IT'S OVER!!!

                                                                                            

Sometimes I think I must have lost my mind. I am well over 50, and actually I am in the next decade from that (60s). I really always loved the 60s. I went to high school, loved the Beach Boys, and joined the Air Force. I fell in love, got married.....but I digress.
Here I am in my 60s and I have not figured out how to stop doing things like putting the Vacation Bible school together at our church. Now I had a LOT of help, but still all that planning and prodding, well it wears a body out. And at this stage of my life, I wear out pretty quickly.

Tiniest attender

Banner made by our own members

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Pastor Terry led the singing, "Under the Sea"

Registration table, thanks Kathy, couldn't have managed without you.

Star of the week, Sushi, the octopus.

The change offering buckets and scale.

 We decided to take a change offering and see who could bring in more money, the girls or the boys. This is done in some variety in many of the VBS programs I have seen and participated in. I agreed that the loser's leader would get a pie in the face. Well, everyone knows that girls participate more enthusiastically than boys. So I was not at all worried.

Our offering was designated to go to the Whitcher family. They are a couple with three young children, and their ministry is establishing Spanish ministries in this country to win souls for Christ.

Perhaps I should have worried a little

But I was prepared, shower cap ~ safety goggles ~ rain parka.

Then I went to hide in the kitchen.

But, they found me.

Glad I had the goggles, that pie was YUMMY!!!

Time to get the helpers.

But, I don't know how I ended up on the floor

I got Marcus

I got Pastor Aron

Marcus got a lot of pie on him. Ooops

The week was a hit with the kids, and although, we had only about 38 kids total, it was well worth it. We had one young lady ask Jesus Christ to be her savior, and that is why we do this, some times I just need a reminder.                                                          

                                                                         Jesus Loves the little children

                                                           

Happy Father's Day

To the best man, and greatest dad I have ever known. My husband.  Our wonderful children took their dad (and me) shooting on Saturday for Father's Day. Any one who knows Bill knows that if it has to do with guns, shooting, ammo, what ever, it is his favorite thing. He was very happy when I told him he could not work today because the kids wanted to surprise him. This morning I told him he would need to be ready to roll at 2:30pm. Oh, and you'll need guns and a lot of ammo. He was delighted.

We have a few more pictures to show, I think they are pretty cute. the one above and several below look a little distorted, that's because of the heavy glass separating us from the shooting range.

We're Bad Boys, Bill and son Bill

Bill

Ready, fire

Dawn, shooting with Dad

I'm the mama

Who says shooting isn't fashionable? Check out the head gear and they eye ware. We're gorgeous.

You should never let McPhersons get bored.

   We really did have a lot of fun, and then we went out to eat some dinner, and that was really great too.

I have always admired my husband as a good dad. I know it's something that he got from his dad.
He was someone whom I loved and respected very much, also. Samuel McPherson is not with us this Father's day. That is sad. He was a wonderful man, and still very greatly missed. I loved my father in law. Probably because I never knew my own father. My mother and he didn't marry, and when I was about nine years old my mother married the worse excuse for a man I can imagine. Let's just say,,, he wasn't very nice. Nope not at all.
I lost my grandfather when I was only about five years old so my memories of him are sketchy at best, but  I loved him, and I know he loved me. My mother, and my grandmother told me often how much my grampa loved me. It has given me a lot of comfort over the years. Really all we really need is to know that we are loved.                                                                                  

So to all of you great dads out there, God bless you this day for being the strong leaders. For being role models, and disciplinarians, champions, and cheerleaders. For loving your kids and their mom. For teaching them to walk, swim, ride a bike, fly a kite, mow the lawn and tow the mark. Keep up the good work. We need great dads. Where would our world be without you.?

Trip to Greece

Well, I have always thought the photos were beautiful and I love the food.

No we didn't hop a boat for Greece, we just went to Mr. Gyro's, across town. They have wonderful food and as your eating they have a running travel video of Greece. It sure is pretty, and the place looks like it is totally bleached out by the sun. Everything is so white and clean. I love it, and we love the Gyros at Mr. Gyro's,,,,,,,,,,,,it's pronounce Yee roh, oh, and you have to roll the r. They have the most wonderful baklava, and we tried the galaktoboureko. It's like baklava, only it has a custard inside. Yeah, and don't ask me to say it. And their Tiramisu, is to die for. I love this place, and can't get enough.

                                              

                                                                

                                                                 Bon Apetite.

Lady Bug, Lady Bug, Fly away Home

Lady Bug and Kathy W

A couple of weeks ago we had our Ladies Banquet at church. It was a summer theme, Lady Bug. The idea was to encourage our ladies to walk and talk and sit and be like a lady. Of course our inspiration and direction is from the Bible.  It was a nice evening. We had a lovely meal, pasta salad, fried chicken, watermelon. And homemade apple pie. The pies were made by several of our ladies the day before. We even had the pie served with vanilla ice cream. The meal was served by the men of our church, and was very good.

Well, then we had a song and then this crazy woman came out calling herself "Lady Bug". She was talking about the lady bugs she had purchase on the Internet and how they had gotten lose all over the church. She was trying to catch them with a butterfly net. Imagine trying to catch 1500 ladybugs with a butterfly net? It was a nice evening. I think everyone had a good time, but I don't think she caught a single lady bug.

Lady bugs are a great insect repellent. They actually eat the harmful insects, which invade our gardens and ruin our plants. They got their name in a peculiar way when in the 'middle ages' farms in Europe were infested with swarms of hungry bugs. The farmers prayed to the Virgin Mary for her help, and seemingly on request, these spotted beetles arrived. The spotted bugs began to eat up the harmful bugs, leaving the plants alone.
The farmers, grateful that their prayers had been answered, called the bugs Our Lady Beetles. This over time was shortened to Lady beetles, then to Lady Bug. I thought this was a really interesting story, as I researched for the banquet. I had often wondered how they had gotten that name.
There are a lot of interesting facts about lady bugs.

Did you know, for instance, that there are many, and I do mean a lot, of different species of lady bugs.
Scientists and I suppose other lady bugs can tell there type by the number of spots on their backs.
Superstitions abound around the bug as well. In France if a lb lands on you, you will have good luck, your illnesses will be healed, and so on.

At our banquet several ladies brought us insight as to how we are known by our 'spots' as well. We need to look and talk and sit and move, and generally behave in the ways we see God has instructed us in His WORD.  I know that I often fall short of this mark. You know it is remarkable, though, I am aware when I do fall short, and I am sorry that I have disappointed my heavenly father. But I am glad He forgives, and it makes me eager to try to do better next time.
I am glad that I am His child, and I am glad He lets me start over each day.

 

Lady bug, Lady bug, fly away home.
Your house is on fire and your children are alone.

More Laundry

                           Max and Tucker waiting for Dawn to come home from work and take her little teeny baby home.

Good morning, it's Tuesday. I sometime just find it hard to find things to write. Or I just have so much, but it isn't appropriate for this forum.

Well, I think we can call the Laundry Room, DA DONE!!! I included more pictures for that certain someone who constantly inspires me to learn more things.

This is Tucker barking at and he actually tried to bite the box with the ceiling fan. The tall box is the shelf kit. It seriously had everything we needed for shelving this room. There was even stuff left over.

 As you can see the door has been trimmed, and the switch plate covers have been installed.

I did most of the switch plates myself, they're not hard. Anything that involved sawing, cutting or making straight, well that's Bill.

The shelves are up, the pretty sewing boxes placed. The table is sitting where the counter top and my sewing machine will be.

We bought the blinds at the RE Sale shop. This is run by Habitat for Humanity. They have tons of stuff for remodeling and building homes. Everything from nails to doors, and paint.

They had brand new in the box Kitchen aid microwave ovens for $200. Yesterday they had new Whirlpool dryers for $250.00. It's crazy what you find there, but you have to get there early.

We found these blinds, but didn't notice the length. who would want a 45"x 46" blind? Any way, it keeps the intense sun out for now. I'll worry about that tomorrow.

We bought the finished base board at Lowe's. You just put it on, no painting required.

 

This is the whole for the ceiling fan. We have it, it's still in the box. Hopefully it will go in soon.

I installed the shelves above the washer myself, well I did have a little help, OK,  a lot of help. But seriously those Rubbermaid shelf kits are so easy. I love my new laundry room.

It's so funny now that the dryer is right up against the wall, it takes about half the time to dry the clothes, and now that it isn't down in the dungeon, I actually take the clothes out of the dryer,,,,, the same day. And since it is right off the space that will eventually be my kitchen, it's so convenient. It's bright, and pretty and I just love going in there and looking at it.

Now I have some laundry to do.

VA day.

Yesterday was VA day for Bill. He had a check up scheduled and was hoping to have a mole removed. In order to not have to get there an hour ahead of time, I went with him, so he could get out for his appointment and I drove to the 'remote' parking lot in the next county where the shuttle bus picked me up and took me back to the hospital.

Why don't old men bathe?

Now this was a wonderful drive, it was about 80 out side, and the driver did not even have a fan going on the van. I was a little warm, so I asked, politely, could you please turn on a fan or air or something. He did. Now the van was not at all full, so we waited as it filled up, an elderly gent with a cane was having trouble maneuvering in the bus aisle, but managed to make his way to the back of the bus, where I had seated myself, taking the last seat. There were three empty seats before mine, and this yahoo sat ON ME. I was trying to move but there was no where to go, so I moved across the aisle and sat between a middle aged woman, and an elderly, well dressed man. Every few seconds I got a whiff of something unpleasant, when I realized the nicely dressed man was not nicely groomed. When the bus finally stopped and the nicely dressed man got up, it was all I could do to remain conscious, the smell about finished me off. Luckily he was not going in the same direction as I was.

On the drive over a woman close to the front of the van was talking about the storms from earlier in the week, I think an old boyfriend of hers had been on the news talking about how the storms had damaged his property. She was happy about this since, I guess, he stabbed her in the head. I think, that is why he's her ex boyfriend.

Why do old men wear shorts?

Well I joined Bill in the waiting room. And here is where the fun really starts. We sat an waited, watching people come and go and complain about the wait, I mean really what else do they have to do?

I was reading my book, and as I glanced up the fellow seated across from us, who was wearing denim shorts, crossed his leg. Well I didn't really want to or need to see that far up his leg, but there it was. I quickly went back to my book, constantly reminding myself, don't look up, don't look up.

We were having quite a lot of fun watching the cleaning guy at the women's restroom. Seriously he was there for about 30 minutes. I had my eye on him, because, well 3 cups of coffee and two hours, I sort of needed to use the facilities, but he was busy, so I waited.

Why don't old men wear undies?

Now in comes a very young version of Santa, or more like Jerry Garcia, whew the hair, with a rainbow Tye dyed shirt on, and wouldn't you just know, denim shorts. He sat down, and then moved and then sat again, and was called in to the clinic. Soon he came out, and as luck would have it, he found a seat about four chairs to my right, and why I was watching him, I have no idea, but there I was watching. Now as he sat down, his pants were a little low, and his, pretty much his entire hind part was bare.

Well finally Bill goes in for his blood pressure and the questions about .... Do you smoke. Are you depressed? Seriously, why would I be depressed, my only choice at this point for health care is this system where I have to go a half hour before my app't and then wait for like an hour before I get in. I'm old, I am on SS, and don't really have any money, and few options. Why in the world would I be depressed.!

Well we're getting close to the end, we're sitting there, I'm still reading, watching for the guy to finish cleaning the restroom, he did finish, but he's back, I don't know what he's doing in there. A very nice looking and tall person sits across from us, yep, he's got on denim shorts. He is sitting like most guys do with legs spread out very wide, and as I glance up from my book, well there it is. I can see clear to, well, China. Now I used to use this phrase with my kids when what ever they were wearing was a little too revealing, but this guy, I mean. You could see China, Indonesia, well the whole continent of Asia for that matter. Again, I quickly went back to my book. Seriously, commando at your age, YUCK.

Well this kind of ends the fun part of the day for me, Bill saw his doctor, did not get his mole removed and we get to ride the shuttle back to the next county so we can get the truck and go home.

I still love the VA, they do a great job, and I respect the doctors and nurses who endure a lot to care for these wonderful veterans, but people please. Take a bath, put on underwear and don't wear shorts.

                                       

                                              Now put some clothes on. .................

Sunday

This was a busy Sunday, although maybe it just seemed busy. I teach the 2 and 3 yr old class the first two Sundays of the month. Today was my day, but it was a very chaotic class. My young helper showed up late, very apologetic, and it seemed like everyone was late this morning. To add to the chaos, I had some very unhappy kiddos today.

I am going to scream for my mom, and you can't stop me.

I don't want to sit down and you can't make me.

I will pout if I want to.

And then there were these. I don't know how they managed to maintain such happy faces, but there they are.

I am just glad for my helper and these happy kids. We were singing Jesus Loves Me, and learning about how God made the world.

Today I decided that I am going to take a break from these darling little souls for a while. I am going to pray for someone else to step up and enjoy them for a while.  

Laundry room

This project was started on Dec 30, 2009............ it seems it was a long time ago.

So as I have said, we are remodeling and the place that is currently getting the most attention is the laundry room.

 

This is the before picture. Our son, Bill, is installing the floor and our granddaughter, Bailey, and I are being the cheerleaders.

Remodeled

My dear friend, Deb, at http://whatsinmyattic.blogspot.com/, who used to be as useless at this computer stuff as I am, has figured out how to do these headers for the blog. Hers is just so nice, mine was sooo plain. I was jealous. Well she sent me this new one today, and I couldn't wait to post it on my page. I just love it. It's so fresh and new, like me really. what?

You know that we have been remodeling our kitchen, and garage. The back half of the garage has become our laundry room. I think it took less time to build our last house, but, oh well, the laundry room is finished. (more or less) ((actually a little less)). The appliances are installed and functioning, and frankly I don't care so much about the rest. This week any how.
I have been doing laundry out there, adjacent to the non existent kitchen, for about two weeks. After a couple of minor malfunctions, we have the bugs worked out and it is so great.

We still need bits of trim on the window and the sliding pocket door, and the moulding floor and ceiling. We also have to paint the doors. Then install the counter for my sewing machine, cabinets and tada, done. I know it sounds like a lot, but it's just little things, and they don't interfere with the main function. .. laundry. Now I have to go and clean up the mess that is left in the basement. I am so happy to have a bright sunny yellow room to do the thing most of us hate. I wake up in the morning wanting to wash clothes. Crazy I know.

Our dog Max, always knows when I pick up the hamper in the bedroom, or even grab an arm load of stuff from the floor that I am going to go downstairs to do the laundry. He loves to run down ahead of me and spin in the large open space. He just can't seem to get it that we are not going down there any more. I think he's a little disappointed.

If I ever get this stuff figured out, I'll add some photos of the work, and the results.

I'm Back

It's been a long time. We have had our computer in the shop, and it did have some problems, but it turns out that our cable company has some of their own problems. We got a new modem. This is the third one in two months. We  had our original one for four years, then after getting really tired of outages, we decided to call in the pros. Well it's been an ongoing thing. We finally went in to the cable 'store'. I told the guy I hear people saying all the time that they have so much trouble with their cable, and up until this year we never have had any problems. And he answered, "oh, didn't you know it's your turn?" He was cute, so I let it pass.
What in the world did we ever do before Internet? I think we read books.


But I have been contemplating that question. Didn't I know it's my turn?

My turn for what. I know that things are tough all over, and on the problem scale, I think I have gotten off very easy. But have you ever noticed that when we hit a snag on the hiking trail through life, we often ask why? Why did this happen to me? Why do I have to get caught in this position, why?
Perhaps we're asking the wrong question, maybe we should start with, wow, it's been a while since I have been here, and what is the purpose of this bump in the road.
Sometimes I start thinking I have a very rough life, and that things are hard, but in reality that is not at all true. In fact it's quite the opposite.
 
All of our three children enjoy good health, in fact the middle kid is training for another race. She'll be doing a half 'Iron Man' in September.
Our first born is getting ready to send both of her sons to church camp, for the first time. I know they'll all be a bit anxious but they'll survive.
And our son is embarking on a new career, and we are going to take their daughter to church camp with us this summer.
And just when we needed some cash, Bill got a call to do a job for a friend of ours, it will pay well and we'll run out of month before the end of the cash, so all is well.

I think it's good for us to take stock. We go to the Kansas City VA for our health care, it is our only access to health care and at first I was very resistant to it. But I am happy now that we have this blessing in our lives. The care is great and if you do have to wait, there is an added bonus. I always see someone who is in far greater need than I. I don't say this flippantly, but I believe that God allows me to see that there are far worse circumstances than my own, it always makes me very humble, and I certainly feel very blessed that my burden is such a small one.
So, if it is my turn, I'll take it, I may not like it or even be kind to others while I am enduring, but I'll try to remember that even on the trail of life, we do have to take turns.