Freezing my tail off in Ohio

I have been in Cleveland Ohio since Wednesday visiting the Hanna Perkins Center for Child Development. It has been a great couple of days observing how the school integrates mental health services in their work with children and families. This afternoon we had a brief break and some of us decided to drive 30 minutes north to see Lake Erie.

As you can see, it's frozen into chunks, but the water is still moving underneath.

I had fun tromping through the snow to write a message to my hubby.

Then turned around to see my new friend Dr. Martha Moore swinging her "ice sabre". What a blast!

A small group that eats (and prays) together stays together

This semester the schedules got so crazy for each couple in our small group from church that we had to set a different day of the week to meet every two weeks. Today was a first - Saturday brunch at the Schmidt's! We broke out the china for the occasion and devoured the

whole wheat raisin cinnamon rolls

berrylicious fruit salsa with cinnamon tortilla chips

cheesy vegetable quiche

pineapple and cranberry juice

and a pot of coffee.

Right now we're reading through a book called "What the Bible says about Healthy Living". As a group, we're taking steps to live healthier lifestyles, eat food that God created to be food, and eat it as close to how God created it as possible. It's a journey, not something that can happen overnight. Does that mean we stop enjoying our food and celebrating life together? No way! We enjoy it all the more.

A trip to Africa

Last night we took a trip to Africa via the World Vision AIDS exhibit being presented at a local church. The free exhibit is really well done. Each visitor gets a headset with an ipod shuffle that has the story of one of four children from Africa whose lives have been affected by AIDS. The story is told as if you are the child in the story. I was a young boy named Emmanuel. The actual child tells part of the story and part is narrated. As you go through the exhibit, the audio tour leads you through a maze of rooms, each a setting for part of the story. At one point you end up in a clinic. The clinician gestures for you to place your hand on the counter and then stamps your hand with either a red + or a black -, indicating the your HIV diagnosis. The exhibit is traveling like a concert tour throughout the country. Check it out...you should go when it comes to your city.

http://www.worldvisionexperience.org/

Darrel takes poison like a champ

Last Friday, February 1, Darrel and I drove to UC San Francisco to try the next in a long series of treatments aimed at fixing his back problem. We said goodbye to Kitty and made the schlepp (that's what his doctor calls it) to the City. We made it just in time for the 11:15 appointment to get Botox injections in the long muscle down the side of his spine. The idea is that if you paralyze the muscle, it can't spasm and the other muscles get a chance to rest and take over for that muscle.

Darrel gripped the chair in his typical non-demonstrative manner as the resident pierced him with the needle and the doctor said, "Go deeper... deep, deep, deep, there you go". I think I might have made a crack about how long the needle must be or something. Darrel said nothing.

Like any brave patient, Darrel got to pick where he wanted to have lunch. We ate at Brothers Restaurant for Korean bar-be-que. We filled up on a brothy soup, rice, tasty beef strips, rice noodles with veggies and all the fermented vegetable side dishes one can hope for. Did I mention this was Darrel's choice? The beef and rice are really good...

To answer the now famous question...Did it work??? Darrel doesn't think so at this point. We'll give it more time and maybe a second try (even deeper) in May. Either way, we continue to pray for healing.

Kitty keeps us laughing

Who would have thought the raggedy cat that hid under our eaves through a rainstorm would become our constant entertainment? She has filled out quite a bit since we have had her, but that doesn't change her constant "bed hair" look. Her latest antic is to run quickly from one end of the house to the other as if she keeps seeing ghosts. No matter how many times her nails skid on the kitchen floor, it's still funny every time. Funny, nobody seems to think she's quite as cute as we do.