Janet's Blog

The Mary-Etta basement was a maze of dimly lit rooms, each one leading into another like a series of chambers in a cave.  No two rooms were the same.  Some had dirt floors; some floors were concrete, or even wood.  Ceiling heights varied, too, to match the changing floor levels of the party rooms and lobby overhead.  I remember three staircases, one of which led...nowhere.  There was also a ramp that rose up from the basement to a walk-in cooler, up to the kitchen, and on outside.  One room contained huge water heaters, a furnace, and a deep, rectangular pit that used to contain a behemoth of an old furnace.  Few of the rooms were lit with more than a single light bulb.  Creepy, yes.  Definitely a little boy's dream.  My brother, Dan, and his friends, spent hours, even days, exploring the hotel basement. Soon after we moved to the Mary-Etta, Dad hung three swings from the rafters in the back basement room, one for each of us kids....

Friday, May 1, 1964.  Moving Day!  We'd already had a rummage sale in Grandpa and Grandma's basement.  The day before, on April 30th, Mom had helped Dan and me make and deliver May baskets to all of our neighborhood friends.  (Thanks, Mom!  That was going above and beyond the call of motherhood, even though we considered May Day to be an essential holiday back then.)  Everything from our apartment at the Oxnard Hotel was packed into a borrowed stock truck.  It was exciting to spend that last night in one of the biggest hotel rooms.  We stopped at Lincoln School on the way out of town so I could drop off a book and say one last good-bye to my third grade classmates, and then we were on our way. I'd never been to Fairbury.  Mom and Dad had visited the Hotel Mary-Etta once, before they decided to take over management.  They gave us glowing descriptions of the party rooms, the cafe, with its auxiliary seating area called the "Garden," a...

During the 37 years that Bill and I have been together, we've experienced many ups and downs.  All marriages have their good times and bad times.  All people experience highs and lows in their lives.  God has never promised that life will be easy, but He does promise that He will always be with us.  When we turn to Him in times of great joy, He is there rejoicing with us.  When we cling to Him during times of great sorrow or turmoil, He holds us tight and doesn't let go. In order to demonstrate God's faithfulness to us, I've decided to list some highs and lows that Bill and I have experienced, along with examples of God's provision during those times.  Please note that this is not an all-inclusive list, or I would need to write a book right now. When I had Mononucleosis, God provided loving parents to care for me for many days at home, and a loving fiance' who drove back and forth from college every day to see me.  Then, when the fatigue remained m...

Our current class hamster is named "April."  Unfortunately, my preschool class doesn't have a very good track record with hamsters. April is the third or fourth hamster we've had this school year.  Her immediate predecessor, Samster, met his demise after he suffered a bad fall.  Samster was our favorite.  He was friendly and cuddly, and he didn't bite. April is a recent gift, donated by an eager parent who doesn't like pets that bite.  We aren't able to hold April without wearing gloves, because her bites are wicked, drawing way too much blood.  But she has been fun for the kids to watch as she crawls up and down the tube to her hideaway at the top of the cage.  April's food and water are located on the bottom tier of the cage, so she has to squeeze her fat little arthritic body down the tube to reach her seeds and water bottle. Did I mention that she's a rather old hamster?  We don't know exactly how old, because she has been re-gifted more ...

My Grandpa Vawser spent endless hours on a tractor when he was farming in Knox County.   He and his sons worked hard to make a living on the hilly, unirrigated farmland.  Even though Grandpa worked hard during the week, I've been told that he was a social person who loved to go to town on Wednesday afternoons and Saturday evenings so he could spend some well-earned time with his family and friends.  Grandma had inherited the farmland from her father, and Grandpa had farmed in South Dakota and Nebraska his whole life, so he must have felt like he had no choice but to keep on farming, even though dryland farming wasn't very profitable in the 1950s.  Then, my dad suddenly quit farming, and moved our family to Norfolk to go into the hotel business.  I don't know what went on in my grandparents' minds when they heard the news that we were moving.  After all, I was only four years old.  However, I do know that Dad helped track down a business for Gran...