Momma and her kiddos

The picture above was taken at an event with Laura Bush. My fabulous sister-in-law, Carolyn, brought her to Arts & Letters Live (a program of the Dallas Museum of Art.)   We found Craig there, which was a fun surprise since we weren't sure he would be attending. (They don't let just ANYONE into these programs!)

The coolest thing about the evening was that Carolyn had the honor or introducing President Bush! She is always incredibly graceful in word and deed, and we were so proud of her that night!  She greeted the President to the stage, where he was welcomed with a long, rousing standing ovation. He then proceeded to introduce Laura, weaving a bit of humor and wit along with his short, introductory speech.

Laura was the real guest of honor, as her book tour is well under way. I'm just a few chapters into the book, but I'm hooked already. On this evening, Laura spoke of her journey growing up in West Texas, how her early years formed her into the person she is today. She gave a bit of insight into the White House years, but really only as a teaser for us to read her book.

An interesting Q&A followed. The audience had submitted questions on note-cards for her aides to pre-screen. (Who knows... maybe the only ones she answered were carefully placed by her aides to begin with.) She did NOT choose my question... asking if there was an author, past or present, that she would like the opportunity to interview. Nor did she give a shout out to me in the audience, which I informed her about on my note-card, ever so delicately.  HEY LAURA, I'M A BUSH FROM ATHENS TEXAS!  

Soooo, she didn't answer my question. And she didn't recognize me. But that's ok, I had MY mother next to me, another famous author from Texas. And I was proud to be related to her!

** For FUMC Newsletter Readers **

**For FUMC Newsletter Readers**
As you may know, Rick and I are part of a larger team serving 42 inmates at Beto Unit next weekend. 

Last week, I printed out some copies of my previous blog posting to mail to our out-of-town friends and to hand to some friends at church.

The piece I printed inadvertently ended up being included in our church newsletter (hence, you found your way to this blog.) And while the facts included in the article are accurate, it was not written with the intent of the newsletter publication.

I wrote it from my personal perspective, about Rick and me participating in Kairos, and it was "exclusive" to the Browns.

The piece that WAS intended for the newsletter would have listed all of the team-members, and was much more "inclusive" of the entire team experience and our church support of this ministry.

The other team members from FUMC Mabank are:
Sharon & Kenny Underriner, Sherry Nash, Debbie Wrinkle, Tyson Johnson, and Bonnie Turner. 

Kenny and Sharon have been the heartbeat of Kairos at FUMC. They have poured their time, resources, and leadership into this particular ministry because they feel called to serve in this way.

Sherry, Debbie, Tyson and Bonnie are also integral to the team, and each of them are so very important to me!  They each feel passionately about sharing God's love with these men and I am honored to serve with them.

I have shed tears over this. I did not intend for it to happen....and I sincerely hope that my fellow team-mates do not feel slighted in any way. I will speak with them in private, but wanted my church family to know my heart in this matter. 

Thank you for understanding,
Kristen

Kairos - coming up!

Kairos (καιρός) is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment (the supreme moment). It's also been referred to as "God's time."

On May 13 - 16, Rick and I will be experiencing Kairos #42 at Beto Unit, Tennessee Colony. This is a maximum security prison outside of Palestine Texas.

Our team (pictured below) has been preparing for weeks to take God's unconditional love and & acceptance into Beto Unit. We are very excited, and want you to participate with us, if you wish.

But first, what is Kairos? It's an intense weekend designed for 42 inmates, who each apply to participate. Some want to participate because they have heard that Kairos weekends involve homemade food...quite the change from their normal fare. Others will apply to participate because they want to get out of their normal job/routines. And maybe, a few will apply because they have an interest in spiritual matters. Whatever the reason, they are welcomed as they are, and accepted as they are. The inside team, which Rick will be part of, will spend all day with them in sessions learning the basics of God's love and grace. They will have activities, singing, and eating. Walls will come down between the hardest of hard - it's seen every time. Barriers will be broken and grown men who have been locked away and forgotten -  gang leaders, drug dealers and worse - will experience a miracle on this weekend.  They will realize that they are NOT forgotten, that they ARE accepted, and that they CAN know God's love. It is witnessed at every Kairos event, bar none.

This is where you come in. Our team needs prayer support. AND, the 42 inmates need prayer support. That's the most important thing you can do for us! If you are willing to participate in this way, please email me at kbrown@cornerstonebiz.net. We are filling in time slots so that we have 24/7 prayer coverage during the weekend. You can pick your time and know that your participation is a crucial component to this weekend.

Another way you can help is by donating to sponsor a participant ($160). This helps underwrite the cost of the weekend for us. It costs over $9000 for us to have this weekend. And, obviously, the participants do not pay to attend. So it's up to us.

You can also donate money for the food that we will be cooking all weekend. Just think, you could buy a home-grilled cheeseburger with all the trimmings for one of our participants for $5.00! Think of it as sponsoring a cheeseburger!

Do you like to bake? Then consider baking cookies for the weekend. On a typical 3 day Kairos weekend, we go through 1500 dozen (yes, I said 1500 dozen) cookies. Obviously, we need help baking cookies!  If you would like to help in that way, there are some guidelines to follow. I can email you the details if you are interested. They can be baked now and frozen, so you don't have to wait to the last minute.

And if you are local, I invite you to attend the closing service on Sunday afternoon (5/16) at the unit. You'll enter the gates of the prison and be invited into the chapel. You will hear first hand from the participants what this weekend has meant to them. It is an incredible moment to see the men up close and hear them as they attempt to put into words what has transpired over the last few days. I promise, if you attend Closing, you will not regret it. But you have to be screened to attend, so let me know asap so I can get you on the list.

Rick and I are excited about this weekend, and are hoping that you will want to be involved in some way. Please consider it, and get back with me!

A few pictures from our vacation

Perhaps the best thing about our vacation to Cabo was that Rick earned it! The payment processing company that we work with sends top agents to "President's Club." And they treated us like royalty!

This picture was actually the last day, as we were waiting on our car to take us to the airport. Really, really didn't want it to end.

Rick went about 30 miles off the coast for some deep-sea fishing. This picture, taken as they were heading out, reminds me of "the cliffs of insanity" from The Princess Bride.  The same day that Rick went fishing, I was treated to a day at the spa. OH MY... it was fabulous! At the end of the day, Rick came in windchapped, sunburned and smelling like tuna. I, on the other hand, smelled like lilac and coconut.

The harbour in Cabo... lots of boats, and a beautiful day.

This is Marty, a Sr VP with PPD. We love Marty!

Ahhhh, the obligatory toe picture. This was my view from the lounge chair. Heaven.

We've been back a bit over a week now, and hit the ground running. A dear friend, Stephan, is visiting from Germany. He's staying with my folks, but we're spending every extra second we can with him. I got to know Stephan while my parents lived in Germany, from 1992 until 2002. He became an "adopted son" for my parents, and a brother to me, and it's great having him around for a while! (I call him my "brother from another mother.")

On Saturday, Rick and I attended our first Kairos team meeting. We will serve for a weekend in May at the Beto Unit at Tennessee Colony. Beto is part of the Texas prison system. We will represent God's unconditional love and acceptance to 42 inmates through a special weekend -  If you are curios about Kairos, I'm happy to share more information with you. You'll also be hearing more about in future blogs.  

The other notable thing that's happened since our return from vacation is THE SKUNK.

Yes, a big stinky skunk is living beneath our house. And it enjoys spraying in the middle of the night.

Rick and Collin spent the afternoon inventing a "skunk-be-gone" device.

This contraption shoots cayenne pepper under the house... supposedly skunks don't like cayenne pepper.

Below is the finished product. Complete with cayenne pepper, a gun, and a leaf blower (not pictured.)

And this is Rick, ready and waiting. And waiting. 

For some reason, I can't post video's right now. I'll try later, because there are some good video's of the action. This experience is one that only a video can truly capture.

It's 10pm, and Mr Skunk still hasn't come out from the house. But as soon as the motion detectors beep, Rick will be out there ready for war. It will happen, it has to happen, it must happen.

Unexpected Gratitude

Because of a scheduling snafu last night, I found myself wandering aimlessly about in Mabank. I had some extra time to kill, and it seemed my car practically steered itself into the parking lot at the nursing home.

Hmmm, 7:30pm – is that too late to drop in and visit? The sign posted that visiting hours would end at 8pm, but I wondered if 7:30 would still be too late. But I felt compelled, I needed to go in.

I ventured in, meandering down the hallway towards Ma Felker’s room. Ma is a lovely little lady from church who has assumed the name of “Ma” for many of the folks in her life. A couple of weeks ago, she decided that it was time to move into the nursing home, as they could better care for her than her family. I admire her strength in making that difficult decision without burdening her family.

The walk down the hallway is always interesting. I passed several residents calling various greetings to me. And I do mean various! They always call out from their room, and I’m reminded that some of these people don’t have visitors like Ma Felker or our sweet Margaret Templin.

Ma was still awake, waiting on her evening medicine to be brought to her. Her pain was great, resulting from a fractured spine. But her countenance was brimming with gratitude. How can that be? She began counting her blessings as I sat there with her, listing the ways to me that she is grateful.

Her tiny little room seemed sparse to me. The little bit of space carved out in this nursing institution is so different from where she moved from. I looked around the room for personal effects. A vase with two roses, beginning to wither. Eye glasses and a hearing aid case. Her Bible - that faithful companion for what looked to be years. And that was all I saw.

My mind wandered to all the things she left behind. The little knick-knacks that make up a home, the pictures and furniture and household items that becomes the landscape of our life. What was it like for her to walk through her home one last time, knowing it might be her last? Did she take it all in, caressing with her eyes those items that she may never see again? Pieces of her life that hold memories of all the years past, these tokens of life lived and shared, did they evoke memories of both pain and joy?

And the item she carried out with her… Her Bible. Heading out into a new phase of life clutching the one thing that has sustained her through the years. Her Bible.

The squeeze on my hand brought me back to the present. I was the one with the wandering mind, not Ma. She was very much in the here and now – calling me out of my reverie to thank me for coming. She asked about Rick and the boys, commenting on how handsome they all are.

I told her we miss getting our hugs from her at church, seeing her in that pretty pink suit she wears. I promised to be back soon.

And as I walked away, I felt encouraged. How does that always happen? I go to encourage someone else, and I end up getting the better end of the deal!

I hope that I grow into a woman like Ma Felker. I hope I can count my blessings, no matter what the circumstance.

Rest in Peace, Fuzzy

Yes, Fuzzy was just another barn cat. One of the many, many barn cats we've had over the years.  Dad marches down to the barn daily to feed Fuzzy, Wuzzy and Junior.  He even warms their food up for the evening meal!

But I'm still sad about his untimely fate. I fret that his sister, Wuzzy, will be distraught when he doesn't come to dinner. Fuzzy was such a cute little kitten! And he grew up to be a beautiful cat.

 Rest in peace, sweet kitty. You will be missed.

Snow....the good and the bad

SNOW!  Lots of it, too!

It started yesterday, falling down in fat, wet flakes.

And today, we awoke to 8 inches in our backyard!

While I headed out to take pictures in the cemetery, Rick suited up to head out to the water company. All 400 homes on our water system  are without power....and water. Ugh. The good and the bad of a beautiful snowfall!

He's been out there all day, waiting on the electric company to restore power to the plants. While he waits, he's making the best of the time by fixing some line breaks while there is no water pressure.

But before he left, my hubby shoveled the walk for me. I think this was the first time in his life to have to shovel snow!  It reminded me of the 4 winters I survived Chicago...

                                  

The Park was beautiful with the snow glistening on our big, beautiful, 50 year old trees.

                                 

But I was hard pressed to really enjoy the beauty after seeing the toll that this snowfall took on these majestic oaks.  If you look closely in the picture below, you'll see a glimpse of some of the branches that were ripped off of these special trees. "Oaklawn" is not named "Oaklawn" for nothing, you know. So when something hurts our trees, it is especially painful to all of us!

I did, however, get a chance to take out my frustration on dad with a good old fashioned snowball fight.

And finally, here is a picture of our farmhouse. It's survived decades of winters... so I suppose it will survive one more. But I think I'm ready for warm weather now!

Whew!

Yep...you got it.

Audit is complete, and Oaklawn Memorial Park is numero uno!

I will sleep really well tonight.

Worn down

It's Tuesday, 12:30pm. I'm waiting on Rick to finish a customer phone call before we mosey over to lunch. Mother has "breakfast" waiting on us. YUM.

I'm feeling pretty worn down. We have concluded our "graveyard shift stake-outs" and are going to rely on the newly installed motion detector's to alert us of anything thing, human or otherwise, that crosses the boundary into our cemetery.

We didn't catch the thief, and I feel a bit disappointed in that. It would have been fun to nab the person that's been stealing from the dead!

My audit is tomorrow. I'm swamped. You know the saying, "When it rains, it pours."

It's true.

Rick's off the phone. I'm going to eat now.

Silence

Sometimes I just don't have anything to say.  This would be one of those times.

I had the most wonderful weekend (last weekend) with Mother. Sometime, I'll post pictures of our Mother-Daughter trip to Jefferson. But not now.

With the new year of 2010, the ownership transfer of Oaklawn Memorial Park has been completed. I have never felt more vulnerable and inadequate than I do today. As 100% stock-holder to this Cemetery (where we have 3,030 people buried) the buck does indeed stop here. Right at my doorstep. I can't defer to good ole dad anymore, except for advice and a hug.

And right now, for the first time in 52 years, our cemetery is the target of copper theft. Two nights this week, pathetic, heartless and selfish thieves have stolen vases from graves.

I'm sick to my stomach.  When making the calls to the families to inform them, I'm met with a variety of responses. Some are more upset than others. Thankfully, no-one has lashed out in anger at me.  But I feel hurt for those affected. And I feel angry, as if the bad guys broke into my own home and stole.

I wonder if Granddaddy ever considered this day when he founded Oaklawn Memorial Park in 1958.  I wonder what he would do about it if he were around today.

Preparations continue for our annual audit coming up. My attention is needing to focus on getting ready for that, but I can't seem to concentrate.

I think I'll just be silent for a while.