Days 4-7: A whole week “in port”. (**with pictures**)

Time flies. This post covers through Monday April 23 (Posted April 26 from Ogallala NE) (Revised to add pictures on April 28)

Sunday was a quiet relaxing day. We went with Chris, Tammye and the kids to services the Community Christian centre in Naperville. A very good lesson on how Jesus treated the situation with the woman who was brought to him because of being caught in the act of adultery. The theme was “What do you expect?” – and how Jesus responded to people in ways they didn’t expect. Her accusers were faced with “writing in the sand” and an unexpected statement “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. The woman expected condemnation and humiliation but Jesus gave the unexpected response. “If others haven’t condemned you, neither will I – Go and sin no more” (Have you ever noticed that he was the only one there that met his standard of no sin = first stone” but he choose not to cast it).

Sunday night Chris decided he wanted to install the bathroom stuff so we put in the vanity and the toilet, which met his objective of having a functioning “powder room” before we left.
(Actually this means there is one for each of them - since there is already a powder room on the first floor and 2 full bathrooms upstairs –main bath and “ensuite”.) – but I remember with a growing family you can never have too many bathrooms!!! (and it certainly is a little more private than the old “3 holer” shack out back that we had when I was growing up before indoor plumbing. (Yes Virginia - I am that old!!))

Monday we finished up some of the work in the basement but we ran out of material mid-morning and Chris decided that he needed some down time. He had worked a double the previous Monday and then had long days working with us in the mornings and working his regular 4-12 shift so he decided to crash for the afternoon.

So I packed up my tools and did other things to get ready to pull out Tuesday morning.

Monday evening Hunter had a flag football game which I went to watch. If you’ll pardon a grandfather’s pride – he was awesome. (He's the one in the blue shirt standing upright in the middle of the picture)

He ran for a touchdown on the first play and ran the extra point on another play. His team won 21-0 – although at this stage – it was their first game—there is a lot of luck involved since it is more like chaos on the field than any semblance of organized plays.

However, Monday evening Linda received a call that her mother had gone into the hospital Sunday night with chest chains. While it didn’t seem critical Linda was concerned enough that we decided to hold off for another day and remain in Aurora for Tuesday. More about that next post.

Going back and filling in the rest of our our week in Aurora.

Thursday was grandparent’s day at Hunter & Camdyn’s school. We were excited about that when we found out we would be here. It didn’t quite turn out the way we had imagined. For one thing it was only Grades 3,4, & 5 – which included Hunter’s class –but not Camdyn’s apparently the younger classes had their grandparent’s day earlier in the year.

We met Hunter on the way to the cafeteria and had lunch with him (and his classmates). There was only one other grandmother there for his class. We did get to see Camdyn for a couple of minutes as we were leaving the cafeteria she was there having her lunch. After lunch we went to Hunter’s “indoor recess” and watched him play aboard game with his friends. It was good to see him with his friends but we also had thought there might be more interaction with him and that he might have had some of his school projects to show off. However, I guess the main thing was that he knows his grandparents wanted to be there and to be a part of his day.

Thursday night I went with Hunter to his flag football practice. We were there early and Hunter and I raced the length of the football field (and he won!) – 9 year old vs. 62 year old out-of-shape grandpa wasn’t a real contest!!)

Hunter’s birthday is in February (10th) and Camdyn’s is in May (3rd). Last year we were here just after Hunter’s birthday and then back in April just before Camdyn’s so we had started a “tradition” of taking them out to eat for their birthdays. Friday night we took Camdyn to “Steak & Shake” and then to ToysRUs to get her a present - - as an early birthday celebration.

Last night (Saturday) it was Hunter’s turn – we had sent him a book and some money for his birthday so we didn’t have the shopping part to do. He wanted to go to “Chili’s” so we had Southwestern fare. He really likes the rib.

Anyhow – getting to continue the birthday meal tradition for this second year has been the highlight of our visit so far.

It has been fairly nice – sunny during the day – although it was near or below freezing until Thursday night. Yesterday was a great day – over 80 F (28C) and sunny all day. I decided it was likely safe to put water on board so we now are “officially” camping. (although I discovered something that I had forgotten – last fall the plastic drain plug on the hot water tank had broken off when I was removing it so I have to find a replacement before I can fill it and we can be fully self-sufficient with a shower on board.

Chris works 4 to 12 shift so we have been spending sometime with him in the mornings. It has been nice to sit on the deck in the sunshine and visit with him & Tammye over coffee. We have also continued to plug away at the basement project. All the drywall is installed on the bathroom walls (inside & out) and on the rest of the area we framed at Christmas. Chris & Linda started the mudding and taping on Thursday and we are hoping to have the wall behind the vanity and toilet ready for a coat of primer to-morrow morning so we can install the vanity and the toilet before we leave. I put the door on yesterday (Friday).

Saturday we did a little more on the project although I took some timein the afternoon to play catch with Hunter.

I was able to get my INTERNET connection working once in a while and note the following

My friend John Dobbs posts a YouTube tribute (click HERE) to the victims of the Virginia Tech tragedy.

Neva challenges Christians to “keep on keeping on” and to “walk the talk” each day in all they do rather than giving up and thinking they’ve done enough – it’s time for some one else to do the work. (click HERE)

God Bless

Charlie & Linda