Heirloom Locket

We have a locket in our family that is passed down to the oldest daughter.  My great grandmother received it on her sixteenth birthday.  She passed it to her daughter when she, my grandmother, turned sixteen and since my grandmother did not have any daughters, she gave it to me when I turned sixteen.
Since I do not have any daughters, I had the privilege of passing it to my oldest niece, Jenna. She turned sixteen this year!

That is my Great Grandmother Michael's picture on the far left and Grandma Ann on the right. They are both sixteen in those pictures.
There's space on the back of the locket for Jenna to have her initials and the year of her sixteenth birthday engraved. Someday when she is a mom, she can pass it to her oldest daughter.

Our Advent Wreath

Although I had been a part of lighting Advent wreath candles at church, this was the first year we had our own advent wreath at home. Each candle has a special meaning and we lit one a week leading up to Christmas. The part I like best is that this good news of Christ's birth is for ALL people!! God loves all of his creation!

Hope: We have hope in Jesus our Messiah (Isaiah 60:2-3)

Peace: Prince of Peace born in Bethlehem (Romans 15:13)

Joy: Celebrate the good new of great joy that is for all people (Isaiah 35:10)

Love: Joining with the angels we say “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and good will toward men." (Isaiah 9:6-7)

Christ: Love entered our world through the birth of Jesus Christ. (Luke 1:68-79 and Luke 2:1-20)



We made these with many of the children at church and we brought one home too. Bob cut all the greenery for about a 100 of these and I cut the ribbon and twisted together the berries. Holly and Karola did the bulk of the buying and the actual assembly with the children.

Adding Insult to Injury

Adding insult to injury or perhaps I should say adding infection to surgery. Almost unbelievable that I could get such a tough infection in my “good” foot during this recovery time, but I did. I fought the ingrown toenail infection for four days and just could not get it under control. So, at yesterday doctor’s appointment for the recent surgery, he checked out my other foot and removed the two sides of my big toenail and added a drop of acid on each side to the growth plate. Thankfully, once the infection clears, it will be a quick recovery. It already feels so much better. Walking is hilarious at this time. I must wear a high heel to match the boot height, but can’t have a closed toe, so yeah for high flip flops. And I had always thought this pair of flip flops had been an impulse buy and a waste of money! Now I really appreciate them.

Choose Me!

Do you see the sign at the top of the picture?  Choose me.  First you must choose which bear you would like.  Then fill it with stuffing and put a heart in it!  
Oh, more choices.  What clothes will be best?
And then the happy smiles with completed new friends, Kitty and SpiderBear!  Bob and I had a great time on Saturday with these two friends visiting here from India.

Grandpa and Grandson

I noticed that the pics of our grandson have scrolled on down to the "older posts" and so felt the need to sprinkle in a snapshot. This picture is from October when Shane was 8 months old, sitting on his grandpa Bob's lap at our home.

diet pepsi be gone

Six months ago today, I stopped drinking diet pepsi. Those who know me well, know that I used to drink a diet pepsi every day and sometimes it was a couple of cans by the end of the day. It did cost a bit and I am sure that added up, but that is not why I removed it from my diet. The artificial sweetener in it, probably wasn’t good for me, but that was why either. Last June, I did a 10 day cleanse and during those 10 days decided to make a couple of dietary changes. One was to remove a scrumptious, creamy, non-dairy, creamer from my coffee—it contains partially hydrogenated oils and the other was to delete the diet pepsi. I just was drinking it too much. It seemed to have a hold on me and water is so much better for me. It has been six months and I still have two cases of diet pepsi in the pantry. I guess I am safe now. I have broken the habit. I don’t even think about reaching for one any more.

Have Boot, Losing Crutches!

Today I began walking without crutches. It is so exciting . . rather slow and cumbersome with my big ole moon boot, but nevertheless, much better than the crutches! And yes, my foot is in that boot.  Perhaps they gave me (sold me) a larger one than necessary.

First Outing

For my first trip out of the house on crutches, I braved the snow and slick sidewalks to go to a fabulous "tea" complete with a tablescape, and wonderful friends. There were gingerbread houses and cream puffs made in the shape of swans with chocolate dipped noses that swam in blue rivers of chocolate. The friends were fun and the day quite delightful.