Delaware Grammy

Route 36 is really slick!  You all be careful!!!!

This is what just happened in our front yard.

(Nobody is hurt.  Thank God!)

(And it isn’t our vehicle.  Thank God!)

(But I feel really sorry for the nice young man who was driving this pickup — he was on his way to work, and a patch of black ice surprised him.)

Our Family had a wedding!!!!

Joni Alene Slaubaugh married Daniel Geissinger
(Honestly, Joni!  What kind of name is that?!?!?!)

The day was cold, but that didn’t dampen any of the spirits, for sure!

Dan’s Grandpa, Adam Espenshade, brought the message, and Joni’s pastor, John David Swartzentruber perfomed the ceremony.

Mr. and Mrs. Dan Geissinger

The cake was cut and sweetly fed . . .

In a most tastefully decorated “Barn.”

Dan is a train enthusiast, and so the decorations were centered around that theme

Around the centerpieces were small trains, and these little wooden train whistles. 
(Since there were no glasses to tap, the whistles served as the irritating call for a kiss!)

Some of these pictures were taken by Ashley Copenhaver.  Some were my own,  (and I honestly do not know whose were who at this point.  If it is a good picture, it was Ashley’s.  Otherwise, blame me.)

Here are a few family pictures.  I seem to have missed out on the ones I really wanted — of Sarah and Bert’s family.  So these will have to do.

The Bride’s Sister with her Mom and Dad.  Joni’s brother Joe with his gal, Tasha

Little sister, Edie has a pensive moment, while Joni poses with her brothers.

I don’t know what was so funnny, but I love this picture of my Mom with Joni and Dan.

Faces in the Crowd

“If I can survive this, I’m quite sure, I can survive anything!!!”

Yippee!!!!

Some pictures from Raph’s Trek!

He said he would send some and he did!!!

(Well, two, that is . . .)

(But he didn’t give me any explanations, so you all will just have to enjoy the scenery and imagine where they are and what they are doing.).

   God Will Take Care of You

  1
  Be not dismayed whate’er betide,
  God will take care of you;
  beneath his wings of love abide,
  God will take care of you.

  Refrain
  God will take care of you,
  through every day, o’er all the way;
  he will take care of you,
  God will take care of you.

  2
  Through days of toil when heart doth fail,
  God will take care of you;
  when dangers fierce your path assail,
  God will take care of you.

  3
  All you may need he will provide,
  God will take care of you;
  nothing you ask will be denied,
  God will take care of you.

  4
  No matter what may be the test,
  God will take care of you;
  lean, weary one, upon his breast,
  God will take care of you.

Civilla D. Martin 1904

Last night, our family enjoyed a long, long call from Eldest Son.  He is really doing fine, and even though he is somewhat homesick, and even though it seems like a long time until he can come home, yet he says, “I know that this is an experience I will look back on and always be thankful that I did it.  I know this where I am supposed to be.” 

This morning, Gokum’s husband led the above song during our church’s worship time, and I thought about how I can trust an eternal, all wise, loving Heavenly Father with this son that I miss so much.  “Through days of toil, when heart doth fail, God will take care f you.  When dangers fierce your path assail, God will take care of you!”

And then, in Sunday School, my friend, Thisisloretta, brought the most incredibly encouraging “show and tell” in the form of a little ty “prayer bear” whose name was “Hope.”  Her grandson had given it to her for Christmas, and the story behind the bear, and the story of Loretta’s journey gave me renewed vision as Loretta reminded us again that our only real hope lies in prayer.

It’s been a bit of a tough week.  There has not been a single time when I felt caught up, and even though life goes on in situations like this, it isn’t very comfortable for me.  And then, at the wedding the other day, things were going along quite well, and then, suddenly, there was this big picture of Daddy and Mama and Joni — lifesize on the screen, and I was overwhelmed with this deep, deep longing to just talk to Daddy again.  It just seems like it has been SO LONG!

I’ve had such a sense lately of the reality of him being alive somewhere.  Those streets of gold?  He’s THERE!  The Crystal Sea?  He’s sat beside it.  That City Foursquare?  It’s no mystery to him anymore.  The Face of Jesus?  Ah, he’s looked into those eyes of love and heard the words, “Well done!” and known the joy of being HOME and being FREE.  For so many long months, he just felt so gone.  And now the grief is different some how.  The memories are softer, more comforting, and though I find myself missing him suddenly, and unexpectedly, that terrible dull ache is not so ever-present.  And I really can think of him in specifics when I read what is written to us about Heaven in God’s Holy Word.  It is a welcome gift.

Tonight, thinking of this old world, and the things that I cannot change, I find myself with the tears streaming down my face, dripping off my chin.  I do miss my dad.  I miss my sons.  And I feel so sad for my friend Organic_Survivor and her family.  If any of you reading here haven’t been keeping up, please check in at www.xanga.com/MaryKay_girl and whisper a prayer for all of them keeping careful watch there these long, long hard days. 

 JR, you and your family are never far from our hearts and from our minds and from our prayers.

“No matter what may be the test . . . “

Lord Jesus, may we be found faithful!

Certain Man, being the “tree” man that he is, always buys a real live Christmas tree for outside.  On Saturday, He decided that it was time to plant it out in the Christmas tree row.  This is how he goes about such an operation:

He carefully hooks his loader to it and carries it to where he wants it planted.

And it eventually gets into his row.

Yesterday, I was putting away Christmas decorations:

The three Snowmen in the center were Old Gertrude’s and she loved them dearly.

 On the spur of the moment, I decided that I should set up one of our small lightweight tables to bring “stuff” to so I could organize it and put it away properly.  I was feeling just a bit upset with my lack of progress, and so I was visciously slamming down the legs and then I upended the thing — (just a little table, 2X4 and plastic, for pete’s sake!) and it came down, and caught my pinkie between itself and the laundry hamper that just happened to be in the way.

Oh, my!  Did it ever hurt.  I grabbed my pinkie in true Yutzy fashion (They declare that direct pressure on any pinch, burn or bump will lessen bruising and pain) and tried to not weep.  I did lean over in great turmoil and stood up and bobbed about, but the pain was invincible! And after several long seconds of this, I opened my hand and there was copious amounts of blood there.  And it really, really hurt.  And the fingernail is loose-ish at the bottom and the finger is purple round about and I have great throbbings therein.  I suppose that I shall lose that nail.  With any good favor, it will slide off silently some day and that will be that.  I am not holding my breath.

In other news, Certain Man and I got to go away for the afternoon yesterday.  We went to Rehoboth;

 walked on the boardwalk, (Which was practically deserted!)

discussed the many things heavy on our hearts and stopped at the Cracker Barrel for an early Supper.

  It was a mavelous time (Except that my poor finger throbbed most of the time).

Today I have two sick ladies.  Cecilia has a fever of 101º and Nettie girl has one of 101.4º  –  so they are both home!

Must run — there is laundry to do and house to straighten, and not enough time!

There is food to be put away, and many other things to do.  In a little over an hour, our small group will be meeting here, and I am so not ready.  We had a carry-in at church today, and I came home with extra food.  For some reason, there was lots and lots of food.  (And now the hard part is getting it all away — I do not like putting leftover food away.)

This is a very abbreviated post.  I have not been feeling very interesting, and when I have stuff to write I have been too busy.  Maybe I can do more later.

Blessings for a great week!

It was quite a weekend!  Lem and Jessica were home for the last few days before going back to college, and we decided to take the family to the new steakhouse in Camden, DE.  We had tried once before, and the wait had been too long, so we thought we would get there before four o’clock in the afternoon, and maybe we wouldn’t have to wait quite so long.  Well, we got there and we had a grand time waiting:

These are the faces of waiting:

Deborah and Jessica and Rachel, sit on the bench and wait.

Certain Man explains something to Eldest Daughter . . . and waits

Youngest Daughter was chilly.  She finds an armstrong heater while she waits.

Middle Daughter almost never “just waits.”

Don’t let this angelic look fool you for a minute.  Beloved Son in Law is thinking about stealing the sign he’s leaning on while he waits.  (It WAS very conveniently loose!)

Youngest Son and Girl Jess are very hungry, but still smiling (and waiting!)

Certain Man and Certain Man’s Wife wait and hold down the bench, too.

Beloved Son in Law and Youngest Son solve some of the most pressing political issues while Girl Jess listens in.

Finally, after about 45 minutes, they called our number.  But when we got into the restaurant, they were seating us at two separate tables.  And their only solutiion (Although we had waited that long because we were a party of eight) was to say that we would have to wait a long, long time to get a table together.  Youngest Son pulled out his cell phone, called Lone Star Steak House in Dover, explained our problem, and was told, “Come straight up here.  I will set the table now, and seat you when you get here.”  So we all piled back into the van, went on up to Dover and had a simply wonderful time — and the manager gave us a free appetizer as well!  The food was wonderful, the service was wonderful, and we didn’t WAIT.

We came home to play a came of “True Colors”

Eldest Daughter’s find at “God’s Way to Recovery” Thrift Store

(Some of us had more interest in this game than others did!)

Yesterday we had some dinner guests, and I got to do one of my favoritest things of all:

I had bought this “Mammals” book for Nevin’s big brother, Carson, a long time ago.  The animals intrigue the little guys, and we can spend hours looking at it. 

(My other favorite little guy was dodging the camera just off to my right, and none of the pictures with him turned out very well.)   

What a great weekend!  And now it is back to the regular schedule —

Which, quite truthfully, I am more than ready for!

Came home, re-read my post and didn’t like it —

So, I deleted it!  Never mind!

One thing that I didn’t mention in my last posting was that, in addition to everything else:

MY WASHING MACHINE HAD BROKEN DOWN!!!

Certain Man had purchased my wonderful (not!) Neptune Washer back in July,1999.  (There is quite a story about that purchase, too, but this isn’t it!)  When this machine is working, there is nothing I like better.  But very often, it breaks down.  I keep a warranty agreement on it, so I have gotten literally thousands of dollars of repairs on it over the years.  I keep telling them that they would come out ahead to just give me a new machine, but they keep thinking they can fix it — and so far, at least, they have!

The day after Christmas, I was washing a mammoth amount of dirty clothes.  And just before my last five (towels and jeans and such) loads, the stupid machine stopped running the spin cycle.  I prayed.  I jiggled.  I gave it a rest and tried again (probably about 15 times, actually) but all to no avail.  So early Wednesday morning, I called up my trusty Maytag Center to schedule service.  They said that there was no way the local company could even call me before, like, 3 working days. 

“We’ll be into the weekend by then!” I protested.

“Yes, ma’am, you might be, but there isn’t anything we can do.  That’s the earliest.”

“But it’s New Year’s Day on Monday.  Are you telling me that no one can do anything before then?”

“It doesn’t look like it Ma’am.  We will do the best we can, but we need to fax this to the company and they will need to get in touch with you to schedule.”

“What is my authorization number for this claim?’ I asked.  They gave it to me.

“I don’t understand how you can put this off so long,” I complained.  “I pay good money for the maintenance agreements, and it seems like you are waiting longer and longer to respond when I need you.”

The service scheduler was very nice.  “I understand, Miss, but you have to understand that your warranty agreement does not guarantee TIMELY service, but rather that you won’t have to pay out of pocket for the repairs.  Just like your car insurance.  Nothing says that they will HURRY, but that they will fix it for free, or whatever.  You have to wait your turn, just like everyone else.”   (I didn’t want to wait my turn.  I had weekend guests coming, Youngest Son to get ready to go back to college, and the never ending special needs laundry from my ladies.  But — it was clear they were not to be hurried.)

So, I got off the phone and called my trusty local service department who would be getting the fax and the authorization whenever the main office sent them out.  And I explained the situation and asked them to please schedule my service call with my favorite service guy and as soon as possible.  (My favorite service guy, Ray, owns a washer exactly like mine and he robs parts from his to fix mine when the need arises.  I did not tell them this, because I didn’t want them to stop him from doing it, but I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY wanted Ray.)

“Well, the earliest we can send someone is Tuesday, January 2nd.  And it cannot be Ray first thing in the morning.  Can you take someone else, or will you take Ray in the afternoon?”

“I’ll take the afternoon if I can have Ray.”  And so, they set it up.  And we limped along.  Eldest Daughter washed some of the waiting baskets for me and brought them back for drying and folding.  And some of the things, I put into the washer, and let it do its usual cycles (minus the spinning) and then went about wringing things out by hand, trying to keep things from getting too stinky. I almost developed Carpal tunnel in the process, too.  Even when Certain Man lent his strong hands, those big old bath towels were hard to wring out. 

“Maybe we should invest in an old wringer washing machine for times such as this,” I say to Certain Man one evening when we had both just about wrung ourselves out wringing!

“I’d sooner say, ‘let’s find a cheap one in the State News for a back-up,’ ” says Certain Man.  “A wringer washer would be fine for towels and such, but they are really hard on buttons.  If it didn’t cost so much, I’d be tempted to just go buy a new washer and then Phooey! on this one!”

“Well, if we can just hold on, they’ll get this one fixed again and we will be set and it won’t cost anything, either!”  Now before any of you start saying “laundromat” let me just tell you — I’ve been there, done that — in other situations, and sometimes it works okay, but this particular week, it just was not an option. 

Tuesday Morning:  The phone rang and it was my local service company. 

“We just want to tell you that we will be at your house sometime this afternoon to look at your washer.”  Something didn’t sound quite right.

“And is it going to be Ray?”

“Um, unfortunately, not.  But we have good technicians and they WILL find the problem.”

“Is this technician from your Lewes store or your Dover location?”

Well, he’s . . . from . . . our Lewes location.”

“I really wanted Ray!  You’ve sent people from your Lewes store before and they’ve come in here and said that there was nothing wrong with my machine.  And I KNEW there was!  Then Ray would come in and find it in a little bit of no time, get it fixed and be done with it.  Please, can’t I have Ray?”

“Mrs. Yutzy, we’re sorry, but Ray is out with a serious back problem.  We don’t know when he will be back.  The tech we are sending is good, though.  You’ll be happy with him.”

So, I obligingly agreed, and on Tuesday afternoon, they sent a very nice tech, indeed, and he shortly determined that I needed something called a “Machine Control Board.”  And of course he didn’t have it, but hopefully, one of the other stores would, and he could procure it yet today and would try to be back here tomorrow (Wednesday morning, first thing).

About then, Youngest Daughter came in from school with a wash basket full of green jerseys.  “Mom, it is my week to wash all the jerseys for the basket ball game.”

“Rachel!  How could you?”

“Well, Mom, I HAD to.  I was supposed to wash them last week, but someone else took them, so I HAD to take them this week.”

“But Rachel!  My washer is broke!”

“Oops!  I forgot!”

“When do you need them to be done?”

“By Friday.  But you can’t dry them in the dryer.  It will ruin them.  You hafta’ wash them and let them drip dry or hang dry or whatever!”

“Well, girlie, let’s just hope they get that washer fixed in time.  Hopefully tomorrow!”

So Wednesday came.  And nobody came or called.  So, along about 10:00,  I called them.  There was no one who could talk to me about the specifics, but the lady I talked to was certain that the part hadn’t come in and that it would be at least THURSDAY before they could procure it and put in on.

And then I did something that I am not particularly proud of.  You know that passage that tells us not to threaten people?  Well I did just that.  I said in my sweetest-almost-snooty-but-still-pretty-much-“Christian”) voice, “You know, I have just about had it with trying to get this washing machine fixed.  I am tempted to run in to Sears and get myself a new washer from them and be done with it.  I have had company, my one lady has been having seizures and there are some other thing going on that prevent me from getting out to get it done, and I am almost in despair about this mountain of laundry.”

I guess that once again, God knew exactly who would be the right person to put on the other end of the line.  Her voice was quiet and full of emotion.  “Please don’t do that.  I promise you that we will do all we can to help you.  We want to see this through.  Believe me, I know how it is.”  Her voice broke just slightly then and she said, “I really can feel for you.  When my husband was sick with cancer, it seemed like everything that could break, did break at the most inopportune times.  I know it is tough.  As soon as this lady gets off the phone with another customer, she will call you and let you know what to expect.  And again, I am so sorry.”

Well, what could I do except to say (very meekly), “Thank you.  I’ll be waiting to hear from her.”

About ten minutes later, the phone rang and it was the Service Scheduling Manager.  She told me that the part they needed had to be shipped in, that they expected to get it yet that afternoon and that they would put me on for first thing Thursday morning.  PROMISED.  And so I calculated the clean clothes I had left,  and decided that we would make it through.

Thursday dawned, beautiful and clear.  I had high hopes of seeing my repair man by soon after eight, but when nine thirty rolled around with no sign of him, I began to worry.  So, I called again.

“Did my part not come in, or did I get bumped from my “first thing in the morning spot,” or just what is going on?”

The gal at the other end said, “Hold on one minute.  Let me see what’s happening.”  She came back on and said, “He should be there any minute!”  Well, the “any minute” turned into another half hour, but he finally showed up and put the new part on and – – – –IT DIDN’T WORK!!!

I felt my heart go down to my toes, and I went about my kitchen in small and unproductive circles.  “It still won’t spin.  What will I do?  I have to get some laundry done.  What am a gonna’ do???  Why couldn’t they have sent Ray?  He would have had it fixed by now, I am sure!”  I was vaguely aware of the service tech tearing into the top of my washing machine with a wrench and some diagnostic equipment.  I came into the laundry room on another errand, and wonder of wonders, the drum was spinning.  “It’s SPINNING!!!” I announced (Like he didn’t know!)

“Yep, it is!” he agreed with a smile.  “:I needed the part, but then I needed to get inside here and reset some things, so now you should be good to go!”  He put everything back together, packed up his tools and left.  And I went straight to that washer and put in my first load of laundry.  The wash basket full of green Jerseys for the basketball team.  I washed them on a short wash and then hung them out on the wash line to dry.

OH, JOY!!!

It was such a pretty day, that I did some looking around at my flower beds, and I discovered this:
(On the 4th day of January, no less!)

Our daffodils are coming up!

And my trailing Vinca vine is growing, too!  It has been incredibly warm in Delaware.  It would have been a fine time for my dryer to go out — but things just don’t work that way, do they?  Tonight, all the laundry is finally washed, dried and (except for the towels, which are Middle Daughter’s responsibility) folded, and mostly put away.  If you don’t believe that feels good after eight days without a washing machine, well, you just don’t understand the situation!

And that is the news from Shady Acres, where we have but two more days until Youngest Son returns to College.  Where the messages from Eldest Son are heart warming even while we miss him so, and the rest of us are keeping the home fires (er, the home washing machines) going!