Went walking with the kids at Warder today. Micah fished. He and Josh traded insults with Matt and Bryan (who are now, miraculously, friends). Never stops. We ate succulent wild blackberries, which one can gather in various locations without fear of bears. There are no bears here! Pond is scummy and in no way pristine, but all in all Ohio is just beautiful. Thickets grow over with queen anne's lace, tiger lilies, blackberries, and honeysuckle. Children who look like Tom Sawyer fish in ponds, and it's very Norman Rockwell and Johnny Appleseed. My kids are drawn to the outdoors, and that's in a man's soul, to be outdoors. Adam was created outside of the garden and led there, while Eve was created in the garden...the soul of a man craves the outdoors and exploring and wilderness...and I see it in both my boys as much as I see it in my husband...it's the way God created men. Women seem to like to be in the garden and tend it, and women enjoy socializing, and women communicate. Men seem to like that solitude much more. Of course that's categorizing, there are lots of people who like both and homebody men and explorer women, I'm an explorer myself, though when I travel I want to...of course...meet other people. When my dad, my brothers, my husband, my kids...travel...they want to GET AWAY from people....I never understood that...but it's because that's the way God created us!!! It's wonderful!

Spent much of the day with my brother and his kidlings, Sierra and Hayden. I actually fell asleep on Sierra's bed. Not much of a sitter, am I? I will be over there more often in the future. Explanation to come later. Steve and the kids are seeing "Sky High".

Dump Cake

A person at work turned 40 today and his wife brought in a "dump cake".

It was actually really good.

"This tastes like crap! Hey, it IS crap!" (Ants)

Co-inky-dink...

I know that's a worn-out little slang word. Sorry. But get this...

My name is Ann.
The person I'm replacing at work- Ana Maria.
Person training me- Anne Marie.
Another person working near me- Anne Marie.
Warehouse in Canada person- Anna.
Warehouse in Mexico person- Anne.
Warehouse in Miami person- Maria.
Nathanael's friend - Anna.

My middle name isn't Maria or Marie but...
my mom's name is Mary.

White hot humidity. Lazy sun. Cicadas a slow-motion white noise. Barbecue smoke. Karl at the grill. Soup-thick air. Two adolescents aimlessly treading through it, sometimes drowning in sleep for hours.

Steve and Karl watching the same sci-fi episodes. I've watched Bala burn at the stake now three times. Poor interplanetary freebooter. Tired of the not-so-subtle implication of Christ as an aurae. (sigh) These writers think they're being clever, I guess. :) But my interest is piqued enough to see what happens next.

Nathanael's got his t-shirt designs ready now for, uh, is it publication? Fabrication? (Wait, fabrication in English is "imaginary".) OK, I guess "production" is a good word, but a more accurate word, please? It's a good product and I'm going to start putting my paltry marketing skills to use and assist with this. I think he can do well in it with good PR. Business name: Permanent Marker T-shirts.

It's confusing- feel like I'm trying to learn a whole bunch of procedures by starting in the middle. I don't have a clear work flow in my brain. I know this, like other places, will suddenly "click" and I will suddenly go "aha! so THAT'S why I have to do x". It will pull together but right now there are bits and pieces of information that are all disjointed. The person showing me a lot of this is very familiar with it all, and doesn't realize how much of a blank slate I am.

I have learned more today than yesterday, and maybe all this information is like all the metal guts of The Iron Giant after the explosion...there are things here and there that alone make no sense...all of his body parts are like all this information, and it's being pulled together magnetically...slowly...from all parts of the world...and pretty soon will arrange itself into something functional. I know I'm soooooooooo frickin' weird, ain't I!!!!!!

PS I like Iron Giant. I highly recommend it to people with kids about age 5 or so. It's a really well-made work of art, funny for grown-ups and kids, with a good message about peace and love and all that, and best of all it doesn't come with $4000 worth of video games, cereal, clothes, and toys you have to buy for your kids.

I really enjoyed my first day at Hillman! Sea of faces, procedures, etc...but toward the end of the day I actually got busy with some backed up orders for Mexico on JDE. Well it's really lots of fun though a bit confusing trying to remember names/faces/systems/terms the first day. From experience having many "first days", I know I will get accustomed to it all.

Weather humid and we just got a new dryer. Old one could no longer deal. Maybe this one will retain a little more of the fabric softener smell. My favorite- Gain. P&G has me hooked on anything Gain Original Fresh Scent.

AC's kaput so while I'm tolerating the humidity well, the males complain. I don't turn it on anyway but I think they need comfort in this drippy wet weather, always a thunder roll in the distance. Well they haven't complained (about that, anyway).
Micah tried to have a garage sale today. The only ones who came (and who ever come) are the neighbor kids. I really had hoped someone else would stop by, but maybe we'll wait until it cools off and try again. We even put up signs on posts. Signs by Hillman no less! A lot of people don't go outside in this weather. I seem to be one of the few who's OK with it. I realize a Caucasian like myself in hot weather generally looks like a drowned rat with sweat matting down my stringy hair and bug bites and freckles constellating the general red burn that is my skin, but I'm OK with it!

One of the cool things about this new job is that it's located about midway between my house and my brother Dave's house. I can visit my little niece and nephew when I want to and when I need to. My brother is going to need some help.

Dave, if you're reading this, when is the new date for Hayden's therapy workshop? Or did I miss it? Or do I just keep doing what I was doingn at Crowduck? Let me know.

Weather is rainy and humid and warm. Prospects for change unlikely in the immediate future. I'm quite fond of jungle weather so I'm okay with it. Kinda reminds me of Melgar. Oh, it's been too long. I see a trip to Colombia (my home for a year) sometime in my future. I'm afraid I might never come back if I go... well when I lived there I lived in rainy (but colder) Bogotá. It's been SO MANY YEARS that I doubt it looks like the same city I knew. I remember Unicentro, and riding the bus from Centro Fe (where we foreigners studied lit and history) to the Javeriana every day. I lived in Paulo VI.

Just met a person yesterday from Barranquilla (I love that city!!) which reminded me of all the cool places and people I remember. I loved Cartagena (went twice), the little islands, then the high cloudy cities like Tunja...the salt mines and the little underground church of Zipaquirá...but I REALLY loved Melgar. Sometime I would really love to take my kids there.

You are now reading the blog of The Hillman Group's new export coordinator!

Thanks to God!
I pray for success in this new position. I feel pretty happy about this to say the least!
They had honed the candidates down to six, then two, then they chose me...so I am flattered! I can't wait- I start Monday. It was a long process and I prayed the whole way and I always accepted the possibility of not being picked, so I am truly flattered that I was.

I'm praying now, have prayed, still praying...waiting to know about this job. Hd an interview with the same 2 and two more. It's hopeful. Am supposed to know by end of workday or first thing tomorrow. Just please pray for me. I have been given a lot of hope by those who interviewed me. But my true hope is always in God, in Christ.

Well let's see, how was Crowduck this year?
Fun. Productive, fish-wise. We didn't go hungry. I ate too much. I'm afraid to weigh myself at Jenny Craig. We caught a lot of walleye (catch and release only), northern pike, and smallmouth bass. We eat the pike and bass when we keep them. Crowduck's never-fail recipe, accompanied by my dad's waffle fries (which Sierra re-named, for some reason, "square fries", even though they're not square), onion rings, all kinds of muffins, and Steve's Ukrainian dish, and lots of beer or pop (take your pick) makes for a very fattening week. I tried to eat more salad, hold back on the batter-fried stuff, but it's hard. But if I've regained weight, it's my own fault! No one had a gun on me forcing me to eat!

Irene and Joe accompanied us. Irene's my mom's sister and Joe's my dad's brother. They hadn't seen each other since 1960 at my parents' wedding!!! The others- Tracy and Dan, me and Steve and Nathanael and Micah, and then Dave with his little ones Sierra (age 5) and Hayden (age 3). Sierra and Hayden make everything so worthwhile. Sierra is the most girly-girl there ever was. She will only wear dresses or skirts. She is a royal princess so I made her a princess necklace. Irene taught her about ballet and told her stories and puppeted Sierra's Woody and Esmeralda dolls (she's a ballerina and playwright of children's plays, also a novelist of grownup novels). She's had a difficult last few months having been recently widowed. She's got a new freedom, is no longer caring for a disabled person (before it was her husband, it was her husband's dad). Jack had had a stroke about 12 years ago and it paralyzed his left side. Her new freedom is awkward. I can't imagine it all. I haven't been there yet in my life. Well, anyway, to continue rambling, I made good connection with Hayden. I just love him. He and I made a LOT of eye contact through a little song on one of his toys I sang over and over to his delight, and through hugging, and tickles, and walks to look at wheels. He loves having his feet held. There's an intuition about connecting with an autistic 3-year-old. He's so precious. It doesn't hurt that he's cuuuuute. Connecting helps him come out of the autism more and more. My gosh it has to be done now, and tomorrow, and every day. Now is the moment. Those neurons connect and regrow and turn on more the younger one is. The whole situation causing the divorce is an insanity. We have got to connect with Hayden more and more now.
I have an interview tomorrow again at Hillman. Asked me back for a second one. Didn't know earlier it would go into a "second round". They had hoped to decide (or so I thought) earier. So apparently there's more to consider. Please pray that, if it's God's will, I get this job.

What can I say? Fish were biting. Pix to come. Besides fishing, I worked a little on needlepoint, read parts of a powerful book called "Touching the World through Prayer", and did some praying, one of them today with instant results (not to say they all have instant results, but all are answered according to God's will and in God's time). Micah had a headache today in the car. I prayed in the Shed Blood of Christ for healing, laying my hand where the pain was, and the headache went away. His half Tylenol had not helped. I believe God was using that experience to help reinforce things to him. He didn't want to say it to me, but a little while after praying I saw him "test" his headache by shaking his head. I saw the illumination in his face knowing that God had healed him. When I asked him if the pain was gone, he said it was, but I guess felt strange in pronouncing that information. I said to thank Jesus for this and remember this moment.
I prayed several times over my niece and nephew. Sierra aged almost-5 and Hayden aged almost-3. I layed my hands on Hayden's head as he was sleeping and asked God in healing and development of his speech and communication according to His will. I asked for protection for both of the kids during this time of uncertainty and vulnerability considering what my brother and his soon-to-be-ex are going through.
None of my brothers or parents are Christian. My uncle who was there is a Christian. I had to do a lot of praying in secret. It doesn't matter. I know and have seen its effects. I can testify. Some people are blowhards and have much doubt about it. They laugh at it and think it's a crutch. Or for the weak. Sorry. This is not true. I'm not even very "religious". Get the word "religious" out of your head. You all know who you are. Some Christians are religious, and some are not. "Religious" does not mean "believer", nor vice versa.
It's a very different world for the believer who has set him/herself apart from the mainstream school of "educated" thought, which in this day and age embraces: Moral relativism ("Well if it's right for you, that's fine. But don't tell ME what I can and can't do."). Relative truth ("I'm glad for you, really. I think your faith is great. It's OK for you but not for me."). The belief, almost a mantra, that all religions are pretty much paths leading to the same end. ("They are just different flavors of ice cream....I'm not going to bring my child up in a 'religion'. I'm going to let him/her grow up and choose his/her own." What? You're just teaching your kids you don't know anything!) Or frustration with and negation of the whole thing, including simplistic resolutions. ("Let's not discuss this....imagine there's no heaven...it's easy if you try....all we are saying....") From political liberals: "Christianity is a 'white' religion." This is the silliest of all. WHAT the....!! uh, newsflash: Christ wasn't "white." (White/Black/Asian- sorry, there are not three or four "categories" of people, anyway, either scientifically or Biblically, it's just a function or identity of culture.) Anyway this is certainly news to many Christians I know!! LOL! Anyway look up Jack Hayford and racial categorization- he explains it very well. DNA. Even classifying people on the basis of race, class, social status...for marriage, for example...is unbiblical. God has no color or ethnic group set aside for the kind of person He requires you to marry. God just says a Christian should marry another Christian. If you prefer to marry from a set of people (like Michael Chang, who says unless God directs him otherwise, his future wife will be of Chinese origin)...that is OK, but God Himself does not have a racial profile. Sorry. I digress. Anyway, go to a Spanish-speaking church, or a Southern Baptist black church, or a house church in China (evade the police, of course), in India, on a reservation, in Japan, Honduras, in Ethiopia (oldest churches there...Ethiopians were starting up churches in Acts, beginning with...a eunuch..., yeah tell those Copts how WASPS are destroying America...anyway... sorry. You get the idea.
Anyway, this whole list is endless. And all these phrases thrown out by the cultural elite, in their many forms, are tired and shopworn.
I think many in the mainstream listen to Christians in the media and are instantly turned off because, knowingly or not, they are hearing someone in their own personal life, not Christ. (Jerry Falwell looks like your smug old dad who preached Jesus but beat you every day.) Are you rejecting Christ or rejecting Pat Robertson? The Pope? President Bush or some other yappy Texan? Your father who was harsh or preachy? It is OK to reject those people. Don't reject Christ. My gosh there are so many other people behind the scenes working in the trenches and doing the work of warriors and laborers for Christ. They are out there feeding the poor and the poor in spirit. I wish these people were more in the limelight because they are such a testament. Christians are routinely tortured and executed in China and parts of Arabia. Politically shafted in the "western" world. (By the way, the "western" and "eastern" separation of the world, to me, have little meaning.) If you want to hear God, stop. Turn everything off. Just listen to God. Only His voice. Ask Him into your life. His presence is free and eternal.