A Day with Hannah and Benjamin (and their Mommy)

We had a fun day together.

However, it got off to a later start than we had planned. On the way to their house Grani drove over something. It made a loud noise and then we heard HSSSsssssssssssssssss and then thumpity, thumpity, thump, thump sssssssssssssssss.

Thankfully Papa knows how to change a tire.

Ends up, spare tires tell you not to drive over 50 mph so we didn't get on an Interstate all day which added a few minutes each drive.

First we went to the zoo. You can see a lot of great pics on Christy's blog.

http://danielandchristy.blogspot.com/2008/04/zoo-trip.html

http://danielandchristy.blogspot.com/2008/04/more-zoo.html

http://danielandchristy.blogspot.com/2008/04/being-two-at-zoo.html

We packed a picnic but no blanket, so we sat on the table.

Little Miss Independent!

Back at Papa and Grani's house Benjamin had fun playing with Papa's hat.

Then for supper we went to the On Mission Conference at Papa's church.

http://hilldaleworship.blogspot.com/2008/04/on-mission-conference.html

The Gift of Life - seemingly random thoughts

I have been blessed in so many ways. I have two wonderful children and two wonderful children-in-law (that seems like a funny way to word that), and five beautiful grandchildren and one on the way. I'm sure there will be more later! God's lovingkindness is very evident in my life and their lives.

Ps 103:17 - Show Context
But the lovingkindness of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children's children

I have a myspace account now. I had to get one to check on some bands and leave comments and stuff like that. There's a place where you click on your mood for the day. I picked "amused" because the whole social networking thing is rather amusing to me.

Today I sang and played at the funeral of a 6 year old boy. There is something very, very sad about small caskets. I cried a lot. Not the loud weeping and gnashing of teeth type of crying, but it was a very emotional time.

So that is what prompted this little time of remembering how blessed I am to have 5 (soon to be 6) healthy, beautiful grandchildren. I need them all to come to my house tonight so I can give them lots of hugs and kisses.

Bringing all of these seemingly random thoughts together...

Let me encourage all of my faithful readers to get past virtual relationships via social networking sites like facebook and myspace and even blogger, and get involved in someone's life in the flesh. Give hugs and pats on the back. Enjoy life and people. Get your hands dirty and your life messy as you spend real, in-person time with others - family and non-family. Be a witness to God's amazing grace and lovingkindness.

A First for Benjamin

Grani and Papa were taking Hannah and Benjamin and their Mommy to Clarksville tonight for Rivers and Spires. About mile 13 it started to sprinkle on us. We got off I-24 at exit 11 to show Christy Hilldale's new Family Life Center. The rain kept getting heavier, so we decided to not eat at Rivers and Spires and instead to have supper at Crackerbarrel (surprise!).

While we were there, Benjamin learned how to drink from a straw! Pretty cool stuff.

By the end of supper it was pouring down rain, so we drove Christy and kids home. Grani and Papa will try again tomorrow to see Rivers and Spires. Papa has a painting in the art show. It didn't win, but it still looks beautiful hanging there with the others.

Grandbabies and Trees

We plant a tree in honor of each grandchild when he or she is born. I wrote about them on my worship blog if you are interested. http://hilldaleworship.blogspot.com/2008/04/our-last-poll.html

Kids Blitz Live

Hannah and Benjamin went with Grani a Papa to Hilldale to see Kids Blitz Live. It was a lot of fun.

First we went out to eat at Ruby Tuesday (or is it Tuesdays?)

Benjamin had a grilled cheese sandwich. I gave him some little pieces of zuchini from my salad. He tried one. I guess he didn't like it because he pushed the rest of it on the floor.

Hannah had roast beef from Arby's (no bread) and fries from Burger King. They are the only fries that don't have milk or egg or some other allergin in them.

Here we are waiting to go in to the show.


Papa and Benjamin went to the front to take pictures. You can see them by clicking the title of this post. (It will take you to www.hilldaleworship.blogspot.com )
Jeremy asked if we wanted him to take our picture.
Benjamin has his usual "Oh! A camera!" look.

Easter Egg Hunting in Edgefield

A few weeks ago, just before Easter, Grani and Papa were able to take Hannah and Benjamin to their church for an Easter egg hunt. They had spent the night before at Grani and Papa's house.

Saturday morning when we got up we noticed that the flags were up on the mailboxes!

We hunted eggs at Grani and Papa's house to practice for the big hunt at church.

At the Easter egg hunt there were a lot of eggs to find and a lot of kids hunting for them. Actually, I've noticed that at most church Easter egg hunts it is really just a race to pick up eggs lying around on the ground. There isn't much "hunting" involved.

Benjamin was very excited to find an egg. Mommy had him put it in his basket so he could pick up another egg. He didn't want to put it in his basket. "Yes", mommy said, "then you can get more eggs." Well, that just made him mad and so then he wouldn't pick up any eggs. He just cried.

Speaking of Benjamin. He's walking! Check it out if you haven't yet. http://danielandchristy.blogspot.com/2008/04/walking.html

Family Television

This was originally posted on my Hilldale Worship blog, http://www.hilldaleworship.blogspot.com/ but I liked it a lot and wanted my PapaLyndel readers to see it too.

I’m happy to report that I have now seen an episode of “Hannah Montana.” My granddaughter loves the Disney channel. After a week in Oklahoma I’ve actually seen many new things on TV.
We watched some show with Alton the cook on the food channel where he was in Minnesota eating nasty things like rotten fish head jelly. My son loves to watch the food network.
My daughter-in-law likes to watch “Good Morning America”, but she likes to see it around 10:00, so it’s on the TiVO schedule. Now and then they watched Fox News with me. But most of the time we watched Gibson bowl and play tennis on Wii.

It was nice, in this day of every room having its own TV, for us to be together as a family. Would I have watched Hannah or Alton or Diane if I had been home by myself? Nope. I guess I could have gone to a different room and watched what I wanted to watch all day long, but then I wouldn’t have been with my son and grandchildren and we wouldn’t have those shared – even if it was TV – experiences together.

Guess where I’m going with this: Sunday morning worship. Our congregation is blessed to have people of all ages worshipping together. How nice it is that when we gather together on a Sunday morning that we sing a great variety of music that speaks to all generations. How nice it is that grandparents, parents and children are singing God’s praises together. They may not sit together (It’s definitely not cool to sit with mom when you are 16.) but they have that same shared experience that helps make a family.

It would be quite sad for grandma to go to one service, mom and dad to another, teenage brother go to another and kid sister to a fourth service. In that situation, where is the common bond, the shared experience, the give and take of loving someone and giving up some of your own wants to meet the needs of another?

Oooo, he’s gone to preachin’. Land the plane! (If you missed yesterday’s sermon I’ll explain that one to you.)

Bottom line. I hope that when I am 70 and my grandchildren are 25, 24, 22, 21, 21 and 19 that we will go to church together. I hope that they will sing “old” songs that I like, like “How Great Is Our God” and that I will want to sing whatever “new” songs are written in 2028 and that we will worship together because we are “family!” I also hope that we’ll still be singing “Holy, Holy, Holy” which was written in 1861. It’s part of our Christian heritage and it connects us with all of the saints who have gone before us (but that is a whole other post).

Who knows, by then we may have rediscovered the grandeur of a pipe organ and how well it expresses the greatness of God and they’ll be replacing guitars and drums…

Another Photo Shoot

When you are so photogenic it's hard to pass up another chance to get pictures.

Wii Are Having Fun

Great-grandma and great-grandpa came over the other night. Wii played bowling together. Gibson is great at it and gets lots of strikes!

Elam decided to put on a bicycle helmet since he kept getting in the way of the bowlers.

Vacation - We're Not At the Beach

Ha! I had someone from church call me earlier this evening. It was about 7:30. He said, "did I wake you up?" Hahahaha. I was putting three dirty kids in the tub when he called. He went on to explain that he figured we were napping all day and going to bed early and sleeping late... all of those things that I suppose you do if you go to Hilton Head or Cancun.

No, we're in OKC spending our days following around, chasing and listening to three kids ages 5, 4, and 18 months. It is not a day at the beach, but I'd much rather be here than at the beach.

Here's something fun that happened yesterday.






We found a note inside a book called "A Dangerous Book for Boys." The note said "A secret surprise for everyone. Can you follow the clues? Look in the scanner to get started..."



The clues took us all around the house.



Everyone found clues. It was almost like being on Blues Clues. (Only we didn't have a blue dog or a notepad or a funny guy singing, "I just found a letter.")



The last clue was in the freezer! It told us the prize was for cold things and was in Grani's car.

Wow! Look what it was - a snow cone maker! You can't use regular ice in it so we had to freeze some blocks.

Later that night we got to make some snow cones.

Yummy!

Easter Egg Hunts and Grandchildren

Grani and Papa have had a lot of fun with Benjamin and Hannah the last few days. And I have some great pictures on my camera... which is in Tennessee! It's on my chair in the living room so I'll see it to take to Oklahoma. I thought I had put it in my computer case, but alas, it is still at home.

Carved Easter eggs! Wow! I want to learn how to do that.




Hannah and Benjamin spent the night with us Friday night partly for Grani's birthday (which will be another post) and partly because Hannah's mommy needed to boil eggs for the Easter egg hunt at thier church and Hannah is so allergic to eggs she can't go near the kitchen if eggs are cooking or boiling.





Then Saturday we went to the Easter egg hunt. I have some great pictures in my camera...


Hannah had a lot of fun picking up eggs. We had to give all of her candy eggs away since she is allergic to corn and they all are made with high fructose corn syrup.




These are not the eggs Christy boiled. These are from Ukraine.

Benjamin picked up one egg and then when he had to put it in his basket he got mad and cried and wouldn't pick up any more. I guess he's a little young to understand the whole concept.





Now we're in Oklahoma. We've had several egg hunts since we got here. First with Haven while Gibson was at school. Then we hid the eggs and went to his school and picked him up. He hunted eggs when he got home. Elam helped. It was a lot of fun.





But since my camera is in TN I don't have pictures. Haley is going to give me her camera to use while I'm here.

Hannah and Benjamin Visit

Hannah and Benjamin came to Hilldale again last night so their daddy could see Bow the Knee Hilldale's Passion Play 2008. They weren't too happy to end up in the nursery when they knew Grani and Papa were nearby so they cried and wouldn't stop so the nursery people had to get daddy and he missed almost the whole show.

After the program they came to Grani and Papa's house for a little bit.

Here they are in Grani's car driving to Grani and Papa's house.

Once we got home we played and snuggled and Hannah kept giving Baylee doggie biscuits.

Hannah looking for Baylee out the back door.