Christmastime 2006
Answers to the True or False Quiz
And the answers are: True. Every one of them. More or less. How's that? Here are some details:
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- Roberta volunteers as the accompanist (pianist/organist) at St. Mary's...
Roberta is on staff at St. Mary's, full time—as the Pastoral Associate. Her duties as accompanist for the three choirs/four Masses are beyond the other 40 hours, and considered by us to be volunteer.
- We had four cats in 2006...
Zephyr, Azrael, Caliph and Ramesh.
- Thai chopsticks were special-ordered, and hand-delivered to Larry from Thailand...
Two of our choir members took a trip to Thailand. Larry had snapped a photo of some really cool chopsticks in a Thai restaurant in Chicago, so he asked her to look for chopsticks in that style while they were there. She found them in a market, and brought back a bunch of them for us.
- Larry spent over four months preparing for an event, for which he was sick...
Larry puts a lot of time and effort into volunteering and preparing for DYMO camp (awesome high-school week-long retreat experience at a YMCA camp). As a singer and music director, he was "majorly messed up" when laryngitis prevented him from leading rehearsals, prayer and song for the vast majority of the week.
- Roberta went without talking for over 20 hours at a time for more than five days in a row...
Roberta (again!) participated in a six-day silent retreat in June, during which the only conversations were a session with a spiritual director each day. Wow.
- St. Mary's Church has pilasters, and we're working to keep them...
Yeah, the "attached pillar" thingies on the outer walls of St. Mary’s are pilasters, according to an architectural study of the building and its needed repairs. We just began a capital campaign to raise the needed funds to repair the church.
- Roberta knows English, Spanish, German and Latin...
Well, as a piano player, she knows how to play songs in all of these languages for the various choirs at St. Mary’s and the German Club. That counts, doesn’t it?
- Larry spent over 12 months preparing for an event, for which he was not sick...
Larry (and many boatloads of other volunteers) hosted a regional convention for the National Association of Pastoral Musicians here in Grand Rapids. The plans were well more than a year in the making. Despite the lack of sleep and time to relax, the week went well.
- Larry worked in the rain inside the Amway Grand Plaza hotel this summer...
Larry was responsible for equipment for the convention when a heavy storm overcame the hotel roof drains and dumped water through the ceiling. Moving the equipment to safety was wet work.
- Roberta became a 12th century nun, publicized nationally...
Roberta portrays the 12th century Hildegaard von Bingen as part of the performance of Vox Angelica. A photo of her in full costume as the nun was published in the October-November issue of Pastoral Music magazine.
- Roberta graduated from school this year AND went to her 20-year school reunion this year...
Do the math. Hmmm. We did attend her 20th year high-school class reunion for Pontiac Catholic. But she graduated from a different school, of course, "graduating" from her studies this spring in the Spiritual Direction program through the Dominican Center at Marywood.
- For his 40th birthday, Larry was an angel...
Yeah. Right. But, actually, he spent time leading a role-playing game that weekend, in which he played the part of an angel talking to the player characters, among other things. So that counts.
- We have two college-age daughters...
While not technically our daughters, we have that kind of affection for Erin and Lauren, Aquinas students who are friends of ours and living with us. We’ve been mistaken to be Erin’s parents, at least.
- We did not attend a Renaissance Faire this year...
Hard to believe, but we missed not only the Michigan Renaissance Festival in Holly, but also the Silver Leaf Faire near Kalamazoo and the Bristol Faire in Wisconsin. Sigh.
- Our roof is blue...
In September, we got Snyder Roofing to tear off several layers of shingles, re-sheath the roof with plywood, clean up the mess, and put a new roof on with blue-tinged shingles. All in one day.
Look for the photo gallery: A New Roof, Finally
- We paid waaaay too much this autumn for a small load of fire wood...
Actually, we did pay hundreds of dollars, but for the purpose of removing a large double silver maple tree growing up against the side of our garage. The firewood was actually a side benefit we had them leave behind.
Look for the photo gallery: An Expensive Pile of Firewood
- Roberta was called "Reverend" for a cemetery graveside service...
An obituary mistakenly remarked that the "Rev. Roberta Lewis" would lead a prayer at the graveside of her Uncle Don. Yeah, she leads prayer, but doesn’t need the "reverend" description to do that.
- Roberta acquired new relatives this fall...
At the funeral of her Uncle Don, Roberta met cousins she didn’t even know she had. Bonus!
- Our friend Jim wore eyeliner in public, and liked it...
Jim was a pirate for Halloween, and, Johnny Depp style, wore eyeliner (applied by his sister) as part of his costume.
- We ran a coffee shop during a part of 2006...
Our Halloween party was themed the "Coffee Shop of Horrors", and Larry was the "boo-rista" making and serving coffee for the night.
- St. Mary's Church has spalling...
Especially on the east side of the church building, the faces of many of the bricks are splitting, chipping and shedding due to age, pollution and weather. The bricks are largely intact, but the word for this kind of damage is "spalling". Another reason for the fund-raising campaign at the church.
- We have three cats...
Well, we mentioned the four, but Azrael died on October 29. Sadness. Now there are three.
- Roberta spends a lot of time at a Hospice facility...
Roberta is a volunteer for Faith Hospice as a Reiki practitioner. Very cool. Ask her about some of her experiences.
- Larry taught a workshop… in Spanish...
At a workshop for the Steepletown parishes, Larry found himself addressing a group of Hispanic church members, but without a translator. The ongoing Spanish lessons he has been taking saved him, because he was able to switch to Spanish and get through (by all reports) OK.
- Roberta has spent over 600 hours talking with elderly people during work hours this year...
Part of Roberta’s ministry at St. Mary's is to visit the sick and homebound of the parish. This is a very important ministry, and VERY time-intensive.
- Larry has a music CD with country music, flamenco and heavy metal cellos all on the same album...
As a hobby, Larry creates mix CD's along various themes, but... around his birthday each year, he creates a CD of various songs that were stuck in his head at various points of the year. This CD is VERY diverse.
- Some of our cats have been named "Spot" and "Bubbles"...
Zephyr has a big white spot in the middle of his back. The people that found him as a stray and brought him to us had named him "Spot". We changed the name immediately. The same story goes for Azrael, who was (briefly) known as "Bubbles" when he first came to us.
- Larry, as the musician, leads the "silence" part of a monthly prayer service...
The monthly Taizé-style prayer services held at St. Mary's include an extended period (5 minutes or more) of silent prayer. Larry is the director of this prayer, and is the one who keeps track of when to bring the silence to an end and move into the next part of the prayer service.
- We both undergo a CAT scan each year...
The Lewis family trades Christmas gifts using a "Christmas Attitude Test" survey (CAT) to help communicate ideas of what a person might actually like to receive in the gift exchange. Humorous and handy.
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Every now and then someone mentions our letter from 2000. By request, we make it available again...
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