Grad Week Thus Far

Hello from Lancaster, California, where it's HOT!!! The temperature reached 100 degrees yesterday. I felt so privileged to be here on their first 100-degree day this year - not. Today was much cooler, but the wind was blowing so hard that there was a minor dust storm near the church. The grounds guys were cleaning the parking lot, and the whole time, the dust was just blowing right back in. Talk about futility!

All my chickies in a row: Andrew, Samuel, Juliana, Beth

Well, we've been enjoying our children. Sunday was great, as we spent two church services with them all. Juliana fixed us a delicious meal Sunday afternoon, and Sunday night Sam treated us all to dinner out for Mother's Day. Wes said he could get used to this! LOL

Monday, we did laundry. I know. That's so exciting. But it's a necessary thing, especially when you've been traveling for 4 days and you're about to run out of necessary things. So I did laundry in the hotel laundry room while Wes studied for Sunday (another necessary thing). We went over to the church and college campus after the laundry was done and had lunch with Beth and her friends in the dining hall, then Beth took us to her office to show us where she works. We left her there, as she had to work that afternoon, and Wes and I went over to the campus bookstore, one of my favorite places, where we expanded our library and enjoyed some cold drinks in the campus coffee shop.

Beth in her cubicle in the distance-learning office.

Monday night was the college choir spring concert, and it was fantastic! The choir and various groups sang some older songs that just touch your heart, and I enjoyed it so much. We've enjoyed lots of fellowship with those we see and meet during the services.

Just goofing around with Andrew

Today's (Tuesday) chapel service was the annual awards chapel, where students receive awards for various accomplishments. Andrew was recognized for being a soul-winning leader, which basically means he was the co-ordinator for a group of student soul-winners. We were also very pleased to see him inducted into the Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities. He's pretty quiet about most things he's involved in, so it was a joy to us to see him recognized for some of those things.

More goofing around, but a little less goofy

 I have bunches more pictures, but I couldn't get them to upload to my computer for some reason. And it's after 11:00 at night after a long, busy day. I will get them, but I just don't have it in me to figure it out tonight!

Wes's dad arrived this afternoon. It's good to see him too and spend time with him. He was the only one of the grandparents able to come this time. We sure will miss Grandma, Papa, and Grandmama!!!

Tonight was the baccalaureate service for the graduates. This was just a regular church service, with the message being a charge to the students. Pastor Jim Butler of Greeneville, NC, was the guest speaker. We'd never heard him before, and he brought an excellent message to the students, one that challenged us parents too!

So we've had a great few days here with the kids. We've enjoyed seeing them every day, eating with them, and sitting with them in church. Tomorrow is the big day: graduation day for Andrew! 

If you're close friends or family and want to watch the graduation, it will be live-streamed beginning at 9:00 AM, Pacific Time, Wednesday morning.You can link directly to the live stream at lbclive.tv. That's all for now! Talk to you later!

Happy Mother's Day!

photo credit: Steve took it via photopin cc

Happy Mother's Day
to each of you,

and especially to my two moms:

my mother and my mother-in-law.

I hope you all have a blessed day!

Carve Your Name on Hearts

 

photo credit: Eddi van W. via photopin cc

 A good character is the best tombstone.

Those who loved you and were helped by you

will remember you

when forget-me-nots have withered.

Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.
   

~~ Charles Spurgeon ~~

Prayer Update

My mother-in-law is going home from the hospital tonight. Extensive testing found nothing wrong with her heart, praise the Lord! Thank you for your prayers. I must go; my internet connection is very sporadic here on the train. Thanks for your patience!

Our Amtrak Trip: Part 1

 Pictures later. Internet connection has been sporadic. Thanks for your patience!

Hopefully I can get this out before I lose my wifi connection! We're on a short layover in Portland, and this is the only place I've been able to get my computer to hook up to the wifi, although my phone has hooked up easily all day.

We got to the King Street Station in Seattle 2 hours early this morning. That was my hubby's plan, because we weren't sure how Seattle traffic would be at 8:00 in the morning. So we checked in and waited about an hour and a half before boarding time.

We have a sleeper room called a roomette. And it is. Very big on the 'ette' part! It's about 3 feet wide by 6 feet long! It's just big enough for 2 seats facing each other. These seats fold down to make the lower bunk, and the top bunk folds down from the ceiling. I was shocked when we got on and I began seeing the roomettes, and then when we sat down in it, and I just couldn't help but giggle. My husband is 6'4", and I'm interested to see how he'll fit in his bunk tonight. There is a restroom just two doors down from our room, and there are shower and dressing rooms on the lower level. Our train is a superliner, with three two-level sleeping cars, a dining car, and a parlour car, which is only available to sleeper passengers. It's where I'm sitting now, typing this post.

There are some larger sleeping rooms that actually look quite roomy, compared to the little roomette we're in. Those rooms have their own sinks and toilets, but the showers are still shared.

We've met some friendly people. Our meals are included in our fare (thanks to being in a sleeper), so we have the choice to eat in the dining car or the parlour car. If you eat in the dining car, you are automatically placed at a table for four, and another couple is seated with you. We ate in the dining car for lunch, and our table companions were an older couple from the San Diego area. They had taken a cruise to Vancouver, so that gave us something in common to talk about, since we lived in Vancouver for six years. All four of us had the Angus steak burger. It came with all the trimmings

If you eat in the parlour car, however, you get a private table. We hope to get into the parlour car for dinner. The waiter comes through the train to make your reservations for lunch and dinner, but breakfast is first come, first served.

Michele asked about the swaying on a train in one of her comments. Well, Michele, there is quite a bit of swaying! It's a little difficult to walk at times. I'm not sure if you'd have the same condition you do when you're on a boat, but I'd say it's entirely possible. I'm sorry! I know you'd love to take a train trip.

Prayer Please!

I forgot to ask you in my earlier post to pray for my mother-in-law. She was hospitalized last night with chest pains. The doctors ran some tests today, but we don't know any of the results yet. She thought she might get to go home today, but as of 6:00 pm their time, she was still at the hospital.

The hardest part for her and my father-in-law is that he is in New Mexico helping with some church plants through their mission board, so she was alone when the chest pains began. No one is letting her be alone now until Dad gets back home, though!

Dad had planned to be in California next week for Andrew's graduation, but depending on Mom's test results, he may go back to Georgia right away. Please pray for Mom's health, and for Dad to have wisdom to know how to proceed from here. We'd love to see him, but we'd much rather he be with Mom right now!

Thanks for your prayers!

Two Days in Seattle

Hi, again! We've spent two relaxing days in Seattle on our trip down for our son Andrew's college graduation. Bright and early tomorrow morning, we'll be boarding an Amtrak train for Burbank! I'm getting more and more excited as we get closer to the train portion of our trip!

We've shopped, eaten out, walked around the park, gone to church, and been to the original Starbucks and downtown Seattle's Pike Place Market. Or is it the Seattle Public Market? I never know! We've also been serenaded with an old-time spiritual in front of the original Starbucks. And we've had cheesecake (mine was low-carb; his was definitely not) and a smoothie (sugar-free for me) and a peanut butter chocolate milkshake (not for me). Here are a few pictures from the past two days . . .

The park in downtown Bellevue, WA. The walking path, which you can see in the foreground, is 1/2 mile around the park. We walked it several times after we ate lunch. Because we could barely move. Because we ate at Cheesecake Factory for the first time ever and now have a new favorite restaurant.

Another section of the park. Those little pools were all along the track, and they emptied over that waterfall thing in the picture above this one. Lots of ducks in these pools. Several were asleep with their heads tucked under their wings, which I'd never seen before.

My husband being rude.

I'm about to teach him not to be rude.

I think he enjoyed that lesson too much.

The famous entrance to the market.

Flower vendors line the side of the market. These are huge bouquets. One of these days I'll get one, but we're usually leaving within a day or two & can't take them on a plane or train or back into Canada.

Beautiful!

Another common sight: produce stands. Some of the most delicious-looking fruits and veggies ever.

The length of the Market.

Outside Starbucks. This group is here quite often. They sing spirituals and songs like 'Lean On Me.' When they found out Wes is a pastor, they sang us an old spiritual. We loved it!

This is not low-carb. It is not low-anything. It's a peanut-butter-chocolate milkshake. Wes loves anything peanut butter, especially with chocolate included.

I was thrilled to find that Cold Stone Creamery has smoothies sweetened with Splenda. Hello, Strawberry-Mango!

We'll be boarding our train around 8:30 tomorrow morning. As part of our sleeping arrangements, we have access to a parlor car with free wifi. As soon as we get settled on the train I'll take some inside pictures and let you know our first impressions. See you tomorrow!