Week 2 on the East Coast

It's been a great week in my home-town! I've introduced Duane to a bajillion people, and got to talk about India. As great as that is, it's even more fun to talk to people who have been to India (even if we had never meet them before). We did that too...and our new friends made Indian food for us, which is always a great treat, and we can't wait to see them in India this winter.

We timed our visit to be in town durring my 5 year class reunion. Most of my class-mates got married right after graduation, (or before) and have an average of 2 kids...crazy! I had a lot of fun reminiscing about "back in the day." Although for some reason, my closest friends from college where not in my class...but we did get together with them and went to Java's (artsy coffee shop) and played "the story game." Good memories...

We also had a reception for Duane & I, and 4 (out of 5) bridesmaids were there, all wearing our wedding clothes, so we took cute pictures :)

Sunday, after sharing at my home church, we hit the road...heading west to Colorado...

Chaos on the East Coast

This past few days have been quit exciting. Starting with flying to my mom's, spending the night, and then borrowing her car to go visit Daune's great aunt and cousin in NJ. Like all good Italians, we had Italian food for dinner. Duane & I took a bus across the river to see Tines Square all lit up. 

After spending the night in NJ, we headed back to PA for my family reunion, which is at an amusement park. Did I mention it's been about 106 degrees and humid? Being in the air conditioned car 3 hours was great, but everything else, was...good India prep... We had a great time with family and enjoyed the water rides to cool off. 

After the Reunion, we headed straight north. We stopped at Watkins Glen, had dinner, and hiked almost the whole canyon in less than 1 hour. (It had cooled down to the 90s).

We hopped back in the car and got to my friends house in time to watch the sunset over Lake Ontario.

We spent that night at my friends, who I haven't seen in 3 years, and used to babysit for back when their 10 year old was a baby. What cute kids! Makes us want our own...but not yet...

Sunday we spoke at their church. It was great! It was Duane and my first time speaking together, and it went very well. They had M-worker Sunday, with us, a guy who's been in Chna, and a family serving in Africa, each getting to share. 

After Church and lunch, we headed to my hometown. We were going to wait till Monday, but we had been invited to a friend's get-together, so we went...although I hadn't been able to get ahold of the people we were staying with, and we were coming a day sooner. They weren't home...

You would think being in my hometown it would be easy to find someplace to stay, but mostly I had only a few phone numers and a list of people who I already knew were out of town this week, and it was after 9pm. Who do you call? A friend who has high schoolers who always have tons of friends over spending the night. They also are packing to move out of state later this week, so we just added to caios and got to spend time with them. It was great.

Forever...

Some people freak out about tattoos, because they are permanent. Are you still going to want that there when you're a parent? grandparent? old and skin sagging? (I've heard that does weird things to tattoos). I've seen some odd tattoos that make me think, "really?" Like a grandma who just got pooh-bear tattooed on her ankle for her grandkids. Does that make pre-schoolers think you are cool? I don't get it...

I would want a tattoo that is something symbolic and meaningful which I would want to last forever...and still be there when I'm a parent, grandparent, etc...

I grew up in a little Christian bubble that was anti-tattoo as well as an anti-divorce...hearing over and over that "marriage is forever" and "God hates divorce."

After my own parent's divorce, I was asked random questions such as, "do you ever want to get married?" and, "how does this effect your view on marriage?" Yeah, actions do speak louder than words, but if anything it's only strengthened my resolve to not do that. There are too many kids growing up in divorced families, and I've seen the painful results of that. I'm thankful I didn't experience my own parents divorce until I was an adult, and lived far away and able to escape most of the drama...

I can tell you that Duane & I will be, "Biblically married...till death do us part." (obviously being lawfully married doesn't mean much now days).

In this day and age, people might ask, "really?" because marriage doesn't last as long as it used to, and who am I to think that mine will, when so many don't? I don't know, but it would be really hard to take my wedding ring off...

Our Italian Family...

Germans and Italians are pretty different...My family is mostly German, and Daune's in more Italian - like from Little Italy in NYC. I find Italians to be amusing, especially Daune's Grandpa. They live right here in town, but we only see them once every few months. This is in part because they can't hear and we get tired of yelling...and also because Grandpa likes to kiss on the lips, and I'm not such of fan of that. When I met him I had to explain that I wouldn't even kiss Duane until he gave me an engagement ring, so there's no way I'm going to kiss grandpa, but I will give him a hug.

Anyway, Duane's grandma recently fell, and was put in a nursing home, so we went to visit her. As we were leaving, his Grandpa handed Duane a children's book about bears, "could you take this home for me?"

Duane recognized the book and said, "is this one you used to read to me as a kid?"
Grandpa: no
Duane: why is this here?
Grandpa: I don't know, it was just in the room.
Duane: Wait, are you trying to get me to steal this book?
Grandpa: It's not stealing
Duane: But it's not ours
Grandpa: But it will be ours if you make it out of here with it
Duane: We don't even need a children's book
Grandpa: Just hold on to it, you might need it someday
Duane: No Grandpa, I'm not stealing a children's story book out of a nursing home

Aradhna - Worship

Picture a large room in an old castle, with a bunch of artsy people (great time to meet people who love India/Nepal!!), sitting in rows of chairs; Chris Hale and Pete sitting on a low stage with their sitar and guitar; and on the floor surrounding the little stage sat some Napalis and Duane & I.

This past week, Aradhna had a concert at the Castle at Glen Eyrie! We weren't sure where exactly the concert was, so we explored the castle (for free!) while looking for the concert...

The lead singer and sitar player, Chris Hale, grew up in Napal where his parents were doctors. Then he lived in India for awhile, so his music is all in Hindi or Nepali, and we love it!!! They were actually here for some sort of artsy conference, and did a little concert one evening. There were about 100 people at the conference, and then they sold an extra 30 tickets for the concert. Who bought those tickets? US!! And some Bhutanese/Nepali refugies and some people who worked with the refugies.

Since it was such a small group, we even got to meet Chris and Pete and tell them that we used some of Aradhna's music in our wedding ceremony - for when the bridesmaids entered, and when I walked down the isle.

For the closing Nepalese song, Chris invited anyone who wanted to, to come up to the front and dance.

Rehearsal Drama

On our way up the mountain to the wedding location, Duane & I placed our signs with arrows at strategic locations, so that people could find our wedding. The balloons didn’t like the change in altitude so 4 or so exploded on the drive...

Duane & I drove by ourselves, enjoying the 45 mins of alone-time, and thinking we would be the first ones to the wedding location. However, because of some miss-communication and the incredibly over-punctuality of my family, there were several people waiting for us at Potter’s Inn. Since we were all early, the owner wasn’t even there yet to unlock.

Once everyone arrived, we rehearsed the wedding at the summit, while it was snowing. So cold! Les (our co-worker who officiated the wedding) & Duane surprised me with “Dr Sues” style vows. As funny as they were, we will be reading different ones tomorrow.

 Our rehearsal lunch was supposed to be a picnic, but due to the cold/snow, we had it in the barn/reception hall, we set up tables and chairs and enjoyed some chinese food. We realized there was no way we were going to fit 70 people in there for the reception, so it better be warm tomorrow!

We asked our friends Matt (groomsman) and Jess (wedding coordinator) to host the rehearsal, and had a great time hearing our friends and family tell stories about us. It was so much fun!

Then a couple random guys came in, and rudely interrupted saying, “I am the general contractor, and this is my building, and you all need to get out.” Oh the fury that raged! Those guys got a good talking-to from the more mature/protective people at the rehearsal. The rest of us thought, “I feel like I’m in India or China right now, but I’m sure this will all get straightened out.”

We called the property owner (the real one, who we rented the building from), and he came. That’s when we found out that the general contractor had failed to get the building inspected, which was supposed to happen before our wedding. I think he might have gotten fired.

Then we left everyone else in chaos and confusion, as the property owner took Duane & I down the road to another ministry who would let us have our reception in their dinning room. It was big enough to seat 70 people, and already had all the tables and chairs set up, not to mention we could even had a head table, and room for the chocolate fountain (cake substitute).

Since we couldn’t use the original building, the owner told Duane & I he would refund part of our money, as we were still using the cabins for the bachelorette party and having our wedding on the summit. The new location would work soooo much better for our reception and they let us use it for free!!!

Wedding Prep

After picking up our flowers and getting my friend Ruth from the airport, Duane & I had to stop by his grandparent’s house. At this point, Duane had enough “girl-time”, so I left him at his parents and took his car.

Driving back to the apartment, I concluded that I had too much on my mind to be a safe driver. Shifting gears, operating turn-signals and wind-shield wipers, and remembering how to get home, proved to be a challenging task. I couldn’t do all that, and navigate my way to the mall with 4 girls chattering in the car. So I let Chris drive, while I used the map on my iPhone to get us to the mall.

Chris & Alissa especially liked the little-kid tables at the food court...

We meet my friend (and chef) Rebecca at Old Navy, and then went back to the apartment, to blow up balloons for the “Duane & Becky’s Wedding” signs,

Assemble bouquets,

And Chris cut out the letters for “take good” shouldn’t that read, “take luck?”

Manitou

When I told my Mom & Roy that they should visit Manitou, I presented it in such a way that they would never want to go there...oops. I did better telling my sisters and Chris about this odd little touristy town.

If you like people-watching, Manitou is the place to go. You’re pretty much guaranteed to see some pretty unique people. From the hippies strumming their guitars in the street, to the bums who are a little bit high, to the guys who juggle. There’s a cult which runs a coffee shop, it’s so quaint inside, and the bathroom walls are decorated in newspaper-like articles with stories of Noah’s brother and other such obscure people who were never actually mentioned in the Word. Some of our friends were in Manitou and saw a zombie wedding, with everyone wearing black and fake blood, I think that holds the record for the craziest sighting...

Duane & I took my sisters and Chris to Manitou, and did the touristy thing, wandering in and out of little shops. I bought a purple scarf to wear to my reception, because wearing plain white gets boring, and I like scarves...

We also played on the playground...

Family Christmas Cruise

This year for Christmas my mom’s side of the family did a cruise. There were 28 of us. For most of us it was our first cruise and for some, the flight to Miami was their first time on an airplane.

Some highlights:
Key West, Florida – We went to the southernmost point of the continental USA. There were also lots of great shops, that all look the same after awhile, but only 1 store had my hippie wedding dress.

Nassau, Bahamas – We went to Atlantis. There’s a huge aquarium that costs $80 to see, but today was discounted to $35 - or so they say... Mom, Alissa, and I tried to get into the dolphin area, but got kicked out, because we didn’t have a pass. Then we got lost in the giant hotel and accidently wandered past security into the dining room where we could see part of the aquarium. So we tried to look innocent while we took lots of pictures, and then got out of there.

Coco Cay, Bahamas  – The only day it was warm enough to go swimming. Although it was still pretty cold and cloudy. None-the-less we got nice tans (or sunburn). I went snorkeling for the first time. There are some cool fish down there…

The ship has a 30 foot climbing wall – I climbed a total of 12 times over the course of 4 days. Yes, the staff knew me by name. I raced my cousin Josh – who is 6’3” …yeah, he won…unfair height advantage… and they promised my Grandpa a free drink and a kiss if he would climb, so after much convincing, he gave it a try, and did pretty good (about 1/2 way)...

Carnations

3 years ago someone was praying for me and felt God gave them a picture of a pink carnation and God saying He will bring romance to me. They thought that seemed odd - a pink carnation? Why not a red rose? But it made perfect sense to me, because a pink carnation was the first flower I had even been given from a guy.

Once Duane and I realized we liked each other and started dating, I was waiting for confirmation to move forward, which would be Duane giving me a carnation. Of course I couldn't tell Duane that, so I simply said he should probably talk to Jesus about what he needed to do.

Exactly 1 month after our romantic beach walk, we were at a church in Boise. At the end of the service, everyone was given a carnation as a reminder of the sermon. It was such a perfect opportunity! If only there were some way that Duane could have given the carnation to me, but no.

Four days later, Duane & I were on the way to meet his parents. Duane asked if I had my confirmation yet, so I talked to Jesus about it. I felt God saying to me "I said I was going to give you romance, the carnation is from me, the romance is from me, Duane is from me." That was also exactly 1 month after the day we said we liked each other.

My first day in, I was freaking out a little bit. I just abandoned my life in Idaho to come here and be closer to a guy I was dating. So I asked Jesus again for confirmation, like another carnation. I kind of felt like God rolled his eyes at me, shaking His head. Just a few hours later I was given all the confirmation a girl could ask for...

I said yes!!!!!

December 15, 2010 Duane and I went to Garden of the Gods. I put my camera in my pocket, and noticed he had something in his pocket, which didn’t look like his phone, but it wasn’t a ring box either, so I wasn’t suspicious.

As we walked, he talked about how this was his playground growing up, and finally it was going to be a romantic spot, now that I’m here. We rounded a corner of “twin spires rock”, with Duane talking about how the 2 rocks somehow merged into one, like a married rock, if that is possible.

There were flowers and a card on the ground. I figured he must have had a friend put it there. Since he is a romantic guy anyway, I thought this might just be a “welcome to Colorado” gift.

The card had pictures of us on the front, and inside a picture of Duane with…my mom and step-dad? Duane said, “I just had a crazy weekend in Pennsylvania, and I called your Dad,” as he got down on one knee and pulled out a ring and put it on my finger.

I kissed him, for the first time, (since we weren’t going to kiss until we are engaged), and now we are engaged! I hugged him for a very long time, because I was shaking too much to let go...

A distant voice yelled, “so, is that a yes?” That’s when I noticed our photographer stalker, and discovered that the random thing in Duane’s pocket was the voice recorder…so yes, we have it all on video…

15 years ago

When my sisters and I were so much younger...

we lived a nice little house in Emporium, Pennsylvania.

We had an old barn in the backyard.

Then we moved back to Lima/Elim when I as 9.

That was 15 years ago and I haven't been back to Emporium since...until today...

We used to go on bike rides with our Uncle Fred, and he'd take us up this "steep" hill to go to Luigi's to buy candy...somehow the hill shrunk over the years...

Luigi's candy supply is rather limited nowadays, but they have good pizza rolls and hoggies...

Our sledding hill was someplace in this general area, where they built the new Elementary School

We walked down our old street and talked to the lady in the Red house across the street. It's not red anymore, but the same family still lives there.

There's our old house...I'd say it's one of the nicest on the street.

The back yard and the barn...

We also went to the old airport, which is now a giant factory. The old railroad bridge is still there.

so we attempted to play "bomb can"

The Courthouse - we used to love walking along the cement retaining wall.

We even found our way to our Church, which oddly enough is bigger than I remember it...

6 Christmases

All 6 Christmases were good...I even had a white Christmas!!! Then it melted on the 26th. I think I have seen all of my relatives who live in NY or PA...that's how I ended up having 6 Christmases...and growing up we only had 4 Christmases a year...but since I was out of the country the last couple Christmases, I had to make up for it somehow.

This was the first time in 3 years that all 3 of us sisters were together for the Christmas holiday season, so we had to make Candy Houses. We have done this every year of our lives (even in India I made a mini one with Parle-G crackers and peanut butter, but no candy)...
Mom had said when we have kids, we can bring them over to make candy houses and she'll provide the supplies. Seeing as how there are no grand-kids yet, we figured we should probably buy our own candy and clean-up after ourselves...So we used a kit, rather than gram crackers because we're kind of cheap and lazy and just doing it because it's nostalgic and fun...As kids and we'd fill the inside of the house with candy so it wouldn't fall in, but more-so as a strategy of claiming our candy and hiding it away for later, but we're much more mature now...
Alissa + I shared a Candy House and we were going to take it with us to Mom's house today, but we accidentally left it in Dad's van when we met in the middle and switched vehicles...I guess it's not a major loss since I have the bag of left-over candy :) since neither of my sisters eat dairy, it's all mine... mauhahahahaha!

I'm Not Who I Was

You've probably heard the song that says, "I wish you could see me now. I wish I could show you how, I'm not who I was"(by Brandon Heath).

When I heard that song a year ago, it was rather depressing. You see 2 years ago I was happy and life was good. Then all that changed...and that's another story that I wrote before and don't feel like re-writing again. So a year ago I saw who I was becoming and that I wasn't who I used to be. It wasn't a good change. I saw myself becoming angry, cold, bitter. It was scary.

Then I look back at the past 10 months, since I came to Idaho.  The Father brought me to the place of forgiveness and giving it to Him. I didn't want to forgive, but I knew I needed to let go of all the pain that I was carrying around. It was a freeing choice, because now I have so much more joy and peace. I am not who I was and it's a good change. Life is good.

The past year hasn't been easy. However, I have gone through the hard times as a different person than I was a year ago. I have been able to keep giving it to the Father. I know that He is always with me and I can trust Him to work all things for good. I'm still far from perfect, but I am learning, and I am really thankful that I am not who I was...

Trials

In 2006 I lived in an apartment with a friend. We hung out with our down-stairs neighbors and babysat their kids. Then the little girl’s 4 year old friend died from a brain tumor. When I was that age I was afraid of getting old and dying. What do you tell a little girl who is too young to understand what death is, but yet someone her age died?

At that point, I needed some time with the Father, so I chilled with the Word and some good music. As I spent time with Him, I just knew more trials would be coming my way, and these would be more personal, and not just people dying. I knew He had called me to a life of helping the hurting, and I knew I would have to go through some things so that I could “comfort others with the comfort I had received from Him.”

I was a little nervous about these un-know up-coming trials. However, a few years before I had done a study by Beth Moore about Believing the Father. Part of that was looking back over my life and seeing how He had been there and used everything for good. So I knew He would continue to work all things for good.

Sept 2006- Sept 2007 ended up being the worst year of my life. My roommate and I both volunteered with the Ambulance, and responded to a call that turned out to be a DOA (although I think it is easier if the patient is already dead when you arrive, as opposed to having them die in front of you). I also worked at the day care with a lady who hated me, and I was sick constantly from all the germs kids bring to day care. Then there was my parent’s divorce. More recently, the trials have been less painful, just stretching – like living in India for 3 months.

Sometimes, in the midst of a trial, I could already see that I was becoming stronger in my faith, and in just knowing who I am. Then there were crazy challenges like getting tendonitis in my wrists last summer. I couldn’t see what good could possibly come from having to wear a wrist brace, not being able to do much with my hands (without pain and making the injury worse), and knowing it could take months to heal. I also got a ridiculous tan line from that wrist brace.

But, guess what, because of my wrists, my “work duty” in Idaho was administrative stuff, and now I’m going back to Idaho as full-time staff, and I’m already partly trained for the job (yet again, another story that leads into me moving to Idaho).

All that is to say, these past 2 years have not been easy, but as I look back at the trials, I see how I have grown. I can face the trials ahead knowing that the Father has been faithful in the past, and He doesn’t change. He will work all things for good, and even when it seems impossible, I still believe.