Happy New Year 2016!
We met Mark & Dena last night for a short visit at a truck stop south of Chowchilla.  Their new truck is beautiful, especially with the lighted wreath on the front to look festive for the Christmas season.  We had a nice visit and exchanged some gifts - for Christmas and Mark's birthday and my birthday coming up.  They seem very happy with their new adventure planning their own trips, and having their own truck.  They keep busy so were on their way back to Dallas with a load after being in San Francisco.
It's always good to see them even if for a short time!

Christmas is coming . . . soon. . . .
The best gift at Christmas was wrapped in swaddling clothes. . . .


I finished all the shopping for the Angel Tree gifts and bought the gift bags and tissue paper so tomorrow after church will be busy getting those all ready to deliver on Tuesday afternoon.  Eight families and 42 presents so will have a car full.  Angel Tree provides Christian booklets to be given to each child as well - age related.


Will help organize the shopping and sorting of food for five families to be delivered Wednesday afternoon.  LOVE INC. provides the names, I contacted all of them and two of them cried as I told them we would be delivering food for their families on Wednesday.  Our church school kids raised enough money to buy the perishables, turkey, ham, hamburger, bread, milk oranges, apples, spaghetti and spaghetti sauce plus canned fruit and vegetables, canned soup, potatoes and an apple pie.  They will all be blessed with Christian booklets & Bibles as well. The school kids are even going to help me shop and sort the food plus may even help deliver!  What a joy it is to see our church school teaming up for these community service projects.  The 4-H club that meets at church is helping too so will have many hands helping!


This is what makes Christmas special!  Plus I love the shopping for the volunteers who donate but don't like the shopping part.


Have some shopping to do for family members but thanks to Julie who is my personal shopper for her family - it makes it much easier. So I have very few to buy and look forward to doing that Monday.  Love the last minute hustle and bustle with chilly  weather and Christmas music everywhere.


Plus I scheduled a massage for Monday at 3 p.m. so will be all ready for the busy week delivering gifts and food. 

Put Larry to work stamping and sealing envelopes to get our Christmas letters out before the last mail pick up today - so hopefully everyone will receive our Christmas letter by Wednesday or so -


Have a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

On the mend - hope is in the air!!

Larry & I both went to the Dr. today and he gave us antibotics to get rid of the Bronchitis we have - since I've had since Sunday he also gave me Presdisone - so that should work quickly!  So much flu around and germs floating in the air - we hope and pray for rain coming in Monday night to clear the air!


Gary's on antibotics too so hopefully we'll all get well very soon!

January birthdays celebration with Pizza Villa & family - a great fun evening!

Spring is just around the corner!!

Here it is the 16th of January and the violets are blooming, the primrose, still a few rose blossoms and the pussy willows are about to burst out their fuzzies! 
I need to prune the roses but Larry is busy pruning bushes so he fills up our green barrel every week so hopefully by the end of the month I can prune the roses.
The fog has been hitting us the last few days and evenings so hopefully that will soon lift and we'll see the sun again!  It came out for a few minutes late this afternoon so that is a good sign.


Julie, Jim, Thomas, Emily and her friend Blake, Philip and Gary will all be here tomorrow evening to celebrate Julie and my birthdays!  We'll order Pizza Villa and have sodas and celebrate!!! Will be fun - love these family events!


We had a great week with our Bible Clubs - the new club at Chenoweth with third graders was wonderful!  It was a great beginning and I know it will probably double next Tuesday when the word gets out as to how much fun the kids had!
Middle schools are growing too - asked for more chairs so we could fit more in today so look for more next Friday.  Amazing how kids want to learn more about God and what it means to be a Christian! Very rewarding!

Spring is in the air!

While the evenings and mornings are chilly and usually foggy, the afternoons are sunny and warm, in the 60's.  My primroses that came back from years ago are blooming along with the wild violets that were given to me years ago. Most surprisingly is the iris that is blooming - I've never had them bloom this early before. I had separated them and Julie & I planted a bunch in Emily's backyard last fall so am curious to see if her plants are blooming as well.


Larry's busy with Habitat three mornings a week as they are getting the windows and doors in so will be pretty secure soon.  They are very fortunate that the volunteers who do the roof got it all done before our rains came.  We expect rain again next weekend so all is welcomed as everything was so very dry. 


Had a delicious dinner tonight- our neighbor went fishing in Alaska and gave us a nice big piece of halibut so fried it in butter with salt, pepper and lemon pepper - it was delicious.  Along with it we had baked sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli plus strawberry banana jello with fruit cocktail and bananas.  After trying something new last night I thought we deserved a good dinner tonight.  I bought some frozen French Onion soup and baked fresh biscuits to go with it - but it wasn't very tasty - have three more so will have to add something else to the meal to make it complete when I try it again.


After having the flu bug last week from Monday after I finished at Cruickshank school Bible Club until Wednesday - I'm ready for a complete week this week to catch up! We start a new Bible Club in another public elementary school on Tuesday with third graders - looking forward to it.  Our middle schools are so well received at lunch time - kids seem very appreciative to know God loves them and forgives them and it is a free gift - they only have to believe and ask Jesus into their hearts!  It is so rewarding to see the differences in these kids lives as they accept Christ.

A new year and new beginnings!

Another new year and new beginnings!


I love a new year - an opportunity to begin new things, learn new things, and do new things!


I hope to recruit more board members for our local Habitat to make our board very diversified to reflect the different cultures in our community. 


I hope to recruit more volunteers to do our Bible Clubs in our public schools - we start a new one next Tuesday - at Chenoweth - where all our kids went to school. It will be for third graders - there are 145 third graders do will probably have at least 40 attend for the first few weeks. They each take a letter home explaining that it is a Bible Club so some don't return but we usually keep a good majority of them all year.


I hope to be an active member of a call committee for anew Pastor as ours has returned to St. Louis to study for his PHD in hopes of returning to the Mission field where he visited with his whole family of five children on a year's sabactical two years ago and a return trip with his wife for a month a year ago.


I hope to do more deep cleaning and sorting - do some painting, and upgrading throughout the house - usually get a good start and then it stops.


I hope to stay healthy, keep exercising with walking Benji every morning and doing water aerobics at least two or three times a week.


I hope to further plans to visit Alaska in 2016 with all of our family, kids, in laws, grandkids, and whoever else wants to join us. . .it will be our 60th wedding anniversary!


I hope to help my oldest brother celebrate his 90th birthday in Seward Nebraska, and enjoy family celebrations.


I look forward to celebrating my 78th birthday soon and also daughter Julie's so we enjoy that special time together.


That's my hope for 2015 so far - I know the list will grow longer. . .

A New Year 2015 - a New Beginning. . . .

I love the New Year!  It's like a fresh start - a time to learn new things, do new things and meet new people!


Unfortunately, I came down with a flu Monday feeling a bit dizzy after my Church Women United meeting, went on to the middle school Bible Club, feeling worse as the time went on, came home and went right to bed.  Dizzy & headache, nauseated, and felt awful.  Slept the day away, did get sick to my stomach a couple times, but I hadn't eaten but a couple pieces of my raisin persimmon nut bread to didn't have much in my stomach.  Slept off and on all day yesterday- cancelled water aerobics and my Tuesday Bible Club, hot tea and toast tasted best, and orange juice.  I did eat a little dinner last night with Gary & Larry.  Called for a sub at the hospital this afternoon so finally about 2:30 pm I decided to get out of my pajamas and have felt much better this afternoon.  I won't try water aerobics until next week - will do the Bible Club tomorrow and Friday and meet with a new board member for Habitat, and a new volunteer for a new Bible Club which starts Tuesday after school in an elementary school. We're only doing third graders so will be interesting to see how many come - will take flyers over to go home - `145 third graders in that school, we had a second grade group before Christmas at lunch but the leaders said that it just wasn't enough time.  It's the same lessons we're using in the middle schools so should be easy to adapt to the third grade level. 


I took all the Christmas decorations, including the tree down on Saturday, I usually do it on Epiphany but the high school volunteers from the hospital helped me take down four trees in less than an hour at the Courthouse Museum in the afternoon so it inspired me to do ours in the morning while Larry was at Habitat. The tree was real dry so since I put it up a little early to host my Habitat board here, it was a good idea to take it down.


The nights have been chilly, in the 30's but the afternoons have been beautiful. Would you believe it got up to 71 here this afternoon?  We're hoping for more rain and it sounds like the best opportunity for rain is a week from Friday for the weekend so we're hoping it comes through. 

Larry's 80th birthday celebration Sat. Sept 6, 2014


Larry celebrated his 80th birthday on Sept 3rd but we had his celebration on Sat. Sept 6th at St. Paul Parish Hall with about 40 friends and family.  His sister, Rowena and her husband from San Diego drove up, Mark & Dena were in Colorado helping her mother get her house ready to sell so couldn't come, and Philip is in Washington DC on his Internship but they all called to wish him well.  Gary smoked the tri tips, Thomas helped grill the chicken, Emily did all the flower arrangements with big yellow beautiful sunflowers, and I got red checkered tablecloths & red napkins so it was very colorful.  Julie made Aunt Gladys' potato casserole, a fresh fruit salad, and I made the four bean salad, a broccoli/kale salad, and a bing cherry and peach cobbler which we served with vanilla ice cream so we had quite a feast!  We invited people to take food home, and the rest was used for a 50th birthday celebration the next day for Pastor Kou so there was NO waste!  It all tasted very good!!  It was very special!

Larry's 80th birthday celebration


Forty people gathered at St Paul's Parish Hall to help Larry celebrate his 80th birthday on Saturday, Sept. 6th, his birthday was the 3rd but we celebrated on the 6th.  His sister & husband, Rowena & Bruce came from San Diego, and a multitude of local friends.  Gary smoked some tri tips, Thomas helped him grill some chicken, I had made three bean salad, and a cherry and peach cobbler, Julie made a huge fruit salad, and a bunch of Aunt Gladys' potato casserole, plus Larry made a big bunch of Aunt Elaine's Calico beans  so we had a feast!  Vanilla ice cream for the cobbler so lots of food, friends and fun!  The leftovers were kept for Pastor Kou's 50th birthday celebration the next evening so nothing was wasted and we invited people to take any leftovers home they wanted.  It was a fun weekend!!

September 29, 2014


Celebrated Gary's birthday Saturday in Modesto at Emily's house after we helped trim bushes, and get the yard ready to put in sprinklers.  Blake, her friend, did the roto tilling, then rolled it and we shoveled up the Bermuda and other weeds that surfaced.  We all got a workout!  Emily barbecued delicious hamburgers, Julie made macaroni & cheese, beans and a beautiful chocolate cake!  So we had a feast!  Then tonight Gary chose the IHOP for his birthday dinner and we each had omelettes, and came home to the warm cherry pie I had baked this afternoon with a dip of vanilla ice cream of course.  It was the quart of cherries we brought back this summer from Door County, those special cherries that are so very good - Montmorency or something like that.

Spring has sprung and the Flu Bug hit both of us!!!

WOW!  Spring has sprung with temps in the 70's and about 2:30 a.m. on Friday the flu bug hit me hard - stomach flu until 2:30 p.m. Friday afternoon - then very weak and tired.  Finally got up Saturday afternoon to do some bills, Larry fixed poached eggs & toast and along with the Gatorade I begin to feel much better.  Gary brought me some beautiful red/white parrot tulips - that cheered me up and even ate part of a sub sandwich last night.  Larry woke up this morning sick to his stomach so hopefully staying in all day, rest, and some homemade chicken soup I have cooking will get us both all well again!  What a bummer!  We had planned to go up to Emily's and help install all her baseboards on Friday, have lunch & dinner with her, I had baked a peach cobbler to take along - and all those plans changed!!  One never knows what the next day will bring so enjoy each day as it comes!!

Persimmons galore!!!

I pureed 6 quarts of persimmons this week - took them to church with a recipe for persimmon bread and they were promptly taken.  This afternoon I pureed the rest of the fresh ones I had that Emily brought me and got 6 more quarts.  So will share some more as I baked 8 dozen cookies this afternoon and must say I do like the persimmon bread much better than the cookies.  The cookies seem a little dry - remind me of Aunt Anna Barth - she always made persimmon cookies. A couple ladies at church love cookies so were happy to get the pulp so maybe they have a better recipe than I used. I'll freeze these and take them to church to have after church Fellowship hour.

The start of a New Year. . . . .

Amazing weather for the second day of January 2014!!  The temp was 65 and feels like February instead of the cold, rainy weather we should have this time of year!  We're hoping for some rain - some forecasters say it will happen next week - others are not so optimistic so we'll see what happens.

Now that we're enrolled in Medicare D, we were told we could go to our Pharmacy with our WellCare ID care and get prescriptions FREE.  NOT SO!!  The only ones that are free are the generic ones -  - what interesting things we learn as we get older!  So the prescriptions my OB/GYN Dr. wrote for me last week are not generic so since they would total over $100, I'll call her tomorrow to see if she can re-write them for a generic!  Now we have learned to always ASK our Dr. to write generic drugs for prescriptions. 

I did get a new battery in my watch today - the usual jewelry store just down the street from us no longer installs batteries in watches - so suggested Walmart and they still do while you wait!  What is our world coming to?  Is everyone sending people to Walmart instead of our hometown business owners? 

Well, I guess we can be thankful we have beautiful weather, a warm house, good health, good food and excellent coffee!  What more should we ask for?  Thank you God!

Gary, Larry, Benj and I drove out to the Merced College after dinner tonight to view the Field of Honor, the front lawn full of American flags in honor of our Veterans. It is a beautiful sight - with lights on - and there will be a special ceremony on Veterans Day at 10 a.m. The fellow who brainstormed the idea just passed away last week after a long battle with cancer. He was in the Rotary Club and had helped develop several Fields of Honor in other places = even other countries. It is beautiful! Must drive by in the daytime as well, Gary says he thinks it is more impressive in the daytime.

Beautiful Fall Weather. . .finally!!

After a very hot and long summer, our fall weather has finally arrived!  The high was only 73 degrees today!  Yesterday the wind came up, clouds came in and north and south of us had some rain but we only had a sprinkle.  The dust was really bad so closed up the windows!  We had our Young Life Annual Fall Roundup and it was scheduled to be outside at someone's home, so at 12:15 yesterday the decision was made to move it to Gateway Community Church which was a very wise decision!
It was very well planned, the western atmosphere was very attractive, the food was delicious, the testimonies from the students and their changed lives since they accepted Christ in their lives, all was very impressive.  More and more kids are getting involved so after sending 17 kids to camp last year, 79 this year, this next summer could see 150 easily. So fundraising is a big challenge and the Annual Golf tournament is next Friday out at Stevinson Ranch.
We're enjoying a few hostellers a few nights a week - our annual inspection is coming up this Thursday so all is going well.

Home Sweet Home!
After driving almost ALL of the 5000 miles on our trip, it does feel mighty good to be home again!  We thoroughly enjoyed the Sorge reunion & 100th anniversary of Gurley, the small town near the Sorge farm where Larry grew up, and also celebrating their high school - was very well planned and fun!  Larry saw people he hadn't seen for many years and they had such good food - a 30 minutes church service on Sunday put on by the Christian motorcycle club - amazing!! Following a sausage gravy & biscuit plus fruit cup brunch - lots of hard work went into it!  Everyone really enjoyed it!
Then on to visit Larry's roommate in business school in Lincoln, Mel Abels, who was also in our wedding and we hadn't seen him in 57 years! They wouldn't have known each other but had a great lunch with them and nice visit in Kearney. Then on to Seward to visit my brother Bud & wife Elaine - we helped him celebrate his 88th birthday - my brother Don & wife Gladys, and their four girls all came - + a son in law, and my sister's two = Terry and Sandy plus her husband Mick. Bud  & Elaine's daughter & son in law who did an excellent job of barbecuing brats and hamburgers, and granddaughter Julie & husband John and their daughter Sadie Elizabeth, who is Bud & Elaine's first great grandchild.  What fun she is!  She loves to dance so whenever she hears music she starts her little jig routine - so funny and she laughs too!
She's ready to walk but always hold on to something with one hand! She'll take off one of these days!  Then the next day a Vrana Cousins reunion on my Dad's side - always fun to get together - and many thanks to Cousin Pat Grimes who pulls it altogether plus puts out a Cousins newsletter monthly!   Then on to Wisconsin to spend a few days with Mark & Dena - Larry helped Mark with brakes on his pick up truck. I enjoyed some crocheting and reading - helping Dena a little bit - she is such a gourmet cook!  What fabulous meals she put together - always made a big amount so they could freeze the leftovers for their next truck trip. Then on to Montana - took #90 so was different scenery - not much traffic and some pretty scenery.  Very hot in Billings - 101 and on to Craig where Thomas had thought he would work in the fly shop - but a very desolate place - only a restaurant and 3 fly fishing places - no grocery store or gas station and the Missouri river right across the road - so many people putting in rafts and kayaks - many not putting on their life jackets - pulling them behind them in another raft - no one policing the place - so very glad Thomas and Jim didn't stay there. Housing as promised and was not to be had - we didn't see any places to live and I know they advertise lodges at a very expensive rate for their foreign fly fishermen. It's 40 miles from any gas station or grocery store - wouldn't be nice in the winter and very boring in the summer. Came on home and always amazed at the beauty coming over Donner Pass into California - we don't appreciate it like we should.
The weather here had been extremely hot while we were gone and it cooled down twenty degrees the day we came home - amazing!  Since I did most of the driving, I slept until 8:30 the next morning. I'm having trouble with my right ear being plugged up - the different elevations - I've tried ear drops, peroxide, white vinegar and will call the ENT Dr. in the morning to see if I can get in.  It's wonderful to see family and friends - not sure about driving 5000 miles again - may decide to fly next time and rent a car - would certainly make a difference time-wise! Benji was a great little traveler - he learned to jump in the back seat into his bed when it got hot with the sun hitting him in the front seat! He was so glad to see Gary and vice versa - they really love each other!  Back in the swing of things - Larry's back working on the Habitat House - I shared a picture of the one in Seward with our Habitat board last night - and I worked at the hospital this afternoon - doing water aerobics again three days a week for an hour, and meeting with my high school student volunteers at the hospital next Tuesday - meeting with a group from church to begin a Family Night starting in Sept once a week for the whole family - will take lots of planning and organization but we're excited about doing it.  My brothers and I on Bud's birthday 625th.

Our 57th anniversary celebration after worship Sunday, June 9, 2013

We hosted the fellowship hour this morning after worship by serving white cake and carrot cake with punch - made of frozen lemonade, frozen pineapple juice and 7 up. Everyone loved the carrot cake - said it was the best ever~  Thanks to Costco! We have only one service in the summer at 9 a.m. so had a good turnout and very little cake left.

Family Celebration for Philip's 19th birthday

Family Celebration for Philip's 19th birthday
Sunday, June 9, 2013

What fun we had!  Delicious beef tri tip smoked by Gary, grilled chicken breasts barbecued by Larry, I baked small Yukon gold potatoes, delicious sweet corn from Modesto, and to top it off, Tuxedo Chocolate mousse cake from Costco - it was great!
So much fun that we planned a swim party at Gary's next Saturday to celebrate Father's Day! We're in front of Philip's new car but you can't see it for all the people!

Beautiful pot of colorful flowers from Julie, Jim and family for Mother's Day. Look great on our patio!  They made the day complete!