Hand in Hand beginnings...

My friend Barb has recently created a group on Facebook for those who were involved or interested in the Christian ministry called Hand in Hand from back in the 70's and 80's. She asked those that were involved there to post a bit about their story and I decided to write mine.

Unfortunately, FB doesn't have the capacity to post this much info at once so I decided to do it here then just link to it from FB. If you have an interest and some time, go and look at some of the old photos from those hippie days. They are quite entertaining.

Hmmm...where do I start? My family moved to Phoenix from a little town in Ohio just a few short weeks before I turned 16. That would have been around June of 1974. After I was here a few months, I learned about Hand in Hand from a connection I had in Ohio that published a “Jesus Freak” Newspaper. The guy's name was Craig Yoe (Google him sometime-he's a crazy man even now). I had been going to a west Phoenix Assembly of God church and wasn't thrilled with the youth group. They were all very lukewarm for Christ, having been raised in the church (not that it’s always the case). I had only been a Christian for a year, so this was NOT the place for me. Once I started coming to Hand in Hand I felt like I was home. I was thrilled to also find out that there was a church meeting there on Sunday mornings that I could attend. So sometime in the fall, I started going to Open Door and getting to know the gang.

I was one of the few single girls in the group of “regulars” and once I settled in, I became the resident kid sister to all the guys. They all seemed to be comfortable telling me about their girl problems. (What was I, chopped liver?) Really it was great. I developed some very precious friendships during that time that I still enjoy today.

Sometime in the next year or so, I really don’t remember when, Bernie decided that he wanted to start a folk band and he asked me to be a vocalist. Shira consisted of Sharon (Chesnut) Haugen (vocals), Jay Haugen (vocals & guitar), Lee Chesnut (vocals & guitar), John McDonald (vocal & drums), Apryl (Mott) Ballard (vocals), Dan Malmgren (banjo) and me (vocals).

Most of the members had a lot more musical training than I did, but I loved to sing. Problem was that I sang all the time in my car with no music, so when the notes in the song were out of my range, I’d just change the key that I was singing in, and never even realized it. I also never learned how to find a harmony in a song except in choir when there was always a group around me that I could listen to. So I’m sure that my contribution to the group was quite challenging for Bernie. I loved the experience though and am so thankful to Bernie for taking the time to work with those of us who were novices. What a patient saint he was!

God, of course, thru Hand in Hand was also key in me marrying my husband, Terry (the one with the blond hair & beard in the photo). I won’t go into the whole story, but suffice it to say that I was in a season of life when I was trying to “keep busy”. Because of that, Bernie invited me to come down and hang out at the HiH building to watch a new band practice. They were brand new and mostly a bunch of guys that I didn’t really know that well. Toni (Skiles) Brunner and I would go down and make coffee for the guys during practice and just enjoy Glory Road’s music. As you’ve probably guessed, Terry was one of those guys. Our friendship started there and was deepened in the times that I gave him rides home from practice. He didn’t have a license at the time (long story) and I lived closest to him, so I’d give him a ride home and we’d sit out in front of his apartment (that he shared with Dennis Martin) and just talk about all kinds of things…including other girls that liked him, for hours and hours. Long story short, that friendship turned into romance and here we are still together 31 years later. He’s still playing beautiful music and I’m still making coffee for him.

O.k. sometimes he makes his own coffee. It is the 21^st century after all.

Chris & Christina's Wedding Shower
Last Saturday we helped with a wedding shower for Chris and his fiance, Christina. Chris is the son of two of our favorite friends and we have known him since he was born. It's been so much fun watching the kids that we've known since birth grow up to be amazing adults. It's exciting to see them take steps like going to college, joining the workforce, searching for their path in life, traveling, falling in love, getting married and even beginning to have families of their own. It's always a blessing to see where the Lord is leading them in these early days of their adult lives.

Jay and Sharon hosted the shower at their beautiful home for some of our closest friends, and a few Thrush family members. It's interesting that this group of our closest friends all met around the same age that our kids are now (or even younger). We cherish these friendships that are taking us thru all seasons of life. It's amazing that we've all known each other for nearly 30 years. Wow!

It was a beautiful spring evening here in Arizona. Perfect weather! Jay served 3 of his homemade salsas with chips, grilled up some delicious chicken and we enjoyed lots of other salads, sides, homemade rolls & brownies and other goodies as well.

We got to watch them open some gifts, then loved listening to them share how they met and fell in love. What a beautiful story!

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the evening. If you want to see more, you can watch the slideshow here.

Worship Team Breakfast
Saturday morning Terry and I went to a worship team breakfast meeting and I decided to take a few pictures just for historical purposes.

The worship team at Open Door Fellowship is a wonderful bunch. There are musicians, vocalists, sound technicians, A/V technicians (that set up & run the slides for the worship songs) and others.
This morning was a low-key meeting and a great breakfast. Lori is working on helping Randy with the logistics on Sunday mornings to try to free him up from the details. Her husband, EJ generously agreed to make us all fresh waffles that morning as well as sausage, OJ, coffee, etc. What a prince!

Randy & Lori led the meeting. We are so blessed to have someone like Randy who works so diligently to coordinate all the details of every Sunday morning...beginning with choosing musicians, selecting songs, then music and tech rehearsals on Wednesday nights all the way to praying, leading, singing, playing and troubleshooting everything that goes on for 3 services on Sunday.

What an amazing man! And right now, that's just a small part of his weekly responsibilities. I'm not sure how he does it all, but I'm thankful that God has given him the strength to do it. I pray that he'll be able to continue to focus on the things that God has so wonderfully gifted him in and find help and support for the things that are a drain on him.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! See below...

This was our dinner tonight. The traditional corned beef and cabbage. One of the easiest meals on the planet. Throw it all in a crockpot (except the cabbage). Add a few bay leaves, cover it with water and let it cook on low all day. Throw in the cabbage for the last 20 minutes or so, then serve it up. Easy and oh so tasty too.

So, I'm bummed that when I wrote my St. Paddy's Day post and tried to save it for a future date 3/17, it actually posted on the day I wrote it.

If you haven't seen it, please click here and you'll find it. Sorry about that. Hope you had a wonderful day!

The luck o' the Irish to ye! (although I really don't believe in luck)

Reminiscing...
If you have some time to kill, visit the Facebook Group called Hand in Hand (Phoenix, AZ). It's a collection of friends that experienced the old days of the Hand in Hand Christan evangelistic ministry in the late 70's. Terry and I were both in bands back then. There are some pretty funny pics there.

Our friend, Bernie Rolfe has also created a website with lots of history and even quite a few recordings from that season of life. There are photos there too.

Terry's band was Glory Road, and the band I was in was called Shira.

Enjoy!

Valentine Branch
I'm finally getting around to posting pics of my branch decorated for Valentine's Day.

I added a metallic heart garland this year and I left up many of the snowflake decorations that were up there for the winter holiday season, since February is a snowy month in most parts of the world.

I must say that the Valentine decorations are one of the sets that go best with the red sofa and other red accents in the room.

My pastel Easter Egg decorations are up now and I'm not sure what I'll do after that...

Any ideas?

If you haven't visited recently, be sure to scroll down and see the last post of Coffee Cup History below.

Coffee Cup History - Continued...

I'm sure this coffee cup will be familiar to you. It's from "Friends", the TV Show.

I bought this cup at NBC studios when I had a chance to go to a taping of the show with one of my own friends (Kathy Oatey). We were there in one of it's last seasons in production. It was a special privilege to see the cast and their relationships with each other in real life while on the set. There were many laughs and a long night of taping, but I'm happy that I had the chance to witness that little bit of history.

Honorary Irish - Happy St. Patrick's Day!

As mentioned in my profile, I have Irish blood, but probably not too much of it. I am told that I'm English, Irish, Dutch, French, German, Indian and Italian. I don't remember much of the specifics about my heritage except that one of my great, great, great grandmothers was full blooded Ohio Indian. Really! I have some other documentation somewhere about the Perkins side, but know very little about my mom's side (Crider). You see, my mom's birth mother was an orphan and I seem to recall that at some point the orphanage burned down and all the records with it. Also in those days it was very difficult to track down heritage when you didn't know your direct relatives.

Anyway, I consider myself to be honorary Irish. We have lots of red heads in my birth family on both sides and I always wanted to have a red headed child because they are so unique and beautiful. Both Amy and Kevin ARE unique and beautiful and when either of them have colored their hair in some shade of red, it looks wonderful with their complexion! (a hint at their Irish heritage, I suppose.) Also, Kevin can pull off a very convincing Irish brogue when he wants to. (It's in the genes.)

Terry has quite a bit of Irish blood (as well as had red in his beard before it turned gray - which is a sure sign). His mother's maiden name was Manion and has direct relatives from Ireland. Rumor has it, they're related to an Irish Statesman.

Did you ever hear of the miniseries in the early 80's, "The Manions of America"? That was probably their family, although I seem to remember the show being a bit racy and his family was filled with good Irish Catholics with lots of children, that I'm sure led spotless lives. I don't remember watching the miniseries due to some scheduling conflict (since we didn't have TiVo or Netflix at the time) but when I just looked it up, I discovered that Pierce Brosnan (now there's an Irishman!) was in it (well before he was famous in the U.S., I think). I checked to see if Netflix carries the miniseries, but it's not there. Maybe we should campaign to get it on there.

Terry's Mom and her 3 sisters have even traveled to Ireland to find the remains of the "Manion Castle"...which is clearly no more than a small pile of rocks. Ireland is probably at the top of the list of places that Terry and I want to go someday (soon I hope). It just seems so magical, green and lovely.

I also recently found out that our good friends, Randy and Linda will be visiting Ireland as part of their trip to England to see their daughter, Miranda who's in college over there for a semester. Needless to say, I'm so excited for them all and can't wait to hear the stories and see the photos that they bring home. Hopefully it will give us a few more folks to get tips from when we go over there ourselves.

Oh, one other little St. Patrick's Day tidbit. The pastor at our last church was from Ireland and according to him, over there the holiday isn't nearly as popular as it is here. Americans just like an excuse to get drunk, I think.

I hope you all have a tip top St. Paddy's Day...and the luck o' the Irish to ye!

Spring Flowers

This spring we were blessed with a new surprise. Along with the gorgeous orange African Daisies that cover the front yard for a month or so every year, God has added to our front yard garden these lovely purple spires, which I believe are Desert Lupine.

If you look closely at the base of them, you'll also see a dainty little blue flower peeking out as well.

What a wonderful gift that we look forward to each new year.

I only hope that we can recreate this after our new landscaping is finished. Good news is that I save some seeds from last year and will gather more of the Lupines hopefully this season.

Seasons Change
Worked on getting out some Spring and Easter decorations today. I took down the Valentine's decor off my branch too. I'll have to post that later if I have a chance.

Here's the branch with Easter Eggs.

I realize that since the outdoors don't change much here with the seasons, I'm forced to change things inside just to have some variety of color and view. I get bored when things stay the same too long. It's the decorator in me. Fortunately, Terry doesn't seem to mind too much.

I also rearranged the living room after the holidays. Here's the new view. This one also shows what the branch looked like with our Christmas cards on it.

Shredder likes the new arrangement because she can sit on the back of the sofa and soak up the sun in the morning. Now I have my eye out to get a new slipcover for the sofa. Pottery Barn has some now that are quite a bit cheaper than the standard ones. I'll probably look for some kind of a neutral so I can change all the accent colors as much as I want. The red is a bit limiting, although I've found ways to work with it over the last few years.

Garage Cleaning & Coffee Cup History

As is the tradition in the Hann household, Monday holidays are reserved for big projects at home. Not that it's a requirement, but it just seems to work out that way. So, I didn't mention it, but sometime last year (we think it was Memorial Day) Terry and I painted the inside of the garage before it got too hot to be in there.

We knew the garage needed a thorough cleaning and organizing, but I wanted the walls to be painted and in better shape before we got everything organized and put away. Besides, I KNEW that it would probably be decades before we ever did anything with it again.

So, nearly 9 months ago we pulled all the stacks of boxes, decorations, yard tools, camping gear, old paint cans and junk away from the walls and painted everything. We used a couple of cans of "Oops" paint so it doesn't all match exactly, but it's close enough for a garage and looks MUCH better than the old dirty white paint that was probably done when the house was built. The photo at the top is pretty much what it has looked like since then. We had just enough of a path from the front to the back to get thru if we needed to, but really no space or order to accomplish anything in there.

Since last May, we somehow just couldn't find a full day to work on the next step, which was the organizing. Finally we were motivated to get some things together for our nephew, Daniel's fund raising yard sale (which is this weekend) so on President's Day we were able to get to it.

The 2nd pic is what it looks like now. We add more shelves and got rid of some stuff, and were able to get about 99% finished with just a few more racks to hang, but it looks and functions so much better. We're actually thinking that we may be able to park a car in there soon! Wow!

So this brings us to the coffee cups. Some of you know that I used to collect coffee mugs back in the 70's and 80's before many of them were broken in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. I never counted exactly how many I had, but it was probably somewhere in the range of 200. I used to have many of them hanging on pegs around the top of our kitchen and dining room and many fell during the earthquake. It was quite a mess!

So after that, since we still lived in earthquake country, I decided to collect something a little less breakable (like birdhouses). Now I don't really collect anything specifically (except pictures).

Anyway, when we were cleaning the garage, I decided to go thru several crates of coffee mugs to see if I could whittle down the collection that I kept. I decided to just keep mugs that had personal significance, like belonging to someone who had passed on, or had historical significance, with dates or memorable info on the mug (like the ones I'll blog about). I have several others that I'll post later, but since I've been so long winded today, I'll start with just one.

This is from a restaurant named Sambo's. Do you remember it? It was a coffee shop, like a Denny's or Bob's Big Boy-type place. The tops of their walls were covered with murals from the story "Little Black Sambo". (Did you have that book growing up?) I don't remember the specifics of the story, but I seem to recall that it wasn't very politically correct, which apparently led to the end of the restaurant chain.

I was amazed to discover that the original Sambo's wasn't really even named after the book and that the founding restaurant is still open in Santa Barbara. We'll have to visit sometime.

The Sambo's I spent the most time in, was the one that was on Indian School and around 28th Street in Phoenix. That's the one that was closest to our church, "Open Door Fellowship" (now in a different location) and the outreach ministry "Hand in Hand". Large groups of high school and college age kids would migrate to Sambo's. We would drink gallons and gallons of coffee mostly and sometimes scrape together a few bucks to get a salad or fries. If we were really rich, we'd actually get a burger! I'm sure the servers dreaded having to wait on us, because we were all poor and no matter how much we wanted to, never tipped very well. We had some deep and meaningful conversations there and I got to know many who are still my friends today, including my husband (before he was even my boyfriend).

I have wonderful memories of those times when we could just sit and chat for hours on end till well into the night or the wee hours of the morning. What a precious season that was...

Maui Reunion -

Last night we got together with the group that went to Maui in December. It's mostly co-workers and spouses and a great group of people.

We enjoyed a delicious dinner, then had the most fun looking at a slideshow of all the photos that everyone took and reminiscing about how much fun we had on the trip.

We also had a chance to present the Uhlmanns (our hosts for the Maui trip) with a photo book as a thank you from all of us. I had the privilege of putting it together for them. It took a long time, but was well worth it when we saw how much they seemed to enjoy looking at it. They were genuinely surprised that we had made a personalized book just for them. I think Steve enjoyed seeing some of his photos in the book since he enjoys photography as well.

And the surprise for me was that the rest of the group gave ME a thank you gift for putting the book together. It was so sweet of them, but TOTALLY unexpected.

I posted a link on the right side of my blog that takes you to the site where you can preview the first 10 pages or so of the book (which is 90+ pages in all). Once you get there, if you click on "full screen" view you'll get a better look at it.

I will say that I enjoyed the process of creating the book and want to do more in the future. It may even replace my scrap booking to some degree. Blurb.com has very easy and intuitive software with dozens of templates available. I think I even read that you can create your own templates if you can't find what you want in their selections. I ended up creating two different books because I thought the first one that I made was too small when it arrived. The second one was easier because I already knew which photos to use and just copied the text and templates generally from the first one.

I did have a little trouble with the file crashing at one point, but Blurb was very helpful and able to repair the file so that I didn't have to start over again, which was a lifesaver. It took a little while to get it fixed, but they upgraded my shipping on the book order so that it still got to me in plenty of time for the presentation party.

Now I need to make a few revisions to the file to make the book specific for Terry and I. I'll add pics from our anniversary and free time excursions and take out some of the "thank you" content from the other. That should be so much easier than starting from scratch though.

Phoenix Hiking -

It's perfect weather right now for a hike! Current temperature in the mid-fifties. This morning Terry and I took a hike around Lookout Mountain which is near 16th Street and Greenway. It was about 2 1/2 miles around the base, and a pretty easy hike. Terry wanted to hike to the top but I knew I'd probably die if I tried it since I'm so out of shape. He accommodated me and went with the loop. I really love to hike, but am always tempted to take my camera and Terry prefers to go with speed when he walks for exercise. We'll have to figure out a way to meet in the middle. I was thinking if we do a hike like this again, we could do a moderate one, then Terry could hike to the top while I play with my camera...we'll see if that works.

Terry just bought a new book of hikes in and around Phoenix so we'll have to see what cool places we can find. Anyone want to join us on a Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon?

We need to get more hiking and walking in now before it get too hot. I need to make it a priority. I am horrible at setting aside time for exercise. I really hate exercise for exercise sake, but if we have nice scenery, then I forget about the exercise and it's worth the time. I know in my head that I need to exercise and my doctor says that I need to as well, so it's really crazy that I just can't make the commitment. I just always seem to find things that I enjoy more.

I'll be posting more today, trying to catch up a bit, so be sure to look at all my posts.

Happy 25th Birthday Kevin!!!

...and Happy 4th Anniversary in the Air Force!

O.k. so I've been sorting thru old photos today and found a few fun ones to help chronicle your quarter century birthday. As most of you know, Kevin is our only son. He is our baby, although clearly not a baby any more.

Here are just a few of the things that stand out in my reminiscing about Kevin's life.

Kevin, you were born 2 weeks past your due date...almost on Leap Day, Feb 29th, but God answered my prayer and allowed your arrival to wait one more day. I woke up in labor around 3 in the morning on March 1st. Whew!

You scared us a bit when you had a fever the day you were born (not typical) and the doctors decided that you needed to stay in the hospital for an extra WEEK while they sent me home. Even though I KNEW that you were fine and that God was in control, I was scared to death that there was something seriously wrong and that I'd never be able to bring my dear little boy home from the hospital.

You were actually a big boy at 9 lbs 2 oz at birth and after a long uncertain week, you got a clean bill of health and came home. We were ecstatic!

You've always been the "active" one. Amy was over two years old and had NEVER tried to stand up in her high chair. The first day I put you in the high chair, I turned around for a second, then looked back and you were standing up...not on the seat, but on the tray! You were constantly moving and exploring and didn't like to sit still for too long. We were amazed when you taught Amy how to climb on things that she had never even considered before! We were busy, but loved your curiosity.

You were (and still are) a sweet and lovable boy with a precious tender heart. We admire how much you love animals and nature and wouldn't hurt a soul. When you were about 5 or 6 years old, we took you kids fishing and you were so excited to catch a small fish. When we got home and Dad started to clean it (to cook it) you were devastated and literally cried for about 2 hours! You thought we were going to keep it as a pet. How heartbroken we were that we had let you down that day.

We remember when you were older, you used to try to figure out how you could go somewhere where you would be out in nature and not see people for weeks at a time. I'm sure sometime you'll get the chance to do that if you still want to. Just be sure you do it safely. You also had the great idea of keeping an RV on every continent so you could travel the world whenever you wanted to. Now that sounds like fun to me too! Can we borrow them?

You have always been so wonderful about showing affection to me and others, even with friends or strangers around. When you were about 7 years old, I told you I was going to write up a contract to sign that you could never stop giving me hugs, because I knew that someday you'd be embarrassed about it. Fortunately, there hasn't been a time that you have neglected to show me that you love me. What a gift! It's so encouraging too, to see how well you get along with your sister and now Andrew, your brother-in-law too. Being less than 2 years apart, You and Amy have always been the best of friends (well except for that short season in jr. high/high school when you could have ripped each others heads off). It's so great to see you love, encourage and challenge each other in life.

And even as a teenager you have always taken time to show an interest in the elderly and children. You are a gentle soul and somehow know just when someone needs that extra little bit of attention and affirmation. You will make an awesome father and husband someday.

You have always been so creative, funny, gifted and passionate about life! From the time you started singing at about 3 years old, in our church Christmas programs. To when you were older and got involved in school plays, talent shows, musicals, and the high school choirs. We especially loved hearing you sing tenor in your Barbershop Quartet.

You have an awesome gift for making people laugh with your off-beat sense of humor. You had everyone in stitches at your high school talent shows, as well as the Saugus High Morning Video Announcements. I was trying to find the video online of when you did "Mr. Roboto", but can't seem to track it down. If you know anyone who has it, let me know. Dad was so thrilled when you followed in his footsteps and learned how to play bass and guitar and played with him at church. He and I always loved going to all of your and Amy's performances. It was so much fun to see you stepping out and expressing your gifts in ways that we had never dreamed of doing when we were your age.

What a fun season of life and what a blessing to have such confident and expressive kids!

We loved the time that you played soccer and basketball too. You had a love for the Suns and Kevin Johnson. That was another exciting season of life! We were and always will be your biggest cheerleaders.

We know that you're cultivating your gift as a promising writer and philosopher as well and still have interest in those areas. Maybe someday we'll get to see some of your works published, but even if we don't we'll cherish the detail and imagination from those stories that you wrote growing up.

We look forward to seeing where all of your passions lead you. Unfortunately your curse is that you get bored easily (like me). I hope that you can follow your dreams and find a way to enjoy all those things that you love so much. You have so much life ahead and we're excited for where you're going.

As of today you'll also celebrate your 4th anniversary in the Air Force. You were not a little boy who played army or imagined being in battle at all. Oh, I take that back...there were the Indiana Jones days and those simulated gun fights and that Star Wars-esque light saber battle that you filmed in high school. But generally your demeanor never indicated to us that you would join the military. You remember how surprised and apprehensive we were when you decided to enlist. After these 4 long years, we're thankful that you have benefited from many things in the experience, like learning Mandarin Chinese, traveling overseas, meeting new friends, and will have the advantage of the new GI Bill for college when you get out in a few months.

We have missed you so much over these last 4 years and can't wait to have you "free" and more accessible. We look forward to exciting and precious times of adventure, laughter and love for you and with you as you continue to grow and mature and find out God's perfect plan for your life.

Sorry this is so long, but we have a lot to be thankful for. We thank God for giving you to us, Kevin to share our lives with and for making you the perfect piece to complete our family. What a thrill ride it has been and it's only just beginning.

Happy Birthday sweet son. We love you more than life itself and can't wait to see you again. August will not come too soon.