Two Champions

For soccer loving people like us these last weeks have been spent enjoying game after game after game.  The European Football Championship, commonly called the Euros AND the Copa America happened during the same weeks.  National teams from Europe compete in the Euros and teams from South American countries (with a couple of guest teams, like the US, Canada, and Mexico) compete in the Copa.

With multiple games every day it has been a soccer lovers dream. Games from Europe in the morning and then in the evenings from the US.  I printed out brackets to keep track of all the results and dutifully filled them in each day.

No surprises who are two favorites were. 

Spain in Europe

Argentina in the Copa America.

Both teams won all their games leading up to the final so both were favorites.

There were some thrilling games.

Including a shoot out that had me pacing the floor.

Thanks to the heroics of Emil Martinez, Argentina won that one, even after Leo Messi missed his shot!

This was likely Messi's last international tournament as he has reached the ripe old age of 37 - normal retirement age for a professional soccer player.

He didn't have the best tournament but is always a threat on the field.

Then in the championship game he was injured and subbed off.

Broke my heart to see him crying.

But his teammate Lautaro Martinez scored and that was enough to see the team lift the cup for the 16th time and the 2nd time in a row.

As team captain, Messi could have lifted the cup on his own.  Showing his true class and team spirit, he invited the other two 'old guys', his age mates Otamendi and Di Maria, to lift it with him.

Messi will forever be one of my all time favorite players.

On the field he has been mesmerizing and off the field, from all I can read and observe, he is a genuinely nice guy and a great father and husband.

Monica was thrilled to see her country lift another international trophy.

John and Isabella are big fans as well. Lots of happy smiles at their house!

Meanwhile in Europe, Spain kept racking up the victories.

Eventually defeating England in the final.

This year the Spain team had some fantastic young talent.  #17 is Nico Williams (age 23) and the young man on his back is Yamine Yamal, who turned 17 the day BEFORE the final.  And is a 1st team starter for our beloved FC Barcelona. 

I love that he still has braces!

He was named Young Player of the Tournament, was the youngest player to register goal involvement in a major tournament final and his goal against France in the semi-final was voted the Best Goal of the tournament. 

It was a stunner!

Nico and Yamal are good friends.

We would LOVE to see Nico join his buddy as a Barcelona player!

Fingers crossed.  

¡Viva España!

George's contribution was to wear the appropriate shirt while he watched each game. 

Spain in the morning

Argentina in the evening

Worked like a magic charm!

Two games! 

Two shirts!

Two victories!

Working Woman

I really did enjoy working for the US Census in 2020.  I love talking to people so the part time job as a census worker was a natural fit for me.  When I got an email saying that the Census Bureau was looking for part time workers, I decided to apply and I got the job.  

What does a Census worker do in the years between the decennial census? Well, collect information on employment and unemployment, health, crime, education, consumer spending and much more.    The particular survey I will be working on is called the Current Population Survey. Each month, during the week of the 19th, I will be asking carefully selected households about their employment, hours of work, earnings and other demographic and labor force characteristics.  The "unemployment" report that you hear about in the news at the first of each month comes from the survey I will be involved with.

Before I could start work,  I spent a week in training in Burbank.  First time I have even flown into Bob Hope Airport.  Much nicer to fly into this small regional airport than into LAX!

The foothills around Burbank actually look a lot like our foothills.

Except for the palm trees!  

All week the Californians apologized for the hot weather, noting how hard it must be on Idahoans.  We had to tell them that it was 10 degrees hotter in Boise right now.  There is a heat wave with 'dangerous' temperatures every day.

I spent the next 4 days, 8 hours a day in class learning all I would need to know to use the laptop to record and transmit responses; encourage participation and work with my team.  

I was glad to find out that my 'old brain' can learn new tricks!

The government rents office space from one of Netflix's beautiful buildings.

It was their 'animated division'.

The whole week wasn't work and studying as I did get to watch some soccer games in the hotel lobby bar, including an Argentina game.  Fun!

I got back on Saturday and the 'survey' week started on Sunday.  

You receive 'cases' on your laptop that you are supposed to interview during the week.

Some challenging cases, some easy and cooperative.

Truthfully, I still believe that the number of 'nice' people far outweighs the number of 'not so nice' people.

I come home exhausted every evening.  The 100+ temps don't help.

I am really glad that I'll only be working about 9 days a month.

And I have a new appreciation for full time working moms.

How do they do it?

 

Hymn 1001

In June 2018 , our church announced a revision of the hymnbook and Children's Songbook to meet the needs of a global church.  This announcement began a multi -year project to gather and review the current music selection, new submissions and songs from other Christian faith traditions.  

In May of this year, the first 13 songs were released in English, Spanish, French, German and Portuguese. 

Today we finally sang one of the 'new' songs'. 

Actually it isn't a 'new' song but one that was in the pre-1985 hymnbook but left out of the most recent book.  I heard a speaker at Education Week many years ago, who had been on the committee to select hymns for the 1985 book, say that when people marched up to him with a certain glint in their eyes, he knew they were going to complain about the omission of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing".

The first hymn on the list of the new hymnbook, named Hymns for Homes and Church -

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Other hymns will be added every few months as they are translated.

Personally I love that one of my mother's favorite hymns is included. 

His Eye Is On the Sparrow

I remember her singing these words to me as a little child, 

"Why should I feel discouraged?

Why should the shadows come?

Why should my heart be lonely

And long for heav'n and home,

When Jesus is my portion?

My constant Friend is He:

His eye is on the sparrow,

And I know He watches me."

Moma finished this cross-stitch a few months after my Daddy died and it hung in her kitchen for many years. Now it hangs in our house as a constant reminder of Heavenly Father's love and care. 

In 2026 there will be a full release in print and digitally of all the hymns in English, Spanish,  French, German, and Portuguese, with more languages added as they become available.

In 2030, it is anticipated that the project will be complete, including a total of 50 languages in print and digital form.

End of an Era

One of the many blessings of our years in Portland was meeting Rinda and Brent Hayes, the founders of Kenya Keys.  I can honestly say that meeting them changed our lives.

Never did I dream that I would fall in love with a small community in rural Kenya. Or that we would receive new names in a tribal language - I'm Mupa which means 'cheerful giver' and George is Ngao 'a protector'.  What a pleasure it has been to watch the 3 young men that we have been blessed to sponsor as they received university degrees!  Two are married with babies now.  It is a bit like having 3 bonus sons. I've been able to go to Kenya 7 times so that I have friends there, people that I have learned to love.  One of these friends is Abdalla who has taught me to respect his beloved religion of Islam.  Every single Easter he sends me a greeting to wish me a blessed Easter season.  I try to remember to send him an Eid greeting as well.  I have learned to forget myself and laugh with the adorable little children, including the special needs school children.  I've learned the joys and also the frustrations of working with people of a different culture who live on the other side of the world. I've shared my love of books and my love of soccer.  I am a different person with new skills, new friends, and new understandings.

The motto of Kenya Keys is 'Unlocking Potential'.  My association with this organization has unlocked some of my potential and I am grateful.

For the last 18 years Rinda and Brent have had homes in both Oregon and Salt Lake, traveling between the two places regularly

Since we are a good half-way spot on the 11 hour drive, they often stop to have lunch with us.  In September they will move permanently to Salt Lake.  Today they stopped for lunch for probably the last time.  I will miss those regular lunch, catch-up times.  I know we will still get together, it will just take more effort.

July 6

 Another good day today!

At church I have been asked to work with the 8 - 11 year old girls as their 'Activity Days Leader'.  It is a calling that I have wanted for a LONG time so I am thrilled.  We plan 2 fun activities each month.  Because we are going on a hike in July, I thought it was prudent to check out the suggested trail before taking a group of young girls, so George and I took a test hike this morning.

We started at a big subdivision in the foothills and followed what we 'thought' was the trail up the hill for awhile.  With record heat this week in Boise, it was not an easy mile.  Plus the trail is frequently used by mountain bikers so there is a rut that made it hard to walk.  I am so glad we did this test run and yes, we did find the real trail.  It is by a creek so there is a bit of shade.  Very 'kid friendly'.

The hot and dusty part of the trail.

And down at the cooler, shady section. 

Twisty Creek

Cat Tails on the creek

A pretty Sagebrush Mariposa-there is beauty in the hot dry section.

Taking these girls on a hike reminded me of years ago when I took a group of cub scouts on a hike in Hulls Gulch, also close to Boise.  I was the only adult which is a big NO NO! I am pretty sure that I have never disobeyed the 'two deep' leadership rule again.

 The boys were having a great time climbing on the rocks by the trail edge when I heard a shocking sound.  From under one of those rocks came a rather loud rattling.  Yep, my worst fear!  There was a rattle snake coiled under the rock that one of scouts happened to be standing on.

I got all the boys on the trail with strict warnings to stay off the rocks.  I didn't have to ask twice.  The really scary part was that we saw lots of rattlesnakes.  Some crossing the trail, some going down the trail and others under and on rocks.  I definitely should have read the sign at the beginning of the trail which warns, "Hulls Gulch is home to many rattlesnakes".

No kidding! 

Lessons learned:

Read the warning signs

Check out the trail first.

Two deep leadership is best

Stay ON the trail.

Proud to Be An American

 I know that it is not politically correct to say that I am proud of my country,  but I am.  You see, I don't think of the politicians or the courts as being 'my country'.  Instead I think of the million of Americans from all religious affiliations or no affiliations, from all political parties, representing all the ethnic origins  - people who are just quietly going about doing good.  Loving their families, serving in their communities, doing their jobs, donating money to help the poor or those who are sick, following the laws, advocating for the changes they believe in and in general making our country great. 

That is why I can stand and say, 

"And I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free

And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me

And I'd gladly stand up...next to you and defend her still today.

'Cause there ain't no doubt - I love this land!

God bless the USA."

On the 4th George and I celebrated by driving up to Bogus Basin, the local ski resort, for the day.

First we took the chair lift up to the top and hiked down.

Beautiful views.

Lots of wild flowers, which meant lots of bees.

George got stung for the first time in many years.

After a delicious lunch with Matt, we took the mountain coaster. I loved it so much that I actually laughed all the way down.  I highly recommend it!

Big thanks to Matt for getting us passes and for using his employee discount for our lunch.  It made our ridiculously expense lunch - just expensive!

Later we had a traditional barbecue dinner with John and family.  Hamburgers, barbecued chicken, grilled veggies, potato salad, and baked beans, cooked according to my mother's recipe.

My new addition was this patriotic fruit pizza. Yummy!

The Argentina vs Ecuador game got all of us very excited.

It was a 'must win' for the team.

Monica is superstitious and doesn't watch.  She thinks that if she watches they'll lose.

Regulation time ended 1-1 so they went to penalty kicks.

Messi was the first shooter and missed.

Happy to report that the shoot-out ended 4-2.

Many thanks to this man - goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez who stopped 2 goals.

Amazing how goalkeepers are willing to just throw themselves on the ground to stop a shot.

Victory to Argentina.

Next up is a semi final game with Canada.

I would love it if Leo Messi ended his career with the National Team with a Copa America trophy.

After the game we hiked up in the foothills to watch the fireworks all over the treasure valley.

I love this tradition. Isabella does too, although you can't tell from this expression.

Most of the time, she was like this.

Always fun to hike down in the dark. Love my side pony tail compliments of Isabella. 

It was a great day!