A Tale of Two Santas

There is a wonderful place north of where I live, it is The Bass Pro Outlet. Directly south of freeway 12o in Manteca, Ca lies a delightful place to go where you can experience the outdoors indoors. I can't believe that there is such a place for this indoor girl who loves to be in the mountains! My three boys and I checked out the place a few months ago and I fell in love with it. When you walk in it looks like you have entered a grand lodge in the Sierra Nevada's, complete with a fireplace and heads of animals, once alive, on the wall. Then as you continue to the store you walk through a tree that is a replica of the Sherman Oak tree in the Sequoias. For anyone who loves to fish, hunt, boat, camp or the like, this is the mecca of all things needed to do any of these things. If you like to decorate with the lodge look there is a home decor area, if you like to wear traditional type clothing, they have it, or need sun glasses, guns, pocket knives or even have a hankering for fudge (made on site) they have it at the Bass Pro Outlet. To the back of the store you will find a very large fish tank with a waterfall dropping from the upper story faux rocks, into the tank. The sound is wonderful! Needless to say, I love this place!

As you all know Christmas time is fast upon us and stores like these always need Christmas help. I applied for a job a few weeks ago and got hired on!

There is a large section in the back of the store where the boats are displayed, that they have clear out for Christmas and replace it with a Santa Wonderland. In Santa's Wonderland you can write a letter to Santa, play with the slot cars, shoot at animal shaped targets, shoot toy Nerf like guns and fish virtually on a t.v. screen. If you are in the mood for a snack there are fresh baked cookies, fudge, candied nuts, popcorn, and other treats at the little red and white striped topped fudge shop. But for me the best part is the cute little log house where Santa sits in front of and families line up to get their picture taken with Santa. My job is to take their picture and I love it (the pictures are even free)! For those of you who know me personally, one of my many passions is photography. It can get crazy busy taking pictures with Santa and I'm sure that it will get wilder as each day moves us closer to Christmas. I love Christmas, people and especially children, so this is great fun for a job.

I have never had the opportunity before to really get to know Santa Claus. He has always been that man in the mall that I refuse to stand in line to see, especially when I have to pay tons of bucks for a quick picture. But this year it is different, I get to really get close to Santa. When the line of people has died down, Santa, along with the other gal that works at the computer and printer and myself have a chance to talk and wait for the next customer. Now the interesting thing is that their is a different Santa for the weekday and the weekend and they couldn't be more different than the ghost of Christmas past and the ghost of Christmas future!

I started working on November 8th with the first Santa. When things started to get slow and no one was in line to see Santa, I started to chat with him. He has a real beard, and long white hair, and is 53 years old and very easy to talk to. I started by asking him about being Santa and in the conversation he said he started being Santa for church groups. I'm always very brave in asking questions and gingerly asked if he was a Santa for his church. As we talked I found out that he was a Christian believer just like me and I was delighted. He rides a Harley and goes to a biker church. He said that he looked at being Santa as a ministry. He is very soft spoken, kind, gentle and meek. This man will be such a pleasure to work with through the holiday season.

My next day to work was the following Tuesday and I got to meet Santa #2. He was taller than Santa #1, also had a real beard and hair, and seemed more outgoing. Oh what a splendid adventure to meet two Santas! This man was very good with the kids and loved to engage them in conversation. This was a delight to the children visiting with him but not good for me when I was told that we needed to get more people through the line quicker. Once again as the night slowed down after the respectable bedtime hours, I got to visit with this Santa. The questions were the same as before, as I wondered about how he came to be Santa and yet the answers played out much differently. This Santa had a different view on life and sees things in terms of energy that we give off and the universe. He told me that he meditated before his Santa job and how he believes in the energy he gives off. I understand what he is saying but these concepts are foreign to me. It will be interesting to get to know him.

So far I have found this job to be a lot of fun and hardly feels like work. It has been a few years since I have had a paying job and have forgotten how the people you work with can be so diverse and bring so much into your life. I like both Santa's and think they both have such unique and wonderful qualities. I'm looking forward to working with both of they and getting to know them each.

Portfolio Photographs

One of my passions is photography!

One of my other passions is people, I

love people, God's wonderful creation!

My desire is that my passions are visable

in my photography and that the people

being photographed feel loved and beautiful.

Everyone is loved by God and created with

their own beauty.

A Life That Touched Mine

Click, Click.
Clank, Clank (tapping on the monitor).
Is this thing on? Hello, is anyone there?

Oh! Hi. It's been awhile, since I've been here.

I have thought about this place over and over. But my time at the computer has been short and sweet lately. I had a "sports injury" this summer and pulled a muscle in my butt region, that irritated my sciatic nerve, and sitting hasn't been the most comfortable thing. I can sit for awhile and then it all flairs up again.

I have had topics fly in and out of my head. Actually I wrote a very deep piece about the algae in my pool. I will post it later when I get it polished.

Today, it is windy and raining. Not just outside, but in my heart as well. My very dear friend is most likely going to loose her Mom today. She has been ill in the hospital for over a week and has been on life support. I haven't been able to speak with my friend, but today was suppose to be the day they take her off life support. How do you deal with something like that?

Her Mom was part of our neighborhood Bible study that the Lord allowed me to lead and teach. I love to teach, because I learn so much. My friends Mom came faithfully and shocked me that she wanted to hear a woman, younger than her, teach the Bible. She taught me that physical age and spiritual age are different. She had suffered a stroke years before and walked with a cane, walked slowly, and was very quiet. Here stroke took away from her life physical strength, but left her with a hunger for God (the type of thing that matters most in this life). Bad things that happen to us can actually leave us with more good than the bad it left us with.

Each person that comes in and out of our life has the potential to give us a piece of wisdom that will help us take the next step or have a greater understanding of something. Thank you Sharon for being apart of my life and being the Mother of my very special. Her life has touched mine in ways she may never know.

Sharon will be with Jesus, most likely, by the time you read this. Praise God, one of His own is with him in the presence of His glory!

**The picture at the begining of this post is honor and love to Sharon's four daughters. Please, pray for their comfort and strength during this time of greif.

Undressing Apperances

A few weeks back I went to Best Buy to buy ink for my printer. The computer expert of the store was helping me and just by a few off topic questions that I asked him, he opened up and delighted me with a conversation. True conversations are hard to come by. What was so wonderful was that he didn’t just talk about himself, but when he did he was open and wasn’t just trying to paint the prettiest picture of himself; by this I mean he didn’t brag but revealed. The other side of a true conversation is listening to the other person and not dominating the conversation. He was a gentleman and listened. I could have totally missed this encounter by looking at his unconventional appearance (long rocker hair and strange shaving of his facial hair) or by not engaging him beyond the information I needed about printer ink. There are still jewels to be found out there, you just need to know where to look and what tools you need to dig them up.

About a month or more ago I was in Wal-Mart and went through the checkout stand. The gal on the other side scanning my items was heavily tattooed, had very long nails that were decoratively colored. She looked interesting to me, but not the type of girl that I would normally hang out with (I would be too boring for her type!). I started to ask her about some of her tattoos, and she replied to my questions. I mentions something about her nails and said that I was thinking of a question that I probably shouldn’t ask………….she said she knew what it was and that she got along just fine in that department . (*smile*) She also had some amazing old style of pins on her Wal-Mart lanyard and we talked about them, too. I could tell something about her just by observation, she was creative and artistic. So I asked her if she was an artist and her face lit up with a smile. How nice it must have been for someone to see what she was about. Isn’t it interesting how our appearance does speak something about yourself (well, except for my appearance when I get up in the morning, all that says is ugly)!

When we lived in Oregon, and now as we live here in Modesto, we are near a community of Mennonites. Jeff and I had attended a Mennonite church back in 1999 and Jeff graduated from a Mennonite high school, but these people are different. These are Mennonites who practice being separatist. The married women wear a uniform (a modest dress that is the same pattern for each of the women and a bun bonnet on the back of their up do hair style) and they really don’t engage with the people around them. I have talked with two of them here when I was at the grocery store, but they are not easy about their conversation with me.

At our current church, there is a gentleman in our Sunday school class who grew up in one of these Mennonite churches. He actually looks very Amish (he has an Amish beard). I don’t know his age but I would guess early 60’s. He is very warm, friendly and smiles when he talks. Jeff and I were visiting with him after class last Sunday and I asked him about the women I have been seeing. I had been very influenced by their Christian modesty and dedication to dress what they believed. The conversation with the gentleman from church revealed that even amongst these people there is still much controversy over dress. I look at the unity in dress and interpret it as unity in their assembly as well. Once again, you can easily miss something if you only look on the outside.

The bible says that man looks on the outward appearance but that God looks at the heart. We, as people, can easily have a preconceived idea about a person, positive or negative, due to their appearance. We know the old adage don’t judge a book by its cover. May I take the liberty to ask you to take the time to find out what is in the heart of the people you meet and the people you think you already know?

Yes, the people you already know may not be what you think they are or are no longer what they once were. Over the past eight years, I have walked through many trials and much change. My life experiences have greatly changed me. Of course I still have the same personality, but who I am deep inside has grown, and been pruned and will be blossoming until the day I die. I think it is so refreshing for someone to ask what I think or how I view something, with the intent of getting to know me. It really rarely happens; maybe some think that such questions are obtrusive. I like to ask questions of others to know them on the inside.

I would hate to have a wonderfully interesting book in my hand and never read it because I didn’t care for the cover!

Trials Come and Go, But God's Love Remains

I was sewing on Thursday, and realized how nice life had been. My mind was at peace because life had finally calmed down and I couldn't think of any present trials. Ahhhhh.....that was what my heart felt.



Then I noticed how warm the room was and I went and check the thermostat. Once again, our A/C went out; this was about the fourth time since we moved here back in March. Three and one half months in a house and repeated problems, first with the heater and then with the A/C.



My husband was supposed to fly home from Chicago last night after being gone for 4 days. His flight was canceled, and since he was planning to turn around on Monday to go to Arkansas, he decided to stay. So that means no hubby for one week and no one to step in and give me a breather of my maternal responsibilities. I'm taking a nap once I post this, just to have enough energy for shopping at Winco on the weekend with my three boys in tow.



One thing I love to do when life gets stressful is to sew. I once had a physical therapist tell me to relax, he asked what I did that I enjoyed and my answer was sewing. I loved the fact that part of my physical therapy was to make time for relaxing by sewing. I could have kissed him for that (on the check of course)! Well, the kicker is, that amongst the stress of life this week my sewing machine has decided to malfunction. Now I can't even sew away my frustration.



I find it interesting that once I acknowledged how good things were going, things started to unravel. For some reason, my loving Lord, has been diligently working on patience with me. I didn't know that I was an inpatient person before, He must have seen me from a different angle (as he does with us all).



At the very least I enjoyed a few moments of ahhhhhh...................................



Life will always have its problems; it is the nature of living in a fallen world. The thing is, I am beginning to grasp that what are irritations and frustrations for us can be for our own good. God says in His word that His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. From his perspective he loves us so much that he wants the best for us and what is best for us is that we are formed into the image of his Son Jesus Christ. If it takes irritations, frustrations or even more intense things of life to form us to be patient, loving or forgiving like Christ then I can honestly say that it is worth it (and a bit more bearable from that angle).



The love of God is different than what love is in pop culture. His love is to bring us to himself. This is not a selfish thing on his part, it is what He knows is best for us.

If I have no A/C, no hubby at home, no break and no sewing machine I will live. But without God I have nothing and am nothing. I praise God for his great love and for supplying all my needs in Christ.

As I write this on Sat. I am enjoying having our A/C back, my hubby is getting a much needed R and R and I will be praying about getting a new sewing machine.

May God bless you in the good and bad of life, and give you eyes to see that the greatest blessing is in Himself.

Angst of Moving to a New City

I am so happy! I love the house we have moved into. We all have room to move around without being on top of each other.

I am so overwhelmed (at times) and that makes me a bit obsessive and cranky. Moving is so much more than the moving day. Moving is so much more than unpacking boxes. Now, maybe if you move to a new house or apartment in your same town it is relatively simple. But moving to three different towns in three years gets a bit tiresome.

Once the furniture is in place and there are pictures on the wall (very important to me because I'm a nester) then you move on to the next phase. The next phase consist of restocking the fridge and pantry, getting enough t.p. in the house for the whole family, and remembering where you put everything so at any given time when your asked where something is you will have the correct answer. Phase three is all about the details. Every home has things that are peculiar and unique that it needs. Some homes need creative storage places, some homes need special window coverings and this home needs creative and special ways to hang decor, as to not ruin the freshly painted paneling. And with the details comes many trips to the hardware store and Target.

After you have created a place to do all your home stuff you must venture out and learn a whole new city. How to get around and find the basics is essential. You must find what part of town has all the cute shops and restaurants, what part of town do I avoid after dark and how do I get to these places or stear clear of these places; these are all part of moving.

Moving to a new city encompasses finding a new doctor for the kids, new eye doctor for me (because I need a new contact prescription), where is the walk in medical clinic (the one here is very hard to find), finding a new drug store, finding a doctor for me because it is that lovely time of the year for that dreaded physical. Oh, and not to mention, you have to find someone to cut your hair, and all the ladies reading this know that you don't want to make any mistakes in this department! Questions like this arise: where is the post office? where should we go to church this Sunday and what type of church are we looking to be a part of? where is the library? Do I have to bring proof of residence to get a library card? And since I have already had major car problems here....what tow truck company do I call? and where is a mechanic that I can trust? All of these things that I have acquired over many many years living in one place now need to be establish within weeks!

Then I must move on to getting caught up on all the bills, changing my address with all the bills, finding where my bank is, changing the address there and getting new checks, remembering what my address is! At least my phone number is the same!

This move has had it own unique challenge. Instead of enrolling the boys into school and doing all of these things when they are gone for the day, I have started homeschooling all three of them. Devin and I have been working together since his last school year. Jake came home for school last November and I was still working on figuring out how to teach two. Then after the move Drew is starting home school. It has been a bumpy start. The boys, on the most part, are very willing to do their work, but that is on the most part! There are tears, arguments over the work at hand and many squiggles and squirms. Each week I feel that I have made progress with them. But then there was yesterday, I was so overwhelmed with all the stuff to do, I just threw in the towel, so to speak, declared a no school day and got to the many tasks at hand.

I would love to be totally organized and to have a schedule, but why, I ask myself. My life has changed consistently in many ways over the past three years (I have lived in 5 different houses), all I can do is just keep the Postma boat afloat!

I wish that I had an extra day in my week, where time just stood still, like in those movies where everyone else is frozen and one or two people keep moving. Then at least I could work and get "caught up" without making a meal or dealing with a brotherly spat. Then after the one day stop action I would make life go again and sail more smoothing through it. Oh, a girl can at least dream can't she?!

I love my life! It has been a crazy ride. I told my husband when he married me that life would never be dull with me and I have kept my word :0). Where I'm at with the ages of my boys right now is wonderful and I wish I could just slow everything down and savor, savor savor!
My youngest son Jake has asked me the same type of question on two different occasions. He asked me what kind of job I would like to have. Really I'm doing the type of job I would like to have, and for that I am grateful and blessed. What would make the job so much sweeter is to "get to where ever we are going" (as my husband says) and settle down and put down roots.

One thing that has helped me through the loneliness of moving to a new area is Facebook. Yeah, I know I posted before that I got off of it and it wasn't for me. At the time I was hating watching other people be with thier friends and do stuff together.......I couldn't watch, it made me feel so lonely and like I was on the outside of life looking in. Now, I am really just enjoying reconnecting with some dear friends of my "girlhood" days, and keeping up with friends lives.

I'm just going to jump into the game of life while I live here, for however long I live here and when it is over, I will just pack my bags and move on. Moving to a new city is never easy. But then life is never easy for anyone any where. At least we have each other! Love to all my family and friends!

Bargain Hunting Leads to Faith Fuel

I have a confession to make…..I am a self titled “Queen of the Bargain” and I’m addicted to finding the most cost effective way to do almost anything. I can’t just go out and buy something, I have to hunt and hunt, and do the math to find a way to get what I want for the best dollar value possible. It’s a bit thrilling to me. It’s not just getting the cheapest things (I really sorta hate the “Dollar Store”), no it’s about quality too.

Last night I was browsing my favorite bargain hunting site, craigslist.com, not because I need anything, but I am addicted to looking. I found something that really interested me. I have wanted to get a new set of dishes. Right now we have an eclectic mix of melamine, stoneware and the few pieces left from our wedding gifts. I would like to be able to set the table nice for dinner. What I found on craigslist was just what I wanted, a set of white dishes with a soup tureen, gravy dish, creamer, two serving bowls and another serving dish with a lid, cups and saucers all for $30! I couldn’t believe it! I called on the ad and made plans to go and purchase them today.

When I got to the home of the lady selling the dishes, I was greeted by Debbie, a women who was somewhere in her latter 50’s or early 60’s. She had me come in, to her home full of stuff. From our phone conversation I knew that she was helping a friend sell his things and assumed that a lot of the extra furniture everywhere was from him. She showed me a box of dishes and I agreed to buy them. I asked about some bowls I also knew she was selling and got 7 stoneware bowls for $5! I noticed sitting on a table near the dishes some lamps that I saw on another ad and asked if she had more lamps. She took me to another room and we visited as I looked at the lamps. I got a lamp for $5! I noticed up on her wall two different wooden plaques. One plaque had a picture of an older man with his head bowed praying and the other of an older woman with her head bowed praying. I told her that I like her pictures and that my grandma had the same pictures in her house.

After that she started to talk about prayer. Oh we had a wonderful conversation sharing about the power of prayer. She told me a story about her daughter who drove truck and who was in Iowa when there were really bad floods. She said that her daughter was driving near a river that was flooding and that the water from the river was very slimy. He daughter feared that the truck would slip and slide off the road. She called her mom on the phone to pray for her. Debbie said that she stayed on the phone with her daughter and prayed the whole time her daughter was driving through this dangerous area. He daughter told her that it was the most amazing thing. She could feel the wheels of her truck slipping but only to a point and they wouldn’t go past that point. She said other cars were slipping and swerving off the road, but not her truck! Wow! It is so amazing to here of God’s miracles.

Then, sorta out of the blue, Debbie told me that she prayed for a house for 20 years. She told me how she was living in an apartment and at one point her rent was going to be raised by almost $400. She knew that she was not able to afford the rent after that. She then moved in with her sister, which wasn’t a great situation. Her parents at that time where in bad health, her Mom had a stroke and her father was ill. Her father was diagnosed with Lou Garragain’s disease and she moved into her parents home to care for them. Her father died and she stayed to care for her Mom. She said that one day she was in her room crying and praying because she didn’t know where she was going to live after her mother passed. She thought that the home would have to be sold and split between her and her sister.

Her mother walked in and caught her crying and praying. Her mother inquired to what was bothering her. Debbie shared her concerned with her Mom. Her mother then told her that she didn’t have to worry about that because she was giving the house to her! Debbie said that her mother would have times after her stroke when she wasn’t well mentally and then times that she was. She said that God had given her mother just enough of a window of mental stability to prepare for her daughter to legally have the house after she passed and that there was just enough money in her savings account to pay for the lawyer.

She also told me that she had a specific list of things she had wanted in a house, she had been asking God, in prayer, for these things for 20 years. All the things she had asked for she received and even more! God had it all worked out and he is very good.

Debbie didn’t have her life paved out neatly before her. She didn’t have all the answers. She didn’t have money in the bank to make all of her dreams come true. But over the years of hardship and trials God was working out something much more precious than gold in her life. Debbie had the richest riches of all, she has faith in Christ Jesus, and she has hope and trust in God expressed in patient perseverance in prayer. Debbie also has a very rare and valuable gift to share and she freely gave it to me today. She gave me the gift of encouragement, fellowship and faith. Yeah, I got a whopper of deal on some dishes, stoneware bowls and a lamp, but the real blessing is what she gave away to me for free.

I drove away very full, happy and satisfied. As I was going home a passage in Scripture came to my mind. This part of Scripture has been puzzling to me for a long time. It is oxymoron of sorts:
James 2:5 says, “Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! Did not God choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?”

It has been difficult in the past to understand that the poor of the world would be rich in faith. I have been slowly able to grasp its meaning. Debbie personified its meaning for me today. When a person has no means of their own to provide something that they need or want they have a few choices: 1) they can steal, 2) They can become bitter and unhappy, or 3)They can pray and ask God to provide and put their hope, trust and reliance in Him. If a person chooses #3, they are well on their way to becoming rich in faith. I am beginning to see that some of God’s richest blessings lay in the realm of our need. The things that are beyond our reach to get, the things that only he can give us are where His hand touches ours in a real and tangible way. Our eyes can truly see that “all generous giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or the slightest hint of change.” (James 1:17)

And what is the response to such perfect gifts that he gives? God wants us to respond to Him with thankfulness! We are to lift up a sacrifice of thanks to God. I encourage you to make it a habit to notice the wonderful gifts that God is giving you right now, and thank him.

Here is a simple example. I had dinner with a gal in Oregon and when she prayed she thanked God for the money to buy the meal. I commented after her prayer that I never heard anyone thank God for the money to buy their meal. She told me that there were times that her and her husband didn’t have much and from that she learned to thank God for the money to purchase her meal ; simple but very poignant.

I want to be more like Debbie. I want to go to God with every need and desire and I want to freely share all that he has given to me.