Painting the Scenery

My son and his fiancé purchased a house yesterday. It’s a small 2 story dwelling with a living room, kitchen, 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It’s a great first home for them. Before they move in they intend to paint all the rooms. They divided the choice of colors as a compromise. Each got to chose colors for specific rooms. This is a good first step in building a foundation for their marriage.

Today Paula and I went to help them paint. Heather’s mom was there too already elbow deep in paint. Paula did the edging on the ceilings in the living room and two 2nd floor rooms. This took about 2 hours and involved climbing up and down a small 3-step ladder quite a few times.

I didn’t help anywhere near as much but I did manage to paint a couple of the walls in the living room. As I applied the paint to the walls I couldn’t help but think about the promise that accompanied each stroke.

The paint will add ambience to a home where their marriage will live and grow. This young couple stands at the starting line of the next phase of life. A course the will run together.

I felt like a member of a theater stage crew preparing the scenery for their new life. Tomorrow we’ll go back and continue coating the walls with the colors they’ve chosen. When the painting is finished it will be time to move in their furniture and set up a household. My prayer is that God will bless them and their marriage.

I’d better stop now or else I won’t have anything left to write about when they get married in October. But I do have one last thought about that new house. Right now it may look like it’s empty but after being with Michael & Heather today I can tell you it’s already filled with excitement, anticipation, and hope.

Weekend @ Home

It’s been a couple of days since I’ve made an entry. Not really much of anything on my mind right now so this one will probably be rather short.

As I write this at 8PM at night our son, James, is on a plane on his way to Germany. As explained in my “Reporting for Duty” entry eventually he’ll be on active duty in Iraq. Our other son, Michael, as he usually does spent part of the weekend playing Air Soft war games with his buddies and the rest with his fiancé. That means this weekend my wife and I were empty nesters.

I continued to sort, rearrange and organize the room in our house where we keep the dog crates. My goal when I am finished is to have a place in front of a wall mirror to practice my ventriloquism on a regular basis. I’ve been working on the room for about 2 months. I’m making progress and it’s nearly the way I want it to be.

Paula took on the task of cleaning our computer room to give the cable guy easy access to our cable modem. We are getting internet based phone service on Tuesday because it’s considerably cheaper ($25 a month). Right now saving money is what we’re all about.

Perhaps the most important things I did around the house all weekend (except for making French toast for breakfast on Saturday morning) was mow our front lawn and arrange for someone to come cut and bag our overgrown backyard grass. I would do it myself but I’ve let it get so tall that neither of our mowers can handle it anymore.

If you add in cooking chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner; watching the Stephen King movie “The Mist” on Saturday night; watching parts of two New York Yankees vs. the Cleveland Indians games; making pimento cheese sandwiches for a pot luck dinner and attending a special church meeting Sunday afternoon; taking a 2 hour nap on Saturday afternoon (while watching one of the baseball games) You can see that both of us had a full weekend.

As a matter of fact I’m somewhat exhausted after just typing it. So the weekend @ home is over and it’s back to the routine on Monday. For Paula it means back to work. For me it means working around the house and catching up on the things I didn’t get done this weekend. Oh yeah and looking for a job too.

Reporting For Duty

This morning my wife, Paula, and I took our 19 year old son to the Nashville airport. He went back New Jersey so he can deploy to Iraq next week. My oldest son, Michael; and James; fiancé, Brandi went with us.

James was home on leave for 3 days. We picked him up at the airport on Sunday morning and came back to church. Afterward we went to lunch with Paula’s side of the family at my favorite restaurant in town, Mariah’s.

James spent some time with us while he was here but most of it was with Brandi or some of his high school friends. Last night we sat in our living room and watched 2 movies (“I am Legend” and “Cloverfield”). That’s the way he likes spending time with us these days. It’s fine with me because being together in our living room is my favorite kind of family time.

It took some time for James to mentally distance himself from being a soldier to just being himself again. What I mean by that is this. From the time we picked him up at the airport until he left to spend time with Brandi on Monday afternoon he was all soldier.

All he talked about was the men in his platoon, his training, his future mission in Iraq, and the never ending list of weapons, equipment and tactics (all referred to with either an acronym or abbreviation). My favorite reference was how he talked about the young man whose job it will be to drive the vehicle he’ll be assigned to in the Middle East. He always called him “my driver”. This kind of behavior really wasn’t very surprising considering that he’d done nothing but train 18 hours a day for 3 months.

For a while I was worried that he wouldn’t be able to remove himself from that military mind set enough to enjoy his time with us here back at home. Nevertheless I was convinced that he had finally relaxed as poked and punched and wrestled with his older brother on the couch on Tuesday night and as he ate a pint of Chunky Monkey ice cream in the back seat of our Saturn Vue on the way to the airport. Although he was in his army fatigues he was pretty much the James everyone knows him to be.

Because it took a bit longer to get to the airport than we had anticipated I didn’t actually get to give James a proper “good-bye.” Knowing he would have to get in line for security as quickly as possible I dropped him and everyone else at the Delta airlines check-in desk outside the departure terminal. I tapped him on the knee before he got out, told him to be careful and read his Bible; then I went to park the car.

By the time I got into the airport he had said his “good-byes” to everyone else and headed for the security check. Paula, Michael, and Brandi were ready to head back home.

I regret not getting to see him off inside the airport and that I didn’t actually get to say a prayer for his protection before he left. However there is one thing I’m happy about. Before we left for the house this morning I had everyone pose for pictures with him. I will have these pictures printed and place one somewhere in my house so I will see it everyday.

This will assure that not a day goes by that I don’t ask God to protect and bless him as he serves our country. Our soldier has reported for duty and despite my doubts about his decision to serve I am very proud of him.