In Loving Memory

This morning mother's battle with cancer came to an end as she passed quickly and painlessly on to dance with her Father in heaven. As I waited for the hospice nurse to come and make the pronouncement I put on praise music and danced and sang her all the way on up in a celebration of heart I know she would have appreciated and been blessed by; then I noticed this little bird suddenly come and sit up on her porch watching and singing, a sign that she is now free as a bird with no cares of this world but still silently here to watch and guide us lovingly, all the while singing His praises. I pray her legacy for impacting children will live on in me and I know she has sown into her grandchildren's lives in ways I cannot even put into words. They will always remember her love and encouragement especially when they need it most, as will I.

God bless her precious soul
may she rest in peace
Judith Ann Pesto Quatrine
September 7, 1942 - February 27, 2010

For the Love of

... Benjamin who turned ten this past Saturday we took some friends and family to Rollhaven in Grand Blanc for loads of birthday fun. We headed out in the big red Rosie van to collect three school friends and a buddy from church then met up with some cousins, uncles, aunt and grandparents at the venue where we enjoyed pizza, pop, arcade games, ice cream cones, birthday cake, and Ben got to have a go in the Money Machine since he was the guest of honor.

Then we got down to business with a couple games of some serious Laser Tag. Players ranged in age from 9 to 60 something and included Ben, Fox, Ethan, Alex, Michael, Kyle, Bruno, Jeremy, Taylor, Riley, Mom and Dad, Uncle James, Grandpa Q, Aunt Dorothy, and R.J. The competition was fierce and we all had a blast!

... my 1st grade buddy Scott. Last Wednesday I subbed the afternoon in my favorite first grade class, my friend with compulsion issues was there and we had a great time during Center/Free Time Activities. Scott has impluses he can't control, he'll eat things, go up and randomly smack a kid on the back or super squeeze someone, or he'll just start pulling things out of drawers in the classroom. He's on medication and is getting better about keeping in control but he really needs someone to stay near and keep him focused. He is incredibly smart and has a servant's heart; it is very touching to see how his classmates try to protect him, especially the girls with their 'mothering' instincts. I honestly like the kid and my heart goes out for him. Peace to you little brother man.




.... teenagers. I think this picture says it all, if you want to keep peace in the car on a long ride all you need are ....

There are many fine things which you mean to do some day, under what you think will be more favorable circumstances. But the only time that is surely yours is the present, hence this is the time to speak the word of appreciation and sympathy, to do the generous deed, to forgive the fault of a thoughtless friend [or family member], to sacrifice self a little more for others. Today is the day in which to express your noblest qualites of mind and heart, to do at least one worthy thing which you have long postponed, and to use your God-given abilities for the enrichment of some less fortunate fellow traveler. Today you can make your life ... significant and worthwhile. The present is yours to do with it as you will. ~Grenville Kleiser

Love from Ethan

Ethan brought the cutest poem home from school I just had to post it!
They were writing out poems in cursive.

I bought a box of chocolate hearts,

a present for my mother.

They looked so good I tasted one

and then I had another.

I couldn't seem to stop myself,

I nibbled on and on.

Before I knew what happened

all the chocolates were gone.

I felt a little guilty,

I was stuffed down to my socks.

I ate my mother's Valentine.....

I hope she likes the box.

===

Love Notes

My sub job for Wednesday was canceled unfortunately due to the snow day but I was fortunate enough to make it to church in the evening and be up for praise and worship again with Pastor Francine leading. While we were doing the offering I gave her a big squeeze as I returned to my seat (we get up and take our offering to the platform) and whispered "Thanks, that was so awesome!" She whispered back "I'm so glad you were here! I was going to call you and ask if you were coming." That was wonderful to hear. "I'll be here as much as I can on Wednesdays," I responded. The worship was wonderful, she went off and sang new words from her heart (we call it singing in the spirit) as the instrumentalists continued to play beyond our regular 'set' and I just kept a melody in vowel tones going to 'float' the groove. I love it when things come about spontaneously like that. We had a great team with Pastor Jeff on drums, Pastor Andrew on guitar, Brandon S. on keys, and the righteous Philbert on guitar.
--
I did get to sub on Thursday in the computer lab. It was pretty mellow since they had Free Choice before the holiday except for a group of 4th graders that came in to work on math. Apparently this is a fairly new system and only the second time they came in to do this. She had a game on fractions picked out but it was waaaayyyy beyond their comprehension since they had barely even been introduced to fractions other than knowing which number was the denominator and which was the numerator let alone which were equal or not equal! So I punted and had everyone go to FunBrain Math Arcade and see how far they could get through the game before our time was up. If they were comfortable with math I said to set the level at 4, if they were really good then challenge themselves with level 5, if they struggled with math then go on level 3. This is a great game that uses different techo games to reinforce math concepts and push speed on basic rout functions. At the end of the day I decided to take initiative and leave the room better than I found it taking time to delouse ALL keyboards, mouses, monitors, and terminals, plus dust the desk tops and shelving to remove an infiltration of dust bunnies. I made Ben and Ethan give me a hand when they got to the room at the end of the school day. I saw the teacher today and she was quite thankful for the effort.
--
Over the week I worked on painting some ceramic heart jewelry boxes for people for Valentine's Day, something I haven't done in a while and found very cathartic. Saturday the boys and I headed down to my mom's to spend the weekend. My brother orchestrated some Valentine's Day fun for his favorite ladies complete with massage, facial, manicures, and pedicures. Wow. While we got pampered the boys had a gameboy fest and played on the computer.
--

Sunday we went to church with mother. The boys haven't had much experience with the Catholic church but they found it to be a tolerable experience, much more subdued than our spirit-filled Word church. We even arrived before the 8:15am mass began so mother could show them around the sanctuary and introduce them to her friends. Since mom sold her Saturn I had my big red Rosie van this time which proved to be extremely challenging since our princess was experiencing major muscle weakness. Thankfully an angel was sent in the form of Jim (a medic no less) who saw us having difficulty loading her back in the van at St. Ambrose. I asked if she'd rather head back home after the rig-a-ma-roll but she was determined to go out to breakfast, so over to the Clairpointe we went. We made it through it all but after she was tucked safely in bed for the night I was prompted to do some research on the newest medication they had prescribed for her. Her first week home from the hospital she was showing signs of improved strength and even had several days of not using her walking stick all the time. The second week they put her on a new 'anti-seizure' medication which was now built up several weeks into her blood stream. Come to find out a side effect of this drug is weakness, sleepiness (she could barely get off the couch last week and kept saying she was so sleepy), and dry stuffy nose which has also been a drag lately. Another angel arrived on Monday in the form of a new hospice nurse Caprice. We had some discussion with her about what was happening, she consulted the hospice doc and a new script was written. This made mother feel a lot better just to have some sort of understanding as to why she 'suddenly' was not able to do what she had a week before. Details were discussed regarding other meds and a new plan of attack was put in place. I love my mom's attitude when weird things start happening, "It was not fun, but now we learned a new thing about what to do. We're always learning as we go." She also had bright idea to have a Wright & Fillipis representative come out and consult about installing grab bars at the bottom and top of the stairs and in the shower. Part of the challenge was when she got to the top of her stairs to go to her bedroom there was no good place for her to get a hold for leverage and her knees would betray her. Monday morning I made it so and the workman was out today. I called when I got home from subbing today and she sounded very up beat and excited about these new developments. The workman (aptly named John) even fixed a couple other things he noticed that could be a hazard. Another angel I dare say.

--

Sunday afternoon after a good nap on the couch some of mom's friends stopped by for a visit and the boys and I shared our Valentine's Day present - more of our choir songs. The boys got a little shy having the extra audience but it was worth it just to see Princess Judi waving a banner of praise along with us.

--

Monday was Ben's birthday celebration with gramma, he had his own vision for a television cake with Pokemon on the screen. We ran out to the grocery store for supplies while the home health aide was getting the princess washed and dressed and later a fabulously inspired cake was created. Rob took Alex down to the shop with him Monday since she didn't have school and she earned a few bucks by cleaning the shop bathrooms and offices. Woot! The dynamic duo to round out our Parton half dozen arrived in the evening for dinner and we all had a great time catching up about our weekend.

My other Valentine's surprise was new Team Judi t-shirts! The boys and I showed up in ours when we arrived Saturday, then Rob and Alex had theirs on when they showed up Monday. Mom loved them. Not only are we standing on the Word, we're wearing the Word! Blessings to all, keep fightin' the good fight!

I Love a Good Word

Just a very quick post this time. A couple weeks ago at a Wednesday night service Pastor Francine Wells delivered an awesome message that will make you think. Please enjoy this audio feed and be blessed.

Hear, Speak, Believe

Totally Lovin'

-- the new sound booth at our church! Instead of having this big square out in the middle of the sanctuary they converted a storage room that connected to the back of the room and it is awesome! Well done men who did so much work so quickly and farewell ark on the wall that will soon be painted over.


-- going to the library! I am a card carrying member of no less than four different libraries in three counties (although now you really don't need separate cards with the MI Card system). We go regularly to the North Branch Public Library, Lapeer Public Library, and Rochester Hills Public Library plus I belong to the Flint Public Library. Since we don't have any activities going on in Flint at the moment I haven't been using that one much but when Alex and the boys were heavily involved in music and theater at the Flint Cultural Center we spent many hours a week perusing the books, enjoying movies and spending time on the computers.

This is a stock photo of the Rochester Hills Public Library in a warmer season.


-- inspired writings by Ben.

Metaphor Me
I am an egg because I am gentle.
I am a Smartie because I am smart.
I am a shrimp because I am short.
I am lightning because I am so fast.
I am a river because I go with the flow.
I am a train because I am so loud sometimes.
I am a Wii because I like to try new things.



And I'll close with a Friday Fill-In
1. Pickles make sandwiches more fun.
2. I sleep the best at home.
3. The snow is lovely but quite unnecessary.
4. Cures for everything can be found in nature.
5. It's 5:16 PM; that means time to figure out what's for dinner.
6. Peace of mind is hard to find (or more so, keep).
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a good rest after a fabulous dinner of Brazilian Chicken Cutlets with raw tropical sauce & couscous (from Rachael Ray's Big Orange Book - Delish), tomorrow my plans include Valentine's fun hosted by my brother at my mom's house and Sunday, I want to have more Valentine's fun with mom and the boys. We're all going to go to her church and we have some more of our songs to sing for her, (& other surprises planned)!

A Lovely Sunday

On Sunday Mom was feeling on an energy upswing after a low key week of much napping. She surprised me by announcing at 7:55am that she wanted to go to 8:15am Mass. Ok, let's do it, was my reply. We had already eaten a fabulous quiche with clementines on the side for breakfast so all we had to do was get dressed and take care of dog business before we loaded up and headed to St. Ambrose, arriving at 8:40am which in mom's world is right on time. After communion we made our leave. Do you want to make any stops before we go home? I inquired. I'm thinking Starbucks, she piped back. Sounds like a plan to me.





We arrived at the coffee shop and two of her main buddies were already there; within minutes we had a group of nearly 8 regulars gathered around a couple tables with more stopping over to give hugs, blessings, and words of encouragement to mom as she enjoyed a Cheese Danish and Vanilla Rooibos Tea. I savored my Peppermint Mocha and had a nice chat with some people I had and hadn't met before while mom caught up with her peeps. Good Time.



Getting back to the house I got mom hooked up to the oxygen for a 'fill-up' and settled on the couch to rest up before our afternoon outing. Her nap was interupted by a brief visit from my cousins bringing good wishes, a baby to kanoodle, and some fabulous spinach pie. They left, mom napped briefly, and I worked on the computer. Had some lunch then her friend Joanne arrived to pick us up to go to the DIA to see the film 'La Danse' along with two other friends, Dorothy and Cathy.



The documentary by Frederick Wiseman on the reknown Paris Opera Ballet was extremely well-done although very long. We found out as we made our early exit that they were given the wrong cut. Instead of the 152 minutes version, this one ran nearly 3 hours long. Yikes. I love listening to them speak French and the dancers were nothing short of phenomenal in their athleticism and execution. It was also refreshing to watch a dance film that didn't focus on the grueling aspect of dance: the injuries, egos, financial struggles and I was also impressed at the variety in choreographic styles the company chose to use within their season. On the way back to the house in a carful of friends mom commented 'it's so good to be out in the world again.' She's been very good about not pushing herself and making sure to rest and eat right but she can only take so much of being cooped up inside and needs to break out every once in awhile. Soon the weather will be warmer and she can sit out on her porch, read and enjoy the sunshine and fellowship with neighbors and friends that walk by regularly with their dogs. Back at the house I took Jake and Brulee for a quick walk, had some of that wonderful spinach pie with mom then handed the baton to my Aunt Marcia who was on Princess Duty for the night. A very blessed Sunday indeed.

I Love ...

the theater! All forms of theater I find intriguing and entertaining and I am very proud of Alexandra's directorial debut on the production "Cut." It was a very convoluted and involved piece to take on with many cast members playing multiple roles. The kids had a great time with it even though the audiences left fairly confused, but that was part of the point. She didn't write it, just direct and with virtually no help from her loosely titled co-director. In this life you have to learn to deal with difficult people and Alex has had her fair share of experience in this area, which will make her a strong authority as she progresses with her craft.

Mr. S and my superstar!!

... my dog! Ok, technically he's my daughter's dog but I spend a majority of time with him. Jake loves to travel in the van or car and is a great companion to walk with. His only downfall is he is not a watch dog at all being that he never barks at people.


... not being afraid to defend my faith. This hasn't always been the case and I'm still not really a get in your face 'you gotta get Jesus or you're going to hell' kind of person. But I know, what I know and believe what I believe and seen what I've seen regarding the mighty power of God and the saving grace of salvation. With Him all things are possible!

Psalm 91 (New King James Version)

Safety of Abiding in the Presence of God

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”
--
Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler^"
And from the perilous pestilence.
He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
--
A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you.
Only with your eyes shall you look,
And see the reward of the wicked.
--
Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways.
In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.
--
“Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation.”

Love Fest 2010

Ok, I know it's sappy and not very original but February is declared the month of Love Fest this year with each post focusing on people, things, events, and concepts that I love and find joy in. First I'll start with the Pastors and Elders of my church. The photo below from the left features Pastor Jeff Wells, Cindy & Harold Green, Josette & Michael Morales, Brenda & John McCumons, and Brad & Kim Johnson (Pastor Francine, Jeff's lovely wife is not in this picture). These people are amazing to me and have brought me much joy and encouragement during happy and sorrowful times in my life. They continue to strive for Christ-like status but are fully aware of their humaness and short comings. My "show the love" campaign that has come about lately stems mainly from their example and teachings throughout the years. Another thing that I love - newborn babies! Carrying them, birthing them, nursing them, singing to them, rocking them, washing them, loving them, and watching them grow. Can you guess which one of my babies this is?
And the last point for this post, I love to praise and worship! No greater joy can come from letting loose and singing praises for all to hear, at church, at home, in the car, in the store, loudly, softly, in the natural or in the spirit, I love to praise! Last night I was up singing with the adult P&W team for the first time in almost two years and it was awesome. Although I've done a lot working with the children on choir music and with the youth P&W team these past couple years it was wonderful to return again to where I started with FCFC, on the platform under the annointing of some amazing P&W leaders. With His grace I hope to be part of it again more regularly in the future. Find the Love - Feel the Joy!

February 2010