Friends, it's been forever since we've talked! But know that I have thought of you quite often as blog-able events occur, from the story of the pygmy rattlesnake, to our plans for Boston next weekend, to our Columbus trip, to our new friends at The Office. Well, I'd better dive in.
Three weeks ago Brad and I went to Columbus for a visit. Grandma Bressler is battling cancer and we wanted to visit her, as well as visit other friends and also consume frightening amounts of Columbus pizza.
We arrived via a stop in Baltimore on Friday night late on Southwest Airlines. We learned after the first leg of the trip that there is a strategy to getting more space for yourself: if there are two of you, find an empty row and sit one on the window side and one on the aisle. That leaves only the middle seat open, and few people will choose that seat, unlike leaving the aisle seat open-- more risky. Smart travelers are we.
We checked into a Marriott Courtyard hotel, thanks to Priceline.com. To our great delight, there was a Donato's Pizza just down the street... which delivers until midnight. We enjoyed a pepperoni-and-bacon at about 11:45 p.m. before settling down to sleep. So began the consumption of large amounts of pizza. Note to self: you're not 20 anymore. Pepperoni, bacon, and cheese at midnight do not make for happy, acid-free sleep. Note to Brad: you're not 20 anymore, either. Lots of pizza, starting at midnight, does not a happy belly make.
Saturday morning we slept in and then went back to the airport to rent a car, thanks again to Priceline. We drove around a bit for a reason I don't remember and ended up at another Donato's Pizza for a second pepperoni-and-bacon. Afterward we headed to Grandma Bressler's house and had a great time going through old pictures with her. Ralph had given us a stack of old black and whites that only she would recognize.
It made for easy and fun conversation, which was a bit of a relief. What does one say to someone with a terminal illness? "Well, just wanted to see you once more before you go." Not that you'd really say that, but everyone knows that's why you're there. The pictures were a wonderful icebreaker and made for fun stories with the three sisters (Ralph is the oldest of five kids, and the only boy.
(One of Grandma's friends who was over that day)
The whole gang-- me, Brad, Aunt Robin, Grandma, Aunt Diane, and Aunt Nancy.
After the visit we headed to Massey's Pizza for more pepperoni and bacon (though I had to have a salad or I would have been sorry). We met up with Chris and Tina,
Ben and Lisa,
and Court and Cheri.
You'd recognize all of these folks from our wedding-- Chris was a groomsman, Ben is the one the pastor called "Geezer" at the rehearsal, Cheri played the piano, and Court emceed the reception, I think. To Ben's credit, his last name could be mispronounced "geezer", so I'm pretty sure it wasn't a comment on his age. Anyway, we all met up and took over the back room of Massey's. There was a tv for the kids-- Court and Cheri's boys are growing like weeds, as are Chris and Tina's kids. Same goes for the Geezers'-- the youngest daughter was all grown up with her own cute personality, and she was in utero when I first met Ben and Lisa!
After dinner we went to Court and Cheri's (with a stop at that good ice cream place... what's the name? amazing chocolate chips...) to watch Ohio State spank whomever it was they played. And then we went to sleep, courtesy of Tums.
Sunday we went to church at the Vineyard in Columbus-- what an amazing place. I would love to be part of a church like that, huge as it is. We enjoyed the service and then had lunch at Max and Erma's, which I'm sorry to say has discontinued their pretzel breadsticks until further notice. Bah. At least Brad got his Ermaburger. Afterward we visited Aunt Kelly and then took a quick nap before dinner with Brandon and Laurie and their three girls. They live out west about 45 minutes from the airport. We had a great time there and then came back to Florida on Monday morning.
Since then we've been keeping busy. Brad's work schedule has been up and down-- crazy busy one week, light the next. We bought the Nissan which took a weekend and is still running well, praise God. We've also been painting quite a bit. This past weekend was a scene out of Cirque du Soleil, minus the clown outfits. We finished painting the kitchen, twelve foot ceilings and all. It was a real trick getting the ladder to reach high enough, and positioned at such an angle as to not hit the counters or the tops of the cabinets. It was a bit precarious but turned out very well. The entire open space of the entry, hall, living room, and kitchen are now a pleasant cream. We also switched out the lightbulbs from regular incandescents to blue ones-- makes things a whole lot brighter.
On Sunday we played heathen, er, hookie, and didn't go to church. More on church later. Instead we painted our bedroom, the last room that had paint swatches on the walls. We taped and prepped, and then began trimming. As I started putting paint to wall, I started doubting our choice, as I usually do. Usually I'm right, as our garage full of paint cans will tell you. It looked very... lavender. I wanted light blue, sort of sky blue, calm, serene, cool. And next to the blue painter's tape, this looked positively purple. Ugh. There goes resale, I thought. But Brad ran to the bathroom to get a towel-- and it was an absolute perfect match. Our intent had been for the bedspread to match the bathroom walls and the towels to match the bedroom walls, thus creating a suite without being too matchy-matchy. The blue matched the towel, so I pressed on. Oh, how I wish I could get the photos to post today. The room is magnificent-- straight out of a magazine and breathtaking. Upward from Sherwin Williams. Perfect blue. Not lavender at all. Oh, it just looks so very nice, especially with our khaki bedding-- a perfect sand and sky combo. It was so pretty that we ate dinner in the bedroom on tv trays. We love it.
What else... oh, church stuff. We formally left our church last week. It's a great church and God is certainly doing things there. It's just lacking two major things that are very important to us: one, an emphasis on a heart relationship with God. It's the difference between knowing about who Brad is and being married to Brad-- it engages the heart and creates a whole new dimension to a relationship with God. It's evident in worship-- is there conversation addressing the audience between songs, or is the worship time a place to get lost and gush love on God without interruption? Is there time for ministry, for people to pray for each other at church and in small groups, right then and there, and see God change things? Are people maturing? Are they different from month to month? Are they working through their hurts, with a counselor or without, in order to be healed and be more effective in ministering to others? These things are crucial for effective growth and real life change, and without them church feels like a first date-- fun and smiley, but lacking depth.
The other issue is women in leadership. Let me say that I am not the expert here. I know there are differing opinions and I don't purport to know enough to declare my viewpoint as the right and true one. However, I am feeling pulled in the teaching / ministering direction, and I am gifted as a leader. Put those together, and you get a pastor of sorts. I'm not sure what that means for me... but I do know that I want to start exploring. I don't believe women are to be silent in church, and I don't believe God is like the Salvation Army's Angel Giving tree, where there's a box of gifts marked "boy" and a box marked "girl"-- I believe he gives according to his wishes, and far be it from me to look down on a man leading the children's ministry, or a woman preaching on Sunday. I willingly admit I have a lot of learning here-- lucky you, you get to follow along on this journey of mine. All of this is to say, we want a church where women are in leadership. Where women preach. Where women are encouraged in their giftings, no matter what they are.
Those two things, combined with the fact that our small group is more of a social gathering than a group of people wanting to grow, has given us pause and caused us to re-evaluate. The end result is that we are leaving the church, and tonight is our last small group meeting. Here's a quick story of a fun confirmation (am I ever the second-guesser?!): there's one couple in the group that we really click with-- they seem to be on the same page as us regarding growing and maturing, while the other two couples are just social and goofy. I was really nervous to call them to tell them this would be our last meeting, as I didn't want to disappoint them or hurt their feelings. After I told Tylah, the wife, she said she was nervous about telling me something-- that they were leaving the church, too, and that tonight would be their last night. They have different reasons for leaving, but the message to me was the same. I don't have to take care of other people to the extent that I do sometimes; I don't know what God is doing in their lives, and I am not responsible to take care of their needs as much as I think I do. I felt a ton better after talking with them, and hopefully tonight will be a fun time. If it's cool enough we'll make a fire in the firepit and make s'mores; if it's too hot we'll just be inside. Maybe s'mores in the microwave?
So we're taking a little break from church. It started as a joke-- Rich asked what church we were going to next and I jokingly said that we had given up on church down here. He replied that that was probably a good idea for us-- taking a break could be healthy for us instead of jumping right back into the church shopping game. Hmm. That sounded good to me and to Brad. So we'll take a few weeks off and then start shopping later in October. Time for taking care of our souls, resting from being on guard and evaluate-y.
In less important news, I've cleaned off the countertops in the kitchen almost completely. There's still a purse/cellphone/keys station near the entry, but that will move once we get the office in shape. But the other side, near the stove, which held the mixer and jars of flour, sugar, etc., have been moved to the cart. I have a little baking station that can come over if I want it, or be out of sight if don't need it. The kitchen looks bare now without the half-painted-look on the walls and clutter on the counter. We need to put some art up. Also in the bedroom do we need art. We're hoping to find a print of something in Boston this weekend.
Oh, we're going to Boston this weekend. Growing up I summered in Boston and the north suburbs. My dad is from Haverhill and most of his family is still there. We'd fly out and spend 10 days-- some in Bradford (Haverhill's neighbor) and some in Seabrook, New Hampshire. Seabrook is a little town just over the border into New Hampshire. Uncle Kevin's beach cottage is literally two streets north of the border, and about 200 feet from sand. It was there that I learned that sand doesn't taste good, that the ocean is very cold in July, that fireworks were to be respected and adolescent boy cousins who play with them are not, that 4th of July bonfires on the beach were wicked awesome and that I spoke harshly with hard r's, crazy midwesterner. I don't have idears, I have ideas. I learned to love peanut butter and fluff sandwiches with tonic (pop) and Cristaldi's Pizza cut in squares with circles of cheese on top. It holds some good memories and I can't wait to take Brad there.
But really the purpose of our trip is to revisit a spot I saw seven years ago with my sister. We were driving back to Chicago from Boston. I had spent my summer interning at Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Mass. My dad's mom, Grammy, had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and she passed a few days after my internship ended. It was a heartwrenching time as it is for any family. My dad flew out to be with her and my mom and sister came out for the funeral. It was a beautiful time and one of the few where all twelve cousins were together. It was also dotted with typical family moments, including my favorite of all time: At the wake my dad decided he wanted to play a song over the speakers that had brought him comfort. I think it was a Twila Paris song or something. We all sat in the room where the casket was, feeling a bit sad but also squirrely from being good all day. And in the mix was Aunt Olga, one of Grammy's sisters. Olga is a character, down to her lipstick covered teeth and knee-high stockings (the dress didn't quite hit her knees). Oh, and she's hard of hearing. So we all sat there listening to the song, taking it in, being reverent and apparently sad-looking, for Olga said loudly, "Well, why's everybody so sombah???" I couldn't hold it together. A few of us excused ourselves. The moment was ruined, but was it? I like to think it was perfect.
After everything was over my mom and dad flew home and Steph and I drove back. Instead of taking the biggest highway through Mass we took Route 2, a littler one that goes close to Cushing. I wanted to show Steph Cushing and then I figured we'd meet up with a big highway in New York. Well, about two hours west of Boston we came upon the most amazing stretch I think I've ever driven. It was near the Berkshire Mountains, near the hairpin turn where the road literally turns nearly 179 degrees on itself. This stretch was in a valley and there was a beautiful canopy of trees overhead. I thought to myself, "This would be breathtaking in the fall!" And it has been my dream to drive that stretch since August of 1999. So this weekend at some point we will. I'm beside myself excited. We're also going to hit the North End which houses Boston's version of a Little Italy, some history and a Duck Tour, and of course Cristaldi's Pizza in Seabrook. Except I tried to call them earlier today and no one answered. They had better still be open... I thought they closed at the end of October... we shall see.
That's all for now. I'll put up pictures when blogger cooperates with me.
P.S. I totally forgot to tell you about two other things I mentioned in the beginning of this post! The Office is our new friend. We went to the theater to see Little Miss Sunshine a few Fridays ago, just to get out of the house and get stuff off our minds. It was strange, funny, and strange. And in honor of Steve Carell, a really funny guy who had a really funny scene in Bruce Almighty (I seriously thought Brad would mess himself right there in the theater), we watched the first season of The Office on Saturday. There were only six little episodes, that's no harm. We can stop whenever we want to. Then we rented the first two discs of Season 2. Three hours on Sunday evening, three hours on Monday evening. Oops, Brad just so happened to have time on Tuesday to drive to Bonita to get the other two discs (yes, I had to call more than a dozen Blockbusters and the Bonita one was the closest one that had it - 45 minutes away. It says something about a town when people don't appreciate good office humor.) Three hours Tuesday evening, three hours Wednesday evening. And then Thursday was a new episode. It's painful, oh so painful, as Michael Scott (Steve Carell) plays the world's worst boss who thinks he's the World's Best Boss (and bought himself the mug to prove it). He says the most racist, sexist, inappropriate things at the worst times, and is just plain... what's the word? Horrible. But the rest of the folks are lovable and fun to follow.
And the pygmy rattlesnake-- not long ago little Chase came in and told Shelley that there was a snake in the garage. Shelley, thinking it was a harmless black snake, went out to see it. Apparently it was a pygmy rattlesnake, which are venomous and aggressive, and it lept out at her a few times before she got scared and called a neighbor to help. Afterward Chase got a dose of praise for telling Mom instead of taking care of it himself.
And I just googled pygmy rattlesnake. I got a bit of a fright and am still a little uneasy about what I found. Remember how Brad killed a snake with the lawnmower a while back? I never got a look at the whole snake, but I did see a few chopped up pieces in the yard. They were black with light blue and I couldn't figure out how that could be a black snake with all that blue on it, but what do I know about freaking snakes? I just saw that the pictures of the pygmy rattler are light blue. How proud I am of my brave husband, again. Eww eww eww.
Um, please keep praying that God sees fit to take us out of Florida...
2 comments:
No no-- if you really want a treat, get ahold of the British version of The Office. The US imported it from the Brits, who as always, did a much better job of it. It's on DVD, although you may have to get it online. It's SO much better, and Rick Gervais is an even worse (in the "desperate to make you like me" way) boss. The winner in the BBC show, though, is the annoying co-worker (I can't remember the guys' name in the US version). He's this conspiracy-theorist war monger geek of very slight build. Classic!! You'll LOVE it!
Hey Kath & Brad - If you do find a church, let me know. My friends in Naples have just left their church also... I would love to get you all together. I think you'd enjoy each other.
Blessings, friends!!!
Love, Susan in Colorado.
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