4/12/32-9/28/09

I woke up to thick clouds and gray sky. One of those days where you know it is just going to be drizzly rain all day long. Rachel called me and told me that I had better come right away. She said, "It's different today. He's not waking up and his fingers look gray." I left immediately. It's a 45 minute drive from my house to my parent's home. I got to Dad's bedside and held his hand and the tears rolled down my cheeks. I knew he was very close to death. I prayed that the Lord would come and take him. About fifteen minutes after I arrived, he slipped away from us. At that moment, the clouds parted and the sun shone down through the window and onto the bed where he lay. I honestly believe that it was a gift from God for us.
I had stayed over night on Saturday night and spent all day Sunday with him and Mom. Yesterday he seemed so tired. He told me that there was an entire parade of people waiting for him in heaven. He started naming them...but at the same time he was drifting in and out of sleep. I know he is having the most amazing reunion with so many friends and family who have gone before him.
He will be missed so much by us.

words...

There are just no words to put together about how I feel right now.

Friends

I have not blogged much about my feelings or posted status updates regarding my father. I just don't even know what to say. Yesterday I really lost it. I was at CBS (Community Bible Study)...I really lost it and the women around me were wonderful. I'm just so thankful for my family that God gave me here on earth. I'm talking about my parents and siblings. My husband and children. My nieces and nephews. And I am also thankful for my sisters and brothers in Christ.

The story of two runners

My husband and son are both runners. Here we have Allen at one of his high school cross country meets. He's doing very well. Today he placed 4th for his team.


Jamie was a competitor this weekend in the Finger Lakes Triathlon. He did great!
I'm very proud of both of them.

Oh but...just look at HER desk!

Every year at the beginning of the school year (and several times during it) I make valiant attempts to become organized. There are just so many papers to deal with. Papers for the school health office, homework policies, Awana, student handbooks, lists of teachers and their contact information, insurance papers, bills, loan papers, receipts, school supply lists, sports schedules, invitational schedules, fund raising papers, lists of important dates to remember, baby shower invitations, letters from religious organizations, volunteer papers, church papers...I can't even list it all.

How can someone who is aspiring to be a librarian be so unorganized? Well...luckily I have gotten a glimpse of a few different librarians' desks that are a complete jumble of papers and books...and these are good librarians too I should add. (I've also seen some spotless desks...but we are not going to mention them) Somehow I find this comforting.

Through the tunnel

Well I just don't know where I'm going anymore. I'm trying to be optimistic, but it is hard. I know there is a light at the end of this tunnel somewhere.

Tomorrow is Community Bible Study...that will help I'm sure.

Today I will go to the library to continue with my "volunteer work." This is rather amusing right now because no one knows I'm volunteering...including those at the library. I knew the children's department was a mess and needed to be straightened and shelf-read desperately. I went there on Friday to volunteer to do it...and no one was in the children's department save for a couple of mothers and little kids looking for picture books. So I just started in with the juvenile fiction books. I mean...who could object to someone straightening and making sure the books are in order? It took me about 2 hours to do a little less than half of the books in that section.

Here we go 'round the mulberry bush

At the Shaker village in Canterbury, NH there was mulberry tree. It was pointed out to us by one of the workers. She encouraged us to pick some and eat them.

I will say that they were absolutely delicious, although a little messy. I had never seen a mulberry tree before and wonder if they don't grow in NY state. I think they definitely should! I would like one in my yard. I ate several of them before moving on to the rest of the museum.

I also wonder why in the nursery rhyme, it is called a mulberry bush. It was definitely a tree.

Dangling?

I didn't mention to you that while I was on vacation, we got a phone call from my sister-in-law, Laurie, telling us that a tumor had been discovered in my father-in-law's colon. That was on a Friday. On Monday, I learned that my own father was in the hospital with chest pains. Later when I visited him in the hospital I learned that there was an unknown mass in his left lung. Monday night, Laurie called again to tell us that the tumor in my father-in-law's colon is cancerous. Two days later, the dreaded news came that my own father has lung cancer. The following day my mother told me that the doctors estimated that Dad has up to three months to live. Meanwhile, my in-laws are struggling with what to do about Dad B's cancer. It is stage 1, but Dad B is high risk for surgery since he is 86, has diabetes, and is in very poor health. The surgery alone may very well kill him.

I knew that I needed to postpone my grad work. I set that in motion on Friday, a week after the first of the bad news came in. There were emails to send, phone calls to make, and forms to fill out. Everything is so uncertain now. Just a week earlier I had been enjoying a mountaintop experience in New Hampshire with my family...and now I feel like I am left dangling on the edge. Vicky, the wife of one of my second cousins gave me a little food for thought that was comforting. She left it on the wall of my facebook account. She wrote:

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” Corrie Ten Boom

So I guess I'm not really dangling on the edge...it just feels and looks like I am. Kind of like Jamie here on the top of Firescrew Mountain in New Hampshire. It only looks like he is dangling precipitously over a three thousand foot ledge. Actually, the rock gently slopes downward and he is practically laying on it.

Peace that transcends all understanding

By now I am sure most of you have heard that my father has terminal lung cancer. I thank you for your thoughts and prayers. I have taken a leave of absence from school for the semester. Several times this week I came to my blog...but just couldn't manage to put into words all of my thoughts and feelings.

He is home now and is doing pretty well. He does not seem any different than he did before we knew...but we know now that there is cancer in his lungs that will take his life. However, the cancer cannot take away his eternal life! I had the privilege to spend over 24 hours with my parents yesterday and today. He is completely at peace about the entire thing. His peace spills over to the rest of us. I am amazed at the amount of scripture he has memorized. He quotes it often. I am thankful for my entire family and the love that is so evident!

Went to New Hampshire

Hello! Just got home last night from our New England trip. On the first day, we visited a Shaker Village in Canterbury, NH. It was very interesting...although I am fairly certain I would not want to be a Shaker. There was this gigantic tree there. The girls are demonstrating just how big it was in the picture. I don't think their hands could touch on the other side.
New Hampshire was beautiful. I saw a few "Moose Crossing" signs and intended to get a picture of a sign...but did not succeed at that. Did not see any moose at all, but did see a porcupine. We stayed in a hotel in Tilton, NH because Jamie had accumulated many points so we could get a pretty amazing deal.
Grad school officially starts again this week. I'll write more about our trip in a couple of days.

Bad blogger!!!

Well....I've been bad about blogging, but I have an excuse. I took a grad class this summer. I just finished it Thursday night! So I have 6 more credits towards my MLS than I did in May. In the fall I will take 2 classes...and then I do my final internship in the Spring. I can get a job after that. So...a year from now I could be anticipating a new job at a school in September.
In the meantime...I have 3 weeks to relax before classes begin again. In a couple of weeks, we have a family vacation. Part of that will be spent traveling to NJ to visit relatives (a family birthday party we are showing up at). We are trying to decide what else to do on a limited budget. Jamie wants to go to NH to visit some places they always went to when he was a kid. We'll see.....

Cool Birdhouse

Alicia and I have been busy with a fun project. My father made me this birdhouse last summer. I thought it would look cool with a piece of tin nailed to the roof. I wasn't sure where I'd get a piece of tin...but then found a piece on Saturday while walking the dog along the railroad bed near our house. When I used the tin snips from my grandpa's old tool box (he passed away 10 years ago and we inherited some tools), I found the little wrench. My husband said he didn't care about it, so I glued it on the front of the birdhouse.
Alicia and I thought it needed more stuff on it. We walked to two nearby antique shops and bought some other items for pretty cheap. We arranged and glued them today.
While we were at the shops we started planning our next birdhouse. We'd like to make a kitchen tool one, and a chunky jewelry one too.

Back to the Books!

Tonight I start another grad class. Back to the books!

Isn't my niece's daughter cute? In January she is going to be a big sister!

More Sonnenberg

More fun pictures from Wednesday. This one reminds me of Mr Tumnus from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Here is a picture of Tracy and Denis. They are wonderful people and I feel privileged to have met them personally.
And last, Alicia in the perfect climbing tree.

Sonnenberg Gardens

It is our turn to meet Tracy and Denis. Yesterday we had a good time exploring Sonnenberg Gardens. We also went to lunch at the Rheinblick. (Don't forget to send a picture of that, Rachel) Tomorrow night we will have a barbecue at Rach's house.

Partway through the day, I went home to get Alicia off of the bus. She joined us for the rest of the visit to Sonnenberg. When she and I visited the Japanese garden, she amused us by placing her juice bottle in Buddha's hands. I guess he looked thirsty.

More pictures to come!

Ahhhhhhh....springtime in upstate NY!

I love the springtime! I wouldn't mind if it stayed like this for a long time! Everything is so green...and the temperature has been quite comfortable. I just planted this myrtle (pictured above) in my front garden. I have started my practicum at the public library...but tomorrow I have some time to play in the dirt some more!

"His name is Houdini!"

That is how I feel like answering when someone asks the question, "What's your dog's name?" We have been having dog problems if you will. Sherman is an escape artist lately and I haven't been terribly pleased with him. He will be contentedly laying in the sun, fastened to his chain and the next thing you know...he is gone. Sometimes I notice that he is gone and other times I get a phone call from someone who has intercepted him and read his tag that has his name and our number. Such was the case yesterday. I went outside to look at the perennials I had planted. Sherman was on his chain and sleeping on the porch. Ten minutes later I get a phone call from someone at the hot dog stand downtown telling me that he is there standing in line. (I guess he was hungry) The hot dog stand is three blocks away and across 4 lanes of busy traffic!!
I was horrified by this and went down to retrieve him. (He's the retriever, so why am I doing all the work?!???) There was a lady down there who proceeded to bawl me out for being an irresponsible dog owner....and if I didn't want to take better care of my dog she'd be glad to give him a home. When I told her that I didn't know how he was getting off of his chain, that set her off again. "Dogs should never be chained up! They hate being chained up and that is why he's escaping. They should be in a fenced in back yard....blah blah blah!!!" I was totally humiliated and angry at this woman. I honestly felt like punching her! (So much for being Christ-like) Luckily I had the sense to stop answering her and just take the dog and leave. I tell you though, I was so upset by the encounter!
So today after CBS, I took a ride down to the hardware store to take a look at the hooks available. I bought a hook that closes using a built in hexagon shaped bolt that you must turn several time around in order to close. I bought two of these hooks. One to hook the chain onto his collar and the other to hook the chain to the wrought iron fence. (notice in closeup-the useless spring style hook that is now dangling) So now it takes 2 minutes to put him on the chain, but at least he won't be escaping (at least I hope not).
I should also mention that when we first got this dog, we installed electric invisible fencing to contain him. Houdini figured out that if he made a run for it, he could endure the pain of being zapped...and run free!

Cooperstown

I mentioned that I took Allen last week to Cooperstown, NY for a History Day competition. He and three other boys created a documentary on General Patton and they were chosen to compete in states! I am very proud of the boys. They did a great job...and they are just really good kids! Here is a view of the lake in Cooperstown at a 100 year old hotel that their presentation was held at.Here are the boys in front of the hotel. I told them to pose as if they were on the cover of an album. From left to right: Sam, Jared, Allen, Eric.
One of the cool thins of the day was that we all got free passes to all 3 museums in town. we spent a fair amount of time at the Farmer's Museum. I wanted to go to the Baseball Hall of Fame just to say I had gone there...but we were not able to. I had ridden along with Sam and his mother and they needed to get back home.
Cooperstown is a wonderful town to visit. I suggest you go there if you get a chance.

Hope Springs

Do you remember this post? Mr. and Mrs. F.F. Thompson and the children look a little more comfortable now that it is spring, don't you think? Especially with their tree full of beautiful blossoms. Mary is still tirelessly holding the tiny hospital in front of which they stand today (it is now offices and some senior apartments).

There was a terrible tragedy in our town yesterday. I do not wish to go into details. Please keep our community and schools in prayer and especially the family of a 17 year old boy. I wanted to post this picture on this day since it symbolizes to me how God brings hope in the midst of a cold dark season. Spring will always come again and with it the beautiful blossoms.

Alicia's 10th birthday party!

So you'd think that now that school is done for me that I would have time to relax a little, right? Nope! Not a chance! Busy busy busy!!! Crazy crazy crazy!

Last week I traveled to Cooperstown with my son and some of his classmates for the NY state history competition. We stayed over night and toured the Farmer's Museum. I traveled 3 hours home on Friday and immediately began cleaning the house preparing for Alicia's birthday party. It started at Michael's craft store with 9 girls (including two of my own) working on a craft. That was followed by pizza and presents. One little girl then went home since she was not feeling well. The remaining 8 came back to our house. On the way home, Audra was dropped off at a friend's house...leaving 7 little girls. At our house, they ran around outside playing tag and building up an appetite for brownie sundaes.I just love this interesting shot that Allen took from his upstairs bedroom window!
Most of the girls brought along an American Girl doll. One girl did not, but we had an extra for her. They spent quite a bit of time trashing my living room with doll clothes and such! Another little girl went home, leaving 6 to stay over night. Thanks to my husband, who has a voice of authority, all girls settled down nicely and were fairly rested the next morning so I could take them all to church! Two little girls were delivered back to their own families at our church. I delivered 2 more to their homes after church. The last little girl came home and waited for her parents to come and get her after they got out of their own church service.

Phew! It was really a lot of fun, but I feel like I deserve a medal for doing this! LOL!