Paint the Fence Posts Red

Make that a bow-wow painted red and make it cry!

That was my evening tonight working in the kitchen at my church's jr. high youth group fundraiser for the upcoming mission trip. I looked up 50s diner lingo on-line today to add some excitement in the kitchen. This is what I had people saying:

Hamburger--hockey puck
Hotdog--bowwow
Ketchup--paint it red (also could be make it bloody, but that's just gross)
Mustard--we said paint it yellow even though I couldn't find it anywhere
Fries--sticks or fence posts (we made this one up)
Onions--make 'em cry
Pickles--we never could figure anything for this

It added to the fun of working in the kitchen.

Mission Service

Last night I went to the mission for the service. It was one of the best I've been to. The men were rather interactive with the person on the platform, and a guy who went for the first time really had a good rapport as he lead singing and sang People Need the Lord.

However, I don't think at a mission when the men are walking out that saying "Thank you for coming" seems quite appropriate. I found myself saying "Good night" quite a bit. After all, if they a bed and a meal they have to be there.

Thankful Thursday

It's been awhile since I've done this, but here goes:

1. Tonight I go play the piano at the mission. I'm thankful for the opportunity and that my parents made me do stuff like this while I was growing up to help me be willing to do so now. I am always reminded of a man at my church in Illinois who said after we had a mission service that "we always talk about 'but for the grace of God there go I', but as I looked around at the mission tonight I saw a buddy from high school. His life is ruined by drugs and alcohol. He was my friends then and for real 'there but for the grace of God go I.'"

2. The garden is all planted. The strawberries are starting to ripen; the lettuce is popping up; the potatoes are growing. I always say planting a garden and putting up tomato cages is the perfect visual aid of faith.

3. I'm thankful for a note I got in the mail addressed to "Aunt Rhoda". It made my heart smile.

4. I'm thankful that Jayne from Handbells had her last day of students today and now has the summer off. (OK, that one may be a bit sarcastic, but is true as well.) Now if she'll go golf with me on a Friday I have off.

Today I Got Crowned

My appointment this afternoon was to put on the permanent crown.

The assistant about killed me taking off the temporary. She could loosen it but couldn't pop it off. She said she hated hurting people. When she took the pliers out of my mouth I said I think she got in the wrong profession!!! She laughed. The dentist was able to pop it off without pain.

However, putting the new one on was quite painful. They would've deadened the area but I wanted to tough it out rather than deal with a numb mouth.

I would like to know what other's threshold of pain is. Do I have a high or low one? Am I a wuss or do I put up with a lot of pain?

We discussed (as much as one can discuss with a mouth full of cotton and tools) the dentist's garden. She was about ready to ask me to come look at her vegetable garden and give her tips so I must have sounded as if I knew what I was talking about.

My mouth has felt better in the last two hours than it has for the last two months since the old crown popped off when I was in Atlanta!

More randomosity

1. Today was my annual review at work. There will be no pay raises this year so most people don't even want to go through the review process and the work team leaders really aren't putting much into it this year, but I still think it's a good thing to do. I appreciate when my wtl goes through the projects I've done this year, sees the development activities I participated in, and acknowledges the addition I am to the department.

2. I value that at HMI on a scale of 1-5, 3 means you are doing your job, 4 means you have done more that what is your job, and 5 is excelling way beyond. For years in education if you didn't get a 5 there was a problem. I noticed that with coaches as well. I actually had a coach set up an appointment with the principal because she didn't get straight 5s on her coaching evaluation!!!

3. Last night I took the night "off" so tonight I have work to do at my house--laundry to fold, MK stuff to organize, and most importantly a bike ride to take.

4. Today we discussed how much we like having every other Friday off. It will be hard to start working full weeks whenever that occurs.

5. Throughout today I remembered several "random" thoughts I meant to include yesterday and forgot. Now that I'm adding these I can't remember those again.

First Stawberries

Hoo-yah!!! Yesterday I picked two strawberries--one for Renae and one for me. Tonight I picked five--Renae got three and I took two. These are the first of the season and with the many blooms we should have many, many more in the next 3-4 weeks!

Random Notes

Very random notes:

I’ve been off-line from Thursday after work until early yesterday evening. And I survived. No e-mail, no blogs, no internet.

Sunday I watched an entire hockey game on tv for the first time. Of course the event was much more exciting have Jayne from Handbells there with her Wing Nut hat.

Friday I went on a 14 mile bike ride with Shelly to Byron Center and survived. Although a bit chilly it was a great day for a ride. Sunday night I rode 8 miles.

Today I was planning on a trip to Shipshewana’s flea market, but the weather report did not look good. We’ll try in two weeks.

Found out today a co-workers child was born too prematurely on Friday for the little boy to survive. It was a very high risk pregnancy, but it’s very sad to know how excited he was about this little life.

Saturday evening I spent with a friend from Ohio. It’s great for me that Lynn’s in-laws live in Kentwood so I get to see her a couple of times a year.

Correction to previous post (notice how the correction is embedded deep in another post and doesn’t have the same prominence as the original that needs the correction???): Charter does carry the Versus network so I can watch the weeknight hockey playoff games if I so choose.

Women’s college softball world series Thursday night: Michigan v. Alabama. Guess who I am for.

Mary Lee

Tonight Mary Lee graduates, and I will miss being there. And yes, I will cry.

What a special young lady she is. I first saw her on June 6, 1991. She was one day old, and I’d never held that new of a life. That summer when she, her mother, and her brother stayed at my parents for a few days Aunt Mary and I had fun moussing her hair. I remember she would lay in a bouncy seat on the table and just watch all the comings and going of everyone. I remember her as a cuddly thing; she was so sweet to hold then and for the next few years.

One summer at my parents when her Atlanta cousin was there as well, they would be playing on the living room floor and as I read the paper I’d say out loud, “I surely hope neither of those girls on the floor thinks about giving me a kiss because I surely wouldn’t want that.” ML would perk up and we’d wrestle around with my acting as if I didn’t want a kiss until I’d let her “win” and give me a kiss. That happened several times and then one time afterwards she sat down beside me, looked up at me with her beautiful eyes and said, “You know when you say that you really do want us to kiss you.”

ML has been very competitive, and I’ve loved playing games with her through the years. It’s always kind of tough when it goes from letting a child you love win just enough to be nice but your winning enough so that they know how to lose and that you can and will beat them to having to use all your strategy to beat them and then lose.

I also think back on making sugar cookies together. Yes, it was easier to do it alone, but I wouldn’t trade mixing dough and rolling it into balls to make the cookies.

On one of the best trips to SC ever, we happened to go to a craft store, and I found plaster ornaments in each of the categories I needed for my nieces and nephews. I bought them to paint, and Ann bought several for herself and ML to paint. We had so much fun sitting at the table. ML showed so much creativity in painting and adding textures to her ornaments. I think Ann is still very proud of the truck ornament ML painted for her father.

I love that ML always seems so pleased to see me—it makes this aunt very happy.

So tonight ML leaves a phase of life and moves onto the next. Each step of life she’s grown into a different person, and I pray that throughout college she will grow even more in the love that God has for her and pursues a life that follows Him.

I love you, Mary Lee.

When It Rains It Pours or Rather Floods My Basement

Today is Day 82 (no, not a typo) of my water saga. Briefly, one month ago sump pump put it. Gave it two weeks. Sump pump didn't remove the water so the guy who put it in said we need to put in a drain tile from the pump under the hallway into the bedroom to get the water to the sump pump. I thought the work would be scheduled last week, but no it had to go to the board for approval. That should've happened at Monday night's board meeting.

Last night I called to see if the work was scheduled yet. After the board member's nervous laughter, he told me that the work was on hold by the board. He wouldn't say who was the lead on that or why. I called but could not reach any other board member. Finally one returned my call and after a forceful yet nice conversation she said another board member was calling the maintenance board member to schedule the work.

I talked with that board member this morning. He said that he didn't know who I talked to or what I said but the e-mails were flying this morning! He said he would not schedule the work with a majority board vote, and that the one board member couldn't make that decision. He had the majority vote and wondered when I wanted it scheduled.

He called back a little bit ago and the work should be done this Saturday or next Saturday.

I told my father that I think I won, but let's face it--I still have a hole in my basement filled with water, the paneling and drop ceiling is down, the carpet is pulled up, and the sump pump runs and vibrates the living room floor.

Versus?

Here's one reason why most Americans just aren't into hockey:

I'm getting excited about the playoffs and even thinking that it's good I'll be home this evening and can watch Game 2 between the Wings and the Blackhawks, but no. The game is on Versus. Versus??? You know that major cable network that isn't carried by Charter unless you pay for a sports package.

The NHL needs a different tv contract and soon.

Wings Win, Wings Win!!!

I'm not a hockey fan--after all I grew up in Alabama. My town had the most southern outdoor ice rink in the country but most of the time they had to have some kind of sheeting around it in order to keep the ice frozen. When I lived in IL, I had friends who enjoyed the Rivermen so I would go to games with them. I think upper bowl tickets were $3, and we thought it was awful that they charge $4 or more for playoff games! In OH I went to a bombers game once. The funniest part of that game was a water company's promotion that was on the jumbotron and the announcer would say, "What do you want to drink while watching the Bombers?" The crowd would yell, "BEER!!!" and the announcer would say, "That's right, cold refreshing water."

Since moving to Michigan I've been to 4 hockey games which means basically one game a season.

But now Jayne from handbells is influencing me to get excited about the Red Wings. Although I was working this afternoon, I had the game on and realized the Wings won and that it was over in time for Jayne to get to church on time.

Tuesday night is game 2.

To Go or Not To Go--That Is the Question

Thursday night my niece graduates from high school. I absolutely hate it that I miss the big events in the kids' lives so the weekend before after deciding that flying is out of the question and telling her mother I'm not coming, I'm figuring out how to get there.

Mapquest says it's 13 hours and 19 minutes and 794.35 miles.
There is a high school graduation here on Wednesday night. Brian has already said if I miss his graduation it would be ok because "she is closer since she's family."
I have friends in OH that I could spend the night with if I left on Wednesday. However, I could go to Brian's graduation and then leave very early on Thursday morning.
I would have to take off work on Thursday which I don't think will be an issue.
I figure gas would cost $100 for the trip.
My niece will be surrounded by friends and the excitement of her graduation. Maybe it's better to go when there's not so much going on.
I'm already off work on Friday so I wouldn't have to take that day a vacation.
This would all be easier if the graduation was on Friday night. Don't schools want out of town guests to attend graduation in support of their family?

So the question is--go or don't go.

Powerful Pipe

I read this here first during lunch, but then a friend from high school sent it to me about an hour later in this format. The visual in the second link are much more powerful than just reading it in the first link.

And now that I go back to link the first, I realize the second link is actually a part of that blog post.

Senior Awards

Last night I went to a high school awards night. The school seems to do a really good job of sending off the seniors. One thing I really like is every senior teacher writes a personal note to each senior they are teaching. Each note comes individually in the mail. Call me old fashioned but in today’s world of electronic communication, I think these handwritten notes are an invaluable statement to the students.

In the graduating class 55.5% of the students will graduate with honors meaning a GPA of 3.3 or above. Doesn’t that sound quite inflated? It also seems to take away from the honors designation.. I taught at a school that had 12 valedictorians and 3 salutatorians in a class of about 60. The principal and I both thought it was a sham and meaningless but that was the school’s academic policy that everyone with a 4.0 was a valedictorian. There were students who had no more than Algebra II who were called valedictorian.

Michigan also offers a Michigan Merit Award which is a college scholarship. At the end of the night, the principal said that every graduating student would qualify for the award so they had every student stand at the front and the counselors read off the entire graduating class roll five names at a time.

Next week is a Michigan high school graduation and a SC high school graduation the next night. SC is very far away so even though I won’t be there, my heart will be.

Soup's on

While living in Ohio I read a column in the local paper called The Amish Cook. It is written by an old order Amish lady who took over the column when her mother died. Each week she talks about what the family did that week and then gives a recipe. A friend in Xenia and I would laugh at some of the things she talked about, but I've found several good recipes over the 7 or 8 years I've read the column. I now read the column on-line at a Traverse City newspaper's website. The column appears every Monday.

This is a recipe I tried on Friday when my parents came to visit. We all liked it although my Dad thought a little bacon would add a little kick to it.

Let me know if you try it and how you like it.

Asparagus-Potato Soup
1&3/4 c. chicken broth
3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 lb. asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/3 c. chopped onion
1 t. salt
1&1/2 c. milk
2 T. all-purpose flour
1 c. Velveeta or Colby cheese (cubed or sliced)
Combine the broth, potatoes, asparagus, onion and salt in a large saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes. Whisk the milk and flour together well in a small bowl and whisk into the broth mixture. Stir in the cheese until melted. Pour into warmed soup bowls and serve immediately.

Tulip Time with My Parents

This weekend Mom and Dad spent the weekend with me in west Michigan for Mother’s Day and Tulip Time.Friday evening after they arrived we went to Holland to watch the Dutch dancers. 700 dancers stetched down 5 or so city block in traditional and authentic Dutch costumes to do their routines. The sound of the many wooden shoes clacking on the street was very unique.On Saturday we toured Veldheer’s tulip farm. See pictures below. My friend Renae was with us as well. We also went through several Dutch shops including a candle shop where they dip the candles in multiple colors and then carve and design the candles. It was very interesting to watch.I hated to see them leave, but since they left their Dutch windmill cookies here, they will have to come back really soon!

To my OCD friends: I added a picture on the left. More to come on the weekend during which we took this picture.

The teacher in me thinks this is a really good website. Click here whether your kids in school need to do some research, you're praying for missionaries, you've heard about a country in the news, or you're just curious..

The Mice in the Maze are Happy

Big excitement at work today. There is a new coffee machine!!!

Mid morning they carried off the old machine and in came a new red one. The coffee is actually a frozen drink that thaws and is heated as it empties into your cup. The coffee had to thaw which took about an hour longer than expected. It was funny to see how many people kept going back to the kitchen to see if we could try the coffee yet. I’ve just been told it’s very good.

Apparently this is a test for a few weeks to see if we will continue with this coffee or try a different kind.

EDIT LATER IN THE AFTERNOON: The coffee has a distinct flavor that is quite different from before. Others complained the previous coffee was bitter which I didn't necessarily find to be true, but I will say this coffee has a smooth taste to it.

Thought this was interesting from an e-mail a friend from OH sent me:

Living in the Shallow Water or in the Deep Waters of Life: One Matters for
Impact!
By Mitt Romney
I don't remember when it was exactly that I finally went past the sandbar. My family had a summer cottage on the shores of one of the Great Lakes. For the first forty or so feet, the lake is shallow, warm, and protected from big waves by the sandbar. That's where I spent most of the hot summer days as a boy. I liked it there. One day, my brother got me up on water skis. Perhaps fearing that a turn would make me fall, he drove the boat, and me, straight out into the deep. By the way, this lake is over 100 miles wide. I screamed at him the whole terrifying ride. He took me about a half mile out. But ever after, the deep water was where I wanted to be: surfing in the breakers, water skiing, diving. I got out of the shallow water for good.

Over the years, I have watched a good number of people live out their lives in the shallows. In the shallows, life is all about yourself, your job, your money, your house, your rights, your needs, your opinions, your ideas, and your comfort.

In the deeper waters, life is about others: family, friends, faith, community, country, caring, commitment. In the deeper waters, there are challenging ideas, opposing opinions, and uncomfortable battles.

Almost every dimension of your life can be held to the shallows or taken into the deeper water. Your career, your involvement with others, your spouse and your children, your politics, each can be lived with you comfortably at the center. Or, they can draw you out of yourself, into
service and sacrifice, into selflessness.

At some point in your life, a few of you may be presented with the opportunity to step off your career path, to give yourself fully to some kind of service. When I was asked to leave my investment company to run the Olympics in Salt Lake City, I dismissed the idea out of hand. I was making too much money, I didn't know bupkes about running a sports event. The job
would pay me nothing. The organization was in the worst condition of any I had ever seen.

And, after the Games were over, the position would lead nowhere. It was a dead end. I took it. It was the highlight of my professional life. I gave more of myself than I ever had before. I came to know and respect remarkable people. There are currencies more lasting than money. It can be enormously rewarding to take the unobvious course, to jump into the deep water.

Bias is shallow thinking and shallow water. Read widely, particularly from people who disagree with you. Argue to learn rather than to win. If you don't respect, I mean really respect, the views of people who disagree with you, then you don't understand them yet. There are smart people on both sides of almost every important issue. Learn from them all. If you have life all figured out in neat little packages, you're in Neverland, not the real world. And it's boring there.

There's one more thing I've seen in the people who swim in the deep waters of life. They don't fashion their values and principles to suit their self-interest; they live instead by enduring principles that are fundamental to society and to successful, great lives.

I learned important lessons about those principles from some of the Olympians I saw in Salt Lake City, like bobsledder Vonetta Flowers. Vonetta was brakeman on USA sled two. All the attention, however, was on sled one, the sled that had taken the World Cup and was a lock for the Olympic Gold. But just before the Olympics, the pilot of sled one dropped her partner and
invited Vonetta Flowers to join her.

Vonetta had a tough decision. On sled one, she'd get a gold medal for sure; the first Olympic gold to be won by an African American in the Olympic Winter Games.

Those of us rooting for US medals hoped she would jump to sled one. She didn't. She decided that friendship and loyalty to her longtime teammate on sled two was more important than winning the gold.

Of course, sled one did well. But when sled two beat them all, coming in first, the crowd went nuts. And tears dripped off Vonetta's cheeks. Friendship and loyalty above gold.

You live one time only. Don't spend it in safe, shallow water. Launch out into the deep. Give yourself to your family, to your career, to your community. Open your mind to diverging viewpoints. And live, not by what suits the moment, but by the principles that endure for a lifetime. Jump in, the water's fine!

Two Piece Praise Band

Sunday was Day Two on the organ. Personally I felt a lot of pressure because so many people had complimented me from the first time. Let’s just say it didn’t go as smoothly as the first time. I need a refresher course from the 5-10 minutes of instructions we got in late February or early March about playing.

One step of progress I made was actually changing the sounds between the two verses of a hymn that we sang. However, apparently no one noticed.

The “praise band” played the postlude, but as we played we realized it was not “band”; it was a duet of Jayne from Handbells on the piano and me on the organ. We sounded good so it’s too bad people don’t listen to the postlude.

More Garaging

Renae picked me up and we went to more garage sales. We went to a church's youth group large rummage sale and I picked up a small tv for my back bedroom for $1. We went back to my house and realized I needed a remote to program it. We went to the Dollar Tree and I got a universal remote for $1.

Whole tv setup for $2.

And not comments about if it's HD.

My Brownie Came

When I was in elementary school I read a story about a cobbler who couldn't do all his work. At night brownies would come in and do his work for him. My sister and I will comment occasionally that we need brownies to come in at night and do some work for us.

My brownie finally came. My basement has been a total wreck for weeks now due to the flooding and repairs. When I got home from work last night I went down to check the water level. The front room that was stuffed with junk from the furnace room was cleared out and the foosball table put in the middle of the room. The bathroom was emptied of the paint cans and supplies and other miscellaneous stuff that I'd put there for the sump pump to be put in. The freezer and paint stuff was rearranged around the sump pump in a very practical way. The bedroom was straightened up around the bed and a path to the bed from one door and to the bathroom from the bed was cleared. What a relief to have the basement put back in come semblance of order even if there is still paneling down, drop ceiling scattered around, and a big hole in the floor in the corner.

I think my brownie's name is Renae.

Garaging

Yesterday my friend Renae was out “garaging” at some neighborhood garage sales. The end of April and first of May is very big for these neighborhood events in west Michigan. She got a call from a NY dealer and their IT guy asked her what she was doing. When she said she was at a garage sale, he asked her what that was. She explained how neighborhoods designate certain days and people can put anything they want to sell out in their garages and driveways and then people come to buy the stuff. He has lived in the city his entire life I think and he had no concept at all of a garage sale and had never heard of it. Apparently his comment was “You people in west Michigan are just strange.”

Treasures I’ve purchased at yard sales this year so far:
Humidifier for the house--$5
4—CDs--.50 each so far two of them have been less than I had hoped for, and I haven’t listened to the other two yet.
Driver (golf club)--$1
Plastic window candle Christmas decorations--$2 for a lot

Our simple, direct hope

There are several blogs that I follow that I really couldn’t tell you how I found the, but I find them interesting. This blogger has a very dry sense of humor, and I’ve laughed often at her posts. This and this (which made me look up Tim Hawkins on YouTube) are some of the ones I find really funny.

Right now she’s been blogging more seriously as her great grandmother will soon be in the presence of God. This post about talking to her 5-year old son does a great job of describing as she says the “simple direct hope” of the believer. It also left me with the thought that a believer doesn’t die because of old age, disease, etc. They die because God calls them home to Him.