2007--The Year of the Locusts--?

Kev and I rarely stay up on New Year's eve, but we had our friends Henny and Jim (with whom I went to Kenya in March 2005) over for dinner, along with Jackie, my co-worker from the office this summer, and we blabbed until about 11pm. Then Matt drove in from Kansas City (he had attened the IHOP conference there--Note: the "P" is for prayer, not pancakes!), and he had a friend, Pastor Milton H, who had hitched a ride back to Chicago with him. It turns out Jim and Henny knew Milton (he's a friend of their son-in-law) and they had a happy little reunion. Everyone left just before midnight. Matt had to drive Milton home to Oak Park and then on to his apartment in the loop. Just as Kev turned on the radio to get the Bears' score, he caught the radio announcer counting down the seconds "....three, two, one, Happy New Year!" We kissed. (A good way to begin any new year. Hee hee.) Btw, the Bears lost horribly to the Packers--23-7, oh well.

So another New Year has arrived, and I am grateful to the LORD for all He has given us. Every day is a beautiful gift. The 24/7 prayer room is open this week at our church; Kev has a time slot in the wee hours tomorrow; I've reserved some time on Friday afternoon. I had several vigils in 2006, and they were wonderful times where the Lord was faithful to meet me. Looking forward to another encounter.

Some personal goals for 2007: ace my anatomy class; learn several Carolan harp tunes; spend less time on this computer (but I'll still blog!); have people over for dinner more often; let go of stupid fears and trust the Lord Jesus more and more.

Here are some of my favorite pics from 2006, the crazy and the sublime:

The beauty of winter displayed in our own backyard (last January):

A contemplative thing to do in the middle of February is to organize my harp music!

On Mother's Day we went to Wildfire Restaurant (yum!), and since we all got new phones recently, we sat down and learned to text message each other. Kev eventually got the hang of it...

At the company picnic in July, Kev and I came in 2nd in the corn hole contest. Here's Kev (in the floppy hat) playing a warm-up match. We got our own set of boards and bags earlier in the summer to prepare ourselves, and spent many a summer's eve tossing (and swatting mosquitoes) in the backyard.

I love lilies!
They're easy to grow and there are lots of varieties. I grow them in the back flower bed, next to the garage, and along the fence between our yard and our neighbor's. Here's a sampling from the blooms this summer:

For Nate's 20th birthday in October we feasted at PF Chang's.


Nate and Deb...my dad has seen lots of pics of these two together, and asks, "Is she always that happy?!" Yep, she's a sweet, happy, girl, especially when Nate's around!

Nate got a new guitar pedal for a birthday gift, and was so excited, he grew two more arms!

To close...

6 a.m. November 21, 2006. A beautiful sunrise.

So why did I call this post "2007--The Year of the Locust"? Well, for one reason, it sounds more dramatic than "The Year of the Cicada." When we moved into this house in 1990, the 17-year periodic cicadas emerged in this area. They were everywhere...in our yard, on the house, in the trees, on us. We're wondering (anticipating) if they'll re-appear this year...if they do, we'll let you know.