February 14 – “… the oldest one in the building”

We made another quick trip to Academy yesterday.  They are having a most amazing sale right now.  So amazing that Chris actually went clothes shopping twice.  That just never happens.  She hates shopping for clothes.  And now we should not need winter clothes for a very long time.  Oh, and we are set for Alaska. 

Yesterday was also “take Cailyn to school” day.  Mom and Dad were both working.  I offered to skip hand in hand with her up to the front door.  She rather bluntly refused.  Chris reminded her, “But you used to skip to the door with your DadDad.”  Without hesitation she retorted, “Yes, but I’m not a little pre-K kid anymore.  I’m now the oldest one in the building.  I’m in FOURTH GRADE.”  Well, I suppose I was put in my place.  Sigh.  I want to skip merrily hand in hand again.

Our next stop was a hospital up in Texas.  Jennifer was having another surgery.  But this one wasn’t on her foot.  This time it was to repair some damage to her knee.  And just as we were preparing to walk out the door, Nathan called.  Both Cailyn and her teacher had already called him.  Cailyn was in the nurse’s office … sick.  We needed to go pick her up.  Chris headed on over to the school and I went on into Texas to the hospital.

Jennifer came through the surgery with flying colors.  And as a big plus, she was calmer than I have ever seen her before a surgery.  And I have seen her before a myriad of surgeries.  She wondered if that might be a God thing.  You think?  Oh, and Rita came up to see her while I was there.  It was great to see her again. 

On the way home I made a clandestine stop at Hobby Lobby.  Chris is doing a cross stitch thing and ran out of thread.  We were going to try and work out a Hobby Lobby run in the midst of all of our funeral activities, so this way I could get the thread and something else fun for Valentine’s Day.  The “something else fun”?  I found a chicken.  Very colorful.  Hung the thread out of its tail, put it in a Valentine’s bag, and added a bag of Garditos (one of her favorite snacks, and way healthier than chocolates). 

By the time I got home Cailyn seemed to be feeling much better.  Chris said she had been eating well … all day.  Her Mom managed to get off a little early in case she had to take Cailyn to the doc (a lot of kids in her class have tested positive for flu).  Once they left Chris and I decided to do our romantic Valentine’s Day dinner a day early.  We went to Whataburger.  Great way to end the day.

Psalms 139:17 says, “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!  How vast is the sum of them!”

Father, thank you that Cailyn bounced back from not feeling well.  Keep her and all of our Littles well.  Amen.

February 13 – “Installation 101?”

Yesterday I spent a lot of time on the phone and at the computer.  The computer work was pretty much funeral-related, as were the phone calls.  We have to coordinate venues, since the funeral is at a church and the visitation is at the funeral home, and the graveside is in another place still, another town, even.  There are still some details to work out, so I’ll probably be chatting on the phone a lot today as well.

We did get the call back from Ideal Lumber Company.  That’s the outfit that we bought our patio door from back in 2009 after Hurricane Ike.  They were checking on the price of replacing the door that was shattered last week.  The first words out of his mouth (after the obligatory pleasantries, of course)?  “Are you sitting down?”  Never a good start to a conversation.  Sur enough, he quoted a pretty hefty price.  I suppose it was comparable to what we paid back in ’09, with inflation and all.  Still pretty hefty.  I assured him we weren’t mad or anything, and we really appreciated the help he had given us.  We would just need some time to think about whether we could handle that much money.  I guess he appreciated our appreciation, because he paused a moment, then said, “Wait a minute.  Can I call you back?  I want to make one more phone call.”  Puzzled, I hung up and waited for his call.

And it came almost immediately.  This time his first words, without pleasantries, were, “Mr. Vaughan, I think you should go out and buy a lottery ticket.  Right now.”  Well, that was a bit more encouraging than “Are you sitting down?”  Excitedly, he proceeded to explain that whoever he talked to had cut the price by 73%.  They have to order it, so he asked if he could come over and verify all the measurements within the hour.  Whew.  That’s some fast work.  As it turns out it will take between three and five weeks to get here from the manufacturer.  Then we have to figure out how to do the installation.  He said it was “Door installation 101.  Easy stuff.”  Right.  Chris immediately suggested a call to Nathan when it gets here.  Sounds like a plan. 

So … lottery ticket?  I think not.  I think maybe it’s more that my Lord might be taking an interest in the little things.  He does that, you know?

Psalms 139:15-16 says, “My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

Father, thank you that we can trust you even in the little things that don’t seem to matter all that much in the grand scheme of life.  I appreciate you being a “Little Things” God as well as the “All mighty” one.  Amen.

February 12 – “Surgical precisions”

Our day certainly filled up quickly.  It started pretty early when I got a call that the little girl who I was going to visit in the hospital before her surgery at 11:00 was now going into surgery at 9 instead.  Not a big problem.  I just had to shift into a bit higher gear.  I made it in plenty of time, in spite of the pea soup fog blanketing the Island.  And as it turned out, they didn’t take back into surgery until … ready for this one? … 11:01.  Of course.  Oh, and she came out of the surgery just fine.

My next task was to knock out some glass.  I know.  Sounds … fun.  Well, doesn’t it?  Actually, our back door had the outer pane of a two-pane panel broken by an errant flying rock last time I ran the weedeater.  Full door-size panel.  That’s a lot of glass.  And it was all still intact within the door frame, albeit shattered to a million pieces.  The door guy at the lumber company that installed it said it would be a good idea to remove the glass as soon as possible, especially if we had children around.  Also …. Don’t slam the door.  Often the two come together, and since we were hosting the LaMarque Vaughan kids last night, we deemed it an opportune time to get the glass out.  We taped some of the glass to try to avoid too much scattering.  Yeah, that didn’t work.  This would be a task requiring surgical precision.  We gathered together Nathan’s old fire glove and a knife and a screwdriver and a garden spade and a broom and the wet/dry vac.  And finally we dug in.  It took a lot longer than we anticipated.  Oh, the middle glass came out easy enough, but that panel of glass extended well into the frame of the door itself.  No wonder to replace it, we have to replace the entire door (We are still waiting to hear back from the door guy on a price.  We may just live with one frame for the next ten or fifteen years).  It took forever to chop and cut and scrape enough of the edges to keep sharp remnants from being available to small hands.  I think we’re good, though.  We filled up a good sized garbage bag with diamond-like particles of glass.  And the patio has never been as clean as it is right now. 

Ah, and in the midst of it all, Chris was washing clothes.  And what to our wondering eyes should appear … but a backed up sewer and a plumber with his gear.  Yep.  About once a year we have to have our friend Jimmy, the Plumber come over and, with surgical precision, run his heavy-duty snake through the system to clear it out.  And it has become more and more apparent that the issue is really on the city’s side of things rather than ours.  But we are clear once again, hopefully for another year.  We like seeing Jimmy.  Just wish it was in Home Depot or at church …

Remember the performance of basketball skills Luke gave at Zak’s basketball game when we were in Waco?  Well, last night he and his group of Tremendous Tots reprised the action … at a Baylor University men’s basketball game during their halftime.  We watched the game hoping for a glimpse, but of course the network just knew we would much prefer seeing talking heads than our delightful grandson showing up all the college players with the skill of, well, of a surgeon (Which he, of course actually did.  His Daddy sent us a video).  Baylor did win the game, but we know who won the halftime show, don’t we?

Psalms 139:13-14 says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

Father, thank you for being with little Haisley and her docs.  Help her as she recovers from the surgery.  Amen.

February 11 – “White board wisdom”

It was really heartwarming yesterday to see the Seaside folks rally behind each other and spread the comfort for the grieving going on for the missing smile of the already deeply-missed Mrs. Sharon.  Two little girls who were especially close to her wore Mardi Gras beads in her honor and left these messages on the whiteboard in our fellowship area. 

“Even though it’s hard to let go it’s very hard to miss people that you love.”

“God thank you for all you have done for us.”

“We miss you Ms. Sharon but we know that you are in a better place with God and Jesus.”

And using a series of heart images a younger one wrote “God loves you” and followed with a self-portrait holding hands with their dear friend.  Very sweet.  Nice commemoration Emmalee and Sophie.

Our teaching was from the fourth chapter of Ephesians.  All about practical application of Christianity in daily living.  The key verse (and the Visual Verse as well) was Ephesians 4:32 (see the verse below).  I gave some homework this week.  I challenged everyone to go out of their way to love someone in a practical way.  I already heard that a few folks were putting together a care package for a family in the hospital. 

Oh, and a final note on our white board was from little Elena.  Here’s what she wrote:

“be cib to one an ubr.  owas preiv.” 

I know.  That one in particularly difficult to translate.  But I’m pretty sure it says “Be kind to one another.”  I think the rest might be an attempt at “Ephesians.”  Do you think youngsters aren’t listening to what’s happening in worship?  Think again.

Ephesians 4:32 says, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.”

Father, thank you for the expressions of love I saw yesterday, both on the white board and in people’s lives.  Amen.

February 10 – “One of ‘those’ calls”

We had one of “those” calls yesterday.  The kind you can’t prepare for and never hope to have to deal with.  A very sweet lady in our church died.  Sharon went to be with Jesus in the presence of most all of her family.  She assured them over and over that she was ready and they shouldn’t worry about her.  Always thinking of others, even as she lay dying.  That was one special lady.  She will be missed.

We got the text that she had been taken to the hospital in Katy, Texas, around 10 in the morning.  We bundled up and headed out soon thereafter.  Being a Saturday, we hoped for little or no traffic.  I guess we got the “little” option.  We ran into one pretty bad slowdown on I10 just before the hospital exit.  Construction had blocked off two of the lanes.  We still got there shortly after noon. Around three we decided to go get a bite to eat.  Outback was nearby, and neither of us could remember our last visit there, so we gave it a whirl.  I had fried shrimp.  Chris had chicken on the barbie (Hmm.  Spell check keeps insisting I capitalize “Barbie.”  Should we have expected a hint of melted plastic on her chicken?).  The food was pretty good, but we remembered why we hadn’t been in a while.  The prices are a bit steep.  We did like our waitress, though.  She was doing double duty as the bartender as well.  That can’t be easy. 

We made it back to the hospital shortly after getting word that Sharon was gone.  The family stayed for a while, but finally started trickling back to their homes.  We waited with Doug until his son arrived to give him a ride home, and then we stayed a bit longer to greet the funeral director when he arrived to pick up the body.  Further arrangements are yet to come, of course.  Please lift a prayer or two up for this family when you get a chance.

Revelation 21:3 says, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and he will dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be among them, and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.’”

Father, thank you for Sharon’s life and the positive influence she had on her husband and on the folks at Seaside.  Please walk with her family now.  Amen.

February 9 – “FD Testing … testing …”

I spent some time in the cold yesterday.  The annual physical agility test for those interested in being a Galveston firefighter was held at station four.  After a brief meeting downtown with the fire chief, just to check in, I made my way over there to meet the new hopefuls. 

As I understand it there were nineteen who made it through phase one, the city’s civil service exam.  And if I counted right just about all of them were there yesterday.  One woman, and eighteen men of varying ages and skill levels (And clothing choices.  Some were in shorts and a t-shirt.  Others had sweatpants and jackets.  It was … cold.  47 degrees with a wind chill of 37), all determined to make it through.  The candidates had to complete eight different tasks.  Each had its own time limit, and there was also a time limit for completion of the entire course. And there was nothing easy about it.  In fact I heard one of the guys remark that he had taken four such agility tests around the area, and this was by far the toughest.  So why would people go through such a rigid entry exam?  Of course it’s because Galveston Fire Department is the best in the state.  We just don’t have that much turnover, because when you work in Paradise, why would you want to move, right?

I want to give kudos to the fire fighters from GFD, though.  I didn’t count the number, but there were guys manning each station to ensure safety, to prepare after each candidate, and to explain and keep track of the timing.  There were proctors to walk with each candidate through his attempts at the course and to keep track of total times.  There were medics to check pulse and blood pressure before and after each attempt.  Battalion Chief Varela did a great job introducing and explaining the overall course.  And all of this in that bitter cold I might have mentioned earlier. 

On the inside front, Assistant Chief Olsen was there after each run to offer either condolences or an application (And a little humor.  He did his best to get someone to volunteer to run the course “just one more time.”  No takers, though).  And of course there was the ever-present “Real Chief” Trish Anderson, handling all the paperwork from the comfort of her table … inside.  Now all that remains for the five or six who proved their mettle is the application and interview process, and soon we hope to have some new recruits of the Galveston Fire Department.

Once again I was impressed and made quite proud to be associated with this group of fine individuals, the fire department family.  Nice job, GFD.

Psalms 139:11-12 says, “If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”

Father, thank you for protecting all the candidates and fire fighters yesterday.  Encourage those who didn’t complete the course.  Walk with those who now face interviews.  Amen.

February 8 – “Back in the swing …”

We had early Cailyn to school duty yesterday.  She had before-school choir practice, so that meant she had to be there before 7 a.m.  That also meant good ol’ Nani had to be out of bed while it was still dark outside.  Ouch.

We took our walk after I finally figured out where on my phone were the pictures from this weekend’s jaunt so I could download them to the computer.  I knew there was one video that would be taking up a lot of space.  I captured the entire halftime show with its star performer Luke.  Pretty big file.  Pretty impressive performance.  Oh, and speaking of impressive performances, Nathan informed me that I was summarily chewed out by Nurse April when she saw the Jacob’s Ladder pictures.  Seems I was overdoing my “take it easy” admonition.

So, the walk … Two miles.  Well, Chris did three.  I came on home and got started on that dreaded February task of mowing and edging the yard.  Yep.  It’s the dead of winter here on our tropical island paradise, and we are having to mow the grass.  Welcome to our world.  At one point Chris brought me a glass of water and said, “You know, it hasn’t been that long that you couldn’t walk AND mow AND edge.  You had to just pick one thing.”  Yep. And even picking that one thing, I was generally exhausted when I got through.  Her thoughts were certainly encouraging, but this morning I am remembering those days.  I’m sore again.  It’s worth it though, to actually accomplish something. 

We picked Cailyn up from her after-school activity so she could complete her homework assignment (ah, the dreaded essay) before her choir concert.  It’s been a long time since we had to do the “homework before extra-curricular activities” thing.  She did a pretty good job though. 

I took her to the concert so Chris could be the hostess for those arriving at home group.  I would have to say that the choir from Oppe Elementary School really shined (shone?).  They sang four or five songs from Broadway musicals.  Cailyn was … animated.  She stood front and center and sang with her heart and arms and legs.  Loved it.  I also got it all on video.  Problem was, I couldn’t send it to her parents because the message file was too big.  I’m trying a mail drop option now.  Next in line is a simple copy to a blank dvd disc. 

As it turned out, I was home before anyone arrived for home group.  Then our neighbor asked for a ride to the pharmacy to pick up her medicine.  Chris gave her a ride.  While she was gone, a few folks arrived, and when Chris got back we did some singing and praying together.  Oh, and Brennan and his Mom finished decorating his Valentines box for school.  Nice job, Janell.

Psalms 139:7-10 says, “Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.  If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”

Father, thank you for the beautiful voices of children singing.  Nothing quite like it.  Amen.