Meet Lady.......So before Christmas Jon sold the Bob Marly (my black 1995 Jeep) to his sister. I loved the Bob Marly. He had such character and Starbuck and I could just jump in and go without worry of dog hair or dirt. We would head off to the trail, go on an adventure and return home in the faithful black Bob Marly.
Jon had seen a jeep that a parishioner was selling and briefly asked me if I liked it back in the summer. I did like said jeep. Then close to Christmas he sells the Bob Marly so I was pretty sure the other jeep was going to show up. A couple of days before Christmas no new jeep. Christmas Eve night no new jeep. So......what was I going to drive with the Bob Marly gone? But alas one light weight present I opened contained a key with the word jeep on it. After a search I saw the new jeep parked in the church parking lot from our back deck.

So meet Lady, 2008 Wrangler 2 door, X edition trail rated jeep! She is green and has cloth seats instead of the plastic that the Bob Marly had. She is a 6th speed and shifts into all 6 gears smoothly. So compared to the Bob Marly she is somewhat genteel! Thus the name Lady. Sometimes I even call her the Green Lady.
Just one issue to straighten out with Jon. Number one, Lady is suppose to be mine and secondly, we live in Marble, a deep mountain location and Lady IS A JEEP. So I take her out for the first adventure. I put up the back seats to make room for Starbuck in the back and off we go to park below Daniel's Hill. Starbuck and I make a beautiful hike to Lizard Lake and back. I load her up and we return home. Jon was coming in from the church and I excitedly told him what we had done! He responded, "You took the Jeep and you took Starbuck?" Well yeah I did. He then responded, "You'll get the jeep dirty and get dog hair everywhere." I simply looked at him and said, "Well, Lady is a jeep and you said she was mine and SHE IS GOING TO HAVE TO MAN UP around here!

Jon, a friend and I saw American Sniper yesterday. I am not one to recommend movies but in this case I break that rule. If you want to remember what our troops have to endure and what their families suffer, then this very intense and sad film is a great reminder. It is not for children and it is difficult to watch but there are troops and families still out there who need our support and prayers! There is a world out there that needs our prayers!

Okay, so I live in a sort of "isolated" place in between two mountain wilderness areas........ when our monthly paper came out this month, there was an article by our very own mobile local vet who lives in Marble explaining that a couple of local dogs had an animal encounter! So yeah, that got my attention having a local dog myself. Her best guess was that they had been mauled by a mountain lion! Okay........
On Tuesdays I volunteer at our local Marble Charter school. I sub there as well. So during recess a Marbleite dropped by to warn the school that a mountain lion was in a tree by his gallery. So the teachers let the kids know and just pulled them a little closer in and avoided the trees around the school. Two things crossed my mind: one, I wanted to leave the school and try to get a picture of such an elusive animal and secondly, I truly do live in the heart of of a magnificent mountain location. Do not get me wrong, I would have tried to stay in the jeep to get my photo!!!
I walked home from school with snowflakes falling, mountains shrouded in clouds thinking what a wondrous world that the Almighty has placed me to live.... And I should say, I did keep glancing up in the trees just in case........

After church during our fellowship time God blessed me with a very special gift! I have a friend, a sister here in Marble who has been and continues to be on a difficult journey. She is battling ovarian cancer. She continues this journey with such courage and grace! She leans on God and shares the things that He is teaching her freely, blessing all those around her.
Today she was sharing with me about the songs she has been singing; she has a God-given angel's voice! She has been singing blues song and laughs as she completes them. She has been reading dramatically some things at the table in English or Southern accents and again laughing. She shared that this week she asked her husband to dance with her and they had no dance music so they started out slow dancing. Then she decided to sing Davidic songs and they did Davidic dances. She laughed and I laughed with her, picturing the dance and hearing the music. We were laughing like two young girls right there in the fellowship room right in the middle of her difficult journey!! I sense God is giving her freedom in the midst of her struggle; freedom to continue to sing, freedom to dance with her husband and freedom to laugh!
This sharing she did with me, this laughter she shared with me was a gift from Heaven itself. Perhaps we will all sing in Heaven. Perhaps we will all dance in Heaven. Perhaps we will all laugh in Godly joy in Heaven.
Praise to God and thanks to my friend, my sister for sharing with me today.......