"We don't have time for pants"

A few months ago I wrote a blog called "Fame or Something Like it." I was doing an Air Force Reserve tour at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., and in working up publicity for our Joint Service Open House (air show), I needed to find a celebrity of some sort to fly with the USAF Thunderbirds. This was harder than you'd think.

After contacting Sully of the Hudson Miracle Landing and finding he wasn't available, I got in touch with his First Officer Jeff Skiles. He agreed to come to Andrews to fly during our airshow, but when the Thunderbirds suggested that he could do it in his hometown of Milwaukee, he jumped ship. (get it? a pilot who landed a disabled jet 'jumping ship'?)

And as my blog said, I cast the line for an ever bigger fish, got a bite... and someone else got to reel him in. The reveal is much overdue, but the person was none other than Stephen Colbert! He ended up doing the flight in New York and they showed it during his Operation Iraqi Stephen USO tour.

So, here for your viewing pleasure are the clips of his flight.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Operation Iraqi Stephen - Fallback Position - Air Force Thunderbirds
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Meryl Streep

And we got even more airtime in his re-report: (warning- there's some Stephen Colbert on Tom Hanks kissing in this clip-NOT a part of his Thunderbird flight!)

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Re-Report - Lost Treasures of Babylon
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Meryl Streep

Oh, who did we end up flying with us at the Andrews show? WTOP radio's national security correspondent, JJ Green. He did a 9-part series on his flight. Excellent coverage.

We also participated in the Hero Flight Program, which honors a local hero and shows the public the every-day heroism of the U.S. Air Force. Our flyer was a Fairfax County Police Officer, Brian Bowers, who helped evacuate an apartment complex set ablaze by a suicidal man. Unfortunately, the local press didn't run the story of his heroism or flight. Maybe I'll post it here as one of my blogs. They were both great to work with and the Thunderbirds were an impressive crew.

I'm so glad they got the coverage they deserve on The Colbert Report, even if Andrews AFB wasn't mentioned. It all comes down to creative ways to tell our story to the American public and beyond. Someday, maybe I'll be famous enough to get my own Thunderbird flight. Come on, people! Follow my blog! Only a couple million more to go before I make it big! :-)

Celebrating a Princess

Avrah Grace is the only female child born to my immediate family line so far. My brother has 3 boys. My sister, Avrah's mom, has 4 boys. My sister-in-law also has a boy. Avrah is our princess.

It's her 3rd birthday today. I'll tell you later why you should care.

She was born while I was deployed to Kyrgyzstan. She wasn't the first offspring-of-siblings (there really should be a gender neutral word that encompasses both nephews and nieces) whose birth I missed, but it was especially hard to be so far away that year. My family was going through a very hard time, I was missing my first anniversary and that baby was a bright ray of sunshine on all of us.

The first time I met her was pretty amazing. My mom and husband had conspired to surprise me when I returned from my deployment. My mom brought my brother, my sister and 2-month-old Avrah out to DC and, with the help of some very good friends, they were sitting at a table in the food court at the mall where John and I were shopping. I am not a good surprise person, by the way, so don't try it if you want one of those really good faces/reactions. I usually just stare blankly until I can figure out how I was duped. Anyway, here I am falling in love with her.

It used to be that having a baby girl was not looked on with joy and celebration. I know it's still like that in many parts of the world. This is in no way a feminist manifesto, but I'm still amazed (in the not-good way) that someone could look at a little baby girl and not realize what a wonder she is. If not as a baby, then as a cute toddler or precocious pre-schooler.

Here is the gender God gave His life-bearing power to, a precious vessel to be cherished and protected. Here humans depart from the animal kingdom (where males are typically the more beautiful) with a dominant feminine beauty. And here is a mystery and allure that nations have gone to war over and new religions were formed around.

I'm grateful to be a girl in America today. I'm grateful my niece can grow up to be anything she wants to be. And I'm extra grateful God saw fit to bless our family with her sweet face.

Happy Birthday Avrah!

I'm Just Saying: Weight Loss

"I'm Just Saying" will be a recurring column using metacommunication. That is, communication about communication. I will discuss communication about communication about certain topics.

Tonight's topic is weight loss. I find this a weird subject to talk about. There seem to be some unwritten rules.

1) You don't talk about losing weight until after the fact. For instance, just about anyone I tell, "I'm trying to lose __ pounds," will respond "What?! No way, you don't need to lose any weight. You look fine/great/too skinny already!" But if I lose my __ pounds and someone comments that I look great or that I look like I lost weight, and I tell them how much I've lost, I'm congratulated.

2) It's ok to talk about workouts or fitness pursuits, but not specific diets. For instance, just saying "I'm doing the 30-day Shred," seems to elicit a modicum of respect, sometimes awe from people who have either done it themselves or wish they were as cool as me for having the discipline to do it. Same with running a marathon or joining a gym. But for some reason going public with a commitment to Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers or even the old Atkins-type plans is met with questioned intentions or intelligence or some story about how some one's friend tried that and failed or died or something.

3) You can only talk about weight loss to other women the exact same size as you, with the same weight issues. It's just awkward to bring up one's weight around women larger that you because you don't want to make them feel bad or that they have to reciprocate with their own weight woes. It's impractical to talk about it with smaller women, because obviously they can't relate. (One exception is if the other woman was the same size or bigger than you and has successfuly completed whatever diet regimine/workout plan you are on.)

4) Ladies, never talk about this with men. I think deep down men are more similar to women in their pursuit of the 'perfect' body than they talk about. Skinny guys want to fill in their shirts, chunky guys want to stop sucking in. But you never hear them talking about this in mixed company. I never know when to comment if a guy has lost weight, even if I think they needed to. It drives my husband crazy if I lament how skinny he is and that I need to fatten him up. I've decided there's just no way to win here and the topic is best avoided all together.

5) Guys, never talk about this with women. I mean, seriously.

Am I right? What other rules for talking about weight loss are there? Gimme some other topics you'd like to see discussed in "I'm Just Saying."

counting

1,454 days

34,896 hours

2,093,760 minutes

125,625,600 seconds and counting

This is how long I've had the pleasure, responsibility, challenge and pure joy of being married to John. (Our anniversary is the 14th-more to come on this)

I can't count the kisses, laughs, tears, or prayers we've shared. I can't count the meals, cups of coffee, loads of dishes or laundry, or text messages. I can't measure the pain of being separated nor the joy of reunion. I could probably count the number of movies we've agreed were good (5 or 6- we have very different tastes!).

In Psalms 90:12, the psalmist requests of God, "So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."

I want to count the right things about my married days and I want the right things to count.

Stealing from Alece

I have a friend named Alece who has a really great blog at www.gritandglory.com. I'm stealing an idea from her called "4 minute Friday." I pick a topic and write about it free flow for 4 minutes.

Tonight's topic: Friends

Go.

I'm sitting here at a beautiful retreat center in the Maryland peninsula with about 15 of my close friends. I've asked just about everyone what I should blog about. Everyone has different ideas. Some have pointed to the peaceful expanse of water surrounding us and said I should blog about that. One of them is teaching his son to fish, so someone suggested fishing.

But I decided to blog about my friends here, because they are the most inspirational element of this evening. These are people I can sit around a campfire and enjoy a dixie cup of wine with or sing our hearts out to God with no pretense or showmanship. These are people we've traveled to different countries with or have made plans to do so very soon. These are people who truly know how to celebrate life together and comfort me in the not-so-celebratory times.

These are friends who every once in a while I pinch myself for having the good fortune to know, to share life with.

Done.

Happy Friday, my friends!

Brownie Crumbs

Brownie crumbs are still brownies. I know, it's deep. But this is what I felt God whisper to me tonight during worship when I was mentally critical of my voice breaking during a certain chorus. Like it really matters to Him that I didn't hit the 'right' note when pouring out my heart to Him.

I imagine it's probably like a parent being handed an indiscernible picture from their child. Or being given a breakfast in bed of burnt toast and lumpy oatmeal. It's the heart that matters, the purity of intention.

Although I'm too lazy to be a perfectionist all the time, I do like things to be just right. And of course I like to be right, too. Sometimes I even drive myself crazy with this, pouring so much time and effort into planning my actions or words and losing daylight for actually doing anything.

I want to see myself always through the eyes of my loving Abba, who delights in me and sings over me while I sleep. Who takes my tears and holds them in a bottle. Who loves to hear the voice He gave me sing back to Him.

How about you? Have you ever scraped the bottom of the brownie pan to get those yummy crumbs? They're not pretty, but they have all the same ingredients and delight the tongue just as much.

What are your brownie crumbs?

Where did Reuben go?

Genesis 37 tells the story of getting sidetracked. A boy gets sidetracked from his dreams and a nation gets sidetracked from their destiny. All because someone was missing.

Joseph has dreamed he will rule over his brothers and family. He foolishly tells them so. They don't like him for this. His father, Jacob, still sends him to go check up on his ten older brothers tending flocks in a place they did not originally set out for. The brothers see him coming and plot to kill him.

Reuben, the oldest brother, saves the day. Sortof.

In verses 21-22, he says instead of killing him, they should just throw him alive down a well. Reuben's plan is to return Joseph to his father, I guess when the other brothers aren't looking.

But then Reuben disappears. A caravan of Ishmaelites comes by, the other brothers decide it is more profitable to sell Joseph than kill him, so they do. Then in verse 29, Reuben comes back, looks into the well and is surprised that Joseph is gone.

Where did Reuben go?

Reuben's name mean "See, a son," his mother Leah named him this saying "The Lord has seen my misery." It seems maybe Reuben was meant to also see a son. To look after a son, maybe to save him from misery.

He had a plan and a responsibility to protect his brother and then he left. He may have been distracted or sleeping or doing something else very important, but he wasn't keeping his eye on his responsibility. He wasn't being a good steward.

Of course he didn't know that his absence would lead to 430 years of slavery for the nation that his family would become. He didn't know that his absence would lead to his homeland being overtaken by kingdoms his descendants would have to fight for years to vanquish.

How much of the trial and drama we go through in life could've been prevented if someone (us?) hadn't lost sight of what was important? It's mostly impossible to try to unravel what has already happened, and even if we did pinpoint a moment that someone failed, what good would it do? The only useful thing from this is a stark reminder of the importance of being there, being fully, 100% where God has us, focused on the mission He's placed in front of us.

I'm mostly writing this for myself, to remind me in public that it is a big deal to be responsible with my time and energy. Little decisions add up. Rest is good. Sloth is not.

Yes, God's grace is bigger than any mistake, and hallelujah for that! But how much better is it to not make the mistakes in the first place?

(If you're on the Joseph side of this story, and your life is screwed up because of someone else, cheer up! It gets really good for Joseph.)

Ok, I have really lost track of time writing this blog and have got to get the laundry started....