Winter
December 22, 2007-March 21, 2008
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Winter December 22, 2007-March 21, 2008 |
Back to the Lydia page.
Here are a couple of other quick links: Lydia’s Family Tree page is set up with Lydia as the focus, and includes relatives back to the 1600’s. There will be lots more to come in the days ahead! Also, Lydia’s Daddy has put together a great deal of information on her late grandfather: please feel free to visit the online memorial for J.D. Brattin.
Time slips by. Indeed, it’s slipping away even as I try to read through this monstrosity of a year we’ve had to try to boil it down to a top-whatever list. There are many things that will have to be skipped altogether, and many others that will have to be given short shrift. Even after looking it over several times, I’m not sure that I’ve got the list “right,” but I guess it will do. After all, if I ponder it any longer, it’s going to get in the way of recording things for 2008!
Plunging right in, then:
15. Target Children’s Book Festival
This was a spectacular get-together at Kensington Metropark, and makes our list primarily because Lydia got to meet with a favorite children’s music band (the Doodlebops), and also got her photo in the online version of the Detroit Free Press. There were other acts as well (Jordan Pruitt, Jose-Luis Orozco, some children’s book authors), including one where Lydia got to go onstage with several other children to help perform.
It seems a shame to leave others out, but here are some of the also-rans of the one-day vacation nature: Jump City, the Festifools Parade, the zoo/restaurant trips with Uncle Marvin and Aunt Katie, a Mud Hens game, the Independence Day parade, Huron River Days, the African Lion Safari, the Art Fair, a Tigers game, the Ypsilanti Heritage Festival, the State Fair, the Program for Exceptional Families’ picnic, the Astronomy at the Beach gathering, Conner Prairie, Chelsea’s Oktoberfest, Wiard’s Orchards, three events at Matthaei Botanical Gardens (Earth Day, a raptor display, and the Trifecta party), and the Curious Kids’ Museum.
14. Lydia’s Talents
This was a great year for Lydia to try out new things. Among these were taking a tap dancing class, taking part in a Science Olympiad (her field was geology, titled “Rock Hunter”), taking part in her first-ever Awana Bible Quizzing contest, learning how to play the recorder, and teaching herself how to whistle. She also was developing some proficiency with her video camera before it died. Moreover, she conquered the Zip Line at SpringHill Camp, milked cows, roller skated and went fishing for the first time, took an active part in fundraising for Trifecta (the development arm of our horseback riding group). She maintained her position within TRI, and did some new things like sometimes riding off-rope. She performed “Rock Island” at a talent show, did a karaoke version of “Chattanooga Choo-choo” at a picnic, and sang with an adult church choir.
Perhaps her greatest talent remained her ability to quickly befriend people, especially girls around her age. We saw this at our new church (Olivia), the church we visited in North Carolina (Maria), when visiting old friends near Indianapolis (Elizabeth), and even at viewings (Kalynn, granddaughter of Shelby Strange, and Jessica, granddaughter of Betty Wolverton). She also acquired friends at school, at day camp, and the summer camps, but mostly adults at the latter.
She’s also shown a considerable talent for growing, as she has now easily eclipsed an older male cousin with whom it had always been a close race before. She tends to pop the eyes of anyone who sees her for the first time in any number of months.
While we’re at it, maybe we should mention that this was the year that Daddy successfully started a campfire, caught a fish, and walked on stilts. Most boys conquer these by adolescence, but Daddy waited until age 42+ to get them right.
13. Disney on Ice
Lydia made her first trip to the renowned sports arena The Palace of Auburn Hills (it was Daddy’s second time there and Mommy’s third), as we watched a delightful performance of Disney on Ice; the individual program was titled “Princess Wishes.” Seven of the Disney movies were partially acted out—with a few other characters sneaking in cameos—and the music and artistry were magnificent.
12. Greenfield Village
This was one of our pleasantest day trips, of which we had many. It was a first-time visit for Lydia, and only the second for Mommy and Daddy. It was made particularly memorable by Lydia getting to record her voice on an old Edison phonograph, and by her posing for a picture with special visitor Ernie Harwell—and she was the only one who got to do either of these.
Some other celebrities Lydia got to meet this year include naturalist Peter Schriemer, former Detroit Piston John Long, new Miss Washtenaw County Alicia Jaros, and entertainers Stan Saylor, Jerry Jacoby, and Keke Palmer, with a footnote case for Cogs the Robot.
11. Car Changes
This was the year we traded in two vehicles—the Bullfrog (a Pontiac Bonneville that was threatening to die at any moment) and the Camel (a Dodge Caravan that actually had died many months before), and got the Ballerina (a Ford Contour with some life left in it). We’ve been pretty pleased with the latter, but are usually careful to pick up a quickie rental if we’re planning one of our big trips—we did, however, take her on our return trip to SpringHill Camp, as well as to Conner Prairie.
10. Summer Camps
Lydia had a second session at SpringHill Camp, way up in Evart, this summer, and this time for a full week. Shortly after, she had a week at Somerset Camp as well. She has many wonderful memories of these experiences, perhaps the favorite of which is her friendship with musician/speaker/general nutball Jerry Jacoby. SpringHill was given an extra dose of “specialness,” not only because it was a freebie won in a drawing, but by our concurrent trip to Lake Michigan, where we climbed the Little Sable Point lighthouse and acknowledged the almost-anniversary of Mommy and Daddy’s engagement.
9. Family Milestones
Lydia acquired some new extended family members: her cousin Alisha had a boy (Dreyden) on 15 February, and her cousin Nicki had a girl (Crysta) on 20 May. Further, Daddy’s cousin Adam became the father of young Brennan on 11 October. All of these were first-borns. There was also one marriage, Daddy’s cousin Joshua doing the honors on 2 September. We would be remiss in not mentioning the big get-togethers for Great-Grandma Crabtree’s birthday, for cousin Chey’s high school graduation party, and for the pre-Christmas Christmas at Aunt Laura’s. Mommy and Daddy celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary on 5 June. And, oh yes, Mommy celebrated the big 5-0 in November. Not that anyone believes it—she has to get out her driver’s license to prove she’s even passed her thirties.
The family also lost one member with the death of Lydia’s great-uncle Bob Burrell. Others of our acquaintance—mostly through church—who passed away this year include Casey Arnett, Clayton Lucas, Harold Wolverton, Shelby Strange, David Ashburn, Bruce Newell, Roger Wanty, Art Aseltine, Jayne Gibson, Tina Mast, Adele Himes, and Betty Wolverton. These produced five viewings and three funerals that we attended. Rest in peace, all.
8. Holiday World
This was a mighty trip that we took at the end of June and beginning of July, as we traveled the full length of Ohio, slid down the hypotenuse of Kentucky, and dashed back into southern Indiana for a full day’s fun at the Holiday World theme park. The next day we drove back, and spent several enjoyable hours in Indianapolis, at the Children’s Museum and visiting Mommy’s old home and church. We’d been hoping to get to each of these places for a number of years now. We even managed a return to the Children’s Museum in December.
We had three other multi-day trips this year, to North Carolina (#3 on the list), to Chambersburg for Thanksgiving, and to Indianapolis to visit friends and pay respects at a viewing. The Pennsylvania trip brought us a great visit to the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum (that, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and the Curious Kids’ Museum in St. Joseph were all new for us this year); the Indiana trip saw our second trip to the Indianapolis Children’s Museum, as well as our first one as a threesome to the Indianapolis Zoo (our 27th, and our first new one in nearly three years).
7. Little Lamb
This was a new experience for Lydia, due to the strange circumstance of Mommy and Daddy both having steady employment. Little Lamb was a day care place that provided instruction both religious and secular, and lots of other activities. They made it across the street to the Buhr Park swimming pool twice a week on the average, and also had field trips to such neat places as the Jiffy Mix Co., Sugarbush Farms, and many others. She made many friends there, one of whom even invited her to his birthday party.
6. Daddy’s Birthday Trip
This was the king of the day trips, when we headed south of the border before sunrise, took in a special event at Boonshoft (our favorite science museum, at least before Indianapolis) in Dayton, then had a terrific visit with our old friends the Lucases at their home near Cincinnati, and then spent as much time as we could at the Cincinnati Children’s Museum, and even crammed in one other noteworthy stop on our return, the Charleston Falls Preserve. I think that this is the day trip we’d most like to repeat, except that we’ll hit the science museum instead of the children’s museum, and Charleston Falls will actually have some water running.
5. Legacy Five
We went to a surprising number of concerts and other shows this year, but this one was the most pleasant, as well as having the greatest surprise value. We’d only found out about this group (containing two performers of the legendary gospel group The Cathedrals) a week or so before we found out about the concert, which took place at a high school in Romulus. We got great seats near the front, and we all got to hobnob with the stars. Probably the best picture taken of Lydia this year—the one on the top of the page—was cropped from one from that event, and the joy in her face was obvious.
Other concerts and similar events we attended included the Toney Brothers and Dove Brothers in one large event in Toledo, plus Souls Harbor and the Tri State Quartet in Adrian, also a group called Glory Bound performing at Holiday World, Buddy Davis in Temperance, Terry and Barbi Franklin at GBC, a lady at Calvary Bible Church whose name I can’t recall, the Doodlebops and subsidiary acts mentioned earlier, and the Cherry Hill Gospel Quartet at the Michigan Theatre. We also saw two youth-acted stage performances, The Music Man at the Ann Arbor Children’s Creative Center, and Schoolhouse Rock Live at Towsley Auditorium. At several of these we got to meet with the performers, often collecting hugs, photos, and autographs, and occasionally CD’s.
4. Working Stiffs
Mommy’s long-term temp job with JStor was a delight to have, and it kept her busy to its end in November. Since then she’s been busy with other things, not least of which trying to find a replacement.
Daddy’s job underwent a major upheaval this summer, as his department was swallowed up by another one (both groups are part of the University’s Development Office, but Gift Administration and Alumni Records got merged). His group (Alumni Records) were the ones who moved to new desks and were trained on what the other group does (but not vice versa) and several people in his old group have left for various reasons, some directly related to the changes but others not as much. The new tasks those who remain have learned to handle relate to processing gifts, which is to say, when people cough up cash for UM while in a generous mood (or rather, to get a juicy tax break or get preferential seating at the stadium). Moreover, due to the time sensitive nature of the new tasks, Daddy and the others work all of the “season days” (the weekdays between Christmas and New Years) that his old group used to take turns doing before the merger, and the weekend between Christmas and New Year’s included two full 8-hour days of overtime. Ah well, Daddy’s learned some new skills, which is always a good thing, especially in the present economy.
3. North Carolina
This was the most splendid of our four multi-day trips, as we tooled down to North Carolina—a new state for both Lydia and Mommy—over Memorial Day to visit our old friends the Masts. In our time there we also experienced a visit to Pilot Mountain, a quick visit with Daddy’s aunt Stella and uncle Dennis (who live less than an hour from the Masts’ home), a memorable church visit, and perhaps our most interesting restaurant stop of the year, at a place called Pirate’s Landing. We topped off the experience with a wonderful visit at the Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio on our return.
2. Church Change
This was a bittersweet thing to remember, but it has changed our lives so much that it had to be near the top. Our long and fruitful relationship with Grace Bible Church simply had to come to an end, and we went shopping around for a new church home. We settled on Fellowship Bible Church, which has the humblest of circumstances but the best of everything else, and we quickly got in and got involved. And are they ever crazy about Lydia!
There were many notes from our church experiences this year, but I’d like to mention a special one, in that Lydia got to attend a wedding for the first time, that of FBC regulars Dr. Mayer and (then) Miss Harding. This actually took place over in Troy, where about half of FBC migrated for the day.
All of which brings us to...
1. Lydia’s Place is Secure
There was really no competition for the top spot this year. As I typed it back in June:
Some things we do leave their mark for only a moment, if that. Others will become memories that last for years. Once in a great while we do something that lasts a lifetime. But only once can we do something that will have a positive effect that lasts literally forever, and it happened this last Sunday when Lydia decided to make the Lord Jesus her Savior. It happened during the evening service at FBC.
Words can’t express the joy we feel. Lydia has sometimes said that she believes, and other times that she doesn’t, and other times that she isn’t sure, but this time it definitely appears to be real, and she’s been joyously telling others as well.
And there it is, until next year. Oh wait, it is next year. Wait another 12 months, then. And a Happy New Year to all!
—The Ann Arbor Brattins
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We’ve added an awful lot to the way we celebrate Christmas, but the real reason is still there. Jesus Christ came down from Heaven to be born in the humblest of circumstances, and to live a perfect life so that He could be made the perfect sacrifice for all the things we, not He, did wrong. As it’s put so well in “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”:
... born to raise the sons of Earth, born to give them second birth
Alas, many of the people who know the real Christmas story still don’t know why it’s important.
Ah well, time to step down from the soapbox. Our family is like many others, in that while we do get to several church functions and take special notice of nativities, we still spend a good deal of time, effort, and cash in the gift-giving aspect of the holiday as well. Indeed, it was a cause for quite a bit of grief when Mommy realized that our stockings were missing, and of subsequent joy when she found them again.
We had our big pre-Christmas celebration on Saturday, over at Aunt Laura’s house in Coldwater, where it’s been for about seven years now. She deserves plenty of credit for being willing to host such a gathering. The final count was 27 there (from the top, Great-grandma and -grandpa Crabtree, two of their children, five grandchildren plus three in-laws, eleven great-grandchildren—plus a step-great-grandchild and her boyfriend—and the two great-great-grandchildren), all in one relatively small house with only one bathroom. Oh, and one large dog, but good old Buster was kept out of the way for most of the time.
Times being what they are, namely that no one seems to have enough time, most of the actual (wrapped) gifts were by grown-ups to the kiddies. With few exceptions, the adults got one another gift cards or portraits of dead presidents. Uncle Roger again doled out lottery tickets, and Mommy and Daddy broke with tradition and actually won a bit. Perhaps this happened to show that Lydia isn’t the only one who could collect a good freebie this year.
Moreover, the tree was magnificent, there was plenty of good food (some of the desserts were so rich that Daddy couldn’t even go back for thirds), and some lively conversation about what each of us were up to. We had to be a bit extra accommodating for Tyler, he of the recent ankle break, but everything managed to go okay. And, for once, the weather was fairly decent for the drives to and fro.
Speaking of which, Coldwater was actually on the return of a longer drive for us. We got up early and headed straight west, over to St. Joseph, a small city on the banks of Lake Michigan (and boy, did the latter look miserably cold!). There was a science museum there, Curious Kids, that we’d wanted to visit for several years, and we finally got the opportunity. We had the time, the rental car, and we were heading west, anyway. The museum didn’t disappoint; indeed, it was one of the most charming we’ve ever been to, filled with extremely clever displays as it made excellent use of its space. We don’t get beyond Kalamazoo very often, but now that we know it’s there, we might have to make a special effort for return trips.
When we left the party, we took a brief venture downtown to see something rather unusual; someone has covered his property with lights, commandeered a portion of the FM airwaves, and made a little show wherein the lights blink and/or change color in time with the music being broadcast. We didn’t stay for much of it, but it was somewhat interesting.
Sunday was probably the weirdest weather day of the entire year. First the temperature shot up to nearly 50 degrees, melting everything except where the snow had been piled up (remember the previous weekend’s blizzard?—it closed the schools on Monday but was otherwise but a faint memory); then we were treated to 60 mph winds. These had the fortunate effect of drying the roads, because when the temperatures dropped back down to the lower 20’s, it didn’t result in miles of skating rinks. Then we got some fresh snow. Fortunate, I think, because it shouldn’t melt by tomorrow, and Christmas always seems to have more charm with at least a good dusting.
We had some health items to note. Not new concerns, but the beginning, perhaps, of different cures. Mommy started in with some physical therapy for her neck, which has been bothering her quite a while. And back on Tuesday Lydia had an eye examination with Dr. Sortor, and she’ll be starting in on vision therapy early in the new year. It was extremely nice to see Mrs. Ammann (a friend from GBC) there, as she is in a similar line of work herself (she’s an occupational therapist) and agreed to come along to see how things turned out.
Aside from some of the normal events like FBC (got to see the former Liz Howison on Sunday, which was certainly nice), the activities of the week tended to reflect the coming holiday celebrations. Lydia and the other Girl Scouts had a special meeting on Tuesday to make mittens. At school on Friday (pajama day), she got to distribute countless teacher gifts. After that there was the UMACC Girls’ Group get-together, which featured another gift exchange.
And then it was now. Daddy’s in at work, perhaps the first time he ever had to do so on Christmas Eve. Fortunately, they’re shaving off a couple of hours. Tomorrow’s plans are uncertain, but we’ll probably spend it quietly at home. Then back to work for the balance of the week, while Mommy and Lydia perhaps get to go do something fun.
May all who read this be blessed with a very merry Christmas!
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And by golly, it got us yet again. There we were, humming along with a fairly normal week, with the prospect of a quiet stay-at-home weekend beguiling us, and then suddenly Mommy got an e-mail on Friday that turned everything around entirely. It was a message from the Masts, our old family friends that we visited in North Carolina last spring, and it said that their daughter-in-law Tina had just died, and that the viewing would be on Sunday and the funeral on Monday. In Indianapolis.
Well, Mommy has been close to the Masts from as far back as high school, and was even a lab partner to their son Charles (Tina’s widower). It didn’t take much time to decide that we had to go for their sake. It was good that we had that trip to Conner Prairie a couple of months before, so that we’d had a good feel for the distance involved. With the latter and the trip back from Holiday World in early July, we were about to make our third trip to Indianapolis in just over five months. Ironically, Mommy and Daddy used to dread entering Indiana at all, because every time we did our car would die somewhere on the same trip. Well, that was several cars ago, and this time we got ourselves a rental. In fact, we went whole hog and got a minivan, as the good folks at Enterprise—who have the sense to recognize the value in keeping repeat customers repeating—gave us a free upgrade.
We headed first to Coldwater on Friday evening, to spend the night at Grandma and Grandma & Grandpa’s. In addition to the value of sneaking in an extra visit, this was to get a good head start on the drive south, especially as the weathermen were all predicting dire stuff heading our way.
Saturday will rank as one of the single busiest days of this or many another year. Started off with rising in Coldwater, packing up all our gear, and then heading south into Indiana. Along the way the weather was sometimes foul, but usually nothing we couldn’t handle (it was, however, too much for the many people we saw who’d skidded off the road). Once we got into Indianapolis, we made a beeline for the zoo, only to find that the signature thing we’d hoped to see—the dolphin show—wouldn’t be taking place until 6:30pm, so we made a quick change in plans and headed over to the Children’s Museum.
The museum, which we first reported about earlier in the archives, is absolutely top-notch, and we enjoyed ourselves all over again. We made it a special point to see as many things as we could this time that we didn’t see before, which included some special seasonal displays (extra kudos to them for allowing us to take our own photos of Lydia with Santa!), but we also took time for a few favorites from before, including the old carousel. The latter was accompanied by Christmas tunes done on a calliope. We eschewed the gift shop this time, but on our way out we stopped and marveled once again at the dinosaurs “escaping” the building; they looked particularly uncomfortable with several inches of snow on top.
Then it was back to the zoo; on our way we got to see the soldiers and sailors memorial in the middle of downtown, which was very impressively decked out. The monument itself was the centerpiece of a tremendous string of lights, giving the image of a massive Christmas tree.
The zoo, our 27th together (though Mommy and Daddy had been there before, in their pre-Lydia days, with the Masts) and our first new one since the Belle Isle Aquarium, is such a good place that it, regrettably, doesn’t work with our Boonshoft pass. They did take a AAA discount, but we quickly swallowed up the difference by renting a stroller, as Lydia was already fairly exhausted and showing signs of catching a cold. Like the Toledo Zoo around this time, they were wonderfully decorated with lights, many displaying scenes of the animals in the area. Much of the zoo was closed down this time of year, but we did pretty well with the rest. First there was the Ocean building, wherein we got to hobnob with sharks (even petting some!), seahorses, and penguins. Another highlight include seeing a Kodiak bear that was simply monstrous in its proportions. Then it was off to the dolphin tank, where we first went into a domed room where the dolphins could swim around and over us, and after this it was up to the stands for the show itself. Dolphins in four separate areas did various jumps, flips, tail-walking exercises, etc., as they acted out a rather bizarre version of “A Visit from Saint Nicholas.” The closest dolphin to us, named Indi, gave some good-natured splashes to the people sitting closest to him. After the dolphin show we ventured over to a pavilion which had numerous activities within, including another Santa to make requests of—we weren’t allowed to take personal photos this time, though. We finished up our zoo visit with a trip to the gift shop (Lydia bought a small book), and then to a neighboring building that was filled with model trains and plenty of holiday regalia.
Then it was off to (a) drive back downtown and see the Christmas displays in better, i.e. less, light, (b) collect some dinner, and (c) find our way to the Hackers’ home. Dr. Tom (PhD, computers) and Dr. Corrine (DDS) were old friends from the happier days at GBC, and they were to be our hosts for the night at their home in neighboring Zionsville. Their subdivision was extremely confusing, and has modernized beyond the point that MapQuest could keep up, but fortunately Mommy had a good set of directions from Mrs. Hacker. Rather alarmingly, we found that the snow of earlier had given way to a spell of freezing rain, and the roads in the area were positively treacherous. Nevertheless, we managed to find our way safely there. We were warmly welcomed by the Drs. Hacker, and, after carrying in the basics from the van, we had a delightful time chatting with them, particularly about church matters. It was well after midnight when we staggered upstairs to bed, putting the finishing touch on a tremendously busy day.
Not that the next would be a mere walk in the park. We awoke to find that most of the Hackers (they also have two daughters, Sarah and Elizabeth) had already breakfasted, but Mrs. Hacker served us up some as well. Daddy went to collect a few more objects from the van, and was greeted on the outside by 2’ snowdrifts outside the garage door, plus the discovery that the van was absolutely entombed in ice. It took a good while to get it sufficiently cleared up, and even then we couldn’t get every door to open. We opted to go with the Hackers to their church, to a spot that was normally a quick 10-minute drive in the country. It took us closer to half an hour, and we found at the end that services had been cancelled, anyway. [A few days later we would hear that GBC cancelled their services, which were to include a children’s Christmas musical. FBC was open, but was attended by a mere nineteen people, five of whom were visitors.]
Then it was back to their home, but we went a bit out of the way to take a drive through downtown Zionsville, which is absolutely oozing with small town charm. If we’d been in a sleigh it would have been perfect. Mr. Hacker had to go to work, but the rest of us went back to their house for the next several hours. We had a pseudo church service (listened to an on-line sermon by the late Dr. D. James Kennedy), had a good lunch of beef pot roast, confirmed our path to the funeral home, and did some more chatting about this and that. Lydia and Elizabeth, both 4th graders, were terrific playmates.
We said our goodbyes in the mid-afternoon, loaded up the van once more, and headed back downtown—along the way seeing the spot where Grandpa Dunham used to work—and found the funeral home. We spotted the Masts right away, and spent most of the next hour with one or both of them. Mommy and Daddy had only met Tina once, and that 15 years or so before; moreover, Charles wouldn’t be there until the next day, so we were pretty well surrounded by strangers. Nice folks, though.
It was early evening when we left, and except for a dinner break along the way, and maybe a quick stop to break ice off the windshield wipers, we drove straight through to Ann Arbor. We were sure looking forward to a good night’s sleep as we arrived home at 11:45pm. Alas, we found that Michigan had received a much greater allotment of snow than had Indiana, as there was about 10 inches scattered everywhere. The Ballerina was keeping sentry under her white blanket, but we needed a visitor spot in which to park the van. It took the better part of an hour, after we got Lydia to bed, of marching to and fro, opening and closing doors, to get the van unpacked. Then Daddy had to cope with shoveling out the Ballerina’s space so that Mommy would be able to drive it the next day. We got to bed around 2am, having set new records for exhaustion. Actually no, June 30th still had it beat, but not by much.
This was one of those weekends that was so big that it’s easy to forget there was a week that led up to it. The highlights included a trip to Cabela’s on Monday to buy Lydia a pair of mittens (and gawk at their live fish and dead mammals), a visit with Dr. Daley on Tuesday, and the final Awana of the calendar year on Wednesday, the primary figure therein was our old friend Twist and Shout the clown. She was terrific as usual; we can’t help but notice that Lydia has all but caught up with her in height. Thursday saw the finish of the Math Enrichment class for 2007, as well.
A quick last note—we learned via a phone call with Grandma Brattin on the Sunday return trip that Lydia’s cousin Tyler had broken his ankle in an accident two days before. We gave the latter a call, and he gave us the details (moving a table, misjudging stairs, paramedics trying to find the place, firefighters called in because the two paramedics weren’t strong enough to lift him, the emergency surgery, the nuts and bolts embedded in the leg, etc.), and wondered aloud whether he’d be coming to the family Christmas gathering the following Saturday. We must wait and see. It was good to hear him relatively cheerful about his predicament—he’ll be out of commission for some little while, we understand. We trust we’ll have a good report as we slip and slide into Christmas next week!
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Daddy, who generally enjoys much better health than he deserves, had his first bout with any ailment at all in about 15 months this last week. He came home from work on Tuesday declaring that he didn’t want any dinner—a bad sign!—and that night flopped about in bed in a futile attempt to get comfortable. He conned himself into thinking he could work the next day, but late in the morning put in a call to Mommy and asked to be taken to the emergency room.
St. Joe’s was its typical self, in that it was friendly, helpful, encouraging, and slow as a concussed tortoise. We got there at 1pm, and didn’t get out until midnight. In the interim we checked in at two registration desks, waited (and waited...) in two waiting rooms, got treated in two triage stations, got poked in the arm in three places by two people—the first person tried twice and failed—and was actually seen and dealt with by physicians in two examination rooms, not to mention getting fed to the cat scan machine.
The good news, besides our health coverage taking care of it all, was that the cat scan reveals nothing wrong in Daddy’s formidable tummy—stomach, intestines, liver, kidneys, pancreas, gall bladder, appendix, etc., all present and accounted for and each one fine and dandy. They gave him some truly appalling liquid they called a “GI cocktail” and it did have the effect of killing off the stomach cramps. Daddy said that he felt like he’d swallowed a family of scorpions, and sometimes only eight of them were stinging, and sometimes twenty, but the cocktail seems to have put them under. That, and a quick prescription in hand for pain killer, and I was free to go.
Mommy was with Daddy the entire time, except when she had to leave to collect Lydia and take her to church. (Awana apparently ran okay in Daddy’s absence.) Then Pastor Postiff and family brought Lydia to the hospital when everything was done. It was certainly nice of them to do that for us, and Pastor also offered a fine prayer for Daddy’s healing before he left.
Taking the next day off work, on the doctor’s orders, Daddy had a follow-up visit with one of the staff at the family’s doctor office. Dr. Wilkerson drew the short straw, so she looked at the lab results, asked some pointed questions (“Do you drink alcohol?” “Not a drop.” “Coffee?” “None.” “Have you been the victim of domestic abuse?” “Ha!”), and decided it was either that Daddy had passed a small kidney stone (unlikely), or had had a severe attack of gastritis brought on by ingesting some bad seafood. The latter was something we’d acquired that had once graced a table at Red Lobster, but had probably been insufficiently frozen in the interim.
By missing out on Thursday, Daddy missed the UM Development Office Christmas party, which he had actually signed up to attend. He had, however, been there on Tuesday when everyone in the building had to charge down the stairs and stand out in the snow to wait out one of our semi-annual fire drills. Hey, life is like that sometimes.
Microorganisms worked their way into the family conscience once again on Saturday, as we helped Lydia assemble a special school project. She had chosen the book “Bill Nye the Science Guy’s Great Big Book of Tiny Germs,” and had to put together a poster of sorts wherein different factoids and features of the book were to be displayed in eye-catching, if not stomach-turning, fashion. Hey, maybe she’ll grow up to have a career in advertising or graphic design. Got to give such people a start, I suppose.
Ill health struck elsewhere as well, as Dr. Daley, with whom we would have visited on Tuesday for one of our occasional rap sessions, had to cancel out due to sickness in the family, though it was fairly obvious from her voice that it wasn’t just her kiddies that were affected.
But, lest we think the week was all about such bad news, we also filled it up with lots of good, healthy, and sometimes fun activities. Thursday saw another session of Math Enrichment, and Friday hosted another gathering of the UMACC Girls’ Group; both of these are about to end for the holiday break. On Friday evening we bummed a ride from Mrs. Betzig to go visit our old mutual friends the Falks out in Grass Lake. We whiled away the hours catching up on various activities, mostly conversational. Hannah is now a semi-pro clown (“Ruffles the Happy Clown”), and entertained us with some of her antics, but mostly by her make-up. Joshua has taken over as the tallest person in the family, and firmly declares that he shall continue to grow for at several more inches at least. Karissa is looking particularly cute in her new glasses. Peter is his customary bouncy self, but he is an improbable seven years old now, and bounces even more than before. The rabbit Whiskers was still working away as the family mascot, joined temporarily by a borrowed cat named Milkshake.
And on Sunday we got to take part once again in the 33rd annual Kiwanis Christmas Sing. This event, which got moved two weeks from its usual calendar position of “Sunday after Thanksgiving,” was this time hosted with help from a local Rotary Club. In it, people come can come and join in as they post the words of quite a few Christmas songs. The perpetual emcee was delightful Lucy Ann Lance, who occasionally livened up the between-song time with some mind-bendingly bad jokes (“Why shouldn’t you eat Christmas ornaments?” “You’ll get tinsel-litis.”). A foursome of locals played guitars and led the singing, and the grand old Barton organ was faithfully pounded at by Father Somebody-whose-name-I’ve-forgotten. The Cherry Hill Gospel Quartet returned to treat us to some great singing. There was also a reading of “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” by the past president of Kiwanis (recovering, we think, from a stroke, so his frequent slips were easy to forgive). The latest Miss Washtenaw County, Alicia Jaros, made an appearance, and showed that her voice is as impressively attractive as the rest of her. And, of course, Santa came to town. It was truly a jolly time, as we’d hoped.
And now we enter that strange pre-Christmas time when things wind down a bit at school, wind up at work, and where we frequently wind up at stores, spending more than we wish. That and more next week.
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I was tempted to make the wacky weather the topic of the week. After all, we encountered snow, sleet, freezing rain, blinding fog, 50 mph winds—and that was just the weekend. But no, the memory of such things will fade in time, and we’ll be left with much more special items, many of which were worthy of celebration.
To start with, it was Mommy’s birthday on Wednesday, as she celebrated a notable milestone. Let’s just say she’s sometimes talking about the possibility of joining AARP and/or going down to the senior center and creaming everyone at Scrabble. Seeing that it happened on a church night (and the Awana kiddies got to sing to her at the end of the evening), we had our celebratory dinner on Monday, when we, coupon in hand, finally gave a try to Joe’s Crab Shack. The food was good, but enough other things were bad that we doubt we’ll be paying any return visits (they screwed up our orders several ways, our waitress wore a shirt with a pretty tasteless statement on it, there were decorations on the tables and walls that ran the gamut from the lame and tiresome to the outright offensive, etc.).
Then, the other milestone was that we got to attend a wedding—Lydia’s first ever, and Mommy and Daddy’s first in quite a few years. It was Dr. Mayer and the former Miss Harding from FBC, and the proceedings took place at First Baptist Church in Troy, which was large and well furnished. FBC was very well represented, as more than forty of us did the drive (and, much more significantly, did the return afterward through fresh snow and nasty traffic), and Pastor Postiff conducted part of the ceremony, with Mrs. Postiff contributing her amazing vocals—although it must be said that she was matched by a lady there named Ruth. After the ceremony, we enjoyed a terrific dinner at the reception, sitting with a few of our cronies plus some nice strangers we got to chat with.
Let’s see... birthday and wedding. Those were the biggies. I’d probably best go chronologically with the rest, or things will end up more confusing than they were in real life.
Back on Monday morning we had just got back from New Jer... uh, Pennsylvania (yes, we make that mistake a lot); and we started the day by returning the rental car to Enterprise. Unfortunately, within a day or so, our trusty Ballerina was making some disquieting noises, and Mommy took her first to Belle Tire and later to Butman Ford in an effort to get it diagnosed and dealt with. The latter took the job on, but the time involved necessitated that we get another rental car in the meantime, this time from Hertz. It was a white Ford Focus, and like with most cars, we quickly found things about it to like and to dislike. Although Butman finished with the Ballerina within 24 hours, we opted to hold onto the Focus for several days, so that we could have the more reliable set of wheels for our Troy trip, especially with the foul weather in view.
Monday saw the return to school and to work—believe me, there’s nothing longer than a full week of either when it follows a short week—and, after the aforementioned crab shack attack, we drove to the Postiffs home since they were, among their many other talents, acting as goldfish-sitters. Lollipop was fine and dandy. She probably enjoyed the change in scenery.
Wednesday, in addition to being Mommy’s birthday, had many other notable happenings. There was a hastily-arranged lunch among some of Daddy’s co-workers (they once again got the best of Old Country Buffet, an all-you-can-eatery); for Lydia there was Girl Scouts after school; there was Awana that night, and it also saw the beginning of another special bunch of days at FBC, in that they had a Bible Conference hosted by one of our missionary families—the McMahans, serving in New Zealand. Mr. McMahan would teach that night, the next two, Saturday morning, and three times on Sunday, working through events in the book of Acts. Mrs. McMahan is blessed with a fine voice and did some special music for us, as well as doing some Sunday School teaching for the younger set. They were truly a delight.
On Saturday, before the wedding trip, Lydia and Mommy got to attend a special Girl Scouts function at the Holiday Inn, wherein they had a guest speaker, singer/actress Keke Palmer, one of these young ladies that’s apparently all the rage at the moment. Word has it that she was very impressive, and also very kind to the scouts. Chalk up another celebrity for Lydia’s list. We hope to be able to find photographs of Keke with Lydia before too long.
And, on Sunday, aside from our usual two doses of FBC, we managed to cram in three special events. First was a dramatic musical we watched at WCC’s Towsley Auditorium, as the acting group A2ct Jr. did a performance of Schoolhouse Rock Live! In this, a smattering of favorite songs from the classic educational series were woven (loosely) into a story, and performed on stage. One of the young performers was a boy named Gavin, from Lydia’s school (alas, he left his mark before the proceedings began, as he quickly fell off one of the front steps—no harm done, though); we also recognized two young ladies who had been in the Music Man production we watched last summer (one had been Marian the Librarian, and the other, one of the quartet of Mason City businessmen). Some of them didn’t have the timing down right, and quite a few could have projected better, but overall it was a terrific show, and one in which the performers can be proud.
When we left this we headed over to the LDS church for their display of nativity scenes. This has been an annual event, that, alas, is coming to an end after 25 years. We’ve been there several times before, and were amazed all over again at the collections, as creches have been made in every part of the world, and with every conceivable material (even cow dung, believe it or not). Some were comical, but most were perfectly serious. Some artists liked to incorporate local animals and furniture, etc., into their scenes (an alligator instead of a cuddly lamb, how quaint). There was also a concurrent performance in their large room of a choir and a group of people doing hand bells. Terrific, both.
And finally, after evening service, we risked what was then rain and fog to journey up to Brighton to experience a display put on by the folks at the Brighton Assembly of God Church. You drive in, and they hand you a CD, and ask you to drive from spot to spot with only the parking lights on. When you get to a designated spot, you stop and listen as the CD tells the story of a particular time in the life of Jesus, and there are actors portraying the same scene in front of you. All very interesting. It went from the announcement of His birth to His death, burial, and resurrection, with a short but legitimate gospel message and invitation at the end. Halfway through they gave us hot chocolate and a baggie of Christmas cookies, and they let us keep the CD at the finish. Kudos to the folks at the BA of G for a delightful production, especially the ones battling the elements as they did their presenting.
And that brings us up to the present. No wait, that’s where we started, wasn’t it?
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The weekend started on Wednesday, which Daddy begged off from work (it will be his last vacation day until January at least, under his new work schedule) to match the outage from the schools, and we started it by collecting a rental car to shoulder the burden of the next several days. The car was a silver Hyundai Sonata (Lydia nicknamed it “Snowball”) that Enterprise Rent-a-Car comically insisted was full-sized. It took us oodles of precious time trying to get everything packed. Of course, the cold, misty rain didn’t help, either. Then, when we were finally on the road, we quickly made the tactical error of taking US-23, which still has an infamous bottleneck between Milan and Dundee. When we found ourselves in sticky traffic even before Milan, we got off there and took our chances on the back roads, through such metropoli as Oakville and Waltz, before latching onto the much more mph-friendly confines of I-275.
After this inauspicious beginning, the rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. Indeed, it looked like far more traffic was heading the opposite direction, both that day and on our return. We had a couple minor incidents of construction, and Ohio proved to be utterly saturated with rain, but no great difficulties and even some interesting spectacles were to be had (we had to do a swerve to avoid a dog as it nonchalantly trotted down the right lane; saw an Amish farmer doing some plowing with the help of some beefy-looking horses). We played non-stop Christmas music, first with the help of WNIC (which turns into an all-Christmas-all-the-time station at the end of the year), and then with CDs.
On the advice of Grandpa Dunham, we stayed on the Pennsylvania Turnpike until we reached Highway 977 (this allowed us to travel through several extra tunnels, which is rather enjoyable), then this on down to Highway 11, and then it was just a few minutes to their apartment in Chambersburg. We fetched in about 9pm. Then came the requisite hugs and kisses, and, alas, the unpacking. Fortunately the rain clouds dried up—or else they just couldn’t get over the mountains—and we were able to do all that hauling in relative comfort.
Lydia slept in a sleeping bag in the living room, atop an air mattress that had to be lung-powered into shape each night. Daddy, being the possessor of the biggest lungs (or the most hot air, if you prefer), did the honors.
We found things to occupy us each day, but much of it was spent in relative relaxing quietude as well. Lydia thoroughly enjoyed her grandparents, who in turn were delighted with her size, appearance, and general demeanor. Lydia accompanied Grandpa to collect the mail each day.
Thursday was technically Thanksgiving, but we were putting off the big celebration to Saturday instead. Lydia’s Aunt Linda and Uncle Dennis came over, and a highlight was that Linda had Lydia pick out scraps of cloth with which the former would construct a doll quilt. We made a call to Coldwater and spoke with Grandma Brattin, who assured us that all was well there, except for Detroit Lions fans (who, after the elation of having their team at 6-2, have seen them fall to near-mediocrity at 6-5).
On Friday we went with G&G to see where their new home will be (move-in is scheduled for February). It will have the advantage of being on the ground floor, so no more winding stairs or painfully slow elevator that they’ve been coping with for the last two years. When the new area is finished, it will also have an almost-Olympic sized swimming pool. There’s a much more modest one in the part of the building that’s already built, and we returned there that afternoon to take advantage of it. This was one of Lydia’s first times in a pool without her life jacket—there was really no need for it, since the pool was only 4’ at its deepest and she’s about 5’ deep herself.
On Saturday, as mentioned, we had our Thanksgiving. It was over at Linda & Dennis’ house in nearby Greencastle, and was made extra special by the presence of their friends the Hoovers. The latter are farmers, specializing in veggies, dairy, and geese. The table was graced with, among other things, corn and green beans from their farm, and it would be impossible to overpraise them. During dinner Linda got out a trio of telephones and put in a call to Lydia’s cousin Jennifer, attending school in Worcester MA (she attempted recently to see Daddy’s Uncle Joel, who’s a professor there, but he was unavailable); we all got a chance to chat with her. Lydia took three turns, in fact.
Later we got to go on a quick visit to the Hoovers’ farm, and got a quick education in the milking process. They have about 80 brown Jersey cows, all of whom looked much more pleasant and even-tempered than they actually were. We got some signs that they objected to our presence, and they let us know in the only way they could. Let’s just say that Daddy’s trusty stable fork from TRI wouldn’t have sufficed—he would have needed a stable spoon instead. Lydia was a bit overwhelmed by all the new experiences that she wished for a quick curtain call, but Daddy, absorbed in some of the familiar old sights and smells of his childhood, was having a ball. Moreover, there was the charm of their pre-Civil War house, the bizarre behavior of their geese to ponder, some glances with the residents of the calves’ pen to exchange, and the sea of cats to avoid stepping upon. The also had a scruffy old dog named Buddy to pal around with; unfortunately, Lydia didn’t warm up to him.
On the return to Chambersburg, it was suggested we have supper (this was sufficiently after the big meal in Greencastle) at one of G&G’s favorite hang-outs, Rosalie’s Restaurant, just a stone’s throw from their soon-to-be home. This we did, and we agreed that the food and the charm of the place outweighed the wait; they were unusually busy that evening. Later, back at the apartments, Lydia went with Grandma to a neighbor’s (Mrs. McFadden) apartment nearby, as the latter had a Christmas toy (a musical Santa on a tricycle, believe it or not) that needed some fixing—it needed new batteries and something to keep its silly head from popping off. Grandma fixed it, they returned it, and Mrs. McFadden immediately presented it as a gift to Lydia!
Then it was finally Sunday, and we packed everything up and did our round of goodbyes—hugs, kisses, photos, the lot. We then made a quick stop over at the Giant grocery store—Mommy and Grandma had been there a couple of days before, and Mommy knew what a great collection of specialty foods they had—for food and ice, and then westward ho! Oh, wait—Lydia wants me to mention that she spent some of her trip-designated cash on a toy car there as well. Hey, it’s perfectly natural to want to get an early Christmas present. Now, westward ho!
We made a planned stop in Pittsburgh to visit their children’s museum, and it was terrific. There was a special display honoring favorite local son Mr. (Fred) Rogers, complete with genuine sweater & sneakers, similar traffic light and fish tank, and lots of puppets and sets like those from the “Neighborhood of Make Believe.” Later in a different area, we got to see some of the actual puppets used in the show—behind glass and under lock and key, of course. Really takes one back, that sort of thing.
There were also things to climb, a water table area (make your own whirlpool and drown the boats!), a room devoted to circus acts, a place to have fun with mechanical toys, and even parachutes. A great place, altogether—I’d say it comes only second to Indianapolis, even edging out Boonshoft. And I hadn’t even mentioned the three giant weathervane fish in the parking lot.
Then it was back in the car for the rest of the trip; we missed taking a turn we’d intended, and opted to go a little out of our way to avoid some of the turnpike fees. This and the Pittsburgh detour added about fifty miles to the journey altogether, so when we finally parked at home we’d been just over 500 miles for the day. We arrived around 10pm, and found that, while Pennsylvania had been dry and autumnesque, and Ohio had been soaking wet once more, Michigan had snow on the ground. We truly felt that we had left in autumn and arrived in winter. Whew!
That will surely do for now. Actually, no, I should mention a few things that happened before we left. Mommy had a job interview on the previous Monday, and later that day went through a Girl Scout training meeting. On Tuesday some electricians came and worked on our home, installing a new outside light; we don’t get to control this one, as it comes on whenever it thinks it’s dark enough. That evening we dropped off Lydia’s erstwhile pet fish, Lollipop, at the Postiffs’ house. And after this we dropped off some things at Mrs. Betzig’s, and hobnobbed with Cloudy the cat, a recent acquisition that compelled us to look for other temporary headquarters for our fish.
Okay. That’s enough. The following days would see us back to work and school, and activities both usual and un-, and even some impressive milestones thrown in. Read up on it then!
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No, it’s not true that we’ve had to sacrifice any limbs, much less our precious first born, for mere fuel, but sometimes it’s seemed that way. I read recently that Michigan has the second-highest cost of gasoline in the nation now, trailing only Illinois. Why, it’s even cheaper in Hawaii! It’s frankly a mystery to me why it should be so.
In these days we look forward to the upcoming Thanksgiving break—despite the fact that it will, as always, involve the purchase of another allotment of fossil fuels. Still, the important thing will be spending time with family.
So, what specifically has happened this last week? Quite a lot, actually. I’ll keep things in date order this time.
On Monday Lydia stayed home, as she had been notably ill in the wee hours of the night before. Fortunately, she never had a recurrence of any symptoms. That day also signaled the beginning of the scale-back of Child Care to part-time, where it will remain until Mommy finds new employment. She has also started riding the school buses again, at least occasionally—oftentimes Mommy has taken her in each day as the start of her own round of errands (most often including a stop at the library for a round of job searching). That evening Mommy had a second session of a sleep study at St. Joe’s.
Tuesday found Lydia back at school, and Mommy back from the hospital. That night we all went to an open house at the Ann Arbor Academy, an alternative school that specializes in children with various challenges. Alas, the fees make it very difficult to fall in love with the place.
On Wednesday Mommy and Lydia went to Mr. Busch’s, as Lydia’s newest set of braces had arrived. Her feet, like the rest of her, have undergone a notable growth spurt of late, and she outgrew the old braces like a snake shedding its skin. We later bought some new shoes to cope with the new braces. And we’re going to have to look around for some new boots to fit the new shoes to fit the new braces to fit the growing feet. Dominoes, anyone?
Wednesday also had some excitement in that, during Girl Scouts that afternoon, Lydia discarded yet another tooth (this time a molar on the upper right). Awana followed, and Daddy ran a standard T&T game rather than bending his brain to invent a new one.
On Thursday Lydia had the Math Enrichment class after school. Her teacher, Miss Lydia, said that our Lydia is doing extremely well. We followed this with a trip to Bed Bath & Beyond to purchase a couple of gifts for the upcoming bridal shower—Lydia got to see how gift registries work.
Friday saw yet another of Daddy’s co-workers leave, as Melanie is about to move to California. It was also a day that everyone there was to wear UM’s regalia (or at least their colors) to “show support” for their efforts in the following day’s football game. Uh, yeah. I can just see an uninspired football player revived entirely by making a surprise visit to the development office. Sometimes we have to wonder what goes through the heads of the people who make these declarations. Still, Daddy played along, wearing a maize shirt and a blue tie.
After school Lydia got to enjoy the company of the ladies at the UMACC Girls Group, and this time they got to mingle with some young boys as well; everything seems to have gone okay. After this we had an evening outing, where we combined dinner, shopping, and a trip to a place where Mommy—who found out about it earlier in the day—was scheduled for a job interview the next Monday.
We kept plenty busy on Saturday as well. First we drove up to TRI to drop off a gift of food (apples and carrots) for the horsies. While there we were hospitably greeted by old Licorice the cat. We also saw a horse we’d never seen before, and it was notable by its patterns, which frankly looked like they belonged on a Guernsey instead. Daddy guessed that it was a quarter horse... and three-quarters cow.
Then it was back in town to drop Mommy and Lydia at the Postiffs’ house. First the ladies had an ensemble practice, and then they and more ladies gathered around for all the fun that takes place at a bridal shower, this for our church’s Miss Harding. Daddy was, as the tradition goes for those of his gender, excluded, and spent the time over at work, playing with computers and other toys. He took the opportunity to do some updates on the website for his father, which had been dormant for many months. Daddy got an unexpected surprise, in that he got to see Mr. Mullins—who’d left the office a couple of weeks before rather abruptly and mysteriously—there to take home the last of his property. They chatted a bit, and they promised to keep in touch.
After the shower and a brief stop at home for lunch, they all went back to Daddy’s workplace, this time so that Mommy could do some job searching—a job in itself—and Lydia could tackle homework and such. We were also afforded the amazing sight of thousands upon thousands of cars all trying to exit the city at one time, following the finish of the game. I have to wonder whether the traffic, the weather (cold misty rain), or the game itself was the most depressing.
Sunday was relatively quiet, with our customary two visits to FBC (Mommy and the other ensemble gals gave of their best in the morning) sandwiching another session at Daddy’s workplace for more job searching. We also made a freecycle pickup (these have tapered off for us after a year or two of more frenzied activity), and this afforded Daddy a bunch of new shirts; most of these are fit for work, but the Notre Dame t-shirt will probably be put to its best use as shock value for various friends and relatives who live and die with UM and MSU’s latest results. We shall see!
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There is a delightful occurrence that takes place between the members of Lydia’s Daddy’s Daddy’s family, plus a few other connections. Namely, a composite letter makes the rounds in a set order, and each time someone gets it he removes his last contribution—usually made about 8 months before, give or take a few months—reads all the new letters by everyone else, writes a new letter himself, and sends it on. Mommy and Daddy were the first ones of their generation to join the ranks, and have been regular contributors since about 1995 or so. Usually Daddy writes, sometimes Mommy, and sometimes both. Once they wrote from the point of view of Lydia, who was only a few months old at the time.
Daddy’s paternal aunts and uncles were the perfect group to have such a tradition, in that they have had a wonderful disparity of interesting careers and a diaspora of homes (reunions involving all of them are almost unheard of; compare this to Daddy’s immediate family, wherein they still all get together a few times a year since none have ever left Michigan).
Well, enough prologue. The family letter found its way back to Ann Arbor last Tuesday, and we quickly devoured the contents, banged out a new posting, and delivered it to Lydia’s Grandma Brattin on Saturday. We also included several favorite photos of events that took place in the last five months—a very quick turnaround!—as well as one of the new school photos.
The visit to Coldwater was the highlight of the week, it being our first time there in a couple of months or so. We enjoyed some time of conversation (mostly of the “what’s this or that sibling or niece/nephew up to these days?”), a turn at the “NameBurst” game that we frequently take along, and even some fun watching football (both UM and OSU were probably thinking too much about their upcoming encounter next Saturday to concentrate, and they both lost).
Earlier in the day Mommy had another ensemble practice and Daddy breakfasted with the FBC gents. This was followed by a trip to the Red Cross and the deletion of another pint. (While there he got to see Ms. Jacks from FBC, who was working there, and Mr. Terpstra of GBC, there to add to his impressive 14-gallon tally.) It was donation #57 for Daddy, which means that instead of getting juice and cookies, he got ketchup and pickles. But I digest....
Sunday saw two trips to FBC sandwiching a visit to the Hands-On Museum. They’ve recently gone through many renovations at the HOM, having blocked out a large section for the toddlers-and-younger set, and moved many items to different rooms—and often different floors—from where they’d been. It was an adventure just noting the changes. They also had some special activities for Girl Scouts—we particularly enjoyed making music with wine glasses.
The weekend finished, alas, with poor Lydia getting violently sick. Whether she picked up something in Coldwater (or worse, had something and gave it to them), or whether it was something she ate, we were unable to tell for sure. The upshot was a day off of school the next day.
The week itself was made most memorable by the fact that Mommy’s job ended, thus freeing her days for being busier than ever. In addition to doing things around the house and running to and fro doing errands, she also puts in a good deal of time job-hunting, which I can confidently state is a pretty miserable task. If there are fewer rejections this time around, it will doubtless be because there are so few opportunities to begin with (the classifieds and other sources have been exceptionally meager).
Working back over the rest of the week in reverse order, I note that Lydia’s school had one of its occasional Movie Nights, and we attended in order to watch Ratatouille, which was rather fun. I’d say it was about as good as Robots, a bit better than Flushed Away, but not quite as good as Over the Hedge or Cars (other flicks that we’ve seen in the last year or so of the computer-graphic variety). Maybe the popularity of the film will soften people’s attitudes about rats; if so, it would be nice. Then we need to work on the same thing for bats.
We had some of our typical activities, including Math Enrichment on Thursday and Awana on Wednesday. There was a theme for the latter, “Bring Your Favorite Snack Night,” which we’d all forgotten about, having missed the previous week. Kudos to the child who brought the candy corn!
Tuesday had the most interesting variety. It was a report-writing day for the teachers at Lydia’s school, so there were no classes. We had our first... yes, I’ve got to force myself to type this... snow of the year in the morning, and in the afternoon we got a brief bout of sleet as well. In the evening, we, along with maybe a couple of hundred people in all of Ann Arbor, voted. There were no issues to decide, and only one election—and the incumbent was running unopposed. Hey, democracy’s a great thing, but no one said it was always exciting. Wait until next year for that.
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It’s been a good thirteen months, especially considering that the assignment was only guaranteed for six to twelve. Still, a temp is but a temp, and Mommy’s job at JStor came to its end on Friday. While there she made numerous friends, got to take advantage of the office’s generosity when it came to bottles of juice and other goodies in the kitchen, and, best of all, rewarded her monetarily for her particular set of outstanding skills. Not only that, it’s good to be able to leave a place on good terms, which isn’t always the case.
Earlier in the day Lydia’s school photos finally arrived, and we trust we’ll have something to share here before long. They’re good—not great, but not poor enough that we’d be compelled to get replacements.
We had several other events to mark the week as being out of the ordinary. Back on Wednesday we made good on our plans to go to the Ypsilanti Evangelical Friends Church, as they staged their “Creation Celebration.” What the folks did was to divide their general purpose building (within which they also broadcast flicks on Fridays) into seven different areas, and each had games and other activities reminiscent of the six days of creation (the seventh area, the lounge, was where one rested, particularly if one was not a sugar-laden child). They also periodically turned off all the lights in the largest room and did a quick broadcast about creation itself—the white walls and ceiling permitted the film to take on a planetarium effect. It was all rather clever, and the folks there (including our old friends the Hermans) were extremely nice, but we were left with the feeling that it could have been better still, that it could have had a little more substance or at least left the visitors—who were doing this instead of trick-or-treating—with more snacks for their efforts.
Meanwhile, back at FBC, Awana went on without us, which means it was the first night that Daddy has missed in over five years, and nearly as long for Lydia and Mommy. The reports have it that things went well, but that Game Time is usually better controlled when Daddy’s there. There are advantages, apparently, to being big and loud and ugly.
Earlier that day, Lydia went to see Mr. Busch and get fitted for yet another set of braces. We can’t help but notice that lately she’s been eating like a vacuum cleaner with fangs, so we suspect another growth spurt is on the way. We’re guessing she’s got about fourteen more inches in about six more years, but she could out-perform our expectations.
Alas, Wednesday left us with one more memory, as Lydia’s class went on a field trip through a stretch of nearby woods (County Farm Park, to be exact), and she was the only one to suffer any mishap, tripping over a log and scraping up both knees. Thankfully, she had a couple of friends support her on either side, and after a few days of band-aids, the net effect will surely be minimal.
We had an interesting event on Thursday evening, as we drove over to Oakland University in Rochester Hills to listen to Dr. Devin Houston give a talk about enzymes and their part in dietary intervention for behavioral disorders. This sounds like it would be pretty thick stuff to sit through, but Dr. Houston was very engaging, both entertaining and informative. Even Daddy, who never studied chemistry, was rather enthralled; it clearly was good stuff for Mommy, who not only studied chemistry, but also worked for a while at a pharmaceutical company, and whose father is a PhD chemist. We stayed behind at the conclusion to talk with people there, mostly parents who are doing enzyme treatments or who plan to. We chatted as well with Dr. Houston (whom, I should mention, is the president of Houston Nutraceuticals, which produces enzymes); he’s a very friendly fellow, and just a tad taller than Lydia. We aren’t totally sold on enzymes, but we’re certainly leaning that way. In short, enzymes would negate the adverse effects of gluten, which would enable Lydia to have wheat, barley, and oats once more. This would certainly make food purchasing and preparation a breeze compared to what we’ve been doing these last several years. Now if we could find something that “cures” milk!
On top of all this, the weekend was a busy one as well. Daddy went to the men’s breakfast at FBC, and learned therein that—never a gender to let itself take second place—the men were going to have an ensemble, too. Indeed, they would have their practice immediately after cleaning up. Daddy joined in, contributing a passable baritone in what would eventually be a group of nine. Our song was the very first one in our hymnal, “My Faith has Found a Resting Place.” We had a few nuances in it, such as slowing the pace at one point, repeating the chorus at another, and going a cappella for a stretch. We were the special music the next morning, and we weren’t too bad, if I may say so.
Saturday continued with some errands, including getting Lydia a haircut (always just before a cold snap, doesn’t it figure). From there we went to the end-of-year party for the Trifecta, which is to say, the fundraising element of therapeutic horseback riding. Awards were passed out to the riders, volunteers, and board members who soaked up the most cash and from the most people, and the grand total came in at $38K or so. Considering that they didn’t get their matching gift from Pfizer (no surprise there) this year, this total was quite commendable. They also had food to spare—indeed, they let us take home some leftovers, some of which would grace the table at the FBC potluck the next day. And once again they had raffle drawings, and—with the very last pick—our number was called. Lydia got to choose a yellow stuffed rabbit in the Beanie Baby style, and with the name and number of NY Yankee Derek Jeter on the back (Lydia has consequently decided she’s a Jeter fan; it helped when I told her that he’s originally from Kalamazoo).
Overnight came the time change, which gave us an extra hour of sleep, which was much appreciated! There had been some people who, changing the clocks at the usual time, did it a week early and missed much of the morning service.
Sunday had its usual run of events, with the monthly potluck thrown in. We spent most of the afternoon at an open house of a group of people with the common element of having children with behavioral disabilities (AA FACES—Ann Arbor Families for Autistic Children’s Education and Support). It was good to be able to talk to such people and commiserate on problems or make some suggestions. Lydia, like most of the younger set, romped in the basement. For Mommy and Daddy, an amusing highlight was discovering, through talking with one of the other mothers there, that there is a boy in town with several parallel interests and abilities as Lydia, including the amazing fandom of Lawrence Welk. Moreover, this lady’s son is also nine. We fear that the mixture might be a little too rich if we ever got these two together (“I can hear the wedding bells ringing,” said Mommy).
It’s so nice to know that Lydia is so high-functioning when we realize what many other children and their parents face. Whether it’s the diet, or the horseback riding, or something else we’ve done (as several professionals have been quick to credit), or whatever, it’s good to know things are as good as they are with what God has provided.
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Straight to the big event—we went to a concert of some good old-fashioned music of the gospel quartet variety on Saturday at the Lenawee Christian Family Centre. There were officially two groups performing, one active (Souls Harbor) and one retired (Tri-State Quartet), but there seems to have been a good deal of crossover between the two, and it’s not easy to tell which group is which. Fortunately, that wasn’t terribly important, but it was a terrific show with both music and some good homey storytelling. We sat in the fourth row, and later got in some of our regular concert activities in that Mommy purchased a CD or two, and Lydia got to be photographed with each of the performers (hey, we’ve already got them here at the Newest Pics page!); they were all nice folks, and delighted to know that Lydia is such a fan of their genre (having seen Signature Sound, Legacy Five, the Toney Brothers, the Dove Brothers, etc., all in the last year).
Mommy has been taking an extra close look at Lenawee Christian as a possible educational venue, so our trip also took on a reconnaissance quality to it. We like what we see so far.
Earlier in the day Lydia, dressed once again as the Ruby Queen, made the rounds of trick-or-treating at both Meijer and Briarwood. Both visits were made all the more interesting by some chance encounters. We ran into Valerie Long, a past secretary at GBC, at Meijer, and the Brzezinski family (including a 3-week old daughter named Faith) at Briarwood. There was also a lady at the latter who asked Daddy if he was “that juggler,” and he had to confess. It turns out that Daddy had done an impromptu performance to entertain the lady’s daughter at a barber shop a few months before. When he first learned to juggle almost exactly 8 years ago, he had no idea that it would lead to such nice occurrences as this.
The final public showing of the Ruby Queen took place on Sunday afternoon, as Lydia and Daddy joined the throng at the Exhibit Museum. Don’t know if it was the madding crowds, or the repetitiveness of last year, or the lack of interesting subject matter, but we ended up racing through things (we paused long enough to exchange pleasantries with our old friend Brian Cressman and his pair of blue-tongued skinks); outside we took a picture of Lydia atop one of the new pumas, the black statues that stand guard at the entrance. Then back to the parking structure, and the quick drive to the library where Mommy was again devoting several hours to job searching. Unfortunately, somewhere in these proceedings the Ruby Queen dress simply vanished, and phone calls to various places in the time since have turned up nary a stitch. Fortunately Lydia kept the tiara, but this would leave her without a costume for the 31st itself. Daddy made the suggestion that Lydia wear his old Detroit Tiger shirt that he bought at Tiger Stadium in the storied year of 1984, and she readily joined in with the idea. Thank God she is so agreeable! It will look better on her than it ever did on him, anyway.
The rest of the week had
but nothing requiring its own paragraph. Such is life. So we made it an outline instead.
Ah, but wait, I’m forgetting two events this week at FBC. First of all, on Sunday, Mommy and the others in the ladies’ ensemble took center stage for both the morning and evening services in an angelic performance of “Fairest Lord Jesus.” FBC hasn’t a choir at present, so this was the next-best thing (and Mommy has been in several church choirs in the past).
And, even more significantly, Mommy and Daddy were in a special meeting at FBC with the available church staff, after Awana had finished on Wednesday. We gave the testimonies of our personal faith, we were given the nod to become members at Fellowship, our new spiritual home. After the turmoil of the early part of the year, this was a delight indeed.
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There comes a time when calories are flowing, and youngsters play dress-up, and not just the girls. Come to think of it, not just the youngsters. Indeed, as we saw on Monday, not just the humans.
The final session of horseback riding until next spring was made memorable once again by having the parents stand at various places within the arena, holding buckets of treats, and the riders doing some trick-or-treating. It’s good fun, especially as not only most of the riders came garbed in special costumery, but so were most of their mounts. Lydia was dressed up as the Ruby Queen, and her horse April was in a wedding dress (Daddy cracked that Lydia had better get ahold of the bridle); Fable was dolled up as a cowgirl, and DJ was terrific in clown regalia. We hope to have some pictures before long.
Though Daddy did get to distribute some yummy treats that will eventually translate themselves into the retirement homes of the area’s dentists, the regular task that makes him so popular there was not abandoned, as he coped again with the April showers, the Fable fritters, and the DJ droppings. And speaking of the horses, it was announced that the Trifecta fund-raising race has finished, and the stable’s sophomore Sigbjorn won it for the second straight year. April finished around fourth place.
Lydia in costume made a second appearance on Saturday, as we went to the Harvest Festival over at Crossroads Community Baptist Church. The good folks at CCBC put on a great and well-organized event as usual, and their gamble that the weather would cooperate (no guarantees for October in Michigan!) paid off. We spent much of our time there with our friends the Betzigs. The kids did trick-or-treating in the parking lot, collecting their goodies from the backs of parked cars (they dubbed it “trunk-of-treat”), and had some massive inflatables to conquer and some fun games to play. There was also a concurrent cookout, with hot dogs and about a dozen varieties of chili to sample.
On Sunday afternoon we went over to Wiard’s Orchards, largely to see a show by someone who’s in costume continually, one Ronald McDonald. He had a magic show, and Lydia got to be one of his helpers. After this we tackled much of the remainder of the facilities, including getting both a hayride and a ride atop an old fire engine, plus a round of mini-golf (we didn’t take down any scores; Daddy got the only hole-in-one on the day, and that with his very last shot), yet another inflatable, a labyrinth, and a rather bizarre contest called the Bungee Run. Lydia and Daddy tried it out, as they got hooked into a harness and had to move as far as they could along the inflated path and place an object onto a Velcro strip before the bungee could propel them back. Daddy, using his gravitational advantage, got as far as 24 feet before springing back like a rag doll. Quite a fun little diversion!
Back on Friday, Lydia went to her first Girl Scout campout since last February. It was, once again, over at Camp Crawford. In addition to many of the regular activities, Lydia, now a Junior, got to help teach things to the Brownies and Daisies there.
The week had its typical brand of stuff, with school, work, more work, make-up work, and church activities. Mr. Jeff, the T&T director, wasn’t able to make it to Awana on Wednesday, so Daddy had his first session of anything other than Game Time at FBC. Oh, and we fell just short of the 20-clubber plateau yet again, so Commander Smith’s promised pizza party remains on hold.
We had some health concerns. Lydia’s feet cleared up enough to slowly reintroduce her braces, but by Sunday evening—possibly because we’d left them on her for longer than we’d intended that day—some nasty-looking spots had appeared, so now they’re off again. Mommy went to St. Joe’s overnight on Thursday to take part in a sleep study. Indeed, one of the bigger concerns this week was trying to decide just how much concern our collective health would be, as it was Open Enrollment at Daddy’s work and he needed to get squared away how much money to hide from the tax man and reserve for doctor visits and the like.
And a little health-related milestone came up on Tuesday, as it marked the 15th anniversary of Daddy’s surgery, at which he had a tumor removed from his parotid gland, thus giving him his famously sensitive “tickle spot” and his bizarre “half of his face sweats whenever he eats” syndrome. He shaved his beard for that bit of fun, and hasn’t done the same since, which means his beard is now old enough to be in high school (the school colors, of course, are brown and white, and some more white...).
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It was difficult to get this week’s writing together, not because nothing happened, but because nothing really spectacular happened. If the week is remembered for much, it may well be that we had a record low temperature (27°F) just six days after a record high (88°F). Interesting perhaps, a little amusing even, but genuinely remarkable? Not really.
So, lacking a towering event or a good theme for the week, we’ll just march in chronologically. Monday was the most interesting day for us. It was Columbus Day, which is celebrated nowadays by almost no one but the postman and the people at Mommy’s office. She was thus free to spend the day at a nearby job emporium to check the waters (nary a nibble, alas), but this also meant she would be spending a very hectic week making up the lost time, particularly so because she would deal with lots of interruptions along the way. Mommy also took the Ballerina to Belle Tire and outfitted her with some new tires and windshield wipers; these, unfortunately, came with a warning to quickly get $700 worth of suspension work done. Aargh.
Daddy started the week by attending the development council meeting, and got to hear and meet some of his colleagues, both great and small, from all over the university. UM President Coleman (who is both great and small) was the favorite speaker there.
As for Lydia, her day saw the beginning of the MEAP tests, an annual grind which mostly reveals how well or how poorly the schools are doing. After school and work and no-work-but-looking-for-work, we made a stop at Mrs. Morris’, as she was having an open house for parents and leaders to fill out the requisite paperwork for the just-beginning Girl Scout season—Lydia’s a Junior now. After this we headed up to TRI for our typical night out, which was nearly cancelled due to the heat. Then at home, Lydia topped off a busy day by losing a tooth.
Tuesday saw much less variety, but Mommy had a visit with the dermatologist (who felt that her spots should occasion her no worry), and Lydia doubled her pleasure, or at least her payoff, by losing another tooth. This tied the record she’d just done on August 26th and 27th; would she go for three this time?
Wednesday had the first regular meeting of the Girl Scouts for the season. Later we attended Awana, and the theme there was Team Spirit Night (Lydia wore Daddy’s Toledo Mud Hens shirt, and Daddy squeezed into the Detroit Tigers shirt that he bought at Tiger Stadium in 1984. Earlier in the day, Mommy and Daddy took a few hours off and attended a meeting at Lydia’s school, where we discussed her progress with teachers, helpers, principals, and any other adult who was handy. And no, Lydia lost no more fangs that day.
Thursday and Friday found Lydia at some usual after-school haunts, the Math Enrichment class at 2nd Baptist Church and the UMACC Girls’ Group, respectively. Mommy brought Lydia to these, but Daddy brought her home from them, enabling Mommy to pack in those make-up hours.
Daddy made it to another FBC men’s breakfast on Saturday morning; as there were only three others, they were pleased to have him. At the same time, Mommy, with Lydia, went to the Postiffs’ house, and alongside some other ladies with musical talent, they had a practice session as the new ladies’ ensemble. We’re looking forward to their first performance. The afternoon ran to errands and the finish of Mommy’s work time.
Sunday, when not at FBC, found us mostly at Daddy’s workplace, as Mommy did some more job searching, Lydia did homework and reading and Awana prep, and Daddy scanned some stuff (mostly to be seen at the bottom of the Photos page); to the right is one of them, back when Daddy made history by catching his first fish. The evening we spent at the Postiffs’ home; Mommy made some quick use of their fax machine while Lydia and Daddy romped with their sons. Then we settled down to an unexpected dinner of grilled cheese.
One other event from the weekend was getting a delightful message from Grandma Brattin, telling us that Lydia has acquired a new second cousin, as Brennan Lee Connell, son of Daddy’s cousin Adam and wife Lisa, was born on the 11th. Word has it that little Brennan, clocking in at 8 lb+, is good and healthy, and his parents are good and exhausted. And thus it should be.
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Summer has refused to let go, as we’ve had temperatures at or near the nineties and have broken records at least twice this week; odd that a year ago around this time we had a few brief bursts of snow when Grandma and Grandpa Dunham were visiting. The trees are doing their part to remind us that it really is October, and of course every store has all the requisite stuff on sale, particularly geared to the end of the month. Daddy said that if the weather’s like this in a few weeks, then he and Mommy will go trick-or-treating dressed as Adam and Eve. On second thought, we’ll spare the populace that.
The weekend had lots of little thrills for us. On Saturday Daddy finally managed to work in a visit to the weekly men’s prayer breakfast at FBC (there’s a devotion, some prayer time, then a person or two pitch in to make a hearty breakfast specializing in cholesterol, and some time cleaning and/or organizing the building for the next day’s service). Mommy and Lydia, in the meantime, ran some errands. From there we went to nearby Chelsea, to check out their little Oktoberfest celebration. This was set up in the parking lot of a bowling alley, and had several amusements, primarily for the kiddies. There were two sizable inflatables. There was an eatery which we skipped because it would have cost extra cash (we were rather disappointed that our source of information for the event, the Ann Arbor Observer, incorrectly listed it as having no charge). The local fire department was there with some of their machinery to show off, and later did a demonstration of the “jaws of life” gizmo, with which they can take selected bites out of a car to extricate people. There was a small stage from which a band could play, and sometimes we paused to get an earful, particularly if a talented accordionist was doing his stuff.
And, under a tent there was our old friend Colors the Clown, she of the very pleasant personality and multiple talents—she does a little juggling, magic, joke-telling, face-painting, balloon-twisting, the lot. Her main claim to local fame is her menagerie of animals; she is a veritable traveling petting zoo. Her old side-kick, Petunia the Pig, we learned, has gone to whatever great beyond exists for the porcine among us, and her replacement is a rather grumpy girl named Piggy Sue. Lydia’s favorite activities therein were petting rabbits and engaging a cockatoo in conversation.
We also went inside to investigate the bowling alley—we all enjoy this as a diversion, knowing full well that we don’t have any real talent for it. The prices were astonishingly low, so we treated ourselves to a pair of games. Lydia, I should note, had some of her best scores ever, up in the 60+ range. Mommy started the first game with a pair of strikes and kept a lead over Daddy until the final frame, when he won it by picking up a fortunate spare. The second game had them tied going into the final, and this time Mommy came out on top. A jolly little time, especially if we forget all the mechanical difficulties our lane was having.
Sunday was similarly full. After church at FBC, which included the monthly potluck, we ventured downtown to the Hands-On Museum to check out their monthly science special (this time it was about explosions). From there we walked to the fire station next door, as they were having an open house in an effort to teach people about fire safety. The most memorable part of the experience was our encounter with Cogs the Robot, a friendly but wisecracking entity that must have been operated by some wag at a distance. He reminded everyone close by that you should check your smoke detectors regularly, and change their batteries twice a year. And how should you remember the latter? “Change the batteries every time you change... your underwear!” he chortled, then explained that they should really be changed on the same schedule as one’s clocks.
After this we took the quick drive to the Exhibit Museum of Natural History, as they had special posts set up wherein people could take a look at something of your own and identify it for you. As it turns out, we’ve noticed several little brown bugs near the home recently, so we imprisoned one in a bag and brought it with us. Their resident expert on six-legged horrors identified it as a small “flour beetle,” which presumably means you could gather up a bunch of the critters, mash them with a pestle, and bake them up into a loaf of bread. Perhaps not, but that might explain the hamburger buns Daddy used to get in the EMU dining commons.
We took time to explore much of the rest of the EM of NH, it being a fun kind of place if you enjoy animals, rocks, and combinations of the two. We met up once again with Brian Cressman, displaying a modest collection of the creepy and slimy (we particularly enjoyed his hog-nosed snake). Cressman, an adjunct assistant professor at UM’s School of Art & Design, combines his love of art with that of animals, as in this drawing he made at the right. We’ve had nice chats with him several times at the Exhibit as well as at the Hands-On.
The most notable event of the previous week was how it started, in that we picked up Lydia from Mrs. Betzig’s house on Monday morning. (See last week to see how that came about.) Turns out that, despite some trepidations, she got a great night’s sleep and carried on well from there. Mommy and Daddy, with their two hours’ worth of shut-eye apiece, managed to function okay nevertheless. We topped off the day with our usual activity at TRI. Daddy even got extra duty, as he had to clean up after Licorice the cat as well as three of the horses. The fourth horse is one of the newest, named Dakota, and she apparently isn’t sufficiently comfortable there yet (she was replacing Sympatico, who is apparently being eased into retirement; DJ also had the night off, because he’s skittish during torrential rains like we had that evening). As for Lydia, aboard April, she went the entire session with a leader, but no side walker. She is surely one of their most dependably safe and steady riders.
Other regular events dotted the week as well, including Awana on Wednesday and Math Enrichment class on Thursday (Mommy encountered Mrs. Codrington from GBC, and the two had an interesting conversation). On Friday we headed over to St. Joe’s again, but this time it was a planned visit so that Mommy could get a CT scan of her chest. We won’t get the returns for several weeks, but we of course hold out the best of hopes.
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That is to say, it was a freebie. The Smithsonian Institution declared that Saturday, September 29 was Free Museum Day for itself and all of its affiliates around the country. We took advantage of this happy state of affairs to go to Conner Prairie, an establishment on the outskirts of Indianapolis, which Mommy remembered fondly from a visit a good many years before.
Conner Prairie has some similarities to Greenfield Village, of recent memory, in that someone has taken an original establishment and moved in other buildings, creating a sort of historical community. While none of these buildings had any great individual significance (unlike, say, the Menlo Park laboratory and the Wright Brothers’ bicycle shop), the cumulative effect was wonderful. It was extremely interesting to be able to get into, for example, an old one-room schoolhouse and have someone in period costume explain the goings-on that happened there. The different areas included the 1886 Liberty Corner farm (where Lydia got to milk a cow), the 1836 Prairietown (in which Lydia and Daddy tried out one of the kids’ entertainments of the day—walking on stilts), the Conner Homestead, and the Lenape (leh-NOP-ee) Indian Camp (wherein Lydia tossed a tomahawk joyfully, regardless of the fact that the target steadfastly refused to get in the way). We also got to stroll through a covered bridge, ride a tram, purchase some apple cider slushies from the neighboring apple store, and make a minor purchase or two from the gift shop—Lydia chose a charming little doll made from corn husks, and some old-fashioned rock candy.
Being that Indianapolis is nearly 300 miles from home, the excursion took pretty much the whole day. Fortunately, the Ballerina was up to the task, and we were once again rewarded with the discovery that gasoline there was fully forty cents cheaper than at home.
Sunday was a major “organize our piles of stuff” day. After a renovation of the basement, we found ourselves in a position to give away or throw away about six boxes’ worth, which was a plus. We’ve still got plenty to go, alas. We were making such decent progress that we opted to skip the evening service—very unusual for us—to keep time and momentum on our side. And, as it turned out, this fact made it so that Daddy could go rescue our old friend Mr. Frisch, who was stuck at the store after the last bus of the day had rolled by.
So, what with our busy day of moving things, and the fact that we were still short of sleep from the previous day’s journey, we were looking forward to a terrific slumber on Sunday night. Unfortunately, it turned out to be quite the reverse. In the course of the day Mommy had come down with some unusual localized pain on the side of her head. She called the doctor, who advised her to gulp down some medicine, with the proviso that she go to the hospital if there was no positive effect within a few hours. Sure enough, there was no improvement, and so we hurriedly arranged for Lydia to spend the night over at Mrs. Betzig’s (Thank you, even unto seventy times seven!), and then Mommy and Daddy headed over to St. Joe’s.
The staff at St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital are almost always kind and helpful, but they have a tendency to move like they’ve got a collective ball and chain attached to their ankles. After we got checked in, we languished for over two hours in the waiting area; then it was off to an examining room, where we waited for a nurse, then for a doctor, then clearance for the CT scan, then for the results from same, etc. (All the while the building seemed to double as a deep freeze unit, perhaps to facilitate our cooling our heels.) They were unable to pinpoint any direct cause, but prescribed some stronger medicine and sent us home. As we checked out, Daddy quipped that “we’ve been here since September”; sure enough, we’d been there pretty much the whole night, only getting back home at 5am. Daddy opted for an abbreviated night’s sleep, and Mommy opted for a bath, which meant the same thing, only wetter.
And so went the fun and frustrations of the weekend. The week had its moments, too, as it always does. At TRI, the big news was that they’ve accumulated a few more horses, and we got to see one at ride’s end—her name is Ella, and she’s a whacking big black percheron. Her arrival was not noted with joy in all the other stables, as Lydia’s old mount Fable—perhaps fearing a rival to her own perceived queenship—took some time before the riding to run around the stable like a raving lunatic. Goodness, we never knew she had that kind of speed! Anyway, she settled down nicely when it came time to do her business.
Lydia had another session of Math Enrichment on Thursday; Daddy took an hour off of work and did the accompanying this time. It was noted that one of her fellow students was an attendee at GBC Awana.
The bi-weekly meeting of the Girls’ Group at UMACC on Friday went well again; this was made notable by Lydia having received a ride there by the mother of a fellow student at Allen. That evening, while Mommy stayed at work to get caught up on things, Lydia and Daddy went back to the Ypsilanti Evangelical Friends Church for another of their movie nights (these have moved indoors entirely, but they did have a certain outdoor flavor, in that they brought in some bales of hay for the kiddies in front to sit on). We watched another VeggieTales flick, this time “The Wizard of Ha’s,” a clever spoof that illustrated the story of the prodigal son. The puns and sight gags were terrific. They also had a coloring contest, and a “guess how much candy corn is in the jar”; well, you can’t win ’em all.
Just a quick final note, not terribly important, but the baseball season ended on Sunday. Our loveable Tigers made a good effort, but came up short in the stretch, finishing second in both the American League Central (to the Indians) and in the AL wild card race (to the Yankees). After last year’s magnificent showing, it was a disappointment, surely, but we need to step back and look at the bigger picture. Before 2006, Detroit had had 12 losing seasons in a row—now they’ve got two straight winning seasons. At the start of the year, it was supposed to be a race between the Tigers, the Twins, and the White Sox, and the Tigers did far better than the other two. Indeed, Detroit had a much better year than the Cardinals, who won the World Series last year. Breaking things down, the Tigers were actually improved offensively, as reflected in some stellar performances by Ordonez (the first Tiger to win the batting title in Daddy’s lifetime), Granderson, Polanco, and Guillen. It was the pitching that let them down, both in the key injuries department, and in some of them becoming strangely ineffective in the second half. All things considered, there are lots of reasons for optimism about next year.
And while we’re reflecting about sports, we should perhaps mention the roller coaster ride that the UM football team has been treating us to. They lost that stunning upset in week one, then got trounced by a team that should have been no more than an equal. Since then they’ve discovered their defense and chalked up three straight victories, perhaps with a view toward a bowl game come next January. Still, none of that can be as surprising as the Detroit Lions, those perpetual Comedy Channel inhabitants, as they have started out at a very impressive 3-1 this year. Of course, everything could go sour really quickly, but at least for now their long-suffering fans can wear their regalia with a small measure of pride.
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It was a great “coming out” party at Kensington Metropark on Saturday night, as first the moon came out, then the bats, and finally the stars. The event was the 11th annual Astronomy on the Beach gathering, at which representatives from eight local astronomy clubs, plus a gaggle of like-minded independents, brought their best binoculars and telescopes, and trained them on objects in the night sky. There was also a full schedule of talks and demonstrations at the on-site pavilion.
We were there on the invitation of Mr. Mullins from Daddy’s workplace, and got a pleasant surprise when he and his roommate passed us en route. We still had about thirty minutes of daylight when we arrived, so wandered around and chatted with people about their equipment—we learned some things like the significance of aperture as opposed to magnification and other neat stuff. We also got to watch the setting sun—the last one of summer—through a filtered telescope, although by that time we were getting some unwanted additional filtering from the trees.
The telescopes themselves were quite remarkable, as we encountered a bewildering variety of designs and sizes, some of them fully as large as cannons.
As it was still going to be a while before any of the talks started up, we haunted the gift tables for a few minutes (coming away with a couple of 25¢ key chains with red lights—we learned that astronomers always avoid white light because it takes so much longer for the eyes to readjust after being exposed to it), we sauntered down to the beach where Lydia could, like many other children present, work out some energy on the playground equipment (quick note, as Lydia found a friend among the latter, Dennis from school and child care). Before long we started seeing little dark creatures zipping about in the skies, and we realized we were witnessing a feeding frenzy of bats, a sight that delighted us no end. Even though seeing them was pleasure enough of its own—once or twice they came within ten feet of us or so—it was enhanced by the knowledge that they were eliminating scores of nasty mosquitoes.
Then it was back to the pavilion, where we saw a demonstrator explaining about how cold things are in outer space, and using liquid nitrogen to make his point. While we watched, we waited to check out the planetarium program, which was broadcast entirely within a portable air-inflated room about the size of one of the larger kiddie pools. The show, compliments of the Cranbrook Science Center, was excellent, and we learned some neat things about the current night sky, especially about Antares.
Back again to the pavilion, where we watched a program called Astronomy 101, which covered all the basics about the solar system and significant constellations that we could see. And finally we made our tour of the telescopes themselves, as each exhibitor had his instrument aimed at a particular object, and each was delighted to answer any questions we might have. As part of the activities, we were given a scavenger hunt worksheet, and we were asked to find six general objects—a double star, a nebula, a(nother) galaxy, a colored star, an open star cluster, and a globular star cluster (such as the Hercules star cluster, shown here). By walking around enough and looking through enough telescopes, we eventually got the whole bunch, plus getting some great views of the moon, of Polaris, and of Jupiter with its four prominent satellites. It was a cloudless night; the only problem was that the moon was very bright and interfered with seeing other things as well as we might have.
We wrapped things up by collecting the prize for completing the scavenger hunt (regrettably, the hobby shop that sponsored it was out of space-oriented gifts, but instead we got a 3-D puzzle of a dozen motorcycles), caught a slight bit of the latest demonstration (hosted by a NASA employee who doubles as Mr. Mullins’ first cousin), and got to meet Mr. Mullins’ brother, who was the partner in many an interesting anecdote heard about at work. Finally to home and bed, but with an extra sense of joy about what God created that either flap about or twinkle above us.
Having gone into such detail, I’m going to have to go rather quickly through the rest. We had horseback riding on Monday; Lydia handled things with her usual finery, Daddy got on the case when the plop thickened, and we note that Lydia’s previous mount Fable has taken the early lead in the fundraising sweepstakes. Also that day we finished up Lydia’s 10-day session of medicinal lotions for her feet. Soon we would, in bite-sized chunks, reintroduce her braces.
Tuesday was picture-taking day at school, and we trust we’ll soon have further proof of Lydia’s outstanding loveliness. That evening we went, with a bus-riding acquaintance of Mommy’s (Mr. Lou) to the job emporium in Ypsilanti to help both the latter and Mommy do some searching. Yes, Mommy’s position at JStor is running out in a few short weeks, and so she’s stepping up her hunt for a replacement. Indeed, on Friday she battled intense fog, not to mention road construction and traffic, to get to a job interview all the way over in Clinton. It turned out to be not what she’d hoped for, and it was no great disappointment to hear that the position went to someone else.
Daddy ran game time for the combined Sparks, T&T, and Trek (used T&T’ers) in Awana on Wednesday. It wasn’t difficult, but he had to do his best to keep his formidably projecting voice tempered a bit, as there was prayer meeting going on only 40 feet away or so.
On Thursday we experienced something new, and it promises to become a weekly habit, as Lydia attended a session of math tutoring (“Math Enrichment,” they call it) over at the 2nd Baptist Church, which certainly does a great job of providing various forms of uplift for the community at large. In a delightful coincidence, her teacher is Miss Lydia.
We went on a clothing purge of our closets on Saturday morning, and turned over three bagsful to Mrs. Betzig for the sake of her little Julia (who, though older than Lydia, is substantially smaller). Mrs. Betzig has already done us about a million good turns through the years, but she couldn’t leave well enough alone, as she gave Lydia a new craft set as a Thank You for the clothes.
On Sunday we had our two sessions at FBC (got to see some more old cronies from GBC, the Sivyers, at the evening service), and filled out some of the intervening time with some mindless fun at Chuck E. Cheese’s. Actually, Lydia did all the playing, while Daddy worked kakuro puzzles and similar tasks while guarding Lydia’s growing pile of tickets and diminishing pile of tokens. Mommy was at the library, doing online searching for the next possible job; alas, the pickings were somewhere between slim and none.
God has been so good to us—He has given us the glories of His creation, our home, our family, our friends, our health, our church, and so much more. We can have no doubt that if He wishes, He can provide Mommy with another job. Or if He doesn’t, that we can get by nevertheless!
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Lydia’s latest session of therapeutic horseback riding began on Monday; she is again aboard the mighty mare April. Little has changed from when we were there last, as Lydia has kept at least one volunteer walker and two of the three other riders from the previous class (Dan, aboard Fable, and Christine, aboard Sympatico—we’re glad to report that the latter horse is still doing okay). Moreover, she still gets to call on Daddy to come clean the paths, a nightly occurrence that we sometimes call The Adventures of Scooperman. This night was also made memorable by the appearance of hordes of saber-toothed mosquitos (global swarming?).
The annual fund drive for TRI, cleverly made to look like a horse race, and made much more urgent of late by the lack of matching funds, also began. Indeed, Lydia (Mommy, actually) drummed up some support at church the following Sunday, so April should be able to get a good start.
Another milestone took place this week, as the beginning of the new Awana season started up on Wednesday. Deacon Smith is still the Commander, Lydia’s T&T Director is Mr. Jeff, and Daddy is the new Game Leader. On this first week, it was more a time for introducing the clubbers to the routine and to the new adults involved, and Daddy got to watch and see how the former game leader ran things. There are about 16 children in the club all together, and we have great hopes that God is going to make it grow this year—it should be fun to read this again next May and see what happened!
Much of the rest of the week was the fairly normal work-school-church routine, but there were a few special moments, as Mommy’s attendance at Curriculum Night at Allen, and Daddy’s second trip to Old Country Buffet in as many weeks, this time as a(nother) goodbye to his former boss, Mr. Korniski. On Friday, Lydia got to attend a special social group for girls over at UMACC, where she has done “brain games” on occasion. Saturday was extremely busy, but with miscellaneous errands which are of no great interest to recount, except that we should point out Mommy’s amazing shopping acumen, as she was able to collect $130 worth of groceries from Kroger for just $26—now that’s a smart shopper!
Mommy also attended the annual meeting of the University Townhouses Co-op on Saturday, and came out of it with a prize from a drawing, a tool set with hammer, screwdrivers, a level, and other neat stuff. These would seem to be more appropriate gifts for home owners rather than us, but hey, everyone likes a freebie.
The weather took a tremendous drop on Tuesday and stayed there for the balance of the week, necessitating getting out jackets in the day and quilts at night, and we heard such filthy language as “wind chills” and “freeze advisories” from the Weather Channel. There are promises of warmer days ahead as we finish up the summer.
On Sunday after church (at which the boiler wasn’t working, so it was a chilly 58 degrees or so indoors), we dutifully attended a picnic at Gallup Park put on by some of Mommy’s co-workers. The blah weather, or maybe the prospect of driving on Platt & Huron Parkway these days, kept the attendance down. Lydia found some people to befriend and did some sidewalk chalk stuff and later had fun kicking around a soccer ball, but most of our time there had her and Daddy off to a playground at a different part of the park. We did come away with some leftover food, which was an unexpected treat.
Over all, it was a fairly going-through-the-motions type of week, but we should acknowledge that sometimes no news is good news. Lydia has had nothing but certified good days at school so far (and has got her requisite reward with a McDonald’s trip each week as a result). Also, our health has improved from the previous week, and we can never take that for granted.
A final note, as we discovered last week that Mr. Art Aseltine, one of the mainstays at GBC, passed away back on September 2. By all accounts, he was a good gent, and our best wishes to those who were closest to him.
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...and Conquer, with apologies to Tennyson.
Lydia stepped up to the ranks of 4th Grade on Tuesday, and the day had its usual mixture of trepidations and excitement. Fortunately, all went well then, and, so far, each school day since. The 4th grade situation is rather unusual, in that there is one class, taught by Mrs. Slotten (where Lydia is most of the time), and the class next door, taught by Mrs. York, and during portions of the day the kids change rooms, so they learn reading and writing from Mrs. York, and math, science, and social studies from Mrs. Slotten. Not a bad little practice for middle school, actually!
Lydia also has a new special helper, at least on occasion, named Mrs. Hough. Many of the special classes (art, library, gym, etc.) have retained their staff from years past, but Lydia’s new computer teacher is also her old librarian, Mrs. Idzikowski. She also has a new music teacher, Mrs. Mobley.
We got to go back to Allen on Thursday to meet with the teachers; we also discovered that one of Lydia’s best friends from her kindergarten days at Bryant Elementary, Imani, is in the other classroom. It was sure nice seeing her and her mother once again.
Unfortunately, the family health hasn’t been quite so smooth. On Wednesday night, Lydia developed a rash on both feet that was bright red, oozy, and painful to the touch. It was similar to one she’d acquired at Somerset Beach, which was diagnosed as a contact allergy (and she hasn’t been in her beach shoes since); we got a couple of tubes of prescription cream, and a few daily doses later, the rash was gone. Now it was back, worse than ever. She’d recently been to her brace maker, Mr. Busch, and had had her braces outfitted with some new padding for her navicular areas. We went back to see him on Thursday, and he was properly horrified, and encouraged us to do as we’d already planned and take Lydia back to the pediatrician about it (he pointed out that the new padding was much smaller than the rash areas, so sincerely doubted it could be a contact allergy this time).
So, Daddy and Lydia went to her pediatrician, Dr. Chamness, the next day. He frankly admitted to being baffled about the cause—not ruling anything out. He did, however, prescribe a new medicine; we’ve been using it religiously and the rash pretty much cleared up a few days later. Whether this keeps recurring or not, we’ll have to see.
Friday also saw the final day at work for Mrs. Kache, one of Daddy’s co-workers. She and Lydia were very fond of one another. The old gang of seven that had been together through thick and thin (definitely thick, with the previous day’s visit to Old Country Buffet) was now down to five, with the likelihood of two or more leaving by this time next year.
Saturday found us running a miscellaneous type of day. Daddy gave his little all at the Red Cross, collecting his 7th gallon pin. At the same time, Mommy and Lydia acquired a new pair of shoes so that the latter can remove them quickly and easily for cream applications. We had a celebration time at McDonald’s, in light of Lydia having all good days at school for the week (while there we ran into a couple of Daddy’s recent Sparks clubbers, Charis and Lexie, and had an enjoyable little chat).
For quite a while on Saturday we parked ourselves at Daddy’s workplace and worked on writing out our personal testimonies (a necessary step to becoming members at FBC); when time forced us to leave, we were both on our fifth page of single-spaced type, and probably another page or two from being finished.)
Sunday held one of the highlights of the week for us, in that we finally attended the great Center for Exceptional Families’ Annual Picnic. It was at a park in Dearborn, and we had a jolly old time, with lots of good food, good company, and games for the younger set. Lydia very patiently waited for a turn singing with a karaoke machine to the crowds, and treated them to “The Chattanooga Choo-choo.” Then, when they announced the door prizes, Lydia’s name was the first one called—she acquired a brand new backpack. It was fuzzy and pink, and had the “Supergirl” logo on it in sequins, and was filled with school supplies. If it hadn’t been for SpringHill, this might have been our best freebie of the year!
We made it back to FBC to take part in the Sunday School/Awana workers’ meeting. Mommy hasn’t been assigned to anything yet. It looks like Daddy’s going to be the chief Game Leader for the combined clubs. Report coming next week about how it turns out!
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Lydia’s days at Little Lamb came to an end on Tuesday, and to cope with the one-week hiatus before the start of 4th grade, Daddy took the last three days off of work, and the two had some valuable Daddy-Daughter time. Actually, there wasn’t as much time for fun and games as they’d hoped, as there were lots of errands to run (get to this store for this, that store for that, get a flush-‘n’-fill on the car over there, and go see at least one health professional each day while you’re at it—whew!).
Mommy was able to come along on a trip to see Dr. Youngs over in Lincoln Park on Thursday; we had seen Lydia’s bracemaker, Mr. Busch, the day before about various concerns, and we also squeezed in a visit to UM Hospital for a blood test. Ouch!
In addition to seeing Dr. Youngs, Mommy also had medicinal breaks in the week with a visit a dentist on Monday and with Dr. Sinha on Tuesday. Now that it’s just about harvest time, perhaps there will be sufficient apples to keep this parade of doctors away.
With the coming of the weekend also came the passing into September, which has even greater changes to it than the start of January. The weather is changing, there are some trees which are giving up their greenery, and school and the concurrent activities at church, are about to start. Changes at UM include the huge influx of students (and consequent infusions of traffic problems, plus very crowded buses), and the start of the football season, which means little to us other than knowing when and when not to be near the stadium. Good thing, actually, because UM’s loss on Saturday was a large enough upset that it may be discussed for years, not to mention cost a job or two. Come on, guys, it’s just a game—it’s not as if it were something important, like chess.
Speaking of which, since the Labor Day Weekend is also always home to the Michigan Open chess tournament, we elected to make the journey up to Flint to see some old friends from Daddy’s lost youth. We spent some time with some of the old Battle Creek contingent, Mr. Moore and Mr. & Mrs. Griffin, as well as with our favorite father-daughter combo of Mr. and Miss Skidmore. The routine observation was how much Lydia has grown (she’s just about to the height of a typical Skidmore), and the usual question to Daddy was “Are you playing?” “Well, uh, no. Just visiting.” It’s hard to explain Daddy’s attraction to these events, and if he had sufficient time and cash to spare, he wouldn’t mind rejoining the ranks, but he knows that’s just not the way it is anymore. Such visits are also good reminders of how much time has passed—Daddy got to meet with another old crony, Mr. Garrison, and it was noted that these two, who first met as opponents in the 1983 Michigan Junior, are now both adorned with white beards.
Since we were in the neighborhood, we also went to one of our favorite places covered by our trusty Boonshoft pass, the Flint Children’s Museum. One of the neat things about FCM is that they’re always striving to make improvements, and we saw that plenty have taken place in our 18-month absence. Notable among these were the camping room featuring a splendid stuffed moose, and the pizzeria, which serves (toy) pizzas in particular-sized slices to help children learn their fractions.
Sunday was, as it was meant to be, restful. Even Pastor Postiff got a bit of a breather, as we had a family visiting our church from Troy, the father of whom, Pastor Nowak, spoke in Sunday School as well as in both the morning and evening services. We were invited to the Postiffs’ for lunch, and ended up spending the entire afternoon visiting with both them and the Nowaks (Lydia, in particular, adored the company of their 17-year-old son Jacob).
Then came Labor Day, and we made it a good one. We drove up to Lansing and collected Aunt Katie, Uncle Marvin, and their van (they enjoy having Daddy do the driving), and motored down to the Binder Park Zoo for a long-overdue visit. We borrowed one of the zoo’s wheelchairs and kept it in reserve for any relative who needed it—Marvin always refused it, but Katie rode sometimes; it never stayed empty, though, because Lydia enjoyed getting the royal treatment when everyone else was walking. We took a train ride (the best one this side of Fort Wayne), and also traveled over to their always-impressive Africa section. We fed giraffes there and also fortified some goats and llamas in the Children’s Zoo area; speaking of the latter, Daddy was able to traverse the cement tunnel to the rabbit enclosure without incident this time (he had wrenched a shoulder on a prior visit). It was a hot day, and we certainly enjoyed the occasional apparatus that sprayed a cool mist.
A new feature of the place is a carousel with lots of exotic critters to ride. Lydia, perhaps because she so enjoys a particular story of Daddy’s from his college days, chose to ride the five-feet-long praying mantis.
We left there and headed over to nearby Marshall, to gorge ourselves on turkey at the celebrated Cornwell Turkey House (the immediate area is known unofficially as Turkeyville), which has many fond memories for us, not least of which is that it was there that Mommy first met many of Daddy’s family. Aside from the food and the ambiance, there was the formidable gift shop and also several fun machines to invest some quarters in. We opted to take a rest back outdoors, where the adults conversed and Lydia and Daddy found some other things to do. Among the latter were a wooden tractor and wagon to climb on, a barn full of livestock to peer in, and, surprisingly, a small train to ride on. Alas, on this day they were simply out to test the engines, and weren’t stopping for passengers. Maybe next time.
After a quick round of ice cream, as we were on our way out, we discovered that Lydia didn’t have her water bottle, and we realized that it, along with her hat, had been left behind in the pouch of the wheelchair we’d been using at the zoo. Mommy, very fortunately, had the zoo’s phone number in her cell phone, and called to see if we could go back and collect them. Normally they would have closed by then, but they were open an extra hour because of the holiday, which enabled us to just get back to the zoo office in time. Whew!
Then came the return to Lansing, sort of. Just as we were about to take I-69 back north, Aunt Katie noticed the sign saying that to get to Coldwater, you’d have to take I-69 south, and she asked how far away it was. “About twenty miles... did you want to go there?” “It’s okay with me,” she said. Out came the cell phone once again, and they said they were up for a visit, but Mommy concealed from them just who all the visitors were. When we pulled in, we were met by Grandma Brattin. She stared at the strange vehicle, and suddenly it dawned on her who had arrived, and she practically squealed with excitement as she made her way to the proper doors for greeting, complete with big hugs, Marvin and Katie, whom she hadn’t seen in at least a couple of years.
It was a delightful little visit, punctuated by the fact that everyone appeared to be healthy and there wasn’t anything particularly fascinating on television, so the latter took some rare time off. We caught each other up on current events and the doings of family extensions (Daddy’s cousin Joshua had got married the previous day, among other tidbits). Still, time waits for no man, so we had to bid farewell and head back out again. The miles went quickly, and Katie, who’s an expert at such things, kept us enthralled with stories of some of our ancestors.
We finally arrived back home around 11:30pm, in our own car, and with Lydia sleeping soundly in the back. Good thing, what with school starting the next day. The report on that will come next week.
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Life can be a little weird and a little hectic sometimes. It certainly seemed so recently. I’ll recount what I can, but I’ll probably end up missing something.
The week itself went rather strangely, in that a sudden dearth of adult leaders at Little Lamb meant that they couldn’t take their full couture of kiddies, and through an unfortunate bit of timing, Lydia drew the short straw. The only option was to have her come along with Daddy to his workplace, and keep her occupied with quiet activities. This she did admirably, but the sedentary routine occasionally was too much for her, and when she started getting too squirrelly we would shut things down and go out for a quick spot of exercise. Lydia especially liked venturing down to the basement of the building, using nothing but stairs to make the nine-story journey down... and back. Daddy, who usually doesn’t undergo that thigh-inflaming routine unless there’s a fire drill, might get in somewhat decent condition if he made a habit of what Lydia does so nonchalantly!
There are two relatively minor events to note in the same timeframe. On Monday we made a visit to the St. Paul’s Lutheran School, toured the grounds, and chatted with the principal and one of the teachers (we’re just testing the waters, seeing what might be out there in the realm of alternative education). We were impressed, but frankly not enough so to overcome several difficulties. On Tuesday we went to the Matthaei Botanical Gardens, as they were hosting a special display on raptors. The birds live over at the Leslie Science Center, or “Leslie Science and Nature Center,” as they’re now calling themselves. The program, which was presented equally by the Sierra Club and the Audubon Society, was also attended by Mr. Mullins from Daddy’s work and by two of Lydia’s friends from Little Lamb. The demonstratees included a kestrel, two kinds of owls, and a young bald eagle.
Now for the bigger stuff. Daddy took Friday off of work, and he and Lydia, with complimentary tickets from the Girl Scouts, drove to Detroit to spend much of the day at the Michigan State Fair. Among the highlights were the “Dragon Scales and Fairie Tales” show, starring Rico the sweet but crude baby dragon, bits of performances by the Anastasini Circus (the best diabolo artists anywhere!), some of the show by comedian/juggler Lisa Lou, and some adorable newborns in the “Miracle of Life” area. The lion’s share of our time was spent with Lydia riding the rides. She’s now grown well beyond the small children’s stuff, but did herself proud in the intermediate area, and we ventured down to the grown-up section as well, where she tackled the “Himalaya.” Daddy was very proud of how Lydia was willing to try new things, even things that he thought might have been too scary for her. In all, Lydia made very good use of the $15 wrist band that allowed her to ride early and often—tickets to the same rides would probably have cost four times as much.
Friday was also the day that the weather started to change. We’d been having rain—sometimes light, sometimes in a jolly thunderstorm (we got to watch one as it encroached on Daddy’s office on Tuesday)—for a week or more. On this day we got a few sprinkles in the morning, followed by a layer of dark clouds that couldn’t seem to make up their mind what to do, and then they disappeared and the sun started scorching away with a vengeance. Lydia, already nicely tanned from her many outings to Buhr Park this summer, was unaffected, but Daddy got cooked up like a corn dog, especially on the arms and neck. But what can you expect? He’s Fair skinned (yuk, yuk).
We left in time to get back to Ann Arbor for an end-of-summer party back at Little Lamb. This was held in the gymnasium of a building near their main one, and it had several opportunities for the kids to purchase tickets (no wrist bands this time) and play games and win prizes. Lydia had a ball with the games and with the three giant inflatables that took up about half of the space in the room. When it ended, we got outside and discovered that the sun’s appearance had been but temporary, as everything was rather drenched—bummer that we’d left the car windows open.
We didn’t find out until we got home and started seeing special reports that what had gone by was the biggest storm of the last few years, spawning several tornados as close as northern Livingston County, and absolutely wreaking havoc on Detroit, where Lydia and Daddy had just been. We’d managed to miss it because the gymnasium had no windows, and there was the constant loud hum of the machines that kept the inflatables going. We truly had no clue that it had happened at all.
We opted to do the quick drive back to the Ypsilanti Evangelical Friends Church for another of their movie nights. It was too wet (although back to just sprinkling like in the morning) for their normal drive-in set-up, so they broadcast it (another Veggie Tales flick, “Larry Boy and the Bad Apple”) indoors. We missed the first ten minutes or so, but it was still enjoyable.
Two other quick notes about the day’s weather—when we got home we found that the moistened conditions had resulted in a visitor, namely a frog, on our front steps. Birds, squirrels and chipmunks we’ve had in abundance, but this was our first amphibian caller in our eleven years here. And finally, the Tiger game at Comerica Park was delayed forever by the rains, but finally played, and—wouldn’t you know it?—they went into extra innings. Mercifully, Carlos Guillen whacked out a home run around 3:30am to win it for Detroit. “Good, that’s over. Let’s go home and get some sleep.”
That felt like a weekend all by itself, but we still had two days to go. On Saturday, after a morning running errands, including getting Lydia a mild haircut, we drove up to Milford, to the Kensington Metropark. There was a special event there, hosted by Target Stores, and presented by the Detroit Free Press: the “Target Children’s Book Festival.” This included lots of Lydia’s favorite types of activities, including craft tables to make things in and silly mascots to hug (there were also several impressive freebies, the collecting of which is one of Mommy’s favorite activities). Moreover, there was a stage, wherein different musical acts would perform, interspersed with children’s book authors reading some of their works. We caught bits of shows by musicians Jordan Pruitt and Jose-Luis Orozco, and heard presentations by authors Debbie Taylor and Laurie Friedman, plus intervening bits by a local musical-comedy act called Laughing Pizza. Finally, the band that we came to see, the Doodlebops, came and gave a great show of music and truly acrobatic dancing. Lydia first saw and was attracted to the Canadian trio (“A cross between the Wiggles and the Mod Squad,” Daddy observed) while watching their show on the Disney Channel back during a visit to Grandma & Grandpa Dunham’s house, and it was a great thrill to see her interact with them in person. We didn’t get quite as much interaction as we would have liked, but that’s okay (hey, she’s met more celebrities in the last month than many of us do in years). Lydia was very easy to spot in the crowd of children, both because she was much taller than their run-of-the-mill fan, and also because she was wearing the bright red silly wig that she’d acquired back at SpringHill Camp. She got to high-five each of the three, and she got a pre-autographed poster that’s now her favorite possession.
A quick extra note—Lydia was photographed with the mascot of the Free Press’ children’s section, the Yak, and we were told the picture might appear in the following Tuesday’s paper. We’ll have to check to see if it’s in the real thing, but it does appear in the online version. Lydia makes the Free Press!
Sunday was relatively sedate. We had our two trips to FBC, and, taking advantage of the first really good weather day in ages, we sandwiched a quick trip to the Toledo Zoo in between. We stood in line for a while to see the new polar bear cubs, but decided it wasn’t worth it, and went to see as many other things as we could, instead. We haunted the bird house, engaged the livestock in the Children’s Zoo, acknowledged the rapid expansion of Louie the elephant, and enjoyed the aquatic antics of an adult polar bear once the cub-seeking crowds had dispersed. Lydia got a ride on the newer carousel, and Daddy bored one and all with his reminiscences of riding a Galapagos tortoise there in his younger and slimmer days.
The week ended with a quiet evening at home, and the monotony that might have been was dispersed by Lydia losing a tooth. I’m going to go ahead and report on yesterday as well, because Lydia lost another one last night. Two molars in as many days! I trust the pattern won’t keep repeating....
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It has been a rollicking week, a little less eventful than the last several, but still with some notable points, many highlighted with music, magic, and other tomfoolery.
Lydia returned to Little Lamb for another week of miscellaneous fun, punctuated with some quiet study and about matters both religious and secular—in the latter, they were studying about Denmark. They had their usual two sessions of swimming at Buhr Park, and field trips took them to Putterz on Monday and to the fire station downtown (next to the Hands On Museum) on Wednesday. Best of all was a visit on Tuesday from comedian/juggler Ben Spitzer.
Around the house we made a quick clean-and-organize effort, largely for our own good, but also to assist as the townhouse folks could come in and inspect the furnace filter. Then, coming on the heels of that, came a notice that they plan to re-paint the molding around the front doors. We’ve been assured that they will use special scent-free paint, which will make things much better for both Lydia and Mommy.
And, now that we’ve touched on the family’s health, we should note some more items along that line. Daddy’s ankle is getting better, slowly and surely. Also, he and Lydia both made a trip to the dentist’s office in Saline on Tuesday (the former just for X-rays); Daddy then made his follow-up visit to the UM Dental School the next morning for a good, thorough cleaning. This enabled Mrs. Betzig’s young colleague, Miss Light, to take her exams. Daddy was happy to be able to get it done at no charge, and wasn’t expecting any thanks at all, but Miss Light gave him a Thank You card when he departed, and it included a gift card for use at a number of local restaurants—we used it at Chili’s on Thursday. Earlier in the day, Mommy took Lydia for one of her periodic check-ups with Dr. Keegan, a Professor of Pediatrics at UM Hospital.
The big events happened as the week ended. First, on Friday evening, we went over to the Ann Arbor Children’s Creative Center, wherein a group of youngsters put on a simply delightful performance of “The Music Man.” The boy playing Harold Hill had a million lines to deliver, and if he made any mistakes, they weren’t major ones. Unfortunately, everything was delivered rather emotionlessly—he didn’t exude much charm as a con man, and wasn’t very credible when his character became humble and repentant later. The girl playing Marian the Librarian was better, especially in the first half, when she was disgusted with her counterpart’s antics. The best performances were turned in by the boy playing Winthrop Paroo and, most notably, the girl playing Eulalie Shinn. We joined the festivities that followed, and got to meet several of these and other performers. All the time we watched, we wondered if we, or at least Lydia, could have done something like that. We’ll probably look into it more closely next year.
Saturday found us at one of our favorite recurring events, the Ypsilanti Heritage Festival. Things have changed there over the years, and now they’ve brought in several county fair-type rides for the younger set; we bought a wrist band for Lydia and let her take several turns on them. We also watched a show by magician Jim Fitzsimmons (who gave us, among other neat displays, a nice demonstration in how to escape from a straitjacket—you never know when this skill might come in handy!) and later by juggler Tom Bartholomew, saw part of a dance display by the Cottonwood Cloggers, and encountered a couple more clowns (Stripes and Loopy, the latter of whom made Lydia a wild balloon hat). Daddy sat in on the simultaneous chess display being put on by an old crony of his, Dr. Henry Thomas. After about fifteen moves, Henry had started an unsound attack, and Daddy was beating it back when he had to abandon the game in favor of the juggling show. Some things have got to take precedence!
And on Sunday, we got to go to a relatively rare event, in that Lydia was invited to a friend’s birthday party. The friend was Dai Chi, a little boy who had just turned five, and a fellow student at Little Lamb. The party was at Chuck E. Cheese’s, and Dai Chi’s mother magnanimously asked us and other parents to stay, and ordered pizza (and even buffalo wings—yum!) for us. We certainly enjoyed this unexpected treat. Lydia had a particularly fun time, and collected an unprecedented 394 tickets from various sources, including a profligate game called the Wonder Wheel, and not a few in the form of confetti, tossed by the host rodent himself.
And this week, well, an unfortunate situation has arisen with Little Lamb, and they weren’t able to accommodate Lydia, so she’s been camping out with Daddy. Good report to come.
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We packed in the milestones over the week, to be sure. Lydia spent most of the time enjoying a week of summer camp (her second within a three-week span), her first time ever doing so at Somerset Beach Campground near Somerset, MI. Lydia battled some homesickness once again, but made some new friends, tried out some new skills, and was totally enthralled at their guest teacher/preacher/entertainer, Jerry Jacoby.
For Mommy and Daddy the week went quickly. On Monday we went to Pastor and Mrs. Postiff’s home to toss around some basketballs (when enough people arrived to play actual games, Daddy bowed out, owing to his not-yet-healed ankle) and later to go inside and destroy all opposition in a game of Scrabble.
Tuesday found us at Comerica Park in Detroit, compliments of Mommy’s workplace. The weather was iffy enough (and the Tigers recently slumping enough) that there were quite a few tickets left over, and Mommy snaffled some extras for friends at church. The weather held off, and we enjoyed a good game against Tampa Bay. Starting pitcher Nate Robertson lasted into the 8th inning, and left with a healthy 6-2 lead. Unfortunately, the reliever who followed instantly gave up a flurry of hits, including a grand slam home run that landed in the Tigers’ bullpen (about thirty feet from us), resulting in a tied score and a very quick trip to the showers. Ah, but the agony was short-lived, as Detroit quickly collected three more runs in the bottom of the inning, and won 9-6.
A few quick notes about the experience: (1) this was our second trip to Comerica, and we haven’t had to actually purchase a ticket so far—unfortunately, we can’t say as much for the parking; (2) Daddy’s pattern still holds, in that the first time he ever goes to a ballpark, the home team loses, but on his second trip, and most visits thereafter, the home team wins (this was also true for Tiger Stadium, for 5th/3rd Field, for Ned Skelton Stadium, and for Oldsmobile Park; he’s also been to one National League game, one NFL game, and one college hockey game, and the home team lost each one of them); (3) the day will be remembered by baseball fans not for our game, but that Barry Bonds hit home run #756 that night, taking over the historical top spot.
We picked up Lydia on Thursday, and the reunion was a delight. Before long we’ll also have some pictures to share. Actually, here’s one, of Lydia with her room’s counselor, Ali. Lydia gave us the low-down on some of her recent activities, including learning some photo techniques, going horseback riding (aboard a bad-tempered critter named BJ), and the “water hayride,” wherein all the riders wore their swimsuits because of occasional dousings. In all it appears to have been a terrific time for everyone.
On Friday Daddy’s throat was acting up (“I’m going to have to trade you in,” says Mommy, “but I’m not going to get much.” She often says the same thing of herself.), and he opted to take a sick day from work. He was well enough later to take Lydia and go run some errands in preparation for the weekend. When we stopped at the rental car place, we saw a flurry of activity at a nearby store front, and took a few minutes to examine it. It was a grand opening, and they had tables set up front with stacks of fliers, mounds of freebie snacks, and a colorful, balloon-twisting, face-painting creation calling herself Cuddles the Clown. She looked like a younger version of Mrs. Hasselbach (late of Pokadot fame), and it turns out she knew the latter and her husband. I suppose that clowns travel in rather tight circles, as well as in weird vehicles.
That night we went back to the Ypsilanti Evangelical Friends Church for another display of their drive-in theater. This time it wasn’t a Veggie Tales wannabe, but the real thing, a compilation titled “God Made You Special.” Always a good thought to keep.
Saturday was the biggie. First of all, it was Daddy’s 43rd (Aha! A prime number!) birthday, as well as Lydia’s 9½th. We made it a long one, getting up around 5:30am and not getting back home and to bed until the next 1am. We spent it in Ohio, where we would see both the sunrise and the sunset. First we drove to our favorite recurring museum, Boonshoft in Dayton, as they had a special early opening, complete with breakfast buffet, for members. Alas, something didn’t get planned well, because many things in the buffet were gone when we went in for our turn. We stayed long enough to enjoy a presentation on bats, a critter for which Daddy has a particular fondness. Just before we left we saw a planetarium show aimed at children, which, regrettably, appeared to have been made by someone with little respect for their intelligence.
We ventured further south, to Cincinnati, where we’d planned to tackle both the Cincinnati Children’s Museum and the Cincinnati Science Museum (two parts of an enormous edifice that once served as their railroad station). First we called our old friends the Lucases to see if we could visit them on our way back north. Unfortunately, they weren’t going to be available for the later time, but we could stop in and visit now instead. So we headed over to their home, and had a terrific 90 minutes catching each other up on various things. We also briefly got to see their son Ben, whose wedding last year we’d missed. (He’s now quite tall and speaks in a bass voice, which is rather scary.)
We didn’t have much time once we got to the museum complex, but we did our best with it. In this case, it meant spending it all at the Children’s Museum part; hey, that leaves some other places of interest for a later visit. Lydia got to try out lots of neat things, including the time she got permission to assist a worker there at feeding time for the turtles (mommy’s favorite animal).
When we got out and on the road again, we figured we still had enough energy and enough sunlight for another adventure, so Mommy pored through the AAA Ohio tour book and made a couple of suggestions. We opted to go see the Charleston Falls Preserve near Tipp City, enticed by the prospect of a 37-foot waterfall, a cave, and an observation tower. It turns out that none of these things was as spectacular as we’d imagined (the recent lack of rains resulted in the former being a 37-foot rock overhang with three distinct trickles, the cave could only be traversed by crawling, and the tower was a plank atop a flight of about a dozen stairs), but it was a place with incredible charm nevertheless, and we hope to visit it again some day. We stopped for dinner at the Tipp City McDonald’s, and were delighted to find that the play area had a seat available specifically for birthday boys and girls. Daddy couldn’t resist taking a turn there.
As mentioned, it was 1am when we finally got home, and we’d clocked 540 miles for the day. Fortunately, we found gas prices in Ohio that were, as usual, well below the level at home, and being bathed in air conditioning made the miles go by rather nicely.
We managed to get ourselves up and moving the next morning for church (Daddy was made a spectacle of, in that he was made to come up front and get sung at; this was followed by his giving his testimony). We followed this up by driving up to Lansing to crash the celebration dinner for Uncle Marvin, whose birthday comes the day after Daddy’s. In addition to Marvin and Katie, we got to see Daddy’s cousin Ralph and his family for the first time in a couple of years; the kids were a delight, and Tatum has grown notably. Then again, after a rack of ribs, so did Daddy. We spent the balance of the afternoon at Katie and Marvin’s, before driving home, handing in the rental car, and finally catching up on some sleep.
We should also mention that we got a call Sunday morning from Grandma Brattin, informing us that Aunt Laura was hospitalized the previous day and had undergone emergency surgery to remove a large ovarian cyst. The operation was a success, and the doctors removed her appendix in the bargain. We got to speak with her, and she already seemed to be recovering well.
This week has been very busy, enough so that I’m only getting this in on Thursday, some two or three days past the usual posting. I will, however, save the more recent activities for later. I’ll put them in next Monday. Or maybe Tuesday, or....
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As we smashed our way into the last full month of summer (and note—we don’t have to ask “where has the time gone?”; we can just go down the page and read about it!), we had a week with much variety. It would probably be best to keep things chronological, which means it will take us a while to get to the bonnet.
Back at Little Lamb after her week at SpringHill Camp, Lydia and the other children were learning about Germany and taking the odd field trip, to County Farm Park one day, to the Scrap Box craft store another, and getting in two sessions of swimming. At one of these, Lydia submerged her head for the first time—it looks like she means to be worthy of that bravery award she got at camp! There was a strange interruption to the week, as there was a break-in at the building one night, and they had to cancel all activities the next day to let the police conduct investigations. We never heard about any significant damage or loss of property, for which we can be thankful, and they were up and running afterward like nothing had ever changed. Nevertheless, Lydia expressed unease about the situation, recognizing no doubt the integrity of one’s personal space.
On Monday we, and quite a few others from FBC, went over to Pastor and Mrs. Postiff’s home for dinner, as we finally finished off the remnants of the previous Saturday’s picnic. We had to skip the basketball game which followed, and went to TRI for the final session of horseback riding for the season (it should pick up again in September). Lydia did her usual, and Daddy did his—albeit with a lousy substitute stable fork, as the trusty one was broken recently—and Mommy and Daddy also got to put in their first efforts in a new volunteer position, namely as proofreaders for the TRI newsletter. When things were done, and we were milling about outside, Lydia spotted a frog hopping about, and Daddy quickly caught it. It was a handsome little wood frog, and Lydia called it Hopkins. Moments later she found another of the same model, but larger; this turned out to be uncatchable.
It looks like the health problems of one of the horses, Sympatico, are not diminishing, and his situation doesn’t appear bright. We hope to have better news in the weeks ahead.
On Tuesday we went downtown to Bennett Optometry for their “Ann Arbor Vision Enhancement” open house. Lydia got her vision tested (her eyes themselves are fine, but she has some problems with the movement, as when focusing on an object when it comes nearer). They had snacks, games, and even a celebrity there to meet, former Detroit Pistons player John Long. The place was not overly crowded, so we got to spend as much time as we wished conversing, collecting hugs, photos, and autographs, and even comparing shoes (his are 15½, beating out Daddy’s by ½).
On Wednesday Daddy took his dental business away from Saline and brought it instead to the UM Dental School, such that aspiring hygienist Audrey Light (a friend and colleague of Mrs. Betzig’s) could gain some valuable experience on him. Daddy had never been inside the building before; it was quite interesting having so many dental students trying out their wares at one time in what seemed like a gigantic tooth factory. We went to FBC (Lydia reconnected with the Mustardseeds class) that night, followed by another sleep-robbing-but-necessary trip to the laundromat.
Thursday was the day that Little Lamb was closed, so Lydia stayed with Daddy at work, amusing herself with various things, primarily involving the portable DVD player. Afterward we made a quick visit to Mallett’s Creek, and then over to Mrs. Betzig’s house to clear the uglies out of her swimming pool. We did the latter every couple of days over the last week while she and her kids vacationed in Colorado. In addition to wet, nasty leaves, we cleaned out a bewildering variety of insects (probably the only time I will ever touch a cicada—yechh), and on this particular day even fished out a fledgling bird (double yechh). Mommy, meanwhile, had gone to another open house, this time at the Ann Arbor Academy; it sounds like it would be a great place to have Lydia attend, and if Daddy’s salary suddenly triples, they’ll do it.
On Friday we made a long overdue return trip to the Ypsilanti Evangelical Friends Church to enjoy a summer pastime of theirs, a drive-in movie. What they do is toss a big white sheet over the scoreboard of their baseball diamond and project a family-friendly movie onto that while broadcasting the sound onto an FM radio station (92.1, I think). The proceedings are free, including popcorn and drinks. We watched some Pixar-type production starring a gaggle of insects in a sort-of rendition of David and Goliath. Frankly, it was Veggie Tales-lite, with the writing, the humor, the voices, and everything else falling well short of the computer-generated standard. Since it couldn’t start until after dark (around Lydia’s bedtime these days), we couldn’t stay to watch the second feature. We do, however, hope to return soon.
Saturday was the big day of the week. After running numerous errands, we finally made good on some tickets Mommy had acquired and drove to Greenfield Village in Dearborn. We had a quick thrill on the way there, in that while we drove by Metro Airport, a descending Boeing 747 flew directly over us, and both the sight and the sound were incredible—my kingdom for a convertible! Anyway, back to Dearborn. It was a terrific day for such a trip, and we soaked in as much as we could in the time we had. We took a ride on an old train (Lydia’s first that doesn’t fit in a zoo), watched the first couple of songs of a stage performance (specializing in Gershwin), then wandered over to Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park laboratory. Here we were treated to the story of the chemical bottles and of the nailed-down chair, and had a great time with the early phonograph. Lydia even got the chance to cross the ropes and record her voice onto tinfoil. From there we took in the Wright brothers’ cycle shop and got a quick history lesson about their first plane, then to the office of condiment mogul H.J. Heinz, then on a route that took us over a covered bridge and by some early 17th century homes to a tremendous windmill.
From there we headed over to the baseball fields to see some displays of pre-evolved baseball, if you will. We watched the finish of a game within a “Classic Base Ball” tournament (a team from Grand Rapids defeated a team from Port Huron in a real pitcher’s duel, 19-18), then, in a display called “Pitching through Time,” we got a show of some weird pastime called “town ball,” and watched how rules and equipment progressed to the game of today, at least up to the dead ball era of 1901-1919. And, as a special throwback to that time, they had a special guest there, Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell, who dates back to 1918 himself. He arrived late and had to leave early, but we managed to get a photo of the jaunty fellow with Lydia—indeed, she was the only one to get to pose with him. What a delightful little meeting that was!
On our way out, we stopped to collect a souvenir, and Mommy found a beautiful pink bonnet—large even, so it’s snug, but still fits Lydia for now, and quite reasonably priced, so that marked a nice finish to a very memorable visit.
That evening Lydia got a great night’s sleep, which was good in that we had a full day to look forward to, what with a new week at summer camp starting the next day. Mommy and Daddy were less fortunate. Mommy was up packing Lydia’s effects, which is something that must be done with great care and takes loads of time. Daddy had, after collecting Mrs. Betzig’s van, driven to Metro Airport to pick her and her family up on their return from vacation. He found the right terminal, made only one wrong turn in finding the parking garage, then hobbled about (Did I mention that he injured his ankle at the church picnic? He jumped over a fence. Once again doing kiddie activities proves harmful to Daddy, who apparently refuses to face the fact that he turns 43 on Saturday.) for about thirty minutes, trying to find his way to where the plane comes in, only to find that time has passed him by—for the last six years, they don’t let non-passengers into those areas anymore. Instead, Daddy parked next to the luggage corral. The flight arrived on time, and Daddy carried a whacking big suitcase (filled with souvenir rocks from the Rockies) as they made their way back to the parking garage and beyond. Daddy didn’t get home until nearly 2am, at which point Mommy was still packing.
Then came Sunday. During Sunday School, Mommy and Daddy, plus several other former GBC-ites, attended a special membership class, a prerequisite for FBC membership. In the morning service Daddy was surprised to be the one requested to do the morning prayer for the congregation. He apparently did alright, and was later complimented by a couple of the regulars for his “radio-quality” voice. “Got the face for it, too,” he added. In contrast, Lydia’s lovely face was surrounded by the pretty pink bonnet, and she got lots of compliments.
That afternoon we drove over to Somerset Beach for the start of Lydia’s newest session of summer camp. We enjoyed a grilled burger dinner, found our way to Lydia’s cabin, met with various leaders, and eventually left. Lydia was very apprehensive about this trip, but we later heard she was doing well. We trust that, once again, we’ll have a good report next week.
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And it came to a delightful end on Friday, as Mommy and Daddy motored back up to SpringHill Camp in Evart to be reunited with Lydia. This was the longest time they’d ever been apart. Lydia had a wonderful time with her friends and with the leaders as she sang songs, made crafts, played games, tried various activities, shopped at the COW (candy on wheels) mobile trading post, and learned important truths from the Bible. Mommy and/or Daddy sent her e-mails each morning, and before we left there on Sunday we’d also dropped off some postcards, but that was all the communication we could do until she spotted us in one of the lines on Friday morning.
She was quite a sight—one of her leaders, Brianna, had braided her hair, and it was adorable. We may try to do the same, but will probably not be able to make it look as cute. Moments later came the closing ceremonies, which included Lydia’s group (the Fire Station girls) getting up together and performing a song. Each group then went to the area where they’d been camping out for a little more singing and celebrating, and finally each individual building (Lydia’s was Fire Station #1) assembled for some final words of thanks and encouragement, and the passing out of “character awards.” Lydia conquered both her bout of homesickness and such daunting tasks as riding the famed Zip Line ride to take home the Bravery Award.
After gathering everything up and taking it to the car (we decided to eschew doing a rental this time, and hazarded bringing the Ballerina, which did fine; indeed, it motored along that day at an impressive 35 mpg), in which we might also mention that Lydia got her first-ever ride in a golf cart, we finally said goodbye and headed—toward home? Don’t be silly! Mommy and Daddy had taken the day off work, and we meant to put in some more memories first! We drove to nearby Reed City and visited the Old Rugged Cross Museum, as we had a year ago on our first trip to Evart. Then we headed into relatively unknown territory, taking US10 west to Ludington, and then US31 south to Oceana County.
The scenery was terrific, as we had bright blue skies, quaint little towns (some of which, alas, hit their prime a few decades ago), and even the recently stiffened critters on the sides of the road were notable, including a fox and a porcupine. Unfortunately, as the Ballerina lacks air conditioning, if we traversed the territory of a skunk, there was precious little we could do about it. We also nearly contributed to the carnage when a stork swooped rather near our front.
We saw something strange while we headed down US31, as great misty clouds were seeping over the hill to the west, apparently washing ashore from Lake Michigan. This didn’t cause us any concern, but later proved to be significant.
Before long we popped in at Silver Lake, that great mainstay of fun and relaxation for at least four generations of the family. Many a milestone (in Mommy and Daddy’s case, it’s where he proposed and she accepted) has been celebrated at the cottage (lovingly called the “Snittarb”) near the lake, or at the nearby shores of Lake Michigan, or at the famed sand dunes in between. We took a quick turn to see the cottage itself and soak in the atmosphere of the lake community, then headed over to Lake Michigan, nodded in passing the Mac Woods Dune Scooter Rides establishment, and shortly found ourselves at the Little Sable Point Lighthouse. On a brief visit there a year ago, we’d found that they have opened this venerable structure up for visitors, and we’d determined to get there in time to get inside and climb our way to the top. This we did, without any real difficulty, and came out onto the landing some 92 feet above the sand and rocks below. Unfortunately, the same mists that we’d seen near Ludington had enveloped this spot as well, so visibility was not great. Indeed, we could barely make out the folks swimming.
Undaunted, we enjoyed what we did see, including the silly little placards connected to the railings (“Dallas 945 miles” and the like), and conversing with a gentleman up there (he gave out “I climbed Little Sable Point Lighthouse” stickers, answered any questions we came up with, and borrowed our camera and took our photo), when a timely puff of wind came up and dispelled the clouds, giving us the view we’d been hoping for. Eventually, though, we were compelled to say goodbye and take the 130-step journey back down.
When we arrived back in the sand, we walked over to the area called “the outlet,” and found it crowded with swimmers and sunbathers, and with lots of children playing. The stream that connects Lake Michigan and Silver Lake often changes its course, and this time it had done so spectacularly, meandering way off its usual path and creating a tremendous peninsula. Mommy and Daddy sat where they guessed was the spot where he’d proposed—one day short of sixteen years before—and Lydia took a picture of them.
Finally we trudged back to the Ballerina, took extra care to shake all the sand out of everything, and started heading home. Mommy had called Uncle Marvin from the top of the lighthouse, and he and Aunt Katie were available for a visit, so off we went. Our time there was enjoyable as usual, as we caught each other up on various activities. Katie gave Daddy a collection of letters and postcards that his Grandma and Grandpa Brattin had written to each other, which included some interesting information on Daddy’s father. We also got to take the time to watch the DVD that we’d purchased from SpringHill, highlighting that week’s activities. Lydia is easily visible at three separate times therein.
Saturday felt like Sunday, not only because it was our second day off, but because we would spend practically all of it at churches. First it was off to our old stomping grounds at GBC, to pay our respects at the funeral of Bruce Newell. We got there earlier than we’d planned, but exactly in time to do as we’d done many times before and help Mr. and Mrs. Dieterle out of their car and into the building. I think that made our day even more than it made theirs. We enjoyed the company of many of our old friends, most of whom hadn’t seen Lydia in approximately three inches. The service itself, regrettably, didn’t do Bruce sufficient credit, as it contained no gospel message to speak of, and had the same superficial version of “Amazing Grace,” that had blighted the service for Dr. Ashburn six weeks before. Still, it was a good service in other respects, as friends and family of Bruce got to assemble to share how special he’d been.
After this we headed over to FBC for their annual picnic. Situated handily next to a city park, FBC was made festive with lots of great food, various games, and even a rented inflatable jumping room that resembled a rather dopey-looking dog. Lydia had several turns romping about in the latter, while Mommy found grown-ups to converse with and Daddy investigated the food and the playground with equal delight. We should also note that the Pierce family’s newborn twins were making their first appearance there.
Sunday was sort of a repeat of Saturday, in that we had two trips to church (but this time it was both FBC), and after the second service we got to gather together for leftovers from the picnic. We were celebrating the engagement of a young couple from the church, Dr. Meyer and Ms. Harding. During the service itself (made notable by Pastor’s putting aside of all his books except a Hebrew text, reading and translating for us the entirety of the book of Nahum), people were able to go up to the front and offer felicitations and/or advice to the young couple, and eventually Daddy—with Lydia in tow—joined in.
Monday through Thursday had precious little notoriety to it, other than whatever Lydia was experiencing. Mommy and Daddy took buses to work, stayed there for extra long hours, and generally got caught up on their rest. Actually, that is rather unusual!
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For the third time in as many months, we had a 800+ mile weekend; this time, it was broken into two trips of roughly equal length. On Saturday we piled up the necessities into a rental car (a beige Kia Optima that we rather liked), and headed to deepest, darkest Ontario, making our third visit to the African Lion Safari in Cambridge. In addition to the usual features, the pluses included a really good raptor show, and Mommy and Lydia getting an elephant ride. The minuses included horrifically heavy traffic within (indeed, in some places the going was no better than one of I-94’s really good traffic jams), a strange dearth of particular animals we’d hoped to see (baboons, tigers, bears), and a misjudgment of time, such that Lydia only had a brief while to enjoy the children’s water play area. We spent that time waiting for the train ride; it was nice, but no train ride is worth a whole hour’s wait. Daddy whiled away the hour by entertaining some kids in line with his trusty juggle balls, and we all kept a watchful eye on a septet of peacocks who were roosting on wooden beams directly overhead. No problem there, fortunately!
We’ll probably remember the elephant ride best. Daddy opted to sit out this time and play photojournalist, while Mommy (her second such ride) and Lydia (her third) went around together. The elephant was joined not only by a man with a prod, but also by her baby, who always kept within a trunk’s reach, and occasionally stopped the procedures by taking a milk break.
Some additional fun features of the day included some aeronautical maneuvers, in that we got to see airplanes towing gliders overhead many times, and on the trip home we encountered seven hot air balloons. We trust that these displays kept their distance from one another.
Canada is always fun to visit. We crossed the Ambassador bridge to get there and the Blue Water bridge to get back, had to display our birth certificates at both crossings, and while there we had to do some mental gymnastics to translate kilometers into miles and loonies into bucks. But, be it ever so Detroit-ish, it was good to get back home.
On Sunday we piled even more necessities into the car, and headed for the high hills of northern Michigan. This, you see, is the start of Lydia’s session of summer camp back up at SpringHill in Evart. We’d been looking forward to this time ever since last summer when Lydia took part in the 3-day camp; this time it’s pretty much a full week, as we don’t go get her until Friday.
We took lots of time to familiarize ourselves with the people involved, particularly those handling Lydia’s special diet. We are convinced that this is one of the best-organized places to be found, and we knew we could leave Lydia with nary a qualm. We trust we’ll have a good report next week, full of new friends and new experiences.
On our return drive, we stopped in Ionia and visited Daddy’s cousin Anna. We spent an hour or two over dinner, and caught each other up on things. It’s great to be able to do that on occasion.
Lydia’s absence feels weird. No seeing her in the back of the car; no need to actually use the car most days. No seeing or hearing her in her room, no playing her Buddy Davis CD at bedtime. And yesterday, no going to horseback riding. I imagine they got someone else to cope with the forking.
Last week was relatively nondescript. Lydia, in day camp, studied Poland, and took field trips to Jump City and to a place called Sugar Bush Farms, where she milked a cow and did other neat things. On TRI on Monday, she did some “off rope” riding (wherein the lead walker doesn’t do anything to control the horse), and acquitted herself well. A quick milestone note, as the Ballerina turned 130,000 miles old on our way to TRI that evening. We attended church on Wednesday and exalted in the new air conditioning.
On Thursday the air raid sirens went off, as apparently a tornado was sighted in the county (around Whitmore Lake, we later learned); Daddy was at a meeting on the ground floor of a nearby hotel and thus never had to move, unlike his workmates, who had to trudge down nine floors and squeeze into the basement. At Mommy’s place, everyone was supposed to go downstairs (she did), but most opted not to. Later in the day Daddy and Lydia took a bus downtown to get Mommy from work and then spent a quick hour or so taking in the amazing sights of the Art Fair. For Mommy and Daddy it was more like a circus sideshow than anything else; for Lydia it was more bittersweet, as there were a lot of things she really wanted to purchase and had to be rebuffed. And while she enjoyed the color and pageantry, and also liked bumping into an old teacher of hers at one stop, she also had to ride on Daddy’s shoulders for most of the time there, as she skinned her shin on the steps up into Mommy’s office building. Poor little sweetheart.
The biggest single event of those days was that we had yet another viewing to attend, this of a man named Roger Wanty. Roger had attended GBC a good many years back, and—despite being afflicted with Down Syndrome—worked as a uniformed leader in the Awana ministry. He was an incredibly sweet fellow. When we left the funeral home in Milan, we had hopes that the guest book would eventually number some other people from GBC who remembered him.
And, along the same lines, we note that the funeral for Bruce Newell is coming up this Saturday. It’s rather eerie to note that, in the last year, we’ve known nine people who have passed away, and every one of them a male of the species (Mike Knowlton, Harry Bracken, Clayton Lucas, Harold Wolverton, Shelby Strange, David Ashburn, Bruce Newell, Bob Burrell, and Roger Wanty). We also attended a viewing last autumn of a gentleman whose name I don’t recall, the brother of a lady at GBC. And we could tack on Lydia’s favorite celebrities from the same timeframe (Steve Irwin, Jared Nathan, and Roger Bennett), and all of them share the same condition, if you will. This is not to say that I desire any kind of gender balance, but, like I say, it is a bit eerie. [Later correction—I forgot about Casey Arnett, our former next-door neighbor who passed away last January. Then again, I also forgot about Ray Roberts and Roy Berry, a former principal and teacher of mine, respectively, who died last autumn. I could also tack on the biggest celebrity I’ve ever deceased on the UM alumni database, Gerald Ford. The men definitely have the lead in this sorry race, but not a monopoly.]
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The big event of the week was a grand get-together back at Aunt Debbie and Uncle George’s, where we’d been just the week before; this time it was to celebrate the recent high school graduation of Lydia’s cousin Chey. Woo-hoo!
Putting off the early threat of thunderstorms, it turned out to be a very nice day, and we enjoyed a delightful commingling with virtually all the Michigan family extensions, not to mention the occasional friend of the family and the family puppies. It was nice to be able to get together without the fuss and bother about wearing our best clothes, or purchasing lots of presents, or worrying about the high costs of dune scooter rides, as often mar the other reunions. Here we could hang out and converse, cuddle the new babies if we wished, get involved in some games (quite a few were going for horseshoes), or just watch the ceaseless energy of the younger set in their activities (Lydia and company spent lots of time on the trampoline, in the fairly large inflatable pool, or on the play set. And, of course, there were lots of munchies; Debbie put out a great spread, and now the rest of us have more spread as a result.
Our day didn’t begin there, but saw us take a long detour first to the Kids ‘n’ Stuff Museum in Albion. They are, in addition to being a really fun place, a good receptacle for grocery containers, so we often save up ours for them to restock their simulated grocery store.
The previous week found us over at Crossroads Community Baptist Church for their Vacation Bible School. CCBC always puts forth a great effort for their VBS’s, and this year was no exception. The program was titled “Game Day Central,” and had a sports (specifically, soccer) theme. The five-day program went as follows: (1) Obey God {Join the Team}, (2) Do My Best {Play your Position}, (3) Believe {Get in the Game}, (4) Put Others First {Take it to the next Level}, (5) Tell Others {Recruit new Teammates}. Each day had a session with everyone together for music, video, prayer, collection, doling out prizes from a drawing, etc.; this was followed by breaking into different classes with more specific teaching, crafts, games, lessons about missions projects, and more. The final day finally saw Lydia getting called up for a drawing prize (a CD holder and a container of some kind of candy called “pop shots,” both looking like basketballs); they also got the word then that the girls there gave a combined $750 for the missions projects, thus passing the boys (who combined for a still-impressive $600). Time was reserved for a big party outdoors, complete with hot dogs, snow cones, and some giant inflatables for the kiddies to bounce on.
The VBS’s were in the evening, which left Lydia with the chance to have another full week at day camp. The highlights included a trip to the Chelsea Teddy Bear Company (she got a souvenir bear that she has named “Chocolate”), a trip to the Exhibit Museum (where she saw a show at their planetarium), and two more sessions of swimming. They focused on Nigeria in their study time.
Monday was so beastly hot that not only was the intended field trip of the day cancelled, but so was TRI that night. The horses wouldn’t have been able to take it.
The week finished on Sunday, and it was made memorable with what we did between sessions at church. We went over to Gallup Park to take part in the Huron River Days festival. We took advantage of the free canoe rental and took one out for a long paddle. We also saw some wildlife displays, had a nice talk with our old friend Ron Loyd the Bubble Man, gathered up info (Mommy), made some quickie crafts (Lydia), and banged our shin on a metal tent stake (Daddy, of course).
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Things returned to normal, whatever that is, in the days following our recent pile-on-the-miles weekend down south. We had several days where we all had to crash early in an effort to function. Still, we managed; Mommy and Daddy got their work done (though Mommy had to work extra long each day to make up for not working on Wednesday), and Lydia enjoyed day camp as usual.
The day camp theme this week was, as befits a week with Independence Day in it, about the U.S.; the field trips were closer to home (one to the Hands On Museum and one to Briarwood Mall), and the swim days were accepted gratefully as the temperatures started to creep up. They would hit 95 by Sunday.
We did a bit of back yard sitting for our friend Mrs. Betzig, who was gone for the week on a missions trip to Peru. Which is to say, we went over to her place every couple of days and skimmed all the floating crud from the top of her swimming pool (leaves, twigs, and an impressive variety of insects).
Independence Day itself found us at our usual position along the parade route in downtown Ypsilanti. Schools, churches, veterans’ groups, and politicians were all well represented. I should add a quick note that the holiday also resulted in the week off for the staff and animals at TRI. However, it didn’t change the events at FBC, as the stalwarts still gathered for a Bible lesson, hymns, and prayer.
The big event of the week was that we finally, after several years of saying we would, took up Uncle George’s offer to take us fishing. George, you see, is an expert fisherman, and has oodles of trophies and other prizes to prove it. We figured that, under his tutelage, even Daddy (0 for 3 in fishing attempts) might actually catch something.
We did the quick drive to George and Debbie’s home in Hamburg, and George took us, plus Lydia’s young cousin Danielle, in his pick-up (with boat in tow) to a lake in nearby Howell. We were there for about three hours, and between us we managed to catch about sixteen fish. George got fifteen of them, one pike and a big mess of bass. Mommy didn’t actually try to get anything, concentrating mostly on slathering up the kiddies with sunblock, and taking the occasional snapshot. The girls tried it for a while, then found an ingenious way to entertain themselves, playing with rubber worms. Daddy had several nibbles, and one line snapped, but managed to break through and actually pull in his first ever fish, a bass that measured about nine inches. We threw it, and all of George’s back. Before heading home, we took a stroll along an island in the lake, where we noticed lots of immature bluegills, and, unfortunately, lots of empty casings of what had been an amateur fireworks display.
We fetched back over to Aunt Debbie’s for some lunch and small talk with her and Lydia’s other cousins, Chey and Chanda, and palled around with their noteworthy dogs (Shadow, the enormous but laid-back black lab, and Jack, the small but lively Jack Russell terrier).
We also had a memorable time on Sunday, as the FBC evening service was moved to Pastor and Mrs. Postiff’s home, as we celebrated the dedication of the parsonage. The final count was something like 65 guests, including relatives of the two ladies (Mrs. Pinero and Mrs. Polk), both deceased, whose gifts help purchase the house. We enjoyed fellowship with one another, which included a Bible lesson, songs, and lots of good food. We followed this up with a trip back to Mrs. Betzig’s, who had just returned from Peru with lots of stories and souvenirs.
Daddy commemorated a pair of anniversaries this week, both of which remind him that he is better off without bicycles. On 3 July 1988 he rode from his home in Belleville down to Monroe and back, utterly unequipped for a 104 degree day (no sunscreen, no water, no money to buy anything to drink); he got a sunburn that left lines lasting for about a decade. And back on 8 July 1981, he was riding home after having taken and passed his final driver’s test when he got hit by a car—this was in the days before bike helmets were at all popular, and he was treated for severe head lacerations. With many people it might have been a fatality, but God very likely said, “Nope, it’s not his time yet. I’ve got plans for him!” Daddy was out of the hospital in three days, but carries scars and the immobility of his left eyebrow as a result. Still, he has often used the incident to encourage children to use their helmets (“After all, you don’t want to grow up like me, do you?”).
Fortunately, we also had some happier milestones to celebrate as well, and we had some nice telephone chats with Mr. Mast (birthday) and Mommy’s Uncle Bob and Aunt Dorrie (61st anniversary) on Saturday.
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If ever we had a long weekend stuffed into just two days, this was it. In addition to driving 850 miles, we spent eight hours at an amusement park, three hours at a children’s museum, and at least another hour doing some touring of personal historical interest. And that doesn’t count the particulars like packing, unpacking, rest stops, meals, and even a little sleep. On to the details!
Our great destination was Holiday World, in Santa Claus IN, which touts itself as being the original theme park. I think that our general opinion was that it was better than Michigan’s Adventure (2006), but not quite as good as Idlewild in Pennsylvania (2001 and 2003). Perhaps if we were bigger fans of roller coasters, we’d flip the order somewhat, because HW had several of the big critters that we merely admired from a distance. HW started as just Santa Claus Land, but as the place grew it acquired sections based on other holidays, including Halloween, the 4th of July, and (just starting) Thanksgiving. And, like the other parks mentioned, HW also has a large and impressive water park. Many of the features are the same you’d find at many a county fair, with holiday-themed names and colors. It was a bit corny at times, but the place definitely has its charms, not least of which were the fact that all drinks there were free, as well as sunscreen as needed.
But first, back to the beginning. We left home around 7:30am and drove straight through to Santa Claus, arriving at 3pm (which was, fortunately, only 2pm there). Our favorite memories along the way include:
At Holiday World we parked, grabbed all of our necessary belongings, and trudged our way in, realizing along the way that we were going to need to rent a wagon. Unfortunately, their supply of wagons (numbering in the hundreds) was completely out; fortunately, a family came up a moment later to return theirs on their way out, so we snaffled it. After a quick nod to the large Santa statue and other elements of decor, and the realization that Lydia, much to her chagrin, was far too big for the kiddie rides, we skipped over into the Halloween section for our first ride, a black-and-orange version of a Scrambler. Alas, the fact that it was a Saturday, and especially the weekend before a big holiday, meant that the lines were often enormous. This fact would result in our skipping some attractions entirely, or standing still and getting sunburned in others.
Next we hiked over to an arena and caught most of a musical act by “Glory Bound,” a Southern gospel group (two men and two ladies). We got to meet and converse with one of the ladies afterward, and Lydia got in several hugs.
After a turn on the antique car ride with Lydia at the wheel, we paid a visit to the “Betsy Ross Doll House,” which was a one-room museum with a very nice collection of dolls, including little figurines of all the presidents and first ladies up to the Nixons. Come to think of it, I should have checked to see if they had both of Wilson’s wives. Mommy guessed that Madison had had too much to drink, as he had fallen over and was lying on the floor behind the Jeffersons. It would have been worth the stop just for the air conditioning!
Then, following a brief mishap with the wagon (it tipped over backward while going up a steep hill—Lydia, who was riding in back, was scared but not badly injured), we made our way over to Holidog’s Fun Town, a small section with lots of neat stuff for the younger set. We squeezed ourselves in for a train ride, and Lydia and Daddy rode the child-sized roller coaster. Lydia got to see and interact with Holidog himself, the park mascot.
Next we went to the Eagle’s Flight ride, which was made most memorable by the musical antics of three men waiting in line. Where most of us in a long line will stand there like statues, or perhaps make light conversation, these gents, who had each just acquired basketballs from a game spot nearby, set themselves up side-by-side and bounced them, all the while pretending they were playing piano keys. After many attempts, they managed to make it through the entire rendition of “Mary had a Little Lamb.” They had great audience presence, and came out with some hilarious repartee after each mistake (“Mary’s got no rhythm, guys.”). We in line loved it. It almost seemed a shame to leave the show behind and get on the ride.
Then it was on to the water park, where we again avoided the big and boisterous stuff, although Daddy did take a turn down a big slide. The Lazy River was our favorite, although we had some anxious moments when Lydia missed the exit and went about a quarter of the way around again, losing Mommy and Daddy in the process. She had stopped and was talking to a helpful lifeguard when Daddy found her.
We had dinner on the premises (a rarity for us, but the prices were quite reasonable), and then Lydia and Mommy investigated the big gift shop for a souvenir; Daddy, meanwhile, guarded the wagon outside and enthralled some kids with his ever-ready juggle balls. When Mommy and Lydia emerged, the latter had a jester hat with blinking lights on her head.
And finally we packed it in, returning the wagon, dragging ourselves through the great crowds back to our car, and heading out. We don’t think that Lydia even made it out of the parking lot before falling into a deep slumber. We drove to relatively nearby Jasper IN, where a motel room awaited us. After eight hours of driving, and then eight hours of amusement parking, we had only enough energy to bring in the absolute necessities from the car (a silver-colored Chrysler Sebring that we’d rented) before we went clump into our beds.
July started bright and early the next day, and we had to get up and function, as we had another full day to look forward to. This one wouldn’t be quite so eventful, as our major plan—besides the driving—was visiting The Children’s Museum in Indianapolis. The most interesting thing to happen along the way was that we stopped to assist a turtle as it tried to cross the road. A few moments later we saw a second one, but the road had no shoulder, so we had to drive on. A few moments later we saw a third one, and again were able to lend a hand. They appeared to be box turtles, and even had the ability to fold up part of their bottom shell like the flap of a mailbox. Not sure why there was such a rash of migrating box turtles in the area, but we were glad to be of some assistance. Mommy is especially fond of turtles.
Our first stop in Indianapolis was at the church that Mommy’s family attended when she lived in the city many years ago—St. Paul’s Episcopal. Regrettably, the entire edifice is undergoing renovations, so we weren’t able to see much of the outside, and none of the inside. Still, we enjoyed what we saw, particularly the garden fountain. Daddy commented about the docility of the bees in the gardens, only to get stung by one a few moments later. Hurt like the dickens for a while, but no harm done.
Then it was off to the Children’s Museum, which prides itself on being the biggest such museum in the world. And indeed, it’s like Boonschoft, the Hands On Museum, and several others all rolled into one, with some additional things that seem like they might have wandered there from the Henry Ford Museum. Some of the many highlights include the Dinosphere (in which we got to watch some paleontologists working with the skull of a newly-found critter that looks like a dragon—they’ve named it Dracorex Hogwartsia), the train display, the carousel, the giant water clock (seen at right), and—of course!—the Indy cars. The gift shop was similarly tremendous, and we came away with a few neat things. We stopped outside to marvel at an amazing display, as it looks like a family of dinosaurs has just crashed through the walls and is about to terrorize the neighborhood. We’d hoped to share our experience with some old friends from GBC who now live in the Indianapolis region (the Hackers and Hortons, specifically), but none were available.
After this we went to find Mommy’s actual stomping grounds, her very home and neighborhood. After some wrong turns and misread maps, we finally won through. We got to briefly meet the family now living in her old house, and they let us in so that Mommy could check things out once more. She marveled at how much things have shrunk through the years, a common phenomenon for people who try to go home again.
And then the journey continued, with few things worth bothering to mentioning. We stopped for a quick dinner in Fort Wayne, nodded Hello to Coldwater and everything else familiar, and finally arrived safely home just before midnight—Lydia having slept through Michigan, and Mommy joining her in much of it.
It seems a shame to treat the rest of the week as an afterthought, but I’ll do so in the interests of time and space.
Lydia’s second week at Little Lamb included a field trip on Monday to the Jiffy Mix Company in Chelsea (Daddy went on a field trip there way back in 2nd grade), a visit to the downtown branch of the library on Wednesday, a trip to Petco on Thursday, and more swimming at Buhr Park on Tuesday and Friday. They studied about China.
Daddy and his co-workers said goodbye to Mr. Korniski, Daddy’s boss these last 6 ½ years; we went out for a final lunch together on Thursday, and he retired after work on Friday. Also at work, we discovered that Daddy’s new position facing the northwest is ideal for viewing sunsets (we came in on Thursday to drop something off and got an eyeful) and peregrine falcons, as one has made a home on the top of the 777 Building across the street.
On Wednesday we got the word that Uncle Bob Burrell had passed away, as Aunt CJ’s e-mail had warned us would probably happen soon. We trust it was painless, and hope the best for CJ and for Bob’s daughters.
We got a trio of haircuts on Thursday, which results in our needing less shampoo but more sunscreen.
Lydia and Mommy saw Dr. Gahagan together on Friday; the latter was impressed with Lydia’s progress and with Mommy and Daddy’s efforts.
And off to next week, which will presumably have its share of fun and interesting moments, but probably not be so exhausting, nor the writing so exhaustive.
Before we leave the memories of June behind, we should acknowledge a couple of milestones that happened sometime that month—we’re just not sure of the exact dates. Lydia’s goldfish Lollipop has now reached the impressive four year mark. Also, Mommy and Daddy met, at their mutual workplace, back in June of 1987, marking twenty years for them.
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Lydia started her tenure at Little Lamb nursery and day camp this last week, and every day she’s doing lots of neat stuff. There are frequent trips across the street to the swimming pool at Buhr Park, they often herd the whole flock onto a bus and take in some other exercise (on Wednesday they went to the Ypsi-Arbor Bowl and Lydia scored a strike, and the next day they went to Putterz, where she scored a hole-in-one). They also have teaching time (this first week they studied Rome), and some basic religious instruction (not Rome). On top of this, Lydia is making a new troop of friends.
Oh yes, they also had a field trip to the Red Cross on Monday, and Lydia got to see that they do things there besides the frequent corpuscle diminishment that they practice on Daddy.
Our long stretch of hot, muggy weather (we really didn’t need the solstice on Thursday to remind us what time of year it is!) came to a temporary end on Tuesday, as we got a good drenching in the early hours. This led to an unusual situation as we were attempting to leave that morning, as there was a squirrel—thoroughly soaked—sitting on the top step of our porch and looking up hopefully, wishing to be let in where it was warm and dry. It was not pleasant having to scare it away, but we’ve heard that such species make rather poor house guests, and it wouldn’t leave otherwise. A few kicks at the screen door, and then a quick dash outside to make adequately gruesome faces and gestures, and the critter was finally convinced to try its luck elsewhere.
Tuesday was an eventful day, as this was also the great moving day for Daddy’s whole department at work; they bundled up all their belongings and shifted them to the other side of the building (choking on dust all the while). Most of his co-workers lost their window seats, but Daddy was fortunate enough to keep his, and the new view—to the northwest—is terrific. Alas, it also afforded a good view of a minor car accident within minutes of his arrival; truly a strange way to start.
Mommy took some time off from work on Wednesday to collect Lydia and take her to UMACC for some brain games; she enjoyed these, as usual. That night Lydia had her usual spot at Mustardseeds, while Daddy attended prayer meeting (Mommy stayed at work to get caught up).
We should also note that Pastor and Mrs. Postiff started up a new Bible club at their home this week—they started with eleven kids, and by the end of the week, they had sixteen. Very encouraging!
The weekend had its share of notable moments. Aside from some of the usual stuff, Mommy and Lydia attended a baby shower at FBC on Saturday, and we later had our first family outing to Putterz for the year. We all did well, and Mommy led the way with three holes-in-one (Daddy got two, and Lydia got one). The final result was in doubt to the very end, and Daddy managed to collect a hole-in-one on the final hole to tie with Mommy. Then it was indoors to blow some tokens on various games (Daddy took no prisoners with air hockey—no ties this time!).
At FBC in the evening service, we were surprised and delighted to see Craig and Beth Ewoldt, mainstays of GBC and now serving as missionaries in Nigeria, there. Craig was given the opportunity to speak briefly about the work that they do and the challenges they face. Their hosts, while here in Ann Arbor, were Jim and Joan Gibson, and it was an extra treat to see them as well. Unfortunately, Joan had bad news to share, in that another good man from GBC, Bruce Newell, had finally succumbed to his many medical problems early on Saturday. Bruce, no doubt cheerful to the end, was 58 and leaves his wife Beverly and son Joshua. The memorial service will probably not take place for a matter of weeks, as Joshua is out of the country.
Similar news is hitting close to home, as well, as we got an e-mail on Friday from Aunt CJ in Hawaii that read: “(Uncle) Bob was admitted to St. Francis Hospice at Home this afternoon. It doesn’t look like he’ll be with us much longer.” When last we heard, he had improved somewhat, but we have no idea how long the respite might last. A sobering reminder that we sure need to appreciate our friends and our family while we have them.
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The school year finally came to an end last Friday, and with it Lydia’s tenure in 3rd grade. She gave out a great supply of cute dollar-store timers as teachers’ gifts, gathered up the many things that had been cluttering her desk, celebrated with the others at the final assembly, and, as it was only a half day, spent the rest of it with Daddy at work.
I should pause and clarify that Lydia really enjoyed her time as a 3rd grader (much more so than Daddy did with his), and she started missing it the moment she left. Still, with the end of school will come new worlds to conquer, most notably the day camp at Little Lamb starting on Monday.
Several other events left their mark this week, including a party for the Girl Scouts on Monday; the great room at school was set up with different stations where the kiddies could move around and have fun, including a hula-dance spot, an inflatable pool filled with balls, and a place where one could try one’s hand at making balloon animals. There was even a place where you could paint a rock with nail polish, for whatever reason. Unfortunately, the lack of organization that they experienced the week before at their awards ceremony was evident again, and once again we had to leave early to get to go play the horses. At the latter activity, as usual, Lydia rode, Mommy conversed, and Daddy ran laps with the stable fork. We made inquiries about the kitten that Daddy had found there, and we’ve learned that Miss Tracey has adopted it, given it the official name “Solstice,” but tends to refer to it as “Monk,” as short for “Little Monkey.” I prefer Solstice, personally.
The next night we were back at the great room, this time for the childcare talent show and potluck. Lydia got to perform “Rock Island” from The Music Man, a number so convoluted that it’s normally performed by a dozen grown men. She did just fine, though. Unfortunately, Lydia’s trusty little video camera—perhaps because it was hooked up to a tripod, but maybe for some other reason—had a meltdown (literally) while in use. The batteries soared to an entirely unhealthy temperature, and melted the plastic casing, thus making it quite impossible to remove the batteries. We are weighing the options of getting another of the same, or just getting the cash value and acquiring something a little more reliable.
One of the greatest events in the history of the Detroit Tigers happened that evening (sophomore pitcher Justin Verlander threw a no-hitter against the Milwaukee Brewers), and we all missed it. Then again, it often happens that things go wrong as soon as Daddy starts to watch, so maybe it was better this way. He isn’t always a jinx, though—their previous no-hitter was thrown by Jack Morris in 1984, and Daddy watched that game from beginning to end.
The next night found Lydia back at Mustardseeds and Mommy at prayer meeting, while Daddy headed back to the dentist for the third in a several-step procedure. He tried to interest the dentist in the previous day’s game, but to no avail; apparently while earning his doctorate, the fellow had to neglect his real education—after all, there have been a lot more dentists than no-hitters. Or maybe he just didn’t understand Daddy through the painkillers and gauze and stuff.
Saturday was mostly filled with chores (including a trip back to the laundromat), but we also spent some time over at FBC as Pastor presented a seminar on apologetics. I’m never comfortable critiquing the works of someone who knows fifty times as much as I do on a given subject, but I will venture to say that it was extremely good. Moreover, it feels wonderful to know that he is a genuine student of the Word, and earnestly desires that the rest of us be, as well.
And that leaves us with Sunday, Father’s Day, which started with Lydia and Mommy sneaking in a tray full of breakfast for Daddy, plus a gift that they’d surreptitiously purchased during our North Carolina trip—the Golden Guide book Bats of the World. It’s actually his second copy, but that’s okay—he can keep one at work and talk about bats with his new bosses. Sunday was also marked with our typical (these days) two visits to FBC. The evening service, in deference to the sweltering heat, was moved upstairs to a much cooler room. Perhaps as a special nod to Father’s Day, Pastor invited several of them—Daddy included—up front to sing a hymn (“Since I Have Been Redeemed”) together. The gents sounded pretty good! We finished up the day with a chance encounter at the grocery store with some old friends, the Hermans, whom we hadn’t seen for a couple of years; we caught each other up on lots of stuff, and they encouraged us to visit their church for some upcoming special events, and we may very well accept.
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Ah, the American pastime, wherein a bunch of grown men get paid good money for playing a little kid’s game. Never mind, we love to watch it. And when it’s at a beautiful park like Fifth/Third Field in downtown Toledo, and when the hometown Mud Hens get a base hit in the bottom of the 11th inning to win in dramatic fashion, and when Daddy is one of the few people to catch one of the souvenir squishy baseballs that gets tossed into the stands, and when the game is followed by an excellent little fireworks display, and when we can park just a block away for three bucks, we love it all the more.
It happened on Saturday, and we were in a section that was reserved for listeners of WPOS, the Christian radio station who also brought us the Signature Sound and Toney Brothers/Dove Brothers concerts (one of their employees sang the national anthem). It’s nice to be able to do that, not only as a show of support to the station, but also to sit among folks where there will be less beer and more cheer.
Alas, our tickets didn’t arrive until that very afternoon, so we were unable to do as we’d hoped and take part in multiple events south of the border. Instead, we participated in our townhouse’s annual co-op-wide yard sale. Our spot was hastily assembled, and no one bought anything of ours, which was a bit of a downer. We took a walk around the length of Braeburn and picked up a few extra-cheap items. Still, it was good to be outdoors on such a beautiful day, and we ran into some old friends from GBC and from Lydia’s school. Such a time is never wasted.
We also highlighted the weekend with a visit to Coldwater on Sunday, as we got to hold and coo over Lydia’s newest cousin, little Crysta. Dreyden, now almost four months old and growing slightly faster than bamboo, was also there. All five generations present appeared to be in good health.
Looking back over the last week, and combing out the normal stuff, we can see our anniversary (number 15) celebration back on Tuesday—we tested our capacities at Big Boy. Later on we phoned the others who also married on that date to spread our felicitations: Uncle Roger and Aunt Marian (20), Grandma Brattin (would have been 45), and Great-grandma and Great-grandpa Crabtree (a whopping 65). It would also have been numbers 87 and 89 for two pairs of Lydia’s great-greats. When it comes to marriage dates, what we lack in imagination, we make up for in consistency, and God has seen to bless each one that starts this way. A quick nod also to Uncle Brian and Aunt Julie, who reached number 12 two days earlier.
And, in a delightful act of timing, we received a package from Lydia’s Grandma & Grandpa Dunham that same day, containing a quilt that Grandma has been assembling for quite a few years. It’s a beauty!
Mommy attended the funeral service for Dr. Ashburn at GBC on Friday. The church was packed with some 600 people, many of whom were professional colleagues from UM hospital. Unfortunately, with this supreme opportunity to present a clear gospel message to many who may never have heard, the pastor barely touched on it. The music, regrettably, followed the same course (the one song that most of the people there might have known, “Amazing Grace,” was presented in a newer, superficial style, and the music frequently didn’t match the lyrics on the Power Point display). This didn’t stop the Ann Arbor News from writing a glowing report the next day, complete with “The 90-minute service... was as deeply spiritual as Ashburn.” It’s our hope that they sold Dr. Ashburn short on that score. Still, since nothing is too hard for God (Gen. 18:14), then He can use even that effort to bring glory to himself, and even to add to His kingdom.
Daddy’s work situation has clarified somewhat; the two merging departments had a meeting in which a bunch of particulars were presented, including the physical move to the other side of the building. Nevertheless, no one in Daddy’s department felt much like celebrating the “Spirit Week” activities that were going on at the same time.
There was a special ceremony for Girl Scouts on Monday, which included flag displays, songs, awards, acknowledgment of leaders, and especially the honoring of the young ladies, including Lydia’s group (they are finishing with Brownies and are moving up to Juniors). Alas, there was no central authority figure in the program, and things started nearly a half-hour late, and no one seemed able to keep control as the evening progressed. Indeed, we had to leave well before the end to get to horseback riding.
We trust that this week will hold better things. Summer is drawing nigh, and Lydia is entering her final week in 3rd grade; there will also be concurrent celebrations for the end of childcare and for Girl Scouts.
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Some things we do leave their mark for only a moment, if that. Others will become memories that last for years. Once in a great while we do something that lasts a lifetime. But only once can we do something that will have a positive effect that lasts literally forever, and it happened this last Sunday when Lydia decided to make the Lord Jesus her Savior. It happened during the evening service at FBC.
Words can’t express the joy we feel. Lydia has sometimes said that she believes, and other times that she doesn’t, and other times that she isn’t sure, but this time it definitely appears to be real, and she’s been joyously telling others as well.
It almost seems a shame to mention other things happening this week, but the desire to keep the record straight compels us to carry on. After all, God expects us to do our best while we’re here, not just think about Heaven all the time.
Indeed, in the midst of our celebration, we have to acknowledge that all is not well elsewhere. First of all, Daddy’s situation at work has become unsettled; his boss has opted to retire, and the whole department is being reorganized, and everyone here is wondering what will become of it all and what to do.
Much more serious was what happened a couple of days ago, when a UM medical flight took off from Milwaukee and crashed in Lake Michigan, killing all six people aboard. One of these was Dr. David Ashburn, 35, who was in Mommy and Daddy’s Sunday school class back at GBC. We can rejoice in knowing that Dr. Ashburn’s heavenly position is secure, but we can’t even imagine what his family (wife and three small children, one of them with Down syndrome) must be going through. Our only hope is that their church family will come together and give all the support that’s needed, and that they continue to realize that God is still in control.
We learned last Tuesday that Shelby Strange, one of the great mainstays of GBC for many years, passed away that morning; in this case there was no shock, as he had been in declining health for many years. We went to the viewing on Thursday evening, and met with many old friends, some still going to GBC, more having left. Lydia befriended Mr. Strange’s granddaughter Kaylyn, and they sat on a couch and played with the latter’s laptop while Mommy and Daddy found grown-ups to converse with.
The annual country fair was held at Allen on Friday. There seemed to be considerably less activity this time, and, alas, Lydia didn’t win anything in the prize drawing. She did enjoy her requisite times in the inflatables.
On Saturday we stayed home and tackled about a million of the chores that have been piling up, most notably the laundry. Our trusty washing machine, which we’ve had for all eleven years we’ve been at our home (and is probably twice that old, having outlasted two previous owners), has developed an ailment wherein it leaves nasty rust spots at random on clothes, thus necessitating our trip to a laundromat. Unfortunately, several days of consistent rain and occasional lightning started that afternoon, which made it hard to get everything else done.
Sunday afternoon found us at the Hands-On Museum, enjoying a special display on bubbles, with the headliner Ron Loyd (the Bubble Man) back in for one of his great shows. Lydia was called up to be a helper; indeed, she was the only one from the audience who got that honor.
Yesterday was Mommy & Daddy’s (and that of several others in the family) anniversary, their 15th; I’ll wait and write it up next week.
*This was inspired by the lyrics to the song “That’s When the Angels Rejoice” by Bill and Gloria Gaither, that we heard performed at the Legacy Five concert in March.
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We had a tremendous outing for our Memorial Day weekend; we rented a handy little car from Enterprise (a Chevy Cobalt, which was blue—hey, truth in advertising!), packed up much of Washtenaw County, and headed to the great green south after work on Friday, conking out in Athens OH (see picture below, right—click for the larger version) around midnight. On Saturday morning we got up and moving, and zipped our way through West Virginia and Virginia, and finally into North Carolina to our destination, a reunion with our old friends the Masts, in the city of Elkin.
Mommy has known Ellie and Lloyd Mast since their mutual days in New Jersey; indeed, they went to the same church, and Mommy was in school with three of their four sons (they’ve often thought of her as their unofficial daughter); they attended Mommy & Daddy’s wedding, and we’ve managed to go visit them at their more recent domiciles, first in Indianapolis, then in Newton IA. In short, it was a joy to see them again (this was the first time in about five years), and they were wonderful hosts. We should note that Lydia and Sammy—the Masts’ 11-year-old chow-mix—were particularly taken with one another; this is not always the case with the former and puppies.
There was still enough of Saturday for a little excursion, and the Masts drove us to relatively nearby Pilot Mountain, a ½-mile high mountain with a very unusual top (click on the picture above for the larger version). We drove most of the way up, and walked the remainder. The views from up there were simply breathtaking, especially for ones used to the flatlands of lower Michigan. Lloyd very decently allowed Daddy to do the return drive.
Sunday was our only full day there, and we filled it right up. First we went with the Masts to their church (Island Ford Baptist Church, which traces its origins back about 200 years); they went in their van, and we followed in their convertible (one of many new experiences for Lydia; alas, she didn’t like it as much as we’d hoped). While there she was quickly befriended by a little girl named Maria, and they spent the rest of their time there together, including going up—with the majority of the congregation’s adults—to sing in the choir.
Lunch was another adventure, as the Masts took us to a fun restaurant called the Pirate’s Landing. The regalia was terrific, as was the seafood (and the best hushpuppies on earth).
With a little time in the afternoon, Lydia got to enjoy some time in the Masts’ outdoor hot tub, yet another first for her. After this we jumped into the car for a drive to Mocksville, some 40 miles away, to visit Lydia’s great-aunt Stella and great-uncle Dennis. Their home is at the apex of a killer driveway and is a sea of hearty dogs (the more exuberant of which were kept safely penned). The picturesque house is surrounded by woods, and we understand that all sorts of interesting critters lurk nearby. We enjoyed a good couple of hours’ conversation, plus some yummy smoked offerings for dinner.
Back at the Masts’ we filled up the remaining time by getting caught up on various details of life: how’s the family doing, how’s work going, what’s happening at church, what interesting things have you done, what are you looking forward to, etc. Lloyd took some time to teach Lydia how to play solitaire on his laptop.
Then Monday came, and it was a pack-up-the-car-gulp-down-some-breakfast-where-did-you-recommend-that-we-stop-and-buy-gas type of morning. We left fully expecting to make a return at some point.
The miles went by quickly, as Ellie had packed lots of yummies for us (less need to stop at eateries and wait in long lines) and we had very good weather for much of the trip home. Our one significant stop was at Logan OH, at the Hocking Hills State Park, which has caves, tunnels, waterfalls, and other treats for the eye, even if the hiking through it was a bit of a trial at times.
We fetched back home around 10:30pm, some fourteen hours after we’d left Elkin. After the monumental job of unpacking the car, Daddy took the latter back to the rental office and got our Ballerina back. The final tally was 1,274 miles on the Cobalt, plus we’d driven about 10 miles in the convertible and about 50 in the van. Not a bad total for just over three days.
Some quick chuckle-notes from the trip: in what was perhaps an acknowledgement of the grotesque gas prices, we saw a vanity plate on a Hummer (that prince of gas hogs) that read “GOT FUEL”; in Elkin we saw an establishment called the Elk Inn, which proudly proclaimed that they were “famous since 1983”; there’s a movie theater in Elkin that shows three films, and their marquee was a perfect testimony to the current lack of originality in Hollywood, as they advertised their current selection—Spiderman 3, Shrek 3, Pirates 3.
The trip was of such enormity that it’s easy to forget that it didn’t happen in a vacuum. Other events made their mark as well last week. The most exciting of these was the phone call that we got on Thursday that Lydia was the grand prize winner of a drawing from SpringHill Camp, and her prizes include (a) a free week at camp this summer, (b) a new waterproof digital camera, and (c) new disposable cameras for all of her cabin-mates. Mommy and Daddy have both won some neat prizes in the past, but Lydia’s surely is the best.
The new summer program for the kiddies at FBC, Mustardseeds, started on Wednesday. Daddy, alas, finally caught the bug that’s been going around, and opted out (it got so bad that he couldn’t even taste a sausage pizza with crushed hot peppers at a pizza party at work the next day; only with constant doses of cold medicine and perhaps a dash of divine intervention were they able to make the trip at all).
Mommy had a particularly busy week, as she took the Ballerina in for a big brake job on Monday and then to have the fuel filter replaced on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, when she’d hoped to put in lots of time to make up for the previous days, her building had a fire alarm, putting them all out on the sidewalk for an eternity, and when they got back inside their computer system crashed. It’s funny how these things happen this way.
Forgot to mention that Lydia had a bit of a scare last Sunday, when she swallowed a marble during Sunday School back at Skiff Lake. We talked to a doctor on the premises, who assured us that if there was no initial discomfort then it had cleared the esophagus, and all would eventually be well. We should note that the fateful marble (really a larger chunk of rounded glass used for filling planters and such) made its triumphant return on Wednesday evening. Okay, this is hardly newsworthy for much of the world, but for parents, it’s big stuff.
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It’s a strange feeling to know that you’ve been busy, and yet look back and wonder what you’ve been doing. It’s been that kind of week; fairly ordinary in most respects, but with a few items leaving their mark.
The big item of the week, no doubt, was our participation in the FBC Awana Carnival & Awards Ceremony. FBC’s program is quite small (for now!), and they were able to accomplish both of these events at the same time and place. We intended to go merely to observe, but they gave Lydia a good handful of tickets to use, and asked Mommy and I if we would be willing to run a game each, and we had a ball helping out. It was a nice chance to “get our feet wet,” if you will, working along with the Awana leaders there. Lydia even got to do the closing prayer for the service.
At horseback riding on Monday, Lydia and the other riders got to venture out for some kick-up-the-dust outdoor fun, their first such ride since last autumn. And it happened just in time, as Tuesday saw our first really good thunderstorms of the year (word has it that there were tornadoes sighted within a couple of counties, but we didn’t get to share in the excitement).
Had a great time Sunday as we ventured out to visit Skiff Lake Bible Church, on the invitation of the Falks; we spent some time in conversation with Pastor Larkin and Dr. Clark, both habitués of GBC in better days. We spent the afternoon at the Falks’ home in Grass Lake, and enjoyed a yummy lunch, some romping with youngsters, and the quiet geniality of their pet rabbit, Whiskers. The evening found us back at FBC, as Pastor Postiff continued his study of John 7. We also got in a quick Happy Birthday call to Lydia’s aunt Debbie, who is now old enough to be president, not that she likes to be reminded.
As for the rest of the week, it’s one that Daddy would like to forget. On consecutive days he had a fire drill at work (can’t use those elevators, and he works near the top of an 11-story building), a return visit to the dentist (a non-fire drill), a performance self-evaluation to wrestle with (let me write convincingly about how great I am—yechh), and finally had to spend several hours removing all the perfectly natural and attractive weeds in the garden and replace them with marigolds. All this while coping with a very stubborn sore throat. Good riddance to last week, say I.
But hey, into everyone’s life some rain must fall. Maybe it will hail like last year and take out the flowers, who knows? And in the meantime, we can look forward to brighter days; we’ve got some nice plans for the Memorial Day weekend, and I trust we’ll have something good to report next week!
Quick addendum: We got a call Monday that Lydia’s cousin Nicki underwent an emergency C-section, and her new baby (Crysta Marie Lu Holibaugh) was born the day before, about three weeks early. We talked to Nicki that night, and both she and Crysta (though rather small at 5 lbs, 10 oz, and 17 inches) are doing well. She expressed the hope that we might see them soon, and we hope for the same.
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Perhaps as an early Mother’s Day celebration, or perhaps as a way of cheering up Aunt Katie and Uncle Marvin after the recent demise of their dog Samantha, or perhaps because we had an enticing coupon, we made an event of Saturday, culminating in a tummy-bursting dinner at the Frankenmuth Bavarian Inn. Daddy had first heard of the Inn when he lived in relatively-nearby Midland almost thirty years ago, and had been to their sister establishment, Zehnder’s, a few times, but this was a first for him as well as the rest of the family. Lydia, as is all too often the case for one on a gluten-free/casein-free diet, had a dinner of a hamburger (no bun) and fries, while the others gorged themselves on the signature dish of fried chicken. Lydia got an extra thrill when she got to request a song (“Roll Out the Barrel”) from a roving accordion player named Stan Saylor; she later purchased a CD of the gent’s music.
The day began earlier, as we first drove up to Lansing to collect Katie and Marvin; Daddy drove their van as they headed first to Saginaw and the Children’s Zoo at Celebration Square. They’ve made several changes in the quaint little zoo since our last visit there three or four years ago, and there are plans for more. Lydia got her customary carousel ride, Daddy got his hand partially nibbled as he attempted to feed a pig, and Katie and Marvin gamely kept up during the walk; the greatest difficulty was in getting into and out of the train, but we somehow managed.
Our only other notable contact with animals during the week was last Monday, where, after another spell of horseback riding for Lydia, we very nearly smashed into some not-overly-bright deer on our way home. Hey, it was a good test of the brakes for our new Ballerina.
Tuesday was doctor day, as Mommy saw Dr. Sinha, Lydia visited with Dr. Daley, and the Ballerina was back in the shop, being doctored about its frequent desire to stall. The recommendation: some gasoline additive. We hope that does the trick. As a side note, I should mention that we’ve been keeping the tank full despite the current prices, and we’ve been getting anywhere from 27 to 32 mpg, which is the best we’ve had since about five cars ago.
There were some other doctor visits during the week, as Lydia saw a dermatologist on Monday about (1) some marks on her head, and (2) some splotches on her feet that are most likely related to her braces. The doctor advised us to keep watching the former for any change, and advised the use of moleskin for the latter. We’ll have to see. Then on Thursday, Daddy went to see a dentist for the first time since..., well, we’ll just say it was an embarrassingly long time. And, alas, he’s going to have to pay the penalty with more visits in the coming weeks to deal with some nagging problems.
Church stuff dominated a fair amount of the rest of the week, as we had our end-of-the-year Awana workers’ meeting at GBC on Wednesday (where we gave what was probably our final round of goodbyes to the place), the two services at FBC on Sunday, and a delightful and unexpected visit with Pastor Richard Luckett on Friday over at Wal-Mart. Pastor Luckett had been a semi-regular visitor to GBC in years past, and was always an endearing and popular fellow. He asked us how things were going, and this necessarily meant that we open up about the changes at GBC that have compelled our departure. This didn’t cheer him, obviously, but he seemed to be delighted about our new circumstance; indeed, that was precisely the same sentiment we got from Katie and Marvin the next day, as the church situation was the chief topic of conversation during the long drive.
Although it doesn’t really fit anywhere else, we should mention that we took advantage of the freebie entry of the new Jungle Java on Ann Arbor’s west side. Try to imagine a McDonald’s playplace on steroids, and you’ll have a fair idea of the set-up. Adults are encouraged to sit and drink coffee while the kiddies romp around in what are essentially gigantic hamster habit-trails. Daddy, naturally, joined the youngsters, and except for some badly bruised knees, enjoyed it almost as much as Lydia did.
Sunday, as mentioned, was Mother’s Day, and Lydia treated Mommy to breakfast in bed and also rose to give a quick testimony about Mommy during the evening service. In the middle of the day, we made a bunch of phone calls to friends and family alike, and expressed fond hopes for their day.
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We had Big Boy and Buffet, Bullfrog and Ballerina, Brothers, more Brothers, a little Baseball, and lots of Bye-Byes. It’s enough to make you go “B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b,” as in bonkers. Indeed, it was very difficult to decide what was the big item of the week, so we had to go with something rather generic, and we’ll keep things in chronological order.
The week started with, in a major step toward changing vehicles, having our venerable but dead Camel towed away on Monday. A nice van it was, to be sure, but served no purpose since last summer except for storing a few things and keeping our parking space warm. After work and school we drove down to Saline for the viewing for Mr. Wolverton, a sweet little old man from GBC who had died the previous week. After this came more horseback riding, which had its difficulties due to the sound of the heavy rains on the barn’s metal roof.
Tuesday found us all at Lydia’s school, as Mommy and Daddy were joined by about ten others for Lydia’s IEP meeting (what’s going right, what’s going wrong, what do we do next autumn); it was particularly nice seeing Mrs. Renner, who has often acted as an advocate for us on several such occasions, once again. After this Mommy and Daddy headed to GBC for Mr. Wolverton’s funeral. Perhaps most memorable for us was that we took the opportunity to single out some others there and give them our goodbyes, most notably the Coxes and the Dieterles. We will miss them mightily.
After this we drove to the auto dealership, as Daddy’s friend from work Mr. Mullins was there, helping us inspect the Ballerina. He took Daddy back to work, and afterward they went to pick up Lydia from childcare. From there they and Mommy rendezvoused at Concordia to sneak in a quick visit with Mommy and Daddy’s old friend Mr. Dean (there to act as scorekeeper for the visiting Aquinas College baseball team), and finally they went and had a good dinner at Big Boy as a thank you to Mr. Mullins for having so much helpful advice on car matters.
On Wednesday after work (at which Daddy’s boss treated the crew at Old Country Buffet in honor of Secretary’s Day or Administrative Assistant Day, or something similar) we dropped off the Bullfrog and picked up the Ballerina. Unfortunately, the process took a lot longer than we expected, and we were late to the Awana Awards Ceremony (but, very fortunately, we arrived before any part came up that called for us). Daddy had his typically fun time with the microphone as he announced the names and prizes for the Sparks clubbers; Lydia got a participation certificate for her first year in T&T. The ice cream social afterward found us sharing yet more goodbyes, this time mostly with the clubbers themselves and their families.
We decided that enough problems still existed on the Ballerina to take it back in to the shop on Thursday; in the meantime, we acquired a quick rental (a Pontiac Grand Prix) for the day. After school and a visit for Lydia over to Dr. Sohoni’s office, we decided to take advantage of our quick and reliable wheels and zoomed up to Okemos for a visit with Grandma Margaret.
On Friday we got the Ballerina back again, with most of the problems fixed. We also squeezed in a visit to Mallett’s Creek.
Saturday was the busiest day yet. We spent the entire morning over at Forsythe Middle School for the Science Olympiad competition. In addition to the actual tests, there were also many interesting displays set up both there and at neighboring Wines Elementary; perhaps the most memorable was our being able to pal around with a pair of future leader dogs for the blind. Allen, alas, was almost persona non grata in the awards department, but it gives good incentive for a better result next year.
From there we tooled down to Toledo for a pleasurable couple of hours at the zoo, and later back to the WPOS arena, as we watched performances by a local trio called “Crossing,” and then by noted gospel quartets the Toney Brothers and the Dove Brothers. True to form, we also spent some time (and cash!) among the performers, and Lydia got her share of autographs and hugs.
Sunday found us at our new home, FBC, both morning and evening, and each was punctuated with a good little caloric display; there was one of the monthly potlucks for lunch, and a dessert fellowship in honor of the recent graduates in the evening. In between the two we had an enjoyable time at the Hands On Museum, as we got educated on the subject of creepy and crawly critters (including Pixie, the frog the size of a catcher’s mitt).
I’ll save yesterday’s activities for next week. Today’s writing is quite full enough!
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We take some time to bid goodbye to the month of April. Yes, April, that which has brought the world the Tambora volcano eruption, the San Francisco earthquake, the Titanic, the U.S.S. Akron, the Palm Sunday tornadoes, the Dr. King assassination, Chernobyl, Waco, and Oklahoma City, and has recently padded its sorry record with the shootout at Virginia Tech. An awful lot of nasty stuff to happen to such a nice little month.
We also took the time yesterday to make our final Sunday visit to Grace Bible Church. It’s been a long time coming; indeed, we’d made our decision last December (after first mulling it over a couple of years ago), but chose to stay until the finish of the Awana season (the awards ceremony is this Wednesday, with a workers’ meeting the following week). We won’t go into the details here, but we can certainly say that our church—where Mommy and Daddy were married, where they were both baptized, where Lydia was dedicated as an infant, and where they worshiped, learned, and served in many ways for many years—has changed, and we no longer feel we can give it our support. We went through several weeks of shopping around, and we feel that we’ve found our new church home at Fellowship Bible. It’s our hope to step right in and get involved in similar ways to the ministries we’ve helped out before, including their Awana ministry.
It was the close of GBC’s “Global Outreach Expo,” a rather sad shadow of what had once been known as the Missions Conference. We attended functions there on Thursday and Friday, and there were some things we thought were worth attending. Best of all was the class that Lydia and the other kids attended, taught faithfully by the wonderful Jay Cooper of RBM Ministries.
At the close of yesterday’s activities, we sought out some people with whom we’d served, and gave them our goodbyes. It wasn’t easy. Then again, it shouldn’t be easy if it’s something we care about.
Better go chronologically with the rest.
On Monday Lydia had horseback riding again, and this time the horses were more into the swing of things (at least as far as Daddy’s specialty is concerned). We found out that the kitten that Daddy had befriended last week is being cared for by one of the TRI staff, and has been taken to a vet for all the necessary tests. We’re delighted to hear it.
On Tuesday the Bullfrog hit another milestone (222,222 miles), and there are signs that it will be its last. In addition to an ominous clunking sound underneath, we had reported to us on Saturday (following an oil change) that one of the tie rods is more than a little bit suspect. Not to mention three of the tires have reached retirement age. Well, with these facts in mind, we stepped up our efforts to find a replacement. Mommy found a decent little car that someone was selling, and we—along with Mr. Mullins from Daddy’s work (he doubles as a car expert in his spare time)—went to investigate. There were just too many red flags to do the deal. Then on Saturday (I tried to keep it in chronological order, sorry) we did more looking around, first at a used car lot in Saline, and then at one on Ann Arbor’s west side. We finally found a car that may well be for us, bolstered by the fact that the salesman said he’d give us $700 for the Bullfrog, and would be willing to take the Camel as well (no word yet on how much for the latter, but at this point, just about anything would be profitable). Somewhat regrettably, the car in question is a metallic pink (“Salmon,” they corrected.); when we asked Lydia what, should we get the car, should we name it, she said “Ballerina... because it’s pink.” Priceless!
Wednesday had the final regular night of the Awana season, and it included a portion where the workers were honored with service pins (Daddy’s is for sixteen years, and Mommy’s is for ten). We had a bizarre scene where clubbers’ names were drawn from a bag, and they got to choose a leader to splat with a cream pie. Daddy was sure he was going to get chosen, but for some reason the two Sparkies picked ladies, instead. He was rather disappointed, actually. We should mention that on that day Lydia had four changes of uniform: her regular clothes, her Science Olympiad shirt for a group photo, her Girl Scout vest for their bi-weekly meeting, and finally her T&T shirt. Lots of changing going on that day.
Thursday was Grandma Brattin’s birthday (she, like Lydia and Mommy, are perfect squares now), and we gave her a call. Turns out there’s been a lot of sickness in Coldwater since we left. We may have just escaped something.
Just some quickies to pad the weekend: Daddy gave blood (#54), and so did Mommy. Just kidding, hers was just a few little vials for testing. Lydia had another round of Rock Hunter practice for the Science Olympiad; the finals will be at Forsythe Middle School next Saturday. The weather has turned nice again, and this was manifested in two reliable signs: Daddy removed the glass and inserted the screen on the door, and Lydia got out her “bottom bike” to race along on the front sidewalk. It’s always a joy just to watch how much fun she has (and, thankfully, she hasn’t outgrown it yet). We went to the Little Lamb preschool/Kindergarten to an open house, in order to check out their summer camp program. We ended up spending a couple of hours there, chatting with staff and taking in the surroundings. We were extremely pleased, and Lydia’s looking forward to it.
Change happens. Sometimes it’s quick, sometimes not. Sometimes it’s painful, sometimes it’s a blessing. As at any other time, we’ll take it as it comes, and try to do our best with whatever God gives us.
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Well, Spring finally arrived, and just in time, too. I suspect there may have been someone—or maybe a whole roomful of Sparks clubbers—praying about it.
On Saturday nineteen clubbers, plus two from T&T (including Lydia) were joined by seven adults as we jumped into four vehicles and traversed our way to Hidden Lake Gardens, near Tipton. HLG has been a favorite get-away for Daddy’s family since his childhood (the trees were smaller back then, come to think of it), and he’s led six or seven field trips there as well. It was bright and sunny, and we had a very helpful volunteer (Miss Diane) to take us on our tour of hiking paths, around the lake, through the conservatories, and to the conifer collection. From there we hit the gift shop, and then rode the driving trails. Not much had grown there yet, and the wildlife wasn’t in abundance as much as usual, but I believe everyone had a good time observing and learning about God’s creation. On a sad note, we heard that their female swan died this last winter (an autopsy revealed that it had a heart attack; it was probably twenty years old); fortunately, they’ve been able to import another, and after some initial resistance, she and the resident male appear to be getting along quite well.
This wasn’t our only garden odyssey this weekend, as we made a return to the Matthaei Botanical Gardens for their Earth Day festivities on Sunday. We missed the display of raptors, but found plenty of other items to educate and amuse us. In addition to the many information booths and craft centers, we particularly liked the small critter display of Peter Schriemer, who’s about to host his own nature program on the Smithsonian Channel.
Animals also were prominent early in the week, as the newest session of Therapeutic Horseback Riding started up on Monday. Lydia’s mount is April, like last year. She got up and did all the right moves, just as if these six horseless months hadn’t happened. She’s in a group of four, with one boy and two other girls. As usual, Mommy sat and conversed with other mothers, and Daddy stood like that dour fellow in “American Gothic,” stablefork at the ready. Oddly enough, the horses didn’t comply, which freed Daddy to befriend a scrawny young cat that wiggled into the barn, got itself trapped in a corner, and was mewing loudly. It was a good-natured little calico, and it couldn’t seem to make up its mind about whether it wanted our society or not (it would purr loudly while simultaneously trying to get out of Daddy’s arms). We stuck around after the horses were away to help the folks there—who’d never seen the cat before—get it some food and water. We hope to have a good report when we get back there tonight.
Wednesday concluded the “regular” Awana nights, as the one coming up will have the schedules jumbled for worker appreciation time, as well as for a bit of silliness when certain clubbers get to plaster the leader of their choice with cream pies. I think it’s no secret that Daddy is going to end up a mess. Video to come!
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... are the three things on which you can depend.
As this time of the year rolls around, and most adults fret with sending in their pound of flesh to the government, Lydia, like most other students in the area, had the week off from school, and she spent it at a day camp that the city Rec. & Ed. department set up. It was held at the Ann Arbor Open at Mack School, and Lydia thoroughly enjoyed the experiences. Each day had something special; on the first day they concentrated on games, then they had a day when they learned things about animals (there was a guest speaker who keeps bees, and the kids shared photos of their pets), another day when the whole bunch went and played “glow golf” (an indoor mini-golf place with everything that you actually need to see in fluorescent form), a day with a beach party motif, and finally a day when everyone rode a bus to Canton for some roller skating (this was Lydia’s first time aboard such contraptions).
We received word this last week that Clayton Lucas, the father of our good friend and former pastor Marv Lucas, had passed away on Monday; we journeyed up to Owosso on Saturday morning to attend the services. We had met Mr. Lucas a few times, and always found him to be extremely personable, but only at the funeral did we learn the extent of his servanthood and the way he had encouraged the works of his children (his daughter Martha Ozinga is a missionary to Central America). Particularly joyous to us was getting together with the Lucas and Ozinga families once more, although it was rather unnerving to see how much their children had grown; even the youngest, whom Daddy had in Sparks Club, is seventeen now and well over the six foot mark. After the viewing and the service—at which both Martha and Marv spoke—we took part in the procession to the cemetery. Mr. Lucas was an Army veteran, and the cemetery service included the 21-gun salute and the solemn folding and presenting of the American flag. Upon our return to the church, we, in company with Pastor Koetsier and Mr. and Mrs. Adams, enjoyed the luncheon that had been prepared (Mr. Reeves was also there for the viewing and the service, but had to leave before the rest).
From Owosso (where we had to do a quick drive-by of the Oliver Curwood Castle), we motored over to Lansing, and enjoyed a pleasant 90 minutes at the Impression 5 Science Museum. They’ve really changed a lot of things there since our last visit, and we think the changes have been very good ones. Then we did the quick drive to Aunt Katie and Uncle Marvin’s home, where we spent the balance of the evening (they treated us to a memorable dinner at the Texas Roadhouse, where the portions were large, the waitstaff was helpful, and where both the decibels and peanut shells were in abundance. We fetched back home a bit after midnight, but were simply glad to have done so safely, especially as we’d never asked our Bullfrog to do so many miles in one day before.
Sunday found us at Fellowship Bible Church in the morning (where we got to see little Noah Reeves for the first time), and in the evening, and, acting on his invitation, at the FBC pastor’s home for lunch in between. Pastor and Mrs. Postiff are wonderful hosts, and the latter a terrific cook. Lydia enjoyed the company of their son David while the grownups conversed.
Daddy thought that his run of overtime had dried up, but they dug up some more, with the proviso that he use it up quickly. Hence, if it looks like he’s slurring his typing some, it’s because he hasn’t slept enough of late, and now you’ll know why. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
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On Good Friday we acknowledged death, and on Easter we celebrated life. And, not meaning to sound too flippant about it, we witnessed several examples of each this last week. This is not to say that anyone or anything has died that we know of, other than our hopes of a “normal” April, as it snowed the last several days, and that we’ve known several people who had taken quite ill and were of the “walking dead” variety.
Over the weekend, we celebrated new life and the continuation of not-so-new life, when great multitudes of the family gathered in Coldwater for Great-Grandma Crabtree’s 85th birthday (which was actually Friday). Great-Aunt Shary was there from New Mexico, and Great-Aunt Cindy and Great-Uncle Jim from Georgia, and Great-Uncle Roy from Indiana, plus all of Lydia’s other Michigan relatives from Grandma Brattin’s side of the family. The thirty of us assembled in a room at Coldwater First Baptist Church for cake, punch and other yummies, and lots of photo-snapping and conversation with each other and with the many of Grandma’s friends and other relatives there. The real ooohs and ahhhs were reserved for Alisha’s baby Dreyden, who was being seen for the first time by most of the assembly (ourselves included); Lydia was especially delighted with her new little cousin. It was also a special occasion as we saw a five-generation photo being taken, although it’s a bit disconcerting to note how many notches up that ladder we’ve climbed.
Later in the day many of the same madding crowd went over to Aunt Laura’s for the baby shower for Lydia’s cousin Nicki (she’s due in June, and if all goes well, she’ll have a little girl named Krista Marie Lu). We gave a pink baby-shaped bathrobe with a goofy, err, adorable hood.
As usual these days, we rented a car for the outing, landing a gray Dodge Avenger, one of those new design of cars that looks like it didn’t quite squeeze under the overpass. It had its plusses, but I don’t think we’d want to own one. Totally unusual for us was that we stayed at a motel in Coldwater, over at the Econo-Lodge between the cemeteries (“mu-ha-ha-ha-ha!”). Frankly, the sight of headstones on the neighboring hills was one of the only charms of the place; we may have more to share about this experience later on.
Easter Sunday started with Lydia finding lots of neat goodies in her basket (and, we couldn’t help but notice, there were small animal tracks in the snow outside our room), and we attended the morning service at First Baptist; they’d been having some difficulties of late, but now have a splendid new senior pastor, and appear to be on the right track once more. We spent the balance of the day in Ebyview, doing mostly eating and relaxing. Kind of like Thanksgiving, but with the Tigers winning instead of the Lions losing.
Backing up to last Friday, Lydia, like all public school students, had the day off, and so spent it with Daddy at work. The latter was abbreviated, as everyone in Daddy’s department was given a two-hour reprieve. With that time they collected Mommy, went and got the rental car, and ran an errand or two before having a fun bit of escapism, going and seeing “Night at the Museum” at Briarwood. In keeping with the theme this week, dead things kept coming to life, but this time with hilarious results. A jolly time we had.
And then it was this week; the kiddies have Spring Break, and Lydia is attending a day camp at the Mack School (Daddy was a substitute teacher there once); I trust that she’ll be enjoying the time there, and will have some great experiences to share.
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Lydia and Mommy had an enjoyable time as they joined oodles of other Girl Scouts in an overnight campout at the COSI science museum in Toledo Friday night/Saturday morning. This was a “bring your sleeping bags but hardly anything else” arrangement, so as not to take up too much space. The ladies-only function saw, in addition to the regular charms of COSI, activity in a flight simulator and other restricted areas (Mommy says she got some souvenir bruises from that experience, but Lydia seems to have liked it).
Daddy, in the meantime, had his own camp-out at his workplace, to enable him to chock up lots of overtime both Friday night and Saturday morning. Thus Lydia’s introduction of him to her class recently (“This is my Dad, and he lives at work, ...”) was eerily near the mark. Since Mommy is not accustomed to long-distance driving, both she and Daddy were more than a little groggy that afternoon, with only Lydia still brimming with energy. Okay, Princess, do what you like, just keep quiet about it, please.
The change in the seasons brought out a couple of other rituals, in that we went shopping for an Easter dress and other paraphernalia for Lydia, and that she got to decorate our screen door with Easter and spring-related stickers (flowers, butterflies, a big cross in the middle, and the word “Rejoice” on top).
Yesterday was both Palm Sunday and April Fools Day, and we paid homage to both, with visits to Calvary Baptist in the morning and Fellowship Bible in the evening, and to the first annual “Festifools” parade downtown in the afternoon. The latter had a bunch of people in wild costumes, some comically large puppet-type things made mostly of paper mache, some musicians, some renaissance-quality swordfighters, and a few other goofballs thrown in. We got a picture of Lydia standing next to a man on stilts. Unfortunately, the promised jugglers never materialized. Daddy had his own trusty set of rubber balls with him, but he never wanted to be the best one there.
FBC finished up the week of their missions conference, and it was a delight to get there not only yesterday, but the previous Sunday and also on Tuesday evening. There are very few things as spiritually refreshing as being told about the great works being done on the mission field. A quick extra note about FBC, in that we heard on Thursday that Mr. and Mrs. Reeves’ grandson Noah Daniel was born that afternoon—word has it that Joshua and Melissa are tired, but fine (ah, we remember it well).
We had one other notable event of the last week, and that was an open house at Lydia’s school. The “great room” was crammed full of displays of two varieties: (1) international, and (2) volunteer organizations. The former were staffed by people in native dress, supplying lots of yummy native foods, and displaying interesting pieces of native regalia (somewhat similar to the displays at the missions conference, come to think of it); the latter had people with brochures, sign-up sheets, and occasional trinkets. We ran into Jan from Therapeutic Riding, Inc. there, and exchanged pleasantries; the horses are getting ready for Lydia’s next session, and will doubtlessly be happy to see “dirty-duty” Daddy there as well.
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All good things must come to an end, as the saying sayeth. On Saturday Lydia’s tap dancing class, along with representatives from some ballet and hip-hop classes, assembled at the Pittsfield Rec & Ed building for a recital to show off their new talents. Lydia and her class tapped to a song called “Oye Como Va,” and did a splendid job. And, since we finally gave the video feature of our camera a try, I trust we’ll soon have a clip or two here to share.
The week before was a notable one, in that Lydia was the “Star Student” of the week. The holder of this title gets some special privileges, including having a guest reader come in and entertain the class. Just like two years ago, Daddy got the invitation, and he came in on Thursday to read “Edwina, the dinosaur who didn’t know she was extinct.” After this, Lydia got to talk about the photos that had been on display on the bulletin board, and finally to show her Signature Sound poster, complete with autographs. Before Daddy headed back to work, he brought out some juggle balls and enthralled the kiddies further.
Monday was special, too, in that Lydia got to go to a planetarium show, over at Pioneer High School.
Skipping over the usual events and getting back to the weekend, after the dance recital Lydia went with Daddy in to work, where she did homework while Daddy tackled some overtime. Mommy, meanwhile, went out and spent it. A nice balance there.
Oops, back up a day; Lydia was running a fever on Friday, and so we opted to keep her home, and Daddy—as the owner of sick time—stayed with her. They ventured out only once, to drop off Lydia’s homework at school and collect the new batch, to pick up some medicine for Mommy, and to do a quick exchange at the library. Otherwise it was lots of relaxing (well, Daddy tackled the laundry and dishes). Also that day we found out that Lydia’s cousin Nicki will have her baby shower piggy-backed onto the big birthday celebration for Grandma Crabtree. Men aren’t invited; I was never sure why that was. It’s as if we don’t like babies, or something. I wasn’t even there at the shower at church for Lydia.
On to Sunday; we attended Fellowship Bible in the morning, and got to enjoy the beginning of their missions conference (Lydia was taught by the always enjoyable Jay Cooper, and the grown-ups listened to Mr. and Mrs. Alpuracque from the Philippines). Afterward they stayed for a tummy-busting potluck lunch. An extra surprise was the appearance of former GBC pastor Ken Koetsier.
The middle of the day was spent at Wal-Mart, as we looked (unsuccessfully) for shoes, acquired an Easter outfit and next summer’s swimsuit for Lydia, and got a baby gift for Nicki’s shower. After this we headed south to Calvary Bible Church for their evening service, which consisted of a quick communion service, followed by a one-woman concert. We talked both before and after with old friends the Robinsons and the Kings (three of whom had come from GBC); we may return again to get more of the flavor of the place.
And today we’re scheduled to climb to an impressive 76 degrees (we all switched to lighter jackets this weekend), as we play taps for the swift-moving month of March, and to the winter season in general; we can hope that the temps aren’t so temp, but this is Michigan after all, so no guarantees. Hey, it keeps life from getting predictable.
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I mentioned last week how quickly things can happen, and gave as the example the Legacy Five singing group, in that Lydia saw them live in concert just a few weeks after learning of their existence. Now, even more quickly, we found that they’ve gone through a great change, in that their co-founder and pianist Roger Bennett passed away last Saturday from the leukemia that had plagued him since 1994. Word has it that he died peacefully and bravely, with his family by his side; surely there’s no better way to exit this life. Mr. Bennett, we hardly knew you, but thank you for your ministry! I’m sure you’re making even better music now, in company with old friends like Glenn Payne and George Younce.
For the first time in several weeks, we didn’t have a major entertainment on Friday; indeed, that day was one where we had some much-needed inactivity. The weekend had its usual (science olympiad practice; church), plus a bunch of errands of the financial-transaction variety that is no fun to read about, with one exception, as Lydia got a haircut on Saturday which made her look even cuter than usual. We had an Awana Directors meeting on Sunday, in which we endeavored to cheer ourselves on for the final run of the year’s activities.
Most of the fun stuff happened the previous week. There was no school on Monday, so Lydia spent it with Daddy at work. That evening they and Mommy went to the movies at Briarwood to watch Charlotte’s Web, which was both hilarious and true to the spirit of the E.B. White classic (unlike the animated travesty done about thirty years ago—blecch).
On Wednesday Mommy and Daddy attended a meeting at school about Lydia, attended by teachers and helpers of various kinds. The consensus was that everyone is delighted with Lydia’s progress. Also that day, Lydia attended a special teachers’ luncheon on behalf of the Girl Scouts. We had Awana that night, made particularly memorable when Daddy got into a four-way tug-of-war match against three other men—Daddy won, but paid the price with some pretty sore muscles afterward. Game Time can really take it out of you!
Thursday had its usual session of tap dancing class (the final class and recital are this week), and Lydia got to go on a field trip to the Leslie Science Center.
Aside from the events that we can control, we should take a moment and acknowledge the things that we can’t, such as the weather. After a couple of months’ worth of consistently freezing temperatures, the thermometers shot up early in the week, hitting a massive 72 degrees on Tuesday. It cooled off a bit on Wednesday, and then on Thursday morning we woke up to find three inches of snow on the ground. But, sure enough, it all melted away by that afternoon. Twice since we have awakened to fresh, but temporary, snow. Winter, in its last throes, is resolute, but the March of time will win out in the end. Or, if not, then the April of time will.
Mommy battled a slight cold, her first in many months, but it lost its grip on her (and ignored Lydia and Daddy entirely). Thank God for the good health that we’ve enjoyed!
We made a round of greetings calls, acknowledging birthdays for Aunt Linda, Cousin Caitlyn, and Great-grandpa Crabtree, and the anniversary of Grandma & Grandpa Dunham. The coming of Spring always hails a bunch of such wishes, as we pay tribute to the passing of time.
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It’s amazing how quickly things can happen sometimes. As a case in point, Lydia got a DVD for her birthday—barely a month ago—of a concert by the Cathedrals, a Southern gospel quartet. She quickly devoured its contents several times. Now, she’s aware that charter members Glenn Payne and George Younce have both died, and newer member Ernie Haase went on to found his own quartet, Signature Sound (which we saw in concert back around Thanksgiving). However, we wondered, what had become of the other new guy, Scott Fowler?
Well, a quick Wikipedia search answered that: Fowler and Cathedrals pianist Roger Bennett formed a new group titled Legacy Five. Okay, that’s interesting, but we thought little more about it.
Then early last week Daddy’s co-worker Mrs. Hurst asked Daddy if he’d heard of the group Legacy Five, and announced that they were going to be doing a concert at Romulus High School on the upcoming Friday. Daddy contacted Mommy about it, and they mulled over the option of going, finally deciding in favor on Thursday.
On Friday we headed over to RHS, and only when we got inside and saw a poster did Lydia have an inkling of what was happening. Three hours later she was their biggest fan, and had already collected autographs, hugs, and some CDs and DVDs. Needless to say, the group was terrific (it should be noted, though, that Roger Bennett was not there, as he is suffering mightily from leukemia; his place was taken by Tim Parton), and the members were as delighted with Lydia as she was with them. We managed to get seats in the third row, right in the middle; it was a bit loud at times, but a joy nevertheless.
Most of the other activities of the week revolved around different churches. On Monday we got a surprise visit by a family from Dexter Gospel, where we’d been the previous morning; they delivered a batch of homemade oatmeal and raisin cookies. What a nice gesture! There was a special event back at GBC on Wednesday, as the teen puppet ministry did a show for a combined Sparks and T&T council time. Four days later we attended Fellowship Bible in the morning, and took in a service at Calvary Baptist in the evening (they, too, had a gift for us—a coffee mug with some treats inside). We were hospitably greeted, and later given a tour by Rick Getchell, a friend from his days at Grace.
We also stayed busy Sunday (doesn’t it figure we’d have a busy day when we get short-changed an hour?) with a trip to the Hands On Museum. They were celebrating the 95th “birthday” of the Girl Scouts, and they had special displays up, run primarily by students of the UM School of Nursing. I’m glad to report that all three of us scored very well on our oxygen level.
Lydia is growing by leaps and bounds, or at least her feet are. She had a visit to Mr. Busch, her brace maker, on Friday, and he confirmed that she needs new ones. It’s always interesting to watch the initial process of new braces being made.
Tap Dancing class returned after a two-week hiatus on Thursday, and Lydia stepped right in as if she’d never missed a thing.
And on Saturday, Lydia attended both sessions of Science Olympiad practice, and ran some errands with Mommy while Daddy worked a chunk of overtime. He discovered that while he was gone, the head of the department had okayed an extra ten hours for everyone, for which Mommy and Daddy are grateful. Got to pay for these concerts and CDs somehow.
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This site was put on ice for an extra week, as the public schools took last week off, and Daddy took it off as well. Thus, he and Lydia got a week of activities together, but the normal chronicling had to wait until he got back to work.
We’ll go with the big event first: last Friday we drove to the Palace of Auburn Hills to watch a performance of the Disney On Ice show “Princess Wishes”; we thrilled to the performances—some comical, some majestic—as we saw parts of seven different Disney stories get acted out in an ice ballet, plus recurring cameos by Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Tinkerbell. The music was terrific, as were the special effects (they even managed a few moments of fireworks at the end!). We’ll have pictures up before long, most of which don’t do the show justice, I’m afraid.
For the rest, we’ll go chronologically.
We had a visit with Dr. Daley on the 20th, Awana on the 21st, and would have had tap dance class on the 22nd, but it was cancelled because the teacher was sick. The 23rd saw a two-tiered Awana event, with the Sparks having Movie Night (“Prince of Egypt”) in Fellowship Hall and T&T doing the same (“National Treasure”) up in the BOX. The Sparks, however, went home when it was done, whereas the T&T clubbers stayed for an overnight campout (the boys came down to Fellowship Hall, while Lydia and the other girls stayed at the BOX). We came to get her the next morning, and were rewarded with some leftovers of the pancake breakfast they’d made.
Lydia’s “No Bones About It” Science Olympiad practice was moved to Mallett’s Creek; after this we had a meeting at the Savages’ home.
Just a quick extra note, as that morning Mommy and Daddy saw, on the way to church, a whacking big red-tailed hawk sitting defiantly on the side of the road with what looked to be a pile of what had recently been a rabbit, and several jealous crows perched a safe distance away. Looks like the local raptors are getting a tad lazy.
That weekend we got another reminder that winter’s still got lots of muscle to flex at us, notwithstanding whatever that silly groundhog predicted. Nevertheless, on Sunday we braved the elements to drive down to Temperance to attend a concert at their 1st Baptist Church, by singer/songwriter Buddy Davis, whose special emphasis is creationism.
Then came vacation. Mommy stayed at work, but Lydia and Daddy got out each day for something special. On the 26th we went to the Pittsfield branch of the library to attend a juggling performance/teaching session by Joel Tacey (this was Daddy’s first time seeing Joel—Lydia’s second—and he seemed quite impressed at Daddy’s own abilities); Lydia bought a small set of juggling bags and promised to keep practicing. We followed this with a visit to Chuck E. Cheese’s. Later that day we got the word that Lydia’s new cousin Dreyden had been hospitalized in Kalamazoo with RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), which is a potentially tragic illness in youngsters.
On the 27th, after another session at Mallett’s Creek, we took the bus downtown to go to the Hands-On Museum, and timed the finish to go over to JStor and pick up Mommy so we could all ride the bus together home.
On the 28th we drove up to the therapeutic horseback riding place to drop off some paperwork in connection with the upcoming spring session. We also had Awana that night (it used to be that if there was no school, there was no Awana, but this rule was gradually rescinded over the last few years).
The 1st found us back at Mallett’s Creek, this time because the kiddies had a session of playing board games. After this we drove downtown for a visit to the Exhibit Museum, where Lydia got to do a scavenger hunt and thus learn about various mammals (the final answer was “puma, or mountain lion,” coinciding with the fact that the two concrete critters which flanked the front doors have been removed to be fixed or replaced; they’re planning to have a neat ceremony when they get the new and/or improved ones this spring). And that night, we discovered by accident that there was no tap dance class again. We probably were told there wouldn’t be any that week, but none of us remembered.
All of this was just a warm-up for the following three days. On Friday we picked up a rental car (a light-purple PT Cruiser that we nicknamed “Lavender”), then went to pick up five boxes crammed full of packages of Girl Scout cookies. These we then took and distributed first to Daddy’s co-workers, and later to Mommy’s. Just two hours later we were back to the latter to get her and head off to Auburn Hills. The traffic made things ridiculous on the way there, and the extra inch of snow that fell while we were there made the drive home a little trying, but overall we’d have to say again that it was a terrific time.
On Saturday, while Mommy spent the day manning a table at Briarwood in the service of SpringHill Camp, Lydia and Daddy went to Mallett’s Creek yet again (‘Bones’ practice), and then took a return trip to the Hands-On Museum, where a bunch of volunteers had special displays about eggs. Daddy took the opportunity to juggle a few, fortunately without incident. Then back to Briarwood, where Lydia got to play in an inflatable jumping room in the children’s area. We also took some time to convert photos to a pair of CDs, and we’ll upload some here soon.
Sunday found us trying out the Sunday School and morning services at Dexter Gospel Church, before heading west in an effort to see little Dreyden (we’d heard in the meantime that he’d recovered nicely); unfortunately, while we were in Coldwater, he was still in Kalamazoo, and if we’d gone on to Kalamazoo, he probably would have left for Coldwater in the meantime. Eventually we dropped off our gifts for him, made plans to come back in another month, and drove up to Lansing (encountering en route a stunning number of deer) to spend the balance of the day with Uncle Marvin and Aunt Katie. It was a nice, quiet visit, filled with conversation and the showing off of photos. We finally arrived back home around midnight.
Yesterday morning Daddy returned the car and got our Bullfrog back, and he and Mommy headed back to work, and Lydia headed back to child care and school. It was a good week off, punctuated by a very busy weekend, but alas, eventually we have to force ourselves to return to normal.
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Well, the news came home on Thursday that Lydia’s cousin Alisha had presented to the world a healthy baby boy that morning, one Dreyden Gabriel Scott McGlothan. All members of the family appear to be doing well. This makes Mommy and Daddy a great-Aunt and great-Uncle, makes Aunt Laura a grandma, Grandma Brattin a Great-grandma, and Great-grandma Crabtree a Great-great-grandma, averaging about 21 years in each of those generations. We haven’t been over to see the little guy yet, but hope to do so before long.
It was a busy week overall, and made even busier by the events of the weekend. Lydia took part in the Awana T&T Bible Quizzing competition in Jackson. There was an impressively large group from GBC, and I understand they did a splendid job. No prizes, but that’s not the point, obviously. After the competition, the group went to a nearby pizza place, and Mommy (who’d gone along) called Daddy to interrupt his overtime work and come join them. After this, they headed over to relatively nearby Albion, for a stretch of fun at the Kids ‘n’ Stuff museum (and dropping off five bags of stuff for them to use in their grocery store area).
On Sunday, Daddy was the “Deacon of the Day,” which meant not only that he and Lydia handled the lock-up duties, but that he had to organize his fellow deacons to get to church early and deal with the several inches of snow that had piled up overnight. Fortunately, it was all light and fluffy, and no real problem.
On our way home from church, we stopped at a store and Daddy—possibly because his mind was also light and fluffy—left the headlights on. Sure enough, we had to get a jump start from some friendly fellow shoppers. Ended up killing an hour of our day, but hopefully taught us to be a bit more careful.
A couple of hours later, Daddy dropped off the ladies at the library while he attended the monthly Deaconate meeting. When this concluded early, he raced back to pick them up, and they headed off to attend an evening service at Fellowship Bible Church, one of which we were doing some investigating. We ran into some old friends there (Dan and Karen R. and Bill and Margo H.), and Lydia led the charge in making new friends, particularly a sweet little girl named Olivia.
As for the rest of the week, we were given a bit of a jolt when our biggest snowstorm of the last couple of years thundered in on Tuesday night, dumping about six inches of snow and leading to school closings just about everywhere in the area on Wednesday. Lydia, for the fourth time this year, thus spent the day with Daddy at work. Moreover, Valentine’s Day got postponed, but nobody seemed to mind.
Later in the day, the weather and roads were clear enough that Awana went on as usual, as did the Awana Workers’ Appreciation Dinner just before. This was the second of three pizza parties (the first at Camp Crawford, the last in Jackson) we were involved with in just eight days, and each time Mommy had to trek over to Silvio’s to order a gluten-free casein-free everything-else-that-you-might-have-on-a-pizza-but-Lydia’s-allergic-to-free pizza. They cost a bit, but Lydia loves them, and she’s able to take part in the festivities with everyone else. Mommy gets frequent flier points for going the extra mile so many times. Awana itself was lots of fun, as we celebrated “Hugs and Kisses Night,” and Daddy got a long-desired treat in that someone else (Mr. Hayter) took over his Game Time duties.
As for the rest, there’s not much to mention other than another good session of Tap Dance class on Thursday, plus noting that something has gone inexplicably wrong with Daddy’s computer at work. After much tinkering, the specialists decided to replace it entirely, and then after all the bother of transferring things, Daddy has come in to work this morning only to find that the new machine has developed the same problems that plagued his other one. At this moment, the computer gurus are officially baffled. One upshot is that I won’t be able to upload what I’m typing for some time yet. We’ll just have to take things as they come, I guess. [Quick addendum: things are up and running as of 2/22]
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We celebrated a milestone yesterday, as Lydia turned nine years old. She got to celebrate it several ways over several days: at Awana last Wednesday she and the other February issues got special treats and were sung at; on Saturday she opened up birthday cards that had arrived that day from grandparents in both Coldwater and Chambersburg; we also went out for birthday dinner at Denny’s that evening; and finally on Sunday she got out her presents, received phone calls from the aforementioned grandparents, and got to spend some time at Chuck E. Cheese’s. A jolly time, overall. Oh, and before I forget (actually, I did forget, and Lydia reminded me), she got a special phone call from Geoffrey the Giraffe, icon of Toys ‘R’ Us. In addition to birthday greetings, he encouraged her to “look me up when you’re in my neck of the woods.” Hee-hee.
Aside from birthday celebrations (and perhaps we should mention here as well that Daddy turned 42½, this website turned 4, and our car passed the improbable mark of 220,000 miles), the big event of the week was our campout with the Girl Scouts on Friday evening/Saturday morning. Daddy made up for his previous ineptness by getting a fire going, Mommy did her best to preserve order whenever she could, and Lydia, along with fifteen other excitable girls, did some craft projects, made s’mores, slept in sleeping bags, assembled meals, and went sledding. When things were slack, Daddy brought out his juggle balls and did his stuff. Definitely a trip to be remembered fondly.
Just a couple of other events to mark the week, and one to mar the week: the schools were closed Tuesday as well as Monday, so Lydia stayed with Daddy at work the whole time. Lydia had another good session of tap dancing on Thursday. Had something rather weird happen at Daddy’s workplace on Thursday; Daddy looked out his window and saw billowing clouds of smoke coming from someplace in Ypsilanti. He and his co-workers speculated as to the location and nature of the conflagration. They found out the next day that an apartment had gone up in flames, and that three children perished within. Daddy’s been in four building fires himself (certainly meeting his quota, one would think, for a non-firefighter), but nothing worse happened in any of them but smoke damage.
Within the phone call from Coldwater yesterday, we heard that some complications have arisen with the pregnancy of Lydia’s cousin Alisha; word has it that, if her baby isn’t born by Wednesday, the doctors will induce labor or do a Caesarian and go get him. We pray that we’ll be able to write next week with good news.
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Winter, which was a virtual no-show during December, hit with a vengeance as February rolled in. Temperatures dropped to zero and then some, with the wind chills getting generally twenty degrees lower (thus resulting in schools being closed today; Lydia spent the day with Daddy at work); things could have been worse, though, as the folks in Grand Rapids got a full foot of snow, and up north in the Traverse City area, they got three. Ever notice that we say “three feet of snow,” and not “a yard of snow”? Hey, even we got a yard of snow, but it was only a couple of inches.
We had some unusual events to mark the week, including a session at Lydia’s school on Saturday, which was a practice run for the Science Olympiad. In it (titled “Rock Hunter”), she learned about rocks, minerals, and fossils.
Lydia also had a trip to the dentist last Tuesday, and came out with top-notch grades.
On Friday we went on a visit to some friends from church, the Fowlers. They had first said they were thinking of asking us over last May, but we weren’t able to arrange anything until now. Just in time, in fact, as Mr. Fowler was moving over the weekend to Milwaukee to begin his new job (farewell Ford, hello Harley). Mrs. Fowler and their two girls will be making the trek once they sell their home. They made a splendid dinner, and we had a delightful time talking about church, work, family, child-rearing, etc. Lydia had lots of fun playing with the kids, even though their combined ages were less than half of her own (hey, it’s the same ratio as Daddy with the entire Sparks Club).
Speaking of which, Wednesday saw us busy as usual with Awana, and then Thursday saw Lydia’s third (and best so far) session of tap dancing class. The weekend had its usual run of overtime for Daddy, with Lydia in tow, whilst Mommy ran the errands. On Sunday Daddy got a haircut, which was notable for its ironic timing: removing most of his protective head covering on the coldest day of the last couple of years. Brilliant.
In short, life goes on (and thankfully, so does the car, even under these circumstances). But we must pause and note that, while life’s tragedies have left us unmarred for many a year, not everyone of our acquaintance is so fortunate. Our friends the Brunelles, who never had any children but have extended much similar affection on their dogs, lost their noble fellow named Abraham; he was 15, “old and full of years.” Alas, we also found out that the previous Wednesday, that our former next-door neighbor, Casey Marsh-Arnett, died, apparently during childbirth, at age 32. That was a shock, indeed. She leaves her husband Brian and two children. May God grant them all peace, and eventually joy as the warmer days come.
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Or at least time-and-a-half. That’s a nice compensation for having Daddy’s regular time so gutted. After attending a science program at the library (specifically on weather) late Saturday morning, Daddy and Lydia headed to the former’s workplace for a good long stretch of wrestling with databases and Excel files. Provided your psyche has the right kind of bent to it, it can be fun, especially since you can work in your socks and not worry about headphones. For Lydia it was a time of labor (homework, T&T study), followed by an enjoyable session on our (her?) portable DVD player. They were there the rest of the day, whilst Mommy ran errands; after dinner they headed over to Jump City for a fun hour’s worth of bouncing around with giant inflatables. We shared our time there with Ms. Betzig and Julia, and when time ran out they took Lydia and Mommy home, leaving Daddy to go back to work, sweaty and disgusting, to finish his allotment.
Sunday also saw a lot of time and effort, with varying degrees of fruitfulness. In addition to the morning service, there was an Awana directors meeting (technically for Daddy, but Mommy’s always there to take part), a deaconate meeting (this time just for Daddy), and a congregational meeting (fun for all, sort of). Lydia and her magic DVD apparatus made more appearances, which kept things smooth.
Perhaps the biggest event of the week was that on Thursday we got Lydia’s eyes checked by the pros over at Kellogg. We’d long wondered and worried at the way—in photographs at least—her eyes frequently didn’t seem to match. Fortunately, we had the batch of photos online so that the doctors see the phenomenon for themselves before our arrival. They did a bunch of tests, and she was a good sport through almost all of it (my, she does dislike being given eye drops). The final verdict was that the appearance in the photos is an illusion, that the fact that Lydia’s eyes are both rather sunk-in (farther away from the eyebrows, if you will), and that her eyelids don’t match combine to make it look like one eye is wandering off when it’s really aligned with the other. She’s got two healthy eyes, in sum. We were greatly relieved!
Not much news of the rest of the week. A visit with Dr. Daley on Tuesday, the second session of Lydia’s tap dancing class on Thursday, and in between Daddy had to say Good-Bye to two of his Sparks workers, but—through the efforts of Commander & Mrs. Savage—got to welcome two new ones the same evening. That had to be God’s handiwork!
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Lydia added to her repertoire of talents last Thursday, as she began a beginning tap dancing class. She’s one of a group of six (five girls and a boy), and her teacher is Miss Lindsey. Most of it was a good deal of fun, but at one point she slipped and fell, and declared her intention not to return. Fortunately, she changed her mind and finished it up, and is looking forward to the next session.
Seeing Lydia involved in so many things—she’s taken gymnastics, ballet, modern dance, and now tap, not to mention her Girl Scouts and Awana activities—can really make us long to have done some things like that in our own childhood. But hey, we only get the one chance. Maybe that’s why we always want to make sure Lydia has the opportunity to try out new things, to see where her talents and desires lay.
Now, let’s see, what else has happened of late? Monday was certainly eventful. It was Martin Luther King Day, and Lydia and Mommy had a day off together, as there was no school or work, respectively, for them (alas, this also meant that Mommy had to, for the third time in the last four weeks, work long hours the rest of the week to make up for it). They went several interesting places, including a stop at the Hands On Museum. That night a by-product of the local ice storms finally hit us, as we endured a complete power outage for about 25 minutes. We were getting dinner ready at the time, and had just got everything packed to take to Daddy’s workplace—presuming that there was still power there—when “Blink!” and everything came back on. In the meantime, we’d had some fun getting things done by flashlight and making spooky noises on the stairs.
The ice storm, in fact, knocked out enough power around the city that they decided to close the schools on Tuesday (the weather conditions themselves didn’t seem severe enough, but hey, it’s not our decision to make). After getting to school and finding nearly no one there, and learning from a friendly custodian about how things stood, Daddy had no choice but to take Lydia to work for the day. Mrs. Hurst let Lydia use her computer on occasion, but otherwise it was a quiet time of drawing and writing.
Wednesday saw “Half-Way Night” at Awana; presumably we coast from here on.
Daddy got some news on Thursday, in that he can now work some overtime (a first since last May). The logistics have already to be a little difficult, and he’s only been able to get his extra hours on the weekend. On Saturday he had Lydia with him—she got her homework done and some Awana T&T stuff worked on, besides some more computer time—while Daddy notched up 5.5 hours. He went in for more on Sunday. Not really sure when it will end, but we are thankful for these little extras in the meantime.
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It was a week, like many another, with its own blend of ups and downs, and some strange happenings along the way.
The snow that we started with slowly evaporated, and we got a couple of days back in the 40’s before the weekend hit, and provided us with a thin coating of ice. Hey, that’s what ice scrapers are for. Had to use it Saturday morning. And Sunday. And today. Three days of ice is rather bizarre.
Mommy and Daddy got their eyes checked last Tuesday, and things seem to be chugging along just fine. Mommy will probably eventually get a new pair of glasses for computer use, but Daddy’s prescription was unchanged yet again, and will just keep what he’s got.
Had a great little reunion at the Betzigs’ after Awana on Wednesday, as, while we were dropping off a shoe organizer, Mrs. Falk and all the kiddies came in. Despite the lateness of the hour, we did stay a while, with Mommy (as usual) chatting with the adults and Daddy and Lydia (as usual) playing with the youngsters.
Mommy went to a lecture on Saturday, but unfortunately the lecturer didn’t show up. Neither did anyone else. Turns out that the lecture was exactly one year earlier, and her news source didn’t realize it.
Sunday, due to the weather, turned out to be much less eventful than we’d thought it would be; namely, the afternoon deacons’ meeting and the evening’s congregational meeting were both cancelled. Still, the morning had a special thrill, as we enjoyed the music ministry of Terry and Barbi Franklin. Lydia, who has become something of an autograph hound, got two more for the collection, not to mention the memories of some very fine music.
After the services, we went over to Briarwood and plunked down three bucks to watch the movie Flushed Away. Our general assessment was that we certainly got our money’s worth, but we probably wouldn’t have if we’d had to pay regular prices. Still, we should count our blessings. Just a few years ago (like, say, before Disney started their current trend with The Little Mermaid), the best children’s fare was along the lines of The Care Bears Movie (shudder). Now we have an embarrassment of riches with the likes of Over the Hedge, Robots, Cars, Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Little, etc.
And then it was today (isn’t it always?). It being Martin Luther King Day, Lydia has no school, Mommy has no work, and we can be thankful that, largely due to King’s efforts, Lydia can befriend of any other child she sees, and usually does!
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Well, we took a week off from chronicling, but are getting back into the swing now. Putting our recent activities into a handy summary, Lydia spent the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day with Daddy at the latter’s workplace, sometimes brushing up on her math skills, and sometimes working on her Awana sections, but mostly playing on Mrs. Hurst’s computer—with permission, I should add, and Lydia also wrote a very nice Thank You note when the week was done.
The final weekend of the year saw mostly activities of the chore variety, but it should be noted that Lydia shared the back of the car with the Frisch brothers, as we gave them a lift from Meijer that Saturday afternoon. I hope that I can truthfully say that we would have helped them out even if they hadn’t had six tons of groceries and would have been carrying things through a bitter cold rain. Reminds me of those days last summer—and who’s to say they won’t happen again?—when we were relying on others for rides.
Lydia wanted to stay up New Year’s Eve, but conked out a couple of hours short. Then again, so did Mommy and Daddy.
Got to see something rather neat on New Year’s Day itself, as over at the Gandy Dancer restaurant there was a display set up, little models of some of Ann Arbor’s most famous buildings, made out of gingerbread and other yummies. A waitress asked if she could help us, and Daddy said, “Just looking over the dessert tray, thanks.” “Well, if you’re fond of Elmer’s Glue, have at it,” she returned.
That next week saw Mommy and Daddy hard at work again, but this time Lydia was spending her days at a special day camp, hosted by the Pittsfield Township Rec & Ed. They had games, crafts, outdoor activities when the weather cooperated, plus music and DVD’s. Lydia had a great time and made lots of friends.
Had meetings with two of Lydia’s doctors, Daley and Sohoni, that same week, and they were both delighted with her progress. It’s nice to get professional confirmation of things going well.
We started the new year in good health, except that Daddy was afflicted by a particularly nasty backache, which took over a week to clear up. He was in good enough shape to donate blood this last Saturday, making it number 53. Ironically, he came out and ran into Mr. Terpstra from church, who has been tapped just about exactly twice as many times. Bravo!
We got to experience something fun for the first time that afternoon, namely the Jump City indoor play place. In the room we were in, there were four inflatables, two of the “jumping room” variety, and two of the “climb through, climb over, and slide down things” variety. We had a ball (parents, i.e. Daddy, play for free), and will surely be back for more.
Sunday had a nice treat in our first science museum visit of the year; our own Hands On. We missed out on a showing there by the Ann Arbor Magic Club, but still got to see some other neat displays, including “make your own animated cartoon” types of things, not to mention the usual activities. Daddy, as is his normal practice, sat and juggled tennis balls in the top floor room, and a very polite young boy, fresh off the boat from England, expressed a desire to duplicate Daddy’s efforts. But instead of the usual “Can I try?”, he asked “Can I have a go?” A charming moment, to be sure.
And today we are in “back to the real world” mode, with school and child care for Lydia and five full days of work for Mommy and Daddy staring at us. It’s a shame that epiphany has come and gone, and that we should take down any and all decorations, because this morning, for the first time since November, we finally got some snow! Not enough to make transportation difficult, but enough to give a pleasant wintry look to the grass. Hope it stays for a while.
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Lydia doesn’t have an e-mail address, but if you would like to send her a birthday greeting or other message, they can go to vbrattin@hotmail.com or sbrattin@hotmail.com. Thanks!
Lydia can be a little handful at times, but we knew years ago that she was God’s precious gift to us, and we’ve never forgotten that—and Lydia knows it, too!
We love you, Lydia,
Mommy and Daddy
February 11, 2003
