Sunshine, Ice, Good Bye

Back on Sunday, January 18 my sister and I took the kiddos out to the McPherson County Fishing Lake for a little Sunday afternoon adventure. It was a beautiful day, especially by the water where the surrounding trees kept the wind away.

 Rylee was all about the ice.

 So was Noah, but since he's more cautious than Levi or Rylee, he mostly stayed on the rocky shore.

 Rylee was determined to collect as much ice on the table as she could. :-) This photo only shows the beginning of the collection, by the time we left there were quite a few chunks filling the tabletop.

 It was fun to throw rocks and ice chunks out on to the ice.

 The sky seemed big that day, a big beautiful Kansas sky. People have told me the sky is bigger in Kansas than it is in Pennsylvania, I think they're right.

 Cheese, crackers and apple slices made for a tasty snack!

 Levi wanted to go out on the ice...but Erica and I were nervous...and the potential for cold, wet tennis shoes seemed imminent.

 We went up to the trail head and walked along the trails for a while...but pretty soon the kids were tired of walking and it was time to get home to start making supper.

 When we got home, my mom called to tell us that grandma wasn't doing well at Bethesda, her fever wasn't letting up and she hadn't been eating or drinking. My gut had told me this was coming. I had known it as soon as I saw her a few days earlier on one of my regular Friday visits. Her room was full of nurses and other staff trying to figure out how to best care for her and make her comfortable. I knew. But that day, and on Sunday again, when she saw us her face brightened and filled with her beautiful smile. The kids all said good-bye to her and so did my sister. I went back on Monday to say my final good-bye to her. She died the next day.
A week later we celebrated grandma's life at her funeral. Celebrated is a tricky word. In some ways we did celebrate, we laughed and had fun traveling down memory lane. But there were moments of deep sadness, too.

 The family made their way out to the cemetery...for some reason our boys thought it was a race so we were the first ones out there.

 My cousin Austin made the wooden box that Grandma's ashes were buried in. The box was on a comforter that Grandma had made years ago.

 After a brief, but lovely, graveside service the great-grandchildren took turns shoveling sand into the hole. The kids worked hard to get all the sand in - and as children often do, they brought smiles and laughter to the adults watching them.

 Bruce and my dad picked up where the kids left off, and shoveled the remaining sand and dirt.

 There is nothing simple about saying good-bye.

I put my camera away after we came in from the cemetery. But the funeral itself was also very nice. I managed to get 98% of the way through reading the life sketch before I got choked up. My sister sang, my cousins and Uncle sang a couple songs, my other cousins shared memories that the 7 grandchildren compiled. It was a celebration, through tears and laughter.

Grandma Schmidt

On Tuesday, January 20 my grandma passed away. I've spent a lot of time this week thinking about her and remembering my childhood - growing up as her neighbor. 

This photo was taken in November. She died one month short of 91 years.

For the past several years she lived in the nursing home in Goessel. I tried to visit on a regular basis and this photo is from a couple years ago:

She was surprised that my phone could take pictures and that we could see the image right after taking it! We took several - you can see the confusion and amusement on her face. :-) 

My grandparents were a handsome couple back when they got married. He died twenty years ahead of her.

Growing up with your grandparents in your backyard is pretty special. It wouldn't work for everyone, but I think it was a privilege and I like that my boys are doing the same thing now with my parents. (This is an old photo, I think that's Axle lying in the grass.)

I have endless memories of playing in their house, around their house, eating with them, learning from them, being with our extended family and on and on. And then for three years I lived in that house with my own family - where the drawer by the back sink still smells like her liquid foundation. And the linen closet in the bathroom still smells like the fabric scraps and quilts that she stored there. And sometimes when I walk by the house, I'm flooded with the memory of hearing her playing piano and singing hymns in her living room.
At our Christmas gathering, Grandma sang every word of "Joy to the World" and "Silent Night" with the family.

Just a week or two ago the boys and I made new artwork for the walls in her room at Bethesda. She liked the idea of having a flower garden on her wall, especially since it was the middle of winter.

Grandma's memory wasn't good anymore, but she always knew who I was. She was always quick with a smile when we visited, even until two days before she died, and for that I am so grateful. 

Out with Ben and then to New Mexico

January 3, Ben and I drove down to Fort Worth, Texas to go see Ben Folds! Ben had bought the tickets and made all the arrangements on his own and surprised me with the gift on Christmas morning. After all the holiday hoopla, it was nice to drop the boys off at my sister's and have a few quiet hours together on the road.

 It turns out that Fort Worth has an interesting downtown that seemed like it would be fun to explore. But we only had about an hour before dinner and the concert.

 The concert was amazing. Ben Folds is an incredible musician, and when you combine that with a full orchestra of incredible musicians amazing things happen. The performance hall was enormous and the full, deep sound from the orchestra filled the entire hall from floor to ceiling. It was a wonderful reminder of the power of live music!

About a week or so later, I flew to Albuquerque, NM for a week of meetings for work. We've traveled to Abq for meetings before and each time we stay at a Catholic retreat center. It's not fancy, but it's simple and from the windows you can see mountains. The photo below (which doesn't do the mountains justice, like at all...) is what I looked out at while sitting in our meetings! A few roofs, a river valley, the city of Abq and then the mountains. Meetings are more interesting with a good view.

 On our last day, we had time to take a walk in the sunshine before we took off for the airport. It was great to soak up some warm sunshine...

 especially before being confined to small airplanes full of stale air.

Travelling is a good thing, but it certainly is tiring. It's good to be home, with no trips in the near future.

Levi turns 7

How in the world can my little Levi be 7 already!?! 

His birthday fell on a Sunday this year and it also happened to be the day that worked for my extended family to gather for Christmas. We hosted the gathering, with Levi's permission, and we guaranteed that a birthday party for him would be part of the festivities. 

First of all, the day before his birthday he and I worked on his guitar birthday cake. The Goessel library has cake pans available for checking out and I lucked out that they had a guitar. I also lucked out that the cake came out of the pan perfectly! And when I could hold Levi off no longer, we slathered it with orange frosting - leaving some parts without frosting. He gave me all of these instructions with great detail and only after he repeated himself four times did I finally catch on to what he was telling me. 

 We filled the center circle with black frosting and he wanted the strings to be done with red.

 He was very careful and did all the red decorating by himself and then he doused it with sprinkles until he worried that he'd ruined it. I assured him that it wasn't ruined - it was perfect!

 Sunday morning was his big day! He chose to open his gifts before we left for church and he wasted no time diving into each package.

 He got a kite, a soccer ball, sketch pad and oil pastels and Pokemon cards (I don't understand the first little thing about those cards but he was very excited about them).

 Later that evening, when the family had all gathered he got to open more birthday gifts, and soak up all the attention he was getting!

 Then it was time for Christmas dinner!

 And not long after dinner, it was time for birthday cake with singing and candles and wishes and

 several big puffs of air!

 Finally, at nearly the end of the evening it was time for the kids to do their gift exchange. The adults all donated money to Camp Mennoscah in support of the new bath houses being built there.
The kids who wanted to, played pieces on our (teeny tiny) keyboard. Then it was gift time!

 Noah scored big with football pants with pads in them and a shirt with pads in it. He quickly disappeared after opening his gift and returned like this! Husker eye black under his eyes and all!

 A few days later Levi asked me to snap his photo in the pants too.

It was a fun day, with a lot of time and energy spent celebrating Levi. He's got more spunk then I know what to do with sometimes, but he's also caring, creative, smart and funny. We love you Levi!