It is 2:17. I just finished my last pack of Necco hearts, you know the ones you always get on Valentine’s Day. I was waiting to eat them until this moment—after the dreaded phone call came. You see, my Grandma Hall always used to buy us Necco hearts when we were kids.
I have been blessed with great grandparents. They always attended my school events and continue to be active in my life. That is why today is so hard. I keep trying to find the perfect words to write in this blog, but I know they’ll never come. Those of you who knew my grandma know the amazing lady she was. So here is what is bouncing around my head.
Memories:
The ER. My very first memory as a child includes my grandma. It is an event that she probably would have liked to forget—having to take my brother to the ER as a baby while she was baby-sitting us. It all turned out okay in the end so no worries.
Gravy and parsley. My grandma knew how to cook. She made the best gravy. One of my life goals is to learn to make gravy like my grandma. I loved stirring the roaster of gravy on Thanksgiving and being the taste-tester. Another one of my Thanksgiving duties was to decorate the turkey platter with parsley. She always commented on how nice it looked even though I was just putting green stuff around the bird. I’m sure if you look at all the turkey pictures we have stockpiled, you can see my handiwork.
Blueberry pie. My mouth waters just writing about it. You see, my grandma and I used to go pick the blueberries fresh from the woods of Northern Minnesota in order to make the pie. It was a job—taking the Cadillac in places they are probably not supposed to go, bending over to find the plants, swatting mosquitoes and deerflies, and avoiding ticks and poison ivy. Man the pie was so worth it though. The funny thing is that my grandma never really liked the pie. She did all of this year after year for us.
My grandma did more volunteer work than anyone I have ever met. She’s been recognized by governors, sworn into the 4-H Hall of Fame, and probably received more certificates and thank-yous than anyone in the state (or at least SW Iowa). She never did it for the glory or honor. It’s who she was. (Man, it’s getting hard to write in the past tense—“was” keeps making it more and more real.)
It’s been interesting to reflect back on her traits and realize I have some of them. I think my pioneering spirit comes from her. My grandma was adventurous. Case in point, she always wanted to go to the moon. If they would have taken regular citizens, she would have signed up in a second. She’s been all over the world, and I know she would have come visit me here in Africa if she could. Second, my stubborn will or as my grandpa always said, “it’s the Ingerswen in her” kept us both marching down the paths we thought we should take. Finally, my love of learning is something my grandma would love. She was always reading, always listening to things. She still has the original Time (or Newsweek) magazine for the moon landing. How cool is that!?!
When my grandparents reached the time when many of their friends relocated to the South during the harsh Iowa winters, my grandparents stayed. My grandma never wanted to miss our events. She wanted to be around the grandkids.
You see, even though I am in Africa and cannot go home, I am a fortunate one. I had a life filled with my Grandma Hall. I got to see her over Christmas, and I was able to say good-bye last Friday. Even though she couldn’t respond, my mom said she heard me. I will get to see my grandma again in heaven. That’s our home anyway. We won’t be there for our volunteer work or anything like that. It’s because we both believe in Jesus as our Messiah, God’s Son who saved us and makes it possible for us to spend eternity in the presence of God.
Well if you made it this far, I’m proud of you. I wrote this first and foremost for myself, my grandpa (who I love very much), and my family. Even though I am not there with you, I send you my love.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
making my daddy proud
Softball started up Saturday. What a day. We won both of our games (both shutouts) which brings our record to 6-2. Woot! Woot!
I played catcher for the very first time. It's not that hard b/c the ball has to bounce on the plate and wooden piece around it for it to be a strike. Well, it's not supposed to be hard at least. The very first warmup throw, I took it hard off the ankle. My leg went partially numb and I now have a nice knot to show. Needless to say, I iced it and played through the pain.
In the first game, the other team had bases loaded and the batter hit it back to the pitcher. The pitcher tossed it high so I had to stretch into the baseline but fortunately the player coming home was nice and took the fall instead of knocking me over. (He is a nice DA student :) ).
In the second game, we had a stellar play between us girls. There was a single to right field. The rightfielder tossed it to the second baseman. The player at third decided to test the 2nd baseman's arm so he ran. She threw it home to me, and I stretched to get the batter out by inches. This was the first game us girls wore our 2-in-1 baseball socks so we figure it must be the socks...lol...
Other newsworthy things from Saturday:
1. I got my first hit to the outfield. Granted it rolled out there but it made it past the infield.
2. One of our opponents lost part of her hair while sliding into third (hairpiece)
3. I was warming up with the bat and hit the backstop pole. Not cool...
3 more weekends of softball...but who's counting ;)
I played catcher for the very first time. It's not that hard b/c the ball has to bounce on the plate and wooden piece around it for it to be a strike. Well, it's not supposed to be hard at least. The very first warmup throw, I took it hard off the ankle. My leg went partially numb and I now have a nice knot to show. Needless to say, I iced it and played through the pain.
In the first game, the other team had bases loaded and the batter hit it back to the pitcher. The pitcher tossed it high so I had to stretch into the baseline but fortunately the player coming home was nice and took the fall instead of knocking me over. (He is a nice DA student :) ).
In the second game, we had a stellar play between us girls. There was a single to right field. The rightfielder tossed it to the second baseman. The player at third decided to test the 2nd baseman's arm so he ran. She threw it home to me, and I stretched to get the batter out by inches. This was the first game us girls wore our 2-in-1 baseball socks so we figure it must be the socks...lol...
Other newsworthy things from Saturday:
1. I got my first hit to the outfield. Granted it rolled out there but it made it past the infield.
2. One of our opponents lost part of her hair while sliding into third (hairpiece)
3. I was warming up with the bat and hit the backstop pole. Not cool...
3 more weekends of softball...but who's counting ;)
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
I survived Outreach '09
I know this post is long overdue, but it's been pretty crazy since I've returned to Senegal. I landed in Senegal with enough time to take a 1 hour nap before starting professional development here at DA. I had four days to get ready for classes, and then we all hit the ground running.
Last Friday was another Outreach. I did not come down with malaria (Yay!) so I was able to participate in all the events.
Schedule:
*Meet at school at 5:00 am
*Depart by pushing one of the busses/vans out of the parking lot
*Ride four hours to the YWAM Center which was very nice for the African bush. The YWAM Center had squatty potties (a hole in the ground) and showers that had water most of the time. It also had foam beds for us adults!!!
*Depart for the various locations: drama, roofing, foundation, medical, VBS, and basecamp. I worked at the basecamp setting up tents and filtering water.
*Eat supper at 6 pm. We ate out of the common bowl. That is, 7 of us sat around a big bowl and shared the contents.
*Depart for the evangelism campaign which started at 8:45 and ended at 11:30 pm. At the campaign, we sang songs in French, Wolor, Serrar (tribal languages), and English. There was also drama, speaking, and a video.
*Bed time
Saturday pretty much looked like the schedule above except my job was different. I made bricks. That's right, I made bricks by hand. It was fun. I worked with 3 of my students, and we had a great time.
On Sunday we were able to worship at a church that the DA students helped with last year. It was awesome to hear that there had been 50 baptisms at this church in the last year. God is really moving in this part of Senegal. It's humbling to think that we are a part of it.
Other events:
*It is cold. That's right, cold. I know I shouldn't be complaining b/c it's probably in the upper 50s, lower 60s in the mornings, but that is cold for here. I definitely did not bring enough warm clothes so I keep wearing the same thing each morning. ;)
*We had to do a lice check on our students. That was interesting. I feel like I know my students pretty well now after picking through their hair. I mean, how do you politely ask someone if they have dandruff? Ah well, we all survived. The students are used to this so it wasn't that big of a deal.
*Softball starts up again Saturday. I bought baseball socks for us girls on the team so we are going to wear them for the first time on Saturday. We figure we can at least look good playing this game. ;)
Well, I think that's all the news in my life right now. Thanks for reading.
Last Friday was another Outreach. I did not come down with malaria (Yay!) so I was able to participate in all the events.
Schedule:
*Meet at school at 5:00 am
*Depart by pushing one of the busses/vans out of the parking lot
*Ride four hours to the YWAM Center which was very nice for the African bush. The YWAM Center had squatty potties (a hole in the ground) and showers that had water most of the time. It also had foam beds for us adults!!!
*Depart for the various locations: drama, roofing, foundation, medical, VBS, and basecamp. I worked at the basecamp setting up tents and filtering water.
*Eat supper at 6 pm. We ate out of the common bowl. That is, 7 of us sat around a big bowl and shared the contents.
*Depart for the evangelism campaign which started at 8:45 and ended at 11:30 pm. At the campaign, we sang songs in French, Wolor, Serrar (tribal languages), and English. There was also drama, speaking, and a video.
*Bed time
Saturday pretty much looked like the schedule above except my job was different. I made bricks. That's right, I made bricks by hand. It was fun. I worked with 3 of my students, and we had a great time.
On Sunday we were able to worship at a church that the DA students helped with last year. It was awesome to hear that there had been 50 baptisms at this church in the last year. God is really moving in this part of Senegal. It's humbling to think that we are a part of it.
Other events:
*It is cold. That's right, cold. I know I shouldn't be complaining b/c it's probably in the upper 50s, lower 60s in the mornings, but that is cold for here. I definitely did not bring enough warm clothes so I keep wearing the same thing each morning. ;)
*We had to do a lice check on our students. That was interesting. I feel like I know my students pretty well now after picking through their hair. I mean, how do you politely ask someone if they have dandruff? Ah well, we all survived. The students are used to this so it wasn't that big of a deal.
*Softball starts up again Saturday. I bought baseball socks for us girls on the team so we are going to wear them for the first time on Saturday. We figure we can at least look good playing this game. ;)
Well, I think that's all the news in my life right now. Thanks for reading.
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