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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 . . .

THE

ROOF

IS

DONE!!!!!!

PRAISE THE LORD!!!
AND THANKS TO ALL WHO HELPED SO FAITHFULLY
AND
CHEERFULLY
AND
EFFICIENTLY.

IT WAS HOT.
IT WAS HARD WORK
THE GUYS ARE SUNBURNED
THEY ARE SWEATY
THEY ARE VERY, VERY, VERY TIRED.

ONCE AGAIN,
MANY HANDS
MADE
WORK LIGHT.

THANKS ALSO TO THE LADIES WHO MADE LUNCH PREPARATIONS, SAW TO THE FEEDING OF THE CREW AND STAYED TO CLEAN UP AFTER.
I AM ALMOST EMBARRASSED, BUT I DIDN’T DO A SINGLE THING FOR LUNCH, AND THE LEFTOVERS CAME HOME TO MY HOUSE TO HELP FEED OUR WEEKEND COMPANY.  HOW IS THAT FOR LENDING A HELPING HAND???  IT IS PHENOMENAL!!!
I AM SO VERY GRATEFUL TO ALL.

Well, the rain came pouring down just as the fellows got most of the back roof off —

I really did pray and pray that the storm would hold off, but it didn’t.

In about a half an hour, 2.5 inches came pouring down, and into the garage, into the porch, in over the sliding glass doors and made a river across the floor of the dining room.  Copious amounts of thick, thirsty towels were called into service to stem the flow.

The fellows on the roof were drenched and they looked like wet rats.  (I caught a whiff of some of them, and they kinda’ smelled like that too.)

Anyhow, they are going to go back at it in the morning.  I am making warm cinnamon rolls for the brave souls that come early.  And there will be a good lunch for those who come later.

Wowser, I am ready to sleep a little.  It’s been a long day — doctor appointment for my Sweet Mama, a van needing to be picked up from the shop — finally repaired,  Nettie-girl needed her hearing aids fixed down in Millsboro, Rachel needed picked up from school, Deborah needed to go to work tonight, so she needed to sleep.  I capped four quarts of strawberries and got them sliced and into the freezer, then went up to Christina’s and capped and sliced four more quarts, made a hot milk sponge cake, and tried to comfort a very sorrowful grandbaby, came home, ate way too much strawberry shortcake, slept a little on my recliner, went out to the grocery store because I didn’t have bread flour for my cinnamon buns, came home and Youngest Son and The Girl with a Beautiful Heart came, so we visited a while, and then I worked at getting my cinnamon rolls mixed up, put groceries away and straightened my kitchen, loaded the dishwasher, and NOW I AM GOING TO BED.  I think it is just about time.

Oh, yes.  I need to do one more thing.  Youngest Daughter came home from her class trip full of wonderful tales of good times and glorious sights — but with a sunburn that is blistered with blisters the size of my thumb.  Literally.  And guess who gets to put aloe vera gel on those very ouchy shoulders?  You got it.  Yours truly.  So I guess I will do that and THEN I will go to bed.   

Oh, and one more thing.  Guess who didn’t get out to get her flowers from the Amish man?  Right again.  me.  Maybe some other time.  Sleep tight!

Ever since Jesse and Christina moved into their house,
they have dealt with water problems.

“Coming through the roof when it rains”
“dripping on my head”
“gettin’ everything wet”
kinds of water problems.

Tomorrow evening the men and boys of our church are going to start tearing the shingles off in preparation for putting a new roof on for them on Saturday.  The leaks are pretty impressive, so the expectation is that there will need to be some repairing done when they get the shingles off.

The dumpster is already there, and the shingles are to be delivered tomorrow.  Ask THE FATHER for sunshiney weather and a cool breeze. 

Honestly, we can probably use anyone who wants to help.  There will be a meal provided on Saturday noon, and we also plan to have snacks and cold drinks available through out the evening tomorrow.

If you’d like to turn you hand at some old fashioned helping,
 we certainly won’t turn you away.
(And it might be nice to let me know.)

Oh, and here’s a picture of Certain Man, power washing our deck. 
It looks like it is brand new now that he is done. 
I am amazed at all the things this man does!

It pleases his orderly soul to see how the green and black come off,
leaving the bare wood behind.  It was a huge job, but so rewarding!

He moved his garden this year, and I think it looks wonderful,
considering this was pasture pretty much since we moved here
almost 20 years ago:

The frames you see in the background are for his tomatoes.  He saw
something like this at an Amish house, and has worked at refining it
and adapting it to fit his needs.  He lays wire fencing that he has cut
to appropriate widths down the “V” parts of the “Y’s” and then trains
his tomatoes up and out the fencing and the tomatoes hang down and
are easier to pick and never touch the ground.  He has made things so
much easier for me in the garden.

We haven’t planted our pole limas yet, but he said that I could have two
rows this year.  I hope we don’t run out of time, but even if we do, my
husband is still unbelievable in how he gardens.  He really doesn’t “owe”
me a thing!!!

I am really slow in getting anything done with my flower beds this year.

This bed is usually planted and carefully tended by now.  I still plan to
do something with it, but I haven’t decided what.  Yet. . .

And I haven’t gotten my hanging baskets for the pavilion — although,
if I have time, I think I will get them tomorrow.  I have found them
at an out of the way Amish greenhouse, and the owner made me a
great deal on 16 hanging baskets.  I wanted to go get them tonight,
but my knee wasn’t cooperating, so I decided that I might try to get
them tomorrow.  This is how the pavilion looks right now.

Hanging baskets make such a difference in how this building looks.
I am planning on purple and red Fuscia and New Guinea Impatiens
alternating in purple and red.

But there are some other flowers that are doing quite well.

This plucky little flower was given to me by our daughter in law’s mother,
Lynn, and I tucked it into the corner of a bed that I hope to have all
perennials in eventually.  I love it so much!  I tried to get a closer look at
it, but it just got fuzzy  — fuzzy-er, I guess I should say.

These climbing Hydrangeas are really getting out of hand.

Certain Man wants to get them trimmed back.  I think they would
do better with a lot more sun than they get.  So often the buds do
not even open, and I wonder if it isn’t because they don’t get
enough sunlight.

My dear friend, Ada, gave me a flat of pansies, and I love their
springy color against the bleakness that is left over from winter.

The weather has been rather cloudy and cool.
I suppose that we will enjoy these for a very short
while longer, and then we will need to take them out.

I do have the promise of some liles that are just about
to burst into bloom.

I bought these on sale at least three years ago, and
really wondered what would become of them.  It was
their incredible scent that attracted me.  They have come
back faithfully every year, just sitting in the same old pot.
I’m thinking of trying to find them a place in that
border bed that I want to be a perennial bed.  But
for now, it seems to be doing well right where they are.

And that’s it for tonight, folks!

Remember THE FROLIC TOMORROW EVENING AND SATURDAY ALL DAY

And I hope you enjoyed the little tour around our yard.

p/s I haven’t heard anything really significant about my brother, excepting that  he was able to feed himself yesterday.  A first! 

Please continue to pray for Nel and Rose Yoder.
As you can imagine, every day brings its special challenges and victories.  
Don’t let go the prayer ropes!!!  

We do have a new grandbaby! 
Just so you don’t forget,
here are some of my favorite new pictures of her!

Charis Nichole Bontrager

One of the best miracles our family has enjoyed.