Okay So I Got Tagged

So our friend Linda sends me this email telling me I have to pick a picture from my fourth picture file and the fourth picture in that file and then write about it. So I goes to the fourth file, and scan down to the fourth picture and what do you suppose I find...well this one.















This is my most favorite picture of Mimi and I. We were on our way to New York, waiting in a pub at PDX. I had my laptop open and and snapped a picture in Photo Booth.

Now I love it because first of all, Mimi looks so beautiful in this pic. I mean she is beautiful all the time, but she looked especially so here. I look...happy. We look happy. What's cool is that we were happy.

This was day one of what would be a 10 week break for me. I had worked so hard to try and be prepared to leave and I really felt good about leaving. So this is a special picture for me. I wish it were one I had taken on my good camera...but it kind of adds to the specialness of the picture.

So, there you go, Mimi and Pa off on a bigtime adventure, happy, content, and still very much in love.

How Did We All Get Here?

Well, if you are a follower of the Adventures of Mimi and Pa you will know that in June we got to go to the UK for a trip of a lifetime. Our most favorite time and place while we were there was our chance encounter with Trevor Morriss in Conwy Wales. I wrote about him being a brother from a different mother...and he is.

Well last night we got to go into Portland to see him play with his music partner Paul. Their band is called Matching Ties (www.matchingties.com). They were here in the States to play in Idaho, Montana, and Oregon. Trevor had a friend from his past that lived in Portland and she scheduled a couple gigs for them on this side of our fair state while they were here.

So, what a great time we had listening to their music and catching up with them before and after their music. Trevor is a really truly great guy...and they are both phenomenal musicians.

But what was so random was...we had met Trevor in the little town of Conwy. He met his friend in a Kibutz in Israel back in the early 70's. Trevor met Paul randomly in Munich. And also there last night was a guy named Steve whom Paul met randomly in Italy. And there we all were together...all randomly knowing each other..and yet all of us just hit it off so well.

How does this happen? It is so cool the way people get to know each other. We talked and laughed and shared stories...what a joy. Now I have some new brothers and sisters from different mothers.

No Country for Old Men

Sooooooo...it has been a long and crazy week. As we speak Chloe is on her way home from the Hospital...Mimi and Pa are relieved and so thankful...on many levels. We of course are so thankful for her speedy recovery and how well she is doing. It is a miracle what God has done to bring about healing for this precious little girl. But the relief comes in another form as well...our two favorite grandsons will be heading home.
Now don't get me wrong...we have loved having them at our house...they are a joy and a delight. But they flat wear a person right out...I mean...they can make a grown man cry with delight when they finally go to bed...whew!!!!!! It is a red wine kind of night when the two little buzz saws finally stop their spinning. Wow!

Now today...well it was an awesome day. Pa took the boys...and their Uncle Boomer (Jacob) to the new Space Museum and IMax theater today (www.evergreenspacemuseum.com) and did we ever have an awesome time. We saw the entire history of space exploration and an awesome 3D movie about the space station...it was so cool. But I tell you...I was shot/spent/toast/fried/pummeled when we got home. I put Aidan down for a nap, Jackson I parked in front of a movie (the best babysitter) and Boomer and I crashed.
It was exhausting. But tonight...it will be quiet...no coming into Mimi and Pa's bed in the morning...no pancakes together for breakfast...
I wonder when we HAVE to watch them again?

Okay...It Is A Miracle

So Chloe has been returned to us...and she looks fantastic. They have opened her head, removed parts of her skull, reworked what needed to be done, put her head back together...and she's fine...no better than fine...she's perfect. How is that possible? Who thinks they can actually do this and get away with it. To be so secure...or arrogant to assure us that they can do all of this to our little Chloe and actually return her to us better than when she went in.
It is an overwhelming thought...that those who are created in the image of God, can be endowed with the gifts of God, to be the healer and fixer of a little girls head. I can only hope that they give credit to God for their skill and gift every day. To try and claim anything else would be blasphemous. Thank you God for creating us in your image...especially Dr Wehby.

Chloe's Adventure

Well today is a really important day for Mimi and Pa...but especially for our precious little grand daughter Chloe...or as Aidan likes to call her...Coco. She is here today at Emmanuel hospital in Portland to have surgery to correct her skull...two of her plates are fused together...and reshape her eye sockets. She is in the hands of one of the finest surgeons in the country...but more importantly...she is in the hands of a God who loves her.
It's a weird thing to think of turning your child or grandchild over to the care and control of another. It was a very weird moment watching my little girl have to release control of her little girl. No one really is prepared for that moment...that decision...that complete abandon. It is a huge adventure...but it's an adventure in faith. After knowing all the facts, reading all the information, being assured that the very best people are doing the job...you still have to actually let go of her.
We will keep you posted on her progress...we're sure she will be fine...but it is at moments like this that you want to know she is in the hands of a loving God. Protect her Lord.

Something New

Hey check out my new blog called "The Walker's Journal". It is just more musings on the world and life from someone slowly walking through it. See ya all soon.

Ahhhhh...Morro Bay

Okay, I can't believe I used to live here. Morro Bay is awesome...why did I ever leave? Oh yeah, seven years of drought and no work...thats the way it was in 1991.
So, we heads on down from Santa Cruz to Morro Bay. Before we leave we stops off and get some goddies for Van (the Man)...(our bus) at a great VW shop in Santa Cruz. Now Van is 17 years old and we felt as if he might be needing a little support you know...so we gets him a...well it is a Manzere...you know a Bro...well okay its called a bra. Something to keep him snug and firm...and keep the rocks and bugs out of his teeth.
So any way, we have a great trip to Morro Bay...down the Salinas Valley and up and over the hills through Paso Robles...and down into God's greatest air conditioner...the Central Coast. So when it is eight hundred degrees in the valley, that heat draws moisture from the Pacific Ocean and cools off the coast. Now if your here looking to add to your skin cancer...forget it...it's cold and foggy...most of the summer. Come back on Thanksgiving day...it will be sunny.
But it is so refreshing to me...so...well its so cool. I mean cool not cool.
So of course we have no reservations any where...we're really gamblers at heart. But in the summer time the beaches are filled with the direct descendants of dust bowl farmers who all landed in Bakersfield, or Fresno, or Selma, or Ripon...you would swear the dust bowl had hit again. They come to the coast with trailors piled high with tentage and 14 bicycles per truck.
So the likelyhood of getting some place was slim. We checked two or three places and they had nothing. But then we called a place that was right on the beach, right next to The Rock (this and the PGE stacks are the landmarks for MB) and lo and behold...they had a spot for us. We snagged it pronto and came and set ourselves up for two nights of MB, Los Osos, and San Luis Obispo fun times.
We went to Los Osos and found all the places we lived when we lived here. We went to SLO and saw all the places we lived when we lived there. We also went to the courthouse cause Mimi needed to get a copy of our marriage license so she can actually become a real Wertz (another long story). It was hilarious...it listed my occupation as Gas Station Attendant...I can't believe I didn't say I was Oil Technition or something. I now know why Mimi's mom and dad were so against us getting married.
It is strange to come back and see things so different, and yet so many exactly the same.This place has exploded with new stores and shopping centers. We went to the world famous farmers market in downtown SLO. They close of about eight blocks of the main downtown street for tons of farmers, vendors, and food places. There were literally thousands of people walking up and down the streets...it was like a street fair. We bought some food and went over to the creek and sat on a bench and watched the water trickle down towards the ocean. It was so quiet and peaceful...while only a half a block away...it was a madhouse.
This was the creek my kids used to come and play in during the summer. Mimi and her frienf Helyn would bring the kids to the Mission and let the kids play in the creek while they connected about their lives. The kids would play and fight...you know just be kids.
As we sat on that bench and ate our food, we reminisced about our lives when we were much younger. We reflected upon the fact that the more things change...like SLO had...the more it stays the same. People making memories, building stories, processing and growing, and changing. And yet for one moment in time...we were so there again. I could even smell the gas and oil stained work clothes of a kid who had just met the girl of his dreams...oh my...the places you will go.