News Flash: Easter Beagle Reaches Juneau AK!

I can't remember a time I have ever sat in a full Easter Sunday service at church. Actually, I should say, I can't remember a time I have ever heard and Easter sermon preached. Seriously. I've been going to church all my life, and never once! I love the Easter songs, taking the offering, greeting everyone Easter Sunday. But when the pastor gets up to the stage and begins the sermon, me, my siblings, my Grandpa and Bill would sneak out of church, and the fun would begin.

Actually, the fun began a few evenings before Easter Sunday. My family would go over to Grandma and Grandpa's house and do "the Easter Beagle". Grandpa got bags and bags and bags of jelly beans, robin eggs, and peanut m&m's. We would put some Easter grass in baggies with a note, and then fill the bags with the candy. We got an assembly line going, and made fun of people who were falling behind. Of course, when each new bag of candy was opened, you would "check for ugly candy" and dispose of it right away...I even remember picking out the black jelly beans because Grandpa said they were not an "Easter color". We would spend a good 2 hours putting these things together and just wait for Easter Sunday.

So, back to church - well, sneaking out of church. My siblings, Grandpa, and Bill would sneak out of church and meet at Grandma's car to get the Easter Beagle candy out. We then went around the parking lot and street along the church and hung the bags of candy on the driver-side mirror. It was the Easter Beagle's way of saying Happy Easter! It's a tradition I grew up doing, and has now become part of my Easter tradition.

I am pleased to say that I still have not been to a single Easter sermon! This year I got some friends together, and we did the Easter Beagle! I explained to them the story behind it, and they all loved it. So we got together Saturday night to make the bags - 272 to be exact (as you can see from the picture below)



Sunday morning rolls around. The night before it decides to snow about six inches. So here we are, getting ready to do Easter Beagle at church in about six inches of slush in our Easter best. Not ideal, but welcome to Juneau. We were laughing at the rediculousness of the situation. But we did it! It was so fun watching people get the bags off their cars and look at it very confused.

So I'm happy to announce that the Easter Beagle has reached Juneau Alaska! I'm sure my Grandpa is so proud and laughed at us all morning from heaven. But shhhh! Don't tell anyone - the Easter Beagle is supposed to be a secret...

Blessings!

Life in the Fast Lane

The past two weeks have been absolutely insane. So many things have happened - some good, some bad. There is so much to write, but I am not going to take the time to write it all...I'll summarize and give you the jist of it all.

Two weeks ago, I stayed home from church because I wasn't feeling well. One of my coworkers called me at about noon. She had news about my former supervisor from Lighthouse. Sonja's body had been found in the water, an apparent drowning. Totally shocked me and devastated me. Although I wasn't super close to her, it was still very sad and heartbreaking. I haven't lost someone in Juneau up to that point...I began thinking of all the lost opportunities and the sadness that her family must be feeling.

Her family came up to Juneau to have a service and to bring Sonja back to Washington (that's where she's from). There are some pretty incredible stories about her family and the conversations we had. Linda, Sonja's mom, told me that I was the only "vibrant Christian" she met up in Juneau, and it broke her heart. She then told me that she would be praying for me. SHE would be praying for ME? She, the woman who just lost her daughter, would be praying for me? Wow...that's crazy.

That same week, I got some sad news about a good family friend back home. It's hard getting sad news and not being able to be home with everyone.

This week, my coworker went to San Diego to get married! So I am living at her house for the next two weeks...taking care of her dog named CHAOS (the name says it all...). So my routine is a bit crazy, but it's all good. I haven't gotten home before 9-10 at night every night this week due to plans and classes. I took a wilderness first aid class over the past three days, and am now certified to give first aid to people in the wilderness...not that I ever want to, but it's good to be prepared, right?

It's been busy, but life is going well up here. I'm really looking forward to the summer when I get to see people from home!

Miss you and love you!
Blessings!

Snowboarding is...

...SO INCREDIBLY FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I went snowboarding with my co-worker and her daughter a few weeks ago. I'm so late in blogging about it because I wanted to wait for the videos to upload - they're pretty hilarious. Snowboarding is not as easy as it looks! I went just before the Olympics, and let me tell you, Shawn White is my new idol...not really, but he gives me something to work towards...

I've never been on a snowboard in my life. The closest thing I've come to a snowboard is a skateboard. Christy used to have two skateboards - one "fast" and one "slow". Christy and I would go to the end of our street to the stop sign, sit down on the skateboards, and push ourselves down the sidewalk, and "wipe out" into the grass at one of our houses. We would do this for hours! It was from these events of my childhood that I got the inspiration for the first video...



Oh yeah, it was great. I spent a lot of time on my knees, back, and face. The hardest part was actually getting up the hill. You see, there wasn't a chair lift. It was more a rope that you hang on to that drags you up the hill (your feet are strapped to your board, so you don't get to move your feet if you loose your balance...). And it did - quite literally - drag me up the hill my first time trying to get up the hill. I held on to that rope for dear life, lost my balance, fell, but neglected to let go of the rope. So it dragged me up a ways, while the lift people below were yelling at me, "LET GO OF THE ROPE! LET GO!!!!" I could not get the hang of it, so the poor ski guy had to hold on to me, run up the hill with me until I caught my balance. Pretty funny...

When I finally made it to the top of the hill (YAY!!!!!!!) I then had to learn to go down the hill. It's not as easy as it looks! "You move by putting your toes forward and heels back." "Bend your knees, point your toes." "BEND THE KNEES! STAND UP!" Oh, it was fun. Like I said, I spent a lot of time on my back, knees, and face.

This video is a little bit better - I actually stay up for a little bit of time...



Snowboarding is pretty incredible. I had a blast!

Hope you all are doing well! Miss you and love you!
Blessings!

My Valentine This Year Is...

...Wouldn't you like to know! I'll give you a hint: He was breathing as of 4:30 today when I got off the phone with him...he lives in a different state than I do...Portland to be exact...and he's 93 years old!

A couple posts back, I wrote about this old man I met in the airport named Gery. I wrote to Gery when I got back to Juneau, just saying that I hope everything was alright with his heart and his ribs (he fell when he had his heart attack), and that it was a pleasure meeting him. I hadn't heard from him since.

When I got home from work a couple days ago, I randomly checked my messages on my home phone. I never do this...there were about 12 messages on it...One of them was from some man who sounded really old and who I could hardly understand. So I looked at the caller id (my phone saves caller id's) and saw that it was a "Vandermort Ger". I had no clue who this was, so I thought nothing of it.

So last night Kendra, Andrea and I were having dinner and I burst out saying, "I know who that is!" I proceeded to tell the girls who the "mysterious man" was. Since it was about 8:30 pm my time (9:30 pm his time) I thought it wouldn't be a good idea to call him then. I opted to call him on my lunch break the following day (today).

So lunch comes around and I give Mr. Vandermort a call. No answer. So I leave a message saying that I hope he's doing well and would like to talk to him. He calls later in the day while I'm still at work, so now I've opted to call him on my way home from work.

I got off at 4:30 (beauty of working through lunch breaks...) and call this guy up. He answers! We talk for a good 20 minutes. He fills me in on all he has done since January: "I've taken a lady to the hospital, I'm going to meet my friend again in Southern California, I'm still doing counseling with some couples, and I'm building things." I fill him in a bit on what I'm doing: "I work with crazy people, and sometimes think I'm crazy because of it!" He then begins to ask about my boyfriend again. I laughed and told him, "When my boyfriend shows up, you'll be one of the first to know!" He then tells me, "Laurie, I am so blessed to know you. And I want you to know that the Lord's timing is perfect. He has someone for you. You've just got to trust God that he will bring him to you. You're young and beautiful, it'll happen. Just wait for God. The Lord will lead you. Just listen - be sure you listen - you don't want to miss it."

Wow. Sometimes I feel like I'm five again, and just got in trouble by either my Jansen parents or my own parents because I wasn't listening. It's hard to wait for God's timing! On so many things, not just some guy. I want to move back to CA. I want to have a job I actually enjoy all the time, not just some of the time. I want to travel all over. I want to have a relationship with a guy. But as Mr. Vanderwort said, "In God's timing. Just wait for God. The Lord will lead you. Just listen..."

He then wished me a Happy Valentines Day and said, "Laurie, I love ya. You are a blessing." We hung up and I was left with a smile on my face. Yep, Mr. Vanderwort is my Valentine this year.

Happy Valentines Day to all of you!
I love you!
Blessings!

Getting it all out

Thanks for this song Linda! It's great - I'm loving it every time I listen!

As many of you know, there are some changes going on right now...friends' lives are being changed, my surroundings are changing, and there's a lot going on in my head. It's hard to get it all out...

As many of you know by now, I am moving yet again! Hopefully I will stay in this new place for a while. I'm renting a one bed/bath apt from Amy's parents and am SO excited that I finally can have my own space! While living with people have some major benefits, I can't even begin to tell you how good it will be for me to have my own apt. It's a super cute apt, and my current roommate is going to help decorate it. So, for all you that need a place to stay when you visit Juneau, give me a call - I'll have a sweet place! ;-)

One of my roommates is getting married in May. Very excited about that! She's actually walking down the isle to this song, so we've been listening to it quite often...haha! It's been fun watching her and helping her plan this wedding. She is so excited and it just rubs off on you.

My job is going well. I still have no idea what I'm doing or what I'm supposed to be doing, but that makes it even more interesting, right? I am continually surprised by the folks I work with and the different levels of "crazy" we get to deal with. It's a fun job, but as always, I'm so ready to move back home!

Preschool is going well too. The past two weeks have been huge challenges: last week I was on my own with 11, and this week I had Shawna back with 15! And for some reason, these past few weeks, the kids have had an extreme excess of energy. We're thinking because it's been so yucky outside, they haven't played outside in a while. Whatever it is, I've been praying constantly for patience with them! They're an exhausting handful, but they're pretty fun too...

That's about all I can talk about now. So many more things are happening, but too much to write in a blog, and some I'm not quite ready to talk about. But know that I truly am doing well, and am making the most of the time I have up here. God is doing incredible things and teaching me amazing lessons that I would not be able to learn in other places or situations. For that I am grateful.

I love you and miss you!
Blessings!

Saying Goodbye

I'm sitting in Seattle Airport as I write this, thinking about the amazing trip home I just came from. So many cool things happened, there are WAY too many to put in a blog. I got to see many of you that read this blog, and that was so amazing for me!!! I miss you all so much!

I've come to accept the fact that Juneau will never be home to me. I'm not sure that anywhere other than Riverside will ever be home. I live and survive in Juneau right now - that's about the best I can say...VISITORS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME!!!!

Travel story...We got to Ontario airport early because of the "extra security" measures that were supposed to happen since the Christmas Day airplane incident. This "extra security" took all of five minutes. When I say five minutes, that's the amount of time it took for me to take off my shoes, slide all the stuff through the x-ray thing, and get my shoes back on. Yeah, there's no extra security...So I had about an hour and a half before my flight even boarded. I sat in the handicap section, and soon there was a man who was wheeled right next to me. I didn't think much of it. I then heard him struggling a bit, looked over, and saw that he was trying to get something out of the bottom of his carry-on luggage (which was on the floor). I offered to help him, which he accepted. As I sat back down in my seat, he started talking to me. He asked me where I was going, and I told him Alaska. He then asked me what I did in Alaska. I told him that I worked with mentally ill adults. He said, "Oh, I kinda do that too. I work with disturbed kids, and try to help them from getting mentally ill." The conversation went on to him telling me that he was a retired minister, just celebrated his 92 birthday, and that his wife had been gone for about three years. He said he was lonely, but that he was glad he got pushed next to me so that we could talk. I asked what kind of minister he was, to which he replied, "Nazarene!" I smiled and said that I grew up Free Methodist. We laughed and he said, "I have people very close to me that are Free Methodist! We are very similar in doctrine - I'm very glad to meet you!" We continued talking, and he asked, "So what does your boyfriend do?" I was a bit taken aback...I told him, "I don't know! I haven't met him yet!" The man said, "What? How old are you?" I told him 24. "You are beautiful, and you're telling me that no man has snatched you up yet?" Again, we laughed. He told me stories about his life, going to Pasadena City College to become a minister after hitch-hiking from Ohio with $138 in his pocket. Seriously, this man has some amazing stories. But every story ended, "It just goes to show that God is good. He takes care of us - all you have to do is trust." He asked what my life plan was, to which I responded I have no idea. He told me, "Here is my prediction: You will be married in three years, maybe have a baby on the way. You will be in some profession helping people, but maybe not what you're currently doing. And I think you'd make a fantastic ministers wife." He wanted my address so that he could write to me, and said, "Please stay in touch! You blessed me today!" As he was wheeled to board the plane, he grabbed my hand and said, "You're wonderful. I love you!" What a way to start the morning!

Got to Seattle about 1/2 hour early. I walked around the airport for a bit, and was able to call a few people. As I was on the phone with Laura, three men came through my gate area, spread out, each of them with a head-shot of a woman. They kept the head shot rolled or folded up. One went to the counter and showed the picture to the woman there and pulled out some sort of ID. At this point I'm thinking FBI or undercover cop (at east in my fantasy world...). The three of them just hang out on the side of the isle, walk near stores, etc. Then one breaks off and meets a police officer walking down the isle. They talk, he joins his guys again, and the officer goes off in the distance, but is still visible down the isle. All of a sudden, the three guys look down the isle, and slowly start walking down, a bit spread out. I'm totally excited at this point, and want to know what's going on!!! I change my position, and turn around to walk. They watch a woman go into one of the restaurants and one follows her in. The other two walk, one on a cell phone. I then see the police officer walking down their way. The woman comes out, and the lead guy shows her his ID and starts talking to her. Shortly after they begin talking, she walks away, and the guys start grouping with the officer. Apparently they had the wrong lady. (Side note, that lady they stopped is now sitting next to me in the plane as I write this!)

So the officer resumes her position out of the way, and the three men walk through the terminal again. They again pull out the picture of the woman they're looking for and go about looking for her. Again they talk to the people at the counter. The counter then pages a lady. She immediately goes to the counter. One man goes to the counter, turns to the other two, and nods to them. (Another side note - I am right in the way at this point, so I figure it's a good idea to move out of the way...) The lead guy shows her his ID and asks if they can talk to her over out of the way (Oh, and the officer is really close also...) They take her away, but still in eye-shot. One of the three guys is still standing a bit away from the rest of them. They begin to look through her bags, and pull out a large zip-lock bag from her bag that have many pill bottles. The lead guy takes the pill bottles and pours the pills out into his hand. They then grab all her stuff and take her into a door to the side of the airport. I figure that's the last I'll see. Oh no...

About three minutes later, the three guys are carrying all her baggage and the officer has her gloves on and is escorting the woman down the isle in handcuffs!!!! Talk about exciting! Now I want to know what it was officially for...Maybe it will be in the paper or something.

Never a dull moment while traveling Alaska Airlines!

I already miss home terribly! Can't wait till I see you all again!

Blessings!

Prayers

It's been an interesting, rough week. Lots going on, and a lot of friends that are going through really rough times.

It started with this article: http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/crime/story/1048813.html

While I can't say why this is such a big deal, it was a pretty horrible piece of news to get last Tuesday. It pretty much consumed my thoughts for a good two days - it was very hard to focus on anything at work, and I constantly was checking the news for any updates. But God is good...

I then get the email from a good friend who is having a rough time with a relationship she is in, and have spent a good part of the week just listening to her. I'm not sure what to say half the time, but sometimes it's good to just be there.

I had a really long conversation with another friend who has opened a can of worms that is going to be pretty rough to face, but needs to face. Stinks for that friend, and again, I don't know what to say. I know what I want to say, but that's not always the best. I'm learning to just listen...God is good...

I got to work today and was catching up on weekend news on CNN.com.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/12/14/oregon.missing.hikers/index.html

As I was looking at the Mt. Hood hiker search, I saw the pictures of the folks missing. I thought to myself, "Wow - that looks a lot like Steve!" Then I saw the name: Anthony Vietti. Hmm...that's the same last name as Steve...So I looked at Steve's facebook page. Sure enough, one of the guys they are still looking for is my friend Steve's brother. Things don't look good, and they are running out of time to find the other two. The family still has hope, and is asking for anyone and everyone to pray for a break in the weather, and to keep Anthony and Katie safe. God is good...

So I've had a lot on my mind. While none of these things directly affect me, it's happening to people that I love. So, if you wouldn't mind praying for these friends, that would be amazing.

As the Newsboys have said, "When hope is lost, I'll call You Saviour; When pain surrounds, I'll call You Healer; When silence falls, You'll be the song within my heart."

Blessings