So so busy.

I wrote a very boring blog entry and just erased the entire thing. What I wrote wasn't terribly interesting. My last three weeks can pretty much be summed up by a couple words - busy and busy. Camping, Chicago, prayer letter, prayer card, Chicago, meetings, visiting. That's about the extent of my three weeks here in Grand Rapids. It's been good but, as always, I just wish that there was more time. Sayang. That's life. Here's some pictures to keep you amused for a while until unbelievably exciting things happen in my life.

Sunset over Lake Michigan.

Grampa and Gramma walking the pier.

Agh! It's going to hit you!

Grampa and Gramma at sunset.

Gramma making a fry-pie.

Pulling Great-Grampa in the wagon with a little help from Great-Gramma.

Anna and I in Grand Haven.

Most amazing Michigan sunset yet.

Grampa at the beach.

Becca, Yes Thai, and Cashew Nut with Chicken meet again.

We love blue men, especially this one! Tim, you were amazing!

Watching the Whitecaps with Anna and Carla.

Enjoying the pool.

Love the eyebrows in this picture!

A goofy smile.

Cousins and 2nd cousin.

Hooray Real Food with Erica and Carol.

Rachel - that's a perfect bridge!

I'm in Michigan!

It has been a really busy week. I've covered a lot of country this past week.

Saturday - Wrapped up my time in Lynden with a wonderful barbecue with the VW family. Everyone came over to Aaron and Becky's house. We had yummy grilled halibut that my uncle had caught in Alaska. I rode back to Seattle with Uncle Dennis and Aunt Jane. I am so thankful for their support of me, especially when it comes to rides between Seattle and Lynden.
Sunday - I spoke at Bellevue CRC in the morning. Powerpoint ran well. In the evening, we went to one of the Celebration rallies for the "Sea to Sea" bike ride. What an incredible experience! I must say a little bit about it.

The tagline for the "Sea to Sea" bike ride is "Ending the cycle of poverty." There are 220 cyclists who are riding from the Pacific to the Atlantic to raise funds and awareness for poverty initiatives in the US and around the world. When we went to the Celebration rally last Sunday, it was their first. They started the ride the next day. You've got to check out the website (www.seatosea.org) and some of the blogs! My words can't do justice but they have been in my thoughts and prayers this week...and on my wrist.
Monday and Tuesday - I hung out in Seattle with two of my friends from my high school dorm. It was rather low-key and that was perfectly fine with me. Good food, good friends, good conversations.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday - Flew to Minneapolis, rented a car and drove down to Winona, MN, to visit my good good friend from Hope. Amanda works for the Great River Shakespeare Festival during the summer which means no time off while I am here in the US. I had a wonderful time with her! More down time, good coffee, and three nights of Shakespeare. I watched "Taming of the Shrew" twice and "Merchant of Venice" once. The two directors had two very different takes on the shows but they were both so well done! We also made a trip back into Lanesboro, a little town near Winona. Last year when we went there, we camped and kayaked. This year we went for a nice lunch along the river and the most wonderful ice cream known to man - Zanzibar chocolate ice cream.

Saturday - After a little bit of breakfast and some good coffee, I was on my way again. I drove back up to Minneapolis to catch my flight to Grand Rapids. I had a nice conversation with the lady I sat next to on the airplane. She seemed interested in what I am doing and asked many questions. Grampa, Gramma, and Rachel picked me up from the airport. We went up to Starbucks to see Anna then to Mike and Les' house to see all of my little shnookies before they went to bed. I can't believe how big they have all gotten!

Today - I spoke at Covenant CRC. People were so welcoming and asked lots of questions. Everyone came over for family lunch. Much too much food. Hung out with my sisters this evening.

Tomorrow - WE'RE GOING CAMPING! I'm very excited to spend some time with Gramma. We're praying for some seriously good weather and a spot at our favorite campground.

Photo Catch-Up

You can click on any of the pictures to make them bigger.

Levi on the small tractor that all of the cousins used to drive when we were little.

Mount Baker saying a little hello.

Levi liked Uncle Gerrit's salad at Bob's.

We went to the Deming Logging Show! The Deming Logging Show raises money for the "Busted Up Loggers." I didn't make that up.

Sheri, Kevin, and I wait anxiously for the Deming Logging Show to begin.

We had lunch while we waited. Yummy yummy salmon. A baked potato. Coleslaw (yuck!). Bread. Baked beans. A tasty red punch.

These two guys cut down this log while balancing on these little boards!

Starting the Deming Logging Show with a prayer for those who had lost loved ones in the woods, for safety for the upcoming year, and for safety in the competitions.

Back on the balance boards. They have to cut down the logs and try to hit the little orange cones on the ground.

One of the relay races. They had to run across these logs in the water as part of the race. So many people fell in but I didn't get any pictures of them because I was laughing so hard.

They had the two fastest tree climbers. They went up those logs so quickly! And then came back down so fast too!

We had some really good strawberry shortcake too! Kevin liked his so much that he couldn't wait for the photo.

These kids did the log roll. The water looked so cold!

They're doing the "Ma and Pa Saw." The lady in white is 4 months pregnant!

The clown climbed the tall tree and did a little show. His "wife" eventually came and "shot" him out of the tree.

A manly logger chopping the log.

Adults doing the log roll.

The "Hot Saws." They connect massive engines to a saw and can saw through that huge log in less than 2 seconds. Crazy (and loud)!

Hey Mount Baker!

Ashley giving her horse Rusty a pep talk before we started out. She was afraid that he was going to die on the trail.

Uncle Wayne teaching Uncle Gerrit how to properly put a saddle on a horse after he had done it wrong. :)

We were supposed to see some of the islands off the coast and the Pacific but as you can see it was a bit cloudy. We were most definitely in the cloud.

Eating lunch by Lake Lily. My toes felt like they were about to fall off at this point.

On my horse Sugar.

Heading towards home.

Driving back from horseback riding. What you don't see is Uncle Gerrit sitting next to me yet. All of us were in the cab of a pickup. Quite illegal but I felt like I was home again.

Grilling steaks at Berthusen Park with my uncle and aunt's small group.

The kids working on smores.

Congratulations Sheri on getting married!

My friend Sarah and her boys came up to the farm for the day from Seattle. Playing with kittens.

Trying not to kill the kittens.

Sarah helped Ashlee fix the riding lawnmower.

Swinging at the farm.

Checking out the calves.

Family photo.

Later that night, he asked his mom, "Can you just leave me on a farm?"

A boy after my own heart - loving the Woods.

Sunset from the farm.

The view opposite of the sunset.

Chasing Cows

I think my title describes the type of workout that I got last night.

I'm staying on the farm by myself this week while my aunt and uncle and their family are at the Ag (Agriculture) Teacher's Conference. Uncle Gerrit left me with two phone number that I should call in case of a farm emergency. When we were talking about this on Saturday night, I asked the sarcastic question of, "So I should call them if there's cows running out on the road, right?" Not good to joke about such things.

One of my uncle's students is doing chores this week so my responsibilities extend to the two kittens on the porch, the dog, and the flowers...not cows. I came home yesterday afternoon after working on school stuff at Woods, my favorite coffeeshop, to a different pick-up in the driveway. I saw Brent in the cowyard and yelled hello. He asked what I had done to scare the cows. Wasn't sure what he was talking about. He came out to tell me that when he had come to do chores in the morning, the cows in the orchard had broke through 3 fences to get to the hay field. He had to bring in 2 other guys to round them up and put them back in the proper field. They got that done and left. Everything was a-okay.

I had dinner and wasted some time on facebook before my cousin Sheri called and asked me to go for a little walk. As I was walking out the door to go into town, my cousin Aaron calls. We talked about the cows breaking through the fences and he shared his story of his first day of work up here. He had just gotten hired, was supposed to start his first day, was staying by himself on the farm while my grandparents were traveling, walked out the door, and there was a cow in the garden. In his case, all of the cows were loose and he had to round them all up by himself. He was an hour and a half late for his very first day of work.

I went into town to go for a walk with my cousin, came back, called a friend in Indiana, talked for a long while before I saw another pick-up pull up the driveway. Hung up with Hannah, met the guy at the door, and he said, "Ma'am, you've got a beef on the road." Agh! Said thank you very much and started making my emergency phone calls. "Ah, Brent, I've got cows out on the road." "Ah, Rolf, I've got cows out on the road." Voicemail for both. Called my cousin Aaron, "Aaron, can you come and help me? I have cows out on the road." "I'll be there in 20 minutes." I slip on the closest shoes I can find. Flip-flops. Not really good for chasing cows.

As I ran out to the road, an SUV stops. An old man gets out and says, "I'm from the old country [Netherlands] and I don't speak much English but I'll try to help you catch the cow." We chased the cow from the road and onto the yard. I started running around the fenceline to see if I could find where this cow got out - in my flip flops. Avoiding cowpies at all costs. I made it about halfway around the fenceline before the cow leaves the yard and heads down the Trapline to the Hampton. Trapline is busy but the Hampton is even busier. It could be really bad if someone hit the cow. The cow gets spooked by the traffic and tears off into the neighbors field.

At this point, I really do not care about that cow. The old man has gotten back into the SUV and left. I can't do anything with the cow by myself and I'm very concerned that the fence is broken and the rest of the cows are all going to get out and I'm going to have a much bigger problem on my hands. My emergency people start pulling into the driveway. Brent, his brother, and his dad head into the neighbors field to see if they can find the cow. Rolf heads to the train tracks that run behind our farm to see if he can head off the cow. Aaron pulls up and asks how he can help. I go to get a half bucket of grain to see if we can coerce the cow back in with some food. I make my first call to my uncle Gerrit, "So how many head are you supposed to have in the orchard?...7?...I count 12...What does the cow look like?...I don't know - brown." I'm not so good at this whole identifying cows thing. I head back up the Trapline and find Rolf, Brent, Kelby with the cow on the train tracks. They're going to try to get the cow headed back down Trapline and into our yard and hopefully back into the orchard.

Much conversation ensues as we stand there on the train tracks. "Are we sure that this is Gerrit's cow?" The counts are all messed up because of the cows getting out earlier in the day so we have no idea how many cows we're actually supposed to have in that field. The cow gets scared and starts running again - the wrong way. He heads further north and there's no way we can follow him through this field. So we stand on the tracks and start trying to figure out whose field he's in. Calls start to the neighbors. I'm not calling any of them since I have no idea who the neighbors are. On the Nextel beeping, we hear someone say, "Yeah, I'm supposed to have 8 head in this field and I only count 7. Maybe that's my cow. You know, I think that cow got out earlier this week." Great. Thanks.

Too much excitement. My emergency people start heading out. Rolf has to go help pull a calf - I think that's farm-speak for helping a cow give birth. Brent and his family start to head out. Aaron and I kind of stand there. I guess there's nothing else that we can do. Much too much excitement. I think my uncle is starting to second-guess leaving me here by myself. I'm praying for much less excitement for the rest of the week.