2008 Doo Dah Parade

A mock "Rose Parade" is the annual Doo Dah Parade here in Pasadena (it was usually held on Thanksgiving weekend but changed this year to brighten up the grey days of winter!). Rick and Suzanne went with us this year (a first for them, and Dan or I hadn't been in like 15 years or so). The overriding themes were politics and religion. See the baby in the flag drapped shopping cart, he's running for President "put a baby in the white house". These were just some of my favorites; Howdy Krishna, the Pope, Billie Savitri, the Stogie Men (just smoking big cigars!), Nixon x 2, and the bagette drill team. The men in black wer just marching to music!

Teaching LAMP in central Los Angeles

This week I met with the InnerCHANGE group in downtown LA (got to take the Metro and subway-great experience). After the session Jonathan took us for lunch to MaMa's Hot Tomales just down the street and across from the famous McArthur Park. The food was great and MaMa (Sandi Romero) is such a joy, she runs the restaruant as a training center and sells local art and crafts.

The session with the InnerCHANGE group was the first in a series we will do on language learning using Tom and Betty Sue Brewster's LAMP method. The group will learn Spanish in the community where they live and work with the planned result being "good news" to the people.

Thaxton women visit us

Rachel, Ashley and Colleen came for a quick visit on their way to music practice this afternoon. Ashley will be 16 on Jan. 19 and is taller than both her mom and I (I'm standing on my tip-toes). Seems like only yesterday when she was wearing the balloon hat I made for her.

We made the StarNews 1/12/08

Yes, this was in March '07 when we were on the east coast. Such fun to open the paper this morning and there we are with John Smith!

PRODOLA academic council meeting

Georgia works part time with Dr. Charles Van Engen and his newly formed doctoral program to train students in Latin America. The photo is a shot of the academic council for PRODOLA. You may check it out on the web at: www.prodola.org
The second photo is from last week end when we enjoyed dinner at Van Engens with Peter and Corine Larson who also work with PRODOLA. Chuch and Jean introduced us to a form of dominoes called Mexican Train. Great fun.

Holiday visitors, always welcome!

The week between Christmas and New Years was fun, our friend Rabbi Stuart Dauermann visited one afternoon (he lives a few blocks down Lake Ave).
Long time family friends from Tucson, AZ, Dale and Barbara Diamond, were in town visiting so they came for coffee on another afternoon.

Visit to Indiana and Michigan

We flew to Indianapolis and spent a few days with middle son Rob and his family, 18 mo. old Lauren was a real joy. Then we drove to Michigan to spend a few days with Georgia's family. Dan got to see Lake Michigan and a genuine snow storm, he said driving on snow is like learning to drive on gravel!
We attended Georgia's home church, Pierson Bible, on Sunday then went to Harry and Deb's for dinner and time with their kids.
At Sylvia and Chip's we learned to play the game 'sequence' with John, and to meet all the growing grandkids. Then we spent a night at a motel in Ann Arbor and Charlene and some of her grandkids came to swim in the pool and Dan got to play Santa with the boys! We at at Frank's restaurant where Char's husband Pete is owner and cook, great food near UofM.
We spent the last night with Rob and Susie again and learned the wonderful news that Susie has been assigned to Dallas in the new year so we are all pleased with that. We did open gifts with Lauren and she loved her Elmo. When she opened her DVD she immediately pointed to the apple and said "apple". She is growing and learning so quickly and it was hard to say goodbye to the little princess.

Dan's trip to Australia Nov 07

Yes, Dan did a short trip to Cairns, Australia to meet with the MAF board, and he got to spend the night with our long time friends, Paul and Dulcie Grant in Brisbane. I hope to go on the next trip, especially to see the wild laurakeets that Paul feeds everyday.

Grandparent's Day at Julia's School

Dec. 5 was grandparent's day at Pasadena Christian School where Julia is in the 6th grade. Dan had a great time visiting her classroom, seeing her art and being part of the PCS Christmas program. After we took Julia out for lunch and enjoyed her fresh spirit. Thanks Julia!

Dan's Students at School of Intercultural Studies

Friday was the last day of class for Dan and Casey Church did his presentation in the seminar on anthropological issues. During that session I was meeting with the ThM student I am mentor for, Tae Kim, and Casey and Dan took a break and invited us in for the end of class -- it was God's timing for Tae and Casey to meet, as Tae works with the mission in British Columbia that I served with from 1968-86 and is writing on First Nations leadership style AND Casey is a First Nations leader living in Albuquerque (see the blog on Nov 5 '07)
Then after lunch I was meeting with Dr. Roberta King for some editing I am doing for her, and Dan suggested to Casey that he have Roberta on his PhD committee, so he got to chat with her during this trip, too. Isn't the Lord gooooooood!
Do pray for these students as they study AND continue with ministry.

Home Bible Study

Dan has been part of a home Bible Study for over 20 years and this month they met in our home. Frank and Peggy brought their daughter who is visiting from Dallas, and grandson, Ilan. It was great to hug and love on these two after all the praying we did for Ilan's birth and first couple of months.

Trip to Arizona Nov 16-19

Yes, we had a couple of days in Arizona. First with Joan and Jess Tyler (Jess's bd is just before Dan's so they celebrated together). Joanie gave us the rug that belonged to their grand parents - looks great in the front room. Then we drove to Phoenix, had lunch with John, Richard and Kristi Perona, visitied Dick and Jo Wagner at Idyllwild, CA and then on to Hemet, CA to visit with Dan's dad and Toni. The scenery was wonderful and the few days away were nice as Dan turned 64.

Indian family from New Mexico

Casey and Lora Church, from Albuquergue, NM had dinner with us last week and Lora and their 5 children all got in the "swim" of things in our hot tub. They were here for the PowWow at Sante Fe Springs on the weekend and Cheryl Bear was honored for the 3 awards she received from the Aboriginal Music Awards in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on Nov. 3rd.

School of Intercultural Studies Fall 2007

Yes, we just got a copy of the SIS photo for 2007 - great group of students.

October 19, 2007

Friday night we went out to celebrate 14 months as Mr. & Mrs. Shaw. The photo was from the Spitzer Space Telescope display on infrared light--seeing our world in a different light! I was eating some ice to see how it showed up, cool!
As we walked through Old Pasadena we got to see the moon up-close and personal through the telescope of a sidewalk astronomer, Mojo, Morris Jones from Monrovia. It was fantastic, so clear just like in the books. Did you know the moon is egg shaped with the large end pointed towards earth?

SIL Translation Conference 2007

(sorry about the bottom photo being out of focus, the first one should be better, ggs)

Oct 15-17 we were at the SIL conference and Dan was renewing friendships and making new friends. We stayed with long time friends from PNG, Ken and Noreen McElhanon.
Dan got to show me the Museum at the SIL Center and the Samo display from PNG.
We had a lunch meeting with the Fuller alumni/ae who attended the conf. Dan had a real "serious" meeting with two of the guys in the Anthropology Dept., see how layed back Tom Headland is! We had a great time with:
Terry and Janet Borchard-PNG
JeSoon Chung-PNG and Korea
Myong Soo Chung-Kalimantan
Fritz Goerling-Mali
Jackie Huggins-Philippines
Marion Miller-Columbia
George Payton-Tanzania
Katherine Roundtree-Surinam and USA
Arden and Joy Sanders-PNG and USA
Jo Shetler-Philippines
Amy West-Philippines
Jim Wroughton-Peru
Kent and Margaret Spielmann-New Caledonia and USA
We also had a quick visit with Gary and Donna Bishop at their home near Fort Worth.

Week end in Oklahoma City

We spend Oct 13-15 in Oklahoma City visiting friends and family. Val Damas was in Norman with her husband Ronnie who had been unconcious for a week in ICU. Pray for Ronnie to recover.
We visited Dan's teacher, Dr. Bob and Jean DuBois, it had been some 42 years since they last met.
In OKC we had a meal with the grandkids, Trent, Alexis and Cory along with RaDaun and Shane, which was great. Had Sunday dinner with two ladies from Blue Spring where I had worked, and visited with a former student, Jackie Thornton. We spent some time at Blue Spring with Debra Murray before leaving for Dallas and Dan's meetings there.

Rob and Ryan visit this week

Yes, both Rob (SW pilot from Indianapolis) and Ryan (from Turkey) were in the LA area and we spent a bit of time with them. Here are candid shots (I was so pleased to be with them again the camera didn't get such good pics!). Rob at dinner and Ryan leaving at 5 AM to catch his flight to Missouri. Dan praying over his "boy".

Clean Shaw babies!

Recent photos of 21 mo. old Noah and 16 mo. old Lauren keeps grandpa "Mou" smiling and missing this next generation.

Visit to Mountain View Mausoleum in Altadena, CA

This week would have been Karen Shaw's 64th birthday (Dan's wife and mother of their 3 sons). This photo with oldest son Rick, was in 2005, also one of Karen working on a quilt for grandson Noah.
We visited Karen's niche at MVM, and went inside and walked through the three floors of this historic site. It is fantastic and such a comforting spot to spend time reflecting. This photo is down a marbel hall with the huge rose stainglass window and the end and smaller ones in the ceiling.