Sarah Landauer

Perhaps you heard of her because she was the third of three athletes that collapsed within a week of each other and died. She was featured on Good Morning America Thursday morning, along with many questions about Sudden Death in Athletes (which is becoming another "Syndrome"). I know her because I taught her in Middle Schoool Youth Group Bible study, her family and mine worship at the same church, and she was a dear friend of my daughter Carolyn.

Sarah Landauer was an intense young lady. She fiercely competed in sports, soccer being her highest priorty. A few years ago she decided to learn and compete in one new sport each year. It was at track practice last Monday that she collapsed and needed three rounds of CPR and a defibrillator just to make it to the hospital. Sports is how the general public in Gainesville knew her. Those close to her and those at church knew her character as well, and we knew she was a dedicated child of God that loved Jesus so much. Within hours of her collapse, there were hundreds of teens with Phil. 4:13 written on their arms in her honor.

This was the verse she had adopted as her own. This is the verse she lived by. And this verse made its way to the arms, the thoughts, and the minds of people who had never opened a Bible in their lives, those who were indifferent to God, and those who believed but maybe hadn't walked as intensely in the Lord as Sarah had. Just go to the Supporting Sarah page on Facebook and read the comments... Athletes, teachers, complete strangers, black, white, Indian, Jew, Muslim, punk... all supporting Sarah by writing a verse on their arms.

Why, why, WHY God? Why take this sweet, loving girl who Loved you so much? and Lived for you to the fullest? The answer was clear to me at her "celebration" service on Saturday. Over 800 in attendance, mostly teenagers, who had never been faced with their own mortality and the reality of a God Who loved them. All loved Sarah and had been impacted by her life, and now they would take away with them the lifelong impact of someone who loved God and that God who loved her and loves each one of them here and now.

We Christians are a strange bunch. In the midst of such a tragedy, with tears in our eyes and streaming down our faces, hearts aching in agony over those who loved her most, we each smile on the inside, knowing that Sarah is not really dead. In fact she is the only one of us that has truly started to LIVE!! She is rid of the flesh and sin which so easily besets us all, and she is running, and jumping, and tearing up that heavenly soccer field! She is laughing and singing, and dancing in the arms of the Love of her Life, Jesus. And she is waiting for each of us, who will be joining her when God sees fit to call us home.

Please pray for the teens in Gainesville, Florida.

Celebrating Sarah:
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=156458721076990&ref=ts
Supporting Sarah:
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=195486977140834&ref=ts
TV Coverage:
http://www.wcjb.com/news/8940/remembering-sarah-landauer
And Google "Sarah Landauer" to read more.

Pool Party!

I promised a look at our new pool finish, so here it is.

But first, a look at how it used to be.

This was taken when we were building a rail for our deck to please the insurance company. The pool is in frame. This is before our pool became very sick. It developed a leak, and went down in level about two feet. It's only 5 and a half feet deep to start with. Here is our sick pool.

This is a picture of... well, actually, it's a picture of an alligator in our pool, but the water was so cloudy and un-chlorinated, the gator was very happy.

Backstory is this: Our dog Lola...

here she is...

...is a barky thing, and will run and bark at anything that moves. Well one day she would not stop barking outside, and I noticed the pitch was a bit anxious even for her. I went outside and found her standing off with a three foot gator. Now despite what you may think, gators are VERY quick--we have had a 12 foot gator in our yard before, and when the animal control guy tried to grab it with his rope pole, I WAS WATCHING IT AND I **DID NOT** SEE THE GATOR MOVE, but one second the pole was intact, and the next nanosecond, it was snapped in half and in the gator's mouth...

Anyway, I got Lola inside, then grabbed a flashlight to shine in his eyes (it's supposed to distract and mesmerize the gator, keeping him still--worked for me...) and called my brother to come *do* something about it. (My husband was at work.) Two hours later... (don't ask) ...he put on welding gloves and grabbed it by the neck (don't try this at home) and held it up for all to see, then he did the obligatory "flip it on its back and rub the tummy and watch the gator go to sleep" (yes, it really works, but don't try this at home!) and at my request, dropped it in our pool, which was already very sickly and cloudy and the perfect place for a dehydrated alligator used to being in lakewater. It was quite dry last summer in Florida and instead of raining every afternoon like it normally does, we had a bit of a drought. Gators will come roaming under two conditions--really wet and really dry. We live next to a State Preserve where gators are plentiful, and like to roam when it floods or it droughts. (Is that a word? It is now...)

So, backstory aside, Here is our new pool!

We went with black RiverRock,

and off-white tile on the steps.

Important for safety... always a mom.  :-]

I think it looks great with our existing border tile treatment.

With the water, it looks like a cool dark green.

As for the gator, my husband caught it the next morning in the fishing net (don't try this at home) and after doing the obligatory "flip it on its back and rub the tummy and watch the gator go to sleep"...

(don't try this at home)

...we let it go (a mile and a half away) in the middle of the Preserve next door. Happy endings all around!