OK. I'm going to give this posting thing a shot. Since the last thing I have been galavanting. Big surprise. We saw Sarah, Jared and Ella in Montgomery in February which was all kinds of fun. OK. 1 is an extremely fun age. She repeats every word she hears (and I do mean every word, Pop Pop, so watch it). He got to feed her her first chocolate ice cream, much to her mama's chagrin at 11 that night when she was trying to get her to go to sleep! But it was a great weekend with them and all the other McCrory's for Ella's first birthday party. Baked the requisite birthday cake, which I am now becoming famous for.

Then I got home and got ready for my birthday trip to California. Woo Hoo! I flew out of Birmingham so that I could combine a visit to my mama and my nephew Brian. Got to see Brian but not Mama. The old folks at the "home" were on lockdown because of the flu and she was fit to be tied. The weather was foul in California for almost the whole time and I swear, I never got warm (I must have raised a polar bear in TJ), but the company was great if the weather wasn't so welcoming. I just hate that I didn't get to see the largest Chinese New Year's celebration outside Asia. I can't seem to convince these people that they are living in a remarkable place and they need to see this stuff. But then who am I to talk. We lived in Mobile for 13 years and I never saw the USS Alabama or Bellengrath Gardens..........

I did get to see Mama on the way back, by the way. And had another great visit with Brian.

Oh, and on my travels I met some interesting people. Let's see, there was the woman on her way to meet her husband in Frankfurt, Germany. She was very nice, and hoping to meet someone like me on the flight from Atlanta to Frankfurt. Good luck on that one. I hope she didn't get a seatmate like the one I had from Oakland to Atlanta who wouldn't make eye contact. I think she thought I was the Unibomber or something. Then there was the total nutjob in the Atlanta airport who told me that the FBI gave her a video of Barak talking to Farakahn (sp?) about taking over the US and all about the "mud people", all while I was sitting next to and across from these extremely, shall we say non-white people............I was more than a little uncomfortable and very glad that I took the "bump" for the $200 credit and didn't have to board the flight with her! But best of all was the guy who told me TJ needed to be in CA because the folks out there needed Jesus a lot! And then as we were deplaning in B'ham gave me his card and said if he was ever interested in a mission trip, he should email him and he could hook him up with a "people group" in Tibet! As soon as he said People Group, I knew he must be Baptist and sure enough, on his card, he had written IMB. I came home and looked at his website and it's so cool. You should go look. www.nomadruss.com Anyway, I told him that was the other child and that I would definitely put them in touch with him. So much for my adventures in airports.

Now I'm at home and socializing with Rayville. First day back and there is a birthday coffee for the little old lady that walks the neighborhood every day putting everybody's paper at their doorstep. Every single day before 7AM. Only one day since we've been here has it not been right at the front door and I think she might have been out of town that day and I was like, "What the heck? I have to walk all the way to the end of the sidewalk? What is up with that?" But it was fun. Bunch of the neighbors and some I hadn't met yet, so it was good. OK. I'm going to shut up and see if I can post this now. Maybe if it works, one day I'll figure out how to do pictures.