Harapnuik Adventures

Yeah, for some reason, Caleb is in jail. Just kidding. We went to field trip to a art gallery. It was made in an old jail in Albany and we went with Aaryn. It was made out of brick that had carving that told who made the brick. Most of them were made by M or K. There was a scratching in the wall of someones name. I always wondered how they did that. With their fingernails?  the gallery was as about contemporary art. After that, we went to a gas station to eat lunch. After that we went to a place where they had malts. I didn’t try one (I wasn’t hungry) but I got some candy.

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Last night at hockey, I scored my first goal!!!! I passed to the right winger at the red line off the face off. After that I went to the net. He brought it up and passed across and I shot it in. That made the score 4 to 3. The final score was 6 to 3 for us. We won that game. It was so exiting scoring my first goal.

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Aaryn came over for two weeks. A few of my favorite things that we did were:

Airsoft.

He was here for 2 Sundays so we got to go to airsoft twice. The first time was not too hot and a little bit cloudy. But the second one was too hot. It was still fun though. He used my AEG and I used my sniper. The first week the Lubbock team was there and we whooped them a few times. The second week was just AA.

Prime Time.

We got Prime Time passes where we got to try everything once: lazar tag, go carts, bumper cars, race car thingy, and some other stuff. The go carts were the best. Caleb was ahead most of the time but right before the end, I passed him.

We did a lot of other thing but those were my favorite.

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I love boys. I am so thankful that God gave me two, so that I would love boys. The young male gender are a bucketful of surprises everyday. I love they way they think, solve problems, talk, try new things, treat each other and communicate. Boys are one of God’s greatest creations.

The other one of God’s greatest creations are girls, and I love them. This weekend was packed full of girl time for me and having a shortage of girls in our family, I took great pleasure in emmersing myself in the girl world.

Friday I took the boys to a co-op Friday school for the morning and sat and chatted with moms about the upcoming challenges of high school and college prep. From there we went to skate and bowl where the kids get active for 2 hours. I walked and chatted with a couple of the moms about math, the struggles and the achievements. Friday night a friend and I went to an ACU theater production, “Shakespeare in Hollywood” (fabulously funny) and coffee afterward. Raising teenage daughters and how did our moms do it?!! We face the adolescent years of our children and their possible relationships and grasp onto prayer as our life line.

Saturday morn, I met with about 200 ladies in a church that was simulcasting Beth Moore’s “So Long Insecurity”. She was beamed over North America with an estimated 300,000 other ladies at over 800 sites all the way up to Alaska. Laura and Cathleen, thousands of kilometers away in Edmonton yet in the same place, learning together. All of us laughed together, cried together and raised the roof tops in confirmation that we are loved and held by our God. No apologies for the tears, talk of bad hair, high heels and nail technicians. We understand without explanation. We nod and sigh and walk away refreshed. Girlfriends. Women of God.

Saturday eve I set out for a “experienced women meet university women” function at a church. About 70 females of young adult to senior meet in a room to mingle, share, encourage, enlighten and pray together. 3 hours of sometimes difficult,  honest question; sometimes fun, insightful questions but a path of togetherness is formed with respect and awe traveling in both directions. God created us female. Let’s not go it alone. Let’s learn from each other, help each other become more. I come home in humility again knowing how true the word of God: teach, live, don’t be ashamed.

Two days of intense female companionship. I briefly step back into my boys world at the side of a lake learning about wind surfing and I feel the excitement growing at the thought of a new adventure: let’s try to beat the wind and ride the waves. Then later, sweaty and hungry, talk of sneaking, creeping, holding steady the gun, taking aim,  then a surprise cough that reveals the secret place.  Caught.

How rich is my life to have a world of men around me and a world of women within reach.

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I have a collection of pictures on my iphone I haven’t downloaded yet, so those will have to wait, but I took these the other day to give you an idea of the growth around the city. The first few are pictures of the winter wheat this is growing across the road from our apartment complex.

And the Buttercups, which come in yellow and white, but I prefer the pink (sorry Laura ). They line the roads where dandilions would grow in other areas.

Uplifted, happy faces

And then to the most beautiful Blue Bonnets. I thought at first they were alfalfa of a sort when I first saw them. They even smell a bit like them, but when I got up close they are larger, bluer and most unique. The open fields can be covered in them and one lady said that a farmer planted 15 acres of them in an area where nothing else would grow. I would love to see the ocean of blue that would cover the hills. This area is an empty lot among a whack of houses. Blue Bonnet: the Texas flower.

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We sent in our cancellation of registration to Argyll Home Education today. They have been so good at helping us with the transition between Alberta and Texas and I will truly miss the encouragement and grace that they have given us in our home education journey over the last number of years.

Thanks, so much, Sheila and crew at Lethbridge and the folks in Edmonton. I plan on keeping you on my list of ones to call when I need some perspective on the learning road. You have been a blessing in our life. Now, as we venture into the new season of High School for Levi (how did that happen? In Texas, 9th Grade is Freshman High School), we will be turning to the ones that God has given us in Abilene for insight and encouragement.

The experience have been rich this year and we appreciate the children and parents with which we have rubbed shoulders. Last night’s drama, dance, music production was fabulous and we had so much fun. Levi and Caleb had a blast along with about 100 others who participated. We took videos and hope to get them up for you all to see. The funny part was Caleb actually had “you all” in one of his parts and almost said “ya’ll”. It was cute.

So along with saying goodbye to Argyll, we are embracing the possibilities that we are experiencing right here. Sheila, you are my sister in learning. God bless you as you continue to bless others with your love, concern and encouragement. Whew, you cannot be replaced.

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I made it through 30 days with out blogging. Oh no, I don’t know what to blog about. HHHMMMMMMM, well I might be going to summer camp! That will be fun. Here’s the link to the camp’s website: camp Our church made up some cool vids for camp: funny and cool

It is a five hour drive from Abilene and goes from June 7 to 11 when all of my Canadian friends are still in school.

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We lost our hockey game this week. Can you guess what the score was? It was quite interesting. I got an assist and a two minute break in the box. I didn’t get the penalty. The person who did left the game because he thought the ref made a bad call. So I had to take it for him. Here are some pictures.

Try to guess the score.

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I read in a book that Canada 60% of the lakes in the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake. That’s more than all the countries in the world combined. So I researched about lakes in Texas. There is only one lake in all of Texas that is NOT man made. It is called Lake Caddo. All of the other seven lakes (just kidding, there is more than that) in Texas are man made. The natural lake is in northeast Texas. The biggest lake is in southeast Texas and is 114,000-acres. Hmmm, might be big enough for more than two people, eh? Most of the lakes are fresh water, but there are a few that are salt water. There was no web site that had a list of just the salt water lakes.

There are 169 lakes in Texas, if I counted right. That is not that many for such a large state. http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fish/recreational/lakes/lakelist.phtml. There are at least 100 lakes in Alberta. I couldn’t find a complete list. It says there are 89 but the list is incomplete. Nova Scotia has the most lakes in Canada which is 142 (again, if my counting is right). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lakes_of_Alberta. Nova Scotia is approximately 21,000 sq. miles (not meters). Texas is approximately 270,000 sq. miles. Texas is more than 10 times bigger than Nova Scotia. There would be 1,420 lakes in Nova Scotia if it were the same size as Texas. That was counting the number of lakes there are, not the size. But you have heard it said, “Everything is bigger in Texas” (except snowmen).

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Finally, after Levi bugging me for weeks, I told him I would measure him. I’ve always said he’d never be taller than me and up to this week, I was right. I refused to measure him after he reached 5′11″ because I didn’t want to eat my words and could always say the last time he was measured he was still shorter than me. Somehow he bribed me…I can’t remember what I got out of the deal, but we backed him up, held up the book, made sure his heels were against the wall and made the mark (2″ under the book ). He figured it out right away when he saw he hadn’t grown in months, so I had to do it right. Yes, my 13 year old son is 6 feet tall. So much for premies being small for their age. He’s got 1/4 inch on me. Caleb is gain at 5′5″… They can both be proud of their growth. What about me? I think I quit growing some where a bit after high school.

Then last Sunday I realized that I am still growing. This growth is much more interesting than pulling on your fav pair of jeans and finding that they are now, for sure, too short. Or finding out that you’re too tall for the kiddie rides at KDays. And knowing that the back seat of a compact car is only comfortable if you’re the only one in the back seat. The growth can’t be measured by rulers, jeans and cars. Let me tell you a story.

As a teen my fav singer was Canadian, Dan Hill. I remember making a deal with my friend Cindy to go see him at the Jube in Edmonton and, in return,  I would  go see The Bay City Rollers with her. In a song, McCarthy’s Day, he sings about his parents struggle in the U.S. because of being a mixed race marriage.

I couldn’t understand the problem. It was foreign to me. Now that we’ve lived a time in the “deep south” I understand a bit more. It’s real, the feeling of class between races. I’m not making a judgment call; it’s just a statement of fact, not unlike the feeling between First Nations and whites in Canada.

As a Christ follower, I loved the people, camp, youth group, activities of our church growing up. I remember dad saying once as we were driving passed Lacombe on our way home from Calgary that he almost bought some land in the area. I told him I was thankful he hadn’t cause then I wouldn’t have been involved in our life near Westlock, which I loved. As my adult years began, I continued on learning, growing, committing and experiencing a rich life with people I admired and respected and grew beside. Fast forward leaving Edmonton, to Lethbridge, where my denomination wasn’t represented and we attended a lovely local church which we worked along side, grew with and enjoyed the communion of souls for 3 years. Our first Sunday in Abilene we were priveledged to feast at the table of a pastor of a lively church and asked him what the challenges were for the church in Abilene. His comment was, because of the numbers, the struggle was to have them all work along side one another for the purpose of eternity.

Abilene is a small city of 120,000 with a huge church population. The churches range in the 100’s and we knew that coming here. ACU is a Church of Christ denomination that we had never heard of before learning about the University. The people have been the friendliest and most helpful to us as a family and individually and I love them dearly.  The Church of Christ is unique many ways, but two are important things for you to know. One, it celebrates communion every Sunday and two,  traditionally they have no instruments in their Sunday morning services. I’ve never heard such beautiful singing.

On our interview trip to Abilene, Dwayne’s boss took us out to dinner with a bunch of folks from ACU to facilitate a time of questions and concerned. One couple were new to ACU, moved from way up north 6 months previous and I think they tried to warn us and offered a newbie perspective on the city of Abilene. This same couple with their two young children, invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner. During the evening we heard their love story. The man’s father, an elder in the Church of Christ in Wisconsin,  had met the girl in some way and was so very impressed with her heart that he insisted she was the one for his son. He set up the date and a few years later, they were husband and wife.  Their two children are beautiful and fun and Levi and Caleb had a blast with them on Thanksgiving evening.  I had respect for the father in his part of the love story for the husband is white and the wife is black. He saw a beautiful heart of a woman and wanted it for his son.

For reasons too long to explain in this already lengthy post, I will say that we are not attending a Church of Christ, but a Baptist church. This Baptist church has communion available every Sunday, but the huge comparison is the music. It’s rock concert loud. I’m not saying I enjoy that part totally, but it’s speaks to what I am about to share.

So with all that background I bring you to a simple sight I saw last Sunday.  The communion elements are located along the sides of the church for people to partake at will. Dwayne nudged me and pointed out the family who had us over for Thanksgiving. With rock concert loud music dancing all around them, this family wrapped in each others arms were praying and celebrating the death and resurrection of our Jesus. The awesome thing was that the visiting white grandfather and grandmother from the Church of Christ where part of the huddle. Here is what it’s all about. The love of our God breaks through barriers of race and denomination and tradition and taste of music. It wraps us in arms of peace and acceptance and authenticity. The little girl peeks out between the hugs and waves shyly at Dwayne. To me, this picture will always be a sign of the truth of the gospel and the truth of the church.

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you all are one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28

I know I’ve always known this, at least as far back as I remember. I had just seen the truth portrayed in a picture, an action, an experience.  May I always live it.

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