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By Lonni Wilson, on March 2, 2010, at 8:51 am | Category: Family News | Where’d the last two months go? Two months between posts on our website. Ugh. So I guess it’s finally happening, that we have no time for updating the ins and outs of life on the website, and our friends will have to settle for the mini-snippets that occur on the social media stream that is Facebook.
 I’d intended not to let our blog fall by the wayside, but this is undoubtedly one of the busiest semesters I’ve had in my 5 years in Buffalo. I’ve taken on a lot of tasks and it’s kept me hopping from one thing to the next. By the time I get to stop, I’ve no interest in sitting down and writing about it. Sad, really. I do so enjoy writing. But I hardly ever take the time these days.
That said, I may pull the blog page down from our site soon and just leave our info up for those who go searching to reconnect with us. Most have been finding us through Facebook anyway. We’ll see. For now, it seems it’ll be more updates on Facebook than on our website. But any updates we do on the site, are imported into Facebook notes anyway.
We’re off to the museum of play today with the kids. Should be a blast. We went two weeks ago, but there’s too much to see in one day. Heck, I could spend a whole day in the legos section just building! And we went on one of those busy Monday holidays where everyone was off and all decided to go to the museum. Today is a Tuesday – normal people (of which I am not – but you know this) have to work, so the museum should be relatively all ours, at least, compared to our last visit.
By Lonni Wilson, on December 23, 2009, at 12:46 am | Category: Family News | Christmas is just days away and the kids have been counting it down. We’ve squeezed in some fun holiday time over the last few weeks – from sledding to making rock candy, baking and decorating gingerbread houses.
 On my list of things not quite up to holiday worthiness – moving a week before Christmas. Yep, we moved out of our Orchard Park townhouse this last Thursday and out to a duplex in Elma. We’ve got acres upon acres behind house out here and are enjoying the country setting.
And in truth, I must admit that the move wasn’t unanticipated. I mean, we had to give 30 days notice to the OP property management group. We knew we were moving this month. We just didn’t expect it all to come together right before Christmas.
We were reminded this week though, after about day 3 of the move… just how much a move costs. Not only is it the monetary cost of a new deposit (while the old one is still being held by the other landlark), but another month’s rent, the Uhaul truck, miscellaneous little things to purchase (some curtain rods and blinds, etc.) –but there’s also the physical and mental cost. Whew, were we spent! I mean, our feet ached. Our bodies hurt. Once again we were reminded of muscles we didn’t know existed… and of course we had nice 23- and 19-degree days to load and unload in.
 But then again, if we didn’t do this, what stories would we have. Everyone uses that ol’ uphill both ways in the snow line… but c’mon… get original. Hey honey, lets see if we can move a week before Christmas and still put up a tree, and have Santa find the new place. If the kids were older, they’d have been sweating it. But at 4 and 3 (the 16-month old doesn’t yet have opinions on this topic, or so I’m told), our kids blindly believe, quite simply, that Santa will find them.
Now isn’t that an amazing thing? Yep, the little buggers teach me about faith all the time. We’re moving, and packing, and stressed and tired, and are my kids saying, “oh woe is us, will Santa find us?” Heck no. They’re saying, “5 more days til Christmas” and holding up as many fingers to prove it. Exhausted or not, you’re darn right I’ll be wrapping presents and Santa will be finding this place. Disappoint you guys? No way. At least, not yet (as I’m sure the older they get until about 22, the more I’ll disappoint, but then, I know from 23 on, they’ll cycle back down, until by about 35, they’ll begin to see me as wise as I always knew I was! That’s how it happened for me. My dad and mom are wise – I couldn’t see it then, but I know it now!).
 So we’re in… mostly. We still have to clean the old place and pack the odds and ends… or throw them in the dumpster… because, I know, I know, but… it’s just too much work to donate it. I mean, gone are the days when the dudes come to your house and pick up the stuff you want to give them. Seriously, I miss those days. Because I’d be calling them now to say, take it all. If it’s still there, we don’t need it.
Christmas – my brother-in-law just surprised us by sending us to Best Buy to pick up a Christmas gift he’d bought us. Turns out it’s a 42 inch plasma. My eyes got big like softballs, then filled with tears… while Melodia was like, “Oh, it’s a tv.”
“Oh, it’s a tv?” I love my wife. And she will enjoy all her Wii games on her new tv, despite the nuances that “oh, it’s a tv” seems to miss. Of course, she knows, I’ve been wanting one for 2 years but just couldn’t justify it. Oh, and to be fair, she really was excited. I shouldn’t throw her under the bus like that.
 What we had was a 37″ box. Yep, I must be among the last 20% of all Americans with the “old” style box tv that hadn’t yet converted to the “flat” world. But my 37″ worked. If it’s not broken…
But here’s the rub, we’ve moved about 4 times in the last couple of years… and my 37-incher? She must weigh in at 75lbs. The thing is huge and tough to lift, but I count it as one of my last remaining manly tests. I mean, as long as I can still lift this lug and carry it out to the truck myself, whatever belly I’ve grown and weight I’ve gained, I’m still ok. Nevertheless, oh how I’ve longed a flat, lighter, much easier to fit through doorways tv.
Tonight, I practically carried the 42-incher into the house with one hand. Then promptly dragged the 37-incher across the floor toward the door, rugs curling up underneath its weight.
Anyone need a free tv? I’d keep it, but why? We only want one in the house, and we’re less tv addicts than the greater population. Our movie collection, though, is ridiculously huge, and our netflix subscription eternal. So we’ll make good use out of this plasma. But we’ve no need to keep lugging the elephant around.
I suggested to Melodia, let’s give it to the church for the kids programs…. she said, “Honey, the church bought all new flatscreens for all the kids rooms (there’s like 9 rooms!) last year.” Yes, even the church was ahead of me on this one! I mean, if you can’t give your junk to the church, who can you give it to?
 And Christmas… and Christmas is around the corner. Tonight, we drove home with the kids singing carols in the car. What great fun! Our new place is just 5 minutes from a store we’ve been wanting to stroll through for months now… The Marilla Country Store. This is an old-time country store with all the wonders of such a place. In fact, M and I were bummed we hadn’t been in sooner.
They have a spice pantry that’s awesome and cheaper than the grocery store. We picked up some premaid bags of dip spice, and chowder powder to give a try. We cooked up shrimp chowder tonight with one of their spice arrangements… yummo.
If you’re out this way, and haven’t been, it’s worth the visit. This summer, in Floyd, VA, we popped into an old-time country store just like The Marilla Country Store. It was wonderful; and here we’ve got a great one in our backyard. It’s funny how little we know what’s around us. I was amazed at two (somewhat competing concepts): 1) that The Marilla Country Store is still in business in the era of mega-marts and 2) that anyone would even choose to pad the mega-marts bottom line when little off-the-grid places like this exist.
 Now I know, it’s usually a money thing. The hole-in-the-walls are expensive so why not cheapo-mega-mart-x? But in this case, The Marilla Country Store was better on many of the things we wanted to buy (spices, candy, etc.) than the chain store. Cheaper and better? Got to love that.
I think that about catches everyone up on our musings of late. Next up? Probably a trip to the Pittsburgh IKEA for a little shopping fun… you know, the stuff Santa didn’t bring.
At any rate, Christmas is just about 2 days away as I type this. Wonderful. Merry Christmas to you all!
By Lonni Wilson, on December 12, 2009, at 9:56 am | Category: Philosophizing, The Kids | An awesome wintery storm is blowing across the country right now, blowing quite literally. It hit Buffalo the other night. As a result, we got about 1-2 feet of snow at our place.
 Snow, that’s one thing I love about living in Buffalo. Buffalo is not cold though some may think so. Minnesota – that’s cold. In Buffalo, we don’t see that many days in the single digits or below zero ever, but what we do see, is snow.
We have Great Lakes on Two sides and the air/water/wintery combination creates Lake Effect Snow that can drop 1-2 feet in no time. So Buffalo isn’t necessarily the coldest place, but we’re a pretty snowy place.
 But I love the snow. I grew up in Michigan, and spent many days out in the snow… running into the house for warmups (hot chocolate, sitting by the furnace, etc.) before heading back out again and again. We had a hill across the street, “the big hill” as we called it. So sledding was always at my fingertips. I loved the snow.
The summer before my sophomore year of high school, we moved to Arizona. My parents were happy to get out of the snow. I can understand that. And I  didn’t mind, at that point, leaving the snow behind. Moving was a grand adventure that sparked, I now believe, the wanderer in me. I became quite the traveler over the 10 year period leading from college to marriage. It was hard for me to remain in the same geographic place for more than a year or two. I just loved moving, changing the scenery, etc. I hit San Diego, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Columbus (OH), Atlanta, Knoxville, Chattanooga, and then Buffalo. Our Buffalo stop has been my longest since San Diego… 5 years… but I am tempted to travel once again.
Snow. One of the things I have always said though, was that I wanted my kids to grow up in the snow. I wanted them to experience that. Each winter, I am reminded that this was the right choice. As soon as a snow falls, Wil and McKinely are all over us, “Can we go out in the snow?” They love it. There’s something special, magical, about snow.
Snow takes a dreary cold, and turns it bright white. It does so with a forgiving blanket of white. Whatever may lie under that blanket is hidden… I don’t know, I sort of think of snow as a living metaphor for understanding the this phrase, “covering over a multitude of sins.” Snow covers it all up, brings freshness, and beauty… almost, a salvation of sorts.  They’re just something special about it.
I love the holidays; noted that in my last post. But I do think that the holidays without snow are missing a vital ingredient. Snow makes the holidays that much more holi (ok, that doesn’t quite work, but the point is, they improve the holidays).
My favorite song of the season, at least on many a days and nights, is the snowy classic, “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.” I love that beautiful white. I love knowing that my kids are going to head out into it for some fun. I love the way it brings a quiet stillness to the day or night. I love how it reminds me of the season… of the reason… of the wonder of the world we live in. The world isn’t always a beautiful place… but it can be. Snow reminds me that… it can be… it can be beautiful.
When the muck and mire of fall is covered in white, the dead leaves on the ground are covered in white, fallen trees are covered in white, the neighbors junk? Yes, they too are covered in white. And the white just makes it all ok, makes it all beautiful. And the hustling, bustling sounds of the world seem to stop – except for the occasional snow plow and its backup beep- beep – beep… – but the snow, it seems to cover both the site and sound of the world in white and quiet… and peace reigns.
Standing out in the wintery white, for a moment, it’s easy to forget all the “to-dos,” forget all the appointments, stress, tasks to finish… and just live in the moment, a moment of quiet, white peace reigning down upon us. Yes, tis the season, and I’m so glad it is. So I’ll be saying and singing all through it, “let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.”
By Lonni Wilson, on November 27, 2009, at 1:37 pm | Category: Family News, Philosophizing | Lots to be thankful for. Sometimes, we get so into the notion of the “dinner,” we forget the “Thanksgiving.”
 This Thanksgiving I was thankful for much:
- for an amazing wife with buckets of patience and 55-gallon drums full of grace and beauty
- for three kids that are happy, beautiful, wonderful, smiling, growing, learning, silly – and who help give purpose to this rock
- for friends to spend time with (and all the friends we didn’t get to, but whom we love, and love us, just the same)
- for games to play (wii, board, and more)
- for mercy and grace, and a God who has plenty of it
- for a job, and the bills getting paid
- for parents who loved me enough to shape me into the man I am
- for brothers and sisters
- for seasons, and holidays, days off, and Christmas music, atmosphere, and a sense of a “special time of year”
My list could go on. Heaps and heaps of reasons to be thankful. It’s sad that we likely spend more days wanting than thanking. Building lists of the things we want, the places we hope to go, all the longings unfulfilled as of yet. And so often, we fail to stop and be thankful. To think of all the things we have, the places we’ve been, the longings long satisfied.
I guess this is all part of that living for tomorrow, rather than living in the moment.
 So yesterday we enjoyed the company of our friends, relaxed much, watched the Lions lose (a tradition I grew up with in Michigan – the Lions always play on Thanksgiving day), put on the first Christmas music of the season, ate some great food, and found ourselves up until 1 am sharing stories with our friends. It was wonderful to talk into the late of hours of the night and on into those of the early morning.
Not so wonderful when the kids woke us up at 7am, but hey, be thankful, right? Thankful that we have those beautiful mugs there to wake us.
Thanksgiving 2009 was a wonderful day for the Wilsons. And now begins that special season of the year. One I’ve always loved. Not the Black Friday shopping, mega toy buying, over-commercialized, advertisement-busting holiday season, but the Christmas music listening, baked goods making, peppermint tea sipping, Christmas tree topping, hopefully snow fulled days and nights of a 30+day time from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day season. These are the holidays, and they’re a time for family
- for saying “yes” to the kids when you’re tired and they want you to play “just one more game”
- for baking even though you’re a little tired from the day and it means running to the store to pick up something your out of
- for popping on christmas music and snuggling with a loved one on the couch
- for sipping hot tea or cider, or both, one after the other
- for watching the soft glow of twinkling christmas lights, when they’re the only ones on in the whole house
- for reminiscing
- for slowing down, not speeding up
 The holiday season is what we make of it. For some, it’s the black friday shopping frenzy, and for others, it’s a chance to put the breaks on after a long year… to attempt to do the impossible, to make time actually slow down, to still the seconds hand on the clock, if but for a few moments.
This season has always been my favorite. With marriage and kids, I have been greatly tested though. I baked more when I was single, I relaxed more during this time, listened to more Christmas music, it just seemed to be… more. Kids brought a new understanding of the word “tired” into the lives of Melodia and I. And so, in truth, we’re somewhat battling to get back to those things I mentioned above, to find a way to slow down during this season, without falling asleep, to appreciate and to teach our kids to appreciate all the wonders that this time of year can bring, in the hope that they, too, will grow to love these 30+ days for more reasons than a simple count-down to a single, present-opening day, that in and of itself is over way too fast, passing just too quickly, and doesn’t seem to balance with the many days leading up to it.
 It’s too teach them that Christmas is not a single day, but a time, a season – and that it’s not about one day, but many. It’s not about that final moment, a present-opening frenzy, but about all the journey leading up to and threw it. It is our chance to rekindle our love as a family, to make the time to do things together, to journey this season together, to re-glue the bonds that connect us all.
I love this season, it is (or can be) the most special time of all. So let the Christmas music begin, the snow fall, the heat in the house be turned up (maybe with a fireplace crackling), our time with our family be more consciously chosen, focused, showcased, and let us enjoy each day as we travel from Thanksgiving to the first day of a New Year.
Happy Holidays to all of you.
By Lonni Wilson, on November 25, 2009, at 12:46 pm | Category: Family News, Philosophizing | Whew! I just finished working a 16-day straight stretch on campus at Medaille. Two weekends of my students’ running events plus an open-house, basketball games and hockey to be webstreamed… it’s all just made for a very busy time.
 But Thanksgiving’s tomorrow, and today I’m getting my first moments of a break. Now, really, come Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I’ve got a lot of work to do catching up on grading and so forth, but don’t tell Melodia.
Since we moved to Buffalo, we’ve spent every Thanksgiving with our friends Adam and Danelle Padd. I don’t know quite how that became our tradition. An invite that first year, led to a second, and so forth, I suppose. This year, for a change, rather than going to their place, they’re coming to ours. Melodia and I have the Wii ready to go, as well as some board games, and both of the girls have been prepping some stuff – the turkey and apple pie on our end, and pecan pie on the Padd’s.
Our Thanksgivings really have been a blessing. Getting to spend time with friends, and these friends in particular has always been wonderful.
 It’s interesting to look at our friendships and assess them. Our friendship with Danelle and Adam is one in which we have very few expectations of each other. What I mean is… when we’re setting something up, trying to work out a plan, etc… if it comes together, great. If it doesn’t, no worries. It’s the type of friendship that isn’t highly demanding, and yet, it’s always ready for use. On a moment’s notice, we’ll go to their place and spend the night, or they’ll come to ours. And the hosting party never makes it out to be an inconvenience.
Recently, we had one of those situations where we were without power and decided to see if we could impose on some friends who still had power. A few of our friends were busy or had plans that didn’t really allow the powerless Wilson’s to impose on. As we sat in the dark of our silent house talking about it, we were thankful for our friendship with the Padd’s. Immediately, we looked at each other and said, if we’d called the Padd’s, they’d have said, “come on over.” In fact, even if they weren’t home, they’d have said, “use the house.”
Now, Adam and Danelle live 1.5 hours south of us, so it is not always convenient. But it sure is helpful to have that type of friendship that allows for so much grace without the expectation of return or a counting of who’s done what and when. Certainly, the Padd’s are way beyond us in hosting visits. They live in the country, and our eagerness to spend some time in the country is often greater than theirs to spend time in the city… though the pool at our last apartment tempted them a few times.
We enjoy the opportunities to host them, and tomorrow will be nice that way. I guess, I’m just thinking about friendships, and realizing that some are hard to replace. It’s hard to quantify exactly what makes ours with the Padd’s fun. We’ll go months without seeing each other, but we’ve often spent several weekends in a row together. We’ll plan in advance, and we’ll plan last minute. Sometimes, we just go to their place and hang out, other times to help with some work, like making Venison meatballs! Yummo.
Maybe what I’m trying to place my finger on is that it’s nice to have friends who don’t ever give you the feeling that you’re imposing, and who are very inclusive in their approach to life. After all, isn’t that the way it should be? Aren’t we all supposed to be opening our arms and waving others to come on in? I think so.
Tomorrow, the Padd’s will, once again, come on in – and I’m looking forward to it. Happy Thanksgiving to you, wherever you are, and to your friends, whose inclusion of you make life more wonderful.
By Lonni Wilson, on November 25, 2009, at 10:07 am | Category: Family News, The Kids |  Recently, a friend sent me a link to this website that had funny family photos on it. One in particular was really silly.
It’s one of those photos that you’re looking at, looking… then… it hits you. Aha! What in the world?!
 Well, just a few weeks ago, I took a photo of the kids in the backseat of Jeep after we loaded up to head home from church. In looking at it, I was reminded of that other photo. It turned out to be one of those, “wait for it… aha!” kind of photos – thanks to one of my kids.
I haven’t posted this photo on that other site I mentioned previously. But I thought I’d post it hear for kicks. It’s currently the background photo on my phone because 1) it has all the kids and 2) it’s so silly. Enjoy!
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