Tag Archives: Family Life

An Amazing Adventure~Part 2

2 Nov

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

 

 

The next day, Brian was working. He works with a Christian organization called GEM—Greater Europe Mission. You can check them out on the internet—great organization. Before he went to his meetings, we walked through the Garden of the Gods again—through the mist. We saw rabbits and some deer. I really LOVE this stuff!

While Brian was at work, Karen, Fred and I visited the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

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Again, Fred and I had visited there on our honeymoon 53+ years ago, but the Chapel was not completed at that time. It was such a treat to see it up close and personal. It is a massive structure, and really beautiful.

 

Next we went to Peterson AFB Museum. We had a great guide, Carl—he was very knowledgeable about the history of Peterson. He also told us that, when he was young man, he was working at the golf course on base, and his supervisor called one day in a tizzy. He was told that “Ike” (President Dwight D. Eisenhower) was flying in for a round of golf, and Carl had to caddy for him! And he did! What an experience for a young man!

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There was some really neat architecture in this place. Very “hollywoodish.” One funny exhibit there had a “Wild Hair” painted on the fuselage. The caption said that the pilot had complained and complained about something wrong with the engine, but the mechanics couldn’t find anything wrong with it. Someone made the remark that it seemed like there was a “wild hair” in the engine—and the name stuck!

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After we picked up Brian, we headed south. We stopped at a neat BBQ place called Obie’s and picked up some great BBQ. We then headed to the house of a childhood friend of mine for supper and overnight. (More about them at the end of this tale)

Brian had called them the previous evening and spoke with Ruth Anne. He told her who he was, and said we would be there in about 10 minutes. We heard Ruth Anne clear in our room saying: “WHAT! TONIGHT?” He’s quite the joker. Ruth Anne and her husband have built a cabin for themselves on top of a mountain—and have 35 acres of land—and absolutely MILES of dirt road to get to them! But we had a great time with them, and I was so pleased that Karen and Brian had the opportunity to meet them. They are such fun people. They provided us with an enormous breakfast the next morning and sent us on our way.

 

 

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Brian said later that one of the highlights of the trip for him was to meet these friends—however, the nearly-tame red fox and her two kits right outside the back door probably had something to do with it!

 

 

 

~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~

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What is Required of Us

31 Oct

From My Heart

Louise Gibson

Louise Gibson

 

 

We aren’t required to do great things-

just small things with great love.

Open your heart to help someone.

Do all things as unto the Lord above.

 

Be present in the moment.

Do you hear the plea?

“I need someone to listen,

Won’t you give five minutes to me?”

 

When you open your hand to help,

you are truly opening your heart.

and when you do all things as unto the Lord,

He will strengthen you from the start.

 

” Lord, we all need people in our life-

It’s implanted in our soul.”

To love and to  be loved is an inborn emotion.

Make communicating today your goal..

 

A day without love is wasted.

There is always such a need.

When you reach out to your neighbor,

You are expressing God’s love in deed.

 

L                E

O     V

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The Accidental Death of my Cell Phone

27 Oct

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and ArtistDid you notice the smudge on my new hot-pink purse in the picture in my last blog – the one about getting my new driver’s license?pink 31 bag

Here’s what happened. Rebekah Lyn asked if I wanted to go downtown with her Saturday evening when they were having an algorithms art show down there. Please don’t ask me what that is, I still don’t know.

But, I’m usually up for an art show of any kind so I said yes, and I would pick her up. As I pulled out of my driveway I noticed that the hood ornament that rode home with me from the driver’s license bureau was waiting on a windshield wiper for another ride, a traveling brown lizard as common as a butterfly here in Florida where I live.

Gotta be honest. I’m not crazy about lizards, but I don’t like to see the cats get them or see them blown off a car only to get run over by another car. When I stopped in front of Rebekah Lyn’s condo, I reached for a spatula I’ve been meaning to give back to my daughter and 1tried to chase him off into the grass. He ran this way and that. Rebekah came out of her house laughing at me. Has she never seen a person chasing a lizard with a spatula before?

The window was open on her side and she said he was going to go in it. I knew she was right so I threw down my spatula, jerked open the car door so I could get to the key and put the window up and slammed the door, not thinking about having stuffed my purse in the door pocket before I left home.

The lizard ran down into an opening where the windshield wipers go. I didn’t see him again until Bill and I ran errands in his van yesterday and he was there to ride along. Everybody likes Bill better than me, but I don’t let it get to me. I like him better too.

Anyhow, after we parked behind some businesses down town and I reached for my purse, I realized it had fallen out, so we got back in the car and drove back to Rebekah Lyn’s. We saw the purse lying in the street right where we’d left it, grabbed it and headed back downtown. However when I checked to see whether everything was still there I noticed one of the zippers was very stiff, then I noticed the tire marks on the purse. Then Rebekah Lyn asked how my cell phone, which was in a pocket was, then I got it out and it was d-e-a-d, dead. Old cell phone from long ago. I rejoiced. It was finally time for a smart phone. Lots of people have phones now that are smarter than they are, and I will no longer be an exception, except I suspect that my old phone was… Never mind.

That was it except that when I went to use my credit card at the pet store the next day, they said it wouldn’t work, so I had to buy ten cans of salmon with cash.

Our daughter and her husband are helping us with new cell phones. Bill gets one too. We’re getting I Phones 5 c or s I can’t remember which and I’m looking forward to having a good camera with me always so that when I get a lizard on car I can take his picture before I brush him off.

“A lizard can be caught with the hand, (not by me, and Rebekah Lyn wouldn’t catch him, either) yet it is found in kings’ palaces.” Proverbs 30:28

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Driver’s License

20 Oct

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and ArtistWe have a new driver’s license and tax office in our town, directly behind the sheriff’s department building. And of course we have a few new rules, as well. When I went to get my new driver’s license I took every piece of identification I had from my whole life just in case: passport, copy of birth certificate, marriage certificate and so on. Bill called ahead to see if I’d have to take the test, and they said it wasn’t based on age, it was based on the opinion of the agent who waited on me at the license bureau. That was scary. Sometimes I forget shor-term stuff so recent it happened only a tick ago. I had tried for weeks to get a driver’s license handbook in case, but they are very hard to find and the directions on the internet looked daunting.

I meant to take my iPod in with me so I could listen to my audible book while I was waiting, but I’d already drawn my number by the time I noticed I’d left it in the car, so I stuck it out. They have news and entertainment notices on a screen now, so what with that and looking around I did all right until it was my turn.

One thing I had noticed while I waited was that the young woman at desk 10 seemed to have plenty of patience, exactly as if she had plenty of time, which she obviously didn’t because of the waiting crowd. Besides that, she looked like a little girl in a well-filled black dress, wearing a good sized hot-pink bow in her long curly hair with highlights. She didn’t look as if she could ever hurt anybody in any way. Guess what. She called the number just before mine. She called it again, and again. No one got up. Then she called mine.

It all went as smooth as rain on a window, even the part where I showed her the report from my optometrist that said I now have twenty-twenty vision so we could take the glasses restriction off the license. She seemed to give a little hum of delight that such a good thing could happen for someone.

She stood me against a blue backdrop and took my picture with a mounted camera. I said something pink 31 bagabout how bad driver’s license photos usually are and she asked if I’d like to see it. I had the impression that if it was awful she’d take it over, but it was better than the one I’d had for ten years or however long it has been. The new license popped out of a machine, no temporary paper license, no waiting. I slipped it into a slot in my hot-pink combination purse and wallet. Then I purchased a voucher for a new license plate which is being put out by the sheriff’s department. I asked for a driver’s license instruction handbook for a friend who has to take the test, but who isn’t equipped to read it on the internet. They just got them in, no problem. She handed it to me.

 

I went away rejoicing.

“For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”

Isaiah 55:12

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How We Met~Part 3

19 Oct

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

 

 

As it turned out, Fred was attending the same church where I was a member. So we kept seeing each other there, and were in the same youth group.

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It didn’t take long for me to realize the he was probably the most shy guy I had ever met. He also had never been on a date – so I was his first! And as for the first date – the youth group was having a hay ride up to the mountains – and I had to ask HIM if he would like to go with me! I told you he was shy!! He also didn’t have a driver’s license, so anywhere we went, I was the driver.

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Chapel service at the UNM BSU Center

 

I remember that the BSU had a Halloween haunted house, and I went there with Fred. It was a neat thing. In a darkened room, they had you put your hand in a bowl of peeled grapes as eyeballs, spaghetti noodles as brains…you get the picture. One of the adult sponsors of the BSU was good at story-telling, and she had on a black outfit with glow-in-the-dark gloves, and told some sort of tale. Everyone had on some kind of costume. There was bobbing for apples and other such games. It was really a lot of fun. You remember – the way we used to do it.

 

 

The group had retreats in the mountains outside Albuquerque (Sandia Mountains); they had retreats at Glorieta Baptist Conference Center near Santa Fe; all those things Fred and I went to together, becoming more familiar with each other.

 

 

Fred started coming to our BHiU meetings – by walking from UNM to the church where my group met – about a three mile hike – and all before he had to go to his own classes! He said he doesn’t remember ever riding the bus there – perhaps the bus schedule at that hour of the morning didn’t fit our meeting time. In any case – he walked there.

 

Fred started spending time at my house, getting to know my parents.

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My brother, Bill, had already gone into the Navy and wasn’t there to meet him. It wasn’t until we were engaged to be married that Bill and Fred met. We had been dating for about 18 months before Fred popped the question. I said “yes – but not yet.” We were engaged for another 18 months before we married.

Fred, my parents, and I drove from Albuquerque to Los Angeles (Inglewood), California, to spend Christmas with Bill and DiVoran in 1960. They had a little house and we were really crammed into that space.

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Dad told me later that Bill had pronounced Fred to be “a man’s man” as we left. Bill had always been my protector – when Daddy was out on the road as much as he was, Bill was the one to meet my dates. And intimidate them, if possible! He was bigger than most of them. But he and Fred got along, right from the start.

The last year of Fred’s UNM experience, he roomed at our house. He paid my parents what he would have paid the university for room and board. It made us very comfortable with each other – we saw each other last thing at night and first thing in the morning. So we both went into our marriage with our eyes wide open!

 We married on June 20, 1961. It’s been a great 53+ years of marriage. We are grateful to God for all these years together.

 

 

~~~~~~The End~~~~~~

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I’m in the Hangar Again

13 Oct

My Take

DiVoran Lites

IAuthor, Poet and Artist‘m in Bill’s hanger in the backyard with my two cats, Jasmine and Lily. I come out here when the flea spray man comes once a month. It’s a beautiful workshop with door sized counters on three sides where you can work, 117 framed pictures of airplanes, 67 airplane books and two shelves of three ring binders with airplane pictures in them, many airplanes, and a lot of equipment. Bill cleaned off a space for my computer, and it feels good to write someplace else for a change. The cats don’t like change though so I’m playing, “Through a Cat’s Ears.” In order to keep them calm. It helps me anyhow, even if they still aren’t happy.

Today we’re out here because we’re having our bathtub painted. We moved into our house in 1965 and the fixtures in the family bathroom were sea foam green as was the tile. About six years ago, when we got new cabinets, the toilet tank broke. Bill epoxied the toilet and it held together, but it now showed an ugly scar. Then the sink started rusting where the little metal stopper goes and I couldn’t get it clean.

Eventually, I got tired of the bathroom looking so bad and we started shopping for new fixtures. We could get a nice toilet and sink and have them put in, but we didn’t want to remove the tub and take a chance of breaking the tiles and having to replace them all.

So Bill called the company that had painted our friends’ tub. Today when the man called to tell us the techs were on their way I ventured the question I’d been pondering the past few weeks: how toxic is this stuff, anyhow.

Bill told me they had explained the whole process to him. They remove the grout, clean the tub, repair any dings, ETCH the tub, and spray on the paint. That did sound toxic, and I was right.

I asked the man with the beautiful Irish accent whether the stuff the tub people use is toxic or not and he said, “Ah, yea, it’s nasty stuff. Yea, best you go to another part of the house while they’re spraying. Afterwards, close the door and stuff towels under it, if you have a window, open it.”

“No window — exhaust fan?” I asked.

“Yea, that will help.”

So here we are in our safe place.

Epilogue: the new tub is beautiful and matches the other fixtures. The sea foam tiles all around are still sea foam. I intend to keep the bathroom the cleanest it’s ever been. And yea, I think I’m going to have to do something about the grout now, but what?

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How We Met~Part 2

12 Oct

SUNDAY MEMORIES

JUDY

Let me add a bit of Fred’s history here. He is the oldest of four children in his family.

Judy’s Father in Law

His father had been in World War 2 as a Chaplain, after being through seminary and pastorate. When the Army Air Corps decided to break apart and the Air Force became its own entity, his dad went with the AF rather than Army. So the family moved around quite a bit – not only in the States, but also had a tour in Italy after the war.

When Fred was in high school, his dad was sent to Japan.

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The family followed, but it took a while. The year they moved, Fred went to three different high schools! (In his public school years, he went to 23 different schools!) They started in Panama City, Florida, then moved to Danville, California (near Walnut Creek) for a while, then on to Japan. He was ticked that the California school he was in – San Ramon Valley Union High School – which was supposed to be top-of-the-line at that time, didn’t offer either Latin or advanced Algebra – both of which he’d studied in Florida. The California schools also didn’t want to let him take upper-level American history (a junior course, and he was just a sophomore), saying that he couldn’t possibly be ready for that class. His father convinced them to let him take a test to measure his level – and he aced the test! In any case, they were there only a few months before the move to Japan.

Fred’s sisters told me later that he went straight from age 12 to 20! He apparently got serious about his studies and girls just fell by the wayside! I guess it was a good thing, since he was Valedictorian of his high school graduating class in Japan! None of that moving around stunted his brain power, it seems. He actually said it was an education within itself, and he was grateful for that opportunity.

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Because of his grade average, he had applied to – and been accepted by and had a line number for – four universities: Purdue, Florida State, the University of Illinois, and Washington State. He just hadn’t made his choice yet.

Fred had always had a bit of a problem with hay fever, but it got worse while he was in Japan. He was talking with the librarian in his high school on Johnson AFB, Japan, one day. She was from Albuquerque, and she suggested that the dry climate in New Mexico might actually be good for his hay fever. So, late in June that year, he applied for admission to the University of New Mexico – and was accepted.

And that’s how he came to be in Albuquerque. God just brought him there for us to meet. Isn’t it amazing how God works things out?

 

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.     Jeremiah 29:11

 

 

 

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

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How Did I Get Into The Race

9 Oct

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I'm a winner

Do you ever feel like you are losing a race you didn’t know you entered? Since the incredibly busy days leading up to the release of my daughter, Rebekah Lyn’s new novel Jessie on July 20,2014, I can’t seem to slow down my days. I feel as though life is plunging ahead and I am merely hanging on.

Last week our son, Matthew was scheduled for a long awaited surgical hip repair. God had graciously given me His assurance that he had every detail under control yet I still found myself fretting as snags popped up. Why do we do that?

The surgery was wonderfully successful and God did indeed work out every snag or worry that cropped up. After two years of almost continual pain, our son is now almost totally pain free, What joy!

A big thankful shout out to Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Dr. Allston Stubbs for accepting Matthew as a patient. I am confident even though the road to surgery and healing was long, God had this plan all along.

 

Matthew is only thirty seven years old. Contrary to what we think, hip problems are not limited to the elderly. In younger people the correct diagnosis is often missed. If you have hip problems, Wake Forest University Hip Center has an informative website.

 

I can’t end this post without mentioning the blessing  the SECU Family House was to our family. It is funded by donations from members and employees of the State Employees Credit Union. Thank you to everyone. Matt and April were made comfortable and their needs were generously met.

SECU Family House
Leaving the Hospital

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An Everglades Adventure~Part 3

8 Oct

A Slice of Life

BIll Lites

Bill Lites

 

That evening after supper, we built a campfire and were enjoying “S’mores” when we heard rustling in the brush around our campsite. Now we were all veteran nature lovers, but, we had heard tales of what kind of critters called the Florida Everglades their home, so were extra 1cautious. As it turned out, it was a mama Raccoon and her three little ones looking for a handout. We tried to discourage the children from feeding them, but you know how kids love furry creatures, and they don’t realize how dangerous wild animals can be. We shooed them off, knowing they would surely be back to try their luck again. It was a fretful night for me since it was a strange place (many of the night sounds were different from those we were used to in our woods at home) and I kept waking up, worrying about the raccoons coming back and trying to get into our food.

After breakfast the next morning, the ladies packed a picnic lunch, we all covered ourselves with sunscreen, and insect repellant and headed off with the canoes to see what we could see. It was a beautiful day and birds of all kinds were everywhere. DiVoran was especially thrilled to get to see her first Rosette Spoonbill and we all were excited to see a nest of Pileated Woodpeckers.

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There were egrets and ducks of all kinds, on the water and in the air, and we had a contest to see who could name the most correctly. Of course, being in the land famous for alligators and snakes, we were constantly on the lookout so as not to be surprised by one of them. By the time the sun was high overhead, we were tired of paddling, so we found a small clearing, beached our canoes, and shared our picnic lunch with the ants, flies and mosquitoes. Then it was time for more sunscreen and insect repellant. We found our way back to the boat landing and decided 25 cents was not too much to pay for a shower.

 

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If you have ever done any camping, have you ever noticed how the mosquitoes seem to attack much more after you come out of the shower? I don’t know what it is about a clean body, but for me, the race is on to see if I can get to the insect repellant before they can find me. Earlier we had seen some very unusually shaped old dead trees not too far from our campsites, so we spent some time scouting the area for driftwood.

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That evening, after supper, we sat around the campfire and Dwayne showed our daughter, Charlene, how to play cords on the guitar. We had another visit from the raccoon family, but they didn’t stay long this time, as the boys chased them off.

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So much for our “Everglades Adventure.” We all agreed this sort of “Primitive” camping was not exactly what we had in mind for a relaxing weekend camping trip. The next day we packed up all our equipment, canoes and children, and began the long drive back to Titusville. Other than being long and hot, the return trip was uneventful (if you can ever begin to call 4 adults being cooped up with 5 kids for 6 hours in a hot car, uneventful). We stopped for lunch and potty breaks, but didn’t stop in Melbourne for my car, since we couldn’t pull both the camper and the car. I would have to make that trip another day, and that is a  story in itself that I will have to share with you some other time.

 

 

—–The End—–

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The Science Project

6 Oct

Author, Poet and ArtistWhen I invited my friend, six-grader, Natasha, to allow me to help her where she was stuck with her reading I never dreamed the connection might morph into that dreaded thing, a science project!

I don’t think I’ve ever done one. I would remember, wouldn’t I? My son turned out to be a scientist (biologist) so I suppose he did one or two. I taught him and my daughter to cook, does that count?

The first time Natasha and I worked on the science project after school was the first day I decided to have decaf coffee for my afternoon cuppa. My brain was totally fried, I was confused and had the beginning of a headache which later developed into a real zinger. In one place Natasha put her head in her hand with her cornrow braids and their big beads hanging down. I thought the gig was up for me.

We did get some things done and another day we worked on it some more, then yesterday I picked her up from chorus and we came to my house. I had my coffee this time. I’m going to have to break myself of it grain by grain, I guess.

Anyhow, we had done some work on the botany-type project. We got our containers, and mediums and she’d written her hypothesis, and her question and we’d read the instructions – goodness how hard they are! I should have only read the numbered topics. Those I understood.

Before she came I was getting that tight feeling in my chest that tells me I’m anxious. Oh, what shall I do. I don’t want to be like this. I prayed. As always I asked God to show me the truth of the situation. The thought came to me that I might as well stop acting like a big-shot who knew everything and tell her I’d never done one before.

As it happens Natasha has done at least three of them. She was undismayed at my confession. I think putting our heads together did help her.

We got it all started, and then we took photos. I showed her how to use the digital camera and the computer to enhance and print them. We’ll take more sets of pictures as time goes on. She will measure the progress of the items ten times over a period of a couple of months. Her mom is going to have a baby soon. We talked about this project being Natasha’s baby and how she’ll have to think about it and write something every day, because that’s was in the instructions. We had fun. We talked about doing some art to go with it. We like to do art. Natasha said she has to do a graph. I nervously asked if she knew how. She described the process to me and then I knew I could lend aid whenever possible, but that she’s going to do a good job and I completely turn loose of it. What a relief.

I think I’ll look up the website printed on the instructions and learn something, http://www.sciencebuddies.org/ We’re on our way.

 

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