The Arizona Branch

posted 11/17/17

The Holt Family (Plus One) after Lunch at Jason's Deli

Here's the lovely branch of the family out here in Arizona: the Holt Family (plus one)!

Truthfully, that's a major reason I accepted the assignment down here -- the opportunity for free travel to visit family! When I heard that there was this short-term job down in Tucson, I jumped at it, not really caring what the job entailed. The fact that it's a lab-monkey, playing-with-hardware kind of job is a bonus.

I didn't get a chance to go down and visit on Saturday due to work, but went down for church on Sunday and then for lunch at Jason's Deli afterward. The picture above was taken right after lunch. Eric is the tall guy on the left - Braelyn's boyfriend. Brason out front holding the drink. Then Jeanne and Brendon.

After lunch, we went to visit (and take communion to) a very nice older couple, Ellen and Stan Scott, who entertained us for quite a while with hilarious stories (especially Stan, who was in both the Air Force and the Navy!).

Then it was down to J&B's house so I could do a quick load of laundry before we went to their Bible Study group, which was delightful and yummy (it's also dinner!).

All in all, a very fulfilling and tiring day, after which it was time to head back to the hotel in time to Skype with the family.

And then sleep the sleep of the exhausted.

Arizona

posted 13 November

My little sister Jeanne and her family live in the Tucson area, so it was a bit of a no-brainer when an opportunity arose to travel down thataways to do some software contract work.

Anytime the Company is willing to pay you to travel in the vicinity of friends or family, it's worth taking it.  After all, what are you going to do on weekends, anyway? Stay indoors and play video games? Watch shows on cable TV? Catch up on your reading?

It has been a long time since we'd visited Jeanne and Brendon and Brason and Braelyn, so a trip was overdue. It would've been nice to bring along the entire family, but since the rest of the family is otherwise engaged (teaching school, attending school, trying to finish school, etc.) it fell to my lot to travel alone.

My flight was on a Sunday afternoon, and due to the time difference, my arrival in Tucson was at midnight. The job is actually up in Oro Valley, about an hour north of Jeanne's place, so there was a bit of a drive after all that flying.

The work itself is nothing special: writing tests to make sure the batteries behave themselves. (They are rechargeable batteries that help start the airplane engines and also serve as backups for cases where there is power loss.)  Less said about that, the better.

Turns out the work demanded 6-day weeks, so I didn't get a chance to hang out with the Holt family til Sunday, but it was lots of fun. Their church has coffee and pastries before service, and then classes after worship, which is a bit of a switch from the way we do things up in Michigan; but it was very nice and I met a lot of very nice people. Then I got to help take Communion to a lovely couple living in a trailer park, do some laundry at Jeanne's, and then go to their Sunday Evening Bible study group!

The only down side to the whole thing was that I miss my Sunday School kids, but our Children's Minister made sure that someone (Mr. Tim!) was covering for me. And Mary said she'd help out when she's there on the every-other-Sunday when she comes home from school.

I sure do miss home, though.

Mawwiage

posted November 9th

October 4th, 2017

Well, they've finally gone and done it. Gotten married, I mean.

The Happy Newlyweds (Das glückliche Paar)

Such a lovely couple. Such a lovely day. If only we'd all been able to see it!

Luckily, Grandpa and Grandma Green were there on the spot to witness this delightful event (which explains how I managed to obtain some photographs!) and congratulate the newlyweds in person. How we envied them. It was never the plan to be absent from one of the most important events in the lives of our children. But time and circumstances are not in our hands to control, so we must take things as they come.

Our prayers and blessings go to the young couple: May your life together be full of love and laughter, protected by the hand of God, bringing you more joy with every passing year!

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NOTE: For those of you who are able, there will be a wedding reception for James and Tabea here in Grand Rapids during the week between Christmas and New Year's Day so that friends and family here in the States can offer their good wishes in person. More details to come!

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In other not-nearly-as-exciting-news, we finally got the windshield replaced on the green Subaru so that it can be driven again. The same Safelite guy came out that had come out to fix Deb's car last year and he remembered me (the man with all the Subarus) so we had an excellent chat about cars and families and all sorts of other interesting things. It took him a bit longer than I had anticipated to fix the windshield due to some rust around the windshield frame, but he took care of it with some sealer so hopefully it won't be a problem this winter.

While he worked on the windshield, I worked on the porch to complete the frames for the plastic which I'm using as a wind-block on the west side. The wind drives a lot of rain and snow across the porch which makes things slick during the winter, and I'd like to avoid it as much as possible. So far, it seems to be working.

Birthday Girl

Well, now she's done it!

Gone and turned old. Over-the-hill. Ancient. Almost ready to launch out into the world and begin her life as a real adult.

Almost.

She's always been a little older than her age. Not sure if that's due to the fact that she is the fourth child in a series of very intelligent children - and a remarkably observant person - but having a milestone birthday like this one is almost anticlimactic; she was often mistaken for a college student when she was back in high school, so what is the big deal now? Probably not as much as someone who turned that age during high school, when so many kids try to prove how [im]mature they are. But it's still a milestone age. And she handled it quite well.

On Friday night, we went up to GVSU for the opening of the Shakespeare Festival, and watched "The Tempest". It was a fantastic show.

On Saturday, we shared a birthday cake over Skype with James and Tabea and Grandma and Grandpa Green. The Greens are touring Germany and are hanging out with J&T this week, and will be around for the wedding on Wednesday.

Later that day, we had a little birthday dinner with take-out from a local (and favorite) sushi place and played some card games.

It was a good birthday.

And then she went back to school on Sunday afternoon and got back to the business of completing her education.

Chatting with Deb during Cards

Blowing Out Candles on the Shared Cake!

Sharing Cake Over Skype!