Sugar Free Gum and Mickey Mouse Camouflage

Back when I was like 8 or 10 or 12 years old, the Pendergrass side of my family would do some squirrell hunting in the woods in North Louisiana. I remember my grandfather always fussed at my dad about me and my brothers having "mickey mouse" hunting gear (not that our camo actually boasted the mouse man of Disney on them, but that they weren't quality threads).

That random thought has nothing to do with the main point of this blog. However, this next random thought does strangely enough have to do with this blog.

Another auxiliary memory to the actual squirrel harvesting is that my Uncle Bill would always offer me, my brothers, and my cousin a piece of the pink Sugar Free EXTRA Gum. It tasted like bubble gum, but could scarcely form any respectable bubble. To this day, if I ever see a pack of that gum, I think about squirrel hunting with my family. And if I think about squirrell hunting, a pack of pink gum often flickers through my thoughts for a brief moment.

weird right?

just one of those things I guess.

so the other day I thought about both squirrell hunting and the pink gum simultaneously like there were two screens in my mind and one side was a first person view from my junior self tramping around the woods amidst my kin. The other side was a still frame of the pink gum.

This time it was a new thought that triggered the flashback.

I was talking to Mrs. Pat (my employer) about how I had gained some encouragement from her husband earlier in the day when he talked about how he was praying for some discernment about a decision he had to make. He told me that he had reached a point when he just told God, "you know that I don't want to do the wrong thing, so I will just be at peace and wait until you show me what is right."

That was a lesson and encouragement to me because I am a hasty decision maker...even when I offer up a dutiful prayer asking for discernment I usually already have my mind made up. #hardheadedtomfoolery

So when I was talking to Mrs. Pat- I was like, "truly wanting to do His will is pressure-less if you allow yourself to be at peace and wait for His lead."

Little did I know that Mrs. Pat was packing a six-shooter loaded with spiritual wisdom bullets.

She cocks back the hammer and sweetly says, "yes, I don't even need to know where I'm going when He's leading me. I just go!"

BABOOOOOM - picture a sweet little lady in her sixties on the outside, but a righteous Doc Holliday on the inside. So that makes me Ringo. (watch Tombstone, but not around small children..or any sort of children)

So this is when I see gum and mickey mouse camo

Why?

Back when we would go hunting, we would be out near Lake Darbonne, Corney Lake, or on our hunting lease outside Minden. I had know idea where we were on a globe, in the state of Louisiana, or especially in the actual woods. If I were by myself I would have never known how to get anywhere. Even if I got out of the woods and to a road, I wouldn't have known which direction to take the road.

I was simply following wherever the people that I trusted went.

So all of this applies to my life in this way: I have felt a lot of pressure to make decisions about my future recently. Like, what am I going to do after the Kankakuk Institute? Where are Polly and I going to live? What do I want to do with my life? What can I do with my degree?

The truth is this: I will make these decisions and others when God leads me to the right things to do. I wont try to make stabs in the dark just to have answers. I trust that God will lead me where there are lots of squirrels, and if he sees fit then maybe he'll even offer me a piece of that pink sugar free gum at some point along the way.

July is Fun

Whew it is time to check in with you.

We've been so busy enjoying life that I kinda forgot that I have a blog.

I'm pretty sure that I've spent every moment since my last blog entry having a great time. That is except for when I got food poisoning on my birthday and spent the 4th of July under attack of some vile thing that was in the king crab dinner I had.

But alas, I shook back and had a great rest of the week.

We love our employers! They treat us like family. We love hanging out with them and also Mary's fam bc we get to be a part of family atmosphere (which we need in our lives).

So we hosted Scott again for the better part of a week. He and I caught some salmon. We all hiked up Mt. Roberts. Polly and I really enjoyed Scott's company.

Polly and I have been hanging out on sandy beach a lot.  I make a fire and then we only pause our reading to roast weenies or make s'mores... I also write thank you notes while out there.

It's just what I do ok.

Our friend Kelly got us free spots on a SWEET tour that involved taking a helicopter to the ice fields, landing on a glacier, and being pulled on a sled by Alaskan huskies that have done the iditarod race (google it).

 And yes I named this puppy Craig Michael Turner.

That was almost as cool as the weekend trip we just got back from. Me, Polly, Josh Garmon, Mary, David, Kelly, and Marg hopped on a float plane and flew across the ice fields to the Taku Lodge which is on the Taku River and looks out at the Hole-in-the-Wall Glacier. (oh yes, something this awesome exists).

We ate a grilled salmon feast (nature's solution to cleaning off the grill) and then took a 20minute boat ride to a guy's 60th birthday party. We got off the boat and Josh says, "where the heck are we?" which is exactly what I was thinking. So we partied with some backwoods Alaskans and then went back to the lodge to stay the night.

When we got back to Juneau on Sunday, Polly and I spent the day with Mr. Howard and Mrs. Judy Doughty. We went out to the Mendenhall with them and hiked a little bit to Nugget Falls. We were glad to get to see and hangout with them!

I'm so proud of Josh and Kyle. They have been appointed to leadership positions in the Juneau Men's Project because staff just left. Kyle is the Project Director, and Josh is the Director of Manhood Development.  They are both perfect for those positions, and project is in good hands with Kyle and Josh leading it.

Those are some legit dudes.

Speaking of legit dudes... None other than The Michael S. Plette (aka the most attractive man in the world) is set to arrive in Juneau today. I can't wait to give that dude a hug before I push him into the ocean. He doesn't know it, but we are going to make him cook gumbo at Mary's house one day this week. I cooked crawfish bisque for them last week, and it was a hit. So they want to experience more Louisiana food.

Well I'm not sure when I will blog next, but in the meantime you can find me in downtown Juneau, Alaska - where we happily break out our shorts and t-shirts on 70 degree days like today.

 I almost sweated yesterday...

I need to go to bed because it's 2am, which is actually not too far from sunrise.

But I don't want to end this entry without a shout out to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Polly and I are blessed to be living this good good lifestyle. We feel so fortunate to be able to be here with a roof over our heads and food in the fridge, not to mention getting to do all the amazing things that we are getting to do. I don't want to trip like we could've pulled this off on our own, and I don't believe in luck.