Monthly Archives: June 2009

For a wonderful update on our girlies —

go to

  www.xanga.com/restingoneagleswings

This past Sunday, we were talking about having a carry-in at church for lunch, but there were so many graduation parties the week before that it just didn’t seem to be feasible.  After church on Sunday, we got to talking about getting together some time this week, so we decided that it would be fun to have a picnic.  It has been a while since we’ve been together for something like that, and our pavilion really needed some activity.  (Actually, it needed cleaning before it had any activity, and Certain Man arranged for that, too)

So Certain Man and I got some hamburgers and hot dogs and I made some custard for the White Mountain hand cranked ice cream freezer, and had some help making five gallons of lemonade.  Gracegiven came in the afternoon, and lent a hand at sweeping the kitchen floor and helped to set up the pavilion.  Certain Man picked up charcoal and lighter fluid.  He got the pit ready for grilling and helped to set up tables.  He got his trusty utensils and his usual roaster pan for the hamburgers and hotdogs once they were grilled.  Friend Ruby showed up and scrubbed the very spidery ice cream freezer, (Shiver!) and other of the females helped to carry stuff out and set things up on long tables at one side of the pavilion.  We set up the six picnic tables in the rest of the pavilion and put chairs up around the fire ring out in the yard.

Around 6:30, people began to come in earnest, and what a lovely time we had.  It was an incredibly busy time, and I won’t profess that I sat very much.  In fact, neither Certain Man or His Wife could sleep for a while when they got to bed that night!  Whew!  We must be getting old, because our bones ached so much it wasn’t funny!  But worth it???  EVERY BIT!  And here are some pictures!

April — who helped to get ready, also helped to feed little ones before she got her supper.

Jesse has a bad cold, so he hasn’t been holding his baby nearly as much as he (and Charis) would like.

One of the reasons for the picnic was that Kurtis and Leslie Miller
were visiting Kurtis’ parents, Robert and Loretta Miller.
This is their little guy, Gabe.

The food line.  Dale and Donna, and Betsy . . .

THE YOUTH GIRLS:
Mary Beth, Joanna, Laura, Ruthie and Amy
And yes, we are missing quite a few!

My Sweet Mama and my dear friend, Ada
(Ada is an aunt to our daughter in law, Jessica)

There will always be a basketball game somehow during the course of an evening.

Serious talking going on here.  Donna and Tammy

 
This is Daniel Hughes, a young fellow who got run over by a tractor earlier this year.  He has had this stabilizer on ever since, and it has certainly given a fair share of people the heebie-jeebies.  He got it taken off on Thursday, and is doing quite well.

This is our Sammy-boy.  Ever the farmer, and the son of a farmer, He knows what this machine is good for!

Victoria wasn’t at any loss either.

And finally it was time for ice crearm

Kent did a lion’s share of the work.  It kinda shows on his face.
(Sorry, Kent!)

When Kent wasn’t turning the crank, Caleb was.
And John did his part at holding down the buckets as well as turning.

Churn, Churn, Churn, it’s getting close now@

After all that work, I didn’t get any pictures of the ice cream eating.
Somewhere along the way, we got away with four and a half gallons.
Here Gary and Josh are trying out the “anti-gravity” chairs that I bought
for Daniel for Father’s Day.  They are pretty nifty, and feel especially good
on tired, old, worn out backs.

Caleb and Certain Man look on while the chairs get their approval ratings.

And then the girls piled onto the hammock to take a picture
“For Rachel” they say cheerfully, “and Beeba, too!” and I agreed to send it on its way.
Sure did make me miss my girlies, but it reminds me again that “Family”
is any group of people that is a part of our hearts.

So here’s to our church family.
I surely do love you each one.

And for Our Church Family and anyone else that is interested:

Stay tuned for the details about the July 4th picnic!!!
Make plans now to come.

Blessings and THANKS from
The Shady Acres Crew!

In the last two days, we’ve added two new babies to our family.

My nephew, Jerrel Heatwole, Jr., and his lovely wife, Sarah were blessed with Asher Samuel on June 10 — and it is easy to remember how much he weighed because he was born on 6/10 and he weighed 6 lbs. 10 oz.  Such a blessed event, as this couple has experienced the early loss of two much wanted babies.

Another nephew, known to most of you as “Chip” (Yoder) and his also lovely wife, Susan, had Hannah Louise last night by a “somewhat emergency c-section” and she weighed in at 5 lbs. 8 oz.  This has also been an eagerly anticipated baby – it is their first.

This brings the number of great-grandbabies to eighteen for my Sweet Mama.  The girls are outnumbering the boys 11 to 7.  And sixteen of the eighteen grandbabies belong to my proud brothers.  (My sister, Alma and I just became grandmas this spring for the first time.)

The important thing is that the babies are safely here, and doing well.  This great-auntie rejoices greatly!

And on the European front, we talked by phone with the girls last night.  They were in Portugal, and had a wonderful time with Conrad and Heidi.  They profess to be doing wonderfully.  Not without ripples, but seemingly without winds of hurricane force when it comes to relationships.  Thanks to all of you who are remembering them in prayer. 

One more thing — there is a post of stellar quality over at www.xanga.com/Jeremimah

Dear Mama and Daddy, and anyone else who ends up reading this,
 
We are safely at Conrad and Heidi’s. Our plane was late leaving London, but that was a good thing because the Underground (aka the Metro) was on strike, and everything was late.
 
This morning was what memories are made of. Not exactly pleasant at the time, but more fun to recall. Due to the strike, we couldn’t ride the bus downtown (too full), so we walked a mile and a half through Kensington gardens, and Hyde Park, down Rotten Row (a carriage walk made by one of the King Williams, I don’t know which one.) Halfway down the row, the horse guards were going through their paces. What fun to watch! And to top it off, a very nice (young) man walked with us most of the way, giving us directions, and after he left us (his path was the same as ours for part of the way), a sweet little old lady walked with us.
 
Sounds like a wonderful time, doesn’t it? Did I mention that it was raining? Not drizzling, although it did that for a bit, but RAINING? And that the wheels on my bag quit going around and around? It seems that the wheels were put on crooked, and they hooked onto the edges around them, and wore off part of the sides of the wheels, which then created more friction, and finally they quit working. So I carried THE BAG the rest of the way to a bus stop with a bus that we could ride.

We went to Victoria Station (That’s where you can leave your luggage in a locker, don’t you know.) Except that the Underground was closed, and there were no lockers. But for 24 pounds, we could leave our luggage at the lost and found/left luggage desk. We declined, and marched up the streets, with bags, to Buckingham Palace. Which apparently was closer to where we picked up the bus than to the station to which we had taken the bus. (We would have gone anyway, remember the luggage.)
 
We got there late, but that was okay. The guards were just starting. And the Queen was in residence! Her flag flies from the castle instead of the Union Jack if she’s there.
We watched the guards change. Rach found it anti-climactic, but most people do, and it’s still something everyone must see in London.
 
On our way back to Victoria Station, we were stopped on the edge of a road we needed to cross. Two horses, a horse-drawn carriage, two more horses, another horse drawn carriage, two more horses and three black cars later, we were allowed to pass. The Queen was receiving a visit from an ambassador, and I don’t know who was in the carriages (They were shut tight.), but it was still cool. I mean, how often does the Queen of England do anything that affects you personally?
 
By the time that was over, we headed down to Victoria COACH station (as opposed to the Underground station), and got our tickets to go to the Airport. Due to traffic, we had to leave immediately, and still were worried about time at the airport. We needn’t have. As mentioned, the plane boarded late, and then we sat on the airport and waited for the clouds to clear.
 
Finally in Portugal, we got to Conrad’s around midnight. Rachel is already in love with this place. (They have lots of good, strong coffee, and possibly the “second hottest guys in the world”. She said she’ll make a decision after this trip.) So now I need to go off to bed. We’ll try to call home tomorrow. I have my phone off right now because of the airplane, but once I get a chance to empty my bag, I’ll try to turn it on. I really don’t think I’ll use it much. Too expensive.
 
And that’s the news from Portugal, where the towels are big, the fruit is yummy and the beds are waiting.
 
Love you,

Deborah

Most of you know that our girlies left for Europe yesterday.  It’s been a most discombobulated week — and I am not the best at juggling everything.  I dealt with the approaching departure by just not thinking about it.  We did take pictures when the girls left, but they took our only working cameras, so I don’t have those pictures.  But these are the two that went:

And no, they didn’t go by boat.  They went by plane.  This morning I got up and looked at the tracking program that our Beloved Son in Law had put up, and according to that, the plane had disappeared into the ocean about five hours out.  I tried not to worry.  I went to the details of the flight and read, “Flight diverted” and “Flight plan altered” bu there wasn’t any more information (that I could understand, that is!)  I decided not to worry until I heard that a plan actually went down en route to London, and that never happened — and now, I’ve just had this message from Rachel:

“Hey mama! so we’re safe and sound in London. I’m sitting in our hostel (which is pretty stellar and is filled with nice people!) I do miss you all bunches. Hey, there is a Netflix somewhere in the living room that deb didn’t send back. It’s called Australia and it needs to be returned… could you maybe find it and send it back for her? I love you bunches. 🙂 rach”

And of course, this Mama’s heart is mightily comforted.  I might even go and look for that netflix that was mentioned . . .

This is our cute, smiley granddaughter

Charis Bontrager, 5 weeks old

Our little baby is all grown up and graduating from high school . . .