory in Jesus.  They also have a Bible school called Victory Bible Institute .  They've even taken a correspondence program into the prisons. Charles Story who works with the prison ministry attended the OFA conference in October; he is a sincere and dedicated man.  

I'm making a chicken barley soup for dinner.  This is the winter I'm learning to make soup. I just love the roaster oven we got me on sale at Christmas time.  It's like a huge crock pot but one can do other things with in including bake.  We were interested in that feature since my convection oven doesn't work right (I know I've complained to you that I have to stand next to it and hit the start button every two minutes once I've programmed it. )  I hope to cook a turkey sometime soon.  I missed all the good holiday pricing.  I just couldn't cope with a turkey with all the activities going on.   Hopefully I can find one that won't cost an arm and a leg.

Mark and I went to a 50s party yesterday.  We tried to enter into the spirit of the thing by wearing 50th type clothing.  Mark wore blue jeans and a white tshirt with a deck of cards rolled up in the sleeve.  I wore a white man's shirt with the sleeves rolled up with jeans with the legs rolled up. It was another opportunity to practice our dancing.  The more we do it together, the smoother we get.

 It's quite interesting to meet people and have them ask what we do.  Some are interested and others say the equivalent of "that's nice you've found something that works for you, honey."  I used to get that a lot when I'd tell people that God healed me of the Multiple Chemical Sensitivities.  We don't take offense if people aren't interested; but if we don't dangle out the opportunity for someone to listen to a witness about the Gospel, then that seed isn't planted. 

Wednesday, January 26, 2005, 2:41 pm
We've had three days of beautiful weather.  Each afternoon during the warmest time of the day, we've been taking a long walk to see the neighborhood and investigate distances.  

I signed up for a library card online and ordered some books which I hope to review for this web site.  We went to the library yesterday to pick up the first one which has arrived.  Unfortunately, the nearest library, Martin Regional is farther than one wants to walk so we did have to take the car for that. After getting used to walking everywhere because of short distances in Hominy, we're not excited when we find we have to take the car.

I just finished reading an interesting book by Ed Lindgren, the pastor of the Jesus Center . In the mid-1980s, Ed spent three months in Korea studying under Pastor David Yonggi Cho of the Yoido Full Gospel Church . Ed's purpose in being there was to study their phenomenal church growth and the reasons behind the response of the Korean people.  The result of the study is shared with us in Dr Cho's Secret Weapon: Women . Mark has put a link to this book and The Walk of the Spirit - The Walk of Power on our Faith-Based Resources page in the Links area.  Pastor Ed's book has interesting material but has not adequately expanded upon the information promised by the title.  However, since it is available to read on the web, free of charge... 

We had a call this morning from Kevin Borutski inviting us to lunch at the Spaghetti Warehouse.  Remember, he's the man in Hominy who who works with computers that gave us the tickets to the Elvis concert...  It was gratifying and validating that he wants to continue the relationship even though we aren't currently residing in Hominy. We had a great discussion about computers (naturally) and about how God works in peoples' lives if they look to Him as their source.

We're thinking about going to a Christian PREP   tomoworkshoprrow evening.  One of the churches we visited is doing that for however many weeks.  They say come to one if that's all you can do. We believe that lack of strong marriages and united family units are what is wrong with society today. Mark and I constantly work on our relationship and our communication skills.  PREP offers training to potential leaders; we'd like to know more about the program so we figure we should take advantage of the opportunity to attend a session, especially since it's free.

In case you are wondering why I've been supplying so many links in this journal page.  I want to share with you the places were are going and people we are seeing.  This way, you can more easily picture something when it is mentioned.  Kind of like, when my father says he's going to mow the grass, I can picture his yard since I know what it looks like.