Chinese Dinner at Matt and Michelle's - Thursday- March 19

Micah and Jenny's Wedding - March 20th, 2010

Micah and Jenny married March 20th. My sisters, Sharon and Ree and Ree's husband Joe arrived in Rockdale Thursday afternoon along with Les and me. Our nephew Matt and his wife Michelle had a chinese dinner at their house with all of us out of town relatives invited. We thought Texas was suppose to be warm, but as the sun went down the temperature dropped into the low 40's and high 30's. Brrr! Just ask Les' about our packing! It was hard to decide what to pack, for warm weather, cold weather, etc. Well, none of us brought the right stuff, so we went shoppin Friday in Taylor, Texas.
Mom and Sylvan and brother Dave and his wife, Donna drove up from Mission, Texas on Friday, after Dave and Donna flew into Mission on Wednesday for a client meeting. It was great to get all our family together again for a visit.
Micah and Jenny were having the reception at The Ranch which is a big beautiful old mansion outside Rockdale. So Friday we helped set up tables and chairs in a big tent outside the ranch house. Well, Friday night and Saturday it rained and the temperature dropped to 38 degrees with winds a blowing! So a change of plans was in order and the reception would be held inside. Micah got a call right after the wedding saying the electricity had been off for 2 hours, plus my brother, Dave got his rented car stuck in the mud on the way to the wedding.
But in spite of all the adversiities, Micah and Jenny did get married and handled all the adversities well, along with all their family. Thanks, Micah and Jenny, and family for all your work and a great time.

Texas Here We Come! -March 18, 2010

We spent a week at the lake and then headed to Texas March 18th for our nephew Micah's wedding.
We went a day early and spent the night with a good buddy of Les' from high school. Larry Pfeifer lives in Chandler Texas, which is right on the way to Rockdale, which is where Micah had his wedding. Les enjoyed catching up on news from Larry, after renewing their friendship last summer at Les' 40th high school reunion. Larry is also retired and enjoys fishing and golfing, so he and Les have a lot in common even after all these years.

Paul and Amy's Camper & Time with the Grandkids

Paul and Amy bought a new pop up camper for their trip out west this March (a couple of weeks from now). Since they are going to be gone on their anniversary and we will be in Missouri on Amy's birthday, I offered to watch the grandkids while Paul and Amy had a night out together. It actually worked out that I came over Monday night, March 8th, and watched the kids while Paul went to purchase the camper and Amy was out for dinner with her girlfriends; Seth was at his Aunt Dawn's. Then Tuesday night Paul and Amy went out to eat while the kids and I played games and did a craft project.
Caleb did a great job fixing dinner one night, Seth helped his sister Gracie with her craft project. It's great to see them help each other out and play well together.

During this time Tuesday night, Les went to Naperville to help John with some pitching lessons for a youth at John's church. Les and John make quite a team - who knows - they may go into business. I have yet to get a picture of them in action.

Winners of the Cleaning up on Ideas Challenge

Betty Pemble placed 3rd, Amy Larson 2nd, and Donna Preisler 1st in the Cleaning up on Ideas Challenge. Each participant created a page using the materials given them in a certain amount of time. Then the peers voted for the pages they preferred. The three winners each received an "Additions" Paper Pack of their choice.

Slideshow of Scrapbooking Retreat - Camp Dickson

Enjoy all the pictures showing great pages completed and lots of fun together at our Dickson Valley Scrapbooking Retreat.

Paula and Girls!

It was great having my dear friend Paula and her 3 daughters (my god daughters) and two of their friends join us for the weekend. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful group of ladies sharing their stories and preserving their family's memories. Jen shared with us the journey she took having cancer and going through the chemo treatments and all and how God was faithful to her and her family. Thanks, Jen, for sharing.

Future Scrapbookers of America!

Future Scrapbookers of America!

Jenny, Connie, Betty and Amy

Here's two mother-daughter teams preserving memories. It was great to have my daughter-in-law, Amy, and her mom Betty, join us. Ellie (our grandaughter) was playing with her friends, so we didn't get a picture with her.

Jenny & Connie

It was great to have Jenny join me at the Scrapbooking Retreat this year. Thanks to her dear husband, Dan and Dad helping out with the boys, Jenny was able to get away for an overnight. Jenny had a sinus infection so wasn't feeling great, but I told her to come anyway and she could just take the time to rest as long as Dan and Dad were willing to take care of the boys. Jenny left then Saturday afternoon so she could attend Dan's spaghetti dinner at their church, which was a fund raiser for the youth.

Dickson Valley Camp Scrapbooking Retreat - March 5-7,10

March 5-7, 2010 we spent three full days scrapbooking with 500+ pages completed with only half the scrappers reporting. We had a great time with sunny weather and lots of inspiration, ideas and product shared. There were seven mother daughter teams there, including my daughter, Jenny, my daughter-in-law Amy, her mom Betty and daughter (my Grandaugher) Ellie. In fact, Ellie was the youngest scrapbooker there. Ellie did a great job of completing a whole album.

Set Up for Dickson Valley Scrapbooking Retreat

We have our annual Scrapbooking Retreat every year; this year we had the retreat at Dickson Valley Camp near Sandwich, IL on March 5-7, 10 with about 30 scrapbookers in attendance. We went the day before to set up. I want to thank my dear husband, Les, for all his work carrying supplies, loading and unloading and helping me set up. He is my biggest support and I am truly grateful to him. This year we also recruited our dear friends Bonnie and Harold Schmitz, to help. Bonnie has been a great inspiration to me and helped me with the vision and organization of everything. Thanks to all of you. We had a great weekend!

We Got to see Jay 3X,s this week!

Grandma spent the day with Jay and Ellie on Mon. at the
children's museum, Wed. while Carrie was working and Sat.
while Carrie and John went to a euchre tournament with
Carrie's family. Jay loved playing with all the cars and trucks
and motorcycles. Jay loves to look at books and explore.

John helped Les move our old refrigerator into the garage. One
of the families from John and Carrie's church are going to pick it
up this week. We are enjoying our new black one that Paul helped
Les move. Thanks, guys!

Daddy and Jay -2-24-10

Grandma went to spend the day with Jay on Wed. Feb. 24th as Carrie is starting back to work at the church where she worked before Jay was born. John was home with Jay as Carrie had to be to work by 8AM and I just arrived then, so John and Jay were there to greet me. We had lots of fun together.

Les & Doug at the Lake- Feb 23,2010

Doug Hawkinson went with Les to the Lake for a quick 3 day trip the last week in February. Les had some "minor" projects to do but the real reason was to inspect the sea wall for any erosion or problems. Each year they lower the lake level to prepare for spring rains and also this allows homeowners to do an inspection of the sea walls and docks. Les had laid 5-80# bags of concrete last year and he wanted to see how they stood the year of waves and water motion.

It's a simple process as you place the bags and then when the water rises they set up...so there is no forming, mixing or pouring needed.

The inspection showed that the concrete bags did their job so Les thought a few more bags this year were in order....Doug really liked the idea! Doug and Les placed 10 more bags this year (thats 800#'s) and then moved rocks and boulders on top of the concrete. I think these guys are getting too old for this type of work.

Next year we'll take another look to see if some more bags are needed. Doug is not sure if he will be available for another inspection!

A DAY AT THE DUPAGE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM

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For each grandchild's birthday, we do a sleepover and a special event. We're clebrating Ellie's 5th Birthday, so Monday, February 23rd, Ellie and I joined Carrie and Jay at the Dupage Children's Museum. Carrie and Jay have a pass to the museum so we spent the morning exploring the museum and participating in all the fun activities there, with the wind machine, the water and bubbles and the light room. Ellie enjoyed the water more than anything else. We even took our lunch and during our break ate our sandwich. Thanks Carrie and Jay for a fun morning.'