Merry Christmas

The tree is up and I love it. Because Dave and his family and Sarah and Josiah are coming this week, the week after Christmas, I put our big tree up 4 days after Christmas. It felt silly but is so fun and refreshing now that the holidays are actually over. Maybe we will now feel like it is really Christmas. In the background you see a puzzle Larry and I are struggling to finish. When Sarah, the great puzzler gets here it will get finished if Dave doesn't beat her to it.

Memories

I spent some of my vacation free time scrap booking. Since we don't see our grandchildren very often I have a tradition of scrap booking each of our visits with them. These have turned into precious books of memories. With six grandchildren this is turning into a bigger project than it started out to be. For now Larry and I love to look through them and remember. The kids also like to look when they visit. I hope that someday they will be valuable memories of the great times we've had and of our deep love for them. Soon I will have 8 books to keep up. For now I'm all caught up.

7 Pounds and Benjamin Button

The second part of our Christmas adventure involved going to movies. We got to the theater when it opened at 1 and went to two movies. We had actually planned to go to three but the length of the movies prevented us from doing so. Besides watching movies, we ate lots of popcorn and drank pop. It was a silly and fun way to pass the afternoon and it proved that we may indeed be getting more adventurous as we get older.

A Christmas Adventure

None of our children were coming home for the holidays. We dicided to do something a little different. After our traditional Christmas In A Barn service on Christmas Eve, we took off for Sioux City. We checked into a nice motel and spent the rest of the evening and Christmas morning there. We relaxed and listened to Christmas music and pondered the Christmas story. It was such a peaceful time away from the distractions of home.

Walk Across The Room

Larry has been teaching a class a church entitiled "Walk Across The Room". The essence of this class calls people to reach beyond themselves to show Christ's love to others. We were at the stoplight by the grocery store as we watched a lady walk across the street to the grocery store. It was very cold out and she looked poor and miserable. I made the comment that the lady looked miserable. Before I knew it Dad had swung around and into the grocery store parking lot. We we in and found the lady. Dad told her he wanted to help her. She had $11 on her person. He told her to get $30 of groceries and that we would give her a ride home. She was so tickled as she got her groceries. I tell this not to cause you to look at us but to encourage you to try something like this. It felt right.

A Good Question

Dad found this bag in a store. It almost made it into a sermon. This is a great queastion but should be asked of God, not Santa. Everyone wants to know but is scared to ask, how good do you have to be to get to heaven. We know the answer is perfection, but we don't have to worry because Jesus took care of it all. Praise God for his wonderful gift he so freely gave. I am eternally thankful that I don't have to worry about the definition of good. God bless you all this Christmas.

Snow much fun

We are getting lots of snow and today we get to add the wind. That makes a blizzard. What fun. Here dad and I are trying to show you but you can't really see how it really is. Actually it is not as bad as we would like to see it, but it is enough to shut most things down. That slows the pace of living and that is fun. I think we have about 10 inches. Of course dad can still get to the office but he really enjoys being in his new office with no one to bother him. Once again we are thankfull for his nice new office. We bought a new puzzle for tonight and for tomorrow in case we are snowed in.

Birthday #61

I had a great birthday. I celebrated with my precious school children and my wonderul husband. Here we are in celebration mode. Everyone needs to celebrate with children. They are great. Here then is my birthday from the end to the beginning.

The ending

To end my birthday Dad and I went to the Mexican restaurant, the we rented a movie "The Visitor". While watching the movie we ate popcorn and then the rest of the Homemade Ice Cream and THEN we got a huge snow storm. That was my great birthday. Oh and one of the best things was calls from all of my precious children. Thanks kids, I love you so much.

Making Ice Cream

I had promised the children that we would make ice cream for my birthday. They were so excited. We counted eggs and cups of sugar, we discussed what beaters and receipes were and had a great learning experience. We put sprinkles on the finished product.

Dad comes to Headstart

Dad brought the ice cream maker to school. The children were fasinated with the whole process. I don't think any of them had seen this before. When dad came he also brought a surprise - cake. This is against the rules, which he didn't know, so it was a huge treat. Thanks honey. We had a great party.

Birthday # 61

I had a great day that started out by celebrating with my preschooler. They were so excited for me and came that day pumped for a good time. They asked me how old are you. They loved it when I showed on my fingers. When you do that it looks really old, ha. Maybe it is. Being with these litttle children each day however makes me feel young at heat.

Expensive date

Last Sunday, Dec. 14 Dad was suffering from a back, shoulder, arm pain. This pain had started in some form on Friday and kind of came and went. Sunday afternoon as we laid around it bothered him. Of coure we were both concerned if it was heart pain since you are told back and or shoulder pain that goes down the arm. Soooooo about 6 P.M. during a mild snow dad decided he should go to the hospital to be checked. We were bored anyway from staying home in the threatning bad weather. So we took off. Needless to say we were also a little nervous. We were admitted to the emergency ward. They were very nice and took immediate action. Dad had an electrocardiagram and an x-ray of the heart in which they determined it was not his heart. PTL Since that night we have determined that the angle of his computer and the way he holds his arms was causing the pain. He lowered his key board and may have to have some physical theraphy. We came home that night in a raging blizzard and had to just crawl along. All in all it was an expensive date and we were glad to be safely home. (The medics assured us that we did the right thing as of course we felt a little foolish.)

Decorating for Christmas

I spent the day Friday decorating the house for Christmas/winter. I tried to keep it fairly simple and so it was actually enjoyable. We have lights up outside also.

A parting photo

It is mind boggling to imagine what has happened since Larry and I met at Trinity 38 years ago. This Thanksgiving week-end was a reminder of our blessings.

Time spent with all of our precious grandchildren.
Sweet Josiah who you can't hug and kiss enough! Jonathan who now seemed to know us and was loads of silly fun.

It was really special to watch these little guys together.

Oh so fun Natalie, who never wanted the day to end and loved the hot tub. 3years old Luke in his new birthday outfit from Grandma and Grandpa. 6years old

Sweet Alise with her bear she won in a machine. How did you do that Alise? 7 years old

Growing up too fast Emily who loves to be with the adults. 9 years old

Our family. Thanks everyone for a great time. We love you all. A precious picture!

Hanging out at the motel. It was the perfect spot for us to spread out and have fun. Here we are eating pizza that was compliments of the motel each night. You can't beat that.

We anxiously await two new additions to our family circle. Chaun and Becky are expecting Feb. 1st and Eric and Sarah April 26th.

Sarah and Anita

Grandpa and Jonathan Josiah and Grandpa

Nothing is as precious as a family gathered. Thank you Lord for ours.

Ostercamp Thanksgiving

We gathered at Matt and Unity's home for our festive Thanksgivng Dinner. This is a picture of the chief and her helper. The guy in the hat is a fake. Everything was so nice including the decorations. The best part is that we could all fit in their wonderful dinning room. Thanks guys for a wonderful start to a fun week-end.

Veterans Day

Today I was attempting to explain to my little children what Veterans day was. I told them it was a day to say thank-you to all the soldiers who keep our country safe. I told them that some of their Grandpa's might have been soldiers. When Halie's Grandpa picked her up from school she said, "Grandpa were you ever a soldier?" He said yes I was. She threw her arms around him and said, "Thanks for keeping us safe". That was a precious moment.

Voting

Tonight we voted. I always have a good feeling about voting. We voted in our classroom today also. Here is a picture of one little boy voting. We voted between apples and oranges. Apples won the day. The kids and the teachers had alot of fun. One little boy said when his mom picked him up, remember to vote mom. This is what teaching is all about.

Fun at Head Start

Jesus said "Let the little children come". Here are some of my fun moments with my little children. They love corn day and had a ball taking the corn off the cob. The rest of the pictures are of our fire truck ride. How wonderful to be 60 and still get to ride the fire truck. PTL

Having fun

On Friday, Oct.31 I had to work. We had a paper work day with no children, so just to be crazy Erika and I decided to dress up. Hopefully you can guess that she is Sarah Palin and I am a clown. We laughed so hard that day that I surely added years on to my life. The other ladies dressed up also. We laughed and took lots of pictures and I rejoiced in a job that once again I can confirm that I love.

Blessing the Children

I have been working on my new passion, passing on our faith to the next generation. I am making a plan to help enable the families of the Meriden church to put Christ in the center of every home. One thing I have been studying is blessing children. I've asked myself what does it mean to "bless" a child. In the OT blessing involved asking God's favor on someone; it involved passing on of the faith. There are of course many ways to do this and hopefully Larry and I do some of them. It is also possible to verbally bless children and here I am practicing with my precious Grandchildren. Hopefully this will become a wonderful habit. Soon I will be holding a class at church to teach this and other ways to bless our children to the parents. The children may be after all our greatest mission.

Recently I got to go on a trip to Milwaukee. Sarah and Eric were keeping Dave and Anita's four children so I got to see 5 grandkids at once. What a great time we had. We had fun one day playing in the leafs. They were so beautiful on this trip. We also made cookies, and went to the zoo. Below are just a few pictures of our great time.

Josiah the "fierce" lion.

While at Sarah's, she and I took the kids to Zoo Trick or Treat. What a fun night we had. Here are Dave and Anita's kids in their Hawaiian garb. Sadly the cute little lion somehow missed getting in this picture.

Reading to Josiah. This little guy was so much fun. I so enjoyed getting to spend time with him.

Jonathan comes to visit

Becky and Jonathan came for an October visit. We had so much fun. What a delightful age Jonathan is. We sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful fall weather, we went to the pumpkin patch and we went shopping one day. We also enjoyed some park time. It was good to catch up with Becky and to see how little baby Bergmeier is coming along. Next I am off to Milwaukee to see Sarah and Josiah and Emily, Alise, Luke and Natalie. This grandma thing is really fun.

A visit to the Pumpkin Patch

This year we have been to the pumpkin patch alot. Of course we had to take Jonathan there. He had great fun running among the pumpkins and touching all those "balls". He also loved seeing all the animals, goats and llamas etc. It was a fun evening.

Fear

Yesterday, Sunday, for some reason I felt fear at the thought of growing old. Maybe it was because I heard some older people talking about their concerns and at times old age whatever that is seems just around the corner. I think I am afraid some of being alone. I know I will never really be alone because of Jesus with me but I also hope I have some people with skin on them near me. I am sooooo thankful that Dad and I still share our days together. I also desire to be a Godly older woman so that I will be pleasant to be around. That I need to start practicing right now. Fortunately the fear only shows itself for a brief time and I give it to the Lord who so graciously bears all our burdens.

Pumpkin Patch

Friday night we took Aaron and Erika (our youth pastor and wife) to the Pizza Ranch for supper and to the Pumpkin Patch in Orange City. We had a fun night. I bought some pumpkins and some goards and Indian Corn. It was a really nice fall night. We wanted to show our appreciation to theses kids for all they do for our church and to Erika for running my classroom while I was gone and for doing the mopping for the 3rd week in a row. :) The Pizza Ranch in Sioux Center is always a good place to eat.