From Auntie and Uncle Tim

Hello Family:
This month Tim and I each did part of the blog.  Since Kate and Chris each do their own you are stuck with boring stuff about us.


Tim's contribution
Hi, I am Mandalay, Tim's favorite pet.  He says I am precious, but Kate does not like it when he calls me that.  She says it is just plain weird.  My first home was not very good. They yelled at me lots and lots.  I don't like strange people coming around.  I run and hide if someone comes to the door.  

My day always starts in bed. Laurie thought I was sad one night and invited me to sleep in bed. Now I sleep there every night. I love to stretch out between Tim and Laurie.  If Laurie is in the way, I just give her a good nudge with my nose.  She says I give her bruises on the leg, but how can my little ol' nose do that?

Laurie usually gets up first in the morning.  I like that since then I can move up and snuggle with Tim until he gets up.  Then he takes me outside. I won't do any of my business unless he stays and watches me. I feel safe when he is watching me!  Then comes breakfast.  I must be part horse since Kate says I eat like a horse with my lips.  Yum yum!  I eat my food as fast as I can.

Then comes a morning nap. If Kate is home I get to snuggle with her and Shona after Kate gets up.  When Tim comes home at lunch sometimes we go play in the yard.  Then back to my bed for an afternoon nap.  About 5:30 I start watching at the door for Tim. When he comes home I bark for joy when I see him walking up the steps. I am very excited to see him, but I am also scared. I hide behind the chair, or maybe on the couch.  I never meet him at the door, I wait for him to come pet me. He always does!  He likes me. I think.  I sure like him.

After supper sometimes we go for walks. I especially like the fairgrounds. I get to go off leash now.  I have been good and don't go too far. Tim trusts me. Yea!!!  Sometimes I see a rabbit.  Then I run after it. I am so excited I can't help but yip for joy.  It kind of embarrasses me since my yips sound like I am a puppy.  Not very adult like.  But I love to chase rabbits. I also look in  every culvert and hole I can find.  Tim says I will find a skunk someday.  I sure hope so. I like chasing black and white kitty's too!

In the evenings I like to wrestle with Shona outside. We play tag and dog pile. Shona likes to be on the bottom of the dog pile, which is fine with me since I am bigger than her.  Kate and Laurie think I am getting bigger.  Is that why I have less to eat now? The vet says I am "chiseled"?  Doesn't that mean I am good looking?

One of my favorite times of the day is bed time. Usually Tim goes to bed first. Sometimes he is not ready when I am. I try to tell him to hurry up by giving him long, sad looks. Sometimes it works.  Then we can get in bed and I can snuggle up next to him.  I feel safe and loved then.

I am sure glad Kate found me for Tim.  I love my new home.  I want to stay here forever.

Mandalay

Auntie's contribution

A day in life of Auntie (based on Monday)

6:15 a.m.             Arise

6:30-6:40 a.m.    Beauty routine begins and ends –sorry Mary no Mary Kay products

6:45 a.m.              Breakfast

6:55 a.m.             Arrive at work to see all three maintenance men staring at a large mound in the grass

                            I join them and learn that it is a mound of water underground and if you step on it it      

                            Feels like a waterbed.  (I didn’t try it first hand or foot though)

7 a.m.                  Arrive at desk and discuss how to transport the intergenerational group around town since two came with walkers.  Oh did I mention that one of the ones with a walker fell last night and is in the hospital?

8  a.m.                   Transportation problem solved.

10:30 -12 p.m.    Talk to parents, send out permission forms electronically that people have “lost” try and track down a parent to fax us a permission form, discuss how long the bathrooms should be closed on Sunday morning so that maintenance can clean them.

12 p.m.                Receive call from group in California that when they called the number given to us for the bus driver bus driver responds that he is not the driver and to call Charlie.  Charlie doesn’t answer.  I call our office contact; he is out of the office and gives another number; still no answer.  Call main number and talk to “Jimmy”.  Now the main number rings the corporate office in Maryland-my folks are in California.  Jimmy hangs up on my three times because “   they just got a new phone system and he doesn’t know how to work it.”  Finally, get name of driver and it is not Charlie.  Jimmy assures me that the new driver has just been there waiting for the group to call.  ARGH! 

12:30 p.m.           Group in California checks in and they are on the bus.

1-1:45 p.m.         Check in campers that will be going to Houston.  Nice group and they all have their paperwork completed.  Of course, it is the smallest group all year-6 campers.

2:15 p.m.            Boss calls from California to let me know that a tour has been shortened and now they have more time to kill.  Also wonders how things are going here- “If so and so is still mad at so and so?”

3 p.m.                  Daughter of lady that fell arrives at Cos.  She has learned that mom, did I mention she was 88, had fallen 3 times last week before she came to us. 

3:15-3:30 p.m.   Finally go through mail and make phone calls.  Several messages about papers and check in the mail!

3:30 p.m.             Depart for mother duties. 

I would like to say that this was an unusual day, but unfortunately that is a pretty typical day at my place during camp season.  It’s why I have a deer in the head light look sometimes by the time you see me in the evening.

Happy Summer!

We have been staying consistently busy lately, but I can’t put my finger on exactly what it is that has been keeping us occupied.

We have been in town for a year already! Some days it feel like we just got here, and other feel like we have been here all along. When we look at the home improvement we have done, it is nice to see the progress we have made. But, in being at home the majority of the time, I often see all the things that are left to accomplish… and because of Pinterest, I get too many ideas for things to create.

The biggest adjustment going on lately is the little people who have been running around my house on Monday and Tuesday mornings. Sadly, their time is up and they moved to KC this last week. Thankfully, their Dad got a job at the same church as their Mom so they won’t have to split up their Sundays. We are really going to miss them but the opportunity was a good one. Adelynn still talks about Willa everyday. One of the last things Willa said to her was “You’re my best friend.” It broke my heart a little to see one of her first friends leave.

We have been cleaning my stuff out my parent’s house over the last couple of weeks. There was a garage sale at the church yesterday to raise money for the youth to go to Bolivia later this Summer. Since my Dad saw that opportunity, we spent some time in my old room cleaning it out. We also packed up our own garage sale boxes and took it all to the church. It made everyone happy to have it done, including Adelynn. She benefitted from the new toys. She was hilarious - with the Furby and the Lincoln Logs specifically. We haven’t showed her all the old toys, but she calls the Furbys “owls”, she calls the Lincoln Logs “barrels” and she has completely fallen in love with a toy fire truck. This experience has also made us feel old.

If you follow my blog you will see that I have had a few projects lately. One was these curtains

and you can read about the bathroom project here.




Adelynn got TOMS! I’m slightly jealous as I am the only family member without any.


Happy Father’s Day and Happy Summer!!

I think when I look back on Summer 2012, I will think "woah." It's only the third week of summer and I've already been to both coasts and Texas, with another Texas trip coming up at the end of the month. Woah. After a wonderful visit to Mary and Kurtis' place in NYC back in April...I guess I felt like I could travel a bit more. Between hanging out with them I attended a Lutheran Clergy conference in New Jersey...it was there that I met two pastors from Southern California (the area that I've been assigned to for the First-Call process). These two pastors were wonderful, full of energy and cheer. They told me that I absolutely needed to come out for the Synod Assembly (yearly gathering of local clergy and lay-delegates) so I could meet a bunch of people. They returned to LA and called the office there and began putting together a plan for me to fly out and visit. At the end of May I hopped on a plane to LA. Even though the trip was brief, I was able to meet a bunch of other clergy including those who are in-charge of my paperwork, and had the opportunity to preach at a local church. I am currently in the interview process for a church in West Los Angeles...so members of that committee came to hear me preach and took me out to lunch afterwards. I felt good about the sermon and my interaction with the committee. You can read the sermon here. So what are my chances??? ---basically...its a "buyer's market" for clergy these days. So there's no rush on their end. The word on the street is that its basically down to me and a mid-career pastor from nearby. We're both solid candidates, so their choice will reflect the direction they want the church to go in, NOT our pastoral competencies. That's assuring to know...so I'm waiting again. I'm getting pretty good at waiting by now :) This weekend I preformed my first-wedding for a couple I know from Texas in the great state of New Hampshire. It was fun, people cried (the happy kind), and after the wedding I got to bum around Boston with a friend of mine. We walked around for 8 hours! FYI: the bathrooms at MIT were entirely unimpressive technologically. How does Randy do it? Traveling so much is so exhausting! I've finally touched down back in Kansas for a bit. I will be kept busy with Cosmosphere camp driving and substituting for summer pre-school. All this traveling has reminded me how grateful I am to be connected to so many thoughtful, patient, and jovial folks all over the country. Someday soon I'll live far away, and I will host when YOU visit! Exploring new places can be thrilling, moving out west remains a tantalizing possibility, but for the moment...Its good to be home. Who knows, maybe I'll even get a little sun this summer :)

Happy 58th Anniversary!!

Happy Anniversary, Ma and Pa!

Mother's Day 2012

4-8-2012

Trip Fun and June

On May 25, I headed to New York after finishing school for the year.  I met Randy there and I got in just a minute before midnight so still made it on Mary's birthday:)   Mary opened her presents, she loved them all,  and then off to bed we went.  We enjoyed our time with Mary and Kurtis and even managed to have a whole day with both of them as they were off work on Monday.  Here are some of the sights we saw and things we did.  Some will be seen in the photos attached.  Saturday we did some shopping and saw Mary's show at Signature and Kurtis' show at the Joyce.  Both were good and it is so exciting to see the work they do!  Sunday, Randy and I enjoyed seeing the Tenement Museum, Porgy and Bess(musical), some of the fleet down by the waterfront, and then out to supper with Mary.  Monday was our day with both of them.  I made Mary's birthday cake, helped weed the garden, went to Prospect Park Zoo, to the Brooklyn Pier area to see more of the fleet although it was hard to see, rode the carousel in  Brooklyn Park such fun(!), ate at The Farm in the flat-bush area, and then had birthday cake in the evening.  Tuesday, we saw the rose garden in the Botanic Gardens before Mary went to work after eating at Tom's.  Then Kurtis, Randy, and I went to the Transient Museum which told the history of the subway and was very informative.  We enjoyed seeing more of Brooklyn while going to the REI store, a specialty shaving store, and then to a deli where we met Mary for supper.  Wednesday, we took a car to the airport and I flew home while Randy flew to Las Vegas.  It was very hot and humid in New York this time so it was a lot like Kansas today! 

Mary enjoying her presents.

Mary the tortoise.

Who are these dinosaurs?

By the frog statue.

Some of the fleet we saw at the Brooklyn Pier.

Fun!

Old Subway cars in the museum.

By the Bachelor Buttons.

While we were gone, Mary's cat, Longstreet died.  He was 15+ years old and had been sick for a couple months.  I was sure sad but Grandma and Charles were able to bury him at the pet cemetery at the pasture.

Mary and Longstreet

June looks to be a month of fast energetic activities.  We will be getting Charles ready to move to the Denver area plus doing Municipal Band.  Charles happens to have acquired the equipment hauling position this year so it has been an experience already.
I also hope to enjoy my granddaughters this summer with fun summer activities.  They are so precious!!

Olivia and Adelynn found a worm.