Father's Day--part 5

I know it is past Father's Day. Yes, I realize that, but here is the thing...I have a couple more stories to tell, and dad's birthday is in a few weeks, but it is the first day of VBS and I will be so busy with that, so I am just calling this Father's Day/birthday posts....sorry dad.
Speaking of Father's Day and dad's birthday, that leads right in to my story.
We will go back to college days once again. I am not actually in this story, but it is so funny and describes dad so well that I have to share it. It was summertime. Bethany and I were working at Glorieta, and Autumn was overseas on a trip with students from OBU. Autumn's trip was about 6 weeks, and for many reasons, the team was only to call home maybe once, if at all. Autumn can't remember if she called for Father's Day or on dad's birthday, but she decided to call on one of those special days and talk to dad for just a minute. She figured it would be special to hear from all of his daughters, even the one on the other side of the world. The conversation went a little something like this:
Dad: Hello?
Autumn: Hi dad....happy (father's day or birthday)
Dad: Thanks...who is this?
(He really does know his daughters, but is thrown off when we call and he isn't expecting it, which he was NOT expecting her to call all summer)
Autumn: It's Autumn (she is so understanding...I would have been offended right away!)
Dad:oh......ummm.....Where ARE you?
Autumn paused and just laughed. She could see exactly what he was thinking. It threw him off so much that Autumn called that he lost track of time all together and though it was the day that he was supposed to pick her up from the airport. He panicked just for a second thinking she was sitting at the airport waiting for him....nope, just calling to wish you a happy day!

Father's Day--part 4

I didn't post yesterday, so I will post a story today, and maybe the next few days, depending on how many stories I think of. Today is officially Father's Day...HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD!!!! I hope you have enjoyed and continue to enjoy this tribute to you in the form of stories. It is hard for me to think of good gifts for dad because he is just content with what he has. And speaking of gifts and dad....if you ever give him a gift and he doesn't make a big deal of it, it does NOT mean he doesn't like it. He most likely will not say much of anything, he will not scream or make an animated face. He will just open it, look at it, say oh thank you. This means that he really likes the gift. I have learned this lesson over the years. Dad and I react much differently to geting gifts...neither is wrong or right, just different.


Well, that is a rabbit I did not expect to chase. So...on to the story. This story takes place my freshman year in college. I was at OBU in the freshman dorms, and Bethany and Autumn were just across campus in an apartment, and my parents were in Colorado. Now this was before everyone had cell phones (yes, I feel very old saying that). We all had a phone in our dorm room and to call a number on campus, you just press the 4 digit extention. So to call Bethany and autumn, I would just press 7920, or whatever the number was. But to call off campus, you had to press 9, then push your 7 digit phone number. And to call off campus AND long distance, you had to push 9, then your 10 digit number, then wait for the tone and put in your 5 or so digit long distance code. Because hardly anyone had cell phones, and if they did they really were just for emergencies, the campus circuits were always very busy at night...I guess that was the most popular time to call home. So, many times, you had to try several times to be able to get the call to go through off campus or if you were off campus calling on campus, it sometimes took several



tries to get through. I know that seems like a lot of weird information to be telling you, but stick with me, I have a point to all of this, and it is really funny.



One evening, I was homesick and just wanted to talk to my dad, so I called, but all circuits were busy, so I called again...busy...tried again, and got through. Dad said he would call right back, so I waited while he tried to get through and finally, my phone rang a double ring, which meant it was an off-campus call. I picked it up and happily talked to dad, told him all of the things that were happening in my life (don't have a clue now what they were, but I'm sure they were important then) and then I hung up. A few minutes later, my phone rang again....it was another double ring, which meant it was an off campus call. Here is pretty much what the conversation was:
Me: Hello?
Autumn: Trinity?
Me: yeah....
Autumn: Oh....that's weird, I thought called dad.
Me: What? That's weird....you know, it did have a double ring...hmmm..
Autumn: Hmmm....I don't know....maybe I DID dial you on accident.
Me: ok...talk to you later.
Autumn: K...bye

Now remember, to call my room just across campus, she would only have to push 4 numbers....FOUR, but she called my dad, which was 9 + 10 numbers + the long distance code...obviously way way more than 4 numbers.
Another minute or so and my phone double rings again.
Me: Hello?
Autumn: Trinity?
Me: YES!!
Autumn: I KNOW I dialed dad this time....what in the world?
Me: I don't know.

I'm pretty sure Autumn tried it out one more time before we decided it was just too silly to pay long distance for her to talk to me across campus. We weren't for sure what had happened, but some how I was getting dad's calls from Colorado! My parents did not have cell phones yet, so I called the church thinking maybe they would go there, but they didn't. So I had no way of telling them I was recieving their phone calls in Oklahoma! A few minutes later:
Me: Hello?
Caller: Pam? You sound different.
Me: Umm...no
Caller: Stacy? (my step sister)
Me: No...this is her step-daughter Trinity
Caller: Oh...I didn't realize you were visiting.
Me: I'm not...I'm in Oklahoma and somehow I am getting their calls.
Caller: You are in Oklahoma?
Me: Yes, I'm in college here and I don't know how I am getting their calls, but if you give me your name and number I will tell them to call you when I finally talk to them.
Caller: Ok
We laughed, and I got out a notebook to start keeping messages for my parents in Colorado while I was in Oklahoma.
A few minutes later:
Me: Hello?
Caller: Stacy?
Me: No...Trinity
Caller (who happened to be Stacy's boyfriend): Trinity? what? Are you in town?
Me: No....I don't know what happened, but somehow I am getting all their calls.
Stacy's bf: Oh...ok...well we are kind of fighting, so will you tell her I called when you talk to her?
Me: hahaha...yes I will.

I'm pretty sure that was the end of the calls for the night. The next morning, I got a double ring, so I grabbed my message notebook to answer Colorado calls.
Me: Hello?
Dad: hello?
Me: DAD!!
Dad: Who is this?
Me: DAAAAD....it's Trinity
Dad: Trinity who?
Me: DAAAAAAAAD!!!!

So went on to tell him how I had gotten a few calls and something had happened where I was getting all of their calls. We laughed and laughed and laughed. Apparently before dad called me the night before, he tried to stop call waiting so we could talk, but he instead forwarded all of his calls to me. And when they would get a call, it would do a half ring, but when they picked it up, it was dial tone...well that was because it was FORWARDED to me!!! So......in that night the following happened:

• Stacy was upset cause her boyfriend wasn't calling her


• Autumn AND dad had to pay for long distance several times just to talk to me across campus!


• Dad had to pay long distance for everyone who called him...cause it went to me in Oklahoma!


• Yes, I got offended that dad asked Trinity who. I couldn't believe he wouldn't even know his own daughter!

We laughed and laughed about that night!

I love you so much dad!!! Happy Father's Day! Sorry that Father's day is almost over before I even posted this!!!!

Father's Day--part 3

Ready for another dad story? Ready or not, here it goes. We are going to flash back to my kindergarten year, so I was 5 years old. Dad, I'm sure can guess what story this is going to be. My mother taught school in a town a few (don't remember) minutes away, and my sisters went to that school as well. I, on the other hand, went to a private school kindergarten just half a day, so I got to go to my favorite babysitter, Sonja's house after school. Well, we were getting ready to head out the door one morning, and dad had forgotten something in his room and asked me to run and get it. My parents' room was like a loft in the den and had a spiral kind of staircase going up to it. There was not wall, just chains, so you could see up into it from the den. My dad could reach up and touch the bottom of the floor, so we used to sit down on the floor of their loft room, scoot to the edge between the chains, and jump to him. I hope I am explaining the room and everything right...that is how I remember it anyway.


So dad asked me to go up and get whatever it was he needed. I said sure, and asked if I could jump to him. So he went to the edge of the loft and waited for me. I eagerly and excitedly ran upstairs, got the thing (I think it was a book), gave it to him, then sat down to jump to him. The thing that was different about this time than any other of the hundreds of times I jumped to him was that I was wearing a cool vest this time. Not just any vest. I was wearing a jacket vest. Remember that it was the 1980's, which was the coolest time in fashion (hahaha). My cool jacket was a winter coat that......get ready for this......if you wanted to.....you could unZIP the sleeves off to make it a vest. And you BET I was proud of that thing. I loved it, and on this particular day, it was obviously too hot for the full jacket, so I zipped those babies off and went for the vest.
Sitting on the edge of the loft looking down did not scare me. I had jumped to dad a thousand times and he caught me every time. So....one, two three....jump! And that's when my fashion statement of the year failed me. My lovely jacket/vest got caught in the chains, which turned me upside down and sent me plunging to the ground...head first! Yes, head first. Lucky for me, my dad is very quick to react. He grabbed my leg and saved my life (that makes the story better to say he saved my life), only my left arm hit the ground right at the moment he caught me by the leg. I cried of course, and he layed me on the couch, put ice on it I think and then asked me to squeeze his finger. I remember laying on the couch thinking it was so mean that he would have me squeeze his finger with my hurt hand...what was he thinking?
Apparently, I squeezed the finger good enough not to go to the doctor, but not good enough to go to school, so dad took me to Sonja's house for the whole day! I also remember a not so happy mom coming to pick me up...she took me to the doctor and yep, it was broken! And when we got home that evening...me and my broken arm, dad told Autumn to go get up in the loft and show mom what happened and why I fell. In my memory, mom wasn't so sure that was a good idea!
So why, you ask, would I share the story of when dad broke my arm for Father's Day? Ok, well dad didn't break my arm, but you know what I mean. Well, here is the cool thing about that whole story. My dad was a pastor, which meant we as his children were always used as sermon illustrations. Now, dad never used things that would make us angry...he was considerate in that. Dad used that broken arm story several times as an illustration of trusting the Lord. After breaking my arm, I (and my sisters) got back on the loft and jumped to him again...trusting him fully. What I got from the whole story....is that my dad is not afraid to be seen as a real person. I know of many pastors who feel like they have to put on a front for people. They feel like they have to live up to this person that people build up in their minds...that they can't fail or make mistakes. What I remember from this broken arm story...my dad isn't perfect, we all know that...but he doesn't pretend to be perfect. He takes his not perfect life and uses it to point others to Christ. I LOVE him!!!!

Father's Day--part 2

I love seeing life from different people's perspectives. I think that is why I love my camera so much...I can capture life from a different perspective. I can capture a moment that might otherwise be overlooked or forgotten. I love sitting with my four girls after we have done something or gone somewhere and let them each tell me about it. Hmmm....kind of like the Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the Bible....each of them giving their own perspective sometimes on the same things. Anyway, I love hearing my girls talk about something we all experienced together because sure enough, each of them saw something, talked to someone, or did something that I didn't. Each of them had something different that was special or important to them. And then you have A who will have a thought about the whole thing that NO ONE would have ever thought of!


We are pretty spoiled. We get passes to everything and we always love to go and do things. My aunt Jan will call and get our schedule of events just to laugh at me because after I have named of 50 things for one day, I usually say, "We're not doing a whole lot...just a little of this and that." We love going to plays, movies, amusement parks, etc. What is so funny is even experiencing all of those fun things, the things we spend money on are not necessarily what stands out the most to them! With all of the places we have gone to and things we have done, place we have eaten at, and things we buy, one of the stories the girls bring up the most is when I ate a mushy mango at lunch one time and got it all over my face. Yeah...great for me huh? Of all the things we do together and they remember the messy mango? You know why? Because we laughed and laughed and laughed at that mango. We had so much fun just enjoying the moment together, and that is what they remember.


So you are probably wondering how in the world this is a Father's Day post. Me too! Just kidding. Just in case you are wondering, I get an idea in my head of a post I want to write, then I just start writing, so that is why they end up a little crazy and all over the place sometimes. So.........on to the story about dad that I want to tell. My dad obviously did so many things for us in life. He took us places, taught us things, explained EVERYTHING to us very logically, but one of the things that makes me think of him.....butterscotch pudding!


You might be thinking that he ate butterscotch pudding every night, or at least every week. Nope. Dad isn't much of a sweets eater. He loves a good chocolate pie, and in MY eyes, butterscotch pudding is his favorite. Let me tell you why I said MY eyes.


When I was probably in the eighth grade (I'm thinking it was pretty soon after mom had passed away), dad decided we were going to make a snack together. The way I remember the story, he was so excited to make butterscotch pudding for us because it was his favorite thing as a kid. He took us to the store and got the ingredients, then made butterscotch pudding on the stove top, NOT instant. He put nilla wafers in each of our bowls then the pudding. It was the best pudding in the world!
So a few years ago, I had butterscotch pudding somewhere. I don't remember where I was or who gave me the pudding....I don't even remember eating the pudding. I just remember calling my dad and the conversation went something like this:
Dad: Hello?
Me: Hi dad! I'm having your favorite thing to eat right now!
Dad: Oh...ok (ugh...he never shows much excitement the way I do!)
Me: Guess what it is!
Dad: ummm...tamales
Me: nope...it's a dessert
Dad: umm....chocolate pie
Me: No...it's your FAVORITE....you used to eat it all the time as a kid!
Dad: ummm....I have no idea.
Me: BUTTERSCOTCH PUDDING!!!!!!! (I was very excited about it)
Dad: oh....I didn't realize butterscotch pudding was my favorite. I guess I do like it.
Me: DAAAAAAD. You LOVE it...remember? You made it for us and cause you had it all the time as a kid and you LOVE it. It's your favorite!
Dad: Oh, I guess I vaguely remember making it for you girls one time. Yeah, I do like it, I just don't remember that it was my favorite.
Me: Well I remembered for you and it IS your favorite!
Dad: haha....ok

And there you have it...dad loves butterscotch pudding....it's his favorite, just ask me. I laugh thinking about that butterscotch pudding and for some reason that memory really stood out to me. Loooking back at it, I'm thinking that we had just experienced a really hard and traumatic time with my mom having just passed away, and dad had decided to have a fun experience together. I'm thinking that was probably one of the first times after my mom's death that we just relaxed together and had a good time and our hearts were happy. I'm thinking that is why the butterscotch pudding tasted so good. Yep, I love butterscotch pudding....it's my dad's favorite!!!

Father's Day part 1

In honor of Father's Day coming up on Sunday, I figured I would do a few posts about my dad. I love him. The end....JUST KIDDING!!! Just kidding about the end, not kidding that I love him! I have done a few posts already about my dad...telling you what a great man of God he is...so in these next few posts, I just want to tell you a few stories about him. Oh yeah, and dad, I did get you some really sweet Father's Day cards, but I can't find them right now, but you will eventually get them. Eventually. Sorry about that.


Autumn is very much like my dad and I am very much like my mom. Dad and Autumn are calm, even-tempered, logical, precise, thinkers.....not me. Mom and I, well we are animated, creative, not so logical, feelers. That's just how it is, which is probably the reason Autumn and I do so well living together...we are opposite, but can work well together. However, I did not always understand these differences growing up. I remember lots and lots of conversations where dad would explain how something works and why it does what it does...yeah, well those details never stayed in my brain. It meant nothing to me. However, I now very much appreciate him and people like him who think it is fun to figure those kinds of things out!
Anyway...that is not a story, just some extra information I guess! When I started thinking about stories I wanted to share about dad on here, a few came to mind, but one of the best memories I have of my dad were in the mornings. My mom taught school and usually she taught at a school in a different town than we lived in, so she had to leave the house much earlier than us, which left dad in charge of getting us ready and to school. Remember that I don't have a great memory, so I can't recall who picked out our clothes and that kind of thing, although my guess is mom did, but I do remember a few things about those mornings. I remember dad always fixing us breakfast. To this day I am not a good breakfast fixer...probably because dad always fixed it, so we didn't ever have to. Even when we were in middle school and high school, dad fixed us breakfast. He knew just how to make the oatmeal...how much butter and sugar should go in. He fixed the BEST eggs...he just knew how to fix a good breakfast....I'm sure he still knows how to fix a good breakfast, but with so many of us now, Cracker Barrel fixes a fine breakfast too when we are all together! But breakfast made by dad will always be very special to me.
With three girls to get ready in the morning, guess what else he had to do.....hair! Yes, dad had to fix our hair. I know mom fixed it some, so I don't really know how much he fixed it, but I do remember him fixing our hair quite often. It is so funny to see just how much dad and Autumn are alike....fixing hair isn't her favorite thing either. She does a fine job when she does it, but it isn't her favorite thing. Dad was the same way. Remember I told you that he is precise? Well, even in doing hair, it had to be precise. I loved having my hair done in fun creative ways like pigtails and braids. My dad, however, could only do a few things with my hair: down, low pony tail and parted (exactly perfect) down the middle and low pigtails. I, however, wanted braids or a high ponytail. So...what does dad do? I'm sure he told me no a few times, but decided to give it a go. Not knowing how to get the ponytail high on my head, he made up his own way...he would have us lay down on our back on the bed and hang our head off of the edge of the bed, so our hair would hang down just perfectly where he could gather it together, put a ponytail holder in, and there you have it...a high ponytail!
I laugh so hard thinking about it. I love you dad! Thank you for everything you did for us!

Life in the Ocean

Our sweet H loves random facts. She asks questions about things all the time: how much does that cost? How long does it take to get there? Where were those made? etc. She loves finding out about things and she remembers facts really well. Now, common sense isn't her strong point, but she loves facts. When her class studied the unit on ocean life this spring, it made her eyes bright with excitement to learn more about something. Let me tell you, she has not stopped telling us random facts about whales, and other ocean life. If she is around someone for very long, they too get the joy of learning things about the ocean. Did you know that whales are never fully asleep? Half of their brain sleeps and one eye closes while the other side is awake. Yes, I now know this kind of stuff!
So...the other day we were watching the show on tlc, the Little Couple. At the beginning of the show, they tell how tall they are..."My name is Bill and I am 4 feet tall. And my name is Jen and I am 3 feet 2 inches tall....."
H matter of factly said, "Hmmm....wow....she is just barely taller than an Emperor Penguin!"

Oh man this girl is funny. I love to see things through their eyes!

A Legacy

What do you want to be remembered for? What legacy do you want to leave behind? We went to my aunt's house (mom's sister) this weekend, and she had gotten my grandmother's journal and other things of hers. While going through those things, I started thinking about the legacy she left.


I am one blessed girl. I've said it before on here, and I will say it again. I have been so truly blessed to have Godly parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins....pretty much my whole family. Now, I realize that having family that loves and trusts the Lord does not mean that I automatically trust the Lord. I realize that. I have a choice to make on my own...we all do. We can choose to trust God or to reject Him. However, with the family that I have, I have had AMAZING examples to follow! I could spend so much time talking about each one of my family members and how they have impacted my life in an awesome way, but that would be one super long post, so I won't. So.....back to the things my aunt found...sorry for chasing that rabbit!

I did not get to spend a long time going through the journal and poems that my grandmother wrote, but the little bit that I did get to see made me realize what an awesome legacy she left in all of us. Her heart and love of people and life was so evident in her writings. It was truly incredible. As I sat and read the detailed entries of her journal, I could feel her love in a new way. My grandmother is still with us, but her health isn't great, and we connect with her in a different way now. It was awesome to read her thoughts and read EVERYTHING they did. I mean EVERYTHING.....it told where they ate that day, how much it cost, who they visited, who she talked to on the phone...everything. I realized a few things. I realized that details are important to her. She appreciated all of those little things in life. I realized that their ministry never stopped. They took every opportunity to minister to people and to share Christ with people. Wow! What a legacy! Because I didn't have time to read every entry, I looked at the dates of our birthdays to see what she had written...oh it was so funny. She told what kind of cake she had ordered for us. I found out that (or remembered again) she try to call me for an hour on my 18th birthday, which was my first year at college. She couldn't get through the lines...because we didn't have cell phones. After an hour, she finally got through to the WRONG number! I am so glad she wrote that down because I never would have remembered that!

There was also a pouch of little poems that my grandmother either wrote or found and kept. She was so creative and expressive....I'm thinking I might take after her a little bit! Her love for her family and friends was so evident in her poems. Some of them were funny, and some were kind of sad. She wrote on each one the reason why she wrote the poem at that time....such insight to an amazing woman!

Thank you LORD for this gift! Thank you for the legacy she is leaving in so many people! Thank you that I get to experience your love through her!!!