Monday, July 5, 2010

Grand Old Flag

We had a very fun and blessed 4th of July. The Sunday morning service at church was just wonderful. They had all the service men and women come forward to be recognized, we had special music and a drama presentation then an awesome message from Perry Adkinson. After church we came home and got ready for our 4th of July party. Mary was so excited to help me with all the decorations. She got her face painted with stars and flags in Sunday School, so she was already decorated. Grandma Cardwell gave her some light sticks and a glow in the dark wand. She had so much fun with that. We all ate snacks and played Yahtzee until it was dark enough to light the sparklers and fireworks. Then we came in and watched the fireworks back in Boston on TV. Mary just collapsed while watching TV and Daddy carried her to bed. She was fast asleep even though the fireworks in the neighborhood were going off up until midnight!






Here is the link:http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=b4b4f8fdcc6b43046c0abd&skin_id=601&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

P.S. Dear Aunt Harlean Rich said that when I played this slide show for him, he sees you marching around to the Yankee Doodle Dandy dance when he was kid.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Yummy Corn!

We did a little candid camera at the dinner table:) Mary sure loves that corn!







Here is link to the video: http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=b43dbc6f37f21fb51cdd1b&skin_id=1603&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Have a happy and blessed 4th of July weekend!

Friday, July 2, 2010

My Book

I received my book of my blog yesterday in the mail. I was so pleased to get it. It is a years worth of posts and they did such a great job! I showed it to Rich and Mary and they had so much fun looking through it and remembering all our family events. It will be such a great keepsake for us to go back and see what we did through the years and see how Mary has grown. Mary will also have a record of the wonderful stories of faith and how the Lord has helped us and her grandparents before her.











Many blessing to you today!

Monday, June 28, 2010

Hot, Hot, Hot

It has finally warmed up here. We have had a very cool June, but now that is over and we are having weather in the 90's! I got out Mary's wading pool and spray mat today. She had a blast playing in the water. I also was getting it all set up, as she is having a play date with a sweet little girl from church on Wednesday. She is so excited to have a friend come visit and play with her. She went last week to her house to play and had a blast. The little girl's grandmother takes care of her during the day. So we are so excited to have them over this week. Summer time is a busy time for me. Between housework and yard work and playing with Mary my days are very full and very fun! I don't get as much time to do blogging so my posts will be a little bit shorter due to time restraints but I am sure that is true with most people.





I pray you have a blessed day!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

A Spelling Bee



My little girl is growing up so fast! She has been watching several PBS shows on TV that teach the kids to read phonetically. She was in her car seat the other day and a Toyota truck was in front of us at the stop light. She read each one of the letters on the tail gate, T O Y O T A and wanted to know what it said. So, she is reading letters and I know she will be reading words soon. She now knows that water is spelled W A T E R and that is doesn't spell drought! Have a blessed day dear friends!

Here is the link to the video: http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=b3123277e02709aeb3de9b&skin_id=1603&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url


Saturday, June 19, 2010

Father's Day Weekend

We went to Lithia Park today to have fun with Mary and enjoy the beauty of the park. Mary loves to go see the duck pond and play in the playground. Rich is such a wonderful father and I am so blessed by him and so proud of him. Tomorrow we are going to take him and his dad out to Outback Steakhouse for Sunday lunch. I am finished with editing my blog book and now I just need to send it out to be published. I am so excited! They did such a great job last year and I know it will be so fun for us to have a read as the years go by. It will be a wonderful thing for Mary to see and read all the stories of our lives. Blessings to you all on this wonderful weekend to remember and honor our dads!




Here is the link to the video: http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=b2e1067d88a7cbf0bba21f&skin_id=1603&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Amazing Flowers!



This just blows me away! You can click on each photo to enlarge it so the text is easier to read.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

PB and J





Mary was enjoying a peanut butter and jelly sandwich the other day and I couldn't resist snapping a few shots of her. I have been very busy getting my blog into a book. I did it last year and it came out so well that I have decided to do it each year. That way I will have it for Mary to read and look at when she gets older. The process takes a lot of time for editing but it sure is worth it!

Monday, June 7, 2010

Wounds Becoming Battle Scars

Have you ever had something very painful emotionally or physically happen to you? This event can leave a wound on your body or in your heart, causing tears and sorrow. In a physical wound in will eventually heal and the pain will diminish and then go away but a lot of times a scar is left that will remind you of that event. I have a few, like most people I’m sure. I have a inch long scar on the back of my thigh that I got when I was about 8 years old. I had received a Sting Ray bicycle for my birthday that year and the big thing to do in my neighborhood was to pop wheelies. I wasn’t very good at it so I was practicing all by myself. I got the front wheel up in the air and then I let the seat pass between my legs but I misjudged the sharpness of the curled up fender on the back wheel and sliced the back of my thigh. I saw the blood first and then I felt the pain. I went crying into my house and my mom got me in the tub, washed it clean and put a tight bandage on it. I will never forget that event because I have the scar. The pain is gone but the scar is there always. We have emotional wounds inflicted on us and they cause a lot of pain but these can hurt much longer than a physical wound. The healing to these wounds many times escape us. They remain a hidden sore spot that causes anger, crying, or pain when an event in our lives reminds us of what happened to us earlier. We can’t seem to get past it. I have had 3 deep emotional pains like this in my life. The death of my mother, the breaking up of several serious dating relationships when I was younger which led to being single for a long time. Mother’s Day was hard and holidays, the announcement of someones upcoming marriage and attending weddings were hard too. It usually would bring a deep pain in my heart of feeling lost and missing my mom’s love or a sharp pain of rejection. I knew that the Lord loved me and that usually was my only true solace. God was so good to me and gave many things to be thankful for. The greatest pain came after those first 2 pains were healed by the meeting of my husband and our wedding. We had been married for 2 years and I found out that I was pregnant. We were so excited. We both had wanted a child very much and had waited many years for this event. We both were walking close to the Lord. We were serving him and putting him first in our lives. Our friends and family were all so excited and happy for us. Then on my second doctor’s appointment I found out that the little baby’s heart beat was not there. I was almost 8 weeks pregnant. I remember sitting in the doctor’s office waiting for the final results and it was not good. I left the office numb. I cried all the way home and laid down next to my husband on the bed and sobbed uncontrollably. I had a thread of hope for a few days after that but on Christmas Day I miscarried and had to go in for a D and C a couple of days later. I felt so sad and empty and alone. I was 44 years old and Satan the enemy of my soul was starting to have a hay day with me. He accused me of being too old and that no one would sympathize with my loss because it wasn’t meant to be anyway. People in their 40’s were not meant to have kids. I knew it was lie, but it was so hard to deal with. I cried many hours by myself not wanting any one to know my pain. I began to ask God why? I had done all that he had asked. I had waited for my husband, we had dated in complete purity, our first kiss was on our wedding day. We had gotten out of debt and were living a simple life in a small apartment and just loving and enjoying each other. Why had he let this happen? I wished that I had never gotten pregnant. But after several months of horrible pain, I just told the Lord, “I will serve you no matter what.” I could tell that most people thought that losing that child was the end for having kids because of our age. But my sweet husband just kept trusting God and said that the Lord could do anything. I refused to keep hoping in my conscious mind, is was just too painful. We moved to Oregon, Rich got a really good job and we were able to rent a really nice home. I got pregnant right when we moved in to the house but I didn’t know it. We moved all our stuff, I worked out in the yard getting it ready for planting some flowers that summer. I felt a little tired and had a few other symptoms of pregnancy but ignored them, I felt like I just couldn’t hope any more. Then a dear friend came to visit and she had not seen me for a year. She knew I was pregnant before I did. After she left I bought a home pregnancy test just to please her and I was in complete shock when it showed positive. All my symptoms over that last few months came together and I realized I was at least 3 months pregnant maybe more. I told Rich and he was thrilled! Fear entered my heart, Satan was attacking me again, but I just began to rejoice in my heart. With fear and trembling I carried our baby girl full term and gave birth to her when I was 46 years old. Now she is 3 1/2 years old and my heart is so happy we have her. Yes, I get asked quite often if I am her grandmother, but you know what I don’t care. She is God’s gift to us and my life is so blessed. That wound of losing our first baby is healed. I still think about that little one and I feel I will see that child some day in heaven. But the tears of sorrow are gone and all that is left is hope. I have no regrets God has healed my pain. The Lord has said in Isaiah 61:2 -3 that He has come to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion , giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. What ever wounds or pain that you have God can heal them, if you let Him.

Our precious gift from God when she was 5 months old.


Thursday, June 3, 2010

Picking Strawberries One Day...

A few days ago my daughter, Mary, and I were out in our little strawberry patch picking berries. When I would pick one that had been eaten on my birds or slugs or was a little malformed, Mary would proclaim, “That one has a boo boo!” She then wanted to give it a toss. I would laugh and tell her that we could save part of it by cutting out the bad part. This reminded me of a childhood memory of picking strawberries. I told her that my brother and I called all strawberries, boo boos. I don’t know why but we did. She smiled and went on in her hunt for red strawberries to pick. I began to think back on other childhood memories. We grew up in a small rural subdivision that was surrounded by wheat and alfalfa fields. There was a wire fence at the back of our property with large wooden posts. From this fence you could see the acres of farmland stretch out. The farmer that owned the land was Doris. In the spring she would put on a very large straw hat, leaving a few tufts of gray hair flying in the breeze, and get on her large red tractor and work the fields. Every time she would come around, we would climb up on the fence posts and wave at her. She would always wave back with a big smile! My brother and I were small and were not old enough to go to school yet. My brother was so impressed by Doris’ plowing and tractor that he called all tractors, Dories. When I got older that memory was so profound to me. It made me think of serving the Lord. When we serve the Lord it is like working in a field. The Lord is farmer and he has chosen to work through us. So we are like the tractors but the honor and glory goes to the Lord, who is the farmer. Just like my brother called the tractor a Dorie instead of a Ford or John Deere.