Last Day of March

 No coffee wars this morning. I was up before Mark and enjoyed a hot cup of coffee. Mark has a habit of waking around 2 or 3 am and starting the coffee pot so when I get up at 5:00 am it is already cold. I kindly explained last night if that happens this morning he would be buying his own coffee maker. Sometimes a person just has to draw a line. It was kind of somber this morning. As soon as it was light I took the golf cart over to the cabin field to check Rosalie. Her udder is about the same. She and Blueberry were busy eating some grain Mike had given them. I took some burrs out of her tail as she was eating then headed back home.  Mark is finding it hard to believe that his only sibling died. We still don't know when the funeral and burial will be, Kim told us she should know on Tuesday. We had lots to talk about on the walk. Joan had gone to the wedding of her niece in Latty then spent time with Bill and Bethany in Bluffton over the weekend. We stopped in to visit with mom. She had her 3 roses from Zion, Eden and Bethany right by her chair. 

They are still beautiful. She enjoyed taking about her birthday party. It really was nice so many of her family came. We spent so long talking that Mark sent a text asking if I had started cleaning the barn instead of coming back to make breakfast. After breakfast we both went over to clean. We were taking the golf cart over when mark noticed a goose way up in the broken tree. Check the picture below, his mate is on the ground but look to the top right of the picture to find the gander.

Of course I needed to zoom in for a closer picture.

The first job was to put back the light fixture that had been knocked down during the party.

We carried the ladder down to replace the defective smoke detector in the bedroom.

That picture behind the ladder has special meaning in this barn.

The LORD truly has done amazing things and providing for this building is a huge one that gives me such joy. I'm thankful Anna found it and placed it here. She also has one in the master bathroom that is also special.

My very favorite is the one Kathy Obergfel made for the barn. We had this plaque hanging in the hallway at Pleasant home. I remember trying to read that big word when I was only 6 years old and asking mom what it meant.

That plaque is hanging in my house so I was thrilled when Kathy made the one below for the barn.

That really is my hearts desire.

By the time the repairs and sweeping of barn were done it was lunch time. I found a chicken rice and broccoli dish in the freezer, microwaved that, added some stir fry vegetables to it and served that for our lunch. After lunch we took the golf cart down to pick up the mail.

There was a package for mom so we took that up to her house. Anna was there with Harvey and Dexter out on the deck enjoying the sunshine.

I left then for Aldi as I needed to pick up ingredients to make a dessert for Berean. I parked right next to Ruth's car but didn't recognize it then almost ran into her in the baking aisle. She told me that Aldi had white bread for sale for 33 cents a loaf and some high end goat cheese all marked down from $4.00 to 99 cents. I skipped the bread but bought one of the goat cheeses then gave some of that to Mark when I got home.  A cherry dessert was made for Berean and is now in the fridge ready. The mattresses we want for the triple bunk beds went on sale for $70.00. They are 5 inch memory foam and will fit the frames. We had one I bought earlier so brought one of the frames to the house to make sure it would fit and when we saw it did we ordered 8 more. For supper tonight we had 2 chicken breasts cooked in a teriyaki sauce and topped with pineapple chunks. Today is the last day of March. I'm SO ready for warmer weather. 

Life and Death

 Today was mom's 93rd birthday and Spark's 73rd birthday. Each year they have a contest on who can wish the other happy birthday first and this year mom WON.  Ever since those cell phones came out mom could not win as no matter how early she called Spark knew it was her and before he would say hello he would exclaim, "happy birthday mom, I won!"  Well today mom decide if she used Karin's phone Spark would not have any idea it was her and that worked!  Karin put mom's crown on and sent the picture to all of us by text with mom all ready for church. We were sure she used a picture from 3 years ago but nope it really was from this morning. Mom just doesn't seem to age.

Mom said we are NOT to post that picture on Facebook and she was not going to be wearing that crown to church. We told her it would be good therapy, she could practice casting the crown in church. She refused plus we didn't want anyone to get hurt. Mom had quite a throwing arm in her youth. Ruth took mom to church this morning as Joan's family were in Bluffton. She passed us on the way to church so we followed her into the parking lot. Sarah and Nolan's family arrived right then and each of the girls had a beautiful red rose to give to great grandma for her birthday. I didn't think to take pictures but those girls all had their hair braided just like mom used to braid all of ours. Then Rhoda walked in with Zeke and Iris.  Nancy saw Rhoda, grabbed her and walked her right up to the front of church. She was so happy to see Rhoda.  All of the grandkids went to Sunday school. Kathy had Zeke and River and Nancy. Amanda had Iris, Eden and Zion. Elisabet went to her regular class.  David had the morning message and one I highly recommend. So much to listen but one thing he spoke is There are only 2 options. Click HERE to watch. At lunch mom got many many birthday greetings. We finally made it back into church for the second service. Tim Roecker had that message and that is another message you WILL want to listen to. Click HERE to listen to that. After church Mark and I drove to Sam's to pick up two buckets of ice cream for the birthday party today but they had none. How could they possibly be out of ice cream? I was able to buy boxes ice cream sandwiches and fudgesicles.  Rachel ordered I think 18 pizza's from Casey's,  Diane and Ruth made big salads, Dan and Susan brought 2 large cakes from Costco. Over 100 came to wish Nancy, Spark and mom happy birthday.

Below are a few pictures of the evening.

Abram and Addy gave the biggest announcement of the evening. 

They are expecting a baby Sept 30th. This is Dan and Susan's first grandbaby and a first for Addy and Abram. We are all thrilled for them.

The kids played and played. Nancy had so much fun opening cards and presents.  By 7:00 pm people started leaving. Rhoda and Lee took Nancy home. Nate and Justin helped get mom in the wheel chair van and I took her home. Spark and Rhonda brought all of her presents over and made a beautiful arrangement of the flowers Kari and Brett brought. Tarah gave mom a big aloe plant. There were many cards and gifts. 

If you would like to see the rest of the pictures of the evening click HERE.

As we were cleaning up Mark realized he had a message from Kim, his brother Jon's wife. He called her back and Kim shared that Jon has passed away. Jon was Mark's only brother. Kim will call later with the arrangements. We were celebrating a new life coming, mom's 93rd birthday and then ended the day with the death of a brother. Life really is like a vapor and none of us are promised tomorrow. Jon would have been 70 this year in October. If you have not given your heart to Jesus don't wait. He is calling YOU. 

Safely Home

 We left at 2:20 am for home. Diane started driving while I rode shotgun and Mike slept in the back bench. We switched off drivers all the way home and sharing the driving 3 ways made the trip easy. We pulled in at 4:23 pm.  Mark and I took the golf cart straight over to the cabin field so I could check on the mares.

I was glad to see both doing well and neither ready to deliver. We got my back pack out of the back of the truck and took that home to unpack.

Rizzy was glad to see me and glad to go on a golf cart ride. When the unpacking was done we drove that golf cart over to the logs Mark had been working on. He had one more section he wanted to finish today.

These are oak and VERY heavy. They will need to be seasoned for a year as there is still a lot of moisture in them.

Success.

The sections of this tree were so big that Mark and Mackenson were not able to get them under the log splitter. They split all of the logs below by hand.

Now that they are all quartered, they can split the quarters. Below is what they got done. Mark and Mackenson were splitting by hand then would roll the sections over to Berlica who was running the log splitter. Once they were split they were loaded into the trailer.

It is almost 8:00 pm and I am having trouble keeping my eyes open. I'm so thankful to be home, so thankful for a safe trip and thankful that neither mare delivered early. Mike drove out to Middle Grove to check on the herd and sent back pictures of the grass growing there. The bales he moved in were hardly touched. The horses are so glad for the good green grass. Rhoda and Lee sent a few picture of their amazing trip.

Anna sent the picture of the big alligator at Alligator Ally in Gulf Shores.

Sarah, who stayed home to keep everything running well (and she did!") sent the picture below.

Last Day

 The sky was gorgeous early this morning with dark red and then pink puffy cotton candy bubbles up in the sky. The picture below was before I even walked out to the water. 

This was before the sun even came up.

The cloud cover stopped the light of the sun from breaking through and the sky lost the intense red.

Today was really windy and the red flags were out as the waves were very strong. As I was walking out to the beach I looked over and there was David and Stephanie's family also walking out to the beach.

Elisabet went right to work on the sand. David and Israel tossed a football around until Phil and Anna's family arrived. While we were waiting for the day to heat up a kite surfer came barreling up toward where we were. It was entertaining watching him navigate the rough waves.

Phil and David helped the kids build a huge sand castle with a moat around it.

Soon it warmed up enough to cool off in those rough waves.

The waves at times were taller than the kids.  Braelyn and Taegan and their friends went out and really did get tossed around. At the end of the video below you can see two legs sticking out of the water. Those are Taegan's. When she got flipped she just stuck her hands down and did a hand stand under water.

Soon it just became too windy so most of Spark's family loaded up and walked back to their heated pool and hot tub. My family all walked to Island Royale to their indoor/outdoor heated pool and 2 hot tubs. KJ and Benj joined them. I was still out on the beach when a big wave came up and swamped the castle filling the moat with water.

As by that time I had finished the book I was reading I walked to Island Royale to return the book then back outside to clean up the beach. Then back to Diane's condo to start packing. We are leaving for home in the morning. We made an early supper and now are cleaning the condo and doing laundry. Mike has hooked up the boat and put the bikes in the boat. This is their last trip down for the summer so everything needs to be put away for all of those summer rentals. I'm very thankful for such beautiful weather this week. Only one partial day of rain. We all got plenty of beach time. I'm anxious to get home. 

First Timers

 After a good night's sleep it was easy to get up early enough to listen to Gregg Rumbold's message on Sunday morning. He started with submit, submit, submit. It was a very good message click HERE if you would like to watch it. By 6:10 it was early enough to go out as the sky was just starting to pink out.

By the time I was on the beach I could see a dark pink where the sun was struggling to break out. Today I walked past the public beach. Fred was hoping someone would bring out the fishing poles.

On the way back to the condo I passed David who was on his walk. 

Fred was still waiting for a fish on the way back.

We had another good beach day but today was very windy and the  waves just kept growing. I think it was Kari and Brett who brought out the kite. Well it may have been another of Spark and Rhonda's but Kari seemed right to get slammed right in the face with that pirate kite.

The little boys had so much fun playing football on the beach today.

They took a break to play in the waves. 

The girls were already having a wonderful time playing in the waves.

David was body surfing and getting good rides. 

 

After all that wave fun the girls needed to rest.

The boys were trying to fly with their boogie boards. Well they were holding them up then let the wind take them down the beach. One got away from them and flew into the air.

Earlier David dug another hole but today's hole was just for legs and feet.

The boys (with help from some of the men) built a huge sand castle.

The boys went back to playing football.

Later in the afternoon David, Stephanie, Israel and Elisabet went out to play in the waves.

A helicopter flew low right over the waves, low enough for us to see the pilot and passengers.

By 3:30 pm we were all clearing off the beach. Mike had put the Solar Coaster in at Beth and Greg's dock so Philip used that to take the girls out on a boat ride around the lagoon. They were going to the Hangout for dinner tonight.  Mike and Diane along with Tim and Jeanie went Mikees for dinner tonight. It is so crowded down here that there has been a long wait at restaurants. They had to wait an hour before they were seated. I finished all of the books I brought down on this trip today except one. I started to read that last book this evening but it isn't a good book. Tomorrow I will take these books to one of the condos for their free library and hope to find one to read for the day. More big news for the Meister family. A new baby is due September 29th. The parents will be first timers and so will the grand parents