MOM’S MEMOIRS – IRENE LOUISE (NEE KUCKKAN) MUELLER
(Continued)

Mom’s Autobiography – Chapter 30 – In Book, Page 71

Endeavor Launched, Dick And Wanda’s New Home, Church In Waunakee, Waunafest, Memories Of Baby-Sitting Grandchildren, To Seattle For John And Wendy’s Wedding,
Visit To Boeing, Fortieth Wedding Anniversary Celebration, Cookie’s Crafts, Dick’s Hobbies, Called to Weslaco, Texas

A highlight of our trip was when one day I heard on TV that the spaceship, Endeavor, was going to go up into space the next day, January 13, 1993. I told the others, and our son said, let’s go! So early the next morning, our son, armed with his big telescope and we with our cameras went to Cape Canaveral (formerly Cape Kennedy when we went on our honeymoon to Florida in 1953). There we stood waiting – – – oh, and what a thrill it was to see and hear that great space ship take off! The ground shook, there was fire under the Endeavor, and also when it was going up into the sky. It was indescribable! – and it was unforgettable! Our daughter-in-law, Wanda, remembers that there were tears in my eyes. After watching Endeavor until it disappeared, we went to the nearby Kennedy Space Center – saw the moon landing machine, the space ship Saturn, and other space ships with much written information about everything. Sadly, we left Orlando on January 18th.

A couple other highlights of our trip were when Dick, Wanda, and family took us to see the beginning of the building of their new home. We could already see that it would be very elegant. Another highlight of our trip was when we saw Cary playing a great game of basketball at King of Kings. But sadly, our wonderful blessed time with our loved ones in Florida came to an end, and we were on our way back to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, January 18, 1993. Thank you, family, for making that trip possible. (Please see video of “Fun In The Sun” which our son, Dick, presented to us.

Lord And Savior of Waunakee, Wisconsin, congregation continued to grow, so blessed that they decided to build a church. The search for land started. God richly blessed in that a beautiful plot of land (5757 Emerald Grove Lane) was found on the southeastern side of Waunakee. There was a silage pit a ways behind the land which one newspaper article described as “Mr. Horrible Stench”, but it has long since disappeared, and has been replaced by a very exclusive subdivision. The groundbreaking ceremony was held on August 20, 1990. The cornerstone (a space was left for it) laying ceremony was on December 16, 1990. What a joy it was for all of the members of the congregation and us to see and have a part in the building of their church. Now all the church services and activities were moved from the elementary school and the parsonage to Lord And Savior’s beautiful house of God. What a blessing!

I remember that Lord And Savior Sunday School participated in one of the Waunafest parades. Mrs. Linda Reichert, a member and a Sunday School teacher, made a large sign saying, “LORD AND SAVIOR EV. LUTHERAN CHURCH” with all of the Sunday School children’s handprints on it. Some of the Sunday School teachers and children carried it in front of a “train”. Some of the children carried a cardboard part of an engine and train (also made by Mrs. Linda Reichert), with the words from the Bible passage in Proverbs 22:6 – “Train a child – in the way – he should go.” Some of our grandchildren – Mark, Jimmy, Becky, Brian, and Travis were with us at that time, and marched in the parade with the Sunday School teachers, children, Dick and me. I remember Becky, only about three years old, holding my hand and walking all the way down Main Street of Waunakee with all of us. Those are fond memories.

Dick and I babysat Tim and Sue, and Jim and Sue’s children when the parents would go on fishing trips to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, on their vacations. Dick was quite busy with sermons, bulletins, etc., so I would pile the children in the back of the truck (no seat belt laws, etc. then) and away we would go! I had a metal detector, so we had fun going metal detecting in parks, school playgrounds, and to Water Tower Hill,.near where we lived. There is a small playground there, on top of the hill, so during the summer I would sometimes take the children there. Once when I took Dick and Wanda’s children, Cary, Kelly, and Chris, there, there was a girl with a bicycle. Before I knew it, Cary was on that bicycle and literally flying down the steep hill. I screamed, “C-A-R-Y————–!!!!

Thank God she got to the bottom of the hill safely. Water Tower Hill was a fun place to go to in the winter too because we would go sledding and tobogganing with the children there. Sometimes we went to pick up aluminum cans and get money for them so we could buy ice cream cones (one of our grandsons, Chris, just reminded me the other day that I also treated them to “Now And Later” candy. I don’t remember that, but it warmed my heart to think that he would remember it). We would go to pick up cans along the roadsides, behind an old country schoolhouse, the remains of an old house in the country, etc. There was a deep well next to the old house, and all of us “carefully” looked down into the well. I have wonderful, blessed, memories of those days with our grandchildren.

Helen, Dick’s sister, and her husband, Carl (Kellberg) invited us to the wedding of their son, John, to Wendy O’Neall on April 24, 1993, at Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Church, Bellevue, Washington. Dick preached a very heartfelt sermon, and the wedding and reception were stunningly beautiful. It was great to see and visit with Helen and Carl’s family – Mark, Kathy, and their children, Andrew, Ricky, Ryan, and Stephanie – Christine, Brian (Charlton), and their children, Nolan and Adam –Carla, pregnant with Richard, Pete (Peterson), and their son, John (Laura was later born on May 4, 1998).

One of the highlights of the trip was when Helen and Carl took us to the Boeing Plant (75 football fields long and covering 100 acres) Everett, Washington, where he worked. We saw from a high-up catwalk pieces of a Boeing 747 BEFORE they were all put together to form a huge plane. They also took us to the Boeing Gift Shop in Renton, Washington, where they lived. There was a Museum of Flight there, and I had the thrill of climbing a ladder up into an F18 and sitting in it. It amazed me that most of the plane is behind the pilot. All of us felt very sad when we left Helen, Carl, and family on April 29th. Helen is Dick’s only sibling.

Our children, Deborah, Richard, Timothy, Susan, Stephanie, Steven, and spouses all got together and took us to the Bavarian Wurst Haus in Milwaukee to celebrate our 40 years of marriage on June 20, 1993. Oh, what a hilarious time we had, and the German food was delicious. Our family presented us with a wonderful “schoolhouse” clock which they knew Mom wanted for quite awhile. The plaque is inscribed: “For your 40th wedding anniversary, June 7, 1993, from your loving family”. What a fantastic gift! And what a fantastic gift from God our family is!

As the congregation continued to grow, Dick had more and more work, so I got interested, by our Tim and his wife, Sue, in scroll sawing. It was a hobby of theirs, and Sue sold what was made by them at craft shows, shops, friends, etc. So we invested in a scroll saw for me. Tim showed me what to do by making a cute little horse out of wood, which I painted and still have. Cookie’s Crafts was started, and what fun it was – buying the planks, cutting them into manageable pieces, transferring patterns onto the wood, cutting them out on the scroll saw, and then painting them! By “them” I mean religious Christmas ornaments and Easter crosses, lambs, bunnies, chicks, etc., Halloween pumpkins, corn stalks, etc., refrigerator magnets, shelf sitters, etc., lawn flowers and animal ornaments and figures – Dick screwed stands and sticks on the figures for me which needed to stand up. The creative ideas just kept flowing! Whenever a baby was born, I scroll sawed a bear, bunny, elephant, or some other kind of animal, polyurethaned or painted it, and glued a red heart with the baby’s name which I had painted on it with a toothpick.

What joy it gave me to give them to our family members for their birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, Easter, etc. (When we go to visit our families’ homes, we still see some of my crafts, which warms my heart.) Tim’s wife, Sue, asked if I wanted to put some of my crafts for sale in an apple orchard shop near Waupun, where they lived. I said, “sure”, and it was great when I actually sold some of my things. Pioneer Park, where our park model trailer is, has a craft show every year, and some of my “Cookie’s Crafts” were sold there too. It was exciting!

Dick has always been interested in clocks, just as his father had been. We went to “Cheeseman’s” in Sun Prairie, not far away from Waunakee, to after-Christmas sales. There we would buy fancy cheese, sausage, candy, cookies – all leftovers from Christmas – and also found blank cheese boards which hadn’t been used. Dick used those to make clocks. He ordered clock faces, hands, numbers, and the movements for them from Klockit in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and made beautiful clocks. We found crosses, Bible passages, and other religious stickers to put on them. Together we made Wisconsin clocks which I scroll- sawed, and he did the rest. We even made backwards Wisconsin clocks! Again, they were given as gifts to the members of our family. He also loves to fix clocks, and proves that by getting relatives’, friends’, rummage sale, thrift store, etc. clocks to work – amazing! Dick, in our later years, also makes squirrel feeders, more gifts for the family and friends, and sells some at the craft shows at Pioneer Park. We found out that people either “love or hate ‘em (squirrels).

We were in Waunakee for seven years, and then a divine Call was sent to Dick in 1993 from Abiding Savior, Weslaco, Texas. Dick was 64 years old, and when he talked to the President of the congregation on the phone, he asked, “do you know how old I am?” And Mr. Hans Hovda said, “Yes, we do, but we want you to come”. Well, the word “come” did it, just as it had done when Dick received all of God’s divine calls. Dick and I possessed a beautiful lot up on a hill from Dutch Hollow Lake near LaValle, Wisconsin, and had planned to build a home there (we even had plans for it). We could walk down the hill from our lot (the area called “Summit”) and walk down a “greenway” to the pier where we could tie our boat, which we actually did sometimes. We even planted some trees and flowers on the lot. Dick bought a big gas weed trimmer which he trimmed the lot with a couple times. We had our dream. But the Lord had other plans for us. Dick accepted the Call, and the congregation of Lord And Savior had a delicious farewell potluck dinner for us. Many of our relatives and friends came to bid us farewell.