A trip to Seattle and no cheese for a month!

I'm taking a break from reading Harry Potter (don't you dare tell me what happens) to give another overdue update. This summer is turning out to be busier than I expected!

A week ago I traveled to Seattle for a retreat with the other Fuller extension staff from around the country. It was a fantastic retreat and I really admire and enjoy the people I work with. We did a scavenger hunt around Seattle, one of the few main cities in the US I had not been to. We even got to visit the first ever Starbucks! We also went up in the Space Needle, which was much smaller than I thought it would be. It's dwarfed by the impressive Seattle skyline, but still quite a sight. The picture with the troll was one of the scavenger hunt items, it was the oddest, largest statue I've ever seen tucked under a bridge. We then stayed at a retreat center right on the Pugent Sound and had a great retreat.






Unfortunately, because of an illnes I wasn't able to enjoy any of the Seattle coffee shops - and they were everywhere! After returning from Seattle I went to the doctor to try and figure out why I've been getting sick to my stomach so much in the past 6 months. One thing she asked was had I been under stress the past few months, to which I replied with a list of the life-altering changes that have taken place since last summer. It's a bit overwhelming when you list it all at once, so I'm trusting that 2007-2008 will be much more stable. Most of the changes have been positive, don't get me wrong, but I'm looking forward to a year of not so many "firsts."

The doctor's conclusion was to do blood tests (ugh) and take me off dairy for a month just to see if that might be causing the pains. I'm now hoping I get sick this month just to prove that it's not dairy! On the way home from the doctor's office I went to the store to buy soy milk and soy creamer for my coffee - and of course I was craving cheese, yogurt and ice cream just because I can't have them. I had my first Starbucks mocha with soy milk and it was better than I expected, just tasted a little like wood. If anyone has non-dairy advice, I'd gladly take it, although I'm hoping this doesn't last longer than a month. Dietary restrictions have made me rethink some things that I eat and drink. For example, I assumed that coffeemate, which I put in my coffee every morning, was a milk product, thus the purchase of the soy creamer. But when I read the Coffeemate ingredients, it's mostly high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors. Ick. Margarine is not a milk product but just a bunch of oil clotted together with, again, artificial flavors. Yuck.

On a nostalgic note, my dad called a few weeks ago and asked that I come collect 6 boxes from college that he had pulled out of the attic. I guess now that I'm married he thinks I'm an adult enough to store my own junk. Darn. I had no idea what to expect when I opened the boxes, and I really enjoyed going through them. It was strange to look at the stuff I thought was important 4 years ago, like a 3 liter Dr. Pepper bottle and a bunch of stuffed animals. I found countless pictures of close friends doing goofy things I had forgotten about, and enjoyed looking at pictures of college friends who I hadn't thought of in years. I found jars full of Canadian and Japanese money, which will be given to people returning to those countries soon. Again, what was going through my mind when I packed that away for years? I had a lot of fun looking through stuff from my first visit to Japan, and I cracked up at the stuff I saved because I thought it was so novel. I had no idea when I first visited Japan that a few years later I would be living there. The Japanese newspapers that I wadded up for packing material in one box were carefully folded and preserved in another box just because it had Japanese writing on it. It's fun to look back on things like that and see how I've changed. It gave me goosebumps to read letters from some Japanese friends before they became Christians and how they talked about how fun it was to practice English and learn new words. A few years later letters from the same friends talk about what God is doing in their lives and how they love going to Bible study and learning more about Jesus. So cool!

As summer comes close to the end, Danny and I are both traveling, but to separate ends of the country. He left yesterday for Alaska with 15 high school students. They will be putting on a VBS for a small church in a remote town. I would appreciate prayers for his safety and stamina! Later this week I head to Williamsburg Virginia for the wedding of one of my Japan teammates. I can't wait to see the team again and celebrate Leah's wedding!

Now back to Harry. Leave some love if anyone is still reading my ramblings!