Happy Birthday to my Husband!

I want to wish my husband a very, very happy birthday today! He has been the my strong pillar for over 28 years! Honey, I hope that your day is as special as you are and that you feel loved and appreciated by all of your family! Your kids love you and I do, too! Happy Birthday!

Fall is almost here!

I am so excited for fall! Fall and Winter are my favorite seasons of the year and I wait anxiously all year for them to come around! I usually don't decorate much for fall, but last year I decided to. I bought some things from Hobby Lobby (I'm sure they were half priced, but then I don't shop there unless it is, usually!) and we enjoyed fall decorations. I had just taken them down and we set up our trees and decorated for Christmas just days before our fire. So I lost all of the fall things because I hadn't gotten them stored yet. I didn't replace them at the time, concentrating instead on replacing Christmas decorations, gifts, ect. This year rolled around and I had one fall decoration, a beautiful swag that my sister Becky gave me right after our fire. I am an avid reader of Craigslist and lo and behold I found an ad on there last week from a lady who had gotten married last year in the fall and had decorated for fall at her wedding. She stored her decorations and pulled them out this fall to sell! I was so happy! So for not a lot of money I have fall decorations, and so do Mandie and Bianca! Isn't God good to provide not only needs, but also wishes sometimes? I will try to post some pictures of some of the decorations that Mandie helped me with this weekend. I hope you all are having a wonderful week!

Notice!

For all of you who enjoy new recipes or like to read food blogs, here is a new one for you. You may follow this link to the blog: www.cookingventures.blogspot.com . The editor of the blog is a co-worker with my cousin, Sue Kimmel Werle, and he has some great recipes! His stories are interesting, too. So, just thought I'd share that with you and maybe you will enjoy it! Happy cooking!!!!

Noel's baseball games

Noel had a good baseball season, but we were all glad when it was over and we could move on to other things.

Catching up!

It has been forever since I have posted anything and I have several pictures to prove that I haven't dropped off the face of the earth! I think they are on my laptop, though. I'll see what I have on this computer. Okay, so this little man is all I came up with but of course he's enough!!!! Now, honestly, have you ever seen a cuter baby??? Lol! He's a doll and now is walking, into things (although he is very obedient!) and has a distinctive personality! My son-in-law and I go back and forth when Wyatt's having one of those "silly" moments, about who he's acting like! Of course Scott always says Wyatt is acting like a Hazelwood! Of course, I have my opinions of who he acts like, but we'll leave that for another time, (because Scott is probably right!). We are so excited for camp, although Manuel and I will only be there for the weekends. I have a conference in Denver that I need to attend and it falls right during camp. Manuel is going with me, so we will fly out on Monday and be back on Thursday, just in time for the last weekend! We have worked a lot on our cabin at the camp ground and hopefully it will be more user friendly now. Manuel and Noel spent many hours working on it and then Steve Werle, my cousin, came down and put in almost all new plumbing! I'm so excited! I will try to remember my laptop tomorrow and share some summer pics with you. In the meantime, have a good day!!!

Happy (Late) Fathers' Day!

I thought about putting this post on here Monday, but forgot! Sorry! I just wanted to mention some of the dads in my life and say Happy Fathers' Day!

To my husband of 28 years: Manuel, thank you for being the wonderful father that you are to your children. As I read Mandie's blog entry to you today, I realized for the first time how valuable the lesson that you have taught your children is. I have wondered many times why you didn't just do things for them, and sometimes thought you should have, and no doubt have told you so many times, but I realized today that they have become stronger, more ready to think for themselves and more independent by learning from you. Thank you for that. If it were up to me, our children would probably be hopelessly spoiled. You truly practice "tough love". Many nights, when the children were babies, you would get up in the night and care for them. You laid them against your tummy when they had colic. You never, that I can ever remember, complained that they were crying too much or not letting you sleep. We have recently had our 28th anniversary, and while sometimes we still don't agree (okay, maybe I should say, sometimes we actually do agree!), we have stood together through all these years and that is something to be proud of and thankful for! We have taught our children that you "find a way, when there doesn't seem to be one". God knew what He was doing when He picked you out for me. Thank you for being the best father that my children could ever have!

And to my Daddy and my Suegro: I miss you both so much! Losing you both was so painful, the hub in the middle of the wheels of both families is missing! We know that you are both waiting in Heaven for us and that makes it worth while! I hope you are spending time together up there and just relaxing! You both worked so hard down here and it's time to rest! Daddy, thank you for always being able to fix anything that was broken, for praying for all of us, for not being afraid to tell us when you thought we needed to do something different, for cooking for us, for spoiling me, for always making sure we had the "right" vehicle, (although I still remember being a little upset about you selling my car without my permission--although you turned right around and put that money into a brand new (wrecked and rebuilt) car for me and made several additional payments for it), for preaching the truth, for showing us that the path well traveled is not always God's will for us and for teaching us to have courage to be what we are! I love you, Daddy! Thank you so much for everything! I'll see you "in the morning"! Suegro, the pain of your going is still fresh to us, and I can't stand the thoughts of passing your house in Mexico and not seeing you on the front porch! I will never forget the first time I saw you, you laughed and said something that I couldn't understand. I will always wonder what you said! After we moved back to the US, when we would pull up in your driveway, I remember you looking out at the truck, seeing the recognition dawning on your face when you recognized Manuel's truck, and then your smile when you saw that your daughter-in-law was with him! You would say, "Mira quien viene!" Thank you for teaching your son tough love. And, to you, I will say, "Hasta la manana!"

Sorry, I got my post a little backwards. The narrative is at the bottom and the pics at the top! Oh, well! What can I say???