Grandpa

Pitting cherries for pies!Birthday chocolateI've been thinking about Grandpa's loves beyond pie and chocolate too. :-)

He loved God's creation and he never stopped marveling at the intricacies of design in nature. And he loved his family.Most of all, although he forgot a lot of things, he never forgot who he belonged to or where he was headed. I hope I can leave as solid a legacy someday.Mom said Pastor Cory told her that anytime they had a hymn night at church, Grandpa always requested the same one. The lyrics are below. I know Grandpa is glad to that lovely face!

We shall see His lovely face some bright golden morning,
When the clouds have rifted and the shades have flown;
Sorrow will be turned to joy, heartaches gone forever;
No more night, only light, when we see His face.

God shall wipe away all tears some bright golden morning,
When the journey's ended, and the course is run;
No more crying, pain or death in that home of gladness,
Trials cease, all is peace, when we see His face.

We shall meet to part no more, some bright golden morning,
At the gates of glory where our loved ones stand;
Songs of vict'ry fill the skies in that hour of greeting,
Endless days, endless praise, when we see His face.

To My Adoring (and Demanding) Public . . .

I love you guys. :-D

I'm sorry to say that I have gotten no further on pictures; this week has been crazy. I promise to try and do better next week! Pictures are on my To Do List starting Tuesday. Promise!!

Road Trip

Are you ready for a road trip?It will be slow going, but I've decided to post our first few days and hopefully that will help hold me accountable to keep on trucking with the photo organizing. Our first couple of days were simply a lot of driving; we didn't stop to explore, but just tried to get a lot of miles under our belts. We did get the chance to see some familiar faces along the way though, which was lots of fun! These shots from the car are in New Mexico as we got closer to Gallup where we spent the night. The first leg was about 670 miles.
Kari and Steve (along with Ray and Willa) graciously allowed us to sleep at their house our first night on the road. I grew up with Kari on the island and it's always fun to get together with her and her wonderful family.
The next day we drove another 700 miles and arrived in Guthrie, OK where April and Ben welcomed us!
Neither of the boys had ever been to Guthrie, so we enjoyed seeing the town together. We took the trolley tour . . .
Would you have stopped to pick up this bunch??
We got some yummy snow cones/slushes at the little hut near the trolley. April decided to try a SOUR one. Do you see that devilish grin??
I think Ben liked it.
April definitely did!
Andy and Erik also dragged us to several stores to do some browsing/shopping. Well, at least they were good sports about it. ;-D
April saw the perfect dress at one second hand store. Unfortunately, it was on a mannequin. Noelle helped her . . . retrieve it so she could try it on.
Oops. Her arm came off!
April held the arm so that Noelle could re-attach the torso . . .
Eventually they got her back together. Then April looked at the tag inside the dress and said, "This is way too big for me!" We made her try it on anyway.
This fit her better.
We also took the Masonic temple tour.
It's quite a place!
We spent an evening at Don and Shirley's and got the chance to see much of Ben's family. For some reason I didn't take any pictures once we got inside. :-( It was great to see the Coffin's and fun to hear stories of all the naughty things Ben and his siblings did in their younger days!
Don's garden is producing mega-melons!
Mercy welcomed us back at April and Ben's.
Josie and GB were glad to see us too. :-) I didn't get a picture of Wellington, but he purred a lot so I think he liked us.
We, of course, ate well!
And we learned a new game that Erik got for his birthday but hadn't had the chance to play yet: Munchkin.
We're a lot of people to descend upon a one bedroom apartment, but Ben's sister Anna loaned Erik and I the guest apartment above her veterinary clinic (where I also failed to take pictures). It was within easy walking distance of April and Ben's, and very comfortable. It was great to have two full days in Guthrie before we headed north!

Our last leg was the longest, over 1000 miles, and we ended up going through Milwaukee where traffic on the interstate was stopped due to the incredible flooding they got!

We'd had great weather all day, but as soon as we crossed the border into Wisconsin around Beloit it got very dark and stormy looking. We started to see big lightening in the distance and I was excited--I miss thunderstorms! In fact, I texted Ben, who was still in Cali, and he was jealous. Little did we know . . . (he was no longer jealous when his flight into Milwaukee the next day was canceled). As we drove on we started hearing thunder, and then it started to rain a little. Suddenly we were driving in torrential downpour! It finally started to lighten up and was pretty much done by the time we reached Milwaukee, but we had no idea just how much rain they had gotten until we tuned in on the radio as we sat in stopped traffic on the freeway. We did eventually get off the highway and navigated through the city until we could get back on (which wasn't until the far north side of town!)

Needless to say it was a looooong day/night, but we were glad to arrive safely in Sturgeon Bay albeit the middle of the night! The odometer read 2731.5 miles when we got there. :-)

More sometime in the future!
Good night, world.

New Addition

Well, we're home. The back yard is completely overgrown with some sort of crazy spreading succulent, the spring on the garage door broke in the middle of the night, there's a big chip in the windshield of the car, and the guest toilet is shut off because it started leaking. I have no idea when I'll get the trip pictures sorted and posted. ;-P

On a brighter note, the weather has been staying relatively "cool" with the highs only in the 90s which is a blessing for this time of year! And as we have an unexpected new member of the household, I thought I'd do a quick post and introduce him.

Somewhere along I-80 in the middle of Iowa, Noelle saw a black kitten right next to the road. He was still there when we looped around--a good ten minutes as we were in the middle of nowhere and exits were few and far between. After a bit of a chase he wore himself out and let Noelle catch him; he hissed once and then settled down to purring and didn't stop. We discovered the remains of what was probably his mother on the road; we don't know how long he'd been hanging out next to the freeway, but he was full of ticks, had a big gash/scab on his lip and one back foot, and the pads of his little feet had big sore spots on them. And he was so thin. :-(We pulled out the ticks and got some cat food when we stopped for gas, which he inhaled as quickly as we gave it to him and then drank and drank and drank. We spent the night in Lincoln, NE and called to find out about cat rescue places and the Humane Society, neither of which was open until well after we planned to be on the road. So we took him to the vet and him de-everythinged and vaccinated, etc. Then we got on the road again and he took turns sleeping on our laps.In the meantime of course, his purring and loving was settling him firmly in my heart and after a phone call to Erik, his homecoming was confirmed. The little peanut slept on our laps in the car for 3 1/2 days, purring and healing!

He did not, as you know, come home to be an only cat. Our household has been in a little bit of an uproar as we introduced a new kitten, but things are getting better every day (and the hissing is at an all-time low for the week). He has a little safe spot in the laundry room when he wants to get away, but more and more he's staying out and becoming more bold when the dogs are about. He still purrs a lot, but definitely has a LOT more energy than before. I'm not sure I'd want to take him on a road trip these days! :-)

Anyway, Noelle and I called him "Iowa" for a while, then "Nishna" after the Nishnabotna river we crossed, but Erik and I finally settled on a name which means, appropriately we thought, "hope walks."

Meet Nuri. :-)
Also, for those who heard about the earthquake in Ecuador near Quito this morning, Ben & Pei are fine and arrived at the Galapagos today!