Fun Times!

Josie on the runway!

Sunday I was invited to attend a fundraiser for the YWCA here in Troy. They were raising funds for their WIT program, Women In Transition.  The event was being hosted by none other than the Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group whose President is none other than, you guessed it, my niece, Corey Jamison.  Check out their website http://www.kjcg.com/the-firm/our-team/  Corey is currently the President of their YWCA Board of Directors. She believes in the work the YWCA does and so do I.  I'm looking forward to becoming more involved in helping women change their lives and the lives of their families for the better. Anyhoo, this year was the first annual YWCA Fashion Show. It was a lovely event and included local designers, caterers, jewelry designers and accessories...and best of all, local models from age 2 and up.  I'm looking forward to next year!  Check it out http://www.ywca-greatercapitalregion.org/about/index.cfm

Last night we went to 16 Handles with Corey and the kids to have yogurt.  What a hoot it is to be with them.  Now this place, 16 Handles, is a super idea.  It's a self-serve yogurt shop.  As you would suspect, you have your choice of 16 different frozen yogurts.  You choose your size of cup, walk the line and select any or all of the flavors of yogurt.  I can't remember them all, but they had chocolate (that was to die for), coconut, raspberry, cheesecake, peanut butter cup, strawberry-kiwi, just to name a few. You continue in the line and have your choice of at least 40 different toppings.  They weigh the cup, you pay and savor every bite. It was all worth a 15 minute car trip.  Also, everywhere we go is new and someplace we've never been. Life is an adventure, don't waste it.

Ray & Jamison checking the mail on their walk.

Today is going to be a "down" day.  Yesterday was a very full day and a rough day for Ray.  He worked most of the afternoon with the landlord to get the washer up and running.  Now that in and of itself is not a big deal, but running up and down the basement stair for him is.  I so appreciate my husband. He will do and does, anything he possibly can to make my life easier. No matter how tired he is or how much pain he's in because of his knee he ALWAYS makes sure that Jamison gets his walk each day.

We are having such a great time being retired together.  It's so fun to get up each morning and say, "well, what shall we do today?".  As I write it's 9am and I'm still sitting in my robe with my feet propped up, writing my blog.  There is still much to do but we're doing it and having a good time.  Today, as I said earlier is a "down day".  This by no means we're sitting down all day.  It means we're taking our time this morning getting up and around, we'll run errands, at 6pm tonight we're picking up a hutch and cabinet I found on Craigslist.  Tomorrow I'll finish putting out my chickens and unpack the glassware for the hutch. Thank heavens for a basement!  Christmas and tools take up a lot of space.  I've unpacked almost all things for the hutch and so I now have room to move the boxes that need to be taken to the basement back into the spare room until we can get them downstairs.  We don't move many of those at one time.  The knees won't take it, but it will get done before guests begin to arrive...who knows when, but I'm expecting company. Lots of company from all of you in California, New Jersey, Springfield OR, Chicago and Maine and Kentucky!

Wednesday night we're going to the Annual Recognition Dinner for the Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group (KJCG).   Corey, as well as others are going  to be recognized  for their years of service with the KJCG.  It just so happens that this year Corey is being recognized for 20 years with the company.  The event is being held at the Hilton Garden Inn Troy. This hotel is Rensselaer County's newest and most distinctive meetings and hotel location! The Hilton Garden Inn is located near Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), and in the heart of the Capital District of New York.  We 're very proud of Corey, she's a great wife, mother and friend...oh, and of course niece!  We're looking forward to celebrating with all of them.  Corey has a super great team.  They're a team and produce a great product.  Check out their website above. 

Okay, I could go on and on but it's after 11 am and the "guys" are going to be ready for lunch.  My menu today; eat out!  Talk with you soon.  Have a super great day! Choose Joy!

Chance? I Think Not!

 Just like many of you, we continue to have some very difficult decisions to make. They're not going to be easy, but I know that just as the Lord has directed so far He will be clear with what is to come; as we need the answers. Please continue to pray that God will continue to give us the wisdom to make the right choices. 

There have been and continue to be so very many miracles in this journey. Many times, over what to most people think of as very simple things    sometimes struggle.  Maybe we all do that everyday and it just seems more visible to me right now. I think I'm rambling right now and am not really being clear.  I believe all is as it should be.  I believe that Ray and I have done all that we can do .....this is getting depressing, excuse me as I switch courses.

Let's try this again. Life is great!  God is a God of miracles and while we plan, He performs....daily miracles.  Let me see if I can share a few of these with you.

As you know, if you've been following my blog, Ray, Jamison and I had a miraculous trip across the United States. We traveled a total of 4,100 miles before we arrived in Troy.  We were 13 days on the road.  We arrived in this beautiful "mecca" named Troy NY without mishap or having shed blood!   I think there's something about this trip that many of you may not know.  I'd like to share that with you now.

My very favorite picture of our son!

In February 2009 when our son Aaron was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer he set off on yet another journey.  A journey to see that his parents would be well taken care of because he knew he wouldn't be here.  He knows that as we age we will need help during coming years.  This journey his dad and I have made is because Aaron started making plans 2 1/2 years ago and it has been a dream of his.  We're here in this beautiful home and city, surrounded by friends and family because our son loves us so much he's willing to give up precious time with us so that we will be settled in a home when God completes his journey. Aaron continues to battle colon cancer.  He is now in continual pain that never leaves. He continues to find joy every single day and when we Skype with him it's still difficult for me to believe that there is anything wrong.  He's always positive!  He only shares the difficult times if we really press (or if his mother catches a post about something on Facebook!).  He's always truthful when we ask but most of the time I think he would prefer we not ask.  Unfortunately, Ray and I are not able to do that. Every time I might question the decision to come to Troy now he reminds me of yet another miracle that confirms the decision.  The perfect house, yard, town, the miraculous trip across the United States.  The family we have here that we are finally going to get to know after 40 years, tons of kids, new opportunities for Santa.  I too know all of these things logically, but my mother's heart still questions how I could leave my dying child.  Would another mother do the same even though it's the "dying wish" of her child.  Aaron says it took great strength from me and that it's the right thing to do. I am also trying to remember that he is an adult man with a wife of his own.  When he married Kristin I relinquished his care to her, I know that logically.  But my mother's heart is broken.  

As I think of Mary watching Jesus die that horrible death on the cross, watch them pierce His side with a spear, give him vinegar to drink when he was so thirsty, pierce His head with a crown of thorns, drive nails into his hands and feet, watch him suffocate on the cross my heart breaks for her in a way I have never recognized before. I'm not trying to compare myself with Mary nor Aaron with Jesus.  I'm just beginning to recognize that even though she was the mother of our Savior she also had a mother's heart and the agony she went through, I don't know how she survived it except to know that God had a plan.

There are so many "little" things that happen each day to confirm we are where we are suppose to be and yet that little nagging in the back of my brain that continues to ask the question, "you're a mother, how could you leave your son who is dying?"  I don't know that I'll ever have the answer to that. I don't know if that little nagging question will ever go away. I see little things every day that confirm I am where I should be but I can't get that thought out of my head.  I don't know if it's because I'm unsure or if because I'm afraid that's what everyone else is thinking. I've never really been into what other people think.  I try to live my life the way I know the Lord would have me live it.  I try to be the best example of joy I can be every day.  I try to treat others better than how I would like to be treated.  I try to always be truthful.  I try to lead by example.  




I was looking for bookshelves on Craigslist (one of my very best friends) and I came across an old antique hutch with wood shelves rather than glass, doors without glass but metal cross mesh and on legs with storage beneath.  I fits in the space like a glove.  I mean, 1/8th of an inch more and it would not have fit.  We rented a utility trailer and drove the 20 miles to pick it up.  It was only $75.  I couldn't find two bookcases for that.  The hutch had all the original hardware.  I was thrilled.  The one thing I had forgotten was how heavy maple is!  It took four of us to get it in the trailer and it was Ray and I to unload it when we got home.  Inch by inch we moved it off the trailer, stood it up, put the sliders under the legs and slid it into the house.  Inch by inch we slid it into the living room and began to slide it into place.  I knew Ray was thinking, "that's not going to fit where she wants it so where is it going to end up?". But to his amazement, it slid with a perfect fit right into the slot I had for it.  (Corey grounded us for moving this one on our own!) I do have my daddy's eye when it comes to "eye-balling" if an item will fit.  When we stood the cabinet up Ray noticed that the pull for the cabinet doors was missing.  He found the door pull inside the cabinet but when he tried to reinstall it it was too loose and just spun around in place.  He decided he needed to find a "lock washer" to hold it in place.  Since the cabinet is so old he thought it might take some time.  We put the door pull in a drawer and decided we'd work on that the next time we went to Home Depot.  We stopped for lunch and as we headed into the kitchen he spotted something on the kitchen floor.  Now remember, we're still unpacking and there's quite a variety of things on our kitchen floor.  He bent over and picked it up and it was a lock washer, the perfect size, perfect color.  Now folks, what is the chance that a lock washer, the perfect size and color would be laying on the kitchen floor.  Chance?  I think not


Then there was the cabinet I found, again on Craigslist, for my craft supplies in the studio. It was the first piece I found.  It's old, matches the wood floor perfectly and has a glass knob that matches the antique glass door knobs perfectly.  Not only that, but a friends son-in-law was working in the area and stopped by and picked it up and delivered it to us so we didn't have to make the trip.  Chance? I think not?


Us being here in Troy, now?  Chance, I think not!
 

And the beat goes on!

 I say this very, very tentatively when I say, "we're up and running"!  When we signed up with Time Warner it appears it has changed some of our settings so we'll have to see if we can find everything again.  I am SO thankful to be on line again.  What a bummer that week was.

Everything is going wonderfully.  We had a super great weekend with family and friends.  Our brother and sister-in-law came down from Maine for the weekend.  It was a very full weekend. "Moving up" as they call it for Josie, Jamison and Hunter, an all school picnic that afternoon and then Jamison's play that evening. Sunday it was pouring down rain.  Some of the braver ones went to the soccer game; Ray and I stayed in and dry and then went to Corey's for a BBQ.

Sorry, couldn't find a picture of chicks in a bathtub

!

Then, on Sunday morning,   The Troy 9 received 31 baby chicks via FedEx and we got a call, "HELP".  We finished our sandwich and headed over only to find that they had done a perfect job of setting things up....in the upstairs bathtub!  They now are down to 30 but the kids are having the time of their life.  Yesterday they were playing classical music to them because they had heard it would help them to learn to talk...boy I hope not.  30 more voices?!  Wow!

Well, Ray's computer is up and running as you can see, but we haven't found the router to connect the laptop yet but this is working fine for now.  I just set up Skype on his computer so he can talk with Aaron whenever he wants.  Things are moving slow.  Today the boys, Hunter and Jamison (and Diane because she's the one that gets them moving)  came over and helped us set up our new iron bed.  I bought all new quilt, shams, everything for the bed and then after it got set up today I decided I liked the old fashion bedspread I already had.  I'll just take all that stuff back and buy something else!

We bought a "child's gate" today so Jamison can play outside on the deck or the front porch.  He had a great time trying to find a way off the deck and out to the stack of wood where the woodchucks live.

We just got the TV hooked up.  I watched 30 minutes of HGTV yesterday and Ray watched 60 Minutes Sunday night.  Of course we're sitting in camping chairs to watch so it's not very comfortable.  Hopefully by the end of the week we'll have our new couch and chair in there and most of the boxes gone.  There are so many details to do that we seem to end up spending half our day getting those done.  Tomorrow I'm having a cabinet delivered for my "studio" to put, I hope, what will be most of my supplies.  The Goodwill's here suck!  They are small and even the large one we went to today has 99% clothes and very little else.  I think most of what we find is going to be at garage sales and Craigslist....which as you know, works wonderfully for me.

I just finished setting up Skype on Ray's computer.  Aaron had already set it up for me on the laptop but we didn't have it on Ray's.  It's so much nicer to be able to see the kids when were talking with them....and all of the rest of you too of course.  Please continue to keep our kids, Aaron and Kristin in your prayers. I know when you see Aaron he looks fine on the outside; please remember, he is in a great amount of pain and can use all the prayer support we can give him.

Corey has a new cupcake cookbook of 100 different kinds and has decided we need to set a specific amount of time and bake them all....and we're off!