Happy Sunday to you all! It is a very happy Sunday for me. Mark just got our electricity working. We have had no electricity in our outlets since the 12th, and you never know how much you depend on it until you lose it!
Continue readingWhen I got my quickie ordination in December so that I could marry Serenity and Jose, I told my pastor that I felt like I was finally getting to use my Pastoral Ministries degree. It was the first time he had heard what my bachelor’s degree is in. He asked if I’d like to make my ordination real and I said yes. That’s a whole process that will probably take me until next year to complete.
Continue readingNearly every Monday since the first of January, I’ve been quilting with a bunch of crafty women here at the church. I’ve been working on my new Wanda’s Journey products for a fundraiser for the Alzheimer’s Association. I thought I’d make placemats this year.
Continue readingThis morning at 7:00 sharp, Mark and I were awakened by a trumpet playing Revelie. For a moment, Mark was confused until I reminded him that we are camping at the Davis Monthan Air Force Base.
Continue readingYesterday morning, while I was at work, Serenity texted me and said that Jose’s father in El Salvador had just passed. They knew he was dying of cancer, so it wasn’t exactly a surprise, but you’re never really prepared for something like that. It was because his father was dying that Serenity and Jose pushed their wedding date up to December. I picked up some flowers after work and took them over to Jose, and Mark had just gone into their trailer to give Jose his condolences. Jose showed us videos that his nephew has been taking of the funeral.
Continue readingI can’t recall if I’ve mentioned that we have neighbors on either side of us here behind the church this year. To our right (looking from the inside toward the windshield), we have a 5th wheel with a youngish man living in it. His name is Davis. To our left, in a 24-foot trailer, are Serenity and Jose. The 2 couples haven’t really had a chance to get to know Davis very well, so tonight, I called everyone together for a neighborhood block party!
Continue readingA week ago today (Friday), I got vertigo and I’ve had it ever since. There was so much I wanted to do to help Serenity get ready this week, but I was unable to. She and Jose did a magnificent job of preparing everything they could in advance. Serenity’s sister, Katie, and Katie’s fiance, Adam, flew in from Wisconsin yesterday and helped wherever they could. Still, we had thought we’d have plenty of time to get everything set up and do a trial run for the technology today, but we ended up doing most of that at the beginning of the wedding. We had Zoom and WhatsApp to set up and everyone was very patient. I told Serenity that if there weren’t any problems during a wedding, there would be no stories to tell for years to come!
Continue readingSerenity and I had some plans for today, starting with doing our laundry at the laundromat, but while we were there, I had a blood sugar drop, so Serenity suggested we just go back home and do something low-key today.
Continue readingToday, Mark and I drove up to Phoenix (Serenity had gone up earlier in the morning) to meet Jose and help him pick a suit for the wedding. When we got there, Serenity introduced the two men and they immediately went into the store without us women. I chalked it up to male bonding time!
Continue readingMost of you probably aren’t aware of this, but I got my BA in Pastoral Ministry at Marylhurst University in Oregon in 1990. I had hoped to become a pastoral counselor, but I went on for a Master’s in Art Therapy and dropped out just before I was supposed to do my practicum. Anyway, the closest I ever came to using my Pastoral Ministries degree was to be an interim church secretary for a year. When the regular secretary came back, I couldn’t even find another job like that.
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