What we've been up to...

I know that I have talked about our church before. It is a small, and, as The Shepherd puts it. blue collar, Unitarian-Universalist church in Blaine, WA - - Established by Icelandic fishermen in the late 1920's - in fact for many years, the service was even given in Icelandic!

Well this spring, our minister (Rev. Nan) , who has been there for 20 years (!) announced her retirement. Although only paid half time, her ministry has been much more -

Here she is with The Shepherd, who is also known as "The Minister of Music" -


They have worked very closely over the years.

For several months he has been planning a service to celebrate her ministry with our church. A couple of weeks ago, he decided to make a small "garden" on the table that holds our chalice.

Isn't it pretty? (If you click on the pictures, they will biggify - and you can see the details - so cute)






He put plants that he will re-purpose into Nan's garden at home and interspersed them with some button mums and freesia for color spots.











He used moss and little pieces (maybe 2 x 3 inch) of slate for a little path.

It made a lovely centerpiece for the front of the church.









He spoke and did some readings - we had several church members volunteer to write about how her ministry had affected them.













Nan's daughter came up from Seattle. She spoke about how her mom had influenced her life and she sang two songs, one "Wild Mountain Thyme" needed my guitar accompaniment













And our choir sang several songs










And it was not all serious business though - Remember I spoke of the church's Icelandic roots? - one member proclaimed Nan and her husband Queen & King of the Vikings - including the fancy "hats" -








One of the gifts we gave Nan was a lap quilt (that I made) - (don't ask - it was the first of quilts, it was the last of quilts)

I can really see, though, how quilters are seduced into the craft - it was kind of fun (except for the midnight work by flashlight) , and the materials - oh my, it just made me drool to walk through the aisles of fabric in that quilt store -





I used four panels of photos printed on material - just used my old ink jet printer - worked like a charm and they were very good reproductions. I was impressed.

As people came in the door of the church, we had them sign the back of the quilt as the "Guest Book" so she could see the names of everyone who was there







Here is our Board President Vikki presenting Rev. Nan with a picture of another gift - a wonderful slate garden bench - (to be delivered at a later date to her home)








Some of you also know that I also do the newsletter for our little church - Here were my thoughts from my last column as our church looks for a new minister -

"Holy cow! Loosing Rev. Nan AND Oprah at the same time? What ever will we do?

Over the past 20-25 years, both of these fine ladies have nurtured and taught us new ways to deal with the events and issues in our lives.

It will be a brave new world out there for millions worldwide (on a grand scale) and oh, 40 or 50 of us here in Whatcom County (on a much smaller scale) - but soon, it will be summer and we will be distracted by (hopefully) warm sunny days - until reality hits - the re-runs are over - wait a minute - what do you mean, there are no new episodes?

Both Nan and Oprah have encouraged us to be the best that we can be. They have encouraged us to take responsibility for our own actions and to share, lovingly, and sometimes outrageously, with others who are not as blessed as we might be."

So, we'll use those lessons to do our best - we'll be OK - and sooner or later, they'll be back.

Pardon my rant......

Ok, there are a few things that have been driving me crazy - some for a while - some are new objects of craziness -

• People who wear their Bluetooth headsets ALL THE TIME - in meetings, or while they are talking to me, or, just in general... Do they think it makes them look cool? No, I think it makes them look RUDE. Like I am just not quite as important as a phone call they MIGHT get on their cell phone. (What did we do before we had cell phones anyhow? My sister saw an article the other day that more and more students are starting to use the food banks - Why? Because with the high price of gasoline, by the time they pay their rent and their cell phone bills, they have no money left over. Do you suppose any of them ever thought of cutting back on the texting?)
  
• What is the big deal with dissing Crocs? Now, some guy in Newsweek has a big article out about how much he hates Crocs. So, don't wear them, for cryin' out loud. Crocs are the only shoes that a lot of people can wear, myself included. Who died and made him the fashion police?
  
• People who leave rude comments on the "online articles" in our local newspaper. Last week there was an article about a young man who was killed on the freeway. Come to find out he was under the influence of drugs. Sad but true, a fellow whose family loved him despite his shortcomings, who had tried and failed to get clean and sober. What good are saying things like "Good riddance to bad rubbish" when a guy has died a pretty horrible death and a family is grieving? Will their Karma go bad? I hope so.

Ok, I'm done now.

Geeze, who put a nickle in her?

Busy days and nights

Holy cow this has been a busy week - I keep looking to see if someone (like that someone would be me...) has done a new post on my blog and it just never happened. Part of the reason was reading Nora Robert's new book "High Noon" - I like her female characters, they generally have "spunk" - for lack of a better term. When I read, I have a hard time putting a good book down - like a little kid "Just a few more minutes, mom, Pulleeeaase"


Last night we had tickets to see Ladysmith Black Mambazo at the Mt. Baker Theater. It was a fun concert - we saw them last year as well - the intertwined harmony and the dancing is incredible to hear and watch. If you get a chance, be sure to go see them.

This picture is from their web site (click on their name and it will transport you to their site). The leader is in his late sixty's and he can still kick his foot up above his head! (singing & dancing at the same time!)

The weather this week has been incredible too - probably some of the nicest that we've had this summer - those absolutely quintessential perfect 70 degree days (but with cool evenings - I even put our blanket back on the bed this week!) When I got home from work yesterday, a chickadee was sitting in the tree over me - Chick-a-dee-dee-dee - It sounded so happy! I'm sure that the finches have found The Shepherd's sunflower patch by now -

Neelix has had a pretty good mad on about being taken to the V-E-T last Saturday. Generally he'll just sulk for a day or two, but he still will barely have any thing to do with me. I've been trying to get him to come in at night since it has been so chilly - I know, he's just a cat, but dang it, he's a cat I just spent $80 on at the vet and I'd rather not have him come down with some kind of fungus-amoungus because he's being stubborn. He's sleeping on the back porch tonight - maybe we're getting closer to reconciliation...

It was payday at work - when I first started to work for this company, (14 years ago) I did payroll for about 15 people - it just took me a couple of hours - (and I had a payroll system that I loved). Now we have 45 people and it takes the better part of two days (and I have a payroll system that I hate). That's progress for ya! Heck, it takes almost 1/2 hour to sign the checks and stuff them into envelopes. My new favorite question for people is going to be "What part of 'Paychecks will be ready at 4:30' don't you understand?" Sheesh.



Well, that was my week - I'll do a walk-about in the garden tomorrow and show you some of the new things that John has been planting.

And look what he got last weekend -

"Let me out!" it says - I'll see if I can find it in the pond tomorrow.

Crazy days, crazy night!

Just a quick post at the end of my lunch - remember in the story of Neelix's big adventure over the 4th of July that I said that the Shepherd had come home from work on the 5th because he just didn't feel well? So things got worse from there - he did go to the dr. on Friday, but they just said it was a virus and to wait it out. Well, 3 days of 102 fevers and then Sunday it seemed to break, but by then, he seemed to be kind of congested - called the Doc on call for our clinic -"Oh, this stuff just takes 3-5 days to go away" she said.

Monday, Marsha came and gave Loreena a haircut -(That's a whole 'nother story to follow later this week) - & with the hot weather we've been having (high 80's - it's 92 degrees right now) he just hasn't been able to pick back up where he left off - and last night he kind of went into a respratory distress - couldn't breathe, etc. - so I called the doc on call again(different guy this time) - he said "load him up and take him to ER - chances are that he'll only get worse over night" OK, fine - at 10:00 pm I loaded him into the Jelly Bean (the affectionate term for my 91 Ford Festiva) and set off for St. Joes. I must say, a middle aged white guy with breathing distress gets pushed thru pretty fast - I think they might have thought he was having a heart attack or something, cause when we left, there were still a lot of people sitting in the same places they were when we went in.

Well, long story short? He's got pneumonia. They started him on antibiotics last night and he's feeling better - he slept on the couch so he could sleep sitting up - every time he lays down he starts to cough. "Dr Mom" says he will not go back to work til next week - that's for sure -

So everybody send us LOTS of healing thoughts OK - and speaking of work, I'd better get to it.