Wisconsin Part V - Opa & Oma

My mother grew up in Wisconsin...hence our frequent trips there. She travelled to the bald prairie of Southern Saskatchewan in 1973 to go to Bible school at Briercrest in Caronport and met my Dad there. Her family stayed in Wisconsin and when her and my Dad married in 1975 she moved to Saskatoon and they been living there ever since. She is a dual citizen and we have always enjoyed heading down to visit our family there. My Opa and Oma are very special and we have so many great memories of visiting them. This last time was no different. These pics were taken the night before we left to travel back home to Nipawin. They took the four of us out to eat for supper at B.J. Clancy's (a traditional favourite with my family and trip to WI would not be the same without it) and then we went back to their apartment for dessert. My Opa can dish up a sweet bowl of ice cream...he is where I get my sweet tooth from. Dessert is not just his specialty. Opa is great in the kitchen. Oma loves to knit, spend time with the ladies in their building and watch all things WI...from the college team sports to the NFL! They both swim at the YMCA three times a week. They are generous, loving and full of love for their Saviour.

I found it harder to say goodbye to them this time because the older I get the more I realize that life is fragile. When I was younger I thought they would be around forever. Just before we left that night I sat down with Opa on the couch while the others where in the TV room watching a game. We don't typically have this one on one time together but he made use of it well. I can't remember his exact words but he reminded me that he is getting older and that is body is not always working like he'd want. BUT, he said, he's ready to go be with Jesus whenever the Lord calls him home. He told me that we never know when we will see someone for the last time. He said all of this with a joy and peace and I didn't feel like it was a downer. He was stating facts and I think, preparing me. I left there that evening with a lot on my mind and it made a lot more sense a couple months later when my mom called and told me that Opa had been diagnosed with bone cancer. Just like my Grandpa Skeldon, Opa's prostate cancer had turned to a much more aggressive type of cancer.



So far he is doing well but I know what it was like for Grandpa Skeldon and when it started getting bad it was very painful and it did not take very long. We continue to pray for Opa but it brings me great hope to know that he is willing to accept whatever God has for him. It is an attitude that I want to also have whether I am staring down a tough decision, a bad day with the kids, or something more life altering like cancer.



We have been blessed to be taught, whether directly or indirectly, by the example of faithful grandparents. Thank you Jesus for these gifts!

Wisconsin Part IV...TobyMac

Wow...was it August the last time I got on here? I can almost hear an audible "YES" from a few of my friends that are way more faithful bloggers than myself. I thought I would finally carry on with my posts about our trip to wisconsin. And then after that I may be rethinking my commitment (or lack thereof) to the world of blogging. I've been trying to scale down my responsiblities and although I don't get on here very much...okay, almost never, it is a source of guilt for me and something that I might just give up entirely. We'll see.

The other day we were listening to TobyMac and Liam decided he would write a letter to him because we went to his concert this summer. That's what reminded me that I should finish this series of posts.



Back in July while in Wisconsin, Linds and I got to enjoy a TobyMac concert together as a part of the Lifest weekend. Liam was a little unsure when we surprised him with the tickets but was very excited when he was told he could stay up way past his bedtime AND that Libby was going to be there! To give you a little background...a couple years ago Liam started listening to TobyMac's first solo CD. It was one that we had bought well before he was born but it struck a chord with him. He now has all his CDs and would want the new Christmas one too if he knew about it.



The concert was very loud and it got pretty late but there was some groovy and some excitement on Liam's part. During the first two songs he was trying to take it all in and then he yelled out, "hey mom, he's singing number 3!!" We had a lot of fun and the cool part was that we were able to sit in the VIP section because of a friend of my Aunt's who helps organize the festival. We ony had three VIP lanyards so my aunt and uncle sat farther back...and had better hearing the next day! :) When we were waiting for the concert to start we noticed on the corner of our section there was a little stage. Later we found out what it was for. TobyMac and two others from the band came running to our section and sang a few songs from there. About four rows ahead of us! Liam and Linds got to stand right at the base of the mini stage. Liam and Linds thought that was great.


All in all it was a great concert. So thankful that we could have an opportunity like this with Liam.

Wisconsin Part III...Logan & Play Ball!

My cousin Logan is going into his fourth year at UW Madison (Electrical Engineering) so early one morning we packed up the vehicles and drove the two hours to Madison to see his place and to spend some time on the campus. Before getting to the campus we stopped at the Capitol Building and snooped around there for a while. Even though I am petrified of heights I did eventually get up enough courage to go out on the viewing deck. I could have taken some pictures from there to post here but that would have meant letting go of my death grip on the railing. :)




From there we walked to a Irish Pub and had a delicious lunch. The rest of the afternoon was filled with checking out the new student commons area (complete with bowling alley, climbing wall and ice cream shoppe with ice cream made right there on campus with Wisconsin milk), walking around the engineering campus and visiting Logan's digs (which incidentally is right across the street from Camp Randall Stadium where the Wisconsin Badgers play).




From there we drove to Milwaukee to take in a Brewers baseball game. Now normally, I'm not one for baseball. I actually find it too slow. The guy comes up to the plate. Warms up a bit. Adjusts. Pitcher spits, looks over at the first base runner, spits, adjusts and then winds up. The pitch is in there. Now repeat. By the time they're done that, a football team (in other years, my Riders...we're still hoping for big things this season) could have marched down the field, scored a touchdown and a two point conversion! But, I must say that watching baseball live is MUCH better. We had excellent seats (thanks Logan!). We were first row in the right field, just above the opposing team's bullpen, which in this case was the Cincinnati Reds. This was great because when things were slowing down in the game we could watch the pitchers warm up. Amazing how fast they can huck those things. Liam tried most of the game to get the pitcher in the bullpen to throw him a ball. Finally, the catcher did and then a security guard gave him on later too. 5 years old, one game and two ML baseballs. Not bad considering Linds has gone to many with his family and was never able to get one. The Brewers won the game and we had a great time. One of the highlights for me...besides sitting with my family to do all of this...was watching the famed sausage race! Scratch that off my bucket list! Next up, a game at Camp Randall?

Wisconsin Part II...The Bombs Bursting in Air...

Next up in the Wisconsin festivities were fireworks and the July 4th celebration. Now, I am a dual citizen...Canadian and US...and while I cheer madly for Canada at the Olympics, appreciate the way we do healthcare and if I had to choose would probably stay in Canada, I do have to say (among many other wonderful things) that the States put us Canadians to shame at their country's birthday party. This year was no different and the firework presentations were awesome.

These pictures were taken July 4 although we did get to see fireworks the day before and enjoy time with friends from the EFree church my family attends there. For July 4th we headed back to Riverside park along Wisconsin Avenue and had great seats for the show. Something different this year...a young woman say the national anthem before the show began and there was patriot music playing during.

The kids loved the fireworks except it was pretty late for them. At one point Liam said, "this is really neat but I want to be in my bed right now!" Thankfully he was able to wake up a bit on the ride home so that he could enjoy some mini fireworks courtesy of my aunt and uncle on their drive way. No, they don't stop celebrating at the park. I think Canadians would be surprised to see so many shops selling ONLY fireworks. Sometimes I think Canadians could take some patriot lessons from the our neighbours to the south.

Wisconsin - Part One

I just sat down to do some blogging about our trip to Wisconsin and I realized there was really no way to do it all in one post. We just had too much fun and did too many things. Actually it was a great mix of fun and relaxation (thanks to the Witters and Reiss').

The first couple days we were able to spend with Logan (my cousin, home from Madison where he is studying Electrical Engineering). We went to the famous Riverside Park in Neenah. Probably not that famous but it is special to our family. My Oma used to play in the park as a child with her siblings as they lived very close. Wisconsin Avenue borders one side of the park and that's where the wonderfully old and massive houses are. People at the turn of the 20th century moved from New York to start paper mills in the Fox Valley area and my great grandmother worked for one of these families as a cook and my great grandfather as the chauffeur. I just learned on this trip that my Oma (my grandmother) worked as an upstairs maid when she was young. The house is now owned by a single doctor but he is trying to sell it. I would LOVE to go through it to see what it's like but I'm sure they don't just plop an open house sign on it every Sunday. :) Anyway, across from these houses is the park and they've got a great play structure. We had lunch one day and let the kids play for a while. Another day the guys had some fun in the backyard with the sprinkler.




Logan just hanging out with Libby and watching the fountain. He is GREAT with the kids and it was so special that he came home for that weekend.


Liam "driving" the group of us around on the moon rover. As you can tell the ride was a bit scary!

A Clean Heart

This past year Liam and I have been spending the first part of Libby's nap working on something called Kids Of Integrity. It's something we found online from Focus on the Family that provides lesson plans complete with objection lessons, Bible stories and practical ways to apply the truths in everyday life here at home. We started doing it because we could have sent Liam to school this last fall but decided to hold him back. Part of the reason was so that he could be emotionally more mature and we thought learning about Kindness, Patience, Respect (to name a few of the 18 subjects they offer), would help him and us.

Our first one was about Kindness and we spent a couple weeks working through it. Halfway through there was a object lesson about God being able to make our hearts clean. Liam really connected with the lesson and had lots of questions for the next couple days. During that time he told us that he would like to ask God to make his heart clean but wanted to wait a bit. We didn't want to push him so we just kept praying. A few weeks later we were visiting our dear friends (Craig & Jen) in Regina and on the Sunday morning I happened to think of it and asked him if he had thought any more about asking God to make his heart clean. He looked at me and said, "yeah, mom, I did it last night in my sleeping bag!" We were so thrilled and later shared the story with our church family here in Nipawin. Our Pastor asked if Liam would mind coming up to the front some Sunday and so back in March Pastor Bill presented Liam with a special book and prayed for him and us. God is good!

Hanging with Nanny & Pappy

One of the greatest parts of Nanny and Pappy coming to our house for a weekend is the time they get to spend with Liam and Libby. Here we have Nanny playing a game in the living room with Libby and Pappy playing hockey with Liam in the hallway...oh, I mean "the rink". Our hallway lights are now known as the "hockey lights". So, does that make me the Zamboni driver when I move through there with the vacuum? When my parents are here we have to arm wrestle the kids to be able to spend time with my mom and dad. I personally love the look on my dad's face as he tries desperately to keep Liam's shot out of the net.

Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

For those of you from Nipawin Moms 'n Tots, this is my submission for this month's recipe exchange. For the rest of you who have come to my blog in the past, here's a yummy recipe and a shout out that I am still here. We've had a busy school year here at NBC and graduation was just yesterday. Time to get to some of those things that I have put on the shelf...like blogging. If it makes you great bloggers feel better, I haven't written in our family journal since February 12! Anyway...here's the recipe.

This recipe makes enough for two 9x13 pans. At 3:00 or 4:00 pm measure 9 1/2 cups flour into a large bowl and set aside. (Using 4 cups whole wheat flour and 5 1/2 cups white flour works too.)

Blend the following together in a blender or food processor:
3 cups warm water
1 pkg (2 1/4 tsp) dry traditional yeast
2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter

Pour the blender ingredients into the flour and mix well. Cover and set aside.

At 10:00 pm that night mix together:
1 cup whipping cream
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup butter

Place this caramel mixture in two 9 x 13 or 11 x 13 baking pans. Roll dough out into rectangle. Spread with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins (if desired). Roll dough into tube and cut off thin slices. Usually about 3/4" - 1" in thickness. Place slices into prepared baking pans on top of caramel mixture.

Cover with towel and place in a draft free area. I put them in the oven with the light on. Let rise until morning. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Enjoy!

Makes approximately 40 rolls of heavenly goodness! :)

Mr. & Mrs. Brad Skeldon

On September 25, 10 years and two days after Lindsay and I were married, we celebrated with Brad & Rachel on their wedding day. It was a beautiful sunny day and the day had some signature Brad & Rachel moments. Instead of lighting a unity candle or pouring sand into a vase, they poured water into a vase and made iced tea! They added some choreography to their recessional song and for their kiss they stepped back from each other, and leaned in for a little peck. Brad was handsome in his suit and Rachel beautiful in her dress. It was a great day and I'm so proud of them.

It's been quite the summer

So many fun things that I haven't had enough time to blog about all of it! Brad just got married yesterday and tomorrow the kids and I are off to Wisconsin with my parents for two weeks. As summer has turned into fall the busyness has increased. I plan to get back to blogging soon but in the meantime I thought I would blog a couple pics of the kids from summer while I'm on my parents computer with high speed! Oh bliss. It's sooooo fast. ;)

Camping

In July we headed down to Ogema, SK for a family camping trip and a family reunion. We camped for five nights and it went SO MUCH better than I had envisioned with two kids! We did quite a bit of camping when I was a kid but I do remember that it usually rained on a Skeldon camping trip. In fact, to this day when I smell rain, I usually have the urge to go camping! Surprisingly it only rained a bit on the first day. What was more detrimental was the wind storm that blew in while we were setting up our brand new tent (only been tested in our backyard once) and caused one of the poles to snap and rip the sleeve that it was going through. Not so good but duct tape came to the rescue...thank you Red Green for teaching us it's the handy man's secret weapon. :) The rest of the week was sunny and hot. A nice switch for the cold and rainy weather we had been having up in Nipawin. We had fun cooking outside, playing at the park, driving around the countryside, swatting only 4 mosquitoes, and playing games in the evenings. Besides the tent incident, we had a really great time.

She's got style

Okay, is that what it is? Style? I think the phrase we are looking for here is "style of her own." Coming from someone who doesn't necessarily follows the styles, I think she's doing fine. She's creative and has a special love for shoes. In these pictures she is sporting Liam's footwear and is coming up with new ways to carry a purse. The last two pictures show her wearing Liam's pj shirt in a whole new way...as a shrug sweater. We laugh at her now but maybe she will be designing her own line of clothes some day!

Summer

Here are some shots from the last few weeks. Hope you are all enjoying the warmer days where you are.