My friend Corinne's 12 year old daughter was hit by a car while riding her bike last Wednesday. Please visit this site http://www.caringbridge.org/cb/viewJournal.do?method=executeInit and pray for Rachael (the daughter) and her family!
My mind and heart have been full this week.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Two more days!
It is hard to believe that Joel's trip to Zambia is almost over! He should be home late Saturday afternoon or evening (it is a 12 hour trip so it just depends on how early they leave and if there are complications on the road; a flat tire slowed them down 4 hours last time).
Joel has been gone since Friday morning so tomorrow it will be a week. I worried that I wouldn't sleep well while he was gone; that I wouldn't feel particularly safe in this house. We do have a guard who seems to be very careful while Joel is gone about staying awake and doing rounds around the yard to make sure all is secure. I have been keeping supplied with coffee and high sugar snacks!
I have been able to sleep pretty well...the only times it was hard was when Jonathan and Joshua wanted to share the big bed with me (because why in the world does Mom need all that space all by herself?).
Anna went to visit her new friend Janelle today. I guess Anna fell while they were playing and came home all banged up...her tooth almost went all the way through her lip, so she has a completely fat lip, sore on the inside of her mouth, a scraped up chin, a sore wrist and a gashed and bloody knee. She got another invitation from another friend for visiting tomorrow but I thought that she needed some recovery time.
Kaleb was picked up to go to youth group last night...I have to say, watching him ride away in a minivan full of teens (driven by a 19 year old) was kinda scary. It was dark and the roads are so bad here. They were going a very short distance, but we all know that statistics show that 79% (or something) of all accidents take place within 1/2 mile (or something) of your own home! (Isn't that right, Jamie?) Youth group ends at 8:30 and when Joel picks him up he is home at 9pm at the latest...so by 9:45 I was about ready to call my friend (whose house it was at) to find out what was going on. I didn't call because I KNEW that I would get a call if there had been a problem and it wouldn't really help Kaleb's standing in the youth group to be known as the kid with the worrier mom. So, the dad of the family (I was happy to see it wasn't the teen daughter driving this time!) dropped him off at around 10pm and I was sooo happy to have him home! Turns out that they had a huge game of capture the flag on the ABC campus and Kaleb had a great time. Actually, today when Anna was supposed to be home by noon and wasn't and by about 1:30 my friend called (same friend) to tell me that she had just heard that her husband had told me Anna would be home by lunch...was it ok if she stayed until 3pm instead...I had thought of calling earlier as well but didn't. I think that eventually I might get as good as my mom is about not worrying!
So, to sum up my week without Joel, we have been plugging away...doing our normal things in life. We walked to church on Sunday and found out that it only takes about 10 minutes to get there with all of us together. Kaleb was the only guitar player and I thought he did great! We have been busy in school (just a few things; we are in summer mode), cooking (today did several loaves of bread and made and froze pizza crusts!), cleaning and hanging around. I taught Jasper how to catch popcorn today (a skill that all self respecting dogs should master)...he just looked plain silly before with it hitting his nose and falling to the floor and him going diving after it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My heart and prayers have been with a MOMYS friend this week. A week ago yesterday her 12 year old daughter was hit by a car while riding her bike. She has been in a coma with very serious brain injuries since and the latest update tonight said that they didn't expect her to last the night. I am so sick at heart for her. If anybody thinks of it, please pray for Rachael (the daughter) and Corinne and Pete (the parents). Corinne has 12 children and I believe 6 grandchildren.
Joel has been gone since Friday morning so tomorrow it will be a week. I worried that I wouldn't sleep well while he was gone; that I wouldn't feel particularly safe in this house. We do have a guard who seems to be very careful while Joel is gone about staying awake and doing rounds around the yard to make sure all is secure. I have been keeping supplied with coffee and high sugar snacks!
I have been able to sleep pretty well...the only times it was hard was when Jonathan and Joshua wanted to share the big bed with me (because why in the world does Mom need all that space all by herself?).
Anna went to visit her new friend Janelle today. I guess Anna fell while they were playing and came home all banged up...her tooth almost went all the way through her lip, so she has a completely fat lip, sore on the inside of her mouth, a scraped up chin, a sore wrist and a gashed and bloody knee. She got another invitation from another friend for visiting tomorrow but I thought that she needed some recovery time.
Kaleb was picked up to go to youth group last night...I have to say, watching him ride away in a minivan full of teens (driven by a 19 year old) was kinda scary. It was dark and the roads are so bad here. They were going a very short distance, but we all know that statistics show that 79% (or something) of all accidents take place within 1/2 mile (or something) of your own home! (Isn't that right, Jamie?) Youth group ends at 8:30 and when Joel picks him up he is home at 9pm at the latest...so by 9:45 I was about ready to call my friend (whose house it was at) to find out what was going on. I didn't call because I KNEW that I would get a call if there had been a problem and it wouldn't really help Kaleb's standing in the youth group to be known as the kid with the worrier mom. So, the dad of the family (I was happy to see it wasn't the teen daughter driving this time!) dropped him off at around 10pm and I was sooo happy to have him home! Turns out that they had a huge game of capture the flag on the ABC campus and Kaleb had a great time. Actually, today when Anna was supposed to be home by noon and wasn't and by about 1:30 my friend called (same friend) to tell me that she had just heard that her husband had told me Anna would be home by lunch...was it ok if she stayed until 3pm instead...I had thought of calling earlier as well but didn't. I think that eventually I might get as good as my mom is about not worrying!
So, to sum up my week without Joel, we have been plugging away...doing our normal things in life. We walked to church on Sunday and found out that it only takes about 10 minutes to get there with all of us together. Kaleb was the only guitar player and I thought he did great! We have been busy in school (just a few things; we are in summer mode), cooking (today did several loaves of bread and made and froze pizza crusts!), cleaning and hanging around. I taught Jasper how to catch popcorn today (a skill that all self respecting dogs should master)...he just looked plain silly before with it hitting his nose and falling to the floor and him going diving after it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My heart and prayers have been with a MOMYS friend this week. A week ago yesterday her 12 year old daughter was hit by a car while riding her bike. She has been in a coma with very serious brain injuries since and the latest update tonight said that they didn't expect her to last the night. I am so sick at heart for her. If anybody thinks of it, please pray for Rachael (the daughter) and Corinne and Pete (the parents). Corinne has 12 children and I believe 6 grandchildren.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Setting the record straight.
Great memories - Remember the time we were throwing
apples at the cars? And that lady stopped and we ran around the back of the
house and Grandma was annoyed and Grandpa just laughed.....
The above was a response to my last blog entry from my cousin Kris. While I do indeed remember the day she is talking about, I think that her memory is a bit fuzzy as far as the details are concerned.
Yes, apples were thrown. But we did not throw them. Let's just think about the facts, shall we?
Kris, Jamie and I were over at Grandma and Grandpa's house spending a beautiful summer day, as we often did growing up. We were playing a fun game (I so innocently thought) of hiding behind trees whenever cars drove by. Once a car slowed down and stopped and Jamie and Kris started yelling for me to "Run! Run!" Well, I thought that this was taking the game a bit too far. Why run? Maybe we knew the person...maybe they wanted to ask a question...maybe they simply needed to turn around in the driveway. Why run? Well, the "Run! Run!" kept coming at me and so I ran with them around to the back of Grandma and Grandpa's house and in to the back room. By this time the driver of the car had pulled up the driveway and had come to the front door. What a scolding that woman gave Grandma! Throwing accusations around about children throwing apples as passing cars! I was confused until I saw Kris and Jamie's faces... They had been throwing apples at passing cars! Grandpa sat in the kitchen laughing with (or was it at) us as we hid in the back room until the woman left. Then Grandma shared some of the ear full that she had gotten with us! Yikes!
So, that is the true story of the day in question. I would never throw an apple at a car (I was always the well behaved one you know); not like two hooligans I grew up with!
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Introducing Grandma and Grandpa
Growing up my own Grandparents played such a huge role in my life. We walked to visit them almost daily and their home was as familiar to me as my own. Certain things bring instant memories of our time there (frozen pizza, spaghetti o's, those orange push-up ice cream things, rubarb with big cups of sugar - I think that last one was a Grandpa thing; I am assuming now that Grandma never knew that we dipped our rubarb in the sugar until we were done and then dumped the sugar back into her big sugar container).
We had been talking about different types of rocks in science class with the bigger kids and that of course led to talks about how Grandpa found, cut and polished rocks. We named our dog Jasper because of my favorite stone and the kids love hearing about how I never could remember the name and would ask Grandpa, "What was the stone that I like best?" and he would tell me the name. How he died just shortly before I got married but I opened up a jasper necklace he had made for me at my wedding shower. Still brings tears.
Well, the other day I was talking about Grandma (because although she has been gone for so long now, so many things about her come to my mind; especially when we are playing cards or I am baking) with Joshua and Jonathan as they were going to bed. I told Joshua that I thought he looked like Grandma and they were full of questions about her. Jonathan wanted to know if Grandma went to heaven when she died and I told them that she had I thought. Then Jonathan and Joshua were a bit worried because they had never met her (which they think is extremely unfair...I agree with them!)...how would they recognize her when they got to heaven?
So, today we got out a dvd that mom had copied for me that Aunt Joyce and Uncle Bob had taken over 20 years ago...right before I went off to college actually and there is a lot of pictures of Grandma and Grandpa on it. Isn't it funny that after so long Grandma's house is still as familiar as my own?
Joshua and Jonathan were very happy to see the pictures and were very happy to know that now they would recognize Grandma and Grandpa in heaven. According to Anna it doesn't matter anyways, because I will be going to heaven first and will of course introduce everybody.
After we watched the DVD I got out my excercise dvd (I haven't used this particular dvd since we lived in Brazil) and attached to the inside cover was an UNO card with Draw 4 written all over it! The last thing that Grandma gave me was a deck of UNO cards and of course she included a bunch of the extra draw 4's to make the game more fun. I am so happy to find that I still have one of those cards.
Maybe in heaven that is how the kids can recognize Grandma...look for the loud room with all the people playing UNO!
We had been talking about different types of rocks in science class with the bigger kids and that of course led to talks about how Grandpa found, cut and polished rocks. We named our dog Jasper because of my favorite stone and the kids love hearing about how I never could remember the name and would ask Grandpa, "What was the stone that I like best?" and he would tell me the name. How he died just shortly before I got married but I opened up a jasper necklace he had made for me at my wedding shower. Still brings tears.
Well, the other day I was talking about Grandma (because although she has been gone for so long now, so many things about her come to my mind; especially when we are playing cards or I am baking) with Joshua and Jonathan as they were going to bed. I told Joshua that I thought he looked like Grandma and they were full of questions about her. Jonathan wanted to know if Grandma went to heaven when she died and I told them that she had I thought. Then Jonathan and Joshua were a bit worried because they had never met her (which they think is extremely unfair...I agree with them!)...how would they recognize her when they got to heaven?
So, today we got out a dvd that mom had copied for me that Aunt Joyce and Uncle Bob had taken over 20 years ago...right before I went off to college actually and there is a lot of pictures of Grandma and Grandpa on it. Isn't it funny that after so long Grandma's house is still as familiar as my own?
Joshua and Jonathan were very happy to see the pictures and were very happy to know that now they would recognize Grandma and Grandpa in heaven. According to Anna it doesn't matter anyways, because I will be going to heaven first and will of course introduce everybody.
After we watched the DVD I got out my excercise dvd (I haven't used this particular dvd since we lived in Brazil) and attached to the inside cover was an UNO card with Draw 4 written all over it! The last thing that Grandma gave me was a deck of UNO cards and of course she included a bunch of the extra draw 4's to make the game more fun. I am so happy to find that I still have one of those cards.
Maybe in heaven that is how the kids can recognize Grandma...look for the loud room with all the people playing UNO!
Sunday, June 1, 2008
church
A few Sundays ago I was a bit uptight with Kaleb growing up and walking to church alone. It isn't a far walk but I still worried until he got home safely. Today I had to stay home from church because Joshua was still sick and had to think about Kaleb during the service for another reason. He was playing his guitar for the worship service for the first time at this church. Pastor Brian asked Joel if Kaleb could play and Joel was happy to let Kaleb; Kaleb was even happier! He really misses having somebody to play his guitar with. There were 3 guys playing today in church I guess; Kaleb said that they all had their own unique style. Joel said that Kaleb was like a different kid than we came from the US with. He has loved guitar for a long time; but to see him get up in front of a large church with no self conciousness or nerves was amazing, Joel said. Kaleb is really growing up.
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