Category: family
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Many Happy Returns
Just a quick note here today to say Happy Birthday to my dear mother. (I’ll call you later on today, Mom!)
Remembering her long annoyance on this day many years ago when us kids ran into church on a Wednesday night and breathlessly announced that it was Mom’s birthday and she was turning 40!, I’ll not mention her age here. (Maybe I can safely say is that while that event was on her 40th birthday, she and Dad have now surpassed their 40th anniversary.)
Mom invested the bulk of her life to raise and educate her five children, and remains an example of faithfulness, graciousness, and consistency to us all.
Happy birthday, Mom, and God’s blessings on you for this next year and many more to come.
Something to lighten the mood...
It’s been fun as my daughter Laura gets older (almost 9 and a half!) seeing her start to use things like instant messaging to great effect. A year ago she started trying to impersonate her mother while IMing me. (I caught on quickly. Becky doesn’t usually have typos.) A year later, she’s a lot better at the impersonation. (And has a lot fewer typos.)
I totally cracked up tonight when I saw the result of a Skype chat she had with my brother Ryan (who lives in London, England) earlier today. Ryan is well known for his silliness, and Laura comes by it honestly herself. Here’s the result:
I now know I must employ a sizable number of ninja warriors next time I make a cup of coffee and Laura’s around.
Four generations at play
We had a bunch of family visit our home the past couple days, including my grandmother, my parents, and two siblings. Such fun to have so many of us together. (And those that weren’t here were sorely missed.)
As one bit of evidence to document the weekend, here are four generations of family (my grandma, my dad, my sister, and my oldest two daughters) playing Apples to Apples. Grandma had never played before, but she pretty well cleaned up.
Happy Birthday to Becky!
Today is my dear wife’s birthday. We’re probably getting to the point where she doesn’t appreciate me listing her age any more, but suffice it to say I’ll always be a couple months older than she is.
We’re old enough now that we’ve known each other for half of our lives, and I can’t quite imagine my life without her. Best friend, awesome mom for our three daughters, faithful friend to those around her, tireless servant. I am well and truly blessed.
It’s only typical that we will spend her birthday primarily celebrating others. (Let’s face it: it’s graduation season.) But with her mom visiting and three excited little girls, we won’t let the day go by without making sure we celebrate her, too.
Happy birthday to KP!
It’s March, which means the birthdays come fast and furious at the Hubbs house. Today the youngest member of our household isn’t quite so young. Katie P turns 4 today! This little sweetie never slows down for long… guess that’s what happens when you have two big sisters to keep up with.
Today we will celebrate with lunch at her favorite place… nuggets (and maybe ice cream!) at Chick-Fil-A.
Happy Birthday to the AG
Seven years ago today, in the dark of the early morning, Addison was born. This young lady is so special… a free spirit in a house full of engineers who has a built-in wiggle that won’t let her sit still when there’s music going.
She’s wildly creative (that’s a ‘boom box’ she created) and has the most delicious random thoughts. (The other day: “Mom, if you return library books early, does the library pay you money?”)
Hard to believe this awesome girl is now seven years old. We love you Addie Grace!
My Favorite Elected Official
The primary focus this election day is on the race for President, as well it should be. After I leave work I’ll head over to my precinct to cast my ballot. (I just can’t get into the early voting thing - I like voting in my neighborhood on the day of.) Unfortunately, I won’t be able to vote for my favorite elected public official, since he’s only on the ballot in one small township in Wisconsin. However, let me take a couple of paragraphs to remind us that elected officials serve in roles both great and small, and we should be thankful for all of them.
This is my dad. He serves as the town clerk for the tiny township of Marshall in Richland County, Wisconsin. He was first appointed to this post to fill out the term of the previous clerk. He has since been elected to the post at least once - maybe a couple of times, I can’t keep track of their election cycles.
As township clerk, Dad is responsible for keeping the township’s paperwork, paying the (few) employees, keeping the books, setting the agenda for and recording the town board meetings, running elections, and in general making sure the town’s business is conducted efficiently and legally. For this he gets paid a minimal salary - not anywhere close to full-time, but maybe a little better than minimum wage. (Mom has been appointed the volunteer assistant town clerk so that she can cover township meetings if he’s out of town.)
Town business is seemingly never done; any time we visit the phone seems to ring on a daily basis with some issue or another. Maybe the town patrolman (who drives the plow in the winter and fixes the roads in the summer) needs help with a persnickety citizen; maybe some citizen needs reassurance on why their property is being reassessed for tax purposes; maybe the town chairman wants to confirm the next meeting’s business. Each phone call gets a patient and thorough discussion as Dad walks them through the issues.
The responsibility of running the elections is, by itself, a significant role - especially when you consider the number of elections that have been held in Wisconsin the past couple of years. During the recall effort for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, first there were primaries. Then there was the recall. Then there were some county elections sandwiched around those. Dad was running a different election every second or third week for a few months. Craziness.
There can’t be many elected positions more minor than that of town clerk for a township of less than 600 people, but I’m proud of my Dad for taking the responsibility seriously and serving the people in his township to the best of his ability. Today as we vote for our leaders at the highest levels, let’s not forget the servants at the lowest levels, too. They are worthy of our respect, our prayers, and our thanks today and every day as they serve.
Happy Birthday, Number Three!
Our third daughter, KP, turns three today. So big, so fast. So blessed to have her.
Thankful
On this day set aside to be thankful, I want to review the events of the last six weeks, because they give me so much to be thankful for. Some of you have watched these things unfold in real-time on Facebook and Twitter, but it’s worth summarizing here.
Oct 3 - My parents and grandma came to visit. Grandma hadn’t been here to visit Iowa since Laura (now 7) was a baby. It was great to see her.
Oct 3 - The insurance adjuster called and told me that we had hail damage and that insurance would pay for a new roof for the house and garage.
Oct 4 - My sister Rebecca, who had recently rescheduled her wedding from next summer to Nov 5, called to ask if I would play music for the wedding, if Becky would be the matron of honor, and if our girls would be flower girls. Wedding would be held in Seattle.
Oct 6 - While doing some shopping for dresses for the wedding, Becky gets a call from her sister that her Dad has been admitted to the hospital with intestinal issues.
Oct 7 and following - Frenetic planning ensues. My brother Aaron is the master carpenter and construction guy of the family, so I contacted him to see if he had a weekend free to help me re-shingle the roof. He had one weekend free: Oct 14-15. I’m thankful that Aaron and Emily were willing and able to come and help. We couldn’t have done it without them.
I’m also thankful for the patient customer service rep at Nationwide Mortgage who walked me through the claim process and got a check out promptly so that we had time to purchase roofing materials in time for the appointed weekend.
Oct 14 - 15 - Aaron and Emily come down from Wisconsin to help do the roof. We got the house and garage done between Thursday afternoon and Saturday night. Thankful, too, for my buddy Mike who provided a burst of enthusiasm to our roofing project on Saturday morning the 15th. We wouldn’t have gotten it done on Saturday without him. As it was, we finished the ridgeline of the garage roof by flashlight on Saturday night.
Oct 17 - Somewhere around all of this activity, we managed to find a dress for Becky for the wedding at the first store we looked, and we found dresses for the girls within about 2 stores (and a lot of online browsing).
Oct 20 - The prompt mortgage folks sent the check for the remainder of the roof work. The money we saved by doing it ourselves paid for our tickets to fly to Seattle for the wedding.
Oct 22 - Becky’s dad, still in the hospital and trying to recover from two surgeries, had a really good day, and Becky was able to video chat with him in the hospital.
Oct 24 - Becky’s dad passed away. Thankful for our friends Mike and Kirsten who first offered to bring over dinner. When we told them thanks, but that we already had dinner planned, they stopped over unannounced with a half gallon of Coldstone ice cream.
Oct 28 - Becky was able to fly out to North Carolina to be with her family, and all of her siblings were able to be there. I was able to be away from work and stay at home with the girls.
Oct 31 - Becky’s dad’s memorial service, and I took the girls around trick-or-treating… such fun!
Nov 1 - Becky got home… for which we were all very thankful.
Nov 2 - Packing like crazy.
Nov 3 - 9 AM flight out of the Moline airport. Thankful for the friendly guy we met in the terminal who was flying with two dozen Casey’s donuts and shared a few with us. Thankful, too, for the friendly airline agent who got our seats rearranged so that we were all together on the plane.
Nov 5 - Rebecca’s wedding. Beautiful. Sounds funny to say it, but thankful for the Unitarian Universalists whose standards were low enough that they would let my sister have her wedding there on short notice. (She imported a Baptist pastor to do the ceremony.) Beautiful little chapel. Also thankful that KP the grumpy flower girl stayed quiet on my lap while I played music in the middle of the ceremony.
Nov 7 - Thankful that we got to hang out with Andrew and Heather for a day before we all had to go home. We don’t get to see them too often.
Nov 8 - Flew home. Again, the flights were super-smooth. Thankful for a kids’ play area at the DFW airport right next to our gate on our layover. Also thankful that we could hit Cracker Barrel for dinner after getting in to Moline.
Nov 9 - Back to work.
Nov 19 - Thankful for a pastor who read my blog post about being brain-full and soul-hungry, and rather than preaching at me, bought me a book by one his favorite contemplatives. I’m going to read it this weekend.
Nov 20 - Back on Worship Team, with a good new song that we got to do again as the post-closer. That last time felt like it was just for us, the team. It was amazing.
Nov 24 - at home with the family for Thanksgiving. Thankful for a couple of weeks where we’ve been able to catch up and recover a bit.
We’ve been so blessed by God’s faithfulness to us. For each thing listed here there were a dozen little things that I’m forgetting. He is good, and I am thankful.
Robert Esher Hubbs III, 1939 - 2011
My wife’s father [Yes, that’s right - Becky’s maiden name was Hubbs, my last name is Hubbs. It’s unusual, and we’ve heard all of the jokes.] (“Bob” to his friends, “Pops” to his grandkids and his kids-in-law who couldn’t quite come to call him “Dad”) passed away this morning after a short illness. I’m sure I’ll learn much more about him through the stories of family and friends over the next few weeks, but I wanted to get a few thoughts and memories down now while things are fresh.
Pops was a man of quiet faithfulness. After serving in the US Marine Corps he followed God’s call to go to the mission field, taking his family through language camp in south Texas (resulting, among other things, in his youngest daughter having her father’s name listed as “Roberto” on her birth certificate) and then to the jungles of Indonesia. When health issues forced them to come back to the States, he and his wife served with JAARS for another 20+ years at the US headquarters location in Waxhaw, NC. He worked in the Construction and Maintenance department as a buyer, and he well knew his projects and materials. He was a fixture as an usher in his section of the Calvary Church balcony, and was a regular participant in a multitude of bowling groups, Bible Studies and prayer meetings.
Pops was a meticulous, detail-oriented man. When there was a job to be done, there was a correct tool to be used for it. Better to take more time and do it right than go for half-measures. He perpetually carried a notebook to record daily expenses. He always wanted to make sure he took care of any costs he incurred, sometimes to a hilarious extent. (Just last week we deposited a check that he sent to replace a lawn chair after one of ours tore slightly when he sat in it during his last visit here.) He was an extraordinarily generous and giving man; a trait which was passed down to all of his children in delightful ways.
I first met Pops in 1995 as an incoming freshman at LeTourneau University. At the time it was mostly a novelty, since I’d never met another Hubbs that wasn’t a relative of mine. (I took care of that 3 years later when I married his youngest daughter. Now I still haven’t ever met a Hubbs that I wasn’t somehow related to.) During the past 13 years as his son-in-law I got to know him better, and was regularly challenged by his patience, his faithfulness in service, and his disciplined consistency in the Word. (You could find him every morning up early reading his Bible and praying. Every. Single. Morning.)
Pops’ greatest gift to me, though, was the 20 years that he invested in his youngest daughter before she became my wife. Becky’s detail-oriented brain, her love for God, her consistent, faithful service, her enjoyment of travel and adventure, and her love of softball were all inculcated by her loving father in a way that all daughters deserve and very few actually receive. Our three daughters and I are all the richer thanks to his faithfulness.
Pops will be greatly missed, but we do not despair as those who have no hope. We look forward to the day when we will again laugh, run, bowl, and play softball with him in the resurrection. Well done, good and faithful servant.