Four states in seven days

If you're a friend on Facebook, you've probably already seen some of the photos I posted from our trip back east. My daughters and I arrived home late Saturday night after a week of travel. We flew to NYC and visited colleges, then drove through NJ to Philadelphia where we toured Drexel University. The first photo is of Independence Hall (close to wear the Liberty Bell resides). One special benefit from the timing of this trip is we were able to enjoy vibrant fall color. We don't see much of that at the beach :-)

We then drove to Northeast Pennsylvania and stopped in to see my sweet father-in-law, Geno. By that time, the weather had turned colder, drizzle had begun, and leaves had fallen. My daughters are in the second photo, strolling through weather in the low 40s. By the next day, the temp had dropped to 26 degrees! (And yes, we had a light dusting of snow).

We finished up our trip in Ohio, where the sun came back out to greet us. When we arrived home--after a 3.5 hour delay in Phoenix, of all places!--we learned that parts of the east were snowed it. Yikes.

All-in-all we toured five colleges: Marist (Poughkeepsie), Pratt (Brooklyn), FIT (NYC), Drexel (Philly), and Kent State (Kent, Ohio). Loved the trip, but so glad to be back at the beach--and to write to all of you again!

Have a beachy week, my friends ~ wherever you are ...

our divine romance

Our 21st wedding anniversary is coming up next week, but it's sunshine and roses around here all the time anyway. LOL ... doesn't that make you gag? Seriously, I love my husband. People ask, What will you do for your anniversary? And I have no idea. He gave me these roses weeks ago for no apparent reason, so I guess that's why we're not particularly organized about the anniversary. (Although I do have to say that he surprised me last year with an amazing dinner out, but still.) The truth is that the man's a romantic, through and through, no matter what time of year.

Maybe it's because our early years were tough ~ something I've begun to (finally) write about. We met when our lives, individually, were deeply painful. And God's been working on me for the past two years (maybe longer ... was I listening?) to write the story he gave us. Every time I tried, though, I gave up. It became tough both emotionally and creatively and I always turned to something else. Ever done that?

I'm not sure how long it will take me to get this story out. I've got editing projects, a writing assignment, plus several proposals floating around that may be picked up soon. When it comes to God, however, you can run, but you can't hide! Or I guess you can, but who wants to hide from the Savior of the World?

Not me :-)

A little editing humor to start your Tuesday

Unless you don't find this particularly funny (as I obviously do ;-)

Soar on

College Boy's having a blast working as an Ambassador for BIOLA University. He blogs, makes phone calls, gives tours - and writes the occasional ditty to advertise the school. How cool to do something you love AND earn gas money! (Mommy is thankful ...)

So anyway, you've heard of "planking"? That thing crazy kids do where they lie down like a "plank," often in weird places (say, across the tops of bathroom stalls, which is pretty gross, but apparently popular ...)

BIOLA students, however, are being encouraged to "soar." And their mascot is an eagle, so why not? There are cool photos on the school's FB page showing students "soaring," i.e., suspended in mid-air. Some are pretty funny, and you have to wonder how many takes those took.

In this video, Matt (on the right) and his friend, Seth, are singing a song Matt wrote about soaring. I'm shy and would never sing in public, but Matt inherited the hambone in our family (my dad is super hammy ...), so that explains it ;-)