February 2018 Update

Greetings from the deep winter of western New York where the high temperature later this week will be near 70.  But we know all of the weather’s tricks, and we’re too smart to put away our snow shovels, boots, hats, and gloves when it’s only February, because we know that upper 60s this week can still be followed by 2 feet of snow next week.

 

We had a pretty dusting of snow yesterday morning that melted away by afternoon, but it still served to cover up the old, gross looking snow piles left by shoveling and plowing, at least for a little while.

 

Family birthdays since last month’s update are:  Jemmie 1/21, Abigail 2/2, Cody 2/11, my brother David 2/14, and Caitlin 2/18.  In addition to the parties for Jemmie, Abigail, and Cody, we of course also had a Super Bowl party.  Since we have family in Philadelphia and since their opponent was the Patriots, we were all very happy with the result.  My pastor is a big Eagles fan and loaned me a jersey to wear during the game.  He kept it relatively mellow Sunday morning at church, just wearing an Eagles tie, but his wife and daughters wore jerseys.

 

Our Eagles-themed Super Bowl party room

Me in my borrowed Eagles jersey

This is pretty short, but I’ll finish with the big news of this month.  We are pleased to announce the engagement of our son, Cai, to Amy Crocker!  They are planning an August 2018 wedding in Connecticut. 

Congratulations Cai and Amy!

 

Talk to you in March!

 

January 2018 Update

Happy New Year!  I hope all of you thoroughly enjoyed your holiday season!  Here are the highlights of our last month.

 

My barbershop chorus performed at another mall during the season (other than the one I mentioned last month), and we went out caroling in the neighborhoods around our rehearsal hall, so that was lots of fun.

 

We were blessed to have lots of family home for Christmas.  Cai went to Amy’s house, so we missed them, but everyone else was here.  There was a lot of stepping over other people for a few days, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

 

Alex and Alma Mickle (Hannah & Kevin), Hazel, Josie, and Ivy Sommer (Ella & Cody), Ruby Wilkinson (Carissa & Matt), Daisy Rhode (Kortney & Mat)

The tree loaded down with presents

We don't have a chimney so the stockings were hung on the couches with care

Grandpa (wearing a Christmas crown) and Ruby (photobomb by Jem)

Mom-mom got Daisy to sleep in her arms (photobomb by Zach)

We also celebrated my son-in-law, Matt’s, birthday while they were here with a delicious Oreo ice cream cake (or was it a pie—who cares when it tastes so good).

 

For the last several years, we’ve been having a family Christmas Extravaganza, sort of like a talent show.  Krista’s sister, Nanita, and her family joined us for the fun this year.  They did a piano and tenor recorder duet and joined us in a few other songs.  We followed that up with a karaoke time before calling it a night.

 

By New Year’s Eve, all of our visitors had gone home, but all of the local families got together to watch movies, eat snacks, and make noise at midnight.  Well, some of us didn’t make it all the way to midnight, but as the song says, “It’s 12:00 somewhere.”  (Yes, I know the song really says 5:00, but work with me here.)

 

We’ve had our typical western New York snow where we’ll get a foot or two over several days, then it will warm up and mostly, if not totally, melt, and then another foot or two will come.  I’m so thankful God created snowblowers!  Lately, we’ve been in the 20s with a few colder snaps (they call them that because if you’re outside too long, your fingers snap off), so our snow has stayed around.  It’s pretty in a cold sort of way.

 

Jan 6 was Hazel’s 3rd birthday and Alex’s 1st birthday, so we had a party that Sunday afternoon for them both.  We had to work their party around the Buffalo Bills first playoff game in this millennium, and we were glad to have a party to take our mind off of the disappointing result of that game.  Now that the Bills made the playoffs, the longest playoff drought in the major sports belongs to the Seattle Mariners.  So, let’s see if we can knock that one off in 2018, shall we?  Now, since there’s no Bills or Seahawks in the NFL playoffs, I’m just rooting for anybody-but-the-Patriots.

 

Stay warm, and I’ll talk to you in February!

 

December 2017 Update

First an update on Krista’s condition since last month’s update.  She still is not 100%, but she is feeling better.  We’re convinced now that she has erythema nodosum, although our doctor isn’t willing to say for sure that is it, but in our reading online that seems to best fit what she is experiencing.  Please continue to pray for her!

 

We had a really nice Thanksgiving.  Since Krista was still laid low, we all had to do a lot more cooking than normally, but it turned out really well.  Cai and his girlfriend, Amy, came home for the weekend, so that made it even more crowded and fun.

 

Nov 23 was also Zach’s birthday, but he had his dinner and dessert choices in the following days since turkey and pies were sort of forced on him on his actual birthday.  We also celebrated Amelia’s 12/3 birthday, and one more birthday since I wrote last that I’ll talk about later.

 

Nah, it’s so exciting, I’ll just talk about it now.  Josephine Hope Sommer was born to Ella and Cody and Hazel and Ivy on Dec 5 at 6:12AM.  She weighed 8lb 2 oz.  Ella and Josie are doing great.  We discovered that with all of our family, it took until this past weekend for Levi to get a chance to hold her.  We felt bad that he didn’t get a chance until then, but he made the most of the opportunity once he got it!

 

Josephine Hope Sommer

Levi and Josie

On Dec 7, my barbershop chorus sang at a local mall (Eastview).  We’re also singing at Marketplace Mall on Dec 21 7PM in front of the old Macy’s if anyone is in the area.  Anyway, it was fun to sing a bunch of Christmas songs, even though there were more of us in the chorus than were sitting to hear us.  We had several passers-by who stopped for a song or two though.  We were told to wear something festive so I bought a special sweater. I got many complements on it!

 

Now I just need a Seahawks ugly Christmas sweater!

Last night (Sunday, Dec 17) was our Christmas program at church.  I led a choir that sang two songs (I wore my sweater again!), and Levi was in the children’s program.  It was a lot of fun and the gospel message that started in Genesis and was incarnated at Christ’s birth was clearly presented.

 

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Hanukkah, and anything else you celebrate during these days with a blessed time with family and other loved ones during this season.  I hope you understand and believe the bad news of Christmas:  we are so wicked that God had to take the extreme action of becoming a man to save us.  I hope you understand and believe the good news of Christmas:  God loves us so much that He became a man to save us from our own sin.

 

Until January!

 

November 2017 Update

We’ll start this month’s update by remembering the birthdays since last month:  me on 10/19, my Dad’s heavenly birthday on 10/21, my granddaughter Daisy on 10/28 (1 year old!), and Levi on 11/14.  11/14 was also Carissa and Matt’s 2nd anniversary, so congrats to you two!

 

In my barbershop chorus, I was recently awarded “Spark Plug of the Month” for jumping right in and getting involved in the competition I mentioned last month and being faithful at rehearsals and sectionals.  Or something.  I’m not really sure why I got it, but I did, and it’s an honor, so I’m honored!  You get to wear a fancy vest at rehearsals and get free drinks at our bar.  Since I don’t drink, they said I could have free pop.  Well, I hardly ever drink pop either, but I took some home each week for my kids or wife.

 

Fancy vest selfie

Levi finished his flag football season with a win, so they were able to go 3 – 1 on the season.  I think he had fun.  I know it was fun to watch!

 

We were able to find a car for Krista to get around town in.  We bought a used 2002 Honda Accord that she named Mary Poppins.  No more hitchhiking for her.

 

Krista's car

On November 1, Amelia moved back home after about a year living with Kortney and Mat in Minnesota.  We are glad to have her back!  She is living now with Hannah and Kevin as their live-in nanny, so she gets to be Auntie Boo-boo for Alma and Alex.  Boo-boo is a family nickname she picked up when she was a little girl.  I think the story was someone asked her what her name was, and that was the answer she gave, and it stuck.  I’m sure someone will correct me if that story is wrong.  Anyway, she decided Auntie Boo-boo was easier to say for her little niece and nephew than Aunt Amelia.

 

This past Sunday, we had one of our church’s missionaries here.  Before he spoke, he and his son did a special music duet of “Amazing Grace” on the violin and bagpipe.  I’ve always loved bagpipes.  Back when I lived in Seattle in the 80s, Krista and I used to go to a restaurant there on St. Patrick’s Day that would have bagpipers walking around.  It made it hard to talk when they were anywhere even remotely close, but it was really cool anyway.  Anybody from the Seattle area remember Clinkerdagger, Bickerstaff, and Petts?

 

Our traumatic experience that started Sunday (well, really a week or so before that) was that Krista got quite sick.  She had had a fever for about a week, and then noticed peculiar spots on her arms, legs, and back.  We are blessed to have a Nurse Practitioner and an Emergency Department nurse in our family (Hannah and Kevin), so we consulted with them.  She went to our doctor last Friday who diagnosed her with a staph infection and prescribed an antibiotic.  After two days of that treatment, she was no better, so our nursing consultants recommended we go to Emergency.  The doctor there diagnosed her with Lyme disease and admitted her to the hospital and started IV antibiotics.  We don’t know for sure how she was infected since she hasn’t been hiking in the woods or anything, but they said she could have gotten it in our own backyard.  They aren’t 100% sure it is Lyme, but they are confident it is some kind of tick-borne infection.  She is home now (came home yesterday) and starting to feel a little better.  Your prayers for complete healing are appreciated!

 

Looking good even when she's sick

That’s all for this month, so until December!

 

October 2017 Update

A lot of you who read this also get my brother, Ken’s, monthly update.  He mentioned fall arriving with changing leaves and even snow in the mountains.  Of course, fall has arrived here too, but God in His sovereignty has apparently decided we haven’t had enough summer weather.  Our leaves in our area are weeks behind normal in changing color, our temperatures have played with cold (we had frost earlier this week) but keep bouncing back into the 60s and 70s, and allergy causing ragweed is hanging on and messing with us.  But life goes on, and here’s how it’s gone on for us.

 

I mentioned last month that we’d sold our van.  Well, this month, my old commuter car, a 2004 Hyundai Sonata, was put to rest.  It needed about $2000 worth of repairs (leaking gas tank, noisy exhaust system) which is about 10 times what it was worth, so we sold it to a junkyard.  I bought a 2005 Toyota Corolla to commute to work, and we’re borrowing cars from Cody and Kevin to get us around (Krista to work, Zach to school).  I don’t know if I ever mentioned it here, but Zach started this fall going to Genesee Community College in a program called Accelerated College Enrollment (ACE) that will enable him to finish his senior year of high school and get a head start on college at the same time.  He’s working hard and doing well between that, playing soccer with Cornerstone Christian Academy, Awana, CAP, working at Burger King, which all keep him quite busy.

 

My new (to me) car

This month’s birthdays since I wrote last were Ella on 9/21 and Alma on 10/6.

 

On 9/23, my barbershop chorus competed in our regional event in Rochester.  We sang “That’s Life” (made famous by Frank Sinatra) and “I Didn’t Wanna Fall” about a guy who didn’t want to, but did, fall in love.  In the second song, we had our biggest guy in a wedding dress as the bride.  We came in fourth out of nine choruses, so we were happy.  It was a ton of fun, and Krista, Abigail, and Seth got to come see us perform.

 

The Chorus of the Genesee

Levi has started playing on a community flag football team.  There are only two teams in the league, so they are only playing four games (two at each home field).  So far, the visiting team has won every time, but since we’ve played twice on their field, that’s good.  We’re all hoping they win the last game this weekend to break that trend so his team can end the season 3 – 1.

 

This past weekend, our church held a marriage conference.  We decided we wanted to make sure Hannah and Kevin and Ella and Cody could go, so we volunteered to watch their kids Friday night and all day Saturday.  We haven’t had four little ones in our house that long that were our responsibility for a long time, and they wore us out!  They were overall very well behaved—that wasn’t the problem—it was just their energy compared to ours!  But we had fun, and their parents said the conference was well done and helpful to them.

 

Alex

Jem and Mommom built the kids a fort

Last night, our chorus performed again for a local nursing home.  We sang a whole bunch of songs in many styles from the traditional barbershop “Lida Rose” all the way to an arrangement of the Beatles’ “Something.”  It was fun to sing for a very appreciative audience.  They even gave us cookies when we were done!  I can see me doing well with that slogan:  “Will sing for cookies!”

 

Until November!

 

September 2017 Update

We began our adventures after my last update by watching the Hamlin Fireman’s parade with Ella’s and Hannah's families.  Since the parade passes right in front of Ella and Cody's house, we always get great seats, not to mention lots of candy thrown to us by virtue of our adorable grandchildren looking like they really need more sugar.

 

Waiting for the parade to start





Alex's private parade viewing area

Hazel and Grandpa

I still don't see anything

Nothing that way either

The next day we went to Seabreeze, our local amusement park here in Rochester.  The day was partly cloudy, and it rained a little, but not enough to ruin our fun.  We were joined in there by Ella's family, Hannah's family, and Krista's sister, Nanita, and her girls.

 

You can see Deborah and Jemmie in this shot

Now you can see Cai, Zach, Levi, Jemmie, and Deborah



Deborah, Levi, and Jem

Zach and Cai

Me and my true love, except my hand's sort of in the way :-/

Too much fun for Hazel

Jem and Levi

Of course, on August 21 was the solar eclipse.  Ella’s husband, Cody, surprised them with a trip down to Kentucky to see it, but we got some pretty good views here, even though here it was only a maximum of 75% coverage.  We heard though that in just a few years, in April 2024, the next total solar eclipse will pass right over us!  So plan your visits here to see us and it at the same time!  Right at its peak here, it suddenly turned cloudy, but we still got a pretty good view.

 

A picture through eclipse glasses

37 years ago on August 22, Krista had a moment of weakness and married me.  Honestly though, we are very blessed to have had our lives together these past 37 years.  My life is better than I deserve because of her!

 

August 23 was my Mom’s birthday, and Dad’s was on September 15.  They would have been 89 this year, but I know they’re happier where they are.

 

My family, Ella’s family, and Hannah’s family all went to a Red Wings game on Wednesday August 23.  The Red Wings are our local professional baseball team that is a AAA affiliate of the Minnesota Twins MLB team.  We had lots of fun, and the Red Wings won!

 

Yes, Kevin and I are reppin' Seattle teams at the Red Wings. And
I know it doesn't look like it, but we really had fun!

On August 25, Cai and I made a trip to Philadelphia to take him back to Cairn where he’s starting work on his Masters’ degree.  Of course, we had to stop and see baby Ruby, again for me, and for the first time for Cai.  Matt was at work, but we got to see Ben and Caitlin and Carissa too.  Cai drove all the way there because I had to come right back home because…

 

Ruby meets Uncle Cai, and yes, of course, we had Chick-Fil-a!

We were there for Ruby's one month birthday!

On August 26, my barbershop chorus had a special rehearsal in preparation for the competition we’ll be doing this weekend.  It was very helpful to hear a different perspective from our guest coach, and it was comforting to hear him say we didn’t stink.

 

I’ve been putting a lot of miles on my car lately with that trip, and then from September 2-5, Kortney, Daisy, and Amelia visited.  They had flown to Philadelphia to see those guys down there, and then Caitlin and Ben drove them on 9/2 up to the Binghamton, NY, area, where Levi and I met them and drove them home.  We hadn’t seen Daisy since Christmas, and she has grown up a lot.  We loved seeing her with her NY cousins and trying to help her remember her other family here.

 

Cousins playing with Mom-mom

Daisy exploring our house

Daisy, Alex, Ivy, Hazel (Alma would not sit still, but she was in the room!)

Alma, Ivy, Alex, Hazel, Daisy (cute even when they're not particularly happy)

On September 11, our chorus participated in a 9/11 ceremony in Webster (where we practice).  We sang “God Bless America,” “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “Dona Nobis Pacem,” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”  Ella’s family and Abigail and Zach came out to hear us.

 

My son-in-law, Mat’s, birthday was 9/12.  We are very thankful to him for loaning us his family earlier this month!

 

We’ve managed by God’s grace to sell our van.  If everything works out as I expect, the buyer will be picking it up on Wednesday, and I’ll pick up a new-to-me commuter car (Corolla) for myself that same day.  Thus ends that chapter of our lives where we no longer need a big vehicle.  It’s sad in a way, but as I said, we are blessed beyond anything we ever could have dreamed by what God has done in our lives.

 

Until October!