We're up to our elbows in strawberries here.

Our friend Brynn joined us up at Green Bluff for an early morning of strawberry picking.

Five batches of freezer jam, strawberry shortcake, and a full flat still sitting on my counter.
It's strawberry heaven.
Wish you were here...

We took the kids to north Idaho to try our first leg of the Trail of the Couer D'Alenes. Eventually, we'd like to bike the whole trail, so we thought it best to start at the west end, so we could make our way to the next access point... then next time we'll start there and continue east until eventually we've ridden the whole trail in short do-able segements. Little did we know, the 7.2 miles we chose to ride was all downhill one way, and of course, all uphill on the way back. So while we rode almost 15 miles, those last 7.2 miles were a KILLER. It's a converted railway trail, so the grade was gradual. But it was also long. Literally almost all 7 miles were uphill. But we made it. And thankfully we'd packed a nice big picnic which was waiting for us back at the car. We all felt like we accomplished a great feat. And we had lots of fun and saw gorgeous scenery along the way. Now we're off to some friends' house for fireworks and a 4th of July sleepover. Good times..

Photo taken by Ethan last week on the Bainbridge Island Ferry

We had friends over last night for paninis.

Do you panini?

Seriously. Summer is all about paninis here. Yum.

And then we had pudding parfaits for dessert. Angel food cake, raspberries, strawberries and bananas, mini marshmallows, whipped cream and three flavors of pudding. It just doesn't get any more fun than parfaits.

Panini and parfaits.

We sure had fun and were out on the deck with the twinkle lights until 10:30 talking and laughing and picking through the fruity leftovers...

Love summertime.

So after our little visit to the COTN offices, Asia and I have been talking.

And he really wants me to go to Africa soon. He's the one who hears my heart best, and he seems to understand my need to go and see.

There's a huge part of me that is:

• first of all - terrified at this prospect.
• secondly - worried the kids would be upset, since we've always talked about going as a family
• lastly - TERRIFIED.

But here's the deal. I talked with the right people at COTN, and was totally blown away by their willingness to help us with raising support for our family trip. And prayerfully, I believe we'll be able to go as a family in maybe a little over a year.

But I can't really imagine waiting a whole year.

Can you imagine not seeing one of your children for over a year?

Perhaps going (on a COTN sponsered 'Vision Trip') will help give my brokenness some focus. A direction. A clearer understanding of what God is trying to do with my heart.

So I'm praying. And filling out an application. And praying. And trembling a little bit.

Can you imagine?

1. I need to mop the kitchen. It's been really hot here, which means Gracie has been drinking tons of water, which means there's tons of doggie slobber on the floor. I know. Gross.
2. I have a class tonight that requires a handout with diagrams and written instructions. It's not going to make itself, but I just haven't been able to bring myself to start it yet.
3. The sheets have finished washing and I need to take them outside to the clothesline to dry. I love air dried sheets.
4. I told the kids we were going to start organizing things in our basement storeroom for a garage sale. I should be all over this one, since it's a good 10 degrees cooler in the basement. But I'm feeling hung up because I know I don't have enough boxes to accomplish what I want to. Am I the only person who gets paralyzed by lame excuses?
5. My hair has been air drying for an hour or so. I should go do something with it. It's a fuzzy mess.
6. The table needs to be wiped from the graham cracker and pudding snack that Savannah and Ethan just ate.
7. I'm supposed to email a recipe to a friend... got to get to that today.
8. I have layouts that need to go into an album I just brought home from the store last night.
9. The sink is full of dishes.
10. I need to figure out what I'm feeding my family for dinner tonight. I have the added challenge of not wanting to turn on the oven because it's so hot... and a husband who doesn't like salad. My next husband will like salad. It'll be a requirement.

Happy Tuesday, friends!

I'm off to get something done!

Friday was our sixteenth anniversary.

Sixteen is a nice, even number, but not a huge milestone anniversary. We didn't have any special plans except to go out to dinner, and Asia wanted to buy me a gift.

So after I got off work, we went to the mall. After looking for awhile, we found a lovely pair of brown pearl earrings that will match about half of my wardrobe (I really like brown.) Asia bought them for me and we went on our way, having a delicious dinner at Friday's and then heading home.

The next morning, I got up to go to my weekly Weight Watcher's meeting, and then go garage sale-ing. I'm loving this new routine on Saturdays - get my coffee and paper, go weigh in, go to as many garage sales as I can, then head home. It's a lovely way to spend a Saturday morning.

I decided at the last minute to slip my new earrings on... they were so pretty, and they matched the clothes I had put on. I don't usually get all dolled up to go to garage sales, but whatever.

My morning went as usual. Weigh in was great - I've lost 10.8 pounds so far. Garage sales were abundant, and I was able to find some great clothes for Savannah, a new painting for my living room, and some fun vintage puzzles.

I went home. At some point I reached up inadvertantly to feel my new earrings, and they weren't there. I thought maybe I had decided at the last minute not to wear them after all, and walked into the bedroom expecting to see them laying on the dresser where I had left them. Not there. I got a sinking feeling in my stomach. Could I possibly have lost them both?

I wandered outside where Asia was puttering... "I can't find my new earrings."

We searched. And searched. Under the car seats, in the garage sale stuff I'd bought, under the dresser. They were gone.

Asia insisted we go looking for them. Me, being the pessimist, reminded him that I'd been to over 10 garage sales. Those earrings could be anywhere. It would be like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. But into the car we went, both silently praying for a miracle.

Lo and behold, as we pulled up outside the Weight Watchers building, I jumped out of the car and walked over to where I'd parked and saw an earring on the ground. We were encouraged - maybe we could find them both. We went inside and asked if anyone had found an earring. And then we proceeded to retrace my steps from the entire morning - first searching the ground at every single garage sale, then leaving a name and phone number where we could be reached if someone found the missing bauble.

As we drove to the final garage sale, still only in possession of only one of my brand new earrings, we were losing hope. I had to point out that having one was worse than losing both. What good is one earring? It just serves as a reminder of the one that's missing. Asia sighed and said "I've never known God to answer a prayer halfway..."

But it appeared that was what he was doing. We drove home after searching the last garage sale - discouraged and sad that I'd only gotten to wear my new earrings once. And that the bill would still be coming in the mail. Ugh.

We tried to go about our day. Obviously, it was in the back of our minds the whole time. I took a couple kids and went to the grocery store for a distraction. Asia watched Wimbledon.

When I got home from the store, as I put groceries away, I heard my phone beep. I'd left it on the counter when I went to the store so it could charge. I picked it up and noticed I had a voicemail.

"Hi, Cathy? You came by our garage sale a bit ago looking for your earring and I wanted to let you know, we found it."

It had bounced under a couch. They didn't see it until someone bought and moved the couch.

A needle in a haystack indeed.

While it's hard for me to fathom that the One who holds all of creation together also cares about my new brown pearl earrings, I have to believe it's true. Because I think it's a miracle that we found them both.

A miracle for sure.

And in case you're wondering, I've found some backs I can wear with the earrings that won't allow them to slip off.

I don't want to press my luck with the Big Guy...

Savannah, Ethan and I got home last night from our quick trip to the west side.

We drove boxes and boxes of items donated by the kids' school to the COTN offices to be sent on to the kids at Tejan's children's home and village.

When we arrived, we got a tour of the offices and warehouse... what an amazing organization COTN is... they feed and clothe and educate hundreds of kids in Sierra Leone, Malawi, Uganda, and Dominican Republic. While there are many kids in their children's homes, like T, they also reach out to the surrounding areas, impacting so many. It's a great thing. I was so impressed with the warehouse in particular. Boxes and boxes of meals, clothing, school and hygiene supplies, clothes, bibles - all color coded according to contents and country. Our little pile of stuff paled in comparison - but we were honored to be a part of their work.

After the tour, we went down to their chapel for their weekly prayer and praise meeting. Every Wednesday they meet, giving the different departments a chance to update everyone on their work and ask for prayer for specific needs. After singing a few songs, Dave, the man who arranged our visit, walked into the room holding a cell phone and said, "Say hello."

"Auntie Cathy?"

It was T.

From Sierra Leone.

Needless to say, I immediately started crying. And talking, and laughing. There was about a 3 second delay, so we all kept talking over each other and it was difficult to communicate, but we talked. And talked. The kids and I were able to leave the room and go into an office by ourselves to talk so the prayer meeting could continue... so we got to talk for a good long time. There were lots of tears, and laughter, and goodnight kisses since he was heading off to bed when we said goodbye.

He sounded good.

It was SO good to hear his voice.

I'm a happy Momma.

Thompson Falls, Montana is home to a billion gajillion mosquitos.

And they all bit Ethan over the weekend. At last count we were over 90 bites.

My poor baby.

Can you say Benedryl?

We were in Montana over the weekend for a Willis family reunion.
The Willises are the family that basically adopted Asia when he was 12 - he considers their sons, Mike and Bob, his brothers and calls Warren and Diane Dad and Mom.
This amazing family was all getting together to honor Diane, who died two years ago, with a grave marker in her hometown of Thompson Falls, Montana.
Asia spent many a family vacation in Thompson Falls - and he knew all the aunts and uncles and cousins that were there this weekend.
Apparently, when in Thompson Falls, you have to go to 'the bend' at Prospect Creek and jump off a cliff.
If you are a crazy person.
And apparently, when he's with Mike and Bob, my husband becomes that kind of person.
Now in case you haven't heard, the inland northwest experienced one of the highest snowfalls of all time over the winter. Which leads to some of the highest rivers and streams when all that snow starts melting. Like now...
So this little Prospect Creek was more like a raging river. And my husband, who loves to tell stories of his near-death drowning experiences, is not the best swimmer in the world.
But since he was with Bob and Mike, who evidently have persuasive powers I need to learn how to tap into, he decided he was going to join them in the cliff-jumping river-swimming insanity.
Here you can see him swimming across the river. He's about to reach that part of the river with the dangerously swift current. See it there? And that's Bob, all poised and ready to grab Asia's hand and help pull him out of the 40 degree water and up to the safety of the cliff wall.And this is Asia's little head, barely above water, as he sails past Bob's outstretched hand and on to his death. Behind him, you can see Mike, who had already crossed the river and was safely on the cliff above, but who jumped in after Asia because everyone knows that Asia isn't a great swimmer and he would likely need help...Obviously, Asia found a place he could grab onto the rocks and managed to get himself up and out of the water, because here they all are, on top of the cliff, laughing and retelling the wonderful adventure of diving into a freezing river and almost being pulled to one's death by the raging current.And then they jumped. Fortunately, they could jump out and over the swiftest part of the current, so this part didn't send my heart into terrifying palpitations as it had before when I stood there taking pictures of what could have been my husband's last minutes on earth.These Willis boys are crazy. I love them all like crazy... even though they convince my husband to do insane things...

So, I've been to the eye doctor and the hairdresser this week.

The eye doctor is always a little stressful for me. I never know, when she does that "Tell me which one is better... there's one - and there's two..." and I'm looking through those funny lenses - is there a right answer? I'm always just certain I'm saying the wrong one... and then there's the times when one and two look almost exactly the same and I have to sheepishly say "Well, they're pretty much the same" and I just know I'm failing my eye exam. I'll be getting a big fat F, for sure, because I can't make a decision.
And have you ever thought about how silly you must look from the other side of that big lensy machine? Something like Wall-E, I suppose. And there I am, sweating buckets because I can't handle the possibility of answering 'one' or 'two' incorrectly, with my big goggly eyes... it's enough to make me want to just wear my enormous glasses from 1991 and call it a day.But here's the thing - I got good news! My eyes have gotten better! So I got a new prescription and new contacts to boot and now I get to pick out new glasses... I love getting new glasses. Asia, of course, thinks I could just get new lenses put in my old glasses. Silly man. Of course, I told him that was ridiculous. I wear the silly things every single day of my life. "You wouldn't ask me to wear the same pair of underwear every day, would you?" I asked - which logically doesn't really apply to this argument, but it shut down his "new lens - old frames" plan, so it worked.
And, of course, as I already mentioned, I went to the hairdresser this week as well. My hair was getting entirely too Crystal Gayle and it was time to do something. So I perused the internet for cute hair - and lo and behold, Jessica Simpson has the hair I wanted. Whodathunk? (She also has really long eyelashes, doesn't she? And a sort of bewildered look about her, but that's really none of my business, is it?)So, I took my 39 year old self to Christy, my girl at the salon, and yanked out this photo and told her I wanted to look like this.

That was yesterday.

Would you believe that three people have mistaken me for Jessica since then?

No, I didn't think you would.

But my hair did turn out pretty cute. It's still long enough to get into a ponytail, which we all know is paramount in the summer, but short enough that I don't have to roast myself every morning under the hairdryer for 30 minutes just to dry my Rapunzelly locks. (And no - I did not change my color. Platinum isn't my thing.)

It's cute. And fresh. So I'm happy.

And now I'm going to take my -1.75/-2.00 eyeballs and my Jessica Simpson hair for a walk with the dog.

Happy Thursday, friends.

He is still in my thoughts every day.

Will he always be?

Will there ever be a morning when I forget to smile as I remember his daily greeting, "Auntie Cathy, good morning?"

His laughter echos in the hall.

There are still so many signs of him here...

The blanket from Shriners that wouldn't fit in his suitcase.
His stuffed animals that he left behind.
A drawing he made for me found under a stack of papers.

I miss him.

When we were in Montana over Memorial Day weekend, Asia wanted to drive out to the house his Grandmother used to live in. He and his older brother and sister lived with her for awhile when Asia was a preteen, and his first happy childhood memories took place there.

It took awhile to find it, but eventually, he recognized the house across the street, which belonged to a family called the Millers. As we pulled into the driveway, Asia assured me that Mr. and Mrs. Miller would remember him... I saw a little lady sitting at her kitchen table with rollers in her hair and hoped so. This was Montana, after all, and I was pretty sure Mr. Miller owned a gun.

Sure enough, as Asia and his sister Fawn walked up to the doorway, they were greeted by the Millers with big hugs and the expected "Look at you - all grown up!"

These wonderful, gracious people walked Asia and Fawn around their property, showing them things that had changed and things that had not... they even called across the street to the woman who now owns their grandmother's house and asked if we could come over so they could walk the property there...

After we got back from the grandmother's side of the road, Asia remembered that Mr. Miller taught him how to ride a dirt bike, all those years ago. With a little poking around, he discovered that Mr. Miller had a four-wheeler... and proceeded to ask if the kids could have a little ride around the property.

Now, my kids live in the city. There are no dirt bikes or ATVs around here. I'm pretty sure none of them have ever ridden on one.

But within twenty minutes, Mr. Miller had all three of them driving that silly thing around his property like they'd been doing it all their lives. Reminded me of my childhood, driving my Grandpa's old Honda three-wheeler around out at the dam he was caretaker of... good times. It was great to see the kids experience the thrill of acceleration and the power of being in command of their very own little vehicle. I don't think we'll be buying ATVs any time soon, but I'm happy they got to try one on for size.

Thanks, Mr. Miller!
(Even Asia and I took a little spin. Scary!)