Preperations

It is Wednesday April 13th, 2011. I have taken these days off to get prepared for the wedding that Lindsey has been preparing for the past year! Many little things have happened before we could get to this week, along with much excitement we are here... getting ready! Today Grams and I go to Walmart to pick up groceries for snacks, and for Sunday supper, to get a few things that Lindsey needs. We arrive back home and unload grams stuff and then mine... now it is to Tranquility. Kim trims and dyes my hair, when I get home for the first time in my life Curt says "Wow! you look like you are 30 years old!". Thanks Kim!

It is Thursday April 14th, 2011. Today I go to Glencoe to pick up Lindsey and my dress's from the Temple. They were being pressed there. Carefully loaded in the car I head to Coborns to pick up a few more groceries that were on sale. When I get back to ARlington I drop off grams groceries and head to church. Lindsey and Amanda will meet me there, and Liz is coming also.
Pop and chips - check
Wedding dress - check
Flowers - check
Moms dress - check
Wedding cake stuff - check
It is about 1:00pm and we are ready to start the flowers and cake!
Amanda gets settled in the big kitchen at the Methodist Church... she is happy of the size and soon her assistant Liz will be arriving.
Lindsey gets set out on the other cupboard to get moving on the flowers. They are eating subways, laughing, looking pretty and having a great time!

It is 4:00pm and mom and I leave for Foley. We arrive at the school just in time to get prime seats for the concert. Jaci Anna is preforming her 1st grade spring concert and we are so thankful to be able to get to see her! They sing some adorable songs and Jaci does some dancing with scarfs. We didn't get to see that it was her until she was done - but, we know of course that she did a great job!! We load up Conner D and some of the Harren's stuff for the wedding and head for home. Conner is sleeping when we arrive so I bring him in and lay him in bed with his papa. He is out for the night! I take grams home, and head up to the church...

It is 11:00pm and the girls are getting ready to leave the church and go to the motel in Gaylord where Amanda has a room. I finish picking up things at the church and head home myself. It is 4:00 am... time for sleep as Friday is another day! (oh I guess it is Friday)

On Friday morning the girls come and pick me up and we head to Mankato to meet Starla and get our pedicures and manicures. We do some laughing and relaxing... this was sure a good idea!

It is 1:00pm and we meet everyone at the community hall to do the decorating. Liz and Amanda will continue with the cakes and they also have recruited Liz's boyfriend Dave! He definitely adds a new dimension to the idea of how to decorate a cupcake!

It is 6:00pm time to be at the church for the wedding rehearsal. Justin is here early to sing "Butterfly kisses" with Jan for the first time - it is beautiful. The Praise Team is here and they practice their songs - they are beautiful. All the attendants, groomsmen and family members are here and accounted for and the most important... the pastor... and I couldn't feel more joy inside my soul! Everything goes wonderful with the rehearsal and we head to the Arlington Haus for the grooms supper. Julie and Jim did a wonderful job of deciding on the meals and making everyone feel comfortable. It was the end of an absolutely wonderful day.

It is 9:00pm and we all head to where we are staying. All of my family is in my home! And boy that family has grown! Lindsey takes the blow up bed in the family room. Chris, JaciAnna, and Conner are in Ann's room, Lacey, K, and Nola Jean are upstairs, Emi, Taylor and Jordyn Noel are in Lila's room - dad and I in our room.
The Johnsons and their families went to Gaylord along with the cupcake decorator, and Starla and Liz.

We turn out the lights...
Tomorrow is the day!

Alzhiemers

Today she wakes up and touches life again... you never know how it will be. Will she wake up and know her place? Know that the Lord has chosen for her to stay here on this earth one more day? How hard it must be to not remember your family - the family that you do remember and that you want to find.. well, they are all dead......
they have been gone for many years.

I love to hear her stories. Okay, I admit they don't line up with the facts that followed her here. The facts that are written, they tell us how much she weighs, her birth date, how many children that she has and that her husband has been deceased for years.
But, those aren't the stories she tells me. One day I came into the area, I asked her "well my friend how are you doing to day?"
She gave me the biggest smile you ever did see and said...
"how does any young lady feel on her wedding day?"
Her face beamed of a love that she was so obviously feeling. Was she remembering the day she got married, or was she dreaming of the way she wanted to feel again? I didn't want to take her from where ever she was... I squeezed her hand and hugged her.
At this moment I didn't really care what any of the specialists say - I was happy for her. I took it in and made a conscious effort that if something like this ever happens in my family, I will not be sad. I will accept the day and take it into my heart realizing that everything changes.
I will accept the fact that mother doesn't know me, that I don't know my children, and I will be happy that my smile can be given to someone. I will be happy that someone's touch as they give care will remind me of things that happened in my life.

...today she is crying, sitting in her wheel-chair, and holding the hand of the man sitting next to her. He looks bewildered but doesn't move as her warm tears wash over his hand. I go over to try to comfort her and put my arm around her shoulders gently trying to release her hand from his.
She says... "I love him so much".
At this moment I didn't really care what the house rules were. She shouldn't be crying over some man she doesn't know and "bothering" him. He has his rights you know. I gently tell him that I will work on it and he smiles looking like a puppy just being taken from it's mother.
"It is time, we need to go, we will go to your room and get some rest so you feel better, I think he knows how very much you love him"
"Will you take care of him, I love him so"
"Yes, I will, I promise he will be taken care of while you go get some much needed rest"
"Okay then, I think that will help if I lay down"
and so we go to her 1/2 room, with the twin size bed and the TV that has never been turned on. She gets the help she needs to lay down and I give her a kleenex to wipe the tears.
And I think to myself why does this happen? What is it that is in God's plan here in this place?
And I realize maybe it is all for me
maybe it is for all of us
to know that life here isn't always what we expect
there are disappointments,
failures,
fear,
lonesomeness,
trials.
But through all of it there is glimpses of that feeling of love.
The love that comes from our Lord.
That hope that when we get to Heaven we will understand.
And until then...
I will make a conscious effort to show His love to anyone needing a touch.
I will continue to try to understand...
how our mind works - when others think it isn't.
And I hope I will always remember how she felt on her wedding day as a new bride, even when the tears that flow for her love, are for a man she doesn't know.

Milk

He works at "Quick Shop", a young rugged kind of handsome. The forearms show tattoo's of a dark color with some kind of writing on them - try as I might I haven't figured out what they say. Wearing jeans and t-shirts he appears to be nervous, but trying hard to be kind person. Smile slightly to the side and eyes that can't look at you.
Tonight I am there, at 10:00 to get milk, we have been out for 2 days and I just can't face another morning with the disappointment of no milk for their cereal. He is standing outside by a maroon grand-am, smoking a cigarette. Inside the car I see a girl, and she is so sad - or is it mad? I wonder as I get out of my car and pray for them. I wonder what kind of bitterness has already been stirred up in her heart. Two kids in the back, both in car seats - one is screaming...
he opens the door to give the baby a little comfort as she sits behind the wheel puffing the heck out of a cigarette...
he needs to get back in to check-out the milk and the other people who have driven up after me to make purchases...
as I leave with my milk, i try to make eye contact with her, her head is bowed at the wheel, car running, babies screaming
and she doesn't see me smile at her
she doesn't know that I have just asked Jesus to comfort her where she is -
to show her that she is loved and it will all be okay...
to see the good in her husband even when she can't see it...
to love him so that he can love her back -
most of all
for the children...
I start up my car and I realize why I had forgotten milk until this moment.

Josh and his girl... (s)

Lindsey is engaged! We had a shower for her on March 5th 2011. It was at Amberfield Apartments and was put on by her wedding party along with Carol, Robin and Missy. It was a pre- celebration of the coming together of two families and their friends.
Lindsey and Josh have been going out for 5 years, through those years Jaci Anna has grown to love him so very much.
You can imagine her surprise when she found out at the shower that he had two other pretty girls in his life! They were Josh's sisters, Jori and Jenna. Jaci Anna sat at their table with them and they all got to be friends...
friends and family who would always share their love for Josh Joshnson!
You can't begin to imagine my joy as all these girls come together in one place!
...and even though Josh wasn't there...
you could tell how very much he is loved,
by a whole lot of girls!

Irish by birth

My dad, the big "moose" was born on St.Patrick's day, 1934. He weighed 3 pounds. It was always a favorite story of the Meyer's to tell how he was born at home and the midwife didn't think he would make it. They swaddled him up and put him in a shoebox and kept him by the oven door for warmth. Well, that 3 pound baby boy came home from the service at 6' 4" weighing over 220 pounds!!
Through the years I remember people talking about what "nationality" they were, and Meyer was of course - so they said, German. If you would ask my dad he would say he was Irish. Any body born on March 17th must be Irish!
This year when we went to pick up gramma Dorius from the Harren's it was on March 17th. Emily had all the kids dressed in green for the day.
Looks like Grandpa Moose's Irish genes have been passed on!

The landing zone...

Remember when I told you that Clohe got kicked out of Foley...
Well I'll be...
Look where she landed!!!

Sold to the gramma in the second row!

Grandma Doris found this little find at a garage sale in Arlington. She saw it but didn't buy it as it was $35.00 and not really something we needed for our Jaci Anna. When I talked to mom at the end of the day she told me all about it, how cute it was, and although it was quite a bit of money for a "not needed" purchase... well, it sure was cute! I agreed it sounded wonderful and although $35 was a lot, I would pay for half. Okay, so that would be $17.50 a piece... not bad for a "not needed" purchase.
If it was there on Saturday when Grandma went back the chair would be ours...
if it wasn't then we would know that someone who needed it, got it!
Saturday: The chair is still there, she picks it up with a little bit of excietment - perhaps knowing how sweet our little girls will look in it when the camera lens captures the moment! She holds tight and goes to the check out table...
SOLD!!!
And as you can see by this picture our Jaci Anna has enjoyed her chair... it has been used for many pictures, many story books.
And now, we have our Nola Jean, and Jordyn Noel...
I am thinking our "not needed" purchase will indeed be put to good use!