Sabbath

We had a wonderful Sabbath. Pastor Kim preached an amazing sermon on the Sabbath and that the 7th day, Saturday, is still the Bibilical day of rest. He is so good for being so young. God blessed Oakwood church when they sent us him as our new Pastor.

From there we went to the boat for lunch. Made Aunt Stellas Rueben Sandwiches and Vege Pigs-in-a-Blanket. Taco Salad, Sarah's Salsa, Smore's Brownies, and Watermelon topped off the meal. It was a little cool with wind blowing off the lake. Grandma was freezing. So when we changed clothes to go to the zoo, we put on long pants and long sleeved shirts. Got to the zoo inland in Toledo and it was 85 degrees. We were all pretty uncomfortable, hot and stuffed from lunch.

Even Dan, Joe, and Adam came along for the fun. Had 7 adults and 2 babies in carseats crammed in one car. All had seatbelts but it was uncomfortable. Kept saying "This is practice for Alaska".

We met up with some friends from church with 2 girls who kept Leah company. The zoo is really very nice. Oakwood gave Sarah a year pass when she stopped teaching so we all had free passes and parking free for ONE car.

I bet you are wondering where the pictures are? Well, after the zoo we headed back to boat to pick up 2 motorcycles and another car. Kids and Dan decided to take a boat ride. Gram and I watched Lily on shore. Well, Leah overflowed her diaper and was on Sarah's lap which got Sarah's pants all wet. She soaked them and forgot her camera was in her pocket. Bye Bye Canon.....So, she has confiscated mine. Pictures will have to wait till I can get my hands on the camera or Dan brings his home from work and I can put those on the computer.

Never a dull moment.

Fun Day In The Sun

We had a wonderful day at the park. 80 degrees in MICHIGAN. Everything is not all bad here. Look who is big enough to run away from us on the playground. Uh huh, Leah. She loves it outside. First made a tip to Sam's and loaded up on diapers, wipes, diapers, formula, diapers, you get the picture. It was fun. Used the double stroller for the first time. That thing is dangerous. Will have to get a shot of the girls in it. I love these hiding places. We needed to be quick and grab her before she went down the slides. They were so fast I couldn't get a shot of her on them cause I wouldn't have had enough time to run to the bottom and catch her. Whew!
Swings were a great thing cause we had her locked up in there.

Catch me if you can. Remember when she used to always look at the camera. Not anymore. I have to be a contortionist (sp) to get her looking at the camera. Light doesn't fascinate her anymore.

This little sweatheart looks anywhere you want her to, only problem is her eyes are never open. She slept really good last night for her daddy. I love her so much.

She has her hippy retro daisy sleeper on. Things are still so big for her.

These are the letters I made to hang over her crib. Made them for Leah's room also. Of course, I am so dumb I forgot to take a picture of them lined up saying Lily. They did turn out pretty cute and look great in the room.

And of course, I don't know enough to attach them spelling Lily the correct way.

Lily says to tell Gram O to hurry and get here on Sunday. She is excited to meet you and Gramp O.

Of Course, More Baby Photos.

Picture below is Lily leaving the hospital in her beautiful new blanket her Aunt NayNay made her.

This is Baby Leah below on her first day. Here is baby Leah leaving the hospital.

Here are just a few more pictures on the day we left the hospital. We had Leah there at about 10:00 am. Notice the matching outfits. Since there is no boy to buy for, we are going the matching outfit route. It is really fun. Lily's outfit is by Baby Nay, the same people who made Leahs going home from the hospital sleeper. They also had matching outfits for toddlers so that is what we got.Four generations plus one.

Leah having fun at Gram's where she got to play on the swingset that was mom's and Uncle Adam's when they were little.

We Have a New Baby!

Sarah arriving at the hospital and walking off her contraction. Here is our sweet Lily Ann, only hours old. Everything went so well for Sarah. It is like nothing else, holding that baby for the first time.

Here is your new playmate Leah.

GiGi meeting her for the first time.

Let me just touch that eye....
This was when we first went in the room to see baby Lily.

Here they are arriving. We are a little closer to the hospital so we beat them there. Dan drove the camper. We arrived at the hospital about 1:00 am. I sure had to resist hard from calling Adam and Natalie and Joe and Nilza. They said not to call till baby arrived if in the middle of the night. Leah was wide awake in the car. We scooped her up and took her out to the camper. She played for about an hour and then we got her back to sleep.

Sarah was so nervous that they wouldn't have time to give her the epidural. Never fear, they did and she delivered in only about 20 minutes. Baby arrived around 3:15 a.m. At 5:30 we woke Leah up to go meet her new sister. Called Adam and Natalie and had them come over also. It was a wonderful time as you can imagine. Nilza was dropping off someone at the airport so she drove over around 8:00. By then, Sarah and David were ready for a long nap.

We had a happy experience at the hospital. All the staff were so nice and they loved Leah. Lots and lots of babies. The most they could remember in a long time. Leah was a perfect girl for her grammy. Slept both nights without a peep and took 2 long naps in the afternoon.

Singing in the choir in the black and white sweater at the Florida SDA Conference Women's Ministries Retreat.
My roommates at the retreat. Great gals from Fort Lauderdale, Sonya, Mary, and Carol.

Pastor took this picture of us in front of our bus before we left. 59 women from the Fort Lauderdale church went to the retreat, out of a membership of about 225. Great support for women's ministries. Thanks for inviting me.

Julie's Productions Growing

Wow, haven't posted a blog since Christmas. Seems like I am always saying this.

My position as Professional Volunteer seems to have kept me pretty busy over the last several months. Also this little girl named Leah seems to have us running constantly. She is soon to be 19 months and her mom is expecting her little sister, Lily, any day now. We can't wait. Motor home is cleaned, gassed, and loaded up to head to hospital when we get the call.

I have been to Florida several times, once for a Women's Retreat, worked three Women's retreats in Michigan, been to Manistee to check on mom's house, Berrien once, Myrtle Beach once, babysat a lot, helped Sarah get nursery and house ready for baby, helped Sarah prepare for seminar at Retreats, held tea party at school, welcomed new Pastor at church, became new Head Deaconess at church, and many more fun things since Christmas.

We are so blessed. I have a wonderful, supportive husband, great children, grand kids, and family. My niece is getting married this summer in Alaska so we are looking forward to that trip. Dan turned in air miles and we are all flying first class. 7 of us and two babies. Should be exciting.

I will try to add a few new pictures within the next couple of days. Working on two different computers doesn't go very well. I also got a nice new laptop for Valentines Day and then put a nice new virus on it. My son-in-law was so kind to get it all set up nice for me again, so need to put my pictures on there now.

Right now I need to go. I am heading to the "Mega Meet" scrapbooking convention with Sarah. Can't wait....

CHRISTMAS PROGRAMS

As many of you know, Sarah has taught at Oakwood Academy for the last 4 years. She attended school there from grades 1-8. Went to Andrews Academy for 11-12 and graduated from AU. Her student teaching was also done at Oakwood and she even substituted at Andrews Academy. There is a soft spot in her heart for her former schools and teachers. This last year since having Leah has been the first year she hasn't taught. When making that decision, she promised Oakwood that she would help with their Christmas Program. Through her 4 years at Oakwood, the Christmas extravaganza has been the highlight of the school year. So, here we go again. Our Canatata, "The Treasures of Christmas" was held on Sunday, December 14th. Sarah was in charge of decorating and drama. The Oakwood Church choir sang the cantata this year which was different. Children joined on several numbers along with a bell choir.

One of the challenges facing Sarah was that out of 31 students, there are only 3 boys. Try dividing up positions for shepherds, Joseph, Kings, etc., with only 3 boys. Somehow it worked. So, for the last two weeks before the program, Sarah and Leah were at the school every day but Mondays. Whew, exhausting. And Julie was at Choir practice every Friday night, most Sabbaths after church, and on the last weekend, Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday for performance.

It was well worth every minute. Just beautiful. And I must say, the choir really only made one or two visible mistakes. Quite a challenge singing with an accompaniement trax, live saxophone, and live handbells, choir and childrens choir. The drama was great and considering the children are in grades K-7 it was even more amazing. During the two dress rehearsals, which every student attended in the evening, UNBELIEVABLE, scene changes, costume changes, and the like were very scary. But as usual, on the day of the program everything went so smooth. Sarah had a microphone hooked up to speak with the sound men up in the balcony. She also recruited 4 prop men to change scenes rapidly and they did a terrific job.

Our stable was handmade by a recently baptized new church member and was absolutely perfect. We will have it for many years. He also put some extra wood to prop up our life size animals we have had for years thanks to old member Vern Fought. Mr. Bosman, the best grandpa a school could have, built a long lasting portable fire for us. We will be using that for many more activities. Thanks to Melissa Bellenir for her backdrop that she put up and personalized, Trumpets from Mr. Drapiza, Costumes from April and Diana, and all our backstage help. Candace Walls was the director and it was amazing what she brought us. Lots of fun was had by all. These are just a couple of pictures Natalie took for me. I was to busy singing. The whole scene. You can see the stable, manger, big cow, fireplace.

I am sure you know the song "Do You Hear What I Hear" where it says "Said the night wind to the little lamb". The girl in the black cape is the night wind speaking to the little lamb. I think this was my favorite song. The shepherd is looking for the King to tell him and then the King came forward and told the whole crowd of people. I am in the choir with my head over the book by the shepherds rod. Guess I should have really been looking at the director.

This is Mary and Elizabeth talking about their expectant babies.

Here are 4 pretty cute lambs.

Another shot showing the star and the hillside and night sky background. This was our girls choir who sang "Oh Holy Night" in three part harmony. Remember, grades K-7.

Our own little angels waiting for their next scene with their trumpets in hand.

Every Tuesday we do hot lunch at the school. Here we are getting ready to eat. Sarah then stays until 4 or 5 giving piano lessons and tutoring so we babysit the rest of the day. It's fun being part of the school still.

Our grateful recipients.

So, my friends in Berrien, now you can see why I can't get time to come to see you as much as I want. Hopefully with the Cantata done and Nilza back in town, I will be able to slip away a bit more.

This is a picture of Stellas Christmas program for the needy children she does each year. She had over 40 children this year. She buys each one several gifts along with her church children. This year they had a big pinata. Their local newspaper came and captured many nice shots and had a very favorable article on their newspaper on line.

A yearly tradition we have started is to bring the school children to sing to the workers at Woolf. They seem to enjoy it. Natalie always sets up such a nice party for the children and the workers get pizza along with our students. Then, there is always the take home bag with goodies for them. After us, they go to several senior citizens homes from church and sing to them.

Christmas wouldn't be complete without a picture of Prince and George. They are enjoying their new present from Uncle Tim.

One of the saddest things happened the Sunday of our Cantata. Sarah went in her basement to get some wrapping paper and right in front of it was her kitty Farva dead. What a shock and sadness, and then have to head to the Cantata and direct it. She is a wonderful daughter and my heart aches for her and the lose of this kitty. He was her favorite and would cuddle her and just make biscuits in her neck all the time. We left for Florida shortly after that, so I think the loss will set in more when we get home. Hopefully Boo is doing okay by himself. It was hard to leave him knowing how sad he would be without his brother. Michelle, Gram Ann, Gram Cheryl and Angela all check in on him and he seems to be okay.