I was getting a hearing exam Thursday (yesterday) and was in the chair with the thick ear pieces in my ear, hearing the series of beeps to say yes or no to. When I was all done (hearing hasn’t changed – my old hearing aid was cleaned and still good) I checked my phone.
It was unusual to have about seven missed calls and two texts when I’d only been unavailable for about an hour. The one that came up first was:
“You need to call Colleen. She got into an accident and is on her way to the emergency hospital. We have been calling you over and over again.” From her fiance.
The visions that pass through your mind suddenly in that situation are horrific. It is probably not very different from when you have a near accident yourself and your life passes before your eyes. I immediately called my daughter and heard her voice, a little weak but not faint, and she said that she had broken her nose in a car accident, and that her friend driving had some bumps and bruises but was okay. The overwhelming joy was such a relief over the prior fear. How lucky they were. How strong the relief and how scary the thought of what could have been, what God protected us from.
Thankful for seatbelts and defensive driving maneuvers today! Thank you, Lord, for your mercy to us all!
By the way, her noise wasn’t broken – at first they thought it was but after CT scan nothing was broken. A concussion is suspected, so her injuries were treated as head injuries, and she underwent her 24 hours of not being allowed to sleep for more than two hours at a time (which, of course, we did not either). That is happily over and she is okay, though still sore.
First the present – we have been travelling together to Jefferson Co., Warren Co., and Forest Co., PA for Rog’s work for about a year now (he has been going longer) and it has often crossed my mind that I wanted to tell the Tionesta story. I have not taken the time until now when I’m recuperating from a migraine and feel too tired to do anything else except type my data entry files that I need to do for our work– which I’m going to do next!
So I have become familiar once again with Tionesta (in Forest County) along with the neighboring Tidioute. We see them every three months. They are beautiful, in the PA Alleghenies.
My first experience of the Alleghenies and Tionesta was with my dad in about 1979 when I was about 14. He had begun when I was about 11 to take me on a vacation every summer. In approximate order it was 1977 – New York City, 1978 – Detroit and Ste. St. Marie, Michigan, and 1979 – Alleghenies, PA. We started off driving 6 and/or 322 and I remember visiting Corry, Warren, Tionesta, and Oil City.
(we were as a family in 2007 in Oil City when Rog worked there briefly gathering data for work – I have pics somewhere but not findable at the moment, this is from Google)
My dad and I also drove all around the rivers and mountains in the area, visiting Kinzua Dam, especially.
I was so taken with the area, I decided someday I wanted to move there. I also remember eating at a restaurant in the town of Tionesta that had delicious pie. I don’t know if this is where we ate — http://www.pierogiemama.com/Pages/default.aspx (2020 dead link) but I know Rog and I had tried to eat there, but they’re only open for breakfast and lunch so we keep missing it!!
When I was about 14, I wrote my own book about a girl named Karen, that lived in Tionesta, PA. I loved that book and really thought it was the best writing I ever did. I put my heart into it and it reflected a lot of things I was growing up with at the time, being overweight, lonely, learning to achieve my own goals, make friends, growing up. I finished that story in 9th grade and totally was devastated when I no longer had the story anymore, as it was either lost or thrown away. But that’s how important Tionesta was to me at that time…
Years later in 1984 when I met Roger and we started dating, we took a drive back there and ate at the same restaurant my dad and I did. We drove many of the same roads as well.
We drove there in 84, and I think in 86 and 87 too – it’s getting a little blurry now! We also discovered the Allegheny State Park in New York around that time, which my dad and I did not visit. Camping there in 89 or so, 90, and 94, to my recollection, followed, with lots more wonderful memories!
Then we have our own NEW memories in Tidoute, which I don’t remember from before. So we have a neat progression of very old history, with my dad; still old history with my husband going back all the way to our dating years; and then brand new history in a new town in the mountains.
There you have my probable two favorite songs of the year. One is the reflection upon the heavenly eternal Christmas where we think of eternity with Him and our place in the heavens. I do think about that, though, of course, I want to be sure to serve others here on earth and do my best here as well – our home is here, but There as well —
Worthy is the,
Lamb who was slain
Holy, Holy, is He
Sing a new song, to Him who sits on
Heaven’s Mercy Seat
[Repeat 2x]
(Chorus)
Holy, Holy, Holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is, and is to come
With all creation I sing:
Praise to the King of Kings!
You are my everything,
And I will adore You…!
Yeah!
Clothed in rainbows, of living color
Flashes of lightning, rolls of thunder
Blessing and honor, strength and
Glory and power be
To You the Only Wise King,
Yeah
(Chorus)
Holy, Holy, Holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is, and is to come, yeah
With all creation I sing:
Praise to the King of Kings!
You are my everything,
And – I – will – adore You!
Yeah!
Filled with wonder,
Awestruck wonder
At the mention of Your Name
Jesus, Your Name is Power
Breath, and Living Water
Such a marvelous mystery
Yeah…
(Chorus)
Holy, Holy, Holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is, and is to come, yeah
With all creation I sing:
Praise to the King of Kings!
You are my everything,
And – I – will – adore You!
Holy, Holy, Holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is, and is to come,
With all creation I sing:
Praise to the King of Kings!
You are my everything,
And – I – will – adore YOU…
(Chorus) (Repeat at a cappella)
Come up lift up His Name
To the King of Kings…
We will adore YOU Lord…
King of heaven and earth
King Jesus, King Jesus
Aleluya, aleluya, aleluya!
Majesty, awestruck Honor
And Power and Strength and Dominion
To You Lord,
To the King, to King
To the King of Glory
(Singer: Kari Jobe)
More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/g/gateway_worship/#share
Then more recently I have heard the Selah Christmas song, above, that I never heard until this month. What a beautiful tribute to the Babe in the hay whose birthday is tomorrow, and who I keep reminding Ryan is the reason for the gifts, and the reason for the story of Santa (St. Nicholas) who also worshipped 🙂
Hail, hail to the newborn King
Let our voices sing Him our praises
Hail, hail to the guiding Light
That brought us tonight to our Savior
Halle, hallelujah
Halle, hallelujah
Halle, hallelujah
Halle, hallelujah
Come now, let it shine so bright
To the knowing Light of the stable
Kneel close to the Child so dear
Cast aside your fear and be thankful
Hail, hail to the newborn King
Let our voices sing Him our praises
Hail, hail to the guiding Light
That brought us tonight to our Savior
Chorus
Hail, hail to the newborn King
Let our voices sing Him our praises
Hail, hail to the guiding Light
That brought us tonight to our Savior
Chorus
More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/s/selah/#share
There are so many traditions about Christmas that I love, and we try and do every year. Beautiful boxes of Christmas cards in front of me are one thing that just makes me feel inspired about the whole season — I got the most beautiful cards this year – even though I vowed at the beginning of the year I wasn’t going to do any. But here I am, ended up buying them anyway – because after all even if I don’t “send” any I still need them for teachers, friends receiving gift cards, etc., and I ended up starting them to mail anyway – Started to write them out yesterday and will probably not get them out until next week before New Year’s. But it’s a very special tradition to me, and I miss getting as many as I used to, and even sending as many as I used to, and I’m just not ready to give it up. I love receiving them and sending them – the way they feel and the different color pen colors on the ones I display, and the different kinds of envelopes, and even how some have a foil stamp and others may have a unique picture, and still others may be handmade or with a family portrait. Christmas cards – they are an art, and something I am not ready to give up. Click for the rest of our letter —
As Ryan (here eating fries when we briefly stopped at the park a few weeks ago) was climbing on my lap today, I started thinking about how soon that may be getting harder for him to do. He is a tall boy, still skinny, and can still fit upon my lap even though it’s a little poky in places :D. I have to remember to appreciate that and cherish a little boy on my lap, as the years go so fast.
I remember when Chris (above, left) crawled into our laps and in our bed every night to sleep. He loved to be held and would just laugh and laugh. He loved to lay down with his dad and play tickle games and play with his toys.
Colleen wasn’t so much a lap person but she loved to sit with us, especially her dad, and play her animal games. She did that a lot at age eight, and had a game called the cows that she played with her dad about imaginary animals and their conversations.
Now Ryan is over eight years old, and where is the time going? It just seems the childhood ages are going past me – Chris going to be 20, Colleen’s 16th birthday is in 11 days, and they’re growing up before my eyes.
You Know You’re Stuck in the 80’s If:
You relax by putting on your legwarmers and dancing to the “Footloose” soundtrack.
You’re still bitter that Wham! broke up.
Punky Brewster is your hero.
The only video games you play are Frogger and Pac Man.
You’re building your own Clockwork Smurf.
You consider yourself truly, truly, truly outrageous, much like Jem and the Holograms.
You wonder why more people don’t wear high heels, Jordache jeans, and lacy ankle socks.
You call all motorcycle cops “Ponch”.
Every time you go to the beach you look for Snorks.
You’re still upset Madonna and Sean broke up.
You enjoy dancing on the ceiling and wearing your sunglasses at night.
You still think of Janet Jackson as “that girl who used to date Willis”.
You can sing the theme song to Small Wonder.
Every time you see a fountain you want to dance around it and yell “Fame!”
You still have a shoebox full of Garbage Pail Kid cards.
You know it’s not “comma, comma, comma” it’s Karma, Karma, Karma.
You can’t sleep for wondering what Bastian’s mother’s name was in “The Neverending Story”.
You still practice your Care Bear Stare.
You know that girlss just wanna have fuh-un.
You can name all The Wuzzles.
You can do the Safety Dance.
You know whose phone number is 867-5309.
You drink Diet Coke because Max Headroom told you to.
You still watch things on Beta tapes.
You want to change your name to Rio and dance on the sand.
You know that “Weird Science” was a movie before a tv show.
Your favorite proverb is “some like it hot and some sweat when the heat is on.”
Your favorite party game is either Hungry Hungry Hippos or Ants in the Pants.
You saw the New Kids on the Block when they were Tiffany’s opening act.
You practice getting in and out of your car through the windows.
You have the tendency to turn up the collar of your polo shirts.
You keep asking your teachers if instead of the quiz you can take the physical challenge.
You still drink New Coke.
You never go out for a night on the town without frosted blue eyeshadow and feathered bangs.
You can name all of the Thundercats.
You regularly cry ‘By the power of Grayskull!!’.
Everything in your wardrobe is either pastel or fluorescent.
Sometimes you just want to “Shout, shout, let it all out!
You use your Speak and Spell to phone home.
Sometimes out of the blue you just got to “Shake your love.”
wanted to share a dream with you I had last night. It affected me so much I had to write it on a web site…. https://criscollrj.com/site files/dream.html It is religious though, so beware.
in response to: http://www.livejournal.com/users/psychlea/24512.html
I don’t remember a time in my life where I didn’t hear or know about Jesus Christ and Christianity. My mom and dad were divorced when I was 4, and laying down and going to sleep, with the words of Moody Bible Institute on WCRF 103.3 Cleveland Ohio coming into my mind as the radio played, are some of my first memories. Church life was not consistent through the years, but WCRF was always there, as was my family’s Bible and seeing them read and pray.
I was raised Catholic for the most part, and attended Catholic school from 1st through 4th grade. (Didn’t go to Kindergarten!). My whole family was Catholic, but we didn’t go to church a lot. I imagine that the 4 years I attended school were the years that my mom attended most faithfully as that seems to be the norm for when you have a child in a parochial school.
Just ate lunch, and got Ryan off on the bus. I need to get back to packing. But I just turned on some Christian songs off Windows Media Player and thought I’d write just a little. It was so nice to finally answer some comments – Thanks for writing everyone and your thoughts/prayers.
It is so hard to wait on this house!! But I know if it’s meant to be it will all work out. All the signs seem to be pointed for it to work out.
It had to go through several steps – and we’re almost done.
Offer on house. Did that sometime in August, with waiting for THAT to be accepted.
Counteroffered, was turned down, but the other offer was lower than asking. In detail, we offered 134,000 to the 142 asking (I think?) then they countered back at 139,000.
We thought about it for a while, then decided to offer 137,000 with appliances included.
After we decided to do this, but hadn’t picked up the phone yet, we found out that Chris’s school attendance was NOT a given, and this was right before labor day, on Friday.
Waited 5 excruciating days for the school to say YES, Chris can come!
Called, gave the counteroffer, and was called back and told, 139,000 WITH appliances. We accepted. A lot of prayer had gone into this, as we were a little worried about almost doubling our mortgage. We will have to get a second mortgage, also, to secure mortgage payments on our first house while we’re trying to sell it, AND to pay off our credit cards.
Went in to the broker selling the house, and did loan papers with him, waited a day or so, and he said we were approved. Was shocked we didn’t have to give any income information. Apparently some kind of loan a lot of self-employed people do. (About the 7th of September?)
Worried about the form the loan was in, which was called a stated income loan.
Had attorneys review the loan (this was in our contract, as we had strange feelings about it from the beginning. Was told it was probably FRAUDULENT.
But for some reason I just had this urge just now to find a job! I know I CAN’T! But I was perusing the legal secretary ads for some reason. I couldn’t stop. I worked for SO long at so many different things and I loved it. Over 1 year as a word processor in 87. 6 years from 88-94 and another 7 months in 2003 at a legal secretary job that I loved. And another 4-5 part time legal secretary jobs that were okay, just okay, through the years. Then one full time legal secretary job in 03 that I hated in many ways but loved the work. I really did have enough of working.
When i was done for good in Dec. of 03 I was OVERJOYED! Excited to be a stay at home mom, to be DONE with the rat-race. Ready to have my picture perfect house, work out many hours at the Y, volunteer, spent lots of quality time with my kids doing orderly crafts, teaching them perfect manners, and cooking lots of from scratch meals and having a garden. Oh, AND IMMEDIATELY starting my music therapy program at college.
HA HA HA HA HA.
Not to leave anything out, from 94-02 I also worked AT HOME – a lot. Typing at home for some attorneys. Typing at home for the word processing job I worked at in 87. Working at home for corporate transcription firms out of state. And finally (I LOVED THIS) legal transcripts for a court reporter. I just got ANOTHER offer to do this this summer doing criminal transcripts. I love doing those…. I wanted to say yes badly. But I said no. Because I know I can’t handle it.
I LOVE BEING HOME. But I need a break. I think school starting for my kids in 5 or 6 weeks will be good for me. I just need a break.
But I loved a lot about working – the finishing something feeling, the time alone, the breaks, the lunch hours, the MONEY! I liked dressing up. And the break wasn’t that bad.
But I also hated a lot of it – the driving, the rushing, the panicking if I wasn’t perfect, the fear over losing my job over my kids’ illnesses (which I did, twice), and missing my kids. And working at home isn’t perfect either — you do get more flexibility but you have to STILL DO YOUR WORK – all night if need be. I remember falling asleep at my desk many nights trying to do all nighters and still get up at 6 to get kids off to school.
So, I know I am blessed, I’m home, I don’t have to do this anymore. We are making enough now to look for a bigger house.
Well, just had to vent a little, though I think this is disjointed and doesn’t make much sense! I’ll write more later– dishes, cooking dinner, piles of papers I sorted, bills, laundry, and a little boy sitting in the stroller and an older son hungry for dinner await! (Colleen is having fun with grandma today!)….. I don’t usually just park Ryan in the stroller but he was really driving me nuts – he threw something and hit me in the head — OUCH – I had to put ice on it.
dori — wanting to change background soon as I always do.
A post I have been planning to write for a while…
