Day 315. Wednesday. November. 25

Kathryn and I (with Seth's 'help') set up the 'Sunday School' room today. Except that church is on Saturday so maybe it is Saturday School.....except that for a reason unknown to me, the children's ministry is called 'Bugs Club'. I call it Sunday School so I don't have to explain to someone that does not go to our church what Bugs Club is. It is Sunday School, OK?

Day 298 - Sunday, Nov 8

"Church Service" at the retreat......We all wondered why Vinj got up and started loading himself down with all their bags and baby paraphanalia. Turns out, he was giving us an illustration of how we carry things with us on our journey that really have nothing to do with our final destination - Heaven.

Daya 296 - Friday, Nov 6

First evening of LifeGate's Retreat Weekend. I went for a few hours - before Jim came home. Here, Jon C is teaching Seth how to play airhockey.

Day 242 - Saturday, September 12

The first day Jim is working again...I don't like his being gone, but a person needs to make enough income to keep the wolves at bay.

Daniel took the Excursion in to Camrose to buy the lumber he will need to build the entry over the root cellar stairs. I did some baking for the 'snack box' while he was gone.






When he returned, Dan surprised me with this item that he had obtained from a garage sale in Wetaskiwin the night before.....

It is a 'Pampered Chef' cheese grater - and it looks brand new. He didn't pay anything for it because the folks had just been closing up shop and let him just take it. What a windfall, eh?

We had a 'tailgate party' before church tonight....that is, they BBQ'd hot dogs and smokies in the back of a pickup and had salads and chips spread out on the tailgate of another truck. We sat on chairs in the parking lot, visited, and enjoyed the sunshine. I ate before I came because hot dogs are too high in sodium and fat for me to eat guilt free.

Vinjelu and Daniel walked over to the skate park and invited all who were there to come and share our meal. We were soon almost overrun by teenage boys on bicycles and skateboards. They ate, and talked a little to those who went over to them, then they left - hopefully, feeling like they would be accepted if they ever decided to come into a service

I think this was the only table set up...Vinj, Seth, Kathryn, and Donny A enjoyed use of it.

Vinj and Kath, with the help of the Abts, led worship tonight. Seth had 'practiced' with them for the whole hour and a half before the tailgate party. He was going to play the drum during worship - but, I think he'd had his fill of sitting relatively still.....he only lasted about 10 minutes into the service.

Next time, I think they should NOT have him practice, then he might sit and participate through the whole service.

He's so cute, though...he kept asking Tammy to turn the mike toward him so he could sing into it. She did, a couple times.

In this photo, he is clapping rather than beating his drum....

Robert and Lana both got new glasses today.......

Day 225 Saturday August 15

After sleeping late, we rushed into Wetaskiwin to attend our great-nephew's 4th birthday party.

Donovan (Donny) Johnson, son of niece Jessica had lots of people come to share his special day.

Lana arrived, wearing a special tee shirt that Kathryn had bought for her.......

Here is Donny being shy (uncharacteristically) when his mom asked him to stand on the table and tell everyone thank you.....his Daddy Brock is standing in the background.....

Donny's Mommy....our hostess, Jessica.....

The kids wore party hats......

Some of the guests.....

Michael and Janice.......

Taliah, being admired by her Great Uncle Allan and her Great Gramma......

Kaden relaxes in Donny's new chair....

Janice and her youngest, Levi.......

After the party, Mike, Tor, and Kaden met Jim and I at Smitty's for supper. After we ate, Victoria taught me how to do a Sudoku puzzle (the one on the kid's coloring page)....

Kaden sucked on a lemon and made a silly face and laughed his 'chimpmunk laugh'. This amused his Papa quite alot......

After supper, we went to church - which was being held at the Christenson's acerage. Unfortunately, it was COLD for spending the evening outside. Even more unfortunate, many folks were camping out in their yard - in TENTS.

Taliah tried out her new snowsuit...but it was too big.....

Kath kept tabs on Seth by tieing him onto her back for awhile....

An eventful day, for sure. div>

Day 212 - Saturday, August 1

Potluck supper at church - with a twist.....

Soon after we started, the power went out!

A severe wind/thunderstorm came through at about 5:45 p.m. The same storm that tragically blew the big stage down at Big Valley Jamboree in Camrose.

In the basement of the church, we were aware of the storm only because we had no lights.

Someone knew where there were enough candles to keep us in low light for the rest of the evening. It was kind of fun, but made pictures rather difficult....

Kathryn and Don A led worship - unplugged - using headlamps (where did they come from, anyway?) to light their music....

It was a fun evening until we heard the report of the downed stage at BJV.....Andrew was there, with a VIP pass....also, the son of one of the elders was there with the same kind of pass - one that would make it possible that either or both of our sons were on the stage at the time.

We found out later that Scott and his friends were also there.

We were relieved to get ahold of Andrew almost right away - and Scott, within an hour after we learned he was there.

The other family didn't hear directly from their son while we were all there, but they had heard from someone else that the group he was with was in the camping area at the time.

I am thankful for God's hand on His children.

Day 186....Monday, July 6

I thought I'd share some photos of a few of the plants on my deck.....

My pepper plants have some impressive looking fruit:

I love these African Daisies.....they close up at night and if the weather is cold.

Andrew came over to get the push mower - it hasn't been used for at least 5 years so he had/has a challenge in front of him......I haven't heard if putting new fuel into it did the trick or not.....

Later, we went to town and met Vinjelu and Kathryn and Andrew at the church where they were practicing for worship on Saturday night. Seth had been feeling rotten due to the fact that he is teething so I went along to look after Seth for them. Jim ended up setting up the sound system and 'tweaking' it so it sounded great. He always enjoys 'running sound'

Seth likes to sing into the mike and play the bongo drums.

Andrew was 'taking it easy' for some of the practice.

Day 184 - Saturday, July 4

Potluck supper at church tonight.

Since sitting in a hard chair is VERY uncomfortable for Kath, Rob brought his big lawn chair for Kathryn to use during the service.

Titus sat with Papa while the ladies were setting out all the food.