Surprise!

Dad is turning 60. When Grandma reminded me of that back in November I was floored. Completely caught off guard. What? How could my dad be turning 60? It couldn't be. He's supposed to be, like, 45, right? Okay, fine, I do remember 50, then mid-50's. Okaaay, then late 50's. But that is where time is supposed to stop. I can't handle this anymore.

Sure enough, Tell and Lace were just as surprised to hear the news. How did that sneak up on us?

Immediately we set out on a plan with Mom to surprise him. The best gift we could give Dad would be all of us together. That we knew. But how could that happen with one of us in Michigan and one of us in school in Tennessee?

After some dialogue, we settled the 'where': the nearest and largest airport hub to the rest of the family - Minneapolis; and the 'when': the weekend of MLK - when all those in school would have an extra day off. Then it was 'how.' That was when we concocted an elaborate plan to surprise Dad.

I would be the first of the children to arrive on Friday at the airport. A shuttle driver would transport me to the hotel. Grandma and Ron would already be there, having caught a red-eye from Denver. They would help me decorate the room and order food for supper. Perfect. √

Lace and her gang would arrive around 4pm by car. They would hide in their hotel room with Grandma and Ron, waiting for Mom and Dad to arrive around 4:30pm. With them in hiding, I would take cover in the pool area and the front desk would hand Dad his first clue. Tell would arrive later as we were eating, surprising Dad who would think Tell couldn't make it. Perfect.

Er. Well. 

Lace calls. "We have a slight problem." "What?" "Dad just pulled up next to us on the freeway and saw us." "WHAT??" Now, how could that be possible? Sure enough, Dad was WAVING to them from the driver's seat.

Well, guess that's out. Plan B?

In the end, we still pulled it off. Yeah, Dad knew the Tysvers were there, but we figured he would just by the fact he was in Minnesota with no real good explanation at that point. (Mom was just telling him to "keep driving" at each major junction of their 6-hour trip from Bowdon to Minneapolis.)

Lace, Will, and the girls arrived a few minutes before Mom and Dad, still able to check in and "hide" in their room until Mom and Dad came. With rush hour traffic delaying those coming by car, Tell, who flew in around 4:30pm, arrived to the hotel before Mom and Dad and hid in the breakfast area.

We would still psyche Dad out with the next note and picture. 

 But Tell would soon pop up from behind the counter.

The hotel staff (HUGE shout out to Holiday Inn Express & Suites), were as excited as we were about the surprise and helped us every step of the way to ensure it was executed. They even upgraded our rooms!

What a kick-off to our weekend.

It was a sweet time together as family, celebrating an incredible man, husband, and dad.

Love you, Dad!

Up Close and Personal

At Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa:

Holiday Headlines

From December 14 until January 12 we were without internet at our house. We were switching providers and there was miscommunication on when to discontinue with our previous provider. Then our current provider notified us that it would be a few weeks until they put a tower up in our area. Hence, no internet for a month.

We learned to cope however, and it actually ended up being quite nice, though at times incredibly inconvenient. David wasn't terribly affected because he could get online at his office at the church. I, however, had to rely on the connection from the parking lot outside the local dentist's office. After three weeks of missing my Friday Skype call with my parents, my desperation finally overpowered my nerves and, yes, I skyped from my car, in the parking lot, in front of the reliable dentist's office. My brother called this ghetto. What's a girl to do?

There have been some highlights during this past month that I've missed blogging about. So here is my effort to update.

CHRISTMAS EXTRAVAGANZA
David and I spent a week in Virginia with his family over the Christmas holiday. On Christmas day, a fire erupted in the kitchen. We're talking huge flames from the stove, reaching up to the cupboards above. Thick black smoke billowing along the ceiling. David saved the day, when, coming out of the bathroom in a hurry due to all the commotion, ran for the extinguisher, discharging it three times before the fire finally died. The culprit? A hot pad that was stuck unnoticed to the underside of a pot. Needless to say, we went out for Christmas dinner. To the only place open, Chinese.

COLLEGE DAYS
It all started with Groupon. I had five Hi-8 tapes sitting around my house containing footage from college that I had been meaning to convert at some point in my life. It's expensive! But not with Groupon. Last year I got a hold of a really great deal to convert old tapes to data files through a company based in Chattanooga. I snatched it up, sent in my tapes, and got the converted forms back by November. With no internet in the house, I suddenly had all this time for projects such as this. And I had so. much. fun. remembering, and laughing, and showing David who his crazy wife was back in those college years. Now that we have internet again, my editing of the files has been interrupted. =) But when I finish, I just might have to share. (P.S. Seeing myself with long hair inspired me to grow it out again. Ha.)

ONE-YEAR RECOGNITION
On January 12, I completed my first year at Hospice Advantage. I feel so blessed working for such a wonderful company with such tremendous colleagues. I feel like an official social worker. One year behind me already. Hard to believe. Always more to learn, but no longer a novice. Hospice Advantage gave me a congratulatory framed certificate and a pin. A fellow colleague who started when I did brought in donuts to celebrate.

CRAFTY CONFIDENCE
During the internet fast I also caught up on some sewing projects. I haven't done much more than mending, hemming, and altering. However, I am really enjoying learning more about my machine (that my husband bought me . . . two years ago(!)). My confidence has also increased as I try those bigger projects. During one, I went from total discouragement, convinced I had ruined it, to a breakthrough and saving the day! Well, the skirt, at least.

DOWNHILL DAREDEVILS
In less than one week, David and I will be leaving Michigan for Austria. Sounds like a good trade to me! David is speaking for a young adult ski/snowboard camp. We'll fly to Zurich, Switzerland, spend a couple days there, then drive to the Austrian Alps. In preparation for the slopes, and because neither of us could remember the last time we skied, we decided we should attempt some bunny hills in Michigan before braving the mountains. And again -- had. so. much. fun. We went to a small place a couple hours away. Started with the literal bunny hills, then moved on up to the greens. It didn't take us too long to get bored there, so we moved up to the blues in no time. We were really getting the groove down on those. I took a detour through a narrow path in the woods and hit a tree branch. (I could see that coming, but seriously, the last born child in me couldn't help but try it.) After taking a break for lunch I asked David if he was ready to try the black diamond. He responded very matter-of factly that he would not be going on the black diamond. He didn't want to get hurt right before Austria after all. Granted, we were trying to play it safe, for the most part. I didn't say anything. "Are you going to?" he asked after a pause. "Yep!" More silence. "Well, I'll come with you then." Yes! I thought.

So after a couple more trips down the blues, we braved the blacks. Upon getting off the ski lift and turning the corner to face the hill, we both looked down, then looked at each other, then looked down again. My eyes were wide, I'll admit. I wasn't sure about this after all. We waited a little bit to let the crowd go first. We watched them go down without much problem. "Okay, here goes nothing", my hero clad in grey gortex exclaimed as he pushed himself forward. I followed behind and giggled the whole way down. It was that fun. We spent the rest of the day here, only going back to the blue when we had to make our way back to the lodge. And wow, were those blue slopes short and small or what. We were amazed with our recurring knowledge that it is all so relative. These Michigan black diamonds will turn out to be pretty relative as well I'm sure. At least I hope. Here we come, Austria!

P.S. David did suffer a fall, no injury, when I "clotheslined" him (his words) coming off the ski lift. All I knew was, I stood up and skied down the off-ramp like you are supposed to (while hearing a muffled yelp behind me). I started laughing before I even turned around. Yep, he was on the ground. I was doubled-over. "Well, thanks!" he said with a glare. I just kept laughing and eventually he joined in.

Uncle John's Cider Mill

Last Sunday David and I visited Uncle John's Cider Mill, an attraction a few miles north of home.  The drawing factor was their corn maze. I had never done one before and had been excited to try it.

This is an aerial view of the maze:

We entered the "maze" and soon figured out we were just going around and around the ghost-figure at the top left. Haha. Ah, yes. We're bright. (They trick you with an "Enter Here" sign!) After finding the real maze entrance, we soon got lost and finally decided to retrace our steps back to the beginning, which we successfully accomplished, and used a print-out they gave us at the entrance to navigate our way through. That was much more fun.

Also while at Uncle John's, we enjoyed a ride through their apple orchard on a horse-drawn wagon. And, of course, we had to try out their homemade donuts and apple cider. We also took a walk down their nature trail, then finished the afternoon sling-shooting apples.

A great afternoon of fun.

Journeying North, Photo Log

The weekend before last, David and I began our journey to Northern Lights Camp on Lake Metigoshe, North Dakota, for the Suckut family reunion.  We stopped for our first night at Manistique, located in the upper peninsula of Michigan.

The next morning we took a small detour and stopped at the DeYoung Family Zoo, in Wallace, MI.

The next day we finally made it to our destination, and thus began a week of family fun.

(Thanks for the pictures, Myndi!)

Aunt Dawn and Grandma making Knephla

No vacation from triathlon training

Playing Settlers of Catan on a rainy morning

 As a way of getting to know each other better, each of us wrote down three things about ourselves, then we had to guess who wrote what. This was one of my favorites.

 Round Robin ping-pong

 Grandpa, still playing frisbee at age 92 with his (great) grandchildren

Bocci Ball (I must've missed the cue =)

The Suckuts vs the In-laws

(randomly chosen)

 Grandma, still tubing at age 88, with Aunt Dawn

 My Family 

(missing William Tysver)

The Simple Joys

Sunday evenings are designated as date night (a.k.a. couple time) for David and I. Although I always enjoy this time together no matter what we end up doing, a recent Sunday evening could probably top as a favorite.  What's interesting about it was it was the simplest, cheapest "date" I think we've ever had.


Ping-pong.


A couple Sundays ago, David and I finally put together the ping-pong table that we bought at a friend's moving sale.  It had been sitting in pieces in our basement for at least 5 months.  Finally, I talked David into helping me put it together during our "couple time."  (It seems my ideas for date night are always ones I have to talk him into.  =) I'm really not boring, I promise.)


He finally conceded even though he did not consider putting a ping-pong table together very enjoyable or in the category of quality time.  But I knew this was the only way to get him to help me put it together.  Just like when I told him that all I wanted for my birthday was for him to get the ceiling fan in our bedroom fixed. =p  (Okay, maybe I am boring. But talk about easy to please, right?)  It's just not high on his priority list, I can't blame him!


Besides, the end goal wasn't just a finished ping-pong table, right? Of course not.


So anyway, luckily our marriage made it past the actual assembly.  All previous irritations were forgotten as soon as we picked up the paddles.


Ready?


You're on!


I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard.  And what a beautiful feeling to laugh with the one you love.

Sometimes it's the simple moments, the simple things, that bring the best memories.

June-July Recap

June and July have been busy months and though July is not over yet, and I have nothing exciting planned for the remainder of it, I feel safe re-capping on the months now.

June began with a not-so-fun dentist appointment and ended with a much needed "office closed" to recuperate from a hectic campmeeting.  In between were three massages (I get 30 free massages a year with the conference insurance!), two birthdays, an anniversary, a wedding, two holidays and mom's knee surgery. Oh, and did I mention campmeeting?  The wedding, as blogged about below, was a highlight.  Seeing my great friend and cousin, Zach, marry his bride in a beautiful ceremony was touching. Standing up for him was a joy.  Hanging out with the groomsmen... well... :) 

The moment we flew back to MI, David was off to Camp Pitch, a week of preparing the site for campmeeting, and I started back at work on my preparations for the campmeeting seminars, the role my department manages during that week.  I joined him on Friday and then started the busy week of handling overcrowded seminar rooms, changing seminar signs every 2 hours (more time-consuming then one would imagine), unloading more chairs for the overcrowded seminars, riding around on my conference appointed golf-cart and talking on my conference appointed radio.  On the first Sunday of campmeeting, by bosses wife had a TIA and they left for the week for doctor visits and tests. She has recuperated well and there are no lasting effects. Praise God.  In the meantime, that left me "baptized by fire" as one pastor put it, into the seminar coordinator role.

David was the early morning speaker, so that meant 5:30am mornings to wake-up, prepare, and pray before his message at 7.  Although it was a struggle to wake-up, they proved to be blessings to me.  These were the only meetings I was able to attend throughout the week due to my job.  The weekend ended with Mark Finley giving powerful messages on the Holy Spirit, and camp strike, the Sunday where we all pitch in to take down the camp. 

The remainder of June and the rest of July held the following highlights:

--A day off from work means a party at our house. We had the Ramoses, old friends of David's and a pastoral family in the Upper Peninsula (UP) of MI,

 stay with us for a night after campmeeting. With other friends joining us for our conference appointed day-off  we filled our home with fun and games from morning until evening.

--4th of July.  Thursday night we joined Stephanie, a friend from work, at the Lansing church for fireworks and ice cream.  Although I typically love both, the ice cream is really the only thing worth mentioning.

George didn't like the fireworks too much.

--Due to the holiday, we had Monday off as well, and you know what that means... party time of course.  The Ramoses came down again from the UP on Sunday and that evening with three additional friends from the previous weekend, we again enjoyed the followship, laughter, games, and food. Monday in particular held an eventful situation.  Determined to go canoeing whether or not we had the consent of the weather, we headed out on a 45min. trek down the river in rented canoes. With us were two dogs, a toddler, and a baby.  

It wasn't long after we began our trek that the rain started, complete with thunder and lightening. Disembarking on the shore wasn't much better with the pirana-like mosquitoes, so we set sail again to brave the rain.  That didn't last long. We soon found ourselves huddling in our canoes under the trees, and finally decided to visit the nearby homes in hopes of a friendly stranger.  We were successful. 

Before too long, the canoes were picked up and we were back home, drier and hungrier. Grilling our boca burgers outside was out, so instead we fired up our gridle and made a picnic feast indoors.  

The party continued on until the Ramoses left that Wednesday, but was easily picked back up a few hours later when:

--Meghan and Carissa came to visit! I was privileged to have both Meghan and Carissa come to visit that following weekend and what a delight.  

It had been two years since the three of us had been in the same place at the same time and Carissa hadn't even met David! So a fun time was had and Sunday came too quickly when I had to see them both off. 

--Twice over the past couple weeks I was able to visit the Historic Adventist Village in Battle Creek.  Pictures from both visits are below, with thanks to Stephanie and Carissa. :)

Photo-op with the nurses at the Kellog Sanitarium.

Trying out Kellog's inventions for increasing blood circulation.  This one in particular is a foot vibrator.

A vibrating chair to "loosen the bowels"

First home owned by the White's and where Ellen wrote Spiritual Gifts Vol. 1

The gravesite of the Whites.

We love Kellog's cereal.

--The very next week was VBS.  Every day after work David and I were off to the church for our respective roles.  He the devotional speaker and I the food preparer.  Hmm, maybe I am growing into the pastor's wife role.  But snacks like bugs-on-a-log, lady-bug-special, earthworm delight, and bird-nests, weren't difficult. Especially when they're prepared ahead of time and there are two other people in charge. :)

So that leaves me with last week, a fairly standard work week with nothing super special about it, and that may be a good thing.  It left me with time to try out old family recipes like Gr-ma Iris' sweet & sour loaf and Gr-ma Dolores' zucchini bread.  It gave me time to organize the house just a little bit more, an inexhaustible task for me.  And it gave me time to do more simplifying--another garage sale box in the making.  So I am happy.  God is good.  Very very good.

Weekend Fun

This weekend we traveled down to good 'ol Nebraska for Zach and Sarah's wedding.  Wow, I hadn't been back to Union since I graduated in 2005. It brought back memories.

They were married at the columns of Pioneer Park and it was beautiful.  I don't have pictures of the wedding since I was in it.  I got to try my hand at being the best "wo"man, or more formally the Groom's Honored Attendant.  That's right.  Me and a bunch of college guys.... :) 

David officiated the wedding as well. It was an honor. 

Eating out. 

Decorating their getaway vehicle.

Over the weekend we were able to visit the zoo where my cousin, Myndi, is a zookeeper. This meant behind the scenes action with a leopard, feeding an otter, and petting a seal.  The video below of the leopard isn't the best part of it. Myndi was able to do all sorts of tricks with him such as sit, lay,  jump 10 feet up the wall, etc.  It was amazing!

And now... we're off to Camp Meeting!

4th of July

Over the fourth, David and I met another couple in Traverse City--a quaint city about 4 hours north of Berrien. We stayed two nights at the Great Wolf Lodge with an indoor water park, spa, cafe and miniature golf. We watched fireworks on the beach, visited the Sleeping Bear sand dunes and ate a ton of food.
There is a steep section at the sand dunes where a sign reads: WARNING: STEEP BLUFF 450 feet drop to Lake Michigan. Return climb is extremely exhausting. Do not run. Do not throw rocks.
This is us after running, er, hiking down it. The dune is actually about twice as high as shown in the picture. It was foggy the day that we went.
This is the drop on a clear day. Walking up it is best accomplished using all four appendages.

Triathlon Fun

2.5 miles running on the beach.
19 miles on bike.
3.5 miles on canoe.
1.5 miles running.

Bonding experience. :)

This was our team for AU's Beach 2 Bank triathlon. It took place last Friday and was a blast. Well, maybe not at the exact time we were all doing our selective parts, but.... :)
It was fun nonetheless and we were proud of ourselves for accomplishing such a feat. Especially since we put more time into our t-shirts then into training. But we didn't come in last! Almost...but not last. ;)
I took part in the biking section by the way. Our team was "The CC"--Camping Club. Nothing like a triathlon to bond you with your vespers pals.

Easter

Friday we dyed Easter eggs.

BEFOREAFTER
Multi-tasking


Getting Creative
One of these eggs isn't like the other... can you guess which one? :)

Actually, four of them aren't.
A sneaky someone added 4 raw eggs.

So we created a game which I'll name Easter roulette. And I'll just say that the night ended with someone getting a little egg splattered on their head. Oh what we do for a good laugh. :)



The survivors of Easter roulette (1st round) and their lucky hard-boiled eggs.

(I'm not quite sure what I'm doing...lol)