Finally!!!!!! Anna is done!!!!!!!! Graduated!!!! Many blessings on your future and may Jesus always be first!!! We love you!!!! While Danielle was here I ask her to take Anna's pictures, she has Grace Creations Photography!!! Danielle does nice work!!!!
(remember them?? our crew went to their wedding in WI. They live here in our town, Kayleen, Sidney and LouCinda are brothers and sisters!!!)
Sidney and Anna
Terry and Billy, from Mississippi
Kayleen and Anna
Naomi
our littles sitting with Sarah
FIRST, TWO THINGS!!!!!!
First: I need "Katie" to e-mail me your address for you Summer Prize for guessing where we went, you won by guessing an amusement park!!!!! 13blessings@sbcglobal.net
Second: If you would like an opportunity to win one of the guys CD, go over to Kelly's and enter. She will give them away on Wednesday! We are so grateful she was willing to do this and are thankful for the exposure. There has been close to 600 visits to their web site since Friday!!!!!
Now on to a re-cap of our weekend! Volley Ball was at the tip of the list!! Friday night and then on Saturday afternoon, we had so many over we had to have 3 teams! A lot of fun and good fellowship! Billy also arrived, Terry's other crew member for work and he seems to be fitting in just fine! No worries, Gilmore family, he's holding his own with all these guys, even though they kept him out Friday night until midnight playing vb!!!!
I got to sit on a cow!!!!!!!! Your shocked, right??????? Yep, sure did!!!! But it was a dead cow!!! It was black and white and a very large one! Anyone want to guess about all this crazy talk???? Find out on the last picture posted!!!!
The Farmer's Market went very well!!! I want to tell you about Hosanna's endeavor. Remember me telling you about all the rosebushes that we have and they literally have tons of flowers. She did this last year too! After the petals drop off she gathers them up and dries them and then we put rose oil on them and tie them up in potpourri bags. She sells them for $2 apiece! On Saturday she sold 10 of them!!! She was so excited! We sold close to 80 pounds of red potatoes, some to customers and the rest wholesale to a feed store in our little town! Since this was the first one, it was a bit slow. Looking forward to the upcoming ones each Saturday!
Around here today we are getting tons of laundry done, the guys have lots of good work that is steady until the big school job! Danielle is leaving tomorrow, so sad, we will miss her desperately!!! She has to get back and get wedding plans underway. Her and Bethany went to the bridal store this morning to order Bethany's dress. Danielle has asked Terry to do officiate the ceremony, an honor to do this. They are getting married in Illinois, so looks like Illinois here we come!!!!! We just found out today, it looks like the big Ada school job will begin the 3rd week this month, so we have to get a trip to my dads in to Hot Springs, last year we went, he lives on Lake Hamilton in Ar. Things are looking quite busy as the weekends fill up and now I have to really start getting things ready to the guys as they will stay in a rent house up there in Ada and travel back and forth as well. So Terry's other worker will have to get here too, Jordan form N. Carolina.
Enjoy your day!!!
see the "cow" our new couch with cow hide cushions, thats what I sat on!! LOL!!!!
******If you would like an opportunity to WIN one of Caleb and Daniel's CD, Kelly, a bloggy friend is giving away two on Wednesday on her blog!!!! So grateful she was willing to do this for the guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
soaking wet girls......
this was the silver lariat, I rode and Hosie and Siah!!!!!
Winner is Katie
she was the first to guess!!!
"an amusement park" (Wed. @ 2:42)
e-mail me at 13blessings@sbcglobal.net so I can get your address for your "Summer Prize"
******If you would like an opportunity to WIN one of Caleb and Daniel's CD, Kelly, a bloggy friend is giving away two on Wednesday on her blog!!!! So grateful she was willing to do this for the guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yep, that's where went for a family outing to celebrate with Danielle Bethany's 21st BD!!!!! Its called "Frontier City" here in OKC. We got there at 1 pm and we left at 10 pm. So 9 hours of fast rides, wet rides, scary rides, upside down rides, slow rides, high rides, round and round rides, spinning rides, twirling rides and then we started all over again! The day/weather was perfect, exactly what I wanted! We have not been to this amusement park in 17 years, we went in July 94, a year after we moved to Oklahoma. Bethany was 5 and Caleb and Daniel were 6 1/2, Elijah was 4, Anna was 1 1/2 and I was 8 months preg with Micah!!! Alot of fun together!! I was so suprised that Jeremiah, Hosanna and Josiah rode the roller coasters! I did not even do that! I rode this one thing the Silver Lariat that went on a rollercoaster track but the ride was over in like a minute, it went sooooo fast and so sharp and high, I felt like I was dropping off of the earth!!!! I do not get thrills out of fast and big rides!!! Some of the Stinson family came with us Bill and Mary and their daughter Hannah, Anna's friend from Tulsa and then we met Sidney and Robbie hanging out there too!
This morning I got up early and went to the grocery store and made it back home in a new record time, a little after 12:00. Bethany and Danielle are making cinnamon bread, cin. rolls and choc chip cookies to fill orders they have! Anna is at her iron job, and I really want to go take a nap! VB tonight for some, out to the land for some and Terry and I will be getting thigns ready for Farmers Market in the morning! Then tomorrow afternoon Sid and Kayleen are coming back for more vb and in the eve, more vb at a gym! Now is that enough vb for the weekend???? Also Billy Gilmore will be arriving on Saturday, he's from Mississippi and he will be working for Terry and on board here with our family for the summer. His sisters say he knows some vb, so I wonder what team he will be on????? I will get some pics of him soon because his family misses him and want to "see" him!!!
Here are "others" that I care about and I seek to pray for daily/or often! I think I have mentioned some of them on here before. They have great needs! I will have Anna do the links later when she gets home or in the morning so you can meet these folks and pray on their behalf! It is true that so many we know have great needs and we can bring them before the Lord, I can not tell how we felt your prayers when we were in the depth of our situation with Joel!
Katie- their baby Reese lived a short time after birth and are due in July with a new blessing Karen- their baby Rebekkah was born still a week before due date Karen- their 2 year old Silas died with same cancer as Joel Meredith and Greg- 2 yr old boy/girl twins drowned Aug. 09 Jess and Joel- 11 month old little girl died with same cancer as Joel Werner family- father/husband, brain injury after car accident, ( we use to go to church with them) Ashley- 1 year old twin died of cancer Jessica Kate- 2 year old twin died of same cancer as Joel Angie- 2 year old son drowned Aug 08 Amy and Jon- due with first baby in July (I think) and has heart defects, surgeries after born Sikma family- their baby boy was born with Trisonmy 18 and is still alive, a month after birth, many do not live long at all.
I have contact with many of these moms and we enjoy encouragement from each other. Prayer lists are endless but we keep petitioning our great God! Now that I have that cleared up. lets move on to "happy blogging and happy commentors!" I look forward to continuing to share with you our life, the ups and downs, things that break and things that work, God's provision, my heart as I grieve and also my heart as I trust the Lord with our Joel, things of our farm and garden, scriptures and truths, antics of the children, work and all the guys opportunities and hopefully beautiful stories of future marriages, and just all sorts of things!!! This blog allows me to share the memories of Joel and how I still miss him but I want to tell of great grace from the Lord as he continues to bring us through the valley of death unto the day that we will see him again. I am so grateful for all of you who continue to encourage our family, we are blessed to "know" you!!!!
Its good to share our seasons of plenty and seasons of want and NO I am not asking for money!!!! I like to share and then it allow folks to see how faithful our Great God is!!!! And for your info, the three vehicles are up and running as of today and we thank the Lord for HIS faithfulness!!! He will be faithful to "anonymous" in your seasons too if you know Him and I hope you do!!!! Besides, the real reason I even mentioned it was because in our family we have this thing of which is better a Ford or Dodge and we thought it was funny that the Dodge, the underdog had to help out the Ford buddies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are going today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Crazy I know!!!!!
Oh, Elijah is so "proud" (not really proud but......) remember he has a Dodge truck, well his Dodge has had to go rescue our two Fords, the 350 and 250 from truck problems!! We actually have had to have both of them towed, one on Tuesday and one last night!!! :( and our van is on the brink again and not working properly tooo!!!!!! Sooooooooooooooo things are not looking to swell with vehicles...................... and I was suppose to go grocery shopping and I was suppose to pick up a very large item for our home and its a tad disappointing( can't wait to show it to ya) but because I have a wise husband, he reminds me that its all for our good and His glory!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I guess GO Dodge and tell these people around here they "shud" have bought a DODGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have mentioned we have a huge garden but we also have TONS of weeds!!!!! It has been a tough garden year so far, Terry's tiller broke and literally can not discern the weeds from the plants. It is so true what the scriptures say, that tares and wheat grow together and because God's people are so much like the "world," you can not tell the difference. We were out in the garden this morning trying to do some damage to the weeds, Jeremiah (8) asked a simple question of "why do weeds grow so much when there is good stuff growing?" In winter it is not a problem. Maybe its like a Christian who is luke warm, or in winter of their hearts and Satan does'nt see them as a threat to God's kingdom, they are just ho-hum Christians, attend church, don't really seek God in prayer and reading daily, they just coast along. But maybe there is one that is with all their hearts seeking, praying, being fervent and diligent, then Satan sees them as a threat to God's kingdom, because they are "living for Christ." So it is with weeds, maybe they can be seen as trials and they try to choke us down and smother us to where we will not grow and produce fruit. Jeremiah is very observant and there are so many applications to receive from a garden. The weeds could represent sin, or "little foxes" that come to steel away from us. No wonder Jesus used the garden for speaking truth, He knew we would till our ground and I know He desires us to learn from His creation.
Bethany's BD is June 24th! She will be 21!!!!! Last year when Danielle was here we went to the Tea Room as a little celebration. This year Danielle wanted to do something again while she was here. So I came up with this "idea" and told Danielle about it and she was very excited about the plan. Talked to Terry and he was good with it too! So tomorrow, Thursday we are going on a little BD adventure. We did this 17 years ago and and have not since then. I am going to give away a "Summer prize" for whoever is the FIRST person to guess what we are going to do, (Lord willing) Leave as many comments as you like and the winner will be the FIRS T one who guesses right, I will announce the winner Friday at 4 pm afternoon central time!! Bethany does not even know yet, but after reading this it will be a good hint!! Our whole family is doing this and another family!!!!
A hot day, hamburgers, homemade strawberry ice-cream (our garden berries), hundred games of VB (it seemed) made for a "happy memorial day!!!!" We had a good time with friends! Our regulars, Dave and Kate joined us, friends of Anna's (ours too) Liz an d Ashley from Guthrie was on the vb scene and we also had Sidney and Kayleen (brother and sister) from Wisconsin visiting. They were a family up in Wisconsin that skied with our children when they went this past Jan.
Bethany had an incredible dairy show in Missouri this weekend!!!! So thankful for the rewards and fruit she has labored so hard for! Her yearling buck got Grand Champion and Best Of Breed in the first show, and Reserved Champion in the second one, this is his second Grand to get in the last month. He needs one more win and will become a permanent champion. Bethany got several firsts, seconds and thirds as well. To place that high in a show as this with top breeders was quite an accomplishment! Another really big win was a doeling that is a daughter to the Champion Buck also won Grand Champion Junior Doe! That was really amazing as she is only 2-1/2 months old and already has the first leg to her championship. And a young buck kid was Jr. Champion in the second ring. The judge even came up to Terry and said that we had some really great animals in the ring! The Lord is fulfilling a vision that started two years ago as Bethany sought to bring her herd to a height that will compete with top breeders in the US in dairy competition, and Lord willing she is inching her way there!!!!!!!!! She is there with her yearling buck and we are grateful for the success. It is the Lord that puts up one and brings another down. So we acknowledge that every inch forward is because of Him!
I have a hoarse voice! No fun when your trying to talk on cell phones and communicate to 14 people!! I guess a good way to give a soft answer and turn away wrath!!
Danielle made it to visit with us!! She is all "giddy" about her upcoming marriage in August! We got to make sure and give her "last single farm adventures" while she is here!!!!! She is so cute!!
Busy week ahead, as always! The guys are doing a big pour today with Build Block several hours away, tonight base ball practice once again and all of us girls are going to a wedding shower for a dear bride to be of a family that ministered greatly to us as we plodded through our trial with Joel. I remember this young lady, Jessica kneeling before a chair as I held Joel in the first visit to the hospital and prayed the most amazing prayer that seemed to reach the heights of heaven. I was in tears as she prayed and pleaded for God's mercy and healing upon my son. I have no doubt her prayer was answered because it was a prayer of "thy will be done!" When some people pray, it does seem they enter the veil that only comes because they are in an intimate fellowship with the Lord and our hearts are joined together in that communion.
Well, its going to be week of learning endurance as the temps reach 96-97 this week. I have been totally comfortable in the house so far, but others have been a bit uncomfortable with the "no air" accommodations! I will have to chant, "we can do it, we can do it" to them!!!!!!!
Better go for now! Much to get done! Its a Monday on a Tuesday!
