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.