2012-1974=??

Everybody deserves one special day out of every year...and this one belonged to Allen. 

Home fried chips with fresh Salsa, Laura's famous tossed salad, Beef Enchiladas, Beef, bean & rice burritos, Mexican rice from our favorite Mexican, good friends, and the party was on!

After supper, with laughter in the air, Lars and Eden gave Daddy their wrapped gifts.  Lars, a skid steer that he picked out from the store and Eden, Red Twizzlers. 

While the birthday cakes (Irish Creme Chocolate Cheesecake and Chocolate Chip Cheese pie) were being candled in the kitchen, Eden verbalized her first cuss word when she repeated the mantra "Where's the damn cheesecake?" from an unnamed and forgiven friend whom lap she was sharing.  Reportedly, Allen's eyes got as big as saucers and she stopped short of the end of the sentence, as everybody stared at her, gaping.  I'm so thankful I was in the kitchen, where I could scold her without her seeing me laugh. 

Always good company and good fun when birthdays roll around here.

Happy Birthday to you!~

An Unexpected Trip

After talking to Chad on Sunday afternoon, I felt uneasy.  Something just seemed out of place.  Tone of voice?  Lack of luster? No humor? No sarcasm? Something.

By Monday, something wasn't right.  He didn't answer my calls, wouldn't text back. 

I didn't sleep Monday night, but couldn't say why. 

Tuesday morning, no answer again.   No text back.   I laid on the bed and fell asleep soundly for almost two hours. 

Then, at 10:59 a.m. I woke with a start. Something was wrong.  I called his phone again.  And Mom answered. 

"I want to talk to Chad", I calmly screamed into the phone.
"He's not talking to anybody", she said.

Awkward silent beat.

"Wait. He's reaching for the phone. I guess you're the special one", she said.

After a few brief mumbled and pained words, he dropped the phone.  Mom picked it up and started saying something before I cut her off with an abrupt, "I gotta go."

If he's not able to talk to me, I guess I'll just go sit with him then until he can. 

I booked tickets eastbound, then called my sister to meet me in Chicago the next afternoon.

 Then Dad called; "he's headed to ICU with a falling blood pressure"

I'm not going to make it.  Why didn't you go yesterday, Sarah?

Change of plans.  Time to fly.

A few hours later, with the help of SEVERAL family & friends in at least four states, I was on my way to Michigan with Elia to see my brother, quite possibly for the last time.

I text-ed Al to tell him my plan.  He said the Pastor's were praying for Chad at their conference. 

Tuesday night, I slept two hours in the guest room at my cousin's place in Denver, waking at 2:00am to pace the courtyard and wait for the chauffeured ride to the airport at 4:00am.

The plane landed in Detroit Wednesday morning at 11:30a and by 2:00 p.m., I was meeting Dad in the lobby of the hospital.  A few minutes later, I walked in to see some fat faced stranger in the ICU.

From there, it's a bunch of mixed emotion & fear, with a few special moments & humor thrown in for good measure.

Prayer vigil at several area churches that evening.  

As time went by, Chad got better & better and with each passing hour, that dreadful feeling started to pass away.  Things were looking up.  He was stable enough to transfer to the University Hospital. 

Is this the awake and happy stage before they crash and die?  The hospital staff was ready for a code. I heard the nurse tell the transferring Paramedic, "he's a full code so be ready for that." 

Nice.  

And then it happened. No, No, not the code. A prayer was answered in the way we wanted.  He just got better.  At least a little bit.  And then a little bit more.  Pretty soon, he was coming home to recover.  Safer there anyway, away from the hospital germs that got him so sick in the first place.

Joy.  

And Thanksgiving.

We had a mashed potatoes and turkey dinner to celebrate.  With the sickly guest of honor among us. 

Thanks be to God!

And to all the friends and family who offered up themselves and their gifts along the way; those who called with words of comfort, text-ed their availability, Face booked support, brought food, did laundry, cleaned house, packed lunches, bought gift cards, gas cards, stocked the fire, shuttled kids to soccer, got me to Michigan, gave me a bed to sleep in, chauffeured us around, or simply sat in prayer. 

Thank you.

You know who you are.

First Snow!

 There's nothing like the first snow of the season to make a kid's day

 (even if it only the 5th day of October)!

 Elia was in glorious splendor this morning watching the snow fall, finding it irresistible.  The smiles say it all.  And to think, we started the week at a balmy 97 degrees. 

I thought Michigan weather was weird, but not so much anymore. 

Lars goes fishing

In a last minute attempt to salvage the last few hours of summer (actually, it was the first day of fall), Douthit's invited us to the lake for a campfire and fishing adventure.  Lars was thrilled, and was screaming in his #5 voice, "Mark-y's going to take me me fishing!!" over and over and over again. 

I was pooped after a long day and on my way home to veg, but Laura said she'd bring everything and all I'd have to do is show up with the kids and Lars' new fishing pole (which was in the car with his new Spiderman tackle box before I even gathered my things up and got OUT of the car). 

After a few minutes of throwing some things together from the fridge, jackets and bug spray, we loaded up and headed to the lake.  But I forgot the bag of stuff that I'd just packed up.  And Laura forgot the 'fire stuff' and Lexi wanted me to bring her a pair of flip flops. And then there is the small detail of matches to LIGHT the fire.  And the dog.  At least Dave stopped to get worms.

At any rate, we got out to the lake in plenty of time to make three trips back to town, fish, eat and socialize.  Lars wanted to eat the fish we would catch, but Laura said we didn't have a knife to fillet it.  All Allen heard as he was climbing back into the Ford for the 1st trip back to town was something about not having a knife and he asked, "Did I hear that I needed to grab a knife, too?"  And we all said, "NO" at the same time. 

While Dave put the pole together and stung the line, Mark and Lars dug into the tackle box. Lars started looking for the perfect spot to fish.  He told the girls "I need it quiet, I'm fishing!" in his loudest whisper, and they wandered further up the banks to look for sea shells.  With Mark-y's diligent (and patient) guidance, he taught Lars how to cast, turn the handle half a crank till you hear the click, and stand there quietly.  Lars seemed willing to wait all night if he had to, he wasn't in any hurry.  He kept whisper yelling to the girls (who were getting closer and closer with every find) "I'm fishing.  I need it very quiet!"

In no time at all, he felt the tug.  Mark set the hook and Lars started reeling it in.  The look on his face is impossible to describe.  It was like he didn't know what he was about to find on the end of the line and then when the fish came wriggling out of the water, Lars' face lit up like the sunset.  The fish was a small trout and Lars had the most excited look on his face ever when it hauled out of the water.  He was squealing with glee, and of course moving around so much, I couldn't get the camera to focus for a photo.  Mark got it off the hook and Lars studied it, felt it and studied it some more.  Mark suggested they put it back in the water so it didn't die and Lars agreed, so long as he could catch it again later.

When asked at the campfire how big the fish was, he held up his hands in the appropriate length (he's as honest as you'll ever meet) but said, "about 20 foot long".  Said like a true fisherman!

In all, it was a good night with friends and family and a couple of labs thrown in for fun. 

Fall is here and with that, another season of memories to make.