Sun., July 20 - Tue., July 22

Hello.






The Nasturtiums are getting very tall. I'm starting to wonder if they're going to bush out and start blooming at all. I'll keep you posted. Can you see the dirt splatter on the under sides of the basil? The rain that fell Sunday night/Monday morning really made a splash!


This is the view out our (front) bedroom window.


Here is the view out the side window.


This is our house with the tree on it - in the daylight; I took these next couple pictures before we left for the funeral, in case 'they' arrived to start cutting down the tree before we got back that afternoon.


Here is N - wet hair and all- standing in the picture to help with perspective. The back edge of the house can be seen (barely) half way down the fallen trunk of the tree.


This is the vertical picture. TALL tree [as they all are in the back yard].


Here is what it looks like from the back yard, taken post-funeral.


Thought I'd include a picture of our garden progress. Those are the tomatoes on the left. Green onions grow on the far left. Center row is broccoli & cauliflower, and some peppers. A row of beans can be seen. The climbing peas are doing, basically, nothing; it's probably too hot??



With all the chaos, laundry has taken a back seat. This might be the tallest the laundry pile has, maybe ever(?) been. I worked it down a ways today....



The best news in a while happened today. We picked up our WONderful new vehicle. Nope, not new ... "new to us." ;) It's a 2000 Windstar (not 1999, as we'd originally thought) which we are purchasing through payments to a church friend - only $3000. I feel like HIGH STYLE in this thing!!!!! It is ssssso nice! I think it's the nicest vehicle we've ever owned. The Subaru is probably equally nice, once every little is considered ... except the van is a little newer and bigger. :)









Sunday went absolutely as well as could possibly be expected. After much deliberation and prayer, the elders left it up to Jeremy whether to present his previously-prepared sermon, or the newly-prepared "grieving" sermon. They said, "Deliver the one which will be best for *you* and help *your* heart through this weekend, and that is the one that will be best for the congregation as well." (sigh) I'm sure the lesson will be available online sooner or later. It definitely 'hit the spot', so to speak. Evidently many, many were touched by the message. It almost felt like a funeral, in and of itself. However, that couldn't have been avoided ... and *shouldn't* have been attempted to be avoided.... Since we knew the children would have a long, hard day on Monday, I stayed home Sunday afternoon to nap them while Jeremy attended the visitation at the funeral home. Then, I subbed for Jeremy's and Elaine's parts in the VBS skits at play practice which was at 5pm, and Jeremy was till tied up at the visitation and Elaine was at work. It's a "Jerusalem Marketplace" VBS - the last week of Jesus's life. Justus's role in the play is Malchus. His line is, "Owwwwww!" heehee

Sunday evening we spent in Indianola with Mitch & Jo + their children and the Baileys'. It was refreshing and fun, yet (later) serious and convicting regarding, especially, the church's role during the difficult times of its members; there has been much conviction about that during the past few weeks. The spiritual benefit was such that we didn't leave until 11:30. uggh We didn't expect to lose yet another hour of sleep to the storm. (sigh)

Monday dawned early, but with much curiosity about what had gone on outside that night!! The funeral was ... amazing. It was awful in that way that all funerals are, but ... well, it might be best explained if I paraphrase some words that came to the church through the 'Contact Us' link at its Web site. A man who had been a friend and co-worker of the young man's father, until the father's death not even 2 years ago, spoke of sharing with the father (his friend) the burden of the complications and difficulties through the years ... and even after the father's death ... and then to have heard this news. He wrote something like, "I walked into your church carrying all of that heavy burden, and could never have expected that the service would not only lift all of that burden from my heart, but actually turn it to joy because of all the good things from his life." It also said something about him being thankful to have been blessed by the church's 'community' and thankful that the mom is part of it. Good: The church doing what it's supposed to be doing. Amen!

Jeremy and Elaine helped take stuff from the building back to the mom's house after the funeral, and then in the afternoon/evening, while J, N, and Elaine napped, Jeremy and I went on a much-needed, much-appreciated date. We got to see the new Batman movie, which we'd been hoping to see; it felt good to escape our most-recent reality for a couple hours. Then Jeremy took me to a really nice steakhouse for dinner. All this was thanks to an unexpected amount of income received from the funeral home for Jeremy's work putting the service together; what a surprise that was! >>huh!<< With the other half, he took the children out today for some much-needed, much-appreciated Daddy Time, while I caught up on some house stuff. He gave them each $20 to spend at Toys-R-Us. N bought 2 Mad Libs books (her newest fun discovery) and has some $ left over. Justus bought a pirate set (pictures to come), and also has some $ left over. Then they got ice cream at an ice cream shop we recently discovered that's just a few blocks from us.

This evening we had our second visit of the day from the power company, trying to figure out what to do with our tree situation. It was decided (just now?!!!??? lol) that it is safe to leave it there for another night and let us have power through the night. (Phew!) There is a double-appointment in the a.m. for tree-cutting people to be here at the same time as the power company, to 'drop the line' so it's safe for the tree to be cut away from the house (pictures to come). While we were waiting for the power company guy I was able to get a little outside work done. The temp was a not-too-humid 82, and the shade was remarkably comfortable. YAY.

I had a good conversation tonight with the young man's mom, basically just checking in. She'd talked to her son's therapist for a long time today, which was really good. She is being well-supported, and is doing a good job, now that all the 'hype' and busy-ness is past, of taking it easy and putting one foot in front of the other through this week. Jeremy and I get some more time with her on Friday. Stay tuned. ;)