Barbara's Random Thoughts

It was blazing hot today. It went from nice, sunny spring weather, in the low 70s, to a whopping 90 degrees today. We had a big family Easter dinner, and afterwards the kids pulled me outside to play soccer and then tag on the front lawn. After a bit, I collapsed in the shade and the girls followed suit. We were all within arm's reach of each other, so our game of tag degenerated into smacking each other and saying "You're it!" Johnny came over and curled up next to me, leaning against my legs, and I asked: "Hey, Johnny, whatcha doing?" He responded: "Just sittin' with you."

I've now lost track of who's It in my game of tag with Hannah--the game of tag that will soon go intercontinental. I have no doubt that Hannah will keep track, though. She reminded (threatened?) me today almost as soon as they arrived that I would be It when we went outside to play.

Rebekah asked me today why I had to go away again: "Wasn't one year enough?" Apparently not. Gonna miss those kids...

Labels: family, things I'll miss

My niece Hannah, this morning, during a game of tag: "Barbara, let's keep playing tag until you go to Africa. Then after that, whenever we see each other, we can tag whoever's it." Then she tagged me and ran off, shouting: "You're it!!!"

Labels: family, things I'll miss

I'm in the middle of editing a paper on church growth for one of the staff members here, and I keep getting frustrated with extremely convoluted sentences. This drives me to take small procrastinating breaks, which really don't speed things along. But they help my sanity. So here I am, avoiding the last 2 1/2 pages of the paper in order to make a small announcement.

I'm going to be an aunt again. My brother and sister-in-law are expecting their first baby in June. I'm so excited!!!

Last night, I got a cryptic message from my sister-in-law on the Pangani voice mail. I wasn't able to get in touch with her and therefore endured a restless night in which I wondered what was wrong in my family, because Dianna rarely calls me when I'm in the same state, let alone when I'm in South Africa. This morning I finally got in touch with her, got to talk with both my brother and sister-in-law, and heard the news that they're expecting their first child. They were married 11 years ago and have really wanted children, but it just never happened. They had kind of given up on ever having kids. But God had other plans. =)

I keep joking about how many of my friends have gotten engaged, married, pregnant, or have had babies since I've been here in South Africa. The total is now at 8 engagements and 7 pregnancies. This really is getting ridiculous, but I will totally not complain. I'm so excited for my brother & sister-in-law!!

Add to this the other amazing experiences that have happened in the past few days: being part of a reunion between a mother and daughter who were separated 37 years ago, and my roommate Carissa already gaining 140 degrees of movement in her arm after an intense surgery on Friday...and I can't help but praise God for all He's doing around me.

Oh, I so want to write more...but I need to finish editing this paper. Forthcoming will be an account of the mother/daughter reunion story. It's pretty cool.

Labels: family

From an email from my mom:

Our Christmas tree is up! Johnny was here on Monday and was absolutely amazed. I hadn't thought about it before, but I don't think he had any memory of Christmas trees at all and Nancy hadn't been anywhere with him to see one. He stood in front of our tree, looked at it, then looked at me, and back again. Then he said, "How did chu built dat, how did chu built dat?" Then he went on to point out what was on it. It was really fun to watch.

I love that he wanted to know how they "built" the tree. My nephew is SO into building things. His dad's a carpenter, and I'm sure that's part of the fascination. When I was visiting at Thanksgiving, my dad and brother-in-law were in the process of installing a new water heater, and Johnny was enraptured. He dragged me by the hand, over to see where they were working, and exclaimed, "We gonna BUILD dat! And put nails in!"

Labels: family

I feel compelled to post something so that readers are no longer immediately greeted by me calling out an old friend for finding me online. Really, I don't harass all visitors in this manner. Lurkers, do not be afraid of me, I am not really that scary. Moving on.

Here, for your amusement, is a conversation I had last night with my mother:

M: Have you gotten an email from a boy?
B: I get lots of emails from boys, Mother.
(She continues, unfazed.)
M: Well, from a boy you don't know?
B: What are you up to?
M: Well, Joy asked if she could have your email address to pass on to...I think it was her nephew?...well, she said she was so glad to have a friend who had a daughter who wasn't married...
B: So glad I have that to recommend me...
M: Well, you need to be nice to him, because if you're not, it'll get back to Joy, and I need to continue getting rides to orchestra!

So apparently soon I will be receiving an email from a "nice Christian boy" who's an engineer (surprise!) in Baltimore. I hardly see the point, but there you go. I'm single, he's single, we're both Christians, so of course, we'll get along famously. Woo.

Labels: family, quotes

Or: pictures from my Easter weekend in SoCal.












With Kristy in Santa Monica: the requisite sunny beach picture. Yes! Sun! Amazing!















It's baseball season! This kid loves his sports. Although maybe I shouldn't have been playing catch with him in the kitchen. While he was wearing his Easter outfit. Oh well.















I love this picture of Rebekah. It's so "look at me!" and yet so nonchalant at the same time--that little shrug along with her posing for the camera.












Driving home. The clouds were beautiful. (That's my dashboard cow, Bosie.)












Hit a little milestone on the odometer. 11,111. And look, I wasn't even speeding at the time!

Labels: family

Driving through the central valley--sunny blue sky, green fields filled with yellow flowers, and Rich Mullins' "The Color Green" playing in the background: "Be glad that you have made/blue for the sky and the color green/that fills these fields with praise..."

Hanging out with Melinda on Friday night: "The answer to the question is always: 'Go to Spain.'"

Finally naming my car. (With help from Melinda and Starbucks.)

Getting to see Heather's first sonogram pictures.

Riding in the Mustang (one last time?) with Kristy: "Don't ever apologize for turning up the volume on The Cure."

Hearing my 2-year-old nephew say "Peace out, yo." Except it comes out as: "Peace out, lo." I love this kid.

Getting an Easter basket from my sister.

Hugs from people at church. I forget how much I miss that. One of the benefits of living far away and coming to visit? You get lots of hugs.

Call and response on Easter Sunday morning: "He is risen! He is risen indeed!"

Hope you all had a happy Easter.

Labels: family

Here are just a few of the reasons I'm driving down to SoCal for Easter:

I love this picture from Saturday's Easter walk:

And I can't resist posting this one from the women's retreat a few weeks ago:

Where are we staying? Mazatlan? Margarita?
Manzanita! 

Labels: family

My sister, in an email yesterday: "Can you believe Johnny will be TWO tomorrow? How old does that make you?! Ha ha." My response? "Still younger than you!" Ha.

So. Two years ago today, this boy became part of my life:

Happy birthday to my nephew Johnny.

And because I neglected to post about her birthday a couple weeks ago, happy birthday to my niece Hannah as well.


This is really just an excuse to show you how adorable my sister's kids are. 

Labels: family