Stuckys' Info

Perks

2009-03-05T13:47:00.000-08:00

Dad's surgery has had some perks for us. I'm not sure that he would say that it was worth it... Lots of people have visited, sent cards, flowers, cookies, candy and even a few meals. One of the free meals came from Matt's sister. She brought a meal and they ate with us. Following are some fun pictures of that evening. Matt and the girls were being silly.

Presidents Day

2009-03-05T13:31:00.000-08:00

Two exciting things happened today. Matt had the day off of work, so we went in to Wichita to do some shopping. We didn't actually find what we were looking for, but I enjoyed spending time with Matt.

The other thing was that Dad got to come home from the hospital. We got back from Wichita and didn't know when Dad was going to arrive, so we decided to go for a walk. We were a couple of blocks from the house when he and mom drove by, so we turned around and headed back. We were very glad to have him back home.

Valentines Day

2009-03-05T13:13:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately Dad was still in the hospital for Valentines Day. We went to visit him in the morning before starting on our own Valentines adventure...

Matt told me that he had plans, but wouldn't tell me what they were. We got in the car and drove toward the north part of Newton. I made lots of guesses, but Matt wouldn't give me any hints. It took Matt a few tries to find the place he was looking for. When we finally arrived, we discovered that it was closed for the year. It was a green house. Matt was planning to buy me some plants for my Valentines gift. I never quite feel like I am at home without a plant or two. We were a bit disappointed, but weren't ready to give up yet. We stopped by a little plant shop down town, but decided to hold out for a nursery. We went home, had some tea and looked for another plant place. We were fortunate to find another one in Newton. Following are the results of our next trip.

We met some friends that we hadn't seen in quite a while for lunch. I should have gotten some pictures with them, but alas I was too busy visiting and eating.

Dad's recovery (Feb. 13)

2009-03-04T13:02:00.001-08:00

This morning Mom called to say that Dad had a hard night, but seemed to be doing ok now. His blood pressure kept dropping, so they gave him two units of blood. This made him itchy, so they gave him some benedril. I was glad to hear that he was doing ok.

About ten minutes later, Matt's sister called to say that Mom wanted her and I at the hospital right away, as something had happened to Dad. That kind of shook me. I started praying right away that he would be ok and that I would be able to keep it together enough to be a help. I called Matt on the way to the hospital to tell him that something was going on with his dad, but that I didn't know what. When I arrived, Dad's room was swarming with nurses and doctors. Mom told me that Dad's heart had stopped, but that they had him stabilized now. We were both kind of shook up and one of the nurses gave us both a hug. After that the doctor came out and told us that he wasn't sure why Dad's heart had stopped, but that it might have been all the meds he was on. The doctor did have him moved to the critical care unit and said that a cardiologist would have to check him out on Monday.

Mom and I started gathering up all of her and Dad's stuff to move it to his new room. About that time Missy showed up. We had to wait a bit for them to get Dad settled into his new room, so I called Matt to fill him in on what had happened. Once we were able to get all the stuff moved into the new room, it didn't take long to figure out that it wasn't going to work to have Annika and Susannah in the critical care unit for very long. They were feeling very energetic, so being still and quiet wasn't going to happen. We decided that it would work out best for me to take them back to our house, so that Missy could stay with Mom. I was so thankful that they were on their best behavior the whole day. Missy came to pick them up in the late afternoon, which gave me just enough time to run some errands before Matt got home. Matt went over to the hospital to visit Dad after dinner. I stayed home to try to de-stress.

Dad's (Stucky) surgery (Feb. 12)

2009-03-04T12:58:00.000-08:00

Dad found out at the beginning of this month that he had prostate cancer. The doctor recommended that he get his prostate removed, so they promptly scheduled the surgery for February 12th. The surgery was supposed to start at noon and last about three hours. As it turns out, it didn't get started right away and ended up lasting closer to five hours. Apparently it was a harder surgery than the doctor anticipated. He said that dad lost a bit of blood, but not enough to warrant a transfusion. That made for a long day at the hospital. I went over for a while in the afternoon to wait with mom. There were lots of other family members there, so I didn't stay for the whole afternoon. Matt and I went back over to the hospital once he got home and took some supper to mom and Missy, who had been there all afternoon. At that point Dad had been moved to the recovery room and not too much later he was moved to a hospital room. We were able to see him for a little bit before going back home for the evening. He seemed to be doing ok, considering that he had just had surgery. Mom spent the night with him.

Annika's Birthday (Feb. 8)

2009-02-25T08:00:00.000-08:00

Annika's birthday was, of course, much more exciting than any of the rest of our birthdays have been... We went over to Joel and Missy's house to celebrate. Annika's birthday wish was to have an ice cream cone. Apparently at the ripe old age of four she had never had her own ice cream cone, and thought that would be fun. Matt asked her how long it had been since she had an ice cream cone. She got a serious look on her face, thought about it for a minute and then said, "About twelve years." Anyway, we had ice cream cones after dinner, despite the fact that it was early February and very cold out. Following is a video clip of her with her ice cream cone.

The top part of Annika's cone broke off after she had been working on it for a while. At that point she asked for a new cone. We all got a chuckle out of that. Missy was quick to explain to her that you were supposed to eat the cone as you went and that you didn't get a new cone when your current one broke. Following is a clip of Susannah with her ice cream cone.

Finally, Annika opening her gifts.

January

2009-02-25T07:20:00.000-08:00

January of course included New Year's Day and Matt's sister's birthday. We took down the Christmas decorations on New Year's Day. Following is Matt's impression on the American method of bringing in the new year...

Needless to say, it is not nearly as exciting as some of the other New Years celebrations we have witnessed.

We had Missy over for her birthday.

After the birthday celebration we all went outside to take family pictures. Unfortunately it was a bit chilly and windy. We weren't sure if we were going to get another chance though.

We had the camera on a timer so we were counting and telling the girls to smile, so Susannah decided to start counting with her fingers.

Christmas

2009-02-24T12:59:00.000-08:00

We also enjoyed spending Christmas with all of Matt's family this year. We spent Christmas eve with one side of the family and Christmas day with the other side. Unfortunately I didn't get a lot of good pictures. I'm still working on remembering to get the camera out along with enjoying the events. The following picture is of the men cutting up the ham.

The family sitting around post Christmas dinner pre gift opening. The girls were waiting anxiously for the gift opening to begin.

Playing with the box was almost as much fun as playing with the presents...

Thanksgiving

2009-02-20T13:58:00.000-08:00

We enjoyed celebrating Thanksgiving this year with all of Matt's family. We had one thanksgiving dinner at our house, which ended up being a bit cozy. Of course there was way more food than we could eat. These are some of the pies we had.

After dinner we played Guestures and Aunt Sherry taught us a "thanksgiving" song. I guess it was more of a turkey song.

Susannah found some cool shades to play with. She couldn't be convinced that they were on her face upside down.

Fall

2009-01-15T11:27:00.000-08:00

For the first time in a number of years we have been able to enjoy the seasons. While the fall foliage is a herald of the cold weather to come (something I'm not fond of) it is beautiful.

As I'm sure you have probably figured out, I have also enjoyed babysitting Matt's nieces. They are a lot of fun. Sometimes they help me with constructive projects. Here we are washing window blinds.

And sometimes we just do silly things. The girls like to make faces for the camera. When I showed them this picture they were quick to tell me that it wasn't a nice picture. It's amazing how early kids pick up on such things.

Church

2009-01-15T09:22:00.000-08:00

Another thing we have enjoyed is getting involved with our home church. Once again this isn't going to be completely in chronological order.

We have joined a great Sunday School class for young marrieds (which makes us feel old...). :) We have really enjoyed getting to know them and doing stuff with them though.

The girls getting baskets ready to take to the pastors in honor of pastor appreciation month.

The guys "helping."

I also had the opportunity to help direct the church Christmas program. That was a great opportunity for me to get to know people better and match some of the kids up with parents.

Family

2009-01-14T13:52:00.000-08:00

For the first time in a long time we have been able to do "normal" family things like celebrate birthdays together and go to recitals. Matt was also able to visit his Grandmother's grave site. She also passed away while we were in Papua New Guinea. Like me, he wasn't able to make it back for the funeral.

I enjoyed attending Matt's cousins' choir performance. For some reason Matt and his brother were less thrilled about it...

Another cousin's birthday.

Kansas

2009-01-14T13:15:00.001-08:00

Sorry this is a little out of order, due to my negligence in keeping our blog up to date. Since we have been in Kansas we have been staying in a house graciously provided for us by our church. Matt's parents are also staying in this house. We are really enjoying our time with them and know that it will go by all too quickly.

Matt's parents sitting on the front steps.

We got to visit Matt's brother and see his apartment.

I couldn't resist adding another pic of our nieces goofing around while enjoying some treats from Grandma.

Nieces

2008-10-07T08:56:00.001-07:00

We have really enjoyed getting to know our nieces. They were born while we were in Papua New Guinea, so this has been our first chance to spend time with them. Of course we think they are the cutest little girls ever. We love playing with them and they keep us laughing with their little antics and sayings.

Getting to Kansas...

2008-10-07T08:38:00.004-07:00

Our trip to Kansas was a story in itself... We wanted to register our car once we got to Kansas and the dealer we bought the car from assured us that he would send us a new 30 day tag once the first one expired. That way we could get down to Kansas on temporary tags. Well, the goal was to get to Kansas in time to go to the airport when Matt's parents arrived back from Paraguay. Matt e-mailed the dealer asking for the second thirty day tag about a week before we needed to have it. We kept checking the mail every day to see if it had come. The day before we were supposed to head down to Kansas, it had not arrived. The day we were supposed to leave, it had still not arrived. When Matt called the dealer he said that he had forgotten to mail it, but he would sent it Fed Ex next day delivery. Fortunately we had been planning to take a couple of days to get down to Kansas. I have relatives along the way that we had wanted to spend some time with. We ended up leaving right after lunch the day before Matt's parents were supposed to arrive. We stopped briefly and had dinner with my aunt, uncle and cousin and then kept driving till late. We did stop at a hotel for a few hours to sleep and then got up early the next morning to head down to Wichita. We didn't get there soon enough to meet Matt's parents at the airport, but we were able to join the family for lunch.

Knapp

2008-10-07T08:38:00.003-07:00

Our next stop was Knapp, a tiny town in north western Wisconsin. The main attraction there was my grandpa. I was eager to see the rest of my relatives in the area as well. While we were there I was able to visit my grandma's grave site for the first time. She passed away while we were in Papua New Guinea and I wasn't able to make it back for her funeral. It was hard to see her home, church, etc. without her, but at least I know that she is with Jesus.

We got the opportunity to go to a Labor Day Parade while we were there.

Grandpa and I watching the parade.

Me eating a fried cheese curd. Yum! You can't visit Wisconsin without trying one of these.

We saw everything from antique tractors to marching bands to garbage trucks in the parade.

Waukesha

2008-10-07T08:38:00.001-07:00

After visiting family in Florida we drove up to Waukesha, Wisconsin, to visit my sister and more friends. I also enjoyed going back to some of our favorite places from when we lived in Waukesha.

Hanging out with my sister and brother-in-law.

We took my sister out for breakfast one morning to a restaurant that we enjoyed going to when we were on staff at the New Tribes Bible Institute there in Waukesha.

Of course we couldn't leave Waukesha without making a stop at Oscars, one of our favorite places when we were in Bible School, not to mention the fact that it only has the best frozen custard in the country!

Florida

2008-10-07T08:37:00.001-07:00

We arrived in Florida on July 28th after over twenty-four hours of traveling. Needless to say, we were very glad to Grandpa and Grandma. We spent about three weeks visiting family and friends in Florida. Following are some pictures of some of the things we were able to do while we were there.

We were able to purchase a car.

We got to see the Kodiak.

We even got to spend a few days at the beach.

Our Trip - Chapter 4

2008-08-26T12:10:00.000-07:00

Sunday was probably one of the most relaxing days, since we didn't leave the house till around 9AM. That morning we got everything packed up and put into the car. Then we headed out to the Royal National Park, where we did a 10 kilometer hike along the coast. It was one of the most beautiful places I have been. After our hike we went "straight" to the airport. In order to get to the airport we had to take a ferry and then catch a train. We had about twenty minutes to wait for the ferry, so Matt was going to get some sandwiches for us to have for lunch. The sandwiches were going to take a couple of minutes, so Matt waited for them and Josh and I went down to wait at the dock. As it turned out the ferry arrived before the sandwiches.I ended up running (literally) up to get Matt and then we both raced back down to the ferry, so we wouldn’t miss it. When we got there Josh was talking to some friends of his who had just arrived on the ferry. We ended up giving them the receipt for our sandwiches. Hopefully they enjoyed them… Anyway, that was our trip. After having a full Sunday in Sydney, we left at 8:30PM that evening and arrived in Honolulu around mid morning on Sunday… Doing the same day twice in a row was kind of strange.

Our Trip - Chapter 3

2008-08-26T11:44:00.000-07:00

Saturday was kind of funny. On Josh’s itinerary, Saturday morning said, “Flower show and coat hanger crafts.” Which we thought was really odd, since none of us are interested in that type of thing. When we asked Josh about it, he gave us some story about the aboriginal people making sculptures out of coat hangers. Anyway, come to find out, he had planned a surprise for us. We were really climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge. We didn’t figure that out until we walked into the “bridge climb” building. That was definitely an interesting experience. The first thing you do is sign a waiver or whatever it’s called, basically saying that you don’t have any medical conditions and you aren’t going to sue them, etc. Then they give you a breath test to make sure you aren’t inebriated… Then you have to take off all hats, jewelry and empty your pockets and put all your stuff in a locker. I guess the purpose of that is to make sure you don’t drop anything through a windshield on the cars below you on the bridge. Then they give you a jumpsuit and wind pants to put on over your clothes. After that they give you a climbing belt type thing and from there you start attaching things to yourself: hat, gloves, extra jacket, radio, cable to attach yourself to the cables on the bridge, etc. Of course only the tour guide had a camera, so you have to buy any pictures you want from the bridge climb place. The whole time you are up there you are attached to a cable, so you can’t really fall off. We had a beautiful day and an amazing view. After the last couple of days, the nice weather was a real blessing.

After finishing the bridge climb we took a ferry out to Manly Beach and back. The weather was warm enough to enjoy the beach, but not warm enough to want to swim. I had a little "encounter" with a seagull while we were at the beach. While I was sitting near the beach eating my lunch, a seagull swooped down from behind me and tried to take my piece of chicken out of my hand. Fortunately it didn't get the chicken. I wasn't very happy about it stabbing my hand with its claw though. I guess the birds must have been pretty used to having a lot of people around. That evening Josh had a bunch of his friends over for dinner. We really enjoyed meeting them and getting to know them a little bit.

Our Trip - Chapter 2

2008-08-25T12:48:00.000-07:00

Friday was cold and rainy. Fortunately, most of the stuff Josh had planned was in doors. We saw the Wildlife World (Australian animals) and the Sydney Aquarium among other things. I felt sorry for the animals at the wildlife world. They were all cold and wet and huddled up to keep warm. I was thankful that I was inside and not standing out in the rain looking at them. The aquarium was really cool, especially the shark/manta ray tank. They had two tubes through the tank, so you could walk through and there were sharks and manta rays swimming all around you. Manta rays look like the birds of the ocean, flying gracefully through the ocean. We took lots of video clips of them. They looked huge, but the sign said they would appear 25% smaller than real life, due to the curvature of the walls or something like that. Anyway, I figured I wouldn’t want to meet one in the ocean… That evening we met up with one of Josh’s friends and went to a concert at the Sydney Opera House. I don’t think Matt and Josh were too excited about the whole thing, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Our trip

2008-08-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

On our way back to the U.S. we had the opportunity of visiting a friend in Sydney, Australia. We had a great time visiting him and seeing the sights. We saw everything from the Blue Mountains to the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney harbor bridge. I loved it all. For those of you who are interested in the details, I decided to break them up into multiple posts, so this one would not be super long.

Sydney was a lot of fun. Josh (our friend from Sydney) totally wore us out (and himself). We did get to see way more than we ever would have if we would have just gone by ourselves. We were leaving the house around 7:30AM and getting home around 11PM.

Wednesday, Josh and a friend picked us up at the airport Wednesday evening and drove out to the Blue Mountains, where we spent the night. It was really cold. First thing Thursday morning we headed out to tour some caves. The caves had the most amazing mineral formations. Unfortunately the camera just doesn't do them justice. There were thousands of stalagmites and stalactites and then some things that stuck straight out from the side walls. I'm not sure what they were called. Some of the mineral formations hanging from the roof of the cave looked like large pieces of fabric. By the time we finished with the caves, it was early afternoon. After a wrong turn or two, we arrived at a lookout point. It was breath taking. The weather was clear just long enough for us to get a good view and take some pictures. After that everything was pretty fogged in, so we headed back to Sydney.

Vacation Bible School

2008-06-23T17:55:00.000-07:00

For all of you who think I fell off the face of the earth, I apologize. This entry is actually from the beginning of July, but I am just getting around to posting it.

This last week we had Vacation Bible School for all of the younger missionary kids who stayed around for the summer. Our theme was Avalanche Ranch and everything was "ranch style." I was a crew leader for a group of three and four year olds. Our team was the Cattle Dogs. A few of our Bible stories were Rahab and the spies (which scared some of my little ones), the Israelites crossing the Jordan river and Joshua and the Battle of Jericho.

My group was bit of a challenge, since they hadn't been to school yet. They didn't know how to walk in line, that in a group setting you can't just yell out whatever crosses your mind, etc. However they did come up with some funny things that made me laugh. At one point we were about to watch a little video and one little boy had to use the bathroom. As I was walking him out of the room, he turned around and announced to everybody, "I have to go potty, but it's ok. I'll be right back, so don't start without me!"

At three and four years of age, I always wonder how much they remember, so it was neat for me to see all of the kids learning their verses and remembering the Bible points for the different days.

Coffee Factory and Goroka Museum

2008-06-19T17:22:00.000-07:00

The highlight of last week was a tour of a coffee processing plant and a trip to the Goroka museum. The coffee processing plant is pretty amazing! They process tons (literally) of coffee every day. The place is very noisy and there are pieces of coffee hull (husk, whatever you call it) falling on you all the time. At the plant they dry the coffee, take the hull off and sort it according to quality or grade. The dryers alone hold six tons of coffee each. After all that, they sell it to exporters who then have it roasted and sent overseas.

The museum was also very interesting to me, despite its size. It was very small, but it was clean and had a nice display of PNG artifacts, history, etc. I just finished reading a book on the history of PNG, so seeing so much stuff in the museum that the book had talked about was fascinating. I would have liked to spend some more time there, but the rest of the group was getting hungry.

Graduation

2008-06-12T21:52:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday we had the opportunity of going to and helping with the Numanohi Christian Academy high school graduation. Many of the kids' family members showed up from around the world and of course the kids were so excited to graduate. Matt was the official photographer and I coordinated the coffee at the reception. Needless to say we have no end of pictures of the graduation, which was very nice. Serving coffee, on the other hand, provided a bit more excitement than I was hoping for... The outlet next to the coffee serving table quit working at some point during the graduation. Fortunately the coffee stayed fairly hot on its own. Also, the other coffee pots that we traded the original one out with were plugged into outlets that worked. All in all, I think everything turned out fairly well.