Josh went with Grandpa and me to spend the week at Uncle Chip's house and to attend VBS there. One day after VBS and after lunch, Chip decided he needed a haircut., Josh decided he wanted a haircut like his Uncle Chip's. I called Amy and asked if that would be okay and received her permission for Josh to get his hair cut.
Josh was one proud kid and loved looking a bit like his Uncle Chip:
We have spent all but 2 days of the past month on the road celebrating Richard's retirement. We had a fabulous time with John and Jeanette on our 2-week Princess Land Tour and Cruise in Alaska. At the conclusion of the cruise, we spent another day and evening in Vancouver, BC and took in the sights. Richard and I then rented a car and drove down to Bellingham, WA ~~ the town where my mother was born, grew up, and lived until a handsome sailor whisked her away after a brief courtship. Richard and I met six of my mom's first cousins ~~ all girls ~~ and people that my mom never knew. We saw the high school from which she graduated in 1939, the cemetery where my grandparents are buried, and just enjoyed our visit immensely. At the end of our trip, we spent a day in Seattle (froze to death!) before flying home and arriving the evening of the 12th. On the 14th, we took off for Huntsville to spend a week with our son, Chip, and to work in the VBS at Capshaw this week. What a fabulous time we had!!! I think we heard Chip speak some 7 times and watched some young people's lives transformed during the week of VBS as he taught the kids who had just completed the 5th and 6th grades. We returned home from Huntsville last night.
It was so good to see Brian, Amy, and the kids upon our return. We had had Josh with us all week so I know it was grand for their family to be reunited. We enjoy Josh immensely and he had a wonderful time at VBS.
We had to re-enter the real world this morning with a trip to the grocery store to get some things for our empty refrigerator!!!
We are excited to now be able to get into a good "retirement routine" as we find our new rhythm of life. We want to enter into more ministry and finish strong in this life.
As Dorothy said in the Wizard of Oz: "There's no place like home!!"
Good Morning from Capshaw, Alabama , which is located in the greater Huntsville area. We had one day at home after our 2-1/2 week trip to Alaska and then took off to come up here to visit Chip and help in their Vacation Bible School this week. Our 9-year-old grandson, Josh, is with us as he is our only elementary-age grandchild and therefore able to attend VBS.
We arrived on Saturday at 4:00 and that evening went to dinner with Chip at PF Chang ~~ a fabulous restaurant. On Sunday (Father's Day), we had a wonderful church service which began with Chip baptizing 8 new converts. We had never witnessed Chip performing a baptism so that was a huge blessing for his dad and me. We had a lovely Father's Day lunch and a nice relaxing afternoon. Capshaw didn't have church on Sunday night but we were invited over to the Smith home. When we were last here on what was Mother's Day weekend, a dear lady in the church passed away. Pastor Zach and Chip were there in the home with the family when Sandy passed. The Smiths have 2 teenagers and Chip has been a real help and encouragement to them during this month since their mother's passing. Anyway, we were invited over and went to watch some of the NBA game with George and his family. What a dear Godly man and 3 precious kids who miss their wife and mama. The little Smith guy is Josh's age. It was great that Josh could make a friend and know a friendly face on Monday morning at VBS. And that's exactly what happened~~~ Michael and Josh hooked up and enjoy the Monday VBS session.
After Bible School and then lunch at "Dip and Dog," which is a new deli and ice-cream shop very near Chip's house, the 3 of us returned to Chip's house. He had a noon to 7:00 p.m. outing with his teenagers. On his way back home on Monday evening, he brought pizza home for our dinner. We enjoyed some fellowship with him and then all went to bed.
Tuesday morning....... we came to the church an hour before VBS to start so that I could get online (first time since last Saturday morning!). I hope to have time today to upload some more of our Alaskan Trip pics. I have been posting them here as well as on my www.northtoalaskaandbackagain.com/ blog. I do hope to have time to work on those today if we can hang out here at Chip's church after VBS.
Gotta get ready for VBS. Richard is doing the audio/visuals for Chip's class of 5th and 6th graders and today I am serving their refreshments. FUN!!!!!!!!
Have a wonderfully blessed day!
We had never been gone from home for 2-1/2 weeks before, and it is good to be home tonight! I will be back to writing some "Susan's Stuff" ~~ enjoying God's blessing of Richard's retirement, our family, and our friends. We look forward to seeing what God has in store for this season of our lives. Feel free to take a peek every now and again to see what is going on from my perspective.
Blessings,
Susan
The trip is fantastic... If you want to read our journaling along the way, the URL for that blog is northtoalaskaandbackagain.blogspot.com. ~~Susan
We are 99% packed and 100% excited to be taking off in the morning. Brian, Amy, and the kids are going to drive us to the airport at 7:30 on Sunday morning. It surely will be hard to say good-bye to them, but we know the 2 weeks will fly by and we'll be back home before we know it.
We have a blog in the works that we hope to be able to keep up and journal our trip as we go. The URL for that one is http://northtoalaskaandbackagain.blogspot.com/. We'd be honored to have some "air-chair travelers" along with us. Feel free to bookmark that blog and check back. And please, please, please PRAY for us ~~ and we'll be praying for our family and friends everywhere.
North to Alaska!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Amy ~~ our 32-year-old daughter. Wife, mother of four, and principal of hundreds. What a joy it has been to watch Amy's life unfold and to see her excel in both spectrums of her life. After teaching for 9 or 10 years, she was promoted to principal of grades 4-6 a year ago and just today completed her first year as in that position. I'm sure there were many struggles along the way because that is the nature of a new job, but I never heard her say one negative thing about her job. I did hear her say countless times how much she was enjoying it.
The Grandkids came home with their yearbooks a few days ago. When I finally got to thumb through one, I was struck by Amy's lovely "portrait" near the front of the book. My little girl ~~ all grown up ~~ a professional woman, but more importantly, a Godly woman.
I post her picture tonight in thanksgiving to God that He blessed her first year as principal. She has to work next week (to close out everything for the summer) and then will have 6 weeks off~~ 2 with Brian and their kids and then 4 as mommy-of-the-day while Brian works at his equally fascinating job this summer. I know Amy will enjoy setting aside her professional hat and wearing her favorite hat~~ that of full-time wife and mother for a few weeks.
Get the loose ends tied up next week, Amy, and come home to 6 weeks of family fun and blessing. May God richly bless you and yours, my Darling Daughter.
Love,
Mother
Psalm 139:14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
Psalm 127:3 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
Psalm 139:13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
There is a dear couple back in our hometown: Jim and Suzanne. They were both in our College/Career Sunday School class. At some point in time much later down the road, they started dating, got married, and soon had a sweet baby boy. It is with joy that we have learned just this week that they are expecting baby #2.....and it's a girl this time!!! Jim and Suzanne had this sonogram made of their sweet baby. In it, she yawns as big as you please. Grandma Judy shared it with me yesterday, and I just had to ask if I could post the video on my blog. I was given permission to share. I find it fascinating and a beautiful glimpse of this precious baby in utero. (And to think that the abortionists MURDER many babies at this very age!!!!)
MEMORIES OF YESTERDAY: We had a terrific day with Jaden on Wednesday. He is such a big boy, and we love him dearly. He had a lot of playtime all morning: first with Grandpa outside where I found them having a big time:
We took Jaden for an early lunch at McDonald's (Jaden's request) and had so much fun watching him play with other children in the big indoor playplace. He ate a good lunch and played his heart out. I so much enjoyed sitting there watching him and enjoying the moment with Richard. I told Jaden that we had spent many-a-Wednesday-lunchtime alone and wasn't it nice to have Grandpa with us. Jaden agreed wholeheartedly. Proof:
After McDonald's, we came home. Jaden got a good bath and slept for nearly 3 hours. When he woke up, it was time to get teeth brushed and dressed for dinner and church with his family.
TODAY'S DOINGS: After all of my angst about Wednesday being our last "regular day" to keep Jaden (with school getting out today and his precious Mommy home with the kids for the summer and then his going to kindergarten in August)~~ we are picking up all four of the kids when they get out of school at 1:00 today. YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We will have a FUN afternoon for them around here with swimming, biking, playing, sleeping, etc. I pray they have a wonderful summer full of God's best blessings.
Late this morning, Richard and I are going out for brunch and then our last shopping spree for our last-minute things for the trip. We fly out on Sunday morning! I want to have all of the packing done and everything ready by Friday night so we are relaxed on Saturday. It's a great day in the cul-de-sac!!
The kids just came out of their house on their way to their last morning of school. Josh was all dressed up because he is playing his trumpet in this morning's assembly at 9:15. Grandpa and I didn't know about that so we have to "hoof it" to get showered, dressed, and out the door to go see our Grandson play. Here is this morning's video made on the last day of school. You will have to forgive them for being sooooooooooooooooooo excited..........
Grandpa Richard and I went to the 9:15 assembly to see Josh play in the band. We were so far back and I haven't even viewed the video but will load it here for posterity. His head is right in front of the microphone stand:
And then this afternoon at 1:00, I picked up the kids from school. Their last day. I made a couple of vidoes of Jaden. I knew the older three wouldn't appreciate my photography work in front of their friends as they all waited on their rides. The first video is of Jaden in the "reading room" waiting on me to pick him up:
And a sweet picture of Jaden with his afternoon teacher. Jaden calls her "Miss Norse" but it is really pronounced "Norris." My last picture of the last day of school for our Grandkids..........
I have had the precious privilege of having a LOT of face-time with our 4th grandchild. Regarding our older three Grandkids, Jarrett was adopted from Ukraine at age 10, Isabella was adopted from Ukraine at age 6, and Josh was adopted from Ukraine at age 2. Six months after Isabella and Josh were adopted in 2001, we moved here to be near Brian, Amy, and the kids. I was blessed to be able to spend a lot of that first summer with them and bonded with Belle and Josh deeply during that time. And then when we moved down that December, Grandpa Richard and I lived with them for 6 months. That was the REAL bonding time. Belle was in 1st grade and Josh attended nursery school. We were busy with the building of our house and didn't keep him at home with us every day. As I look back, I regret that we didn't keep him at home with us more, BUT the socialization with the other little kids his age helped him immensely with the English language, etc. Grandpa and I picked up Isabella and Josh from school a lot of days and had them in the afternoons until Brian and Amy got home from work. We did have a lot of good face-time with them for which I thank the Lord.
Jarrett was adopted at age 10 and we have had summers and school-vacation times to spend with him. There certainly were not those younger years to bond with him. I have to say though that today he definitely gravitates toward his Grandpa Richard. They have a close relationship for which I am thankful.
Jaden was born in November 2004. Amy had 12 glorious weeks of maternity leave to be with her baby. When she returned to work after her leave, I had the previous privilege of keeping Jaden every school-day for the next 2-1/2 years. What a blessing to be here and able to do that for Brian and Amy and for Jaden. My heart has memories stored up that will go to Heaven with me, I hope!! This past August when Jaden was about to turn 3, I determined that he needed more stimulation in the area of academics, playtime, socialization, etc. and recommended to Brian and Amy that he go to Nursery School instead of Grandma School. I agonized over that decision when it was being prayed over and certainly agonized over it the first day of Jaden leaving to go to Nursery School. I bawled for half the day. Amy and Brian had told me from the "get-go" that I could keep Jaden anytime that I wanted to. I let him get settled into nursery school for a couple of weeks and then decided that I would like to dedicate my WEDNESDAYS to having Jaden, so that is what I did this school year. I looked forward to my Wednesday with Jaden each and every week. He is a smart, fun-loving kid and we have had lots of great times together~~~ many of which are blogged on this very site.
Today is my FOREVER last day to be able to keep Jaden on WEDNESDAY. I had to have a little cry at breakfast over that very fact. Our 4th grandchild is growing up so fast and will be in K4 come August. He won't be able to "miss school" to stay with Grandma at either his whim or my own. He will be a real "school boy" and he is excited that his class will be at "Mommy's big school."
Jaden..... I pray that you have stored up some memories of your time spent at Grandma's house for these past 3-1/2 years. I hope you are old enough to be able to remember some of the fun times and recall them in the years to come. I certainly know that I will never forget them..... even if they become locked up in my memory should I ever suffer a brain disorder, surely they will remain in my heart forever and I will know and remember.
I hope today is your BEST WEDNESDAY ever. Your Grandpa is retired and is enjoying his 2nd Wednesday with you. You guys are outside enjoying this lovely late-spring morning ~~ doing guy stuff. You have requested to go to McDonald's for lunch and we will do that. That was a fun part of many of our Wednesdays together. And per our routine, you will get your bath and take a nice afternoon nap. When you wake up, we will take you to Mommy at "Mommy's School" for you to have Wednesday evening dinner with your family and then go to church with them.
Oh Jaden, I cry now as I realize this is our last time to have our Wednesday together. Of course, I will be here to keep you should you become sick and can't attend school on a Wednesday, but I mean "OUR" regular Wednesday together. I will miss you, Jadie-Boy. I love you. But God loves you even more and has a wonderful plan for your life. When you start your school years with K4 in August, I pray that you will learn everything they teach you at your Christian School ~~ about God and His Son Jesus Christ, the excellent academics, how to be a good citizen ~~ and that you will always obey God's Word and love Him with your whole heart. Happy Wednesday to us!!!!
~~Love, Grandma
.JPG)
