August Update

Topping the news this month is the engagement of our daughter, Carissa, to Matt Wilkinson!  We are very excited for this step in their lives.  They are planning a November 14 wedding.  Right now the two of them are in Nepal helping with the ongoing relief needs there after the earthquakes earlier this year.  They’ve actually had more, although milder, earthquakes again this week.  This past Sunday was Krista’s birthday, and she was very pleasantly surprised to get a birthday phone call from Nepal!  They are doing well, but please continue to keep them in your prayers.

Carissa and Matt at Kortney's wedding

Right after I wrote last month, we left for a family reunion of Krista’s siblings and their children and grandchildren.  We rented cabins/cottages at Lighthouse Christian Camp in Barker, with which some of my Matthews relatives are quite familiar.  I believe my Dad and his family went there as children.  We had a fantastic time playing games, visiting with family we haven’t seen in some cases for 10 years, playing instruments together, singing together, worshiping together, and just enjoying the beauty of Lake Ontario.  Krista’s brother, Terrelle, arranged a family competition where we earned points in the form of rubber ducks by winning board games, sports activities, relay races, etc. throughout the week, with a grand prize of a giant rubber duck.  My family came in second to Krista’s sister, Conny, and her family.  Close, but no duck.

Krista and her sister-in-law, Lori, amused by having the same shirt...

...but they both look fabulous!

The week ended up with our annual reunion of Krista’s father’s siblings on Saturday, also at Lighthouse.  This reunion always has way too much good food, fun visiting aunts, uncles, and cousins, and their families, and a generally good time.

The next day, several of my kids who had come for the reunions stayed and went to church with us.  Then we ate together and played a game or two before they had to leave for home.

Everyone at our house playing a game

The week right after that was our church’s evening Vacation Bible School.  We’ve done it the last few years in the evening, which I really like because I miss day VBS's since I have to work.  This year my main role was helping to count the money the kids brought in for one of our church’s missionaries.  We had a competition between the boys and the girls which they both sort of won.  The boys brought in more money three days out of five, but the girls brought in more money overall.  The best news was that they raised almost $800 for our missionaries!  This enables them to buy an iPad they wanted to help with schooling their children, and they were thrilled.

Others in my family helped in the VBS too.  Cai was in the skit and helped in a class, Abigail and Amelia led and helped in a class, Zach helped with sound, and Jemmie and Levi attended.

Two exciting weeks in a row left us quite tired, but we are thankful God allowed us to have both of these experiences.

Last week Cai went on a camping trip with his girlfriend, Amy’s, family at Indian Lake in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York.  They got a little wet when it rained quite heavily overnight once, but he said they had tons of fun anyway.  They got to go white water rafting, which he says was amazing, and he wants us all to do it.  I think that would be very exciting, although maybe because I’ve read Patrick McManus’s stories about rafting, I’m a little wary.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about regarding McManus’s stories, do a Google search on McManus Narrows, and you should get a result that allows you to read an excerpt from his book, A Fine and Pleasant Misery that will explain what I mean.

This past Saturday, we spent the day at Seabreeze, our local water and ride park.  We all got to have loads of fun and the weather was perfect.  “We” includes Krista and me, Hannah and Kevin, Ella and Cody and Hazel, Cai, Abigail and her friend Seth, Amelia, Zach, Jemmie, and Levi, and Krista’s sister, Nanita, and her daughters, Deborah and Anna.  My favorite was the Whirlwind roller coaster, although the classic Jack Rabbit roller coaster was a close second.  Zach discovered that the Jack Rabbit is the oldest continuously operating roller coaster in the U.S., and the fourth oldest currently operating coaster in the world.  Pretty impressive for little old Seabreeze!

Hazel loved the train at Seabreeze!

I mentioned Krista’s birthday this past Sunday, but she’s worth more than one mention.  The disadvantage to her is that if she wants good food, she pretty much has to cook it herself, as I’m no help.  I should draft our daughters and sons-in-law to do some cooking for her, since they are quite good at it.  Anyway, we had grilled chicken (I did do the grilling so I guess I’m not totally useless, just mostly), salt potatoes, sweet corn, Kevin’s spinach/blueberry/strawberry/almond/goat cheese salad, and fresh blueberry pie for dessert.  Yes, it is as good as it sounds.  Actually, it’s better than it sounds.

That afternoon our family did its fantasy football draft.  I thought I was getting a really good team, but the system gave me a D grade for my draft, and predicts I’ll have a 2-12 record.  Hey, I have Marshawn Lynch and the Seahawks defense, so I don’t believe them.

Zach started soccer practices last night.  He’s playing with a local Christian school.  Their league allows homeschoolers to play on the team, so he joined up again this year (he has played for them before).  He was quite exhausted after that first practice since it was really hot and humid last night, and the coach was working mercilessly on getting them all back into game shape.  He said he still enjoyed it.

Hazel the ballerina

Tune in next time for September news!

July Update

As I said last month (and I’m sure you all remember, because my updates are so important to your lives that you practically memorize them), we went on vacation about a month ago.  My family that is still living at home (except for Abigail who had to go to school and work—Cai was still away on his summer Awana internship) and Hannah and Kevin (and baby Mickle) went camping at Letchworth State Park.  We have camped before as a family, but always in tents and always at Hamlin Beach State Park, so this was a branching out for us.  We rented two cabins at Letchworth.  Hannah and Kevin and our two boys, Zach and Levi, stayed in one, and Krista and I and our two girls, Amelia and Jemmie, stayed in the other.

We went on hikes, rode our bikes, ate like hungry tykes, played games (no spikes), and did other things we likes.  Yikes!  We had a great time “getting away from it all” and enjoying God’s creation.

Hannah and Kevin's cabin

Our cabin (I took the pictures this way to give a perspective of how close we were)

Riding bikes around the cabin loop

At Hannah and Kevin's cabin

We did a lot of relaxing

Well, some relaxed while others (Kevin) cooked.  Is it ready yet?

Levi loves camping!

A beautiful wood maiden

This was at the Mary Jemison "White Woman of the Genesee" area.  Google it

At the Middle Falls behind the Glen Iris Inn

If you play the above video, you can experience 10 seconds of our campfire.  We sing, discuss politics and the things of God, and have a great time.

Me doing my Acts 2 imitation

Krista, Jemmie, and I thought we'd do an "easy" 1/2 mile trail.  They didn't say it went straight up!

Two beautiful wood maidens

Hannah, Kevin, and baby Mickle like hikes too!

Cool footbridge

We came home on Sunday, June 21 (Fathers’ Day), tired but thankful for an amazing time.  We went to eat at Five Guys again, because we love it.  My kids gave me some cool Fathers’ Day presents:  a Buffalo Bills license plate holder, the extended edition of the Hobbit movie “Desolation of Smaug,” a promise to get the extended edition of “Battle of Five Armies” when it’s out in November, some nice sandals, one of those gizmos to read check engine light codes (which gives you an idea of the age of my cars), and a set of Duck Dynasty bobble-heads.  Yes, Duck Dynasty makes me happy.

Duck Dynasty Bobble Heads on my desk at work

Hazel is starting to crawl, so now her parents have to deal with a mobile baby (as do we when she visits), which makes life exciting.  She also likes to blow raspberries and style people’s hair.  Cody, her father, says the shampoo she uses smells suspiciously like spit-up and drool, but it’s not tested on animals—only on everything else in the house.

Blowing raspberries is most fun while eating!

This reminded me of Bugs Bunny's "Barber of Seville" routine

As of July 1, I am officially an employee of Atos www.atos.net, thus the “(Atos)” suffix after my email name.  I used to work for Xerox Services Information Technology Operations group, but Xerox decided to sell that branch off to Atos.  I’m still working at Xerox, as I have been since 1997, but my employer keeps changing.  Since I’ve been here, I’ve worked for EDS, Decision One, EDS again, HP, ACS, Xerox Services, and now Atos.  The corporate world is so much fun.

I am now completely in my new job.  I’m still learning, but I’m feeling pretty comfortable in handling things that come up.  I like it here!

Zach and I marched in another parade with our Civil Air Patrol squadron, this time in Warsaw.  No, not Poland—Warsaw is a village in New York.  That was on Friday evening, July 3, which was the same night our town had its fireworks.  We rushed back from the parade, and actually made it back in time.  Well, we would have, except that Jemmie was at a friend’s birthday party, and we thought we’d better get her, so we dropped off the kids at the fireworks, and Krista and I ran to get her.  We still saw the last half of the fireworks show, so that was nice.

This video shows us marching.  Zach is the sharp looking one in the front center holding our squadron's flag.  I'm the one in the back lagging behind everyone else.

July 10 was my brother, Gary’s, birthday.  When I emailed greetings to him, he wondered if the “Atos” in my email name was a new Greek nickname.  No, we’re not Greek, but maybe when you get older like he is, you start forgetting your heritage.

On July 11, Zach went with the Civil Air Patrol to help at the Geneseo Air Show.  He had a long day in the sun keeping people away from moving planes and fuel spills, but he enjoyed himself.  I was going to go too, but couldn’t at the last minute.

Hannah and Kevin celebrated their 2nd anniversary on 7/13.  Congratulations!

Levi has played his last soccer game of this year now.  In my totally unbiased opinion, he is one of the best players on the team, as well as being the best looking, but being a Matthews man, that goes without saying.  They actually have more games next week, but we’ll be at the David F. Wilson (Krista’s family) Family reunion, so we’ll miss them.  And I’ll tell you about that next month!

June Update

I’m a little early this month because I’m going on vacation later this week.  I’ll tell you all about that, including pictures (hopefully) in this online version, next month.

On my new job, we’re still transitioning.  A lot of dominoes have to fall in order before my part is done.  Patrick has to move to Mark’s old job before I can move to Patrick’s old job, and before they’ll let me move to Patrick’s old job, they have to have someone ready to move into my old job.  We’re almost there, so hopefully by the time I write to you next month, I’ll be totally in the new job.  I’ve done a lot of training in it already, and I’m excited about doing new things.  I already fixed a minor bug in one installation package, so I’m on my way!

Over the Memorial Day weekend, Abigail and Zach went with a team from our church to Millersville, PA, to minister to the children of Arabic Christians while the adults were in a conference there.  Our church has been providing this ministry each year for about 25 years now.  We support a missionary in the Washington, DC, area who ministers to Arabic Christians there.  Every year he and his team host this conference.  A few years ago, Abigail and I went with our church team.

Abigail taught the 1st – 3rd graders with a teen helper, and Zach helped with the games.  They both had a great time and enjoyed being used by God to bless our brothers and sisters.

Abigail also received a certificate in the mail this past week notifying her that she made the Dean’s List at Genesee Community College.  We are very proud of her academic achievement!

Zach is now a Senior Master Sergeant in Civil Air Patrol.  He is progressing very well there, and we’re proud of his advancement!

Cai has begun the work I mentioned last month.  He spent several weeks with the Schoenheits helping them with Awana Commander College and the Sparks Camp-a-Rama, along with other church ministries.  It turned out to be a very unique time for him with them.  The Schoenheit’s adult son went missing while Cai was with them.  Unfortunately, his body was found about a week later.  They aren’t sure what happened, but the guess is he somehow fell into the Genesee River and was drowned.  Please keep their family in your prayers.  Cai was able to be a blessing to them by helping out around their house, and taking care of the Sparks Camp-a-Rama so they could look for their son.

Cai is now with the other local Awana missionaries, the Bennetts, and is helping them.  Thank you for your continued prayers for his ministry and support!

Levi is in the middle of his baseball and soccer seasons.  A lot of both sports’ games have been canceled this year because of the weather.  We’ve had a lot of rain up this way lately!  But, when he does play, we’ve enjoyed watching him.  His baseball team is doing very well.  I think they’ve only lost one game.  Levi has pitched a few times and done a good job with it.  The level he is now is where the boys are just beginning to do the pitching themselves, so there are generally a lot of walks and quite a few struck batters, but it’s fun to watch him and all of them develop their skills.  His coach is a man from our church, so that’s nice too.

He was actually able to get his first soccer game in last night.  They ended up in a 3-3 tie, but the game was quite exciting.  Levi played defense mostly, and I loved how he got in the opposing team’s way.  It was really hard for them to get past him!  I think the three times they scored, they went on the other side.

Hannah’s birthday was on 6/6.  We had her celebration the next day when we all could be there.

On 6/6, Krista, Zach, and I helped in New York State Special Olympics that was held at the university in our town.  We helped a bit with the events and giving out of the awards.  The athletes were quite enthusiastic, so it was a lot of fun.  I was able to put the medals on some of the athletes, and one gold medal winner was so excited, he jumped right into my arms!  He wasn’t a small man either, and I’m thankful my back held out.

Congratulations to Kortney and Mat on their first anniversary on 6/13!

As I looked at my pictures for this past month to see what I should include in this update, I discovered they were all pictures of Hazel.  What can you expect when you have such a cute grandchild!?!?  So, anyway, here are some cute Hazel pictures (there are no other kind of Hazel pictures).

"I love Wegmans!"

"I'm trying to play here.  Can you stop with all the pictures, Mommy!?!?"

Watching cars with Grandpa.  "I still don't see Mommy's car."

"Joe Cool's got nothin' on me"

"I get so tired of the Grandpa paparazzi!"

Krista watches her every Friday while Ella is at work, and she is getting more and more used to us.  She still loves her Mommy the best, as it should be, but she’s getting to where she will at least tolerate us for a few hours.

Until July!

May Update

My mom went to heaven 4 years ago today.  I thought of her on Mothers’ Day this year and wondered what Mothers’ Day is like in heaven.

Our Mothers’ Day for the Moms in my family that are still on earth was fun.  A while ago, a family in our church gave us a dining room table and hutch that they were replacing.  They are both in excellent condition and have been in their family for two or three generations.  We were honored that they would pass them on to us.

Anyway, Krista was getting out things to put in the hutch and came across some plates she had from her parents.  She remembered a fuller set when she was younger, but some of the set must have gotten lost over the years.  She found a full set on line, so I got that for her for Mothers’ Day.  They are now all nicely displayed in our hutch.

All the local families went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries for Mothers’ Day lunch.  We like the low-key feeling there and the food is excellent.  Then we returned to our house for rhubarb custard pie Krista had made.

In church that morning a group of guys sang a “Heaven Medley” to honor the mothers in our church, and we gave each mother a book by John MacArthur (one of my favorite Christian authors) called “Twelve Extraordinary Women.”

The last weekend in April, Zach went with the Awana Journey teens from our church to the Summit competition.  This is the one Krista and I have been going to with the teens for the past several years when it’s been in Chicago.  This year Awana decided to have two Summits:  the one our group went to in Washington, DC, and one in Kansas City, MO.  Krista and I didn’t go this year because we had a pretty small group going, and they didn’t need us.  They all did very well in Bible Quizzing, Games, Volleyball, and Fine Arts competitions.  Zach participated in Bible Quizzing, Games, and Volleyball.  In Bible Quizzing, they ended up in sixth place in the championship round (out of about 35 teams).  In Games and Volleyball, since we had so few teens there, they teamed up with other churches to compete.  They made the silver round in Games.

Next year Awana is going back to one Summit for the whole nation at the Washington, DC, location.  We will (Lord willing) attend that one since both Amelia and Krista will have achieved their Citation Award for completing 10 years’ worth of Awana books.

On April 27, I went with Hannah and Kevin to see Kevin receive a Daisy award (http://daisyfoundation.org/) for excellence in Nursing.  He was nominated multiple times, and was the first “travel” nurse at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo to ever even be nominated, much less to have actually won the award.  We are all very proud of him!

We celebrated Cai’s birthday (5/5) with him after he got home from college.  Krista and I went and picked him up on 5/11.  We went out to eat that night with him and his girlfriend, Amy, and Carissa, her boyfriend Matt, and Caitlin.  It was so good to see all of them and to meet Amy!

Cai now is at training in Chicago for his summer Awana internship.  He is going to be travelling with and helping two of our local Awana missionaries, the Bennetts and Schoenheits.  Please pray for him as he does this work and raises his support for the summer.

I recently accepted a new job here at Xerox.  I’ll be working in the Interoperability Lab doing software testing and packaging for our Xerox customers.  I’ll be transitioning to that new job over the next two to four weeks.  Please pray for me in that transition.

This past weekend, we celebrated Kevin’s birthday (5/14).  We are so glad to have him as part of our family!

I think that is all of my news for May, so until June…

April Update

Welcome to spring!  We have snowdrops, crocuses, and daffodils blooming at our house, not to mention tree pollen and allergies, but it’s worth it to see the sun and feel the warmth a bit.  I went for a nice walk today during lunch and saw spring birds (robin, redwing blackbird, purple grackle), and I've heard the happy sounding peeper frogs at night lately too.

We remembered Carissa’s birthday on 3/23.  We actually got to celebrate with her a few days before that as she and Matt had gone to Toronto for a show and stopped by on their way back through.

We celebrated Easter with all of our local family.  That morning at church, the kids put on a musical called, “It All Happened In The City.”  Jemmie and Levi both had speaking and singing parts in it, and they did a fabulous job.

Levi in front in cowboy hat, Jemmie in back in blue headscarf

Levi as Uncle Yule

Also that morning at church, our choir sang a fun a cappella arrangement of “Easter Song” by Annie Herring.  We got many compliments on it from people who remembered the original being done by Second Chapter of Acts, Keith Green, Glad, and probably other artists.

Last weekend we had a Missions Conference at our church with lots of extra sessions Friday through Sunday, an excellent speaker (Tim White, a church planter from Winchester, Virginia), and visits from local college missionaries we support.  It was a great time of challenge and encouragement.

And, in closing, I’m excited to announce that I’ll be a grandpa again soon.  Hannah and Kevin are thrilled to announce their first baby, due sometime this fall.

March Update

You know that deep freeze I mentioned last month?  Well, a vital part of our heating system decided that was the best time to stop working.  We went several days trying to figure out why our downstairs was always cold.  Finally, we broke down and called in the experts.  A few hundred dollars later, we were warm again.

It's kind of dark, but this shows the piles of snow in our front yeard

I liked the interesting frost patterns on our window in these two pictures

We've had some warmer weather now, so the large snow piles are slowing melting.  I can see the road from the end of my driveway much easier now.

Congratulations to Ella and Cody on their first anniversary back on 2/22!  Yes, we partied again.

On 2/24 several of us went to a basketball game at Roberts Wesleyan.  A girl from our church is on their team, and this was her last home game there since she’s a senior.  Kevin talked Zach and Levi into signing up for a time out contest where they had to keep balloons in the air for as long as possible.  Hazel loved the sounds and action.

Zach and Levi playing their game

Hazel loves basketball! (sorry about the cheerleader photobomb)

My brother, Ken’s, birthday was on 3/6.  It was a milestone birthday for him, but since it’s rude to talk about old men’s age, I won’t mention that he turned 60.

Yesterday 3/17 was Kortney’s birthday.  We remembered her, but we resisted the urge to party without her.  I know you admire our restraint.

It must be that with February being a short month, this update is also very short.  Or else I’m forgetting something exciting or important that happened, in which case I’m sure someone will ask me, “Why didn't you include _____ in your update?”  Oh well.  Until April!

Since it was short, I'll close with cute Hazel pictures.

 

Sleeping in church (it's OK when you're a baby)

I love the progressive smiles in these three pictures!

February Update

Welcome to February!  We’ve been in the deep freeze here lately with high, yes HIGH, temperatures around 2.  Overnight lows have been sub-zero with wind chills 20 – 30 degrees below zero.  Of course, my son-in-law, Mat, being from Minnesota, says, “That’s nothing,” but it is unusually cold for us.  Also we keep getting snow, snow, and more snow—never too much at one time, probably no more than 12 – 15 inches at once, but it just keeps coming.  We have piles around our driveway well over 6 feet high.  Last Saturday, I went out and chopped the top off of one so I could see to get out of my driveway safely.  Even where it hasn’t been piled, like in our back yard, it is easily 3 feet deep.

Anyway, here’s the news of the last month from my family:

We celebrated Jemmie’s 12th birthday on 1/21.  Well, that was her birthday, but we celebrated it on 1/23.  As is typical of my girls, on their 12th birthday, I take them to get their ears pierced.  It’s sort of sad that I won’t be doing that anymore after this.  My girls are all grown up now.  Good thing I still have an adorable granddaughter!  Hazel even came to Jemmie’s birthday party.

Jemmie with her birthday dessert:  Worms and Dirt.  Yummy!

Hazel with Aunt Hannah and her mom at Jemmie's party

Friday night and Saturday, January 30 and 31, our church had a men’s retreat.  I was able to go with my son, Zach, and two of my sons-in-law, Kevin and Cody.  Our speaker was Don Gordon, a former Major League Baseball pitcher, mostly with the Cleveland Indians.  He now has a ministry mostly focused on discipling men.  The retreat was excellent and very challenging.  It was a great kickoff (or maybe I should say, first pitch) to a men’s discipleship ministry our church is starting.  Please pray for me as I am discipled, and as I disciple other men.

Of course, I was disappointed in the Super Bowl outcome.  All I can guess about throwing a pass then was that they were either trying to catch the Patriots off guard since everyone was expecting a run, or it was a way to manage the clock with just a few seconds left.  Still it was exciting, and being back-to-back NFC Champions is nothing to sneeze at, even though it is so cold here.  Maybe the Bills will actually join the Seahawks in the playoffs next year!

We celebrated Abigail’s birthday on 2/2.  Once again the actual party was delayed until 2/6, and she had a special guest from Minnesota at her party.  Kortney was here then visiting her new niece and was able to come to the party.

I stayed home from work on 2/2 because we got a pretty big snow storm that night with lots of blowing and drifting of snow.  I went out to try to get my car free so I could go.  Then I remembered that our snow blower had stopped working a while ago, and suddenly it was a crisis.  So, I ended up calling the repair place and taking it to them.  They got it fixed the same day, so we were able to get the snow cleared.

That snow blower was a gift from our next door neighbors.  They are an older retired couple that just recently moved to an assisted living facility, so they didn’t need it anymore.  None of their kids needed it either, so they gave it to us with the only condition that we keep their driveway clear too since their kids need to come and go occasionally from the old house.  We are very thankful for it!

Anyway, I ended up spending that day clearing snow and running tons of errands.  Krista had sprained her back a few days before shoveling snow, and it was really causing her a lot of pain.  We decided to see a chiropractor, and she’s had a few appointments with him now and is feeling much better.  Please pray for her complete healing.  It was nice to be able to be home to get it all done!

We had our Awana T&T (3rd – 6th grade) Bible Quiz at our church on 2/7.  All of our church’s teams won first place!  Levi got a perfect score in his tests, and Jemmie tied for the highest score of everyone in her book on her tests.  I’m very proud of their accomplishments, and more proud that they are very early learning the value of hiding God’s Word in their hearts.

Cody’s birthday was on 2/11, so we had yet another celebration.  Yeah, we like to party.

My brother, David’s, birthday was on 2/14, but we pretended that was a national holiday and celebrated the holiday instead.  I did remember him though.  The pizzeria where Abigail works, Salvatore’s, makes heart-shaped pizzas for Valentine’s Day, so I ordered Krista and myself each one, and we had dinner alone at a “fancy” table in the living room while the kids ate downstairs.  It was low-key, yes, but perfect for us.

Yesterday (2/18) was Caitlin’s birthday, and it’s also winter break in our local school district, so our church is not having Awana.  So, we’ll have yet another party with those two excuses reasons in view.  Wow, that’s five birthdays in one month’s time.

Until March!