The heart of a man

My son Jeremy is at this moment taking his teaching certification test. It is five hours long and he has to be prepared to know his history from 500 B.C. to the present! That is just one section of it. Please pray. This is Jeremy "The Godfather" to cousin Sarah. He was the god parent with my niece Karla for her sister's daughter. The above photo was their league championship basketball win! He is the fifth guy on the back row on your right.

I know he is smart , and he will celebrate 26 years of life this Tuesday August 9th. But he is very much like me and I know he is fearful and worrisome. So I asked the Lord and as always he gave this verse to me today.

"A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps." Proverbs 16:9

It is so simple and yet so beautiful and meaningful. So I decided to ask for prayer for my son and use this to celebrate my participation in Spiritual Sunday. I hope you will stop by and thank Charlotte and Ginger for hosting this weekly encouragement. I feel like we receive so much from Spiritual Sunday. I hope you will join me in thanking them for their wonderful dedication and constant involvement in this joyful meme. Me with my Sweets and Nick, XC State Championship 2009.

Then I want to chat for a moment and talk with my "secret" pen pal. She sent me my very first letter, hand written today. It was postmarked Seattle, Washington! I am already jealous. We have never traveled there and I would love to visit. My Sweets is a long time fan of the late Bruce Lee and  we would love to travel to Seattle and see the museum there dedicated to him. I don't think most people, particularly those who do not like the martial arts, realize what an impact Bruce Lee had in his lifetime. He was instrumental in paving the way for other minorities in the movie industry. He refused to be portrayed as some poor ignorant Asian and therefore sent a standard for others. There are many thing about his life that people rarely know unless you know his bio backward and forward the way we do! He was the Cha Cha champion in Hong Kong. He wrote beautiful poetry to his wife. Many famous people including the late Steve McQueen and Kareem Abdul Jabbar trained with him. He had a unique style and did not follow the traditional martial arts that were around in his lifetime. He was just an amazing person.

So my pen pal wants to see my photo! That is scary! Laugh out Loud! So stop by tomorrow because I will post pictures from the baby shower. I will include myself in one or two, providing I do not break the camera! That is me in the 1970's  with my favorite Aunt Ang at Westcliffe, Colorado.

I suppose I should elaborate a bit on my "secret" pen pal. She and I are participating in a secret pen pal swap at Parsley's. We can not reveal ourselves until we send our December 2011 card, letter or note. In the meantime we are trying to enjoy recreating some of the past. People rarely write actual letters and occasionally send a hand written note or card but we rely so much on the internet and all the high tech we have at our fingertips. To be totally honest with you I truly love receiving a thoughtful card or letter from people. I think it just is a delightful way to show how much you do care. I rarely consider the cost of a stamp. I think it is well worth it.

I was talking with my Sweets about manners and teaching children at an early age to be respectful and know how to act appropriately. I work for a Specialist in Otolaryngology . He sees people of all ages from infants to the geriatric crowd and everyone in between. I am truly appalled how people let their children run wild and destroy private property. Etiquette is lacking in this day and age.

I am dreaming of having tea, a formal tea with my girlfriends which includes many of you. I love the ads I read that state they are "male" friendly! I want to have tea with my Sweets and for a few hours act dignified and cultured. I just think it is such a dying art to know one's place and always be prepared with our best behavior!

I currently drink iced coffee in the summer but I am a Sweet Tea kinda gal too. I love my Celestial Seasonings Sleepy Time Tea at bedtime and still drink it although we having been suffering with 90 plus temps!

I love to read and recently finished the book "Unbroken. " The author of Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand wrote a magnificent book with supreme accuracy regarding WWII and a young man and runner named Louie Zamperini. This incredible man still is a motivational speaker today and he is 94 years young! He set a world interscholastic record in 1934 running the mile in 4.21.2! Laura Hillenbrand spent seven years writing this book while fighting chronic fatigue syndrome. It took me three months to read the book. It was so intense at times I had to set it down for long periods of time. But it was a remarkable book and well worth the reading effort.

Why do I love running! Ah....I am not very good at it, not now, at my age, but I was once very good and my youngest son is a runner. He is ok in the short run but he R O C K S in the long run. Today at practice for XC they they did their time trials. He ran the two mile 10:32 being the fastest on the team. He has consistently improved his running ability. He knows where I stand with running and how he should be running his race. Today I will leave you with this Scripture quote.

1 Corinthians 9:24 : "Do you not know that those who run in the race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win."