Back from the Bahamas!

We're back from a lovely vacation!! We had such a terrific and memorable time, I've got a few pictures here from our time! It was definitely interesting doing a cruise, having never done one before (together). We are much more an off-the-beaten-path couple, preferring the road less traveled and splendid adventures instead being served and coddled. Of course this was extremely convenient, inexpensive, and close (so few days leave had to be taken). The travels we talk about and plan for sometime in the future - a Greece via Germany trip, a Grand Canyon hiking trip - these must wait for their proper times. So in the meantime we take wonderful little jaunts like this!

Our ship - the Elation

The stewards use towels to make animals to leave on your bed at night. I think this is an elephant.

Us on one of our many walks on deck! At night it was cool and black outside, we very often the only ones feeling that wind on our faces. Well worth it!

A windy shot of the happy Lovers

The 2nd night they have a Midnight Gala Buffet. Everyone dresses up in their finest and it looks fabulous! There are over 63 desserts, over 180 kinds of food - all gourmet!!! And something about doing something so fabulous at midnight makes it all the more fun!

Ther are ice sculptures all over too. There was one of the ship, as well as this dragon.

They made all sorts of fancy things with melons, but this was the best - a sailboat!

Here are the 60+ desserts - my favorite part, of course!!!

A shot of us at dinner the last night.

This was us after SCUBA. I can't wait to get the underwater pics developed!

That completes our fantastic cruise to the Bahamas. Underwater pics later. And a great bonus? The day we left, we sold our boat in Corpus Christi! A lovely touch to celebrate!

Off On a Cruise!

Sorry for not updating before now. Been a pretty busy week, as in unplanned busy. Things just started rolling and didn't stop from about mid-week last week. More later, but we didn't see any hogs on our first or second hunting trips. We're going to try again next week. I did catch a mild cold from Monday night's hunting late into the cold night, but we still had a great time. Oh well.

Tomorrow we leave for our cruise!!!! I am super excited as it's a true get-away without computers or cell phone availability! We've got a 4 hour SCUBA dive planned in the warm tropical reefs out of Nassau, I can't wait for that! In Freeport we'll just find our way around and make it an adventure. I can't wait for some special undivided time together with my Beloved.

Until Monday everyone, have a blessed weekend!

Katrina's Sayings

This is how cute my first niece is.... From a conversation Karen relayed to me today.

Last night, Seth & Karen had given Katrina one of her first suckers. She was enjoying it, but they heard a lot of gagging from her (not real gagging, but gag-like noises). When they asked her if she was all right, she told them,

"I'm ok, but my hair keeps trying to eat my sucker!"

I love the precious things she says!

Hog Hunt

Um, yeah... so next Wednesday, I'm going to kill one of these (the wild boar, not the man!):

Jonathan's booked a day hunt for some Georgia hog/boar a short distance from our house! He wants me to get a good shot at one of these big wild ones! I'm excited, if I really get it it'll be the first big game I've gotten yet. Now we have to figure out which gun I'm going to take!

Anyway, both Jonathan and I noticed that things still seemed somewhat out of order around here, so we've spend time lately working on getting everything that was out of boxes now nicely organized in it's own spot.

The shed Jonathan's building is coming along great! Today is pouring the foundation work! And I get to help! :) Happy Friday everyone!

Thirty Pints of Blood

A Contrast in Worldviews March 6, 2007 by Charles Colson Copyright (c) 2007 Prison Fellowship

What difference does a worldview make? Around the world, we are seeing the clash of civilizations in action. In recent days, that clash has given us a story of life, and stories of death.

In Baghdad yesterday, a terrorist blew himself up with a car bomb, killing at least twenty-eight people and wounding dozens more. One witness told the Associated Press that pieces of human flesh were scattered all around the marketplace.

In Afghanistan last month, another terrorist blew himself up near a crowd gathered for a ceremony to open a hospital emergency ward. A few days later, a Sunni Muslim blew herself up and forty others at a college in Baghdad.

In all three cases, Muslims blew up Muslims. The response of Europe and the Muslim world to the stories of death? Outrage? No. Silence. Did the Western press condemn them? No.

Last week, another story was told on NBC News—this time, a riveting story of life.

NBC has been running a gripping series on the emergency military triage facilities in Iraq. Last Thursday, NBC showed wounded Iraqi insurgents being brought to Camp Speicher near Tikrit. Two of them had been caught placing an explosive device on a nearby road, intending to kill Americans, when a U.S. helicopter opened fire on them.

The U.S. medical team moved heaven and earth to save their lives. One insurgent, however, was not going to survive unless he got thirty pints of blood.

But the base was low on blood. The call went out for volunteer donors; minutes later, dozens of G.I.s had lined up.

At the head of the line was a battle-hardened soldier named Brian Suam. Asked if it mattered that his blood was going to an insurgent, he smiled and said, no— "A human life is a human life."

I have never seen a more dramatic example of worldviews in contrast, nor have I been prouder of an American G.I. On one hand, we have the horrors of a civilization that values death—even the death of its own children—if by killing them they can hurt the infidels. On the other side, we have a story that makes us realize just how deeply embedded within American life is our Judeo-Christian heritage. This heritage teaches that human life is sacred—even the life of an enemy who falls into our hands.

These stories make nonsense of the claim that there is no real difference between Christianity and Islam. The clash of civilizations is not only about a fundamental difference between ways of viewing God, reality, life, and life's meaning; it's also about good versus evil, life versus death.

Of course, this doesn't apply to peace-loving Muslims, but to the radicals now surging in the Arab world.

It's time for the West to wake up. As Thomas Friedman of the New York Times put it last week, there is no accepted source of Arab-Muslim authority today for peace-loving Muslims "to anchor their souls in." We need, Friedman writes, "a counter-terrorism strategy that delegitimizes suicide bombers." But that will happen only when Muslim leaders condemn violence.

Friedman is right. We ignore the horrors of radical Islam to our peril. If we do nothing, in time, the stories of life will be overwhelmed by the stories of death.