(This blog is the seventh in the series about “Countdowns” as I count down to Amanda’s moving out and count down to the Celebration Concert.)

A week from today we get the keys to Amanda’s apartment!  I don’t think we will get her entirely moved that day – considering I am having surgery that morning to remove the tumor on my hand.  But we will start taking things over in the afternoon.  The living room furniture is being delivered the next day.  And we still have many little details to work out.  Like, how and where to wash her hair.

I suppose you need me to explain.

All of you physically able people out there probably wouldn’t have to consider this task.  Just jump in the shower, right?  Or bend over the sink if you are in a hurry.  Amanda sits in a wheelchair all day.  She can’t jump into the shower or bend over a sink.  Every week or so I lift her down into the bathtub for a full soak and wash (her body doesn’t really get that ‘dirty’) but every day she washes her hands, brushes her teeth, washes her face, and we wash her hair for her.  Amanda has real greasy hair and it needs daily washing.  Where do you think we wash her hair?  Ted or I take on the task by lifting Amanda up so that she sits on the kitchen counter next to the sink.  With one hand and arm, we support her while she lies back, face up, and with the other hand we wet, shampoo, and rinse her hair.  When Amanda is in her own apartment, we don’t’ want her helpers to have to do that.  There is the liability of Amanda falling off the counter or her workers hurting their back or shoulders with the lifting (like my own back and shoulders that are already shot).

Some people may say, that’s a strange way to wash her hair.  Why do it like that?  You wash her hair where?  But it’s really been the best solution for us. 

So I found this plastic ‘hair funnel’ thingy today at the beauty supply place.  It Velcro’s around her head like a plastic drape, around the back of her neck, above her ears, and across her forehead.  With Amanda backed up to a sink or the tub and using a telephone water sprayer, she should be able to sit there while her hair is shampooed, with the water running down her back onto the plastic sheeting that funnels the water out – hopefully into the sink or tub.  Can’t wait to see if it works!

Ten days until concert!  I hope my little blogs have helped you become familiar with our songs.  Our seventh song is titled, “Here.”  It is a beautiful Christmas ballad.  When considering the arrival of a king, most people envision rich accommodations:  beautiful and comfortable rooms, the best food, lovely clothes for the attendees, and simply the best of everything.  No one expected the King of Kings to arrive as a baby.  In this song, the lyrics speak of it like this:

Here, where a town makes no room for two strangers, all alone and running out of time.
Here, where a stable door is open to a manger, on a night where angels fill the sky.
The Holiness of heaven has come as one of us, the Hope of all creation drawing near.
The blessed King of ages steps into hist’ry’s pages; our long-awaited Savior has appeared.

God chose to send His Son Jesus to earth to be born and to live like one of us.  I like that.

Some people may say, that’s a strange way for the Savior to be born.  Why do it like that?  Jesus was born where??  But it’s really been the best solution for us.

🙂

Just Laurel

(This blog is the sixth in the series about “Countdowns” as I count down to Amanda’s moving out and count down to the Celebration Concert.)

There are eight days until we get the key to Amanda’s apartment.  I should be packing her stuff but I don’t feel like it.  It’s one of those things you have to be in the mood for – like cleaning the basement.  Oh.  Yeah.  The basement needs cleaning, too.  I haven’t felt in the mood to do that lately, either!  I mentioned cleaning the basement to Ted the other day and he said he thought we could save that for a winter weekend project.  (WE?  I didn’t make the mess in the basement and I never get in the mood to clean it either.  Ok.  Ok.  I better save this for another blog!)

Instead of packing any of Amanda’s stuff, I decided she and I should go visit the Target store.  While shopping with her, the usual happened:  While I am busy looking at something, I hear people talking to Amanda and the words, “Hey I know you” come my way.  Inwardly, I groaned, because this happens all the time.  Someone, no matter where we are, recognizes Amanda.  I am no one – just Amanda’s mom.  People know her from Trenton Schools, or Jo Brighton School, or from who-knows-where.  I walked over to where Amanda and two women were standing and the older woman says, “We just started going to your church and we remember seeing her (pointing to Amanda) last Sunday.”  “Ohhh … “ I exclaim.

It ended up being quite a lovely conversation as I queried our two new friends as to who they were and how they ended up at our church, St. Paul.  They were a mother and grown daughter and they had recently moved nearby, in fact right into the apartments down the way on West Rd.  Right into the same apartment complex that Amanda was moving into!  Coincidence?  And at least this was one time where I was glad that Amanda was so memorable and recognizable.  I learned these women’s names and tried to make friends with them – and told them I’d be looking for them at church!   It also helped for Amanda to meet some people who were going to be her neighbors.

Counting down eleven days to the Celebration concert, we have a ‘first’ with this performance.  Although Celebration has sung several concerts before, this is the first one that includes Christmas music.  The concert begins with praise songs and then segues into Christmas tunes.  Our sixth song is sort of the transitional song called:  “Son of God” with the infamous Michael W. Smith behind part of the words and music.  With a poetic text and soaring melody, the lyrics include:

“Son of God, love divine, timeless One steps into time.
Who could dream of such a thing?  With us now, the King of Kings.
Men and Angels bow and sing, singing Alleluia, alleluia.”

The song suggests how the angels sang as God’s son made his debut in a manger.  But I wonder how many others looked at that baby and said, “Hey I know you.”  As heaven’s perfect plan unfolds and the long-awaited Messiah finally appears – why no one expected Him to be a little baby in a manger in the little town of Bethlehem.  The Angels knew.  The lowly shepherds figured it out.

It’s lovely to run into old friends.  It’s lovely to make new friends.

It kind of feels good to hear, “Hey I know you.”

And finally, something to think about:  Does God look at you and say, “Hey I know you!”

just Laurel

(This blog is the fifth in the series about “Countdowns” as I count down to Amanda’s moving out and count down to the Celebration Concert.)

Ahh – Election Day!

We started the day off with a visit to Amanda’s case worker.  After signing the usual yearly forms, we talked about Amanda’s apartment and staffing.  Amanda spoke very excitedly about her apartment to the case worker.  I hope the enthusiasm continues up to moving day (9 more days) and beyond!

After our meeting, I drove past the place where we must vote with the thought that if it looked too crowded, we’d come back later.  The parking lot was full, but people were not standing in line out the door, so we parked and went in.  Three precincts were all voting in this one building, and there was a line, but the workers were very efficient and I believe we voted and were out of there within fifteen minutes.  Not bad.

I remember my first and only campaign.  Good ‘ole elementary school student council!  I am not even sure what grade I was in – probably 5^th or 6^th – the top two grades at my school.  Sadly, I can’t even remember if I was running for president, vice-president, treasurer, or secretary, but I ran.  If elected, I was clueless as to what my expected duties were.  But it seemed like a cool thing to do – I mean you got to come up with a campaign slogan and make cool signs with your name on them!

My signs and slogan were clunkers.  What could I do with the first name ‘Laurel’ and the last name ‘Rausch??’  Nothing rhymes with either one of them!  They aren’t snappy names like:  “Chasin’ Billy Mason for President” or “Make your vote stick with Mike Wick” or “Don’t tarry vote for Mary.”  My dad suggested the slogan “Vote for the 4 R’s:  Reading, ‘Riting, ‘Rithmatic, and Rausch.”    I didn’t get elected.  I didn’t care!  But I got to make a couple of neat posters!

So how would you like to run for a position where you had to like – no – love everybody?  And then, you had to pay for all their debts.  And sins.  God did that only he didn’t need to get elected – he volunteered for the job!  Unlike some politicians who promise us everything and give us nothing but lies, God gives us the truth and is true to His word.

Just 12 days to the Celebration Concert and here’s song number 5:  “Glorious Day.”  Celebration has sung it before – Billy Putz makes the ladies swoon with his solo!  Susan helps at the duet part!  The refrain goes like this:  “Living He loved me; Dying He saved me; Buried He carried my sins far away; Rising, He justified freely forever; One day He’s coming- O glorious day!”

Oh how I hope that I wake up tomorrow to a glorious day – and my presidential choice is the winner!  😉  I bet you are thinking the same thing.  I hope you have the right guy in mind – like me!  One of those candidates won’t be singing in the morning.

O glorious day.

just Laurel

(This blog is the fourth in the series about “Countdowns” as I count down to Amanda’s moving out and count down to the Celebration Concert.)

Ten days until Amanda gets into her apartment!  Yesterday, we bought a living room full of furniture for her.  It’s going to be nice.  And, yes, we got the HUGE television with the deal.  Amanda was telling everyone at church about it and the guys all decided that the next super bowl party was going to be at her apartment!  Or maybe even the next Lions game!  Her only rule is BYOB – and you have to take the extra home, she says.  Darn if I could only get her to like a little bit of rum in her favorite diet Coke, she’d be a little bit more fun to party with!

Thirteen days until concert

A friend of mine was telling me the other day about a late night drive she made.  It was late at night, obviously dark out, and she was on unfamiliar roads.  The freeway exits and entrances were confusing her.  At one point, driving in the right lane, she suddenly saw the yellow edge line practically disappear as she saw herself slipping quickly off the side and smack into the sound barrier wall that was on this particular part of the freeway.  In an (angels watching over me) instant, she turned the steering wheel to the left and avoided a collision right into that wall.

You’ve heard people talk about that “life changing moment” or what happened “In the blink of an eye”.  It’s that unexpected occurrence that suddenly became a turning point in your life, perhaps it was a crossroads, or a life or death instant.

Song number four in the Celebration concert is titled, “In a Moment.”  It is a song about the second coming of Christ from gifted songwriter Rebecca St. James.  It is a glorious song!  Love this lyric:  “All the broken, they’re no longer broken as they dance before Him, a radiant debut.  Gloria, gloria!  Hear the sound of heaven ring.”

Now I’m not going to get into a Revelation discussion and debate the idea of a Rapture.  Just about every church has its own theology about Jesus’s second coming.  Some believe.  Some don’t.  Just the very idea, alone, of Christ returning would definitely be a thrilling, life changing moment!

It’s a great song.  You’re going to love it!

Christ’s return to this earth – that’s going to be great too!

Amanda moving out – a turning point in her life!  Maybe not in a moment – but in ten days!

just Laurel

 

(This blog is the third in the series about “Countdowns” as I count down to Amanda’s moving out and count down to the Celebration Concert.)

I missed y’all yesterday!  After working a long eight hours at the surgical center, then coming home to some housework that had to be done with a headache on top of it, I was unable to blog.  I missed writing to you!  After our dinner, we were able to at least get out of the house for a Friday night furniture shopping trip.  Amanda needs some furniture for her apartment living room.  Getting the keys to her apartment in twelve days!  We went to a furniture store that sells living room sets – like where you can get a sofa, loveseat, some tables and lamps, and they even throw in a big TV!  We were pretty certain we had found the perfect set.  Ted was ready to buy – he’s always quick to make the purchase.  Me?  I am the one who likes to “think about it.”  We will probably go back tomorrow after church to make our purchase.  The nice part is they will hold the furniture until we want it delivered.  Less for us to move!  I am a little bothered that Amanda’s TV will be bigger than ours!  Really.  That’s just not right.  That’s backwards.  But, it comes with the “package.”  <sigh>

Speaking of backwards:  Did you know that Ted used to be dyslexic?  Well, I guess he still is – like it doesn’t go away, does it?  He still gets things backwards and out of order sometimes.  He’ll tell you that his mom is a member of “DAM” – Mother’s Against Dyslexia.  Get it?

And speaking of backwards – I was taking a good look today at the prefix “un.”  What a powerful little two letter prefix!  It is defined as:  a prefix freely used in English to form verbs expressing a reversal of some action or state – or more simply put it means “not.”  Those two letters can make something NOT.  You thought you were wise?  Suddenly, you are not so smart and UNwise.  Were the new blue jeans flattering?  NOT.  They were UNflattering.  That bacon cheeseburger you just ate?  NOT healthy – or UNhealthy.

Fifteen days to go until the concert.  And song number three is titled:  Unredeemed.  Ahh.   Now you can see where my mind is!  The song is based on Luke 1:68:  Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and redeemed His people.  The writer of the song took an interesting approach and in the lyrics spoke of trials in life:  cruel words, loneliness, burning tears, wasted years – and how we sometimes may be UNfulfilled, or UNrestored, but when “anything that’s shattered is laid before the Lord, just watch and see, it will not be UNredeemed!”  Clever.  It’s a nice little song.  Using the great and powerful “UN” it reminds us that God will always show His amazing mercy and redeem us when we seek redemption.  There is nothing that He can NOT redeem – so keep in mind that God will be sure to help you when you think your situation is UNredeemable – it will NOT be UNredeemed!

We rehearsed tonight – 6pm to 9:30pm.  Right now we are struggling a little with our song lyrics being unmemorized – eh  – that’s not a word is it?  Well, it should be.  Okay – our lyrics are not memorized yet.  Now I am excited to be turning the clocks back tonight – How exciting to get an extra hour of sleep!  That way, tomorrow, I will be untired.  Oops – not a word again.  Tomorrow I will not be tired .

You gotta love the English language.  Not.

Just Laurel

I am in ‘countdown’ mode right now.  I am counting down 2 things.  One countdown is the two weeks from tomorrow until we get the keys for Amanda’s apartment.  That means moving day is coming!  The other countdown is the seventeen days until the Celebration concert that I will be singing in.  For the next two weeks I shall keep you informed of the activities of the approaching moving day.  I also thought I’d daily introduce you to the songs that are being sung at the concert.  If you are attending the concert, it will help you become familiar with what you will hear.  If you can’t attend, I believe the blog will still be interesting to you!

Look how short my hair is!  And it looks RED!  Yup – it’s an old photo but we all look pretty much the same!

Amanda’s new apartment is not even two miles away.  It is a cute little one bedroom apartment.  She will have staffing to help her and keep her company during the day.  It will be nice to drop by whenever we want.  We get the keys on Thursday the 15^th.  However, I have surgery that morning on the tumor on my hand!  So, we will probably take stuff over that afternoon, but move her gradually through-out the weekend.

And it won’t be a dull weekend!  Sunday the 18^th is the Concert!

Do you know how many names there are for God?  There are whole books written about some of the names:  Adonai, El Shadday, Abba, and Yahweh.  It is fascinating to study.  Some of the names that originate back from biblical times were even too sacred to say out loud!  Have you wondered why there are so many names?  I believe it is because God is so many different things to all of us.  He is Love, Life, Savior, Peace, Comforter, and the Alpha and Omega.  Just to name a few.  In the first song of the concert, we sing about God being “Worthy” and “the Lamb” and “Holy” as well as “Almighty” and “King of kings.”  It is a marvelous opening song titled:  Revelation Song based on Revelation 5:12  In a loud voice they sang:  “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

Now I have one personal quirky thing about this song.  I’ve blogged about it before.  If you remember, be sure to comment on it, below!  If you don’t already know, I’m not telling!

So – not much packing going on yet for Amanda.  But there is a lot of singing going on around here.  Thirteen songs to memorize!

just Laurel

Oh what a night.  Last night.  Or you could call it this morning since this saga began at one in the morning.

I usually go to bed before Ted.  When Ted came to bed around one in the morning, he tossed and turned and was quickly back out of bed.  He woke me of course.  He was pacing and making big sighing noises.  Then he turned on the hall light.

“What’s the matter?” I asked him.

“My left arm hurts so bad I can’t sleep.  It hurts so bad I had to get out of bed.”  he replied.

Oh dear.  Now EVERYONE knows that if you have pain radiating down your left arm (like Ted did) and even tingly fingers (he did) that you might be having a heart attack.  I suggested we go to an urgent care but then quickly thought no – better go to a hospital in case this is the real thing.

Ted didn’t really want to go to the hospital.  But he knew I was worried.  And then, in typical Ted fashion, he had to start asking “Why does pain in your arm mean a heart attack?”  He wanted to know the connection.  He wanted the facts.  He was ready to debate and discuss.  Oh dear Lord.  So there I was at one in the morning, firing up my laptop to google ‘pain in left arm related to heart attacks.”  The computer wasn’t waking up fast enough, and Ted continued to pace in pain and I decided – let’s just GO!  The heck with the facts.

And then that silly man grabs his car keys like HE’S going to drive!  Um, “No, Ted,” I told him. “I am driving.  What if you have a heart attack on the drive?  What if they keep you and I need to drive home??”  Poor Teddy begrudgingly gave in.

Within an hour after being at the ER, it was clear that Ted’s vital signs and EKG were all normal.  No emergency here.  But they wanted to do some heart tests so they were going to keep him to give him a stress test.  If he passed that, he could go home.  The tests would give us the facts.

They don’t do stress tests at that time of night.  <sigh>  Ted was going to have to camp out in the ER until morning.  His arm pain had subsided, so I knew he’d be snoring in no time.  I went home to try to get some sleep.  Ted thought for sure his loud snoring would earn him a ticket out of there.

I got home about 4:30 in the morning and went to bed.

When I got up at 7am, I found Amanda up already.  She didn’t know her dad was at the hospital.  She had slept through the whole thing!

I calmly told Amanda about her dad’s left arm pain and how they were going to check out his heart.  I asked her to please not post it all over Facebook and to just relax.  Her dad was fine.

A little while later Amanda came to me and asked,  “What did you wear to the Emergency Room?”  Huh?  What a strange question.  I thought for a few seconds and reallzed that Amanda had heard us tell the story many times of a frantic trip to the emergency room when she was a baby.   It was late at night and we were already in our bedclothes.

Now WHO would rush to the emergency room in only their bathrobe???

I assured Amanda that we weren’t in a panic.  The fact was, we had time to put on our regular clothes.  Bless her heart.

After a shower and breakfast, I told Amanda that I was going back to the hospital to check on dad and that I would call her and/or be back home later.  She said she was okay and as I got ready to leave, she got on her phone with a friend.  As I was getting ready to head out the door, I heard her say:

“My dad had to go to the hospital last night.  His WHOLE LEFT SIDE was hurting him.”

“Nooooo!”  I cried to Amanda.  “No, no, no.  It was just his left ARM not his WHOLE LEFT SIDE!!”

Oh my – how that girl can turn everything into a drama.  I had to correct her and help her get the facts straight.

Long story short, Ted check out just fine and passed all his heart tests with flying colors.  The ER finally let him go home at about two in the afternoon,  His left arm pain?  No one knows for sure.  We’ll just have to deal with it if it happens again.

But here’s what I know for sure:

The fact is:
Pain in your left shoulder and arm can definitely be a sign of a heart attack.
The fact is:
The doctor and nurses told me I did the right thing, bringing Ted to the hospital to get checked out – I mean, you never know.
The fact is:
Now that Ted’s heart has been tested, we can rest assure that his old ticker is working just fine.
The fact is:
As we are all nervous about Amanda soon adjusting to life in her own apartment and having to be asleep on her own during the night, why …. “Amanda, we left you by yourself at one in the morning and you were JUST FINE sleeping by yourself until after 4am.  You can do this Amanda!  You were all by yourself sleeping and you did just fine!”

And that’s a fact!

just Laurel

If you have been reading my posts, you know that my friend Clara and I go to the gym two to three mornings a week.  We are usually with the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday crowd.  Those are the days that the track traffic goes counter-clockwise.  When we started going to the gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we were thrown off-balance by the track traffic being directed clockwise! It felt wrong to go the other way.  We have had quite a few consecutive clockwise days that we didn’t even notice the direction we were walking this morning.  Neither of us mentioned it.  I guess we have gotten used to the change of direction.

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.  Lao Tzu

My youngest daughter had problems changing directions when she was a baby.  That little stinker would set her sights on some piece of trouble and head towards it like a choo choo train.  She never heard my “No, no, no’s.”  She stayed firm on her tracks and headed in the direction of her goal.  It was like moving a train onto another alternative set of tracks to steer that baby away from trouble.  She stubbornly fought any attempts of mine to change her direction. 

I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.  Jimmy Dean

We are still trying to pull together the loose ends so that we can get Amanda moved out to her own apartment.  There are some issues that are giving me some negative vibes.  Oh – we will still get her moved out.  I haven’t chickened out!   But I think we might have to go in a different direction.  We are at one of those proverbial forked roads and I am struggling with which direction to choose.  I need to decide quickly.  I’ve been asking God for a little help and a little direction.

You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.  Jim Rohn

Well, I will sleep on it and hope for enlightenment tomorrow.  It makes me dizzy to try to weigh the pros and cons of the two directions I am considering.  It’s times like these that I wish they had post-it-notes in heaven so God could leave me a note to wake up to!  Or He could mapquest it for me … I mean … seriously …. how do I get ready for this trip of moving Amanda out if I don’t know for certain what road to take?  I need some direction here!

If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the  corridor in the other direction.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

just Laurel