The Whirlwind Tour

As planned, I brought my camera to work today so that I could transfer all our "Christmas" pictures (including the pictures we took on the East coast) into a web album. Unfortunately, I arrived at work and searched my camera bag to find that my USB cable (I think that's what it's called) was not there. Sigh. So, hopefully I'll find it at home somewhere and there will be new pictures tomorrow... if our internet connection decides to play nice.

Since Happy didn't share any of the stories about our vacation, I'll just give you a rough outline (with stories along the way) of our "whirlwind tour," as he so aptly put it:

Friday, Dec. 22nd – Our assistant pastor (and Bible study leader) Ron picked us up at 7:30 am. We shoved, literally shoved, our bags into his Sebring and made our way to LAX. We were VERY thankful to have him cart us to and from the airport. We got on our plane with minor difficulty since my ticket said "Amy Gilmore" and my IDs all say "Amy Godwin." I had our marriage certificate, but still got patted down. But, we did get on the plane.

Our connecting flight was out of San Francisco. After arriving at our gate, getting lunch, and sitting for a while, I realized that we needed to get our boarding passes for this flight. Apparently they don't give you boarding passes for your whole trip? Anyway, Happy got in line for about a half hour before I joined him because our flight was already halfway finished boarding. After another ten minutes or so we were at the desk waiting for our boarding passes. Anyone who has ever traveled during Christmas knows the excitement this can include. Well, after a short while a woman came up carrying her 2 year old daughter. She said she had a ticket, but needed her seat assignment (the same predicament that everyone in line was facing). Of course, we had already been told at this point that our flight had been overbooked and 7 people were requested to give up their seats. As this lady interrupts our ticket guy, the woman who had been standing behind us in line comes over and says “Excuse me, but I’ve been standing in line for 35 minutes and I need my seat assignment as well!” She wasn’t exactly rude, but irritated that she’d been cut in line. To this the woman with her daughter responded, “Well, I guess you just have to be aggressive!” I’m not sure if there was more exchange between them, but I certainly was shocked by that. A little while later the aggressive lady said “Merry Christmas” to the other lady in a nasty tone. Yuck. After a little more confusion, we got our seat assignments and boarded the plane. We were in the very last row and got more than a few dirty looks as we walked past everyone. When we got to our seats (the window and middle seat) there was a rather large girl conked out in the aisle seat. The flight attendant said he’d take care of it. He said “Ma’am…” “Ma’am!” “MA’AM!!!” She drowsily awoke and got out of our way, not noticing the people around her who were stifling laughter. Minutes later she was snoring loudly. The family across the aisle was laughing, as were we. The dad said “Anyone have a bucket of water?” Happy held up a water bottle. So went the flight. With the snoring girl, the fussy screaming toddlers a few rows ahead of us, the consistent turbulence and no food, I was ready to get off the plane the second it landed.

Ok, perhaps there won’t be too many more stories included in my outline, since that story was pretty long.

When we arrived around 10:30 pm in Boston, Dad picked us up and we drove around Boston to look at lights. We got dinner and made our way back to his place. I think we finally got in bed around 1:30. We slept in late the next morning :-)

Saturday, Dec. 23rd – Dad took us around Derry and Happy got to see more of where I grew up. We walked around my high school and even checked out the football field and track. Later in the afternoon we had pizza at Sal’s (the BEST pizza I’ve ever eaten) and then went back to Dad’s so I could make my mom-in-law’s salsa for him to try. We had to modify some of the ingredients, but it still came out pretty good. Dinner was at the Bollywood Grill and it was excellent!

Sunday, Dec. 24th – Dad dropped us off at the Crabb house so we could get a ride with them to church and Dad could still go to his church. We had breakfast there and then went to Fellowship Bible Church. It was SO wonderful to see everyone and I was especially thankful that the Hastings were there visiting from Guatemala! We had a hard time leaving, but did have a long day ahead of us. Back at Dad’s we packed our stuff into his car, ate a quick lunch and got on the road to Mom’s (about 3 hours away). Once at Mom’s our stuff was unloaded, we took a bathroom break and got in Mom & John’s car to go to Pop-pop and Patty’s (in CT) for a visit. We had pizza from Antonio’s there and chatted for a couple hours before heading back to MA.

Monday, Dec. 25th – Merry Christmas! Dan woke us up around 7 am to open presents (that’s 4 am in CA for those who were wondering). It was wonderful, even though we were missing some people we like to celebrate with. We had a big breakfast of fresh eggs from Mom’s chickens, bacon and fruit. Then I got to go with Mom to get more eggs from her chickens! I even got one that was warm—a little creepy at first but still pretty cool. We got a tour of the new house and enjoyed our time with my family.

Tuesday, Dec. 26th – Up around 9 am to do laundry and pack our stuff to go back to Dad’s (a much shorter drive to Boston for our early morning flight). Mom & John were headed over to North Andover (on the Eastern side of MA) to celebrate Christmas with his family so we left around 11:30. We met up with Dad, transferred baggage, and got a quick bite to eat before going back to Dad’s. We watched The Sixth Sense and then ate Turkey pot pie for dinner. Yum!

Wednesday, Dec. 27th – I woke up at 5 am (that’s 2 am in CA) to take a shower before we left around 6:00 for our 8:30 am flight. Despite my great desire to tell you more about that adventure, I’ll refrain since this post is practically a novel already. Perhaps my wonderful husband will relay that story at a later point. We arrived home around 4 pm and went to bed early. We slept for 10 hours.

I’m sure you can imagine that there are many more stories I could share and will hopefully do so at some point. But, if you get impatient for stories, feel free to give us a call and we’ll elaborate more than this! I hope you had a blessed Christmas and had some time to relax and remember the purpose of Christmas—to celebrate the birth of our Savior!

Sniffle, sniffle

Happy Hannukah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, and Happy New Year!

Yes, it's been that long since we last posted. Christmas was a whirlwind tour of New England and we have lots of stories to tell and pictures to share . . . but not yet.

Things are just beginning to get back to normal here in Stanton. But in a month and a half, we won't be reporting from Stanton anymore. That's right, we're moving! Again. We found a nice apartment complex a little more than five miles away in the city of Westminster. It's much quieter and a little bit off the closest main road (Brookhurst St.). It is directly across the street from an Sarah McGarvin Intermediate School, meaning we have easy access to a huge field, a playground, picnic tables, basketball courts. The rent is a bit more than we'd like to have paid, but it will significantly reduce the commute for Amy as it is four miles closer to her job. It is two miles closer to Liberty Christian School, so I have decided that once we move I will no longer take the bus to and from work. My bike will do just fine and we will save $45 a month that way. We are very excited about moving into a new apartment and thank the Lord for the way he quickly (again!) led us to this apartment. I'm sure you'll hear much more in the weeks to come!

Tea & A Bagel

Breakfast yesterday and today. Yum. Yesterday I sat sipping my tea and eating my bagel during a long lull in phone calls. It was wonderful. As I did, I thanked God for tea and bagels. It seems a silly thing, but I really enjoyed the quiet moment with my tea and bagel. God is such a gracious God!

Also yesterday I received a phone call (I'll keep it anonymous just in case) about a family with a 3 year old daughter who just passed away after complications with heart surgery. I was asked to pray for this family and have done so several times since I heard. In the conversation I heard of questions that the family was asking: "Why would God let this happen? Is God punishing me? How can anything good come from this?" And I'm sure many more. I too started wondering these questions and my pondering continued on my ride home in rush hour. I tried to put myself in their shoes. The parents only had this one daughter and she was their pride and joy. Sure, she was a bit weak, but they had faith that the Lord would heal her. But He didn't. Instead, He brought the little girl home to be with Him.

I don't envy the difficult time they are facing and I will continue to pray for this family. Still, I find myself wondering how I would handle such a turn of events if God brought them my way. Would I be like Job, who lost all of his children and everything he owned and even his own health; yet "through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God" (Job 1:22). I can't even pretend to imagine what sort of feelings he felt. How alone? How desperate? How lost? If I were in his shoes, would I still say God is good? Would I still believe He is sovereign? Would I remember that He never gives me more than I can handle?

I will continue to pray for this family that God will comfort them and strengthen their faith and trust in Him. I will pray that when God allows tragedy in my life (because it's only a matter of time), I will be like Job and "fall to the ground and worship" saying "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:20-21).

Inn-N-Out and Family Rejection

Wow, this throws new light on a common misconception about the nativity. I did not know this. Perhaps I should learn Greek!

By the way, you need to stop reading this and go do something else, like exercising or something!

Paul's Sarcophagus, or Digging Up Important Dead Guys

So archaeologists think they may have found the Apostle Paul's sarcophagus. Read that story here. Think it doesn't sound plausible? Read one person's thoughts on how likely it is that this could be true.

This has the possibility of being a very important find. On the other hand, it carries with it the very likely possibility of unnecessarily buoying or crushing people's faith. Many people put too much stock in "proving" Scripture by finding artifacts. Examples are Noah's Ark, the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, etc. Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't search for things pertaining to ancient history because they teach us so much. I just know that there is a fine line between admiration and veneration.

Oh, and who knows when they'll actually open the sarcophagus anyway.

1-2

That's right, we won one game over the weekend, and it was to avoid being the last-place team in the tournament. We got destroyed in our first game by the host team, Brethren Christian. I swear they 16 year olds that were held back several times. On Saturday morning we played Rio Hondo Prep and we played really well in the first half, specifically in the first half of the first half. We were only down by two and we were getting lots of steals and many easy layups. However, the other team made the necessary adjustments (i.e., they stopped throwing the ball to us every time down the court) and our guys couldn't run the offense (again). So we ended up losing 45-33. Our point guard scored 24 of those 33 points, so that tells you about our balance on offense. In the last place game in the early afternoon we played a team that was smaller than us on average and although we didn't execute very well, we led 19-9 at halftime. However, both teams played sloppy and out of control in the second half, and it seemed that no one could shoot anymore. It came down to last second free throws and ball control and we hung on to win 27-26. That's right, we only scored eight points in the whole second half.

So there are plenty of things to work on in practice. Yesterday I ran them a lot because I don't feel like we were in good enough shape. Practices are outside and when the wind picks up, shots can go wild, especially when we shoot on the hoop with the crooked rims. I am learning much more than the kids are, because this is the first time I've ever done this. I am trying to instill character-building into my basketball teaching because I don't just want them to learn to play basketball well. I want to teach them to live well.

Oh, and no, I'm not the next John Wooden.

I'm Nervous

I was never one of those people that got really nervous before games when I played in high school. But now that I'm on the coaching side I'm nervous, I'm hyper, I'm hopeful, I'm . . . you get the point. I've been debating all day how to act. Do I act all excited or do I convey a calm, collected attitude? We'll see. Here goes nothing (or everything!).

Basketball Season

I began my coaching career last week. I'm the only coach of the junior high boys. Tryouts were supposed to be held on Monday and Tuesday. However, I only had 13 guys show up, so I decided to just begin practicing. It's been a welcome back for me of sorts, because when I was in junior high, my team practiced outside too. I have quite a bit of talent, and I'll probably have to rely on that this Friday and Saturday at our first games. We are in a tournament with several bigger schools. We play at 5 pm on Friday, and then two more games Saturday morning/afternoon.

Last Wednesday was a frustrating day because the junior high flag football coaches decided to have a pizza party right after school gets out, which is 2:20pm. They were celebrating their football championship that they won before Thanksgiving. But they didn't tell anyone until the day of, meaning I had only four of my 13 guys for practice. To make matters worse, one of the players injured himself and had to sit out the rest of practice. The players did show up to the last half-hour of practice, but they were in a goofy "we-just-ate-pizza-and-played-arcade-games" kind of mood.

Thursday was much, much better because we actually had the gym due to the varsity teams being gone to a tournament in Las Vegas.

Friday was my coaching debut . . . for two teams that I don't coach! I had to coach the JV boys and girls because the varsity teams (along with the JV coaches) were in Las Vegas at a tournament. So, after learning the names of several of the girls, I proceeded to coach them to a miserable game in which the girls could never come back from a 12-to-14 point lead. The boys game followed and they actually played pretty well and we were leading at halftime. However, several players got in foul trouble and our top player fouled out in the third quarter. Then, in the fourth, things fell apart. We got outscored 26-1 in the final quarter. That's right, 26-1! I had only brand new players to work with, so we ended up losing.

So, I'm 0-2 as a coach so far! But I really love coaching and it seems like something I'd like to continue doing. I love planning out practices and seeing the guys succeed. We'll see how things go this weekend and I'll make sure to update about the games.

Christmas at Work

Today Rebecca and I went shopping for Christmas ("Holiday") decorations for the office! We got a real Christmas tree and green & gold ornaments (those are the colors of the company). We got a tree skirt and garland to hang on the front of my desk! I also finally received the battery charger for my camera in the mail and I'm hoping it works well, despite the slightly mashed box it came in.

BUT, since I don't have my camera with me today, you know what that means.... PICTURES TOMORROW!!!!! Oh yeah, and I'm going to try to add an album of some of our honeymoon pictures soon :-)

I saw online that it might snow on the East coast. How exciting!!!! Happy and I are hoping to "go to the snow" (that's what it's called here... weird) to join in a ski/snowboarding trip in February. I hope we get to "go to the snow" before that, but we'll see. I love Christmas time!!!