Monthly Archives: July 2005

Why does it seem to work this way?  I am enjoying my first morning of vacation.  I am wide awake at 4:30am !! 

Praying for friends – but my mind wanders.  And sleep does not come again. 

Finally decided that I might as well get up. 

The day started with Gatecrashers.  We have lots of empty spaces in our circle these days.  Too many holidaying pray-ers.  And still it is soooo good to go in the early morning and meet God, talk to him and listen to him too.  Praying together for mutual friends and members of our congregation is a good way to start the day.

Then off to work.  Today was dead.  A big empty hole in the middle of my day.  Six people in a row cancel.  Not good for running an office with all the usual expenses.  Not sure what makes a toothache disappear the day after a person phones for an emergency appointment.  Making a dental appointment has to be the best remedy for this type of pain.  Cures it completely by the next day.  Maybe we should be able to charge for such miracle cures!!

With lots of down time, I have managed to finish re-reading The Hobbit and am starting on The Fellowship of the Ring.  It has been years since I read them.  And I picked the series up – brand new – from Wiebe’s garage sale for cheap.  Not sure whether to continue reading them on my vacation or return to them later when I get back from vacation. I hate stopping in the middle of a series but I have so many other books I have been saving for vacation that I haven’t read once yet.

Tonight a few of us from our small group went to Shananigans for coffee(or whatever) and conversation.  The frozen cappuccino is always good.  And Meg and Lauralea are fun to visit with. 

Looking forward to my last day of work tomorrow.  Then a long holiday weekend before I take off on my journey west.

This was our big day – thirty five years ago.  I’ve had enough weddings this summer to appreciate the fact that we did things more simply back in those days.  I guess we could have had a princess style wedding but we didn’t.  Couldn’t afford one of those.  And back then if we asked a friend to be a bridesmaid, we also were saying to them – I will provide the dress.  That doesn’t seem to be the case these days.  Times have changed.

Anyway, 35 years ago was a pretty exciting day.  And I am glad that we made a lasting commitment to each other then intending it to last.  And it has.  And there is a whole lot more love, a lot deeper kind of love now than when we first started out.

This afternoon at work I received flowers – in addition to the book I bought for myself last weekend that was supposed to be my gift to myself from him.  And in addition to that beautiful little laptop – which was a total surprise. 

Tonight we went out for supper.  Ate too much.  We tried out a different restaurant – Sopranos.  The food was good but our steak was definitely not medium rare.  It is hard to uncook a steak but they offered to try again and got it done very nicely the second time.  Leo had a small incident with his glass of wine.  One shouldn’t reach over a wine glass to retrieve a dish for the waiter! 

Now early to bed.

It was a great day.  I was pretty nervous about the worship music since it was just Matt (guitar) and myself (alto recorder).  Better than Randall singing acupello(sp?) at least.  There is a lot more to leading worship than just being accomplished musicians but I did  not want to make so many mistakes that I would distract the people from worship either.  I am a whole lot more at ease with what I needed to do today than I would have been a year ago but I still do not think that I fall into the accomplished category.

In the quiet of the few minutes between practice and the service I sat and prayed.  When I first began playing with the worship team I found that if I didn’t have time to sit and quiet myself and request his help, I would feel intimidated and lost. I asked God to use the music to bring the congregation into worship,to help me play my best and to accept my offering of music as a gift of worship from me.

It was an awesome feeling to realize on my way home that God had done just that.  He is an awesome God – and so understanding and compassionate.

We have had a guest at our house for the past day or so.  A few years ago while Patrick was in grade 12 there was an exchange student in town from Denmark.  He is back for a visit.  He needed to come back for a final game of chess just like he used to do.  Tonight he and Patrick went to see The Island.  They beat me home from my coffee date with a friend.  Then they launched into a theological discussion on the purpose of the book of Job. 

Looking after a two year old is not a good time to get inspiration for poetry.  The simple kind comes quickly to the mind.  But somehow,

On the path by grandma’s house
Here we go bumpy, bump, bump, bump,
Driving along on Kieran’s bike
Bumpity, bump bump bump.

while it entertained Kieran just fine, does not meet the standards Resonate expects for a poetry submission – I don’t think.

We just went for a walk a way down the river path.  Going wasn’t bad but when we turned around the gale force winds were blowing right in our faces.  Grandma got to help push for most of the way back. 

On the good side – there were no mosquitos.

Last night I got a call from my daughter in law.  They live on the worst block of a very bad street.  It didn’t used to be so bad but each year it has gotten worse.  It seems that PA has just gotten worse at about the same rate as this block.  A lot of gang related crime seems to be going on that wasn’t a few years ago. 

Last night was the worst so far.  Appears to have been a bit of a gang war going on – their street – right across the street from their house

She was warned that a fight was going to happen.  When she called, it had already started and the police had broken it up once already.  She called us so we could come and take her car to our place for the night.  She did not want to leave herself or send her son off to stay with us.  She did not think they were personally in any danger.  But the car – she needs it, especially since their other one was trashed a week or so ago. 

Leo and I drove up to get the car. 

In the middle and on both sides of the street there were about twenty people milling around.  Not wanting to move very quickly out of the way of traffic (us).  Nothing looked too dangerous at that moment but it is unusual to have those numbers of people out on the street.  We brought her car home and gave her strict instructions to call us at the least bit of danger to herself.  Our son is working out of town

A bit later she says the fight began – pipes and bats.  Lots of yelling and screaming.  She called the police but got no response.  Then a minivan drove by and was stopped by the gang of people.  They started beating on it and when the man stopped and got out to ask what they were doing, they pushed him back into his car and continued beating on it till he drove away.  At about that time the police did finally show up and made some arrests.  The trouble started again in the middle of the night

I am praying that somehow they will find a home that is possible for them to purchase in another neighbourhood and that somehow they will maybe be able to sell the home they live in now.  This is a bit too scary.

Yesterday I came home from work after stopping on the way to get groceries.  When I am not around to shop on Saturday, things kind of get depleted in the cupboards. 

Leo was just walking in too – with something poorly hidden under his arm.

On the 25^th Leo and I will be having our 35^th wedding anniversary.  While we were in Saskatoon on the weekend, Leo asked me to buy him Sibley’s book on the birds of western North America.  This was to be his gift from me for our anniversary.  So much for romantic surprises.  Then between the wedding and the reception, Leo went with our son and picked up a pair of more powerful binoculars.  These, he said, would also be his anniversary gift – from me of course.

While I was at the bookstore, I picked up a book on the flowers of western North America which I bought – for my anniversary present.  Not to be outdone by Leo in romantic gifts from the heart.

In passing, Leo asked me what I really wanted for a gift.  I jokingly told him I would like to have a laptop someday.

You may have guessed – he was sneaking into the house with my new laptop.  Now I feel a bit guilty for even mentioning it.  I could have lived without a laptop.  But how do I tell him that?  I mean, I did tell him that but he insists I keep it. 

Most of my evening was spent setting things up on my new Toshiba Satellite.

Later last night, Christian came home.
”Whose laptop?” he asks.

“Mine,” I tell him.  “It is my reward for being married to Leo for 35 years.”

“You mean that’s all you get?” he retorts.

You have to know Leo to appreciate that humor.  I do love that guy.

We attended my nephew’s wedding yesterday – my husband’s godson.  This made Leo an integral part of the wedding party.  There were some other interesting Filipino cultural stuff that went on.  

One of the most interesting was the giving of gold coins to the bride by the groom.  Maybe that was because the little case with the gold coins was well attached to the little pillow so the little guy carrying them wouldn’t lose them.  The priest had to stop, hand his book to one of the ushers to hold, failing even then to detach these gold coins from their pillow, he finally picked up the pillow and handed the whole thing to the groomsman who finally got it loose and the ceremony could continue.  These coins signified that the groom was offering his bride a life of prosperity.  I leaned over to my daughter-in-law and whispered, “Too bad David didn’t include that in the ceremony!”

Then there was a tieing ceremony.  A gold chain was placed over the two of them as they sat before the alter.  Sort of like the tieing ceremony that Becky describes but the chain went around their necks.  Same idea though.

Oh yeah, there was also a veil that was pinned over both of them – pinned to the brides veil and to the grooms suit.  Was to signify them being joined as one as well.

Interesting stuff.

Huge reception.  I’m sure it cost the down payment on a large home.  You wouldn’t want to have too many daughters in that culture!!

We learned that the Black Eyed Peas were staying at the same hotel as the reception was held at.  Sara thought maybe she should go to the reception desk and introduce herself as Mrs Pea and see if she could get to see them.  We thought maybe she could go as Sweetpea and give it a try.  We did see them getting into their bus as we left the parkade.  But that is as close as we got.