Day 55

It was a beautiful Saturday - a little chilly, but clear and sunny. I was at the church until noon, returned home, and headed out again to get some shopping done for Sunday's meal. I did take another video of Old Mill Road and posted that on Facebook for Wade.  My final stop before I came home for good was here:

Young's Jersey Dairy - a family owned dairy farm that began in 1869. It grew and grew and in 1968 they opened their Dairy Store. Since then they have become FAMOUS for their delicious ice cream and now offer tours of the dairy barns, putt-putt golf, batting cages, catered picnics, pumpkin patches, cornfield mazes, haunted hayrides, and other family-fun activities. Today I got some ice cream for our dessert tomorrow. Picked out 3 small containers of different flavors so we can pick and choose. It was so packed today and that is usual during warm weather. Lots of bikers, bicycle riders and tourist-type people. The bike trail runs right alongside Young's Dairy. The line for the ice cream counter was literally out the door. Fortunately for me I could buy my ice cream in the gift shop and get out quickly. 
This afternoon I watched tv and napped and did nothing. Now it's 7:00 and I need to do laundry, clean up, and get things ready for tomorrow. Luckily I did most of my preparations for my Sunday School class last night/early this morning.
Wade wrote that he got rain today. Thunder and rain which was a first for him. But the big deal for him was that he got mail today. He got what I had sent about 2-3 weeks ago and it had a lot of food - goodies - snacks in there. Someone saw all the food stacked up and asked if he was selling it. He hid the cheese puffs and a box of Girl Scout Peanut Butter cookies, but the rest will be shared with everyone. I am glad to hear that he finally got that shipment. I sent another box last week. And I have a open box right now in my living room that I add to continuously. Today I added my People magazine, another bag of Cheetohs, some newspapers, and the Sunday bulletin from our church. Just little things that will remind him of home. I'll keep collecting bits and pieces and then send the box to him in about a week. 
So my shirt today - "I'm fine, he's fine. We're getting on just fine - and living in the routine that it's become." 

Day 54

Today was a Friday and it was a 'no-routine Friday'. I am definitely a routine-type of person. I thrive on sameness, doing things in order on my list of things to do. Without a routine, I do things helter-skelter and never feel like anything gets accomplished. So, on this 'no-routine Friday' I:

• paid the bills (today is payday and now, yes, I'm out of money until next payday, but at least all the bills are paid and I'm happy about that).
• made an appointment for a plumber to come out on Monday and repair the downstairs shower.
• made an appointment for the exterminator to come and spray outside the perimeter of the house on Tuesday
• talked with Wade for an hour on skype
• went to Walmart and bought me a new coffee maker plus other things I needed
• did some laundry
• watched some of the royal wedding (recorded)
• rested for a while this afternoon
• attended the Family Olympics at Hustead Elementary School tonight with Jaide & Jared. 

What else needs to be done? I still have to do preparations for the Sunday School class I am teaching this weekend. I will have the 1st and 2nd graders and we're learning about the Day of Pentecost from the book of Acts. I will have to do some reading and studying to get more familiar with what they would like taught. The good thing is I will be teaching the same subject/lesson every Sunday in May but with different age groups. That means I don't need to do a large amount of work each week because I will have done most of the preparation during the first week. 
But, right now, at 9:30 pm, I am just tired out - I had a fun time tonight, but it wore me out!! My little friend, Opie is with me in the chair and kneading my belly. Is he telling me it's too big? Probably, but still it's relaxing to me. I also love hearing him purring when he's with me. Somewhere in the house he lost his collar and now I can't hear where he is when I need to find him. Fortunately it's a break-away collar so it is probably a good thing it's lost and he was not hurt. I'm sure I'll come across it sometime soon when I'm cleaning. 
But, tonight I'm just tired out. Feeling old. Feeling like I still have lots to do. Usually my no-routine days make me feel more "scattered" and tired out. 
I had a wonderful talk with Wade this morning. He showed me parts of his "hootch" today - and it was so good to just see his face and hear his voice. We usually do most of our 'talking' through emails, but once a week that connection on skype is the greatest thing. Sorry that I didn't share much today. I'm just not feeling inspired. 

Day 53

Another busy, busy day today. I was up at 6:00 and watched the news and tried to prepare myself for the day. We had tornado warnings and watches, flash flood warnings and watches, and thunderstorm warnings and watches all through the night. I keep my tv on low and wear my headphones during the night so I can listen to weather reports and hopefully be aware if something is gonna happen. (Not really ....... it sounds good and vigilant, but I would probably sleep through anything, however, I DO listen and watch while I'm trying to fall asleep.) Fortunately, nothing big fell in our yard or on the house or cars. There were a couple of smaller branches spread across the lawn. But doors and windows are secure and everything is safe. 

I had my Women's Bible Study this morning which turned out pretty good. We discussed a "field trip" in August to see Beth Moore at the university in Columbus. I am sharing coordinating responsibilities with another women in my class. 

At noon, I went to the Marriott for a lunch provided by the Nehemiah Foundation. This group is an inter-faith organization that serves as an umbrella over many different ministries that function in Springfield. They are all good and worthy ministries working with at-risk children, or delinquent teens, or homeless, or misplaced individuals and families, or child mentoring, as well as adult mentoring, or other programs such as Hannah House. Nehemiah Foundation provides funding to these ministries and this was one of their fundraisers - and here I thought it was a "free lunch"!! But they're right, there's no such thing as a free lunch. 

When that was over, I headed north to pick up my little man cat who had surgery yesterday. But before I got there I discovered I needed gas.

Yikes!! This is it! The highest I think I have ever paid for gas. Holy cow!! And I was on empty. So I simply did the most sane thing I could do. I pulled out my Speedway credit card and just filled up the tank. And like Scarlet, I will think about it tomorrow! 

This was the damage at the gas station, never mind what I paid at the vet's. But as Wade would say, "It's only money." So yep, it IS only money and I just need to move on. I am fortunate to have a credit card, I am lucky to have a car, a home, a wonderful, loving family and the best 4 friends (I could ever have) living with me right now, PLUS a wonderful, wonderful husband.

So, Opie is home and seems pretty good, considering. He was super thirsty and hungry when I brought him inside. I wonder if he ate at all while he was at the vets. But I am confident that everything will be fine. I really, really like my new cat. I am very happy with him choosing us!

I had a nice talk with Tiffany this evening during her commute home. I was glad to hear from her too. It's been a while, but she's been super busy lately at work.  

Then I headed to the church for my Spiritual Leadership Development Group. Tonight I had to give the Life Lesson and I spoke on "Integrity". My two biblical examples were Joseph in Genesis 39 and Abigail in 1 Samuel 25. I spoke for about 18 minutes and felt satisfied with what I shared. I was the first one in the group to speak and now I can relax for the rest of the year and listen to one of the others in the class speak at each meeting. Phew!!!! I felt like "spiking" my notes and handouts when I got home. I chose to go first, so that I would not have to stress about doing something as good as or better than the person/people before me. Good decision. Good advise for anyone else! Go first and then there's not as much pressure. 

I got Wade's update and formatted it to put on his blog. I will post that later tonight - probably at 11:00 or 11:30. 

All afternoon we've had clouds on and off but the rain held off until after I got home tonight at 9:30 and then it just poured like crazy. I believe I parked the car well enough that it shouldn't leak on the carpet again.

I am not quite ready to go to bed yet, but will soon and tomorrow I look forward to talking with Wade on skype. 

Day 52

"Don't cry because 

it's over ...

Smile because 

it happened."

Dr. Seuss

These words make me think about Wade. He is one of those people that always can see the bright side.....find the good in anything. Create pleasure in his mind that calms and delights him. Share uplifting and encouraging words to anyone that needs it.  
Lots of nights he couldn't sleep and would lay in bed awake. Now, if it was me, I would be tossing and turning and wake up absolutely cranky and grumpy, but he would say, "No, I just laid there and thought about my life." And he was happy. 
I can remember times when he helped with housework and how he could find the "fun" in each thing he did. Once I came upon him humming while he was vacuuming the floor. He said he was synchronizing his 'hum tones' with the tone coming from the vacuum. 
A fun past time for him is the "What If Game". And it's usually "What if....I won the lottery?...what would I do?" He gets great pleasure from planning all that he would do with that money. And he loves to play the game with other people too. He said the greatest fun was just thinking about it - because we realize we would never win (especially since we don't play). But what fun to imagine what it would be like.
When our kids were little, we had a little vacation in the mountains and we wound up snowed-in overnight in a trailer. Well, he created a game using the ceiling fan and toothpaste. It's one of my fun memories.  
His creativity is over the top and continuously amazes me. And when he is quiet, I can almost hear the wheels turning in that head of his. He has written plays, directed lots of funny, funny videos, rewritten new words to familiar songs, and found so many other ways to amuse and delight me and other people. 
Last year, he would wake up early on weekend mornings and plan intricate motorcycle routes so that we would see beautiful sights on back roads, taste food from out-of-the-way restaurants, and rock back and forth on curvy roads. By the time I woke up he had the whole trip planned and memorized in his head. I can't even remember my own phone number sometimes, but he had all these intricate turns and roads etched in his mind. 
And for now, he's amusing and amazing other people for a while. And I'm smiling not just because of what we shared, but I'm also smiling because I'm looking forward to what we'll get to share in the future.  =)

Day 51

Can you smell that? That's the smell of fresh cut grass. The first cut grass of the year.

Jason was kind enough to pull out the new lawn-mower and run it through the dog's yard. The grass was getting really, really high. I went out this evening after he had finished and the smell was heavenly! 

The sky has cleared up after they had promised thunder-storms and hail. We may still get some later, but right now the sky is clear and beautiful. I shared a few quiet minutes outside with my dogs.

I had a pretty good day. I had a hair appoint-ment this morning that went from 9:15 to about 11:30. A couple hours of resting at home and off to the school for Sonshine Club. Some of the kids are getting so wound up - must be that summer is almost here.

I am getting in a mood to go buy a couple flats of flowers and plant them beside my front porch. But I seem to do this each year when the weather get nicer. Sometimes I feel like it would be wonderful to have a vegetable garden and I've tried, but I usually end up spending way more money than if I just went to a farmer's market and bought them. So I need to force myself to just wait until the urge passes. 

This tire was dis-covered down below and brought up by Jaide & Jared to tie to a tree and make a swing.
-------------------------------------------------------- 
Again, today, Wade is doing good. He's still busy and happy. It's been raining some there, but he says that it's a strange kind of rain. Like giant liquid hail stones falling. And when it's over, nothing is wet. It does sound strange.
Not much else to share tonight. Been a good day, but just uneventful. 

Day 50

It has been a great Monday. I determined that I was gonna finish my lesson that I need to teach on Thursday night. It's making me feel a little intimidated. I am speaking to the senior pastor and 10 other church leaders. But I took all my notes, spread them out over the kitchen table and put together my lecture and also prepared a one page outline to hand out. I tested it for time and it came in around 17 minutes which will be perfect. Later this afternoon I finished another job I needed to finish and I submitted it to the Children's Pastor. It feels so good to be able to check those items off my list. After that I had tutoring, hand bell rehearsal, and a Hannah House Board of Director's meeting. It's been a long day and I'm looking forward to getting a good sleep tonight.

It rained almost all day today, but this picture was taken last week some-time. We've got dandelions growing all over the place right now. And at night I can hear the frogs chirping and croaking already. And this rain and the warmer weather is gonna cause the grass to grow even more. It was almost 70 degrees today. 
Wade had a busy day and a good day. Someone sent him a package of newspapers and magazine so he is very pleased with that. He said he's got enough that he can share with others too. 

Tiffany wrote that Shelby has braces now and has posted pictures of that on facebook. She appears very happy with her new look. 
I only had about 3 hours of sleep last night so I'm gonna watch some DWTS and then head off to bed. I'm looking forward to tomorrow because I'm getting my hair cut and frosted in the morning. :o) 

Day 49

Easter Sunday. Easter is my most all-time favorite holiday. Christmas is good, but Easter holds the promise of expectation, renewal, redemption, and victory. I used to love going to the Sunrise Services when we were attending other churches because starting in darkness and ending the worship in the sunlight only heightened the celebration of praise. 
I took lots of pictures of our church this morning, but they are currently floating around in the air between my cell phone and my computer. I'll add them to the blog when I finally receive them.  (They arrived and I added two here and the rest on my facebook page, as well as a brief video of the choir singing)

We had a great Sunday School this morning. Peggy Hardacre mentioned how much she enjoys Wade's email updates. People still comment how surprised they are that Wade can write funny things! Also Sherry Shively asked about Wade too. 

Mike Parks taught a great class on the death and resurrec-tion of Christ. He showed a video clip of Steve Harvey speaking on how he would introduce Jesus if he was given the opportunity. It's on youtube, I believe - look it up. Then at the end of the time he showed another youtube video about Rick and Dick Hoyt. Dick is the dad - his son, Rick is a disabled quadraplegic. On a request from Rick, Dick started running races pushing his son in a wheelchair. His son felt a wonderful freedom from the experience, so his dad continued racing with him going on to marathons, and finally the ironman triathalon. He has participated in over 6 ironmans. Such an inspiring story. Lots of sniffling going on in the class this morning. 

@ 1985

Church was great this morning too. Andrew Angles was in church as well. He came home from the hospital on Good Friday and attended church. He is still in a wheelchair and he will be for quite a while, but he looks great. At the end of the service, the choir sang Handel's "Messiah". 

Pastor Mark said that most people associate that song with Christmas, but it was originally written to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. So he requested we all stand and experience this wonderful song at the proper time with the proper reverence. The choir did an awesome job. 

We had a nice Easter lunch - dinner after church today: roasted leg of lamb, turkey roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, potatoes au gratin, asparagus, rolls, deviled eggs, and for dessert we had a Cold Stone Creamery Cookie Dough Ice Cream Pie. So good. After dinner the kids went out hunting Easter Eggs. This year there were also eggs hidden down below and one held a coupon that could be redeemed for $10 but it hasn't been found yet. 
Wade had a good Easter too. He actually got mail today and received an Easter card from a friend of Tiffany's. This lady is wonderful and her ministry is sending cards and letters to uplift and encourage so many people. She is such a blessing. Wade appreciated it very much. He also received Starbucks mocha coffee packets so he can truly enjoy his coffee in the mornings now. He wrote that he feels he accomplished a lot today and is satisfied right now.
This afternoon I did a lot of nothing and that's partly because I know I have sooo much to do this week and I'm catching my breath before I have to take off "running" tomorrow morning. 

Happy Easter to all. 

He is risen!  He is risen, indeed! 

Day 48

It's the Saturday before Easter and I've had a pretty full day. My sweet dog Angel woke me up at 4:00 with tummy troubles and needed to be let out....and in ....... and out..... and in...... etc. She's better now, but when she chews and eats plastic, this is what happens to her. I slept from 5:00 to 7:00 while she was outside so I was not awake the whole time. 
At 8:00, Jason and I went to Home Depot and bought this little beauty: 

It's still too wet to do much good out there yet, but it will be nice when the weather dries up some.  After Home Depot, Jason and I had a quick breakfast at Bob Evans. That was nice! 
We had one of Wade's co-workers come over to look at some plumbing problems. They aren't solved yet, but we think we have some temporary fixes that will work for a week or so until Rodney can give us a hand. 
This afternoon at the church, we held the Easter Egg Gathering which is run by the Children's Pastor, Patty Rose. She is a great person and I enjoy being her friend. She's young, energetic, and full of fun, un-ordinary ideas. Before the actual egg gathering, there were "stations" so the children would have somewhat of a learning experience. I was asked to direct the "Sweet Celebration" Station and given a paper with directions. Using a few ordinary food items, we would re-create the scene where Jesus rode a donkey into the city of Jerusalem. 

I made 120 Jesus cookies from sugar cookie dough. I found a small gingerbread boy cookie cutter and baked on Wednesday and Friday. 

I put together donkey kits of 3 marshmallows, 6 pretzel sticks, and one fruit roll-up.

Here are 120 donkey kits, ready to go. They were finished on Thursday. I also made some practice donkeys:

This one didn't want to stand up for very long. 
I had a helper today too. Her name was Bea Jay and she is Pastor Patty's aunt. And she was so much fun to be around. She is just as wild and crazy and wacky as Pastor Patty. I liked her a lot and she kept us all entertained. Here is one of her samples of a donkey:

She included eyes, a belly button?, a blanket and a tail. She was wonderful with the kids. We saw three groups of children in a period of 30 minutes. They had a good time - we had a good time. At the end of the sessions, Bea Jay came up to me and said she had a present for me but she waited until the kids were gone so that they wouldn't copy her funny idea:

So see - it's not only little boys that have bathroom humor!! 
The egg gathering was a great success - we have the wonderful opportunity to see so many of the neighborhood children. Events like this (or the Living Christmas Tree) just make them feel that much more comfortable with the church and they will be more likely to step through the doors again for a Sunday School class or a church service. 

I did have leftover donkey kits and some of those will be shipped to Iraq for Wade and his new friends to assemble too! 
A busy, eventful day and now I'm relaxing with the movie, "The Ten Commandments" although it ends at 11:44. I'm recording it to watch the rest at a later time. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wade is fine. He wrote me a few times this morning. He got quite a few responses to his last update from friends and coworkers and has been enjoying reading messages and writing back. He also "copies" me on his responses, so that I can read what is going on with people that I know too.   

Day 47

Fridays are good. I like Fridays. I get to do things that I look forward to all week long. This morning I knew that I would get to talk with Wade on Skype. I got up and finished baking my Jesus cookies. I needed 120 for tomorrow (I'll talk about that tomorrow) and then I packed up some cookies to ship to Wade and the remainder I will take to my Sunday School class. Every Easter and the Sunday before Christmas, our Sunday school class goes all out with food, food, and more food. This is a most unusual class. There are over 120 people in the class. It's held in the gym at the church. Now every Sunday of the year, they provide coffee and teas and 3-4 people sign up to bring in "treats". So in this class, it seems that all we do it eat. But on those two special Sundays, they provide a full-blown breakfast in there. It's amazing how much food there is..... it's obscene how much food there is!! I'll take my Jesus cookies, just because I don't need to have about 2-3 dozen cookies hanging around in the house with me. 

This is the view at my kitchen sink. It's surprising how fast the bushes are growing. The whole yard is turning green so quickly.  

So back to Fridays, I finished my cookies and then got on Skype and talked with Wade for almost 50 minutes. Such a great time. We still do most of our major conversations through email, but it's nice to get to hear his voice and see his face for this time on Friday. He's doing really good. 

Friday night I watch movies with Jaide & Jared. Tonight I fixed chicken nuggets and potato wedges from Wal-Mart. I also got a bag of caramel pieces. These are a new product that I found on the shelves with the chocolate chips. They are just about the size of chocolate chips, except they are little round balls. I discovered that if you take one of the caramel pieces and eat it with a piece of popcorn - it's like eating caramel corn!! We watched the movie "Tangled" and ate our dinner and popcorn. We had some thunderstorms tonight but not enough to mess with the satellite dish reception, which is good. 

So now, I'm just relaxing in my chair. I've got homework to do and I'll probably work on a little bit of that. I have a lesson to teach on Thursday to my Spiritual Leadership Development Group. My lesson is on "Integrity & Excellence". I'm a little nervous because I need to talk for 15 to 20 minutes. But hopefully I can tie all my thoughts and notes together for Thursday night. Keeping my fingers crossed. I'll feel better when it's behind me. 

Looks like he has adopted Wade's chair

 Opie is getting bolder each day. He came out and visited with both Jaide and Jared tonight. The dogs are getting used to having him around and they usually are okay being close to him. We are all in the bedroom together at night and there are never any problems. And Opie does tend to wander through the house while we're sleeping, but he keeps out of trouble.  

Day 46

Today was a beautiful Thursday. I had a Women's Bible Study this morning at the church. We started a new study, "Made To Crave" by Lysa TerKeurst. It's a 6 week study and I think it's going to be good. Lysa is also president of the Proverbs 31 Ministries and I receive her daily devotionals in my email. On my way out the door of the church, this tree just screamed at me to take a picture. Our trees at home are nowhere near this flowery, but when I drive around Springfield I see them all over. So pretty! 
I did some shopping and got the remainder of the supplies I needed for my donkey kits (I'll talk about those and the Jesus cookies on Saturday), some Easter candy, and some basic groceries. As I was walking through the store this particular purse was calling to me ------->

Don't you love how all these inanimate items can have a dialog with me? (trees... purses...) So, the color caught my eye and I convinced myself that I needed that new color, a wild color, to carry around with me this spring. So thanks, Wade for the new Easter purse!! The black one will be retired to the closet for another time. 
At 2:00 I went to the school and met with my mentee. We played Bananagrams with Pastor Patty and her mentee. It was a fun time and the hour was over very quickly. I was glad to hear that Amanda and her siblings will be coming to church on Saturday for the Easter Egg Gathering. Amanda and her family have been attending Maiden Lane Church for about a month now, and I am very happy to see her there on Sundays. 
Wade sent me his weekly update with pictures and I formatted it to his blog site. He wrote a good one this week - very entertaining - meaning funny AND informative. I love reading his writings. I will officially post his blog late this evening and announce it on facebook - probably around 10:30 or 11:00. He will still send out the mass emailing in the morning with the same information.

 And my little friend, Kelly, is telling everyone to have a great Friday!! 

Day 45

We had some pretty strong storms go through our area last night. I was awake until about 1:30 watching the local station posting where the storms were and the location of possible tornados. I fell asleep for about half an hour and when I woke up I could hear the wind, hail, and rain. I got up to look out through a back window and watched for the lightning - I was not disappointed. My satellite TV reception was knocked out so I just went back to bed and slept.  When I woke up this morning, however, we had no power. I didn't see anything in our yard that might have been the cause. In a little bit I noticed a car going very slowly by the house and then stop and turn around. So I grabbed my camera and walked down the street - this is what I saw:

 A tree had fallen across the road at our neighbor's house and taken out the electrical wires with it. The electric company was on the other side of the tree so I had no doubt that we would eventually get power. Apparently, the tree went down sometime after 6:00 in the morning. The storm had actually passed by then, so it must have just been soft ground that caused the tree to fall. It was totally uprooted. Peggy drove the kids to school because the buses could not get through. She brought me back a hot cup of coffee from Speedway. We sat and talked until the power came back on about 12:30. 

This picture shows a little run-off area that is in the ditch near our house. Normally there is no water there, but this little stream goes underneath the road and down the other side to catch up with the creek down below and behind our houses. It was flowing pretty good today. 
I was supposed to bake 120 "Jesus" cookies this morning but I had no power. I got busy this afternoon and had 99 done by 4:30, when I had to stop to do other things. The remainder of the dough is in the fridge and I'll do more baking tomorrow. I'll discuss the Jesus cookies on a different day. 
This evening I had a special kids' music rehearsal at church. Regular services are cancelled this week due to it being Holy Week. There will be a Maundy Thursday service tomorrow night, but I won't be able to make it. 
Wade wrote and said that there was a reddish tinge to the air over there today and they got some rain. He's getting very excited about new and different projects that are being presented to him. He's looking forward to completing those and thereby making a difference in someone else's life - which is what he said he was hoping to do. I am looking forward to hearing more about what's going on. I told him I have sent two care packages on Monday that have lots of goodies for him to eat and share. He's hoping that they will arrive soon. 

Day 44

Crooks & Kids

I woke up this morning to booming thunder and pouring rain. I absolutely love listening to storms coming through. They're exciting to me and I feel kind of sad when they finally blow away. I remember one storm in Cartersville, where we stood in the driveway and the lighting and thunder seemed so close it almost took my breath away. So awesome. We were also in Cartersville when Hurricane Opal (1995) came visiting and took down some of our pines, but kept the house intact. Again, in 2008, Hurricane Ike came all the way up here to this house in Ohio. We sat outside on the porch and watched the trees swaying and creaking in the strong wind. I was in awe of how powerful this storm was. It probably was not a smart thing to do, but we did it anyway. We lost trees (as did just about everyone here) and we were without power for over a week. Power being EVERYTHING - water, electric, bathrooms!! I filled jugs of water at work and brought them home every night just for flushing the toilets. The first thing I did when we finally got our power back was take a long, hot shower. 

This morning I wrote an email to my favorite cousin, Tomi Sue - she is just 7 months older than I am and this month is her birthday. We didn't really grow up together, but became friends again during our teen years and we still keep in touch. I keep trying to convince her to get a Facebook account, but she hasn't yet.

My next action this morning was to go do some work at Hannah House. And I thought I would share a picture here:

This is the crack house that is across the street. This is my view when I am sitting at my desk. This picture was actually taken through the slats of blinds - so no one actually saw me take the picture - [relax! everybody]. Nothing was happening over there today, but some days it's very busy. I hardly ever go out in the front of the house. Our entrance is in the back.  When I finished all the bill paying, bank reconciliations, and check writing, I took off.

Snyder Park school was holding their annual volunteer apprecia- tion luncheon. They have it catered by Lone Star Restaurant and the teachers bring in the most delicious desserts. I mentor Amanda at this school and will be completing my 2nd year with her through Kids Hope USA. Each of the 40-something mentors from our church received these picture frames with a picture of their child inside. It is a very nice gift, and I truly appreciate it and the wonderful lunch I had today.

I went home and had two hours of down time before I needed to go to my next event. On Tuesdays, the elementary school that Jared goes to has Sonshine Club after school. It is run by a group of local churches. Today we handed out t-shirts that I'm assuming were donated. 

I am counting 57 kids in this picture and that sounds about right. I had to take numerous shots because it's kinda hard to get 57 kids to be still enough to take a picture!! But this a good shot. The kids are from Kindergarten age up though 4th grade. It's a frantic, hectic time but it only lasts an hour so I just hang on for the ride and try to have fun while I'm there too. It reminds me of a saying I've heard before: "You may be the only Bible or example of Christ that some people ever see in their lives". My goal is to make an impression on one or more children to impact their lives at some future date. And I don't expect to see it myself, I trust that God is working in their hearts too.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

As usual, Wade is making his presence known in the land of Iraq. He is wowing them with his engineering and managerial skills and is taking on more and more projects. I had no doubt that they would be very happy with his work ethic and willingness to take on just about any job. I am glad that he is keeping busy. At the beginning of the week he hadn't started his weekly update and was concerned whether he would have anything to say. 

But I believe that he's got things worked out in his mind and will be ready to share on Friday. Now he's busy all day, eats dinner and then may be awake for a little while before he goes to bed and starts all over again in the morning. He's a real worker bee!!

Day 43

I can hear Wade in my mind saying, "I love my house." And I know that he does. It's such a big house and the property around it is so beautiful. And the road that runs in front is so pretty in all seasons. Spring has beautiful colors of whites, pinks, lime greens as the trees wake up from their winter sleep. During the summer, the tree cover is so dense, it's almost too dark to wear sunglasses on Old Mill Road and it's such a deep, dark shade of green. The fall has those beautiful shades of orange and red. And during the winter when the branches are bare, we are treated to glimpses of deer and other animals searching for food. 

Not only do we have vistas up at street level, but our property goes down a hill and back across a "valley" almost to the creek. I've been down below a few times even though I get nervous because I don't believe my balance is good enough to climb up and down. Jason works down below and cuts and hauls logs up these hills for his wood-burning stove downstairs. What a chore that is! Right now the bottom land is flooded over and we're expecting more rain tonight and tomorrow. Our dogs sometimes spy deer walking down below and they go crazy barking. I keep a pair of binoculars by the back door so I can look at sights down there. One time I watched three turkey vultures flying around for almost an hour. 

One of our uncompleted projects is the stairs at the other end of the property that will go down below too. Maybe someday. But we'll be here for a long time and we'll have time to finish that and start other projects. 
Jason & Peggy & the kids camp out in the yard during the summer. It seems like a campground out there. Such a great place and I agree with Wade - I love our house! 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Wade is pretty busy with workers and projects over there at Umm Qasr and I'm not getting the amount and volume of emails that I was getting earlier. But that is good. I know he's busy and he's feeling better so I'm happy about that. 
I shipped off two care packages to him this morning, hopefully it won't take too long to reach him. I keep a box in my living room and just drop things in there that I think he will like: newspapers, magazines, snacks, church bulletins, any little touches of home, or something specific that he has requested. Every couple of weeks I tape it up and send it off.
I went to hand bell rehearsal tonight and Faith and Jeannie send their hellos. Chris Wolgast asked if he was feeling better now. I stopped at Taco Bell and had a taco for dinner tonight. I'm thinking of going to bed soon - I feel tired tonight. 

Day 42

5/17/43
Hollywood, California

Phillipines

25 August 45

Dear Folks,

   Now that we are no longer riding the high seas maybe I can find some spare time to write some letters. There just wasn't anything to write about on the ship. Of course we got the news every day but you folks had already heard it before we did. We had only been here one day before we got mail so it wasn't so bad. I got several letters from you and Jerry. One from my friends in England, one from Cecil and Jack D. I was glad to get in touch with Jack again but then I read in the clippings you sent that he was back home so now I don't know where to write his letters to. Cecil is doing just fine and is at midshipman's school at Notre Dame. He really is getting around only in the higher ups than me. But I guess you could really say I have seen plenty of the world. At least I have seen plenty to suit me. But I am just waiting until I get back home. 

   I suppose before I go any further you will want to know a little more about the land over here. We were in Manila but it is a pretty deserted looking place. Of course we were only at the waterfront and along the railroad tracks and that is never the nicer part of town But the whole city is pretty well bombed out. The people live in little shacks built on stilts to keep the water off the ground floor. It is the rainy season right now and it rains on the average of once every four hours, and then just to break the monotony it rains in between. We can buy lots of bananas, coconuts, pineapple, and mangos over here. But they are very high priced. Eight bananas for one peso (fifty cents). Most of the land we saw was under cultivation and the principal crop was rice. We saw it in almost every stage from before it is planted until it is ready to be harvested. All the fields were terraced to permit irrigation and it showed that a lot of work had been spent to build it up. We saw lots of water buffalos working in the fields. The people are very short and of course dark skinned. Most of them can speak a little English which was picked up from the GI's. Every GI is "Joe" to them and they run about shouting "Hello Joe" to everyone they see. Their clothes are mostly misfits and used GI clothing. My Cpt. got a kick out of the way the little boys dress over here. About half of them wear nothing but a shirt which reaches to their knees. And about half of the shirts have been outgrown and as a result reach to their waist. We also saw these big hats they wear to keep off the rain. One of the men in my squad is a former school teacher and he met a Phillipine school teacher. She had had 3 years of college and can speak English much better than some of us can. Due to the fact they don't use so many slang expressions. Anyway she invited him to visit her school and see how the schools are run over here. Well, I guess this just about takes care of this side of the world. 

   I got the pictures you sent and Dad seems to have aged quite a bit since I saw him last. But I guess not too much because he seems to have put on a little weight in the well known places. Jenifer seems to be growing up very fast. Guess I won't be able to recognize her when I get back. But after all it has been several months since we have seen each other and I guess I may have changed too.Of course I don't notice it in myself so much because I usually see myself every day. I am just fine and managed to put on weight on the ship. But I won't promise how long I'll keep it. Tell Dad to take it easy and I'll be back to help him next spring, I hope. Well, I guess I have rattled on long enough for now so I'll start in on a letter to Cecil. I'll write again as soon as I can but the evenings are so short.It is too dark to write at 7:30. Love to all, Jean 

---------------------------------------------------------------------

It's a slow news day today so I decided to share a letter my dad sent to his parents during World War II. My dad was born 1/19/24 so you can figure out how old he was in the picture and when he was in Manila. His first son, Michael was born in February of 1945 and he had not seen him yet either. Also, just a note, I DID NOT spell Jenifer wrong - his sister's name was actually spelled that way. His parents had a farm in Iowa and he was looking forward to going back and helping on the farm. He actually took over the farming for quite a few years and finally "retired" from farming in 1959 and moved to California with his wife and 4 children (I was the youngest). At that time, farming was just not a profitable occupation and California seemed more promising to them.   

Now for current news - had a great morning of Sunday School and church. Relaxed during the afternoon. For dinner tonight Jason and Peggy shared a feast of chicken from Lee's (way, WAY better than KFC.) It was great, thank you. Now I'm just relaxing again and planning what jobs I need to take care of tomorrow. 

Wade had a good busy day. He's got hot coffee, internet, and enough work to keep him occupied. Busy-ness is good for him. Lots of people asked about him today at church - he is missed and prayed for. 

Day 41

Today is Saturday and this has been a pretty uneventful Saturday. I had a children's musical rehearsal this morning beginning at 9:00 and going until 12:00. There were about twenty 8, 9, & 10-year olds. Not only did we need them to listen, we needed them to sing, dance, and use arm movements, which takes a lot of work (for all of us) and patience (for the adults.) The actual performance will be on May 15th, and we need all the rehearsals we can get. It seems like all I did was nag, nag, nag this morning. When we were done, I took Jared out for lunch at Wendy's. He got a kid's meal and I got a fish sandwich and coke. There was about 1/2 cup of tartar sauce on my sandwich which was pretty gross to me. I scraped off as much as I could and ate the fish and bread. 
I got an email this morning from Wade and he said he was just about ready to go "home" and rest. He had a pretty busy day working on plumbing and getting dirty. Hmmm..... perhaps he thinks he's a 8, 9, or 10-year old too. After that email I didn't hear anything else, so I'm assuming that he is getting some much needed rest. I'll expect to see a note or two tomorrow morning when I wake up. 

We have a new visitor to our yard. This cutie has adopted us, I guess, this year. He's been hanging outside my kitchen window. He flutters up and down the kitchen window as if he's looking for an opening. When I sneak up to the window to take a picture he flies to the tree further out in the yard. But he's been with us for at least 24 hours now. I may need to get some bird seed. I get guilty feelings about not providing a meal for my new friend. I imagine that he's looking into my kitchen trying to figure out what he can eat.  
There's really not much to share tonight, so I'm going to stop and post what I have. 

Day 40

I'm not going to write a whole lot tonight. I'm kinda tied up with some grandkids right now. It's Friday night and our tradition is movies at Grammie's home. If Grampee was home, this is what he usually does in his chair:

He would come home from a week's worth of working and just zone out in his chair. Before grandkids, we would often fix ourselves a big plate of spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread and just hibernate in our peaceful, quiet living room. It would be our favorite time of the week. For a while when we lived in California and I was working, we might go out for a quiet dinner and I would actually have a glass of wine. I'm not a drinker, for personal reasons, but would sip at a glass of wine and try to relax a bit. 
Well tonight we had pizza:

Papa Johns had a special (since it's 'tax day'). A 3-topping large was $10.40. I get half with extra cheese and half with pepperoni and between the three of us we enjoyed almost the whole pizza. And the movie of choice tonight is:

Toy Story 3. I already saw this last Sunday with Sam & Shelby for the first time, but I got it on Netflix so I thought that Jaide & Jared would enjoy it too. It's always fun to watch Pixar movies again and again. There is so much that you can miss during the first watching. 
The weather has turned a little cooler and the rain is coming. One of the trees in my backyard is turning white with blossoms. Very pretty. It's actually two trees growing in the same space. One blooms earlier than the other so I have the benefit of a beautiful sight twice. 
Today, I also skyped with Wade for almost an hour. Again, what a great invention skype is! I sure do enjoy talking with Wade on there. He told a joke that was so funny we both couldn't stop laughing and I was practically crying! 
I paid bills today and took a nap this afternoon. I had taken a pain pill last night and I think I was still kind of groggy today so I didn't do much else. But the good news is when I woke up this morning, I could bend my knee with no pain and I can walk without lurching or limping. So I'm positive my knee is healing. Now I just need to watch where and how I walk. Wearing heels and not paying attention were my downfall........ ba-dum-dum!!!