11/8/15

Wes's plane flying in!

His plane coming closer

Yay, Wes and Gayla are reunited

Wes and Gayla

Got up and made a cup of coffee to have with my yummy cherrie pie!  Went to church.  Happy to see Stacie and Kody there today.  I was sitting and all of a sudden Cole came behind me and asked if I had some gum for Kenzie.  I had brought her gum and also cough drops because of her going to the ER last night and finding out she had bronchitis.  So sweet that she put it on Facebook.  Love that girl.  After church, we came home and Rody came to go with Bill to get the washer in Midland.  God showed us how amazing he is once again.  The same day that Bill said her washing machine wasn't worth fixing, he found one on Craigslist.  We went there to look at it and it was the same kind as Vikki's dryer.  It looked beautiful in the picture Vikki sent me.  Gayla came to pick us up to go pick up Wes from the airport.  Bill got home a couple of minutes after Gayla got here.  I fixed him something to eat and then we left.  He drove the van and we got to the airport and had a coffee while we waited.  Bishop is such a nice airport.  Grandma and I flew out of Bishop when we went to Colorado.  Wes landed and we greeted him, then headed home.  We stopped at a Bob Evan's in Birch Run and they treated us to a meal.  So much fun hearing about his trip.

11/7/15....Emily and Derek's wedding day! Yay!

Emily and Derek's first dance as Mr. and Mrs.

Love this picture of Pastor Ken an Joan.

Best Cherry Pie Ever!

Loved sitting with these special friends and so nice to see Emily while she is home.

These sweet and amazing guys ended up at our table too.  So fun watching them dance and have a good time.

Went to the dollar store to get some cards I need to mail out, then came home and got ready for the wedding.  So excited to be a part of Emily and Derek's special day.  We got to the Dow Diamond and the girls in the bridal party were out having pictures taken.  It was pretty windy.  We went in and they had it all set up for the wedding in front of the big fireplace.  They had comfy chairs with beautiful white covers and bows.  About 6 rows with 15 chairs in each row on both sides of the aisle.  Pastor Jeff started the wedding while Pastor Ken and Emily's biological dad gave her away together.  Pastor Ken did the rest of the service then.  He had told us before hand that he was going to try hard not to cry while doing the service.  He did a great job!  Bill and I put on phones on vibrate before the service, but during it surri on my phone went off, saying Penny I didn't get that.  How embarrassing!
I had my small purse so got it turned off right away.  Don't know how that happened but lessoned learned is I will turn my phone completely off at events from now on.  Bill was on one side of me looking at me like it was my fault, and sweet Christine was on the other side of me, hugging me and telling me hers did that in church one time.  Sure glad she was there.  Marti and Sophie were glad because it reminded them to turn their phones off ha ha.  After the service, we all went upstairs where they had snacks and drinks.  We sat with Sophie, Marti, and Sam.  The guy called Bill about the washing machine for Vikki, so we left to go check it out.  It was beautiful and so nice.  They were only selling it because his wife wanted a top loader. Praise the Lord!  Rody and Bill are picking it up after church tomorrow.  We went back to the wedding and went back upstairs for a little while longer.  Visited with Emily Nelson for a while and some other friends, then it was time for all of us to go back downstairs.  They had moved the chairs from the service to tables and had it decorated beautifully.  We each got a box made from Derek's grandma's secret recipes.  I got cherrie and dad got apple.  Jeff Davis ate his so his box was empty.  When Jeff Ralph left the table, dad put the empty box in his place and took his pie.  It took a while, but right when we were leaving Jeff discovered it and got his pie back.  Bill was going to give it to him at church tomorrow if he didn't notice.  At our round table it was, John and Erin Galsterer, me and Bill, Jeff and Debbie, Paul and Denise, and Catherine and Jeff.  Emily and Derek danced and started out slow and then did some pretty good moves, and then she danced with her biological dad.  He read some sweet memories of her first.  They did a couple of dance moves too.  I was thinking Pastor had to be sad and that they should have split the song and had pastor dance with her during half of it.  Then the next song, Pastor danced.  It was precious!  They didn't have any fancy moves, but danced slow and as they talked she would keep patting his back lovingly.  Then they gave each other a big kiss.  Erin and I had tears in our eyes and I am sure many other did too.  It was so precious.  We left and when we got home we watched the movie, Silver Bells.  It was very good.

11/6/15 Woke up in the middle of night to downpour outside and high winds. Three tornados touched down in the thumb.

Some damage to trailers, buildings, signs, trees but no one hurt so that was good.  When I got up, I got ready and went to Sports Zone.   Pastor Bob was their so I walked a lap with him.  He had been there an hour already so was about done.  I walked 2 miles, then came home and changed and went to the church to get my coat I forgot there.  Came home and made round steak in the crockpot.  Bill wanted to go for a ride so we went and ended up in St. Louis.   It was nice riding around and it got his mind off of his upcoming surgery.  We got home and I made mashed potatoes, peas, and squash to go with the round steak.  Watched a movie and went to bed.

11/5/15 It was in the 70's today and we went on a motorcycle ride to Blanchard where Praise unto Jesus was.

Riding to Blanchard

Had a nice group of us.  10 bikes and 13 people riding on this beautiful day.

In Blanchard...Woody left right before the picture and Larry Kirkpatrick left after dinner at Maxfieldns so two are missing.

Missing these two sweeties!

We met at Saginaw Valley Community Church at 10 am.  Bill Kozan got a group of us together to ride to Maxfield's Restaurant (one of my favorite restaurants because the food is delicious) and Blanchard.  It was warm when we started out so didn't even have to have lots of layers on.  Amazing for November.  We had 5 Faith Riders, 3 Trinity Riders and the rest were from the church.  Larry Kirkpatrick rode with us.  He was a radio announcer on Family Life Radio in 2000-2002.  I had called him for prayer for Melissa at the station one night.  I remember when he first came on, I didn't really care for his voice a whole lot.  Then as I kept listening, I loved how he always glorified the Lord, talked about his family, prayed for people who called in, and played wonderful songs.  Soon he was my favorite.  Probably because I listened to him a lot when Melissa was at her worst and then miraculously healed made a connection to.  Anyway, I was sure happy to meet him.  So was Bill. On the way to the restaurant, I prayed that God would have Bill and I sit by him.  When we got to Maxfield's, we went to the room in the back and there were round table that sat 6 people.  I headed to the one Hope was at, but Bill said no lets sit by Elaine (she is new in our Faith Rider's) so I said ok and went to the table he was heading for.  Then Larry came over and sat right at our table.  We got to share about Melissa with him and I got to share how much God used him when we went through all of that.  Come to find out, he and his wife just moved to McCarty Rd a  couple of miles from us this year.  God really blessed our day and our ride.  We went to Blanchard next and walked through some stores.  Then we headed home.  The sun was shining and it was such a warm ride going home.  We rested at home for a while and then went to our Officer's meeting for Faith Riders.  Had a good meeting and had fun with everyone.

There's a house on McCarty Rd. just a little ways past Hospital Rd. that always put a big manger out and sign saying "Christ the Savior is Born" at Christmas time.  This year I noticed the house up for sale.  I was sad because I didn't want Christians to be moving away, so prayed God would have Christians buy it.  Well, Larry told us where he moved to this summer, and it was the very same house.  God was so good letting me know He answered my prayer.  What are the chances of me meeting the very person who bought it.  Amazing!

11/3/15

Bill checking in at the VA Hospital.  We used to have to go to the desk, but this is the new easy system.  

Love the Palm trees inside the hospital.  The store is behind the palm trees where the lighted widows are.

Max needed a picture of his papa in his uniform for his hero report he is doing.  I scanned this one so decided to put it on my blog.  Such a handsome Marine and such a blessing to our nation and me.

Got up at 4am to get ready to got to the VA hospital in Detroit.  We got there 45 minutes early so went to the cafeteria for a half an hour.  We ate breakfast and drank orange juice.  Went up to the 4th floor for his appt. physician's assistant told us the dr. wouldn't be in ti 9 so told us we could go do something.  We went to the hospital store and browsed.  They have tons of stuff in it.  His appt. went good and they scheduled surgery for Nov. 30.  Praying already that all goes well and he does good.  We stopped in Bridgeport on the way home for yummy donuts from  Bill's favorite bakery.

Came home and Bill blew leaves and burned them in the garden.  It looked like fog in the back yard and the whole field across the street was smoky and looked like fog.  I cleaned a little and got stuff ready for care group.  Made sirloin burgers, potatoes, corn and squash for dinner.  Had 14 come to care group.  It was a good care group with lots of testimonies and sharing.  Watched the news and went to bed.

11/2/15

Our Maple tree is absolutely beautiful!

My sweet and handsome nephew's 25th birthday is today 

Went to my sweet friend,Lori's, funeral today.  It was so touching to hear about all the stories of how she touched lives and showed love to everyone.  The church was packed.  I sat with Sue and Louise.  There was a meal afterward with the best food ever. Lori's dad told me how happy Lori was when I took her to Vikk's to see the twins, then said we had the twins picture up there!  At the funeral home they showed a slideshow with tons of pics.  Their pic was on that one too.  On the one in the church which played for an hour before, they only had eight pictures.  I saw a lot of my sweeties and love that picture of Lori.  I did some cleaning after I got home so the house would be all set for Caregroup.  It was beautiful outside. In the 70's.  Bill and I rode the motorcycle to Bay City with Luis to go to Trinity Rider's meeting.  It was still nice out on the ride home.  Went to bed early as we have to get up at 4 am tomorrow

11/1/15

Got up at 6:45....the time change helped get me up early.  Showered, read my Bible, prayed and made a coffee.  At 9:15 I left for church as I had to teach Sunday School so drove separately so I could get last minute things in the room ready.  Vikki didn't feel good and Peyton was coughing so they didn't come.  Kenzie and Cole were there and sat behind us.  After worshipping, we took communion, then went back to teach Sunday School.  Just had 5 kids today.  They were so precious.  Aleyiah Nelson wanted to pray when it was time to start.  She always loves to pray and prays so nicely.  We learned about the boy who shared gave His lunch to Jesus to share.  After that I gave each kid 2 legos to make something out of.  They were all saying they couldn't make anything with two pieces so they figured out they should share and make something together.  I shared some more legos too.  The boys made something and the girls made something.  They had fun and were really creative.  After church I stopped at Hemmeter's and bought a pumpkin for my turkey on the porch.  Then we went to Bob Evan's and I had a turkey dinner and Bill had a chicken dinner.  Then we went to Jack's to get bananas and some meat.  After that we went to the funeral home for Lori Otter.  The line was so long, we were in it for an hour and then it was out the door still when we left.  Her mom and dad were so sweet.  Her dad told me how Lori always talked about me, Vikki, Peyton, and Isaac and loved getting with us.  They had scrubbies Lori had made into flowers for everyone to take to remember Lori.  I got one for me and Bill got one for Vikki since she was sick and couldn't make it.  Talked to Sheri and Lisa before we left.  So nice seeing them.  Left and came home and did our Bible Study lesson and then watched watched movies.