Christmas Bloopers

Never ever let the grandkids have control over the camera out of 500 pictures, deleting 75% of them this is what I got!

Christmas Day 2008

This is the first slide show still have more pictures to come,, check out the cute stage coach I got Kyle made this for me with some donations from the other kids, the grandchildren have already enjoyed climbing all over it.

You Better Watch Out!

Jen sent this to my phone yesterday while out getting my shopping done, it makes the all the craziness of waiting in lines of traffic and people worth it to see the sparkle in a child's eye with the Christmas spirit, thank you Evan Gunner for the musical number.

Have A Merry Christmas!

Pictures from Sprint : View Message

Pictures from Sprint : View Message

No Pressure here!

Spent the day moving Justin,Jennifer, Alex and little Noah into their new house.
Would you believe I have not done any Christmas shopping! How many more days to I have?? (YIKES) I need to get busy will not be posting for a while.

Christmas 2008

sunshine*boogers*juicy kisses

I could not resist posting this little clip of Haddie and Noah she is truly SUNSHINE, BOOGERS, AND JUICY KISSES (turn sound off there is to much background noise)

!!!!!!Kari's Birthday!!!!

You have come along way baby!!! This is my DIL married to Kowalski (aka Kyle) She is the mother to Payton and Paige and does a great job ! She does lots of good deeds for many people and has a good heart! She has been a great addtiton to our family! Thanks Kari for all you do.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SIS

It was Cheryl's Birthday yesterday so this is a little late , hope you had a nice one . Cheryl is a mother to five daughters and a grandmother to eleven and a great grandmother to one. Not only that she is a daycare provider to many, her and two of her daughters run two of them. What a demanding business this is. She is a great role model to many !

Cross-stitch Memories

This is the house that I cross stitched
for my Mom it is the house that her
mother grew up in a beautiful
town called Morgan . The bottom left
front windows is where the parlor room was, children were not allowed in there. But I do remember when my Great-grandparents died they had the viewings at home and it was in the parlor room where they were placed. The two times we were allowed in the parlor. There was a interesting story about my great grandfather Daniel that we heard a lot when we were young. My great-grandfather was not expected to live at one point , as a young boy he was out doing chores when a pitch fork pierced him through the chest , when the doctor arrived to take care of him he told the parents that he was not going to live and were told to write up his obituary to be placed in the town paper the next day only to their surprise he got up out of the bed the next morning and went to school! (any how that is how I remember it)

This is a Paula Vaughn pattern that I made for my Mom. This designer has a real nostalgic look to her patterns that I love, I have done a few of hers. Grandmother Hattie was a real seamstress and a recycler when it came to clothes, adult coats were recycled to make smaller coats for her children, she could take men's trouser pants and turn them into skirts. Mom remembers all the sewing her mother would do to help earn money. And when I seen this pattern it so reminded me of her and all the things she had done.

FUNDRASIER T-SHIRTS

If anybody is interested in helping out a sweet family we have some great shirts we are trying to sell pop over to Sue's blog and read about her son-in-law Gary any and all help would be great!

Another Birthday!

Happy Birthday to this handsome energetic imaginative sparkling personality of a boy! This is Evan Gunnar he is turning 4 on December 3 he belongs to Jen & Jared he is the youngest of their family . This boy is non-stop entertainment he performed for us all the other night with a song and dance that I wish I had recorded. Down below is a link to Youtube with a clip of Payton trying to juggle Evan and sing at the same time what a sweet memory. Happy Birthday Evan, love grandma
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI0BgSWrkVQ

Back in the day when I could still Cross Stitch

This is a poem that the sisters put together for our Grandma Spencer at the time of her death. We recalled little things about her and the way she would like to have things done.

I wish I would have appreciated her more when I was younger but I didn't. I hate to admit it but I could see no reason why I had to come and drag out all her dishes out the top cupboard and wash them, now I wish I had paid more attention to her stories about her little sugar bowl or creamer.

My sis Janette wanted to do something special with this poem I can not remember which one of us graphed the pattern but we both stitched it and we gave it to our Dad.

This is the house my Dad grew up in, the one I got the old door out of to make the headboard for my memory room. My dad's father was a farmer growing melons, cherries and peaches as I recall. I have very young memories being out on the front lawn helping to sell the produce.

So when I decided to draw up this pattern I had to incorporate certain things the melons were one, Grandma's old blue chair on the little front porch she would sit on and watch life go by and her red tulips.

My Dad's Hands

With my very first post that I started in June, I expressed that I was trying to get over the unexpected death of my Dad the road is getting smoother to travel, but boy do I miss the old guy.
This is a video we put together at the time of my Dad's funeral. With the rush of all the things to get done at a time like this, it got a little hectic and I gave the video to someone else to finish for me and in the process it got out of sequence so they day it played at his funeral it was okay but it was not in the order that I had wanted. Dad has been gone now 19 months, and my daughter has given me the best present ever for my birthday she has re-made and tweaked it a little for me getting it back in order. Thank you Kacy, I hope you know how much it has meant to me. We also had a audio recording of his service made that we were given copies of I keep setting a date as to which to listen to all the wonderful talks we had that day, I haven't been able to do that quite yet. Everyone that was present that day told us it was the best funeral they had been to in a long time. Yes Dad, you would have been proud of everyone, it was the best.

Listening to some of Johnny Cash's songs I came across this song that I had never heard. I could not help to think about my Dad's white hair, he turned gray at a very early age and after raising four daughters I am sure we all helped a little to speed it a long to white.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6JNK4elo7k

These Hands

The first time I heard this song was at the funeral of my friend Kathy's father. She had grown up in a small town with a big family and a father that was a hardworking man who instilled that into his children. When I heard this song I thought about my own Dad and how much these words related to him also. It was at that time I decided I needed to start taking pictures of his hands.
I have been fascinated by hands for a long time, from getting tracings of grandchildren and putting them on aprons for the grandmothers, tracing Dennis's Grandmothers hand Afton and making a replica of it using one of her old quilts.
The first Christmas after Dad had died I had this picture made up and gave them has gifts, I was not the only one who had the same idea my daughter Kacy made up a different version and those are the two pictures that I have in my Room of Memories.

My Grandfathers Hands

Grandpa, some ninety plus years, sat feebly on the patio bench. He didn't move, just sat with his head down staring at his hands.

When I sat down beside him he didn't acknowledge my presence and the longer I sat I wondered if he was OK.
Finally, not really wanting to disturb him but wanting to check on him at the same time, I asked him if he was OK.
He raised his head and looked at me and smiled. "Yes, I'm fine, thank you for asking," he said in a clear strong voice.
"I didn't mean to disturb you, Grandpa, but you were just sitting here staring at your hands and I wanted to make sure you were OK," I explained to him. "Have you ever looked at your hands," he asked. "I mean really looked at
your hands? I slowly opened my hands and stared down at them. I turned them over, palms up and then palms down.
No, I guess I had never really looked at my hands as I tried to figure out the point he was making.


Stop and think for a moment about the hands you have how they have served you well throughout your years.
These hands, though wrinkled, shriveled and weak have been the tools I have used all my life to reach out and grab and embrace life.
They braced and caught my fall when as a toddler I crashed upon the floor.
They put food in my mouth and clothes on my back.
As a child my Mother taught me to fold them in prayer.
They tied my shoes and pulled on my boots.
They have been dirty, scraped and raw, swollen and bent.
They were uneasy and clumsy when I tried to hold my newborn son.
They wrote the letters home and trembled and shook when
I buried my Parents and Spouse and walked my daughter down the aisle.
Yet, they were strong and sure when I dug my buddy out of a foxhole
and lifted a plow off of my best friends foot.
Decorated with my wedding band they showed the world that I was married and loved someone special.
They have held children, consoled neighbors,
and shook in fists of anger when I didn't understand.
They have covered my face, combed my hair, and washed and cleansed the rest of my body.
They have been sticky and wet, bent and broken, dried and raw.
And to this day when not much of anything else of me works real well
these hands hold me up, lay me down, and again continue to fold in prayer.
These hands are the mark of where I've been and the ruggedness of my life.
But more importantly it will be these hands that God will reach out and take when he leads me home.
And with my hands He will lift me to His side and there I will use these hands to touch the face of Christ ."

I will never look at my hands the same again. But I remember God reached
out and took my Grandpa's hands and led him home.
When my hands are hurt or sore or when I stroke the face of my children
and wife, I think of Grandpa. I know he has been stroked and caressed and
held by the hands of God. I, too, want to touch the face of God and feel
His hands upon my face.
Poem written by Melinda Clements

Collector of Dust

Among my dust collection one of my favorites are my toasters. How many toasters does one girl need.. well at first I thought I would only need four, one for each of my children. That way when I kick the bucket they could have something fun to remember me by. Well as the years went buy the collection remained at four until one day I found the cutest toaster I had ever seen and I brought it home and placed it on the cupboard, when my son Jared came home and seen the new toaster he immediately thought I was announcing that I was pregnant, sorta like having a bun in the oven he figured it was bread in a toaster! After that my collection has grown. Most people when they enter my kitchen and see them have no idea what they are, it is fun to take them down blow the dust off and show them how they work.

com·passion

: sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it


Sue sent this link to me this morning http://babymckallister.blogspot.com/
I can not help but think about them and the heartache they feel. As a mom and grandma this would be so unbearable. But their strength in God is overwhelming and will help them carry on. I was truly humbled by reading about this young couple. Be prepared, if you choose to read about them get your kleenex first.

Down at the bottom

I have added a couple of more slide shows, trying to get myself siked to decorate for Christmas.

**BIRTHDAY*BIRTHDAY*BIRTHDAY**

It's this sweet baby girl's birthday all though she is not a baby anymore!
This is my daughter -in-law Jennifer.
She is smart ,witty, and a great addition to our family.

She was a beautiful bride considering she had to have an emergency appendectomy a few days before her wedding, but she made it thru!





















But of all my favorite pictures of Jen is this one, on the day of Noah's birthday, she had waited a long time to become a mother and those sweet little tears on her cheeks says it all!
Happy Birthday Jen, I love you.