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Sunday, July 31, 2011
My heart is heavy this morn with the news of the death of my dear, dear friend Cindy.
She was a believer in the Lord and is now in the presence of our Heavenly Father, no longer suffering from the ravages of cancer that she so valiantly fought for several years. I rejoice for her! She taught me so many, many things that I treasure! She was an artist who could see a piece of beat up old broken down furniture and see a treasure that was waiting for her special touch. I would see nothing of the kind and yet, over and over I saw her transform those pieces of junk into treasures.
Many years ago I told her that I hoped my mother would leave me her sterling silverware. Cindy looked at me and said, "you don't have to wait for that, you can go to the Mission store, garage and estate sales and collect silver ware now." As it turned out I did just what she suggested and we have enjoyed it and shared it with our daughters. I finally got the courage to ask my mother if she would leave that to me only to hear her say, no, it was promised to someone else. I will always be thankful to Cindy for opening my eyes to how I could enjoy having my own silverware to set a beautiful table.
We shared our silverware for big events, our daughter's weddings, her sister's wedding in another state and other big functions. It was always fun to lay out our treasures and pack them up for each other. We also shared a love of fine linens and had hundreds of linen napkins for those big affairs we had.
I said goodbye to her on Monday evening, she died Saturday morning. It was so hard to tell her goodbye! I told her when I join her in heaven I will be anxious to see how she's decorated her mansion.
What a joy it is to share a friendship like this! It hurts right now, but I am thankful for so many, many joyful memories with Cindy! After having a good cry upon learning of her passing, and praying for her family, I immediately thought of how I could contribute to her memorial service reception---I could use my linens and silverware, and possibly snack sets as Cindy would enjoy that if she were here! I do hope her husband agrees and I hope and pray that I can work it out to get the day off of work.
I have had a very hard time for the past several months since my mother died. I am so thankful that I am a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and he has been with me during this trying time.
Monday, April 25, 2011
My husband and I are visiting our middle son, his wife and our amazingly adorable granddaughter who is turning 1 in a few days. It was so good to be with them on Easter. We only see them 2-3 times a year so this is very precious to us.
I always heard that being a grandparent was a very special thing. I can attest to that personally, but one cannot appreciate it fully until they experience it for themselves.
We have 3 granddaughters, ages 2 1/2, 1 1/2, and 1. Any day we will be having our first grandson and in August another granddaughter. We are very blessed indeed!
Raising children is hard work. Seeing your kids grow up to be responsible Christians is priceless, indeed! Enjoying grandchildren is the dessert of childrearing!
Signing off from Seattle with a grateful heart!
Monday, December 06, 2010
Greetings Spark Friends!
This is my second blog on this subject, please forgive me, I'm a MOM! This afternoon my son and I are traveling to Bozeman for my son's military interview tomorrow morning at 8:20 MST in front of 6 military officers, including one Brigadier General. He will be questioned and grilled for 20 minutes in his quest for an appointment to the Air Force Academy.
I am asking my praying friends to please lift Levi up in prayer! Our prayer request is that he would be clear thinking, calm, full of passion for the appointment and that no matter how it turns out that God would be glorified!
The man who has interested Levi in the AFA put him through a mock interview with 5 other military people. What a great thing that was to expose weaknesses and see what he needed to bone up on. This has been a most amazing experience for our family!
Thank you to those who will pray! God bless you! 
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Greetings Spark Friends,
My heart is overflowing with thankfulness at God's provision in my family's life.
A few years ago my youngest child, Levi (almost 18 now) came home from a leadership camp that his youth director took him to in NM telling his dad and I that he wanted to go to the Air Force Academy. (We have home schooled our 5 kids since 1983 and him being the tail end, I have to say, I'm tired! ) Our youth director is a grad of the AFA and took the three students he had with him on a tour. Over the years we've watched several friends prepare their kids for a nomination to one of the academies and know it's very labor intensive. I told Levi that he would have to do another year in high school just so we would have enough time to complete everything. He didn't balk at that for a moment. He really had a desire to go. Last summer he went back to the same leadership camp in NM and they once again stopped at the AFA for another tour, this solidified Levi's desire more!
He trained for the physical test with his youth director and me. I know nothing about coaching and I would have him do his test in the order it was to be given with the rest time prescribed and record his results. It looked impossible at first. He was quite slow at running, he could hardly do 4 pullups, not many pushups or situps either. He was very faithful in training and a week ago he said he was going to cal the liaison officer to come and implement the test.
He ran 40 seconds faster than the average cadet from 2009 on his mile run, he did 12 pullups which is one over the average from last year, 60 pushups, average amount, 80 situps, his shuttle was the fastest he had ever done, beating the average slightly but he was short on his ball throw. We are hopeful that won't matter too much!
He is completing his writing sample revisions and will turn them in next week leaving only the military interview in front of a panel of military officers scheduled for December 7th to complete the application.
A few weeks ago I was feeling the heavy weight of this project when Levi told me, "Mom, no matter how this turns out, I'm glad we did it!" That brought tears for me! He understands the value of hard work and trying your best! What a great lesson. I had thought the same things as it has brought us so close!
There have been so many occasions in the last year when I've had to say to him, "you should study for your SAT, you need to call to ask people to write a letter of recommendation, or have you filled out this form? The list is endless with what has had to be done. Levi is my child who used to say, "I don't do homework on the weekends, the weekend is for rest and play!" The kid has hardly had opportunity for any social life for many months with his obligations to school and the ap work! He took the SAT on three occasions to get his scores as high as he possibly could even though twice would have been all he needed to meet the academy guidelines. That was his choice, not mine.
We asked a man at church teach Levi chemistry one on one last year. He is a retired Captain in the Marine Corps and a high school Biology teacher. He was fantastic, tayloring the course to Levi's ability which took him to the college level. He was asked last summer to accompany a team of college students to Malaysia to help our sister church there learn to put on a puppet show on peacemaking for kids. He has been blessed over and over by opportunities we would not have looked for, but they appeared on his doorstep. Levi's siblings all live 1000's of miles away and they have been a constant source of encouragement to him, sending him letters, cards and messages to bolster him!
My husband and I are so proud of our son, and thankful to the Lord for blessing our family!
No matter how it turns out, if he gets the nomination or not, this has been a very great challenge in our lives!!
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