When Daniel and Erin came up yesterday afternoon, I was laying down resting. Daniel came into the bedroom and handed me these gorgeous peonies! He had gotten them from his in-laws' garden. Aren't they beautiful?

Memorial Day Observance

We began our Memorial Day Observance Sunday morning at church as we recognized and honored eight men (one posthumously: Bro. Earl Kornmiller) for their service to our country. Here they are, pictured below:

I also made a multi-media presentation, showing pictures of each one in their military uniforms and dress, which they had given to me. It was very moving, as we honored them. The Sunday School children came marching into the sanctuary, each carrying a small flag and singing and later each veteran was presented with a framed picture of themselves in uniform.

Bro. Harry Scism, former director of Home Missions for the UPC, spoke at our morning service. He shared his experience as an missionary's child when his parents went to India, and then being a missionary to India himself. His son, Stanley, is a missionary to India presently. Bro. Scism told us that each time he has returned to the United States, he never ceases to be filled with such gratitude for the blessings of being an American and living in this wonderful country. He spoke to us from Micah 6:8 "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? "What doth the Lord require of thee?" was the title of his message. Bro. Scism is such a gracious and godly man. It was truly a pleasure to finally meet him after all of these years of seeing his photo in various UPC publications. His daughter, Loretta, moved to our area several months ago and has her own medical practice here now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last night, as we did not have service at our church, Ed, me, Daniel and Erin went to Mt. Vernon and were in service at Pastor Kramer's church, Christian Apostolic. My, but we had a wonderful time, seeing so many friends and visiting and worshipping with them. AND Daniel and Erin had a wonderful surprise, because after service, Heather (Wilkinson) and her husband, Dave showed up! They are great friends but don't get to see eachother very often because they live quite a distance apart and life is busy and so on. They went to a local restaurant to eat afterwards and fellowship, while Ed and I stayed and joined in a graduation celebration for a young lady from the Mt. Vernon church that was being held in the church gym. We did have a great time visiting with everyone! It was the church's 53rd anniversary and Pastor Kramer spoke of his vision for the church. It was inspiring, to say the least!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We slept in a bit this morning (8AM), as we didn't get to bed until almost midnight. We had to go to Walmart and get a few groceries and did we ever see so many people that we hadn't seen forever! Well, besides Pastor and Sis. Martin, that is! *smile* It was wonderful catching up and visiting and so on! BUT we had to get home so I could make a couple of strawberry dream pies, as we were going to Daniel's in-laws at two for a cookout. Soooooo, we tore ourselves away from Walmart and visiting, got home, I made the pies and we headed to Pat and Lew's. We had a great time visiting and eating some deeeeeeeeeeelicious food! Later, we all gathered outside and many of them played cornhole, while me and a couple of others observed. It was a beautiful day, albeit a bit warm at times. It started raining around 5:30, so everyone gathered things up and headed inside for dessert, while Ed and I said our goodbyes and headed home. We've had a relaxing evening here at home and I know that I am truly blessed with wonderful family, friends and this great country that I am privileged to live in.

A couple of home improvements

I finally found a new quilt that I like! AND would you believe that I found it at Dollar General??? Yes!! Meaning, I didn't have to pay an arm and a leg for it. $35!!! And there is a bit of a story behind this. I had seen this quilt set in the store several weeks ago, had the money to buy it, but just wasn't feeling very good and didn't feel like buying it. (Is this a woman thing?) Anywayyyyy......in the meantime,I bought my sister Debbie a beautiful like-new twin quilt and sham set at our ladies' yearly 25-cent indoor yard sale. Yes, I bought it for ONE QUARTER. Well, some time after this AND especially after I discovered that Ed had used my other quilt to line the trunk of our car!! For what reason I do not know! .....anywayyyyy....some time after this, I knew I needed to be getting a quilt for our bed because it was getting too warm to keep the comforter on much longer. So I went back to Dollar General not really believing that I was going to find this quilt set because it had been soooo long since I had first seen it. I was in alot of pain this particular day but pushed myself to get out and do some errands. I went into Dollar General to where they keep the bedding and sure enough it wasn't there. *sigh* They didn't have ANY quilt sets, BUT I thought I would just take a look-a-round to see if maybe they had been put some place else by mistake or something. AND in just a little while I found ONE quilt set shoved in on a shelf among a mishmash of stuff (you know how some of those D&G stores can get!) AND it was a QUEEN set! Now just what do you think of that? I think the Lord put that quilt set right there for me. I do. I had just enough money to buy this particular set. It was just what I had been looking for (had a kind of antique look to it, was the right color). Isn't that just how the Lord is? "Delight thyself also in the Lord and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AND we purchased a new area rug for the living room to just kind of brighten it up for the springtime. Ellie wouldn't even walk on it for a few days for whatever reason......she's a cat maybe? *grin* Her heat register is underneath the upper righthand corner and you know how cats don't like change BUT she got over it after a few days and snuggled her furry body right over the register when the furnace came on. I knew she would cave! *smile*

Anywayyyy....just a couple of new things to brighten up the house and all can lift the spirits, you know? *smile* Oh, and I STILL haven't found this picture that I bought several months ago!! I'm serious! I think I blogged about it awhile back BUT just in case I didn't......I bought this lovely picture from a dear lady at church who was having a home party of some sort. Well, I bought this picture, brought it home and stashed it somewhere until I decided where I was going to put it AND I haven't seen it or been able to find it since!!! Argh! And my house is organized and tidy. Ask Pat! *smile* I've looked everywhere! Well, apparently not EVERYWHERE or I would have found it by now but I don't know where else to look! (this is happening more and more....*feeble grin*) I'll keep you posted on the "mystery of the missing picture".
Have a wonderful Monday everyone!!

More baby news and another recipe!

Daniel and Erin went for her sonogram Tuesday and found out that she is 5 weeks along. They were a little disappointed because they had thought she might be about 4 1/2 months along, so now they have a much longer wait but I felt a wave of relief when I heard she was not due until January 10! *whew* Daniel's birthday is January 3 so their birthdays will be close.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I made the Strawberry Dream Pie yesterday that I told you about in an earlier post. Here is the recipe I concocted:

1 graham cracker pie shell
1 small carton of cool whip
8 oz. pkg. of cream cheese
1 envelope of Knox unflavored gelation
1 16oz. container of fresh strawberried
1 bag or container of strawberry glaze

Soften the cream cheese, then mix it with the cool whip. Add the gelatin to this. Put this into the
pie shell. It will be firm enough to top with the sliced strawberries. Spread the glaze over the strawberries. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving. It is yummy!!!
I may try using Dream Whip the next time I make this, which will be very soon. *smile*

Yummy Recipes

I tried two new recipes this past week and wanted to share them with you! The first one is Smothered Steak:

1 lb. of round steak cut into serving size pieces
Place this in your slow-cooker/crockpot.
1 pkg. of Onion soup mix
Sprinkle this evenly over the steak.
1 can of mushrooms/drained
Spread these evenly on top of the soup mix.
1 can of mushroom soup
Drop this my spoonfuls over the other ingredients.
Cook on high for a few minutes to get it going...*smile*.......then put it on low and let it cook for 3 or 4 hours or until the meat is tender. This is soooo delicious! I thought it would surely need
some liquid added to it but it didn't.

My friend, Laura, shared the other recipe with me.
Hmmmm.....I'm not sure what it is called but I think it is:
Skyline Chili Cheese Dip

Two 8oz. pkgs of cream cheese
One pkg. of frozen Skyline Chili without beans
One 2-cup pkg of shredded cheddar cheese
Soften and spread the cream cheese in a 9X13 dish
Spread the chili over the cream cheese.
Top with the cheddar cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly and the cheese is melted.
Serve with tortilla chips.
This is absolutely to die for! I am taking it to the ladies' meeting tomorrow night.
I am also trying to imitate Bob Evan's Strawberry Dream Pie. I'm going to make one tomorrow morning, so I'll let you know how it turns out. My friend, Pam and I went to Bob Evans for lunch
last Saturday and I had a piece of this pie and it was scrumptious and I am not a big dessert person. Oh, but this won me over immediately! And with a hot cup of coffee.....Oh My! *smile*

Mother's Day

I hope all of you mothers had a wonderful day yesterday...Mothers Day. I am so thankful for the sweet mother that the Lord blessed me with. She faced many difficult times but always kept such a wonderful attitude and spirit in the midst of every adversity that she faced. I've always hoped that I can be like her in this way. Isn't she so cute? *smile* Mom has been gone since 1999 and I still miss being able to call her or coming home on a Sunday night after church and knowing I would have a message from her on my answering service letting me know how her day had been. Sometimes she would fill up the tape just talking to me. I have so many precious memories of her and I am so thankful that she was my dearest mother.

The sweetest sounds to mortals given,

Are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven.

~William Goldsmith Brown

Great and wonderful news!

Where do I begin????
First of all.......DANIEL AND ERIN ARE GOING TO HAVE A BABY!!! I'M GONNA BE A GRANDMA!! WHOOHOOOOOO!!
I see all of these grandparents having such an awesome time with their grandchildren and I wonder where in the world they get all of their energy and strength and so on. I pray that I am up to it but I am sure that I will be! Oh yeah!! *smile*
Soooo....last Saturday morning around 5:30am the phone rings, the answering service picks up and we hear a groggy yet happy Daniel saying, "Hey Mom...hey Pops.....you don't have to get up, but I just wanted to let you know that you are going to be grandparents." Talk about being wide awake all of a sudden! We were! *smile* Erin goes to the doctor Monday to find out when her due date is and so on. I'll keep you posted!!! I told the kids that there isn't a treatment, shot, or pill that could make me feel any better than this wonderful news!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now for the next wonderful news! I don't have to have a hysterectomy!! Dr. Keller, my family doctor, had examined me, I had gone for the pelivc ultrasound, then back to Dr. Keller for the results where he told me that I was indeed going to have to have a hysterectomy. So he sent me to Dr. Detty, who is a gynecologist and who would be doing the surgery.
Well, last Wednesday night we had an awesome service at church. The Lord met with us in such a beautiful way and I went down to be prayed for. I came back up on the platform and just stood by the keyboard, worshipping my precious Saviour and asked Him humbly if He could just touch me so that I wouldn't have to have surgery because of my back being the way it is. I can only say that I felt something release inside of me when I prayed this way. I felt a load lift from my spirit. I knew that no matter what happened, I was going to be alright. So, the next day I go to my appointment with Dr. Detty. He is the OB that delivered Daniel 21 years ago and he is just an awesome doctor. He examined me and proceeded to tell me that he had some good news for me. Everything was okay! Everything was where it was supposed to be! I didn't need to have a hysterectomy!!! Hallelujah and to God be the glory!!! I am so thankful. God is so good to me. *tears* Doesn't He always step in right on time? I am so thankful that I can trust Him to know what is best for me. Oh, just to walk with Him means everything to me. *tears*
He IS my precious healer. I won't question why my back is still the way it is but I know this one thing....."I am trusting in Christ in alone......I am trusting in Christ alone....Since His faithful love I've known.....I am trusting in Christ alone." If you go to http://www.calvarytabindy.org/, click on their media archives, click on Musicfest 2007, then click on Nancy Grandquist, you can listen to this song. It is so worth the effort! God Bless!

Hello, it's meee......oh, oh, oh, ohhhhhh

Heyyyy.....do you remember that old song???? "Hello, it's me.....I've thought about us for a long, long time...." I looked it up and it is by Todd Rundgren but I'm not sure of what year it came out. Probably many moons ago if I remember it!
It is probably because I am musically inclined, but more often than not, when I am talking, I am reminded of songs ALLLLLL of the time! And I'll just start singing them. Daniel has always said that I have a song for everything. We've even played this game in the past where he will just say something to see if I can come up with a song to go with whatever he said and more often than not I have. Ed and I do this alot, too. We'll say something that reminds us of a song and we'll just start singing it, sometimes almost in unison. Great minds think alike!

Welllll.....I am off to see Dr. Detty this afternoon. He will doing the surgery that I am having. *feeble grin* On the plus side, he was the doctor that delivered Daniel twenty-one years ago and he is great.

Also, this evening I will be singing and playing for the annual Hocking Valley Community Hospital Volunteer Appreciation Dinner at Lee's Banquet Haus here in Logan. This is the first performance for me in about three years, outside of church. But I just want so much to do this because I do love to sing and play and then to see the pleasure that it brings to people, is such a blessing. I will be playing mostly........ dinner music. After the program and awards presentation, I will be singing. I've chosen: Hero, You've Got A Friend, Wind Beneath My Wings and Because You Loved Me.
Ed is going to take my keyboard and sound system up this afternoon and get everything set up for me. I can hardly believe that I used to lug all of this stuff around myself and set it up. I did! But.....no longer, of course. Depending on how I fare this evening, I may decide to perform at the Lilyfest once again this year. I haven't for the past two years because of health problems, but I would surely love to. We'll see.
Well, I had best be off. I have a busy day and I must pace myself. Again, I haven't been posting as much as I used to because I must do the necessary things first and many days I'm just not up to much more than that. I am praying that I can accomplish all that I have planned for today. *fingers crossed* *smile*