My faith in people has been restored.

Recently Jeramy and Rebecca had the GPS stolen from their car. Previously to that they had their Honda stolen from right in front of their bedroom window. Then Jeramy lost his wallet at the movies. Believe it or not after much prayer they were all returned. The car had a torn seat cover, the GPS was missing it's cord and case and the wallet was missing $20.00 but they got them back!!! Yesterday I was in Wal-mart to buy a birthday card and gift bag for a birthday present my sister Nancy and I were giving Mom for her birthday. I called Nancy to ask a question and she said, "where are you?" I told her, "Wal-mart." She told me she had just gotten home from there and while she was at Wal-mart she had lost a very expensive bracelet. She had called their service desk but no one had turned it in. She asked if I would look around where she had been to see if it might miraculously still be there. I looked in the places she had been with her on the phone and it was no where to be found. She said, "I'll probably never see it again with the way things are today and it being expensive, someone will probably just see it and be happy to take it home." I paid for my things and was going to stop by the service desk just in case when my cel phone rang. It was Nancy, they had just called and told her someone turned it her bracelet. Someone found it in the parking lot. It just goes to show you that there's still GOOD people in the world.

"HAPPY "83rd" BIRTHDAY MOM"

(Sorry the photo's a little dark we were running out of light)

Yesterday we celebrated my Mom's "83" Birthday. Her birthday isn't until the 1st of August but Les and I will be out of town then so we celebrated it early. I wanted everything to be nice and go just right but what ever can go wrong usually does go wrong. Mom and my siblings arrived and we were going to barbecue, well when Les tried to hook the propane to the grill every time he would turn it on it would blow off the hose. Wouldn't you know it some little plastic fitting broke and therefore we couldn't use the grill. So we had to take the steaks in the house and broil them. Other then that we had a great time together. It was great that we could all get together to celebrate her birthday. It would have been better if Burt could have been with us but he was unable to make it. It's hard in this busy world to find a time when we call all get together. We had fun reminiscing and laughing together. What a great influence Mom has been not only to us but to so many others. She grew up on a farm. She is the oldest of six and the only girl.

Mom felt as comfortable on a horse growing up as she did driving a car. Her life has been a life of service; helping with her siblings, working on the farm and in the orchard, raising her own 6 children, taking care of our father and her mother as their health declined, not to mention helping all the widows in her neighborhood get to church. She also helps a lot of those ladies find joy in the winding down part of their journeys by having club, playing cards, laughing and sharing. She is a great example to her children and grandchildren. Happy Birthday Mom!!! And here's to many more to come.

" The sisters"

The New Pergola

For my birthday present Les had a Pergola built over the patio. I had seen one at Hyde Park where we buy the flowers for our yard. They told us theirs was built by one of employees (Randy) who would probably be more then happy to build one for us too. We got in touch with Randy weeks before my birthday and I was really hoping I could have it for my birthday but he was booked out about two weeks. He said he could at least get it started before my birthday. Well, Mother Nature was determined that was NOT going to happen!! It rained, and rained, and rained! Finally the rain stopped and the sun came out and Randy finally got it finished before the 4th of July! We love it!!! Now I'm asking for patio furniture, I'm I ever satisfied?!?

The other night Les and I were in bed fast asleep when I was awaken by a noise. It sounded like the sliding glass door down stairs. I was wide awake now, there it was again. I wake up Les to let him know I think there is someone down stairs. You know what it's like to be awaken from a sound sleep! He tells me he will get up and and turn on the outside lights and I should watch out the window to see if I see anyone. Well, I stood at the window, he turned on the lights, but I didn't see anyone. Les calls from the family room, "Judy come here." I go and he is standing on the deck, he points to the TOP of the Pergola and there is our boogie man. A CAT!!! He had walked across the fence and jumped onto the Pergola. That is probably what I thought was the sliding glass door opening. Les went out in his angel chaps and got the cat off the Pergola, and we went back to bed. Someone or something other then us thinks the Pergola is pretty darn nice as well:-)

Little Entrepreneurs!

This year we had a bumper crop of cherries!!! Our tree was actually loaded to the ground. Try mowing the lawn under the branches laden down with ripe or over ripe cherries:-( I must confess neither Les nor I are fruit farmers, we know "NOTHING, NADA" about pruning or spraying trees. (Don't ask me why we even bought fruit trees!) The cherry tree has grown HUGE which for one good thing provides our back yard with great shade, but, that is about the only good thing! The ground is always covered with cherries. And the d--- birds (I'm sure it's just as bad to think the word as it is to say it) carry the cherries in their mouths, fly over the deck and drop them...Yuckie!!! Anyway we were out of town the week the cherries turned ripe. Ashlyn, Dave and the kids were helping Grandma and Grandpa Robb have a yard sell. In the past when we had our video yard sells we would sell cherries for $1.00 a bag until one time a little neighbor boy came back and said, "Your cherries have worms in them." Les gave him back his money and an extra $5.00 to help the kid feel better about eating wormy cherries. Les had sprayed and sprayed but the cherries still get worms in them. You open up this beautiful, sweet, delicious cherry and there would be one little teeny tiny white worm hiding behind the pit, not in every cherry but who wants to open all their cherries before they eat them. Ashlyn and Dave checked the cherries and didn't find any worms so they came and picked them and sold 26 bags of cherries for $1.50 a bag. Les picked more when we got home and the kids sat on their yard and sold them all. So Les decided to pick more the next day and the kids were going to sit out on our yard and sell them along with ice cold pop. (That beats lemonade because people never know what the kids stirred the drink with (a dirty little hand or what.) As we were picking, Dave started checking the cherries, "Oh, Oh," he said. "I found a worm!" We all started checking more cherries and sure enough not in all the cherries but in 3 out of ten there was that creepy little worm. The kids were disappointed because they wanted to earn more money so we went to the store and bought more pop and Ice. We Loaded up the ice chest with pop and they sat out front of the house in the afternoon as people we going home from work and sold Pop.

We started setting up for the pop stand when what to our wondering eyes should appear but the little neighbor girl across the street ran out and started setting up a snow cone stand! Jake said, "Oh great!!! Now we have competition." I told him that competition was good because people who didn't want a snow cone would buy a pop from he and Lily.They didn't sell as much pop as they would have liked but they had fun doing it and made new friends in the neighborhood as well.