Art Prize

Grand Rapids hosts an event called Art Prize each fall with all kinds of art work from all over the world.  The art work is at many venues, the art museum,  outside on the sidewalks and street corners, along the river just to name a few.  Today Jeff and I had lunch at the Art Museum with Hope College and learned about the new art museum that will be built and open in 2015.  Afterward we took some time to see some of the exhibits.  It was a beautiful day and we had a nice time.

See more pictures on our family photo album!

Birthday Weekend!

Friday was a fun day.  I visited my wonderful friend from work and we had such a nice time. She baked me her famous chocolate chip cookies and played one of my favorite songs. After I got home, Jeff and I had spaghetti supporting the Lions Club, went to the high school football game and did shopping at Meijer.

Saturday Jeff rode his bike in the annual le Tour de Donut here in Greenville.  The ride is 32 miles and  has two stops requiring the rider to eat at least one donut before continuing.  It is a fun time and the weather was nice. I went shopping for new slightly smaller clothes in between the stops. So everyone wins!

 

I played for church for the first time in almost a year.  I think it went pretty well and enjoyed playing for the Lord this morning.

Sunday after church we drove to Ann Arbor, picked up Mary and then headed to Toledo to celebrate Sarah's birthday.  We had a lot of fun, first at bd's mongolian barbeque for dinner and then eating Mary's delicious and moist chocolate cake at Sarah's house.  Matthew joined us from OK via face time so we had the family all together.  I am a very happy mommy!  It's been a great weekend.






You get a crazy hat to wear at the restaurant.  I said she looks like princess amadala from star wars. We have two beautiful girls!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to SARAH...It was a joyous day 24 years ago, the day she was born in the Land of the Rising Sun!  Omedeto Gozaimasu!

My Collage Card

PUZZLE PIECES

I went to Gilda's House yesterday for a class about feeling and dealing with cancer and grief.  I am not sure if I did my collage card like the rest of the class, but I am very happy with it and it represents how I feel so well.

Can you make any guess about any of it's meanings? 

The picture includes: stormy background (including some tornadic winds), God, a lamb, happy black and white dog, three children, flowers, koala, anemometer and kiddie border.

Stormy background: I have had a stormy last year. Blown around leaving life as I knew it in pieces.

God: All powerful and has directed my life through the storm, safe and sound.

Lamb: The little lamb is me.  I am in God's loving arms.

Dog:  First, it represents that I'd like things to be more black and white, but it has proved to very gray. There are no hard and fast answers. Secondly, he makes me smile, and I need to keep doing that every day, no matter if life seems gray.

Three Children: Two girls and a boy.  Wonderful memories of our three children growing up into who they are today, awesome!  It also represents my looking forward to grandchildren one day, hoping that I will be able to hold them and play with them. 

flowers: Take time to enjoy the small things.  Seeing the first flowers of spring always brings a smile and a sign of life!

Koala:  I think they are so cute and had the exciting experience of holding a koala when we were in Australia, Sarah in one arm and the little aussie in the other.

Anemometer: Of course it's an instrument that the love of my life uses in his weather world. It  measures wind speed.  Life has been a whirlwind at times, then a waiting game at others. I am still learning patience!  

The kiddie border: Well, it represents kids in general.  I love kids and babies.  

So that is my story behind the collage card.  Tomorrow church orchestra starts and Friday I am going to visit a friend from my work.

Canadian Brass

Jeff and I were able to attend the Canadian Brass concert at the Performing Arts Center at Greenville High School. It was awesome!  I didn't take my camera or iPod since pictures and videos are usually prohibited. Anyway, they welcomed pictures, so I used my cell phone and had pretty sad results.  Everything was small. I shared the best I had plus some I found online from Thursday's concert.  The music was stellar and the performers interactive. During one song, the Tuba Player came and played sitting in the audience.  The other 4 stood around the auditorium.  I took a picture of Jeff with their French Horn player. All of the instruments are 24 K gold plated! Just beautiful! One trumpeter, played the piccolo trumpet.  I never heard of that before. It was quite amazing! The other trumpeter has perfect pitch and sang a high C during the Carmen opera performance. Incredible! Everyone had a prop as a costume, Captain, brown women's wig, blonde women's wig a matador and even a bull! If you ever have a chance to see them in concert, I would HIGHLY recommend seeing them!

Watch a video taken at our concert lasts Thursday.  

Canadian Brass plays Penny Lane as the Encore.

(hear the piccolo trumpet!)

Jeff ran in a 5K this morning to benefit families that are homeless.  He was happy with his time right at 30 minutes!  I stayed home instead of going to watch, since it was a cold morning!  Some areas had frost!  I have a sweatshirt on today.  I think it was in the 40's! At least the sun is out and shining bright! Fall is here. Even some of the leaves are starting to change.

Have a nice weekend!

Gracie

Sweet September

School has officially started everywhere, now that Labor Day is behind us.   Matthew and Sarah started class in August, Mary started last Tuesday.  But today was another first day.  It was Mary's first day of school at Huron High as a Teaching Intern!  She looked beautiful and happy!  A dream is coming true right before our eyes!   Sarah's back into school mode both as a graduate student and as the athletic trainer at Summerfield High School.  She does such a great job!  The kids want to find a way to keep her next year too.  A small school probably doesn't have money in the budget for a Mater's prepared Athletic Trainer.  Matthew is busy with classes and working both jobs, OU scene shop and the movie theater.  He loves apartment living rather than the dorms. I don't hear too much from my favorite young man, but than means things are going ok.

Backing up just over a week, Mary moved back to Ann Arbor to her new apartment.  We had to rent a small truck to get her things there. This apartment wasn't furnished and neither of our cars would hold her bed and a futon. It is a nice place on the bottom floor and close to her classes and her work!  Sarah met us in Ann Arbor and we spent the night in Ann Arbor helping set up her furniture, hang pictures and enjoyed a delicious breakfast together prepared by Sarah and Jeff. Sarah drove us home to Greenville and spent the rest of Labor Day weekend with us.

Last weekend we travelled to Lansing to celebrate Jack's 3rd birthday. He is my little buddy that I babysat for a couple years when his mom was director of our preschool. The girls met us there so it was a family affair.  Even Matthew was able to Skype before work.   Fun was had by all. I am still

 Jack's "my Grace" and he told me I was his best friend.  Then he told everyone they were his best friend.   But when it came time to say goodbye and leave, Jack asked me to stay at their house.  He told Jeff,  "I want her (Grace) to stay with us".  Aww. It made me smile and feel loved.  I felt bad for little Jack though, he was so disappointed.  I told him I didn't have church clothes to wear the next day and he offered some of his.  What a sweetie.  I was glad to get hugs from all the kids, including mine, and spend time with the whole family.  Sarah found Mousercise  on youtube and all the kids enjoyed dancing and exercising.  Jack would mousercise every day he was at our house. 

 

Sunday was rally day at church.  I was hoping for better attendance for our Sunday School, but had less than 20 even with teachers.  Our adult studies had great attendance which is encouraging. Don't know why it is so hard to get people to stay and study God's wonderful Word together.  I will be praying that more children will be in class next week.  I made a website for our Sunday School. You can see it here.

Before Mary went back to Ann Arbor, she took the time to help clear out my old and non-fitting clothes from my closet.  It was a big job.  I had quite a few things that I couldn't wear that I can wear now and things I was wearing that I can't wear anymore.  Do I sound like the apostle Paul?  Anyway, I got to wear one of my favorite blouses to church that I haven't worn in years along with a favorite pair of shoes, my two tone navy and white shoes I got from the resale store at the seminary. I paid a quarter or 50 cents for them.  Unfortunately by the time I got home, I had at least three blisters on my toes and feet. I knew I wouldn't wear them again. They were laid to rest in our trash can after I took one last picture. Pretty silly isn't it?  The rest of the story is that all three kids gave me a hard time when I wore those shoes, so it wasn't just getting rid of the shoes, but it was the getting rid of an object with so many funny memories! I won't lose the memories and I won't have anymore blisters.

Looking forward,  Jeff and I have tickets to see/hear the Canadian Brass.  They are performing at our high school auditorium.  I can't wait.  Need to make some birthday plans too for my first born.  She will be 24!  I have a few ideas, just have to decide.  As a graduate student she is learning about multiple expenses and told me just to give money. She has renew her ATC certification
(which is really expensive) and has to have the hew new car looked at.  The fan for the AC isn't working right. While sending her money would be easy and helpful, momma needs to get her something fun too!  Sure would help if her university would pay her for her all her work.  They still owe her some payment.

Well, that's about it.  Tomorrow is a day we must never forget.  9/11/01~ the day our country was attacked and thousands died.  God Bless America.