Grace & Truth Conference 2009

Ann-Marie is always telling me, "When you get right with the Lord, you will join Morning Star Baptist Church." Well, perhaps I am right with the Lord about once a year when I attend their Grace & Truth Conference. We not only enjoy being together but growing in the Lord together with all the great speakers we hear. Morning Star always does an excellent job on their conferences. From the program folder, the food...oh the food and of course the guest speakers. I kid Ann-Marie that even if you didn't care for all the speakers, you could come just for the food.(See the video below.)

Now don't you want to attend by just looking at that food above?

The fellowship is also a wonderful time too.

Fortune Cookie

I was so taken by those fortune cookies, that I just needed to have one and see what my future held. Can you believe what it said? "You will spend your old age in comfort and material wealth." Now that was worth coming to the conference. Since I am already OLD...come on wealth!!! When I told Pastor Bixby my fortune his reply was, "That's in heaven." I guess I will work on the beauty of holiness. That's something I really need.

The place where the conference was held was at the brand new facility of Wesley Willows across from their nursing home. WOW! It was beautiful. Everything was great from the speakers Dave & Lucy Burggraff, Holly Stratton, the food and of course just the fellowship with other Christian ladies. Perhaps Friday's highlight was Miss Shellie Beeman, Lyric Coloratura Soprano.

The only thing that didn't work out was attending the whole program on Saturday. Ann-Marie and I did attend one of the morning sessions, but Samuel was not going to let us stay for the whole day. But we did enjoy what we were able to attend. And after all I was right with the Lord for almost two days.

Grace & Truth Video

Thank Him, Thanks Him

I'm am such a true bargain hunter! I don't know if it comes from growing up in a poor family or what, but I enjoy getting the most out of my money. Food, clothes or items I collect, like antique red handle kitchen utensils, would be included on my bargain list.

One habit I do have when it comes to bargain hunting is praying. Even though the Lord already knows my desires, I still pray for them. "Please don't let me buy things I don't need." is also in my prayer.

Last fall, I purchased a beautiful skirt, on clearance of course, at Bergner's real cheap. This spring when my sisters and I went shopping at Bergner's I got an orange top to go with the skirt. Wearing the outfit on Easter Sunday with a pair of white shoes, I thought wouldn't it be fun to have a pair of orange shoes instead of white ones.

This year my sister, Louise introduced to a resale shoppe to take clothes and make some money off the selling price. It's been fun making some extra money. So this Wednesday we went to the resale shop. Before we left, I prayed that I might find an orange pair of shoes.

And my God did supply this pair of shoes.

Since I had money coming from the shop, I didn't really have to pay the price of $5.99 out of my pocket. It came from the sell of some of my clothes I had placed in their store.

So when I wear these cute orange shoes, I will wear them with a thankful heart. Perhaps singing quietly in my heart, "Thank Him, Thank Him all ye little children. God is Love. God is love."

Another Fun Night With Great Niece & Nephews!

I've always enjoyed any of my Aunts and Uncles. They were fun to be around and when I was younger, I looked forward to spending time with them. Just given the title, "Aunt" or "Uncle" I think is such a privilege. So in the Rehfeldt family whenever any of my brothers or sisters got married and had children, we immediately were called Aunt or Uncle so and so. Now that I am a GREAT AUNT, it even gets better. It's fun to have young kids around...they do keep you hopping!!April 18, 2009 this pass Saturday, we had Megan, Caleb and Jacob over for supper while their mom and dad enjoyed an outing at their church. After the meal, Megan, Jacob and I took a walk while Caleb said he wanted to help Uncle Gary with the dishes. (Since I had made the meal, Gary said that he would do the dishes. Just love that guy.) After we returned from our walk we had our dessert.

Like all children, each kid enjoyed doing different things. Above we have Caleb showing GREAT Uncle Gary how to play the card game, War.

Jacob after sitting thru a movie that was only boring because he had seen it too many times, enjoyed putting in a video that he would enjoy.

Megan, being the teenager that she is enjoyed going online. If we had had more time, her and I would have played Wheel of Fortune. I guess we will keep it for the next time they come.

As you can see, being a GREAT AUNT is lots of fun. It can wear you out, but then you usually get a good night sleep.

Time for Baby Registry

April 23, Ann-Marie had an ultrasound appointment. It's still is so amazing to hear Samuel Robert Alan's heartbeat. And all the wonderful photos of just him...head, nose, hand etc. I'll let Ann-Marie describe it with more detail. She is the writer. I'm the picture type person. This photo reminds me of one my sister, Jan took with my dad...years ago!
We met Candice at Babies R Us after the ultrasound. Above you see the happy couple getting ready to enter into the world of things the baby will need.


Yes, that's Brett with the zapper. He looks just like the men who has to have control of the TV remote. But because he is tall, it came in handy for getting the bar code of items really high.

It truly was fun looking at a lot of baby items.

What would we have done without Candice! She truly was such a help when deciding if an item would be useful or not. Thanks Candice.

Thursday was a beautiful day weather- wise, but I don't think much of us realized how long we would be on our feet. We were in Babies R Us for about 2 hours. When we walked out of the store it was 1:00 p.m. Food was the only thing on our minds, so we stopped for lunch before we continued on over to Target.

Baby Samuel is doing great! We all look forward to his entry into the world. Can't wait to hold my first grandchild.

Easter Video

Easter Weekend 2009!

I will try and do a video of our Easter outing at my sister Louise. But for now, I'm just updating on this past weekend.

Gary and I had gotten home late after hearing Dr. Morris Gleiser speak at Windsor Baptist Church. So on Saturday morning I heard from my siter, Jan that they would be coming down on Saturday to spend the night. Since I do not dust my house all the time...it was time to get with the program and do some serious dusting. (I know your thinking, when does dusting become a serious thing.) Jan and Darryl were planning on visiting mom. I did invite them to have supper with Gary and I. I was making a complete meal in one pan. You cut-up cabbage, potatoes, carrots and add sausage. No takers from that end of the phone conversation. Later Ann-Marie phoned and wondered if we would like to have steaks on the grill. Oops, I had already started supper-I invited them to come over...no takers there either. "I think that Gary and you are the only people who like that combo." was Ann-Marie's reply. "If you want, why don't you come over after supper." was my reply.

So later after we all had our separate suppers, we played Sequence that evening. We had three teams. Ann-Marie and Jan, Juliet and Gary and Brett and Darryl. Well, Brett and Darryl won every game.

There are times when I wonder why I didn't have my camera handy. At Heritage the front was so beautiful with all the lilies and several tulips. Gary and I had done two lilies in memory of Bob Trotter and Andrew Heilman. And the choir did such an amazing job under the leadership of Mike Jones Sr. of the Easter Cantata by Ron Hamilton. Then we had Dr. Morris Gleiser for the morning message. It was such a great worship service!

After changing clothes, we headed to Brodhead, Wisconsin for the Berg Farm.

Here we have the three sisters ready to eat. We were hungry by this time.
Louise had done a separate table for the grandkids.

Here's our table.

I hope now that you have had a peek at this I can get the video done, so you can enjoy seeing the fun we had out at the farm.

Surprise! Surprise!

We all love surprises! A surprise call from an old friend. A surprise birthday party. A surprise gift for no reason. We could go on and on. But the surprise I got yesterday was not a nice surprise.

Yesterday, I was planning to see my mother at the nursing home during her lunch time. So I decided to make a small lunch for myself. I grabbed the Budding Deli Cuts I had purchased from the Walmart store down the street from us. I love ham and I would looking forward to making a nice ham sandwich with lettuce, pickle and mayo on Jewish seedles rye bread. Got the bread out. Put mayo, lettuce and sliced a Claussen Kosher Dill pickel to finish the toppings.

I was sure everything was going just as planned. Looking again at the date told me that I was going to enjoy a great homemade ham sandwich. THEN CAME THE SURPRISE!!! Are you ready for this?

When I opened the package...I saw this really ugly mold on some of the pieces. It made my stomach turn. The dictionary defines the word "surprise" "To encounter suddenly or unexpectedly;" Unexpectedly would be the word I will use.

Thankfully, I had purchased some turkey for Gary from the deli department. So I make a turkey sandwich instead.

As for that gross looking ham, I took it back today for a refund and got some other ham from the deli. I know what it looks like!!!

Well, may you all have many surprises this year, but may they not be of this nature.

New Item In Grocery Store

Since I am retired and have no pitter-patter of little feet about my home, (at least not yet), I go for any short cuts when it come to baking. Well, what a nice surprise when grocery recently that I found a wonderful new way to make brownies.

If you can read the instructions, you have read right...just position the dough in the center of an ungreased 8x8 inch square metal pan and the oven will do the rest!!!!

I wished I could tell you if fudgy brownies with peanut butter filling turned out, but I can't. They were made for the Volleython that Heritage Baptist puts on. They have around 42 teams signed up to play on Saturday. It's a great way to present the gospel to some of the unsaved players who will be in some of the teams. If I had been smarter, I would have made a batch for us, but I guess I'm not that smart.

So if you are ever in a pinch for a dessert, this just might be your solution.