Friday, 9/11/26, Vikki and Terry’s 50th wedding anniversary, remembering 9-11 and all those who died, Kimmy and Arnie came over, Bill had breakfast with Doug S., Melissa and Hailey came over, went to Frankenmuth car show, met Wes, Gayla and Joel there, saw Matthew and walked with him for a while,

FaceTiming with my Rehvyn.  We was coloring in a Water World book. 

Arnie was so cute and such a good dog.  I love this sweet dog!

He loves his ball.  When Kimmy says drop it, it drops it right away.  What a good boy.

Evan’s watch we got him for his prayer month came today

Look at all the people ahead of us on the hill.  Cars cars and people people.

Cute picture of Gayla

Joel loved looking at the cars

Gayla, Wes and Joel by this cool car

This car was made the year I was born

We saw Debbie and Paul’s nephew there.  His son was killed in a motorcycle accident.  They are trying to make people more aware.  

We were happy when we found our nephew Matthew

Matthew and Bill going ahead of me

Zehnders

I love the hibiscus tree in the background.  It has so many different colors on it.

When Bill was a kid, he and his friend Dale went up the elevator to the top of this.  Then a guy turned the power off on them and Bill had to jump across to a ladder in the dark.  He was very scared.  I am so glad God was with him and kept him safe.  God had a purpose for him.

I got up at 7:45 because I didn’t know for sure what time Kimmy was coming.  I wanted to read my Bible before she got here.  Bill came in and we read our daily devotion.  This devotional by Billy Graham is so good.  Kimmy called me to let me know she had to go home and do some things, then would be leaving to come.  She got here and I was so happy to see her and Arnie.  Arnie gave me a nice happy greeting too.  I sure miss my family when I am away from them.  I got to see Arnie’s new tricks.  He can shake now.  He lifts his paw nice and high.  I also enjoyed watching him drop his ball right away when told.  

Kimmy and I sat in the family room and enjoyed our coffee.  She liked my new mug.  I liked her silver mug.  Vikki called and said she wasn’t going to come over because she was coughing so bad.  I feel so bad for her and sure do miss seeing her.  It was sure nice getting to spend time with Kimmy.  I made spaghetti for lunch.  Melissa called and she and Hailey were going to come over.  I invited them for lunch, but Hailey already had made something.  

Kimmy and I went out to the camper and were going to look at the new bench seat covers.  She spotted a woodchuck out back by the neighbors trees which is halfway between us and their pond.  I called Bill to see how close he was to getting home.  He was at the car wash and said he would be here soon.  Kimmy and I came inside because we didn’t want us or Arnie to scare the woodchuck away.  Bill got here and loaded his gun and went out to see if he could get the woodchuck.  We heard a shot, then saw him looking along the neighbors driveway by the field.  He said he doesn’t know if he got it.  It ran off.  I sure hope so.  They do lots of damage.  One chewed our underground wires by the shed and we had to get them replaced.  Kimmy and I walked out to the camper again and I showed her the bench covers.  She liked them.  We walked and looked at my garden.  She loved the mums Jared’s mom gave me.  I do too.  We went out and sat on the swings on the deck.  Melissa and Hailey came over and came out and sat with us.  We all had a nice visit.  Kimmy had to leave to go get Eli from school.  Melissa and Hailey had to leave too.  

Bill asked me if I wanted to go to Frankenmuth to see the car show.  I said yes, so got ready and we left.  We stopped at Panera for a lemonade for him and an ice tea for me.  Wes called us to see if we were going to go to the car show.  We told him we were on our way.  We decided to meet where they were sitting.  It took us a few minutes to find a parking place.  We parked a ways away on a lawn that the lady was charging people to park at.  We walked from one end of town to the middle and then went in the Bavarian Inn to meet up with Gayla.  They had gone in to use the bathroom.  Wes and Joel came out shortly after we got there.  We all walked down quite a ways looking at cars, then turned around.  We stopped where Wes and Gayla’s chairs were and Gayla folded one and put the cover on and I did the other.  Wes pushed Joel’s wheel chair and they went to their car which was parked quite a ways in the opposite direction of ours.  We walked down the road farther and looked at more cars.  On our way back when we turned around, we saw Wes pushing Joel at the top of the hill a long ways away and they were almost to their van.  

We walked down to the road we came on, and passed it and kept walking to look at more cars, and then turned around and came back and turned down the road to go where we were parked.  We got in our Jeep and Bill drove by houses and shared childhood memories with me.  I love it when he does that.  We saw Jeff Davis and stopped and talked to him in his drive way for a few minutes.  Then we headed home and stopped at Taco Bell for taco’s.

We got home and Bill read his Bible and I worked on finally getting caught up with my blogs.  Yay! 

 

Thursday, 9/10/26, Went to Melissa’s, Hailey, Melissa and I went to Starbucks, picked up 1/2 dozen donuts from Tim Hortons, Went to eye doctor’s office, Bill took his sister C to her appointment, did 10 quarts of tomatoes from garden, Cindy stopped over, went to Chic- fil-A

Hailey, Melissa and I enjoying our Starbucks drinks

Wookie...he always gives me the best greetings. 

Kenzie sent me these pictures today.  He’s eating some of the green pepper I gave to Kenzie yesterday from our garden.  He loves healthy food.  Kenzie has done a great job of giving him lots of healthy food to try, so he likes lots of things.

10 quarts of tomatoes from the garden done today!

We got ready, then read our Bibles and did our prayer books.  I dropped off some cards Lisa had me order for her off Amazon and also some veggies from our garden.  Went to Melissa’s and saw how her wall paper removal is going.  She and Hailey are doing a great job with the steamer.  Max came upstairs and so I got to give him a hug and say hi.  I asked him if he wanted me to pick donuts up for him.  He said yes and I asked him how many.  He told me 2 Boston cream.  We girls left and went to Starbucks.  Hailey ordered our specialty coffees so they were ready to pick up when we got there.  We sat there and visited while we drank our yummy drinks.  We went into a nice shop on Gratiot and walked through it.  They had really reasonable prices.  Then we went to Tim Horton’s on our way home and went inside and picked out 6 donuts.  Hailey had a coupon for us to use, so instead of paying $10, it was only $4.  Thank you Hailey.  We went back to Melissa’s and gave Max his donuts and we all ate some.  Yum!  Nice Treat!

I went to my eye doctor’s office after that and picked up my new lens.  One of my lens got scratched really bad, so they replaced it.  I had to pay $20, but the warranty covered the rest.  I came home after that and got stuff going to make tomato juice.  Bill left to take his Sister C  to an appointment.  I got 10 quarts of tomatoes done.  He picked us up each a free lemonade from Panera on his way home.  Cindy stopped over to pick up the banners for CMA to use at an event this weekend.  We gave her some tomatoes and also some corn we had picked to try.  We didn’t shuck it to see if it’s good, but think it is.  

We decided to go to Chic-fil-A for dinner.  The new Raising Cane’s Restaurant opened yesterday and so we wanted to support Chic-fil-A.  They had lots of business so that was good.  I FaceTimed with Laicey on the way there.  I was too busy while at BayShore, so it was nice talking with her again.  Our dinner was great.  Afterward, we went and walked through the new ABC warehouse building.  It was huge.  It is in where Toys-R Us used to be.  It was fun looking at everything, even though we didn’t buy anything.  

We came home and read our devotion, then I washed the canner.  All of my lids sealed so that is great.  Will write the year on the lids tomorrow and move them to the shelf in the basement.  

Worked on catching up with my blogs after that.  

Wed., Sept 9, 2026, picked the stuff in the garden, had lunch with Kenzie and Rehvyn at Olive Garden, then we went to $ Tree and Burlington, Kenzie left and I went to Hallmark, came home, made Bob Evan’s soup for dinner, FaceTimed with Kenzie, Rehvyn told her he had fun with Nana today, washed tomatoes and jars so I can make tomato Juice tomorrow

FaceTiming with Rehvyn and Kenzie this morning

I picked the garden and got lots of veggies

I met Kenzie and Rehvyn at Olive Garden.  We had the soup, salad and breadsticks and Rehvyn had chicken strips and fries

He loved coloring while waiting for his food

I got Rehvyn this thing to draw on that turns different colors for $6 at Burlington.  He had so much fun with it when he got home.  It erases easily and you can keep using it.

Got all of my tomatoes washed and put the jars and rings in the dishwasher and washed them.  Got things ready to make tomato juice tomorrow.

We read our Bibles after we got ready.  Kenzie and Rehvyn FaceTimed with me.  I love being able to FaceTime with them.  Rehvyn sure is the cutest and sweetest little boy.  Kenzie had him sing Jesus Loves Me.  He sang it so cute.  Then she asked me what I was doing, so I told her I was reading my Bible.  I told her I have a Bible marked with her name that I have read and highlighted.  Then I told her my oldest Bible is going to Aunt Kimmy.  It is tattered and worn, but Kimmy said she doesn’t care and would like it.  When I showed Kenzie what it looked like she said that was the Bible she remembered and it was her favorite.  Rehvyn showed me how his cars go down the track.  He put a basket at the end to catch them.  He sure has fun with his cars.  

We met at the Olive Garden and enjoyed the soup, salad and breadsticks.  The waiter was really nice and kept asking if we wanted more.  He brought us each a soup at the end and packed it up for us to take home.  Rehvyn took his chicken strips and fries home too.  

We went to the Dollar Tree after that and I got some really nice cards they had there.  I got so many and it only came to $15.  I could get 3 cards at other places for that.  Kenzie got Rehvyn a couple of little dump trucks that came as a set.  He was so happy with those two little trucks that only cost $1.25 he wanted to keep carrying them through the next store. He acted like it was the best present ever!  When we were in line, Kenzie had an almond joy candy bar and told me they got it for me because they know I like them.  That was so sweet.  They are one of my favorite candy bars.  I ate it when I got home.  Thank you Kenzie and Rehvyn.

We walked to Burlington after that.  Kenzie had to return something, but didn’t have the receipt so they wouldn’t do it.  We walked around the store and I got some socks for a good price and also a draw and erase colored pad for Rehvyn.  When we went out to the parking lot, I asked Kenzie if she would like some of my socks.  It was a huge package.  She did, so she took some out of the pile.  I had so much fun with the two of them.  Kenzie FaceTimed me later and told me Rehvyn told her, “I had so much fun with Nana”.  We are so blessed having such a sweet boy.  I went to Hallmark and picked up a 50th anniversary card since I couldn’t find one at the dollar store.  I filled it out and went to the post office.  I got there right at 5 p.m. and figured they would be closed.  The sign said they are now open until 6:30, so I was able to get a stamp and have them mail it.  It is my best friend, Vikki’s 50th anniversary on the 11th.

When I got home, I warmed up some Bob Evan’s veggie soup I had gotten out of the freezer.  Bill and I had it for dinner and it was so good.  After that, I washed all of the tomatoes and put the jars in the dishwasher.  Now I will be all set tomorrow to make tomato juice.  

 

Tuesday, Sept. 8th., our 53rd Anniversary, packed the camper up and came home, unpacked the camper, Bill mowed the grass, went to Lucky’s in Bay City for our anniversary dinner, came home and had ice cream, Bill sent me sweet cards on my phone

The zinnias just keep getting more beautiful.  I haven’t even had to dead head them.  Kit Kat wanted in the picture.

Bill gave me this box to open at dinner when we were at Lucky's

This is what was in it.  Penny’s ice cream Shovel.  It is small compared to Bill’s ice cream plow spoon.

This is the only picture I took of us on our 53rd anniversary.  We were reading our Bibles.
It was so hectic at Lucky’s with the food mix ups I forgot to take one there

We packed up the camper which is really fast to do with this one.  We got home and unpacked all the stuff that had to go back in the house.  We have another CMA campout next Thursday to go to, so we left most of our CMA clothes out there. Only brought the refrigerator food and some stuff that would melt back in the house.  Bill mowed the grass after that.   I watered plants, filled bird feeders, and did other things that needed to be done.

In the evening, we decided to go to Lucky’s in Bay City for our anniversary.  We got there and I ordered a French Dip Prime Rib sandwich.  Before I ordered it, I asked our waitress if I could get it well done or not.  I wasn’t going to order if not.  She said yes, it’s shaved so it’s always well done.  Bill ordered a filet minion well done and butterflied.  The waitress came back and the meat on my sandwich was pink as could be.  Bill’s steak was pink and not butterflied.  I showed her and she took it back for it to be cooked longer.  She took Bill’s steak too to butterfly it and cook it longer.  When she came back, my sandwich still wasn’t real done and was fatty.  Bill’s steak was a different one and wasn’t good.  Bummer on our anniversary.  The waitress was very nice and said there was a new cook who didn’t know what it meant to butterfly a steak. She talked to the manager and brought she came out and  said she would take my meal off the bill and discount Bill’s.  I told her that’s never happened that we couldn’t eat our meals before and that we were sorry.  She was super nice too. The waitress brought us some candy.  As we were leaving, we ran into our friends, Ann and Mark.  They have the same anniversary day as us and were celebrating there too. 

We came home and had hot fudge sundaes.  Then we read our Bibles.  We also caught up on our devotion book since we were busy at the rally and got behind.  I worked on catching up some of my blogs.   

Monday, 9/7/26, went on a nice ride to Port Austin, ate at a restaurant there, went to Grindstone City and got ice cream.

We took a ride up to Port Austin, then Bad Axe, then came back to the campground

Me, Sue, Marsha, Russ, Doug, Ron, Bev, Lynn, Terry, Paul, Debbie, Jack, and Maggie.  You can see just part of Wes’s head between Doug and Russ.  He and Gayla were with us too.
We stopped at this restaurant, The Lake Street

Ice cream at Grindstone.  These are baby cones.  I couldn’t eat all of mine.  They had a fire and now are working out of a trailer.  They have the foundation to their new building done.

Evan’s sign to ask Lydia to Homecoming

She said yes!

We went to the morning service.  There were lots of people there.  This was the first year the service had so many people on a Monday, because usually lots of people leave on Sunday after activities.  Worship was awesome again and Paul Melcher preached a good message on overcoming the darkness.  After the service, sixteen of us went on a ride to Port Austin where we ate lunch at the Lake Street restaurant.  After that Russ and Marsha left and headed back to Indian River where they live.  The rest of us continued on to Grindstone City for Ice Cream.  Their ice cream portions are the biggest ever.  I couldn’t even finish my baby cone.  We rode to Bad Axe after that, then came back to the campground.  In the evening we sat around the campfire.  The mosquitoes were pretty bad, so Bill and I ended up going inside after about an hour.  We played a game of 3-13 and a game of dice.  Bill won the game of 3-13 and I won the dice game.  

Evan made his sign and asked Lydia to go to homecoming with him.  She said yes.  They were both really happy.   

 

Sunday, 9/6/26, Happy 15th Birthday Peyton and Isaac! We love you!

Happy Birthday Peyton and Isaac!  We love you and we are missing you!  Thinking about you and praying you have a great birthday celebration

Melissa told Hailey that Vikki was sick and couldn’t make a cake, so Hailey made a cake from scratch for the twins.  So sweet of her!

YUM!!!

Bill got a little bit of rest in which he needed.

God used Bill to touch a lot of hearts.  He is so good at welcoming people, leading the services, and is so kind to everyone.  I am very proud of him.

Jay gave a great message tonight.  He is a wonderful evangelist.

Bev and I making the announcement of how much was made from the bake sale for Run for the Son

The kids sang a couple of songs and did the motions.  They did a great job.  Wendy and Sean did a great job teaching them.

Paul and Debbie handing out prizes for the carnival most points.

Harper and Riley receiving their trophies for the bike games

Marsha and Jim getting their trophy

Bill and Harper getting their trophy for Harper throwing the water balloon up over the rope and catching it.  She was the only one that could do it.  

Paige and her little guy getting their trophy for the barrel race

Tater receiving his trophy for winning the slow race

Harper won a race on her motorcycle too

Savanah won the bicycle blindfold game

Rhonda waiting to present Jim with a trophy

Rhonda presented Jim with a trophy for doing such a great job organizing and running the Bike Games at the rally.  He’s holding up the note she gave him.  

Ron presenting Jim with the pillow Barb made

Jim with pillow Barb made honoring him for all the years he’s done the bike games and Bikes on the Bricks

Fun doing the bike and golf cart games earlier in the day

Guys lined up to do bike games

Somehow on the blindfold game where the driver is blindfolded and the person behind directs her, they ended up under the water balloon game.  They were supposed to stay on the other side of the line on the left.  We all had a good laugh

Bill had lots of fun taking kids out to play the games.  It was so nice to see kids so involved.

I guess he’s learned to love that donkey hat lol.

Riley and her mom doing one of the games

Bill’s license plate was upside down so he changed it in between bike games

I guess he’s learned to love that donkey hat lol.

Bill and Harper doing the water balloon game

Debbie doing the barrel push game

Bill pushing the barrel

Jack asked Kaylin to homecoming and she said yes!  He was so happy and so was she!

We sure missed being home to see Peyton and Isaac on their birthdays.  We couldn’t have gone inside the house because of Vikki anyway, so looking very forward to when we get home and can see them.  Vikki thinks she has the same thing Kimmy had.  None of us want to catch that.  

We went to Bible Study at 7:20.  Then I met Bill in the dining hall again for breakfast.  We sat with Jay and Jane.  Jay gave a really good message at the service in the morning.  In the afternoon we joined in on and watched the bike games.  It was a beautiful day and lots of people participated and lots watched.  Bill and I had fun doing the road kill game.  We came in second.  I got the tiger which was the only animal worth 5 points so that helped us.  Everyone had a fun time and we had lots of laughs.  We did lots of cheering too.

The evening service was good.  Joe shared about our CMA booth and what happened in Akron and Gary shared a testimony of how God helped him smuggle Bibles into a closed country.  Then Jay shared a really good message.  We went and had free ice cream after that.  

Lots of people went and the dining hall was full.  It was fun visiting friends and enjoying the yummy ice cream.  They gave really big portions.  Bay Shore ended up donating half the money that was collected on the first two nights to Run for the Son.  They are always so good to us.  

I worked on my blogs some.  I’m behind so trying not to get too far behind.

Bill and I played a game of 3-13 and dice.  He beat me in 3-13 and I beat him in dice.  We had fun.