FRIENDS are live-givers!

Here are a few last pics from our trip. We saw lots of friends. What a refreshing pause, though the meetups are part of a busy stay. How I miss being able to call old friends for a quick meeting or coffee at Starbucks or having them drop by for tea.

W and I went to visit his mother (in recovery from hip surgery).We spent part of a day with my parents.

We met many friends and partners in 2 weeks. These gals have been my best friends and accountability group since the early 90s. Since one is moving, we don't know when a WPPRs meeting will happen again.

These dear ones have been friends since the 80s.

Mind you, no trip to Seattle is complete without a visit to a bookstores. I only get to one shop - and that is because Kim and I meet at Third Place Commons. What a gluttony of words. I'm an addict, lost between masses of pages. Here's a pic of a fraction of the Third Place Books shelves that are crammed top to bottom with books and staff notes about them.

With a very limited luggage capacity, it 's like arriving at a banquet with my stomach sewn shut. I hang around for an hour both weeks, inhaling the smell of new and used books, touching and examining as many covers as I can, and reading as many back covers as I had time for. Since I'm visual, I'm endlessly fascinated by new styles and colors and trends, even on books.

Of course, a grandkid sleepover takes over this tidy adult apartment,

transforming it instantly with one heave of their bedding, dragged down the stairs from their place. What a blessing to have them close at hand.

The memories are irreplaceable. We especially enjoy their sleepover: we talk as we eat junk food and frozen mango pieces (their favorite). Late at night, we sip peppermint tea from tiny bone china cups passed down from my uncle and my parents. Before bedtime, we watch Popeye in German.

After a middle-of-the-night wake-up by the little one who has the sniffles, W crashes on the sofa in my office beside her crib. Good Opa!

The other 3 sleep cross-wise on the futon across from ours. We love to watch how they play together as they grow older.

For whatever reason, the older ones love to invent games as they leap from one sofa across the gap (the ocean where sharks live?) onto the huge Coach table (yay Craigslist for a safe island) to the opposite futon (a new country) and back.

The littlest one just watches and runs around between them ... for now. That tradition may change as they get heavier, but they love to accompany their jumps by shrieks of danger below and imagined challenges.

For breakfast, we eat whole-grain and pumpkin waffles smothered in Grandmama's blueberry jam. The orange juice tastes sour after that. The kids mix their own snacks from various nuts and seeds (tossing in a few chocolate chips for good measure).

Of course, we couldn't skip dinner at Tres Hermanos with longtime faculty friends. We missed seeing some who have moved (that would be you, Bill and Jacquie!) or were otherwise tied up. They remind us of joys of years past and the value in enduring friendships with wonderful colleagues.

We make an overnight trip to Portland (tax-free, saving 9-10% over Seattle) for new tech. My computer has been shutting off indiscriminately; I've lost many files and hours of work. Even our guru (W) and the shop cannot fix it. So it's time for a new computer. W gets busy right away, transferring data from my backup disk to the new machine.

While W figures out the technology, I shop Sierra Trading Post Outlet for shoes and Nordstrom Rack for a handbag. My purses and our footwear quickly fall apart in the tropical heat and humidity. And leather gets moldy without a dehumidifier in our storage bin.

One little Nordie bag amuses me @$69 (reg. $140US). It's a washcloth with straps on it. I take a picture. I bet can make one of those for $5.

On our final day in Seattle, Asha drops by. She's a pastor, artist, wife, and mom of two young beautifuls. Our exchange reminds me that I need to find an art friend or group in Bandung. Sometimes, I feel like my creativity is being crushed under vision-casting, administration, and scheduling. (Where oh where is the executive admin I'm looking for?!)

I need the regular whirlwind of ideas that comes only from sitting and talking with other creatives. Asha is God's gift to me before we head home to Indonesia.

We get lots of hugs as we wave goodbye early Tuesday morning, leaving clean spaces filled with art (mine and others'). 

I painted the orchid in the bath below. It's a bright spot - across from a chickadee painting found in a Montana gallery years ago.

You know how some things are an irritant every time you see them? I confess to one in our apartment. Every time we leave, I close the door on our bath with a sigh of relief: I won't have to use that dark, cave-like shower for another year.

Grumble grumble. It's the only thing about our apartment that I truly hate. To shower, we duck through the narrow gap between the toilet and shower fixtures that were installed on the wall by the sink. I had designed a half-wall with a window to let in light (even had the window on hand). I'd sketched the plumbing to be set into the far wall. The plumber's changes (a framed wall with the plumbing in it) jar me every day. Should we ever live in the flat, it's the first thing to rip out and redo properly.

The 2 bdrm apartment is a joy otherwise. Unless we're unpacking or packing up again, the main areas are kept tidy and guest-ready.

Can't wait to see it - and all these dear people - next time.

Read more:

*The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low, he also exalts. 1 Samuel 2:7

*Jesus says, “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.” Luke 18:14

*We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 2 Corinthians 4:10

Moravian Prayer: Jesus, as your church, we are your body—together with people from every language and nation, rich and poor, educated and unable to read. May our life as your church lead people to say, “Yes! I want to know this Jesus.” Amen.