Christmas outfit

When Sammy Jo, our oldest granddaughter, was little I made a Christmas outfit for her.  From that outfit those granddaughters called me "Hat" for awhile.  They remembered that I made hats and bonnets for them.

The next granddaughter, Rachel Joy, wore the same outfit when she was the right size. 

The next granddaughter, Margaret Lorane, wore the same outfit when Christmas time came around and she was the right size. 

It is amazing that all three girls could wear the outfit at Christmas time.  I made the bodice with pintucks all across the front.  The skirt had a big bow in the back.  The bonnet was lined with fleece because they have such cold winters in Canada. 

What a blessing these granddaughters are to me.  I just love to make things for them.  Rachel changed from calling me "Hat" to "White Hair".  When she was little she couldn't see clearly, but she knew I had white hair.  I am so glad Rachel can see with her glasses. 

Look how they have grown:

"Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD; and the fruit of the wormb is His reward."  Ps 127:3

December 3, 2011

Today was a full day for us.  I went to visitation first.  I needed to take the rest of the cleaned table cloths back to store at the church.  After visiting I went back to home to check on Nannie.  Sometimes she is at home on the hill by herself on Saturdays.  I was right - when I got home she was alone.  Buster had to go check a water leak and then off to a fire.  We waited until Buster got back home to go shopping.  Nannie really only likes to go if Buster goes with us. 

We went to Lufkin to shop at Target.  It was so nice to have them greet us with "Merry Christmas" this year.  Speaking out about Christmas has made a difference in our area.  Culture Warriors have been at work!  I like to shop at stores that are nice to customers.  After that we went to Academy to find a few things that Joe needed.  He really needs a BB gun to kill snakes and other little varmits around their yard.  We will try to take that with us to Africa.  Also, Joe needed volleyballs for his Bible Club on Saturday afternoons.  They gather kids to listen to Bible stories and play volleyball.  They have as many as 150 kids show up for that activity. 
We got three volleyballs to take with us.  We will need to take the air out of them to get them packed into a suitcase. 

We went to eat at Cheddar's after our shopping.  Nannie and Buster like their ribs.  We had a nice supper and then headed home. 

I am listening to the Debate on Fox news while I am catching up on computer stuff. 

My next big project is to decorate my part of our house for Christmas.  I have Nannie's room decorated and clean.  We have the family here for Christmas Dinner.  Sometimes we have 40-45 people here for that dinner.  It takes me a while to get things clean and moved around to make room for that many people to eat. 

Have a very Happy Sunday morning tomorrow!

Our love - Nana & Papa

Danny

I thought you would enjoy an update on  Danny James Consford.  He was named after our Pastor Danny Dodson, and Dr. Jim Vineyard.  For several weeks he has been swimming in a nearby pool without any floating devices.  A few days ago Joe took the kids to the pool when Danny took a running dive into the pool, caught this lizard, killed it, and threw it out of the pool. 

   

Joe didn’t even have time to check on what type of lizard it was before it all happened.   The thing looks as long as Danny is tall.

Here are a few other pictures that you might enjoy.

Danny still has a hard head.

Danny being baptised.

Holding a green Mamba.

Danny crying when a member moved.

He burned his foot putting limbs on the burning pile

Danny in line after recess at school in Africa.

 Last week he helped the yard guard.  The guard caught a squirrel by the tail.  It was trying to get away into a hole in the ground.  Danny stomped on the squirrel’s head.  The kids watched as the guards cooked the squirrel to put into their soup.  The big surprise was that Danny had shoes on at the time.

Explaining to Dad how he caught the squirrel.

He had shoes on.

Watching the guards cook the squirrel.

Hair and all.

                                    

 Uncle Larry is telling everybody that Danny is special forces material.  I pray that he will be a good soldier in God’s army.  All I have to say is that Joe has his hands full to keep this boy busy, challenged, and following the Lord. 

Happy Birthday, Danny!  We love you and miss you bunches.

5 years old

 

October 25, 2011

What a beautiful day!  Cool and clear.  I would love to be outside working on our yard, but I needed to catch up a little in the office.  It is coming close to the end of the year stuff to do.  Yuck! 

Betsy is home ill today.  She has something wrong on her right side.  Her arm stays numb and cold.  It hurts under her arm and across her chest.  Her leg feels like a Charley horse, but it is not.  Her Dr said she has pinched nerves in her neck and arthritis.  Today she went to the Chiropractor.  He took x-rays and said he needed to study them before he could work on her.  She slept all weekend and I am sure she slept the rest of today. 

Buster is still working on his building.  He has the door frame up and most of one end.  The guys helped him this afternoon after they finished reading meters. 

It was great hearing from Lori today.  She is back from her trip and back to work.  That first few days after vacation is so hard.  When we taught school it was hard to get the kids back in routine to suit us.  I guess it is the same at a store. 

Buster has been having severe heart burn lately.  Today I read on the Internet that if he would eat a Red Delicious Apple before bedtime that the indigestion would calm down.  I downloaded the rest of the information to find other remedies that would help.  We will try them.  The OTCs and prescriptions don't seem to help.  Maybe some home remedies will.  We will let you know how that does in the next few days. 

Mandy and her family are enjoying company right now.  Dave's sister and family are visiting for a week or so.  The kids will have cousins to play with for a few days.  I know they are so excited.  I sure miss seeing them more often.  We were so glad to go visit earlier this year.  We get a kick out of talking on the phone though. 

I need to go prepare a tasty supper for my sweetheart.

Adios

October 24, 2011

We had a wonderful time at church yesterday.  Buster and I teach Sunday School.  We like to be at church at least 30 minutes early to be sure our classes are set up.  We have been having 5-6 kids in each class lately.  I still am praying for 50 girls in my class.  The Lord knows best though.  We are studying important men in the New Testament.  This week the lesson was on Apollos.

After Sunday School we do a Junior Church.  Our Jr. Church is for bus kids from 5 to 10 years old.  Lately we have been having about 30 in there.  We have had as many as 100 and as few as 2.  I sing songs and teach about the Bible.  We learn the books of the Bible and many details that would help later as they study their Bibles.  We learn the 12 tribes, the 12 apostles, creation, heaven, the gospel, the 10 commandments, and verses such as Phil. 4:13, Ps 23, John 3:16, and Eph. 3:8-9.  The preaching is a series of Bible stories like Moses, or the Life of Christ.  Buster does games after all of that until the bus captains come.  Buster reviews all that has been covered for the last few weeks.  Every year the children come into our Junior Church knowing less and less about the Bible. 

We go home to eat a quick lunch and take a rest for about an hour or so.  We leave to go back to church at 3:30 pm.  Buster has a staff meeting and I use that hour to prepare for my evening classes.  I am teaching church girls from K-12.  Right now we are learning how to make greeting cards.  The girls have so much fun.  I have the K-7 from 5-5:30 and the 8-12 from 5:30-6:00.  It is a quick time, but we have tea, talk about serving Christ in our church, and make things.  We have started beginning quilting, how to write encouraging cards, now making cards, . . . It does keep me busy getting things organized. 
I love those classes.  After that our church service starts at 6:00 pm.  Last night Bro. Dodson preached about standards and about his trip to the Philippines.  He was there two weeks visiting our missionaries there.  Our church is such a blessing.  Thank you, Lord, for our church. 

Today I went to Nacogdoches to talk to our life insurance carrier and to the CPA for the water systems.  The state of Texas has changed a few regulations about the annual meetings and the election of officers.  I needed to get that straight in my mind before I start setting the details up for the Boards of Directors.  After that I went to do a little shopping.  I have a big project I am working on that I will talk about later.

Buster has his fire meeting tonight.  He is a volunteer fireman.  He loves it.  He told me as soon as that signal sounds for him to go he doesn't hurt at all until he gets back home.  He has been working on that building today.  He picked up some heavy metal doors to hang in his building.  Our church took them out and replaced them with glass doors.  The doors weren't being used so Bro. Eddie gave them to Buster before they were sent to the dump.  The doors are so heavy that Buster's shoulders and arms are sore from working with them.  

Lo, I don't know how you write every day.  You don't feel good, but you are still so cheerful and tell us things about the kids and your lives there.  Thank you so much.  It helps all of your family stay close to you.

Megan brought her baby over this afternoon to visit with Nannie.  Nannie was so pleased.   

I called Mom and Dad this afternoon; they will head to Kansas tomorrow.  They went to silver dollar city on Saturday.  They had a good time.

Good night all,
Nana 

October 22, 2011

This morning I woke up with one of my headaches.  I haven't accomplished much today.  I didn't even get dressed until about 10:00 am.   I missed going to Soul Winning this morning.  I am glad that I didn't have a headache while I was gone last weekend.  I probably didn't drink enough water yesterday.

Buster had more help today.  Sam & Bonnie came to help him awhile this morning.  He has all the arches up now.  He spent the afternoon cleaning up trash and limbs around the new building.  It does look much better around there now.  I picked up trash like empty water bottles, towels, paper, boxes, and light things that I could put in a trash bag to be hauled off.  The burning pile is getting bigger and bigger, but still we haven't had enough rain to call off the burn ban. 

It has been a beautiful day all in all.  Warm with a little breeze.

I called Mom & Dad.  They are having a great time with Bea & Patti.  Today they went to Silver Dollar City.  I am sure they had a great time. 

Eli & Lori should be headed home from Tennessee today.  They have sent some beautiful pictures of the fall leaves.  Lori loves the fall colors. 

Our Trip to the Black Hills

Mt. Rushmore at night

We went to visit with Mom and Dad for a week in August.  It was a wonderful visit.  Mom and Dad were going on a car tour with their car club.  They asked us to come with them.  It was an experience to remember for a life time.
On our way we stopped to spend the night with Lori and Eli.  We didn't visit much, but it was so good to hug them.  I miss Lori!  We tried to cross the Missouri River on our way to Nebraska.  It was still flooded.  We had to detour for over 2 hours to find a place to cross.  Everything was so green and pretty.  At home we are suffering from a severe drought.  The river was so wide - at places it was over six miles wide.  At first I thought it was a lake, until I noticed a large church sitting in the middle of the lake.

The flooded river with the interstate closed

See the church in the middle of the water

One of Dad's friend's car

A Cool Treat - Daddy's '58-Olds

The old cars were so much fun to see.  I can see why Dad loves the car club like he does.  The people in the club love my folks!  Every year this group goes to the Black Hills for a few days.  We stayed in a cabin.  You can see the cabin in the background of the picture of the Model T.  The weather was beautiful.                                                                  

Leaving on our trip

Dad is in the red shirt.  Nice Model T

                               After we got all settled in the cabin, we visited with the other folks in the camp ground.  It was a beautiful place.  There were cabins and camper spaces.  Some of the members of the car club bring campers and trailers for their cars.  Our first supper was in the camp ground.  One of the members gets all the food together for the club.  The meal was sloppy-joes.  The lady put gumbo soup into the sloppy-joes.  It was delicious. The fellowship was so good.

The first morning all the cars lined up to leave the camp ground.  We went to the Woodcarving Museum.  The carvings were so good.  They looked just like the ones that Uncle Larry carves.