I have been tagged

THE LUTHERAN HEN tagged me to tell 8 things about myself that people do not know. So hear goes.

1. I lived in Germany for 3 years and bought a Schrank for a souvenir. I like to collect christian figurines and crystal.

2. I love the outdoors. Maybe because I was brought up and raised on a farm.

3. I love to water plants outdoors. I think this started as a young girl when one of my jobs was unloading the water from our wringer washing machine. I always wanted each plant to get a little of the rinse water to keep them alive and flourishing. Now, as I water plants, I think of Jesus as the living water and how everyone needs this living water to stay alive and grow.

4. I enjoy traveling

5. I have taught Sunday school on and off for over 40 years.

6. I am easily side tracked

7. I pout when I am upset.

8. I don't like change, even the furniture in our home moved around. I even wear the same jewelry for months or years without changing.

Now I will tag Leslie and Ryan!

A Try at Photagraphy

These two pictures were taken by my 9
yr old granddaughter. This is a Easter Lily in their front flower garden. It is 5 years old and has bloomed beautifully every year. On our daughter and husbands 10th anniversary it had 10 blossoms on it. On Sunday it was their 12th anniversary, so our granddaughter really thought the plant should have 12 blossoms. It had 14 but hey, maybe only 12 were open on Sunday the 24th! I think my granddaughter did a excellent job of photographing the Lily flowers.






These two photos of their dog (or puppy who is 9 mo old) were taken by our 8 yr old grandson. Its hard to get a good shot of this fun loving, active puppy, Toby. I was the helper and it was my job to entertain or convince Toby to sit still for the photo. He also did a excellent job because even 5 seconds later this photo would have been one big brown and white blur with wiggles and movement.

A Boy and His Frog

Our daughter has a couple very nice flower gardens in front of their house. This is her weeding her garden. She was startled to see a big fat frog jump from in front of her hoe. She called her 8 year old son, knowing he would thoroughly enjoy the frog. His dad helped him catch it but he took over and had fun holding it and watching it hop around. After a few minutes the frog was let loose to hop back into the garden with hopes of seeing it again.

This was such a cute little frog and so fat. My daughter took some way better photo's of the frog. Maybe she will post a few on her LUTHERAN HEN BLOG.

Vacation, Swimming

During our week stay at our oldest daughters home, we took our grandchildren swimming at a local swim pool. They had a blast. We all did! Here I am with all four. I'm sure it was way more tiring for me then for them. They all wanted and did get their turn with Nana pulling, turning and swinging them around in the clear, "BLUE" as our youngest grandson called it, water.

This is my lovely daughter sitting out the swim break on the edge of the pool. The two youngest ones just couldn't figure out "WHY" they couldn't be in the water.

This is Mom with the two youngest having fun in the sun and water. Don't they all look just so happy? We spent 2 hours in the pool and that was plenty long enough to wear out Nana and I think Mom too. I have the sneaking suspicion that they will be spending many, many more hours there this summer!

Vacation, The Home Run!

This is our 8yr old grandson on his way to the batting box. This was the first game of his baseball tournament. My husband and I , on vacation and spending a fun week at our oldest daughter and family, had a absolute great time.

Here he is slugging the ball, you can see the ball if you look real close. He hit a line drive and he was surprised when it turned out to be a HOME RUN! YEA! YEA! His very first home run and we were there to witness it. He told me it was because we had practiced for over a half hour that very afternoon in their back yard. I'm not a very good pitcher but he sure was able to slug a bunch of them. Several over their fence and into the neighbors yard or field in back of their yard. Wat a precious proud glance toward his family after the home run.

This is Papa on the left and Dad on the right just watching and cheering him on.

This is how our two youngest grandchildren watch the game. A lot of goofing off, giggling and eating treats. What a fun way to watch big brothers baseball or big sisters softball.

Mom of course, like her mother, "ME", is busy with the camera trying to catch some good shots and memories on photo's.

Our Granddaughter with her Papa's hat on watching her brother play baseball.

This is our granddaughter as the catcher. We had the fun opportunity to watch her team win its first game of their tournament and then lose the second game to the best team in the tournament. It sure was fun to watch and be there with the whole family to Cheer her on.

She also was the pitcher for one inning. They have a great coach who gives every girl the opportunity to learn all the positions.

JUST DRIFTWOOD!

THIS IS IMPORTANT, MEMORABLE DRIFTWOOD.

My husband and I have had this piece of driftwood for over 35 years now.

We have varnished it, stained it and oiled it on a regular basis.

We have packed it with us through several military moves.

This driftwood used to always have a special place in our house but it has been out on our patio or in one of our flower gardens for the last several years.

It seems to be holding up quite nicely.

When We were married 35 years ago, we went on a honeymoon to His family and relatives in WV and KY. One day we were out boating with his cousin and wife, My husband spotted this old piece of drift wood and thought it would make a nice souvenir.

Well since it was the only souvenir we could afford, we brought it all the way back to ND.

We have treasured this driftwood ever since that day.

I doubt if we could have found or purchased a more memorable souvenir.

The Reservation Scenery

Today we enjoyed the company of our grandson as we traveled to the Reservation for the Mission Church and Sunday school service. He was very impressed with the scenery, he thought it resembled a desert. So on the way home, we stopped at a couple picturesque spots to take his picture. Here he is looking toward the West with the Black Hills in the far distance. If you want to see this much closer up, just click on the photo of choice and it will enlarge for you.

This beautiful scenic view is at the edge of the SD Bad Lands. It's very different, rocky, ridgy area. I remember the first time I saw it I thought it felt like being on the moon. It is always very hot and dry in these area's. It was 90+ degrees today but felt a good 100+ in this area.

Cactus

Today while on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation we saw the biggest cactus plant or patch we have ever seen. There are many many cactus plants but this huge gorgeous blooming cactus just had to have it's picture taken. When I was a child in ND, I remember having a cactus plant like this in our yard (not this huge though) My mother showed us how to very carefully pick the old dried up blossom out of the plant. It was a lot of fun for me and my older brother. We were so very careful but it seemed we always wound up with a few painful stickers in our fingers.

Our Vegetable Garden

Here are a couple pictures of our vegetable garden. To the right is about half the garden from the east, these big plants are cauliflower, then carrots, cucumbers and green beans, sweet corn, radish, onions and the fresh leaf lettuce that we have been eating for awhile. We like it with my grandmothers dressing, cream, sugar and vinegar. I also add some dill for more flavor. Below is a picture from the west and starts with our lettuce. We have a nice size garden. the area way at the end by the trailer has our squash, pumpkins and zucchini. Most years our neighbor gets 1 or 2 nice pumpkins because the vine creeps through the fence. It is a raised garden so it has very good drainage.

WHEAT?

Yes, this is real wheat. We have a bird feeder in the North side of our yard, seeds drop and thus we have this gorgeous healthy wheat growing. I guess you just can't take the farm out of the girl. I just let it grow because it is in the way back of the garden and wild flower garden. It actually adds to it. When I look at wheat it always reminds me of the Bread (body of Christ) and also that Jesus said He is the Living Bread. It's very early for wheat to be so tall and headed out. It will look so pretty golden ripe before long.

Hanging planters

This picture was taken about 10 days earlier then the next picture. You can tell things just aren't quite as full and green. I always love the big blossoms on these New Guinea Inpatients. They are doing great in mostly shade, very little morning sun light.

These are my moss hanging planters. They dry out a little faster then I had anticipated. I choose New Guinea Inpatients and blues Lobelia this year and so far they are doing great. We have had a cooler summer with more moisture this summer. You can see that our wood vine on our lattice divider is about out of control. I have to keep trimming off branches and leaves just so I can see the planters. I really makes a nice divider though.

Nature while Camping

It always amazes me to look over the SD prairie and see all the different grasses. This is a picture close to our camping area that was very pretty. This year with all the moisture, the grass lands are even greener and fuller then most springs.
There are a lot of wild flowers adorning the prairie. I don't know the name of this purple plant but it sure adds a lot of color. There is much beauty in our world. God's creation is wonderful and sometimes all we need to do is take time and look for the beauty.

He tells us, Be still and know that I am God

Camping and Fishing

My Husband and I spent 3 days at a Fishing Lake. We had to try out our new little camper. You will notice I love Sun sets and Sun rises. This picture is of the Sun set at the edge of the lake from our camp site. Our van camper was small but way better then a tent like we had been using. It is dry, has everything in it we need. It was great when the storms rolled over. We could comfortably sit and read, visit or listen to the radio. It also was great for making the meals. The little fridge and stove work nicely.

We had just gotten back from several hours on the Lake fishing. We enjoyed the fishing but we certainly didn't catch as many keepers as we would have liked. We especially wanted to get a nice catch of Walleye to take to my father who loves Walleye. He has always been a way better fisherman then we are and had better luck with the big one's. He is now close to 89 years old and is not able to do much fishing. I caught the first fish, which I always enjoy, a Walleye' but it was between that 15 inch and 18 inch size where we had to release it. It still was fun to catch. We caught far to many Walleye in that "RELEASE" category.
You can see my husband and our Dog on this picture. Our dog loved camping and made himself right at home in the van camper. He also loved to wonder around the camp site.
This is a picture taken from the boat while on the lake. The Sun was just starting to go down and looked so pretty shining through the clouds.

Another Sun Set picture from the Lake.

This is the Sun rise early this morning. About 5:30 AM

This was just before we put the boat on the lake. Minutes later it got so very foggy we could

only see a few feet in front of us. It is a weird feeling on a big lake and no idea where you are at. We did travel very slow and close enough to the bank that we had some idea.

We could hear this boat and the 4 lively young fishermen far before we could see them due to the dense fog on the lake. They had caught a few fish and were very excited. Turned out they were also the size that had to be released. They had also caught a few big carp which also created a frenzy of excitement.

This picture is after the fog had lifted. This is what we call Bird Island but actually on the Lake map it is called Whiskey Island. There are thousands of Sea Gulls, ducks, geese, cranes and even big white storks. This Island is where we were heading in the fog and we could tell by the loud screeches of the Sea Gulls when we were getting close.

Here is a picture of our small camper van and tarp'ed boat early in the morning.

By the way, we did catch a few keeper fish, Walleye and Bass.

We had fresh fried fish for supper.

Rain

The last week of school was a busy one for all the school bus drivers and monitors. It is required that all the buses be washed, cleaned inside and out for the final inspection. It was rainy most of the week so we did our final cleaning Thursday for the inside and Early Friday morning (before our first bus run) for the outside wash job. It was even lightly raining then. But the funny thing was that during the afternoon and final run, it pored rain and thus all the bus's were dirt splattered and looked much like they hadn't even been touched. To the right you can see some of the fleet of school bus's, below is our bus being washed and spit shined. Ha!
We can try keep the bus cleaner by not driving through mud puddles and snow banks etc. but you can never keep all the dirt off !
Dirt is a lot like our sin, It just keeps coming back, no mater how clean we are and forgiven we are, we always need to be refreshed with His word, the Bible, Church, and Holy Communion. Only through Christ and His great love for us, can we be forgiven and cleansed from every sin. But just like this bus, without a washing every now and then there is no shine and the filth just keeps building up. In John 15 verse 3, Jesus tells us "You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. That is a great chapter in the Bible for all to read!

School's Out

We had this count down calendar in our school bus for the last month. It was up by the door with a strong magnet. Each day we had a different student put a star sticker on the count down number. It was fun for everyone. For the last 2 months we were told we would be returning to school Monday the 4th to make up a snow day. when it got closer, a week away, the school board voted to cancel the final day and have Friday June 1 the last day. That is why our calendar has LAST DAY and a note written by the bus driver, canceled, do to lack of interest.