It's Time to Play the Music, It's Time to Light the Lights

We're home for Christmas and have officially said our goodbyes to the other long-term volunteers in Crisfield. We will be returning for January and February, but there will be a completely different group of volunteers, so this felt very much like an ending for us. We were thrilled to come home for Christmas, but it was hard to leave our new MDS family as well.

This crew was such a lot of fun. I can't think of anyone that wasn't a good influence on our lives in one way or another. The kids felt like they had lots of Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts and Uncles to help them not miss our Oklahoma family quite so much.

As we all visited and played games one night, we decided that two of the men, Jon and Dan, looked (and acted) like Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets. It was an obvious step to give the rest of us our Muppet designations. I'd like to introduce you, then, to our buddies from the last few weeks.

First we have Statler and Waldorf. Can you see the resemblance? Trust me, they played the part well! Jon built a Jenga set for the kids that was almost taller than they are, then sat back and laughed at their efforts to play it. (He definitely joined in the fun himself, though.) Dan, our token Canadian, kept everyone laughing and always had something to say. Right?

Next is Jenny. She was hard to place, but we settled on Janice. She's cool, friends with everyone, and has a great singing voice. (Jenny's a much better dresser, though) She could also have been Prairie Dawn, but with a lot more personality.

Robert was our project director, and his wife, Sally, the office manager. Robert is Kermit the Frog, He kept us focused on what was next, and led us where we needed to go, but with gentleness and a sense of humor. He was Sam the Eagle for a while, but I just decided he was too nice and smiled too much to stay a patriotic bird.

Sally, though, is definitely not Miss Piggy. She is The Count, because she's a whiz with the finances and books. She is the only person who chose her own Muppet, but I agreed completely with her choice.

Evelyn was our head cook, and she is the one who is working at the stove in this picture. She's the Swedish Chef. She's easy to understand, and certainly not goofy, but she looks Scandinavian and she was always busy cooking, so the choice was clear.

The cook who is facing the camera and threatening to flick something at Mim (my photographer) is Ann. She had to be Big Bird. She's much more clever than the Muppet, but she has long legs, a ready grin, and made every room brighter just by entering.

Ray and Martha, our project coordinators, were only around occasionally. They are the two who have been with the Crisfield project from the beginning, and they oversee transitions, openings, and closings to give a familiar face to the clients and the community.

 Martha, who is always joking and telling funny stories, is Fozzie Bear. She's great fun to have around and always finds something fun for the kids to do, bringing them games and inventing treasure hunts for them.

Ray was almost impossible to place. We debated several options, but I decided to go with The Newsman. He was just trying to get things done and be serious for a minute, but the rest of us were...well...ourselves. He gave up and laughed with us most of the time. (And I'd like to add that we are a fairly competent crew. No exploding chickens in Crisfield, MD this year.)

Aaron and I had a little trouble deciding who we should be until I suddenly had an epiphany. We are Bert and Ernie. It was obvious once I thought about it. He is organized and responsible. I am spontaneous and occasionally ridiculous. (Also, I play the drums.)

Aaron is trying to look like Bert.

Zaya and Mim are Beaker and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew respectively. They brew chaos wherever they go, but make everyone laugh while they're doing it. Zaya is occasionally incomprehensible, and Mim translates for him to the world at large.

There you are. Now you know more about our crew than they probably wanted you to know. I look forward to meeting new faces and friends in 2015, but I know these people will always hold a special place in our hearts.

Jenga, MDS Style

Here's an example of something the MDS long-term crew might find themselves doing on a weekend evening. The short-term crews have gone home, everyone has spent their Saturday catching up on chores or taking a drive to visit some Delmarva tourist sights - and Mr. Jon has put together a gigantic Jenga set.

Everyone gathers around to either play or watch. Mr. Robert gets his camera ready for the moment when the tower will fall, little knowing that it will be almost an hour before that happens.

Eventually we have structural failure at the top of the tower, but since the pieces haven't actually fallen, the game goes on. Luckily, Mim can get a little help from Mr. Dan.

And a chair.

Everyone waits for Jon to find the obvious piece. He found it. Can you?

Zaya doesn't need any help. He's the Jenga ninja, striking quickly then throwing himself backwards on the big green couch.

When the tower finally fell, it was by Mim deciding to grab a piece from the very bottom, choosing spectacle over duration. It was an awesome crash indeed, and she did not break her feet, although that was my fear.

We certainly don't play games all the time, but it's a welcome break from work and the regular cares of the regular days. We will miss this group very much, and although I know we'll be meeting new people when we return in January, this will always be a special memory.

With Thankful Hearts and Bleached Sleeves

This Thanksgiving was very different for our family, but wonderful in its own way. There was no large family dinner and time spent with grandparents, aunts and uncles, but we did get to eat a special meal with the other volunteers and are probably even more thankful for our loved ones back home since we didn't get to see them today.

Aaron went out with his crew just like every day (although they should return a little early). Half of our group this week are Canadian, so this is just Thursday for them.  The groups that came this week knew they were coming over a holiday, but still wanted to do the work they planned for when they came.

The kids and I were able to spend some time with the visiting family of another long term couple. That means there were actually other children here! My two were very excited, even though there was a bit of an age gap. It certainly wasn't as big a difference as they've had with all their other companions over the last six weeks. There were Lego bricks on the floor, hide and seek in the bunk rooms, and video games in the RV.

So Many Legos to Lose, So Little Time

All the ladies decided to deep clean the kitchen, since our evening meal was provided by the Baptist church here in Crisfield (thank you, thank you!), so we spent a good part of the morning scrubbing and sweeping. The kitchen looks great, which makes for happy cooks, which makes, as we all know, for happy campers. Literally.

Yes, We Sanitized That Counter

But what I really want to say about today, and about life in general, is that I'm grateful - for so many things that I cannot list them all, but my Savior, my spouse, my children and my family, as always, have to top the list. We have food to eat, a warm RV, and work set before us, which is a blessing in itself.

Hope everyone else had a great day, and I think the take-away from this post is - I still haven't had to cook a Thanksgiving dinner, and I've been married for 14 years!! Is that success or what?!

Good Times on the Bay

Here are a few of the things we've done over the past couple weeks, as seen in pictures. It was a cold week, with a large group of volunteers. They were a Mennonite crew from Indiana, and a lot of fun to work (and sing) with.

We said goodbye to a few new friends, like Alvin, the previous project director. He was a good man to work with, and we enjoyed getting to make his acquaintance over the last few weeks. Alvin is a friendly fellow, who loves his oyster soup. He never succeeded in getting us to eat it, but he enjoyed it every weekend.

Good-bye, Alvin!

We also went out to visit a very old church in the countryside between Crisfield and Pocomoke. (The nearest Wal-mart). The church was built in the early 1700's, and founded even earlier. This man who was buried here in the grave pictured died in 1748. That's 1748, folks! We're talking 28 years before the American Revolution! The people around here just take that kind of stuff in their stride, but I can't get over how old that is. I know. If we were in Europe it wouldn't be anything special. I don't care. I'm still impressed.

Oldest Grave We've Found

We've continued our endeavors to learn/play more card games, and this week Mim invented her own game called "Queens". I have the instructions and a score sheet all printed up if anyone wants to play a few rounds in their own home. It was actually a pretty fun game, and she succeeded in drafting a few brave, short-term volunteers to play it with us.

Playing a Round of Queens

The work is proceeding at pace. Aaron keeps very busy, being out with the crews all day and doing some things around the camp on the weekends as well. The volunteers worked on several different houses, putting on siding, porches, insulation, caulking, etc. There were several cold days, but they were all real troopers, layering up and going on out to work every day without a peep of complaining.

Aaron in Warmer Times

Now don't misunderstand, I did more than my fair share of complaining about the cold, but the people who worked out in it were made of much tougher stock, apparently. The only fun part of being cold all the time is when I get to put my freezing hands on my kids' warm little necks. They love it, and don't let them tell you otherwise. High pitched squealing and begging are how kids show you they're having fun, right?

A Crisfield Family Speaks

I want to introduce you all to Ms. Michelle. She is one of the clients for MDS here in Crisfield. Her house is really beginning to look like a home, and we've been honored to make her acquaintance over the last few weeks.

Michelle and her husband have been a wonderful blessing and encouragement to the volunteers here at the MDS Camp. Michelle brings us food regularly, and is particularly popular for the Smith Island Cake she brings once every week. Her husband is a waterman, and brought deep fried oysters for the crowd last week as well.

 She is also famous for having the best port-a-potty of any of the job sites. Each site is provided with one of those lovely plastic outhouses for the "convenience" of the workers, but Michelle's is something special. She has really gone the extra mile, putting in sanitizers, nice toilet paper, decorations, a magazine rack...and more. The volunteers warned her that she was now in danger of the workers spending more time in the loo than on the job site.

She has given me permission to re-print her story as it's shared and handed out to volunteers here, so I'll let her talk to you now. From this point on, the voice and pictures belongs to Michelle. (The typos belong to me.)

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     It has been two years since Super Storm Sandy made her appearance. We have lived in Crisfield all our lives and have ridden out all the Hurricanes and Storms that have come our way. We planned to do the same with Sandy. My mother was staying with me and my husband Royce and we were prepared for the storm. Water, candles, flashlights, batterires, food, blankets, magazines, etc...

Ms. Michelle's Mom

      One hour into the storm my husband looks out the door and then at me. "You need to get your Mom out of here." He's a waterman and knows currents and tides and wind. He didn't want to leave our home and I didn't want to leave him and my Mom wouldn't leave without me. And we all know that if Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy: So my Mom and I made the decision to leave and Royce would stay behind as long as he could to protect our home. 

     The water rose so fast, it was too late to drive out. We called 911 for a rescue and were told they would do their best to get us out. We packed a bag of clothes and medicine for my Mom, who was undergoing treatment for cancer. For the first time (and probably the last time!) I was thankful for the many boats in our yard. Afraid to wait any longer for the rescue, Royce pulled a skiff to the front door and loaded us up to take us somewhere safer. 

The Fallen Tree

     The water was rising fast and furious. He pulled us down Cove St. where we saw a National Guard truck headed our way. They quickly loaded us up in the truck. Ten minutes later Royce called on the cell phone and said a large tree had just crashed through the roof on our back deck and had missed him by inches. Sadly, our 19 year old cat was not so fortunate and perished under the tree and roof.

     Suddenly the truck we were in stalled. It was stuck on what might have been a U.S. mailbox. Another truck was called in to help us out. There were several of us on the truck. We were cold, wet from the rain, and impatient to get to higher ground. While we waited, calls for help came in and the Guardsmen left the truck and came back with a little baby, maybe two months old and his mother. Another call for help and they came back with a man with only one leg. Our complaining stopped. We realized how serious this whole situation was.

     Finally another truck arrived. We needed to transfer to that truck and the only way to do that was to swim. My mother was too weak to do this so these wonderful guardsmen carried her to the other truck while I waded chest deep with our bags held above my head. Within an hour our rescue was complete and we were safe at my brother Preston's house in Kingston.

     This memory is bittersweet for me. Four months later my mother passed away from the cancer that caused her to be staying with me - that caused me to seek rescue on a truck that came to Cove St. for that rescue, that got stalled and while stalled heard the cries for help, that rescued a little baby and a man with only one leg. Life puts us on a strange path sometimes. And as my Mom always said, "There is a silver lining in every cloud."

The New House!

     And now the silver lining has touched our lives again. With the assistance of wonderful volunteers from all over, our home is being replaced. We are still overwhelmed with this turn of events. We can never thank you enough.

Staying Busy, Having Fun

Working Together to Raise the Walls

Watch Out, He's Armed

So here's a little proof that we actually do work. Well, Aaron does anyway. I don't have pictures of me on the office computer, which is just as well. Aaron has worked on a deck, framing, drywall and many other things over the last few weeks. His back is still holding up, and I nag him frequently to be extra careful of it, reserving the right to say, "I told you so" if things get rough later. He's enjoying the chance to be active, and has been leading various crews of short-term volunteers.

Mim Found 28 Peanuts!

Extreme Shredding

Meanwhile, Zaya and Mim are doing school work, learning to play board games, helping to shred documents in the office (because that's the fun part) and having little adventures, like when Ms. Martha hid peanuts all over the dining area and gave out prizes for finding the most.

Ms. Michelle Tells Her Story

We've met some great people here, and I thought I'd show you a random sampling of them. One of the homeowners, Ms. Michelle, came and spoke with our group a couple weeks ago. She's been a wonderful person to work for, and is always willing to share her story. She and her mother had to be rescued by the National Guard during Hurricane Sandy, and their story is touching and inspiring, as her mother has since lost her battle with cancer and gone on to be with the Lord. Michelle and her friends, as well as many other clients, regularly bring food out to us. Fruit, Veggies, and delicious Smith Island Cake are delivered at random times throughout the week, which is wonderful.

Art Proves Canadians are Tough

The other long term workers are a lot of fun to work with, and must know something we don't, because they tend to only stay between 3-6 weeks. We're enjoying them while we can, though. Art was one of the first people we got to know here at the MDS site, and he became a great friend, even though we only had two weeks together. Alvin is another who will be leaving soon, but will be sorely missed.

Aaron, Leslie and Alvin

Many other friends have come and gone, and I suppose this is something we'll have to adjust to in the future. For now we're just taking one day at a time, and enjoying the work set before us, and the company that God has put in our path.

So Maybe "Beach" is a Stretch

There is a tiny little beach/park only a minute's walk from our site. The kids saw it on the very first day because we came a little too far and had to turn. Within an hour of our unhooking the trailer, they wanted to walk down and play in the water.

No, They Haven't Seen the Movie

Since I knew it would be one of the last warm days, we did, and we continued to visit the little beach almost every day for the next two weeks. They didn't swim again much, but they've built sand castles, explored, found every shell and broken crab piece, and generally been giddy children who aren't used to sand and water.

On nice days, I hide out at the top of the little pirate ship while the kids play. The sun shines right on the top deck and I can still see them trying relocate sand from the dune to the bay, and then back from the bay to the dune, which seems to be pretty much what they're doing, from my point of view, anyway.

Even though it's fairly close, I won't be letting them go down to the beach alone. There are often a few cars parked nearby, and although I'm sure the occupants are kind and friendly, I'm an overprotective mother, and that's not going to change.

As winter approaches, I'm sure we won't be heading down to our little beach as often, but so far they want to go down about once a day, even when it's cold. On those days we just ride out to "look at the water".