From Russia With Love

Tonite we made a trip to the airport to welcome home a new family. Our worship pastor and her husband brought home their new daughter Natalie from Russia. She is 18 months old and they have waited so long to be a family. About 60 people gathered at the arrival doors - in anticipation of getting the first glimpse of this new family. This is a picture of Pastor Karen and Natalie. There wasn't a dry eye in the house.




Natalie probably hadn't seen a balloon in her life - much less been in a crowded airport with all the people - but she seemed to adjust wonderfully and happily began playing with the children around her.

Welcome home to the Clark family! We are so blessed!

Happy Father's Day Dad!

Today is Father's Day and while my dad is gone now, I still think about him even more happily on Father's Day. My cousin Dianna gave me this picture of my dad and it is one of the ways I like to remember him. Seeing him here, on leave from the Air Force, shows me a side of him that I rarely saw. It was a "carefree" look on his face and he looks genuinely happy to me! I'm not saying that I never saw him happy - but by the time I was old enough to analyze him, he was serious about his work and the economy and life details - and he wasn't the same.

At the Keeler reunion, I talked to several aunts and uncles about my dad's personality and what he was like when he was a young man. My thoughts were confirmed in that he was a wonderful man and a great brother! He always had a smile and was very easy going as well as mischievous. He also was a great athlete, which is something he would never admit to anyone.

So on this day, I say "Happy Father's Day" to my dad who I miss very much - and who I wish I would have had more time with - to discover, as an adult, what kind of man he really was. I love you Dad! :)

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I hate it when its cooler outside than it is in my office........

Things I know today

1. The office building that I work in is.... well, shall we say....."dated". It's been around for awhile.

2. On any given day in the summertime, you can see an air conditioning repairman staring with a blank look on his face at the big A/C unit at the back of the building.

3. Today was no exception.

4. It was 180 degrees outside today.

5. My office is in the middle of the building.

6. All of the perimeter offices have separate condensors providing them with nice cool air.

7. The condensor to the inner offices was not working today.

8. A fan that blows hot air around the room really is of no use at all. It just messes up your hair, blows your papers around and generally makes you just a LITTLE BIT more cranky than you are to begin with.

9. It was a long day.

10. I'm not necessarily looking forward to going back to work tomorrow.

As God as my witness....

Last night, while channel-checking, Jay stumbled on WKRP in Cincinnati. That was one of my all-time favorite shows. It happened to be a 2 hour marathon. The first episode of four was the sitcom's actual first episode. I really don't remember seeing it and it was fun to see how everything started.

At a commercial break, I said that one of my favorite episodes was the Thanksgiving turkey episode and I wished that they would show it. Low and behold, the next episode they showed was that very one. It was the absolute best!

The picture you see was when Mr. Carlson and Herb came back to the station after their attempt at a promotion for WKRP. They took a helicopter and flew over a shopping center where they threw out live turkeys for people standing below.

As his last line (as shown in the picture) Mr. Carlson says "As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

You gotta love it!

Estes Park

I just got back from a long weekend in Estes Park, CO. My Dad's side of the family has a reunion at the YMCA of the Rockies every 2 years. To say that it is a soul-soother is putting it mildly.



The mountains just draw you to them I think. It was just absolutely beautiful. We took Trail Ridge Road up into the Rocky Mountain National Park. It had actually been closed just a few days before from so much snow. I love the winding roads and I love the majesty of the mountains.



One of the best things about going to this reunion of course is the family. My dad came from a family of 11 brothers and sisters. Two of them died very young, but the 9 of them grew up together and have been very close. As time has moved on, we've lost three of them. They are all quite a bit older now and so every time that we are together is precious. One of the coolest things is that when I see my uncles, I see my Dad. My dad has been gone now for 12 years - but when I see especially my Uncle Lyle and Uncle Gene, I see my Dad because they look so much alike.



Then - there are my cousins. I literally grew up with a lot of them and we too are very close. As with the brothers and sisters, we too have lost some. One of my cousins and my brother are gone now - and as I said, each reunion is precious.



Here is a picture of me standing next to the snow that was pushed away from the road on Trail Ridge Road. See? I told you they had snow!

It was a great long weekend - and I'm ready to go back!

Again - the Post Office

And yet again, another trip to the Post Office. This trip was kinda cute though. As always, it was about 4:45 when I got there along with about 23 of my closest friends. We were all standing in line waiting patiently. After I got up to the counter, a little old lady came up to the counter to the clerk next to me. Now remember, it was about 5 until 5 o'clock and the place is crowded. Well, this little thing wanted to see all the stamps the guy had. She was tired of plain old stamps - she wanted some "pretty stamps". I have to hand it to the clerk - he was just very good to her. He got out all the varieties of stamps and laid them on the counter for her to look at. She was very quiet as she looked them over, trying to make a decision. After all, she needed 10 of them. She was not about to make a mistake.

I had three big boxes to run through, which took a little bit of time. As I was leaving, she was still standing there "browsing". The clerk was very kind to her - but I'm not too sure how the people standing in line were feeling about her.

It's all about customer service, isn't it? I hope she found what she was looking for. No disrespect intended - but doesn't it make you wonder why she waited until 5 o'clock to go to the Post Office?