This post is just for fun, smiles, and laughs.... after all it says in the Good Book:  

                   

                                                                 

  And just for pure cuteness (fake  knife) And a quote from a famous comic actor :  

Celebration - #1 - Last Post I shared about my brother's birthday which we celebrated at a Japanese restaurant.  His actual birthday was on Saturday, and so we had another celebratory meal which is a favorite of our whole family -- curry.  The first collage is of our special meal on Saturday. 

Celebration - #2 - On Monday, I took my Mom to our dentist for her initial visit since she moved from IL to OH to be with us.  Our dentist and the hygienist were pleased with Mom's excellent teeth. At almost 90, Mom has more teeth ... and all originals ... than anyone else in our three generation home!  After leaving the dentist office she wanted to go to Dairy Queen for a Peanut Buster Parfait!  I on the other hand had a low-calorie pinya-collada smoothie (suitable since I didn't inherit her great teeth)!

Celebration - #3 - Our granddaughter has been continuing to earn one belt after another in karate, very rapidly. We have been to a couple of her sessions where she displayed her talents along with the rest of her class, and then got her new belt. Currently she has a red belt (which is just under the black belt categories). Our daughter-in-law keeps us up to date with pictures and stories on Facebook.  This next picture is one that I got from Facebook, along with the caption that her mom put with it:  "Tristen is in the leadership program now so she gets to help with Brogan's class. He's the little guy on the left kicking."

Celebration - #4 - Our son Shaun's wife Melissa put this up on Facebook. (He had already called us to share his good news, but it was so sweet to see his wife's proud words. She deserves some of that credit along with him -- for "holding down the fort!"   Her words:  "It's officially official folks. My hard-working husband Shaun Justice finished his last quarter for his bachelors & will be graduating with a 4.0!!! Not bad considering he's been chipping away at it while going through his 2nd & 3rd deployments, buying a house/moving, 2 more babies, studying for/passing multiple computer certs, me going through radiography school, 4 career changes, countless Army schools, day/night shift changes, advances in his military career, & being a husband/dad & provider. He missed his 1st graduation bc of his 1st deployment & got his degree in the mail. He finally gets to celebrate his hard work & wear a cap & gown & I couldn't be happier for him. So proud of you babe! Congrats!—feeling proud."

Celebration - #5 - Our flowers are gorgeous! I've been having trouble with my back for the past couple of weeks, and so haven't been able to water them or weed or anything! But God has sent lots of rain and sunshine to take care of them! -- Psalm 147:7-8 -- "Celebrate and sing!    Play your harps for the Lord our God. He fills the sky with clouds and sends rain to the earth,   so that the hills will be green with grass."  

I hope all of you my friend find things to celebrate in your lives each day!

I keep a calendar / "date book" on my Kindle of things we need to do: doctor or other appointments,  meetings,  church services and other events, visits from or to people, etc.

 Saturday, June 21st is my brother's birthday. The collage below shows him from a newborn in June of 1961, through early childhood, standing next to my husband Mike in our wedding, as a young adult in his 20's when in the Marines, a picture of him a couple of years ago, and finally -- just this past Monday when we ate out at the Japanese steakhouse.

 We ate lots of different foods as we were growing up from many cultures: American, Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Indian, Italian, etc.

One of our favorites was a curry meal that a nurse friend who had spent time in India, taught us to make.  We are planning to have that with my brother this weekend. I'll have pictures of that when we  have it all laid out on the dinner table.

I recently took Mom to get her hair cut and permed again. I think she really looks pretty!  Speaking of haircuts, my daughter-in-law put up a picture of our son and their son after their haircuts.

A lot of people see the similarity of my husband and our younger son. Here is a collage to show the likenesses. (I included the final picture for Michel, even though it is from about 3 years ago, since you said that you wanted to see a picture with me in it.

I saw this quote by Mother Teresa on someone's Facebook page this week, and had to have it to share here. It is such a great bit of wisdom!

Happy Father's Day to all of the Dad's out there! 

We had a super busy week last week, with appointments and commitments each of the days -- Tuesday through Friday.  I also did a lot of planting of flowers over the weekend. Sunday, after church, my brother stopped by at Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken, and brought lunch over to share with Mom, Mike, & me.  Then Mom gave Mike 7? bags with various types of candies and cassette tapes of  "olden days" radio programs, music, etc. to celebrate his Father's Day. Mike also heard from all three of our adult children, which he enjoyed.

This was our third Father's Day without Dad, but it wasn't a sad day - even though we all miss him, as we know that he's with our Heavenly Father.  

Today would have been Mom & Dad's 67th anniversary.  I woke up extra early (for me) and picked some flowers and grasses and put them into one of my vases, and put a "Thinking of you" sort of card, and put them at Mom's place at the table so that when she had her breakfast she would see them.  

She then said she'd like to celebrate her anniversary, my brother's birthday (on the 21st), and Father's Day again ... with a meal at a Japanese restaurant where they cook in front of you (like another post I did ... only this time it will be another restaurant in town.  We enjoyed a great time together and also with another couple who sat at the same table with the Grill Chef / Entertainer. 

Finally ... our youngest grandchild Quinn turned one on June 10th. We had a gift bear and balloons sent to their home. We weren't able to make it to her party, but got pictures from FB.             

The Lord is like a father to his children,    tender and compassionate to those who fear him.  For he knows how weak we are;   he remembers we are only dust. Our days on earth are like grass;  like wildflowers, we bloom and die.  The wind blows, and we are gone— as though we had never been here. But the love of the Lord remains forever with those who fear him.  His salvation extends to the children’s children of those who are faithful to his covenant  of those who obey his commandments!               (Psalm 103:13-18, NLT)

I am going to try to do short posts, and do them more often.   We'll see how that works.  Thank you for your many thoughts,  prayers, & kind words to me.   Mom and I are better from our bout with bronchitis.  Right after that was over, things really got super busy! I didn't get on FB, Xanga, or WordPress much due to the business and just not feeling like blogging.   So now I have ammo for more blogs ... and will see how short ones go for me.

We have had  a piano recital,  some grand-parenting time, meetings (and minutes & reports),  entertaining & being entertained, doctor visits, tests, and so much more! 

So true to my goal, I'm going to stretch out the pics over many blogs! Here is a collage of the piano recital in which Tristen our oldest (now looking towards 4th grade this fall) played a couple of song for her part.  We were so proud of how well she has practiced, and how well she played with such great poise.  :-)  

UNTIL TOMORROW . . .