The saying goes "When it rains, it pours" and that has indeed been true lately.  Not in the weather sense, but in the funeral sense.  Four funerals in the last two months with three in three weeks.  Three of the four where members of my congregation and the fourth was a past member my father-in-law.  The Lord called Pop home suddenly and peacefully on Monday 13th July exactly 6 weeks after his 90th birthday.  Pop was enjoying his afternoon coffee and quietly passed away, he didn't even eat his biscuit!!  A beautiful way to go really.  It's a strange feeling really when you know something is eventually going to happen, but when it does you still aren't really prepared for it.  That's how it was with Pop's death.  Already before Christmas the Doc's said that Pop didn't have long, giving him weeks rather than months and he proved them wrong.  In fact they took him off almost all his medication and he rallied, improving and seem way better than he had been for a long time.  Son Ryan always reckoned Pop wanted to outlive his Dad who had passed away at 90 and 3 weeks.  Well he sure did that - by 3 weeks.

Funerals are a little bit unsettling as they bring back memories.  Pop's funeral meant a trip to the cemetery where Roy is buried.  It was the third time I'd been there since Roy's death.  I must say this time it was far easier to face than it had been when Nana passed away. I guess that is progress.  Funerals are actually great family times and it was wonderful to catch up with the extended family, to spend time together and share memories.  Pop's death made me realise that things change when parents die - suddenly you become the older generation, the tie that binds siblings is gone and your focus changes to be on your immediate family - children and grand-children.  I feel very blessed to still have both my parents alive and well.

At the beginning of July I made a trip to Christchurch to celebrate grandson Asher's first birthday.  This trip down ended up being a comedy of errors due to me not actually reading my ticket properly.  In fact I didn't read the ticket at all and just assumed!!   I was all ready and packed on the Thursday morning and Mum and Dad kindly gave me a lift down to Paraparaumu Airport,  They dropped me off deciding not to stay, which I had said was fine.  It turned out to not be so fine as when I got to the check in the lovely lady there informed me that I wasn't actually flying till the next day.  I of course disagreed with her and then felt pretty silly when she pointed out the date on the ticket.  Well that left me in a bit of a pickle esp with Mum and Dad on their way back home.  First I rang them - which they didn't hear - so I sent them a txt instead asking them to come back to the airport, quietly praying they got it before the arrived back in Levin 45 mins away.  I then rang the airline on the off chance that I could change my ticket  to fly that day, however the cost was going to be far more than the original ticket so I decided against it.  Thankfully Mum and Dad had received my txt and returned to the Airport.  They kind of expected to find me very upset and in tears and probably if this had happened 18 months ago they would of - obviously I have matured a lot.  In fact I had a good laugh about it as it really was my own silly fault.  The upside was that I was able to get the Church bulletin done once I got home rather than having to do it while I was away and I was also able to attend a funeral.  On the Friday we once again headed down to Paraparaumu for my flight to Christchurch - yes it was the right day.

Yvette and Asher picked me up from the Airport and Tim finished work early so we could headed out to my sister-in-laws place in Bealey near Arthurs Pass.  Helen runs the Arthurs Pass Eco Lodge.  If you're looking for a place to stay I highly recommend it.  It was amazing.  The trip out there is beautiful, the views are stunning and the accommodation is fantastic.  We had a really great time.  It was cosy and warm inside thanks to the wood-burner  and -1 outside still at 10.30am.  The last time I had been out to Bealey was when Jim (Helen's husband and Roy's brother) and Roy were both still alive, so it was a first to face.  It was great to be able to create new memories and I look forward to going out there again in the future.  On Saturday we headed back into Christchurch and I spent the rest of that day with my cousin Femmy and her family.  Sunday was Asher's birthday party out at Yvette's parent's place.  It was a lovely day.  Monday I had a quick catch up with a friend over coffee and then it was time to head home again so it really was a flying visit but very enjoyable.  This time we flew into Paraparaumu over the land rather than over the sea and Kapiti Island.  It was so cool to see the new express way that is being built from the air.  It is a huge project and looked amazing. It was a wee bit freaky flying low over the top of houses just before we landed.

The following weekend Noah came to stay for 3 nights.  He loves coming to Oma's to stay and Oma loves having him.  He is always really good and doesn't get homesick at all.  I took him home on the Monday (this was also the day Pop died) and spent the day there catching up with youngest son Joel when he came for dinner at Aimee's that night.  I hadn't really been looking forward to the drive home in the dark but it went fine,  if I'd known what I found out later than week I might have been more worried.

On the Thursday of that week I had booked the car in for a new warrant and service.  The mechanic rang to let me know that I needed 2 new front tires as they were in very bad condition - something I had suspected.  When I asked if I could have the car back to drive to Palmy that afternoon to collect Tim, Yvette and Asher from the Airport he said no as it would be far to dangerous driving long distance with those tires, esp in the wet - gulp glad I didn't know that on Monday when I drove home in the dark and the rain.   Unfortunately the replacement tires would not be arriving until Friday so in the meantime they found me another car to use.  It is so weird driving a different car - this one was way, way lower than mine and had a really sloppy accelerator.  Anyway it did the job even if you tended to fall into it and have to hoist yourself out of it.  I was glad to have my own car back on the Friday, it actually had to have  4 new tires as the mechanic discovered that one of the back ones was  marginal so they all ended up needing replacing.  The bill was a trifle more than planned but at least the car is up to standard now and I def wont be needing tires again for a while.

Earlier this month I finished my course and received a certificate of achievement.   My last 2 assessments were using Excel and Word.  I really enjoyed both of them and have used what I learnt in Excel to set up a Petty Cash logbook to use at work.  For the Word assessment I had to edit a document which was a lot of fun.  My tutor was super impressed and her comment was "WOW! This is one of the best submissions I have ever seen for this module. Your contents table was fantastic, layout professional, bullet points perfect, loved your tables, headers and footers."  Feeling super pleased.  Maybe I should go into editing!!

Work continues to elude me and not from lack of applying for jobs.  I don't know why God is not answering my prayers for work, but I know that He is control of this and that in His time it will happen,  it is hard with so many doors closing and none seeming to be opening.  To make things more frustrating my job at English Language Partners has also been put on hold as from last week as we are waiting for funding to come through from a grant application.  We have received money from this organisation before for my position so we are hopefully it will be successful again, but you never know.  Being reliant on funding is sadly the down side for organisations like ours.  Please pray that the funding application is successful and that the Lord will open the right door for me work wise.  I know that God has a plan.  I pray for direction to follow it. Patience to wait for it, and wisdom to know when it comes.

Well on that note I'm calling it a night.  I didn't sleep very well last night so need to catch up.

Have an awesome week.

Till next time love and blessings
Jolanda