Small pieces of my brain, slightly jumbled, and written down.

I leave in three days... Jube wonders, "are we gonna let her go!?". "Grandpa says we have to."
That's right! Make Dad the villain! :)
 We have a nasty cold going around here. So far I've gotten by with a little sore throat and headache (yay for vit. C! I think I over did it a little today... 7000 mg. :P But hey, if it kicks this cold it'll be great with me! And I'd rather swallow vitamins than eat garlic any day!)
 *She did actually put garlic in her eggs this morning, but she's not admitting to that fact at this point. She realizes that when she gets truly worried about being sick at inconvenient times she tends to go slightly crazy with her granola idea's. She is the women who downed a hot cup of peppermint tea and ate a piece of very burnt toast one time when trying to kill a nasty stomachache flu in 8 hours. It worked. But if you think it's easy to eat burnt toast when you have a stomachache, go try it yourself!*
 Tomorrow we're going to get the house work done up by noon and go spend the afternoon with Mae Wahn... Sounds like the plan is to go to the Night Safari. We tried, four or five different times, to go up to the Elephant Camp and it just didn't ever work. So we gave up. :)
*************************************************************************
 Thursday Morning
 Woke up this morning to a positively chilling day. Lance your new sweatshirt is quite lovely and warm! :)
 Lisl made pancakes for breakfast and we sat around the picnic table and ate them.
Me: "Jube do you know what frostbite is?"
Jube: "Noooo."
Me: "It's when the cold gets so cold it BITES you!!!"
Jube: Totally loses interest, gives me one blank look, and goes on with life.
 Poor kid has become completely hardened to my random, odd, declarations about life in general. :)
*************************************************************************
Thursday Night
 Had a lovely evening with Mae Wahn, here's pictures. I'm off to bed. Have a great weekend! -Frank
 P.S. I fly home on the 15th, I'd love to have your prayers! Thanks :)

I ate this thing!?

Yeah, actually, I did. I surprised myself even. I'm the person who will at least try any food I've ever heard of excepting eyeballs and worms/grubs/caterpillars. (God didn't make eye's and worms for eating. They're for seeing, and for being gross.) But I'm still slightly surprised that I ate that squid! And it wasn't even that bad. But LOOK at that ^ eeeewww!!!!!!

Thai Pics 7

Thailand Pics 7

Wabi-sabi

Tourist

I've been enjoying being the tourist off and on here. I think Dru's are getting a kick out of showing me around too. :) We went to the zoo  Saturday. It's a lovely zoo boasting: "Chiang Mai Zoo aquarium, an aquatic living museum that boasts South East Asia’ s longest sea tunnel that allows fresh water and salt water creatures to lives under the same roof. As one of the planet’s great ecosystems with nearly 2,000 species of marine creature lives awaits you."

I think my favorite animal was actually the Leopard, it was a lovely, sleek and healthy looking animal. It surprised me (which was kinda dumb) how the animals that usually look sad in our zoo's at home were healthy and thriving, but the animals from home, were sad looking.  

  This Saturday Dru's are taking me on a border run to renew my Visa. I'm looking forward to seeing more of Thailand.

A "big, happy day".

I woke up this morning when the "looster" crowed, loudly, about 10 feet from my head. And fell back to sleep promptly. Was the first night in many moons that I've slept for 10 hours. Was simply wonderful!
 After I got up I sat and groggily watched from the kitchen step while Lisl put chocolate chip muffins in the oven. Then Mom asked us to join a google hang out (video chat) and lo and behold there was a living room full of people to talk to! Including a few Lattins, was quite nice to "see" everybody again. : )
 The weather was beyond gorgeous today, I did a couple loads of laundry and got a kick out of watching the wind whip it around all afternoon. When  Halla woke up from her morning nap I took her straight outside to see the lovely weather. She was just as impressed as I was, and nicely pretended to know exactly what I was talking about when I exclaimed over the "wind in the trees, and a blue, blue sky and sunshine!!!". It had just poured down big drops of rain for a little bit too so everything was washed, fresh and cool.
 I asked Lisl (who was sitting at the picnic table with her babies, soaking it all in) when I carried the first load out, if she had any idea how blessed we are. On days like today it always amazes me how I can be so happy when I know so many people who have big, hard things they're facing. Had to think of my cousin and her husband who are going through something very very hard and unfathomable to me, doesn't seem quite fair that I get this much happiness. I'd gladly give them my happy for a while. May God bless them richly with His joy.
This evening we went over to the Airport Plaza (a mall) to meet Mae Wahn for the evening. Twas a lovely, wonderful, amazing evening. There is a link at the bottom of this post to the pictures on Lisl's blog.
 We went inside the mall to eat pizza. Pizza Company has the best pizza. If ever you come to Chaing Mai you should definitely try it. I'd tell you that you should try certain Thai foods too, but I can't ever remember what they're called. Let alone spell the names correctly! :) I think the one I'm going to miss the most though is just plain old chicken and sticky rice. It's comfort food. It makes your heart content and happy. And the only way to eat it is sitting Indian style on the floor, in a circle with good friends.
I think perhaps when I get home I'm going to make it for the youth group and make them sit on the floor in a circle to eat it. :)
Okay, back off the rabbit trail, to the mall... All down the middle of the mall there are a bunch of college-aged kids wrapping a carousal, a ferris wheel, and something else, (I don't remember what the other thing was) in florist blocks. And they have buckets and buckets of hundreds of flowers and ceder, waiting to completely cover them with. The cedar and flowers are real too, the smell made me miss the cabin.
 There is a food festival going on outside of the mall too right now. There are lots and lots and lots of food booths. You go and pick what you'd like to eat and either take it home to eat, or sit right down there at one of the 100 or 200 or so little round, yellow, tables and eat it. Dru and I picked out some Sushi to take home.  The Sushi was a first for me. And yes I liked it! : ) Although I'd be great with it not having an aftertaste.
 Lisl and Dru have the babies tucked into bed and I should head that way too.
 Here is the link to Lisl's blog.
God is very good to me! -Frank
 Quote of the day (taken from Explorers of the Nile): "We let the streams flow on and do not inquire whence they rise, or whither they flow". -Chief Kesembe
 I'm not sure why that phrase in particular caught my eye at first. But I've been thinking about it since.  How often do we need to take it in simple faith that God loves to bless us. And learn to just "let the stream flow on and not inquire whence it rises, and whither it flows". I think too often we feel we have to earn God's blessings and know why we're getting them. God simply loves to bless us. 

The Tourist and The Tree

            (This story is not related to The Princess and the Pea)

                                                                   ~ Francis R Graber~

I love Wisconsin but I have a couple terrible problems with it. For instance, everywhere you look there are trees, dogs, and cows. It’s bad, very bad.

   I was walking along reading my newspaper this morning, “Loose cow on 42”nd street was chased by neighborhood dogs.”, and BOOM, I ran into a tree!

  Not only do you have tree’s, you have sneaky little tree’s, the kind that you run into and get slapped in the face with. You turn around, fist flying, ready to defeat the foe, and discover a what? A tree!

  I really think that native northerners have some sort of tree radar built into them.

You know, “beep, beep, beep, BEEP”.

 None of you bother to tell the tourist where they could get one though. You’re full of information about the latest bear invasion, who shot the biggest white tailed deer, and who caught the latest whopper of a musky on Lac Courte Oreilles. But do you tell us about getting a tree radar? Na, you think, let ‘em die.

  I walked into a tourist shop the other day. “Voices of the North” or something like that was the name. Guess what hit me in the face, (figuratively this time, good thing too, I’d probably have sued).  A post card with “If it’s tourist season, why can’t we shoot them?” written across it in big bold letters. These things hurt my feelings!

   How would you like if you’d visit Hawaii and walk into your first tourist shop and see something like that? No, never mind, you don’t have feelings.

   I take that back, you all seem to have a thing about dogs. Little tiny dogs, big dogs, ugly dogs, dog’s that you look at twice to decide if you know what species they’re from, yeah, all kinds of dogs. You also have a thing with letting them run loose.

   I jumped out of my car the other morning at an old farm house to ask if I could take a picture of their back pasture. And I declare I heard someone sneeze, “sic ‘em”, loud and clear, don’t ask me why they didn’t bother to call off their dog.  Then suddenly this dog, this HUGE dog, came galloping around the corner of the porch. I saw that he was headed in for the kill and I took off for my car.

   It was a long lane and there was a huge mud puddle in the middle of it so I’d parked my car and walked the rest of the way in. As I was running I suddenly remembered this puddle and veered to the left to avoid ruining my 300$, specially bought for WI, hiking boots.   

   I have a word of warning to all tourists, never, ever, veer.

 Remember those trees? Well the granddaddy of all trees was watching this whole display and decided to come get a closer look. And we both happened to be going in the same direction.

 I now have a brand new nose and a cast on my left arm for everybody here to sign. I also have a new pair of pants. That dog must have been pretty hungry.

 I do not have a thing for dogs. I hate trees.

And you have snow! The kind that is cold! I’m not a very big fan of snow. I like when it’s in its proper places, on the north and south poles where I can look at pictures of penguins and polar bears serenely playing in it. But if you ask me it does NOT belong in the USA.

 Neither do I like to step out of my nice warm house into that freezing stuff.

The other day I went outside and suddenly my flip-flop shod feet were frozen solid, rock hard solid. And as if that wasn’t enough I slipped on the icy doorstep and went flying lickety-split down the street.

 I do NOT like redheaded boys. They laugh at tourists who are flying down icy, snow covered streets in Hawaiian shirts and flip-flops. I DO like redheaded little girls. They beat merrily on little boys heads with hockey sticks. I find this to be very, very funny.

It makes me happy.

 When I have kids of my own I’m going to bring them up here sometime and have them show you how to properly treat a tourist and a new comer.

  One time when I was a little boy my folks decided to take me up to MN for a year. I tried to convince them that I was happy right where I was but they must have decided that a year of sheer torture would be good for me because we left three days later.

 I’m afraid they didn’t realize what a dark and horrible memory that year would be for me.  Neither did they have any suspicion as to how much money they would end up paying for my psychological help for the next few years. On the other hand they probably knew about the doctor’s bill’s they would have for my broken limbs. They always did say that I was the clumsiest kid around.

  The neighbor hood children were husky Norwegians who liked nothing better than picking on poor unsuspecting little new comers. Unless it was putting tacks in the teachers chairs, or watching their younger siblings lick the silo ladder at 20 below zero.

  My first introduction to their type of humor was Hans asking me if I’d ever been cow tipping. Considering the fact that I’d never even seen a real live cow, let alone “tipped” one, I had to admit that I had not. 

 He invited me over night the next night and told me to bring a sleeping bag and flashlight with. When I asked him if I should bring a tent too he smirked at me and said “what, think you can fit a cow in it?”.  I turned beet red and hightailed it home.

 The next day I came to school trembling with fear and feeling slightly nauseated. The nausea part got worse when I found out that he’d invited half the school to come see the new kid go cow tipping.

 That night after supper the boys all dug out their sleeping backs and flashlights and headed out to the back pasture. Hans’ Dad had built a campfire out there and we sat around telling spooky stories till about midnight…  A lil’ after that one of the boys said, “hey Hans, there's a cow over there”. I looked up with big eye’s to behold not a docile cow like the pictures showed, but a hippo, a very large hippo. 

 This hippo was standing chewing her cud quietly and she looked as if let alone, she would stay on her side of the pasture. My nausea came very close to causing me to throw up when I heard that cow tipping was meant literally. I was to walk up to the hippo, and push her over. “Only takes a little shove”.

 I took my flashlight bravely in hand and headed out across the field, the other boy’s lights following me as I went. I’m proud to say that I did not scream loud enough for the boys to hear when I stepped in the first “cow pie”, I’m afraid I did scream pretty loudly though when I stepped in the thistle, and then again when I shone my light over towards the hippo and discovered that there was not only one, but millions of hippos watching me as I made my long and painful journey across that field.

  Hippos do not tip over easily. It took a very hard shove to get any sort of reaction other than an unhappy moo from her… When she finally did react it was by slapping her tail in my face and giving me a hard kick at the same time.

 I toppled on the ground with a howl, leaped to my feet, and began flying across the field towards the distant fire. Cows can fly. They can fly very fast, and they prefer traveling in herds. 

 The boys by the fire had commenced a sort of shrieking laughter that reminded me horribly of the laughter they were describing in the spooky stories. That and the Indian war jig they were dancing around the fire combined with the flying hippos was enough to send me into a state of complete hysteria. 

 Mom and Dad had a hard time talking the psychiatrist out of enrolling them as well when they told him the story a few months later.

 However, the point of this meeting isn't to discuss my dark and miserable youth. 

 It’s to discuss you, ahem. (Drum roll please!)

 How many of you read blogs and don’t comment? Okay, let me re-word that.

I’d like everyone to please close your eyes. Now. I wanna see a show of hands.

Ah, I thought so… Bother. This is going to call for several more evenings worth of meetings. 

Taking Steps

Today was a count-your-happy-things sort of day for me.

<> The quick smile at a girl my age as we zoomed down the same road. Her's was just as big.
<> The happy conversation with Mae Wahn while sitting on her floor and looking at old pictures. She told me a little bit about when she was younger. She first went to Bangkok to find a job when she was my age, younger maybe. She said she was 18. That sounds big and scary to me. Wow. She had relatives in Bangkok though, so that helped.
<> Pii Phone stopped in this evening and asked if I'd like to go with her to the place she works. So we hopped onto the motor-bike with Halla in-between and went. It was fun to get out and see. After we got back we (Dru's and I) packed up a cake and ice-cream and went over to her house for an hour.
<> I had two different Thai people look at me with surprise when heard that my name was Frank. I thought that was kinda funny because none of the others knew it was a boy's name. "It's a good thing to have a different name." :) Yeah, I've always kinda gotten a kick out of the fact that it's a boys name.
 Today, amidst the enjoyment of Thai smiles it hit me hard how much I'm missing the English ones. (A huge thank-you to the two Sarah's who took the time to talk to me today, you have no idea how much that meant!) Lisl asked me if I'd like to go over and spend a few days with Sarah Brown and sit in on some IGo classes this week... I might. But it sounds scary to me.
Which is odd. Because I'm the girl who hopped on a motor-bike with a Thai lady I've only seen a few times, and we only understand a few words of each others languages, without hesitation. And thoroughly enjoyed myself.
 I think ultimately it comes to acceptance. The Thai people have been kind and friendly and interested in me. To the American kids I'm just another American.
 I think it's easy for people (including myself) to forget to look beyond the happy face, the name, how many siblings they have, and if they've been to Thailand before. And think about where that person is in life and what their needs might be.
  Sitting in church today, soaking in the happy fact that God has shown the way for a step in my life, it suddenly occurred to me that I need to keep moving forward. Life isn't about taking a step, then stopping in your tracks and glorying in that fact. It's about taking a step, thanking the Lord, and taking another.
 I was praying, and asking about the next step, and I think I discovered today that one of my next steps is learning to notice the needs of others more, and better. I'm a talker, and I do allot of it. But how often do I ask the other person how they are, really truly, deep inside.  Holding someone's hand as they take the next step can mean the world to them. 

Things I've Learned Today

  1. Thai sun is very sunshiny... watches that will cause odd stripes on one's arm (should one happen to get a sunburn), should not be worn when one is planning to spend their morning driving about.
2. Elephant's heads are prickly.
3. Elephants do not scare me any more than horses ever did. I find this to be odd... (horses impress me with their size, but I am not scared of them).
4. Thai countryside is gloriously lush and beautiful.
5. When one wants to get the very best juice one should go to the little road side shop in Mae Wahn's village and ask for naam sap-bpa-rot (pineapple juice).
6. Riding in the back of a truck (after a coffee break at an air conditioned coffee shop) with your sister (and you happen to be a WI logger's girls), holds joys closely akin to chocolate and caramel.
6. (Yes, I realize I used six twice, this is just the other half of the first six). How to spell caramel.
7. When one gets home and washes off all of the sweat, one feels very happy deep within one's being and working in the yard on a sunshiny day makes a person feel gloriously spoiled.
8. The neighbor's college aged boy is home for a two weeks. He speaks enough English to make you nervous about talking, about him, in front of him, to your sister.
9. When one is climbing about de-limbing a tree it is best to make quite sure that your left hand is far away from the saw... It is also wise to not allow said saw to bounce. It can cause rather hamburgery looking cuts... even if the cut does happen to be small and virtually insignificant.
10. Bpaa Duan shall never allow me to forget that she named me Ky-Mook. (I'm fine with this, as long as she keeps remembering to call me Ky-Mook several times in a row just to make me smile and nod, I'm happy. It means she is forgetting to ask me to count to ten for her). I love Bpaa Duan btw, and shall miss her when I go home. She's been kind and friendly to me, beyond what the average middle aged American would have been to an 18 year old Thai girl.
11. Lisl makes marvelous pancakes. (I actually knew this before, but it was firmly reestablished in my mind tonight).
12. One of Jimmy's sons is back. He is small. I shall wait to remove him until tomorrow.
13. God is very good to me!

Critters, Thai Study, Ladies Meeting, And The Market

*Critters

There is a cross-eyed frog staring at me. I find this disturbing. And I’m seriously considering going over and turning him face-about. I don’t care if it is only a toy frog.

Jube and his friends found the frog who had been making tropical noises outside of my window last evening. I didn’t hear any noises last night. If you can’t figure out why, you haven’t been around little boys very much. The funny part is that Jube still has some sort of frog residue on his hands. It’s black, and acts like pitch. But it’s not really sticky. Odd.

They found a Tokay gecko too. “When the Tokay bites, they often won't let go for a few minutes or even up to an hour or more, and it is very difficult to remove without causing harm to the gecko. For this reason, it is considered to be best as an ornamental animal for experienced reptile owners.”-Wiki

The Tokay is a very large gecko, the males can get up to 20 inches long. Some of them are a brilliant blue, with bright orange spots. The one the boys found is dead now.

I killed a large cockroach, with bug spray, and a plastic cup. While Jube stood by and said in comforting tones (to the large cockroach). "That’s okay, it will be all right. That’s okay...".

I think I’ve removed all of Jimmy’s family from my room for the time being. This I love.

*Thai Class

Yesterday when Pii Ang got here we discovered that I’d studied the wrong lesson. This was disturbing to me. I’m not a confidant student by far, and studying the wrong lesson is very addling to my poor brain. On the whole I’ve really enjoyed it though. Right now I’m not sure how much farther I want to go with it, since I pretty much know everything thing I’m actually going to use. So we shall see what happens with that.

*Ladies Meeting

Lisl and I went to ladies meeting this morning. Twas very nice. Joyce had a lovely table set when we walked in the door and a yummy breakfast prepared. My Mom would describe Joyce’s house as “a lovely, gracious, home”. And it’s every bit true.

The ladies are lovely women too. I was sitting there hearing the talk going on. And it occurred to me that ladies like these are the role models for we young “plain” girls. Gracious women who’s goal in life is to stand behind their men, be encouragers to all, and glorify the Lord.  I’ve had virtually no youth interaction since being here and its been a growing time for me in realizing how many trivial things there are that I as a young person am inclined to cling to.

*Market

We all piled into/onto the truck the other day, dropped the babies off at Mae Wahns, and Dru went to a coffee shop, while Lisl and I went fabric shopping and explored the market. It was one of those times when you suddenly discover that you’re completely spoiled and life is good. I got a beautiful piece of blue fabric and some presents for home people.

We found roses and orchids and gerbera daisies to make bouquets with… While slurping two different stands versions of strawberry shakes. Mine was too better Lisl!(Mine had a distinct gelatin flavor, this is not a bad thing. I’m the person who always liked the grape flavored children's Motrin).  And when we were done we went and found Dru hiding in an air conditioned coffee shop. Eating cheese cake. And we informed him in one unanimous breath that we wanted double cheese burgers and fries. So we went and found a McDonalds. We drove about on one-way back roads, going the wrong direction, and pretending that we couldn’t read any of the signs. Because we’re farangs of course, so we don’t know what a one-way sign looks like, ahem.

We found a parking lot, and after the gentleman in a uniform made Dru get back in and park between the lines *giggle*, we walked through the ritzy hotel and finally found a McDonalds. If ever you decide that you’re sick of “gross fast food cheeseburgers and fries” try going for a month without any form of beef. That meal was heaven on earth. : )

So goes my life in Thailand. God is very good to me! –Francis

Thai Pics 5

bhttps://picasaweb.google.com/Frog.graber/Thailand502

Gecko's, Ice Cubes, and the Third Step Up

 Once upon a time there was an Auntie who said she'd babysit her niece and nephew for an evening (which she did). While the parents of these children were gone she decided she needed a drink of ice water.

 So she opened the freezer door. That's normal right? To open a freezer door to get ice?

 Upon opening the freezer door she noticed a lightning-quick, gecko-like, movement. That's normal right? Gecko's in the freezer?

*Wait a minute here... um, gecko. freezer. gecko in freezer. GECKO in FREEZER!!!!!!* 

 So Auntie did the only thing any good Auntie would do, she moved into survival mode. (Survival mode is where you jump to the side of the freezer while deciding rapidly whether to leave the door open or slam it quickly and allow said gecko to freeze to death.)

 Thankfully, for the gecko, this Auntie was somewhat of a greeny and very much of a let's-not-cause-poor-stupid-animals-unnecessary-pain sort of person, so she left the door open.

 She watched with great interest while the gecko slowly approached the door. (Actually she kinda played peek a boo with it. Considering that gecko's are small and easily frightened she figured that it would leave the freezer more quickly if it couldn't see her, ahem.) Upon reaching the ledge where the freezer blows freezing air at the frozen food. Friend gecko froze (figuratively). The reason for this was simple. Gecko's are cold blooded creatures and all of that freezing air slowed him down.

 So Auntie, with her poor trembling animal loving heart, did the only human thing she could think of. She blew at it. Hard. In hopes that the warm air would over power the cold. It didn't work. Because, believe it or not. There was more cold air blowing from the freezer, than there was warm air blowing from Aunties mouth.

 So Auntie moved into kind and loving, ulterior motives for being nice to nephew, mode and hollered up the stairs: "Hey Jubers! Come down here, quick! I have a gecko for you to catch!"

 Jubers opened the door slowly after a third summons from Auntie and replied: "A gecko for me to catch! I'm comin'!

 Auntie explained carefully to him that this gecko wasn't feeling so good, so he had to be gentle gentle, and carry the gecko straight outside.

 She placed his stool in front of the freezer, pointed out (from a distance) where the gecko was, and informed him that she was going to go open the door for him. Which she did... and then she retreated to the third step to the upstairs to watch him carry it out. (This, of course, was only for the purpose of being out of his way, ahem. :P )

 And after he carried the gecko out she washed his hands with soap and water.

 But now Auntie has a problem to solve (because she's kinda thirsty). Did gecko, or did gecko not, happen to walk across the ice cubes while he was in the freezer!?

Thai Pics 4

https://picasaweb.google.com/Frog.graber/Thailand4#

Thai Pics 3

https://picasaweb.google.com/Frog.graber/Thailand3

When I Pray

P-Giat's sermon on Sunday talked about faith, and having enough of it. At least Dru's interpretation brought that out, he clarified Giat's intent later.
But I still like to think about the side I heard, because that's what I need right now. Faith.
 Faith that God can move mountains... Huge mountains.
I took a walk today and was praying hard about the two mountains that affect my life right now, both of them seem impossible. Partially because of how large they are, and partially because of what they are made out of.
Have you ever noticed that mountains can be made of different things, and their move-ability feels directly related? The mountains I'm praying about are made of smelly, bad, sad things.
 I was half way down the one side of my block and  looked up from studying the road to see, out over the blue ornate fence, and the tropical tree's.
A mountain, big and strong, immovable. And do you know what came to mind?
A song, "when I look to the hills, from whence comes my help."...
And then a verse, "All things work together for good, for them that love Him."
 "My strength comes from the hills." has taken a new, and different meaning for me. His plan for the mountains in life. is to grow us, strengthen us... And stretch our faith.
When I look to the hills. My strength comes from Him. He can move mountains. He  allowed the mountains to be there. And ultimately, all things work together for good!
 The Bible says "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." -James 5:16 Which means that my prayers really are important, the mountains I'm seeing ARE movable... Through prayer and faith God can make something beautiful out of them. And regardless of any beauty or lack of it, it WILL work for good, because the people involved truly love Him. 

 There are my thoughts for the day, I know they are disorganized, but it's what I've been thinking, and praying about for the last few days, so here you go. ~ Ky-Mook

Thai Classes

I start classes tomorrow with Pii Ang. Tuesdays and Thursdays for an hour each. I'm looking forward to learning something new and studying again. :)

Thai Pics 2

                        https://picasaweb.google.com/Frog.graber/Thailand2#

More Thailand Pictures

Here

A Few Pictures

Journal Entries

                                                                                                                        8/23/12
Sitting at my gate in MSP can’t quite believe I’m finally headed out!                          
So a lady just walked by and asks the guy walking beside her “Are you just saying that because you’re a leader!?”, he’s like “nooo”.
There is a tall Asian lady walking around here!
*****************************************************************************************                                                                                                    Several Hours Later
Somewhere over Reindeer Lake in Canada.                                                              
  I found the girls and one of their brothers in the Chicago airport. Chicago went REALLY well. All those prayers meant something! : )
  I ended up in the middle of the middle row on this plane, not quite my plan but I’m still happy with it. Will be sooo nice to just plain be there though. I’m so tired. I had like three and a half hours of sleep last night.

By the middle of the flight I was beginning to get upset with the young Korean man who thought he had to fall asleep and lean waaay over towards me. I was pretty sure I was going to have a permanent twist in my back from scooching away from him. By the end of the trip I was very very happy to just be off the plane already. I only slept for about half an hour the whole twelve hour flight. 
 On the other side of me where two sixty something year old Asian ladies who Grandmothered me the whole flight, that was lovely! They spoke just enough English to be able to talk a little, and ask me “how much they charge you?”  : ) I paid the same as one of the ladies, and a little less that the other. “about two thousand baht less, I not buy from them the next time!” 
***********************************************************************
Somewhere over Russia, when we passed Alaska it made me wish I could just land there. (I’ve always dreamed of going to Alaska, and I was sick of the plane by then).
  I opened my computer a while ago and my picture of Lance and I came up. I’m gonna miss him a lot. Four months suddenly seems like a looong time!
            
One of the girls just passed me and gave me a big wink. I think she’s gonna be fun. I think maybe Sara is a quite girl, not really shy, but quite.
There is still another FIVE HOURS till landing! : P
“I think I can, I think I can!"
***********************************************************************                                                                            In Seoul waiting for the next flight.
We are at our gate, sprawled on the floor sleeping.I couldn’t sleep anymore though. There is a little taxi car thing that drives around in here playing Fur Elise of all things. And they were playing Tchaikovsky on the plane.
I wish I could sleep the other girls look so comfortable!
 It feels weird to be the odd one here. Koreans all over the place! :  ) Which makes sense, considering we are in Korea!
A flight just unloaded and there are floods of people walking past staring at us. These people don’t mind staring. The people here who are not Korean are European, judging by their clothes.
Tacked in here I had the comment “I had brown rice tea on the plane, quite something I tell you what!”.
(We found out later that our gate was directly above us, someone stopped to double check that we knew what we were doing).
*****************************************************************************************                                                                                                                          8/25/12
In Thailand! Got in around midnight last night. Browns picked me up with  “Hi! Welcome! Welcome home!” Was sooo nice to see someone I  knew, even just a little bit.
I slept till noon today and am tired now. But I’m going to stay awake till tonight.
Sara and I walked down to Mae Wahns to see the babies, they are napping so after they are up we will go get them and bring them back here.
*****************************************************************************************
And while we wait to go get them, I write. : )
The people who said that it is hot here were right, Sara even said that it is hot today though. We are hiding in her room, away from the heat.
I’m seriously considering sleeping some more, which is a dumb idea, because I'll never get back on schedule if I do.
Dru’s get here in a few hours to pick me up and take me to their place. They are on some sort of school trip. Can’t wait to see them.
  Listening to piano music, can’t quite fathom not having a piano for this long, oh  well. Lisl has a guitar, maybe I can learn to play that.
I should get off of here, Sara is puttering around.
Till later! ~Francis~

There is a bear in that closet.

There is too, I'm not kidding. Every single time I clean there it startles me, and I used to kinda gasp, not just jump. It's a very scary bear.
It is about the size of a cub. It's very black, very fuzzy, and it doesn't smell like a bear (and it doesn't growl). But I still jump.

There are mice in all mouse traps. Dead mice, (dead things are millions of times scarier than live ones). And I always jump, and shudder... I don't care if it's a brand new trap. There are always dead mice in mouse traps!

Caterpillars are horrid, three foot long, fuzzy, green slime filled, Frank magnets.
 And they have a great liking for my shoulders. These do in fact, make me feel somewhat hysterical.

Knifes are horrid instrument of death, causing blood, and for anyone in close proximity to me when someone is handling one foolishly, they can cause loss of hearing. I have a deep surging fear of knifes. I can name at least four people who have had me in tears because they were playing with a knife, pretending to stab themselves, someone else, or me.
  I will stick up for myself on this one, perhaps fake bears, and caterpillars, and mouse traps, can not cause death or injury. But knives can, and do, and they do accidentally at times. That fake stab at your best friend could kill him if someone bumped your elbow coming around the corner. *Steps slowly off of her soap box, she really could say more on this one.*

Drop offs that are farther down than four feet do not belong beside roads. They give me a great urge to crawl under the seat and plug my ears and squeeze my eyes tightly shut. I don't care if that is something only three year olds do. I don't care if it is completely unreasonable, and I don't even care if it doesn't change the fact that the drop off is still there. I can no longer see it, I hopefully can't hear the screams when we go over it. And the fact that I'm under the seat with out a seat belt hopefully insures a quick and painless death.

All water that is over my head has horrible man eating fish, or worse, in it.
 I immediately start feeling cold clammy things grabbing my feet and I feel myself being pulled slowly under, my head aching from lack of air. And then I envision my hair floating on top the water, marking the spot where I died. Gruesome huh? :)

And last, but not least, I'm scared of the Chicago Airport. Not in a gruesome way, not in a frantic way. But in a calmly terrified-of-getting-lost-and-missing-my-flight way. I have visions of myself standing in front of those big airport screens trying to figure out where to go while the minutes go tickity-ticking past.
 Or of myself standing in front of very tall airport people with "I'm horribly busy" looks on their faces. Trying to get them to pay attention long enough to tell me where to go. That's happened to me before. Not cool.

So though there may not be any bears or caterpillars or mouse traps or deep water, and I certainly hope, no knives. I would very much appreciate your prayers for my Chicago Airport layover!

Random Bits Of Jumbled Blond

Life continues to fly forward at an alarming speed for me. I dug out my calender yesterday evening in an attempt to figure out how to fit a couple more things into my last three weeks at home... I'm afraid it was a fruitless effort. There is only so much one person can do!
  The lady I was cleaning for yesterday decided that I need to go to college ("you seem like a such a bright young lady!"), sorry lady, but I don't see that happening for a year or two!
 Today I'm off to Hayward with DJ and Gin to go to Wilderness Walk. A long ago promised, and much looked forward to, outing. I hope they enjoy it.
 I've been pondering my lack of a camera lately and I'm thinking about shuffling my pennies around to see if I can get one before I leave for Thailand. We shall see what happens. It's days like today that I discover how much I miss having one. When Lisl and Jenny were my age they got one for Christmas. A brand new digital camera. We have a video clip of them playing with it "look! it has ZOOM!!!". Oh the wonder of it. :) But, both Christmas and my birthday are evading me at the moment so I think I shall have to get one myself. :) (I wont mention the fact that my Grandmother who is 86 was horrified at the fact that I didn't own one!).
*************************************************************************
  >Afternoon<
I'm diligently trying to remember everything everyone has told me about what to bring back/take over with me... It's starting to get rather confusing. Someone wants  WHITE SHIRTS, someone else wants me to bring back BLACK hair clips. Also there is the wish for "unusual fabric" and then, "the normal kind of sunflower seeds". See what I mean? Confusing! Everything is coming and going in couples and fews though so that helps, no seven of this and sixteen of thating.
 My brain is too full and I've started to do random blond things the last few days.
Yesterday I was driving through town on the way to work and I missed my road, so I pulled into an "abandoned bank" and was just about to pull through the "drive through" when I discovered that it looked pretty low... hm... must be the front porch to a church. Now should I, or should I not, wave to the people on the other side of the building as I pull out!!!??? (I backed out and went around btw).
 Today I nearly took DJ and Gin through the zoo backwards, and I got Dr. Pepper instead of Mt. Dew... this is something I NEVER do! (I did however, manage to catch DJ before he fell over the bridge and into the river, and before he killed the loose rooster, or carried the goat off, or tried speaking animal to loudly, or walked into the bathroom to find "the animal that's in that cage" (the "Bathroom" sign was up out of his line of vision.)!!!!!!)
 Gwyn asked me this afternoon when I was telling about my driving problems yesterday. "Why is it that people with darker hair sometimes to blonder things than people with blond hair?". That's a disturbing thought.
 So there is my rather jumbled life, perhaps now you know why I do the blond and disturbing things that I do right now!
  ~*~Francis~*~

Just a really quick update to say that my next couple of months will be filled with planning, packing, and cleaning jobs, as I get ready to go to Thailand finally!
 Yup, the tickets boughten... I fly out on the 23'rd of August.
God is very good to me! ~Francis

"In Him is Fullnes of Joy"

Fullness,
 My life is filled to fullness right now.
 Fullness of joy, fullness of time, fullness of mind, completeness.
  And I saw today that when my life is full, I notice others emptiness more. 
This week I had to decide if I should go somewhere, somewhere my mind told me was desperately important to go... when I stepped back logically and looked at it I discovered there was no way I could possibly do it, so I decided not to go. Because of fullness of time.
 I slept until around nine today then helped Mom in the garden for a bit. I cleaned the house and then went to a piano recital where a friend was performing. When I got home my mother and sister and I filled our book  bags and bicycled to the Grindstone beach where we unexpectedly met a couple of girls that came to NBCC years ago. I didn't recognize them at first but as they drove away one of the girls leaned out of the window and yelled back, "I love you Francis!"... I've discovered that to the worlds love is meaningless. I could have answered truthfully back that I loved her as well, but she wouldn't have understood.
 A short while later three little girls came and were splashing in the water, Amy and I went out to join them and we spent a happy hour splashing and talking. At one point a couple of the girls and I formed a "friendship circle", "now, one, two, three, GO!", and we all dived. And you know what? That friendship circle felt more real to me than the I love you. There was a simple, innocent, sincerity in it. And my heart was filled again, I was being included, without question, in their circle. But a little while later when I walked to the shoreline to talk to one of the little girls I noticed her scarred feet... "My stepmother burned them when I was two"... And my heart hurt for her.
 The girls followed us a little way home just to be with us and after they left Mom told me something else about that little girl that made me hurt. Someone had dropped her off at a friends house yesterday. And by today she'd discovered that she would have to stay there till Monday after school when the bus dropped her off at home, "because her Mom didn't know where her friend lived".
 After we got home from the lake Mom sent my siblings and I down to the Log Cabin store on our bicycles to find bread for our supper. On the way we met a neighbor boy who is about seven or so I'd say. We said hello and went on our way. During supper he showed up wondering where Brad was and if he'd come play. Brad couldn't at the time so he started walking home, when he was a little way from our house a firecracker went off loudly, and absolutely terrified him. He started running in the opposite direction and I can honestly say that I've never seen a child run so fast.
I went to see if he was alright and by the time I got to where I thought he would be he was nearly out of sight down the road. I knew his friends had gone down that way so I let him go, but it hurt. Such complete terror in a child is disturbing right to the soul.
 I got a call this morning wondering if I'd clean for a lady who has two little dogs and a married daughter... No husband, and her life is empty, you can tell it just by looking at her house, and herself. I'm cleaning there Monday morning. This afternoon I got a call wondering if I'd clean out some flowerbeds for a different lady on Monday afternoon. I always have such fun cleaning/doing odd jobs for this lady because her life and heart, are full.  Tomorrow I'm going to my very own church and a friend said they'd teach Children's Sunday School for me so that I can attend the ladies class which is something I've missed allot during my time teaching. In the afternoon we are going to a hymn-sing at friends house,  I've been looking forward to it allot.
Tuesday I'm to clean at a huge lodge in the morning, in the afternoon I'm teaching piano lessons... And packing. Early Wednesday morning my family is leaving for Idaho. This will be the first family trip we've taken out there in about ten years. And I'm looking forward to it allot.
 So you see my life is full. Wonderfully, happily, full. But I'm an adult, and fullness is an overflowing of many blessings. What about those children? Why did God give me joy and give them hurt? Maybe my overflowing of blessing is meant to be poured into prayers and love for them.
 Where does your fullness overflow?
~Francis

Happy and the Meaning Thereof

     Blessed, blest, blissful, blithe, can't complain, captivated, cheerful, chipper, chirpy, content, contented, convivial, delighted, ecstatic, elated, exultant, flying high, gay, glad, gleeful, gratified, intoxicated, jolly, joyful, joyous, jubilant, laughing, light, lively, looking good, merry, mirthful, on cloud nine, overjoyed, peaceful, peppy, perky, playful, pleasant, pleased, sparkling, sunny, thrilled, tickled, tickled pink, up, upbeat, walking on air.-~thesaurus.com~

Those are all synonyms of the word happy. Apparently there are thousands of words that mean happy because a picture is worth a thousand words all of these pictures mean happy to me. :-)

                                                        A Springtime Table-scape
                                

I’ve been looking at this fabric in a tourist shoppe on Main Street for months and finally a couple of weeks ago I bought it. I made a skirt of it last Friday and Saturday night I wore it on a date with this good looking brother of mine. I had a positively lovely time. Thank you Lance.

                                       

These are two of the most darling children in the world. I've been trying to talk Lisl and Dru into letting me keep “Halla Baby” until I go visit them next winter. They are not easily persuaded I'm afraid!

  I found the train set in the storage room a week or so ago and Jube enjoyed it for a day or two. We're going to take it with to Chicago Club this weekend along with our other, higher quality, set.

 Gabe's are getting here tomorrow and we are all heading over to Chicago Club for the weekend. I'm really, really looking forward to it, as is the rest of the family. And now I must go sew another skirt and pack for the weekend.

 Have a lovely weekend! ~Francis 

This Is Not A List

This is not a list, this is a documentary of important happenings in my life lately. 
                      
Thing One ~ Sunshiny weather and the-return-of-the-horrible-hayfever.

Thing Two ~ Dru's home and lots of happy times playing with babies and talking.

Thing Three ~ We moved NBCC to the Northwoods Church and split into two classes. It went wonderfully, other than one of the girls being sick, coming anyways, and then having to be taken home early.

Thing Four ~ I've been hearing about lots of new dating couples, and it's startling to realize that the people who are dating are my peers, goodness!!!

Thing Five ~ Teaching (still) Enjoying It (still). I had a lovely brainstorm today, I want to take DJ and Gin over to Minong and show them the fire tower and the river and my Dad's machine and take them out for icecream sometime before school lets out. We shall see if it actually happens.
 DJ informed me today that if I taught his class in VBS he'd actually stay for the last day. This after stating emphatically, "I HATE the last day!". He also told me "I'm kinda used of you teaching us now". I'm like, wow, it took you five months!
   Nadina likes to stretch as far up as she can reach and open our classroom door up, peak in at us with a grin, and quickly run away. DJ, Gin and I all get stupid grins on our faces and say in unison "Dina" in a cute little baby voice. Then we look at each other and smirk because we all did the same thing, we all rise to our feet to go shut the door, look at each other and smirk again, and then Gin goes and closes the door.
It happens at least once a day, you'd think we'd learn!
 We were sitting in the class room today and we suddenly heard Nina shouting up the register at us. I listened for a minute and decided that it was unrecognizable jibber-jabber and continued with what I was doing.
Gin however, got a silly grin on her face and said "she's singin' that song". I asked her what song and she said "that, it's your ooown fault, ya went ahead an' did it, song!". I listened for a little longer and discovered that she was right. How many of you have ever tried to teach while listening to "it's your own fault" being yelled full throatedly up the register? DJ found it  utterly unbearable and resorted to hollering back down the register at her. I told him if we ignored her she'd go away and he got an "I'm considering this" look on his face and went back to his desk. I was right by the way.

Thing Six ~ I like being right.

The End ~ (As in, nothing comes after this, and the story is over, and all that other good stuff).

Negative/Positive

DJ did it again yesterday. He looked up and said "I'm being good all day today aren't I?". So I assured him that, yes, he was, because, well, he was. And sitting here tonight it occurred to me that what he needed was confirmation. Confirmation that everything was going good, and that I was happy with him.
 People are that way allot I think, when they've messed up it takes a long time to reassure themselves that they can actually achieve and do it right. "It takes hundreds of compliments to build up a persons self esteem, but only one unkind word to take it back down" -Unknown.  I know I'm that way. I'm a "words of affirmation" person, or so I've been told, and I believe it, one affirming word can go a long ways for me. I like to know if I did the job right, I like to know if they're happy with the job. And I like a simple, honest, "thank you". It thrills my soul to hear it.
 But I swing too far the other way, a hint of aggravation at something I did or said can bother me for a long time. And I tend to mull it over, trying to tell myself that it's okay. But in the back of my head there's still a little voice saying "you really messed up that time, you aren't ever gonna live it down, they're gonna remember that forever". How does a person learn to live above that?
 I think for me, the answer is believing their "I forgive you" with just as much trust in the fact that they really do, as the trust I have in them telling the truth when they are thanking or complimenting me.
 Why is it so much easier to believe the negative than it is to believe the positive?

I walked into my classroom yesterday prepared for war. My last day of school had been the worst one in the history of ever.
 I opened the door and was greeted with lovely new trim all the way around the room.
But that wasn't what I saw first. What I saw first was everything in the room in a very large pile in the middle of the room. The schoolbooks were piled in a red crate and the only thing that really registered with me right away was that the desks were still upright... Well DJ and Ginnys desks were, I couldn't find mine. I found out later that one of the carpenters was standing on it and it had collapsed. I felt bad about that. I should have written "not safe to stand on" on my desk top. It would have fit right in with the "I love you" and the face, and the "FRG", and all the other graffiti that happens to decorate the top of my desk.
 I took a quick survey of the room and started stacking cabinets on top of each other and piling Christmas decor into a large cardboard box willy-nilly. I also went inside and found a bucket of hot-soapy-water and a vacuum sweeper. When the girls and I were done re-arranging the room one of the girls informed me that "Kyle's right there". So I poked my head out the door and told him that I'd like him to fix my desk... Which he did, nicely, thank you Kyle.
 And then I started to vacuum. I'd done quite a bit of the room till it finally made sense to me why there was a a great cloud of white floating about with the sweeper. The gray tape at the end of the hose was coming undone. (I LOVE gray tape... my one and only pick with it is that they don't seem to make it in pink camo). Anyways I  had one of the girls find me a role of the stuff and I fixed the sweeper. And it was no longer accompanied by a lovely white ghost floating along as I swept the floor. By the time I was done I liked the room better than I had before the coming-of-the-carpenters. (A large part of my liking it this way is that my chalkboard is now sitting the right direction and its up at the right hight.)
At ten thirty or so I had finally started school. Their new sound for the day was "sh", slightly ironic considering that my classroom isn't exactly the quietest in the world. It used to be fairly quiet... when I first started, before I discovered that I had larger battles to fight than having a silent battlefield.
 The day went very well. At one point DJ looked up at me and smiled "I'm bein' good right now!"... It made my poor soul shake. Maybe I'm a horrid monster of a teacher who aught to be sitting in a dungeon eating bread and water and conversing with the rats. At the end of the day he was hanging on to me around the waist and declaring that he was going to keep me there forever and I had several other children clamoring about how "that one was SHORT, can't you read another one!?"... So I decided that maybe I don't need to worry about  learning rat-speak anytime soon.
 Lily asked me at the beginning of the day if I felt like my life was in an uproar when I went there. I smiled and shook my head. I don't, I like being there, I like teaching, I like children. I like feeling like I'm doing something profitable. And I like challenges that I can be in control of and conquer. I enjoyed cleaning that room up.... I knew I could do it, and I did. I wonder how often life's challenges are not conquered simply because we don't take control of them. We look at them and think, "As soon as somebody will give me directions I'll try but I'm not making any promises". When is it our responsibility to take responsibility?
Quote of the Day:
 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." -Philippians 4:13

Pictures for Lisl

https://picasaweb.google.com/Frog.graber/Delvins