Relaxing Sunday

I had planned on painting in the Play Room today but it didn't happen.  I am not so sure there is a conspiracy among my family to keep me off of ladders!!

Kara and Forrest (Tom was sick) came over as did David and Grace (Sarah was working).  We ended up just visiting and playing with the children.  It is so amazing to me to watch Forrest and Grace - somehow they just know they are cousins.  Kara and I put them in the bathtub as Forrest decided to wear much of his lunch!!

The children were having so much fun - not sure I have heard that many giggles in a long time.  Though they both seemed to think Quack Quack (the duck) belonged to them!!

Of course Brian decided to teach Forrest the fine art of eating cookies!!

We went over to Dillon's to grab something to eat - they have a shark tank inside and flamingos outside.  Both Forrest and Grace loved it - think there will be a trip to the zoo in our near future...

It is so good to have family around - being grandparents is such a blessing.  God is amazing!!

Turkey Hunting

Time just flies.   With a fractured elbow, well, that makes it just a tad more complicated.

On September 28 I (Vicki) missed the last step of the ladder while painting the Play Room.  Ended up with a fractured elbow (two places) and ligament damage.  So now I am in a horrible brace.

We did go turkey hunting.  David shot one, but it ran away....  next time.

It was much colder this year than in past years - but it was still an awful lot of fun!!

There is a part of me that thinks David just wants to get out there and chop wood - though we did use every pit of this pile!!

The hunters, while looking sad, did have a lot of fun.  Of course they found new places to go!!

And being in God's creation is always peaceful.  Can't wait until next time when I have the use of my left arm!!

God is so good!!

Neighborhood Teams

For many years we have had the privilege of being part of a mid-week Bible Study - currently these are called Neighborhood Teams.  They have been called Neighborhood Groups, Small Groups, Home Teams, Bible Study.... all the same thing - people who love Jesus doing life together. 

So we came up with the top ten reasons to be part of a Neighborhood Team:

10 - Team meets on the same night at the Homeowners Association (HOA) - what an excuse to not go to the HOA meeting and not feel guilty!

9 - Friends in the team will watch the dogs when you want to go out of town on  short notice.

8 - The computer geek who is wonderful to know when your hard drive crashes on a Saturday morning.

7 - Free roadside assistance when you break down, the best reason to have everyone's number in your phone.

6 - You get to love on children who don't belong to you - great when yours have moved out.

5 - You get to attend children sporting events (soccer, baseball, football) and show up when the game starts without snacks....you can even leave early if it starts raining.

4 - Ladies Night pedicures.

3 - Food - potlucks, snacks, s'mores around the fire (who cares it was May?)

2 - A safe place to share life - the laughter, the tears, the fears, to know a bunch of people have your back.

1 - Unconditional love, encouragement, support and prayer.

All of the above make me wonder why everyone isn't in a Neighborhood Team!!

God is good.

Missed Opportunities

The last few weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions.  Dealing with family and expectations.  I have come to the conclusion most people don't take the opportunities placed before them.  That is what I will have to explain to God someday.

I watched a young man, who said some extremely hurtful things, step way out of his comfort zone in an effort to restore a relationship.  He was totally ignored. 

There is a young woman who deeply wounded her father.  She won't reach out though she knows the love is there.

A brother who had the ability to help decided not to because things weren't done his way.

Why are we so judgmental?  Why do we hold onto hurts?  Why are we so full of pride?

Jesus says in the Scripture, our Lord's Prayer, "...forgive us our (debts, sins, trespasses) as we forgive those who (owe us, sin, trespass) against us".  Those are pretty important words.  If I refuse to forgive, then God does not forgive me.

How much time do we lose with others because of pride?  How many experiences are missed because of pride?  Why are we so unwilling to take the first step?  Or sometimes why are we so unwilling to accept the olive branch?

For those of us who love Jesus - we must remember - we are going to spend eternity with some of the people who have hurt us.....

Missed opportunities - so sad.  God is good.

Spiritual Attacks

Today I (Vicki) spent the day taking my Mom to the back specialist. Looks like she will be having surgery in a couple of weeks.

As I was driving over to get her I was asking God why we continue to be under such attack?  It seems to never end.  We are weary. 

Going Jesus on you - the Holy Spirit gently said to me, "Vicki, if the demons are focused on trying to get you and Brian to fall, then they are leaving others alone." 

The subject of spiritual warfare is fascinating to me.  I know from Scripture there are a finite number of angels and a finite number of demons.  Both are working for who they worship.  Angels worship Abba Father so they serve Him.  Demons worship Satan so they serve him. 

As I continued pondering this came to me (the Holy Spirit again!) that we love Jesus, we have His strength.  We will survive and even thrive through these attacks.  In other words, the attacks will backfire on Satan.  Meanwhile, others who might have been attacked while we were being attacked, are free to grow and learn more about Jesus.  So bring on the attacks!!

God has already won - we have that assurance. God is greater than anything we can think of or imagine.  We MUST NOT limit Him. 

Our greatest desire is to bring God glory, praise and honor. He is worthy.

Feeling Like a Sandwich

It has been an interesting week.  My (Vicki) Mom was in Seattle visiting my sister.  She fell and broke her back and her foot.  Ouch.  Two days later she flew home.  Brian and I picked her up at the airport (missing a night of bowling with our Neighborhood Group). 

On Wednesday I took her to the doctor.  On the way over she said she was hoping he would have a magic wand to heal her....  How honest, we just want the pain to go away.  As one would expect - that didn't happen! 

Her back is fractured at the T12.  The doctor said it could start feeling better, if that was going to happen within a week she would be 50% better.  He could also send her to a back specialist.  She made the decision to wait a few days to see what would happen.  So far the pain is staying the same....  I do appreciate the doctor making her promise to call him on Monday to tell her what direction she wants to go.

I am sure in the back of her mind is her impending trip to Nepal/India.... 

The Sandwich Generation has new meaning for us.  Checking in several times a day to see how she is doing, monitoring to see she is eating - she is quite blessed as several family members have stepped up to bring her food and friends have offered, just the worry. 

David spent Thursday with her doing "stuff" around her house.  She was refusing to wear her boot and he convinced her to put it on (that would have been great to witness!).  He even ran to McDonalds because she wanted a burger!! 

Then we have our children.  Thank you Jesus David starts a good job on Monday.  But the on-going concern we have for all of our children...we want them to have full productive lives. 

So today I am feeling weary. The pressures of family and work seem to be pretty intense.  But I know where my strength comes from.  Going to let Jesus carry the load while I rest.

We have been blessed with a wonderful family and friends.  God is so good.

Social media hurting people

How many times have you read a post on a social media site and asked yourself what is going on here?

Have you ever wondered if the person posting the post or blog really thought out the words they put on paper to cut at someone?

Recently I have read posts and blogs that appear to be directed at a single individual or a group of people.  The words used are not edifying and certainly the intended party would be hurt by the words posted.   Oh I realize that there are some out there who feel that they have the freedom of speech to say whatever they want to say and to whomever they wish to say it to, however the freedom of speech only goes as far as it offends one.    Yes this very post might be offensive to some reading it with the wrong motives. 

Simply put, I am tired of the selfish posts and blogs that call another out in social media.  If we are adults, why do we continue to act like little ones who have no comprehension of our actions?  Are we so wrapped up in ourselves that we continue to use different standards for different people?  Perhaps we feel a sense of security posting negative thoughts that others can simply chime in with “like” rather than knowing the circumstances surrounding the posts. 

Isn’t it time to really look in the mirror and see where the real problem is?  Instead of posting negative thoughts and hurting the person you are calling out, why not sit face to face like an adult and talk things out?  I have every intention of doing this very thing with the ones who have hurt me recently or hurt those I love. 

America is where it is today because of the continued actions of individuals that have taken their focus off of what and who really matters.  Isn’t it sad that when a great tragedy strikes, we get all wrapped up on how sad the situation is and want to rush to their aid?  Then why not look at the tragedy that is growing in the relationships with those around you and start helping them and lifting them up without expecting something in return?

Life is way too short.  Our family is going through some very difficult times.  I don’t want to see anyone in a position that I am with family and look back and say “Wow, I can’t believe he or she is gone….  If I only had done______________. “  

If these are truly family members and/or friends, then let’s start treating these people as such.  

Eyes on Jesus

The past month has been crazy busy.  There have also been lots of attacks from the evil one on our family....  Guess we must be headed in the right direction!!

While I am reading through the Bible this year chronologically I was missing the New Testament...  okay, I am a dork.  So I decided to play some Holy Hopscotch.  (For those who are unfamiliar with this - it is simply reading random passages with no plan....  not recommended as you will miss so much!).

In Matthew 14, there is the story of Jesus walking on the water during a extremely windy times (a storm??).  As I have been meditating on this it occurred to me Jesus did NOT calm the storm.  He reached out His hand to Peter and said, "Come." 

Peter then was able to choose to obey or disobey.  When Peter choose obedience, he was able to walk toward Jesus. 

But Peter took his eyes off of Jesus in the middle of the storm (how often do I do the same thing??)

Then Peter cries out "JESUS!!"  (yep, I do that too!!)

As He always will - Jesus reached out His hand and caught Peter.  There is a part of me that wonders if standing there on the water - Jesus, knowing Peter's fear and wanting to comfort him, gave Peter a great big hug....

When they were back in the boat then the winds died down.  Did they die down because Peter felt safe and knew where his strength was?  Did they die down because Peter was obedient?   Did they die down because every storm runs out of rain?  Storms will end and, at some point, another one will come along.

God NEVER promised us this life would be easy.  He does promise us to walk beside us and there amazing rewards spending eternity with Him.

God is great and He is on the throne.

Time with Forrest

 

Well, we promised pictures of Forrest.  We had so much fun while we had him.  But, he does have A LOT of energy!!!  On Friday we went with David, Sarah and Grace to the RV show.  It was so cute how Forrest kept reaching for Grace wanting to give her kisses.  We hope they will be good friends as well as cousins!!

It was funny how some of the sales people thought they were siblings..... they are pretty opposite in looks - Forrest is blond, blue eyed and fair; Grace is dark, brown eyes with an olive complexion.

 Besides the RV show (and Cracker Barrel for dinner) the only place we went was church - where Forrest charmed everyone.  We did discover that he loves to eat bananas with Papaw!!

At home he enjoyed pulling books off the shelves, dumping his toys onto the floor and playing with Tank.  Pretty sure Tank was glad to see him leave!!

We loved watching him walk around in his jammies - looks like he has bee hanging with Uncle Jay with the sagging!!

We were chatting last night how crazy it is to feel so much love for these grandchildren.   We want to love on them, protect them, laugh with them...

God has truly blessed us.  He is so amazing!!

Forrest

We have had Forrest since Wednesday evening.  We are soooooooooo tired!!  I don't remember one year olds being so much work!!!  But then we were 20 years younger.....

Yesterday we went with David, Sarah and Grace to the RV show.   It was fun to watch Forrest and Grace interact.  Forrest kept wanting to give her kisses.

At some point we will get some pictures - but for now, just trying to keep up!!

God has blessed us with beautiful, intelligent grandchildren.  God is so good.

 Though we normally like to avoid camping on holiday weekends - due to everyone's work schedule we decided to head out for the First Annual Wuerfel Memorial Day Weekend.

Brian and David headed up Wednesday mid-afternoon to ensure we would get a good camping spot.  Sarah, Grace and I went up on Thursday after Sarah got off work.

Brian and David found a marvelous spot in campground 9354.  We were extremely secluded.  In fact, no one ever heard the screams while we were playing corn hole!!

Thursday Brian and David fished - they caught fish and had a great time.


On Friday we weren't sure when Jay and Megan were coming up so we just bummed around, then decided to head over to Woods Canyon Lake.  There were quite a few people and the fish appeared to be sleeping....

Jay and Megan arrived about dinner time. We had a nice evening just sitting around the propane campfire.


On Saturday we headed over to Bear Canyon Lake for more fishing.  As usual - no fish.  We should probably remember that since we have NEVER caught fish there!!

After lunch we headed to the edge of the rim to take pictures then over to Gentry Lookout and Black Canyon Lake. 

The great thing - fishing was decent.  So decent that we ended up there again on Sunday.  David, Jay and Brian had a blast - between them they caught ten fish. 

We went back to camp.  For dinner we had some of the fish and made pizza.  We then played Phase 10 until we were too cold to continue!!

On Monday we headed home.  This was by far one of the best camping trips we have ever had.  It is really cool to hang out with your children.

God is very good!!

Grace's First Trip up North

David's birthday was last weekend and he wanted to go up north.  So we packed a lunch and the five of us - David, Sarah and Grace; Brian and myself piled into the truck. 

Grace was very excited to be going fishing and exploring...  at two months old as long as you are fed and changed life should be good!! 

Brian and David fished Lower Lake Mary for a couple of hours - they caught four but gave them to someone.

After a picnic lunch we decided to go exploring.....  We headed down a road we had been before.  We came to a rapidly running wash, since we weren't sure we were headed the right direction, we turned around to find another road.  This was good for a while....

We were driving along and the road sort of dissolved.  Not to fear - David and Brian examined the situation and found a way to get us through.  All is good (ominous music....)

We round a corner and find it pretty much flooded.  Another examination and determination we could make it through staying to the left.  Praise God!!  The GPS tells us we are less than half a mile from the connecting road.

Over a hill and the worst has happened - no road, in fact it appears to be a pond in the road.  Once again David and Brian get out.  This time they are taking much longer.  David throws a rock into the middle and, yep, it is pretty deep.  Meanwhile Sarah and I are discussing the possibility of being rescued and flown out by a helicopter....

Brian then delivers the news - you have to get out of the vehicle.  Sarah bundles Grace up and we get out.  Now, do we watch or close our eyes??  Of course we watched!!  With David guiding him, Brian maneuvers through the rocks, water and mud, then guns it spraying mud everywhere.  But he is safe on the other side!! 

Being the gentlemen they are they came and helped us walk through.  To celebrate we stopped at Sonic in Camp Verde where David performed a Happy Dance!!

So Grace's First Adventure will not be forgotten soon. 

Praise God for intelligent men and vanilla coke!!

God is amazingly good!!

Christians Shot Their Wounded.

This afternoon Brian and David played in a whiffle ball tournament for the Children's Ministry.  I sort of forced them into it.  Because I am old and fat and the sight of me running would send everyone into hysterics - I decided not to play.  I was asked to umpire.

Never again.  As an umpire folks were yelling at me, questioning calls, not setting a good example for their children.  When my duties were done I watched Brian and David play.

Their team had a runner coming into home - David picked up the base for her to tag.  There was no play - it was simply a funny gesture.  He was told he was being ejected for "Unsportsmanlike conduct".  Really??  In a fun tournament? 

There were people calling each other cheaters, making rude comments, playing cut throat ball, getting really angry.  Where was the love of Jesus?

The devil scored a BIG time victory.  It seems stuff that happens within the church is nastier than worldly things.  Instead of encouraging one another in love - it was all ME FIRST, I WANT TO WIN.

Over the years we have been part of a couple of different churches.  It is the same in all of them. 

We want people to come to Jesus - what is the motivation when we, who profess to love Jesus, shoot our wounded?

God is good - I am so thankful He loves us in spite of our actions.

He is about to do mighty and glorious things.

Grace and Forrest

This has been a couple of weeks in the works but who would have thought we would get busier once our children were gone?

Grace finally arrived on February 2, 2013 after two days of labor for Sarah.  She was in the hospital for four days.  Thank you Jesus she is home and doing quite well.  Mom and Dad are pretty tired though!!

When Grace was two weeks old she met her cousin Forrest.  Forrest was with us overnight because Kara was in a wedding. 

Neither of them were being cooperative about taking a picture together.  Forrest was much more interested in crawling after the dog and Grace wanted to be held.

We love this picture - Grace seems to be saying "Please, please don't let him touch me!!  Boys have cooties!!".  While Forrest doesn't understand why she doesn't want to play with him.  We can't wait to watch them grow up and see where there relationship goes.

We have definitely decided that being grandparents is a whole lot of fun.  It is also so amazing to watch our children be parents.  They are doing a great job.

God just keeps blessing us.  God is so good.

San Diego

We had the opportunity to go to San Diego for a few days.  Brian had a conference Tuesday through Thursday.  We left Sunday, stopped in Yuma for Brian to do a couple of cases. 

 We arrived in San Diego early afternoon and headed to Point Loma. We explored the lighthouse and the tide pools. Because I wasn't paying attention I took a pretty nasty fall - skinned knee, bruises on my left leg and right arm, really sore left arm. Being a trooper (or afraid to admit it hurt!) we continued on to the Naval Cemetery.  Acres of headstones causes one to contemplate what is really important in life.


On Monday we went to Sea World.  We haven't been there in probably 15 years.  It was a blast.  Being a Monday and January there were very few people there.  We were able to really see the exhibits and we rode the roller coaster twice - back to back with no wait!!

We made a new rule - we couldn't eat at any place that was available at home.  So we had some amazing sea food at Blue Water, good Mexican (hey, we live in Arizona and travel to Mexico), wonderful BBQ and delicious pizza.  Needless to say - Brian was in heaven!!

After Brian finished his training each day we explored a bit - heading down to the docks to walk among the boats one evening and to the beach the next. 


We walked along Ocean Beach for about two hours - I played in the water, Brian worried about his pants getting wet!!  We found two sand dollars as the tide was coming in. 

And of course - God showed us some of His most amazing work in the sunset.  There are times I wonder if earth has this much beauty - how will we be able to take in Heaven....

We headed home Thursday evening because I have to work and Sarah was in the hospital.  You can pretty much bet the next post will be about our new granddaughter....

God is so good.

Living in Peace

  This year has been off to a rough start.

Having celebrated my birthday a few weeks ago, I saw life flash before me while traveling, brought into a unjustified lawsuit and now news that my father is in the hospital with multiple internal organs shutting down. Add all the other family events that have taken place and the feuds between family members and you have one messed up family.

The news I received this week about my father got me thinking about how short life really is and that we cannot continue to hold grudges or push family aside. This week Pastor Mark spoke about the agony and brutal death our Lord and Savior went through to save us. Pastor Mark stated in his message that forgiven people forgive and further stated revenge will always destroy, although it may not destroy its intended target someone or something will get destroyed when we hold onto the past.

Sadly I must say my relationship with my father has not been a good one. I have not seen my father for several months and furthermore, I/we have not spoken to each other since last June. When I learned about my father’s condition, it was not from my mother or from my sister; it was from my wife who learned about the problem during the day. Wow, talk about a plank striking you in the face. I was so angry and torn up by the problems of the past and our strained relationships not to mention my mother or sister calling me to tell me about the problem with my father.

I must not place full blame on them as I had written a letter expressing my frustrations this past summer and they were taking this to heart and were also torn up about not calling me. I chose to get up early on Thursday to drive across town to see my father and make peace with him so that we both could feel the peace should my father not pull through this very serious condition. I spent most of the day with my mother, father and sister while hearing various medical professionals come into the room and tell us that on paper my father was a dead man yet he was sitting in the bed talking with us and carrying on a good conversation.

HMMMMM, who do think made all this possible? God....

They drive home was a long one and I was able to speak with my sons and let them know that even I may have failed them in their lifetime however wanted them to know how I love them an want nothing more than to see our family restored before something happens to any of our loved ones.

Life is way too short to hold onto the past and allow revenge to get the victory, we do not know when we might take our last breaths or what roads we might take in the meantime however we must be prepared and I thank god I had this chance with my father yesterday.
I do not think that we often look at the big picture when we say, write or do things to each other. The good news is we can make amends because we have been forgiven. In the Lord's prayer we say forgive us as we forgive those. Is this really what we want our Lord to do to us or do we really want to show His love and forgiveness and say forgive as we forgive?

I do not believe life is full of coincidences. I believe God is placed circumstances in our lives that allow us to reflect on how we respond to others or react to situations. The bottom line is do I want to honor God or honor another person by what I do or say?

Enough is enough and it is time to focus on God and live like he has called me to do.

Saturday evening Vicki and I had dinner with some friends that we have known for a number of years.  In 1988 I was headed home from an off duty assignment when I came upon a horrible accident involving a car versus motorcycle in Phoenix.  I did not realize the motorcycle was a police motorcycle and the Sergeant involved was Gary.

The paramedics had not arrived and the Sergeant was severely injured in fact, I thought he was dead.  As the paramedics arrived they worked very hard to save Gary and rushed him to the local hospital where he was treated and hospitalized.  Gary was told he would never walk or talk or even be able to see again because the accident caused him to receive a severe head injury.  

In 1989 while dating Vicki, I began to visit the church where Vicki was attending and to my surprise I saw Gary and his wife Jan. I was so excited to see that God had allowed this man to walk again and restore his vision and realized what a positive attitude he had toward life.  Through the years we became good friends. Gary retired and moved to Colorado and we continued to maintain the friendship through the years. 

When ever we would talk with Gary and ask him how he was doing he always answered with a long positive saying. Gary would always see the positive in all the things he did or even situations we shared with each other. I learned that Gary had not only been involved in the accident I saw but that was his third accident and God had been working in strong ways through Gary.  After many years and visits, we eventually lost track of each other however we never stopped thinking about our families. 

Fast forward to this Christmas.  We received a card in the mail from Gary and Jan and the card had their contact information.  We were able to reconnect and catch up on the lost time.  Sadly we found out that Gary has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and the disease is very aggressive.  Jan told us that Gary would still recognize us however he might not put the name to the face.

Gary and Jan were passing through visiting family and we were able to see each other Saturday evening.  It really hurts seeing someone you have known to know through a tragic accident and consider one you love and care very much for to suffer from such a disease. Gary was very animated as he was in the past however he reminded me of the movie character Rainman. Gary kept saying over and over to me, Vicki and Jan, "So what do you think Jan" and various other little phrases.  Gary was still positive despite the illness and really made me think about the quality of life that he is living and will this be the last time we see Gary?

Why is it we take life for granted and think our friends are disposal or throw our loved ones to the curb while we pursue other avenues at the cost of friendships or saying or doing hurtful things to each other?

Gary taught me a long time ago about being positive and living life as if today is the last breath you might take.  We can not continue to say or do hurtful things to each other and claim to love Jesus or claim that all is well within our soul if we are not loving our neighbor like He commanded. 

I know that Gary recognized us last evening and even though he was struggling, he kept smiling and kept us thinking as we sat with each other.  As we left we shook hands and hugged each other like we always did.  Gary even said "some day I will be better than I ever was".  WOW....what an attitude. 

Thanks Gary and may God be with you and Jan. 
 

Questions

I (Vicki) have been thinking about how short life is. Perhaps because Brian's birthday is this week.  Perhaps because we had dinner with some friends, one who has Altzheimers (Brian will blog more on this later).  Perhaps because I have been deeply wounded by someone I love more than life itself. 

Why do we who profess to love Jesus then hurt each other?  Why do we not realize each breath we take is a gift from God?  Life is short, it could end at any moment.  Do I want to go to Heaven with unresolved issues?

Why do we not cherish each and every moment with those we love?  Why do we use words to hurt the people we love the most?  Why don't we laugh more?  Why don't we love unconditionally?

What can I do to make those around me better people?  How can I show my Jesus' unconditional love?  What can I do to show Jesus to a world in desperate need?

Pretty deep thoughts.  Not sure where God is leading me, but I am quite excited to see how this thought process will bring glory to Him.

God is so amazing!!