The Blessing of Family

We had a GREAT day with the family yesterday in WV. We all gathered at Elisabeth and Brad's house. With everyone so spread out in the eastern half of the U.S., it is hard to get everyone together in one place at the same time! With some hard work at rescheduling some things, we accomplished the task! All efforts greatly appreciated as it made for a perfect day of family time. The weather was beautiful and the food was yummy and the play was fun! Even my sister got to spend the day with us.

Before we parted, we got a family group shot. And we did it on the first try! WOOHOO! That must be a miracle in itself! Read further for explanations of a few of the pictures I captured while we were together.

Back row, left to right:
Michael, Kara and Jessica, my sister, Kim, Jessica, Terry, Sawyer and Michael, Cheryl and Nathanael.
Front and center:
Elisabeth, me, Tim, Hannah, Brad and Ryan
Ryan impressing us with his flips.
Kim made Sawyer cry! Bad Kim! :) Isn't that pucker the cutest pucker you have ever seen! :) Quit pinching him, Kim, just to see that cute little pucker!
We had lots of fun playing Corn Hole.
The weather was beautiful and it was perfect for sitting under the shade tree!
Our handsome son, Michael, his beautiful wife, Jessica and Elisabeth
Kim and me
Our beautiful daughters, Elisabeth and Jessica.
Add a cutie pie by the name of Ryan and you've got a beautiful photo.
Our beautiful daughter, Elisabeth, with her handsome husband, Brad (who is getting better at having his picture taken, btw!) :P
Our beautiful daughter, Jessica and her handsome husband, Terry.
Our beautiful granddaughter, Hannah, with our newest cutie patutie grandson, Sawyer. We had to (almost) fight Hannah to have a chance with Chance! :)
Look at that precious, toothless laugh!
Our handsome son, again with his lovely family.

Our handsome son, Nathanael and our beautiful daughter, Jessica.
Liz is talking to Kim's granddaughter, Charity.
I tried to capture a frontal view of Michael, but you can see he turned his head very quickly to avoid the shot! He's still a cutie!
Yep, he even posed a bit for this one, lol! :)
Our beautiful daughter-in-law, Cheryl, with a couple of her favorite boys!

Another wonderful family gathering! Hope we can do it again real soon! LOVE you all! (We need to do a family cruise! :) And Kim wants to go, too! :)

Looking Back

I wanted to post this yesterday, but forgot, lol! We called Hannah yesterday to wish her a Happy 6th Birthday and by the time we finished talking to her I forgot! Oh, Boy! It is so much fun to get old! :)

Anyway! This is for Hannah. This baby picture reminds me so much of Elisabeth when she was a baby because the biggest thing on her was her brilliant blue eyes!
This picture was taken January 14, 2005 of Hannah. Look at those eyes!
This was taken of Liz sometime in 1984. I would say she is about a year old. Look at those eyes!
This was taken in 1984, too! Actually, I may have been taken at the end of 1983 when we first moved to this house on Race Road in Cincinnati. It is hard to see because of the blur, but Liz's eyes are pretty big here, too!
Speaking of eyes, lol! Hannah has stars in her eyes in this one taken during VBS this year! This is her prize she picked out.
And, here's our big eyed, toothless little girl, who will be in the 1st grade this year! This was taken during the week she spent with Kara.
I found a picture of Liz when she was 6. How cute! This was taken 10/30/1989. She is holding a saw blade I painted for my dad's birthday (10/31/89). I don't know about you, but I can sure see the resemblance between mommy and daughter when Liz was Hannah's age!

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Pictures from the Week

Well, we all survived the thunderstorms tonight.......except for my computer! It will not turn on now. The electricity went off and on several times. I guess it went off one too many times, unfortunately! At least I had mostly all the important stuff on my EHD! Hopefully, the church has some home owner's insurance that will allow the computer to be fixed!

Anyway, I did post a few more pictures than you saw before. Now, I'll add a little caption to explain them:

This was taken on Tuesday at the pool. I didn't swim, but watched the baby instead. This is a picture of the girls and me.

Poor Michael!
Kara says about her cousin, Sawyer....."I love him more than he is cute!" :)
If Sawyer was awake, the kids wanted to be near him or holding him!
Kara, Hannah and Ryan having fun in the pool.
Mom and son having a talk about son's attitude.
A good group shot!
Even baby Sawyer enjoyed a cool dip!
VBS prop with Hannah and Kara going to the bottom of the deep blue sea!
Kara rubbing Sawyer's head ever so gently.
Sawyer did not blink an eye through the whole photo shoot!








Kara is sitting by her new friend she made in VBS, Elise.
Michael sporting a stick on flower for an earring!
My beautiful girls!

Man's Best Friend

Hey! Just wanted to share a couple of pages I did of the dogs, Sammy and Sebastian.
Maddy Fernandez created the perfect kit for doggy pages, so I did a couple to show off her kit!
The kit is "Man's Best Friend." You can find it at Digitals.

Another Week Bites the Dust!

On Monday, we drove to Talcott, WV (3 hour trip) for the 60th Annual Mountain State Missionary Baptist Bible Conference (as the sign below clearly indicates, lol!). They usually begin the services after the 5:00 meal on Monday. However, this year the services started at 2:00. So, we were late. It was 2:05 when we pulled into the parking lot of the church to pick up the key to the cabin where we would spend the night. The parking lot of the church was full, which was unusual for this time of the day. Tim saw someone walking across the parking lot and asked what was going on. They told him the services had started at 2:00. OOOPS! We were not dressed to stay for the services, and instead of interrupting Bro. Stalnaker for the key to the cabin, we just hoped that someone was still there so we could get in to change our clothes. Well, that was not to happen! So, guess where we got dressed? On the deck in the back of the house which is next to the woods. Fortunately, the houses are not that close, so no one could see us. You should have seen me trying to hold my clothes and undress and dress without anything touching the dirty deck! I tucked my blouse between my legs, slipped my skirt over my head and over my shirt and capris. Took my shirt off. Folded it and placed it on the cleanest spot I could find on the deck railing. Put my blouse on. Slipped my capris off and folded them and laid them on my shirt on the railing. Put my slip on and readjusted my skirt over it. Then slipped my dressy sandals on and I was ready to go! Did you get all of that as a visual! :) Then we headed back to the church, which is about 5 minutes away from the cabin.

We slipped in the back door of the church near the fellowship hall so we could use the restrooms before entering the auditorium. We slipped into a back pew so we wouldn't disturb the preaching that had already started. At 3 they broke for a snack before the second preacher would begin. Then at 4 we were released until 5 when we would meet for the evening meal. We got a key and headed back to the cabin to unload the car. Also, Tim had to change clothes again because he learned he was scheduled to preach that evening instead of Tuesday evening like he thought he was scheduled for.

The rest of the time we were there went alot smoother than it started out, lol! The only other problem was that I had a rough night in the bed, which was comfortable enough.....it just wasn't home. You know how that goes! Sometimes your own pillow just isn't enough to help you sleep in a strange bed!

On Tuesday, we got up in time for Tim to join the preachers in prayer at 7. Then he came back to get me for breakfast at 8. The preaching started at 9. At 12 we broke for lunch. After lunch, we were free until the 5 o'clock meal. So, we headed back to the cabin. Tim changed clothes, I just changed into my flip flops and we walked down to the Greenbriar River that the cabin property is on. That's when I took the butterfly pictures below.

I tried to take a nap the rest of the afternoon, but just couldn't catch but a few winks. But I guess the rest helped, cuz I was able to stay awake and was more alert through the evening preaching than I was during the morning preaching! After the evening services on Tuesday we headed on back to NC so we would be here for the Wednesday services. It was about 12:15 a.m. when we got home. And I slept like a LOG!

Wednesday, I worked on VBS stuff all afternoon. I just straightened up our painting mess and fixed the tables and chairs for the dinner we are going to have this Sunday for one of the girls who is going to Grenada in the West Indies for her veterinary studies for 3 years! Doesn't that sound wonderful!

Today, we did our usual thrift store shopping and picked up some fish for my little tank.

Here's some pictures from the week with explanations posted above them.



Banner at the conference. Too dark because I took the picture from the back of the auditorium.

This was totally gross as these butterfly were doing something with this pile of animal droppings! Surely that isn't why the butterflies are so pretty! YUCK!!
This is the teeny tiny fish tank I got at the thrift store last week. This week we saw a 10 gallon one with a stand for $15! Doesn't that figure!
And, here's my 3 Neon Tetras that we got today. And you can see the pink coral decoration that I got today, too.
Here's a clearer picture. Notice how the Tetra furthest to the right of the picture is rounder than the other two? Well, when I noticed this, I told Tim I thought that I had a pregnant Tetra. But, in reading about breeding Tetras, they need special conditions to breed, none of which they had in the pet store. But, the females are rounder than the males, so I believe I have 2 males and a female. I love their coloring!

And that's my story and I'm sticking with it! Until next time!

Boy! Is it hot!

We were out door knocking this morning and within 1/2 hour I was feeling the heat pretty badly! Those of you who know me, know I inherited not being able to take the heat from my dad! My face starts turning beet red and if I'm not careful, I end up with a headache that sends me to bed! Fortunately, that did not happen today! I tend not to sweat, excuse me, perspire.....but today I was sweating like a ..... hog? dog? You finish the saying cuz I don't remember, lol!

After going door to door, Tim and I made a couple of other visits and the air conditioning in the car took care of cooling me off! And when I step outside of the car, my glasses immediately steam up! What a pain! It's ok as long as I'm not having to read something! Getting old is a pain! Literally! It will be so nice when we all get to heaven and all of the aches and pains disappear! No more tears! No more sorrows! It is hard to imagine, isn't it?! And, the way the world is these days, I just have a feeling the LORD could return any day!

The rest of the day was spent painting on VBS props and sorting and getting the crafts ready! So, Jessica D, if you are looking, unless something unexpected comes up, it should be no problem to meet you half way to pick up the girls one week from Monday, August 2nd.......that is the correct date, right???? as I smile remembering a past trip! :)

Hope everyone has a blessed day in the LORD's house tomorrow!