My friend, Terry

Is she cool, or what?

The Nativity Display at The De Golyer Home

Charlsie and the Christmas tree.
This is a 25,000 square feet home on the grounds of the arboretum. It is full of thousands and thousands of nativity scenes. I was amazed. I wish you all could see them. I took pictures of only a tiny fraction of them. This one is from Romania.

This is the library. The nativity scenes in here are on loan to the house and are all owned by one person. This is not the whole room, but you can get an idea of how overwhelming it is.

The owner made little cards to go with each one that say where he got them and what country or state they are from.

This one says made by Mom. There were more made by other family members.

This one is ceramic.

This is a table with several scenes.

This one is from Alaska.

You can read the card on this one.

Peanuts!

Connie's Quilt

I took photos of a quilt made by a friend yesterday....thought you all would like to see it.

A very busy Mom and Dad

Warning: these photos may cause some mothers with young children heart palpatations.

Big sister will be 2 in July. She loves her new brother and sister.Donna is on top of everything. I'm sure sometimes she feels it is all on top of her. I know those of you who know John will not be surprised to hear he is a wonderful dad.

The children around your table are as fresh and promising as young olive shoots.

Stand in awe of God's Yes.

Oh, how he blesses the one who fears God! Psalms 128:3

Happy Birthday, Charlsie

Tomorrow is my very dear friend's birthday and I just wanted to say, "I love you and you mean the world to me"! Charlsie and I have been friends since we were little girls and she has always been a stabilizing, loving, accepting and wise influence in my life. How precious and rare it is to have someone who loves you unconditionally, doesn't try to change you, but just loves you through all life brings. She encourages me to think deeper without making me feel dumb and challenges my WASP ethos without assaulting my faith. I think I would be a different person without her and I am grateful. Friends come and friends go, but a true friend sticks by you. Proverbs 18:24

My Sweet Next Door Neighbor

L is going to church camp today and she came over yesterday to show me her "Hippy Outfit". They were supposed to dress 60's or 70's and I am one of the people she knows who were alive then, so she wanted me to tell her she looked like a flower child. I'm not too sure how much like a flower child she looks, but she sure looked cute! She got her outfit at Christians in Action.
This is her big sister.
Here is the whole family from a photo shoot we did for them in June. Can you find the twins?
I read a really interesting book yesterday by the author of the book and movie, "A Perfect Stranger". You can see it on my shelf and look at the review. Even my non-reading (except for the Bible) husband picked it up and was reading it!
I am so out of photos for scrapbooking. I ordered 10 each of the Coleman family from March and one of me and Caedon at his birthday party to put in each of my grandchildren's album so I would have something to do. Maybe I will post 10 scrapbook pages, all with the same photos, but all different ....I know you are looking forward to that!

Family Photo Shoot

We did a photo shoot for some friends this week. I couldn't resist getting my photo taken with a pretty little girl. She is one of those "good babies" that you hear about. She was very patient, cooperative and willing to try anything!

About Jeri

This is my roommate in nursing school, Jeri. Actually, we were suite mates. We had private rooms and we shared the bathroom. The first day, Jeri made a deal with me: "I will clean everything else if you will clean the toilet. I hate that job." That sounded like an bargain to me and I honestly do not remember ever having any kind of conflicts, squabbles or ever getting upset with Jeri. I really never understood how she could take 2 hours to get dressed, but it didn't bother me and she always looked great so I thought, "maybe she's doing it right, and I need to pay attention".
Jeri is the rare person who has a gift for making everyone feel special. Her eyes light up when you come into the room. She is never too busy to listen and never makes you feel dumb or that your concerns are trivial. She makes you feel important and loved. I had never felt that way before so you can imagine the place she has in my heart. Even though we rarely saw each other after nursing school...sometimes a Christmas card was all the contact we had, I have discovered the last month that she still has that a place in my heart. Jeri has ovarian cancer and has had a major surgery and is having chemotherapy. Please pray for her. The world is still full of people who need her to make them feel special.

This is me and Jeri in my dorm room. If you look real close you can see I have on some enormous earrings. We had just been in the office of the director of the school for wearing our little studs while on duty. We knew we couldn't wear them, but we had our ears pierced and were not supposed to take them out for several weeks, so we tried to cover them up with our hair. Even though Jeri is the one with the long hair, she was the one who got caught!

My life verse is Matthew 25: 34-40 and I pray every day for the grace to live it.
"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what's coming to you in this kingdom. It's been ready for you since the world's foundation. And here's why: I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was homeless and you gave me a room, I was shivering and you gave me clothes, I was sick and you stopped to visit, I was in prison and you came to me.' "Then those 'sheep' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' Then the King will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.'
Jeri was the first person I ever knew who lived that verse and I am grateful and blessed to know her.

Our Trip to Florida

We had a very nice trip the last two weeks to Sebring, Florida. We had a lot of different adventures, (and photos, of course) but I'm going to start with the purpose of the trip which was to go to Sebring, Florida and assist with the ordination to the gospel ministry of our friend, Ken Lambert, at the Faith Missionary Baptist Church.



Bonnie, Ken's wife is in the center here, with her sister, Debi, on the left and her mother, Peggy, on the right. They sang a lovely special song at the service.


Ken and Bonnie's sons, from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan drove 1500 miles to surprise them this weekend and be with them for the ordination. Their daughter, Angel, lives with them.


Basil also had a three night seminar at their church: " Freedom and Healing Weekend". The diagram will look very familiar, I'm sure!

We had a lovely place to stay on the campus of the Sudan Interior Mission Retirement Village. What an awesome thing to look out the window and know that everyone who lives around us had been missionaries in Africa!

The day before we left, I recieved news that my dear friend, and roommate in nursing school, Jeri, has ovarian cancer. She has had surgery, now and will be having chemotherapy in the next few weeks. Please continue to pray with me for her.