Back from Cornerstone!

Well, we're back from the 25th anniversary of Cornerstone! Tim went to some great seminars (I joined him for Miroslav Volf) and we all went to some wonderful concerts. All stages were closed on Friday night for the 25th anniversary special from the main stage. Candles and communion elements were passed out and we worshiped as Charlie Peacock led us in participating in the Lord's Supper. Several Cornerstone "old-timers" (Rez Band, Lost Dogs, Sixpence, Charlie, Over the Rhine, etc) were on stage for little bits, and The David Crowder band concluded the evening of music. At midnight we watched a spectacular fireworks show to commemorate the anniversary and the anniversary of our nation.

It was great to see my brother Roger and my nephews Derek and Ethan (and their buddies Ryan and Brad). Not too many mishaps--we couldn't find the bag for our screen porch poles when we were packing up (probably stuffed in the tent bag and we'll find it later), Roger had a flat tire (he's only missed one year in the past three or four of this particular car malady) and it was pretty hot the first day. But we had temps dip down in the 50s one evening and loved the cooler weather. We camped on a gravel site in the trees and I spent a lot of time reading my book for book club (Dragon Bones--a mystery set in China, which I finished last night).


Tim got to meet some locals as he went into Bushnell to locate a nozzle for our camper sink, deodorizer for the camper potty, and a pan for cooking. (I had several, but nothing of the three-quart variety...) He listened to one man's story of his wife's battle for cancer and their recent trip to Minnesota to the Mayo Clinic. When he went to the pharmacy to find baby aspirin for me, he encountered more locals sitting having coffee in the eating area of the drug store. They were talking about him! The man whose wife was sick was telling his Bushnell friends about this nice man from Minnesota, and how most Cornerstone goers were great people, with only a few "troublemakers" in the bunch. Tim ducked around a corner to listen. It was nice for him to hear from strangers that he was a nice guy (I could have told him that myself!).

Tim also found out that gas had been inflated a dime for festival goers. One station had gas a dime cheaper, but had the prices marked the same--all the locals were going to that station during the festival. For Tim's compassionate ear, the man who told him his story rewarded Tim with the advice about filling up at the cheaper place. It pays to be nice!

I'm glad we went, but it's good to be home. When we stopped at McDonalds in Cedar Rapids, Tim bought in his laptop and we checked email at this WiFi place. BTW, we noticed some devastation in Iowa by the recent floods--several buildings were boarded up, and blocks had trash lining neighborhood streets. Very sad. We hoped we helped the local economy by stopping and buying gas and food.

Will we go to C-stone next year? We'll see. If we do, I hope our boys will go--this year we only brought Christina and her friend Travis. We missed the boys' help driving back--I hate driving the truck pulling the camper, and we didn't want Christina to drive either. Needless to say, we spent a few hours at rest stops on the way home.

Tomorrow--back to work! It's also Luke's 23rd birthday! Wow, time flies! Cornerstone is 25, Luke is 23. I must be at least that old, since Tim and I celebrated 25 years of wedded bliss a couple of months ago....

Till next time,


Suzi

Cornerstone bound

After months of debating, we've finally decided we are going! Tim, Christina, her friend Travis and I are busy cleaning and packing, and yes, we're taking the trailer! I just talked to my brother Roger who is about 5 hours from C-stone.

Isn't last minute planning fun! It will be good to get away. Luke and Mark will be here working, so we'll really miss them (especially their help driving and setting up/tearing down)! It looks like Beckie and Dale will be staying at our house to help take care of Raven since Luke is in and our a lot.

Stay tune for a C-stone report!

Till next time,

Suzi

Some good news!

I got a phone message at home the other day.

It was from an associate dean at Bethel, confirming that I was accepted to teach Introduction to Liberal Arts in the fall!

I'll have about 15 freshmen and/or transfers, and will have a syllabus to study and add to. There will be training in late August and on Labor Day.

This is an eight-week course, taught by mostly faculty but some staff at Bethel.

I'm very excited!

Next step, find a TA to help me! And me with two colleagues in Anthro/Soc who are also teaching a section (there are about 30) of the course.

I'm hoping to start on a certificate program in Post secondary teaching in the spring.

Perhaps my childhood dream of becoming a writer or a teacher will really come true....

Till next time,

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Suzi

Whew!

It's been a busy couple of weeks, but we made it!

We had a beautiful day for Christina's party. The day before was warm and humid, so we turned on the air conditioning, which takes at least three days of straight running before it really begins to cool the house done. We've tried everything, but for some reason our house likes to be warm.

Anyway, Friday evening we opened all the windows and have kept them open ever since. It was warm again yesterday, but only in the 70s with a nice breeze.

To back up a bit, Luke has been busy working on the yard and house to help get ready for the party. Christina has been working hard too, pulling weeds, cleaning the kitchen, and dusting. We've all been getting stuff out of the house and into storage to diminish clutter. (Our goal is to deal with the clutter and cancel our storage lease!)

In the midst of all this, Tim has been looking to buy an older home or two to refurbish and rent. There are so many homes that banks are practically giving away. His bid on a north Minneapolis home was accepted this past week, and the closing date is July 7 (Luke's birthday). Mark plans to move in and help Tim fix it up. Tim's looking to get into the rehab business and answer more to himself than to demanding homeowners who don't pay him what he's worth (in my humble opinion) as a taping contractor.

Anyway, back to the party. I took Thursday afternoon and all day Friday off. Thursday I took Raven to Petsmart to get groomed. It might sound like a ridiculous thing to do during such a busy time, but my thought was that he needed it and if he were groomed the clumps of fur that kept appearing around the house would disappear. I was right, and he is now one handsome dog!
Friday was spent running around with my friend Beckie. In the morning (before it got too hot) I baked brownies and banana bread. In the afternoon Beckie and I went to buy paper goods. In the evening we went to Sam's Club and bought all the food.

Meanwhile, Tim had received a call from a friend wondering if he had any work for a young Mexican man who had recently moved up from Atlanta and was looking for construction work. Well, we set him to painting our back porch as well as our railings and other trim around the house. Jose did a really great job.

Saturday, day of the party. We set up a tent, tables and chairs in the back yard and back porch, after the kids and Tim hosed and finished cleaning up the back porch (and swept away ant hills and pulled more weeds). Christina was sent to pick up the cake. I did last minute vacuuming and dusting, and make a last minute trip to Cub for ice and a couple of things we didn't find at Sam's. Dale and Beckie arrived and went straight to work on getting the food ready. Christina and her boyfriend Travis and I got the main display table set up with pictures, the cake, an autograph book and graduation confetti. Tim somehow managed to find time to put together a slide show of pictures of Christina through the years and displayed them on his laptop next to the display table. Mark put balloons and yard signs outside. Raven took up residence on our upper deck, were he had a bird's eye view of the party doings (and occasionally let us know). Christina ran off to her friend Emily's grad party for a bit, and Tim's dad's cousin Warren arrived early (while she was gone, unfortunately). We tried to convince Warren to stay, but he politely declined and dropped off a card for Christina.

Then Christina got home, people started arriving and it was really fun. People from work came, Christina's friends from school, family and old church friends. We were surprised when our former youth pastor and his wife came--they were in Indiana we thought, but recently moved back to Minnesota and got wind of the party. There were several people from our former church, and we got a "Trinity reunion" picture. Lots of fun.

Dale and Beckie were wonderful, and I was able to relax and enjoy the party.

Oh, also, the day before the party my dad called to tell me my sister was in the hospital. She had severe chest pains and went by ambulance. She later called me from her hospital bed to say her heart was fine, and she was diagnosed with esophageal spasms, which can mimic a heart attack. My blood sugar that morning (Friday) was 340 (pretty high), but after working hard all day and after Cheri's reassuring phone call, it dropped to 97. Stress can elevate blood sugar. For some reason with my dad it seems the opposite. Cheri's husband called my parents (a block away) right after he called the paramedics. Dad's blood sugar dropped and my mom (who has athritic knees) ran home and got the car while my brother-in-law gave him juice to bring him around. You can read more about my sister's adventures at her blog.

Well, the party went really well, we saw lots of old friends, and we had plenty of food. I'm planning to bring some to work tomorrow. This afternoon I laid down to take a little nap and woke up almost THREE hours later! I've been averaging about 6-7 hours of sleep the last week or so, which isn't much for me. It feels good to be rested!

Thanks to those of you who have prayed for Christina over the last many years--especially this last one. She finished strong and we are proud, and glad to be officially done with high school stuff! However, it seems that parenting adult children can have its own challenges as well...but it's fun to see the parent-child relationship turn into an adult relationship (although I guess we'll never really consider our children peers...)

We are grateful to God for our children and for his many blessings. Happy summer to you all!

Till next time,


Suzi

Busy busy

We are busy getting ready for Christina's grad party--in only five days! Ordering food, doing lawn work, cleaning, painting, decorating, etc. etc.

Not much time to blog! Come over if you can--Saturday 4-6 at our house!

Till next time,

Suzi

She's finished!

She's done! Today was Christina's last day of school. Tomorrow our baby will graduate from high school.

It's been a long road--raising three kids, having five exchange students, and holding open houses for almost all of them. This year wasn't easy, and there were times when I thought none of us would make it to this point, but Christina is finishing strong.

We're proud of her.

Look out world, here she comes!

Till next time,


Suzi

It's June!

Well, I just came in from mowing the lawn. I tried to do it between church services at the church in our back yard, since we attend church on Sunday evenings. It's already warm, so I'm going to jump in the shower after this post.

Yesterday was graduation at Bethel Seminary. I worked most of the day, collecting caps and gowns and making sure the graduates had their tassels before the ceremony. A storm came in the middle of the outdoor reception, so some of the gowns were a bit damp. I guess we were under a tornado watch, but by the time I left it was sunny. Tim was in south Minneapolis at a grad party, and it started to hail there. He had taken his motorcycle, so I drove down there to join him and saw hail on the highway that looked like piles of snow. When I got closer to the neighborhood for the party, I saw bits of fogs that looked like random barbecue smoke coming up from grilling parties, but it was just the steam from the hail that was melting. Weird. Some places had streets full of hail. If it were colder, a snow plow would have had to come move them away, but I'm sure they are all melted by now.

Lloyd John Ogilve, former chaplain of the US Senate was the speaker at graduation. It was very good. The most moving part, though, was when the Doctor of Ministry students marched across the stage. One of them was being awarded a degree posthumously--he passed away suddenly last summer. His widow was there and walked across the stage receiving his hood, diploma, and final transcript. I bawled like a baby. I hadn't met him, but I'd registered him and recorded grades for him for almost a year. His two kids were there with his wife. They all got a standing ovation.

Well, Christina's graduation is this Friday. I suppose I'll have to load up with Kleenex--our baby is graduating from high school! We've got a lot of work to do to get ready for her party here on June 21--I'm hoping we make it!

Friday was my last day at Anthro/Soc for the summer. It was a little sad saying good-bye to my supervisor, whose retirement party we attended two weeks ago. He'll be back as an adjunct in the fall, but it won't be the same. I'll be on campus full-time this summer at the seminary or at the registrar's office for the College of Adult and Professional Studies/Graduate School (CAPS/GS). But I plan on taking tomorrow morning off and hope to renew my permit for my scooter.

Enjoy June!

Till next time,


Suzi