October 2010

In my efforts to attempt to catch up....here ya go:

Christopher with Dick (Chris' dad)

Kraig with Dick...watching Emergency (no not ER, Emergency, like the show from the 70s--he LOVES it)

Kraig with a classmate...Melli

Shopping with Kraig....I'll admit I'm organized, but this even surpasses me!

Kraig sleeping...he is zonked!

And his favorite spring/summer/fall pastime....THE PARK!!

The roses are still attempting to bloom  

PTA meeting.....Kraig got a couple of awards....Perfect Attendance for the 1st grading period and a helper award.  He even walked up to the front BY HIMSELF!

HALLOWEEN

Kraig the fireman!

Black tip nails with silver line...for Halloween, of course!

Who needs a bowl?  He just eats right out of the bag!

Once I Held An Angel

ONCE I HELD AN ANGEL

(author unknown)

 

Once I held an angel,

So very close to me.

I watched him run and jump and dance,

But only in my memory.

I waited for the day he'd come;

He'd bring such joy to all.

Then the Angel was called home,

He never had to fall.

He was too perfect for this world,

He didn't need to stay.

He went straight up to Heaven,

I'll join him there someday.

You don't know how I feel-

Please don't tell me that you do.

There's just one way to know--

Have you lost a child, too?

"You'll have another child!"

Must I hear this every day?

Can I get another mother too,

If mine should pass away?

Don't say "It was God's will"

That's not the God I know.

Would God on purpose break my heart,

Then watch as my tears flow?

"Aren't you better yet?"

Is that what I heard you say?

NO! A part of my heart aches,

I'll always feel some pain.

You think that silence is kind,

But it hurts me even more.

I want to talk about my child,

Who has gone through death's door.

Don't say these things to me,

Although you do mean well.

They do not take the pain away;

I must go through this hell.

I will get better, slow but sure.

And it helps to have you near.

But a simple, "I'm sorry you lost your child."

Is all I need to hear.

A million times I've needed you.

A million times I've cried.

If love alone could have saved you,

You would have never died.

In life I loved you dearly,

In death I love you still.

In my heart you hold a special place,

That none will ever fill.

It broke my heart to lose you,

But you did not go alone,

For all my love went with you

The day God called you home.

Did you know.....?

Another email pass along......if you agree, feel free to share.

DID YOU KNOW?

As you walk up the steps to the building which houses the U..S Supreme Court you can see near the top of the building a row of the world's law givers and each one is facing one in the middle who is facing forward with a full frontal view ... It is Moses and he is holding the Ten Commandments!

DID YOU KNOW?

As you enter the Supreme Court courtroom, the two huge oak doors have the Ten Commandments engraved on each lower portion of each door.

DID YOU KNOW?

As you sit inside the courtroom, you can see the wall, right above where the Supreme Court Judges sit, a display of the Ten Commandments!

DID YOU KNOW?

There are Bible verses etched in stone all over the Federal Buildings and Monuments in Washington , D.C.

DID YOU KNOW?

James Madison, the fourth president, known as 'The Father of Our Constitution' made the

following statement:

'We have staked the whole of all our political Institutions upon the capacity of mankind for Self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to The Ten Commandments of God.'

DID YOU KNOW?

Every session of Congress begins with a prayer by a paid preacher, whose salary has been paid by the taxpayer since 1777.

DID YOU KNOW?

Fifty-two of the 55 founders of the Constitution were members of the established Orthodox churches in the colonies..

DID YOU KNOW?

Thomas Jefferson worried that the Courts would overstep their authority and instead of Interpreting the law would begin making law an oligarchy the rule of few over many.

How then, have we gotten to the point that everything we have done for 220 years in this Country is now suddenly wrong and Unconstitutional?

figures

I was going to finally have a few moments to update the blog with recent events...and the image uploader is disabled for maintenance. 

That bites.

Till next time....

Golf Balls

Got this in my email the other day....I have read it before (or a similar variation) but it is worthy of repeating. Enjoy!

The Mayonnaise Jar

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle.  When 24 hours in a day is not enough--remember the mayonnaise jar and 2 cups of hot cocoa.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.  When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and started to fill it with golf balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full.  They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured it into the jar.  He shook the jar lightly. 
The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.  He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded With an unanimous 'yes.'

The professor then produced two cups of hot cocoa from under the table and poured the entire
contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand.  The students laughed.

'Now,' said the professor, as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.  The golf balls are the important things - God, family, children, health, friends, and favorite passions. Things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the things that matter like your job, house, and car..

The sand is everything else --

The small stuff.

'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.  The same goes for life.  If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, You will never have room for the things that are important to you. 
So...

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.

Play with your children.

Take time to get medical checkups.

Take your partner out to dinner.

There will always be time to clean the house and fix the dripping tap.

'Take care of the golf balls first --The things that really matter.

Set your priorities.

The rest is just sand.'

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the hot cocoa represented.  The professor smiled. 

'I'm glad you asked'.  It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem,
there's always room for a couple of cups of hot cocoa with a friend.'

(Anyone that knows me, knows I LOVE hot chocolate; so in essence, I LOVE my friends--both in real life and online; those I see everyday and those afar.)

P.S. I have been very busy and just not had time to blog much the last couple of weeks...but I will get family reunion pics posted soon and other happenings as I can. I've been playing with my early Christmas gift....my husband is AWESOME!

God's finger touched him....and he slept. ~Kyle~ Our Angel Born Sleeping

Mi Vida Loca

My apologies for the lack of blogging....it's been crazy to say the least....busy busy busy.  Family reunion this past weekend....pics to come soon (See post dated 10/9/10). And the gradual return to hopping.....

And...my daughter has asked me to help her start a blog...she loves the blog hops as much as I do!

Tootles....more later!

Family Reunion

10/9/2010 - 10/10/2010 -- Family Reunion

Chris' dad drove up on Friday (well, he left on Thursday and stopped to rest a while) so we could go to what apparently is an annual family reunion for the Juelfs family. It was awesome...I met family I have only heard of...Kraig had a blast. We found out that one of Chris' aunts lives in Blytheville, Arkansas, which is not far at all from Memphis. I was able to correct and add some family history information.


We left early Saturday morning...it was about a 6 hour drive...we went from TN through AR through MO to IL...four states in one day, whew!

We got to Red Bud, IL around 12 and had a little trouble finding the park where the reunion was...but we did find it. We parked, and Chris' dad walked over to the picnic table and before he could ask if it was the right place, the lady at the table said "Richard?" and nearly dropped the bowl she was holding. So, yeah, we were in the right place.

Kraig loved the playground...

The park they use has a pavilion with several picnic tables, an adjoining enclosed playground, adjacent restrooms, and a large field behind it. Oh and a sandbox. It was a great set up. Kraig loved the playground....and he did really well with all the new people. I was quite impressed.   They had brought a pinata for the children...

We ate lunch....it was potluck, and I have many recipes to gather. :) Then there was an impromtu family history gathering session....another family member there has been working on the family lines, and had brought much of her stuff with her to confirm and gather additional information. I had brought the minimal information we have...and it grew by leaps and bounds. It was awesome. She had pictures as well, which she has agreed to send me. Sweet!

7 of the 11 brothers and sisters...2 are deceased, and the others were unable to make it.

After the reunion, we went to get a hotel in Waterloo. As we were checking in, the receptionist asked which (insert my last name here) we were. It was a new experience for me...most people can't say our name let alone have heard of it before. She had gone to school with cousins, apparently. We went to get something to eat, and when we got back, the "message waiting" light was blinking on the phone. The message was for my father in law....apparently his sisters had tracked us down. There are few hotels in Waterloo...so it was a short search. Plans were made to meet up with two of his sisters to go to Fults, IL, which is outside of Waterloo, to visit the family cemetary and where they grew up.


Sunday morning, we got up and had a continental breakfast at the hotel, then went exploring Waterloo a bit. It was awesome. It is such a small town in so many ways...one of the most unique things I saw were these wooden shack things at the corners of the streets. I thought they were telephone booths, but after seeing one with a yellow police vest in it, I found out that they are crossing guard booths. The orange color they were painted, that I thought was for Halloween, is actually the school colors. Unfortunately, by the time this came up in conversation, we didn't see any more and I didn't get any pictures.

After Waterloo, we met Kathy and Pearl, my father in law's sisters, and followed them to the family cemetary. I took pictures of the gravesites and took notes of relationships. I love stuff like that....genealogy is one of my hobbies, so this was absolutely spellbinding to me.

Looks like we are driving across an open field.....

But it WAS a paved road...

(It says "God's finger touched him and he slept")  Pearl and I etched the dirt out with a couple of sticks to figure out what it said. It is written on the headstone of an infant son of their grandparents, so my husband's great grandparents.

                                                           My husband's grandparents....

 The cemetary is on a hill....Fults the town (such as it is) sits at the bottom of the hill...

We drove to the city of Fults, which is a very small town. It was already a small town, but it sits right next to the Mississippi River and was wiped out by flood in 1991. The church they used to attend is still standing...it is no longer used for regular services, but someone keeps up the garden and they use it for the annual Christmas service and for weddings and other special occasions.

 The stained glass is beautiful...

Entrance to the restroom....from outside the church building....

The garden...

I just found this kind of amusing....

You don't get much more small town than this.... :)

After that, we went to the homestead...the original house is gone, but some of the original buildings are still there and some of the old farm equipment. One of their brothers' still lives there. There is a dried up pond out back. Oh, and the original cistern is still there, though obviously not in use. I had to ask what a cistern was....do you know????

This is the original homestead....the house sat to the left of the barn.

(It's a well.)

The "new" (old) house that sits on the property now....

Then we began the drive home...it is such beautiful country. We stopped at the visitor's center in Chester, IL, which sits on IL side of the Mississippi River...Missouri is on the other side of the bridge.

Look how fast that water is moving...

hmmm...so which way would you go????

Chester is the home of Popeye...there is a huge bronze statue of Popeye outside of the visitors center.

There is a deck to look out at the river..as we turned to leave, a train was coming...so of course we had to turn and watch it go by.

We stopped at Alice's (the aunt that lives in Blytheville, AR) house on the way home....she had her family come over and fixed dinner for all of us. It was nice to sit and visit and Kraig had a good time.