My daughters sent me flowers today for my birthday.
Aren't they beautiful? I'm so blessed to be their mother.
"When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you...
For I am the LORD, your God" ~ Isaiah 43:2
This passage of scripture become even more dear to my heart this past Saturday while participating in my first white water rafting experience.
"Today the waters are higher and faster than they have been all year. Who in this group still wants to go?" says the guide at the beginning of his safety talk.
"No really...I'm serious, who still wants to go?"
Needless to say all 28 of us rafters, regardless of our internalized fears yet without much hesitation, surprisingly conceded to the challenge. I was not familiar with the conflicting emotions that arose on that 20 minute drive up stream before we entered the roaring rapids...such complete panic overidden by extreme excitement as I anticipated the invigorating ride back down stream.
The picture above shows our first introduction with the real white water. At this particular point everyone in the back of the raft was whipped forward and everyone in the front of the raft was whipped back. This is when it happened....The helmet covered head of the guy in front of me smashed into my mouth knocking the uppper part of my body back and putting me into a daze of mere darkness. I was knocked out for a few moments when I felt someone helping me back into an upright position and heard the guide frantically trying to get the raft to calm waters and over to the bank of the river.
Next was the taste of blood filling my mouth and although I was still half way distraught my first thought was..."Do I have all my teeth?"
Thank God...no teeth missing but it did take a while for the bleeding to stop. I rinsed with the cold water from the river and applied pressure until we were certain I was not going to bleed to death. The rafting crew was anxious and needing to get back on the rapids. They gave me the option to get out there or continue on. Like a real trooper I voted to continue on...we still had at least another hour and a half of water to plow through and besides by this time I wasn't hurting only still dazed and numb, yet feeling my lip getting larger and larger by the moment.
We completed the float, experiencing some rapids that were close to Class V waters. After surveying the damage once on dry land I decided the wound needed to be looked at by a professional so by 7:00pm that evening I was at an urgent care clinic in Fort Collins getting the inside of my lip stiched up and for 4 days I sort of had that Angelina Joe Lee look going on.
All in all I finished the exciting trip and can confidently say I'd do it all over again regardless of the busted lip. It was incredible! Out of all 28 rafters in 4 or 5 rafts no one got dumped out...The Lord truly was with us as we passed through the waters and He faithfully kept the river from sweeping us over! Thank you God!
]]>Watch this incredibly touching service from Hillside and be blessed!
Started painting the exterior of my house this weekend. It's a much bigger job than I anticipated but I also got much more done this past weekend than I thought I would. I hope to have it complete within one month. I'm enjoying how much "warmer" it makes the house look than the plain old white that use to be on it. I'll post pics of the progress. Enjoy!
As a child I swallowed unusual items (a square, plastic bread tie to mention one). I was also quite accident prone. My own children have even pulled similar stunts - my daughter once dropped a bobby pin down her nose (she was scratching her nose with it while laying down on the bed). It went through her nose and down her throat and she swallowed it...imagine that! It finally passed a few days later.
Then a couple years ago for her birthday my youngest daughter was given a snow cone maker. We first had to freeze blocks of ice in these molds that came with the machine. She was still young enough not to quite understand and excited enough about the snow cones that she thought the mold was the snow cone and pulled it right from the freezer, putting it to her mouth and slapping her tongue right to the ice. Yep...does the Christmas story come to mind?
Her tongue bled some once it was removed from the ice and it swelled a bit. Funny thing was (which we laugh about now) it was just an hour before the annual Christmas program at school and you should have heard her try to sing with a bummed up, sore tongue. It was cute!
Anyways I have yet to see someone accomplish this (poor guy)....Do you have any similar funny stories?
The incredible view from hotel room.
My first Mexican sunset. One of many incredible sunsets throughout the week!
The Mexico Flea Market. So colorful!
The Boardwalk in Puerto Vallarta
Sand sculptors on the beach
Me on the Boardwalk with a new fun hat!
Cool shot of a pirate ship at sunset. Taken from the boat as we were heading to isolated cove of Las Caletas.
The sunset on the Pacific that same evening on the way to Las Caletas.
Neat shot of a palm tree upside down as I was laying underneath it.
Over looking the bay of Vallarta (that is a zip line I had just went on in the background) ~ beautiful view from up there.
Riding in the open jeep coming down the mountain from where I was in prior pic.
Amazing ride as we rounded curves on the edge of cliffs....whew ~ scary!
Soaking it all in one last time...just hours before leaving Mexico! What a wonderful vacation!
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Some photos from my adventure in Mexico this past January.
....don't miss the water fall repelling at the end! It was amazing!
Everyone in Oklahoma eventually learns how to contend with the wind. We even wear our hair in certain ways in order to make it more managable on a windy day. (ball caps come in very handy)
Some of us even manage to still have a bit of fun on a windy day.
But if your power goes out ...this is why ~