April 15.... I guess it is once a month thing. lol

I am feeling bubbly and springy!  Don't know if that makes sense.  So I changed everything!  It is nice to finally have springtime here!  We are gearing uup for softball right now. Lauren is the only one playing.  Her first game was suppose to be today but she is sick. I am sad she is missing her first game.  She also lost her softball coach already and he was her main reason for joining that team.  She has one Monday and I pray she is feeling better!  She's been sick all week.  She was at her dad's the week before and I suspect she could have gotten sick on the plane coming home.  It is all recycled air.
No way to avoid it.  Just pray she gets over it soon!

Tomorrow is Easter!  Praise God!  Resurrection Day!  It is amazing how much He loves us!!!  We had no invitations or plans and then Amanda called and invited us.  I love her food and being with the family.  So I was happy she called. Doesn't sound like Andrew will be there if he doesn't get his papers done.  That makes me sad.  He is missed. And hopefully Lauren will feel better. I hope you have a great Easter.

Last weekend we had another family dinner.  Last Christmas Papa was so exhausted I decided not to do it anymore.... someone else could have Christmas at their house.  Then for some reason we decided to have a gathering every other month to have the family together!  Crazy. But it is working out good!  The first dinner was in February and we had Italian Night!  Good food, fun, great time!  Last weekend we went with Chinese Food (or Asian).  Papa made Sweet and Sour chicken wings and I bought some fortune cookies and raspberry sherbet.  Lauren made Pancit with 2 types of noodles, veggies, chicken, etc.... It was a huge ordeal to make as she's never made it before. Her mom was on an airplane so she got the recipe on her phone.  She also made Chicken Adobo. Tara brought a Korean beef and rice dish, Jordy brought Beef and Broccoli dish. Karla brought Chicken fried rice and General Tao's chicken.  The girls all played a game and the guys watched the Masters Golf tournament together.  It was a good day.  Our next gathering is in June and it will be a Mexican fiesta. I think.  Need to double check with the others but pretty sure.  Will be bbq coming up this summer.

 Madi got her hair cut short and it is beautiful!  And she loves it!

So my 61st birthday was last week.  For my birthday I took Madi to get her haircut.  Her and I went out to eat. That was about it.  I got over 100 facebook greetings, phone calls, etc.... heard from all of my grandkids!!!!  Did not hear from son Ryan but I didn't expect to.  My two sisters called and so did my brother Doug.  I love feeling the love on my birthday!!!!   Papa made the best steak I ever had for dinner too! Num!

Heather, Don and the boys were at Tara's house the day before and we went and saw them for a bit. It was so nice to see the WHOLE family and not have a couple missing.  I love them!  Took some pics

Since last time I had written I got to see 4 concerts!!!!  Here goes.... 1st one was Andrew! His college group from Northwest College came to Gateway Church to worship! It was great!  More than amazing to see how much love for the Lord these 130 kids love!

Andrew is in the back row... second from the left.

Andrew and two of the boys he used to teach at this church. Happy to see each other!

Andrew after the concert....so happy to be there.

Andrew's sister and her friends made these signs for Andrew and Mindy.

Andrew worshiping the Lord

Next day we had Lauren's band concert.  Lauren plays the tenor sax and she plays it so well!

Lauren's solo!

Tuesday night was Madi's concert.  She looked so pretty and it was so good!  Her first concert!

And finally on Thursday night we had Riley's concert!  She sang a solo in it too.

Hope you enjoyed the concerts too!    Well, that is it for me!  Happy Easter!!!!

St Patricks Day

It is St. Patrick's Day!  I am not Irish at all.  I am 100% Norwegian.  As far as I know.  From what my family tree tells me and my parents.  But I always thought today was a fun day! Except for the pinching if you don't wear green.  Not so great.

I posted this a few years ago. Green!!!!

So this past month has been one of insight, struggles, and wonder.   I am doing pretty good at the gym.  Been up to 3 miles in less than 30 minutes every other day.  Pretty proud of it. It is pretty hard some times.  Especially the first 30 seconds.  Then I start going.  Papa said it is the first 1/2 lap that is hardest on him upstairs on the track too.  He's been doing a mile (8 laps).  I am so proud of him!  If you know him, you would know he is not a "gym type" guy!  I would never expect him to go.  But I asked him to go with me and he actually agreed to try it.  He doesn't use the equipment or pool or anything like that...but he uses the track.  He figures he is not getting enough walking with Scruffy because he lets the dog decide where they are going.  Sometimes they end up going right across the street and Scruffy is done.  So walking at the gym works him out better.

We had another family dinner.  I like having them.  In February we had Italian Night.  Tara made her lasagna.  We had garlic bread, salad, pizza and cuppa cakes!  Karla taught us a new game using mini candy bars as money.  Tara won.  It was so fun!

Our next family dinner is in April and the kids decided on Asian Cuisine (Chinese food mostly) but it can include Thai, Japanese, Filipino or whatever.   It will be fun!

Andrew turned 21 at the end of February!  So weird to believe!  I remember being 21.  Amanda and Lauren had dinner over there with him and they went shopping.  They had a good time.  We sent him a box of goodies with his birthday card.  Sent him candy, cereal, etc....  We sent him another one this week with more cereal, Nestle Quik, Papa made him chocolate no-bake cookies, we sent him a tshirt, and I hope he loved it. He loves getting mail and boxes.  

Lauren had a birthday two days later and turned 14!  Amanda had a nice dinner for Lauren with Fettuccine Alfredo, garlic bread and ice cream cake.  It was really good.  She got an awesome record player and vinyls of the Beatles.  She loves the Beatles. Good girl!  And two of her friends were there for dinner (Leah and Danae).  

Papa has an appointment with his Cardiologist today.  He's worried.  I'm not.  He'll be fine. He has to be! 

This coming week is going to be busy.  Sunday morning Andrew's church choir will be in Poulsbo and we are going to it.  I am excited!  Then on Monday Lauren has a concert and has a saxophone solo!  Tuesday Madi has her first music concert.   Thursday Riley has a music concert and she has a duet.  It will be such a busy week.  

Well, I have to quit.  Have a great March!

birthdays, death, and valentines!

We are partway through February so Happy Valentines Day!!!!  We are almost there!  It has been a quiet weekend.  Lauren has been here this weekend.  It is nice but she loves the toy room and that bed is her hangout.  When I think about my teenage years it is how I loved spending my time.  I am also glad she is so comfortable to just chill out here and get snacks when she wants. Here are just some random pictures of her this past year. It's been a rough year.  Her dad left his job and he and his girlfriend decided to move to Arizona so she is missing him a lot.  She acts like it is no big deal but we all know it is.  Breaks my heart for her.  We haven't talked to him in a long time.  A few times he had been very disrespectful and cruel to me and I can't let someone treat me like that repeatedly. Lanny has been very hurt by the situation. That is the worst of it.  Now they don't have a relationship.
I just keep praying.  God is good and powerful.  Now he doesn't have much of a relationship with his son and the one with his daughter will suffer with him moving away and giving full custody to Amanda.  Oh well. Just keep praying.  Here are pictures of Lauren to make me smile.

She misses her brother too who is off to college.

A few pictures from past sleepovers. These pictures make me smile.

Breakfast time at sleepovers! So fun!

Went to Lauren's last game and they won the championships so the Huskies are #1!!!  Sadly she is done.  She didn't make varsity and she didn't want to play JV again so she chose not to play.  The way the coach blocked her out was really unfair.  He is pals with all the girls on her team and their parents so everyone on Lauren was picked but Lauren.  Very unhappy and angry but nothing a person can do.

Last week our family had a couple birthdays.  Brad turned 46 which freaks me out!  He's been hanging out at our house since high school when him and Tara started dating!  Just weird.  Here's some pics of him and Tara over the years....

It was also Joel's birthday. He turned 42, the same age Karla will be in 5 months.  That is crazy too!  Here are some pictures of those two together!!!!

I like to pick up Madi from school some days and spend time with her. We'll sometimes go get lunch or just go to Madi's and watch "Once Upon A Time" on Netflix.  We just enjoy each other.  It used to be on Wednesdays but when Dylan's college schedule changed I started to get Madi on Tuesday and Thursdays.  But last week was soooo weird.  I couldn't pick her up on Tuesday because the bridge closed.  Then Wednesday Joel was home so he picked her up.  Then Thursday we had a wind storm and the bridge closed again. So Karla picked her up and took her to work with her.  Finally I got to get her on Friday.  We went to her house but Dylan was home so we just visited with him.  It was fun but we didn't watch our show so this week we will.

We sure had quite a windstorm last week.  Pretty big gusts.  They close our bridge when it gets really windy because it is a floating bridge and they open the slide out to relieve pressure on the bridge.  When we say it is closed we mean it is closed to car traffic. Then our power went out for over 6 hours!  I hate power outages so much!!!  But for about an hour or two before the power came back on Lanny and I just talked with a lantern on. We talked about our kids and how far they've come. We talked about our amazing grandkids.  We talked about how we grew up and our parents. We talked about our neighbors as kids.  We talked about our jobs we had and our previous marriage. Covered so much and it was such a bonding close experience.  I loved it.

Today is my dad's birthday.  He would have been 94 had he lived.  He died at 81 in 2004  Seems like a lifetime ago.. and then seems like it wasn't.  I miss him everyday. It seemed like when mom was alive she kept him alive too.  But now that they are both gone there is no one that shares stories.  I guess that is why I love my pictures so much.  They really help my memories.

Today is also my lifelong friend, Berta's birthday.  She was 2 months older than me which was awful when we were younger but better as we got older.  But Berta passed away last year from cancer. We lost contact for years only talking off and on.  That happens sadly.  Taught me a lesson.  I try to stay closer to my friends now.

Berta with brothers!

Berta with her brothers and parents. Love this picture!

Her parents were like parents to me! They treated me like their own!

One of my favorite pictures of Berta with her daughter Christy.

Lanny's stepdad, Jack McCann passed away.  When Lanny was young, Jack was not a nice man or stepdad.  A redneck Okie.  But the past couple years they would call each other and patched up their relationship.  They would talk about the Lord a lot, what was going on with Michael and our family. They would always hang up saying "I love you" to each other.  A lot of forgiveness and mended hearts.  God can make anything possible.

Valentine's Day is in 2 days!  I hope you have a wonderful day and feel the love!

Well,  Lauren went to have dinner with friends again.  Hope she has a good time.  Lanny put chicken, carrots and potatoes into the oven to bake.  Num. Smells good.   I will try to write in another week or so.   God bless you and yours!