The Grady Family Archives

We're Moving!

2009-05-31T22:43:00.005-05:00

We have filled up our alloted amount of Blogspot space with 432 posts, so we've moved on to The Grady Family Archives II. Click the link below and head on over...

New Blog

The Trip of Many Adventures

2009-05-27T12:45:00.010-05:00

We knew for some reason...call it a hunch...that this trip down to Kansas to go camping on Memorial Day weekend would be adventurous. I asked several families at church to pray for us because I just knew something would happen, and we would need prayer warriors fighting for us. We did. It all started with my cell phone dying...(complete story at the very end of this post)

The first stop on the trip was Grandpa and Grandma's house in town. Hannah had driven all the way and her first words to Grandpa were "I didn't speed!" He didn't let her forget that for the rest of the trip! They took us to McD's as is their custom and fed us 20 McChickens and Big 'n Tasties (total), four salads and two orders of french fries. Seeing as our ranks were not swelled to their usual numbers, this was a LOT of food. But we ate it all with only one McChicken saved for a late night snack.

Grandpa Bill had scoped out all the campgrounds and picked the perfect point on the lake for us complete with flush toilets and showers. Nice! We did drive around just for fun looking at other camping areas.

Grandpa found the best spot so we drove back to where we started and settled on a pristine camp site on the west side of Veteren's Point. Our tents were the three section kind complete with rainfly since the forecast said there was a chance of rain.

The only rain we got the whole time at the lake was about a hundred drops from one cloud as we set up the tents. God has such a sense of humor.

We started out light at heart...this camping trip was to be a festive occasion. We brought scads of our NCHEA bandanas and hung them all over the campsite to bring cheer and joy to our happy campers. Each camper also received a bandana to wear, and we had colors to match every outfit.

The water was shallow and warm so the kids could play in it right by our campsite. The only drawback was 'no bare feet.' The little pickles found piles of beer bottle caps everywhere. Since it was still the holiday, lots of jet skis, speed boats, pontoons and houseboats were still out on the lake. They were fun to watch.

The boats distracted our attention from the shore opposite our campsite where unbeknownst to us a group of (ahem) 'interesting' young people set up camp. We had really been hoping everyone would leave once Memorial Day weekend was over. And everyone did leave...everyone but THEM.

The family came out to our campsite for dinner. We did the traditional 'weenie' roast along with hamburgers on the grill for the select few that were actually hungry after our huge lunch. As Betsy observed, it seemed like we did alot of eating in the two days we were there.

And you guessed it...we made s'mores. Lots and lots of s'mores.

After we could s'more no more, the children started roasting marshmellows for Uncle Les. The children were typical...they loved to cook (burn to a crisp) the marshmellows, but they didn't like to eat them. Uncle Les would eat any and all burnt marshmellows and sent the kidlets back to the campfire if it wasn't burnt enough! What a good uncle!

The family went back to town as the hour got later, but we had another surprise visitor.

Our dear family friend, Mr. McCoy (one of the REAL McCoys!) came out to visit us since he wasn't sure what his tomorrow would hold. He drove out in his new 'Inferno Red Crystal Pearl' minivan. It was great to get to see him. He's like another grandpa.

After Mr. McCoy left, we noticed more noise carried across the water from our friendly fellow campers. Evidently, Lake Eldorado doesn't have any 'quiet hours' or the camp hosts were too afraid to enforce them because the rap/yelling/drunken/drugged cacophony continued well into the night. I prayed the children wouldn't be disturbed by the wicked bedlam, and they did go right to sleep. I did alot of praying for those poor lost souls as I lay awake...

The birds were not kept awake by the noisy campers from the night before so lots of them were up early whistling and singing. There was no use trying to sleep any more so we all got up to a lovely cool morning of fog. Aunt Karol got the day off from work so she came over with Grandpa and Grandma and spent the day with us.

The one item on Tuesday's agenda was to hike a short nature trail down by the dam. It started out innocently enough. The trail was one person wide and pretty well marked. But once we got down in the woods, we found the bridge was out. We needed a bridge to get us across a small creek. We could have waded, but a recent windstorm had downed a tree that would serve as a bridge to get us to the other shore. All the children made it across without a problem. I put the cell phone and camera in my jumper pocket, and as I climbed up on the log...you guessed it...I dumped them both in the water. The camera was okay since it was Aaron's waterproof, indestructable, wonder camera. But the cell phone was another story. Waterlogged cell phones hold out little hope of reviving. We fished them out of the water and continued on through the stinging nettles toward the path on the other side. The children said, "Hold your breath. It makes the sting of stinging nettles go away sooner." Is that true? Several tried it and insisted it worked.

After more fine camping food, Grandpa took several of the middles to try their hand at fishing by the marina. We stayed at the camp and fed the Canada geese all the bread we could lay our hands on. We even fed them our extra large box of Cheese Zits. Rod would have said "Good riddance," if he had been there. Leah ate one Cheese Zit and fed one to the geese! They loved us.

Hannah heard our 'interesting' neighbors referring to us as 'Amish' as she fed the geese. What a hoot!

Caleb, B and Grandpa Bill had fun finding interesting stuff along the beach left by previous campers. By the time we were ready to leave, they had quite a collection of lures and water toys.

Mr. McCoy came out again later in the afternoon. He brought us freshly baked monkey bread. Yum!

We chatted, talked and played till dinner. Uncle Les made the trek back over from Wichita to join us. All the food turned out wonderfully, (i.e. done and not burned) except the chicken, which refused to cook. We ate without it.

After dinner, the sky looked dark and stormy to the southwest. I could see the signs. I'm not a weatherman's wife for nothing! We cleaned things up hurriedly, but weren't quite done when the outflow boundry from a storm passing directly north of us hit the camp with winds at 60 gust 70.

Yikes!

The children ran to the tents along with all the rest of the family. Thank the Lord everyone was still there or our tents would be in Missouri now!

The first tent went down right away with a shattered tent pole so we had minimum manning there. Leah and Mr. McCoy kept it from blowing into the next county.

The other tent lived through the initial gust front, but the winds only died down to 30 gust 40 after the storm front passed.

Unless Aunt Karol and Uncle Les wanted to stand outside and hold up the tent all night, things were not looking good for another night at the lake. On the positive side, our noisy neighbors packed up in about five minutes and left after the first strong winds died down. That fact alone made me want to stay! But there were more dark clouds on the horizon...

Aunt Karol holding on to Uncle Les so he won't blow away!

We love storms, but not so much to sleep outside in. I made the command decision to pack up...well actually we didn't pack anything. We just took all our stuff and threw it into the back of the van!

I know, it was kind of wimpy, but I didn't want to loose another tent. The first tent was shredded beyond repair.

Hannah drove the whole way home, and we arrived safe and sound from our adventure at exactly 2:00 a.m. Thank You, Lord, for watching over us and keeping us. The character quality we were studying during school this month was flexibility! I think this was God's way of cementing the lesson!

Addendum: The Cell Phone Story

Thursday before Memorial Day Weekend: Mom's cell phone dies mysteriously.

Verizon store: Absolutely no help. Refers us to another store which turns out to be a vacant shell. Sigh.

Home: Call Verizon. Get menus. Hang up.

Call Mrs. Beasley. Find help in circumventing menus. Thanks bunches.

Call Verizon. Verify cell phone is actually dead with no hope of life hereafter.

First mistake. Hang up on helpful Verizon man.

Second mistake. Go online. Pick out new phone. Try to order. Something doesn't look right.

Call Verizon. Website won't give me a phone number for the new phone. Less than helpful Verizon lady said, "Sorry, you're not the primary on the account. You can't order a phone for this plan unless your husband authorizes you to." Sigh.

Rod is working out. Gets home late. All hope is lost of getting a cell phone by camping trip.

Rod tells new Verizon lady his wife is "authorized." New Verizon lady helps me for the next hour.

First order won't cancel. Gave me new phone and new plan. Sigh. Don't need new plan.

Try to order new phone with Verizon lady's help. She can't get it to work either.

Try again to order a new phone with Verizon lady's help. Do nothing different, but it works this time. Yeah!

Get idea. Aaron has old cell phone. Verizon lady can give it my old number.

Question? Where is the old cell phone? Only Betsy knows. Betsy is out in garden.

Betsy retrieved. Cell phone retrieved. Back pried off. Sigh.

Verizon lady succeeds in getting my old number into Aaron's old cell phone. Praise the Lord!

Now do you see why we were not surprised when the cell phone fell in the water? It did not appear that the Lord wanted us to depend on the cell phone, but to depend on Him.

Amen.

P.S. Aaron's phone dried out and worked again after I dropped it in the water. Miracle.

Ellie Stangl's Graduation

2009-05-24T23:00:00.010-05:00

Ellie Stangl's highschool graduation was on Sunday, May 24th. It was a huge affair. The Stangls have many, many church friends, community friends and relatives and they came...

Their friend, the chaplain for the nursing home they serve at in Blair, opened the graduation ceremony with a rousing song and prayer.

Mr. Stangl began the program with a few words of introduction. He let his daughter have the floor and Ellie started her graduation speech...

For those of you that have never seen Ellie in action...she's amazing. Ellie taught our Good News Club and has had extensive public speaking experience with all kinds of audiences. As soon as she started, I felt like I was sitting in Ft. Calhoun Elementary gym listening to Ellie lead the GNC. Her subject was different, but her easy, welcoming style was the same. Her mother later said Ellie was up till 1 a.m. writing and rewriting her speech. You'd never know it! I video'd the beginning of her speech where she said her thanks to her family

Mr. Stangl and Ellie were too emotional to speak after he gave her the diploma and turned the speaking over to Mrs. Stangl. We knew what you meant, Teresa!

Ellie deserved not only a diploma for academic excellence, but one for building skills and work ethic. She has worked so hard this last year helping with their massive home remodel as well as finishing up her academics.

Little Elise didn't pay much attention to the speeches, but she found her Uncle Caleb fascinating!

The graduation crowds...

They had quite a spread of cake, fresh fruit and some zippy punch during the afternoon. Aunt Jane and Aunt Maggie kept everything supplied which was quite a task.

Teresa and Carol in the Stangl's new kitchen

The screensaver on the computer!

Elizabeth U. took Ellie's grad photos. She just came back from a photography class in Texas where she took several top awards. Her photos were stunning. It does help to have a photogenic subject too.

The "Ellie Table"

Friends of the Hipps, the Hutchins family, arrived in town on Sunday so they came along to the graduation. They fit right in. It was good to meet you all.

The following photos are of various friends, neighbors and relatives that came to the grand occasion!

And after the visiting and eating...there was volleyball. Massive speed volleyball! So many people wanted to play, they raided a neighbor's volleyball net and set up a second field of play!

Josh and his dad were on the same team. I had the opportunity to go up against Josh at the net, but politely let him have the point!

Josh got alot of air time!

Elizabeth M. was on the Grace University volleyball team. She was a real asset!

You can always tell the 'Uncle Stangls' because they are SO athletically adept.

Ben is every inch a Stangl, just like his dad and his uncles...

And if 'athletically adept' describes the Stangls, 'competitive' describes the Ulmers!

I think Merrie was praying the ball wouldn't come to her!

What a lovely afternoon and evening. Even Sammy enjoyed himself in the cool mud!

Congratulations, Ellie, and may God bless you as you find people all around you to serve in the years to come.

Stump-B-Gone

2009-05-23T19:57:00.006-05:00

Some friends recommended this man's stump removal service. We had 21 stumps we'd been saving for one big stump removal party, and Rod decided it was time.

The machine was interesting. It cost 20K to buy, and the four ball bearings it used cost $365 each to replace. We quickly got the feeling that the stump man was not going to be as cheap as we had hoped!

He was a very interesting man. He was a pastor's son, but I don't think he's walking with the Lord anymore. He asked us if we were 'religious' because we had so many kids. He liked watching 'Kate, Plus Eight' on TV! The children could tell he wasn't a Christian by certain things he was doing and saying, so whenever he was taking a brake chatting, they would just be close by singing Christian songs...Jesus loves me and things like that. I don't think he noticed, but I'm sure God did.

He worked hard and cleared 17 of our 21 stumps in four and a half hours. The last four cost too much so we opted to let them live on since they weren't in the yard anyway.

The machine looked alive while it was working. It has all sorts of warnings on the side promising death and disablement to anyone who operated it in an unskillful manner.

We'll be praying for the stump man's salvation. Please join us.

California, here they come!

2009-05-23T15:00:00.001-05:00

That title does beg the question...when, where, why, how etc...Rod's mom is house sitting in Mountain View, California, a 'burb in the Silicon Valley area. She will be going back home to D.C. in a month so Rod wanted to squeeze in a visit before she left. Rachel and Tootsie were the blessed chosen to go along!

Please pray that they will be a light and a blessing while they are visiting and that God would return them safely to us.

Final Good News Club of the Year

2009-05-23T10:18:00.010-05:00

One of the few sad things about school ending is that Good News Club is over for another year.

Ellie, Zach, Rachel and Betsy made a great team.

The last club of the year was a 'party club.' Ellie reviewed all the Bible stories they had taught throughout the year and hearteningly, the children remembered them all. Each child got a bright yellow balloon when they answered a question correctly.

Ellie and Zach were very good teachers throughout the year. Ellie was asked to go down to the Kansas City Christian Youth in Action Camp this summer to teach "Classroom Management" skills to new teachers. She is the best manager of young, wiggly children I've ever seen.

The kids played the 'gum game' after the Bible lesson. Each team had to put on gloves, open a piece of gum and pop it in their mouths before the next person could go.

Little Morgan was a faithful Clubber!

Caitlin was on Rachel's team. Rachel 'helped' her team more than Betsy did so they won!

Caleb was debating with Zach on the relative merits of bubble blowing.

The little girl in this picture, Zoey, accepted Christ this year at one of the last GNC. Praise the Lord!

Lizzy was a whiz at this game.

Ben Winters, a Ft. Calhoun Good News Club graduate, came back to provide entertainment for the party club in the form of magic tricks. He had to be pretty good to get his tricks past those sharp eyed children.

His folks will be hosting the summer Five Day Club at the playground of the Ft. Calhoun elementary school the week of July 13 -17 from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. Any and every child is invited to come.

The last club ended with special treats, but the best treat of all will be to see the children back again next fall. Stay faithful to the Lord over the summer and live the truth you've been taught.

God bless you all.

Benjamin, the Birthday Boy!

2009-05-21T16:05:00.003-05:00

Happy eighth birthday, Benjamin!

B had a lovely birthday this year. When I asked him what presents he liked best, he named off all the candy...the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, even at an early age!

If you look closely at the decorations, you might see a resemblance to Betsy's room at NCHEA. We had to get some more use out of those bandanas...we have so many of them! We're going to take them camping with us over Memorial day weekend too and tie them up around the camp site for colorful clotheslines.

Be careful. You can gain weight just looking at a picture of those donuts. It was a good batch. They are remotely good for you. They have some token whole wheat in them to salve my motherly conscience.

About lunchtime, B's birthday got interesting. B's wish was for Stephen and John Beasley to come out and play for the afternoon. Mrs. Beasley, bless her heart, volunteered to bring them out while bringing a trailor load of mulch and getting a great deal, I might add. We also planned to get in a walk which we haven't taken together for ages.

All the kiddos helped us unload the compost. In order to aid in the unloading, we unhooked the trailor and tipped it up, swept it out and sent our little helpers skedaddling off to play. Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee stayed around to help us get the trailor back on. The thing weighs a ton, and we had no little trouble getting it hitched up. As a matter of fact, it wouldn't hitch. Mrs. B was on the line to Mr. B for helpful hints, and we tried this and that...nothing worked. Looking underneath the hitch, we noticed a nut and boltish kind of thing. If we loosened it possibly, the whole thing might slide right on...right? Wrong. It fell right off. Then we had to figure out how to get it back together. I was no help, and the Tweedle sisters stood off to the side.

Mrs. B, whose middle name is persistance, called her husband and then went inside to see if she could find a schematic online of the order of the pieces in question. A few minutes later, Hannah and Rachel popped in and announced that they fixed it, and the trailor was hitched up and ready to go. Amazing!

After our walk and a long overdue chat, the children begged to open presents.

That was an easy, "Yes, of course." John made B's birthday bag and filled it with all sorts of cool presents. He is now a working man since he inherited Anna's bread route so he has money for nice birthday gifts! Stephen wrapped his birthday gift to B in duct tape. He offered to open it for him since B couldn't quite manage it!

Caleb, Abby and Elise came out for pizza and games in the evening taking the boys back home before pumpkin time. Happy birthday, B!

The Victory

2009-05-21T08:08:00.007-05:00

Michael and Matthew stopped by last night for a bit of dinner.

During to course of conversation, Michael told us of his latest acquisition...the Victory!

We strolled over to the Miller's to take a look.

Sweet bike!

(I just hope Aaron doesn't decide he needs one too!)

Michael sure was happy with his new bike. Lord, bless him and keep him safe on the roads, and may he never run out of gas or get caught in the rain!

Father/Son Baseball: The Excitement Begins!

2009-05-19T12:56:00.013-05:00

The excitement has begun for 2009 Summer Father/Son baseball. The menfolk had so much fun last year, they started a month early to extend the season.

The season started with a good natured debate over whether to continue with baseball or switch to slow pitch softball.

I asked one of the players what they thought of the baseball vs. softball question, and he succinctly phrased his arguments for softball verses baseball.

With baseball, the strength of your team's pitching determines in large part whether you win or loose. Another negative: Not everyone is able to hit the faster pitches so some potential players stay away.

With slow pitch, everyone can hit so it's a real team effort to bring home a win. It's a players' game. Everyone contributes.

Well said, my young man. I should have found someone who was lobbying to play baseball to maintain balanced reporting. If anyone has a rejoinder, we'd be glad to entertain it in comment form! The media always has a bias!

No one seemed to mind playing slow pitch, and the hitting was on fire all evening long. Another plus: Several new players came out this year. Both sides had enough to field complete teams.

It takes skill to hit slow pitch and not pop it up for an easy out. The real compliment was when the outfielders backed up all the way to the playground when certain batters came to the plate! It was a real team effort all the way around. Great game!

Josh Beasley's home run. Sweet!

Daniel Miller...Pianist Extraordinaire

2009-05-16T16:03:00.006-05:00

Daniel Miller is our neighbor out here in sunny Ft. Calhoun. We always knew Daniel was especially talented and our suspicions were confirmed when we went to his practice a couple months ago. Mrs. Miller sent out a general invitation to the church letting everyone know when Daniel's recitals would be. When you're this good, you get more than one!

The recital was at 1930, but as you can see from the clock tower, we were a bit early. We killed time out in the beautiful gardens outside the Strauss Performing Arts Center. You know you're early when you beat the teacher to the recital!

Out in the foyer, they had 10-15 pianos ranging from Grands to nice uprights. The girls were tempted to play them, but resisted. You hate to play dinky pieces on such nice pianos. They might blow up or an alarm might go off somewhere. We later learned that the pianos are for sale. One of the suppliers in town loans the pianos to UNO for the year and then auctions them off so they would be glad for us to play them and buy one to boot!

Tootsie explaining the complex modern art in the hallway...What was the artist thinking?

Mr. Johnson introduced his recital and gave an appeal for the UNO music department. The company that used to loan the pianos to the music department for the year will no longer be able to do so due to current economic conditions. The music department needs $200K to buy pianos to replace the 19 loaner ones. Mr. Johnson was hoping they would get even more so they could become an "All Steinway" music department.

The girls were prepared for the recital. Suzannah brought five books which she shared with her sisters. It's good to have something to do while you're listening.

I asked Caleb if the music reminded him of a mouse chasing a piece of cheese during an energetic piece. He replied, "They must be tired."

We noticed that the pieces, though all complex, either lacked or gained something from the spirit of the pianist. Certain pianists played incredibly complex pieces perfectly well, but left us flat because there was no "feeling." Other players really got into what they were doing and the music was very moving or entertaining. Our favorite piece was played by a 13 year old oriental young man...the Hungarian Rhapsody by Franz Liszt. Mrs. Miller was amused as she watched Caleb dance (bounce in my lap!) to it as she sat behind us. Our favorite performer was another oriental young man named Ruowen Pei. He played Maurice Ravel's 'Play of the Water' and it looked like each of his fingers had a brain of their own. He put on quite a show so we really didn't notice if he played the piece well because he was so entertaining to watch.

And finally, the reason we came to the recital...Daniel Miller playing 'Etude d'Execution Transcendante No. 10. Great job, Daniel. I think the young men play even better when they wear a tuxedo! Daniel has only played the piano for six years...Incredible!

Thank you for inviting us to the recital. It was a night to remember. May you always play for God's glory, Daniel.

ReRuns R Fun!

2009-05-16T12:39:00.007-05:00

What is 'Reruns R Fun Grown Up' you may be asking? Well you are about to find out!

ReRuns is basically a HUGE consignment sale with tons of nice household items and clothes for cheaper than store prices! Rachel, Anna and I had the job of checking in the items people brought in to sell... our dream job!!! There were so many interesting things...our number one unique item was a matching pair of swords some lady was going to throw away, but she decided to try and sell them. We'll buy them, don't worry!

Clothes, shoes, purses, art work, kitchen items, jewelry, crafts, sports stuff, electronics, bedding, movies, music etc. You can see why we liked it! There was loads and loads of stuff as far as the eye could see....well maybe that is a little stretch, but not too far wrong! The purses alone took up a top and bottom rack stretching from the front to the back of the store.

Team work!

Anna enjoying a small break!

Despite a few 'not so helpful' consigners, working there is SOOOO much fun. Since we work there, we get the benefit of shopping before the consigners and the general public. We get most of our yearly birthday and Christmas gifts at this sale for the older members of the family. ReRuns here we come...!

Happy Birthday, B!

2009-05-15T09:56:00.006-05:00

Today, the fifteenth of May is Benjamin's 8th birthday.

Benjamin was born in Alaska at Elmendorf AFB.

Shortly after birth he was diagnosed with aortic stenosis. After surgery last year, Benjamin's heart has been doing much better. Thank You, Lord, for Your healing.

Now he's a strong as (a very small) ox!

Happy Birthday, Benjamin!

Mother's Day

2009-05-14T22:08:00.000-05:00

This Mother's Day was very memorable...

Normally, I get the standard love gifts from my children...sweet notes written in a childish hand, bouquets made from the flowers in the yard, presents my husband bought with the kids the day before...I appreciate all these things from my dear young ones. But as the years have passed, things have changed with the children getting older.

The story of the holiday this year was the two bouquets from Aaron! About two weeks before, he was listening to Rush Limbaugh on a talk radio station in Omaha. The radio station was promoting Mother's Day and the DJ announced the ninth caller would get a free bouquet for his/her mother! Shock of all time...Aaron called in! And he actually won the bouquet! The bouquet wasn't exactly free. He had to pay for shipping to the house. It was mostly free!

Then when he went online to see what bouquet he'd won, he saw this bouquet and really liked it. It's kind of a joke between us about always getting yellow roses for holidays, so he got pink roses just to be different. These flowers weren't even sort of free!

My secret prayer sister at church gave me a third bouquet for our anniversary which happened to fall on Mother's Day this year. Triple fun!

For breakfast the children quizzed me on what my favorite breakfast foods were. Betsy also got several tasty recipes off of the 'Cooker Ladies' show on the BJU satellite network. She made the breakfast parfait on the left with layered yogurt, whipped cream, granola and sliced strawberries and bananas. Yum! She also sacrificed and made dessert brownies with a bunch of coconut in them. (No one else likes coconut!)

My 'love bucket' runneth over. Happy Mother's Day!

Alatheia's Medieval Surprise

2009-05-12T19:33:00.001-05:00

A party with knights, sword fights, frogs to kiss and maidens in distress...who could ask for more!

Costumed young maidens by the droves converged on the Powell's house for Alatheia's medieval surprise party. The excuse for the party was Alatheia's birthday which was almost two months ago. Needless to say, Alatheia was not suspecting a thing. The party was right after Mr. Hess's recital. The girls had to be 'casual' while leaving the recital so as not to arouse suspicion.

The birthday girl herself.

Alathiea was surprised, but had enough self possession to immediately notice and comment on certain individual's dresses!

The opening game was 'Pin the Kiss on the Frog'...hence the maidens in distress! We tried not to win that game.

Meredith found a frog to kiss!

Since the theme of this party was medevial we all ate with either our knives or our hands. Elizabeth put hours and hours worth of work to make the meal authentic and tasty. We had strawberry soup, salads with pansies and fruits in them, bread with rye, wheat and white all twisted together, herb or honey butter shaped into pats, candied nuts and a bowl of rose water to wash our hands in.

Elizabeth bought rotisserie chicken from Sam's club for the main course. Oooo, are they ever good. Every three girls got their own chicken and Alatheia got one of her own. We wacked off hunks of chicken and 'delicately' ate them with our hands!

A toast to Alatheia and our wonderful hostess.

The goblets held sparkling cider refilled generously by the page.

Paul Powell the page...(say that three times really fast!) Paul was the fair maidens server for the feast and was commonly referred to as the 'whipping boy.'

Waiting for the birthday girl.

Several of the fair maids...

The costumes were found at Goodwill, made for past NCHEAs, borrowed from friends with too many medieval costumes in their closets, sewn by those with too much time on their hands or revamped wedding finery with old lady jewelry put to good purpose. Those that did not come properly dressed had to sing for their supper!

Those not in costume weren't the only ones doing some singing. Listen to the wine glasses. Elizabeth found the various wine glasses at Good Will. They were beautiful. The girls still practice making their wine glasses sing, and we got a concert when they got home.

After the delicious meal, all the fair maidens went outside to watch the afternoon's entertainment.

Sword fighting...

Sword fighting is not as easy as they make it look in the movies.

The enthusiastic audience hollered encouragement when the knights seemed to be slowing down a bit.

Two young maids in the audience.

Anna Beasley was very helpful in providing costumes for the unfortunate people who didn't have any. She had three costumes...two from NCHEA and one from making matching costumes with Alatheia.

Later in the afternoon, a general vote was taken and everyone decided to play" Do You Love Your Neighbor?"

The circle of contestants kept getting smaller as the game progressed.

Towards the end of the party, Elizabeth brought out a CD player and put on some lively, fiddle music. All the girls joined in the Virginia Reel.

We were sad to see the party come to a close, but all good things must come to an end. Happy belated birthday, Alatheia, and thank you SO much Elizabeth for having us out to help celebrate.

Anniversary

2009-05-11T22:08:00.008-05:00

May 10th was Rod's turn to celebrate our 23rd anniversary. May 10th also happened to be Mother's Day. We celebrated Mother's Day in the morning, and our anniversary later in the day. That's why it struck us as odd that the church sang 'Happy Anniversary' to us at the morning service. In our minds, it wasn't our anniversary yet!

Rod had spent plenty of time preparing a surprise for our anniversary...this time without even a hint to me. Normally, there is a stray email or web page left up so I have an idea something is up. This time, he must have been extra sneaky because I didn't have a clue!

I had wanted to go out to Boyer's Chute for a picnic and bike ride to celebrate Mother's Day, but the family didn't seem too excited about the prospect. The day was cool and breezy and cold food on a cold day was not appealing. So we changed plans and grilled steaks on the deck and ate in the warm house. Everyone was more pleased with that prospect. As a matter of fact, I got no complaints at all!

We twiddled around after lunch as families do on a quiet Sunday afternoon. Abby had said that they would try to make it out that evening after spending the afternoon with the Beasleys. The only thing that made me even the slightest bit suspicious was Suzannah coming in during the afternoon to encourage me twice to call my mother for Mother's Day. Hmmm...why would she care about that? I just figured she was turning over a new leaf, becoming a thoughtful and considerate 11 year old...

I took my traditional Sunday afternoon walk, providentially grabbing Betsy's beautiful, new shawl instead of a yucky old jacket. I got about a mile down the road, when the car approaching from the rear slowed down next to me and stopped. Hmmm...it was my dear husband. What could he want? He asked me to join him so I hopped in the Honda wondering, but not too curious. It doesn't pay to try to pry information out of Rod. He only tells when he's good and ready.

Several ideas passed through my mind as to what we could be doing. The farther we drove, each idea became less plausible. When we got to the other side of Omaha and started heading toward Lincoln, I thought I'd figured out what we were doing, and I was right.

Rod took me to the Atwood House Bed and Breakfast in Lincoln, NE. What a lovely surprise. We got a different room, but still had the same lovely time in the quiet elegant surroundings. Thank you, dear for a very happy anniversary.

What a Recital!

2009-05-11T22:06:00.013-05:00

Saturday, May 9th, 2009

Welcome to the 2009 Spring Recital!

Recital Anyone?!

In honor of the birthday of the American tennis great Pancho Gonzales, born on May 9th, 1928, our recital will be divided into Singles and Doubles.

So goes the opening lines of Mr. Hess's Recital Lineup complete with a picture of Pancho Gonzales. I always thought Pancho Gonzales was a Mexican bandit of the same genre as Zorro! Silly me...He was a real person!

This recital was the first one in the 22 years of Mr. Hess recitals where there was no cellist playing...

But he did have an accordion player...Joe Stangl played two songs and the second one was a duet with Mr. Hess. Fun! Mr. Hess later remarked that most accordionists were dead or in jail. I don't think that applies either to Joe or Mr. Hess!

The Penas always play lovely, huge pieces. Maggie played one of our favorites from the movie 'Finding Neverland.'

Some of the pieces were so large, they had to have 'music managers' to keep all the music in line. I thought they were kidding when they pulled out all that sheet music taped together, but they were quite serious! The Pena's neighbor and adopted grandmother, Mrs. Carole Ring, played the duet 'La Cucaracha' with Luke. They had a grand time playing, and we had a grand time listening.

Little Naomi came to cheer on her brother...

Anna and Betsy played the same duet, Brightwood Barn, they played at Staci's recital only this time they changed the color of their shirts, and they nailed the ending! (Miss Grady appearing courtesy of Anastacia Hess management)

Staci came to support her dad and friends...she can't stay away from this stuff! Meredith takes piano from her dad and played the 'Toccata in D' by J.S. Bach on their digital piano set up to sound like an organ. Majestic!

And for the grand finale, Monsieur Rick Hess, Madame Abby Beasley and several local background vocalists (not of French descent) joined in 'Le Festin,' from the movie 'Ratatouille.' If you can't understand what she is saying, we can't either...it's in French.

After the recital, all Monsieur Hess's favorite pupils gave him a designer T-shirt that said "Predictably Random" on one side and had an Apple calculator with the number 5534 in digital numbers on the other. Can you guess why the calculator had that number? The Penas are ingenious.

Now don't you wish you'd come!

2009-05-08T22:34:00.003-05:00

Come one, come all to the finest, funnest recital Omaha has seen in recent years. Mr. Rick Hess, piano, cello, accordion player/teacher extraordinaire will be holding his annual student recital Saturday morning at 10 a.m. at Millard Alliance Church. All his students are incredible performers as well as creative in their choice of music. Throughout the recital, Mr. Hess will intersperse his own great wit and charm. We don't really care much for recitals, but we wouldn't miss a Mr. Hess recital unless there was some great cataclysmic natural disaster.

We went on Wednesday to take Abby by so she could practice her piece with Mr. Hess...Abby sings and Mr. Hess plays the accordion. Fun! About halfway through, Mr. Hess had a revelation and recruited every available young lady for the chorus. What a riot! The video is of the second time through so they were a little more relaxed, right Rachel!

Y'all come now, ya hear! You won't regret it.

Family Reunion in Galesburg, Illinois

2009-05-02T18:19:00.017-05:00

Grandma Donna called at the beginning of April with a grand idea. Since all the older members of the original Yeager family would be in the same place at the same time, why not have a family reunion. Alot of Donna's siblings are getting along in years and who knows if we'll ever have the opportunity again?

Country Inn and Suites, Galesburg, IL

How could we say no? Rod had been looking for a replacement van for some time, but none surfaced before the trip. We prayed alot and took along extra motor oil and made the trip to Galesburg without a mechanical problem. Thank You, Lord!

Caleb, Abby and Elise made the trip too. We all stayed in the same hotel with all the other out of town relatives. Caleb's family has all sorts of family gatherings and reunions so he's an old hand at this.

Aaron and Betsy came in a separate car so they could chop chickens at Duncan's Saturday morning and then come on out. I don't know how Aaron did it, but he beat us to the hotel by five minutes!

We had our first family gathering on Saturday so we could see Uncle John. Uncle John had broken his leg and was in a rehab hospital for six weeks. He got a pass to join us for two and a half hours on Saturday afternoon.

Caleb met all the adult relatives he didn't know, then played Aggravation with the young relatives he did know.

Aunt Linda, Rod's sister and the children's aunt extraordinaire, brought the party with her when she came. She brought balloons partly for her husband's birthday and partly because she's just a kid at heart!

Getting to know each other...

Aaron definately looked the part of a midwestern cowboy!

A potluck dinner on Aunt Sharon's lovely patio. The rain held off until late that evening. Thank You, Lord.

Uncle Leo from Kalispell, Montana, borrowed a fiddle from a local friend. Uncle Leo or Hank as he's lovingly called plays a mean fiddle. The violin he borrowed was a very old one with the Latin words carved along the edge that said, "In life I was silent. In death, I sing," referring to the tree the violin was carved from. The moist weather made the violin hard to keep in tune so Leo didn't play as much as he had at other gatherings. We were glad he played and sad when he stopped so soon. He also cajoled a song out of the girls and Abby with a little help from Aunt Linda.

A hat built for two...or two heads are better than one?

Uncle James, Aunt Linda and sons Nicholas and Matthew.

The Grady Bunch

Matthew and his wife and children traveled all the way from Las Vegas to visit the family. Matt won the prize for most changed. The last time we saw him he was about ten years old.

Aunt Lois and Uncle Leo's family...

Cousin Jeff's dog is trained in French and they're working on making him bilingual by training him in Spanish too.

David, Rod's cousin and a local Galesburg resident...

Too cute!

We had the gathering on Saturday at Sharon and Dale's lovely home.

After the gathering, we headed back to the hotel. Rod had two requirements for a place to stay...the first requirement was an indoor pool!

Linda's boys and two other cousins once removed joined us in the pool.

Abby got to join us while Caleb and Elise had a rest after their long day.

Trying to empty the pool!

Rod's second requirement for a hotel was a continental breakfast. With twelve in the family, a free breakfast was a big plus.

Another photo too cute to pass up.

On Sunday, we went to a local church before the planned reunion in the afternoon. I will not say what denomination we attended or why we attended it, but the pastor used two videos in his short sermon on giving. He probably found both on You Tube. Abby came home and googled 'Tithe Rap' and found one of them. Let's just say it was interesting. The words were good, but if you find rap music offensive, don't try it yourself.

The reunion was held at the pavilions at Lake Storey.

Lake Storey is a very beautiful park where Rod used to run his highschool Cross Country races so it held good memories for him.

Aunt Linda provided bubbles, balloons and birthday presents...

Uncle James, Linda's husband turned the eternal 29 on Sunday and to commemorate the annual event, she bought him a very nice camera...so new they aren't even out yet...the Nikon 5000!

Grandma Donna and Aunt Lois provided James his birthday cake...angel food with strawberries and blueberries on top. Yum!

More Aggravation with the cousins!

While Aaron was driving around killing time waiting for his slow family, he discovered a field with a large herd of buffalo. We drove by later to see them.

Right before we left Galesburg on Monday, we stopped by the hospital to say goodbye to Uncle John. He had cried on Saturday when he left the picnic so we all cried too, and we couldn't leave without stopping in. His goal now is to get all healed up so he can drive to Omaha and see us!

The Yeagers...Uncle John, the oldest (in the preceding photo), Aunt Lois, Uncle Dale and Grandma Donna. Aunt Sharon, a Yeager by marriage, is sitting in the folding chair by Uncle Dale.

The reunion was a great idea! We all hope we can do it again sooner than later.

Edible Happiness!

2009-05-02T12:18:00.004-05:00

Yum!!!

Whipped cream and strawberries! How could you go wrong?

Apple Blossom

2009-05-01T06:27:00.003-05:00

Our first apple blossoms

Praise the Lord!

AFWA Dining Out

2009-04-29T21:48:00.006-05:00

Rod came home about two weeks ago and informed me that his unit was having a Dining Out and everyone was HIGHLY encouraged to attend! Which when translated means, 'You better come or else.' The Honorable Senator Ben Nelson was the guest speaker, and they needed a good turnout.

Circumstances were not favorable for going. Rod was TDY (business trip) and didn't get in till 0300 the night before. We had already made plans to help the Penas with the church giveaway during the day on Friday. We were also leaving early Saturday morning to go to a family reunion in Illinois. But we're not ones to shirk our duty when duty calls so the Dining Out got stuffed in the weary Friday evening time slot.

Dining Outs are a military equivalent of a formal dinner party with spouses invited but with a unique military twist. The dinner is scripted and narrated by the unit commander as Mr. President and one or two ornery junior enlisted or officers known as Mr. Vice. Depending on the personalities involved, the evening can be quite entertaining.

Everyone gets dressed up in their very best evening wear or the military formal complete with cummerbund and bow tie. God had provided a very elegant formal jacket (for $2.50) just a couple weeks ago and a pair of high heels which I haven't owned in the last 18 or so years. I only add this to highlight what a kind God we have that takes care of our needs before we even know we need them. He knows I'm not a shopper!

One of the military distinctives of a dining in or dining out is the presence and use of a grog bowl. The grog bowls are disgusting mixes of various edible and less edible liquid food forms...one alcoholic and one nonalcoholic. Our grog bowls were covered with toilet seats which says something for military sense of humor. They mix the grog so everyone can see (and dread) getting sent to the grog bowl for some minor infraction of the mess. ('Mess' is a military term for a gathering of people eating together) All things are done according to a strict military protocol listed on the inside of the program so everyone can brush up on it since the last dining out. But it's usually too late for most folks by the time they see the list, and there is plenty of ammunition to send about anyone you wish.

The lucky officer selected to demonstrate how to properly drink from the grog bowl was dressed up by Mr. and Miss Vice in Hawaiian gear complete with grass skirt, sunglasses, straw hat and bikini top while helplessly holding his opening salute. Another officer, Rod's boss, got a commemorative straw hat with his name in big letters sticking up from the top on his trip to the grog. Whole offices got sent together with six or seven lucky guys partaking. This dining out was a little more tricky than usual because all requests to send someone to the grog and all rebuttals had to be in the form of a rhyme. One of the sergeants at our table sent a friend to the grog for 'opening the hangar doors' (talking about work...strictly forbidden!) He was confident of no revenge because his last name was Ippoliti...almost impossible to rhyme with!

Rod's boss with his new hat complementing Miss Vice on the divine taste of the grog this year and on her clever rhyme that got him sent in the first place!

After all the opening fun and games, we finally got to eat. They served our chicken with capers on it. Does anyone know what a caper is? We had to look it up when we got home.

Senator Ben Nelson didn't get sent to the grog though he said he was worried. He gave a typical political speech...these are all the things I've done for the military and for Offutt. He took questions at the end of his speech which was brave since the military tends to be politically conservative. He got two whiney, immaterial questions right off the bat from members of the fairer sex, then two good, pertinent questions from some of the senior male members of the mess. I was embarassed for my kind. Yikes!

The formal party lasted till 2300 hours. We had to get up the next morning so we took off after talking to a couple who wanted to meet 'that guy with all those kids!'

The weary Friday evening turned into lighthearted, festive fun. Thank You, Lord. You knew what we needed.

Church Giveaway!

2009-04-28T12:13:00.005-05:00

That title sounds bad...we're not giving away the church, just a lot of the various members 'not currently useful' possessions. It has become our annual 'kick in the pants' to go through clothes, books and general stuff to pare down and sort out the silver from the dross. We seem to collect a lot of dross! Susan Pena heads up the annual giveaway as an outreach to the local Millard community, but it's a blessing to the church family as well.

One man's junk is another man's treasure, so Thursday evening the giveaway is open to the members of the fellowship to go through first. The middle girls found summer clothes for the little ones and hope chest finds to use someday. Abby found bunches of clothes for little Elise.

She also went home with a matching pair of shades!

The tree was in bloom so everyone was wearing blossoms, and the tree got it's annual pruning!

Friday morning, Pastor Larry put out the signs in the surrounding neighborhood. All the big girls helped get the signs ready.

And as soon as he did, the customers started their steady stream.

Mattie serves at the giveaway each year. She brings the yummy doughnuts!

Suzannah and Rebekah had a blast taking care of little Joseph Pena. He's a doll...and a good sword fighter!

We had a lot of troops for lunch on Friday.

By noon, we had given away quite a bit of stuff. As a matter of fact, it seemed like we gave away more in the one day than we ever have. After lunch, a lady came in and took all the baby clothes we had left. We got to talk to a couple of ladies about homeschooling and encourage them.

We were all tired by the end of the day, but Joseph was the only one who got a nap. Susan lobbied hard with Pastor Larry to get this giveaway recliner into the church nursery. The Larsens had found the recliner 15 years ago in a dumpster and had used it ever since. Now it was put out to find another appreciative home. Susan really appreciated it for naptime!

Man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions....Amen! Goodbye junk for another year and thanks, ladies, for a blessed day of fellowship.

Me and My Children...Goin' to the Dentist

2009-04-20T14:12:00.007-05:00

We try not to make it a habit to frequent our dentist's office...once a year if I get a round tuit, and we have extra money! We have to wait a month and a half to get in. We take an hour and a half to get all of us through with cleanings, xrays and checkups!

Even with our frequent "Brush Your Teeth" campaigns, we seem to get more than our fair share of cavities. The children either have quite a few or none at all...and some of the most faithful brushers have the most cavities.

This year was Caleb's first dentist appointment. He was looking forward to going because he knew good children get toys at the dentist's. He wasn't too sure about the xray, but everything else was a breeze. He didn't even have a cavity. Miracles never cease!

The dentist poked and prodded, but it didn't even hurt. Why do all my older siblings not like the dentist?

Caitlin still likes the dentist. She didn't have any cavities either.

The best part of the visit...picking out the toy after you're done.

Hannah can tell you why the dentist isn't her favorite place to be...getting teeth pulled.

Hannah has the Grady teeth that just never want to come out. She's fifteen and had four (or six) more baby teeth to loose. The dentist tapped on her two eye teeth and asked for more xrays.

One of the eye teeth was fine and on its way to coming out, but the other one was still entirely intact. The adult eye tooth coming in behind it was at an odd angle and missing the root of the baby tooth entirely. The dentist wanted the tooth out pronto, so the adult tooth had a better chance of coming in straight. And a rule of dentistry, if you pull one tooth, you have to pull the other so the remaining teeth stay balanced. Yikes! Poor Hannah! She had also just lost a baby molar that broke, and half of it was still in her mouth. They pulled that for no charge and it hurt the most!

As a consolation prize, Hannah got a chocolate malt, since the toys weren't very motivating. We also stopped by Abby's for lunch which Hannah could eat, even with numb teeth!

Hannah's a trooper! Only two more appointments for fillings and dental appliances, and we're done for another year.

Bright Lights: Radiant Purity

2009-04-19T21:44:00.012-05:00

Betsy, Hannah and Rachel had the privelege of attending the 10th Radiant Purity conference led by Sarah Mally and her family. If you're interested in what Sarah has to say, but can't attend a conference, you can read her book, Before You Meet Prince Charming. We have been working our way through the book, but got the crash course at the conference!

Sarah started the conference by defining purity. One way we think of purity in a girl is 'Innocence.'

Another kind of purity comes when we're cleansed.

Proverbs 20:9 Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin? A Christian is in the 'cleansed' category of purity.

Each one of the sessions started with group singing. Grace Mally discovered alot of musical talent amongst the small group leaders so they had the privelege of helping with the musical accompaniment. Musicians from our church included Alatheia Larsen and Angela Tuareck on the violin and flutists Ruth Wissmann and Lindsay Kolster along with Grace Mally. Bryant, a friend made at the NCHEA conference, played the harp.

The Wissmann family sang at this conference as well as lead small groups.

I wasn't even thinking about videoing the song, so I missed Rachel's first verse, but Charissa was so cute as she sang along with her daddy and her sisters!

Bethany gave her testimony as to how God brought her courtship about. The conference highlighted many stories of God's miraculous dealings with girls to bring them their "Prince Charming" while they faithfully served Him and waited on His timing.

Sarah did two "chalk talks" during the conference. You can just barely see the 'heavenly city' in the sky over the beautiful landscape.

One of the main points of the conference was for girls to stay busy while they "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you as well."

Matthew 6:33

The skits the girls did to highlight the lessons were hilarious...

Some infamous lines:

I will make you fishers of men...

If any man would come after me, let him...

Lady Flirtilia and her companions said "I think when you date a guy, you should be able to stamp him with what's wrong with him so the next girl doesn't have to start from scratch."

A coconut is a girl that is brunette on the outside, but blonde on the inside.

We also enjoyed another broadcast from CBN, The Conference Broadcasting Network otherwise known as "The Network of Conventional Breadtasting."

I think the scriptures were a bit out of context, but the skits were very funny.

Rachel was on a team with Bethany Wissmann and Mary who came all the way from Minnesota to serve with the Bright Lights ministry.

Betsy and Hannah had alot of folks they knew on their team...Alatheia, Sarah Cabell and Esther Beasley. Grace Mally led their team, and the girls had some great discussions.

Some of the topics they talked about during the conference included:

How to guard your heart.

Staying under your parents' protection.

Principles for friendship with young men.

Modesty.

Emotional purity...purity in your heart and mind.

Courtship verses dating.

The Internet...blessings and dangers.

Rod took us all to Fuddruckers for lunch. Yum!
What a good Dad!

Sarah looked tired by the end of the conference. One of the helpers said they got an average of about five hours of sleep a night. The leaders/helpers slept on the floor at the church in one of the Sunday school rooms. I bet they can't wait to get home and get some rest.

We were very thankful to be able to attend. Please pray that the conference bears much fruit in girls' lives. Alot of the girls had heard the material before, but many hadn't. Lindsay, one of the team leaders, said she had two girls on her team that were not believers, didn't have a church, never read a Bible...how did they even hear about the conference? I'm so glad they came, and others like them. The world's way looks like fun, but "the end thereof is death."

God bless the Mally family, the Bright Lights Ministry and all the girls and parents who attended. May the conference bring forth much fruit for His glory.

Bright Lights

2009-04-16T07:46:00.008-05:00

Bright Lights Information

We had read one of the Mally books on making your brothers and sisters your best friends. It was informative, encouraging, humorous and engaging...so we were very delighted to hear that the Mally family was coming to Omaha for a Bright Lights conference.

Sarah Mally, the oldest sibling in the Mally family, has a real heart for girls of all ages and encourages them to use the years of their youth to live for God and not waste them pursuing worldly pleasure.

Grace Mally, Sarah's younger sister by ten years, is her sister's right hand and uses her charm, beauty and quick wit to support the message her family is trying to get across to the 400 young ladies that attended the "Strong in the Lord" conference.

Bright Lights also include a whole team of young ladies that act in very entertaining skits and lead the small groups. This is "Cowgirl Becky" who gave us some very informative directions about the behavior expected at the conference! She informed us that we were not to eat any corn bread, apple pie or fried chicken in the sanctuary and never laugh at her when she's giving directions. I'm afraid we failed with that last directive!

Here are two Grady 'Bright Lights.' Rebekah and Leah were on the 'Glowstick' team and Suzannah was on the 'Reflector' team.

The first night Sarah exhorted us to be strong in the Lord in our youth. She also gave a chalk talk with the help of lots of her team members that got up one by one and gave testimonies or told stories while she drew. When she finally turned the black lights on the picture, it revealed the secret drawing of the Father's hands holding His little bird. All the girls gasped with delight.

Wednesday, the conference was all day long. The topics to be covered were:

1) Honoring your parents

2) Making brothers and sisters your best friends

3) Delighting in the Lord and His word

4) Keeping yourself pure from polluting influences

We knew there were several other special things in store.

We were really looking forward to hearing from Stephen. He is a hoot! He and Grace joined Sarah in the section on making brothers and sisters your best friends.

Stephen's Definitions:

Females - People who take their time taking your time.

Firstborn's Philosophy - Never put off till tomorrow what you can order someone else to do today.

Cooperation - Doing what I tell you and doing it quickly.

He has a bunch of 'definitions' in their book. That was always the girls favorite part!

The Wissmann's sang a couple of times during the conference. They also served as small group leaders.

The three big harps sat up on the stage throughout the whole conference. Grace played hers a couple of times as background music, but finally all three of them played together. Fun, fun!

Grace is a very typical baby of the family. She played a principle role in most of the skits and was SO funny! Here she was helping give a news broadcast! She wasn't too much help to Nickie, her serious sidekick.

At the very end of the conference, everyone received a glowstick and joined in singing, "This Little Light of Mine."

Our little middle Grady Lights chattered all the way home about the things they noticed and learned, the people they met and the food they ate! They are already making plans to come back again next year. Another highlight: Rebekah lost her stubborn front tooth at the conference.

Our family's tiny contribution to the overall ministry was dinner for the team Monday evening when they first arrived and started to unpack.

The team girls were very friendly, but my guys were a bit intimidated. While the team was eating, I found them all in the back of the kitchen playing games with the little ones so they could stay out of the way!

B got to sit and eat with the three men that were part of the team...Sarah's dad, Stephen and a student that helped with the lights and sound. After a few questions to B, they left him to eat in peace while his sisters' laughed at his interesting position amongst the adults!

We were glad to help in some some small way, and the leftovers fed us for the rest of the week. I think we made a bit too much.

The Birthday That Grew...

2009-04-12T19:46:00.022-05:00

We really do not make it a habit to have birthday parties. I think Rachel must have felt extra special this year because she started inviting friends over for her birthday weeks, maybe months before and what started small grew bigger and bigger! Not that she or her sisters minded! We didn't really mind either. All Rachel's friends are dears (and funny!)

Rachel's birthday was on Good Friday. We did all the normal family birthday things...eat doughnuts, open presents, do some school...

Rachel loves her birthday. I think her love language is gifts! She loved all her gifts...even the Laughy Taffy her younger siblings saved from their dinner treats and gave her as a birthday present!

They gave her candy and the priceless gift of laughter!

The day was proceeding a bit too normally, so about midmorning, Alatheia called to ask if she could steal the birthday girl away for some icecream and thrift store shopping. Sure, no problem. They also did a little shoe shopping trying on the most outragious shoes they could find, ornery conniptions! Mrs. Larson later called to find out what Rachel's favorite food would be for her birthday, and they served it with candlelight. Nice touch! What special friends!

Aaron and little Emily at the Good Friday Service. The photo has nothing to do with Rachel's birthday, but it was just too cute!

In the evening, we went to a lovely Good Friday service at our church. The Larson's delivered Rachel to the church since they were coming as well. We sang the song 'Be Unto Your Name' as a family. We first heard the song when we were in Virginia visiting Caleb Nelson's church. Here's the link to an online version if you want to hear how it goes. Aaron sang the verses, and the family joined him on the chorus. Staci and Rick Hess played the piano and cello for us while we sang. They are such a huge blessing!

Be Unto Your Name

After the service, we brought the girls and their paraphernalia home with us. The party didn't really start until 9:00 to 9:30 p.m. so the girls felt it their duty to make it last as long as possible!

Rachel had four objectives she wanted to accomplish during her birthday gathering.

1) She wanted to have an icecream cone making contest.

2) She wanted everyone to bring a movie so she could pick the one she wanted to watch. (It took that many to find one her parents would agree to let them watch!)

3) She wanted to play Clue.

4) She wanted to have a pinata.

Her sisters decorated the pinata to look like Rachel! They even layered the pinata girl's hair! Everybody took a whack at poor Rachel's head, and Alatheia did an extemporanious news report after the sad affair when all that was left of the once beautiful pinata was pulp!

Rachel's first sight of the pinata along with the first whack!

The final blows!

Rachel also received the added blessings of

1) Cool birthday presents from friends.

2) Shooting cement blocks.

3) Staying up way too late. They considered it a blessing...I tend to question their judgement!

4) Thrift store shopping Saturday afternoon.

Hope you had a great birthday, Rachel.

And get some sleep!

He is Risen!

2009-04-12T08:18:00.002-05:00

He is Risen indeed!

Rachel...Happy Birthday!

2009-04-10T08:02:00.005-05:00

It's Rachel's 14th birthday today. We are very blessed to have such a joyful, flamboyant, goofy, fun loving, colorful personage in our family...I'm sure I missed some applicable adjectives there. Here is Rachel's Blessing...God has gone a long way in fufilling it already.

May God bless you, Rachel, as you put your hope in the Lord.

May the words of your mouth and the meditations of your heart be pleasing in His sight.

May your heart not be proud nor your eyes haughty, but may your soul be still and quiet like a weaned child with its mother.

May you be loyal, hardworking and obedient like Ruth, who was a mother in the line of the lamb of God.

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

Famous Fun Firsts

2009-04-09T07:48:00.006-05:00

We had the distinct honor of having Elise do her first bit of crawling on her Wednesday visit! The girls were thrilled. They worked and worked at getting a video of her crawling, but you know how babies are. They crawl and crawl till you get the camera and then decide sitting is much more fun. They finally coaxed her into another crawling demonstration with our little Fischer Price tractor.

Go, Elise, go!

They took a bazillion pictures and begged me not to delete any...I don't think Elise can do anything wrong (at this point!)

Elise doesn't sleep too well at our house for a multitude of attentive, noisy reasons. Rachel was successful in getting her to go to sleep twice in this unlikely position. The transfer to the bed was a little tricky, but she kept right on snoozing. Way to go, Rachel!

Love, love...

The Fastest Recital in the West

2009-04-04T18:16:00.014-05:00

Recitals are always "curl your hair" big deals around our house.

That's why the "cooker ladies" from the previous post were in lovely sponge rollers!

Miss Staci is our beloved piano teacher. She has two recitals because she has so many students. For the Friday recital, Gradys made up over one fourth of her performers.

Anna did a duet with Betsy. They came just in time from their South Dakota Anatomy/Physiology class. Anna provided all the matching shirts. I think she's taking Abby's place as 'clothes distributor!'

This was Hannah's first year not to be in the recital. I asked her if it was any better just watching. She said, "No, I'm still really nervous for all the ones playing!"

Staci has a competition amongst her students for the weeks leading up to the recital. Each team champion and runner up appropriately get a Symphony bar. Betsy got even more candy because her team won overall.

Suzannah, Betsy and Rachel all got edible awards. This recital was the shortest one in memorable history...25 minutes from start to finish. The recorded pieces below will give you Grady recital highlights in even less time.

Benjamin played the song "My Computer" in a duet with Miss Staci.

Leah played "Pirate of the North Sea." Arggg...ye mateys!

Rebekah played "Classical Moments: Sonata in One Movement." One of the children mentioned it was a good thing Rebekah didn't need her music! She put one of the pages upside down!

I didn't catch all of Suzannah's piece, but the part I caught of her "Sword Dance" was lovely.

Rachel played "Finding Forgiveness" by Lindy Kirby. When she listens to this, she hears all the mistakes!

Betsy and Anna played a duet called "Brightwood Barn." Betsy was the oldest pupil in the Friday concert so she and Anna had the honor of being the last piece.

Hope you enjoyed the fastest recital in the West!

Cooker Lady Wisdom

2009-04-03T14:02:00.003-05:00

"A good 'cooker lady' does not dip her gum in the sugar."

"Never snitch things with raw egg in them."

NCHEA

2009-03-27T20:03:00.062-05:00

Giving credit where credit is due...the good pictures are from Mr. Adams! The 'interesting' pictures are mine. Thank you, Mr. Adams, for doing such a good job taking pictures again this year.

NCHEA, the Nebraska Christian Home Educators Association, has their annual conference each spring and for the last four or five years, they have also had a two day children's program to coincide with the conference. Lots of young adult home schoolers from across Nebraska and even from other states joined together to put on the children's conference. This year 300 pupils and 90 staff converged on Capitol City Christian Church in Lincoln for the children's program... Westward!

Thomas Rehm was the overall program director.

Rachel Wissmann, second in command, led the songs for large group along with so many organizational things too numerous to count.

Samuel Lyon, aka Skeeter Q Cumber, was inspiration, comic relief and jack of all trades, although his official title was Drama Director. Aaron was very blessed to have the opportunity to work under Sam.

Many other young people worked tirelessly along with these three, making up the core staff. Thomas said that roughly 4000 manhours went into planning and executing these two days of ministry.

And the weekend couldn't have happened without the involvement of sixty some teachers and their helpers. Each head teacher was in charge of one of approximately 20 different 'real' forts from American history. The forts were located in four different states...Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Dakota. The helpers were in charge of crafts and games for the troops.

Ellie Stangl...she teaches our Good News Club too

Nick comes up from Kansas each year to help out and ran Ft. Buford, an all boy team, known for their strict military order!

Ft. Buford, 13th cavalry military demonstration...

Emily Hipps of Ft Mandan

Joe Stangl...he had three of my guys on his team.

Bekah Rehm and little Penelope, the flag bearer

Micah Waldo worked with Hannah and Anna Baltensberger on the preschool team, Ft. Ellis

Anna and Bekah Rehm...what a good deal to teach with your sister! Anna also played the piano for the large group songs. Good job, Anna!

Elizabeth Wissmann of Ft. Yellowstone

Betsy of Ft. C.F. Smith and Hannah of Ft. Ellis

Phillip 'the faithful' Beasley and his trusty lasso

Elizabeth Ulmer...their fort won honor after honor. Way to go, Elizabeth!

Now add abundant pupils to the mix, full of fun and lots of energy...

Since my children had never been to a conference like this before, what they looked forward to most was getting to eat a sack lunch!

I thought this rather odd till I checked the children in and overheard one of the teachers talking about a distraught little cowgirl who was worried about what would happen to her bag lunch! (It wasn't Emma!)

Lilly 'the cowgirl' Matechuk

Lunch was fortunately not the highlight of the day, though they came home with plenty of stories about what other folks shared from their lunches.

Game time in the gym got rid of a little extra energy...

Suzannah was one of the oldest members of her team. They encouraged all the older children to help the younger cowpokes.

Ft. Yellowstone of Wyoming

Ft. Ellis of Montana

Ft. C.F. Smith of Montana

The drama, Westward! was the highlight of the weekend. Pardon me...I am admittedly biased!

The gist of the story is about a group of settlers led by Garrett, a strong Christian man who wanted to take his family west. They end up in a settlement run by an unscrupulous scoundrel, Rich E. Lands. Their trials included weathering a tornado, robberies, wild dogs etc. God really worked mightily through the drama pulling out character lessons that the teachers later went over and expanded on in the small group sessions.

Sam Lyons (Skeeter Q Cumber) and Aaron worked many long hours to pull the drama together. They had the best cast a drama director could hope for. Some of the cast members are as follows...I didn't have pictures of everyone. My apologies.

Garrett, the brave and honorable leader of the settlers, played by our neighbor Matthew Miller.

Alatheia Larsen played the part of Nellie, an Irish immigrant who befriends Garrett's family.

Wayne Ward, played by Micah Nelson, is a head strong, lazy settler, used to the easy life of the city. On his right is the rascal, Rich E. Lands, who takes advantage of the new folks with contracts containing lots of fine print. Ben Stangl, who plays this rapscallion, is the total opposite of his character, so he should probably win the award for best acting since he really had to act.

Ethel Ward, played by Anna Nelson, was Wayne's impractical, dainty, city dwelling wife who didn't want to carry water because it might make her sweat. We know where she got her acting talent from, right Barb?

Brent, the lazy teenage son of Wayne and Ethel... Josiah Nelson practiced his part diligently throughout the weekend! (He's not really lazy so he had to practice!)

Mr. Harris, the clever (and brave) played by Alatheia's dad, Paul Larsen. All his lines were rhyming couplets to which his wife, played by Mrs. Larsen, responded..."Oh, Mr. Harris, you're so clever!" They were so much fun to watch! They have my vote for best supporting settlers, I mean actors.

The corrupt and kooky sheriff was played by Andrew Wissmann. His brothers, Matthias and Stephen were Crony 1 and Crony 2. Most of the drama videos that I included below are scenes with Rich, the sheriff and his cronies. They are so naturally funny and play beautifully off each other. Who needs a script?

Oh... and the sheriff is also to be congratulated on his recent courtship with Cori. Cori worked as a teacher at the conference so the sheriff had to occasionally visit her class...to keep order of course!

Rachel played the part of Garrett's daughter, Jenny. Her little brother, Peter, was played by John Beasley. Joe Beasley, aka Dodge, was also in the play. Remember, never sleep under a wagon!

Joe's sidekick, Shadow, was played by Christopher Miller. Christopher, you need to keep at this and in a few years you'll take Matthew's place.

Julia Rehm was Rich E. Land's spoiled daughter and as ornery as her papa. So what does 'ludicrous' mean, Julia?

'Mr. Sylvester, Mr. Sylvester,' is the spooky stranger who ends up winning Rich E. Lands to Christ. Noah Ulmer played Mr. Sylvester. He didn't enjoy growing the facial hair to make him look more suspicious!

The entire cast

Anna Beasley was the props collecter/stage manager. Boy, did she have a big job. Thank goodness for Uncle Doug's farm and his valuable boot collection.

Nicole Wissmann worked with Luke Nelson at the sound board, handling all the music, lights and sound effects between the two of them. She also won the cutest cowgirl award!

Besides being in the drama, several of the actors served as teachers and helpers in the classrooms.

The children loved Skeeter's visits best of all.

The main actors went from class to class signing autographs and reading stories to the children.

This class was graced with Ethel's dramatic storytelling!

The days were made up of small group and large group sessions. The small group or special sessions were in the classrooms or gym. The large group sessions where all the forts gathered for songs, Bible verses and the drama met in the sanctuary. As the forts marched to the large group sessions, they would holler their state or fort name. One group hollered, "Pizza Hut," though we were not sure why!

The music that played in the sanctuary while the forts were assembling was very bright and happy. I could have kicked myself for not getting a longer video with the music, but the short one below will have to do.

The music was so happy and bouncy, it just made you want to dance, as Rachel and Alatheia are doing. Alathieia ended with a flourish, but I stopped the video just moments too soon. My apologies, once again.

After the teams assembled, Rachel and Matthias Wissmann led the songs. They had a bunch of very fun Western songs this year.

Rachel wrote a Western verse to the song, "I'm in the Lord's Army."

I may never find a herd of buffalo,

Ride a stage, here we go,

Catch an armadillo.

I may never win big at rodeo,

But I'm in the Lord's posse! Yee haw!

The kids loved it!

The actions to the songs made them easy to remember and very fun as evidenced by Anna and Julia.

The Bible verse time was led by Andrew, the sheriff and his sister Ruth. The children learned Colossians 3: 12-15

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and long suffering. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which is the bond of perfection. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

While Rachel and Matthias were leading songs, they had occasional visits from Skeeter Q Cumber.

Skeeter and his pet chicken, Henrietta...

More of Skeeter's antics

Rich E. Lands and his cronies...the audio is hard to hear, but if you saw the play and have an idea what the words are, you can make them out.

Mr. Lands hatches a plot with his cronies.

Rachel's 'Mr. Sylvester' scene where Peter is attacked by wild dogs.

The famous chase scene.

Mr. Lands cronies were identified as the burglers that have been stealing things in the settlement, and the great chase is on!

The explosion.

Mr. Lands celebratory cigar match sets off the explosion that burns down his whole ranch.

The aftermath of the fire and explosion complete with the cronies at their comical finest.

The sheriff and cronies walk out on Mr. Lands leaving him with nothing. God, working through the kindness of the settlers melted Mr. Lands hard heart.

The conversion scene where the gospel was presented was interesting. Alot of people had been praying, and God answered. Rod and I were sitting in the audience as the cast went over the last scene before the children came in. The actors spent alot of time on the first part of the scene where the sheriff and his cronies walk out. They just started the part where Mr. Sylvester explains the gospel to Mr. Lands. Rachel Wissmann came in with the triangle bell she rang to call the children to the last large group session. All the actors left the stage and one of them said something to the effect that he didn't know his lines. Aaron later admitted that they rarely if ever practiced the scene.

It was amazing. The gospel rang out clear as a bell without a glitch. When Ben (Mr. Lands) started to sing at the very end, I started to cry. The Spirit of the Lord was there in a mighty way, and that scene was a miracle.

Matthias Wissmann, Crony 1, played some catchy Western tunes for the children for one of the special sessions.

Rachel Wissmann and Anna Beasley attempted to teach the children the simple line dance that goes to Cotton Eye Joe.

The dance for Cotton Eye Joe was the one the cheerleaders do when they played the song at Omaha Royals baseball games! Abby video'd the dance and all the girls learned it! Funny how these things start.

The drama folks tried their hand at Cotton Eye Joe too. What they lack in accuracy of step, they make up for in style. (Video courtesy of Mr. Adams)

After the children left, and the church was returned to order, the exhausted staff was treated to Cici's pizza by the NCHEA board.

The clever Mr. and Mrs. Harris! Thanks, Timeka, for the help in the kitchen. You brightened my day.

As we drove home, the children bubbled over with highlights. Some will make sense only to us and are better left unexplained! Enjoy the extra photos too.

"Order in the Fort" award

Mrs. Larson's special vegetable dip

Skeeter Q Cumber...the Q stands for Cutie!

Little girls with cell phones

Little girls that get lost on the way to the bathroom

Three generations of Rehms!

Suzannah's Deputy award

Mom, can we go next year?

Betsy's room decoration award

Rebekah found a scrap of one of the cronies shirts after the explosion and kept it for a momento!

Rachel and Elizabeth Powell

Laughing till we cried at Stephen and Matthias' antics during the practice sessions before large group. Stephen hopped around the stage with his backside stuck in a bucket.

Rachel powering through on Tylenol

The explosion and the children's reaction

The storm, and Ethel's convincing acting...the barn fell down right

The two cronies under the barn

Ruth up till 1 a.m. creating the slide show. Nice slide show.

Crying behind doors

The awards are rigged, Dad.

Skeeter and the chicken.

CGG - corn, grasshoppers and grubs

Skeeter and the cook (my boss, Esther)

Laptime with Ruth

Rod coming to watch the last large group session

Wisdom walks with Thomas

The little girl who loved to go on Wisdom Walks with Thomas

Feeding Ben Stangl

Cinnamon rolls

Esther Ulmer's exceptional organization and cooking skills for crowds

How God supplied the last hamburger

Quiet talks with Mrs. Nelson

Hugs from overseas!

HSLDA reps in pin striped suits

Bag lunches

Bandanas, bandanas, bandanas

Aaron's ten gallon hat and cowboy boots, not to mention the contacts

Matthias riding Stephen..."Oh, the paddings on the other side."

"Oh, that's the bad kid."

Is it Carlysle or Charlie?

Does the English language follow phonics rules?

Aaron, the plumber, comes to the rescue

"Miss Teacher"

Meeting Rachel Paul

Mark Lyon, the real cowboy

Mark Lyon's bull whip! Crack!

Luke Nelson, the sneaky room inspector!

Matthias and Stephen's mustaches made out of shiny silver duct tape so they could blend in with the settlers. Too funny!

Who has the keys to the Beasley van?

I had the privelege of working under Esther Ulmer in the kitchen. Thanks for letting me help.

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow...

Rain and Hail: A Weatherman's Delight

2009-03-24T07:11:00.006-05:00

As you can see we had a very impressive storm last night! It hit at about 5:50 pm and poured down torrential rains and all the huge hail you are about to see in the next few pictures. We all enjoyed it immensely except for a few small people who thought that the sky was looking a little green.

The front yard!

Bekah's booty!

Suzannah displaying her finds!

Goodbye Storm! You were fun while you lasted!

The Brave Klostermeyers

2009-03-22T19:42:00.000-05:00

We admire the Klostermeyer family a great deal! They were brave enough to have ALL of the Grady Bunch over for lunch after church.

We enjoyed the lunch, fellowship, house tour, all the cool weathered signs, the "handwriting on the wall," seeing a real school room, looking at photo albums and seeing Kelly's very organized craft area, chocolate covered strawberries, hearing baseball stories etc. Blake and Rhyan even had cool remote control cars so B and Caleb were perfectly happy. Thank you for having us. You're in our prayers.

Aaron Update

2009-03-21T18:22:00.012-05:00

For the grandparents that want to know what Aaron's been up to these days...

Here are the highlights...

Work, work, work

He's had two side jobs in addition to his full time job in the last couple weeks.

School, school, school

He's taking a welding class and a print reading class this semester. He made dean's list last semester.

NCHEA Drama

He spent the morning in Lincoln looking over the facilities for the children's conference with the rest of the NCHEA staff. This Sunday afternoon is the last practice, and the conference is next Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Growing out his hair

The jury is still out here. He hasn't decided if he likes it yet.

Shooting, Shooting, Shooting

He obliterated a little steel bunny target today. (Sorry, Micah!)

Helpful, helpful, helpful

He does helpful things around the house when he's home. Rebekah needed new tires on her little bike and who should she turn to, but her big brother, Aaron.

So as you can see, he's doing just fine. Working hard, serving the Lord and serving his family and friends...It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.

North and South at the Zimmerman House

2009-03-19T14:45:00.001-05:00

by Rachel and Betsy

We have been planning a "North and South" party over at Alissa Zimmerman's house for a long time, but it just never seemed to work out. So when we finally decided on a date that would work for all of us, we were determined to make it!

Rachel, Allissa, Esther and Tiger:)

Tiger, one of the Zimmerman's cats, came and hopped up on the couch. He let Allissa pet him for a little while and then headed straight for Esther. He plopped himself down and sat there purring contentedly on the pillow in Esther's lap. Either the cat liked Esther a lot, or he liked the pillow. We weren't quite sure.

Betsy was our picture taker. She took enough pictures of the movie to choke a small elephant.

The Zimmerman's set up was like a small theater! They even had surround sound speakers.

While watching the movie Anna cut out costumes for NCHEA. She's multi talented.

Miss Margret Hale, known as Miss Hale in the movie, was a young woman who befriended many people and didn't care for those who were unfriendly. She refused several young mens' proposals throughout the movie and started out despising Mr. Thornton, the hero. She made a few foolish decisions here and there, but on the whole she was a very amiable heroine.

Mr. John Thorton was the main male actor in this film. He was rather stern to begin with, but he softened up at the end of the movie.

The general gist of this movie is as follows: Miss Hale and her parents leave London to go north.

The movie takes place in England and is not about the Civil War despite the title. Their family encounters various trials on the way, such as several people dying. She ends up parentless in the end, but finally marries Mr. Thornton, her heart's unspoken desire.

We can recommend this movie for the whole family except for one low cut dress. If you have a 'modesty patrol' on the alert, the whole family could watch it. The movie is four hours long.

After the movie, we talked about the girls in different Jane Austin movies who had two guys that liked them. That seems to happen a lot.

We decided that we should come over sometime and watch "Wives and Daughters." I hope it will work out soon.

The little middles had gone home with the Zimmermans and played the whole afternoon with Leah while we were at church doing NCHEA play practice. We arrived later that evening with Mom and Dad following close behind. The little middles were very disappointed they had to go home and couldn't stay longer. They had a blast! Thank you, Zimmermans, for your hospitality. We had a lovely time.

Skating...It's Finally Arrived

2009-03-16T15:01:00.019-05:00

The home school skating party is one of the Grady highlight activities of the year. Even Aaron was going to take off work for the one chance to roller skate with good friends, good music and good fellowship.

The sad note this year is that all the little ones from Tootsie on down couldn't go due to contagion in the household. Sigh! They were sorely disappointed.

This article contains the highlights of the afternoon from three excited, laughing girls. They took some pictures and a little video while they were there, but photographing moving objects with our poky little camera is tricky. Also, getting a good angle is tricky...so if you remember the color of the clothes you were wearing you might be able to identify the blur that is you...and it's probably your back!

The girls were quite impressed with Mr. Carlson's skating ability. Forwards, backwards...and such speed! I asked him at church how he happened to be such an excellent skater...no surprise, one of his family members owned the rink in town where he grew up!

Betsy got to be the first out on the rink with Rachel a close second. She only wore one blister on her feet compared to the usual torture.

Rachel changed her skates four times. The first two pair squeaked, the third pair was too big, but the fourth pair was just right...well, she only got one small blister. The hired help knew her size well by the time the afternoon was over.

Betsy liked the dice game since she stayed in for quite a while. Blake Klostermeyer won...Congratulations!

None of the girls played the Limbo game. They said John Beasley and Leah Zimmerman stayed in for a long time and Micah Waldo got a few style points, but they didn't remember who actually won.

Miss Staci, our piano teacher and friend, won style points too with her cute shirt. She had several offers to beg, borrow or steal it, but in the end, the girls let her keep it. But if she ever gets tired of it, she knows where to come...

Lydia Stangl had the pleasure, or perhaps misfortune, of having the skating party on her birthday. There were several shenanigans in her honor at the skating party and at CiCi's afterward. At the skating party, the whole crowd sang 'Happy Birthday' and Mrs. Stangl said the girls should give her a kiss and the boys a punch in the arm. Ouch! Betsy, Hannah and Rachel blew her kisses.

There were lots of little people this year...and big people. This year had the most folks of any year yet.

Hannah said the funnest thing was Aaron coming up behind her pushing her along. They got going FAST.

Anna Beasley agreed it was fun to have Aaron push you as long as you knew he was letting go. She didn't know about that part and managed to crash into the side area and get rug burns on her shins. Ouch!

The girls mentioned the tag games...

A major tag game went on with the older, faster skaters...

Several girls tried to organize a tag game, but two tag games going on at once is confusing and didn't quite work out.

Four hours and several blisters later...

It was time to head to CiCi's Pizza.

Bunches of folks continued the fellowship at Cici's afterward. B,H and R were very happy they had exactly enough money to pay for their food. Next time, they'll get water!

Lydia opened her gifts, and the staff at Cici's made her stand on her chair while they sang to her.

The girls said Staci was the life of the party as usual.

Rachel liked heading to the Old Navy store with Grace, Ellie and Meredith. Too bad she spent her last dime on pizza!

Betsy was in ecstasy as she described the wonderful breadsticks, all puffy and twisted...yum!

Rachel related the interesting conversation they heard between two 'teeny boppers' in the bathroom. It always amazes the girls when they encounter the real world. They know it's out there, but they can't believe people are really like that. Sad, but true.

Alatheia's debate friends came. It was nice to get to meet them.

Happy sigh! What a delightful time. The Stangls make the skating party happen year after year! Thank you, Stangls. We appreciate your efforts to provide a wholesome environment to fellowship that welcomes the whole family. God bless you and yours.

A Night at the Rink...

2009-03-12T14:16:00.015-05:00

Lady's and Gentlemen please welcome your:

Omaha Mavericks!

By Rachel

Aaron and I were just on our way home when his cell phone rang, Aaron answered it, talked for awhile and then hung up. After a little bit Aaron asked me if I wanted to go to a hockey game. Of course I said "Yes." I had never been to a hockey game in all of my life. Aaron told me that Luke Nelson had called and invited him to a hockey game at the Q'West Center, and since I was along for the ride I got to go too.

When we arrived, Caleb and Abby were already there and they had brought Philip Beasley along for the ride too. Caleb bought our tickets ahead of time so we could just go right into the stadium instead of waiting in a huge line to get them.

After our National Anthem and introducing special players on each team, the game got under way. The Mavericks were competing against the Bulldogs. Don't ask me where the Bulldogs are from. I don't remember.

Elise was very enthusiastic at first, but then other things got her attention.

There was also something else that caught Elise's eye. A lady sitting behind us wore these very weird black and white patterned gloves. Elise just sat there and stared, fascinated.

I could never get a picture of the Mavericks' goalie but I managed to get the Bulldogs' goalie.

We had a VERY enthusiastic crowd.

The Mavericks played very well. I was really wanting some of the players to get into a big fight, but only one player started pummeling a Bulldog player. The crowd started yelling" Fight, fight, fight," but it didn't last that long. The Mavericks ended up winning against the Bulldogs 5 to 2.

Some highlights were:

Seeing Elise

Getting to go to a hockey game for the first time

Being the only one dancing "Cotton Eyed Joe" at half time

Doing all the fun little claps

Being with friends and family

Thank you Aaron for taking me!

Other Uses for Welding Gear...

2009-03-11T21:51:00.003-05:00

Aaron came home with his cool new welding gear that he got for his welding class this semester. As he got his new toys out of the box, Hannah remarked about how that would be great to scare someone with. Rod added, "Yeah, dress all in black. Have you got anything black?"

Amidst giggles from those in the know, Aaron snuck downstairs and waited for the unfortunate soul in Betsy's bathroom to come out. As he was waiting, Betsy came down the hall from the other direction and was quietly startled...but she didn't ruin the surprise.

That means Rachel is in the bathroom! Ha! Ha! She's the best one to scare!

Aaron waited quietly outside the bathroom with all the lookers' on scooting into position to watch the moment of truth.

Aaron waited...

and waited...

Girls and bathrooms, sigh!

Finally, some signs of life...she opens the door jumping and hollaring in a most satisfying manner. The only problem is Aaron couldn't really see because he can't see through the welding mask!

Hopefully, Rachel won't have bad dreams! She later remarked that she thought he was a terrorist!

NCHEA Play Practice

2009-03-09T18:44:00.006-05:00

Aaron is one of the codirectors of the NCHEA drama along with Sam Lyons. The play is really coming together in these last couple of weeks before the conference. Several Gradys sat in on the last practice Sunday afternoon. Here are some of the highlights:

Matthew Miller, our neighbor is the 'good guy' star of the show. He had some massive lines and knew them cold. Wow! we're impressed. Rachel plays his daughter 'Jenny.'

Alatheia plays 'Nellie' the Irish turned English immigrant teacher and counselor of poor, lonely 'Jenny.' Rachel always complained that she didn't know her lines very well. Ha! She knew them fine.

Joe Beasley, alias 'Dodge' eating 'dead crow stew' supplied by Mrs. Harris, aka Mrs. Larson, who thought he looked a mite hungry.

Mr. and Mrs. Larson were SO funny. They play a sensible older couple where the husband's words always come out in rhyming couplets, and Mrs. Harris is always loudly exclaiming, "Oh, Mr. Harris, you're so clever!" They are highly amusing and very good actors.

Another highlight were the Anna Nelson stand ins. Anna is out of town for the next two Sundays so someone else had to be 'Ethel.' First, Aaron was Ethel. He did a respectable job with a high voice and exclamations to match. Ellie helped a little too, but the best 'Ethel' stand in was her very own mother, Barb Nelson. Now we see where Anna gets her theatrical character. Oh, how I wish my camera batteries were charged! She was a riot. She's very good at squeals, short screams, hollars and various other high pitched female noises.

Another highlight...The Wissmanns are back from their long East Coast tour and were able to practice their scenes with the rest of the crew on Sunday. Are they ever funny! Micah told Aaron, "The lines aren't anything like the script, so just be prepared."

Matthias, Stephen and Andrew play the bad guy sheriff and his two cronies. Their forte is bumbling bad guys, so this play is right up their alley. If their lines weren't the real ones in the script then they should rewrite the script. I didn't get a photo of them because of the aforementioned dead batteries, but they were perfect. I don't know if playing dumb is a saleable skill, but if it is they could make a fortune!

NCHEA is at the end of the month. Lots of work goes into discipling over 250 children all day for two days. Please pray for all the young folks working hard to prepare for the event. Also pray that the conference would glorify God and bear much fruit for His kingdom.

The Biggest Problem

2009-03-09T18:32:00.003-05:00

At Good News Club (what sure is fun), Zach Stangl was expounding on having big problems and how we need to trust God when we have big problems. His big problem was a riding mower that went kaput causing him to have to push mow their huge yard.

He asked the class if any of them had big problems...

Little Lizzy, snuggled next to Betsy raised her hand.

When Zach called on her, she said, "9 x 9."

Wouldn't it be nice to have the biggest problem in life be '9x9?'

Fiddler on the Roof

2009-03-09T10:32:00.008-05:00

Fiddler on the Roof

By Rachel

On Sunday while Alatheia and I were watching the NCHEA play practice, we hatched a lovely scheme. The Larsens were planning on going to "The Fiddler on the Roof" in Glenwood IA, that evening. We worked it out so that Ellie, Lydia, Susie Stangl and I could accompany them to the play. The play that night originally wasn't going to happen, but since so many people liked it they graciously did it one more time. I would have to say that that production was the best play I have ever seen in my life. It was also much better than the movie in many ways. Luke and Simon Pena were in the play, and Maggie played the piano. If you click the link above, it tells about the whole storyline and shows you who acts in it. I have gone to different plays and operas, but this surpassed them all. Luke and Simon are wonderful actors and have very good voices. The actor that played the father did an exceptional job, especially when he sang "If I Were a Rich Man." When the play was finished they got a standing ovation, and then the actors went out into the hall so that people could congratulate them. We talked with Luke, Simon and Maggie till it was time to leave. I wished it hadn't been their last performance so that I could have seen it again, but all good things must come to an end. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Larsen for letting me go and enjoy such a delightful evening!

Good News Club Featuring Esther!

2009-03-03T08:18:00.010-06:00

by Rachel

Ellie, our fearless Good News Club leader, called and said scrap the standard lesson...we're going to do a skit of the book of Esther. GNC has been going over Esther for the last several weeks and to wrap things up and cement the lessons, a fun skit was in order

The cast consisted of the King played by Zach Stangl, Queen Esther played by me, Haman (Augie) and Mordecai (Ben) and the faithful guard (Justus Stangl). Ellie went over the beginning of the story of Esther with the kids and the cast acted out the rest.

The King had an hilarious hat. His crown was an icecream bucket with a big silver bow on top. The kids loved him. Zach was the star of the show!

The king (Zach), Mordecai (Ben) and Queen Esther(Rachel) being worried.

Poor Haman was soon to find out that the king had quite a temper.

After the skit, Ellie did a good job presenting the gospel through an object lesson. She tried to mix oil and water showing the kids that as Christians we are in the world but not of the world.

Isaiah, our little GNC buddy

Betsy kept trying to get Morgan's picture whenever she turned around. Morgan came with her older brother. She was just a doll.

We had a crown floating around the house that Suzannah made recently. In the spirit of kings and queens, Rebekah wore it to GNC. The clubbers above include two Gradys, Julia Stangl and Lizzy.

Queen Esther with one of her loyal subjects, Lizzy.

Short and Snappy Movie Reviews: Confessions of a Shopaholic

2009-03-02T17:21:00.006-06:00

By Betsy

I do not recommend this movie!!!! Now that I have got that off my chest let's sit back and enjoy the film!

The movie is about Rebecca Bloomwood who is addicted to shopping...hence the title! It is about her trials, tribulations and ultimately her triumph in counquering her Shopaholicness and winning the guy she loves.

Pros: Rebecca looks darling in everything she wears!
: It has a good moral in the end, saying that stuff just doesn't fill you up.

: She has a good relationship with her parents!

: The movie is extremely funny!

: Becca gets rid of all her debt in the end!!!

: She has a GREAT best friend.

: We like the main dude:) Here's what he looks like, Ellie.

Cons: There were a few bad words

: Since Rebecca was a type of fashion model, some of her clothes were not the most modest.

: There was an inappropriate scene with Becca's best friend and her boyfriend.

: They get a little drunk when looking at all her debts.

: The bad lady was very horrid!

There you have it!:

WARNING

We enjoyed the movie but some people would probably be offended by it.

Young men shouldn't see it due to immodesty.

Rebecca's wedding attire as a bride's maid for her best friend's wedding... The flounce was rainbow colored to boot. Yikes!

Sine Qua Non

2009-02-28T16:45:00.002-06:00

We've been praying for Josh alot around here lately. Every time the children get a treat out of the crystal 'pumpkin' that Alaina gave us, they are reminded to pray for Josh...

Mr. Beasley, the brave, taught Sunday School the very next week after Alaina's death. The class was studying the book of Esther, and during his preparatory studies he came across the Latin phrase 'Sine qua non' in relation to God's favor. He said it meant 'Life or death.'

I looked it up because the phrase and thinking about God's favor have stuck with me for the last three weeks.

Sine qua non (pronounced /ˈsaɪni kweɪ ˈnɒn/, or Latinate /ˈsiːneɪ kwɑː ˈnoʊn/) or condicio sine qua non (plural sine quibus non) was originally a Latin legal term for "(a condition) without which it could not be" or "but for..." or "without which (there is) nothing." It refers to an indispensable and essential action, condition, or ingredient.

Doesn't that describe God's favor in our lives perfectly? Without God's favor 'there is nothing.'

While looking for something else in 2 Corinthians, I ran across this verse...

2 Cor 1:10-11

He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. On Him we have set our hope that He will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many...

We will continue to pray for God's favor for Josh and the Beasley family.

Daniel Miller at the Piano

2009-02-25T08:03:00.005-06:00

We knew Daniel Miller played the piano pretty well from the names of the pieces we'd occasionally hear from his sister, Jubilee, and from the fact his parents bought a baby grand piano for him to practice on. When Cindy Miller sent out the email inviting folks from church to go hear a free mini concert at Daniel's Tuesday evening piano Master Class, we put our minds to it to get there sometime soon.

Wow! It was worth the effort to go. We sat right by the big Steinway Grands and felt the music as well as heard it, watching their fingers fly over the keys. Five students played, and they were all very good. The first girl to play was amazing. She played two normal pieces and one by a rather interesting musician who composed songs that sounded like our little Caleb collaberated with him on it. The piece was very difficult to play as well as difficult to listen to. She was the only one who was a bit better than Daniel.

The instructor's name was Dr. James Johnson. He didn't offer too many comments on the other students' pieces, but he came over to the piano and helped Daniel with some little 'finesse' touches on his last piece. We thought Daniel was really good...then we heard a master play what Daniel had just played. There was a difference...not much, but all of us with our untrained ears heard it and were amazed.

Here's the end of Daniel's last piece after he incorporated his teacher's tips into his playing.

Daniel has a competition this weekend at UNO. I'm sure he'd appreciate our prayers that he play his very best for the glory of God. We always think of our favorite Christian pianist, Sam Rotman, who said Jesus came to all his concerts. May Jesus enable you to play your very best for Him...

Call Me a Jelly Bean?

2009-02-24T20:33:00.002-06:00

The girls were having a conversation with a certain personage who shall remain nameless about pet names for wives. This person thought a good pet name for a wife would be "jelly bean." Now about half the girls agreed that they wouldn't mind being called a jelly bean if they REALLY liked their husband.

But the words that come to my mind when I think of jelly beans are...

Sweet

Colorful

Jelly Belly

Oddly shaped

That doesn't sound like a young wife...maybe an old wife, but not a new one.

The girls thought we should put it to you, the unbiased public to tell us your favorite term of endearment.

1. If you are a female, what term of endearment would you like your husband to call you?

2. If you are a male, what term of endearment will you or do you call your wife?

3. And don't forget to tell us whether or not you would like to be called a 'jelly bean.'

Remember, these are terms of endearment, not insults or inuendo , please. If you have a story to go along with your term of endearment we'd love to hear it.

The Elve's Workshop

2009-02-23T08:00:00.001-06:00

compiled by Rachel

We really aren't elves, and it isn't Christmas, but that's the name of the room we worked in at the back of Susie Wissmann's store.

Here are a few highlights from working there last Thursday:

Betsy: Trying to figure out fun riddles while sorting through boxes and boxes of miscellaneous and broken candles.

Hannah: Watching Susie help guys pick out Valentine gifts for their wives. They were hilarious. They kept comparing with each other what they were getting. One picked out a very nice bracelet. He had good taste!

Rachel: Getting to see the new store and all the cool things people sold. They sold Omaha chocolates, aprons, beaded jewelry, cards, lots of candles, wooden roses, jelly, wooden cars, rugs, picture frames, wooden letters, plaques with verses, balloon bouquets and bunches of other crafty gifts. We bought the Omaha chocolates for Mom, Dad and Aaron for Valentine's, and I bought Mom a bouquet of the wooden roses.

Betsy: Hearing all Suzie and Nicole's plans to improve the store. They want to put in a chocolate factory. Yum! We watched a video of how to make chocolate bowls, tulips and roses. Amazing!

Hannah: Abby sold four of her knitted washcloths. We brought her very first commission check back with us.

Rachel: Getting to talk to friends while working. I worked with Alatheia and Betsy.

Betsy: Seeing Susie, Nicole and Caleb Wissmann in their new singing telegram costumes. Thursday morning, they went to a local school and sang "You are My Sunshine" for one of the teachers. His wife sent the telegram and asked them to embarass him. Evidently, they did quite a good job of it.

Hannah: Smelling Susie's newest candles. Rachel bought 'Lovespell.' I liked the bright green 'Jamaican Me Crazy' candle.

Hannah: Eating really good macadamia nut cookies provided by Susie.

Betsy: Going with the girls to McD's for our traditional french fries and icecream and watching Alatheia stare down the angry customer in the drive through.

Betsy: Susie's lovely balloon bouquets. She really likes making them.

Thanks for letting us help. It was a blast!

Aaron's Twentieth

2009-02-14T17:11:00.014-06:00

This photo typifies Aaron's normal reaction to his birthday...

Aaron turned the big 2 - 0 on Valentine's Day, 2009. Twenty years ago, he made his grand entrance, patiently waiting till we got to the hospital and the doctor got the IV in...as well as rounding up all the students and other extraneous personnel he could find. Aaron was the first normal birth out of the nine they had that shift.

Birthdays are normally very disappointing for Aaron. No one gives him a new gun or a $1,000 or a motorcycle so birthdays are usually just a let down for him.

But this year, I think maturity set in. The kind of maturity that looks past the gift to the effort that went into the gift...like the card he got from Caitlin that she spent several hours on to get it just right for her big brother. He liked it!

We did go a bit overboard too, but not with the usual boy gifts. Our goal this year was to start a bit of preparation for the rapidly approaching time when Aaron will strike out on his own.

He got tools, candy to share with his siblings and some appreciated funding from relatives...

He got to laugh at his siblings antics...

He got to see his favorite neice...

She's a doll, isn't she?

But his surprisingly favorite, useful gift was a queen size bed set his dad picked out for him. We made it fit his twin bed for now. Aaron had been using the blankets his dad got from his sister when he was in highschool almost 25 years ago! They still worked fine, but were a bit on the tattered side. Now Aaron says the problem is getting up in the morning. His bed is actually warm and comfortable.

Family time on the new bed...

The more the merrier...he gets begged often to let his siblings use the fuzzy brown blanket at the end of his bed. It's so soft! The Rehms, Aaron's second family, gave Aaron a fuzzy, soft brown body pillow for his birthday that matched his bed perfectly. We've been trying to figure out how you all knew just the right color/texture etc. to get him. Did a Grady tell you, or did God move you to get just the right thing?

After his fun family birthday and a nice long afternoon nap, he went out for a Valentine's Dinner with the much contested Anna Nelson! (and her brothers!) There's a long and funny story behind that so ask Aaron sometime.

Aaron brought Hannah along to share in the fun. She used the opportunity to go shopping with Anna after dinner and to buy her mother lovely birthday gifts. I'm glad she got to go along!

Grady Valentines...Rod always gets his children a valentine of some sort. He let them choose between the popcorn and the hearts full of chocolates. Much to our surprise, the girls picked the popcorn and the boys picked the chocolates! Strange!

Let it Snow!

2009-02-13T21:47:00.008-06:00

We moved a bunch of snow on Friday. Those of you that have seen our driveway can imagine. The snow came down thick and fast, and we ended up with ten inches at least. But we didn't mind the work when we were all together enjoying the picturesque beauty of the falling snow.

I sent Betsy out with the camera to capture a few of the more lovely scenes.

The Pine Needle Path...

Someone must have worked a little too hard! Rachel singlehandedly cleared the entire north end of the driveway. She deserves her siesta in the snowbank.