The two pictures above are from when my daughter first got him. I can't believe how much he's grown in just a few weeks. Below is at my house.
He's like a little bear cub.
This blog is named after my dog, Dino the wonder dog. Other than that, this blog doesn’t have a lot to do with him, except that some days, when I am just too busy or too tired or have a migraine, I let Dino write my blog for me. On days when he has not taken over the computer, I write about my life – the past, the present and the future - my travels far and near and my home. I would love it if you would follow along.
As you may recall, last weekend was the state
conference of the Wisconsin Society of Medical Assistants in Neenah, Wisconsin.
I was president of the organization twenty years ago and every year during the conference,
there is a luncheon for all past presidents.
When I walked in the room at 11:31 (it started at
11:30), they were so relieved to see me. They were sure something had happened
to me and one of them was just about to call me. One minute! I was one minute
late. But at least I made an entrance.
After all that eating, joviality, and catching up on
our escapades of the past year, I jumped in my car to go for a ride.
Oh, but wait, one thing I forgot to tell you. I was
about three miles from my house when I remembered I had left my camera home. Yes,
I know the rest of the world takes pictures with their phones, but that just still
feels reprehensible to me. A phone is for communicating – calling people, but mostly
texting these days.
Anyway, imagine how late I would have been if I had
gone back for my camera! My phone would have to do. Argh.
Also, the sun was shining (when I left the hotel anyway) and the temperature wasn’t too bad (upper forties), but the wind. Oh, my gosh.
So I drove to High Cliff State Park to go hiking and take lots of pictures. Well, taking pictures with my phone, as you already guessed, does not do it for me. And with the wind, my hikes were all cut short.
I made up for all of that by buying a pair of shoes at
Kohls on my way back through Neenah, then spent the night at a friend’s house.
We caught up on things and discussed our trip to Cambodia this coming
September! Will NOT forget my camera then!
Still windy! I’ll have to come back again someday,
with my camera and nicer weather.
Understand this, my dear brothers and
sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.
(James 1:19, New Living Translation)
In January this year, I posted various Bible verses
that I intended to memorize. I think I did pretty well on that goal.
Then, last week, I started adding more passages.
Yikes! My brain may be full, but I am going to plow through and try some more.
And I came upon this verse.
But here’s what I think. I know certain groups want to
remove the Ten Commandments from all public areas, to which I shake my head in
disgust. But how about we at least replace them with this verse? How can anyone
be offended by this?
My dear brothers and sisters, always be
willing to listen and slow to speak. Do not become angry easily. (James 1:19, New
Century Version)
Post this at all the intersections, dear
friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger
straggle along in the rear. (James 1:19, The Message)
So then, my beloved brethren, let every
man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. (James 1:19, New King James
Version)
Whatever version works for you.
“Go in through the narrow gate, because
the gate to hell is wide and the road that leads to it is easy, and there are
many who travel it. But the gate to life is narrow and the way that leads to it
is hard, and there are few people who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14, Good News
Translation)
These verses remind me of Robert Frost’s poem “The
Road Not Taken.” You know the one. It ends with “I took the one less traveled
by, And that has made all the difference.”
Both of these, however, make me think of a fork in the
road. There’s a road to the left and a road to the right, and which one should
you take?
Hubby left a random fork on our washing machine last night.
When I picked it up, it dawned on me. A fork usually has four tines, which to
my mind means four choices. I know an eating utensil is a totally different
fork than the one in the road, but bear with me.
People who take the far-left fork blatantly commit all
the sins with no remorse. They lie, cheat, steal, have affairs, and maybe even
kill. They don’t know Jesus at all and they use His name in vain.
People who choose the next road over try to be good
people. They heard about the Ten Commandments and thought it would make sense
to at least keep the biggies, like killing and stealing. They provide for their
families and try to help out people in need. But no matter how good they are,
they don’t know Jesus as their Savior.
The tine second from the right is the one people pick
who go to church, try to keep all of the Commandments, and usually ask for
forgiveness. They say their prayers and help out strangers. The problem is
everything they are doing is just stuff they do. They say their prayers to some
invisible God because they have been told to. They haven’t asked Jesus into
their lives; they don’t have a relationship with Him.
Lastly, the path to the far right, the road less taken,
the one through the narrow gate. The one which the fewest people choose, but
those are the people who try to keep the Commandments, who ask for forgiveness,
who have asked Jesus Christ into their lives, and have a personal relationship
with Him.
Which path have you chosen?
Last week, we had planned on flying to Seattle to visit
Hubby’s nephew, as well as see as much as we could in the four short days we
would be there. Unfortunately, and as our spring break weather always guarantees,
our flight from Minneapolis to Seattle was cancelled due to snow. We banged our
heads together trying to salvage the trip, but decided it just wasn’t meant to
be. (We had cancelled the same trip last June because my back was just too bad
at the time, not that my pain is 100% cleared up even now.)
I suggested a few places we could drive to for just a
day or two so that the week wasn’t a total waste. We decided to head to Green
Bay on Tuesday just for overnight.
As you can see, the stupid late March snow was still in our yard when we left. And if anyone from the Green Bay area is reading this today, I’m sorry that your winter storm was worse than ours this week. Stupid Wisconsin Fake-Spring.
First thing Wednesday morning we visited the National
Railroad Museum. We’d both been there a few times before, but it’s still always
fun. Doesn’t everyone have a twinge of love for old train cars, the romance of
the rails?
Some fancy cars. Some not so much. Pretty sure this
bed would give me more pain than I’ve had in a few months.
I took an unbelievably few pictures there. I was stupidly
emotional the whole time we were walking around.
I’ve become very jaded towards professional sports in
the last couple of years. How can anyone justify the huge salaries any of them
are being paid? And how can they make some of the most bone-headed plays? It
just all seems so staged sometimes, like they are getting those big paychecks
to keep their mouths shut when they have to throw a game.
But then there was that one shining season when the
Packers won the Super Bowl after a very long drought. When Brett Favre was just
a kid with an amazing arm and the spirit of a little boy. When I knew the names
and positions of all the players and Reggie White was the Minister of Defense.
I have two secrets – one I won’t share here or
anywhere else EVER! The other is my birthday, I’m just weird about it. But I’ll
let that secret out.
Because Reggie White was born on the exact same day as
I was. And so sadly, he was called home to be with Jesus when he was only 43. I
really haven’t got anything else to say about that. If you don’t know anything
about the man, you can look it up on-line, but I admired him and know he would never throw a game.
There were lots of displays of him at the Packer Hall
of Fame, but I couldn’t get close enough to them to take any pictures. The
other people around me would think I was nuts when I started blubbering.
Now you know a little bit more about me.
Friday
we were left with words such as Disappointment, Dismay, and Desolation.
But it’s Sunday morning. Mary Magdalene and others go to the tomb of Jesus, filled with Dread. They believe their Lord and Savior is Dead and His cold body will be lying there. Instead, the tomb is empty, Jesus’ body is gone. They are Desperate to find it, to find Him.
And He finds them and their Despair is quickly turned to Delight. Jesus is their Deliverer.
A week later, however, we encounter one last D word. Doubt. You know the story. Thomas, one of the disciples, wasn’t with the others when Jesus appeared to them. He doubted what they told him. He wouldn’t believe until he put his fingers where the nails had pierced Jesus’ hands.
When Jesus appeared to him, Thomas did just that – put his fingers in the holes in Jesus’ hands and in His side. Then he no longer doubted.
What about you? Without having seen Jesus yourself, do you believe in the resurrection? Do you have faith that Jesus Christ came to save you from your sins?
I pray you Do. May God bless you, Chris
This
past Sunday night, Hubby and I were supposed to fly out of Minneapolis, heading
to Seattle to visit his nephew for the week. I’d been watching the forecast the
whole previous week, and it kept saying that snow was heading our way. But
Minneapolis, Minnesota? Where a foot of snow is the same as an inch of snow
anywhere else? Surely the eight to ten inches that was forecasted wouldn’t
affect our flight.
8:30 Sunday morning, twelve hours before our scheduled takeoff, I got a text from the airline saying our flight was cancelled. What? Twelve hours away! Anything could happen. Come on, people, give it a chance.
Hubby and I reviewed all our options, tried to come up with every possible scenario to save this trip, but it just didn’t feel like it was going to happen.
We were so disappointed. But then my pain jumped up again Monday morning and kept me miserable for three days, so maybe the trip would have been a wash anyway.
Disappointment. But nothing compared to what Jesus’ followers felt on the first Good Friday. Dismay, despair, desolation, dread. So many D’s.
And what about Jesus? Death. An excruciatingly painful death on a cross.
But Sunday is coming.