Other than being with my peeps in WI, that is! Watching football all afternoon, a short nap after 3rd quarter of the first game, and then another game. Right now it is halftime of a rather slow moving Packer/Cowboy game but earlier it was a nail-biter victory for the Jaguars. Next week I will be watching football in Manitowoc, hopefully with a sister or two, maybe even a niece thrown into the mix. But, today, besides the phone calls that came in, I am watching by myself. Joanne was going to come over to watch the Jags game with me but she had a client flying in to put an offer on a house so she had to do business instead of yell at the TV with me.
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Saturday came and went so quickly, ending with a lovely evening at Suzanne's house. I made a kettle of chicken noodle soup to take out there, plus the movie. Kathy came over here and we rode out together. Since my back was still weary from the vacuuming at church Friday and the kettle was too heavy for even Kathy to carry, I called Travis to come down to get the soup for us. He very nicely put it in my car for us. I love my neighbors! Yesterday morning I woke up to find a Diet Coke ornament hanging on the front door handle, with a note attached. It basically said that now I will not have to worry about running out of my precious Diet Coke....The little can even appears to be icy cold, and I was so touched to get this little token. It had to be one of my neighbors in the building....I have my suspicions!
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Late morning I got a phone call from Tracy, my downstairs nieghbor, asking if she could borrow a can of soda since her hubby accidentally brought home decaf Diet Coke and she needed the "real thing", in more ways than one! Tracy also asked me to serve as "vice-secretary" on the BOD for The Palace and might even change the night the Board meets to allow for me to be in attendance. I just do not want anything to interfere with the important stuff in my weekly or monthly schedule off-site, if you know what I mean. The other day I called Justin to see if I needed a password or anything to get on my WI-FI because my upstairs neighbor, Jessica, as Justin joked, "needed to borrow a cup of Internet" while theirs was being repaired. Justin is so funny but so right! She was able to tap into mine and do her work, patient evaluations for physical therapy, and not miss a beat in between service providers.
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Back to Suzanne's---Janet came after dinner since her plans had changed a bit from the original. She had dinner with her kids first and then came to watch the movie. Suzanne's neighbor, Jenny, with whom I have communicated via Internet in the past, also came over to watch. The kids watched the movie "Up" while the grown-ups watched "Freedom Writers". Kathy and Janet are both teachers so I hoped they would appreciate it from that aspect. It touched me that Janet was so moved by it, and she did not realize it was a true story until the very end, which made it moreso.
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This is a dull game---only three points so far, a field goal by the Packers in the 3rd quarter. At church today, continuing the End Times season of the church year, we sang some new hymns from the Supplement, including one penned by our own Peter Prange. I had wondered what the melody was and snooped around on the Internet until I found one with the same tune. Sure, I know this one! Made singing it today much more confident.
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We also sang "Jerusalem, the Golden" which most of the readers know moves me to tears, just listening to it, much less singing it. After the choir sang the psalm, I moved further up in the church to sit rather in back with the choir. I did this in part to help lead the liturgy singing with this less than familiar Divine Service 1, as well as to be closer to the front for communion time. I did not want to miss singing "Jerusalem...." which did end up being sung when the majority of the choir was in the aisle or at the rail. Since there were few people left behind me and the congregation not all that familiar with the hymn melody, I was singing seemingly alone, so HAD to hold myself together. A couple times I paused a bit to gather myself but had to press on with this hymn. (Justin sang this hymn at Victory two weeks ago and said many people, men and women, were wiping their eyes and noses, with the organist telling me she was among them!!) After worship this morning, Robbie, who played the entire service on the organ, told me he could hear me, that it sounded like I was the only one and was proud of me for hanging in there. Me, too, but that only happened through the Lord. The choir from Victory had invited me to come sing with them next week for Christ the King Sunday as they are having both the organ and piano playing "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name", but, sadly, or joyfully, I will be singing at First German!!! I can hail the power of Jesus' name up there, and look forward to doing so!
