Harold Ward Crowley Feb 2 1909
Astronomer, Mathematician, farmer. He maintained a 2 1/2 acre vegetable garden into his nineties. Grandpa had me wrapped around his little finger. He just had to mention something strange that he liked and hadn't eaten since his mother died, and I'd be scouring the nets for butter steamed parsnips, tomato jam, venison mince pie.
He was my little Nikisa's kindred spirit and they would sit for hours in companionable silence, enjoying each other. I did marry Wayne for his own qualities, but his family also kind of turned my head. Grandpa was the best grandfather-in-law ever.
Vernon Edward Roberts
Bayard NE Feb 2 1917
My dad could make anything. A backhoe that dug a six inch wide trench, or a ten gallon pot of "Mulligan Stew" He loved hot peppers, rare steak, and sweet music. He wanted to be an engineer, the kind that drives trains, and as a teenager took a freight train from western Nebraska to Council Bluffs to look for work. He related it as his life's big adventure, not a "Grapes of Wrath" disaster, though it probably was some of that. He was always surprised to be loved.
He was too fragile from broken homes, too tender for the carnage of WWII, I am not sure he ever really came home. He's been gone thirty years, and I still have dreams in which he is healed.
Crystal Dawn Norton
Ainsworth, NE, Feb 2, 19XX (not wishing to offend her vanity as she is still with us and thinks maybe she is not such a spring chicken as she'd like to be ;-)
My feisty daughter-like thing, who thinks she needs no daughter-like things herself. Thank goodness for biological clocks. Ok, I've insulted and invaded you in every way I possibly can. I love you, I miss you. Keep in touch. Happy Birthday.
Jordan Matondo Gentry
Zaire, Feb 2, 1991?
Who missed crossing over Jordan but crossed over to Belgium both times by the power of prayer. What a tiny appealing little guy you were cuddled on your mother's lap. I didn't imagine then that you would be my brother-in-law.
Be blessed, be safe. Happy Birthday.
Dinn,
Phnom Penh,
Feb 2, 1992
I wish I could write her name in Khmer script, as it uses the most beautiful letters. Although she called my daughters "little sister" I can't claim her as family really except that she shares the family birthday, and we gave our youngest daughter her name. It means "precious" and also the fine threads of gold used in tapestry.
I pray for God's blessings and provision for her today.
Monday, February 2, 2009
16 or 25 things about me
These things have been going around on Facebook and I've had several requests. I finally figured out how you're supposed to do it, (Thanks, Lana) but keep loosing the half-finished draft so I'm writing it here. I'm assuming the usual rule for minimizing the use of the word "I" is suspended here. We'll see how many I can get done before I have to take the
1. NEW PUPPY out to piddle. Ruby Diamond Doo Baby Ottie Gentry came home with us yesterday at 8 weeks. She is a purebred but unregistered border collie. I am hoping to train her to locate and herd my youngest child who wanders off frequently. If you're a mother, have you ever got to name a pet yourself?
2. New Job - I just finished my first two week pay period as a civil servant. A real perm. half time employee for IHS. I looked in my bank account to see if I got paid for it....NOPE! But I got paid for three of my six timesheets for November/December. So we're OK.
Those of you who have been praying for me to be sent to your isolated corners of the developing world please keep praying - my heart is there.
3. I have three daughters. Strong Heart (13) AKA "musician-in-me", Mover and Shaker of the Heavenlies (11) AKA "soaring celeste" and "Precious Lamb" (6) who has not yet named herself.
4. My family has one of the rare "unexplained clusters" of children with Down syndrome - my youngest daughter, my sister's oldest son, and our first cousin's daughter who is now an adult.
This is a blessing, for me especially since I was last and had good experiences to hold on to.
I feel like anyone else with a child with Down syndrome is automatically related.
5. We've lived in a house made of leaves and bamboo, without plumbing, and with scant solar electricity. We're considering doing it again only with felt walls this time (ger/yurt)
6. My husband and I met by my now mother-in-law's arrangement. Good call, mom!
7. My 13 year old has been taller than me for one year. She has been stronger than me for two.
8. I've delivered almost 800 babies, and still cry.
9. I sleep in the barn/shed/tarp-covered kennel during Lambing. My husband teases that I'd stay up all night to watch mice be born. He may be right. Dd11 (M&S) is right there with me.
10. I love wind surfing but haven't done it since we moved and left the board on the rafters in Deer Park.
11. I can spoil anyone's fishing luck. I love the idea of fishing, but after many years of optimism I've decided it's more efficient to just throw money in the water.
12. And while we're on the topic of water, I was given the name "Sibongile Mnisi" in Swaziland. It means "we are thankful" and something about "power over water".It specifically means "we were so thankful that your plane was able to land in that goshawful rain storm," and "we are thankful for the unseasonal rain (that you brought) so we don't have to carry water to our gardens this week."
13. My dd13 just cam up and made me insert periods in that last sentence. Just to give you some insight into her personality.
14. Three of four siblings in my family called Dr. G. (I'm messing with the time-space continuum here, Michelle, don't let me down.)
15. I'm an advanced theoretical cook. I own about one hundred cookbooks, which I read for pleasure, but we mostly eat steamed meat, steamed veggies, and steamed rice.
16. We have seventeen varieties of tea in the house, none of them from "variety packs."
17. I plant a garden every year no matter how inhospitable the climate, or poor the soil, or invasive the sheep. Last summer the sheep got in the garden July 2 and ate every tomato to the ground. I felt much less abused the next day when it SNOWED and killed everyone else's.
18. I've hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon (and back).
19. I own a pink coffee maker, a pink watch, a pink sheep halter and lead, and a pink set of scrubs. Pink is a defense mechanism to keep my older daughters (the euploids) from swiping my stuff.
20. I am a closet liturgist.
21. I took 2 months maternity leave with my first child, 1 year with my second, and 4 years with my third.
22. At my last job, the biggest commute risk was snagging a water buffalo's horn as I biked past them. At this job, the biggest risk is hitting a horse wandering through town.
23. I've been knitting a lace shawl from hand-spun cobweb weight icelandic wool for the last three years. I hope to have it finished in time for the fair.
24. We're still eating the nitrogen-packed bulk Y2K goods that people gave us when we returned from Cambodia. We never bought any for ourselves because we were heading off to a place where computers weren't that significant. It was nice to be able to buy some of the survivalist items tht were easily available then, like toilet seats that snap on to 5 gallon buckets.
25. Alas, I'm one short. Looking forward to hearing from you!
1. NEW PUPPY out to piddle. Ruby Diamond Doo Baby Ottie Gentry came home with us yesterday at 8 weeks. She is a purebred but unregistered border collie. I am hoping to train her to locate and herd my youngest child who wanders off frequently. If you're a mother, have you ever got to name a pet yourself?
2. New Job - I just finished my first two week pay period as a civil servant. A real perm. half time employee for IHS. I looked in my bank account to see if I got paid for it....NOPE! But I got paid for three of my six timesheets for November/December. So we're OK.
Those of you who have been praying for me to be sent to your isolated corners of the developing world please keep praying - my heart is there.
3. I have three daughters. Strong Heart (13) AKA "musician-in-me", Mover and Shaker of the Heavenlies (11) AKA "soaring celeste" and "Precious Lamb" (6) who has not yet named herself.
4. My family has one of the rare "unexplained clusters" of children with Down syndrome - my youngest daughter, my sister's oldest son, and our first cousin's daughter who is now an adult.
This is a blessing, for me especially since I was last and had good experiences to hold on to.
I feel like anyone else with a child with Down syndrome is automatically related.
5. We've lived in a house made of leaves and bamboo, without plumbing, and with scant solar electricity. We're considering doing it again only with felt walls this time (ger/yurt)
6. My husband and I met by my now mother-in-law's arrangement. Good call, mom!
7. My 13 year old has been taller than me for one year. She has been stronger than me for two.
8. I've delivered almost 800 babies, and still cry.
9. I sleep in the barn/shed/tarp-covered kennel during Lambing. My husband teases that I'd stay up all night to watch mice be born. He may be right. Dd11 (M&S) is right there with me.
10. I love wind surfing but haven't done it since we moved and left the board on the rafters in Deer Park.
11. I can spoil anyone's fishing luck. I love the idea of fishing, but after many years of optimism I've decided it's more efficient to just throw money in the water.
12. And while we're on the topic of water, I was given the name "Sibongile Mnisi" in Swaziland. It means "we are thankful" and something about "power over water".It specifically means "we were so thankful that your plane was able to land in that goshawful rain storm," and "we are thankful for the unseasonal rain (that you brought) so we don't have to carry water to our gardens this week."
13. My dd13 just cam up and made me insert periods in that last sentence. Just to give you some insight into her personality.
14. Three of four siblings in my family called Dr. G. (I'm messing with the time-space continuum here, Michelle, don't let me down.)
15. I'm an advanced theoretical cook. I own about one hundred cookbooks, which I read for pleasure, but we mostly eat steamed meat, steamed veggies, and steamed rice.
16. We have seventeen varieties of tea in the house, none of them from "variety packs."
17. I plant a garden every year no matter how inhospitable the climate, or poor the soil, or invasive the sheep. Last summer the sheep got in the garden July 2 and ate every tomato to the ground. I felt much less abused the next day when it SNOWED and killed everyone else's.
18. I've hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon (and back).
19. I own a pink coffee maker, a pink watch, a pink sheep halter and lead, and a pink set of scrubs. Pink is a defense mechanism to keep my older daughters (the euploids) from swiping my stuff.
20. I am a closet liturgist.
21. I took 2 months maternity leave with my first child, 1 year with my second, and 4 years with my third.
22. At my last job, the biggest commute risk was snagging a water buffalo's horn as I biked past them. At this job, the biggest risk is hitting a horse wandering through town.
23. I've been knitting a lace shawl from hand-spun cobweb weight icelandic wool for the last three years. I hope to have it finished in time for the fair.
24. We're still eating the nitrogen-packed bulk Y2K goods that people gave us when we returned from Cambodia. We never bought any for ourselves because we were heading off to a place where computers weren't that significant. It was nice to be able to buy some of the survivalist items tht were easily available then, like toilet seats that snap on to 5 gallon buckets.
25. Alas, I'm one short. Looking forward to hearing from you!
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