Another year to be grateful !






    As 2011 winds down and I look back over this year, I realize, once again, how much

I have to be thankful for. There will always be mountain tops as well as valleys in

life and I want to share a couple of my “High” points from 2011.

**Our jobs. Mike and I have BOTH been working part time this year by choice. He is

completing his 26th year at Cook Children's Hospital and I just finished my 15th year

with what is now Express Scripts. Working fewer hours has been WAY better for us-

now being able to spend more time with each other as well as friends and family. Not the

same as total retirement, but maybe the next best thing. We took a trip this November to

Sedona, AZ, one of our FAVORITE travel destinations. While there, taking in all the

beauty of the red rocks, and surrounding area including the Grand Canyon, we both

decided that this could be the place of our future retirement. So, we’ll see. We still aren’t

ready (or should I say able) to quit our jobs, but maybe in 2013?

**Our home and neighborhood a seemingly a small thing that I take for granted. I love

being able to walk Biskit and Cookie (they are now both seniors ) down the tree shaded

streets to the lake each day (even though the drought has made the lake a giant field this

year with grass growing under the boat docks !) and enjoy the safety and quiet nature of

our neighborhood in the midst of the big, busy, madhouse of the metroplex. Sedona has

no freeways!

**Our travels and families. Always on the top of my list. This year I was able to go

home to Ohio 4 times to visit my family including my Moms birthday in April, my

nephew Tim’s wedding to Gena in June, a surprise visit for my Dad’s 84th birthday and

back again in October with a special visit to my old friend Inez who is now in a nursing

home. PLUS my sister Debbie and her husband Mark went to Lake Tahoe with us for a

week in September where we enjoyed the beauty of the pristine lake against the

backdrop of the mountains. Breathtaking ! I have been busy working on the dozens of

photos I took (still a favorite hobby) so I can post a few on our website for friends and

family to view.  ( http://www.mikeandkathie.com )

** The Lord Jesus - without Him in my life I would be truly lost. So as I celebrate

this Christmas season I am reminded that

“ Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” James 1:17

Wedding Bells



 Last week Mike and I traveled to Ohio to attend my oldest nephew Tim's wedding. Tim and his new bride Gena met years ago when my sister Sherri, after working with Gena at a health food store, fixed them up. Every mother's dream. Years have gone by, Tim and Gena have finished college, began their careers, and finally decided to “tie the knot”. The wedding was held outside at a beautiful old country estate.  After storming all week, the weather ended up being perfect  the wedding day. The reception was held outside afterwards with plenty of delicious food, music, dancing, and fun!

Gena and Tim, Man and Wife

Dancing the night away!

Upside Down

Sometimes I just feel helter-skelter, here and there, this way and that way, approach and avoid, sure and uncertain, happy and sad....basically UPSIDE DOWN. This is one of those moments, and though I don't want to feel this way, don't know why I do the fact is I do. It will pass, I know, and the "Real Kathie" will emerge but until then this picture expresses my postion.

New Year Prayer "The Dark Guest"

Caught

                                                           
O Lord,

Bend my hands and cut them off, for I have often struck You with a wayward will when these fingers should embrace You by faith.
I am not yet weaned from all created glory, honor, wisdom, and esteem of others for I have a secret motive to eye my name in all I do.
Let me not only speak the word sin, but see the thing itself.
Give me to view a discovered sinfulness, to know that though my sins are crucified they are never wholly mortified.
Hatred, malice, ill-will, vain-glory that hungers for and hunts after man’s approval and applause, all are crucified, forgiven, BUT they rise again in my sinful heart.
O my crucified but never wholly mortified sinfulness!
O my life-long damage and daily shame!
O my indwelling and besetting sins!
O the tormenting slavery of a sinful heart!
Destroy, O God the Dark Guest within me whose hidden presence makes my life a hell.
Yet You have not left me here without grace; The cross still stands and meets my needs in the deepest straits of the soul.
The memory of my great sins, my many temptations, my falls, bring afresh into my mind the remembrance of Your great help, Your support from heaven, Your great grace that saved such a wretch as me.
There is no treasure so wonderful as that continuous experience of Your grace toward me which alone can subdue the risings of sin within:
                                                                  GIVE ME MORE OF IT.
                   -from "Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan Prayers"