The Servant's Quarters

Back Online and Catching Up

You've got to give me credit for making a go of it. I ALMOST made it through my entire vacation with an entry a day. But not quite. A couple of things ultimately led to my drop off. Of course, going on vacation with six kids is never peaceful and relaxing. I would have enjoyed spending my days lazing around the house reading and resting. That would have provided many opportunities to update my blog. But the kids needed things to keep them amused, and that kept Rita and me pretty busy.

Now that I'm back, I'll be writing here more often. I have some things left over from vacation that I want to blog about over the next few days. In the meantime, here's some quick catch up on the important stuff -

1) Vacation Wrap Up - After my last entry, things wound down appropriately. We did make a return visit to Mackinac (where I managed to foil an Al-Qaida plot - more on that later), ate more ice cream, and spent a fun albeit very expensive afternoon at Avalanche Bay water park at Boyne Mountain. We finished up with a delicious and very enjoyable dinner at Zehnder's in Frankenmuth. Another reason that I'll be able to blog every day next vacation is that it's only going to last one week. I made up my mind that with a big family, two weeks is just too long to be in northern Michigan. The first week is great, with lots of fun activities and closeknit family time. The second week is filled with complaints about missing friends and homesickness. We usually peter out about mid-week (which we did this year) and head home early.

2) Mom's Health - Please stay in prayer for Mom. I think she is doing very well with the chemo, but it is still discouraging how much it is taking out of her. Nausea is not a major problem, thank God. Exhaustion is. And we are very concerned about the progression of the effects that the chemo is having. After Round 1, she had about 3 shaky days, 3 really bad days, and two weeks of good days. After Round 2, she about 1.5 weeks of really bad days. She's just coming out of that now. The doctor says that her reaction to the chemo will continue to deteriorate over time, along with her overall condition. (Right now, the only thing that you'd notice about her is that she is bald. Other than that, she looks normal.) Also, my Dad is continuing to struggle with his own health issues.

The next 6 months are going to be very rough indeed.

3) The Way Ford-Ward - As most of you doubtless know, the condition of my employer, the Ford Motor Company, has deteriorated alarmingly over the past couple of years. The latest and to date the largest blow came last Friday when Mark Fields, president of The Americas division of Fords, announced the third version of the Way Forward Plan, which is designed to restore the company to prominence and profitability. The updated plan calls for the offering of buyouts to our entire hourly workforce and the elimination of 10,000 salaried positions by the end of the first quarter 2007. What does this mean to me? I have absolutely no idea at this point. My job is in danger. Everyone's is. Very few people around feel that there's no way they are are the chopping block. If I am going to be offered a buyout, I won't know about it until mid-December. If I'm going to be "involuntarily separated," I won't know about that until next year. I give the company a lot of credit for firing people as a last resort. But it is still very frustrating and stressful.

In the meantime, we're told to stay focused and put everything we have into our jobs. That's hard to do when morale is so low that you have to be careful not to step in it.

It was inevitable. Today was our first real "down day." We were so tuckered out that we decided to have a day with nothing planned. Rita did take the kids for some swimming off of the public dock while I did some shopping in Prudenville. Other than that, we played games and watched TV.

Since things were so quiet, Rita decided to crash on some overdue haircuts for the kids. I finally twisted her arm and got her to so something that she's refused to do got a LONG time - give me a haircut. I've asked her time and again since she started cutting the kids' hair if she'd take over doing mine. I think she was pretty nervous about what I'd look like when she was done. However, we're in vacation, and that will give me a few days to recover if she really screws it up. But surprisingly, I turned out okay. Probably every bit as good as I do when someone from Fantastic Sam's cuts it for me. It took a long time, but that was mainly because Rita had no experience dealing with bald spots.

So, I looooook mahhhh-velous.

Well, kind of.

I mean, for me, I look pretty good.

All right. I'm the same old homely guy but with short hair. Just don't tell Rita. She loves all those makeover shows, and I think she's feeling kind of proud of the new me.

# posted by Tim @ 11:14 PM Click to View/Leave Comment (0 Comments)

Today, we did end up going to Mackinaw City. We got there in the early afternoon, so there wasn't enough time to do much.

We started out my climbing to the top is the Mackinaw City Lighthouse. That was really interesting and provided an outstanding view of the Straits and the Mackinac Bridge. However, our time spent at the top of the lighthouse was cut short then we spotted a lightning strike out over Lake Huron. For obvious reasons, we weren't allowed in the tower with bolts of lightning falling from the sky.

From there, we went to Historic Mill Creek to walk some of the most beautiful nature trails in the area. It was more stunning than we remembered it, but because it was so late in the day, we didn't have nearly enough time to explore as much as we wanted to before the park closed.

We spent the rest of the day shopping with dinner at Audie's and a stop at Marshall's for a heaping helping of fudge. We landed back at Higgins pretty late, but we've all but decided that another journey to the Straits would be a good thing.

# posted by Tim @ 11:34 PM Click to View/Leave Comment (0 Comments)

Today, we visited Call of the Wild, Michigan's greatest collection of ferocious, stuffed animals. The kids always enjoy this place. They love browsing through he gift shop, and the museum offers a freebie scavenger hunt with a prize for everyone who successfully completes it. (This time, it was a smiley face sticker. I mean, come on. At least give the kids something that's not a totally embarrassing piece of junk.) We all had a fun time.

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for this joint. It was always one of those places that I begged my parents to take me, but we never had time. We were always traveling through to someplace else. Finally, they did end up taking me. Man, I remember feeling so excited! This was going to be incredible! I couldn't wait to see all of those wild animals. I was a bit confused to see that the animals were all sorta dead. Oh well. I stayed the course. After all, this was Call of the freakin' Wild. The living, ferocious animals had to be later on in the tour. My anxiety began to rise as I continued through the museum and every creature I saw was completely lifeless. Finally, I hit the end of the tour, and another childhood dream came to a bitter end. I left wiser, finally understanding the meaning of "tourist trap." Since then, I've rechristened the place, "Call of the Mild". In the years since, I've overcome my bitterness enough to appreciate Call of the Wild for what it is.

Unfortunately, we had to cut today's visit short as Aidan needed some pull-up attention, and we had forgotten to bring along the diaper bag. So, we returned to the lake house for fresh pants, a steak dinner, and a visit to Nibbles for some ice cream.

Tomorrow, we're either taking a day trip to Mackinac or a visit to Traverse City and the nearby Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes.

# posted by Tim @ 11:34 PM Click to View/Leave Comment (0 Comments)

Today was pretty quiet, as far as I'm concerned. The kids said that they wanted to go canoing, and my bum shoulder pretty much eliminated me from participating. So, the four eldest children and my lovely wife opted for 1.5 miles of lazy river cruising while Christopher, Aidan, and I signed on for lunch at McDonald's and shopping at Wal-Mart for supplies. The rest of the day was pretty laid back as well. We all finally felt very tuckered out from several days of late bedtimes, early rising and keeping fairly busy.

No pictures today. Goodnight all.

# posted by Tim @ 11:12 PM Click to View/Leave Comment (0 Comments)

Every day that I'm at Higgins Lake, Walker and I get up before dawn and hike about three miles at nearby Marl Lake. There's a place on the trail that provides a great view of the sun coming up over Marl, so I try to time it so that we arrive right about the time the sun peeks up over trees across the water. It's usually a time of quiet and solitude that I enjoy immensely. This morning, however, we had a little change of program. Isaac decided that he wanted to join us.

We had a nice walk, and I pleased to report that the young man did have a little trouble at times keeping up with his old Dad. Also, I almost always see some animals while I'm hiking. Some days when I'm really blessed, I see some deer. But today, there was no danger of that. (Anyone who knows Isaac understands what a chatterbox he is.)

Later in the day, we played a game of Putt Putt Golf. If I hadn't been involved myself, I probably would have thought it was pretty funny. I was the official score keeper and small child assistant. Rita played and also tried to keep things in order. Things held together for about two holes. After what, the older kids decided to play through while the younger ones lagged behind. Suddenly, I had kids from all over the course screaming numbers at me. Finally, I just started making stuff up. I didn't have the heart to tell them at the end that their scores were almost completely fictious.

Later, we walked by Higgins Lake, where the kids waded and threw rocks, got ice cream, and finished the day with games of Parcheesi and Trivial Pursuit.

Fun stuff.

# posted by Tim @ 7:00 PM Click to View/Leave Comment (0 Comments)

So far, nothing too exciting. But things are about to take off.

Catching up on our little northern Michigan adventure - Friday evening, we kicked off our two week vacation visiting Miller's Bar in Dearborn for a meal of the greatest cheeseburgers on Earth. We were not disappointed. Delicious! Afterwards, we spent the evening packing.

Saturday morning found us at Golden Corral for our annual first breakfast of vacation. All you can eat goodness. Assorted commitments took us well into the afternoon. It was almost 3:00 PM before we got on the road. Considering the fact that we had to stop at practically every toilet between Wayne and Higgins Lake (Traveling with a potty training 3 year old is bliss.), we made pretty good time.

Today was pretty much an organization day. We went to church at Soul's Harbor Worship Center in Roscommon. We heard a very inspiring sermon on the importance of storing the Word of God in our hearts. A special treat was seeing the pastor's daughter again for the first time since she sold us our dog, Walker, two years ago. She was delighted to hear how Walker has prospered in our household. She still owns Walker's mother, Chelsea, and we were surprised to learn how many of Walker's behaviors apparently came directly from his mother. His emotional disposition, his clinginess, his intelligence, and even his unwillingness to eat in front of others seem to be strikingly similar to Chelsea. It was a real thrill to talk to her and compare notes.

Later, we made a grocery run and capped off the day by roasting hot dogs and brats over a campfire.

Here are some pictures from the day's festivities -

# posted by Tim @ 11:02 PM Click to View/Leave Comment (0 Comments)

Overdue Updates

A couple of updates that I should have posted days ago but never got around to -

Olivia did get a part in one of the choruses of <em>Aladdin</em>. She's in the "Magical Creation" chorus. If my thinking is right, these are the kids who pop out of the wings whenever Genie creates something and it has to appear. For example, if Aladdin wishes for a rabid squirrel to appear and attack Jafar, one of these kids pops out dressed as foaming at the mouth squirrel. If I'm lucky this will mean that I will have to spend tons of money buying a lot of costumes for Liv. (That was sarcastic.)

Mom definitely took a hit from the chemo about 3 days after she received it. Intense upset stomach. At first, she was being optimistic and hoping that she had actually caught a flu bug. Her oncologist told her that this was not the case. The chemo drugs were definitely the cause. Also, her blood tests show that the affects of the drugs haven't really hit her yet. Her white cell count is still pretty normal. Translation: Things are going to get worse. Not surprising, but not what we had hoped for either.

Please continuing praying for God to sustain her, brothers and sisters. She will get through this, but it's going to be a long road.

Tomorrow, my family leaves on a two week holiday in Northern Michigan. But the blogging fun just keeps on going! I am planning on posting an update everyday from God's country in the north. Maybe even with pictures from my digital camera. Tune in to see if I'm dedicated enough to do this or if I just blow it off.

Isn't the suspense killing you?????