Chilly Memorial Day in the Northland

Teen Challenge had their Annual Memorial Day Picnic at Chambers Park on the St. Louis River just a few miles from my house. Family was invited. It was 50 degrees and the wind was so chilly coming off the river. It is such a nice park tho. As you can see we were gathered in the Pavilion where the big fire was to keep us warm. When I left Philip was taking Ashley and Alex fishing. My allergies were bothering me so bad from the wind as you can see by my eyes, so I had to leave. Hope you all had a good day.

Great Quotes

The rain of His grace is always dropping; the river of His bounty is ever flowing; the well-spring of His love is constantly overflowing. Daily His branches bend down to our hand with a fresh store of mercy. Who can know the number of His benefits or recount the list of His bounties? The countless stars are like the standard bearers of a more innumerable host of blessings. Oh, that my praise would be as ceaseless as His bounty! -C. H. Spurgeon

God has foreordained the works to which He has called you. He has been ahead of you preparing the place to which you are coming and manipulating all the resources of the universe in order that the work you do may be a part of His whole great and gracious work. -G. Campbell Morgan

Maddi

Maddi and Taylor (Our Niece Ami's girls) each stay overnight at Sandi's one night a week by themselves. Sandi has great one on one time with the girls and it is good for Sandi too.

Sandi was explaining to Maddi that earlier that day Jason and family and Sandi had gone out to the cemetery to visit Grandma Great's grave because it was her birthday. Sandi went on to expalin that "Grandma was not really there, just her old body, but she was in heaven with Jesus." Maddi asked "Why did you go see her if she wasn't there??" (pretty receptive eh?) Then Sandi said "yes, Grandma Great was in heaven and she had a new body and she didn't have to use a cane or a wheelchair any more, and when we go to heaven we will be with her!". Maddi responded "But I don't want a new body!" ......don't you just love children????

William

What a blessing for me to have my long time friend from New Hampshire come for a spring visit! He has been on a road trip for 8 weeks and has had the opportunity to visit many friends and family along the way, and to discover new places he had never been. He left today and will travel back to NH via Canada. I pray the Lord will bring him to his desired haven!

What a blessing his friendship has been to me.

California Cousins!

Three of my "California Cousins" came to Minnesota for a Memorial Service for their Mom, my Aunt Rose who went to be with Jesua in December of 2007. We had a nice service and a great time together with other cousins.

~Dad in his glory with his daughters and nieces:Dad, Susan, Barb and Sandi and Cindy, Julie and Connie

~Connie, Barb and Susan

~Connie and Susan

~Connie, Julie "Bug" and Mike

~Mike Sherman

What a great heritage we had coming from a big family!

Mom is celebrating her 77th birthday in Heaven!

This will always be a special day knowing it was Mom's birthday! Here she is with some of her Grandsons!

~with baby Trenton

~with Preston and Charlie

~with Gavin.

She loved her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

We miss you Mama!

Wildflowers:Trillium

Saw my first Trillium of the season. I find them in the ditches off the Becks Road. They are so beautiful! I know God made them just for me! I have seen more of them in Wisconsin but I see that they are not protected in that state.


Picking Trillium for their flower can seriously injure the plant. The three leaves (more correctly leafy bracts) below the flower are the plant's only ability to produce food stores and a picked trillium can take many years to recover. For this reason in many areas, e.g. British Columbia, Michigan[1], New York, Minnesota,[2] and Washington, it is illegal to pick and/or transplant trilliums from public lands without a permit from the State.

Mother's Day 2009

Today is the day we remember our Mother. I love this picture of Mom and her girls in 1962 and then on Mother's Day 2005. I do believe being a good Mother is the most important job in the world. Our Mom took it seriously and loved all of us with her whole heart and all six of us children never doubted that! I do have 3 brothers but they have never been good about posing for a picture so I am limited in what pics I have that include them! We miss you sweet Mama but we are happy you are painfree in Heaven with Jesus!

Happy Nurse's Day May 6th!

We did not hear much about Nurse's Day this year, don't think anyone wished me a happy one!

This picture is of Minnie Gould the first graduate of St. Luke's School of Nursing, graduating in 1891, back then it was an 18 month program. St. Luke's was the 2nd school of nursing to open in Minnesota. I graduated in 1974 and it was a 3 year program. St. Luke's closed it's School of Nursing in 1986 and it was the last 3 year diploma school to close in the state of Minnesota. A very sad day. I will never regret the time I spend in Nursing School and the memories I made will never end. What a great 3 years it was. Happy Nurse's Day my fellow nurses!

Congratulations Philip!

Today marks one year since my nephew Philip has been in Teen Challenge. TC is a faith based residential treatment center for drugs and alcohol. He is there because he wanted to change and he is letting God change him from the inside out. It is a very hard program and is not intended for the faint of heart. It is a lot of work but once you turn your life over to the Lord, he gives the strength to go forward, even tho some weeks are a step forward and 2 steps back. Philip will graduate from the program sometime in July. Continue to pray for him as he is praying for God to show him what He wants him to do when he gets out. He does know he wants to stay in the area to be close to Alex and Ashley and they need their Daddy!

You go Philip! I am proud of you!!!!

(pictures with Alex and Alshley this winter and with his Grandpa Jack last week!)

Consider how great things He has done for you. 1 Samuel 12:24

Look back on all the way the Lord your God has led you. Do you not see it dotted with ten thousand blessings in disguise? Call to mind the needed relief sent at the critical moment; the right way chosen for you instead of the wrong way you had chosen for yourself; the hurtful thing to which your heart so fondly clung, removed out of your path; the breathing-time granted, which your tried and struggling spirit just at the moment needed. Oh, has not Jesus stood at your side when you knew it not? Has not Infinite Love encircled every cloud with its merciful lining? Oh, retrace your steps, and mark His footprints in each one! Thank Him for them all, and learn the needed lesson of leaning more simply on Jesus. –F. Whitfield

God is the one who will fulfill His purpose for me. – A. W. Tozer

God is over all things, under all things, outside all things; within, but not enclosed; without, but not excluded; above, but not raised up; below, but not depressed; wholly above presiding, wholly beneath sustaining, wholly without embracing, and wholly within filling. –author unknown.

~so grateful that He knows best for my life.....susan

Ponderisms

PONDERISMS
~I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes. ~Gardening Rule: When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.
~The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement.
~Never take life seriously Nobody gets out alive anyway.
~There are two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead.
~Life is sexually transmitted.
~Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
~The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.
~Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.
~Have you noticed since everyone has a camcorder these days no one talks about seeing UFOs like they used to?
~Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.
~All of us could take a lesson from the weather.It pays no attention to criticism.
~In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
~How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire? ~Who was the first person to crack open a live oyster that looks like a lumpy gray rock and say, 'That pulsing, slimy stuff looks delicious!'
~Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer?
~If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a song about him?
~Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet Soup?
~Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him on a car ride; he sticks his head out the window?
~Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?

....let me know if you have any answers to my ponderings?????

Sisters

I am so grateful that God blessed me with 2 sisters. I was with Cindy last week for part of a day and Sandi this week for 5 days. Cindy gave each of us this sister tile....have we changed much? Are we growing old gracefully? I am not so sure about that but we can still laugh at ourselves and each other, so that must be a good sign! Three cheers for sisters!!