Grandchildren time...

We enjoyed a wonderful weekend with some of our family. Happily it included our three grandchildren! We went to the zoo, picked out pumpkins at the farm, pet many different animals, had a campfire at night and enjoyed lots of hugs and kisses.
Gabriella and Elodie tried out their new halloween jammies...

Even though it was cool, we went to meet the pony neighbors. We fed apples to the ponies, and Elodie decided that she needed an apple too. Here we are trying to stay warm.

The zoo day was perfect! Warm and sunny. The animals enjoyed the beautiful day too. Elodie sure loves animals. She knows all their names and even the sound each makes.Grandpa got a kick out it too!

Mother's Day again...

Some things bear repeating.... Happy Mother's Day
"Most of all the other beautiful things in life come by twos and threes by dozens and hundreds. Plenty of roses, stars, sunsets, rainbows, brothers and sisters, aunts and cousins, but only one mother in the whole world." --Kate Douglas Wiggin

"A boy's best friend is his mother." --Joseph Stefano

"Grandma always made you feel she had been waiting to see just you all day and now the day was complete. " --Marcy DeMaree

"Grandmas hold our tiny hands for just a little while.....but our hearts forever." --Author Unknown

"Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children." -- Alex Haley

"Grandmother - a wonderful mother with lots of practice." --Author Unknown
"Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president, but they don't want them to become politicians in the process." --John Fitzgerald Kennedy

"A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us when adversity takes the place of prosperity when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine, desert us when troubles thicken around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts." --Washington Irving

"A mother's arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them." --Victor Hugo "Over the years I have learned that motherhood is much like an austere religious order, the joining of which obligates one to relinquish all claims to personal possessions." --Nancy Stahl

"Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother."

-- Lin Yutang

"The phrase 'working mother' is redundant." --Jane Sellman

"The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother." --Theodore Hesburgh
"To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power." --Maya Angelou
"Youth fades, love droops, the leaves of friendship fall; a mother's secret hope outlives them all." --Oliver Wendell Holmes (1775-1817)

"All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. that's his." --Oscar Wilde

Happy Mother's Day to the beautiful mothers (and grandmothers) in my family!

A New Year...

2010
"Two Thousand Ten"
"Twenty-Ten"
"Two Ten"
Whatever you want to call it, the new year is upon us! Here's hoping it is better for all of us than Two Thousand and Nine! At our house, we are hoping for new opportunities, new experiences, new places to travel, new friends and more new directions in our lives!
I am planning on continuing to cut those new grooves.
But...
I am even more convinced that it is time to simplify!
I hope to get rid of lots of "junque".
I want to take control back from the stuff that rules my life!
I plan to wage a war against PAPER!
I will put technology in its place!
I also resolve to get rid of cassette tapes, Videotapes, 33RPM records, 35 mm slides and floppy disks!
As usual, I have made some pretty ambitious goals. I have aimed rather high, but "A goal properly set is halfway reached." Abraham Lincoln
Anthony Robbins said, "Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible."
Check on me down the line to see how I am doing!

Poor Baby...

I am at a loss for words for a caption for this picture. I just can't stop laughing! Poor baby...

Life and Stuff

"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life; That word is love." ---Sophocles


Life is like an onion; you peel off one layer at a time and sometimes you weep. ----Carl Sandburg

"Practice hope. As hopefulness becomes a habit, you can achieve a permanently happy spirit." ---Norman Vincent Peale

"It's always too soon to quit." ---Norman Vincent Peale

"Our attitude toward life determines life's attitude towards us." ---Earl Nightingale
"The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time." ---Abraham Lincoln

"Music has charms to soothe the savage breast, to soften rocks or bend a knotted oak." ---William Congreve

October 25 - Hamburger and Fries Day

Nobody could hold up the line at McDonald's like my brother! Our family would stop there for lunch on our semi-annual trip to Madison. It was only after suffering through our regular dental visits that we were treated to the extravagance of lunch at the new hamburger joint on Park Street.

We certainly earned our 19-cent burgers and 15-cent fries those days! We had endured the usual rigamarole in the dentist's chair and the interminable wait in the boring waiting room with the horrible "elevator" music. Good old Dr. Nania had presented each of us with the usual nickel or package of sugarless gum (nothing at all like we have now) and we would be on our way! I still wonder why I was always the one that also had to have a "little" cavity drilled and filled on the spot - sans novacaine! (It was probably better than scheduling a follow-up appointment, however, which I would have had to dread for weeks until it was over with.) All of it brings back horrible memories except the lunch at McDonald's!

We never ordered our own. We just waited in the car in happy expectation while our parents did the ordering. It was a big job, you see, and they had to handle it. We just waited in the car... and waited, and waited, and waited... I can imagine the conversation inside: "Oh, one of those six burgers has to be plain!" "No, no ketchup, no mustard, no pickle!" "No, I said no pickle! Now you have to start over... the pickle has touched the bun!" Screech! The assembly line ground to a halt while someone figured out how to make a McDonald's hamburger that was "p-l-a-i-n"! while we waited in the car...

Today I think I will have my burger and fries at Burger King where a person can have it their way. "Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders don't upset us." By the way, Happy Burger and Fries day in honor of my Big Brother's Birthday! Make mine plain, please, just like his! He would have been 64!

Happy Anniversary!

He's caring.
He's considerate.
He's clever.
He's creative, convivial and kind.
He's positive,
proud,
patriotic
and a man of prayer.

He's generous, devoted,
respectful, enthusiastic,
energetic,
and loving...
He is wise and wonderful.
He's handsome,
happy,
healthy,
thoughtful and careful.

He's a giver,
a tenor,
a lover,
exhorter,
provider,
protector and problem-solver!

He's musical, he's ethical, he's wonderful.
(Did I say that already?)

He is supportive.
He is understanding.
He is industrious.

And he
cooks for me,
and he makes my tea.
And he starts my yoga video for me!

He's my plumber,
my mechanic,
my electrician and mason.
He's my roofer, finisher, gardener, and landscaper.
He is my installer and appliance repairman.

He's my rosemaler,
woodworker,
calligrapher,
dog trainer,
tincture-maker,
fire-builder,
and doggie trainer.

He has character.
He loves the Lord.
He is a great Dad.
He is a doting Grandpa.

He is the best.
He wants the best.
He always tries to do better!

...and he is my friend.

So glad I married him forty-one years ago today!

Phil "Junior"...

Rachel had a great time rummaging the other day. She was very excited to find more tools to add to her growing collection! Her latest finds: a chain saw, a large bolt cutter (to use for trimming bushes) and a shovel! She recently received a scroll saw and belt sander from some family friends and is planning projects for her home. Already in her collection are a mitre box, drill, hammer, screw drivers and other various small hand tools.

If you really wanna make her happy she would love a circular saw!

Phil enjoys this as much as Rachel does. He gets to play with the tools, too, as he shows her how they work and teaches her how to sharpen them or oil them or whatever...
Rachel hangs the cabinets and shelves at her house. She also has been know to help her friends and relatives install mini-blinds and other stuff.

Look out now! She will be cutting down trees with her new chain saw!

Of course, there is no job she would rather do than "mother" her kids. She just likes to have something to do while they are napping! (hahahaha)

Good job teaching her, Phil!
I bet she can even change a tire and an oil filter...

Welcome home...

Welcome home, Jerome!
It has been seven months since you were home and we are so glad to have you back! They changed some doors and built you a ramp and deck, but it is still HOME.
Your bathroom has been changed so you can move around in there, but it is still HOME!

We love you and we are proud of how hard you have worked to be ready to come home.



It is so good to see you enjoy being outside and visiting with friends and neighbors! It is so good to see you decide when you want to come in again. Dianne is happy to have someone to cook for and it looks like you are happy to have her cooking!

It has been a long journey,

and we have seen you come so far...

The boys came often to visit you and they began to feel right at home at St. Luke's. They were just glad to be near you.

Thanksgiving.

Birthdays.

Christmas.

and a New Year!

Valentine's Day.

Easter. Spring!

Many friends celebrated your progress and prayed for your return to strength.

We love you Jerome! and continue to pray for you and for your family. Welcome Home!

Memorial Day...

We celebrated Memorial Day as we often do with a visit to the veteran's cemetary at Wood, Wisconsin. It is always an emotive experience, but is especially so on this day of "remembrance". The straight rows of headstones formed ranks in every direction and each marker was decorated with its own American flag. Families walked among stones, thinking... remembering. We instinctively went to our location in section B, marker number 194 - Chester Mowbray DesRochers, Ensign - U.S. Navy.
As always I simply said, "Hi Dad!"

One thing that caught our attention was the peace and quiet that is always a part of the experience. Another notable thing was the beauty of the grounds with the lush, green grass and the flowering shrubs lining the drive. Finally we wondered at the sheer numbers that were buried there. Men and women who shared the common bond, whether in peace or at war, of service to our great country. We walked among the markers, we thought of them and we remembered with gratitude.

Back home at Woodland Wonderland we proudly fly the flag. Each day as we count our blessings we count our freedom, our nation, our patriots. We remember and we are grateful . May God Bless America.