joy dare thirty-nine

Day 39: A gift broken, a gift fixed, a gift thrifted.

A gift broken: I'm going to go figuratively with this one. My Mom has never claimed to be perfect. She's never claimed to be more than human. She makes mistakes. But even though all this is true, she is broken before God. That's a blessing. 

A gift fixed: Dad constantly fixes things for me. I don't remember what exactly the last thing he fixed for me specifically was. But since we moved, he's fixed my bedroom doors. One so that it will open, the other so that it will shut. One of those little things that makes life easier. Thanks, Dad!

A gift thrifted: My jewelry-holder thingy. Technically, I think it's called an armoire. It's so nice for hold all my jewelry and a few other small things. And it was ten dollars at Salvation Army. Success!

joy dare thirty-two]

Day 32: A gift at 11:30am, a gift at 2:30pm, a gift at 6:30pm.

A gift at 11:30am: At 11:30 today, I was finishing up school. It was great to be done so early- and I've started working ahead, so I can finish school a couple months early if I stick with it. 

A gift at 2:30pm: I was at work. Out doing carts, as a matter of fact. It was cold. But it was sunny and good exercise:) 

A gift at 6:30pm: We were eating dinner together- Mom, Dad, Zoe and I. We enjoyed each other's company. 

joy dare thirty and thirty-one

I've not been feeling great the last couple of days, so I haven't been updating. But I'll catch up in a day or so. 

Day 30: Three old things seen new.

1. Monday was the first full day that Mom, Dad, Zoe and I were back home together after our trips. I had to work that afternoon and evening, but it was still good to be back in our normal together-lives. 

2. Old hymns redone. Casting Crowns does a lot of great redoes of old hymns. Or not even necessarily redone hymns, just hymns. Loretta Lynn Gospel, which I am listening to at the moment, has a lot of great hymns on it.

3. Garlic powder. It really can make a difference. 

Day 31: A gift found on paper, in a person, in a picture. 

A gift found on paper: This one was slightly difficult because of all the electronic/paper free-ness lately. But after some thought, sheet music, because it makes music playable (if you have good technique) even if you've never heard the song before, is great. 

A gift found in a person: Doing band practice today, Joe's attitude of "we can figure this out" was a blessing as we went along. We had a really hard time figuring out a hymn that we haven't done before and aren't very familiar with, but eventually we got it. But he was encouraging to me and probably Zoe as we tried to figure out the chords, and also wound up switched the key back and forth multiple times. 

In a picture: My silly, beautiful, funny nieces love each others' company. That's so great! 

joy dare twenty-seven

Day 27: 3 gifts that might never have been.

This one is hard. 

1. If Dad had taken a job at a rescue mission in Nashua instead of this one at Hampton, so much would be different. A lot of great relationships would never have happened, among other things. I remember the day Dad got the call that the church wanted to vote on us. We all looked at each other and smiled and laughed, jumped up and down... that was a great day. 

2. What if my parents didn't love music? My brother and sisters and I probably would never have started playing instruments or using our voices. It seems like, in our family, that would've changed things a lot. I so love listening to all of them :)

3. What if Jane Austen had never been published? My favorite sister stories (except Little Women) would never have been available for me to read and laugh and smile over.

joy dare twenty-five and twenty-six

Day 25: One grace borrowed, one grace found, one grace inherited.

One grace borrowed: Well, I'm not really in the habit of borrowing things... Ever. Except clothing from my sister(s). But it's very convenient sometimes to have two totally different wardrobes at (more or less) your disposal;) 

One grace found: I have found that, because I am not the only flawed one, people are forgiving. It's such a blessing when someone looks at you after you've hurt them and decides they can forgive you- because they know what it is to make a mistake.

One grace inherited: Last night, I sat at the kitchen table with my grandfather and he read Ecclesiastes to me. He would read a few verses, give his interpretation of that, and find a few more that he particularly liked. He enjoys reading the Word so much. I've been given by my parents and grandparents so many examples of love for God. 

Day 26: A gift before 9am, a gift before noon, a gift after dark.

A gift before 9am: Honestly, I did not do much before 9am this morning. I had read my Bible before then, though. I read 1 Samuel 12. I can't say that I had any sort of "Aha!" moment while reading this chapter, but I'm so glad that I am able to read the Bible without hiding or fear.

A gift before noon: Blue cheese-stuffed green olives. Yumm.

A gift after dark: Sitting with Zoe and Aunt Gail and playing with and laughing at the dogs. Simple pleasures:)

joy dare twenty-one

Day 21: one thing in the sky, one thing from your memory, one thing that's ugly-beautiful.

One thing in the sky: Not a bird. Not a plane. Not Superman. Have I mentioned yet how much I love stars? Pricks of brilliantly beautiful light that are really thousands of suns far, far away. What a gift!

One thing from my memory: Trips to Maine. I've probably blogged about them before, but long car rides are never a big deal to me because of going back and forth from West Virginia to Maine for all those years. I think it's been said that we only remember the good from certain times in our lives- that's the only reason they're the "good old days." Well, I remember fights with Zoe and fidgety-ness and soreness from the trip. But what I remember much more is singing for the last hour of the way home. All seven of us, singing silly songs and eventually praise songs and hymns until we got home. Those memories are a blessing. 

One thing that's ugly-beautiful: Hmm... There have definitely been things that I have looked at and thought "Yikes. That's so ugly it's cute" (don't ask me why). I think bulldogs can fall under this category. They're sooo ugly. They're sooo pretty. And yes. I am thankful for bulldogs.

joy dare twenty

Day 20: 3 gifts you saw only when you got close up.

1. On closer examination, the snowflakes were even more amazing.

 

Just amazing.

2. When I looked again, that verse meant something different. I love getting strength from the same verse in a different way when circumstances change.

Most underlined book in my Bible: James.

3. When I really saw them, they were the most beautiful people.

My Mawmaw and Pawpaw are pretty extraordinary. I hope Mawmaw has kept a journal, because they have some amazing stories. Sometimes we forget to look at the people we know and love the best and are closest to and see them as people. As changing, growing, with-a-purpose-and-a-story people. But if you can step back every once in a while, you usually realize that they can be kind of breathtaking.

Mawmaw and Pawpaw at Hannah's wedding. One of their awesome stories is that they've been married for over 60 years.

joy dare sixteen and seventeen

Day 16: 3 ways you witness happiness today.

1. My parents, celebrating 30 years of marriage. They are full of joy about it :) 

2. On Tuesday mornings, the church has a women's Bible study. Afterwards, the women stay and knit and talk, and Zoe and I often go over and knit with them. Also, we teen girls had our Bible study tonight. Believers sharing life together is definitely a happy thing.

3. Zoe baked a cake today. She enjoys baking, and she was listening to music and dancing and cooking and it was pretty great. 

Day 17: One gift that made you  laugh, one gift that made you pray, one gift that made you quiet. 

One gift that made me laugh: I love laughing. And Zoe makes me laugh all the time. I'm grateful for her sense of humor. Sometimes when I'm angry or sad or just indifferent, she'll look at me and laugh. Just laugh and laugh as ridiculously and long as she can. Because she know that eventually, I have to start laughing too. I'm glad she does that:) 

One gift that made me pray: When I was thinking about going and preparing to go and and in Moldova, I was constantly praying. That was good. I usually write my prayers, and spend a while praying right after I get up and right before I go to bed. But I'd like to get back into the habit of praying continually throughout the day. And of praising when I pray. I'm going to try to tell God one quality about Him that I am so grateful for every day. I think that's going to be good for me. 

One gift that made me quiet: This is a hard one. I like to talk about gifts;) There are a lot of gifts that make me sort of introspective for a little while... And then I blog about them or tell a bunch of people about them or something. So I'll go with a material gift- my Nook. So far, it's made me spend hours in silence;)

joy dare 12; mawmaw

I talked to Mawmaw on the phone today. She had gamma knife radiation for a tumor in her head on Tuesday. She's not feeling great, but making a pretty speedy recovery. It was good to talk to her.

Day 12: something above you, something below you, something beside you.

Something above you: Birds. Birds make me smile. They're so beautiful and free. Of the birds in West Virginia (funny how I still have to stop myself from saying "at home"), my favorites were cardinals... or bluebirds. I liked the colors and how they were constantly around. Of the birds here, I like the seagulls. I know, I know, they're dirty, greedy birds, but - yeah, you guessed it - they're pretty. And smart. And yet another variation of God's creation :) 

Something below me: Well, how about something I would like to be below me? Snow. I don't want feet or anything like that, just a little to stay for a couple days and be gorgeous. Then I'll be ready for summer again. Snow cleans everything up. It's so pure white. It smells so fresh and clean. Ah, snow...

Something beside me: Megan. So thankful for my dearest friend, someone I've grown so much with. Having someone with the same values and ideals and goals is so encouraging.

joy dare eleven

Hey, I'm all caught up!
The last couple of days have been hard for me. I don't know what exactly it is, but the winter days are sad.
Some of these joy dare things have been a little hard to answer. But it's good to think about what makes you happy, the things that you're glad to have in your life.

Day 11: 3 yellow things that strike you as fresh mercy.

1. The sun is striking me, at the moment, as a very beautiful thing. I love and miss natural light. I'll be very glad when the days start getting longer again...

2. I think the phrasing on this is interesting. 3 yellow things that strike you as fresh mercy. Because I tend to think of things not classified as concrete nouns when I think of mercy, but this is suggestive of something a little more touchable than "a new day, with no mistakes in it... yet" (Anne of Green Gables). Anyway, for my second thing. I have a quilt that Mawmaw made on my bed right now. It's not even mostly yellow, but there's some yellow in it, and every time I see it I think of Mawmaw. Quilting, cooking, telling someone where the pie is. Mawmaw is quite a woman. Anyway, it's nice to have this little reminder- and also nice that I get to know her.

3. Daisies. I love daisies. They're so happy. And there's this G.K. Chesterton quote, and it's not really about daisies, but it's why newness and daisies go together in my mind. This is what he says:

“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.” -G.K. Chesterton (via Goodreads.com)

I love that. God has never gotten tired of making daisies... or new days. See the mercy in that?

holidays, etc.

It's been a while since I updated, huh? Oh well.
It's been a pretty busy couple months, what with Thanksgiving and Christmas and all (yes, duh).
Everybody came to the house for Thanksgiving. And by everybody, I mean  Gramp and Aunt Gail, Jared and Becky and their girls, Hannah and Chris, and Lydia. It was good:) And Zoe and I went home with Grampa and Aunt Gail for a couple days after Thanksgiving. Always nice to be in Maine:)

Malia came up early in December. She spent the night with us and went to church with us the next day. It was great to see her! We need to do that again soon.

Christmas was a long, drawn out event for us. We had Christmas with Jared and Becky on Christmas Eve after our church services, and Grampa and Aunt Gail were here for that too. It was a lot of fun- the highlight of the night was Ruby getting stuffed animal-type things from her Pawpaw that are characters from her favorite tv show. She was very excited about those!
Christmas day, we had church and then Christmased with Hannah, Chris, and Lydia. That was great. We take turns opening gifts, which makes it take longer and ensures that all gift-givers get to see the reactions to their gifts. My favorite reaction to one of my gifts this Christmas was from Lydia. I made her a beard hat somewhat similar to this one, and she loved it. We all laughed so hard!
The day after Christmas, we went to Grampa's house. The Edwards family had Christmas together that day. I'm really, really thankful that my family likes to be around each other. That's something to be happy about:)

And New Years Eve we spent at the Noyes with church family. Very good way to see in the new year.

It's been a pretty busy couple months with all this holidaying and working (the store was crazy, of course, around Thanksgiving and Christmas), but the last ten days have been nice and calm. Enough time with friends, enough down time. I had most of last week off work, and the last day I did school was the Wednesday before Christmas. SO thankful for Christmas break! I've had just the right mix of relaxing and getting things done around the house without worrying about getting school done, so that's been really nice. Back to school tomorrow, though!

We haven't had any snow stick since Halloween week. It's tried to snow a few times since, but nothing has stayed on the ground more than a couple hours. I think one more good snow and I'll be ready for summer.

I'm definitely ready to be sore throat, cough, cold, and fever-free now, though! I've been just sick enough to be really annoyed by the lack of health for the last two weeks or so. Oh, well.

It's gorgeous outside right now- yay:)

I have absolutely no closing statement to make for this post.

first anniversary

One year. It's been one year since we moved- pretty much to the day. One year ago tonight was our first night in the new-to-us parsonage.

On October 13th, 2010, a bunch of church family came to our house in West Virginia and helped us empty the contents of our house into the back of a 22 foot truck. We spent that night at Mawmaw's, surrounded for most of the evening by aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings. It was quite the surreal experience.

The next day, we drove. Dad drove the truck, Mom drove the Vibe. I rode with Dad, Zoe with Mom. We spent the night at a hotel. I think we may have gone to bed an hour or so after dinner- we were all exhausted.

On October 15th, after a second day of driving, we got here! Yay! Haha. :)  When we pulled in, we were slightly surprised to see lights on in the house- but not unhappy. We went inside to find Lori and Cheri painting. They had painted almost the entire downstairs, in colors that Mom had picked out. They were finishing up as we got there, and it was awesome to arrive to smiling faces and an atmosphere of loving welcome. Alex and Kayla had even made us a sign welcoming us to New Hampshire.
Our first night in Hampton was the first night that my brother and his whole family had dinner with us and our whole family in our home. Ruby, who was about 6 months old, had never been to West Virginia. We ate together and were joyful. We were thankful to be together.

The next morning, we got up early. Our family and people from the church came to help us unload the truck. It was an all-day process. Just about everyone who was able-bodied started unloading the truck, and then the women started unpacking all the kitchen stuff, and beds were being put together and furniture was being shoved through windows and fathers were questioning why on earth mothers had chosen to bring that all the way from West Virginia. In other words, it was very loosely organized chaos.
That was a good day. We were happy to be here, and everyone else was just as happy that we were here. There's always something about working together that brings people closer together.

On October 17th, Dad gave his first sermon as pastor.
It would be ridiculous to say that, that first Sunday, we were all completely comfortable with one another - from the very start. Because we were not. But again, we were glad to be here and they were glad that we were here. So that was that.

A lot of things have happened since that first Sunday we were part of the church instead of just there. We've begun to form strong relationships that, at this point, look like they can only get stronger.
Getting here has taken a while. It's been roughly two years since Dad said aloud that there was a slim possibility we might move up here. And they've probably been the most difficult two years of my life so far. But they've also been the best. I am so glad that God has brought us here.

{almost} hurricanes, productivity, and a little love {everywhere}

We were kinda-sorta hit by a hurricane today. But not really. I think we were technically underneath Irene, starting yesterday afternoon, but we didn't get much more than a little rain and a good, strong wind.

We had 17 people in church this morning, including four Lowes. I didn't even print the bulletins. But it was good :) We sang, we listened to the message, we played ping-pong and worked on a puzzle, and went home.

It's been a quiet day for me. I did my nails, knit a few inches on my project (my beautiful hand-dyed vegetable fiber yarn is turning my fingers blue), watched Julie and Julia. Believe it or not, I'm actually thinking about going to bed- and it's 9:30. I think I want to make apple crepes in the morning, but I want to make sure I get plenty of sleep tonight. Tomorrow will probably be working on school in the morning/afternoon, then I work from 4:30 to 9. I'll have to get used to a schedule like that. I'd rather work in the morning and relax in the afternoon/evening, but that's not really going to work with school and work and church. I'm going to have to suck it up - and drink a lot of coffee (I swore I wouldn't be a part of the family addiction to caffeine, too...).

Right now, I'd kind of like to feel accomplished. Play piano or cook something delicious or read a classic novel while knitting. But sleep... Well, sleep looks awfully good right now, too. 


P.S. Every time I look at the labels that I could tag a newly written post with, I see the label "Love" and I want to click it. Probably in no small way due to the fact that I have such a very big family- biological, spiritual, all over the eastern half of North America and even in other parts of the world (namely Moldova)- and they just seem to be getting more numerous all the time. I feel like whenever I write an update or just a few thoughts out, it covers or contains someone, something, or both, that I love dearly. Joy.
Praise God.

but wait, there's more.

A week ago today, Malia came. I don't remember meeting Malia; we've always known each other.
We went to the ocean, where she/we took some amazing pictures with her camera. Here are a couple of the best:

 

 Malia being lovely :)

 

 <3

It was a good day.

Sunday, Lydia came. That was also an excellent afternoon. Sisters are the best. :)

affection :)

We've been told we look alike.

Today has been a pretty good one so far. I've done some math, taught a piano lesson, seen some ladies from the church. I'm going to work in an hour (until then I plan on just relaxin'), and there will be just the right amount of time to clean up and eat dinner between getting back from work and family movie night at the church.

So pretty much, there is just the right balance of relaxation and business today.

On Sunday, Mom, Dad, Zoe, Hannah and I went up to Grampa's for a Father's Day family gathering. It was great! There were lots of aunts and uncles and a cousin or two :)
Zoe and I stayed there all week. It was an awesome week! We slept a lot, we shopped with my aunt(s), we swam with our friends, and we played with the dogs. But the thing that I think I'll probably remember most about the week is the time I got to spend with Grampa.
Not to borrow sorrow, but I can't help feeling now more than ever how limited our time with Grampa is. So the conversations and little jokes and time we spent digging through genealogy together this week are really precious to me.
Once or twice before bed, I went out to the dining room where Grampa was reading and we talked a little. We talked about how he didn't get to see Mom married (every time we get on the subject of how we were in West Virginia all those years, he mentions how he thought "Aha!" and chuckled to himself a little when he found out Jared was marrying a New Hampshire woman and moving up here), and the table of nations (I understood less of that than he realized, but it was ok), and what I want to be when I grow up (when I mentioned the possibility of a year or two of community college, he told me he thought that was a good idea and encouraged me to stay home, where everyone had my best interest at heart, for as long as I could).
After Mom and Dad left on Sunday, Zoe and I stood outside with Aunt Gail, Uncle David, and Grampa looking at Aunt Gail's new car. Grampa asked whether or not Zoe and I had ever driven, and hinted that there may be a chance to drive around the field a bit during the week.
So on Wednesday, when Aunt Gail and her new car were out (he didn't want to attempt it while there were other cars in the driveway. I can't imagine why), he and I went out to the truck. He drove around the driveway and the field once to show me where to go, and then we switched sides. At the end of half an hour, I could shift gears, use a blinker, and back up, in addition to the basic making the car go.
I thought it was fun, and I don't think I scared Grampa too much. :) As we were driving, he mentioned when Grammy first started to drive. I asked if he taught her how, and his answer was something like this:
"Yes, more or less. I think, the way she drove at first, she was trying to kill me! She didn't quite succeed, though. There was one narrow bridge near ___ that I was never quite sure she was going to make it over. She always accused me of trying to climb out the car window when she drove over it!"
Grampa laughs a lot, which I love about him. He's not above laughing at his own jokes, either. He was laughing all the way through that little speech.
My uncle David has done some research into family genealogy, and that has always interested me, so when I was trying to find some information on Grampa's family for him (Grampa) and hit a wall, I called Uncle Dave. He brought me a box of papers and family trees that he's printed out over the years, and it was really interesting! Grampa and I sat down and went through the Edwards/Field folder that evening, and found that my uncle has traced our family back to the first of us to emigrate to the States from Wales. Grampa is something like the 10th generation born in the states.
We also came across some old family photos in the folder. One that Grampa seemed to particularly love was of him in his days as a Marine, standing with his mother (Edith), father (Jesse), brother (Carlton), aunt (Caroline) and uncle (Fred Day). He is the only one living now. His mother died when my mom was a young girl, Grampa Jesse died in 1996, Carlton died tragically in a mill accident (I think) when he was in his thirties, and I don't really know about his aunt and uncle.
You know, as we were going over the most recent family trees, he told me that my great grandfather was very bitter towards one of his sisters. I asked if he knew why, and he said he did, but instead told me about how Grampa Jesse and his sister Caroline took care of each other after their mother died and while their father was at work. Jesse, who was only 7 or 8 at the time, would take care of the farm, Caroline would take care of the house. When peddlers and men came to the house, Jesse sent his sister out of sight so they wouldn't bother her. Grampa told me all that, then told me that there were some very sad and terrible stories about Grampa Jesse and his family, but he didn't want to repeat the bad. He said he wanted to tell me the good about his family and not the ugly, because he hopes that people will remember the good things about him and let the ugly be forgotten. I'd say there's a good chance that that's what will happen.

atomic fireballs and the new hampshire smell

The other day, I was biking to the beach with Mom and Dad, and I smelled New Hampshire. Yes, I know, I live in New Hampshire, so technically I smell it all the time, but this was a whiff of that pine-y, fresh scent (maybe there were blueberries in there?) that was exactly how I remember things smelling at my Aunt Gail and Uncle David's camp on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. I don't know, it was just nice.


There were blueberry bushes all around the camp. Aunt Gail would save the plastic containers from butter and sour cream and things like that, and poke holes in the sides to thread yarn through. That way, we could just hang the containers around our necks and fill them with blueberries. I liked picking blueberries. :)

The camp was right on the water, so we could run into the water any time we wanted (for we little girls, as long as there was someone else out there). We would swim, take rides in the paddle boats, and go fishing. I remember one specific time when Dad took 3 or 4 of us kids out in a little boat that didn't have a motor. We fished. It started raining while we were still on the water, so we turned around and headed home, singing a Patch the Pirate song. I remember the episode that song was in (about a boy who didn't want to be at camp), but only a couple lines of the actual song:

I wanna go home
Please, Mama, come and get me

I don't want... or fresh air,
I want my Mama and my teddy bear!

Yup. Anyway, Uncle David found us on the lake and took us home in the motor boat.

That's the only specific memory of Uncle David that I have. He died when I was 5 or 6.
He loved Atomic Fireballs (the hot cinnamon candy). I remember loving them, and having a very specific and disgusting process of eating them which involved a spoon and a glass of water. Today, we got some of those, and it made me think about all this.

talking with grampa

                I had a little conversation with my Grampa last night. I was saying goodnight to him, and he mentioned that he’d talked to my Uncle Charles on the phone that morning. That led to the fact that my twin cousins are turning 25 this month. Grampa remarked that he had a 36-year-old granddaughter and was about to have 25-year-old granddaughters. I added that Zoe was going to turn 15, and he asked when her birthday was. It’s in August, a couple weeks away from my aunt Gail’s.

                “Oh, goodness,” said Grampa, “When your Aunt Gail was born, I was stationed Camp _____. No, it was Camp ____. [The first one] is on the East Coast, and [the second one] is on the West Coast. I remember hanging around the phones… Someone let me stay at the phones that day, because they knew I was waiting for the news of Gail’s birth.”

                “Really?” I asked. “How old was she before you saw her?”

                “Oh, I’d say she was five months old, at least… There’s a bit of a story that goes along with the first time I saw her. Your Grammy Joyce was flying out [from Maine] to be with me [in California], and she was, of course, bringing Gail. I had friends that were going to go get her from the airport and bring them to me, but I was impatient. I hitchhiked. I guess I was a fairly new convert back then, and I probably told God that, if He gave me a ride, I would witness to the driver.

                “Well, there are (or were) two airports in LA, which was a big city even then. They’ve got a good 60 miles between them, and I didn’t know which one Joyce was flying into.

                “I got a ride, and it turned out that the man who drove me was in the travel business, and was able to tell me which airport she was probably coming into!

                “We lived there in California until the time of or after my discharge. Oh, we were there until there was a steel shortage and my factory didn’t have work for me any more. We decided that we thought it was important, for some reason, that we come back up here.”

                “Well,” I started, but Grampa had more to say.

                “Oh, no, dear, I’m not complaining or saying we should’ve stayed there, I just wonder why we thought it was so important.”

                “Well, your families were here, weren’t they?”

                “Yes, I suppose they were. And a big part of it was that I wanted to come home and share the Gospel with them… I came home to find that they’d all already heard it and turned it down. Well, anyway…

                “Then David was born, then Bruce, then Rodney, Charles,” -Grampa paused for a moment here- “and Jessie. And after that, we weren’t going anywhere!” He laughed.

                “Then Jessie went down South, and never really came back.

                “You know, you’ve probably all heard me say it before, but it tickled me when I found out that Jared was marrying a New Hampshire woman.”  Gramp chuckled.

                “You probably thought it was pretty ironic, huh?”

                “I s’pose I did. And then Lydia moved to Massachusetts, and Jared and Rebecca had Addie, and Grammy and Grampa like to be with their grandbabies…”

                “Did you ever think, when Mom went down to West Virginia for college and told you she was marrying Dad, she’d move back up here?”

                “No, I don’t think I had any expectation of her moving. But you know, I owe a lot to your Dad. He’s always been good about making sure you all got up here every year… Otherwise, we would have had grandkids we really never knew. I’m very grateful to your father for that.”

Me too, Gramp, me too.

P.S.: I never thought she’d move back up here either.

I really enjoyed talking to Grampa last night. I don't get a lot of one-on-one time with him, and it was great to hear his story. I'm extremely thankful for Grampa, who is 80 or 81 years old and still manages to go around and help just about everyone he can. 

Grampa's hands are about twice the size of those of most men. I would not be surprised to hear anyone say his hands are enormous- or that his heart is twice as big.

the incredible dashing lowinis

                This has been a crazy weekend. Crazy, crazy, crazy.

                It started Friday afternoon. Zoe and I went to the doctor for a check-up, and wound up needing some shots (side note: my arms are sore, almost like I’ve been lifting weights or something. I feel like I should have gigantic biceps in a couple days).

                Then, it was home again for a few minutes before rushing off to a sleepover with a friend. We went to bed around 2 Saturday morning and I woke up around 9:30.

                After a couple hours hanging out there at her house that morning, we went home for an hour or so before heading to my niece Ruby’s first birthday party. That was awesome, because I got to play with her a lot. We practiced walking, we talked about shoes (no seriously. She was in love with the shoes she got for her birthday.), and there was a lot of baby-flying going on. :)

                 We got home, and I swore that I was going to bed at 10:30. Making one last Facebook check about that time, I wound up chatting with my friends for an hour and a half or so. I needed to talk to them, though, so it was all good. :)

               
                 For 2 or 3 weeks, we’ve been planning a surprise party for my Dad’s 50^th birthday. The idea was a night of worship, and Jared and Lydia were coming with bands from their churches (I sang with Jared). A college kid from the church was also going to play a few songs with his sister, and Zoe and I were singing a song with his sister also.

This morning I got up and went to church. After church, the madness began. We came home for lunch, and then Dad went out fishing with a friend from church. We ran over to the church and started fixing things. We were arranging tables and cooking with help from some marvelous women from the church ALL afternoon.

                Jared and his band started to arrive around 3:30. They set up, we went through a couple songs, I made Powerpoint, Lydia and co. got there and ran through a few songs.

                Meanwhile, the fishing friend was putting his elaborate plan into action. He was showing Dad a couple places to fish. Right when they were supposed to leave, Dad caught another fish! He didn’t want to leave after that, but he was convinced in a few minutes. He was a little late, but it was alright, because Lydia had also been late and had a chance to run through a few songs.

                So they pulled into the empty parking lot, and the fishing friend told Dad he needed help loading a couple tables into his truck (to get Dad into the church). So, we hid there in the dark and waited for Dad to put some fishing stuff away on the porch before helping with the tables.

                He finally came in, and was totally surprised.

                We got the music going after a few minutes, and it went very well. I loved singing with my brother, although apparently not many people could hear me (despite the fact that my mic was almost all the way up and I was practically swallowing it as I sang with as much volume as I could possibly give it). I may be voiceless tomorrow, but if I am, it was worth it! :)
               
                We got home a few minutes ago, and I peeked at one of the presents Dad had brought home without unwrapping. As he was in the kitchen cleaning his fish, I stage-whispered to my mom and sister: “Somebody gave Dad Crabtree and Evelyn Tiny Tails shampoo, cream, and powder!!” (ok, so  it wasn’t quite that detailed, but yeah.) As we were trying to figure out who in the world would have given that stuff to my dad, checking for cards and looking at the blank tag on the bag, we figured out that it had been for someone else. Then, we realized: it was Aunt Gail’s gift for Ruby! Hahaha :)

I am almost totally happy and not-just-almost totally exhausted. Going to bed now (or soon, anyway).

               

a happy tired

Last Sunday seems like it was some time last month. It’s been a long week- not necessarily in a bad way, though.

                I got asked to teach piano lessons to a couple of elementary school girls. I’m hopefully going to teach them the basics of sheet music and chords (beyond that, I got nothin’). We had our first lesson on Tuesday, and it started out a little wobbly, but once I figured out where to start, it was good :). I think the girls may actually have learned something!!

                We’ve had a carpenter from church here for most of the week working on our bathroom downstairs. She’s taken out the sink and toilet, scraped up the yucky linoleum floor, and laid us a beautiful tile floor so far. Next week, she’ll finish grouting the floor and we’ll paint, then we’ll put the appliances back in.

                With her have come her two daughters (my piano students), and we’ve had a good time playing basketball, swinging, puzzle-piecing, card-and-paper-fashion-making, and library-going with them.

                Also this week, we had Addie, my brother’s fantastic 2-yr.-old, spend the night with us. I played with her most of the day on Thursday. :) I also got to go to the beach with her- a trip she LOVED. It was low tide and too cold for her to take her shoes off, but I having the insensitive hillbilly feet that I do, I slipped mine off and carried her to the water. It was awesome. Favorite quotes of the beach trip:

“The waves are splashing to me!!”

(gasping as she saw a wave roll up) “Oh no!! It’s gonna get us!!”

                Also on that trip, I found a sand dollar! It’s little and grey. I’ve never seen a gray sand dollar before. But it rocks. :)

                We’ve had our doors open and seemingly random people in and out of the house all week. I love it! I thrive on fellowship, and I’m always happy when someone shows up for a visit.

                All this, together with that painful decision about Moldova (see previous post) has added up to make me pretty tired, but I’m tired and happy, which is the best tired to be.

dogs and roosters, grandparents and aunts

Whenever I’m in Maine, I want to write. Is it how pretty it is here? Is it how almost everything I touch has a special memory attached? Or is it just because I have nothing better to do?

My Grammy loved roosters and chickens. She had lots of rooster/chicken things. She had salt and pepper shakers. She had cookie jars and timers. She had little figurines. The timer has passed on, the cookie jars are with my cousin, and, quite frankly, who wants salt and pepper shakers shaped like roosters? But the little glass chickens still sit in the windows for all to see and remember. There are also a few other little pieces of memorabilia that have lasted.

Last surviving rooster glass, and my favorite.

These hang in the kitchen/dining room.

I don’t see a rooster anywhere without thinking of Grammy for just a second, at least.

Since my aunt came to live with Grampa a couple of years ago, a lot of things about the house have changed. But they're good changes. Sometimes it's easy to just want to hold onto the "perfect" pass in whatever ways we can, but in the end, it's not healthy. Moving on is incredibly important, and even a little change in decor can help with the process.
 

Today in a few words: dogs; snow; aunts; laughter; cookies; pictures; wind; chili; boots.

My aunt Francine comes over for a couple hours, and we just sit and talk. We laugh a lot- about things that my aunts and mom remember from childhood, about the way we are... I love these ladies.

The dogs are nuts. We Lowes brought our dog up to Maine for the first time this week, and it's the first time Brutus and Annie, the big, beautiful boxers belonging to my aunts and uncle, have met him. James is about 1/2 the size of Annie, who is considerably smaller than her son Brutus. When all three of them are in the room together, the background noise (if you can call it that) is the loud sound of 60 hard little dog's nails clicking on the wood and tile floors. 

James is a little intimidated by the other dogs, who don't appear to like him very much- he's too timid to really play with them, for the most part. They do things like block his path up the deck stairs until a human comes along to make them move. But they usually behave, and all's pretty much well when they're outside. 

Yesterday, Zoe and I attempted to go sledding with a girl we’ve known all our lives from Grampa’s church. Attempted was the key word. We have to remember, in the future, that sledding should not be tried when the snow is at least 2 feet deep and you are walking to your hill. We each slid down the hill once or twice. Then, we sat on our sleds in the snow and threw snowballs at each other. We walked home (my feet were so numb I could hardly feel the floor under them) and had hot chocolate. It was fun, but next time I go, we either need a better hill or about 20 less inches of snow.