Remembering a wonderful man...

Today marks one year since my Granpa Harnish went to be with his Lord & Savior. I really cannot believe that it's been one year since I last saw him, one year since I last held his hand or kissed his forehead, one year since I last heard him call me "Honey Girl" (the nickname he had for my mom, sister, and I). Sometimes when I'm thinking about him I can still hear him say it. Along with such sweet memories it brings tears of grief.

Sometimes I miss him so much it hurts. This past fall I went to get a pillow case out of the linen closet. A linen closet that was never at his house in Pennsylvania, but here in an apartment in Missouri where Granpa had never been. I pulled out the pillow case, and instantly it hit me. It smelled like him. So strong that it instantly took me back to the little brick house in Derry, PA. I put it on my pillow, crawled in bed, and cried.

Isn't is amazing how quickly grief can go away, but how quickly it will come rushing back? Instead of talking about his final days (although it was time I will always cherish) I've decided to reminisce by making a list of things about Granpa:

-He was always smiling. He would be alone in a room, you walk in, and he would just be sitting there smiling. He grew happier the older he got.

-He turned 98 years old about 6 weeks before he died (see pictures above).

-He graduated from Penn State with a degree in Chemical Engineering, and worked for Westing House

-He always tried to teach me how to shuffle cards, but I couldn't do it. So, he bought me an automatic card shuffler : )

-He loved playing chess. When Mark & I were visiting him in the days leading up to his passing, I promised him I would learn how (so I can play with Mark). His comment "Well, that's good, it keeps your mind strong."

-His mind was strong until the very end. He probably could have done some quick mulitplication tables if we had asked.

-For as long as I can remember, he entered the Publishers Clearing House, just on the off-chance that he would win.

-When they would come visit us in Ohio, they would sleep on our pull out sofa. Each morning, we would climb in bed with them & they would tell us some ridiculously funny stories (that we always believed). My favorite was about the snake who put his tail in his mouth to roll down the hill.

-He put his family before himself. When my mom went to pay for his funeral, she found out that he had already paid for it 17 years before so as not to be a burden on her. He & my grandma lived in a cute little house, but never had anything flashy or expensive. They lived modestly, so that some day they could bless their only daughter & her family with an inheritance.

- He had all of his teeth pulled at a pretty young age (in his 30s?), and got dentures. He had to wait a few days before his dentures were ready, so my Grandma ground up his meat for him. Now that is love : )

-We always wanted to shave with him, so he specially made razors (the plastic without the blades) so the 3 of us could "shave" with him.

-In order to be granted permission to marry my grandma, her father & brother made my granpa cut the head off a chicken. This is not a joke.

-He was the most wonderful grandfather. Although our children will never meet him, we will be sure that they know what an amazing man he was.

To read another blog about my Granpa, go to my brother's blog here

More pictures of Sadie

Sadie has been with us for a week now & is doing quite well! I'm not sure how much she weighs... she was 5 lbs. early this week, but I think she's gotten bigger already! She's becoming much more daring: jumping off the couch, hiding under our bed, and being very "in your face" with our neighbors dog & cat! She's still pretty tiny but she is mighty.

Here are some pictures of our baby : )

No worries- the can was empty!

I love this face

She's still not sure what to think of the sweeper. Or the microwave when it beeps. Or ice being cracked out of the ice trays. She's very sensitive : )

This is her army crawl. When there's something (like this bone) in front of her, instead of getting up & walking closer, she pulls herself with her front legs. It's really entertaining to watch!


Hope you're all having a great weekend!

~Marci

SADIE!!!

Hey everyone! We proudly to introduce our new puppy, Sadie! She's a black lab, born on 12-01-08. She bravely made her way to St. Louis from Wilmington, Ohio yesterday with Mark's parents.

So far, things are going really well. She's such a sweet pup. She's doing really well at going potty outside- last night she was already whining at the door when she had to go! She's only peed on the floor a few times, and only because we weren't quick enough to get her outside (she was whining & waiting for us at the door but we were too slow)!

Sadie says "Thanks for the toys Grammy & Kara!"

This is after her first bath. It was traumatic for all involved (just Sadie & Marci). We went to Bible study, came home, and she was whining before we walked in the door. We had a Code Brown in her kennel (and on her legs) & it was S-E-R-I-O-U-S. Poor thing had a tummy ache. Mark had to go to work, so we were on our own. She tried her hardest to climb out of the tub, and was just shaking & whining so much I really wanted to cry. But, we made it through and she's now happily napping on her bed.

We'll definitely keep taking & posting pictures for you all to enjoy as she grows up : )

Love,

Mark, Marci & Sadie

The Prodigal God - Chapter One

I enjoy a good book, and I think I've got my hands on a gem. I want to thank Mark and Libbie for their gift, as this book was every bit as encouraging and every bit as convicting as I anticipated.

The Prodigal God is a new book by Tim Keller that tells the gospel story through the parable of the Prodigal Son found in Luke 15. It's concise but twice as nice. I want to tell you what sort of things I've gained out of each chapter.

After introducing the story and the major players, Keller introduces the idea that the elder and younger brother represent two kinds of people that existed both in the time of the story and today. One is rebellious and wants to live by making his own path, by being his own savior and Lord. This is represented in the younger brother. But there is another brother that is every bit as lost as the first. This is the elder brother, the one who's self-righteousness gets in the way of embracing the gorgeous feast offered by the father. Keller says there are two ways to be your own Lord: by being very, very bad, or by being very, very good. Neither puts us in a place where we are wholly dependent on the goodness of our Lord who lived flawlessly on our behalf.

What I found most striking about this chapter was his talk about the church, and how we attract moralistic, socially acceptable people. In the gospels, often when Jesus encounters a disenfranchised individual and one of the religious elite, the marginalized person comes to faith while the religious person remains in their hostility and self-preservation. This is not always the case, and of course very religious people do also come to Christ in the Bible, for example, the story of Lydia's conversion in Acts 16. But for the most part, Christ has come to seek and save the lost, the admitting younger brothers. Keller's point is this: if Jesus' ministry attracted the marginalized, the impoverished and broken, the social outcasts, why are we not doing the same in our churches? Our message must not be the same as Jesus' message, and therefore we must find out how to reach those in our culture that we wouldn't normally find in church. Before I would have said, these people need Christ the most, but of course this is not at all true. Elder brothers need Christ just as much as the younger ones. If there are two kinds of people in the story, as Jesus says "tax collectors and Pharisees" then there are also two kinds of people in history: Jesus and people who need Jesus.

We should consider how we can make our churches the type of place where those who might never enter a place of worship can discover the hope and rest from weariness that the gospel promises.

Christmas in Ohio

Hey everyone! We are back in St. Louis after 5 days home in Ohio... and a busy 5 days it was! It started off a little crazy last Tuesday night. Due to ice, I-70 was shut down in Indiana, and after we'd only moved 11 miles in 3 1/2 hours, we decided to turn around & stay in a hotel a few miles back.



Here are a few pictures of our busy weekend! It's so hard to get good pictures of such BUSY kids... but we had a blast with them all (and the adults too!).

Lydia "Looburger" hanging out with Grammy

Uncle Mark Timmons/Daddy trying to keep the kids away from Poppy's train

The Timmons men in their "Woody" OSU hats. Luke has one too, but he refused to wear it (or even look at the camera)

Uncle Mark & Ellie Grace being ballerinas. Too cute (and a little scary how good Mark was!)

Cooper getting ready for bed. It's fun to see how much he changes each time we see him! I have a feeling next time we're home he'll be talking up a storm!

That's all for now. We went to the movies tonight (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button... a MUST see), and I'm exhausted!

Love you all,

Marci

It's our Anniversary!

This is where Mark & I stayed Saturday night while we were out celebrating our Anniversary! Isn't it georgous? If you're ever in St Louis, go check it out! It's a beautiful old hotel in downtown STL! (the Hyatt Regency).

I cannot believe that we've been married for 1 year! Honestly, time sure has flown, and I know this sounds cliche, but this has been the best year of my life!

Being that our anniversary is today, a Monday, we went out Saturday night to celebrate. Mark wasn't home (he was working all day) so it was a lot of fun to get ready without him home... almost like he was picking me up for a date again : ) After a small headache due to the closing of a MAJOR highway in STL, we made it to Sage, a newer restaurant that Mark had picked for us to go to. We had Gus' famous pretzels, bread, salad, and then dinner! I enjoyed a lovely pork dish with potatoes & veggies, and Mark had some fabulous pasta! After finishing it off with chocolate moose, we headed to the hotel!

Even though we were still in the same city, it was so much fun to go downtown & stay at a hotel... it really felt like we were vacationing! A big thank you to both Mom & Dad Robertson and Mom & Dad Timmons, who graciously gave us gifts that enabled us to have such a fun evening out!

Tonight we're celebrating by doing one of our favorite things... we're getting Dewey's pizza, putting on our PJ's, and watching TV (which includes watching our wedding video & eating some year-old wedding cake... we'll see how that goes). There is no place I'd rather be than snuggled up on the couch on a cold winter night with my hubby : )

Some Refreshing Moments

I was driving through a neighborhood in St. Louis recently that is in great poverty. It is also a very dangerous neighborhood that ranks highly in national crime statistics. I stopped at a light and looked to my left where I saw a large mural on the side of an abandoned building of an African-American urban male, hat on backwards, baggy jeans, etc. The book he was reading in the mural said 'Holy Bible' on the cover, and tagged nicely in script the phrase "Read your Bible every day." There's a Christian bookstore down there that we should frequent.

Then at church on Sunday while we were taking communion together as the body, we could hear the children singly faintly from the floor below us. They were "God is so good, God is so good, he's so good to me."

Lastly, we are getting new neighbors tomorrow from Argentina. They are coming with nothing but two suitcases and their two kids. Some people came together to give them things for their apartment, and now it is full of stuff. Someone even donated a car! I pray that my heart will grow into one of this kind of service and selflessness.

God bless you this Advent season!

mandm