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Night Visitors

by | Aug 13, 2011 | Uncategorized

The next funny moment with police officers happened just a few months after the last incident.

One night I was sitting in our family room watching a detective show.

I like criminal minds or NCIS or other detective shows like documentaries as long as they are not too ‘gruesome’ in details.
This particular night I was in my bathrobe, and it was late around 10:30-11:00 and enjoying a glass of wine and relaxing before bed.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door.
I could not imagine who would be visiting this time of night.
Looking out the little hole in my door I noticed officers in uniform standing on the step.

I opened the door and saw one of them over by my garage and two of them standing before me as I greeted them in my bathrobe.
I asked them, “Can I help you?”
They said to me, “Mam we think someone is in your home and we are here to see what is going on inside your house and make sure you are safe.”
I was shocked by what I heard because I knew it was only me and my cat and my husband who had gone to bed earlier.

They continued, “There was a 911 call from your home and we have been monitoring your open phone line and listening to conversations and we feel you are in danger perhaps there is an intruder in there with you.”
I was still shocked.
If there was an intruder wouldn’t I know it? asking myself who on earth would dial 911?
I said to them, “I will be right back” as I shut the front door leaving them standing there waiting for the door to open again and not knowing if I really had a bad guy guiding my every move.
I rushed upstairs as fast as my slippers and bathrobe would let me, and woke up my husband asking him. “Did you call 911?”  He was asleep and answered me in a groggy tone, “why would he do that?” he asked me, “what was going on” and I told him “we had police at our door.” Then I rushed back downstairs to open the door again this time I found all three officers standing there requesting to come in to our home.
(In case this ever happens to you it is NOT good advise to shut a door on any officer of the law especially if they think you might be in danger and especially if you have more than one.)
Of course by this time my husband was awake and downstairs inviting all officers in and we chatted about what might have happened.
The phone was set on speed dial and apparently it fell or was knocked into or whatever and it dialed 911. There was no answer on my end of the phone of course because I didn’t know the police were there. They listened to part of the show on tv and apparently thought it was a real situation.

After chatting with them (I was still in my bathrobe) and after they realized ‘we’ were related to our son who worked at the station they left. My husband went back to bed
and I went back to my much needed glass of wine.

As I sat down in my chair and thought about what just took place in the last half hour I wondered what they really heard on that phone call and how long had they been listening?
Was I talking to myself??
or talking to my cat??
What on earth did they hear on the show to cause such a concern and what was I was watching?
Sure hope that never happens again.

Also I wondered what they said to each other as they left our house and what they wrote in the police report.
It must have been very interesting.
The next day I went into my work and I just had to share with anyone who would listen
to another ‘adventure’ in the little home town of Newberg, Oregon.

A bit of Humor

by | Aug 11, 2011 | Uncategorized

I thought I would share a bit of humor today.
My son is a police officer and he works at the station down town where we live. He enjoys his job and enjoys the satisfaction of helping others and recently worked up to a Sergeant position. His normal job is in a district attorneys office the police job is for continual training and to add to his resume. I am sure it is very interesting at times for him when his mother has had a few ‘moments’ with the officers of the law in the area.
Not intentionally of course I just happened to get in situations where we meet on occasion. Sometimes it is with someone he knows other times like this story he didn’t know them.

The first funny moment was during a construction period not far from the new addition to our town called the Allison Inn. The road crews were making a round about to make traffic easier to deal with.

                                       Round abouts are circles going left or right
and the drivers slow down and yield depending on the locations of where they are going. 
I happened to have my sister in the car at the time and we were driving through the mess of the road construction and apparently I went the wrong way. I was heading into on coming traffic driving on the wrong side of the road.

Now my sister noticed it first and then she quietly said, “Are you going the right way?”
I realized I was in error and tried to get where I was supposed to be only I ended up high centered on the edge of the concrete barrier  with one tire up and one tire down and I was stuck. Afraid to gun the engine and get unstuck
I stayed there a few minutes to re-think my problem.
In the mean time we notice some headlights coming my way as it was dusk and night was quickly coming upon us. The headlights were in my lane since I was in their lane. It was a bit frustrating to realize how stuck I was and cars were beginning to line up on the other side wanting to go past me. About the time I realized I was not able to move my car forward or backward.

I noticed the first car that showed up in front of me was a sheriffs cars with headlights on top. When the officer stopped his car he opened his door and stepped out staying behind his door and said to me in a loud voice, “Get off the road… back up and get off the road. You are blocking traffic.”  Using his bull horn to get my attention.
If you have ever heard one of those they are loud and somewhat unnerving.
Especially when someone is armed and in uniform telling you to move and get off of the road. I wasn’t sure what to do other than what he said and I was a bit afraid to move my car and hurt it. I was in quite a predicament and not sure of my next move.

Now you would have thought he could have come over to help me or to see if I was ok or to just talk quietly instead of using the mega bull horn with people watching. NO he told me to move in a very loud way and with force in his voice. “Get off the road you are blocking traffic.”
I WAS STUCK couldn’t he see that?
After having the instructions to get off the road given to me by an officer of the law I told my sister to hang on.
We were getting out of there.
I pressed my foot on the pedal of my car and tried to back up then I tried to go forward and finally dropped onto the road and drove off leaving the officer in a cloud of dust with a line of cars behind him to carry on for the rest of the night. My sister thought it was funny although she kept her comments to herself till later. I was worried about my car and upset the officer didn’t come help me.
I asked my son about it when I got home and he said, “Mom if I would have found you like that I would have had you walk the line.”
That’s my boy… Thanks Son.
A bit of humor from the small home town of Newberg, Oregon.

A Radical Transformation

by | Aug 9, 2011 | Uncategorized

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly,

but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
~ Maya Angelou ~
  I think of life as a series of changes.
We are young
We grow up
We leave school
We get married
We have children
They are young
They grow up
They leave school
They get married
They have children
And
The circle continues
And
No one really takes the time to talk about
The changes of life that we go through
 to grow us
and mature us
Into who we are today.
Our beauty comes after the difficult moments.
Our beauty comes after the sad times
and times of stress and heart ache
and the times of refreshment
when the struggle is over.
We are beautiful when
we become more
like Him.
The butterfly goes through a life changes
to become
who it is supposed to become
in its final stage of life.
It didn’t start out a butterfly.
It had to work and struggle and
go through many processes
 to get there.
We are no different.
Our transformation is just as life changing
and
Miraculous
And the end result will be
Something very beautiful
And
Perhaps even a radical transformation.

(picture taken by Shelly Collis)
Yamhill County Oregon

Three words

by | Aug 5, 2011 | Uncategorized

I was reading a blog by a writer named Lysa Terkeurst and she was challenging her readers to think about something. Well that was just up my alley since this blog title is called ‘something to think about’.
I have always loved a challenge and a deep thinking one too.

Lisa said: What three words do you want to say today.
Three intentionally chosen words
Three words that would mean something
What would they be…
if that is all you could say to someone?
What would you say?

Then she asked: 
When the last day of your life comes and people are standing around describing you or talking about you. What three words do you think others would say about you?
What would you want them to say or hope they would say?
I would like them to say at least two words.
She loved.
She loved God
She loved family
She loved friends and most of all
She loved life.
What words do you need to think about today?

A bit of Grace

by | Aug 2, 2011 | Uncategorized

Reconciliation:
to become friendly with someone after estrangement
or to re-establish friendly relations between two or more people.
That is the definition of reconciliation from dictionary.com.

Have you ever been given a gift to your heart?
A REAL gift from the heart from someone with whom
you have had a wounded and confused and almost broken relationship with?
I am following up on the writing I did on January 30th.
I was in a relationship that was strained at the time.
Broken.
Fractured.
Like a leg or arm that needed healing after a break
my heart needed time to repair itself.
My heart hurt very deeply and felt
shattered.
My spirit in a cast recovering
from the shock and wound
given to me
by someone I cared for.

After much time
After much prayer
Deep prayer.
Distance.
More prayer.
More distance.
And more time.

This person and I are healing our relationship.
We gave each other the gifts of our hearts and
we are pressing forward towards a new beginning with each other.
Some relationships have more value than others
and this one was very valuable to me.
It was important for us to do the ‘steps’
to make it healthy and new ~ 
different and restored.
The depth of the
the misunderstanding and
the words
were like huge boulders that stood in the way
of a clear chance of relationship building.
We remained blocked by chunks of rock that hurt the relationship.
A series of circumstances took place
and a phone call or two took place
and the realization that we missed each other
took place within our hearts
and it was good.
What was done
What was wrong
What was spoken out loud.
Was forgiven ~ Not forgotten ~ But forgiven.
Love can build a bridge if we allow it to heal
our hearts.
Love can build a bridge that crosses from one side of brokenness
to the other side of complete healing.
Love can build a bridge
like a safety shelter from the raging danger below.
There is danger all around us
if we don’t be careful.
Words hurt
Words break hearts.
Words also can heal and restore and renew
what was sacred and precious if given the opportunity to redeem oneself.
Love can bridge the wounded
so long as they are both willing to start from each side
and meet in the middle.
A middle ground is a gift between two people
who have been wounded and hurt and broken.
Moving towards being forever friends and forever healed and
forever caring for each others hearts.
We move slow
We move carefully
We realize this gift from the heart is a gift we cannot discount.
If we learn the lesson to heal and move forward and never do something
to hurt each other again.
Have you been given that chance by someone
to start over and begin new and fresh with a new ‘attitude and process’?
Do you need to?
Perhaps there is someone in your life who needs a bit of Grace given to them.
Just something to think about today.

Sharing family photos

by | Jul 27, 2011 | Uncategorized

My husband and I at our favorite place the beach.

 
A Father and Son picture isn’t is just too funny?

        

Our Son Christopher and his wife Sarah have three little boys!
 
Super Heroes ~ Samuel, Seth and Josiah

Our daughter Sarah and her husband Doug… have three daughters.

Hannah, Alexis and Faith 

Yes Hannah on left and Alexis on right are identical twins and Yes they surprised this grandma and grandpa we had no idea we would have twins in the family. In this photo they were a week old.

We are so blessed to have all six of these beautiful grand children. We feel it is an honor and a privilege to pray for them and support them.  Samuel, Hannah and Alexis are all age 7 Josiah is age 3 Seth is now age 10 months and Faith just turned 12.

We could not be happier grandparents…God has blessed us far beyond what we ever thought possible.

Relay for Life

by | Jul 25, 2011 | Uncategorized

This last weekend was the Wilsonville relay for life.
It is a cancer walk to raise funds for cancer research. 
My daughter was one of the head ‘directors’ in charge of corporate giving.
This is my grand daughter and I walking the walk.
Faith Elizabeth is going to be in 7th grade.
Yes she is tiny in size although she has some height going for her.
I am five feet tall so you can see she is catching up with me.
The relay is from Friday night 6 pm to Saturday morning closing at 10 am.
The final count for donations at 10 am
$60,000.00
Isn’t that awesome?
CANCER research will go on and hopefully many diseases will be cured.
We walked for mom O and for my dad N who is still fighting the fight.

Birds and little girls

by | Jul 20, 2011 | Uncategorized

The grand daughters were having fun playing and running around the back yard playing in the sprinklers with Emma my dog.
Then of course big sister Faith gets the hose and decides to squirt the little ones.
It was fun to watch them scream and run away then come back for more.
Yes they are twins Hannah and Alexis age 7 years and Faith is 12 not a lot bigger than they are.
In the mean time…
The papa and mama bird on the patio were showing signs of being nervous because they had ‘new’ eggs in the bird house and they didn’t want them to be bothered by happy children. Or soaked by a hose or whatever else birds see as a danger to their newly laid eggs. I told the girls to be very careful.

Waiting patiently for the noise to stop and the children to leave… papa bird sat on the fence watching for the opportunity to ‘check’ on his babies to be. He is the most care taking papa I have seen and this is our second batch of babies in the last 3 months. He was there sitting at the house before he even found a mama to set up a home with. It has been fun to watch him woo her and wait for little ones.

He would move closer then move away… the eggs are in the nest to the right and papa was showing signs of agitation and anxiety. Wanting to protect whatever that nest held inside. I often wanted to peek inside it but I am way too short and to step on a stool would be not so safe.
After what seemed like an hour I told the girls we needed to go in or go to the courtyard so the eggs can be checked on by the papa bird. He was wanting to see if things were alright.

          He would move from bird house to bird house
          waiting for the time to fly into their own.

Still waiting for the time…
after the children left the patio and the quiet settled in he finally flew into the right bird house and I imagine sat for a while on the eggs. About two weeks later we have at least two babies perhaps three and he is the most doting papa bird much more than the mama bird. I placed bird feeders near them so they have seeds and whatever they might need for the babies. This has been a very fun year watching each batch of families for a brief amount of time. I think I could be a bird person it is fascinating to watch how they take care of their own and just hang out.

Before we all left the patio my oldest grand daughter thought she would try to squirt grandma… not a good idea.  I captured a cute picture anyway. Isn’t that the most ‘oh my gosh I was caught look?’

Title of the picture is: Don’t you dare squirt your grandma with that cold water…Isn’t she cute??

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