Ode to Betty Owen

Just a note of remembrance for Betty Owen. She passed this world into heaven on Saturday. She was an example to all the young ladies of Trail Lake Church of Christ and Altamesa Church of Christ. She was our Bible Class teacher for so many years. She was always so well dressed and her manners were perfect. She never spoke a cross word. I have enjoyed a super friendship with Sharron Owen Drury, where, as teenagers, we were invited to sleep-overs, teas, pool parties and then as we grew older bridal showers. Betty Owen hosted my bridal shower and it was a perfect memory for a 20 year old bride-to-be.

Open up the pearly gate - a pearl of great price - Betty Owen is coming in.

VBS GRAND ADVENTURE

Whoa Doggies! What an incredible extravaganza put on by Altamesa.

When they parted the Red Sea those kids were really in the sea! Special effects were super, singing and dancing, narrator was extra special, lighting stupendous, set, pharoah, Moses, Aaron, stage loads, Pharoah's son, writers, Ms Jennifer, wow, wow, wow, wizards, writing and songs were INCREDIBLE, extras and choreagraphy - too good! BAFOO - SOCKO. Headed for Broadway! Kids, screaming, auditorium, air conditioning - perfect. Pharoah appearing with his dead son, ohhh myyyy gooossshhhh.... You were all Great.

Praise the Lord.

No Time to Blog

Love to anybody out there. Mom moving to Nursing Home. Life too hectic. Near Tears. VBS is Good. Peace Out. mc

Good Pride

Well I am 2 weeks in to a 3 week marathon of VBS-s . Yippee! are Frank and I having fun. I am bustin' my buttons with pride. We get to see our kids and grandkids more often than ever. I looked and found a wonderful scripture to back up my feelings in II Corinthians 7 "Dear Father, who wills the good of all of your children, May all your holy people open their hearts to each other. Let us have great confidence and pride in one another. "

OK, yes, you're saying my pride is all wound up around my family and myself. But out of this happiness it bounces out to the world around me. I embrace others in the circle of my friendships, and they reach out happily to their friends and so on and so on. Pass it on happens. Good deeds happen. Blogs get read and Blogs get written. I feel pride in Blake Morrison when he says the Governor of Texas. I feel pride for the actors of Saturn Road VBS when they deliver a socko performance. There was an incredible evil queen who could dance quite stunningly. I remember the pride of a first born golden haired son named Ervin Franklin the III, who has become a convincing Childrens Minister. Then there is the third child (I know you think he is the favorite) but just the gentle spirited one who we such a special bond with. Now don't get me started on 4 grandkids! Wow! Of course there is a marriage that has lasted 33 years through some tough tests. We've got plenty to be proud of.

Miss Patty - Emily - Trey - Spectacular!

Spectacular! Spectacular!
First night jitters hit me as I sat in the audience to see the travels of Moses from his humble birth, bundled down the Nile and escaping into the desert. The spotlight came up at R.H. Church and the singing began!! Wow! The packed audience was swept away to a time long past in ancient Egypt.

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness. The combined talents of so many people in so many ways... A Christian heritage has come full circle. E. D. King and Patty Weaver have given an incredible Christian torch to two incredible (almost grown-up, tee hee) kids to continue a ministry for children and adults as well.

The church entry set the scene for a journey with a wonderful cast, singing, costumes, set, real Baby Bubba Moses, Statue sans Nose, Sound, Big Screen, etc, etc. THE SCRIPT AND THE MUSIC WERE TO DIE FOR. Emily Tate and Trey Laminack, a new generation, are in a league all their own. I couldn't be prouder. OK, enough about the Holbrook genes! These guys are too cool.

Then, quietly homebound, there... lit, 2 billboards in the night sky advertising our kids "Moses" adventure to the Fort Worth area. Call it what you want VBS is here to stay. Oh my goodness, oh my goodness.

Emotions, Emails and Now Blogs

On the topic of firing off an email (and now a blog) in the heat of passion, I have been finding out that the recipient(s) can read it totally different from how it was intended. It has been so difficult for me to become a kinder, gentler typist. Evidently, my keyboard fingers go faster than good common sense. Now I am learning I should type it, read it, spell check it, save it for an hour, or maybe a day, sleep on it, then make a decision on whether to send it. Never send an email when your head is spinning [especially when your eyes are rolling back in your head] and you are thinking "I will just fire off a response to bam, bam, bam ..." Oh yeah, cc to a whole herd of friends, families, church members, office workers, -- YIIKKKESS.

It's hard to read into the emotions meant by the sender, you know? I might be just lightly sarcastic, but I come across as "hard and single minded". Just trying to describe this kind of dilemma is almost impossible. I may be trying to be sweet, darling little Mary Poppins, but you may be picturing...



... Composing furiously away. My keyboard spewing forth, scary, bile, stuff that sometimes, ... don't we all, wish I could call back. Picture - trying to be cute, deft, particularly quick with words and instead something like this appears...

(An Aside-- I'm reminded here that Jack Handey always said that if you drop your car keys in a hot lava pool; forget em' man, they're gone.)

So for those of you who have not gone down the fiery lava tube of scorching words and injuring tender unprepared eyes, I gotta say go easy on your friends. Think before you tap on those lethal keys. Sleep on it. That's what I will do now.

OH No, I'm back-MC

Free Lunch and The Birth of MC's Religiosity

Almost thirty years ago Frank and I, as young marrieds, grudgingly attended the Trail Lake congregation on occasional Sundays. We had both been brought up (just as babies) at West Berry Church of Christ on University Drive, and then at Trail Lake Church of Christ (we were age 5 when our families moved here). West Berry and Trail Lake were the poster children of the old-time 3 songs, a prayer, 1 song, communion, 1 hour sermon, invitation, song, alter call, finish song with no center aisle. Trail lake built our Altamesa congregation in 1976.

We often came late from our apartment in Arlington to Sunday services, just to get a free lunch from Frank's parents, who were the best in-laws anyone could ever have. Now, at this time we didn't have our own faith, but were attending out of a sense of guilt and a (well-enforced) fear of fire and brimstone creeping up on us. Our life style went on for several years, with little commitment from us.

Something changed though -- we had Stacey! Suddenly, we felt a need to bring her to Sunday School and introduce her to Jesus. It was also lots of fun to have all the church members tell us how cute and special she was. We became regular members and began searching for our own faith. (A free Sunday lunch was still a plus.)

Then along came Wade and Patty Weaver, and Ron Beasley, our Youth Minister. We became high school huddle leaders and suddenly realized that we needed to know more about the Bible. We had Bible studies so we could teach the high schoolers. We started to pray earnestly, and developed life-long friendships. Our family grew as Trey and Travis came along and we became a blessed family.

Needless to say, here we are. We've got three independent kids out in the world, a wonderful son-in-law, super-duper grand-daughters, and a baby grandson. Also during all these years the Altamesa congregation has done some incredible growing in wisdom and truth, which has been wonderful to experience. I have to say that we run very, very hot and sometimes a little cold as we seek the right balance with our love of Altamesa, but Jesus remains a constant at the center of our lives.

Family, Pictures, Cars and Sounding Old

On taking pictures. I do it. I get in the way doing it. It's because I have found lots of pictures of ME as a very young child at my parent's house. I have at some times doubted my existence as a well-loved child. Well, finding those old black and white pictures put a concrete seal on my parents adoration of ME at many times in my life.

Childhood and growing up is not always easy and sweet for anyone, but grabbing a snapshot of yourself and a barefoot neighbor with your feet in the grass, along with your dog Talco feels real good. You can say "remember when ...... " The ice cream man, a soap box derby car that ran away, kick-the-can, trick or treating the entire neighborhood, cowboy and indians every afternoon, the flypaper strip by the backdoor, the sheets hanging on the line, sleeping in a hammock cause it was cooler outside ...

So here's the deal-
+Pictures of your kids
+Pictures of your parents
+Pictures of yourself (the mom will never be in the picture cause she always has the camera)
+Pictures of all your cars (that 1955 light blue Oldsmobile 88 was really bloated looking)
+Pictures of your yard, front and back, and your house too
Can you dig it.

Another issue is family genealogy and family reunions. OK, don't get sullen with me. My grandmother, Emma Christine Swanson Retzlaff (1888-1977), worked to keep her husband's family tree up-to-date since the Retzlaff Family Reunion began to meet in 1947. We have many albums of pictures and can trace back nine generations of Retzlaffs. She typed (on a typewriter) and maintained photographs of every year's additions, marriages and deaths.

See Grandmother

Your genes are cool.
My grandmother was cool. (you can see what has continued---

Click for Retzlaff Family History

This is all I've got to say for now. So jump on me.

Welcome to my world

Won't you come right in?

Yes, you are in the mellow mid-world of my existence. It can be quite bleak and quite marvelous. You can hit the peak of peaks and the lowest of valleys.

You are in for a magic carpet ride.

So pull up your crazy boy recliner, watch HOUSE, M.D., with me and we will diagnose the world and what's wrong inside my bloggen.

The only thing I know for sure, is I am not the walrus, KOO KOO KA CHOO.