all 'grilled' up

the afternoon before i left my colorado refuge, i decided to surprise
hans by cleaning his grill.  i have never thought of touching that
thing anymore than he would consider picking up a tube of my
mascara.

"this won't be too bad." i started out with a paper towel and some
windex.  ha ha!  not even a smudge was lifted from the monster.

the grease and grime taunted me.  so did the laughter of  the men
sitting in the pool beneath my porch.  "what in the world are they
doing in there?  why aren't they out fishing or hiking?"

the only solution for that grill was hot, soapy water in my sink.  so
i scrubbed and scrubbed and managed to slop grease all over my
clothes and kitchen.  i got a little fussy.

more laughter from the pool.

"i bet those lazy guys think i'm the cleaning lady.  they better not
ask me to clean their grills . . . if they do, i will just tell them how
expensive i am."

in order for me to clean a man's grill, he has to have been married
to me for 30 years!

love,
lea

"she sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her
tasks."  proverbs 31:17

bruce willis

ok, confession time.  i have a weakness for bruce willis.  i know, it's
embarrassing.  but after he made the film with the autistic boy and the
boy who saw dead people, i just had a soft spot for him.

his silly "die hard" movies seemed to come alive for me after that.   i
mean if a tough guy can be that kind to disturbed little boys and then
beat the 'you know what' out of bad guys, he's my kind of hero.

one Christmas, my son isaac gave me all three "die hards." i ought to
be humiliated by that, but instead i memorized many of the lines.

in "die hard 2" he is having a knock down fight with a bad guy on the
wing of a moving plane (seriously?)   after he receives an especially
mighty punch from bruce, the bad guy says, "i kinda' like you."

willis looks at him for a second and then says, "i got enough friends,"
and then pushes him into the engine turbine.  the moral of the story:
don't let your friends choose you, particularly if they are trying to kill
you.

soooooo inspiring.  :)

love,
lea

"there are friends who pretend to be friends . . ." proverbs 18:24

is it hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk?

it may seem that some of us in the south have been complaining
too much about the heat.  all errands have to be finished by 10:00
a.m., because after that the temperatures are dangerous.  it was 98
degrees at 9:00 p.m. and 105 a couple of hours before that.  cabin
fever is setting in.

yesterday afternoon i was looking out the kitchen window at my
brick porch and thought it was truly hot enough to fry an egg.

"you may have a heart of gold, but so does an egg."

"a true friend thinks you're a good egg even though you're
slightly cracked."  bernard meltzer

"you cannot go on indefinitely being just a decent, ordinary
egg.  we must be hatched or go bad."  c.s. lewis

love,
lea

"how often I have longed to gather your children, as a hen
gathers her chicks under her wings . . . " luke 13:34

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhokcT7HhEo

photo hike

last week, i took a photo hike, to record my lovely colorado
summer and to give myself an excuse to take frequent rests.
i walked out my back door to the base of the trail.

a few steps uphill, and i was in the foothills.

hearing the seductive babble of a brook, jackson and i forged through

the trees to stop and play a while.

not a great photo, but i think his little pink tongue is too cute.

onward and upward we ventured, until we came to a "fork"in the road.  

at first, i wanted to take the smallest trail, but then i spied the intriguing 

curve of the road to the left.  i was also weary of the mountains bikers. 

 

and, of course, along came some bikers.  :)

mount crested butte,

glorious clouds.

with great reluctance, i returned to my back door.

"for the beauty of the earth,

for the glory of the skies,"

love,

lea

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhokcT7HhEo

"you bring me sunshine"

here is sunday lane's video from her current ep release,
"you bring me sunshine."  the ep is being sold on i-tunes,
but i have no i-dea how to use that site.  hopefully some
of you do! luckily, i don't need to, because i already have
mine.

hope you enjoy this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhokcT7HhEo

the cute little brunette in the opening scene is our youngest
daughter.  am i proud?  am i shameless??  :)

love,
lea

ps.  some have asked if i can send an EP to them, and i
will happily do that.  just give me your address!

first love

dear emily,

hans and i fell in love when i "was sixteen, going on seventeen,"
but he was not my first love.

no, my first crush made me swerve off the road onto the sidewalk.

those powerful shoulders . . .

that confident stare . . .

the clear invitation to jump in and drive really fast and far!

but, this hunk was clearly out of my league - one of those "look,

but don't touch" guys!

sometimes, even now, when i drive by, i imagine i see a little 

steam under the hood.

love,

lea

"some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we remember the

name of the Lord, our God."  psalm 20:7

blackberry cobbler saved by the gun!

now that it's blackberry season, i want to share my favorite blackberry

picking story.

every july, my family hauled hay at our ranch -- ugh.   the heat.   the 

heavy haybales!  the sickening fear while pulling hay out of the blades!!  

the idea of inadvertently grabbing a snake instead!!!

the only redeeming part was my mom's delicious blackberry cobblers.

picking the berries, however, was also dangerous, as there were so many
snakes lurking in the bushes.

in fact, snakes were so prevalent that my dad let my 12 year old brother
carry a handgun to protect us.  that is probably his happiest childhood

memory . . . and my most horrifying.

"seriously, dad?  you're going to let that crazy little kid carry a gun? he
will kill us all!"

one sweltering morning, we were picking blackberries, when "boom!"
wyatt earp had fired his six shooter and nailed a rattlesnake, who was
considering a strike at my mom's ankle.

as i stared in horror at the dead snake, i thought, "we almost didn't

get that cobbler."

love,

lea

"bring forth fruit worthy of repentance."  luke 3:7,8