Hot Foot 5K RACE WINNER!

Before the race... getting his number on!

They are OFF... (check out the smile!)

The place markers below... #42 in the field of 140+ runners of ALL AGES! Time 27:28!!!

2nd place in the 60-69 age division!

Way to go, Preacher!!! So glad you got the prize!

FINAL MINUTES VIDEO

Pearl's Dress

Pearl was able to wear her bridesmaid dress to her school Freshman Dance earlier this month. The wedding is July 25, so here is a preview! I used Scrap Girl kit Potpourri by Brandy Murray for the embellishments and made my own paper and title. The brush of stardust is from ASO APrincess, also Scrap Girls. Online gallery view

I used these Scrap Girl items:

Miss Wii... LIKES ME!

I have become great friends with Miss Wii. We met in January of this year when my nephew brought her home from a local video store. We have met almost daily since then. She has been a real encouragement to my determination to keep my weight DOWN. Unfortunately, as the chart shows, my weight has been consistently boring for the past 150 days! I sometimes feel like a yo-yo! Overall, I have put ON a pound more than when I started to meet her every day!

Yes, that is Mii in the center of Miss Wii's front page. Note most of the others on this page are nodding off, except my husband and I. She comments on them regularly and even asks if we have seen them lately. She misses them, but she and I have become great friends!

Yes, I am committed to keeping the weight OFF, but wish the weight would just go AWAY once and for all!
Have you met Miss Wii yet?

HOT DOG!!

Sally (above) and myself (below) with the Hog Dog mobile.

On the way home from dinner on Mother's Day we spotted the Weiner-Mobile in our local shopping area. We urged my husband to pull in and humor us for a photo op.

Sally treated us to several commercial jingles about the name brand as we continued homeward. What a hot dog! Just think how big the ketchup bottle would be! FUN!

New baby... awww!!

Our friends recently had a new baby and his birth inspired me to create a scrap page for him.

Scrap Girl products were used... mostly ASO Sea Glass and 2 ribbons from Brandy Murray's Ribbons to Go collection. Such a sweet little guy!

Peonies, PLEASE!

Every year I watch and wait for my TREE PEONY to bloom its plate sized blooms. Most years it will have one or two blooms for a few days or a week. This year it gave me THREE plate sized blooms. Having more direct sun must have been the trick (I had hubby remove an encroaching bush before it bloomed).
Ahhh, Peonies please me well! (now for the bushes to bloom, too!)

48 HOURS

We were planning to go to California on Wednesday morning for a graduation service for Sarah Sager, a friend who we met when she was 14 years old. In spite of difficult circumstances and hardships, Sarah managed to be the first and only person in her family to graduate college. We were so proud of her, and we had planned for several years to go for the event, which we thought was Wednesday NIGHT.

Pearl at the track meet

We decided to attend our granddaughter Pearl's track meet at the South Kitsap High School on Tuesday afternoon before packing our bags. The meet started at 3 PM. We were able to see one of her events when the phone rang. Sarah, the graduate, wanted to know if we were already in town, and where could we meet her. We assured her we would arrive the next day by 11 am and she informed us that we would MISS the graduation, since it was at NINE AM! OH NO!

We gave our apologies to Pearl's family and headed home to rearrange our travel tickets. YIKES! We were able to find seats available on a 9 PM flight, but needed to fly into a different airport, find a rental car company that would allow us to drop the car at a different airport than we picked it up, AND find lodging for one partial night, etc. It took two hours to make the changes [at great expense] and get to the airport by 7 PM. We barely packed anything, but grabbed some stuff, changed clothes and headed for SEATAC! We arrived in L.A. by 11:30, checked into our room by 12:30 AM and hit the sack. Before 7 AM we were heading out the door for Lancaster CA and arrived by 8 AM to see Sarah before she had to report to the "holding area" for the ceremony.

The commencement was a tremendous blessing for us... to share this wonderful VICTORY in Sarah's life was a treat! Her family was unable to attend, so we were doubly glad to be "there" for her! Please pray for Sarah as she prepares to serve God wherever He desires. She is currently considering if Estonia (former USSR) might be where He is leading.

Preacher with Sarah and her hard earned diploma!

Preacher with his college students.

Lindsey McKee (1st year student); Sarah Sager,
Preacher and myself celebrating at Chili's afterwards.

We also met Caleb Duffield, Lindsey's new beau (from Michigan, like us!)

Thursday we drove back to L.A. and departed from the Burbank airport; arriving home by 7 PM.

What an exciting 48 hours!

A CRAZY Test

This is an oldie, but I laugh EVERY TIME I hear it, and hope you will enjoy it AGAIN!

A Crazy Test

Visiting the psych ward, a man asked how doctors decide to institutionalize a patient.

"Well," the director said, "we fill a bathtub, then offer a teaspoon, a teacup, and a bucket to the patient, and ask him to empty the tub."

"I get it," the visitor said. "A normal person would use the bucket because it's the biggest."

"No," the director said. "A normal person would pull the plug."

Scrap Girls meet in Portland OR...

Sally and I drove the three hours to west Portland today. Along the way Sally took a myriad of photos from the window and thru the sunroof. We saw some amazing spring green hills and fluffy clouds, and even some clouds that looked like a school of fish swimming by!

Our hostess was April Martell and she shared some of her sewing handiwork with us, including a lovely yellow and blue star quilt, and several formal dresses.

We took a few shots of our group: Vaughnde Edwards, Sally Gregson, Kay Ott (seated at end of table), designer Jacelen Deinema, April Martell. Gayle Starker and I took turns taking the pic.
After our fiesta, we picked April's brain about digital "how to" and learned so much!
It was a helpful and fun event... can't wait for another chance to meet and greet more Scrap Girls. Next meeting is scheduled for July 18 when Dr Sandi visits from St Louis!

Safe at HOME...

Grandson David ran "HOME" in his game tonight. He played so well in every position he played! The slide to home reminded me of last Sunday's sermon of the same name, complete with a Mariner jersey!

SAFE AT HOME!

The objective of baseball is to get home, and be safe- SAFE AT HOME!
That is also the objective of salvation, "To arrive safe at home in heaven."
I want you to see how you can be SAFE AT HOME when you die.
To arrive "safe at home" you must TOUCH ALL THE BASES.

1st BASE: You must acknowledge you are a sinner. (Romans 3:10-23)
2nd BASE: You must believe Jesus died for YOUR sins (Romans 5:8)
3rd BASE: You must TRUST and RECEIVE Jesus Christ as your LORD and Savior (John 1:12; Acts 16:31)
HOME PLATE: The umpire's decision is FINAL! He decides who is SAFE and who is OUT.

SAFE AT HOME, AT LAST!

The road home may be hard and long,
Storms may beat across my path;
Trusting Christ I can't go wrong.
He'll take me safe at home, at last.

My journey's end is coming near,
The years have come and passed;
There's nothing now I have to fear,
I'll soon be safe at home, at last.

There's no place as safe as home,
Secure from all Satan's blast;
As I enter heaven's gates, no more to roam,
I'll shout, "I'm safe at home, at last!"
-Al Hughes, April 18, 2009

I can't believe I did this!

Last month in Arizona we saw Gordie & Bev Raatz, whom we met in 1967-68. Gordie is now in his 80's and this photo [on the left] is the only photo he had of himself as a child. It was in poor condition and well protected in their family album.

I scanned the photo and brought it home to attempt a restoration for them. Next week I will send them 3- 5x7 copies for them and their two daughters. In years past I have done some photo work for Alice's paper dolls, but nothing was this badly damaged. Do you think they will like it? I do!

Next I will make Bev a photo of her dad, from the only photo she has of him... in her wedding party! She will love a 5x7 to frame next to her mom's photo! Then I will begin to scrap their wedding album for their 57th anniversary gift in September.

[Digi-fun!]

Tombstone- the rest of the story

In March we visited Tombstone AZ, and we just had these photos developed this week. [Our camera battery died just as we got to town and we had to buy disposable cameras... whatever works, you know?]


We went to see the re-enactment of the gunfight at the OK Corral (above) next to the site of the original fight. We heard the "other side" of the Hollywood story, from the "cowboys" viewpoint. Interesting rendition and well acted. We particularly enjoyed the Doc Holiday actor, who was a great mimic of the Val Kilmer version.

In the above photo, through the gates of the theatre, you can see the "body doubles" of the Earps and Cowboys at nearly the same place the shootout occurred.

Enjoyable outing! SO glad we went!

After the show, we were able to get photos with the actors. Preacher is shown above with Morgan and Virgil Earp. Below, Barb is with Ike Clanton, the only cowboy to survive the shootout. Doesn't he look good for his age? (Just kidding!)

As we waited to take our western photo, SEEN HERE we spied the actors wandering the streets and hijacked them for a photo op! Here Virgil & Morgan Earp and Doc Holiday posed with Barb. (Morgan was such a gentleman, taking my arm like so!)

Before we left, Preacher posed with a dead man on the main strip and we thought of the Ezekial account of "Dem bones" gonna live! (Ezek. 37)

The day was a wonderful western romp! The old town is so well preserved and historical! Try to go when you can! Its a treat for all ages!

Birthday BLESSINGS...

My birthday this year included a surprise ocean getaway! At Ocean Shores, we strolled the beaches, worked out in the hotel exercise room, swam in the pool and hot tub, and other tourist activities! I found 3 sand dollars and joked we were on our way to paying off our hotel bill!

We saw the remains of somebody's sand castle crumbling on the shore as the ocean reclaimed its territory.

We enjoyed a delightful birthday dinner, complete with snicker cheesecake and a candle for me, and carrot cake for him (of course!). While we ate, we watched the sunset and let me SHOW you what God did for my birthday blessing (scroll down!)

WOWWEEE...Can't God do good things for us? What a blessing!

Heads or Tails?

Sometimes we forget Sir Dewey and Princess Phoebe are pets, not people! This was a fun scrap page after a HUMOR CHALLENGE on Scrap Girls! [AMC Jake & Emma kit from Scrap Girls]

Tombstone... TIME TRAVEL

We had such a memorable time in Tombstone! It was one of the highlights of our trip to step back in time to the OLD WEST. The journaling reads:

We saw the re-enactment of the OK Corral shootout.
Took pictures with the actors protraying Doc Holiday,
Wyatt and Virgil Earp; had dinner at Big Nose Kates’ Saloon
Visited Boot Hill where the Cowboy victims of OK are buried.
Spectacular SUNSETS... What a time we had!

See it in the Scrapgirl gallery!

Bad Hombres... the HUGHES GANG

If you happen to cross paths with the Hughes gang, BEWARE!

We are HOME, Hallelujah!

Like this Cactus says, "Hallelujah!"

"I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting." 1 Tim 2:8
"Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD." Ps 134:2

We safely arrived home last night! Thank you to Bro Kyle and Bro Todd for collecting us at SeaTac! Everything was on time, but not without a bit of drama!

Thank you, Ethelyn, for loaning us your PT Cruiser. Thank you Bro Andy and church for a "home away from home" and to the Raatz for your great hospitality after the revival! It was SO GOOD to see you all again!

The next photo gives you an idea of the SIZE of this particular cactus! HUGE blessing... we found a few interesting cactus formations for another blog or scrap page! God has a sense of humor in His many creations!

Take me out to the ballgame!

Our first date was at a ballgame in Detroit!

As soon as we knew we would be in AZ during spring training for the Mariners, we checked the schedule and got tickets for a game in Peoria! This was BEFORE we knew Griffey would return to our team! Oh, to see "THE KID" again!

Griffey sightings for seven innings! We sat three rows behind their dugout and saw his awesome smile often.

SO GLAD he came "HOME" to Seattle again! Score 8-5 Mariners!! WOW! [We left the game early because the 95 - 100 degree temps were a bit too foreign to us... can't take it!]