Wordless Wednesday

She stepped on a pitchfork.

This Morning

I was in such a hurry to leave for Seattle that I neglected to mention a very important birthday. Sorry Angie. Angie is my third child. When you see a family number such as 3101, (Amanda) or 3206, (Shaylene) or 3317, (Olivia) Angie is the mother of those children. Angie was born on my 22nd birthday. Knowing from my earlier post, that I am old enough for Social Security and that she was born on my 22nd birthday, you can do the math to see which birthday she is celebrating. She would not be too happy with me if I told.

Happy Birthday Angie, I love you!!

Msoshi

is an American Citizen!!! We are back from Seattle and his swearing in ceremony. Ninety one people were sworn in today. They were from thirty two different countries. It was a very emotional experience. I felt so proud to be there to witness his Naturalization.

Msoshi waiting for the ceremony to begin. His wife Rebeka
Msoshi, the American Citizen, and his wife Rebeka

Another

Birthday. I was going to do a collage for my birthday, kind of like what I did for our anniversary, but have had a very busy week and did not get it done.

This week one of my younger brothers fell about 30 feet from some scaffolding. He thought it was 15 feet, but when the accident site was inspected it was determined it was 30. He landed on his hard Irish skull so there was not an excessive amount of damage. He does have some brain bruising and swelling, but nothing more permanent than he already had. He also has a fine gash above his left eye that took several stitches. He laid between two buildings, unconscious, for about two hours before a pizza delivery man found him and called for assistance. He spent two nights in Harborview Hsptl in Seattle. Because they are so understaffed, siblings stayed with him around the clock. When we asked if they had enough people to watch him if he attempted to get out of bed, (He was very agitated and kept trying to leave.) they said they would just restrain him. We decided that he would never submit to restraints so we made the decision that he would be attended by one of us while he was there.
I have a sister who lives close to the hsptl, so she graciously pulled most of the shifts. After he went home on Sunday, my husband and I went over so my husband could examine him. We are waiting for his x-rays so he can read those also. So far he says he shows classic signs of whiplash. I just keep saying he had his guardian angel riding on his shoulder on the way down. There are so many what if's that praise God did not happen.
Now I am on my way to Seattle. Msoshi, whom I wrote about in my last post will be sworn in as an American Citizen today. What a happy exciting day today will be.
Congratulations to Msoshi.
Happy Birthday to Me. July 29, 1946. I am old enough for Social Security. No apologies:}

One Month Ago

yesterday, I posted that I should have been flying to Africa on that date. I was not able to make the trip then because my friends that I was traveling with did not have permission to leave the U.S.


Today, my friend Msoshi had his interview with I.N.S. He passed the test for citizenship and will be sworn in on July 29th!! Immediately upon being sworn in he can apply for his passport. Unfortunately, it will not be as easy for his wife Rebeka. She does not read, and is having a very difficult time learning to speak English. Since citizenship does not appear to be in her near future, we are still waiting for permission for her to leave the U.S. Once we have a passport for Msoshi and permission for Rebeka to leave, we will be taking our trip. I think I mentioned in the original post that they are refugees from the Congo or Zaire, whichever you wish to call it. Things in their country are still very unstable. All of their family is in refugee camps in Tanzania or Burundi. We are going to take them what we can carry and to encourage them. Let them know they are not forgotten.
A little side note, my husband and I tried to adopt three of their grandchildren and bring them to the U.S. We were turned down by the Congolese government because they did not know if we would bring them here and use them as slaves. It is ok for them to starve in refugee camps, because the government can't get its act together, but never let them come out to a better life. At the time we tried they were 13, 8 and 1.
We would have been returning to the U.S. today. Instead we wait. We know that the Lord has told us to go, so we know also that when his timing is right, all of the doors will open and we will leave.
Until then, Praise God for Msoshi's citizenship!!

This Sure Sold Me

I AM GOING TO THE DOLLAR STORE TODAY & GET A DOZEN!

Good Housekeeping Tip Another Maxine Tip ...





Always keep several get well cards on the mantle...

So if unexpected guests arrive, They will think you've been sick and unable to clean!!!!!

Oh Happy Day

I am the winner at Allison's .
Go check her out, she has weekly contests and giveaways. I just discovered her last week and entered. This morning, when I came downstairs to check my e-mails, this is what I found: Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:03:51 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Allison Parker"
Subject: Winner
To: evynstan@verizon.net
Congratulations!

Allison Parker

WOW!! Thanks Allison can hardly wait!!

Breane Lee

Breanne Lee is my absolute creative granddaughter. she spends most of her time hemming hand me down clothing for her to wear suited in the latest fashion. Her mind must be exploding with new ideas and I wish to some day fully understand what goes on in there. What with her constant drumming and her goals to pursue acting or fashion design I greatly appreciate her and her accomplishments. It just goes to show that sometimes the oddball in the family, really isn't the oddball. Just someone that looks at life from the ground up.

I came downstairs to my computer and found this on my blog. Decided to leave it. She is pretty cute. #1203. Gotta love her even if she is the major brat of the family.

Nena

Do you read my blog? If so I just want to tell you Voorspoedig gelukkig!! Is it 21 now? Love you and miss you.

Give Away

Do you want a chance to win some really cute homemade stationery? Go visit The Pink Potpouri at http://allieparkersthoughts.blogspot.com/. Some really cute things there, you will enjoy. Also be sure to give her a great big Happy Anniversary while you are there.

Another Happy Day!!

Happy Anniversary Dave and Trish, I love you both!! Dad does too:}

Darian Evyn

#2105 is 16 years old today. Happy Birthday D. I love you the most!! Let me clarify that last statement. Not the most over all of the other grands. That would be impossible. More than he can love me. I loved him from the start. He had to get to know me in order to love (I hope)me.


Who is this boy we call "D"? He is an artist.

He is an actor. He enjoys playing in the High School plays. He has the part of John in Peter Pan for the fall play. I told him he is the first brown John I have ever seen. He has also had parts in South Pacific and Our Town. He thrives on the attention.

He is a musician and singer. He has belonged to his schools select choir since he was a Freshman. He will be a Junior this fall. He plays guitar, base guitar and piano. In the Spring concert he did a solo as Prince. He was most convincing.

When he was little, he would always tell me that he would push my wheel chair when I get old. I wonder, D, are you still willing?

Yes, D, you have been the delight of my heart for 16 years, and I am sure you will continue to be so. I do LOVE YOU THE MOST!!

Today was a Lazy Day

We were going to go to breakfast, but I did not want to get dressed, so we didn't.

I even did not want to go to Church, so we didn't.

Instead, I finished this:

While I was downstairs sewing, I heard Pops upstairs talking to someone. He isn't given to talking to himself, so I had to go investigate and see which Grand had stopped in. We have six who live within two blocks of us.

Pops and Cannyn (#2208) were out on the deck discussing Cannyn's future career choices. He wants to go into the Navy, and then be a Policeman. Noble choices, both of them. In a few minutes they moved inside and Pops taught Cannyn to play cribbage.

I needed a couple of things to finish my sewing project so I did finally dress, at 3:30 PM and make a run to Michael's. When I got back Pops and I went to a nursery to look for a shade tree for our front yard. He is worried about how big one is going to grow, but I told him that in 20 years it will not be our problem, we will probably both be gone from this world. It seems it takes them on average 20 years to reach full height and maturity.

Much as I love the kids and the company, it feels kind of good not picking up toys tonight. I really did enjoy a do nothing day.

VBS

Last week Ben and Coop came up to spend the week with us and go to VBS with their cousins. Unfortunately, Coop was not old enough to go so he spent his days having "playdates" with his cousin Jonah.




(Shown here resting after a busy morning riding their scooters up and down the street.)



VBS was a five day Sports Camp and did the kids ever have fun. They played soccer, heard the Gospel, baseball, heard the Gospel, volleyball, heard the Gospel, and basketball. Mixed into that was the Gospel and how to apply it to today's life.

Since Ben (#5113)


and Coop (#5216)


are two of the four who live further away from us than the others, this week with Grandma is a very special week for me. Unfortunately we did not get to do some of the other things I had wanted to do, but I think we had fun here. I have a fairly large inflatable pool that we put up so they could dip in it whenever they wanted. Their cousins were here to play every day, and they made friends with some of the other kids who live in our neighborhood and also went to VBS with them.


The highlight of the camp was Friday night when the church threw this shindig with food and bouncy houses,








the kids performed their songs that they had learned, and then a drawing for a great prize for the kids who came to VBS.
Here we are waiting
to see who won.







Sorry we did not win, but everyone there was a WINNER!! They got to hear God's word in a fun environment.



Caleb tried not to show his disappointment.

Now Ben and Coop are off to Silvewood for a few days.


Have fun boys, Grandma loves you and looks forward to VBS next year and you spending another week with me.

Through The Years

14 years old. One year before we met

July 29, 1962. My 16th Birthday, our first date

1964

July 10, 1965. We were 19 years old

July 11, 1965 on our Honeymoon to Victoria BC

1980

June 21, 1990

July 10, 1990. Our 25th Anniversary

July 4th 1999

July 10, 2008

43 Years!!!!

Therese at The Musings of a Mom nominated me several days ago for this award. Thank you Therese for thinking of me. It took me a few days to post it over because I am not very compter literate and had to wait until I was visiting my daughter Tricia at It's my Crazy Live and I Love it for help in getting it all transferred. Now I get to pass it onto 5 people that I think are worthy.

Here are the rules:If you already have the award just accept and that's all you have to do.

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that presented her/him with the award.

4. The award winner and one who has given the prize have to show the link "Arte y Pico" blog so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5. Show these rules.
So now I nominate:
Gina @ A handful of Life.

Jennifer @ Pautlitz Family

Sorry, I do not know three other people who may play. Hope you two can do better than I did.

Independence Day

Since I will not be home tomorrow to wish all of you a good day tomorrow I thought I would do it now.

Please take a moment to remember our service men and women and the sacrifice they and their spouses make for our country.

I want to share a few picture with you for tomorrow. When I received them, they made a real impact on me.

This is called: PROOF OF ABUSE BY OUR TROOPS

Armed American troops force Iraqis to teeter-totter until they talk.

Iraqis grateful Americans did not open fire during soccer game.Clear evidence of forced labor by troops.GI falls asleep on duty while using Iraqi child as body armor

Soldier attempts to eat Iraqi Child.Iraqi child bites soldier in self defense.Talk or I will tickle you until you do. More evidence of our Failed US Policy.

Tickle torture to extract intelligence.Soldier forces Iraqi child to hang by fingertips.Needs no words.Never take our freedom for granted.