In Memoriam Part II

Calvin playing one last time in "Rickdaddy's beater car." Calvin's favorite place to be of late is playing in a car. I really think he could play there all day. The driver's side panel is missing pieces from some more of Rick's repairs, although you can't see it very well in this picture.

The Beater-Car's "good" side. What a beaut. This was taken just moments before being driven to its death. We had always envisioned driving it till it died, but instead Rick drove it away to it's death.

Weighing in at 3400 lbs....3400 pounds of high-quality American craftmanship. High-quality craftmanship that is worth $238 for scrap metal. After 271,000 miles and the shape it was in, this was more than we could've sold it for! HA!

Notice how brilliantly luminous the view is in front of the car. That's what faithful cars see moments before they arrive in glory in Car Heaven. A certain peace comes from this breathtaking shot...peace knowing that the Beater Buick finished its race well. Kind of makes you want to cry, doesn't it?

Calvin doesn't realize Rickdaddy's Beater Car is never coming back, and that honestly is a little sad! He loved Daddy's car!

A memorial has been established. Donations may be made in any form (cash, check, paypal...) to the LeSabreLess Neill Foundation.

In Memoriam Part I

Saturday, March 17, 2007. Pictures of "Rickdaddy's Beater Car" (as Calvin affectionately calls it), an '88 Buick LaSabre, moments before being driven to the scrap yard. Rick got the car for $1000 in August 2000 with about 200,000 miles on it, thinking it'd be a temporary car to replace the one that got wrecked when Rick was cut off on the highway. Never did he expect that it'd last almost 7 years; it probably shouldn't have lasted this long. It was our miracle car :) But seriously, we were very thankful and blessed by having a paid-for car that Rick could do much of the repairs himself (as evidenced by some of the pictures), do his own oil changes and replace parts, etc. It served us VERY well, and we were sad to see it go (until the couple of weeks prior when Rick was wondering at every stop or intersection if it would die, and if it did die, whether or not it would start again)!

I looked up the definition of sabre: "A heavy cavalry sword with a one-edged, slightly curved blade." It's heavy, all right (see pic from the weigh station).

Rick's handiwork on a broken tail light. Half the lens was missing for 2 years, until a cop pulled Rick over not too long ago, after a half-block high speed chase where the Beater Buick hit 35 mph, and told him to fix it. A lady in a parking lot had backed into it. Lucky her--backing into a car that isn't worth repairing.

We had pipe dreams of someone with full coverage demolishing it and being able to collect much more than it was worth. The closest we got was a girl backing into it 2 days prior to driving it to scrap yard and not even leaving a single scratch!

The hubcaps for all the wheels have been in the trunk for 7 years. The trunk was also home to a weedeater for a number of years.

Passenger door panel. Too lovely for words.

Door panel in back seat.

Cookies

Favors for Calvin's 2nd birthday party.










Argyle sweater cookies for Austin's birthday. He has a thing for argyle, and so does Calvin now because of that :)









Just for fun.








Favors for Austin's wedding (they freeze well). 105 done, 160 more to go.

Spring Break

Spring break isn't anything we get to celebrate anymore, since neither of us are in school anymore. Well, Rick has his master's class and got Tues/Th evening off so that was nice...but no week off of anything for us. These pics just happen to be from during Spring Break, just for a point of reference.

Calvin was not timid in the least bit about any animal at the zoo. He would've handled the snakes were they not behind glass I think! Ewww! Calvin LOVED feeding the giraffe, and I loved watching him. We went with Marie, who was on Break and able to go with us on Tues, then we went with Aunt Lesley on Friday.

Calvin loved it that the giraffe wanted to lick him. Ah! Fallyn slept for the bulk of our time there...what a good girl she is! She lays on her tummy in the double stroller and goes right to sleep! The seat lays down flat and is just big enough for her to lay down. We went again to the zoo






Our gorgeous tree has bloomed right at Spring Break every year since we've lived here. Marie took these pictures (and the zoo pics).















If only the blooms lasted longer than a week! So fleeting! :( It's Sunday now and they're practically gone already.




***Will be posting our buick's obituary as soon as I get the pics off Rick's phone!***

*

"If you keep making that face it'll get stuck that way!"

The old adage is true! :)
Fallyn's had a "perpetual deer-in-headlights" expression, as my friend Kim described it, since she was tiny!







7 & 25 months old.








Fallyn just adores her brother! This picture is a prime example of how gleeful she becomes as soon as she even just looks at Calvin! He really likes it when she plays with his ear or face. He's so sweet with her, too!






Still stuck in headlights.

The Grown-Ups

So much for my goal of posting every week or 2; it's been a month! Please forgive any typographical or grammatical errors...it's 3 am! We're up with an inconsolable--that is, until we offer to turn on the "car movie" (Disney's Cars). The only thing we can get Calvin to tell us is that his toe hurts. ?????

What Rick's up to:

***Work, of course. And for that we appreciate him so.
***Bike-riding. He adds a new piece of bike-riding equipment/gear now and then, the latest being spandex :)
***Thursday morning is when his men's Bible study group meets--at 5:00! There are 4 guys in his group, one being our brother-in-law. They meet at our house, so Rick gets up at 4:30. Troopers!
***Working on masters degree in mechanical engineering one class at a time. This is his third class. That makes Tuesdays and Thursdays long days for both of us. Especially Thursdays, see previous paragraph :) He gets home after 7 pm both days.
***Meets with a guy from church every Saturday morning at 6 am for mentoring. He's been meeting with him for a few years straight now.
***Rick's driving our new used car--my dad sold us his Lexus...we'll have to post an obituary soon for the Buick :) It's officially out of service.

What Kendra's up to:

***Taking care of kids all day. Sometimes I get other things done, like laundry and cleaning and cooking, if circumstances allow :) The life of a SAHM!
***A playdate here and there.
***Recently I've been babysitting about once a week for some family friends, who I've babysat for from time to time since coming here for college. I take the 2 kids and we go to their house. Calvin just looooves playing with Abby. They are really cute together. We've really enjoyed our time there.
***Thursday morning is my women's small group. It is fresh air to me every week to walk through life with these women.
***Starting to dabble in decorative sugar cookies...
***Feeling out of touch with the real world sometimes, especially in the fashion realm. I had to ask Marie to go with me to pick out jewelry for my brother's wedding because I don't even know where to start. I guess I'm grateful for not being so "with-it", because it just means that I'm home a lot with my kids!

We are having an all-house dinner about twice a month with Tyler & Marie. We've just done it a couple times now, but we're taking turns cooking and inviting people to join us, so Marie and I each end up cooking once a month. We've had guys from Rick's work over, and 4 college/post-college girls that live together came on the Rempel's night--Marie made the best taco soup!

Had a girls/guys night not long ago. Marie, Kendra, and Charlene (M & T's cousin's wife) went out to dinner while the guys--Rick, Calvin, Tyler, & Jonathan (M & T's cousin) stayed here and ordered pizza.

I'm trying to think of more but that will have to do for now. I'm not quite coherent enough!