Frank, April, Lily & Daisy were here in April and have been busy with fixing their house(see picture) to sell since then.. It has been a family project.. Uncle Jim and Uncle Bob helped too (THANK YOU!)We are now in the middle of June and trying to sell it.

Laura came to town the first of June for a job interview in Seattle and then to Portland for a wedding she was in.. they are looking for positions in the NorthWest and hope to come back.

Bryan is getting more secure in Australia with Lara & Ashley and bought a house down under - we may not see them again until the hereafter. They arestarting their own business and doing well.

We are still settling into our "OldenYears" - well - at least trying to - keeping busy and active and thanking the Lord for our strength and wellness as we keep ourselves quite busy!

So it has been some time since I have posted --- here we are & January is almost over. So April ... I will help with keeping up the family blogging.

Fresh Bread and other Gifts by Joyce Rupp - A Christmas gift that Laura gave me (and 1 to April) is wonderful.

It has been a few decades that I felt so heartbroken, depressed & hopeless as I was about a week into the new year and then I started reading the January portion of the above book:

"A New Snowfall" Page 20 ...

"Close your eyes and just imagine the clean, white fluffy snow softly falling, covering all the drab spots of deadness on the earth. See that same soft, clean whiteness fall into your heart. Feel it heal the wounds, making clean your dreams and your hopes. Hear the God of new beginnings speak to you about the fresh start being offered." -
"It is this 'God of Freshness' who encourages our journey. If we are to walk into the new year hopefully, we need to look at God as well as at ourselves. When we look to the scriptures, we learn how much God desires a new beginning for us. This is a constant theme that runs through the sacred word."

I can't tell you the amazing help visualizing the snow falling into the wounds of my heart and thinking about the snow covering all over our yard and focusing on the Lord's promise of hope and deliverance - what it did for me on my very sad day -- It was a pure miracle! Since that day I have been more joyous and full of hope than I can ever remember. AND it was so wonderful that a couple of weeks later we had a major amount of snowfall that stayed on the ground for a number of days - just to remind me to be thankful of the hope God has given me. (Thank You).

Now to address the questions at the end of the January chapter:

Grievous times of the past year:
April going home
Our Sunny and April's Rajas' euphanization
Laura, Ed & Jack moving to Boston
Missing Bryan
Trying to understand my isolation (i think i am beginning to see why)
Don's diagnosis of beginning prostrate cancer

The Joys of the past year:
Getting Closer to the Lord
Don starting daily bible study
Don & I praying together, daily
Frank coming home safe from Iraq
Getting April, Lily, Daisy, Raja, Thunder & Hummer safely back to Kansas
Having my Mom in my life
Making ammends with my sister
Going to Boston for Jack's 2nd birthday
April, Lily and Daisy visiting in August
Laura, Ed & Jack being home for Christmas
The class "The Truth Project"
Discovering Charles Stanley Ministries

Refreshing hopes for the year:
For Don & Myself to get healthier
For unsaved loved ones and co-workers to be filled with the hope of the Lord
Iraq to become strong so our troops can come home
Paying off bills
Getting closer to retirement ("OldenYears" wishing our life away?)

God blesses me with His presence & freedom compounds daily in my life.

The most spiritual refreshing time of my life? (see above beginning statement)

August 16 thru the 28th - April and the girls came to vacation at our house - to the SuperMall - MerryGo Round- Zoo - Ocean and staying home and playing all day! Had a couple of family get togethers! It was great

Jack at the beach on his birthday his haircut and birthday evening


What a great little boy Jack is growing up to be - I had the most delightful time with him when I was in Boston.

The barbershop was riddled with old world Italian or Greek flavorings. Jack was so good getting his hair cut - such the little man! Very entertaining to watch the barbers normalcy in action- I was quite enthralled with the personalities and atmosphere.

It was good connecting with Laura & Ed and playing with Jack! We went to the beach on Jack's birthday and I found some different shades of rocks on the beach that has inspired a new project (Don is thrilled - LOL) for our west coast patio - a project for next spring. I am glad that we went to the east coast beach - my travel ambitions are now complete - I have been to the east coast and back! and a few stopovers in the middle to visit April and her family. (Aren't I such the traveler - "not") NE way I think it will be awhile before I get on another plane - but I really do recommend Jet Blue - they were great - no stops all the way to Boston in 5 hours! And the weather was very accomodating - I didn't think it was bad at all - a little more humid than I am used to tho. I am sorry - as much as I miss Bryan - I have a hard time thinking about getting on a plane for 17-20 hours - maybe I can talk Bryan, Lara & Ashley to meet us in Hawaii.

Are we used to our children and grandchildren living out of state and county? I think so --- I am happy to think that they are secure enough to travel/live away from us - but ....................
WE SURE DO MISS THEM!!!


oH -by the way - if you click on the narrow picture in the upper left corner - the picture is of a popular pizzaria. You might recognize the name - I wonder if they are related to someone we know. Laura tore out the page of the phone book and sent it home with me that has all the listings of this pizzaria- there must be at least 10 of these restaurants around town.

I posted Sunny's pictures on June 23rd. I don't know why It kept posting under the June 13, 2006 date. We had Sunny euthanized on June 22,2006 and we have buried her on the front corner of our yard where she would always run out and let people know that she was here.

GOOD-BYE SUNNY!!
WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH.
YOU HAVE PROTECTED OUR HOUSE AND YARD FOR 10 YEARS.
WHAT WILL WE DO WITHOUT YOU!


WE ARE VERRRYYYY SAD! :(

This is June 23rd, 2006 NOT June 13!

FATHERS DAY 2006

We had a good weekend! Laura, Bryan and April called and talked to dad to wish him a Happy Fathers Day & Lily and Daisy sent papa some of their LOVELY artwork. I got some lovely artwork too!

I didn't expect Don to do anything extra - but I got busy and rented a rototiller(I originally reserved a backhoe - but Don said "NO"). I've been wanting to do some serious land moving.(LOL) Anyway - I rented the rototiller instead for a couple of hours and got a workout! We went to the nursery and got some more plants & trees for the yard and we went and got a 1/2 yard of topsoil that I shoveled out of the truck. I get a vision (plan) in my head and get busy and work hard achieving it. I try not to burden Don with the work involved in my visions. (Don was involved in the bridge over the dry river bed - he likes, and does a nice job when working with wood. Don was busy with his usual work around the yard that he loves to do and planting the new plants/trees and mowing the grass. We did get a new hedgetrimmer for Don for Fathers Day and he went golfing with his brothers. We packed our weekend pretty full with work and play and now it is Monday. We are scheduling to get 4 of our fir trees cut down in the front yard (the clean up will keep us busy).

Life is good and we thank the Lord for our healthy kind of strong, older bodies that we can get so much done without a lot of aches and pains.

Now to get thru the rest of the week - Get up - Go to work- Come home - Work out in the yard (I picked our first batch of raspberries today yummmmm!) - Eat dinner - Chill out for a bit - Go to bed - and start all over again the next day. This weekend - I am shoveling out the upstairs, again. Getting ready for a yard sale soon.

L8TR

It's been a little over a month since I posted anything... since before Mothers Day and Fathers Day is fast approaching. (Dad & I are a little jealous of people spending these days with their kids). We kept busy for Mothers day by working very hard in the yard. Don built a new bridge and I made a new dry river bed in the front yard. We are looking for a troll to go under the bridge and maybe a few billy goats to cross it (not real ones of course)

I wonder what Fathers day projects we will come up with. Dad is interested in a couple of tools that I will go and get to motivate him. I have been watching the HGTV channel and I AM MOTIVATED. I haven't talked too much about how ideas are materializing in my mind because I don't want to scare anyone. (LOL). We both agree that we are getting too old to start any big projects - but I get a lot of adrenaline pumping when I am trying to avoid missing our kids and grandkids.

Since last month - we had another family friendly game of Texas Hold Em (I am proud to say I was the first place winner!!) A Wilsie Family BBQ to say goodby to our niece Wendy, her husband Dave and their- 3 boys, Trevor, Dillon & Will who is moving to Arizon. We also celebrated my mom's 80th birthday with my family. It was a GREAT day!! I have to say that it has been a LONNNG time since I have got together with ALL of my family - I had a visit with Janice (with God's help getting me over to her house) to try to bridge the gap that we have had for the past 6 years and I hope that we can continue to progressively heal. I pray that my attempt to reconcile is taken positively and that Don & I are very heartfelt in our attempts. We really enjoyed seeing everyone.

I have a new cookie recipe I tried out a few months ago that Don absolutely loved - I made them again yesterday and decided to rename them "Fireside Cookies".

On Saturday I received a call from George at the Lincoln Harnish dealer to let me know that a car I was inquiring about in February ( a Lincoln Mark 8) had just been traded in for a newer model at thier dealership. I gave up looking for a newer car after a few of my weekends were consumed with shopping the internet and driving to car dealers last February ... I didn't think it was worth it, especially when Don changed my oil in March and informed me that I had put a whopping 68 miles on my car since last October. So-- I have been commuting in my half dying car to work and back - (and that was OK). NE way.. George didn't know how much they would be asking for the car until Sunday. So -- out of curiosity I checked the TNT to see if there was any of the cars I was interested in available. I am getting pretty particular in my "OldenYears" - as it had to be around 1995-1999: Cadilac El Dorado or Lincoln Mark 8 and preferably a pearl white. Amazingly enough - there was one in the paper ( I didn't know the color yet)-I called it and left a message. I talked to God about it and said that whatever happened would be alright--I went about my Saturday chores - I washed all the windows (downstairs) and I am love the sparkling clean windows!! Changed the bed sheets and sprayed my lavendar all over the bedroom and picked lilacs to put in every room of the house and picked a bunch for my mom too (May Day is Monday and Lilacs are her favorite flower) and then we went and played a family friendly game of cards at Kris & Jims. A fun free nite out - can't get much better than that! And a free dinner too!

We got up on Sunday and went to church. A series for the next few weeks focusing on Heaven. - I called George after we got home and he told me how great the car was (bla bla bla - salesman hype to get me revved up to want the car) I cut to the chase and asked him how much -- he quoted me $3 thousand more than blue book for the car (you know they didn't give the guy squat for the trade in) and I told him it was far toooo much - he still wanted me to come and drive it (of course) -- I talked to God again and let it go - Not in any hurry to go and waste my time again - anyway it was silver, not pearl white. So back to enjoying being home in my nice clean house - A few hours later - I got a call from an older gentleman returning my call from yesterday about the car he has for sale--- (it is a Lincoln Mark 8 - LOADED with low miles.) The more he told me about the car the more interested I got. I asked him what the color was --- Did you say WHITE?! - When can I come and look at it? 7:30 PM after he gets off work. (The price was below blue book.) -- I bought the car - gave him a check to hold it until they got the title (she misplaced it) and went and picked the car up tonight(Tuesday).

After a long hard last 2 days at the office (extremely busy time of year) & dealing with inconsiderate and rude people...I came home last nite wondering "why me" and feeling down. Venting to Don ( I know he gets tired of me talking about work) so I went upstairs to talk to God and do some Bible study & read my books "Living the Extraordinary Life" by Charles Stanley and also the book by the author of the quote from my last blog. After some reading the books and then reading referred scriptures from the books the one scripture that particularly stood out to me was:

Isaiah 55:12 - You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

SO - with renewed hope and strength - I went to work today, going out my front door in joy and being led forth in peace (with the Lords help)- the day went relatively well - and I am looking forward to picking up my car tonight. The car is fabulous and after figuring out the bells and whistles(many) it even has a car phone that I can use that has a safety feature to allow me to dial, and carry on a conversation without ever having to take my hands off the stearing wheel, except to push a button one time.

I was sitting in the front room - looking out the west front room, very clean, window at the beautiful bright sun setting and wind blowing thru the trees - I see the trees of the field clapping their hands. My heart is full and I am loving the Lord!

I think I will pick up a license plate frame that says "Heaven Sent".