Thanksgiving pics

My parents, Joel, and I

spent Thanksgiving

weekend

at his place in Winter Park.

Thanksgiving Day we skied on Berthoud Pass,

warmed up in the hot tub,

and cooked ourselves a delicious and nutritious meal.

Friday quote collection

“Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm."
--Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet, critic and philosopher

“You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one."
--James A. Froude, English historian

“Well, you've got to take the bitter with the better."
--Jane Ace, radio personality

“Doubt is the beginning, not the end, of wisdom."
--George Iles, author

God's plan

Someone asked Henry Blackaby, “How do I know God’s will for my life?”

He turned the question around. “What’s God’s plan and what role does He want you to play?”

God’s not developing 2.6 billion plans and sitting around waiting for us to ask for our individual plan. God is doing something massive and He has a part for us to play.

He wants for us to surrender. Jesus never did anything apart from His Father’s will.

Time-tested truth

Last week when I was at the Air Force Academy, I decided to stop by the Cadet Chapel since I'd never been inside. It's worth the trip!
Though many churches and cathedrals are much older than this structure, I got a sense that so much history has passed by those angular walls.
In related news, 5/30 reports, "For the first time, the Pentagon approved a motion picture to be filmed at the Air Force Academy."
Wanting to soak in the reality that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, I walked in the chapel (don't worry, it's allowed!), sat down on a pew, and picked up a hymnal.
This passage is the one that jumped out at me:
"I hide Your Word within my heart to keep me safe from sin. For where your truth is in control, no lie can inter in." --Claire Cloninger
I'm reminded once again, "For the word of the LORD is right and true; he is faithful in all he does." (Psalm 33:4)

Power of positive thinking in the pool

Yesterday as I slipped on my swimsuit to prepare for an aquatic workout, I bemoaned an apparent extra bit of pudge. All the more reason to get back in the pool, I thought.
As I entered the pool deck, my former swimming coach spotted me.
After “hello,” his first words were “Have you lost weight?”
I said, “No, actually I was just thinking I had gained some.”
He replied, “Well, it must just be muscle.”
Then he’d asked if I’d competed in the most recent triathlon.
He encouraged me to do the next one, saying, “You’re going to win!”
Though I thought most of his words were flattery, (I suppose it doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme; gaining a little winter weight is inevitable—though I won’t know for sure since I don’t weigh myself. And, it’s not likely I would win a tri since my swimming is so weak I need lessons!).
However, I certainly did swim longer and faster as a result of the power of positive thinking imparted by a kindly coach.
I remembered the hope that I can use my words to genuinely encourage others. And, I got to practice the principle right away. The gentleman swimming in the lane next to me started gasping for air and came back to the edge of the pool.
He said, “I psyched myself out.”
I affirmed that even swimming is a matter of the mind and told him he could do it (since it was apparent he could swim).
Simple enough—not profound words, but they proved helpful.
Positive thinking may not keep you afloat, but it can provide some power in the paddles!

Friday quote collection

“Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response."
--Mildred Barthel, author

“Nothing is impossible. Some things are just less likely than others."
--Jonathan Winters, comedian, author and artist

“Paradise is here or nowhere: You must take your joy with you, or you will never find it."
--O.S. Marden, founder of Success Magazine

“Doing nothing is very hard to do ... you never know when you're finished."
--Leslie Nielsen, Canadian-American actor

“No wise man ever wished to be younger."
--Jonathan Swift, Irish satirist, journalist and author

“What we need is to love without getting tired."
--Mother Teresa, Nobel Peace Prize-winning humanitarian

“The best is yet to be."
--Robert Browning, British poet and playwright

“Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing."
--Harriet Braiker, psychologist and writer

“Silence can be as different as sounds."
--Elizabeth Bowen, Anglo-Irish writer

“Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means."
--Albert Einstein, German-born Swiss-American physicist

Agree? Disagree?

2007 in review

My mom is amazing about sending Christmas letters every year. She asked me to recap my year in third person for her family letter. It's difficult to put a full year into a few words (and there are still two months left)!

If you're a blogger reading this, I tag (challenge) you to do the same--sum up your year in fewer than 300 words.

Thankful for life and limbs intact after a car accident in December 2006, Carrie started out the year fresh with a newer Subaru purchased in Montana. Joe (dad) graciously drove the car to Colorado and took the bus home so Carrie could use her return flight. [click for pic: car and dog pictured]

Carrie celebrated her January birthday in Breckenridge, CO by snow-sculpture gazing and cross-country skiing with dear friends. These friends and church community continue to enrich her life greatly.
Easter was spent in Glenwood Springs, a new favorite place, with fabulous friend Katie [click for pics] .
Early summer took Carrie to Spokane, WA for cousin Nellie’s Gonzaga graduation [click for pics] and to Pasadena, CA for dear friend Nadia’s Fuller Seminary graduation. Afterward, the two celebrated by skydiving for the first time [click for pics] !
Later in the summer, Carrie (with the help of hard-working parents) moved out of her apartment and into the spacious basement of a lovely home in Monument (north of Colorado Springs).

Athletic adventures for Carrie included swimming lessons in the spring, a sprint triathlon in the summer, several great hikes, and running the VA Beach Rock N’ Roll half-marathon to raise money and awareness for Children’s HopeChest.
Carrie’s work as an editor took her to Indianapolis, Nashville, Atlanta, and Chicago this year. She felt grateful to still have her job after the company laid off half her department—a bigger loss than she's expected.

Carrie also mourned the death of a mentor [click for pic: Sheryl] a dear coworker, grandpa, plus her 14-year old dog Chewy and 20-year old horse BZ.
In the midst of loss, Carrie found hope in the One who gives and takes away. She celebrated love at cousin Bell's wedding [click for pics], with long-enduring friends, and rejoiced in a new relationship. God is good--all the time.

Remembering Grandpa

It’s been almost a month since my grandpa’s memorial service. Though I wasn’t intentionally avoiding this post, it’s been easier not to think on it. Life is busy and has many distractions, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t stop and remember.

I share some thoughts from my journal, dated Oct. 7:
There are so many positive impressions and good memories of yesterday’s memorial service for Grandpa Herb, it will be difficult to remember and record them all.
The day started out as mom and I worked out at the Park Plaza Hotel gym, then walked down Last Chance Gulch. The historic buildings and old brick kilns took us back in history. Mom and I kept walking until we reached a Mount Helena City Park trail head and decided to explore that. We ended up hiking where the snow met the mountain, and we climbed above the city to overlook a beautiful valley glowing with fall trees and snowcapped mountains behind brick buildings enduring another season. I wished I’d had my camera, but some moments I suppose you can’t capture completely.
I think we rejoiced that the day had arrived to remember and celebrate Grandpa’s loving and full life.
After we retrieved Olin, we ate breakfast at the Park Avenue bakery. The warmth of the ovens and coffee easing the chill from outside, we reminisced about Grandpa’s favorite days hauling wood with his old pickup in Rimini.

Later in the day we made our way out to the little church in Clancy, which is where grandpa attended since he’d been living in the nearby nursing home.
When Pastor Uda started reading my Grandpa’s stories (dictated years ago), I started crying, which took my by surprise because I’d held it together up until then.
I felt joyful to be celebrating his life and freedom from pain, and yet the magnitude of the fullness of his life struck me. There was so much there that we didn’t know or remember when we saw his failing old body.
He had been a striking young man, a hulk of a guy who set throwing records and played college football, and had his choice of women.
Yet he chose my Grandma LaVaughn (who was already married when they first met). Their story of falling in love, her leaving her alcoholic first husband, and marrying right before Herb shipped off to war is a remarkable one. She nursed him back to health after he came back with one eye missing and much more wounded than that.
For Herb’s 89th birthday my mom had a video made of his legacy, which they showed at the memorial. It was a beautiful testimony to a full life.
My cousin Nellie represented the grandkids by speaking about how he was always our biggest fan. He attended every sporting event he could, and got as involved as he could—even if it meant driving his van right up on the cross-country course.
How many 80-something grandparents e-mail their grandkids? Nellie said she got a priceless e-mail from him that read: “Nellie, I seem to have lost your e-mail address. (Yet somehow he managed to get this e-mail to her) Can you send it to me?”
His grandkids were his pride and joy and he told everyone everything we were up to—giving us superstar status.
At the reception the other grandkids shared impromptu how his life had affected us. Bell stood up and said it was an honor to have him as a part of their special event.
I agreed and said it was part of his amazing story that only God could have written.
No other event would have gotten us all together at once. Every good story has conflict and tension, and the overcoming of it. Grandpa displayed being an overcomer his whole life. He learned from his hardships and taught us to be life-long learners as well. I think one of the crowning accomplishments of his life was that he saw all five grandkids graduate from college. Not even death could keep grandpa down. Now he’s in heaven reunited with loved ones and his legacy lives on in each of us (as I wrote before, but think it’s worth remembering).