Jean went home for Christmas

 

December 24, 2007, 7:10 AM, Jean went to be the Lord and her husband Myron who passed away in Feb. 2003. Her obituary can be viewed here. http://obit.stemmlawsonpeterson.com/obitdisplay.html?id=488408

This has been such a long path for all of her family and having her go home on Christmas Eve will always make the holidays bittersweet. Today was Jean's viewing and tomorrow morning is the funeral. I finished writing my part for Jean's funeral and sent it to Jay and Julie this evening. I had it mostly written last week, but had to do some tweaking and I just hope it is okay and that it will honor Jean.

We had a very nice Christmas all the way around, but I think I am paying for the business and the late nights now because I am definitely getting a cold. After all of the snow and bad weather we have had for all of the December weekends, we ended up with a green and not white Christmas. On Saturday it warmed up and rained and melted nearly all of the snow. We got a few flurries on Sunday, but that was about it and it hasn't snowed since then.

It is hard to believe that Christmas is over for another year. The time from Thanksgiving to Christmas just flew by. It always seems to go quickly, but this year, more than normal. I didn't even do any Christmas baking. I only made some fudge, (which turned out really sticky), and a pumpkin dessert to take to mom's on Sunday. Mark and Jared made most of the Christmas Eve goodies on Monday while Adam worked at Martin's and I spent the day doing the rest of the wrapping. Every year I say that I am going to have all of the wrapping done before Christmas Eve, but that rarely happens. The Christmas Eve service was very nice this year. Jared even had a part. Rachel Laborde sang a song while some of the Jr. High and Sr. High kids came down the aisle with candles. Later, that same group did a choral reading and Jared had some lines then as well.

I am going to make this short tonight so I can get to bed! Night, Night!

It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas…

It has been another week of bad weather for us. It has been kind of strange because mostly the bad weather hits over the weekend and then hangs on for another day or so. School did delay 2 hours last Tuesday, but unlike the teachers at Concord schools, the Elkhart teachers, which is where Emma's mom works, still have to go in at the same time even when school is delayed. How crazy is that?? So I still had Emma at regular time, but had Braden early that day since his preschool was closed.

Last Thursday night we went to an awesome program with Mom, Dad, & Grandma at a church in Plymouth. It is called the Festival of Lights and they have the whole sanctuary covered with lights...from the ceilings to the walls and everywhere else. Then they have them "dancing" along with the music. This is the 2nd time we have gone to this program and we really enjoyed it. A really cool thing...my very best friend from high school, Marica Clark, (now Branch), who was the maid of honor in our wedding now attends that church, (her husband is one of the assistant pastors there), and I got to see her. This is the first time I have seen her in a whole lotta years and it was so nice to get in touch with her again.

Friday night once again both of the boys worked concession stand for the basketball game and this time Mark and I went to our Sunday school Christmas party. We met at church, had a nice meal and then did a white elephant gift exchange. It is fun, but sometimes the presents end up being more dumb than fun. I ended up with a day-by-day calendar of 365 Paper airplanes and Mark ended up with a box of chocolate covered cherries with two reindeer headband things.

Saturday morning I had an ABF Breakfast at Esther's home. I was supposed to make muffins Friday afternoon, but didn't get to them before we left for the party so ended up baking them at about 11PM Friday night. That is definitely the latest I have ever baked anything. Our brunch was very nice, but I woke up to a lot of snow so wasn't sure how the roads were going to be, but they were okay. After the brunch, I ran over to Walmart to pick up some photos and do some stocking stuffer shopping. I didn't have much shopping time as we had to be a church Saturday afternoon at 2PM for a leader's meeting and TI skit tryouts/practice. Saturday night we had the WOL Christmas party which was a progressive dinner. However, as the day progressed the weather kept getting worse and worse. Pastor Ray went with us and drove the church van and I was sure glad that I wasn't driving! We went to 4 homes for part of our meal…the Shira's for appetizers, the Zentsen's for salad, the Arko's for the main dish and Pastor and Nancy's for dessert, games and a gift exchange. Our food at every stop was excellent and at the Arko's we even got their son, Titus to play Christmas carols on the piano for us. By the time our party was over, there was quite a bit of snow on the ground and it was still coming down. Pastor said he wouldn't cancel church though unless it got much worse…….

Well…it did….get much worse! ;) We woke up Sunday morning and at first glance it didn't look like that much worse, but it was and when Mark checked the WFRN web site, sure enough McCoy had cancelled all services for Sunday. Honestly, I was quite shocked, but I do think it was a good idea. By mid morning almost all of the area churches had cancelled and Mayor Miller even declared the city a state of emergency. I am not sure how much snow we ended up with but it was close to 10 inches, I am sure. It ended up being a lazy Sunday. I made a fire in the fireplace and sat in the front room most of the day working on some Christmas projects, reading or doing things on my computer. By early evening almost all of the area schools had postponed 2 hours as we were supposed to get a lot of drifting over night. I don't think it drifted as bad as they thought, but it was still best to not have those buses out so early.

Monday morning we did a shortened day of school and when Adam left to go to work, Jared and I left to go to South Bend shopping. Thankfully, by this time the roads were pretty much cleared. We went to Erskine Commons which is where Scottsdale Mall used to be. We got bunches of shopping done and can say that I only have a few more last minute things to get done. I had put a rolled rump roast in the crock pot so that was ready for us when we got home and after dinner, Adam, Jared and I got almost all of the gifts wrapped that weren't for our immediate family.

Tonight Mark and Adam are finishing up shopping for me and Jared I got all of Mark's things wrapped while they were gone. They still aren't home yet, in fact, so it is pretty peaceful here. HA! Jared is off doing something with his IPod and Tucker is curled up in a pile of blankets on the couch in front of me.

Jean has taken another turn again. I got an e-mail from Julie today that said that they had to put Jean on oxygen and that they could only get it up to 80% or so. The hospice nurse really feels that this time she is truly nearing the end and thinks it may be only a couple of days. Jay called me tonight to say that she is still hanging on, but there was no improvement over the day. Not that any time is a good time for something like this, but so close to Christmas has to make it harder on Julie and her sisters.

Hopefully, I will get here to post again before Christmas, but we have another full weekend of course, so we will see how things go. Here is a quick rundown of our schedule.

Saturday: Shopping with Lori and then doing the annual Springer/Martin Christmas that evening.

Sunday: Church and then going down to my mom & dad's to celebrate Christmas with them.

Monday, Christmas Eve: Adam has to work until 4:00, so we will most likely stay home, prepare all of the goodies for the evening, go to the Christmas Eve service and then come home to do our gifts.

Tuesday, Christmas Day: going down to Mark & Linda's for the day.

Ice & Snow!

Jean is still hanging on. I really thought last week may have been the last for her, but it sounds like she has reached another plateau and is holding her own again. I know this is so hard on all of the family, but it all is in God's hands.

This last week has been pretty eventful weather wise. As I was typing my last blog post it had just started to snow, which ended up accumulating to nearly 5 inches overnight. All of the schools were delayed 2 hours and I think some ended up closing all together. Of course the boys tried to talk me into delaying our school, but that wasn't going to happen. HA! Then over Saturday night it got really icy again, just like I did a week ago. Many churches ended up cancelling services, especially Sunday evening. Of course, McCoy didn't close though. There have been several times where we have had to cancel Awana and WOL on Wednesday night, but only once can I remember them cancelling Sunday church and that was well more than 10 years ago when we still lived in the other house. This morning schools were delayed 2 hours and I won't be too surprised if the same thing happens again tomorrow as we are supposed to have more ice over night tonight. The ice storm is moving over IL right now and should be here in a few hours. I babysit for Emma in the morning, but since her Mom is a school teacher I may not have her as early as normal. I guess we will see what the morning brings.

Anyway…backing up a few days. Friday night both of the boys worked again. After dropping Jared off to work, I took Braden and Tucker into Martin's to see Adam and Sherry, the lady Adam works with. Before Adam got his license, I used to go in at least once a week, sometimes more and Sherry always gave Tucker a treat. Braden loves to go there to look at the animals and to hold one of the rats! After Linda came to pick him up, Mark and I went out for some Christmas shopping and to dinner. We started out at the Farmer's Market: http://www.americancountryside.us/market/ , then went to Sam's, to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings and then to Meijer for a few groceries.

Saturday, Jared and I went to South Bend for the day to do some Christmas shopping. I don't usually go to South Bend on Saturday this close to Christmas and it was really busy! I was happy though because I got quite a bit of shopping done. Still seems like I have quite a bit more to go through.

Sunday after church, we went, (slid is a better word….) to the Elco Theater downtown Elkhart to watch Jillian in "The Wizard of Oz". She had the part of one of the beauticians and an Ozian. The play was really good. In the evening the boys had their RUSH Christmas party and we went back to church to hear Jay Shaffer and his group, "Quartet plus One" sing and then we had a business meeting.

Tonight I had a very nice evening…I went out to dinner with Julie Lininger. She and I had been attending Bible study together and the last Bible study (Jesus, the One and Only), we went out to dinner before the last session. However, last Monday she had to go out to town, so tonight since Bible study is over with we went out to eat to make up for last week. We went to our favorite local Mexican restaurant, Hacienda...they have the best food! We sat and talked for nearly 2 hours after we got done eating..it was very nice.

By the way, Nathalie…if you read this…remember the man that sang Happy Birthday to you when we went there??? He was there tonight singing as well. He looked very different this time though…he got his hair cut short, (remember he had that long braid?), and he wasn't dressed in the sombrero this time either. It brought back some fun memories hearing him sing tonight.

Here I am again

We are still working on our Christmas decorations, but at least most of them are up and all of the lights work! For some reason I am having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. It just does not seem like it should be December all ready. I hardly have any Christmas shopping done and not a single thing wrapped. I don't really know what my problem is, but I wish I could just get into that "cozy-homey" Christmas feeling because that allows me to enjoy the holiday so much more. Not that I am not looking forward to Christmas, but it just doesn't "fee" right this year, not that what I am saying makes a whole lot of sense, but that is how I am feeling right now.

Jared ended up placing 3^rd in bowling with a high score of 153, not too bad! He actually bowled over 160 one day, but it wasn't a league day so didn't count for a trophy…to bad! It is going to seem kind of empty next Monday since both bowling and Bible study ended yesterday. Bowling will start again in Feb. and Bible study will probably be starting about that same time too. Beth Moore has out a new study now on Psalm, and even though it is only a 7 week study compared to 10 week's which is her normal, it sounds like that is probably what we will be doing next.

Mark's Christmas party was very nice, but Saturday night we got a lot of bad weather. It kept going from snow to ice to rain, and you all know how bad that makes the driving conditions. We went ahead and went to the Christmas party and just took it slow. I was okay with that, but I was so nervous about Adam. First off, he had to drive home from work, and secondly, that evening they were having his Christmas party at one of the boss's home, where he had never been before. This is the first time he had really driven in the ice and going at night to a place where he wasn't familiar, well, I am sure you can understand why I was a little worried. I just kept praying for God to keep him safe. We are sitting at our party when I realize I have missed a call, so I ran out to listen to the message and I can't tell you how proud I am of Adam. I called home to talk to him and he decided since the roads were so bad, he wasn't even going to the party. {Praise God!} I felt bad that he had to miss his very first work related Christmas party, but I feel like he made a very mature decision to stay home. He actually started out, but only went a few blocks when he turned around and came back. The weather had gotten worse just in the hour from the time he got home to the time he left for the party. Thankfully, by the time we left to come home, even though the left side of our van was a sheet of ice, the majority of the roads weren't too bad and we made it home safe.

Julie Lininger called me today to say that things are real bad with her mom, Jean Springer. At the first call, it didn't sound like she was going to make it through the day, but it turned out that her body is simply shutting down and they feel like she may have a couple more day or as long as a couple of weeks. Jean has been ill for some time, years actually, and this has been so hard for all of them. Jean means so much to me as she is the one who first asked me to teach Sunday school for her when she and Myron went to Florida in the winter. I didn't think I was "cut out" to teach Sunday school, but she encouraged me and taught me so much. She saw something in me that I could not see, (and maybe never would have seen.) For a few years I just taught one quarter while she was away, and the rest of the time I was her assistant, helping out with crowd control and watching her teach. A few years ago, when Jean first started getting sick, she stepped down completely from teaching and I took over full time. She was an incredible Sunday school teacher and I hope that have been able to reflect some of that in my teaching. Julie asked me a couple of months ago if when Jean passed away if I would be willing to say something at her funeral. It definitely won't be an easy thing for me to do, but I want to be able to share with others what a positive Christian influence she was in my life. If it wasn't for Jean, I am sure I wouldn't be where I am today. Teaching Sunday school is a part of who I am, and even though there are weeks where I am sure I haven't done a very good job preparing, I just pray that I am being a positive influence on the little ones that I am teaching and helping them grow and learn more about Jesus each week.

December Already!

Today we are finally getting the Christmas decorations put up. The last days have been so busy there just hasn't been time. We are getting the trees put up and hopefully the lights on and then tomorrow we will do the ornaments when we can all be here to do them. Adam is working today as usual. Already we have run into light problems just as it seems we have every year. We plugged in the 3 strings of lights, which were brand new last year for the snowman tree, and NONE of them work!! How annoying is that?? We don't have the big tree up yet, so who knows about those lights.

This weekend starts our busy December weekends. The boys work most every Friday in the concession stand for the Central & Memorial games. Last night Mark and I went to church to help get it decorated for Christmas, (then we all ate Vesuvios Pizza afterwards), and the boys worked. Tonight is Mark's Christmas party for Regal and it is at the Tippecanoe Place in South Bend. YUM! Adam has a Christmas party for Martin's at one of the owner's homes and Jared will stay home with Tucker. Next weekend is the RUSH Christmas party and the weekend after that is our adult Sunday school Christmas party and the next day the WOL Christmas party.

Tomorrow after church we have a carry in dinner for the people that have gone through the NETS training, so this afternoon I am making a dessert and a salad. I think I am going to make Beth Moore's Texas Sheet cake recipe, which is linked at the bottom left of my blog, and pasta salad. I also need to work on my Breaking Free Bible study this afternoon and if I have time, put my next quarter's Sunday school lessons into the weekly folders. If I don't have time for that today I will work in it tomorrow. Tomorrow starts the new quarter, but I don't actually have to teach since they will be spending the whole Sunday school hour going over songs for the Christmas program which will be in a couple of weeks.