Changed Plans

Somebody told me the other day that we make plans and God laughs. I don't know if that is true, but I know His plans for us are not necessarily our plans for us. His plans are the right ones though I am sure. I had planned to get a lot of stuff accomplished this summer while I am off work from school. This particular week I was going to take my daughter and go to Colorado to see my stepson and my aunt and my daughter's college friend and some of my cousins. We had our itinerary planned. We were going to spend some time in the Denver and Ft. Collins and then Colorado Springs areas. But my knee which has bothered me for years got a lot worse this spring and even worse this summer. When I was using a cane and not sleeping at night, I went to the family doctor who sent me to an orthopedics doctor who scheduled me for knee surgery this week. There went my trip to Colorado. But the funny thing is my stepson is in California, my aunt doesn't feel up to having company, the college friend is also not in Colorado, and my daughter who was going with me, got a job and started to work yesterday. So much for my plans. Once again God has proven that He is in control. I am to be at the hospital at 5:30AM tomorrow and to have surgery at 7. The doctor is going in with a scope first and if it looks as bad on scope as it did on xray he will go ahead and do a total knee replacement while I am still under. If he fixes it with the scope, I will be home tomorrow night. If I have a total knee replacement, which he told me to plan on, I will be in the hospital 3-5 days, probably until Sunday or Monday. I will then walk with a walker for 4 weeks and do daily therapy and not drive for weeks. I don't know what will happen when it is time for me to go back to work at school. I will cross that bridge when I come to it. In the meantime, I am just looking forward to having it over and hopefully less pain. I will also have to have the other knee replaced at some point and don't know how soon. The surgeon said the right one looks worse on xray but since the left one hurts worse, we will do it first. So if the operating crew gets mixed up and do the wrong knee, so be it, they both need it. Please keep me in your prayers and I will update you when I am home again. Thanks, Linda

How long is an hour?

Have you ever had a week that seemed like it was about a month long? I remember once the boys asked for the millionth time how long until we got somewhere and Dale said an hour. Then they asked how long is an hour. Dale replied it depends; riding in a car hour and watching cartoons hour are not the same length of time. He had a point. Some hours and some days and some weeks are simply much longer than others no matter what the clock or the calendar says. This was one of those LONG weeks.

A week ago today we got up on a rainy stormy day and took our own sweet time getting ready and then headed south. We stopped to shop a bit and grabbed a bite to eat and headed on down to my hometown. We went to two cemeteries and left our flowers and recalled memories and then we went on our way. But then on the spur of the moment, I called my mom's brother and sister-in-law and asked if they wanted to ride with me to my parents' and siblings' graves. They did, so I swung by and picked them up. I'd never seen their house before and it is a beautiful home. Then we went on across town to the cemetery and met my sister there and decorated my parents' and brother's and sister's graves. Then we went to two other cemeteries and my aunt and uncle showed me where my great-grandparents and an uncle and great aunt and great uncle are buried. While driving and standing in cemeteries we had the nicest visit and shared more memories. It was a fun afternoon. Then I took them home and headed on to my niece's graduation party. Don't tell my niece, but the cemetery visits were more fun than her party for me because I really didn't know anybody to visit with at the party. My sister and I and my daughter and a friend from my childhood and her two kids sat at a table together and visited and that was nice, but most of the guests were my sister-in-law's relatives or friends of their family that I didn't know. Of course my relatives were too busy hosting the get-together to visit with us, and that was to be expected. The food was good as usual. Then we headed home to northern Iowa and got home about 11:30pm. Sunday was church and etc. Monday my daughter and I went to the Mennonite produce auction to get some plants. The place was PACKED and lots of Minnesota vehicles there. You couldn't even get close enough to see what they were selling so we gave up and went to Riceville for lunch and then to a Mennonite grocery store for a few things and then to a Mennonite greenhouse where I spent my gift certificate on lots of pretty flowers. Then we came home and planted all of them.

Tuesday was my husband's cardiology appointment. Now he's been having trouble breathing for a month or so and has been to the doctor 3 times. The first two times they just ordered him another inhaler and another pill. So a week ago Thursday I went with him to a different doctor and insisted they look at the bigger picture. Found out his heart was once again out of rhythm like it was 6 years ago and way too fast again. So put him on Lasix and told us to see the cardiologist on Tuesday. So I went with him on Tuesday. The cardiologist said he needed to be admitted to Rochester that afternoon and I should drive him there. My husband, bless his stubborn soul, said he couldn't go right then because he has corn to haul to town and beans to plant and couldn't we try another med and wait a week or two. So the cardiologist said they'd do an echocardiogram and he'd talk to our medical doctor and go from there. I went on back to work. About 2:45, the cardiologist called me and said based on the echo, my husband needed to go to Rochester immediately and not by car, but by ambulance. So I went back to the local hospital and stayed with him until the ambulance carted him away at 4:00. Then I came home and packed his things and some for myself and my daughter and I drove to Rochester. His heart rate was about 190 beats per minute and just fluttering not moving blood like it should. So they put him on IV meds to slow it down and strengthen it and to drain off fluids. We sat there until after 10pm then my daughter and I went and got a motel room just 1/2 block from the hospital. We were told to be back at the hospital between 7:30 and 8am to talk to the doctors. So we were there by 8, without even a morning coffee, and we sat and waited until 10:30 for the doctors to come through. Then we sat and waited until 1:00 for them to come and take him away to shock his heart back into rhythm (cardioversion). Then we sat and waited until 3:30 for them to bring him back and tell us if it had worked. They said it did, and that he could go home after he had eaten and walked and seen the doctors. So we sat and waited until almost 8pm for the doctors to come and discharge him. Why does sitting and waiting make you more tired than actual physical labor? On the way home we stopped for supper and we discussed who was most capable of driving home. My daughter was so tired she was nearly in tears. I was so tired I was stumbling over my own feet, and Dale couldn't drive because he was still coming out of the general anesthetic. So I drove. My principal had arranged a sub for me for Thursday as well as Wed. so she told me to stay home and rest up. But I went in about 11:30 and my daughter came and helped me and we did paperwork while the sub did nursing work. Friday I was back to a normal work day.

Now we are back to a regular Saturday again. I've done laundry and planted another flower. I slept late this morning and then took my shower. But looking back at this past week, it seems like a month ago that we went to Ottumwa for the day. For only working 1 full day and two partial days, it seems like it was a very long week. Today we have a couple more graduation parties to go to. Dale's still not breathing really well and he sees the cardiologist and has more tests this coming Tuesday. I hope he continues to get better. Monday and Tuesday are my last days with kids at school, then I have Wed. and Thurs. for meetings and paperwork and we are off for the summer! YEAH!!! I have a house to clean and books to read and gardening to do and emails to catch up and so on. But I hope the weeks of summer break last as long as this past week did.

How long was your week?

51st birthday and Kansas City trip

Ok, I know, I should apologize again for getting behind on my blogging. But I won’t. It has been and still is a very very busy time of year at school and I will get back to it soon. At least I will try to get back to it more often. I won’t promise anything. Only 8 more days of school with kids there and 2 days of cleaning up and finishing up and then it is summer break! I am so looking forward to that. It seems sometimes the staff are more excited than the kids are. Unfortunately some of the kids don’t have good home lives to go home to and the thought of being stuck at home for over 2 months without their friends or any way to get away from it, makes them depressed. But then there are others who have been counting down the days almost since Christmas break was over. I do have mixed feelings because I have so much work to get done yet at school, and yet I want to catch up on my sleep and my reading and my housework too.

So what news can I catch you up on? April 30^th I left on a charter bus for Kansas City, MO with the high school band and vocal groups. We headed out at 5:30 AM on Thursday and got back at 5:30 PM on Sunday. I was asked to go as the nurse/chaperone, but I was also asked to pay my own way. I didn’t think that sounded quite fair since the other school employees going were going for free. So after six weeks of dickering, the superintendent agreed to pay for my trip. ½ hour later the vocal teacher told him I didn’t need the school’s money that another chaperone had cancelled and her trip was paid so I could use hers. Then 10 minutes later the band teacher asked if my daughter could go as a replacement chaperone and use the free trip. Communication? Hello? So the way it shook out, I went for free and I had to pay $200 for my daughter to go along as a chaperone. Everybody told me I was dumb to do that, but oh well, it is over and done with now. However, I don’t intend to do this again. I am getting too old I guess. The two new music teachers are younger than my sons and have a different philosophy than I have regarding behavior and respect and discipline.

Anyway, we did do some fun things in Kansas City. We visited the Truman Presidential Museum and Library. President Truman and his wife and daughter and grandson are all buried there in the garden. I learned a lot about his presidency and the different decisions he made that changed history. Did you know he was the president that dropped the atomic bomb on Japan? Did you know that he was the president who accepted Israel as a nation? It was very much a learning experience. If you’re ever in Independence, MO, I’d recommend a visit there. Then we went to a very elite upscale shopping region and my cousin Matthew and his wife Amber met my daughter and I at 810 Zone for supper. It was a sports bar and the food was awesome! We had Bleu Balls, an appetizer of little cordon bleu nuggets. Then we had BBQ for supper. Cassandra had pulled pork and I had beef brisket and they were both wonderful. Then she and I had hall duty until 3AM. That was my 51^st birthday.

The next day, Friday, May 1^st, we went to the Jazz Museum and the NLB Baseball Museum. They were both fascinating. In the jazz museum we saw a saxophone played by Charlie “The Bird” Parker, and one played by President Clinton. We also saw Louie Armstrong’s trumpet. That was a thrill as I LOVE jazz! The museum is on the corner of 18^th and Vine in downtown KC where jazz was born. We spent our afternoon at band and vocal clinics at the University of Missouri-KC. Then we went to Arthur Bryant’s original BBQ place for supper of chicken, ribs and ham with French fries and coleslaw and baked beans. Then we went back to 18^th and Vine and heard real jazz music performed in the Blue Room.

On Saturday, May 2^nd, we spent the day at Worlds of Fun. I rode the train and the carousel. Aren’t I brave? Then we had a picnic lunch and headed back to the hotel to get ready for going out to the dinner theater. We had a wonderful gourmet meal and then laughed through Jamie Farr’s production Don’t Dress for Dinner.

That night we had hall duty until 2AM. Sunday morning, May 3^rd, we got up and checked out of our motel and the buses headed back to Iowa. We stopped at Jordan Creek Mall in West Des Moines and then headed on home. It was mostly a pretty fun trip. I saw a lot of things I’d never find if I were to go there on my own probably. I’ll have to see if I can download some photos of our trip. My daughter downloaded them to facebook, but it is so windy our internet isn’t working right now anyway. So maybe I can add them later. Of course I can’t post this to my blog until the internet is back up either. Well, that’s my KC trip and my birthday.

As you can see, the internet is up and the photos are now included. Linda

Springtime!

This is an old picture of Cassandra and her bottle lamb Tiny.

Gotta use green for SPRINGTIME! It's spring! Now, we don't have the gorgeous flowers that my cousin Vanessa has in Arkansas. In fact, the trees are just budding out and we had snow just a couple weeks ago. But hey, it was 70 degrees today! The robins are taking over the world! Well, in my yard anyway. We have 3 new baby kitties in the calf hut outside, and a lot of really fat waddling mama cats to go. The other night nobody had brought in the mail, so about 8pm, after the rain had stopped, I walked out to the road to get it. The smell of fresh rain and nightcrawlers was definitely a Spring smell. Yesterday my husband started planting corn. He was one tired "pup" when he came in last night. He got rather out of shape over the winter and it is wearing him out carrying and emptying all those heavy bags of seed corn into the planter. They are talking more rain this weekend, so the rush is on to get the seed into the ground first.

Several years ago, I wrote a poem and called it Springtime In The Country. I'll share it with you.

Springtime In The Country by Linda Tiemessen

The sun is brightly shining,
The sky is blue and clear.
The birds are sweetly singing,
Butterflies flutter near.
A kite is soaring brightly
Dancing in the breeze.
Newborn lambs come skipping
To rub against my knees.
Mother duck quacks sharply
As her parade she guides.
Both the cow and mama cat
Have babies at their sides.
The new colt in the pasture
Kicks up its heels in joy.
The neighbors down the road
Have a brand new baby boy.
It's Springtime in the country;
The fields are newly sown.
I'm surrounded by more treasures
Than most have ever known.

Happy Easter!

Here are my Aunt Letha, Uncle Clarence, and Uncle Bob Schaffner on 4-12-09.


This year's Easter weekend was different than any I can remember in recent history. Usually, we get up, see what the Easter bunny left, get ready and go to our church and then go to my inlaws for dinner. But this year, my aunt and uncle had their 50th wedding anniversary on Easter Sunday afternoon clear at the other end of the state from where I live. My daughter and I bowed out of singing in the choir at church, and left my husband home so he could play for the church service and we headed south on Saturday afternoon. At my old home town we had reserved a room at the Super 8, and we met up with my brother and his family and my sister and we went out for supper and ice cream at old family "haunts". Then we went to my brother's and visited until late. On Sunday morning we got up and met my brother and his family and my sister at my brother's church. There, I was so blessed to see a couple of my childhood friends and have a reunion of sorts with them. After church we all went on to the next town where we had reservations for dinner. Then on to the reunion which was very close to the Missouri border. There we got to see all three of my dad's remaining siblings. Every time I see them, I am so blessed by it, but can't help but wonder how many more years I will have them. I love them so much. In my dad's family there were 5 males and 2 females and dad was the oldest of the seven. Our family was a close Christian family and it is always bittersweet to get together and remember the ones who are waiting for us in Heaven. After the anniversary, my daughter and I drove to where I went to church camp for 10 years of my childhood and where I went to church rally for more years than that. It is so weird, how things change. It looked nothing like I remembered, and I am glad there were signs to follow as the road didn't even seem familiar to me. Then we spent the night in a motel in the heart of an Amish settlement and the next morning even though it was raining we got up and went to some Amish shops before heading home. I had a wonderful time with my family and spending time alone with my daughter and reminiscing. But I missed my husband and I missed my home church and our familiar traditions.

Wherever you were and whomever you were with, I hope you were able to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior. He has truly made all things new! He is risen indeed!

Change Your Life

Saturday, my daughter and I were blessed to be able to attend a women's conference called Change Your Life. The guest speaker was Becky Tirabassi. Have any of you ever seen this woman? She's no bigger than a minute and flits all over the stage like a hummingbird. I figured out quickly that's how that woman stays so tiny too. Wow! And she has so much enthusiasm and energy and motivation to share! It was truly a blessing to spend a morning being inspired by her.

The conference was entitled Change Your Life and I wasn't really sure what all to expect. Was she going to tell us how to lose weight? Was she going to finally give me the key to getting organized? Was she going to impart the secrets of finding more time and energy? Her bio said she is an author, life coach, and speaker who lives and teaches a balanced approach to the physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental aspects of life. If there is anything I need, it is a balanced life. You'd think as much time as I spend running in my hamster wheel, I'd be a whole lot thinner than I am.

So what did she teach us? She taught us about prayer. For the last 25 years, Becky has spent an hour a day, every day, praying and reading her Bible. She said an aerobics class lasted an hour so she thought well, why not spend an hour a day with the Lord too. Here are some notes I took from her 3 sessions of talks.

*Written prayer is pen and paper on a focal point and involves more of the senses.
*I will does not equal I will try.
*Make an appointment with the King and keep it!
*The devil's greatest tool is to keep the believer from praying.
*Prayer is a habit that has to be formed.
*Plan your appointment one day ahead. It does not necessarily have to be the same time every day. Write down your start time. If you're interrupted, put down the time, so you can finish your hour later in the day.
*God talks to us through His living Word the Bible.
*When you open the Word of God, you don't talk back.
*All Scripture is not about me, but all Scripture is for me.
*Read the Bible regularly to know God's viewpoint.
*You will hear from God through His Son Jesus.
*God talks through His Holy Spirit; counselor, teacher, and truth-teller.
*You're as full of the Holy Spirit as you want to be.
*Prayerlessness is a recipe for disaster.
*Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth.
*He waits to be wanted.
*Prayer is a conversation between two people who love each other.
*Tell God, "I can't. You can. I'll let you.".
*It takes 90 days to build a habit.
*Prayer brings emotion to the surface.

Becky had four parts to prayer that spelled out PART.
P=Praise A=Admit R=Request T=Thanksgiving
Her time in reading Scripture included:
L=Listening M=Message N=New Testament O=Old Testament P=Proverbs
Every day she reads a chapter of the New Testament and one of the Old Testament and one of Proverbs, so that she reads through the whole Bible in one year. She listens to what it has to say and looks for the message for her in that passage. She journals her prayers and the things God tells her to do. She has pages of prayer requests so that she doesn't forget anyone she promised to pray for, and also she can record the answers to those prayers as they come. She journals her sins as she admits them to God and looks for patterns in repeat sins.

Out of the 450 women at this conference, I am estimating at least half of them stood and made a commitment to pray an hour a day for the rest of their lives. I am thinking if a woman prays an hour a day every day for the rest of her life, it will not only change her life in every way, but will change her family and her church and her community. I wish you all could have come to this conference too. I hope my notes give you something to think about. If you get a chance to go hear Becky Tirabassi at a Women of Faith Conference or anywhere else, do it. Check out her website www.changeyourlifedaily.com . But most important of all, spend some daily time talking to God and listening to His answers. Let the romance begin!

What is Marriage?

Yesterday was a sad day for Iowa, at least in my opinion. You see, at about 9AM yesterday, the Iowa Supreme Court handed down a decision that marriage in Iowa cannot be limited to one man and one woman. Therefore, without a popular vote, or a new law enacted by an elected legislature, but simply by a unanimous vote of the appointed justices, Iowa became only the third state of the 50 United States to be a gay marriage state. Yes, our little conservative state in the heart of the heartland ranks right down there, even lower than New York and California who have not legalized gay marriage yet. There are other states who have approved "domestic partnerships" or "civil unions" but only 3 states have redefined marriage. To say I have a problem with that is putting it mildly. Am I homophobic? No, I'm not, in fact I have good friends who are homosexual. Do I think that people in homosexual relationships are unequal to heterosexuals or are worse sinners than I am? No, I don't. I personally don't think homosexuals are going to go to Hell any faster than people who steal or lie or commit adultery are. I think homosexuals in committed relationships deserve equal time off work for the death of a loved one as I would. However, I do not believe that redefining marriage to include same sex relationships is appropriate or wise or morally or ethically or legally right. I believe in a democratic society, laws should not be changed by a select small group of appointed justices, but only by the elected law-making branch of the government. I believe redefining a word does not really change it at all. Gay used to mean happy. Calling a homosexual gay does not necessarily make them happier than they were before. So why redefine it? Just because our marriage licenses will now be reprinted so they no longer say bride and groom, that doesn't mean I'm no longer a bride and my husband is no longer my groom. I had bridesmaids and he had groomsmen and they can't change that. But what will it be now? When my daughter marries, will I not be the mother of the bride? Some men are bent toward having sex with multiple partners. Does that mean we can redefine marriage so that they can have multiple wives legally and expect their employers to cover all 15 wives and 75 children on the group health insurance?

Last week our preacher said that less than 1/2 of evangelical Christians believe there is an absolute truth, an absolute of right and wrong. That most believe that truth and right changes based on the circumstances. Well, get your stones ready to stone me, but guess what? I believe there is a right and there is a wrong. I believe God is truth and Satan is the father of lies. I believe that the truth is always true and right is always right even if you redefine it or rule against it. I believe even if you legalize homosexual unions and adultery and even if everyone cheats on their income tax and every lawyer lies, that it is still sin and still wrong and God will still judge. In the Bible, God uses marriage as a picture of His love for His church. We are the "bride of Christ". So no matter how you redefine it, God created marriage and He chose the only definition that truly matters.