August 30 An Unusual Monday

Monday:

 

August 28-29 A Quiet Weekend

Saturday/Sunday:  This is going to be a very brief narrative, which I may eventually expand upon, but no guarantees!

Kaity, Emma and I swam for two hours over at Brenda's condo pool this afternoon/evening. It was stinkin hot and the pool felt great. We even ate pizza, poolside, for dinner! That saved me bring the girls home here and cooking a meal for them--the house is terribly uncomfortable with this high humidity.

We did come to my house for a brief while, played with Kaity a bit, had some ice cream and then took Kaity back to her mom.

We worshiped Sunday morning at Calvary. What a wonderful service. Our Genesis series continued in the first chapter where pastor concentrated on Day 6 with mankind being created in the image of God. It was such a good teaching! Our volunteer hour went very well too. Emma and I worked hard with the little kids and felt blessed to do so. We had two new little boys dropped off to us--twins--by the name of Lyndon and Landon. Both were devastated to leave their mom at the door (having never been in any pre-school or situation like this before). They both wailed inconsolably until they were convinced to come and sit with me in a "quiet" corner where I read them stories and talked quietly to them the entire hour. Their little faces were SO sweet. I thought it would help that they were brothers and "had" each other, but when one began to cry, the other soon followed! Of all things, this week was a fire drill! Thankfully, my two charges and I were allowed to stay where we were and were excused from the drill. 

Sunday afternoon, Emma and I relaxed in the very humid heat, took naps, read books, and then we watched the first HOBBIT movie and enjoyed it very much. I was so encouraged today by the message and by some of the conversations Emma and I had. Thank you, Lord.

August 26 Kaity at Culver's

Thursday:  I drove over to Jesse's to pick Kaity up at 4pm today--because she has returned to school, and that is approximately the time her bus drops her off. However, TODAY the buses were all backed up and delayed because evidently Kindergarten kids started school today and some of the bus routes had to be worked on and totally re-routed. By the time Kaity got off the bus, it was 4:45--and our time tonight was going to be brief anyway because she was going with her mom out to Grant to watch Chris play his first game (football) of the season. Comstock ended up winning 55-6. Wow.  I needed to have Kaity to her mom just after 6pm, it was hotter than hot at my house, I was beyond tired ... so we opted for dinner at Culver's over on Alpine. Here are some pictures from our time there:

Kaity is a very picky eater--which is why we don't eat out more often actually. It's tough for me to pay for a meal that she isn't interested in eating ... but I thought we would give this a try. Culver's is one of my favorites AND it is one of the only places that are open for diners around here (due to COVID). Kaity's Beanie-Boo (named Blueberry) accompanied us into the restaurant ...

To my complete shock (!!!), Kaity ate an entire (almost) cheeseburger and order of fries! We then ordered a scoop of delicious chocolate soft-serve ice cream for her and she practically licked the bowl clean. YES!

We had a very enjoyable time as we ate, just talking through Kaity's first week back to school. She is now in the THIRD grade over at a completely NEW building (for her) that houses grades 3 through 5. She says the building is great and the playground is really fun too. 

I love you, dear Kaity-Girl!

August 26 The whole Belle escapade ...

Thursday morning ... and beyond:  In filling out applications for apartment living, the PET question is huge. Many apartments allow for pets nowadays with a hefty downpayment ($300+) and sometimes an extra rental fee for each pet (i.e. $35/month). 

Emma has a cat. She has had BELLE for about 10 years now, beginning down in El Paso, TX while on the Army base. Belle was evidently rejected by another family when she was about 2 years old; so Emma's family "adopted" her.  However, Emma has mainly been her caregiver--especially in the last five or more years. Belle is a rather finicky, smallish (7.5 pounds) little cat, who does NOT like dirt or "others" in her litter box. The last few years that Emma lived with her mom, Belle resided mainly in Emma's bedroom (the cleanest room in the house). 

One of the apartments that we have been really wanting to get isn't far away--in fact, it is over by the ballpark, in very familiar territory to Emma. Their application was grueling to get through with many "required fields" that had to be filled out or you could not submit the application.

So the first obstacle we ran into was immunizations and shots for Belle. We avoided it for awhile, but it seemed there was no way past these required fields on the application. Yesterday, we loaded Belle up in her classy cat carrier (Emma purchased it at Meijer awhile ago actually) and her fancy leash and headed over to Red Barn Vet Clinic off of Division and 64th Street. It is a walk-in clinic ... and good thing, because we called another vetrinary clinic and were told appointments for shots and exams were 9 weeks out. We were referred to this walk-in clinic, which worked out really well for us. 

We arrived at the clinic at 8:30 am (the time it opens) and were greeted by a VERY long outside line already. It took about 45 minutes before our place in line was actually up to the front door. Once we got inside, we waited another hour and 15 before we were seen and Belle was treated. Having said that, though, this clinic was very impressive. Kind--SUPER kind--people worked there at check-in and as aides; and the vet herself was wonderful. We got Belle ALL taken care of--or so we thought.

Incidentally, Belle handled herself really well throughout her entire ordeal--from being in her carrier, to riding in the car, to waiting in the waiting area with other animals surrounding her, and even during her combined rabies and vaccination injection. Good job, Belle-Belle!

We dropped Belle back off to Jesse, came home here with high hopes to complete this apartment application. THEN I noticed ANOTHER required field. They needed the cat LICENSE number ... the what? Cats have licenses? It was too late in the day yesterday to do anything about this ... 

SO THIS MORNING (Friday) we drove back to Red Barn with our papers from yesterday to inquire about getting a license for Belle. I had called ahead, but the phone just rang and rang without being answered. The girl at the desk said she would check about the license thing, left for a brief moment and came back to tell us that Red Barn does DOG licenses, but NOT cats. We would have to go to "Kent County" for that. Kent County? Kent County WHAT? 

We went back out to my car and Emma called the Kent County Animal Shelter where we received the information that Kent County DOES NOT REQUIRE any cat licenses whatsoever. Yes! But what about that required field on the application? Well--we just put in Emma's driver's license number, and then took about 20 minutes trying to figure out and then finally succeeding at HOW to pay our $50 application fee and $150 holding fee. The application is now in the hands of the people who need it. We began this process back on Monday. We have found out in the meantime that another person has filled out an application that is being processed for the only available unit. The manager encouraged us to send in our application anyway and to wait. 

We are waiting, and we are praying. We are tired. We are exhausted. We are discouraged. Our hearts are sad ... but we haven't given up--we can't! 

I was following up on a suggestion that Pastor Jim gave us last Sunday: to look up a paper he wrote on Creation and read through it (we've just begun a study in Genesis on Sunday mornings). I was impacted, though, with a Scripture reference from Hebrews 11.3:  "By FAITH we UNDERSTAND that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible." And also verse 6: "... without FAITH it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him." Pastor talked about the exercise of FAITH giving us understanding of incomprehensible things ... and I found comfort in these verses.

I am going to choose FAITH that God will continue to provide what Emma needs in His way and in His time. Please God.

This is Belle!

August 24 A Good Tuesday with the Kids

Tuesday:  Another Tuesday already? The weeks continue to zoom by so quickly! These guys hadn't yet seen or played with all of my birthday presents. I KNEW they would love these toys so much. I'm so glad I bought them for myself!

Erin and Aidan cooked and served food all throughout our six hours together today ...

Erin and Matey have a "thing" going. They truly enjoy each other. Who could resist little Erin?

Erin and Matey sharing kisses ...

So SO sweet! Aidan bringing us more and more food as we tried to eat a decent lunch in the kitchen.

I think Aidan enjoyed these toys more than anyone else. It was so much fun watching him imagine fixing lunch for everyone.

Brendan spent a long time playing with my Number Robots that join together to make TWO super big robots. He is so good at mechanical things, with the added benefit of being THE MOST PATIENT young person I have ever met. He'll just keep working and working on something until it works out ... or doesn't--but he doesn't easily give up.

This little pixie LOVES books. She will grow up to be an excellent reader some day. I love to read to her, and she loves to read to me!

Erin's favorite toy was the Melissa & Doug birthday cake. She really enjoyed switching all of the toppings and candles.

Cutting everyone a slice of cake was a real thrill to her ...

The very first slice of cake was presented to Emma:  "This is for you, Emma!" Erin softly said.

Here's Aidan again ... hard at work figuring all of the pots and pans out--which lid fit which pan, etc., and using the little cooking utensils and tiny one-burner stove (that sings to you and makes "boiling water" and other cooking noises).

After Emma went to work at 3:00, we turned on a video from Disney ... a movie about five little puppies who help to rescue a treasure in Egypt. The puppies could talk (!!) and there was the cutest little monkey too. Actually, ALL of the animals talked. The movie was a diversion to the stifling heat in my house--which isn't intolerable if a person is just sitting around ... but little children do not do that for very long!

We enjoyed a few ice cream treats and also drew pictures for awhile. Brendan folded a bunch of paper airplanes again and designed one of his own--which was a bizarre contraption with more wing flaps than you could count. It flew surprisingly well!

Aidan really LOVES orange creamsickles ...

We drove back to their house by about 5:45 ... and guess what? They threw a mini-belated b'day party for me! Erin and Kelly had picked out the cake the other day. Erin LOVES rainbows and clouds. I LOVE Erin!

Kelly cut the cake and all the kids had a different portion of the cake they put "dibs" on ... pretty soon, there was moist chocolate cake EVERYWHERE and the huge-est smiles on these sweet faces. I neglected to photograph that however because I was too busy stuffing my own face with the delicious cake.

It was a really sweet time with these guys, and I felt truly loved. There was air conditioning in their house, which was a relief after being in an 85+ degree house all afternoon. It was a happy celebration and I am really thankful for it.

August 23 Sweet memories

Monday:  I need to write this post, mainly for myself. It's a tribute (of sorts) for an old friend of mine.

Last Friday night, I received a private message (through Facebook) from my dear friend, Laurie. She said she had sad news and went on to tell me that our mutual friend from high school, Doug, had died on August 18. She said she had no further details except for the funeral home information. Laurie and I texted each other back and forth Friday evening for a little while, devastated by the news.

Here's the deal ... I went to a high school with a pretty large population of kids. I was one of 745+ students in my senior class. There were so many of us that our graduation ceremony had to be held downtown at Cobo Hall arena. I didn't have many close friends in high school--most of my intimate friends were from my local church. But I had TWO friends that I felt close to--the first being my good friend, my best friend, Laurie (since the sixth grade!), and the other was Doug. Laurie introduced us our sophomore year, our first year at Cousino. Doug had not gone to the same junior high school that Laurie and I went to. He had gone to Hartsig, and we went to Melby. Anyway, we met our sophomore year and actually had Geometry class together that year. I'm pretty sure it was a sixth hour class. Geometry and I didn't get along very well! Without Doug's help, I'm not sure I would have achieved my final B+ grade in that class. I also remember listening to Tiger baseball during that class! It was the World Series (1968) and we had snuck our transistor radios into class with earplugs. It was SUCH a great World Series that year! I remember shouting out loud (lots of kids did!) when the Tigers would score.

Also, that same year is the year Doug's dad died. His mom and dad had taken a special trip to California (perhaps a business trip) and while there, Doug's dad suffered a heart attack and dropped over dead at the very young age of 43 (I think). Doug was 15 at the time. His mom was stuck out in California and had to work through getting his dad's body transported to Michigan, etc. It was a really sad time in their lives. I remember sending a sympathy card to them (this was BEFORE I designed cards) and I wrote a note inside the card with this verse: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all of our trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." I remember it clearly because I wasn't sure HOW to comfort them or even if they were believers in Jesus. Doug had been close to his dad and it was so sad to me that he was now without his father.

Doug and I were also in the same Senior English class. Our teacher was Lawrence Czajka (pronounced: Chi-ka) and he was bent on having Doug and I be a "couple" to the point where he assigned us to read out loud a love poem--I still remember it to this day, "Song to Celia" (Ben Jonson). Shall I quote it?

"Drink to me only with thine eyes, and I will pledge with mine; or leave a kiss but in the cup and I'll not look for wine."

WHY that has stayed with me for so long, I don't even know! I remember how our classmates teased us and I felt my face get SO HOT. The truth was, I did have a major crush on Doug at the time. We often walked the halls together laughing about this and that. He was a very funny person--kind, though, and nice. I loved our friendship.

We graduated from high school. I packed up and moved to Grand Rapids to attend what was then Baptist College (fall of 1971). Doug and Laurie went to Michigan State (and both received degrees from there). The two years that I attended college, I only saw Doug a couple of times--and Laurie, not much more than that. Our lives just spun in different directions. I got engaged to be married in the summer of 1973 only to break it off 5 weeks before the wedding. Laurie got married to her Bill during the summer of 1974. I was privileged to be IN her wedding. I wasn't dating anyone at the time, was still brokenhearted from the break-up of my engagement ... and Doug was at the wedding. I knew that he was seriously dating a girl from State (Jill)--so I knew he was "taken" and was careful NOT to flirt.

Being raised a Baptist, I was forbidden to dance and so I had never danced! At Laurie's reception, I was rather "hiding out" in a corner when the dancing began because I was a little scared someone might ask me to dance and THEN WHAT WOULD HAPPEN?!?!?! I would most certainly trip over his feet and make a complete scene. But then I saw Doug crossing the dance floor, coming my way. He reached out his hand--I hesitated and managed to squeak out that I had never danced--but then he whispered that he would help me and ... we danced. I will not lie and tell you that it was "magical," because it wasn't. I was as stiff as a board. But I remember him being so kind. And I remember liking very much being in his arms. That was all. The dance ended and that was that. 

Here is a picture taken from that day at Laurie's wedding. I'm not sure what provoked us both to stick out our tongues:

The very last time I ever saw Doug on this earth was the day I married Jim: May 24, 1975. Laurie (and her husband, Bill) and Doug (and his fiance' Jill) came together to see me get married. I was dressed in that UGLY wedding gown (my mother picked it out) and Jim (poor man) had not tried on his tuxedo prior to the wedding and the pant legs were SO SHORT ... he looked like a hick. Somewhere I have a picture of Laurie and Bill, Doug and Jill, sitting with me in the basement of Calvary Baptist Church at my very Baptist wedding reception. We were chatting and laughing and doing a little bit of reminiscing I think. 

Laurie and I have kept better in touch over the years, and she informed me soon after Doug and Jill were married, that Jill was a believer and that Doug had also come to faith. Happiest news ever. It turns out that they had two children together--a son and a daughter--and have six grandchildren.

I had always hoped I would see Doug once again while on this earth but ... no. It will be in glory. Perhaps we will sit and laugh together for awhile then.

When I got the message Friday night about Doug's death, I wanted to find out what had happened. Laurie didn't have any details at that time. I got on Facebook and eventually found Doug's son, Kurt. This was how Kurt announced Doug's death:

"It’s with a broken heart that I wanted to share that my Dad, my hero, unexpectedly went to be with his savior, Jesus, on August the 18th.

We are just devastated by his passing but are so thankful for all the memories, deep relationships, and love we were have had our whole lives with Dad.

I don’t think a father could love a son more or a son love his father more than Dad and I did. I spent every day of my 33 years here being able to hear his voice, laugh, wisdom and encouragement and it is impossible to think of the years ahead without having that in my life.

There won’t ever be a day the rest of my life that I won’t think of him and miss him.

My heart breaks for Emma and Jack Jack who won’t get to know their poppa as well as I had always dreamed- but we are going to do our best to show them everything he taught us.

I am so happy we have the hope we are going to see him again with Jesus."

What a beautiful tribute. It made me super happy, yet terribly sad, to read these wonderful words. How many fathers could have this said about them? Not many that I know! I've been praying for Jill and for their children and grands all weekend.

Today was Doug's funeral, which took place at their church in Troy. I heard that it was well attended and that he was a faithful and well-loved member of that congregation. Laurie later messaged me and said that evidently, Doug had collapsed at his dentistry office, was rushed to the hospital and died the next day--apparently from the same heart condition that took his father.

Here is a memorial picture:

I briefly considered driving to the funeral this morning; but there is so much going on in my life right now--besides the fact that it has been 46 years since I last saw Doug. I've met Jill, but I don't know her or Doug's family at all. It really wouldn't have been appropriate for me to attend the funeral. I had hoped maybe the service would be "streamed" so that I could attend virtually, but it was not. 

My heart is sad, but this old world is not our home! Thank you, Lord, that You are making a place for us to be with You forever. So ... I will see you in heaven, my friend.

August 21 To the Lake with Emma and KT

Saturday Evening:  Emma and I picked Kaity up from Jesse at about 2:45 this afternoon, hoping to take her over to Richmond Pool for one last swim of the summer--the pool's last day open is TODAY, and then it closes for the season. We arrived over at Richmond at about 3PM, to a very long waiting line--the pool was at it's 300 person capacity. We waited for perhaps 10 minutes, but no one was exiting the pool, so no one else could be admitted--and there were probably 30 people in front of us in line.

SO ... what was Plan B? Emma and KT suggested we try the small lake at Versluis Park that is 5 minutes from my house. Good idea! We were going to drive to my house first, eat a meal, and then go swimming. I suggested that we drive by the park on the way to my house (since it is not out of the way at all) just to double check if the park was still open. IT WAS NOT. You see, there is a tri-athalon scheduled down M-44 tomorrow and they already had all of the lanes marked and were setting up booths right inside Versluis Park next to a sign that read: "Park Closed." Pooh.

As we were driving away from that spot, Kaity said to me: "What about that other lake, Grandma?" I asked her WHAT other lake? "The one with the big waves!" Ah ... Lake Michigan! Here's the deal: Kaity has told me all summer that the drive out to Lake Michigan is TOO long and boring--so that is why we have found local swimming places instead. But, hey! I was totally "up" for Plan C. We ate a meal at my house, packed up the car and headed over to Pere Marquette Park, about a 50 minute drive from my house. Both girls slept all the way there, and I listened to beautiful music while I was driving ... and talking to God about a bunch of sad stuff.

We parked our car as close to the lake as we could ... and only had to walk a short distance before we could jump in. It took me awhile, but I finally got in and got used to the water. It wasn't really THAT cold--it's just that my body really hates cold temperatures.

We swam for quite awhile. The waves were just right. I had brought swimming boards for the girls and they used them for a long time. 

There is nothing quite Lake Michigan (in my estimation at least). I love everything about it and I am so thankful it is as close to me as it is.

Thank you, Lord. This was a small break from all of the sadness we experienced throughout this week in so many different areas.