It was also a really cool journey into the first chapter of Luke.

I planted myself outside where there was a bench by some lovely green lawn and trees. The weather was absolutely perfect and the setting was great for prayer, reading the Bible and reflection.

I read John 1, the story of the origins of John the Baptist. What I didn’t realize before was that the three human characters, Zechariah, Elizabeth, and John the Baptist, all went through seasons of waiting! And of course, they all alliterate and start with the letter S.

Zechariah: Silence

Zechariah was struck dumb, thanks to his question to the angel. (Can’t say there isn’t such a thing as a “dumb question,” ha ha.) Unfortunately, because of his lack of belief, he goes through a season of silence (v 20). He can’t talk the entire pregnancy, and it’s not until his son is born that his voice comes back (v 64).

Can you imagine? Your first and only child, in a time where you are old and have given up hope. Your wife gets pregnant. Her belly starts to grow. You feel the baby kick. She goes into labor. The baby comes out. And you can’t say a single thing the entire time!

I would say that would qualify as a major bummer.

Elizabeth: Solitude

Elizabeth goes through another season of waiting. She gets pregnant and says in seclusion for five months (v24)!

This is a bit hard for me to understand. It was a huge blessing to finally be pregnant! She knew her disgrace had been removed, and that God had been the one who had done it. If I were her, I’d be everywhere showing off my big belly to everyone. Years and years of disgrace, shame, and sadness… now gone!

But Elizabeth remains in seclusion until Mary comes to visit her.

All quite odd to me!

John: Strengthening

John the Baptist is finally born! But instead of studying to be a rabbi or following his dad into temple service, he heads out to the wilderness! He’s off on his own season of waiting. He grows and becomes strong in the Spirit (v 80).

I suppose he would be the first-century equivalent of a hipster, though his diet was pretty suspect. After all, his shag was not in his hair but in his clothes (camel’s hair, Matt 3:4), and it was PC to wear leather in those days. His diet, though, would not really fall into any category such as vegan or vegetarian. I suppose locusts and honey would be considered organic, though.

Who knows what he was doing all that time before he began his public ministry?

Reasons for the Seasons

I puzzled over these three really odd seasons, and realized that through these seasons of waiting, God was developing all three people.

Zechariah goes through a journey of faith. The angel told him he would have a baby and he said “What baby?” Nine months later, we know that the angel had told him, “You are to call him John,” and at the end of his season of silence, Zechariah goes, “His name is John.” We see him change from doubt to obedience.

Elizabeth goes through a season of preparation. God is creating a new work in her, birthing a new child. In her time of solitude, she is reflecting on God’s work in her life — “The Lord has done this for me.”

John is in a season of growth. God strengthens him spiritually and prepares him for the ministry ahead. Although he is filled with the Holy Spirit before he is even born (v 15), God still continues to develop him in the wilderness.

All three people went through waiting, and God worked quietly in their lives.

What a great reminder for me when I go through my own personal seasons of waiting! Though I often become impatient because I don’t see things happening, God is working in me to prepare me and strengthen my faith and understanding of Him.

And in the end, I am a changed person because of Him.

Corrie had planned to have a small family party, but it morphed to a block party that was a combination goodbye-party for some neighbors. Corrie carted Benjamin around on her back.

And then it was time to feed Benjamin. I love the warm glow of the setting sun!

A party for kids is not complete without a pinata. It was super cute how once Steven was blindfolded, he was led to the pinata and they let him feel it to figure out where it was located.

I love this expression on his face as he anticipates the joy of bashing in the pinata!

A good whack!

Meanwhile, Benjamin got passed around. Here’s my mom with her grandson!

Then it was time for the eagerly-anticipated cake, as my other nephew Matthew demonstrates.

The setting sun provides great lighting for photos. Love this captured moment of my playful nephew!

Corrie’s kids are soooo photogenic!

Poor Albert was suffering terribly from allergies, so after Steven opened his presents we headed home. It was a super low-key casual party. Those are some of the best kinds!

Today was a perfect illustration.

I took my daughter to a new student orientation for her college, which was out in Elk Grove. Albert was a bit hesitant in having me drive because he knows I often get lost. But he wanted to go support Daniel in a League of Legends championship that he was playing in today.

I assured Albert I was fine. After all, we have the GPS app on our phones; I knew how to get to Elk Grove. What could go wrong?

Well, I guess I was right about not having any problems getting to Elk Grove. The problem was getting home.

The drive from Davis to Elk Grove took about 23 miles. The drive there only had a very minor mishap — I accidentally went to the wrong freeway and had to get off and Megan had to quickly look up on her phone how to intersect the second freeway on surface roads because the freeway we had just been on was totally clogged. It was a detour of maybe two or three miles. No big deal.

The way home, however, was not so much.

Because we were talking about all the things that had been covered at the orientation, I was enjoying the conversation while driving. I didn’t think it would be a problem because I knew how to get to Davis. But suddenly I looked at the signs and saw “Douglas Boulevard.”

Douglas Boulevard? I thought. Isn’t that in Roseville? Is there another Douglas Boulevard that I don’t know about?

One thing I did now. I was not on my way home to Davis!

Sure enough, I had accidentally gone north an extra 18 miles and was heading back to our old stomping grounds in Roseville!

The map below shows: To get to the orientation, we went from A to B (the correct route, though the map doesn’t show our detour). Going home, we went from B to C.

Meanwhile, Albert was waiting at home because Megan’s friends were showing up for a meeting at our house. He checked the Find Friends app and saw we were in Roseville. He thought we had been kidnapped! It didn’t help that he called both our phones and neither one rung!

Fortunately, once I realized that we were going in the wrong direction, I asked Megan to call Albert, and she saw that he had called. So she contacted him and Albert was relieved to hear we were okay. We only got home 5 minutes late for the meeting.

Megan said to me, “You drive faster than Daddy but you take twice as long to get there.” So true

Poor Hubby… sure is hard being married to a wayward traveler like me!

There were something like 30 sites, where people helped clean up landscaping, facilities, and interact and work with people of all ages.

I loved how people of all ages served.

There were lots of young people, older people, even kids and babies! I really appreciated how one mom was going around working with her baby strapped to her back.

It was also nice weather and there were overcast moments for nice photographs.

We also ran into Corrie’s friend Amanda! It was funny when I heard someone say, “There’s Steven’s auntie!” and I turned around and recognized her!

Albert and I were part of the team that went to different sites taking photos. Albert is getting into photography and he is taking great shots!

He’s also really good at getting people to smile at the camera. I’m terrible at that.

It is pretty funny how I was lugging around two really big heavy SLRS and Albert had his smaller camera.

But his Panasonic Lumix DMC-G5 takes great shots!

It’s pretty comparable to my Canon 60D SLR. It’s fun for us to share an interest together.

But what I really love is how so many churches unite together for one purpose — to show God’s love through caring for our communities in practical acts of service.

For those who have read my previous blogs on traveling, you know that I never have a smooth travel experience.

This time, I accidentally booked a ticket for Saturday night instead of Sunday and had to change it.

So then it was time to head out…

• Albert dropped me off at the airport early in the morning because I had a 10 am flight. Everything went without a hitch and I was amazed there was no incident as I sat around a couple hours waiting at the airport.
• Right before boarding time, I went to the bathroom so I wouldn’t have to go on the plane.
• Then I came back and it was time to board and I went up and the lady scanned my pass and said, “Oops, wrong flight.”
• I realized I was at the wrong gate! I ran over to the next gate and the guy there said, “I’ve been paging you! The plane just took off!”
• Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhh…
• Fortunately, he was able to book me on the next flight to L.A. and then a subsequent flight to Chicago.
• It just meant I had to wait in the airport 5 hours before leaving. I also had to call all the shuttle arrangements and contact the other parties to let them know what was happening and make new shuttle arrangements.
• But fortunately when I arrived in Chicago, the shuttle driver actually knew where St. Mary’s Conference Center was and took me to the place and I got to my room after 11pm all safe and sound, after a 17-hour travel day!

I must say, that was probably the smoothest travel experience I have had traveling solo in a long time!

Coming home was not the case though…

• It wasn’t until on the way to the airport that I pulled out my intinerary and realized that the second leg of my flight was on a different airline! The first one was American, the second one was Alaska.
• I tried to check in on my phone but it said I couldn’t check in. I figured I would take care of it once I got to Los Angeles.
• The flight from Chicago to Los Angeles was quite uneventful. Yay!
• Then I got off at Los Angeles. I was in Terminal 4. I had no idea where Alaska Airlines was.
• I asked the employees and they didn’t know where it was either, because it had just moved.
• Finally after some calling around, they said it was in Terminal 6.
• I walked 2 terminals down and tried to check in at a kiosk.
• It wouldn’t let me check in and said I had to talk to an agent.
• I went to the agent and she said Alaska doesn’t go to Sacramento. She looked up the departure time and said it was Delta Airlines, even though my itinerary said Alaska. Delta was in Terminal 5.
• I walked back to Terminal 5 and went through the security line.
• They pulled me aside because they found my water bottle. I hadn’t expected to have to go through security again and had forgotten to empty it!
• They walked me out and I had to go through the whole security line again. As I was pulling everything out, the lady behind me said, “You look like you have done this a lot.”
• I then went and found my gate and sure enough, it said Delta Airlines and underneath there was a line saying “Alaska 5029,” the number of my original flight. So I was not crazy after all! (Oops, picture is a little blurry because I snapped it as I was boarding the plane.)

I then went to McDonald’s and ordered a Quarter Pounder. To my delight, I discovered they will add vegetables upon request with no extra charge! I ordered one with no cheese. The guy said, “No cheese, right?’ I said, “Yes, no cheese.” When my order came, this is what it looked like.

That sure looks like cheese to me.

I double checked the receipt.

Ok, I definitely was NOT going crazy.

The whole reason I said no cheese was because I’m cheap and didn’t want to pay for it! So it was an extra bonus to get the cheese!

I was quite amused by this whole experience and reflected how this hamburger was a representation of my traveling experience. Things don’t go the way I expect and there’s always a surprise, but there are always blessings. God keeps me safe, I have funny memories, and in the end I am reunited with my family!

I used a piece of paper to fan out the candles and the person next to me said, “Oh, come on, you can’t do that! You’re supposed to blow out the candles!” I said, “I have a sore throat.” He said, “Ok, never mind. That’s good you didn’t blow out the candles.”

Along with the birthdays, the lunch was also a culmination of the staff March Madness contest. All of us were given a bracket sheet where we had to predict all the winners. Then we counted up all the points to see who won.

I didn’t even know there was collegiate basketball. I never even heard of half the teams before. I picked my teams by looking at Tony Morgan’s chart because he seems to know a lot more about basketball than I do and I read his blog regularly. I got 154 points.

The guys were really into basketball. They spent hours researching and selecting their teams.

They all lost. Their scores were in the 150-190 range.

The top winner was Kirsten Graeber, one of our nursery school directors. She picked her teams randomly. Another high scorer was another one of the women, who picked every other team on the chart. Kirsten got 248 points. Kim Windall got over 200.

The all-time lowest score was one of our admins, who picked teams by flipping a quarter. She got something like 90 some points. She actually won a plate of browies, labeled “The Losingest Loser.” So, actually she was a winner.

So, it was a day of lots of celebration, fun, and a bit of whining from the guys.

We visited one of our favorite haunts, Petaluma. Exotic vacation destination, I know.

Actually we went thanks to a generous gift from Albert’s sis-and bro-in-law. They gifted us a weekend at the Sheraton Petaluma. Soooo thankful for their generosity!

We tried out new restaurants we did not go to before, like Central Market, which had interesting food like some kind of pate.

Food was good but tables were super crowded. I think our table was literally six inches next to the next one!

During the day, we visited one of our favorite restaurants, Water Street Bistro. They had a really delicious beef pastrami sandwich. It had mustard seeds in it and the beef was so tender and utterly delicious. We went back each day to get that sandwich again, but they were out! Bummer.

The lady (owner?) at the restaurant actually remembered Albert from last year!

It was also the first time I got a chai latte in a bowl!

We also went to The Knittery, the yarn store we visited last time. It was fun to see all the wide varieties of yarn, and I found a super lacy yarn and a super bulky yarn and thought how interesting the contrast was.

We tried out Harvest Moon Cafe in Sonoma. It had pretty funky decorations. The ceiling lighting included a chandelier and lights with beads, paper flowers, twigs and crystals stuck in it. Okaaayyy.

The food was pretty good but not great so I don’t know if we will be back. One thing that was yummy was a sashimi type of dish with interesting ingredients.

The lighting was kind of dim in there but nice enough to be able to take a picture of my husband.

Then he took a picture of me.

We also visited Zazu Restaurant in Santa Rosa. The restaurant is interesting in that the owner raises pigs and there are many pork items on the menu. There are pigs everywhere in and around the restaurant.

There were even cute little piggy salt and pepper shakers!

This picture shows a little better the scale of the shakers. Albert has started getting into photography so now I was not the only one going aroud taking pictures.

Now both of us happily take pictures of food and other items!

Albert and I like to go to restaurants that cook with strange ingredients. We knew we hit the jackpot when we looked at the menu in this place. The appetizer list alone was awe-inspiring Weirach peau de peche, barinaga ranch txiki, piave and panforte? What is this stuff? It took the waitress half an hour just to explain the items. (Not really.)

The main course list was quite creative as well. I don’t know what fiscalini cheddar or tiny point reyes blue cheese ravioli is, but some creative soul must have spent a lot of time coming up with names for these foods.

There were some delicious foods though. One was some kind of pork belly over fries with an aioli sauce. Talk about totally unhealthy. Good thing we do not eat like this very often!

There was also some kind of beef slider (?). I forget exactly.

They stuck a candle in our little dessert that was so cute! It was a kind of lemony custard desert.

We enjoyed the food but the ambience was not all that great (crowded tables, really noisy), so we probably won’t go back.

The rest of the time was a lot of sleeping, watching movies and our favorite cooking show, Iron Chef. It took all three days before I got to a good state of decompression…and then it was time to go home!

Very thankful for a wonderful weekend with my husband!

The restaurant is out in Winters, so it was a little bit of a drive. We got there a little early and the sun was setting, which meant that there was great light for photographs! Our family hung out in front and I used my Canon 5D Mark ii to take some photos. Gotta love the big sensor that picks up light so well! Hmm… how come the kids sit upright when they’re with Albert…

…but fall over when I sit down?

I like this picture I got of Albert — nice lighting!

After entering the restaurant, we noticed the very interesting decor — large animal heads. Wow, those animals are big. I sure would not want to meet one in the wild in real life!

The food was absolutely delicious. Every single item was so good. It was too dark to take pictures, though. We had delicious beef and mashed potatoes and veggies. Everything was cooked to perfection and super flavorful.

And then for a nice surprise, I got a free slice of mud pie! I was super impressed at such a nice birthday surprise! (Liked how the photo turned out too!)

It was a wonderful evening with my family and a great way to celebrate my birthday!

The front and back of the scraf look different — the weave structure is more textured on one side than the other.

Front:

Back:

I used light green and aqua yarn to weave the scarf. The colors were a bit too close. The scarf ended up looking like a solid color.

The problem was that I didn’t tie up my loom correctly, so there were many inches where the thread was loose. You can see in the photo where there is a long string sticking up on the scarf. This repeated regularly the whole length of the scarf, which showed me that I had incorrectly tied up the shafts.

Ah well, it looks good from the front!

This pattern was from Knit with Beads: Stunning Shawls & Wraps, by Scarlet Taylor. The pattern is called Fireside Shawl. The yarn is Artful Yarns Portrait, and I used 6/0 seed beads. Here’s Megan, showing the shawl for scale.

The shawl is actually very simple — just knit in every row, with a yarn over on either end to increase. It took forever just because it was so big.

I love the variegated color of the yarn. It’s a very beautiful reddish color.

The only downside is that because it’s got mohair, viscose and polyester in the yarn is that it has a little bit of a scratchiness to it, but this shawl would be perfect for wearing over a long-sleeve shirt.

Now onto the never-ending list of other projects!