Difficult Circumstances

Do you ever find that at times you are in difficult circumstances and you cry out and you cry out (sometimes literally) and feel your prayers hit a brick wall? Thump! Splat! Is it that God isn’t listening or is it that we aren’t listening? I face a difficult circumstance at the moment but it’s not the most difficult circumstance I face (Tom’s health situation still wins out) - it’s my job.

I work in an environment that at the moment I find hostile. I mean to the naked eye you wouldn’t think it’s a hostile environment. It appears that all who work there are nice and courteous, but as you know appearances can be deceiving. I find it difficult to work with people I can’t trust, so I cry out. I cry out and yet there is that brick wall. I have to ask myself why? Is God so mean and uncaring that He doesn’t see my pain? I don’t think so. My God loves me and He is good, these are things I know in my heart to be true. So I believe God is listening to my prayers because He cares for me. Then it must be me. I’m not listening to Him. If I was listening to Him I would try to find out why I’m in the circumstance that I’m in. Is there something He wants me to learn while I’m here (boy am I slow if that’s the case)? Is there something I have not yet accomplished that He wants me to? Maybe I’m in this place because there are lessons I need to learn about myself that will help shape me and strengthen me for what lies ahead.

I may not be the sharpest knife in the draw, but I know I want to know the answers to these questions so that I can move on. So in the future I’ll have to remind myself when my circumstances are difficult that I need to listen more carefully to Him who loves me and hear what He’s trying to say.

© Nadine Z. 2006

Solid Ground

It’s so good to be back on solid ground. Our first day at sea was very rocky. I was so glad for the handicapped rail in the shower when I almost slipped several times because of the rocking. Did I mention the parting gift of the norovirus that infected 115 people on the ship during the cruise? It could have been worse – I could have gotten sick during the cruise and would have been quarantined to my very small cabin like many people were. Even with all of that the trip was good and I had a good time being with Tom. We enjoyed good food and met some nice people.

I took a million pictures every day with my new digital camera that our awesome kids (Lisa & Tommy you’re the best) gave us.

When we boarded the boat we were greeted with a glass of champagne (nice touch). There was a welcome aboard buffet lunch. It was nice, but what we really enjoyed was the house band playing as we got ready to set sail (picture to the left).

Before you can set sail we had to have a lifeboat drill. As you can tell from the picture below who had control of the camera because no picture of me in that lovely orange contraption was taken. He does loves orange lately (see below for more details on his love of the color orange).Tom ate sushi for the first time and enjoyed it! The best was after 28 years of trying to get him to use chop sticks, he finally did and quite well may I add. I also convinced him to take a swing class! He’s a natural and he truly loves me for doing this.

The best part about going on vacation is getting new clothes. Tom chose to get some interesting colors in both shirts and shorts (bright orange one stands out to me, photo to the right). I did convince him not to wear both bright orange shirt and shorts together. Lisa said that she didn’t want him to look like a traffic cone (see photos to the left) and a good friend, Don said he could look like an orange popsicle in his shorts. All kidding aside, it didn’t look too bad with the white shirt. He’s really very cute no matter what he’s wearing.

Hum . . . the similarities are amazing. (see picture below . . . blog is won't let me place it where I want.)

I did find out that Tom started to twitch when he found out that going online on the ship meant a charge of 75 cents a minute. He did manage to figure out it only took a minute to download his e-mail, log off, answer the e-mail, log on long enough to send his e-mail then log off again. This was the only way to stop the twitching. The following are pictures of Tom at his favorite places in Alaska.

Tom in Juneau.

Tom in Skagway setting up for favorite activity.

Tom in Ketchikan.

The Hubbard Glacier

Tom enjoying the Hubbard Glacier

All kidding aside. We had a great time. Here's a picture of us at the Red Dog Saloon in Juneau having a toast.

The best part of this trip was being with Tom and getting to relax. I will definitely miss my afternoon naps.

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed the pictures. I'm so glad the blog finally worked.

Copyright © Nadine Z. 2006

I'm Back

Okay, I'm back and I have several pictures and an article that I want to post but this blog is giving me trouble and I can't post any pictures. So this is all I'm going to say until I upload my pictures with my real article about being back. Small tease it's called Solid Ground and has pictures of Tom in some new duds. So for now I bid farewell.

A Little Break

This is just a little note to let you all know that I'm taking a break until I come back from vacation. As you may know from reading previous stories, I'm about to go on a cruise today. I'm very excited because it's a celebration of 25 years of marriage to a man that I adore. He has been a very good husband and father. I'm truly blessed to have him in my life. So this is brief, but I didn't want you to think I've abandoned this venture. Have a good week. See you when I get back.

Copyright © Nadine Z. 2006