Hang in There

Got this from a friend on Facebook, (Thanks Kent T.) and I really enjoyed it so much I wanted to repost it here so I can read it again and again and remember the good moral in it!

Enjoy!


In the old days of the American West, ranchers would sometimes take a wild steed that they could not break, tie it to a burro, and turn the two loose. The steed would rear up on it hind legs, snorting with defiance, and off they would go out on to the range. Before long the bucking steed would disappear over the horizon, dragging the helpless burro behind.

Days would pass, but eventually the odd couple would reappear. The little burro would come first, with the submissive steed in tow.

What went on out on the range always brought the same result. The steed would buck and kick and pitch and pull, but the burro, willing or not, would hang on. Finally, the steed would become exhausted, and at the point the burro would take over and become the leader.

That’s the way it is in life. The winners hang on. They are determined and committed. They know that perseverance can bring you out on top.

Lack of perseverance is the reason most people fail in business, in politics, and in their personal lives. Success depends on staying power.

More Memories 20 Years Later

I LOVE having digital cameras and pictures! It is so easy to spend time looking at them and enjoying them!

I was just looking back through some of my pics from my 20 year reunion from Campion Academy in Loveland, CO and wanted to share a few more with you - just for fun! :)


Shawnda, Christi, Shon, Marijane, Ronda.














Sharon, KoriAnna, Kevin (was in a construction accident the week before our reunion), Rob & Stephanie. Our 4 year seniors.













Michelle, Stephanie, KoriAnna, Terry & Mike












Alisha, Dena & Stuart













Duane, Tom & Carol
















Heidi & Tammy















Kim, Brenda, me & Billy















Juli & Stephanie

Family Week

A few weeks ago, the girls school closed down because of the flu bug going around having over 40% of the students out. Luckily I was home because of my surgery and some other 'Divine' coincidences happened. So we had some fun hang out a the Chattanooga Discovery Museum, where the girls learned how people live and deal with handicaps, such as being blind...









...or having to get around in a wheelchair!













The next day we spent at the Chattanooga Zoo, here's a big monkey with my two little monkies! :)
















And my girls with a cute little goat in the petting zoo!



















And the 'hoodie' family on a bench at the zoo! Good memories!

Corn Maze

One of our Sabbath School socials this year was to go up to the Mayfield Dairy and have fun at their corn maze and activities. Here's my precious girls standing in front of an ear of corn made from milk gallon jugs! :)













No one got lost in the maze. They all made it out safely! :)












I hear the hayride was a blast! I didn't go because it was the Sunday after my surgery and I had no energy - but everyone had fun milking fake cows, seeing the actual dairy working and lots of other fun stuff they did, including dinner at Pizza Hut afterward! :)

7 Years and Counting!

My Natalie (Center) just turned 7 years old this weekend! Wow, how time flies. I was just saying to a friend, it seems like she was born a very SHORT time ago! Now look at her with Joelle and friends from her class at Playworld Down Under, where she decided to have her party this year!







She wasn't allowed to have an Ice-Cream cake there, and she's not a big fan of 'cake' so requested chocolate chip and poppy-seed lemon muffins. (We had ice-cream at home with family Sat night! Yummy!)












Family watching the kids and having fun chatting. I SO wanted to go climb around the thing with the kiddos, but cuz of my recent shoulder surgery, I'm not allowed to climb around like a monkey! :(











Natalie's gotten big enough, it was time for her to get a new, bigger bike. She LOVED it very much and they had fun riding together this afternoon!











Sabbath we went to the Michaels in Tellico Plains to their Church Plant, for Doreen and Larry to put on a musical church service with an organ, marimba and singing. It was VERY nice. After the service we headed back to the Michael's for lunch. Before we left, we swapped a Chicken that grew up to be a rooster they had given us earlier. (Too noisy in a subdivision neighborhood) and talked us into taking a couple of quail as well. Cute little things! Only, one of our chickens pecked one of the quail to death. So we'll have to keep 'em separate! How sad sin is! :(







On the way back home from the Michaels we were blessed to see this beautiful rainbow! Very, VERY beautiful!

What a FANTASTIC birthday weekend!!!

3rd Grade Play

On a Sabbath, recently, Joelle's 3rd grade class did the children's story at church. The put on a little play about the life of Daniel. They all did so well. Joelle was picked to be King Darius. She brought her lines home and we ran through them over and over so she could do them well. All the kids did great! So cute and great memories!

Surgery Details & Recovery OR SLAP Tear Fixed!

Oct 6 at 10a I had surgery to repair the torn cartilage in my right shoulder from a fall earlier in the year at work. Here I am being wheeled out of the hospital to the vehicle - obviously all bright eyed and bushy tailed! :) Making sure to bring my bag that has my footies in it I had to wear to surgery! Actually, the surgical table was very nice. I walked into the room and when I laid down on the table it was all toasty warm! Ahhhh! :)









This is what the Doctor saw when he first got inside. Where the bottom arrow is you can see the torn cartilage - it's kinda an upside down 'V.'










Here you can see the tear fixed, well at least you can see where the nice bow is he left all tied up in my arm! :)











Here's about 3 days post op with the dressing still over the surgical site. I was supposed to see him then, get the dressing removed and stitches pulled, but he came down with the flu. So I didn't see him for another 3 days! Boy that thing was getting itchy.






You can see two of the three sites he used to go into my shoulder laprascopically (don't think I spelled that correctly) to repair the damage. Love the design drawn on the top and the funky skin below the stitches where the tape from the dressing was. The front cut had 3 stitches and the side and back only had two. This is one week post op.





Here's the 'scars' almost 3 weeks post op. Thinking about getting a "Bronco" logo tattoo to cover it! **GRIN**













Here's the sling and pillow I had to wear for one week at all times and then to bed! What an uncomfortable thing! :)

















Of course my precious girls wanted to try it on! Awwww - Joelle!
















and Natalie giving it a go! :)

Cinderella at the Tivoli Theater

The Tivoli Theater in Downtown had a local group put on the story of Cinderella. One of my father-in-law's voice students, Lisa, was the 'backup' for the Fairy Godmother and her son, Tyler, was in it as well. So Larry got us tickets!












Just had to take this pic of my Pumpkin standing next to a pumpkin.











The girls LOVED the story and it was fun to see them react to the different scenes! A great experience!

Adventurer Leadership Weekend

The weekend after my reunion, I got to spend at Camp Cohutta Springs for an Adventurer Leadership weekend with my 'fellow' Adventurer Leaders at the Ooltewah SDA church. Here's a pic of me and Dale, the Busy Bee Counselor.








I slept there Friday night instead of driving the hour home and then back Sabbath AM. I was in cabin 8A. A nice place to sleep!













Of course, I always love camp/cafeteria food! Yummy!












We also learned some good ideas for our Adventurer clubs and families to help us all learn how to be better Christians. It was a weekend of LOTS of meetings, tons of information and good fellowship!!!

B-17 OR Build & Fly Award

I had decided to teach my Adventurer group the Build & Fly Award. Then I found out that the following week a B-17 Flying Fortress was going to come spend a couple of days at the Collegedale airport. So I invited my Adventurer Builders and families to go with us to see it - just an extra exciting thing to do for the award!




For a buck each, we got to go tour the inside. Amazing how those men made those long trips in those very cold, very cramped quarters!








Photos of Joelle & Natalie in the nose of the plane where the Navigator and Nose Gunner sat.













Here's a pic of Doreen standing in the Radio room at the back of the Bomb Bay. Talk about antiquated equipment. And to think during WW2 this was top of the line technology! It's amazing we won! :)















Here I am coming into the Bomb Bay from the front. Look at that little 'isle' where the men had to walk across to get from one section to the other!
















My little gunner, Joelle!












Natalie taking a try at being a side gunner too!












I just love this pic of us standing in front of the symbol of all the US Air Force planes at the time! Awesome Stuff!!!

Church Campout

While I was in Colorado the last weekend in Sept for my 20th reunion, Doreen, cousin Teri and the girls went on the church campout at Harrison Bay. Part of the activities included the Induction of the Adventurer club, which was really nice, because the church would be able to witness it more than if it were just an extra Friday evening event.




They had some good time to sit around the fire and relax...











...they also were extremely thankful that everyone was in cabins and they had this big meeting/dining hall to hang out in when it was raining like crazy. They enjoyed singing, games, talking - a good weekend was had by all!









Although the kids still played outside quite a bit and some 'clean-up' was required before bedtime! :)