Kickboxing and a 5K Race

I have some good news...well, depending on what happens in two months, it could be bad news. If there is one or two things that you would never think I would do, it would be to take a kick boxing class and signing up for a 5K Race.

Well guess what? I am DOING BOTH!!! Can you believe it? I can't. I have been a little unmotivated lately. Don't ask why, just some things bring you down that's all. Anyway, I did A LOT of praying and writing about what I needed to "kick" me into gear again. Then it happened. Since I was in the Jaycees, I got to help put together a 5k race on July 4th. Serectly, I always wanted to be a part of it but because of my weight, I couldn't. Well....I now believe, and I DO believe that if I work hard, I can actually take part in one and complete it. Then the idea came to mind.

So, I signed up to run in a 5k race at Harvard University on Sunday, March 30th. It will benefit fallen firefighters and police officers Do I know anyone who is a firefighter???? hmm. The main sponsor is an Irish pub in town. That just puts the exclamation point on the process. ;-)

Someone at the church, who is a Boston Marathoner, offered to train me and work with me so that I can actually run the event, instead of just walk. I can't believe this. I am actually going to do this! So keep me in your prayers because I have a lot of work ahead and I am looking forward to completing this goal!

I also started attending a kick boxing class at the gym. Man o man, what a workout that is. You would think that my legs would be the parts of my body that are soar, but it's the ARMS that are kickin my butt right now. The force and push that I put behind them is the "kicker". But it feels good at the end. And it's fun.

Disclaimer - that picture is not really me, in case you were wondering. Just thought I would put a little humor into the post.

Thanks for checking in.

Laugh Until You Pee In Your Pants

I have not posted lately. Not much to really tell you about. January is pretty quiet up here for the most part. Well..wait a second...there is the whole New England Patriots in the Superbowl thing happening. Can you imagine? Red Sox won the world series. New England is about to win the SB. Can the Celtics be far behind?? Can't say too much about the bruins. touchy subject for the passionate hockey goers.

I am looking at my Christmas tree. Yep, it's still up. Not sure why. Just laziness I guess. I have been in a thinking mood for a while. Do you ever over analyze your thoughts and actions? One of my biggest problems is that I do that. Well, I am on overkill with the over thinking and it can be a little stressful.

I saw two movies recently, 1 - The Bucket List and 2- Great Debaters. The Bucket List has two great actors in it, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. It was actually a fun movie with some pretty serious undertones in it. They make a list of things to do before they "kick the bucket". I am not giving anything away when I share that one item is "laugh until I cry". I would even go a step further and say, "laugh until you pee in your pants".

Do you remember the last time you laughed that hard? I think for me, it was in college. Unfortunately, I even had kaki pants on too. But it was a great feeling - on the inside at least. Laughing is such a good release too. Maybe one day, I will get to laugh that hard again.

The other movie, Great Debaters, took me into a place that you don't hear about much...well, unless you are a friend of Tiger Woods. In this movie, you are reminded of what happened to African Americans and lynching. You see and feel the pain that they went through. You are reminded of the fight and determination that is needed in order to make your way to a place that you deserve to be because you are a human being. Why do people have to fight so hard to be treated fairly? You have the ones who don't have to fight because they have all the resources at their disposal, all the backing that a spoiled rich kid needs, all the support that a rich favored government caters to....they don't have to fight at all and can't understand this other world called the real world.

It is so strange to see how this is still happening today.
"The land of the free". Well, nothing seems free right now. We can't even travel where we want to - embargo on Cuba keeps us from being free. The Bush "economy" keeps anything from being free. The homeless don't have it free, yet we spend trillions of dollars to fight a war started on lies.
"The home of the brave". Well, the only ones that are brave are the ones fighting to survive. It is easy to be brave when you have everything handed to you on a silver platter; when you have the six figure income; when you have a gov't who gives you all the breaks that you want; and when you live in the most comfortable mansion on the block, sheltered from the "real world" yet again.

Obviously, I have never been lynched. But I can understand the feeling of constantly fighting to make your way to a place that you deserve to be. Whether I want to be a woman minister from the South or someone who can actually be called "beautiful" despite her body size, I had to fight through my own discrimination.

I can't preach in the south and I am not pretty enough to be a successful trainer or someone's "other half". (In the past, I have been told, 1 - that I do not "look" like I love God; 2 - you don't look like a "successful enough" trainer for our company; 3- you don't have the "richmond" experience to be a teacher here; 4 - you are a woman and you can preach in our pulpit; 5 - you don't have that little extra something that Steven had (the male teacher they hired over me) 6-you were a mistake) It all adds up.

Thankfully now, I am in the right place - I am in a place now that accepts me for who I am, for what I do and for what I am capable of being. I get to finally be me. I get to finally fight with the good people instead of against the bad.

It cracks me up that we have the potential to have make history in the United States by voting for the first woman president or voting for the first African American president. 20 years ago, that wasn't even a forethought. But instead of celebrating those possibilities, they are arguing and fighting over he said/she said stuff. How nice it would be to be able to finally tell a little girl or an African American boy that they can be whatever they want to be...only they have to see this.

So close and yet so far. Man, I can't wait to be able to pee in my pants some day.

Good preaching from the South

Ok - I got to hear one of the great preachers yesterday - Dr. Will Willimon. He currently serves as a Bishop with the United Methodist Church in Alabama. However before that calling....he served as Dean of the most beautiful chapel in North Carolina...Duke University Chapel. He was up here yesterday to be a part of a preaching series at Andover Newton Theological School and I got to hear him!

The series is called "Is Preaching Relevant?" The school has several "known" and two well known "great preachers" coming to speak on the topic. What happens in the world today, when technology and life gets in the way of church and the message that Christ is trying to convey?
How do you compete with extracurricular activities, text messaging, emails, overworked, and pre-occupied lives? Does it matter any more that we spend time and energy to get a message to the people, that you aren't sure they are listening to anyway?

You have an hour (and within that hour, about 20 minutes of preaching) to share God with the people and remind them what life should be like in a Christian Community. We heard a wonderful definition of preaching yesterday, "preaching allows the Risen Christ to walk among the people" (kudos to Dietrich Bonhoeffer). What a wonderful image. The challenge for today is, are the people looking for the Risen Christ or is something obstructing their view? Who removes the obstruction? Who is the one that shares the message?

Allows the Risen Christ to walk among the people - now that puts pressure on the preacher too. But is it our responsibility to be sure the people hear the message? When does the person in the pew accept responsibility to listen to what is being said? Do we need to be loud and overt? Are we confined to standing behind this piece of wood in order to get the message across? Can we move beyond the furniture?

Willimon reminded us that Jesus is a pretty hard person to work for. There are standards and expectations that we are asked to live up to. There are messages that he wants us to get across to people of the "Me" generation. He is waiting for us and we need to answer.

Many places, Funny Faces and some new treasures

Well, here is my post Christmas post. What a trip I had. I knew it was going to be a trip because nobody in Richmond had seen me since Christmas of 2006. A lot of things have changed for me since then and people got to see that while I was visiting. I would like to say that things changed for the better. Despite the fact that some people wanted to bring up the past and share what I used to be like (and forget to share what they were like) I would rather focus on the wonderful time I had and the feelings that were generated when people saw the happiness.
Of course, my brothers were at the airport bar when I arrived. I should not have expected anything else. So I went back and met them there. My nephew got up and met me and hugged me. That was a good feeling. He has grown another foot.
It was good to see the entire family at my aunt's house. We did the big Christmas gift exchange there - Yankee swap, Chinese gift swap, Dirty Santa, whatever you want to call it.
We the immediate family on Wednesday night. It normally would have been done Christmas morning, but - well, I could not get into Richmond until 1:30. You can see the picture of my brothers and me. I don't remember the last time that shot was done. Thank you to my sisters-in-law who helped to get that picture done. Then my wonderful Braxton, Brandon, and Lindsay picture.
The rest of my visit was used to see some dear friends of mine. The first was Laura and her family. You can see Lizzie and me. Apparently, this was the trip to make silly faces too. Lizzie and I posed for several photo ops. This one is our "silly" picture. I got to play the wii game with them and did a great job with the bowling and an ok job with the tennis. That is usually reversed in the real world but it was FUN.
I had lunch with friends from the Jaycees - Karen, Candy, Mike and their little boy Alex. We missed Kim but I got to see her and her family on my last day. She was quite ill and glad that she got well enough that we could visit. Anthony is Kim's son and that would be the other silly picture. This is our "what dinosaurs look like" picture at Einstein bagels. haha It was also Roddy's birthday. He was feeling a little better too. I hope the whole Hinton Court family is ok now!!
I got to see my boss from the bookstore. He is Bob. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture with him. That was some visit. I worked with him all through my time at seminary. He has seen me through some pretty rough stuff and supported me through all of it. He could not stop saying how proud he was of me and how wonderful it was to here how happy I am. That was the most wonderful feeling to hear those words from him.
Of course, there was my time with Steve. Poor guy - he was on vacation too and completely lost track of time. haha. It was good to see him. He had the same thoughts as Bob and it was good to make him proud too.
I got a surprise on Saturday. My sister-in-law took me on a surprise shopping spree to Talbot's. Here I am happy to be going to Target to get some clothing and she took me to a place where people took care of you: bringing you clothing to try on, setting up your room, etc...that was a surprise and I am grateful for what she did. Then we met my mom at Macy's and did a little more shopping. Do you know how cool it was to get clothing that fits now? and clothing that is quality?
My last night, we had a family dinner at O'Charley's. Everyone was able to get together before I had to leave the next day. It was good when we talked about the things that were going on now and the joy that a new life brings.
On Sunday, I got to spend time with Kim and her family like I said. No matter where we sat, it was good to talk with them, laugh, and enjoy the Anthony entertainment. Then I went to my home church, New Highland. What an exclamation point to the week. They had not seen me since before I left - not even pictures. So, to see them do double takes and wonder if it was me was so great. They were so proud of me. They were happy for me too.
You know, this posting sounds so selfish, but it's not meant to be. I have worked hard to be able to go home and show my family and friends that I can be who God knows I can be. To share in that happiness and accomplishment with them was so important to me. Just about everyone shared in that joy, shared how proud they were of me, and how wonderful it was to see me happy. Instead of living in the present, a couple of people had to bring up the past and remind me what my life was like before - from their perspective only. That did hurt but thankfully I have changed and most people embraced that and shared that with me. I look at these pictures and see the fun, silliness, and excitement that I did have. For those who know me, you would never have seen ME in the pictures. I tried hard to stay BEHIND the camera. Now, I want to be in front of the camera and with friends and family. I will treasure that instead of focusing on the other stuff. I will treasure what I see and feel in these memories and to experience them again before next Christmas.

Kitty Kat Kristmas

I will be in Richmond in a little over 24 hours!!!!! Yippeeeee. We have a wonderful Christmas Eve service tonight at 11:00. Candlelight, carols, scripture and the ringing of the bells. It is wonderful.
Before then, I needed to celebrate Christmas with the Kitties. Gracie is feeling better and has actually gained a couple of pounds. Jelly Bean is playing around.
So, to celebrate with them, I gave them their presents today. Gracie received a teddy bear stuffed animal, stuffed with cat nip. Jelly Bean received a green frog stuffed with cat nip.
I will leave them tomorrow in good hands. Charley will come and visit with Phoebe and Emmett to feed and care for the kitties. Thanks C.P, and E!!!!

Did you say more snow?

OK - It's Sunday now and this picture is from Sunday morning. Since 4:00 am, we got another 6-7 inches of snow. And NOW, it is sleeting and plans to continue that until this afternoon. I was ordered (and politely) to stay home from church. We had three people in worship today. The picture is my car and as I began to clear it off. The post office is opened today for the holidays, so they got clean up very nicely. However, the problem now is where are we putting all the snow that we shovel? You can see in the picture what happened to my snow. We have piles that are almost as high as we are now. You can see next to the steps and railing the pile up.

Oh well - I know have the day to chill out..although my lights just blinked a little. That's not good either. I don't plan on going out - not a good thing right now. So I will stay warm and wrapped in my cozy blanket.

Richmond - are you happy that you are not with me right now???? Uncle Tom and Aunt Mo - I bet Florida is looking good right now too!!!!

10 to 12 inches of snow in 8 hours

Here is one update - i have not ventured out yet, just shoveled the car. Thankfully, i have a wonderful landlord who shoveled most of my snow for me. He had sympathy for the sinus infection. haha

And Guess what???? School was NOT canceled. It was delayed two hours, but not canceled. I was teasing that Henrico would be closed for a week with this snow. my neighbors just laughed.

I may go out later on and take my camera with me...but of course.

UPDATE: Please take note - when you have a sinus infection, the worst thing you should do is go out and shovel the snow, bending over and over again. It could cause a malfunction in your face and such. So, I went out and shoveled along with my neighbors. The good part about living next to the post office is that our road gets plowed pretty quickly and not a bad job too boot.

Well, my sinuses were acting up, so I walked to CVS to get some medicine, because I got the wrong kind yesterday. So while I walked, I took a couple of pictures. They are great about plowing the road and getting things cleared - it was also 40 degrees, so the snow was melting already. Anyway, they are good at plowing and plowing to the sidewalk. You can see the pictures in front of CVS how the snow built up.

I did not feel up to going out so I don't have any more pictures. I ended up sleeping most of the day after I took the new medicine. The youth are supposed to come to my home on Sunday night for a Christmas party. So I need to put up my Christmas tree. That can wait right now. But not sure if we will have a party. We got the 10 - 12 inches today but they are calling for a one two punch on Saturday night...snow and ice together. Now THAT sounds like Richmond.

Sorry I don't have more pictures right now. Thank you for the emails to check in. I will get more when I feel a little better.

Blessings, Linda

Second Snow and lasting

Winter Storm warning until 11:oo pm tonight - an inch an hour, calling for 8 - 10 inches for Today (Thurs) and more on Saturday. Here are a couple of pictures after 2 hours. Charley's car in the church parking lot as I am cleaning my car off, my view on the way home at an intersection, then my car in front of the home AFTER I cleaned it off the first time, and Gracie looking at the snow.

I will update and show pictures when the accumulation is complete...at least for this cycle.

PS - my first cold since I have been in New England is a wonderful sinus infection. gotta love it when your face goes numb, including your two front teeth. very weird. very weird. please o please let it clear up before i fly to Richmond!!!!!

First Snow and First Baby Dedication

Well, I am definitely in New England. We got our first accumulating snow this past Monday. I say accumulating because it actually snowed a couple of days before the 60 degree thanksgiving that we had. I thought I was in Richmond. You will see my car and my local post office in the background - who keep taking my parking spaces when I go workout, so I park in theirs until they move. And you will see the church from the intersection in front. I don't know who would have taken that picture. It must have been the person in the car with me. Clearly, the light is green and both of my hands are on the wheel.

Anyway, we got a couple of inches - no, school in Newton was NOT cancelled. It would take a lot more than two inches for that to happen. It is now very cold here and we have not hit prime time cold yet. ugh.

On better news - I have done my first baby dedication. Emmett, who made an appearance in the previous post with the adorable blue eyes, was dedicated this past Sunday. I was honored to be asked to do the dedication and be part of it. I also thoroughly enjoyed having him in my arms. He and I walked around the sanctuary and had a good time talking to the people. How did I get to do this? Well, Emmett is one of two beautiful children of Charley and his wife Mireille, who I spent thanksgiving with, and he happens to be the Sr. Minister. So, I got to take care of them that day.

Please ignore the black robe I am wearing. It is the same robe I got two years ago and is a little too big now. You gotta love it when I go up and down the steps that if I am not careful, I will trip on the robe because it hangs too low now. haha. What a problem to have. Anyway, I don't have the means to get a new one right now, so we make do. And the skirt I was wearing underneath - had six safety pins in it!!!

Things are busy. I preached the week before and now, I am leading an Advent Bible study. We are having a soup and bread supper before we start the study. Last night, I made two big pots of Chicken Vegetable soup. Thank you Mom for the reminder on how to make it. I hope it goes well. We shall see.

Talk soon!

BSO and Thanksgiving Day

Hello Everyone,
Can I tell you what a busy couple of weeks I have had? Church is kicking into high gear with the Advent season and Christmas coming right around the corner. I even got to preach today. How cool is that? Busy Busy. I am looking forward to Christmas Day - when I get to see my family and friends, and also beginning a long vacation. Until then, lots of things are happening here.

First - I had the wonderful wonderful experience of being invited to see the BSO. What is the BSO you ask? That is Bostonian for....the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a small little musical group up here. :-) Can I just say - WOW. One of our members invited me to attend with her. After about two seconds of consideration, I said YES!!!! We listened to Hayden's Symphony #4 and an amazing Mahler Symphony #1. What a wonderful experience to witness and be a part of. You really really should listen to those pieces. I don't know the "classical" lingo, but I had goose bumps after Mahler and I was just blown away. Two of our adult members play in the BSO and their two daughters play in the Youth BSO. They taught me a lot about what I heard.

As far as Thanksgiving goes, I missed being with my family and had a wonderful time talking with them on the phone. However, do not be worried, because I was well taken care of in Massachusetts, specifically, in Needham. I spent the day at Charley and Mireille's home with their LARGE family. Charley, if you have not followed my blog, is my colleague, boss, and friend. Mireille is his better half. What a wonderful family. Mostly from Connecticut and Massachusetts, there was a little Romania in there and even a Charlottesvillian!!!! Is that a word? We talked for a while. Yippee.

Most importantly, it was family and I got to be a part of it. The pictures that you will see are me with Charley and Mireille and then me with each of their children, Phoebe and Emmett. I fell in love with Emmett and his blue eyes. Phoebe is the sweetest thing that is deep into the two year old world. I won't go into details, because it's too much to share with the world, but know that I was treated very kindly and welcomed like if I were one of their own. I had a great day.

That evening, I had a chance to call the family in Richmond. Sounded like they were having fun. I am sooo looking forward to seeing all of them on Christmas Day when I arrive in Richmond around 1:30 pm....well, according to my flight plan. As we learned last year, that is NOT set in stone.

Please keep me in your prayers. This is going to be an EXTREMELY BUSY time for the church, for Charley and for me. Until Christmas day, we are going to be running like crazy. But it will be worth it. The season of Advent and the celebration of Christmas are two wonderful times of year that we get to celebrate and remember what life is all about...giving. I may not be able to post as much as you would like, but know that my busy-ness will be for good reasons.

PS - did i remind you that Duke is 6 and 0? oh.

Installation Service

I promised that I would post about a special thing that happened at church. On October 21st, I was officially installed as Minister of Christian Education. It was a remarkable day, and quite humbling. We had a regular service and then added the installation part. There was special music: the choir did one of my favorite pieces, Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring. One of the youth performed a beautiful piece on his oboe. Someone from the children, youth, and adults read scripture. The chairperson from the search committee shared how I ended up at First Baptist Church, calling me a light and the "moore" that we needed. Then Charley blew me away with his message/sermon too. I still get teary eyed thinking about what he said, especially when I see his daughter and her smile. I could not believe all that was said and all that was done to celebrate this day.
I am in a good place. So much has changed for me - all for the better. Don't get me wrong, there are challenges and obstacles that I encounter every day, but I know I would not be able to face them like I do, without the support of the people that I work with and the people I work for, and the One that I work for too. Most importantly, I now I am in the right spot and i am starting to realize that I am doing the right thing - especially when I keep my focus on the right person.
Look at the bottom picture. I am in the center and they are laying hands on me and Charley is praying. I will let the picture speak for itself.

It's Been A While

I know, it's been a while. I have had a LOT going on. A LOOTTTTTT. You are going to see one HUGE thing that happened in the next post but until that post, here is some "what's been goin on". Even though I have been working alot, I have also enjoyed some free time too. The Duke Blue Devils came to town a couple of times to battle it out with fellow ACC team Boston College. Yippee...not in basketball yet, but in women's soccer and volleyball. It was fun to be able to root for the visiting team and not get pummeled by BC either.
Another thing I got to do was attend An Evening with Champions. It is an annual fund raiser for the Jimmy Fund, showcasing veteran and future Olympic and champion skaters. The Jimmy Fund www.jimmyfund.org is a program in Boston that raises money to help with Pediatric cancer research and hopeful cure. Children get the opportunity to skate with the skaters too and be able to smile through the chemo and treatments. It is held at Harvard University and it is hosted by my all time favorite Olympic skater, Paul Wylie. Emily Hughes and Oksana Bauil were there as well.
The other fun thing was my good friends from New Highland came to visit. They surprised me last year by showing up for the worship service. This year, they gave me a couple of days notice. :-). It was Caroline's 13th birthday - Happy Birthday!! It was great to be able to celebrate with them, shop around Newbury Street - (that is a whole different scene) and to be able to talk to my friend and eye doctor pal. They got to see a different me and report back to my home church how I have "grown".

I am also finishing up an advanced spanish class. That has been a journey itself but a good one. My language is coming back and it feels good. I am in a two person class for three hours a night, from a three person class that as six hours of intense spanish - from politics to religion to various spanish countries. I got to share about my trip to Cuba, speaking nothing but spanish of course, and it was fun. It has been a challenge but good!

And ONE more thing that I did. at the John F Kennedy presidential library, they had a speaker panel one afternoon, with Tom Sorenson. He was JFK's special and political advisor during JFK's term. He spoke on the Cuban Missile Crisis and the 13 days they encountered. I was surprised by how much was NOT told to the public and how close we actually were to a nuclear scare. It was a fascinating discussion/lecture. He has a book coming out in May 0f 2008.

Passion. Do you know what Passion means? I thought I did...that is UNTIL a little thing known as the WORLD SERIES came to town. There is EXCITEMENT here and the people are pumped! They came down three games in the American league series and now they are up two games to nothing. It is going to be INSANE.

On my next post, you will see a special event that happened at church...for me. Can you believe it? Have a great day! Sorry it has taken so long to post.

100 pounds makes a difference

I thought I would post a picture to update everyone on what I am doing. The picture on the left is a year ago in Sept of 2006. The picture on the right is Sept, 2007...at 100 pounds lighter. I will fill in more information later.
There is also a permanent set of glasses as well. Too bad my eye doctor in Richmond is not here. hmmm.