Auf Weidersein, Craig!

I had a voicemail from my son Craig at 8:05 this morning, letting me know that he had arrived safely in Germany and thanking me for the homemade cookies I had sent for the plane ride.

An exciting story of God’s goodness and grace has unfolded over the past three weeks since I received a lengthy e-mail from Craig’s friend Nathan, who has been in Germany with his wife as YWAM missionaries for the past year and a half. Nathan shared that he has been earnestly praying for Craig, and recently God had put a plan on his heart. He shared this plan and asked for our blessing, as well as help getting a passport for Craig and keeping his plan a secret from Craig until he came in person.

Miraculously, I was able to reach Craig the first time I called him, and arranged to meet him after work that day. I told him I thought it would be good to get him a passport in case he ever had the opportunity to ride up to Canada to visit my brother John when he returned from a visit here. It was a two day process, and after we mailed it off, he thanked me for getting him a passport. He said it was really cool to dream about going somewhere. I asked him where he would go if I gave him a plane ticket and said he could go anywhere in the world with it. He immediately replied that he would go to Germany, he would love to visit Nathan.

Nathan came last week, surprising Craig at 8:00 Friday morning and taking him out to breakfast. He gave Craig an envelope, and when Craig opened it, there was a plane ticket to Frankfurt, Germany. He invited Craig to come live in the YWAM castle where he lives, which is a training school for missionaries. Craig can earn room and board by working 40 hours a week at the castle.

The passport arrived a week later, Friday morning and they went to Portland to spend that night at Nathan’s dad’s. He took them to the airport Saturday morning (yesterday), where their flight left at 8:40 AM. He sent us some pictures from the airport.

We are truly thankful that our son has a friend that loves him so much. We are excited about this opportunity for Craig and look forward to seeing God continue to work. We appreciate your continued prayers for him as he seeks answers for his life.

Here is the link to Nathan's YWAM page, and you can link to the home page from there.
http://www.ywam-hurlach.de/index1.php?holunder=219
God is so good!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Day was just as it should be - a relaxing day with the people we love most, being thankful for the many blessings we enjoy, including lots of wonderful food, (made by me) if I do say so. Actually, it became a relaxing day after we finished moving some furniture around. As always, Will did an excellent job of supervising the boys. It was just us, our boys, and two girlfriends for dinner. It was the first time we have had such a configuration for a meal. Rather noisy but wonderful. Will was heard to complain that when he was asked a question, people did not give him time to answer before conversation quickly moved on. Check out my marvellous men! (Note Eric's goatee color even after bleach AND peroxide treatments! He is not willing to use hair dye to change its' color!)

Later on, Doug, Anisa and family sandwiched a visit to us between their day's social activities. Quite an exciting time, between soduku and crossword puzzles and My Space. Although it seems a little strange for a cousin upstairs and a cousin downstairs to be communicating via My Space at that moment.
Then there was wrestling/rough housing between Nick and Duane, Nick and Doug, Nick and Will, then finally Nick and Craig, pictured below. (Do you detect a theme?) Thank goodness Nick and Eric don't wrestle.
Then we drove out to Galen's and got to see his kids and grandkids. Nick nearly ruined Brendan's day by leaving some uneaten chips on the table when he walked away. When Brendan noticed them, he urgently requested that someone clean them up. Craig hurried to oblige. We drove to Galen's twice, because I left my camera there the first time. It was much quieter during the second visit, fewer people/children. Aren't Lucy and Jenna cute!
Now it's time to get my beauty sleep so I can look good for shopping tomorrow!

Remembering Tyler

One year ago today, I was (strangely enough) shopping with Nick for a jacket/sweatshirt when I got the phone call that changed our world. One year ago today, my 21-year-old nephew Tyler John Troyer lost his life in Iraq. Today the family will gather at our house for a potluck dinner to remember Tyler's life.

Eric produced a video for me in June and we managed to get it a shortened version of it posted. We ran into some technical difficulties and I tried to call my brother Tom for help. The guy who answered the phone sounded exactly like Tom but he didn't have a big sister named LeAnn and insisted his name was Joe. I guess I need Tom's Indiana phone number. You can see a shortened version of the video Eric produced for me online. I'm really dumb about these things, but the first address will put it on full screen when you click the play button. The second address will show it on the screen where you can read and leave comments about it:

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-2233016266182086829&hl=en

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2233016266182086829&q=tyler+troyer&hl=en

Yikes, it looks like I need Tom's phone number. The quality of the video is not very good. I'll see if he can help me improve it!

The Destruction of Sweatshirt #2

Nick has already destroyed the new sweatshirt that replaced the bleach damaged one last month. It wasn't his fault of course. He was helping at an elementary-age event at church tonight. Apparently he was rough housing with another helper supposedly at the end of this event. One side of the zipper is ripped completely off, the pocket is dangling - it has turned into a rag. As you can see, he is appropriately ashamed. I told him I guess we'll have to run into Goodwill and see what kind of cheap sweatshirts they have. I was shocked to hear him grumble that he hates clothes from Goodwill. (He certainly likes computer junk from there.) I never thought I'd hear that a McAnulty kid didn't like anything about Goodwill.

Failure to Bleach

I was hoping to have interesting before and after pictures to post today. Last night Eric wanted to bleach his goatee white, wear it for a day, then shave it off. He figured Clorox would do the trick. I urged him to wait and buy real hair bleach, because Clorox can be a little irritating to the skin. (Besides that, the sight of a bottle of bleach in my boys hands is very stressful to me.) But he wanted to try Clorox. His end result was a slightly more golden colored goatee and a red, irritated chin. The before and after picture look the same. We'll see if he follows through or if it was a passing whim!

It's Contagious!

I visited a doctor the other day because I had symptoms of strep throat. It was late in the day, and the friendly nurse and I were chatting as she opened a package of swabs. She held them in her hand as we talked, then put them back in the package and left, saying the doctor would be in to see me in a few minutes. I haven't had my throat swabbed in many years, but I thought her procedure was a bit odd. She opened the package to take to the doctor so he could do it? I puzzled over it as I sat there waiting. A few minutes later she returned, saying, "I feel really stupid asking this, but did I swab your throat?" She said she was about to run the culture when she realized she didn't remember looking down my throat. She was very apologetic, saying it was the end of a long day. I assured her she couldn't have picked a more understanding person to forget! She then opened a new package and actually used it! Let's hear it for nice forgetful women!

This Rainy Weekend

The Veteran's Day Parade yesterday started out very promising, with the sun peeking through the clouds. However, it soon started sprinkling, and soon the down pour began. Will and I were there together for the first time in our 23 years of marriage. Will, of course, was wearing Proper Rain Gear. I had a warm coat, a blanket, and umbrella. By the time the Search and Rescue group marched in front of us, they were thoroughly soaked. By the time I got done chasing them down the street to get pictures, I was also soaked. Will remained dry and comfortable on his chair in his Proper Rain Gear. The kids chose not to wear their Goretex jackets. I'm so glad I starched and ironed Nick's shirt and pants, it makes such a difference when they're soaked through! Surprisingly, he said it was a lot of fun. That's wouldn't be how I would describe this picture.

Today Will took off to go have some adventure after church. I took Nick, Eric and Nick's friend Jake down the road to A&W for lunch. The line was long. I hate long lines. But I patiently waited. Some friends from church were there in line ahead of us. When I finally got second in line, I noticed a sign that said their debit/credit machine wasn't working. I asked if they take checks. No. I hadn't enough cash to feed this mob. I asked Eric to place to order while I ran over to an ATM on the other side of the store to get cash. I looked for my debit card. Not there. Then I remembered I had put it and my license in a fanny pack with my camera to go to the parade. It was at my house. I ran back over to the line where Eric had started to place our order and apologetically canceled it. I explained my predicament to my children and we got in the car to go home. As I was backing up, my friend came running out of the restaurant, ordering me back in because she had money to lend! (Thank you, Cindy!) I got back at the end of the long line, got her cash, wrote her a check, and patiently waited my turn. So God was watching out for me once again.

And I'm a little jealous of the power of a teenage girl. A cold wind is blowing and the rain is pouring down again this afternoon. Nick would probably balk at going outside to empty the garbage or get the paper for me. But he and his friend are begging to walk a mile to go over to a teenage girl's house. What is the deal with that?

A Day Off

What a luxury, a day off. As usual, things didn't go quite as I planned. I visualized many hours of scrapbooking time. I got none. A few household tasks in the morning, then I had lunch with Craig, Molly and Eric at Izzy's. Craig and I went to the post office, and as I pulled out of the parking lot, I made a right turn. A pedestrian on the sidewalk started waving and shouting at me, and I caught on right away. I was going the wrong way on a one way street. (Well, I usually go to the Tangent Post Office.) It's only one-way for a block so I sped up and turned off quickly. Craig was sputtering a bit and said, "Mom, I don't know how you survive." I said, "It's only because God watches over me."

So I got rid of Craig and went to Fred Meyer. Sadly, I couldn't find my shopping list. I called Nick at home to see if it was on the kitchen counter. No. Fortunately, in my coat pocket I found the list I made earlier this week and couldn't find on that trip, so I still needed many of the things on that list. Things just work out for me that way sometimes. I had a few phone calls while in the store, so I wasn't as focused on shopping as I could have been. This became apparent after I got home and was putting away groceries. I realized I bought things to make two desserts for my guests tomorrow night. A little scary. Now I have to decide which one.

My friend RuthAnn wanted to meet for coffee and the timing was perfect. On the way there, I picked up Nick's Search and Rescue uniform pants at the dry cleaners for the parade tomorrow. They had a big ink spot and lots of ink scribbles on the rear end. It ended up being just one medium size ink spot. Fortunately it will be raining and he will wear a Goretex jacket so no one will see his rear end. Anyway, that made me realize I had forgotten the main thing I went to the store for, spray starch for ironing his uniform. I haven't starched anything in years. They still sell several varieties though. So after coffee, I had to journey to the other side of town again through the pouring rain, driving around the Fred Meyer parking lot several times to try to get a spot within a mile of the door.

By the time I finally got home, it was time to make dinner. The day off was over! Will was looking over Nick's pants, and he said, "What's this bag?" Patiently and kindly, I said, "It's a dry cleaning bag." Offended, he said, "I know what a dry cleaning bag is. What is this bag?" There was a small white paper bag attached. I hadn't noticed it. He opened the bag. Inside was an ink pen from Sportsman's Warehouse that had apparently been in Nick's pants pocket. It was covered in ink and obviously unusable. But how kind of them to return it to us.

Which reminds me, I need to get his uniform shirt starched and ironed, but I won't have to worry about getting it just perfect since it will most likely be pouring rain the whole time. I'll try to get a picture!

Dirt vs. Decor

Yesterday I was preparing to host a "moving out shower" for my neice Brittany. Back in the distant past, this would have involved intense scrubbing and cleaning all day long. But yesterday, I preferred to shop, bake and put together a family recipe book for Brittany. (By the way, family, send me more of your favorite recipes please! I have some great ones so far and I may share them with all of you!) When I was shopping, I noticed many fall decor items on sale. I was first attracted by the "Buy 2, get 1 free" on the big florist mums. Three of those went in my cart. Then it occurred to me that if my house wasn't especially clean, people might be less likely to notice if there were seasonal decorations around. Besides, they could do double duty, both as decorations and gifts! Sadly, I failed to take very many pictures while people were here to show the cheerful effect, but this shows a bit of it. I even dashed out in the rain to gather some colorful leaves for an arrangement. Notice the new tablecloth on the dining table in the background and the blooming yellow mum centerpiece. You can't see the leaf design on the tablecloth, but I assure you, it speaks of autumn. McKenna, Dave, Brittany and roommate Angela. Dave understood my request for recipes to mean that he should prepare and bring the prepared recipe, so we got to enjoy his delicious baked beans as well as my pumpkin pie.

When I downloaded pictures, I realized I forgot to post about Halloween. Nick wanted to go out with a friend and scare small children, but of course Will forbade it, muttering something about "criminal mischief". So the boys went to Plan B and scared children as they came up our driveway. They put on masks and sat in my car, which Nick had carefully backed up. One little girl was so frightened she wouldn't walk back to the sidewalk until her mother came up to the porch to walk her back. Most of the other kids just laughed.
That's my cute little masked Nick!