Peace

This day was amazing as it started out with a hike with friends and family!

"You will go out in joy

    and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and hills

    will burst into song before you,

and all the trees of the field

    will clap their hands."

~Isaiah 55:12~

Awesome temperature! Beautiful morning!
Inspiring!

We have been wanting to do a hike for quite some time and today was the day!  WOW, oh WOW, am I sure glad we did!  Laura and Mayda met me at what is called "Bead Mountain."  It's right here in our neck of the woods.  We met there and began our hike at a wonderful 56*!!

Oh, the views!

God!

Can't you just imagine the ole' wagon trail passing through on the Oregon Trail?

Friends!  We made it to the top!

After our hike, it was off to work!  So grateful that we made time for these moments.  Such great memories shared with friends.  Nothing can replace the time spent in God's country with people that you love.  Part of my job today was to recycle our broken refrigerator.  I knew exactly where I would go when Heath mentioned it.  Langer Industrial, my client.  It is so fun in my job because I get to know people and their services right here in our own town!  This gentleman is from Kansas and you can tell that he is passionate about what he does.  If you ever need recycling here in the Scottsbluff area, I would highly recommend Langer Industrial on the corner of the Beltline and 5th Avenue.

That big HUGE claw is squishing our fridge at the moment!

Lunch and then packed a picnic for tonight!

Nothing like fresh corn on the cob!

Garry and Me

My father-in-law loves tractor pulls, so I invited him as soon as I found out about the county fair pull!  We met at the park in Mitchell and had our picnic, complete with a piece of chokecherry pie.  He is very fond of this particular dessert, especially when the berries are in season!  We had an absolutely lovely evening with the best seats in the house.  We sat at the '50 yard line' of a tractor pull at the very top, middle.  Great breeze from the back and awesome views.  Thankful for this bonding time with Garry!

If you have never been to a pull, I would highly recommend it.  Take ear plugs and plan on having a really fun evening!

Happy Birthday Heath!

Lunch - leftover jambalaya, pasta salad, and cucumbers!

....and so we begin....just babysit every 20 minutes add water and check for juice.  Let it slow cook all day while I worked from home.

Amazingness!  No sugar added, 100% pure chokecherry juice to
be frozen and enjoyed all year long!

Barb offered to organize a family birthday surprise for Heath!  It was a great idea!  Garry, Barb, Tiny, and Trav came to the house to pick me up and head to Bridgeport.  We picked up BBQ pork, brisket, and beans at our favorite place, BugerWerx.  Justin met us there and hopped in so we all were together when we arrived at Heath's work.  Since he is in harvest, this is how we made it work!  Barb is used to doing stuff like this as Garry just retired from farming.  She told Heath she was sorry for the timing of his birth to have had him during harvest....LOL!

Heath was surprised when we wall walked in!  We organized the celebration in the basement and commenced!
Complete with his other favorite, strawberry poke cake.

*Family*

*Family*

Heath runs a beautiful facility!

He does a great job!

Right on the tracks for easy access to rail transportation of their product!

How beautiful tonight was!  Grateful and thankful for the time we were able to celebrate together as a family!  We made it work and I am forever grateful.  Celebrating is important!

We completed his birthday with picking the garden together!  How lovely!
Lemon Cucumbers - Top and Green and Yellow Zucchini - Bottom

CELEBRATION of LIFE!

Sharon is Garry's one and only sister.  Today, we celebrated Sharon's life with the family!  She got the nickname "Fuzz" way before I was in the picture.  I am not sure the whole story other than she is also known as "Fuzz" and Garry is also known as "Buzz."  The family gathered around today and we celebrated her life and her love for Jesus.  It was so fun listening to the stories being told and all the memories being shared.  We were blessed to have everyone over for the evening.  It was truly an evening of great fellowship and the building new friendships.

Koreen, Loretta, Barb (a.k.a. Gram)
We picked peas and the ladies helped shell them!

Dave and Durwin
Durwin is sharpening our knives for us! NICE!
(Fresh jalapeño poppers on the counter!)

Tegan
She really enjoyed the kittens!

Nathan and Crystal
Crystal made the jalapeño poppers for everyone!

The men visiting in the parlor!

Joyous, celebration of Fuzz's life as a family! 

Dave, Nathan, and Heath
Nathan enjoyed going out and hunting for our intruder
that keeps killing our animals. The only animals he saw
were the kittens following him.....LOL!!

Nathan, Crystal, and Heath

Fuzz and LaGrange Fireworks

Tonight, we had tentatively planned on heading to LaGrange for their 4th of July celebration.  It is always on the 3rd and we went to it together a long time ago.  The weather got super severe while we were eating supper and then it cleared off.  Once we decided that we would go, we decided to allow enough time to go check in on Fuzz in her new Home Sweet Home in Gering.  We didn't get but maybe a mile down the road when we saw that our 'neighbors' had lost one of their giant cottonwoods.  It actually had fallen onto the two lane highway and they had the police there stopping traffic.  Not for sure what they needed, Heath stopped and got out while I waited in the pickup.  He exchanged some words with them and then came back and hopped in.  We turned around and headed back to the house to get his chainsaw.  I decided to grab a broom and my muck boots because that just seemed like a better idea than the sandals I had on to go to the firework celebration.  ;)  Quick thinking, doesn't always happen!  :)

I don't know if you can see the cones on the road,
but the NDOT was there also helping with the
tree removal.

This was the beautiful sunset we saw after all the damage.

After we helped get it all cleaned up, we headed in to see Fuzz.  We were driving into this beautiful sunset (above) after the storm came through.  When we arrived to see Fuzz, we marveled again at the amazing attention to detail in their landscape and the beautiful Monument standing majestically behind the home.  Amazing!  We are so grateful that Fuzz is here and after our visit, we learned how much she likes it.  She told us all about the ice cream social they had and that she was planning on playing B.I.N.G.O. later on in the week.  She had already made some friends.  She even told us that Loretta had stopped by to take her outside so that she could see the pretty flowers and the Monument.  Everything she told us was positive!  We are grateful for the opening to get into this coveted retirement home and also to be getting settled.  She even said that she likes her roommate!

We made it to LaGrange just in time!  We went to the ice cream/cake social that their volunteer fire department puts on each year.  I remember this from last time, you put your donations in to a fireman's boot.  Basically, they use this money to purchase next year's fireworks and then the rest goes for their station development, I think.  They definitely have the best show around.  This year was no disappointment.  We found where Monument Bible Church was camped out and returned to eat our ice cream with them.  There were kids everywhere and it was hopin' with love, laughter, families, and fellowship.  Great conversations and people!  We enjoyed our evening.

So FUN!
*Photo Credit:  Cindy!  She did a great job capturing the firework in the background!

Race Day

What?!  Race day already?  It seemed like so far in the future, them BAM, it's here.  Did I mention Heath and I stayed in the pickup in a little park last night in Loveland?!  I waited to long to find housing because I wasn't sure I'd be racing.  Turns out I waited a bit toooooo long.  One race more race in the books!  Always a story to go along with them!  This race was recommended to me by David and his dad when we visited with them back at Christmas.  (David is my swimming buddy from Texas whose family lives south of Fort Collins in Colorado)  The Loveland Lake to Lake Olympic distance tri was one to put on the calendar due to the absolute beauty.  So, I signed up.  This was waay before I knew that I would become sick.  So after my Mayo experience, I dropped from the Olympic distance down to the Sprint distance.  This was a hard decision, but a great one!  I was not ready for the Olympic distance plus I don't think I would have met my new friend, Liz, if I'd done the longer distance!

Pa came down the morning of to watch me race!
He's been waiting a while because last year in Texas
I was sick the day he came to watch me race.

Just do what you know!
* SWIM * BIKE * RUN *

My new friend, Liz!
Let's celebrate our accomplishment!
God has given us the ability to enjoy the great outdoors!

This beautiful woman is a sister in Christ and mother and wife and athlete and so much more!  We just barely got introduced to each other and then we were off to race.  After the race, I was able to catch up with her to get her contact info so we can stay connected!  She is amazing and I am so blessed to have met her and racked my bike next to hers for our race!  We did it!  Congrats girl on a great race!  Beautiful racing conditions ~ probably the best I have ever had!

Fresh herbs:  Basil - on the left, Sunflower microgreens - bottom left,
Parsley, Oregano, and Rosemary - right.

Homemade pizza (minus the store-bought crust).
(And rhubarb in the background ready to be frozen!)

Even after my race, I was able to keep
my muscles relaxed!

Celebration of Life

Mrs. Jean Armstrong passed away and today was her funeral.  Her girls are super supportive and have been by her side since her husband, Bob, passed just a few months ago.  Today, was a celebration of her life, but it was still hard.  So much life that can be lived no matter how many years God gives us.  We are to live them out as each will be our last.  What a different perspective we would have if we truly did this?

When we left the celebration, we were asked to take one of Jean's coloring pages.  She loved to color.  I did not know this about her.  The day she got diagnosed with the cancer, we were having a ladies luncheon over at Clara's.  I remember her calling to tell us that she was very sorry but she just wasn't feeling up to it right now.  We all totally understood.  What a blessing her life has been to so many, such an inspiration!  What a true testimony of God!

Beautiful clouds over our hay field reminded me of God's Glorious Presence is all around us, all of the time.  Taking the time to see the beauty in these things is something I am learning to appreciate.

These words are so familiar as Connie and I did the Beth Moore
Quest Bible study together last fall.  I have these words posted
around my house:  ASK, SEEK, KNOCK.  SO MUCH MORE!

This really struck me today while reading,
so I put it up on my prayer
wall as a reminder.

Family in Town!

Fuzzy and Mama at the Vet

We has a litter of four male kittens who lost their mama.  They were the ones that our neighbors helped us with while I was away at Mayo.  Fuzzy (the only one with a name) was the worst of all of them with the kitty cold.  The vet didn't think he would make it, but gave us an antibiotic and eye cream for all of them and told us to come back in 7-10 days.  We will cross our fingers!

Beauty is ALL around us!

Bill, Alicia, and the kids stopped by on their way home from their visit to South Dakota.  They had a great time!  They even brought Scarlett over to play!