September Update

Our summer here, at least weather-wise, seems to have ended rather abruptly with temperatures dropping from the 80s to the 60s within a week.  But here’s the news from our last gasp of summer, so to speak.

Right after I wrote to you last, our family grew by a daughter and a cat.  Hannah and Kevin brought Abigail back to Brockport (sorry if you thought it was a new daughter—it was just the return home of an existing daughter).  Abigail had acquired a cat named Sirius while she was living in Texas, so we now have two cats and a dog in our small menagerie.  H&K had rented a U-Haul and brought most of their belongings up here at that time to put into storage because they are moving back to Brockport too!  More on that later, but then they flew back to Texas the next day to finish things up there.

On 8/22, Krista and I celebrated 34 years of marriage by being about 350 miles apart.  No, that’s not the key to a happy marriage; that’s what happens when kids go to college.  In this case, it was Cai who was starting at Cairn University in Philadelphia.  The night before, I taught a lesson at our CAP meeting, then Cai and I left right from there for Philly, while Zach stayed and finished the meeting and got a ride home from a friend.  The drive down was uneventful, and Carissa graciously waited up for us until almost 1AM to give us a place to sleep that night.

Then on 8/22 in the morning, we drove from her house over to Cairn and got Cai settled in his dorm.  I noticed when I started my car at Carissa’s house, that it sounded a little weak, but it started and ran fine over to Cairn.  So, after getting Cai all set, I was ready to leave for home at about 8:30AM, but when I tried to start my car, all I got was clicking.  Once again, I was very glad to be a AAA member!  I called them, and within about 20 minutes a truck was there.  He diagnosed my battery was dead, my alternator was fine, and he could replace my battery right then and there.  So, about an hour later and $100+ lighter in my bank account, I was really ready to go.

We had a wonderful fish fry that night to celebrate our anniversary and my safe arrival back home.

On 8/23, I remembered my Mom’s birthday 86 years ago.  Of course, now that she’s in heaven, I wonder if birthdays matter or are remembered at all.  Deep question for you all to ponder.

That afternoon our family went together to see the movie “When the Game Stands Tall.”  I think Amelia saw the previews of the movie first and thought we all would like it.  She was right.  It’s a very entertaining movie that also has a great message about priorities in life.

On 8/28 at our Civil Air Patrol meeting, Zach was promoted to Technical Sergeant.  He’s trying to move along quicker with his promotions than he did before, and he’s doing a great job so far.

Zach getting congratulated by our Squadron Commander

Over the Labor Day weekend, Zach and Abigail went camping with our Senior Pastor’s family in northern Pennsylvania.  They came home on 9/1 tired but happy.

I had to say “Senior Pastor” in that last paragraph because our church recently hired an Associate Pastor.  Matt Combs officially started this month, and he’s an energetic and passionate believer in Christ.  I’m excited to see how God uses him at our church!

Our Labor Day was very relaxing.  We just stayed home waiting for Abigail and Zach and doing stuff around our own house.  You call it boring—I call it relaxing.  Toe-may-toe/toe-mah-toe.

On 9/14 we celebrated our undefeated Buffalo Bills squishing of the fish when they beat the Miami Dolphins to go 2-0 on the season.  Most “experts” expected them to be 0-2 at this point, so we’re loving it.  I still am rooting for my hometown Mariners to hopefully make the playoffs this year, but their remaining schedule will not make it easy.  Go Mariners!

On 9/15, I remembered my Dad’s birthday 86 years ago.  Of course, now that he’s in heaven, I wonder if birthdays matter or are remembered at all.  Deep question for you all to ponder.  Wow, déjà vu.

Yesterday 9/17, our Awana year started up again.  We have a good group of boys in the T&T group I help lead (3rd – 6th grade).  It was a good night.  I also spent several minutes yesterday praying for my great-niece, Victoria (my brother Ken’s granddaughter and my nephew Chris’s daughter) as she had surgery on a cyst under her eye.  I trust that God guided the surgeon’s hands and that she is recovering well.  May all of you concerned for her have the peace of Jesus that passes understanding!

The big event of our past month was a wonderful vacation my family enjoyed at the Outer Banks in North Carolina.

We played in the waves, sat on the beach, visited nearby sand dunes, played board games, played pool (on a pool table), played in a pool in the back yard of the house we rented, ate wonderful meals that we all took turns preparing (there are a lot of good cooks in my family), took walks and runs, saw turtles, jellyfish, pelicans, sandpipers, a beautiful sunrise, and fighter jets, celebrated my son-in-law Mat’s birthday (on 9/12), watched movies in a theater room, and played a family version of The Mole that my son-in-law Cody worked up.  If you’re not familiar with that, it was a TV reality game show where the contestants work at challenges to earn money, but one of them is a “mole” who is secretly trying to sabotage the challenges to make them fail to earn the money.  Cody came up with the challenges, some of them based on the TV show, and some of them on his own.  At the end of each day, we took a quiz on who we thought the mole was, and the people with the lowest scores were eliminated.  Even though I was eliminated the first day, it was still fun to watch.  At the end of the week we found out that Carissa was the mole, and Abigail won the cash.  On the TV show, they win hundreds of thousands of dollars.  In our version, Abigail won $31.  OK, so we’re not big spenders.

Amelia at the dunes

At the dunes:  Ben and Caitlin off to the left, Kortney, Jemmie, Abigail, Zach, Levi, Carissa, Matt, Mat, Hannah, Ella

Can you see the message I wrote in the sand?

Playing in the sand at the dunes

Beautiful sunrise

Beautiful sunrise part 2

Enjoying the beach

Bellatrix walking Kevin

At the beach

Also at the beach

These turtles lived in a pond near the house we rented.  They all came swimming up when we stopped to look at them.  They must get fed a lot, although we disappointed them since we had nothing.

Solving puzzles during a Mole challenge

Our pool.  These guys had to tread water as long as they could.  As long as at least one of them was still going, the puzzle team could work on solving the puzzles.

This video is from one of the challenges.  There was an object in the room that Zach was supposed to pick up.  They could only direct him to that object by singing a song.  Here's what happened:

Playing board games

Oh yeah, we did puzzles too

Mat, looking cool in his shades.  Notice the Fantasy Football chart in the back.  Cody coordinated our family league draft while we were there.

Our kitchen and dining area

Kevin, Levi, and Zach playing pool

Playing in the game room

The view from Krista's and my room

Kortney and Mat ready to go out for his birthday

Saying goodbye to the ocean right before we left for home

I guess I should explain the “fighter jets” I threw in there.  It was only on 9/11, so maybe it had something to do with extra security that day, but two or three times that day we saw a jet fly up or down the coast.  There is a military base nearby so maybe it was just that, but our guess was that because of heightened security on 9/11, they were patrolling the coasts.  On the one hand, it’s sad that it is necessary for us to do that.  On the other hand, it’s good to know our military is on the watch and capable of defending us.

I gave the week 9 out of 10.  The only downsides for me were that the weather wasn't perfect (but it was still very good), and that Cai couldn't come.  As I said above, he had just started at Cairn, and it was too hard for him to miss school so soon.  We're already planning on going back, this time in May some year, so that he can come too.

This is who was there:  Krista and I, Carissa and her boyfriend Matt, Kortney and her husband Mat, Caitlin and (from Wednesday until we left) her boyfriend Ben, Hannah and her husband Kevin (and for one day, their dog Bellatrix), Ella and her husband Cody, Abigail, Amelia, Zach, Jemmie, and Levi.

After our Outer Banks vacation, Hannah and Kevin drove home with us and are now living with us while they find a home of their own.  So, since they have a dog, we now have two dogs and two cats at our house!  And their dog is a Rottweiler, so that’s a significant change from our little Havanese!  Bellatrix, their dog, is actually doing quite well adjusting to us and our somewhat tight living arrangements right now.  She’s still just a puppy, but already weighs 70 pounds on her way to probably 90-100.  You’ll see her in some of the pictures from Outer Banks because they had her boarded nearby while we were there and got her one day to spend the day with us.

So, life is, as always, exciting at our house.

Until October!