Uncle Jerry

My Uncle Jerry is so precious to me. He and my dear Aunt Dorothy were just out for our oldest son's graduation. My son has loved Uncle Jerry from the first minute he laid eyes on him. We were at a cousin's graduation and Trenton saw Uncle Jerry and wanted to go to him. From that moment, Trenton was in Uncle Jerry's arms the whole evening and he didn't want anyone else.
They have always shared a special connection. Whenever Uncle Jerry has come to visit, Trenton spends his time beside him, talking with him.
Uncle Jerry was my dad's older brother. He was 4 years older than my father and his children would always come to visit in the summer. My sister and I always spent a couple of weeks with Uncle Jerry and Aunt Dorothy in the summers as well. I can remember waiting impatiently for Uncle Jerry to come home from work with his big company work truck. We would wait outside for him to get out of the truck and were so excited about him coming home. Those times are some of the most precious memories for me now.
Uncle Jerry looks more and more like my dear Grandma as he ages. He has parkinson's disease now and must use a cane to get around. His hearing is poor but his humor and wit are still the same as always and I love to see him.
My dad and my Uncle Charlie (my dad's younger brother) are both gone now. Uncle Charlie died in 2001 and my dad died in 2006. I miss them. Uncle Charlie always bought me Barbie dolls for Christmas, etc. He died in an auto accident and Daddy died after being run over by his tractor. Seeing Uncle Jerry brings back those fond memories of childhood. I love my Uncle Jerry. Each time I see him is more precious to me because I know each time could be the last. I will miss him when he is gone but I praise God for Uncle Jerry!

Till next time....

Idolatry of Fellowship

We have wonderful fellowship at our church! It is such a blessing to be among the saints and to share their trials and joys and to know that they are sharing mine. But our pastor has rightly admonished us not to idolize that fellowship.

What does it mean to idolize fellowship? Well the purpose of the worship service is to WORSHIP, not to fellowship. So if you are going to church for what your sisters and brothers in the Lord can do for you, you probably are not going for the right reason. Does that mean it is wrong to enjoy the fellowship of the saints? Of course not! I love my church family. They truly understand the joys and the griefs that I bear.

But when I think of worship I must always put the focus on the Lord, not on myself. And I must be thankful to Him for the mercy of giving me that fellowship.

Till next time....

Tales From School

High School:

A high school student was reading aloud from a passage in American History. This is what the student said, "Der Martin Luther King". The teacher asked the student what he said. The student repeated the passage again. What was the student looking at? Dr. Martin Luther King.

Another student was filling out paperwork in the same classroom. The paper was a standard application and there was a line for the student's name and after that line there was a choice between Junior or Senior; as in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. One of the students, a female, marked the space for Junior. When the teacher asked her why she had marked it she replied that she would be a junior next year.......

A third student was checking out a book from the library. The librarian told her that the book would be due March 17th. The student looked at the librarian and said, "March 17th; isn't that April Fool's Day?"

Elementary:

An elementary student was working on a packet for library skills class. She asked, "What is no dot six?" The librarian, thinking she had heard wrong said, "What?" The student repeated her question. The librarian asked to look at the question the student was looking for. This was the question: In the encyclopedia index, look up the answer you gave for No. 6. In which volume of the encyclopedia will you find information for that answer?

The librarian explained the the student that that abbreviation was for number 6. The next day the same student came to the librarian and told her that she couldn't find number 6 in the index. The librarian asked the student to bring the index to her so that she could help with the question. When the student brought the index to the librarian, she discovered that the student was looking for "number six" in the encyclopedia index!

Till next time...

Christmas Break

Christmas break is still on so I have another week off of work! The boys are gone until Wednesday and I am enjoying the time to myself during the day. I get to buy some new books for the library on Wednesday and that will be fun. I will have to get busy and take down the tree and all of the Christmas decorations sometime this week but don't really want to yet! Christmas has always been my favorite time of year. It brings such joy to me, the lights, the joy of giving to my family, and this year we have snow so that is wonderful as well. The thing I love the most though is celebrating the birth of our Savior. I love the music and the sermons at church. I love being with the saints and celebrating with them. I love the Christmas program at church and all of the joyous music we hear there. So I do love Christmas. I love the break from school as well. We all need it when it comes!
Till next time....

Merry Christmas!

Today is the last day of school before the Christmas break. We all need the break. Everyone is tired but we are all looking forward to our new school next year. I am thankful for the break! I am mostly grateful for all of the many blessings this year has brought. Our little grandson, my precious family and church family, my husband's joy with being back doing the work he loves to do, my wonderful job. So even though I am tired, I have a heart full of joy and I thank the Lord of all creation that He cares for me and that He is making me into the person He wants me to be!

Merry CHRISTmas and a Blessed New Year to you all!

Till next time....

10 perfect little fingers, 10 perfect little toes

My second grandson went home to be with Jesus on Monday. He was this perfect little sweet infant. He was only 4 months in gestational age when he left us. He had ten perfect little toes, ten perfect little fingers and left two precious hand prints and two precious little footprints. We could see his little eyes and his little ears as well.

Question: If he wasn't a baby, why did he have all of these?

Answer: He was a little person from the minute he was conceived, known by God and planned for by Him. Every life is precious and I praise God for them.

To God be the glory, forever and ever, AMEN.

A Good Horse

Saturday was difficult day for my husband. We had to put down our good old horse, KC. We bought this horse as a yearling for $400. He was one of the first horses my husband trained and fine tuned on his own. Our daughter was barely toddling around when he broke the horse. The first picture we have of her on a horse is on KC. Both of my older children learned to ride on this horse. We were calculating his age and since my daughter just turned 20, he would have been between 22 and 23 years old. He was stove up and looked awful for the last couple of winters but would always come back and look better in the summer.

I can remember a couple of funny anecdotes about KC. The first was when we were gathering cows from the irrigation meadow on one of the ranches and my daughter was riding KC. It was a frigid day and down on the creek and on that meadow it was about 10-15 degrees colder than anywhere else. My daughter had on her snow suit and was well padded because of that. The cows started to trot and as they did, KC began to trot also. My daughter had never been out of a walk and she bounced right out of the saddle. She hit the ground and when she did, KC stopped and looked around at her as if to say, "Why are you down there?" Of course she was crying and very upset and wanted to quit for the day and go to the house. After that we practiced a lot and she got better at riding. But she still had a HARD time getting him kicked up out of a walk! I don't know if he ever did trust her riding ability!

Another time our church was having a rodeo just for fun and I did the barrels and the poles on him and we were flying. I did the barrels in about 17 seconds. The same with the poles. I tried to get my friend to use him to participate and she didn't want to because he was too much horse for her. When it was the kids' turn we put my daughter on him and he did both events in that slow and easy rocking horse lope that is good for little kids. After my friend watched our daughter do the events she asked me where we got him and when she found out that it was the same horse I had ridden she was amazed.

Horses like that are few and far between. We wouldn't have taken $10,000 for that horse. My husband and I both got a little tearful about losing him. He was a good old horse. Now we begin the search for another for our youngest son. I hope we can find another just like KC.

Till next time.....