In Memory of Uncle David - Christmas 2007

Santa is spending his 1st Christmas in Heaven!

With GRATEFUL Hearts!

GIRLS time away in DOOR COUNTY - great fun!

PRIDE and COURAGE

COUSINS -Meg and Elizabeth!

Meg & Andrea - FRIENDS!

One of my favorite photos.

The kids with Rick on Father's Day

Caleb at Jeff's Open House

Grandpa (passed away Jan. '08) & Rick

Muggs (recovery from colon cancer) and Mom (who daily struggles with arthritis)

SANTA (who has stage 4 brain and lung cancer & is now hospitalized for pancreatitis)

& dear Gramma who is 92 years old

Special times with Cherish (dear friend and babysitter) studying Missions in Puerto Rico

Jake at one of our favorite places - Racine WI

Today, I had everyone sit down after breakfast and list 6 thing they were thankful for and why. This Thanksgiving, I am SO VERY thankful for so much!

Here's my list:

1. AMERICA - our freedom - soldiers

2. Our home - shelter, clothing, food in our cupboards, running vehicles, warmth, bikes, the smell of lit candles, and cozy blankets

3. My husband and his new job, his desire to serve others & talents in doing almost anything - Jacob and his love of riding bikes, playing with cars and ability to learn anything and everything - Caleb and his love for living a farmer's life, love to cook/bake, and his ability to do more & more things - Megan and her love to be with friends, her fight for independence and musical talents -parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles & cousins
4. Our church & church family
5. HEALTH!!!
6. Salvation, HEAVEN, my Bible, God's care, love & provisions!

O, give thanks unto the Lord for HE is good!

End of Summer!

A few more last days of summer snapshots -

1. Draining the pool & getting it ready for winter storage!

2. One last trip to the Jelly Belly!

For me this is a bittersweet time - the freedom of summer, lots of time outside, trips to parks, bike rides, swimming, garage sales, cartoons, sleeping late (7:30AM), & staying up late. Now we look forward to schedules, schoolwork, lesson plans, trips to the apple orchards, raking leaves, harvesting our pumpkins, haybales & scarecrows decorating our porches, the smell of hot cider and crisp, cool breezes.

Thank you Lord for each and every new day and season.

Farewell Summer!

I love summer because of the beauty it brings.

It's almost time to say farewell to summer

and hello to the beautiful season of fall.

Racine Beach

We had an "End of Summer" trip to Racine. We love this beach and the kids have so much fun just relaxing and playing.

Door County

Wow, we had a really great time away with the Rehfeldt ladies. On Sunday, Beth, Aunt Carol & I drove up to Sister Bay to meet my mom and aunts for a ladies retreat. We were able to rent the main floor of a house in Sister Bay. Mrs. Grant Rice (Charlene) has rented part of her home since 2000. She rents it those in christian ministry for a very minimal price. Beth and I were blessed to go with our moms and aunts - the moms & aunts paid for the rental of the home, brought snacks & food, treated Beth and I to gifts and meals - they spoiled us and I'm not sure why. ; ) But I am very thankful to have been with them. We shopped, laughed, played games, stamped & made cards, shopped some more, taste tested yummies from the Market, went to a play, watched a beautiful sunset, laughed some more, slept a little and had a simply wonderful time. I especially LOVED getting to spend LOTS of time with Beth. Thank you to all my aunts and my mom for GREAT time.

SUMMER '09

FINALLY! I am posting a bunch a summer photo's. We have had an unusual but nice summer thus far. Megan has been down & out with a "mono-like" virus, Rick was gone for 5 weeks working in Alabama and I had a DC and a few complications afterwards. I am doing alot better and Megan is almost feeling herself again. PHEW!

A few weeks ago, we started using our free Dells coupon passes -

so last week , we had to use them up before they expired.

Rick had last week off - so we took several days to do a mini vacation and also enjoyed a few days at home. Besides going to the Dells - we were able to go to Madison - again thanks to priceline.com. This time, we stayed at Country Inn & Suites for $35 a night.

Riverview Waterworld - 70 degree weather - YIKES!

This was a cold day to go swimming, but we JUST HAD to use our free coupons.

Rick & Jacob rode the Adventure boats - another free coupon pass for these rides

This "Lodgey" McDonalds was really neat!

Free mini golf passes!

An old 1925 Model T pick-up in Baraboo

- the boys just LOVE these oldies!

We really like this family style restaurant

campfire chicken, bbq brisket, mashed potatoes,

veggies, homemade bread & torte cake - YUM!

We used our coupons at the Tommy Bartlett Exploratory the Gyrotron

Balancing on a tight rope

This was really kinda of cool

More swimming fun!

Craft Day

Father's DayWe got Rick a Ryobi ban saw and a electronic dart for his big day!

Jeffrey's graduation party

Caleb having a good time riding his cousin Coltin's mini-bike

YEAH! Rick & the boys got the pool set up!!!

Our $35 Priceline.com suite in Madison GrandStay Inn & Suites

We used our KNUCKLEHEAD coupons while in the Dells

A yummy hot dog stand in the Dells

A cool knight at the Dells

We used our free coupon books at the - Wisconsin Dells Duck Rides