247 - The Color of Flesh and One of These is Not Like the Other

247 - The Color of Flesh and One of These is Not Like the Other, originally uploaded by carolfoasia.

I am looking out my window at a GORGEOUS sunset that would make a wonderful picture of the day, but the picture explains why walking down the stairs and outside would be too painful today. :)

Why Do You Have a Picture of Clouds?

Because I was flat on my back after spraining my ankle. Can you believe it? First I faint in Pilates on Thursday. Now, I sprain my ankle on Monday. What's next?

128 - The Road Ahead

DSC_0005, originally uploaded by carolfoasia.

The road ahead is bright and beautiful. This is the trail I took to the top of Chip Ross Park this morning with my friend, Michelle.

I am looking ahead to my future, and it is a beautiful road. I walked beside a person today who is taking up the mantle of the leadership class that I started at my old church. My old partner is out, and this person is my friend whom I can walk beside in this journey even though we now go to different churches.

I do mourn the loss for what might have been in she and I working on a team together, but we can still walk beside each other and encourage each other. My counselor said in her last email:

"You haven’t 'lost' anything, in fact you have multiplied yourself and
your gifts by moving on. Our job is just to put our little 5 loaves and 2
fish into Jesus’ hands, His job is to multiply it to whomever He sees fit.
You will probably not know until eternity just how much He has used even that
short but significant effort that you invested. But it is nothing until He
puts His hands on it anyway. Nothing is ever 'lost' with
Him.

Keep on—with joy."

I think this is definitely the perspective I need to have. God has meant it all for good, and I know I am in a better place.

It is UPWARD and ONWARD in the journey, and the journey is as beautiful as this one you see above. The view is also beautiful when we reach the end of our journey. I know that "All things do work together for good."

The View from the Top of Chip Ross Park

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126 - Wardie's Teacup

126 - Wardie's Teacup, originally uploaded by carolfoasia.

My grandmother was a collector of tea cups, and I inherited most of them. Wardie is a nickname based on my maiden name. I never called her grandma!

It was also a day to finally figure out how to take indoor pictures without flash without them becoming blurry. George and I laughed because we could have read the manual a long time ago and figured it out. I hope to have more indoor, non-blurry photos from now on!

122 - Closure!

IMG_0951, originally uploaded by carolfoasia.

I just returned from teaching the spiritual gifts section of the SHAPE class at my church tonight. It went so well! There were twenty women there and everything ran very smoothly. Thankfully, people from my prayer loop prayed for me because I was dragging this afternoon as I prepared for it but was reenergized around the time they all started praying. Thank you! It was a pleasure to lead, and I think the women had a very fun time.

113 - Productive Day

113 - Productive Day, originally uploaded by carolfoasia.

After the pretty shots of the last few days, this is a pretty boring photo. It does represent my day though. I had a goal of getting all the things for the four week class that I am teaching to the church for copying and collating, and I got it all in by 4 p.m. today. This way I won't have anything to do before I start the class less than 45 hours after I return from North Carolina!

A VERY productive day!

92 - Death and Taxes

92 - Death and Taxes, originally uploaded by carolfoasia.

It’s been said the only two things guaranteed in life are death and taxes. I don't know how true that really is theologically, but I know that I have been forced to think of both of these much more than I would like to lately.

After putting this off all Spring Break, I forced myself to "just" install Turbo Tax today, but I ended up doing almost everything. I just have to look up some mileage numbers, and we are good to go. YIPEE!

86 - Healing Hands

86 - Healing Hands, originally uploaded by carolfoasia.

I had to do a follow up to my pain picture. Nothing artistic about this shot. We took a 50 mile drive north to see the healing hands of my brother-in-law who is an osteopath and just the best. My shoulder area was WAY out, but it was my RIGHT side and not my left. The pain just radiated to the left side. He worked on me for almost an hour, and he helped my husband learn how to help me if I ever do this again!

The culprit: All those "Clean and Presses" with 50 lbs of weight. Silly me!

A happy ending for me.

60 - The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

60 - That's What Friends Are For, originally uploaded by carolfoasia.

And These Pants are Traveling to New York City!

This is my "twin sister" Mary Beth. Today she came by to borrow my red coat because she is going to New York City tomorrow with her husband of 20 years who has Melanoma and will be starting treatment in 10 days.

After she tried on the coat, I asked her if she wanted to try on my jeans because she was admiring them last week at The Hobbit play (see below). They fit her perfectly, and I just had to take a picture to remember this wild and adventurous day. I am one of the few friends who CAN lend her my jeans since we are both very tall! We have done a whole lot of swapping of clothes in our 21 years of friendship, but that's what friends are for.

Friends are also for getting together a trip to New York City that was only a dream yesterday. A bunch of us pulled together, and they will be staying at the Hilton on Time Square and going to four Broadway plays.

What is so thrilling about today was that, in just eight hours, God provided free plane tickets and a free hotel room and more than enough cash for making it the vacation of a lifetime! Time may be short for our dear friend, Bruce, and we friends wanted to help them to "Seize the Day."

It was an amazing adventure today, and while the picture is not very artistic, it certainly tells a story of what friends (and sisters) are for.

39 - Forever Friends

Tonight is a slumber party. I hear jokes and laughter and thumps coming from the other room as these four young men settle down to sleep. My kids are on the right and left, and their two friends (brothers) are on the top and bottom. They have all been friends since they all popped out of the womb, and I have been friends with their dad since I first saw him in the OSU Athletic Training room back in 1978 wearing a shirt that said, "Throwing for Jesus" on the front and "Lifting for Jesus" on the back. That was 29 years ago, and now that same OSU athlete and father to these two children (and two more at other homes) has Stage IV Melanoma cancer that has grown into a walnut sized tumor in his brain.

My funniest story about their dad relates to "I" who is on the bottom center. His mother's water broke, and she asked me to come to the hospital for his birth and take pictures. As I was getting the camera ready, the nurse yelled, "Help Me!" I turned around and said, "I don't know anything about delivering a baby!" She said, "Not the baby, the dad!" I looked down and saw their dad fainted and flat on the floor. I was put in charge of dragging him out of the way so he was out of the path of the baby delivery! I was three months pregnant with the one on the right at the time, and their dad is a 6 foot 3 inch former javelin thrower. NO SMALL MAN to move!
I ended up going to the nursery to supervise the weighing and the measuring of "I," filling in for his dad because dad was too sick to move. It was a very comical situation.

With all the laughter coming from the other room as I type, I can't imagine what it would be like to fear the loss of their father to this hideous disease. Prayers and tears here.

36 - Leftovers!

I wanted an afternoon snack, and it hit me. I have leftovers from the Super Bowl party! I thought the colors were so pretty in these tortilla roll-ups. My friend, Lisa, usually brings them to parties, and she didn't on New Year's Eve. So, I "requested" them for the party. She made me up my own plate for the day after! What a gal!
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33 - A Necessary Evil

Three cans full of shredding.

I had every intention of going to the lake at dh's work this afternoon to take pictures of the ducks while receiving a tutorial in wildlife photography from dh (This is his specialty), but the fog came in, and the light wasn't going to be as good. So, I did the next best thing: I tackled my office! (NOT!)

Consequently, I didn't even get outside today. I usually file at least once I month, but I realized that it had been five! So, I got in front of the telly and watched all the Friday news shows on PBS tonight and culled and shredded and filed! Now, I am all prepared to start my taxes! OH JOY!

Such is my ordinary life.

Shave and a Haircut . . . 2 Bits

Yesterday, MJ had a shave and today it is a haircut for both the boys. I told PC that I wanted to put his picture in the photolog so he doesn't think that I am ignoring him and not just putting pictures of MJ on there. The main reason is that it is because he doesn't want to have it taken! (That is why he is grimacing in the picture!)

About title: Shave and a Haircut, and the associated response, "two bits", is a simple (7 or 8 note) musical couplet sometimes used at the end of a musical performance (or, much less often, at the beginning). The seven-note variant is often called the world's shortest complete song, having an introduction (one note), a question (two notes), a response (two more notes), and a conclusion (the final two notes). The generic and oft-used two-note fanfare known colloquially as "TA-DAAAA" is shorter, but arguably not a complete song. (From Wikipedia.com)

The B.R.A.T. Diet

I ate the B.R.A.T. diet today:
Bananas
Rice
Applesauce
Toast

These are the leftovers of the banana, applesauce, water.

It also shows that I was on the couch and read much of the day.

I am on the mend!

All Day in my Room with the Flu

I come home and within about an hour of coming in the door, I became violently ill. So, I have been in bed all day. (Thus the unmade bed) This is our new D-80 Nikon Camera, and my dh is on the right giving me coaching for taking it without the flash. Can't wait to get out of my room and try the camera out!

Monday, January 15 - The Golden Globe Awards

My mom's birthday always falls around the Golden Globes. So, my brother, sister-in-law, and I watch it together when I am down there for her birthday. We watched it from 5 - 11, eating the leftovers from the party. We had seen Dreamgirls on Saturday. So, we cheered Jennifer Hudson and Eddie Murphy when they won, and when the movie won for Best Musical. You gotta' see that movie. Jennifer Hudson is PHENOMENAL!

Thursday, January 11 - M and Me

My only nephew, M! He couldn't wait for me to come down to Southern Cal and have me try out his basketball game. He played me music from his iPod player ("Pump It" by Black Eyed Peas). We also played paintball, but Level Four continues to elude me!

Scrapbook Finished!

This is me putting together the last five pages of my mom's book. I took a break and got my hair cut. So, I made sure my son included my new hair do.

Funny story: I came to the picture of my mom walking in the "swimsuit" competition representing "Miss Tall Chicago" in the national pageant. I wanted to know the date, and I thought that I would call my mom knowing that she probably wouldn't remember.


Me: Mom, do you remember when you were Miss Tall Chicago?


Mom: Call Chicago. No, you called me, and I have your message on my machine.


Me: No mom. TALL not CALL. Maybe you should turn down the volume on your TV. (As she is turning down the volume, I notice my kids are laughing on the couch, and I start laughing too.)


Mom: Now, what is this about me calling Chicago?


Me: No mom, you know you were Miss Tall Chicago back in the late forties or fifties. You know the Tall Girl Club you were part of.


Mom: No, Carol, I was never a CALL GIRL. Where did you get the idea I was a CALL GIRL? Why would I do a thing like that?


Me: (My kids are now uncontrollably laughing, and I am trying my hardest not to laugh.) Oh, never mind. I'll see you tomorrow, mom.


Mom: Ok, I love you.

Me: I love you too. :)

Pampering

I was so engrossed in my scrapbooks, and I almost canceled this appointment because I needed to finish, but I am so glad that I didn't. I hadn't seen B since October!

I met her in May when God told me to go get a manicure, and I said, "Say what?" I said, "Do you want me to go and share with someone?" He said, "YEP." So, I went to get pampered for Jesus. (LOL!)

That day, she told me about her family situation, and I told her I would pray for her. Her face lit up and she said, "Do you know the Bible? I am reading and am in the book of Job. Are you one of those people who believes you have have to believe in God to go to heaven?" This first discussion led to many more over the course of the summer until she told me in the fall that she had made a commitment to Christ.

Well, today she told me that she finished the whole Bible, and that she had some questions. It was a great time, and she told me that she was getting baptized!

I told her I would be posting about her, and she said that would be just fine! She thinks this Project365 is a super thing!

Photographs and Memories

How does one summarize a life in 48 short 7x7 pages?

This has been a wonderful project for me to remember the 80 years of my mom's life.

She spent her first 29 years growing up poor in Chicago. She survived the depression while taking care of her two younger sisters so both parents could work in order to make ends meet. She graduated from the University of Illinois, Urbana and was the first to do so in her family. She won Miss Chicago Tall and became a medical technologist. She moved to "God's Country," (Los Angeles) and within two weeks met a "tall, dark and handsome" man while shopping for a car. On their first day he said, "How would you like a 'slightly used' husband?" The rest is history.

The next 29 years were spent with this man, inheriting a 12 year old boy and having two more within three years. Life was full with "Big Chuck" who took her water skiing and fishing and camping and on a ride that she still has not forgotten and was far too short.

The last 22 years have been spent cruising the world, cuddling grandchildren, and caring for people through her church. Alzheimer's and osteoporosis have slowed her down in more recent years, but she has lived a full and rich and lovely life full of warm and wonderful memories.

This is my tribute to her.