Oh Brother!

My brothers, Don on the scope and Toby at the window. Don was the one that pulled me out of the wall when I hurt my leg. I don't remember it at all, my memory was all wrong, but that was a story for another post.

Doug came home on Thursday and told me that Don is having hip replacement surgery. Next Friday. Of course, I have been reading all about it online. I pray that this will bring him more mobility and less pain ---that is the whole reason behind having this type of surgery.

I know only one other person that has had hip replacement and the results were not good. He developed a bone infection. I know that any type of bone surgery has a high chance for developing infections, so I pray that Don won't have one.

August 16, 2002, Don was hurt in an explosion at Prudhoe Bay here in Alaska while he was at work. He was burned, broke both his femurs, and his hand. His back, knee, wrist were hurt. His burns were bad on his face, ears, forearms and his left hand. But he healed faster than normal, I believe, because so many were praying for him throughout his ordeal.

No one asked me to do it. No one told me I should learn how to do HTML. I wanted to learn. I studied day and night and then one day I checked online to see if ANNLF had a website. They didn't, so I began to build one. To practice my HTML coding, I told myself. I never knew I would use this knowledge to share information about my brother - online.

When Don was hurt and after I saw him at the hospital so sedated that he did not even respond to our visit, I wondered if he would even make it. As he flew to Harborview Medical Center -Burn Unit in Seattle my heart was so troubled and I prayed for him and his family, then I began to put information about his condition online so that our family could read it.

It was therapeutic for myself. As other people asked about Don I began to tell them to check that website. I posted any new information whenever I got it. Doug began telling his co-workers (also at Prudhoe Bay) to go to the website if they wanted to read Don's latest condition report.

Soon many people were visiting the site daily to read how Don was doing and see pictures that were posted there. Concerned people, even strangers were praying for him. They checked in every day to see if any new news was out about his recovery. Pictures I posted at the site were even used on the evening t.v. news shows as they reported on Don's condition.

I added a Guest Book so that people could leave Don messages online. Don heard from people all over the world and they were praying for him. Cards and messages of encouragement came in. Through it all, God blessed Don with a quick healing.

Now he will have this hip replacement surgery next Friday.

Pray that the physician's will have wisdom as they go in and remove the damaged tissues and then put in the new hip.

Pray that he will not even get one little bit of infection.

Pray that he will heal quickly.

Old Teachers, Old Friends

by asross

I saw this photo while I was at Webshots. I did a search on Old Harbor, Alaska and one of Alan Ross's (Kodiak Canuck) pictures came up. Other lady is Alan's wife, Linda.

Violet Able loves the LORD and she loves us too. That is one thing I knew whenever I saw her. She moved to Prescott Valley, Arizona so long ago.

I used to use Webshots a lot in the past. I have not uploaded any new pictures for a long time. I was shocked when I opened the site to check on another person's pictures. It has had a facelift!

Too Big To Be Little, Too Little To Be Big

We went hunting on Saturday night and stayed out until Monday evening. The colors were "splendid," as my grandson's Tucker and Gunner would say. After the days of rain we have had, I believe that the sun came out just for us! We were dressed for rain since it was raining lightly when we started out.

We had just a few sprinkles on the way in and then it didn't rain at all the rest of the time. When we woke up on Sunday morning and drove out on Monday afternoon we had sunshine. Today it is raining. I am thankful for rain, but I am more thankful it waited until we came home!

Our sons, Klint and Kris came out for an afternoon hunt and to help us set up camp. That was so nice of them both! After their evening hunt they went back home. That evening my son Kris told of seeing bear tracks not far down the trail. I tucked that bit of information in the back of my mind.

I didn't have to set up the tent or anything, just stay out of the way. Doug normally does the cooking when we go tent camping, so I should love tent camping, shouldn't I?

Well, if it weren't for two things I probably would be out camping all the time. One, my body hurts! Two, I could not find one toilet out there! (Not listed here by most compelling.)

The subject stinks, but it is something done when out camping/hunting in Alaska. Alaska does not have nice campgrounds with bathrooms here and there to use way out in the toolies. We bike up into the mountains where the wild animals roam, the weeds are tall as my shoulders, we hear noises I've never heard at home and unless you live on Anchorage's Hillside - tracks not normally found in your backyard.

After reading that God instructed the Israelite's specifically to keep their camps clean, we keep ours clean. God walked through the Israelite's camp protecting them and delivering enemies into their hands and God required that it should be kept clean unless He should turn away from them when there is anything indecent. Dueteronomy 23:12-14.

My kids have gone on some "low impact" camping trips where the way that they got rid of their natural emissions is truely ugly! They had to smear them into the rocks with their shoes! HORRORS! I have also heard that some campers carry their stinkers back out with them in bags. Imagine how horrible that would have been if God asked Israel to do that? Millions of bags of stinkers. I guess there is a reason for having rules like these but I hope it never comes to that in Alaska. Alaskan's, please take care of our countryside. Take out your trash. Look back at your site and see if it looks natural, no litter! Please stop shooting cans and bottles and leaving the mess. Clean it up!

At first light the next morning we heard moose. A bull was chasing a cow and her calf right next to our camp! I don't know which one was bellerin' but one of them was making lots of noise! That was exciting!

Since I am slow climbing out of our tent, I missed everything. By the time I was out, Doug was gone too ---checking out whether or not the bull was legal to shoot.

So, there I am, all alone and thinking about those bear tracks but mostly the one that left them there. And now, I felt like I was being watched. I listened, looked around, then decided I am going to make a fire. Bears don't like fire, I hoped.

We had kept a clean camp. We stored our food away from our tent. I wondered if my movements might look like a nice morning play-thing to a bored bear that might be watching me from the golden shrubs. Sort of like a cat with a mouse.

I kept scrounging around for dry little twigs. Peeling off some of the birch bark paper. Pulling off the dead, dry spruce twigs. cracking them to small size and putting them in a pile in the fire pit.

For forty five minutes I worked on keeping the little fire going. Then I saw Doug at the edge of camp, [whew] he pointed and made our bull moose sign without talking. I nodded, afterall I already knew that a bull had run through earlier! I went back to fire keeping. Doug didn't move but waved and pointed again, and signed bull again ---but with more feeling. So, I stepped back from the fire to get a better view out of our camp site, I looked and there was the bull... watching me!

Doug says he had been watching me in camp since I had zipped out of the tent! (By zipped I mean zipper---) Doug realized he was not of legal size so even if he was almost frozen he had stayed out there enjoying watching the bull, watching me. It ended up that this bull was too little to be big and too big to be little.

No wonder I felt like I was being watched ----I was!

Long Lasting Marriages

It's our anniversary, our 33rd! We got married in a double-wedding ceremony with my husbands brother and his wife way back then. Our son Kris was looking at a picture of us this morning, he says, "Wow, you guys were in a whole different world back then weren't you?" Yes! I guess we were.

No computers, no instant news-anytime of the day, no online friendships, no easy to access information, no cell phones, no little palm thingy's that beep at you to remind you that you better not forget your anniversary! This world is incredibly instant. With our recent traveling, it seems smaller too!

I would put up one of our wedding pictures but, in order to do a scan of an old photo, I would have to turn on my old desktop, then run the utilities on the printer, print of test copies, and then see if the scanner will still crank up for me. That is really stressing out my lazy-making instantaneous that I am so used to now! You know how it is, if the microwave cooks longer than 2 minutes... "Why is this taking so long!!!?"

Today, I decided to see what the world is saying about how to keep a marriage together long enough to be considered "an old couple that has been together so long that they are beginning to look a lot like each other!"

Ladies Home Journal a magazine I used to read a lot has stuff to say on this topic. Looking back, deepen trust, communicate [YUP! good one], fight fair [um...], defuse power struggles, respecting--accepting differences, be money smart [I agree!], make love.... "wiggles eyebrows" [yup Becky, we do... still at 52!], and team up. All good things but not why we are still together.

How about Dr. Phil? He seems to be a big relationships person...A Good Marriage... after being married for 28 years [oh wow, purdy good] heres his thoughts on what makes marriage work. "The quality of a relationship is a function of the extent to which it is built on a solid underlying friendship and meets the needs of the two people involved." [rereading that] Friendship, okay. You get what you give, win/lose..., forget whether you are right or wrong, the question is: Is what you are doing working or not working?, no right or wrong way to fix a relationship, [reads on down] Communicate! [Yeah, that's important] Make sure your sentences have verbs. Remember that only 7 percent of communication is verbal. Actions and non-verbal communication speak much louder. [I can speak without saying a word! So I agree with that non-verbal stuff] Good advice, but still not what I am looking for.

Equality In Marriage Institute... it's a closed institute, but lets check out their Partnership Tips..from the Pros archive.

The Time is Now
If you are ever going to love me,
Love me now, while I can know
The sweet and tender feelings
Which from true affection flow.
Love me now
While I am living.
Do not wait until I'm gone
And then have it chiseled in marble,
Sweet words on ice-cold stone.
If you have tender thoughts of me,
Please tell me now.
--Unknown

[nope]

..."Kiss good-bye and hello. Throw a hug while you're at it", ..."establish a love account and make regular deposits.." [Gary Smalley said that?], "I got gaps; you got gaps; we fill each others gaps." -Rocky, Well, here is something ... Frank Pittman said, "The secret to having a good marriage is to understand that marriage must be total, it must be permanent and it must be equal."

Checking Google again. Oh, "The best marriage advice I ever got", lets look at that...Redbook [raising eyebrows]. Okay, it's not there either but "Attack the issue, not each other" is very good advice for living together as peacefully as possible.

There are a lot of good words online.

The advice I have is quite close to what Frank Pittman said. I believe that marriage should permanent. Unlike Frank Pittman who believes marriages are permanent, period! (My own words.) I believe that some marriages should end because of abuse and oppression, but never for because--- "oh well, we fell out of love" or"we didn't have anything in common anymore". (I have not read any of Frank Pittman's books, I have just scanned what's being said online, forgive me if I got the wrong impression.)

I heard it once said that too many people get married, burn the bridges behind them but secretly make certain there is always a boat anchored out in the bay. I say, burn the boat too! Once I say "I do" I have no business messing with little boats that are anchored out in the bay no matter how tempting they may be to sail away. It will always be with another person that you have to learn how to love no matter what anyway!

Dougie, I love you... no matter what. I don't want to climb into any boats out in the bay--so make sure this one does not get any leaks!

Slathering on the tar.... Happy 33rd Anniversary, my sweet, sweet man.