momentary afflictions

it's been a busy couple of weeks. hilary's back has gone out like it's not done for years. she literally can't get out of bed without help and can only limp around the house. as most of you know, she ruptured two discs about 15 years ago and had a failed surgery. she has been extremely limited ever since, but has felt much better (energetically) in NM. now she is flat on her back again, but her attitude is amazing. i know it is God's grace. she had to cancel her trip to CA and johnny flew out on monday to help us. when she can get in the car, we'll get her an MRI to see what's going on. we pray it is just muscular and not structural. she has done so much to help us this past year; i don't know what's in store next.

to top that off we have a major mouse problem. a couple of weeks ago one ran across N's foot in the night as he went to pee and nearly gave him a heart attack. we'd just begun to hear them building something (an empire?) in between the roof and the ceiling. the terminators, as we call them, came monday and blocked off all entries to the house/roof. seemed pretty good. we all hoped the mice were out hunting and not sleeping in the ceiling. we were wrong. they ran rampant on monday night and johnny and i were up 4 times taking care of business (killing rodents with flip flops and disposing of ones caught in traps- gross). on tuesday night a mouse landed on N's face as he was lying in bed. we figured out they crawl across the vigas (wooden beams on ceiling). he jumped out of bed only to severly dislocate the rib that was just healing. basically, jd and i shut hils and n up in the guest rooms with towels jammed into doors while JD and i sleep/not sleep on the couch and master intermittently getting up to kick rodent. it is tiring and disgusting, but i do feel God's help which comes in the form of a peace definitely outside myself. thanks for all who have been praying for us. God is good.

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed to us." Romans 8:18

aslan sighting in santa fe

that's right, folks. i saw the true king of narnia heading north on cordova at 1:30 pm today.

it's a crazy town. always summer and winter, but never spring or fall. glad he's here.

the diamond

our dear jewel of a friend, the lovely meag diamond, visited wally and the rest of us last weekend. it was a relaxing time full of God's grace and it was a much welcomed reprieve from the daily routine.

meag and i were blessed to go on several outings. one of these was to bandalier national monument. it's north of santa fe near los alamos (where they built the a-bomb) and it's wonderous. hmmm... the parenthetical info. doesn't make it sound so good, but it is still a special place. don't drink the water. the chollas were in bloom against the volcanic architecture of the dramatic frijoles canyon. the canyon walls are full of holes due to something (beans? can't remember) that fell out of the ash and made for some nifty, anasazi apartment complexes. here i am climbing my way up to "ceremonial cave." it's a 180 feet of ladders and it was fun!

here is a picture of meag that i took for her new album cover. the guy in the background is her drummer, dudley. the album is called "what time is lunch?" should be pretty cool.

here are some good friends. n and meag hadn't seen each other for many moons so it was a sweet reunion. n gave meag the official tour of the house with special focus on the humidifier section (it's dry here) and the hows and whens of candlelighting for evening ambience. i think he especially enjoyed asking meag to light the livingroom candles each night since we have a giant "trick" candle. he encouraged her to be diligent.

here are two superwomen eating our usual modest portions of salad. these were accompanied by whole foods mini pizzas lavished with jalapenos, endive, garlic, olive oil, purple onions, chicken etc. they were good, but if i ever meet the man who changed the dough recipe up at corporate, he's gonna get it.

meag and i also enjoyed taking photos of each other around santa fe. here i am behind a lifesize apple jolly rancher. some call it art but i say yummmmm.

we had a blast taking photos at pecos national monument just 20 minutes from our casa. it was the largest indian pueblo in all of new mexico at one time. it's one of my favorite places in all of new mexico. it's on a little hill in between the pecos river and glorieta creek with vistas of varicolored hills on one side and a looming canyon on the other. they set up their multistoried pueblo right in the middle. these people knew real estate. it was also a huge trading center. willa cather describes it well in her novel death comes for the archbishop which i am now reading and thoroughly enjoying. when n saw these photos he said i looked like a native american. sounds great. maybe i am entrenched in my roots here. after all, those traders who camped on the field were spanish and my people live just over the mountain and still do. who knows how it all got mixed up, but i still get called gringo.

look! it's another mysterious ethnic woman!

it was a great visit and now our amiga is baking in the sun in todos santos, mexico with her dad. then she's back to the pacific northwest to say farewell to friends and family as she heads off to teach first grade in nigeria. we are grateful she stopped to see us. she is a treasure.

papa nick's day

dude... that's a sweet tractor-mower.

hey, mister...

and here's a little story to catch everyone up...

there once was a little guy called nick, formally known as mark, bif ironcomb etc., but due to his greek features he earned the traditional name and still wears it to this day.

as a young dude he hanged out with his brotha, steve, a.k.a., uncle baked bean, auntie roberta, and auntie tina. they played on boats, in the backyard of cactus circle, at the buena park mall, at knot's berry farm when it was still a farm, and all over orange county when they were still growing oranges.

he also went to the zoo with his beautiful greek-irish momma, elaine a.k.a., penny.

and sometimes he disguised himself as a frontiersman. who didn't?!

this gentle soul is my papa nick. it's his birthday and i hope he's having a smokin' bbq or something groovey going on in his backyard. here we are at a party he threw for me before n and i officially moved to california so i could meet all of his superfriends including this smart, little poodle. if you are ever in the bay area in the middle of winter, my dad, like n's in so. cal., will be one of the few gentlemen wearing shorts. them california boys sure are hearty.

my dad is a wonderful friend, father, artist, genius, writer, eclectic music and movie connoisseur, comedian, and creature... to know him is to love him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DADDY NICK!!!

WE SURE LOVE AND MISS YOU!!!!

CHEERS!!!!

theodora:(greek) GIFT OF GOD

FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BULLET, STRONGER THAN A VW BUG... it's a bird! it's a plane! NO, it's the fee bird! and it's her big, fat 28th birthday today so if you know her give her a big,fat hug or phone call!

for those of you who don't know, our little bird, has toned down her shreddage at trestles and is navigating the high seas of the merciless, saddleback pre-nursing program. n and i were in the intensive, pre-english major program there which included eating lots of bratwurst and earning extra credit for getting a bloodtest. needless to say, fee is working a lot harder. payback for all those hilarious surf stories she entertained us with as we procastinated in our studies.

fee has been such a blessing to us. below are some photos when she lived with us in washington. she came to take care of n while i was teaching full time. it was the year after we were married and n was not doing well. she was his full time nurse and friend.

bro and sis. nathanael means "gift of God" in Hebrew. both are renewed... "a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew... but Christ is all, and in all." Romans 3:11

my sister, too!!! fee is an amazing gift of God to us. she is SO full of LIFE!!!! we love her!!!

here she is with her momma when she came to visit at christmas. what a beautiful heritage.

"You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. And such confidence we have in Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God." 2 Corinthians 3:3-5

WE LOVE YOU, FEE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

DERYK, WE HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN YOU!!! THIS VERSE GOES FOR YOU, TOO! HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOU WONDERFUL MAN OF GOD!!! WE SURE LOVE YOU.

una boda en el campo

hil and i just got back from our first wedding in new mexico. our friend karen got married under an oak tree by a little spot called indian creek somewhere in the vast pecos wilderness.

it was a western theme.

we hiked to a meadow for the ceremony. of course hil and i were overdressed californians in our linen pants and sandals. everyone wore cowboy boots and jeans. duh. we walked past karen's and chip's horses on the way to the hay-baled sanctuary. the newlyweds are going camping, horseback riding and hiking all week for their honeymoon and anyone is invited.pretty sweeeeeeetttt!

we waited around for an hour and a half for the wedding to start. and i was uptight about being late. bienvenidos a nuevo mexico.

the ceremony was followed by a barn dance at frankie's casanova BBQ in downtown pecos. we (I) ate bbq slathered chicken and beans and salad and bread- now i'm really crabby.i wanted to buy a hagen daz icecream on a stick with nuts at the agora market on the way home, but cho wouldn't let me cuz she said i'd be worse off.

chip's dad is slick. i think he owns part of the mountain or something. if you look this cool you deserve a mountain.

peace out, gringos.

gardens, glorieta, gunner!

a few weeks back hil, gerry, and i went cruising on canyon road where loads of art is lined up in old adobe structures. above is a lovely garden and courtyard behind one of the casitas. and here is a sample of some artwork...


i took n out on our first walk outside of the hood since he broke his back. we went to glorieta which is a few miles down the highway. he didn't really like it cuz there was lots of horse poop and his shoulder hurt. it's definitely being together that counts. now his foot is messed up and we are limited to the driveway again so we would love continued prayer for that. thanks!

this is gunner. he lives at a nearby farm and escapes to our house every chance he gets. and of course i greet him with lots of affection and singing of "gunnysongs." n will not let him in the house and his owner doesn't like him to even coming over to the porch. they have both admitted to jealousy so that's that. fee said our relationship is "creepily special." do you think that's very nice?

gunny, gunny crocket, king of the wild frontier...