Where has the time gone?

                                                        On July 17, 1976, I married my best friend ~

                              my gift from God! Each year is more precious!

We took another trip to Illinois, and enjoyed treating Mom and my two sisters and a dear friend, Sharon who helps with Mom's care to an anniversary meal of pizza! It was a wonderful time together! Here is Mom with Mike and me on the night before we left, I think. Doesn't Mom look great? She has so many adjustments with which to deal daily, yet she continues to be a precious testament to God's enabling her to have the strength to meet those hurdles.

One benefit of being newly retired, is that I now have more time to visit family and friends. We saw our three grandchildren last month. Tristen Rose will be 9 in September, Brogan Glenn will be 3 in October, and Quinn Mae joined the family on June 10th. It was fun to see the kiddos all together, and to see the interactions of their Mommy & Daddy with them, too. Of course, being able to hug, hold, etc. the children was very special for us!

I didn't take pictures that day, but here are a few pictures of all three grandchildren

that I've gotten from my daughter-in-law's FB page (with her blessing). It is interesting

to see how quickly Quinn is growing,  just from these pictures!

The last picture is of Tristen earning yet another belt color: camo!

The last few pictures are of  friends with whom we have visited over the past week.

The first is with some of the first folks that we met here on Xanga when I first began blogging.

Steve and Cindy Hartman -------------------------------------   Kerry & Raquel Anderson & girls

The second is of a family from Brazil that our church supports in their ministry there.

The last few are candids of some of the others who were hosting the dinner party.

Our hosts, the Books are from our church. We went to college together, so I've known them a long time. The "guests" included their adult children & grandchildren, "adopted family" and those I've already mentioned.

My contribution was lumpia = Filipino egg rolls seen in the  first picture above.

The kids enjoyed playing with each other, the dogs, and the toys.

Mom sent me the link below via e-mail. As a lover of classical music, and as an individual with post-polio  (I had polio as a 3 year old child) I really enjoyed this video of the FLASH-WALTZ  immensely, and I identified with the little girl in the wheelchair.  ENJOY!

http://safeshare.tv/w/OXHZUxUXXN

I am hoping to blog at least once a week now. See you soon ... on your sites.