Erosion

Today's deep thought:

" Anger, grudges, and self righteousness are the water, ice, and wind that erode our spirits, our souls and our bodies."

Chris

When we get angry at other people, hold grudges against them and do not forgive them as our Father has forgiven us and when we act and believe that we have no faults, are better than others, or are worthy of praise, we have sinned and sin destroys us. Our spirit is grieved, our souls are wounded and our bodies deteriorate from the stress in the form of anxieties, heart attacks etc. Even if you know your right and you were wronged, you must forgive and move on. The reality is, you were not right, and God has already forgiven your wrongs, so allow for the fact that your just as wrong as the one your angry with, forgive them and let go of the anger. Mountains are moved by rain and wind, glaciers cut new valleys and anger will slice you into ribbons if you do not learn to forgive.

Depth of personallity

"Some people are puddles, and some people are wells"

HT to MG

Puddles are fun to be around, you can splash in them and have a good time, but that only lasts for a little while, wells are deep but small and difficult to get into and out of. Hmm.

That is today's, deep thought.

New Idea

I think for a while at least I might try to add a new twist to this blog. I shall call it, "thought of the day". I will try to post a deep thought everyday. Don't sue me if I miss the daily attempt or the thought is more silly than deep. If I cant come up with one of my own I will borrow it and credit it to its source. If you have a deep thought and want to share, please email me.

Today's deep thought:

"The deeper the valleys that you have had in you life, the better the view is from the mountain top."

Chris

Mexico

Welcome to Cozumel Palace Resorts. As promised I have posted several pictures here of our vacation in paradise as well as relate a few of the stories of the trip. Let me begin by saying that it was wonderful, marvelous and awesome, and I would do it again tomorrow if I could. I would add that traveling with Gracie (who is 4) and my wife, blink... blink,,, Angie, is something like being eaten by ducks. Each little nibble is noticeable but millions of little nibbles becomes some sort of Dante's novel. Anyway, let us begin with error number one, our travel papers say we "MUST" arrive at the airport no less than 2 hours before boarding, or boring as Gracie was calling it. We arrive at the Continental check in counter at 3:30 AM or so only to find nobody and I mean nobody around. We wait and wait and wait, a few more travelers arrive and we all continue to wait. It turns out that the Continental counter workers don't start work until 5AM so it was not useful for us to be there before then. Waste of time number one. I comment as they arrive to their posts at around 5:10 in the morning that ,"hey, look, somebody does work here" the lady approaching me shoots me one of those "die you ignorant fool" looks. Apparently she is not a morning person and didn't see the humor in my statement. She then takes two large groups of travelers ahead of us and tells us to "check yourselves in on that automated terminal over there" After several minutes of futile fiddling Angie, who is well past done with things at this point, hollers over to her that it doesn't seen to be working. The lady replies, "oh, that one is broke, you'll need to wait a few minutes" Now Angie has gone past done into that mode that females possess that scares mere mortal men. She is now at that "PMS and a handgun" phase of irritated. The airport employee in question, also being female, senses the fact that she is about to be gutted like a fish and comes over to retrieve our passports and process us in. We are now off to phase two. Airport security. Lets just make this brief, Gracie doesn't do well with security. She doesn't like strangers looking at her stuff, her shoes or her daddy. Now, I mention her Daddy because I have never had an entire trip where somebody in security doesn't haul me aside for something. I have a slightly Mediterranean appearance and minimal facial expressions most of the time, so I guess this translates to security risk in airports, who knows. While the nice gentlemen is checking my every orifice, my daughter is screaming she wants daddy, and so our trip begins.

I wont elaborate too much on the second leg of our journey except to say that it takes a lot of oxygen and energy to run from terminal B to terminal E at the Houston airport. I now know why its called a terminal, it nearly was for me as I realize just how out of shape I am. Yes, Super Plumber Ninja Dad can traverse the length of the airport while hauling a backpack, my wife's carry one, my daughters carry on and my daughter who was tired of walking and bored. But, now I cant breath and I am not sure I want to because Angie is now trying to convince herself not to kill somebody else. Now in Angie's defense, she needed killin, and Angie did avoid confrontation, but only after strong willed prayer intervened. (we are in Texas so I borrowed a line from our friend Ruth with the 'needed killin' line) I will leave this story for Angie to tell as I was late to the party and suffering lack of oxygen to the brain.

We arrive in Cozumel and are tired, hungry and eager to get to our Palace. This place is stunning and welcoming to say the least. Its perfect weather, perfect water, and the staff is awesome. For the next several days and nights we spend the days at the pool and eat and drink to our hearts content. Gracie spends all day playing her little self tired and making lots of new admirers. She is so happy and bouncy and loud that she is the center of attention every place she goes. She has the whole staff catering to her, she places her own order with the bar and the cooks, everything. The senoritas call her princesseta and sweetheart. She made a few special friends who got hugs before we left. This place is paradise. Well, I could ramble on for days about shopping stories, how Gracie would announce the presents of any new boats, the weather, the lack of a beach and the talents of the taxi drivers, but I will stop talking and just let the pictures speak for themselves. You can click on any picture above to view it in full size.

Betty Tudor

I had hoped to be posting about our Mexican vacation right about now, but I feel that I need to post something else right now instead. For those of you awaiting the vacation post I will be getting to that shortly after arriving home, including pictures, but right now I need to post about some news we received while here on vacation.

My wife Angie received a phone call last night about her grandmother, Betty Tudor. Sometime around midnight Granny Tudor passed into the arms of her Lord. Granny Tudor was one of the first people in the Tudor family who seemed to accept me when I was first making my way into her family. This created a special place in my heart for her because she was so accepting and welcoming to me. As I slowly got to know her a little better I began to see this acceptance she offered as her normal mode of operation. At this point in my life I look at her and I see a Paul like personality. She was accepting of whatever life brought her way because she was aware that she was in Gods' will and was more than happy to let life be left in His hands. She was happy with life when she was young and free and she was happy with life when she was old and in prison (which is what a nursing home becomes at some point because your freedom of movement is taken away) She might complain a little upon occasion but she would always quickly say, but that just the way it is sometimes. In these ways Granny Tudor reminds me of what Paul tells us , be happy and praise Him, where ever you are. She took this point seriously and to me at least it was her life long witness.
With that said I would like to end this post in prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father
On this night we thank You for bringing one of Your children home to be with Your Son. We thank You for we know that she will soon fall into the redemptive and forgiving arms of her Lord Jesus. We thank You for sharing her with us for this little while she had on this earth and the many gifts she brought us through her love of You. In the days to come we know she will be seated at Your right hand with the rest of Your children. May Your will be to let her rest under the shade of the tree of life until her family joins her by Your side. In Jesus name, Amen.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Happy Chinese New Year. It is the year of the Rat this year. Gracie is a goat and I am a monkey and Angie is a snake I think. I am a little bummed tonight. The reason is two fold. We were headed to Fusion tonight to celebrate dinner at our favorite buffet but there was a sign out front that says its being remolded and re-opens next month. Why close for the New Year? Ugg. Next, we were supposed to go to St. Louis to visit with the other Hunan sisters like we always do this time of year. This isnt happening either due to scheduling conflict with our hosts. I miss the girls and wanted to see them so very much. Some of them we havent seen since China. We get Christmas cards from most of them that I carefully file in a safety deposit box for when Grace grows up. I miss playing with them. The Hunan sisters are the girls from the other nine families that traveled with us and adopted from Hunan. We made our entire journey of love together. Most of their names have the word Yi in them like Gracie was Yi Meng Chang ( e - mung- chung) I cant recall if they all had that in their name or not. One or two of them didnt come from the Yi Yang orphanage so maybe not. You can read more about the New Year celebrations at this website.

http://www.educ.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/438/CHINA/chinese_new_year.html

Thanks to Pastor Charlie for the spelling of Gong Xi Fa Cai.

Poop, Again.

Yes thats right. Another story about fecal issues, and yet another story brought to you by my dearest daughter Gracie.

Public service announcement.

Please set aside all liquid beverages at this point because your laptop or keyboard may be harmed if you are unable to contain the spray that just might emminate from your nostrils in the next few minutes.

End public service announcement.

As you may remember, Gracie will on occasion suffer from a round of constipation. Most likely because her favorite food is cheese. When such an event occurs she suffers loudly in great pain and talks to her poop trying to coax it out of her body. She does this by yelling,"get out, get out, get out of my butt" We try to console her as best as possible while she is suffering through these unfortunate events. We have told her that apple juice, grape juice and raisins will help with this issue. Her translation is that eating raisins and drinking juice will make her butt not hurt. Well, here is the story of our latest tale of the poop monster comming to visit.

I arrived home last Wednesday night with plans of taking Gracie to Skyline kids night while mom went off to have her hair done and visit with our friend Claudia. When arriving in the house I heard the sounds from upstairs that could only be the sounds of a terrorist being tortured by an ugly lesbian Marine, or, a constipated 4 year old. So, I walked slowly upstairs to see what might be causing this issue. I found Gracie on the toilet with Angie setting behind her trying to calm her down. Gracie felt the need to explain the problem to me, "poop wont come out, I drank all my juice but it still wont come out. Get out of my butt poop, I am tired of this, I have been in the bathroom all day and my knees hurt and my butt hurts, GET OUT poop." Ah, such a nice welcome home greeting. Angie and I trade places and sit with Gracie who calmly talks to her poop a little while longer and then she looks up at me with the same look as a women who is about to give birth and screams at me at the top off her voice (which is quite ample I might add) "Get me raisins, NOW" I told her, hunny, we dont have any raisins, to which she responded, "then get me juice" Ah, yes ma'am juice comming right up. I brought her a large cup of apple juice which she tossed back like a frat boy drinkin a beer at spring break. She then hopped of the toilet rinsed out the glass and told me now she wanted milk. Coming dear, the milk only lasted a little longer than the apple juice. So, time passes and I try to coax her off the toilet and to Skyline. I figure the Skyline will help the issue as much as anything. So she gets dressed but wont leave yet because she wont sit down, her butt hurts after all. She wont let me look at it either. More time passes and finally we are off to Skyline at 7PM. We eat dinner, she plays a while and makes her craft and we leave. We are on the way home and she decides she does feel up to going shopping (imagine that) and wants to go to Krogers (or Krogert as she calls it) to buy her lunches for this week. So off we go. We are only there about 10 minutes when she calmly asks if they have a bathroom here. I say no, why do you ask ( I know thats lame but what else are you gonna do?) She then, not so calmly, tells me we need to go home, now, hurry up, dont go down that aisle, take me home, I gotta go potty. Lets see, 12 oz apple juice + 12 oz milk + 12 oz Sprite = an issue for daddy. I sucumb to the pressure, and say, "oh look hunny there is a bathroom here, lets go" I know better and I see it coming but I am stuck. We go to the mens room and find that it is a one holer with a door that locks, this is a plus. She hops up and takes care of the business of fluid removal. Now she is already on the pot so she might as well talk to her poop some more. Now understand this, we are in a public restroom between the pharmacy and the customer service counter in a room that echos and Gracie is not a quiet child. So this is what anybody might hear if they are standing in line at the pharmacy or customer service.

"It hurts"
"Get out of my butt, Get out"
"It hurts my butt"
(other sordide moans and groans of discomfort)
( I lean over and rub her back and tell her to finish up and we will go home to finish, but when I lean forward to do this I am greeted with)
"NO, dont touch me, I dont want you to touch me"

When exiting the bathroom I looked for an officer to arrest me, but finding none we expiditiously departed the store.

The conversation between Gracie and her poop continued until about midnight at which time I turned her back over to her mother. Sometime between midnight and 1 AM Angie decided enough was enough.

Have you ever played that popular party game called pin the tail on the donkey? How about pin the tail on the crack smokin spider monkey? No, you havent played that game, well you have obviously never tried to give a 4 year old Chinese Princess a suppository. She turned into a freaked out mini ninja. Once the mission impossible was accomplished, Gracie was an angry Gracie. The next hour or so was filled with her telling us what terrible people we are and how she is going to:

"crumple us up and toss us in the fire"
"pour us in a glass and drink us up"
"People dont put thing in other peoples butts, its not polite to do to somebody and your in big trouble"

OH MY.

At 4AM I am awoken by the words, "Daddy, help Gracie"

I then become, (insert kung fu music here) Ninja dad. I leap to my feet and with cat like quickness (stop laughing) sprint into the bathroom to find, the suppository has done it duty and Gracie has decorated her night gown with a rather crusty 8 inch long skid mark as well as stopped up the toilet. Okay, my favorite phrase in life, "daddy fix it, make it all better"

Well super plumber ninja dad did what needed done, washed off Gracie and off to bed we went. She crawled in with us as I slept for about 30 minutes before it was off to work.

Thursday was a long day............

Prophicy.

That is pronounced Prof- i - side by the way. With last nights superbowl and a shopping trip this weekend I look like a full fledged prophet. I posted a while ago, back around the new year, a post I called prognostications. Well, here is an update, mostly for my friend Patty who took issue with some of my foresight.

9) The New England Patriots are upset and fail to gain the perfect season. Their season ends on a dropped pass by Randy Moss.
12) Angie will acquire 9 more Vera Bradley purses, two new coats and a new kitchen in an attempt to stabilize the world economy.

Both of these took on a new light this weekend. Angie bought her second coat of the season and has been nagging about the kitchen as well as her third Vera Bradley purchase since January first. She is well on her way.

The last two, count them, two passes of the Patriots superbowl loss were tossed to Randy Moss, both of them hit his fingertips and he caught neither one. Therefore, I called the end of the Patriots season over a month ago, right down to the last pass.

I think I need to go out and start annointing some people now.

Read the rest here.
http://yimengchang.blogspot.com/2008/01/prognostications.html