What it was like

About a year ago I was attending a conference just east of Portland when I received a text message from one of my parishioners that went something like this:

M just diagnosed with brain tumor.  Transporting to Children's Hosp now.  We are following behind.  Surgery scheduled for tomorrow morning.

So much for my parishioners following instructions about major incidents while I'm out of town.  The good news is that they were going to Children's Hospital in Portland, just 40 minutes from where I was.

I kept in contact with the family during the 4-hour drive and made arrangements to be at the hospital in the morning.  My timing was impeccable as I got to her room about 20 minutes before she was wheeled to the O.R.  After some conversation and prayers, off she went.  The family and I went to the waiting room and I sat with them for about an hour.  Dad eventually released me and said he would keep me updated.

It's been just over a year, and M has recovered nicely.

Her sister has written a dramatic poem and entered to qualify for a national speech and debate tournament.  Apparently the number of youtube "likes" will help her cause.  So, with that in mind, here is Lucy waxing dramatically poetic about what it was like.

Mom was right

A long, long time ago . . .

Mrs. Ref and I were in the position of having to name The Kid that would soon be arriving.

I wanted to name her Andrea, after my maternal Grandfather, if it was a girl.  If it was a boy, I wanted to name it David J Ref.  That's J without a period.  That would accomplish three things -- my maternal Grandfather's middle name was J, my Dad's name was Jim and my Father-in-Law was Joel.  By naming it David J, we could tell each person (except grandpa, who was dead by now) that he was named after him.

It was Brilliant, I tell you . . . Brilliant!

Mrs. Ref overruled that idea.

She wanted to name it Priscilla or something odd like that.  I vetoed that name.  We actually did settle on the boy's name rather quickly -- David Joel.

The girl's name, however, took a little more time.  We eventually settled on a name (and a spelling) that we could agree.  When we notified her mom, my M-i-L, her exact words were, "That's horrible .... that's an old woman's name."

Mrs. Ref responded, "I hope she'll be an old woman some day."

The name stuck.

I've been saying for years that The Kid drives like an old woman.  Why drive the speed limit, when 5 mph under is much safer?  And she wouldn't dream of pulling out into traffic unless there's enough clearance for an airplane to land.

Today she asked me if I wanted to walk over to the bank with her.  Before we left, she came running out of her room all excited.  She had apparently found a "crap-load" of twenties stashed away in a pillow case from her college days.

Yep . . . mom was right.

Good News

Mrs. Ref finally let me take the flannel sheets off the bed.

Thank you.

Dinner Conversations

When you have someone who works in the medical field living in your house, dinner conversations can be rather . . . interesting.

Me:  How was your day?

Mrs. Ref:  It was good.  How was yours?

Me:  Not bad.  I visited a parishioner and filled her in on The Kid.

Mrs. Ref:  How's Parishioner doing?

Me:  Really well.  She's walking again and might be at church on Sunday.

Mrs. Ref:  Oh good . . . OH OH . . . I gotta tell you this!  So we had a mother come in with her kid and a diaper.

Me:  This can't be good .....

Mrs. Ref:  The kid passed an 8" worm and it was in the diaper.  It was the COOLEST thing!!!!

Dinner was good.  Why do you ask?

Distance Learning

The Kid learned how to make palm crosses years ago and she has mad skillz in that department.  She likes to amuse herself by seeing how small of a cross she can make.  One year she made two that could fit on the fingernail of my pinky finger.

Because of this talent, she has overseen the making of palm crosses every year while we were in Montana and the past two years here.  But now she's away to college.

A member of my Altar Guild asked me if she would be home during spring break so she could instruct them again on the tying of palm crosses.

"No, she won't.  However . . . . I bet I could set up a time to skype and she can do it that way."

So I called The Kid and said that the Altar Guild was upset she wouldn't be here this year to show them how to tie palm crosses.

She said, "Well, I could cut strips of paper and we could do it over skype."

"That's EXACTLY what I told them," I said.

"What??!!??  You told them I'd do it without even asking me???"

"You said you'd do it even before I asked, so what's the problem?"

"It's just common courtesy."

"Okay . . . will you show the Altar Guild how to make palm crosses via skype?"

"Yes."

"Great!  I love you."

"I love you too . . . dork."

Trains, Planes and Automobiles

Here's an update for those of you following the adventure:

The Kid called on Thursday and informed me that ALL flights out of KC were cancelled.  The mother of one of her friends managed to find a motel room and invited them all to stay there.

According to The Kid, it's close to a mall and a Barnes & Nobel, so she's got a free continental breakfast, cheap food at the food court, and a room -- which is all good because she got booked on a Sunday flight.

She will be arriving at PDX on Sunday evening.  Timing sucks, though.

Our options included:

1) Me driving to Portland on Sunday after services, spending the night with the girls in the hotel, and then driving home on Monday.  Only problem with this plan is that if the weather is a problem again, I might not be able to get across one of the passes, thereby leaving me stranded and unable to be at church on Monday evening.  Not a problem for most people, but most people also sort of expect the priest to be in attendance on Christmas Eve.

2) Leaving her in Portland until after Christmas and picking her up when things slow down and weather gets better.  Neither Mrs. Ref or The Kid liked that option.

3) Contact all of my priest friends and asking them to do a chain-deliver of her down the I-5 corridor.  Probably not realistic.  Although, the thought of The Kid in multiple priest cars is sort of amusing.

4) Put her on a Greyhound heading south.  Problem:  $137 and seven hours, with the possibility of still not getting across the pass.

5) Fly her from PDX to our regional airport.  Problem:  $432 (for two) -- ouch.  Benefits:  We don't have to drive to Portland AND I found a flight back that puts her in the airport on the same day and a few hours before her flight back to KC.

We chose option 5.  We're out a few hundred bucks, but things should work out much better in the end.

Oh . . . and we've put "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" next up on our Netflix list  and we'll watch that with the girls when they get in.

Merry Christmas

College Road Trip Post #2

We made our way from Rapid City, SD to Omaha, NE today.  Another long day on the road, but we had some bits of humor and rest.

We stopped at Wall Drug (doesn't everybody) and wandered around for a little bit.  We didn't buy anything but drinks, although I'm sure you could spend a bunch of money on souvenirs if you so desired.

Making our way across SD, I saw something I've never seen before:  The woman on the back of a motorcycle was reading a book.  I suppose if you're riding along and there's not much to look at except the miles and miles of miles and miles that is South Dakota, reading a book is a good option.

And yesterday, before heading to bed, I managed to complete the football rules test.  It's all done online, so I was able to take it while at the hotel.  I only scored 93 percent this year, but since I'm on the road, I'm not going to make the effort to go back and try to improve that.

The other issue is that, with it being online, I never know which questions I miss.  Which is slightly annoying, because I have no way of studying up on those questions.

So, here we are, in Omaha, recovering from hours in the car, and looking forward to one more average-length trip tomorrow before we can spend a few days in College Town.

Woo hoo.

Rocks of faith

When I first moved to the little town and smaller church in SW Montana, one of my first big projects was to get them to allow me to install a labyrinth in the yard. It wasn't gorgeous, but it was functional, and it was big. I used a ton (well, maybe a quarter ton) of rocks from the local tailing piles to lay it out. I took a picture of it and it's somewhere on my blog.

It actually got a fair amount of use from both parishioners, townsfolk and passersby.

Shortly after I left, the congregation saw fit to remove that labyrinth (something about mowing the yard). It may return again someday in a better form, who knows.

In today's mail was one of those "if it fits, it ships" boxes from the USPS that weighed more than it should have. When I opened it up, there was one of the rocks from the labyrinth with the signatures of the majority of my former parishioners.

Rocks of faith, indeed.

Sunday morning out of the office

As noted below, we have been off visiting my in-laws over this long weekend. This is one of the few times I get to sit in a pew as a nameless and soon-to-be-forgotten visitor; and I try to check my liturgical snobbery at the door.

When visiting my in-laws, we always (or almost always) attend the local Episcopal church. We've been there enough that people usually have some recognition of us.

This particular visit we convinced the in-laws to go with us. We met their new rector (who has some things to clean up, but I'm convinced he's the right guy for the job), chatted with a friend of mom, and hope that, after we leave, the parents will begin to make connections and find a home where they can tap into a support system that will help them through the issues that they currently face.

All Gone

I drove Daughter #2 up to Portland this past Monday. We spent the night with some friends from the old town, and then I took her to the airport Tuesday morning where I saw her off through the security gate. Not quite the same as seeing people off on the plane, but there you have it.

I drove Daughter #1 and Sis up to the halfway point between here and Portland where the other host family met us and took over. Daughter #5 rode with us to keep me company on the way home, but I really think it was so she could have a few last hours with them.

I did enjoy having them all here. I'm also glad I don't have to feed them all on a permanent basis. And it still sucks saying goodbye.

Really Happy

I now have all of the girls. I picked up Julie and her sister, Bruna, last night. The "in-laws" brought them down from the airport to the half-way point. They had some flight issues, so didn't get in until later than expected. But it worked out and we've got them now.

So I drove up to get them with the car loaded full of the rest of them. After making the switch, we drove home, stopping at a Shari's restaurant for dinner. Gathered around the table were The Kid, Emma, Su, Julie, Bruna and myself.

And, despite all of my earlier rumblings about an overload of estrogen and needing to escape to a Man Cave somewhere, as I watched all of them at the table chatting and laughing, I knew it was all a facade.

Because I am really very happy to have all of my girls back home and wouldn't miss this for anything.

Or not

Turns out that the other two girls are going to be arriving on Friday after all. So I'll be making another road trip north on Friday. The girls are hiding their visit from "little sister" so that it will truly be a surprise for her 16th birthday.

And that's okay. Looking forward to seeing Julie (Daughter #1) again, and meeting her sister for the first time.

And then I'm looking at finding a way to sneak into the vacant house across the street for awhile; because, really, think about this:

Mrs. Ref, The Kid, Daughters #1, #2, #5 and Daughter #1's sister . . . and then me . . . all under one roof.

Anyone out there have a free Man Cave I can use?

One down . . .

Two to go.

I drove up to Salem today and picked up the first incoming daughter. A friend living in Portland picked her up at the airport and drove her down to Salem. What a pal.

I left the house at 6:45 a.m. and we arrived back here at 2 p.m. Lucky for me our other two arrivals are being driven all the way down. And they will be here Saturday.

I'm happy, excited and ready for a nap.

Good day

I had the day off in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. I must confess that I didn't do anything worthwhile in that regard .... didn't march in any parades, didn't get on the news to be interviewed about the significance of the Rev. Dr. King and his legacy, and didn't get myself thrown in jail for, well, for anything.

Instead, I slept in until 7:15, showered, and walked downtown to meet with several of the guys from the congregation for our twice-monthly breakfast. It was a small group, but we had a good discussion about stuff in general -- sports, pay scales, emergent technology and how that impacts our idea of community and church, and ideas for an adult forum program.

Then I walked home and didn't do much of anything until we took a little afternoon road trip to Crescent City, CA and the ocean. Crescent City is a nice little town, but the beach is more rocky than beach. But it was nice to see the Pacific again, and our exchange student was thrilled. Next time we'll plan better and get over to an Oregon beach.

Came home and walked down to a Chinese restaurant to celebrate a birthday and new job (not me . . . Mrs. Ref).

And tomorrow I'm being interviewed by the local paper to "introduce" me to the community -- or something like that. Wonder if they'll be taking a picture?

"Hey . . . does this collar make my butt look big?" Or something like that . . . .

Unexpected Tears

Things continue to move along. Our packing is coming to an end and we're getting to the point where everything else is up to the movers and resisting the urge to give up and take everything else to the dump.

The movers are scheduled to be here Monday and deliver a week from this coming Tuesday. We have a Not To Exceed bid in hand, so that's good.

The rental house has been finalized (rental agreement in the mail), so we definitely have a place to land.

I called the church today and made sure the secretary knew when I would be arriving and to have all the keys ready for me. Also spoke with the interim priest to make sure I wouldn't be in her way during my planned unpacking and organizing of the office.

I cleaned up the dishes from lunch and on my way back through the dining room I happened to look out the window and saw cars that belonged to Alice, Frank & Bev, Bill, Janis & David and Vi. They are all next door at the parish hall organizing and preparing for the going away party tomorrow night. And it brought tears to my eyes.

Certainly looking forward to the new place, but this part of the leaving sucks. There are some things I will not miss about this place -- like sweeping up dead flies before Sunday service and frozen water in the baptismal font (well, actually, that was kind of funny; and it made emptying said font rather easy). But then there will be things I will most definitely miss, and the above named parishioners are high on that list.

Watch this space

News forthcoming.

That is all for now.

If you ever thought . . .

that your family is weird, strange, embarrassing, well . . . now you have something to compare to.

New goal in life: To NEVER appear on this website.

Schedules

My life, especially my morning life, needs to run on a schedule. With three women in the house, two students to get out the door and two jobs to get too, it's imperative that people set their alarms for the proper time, get up and get moving so that we all can get done what needs to get done when it needs to get done so that we all can be where we need to be on time.

In short, we are pretty much like most every other family, so most (if not all) people reading this blog understand what I'm talking about.

Today that didn't happen.

And, like Forest Gump, that's all I've got to say about that.

The End is Near

Coming up on the final days of Family Camp. It's been pretty decent over all. We only really had one icky day and one blasted hot day; the rest of them have been almost perfect.

I pulled the last two quarters out of ears this afternoon.

I finished the sermon for Sunday, because I don't think my parishioners would like me coming back and saying, "So . . . I was laying out on the dock all week and just didn't get that sermon written."

And we are now down to the "faithful remnant." Family camp is sort of a come-and-go affair; rather laid back. Most people come for a few days and then leave. But a few are here for the duration. And it's always funny to watch how that takes place.

The adults have had a good discussion around Romans 8:31-39 and nobody has run screaming from the chapel after my impromptu sermons. So life is good.

But now it's about time for the afternoon nap. Tomorrow is the drive home and the return to reality.

Welcome Home

Today we are packing up for our annual stint at Family Camp.

Tomorrow we trade The Boy for The Kid.

And tomorrow I'll have my girl back.

Welcome home . . . we've missed you.