My Baby Boy

On October 30 several years ago my baby boy was born. I had been in labor about 16 hours, and then the doctor decided to do a C-section. Aaron was a beautiful baby--no hair, no teeth, big eyes, beautifully formed. He and I stayed in the hospital for eleven days.

When we went home, my mother came to stay with us and help with the baby. I remember on the first night while my mom was in the living room taking care of the baby, I was being a baby in the bedroom and crying about the fact that I didn't think I could "do this" as in be a mom, take care of baby, stay up at night, have any brain or wisdom to do the right thing. The funny thing is, I had been a director of a day care for about a year by then, and during that time, I knew everything. After the baby was born, I knew nothing.

Those first few weeks that I got to stay home with Aaron were wonderful. I remember a pastor's wife and her friend came to see the baby. He was sleeping and I didn't want them to wake him up (new mom worries). One of the women mention that he was really "laid back." At the time I didn't appreciate that comment, but as it turned out, Aaron does seem to be laid back a lot of the time. Still he doesn't get very wild or loud.

When Aaron turned three years old we were living in Arvada. He got a fire truck for his birthday that could be filled with water. Aaron's grandma and cousin were there for his birthday. Once he got water into the truck, he started spraying the yard, including Grandma, cousin, and Mom and Dad. He had a wonderful time. The rest of us had a pretty good time.

These are some of the things that make Aaron the person he is:

He is kind. He has helped many friends with money and moving.

He helps his parents. He helps me with cleaning and bringing in the groceries and sometimes will run an errand. He helps his dad with computer stuff and with mechanical and heavy things.

He is a hard worker, and he is one of the faster workers around. When he was a kid, if I wanted the garage cleaned in a hurry, he was the one I called on.

He was good to his grandma. He stayed with his grandma for several months when he was in college. He helped her with many things. She took care of him and he took care of her.

My husband and I have moved 26 times. Aaron has made it a point to help us every time except before he was born and a couple of moves when he lived too far away. He has always been our strong back and right-hand man.

He makes it a point to talk with his mom and dad. Most of the conversation between him and me is a little bit goofy with a lot of teasing, but sometimes we talk about very serious things.

He plays with the dog. Aaron sometimes stands in the hall, and when the dog is near, he kind of jumps and startles the dog who starts to run up and down the hall like a bat out of a cauldron.

He enjoys his sister. Sometimes when they are together, they still wrestle while sitting on the couch or in the back of the car. Not actual rolling around on the floor, but teasing until Jen cries like a baby girl or Dad says, "Don't make me come back there," to which Aaron replies, "Come on, Dad, I want to see you do it."

This day, October 30, is a day of good memories. And they keep going on.

Geese and Statue

The other day I passed by Loveland Lake which is next to the Loveland High School. There was a sculpture on the lawn between the lake and school of a football player in accoutrement dating back from the '40s. All around the football player was a flock of geese. Most were lying down. No one was touching anyone else.

I have questions. Were the geese just being companionable? Were they worshiping? Did they consider the man statue a friend, a leader, a team member, a god?

Later when I drove by again, the geese were gone. The man was still there, ready to throw the ball but never quite doing it.

It had been an interesting tableau.

13 Thursday Quotes from Colossians

My favorite book of the Bible is Colossians. Here are some meaningful phrases and verses.

1.We...do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. 1:9

2.That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. 1:10

3. [The Father] who hath delivered us into the kingdom of his dear Son. 1:13

4. [The dear Son] in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. 1:14

5.[Jesus] who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. 1:15

6. For by him [Jesus] were all things created. 1:16

7.As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. 2:6

8. Rooted and built up in him [Christ] and stablished in the faith. 2:7

9. For in him [Christ] dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 2:9

10. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. 3:2

11. And [ye] have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. 3:10

12. And let the peace of God rule your hearts. 3:15

13. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men. 3:23

To write or not to write

I wish I had something to say. I really want to blog.

I considered writing something political, but that takes more courage and oomph than I have right now.

I've thought about writing down some random thoughts, but I don't really have any.

I thought about writing about mishaps I've been involved in, but I don't want to.

I don't want to write about sex, marriage, toes, wrinkles, the dog, my kids, or me.

I do want to say that so far today while I've been at work, I have spilled down the front of my shirt three times. Some people wear their feelings on their faces. I wear mine on my shirt.

13 Thursday Acronyms from Law Enforcement

AFIS Automated Fingerprint Identification System

BAC Blood Alcohol Content

BOLO Be On the Look Out

DRE Drug Recognition Expert

DUS Drove Under Suspension

FTA Failure to Appear

FTC Failure to Comply

HTO Habitual Traffic Offender

ICE Immigration Customs Enforcement

PBT Portable Breath Test or Preliminary Breath Test

PIT Precision Intervention Technique or
Precision Immobilization Technique

REDDI Report Every Drunk Driver Immediately

SWAT Special Weapons And Tactics

A Found Friend

Recently a person I knew back in high school and college made contact with me. He had found my blog and through it my daughter's email. He emailed her and asked her to forward some info to me from him. It was quite a surprise to hear from him since it has been forty, yes forty, years since I have seen him. He and his family had moved from Pueblo to Bemidji, Minnesota in the '60s, and after that he and his brother had come back to Pueblo to visit my family when I was in college. He and I are going to write to each other and talk about old times and old memories.

Memories of the past are both changeable and set in stone. While we remember people, places, times and events, it's possible we don't remember them exactly right. Also I have a tendency not to want to meet up with people whom I haven't seen for a long time because I know that the memories they have of the young me are probably so much better than the reality of the older me is. I don't want to ruin the way people remember me by letting the "now" me interfere.

I guess when we meet old friends in Heaven it won't matter how much we had changed on earth because in Heaven "we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is." I look forward to that.

4 Things

Jessican tagged me to do this. I'm afraid it's not very interesting. But that's my life!

Four Places I Go Over and Over:
1. Work at the Sheriff's Office
2. Church
3. King Soopers
4. Gas station

Four People Who E-mail Me:
1. Jen
2. Beth at work
3. Aunt Io
4. Iona S.

Four Places I'd Rather Be Right Now:
1. A cabin in the mountains
2. A motel in Denver
3. In bed
4. A nice restaurant

Four Things I Have for Breakfast:
1. Eggs
2. Waffles
3. Coffee
4. French toast

Four Animals I Like Best:
1. Dogs
2. Baby elephants
3. Baby rhinos
4. Kittens

Four Beaches I've Been to:
I've only been to the ocean a few times. I don't recall names of the beaches.
1. California
2. Florida
3. The Great Salt Lake (not an ocean)
4. A huge lake in Georgia (not an ocean)

Four People I'm Tagging to Do The Four Things:
1. Ralph
2. Simone
3. Fredricka
4. Conan

Mrs. Brown, you have a lovely daughter

My daughter, Jen, was born 29 years ago! I don't get how she can be this old when I am still a spring chicken.

After Jen was born while she and I were still in the hospital (8 days), Gary and I had thought about naming her Rachel Joy or Jennifer Christine. I did not think Gary and I had made a definite decision. My husband thought we had definitely decided. After Jen's birth, he went to make phone calls and told everyone that we had a baby girl and her name was Jennifer Christine.

When he came and told me what he had told the family, I said that I didn't think that we had decided on the name yet. He said, "Do you want me to go and call everyone back and change it?" I said no, I liked "Jennifer Christine". It was and is a good name.

Jen, as she is now known, was a wonderful, expressive baby. She was a little jewel. She is still a jewel.

Some of the qualities that make Jen who she is:

dramatic and expressive
tender and sensitive
godly
thoughtful
opinionated
bossy (she got the gene)
tall
joyful
beautiful
a small nose (When she was about 3 or 4, she said, "Mom, I hope I never get a nose like yours.")
deep
laughing to point of making everyone else laugh with her
smart
worrier
takes care of others

When Jen was about two years old, I gave her a perm because her hair was so fine and straight. I remember her lying on the counter in the kitchen while I followed the steps. I kept telling her that her hair was going to be beautiful--just wait a little longer. When we were finished, her hair was very frizzy but very cute. The trouble was that the frizz left after a couple of weeks. The smell stayed longer so that every time we washed her hair we could smell the perm.

When she was in kindergarten, she pinched someone because she/he wouldn't stay in line. Even in the nursery at church when she was one year old, she told the other little kids where to sit. There was another little girl who was also bossy, and they had a few conflicts.

Now Jen is a wonderful school teacher. She is involved in her church's praise team. She works with the school yearbook. She has many talents and uses them to reach people and to glorify the Lord. I am very proud of her.

Christian School Teaching

I taught Christian school for over 20 years. I would have to say I tried my best to teach the truth of God's Word most of the time. I can't absolutely say always because I'm sure there must have been times when I didn't teach everything correctly...but I tried.

I taught students that we are all sinners and have no hope of Heaven except through the love of Christ as expressed in His death on the cross. We are all equal as sinners and cannot save ourselves. This means we are equal whether we lie, are proud, take God's name in vain, participate in sexual deviation, murder or steal a dime out of a purse. No one has a claim to righteousness on his own account.

I know that some people think that if a person hates a certain sin, then he also must hate the person who is involved in the sin. Now, because we are fallible humans, that may end up being the case for some people. They cannot separate loving a person from hating his sin. And yet parents have to do this very thing all the time. They love their children no matter what, but they they still punish their children for disobedience, lying, backtalk, etc. God tells us to love people but not to love sin...ours or anyone else's.

Through the Scripture that we memorized in class, I taught that we should be humble (not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought), to be submissive to one another (think on the things of others), to be kind and tenderhearted, to put God first (in all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths).

I taught students to have the mind of Christ, to obey the laws, to be happy and joyful in the Lord, to follow God's will, to be involved in Church (the whole New Testament was written to and about churches or church members), to judge not lest we be judged, to respect other people, to witness and be a testimony for Christ.

I taught students that God's word says not to lie, steal, commit adultery, take the Lord's name in vain and to love God with the whole heart and the other commandments. Does these mean that I taught students to live and gain salvation by their works? Never! I taught that Scripture said that all our righteousness was as dirty rags. We are saved by grace and we are to live by grace, following the directions of God's Word for righteous, daily living.

From some of the things I've heard from various students, they claim to have been taught to hate others for their sins, to be judgmental, to live a list with nothing being taught about abiding and living by grace. I say those claims are NOT true at least from my perspective.

I personally do have trouble with pride and being judgmental at times. God still has to work on me all the time. Sometimes I think I would rather live as a hermit. It seems like that would be easier. But God does not have that plan for me. I wouldn't like it anyway.

I know I have been haranguing this morning. Please forgive. Remember God is always good and never makes mistakes. He always loves us in spite of our sin and problems. He is a wonder.

13 Thursday Finishes to Proverbs by Kids

1.Don't change horses - until they stop running.
2.You can lead a horse to water but - How?
3.Don't bite the hand that - looks dirty.
4.You can't teach an old dog new - Math
5.If you lie down with dogs, you'll - stink in the morning.
6.The pen is mightier than the - pigs.
7.Where there's smoke there's - pollution.
8.A penny saved is - not much.
9.Two's company, three's - the Musketeers.
10.Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and - You have to blow your nose.
11.Children should be seen and not - spanked or grounded.
12.When the blind lead the blind - get out of the way.
13.A bird in the hand - is going to poop on you.

Home from the War

Well, Gary came home from the hospital this afternoon. There was a lot of unplugging, disconnecting, signing and explaining. He's glad to be home--better in some ways; harder in others. He still has a tube in his back coming from the kidney and draining into a bag.

The doctor gave these orders for going home. Don't lift or bend. Don't do dishes or vacuum for six months. And don't ever do lawn work again. Funny man.

The war has been won, but a few small skirmishes still have to be fought. It's good to have everyone home.

Hospital

A place of healing
A place of noise
A place of movement
A place of frenetic activity
A place of talking
A place of walking
A place of waiting
A place of stress
A place of sleeping
A place of waking
A place of learning
A place of minding other people's business
A place of trying to do the exact right thing for a sick person and sometimes succeeding
A place of getting to know some hospital people after two surgeries and visiting for 25 hours
A place of finding the cleanest restrooms and eating cheap and sometimes tasty food
A place of hellos, goodbyes, kisses, hugs, laughing, joking, causing irritation and reminding many people of many things
A place of going from "bad to worse" to "okay" to "good" to "help" to "leave me alone" to "it hurts" to "why did she have to do that right now"

A place where generally things get better while being accompanied by pain--a good and necessary place