Holiday reflections....

This year will be one without either of our children with us. I would be lying if I said that I'm not just a "bit" sad about that, but unfortunately, we can't have everything we wish for.

Since we can't be with family, we will spend Christmas with some of our church family. Our friends, Robin & Steve, will grace us with their presence on Christmas day - along with their daughter, Leah and her fiance Tom. I know we will have a wonderful time!!! We are all pumped up about the prime rib, cheesy potatoes, corn casserole, rolls, fruit salad, and pies on the menu. We should all be comatose by about 6:00!!!

At this time of year I often get maudlin about things. Tears spring easily to my eyes and my heart seems to be full all the time. This is not necessarily a bad thing. During the holidays is when I miss my parents the most, and other family members that I don't often see. I hope they know how much I love and miss them.

I also spend time thinking of the vast store of blessings that I have received. God has blessed my life "above all that I could ask or think" (Eph. 3:20 - my paraphrase). He has given me a wonderful husband in which I have placed all my trust for almost 32 years - and he has never dissapointed. I've been blessed with two daughters that have brought me more joy than they could ever know. He has blessed me with two sons-in-law whom I love like they were my own. He has given me a healthy, happy, intelligent granddaughter. He has given me an extended family whom I sincerely love. And if that wasn't enough, He has given me a church family that spans the globe and in whom I delight.

Please take time during this holiday season to thank God for all you have been given. My prayer for the new year is for peace on earth, for our troops to be able to come home to their families, and a return to the basic faith on which our country was founded. May God bless each of you during the holidays in throughout the new year.

Giving Thanks....

We spent Thanksgiving weekend with Alyson, Jim & Lily. It was a great time of food, fun, and fellowship. Alyson provided us with wonderful - no surprise to anyone who knows her - and Lily provided us with lots of entertainment. Jim and Bruce accomplished a couple of projects around the house and Gramby got to veg out and play with Lily.
Here is a picture of the "spread" from which we obtained our "spread"!!!

Here's Bruce helping out with the housework. We took down Thanksgiving and put up Christmas.

Here I am chilling with Lily. She loves to play with her daddy's "toys".

As I end this blog about Thanksgiving, I want to leave you with this quote....

Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day. ~Robert Caspar Lintner

Temper Trap Bandwagon....

Below is an excerpt from the ARIA Awards web site regarding the awards ceremony in Australia this Thursday night.

"Yet another new local act currently causing big waves overseas is Melbourne alt-rockers The Temper Trap. Following on from a month-long sold-out headlining tour around the UK, the group saw its single “Sweet Disposition”, originally released a year ago, climb to number six on the British singles chart. The Temper Trap have received four nominations for this ARIAs, and will perform live at the ceremony alongside Empire of the Sun, Keith Urban, Hilltop Hoods, Jessica Mauboy, Empire Of The Sun, Ladyhawke, Sarah Blasko, Lisa Mitchell, Kate Miller-Heidke and international guest, Robbie Williams."

One of the members of The Temper Trap is married to my neice. We are so excited for them and wish them all the best!!!

Funny Story Friday...

Inspired by my daughter, I am doing a "funny" story today.

When we lived in Green River, Wyoming, we decided to purchase a new van. I did all the homework on what we wanted, what options, etc., and we decided on a Plymouth Voyager. We knew the price we were looking for - we had done quite a bit of shopping around.

We got a price from Salt Lake City - a bigger city with more choices, but wanted to see what our local dealer could do for us. I went in and spoke with a salesman, told him what I wanted, etc. He quoted me a price that was only $300 higher than that of SLC, so we decided to "buy local".

I sat down with the salesman, filled out all the forms to order the vehicle (they didn't have one on the lot). I chose all the options I wanted, color, etc. I asked him how long it would be before delivery. He told me 3 weeks. Great! Everything was all set.

When we were about 2 weeks out from delivery, we decided to put our old van up for sale. It sold in about a week, so we needed another vehicle. Since Shyla was close to driving age, we bought a little Cadillac Cimmaron as an interim car.

Another week went by and I called the dealer to ask about the delivery date. The salesman said to me,"I didn't put the order in. You didn't have your HUSBAND come in to verify the order."

Now if you have ever seen me upset, multiply that by about 1,000 times. I could not believe the gall of this man. For one, he never told me I had to have my husband confirm the order, and secondly, what if I didn't have a husband????? He had done all of the credit checks, so he knew we were good for the money. I was so appalled, I was beyond words.

He back pedaled and said he might be able to get us what we want from another area dealer. After a bit he called back and said he had found EXACTLY what I had ordered - except it was a different color, didn't have the CD player, and, oh yeah, you would have to pay extra for the upgraded hub caps. But it was EXACTLY what I had ordered!!!

I told him to forget it. I would buy my vehicle somewhere else, and would tell all my friends about this experience as well. He was totally unconcerned!!

We ended up buying our van from a place in Idaho, and it was a great deal.

The moral to the story??? Male chauvinism is alive and well - at least in Rock Springs, Wyoming.

The visitors.....

This weekend we have been blessed to have Alyson, Jim & Lily come for an extended weekend. I has been a joy to have them here. The weather has cooperated also, which is unusual in November.

They arrived late in the evening on Friday night. On Saturday, we went to the zoo.

Here is Lily feeding a peacock.



Lily was a little apprehensive about the huge horses. She eventually warmed up, sort of, to the smaller of the two.



Zoo Montana isn't large, by any definition, but we did have a good time. Lily did get a good look at the Siberian Tiger.



Lily did very well in Bible class on Sunday. Her teachers could tell that she was used to attending Bible classes.

On Monday, we were lazy around the house. Lily loves to play. She played with some kitchen utensils I bought for her that were just her size. She transferred lima beans from one bowl to the other for about an hour.



I caught a little video of Lily sitting at the table reading the Reader's Digest. She is quite a good "reader". It was fun watching her "read".



Geezer set about mowing the lawn in the afternoon and Lily wanted to help.



Monday night, Jim and Alyson went on a date to celebrate Jim's recent promotion. Geezer and Ga Ga got to babysit. We started out trying to feed Lily the leftovers mom suggested. You can see the results for yourself. It was a stand off.


Geezer and I had pizza for dinner and Lily shared with us. She likes pizza much better than leftover veggies and pasta.

Today we went to Riverside Park to feed the ducks and geese. Ga Ga's only mistake was not taking enough bread. Lily had SO MUCH FUN feeding the birds, and she was extremely upset when we had to leave.



The visit is coming to a close, as all good things must. They are heading home tomorrow and we will just have to content ourselves with webcam visits for a while.

Truly blessed...

At times in your life you have the wonderful serendipitous moments and you should sit up and take notice. Today I had one of those. I have always known how intelligent and wonderful my daughters are, but it hit me today that they have grown into tremendous women.

I'll brag for a while...

My oldest daughter, Shyla, graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree and immediately was hired. She worked for about 4 years then had an epiphany that she wanted to attend Law school. With the support of her terrific husband, she quit her job and undertook the arduous task of law school. She excelled!!! When she graduated, earlier this year, she was ranked #6 in a class of 170. Soon thereafter, she took the bar and passed on the first try. YEAH!! Now she is employed by a major oil company. Not only that, but she is a wonderful, giving Christian woman.

My youngest daughter, Alyson, graduated with a Bachelors degree in Biology/Pre-Med. After graduation, she taught school for a year. Due to her husband's master's program, they moved and she worked as a biologist in a lab. After she gave birth to the most wonderful, terrific, beautiful, intelligent, entertaining, photographed, granddaughter in the world, she has chosen to be a stay at home mom - the very best profession in the world!!! Her present job has her raising a child in the Lord, and serving in her congregation in a multitude of ways.

What more could a person ask for????? Two wonderful daughters, two exceptional sons-in-law, the best granddaughter in the world, the most supportive and loving husband anyone could ever want, health, great friends, a wonderful church family, etc.

I am truly and wonderfully blessed.

Youth Rally...

This past weekend we hosted the Fall statewide Youth Rally here in Billings. We had about 50-70 kids and chaperones attend. I didn't attend all of the lessons, but the ones I did attend were great!! I hope all of the kids who were here were Transformed (the theme). We used Romans 12:1-2 as our text.

The weather cooperated, which was wonderful because part of the Rally is devoted to service projects. We divide the kids up and they go to different agencies and volunteer their labor for a couple of hours. Hopefully it inspires them to volunteer in other areas of their lives.

In keeping with the theme of service, here's my quote for the day...

"Service is not what you do for others, it is what God does through you."

Yeah, you heard right, it's snowing.....

Yes, it is October 5th, and to you who live in normal climates, it would be Autumn. The time of colorful trees and shrubs, jackets, cider, football games, etc. However, for those of us who live in Montana, it is winter. We woke up this morning to snow. What a foul, four letter word (at least in October). I doubt that it will stick to the ground, but it is wet and heavy and will surely wreak havoc on the trees.

Don't get me wrong, I don't really mind snow. I did choose to live in Montana, so I know it is coming, but give me a break - OCTOBER???!!!??? I hope this isn't a portent that winter will be 7 months long!

I am sure that it will warm up again and the snow will go away, but I just had to grouse for today. Slushy snow is Yuck!!

Our weekend in Idaho....

This past weekend we went to Idaho to see Alyson, Jim & Lily. We had a great time. Alyson's birthday is next week so we wanted to be able to celebrate with her and her family. For her birthday, she and I had our toesies done.



We spent most of Friday just enjoying a day at home, playing with Lily. Here she is trying to sit on her balloon.



On Saturday we went to Spokane to walk around the Riverside Park and take Alyson to dinner for her birthday.

Here are Bruce and Lily looking at the ducks.



At Riverside Park, there was a carousel. I took Lily on it. At first they tried to have me put her on a horse that was two feet over my head. Didn't work well. We ended up sitting on the bench. She was a little petrified at first, but soon absolutely loved the ride. She got to wave at Mommy, Daddy & Geezer everytime we passed them.



Right by the carousel, there was this strange, trash-eating, mechanical goat. I thought Lily would be scared of it, but she loved feeding it the leaves.



Another thing Lily liked was riding on Geezer's shoulders.



The park also boasts the world's largest Radio Flyer Wagon. Actually, it is a slide. Lily loves slides, so Alyson took her down several time.



Lily LOVES her Daddy!!! I really like this picture of them together.



Lily loved to bring me books to read to her. She loves her Gramby, or GaGa, as she would say, and I love her.



And last, but not least, its bath time. She loves her bath!!! What a goofy kid!



We had a great time in Idaho. My only wish is that we could see them more often.

We're off to see the granddaughter....

Bruce and I are headed to see Lily this weekend. While we're there, we'll visit with Jim and Alyson as well.....

In all seriousness though, next week is Alyson's birthday. She will be 27, which is totally impossible since I am only 29 myself. We are excited to be able to spend a little time with them. Alyson and Jim have grown into wonderful adults and they are great friends, terrific parents, and strong Christians. We are so proud of both of them!!!




And now my quote of the day concerning family...

"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one."
Jane Howard, "Families"

Ladies' Retreat 2009...

This past weekend was the annual Ladies' Retreat at Yellowstone Bible Camp. I wasn't sure I was going until the last minute, but am SO glad I went. Not only did the ladies from Livingston do a tremendous job, the speaker was wonderful.

Here's a picture of the fire pit and lodge at camp.




Latayne Scott, of New Mexico, spoke on the comfort we find in the resurrection. Latayne is a noted author and a wonderful speaker, but I also found her to be extremely personable and fun.

There were 10 ladies from our congregation who attended and 90 ladies in all. The weather was absolutely perfect. Not a cloud in the sky for two days!!! If you ever have an opportunity to spend time in retreat with christian women, DO IT!!! You will be blessed beyond measure.

Proud parents...

Bruce and I are now the proud parents of a 29-year-old, bouncing lawyer!!! Shyla found out yesterday that she passed the bar exam. Yeah for her!!! I had no doubt that she would pass, but I know she was nervous.

Here is a picture of her at her law school graduation in May.



Congratulations Shyla!!! We love you and are proud of you!!

Miracles abound...

On January 29th I wrote concerning a friend of mine who had been diagnosed with cancer. She had surgery and was only given a 10% chance of survival with treatment. She opted to forgo treatment and rely on God's grace. I called her about a week ago to check on her again, because I knew that she was supposed to see her doctor again in July. What she told me inspired me - she is completely cancer free. God is truly good!!!

This is a big "miracle", but there are small miracles we encounter every day and often don't acknowledge them as such. (ie. an addict getting off drugs, a family surviving a tragedy intact, etc.)

I want to challenge each of you to look for the miracles every day and praise God for the blessings He has given us.

Here's the quote for the day:

Sometimes it seems like God is difficult to find and impossibly far away. We get so caught up in our small daily duties and irritations that they become the only things that we can focus on. What we forget is that God's love and beauty are all around us, every day, if only we would take the time to look up and see them.
Matthias, Correction Weblog, 11-01-03

Firsts...

This past weekend I went to Oklahoma to spend some time with Shyla. It is the first time we have spent an entire weekend without the guys. We had a great time. When I arrived on Friday, my sister & brother-in-law picked me up at the airport. That evening we had dinner with three of my sisters and two brothers-in-law. It is always good to spend time with family. On Saturday we went to Shyla & Clay's godson's first birthday party. It was a good time. After that we did peidcures - my FIRST!!





Shyla and I also went to a couple of movies. If you haven't seen Julie & Julia yet, go see it!!! It is laugh out loud funny!! We also went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Shy had seen it, but I had not. It was wonderful.

After worship on Sunday, we ate lunch then went golfing. It was hot, but not too bad. We had a great time.

I also got to spend time with old friends. (I will write more about this on another blog.)

What this weekend showed me is that I need to spend more one-on-one time with both my daughters. They are wonderful women and I am blessed to have them as my children!!!

Whatever Happened to Summer????

I keep hearing about global warming, but it seems to have passed us by here in Montana this summer. We have had the wackiest weather ever. It is supposed to get up to only 60 degrees today (the normal being in the 80-90 range), and it is raining. This feels more like March or April. We were going to float the river today, but not in this weather. Don't get me wrong, I am not a fan of super hot weather, but I do like it to be summer when it is August.

On another note, Bruce will be headed to Canada this Friday to go fishing with our son-in-law Clay. He has spent the morning preparing his waders, etc. I think they will have a blast. I, on the other hand, am flying to OK on Friday to spend a few days with Shyla. She has completed the bar and we can have a long weekend of fun and relaxation. I can hardly wait!!!

Since the blog today was mostly about family, and since our fair is in town, I will end with this quote...

If you ever start feeling like you have the goofiest, craziest, most dysfunctional family in the world, all you have to do is go to a state fair. Because five minutes at the fair, you'll be going, 'you know, we're alright. We are dang near royalty.'
Jeff Foxworthy

New House part deux...

I have had a request to post a few pictures of the interior of our new house. While not all inclusive, here are a few views of the insides.....

This is our "formal" living room.






This is the kitchen...duh.



This is the TV room or "den".



And this is the master bedroom.



I didn't post any of the upstairs. You will just have to come and visit to get the full nickel tour.

Meanderings of the Mind...

I wanted to post a couple of pictures of the flowers, mountains, and water I took at camp. Enjoy.


















I hope you have enjoyed this oasis of serenity.

Camp was "Bearable"...

This past week was spent at Yellowstone Bible Camp - our annual trek to Family camp. This is one of our favorite times of the year. This year was enhanced with the presence of Alyson, Jim and Lily for the first few days. One of Lily's favorite things to do was to tear the heads off dandelions and throw them into the creek.



Another of Lily's favorite things was to swing.



She also got to ride on our friend Gene's ATV.



Lily also got to put her feet into the icy water of the creek. BRRRRRR!



Now to the reason for the title. We had a two year old black bear that kept appearing in our camp. He didn't seem like he wanted to cause trouble, he was just curious. We saw him several times throughout the week. We also saw a grizzly sow and two cubs. (I don't have pictures of them.) Never have I seen a bear in this camp in the 19 years I have been going there. It was quite thrilling to see this many this year.






This is our entire group at Family camp. There were about 135 of us. We had a great time renewing old friendships, making new ones, and studying God's Word. Even before the week is over, I am always anticipating the next year.



I would wish for you all that you have such an opportunity to share fellowship with like-minded people and feast on God's Word.

New house...

I thought I would post a couple of pictures of our new house. If it looks big on the outside - it is. The back yard is beautiful. The large apple tree - over the deck - is terrible about shedding its fruit. The deck is covered constantly with little apples and leaves and the little flowers. This is the only thing I don't like about the house. We will trim it back - which it desperately needs. What I would like to do is build a cover over the deck. That would solve most of the problem. I would really like to have a nice shady spot to sit and visit with friends without little apples plopping onto our heads.

We are headed to Bible camp this next week. This is one of the highlights of our year. The lessons are always wonderful and the fellowship is beyond compare. I wish everyone had this sort of experience at least once in their lives. As for us, this is our 18th year. Yeah!!!

Here is my quote for the day:
Family isn't about whose blood you have. It's about who you care about.

No more storage unit...

This weekend we finally cleaned out our storage unit. We now have all of our junk in one central location. Yeah!! When we moved from Dillon to Billings, we didn't have time to do a garage sale, so we just packed it all up and hauled it over here. Now we have the time to sort through our "treasures" and se what we want to keep and what we want to discard. The discard pile is growing by leaps and bounds!!!
In one way it was very nice to be able to get my collectibles back with me. I really missed my elephants!!! ( I just didn't remember that I had so many.) Now the hard part comes with finding places for all the things we kept. Bruce has quite a job in front of him in organizing his work shop - also known as the basement.
Sunday was Father's Day. I have been without my dad since 1977. Bruce's dad is still with us and we are always glad when we get to visit him and play golf with him. On a more personal note...Bruce is a great father and father-in-law! When the girls were growing up, he did special things with them all the time. When the girls were in High School and played soccer, he became a referee so that he could travel and see all their games. In the 6 years of their high school soccer careers, between the two of us, we only missed 3 games. He loved it when the girls wanted to go hiking or fishing with him. Now he has two "sons" with which to spend special times outdoors doing fun things or working or projects. Now he can also be a GREAT grand-pa (Geezer).
Here's to you Bruce - a great, great Dad!!! (not to mention a pretty terrific husband!!!!!!!!!)

Loss...

Being the youngest of 12 children has had its benefits - lots of teasing, several "mothers & fathers" when I was young, great big family reunions and christmases, scads of nieces & nephews, etc. - but it also has its down sides. There are 25 years between me an the oldest sibling. This age difference means that I will be losing my siblings as time goes by. This happened for the second time this weekend. My brother Donald passed away. He was 20 years older than me and was gone from the home by the time I was born. However, he lived in OKC for the majority of his adult life so I did get to know him very well. Of all my brothers (6 in all), he reminded me most of my Daddy. I will miss him, but I know the angels are rejoicing at his arrival. Don - Say hi to Momma & Daddy for me.

Moving....again

We have just moved into our "new-to-us" house in Billings. When we first moved to Billings, we wanted to down size. Our only problem was we down sized too much. Bruce had no place to ply his favorite hobby of woodworking. So we have now Up sized!!! We are moving from a 1766 square foot house to a 47oo square foot house. (2,000 square feet are an unfinished basement - Bruce's new workshop!!) Everything we use on a daily basis - Master bedroom, office, kitchen, laundry, living area - are on the main floor, so I don't have to do stairs too often. It will take us a while to become all settled. Mostly because we still have a huge storage unit to empty - Yippee!! It will be like Christmas, then we'll have a garage sale!!!!!

Now that we have extra room, we expect visitors. Ya'll come!!

Graduation Day...again

This past week we traveled to Oklahoma to see Shyla, our oldest daughter, graduate law school. She has been attending Oklahoma City University School of Law for the past three years. She graduated Summa Cum Laude - 6th in a class of 170. We are so very proud of her and her accomplishments!!
We had a great week visiting with Shyla & Clay. We also got to see one of Shyla's best friends since they were in 7th grade. Other friends that flew in were Gene & Pati from Wyoming. I was also able to see two of my sisters and their husbands. It was exciting to see many old friends at her "dessert party"!!! (It was also very yumy.) We were extremly blessed to be able to be there to witness this wonderful event in Shyla's life. We love you, Shy and are very proud of you!!!!!

A Night of Pure Magic.....

Ok, we went to see David Copperfield. But it was a night of pure magic. I have seen lesser known magicians in person, but his show was a few notches above the rest. I bought these tickets for my husband, Bruce, who is an amateur magician. I don't think he will be disappearing and reappearing any time soon. We had great seats (8th row) and I even brought my binoculars - which I used to try to ferret out the secrets - NO WAY!! How can he make audience members move from on stage to the back of the arena in seconds????
If you have a chance to go see him, I recommend it.

Here's my quip for the day: Many people want to serve God - but only as advisors!

Golf Season

Well, tonight is my second week on my golf league. I only know one person in the league. I met her through a mutual friend, and she was kind enough to ask me to join her team. Last week was the week we set out handicaps. This is the time to golf poorly - right? The idea is to golf a moderately bad game so you can have a high handicap. Obviously, I didn't get the memo in time. I golfed a 47 - parring 4 holes (9 hole league). I never golf this well!!! Oh well, there goes my handicap for the season. Nowhere to go from here but down!!! The weather is rather rainy today, so we'll see what tonight brings.

Here's my quote for the day....

If you watch a game, it's fun. If you play at it, it's recreation. If you work at it, it's golf.
Bob Hope (1903 - 2003)

Springtime in Montana...

Well, guess what!! It snowed again. I golfed in 80 degree weather Tuesday night and today we woke up to snow. I know that every state makes this claim - If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes - but in Montana, it is especially true!!!

We are hosting a party for one of my best friends, Robin, tonight at our home. We have known Robin and her husband Steve for 30 years. They have been a real blessing in our lives. We expect about two dozen people tonight, so we will be cozy in our little house.

My thought for the day is this..."I went out to find a friend, and could not find one there. I went out to be a friend, and friends were everywhere." Anonymous