Gull Lake and Maddie's Birthday

Every year since Maddie has been born we have been able to go to Gull Lake, Michigan and celebrate it with her. Alysa's father-in-law lives there on the lake. He is gracious to have us each year. There are a number of things we do each year. One of them is to go to a restaurant for breakfast at least one of the mornings. It is called Frona's.

It is hard to believe that Maddie is 6 years old. She loves the water, frogs, turtles, butterflies, bugs, etc. Doesn't sound like things a little girl would like, but she does. She hunts turtles and frogs with her daddy. They go out on the seadoo(?) to various places on the lake to catch them. It's fun to see her walking by the water looking for frogs and possibly turtles.

This year was special because Jack took the training wheels off her bicycle and she learned to ride it without them. She was so proud of herself and of course we were outside cheering her on. She also is in the process of learning how to use the snorkel when she swims. Occasionally she comes up out of the water sputtering.

Several times a day we go out on the pantoon boat, which I love doing. We cruise around looking at new summer houses. We also go across the lake to a good place to swim.

Jack and his dad get up and go skiing. Jack is a great skier and this summer has taken Jackson with him as he skies. He holds him up and then will let him down on his skies. It is a back breaking thing, but Jackson loves it. It is fun to see him waving as he skies with his daddy. Jack has done this also with Maddie.

There is a bird sanctuary close and we usually make a trip to it. When you pay to get in, you can buy corn to feed the geese and ducks. We went Saturday morning. It was lightly raining, but that didn't stop us.


Maddie's party had to be held inside because of rain. We ordered pizza and of course, had cake and ice cream. She looked so pretty in her birthday outfit. She does love to dress up. She got a butterfly book and a turtle book, a bug watch, a bug vacuum and a number of other fun things.


After opening her gifts Alysa and Jack asked the neighborhood children to come and have a turtle race. Jack and Maddie had caught about 10 turtles for the race. This is the third year that she has had the race. I'll include a picture of the race.

The Lord blesses us in so many ways. Grandchildren are one of those blessings. I'm looking forward to being with all five grandchildren this weekend and making great memories with them.

Filing Cabinet

I've been trying to finish emptying the boxes that have Jack's files in them. The two 4 drawer filing cabinets are not enough. Two of these drawers have my files in them also.

Friday I was at Walmart in London and thought that I would see what a two drawer filing cabinet would cost. They had some nice wood ones that looked so much better than the metal ones. Usually they cost quite a bit more. As I was looking at the price, I saw on one of them it said $30.00. I decided to check this price, so I loaded it on my cart and went to look for a price check machine. When I put it under the scanner, it said 20.00. I checked it twice to make sure.

There was another cabinet that I liked even better, so I thought I would just check it out. I do love bargains. It was heavier, but I managed to get it in the cart. A woman came by when I was loading the first one and asked if I needed help loading it. I am a senior citizen but do still have some strength left (probably some pride also), so I said no thank you, very politely.

To my delight this cabinet was also 20.00. So I thought why stop at one, why not get two. I had thought I would have to pay at least 40.00 for a metal one. The original price on the ones that I bought was 59.99 plus tax. Just think how much I saved Jack. My sister Patsy would be so proud of me. I not only get two, but they are wood and look so much better. Of course you have to put them together, but I'm up for a challenge.

It took me about 2 1/2 hours to put the first one together. I do like working with the instructions, because if you don't, you wind up re-doing things. Anyway, I'll post a picture of it so you can see what a good bargain hunter I am.

Work in the Basement

We moved to St. Marys October 2006 to a two story semi-detached house(we called them duplexes years ago). Jack has worked long and hard trying to finish the basement. He put up walls, did the wiring, etc. the first year we were here. Then last fall we put in a bathroom.

The only thing that was left to do was to put up a closet around the electrical wiring panel. He waited about doing that because we needed to put the bathroom in to know where the closet needed to be. Last week he finished the closet.


My job is usually to do the painting. When it comes to driving nails, I can bend them with the best of anyone. One of my goals in life is to be able to drive a nail into the wall with one hit.

Anyway, here are two pictures of the closet, a before and after. I continue to be thankful that Jack is a good carpenter.

Living in St. Marys

In 2006 Jack and I had a number of changes that took place in our lives. Sometimes you are not sure just what the Lord has in mind for you. Our changes ranged from being finished with the work at the church in Guelph, trying to determine where the Lord wanted us to minister, selling our house, storing our furniture, major surgery for me in the middle of this, and then living at a friend's house while waiting for direction. It was quite a year with many struggles, doubts, and thankfully some victories with the Lord.
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After the surgery Jack bought me a CD by Damaris Carbaugh. I do love her music because it never fails to minister to my heart. One song on it was Jeremiah 29:11. I didn't even know this verse had been put to music. "For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope." A number of nights I would listen to that song as I was trying to go to sleep. It was a great comfort to me.

It took several months before we knew what and where we were to live and minister. The Lord is so good. He led us step by step. He has us so safe in His hands, even though we think we are just barely hanging on. After looking in several small towns, He directed us to St. Marys, Ontario. It is about 15 minutes southwest of Stratford and about 30 minutes north of London.

St. Marys is around 6,000 people and is a beautiful town on the Thames River. All these names do make you think you are in England instead of Ontario. I'm going to include pictures of St. Marys so you can see a little of what it looks like. We purchased a semi-detached house (we used to call them duplexes) only 2 years old. St. Marys is called Stonetown because of the limestone quarry located here. A number of the buildings are made of limestone. Included in the pictures is the waterfalls that goes through the middle of the town, a walking bridge over the river, the town hall, our library, the water tower, the location of the past grist mill and the downtown area.

There are so many things that the Lord worked out for us. His plans truly are for our good and blessing. I keep thinking how years ago I told the Lord I wanted only to live for Him. Sometimes we don't realize exactly what that involves. He has to strip away so many things in our lives before that takes place. Some things are easy to give up, some it takes a while for you to let go, and then there are the painful things that seem to be ripped out of your very heart.

We are working with two churches now. One is in Exeter and one in Stratford. The Lord has given us many new friends and a new ministry. He has met our financial needs in many different ways. One unforeseen way the Lord has met this financial need is in Jack doing some work on the farm of several men of the churches we attend. He grew up working on his grandfather's farm (which he loved). He has gotten to drive some John Deere tractors, etc. He also has developed some good relationships with men in the churches because of this.

The main reason I wanted to write this blog was to post some pictures of St. Marys. The Lord gives us much more than we could ask or think. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we never had fears about the future. I've found that the one thing in my life that I just can't do without is my time with Him and my studying of His Word. His Word keeps me focused on Him, trusting Him and praising Him.

Canada Day

The past few years we have celebrated july 1st, Canada Day, with four special friends of ours. It started when we lived in Guelph, Ontario. Our friends are Beth, George, Dot, and Jim.

Beth and George live in an apartment building on the 7th floor. Their living room window (fills the whole wall) looks out over the park. Every year there is a fair in the park with rides, food, live music, plus other things. When it gets dark, around 9:30, there is about a 20 minute fireworks exhibition.

We get there between 4:30-5:00 and enjoy a great meal that Beth has prepared. It is a time to catch up on all the family news of everyone. Jim and Dot travel quite a bit with their trailer and have all kinds of stories to tell. They are in their 70's and are always gone on some adventure. Beth and George go golfing almost every day. Both couples love the Lord and are very involved in things at the church.

After supper we always play games. It is the guys against the girls. Last night we played Mexican train and the girls won, but then the guys beat us in a card game named golf. We do laugh a lot and of course are snacking as we play games and Beth always has diet coke for me (now, that's a good friend).

It's wonderful to be sitting in cushioned seats while we watch the fireworks. There are no mosquitos, bugs, etc. to bother us. We have been blessed through the years to have good friends to share times like this with.

Our yard

I always look forward to winter going and summer being here. This year it took a little longer. As much as I enjoy flowers, I'm not much on growing them or taking care of them. So, I'm very happy that Jack loves to garden. He grew up working on both grandfathers' farms and loves to garden.

We moved here to St. Marys a year and a half ago and he has slowly been getting our yard in order. The house is a semi-detached house and was only two years old when we bought it. The yard hadn't had anything done to it.

Last summer Jack put in a sidewalk up to the front door and also built a small deck at the back of our house, next to the patio doors. He made a small flower garden adjoining the patio. He has planted several cedar bushes, some perennials and has planted some hosta plants. In the small flower garden he put a trellis with some clematis plants growing up it. The flowers are purple and so beautiful.

At a garage sale last summer he bought two planters for the patio and they look great. Last fall we brought back several trees from northern Ontario for the side yard. They are still quite little, but will grow. They remind us of our 30 years up north and the great friends we still have there. One finishing touch was a maple tree for the backyard that Jack bought and planted. It is a good size and I love it. He is to be commended for all his hard work.

Adventures with my Sister

When I was in Dallas recently, my sister (Shirley) came down and we spent several days traveling together. We drove to Oklahoma City to see my brother and his wife. Then we drove over to Ft. Smith, Ark. where she lives. Our plans included going to Branson, Mo. to see some of the shows there. We arrived in Ft. Smith Sunday afternoon and then left for Banson late Monday morning.

Driving with Shirley is an adventure. I think she could probably be a NASCAR driver, along with my daughter. She is from the South (which you definitely have to be in order to be a NASCAR driver), can start and stop on a dime (and sometimes does), gets where she is going in about half the time that I can get there, and before you know it she is parked and out of the car--she has things to get done.

It is about 2 1/2 hours up to Branson from Ft. Smith. As we were getting close to Fayetteville (not sure how to spell that) she was trying to remember how to go around it and get to the highway north. I kept telling her that she needs to have a map of Arkansas in the car and then she could know definitely what exit to take. That didn't seem to appeal to her. We did have an atlas of the states and I tried to tell her several times that we were not on the right road. She is always very optimistic and knew she would find the right road, and eventually did. Can you tell that she is the first born and I'm the middle child?

We didn't do badly on the time it took to get to Branson. Just before we got to our motel, we saw the theater that we were going to go to that night. It was only about 1/2 mile from the Motel. I suggested that maybe we could walk when it was time to go. We had been sitting for a while and it would be good to just walk. We were going to see Shoji Tabuchi (a Japanese violinist) at his theater. It started at 8:00 so we left the motel about 7:00. We wanted to visit the gift shop and then go see the women's bathroom at the Theater. I've been hearing for years about this bathroom. I'll include a picture of it. When we got there Shirley went to get our tickets that we had reserved. She got out the sheet that she had written all our reservation numbers on and then realized that we weren't to see this show until Tuesday afternoon. We were to go to see the Presley Family (not Elvis) instead.

One thing we have in common with each other is a good sense of humor. We also can laugh at ourselves. So off we went, laughing, in a hurry to walk back to the motel to get the car. I tried to forget that I was the one who suggested we walk to the theater. Then we had the task of finding the back way to the Presley Theater. In Branson you don't want to go down main street when you are in a hurry. After much ado (yes, Shirley knew exactly how to get there) with a little searching we got there about 10 minutes before it started. My friend, Sharon, had recommended that we go to this show and it was very good. The music was outstanding.

We did go see Shoji Tuesday afternoon and he was great. He also had a small orchestra and dancers that were wonderful. Tuesday night we went to see Andy Williams. Shirley and I were teenagers when he was popular, oh so many years ago. He is 76 and still has a very strong voice. I had my picture taken with him at his theater as you can see. Alright, it is only a cardboard picture of him. The songs he sang brought back many memories.

Wednesday morning we left for Ft. Smith and then the next day back to Dallas. It was a very fun time with Shirley and I love sharing adventures with her.