Duie

My great aunt Duie passed away about a month ago, and in preparation for her memorial service tomorrow, my sisters and parents and I wrote a eulogy together that Kari is going to read.


Duie was always Duie to each of us.  She was never Aunt Duie, Great Aunt Duie, or Great Great Aunt Duie.  She was informal and loving and wonderful.

Duie was there for my mom from her earliest years.  After mom’s mom Angeline passed away, she lived with her Grandma and two doting aunts – Duie & Allie.  How much better could she have had it?  Mom’s memories from those early years are brought back by pictures and old movies of special events, such as Duie giving mom her first perm at 3 years old.

Later Aunt Sharon and mom would go back to stay with Duie for a week in the summer.  Duie always made sure the milk man left lots of chocolate milk.  She also made mom’s  favorite breakfast, fried egg and bread dipped in sweet creamy coffee.

We loved shared vacations, camping trips, and visiting Duie and Lee in Florida in the winter.

We always requested her signature frostbite dessert when we came for lunch on Sundays, and we could finish the whole pan.  She would be sure to call in to the radio station on the Sunday we were over for our birthday  to have them dedicate a song.  She was always ready to go out for breakfast or lunch and loved it when the children would be there.  We shared many joys and sorrows and she always demonstrated to us her love for the heavenly Father by faithfully praying for each of us.

Kari, Lindsey and I have always been lucky to have Duie as our bonus Grandma. She loved us like we were her own. We always loved staying overnight at Duie’s. She made sure we were comfortable sleeping on her pull-out davenport.  She would turn off the chimes on the clock so we could sleep, she would read us all six of her children’s books, including Poochie the Dog, Donald Duck, and the book about Pleasing Jesus.  She used the same inflection each time, and I think we knew them all by heart.  In the morning she was sure to strain the pulp, or “hairs” as we called them, in our orange juice.  She would let us dip buttered windmill cookies in coffee and always had mentos and werthers in a drawer for us to snoop.  We would go fishing in her pond behind the condo using bread inside of plastic bags, I am surprised how many we were able to catch.

Duie was very involved in the lives of our children as well, we are so glad that they will have fond memories of her.  When they were babies, she called them little fatties, in the nicest way possible. She would take the kids for rides on her walker, read to them, and get down on the ground and play at their level, even if we didn’t think she could or should.

The evening she passed away it seemed that it wouldn’t  be much longer so Mom called Shirley so she could talk with her one last time.  Mom then called Charlene who prayed with Duie.  We like to think Char prayed her right into heaven as she took her last breaths.

Duie loved her nieces, nephews, and extended family and is sorely missed by us all. We treasure each of these memories and many more. And we are grateful for the strong example of a life of loving Jesus that she provided for us.

Labor Day Weekend

We packed our Labor Day weekend with as much fun stuff as we could.  Usually we brainstorm things we want to do on a holiday weekend and do one or two of them, this time we did all of them.  After the zoo and out to eat on Saturday, we had lunch with my parents and grandma Dort on Sunday, then papa took the kids out on their paddle boat.  

 After naps we packed a picnic supper and headed to the airport to watch the planes take off and land.

 We even found a way to listen to the airport radio chatter on Jer's phone.

Monday morning brought the traditional breakfast with Jeremy's family at the Shoe.

  After breakfast we went to watch the truck parade.

 Stella found a dandelion to put in her hair.

 After the parade we headed to Zeeland's splash pad.

 I was worried that it would be packed since people would be downtown for the truck parade,

 but there were only two other groups there with us

Kid Quotes

Me: stop lolly gagging.
Leila: (yelling) I am not lolly gagging!
(pause)
Leila: what is lolly gagging?

Henry: when can I drive a trash can?
Me: do you mean a garbage truck?
Henry: yeah, when can I?
Me: maybe someday if it's your job.
Henry: where's my hat? Do I get a hat?

Two camping trips, glasses, first days of school, a trip to the zoo and a park!

By this blog title you should be able to tell that it has been way too long since I last posted...lots to cover, and I am even skipping our cottage week for now, more on that later.

We went camping with friends at the Allendale KOA, our site had a handy dirt pile for Henry to dig in.

And get as dirty as possible.

More dirt!  He loved it.

Leila and the boys played some more Uno during the littles' naptime.

One morning the bugs were a bit too much for the kids, so they had breakfast in the camper.

Dan & Josiah's Jenga tower.

Isaac is a happy camper.

Henry was not the only one enjoying the dirt!!


Cran-Hill Ranch with my parents, sisters, and their children...we left Henry home, he had a great time with Jer and it was SO MUCH EASIER :)

The girls walking and holding hands.

Love.

Nana with the kids after sneaking them each some of her coffee.

Aunt Kari and the kids caught frogs and turtles for the races.

Hanging out at our site.

All of the kids went for horse rides. (Paige)

Which means that the adults get to walk around in a horse manure ring. (Kari & Zoe)

So fun. (Lindsey & Norah)

Leila

Papa & Greta

Waiting on the bleachers for another turn.

Stella

Kari & Reid

Papa & Leila

Nana wearing Paige's bike helmet.  I think she is excited to be a purple unicorn.

We had a nightly camp fire and even helped a few first time campers set up their tent and start their fire - after dark.

We went tubing down the river (I did not take a camera along) and all of the kids just loved it!

Turtle race...one turtle...he won!

We tie-dyed a bunch of t-shirts - it was so fun!  I had never done it before and they still turned out great.

Nana in front of Rod & Kerri's trailer that I borrowed for the weekend.

At Leila's well-child visit we found out that she has astigmatism and needed to get glasses.  So we went to the eye doctor to get them checked out.  

As soon as we left the eye appointment, Leila said. "I'm fine with getting glasses, but I don't want to wear them."

I was a bit worried she would fight it, but she has been great about wearing them.  She continues to insist that she can't see better with them on, stuff just looks bigger.

She is now in first grade and loving it!

She is growing up so fast!  I can hardly believe my eyes.

So fast that she is about to lose her first tooth.

In the above picture she is pointing to her loose tooth because she wanted to know if we would be able to see that it was loose in the picture.

Stella's first day of school was a week later than Leila's.

She was very excited!

She and her cousin Norah are in the same class.

Funny faces!

Henry is still really struggling with his allergies.  We have pared down his diet to practically nothing - fruits, vegetables, meat, oatmeal, popcorn, potatoes...that's about it.  He is still struggling (waking in the middle of the night itching and crying for about a month straight).  They think that he may also have some seasonal allergies that are affecting him too. The other day, he asked me, "Mom, when am I going to get better?", and it breaks my heart, poor buddy.  I want that for him so much!  We started to bring him to a kinesiologist, I am hoping it will help him.
 

Second day of little girls' preschool - all of the kids wanted to wear backpacks!

Today we went to the zoo with Grandpa - they are looking at alligators.

Henry and Stella pet some pygmy goats.

Leila came into the pen with us, but was not interested in touching any of them :)

Henry got stuck in the middle of this net and needed to be rescued.

The girls admiring the flamingos.

Our favorite this time was the otters.

The kids and I went to pet the sting rays,

but mom was the only one brave enough to put her hand in the water.

Jer and the bald eagles.

Check out that wingspan!  Grandpa's is almost as big as an eagle!

We rounded out our day by going to Virginia Park.

Kid quotes...it has been a long time, so there are a lot!

Waking up one morning
Stella: my eyes have water in them and I'm not cutting an onion!

Leila: when are we going to start having midnight snacks?

(Wearing Elsa nightgown)
Stella: mom, do you think I'm Elsa really??

Leila: mom, there's a bug in the ceiling. I tried to kill it with the flashlight, but it didn't work.
Me: light might not be a strong enough weapon.

Leila: mom don't look. I really don't like it when you look at me while I'm picking boogers.

Me: are you ready to brush your teeth?
Stella: why can't I just leave it pancake breath?
(She had cereal for breakfast)

Stella: mom, never drive with your eyes closed, right?

Stella: you're lucky mom! You're lucky to have a girl like me.

I let the girls use plastic knives on their lunches...
Stella: mom, Leila and I licked the sharp part and it didn't even hurt our tongues.

Stella: I wonder what purpleberries would taste like if blueberries were purple.
Norah: probably grape flavor
Stella: yep, I bet you're right

Stella: I really really really want a pink mermaid tail.

Henry: mom, I have another tongue.
Me: you have two tongues?
Henry: yeah.
Me: how does that work?
Henry: it's perfect.

Norah: Leila you need to work on your loose tooth so the tooth fairy will bring you money.
Stella: or popsicles.

Stella: mom if we cut off all of my hair and put it in the mikerwave, we could never ever get it back on.

Going to the zoo...
Stella: Henry, wanna see the lion? But you can't pet him.
Henry: ok.

Henry: look at this banana, isn't it long?
Stella: yeah, but it's not very long like a dinosaur or a rainbow.