HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

To all the men in our lives. :)

My father died when I was 30. I miss seeing what he would have been like if he had grown old. Somehow, I know he would have been kind and gentle. That is how I remember him. I could see him enjoying sitting on the front porch, swinging with the girls, and telling them stories about his farm when he was a boy, just like he told me. I am sad that they missed that from him.

My dad died at 54 years old. It is weird to think that I am almost his age.

Mike's dad is in his 70's, and as active as ever. Well maybe not as ever, I can't really picture him waterskiing anymore, but if he reads this he just might try it to prove me wrong. :)

Mike's dad has been grampa to all of our kids and he is a wonderful grampa.
He is my dad, and I love him so dearly.
The girlies ADORE him too.

Chuck is the daddy to two girls and one just turned 13! One will be 5 on Monday.
He is also a great dad. He loves his girls dearly.

Joseph is dad to Sam. Sam is just like his dad and adores him. I'm sure Joe adores Sam too. But my guess is Joe can't wait to have deep discussions with Sam when he is older and you just can't do that with a 2 year old. LOL Joe is a wonderful father.

Marcus is a dad, soon to be x's 2~! I have seen Marc with Will. He is a tender and gentle father. Will Adores Marc and Marc will. It is so evident in how they look at each other. Another little boy will be here next month. We can't wait to meet him. :)

Tim is a dad too. He has been dad to 4 children now, but none of them get to stay. Tim is a special foster dad. He and Em's are on a much needed vacation this week, so Happy Father's day to Tim too. :)

Smarty Pants

Anna asked me, "Mama, can you stand with one foot on your head?"
I was watching her contort into all sorts of positions to try and get her foot on her head.

I said, "Of course I can! I'll be right back!"
I got this original bright idea I thought....

I went to find a "spare leg" from the guest room. When I came back, she had beat me to the punch! She found a spare leg in her closet.

So here she is, standing with one foot on her head. :)

My Shy Ballerina

Old and Scared

We have a friend who is in the hospital. He isn't being treated very well. It makes me so sad.

If the medical staff knew my friend like I know my friend, would they still treat him like yesterday's trash?

He doesn't look like himself. He has no family, or at least no family he is close to. He is swollen and in terrible pain from an infection. I asked what was wrong with him, as he lay there crying and the nurse said, "I dunno" and left. I lifted his blankets to check his feet and they were swollen tight. He asked me to rub his feet, which I did for about 2 hours. He was covered in pee, and couldn't roll over. His heels had sores on them. When I lifted his foot he grimaced in pain.

We visited him just 4 weeks ago and he was sitting in a chair chatting away. He didn't look well, but he didn't look like this!

For those who are "caring" for him. He is just a bothersome old man. Nobody to be cherished. They don't want to come in his room because they have to gown up before they go in. They certainly didn't want to change his diaper.

So I did. He is so sick, he didn't mind. I just couldn't stand to see my friend laying in a pile of pee.

Do those nurses know that he was the graphic artist for Star Wars? He designed the space ships that brought entertainment to millions? Do they know he was the main graphic artist for Pete's Dragon? and countless other films?

No, to them, he is a worthless old man.

The truth is, it shouldn't change his treatment if they did know. We all have value. We are all precious. Even old men who cannot get their teeth in, and can't sit up anymore.

We would love for him to come and stay with us, while he recuperates. I pray he gets stronger and continues on as before. He will need to be able to walk with a walker before he can come to our home.

I think that is a motivator for him.

He said today, that if he gets better he is coming to church with us. :)
"Does it matter if I'm Jewish?"
I said, "I hope not, because I'm Irish, English, German, French and Indian and I don't think they care." :)

Please pray that he can get better to a point of walking, so that we can help him.
The hospital wants him to go to a nursing home for now. If he does, please pray that we find one close by.
Thanks.

The Wig

Our friend JJ gave us a blonde wig to play around with. I think Anna looks much better in it than Daddy. He sort of reminds me of "Gorgeous George". LOL

Erika's Birthday Dance

Erika's Day

Let me start by saying I could just kick myself! We went to JJ's pool, and I even brought my camera! Did I take a picture? Not! And guess what! She was SWIMMING, REALLY SWIMMING without her life jacket. She was diving for plastic fish and retrieving them again and again.

I will forever have that picture in my mind, and I will never say never again! I would have never ever dreamed she could swim, but swim she can! YEA ERIKA! What a great birthday gift! Thank You Lord. :)

Next, we started birthday dinner. Erika loves Sourcream Chicken Enchiladas, and she also likes to help cook. Here she is cutting onions. :)


Next was the cheesecake. I didn't make a home made one this year, but bought one of those multi kinds with different flavors. It looks dinky, but they ate it ALL! So it must have tasted good. :)


Here is Erika and Daddy watching her movie pick. :)


What a nice end to a lovely day. :)
Happy Birthday Baby! You are a wonderful awesome daughter! A mama could not be more proud. :)

The Big 11!

Erika is the birthday girl today. She starts the 11's. :)


She wanted her presents hidden well! So we did! :)





Sarah could barely contain herself... she really wanted to give some clues. :)

I Was Check Mated!

By a 10 year old! Dang!

The Daddy Daughter Birthday Dance

Sarah's Cake Celebration

She thought daddy's singing was just so funny, she couldn't stop laughing!

Then there was the blowing out of the candles! She did great!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR SARAH!

Can I say she is amazing, sweet, funny, loving, adorable and everything I would have ever dreamed of to make a perfect daughter? SHE IS!

The Terrific Tens

Today is Sarah's Birthday.



Yesterday we celebrated Erika and Sarah's birthdays with a trip to the Lake. Erika's birthday is tomorrow, which means All the girls are 10 today.

We love to have day long birthday fun... so we started out with favorite breakfast, and then the hiding of the presents. Gramma Minich makes this really fun, because she sent several presents too. :)


Sarah doesn't have to pretend to wear a locket anymore. We got her a real one. :)




The morning was spent trying to locate them. We are picking harder and harder places so as the girlies are getting older. Somehow Sarah still found them all before 11:00 a.m. :)

Anna got in on the action too. Gramma got her a matching dress. :)



Tonight will be cake and ice cream.

Whew! What a Weekend!

It started on Friday, with our sweet nephew Kevin marrying his childhood sweet heart Nikki. They are safely in Jamaica on their honeymoon today. I could kick myself a thousand times because I forgot my camera! But I'm sure I 'll get some pics forwarded to me.

Because we had family here from Oklahoma and Arizona, the girls got to go and visit with cousins Emily and Lindsey, and swim with Aunt Carla, Aunt Cindy and Uncle Bob.
Uncle Bob was a hit in the pool. Here is is with just 4 little girls. :)


Erika has learned to swim! Yea! If you had asked me 2 years ago, pessimistic mom would have said no way. She wears a life jacket in the pool. But this year she has been working very hard and I have noticed she is ready to try swimming without the jacket. Well, she did it! She took off! Aunt Carla was right there instructing her and making sure she was safe.



The girls love it when they can visit with gramma, grampa and cousins.




Tonight we went to our neighbor's house for a big celebration. Their son graduated from high school. There was a big bbq, more swimming, a live band..... and now,
we are tired. But tomorrow! LAKE. It is birthday week! :)

A Friend's Son

I have a great cyber friend who has adopted many special needs children. Her son Joe, now has his own blog. I was reading it yesterday and today, and this young man just radiates the Love of Christ.

Please visit his precious blog. He has really blessed my heart today in his post talking about his mom and dad sharing Christ with him, and how happy he is.

Join Joe's Blog! You will be blessed. :)



He is also on my sidebar now, as his his mama (blessed by a child)

Breakfast Fantasies

Anna and Sarah are getting quite creative. Anna made toast with honey and cinnamon with an A swirled onto her honey cinnamon concoction. Sarah made a fruit plate. :)

Relaxing in the Pool

My friend JJ took this photo of Erika and Sarah relaxing in her pool. :)
Thanks JJ, I love the picture. :)

Never Mind

When the girlies have lunch, sometimes I let them watch something while they eat, like a video or CD that isn't too long. They love the Waltons, Little House on the Prairie and Andy Griffith.

Today, Sarah came up and said, "Mommy, do you remember when we did Prairie Days and pretended we lived a long time ago, and put on old dresses and didn't use electricity?"

I said, "I sure do!"

She very excitedly said, "Can we do it again today!"

It is lunch time so I said, "sure that would be great!"

Then I said, "But that means no TV because we don't have electricity."

She turned around rather abruptly and said, "never mind". LOL

Thoughts about Wisdom and Foolishness

We have been studying Proverbs in our family worship time. Last night we started Chapter 9. As were were reading, the poetic wording was so similar to chapter 2 where wisdom calls out.
All through out the book so far we are seeing the contrast of wise and the fool. The simple and the guarded. It is so very clear, that seeking wisdom, keeping on guard, being watchful, brings blessing. But foolishness brings destruction.

As we continued through chapter 9, Folly is presented in the same poetic form.
Saying the same sort of thing. "Who ever is simple, turn in here!"
And that is where the similarity ends.

The simple who turns into the wise house, receives instruction and understanding.
The simple who turns into the house of folly is lead to destruction and peril.

Oh that God would give us understanding, that we would as Proverbs 7 says, "Say to wisdom, you are my sister, and call insight your intimate friend...."

Proverbs 9:10- The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One, is insight.

Oh that I would make wisdom my sister, and insight my intimate friend. :)

A Special Trip

We had an interesting day. I took the girlies and my grand daughter on our annual zoo trip.
We love to take the train to the zoo, as it stops right in front and we don't have to drive in traffic.

So, we set out this a.m.
The train has a special platform for the handicapped so they can walk onto the train safely without going up stairs and right by the entrance/exit there are roomy seats for those like Erika, who don't bend, or for wheel chairs.

On our way, the driver was cheery, and sweet, welcomed us onto the train and Erika sat in the front seat where she could fit comfortably. There was a nice man sitting next to her and he offered to move, but I said it was fine, and I sat a couple of rows back with the other kids.

I caught glimpses of them talking while the train was going, but didn't know what they were talking about. She was smiling and engaged in conversation and seemed quite comfortable. About 30 minutes into our trip, the man and his family got up to leave and he turne with tears in his eyes and said, "she is one special little girl."

Erika later told me that he was adopted too. :-)
So they must have touched on that subject.

We had a great time at the zoo, then our trip home was in stark contrast to the trip on the way.

First, we endured a very agitated train driver who shouted out, "I don't see a handicapped person here!" Erika cheerily said, "I must have been hiding!"
He quickly apologized and I thought to myself, good grief guy, there are many handicaps that cannot be even seen, like heart issues? Hello!

So she sat in the front once again, and we sat behind her. Then came the man 4 stops later in an electric chair. He saw her sitting there and rudely demanded she move! She struggled to get up and move over to the other side, where he could have gone, and he apologized and said, "I didn't know you were handicapped". I held my tongue. But I could see she felt humiliated.

So, we got to our last stop and our driver already knew where we were getting off. He pulled up to the ramp and about 4 business people who were standing at that exit became annoyed saying "why is he doing that???" We were stuck behind them, and so I did say, "maybe because somebody needs it?" They all rudely left.

The driver really was sweetly trying to make up for his tyrade from before and we joked with him and apologized for not bringing him cotton candy from the zoo.

When we got into the car, Erika and I looked at each other and I said, "That train ride was exhausting!" She agreed.

And then, we both agreed to remember the sweet man on the way, and forget the other ones on the way back.

I just love her ability to roll things off and concentrate on the good. :-)

I truly hope that as she gets older, we can continue to instill that attitude in her and in us.
That man is right, she is one special little girl :-)

Sunday Funnies

We were playing a game of Blockus.

Sarah sneezed.... Erika says, "ew, she snoozed on me!" Sarah said, "no I didn't, I up-chooed on you!"

Anna chimed in with, "Well, you can't make a silk purse from a sows ear!"

I think I'm tired. :)