Amy's 'momentary trouble'

This weekend went by so quickly and so much activity was packed into it that I am exhausted and it seems like just a blur. I got the kids up at 6:15 am on Saturday, got breakfast for the younger two, finished packing and was out the door by 8:10 am. We traveled 3 ½ hours to Waterloo, Iowa to celebrate Christmas with Amy’s family. We arrived around 10:45 am and soon after the rest of the family arrived. There were hugs and many tears as this was the first time since the funeral that we saw anyone from Amy’s family. For the next 1 ½ hours, we chatted and ‘grazed’ on everything from taco dip and chips to lil’ smokies in BBQ sauce. There were all kinds of dips and chips, shrimp with cocktail sauce and Gene even made French dip sandwiches. Somewhere around 2:00pm, when the kids couldn’t stand it any longer, we finally sat down to exchange gifts and while it was fun to watch what everyone got, the best came when Sandy asked the 5 younger boys to stand in a line in front of what looked like a rather large box covered by a big table clothe. Once lined up, she asked if any of them had any idea what was under the covering, none of them ventured a guess and when she removed the covering with a flourish, to see the look on each of those boy’s faces was absolutely priceless! Vinny’s eyes bugged out and he jumped up and down saying ‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’, Josh’s jaw dropped to the floor and took a step back, Jacob just got this huge grin on his face and said ‘Sweet!’, Alex dropped to his knees and said ‘I can’t believe it!’ and Trevor shook his head in disbelief and said ‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’…she had bought each of the boys a Video Gaming chair. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a comfortable chair that has no legs, sits on the floor and you can rock back in it while you’re playing video games. The best part is that these weren’t any ordinary gaming chairs; they have built in surround sound speakers that can be hooked up to your video console…pretty cool and chalk one up for Nana, she really blew the socks off those boys! Later on, some went to the Waterloo Black Hawks hockey game. Trevor went, but the rest of my family stayed put and either played with their new toys, played board games or watched a video.
Everyone had a really good time and there was much joking and laughter, but through out the entire day there was a subtle subdued air and while all of us carried on, it was abundantly clear that Amy was sorely missed.

We needed to be back before 1:00pm the next day as Brittany’s choral concert started at 1:30pm. The next morning, I decided to let Brittany drive back (well, at least as far as Dubuque, about 90 miles). I figured it was a Sunday morning and she really needs the highway driving time. She did very well and only ‘faded’ to the right on a few occasions. One time she got fairly close to going off the pavement and onto the gravel shoulder, which afforded me the opportunity of explaining exactly why it’s NOT a good idea to do that at 65 mph…she was pretty paranoid about it the rest of the way, but the lesson was learned. We made it back by 12:45pm and Brittany and I both rushed to get ready in time. We made it and the concert was very nice. Before the start and in between choral groups, a man played the theater’s large pipe organ. He played Christmas standards and it was very nice to hum and sing along with the songs. Right after the concert, I had to run home, get the younger two ready and took them up to the church for their final rehearsal before their Christmas show that started at 6:00pm. I came back home, got something for Trevor and I to eat (it’s 4:00pm at this point and none of us had lunch!) and after Brittany got home, all of us went up to the church to see the kids’ Christmas show. The show was nicely done and all of the kids did a wonderful job and I got to thinking, as I watched what used to be Amy’s Sunday school class, that Amy stood with the whole of heaven’s hosts as the worship of those children reached the ears of our Lord Jesus Christ. If I enjoyed it, can you imagine the pleasure…the sweet aroma it was to Him?

For the love of Amy - V