The Last of the Firsts

One year ago today was the day my father, Rev. Arthur E Fritz went home to heaven and joined mama - who had been waiting for him for a mere 101 days. It has been a long and emotional year, needless to say. But, as my sister, Jodi, and I went and laid 6 roses on his grave today (1 rose for each sibling), I said to her, "Jodi, they have been together again for 1 year - today~~! He was SO lonely without her. She had been sick with Alzheimer's for a few years. He took such loving and tender care of her - with the help of us girls; but there is not doubt that HE did the greatest amount of "caring for". He was sick himself, having been diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis. He was on oxygen 24/7. It was really, really hard for him to keep up - and the closer to their deaths they got, the more us girls were involved. But, Daddy was very stubborn and independent. He would NOT let any of us stay with them, insisting he could take care of her just fine.

Right after his death, we knew there would be a lot to be done to settle their Estate, etc. so my sister opened up a Post Office box in his name, so the mail would all come right into town; closer to her house. The last item of the Estate was handled this week and it was time to renew the Post Office box or return the keys. Jodi said she could not do it. (She and I were the two who had keys.) So, I was the appointed one. I walked into the local PO, and by now, my feet led me strait to the mailbox that I used to search for row by row. I put the key in one last time, took out the day's mail and then handed in the keys.
My first thought was, "Oh no, there is nothing left of him."

Then I began to think of his legacy and how he lived on in each of us children and in our children, and on down the line - even to every great-grandchild. He gave us a solid foundation and taught us what loving God and loving each other was all about. We were blessed to have him the 80 years we did; although to all of us, he only seemed about 65ish. His mind was so sharp and he was such a fun, goof-off at times (more on THAT in a post, soon to come... be watching for it~!)

Back to his legacy... He is still talked about all over the small town we live in. The new minister and his wife at dad's church told us they needed to cash a check and went into the local bank. Being from a BIG CITY, they didn't think it would be possible. They told the teller they would be moving up soon and were already pastoring the church that Rev. Arthur Fritz used to pastor. "Oh, Rev. Fritz's church?", they said, "we will cash any check you need cashed." (And they have cashed 2-3 now!) So, as they told me - his legacy continues...

In a post, just last week, I told how his local Campground named their Tabernacle after him: The Fritz Memorial Tabernacle. His legacy continues...

I know this is the end of the all the "firsts" us children will have to go through... but this is NOT the END of Dad's Life - he is just starting to live!!!! One year in Heaven is just a snap of a finger in our time.

Daddy, I love you and will ALWAYS miss you. But, I am SOOO glad you are in Heaven with Mama and most of all, Jesus. I'm glad you are healthy again and Mama knows who you are. Keep waiting for us - one day, by God's grace, WE WILL ALL BE THERE, TOO~~!!

Love, Gail Lynn

Essential Tools

Last week-end I attended my first two-day scrap booking session. Women of all ages and varied church backgrounds made their way to a local House of Worship located in Mt. Pleasant to take part in this phenomenon of creativity. I didn't quite understand, until I walked through the doors, how serious this undertaking was to each lady involved. In order to fully explain, let me liken it to a pregnancy. While some women just take the nine months in stride, having no distractions while "growing their baby", others agonize over every little hiccup the baby in her womb may have.

There are many, many decisions to make. The colors, the embellishments, the title, the journaling - those were the easy decisions. However, it was the equipment; the brands, the elaborateness, wheels or no wheels, drawers, pockets, slots - - just suffice it to say, "a place for everything and everything in its place", that really got my attention.

Knowing there are many varieties of storage bags and caddies for this particular craft, I decided to not worry about owning one until I had a chance to "observe" some in action. Thus, I walked into this activity with a couple of very humble-looking bags and baskets, all loaded with my own store of supplies. What I soon learned was that my bags and baskets, although filled to capacity, were NOTHING compared to some of the "loot" these ladies came armed with. Several of these ladies could have put up an "open for business" sign and probably never missed anything they would have sold. In other words, they brought the store with them~!

My first order of business, after securing a place to sit for the week-end, was to go around and check out each gal's equipment; having her explain the "perks" of her bag to me. I think, after spending hours and hours with these Goddesses of Creativity, I now know what "will and will not" work for me. I have the confidence to shop for the bag and storage container(s) that will become home-base for me as I pare my large tote of photographs down to a selection of photo albums.

One of the things I have learned in life, is that in order to do a job well, one must have the proper tools to do the job. That goes for scrap booking as well as building a house. I did add one small tool to my toolbox during this week-end. What amazes me is that a tool so small and in-expensive can do so many things to help move or re-move pictures, stickers, letters, etc. from where they were to where they need to be! I cannot imagine how I did without it before. I don't even know the proper name of this new tool, but it is sold by Creative Memories for $6.50. It has the look of a Mail Opener on one end and has a "point" at the opposite end. It can move anything that is glued or stuck down in an amazing way.

Now that I am so much more enlightened in the area of scrap booking tools, I am even more excited to make "order out of chaos" with my photos. Let the games begin~~!!

A Call to Serve....

It was officially announced today. First Church of Christ in Mt. Pleasant has a new pastor. Greg Stauffer (and family) originally from the Grand Rapids area, but currently pastoring in Toledo, will be coming to FCOC September 1, 2008.

Mom/Debra, and the children will come a little earlier so that Klay, their only son, can start practicing with the "tennis team" in the middle of August.

Welcome to First Church, Greg and Deb and family~~!! I know, I, for one, am looking forward to having someone permanent in our pulpit again!

Fritz Memorial Tabernacle

Last week, Rev. Nathan Shockley and Leland Shattuck/and wife, Maryln, called several of us siblings and asked if we could come to the a.m. service on Sunday at Remus Camp. They said they planned to do something special in honor of our father. We could not, in our wildest imaginings, think of what they might do. Perhaps a certificate of some sort, etc. When they called Jodi and I to come up front and then told us that in memory of all the time, effort, money, prayer and work our father had put into that campground, they were going to name the tabernacle after him - I just about passed out. Never, never had anything near to that crossed my mind. What a wonderful legacy to those he left behind.

Two Brides

This past Saturday, I had the privilege of attending the weddings of two friends. Because I was literally running from one event to the other, I really didn't have time to take many pictures. However, I did get one picture of each of the brides. Seeing the contrast of the two, made me think of many things this week about being the Bride of Christ.

Each bride was radiant and beautiful. I caught them for a photo at different times during their wedding. One has her bouquet, the other was coming in from outside the hall and her bouquet was in on the bridal table. One has the appearance of being "plainer" than the other, but that is just because of the "angle" I took the picture at. If you had seen the back of that bride, her veil was adorned with beautiful pearls, her dress had rhinestones going all the way down the center seam of the back - which went into a self-train.

All of these thoughts made me think of how UNIQUE each of us are as the Bride of Christ, and yet there is something that makes us all alike... we are all brides~! One of the brides had a big, flowing two-toned bouquet; pinks and whites. She could "do" the big, flowing bouquet, as she is very tall. The other had a stem-wrapped style of very brightly-colored flowers - as was the entire setting for her whole wedding.

Some of us shine more brightly and publicly, while others are more in the background, doing things for the Kingdom that everyone doesn't necessarily "see". We must be who we are and not try to be someone else.

One more thing I found to be interesting, was the fact that both of these brides had a little different version of the same common name. Does that not remind you of the Church of Jesus Christ? (I am referring to Bible-teaching churches of different denominational names.)

We are all preparing to become the bride mentioned in Revelation 21:2 (NLT).

"And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband."

Date Night With "Wall E"

I had the distinct pleasure of a "date" on Friday night. My three grandsons, Owen, Gideon and Silas all went "out" with me~~! We started by having supper at Bob Evans.



As soon as we ate supper, we went to see the movie Wall E. It was such a wonderful movie; one of those that tug on your heartstrings. I was sitting between Silas (age 5) and Gideon (almost 7). Silas was enamoured with Wall E immediately. He kept making precious little comments like, "Oh, Nonnie, I think that's his little house" - or "Oh, Nonnie, he's so cute". When the movie was over, I had told the boys we would go get ice cream and then when we got home, it would be time for them to go right to bed.
So, we headed out of the movie, intent on going to "Doozie's" for ice cream.

As we got near the foyer of the theater, I noticed we were walking right past the large cardboard display of Wall E. He was sitting on top of a large black box so that he was up high enough for everyone to see. I said, "Oh boys, let me take your picture with Wall E. Looking at the size of the box Wall E was on I knew Silas could not just stand by it because he is too small and if I got him in the picture, we would never see Wall E. So I felt the box to see how sturdy it was. Yup, it would hold his 34 pounds. The girl working right there, who took every one's tickets, said to me, "Do whatever you need to do. Wall E is going into the trash tonight, anyway." I said, "NO, you cannot put him in the trash~! How much do you want for him?" She said she would get a manager, so while that was going on, I took a couple of pictures. As you will note, in order to get the boys in it - I didn't get Wall E's head... The manager came and said, "If you take him TONIGHT and pay $20 cash, he is yours." By this time, little Si-guy was jumping up and down and clapping his hands. He was so excited he couldn't contain himself. I had the family van with 3 car seats in it and Wall E was very big. But thanks to a very kind General Manager and his Assistant Manager, they helped me take most of Wall E apart and we folded down some of the van seats and got Wall E in! During this endeavor, I heard Gideon say, "Hey, Owen, we can shoot our dart guns at him!" Silas didn't like that suggestion one bit!

Because Owen was not in his car seat and had only a seat belt on (don't worry - I called his mama and got permission), I had to take the back roads to their house and drive slowly. So, now, "Doozie's" was out! I even had to pray before we started for home because poor Owen was so nervous about being out of his "safety zone" (the car seat) and being a first-born, he is all about following the rules (usually)~! So I prayed for protection on the way home and for Owen to feel peace. It worked! He calmed down and we had a safe trip home. The boys helped get Wall E into their house and we got right back into the van - now with seats opened back up and all car seats in the correct spots.

We drove to downtown Shepherd, stopping at our local icecream shop. We sat outside on benches and ate our ice cream. Silas was not able to eat ALL of his little scoop of ice cream; at least he chose not to. I said, "Are you going to throw this away?" "No", he said, "I'm saving it for Wall E." So I took it to the van with us and put it in the freezer as soon as we got back to the house.

I told the boys to all go get into their p.js. and brush their teeth. Silas could hardly keep on task; he wanted Wall E put back together. I told him I would work on it but didn't know if it would get done b4 they were in bed or not. The next thing I knew, he was in the living room with me, clad in his p.js. and with freshly brushed teeth. He had gotten a flashlight from somewhere and was looking through the openings in Wall E's sides and telling me how far I needed to shove the cardboard pieces that held Wall E's wheels on. About that time, in walked Jeremy and Nichole. They were laughing and Nichole looked at me and said, "Where do you think the boys are going to keep him, mom?" I told her that he could go right out under the pine trees, and they would help shelter him from the weather, etc.

Jeremy began to help me and in just a little bit of time, Wall E was sitting in the middle of the living room and taking up a large part of the "space". Silas, especially, was having a hard time wanting to go to bed because of Wall E being there. Finally, Nichole picked him up and told him it was bedtime and to give Wall E a hug goodnight. He hugged and hugged him and I think even gave him a kiss. Of course, Wall E was so big, Silas stretched his arms as far as they would stretch and they didn't quite make it across the front of Wall E.

Three little boys hugged and kissed me and told me how much fun they had that night (several times) and finally went to bed. As for Wall E, when Silas woke up the next morning, to his delight, daddy had put Wall E in his bedroom! Do you know of any other children who have seen the movie this summer that can say they actually took Wall E home with them???? Happy, happy boys - that is all I can say~~! As for Nonnie, she went home, not just happy, but very excited that she had a GREAT night with three little boys who love her so much and she loves them back even more!

Things to Contemplate...just for fun~!

Can you cry under water?

How important does a person have to be before they are considered ASSASSINATED instead of MURDERED?

Why do you have to "put your two cents in"...but it's only "a penny for your thoughts"? Where's that extra penny going to?

Why does a round pizza come in a square box?

What disease did cured ham actually have?

Why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up, like, every two hours?

Why are you IN a movie, but you're ON TV?

Why is "bra" singular and "panties" plural?

Why do toasters always have a setting that BURNS the toast?

Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They are both dogs~!

If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from?

If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?

Did you ever notice when you blow in a dog's face he gets mad at you, but if you take him for a ride in a car, he sticks his head out the window?

Do the Alphabet Song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?

Why did you just try singing the two songs above????

Now that you have CONTEMPLATED all of these situations, please let me know if you have "answers" to any of them~!!! Have a GREAT day!