Summer is Almost Over

Well summer has been a very productive one. Our house is now finished except for guttering and getting some things changed and painted up, porch, swing a few doors. We are loving the looks of the house and can't believe the difference it has made in the appearance. I will post before and after pictures soon

My Grandson finally made it home for his summer visit and I saw a few things this summer that I really was not really ready for, well I knew they were coming but you never want these things to make you feel you are really getting old and where has the time gone. My grandson is about 6'1" and kisses me on top of the head most the time because he doesn't like bending down to my 5'3" and giving me a real hug, once in awhile I do get a good hug from him. It is also amazing to hear him talk and I can tell him from his sisters now. When I would talk with him on the phone I would have to talk awhile so I could figure who I talking to before calling them by name. He is turning in to a very good looking young man . Where has my little grandson gone and it happens so quickly. I love the person he is.

Also going on at the same time we went camping for 4 days, had a really awesome time with family and friends and celebrated my granddaughters 17th birthday, seems like yesterday I was watching her be born. She being my 1st grandchild we spent much time together. She is a junior in high school and driving. Her mother got her a car for her 17th birthday so we came home and took it to the lake on her birthday, hide notes for her to find it and put a bow on it. She was very excited and cried a lot. She look so grown up getting into her car and driving off with brother, sister and grandfather (only has her permit). Seem like yesterday she was learning to ride a 2 wheeler. What a wonderful young woman she is.

That just leaves my youngest grandchild Jordan. I was worried I would not be as close to her because I was not present and overseeing her birth like the other two. We were still living in CA and I new I would not spend much time with her till she was about 1 1/2. Well God took care of that because he made her like her grandma, she like all the same things I like and we can both hang out in craft stores for hours, she loves to shop and we spend a lot of time together. She was amazing to watch camping. She has grown up a lot this summer,her actions, her speech. We did some tubing on the lake it was one of those MasterCard ads, tube 85.00, gas 10.00 grandchild's laughter priceless, we could hear her laughing on shore as she was flying in the tube behind grandpa's boat. It was a wonderful time seeing her and brother in the tube together. She really misses him and that is one of the many downsides to him living in CA, missing the bonding time together growing up. But they do make up for it while he is home.

We kind of decided that was one of the best vacations we have had in a long time. No amusement park, no driving or flying to get some where that we are always in a hurry to get some where else, busy all day, bed late up early and exhausted when you come home. We are thinking of places to go next year where we can just hang out. Surprising the kids enjoyed it also. Maybe house boating, we have done it before when Heather was small. It's restful, you can take your boat, and just make memories.


The last people I would like to talk about are my daughter Heather first. It was really good to see her having such a relaxing time. She stays way to busy most of the time and never complains of all the things she does, being her Mom I do worry about her. We have a really close relationship and I admire her a lot. She is a wonderful young women and does most everything with a happy heart the way the Lord wants us to. She has had a lot going on in her life the last couple of months and I know having Josh gone weighs heavy on her heart sometimes. She needed the rest and I was glad to see her enjoying herself with her children no TV, phones or any electronics, they were told they had to leave everything at home. Did take cell phones but they were used very little. I hope Heather can have at least one week a year like that was. Heather I love You.

Next I would like to say what a wonderful husband (39yrs) father and grandfather we have. It was his idea to get a toy for the boat so the kids could go tubing, of course thanks to PB knowing how to manage our boat he even got to tube. That was great fun to watch for the grand kids. They are amazed sometimes that there grandparent can do some of the things we do. Guitar Hero and all. Joel loves to fish and had planned on doing some, but never got around to it with all the kids wanting to tube and he being the boat driver. He never complained or mentioned fishing, he was just glad to see everyone having a good time. Thank you for being the wonderful husband, father and grandfather you are. You probably don't hear that often enough from us. I love you.

Well it has been a wonderful summer, the weather has been great, we had a lot of fun but all good things must come to end, but only for season. Hope you all had a great summer

Changing the Big Red House

Well we have been living in a Big Red House as my grandchildren call for all these years. It has been red since the time it was built about 1912. We really liked the color but it always looked dusty and dirty and it was to big for us old people to paint. Joel had painted the south side once and it's 3 stories on the back side behind the living room and he was pretty nervous on the ladder. It needed painted very badly again so we decided it was time to have it sided. So we choose a red not like the red that was on it but a little different, got to looking at each other and about the same time said maybe we should go a lighter color. Went through the samples and found one we liked called coastal sage with a light tan trim. Ok that was done felt pretty good about it and couldn't wait for them to get started.

So of course they are going to call before coming, which you know never happens. They show up Sat morning, my granddaughter comes in wakes me up and says they guys are here. Of course I think she is kidding, but of course not, then the door bell rings. I have not had a cup of coffee yet my eyes are hardly open and he wants to do a walk around and ask me a bunch of questions I don't now the answers to. Husband of course is working his Sat morning shift, I call can you get away for a few minutes? His reply is no I don't think so, Oh I need you home and explained the workers were here and I didn't have all the answers for them. He of course came home like a good husband who's wife is having a melt down. To much to soon in the morning for me. Got all of that done and he went back to work. They begin project, pulling everything out of there truck and the first siding is not the color I picked and I tell them, don't worry he says that is left over from another job, thank goodness because it was pretty ugly. Any how they begin the pounding the ladders all over, boxes of supplies all over the front yard and then it finally dawns on me that I'm really changing the color of the house I love so much and I'm I going to like. It's a lot of money to spend to think maybe you have made a mistake. Then as Heather and I are sitting at the table the tears come, complete melt down. Heather being the wonderful daughter she is wants to know what is wrong, Oh nothing I guess I just hope they know what there are doing and that we are going to like it.

That my sound really crazy, but my grandchildren have always said grandma and grandpa live in the big red house and Samantha was with us when she was small and we bought the house on vacation one year, so it has been a little harder on her than the others. Heather wasn't real sold on the changing the color either, she had her own joke about sending us to Acorn Acres to live one day and saying she lived the big red house and we lived in the small red house now. So no pressure on us about the house color.

Another thing about me is I'm very easy to cry, for no reason sometimes, or when someone else is crying, something on tv just about everything makes my tear ducts work. Not always a good thing.

It has been 5 days of hammering and pounding and the work is almost done, and I just love the way it looks. Love the sage green only one in the area that color and really make the house look even bigger. Heather and the kids seem to like it but it's not the red house any longer and that does make us all a little sad. But it is ours and changes are good and we never have to worry about the up keep on the out side.

MOVING TO A SMALL TOWN

It was not hard to move to a small town, it certainly out weighed the options we had in CA. One of the most difficult things was leaving every friend you had ever known and everything you were used to, shopping, restaurants, all convenience of living in a large town, also living where we did we could be in the mountains or at the ocean in about an hour. Really miss the sounds and smells of San Francisco. But we did move and I try not to look back because we really are happy for the most part.

Well a few things I never realised about small towns is how they are not real excepting of outsiders. Real important to everyone is who you are related to and how that relationships goes, mother side fathers side and so on. If you have a well know name it makes things much easier on you and if you have a large sum of money you can be excepted pretty fast. Seeing how we didn't have either one of those things going for us we were on our own with just a few family members.

Things do get better when you get out and work, people are a little curious about the new people. Always seemed funny to me that people would tell me where I lived when they meet me, a little scary, are the stocking me or is it just word of mouth.

Joel and I have made some very good friends, our church family is amazing. Thank goodness for them in small towns, they will always make you feel welcome and wanted in the community.
After 10 years people just get used to seeing you around and realise you are staying and they are a little more friendly. I will always be grateful we made the move, we never would have found God in CA. God is so working in the mid west. You pay so much more attention to all the things he gives on a daily basis, sunsets, sun rises, thunder and lightning storms and all the beautiful sky's he gives, I'm in constant amazement at the world he has given us

The beginning of my Journey

My journey began in Alameda, CA where I was born. I was born to very loving parent's and already had a sister she was 4 years older than I. After I was born there came 2 brothers.

Growing up at the time I did was very easy. We played outside with out worry from our parents about something happening to us. Those were wonderful memories, playing in the neighborhood with all the kids, taking family vacations and always having one of my parents home with us.

I grew up in a home without a christian up bring. I always believed in God and went to many different church's growing up. always with friends or to the one by where we lived I could walk to. It's not that my parents were against us going it was just not something that they did. My father had enough of it growing up from his stepfather. Sadly we never did discuss church in our house and don't really know what they believed or didn't believe in. Funny as you get older and no longer have your parents what you would give to be with them one more day for all the questions you think of as you get older. It bothers me that they may not end up in heaven, they were wonderful people and I can only hope they came to terms with there savior before they passed on.

I went to high school and meet someone that was as I thought the love of my life. I married when I was seventeen. That lasted 5 years. Went to work for a factory and meet my sole mate Joel there. We married in 1969 and have been together 39 years. We had a wonderful baby girl about a year later and life was good.

We both worked and raised our daughter with the help of baby sitters unfortunately. We had great times though, many nice vacations and wonderful memories with her grandparents and cousins. When time came for us to retire we knew where we wanted to be, Red Oak was my mothers home town and we had spend many vacations here. In 1998 I moved back and 6 months later Joel joined me. We where very thankful our daughter loved it as well and being a single parent it was a great place for her to raise her children. She came 1 1/2 years before we did and started her life.

We are very glad we made the move, it has been an adventure, much different than living in CA. We also have become Christians since moving here. That has been a wonderful and always growing adventure always seeking and trying to be still and listen. Not easy when you have always made all the choices yourself. But I will continue to try and be still for his direction