I Promise

I do promise that after this I will blog about something besides Oxford. I have been very sick for 5 days....so, no new news from me. I love these two pictures of Mary Kate and her friends. She has been asking me to come visit while she is there. I would love to but I don't think that I can afford it. Do any of you know any cheap ways to travel? Keep in mind that I don't have time to take a cargo boat across the pond and I do get seasick. I have always wanted to see that part of the world but right now it seems improbable.

Some Clarification

Just for those of you that were confused about the last picture that I posted....that picture was not in Oxford but in Austin during the summer and Katie and Mary Kate were excited about seeing some musician. I didn't get an excited about Oxford picture. Now these two pictures are really Mary Kate in Oxford.

Oxford

My Mary Kate is in Oxford, England now. I am so excited for her. I wish that I could've packed myself in her suitcase. Not because I don't trust her or that I want to get in her way...I just want to go to Europe...I would also like to take her C.S. Lewis class in Oxford. She is going to have a blast and learn so much....about herself and life outside our little world. I love it!
This picture is of Mary Kate and her friend, Katie, who is her roommate in Oxford.

See the Beauty

These are some scenes from my week in Colorado taken by a student. The people in the picture are also students. I could've stayed longer.

Kindness of Strangers Feels Like a Fable

I just got back last night from Buena Vista, Colorado. It was breathtakingly beautiful and snowed and snowed and snowed. I will tell more about it later and put up pictures.
Right now I want to tell you about the kindness of strangers...

We started off the trip climbing the very steep mountain in a 12 passenger van with chains on the tires. Driving slowly we made it out of camp and onto the highway, which was also packed with snow. Took the chains off and started on our way. We stopped about 40 miles away from the airport in Colorado Springs to eat breakfast at a McDonald's. Back in the van and to the airport. We were checking in with the ticket counter and I looked into my big bag that I always use when I travel and I started saying, "Oh no!" over and over again. Tim Johnston was in line behind me and kept asking what was wrong but I was so distressed that I couldn't even tell him at first. I had left my purse at the McDonald's 40 miles away. Tim immediately said, "Use my phone and call the McDonald's." I did and an employee answered and said that she had found my purse and was trying to get ahold of me somehow. I was glad that my purse was safe with her but then instantly thought...what good does that do me? I can't go back for it. Nigel, my new friend from Wales, was standing beside me and suggested that I have them put it in a cab and drive it to me. Brilliant! I asked if it was possible to send it in a cab. "Well" the girl said, "the cab driver is standing right next to me. Can I hand him the phone?" Yay for small town Colorado! The cabby seemed old and cranky but genuinely wanted to help. He phoned his boss, who called me back and said that he was on his way. In the meantime they had let me check my luggage and receive a boarding pass but I would have to undergo a full search at security because I didn't have ID with me. This all started at 10:15 and our flight was to leave at 11:20. My purse was 40 miles away. I didn't want to hold up our party of 8, so I told them to go on through security and I would wait. If I got on that flight...great! If I didn't....I would take the next flight. The cabbie pulled up and while I was paying him the ticket agent came out and gave me a new boarding pass....no full search! Then he asked me to follow him. He took me through the flight crew security line. I was in my sock feet and holding snow boots and other stuff running down the terminal to my gate. The crew member at my gate stepped out and yelled to me....Are you Mrs. Danley? I said yes and she said...come on! They had held the flight for me because Rick had told them that I was trying to make the flight. I think that it was only a few minutes but still, so nice!!! My little group cheered when I boarded the plane in my sock feet and waving my stuff all around me.
The kindness of strangers is not a fable.

Recap of the Year and a Quote to Start Out

Good to start off the year with a significant quote and this comes from the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr....
"Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant."

Now to the recap....copied this idea from several friends' blogs...so, here it goes.....

January-
I believe that I have collected my own living prayers and trophies.
Tonight we celebrated Teresa's birthday with her and her friends.
The first woman Speaker of the House.
Sacred spaces like....a conversation with a friend, birth, death, dinner, worship, the living room, our bedrooms, our cars, the grocery store...I know, I know, you are thinking that not all of those places are sacred but I beg to differ.
Ava
The book of love has music in it In fact that's where music comes from
Barak Obama
I now have a new job
I am loving getting email from my mom.
The girl that I have hidden can be very silly
Okay, today I could receive the bad mother award. I forgot Lucy's orthodontist appointment

February-
Sorry that it has been so long since I have posted anything. Life has been busy and transition can be taxing. Sorry. Sorry.
Everyone needs to watch Oprah on Friday.
Don't let anyone ever tell you that helping one person will never make a difference. Just do it.
Maybe tears fill us back up after we feel the emptiness of loss.
P..Positives, Paige, Peggy, Pixie
Okay, my daughter already reminded me of one person that I forgot to say that I love and I did see one glaring omission...Brady Lane.
What I wish for Ann for the next year...
Last night was Jeremiah's night.
You are the fourth child in a very busy family.
Fourteen years ago today a little girl came into our lives by scheduled caesarean section at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

March-
If any of you locate my head, will you inform me of it's location?
She was the one we depended on when we were children.
We have just finished a class with Lucy at church.
Pix, thanks for talking to me on the bridge.
Lucy left last Tuesday morning for Washington, D.C. with a huge group of 8th grade students from Abilene.
Yesterday marked the one year anniversary for this blog.
Having Lucy and Tim lead us to the table was such a sweet moment for me.

April-
I have been haunted by the losses that come from war lately.
Reign Over Me.
Just wish that I could get my hands on her.
Tim's Uncle Claud passed away this week.
Love...the bottom line.
My friend, Ann, came Thursday night and stayed through Sunday afternoon.
That someday we'll be called up to gather around the suppertable up there

May-
They are precious to us and we felt honored to witness those private moments.
She is nineteen years old today and I adore the young woman that she has become...strong, bright, elegant and still devastatingly beautiful.
My mom has many talents but one of my favorites is her green thumb...tomatoes, flowers, green peppers, eggplant, cumcumbers...
Joy is the best makeup. Joy, and good lighting.
I look out and see baby bluejays that are being fed by their mama and they are fussing through it all...isn't that just like a bluejay.
Jeremiah, would you like to catsit?
1. I cry often.
Stephen Bailey's nephew Connor Brown (in high school) was killed yesterday in a car accident and his niece Bailey Brown was seriously injured.

June-
I want to leave an offering
A child of mercy and grace who
blessed your name unapologetically
And leave that kind of legacy
jen lemen
Psalm 23...You've never seen it so cute
I have been reading a book titled Jane Goodall since December.
My blog is rated G and was based on the fact that my blog only said poop one time.
Last night was a perfect summer evening.

July-
We are now in Dumas, Texas on our way to Idaho.
A little advice for that kind of traveling.....DON'T drink a whole bottle of water before driving through this desolate part of the world.
Wyoming was my favorite.
Ava is in love with her grandpa.
So sad to say goodbye to Drew again.
Talking and crying with Jeanette while we watched our kids together and mingling with others....thinking about how they are growing up and how much we have loved being their parents.
We may have a little delay tomorrow morning.
I think that today I saw some of the most beautiful country that I have ever seen...mountains, rushing rivers, flowers, waterfalls, deep canyons, buffalo, elk, deer, a coyote, osprey, an eagle and its nest, sun coming through clouds, beaver, mountains and mountains and more mountains...I loved it all.
We are home!
Again, artwork from Jen Lemen...she is one of my favorites.
One of my favorite things about summer in Abilene is The Abilene Shakespeare Festival.
The themes of this story are the themes of the gospel story.....truth, freedom, salvation, forgiveness and reconciliation but probably my favorite theme from this story is courage.
New Ava Pictures and Mary Kate in a Tipi
more photos of their engagement and one of their official engagement pictures taken by Debbie Riggs
..and to let you see the other side of Lera...she can be elegant but she is really down to earth and always fun.
Tim and I are trying to paint Mary Kate's room and clean up the rest of the house. It was all out of control.
After shopping we met Tracy and her kids and her parents, Billy and Maxie, for dinner in Weatherford.

August-
You know that we would prefer to be standing in the waters of baptism with you.
I have been pondering attractiveness.
Last night I had the strangest dream
I'd never dreamed before
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war.
Mary Kate and I still have film cameras and so there is a delay between taking pictures and being able to post them.
Last week my mom sent me tomatoes from her garden.
We were called yesterday and last night and told that we needed to be prepared to evacuate if the creeks near us came over their banks.
School has started for all of us and all on the same day.

September-
This is the song that Ken, my brother-in-law, sang at Lera and A.J.'s reception.
Have you ever wandered lonely through the woods?
Tonight was my first exercise class.
My body was still so sore that I couldn't even walk normally.
When Drew was two years old he would sing this song with me.
Saturday night Ken, Jeanette, Stacie and Darek arrived.

October-
Life is hard.
I was in a deep funk when I came home from work this afternoon.
Stacie is so precious to me and I love that she captured something else so precious to me in her photos.
I love being outside in all kinds of weather and I can feel it transforming my body.
They showed this at Zoe. I couldn't stop crying.
I am an orphan on God's highway
But I'll share my troubles if you go my way
We are related and so we share an ancestor, Mordecai McKinney Cox.
a very large basket filled with amazing fruit and flowers from Ann for my birthday
Mary Kate came by my office and told me that I had forgotten a few items and I should add those to my list.

November-
Today I will be teaching at the West Texas Girls Conference.
I really don't know much about his political stance but I do know that he needs a good moisturizer.
This past weekend we had two very special guests at our house....Tammy Selby and Debbie Tunick.
The singer is Ruthie Foster.
Mary Kate is no longer on the waiting list but on the list to go to Oxford, England on ACU's Study Abroad program.
When I finish making sweet potato casserole and chocolate chip cake, we are leaving for Amarillo to spend Thanksgiving with Ken, Jeanette, Stacie, Darek, Lera, A.J., Janaye and my family.
Amarillo was so fun.
Ava talked with me the other night on the phone.

December-
Really, I would prefer if you dance with me...don't put carrots out.
We start on our search but the trees are all so very different from any trees that we have ever seen used for Christmas...some of them were even blue...I mean really blue...they were called Arizona cypress.
Today I had lunch with two friends.
Speak Over Yourself, Encourage Yourself
I think that I am going to go to the thrift store with my friends and pick out silly matching outfits and sing a feel-good song and laugh and play the recorder....want to join me?
I have been reading in every little bit of spare time that I can find lately.