Christmas shopping... check.

My today didn’t go as planned. But that’s OK - it’s turned out just fine anyhow. Becky showed up on IM at 7:30 this morning (waaaay early for her) and said she was feeling poorly. It ends up she’s got this one-day stomach bug that a bunch of folks around here have had; throwing up and the whole works. So I left work about 8 to come home and take care of Laura.

Laura and I played and stuff in the morning, then she took a nap. This afternoon, we went down to Coral Ridge Mall to get out of the house and so I could start finish my Christmas shopping. I managed to pick up stuff for everybody except Becky. Laura was very good, enjoyed walking at the mall, didn’t fuss much.

Now it’s evening, and instead of going to the coffeehouse as we had planned, we’re sitting here at home watching Northern Iowa play for the D I-AA football championship. Actually, to be fair, Becky told me to go ahead and go to the coffeehouse if I wanted to, but I decided I felt like staying home instead. And now, I think I’m the only one watching the football game… I’m pretty sure she’s fallen asleep here on the couch.

Such is the exciting Friday night of this old married guy…

Just for the record...

…the new snowblower kicks butt.

I probably looked like an idiot using a 5.5 hp 2-stage snowblower to remove an inch of light snow from my driveway yesterday, but it was great. :-)

weekend update

It’s been feeling like Christmas the last couple of weeks, what with the sub-zero temps and the foot of snow we’ve gotten over the last 10 days. Tonight we got the Christmas tree put up. We’ve actually had it since Tuesday, but finally had a chance today to get it decorated and lit up. Actually, in this picture, it’s only about half-done - Becky’s still working on the tinsel, and we still have a mess of needles to clean up on the floor.

IMG_2703 (Small)

The excitement that went along with it was Laura throwing up twice. Hopefully it was just something she ate and not the stomach flu that’s going around… :-(

Tomorrow I head off to Wichita for my DER interview. If you think about it, say a prayer for me… the interview’s at 9 AM on Tuesday. I’ll let you all know how I did.

That’s all the news from the Hubbs’ world, where the women are strong, the women are good-looking, and the child is definitely above average. :-)

I met the Queen of Iowa

I met the Queen of Iowa, She was dying on a couch in the suburbs. And of all the things she was dying of, She was more alive than the others…

-- Andrew Peterson, The Queen of Iowa

The Queen of Iowa is a real person. I met her this past Saturday. Her name is Jody. Her story is tragic; she contracted HIV after being assaulted fifteen years ago. Her story is also beautiful; knowing full well that she had HIV, her high school sweetheart decided to marry her anyway. That was eleven years ago. Jody is now in what appears to me to be the last stage of her life. She can’t move. She can’t talk. She can just barely communicate single letters at a time. Her husband cares for her at their home here in the Cedar Rapids area.

It also ends up that Jody is a big Andrew Peterson fan. Over a year ago, as she started going downhill, a couple of friends arranged to have Andrew and his trusty sidekick Ben Shive flown to Iowa to meet her. They came, visited, sang her some songs. Out of that experience, Andrew wrote his song The Queen of Iowa, which he then recorded on his latest album, The Far Country. It’s a good song.

Last Saturday Andrew was in town with a bunch of his musical compatriots on the Behold the Lamb Christmas tour. In the afternoon, before the concert, he wanted to make a trip out to visit Jody again and sing her the song. So I (as the driver) got to go along as he and his friends Andy and Jill (Phillips) Gullahorn went out to visit her. (The local friends who had coordinated last year’s visit were there, too.) I was not prepared, and I doubt I could have really been prepared, for the emotions and power of that visit.

To even enter their house, you have to take off your shoes and leave them in the garage. (Can’t chance tracking some germs in.) Then, you have to do a thorough hand-washing before you come into the living room. Jody was lying on the couch, wrapped in blankets. She couldn’t really move, only could turn her head a bit. But she had a smile that lit up the whole room. She was so excited to get to see Andrew again and hear his music. She had made a “set list” of requested songs she wanted to hear. So Andrew and Andy pulled out their guitars, and started at the top of the list.

I think they sang for somewhere near 40 minutes. They started with Gather ‘Round, Ye Children, Come from Behold the Lamb. It was a treat to hear that simple version: two guitars and three part harmony, all in the intimacy of a living room. Jill sang Labor of Love, also from Behold the Lamb. I doubt I’ll ever hear a more beautiful performance of that song. Words can’t really do it justice. Jill sang another song or two of hers. We were all choking up as Andrew sang Lay Me Down, which contains these poignant lines, even more meaningful in this setting:

When you lay me down to die, I’ll miss my boys, I’ll miss my girls, But lay me down And let me say goodbye to this world. When you lay me down to die, You must remember this: When you lay me down to die, You lay me down to live.

There were a few times during the visit where Jody began to cough, and her body was just wracked with pain. It was difficult to sit there and see it, knowing that there was nothing that we could do but pray and watch as her husband held her and comforted her. Then the pain would pass, and as she regained her strength her smile would come out again.

Saturday’s visit was a moving experience; one that will stick with me for a long, long time. We insulate ourselves too much from pain and death here in America. Last Saturday’s visit was a vivid reminder of that to which I assent but often forget: that life is short, that death will reach us all, but death is not the end.

Parting is the price, it is the price that I must pay To harbor far beyond the Havens Grey.

-- Andrew Peterson, The Havens Grey

ok, so I'm a little bit excited...

Tomorrow the Andrew Peterson Behold the Lamb Christmas tour is hitting Cedar Rapids! I couldn’t believe it when I first heard about it months ago, and I’m still a bit in awe of the fact that Andrew Peterson, Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken, Andrew Osenga, Jill Phillips, and some others will all be in concert on stage less than 3 miles from my house. (Only 1 block away from the previous place we lived!)

In addition to just going to the concert, I’ve volunteered to help out for the day. I’m showing up at 10 AM when the truck shows up, and then will be the “runner” for the day. This will include taking all the aforementioned musical types to their hotel, to the house where they’re eating dinner, etc. I think it’ll be pretty cool.

I’m also looking forward to just getting to meet some of them; I’ve met the Andys before (Peterson and Osenga), but haven’t met Derek or Sandra. I hope it’ll be as cool as I think it will be…. if not, at least I’ll get to see the concert, and that’ll be great in itself. I’ll try to post some pictures or something next week.

the blessings of a holiday

This holiday weekend we have left Iowa and headed to Wisconsin to visit my family. Thanksgiving with family is a great time; we have all of our traditional things to eat, games that we play, stories that get (re)told, time spent together. It is a blessing.

Last year when we came for Thanksgiving, Laura was just a 4-month-old baby. Now she’s walking, talking, and generally the center of all our attention. Amazing.

The rest of the family is doing well, too. Ryan generally works long hours and is very busy, which means that when he comes home he sleeps a lot. It’s good for him. He’s so darn funny, too… he keeps us in stitches most of the time. Last night as we were playing cards he made some slightly off-color comment; then he excused himself by noting that he has roomed with guys for the past several years, and, he said “we don’t just push the envelope - the envelope is opened, soiled, and returned to sender!” OK, maybe it’s not so funny in print, but last night we about had to stop our card game we were laughing so hard.

Aaron is the only one that isn’t here; he’s still in Panama working with YWAM. We miss him a lot. He called yesterday for about an hour so we all got to talk to him. He’ll be back home for Christmas - hooray! It also sounds like he’s planning on moving back to the States come next summer. It would be great to have him closer again.

We’re about to head in to Madison to do some shopping. I know, we’re crazy, but we all start to go a bit stir-crazy after being here at the house for a day and a half, so it’s time to go out. Andrew had to work this morning at the lumberyard, but he’ll meet us there once he gets off around noon. I doubt we’ll even buy that much - maybe a new shirt, or a CD, or something in that vein. Mostly it’s the chance to be out and around as a family. Holidays like this remind me that my family is the biggest blessing of all.

it's basketball time...

My first basketball league of the season starts tonight. I’m really looking forward to it. I know my shooting touch will be rusty; I haven’t handled a basketball in months. But it will be good to get out there and run. I’m the captain of a team in the rec center league this year. I tried to just get on a team at the last minute; the league coordinator sent me the names of several other people with the same plight and so we formed a team. I haven’t met any of them. We haven’t practiced. But tonight, at 5:55 CST, we will step onto the court and play our first game. Good times.

It's cold and grey outside...

…and I had been planning on doing yard work. I did a little bit this morning (ran the mower on the front yard and filled up five and a half yard bags with leaves and such) but then it got nasty outside and Becky had a church event so I got to watch the kiddo for a while.

Since it’s not so nice to work outside (and since Becky has my long extension cord at church, so I can’t run the leaf blower), and since Laura is taking a nice nap, I decided it was a nice time to give the blog a facelift and watch football. So, Clemson is on TV beating Florida State, and I’m on the couch with the laptop working on the blog. Actually, it’s about done for now.

I like lots of things about this theme. I think it’s a big improvement over the old one. It was created by Clemens Orth, found by Google, and tweaked by me. The only thing I’m not totally happy with at the moment is the font on the header graphic… it could be better. Maybe when I have some more time to be patient with photoshop, I’ll give it another try.

feeling young

Last night we had a neighborhood potluck dinner, organized by our next-door neighbors. It was a bit chilly outside, but fun to go to something like this where you only have to walk five houses down to get there.

I like the idea of community in the neighborhood. I’m not very good at it, though. Mostly, I’m just not so good at being sociable. Let me clarify. It’s easy for me to be sociable around folks I already know, and it’s easy for me to carry on a conversation with people who are driving the conversation, but stick me with somebody as quiet as I am, and it gets uncomfortable pretty quickly. I’m still learning how to ask the right questions, stuff like that. But over all, it went OK last night. The folks are friendly.

My other observation about the neighborhood folks, though: they’re old. With the exception of our next-door neighbors, who are in their mid-40’s, everybody else there was retired. Many of them long-retired. One of them was telling me that he was recovering from a stroke, and then about his son (or was it a nephew?) that was also recovering from a stroke. “He was really young, too…” the guy told me; “only 60!” I felt very young right about then.

After about 90 minutes and far too much food, everybody wandered off back to their own homes. Laura held my hand and walked all the way back home by herself. She was pretty tired when she got back. But I’m sure it won’t be long until she’s running the whole way ahead of me. Now that makes me feel old.

and he lifts up his arms in a blessing for being born again...

Last week Becky and I were able to leave Laura with my folks and take a couple days of vacation up to Door County, Wisconsin. We’d never been there before, but had heard that the scenery was terrific. We weren’t disappointed. We knew it was going to be dicey as to whether the leaves would still be on the trees at that date, (hey, we’re cheap, we didn’t want to pay peak-season rates for the hotel) but we figured it was worth a try.

Simply put, the scenery was magnificent. We drove down more little roads that were covered by archways of red and gold than I can recall to count. The weather was beautiful, even on the last day when it was raining. We had a very refreshing time, relaxing and taking in all the little towns: Egg Harbor, Fish Creek, Sister Bay, Bailey’s Harbor, and some little places whose names have slipped my mind by now.

Friday night we ate at a restaurant that had live jazz all evening. Saturday morning we had pecan rolls at a bakery/restaurant that were “hailed as the best pecan rolls in Wisconsin”. They weren’t kidding. Door County has no chain restaurants or hotels any place north of Sturgeon Bay. It was refreshing to be able to choose between a bunch of unique cafes, restaurants, and supper clubs, rather than asking myself “so is it Subway, McDonalds, or Applebees tonight?”.

Two establishments particularly caught my eye on the trip; sadly, I only got a picture of one of them: The Pudgy Seagull Restaurant. (I’ll post the picture ASAP.) The other was for somebody’s “Ho-Made” bakery items. For that special personal touch in baking… OK, I won’t go there.

So it was a great weekend. It was no fun to wake up this morning and realize it was Monday and that meant I had to go back to work…. but it was at least nice to be well-rested while doing it. :-)