Standing in the Promises

The big open sky prairie ranch land of Montana was our camping spot for a week.
 We were told that the complaint box was at the top of "that hill over there"
and that complaints were diligently checked annually.

 Every evening, complainers hiked to the top of the hill and stayed awhile to enjoy the view.

Evenings also brought rainstorms, lighting shows, amazing sunsets

 and beautiful rainbows.

RAINBOWS.

 The rainbows brought out the campers and the cameras.
 Isn't it amazing how we never tire of rainbows? 
Rainbows  bring Noah (who found favor with God) to mind 
and how he must have felt seeing the first rainbow. 
That rainbow was God's promise to Noah and all of us that He (God)
 would never again destroy the earth with water.
 Never. 
And did you know that just about every culture in the world has a flood story?

2 Corinthians 1:20 says that All God's promises are YES and AMEN.
 (My paraphrase).

 All.  

That means they are true.

 True for you and true for me.

 TRUE.

Rainbows have seven colors - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, 
(And here's a little free nerdiness: the number seven is used 860 times in the Bible and always refers to completeness). 
 Gods promises are complete - yes and amen. 

Here's another little fact - the rainbow flag we've been seeing flying around
in the news lately only has six colors.
 Six in the Bible symbolizes man, human weakness, the enemy's evils, and sin. 

 Just sayin'.

A man of great faith, my hometown Texas pastor has said,

 "If God gives you a promise, 

believe it, stand on it, and act as if it has already happened." 

If we stand on something - we remain motionless and steady on our feet. 

Unmoved.

Believe it. 

Stand on it.

 Act as if it has already happened. 

"But God has never given ME a promise.", you say.

I beg to differ my friend.

You can not say that God has never given you a promise, 

because he has given you 3,573 promises in His Word. 

Three thousand, five hundred, seventy-three.

You might need to go on a Bible treasure hunt to find them, 

 but they are there and they are for you.

Believe them. 

Stand firm on them.

 Act as if they have already happened.

One afternoon on the ranch, 

we could see the end of the rainbow

and I'm here to report that there was no pot of gold anywhere in sight. 

But the end was just right over there.

It was something I had never seen before.

 Could Noah see the end of his rainbow?

Did he wish for a camera?

When I changed my view point just a little, 

the rainbow appeared to end at the complaint box.

Complainers take note:

"... no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'yes' in Christ. 

And so through him, the 'Amen' is spoken by us
to the glory of God." 

2 Corinthians 1:20

New International Version

These folks at the complaint box, look like they are standing in the rainbow.
God's promises are yes in Christ.
The Greek word used in this scripture for "in" carries a meaning

 of a fixed position and rest.

Rest. 

If God gives you a promise,

Believe it.
Stand on it.

Rest in it.

Act as if it has already happened.

One more little fact gleaned from the Internet is that 

a person standing IN a rainbow cannot see it.

It is only visible to the people on the outside looking in.

Sometimes when we are hanging on to God's promises for dear life,

we can't see that we are right smack dab in the middle of his promise, 

But to everyone else, we may appear to be 

restfully, peacefully, standing firm

in His promises.

God has given you a promise.

Believe it.

Stand on it.

Rest in it.

Act as if it has already happened.

And stop complaining.

"Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the yes of Jesus. 

In him, this is what we preach and pray,

the great Amen,

God's yes, and our yes together,

gloriously evident."

2 Corinthians 1:20

The Message

Amen

Beach Photobomb Tips

Our family just spent a week on the Emerald Coast of Destin, Florida, but we spent months beforehand searching for the best beach, the best vacation rental, the best restaurants, the best activities, and the best ways to record your vacation memories.

Here are the Beach Photography tips I gleaned from the world wide web:

1. Begin your shoot an hour before sunset

2. Use Available props (and pretend that someone else's sandcastle is your masterpiece).

3. Take a jumping shot (even if teenage boy decides to jump like a girl)

4. Make sure your subjects maintain eye contact

(unless someone yells, "Stingray"!) 

5. Plan your poses (but expect photo bombs).

6. Pose to appear slimmer (stretch your neck like a turtle and hide behind the grandchildren.)

7. Have Daddy hold the baby. 

8. Know your equipment.

9. Use a tripod and the timer on your camera so that everyone can be in the picture (and if you forget the little quick release attachment thingy you can always tie the camera to the tripod with a shoestring).

10. Shoot from the front.

11. Shoot from the back (even if they are shaking their booties).

12. Take a lot of pictures because you just might get a lucky hair shot.

13. Photograph feet (including sunburned one's)

14. Take photos from a distance (but then you can't pretend you are the only ones on the beach)

15. Plan ahead to wear coordinating clothes (white, black/white, khaki/white, or pastels) so that no one has to go to the thrift store and buy clothes that make her look fat.

16. Catch a child exploring her environment.

17. Show the beach love.

18. Write in the sand

19. Take sunset shots over the water (unless the sun sets somewhere else).

20. Say Goodbye to the beach.

The End 

(there they go again)!

Thanks, family, for the greatest beach vacation ever!

Taco Crisis

There has been a lot of news coverage lately about identity conflict.

I have decided that if loving tacos is any indication, 

then I have a serious identity conflict.

 In North Dakota, 

I almost had up the nerve to defy my husbands orders to not stop at the taco bus

 (yes, a big yellow school bus with a hand painted "TACO" sign),

 when it caught fire and burned. 

The locals recommend the Mexican Food Restaurant in Williston, 

but I usually say that Texans don't eat Mexican food north of Amarillo.

 However, one day we saw a hand painted sign from down the street. 

It just said,

"TACOS"

I stuck my head in the door, did the sniff test, then surveyed the non-gringo clientele.

 The owner said he was from Mexico and that he makes street tacos.

I love tacos -

corn tortilla, shredded beef, chicken, pork, or fish 

with guacamole, lettuce, fresh salsa, cilantro, and a little lime.

I luuuuuv tacos

and I speak enough Spanglish to get me in trouble.

My earliest memories of tacos were from Carlos' Little Mexico

 in my hometown Texas.

Then my mama's homemade tacos were next.

 Her recipe was delish:

one pound of browned ground beef

one can of Wolf Brand Chili

served in 

corn tortillas dipped in hot Crisco.

The blazing orange grease dripped off our elbows when we ate them.

Oh, they were good.

Of course there's not enough Rolaids in the state of Texas to get me to eat one now.

My next memory was hanging out in the chinaberry tree

 with Jimmy, the neighbor kid.  

The tree was right beside our farm workers' temporary hacienda behind my Daddy's shop. 

 I can almost still smell the frijoles, lard, tortillas, and kerosene cook stove.  

They came from Mexico legally to move irrigation pipe, hoe weeds, and pick cotton. 

This is Shorty, who was our trusted favorite playing with me. 

I have curlers in my hair - that means it was Saturday. 

We always washed and curled our hair on Saturday.

I wish I still had that car.

Years later, Shorty tried to come back to us,

 but was turned away at the border because he had T.B. (tuberculosis). 

My how things have changed at the border.

On our little 19 day trip through the Pacific Northwest, 

we came through a little town in Idaho that had a taco wagon on every corner.

 Really. 

Almost.

We imagined and theorized for an hour about how they all got there. 

We decided they must have come to work in the potato fields,

 but found tacos to be more lucrative.

Who knows?

Somehow menus written in Spanish give taco wagons the most credibility.

I have tried to perfect my own Mexican food cooking skills during my stay in North Dakota

 and have come up with the best 

Taco Seasoning recipe:

1 Tablespoon Chili Powder

1 Tablespoon Ground Cumin

1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder

1 Tablespoon Onion Powder

1/4 Tablespoon Crushed Red Pepper

Of course, I make it by the quart.

I love tacos.

If I have an identity conflict, 

then I must identify as 

a 

TACO.

~~~

Si!

Me encantan los tacos!

Coffee Pot Chronicles

It all started with an idea - an idea that we should travel light in the travel trailer. For morning coffee, we only packed coffee singles - little one cup coffee bags you make with boiling water. However, the resident coffee drinker did not love coffee singles, so he decided to shop for a vintage percolator that could be used in the trailer or on a campfire. He found the perfect twenty cup pot with beautiful brass handles at a flea market just across the line into Northern Idaho. Perfect. 

It was our anniversary during this trip. Ours and Starbucks. We both started this journey in 1971.

Coffee Drinker grabbed a bag of coffee at a neighborhood grocery store in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, only to find that it was actually a bag of coffee beans. Coffee beans just do not make good coffee. The next day he bought fresh ground coffee at a Trader Joe's in Spokane, Washington, but he still had the bag of beans waiting in the trailer.

Speaking of beans, did you know that the first Starbucks only sold roasted coffee beans? The only brewed coffee in the beginning was free samples.

In Seattle, around the corner from the first Starbucks, he dove into a gourmet cooking store to pick up a grinder, but he got a bad case of sticker shock and left empty handed. Then the hunt was on for a thrift store coffee grinder and a travel mug, because the twenty cup percolator won't perc with a small amount of water and Coffee Drinker needed to do something with the daily surplus of java.

There are Starbucks on just about every corner in Seattle - 424 to be exact. That is about one for every 1500 people.  Midland, Texas has one Starbucks for every 5,000 people.

He found the travel mug at Port Angeles, a seaside town in Northwest Washington. One problem is solved.

Sea themed Starbucks was named after the chief-mate on the Pequod from Moby-Dick. The mermaid on the logo is a siren, a Greek mythology creature who lured sailors to destruction by the sweetness of her song.

The vintage, still in the box, coffee grinder was waiting for him in a South Bend, Washington thrift store.  So now Coffee Drinker is a happy camper, grinding his morning coffee and taking the extra brew on the road with him in his new old travel mug.

Then he found the cutest ever one cup percolator at an antique store in a cute little town in Oregon. Cute. Cute. Cute. One cup. ONE tiny cute cup. 

Starbucks original owners sold Starbucks in 1987 and focused on Peet's Coffee, which they had purchased in 1983. Peet's market is about 2% of Starbucks.

One cup of coffee from the cute new percolator just wasn't enough caffeine for Coffee Drinker.  All he wanted was an old garage sale percolator for a quarter. That's all.

He found it at Twin Falls, Idaho! Yay! But wait! A vital inside part was missing! 

My disappointed, frazzled coffee drinker stepped inside the cooking store next door to the thrift store and there it was....a nine cup percolator - brand new, in the box, and full list price. Yep, you guessed it. He bought it. Brand spanking new.

So now he had a beautiful vintage twenty cup percolator that was TOO BIG,

a cute, cute one cup vintage percolator that was too little,

and a brand spanking new nine cup percolator that was just right!

There are over 21,000 Starbucks in the world. There are 12 Starbucks in North Dakota.

Then, (drumroll) at a yard sale in Billings, Montana, Coffee Drinker found what he had driven 3,000 miles looking for - a vintage nine cup percolator for a quarter - with all its parts! There was great rejoicing at the yard sale! You would have thought the angels were singing. There it was - for a quarter - twenty-five cents.

Then, when we pulled back into Peaceful Valley, North Dakota the third nine cup pot was at a neighbor's garage sale just waiting of us.

And that, my friend, is what it takes to get a perfectly, successfully, brewed cup of coffee

 and start an amazing coffee pot collection.

Sleeping in Seattle

How do you plan for a trip like this, you ask?

You ASK lots of questions, read lots of googles, ask lots of people, pick up a lot of maps, and ask more questions. The more you study the travel sites, the better acquainted you will be with the area and can recognize more famous landmarks.

Our first day in Seattle we took the bus across the street from the RV Park to the Airport.  At the airport we boarded the Light Rail to Pioneer Plaza. At Pioneer Plaza we realized that we wanted to be at Westlake Center where we could board the Monorail to the most familiar site - the Space Needle. That's a lot of thinking for these West Texas country bumpkins.

At 520 feet off the ground,

it's a view that never sleeps - so the brochure says.

In the Pike Place Market,

you must have your picture made with the brass piggy bank.

 Coins go to some worthy cause I'm sure. 

(The guy in the background is not with us)

Here's Papa choosing a chew from the Gum Wall!

 (Not really.  He is making a contribution)

Gum is stuck to both sides of Post Alley underneath Pike Place.

Yuck!

Art of a sort lines other walls.

In the market you can buy everything from flying fish to flowers.

You can eat clam chowder where a scene from 

Sleepless in Seattle

 was shot.

And you must ride the duck boats, 

which tour Seattle from the streets and the water.

You see sites you've never heard of - like the second most photographed landmark in town - the carwash sign. Our guide said that Elvis once washed his caddy there and that there have recently been rumored sightings of him.

We drove past the Iron Man at the Art Museum. 

Those little people in the picture aren't with us.

 

And of course, there's the houseboat from the movie, Sleepless in Seattle.

We saw it from the Duck Boat (in Lake Union). It is only visible from the water. Our trusty boat guide (Captain Sid E. Slicker) says the house recently sold for 2.2 million.

We must watch that movie again.

My step counter recorded 13,000 plus steps for one day in Seattle,

 but my feet screamed 13 million. 

Maybe I should have rented a bicycle.