June 2019 Update

Welcome to another monthly update from the Greg Matthews family!

The day after I wrote last was my barbershop chorus’s annual show.  I mentioned last month that four of us went on a local radio show to promote it, and I tried to get a recording my son had made to post there, but it didn’t work.  Since then, I found out that the radio show posts podcasts of its programs, so if you want to listen to it, you can go to https://www.iheart.com/podcast/the-bob-lonsberry-show-on-wham-20922208/.  You'll have to search back to Friday, May 17, 2019, and the 11:00 or fourth hour.

Anyway, the show was on May 18.  The Lyric Theater, where we had it, was a beautiful former Christian Science church.  They still had pews for seating, and the acoustics were really amazing.  The show went well, and you can watch a recording of it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A39qWNY3fiw.  My quartet sings at 30:45.

May 18 was also the 8th anniversary of when my Mom left this home and went to her eternal home.  I take great joy in knowing, without a doubt, that I will see her again when it’s my time to go to be with my Savior.  Do you have that confidence?  Ask me about it if you aren’t sure.

I mentioned also last month that I’m continuing in my job that I’ve had for the last several years at Xerox.  That’s been… interesting.  Wipro (my current employer) transitioned very few people so there’s been a lot of adjustment and learning for the new people trying to do what others had been doing for years and had perfected.  The work environment due to that feels quite uncertain, so I’ve been continuing to look for other work just to be sure my family is provided for, and I’d appreciate your prayers as I seek God’s will for my and my family’s future.

One example of that uncertainty:  Xerox is closed both Friday and Monday of Memorial Day weekend, but Wipro only gives Monday as the Memorial Day holiday.  During our onboarding, they told us that lots of Wipro clients have holidays other than the ones Wipro gives, and we should just contact our manager to find out how s/he wants us to record time for those days.  So, I looked up my manager’s name, and first of all, there are two places in their system where the management chain is shown, and they show different people for my chain.  So, I emailed both of the men listed in the two places as my immediate manager to find out how to record the time.  And I heard nothing.  No response whatever from either of them.  I ended up just talking to a co-worker, and we decided together what we should do.  I’ve been on the job now for a month and have still heard absolutely nothing from anyone who is supposed to be my immediate manager.

On to happier things, the Memorial Day weekend was tons of fun, and pretty good weather here too.  That’s saying a lot because we’ve had a pretty miserable spring overall.  We’ll have an occasional nice day, but it’s preceded and followed by cold, damp weather.  But that Friday was nice, and a bunch of us went for a walk.  We have some large rocks in the landscaping of the business across the road from us.  As soon as the grandkids see those rocks, they think they are supposed to pose for pictures on them, so I obliged.

Hazel, Alma, and Ivy

Ivy, Hazel, and Alma

Then on Memorial Day Monday, Kevin and Hannah hosted a party at their house with excellent food, games, and lots of wonderful family time.

Hannah’s birthday was on 6/6, and they had a party for her about a week later.  That was the soonest we could all get together due to the medical people in the family.  Those nurses and Nurse Practitioners can have crazy schedules!  Anyway, Kevin went all out with oar dervs, horse overs, appetizers, snacks, chicken marsala, and a delicious cake for dessert.  Yes, I really do know how to spell hors d’oeuvres.  That’s why God created Google, don’t you know.

My chorus started hosting a monthly “Singer’s Night” at our building where anyone can do karaoke, or sing at an open mic, and our chorus and quartets also sing to promote our chorus.  We already got one new singer in the chorus from it, so that’s good.  Anyway, on June 7, my quartet sang three songs there, and it’s really fun to be singing more often for real, live people, instead of just practicing.

On June 13, we remembered Kortney and Mat’s fifth anniversary and sent them many congratulations.

I guess that’s all for this month.  Talk to you in July when we’ll hopefully have had some heat!

May 2019 Update

I finally know about my job situation, and it is transitioning.  I was offered a position with Wipro to continue doing the same work I have been doing for the past several years at Xerox.  It’s an answer to prayer, and I will officially be a Wipro employee on Monday, May 20.  This is my last day as an Atos employee.  Thank you for praying for me!

Other than that, the news from this past month starts with Easter.  We had a lovely Easter celebration at our church, followed by a dinner with our local family at our house, consisting of too much good food, all of which I had to try.  Multiple times.

On May 5, we remembered Cai’s birthday from afar.  Kevin’s birthday was on May 14, but we had the party at their house last night, May 16.  Again, too much good food eaten multiple times, but hey, you only live once.

On May 11, my quartet, Achording to Us, sang three songs during a break of a zydeco concert at our rehearsal hall, the Harmony House in Webster, NY.  Lots of different people and groups rent our facility for concerts, wedding receptions, and so on, because it’s a historic and beautiful place.  We are one of very few barbershop choruses that own our own building, so it’s pretty great.  Anyway, the zydeco people have been asking our facility coordinator for a long time for a group from the chorus to entertain during their break, so my quartet did so.  It seemed to be well received, and it was a ton of fun.

We celebrated Mothers’ Day in a sort of unique way.  My chorus had been invited to sing the National Anthem for our local minor league baseball team, the Rochester Red Wings (they’re the AAA affiliate of the Minnesota Twins of the MLB).  I asked Krista, Hannah, and Ella what they thought of that, and they all said they would love to go to a Red Wings game for Mothers’ Day.  I don’t know if they were lying to please me, but I think they were sincere.  Anyway, the Anthem went well, and we had a good time at the game, even though the weather was cold and damp.  I’m sorry I don’t have pictures from that.  You’ll have to use your imagination.

Actually, I only have one picture from the last month, and that’s of some spring snow here.  If you remember, we got some in Minnesota last month when we visited Kortney and Mat, and we got some here in late April.  Of course, we can’t compare them, because it was 8 inches in Minnesota, and only a dusting here, but we do what we can to be as Minnesota-like as possible.

The final piece of news was some excitement I had today.  Our chorus’s annual show is tomorrow night (I’ll tell you about it next month), and today, to promote it, four of us went on a local radio show for about a half an hour.  We sang two songs, and the host interviewed us about barbershop singing in general, and our show more specifically.  It was so much fun!

If you want to listen to a recording of the radio show, go to https://www.iheart.com/podcast/the-bob-lonsberry-show-on-wham-20922208/.  You'll have to search back to Friday, May 17, 2019, and the 11:00 or fourth hour.

 

That’s all until June!

April 2019 Update

Last month there were no pictures, but this month there are lots!

There was only one birthday or anniversary to remember this past month, and that was Carissa’s birthday on 3/23.  But next year we’ll be remembering two, because Beatrice Danelle Rhode was born to Kortney, Mat, and Daisy on March 24 at 4:55AM.  She weighed 8 lbs 2 ozs and was 21.5 inches long.  The whole family is delighted with her, and Krista and I were able to visit them this past week so we could meet her personally, and see Kortney, Mat, and Daisy again.

But before we went on that trip, I went on a different trip, so I should tell you about that first.  Every year lately, our church has been sending a group to a conference put on by The Gospel Coalition.  This year, Kevin (Hannah’s husband) and I were talking and decided to join the group going to Indianapolis.  Nine others from our church also went, although we all drove in separate groups, with Kevin and I driving ourselves.  Usually when we take long trips, I end up doing most if not all of the driving, which I really don’t mind, but it was very nice to let Kevin do all the driving so I could just be lazy and ride along!

We left Sunday morning 3/31, and stopped at a barbecue place Kevin had heard about in Columbus, Ohio.  It was just a food truck, but there was a bar next door that you could take your food into, which was nice because it was cold in Columbus that day!  We got a BBQ platter that we shared, and I’m glad we shared it!  Maybe I could have eaten that much by myself once upon a time, but not anymore!  But it was really delicious!

BBQ ribs, brisket, pulled pork, chicken, and sausage.  Mmmmm!

We got to our hotel in Indianapolis at a reasonable time, but we had problem after problem at the hotel.  Our church groups had stayed in this hotel for the past few years and had no issues, but that wasn’t the case this year.  The first room they assigned to us hadn’t been cleaned, the first morning there was no breakfast, the hotel was generally not very clean and was outdated, the towels smelled like cigarettes, and I came down with a strange and nasty cold which I’m blaming on them too since it hit me the day we left.

Anyway, despite all of that, the conference itself was excellent in every way.  The speakers were a “Who’s Who” of solid biblical teachers.  Some examples:  John Piper, Tim Keller, Ligon Duncan, H.B. Charles, Kevin DeYoung, Trip Lee, David Platt, Don Carson, Nancy Guthrie, Jen Wilkin, Paul Tripp, Ben Watson, Jackie Hill Perry, Shai Linne, Jared Wilson, Colin Smith, Tim Challies, Ray Ortlund, Jonathan Leeman, and Al Mohler.  And that’s not even all of them, although just that sample is more than I was able to personally hear.  They had Keynote sessions that we all attended where Piper, Keller, Duncan, Charles, DeYoung, Lee, Platt, and Carson spoke, and then they also had Breakout sessions where many of the Keynote speakers and other men and women led.

The view out our hotel window. The curved roof in the center is Lucas Oil Stadium where the Indianapolis Colts play

Our church group at the conference

Indianapolis had a Tesla electric car parking and charging area!

I took these pictures for my sons Zach and Levi who like Tesla cars

I came away with pages and pages of notes and much encouragement for my own Christian walk and for my leadership as an Elder of my church.  I also attended three extra sessions, one on the church and politics, one on complementarianism, and a prayer session for China.  The prayer time for China grabbed my attention because of my heritage as a great-great-grandson of Hudson Taylor.  I went in not planning to drop names, but the couple I was sitting next to asked me why I decided to go, so I told them.  They were so excited that they introduced me to a Chinese pastor who was there.  He said he had met JHT IV once, and he would tell him if he ever saw him again that he had met his 2nd cousin in Indianapolis.  I’ve only met JHT IV once when we were both teenagers when his sister, Signe, lived with my parents while I was still at home, so I doubt if he’ll really remember me.  Anyway, I highly recommend the TGC conferences if you ever have a chance to go!

Kevin and I drove home (yeah, I mean Kevin drove and I lazed along for the ride) on Wednesday 4/3, stopping to eat at Steak N Shake, because we don’t have those anywhere near our house, and it’s delicious.  We made it home pretty late that night, tired, but encouraged by the conference.

I had a couple of days back at work and home before Krista and I left for Minneapolis.  Our visit with the Rhodes was wonderful in every way except for me dealing with the cold the Indianapolis hotel gave me.  Even the surprise 8 inches of snow Minnesota decided to have right after we got there couldn’t ruin our fun.  Bea is a beautiful little baby who changed before our eyes in the week we were there.  And we were able to spend lots of time with Kortney, Mat, and Daisy as an extra bonus.  The last time we visited, it took a long time for Daisy to warm up to me, but this time we had tons of fun together right from the start.  Krista and I took her to a park one afternoon after the snow had mostly melted, and we were able to help with cleaning and snow shoveling around the house, and entertaining Daisy and snuggling Bea.

At the Baltimore airport on the way there, we enjoyed Cinnabon for breakfast

Beautiful Bea

 

Daisy and her Mommom

Watching the spring snow build up!

Daisy loves spring snow!

Daisy enjoying the spring snow

 

She said she was playing soccer. You wear socks on your hands to do that, right?  Socker?

Silly Daisy

Silly Beatrice

Sisters!

Grandpa holding Bea on National Barbershop Quartet Day (notice my shirt)

 

Kortney, Mat, Bea, and Daisy Rhode

Swinging at the park

Daisy's excited swinging!

Playing in puddles at the park

Puddles are magnetic

Our flight home this past Tuesday was delayed a bit because of mechanical problems on the plane, so instead of getting home around midnight, it was about 2AM, and both Krista and I had to work the next day.  I’m sure we weren’t 100% at our jobs that day, but we both managed to get through without causing any major problems for our employers, at least none they can prove were our fault.

Last night, we went over to Ella and Cody’s for a hot dog dinner, so we could see the local families that we had missed while we were in Minnesota, but we didn’t stay late at all.  I think we were both in bed by 8:30 or 9:00PM.  I don’t know about Krista, but I feel almost normal today.

Regarding my work situation that I mentioned in last month’s update, I still don’t have a solid path forward.  I’m still looking within my company and waiting to hear if Xerox wants to keep me, and looking outside my company.  Thank you for your continued prayers!

Until May!