June Joy

Hello Readers,

June has come and gone so quickly. Here are just a few highlights:

1. Jim and I celebrated our 19th anniversary in Scottsdale. The restaurant had beautiful views at the base of Camelback Mountain.

2. June 11th to June 27 were days away. The majority of the time we were in Albuquerque in our home there. We got to hang out with the grandkids and also take a few more steps towards the completion of a master bathroom renovation that Eric is heading up for us. Good times in Albuq. with running and some classes in the gym, too. We enjoyed the MUCH cooler temps. there.

3. Over Father's Day weekend we made a quick trip to Denver. Enjoyed spending time with Jim's parents and his sister Peg and her hubby Dennis. So glad we made the trip!

It seems we'll be sticking around Scottsdale in July. I have a 45 hour course I must take to renew my teaching certification. Glad my friend Susan is taking it with me.

See you next time.

May you know the JOY of the Lord!

Graduation Guy!

Hip Hip Hooray!!

We were so pleased to make a trip to So California this past weekend to celebrate the graduation of youngest son Drew. Jim and I traveled on Wednesday and Thursday and enjoyed time with Drew and Lindsey before the activities began on Friday.

Friday morning was Baccalureate on campus. What a joy! Singing, sermon, and commisioning of the graduates to go out into the world with the Good News of Jesus rocked my socks off! ( I was wearing sandals, but you get the picture!)

We enjoyed spending some quality time with dear friends Patra and Peter and their little ones. Then, it was off to the graduation where we met up with daughter Ingrid.

Commencement was also very good. We heard an inspirational message entitled, "The Worth of a Man" from baseball legend Dave Dravecky. He attributed his worth in life to his relationship with His Lord, Jesus Christ. The celebration of Drew's accomplishments at Concordia University were a moment that will become a joyous memory. As you see in the picture, our family of consisted of Jim, Sue, Ingrid, Drew's wife Lindsey, and of course, the graduate Drew!!

Cheers of you, Drew Berson, and God's most perfect joy and peace as you continue on to your 'next half', four years of Seminary in St. Louis!

Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."

Jacaranda memories

I will never forget the day I was on a walk in the area of my home in Sydney. I was in a neighborhood of small homes spaced closely together. As I walked I was approaching an open area and in just seconds I had a view that I will never forget. Below me was an area of homes that were built in a forest of jacaranda trees! Literally hundreds... all in full purple splendor! The sight took my breath away. The color was vibrant and the blooms were huge. I didn't know the name of the tree but since that time I have seen many jacarandas, although nothing has compared to that area of Sydney. (it would have been November, their spring)

The jacarandas are in bloom in Scottsdale. Even though we lived here before I never noticed them. Perhaps that is because they are not nearly as magnificent as those in Oz, or perhaps because I've gained new eyes for seeing things in a different way as I get older. Memories and present day all have their place in this complicated thing we call life!

Here's a post in memory of Sydney's jacarandas!

Cheers!

Triple Triumph!

Hello Readers!

Here is the triple triumph!!!

1. Jim set a personal record of his best time in Pat's Run out of 3 years (07,08,09)

2. I set a personal record of my best time in Pat's Run out of 3 years (07,08,09)

3. And the third accomplishment is the photo appearing on this blog. I received this picture from Coach Dave( our Team D coach)in an email and I figured out how to move it to my pictures and was then able to put it on my blog. A first! For those of you who know me well (tech. challenged) this is indeed a huge triumph!! Yippee!!

I thought it was really cool the way Dave put the date/caption over the picture!
Thanks, Dave.

JOY for today!
sue

Jim's 55/10 day!

Today is Jim's birthday...he is 55 years old today! I've been hearing him talk about 55/10 lately and this day is a very big one for him because it is connected to his company's health benefits policy. If I am understanding this correctly, the health options become more secure if retirement occurs at age 55 and with 10 years of service. Jim has hit 55 and his years of employment with his company will be 18 on May 1st! So, this milestone is important to him, especially when you consider the weight of medical costs for his Type 1 diabetic wife! (that's me!)

We've had a fun day which started early and took us to a 7 am start time for Pat's Run, a local race which is done in honor of Pat Tillman. It's a short run, of only 4.2 miles which is in recognition of his jersey number(42) when he played football for the AZ Sun Devils. We finish on the 42 yardline of Sun Devil's stadium! We both ran well, we think it's our fastest in the 3 years that we've done this run. PR!

Next was our Praise Band rehearsal...which lasted 2 hours! Yikes! But our music tomorrow for 2 services should sound just fine. We're playing/singing with new people so the group was not quite as familiar with each other's styles. God be praised!

Tonight Jim is cooking a rack of lamb on the BBQ. That will be really yummy! It's just the two of us, a very small party! The special highlight in addtion to the lamb will be the bottle of wine from Australia. This wine is a Penfolds Grange. Many of you may know the label Penfolds, but this particular type ( Grange) is something very special. It was a going away gift when we left Australia and is expensive...like in the hundreds of dollars! First pour was 2007, but it's fine to keep it longer. It's a 1997 vintage/ bottled in 1998. I'm not up on all of that, but I do know we've been waiting to open this wine for a long time! We had planned to open it when Jim retired, but he's having a lot of fun in his job so that's a ways away...time to open the grange!!! And to you, Jim Berson, I raise my glass and say, "Cheers! I love you, and may God's grace and love overflow today and always!"

I Left My Heart...Again!

Jim and I just returned from a long weekend in San Francisco. It had been 18 months since our last visit to this city by the bay, and the one U.S. city that we never grow tired of. We have made many trips to that beautiful place, and with each return trip we find something new to see and do. Here are a few highlights:

1. We managed the BART transport(train) both from the airport and back. We had to link the BART with a city bus ( and one short taxi ride due to an error on our part) but for the most part it was smooth sailing to and from the city. Saved a lot of money on cab fares as well, and exciting to learn new things.

2. We enjoyed a couple new restaurants in the area. One was a fantastic Indian called Dosa and the other was Thai, also outstanding food.

3. We caught two Farmers' Markets, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. The hightlight of those was the freshly popped Kettle Corn. Yum!

4. Having received a tip from the concierge of our hotel we took the bus to the theatre district/ Orpheum and put our name in a lottery drawing to see the Sunday matinee of the Broadway musical WICKED. About 60 people gathered at noon for the drawing. If your name is chosen from the group of people you are then given the opportunity to purchase tickets in the 'limited view' seats. The seats are somewhat obstructed, so you miss about 20% of the scenes on the side where you are seated. But you can't beat the price...a normal ticket sold for $99.00 ( and they were sold out for the next 3 weeks) and a lottery ticket was $25 cash only. Well, wouldn't you know, our name was drawn and we had $50 cash so we saw WICKED on Sunday afternoon! GREAT SHOW! OH!! This was so cool, Patty Duke had one of the lead roles! AWESOME afternoon!

5. A lot of running and a very long walk...Jim and I had several runs on the Embarcadero and a long walk from Fisherman's Wharf to the Golden Gate. We had done that the last time we were there ( photo is from that earlier trip Oct. of 2007) but this time we stopped only briefly at the Golden Gate and then continued west to the Cliff House. Almost all of this hike was along the water/cliffs and the scenery was beautiful. The total trip was just shy of 8 miles! It was so much fun!

Good weather, good companionship, good food, and a time with no schedule and only a few business calls that Jim had to take. Not too shabby!!

JOY!

Birthday, Balance, and Blessings!

Greetings to all of you,

Jim and I were so grateful to make a trip to Albuquerque the last days of February to celebrate Nolan's 5th birthday! The picture on the couch is in our home in Albuquerque, and was taken the day after Nolan turned 5. We are so thankful for his very life, considering the challenges that he has had to face in his short lifetime. And the recent blessing is that he is cancer free! The scans taken on March 3 came back clean. Praise God for that answer to prayer! However, the advice of the doctor was for him to undergo two more rounds of chemo, which he will have. So please continue to keep all of them in your prayers during these next two months.

The second picture amazes me! Beth has one posted on her blog that is very similar. This was taken on Sunday, March 1st in our Albuq. place as well. Claire was one day shy of six months in that photo. Beth has said that if it was anyone other that Eric doing this trick she would not allow it...but because it is Eric, we are all fine with this balancing act, as we know his capacity for balance and reflex!

One final blessing...Jim's latest job assignment to divest the coal mines in North America has one success to date. One of the coal mines has been purchased and he has succeeded wonderfully well!! We were in Gillette just a week ago today when it hit the headlines...Arch Coal buys Jacobs Ranch mine...front page Top Story!!

I write this blog with thanksgiving and send each of you love, from Jesus and me

Connections and surprises!

Greetings to you all!

Some little things of late that make me smile!

FINDING FORMER STUDENTS! Jim and I went to a musical production on February 7th because we were invited by one of the performers. Natalie is in 9th grade and goes to our church. She was excited for us to see this show and it was a dressy event, and had a silent auction to benefit the Christian Youth Theater so we thought it would be fun. The show was wonderful, and we had a very fun evening. But the really interesting thing was that the vocal director for this show is a woman in her late 20's. She is a former student of mine!! She was in the 5th grade when I taught a half a year at Christ Lutheran School in Phoenix in 1991. Isn't that just too crazy! Fun to reconnect.

That, then, led me to the quest to find another former student who lives in the area. I'm still working on that one. But if anyone out there reading this knows Joe Gullekson, tell him to call me, please!

MISSION/ OUTREACH/ RECONNECTING AGAIN! On Feb. 11th I was happy to reconnect with a dear friend from Salt Lake City who now lives here. Our younger kids ( Sarah and Drew) used to play with her kids...and Eric and Ingrid used to babysit Lisa's kids. Well, as it turns out now Lisa works for a wonderful non-profit organization called Food for the Hungry and I got a tour on Feb. 11th. We then went to lunch and we talked about the international kids...her oldest Emily in Africa doing nursing with AIDS/HIV patients, Drew just coming back from China and getting ready to go to Ukriane to see his sister. Sarah living in Ukriane now and will for two years teaching English for the Peace Corps. We are just amazed at the places these kids have been and will be going! Another friend of mine, Susan, has a daughter who just returned from Ghana. This is not what I would have pictured, but God's plan is always something to anticipate and celebrate!

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS: Tonight Jim and I went to help out at the International Friendship House. A group from our church was going to serve a meal that we provided. We made soup, salad, brought bread and cookies and drinks. Then we were given the opportunity to chat with the students from places all over the world. They gather to eat and then to practice their English with local folks. I was wearing a T shirt that said " THIRST" which was given to me by Ingrid for a District Youth Gathering a few years ago. A young man(not an international student) walked up to me and said, " Did you go?" as he indicated my t shirt. I said, "Yes" and his reply was, " I was a speaker there" and then the light bulb went on!!! "You're Sarah's friend! I remember you!!" As the conversation unfolded he said he had seen Drew just last Friday at Concordia. He spoke of his wife and their plans to go to South Africa for 16 months.
I can tell you why I didn't pick up on it right away...his name tag said "KEN" and if it had said "CHIT" I would have totally caught it!! Small world. We got to hang out with international students as well as friends of Sarah and Drew from days past!
And, another familiar face that I figured out was Lisa's aunt...the Lisa from the previous paragraph! I knew her when Jim and I attended Christ Church 18 years ago!

To all of you reading this, whether you're stateside or somewhere else in the world, I'm so thankful I had the chance to RECONNECT with you tonight! JOY, always, in Jesus!

January JOY!

Hello All!

There has been an amazing answer to prayer in January. Eric and Beth went to an appointment to get the results of Nolan's recent scans in order to decide the next steps. They were hoping that the tumor in Nolan's right lung would be small enough to operate/remove it. What they were told when they went was, 'There is no evidence of cancer in the lung!' The tumor is GONE! Praise God! NO SURGERY! Nolan will still have a bit more chemo, two or three more rounds. But this is wonderful news, a miracle! Thank you all for your prayers and support of this family.

In other news for January...Jim and Sue completed a FULL MARATHON yesterday, January 18th. We have been training since August with Team Diabetes and we both finished the PF Chang Rock and Roll here in town. It was the 4th marathon for Jim and my first. We are thankful that we only have sore muscles, no injuries. The weekend was especially fun because Ingrid came and had two friends join her as our houseguests for the weekend. Her two friends ran the half marathon, both of them running this distance for the first time. They did well! There was a lot of laughter, eating, drinking celebratory beverages, and just plain JOY! Great to have the company of Ingrid, Chris, and Laura! (and HONEY!)

Finally, we enjoyed the company of friends Phil and Donna from Gillette last week. They are dear friends and they were in town for a conference. We were able to spend some quality time with them as they were staying just 5 miles from our house. What a treat!

January JOY is the best way to put it!