Month: February 2013

A Visit from Groszmama Part III

~ Bianca ~ 1 Comment

Early Monday morning, Daddy left to go to World of Concrete in Las Vegas. Horizon Contractors decided to take their guys there this year. We sorely missed him.

We decided to do somethings special when Daddy was gone, so on Tuesday we went to Grandma’s. All of Daddy’s family from around here came for the afternoon we had supper together. We children enjoyed playing Bump outside without sweaters.

On Wednesday, after piano lessons, we went to Janice’s. We got a big stack of new books from her bookstore. This happens about twice in a school year so it was very special. We also got our bunnies. Caster and Trixie, as the bunnies are named, settled into their new home remarkably well. Grandpa built a beautiful,vinyl rabbit hutch for us a few months ago and we are glad to have it occupied.

Our bunnies got so much attention the first few days (in fact they still do), that Mama was fear for their death. But as far as we can tell, they are healthy and well and helped pass a week without Daddy.

Daddy got home at around 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning. I made pancakes for breakfast and we spent a lot of time around the table listening to his stories.

On the 12th of February we went shopping with Groszmama. We spent quite a bit of time in the fabric store and the second-hand store. 🙂

On Thursday, we children stayed home with Groszmama while Mama and Daddy went to Lethbridge. Since we children had stayed home so often and would stay home again the next day, Mama and Daddy brought us a gift. After a few guesses (the last one successful of course) Mama presented the Perplexus Original and the Perplexus Epic. How exciting! We had been wanting one ever since on of our little friends borrowed his Perplexus Rookie to us. Thank you, Isaiah.

By way of explanation, Perplexus created a series of mazes in a ball. There is a small marble in the ball that must be guided along a track, through holes, along tightropes, etc. Visit perplexus.net for more details.

On Friday of that week, the boys, Elfrieda, and I stayed home while the rest went to Calgary. They got Groszmama’s passport and picked up a load of rubber shingles. We went to the library again, which was enjoyable.

On Saturday, we had an Unger breakfast in Grandma and Grandpa’s garage. The breakfast disco was scrumptious and the pancakes with homemade syrup were ‘finger-licken’ good. Ironically, Grandma and Grandpa weren’t even home. We got together to practice a song to sing at the Ordination. My Uncle Adolf was elected minister at Tween Valley Christian Fellowship and the Ordination was on Sunday evening.

Mama and Bianca took Groszmama to Vauxhall right after they finished their breakfast. Mama’s nephew and his wife that live in Vauxhall, took Groszmama the rest of the way. Our cousin and her little boys were flying to Mexico, and Groszmama flew with them.

It was sad to see Groszmama go, knowing that this could very well be the last time we will see her on this earth. Being humans, we cling to the hope that she’s healthy and will live a long time yet, but she is eighty-two, and getting older every day.

DSCF0109

Yet I felt that it was just the right time for her to leave. We want to spend a lot of time with her, and yet, I was glad that we could be together as a family. Just us, and no one else. Through many good times and the bad ones as well, I’ve developed a friendship with my family, that I wouldn’t trade for anything, or anyone, else. We enjoy each other’s company so much. At times, we wish for friends near by. Bianca and I cleaned up our refrigerator this week and it was full. I told Mama that we had too many friends, but the problem is, they all live far away or they’re relatives. Not that we don’t enjoy being with our relatives, we love being with them, especially Janice and Nacho.

Sometimes we feel like Elijah, are we the only ones that believe like we do? Or will everyone leave us eventually like Jesus asked. Not that I doubt God’s leading in our lives. Mama and I were discussing it yesterday, and I told her, “There’s got to be something divine about this. Why else would our house not sell, our dream acreage get sold to someone else, and a pile of unusual circumstances come our way? I think God’s hand is in all of this.” one day we’ll look back and think, “So that’s why God did it the way He did. That’s why we didn’t feel led to do what everyone else did and thought we should do and vice versa.”

Thankful for the Divine Hand that guides, Yesenia.

P.S. I was going to edit this post before I published this, now here I looked and it was posted.

Did God want you to read this without the editing?

A Visit from Groszmama Part II

~ Bianca ~ Leave a comment

After leaving Cheyenne, we headed back on the I-25. It was a sunny day and since it wasn’t very cold, it reminded us of Mexico. Everything was brown and leafless so the ice on the few ponds looked out of place. Actually the only ‘leaflessness’ we saw was in the dried up riverbeds where a few trees manage to survive.

This scenery changed drastically as soon as we hit the I-90. It brought us the first falling snow we had seen. Just after we had transferred to the I-90, we stopped for lunch in Sheridan. Our waitress was the opposite of ‘a meek and quiet spirit’ and we found her a bit difficult. We were almost done eating when Edgar wanted a refill. She promised to bring him one but she didn’t bring it. Just as Edgar was about to repeat his request she remembered. “Oh, I forgot your drink, didn’t I. I’d forget my head if it wasn’t attached to my shoulders.” She gave us some fun. 🙂

Between Sheridan and Billings we had snow which turned into slush when it hit the road. But this didn’t slow us down too much. We reached Great Falls at around nine o’clock in the evening.

After a good night’s rest, we set out to do our monthly shopping. We like to do it in Great Falls once in a while because the pricing is so much better in the States. Since Groszmama can’t walk very fast and Mama wanted to spend time with her, the responsibility of shopping fell on me. I am not used to that so I got very tired that day. Needless to say, I was glad to head home.

Groszmama enjoyed watching the snow that fell on the first day that she was here. Obviously there’s not much snow in Texas.

We children stayed home on Friday when Mama and Daddy took Groszmama to Calgary. They went to make Groszmama’s passport. We enjoyed cleaning the house to surprise Mama and going  to the library.

Waiting for Someone Special

~ Bianca ~ 1 Comment
IMG_1243
Picture taken in Elkwater about 2 months ago.

We children are anxiously waiting for our dear Daddy to come home. He has been working (or trying to work) in Saskatchewan all week. They didn’t have the best of weather or circumstances so they are coming home almost 2 days later than planned. He hopes to be home tomorrow around lunch.

Here Elfrieda and Leandro are polishing Daddy’s shoes. It’s special to do something for someone you miss!

DSCF0116 DSCF0117

DSCF0118

A Visit from Groszmama Part I

~ Bianca ~ 1 Comment

Groszmama: The Low German way of saying, “Grandma”. To us it means an eighty-three year old lady who we highly treasure.

Groszmama is our maternal grandmother. Since she resides in Texas, we don’t get to associate with her very often. (Or at least not often enough for me). But since she needed a passport renewal, she came to visit us. Or actually, we picked her up in Wyoming.

On the 26th of January, we got up at 5:00 a.m to go to Wyoming. Tante Mariche, Tante Neta, our Cousin Beverly, and Groszmama were going to meet us in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

After an hour of getting ready, we left. We drove for about an hour, and then we got to the ‘ABC’ bridge. We call it that because that bridge has exactly 26 little bumps, that jolt the vehicle. Thanks to Mrs. Judy Robertson, we realized that we could say all the ABC’s while going across the bridge. Judy said that the engineer who designed the bridge, must have had children. 🙂

We also had an interesting experience at the Canadian/American border. When Daddy told the officer that there were 9 people in the van, he replied, “That’s a whole bunch of people.” When asked what we wanted to do in the States, Daddy replied that we wanted to get Groszmama. “What, you want to get more people to put in that van?” the officer responded. He also asked us what else we had in the van “besides a whole bunch of people”. Of course, he asked us more questions than that, but we remembered the ones with the characteristic, ‘whole bunch of people’.

We had wonderful weather on the way. Although we were wearing jackets at home, we hardly needed our sweaters when we got out of the van. In fact, we hardly saw snow except for in the scenic byway we took, which was mountainous. We saw quite a few bald eagles, which was a treat for us, since we don’t see very many back home.

Although we had a lot to listen to and read, the I-25 seemed to stretch, literally. I usually enjoy traveling but this time it felt as if the farther we went, the longer the road got. I told Mama that the towns we saw, sure got a lot of attention since there was nothing else to look at. It’s just bare land, a bunch of brush and a highway with a few twists and turns. You even wish for snow, since it’s so dry and grey.

At 9:00 p.m., we finally reached Cheyenne. We thought we would get there at around 7:00 p.m., but, as I said, the I-25 stretched. We were greeted by our two aunts, Beverly, and Groszmama. They had been at the motel since seven o’clock. We visited for about an hour and a half before going to bed. Tante Mariche is a born giver and we received a lot of little gifts from her.

In the morning, we had breakfast together before parting.

To be continued…