What I read this morning ... speaks to me on many levels

Psalm 16:5-11

The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
Thou does support my lot.
The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Indeed my heritage is beautiful to me.

I will bless the Lord who has couseled me;
Indeed my mind instructs me in the night.
I have set the Lord continually before me;
Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will dwell securely.
For Thou wilt not abandon my soul to Sheol;
Neither wilt Thou allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay.

Thou wilt make known to me the path of life;
In Thy presence is fulness of joy;
In Thy right hand there are pleasures forever.




Some of my thoughts/reflections

The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
God is what I have. He is what I have been given, the most important of all. I could say I have inherited a passion and desire for Him from both of my parents.

Thou does support my lot.
He is with me, walks with me through the path and journey I am on.


The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Indeed my heritage is beautiful to me.
I love these lines. I love the way this is written. These lines remind me that I have had a blessed amazing life, and am so fortunate to have been fathered by such an amazing dad.

I will bless the Lord who has couseled me;
Indeed my mind instructs me in the night.
Thank you Lord for counseling me and guiding my mind when it's out of my control ... thank you that when I wake up I wake up feeling at peace. Thank you for desiring to be with me and walk with me through all of my pain forever.

I have set the Lord continually before me;
Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
It is a given. I may shake, I may quake, but I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will dwell securely.
I have reason to be happy, my heart can find reasons to glory in things around me, the people, the flowers, the rain, the sun, the cascading layers of hills along the horizon ... my husband who reminds me of my dad. It is nice that God reminds us that not only can our spirit dwell securely, but so can our flesh, and He desires that for us.

For Thou wilt not abandon my soul to Sheol;
Neither wilt Thou allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay.
I am His, and He will protect me for all of eternity.

Thou wilt make known to me the path of life;
In Thy presence is fulness of joy;
In Thy right hand there are pleasures forever.
Again, he presents me with reasons for, and sources of, joy, and He tells me it is fine and good, wonderful and beautiful to rejoice in them. And to rejoice and revel in the love, care, and eternal peace He holds for me.

Fun times in Minneanapolis (that's how I used to say it ...)

We Love You, Grandma Esther!!

This weekend we travelled to Minneapolis where we buried my Grandma's ashes next to my Grandpa Victor at Fort Snelling. She passed away in Pella, Iowa, where we celebrated her life back in November. We have had this trip planned for a few months, and it was great to have everyone together. I know my dad was really looking forward to this trip, and he would have been pleased by the quality time we all spent together. It's the second time in three months that we have been together, and man, does it feel good.

Pat and I met my mom in the MSP airport and we got into our rental car to head for our hotel in Vadnais Heights. We spent some time with family, then crashed into bed.

The next day was Friday. We spent the morning trying to figure out where to go in the Mall of America for lunch, then racing there and eating fast enough so we could make it to Fort Snelling for our 25 minutes in the shelter we were assigned. That is quite the operation ... they have you in and out; must have something to do with the high volume of folks who reside there (lots of white tombstones).

After our 25 minutes reminiscing and praying in the shelter, we wanted to wait in the neighborhood while they put her ashes into the ground. So we tried to hang out in two hotel lobbies (we ended up at the Holiday Inn) where those of us who hadn't eaten at the MOA were able to get some food. Then back to the cemetery where we visited Grandpa and Grandma's site together. You can see the pictures below.

That night we ate pizza together at Warren Olsen's house, my Aunt Pam's dad. He was a gracious host to a huge group of people. I think we numbered at least 21 at that point! We went back to the hotel where Pat and I joined our youngest cousins, Joshua (14), and Jakob & Brita (10) in the pool, having a blast on the water slide. My body is still scolding me for acting so young! All this time, Graham was sleeping, with Grandmother Kathy watching over him.

On Saturday, we had a shelter/pavilion rented for the day at Bald Eagle Lake, so we enjoyed hanging out together in the not-as-warm-as-we-had-thought weather. I got out on the water for a while, but realized too late that I had forgotten to buy the all-important fishing license! At least I got to watch my cousins catch fish!

Graham enjoyed crawling around with his Baby Legs on, going from loving cousin to loving aunt, back and forth and forth and back ... one highlight of the day was when our long-lost cousin "Neil" came to visit us from the Oshkosh overall factory where he worked as a midget model for their suspender pants. Amazing how much he looked like Andy! Graham wasn't too sure about this new character and cried when we tried to get him to share a hug with cousin Neil.

On Sunday we visited Woodland Heights church, where my cousin Brittany goes, then went to lunch at Perkins. Then we said our lengthy goodbyes and headed for the airport. Before we left, we talked about doing this again next year ... and I am already looking forward to it.


There are a lot of photos in this post, and I hope you enjoy them ... I am putting them here as much for me (and Graham!) as for all of you ... it's good to have a record of our times, and this is our record.


Headed for the rental car, riding with Grandmother Kathy -
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With cousin Caitlin, waiting for the Fort Snelling associate to come and take us to our assigned shelter.

Daddy catching Graham's eye in the mirror. Even now G is laughing at this picture as he sees it on the computer monitor.

With cousin Tim as we were waiting at Fort Snelling ...

This is us in the shelter as we're sharing thoughts and memories of Grandma. Also in the picture is my cousin Brittany and her boyfriend Matt.

This is my littlest cousin Brita, who played a recorder version of Grandma's favorite song.

Graham with Grandma's box.

Hanging out in the hotel lobby ... with Brita.

The girl cousins! Molly, Brita, Brittany, and Caitlin. Go ladies!!

Our sweet family.

I had to ask for this picture to be taken ... Graham is not a cuddler, but for about 5 minutes while we were at the graveside, he totally nuzzled in and took comfort ... Mr. Monkers and I took good care of him.

Top row: Left to right, Cheryl (dad's baby sister), Ken (dad's second brother), Pam, Ryan, Joshua, Andrew, Mom, Carol, Caitlin, Tim, Michael, Dan (dad's third brother), and Shelly
Bottom row: Jakob, Molly, Pat, Graham, Brita, Brittany

One night, Graham woke up in the middle of the night and the only thing that would placate him was Uncle Andrew singing "I'm My Own Grandpa," over and over (so long that Andrew fell asleep singing, words slurring as he neared slumber). I set Graham down on Andy's couch bed for the rest of the night, and you can see a picture below of all the men-folk resting together in the morning.

Aunt Shelly and cousin Brittany kissing and loving on Baby G.

This is Brittany working on her unofficial assignment to help Graham learn to walk ... I helped her learn many years ago!

And here, for your enjoyment, is our long-lost cousin Neil!

We'll miss you, little buddy!!

This week we said "see you later" to some new friends. Old friends to Graham, since Jack is Graham's first little best buddy. Jack's mom, T, got a good new job, but it meant moving the family to Bingen, WA (that's right, Bingen, I know it's a funny name, but that's seriously what it's called!).

Since the beginning of Jack's daycare days, Graham and Jack entertained each other in the infant room at daycare; we received daily reports of how they would make each other laugh, or climb all over each other ... pretty good times for two little boys. And I have really enjoyed getting to know T, and sharing mothering ideas and getting a second opinion on boy stuff. We had just started getting to know T's husband E ... All this to say we will miss you all, and hopefully will see you soon, either in Vancouver or in Bingen!

T and Jack spent the night here on Wednesday, just before we left for Minneapolis for the weekend. So Graham had his first little slumber party. It was pretty uneventful, complete with two happy moms rejoicing downstairs when the room stayed quiet after the first few minutes. We went in to check before we went to bed and we found both boys on their tummies with their little booty diaper bottoms in the air. Too precious. I regretted the darkness which prevented me from capturing the moment on "film."

The wake up moments were pretty sweet: a lively exchange of Hi Hi Hi Hi! across the cribs, and a lot of snickering laughter. Pretty sweet!

See you soon! Here are some fun pics of our time together.

It may seem strange ... <3<3 (those are supposed to be hearts)

It may seem funny to some of you that I get a little twinge of excitement when I open my desk drawer to pull out my calculator. But that's indeed what has been happening recently. I'll think, yeah, that's too complex for my head alone, I need some help .... oh! Dad's classic HP calculator!

Then I'll reach in the drawer and pull out this dinosaur. I only call it a dinosaur because this particular unit has been around the block a few times. But I think I've seen these old classics still being sold! And that's because they're so straightforward ... and antique-feeling ;) wink wink.

Mom found that she had two in the desk drawer after Dad died, so she let me take this one. I love using this baby and smiling as I remember Dad trying to explain how the "stacks" work and the special way of entering the numbers. I didn't grasp it then, but once I "got" how it works, I found that it totally works for me. Plus, I just love being part of the "in" club.