On Being Flexible

This has been one more week. I'm not sure I have my focus back on the mundane things of life yet.

FINAL DETAILS. We had Aunt Ruth's funeral visitation and service last week. The visitation was Tuesday evening and there was a steady stream of people at the funeral home the whole time. The funeral service was at Mt. Carmel on Wednesday afternoon. Bro. Bill did a good job in the eulogy. Unexpectedly the temperature dropped ten degrees while we were in the funeral. Most people were not prepared for that. All in all it was a very nice way to celebrate her life.

UNDER THE WEATHER. Wednesday evening, after the funeral, we all went back to church for the regular church activities. Vicki even stayed for choir practice but complained that she didn't feel well she she got home. The next morning she was scheduled to work at the YMCA but called in sick. When I came home for lunch I found her too sick to be keeping the boys so I took off the rest of the day.

Vicki was no better on Friday but Ben had Mom's Day Out and Pauline could keep Nate until 12:30 so I worked another half day. I may have mentioned before that the kids take turns spending the night at different grandmothers' homes on Fridays. This time it was Ben's turn to stay with Mom and Aunt Mar. Jenna and Nate stayed with Pauline. There was also a family game night (bring your own snacks and board games) at church that Jenna and I went to.

On Saturday Vicki was starting to show some signs of recovery from her ailment but was still sick enough for me to decide to get Ben and spend the day with the kids at Pauline's house. We watched movies, played games and assembled a toy they got for Christmas (I hadn't had a six hour block of time to devote to the thing before now--yes, six hours to assemble). When we got home after supper Vicki was a little better and was glad to have the company. That was when Jenna began complaining that she didn't feel well.... She missed school today and will probably be out tomorrow.

CONGRATULATIONS! The Freeland family is growing by leaps and bounds. Last time I wrote that Steve got married. Now Brent and Sabrina's twins have been born. On Thursday they, along with Hannah and Brock (big sister and brother), welcomed Corinne and Emma into the world. They weighed 5 lbs. 15 ozs. and 6 lbs. 5 ozs. respectively. Respectable weights for twins! We sure are happy for y'all and can't wait for you to make your next trip to Tennessee.

Joe

Two Different Beginnings

This week my thoughts have been occupied by two different events. First of all my good friend and neighbor, Steve Freeland, got married on Saturday. I haven't been around Connie, his new bride, very much but she seems to be a good match for him. Their wedding was very pretty and I am happy for the two of them.

I remember the first time I met Connie. It was Halloween night of 2003. We all thought Steve was a confirmed bachelor at that time. When we stopped at his house to trick-or-treat Connie came to the door with Steve. We had no idea she was there as his truck was the only vehicle in the driveway. I was glad he didn't turn on the porch light as I'm sure I looked like a total idiot standing there with my mouth wide open.

When we got back in the van Vicki started in on me. "Who is Connie? Why haven't you told me he was dating? Where did he meet her? How long have they been seeing each others?" When I finally got her to stop all the questions I simply defended myself by saying, "Vicki, you've got to understand that I came this close [I held up my fingers to show a very small space between them] to saying, 'Steve, you've got a woman in there!'"

Now everyone can quit worrying about that nice bachelor up the road. (After the wedding Jenna even said, "I didn't think he was ever going to get married.")

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Two weeks ago I mentioned my Aunt Ruth. She passed away this morning around 10:35. Given her age (94) and poor health it was a blessing. We went to see her yesterday after church and I am glad that Jenna and Ben were with us. She did not respond to any of us while we were there. Now she is free from her broken body.

Aunt Ruth was always a quiet person. I really liked to be with her when I was little. One of my most favorite memories was doing her rounds with her when she fed all the chickens and cats around the barn and house. She had several spots where she left grain for the chickens so doing the rounds took a while.

When I was in elementary school Mom worked at Hancock's Loosefloor in town. Sometimes when school was closed for snow I would stay with Aunt Ruth since Mom and Aunt Mar both had to work. She always fixed me a chocolate milk shake at lunch and when all the afternoon TV shows came on that I liked to watch I would crawl up under her coffee table and watch TV from there.

One day there was a few inches of snow on the ground and I brought my sled to her house. Her yard was pretty flat so to make sledding fun she used an old broom to push my sled across the yard. She was in her early 60s then and could still get a running start to slide me down what little slope there was.

The only job she ever had was working in the cafeteria at school. I never would eat the food in the cafeteria and it used to worry her a lot. She'd call Mom up and say, "I don't know what he lives on but he didn't eat again today."

Aunt Ruth was a very good cook. She made a great chocolate cake. The funny thing was that whenever we'd be invited over to her house to eat she had the most delicious dinner on the table and be constantly apologizing about it saying, "it ain't fittn' to eat."

Yes, it was a blessing that Aunt Ruth passed away. She really hasn't been with us for a long time. I hope I have inherited a portion of her kindness because that is the thing I remember most about her--that quiet, gentle kindness.

Joe

Yo-Yo Weather

I say this is yo-yo weather because we'll be warm enough to leave our coats at home for a few days and then it gets cold for a few days. If the rain and the cold would ever get coordinated we'd have a mess.

By the way, our two headed blanket is better but it was kind of rough there the first half of the week.

JENNA-ISMS. Now that Jenna has a bit more mastery of English she doesn't come out with as many creative statements as Ben. She told us all about Martin Luther King Johnson Day. She could not keep "Junior" in her head. She repeated Johnson all weekend!

She said something Friday that gave me a big chuckle as well. After work I went over to Aunt Mar's to pick her up. She had been visiting with Aunt Mar after school. When we got to the highway we had to wait for traffic. Two trucks went by loaded with cows. She commented, "I'll bet those cows sure are having fun riding without their seat belts."

CONQUERING MIDDLE-EARTH. One of the things I got for Christmas was the Lord of the Rings edition of Risk. Vicki and I have been playing it some. The first time we almost ran out of patience as it took almost an hour to read the instructions and set up the board (we can do that in 10-15 minutes now). You know, Vicki would have done well as a strategist for the military.

GOOD MEMORY. I drove my truck to church Sunday morning so I had no idea where Vicki parked the van. After church Vicki asked me to go get the van and simply said, "It's pretty far from the door." Nate wanted to come along too and because it is was so cold I carried him to walk faster. We had walked a little over half the length of the parking lot and I couldn't spot the van so I said, "Nate, I sure do wish you knew where Mom parked the van." I didn't expect him to point and say, "There!" He knew exactly where the van was.

READY TO PLAY DAD? So Ben and I played checkers for the first time tonight. Since he took several moments to set up his checkers I picked up the paper that came with the game to read the rules on different variations of the game. I didn't notice when he got done and to get my attention he said, "Dad, Hello?!"

While we were playing checkers Jenna and Vicki were giving Skip-Bo a try. We are usually pretty good about having the kids in bed by 8:00 on a school night. Tonight it didn't happen as the game went a little long because Vicki was really into the game. It took Jenna looking at the clock and saying, "You know Mom, it's a school night. We'll have to start earlier tomorrow night."

Joe

On the Thirteenth Day of Christmas...

We're three weeks into winter and it feels like springtime. By 9:00 this morning I had put away my coat. We have had cool weather over the past week but still above average. With all the rain we got I guess it is a good thing it wasn't colder though.

SPADES ANYONE? Aunt Linda and Uncle Bob arrived here from visiting with their daughter and family in New Jersey on Tuesday and for the last week there have been several late night card games at Aunt Mar's house. Aunt Mar had us all over for supper the night they arrived. On Thursday night we all went to the Catfish House and on Friday we enjoyed our last Christmas dinner (I'll get to that a little later).

The trip to the Catfish House reminded us of our previous visit there to celebrate Vicki's birthday. On that occasion Jenna sat next to Mom and no sooner than Mom's tea arrived at the table Jenna accidentally turned it over. Mom was SOAKED and Jenna was EMBARRASSED. We couldn't even tease her about it. What made it all the more humorous was that after Mom had blotted all her clothes with napkins and appeared to be done someone suggested we say our blessing. That's when Mom said, "Wait! I need to blot the tea out of my shoes." Jenna was a better sport about things this week when someone said, "Don't let her sit by G'Anne."

Aunt Linda and Uncle Bob left today to return to their home in Florida.

THE END OF CHRISTMAS. Christmas is not over until we have our dinner with the cousins from Ashland City. Unfortunately Judy had to work but Jim, Amanda, Derek, Riley and Harper drove out to Cross Plains on Friday evening. Mom and Aunt Mar asked Mrs. Katie Henry to cater the dinner in the chicken house. For those of you who don't know, Don and Katie Henry are neighbors who operate a peach orchard. A long time ago they had chickens on their farm but have since converted the chicken house into a facility to operate their orchard from. They now have a kitchen and nice dining room out there. Our dinner was very nice. After eating we went over to Aunt Mar's to exchange gifts.

THE TWO HEADED BLANKET. Since this weekend the boys have gotten sick. Whatever virus it is it started with Ben and spread to Nate. They missed church yesterday. Vicki called me up at work this morning and said she had a two headed blanket on the couch. Both boys were on the couch watching TV sharing the same cover. They were laying foot to foot so their heads were on opposite arms of the couch.

COMPETITIVE BLOOD. Connect Four was one of the Christmas presents someone got this year and we opened it up this weekend. The first few times Jenna played Vicki would stop her before she made a bad move. Finally Jenna had had enough and asked Vicki to stop. Vicki agreed, "Okay, you can move anywhere you want...NOT THERE!"

AUNT RUTH. My Aunt Ruth is 94 years old. Her body is wearing out. The last few times we've been to see her we left wondering if she even knew who we were. She was taken to the hospital this week because a gland in her neck was swollen and she had quit eating. The swelling in her neck has since gone down and she was moved to the nursing home today. If she has resumed eating (well, drinking her Ensure) I haven't heard.

I did have a good visit with Aunt Ruth Friday. She acted like she knew who I was and tried to talk some. I feel very sorry for her. She said she was tired and ready to go home and I know that she is.

Joe

To Virginia and Back

Happy New Year!

When I last wrote there was ice on the ground. Now it is almost short sleeve weather. Jenna, Ben and I went out yesterday to take down the outdoor Christmas decorations. We had light jackets on but shed those really quickly.

OUR TRIP TO VIRGINIA. We left Tuesday morning to visit Vicki's brother and family in Waynesboro, Virginia. It is a ten hour trip but it passed quickly because the kids were great travelers. We were happy to arrive so the fun could begin. Five excited children was all that was needed for the party to start.

One of the highlights was meeting Emily for the first time. She is now three months old. She really is cute and when she is awake she doesn't miss much. Her smile lights up the room.

FUN OUTINGS. On Wednesday we loaded up and visited the Frontier Culture Center. The Culture Center is actually four working farms showing how 17th and 18th century peasants and farmers lived in Germany, Ireland, England and Virginia. The European farm interpretations are included to show what life was like for the people who immigrated to America before they came here. We topped this off with a trip to Cici's Pizza.

We went snow tubing on Thursday evening at Wintergreen Resort. For those of you who haven't done this they have large inner tubes that you sit in to slide down the hill in the snow. The hill is dressed with wide grooves to keep you on your track on the way down and a bank of snow is built up at the bottom to bring you to a stop. Then you get in line for the tow rope and ride back up. All the kids enjoyed it and like last week all you could see of Nate was a hat and two rows of teeth.

OTHER FUN. The kids all played together very well whether is was playing with toys, watching a movie, playing a board game like Cranium Cadoo, or a computer game like Polar Bowler. The adults also played several games after the kids when to bed. Scrabble and Scattergories were the favorites. Thats when the adults got silly. Surprisingly the laughter did not wake the kids.

OVERHEARD. Will and Darice have a split level house and Ben and Zachary decided it would be fun to throw UNO cards one at a time down one of the flights of stairs. About the time they got through with the 112 card deck Will came around the corner and found the mess and told them to clean it up. After I heard Will give the order I got up to check on things because, well, I know my son. As I rounded the corner I was pleased to see Ben doing his part. But my timing was perfect as I heard him tell Zachary, "My dad is nicer than your dad." He was unaware of two listening fathers until he heard us howl with laughter.

PHOTO SESSION. Nate will ham it up for the camera when he wants to. When he is in the mood and sees your camera he'll say, "CHEESE." And when the flash goes off you'll hear, "aawww." Well, we decided this visit would be a good time to get a picture of all the cousins so we set up a makeshift studio in the family room and sat the kids down for pictures. Nate was not in the mood for this. Of course, getting six kids who are nine years of age and younger to pose for a picture is a pretty big challenge. Did I say Nate was not in the mood for a picture? We have several interesting shots. Fortunately, everyone looks pretty decent in maybe one.

After the photo session was over we got the kids ready for bed. During the hustle of this process Nate wandered back downstairs where he sat and posed all by himself for Will. When I came down to get him I heard about three repetions of "CHEESE-click-aawww." One of these days, when he is a dad, he will pay for this and I will smile.

STRUGGLING TO REGAIN NORMAL. We came home on Saturday. Went to church Sunday morning and had Mom and Aunt Mar over for supper that night. Yesterday and today have been devoted to putting all the Christmas stuff away. School and work get under way tomorrow. I keep hearing that song Back To Life, Back To Reality....

MISTAKEN IDENTITY. It's Sunday night and we are getting the kids to bed. I was putting Nate's pajamas on him when Vicki decided to double team the job and brush his teeth as I work. After brushing his teeth she left to rinse the toothbrush and returned to brush again. By this time Nate was sitting in my lap so I could button his pajamas. That is when I noticed Vicki trying to stick Nate's toothbrush into my mouth. She didn't realize what she was doing until I gave her that "Woman, what are you doing?" look.

Joe