December Update

Welcome to December with this update from western New York State where there’s about a foot of snow on the ground.  It’s never snowed a whole lot at one time, but we’ve had measurable snow every day for the past two weeks plus.  We’re getting our exercise shoveling snow!  One example:  on 12/12, Zach and I were on our way to our Civil Air Patrol meeting in Batavia (about 20 miles away), but the snow was falling pretty steadily, and after going less than 5 miles, I decided it wasn’t worth it, and we turned around and went back home.  When we got back, I texted our Commander and told her we weren’t coming.  Which was a good thing because we’d missed the announcement that they’d canceled the meeting because of the snow!  All this technology, and we still can’t communicate.  I did get an email from her that the meeting was canceled, but not until 30 minutes after it was supposed to start.

Anyway, now back to my regular update of events that have happened to us since my last update.

11/23 – a full day!  In the afternoon, Cai, Amelia, and I helped our Awana Journey team bake cheesecakes (Abigail and Krista had to work).  Every year we sell plain and chocolate chip cheesecakes to our church family to raise money for our Journey team’s trip to Summit in the Chicago area in March.  We spent about 3 hours at church baking about 25-30 cheesecakes.  It’s amazing how much fun you can have doing something like that if you’re with the right people, and we were.  The cheesecakes turned out delicious (we bought some ourselves and have enjoyed them)!  Later that day we celebrated Zach’s 14th birthday with French Toast Strata for supper (if I’m remembering correctly, which is a big “if”—I mean, I know I have the birthday part right, but I’m not so sure about the supper—yes, I still remember my kids birthdays, so there).

 

[Hmm, Zach's birthday pictures must be on a different camera.  Sorry, Zach.]

11/27-12/1 – What a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend we had!  This was our first year to not have Thanksgiving at our house.  Carissa and Caitlin bravely invited the whole family to their house in Philadelphia.  We left Wednesday 11/27 late in the afternoon.  There had been some winter storms in the area that day, but by the time we left, everything was pretty good.  We hit a little snow, but it wasn’t bad.  Ella’s fiancé, Cody, came with us too, so their house was really full.  The boys (Cody, Cai, and Zach) slept over at Carissa’s boyfriend, Matt’s, house, but during the day, everyone was at Carissa and Caitlin’s, including Matt most days.  Everyone did an amazing job with the food, and we had tons of fun there.  So, a big congratulations and thank you to Carissa and Caitlin for hosting a wonderful Thanksgiving!

 

That's a big (and delicious) turkey!

Rolls and pies.  Mmmm

Part of the gang

 

12/3 – We celebrated Amelia’s 16th birthday with salads topped with crispy chicken.  Mmm Mmm!  She now has continued the family tradition of working at the local Burger King and seems to be doing well there.

12/15 – I’m glad the Seahawks played the Giants because our local Fox affiliate decided that was a local interest game and aired it.  I don’t get to watch them often unless they’re on a national broadcast, so I enjoyed it, especially as they crushed, embarrassed, and totally dominated the Giants.  The Bills won too that weekend, which doesn’t happen nearly often enough, so, at least as far as football goes, it was a good weekend.

That’s all for this installment.  Until next year!

 

November Update

Since my last update, we celebrated my birthday on 10/19, with a great football weekend.  Levi’s team won their last game, the Bills won, and the Seahawks won!  I’m sure they all did it just because it was my birthday weekend, and I appreciate their thoughtfulness.

On 10/21, Abigail and Amelia returned home from their visit to Kortney’s home in Minnesota.  We heard many stories of the fun they had with Kortney and Mat visiting historic houses and gigantic malls, and I’m glad they had the opportunity.

On 10/26, Levi and I closed out his team’s football year with the end-of-year pizza party and parents vs. kids football game.  It was a wet, rainy day, and the kids had tons of fun getting us parents dirty, even though it was just two-hand touch.  I hope the host family’s lawn recovers.  It looked more like a mud hole when we were done.

Actually the last football event of the year for his team was their banquet on 11/2.  They have a very nice dinner and give all the kids awards, trophies, and yearbooks.  We were away when his team picture was taken, but he made several of the informal “action shot” pictures in the book.

Anyway, back to 10/26.  That night I went to a Civil Air Patrol event where a retired Air Force pilot gave a presentation on his career in a SR-71 Blackbird.  That’s a reconnaissance plane that flies very high taking pictures.  He talked about how, if they were fired on, they just flew up until they were out of range and continued their work.  It was very interesting.

SR-71 Blackbird

The reason Zach didn’t go with me was he, Amelia, and Abigail, all went to a “Fright Night” with their teen group.  You know, that’s where you pay money to have someone make you feel unpleasantly scared.  But they also had good food and a great time learning truths from God’s Word.

For Halloween, we went, as we have done for the past few years, to our Pastor’s house, and trick-or-treated with his family in the housing development where they live.  We only had one group come to our house all night, so you can see that where we live is not the best trick-or-treating area.  Abigail, Amelia, and Zach dressed up in gaudy outfits portraying people from the Capital in the Hunger Games books.  Jemmie was a fairy (but somehow I missed getting any pictures of her), and Levi was a CIA agent.

Zach and Levi

Levi

Amelia and Abigail

You’ll have to excuse me if there are wrong or misspelled words here.  I recently stopped denying my age and got progressive lenses in my new glasses, so I’m still learning to look through them in the right way to get what I want into focus.  So, if you see me and notice my head swirling around, it’s not because I have some rare neck disorder (at least as far as I know)—I’m just trying to get something on the right part of my glasses.  I actually rather like them.  I’m pretty much wearing them all day now, and I like being able to see things clearly whether I’m looking near or far or somewhere in between.

Krista had a great opportunity a little while ago to take a trip to Wichita, Kansas, to crash her relatives party there.  I just say “crash” because very few of them knew she was coming—especially her sister, Jolita, who hosted the party, didn’t know.  There were many happy tears and wonderful reunions with some of her siblings and their families.  Hannah and Kevin, and Kortney and Mat, also made the trip there, so that party of the mid-west Wilsons had some Matthews’ representation that it has never had before.  After that weekend, Krista went with Hannah and Kevin to their house in Paris, Texas, for a couple of days.  She loved their house and the Paris area, and especially getting to spend time with them again.  She left here on Friday, 11/8, and we all went to pick her up at the airport after Awana on 11/13.  I’m really glad she got to do this, but we were all very glad to have her back home too!

Levi turned nine on 11/14, and we had a fun party for him the next day when more of us could be there.

Yesterday 11/17, we went to a Tim Hawkins show at Roberts Wesleyan.  Tim is a Christian comedian with a hilarious show and routines.  There was also a man named Bob Smiley (talk about a perfect name for a comedian) who did some comedy in the middle of the show.  It was great.  You can check them both out on YouTube if you want to see what they’re like.

Talk to you in December!

 

October Update

The kids’ sports’ seasons are winding down with Levi’s last football game tomorrow, and the girls’ last soccer game on Monday.  It will be nice to be a bit more relaxed in our running around schedule, but I’ll miss the excitement too.  At one of Levi’s games earlier this month, it had been raining pretty steadily for the previous day, and there were periods during the game where it came down in buckets too.  Each of the kids’ parents have to volunteer to help somehow 3 times during the season, and this was my turn to hold the down marker post.  It took three days to get my sneakers dry, and that was only after Krista spent most of a day drying them in front of a heater.  But it was fun!  I guess some of us still enjoy when we can get away with getting soaked out in the rain.

We celebrated Ella’s “golden” birthday on 9/21 when she turned 21 in the 21st century.  That’s got to count specially for something!




Ella and her fiance, Cody, at her party

Krista and I try to go out once a month, and we did so on 9/28.  We ate dinner at Monte Alban Mexican Grill, which was excellent, and then we went for a walk in some old growth forest near where I work.  Some of the trees there were 200 – 300 years old and huge!



That's me in the circle!

Krista had an idea last spring that the materials we use in Journey (Awana high school aged group) were too good to be limited to those teens, so she suggested that we offer to teach through them as an adult Sunday School class.  So, another one of the Awana leaders and I are team teaching them now.  It gives me one more thing to study for, but the materials are so good at giving excellent doctrinal positions and Bible studies, that it is well worth it.  This year’s study is called “God-Colored Glasses” and is about developing and living a Biblical worldview.  Great stuff!  We’ve had very good attendance and participation in the class so far (this Sunday will be our 4th week).  I’d appreciate your prayers for God to use it for His glory and to build up His church.

On 10/5, Levi and I went with his football team to a SUNY Brockport football game.  The college had invited lots of local Pop Warner and other kids’ league football teams free of charge, so we went.  He got to high five the team as they came on the field, and they had relay races for them during halftime.

 

Levi (in the orange hoodie) high-fiving the college players

Kortney and her boyfriend, Mat, came to visit us last week.  She really wanted to see Levi play football, so they came especially for that, but also just to see us again.  We played games, enjoyed good food, and spent fantastic times together.  When they left this past Monday, Abigail and Amelia went with them to spend a week enjoying Minnesota.  They must be having a really good time because I’ve heard very little from them.  I guess I’ll have to get the stories once they get back.

Tune in next month for more news!

 

September Update

It looks like Xanga, where I’ve been posting these updates online for years, has finally had to morph into something that costs money.  They couldn’t compete with Facebook and remain free, so I have left them.  I think I was the only one still using them of all my family and friends, anyway.  They did enable me to save all my old posts in XML files that I’ll have to try to figure out how to re-post.

I opened a new blog with Google called Greg’s Monthly Updates.  It’s at http://gregsmonthlyupdates.blogspot.com/ with a great picture of Mt. Rainier as the background!  I’ll post these updates there each month as well, and there may be a few extras there that don’t work well in email.

We’re back into our fall programs:  school and Awana, with some sports still continuing.  Abigail and Amelia are still playing soccer, and Levi is still playing football.  I think they’re all enjoying it.  I haven’t been able to go to any of the girls’ games since they’re during the day when I’m at work, but they report fun kicking people and occasionally the ball.

I’ve been to all of Levi’s games, except one he and all of us missed because of our vacation, which I’ll talk more about later.  I have yet to see them win, but he’s doing very well putting hits on people and holding his blocks.  He made a first down on one run in his first real game, and I can’t wait to see him break one open for a touchdown!

This past Sunday was a fun day of football starting with Levi’s game, then the Bills great comeback win in the last seconds, and ending with the Seahawks crushing of the 49ers.  I even won my fantasy game!  I remembered Sunday that Dad would have been 85 if he were still suffering with us on this earth.  I’m glad he isn’t!  I wonder if they celebrate earthly birthdays in heaven.  Somehow I doubt it, but who knows?  I also remembered back on August 23, that Mom would have been 85.

Earlier this month, as I mentioned above, our family went on a vacation to Assateague State Park in Maryland.  Cai wasn’t able to go since he had just started back to college, but Hannah and her husband, Kevin, flew in from Texas for it, and Ella’s fiancé, Cody, joined us too.  Kevin had been there before and recommended it to us, and he was totally on with his recommendation.  He pretty much planned the whole thing before all of the circumstances led them to move to Texas, so we were really glad when they could still come.  We had a fantastic time of playing on the beach and in the ocean, seeing sites, taking hikes, fighting off wild horses, flying kites, and trying to sleep through wind storms.

No, I’m not kidding about fighting off wild horses.

How they got there is a matter of debate, but there really are wild horses on Assateague Island.  You don’t have to worry about bears there, but horses, yes.  So, the same rules apply to keeping your food locked up and your campsite clean to avoid attracting them.  Although, they are a bit more docile than your average bear (who, as you know, is not as smart as Yogi).  Mostly, unless you bother them, they’ll leave you alone, but they have been known to bite or kick campers.  We got some pictures with them nearby us that I’ll try to post along with the web version of this update.

 This one's a horse we saw on the road as we were driving

 

We saw these when we were playing on the beach

Once we were sitting around in our campsite, and we had the back of our van open where our food was.  There’s no shade trees there, and we had all gotten at least a little sunburnt the day before, so we had rigged up some shade by draping a tent rain fly over the open back doors of the van.  All of a sudden, a horse runs into our site and heads right for our food in the back of the van.  We yelled to try to scare him away, but he grabbed a bag of food.  I grabbed it back out of his mouth (he hadn’t gotten a very good grip on it with his teeth), and he ran off.  Some of the food had spilled on the ground, and I thought about picking it up, but I would have had to turn my back to the horse and bend over, and even I know that’s not a good idea.  So, I asked Krista to pick it up while I closed the van doors, and someone else (I don’t remember who) made sure the horse had left.  The kids thought it was funny that I didn’t want to risk myself picking up the food, so I made Krista do it.  What can I say—she’s braver than me.

We spent Labor Day with Krista’s sister, Conny, and her family.  As it is every time we go there, we had yummy food and tons of fun playing games and talking with family we don’t get to see too often.

Krista and I celebrated our 33rd anniversary on August 22 by going away by ourselves.  We went camping at Whetstone Gulf State Park near Watertown, NY.  It has a beautiful gorge that I scared Krista at several times because I kept wanting to look down into it while we were on a 6-mile hike along it.  We managed to find the park even though Google maps’ directions would have sent us down a dirt road for miles in the wrong way.  Fortunately, OK providentially, the road wasn’t where they said it was, and we found the real entrance before trying it.  While there, we went up to the 1000 islands area on the St. Lawrence river and visited Boldt Castle.  It’s a real live castle that was originally begun being built around 1900.  Mr. Boldt was building it for his wife, but she died suddenly before he finished it, and he was so broken-hearted that he left it unfinished.  It sat there falling apart for about 70 years until the state bought it and started restoring it.  They still aren’t done, but it’s still impressive and fun to visit.  Maybe I’ll put a picture from this trip up on the website too.

My beautiful wife in front of the beautiful castle

I guess that’s it for September.  Now to see if I can figure out how to use this new weblog site…