Marie and some friends from PCC LEAH hung out in a corn maze tonight.
Marie
A Soccer Game Down Memory Lane…
Marie’s game was all the way out in Brockport today.
Once upon a time I drove to and from Brockport with my eyes closed. (No. No. They weren’t closed. I mean I was really, really tired, but they were open.) I attended college at Brockport and I’ve only been back through the town once or twice in the last 23 years.
A lot of the scenery has changed, and there are a lot more stores out there now, but it isn’t any closer and it made for a long trip.
The trip included me turning one street too soon for the soccer field and ending up smack dab on the west side of campus, where I was suddenly greeted with the high rise buildings I had lived in all those years ago.
Now – if I had never, ever seen the campus again, it wouldn’t have mattered to me. I rarely reflect on those years at all and I certainly don’t pine for those days. But it was interesting to see them still standing tall there.
We made it over to the field where the team won again. It was a very good game.
But it wasn’t 80 degrees like it had been last Thursday!
After the photo we drove back through the south side of campus to see what we could see.
I’m not one of those folks that smile wistfully about my “college years.” College was something that I needed to do to get on to the next step in my life. I did have some fun, and I made some great friends, but I’m not a “whole college experience” kind of person. Especially these days. College has gotten astronomically expensive for very little return on investment. But – it did make me smile when I remembered the days when this was my home for the night.
In an effort to emphasize that these structures were my homebases for a season, I said, “Marie – this is where my bed was. This was where my pillow was!”
She responded with, “Mom, you are always thinking about sleep!”
Colossians 2:8 –
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
Endless shrimp 2017
For the third year we made it to Endless Shrimp at Red Lobster.
We ate until we were sick…
(and I about really WAS sick when they said they no longer take Olive Garden gift cards [even though it says they do on the back] and I had to pay the full $85 it cost for this extravaganza!)
Still – time with these silly girls is gift.
Matthew 15:11 – It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.
SK 2017 season
The first game was today and the weather could not have been more lovely. I convinced Marie to let me braid her hair early and as soon as Spanish class finished up we hopped into the van to get to the game vs. Saint Paul on our own field.
If you’ve read other posts about Scarlet Knights, then you might remember how highly John and I regard Marie’s Coach, Mr. Marshall. He is SUCH a good and godly influence and mentor. I am regularly astonished at how gently noble he is.
Nan met us there, and later Stewart and Nigel headed over to watch the second half. Marie got to play quite a bit and the won the game.
Throughout the game we wondered what the band was she was wearing. It turned out that in addition to the two regular team captains, they are going to have two honorary captains each game to bolster both defense and offense plays on the field. Marie was given the honorary defensive captain job this week.
The little girls were whiney and hot. Or hot and whiney. You decide. I decided that I would not bring them to another game. Just sayin’.
I Timothy 4:8 –
For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
Put a little song in your heart.
A few weeks ago, Marie mentioned a song from the Disney movie Brave that she would like to have the music to. I had to hunt around online, and the closest I could find was a duet book. I quietly ordered it for her and Tabitha (there were other songs in it that I knew they both would like).
At first, Tab was far more interested than Marie. What jumped out to Marie was the word “duet” and she wondered if it would be useful.
A little while passed and she sat down with the book at the piano, then brought it to the table. Then back to the piano. And back to the table. And she identified that the top staff from one and the bottom staff of the other would blend to make it a single musician piece.
And – we now have lots of new music wafting through our house.
The first one she worked out? Pirates of the Caribbean theme song.
Proverbs 25:20
Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, and like vinegar on soda.
Seabreeze, 2017
Once upon a time “summer” equaled “Seabreeze” for these disciples. How is it, then, that our family hasn’t been there in a few YEARS and the littlest Butler has no memory of it?
I think it’s a combination of having a pool, having bigger kids getting busier, having the prices more than double from the first year we bought them, and having the big kids get a little TOO familiar with the place.
My work made tickets available for $13 pp for up to six people. A co-worker helped me secure three additional tickets. I got the tickets back in June and we proceeded to sit on them foReVEr!
FLCC classes and Toronto weekend made June a poor time to visit.
Costa Rica and VBS and Prince Edward Island wiped out most usable dates in July.
August found work schedules and camping ruling out most days.
So in the waning week of summer we found a day we could visit. And it was chilly!
To be fair, summer never showed up this year. Oh. It phoned it in a few days, but it never stopped in to stay. Overnight temps were cool for most of August, and the water at Seabreeze reflected this.
BRRRRRRR.
We didn’t spend long in the waterpark. We had some lunch around 12:30 and headed for dry rides. While once upon a time my big kids would have front row seats for the acrobat shows (we’d watch more than one a day), we only paused on our way through to watch them today.
The big four visited a lot of rides on their own, although I did skulk around admiring them from afar time to time.
Hanny got her first ride on the Jack Rabbit.
I can’t know if it was the cool weather or the lateness in the season that made the crowds small. In either case, it benefitted us tremendously as we owned the park.
Nan snapped some photos of the big kids.
And one of the rest of us.
My how we’ve all changed.
We were surprised when at 4:30 P.M. we were pretty much done with all the rides! They’d done each one multiple times and it didn’t make sense just to stay to order a pizza. As John had met us there, he took one van to BJs for some frozen pizza and honey BBQ wings, and I took the other van to Walmart to pick out a bunch of ice creams.
Home for dinner and dessert and the official last day of Butler-summerness-fun.
Ok, school year – here we are.
Prince Edward Island Surprise Road Trip
This is where I should be starting my series of posts on the surprise road trip I took Marie and Tabitha on the morning on July 24th. However, Stewart had JUST completed his digital photography class at FLCC and the camera was set to record each photograph as some fancy .NEF file instead of the normal .JPEG. We need to find a time and a way to convert each image. There are 300 of them.
I’ll be back.
VBS 2017
While Nigel served in Costa Rica this past week, Stewart, Marie and I had been serving the campers at the VBS at Pittsford Community Church. Tabitha, Johanna, and Katriel all got to embark on Operation Arctic. The emphasis all week was the Bible.
B = Book of Books
I = Incredible Impact
B = Bedrock Base
L = God’s Love Letter to us
E = Exciting to Explore
Marie worked in the four-year-old group (Katriel’s group).
I led group 1A (Johanna’s group).
Stewart was a Bible teacher.
Tabitha was in her final year as a camper. Fifth graders get to do their camping out in the “Garage” where they follow a slightly different rotation and dig a lot deeper into the work. Next year Tabitha gets to come back to VBS as an assistant.
13 on the 13th
Marie was up before anyone else. She emptied the dishwasher and fed her little sisters and got some coffee. She’s a do-er.
Nan picked her up at 11:30 and took her to Longhorn for lunch, and to Glow Golf and then back to her house for a while.
Back at home?
WE PREPARED HER SURPRISE PARTY!
Friends arrived at 4:00 P.M. in anticipation of Marie’s 4:30 P.M. arrival.
I wish I had great shots of her surprise, but our camera suddenly stopped working for Stewart, and I accidently filmed in slow motion.
I invited them to the table for dinner, which we served in courses on China.
In lieu of gifting, I asked guests to consider bringing some art work of their own for her to keep.
I had a lovely craft planned, and ordered oil-based Sharpies on Amazon Prime on 7/6 and they were decidedly NOT here in 2 days. (It’s the third time this year Prime failed me… I’m counting Amazon!)
We pulled out Bible Apples-to-Apples and Ella won.
And enjoyed Oreo Cheesecake and ice cream.
Markers arrived and the girls decorated mugs.
I love these ladies.
And so does Marie.
Dayspring Disciples 