Operation Share-a-Square complete!

A year ago, I began reading Shelly Tucker's blog. She a professional story teller AND from the great ol' state of Texas, a combination that's hard to beat.

A short time after I began to read her blog, she made an appeal to her readers. Seems there's a camp called Camp Sanguinity, and it's a camp for kids with cancer, and they were in need of blankets. Each new camper receives a blanket, and this year, Shelly decided to take on the challenge of making sure they each got one. But she didn't just see the task as providing blankets. She saw the task as a labor of love, one to let the kids know how much others are thinking of them and rooting for them. I guess you could say Shelly got me "hooked."

Her idea? To collect small, crocheted panels from all over the world and piece them together to form 140 blankets. Each panel would have a tag from the person who made it, so the child would know who was thinking and praying for them. Operation Share-a-Square had begun. I sent off a few panels, to be added to the MULTITUDE of panels Shelly collected.

Well, last week, the project ended, and Shelly delivered the blankets. I can't tell it the way she does, so you need to click this link and see for yourself.

This truly has been a labor of love. (I want to emphasize labor, so that you will go through Shelly's archives to watch the progression of the challenge!) Shelly had a vision to not only help out, but to show a little (lotta!) love along the way.

You did it Shelly, you and all of those who contributed. Thanks for being the inspiration for such a great event!

Goodbye Video from Timothy's class

Timothy and his friend Joe (the one with the Nike ball) are going back to the states, so their class made them a video.

The thing about Timothy's class is that they are so sweet and accepting. Any new student who comes in becomes part of the group instantly. They go out to movies together, to the mall....they are just always together.

I know Timothy will miss them.

(By the way, they call Timothy Mr. Buff, so a couple of the skits are with that in mind.)

Project Blue #2

Son #1 catching some blue sky.


Son #2 in blue, catching a ball game here in Taichung. I caught him on TV. :)

Project Blue

Anna's at it again. It's time for project blue.

T took this picture in a village. The blue scarf is a little unusual. Normally the scarves are bright, cheerful colors. I love this picture because of the lines in the woman's face. I'm sure she earned every one. The tattoos on her arm identify which village she's from.

Can you say STRESS???

OK. We knew this time of the year was going to be stressful, for many reasons.

1. It's the end of the school year for me. This time of year means a lot of meetings, finishing out paperwork, discussing needs for students next year, etc. This year is compounded by the fact that my classroom is going to be torn down in eleven days. So my end of the year check out routine means actually moving my classroom to another part of campus. Not too bad, but there's more.

2. It's the end of high school for my daughter. The last few months have been full of lasts, but this week is more final. She had her last day of classes on Friday, with the entire class meeting in the tower to countdown the closing bell and let balloons go. It was emotional indeed. Now she's on her senior trip and will be home on Wednesday. Her graduation is on Saturday. But there's more.

3. We're going back to the States for a year when school ends. That means saying goodbyes, packing out our house, moving everything to storage. Getting rid of the things we don't want, yard sales, donations. But there's more.

Did I mention baby girl is graduating?

We'll live through it, and life goes on, but for right now getting up in the morning and breathing in and out is an accomplishment!

Our Favorite Commercial

This is our favorite commercial over here. Do you guys get it in the States?

Coincidence or Voice of God?

You know how there are times when events, circumstances, moments in time just come together so perfectly that you wish you had bought a lottery ticket at that moment because surely it would have been a winner? That moment you have just been a part of and know it's probably the only time something like that will ever happen in your lifetime?

I've actually had a few of those. Some were small, others were amusing. Like once, I threw a penny up in the air at a guy named Glen (who was throwing rocks at me. I didn't do anything to him. Really! It was night, and he was throwing rocks to see if I could get out of the way by the time that I saw them! You would throw a penny, too!). I just had a penny in my hand, and I got the idea that if I threw it up in the air really high, it could actually come down and hit him on top of the head before he ever saw it. So I threw it, and it did. He went inside after that.

Then there was the time in church. See, back in the 70's, there were these things called CB radios. They were a lot of fun, and they had their own lingo. (That's language, people.) 10-4 meant OK, policemen were "smokies" and everyone had their own "handle" or code name. My dad's was City Parson until we moved to Texas, then it was Country Parson. It was good to use the word Parson in the name, so those on the other side would be more selective in their word choices. And everyone was a "good buddy."

On this particular church night, dad was praying for something in particular. I can't remember what it was, but it was definitely a prayer of looking for God's will, and asking for an answer to prayer. At the end of his prayer, as soon as the word "amen" escaped from his lips, a loud yet friendly voice broke through and said, "That's a 10-4, good buddy!" There was a moment of silence, then peals of laughter as the audience, the choir, musicians and dad absorbed what had just happened.

I guess if the prayer was answered, we can assume it was God! Your turn: those once in a lifetime moments. Do you have any?