Before I forget, I won't be updating this the week of August 12. I will be on vacation in Alaska. I will be checking out God's beautiful property He has up there.

I am SO looking forward to my vacation! I'm needing a break from the phone, from the doorbell, from problems, from the televisions, and just from the regular routine. I've been really working hard trying to get ready. I want to leave the house in good condition. Plus I've been doing a lot of research about Alaska. I want the entire cultural experience as well as a vacation! I've got a big fat notebook full of information about the history of the places we will visit as well as maps and information about things to see there.

We have to take lots of clothes because the weather is so variable. Jackets take up a lot of room. I live in Southern California where we've been having 90+ degree weather. My body doesn't like cold, so I'm taking gloves, ear muffs, long underwear, wool socks, and more. People who live in cooler climates laugh at me when I am bundling up for 50 degree weather the same way they do for a blizzard!

I've been making so many lists my hand hurts. I am determined not to leave anything undone. I need to leave our pets and potted plants in good hands, too, so that resulted in another list. Speaking of that list.... I don't remember where I put it. Oh, there it is. I pinned it on the bulletin board. Tee hee. I better make a list telling me where all my lists are!

My poor brain is really looking forward to this trip. All I can think about is what I need to do before I leave. I didn't sleep well last night because I didn't finish doing everything I had planned yesterday. That made my brain keep waking me up so I don't forget to do them today. Good grief! I'm being nagged by my own brain!

My father-in-law's surgery went well. I'm not sure of all the details about what they will be doing next. They were running tests to see if they got all the cancer or if it had spread. Thank you for your prayers! You should have heard the surprise in his voice when I told him LOTS of people were praying for him! I am believing God will be able to work on his spiritual condition because of all of this. Yippee!!

I'm almost caught up on my old email. I haven't been trying as hard as I could have because I know I will have a ton of mail when I get home from vacation. It sure would be nice if people would not force their spam on me! Sigh.

Spam is evidence of one problem with the world... self centeredness. They don't care that it is illegal. They disguise it as if it is coming from somewhere else. They try to trick you into reading it. They are letting me know they don't care about me except if I can bring them more money. So sad.

On to the Bible study. I have to finish it so I can go make more lists....

I'm back! Our vacation was tremendous! I can't even tell you what the best part was because there were so many best parts!! One thing I really miss is not having to cook or clean up meals! Those cruise ships sure are great in that respect! Plus, we had someone come in twice a day and clean our cabin.

Actually, the scenery was the best part. Alaska has such beautiful scenery! I used to live in Washington when I was small and, even at that age, appreciated the mountains, trees, and wildlife. We saw mountains, glaciers, lots of trees, eagles, whales, and lots more!

We encountered some heavy winds one day and had to skip one of our stops. I had done research on each one of our ports so that we could save money and not have to buy tours and excursions on things we could do ourselves. I was bummed to have to miss Skagway. They had tried to leave the town looking like it had during the gold rush days. I enjoy that sort of thing and was looking forward to visiting.

I've sent all our film off to get developed. We took lots of pictures. I'm looking forward to getting them back. I am putting together a memory book of our vacation so I can enjoy it over and over. Maybe I will scan some of the pictures and show you what we saw.

One of the days of our vacation I was walking by myself in the Sitka National Historical Park. They had a path going through the trees. I was enjoying the coolness of the air, the beauty of the trees and vines, the occasional totem pole, and the birds. They had some icky giant slugs, too. They looked like crawling cigars. As I had approached the entrance to the park I saw an eagle sitting in the top of a tree.

I had to circle back around because I wanted to explore the other area that had forked off the main path. There were other people not far in front of me. As I turned a corner, there in the middle of the path, was a huge eagle's feather. I was astounded! People had just walked on that same path a few minutes before!

God had placed it there. Once He had told me to be like an eagle and fly high, bringing the heavenly things to the earth. He pointed out to me that I had been acting more like a slug than an eagle. I immediately repented. I keep the feather right here over my computer to remind me. Isn't God absolutely, positively amazing???

More good news about my father-in-law: the doctors have decided his surgery went so well that he doesn't need chemotherapy or radiation!!! Praise the Lord!!! Blessings, blessings every where I turn!

I'm sorry I didn't get this updated earlier this week. As you can imagine, Monday I was still doing laundry and putting things away. I still have a large pile of papers, postcards, and other things that will end up in a memory book once I get my pictures back. I still need to edit my video tapes. We have a new video camera and I am having difficulty understanding the instructions.

Then, on Tuesday, I found out at 10:00AM that an appraiser was coming at 2:00PM to appraise our house for the refinance we are doing. OH NO! The house had gotten rather dusty and dirty while we were gone AND I still had piles of stuff waiting to be put away!!! After I got the house done (10 minutes before she arrived) I was exhausted and it was all I could do to bring in the laundry and get it put away. The rest of my day was shot.

Then.... Wednesday I had vacation Bible school in the morning. I had to get up early and finish getting ready for that. When that was over my husband wanted to go work on his classroom at the high school. Every summer they pull everything out of the room and clean and wax the floors. All the desks, computers, tables, etc, were piled on top of each other. Plus, he had boxes of papers and notebooks that needed to be filed or thrown out.

Then, tomorrow morning we are going to visit my husband's parents. His dad requested that all his kids come visit at the same time. I wasn't able to go the last two times, so I am going this time. The rest of today I will be getting ready for that trip and catching up on my email. Poof, there goes my week!

I finally quit dreaming that I was still in Alaska. The first four nights after we got home I had dream after dream about Alaska. As a matter of fact, subconsciously I believe my brain thought I could go look out a window of our house and see Alaskan scenery!

As much as I love that sort of scenery I would have a great deal of difficulty living there. I'm one of those people that needs sunshine. When the sun shines after being hidden behind clouds or rain for a few days I run outside and stand in it. I feel like I draw energy from the sun. Perhaps I could do well if I had lots of bright lights in the house, but I haven't had to test that theory.

I am really excited because my husband told me to keep an eye open for good deals on Alaskan cruises so I can take my mom on one with me! I get to go back! Yippee!!!

I tried to get this updated yesterday, but found myself to be too groggy. We came back from visiting my in-laws in the wee hours of Monday morning. The drive was rough with lots of trucks, construction, and heavy winds. I tried going back to bed in the morning, but couldn't get myself awake enough to function well. As a matter of fact, I'm still a bit tired today. I guess I'm not the spring chicken I used to be.

My father-in-law is doing really well. He is in good spirits and seems to be better each day. He enjoyed having his kids around him.

This week football started. For those that don't know, my husband is a high school football coach. They have practice all summer and then three weeks off the beginning of August. That's the only time during the year when my husband is not involved in some activity.

This week and next there will be football practice each day and then school starts. I won't see much of my husband then. I am virtually a football widow. If anything happens around the house then I have to deal with it myself. It will be easier now as all my kids have grown up. I won't have the burden of being a "single parent" as well.

Tomorrow is the last class of Vacation Bible School. Tomorrow's subject is Jesus. We've spent the last six lessons seeing what God has created and why. We've seen proof of God's existence in the world around us, in the animals, in the plants, and in people. Last week we got personal and examined how God made each of us special. Tomorrow we discuss our relationship with Jesus.

It has been fun and interesting. Last week one of the little girls came up with something that almost caused me to split my side laughing. I was trying to make a point of how we can choose how to use the gifts and talents God has given us. I was giving an example of a bad way to use them. I had said something like I wanted to have a lot of money but not have to work and she said, "Be the president!" It was hilarious! The little girl did not understand what was so funny!

I am looking forward to school starting. During the summer my house is a disaster. When school starts I can get things tidied up in the morning and they stay tidied up. I can do what I need to do and not worry about anyone else's schedule.

This year will be the first year in 26 years I won't have to be involved in helping at school or in my children's extracurricular activities! I no longer have to make sure anyone has new school clothes or supplies! Wow! Wow! Wow!

Maybe now I will have more time to dedicate to my Internet ministry. I have all sorts of ideas for new things at the Clarion Call. I just haven't had uninterrupted time in which to work.

I have lots of projects that have been patiently waiting for me to get to them. Actually, my garden has not been very patient. It has been doing its own thing and looks pretty bad!

I need to hurry and get this done so I can work on tomorrow's Vacation Bible School stuff. On to the Bible study!!