Listen and Watch

June 29, 2011


OOPS!  I forgot when I posted last night:  


First Presbyterian is collecting garage sale items for its big community Garage Sale on July 9.  Let me know if you have items to donate, and I will do a pick up between now and next Wednesday.  For those of you who shop, we already have a lot of really good items and enough great items that we will have a boutique inside the garage sale for the very nicest things.


Also, our youth group is collecting plastic grocery bags for a Mo Ranch Project where they will make surprisingly durable sleeping mats by weaving the bags together.  Please donate your extras!

Of course, I love Walter forever and for always.  And, of course, Davis is a more wonderful son than ever a mother could hope for, but if I had to pick my next three guys, it would be Nico, Adam, and Ian Tjoelker. 

These guys, starting with Nico as a 3 year old in Bev Dawsons's class with Erin at Covenant and Adam, at first unable and later unwilling to leave his momma's arms (no way, no how), forged a friendship with our family that is inviolable.  Nico made an uncountable number of trips to clinic in Houston and Bryan, balancing homework on a clipboard on his knee,  shouting out "Kickapoo Road" in chorus with Erin when we passed the exit off Hwy 290 both going and coming every trip, finding easy entertainment with whatever we had available (making tableaus out of earplug people,  watching Hogan's Heroes re-run, playing travel yahtzee, doing whatever it took to make the time pass).  Adam starting going as soon as he was old enough and patient enough to hang in until the day was over (according to the doc and nurses).

Erin loved these guys.  I remember the secret code:  "Can we have some crackers?"  which meant that someone (probably not the adults) was planning and hoping for a sleepover.  You were all too polite to put your parents on the spot and ask a question that they might say "no" to.  

The big kids let Ian hang out when he came along:

Erin played Jezebel in Elijah.  Nico didn't want to sing, but he agree to be a foot solider and have Erin's back.

We even coordinated vacation and lobbying a couple of times.  This was the mall in DC, where, as luck would have it, there was a giant do-it-yourself Lego exhibit when we visited.

We also met up in Pittsburgh and made a day of Kennywood.

Of course, we didn't have to leave town to have a vacation:

We were so sad when you went on sabbatical in Australia:

By the time they got back, Erin was gone.  Now they are so much bigger and more interesting.  This could be Adam's first talent contest:  

Live at Mo Ranch

Nico has become more and more amazing with each passing month.  First, watch his entrance to the talent show, then watch his performance (The Ride of the Valkyries):





If you rock on the organ (and you don't get dizzy watching sideways video) you can see Nico's virtuosity on a fantastic pipe organ, playing Lobe den Herren.  I hope I am always part of your lives, even across the ocean and the years!