October 8 51+ years ago

Thursday:  I was surfing around on Facebook the other day and ran into this picture. I was truly excited to be able to copy and save it for my own memory's sake. 

The bride is a dear friend from college, Shirley. She and Dan got married in August 1975, and I was in the wedding. Can you find me? I had ZERO pictures of this occasion and I was always sad and regretful about that fact. I'm so glad to have this photo! See the pretty bridesmaids dresses? The day AFTER the wedding, I was touching it up with an iron and ironed a huge hole right in the front of the dress. Guess who never wore the dress ever again. Sad.

Shirley grew up in Tonawanda, New York (a suburb of Buffalo) and that's where she got married as well. Shirley is a year older than me and we met my freshman year and immediately connected. My roommate, Robbie, Shirley, and I all used to hang out together. Shirley and Robbie were in singing groups together, and they were also on the Homecoming court my sophomore year, with Shirley being crowned queen! It's good for me to remember the good things about those years, even though there were so many sad things going on in my personal life. Shirley was a real gift to me. We are rather out of touch, and have been for years now. Shirley and Dan moved to California (I think Dan had a ministry opportunity), but in their retirement, I believe they now live in N. Carolina. I haven't seen her face to face since her little Jeremy was about a year old--she came to Grand Rapids to visit me and stayed with Jim and I for a few days ... so long ago!

October 6 Pretty Flowers

Tuesday evening:  Mr. Ted notified me that he picked up flowers for Beverly (she and Ted are "special friends", with no intention of marrying at 92 and 91 respectively), and I while he was out shopping this afternoon. This is an almost weekly gift he gives us very blessed ladies! I guess since I was the one who introduced them and drive them to their "dates", he includes me in the flower giving. I appreciate it!

Look how lovely they are! Aren't the colors stunning?

Thank you so much, Mr. Ted. You are so kind.

I deliver Bev's to her when I pick her up to grocery shop every Wednesday morning. We bring the flowers into her "home" so that the other ladies can see them, and then we bring them upstairs to her apartment. She likes to show off her bouquets to the other ladies in the home, who LOVE to gawk over them. 
 

October 6 Study, Lunch, and Kiddos

Tuesday:  I had opportunity to pick up my friend, Feyming, for Bible study this morning. Some day, I will write an entire post just about her. She is my friend from Indonesia and I love her. She is one of the godliest people I have ever met, and she has lived through much hardship with such grace.

We are studying Hebrews this year in Women's Bible study. What a rich letter it is. I can't wait to dig deep into it! Our small group (which isn't very small at 17 people!) went well, everyone participated, and we learned a lot from each other. My friend got a ride home with her daughter-in-law, so Julie and I met for lunch at our usual place. That is, AFTER I finally located my car in the parking lot -- which took 15 minutes. Yikes. Julie and I had our usual yummy fried chicken lunch with such refreshing conversation and laughter.

I drove over to Dylan and Kelly's by about 1:30 and cleaned up the kitchen a little bit. Their house looked great, having had it cleaned just the prior day. There really wasn't much for me to do to improve it!

The kiddos came home at their usual time. We had our cinnamon toast and visited for awhile, but then they were in the house and out of the house for the next hour or two. Aaryan (I finally asked the little guy how to spell his name! It is pronounced like this: "R-A-On" ... at least that's the best I can do with it). I didn't get many pictures today, but here are a few of Gregory:

This is my Tetrus tower game, which we never did play. Cal preferred to build something with all of the shapes. Every one of these kids have high aptitude when it comes to building things.

Cal is very particular about his building too.

Dylan and Kelly came home with pizza, so the kiddos all ate their dinner. Kelly had to go back to work, so I stayed for just a little while to visit with them while they ate. Erin had been over at Emmy's the whole time, but since she was now in the kitchen with me I got to spend some time with her too. No pictures though, but we did have a sweet time together.