Buggy Thoughts

"The Greatest Gift"

Thanks to Carlos Whitaker for posting this.  Thanking God for my greatest gift! 

The Greatest Gift from Carlos Whittaker on Vimeo.

 

Mom's and Daughters

If you’re a daughter or a mom I’m sure that you’’ll agree with me that the fair majority of mom’s and daughter’s have some kind of a “love/hate” relationship going.  It’s just a law of nature.  I’ll admit that I truly have that type of relationship with my mom.  There have been times and still are when she was and/or is my hero and everything that I want to be.  And times when she is not on the top of my list and there’s no way I want to be like her. 

But, no matter where we were in our relationship my mom is the one that has always been clued in on what is going on in my life.  When I was in high school my mom worked at my school.  Most kids would’ve been totally embarrassed to have their mom as a “hall monitor”.  But, it never bothered me and I actually enjoyed having her there during the day.  Yes, she knew some of my friends that I wish she didn’t know and at times I felt I was held to a higher level of expectation that the other students and not able to get away with some things but for some reason it really never occurred to me that I was supposed to be upset by her presence.  She’s the one that after I got married and I couldn’t remember how to cook something or wanted to ask her why something didn’t turn out (like my failed Christmas cookies)  I only had to pick up the phone.  There were times that although I could remember I’d just call her to make her feel as if she was still needed for advice.   She’s the one that when there was news about the kids or just general goings on in our lives that we would call and fill her and my dad in on what what happening.  And they’re the ones that when there was an imminent move in our future they were the first to know outside of our dis.  I’ve always found it difficult as a child and married adult not to tell her what was going on.

This past year, though, my mom was placed in a nursing home.  There are times she’s with the moment and then there are times she’s not with the moment, which are more often than not.  So, when our niece and her husband had their first baby and then we discovered that we are going to be grandparents for the first time it was strange and difficult to know that she really doesn’t have a clue that she has a new great-grandchild and another one on the way.  With our son and daughter-in-laws move to CT and our move to TX what is equally strange and weird is to realize that for the first time in my life my mom doesn’t have a clue where we are or what we are doing. 

It feels strange......

Memories

Having lived in the Madison, WI area we tend to travel over that way quite a bit to do some shopping.  I remember when we first lived there we came across a small town between Platteville, WI and Dubuque, IA called Dickeyville.  It's funny how something as obtuse as a town name can bring back memories of something or someone.  So, it didn't surprise me not too long ago on one of our excursions to Madison that as we passed the Dickeyville exit Jon remarked that when he sees the name of the town it makes him think of my Grandma Petery.  I definitely had to agree with him.  You see my Grandma had a little ditty, Two Little Dickey Birds,  that she would do to entertain any of us kids, including our own, when we were little.  Here's how it would go.  Imagine a little piece of kleenex stuck on the tip of each of her index fingers pointing upwards as the "dickey birds".  Hands closed in a fist with only the "dickey birds" in view she would recite....

Two little dickey birds sitting on a hill.

One named Jack, and one named Jill

Fly away Jack. Fly away Jill. 

Come back Jack. Come back Jill

As they flew away her hands would gracefully fly behind her shoulder and as they came back the little pieces of kleenex would be gone!  We were amazed!  Where did the dickey birds go!  Gramma was a magician because whenever any of us tried it somehow the kleenex was still stuck to our finger!  

I have to admit this is really a silly memory, but there are just somethings that trigger those memories. Especially when you had a Gramma that was as awesome and wonderful as my Gramma Petery was!  So here's to you Gram- Dickeyville, WI is in your honor!

Blessed Adoption!

The son and daughter-in-law of some friends of ours just adopted a little girl.  Amidst all the sad and disturbing news that seems to hit the internet and TV stations anymore I just really wanted to share this most heartwarming video of Raja's adoption.   No further words are necessary. You may want to have some kleenex ready!  Congratulations Tom, Traci and Raja and thanks Deb for posting this.

via www.facebook.com

99 Balloons

Just wanted to share a reminder of the glory our most loving and gracious God.

Thankful & Blessed!

Today as we decorated our Christmas tree and we looked and talked about our ornaments and decorations through the house and all the memories that they all hold I thought back upon all that I have been blessed with and so thankful for.....

1.  I'm thankful that we have been blessed with two wonderful sons who have given us so much joy, fun, memories, love, laughter and have taught me so much as they've grown into wonderful young men!  Words can't describe how proud we are to be their parents!

2.  I'm thankful that we have been blessed by two equally as wonderful daughter-in-laws that love our sons and have become such a big part of our lives.  They too bring us so much joy, fun, love, laughter as we grow together as a family making new memories and traditions!  Again, words can't describe how proud we are to be their in-laws!

3.  I'm thankful that we have been blessed with so many friends that we can't keep up with visiting them all!  We've met so many people that have become such an important part of our family's life and they continue to be a very important part of our lives to this day!  We love you all!

4.  I'm thankful that I have been blessed with a life that I can look back at so many family memories and traditions that make me smile, laugh, cry, become sentimental and melancholy and some that I'd like to forget!  And I can't wait as we create more memories and make new traditions!  

5.  Most of all I'm thankful that I have been blessed with the most wonderful husband, soul mate, helper, and best friend in all the world!  Someone that puts up with my moods, laughs or rolls his eyes at me when I'm acting silly or stupid, endures my organizational skills and neat freak personality and allows me to walk by his side throughout his ministry career!  Words can't describe how proud I am to be his wife! 

6. And I'm blessed and thankful for our most awesome, magnificant, and loving God that just loves me for who and what I am.  I'm amazed at the grace that He pours down on me each and every day!  He most certainly is an amazing God!  Thank you Jesus!

I know for myself that even though the Thanksgiving holiday is behind me and the rush into Christmas begins I'm going to be looking at my "memory" Christmas tree and remembering how blessed and thankful I am!  It's going to be a wonderful Christmas season!

What I Did this summer!

Remember when you were a kid and had to write that dreaded essay "What I did on my summer vacation".  Well I remember and I always had trouble writing that essay because, believe it or not, I really didn't like to write!  So as I sat this morning realizing that it's Sept. 2 and summer is just about over I thought about what a busy and fun-filled summer this was.  Our summer vacation at our Paradise Home, Marco Island, so many long-time friends (it still feels funny not to have our sons there), county fairs, the loading of a moving truck once again but not for us this time but for Justin and Susie, summer walks along our favorite trail along Indian Creek in Marion (which is now closed until Oct. 15 due to more floods), our new Sunday activity with Keith and Cheryl (we're calling them our "old people drives") to Park Farm Winery, stops along the way at Culver's, squeezing in visits to Justin and Susie in Waconia and Brett & Heather in Minneapolis, our annual trek to Okoboji for my Lutheran Services in Iowa and last but not least our most recent "old people drive" to Madison, WI where we had a chance to show Keith and Cheryl the campus of U-W, Mount Horeb and where our church was in Daleyville.  Sadly the sun has set on summer as we head into the Labor Day weekend.  But the fun that we had this summer has given us more memories to look back on and we head into the fall season looking forward to creating more memories.
So I'd like to just share a little of our summer with you all.  I know this may be a little long, but by now I'm sure you've all gathered that we really love to take pictures!  Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Gentlemen start your engines!

Today is the Indy 500 and a day filled with really cool memories! This was always the weekend that my folks would open up the pool at home and I remember listening to the race on the radio as we pulled the cover, hosed down the pool deck, pulled out the lawn chairs and could hardly wait until the water was sparkling clean and ready for us to swim. A Memorial Day tradition in the Rath household which continued after we were married and moved away. For some reason the Indy 500 captured my attention and became our family tradition, even listening to it whenever I had to work on that Sunday of the race. So, you can imagine the excitement in our family the year that Brett was living in Indy and got to go to the race. I remember telling Jon it would be so awesome if he called from the track and no sooner had I said that my phone rang. “Mom, I’m at the track at it’s awesome”. Of course all I could hear was the vroommmm of the cars as they sped by and a very faint voice telling me how cool it was. The race was called part-way through because of rain, but just being there was enough for Brett. I remember the next year when Justin & Susie got married Brett’s remark to his brother was “I must really love you- I’m missing the Indy 500 for your wedding”! As Jon and I turned the TV on this afternoon, listened to Jim Nabors sing “Back Home Again In Indiana” and heard the traditional “Gentlemen (and ladies, now) start your engines, the memories all come flooding back. I couldn’t resist sending Brett and text today as the opening ceremonies began- “Gentlemen start your engines”. Yep, he’ll probably think his mom has totally lost it, but deep down inside I know it will also bring back some sweet memories for him as well. What an awesome start to an even more wonderful holiday weekend!

Friday Thoughts

Just some thoughts that popped into my head as we sat watching “The Today Show” this morning. Last weekend we headed up to Minneapolis to celebrate Brett’s birthday. As usual, it was up to the birthday person to be the cruise director for the celebration. Our bunch always find the coolest things to do when we visit them, so not only were we excited to be heading up to visit with them and for Brett’s birthday, the first that we’ve been able to celebrate all together as a family in about 5 years, but we were waiting to see what he had planned for the weekend. Friday night we headed across the street to a new restaurant that was just opening up that evening, Victory 44. A small restaurant, but one with great atmosphere, bright, eclectic and soon filled to the brim. We were treated to a complimentary bottle of wine for their grand opening. The menus were clipped to a clipboard, so we figured that it will be a rotating menu since it was fairly limited. Between the 6 of us Jon and Justin has a sausage roll with salt & vinegar fries (actually it was a smoked kielbasa), Susie and I had an apple walnut salad, which was just a bit tiny but very tasty. Heather had fish and chips, which both she and Brett concurred that it was delicious. Brett ordered a burger with an egg on top (I think he was the most adventurous). The food was absolutely delicious, but unfortunately we all agreed that they weren’t really expecting such a huge crowd for their opening as the service was quite slow. Despite several reminders to the waitress Brett never received his food until we were all totally finished with ours. Not to worry though as we were most pleasantly surprised when we were not charged for any of our food and we most definitely will try it again. And Heather’s homemade chocolate cupcakes with an almond flavored frosting really helped cap off the night. Sat. was amazing! Brett had planned for us to go to the Festival of Nations in St. Paul. Being the festival junkies that we all are we were really looking forward to the day. It was amazing. The lower level of the RiverCenter was filled with food booths galore from just about every country you could imagine. My eye quickly caught the cream puffs as big as softballs at the Denmark booth. It was too early to eat just yet so we headed to the bazaar area first. I’ve not seen so many different colorful booths filled with items from all over the world. It was really so cool to see the variety of items, folks in native dress, entertainment from around the world and just a hodge podge of all nationalities. Of course, hunger took over so we headed back to the food area. We had food from Taiwan, Columbia, Turkey, Greece & Poland. I do have to admit that there were some countries that I figured if I were to visit them I’d come back pretty skinny- take Africa and India off my list of gastronomical wonders! Upstairs there were cultural exhibits that focused on what each country is well know for inventing, developing etc. It was such a reminder of how diverse my life had been growing up in Cleveland and then as we’ve moved around serving churches with so many different heritages, Norwegian, Danish, German, etc. It was a really awesome afternoon! [gallery link="file"] So here are where my thoughts come in. This morning we the Today Show crew was at the Statue of Liberty and then Ellis Island. I’ve not ever visited either place, but they talked about how being there made them so proud to be an American and the emotion behind what each place stands for. I would love to visit Ellis Island as we both have relatives that probably somewhere along the way came through there either from Yugoslavia or Ireland or England. I was putting myself in the place of the immigrants as they came off the boat into a country where they maybe knew no one, didn’t speak the language, maybe left families behind, were very young, had no job and no idea where they were going to go or what they were going to do. They weren’t even guaranteed entry into the country! Enter into the big hall, filled with 12,000 people, all kinds of languages being spoken, sitting on a bench and waiting for your name to be called and not knowing where you were headed when they pointed you towards the stairway divided into 3 sections. Were you going to be sent down the middle section that meant you were not being admitted? Had you received a train ticket and were being sent down the right side of the staircase and being sent west? Or were you headed down the left side and staying in New York/New Jersey and maybe there were relatives down there waiting to warmly welcome you into the country? What a daunting adventure our immigrant relatives went through! I don’t think I would have been that brave. It truly makes me think of all the people that continue to enter our country because it gives them a life that they may not have in their own country. We are so blessed by what God has given us here in our country and we are so blessed to be able to be a blessing to those looking for a better life for themselves and their families. I think sometimes we tend to forget how lucky we really are. So those are my Friday thoughts! Hope you all can glean something from it, if nothing more than just some enjoyment from my little buggy brain! Be blessed everyone and have a great weekend!

Photos, Photos, everywhere!

In looking for some old photos for Friday night when we get together with my high school friend Jon and I decided that we need to get all of our pictures of the kids on the computer and then on a DVD.  We have a boat load of photo albums that I’ve filled throughout the 32 years we’ve been married, a fair amount of my own photos that I took as a kids, plus this big bankers box of photos that never made it into albums starting in 1981. Thank goodness a couple of years ago I decided to categorize all the photos in the box by year. So, right now I've started with the easiest task and decided to tackle the box first beginning in 1981 work my way through up to the albums and other photo boxes stacked sky high in a closet.  How am I doing? Well, let’s just say that so far 2 pictures have gone off in e-mail to the kids and that’s only out of 2/3 packs from 1981! Guess I’m a little engrossed in looking at the pictures. Funny how I can really remember where and when they were taken! It’s been fun so far and I’ve already warned the guys that there will be more coming. And Lisa, Andy, Shavonne, Eric, Joel if you’re reading this- beware. And to all of J &B’s friends on facebook--- I haven’t even gotten to the high school ones yet! Don’t worry I’ll be kind. :-)