Houdini Lessons

February obviously has been studying with Houdini. How else could it have pulled off such an amazing disappearing act? March is trying to follow suit and escape before I notice it is here by creating diversionary tactics. "Snow in March? Surely not! It must still be February." I have a hunch it is going to escape as well before I can catch it. But it isn't like I have been sitting idly by while two whole months have passed. Their ease in escaping was assisted by my frenzy of activity. April will not be so lucky, I already have blog plans for the month. In fact, I'll give you a sneak peek. Here are some working titles of upcoming posts:

• Holley Gerth's "Your're Already Amazing" review + giveaway
• Sensuality of the Single Christian gal
• God's Masterpiece Looks Like a Jackson Pollack Painting
• Choosing to be the Prodigal Daughter

Do I have your interest?  I promise to catch up to April and not let it escape, so come back over the next few weeks.

To prove that I wasn't being a sluggard, and had quite a bit of fun while the days zipped by, here is what I have been up to over the past few months.

The end of February brought The Justice Conference (which required a heap of prep work for the Micah booth) and a visitor from Honduras, the beloved Marvin Morazan.

Marvin was able to stay for a week and we had a ton of fun, including going up to Government Camp to play in the snow on Mt. Hood. It was the very first time Marvin was able to play in the snow. He had been wishing to make a snow angel for 12 years. And I was there and helped make his dream come true. It goes down as one of the best days EVER in my whole entire life!! And I am not exaggerating. 

The tail end of Marvin's visit overlapped (see! I wasn't lying about being busy!) with the 2nd ACT Journey retreat. After all the craziness of getting ready for the conference, attending the conference, entertaining and shuttling Marvin around, it was wonderful to find a spot of rest.

The Dream Giver's Inn is in the lovely Yamhill valley. This photo was taken from the (almost) six mile loop that I like to walk when I'm there. There is another picture from Sunday morning that I wanted to post, but it was taken with my big camera and I seem to have misplaced my card reader. Maybe by now you're believing me that I've been busy and not concerned enough to take the time to find it; which is a pity because I have some fantastic photos of my brother that I want from the same memory card for blackmail purposes. 

A few days after the retreat (3 days to be precise, because I wouldn't want to let any moss grow under me) I flew to Colorado with my mom to spend four days with my brother, his fiancée, and her family. We went with them to their wedding planning appointments, including a tasting at The Sanctuary, where they will be married, an amazing location, and best of all - cake tasting! There was also a bridal shower for Amy with a "Mad Men" / 50's housewife theme. It was so much fun, especially the apron fashion show. I really like my new sister! (And not that you would ever know it from this photo, but I had been using self-tanner on my legs in anticipation of having bare legs for the party. My legs really could have been whiter!)

Coming home from Colorado landed me straight into a crazy hot sticky mess at work as we try to figure out work-arounds for our old software systems to create new tests. Ugh! Since I had become so accustomed to not being home on the weekends, I spent the next Saturday at the Selah conference at George Fox, my ol' stomping grounds. Just in the nick of time, last Saturday I squeezed in a 5k race - the Sellwood Scamper - to keep on track with my goal of doing a race every month of the year. Considering the junk I was eating and the lack of sleep the week before, I'm somewhat impressed that I was able to run most of it and post a decent time. For April, I'm getting the race business out of the way immediately with the Race for the Roses on April 1st. 

Phew! I'm tired just remembering it all, no wonder the bags under my eyes have bags of their own! February and March also brought with it some very fun tickets. Mom and I went to the Blazer vs. Nugget game (our Christmas gift from brother), 'A Tribute to Benny Goodman' concert with the Oregon Symphony, and best of all "Wicked!" Oh, my good gravy, I LOVE this show! I have declared it my second most favoritest musical ever. It doesn't quite trump "Les Miserable" but it sure is close. There was also the hair trauma in early February, which is no longer traumatic. And then there were two weeks spent in a whirlwind obsession with my Kindle as I devoured "The Hunger Games" trilogy. Life wasn't all rosy. Not by a long shot. My fixation with reading was driven just as much from the need to escape real life and numb myself, even if only for a little while, just long enough to get through the day, to the heart ache that threatened to spill out from my eyes at any given moment, as it was from the engaging adventure of Katniss and Peeta. 

Yes, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." -Ferris Bueller