Baby Shower for Samuel

Well, this day finally came. A Shower for Samuel given by her family. Where to begin is always the hard part. Her cousins were so helpful...they did the whole show. From Tammy printing out the invites to me having a luncheon so we could all help with addressing the enevlopes for the invitations. Thanks to Candice and Beth who helped with the shower. Ann-Marie knows that she is very fortunate to have such great cousins and aunts who help out all the time with so many events in our family. Thanks to all her aunts and family members that provided the delicious food. My old boss from Annie's said, "I haven't tasted a bad thing yet." So many photos that I even had to do two slide shows. I hope I got all the photos in. Here we have Luella, Ann-Marie and Camille
This delicious cake from Hilander.

What a cool punch!

Here we have some of her aunts and friends.

I was even surprised by a wonderful friend of our family, Jan Hafeli giving me a gift. My first Grandma photo frame. Thanks Jan.

So many people. So much conversation. So much photos. So much food. So many many gifts. So much fun!!!

Like all events, there are some things that can go wrong. Like the piggy bank that people put money into so Samuel would have a little head start in this life. But while we were packing up gifts and putting them in Ann-Marie's care, the bank got knocked off the table and broke into many many pieces. Money went everywhere. That was fun picking up.

Then when Candice offered to put the 4 in 1 convertible bed in her SUV, a flat tire was discovered. So Brett, the only man around got assigned the duty of changing the tire. That took awhile. But he finally got it changed. Thanks Brett.

As always, just sit back and enjoy the two slide shows. Please enjoy, it took me most of the morning to get this done. :)

Ann-Marie's Shower #2

Ann-Marie"s Shower #1

Jeffrey's Open House 2009

My brother, Timothy James firstborn, Jeffrey James graduated from Rockford Christian Schools this year. Party time again!

But the night before one might not think that the party would take place. Friday night, June 19, it stormed BAD! Heavy rains, lightning etc. Just trying to get their hugh white tent up was going to be a challenge. On top of the bad storm, there was an explosion at 8:35 p.m. on South Mulford near Sandy Hollow Road. A Canadian National Railway train was derailed by railroad tracks that had been washed away by the heavy rains. It was carrying thousands of gallons of ethanol. As a result, homes were being evacuated. It was a volunteer evacuation for Tim and Judi. Oh what a night this must have been for them.

Fast forward to Saturday morning! Sunshine! A nice cool breeze! Tent Up! LET'S PARTY!!! Jeffrey & Cake
Grandmother & Grandson

The only thing that went wrong was that that beautiful cluster of graduation balloons got blown away. Up, Up and away!

Jeffrey and friends.

Jeff's cousin, Leah had her party two weeks ago . I think they are both happy about graduating from high school and are looking forward to college.

Let's hope that in two years when Jeff's brother Justin graduates from Rockford Christian, Tim and Judi will not have so much excitment the night before the Open House. Enjoy the slide show below from such a fun Open House.

Slide Show - Jeffrey's Open House

A Visit With Emma

Looking back on life, you can certainly look back and see things differently than what they really were at that time. For instance, I never thought of our family as poor. Of course we didn't have the real nice homes as our friends had. But we always walked to school and played together at each other's home.

We didn't go on vacations. We were lucky just to see that the bills got paid. For me, I enjoyed Friday nights when we would have hamburgers and ice cream. To us that was a real treat.

So for fun, we either went for a country ride or go see dear friends of my mother and father, John & Emma on their farm. They had four kids when I was going to the farm. Loved going and bringing the cows home to the barn, picking up walnuts off the ground, swinging in their big tire swing in the front of their home and checking the chicken coop to see if there were any eggs to gather. John & Emma were the dearest people you could meet. We usually had supper while we were there. Emma's husband John and several of her children our gone now. It's been so long since I have seen Emma, so when we made plans to visit her I was so excited. Now I must confess, since Emma lives in Rock City, we planned to catch a few garage sales before we got to Emmas. Actually the photo above was taken at a garage sale after we left Emma's home.

Here we have Emma & my mother

Setting up the table.

Louise special pasta salad for mom.

Jan's delicious chocolate cream filled cupcakes.

Happy Birthday Louise.

A farm chime from me.

Plus a gift from the County Cottage...rabbit holding a candle.

Louise just loved her hugh baking cup pans from Jan.

And hail! Hail! the gangs all here.

We had planned ahead of time to bring the lunch and also celebrate Louise's birthday at the same time. Louise had already celebrated her birthday on June 1 but as sisters, we would celebrated it again at Emmas.

It was so good to see Emma and talk about the days when we were all young and carefree. She was still that wonderful sweet person we knew so long ago. For mother it was different. This was one of her long-life friends. Time just slipped away and before we knew it, it was time to leave. We thanked Emma for letting us come to their farm and making our childhood full of good memories.

I guess I would just say to Emma, "Thanks for the memories."

Leah's Open House

Party! Party! Party! It's an ongoing event in our large family. Well, Saturday was my neice, Leah's Open House at Camp Winnebago. She just graduated from North Love Christian High School. Here we have three generations.
Oh, my the food!!! Leah and Sheila must have worked around the clock. Here we have diploma sandwiches. Clever idea. You'll have to see the slide show to see photos of the food they made. And all of it was delicious.

Here we have two of Leah's close girlfriends from her high school.

Here are some of her cousins. Melissa, Ali and Elizabeth.

What's a party without little ones. Brielle and Leah take great photos.

It was so much fun just talking with friends and family. Even though we may live close to each other, doesn't mean we see each that often. When you view the slide show below, some of the photos you see, you might wished you had been in on their conversations. There is way too much laughter going on.

Leah will be attending Maranatha Baptist Bible College in the fall. Congratulations to you Leah!

Slide Show Of Leah's Open House

Unexpected Blessings

When you look at the photo below, what catches your eye first? The beautiful Goebel vase that my niece, Candice gave me for my birthday one year? The two beautiful clusters of lilacs? Or perhaps the lone lily of the valley flower? Yes, put all of the above together and it is so beautiful as a photo. But...for me, it's the lone lily of the valley flower. The reason being that it was the only one I got this year from the three lily of the valley plants I planted last year. I was hoping for more but I got the unexpected ONE. And I think that is why it stands out among the lilac flowers.
While Gary and I were in Door County this year, we celebrated our seventh anniversay by going to the Mission Grille for our supper that night. While, we were eating our dessert (something we rarely get, because we are so full from our main meal) the waitress came by and asked how we liked our desserts. In the course of our conversation, she made the statement that she had worked for the Mission Grille for seven years. She said that she started working there when she was fourteen. Then we made the comment that we were celebrating our seventh anniversary. Later when she gave us our bill, she said the dessert was on house and wished us a Happy Anniversary. That sure was unexpected!!

Before we left for Door County, we had asked Brett and Ann-Marie to pick up our mail and water our flowers. When we got back, the house was still standing and the flowers looked well cared for. The next day after watering my flowers in the backyard, I started walking away from the railing on the deck, when that beautiful purple flower in the photo above caught my eye. Here was a pansy growing in the middle of a special type of grass that grows on both sides of the deck. "That's got to come into the house" was my first thought. As I picked it, I noticed a few inches from it was the white one. WOW! What another unexpected blessing from above. You will not find any more of these among the grass. Just what you see in the photo.

I have truly enjoyed these unexpected blessing from the Lord. Can you think of one unexpected blessing God has given you this year?

Slide Show of Shower

Showers of Blessing

After church on Sunday morning, it was time to head to Geneva, IL. The Soderstrom family were having a baby shower for Ann-Marie. This cake was so delicious!
Of course the food was also sooo good!


Mother & Daughter



The card above was one I had purchased years ago. It so fits Samuel's daddy who wears a size 16 shoe.

Some of the Soderstrom family.
The afternoon was so fun. We did a lot of taking about subjects I'll let Ann-Marie handle. The video above tells the whole story of gifts and enjoying time with the Soderstrom Clan.

I think for me one of Ann-Marie's baby gift that was so funny was a White Sox onesie.

I'm not a White Sox's fan, but just the thought that maybe, just maybe, Samuel will like some type of sport. I'm hoping the Chicago Bears will be one. But the gift just made me laugh. Ann-Marie as you ALL know HATES any form of sports.

What a fun shower.