Choir School continues....

Rehearsals are now underway. We sing for several hours a day but always find time to eat, share with friends, worship and have a great time. This year's theme was "Sing A Song of Choir School". Worship focused on musical styles. Monday's styles reflected  "Isaiah's Song -A Cappella" and "Job -Blues" as only our chaplain Derek Weber can deliver. His messages reach down to my toes!!! 

Tuesday's styles reflected "Shepherd's Song - Celtic" and "Creation's Song - Canon"  Kim LaRue pulls together incredible worship presentations for each day's services. She just brings her stuff and turns the stage into such meaningful visuals. Each day was like looking at the stuff  around the edges of your attic and seeing things in a different light or looking around the edges of your choir room and really looking at what's there.

The corner of the attic below represents "Mary's Song - Soul" and "Musician's Song - Classical". As Derek said (or something like this), "Mary was the 1st 'soul singer'. We have the power to sing from the souls of our feet; from the center of our being. We have the power to minister. If we choose to be a 'soul singer', we too can magnify the Lord."
 I'm sure I didn't say it the way Derek did, but I got the point.

What person sparkles more than Lucy Lehman?

Who knew that Chuck Scott loved sheep???

The power of an accompaniment is beyond words when put in the hands of this man, Dr. Randy Frieling. Organ or piano...he is magnificent!

Below, Daniel Lang is showing off his handsomeness. He has lost 190 pounds!!! We are all so proud of him!

Clifton Davis is new to choir school this year but is another talented guy who is working on his PH.D. Where do these people come from??? He is a modest, gentle, kind man who sat down at the piano and accompanied us this morning at worship. His sensitivity to the keyboard made me stop breathing for a minute.

Hi Cliff!

These men certainly needed a break!
Chuck Scott, Bob Martin and Don Martin
Cliff, Steve Mast and Greg Childs

Craig Courtney writes/arranges some of the most worshipful music that I have ever sung. Many choirs have sung numerous Courtney pieces,  one of his oldest which is sung during the Easter season: Thy Will Be Done.

Kim LaRue (front left) is the creative person responsible for the "attic" affect of the altar. Eileen Guckenberger  and Maureen Watson (rear left) all take a minute to rest during a break.

Pat Geoffroy and Sandy Martin

Eleanor DeMarco and Pat Legner

Mr. and Mrs. Drew (Becca) Childs

Karen Townsend and Susan Blaese
(Two crazy sisters!!!)
Susan is the orchestra director with the patience of Job!

This completes my photo coverage of Tuesday. Just be glad that this is all the photos that I selected! I have many!!!

School???

School??? You have to go to school??? School in the summer??? Ugh! What are you thinking???
No, I'm not crazy. This is more like a camp than school. When Varner Chance founded Epworth Forest Choir School way back when, he knew that people would be learning something and therefore, called it Choir School. It is more like Choir Camp  held at Anderson University. It is an incredible week of singing, laughing, worship, rehearsals, recitals, silly skits, orchestra, classes and way too much food.

With so many pictures to post, I decided that I needed to break it up into segments. Registration took place Sunday afternoon and I took a few photos of Sunday's events:

Lucy Lehman, Claudia Weiler, Maureen Watson, Glenda Davis, Pat Geoffroy, Jane Starkey, Kathy Thies

Drew Childs and Craig Courtney go over some last minute rehearsal notes.

It was so nice visiting with Mary Ellen McCain!

Mary Loring, Allen McCormack, Maddie and Derek Weber and Chuck Scott

Allen McCormack

Beautiful Jill Wood-Naatz

Break time with conductor Craig Courtney

Craig Courtney and Rosalie Geller

Chaplin Derek Weber

Dear friends, Kathy Thies and Jane Peiffer

Kathy and Jane love it when I grab my camera! (Ha!)

Anderson University is a gorgeous campus even though we have had some very, very hot days.

"Ruth's Truths" was the class we chose to take this year taught by Mary LaTurner.

It was wonderful returning to the university for Choir School. Many of these people only see each other once a year so it is a very special time. My blog will be about Choir School for the next several days. It is a great way to remember these good friends.
P.S. Tomorrow night is our concert night at Central Christian Church in Anderson. With Craig Courtney at the baton, great things will happen. The excitment builds!!!

Popsicles????

Blake had his tonsils and adenoids out at St. Vincent's hospital this morning. He was excited to go since he knew he could have all the popsicles he wanted. Who cares about a 'little' sore throat! The doctors said that he was the best patient!!! He had 5 (yes...5!!!) popsicles before leaving the hospital and Kendra said that he probably would have had 8 had she let him. He got to wheel himself out of the hospital and was thrilled about that. He has had no pain meds all day except to go to bed tonight.  He took a good afternoon nap and then he and Nicholas began putting together the Lego set that Aunt Paula, Uncle Ron, PopPop Tom and I gave him tonight. When one boy gets a present, there is no question that the brothers will share it. I don't think I've ever heard the words "it's MINE" come out of their mouths! They are incredible boys!  

When looking at Blake today, there was no question that he had had surgery but we'd never know it from listening to him. No complaints!

Blake and Nicky stopped working on Legos to pose for me. I didn't catch the shot of Blake's arm wrapped around Nicky but I still love this picture. You can tell that Blake is ready for bed. Looong day!

Nicholas is telling me something about a character from whatever book he is reading at the moment. So much to tell....so little time.

I'm glad that today is over for Blake. He was such a trooper! There were times that I could tell that he was hurting but if asked he always said that he was fine. He is always so busy building, creating, figuring things out, explaining, etc., he doesn't have time to think about feeling bad. Life is good. I am blessed to have such incredible boys!

Special thanks to my sister Paula for keeping me company today. We watched Alexis and Nicholas while Kendra and Jason were with Blake. We always have such a good time together. Paula is around Alexis so much more than I am and knows her wants and needs about as well as her parents do. Next to her mom and dad, Lexi wants "Paula"! It was also fun taking Nicholas shopping this afternoon to let him pick out a "wonderful big brother" present. He deserved it!

Fabulous Fourth!

I realize (after going through photos that I have taken) that I always miss people. I always seem to focus on my grandkidlets. What's that about??? Tom and I celebrated the 4th at my sister Paula's and her hubby, Ron's house. We do this yearly since they have the big house and the pool. Of course, we celebrate there even when there is nothing to celebrate. They are great entertainers. Since my daughter Kendra and family live only 8 houses from Paula, they celebrate anything they can think of celebrating  on days that end in "y". It's wonderful having a sister and daughter that are as close as mother and daughter. I'm so blessed!!! But...getting back to the photos.

I now know that I missed getting photos of many members of our dear friends, the Geras. I missed Paula and I missed sneaking up on Paula's daughter, Heather, and catching a picture of her. Darn! Well...I did get my grandkidlets. Thank goodness!!!

Blake and Nicholas give up playing a game to head for the pool.

Pool view from the kitchen deck.

Nobody makes Jason smile like his Lexi does.

Blake takes a breath from swimming.

Nicholas is always willing to smile for the camera.

Then he is back to the pool.

Eric Gera, Nicholas and Blake....friends forever!

Alexis loves the pool!
The closeup photos below were taken by Tom. He gets all the credit. He has big zoom. He has good eye. He does good work.

But I did get one picture of our host. I didn't get one of Paula that she would let me publish. We kind of have an understanding about not embarrasing each other. (Same goes for Kendra). But Ron...he's always good for a smile. His birthday is soon and Paula bought Ron a birthday bike. He really likes it even if it did break down today and he was rescued by Tom (but that's another story).

Happy Birthday to my dear brother-in-law. Thanks to you and Paula for sharing your house, your pool and best of all, yourselves with all of us......again!

A Bladder That Couldn't Be Gladder!

How many people can say that they "love" to visit their urologist??? (How many people HAVE a urologist??? I knew that I would never need one and then I had bladder cancer which changed that!) I love visiting the staff there because they are old friends: Kay (I had her kidlets in 1st grade and loved her way back then); Marcia (her kidlets grew up at CCC with my kids) and Toni (the dear nurse who always chats with me and makes me laugh as Dr. Fretz is looking for TTT's (teeny tiny tumors)).

Now, about my TTT count....here is the limerick for today's visit (which is always written before I go to the office. This is called "thinking positively".

A wonderful day it has been!
A "TTT" checkup.....again.
Dr. Fretz said, "It's ZERO"!
(You know, he's my hero.)
He's one of my favorite men!

My next checkup isn't until December! Merry Christmas to me!

Class of '63!!!

Depending on who you talk to, there were either 19 or 20 in our Tekonsha High School (Michigan) Class of '63. That was 49 years ago!!! We were asked why we celebrated 49 years and decided that the answer was: just because. Steve Miller, our valedictorian and president of our class, began the process of contacting people and it happened. This was the result:

Daryl Althaver, Mike Crawford, Reid Waffle, Bob Main, Bryan Katz, Bill Crawford, Steve Miller,
Rozanne Randall Thompson, DeAnne Warner Rumsey, Jill Walbeck Kattau, Shirley Trueblood Kempton

When we arrived at Rozanne's home in Clare, MI, it didn't take long before Steve hauled out his box of memorabilia that has been stored in his basement for 49 years. Steve, Reid, DeAnne and Shirley reminisced. Steve even gave each of us one of his name cards! Only Steve!!!

Reid holds copies of our Senior pictures. We were soooo cute, don't you think?

"On Tekonsha! On Tekonsha! Fight, fight for her fame!"

It was so good to see Bill Crawford again. Steve reminds Bill that he was president of the class AND valedictorian. Bill laughs!

Bill tells Reid a wild story as his brother Mike Crawford listens. The best memory I have of Mike is his constant, wonderful smile. He kept telling me that "nothing could be funny enough to cause these craters". He was still smiling!

We put Bill, Bob Main and Bryan Katz to work fixing our dinner.

Bryan lives in Sherwood, MI. He has been having health issues and is currently going through radiation so we were thrilled that he was able to make it.

Bob Main and I had fun catching up. His parents and my parents were best friends. His sister Pam and I loved getting together and playing duets. Those were great memories.

Here was our "hostess with the mostess". Rozanne will probably need a week to recover from this get-together. She spends a great amount of time in bed due to health problems but was gracious enough to let us come to her home. She had some wonderful help to prepare tons of food for all of us. One of those helpers was DeAnne is from Quincy, MI and visits Rozanne on a regular basis. She went to Clare a day early to help and will stay a couple of days to be sure that Rozanne is ok after this big day.

Thanks DeAnne!!!

Rozanne

We began to gather outside to say grace for the food. We thought that we might have to have Steve, Bill, and Reid draw straws to see who would do it.

I loved getting to meet Bob's wife, Nita. I need to sit down with Nita and listen to her stories of her yearly travels as she goes to bowling tournaments. What an interesting life she leads.

Mike and Daryl Althaver are happy to see each other again. Daryl arrived late from Oscoda, MI due to grandkids. (I know how that is.)

"Be sure and get everyone's email address!!!"

"Hey Jill! Do you remember that 'Waffle' comes before 'Walbeck' and that I sat in front of you in school for 12 years??? Huh! Do you? Do you?"

Time for a class photo!

"She is kidding. Right? Now everyone! Behave yourselves and look at the camera!!!"

"That's better!"

"Are we done yet? She keeps pointing that camera in our faces!!!"

Look at these handsome boys!

"Is it time for the girls picture?"

The poor spouses are left with trying to take the pictures.

Smile girls!

Shirley, DeAnne and Steve look at photos.
"Where's the 'delete' button???"

Shirley is happy! She found 'delete' on her camera!!!

Time has flown; stomachs are full; laughs are shared and now it is time to begin the goodbyes. This might take a while.

"It was soooo good to see everyone!"

"Now...which spouse is yours?"

Steve and Jonnie Lee Miller from Cumberland, WI

Bill and Dawn Crawford from Pittsford, MI

Mike and Sandy Crawford from Battle Creek, MI

Reid and Rose Marie Waffle from Burlington, MI

Bob and Nita Main from Marshall, MI

The goodbyes finally made it to the front of the house where the cars were actually parked. With a 3 hour trip back to Mother's in Battle Creek, I headed out. For all I know, they are all still saying goodbye. Maybe Steve is already planning our next reunion. He is the president you know.