Family is Wonderful!

This is my cousin Hob, Gaye's husband, Colin, and Scott Mitchell. (He makes me feel old...I remember when he was born!)
This is Uncle Ray and his new wife, Joyce. They are such a happy little couple and it is delightful to see them together!
This is all the "Skelton " girls. We all had a great lunch together and a fine time of fellowship and laughter and remembrance of childhood times. and yes, Laura, Carylon did drop me on my head when I was a baby and I'm still here to tell about it. We laughed telling stories from our childhoods until we had tears rolling down our faces. We talking about always climbing that tree by Diana's window after dark and scaring her especially after we went to see Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte and how we all called mama and daddy's brothers and sisters aunt and uncle like they all belonged to us be cause we all spent so much time together on the farm in the summer time ( and besides, Uncle Ray did marry our Aunt Jeanette's aunt after Aunt Dorothy died.)
It was a fun day and I hated to see it end! Joe had a bunch of his friends over and they ate lunch with us , too. They were all very polite and gave me my hugs, which you know I can't live without...We hope to see Gaye and Colin again in November when we're in San Diego since that's where they live. Maybe it'll work out. We just need to be able to get together more often just for fun!!!

Another great weekend

We started our weekend at the Zoe Worship conference in Nashville. As usual, it did not let us down. This is Mike Cope followed by a photo of a guy dressed as John. Between Mike, Randy Harris, the Zoe Singers, and John, they quoted almost the entire book of Revelations for about a period of 3 hours on Saturday. It was amazing! I have never better understood this book or seen it brought to life more realistically! It was wonderful!
Jeff Walling spoke on Friday night and needless to say, he was great too, I just didn't get a photo of him.
Our good friend Janet was there. Of course it was good to see her as always and catch up on everything. Wish we could see her more often! We also saw Alita Gable Clark. It was great to see her so happy. and Ken and Crystal Delano...you can tell we're getting old because we were all showing off photos of our grandchildren!

Awesome Worship Today!

Meet Lee Brown, our new brother in Christ.
Lee has a story to tell. He lived on the streets of Memphis for 20 years. He was befriended by John Kennedy (a Sycamore View member and a Harding Grad professor). He came to talk to our Career Counseling class a couple of semesters ago. He began by saying he was born unwanted and unloved by everyone except his grandmother. He grew up angry, alone, and unloved. He joined the military when he was old enough so that he could fight and kill legally. While living on the streets, he was set on fire, frozen to park benches, ate from garbage cans, had one eye stabbed with an ice pick...About a year ago, Joe Birch, a news anchor in Memphis, helped him get an apartment in which he has been for almost a year now.
This is John, Lee, and Josh, our preacher. His lesson today was perfect to what took place. He came from Luke where Jesus touched the untouchable and unclean and calmed the storms in their lives. So encouraging to see Sycamore View really moving to accept ANYONE who wants to be baptized and embrace Christ as their Lord and Savior!
After the baptism, John and Lee did the communion talk together. It was very touching. Lee said the most beautiful prayer. It was such simply amazing! Praise God for how He is working at Sycamore View.

And there was one more serendipity this morning...Curt Sparks was there. He had come in to do a wedding last night. It was great to see him, but we did miss Nedra!

Rants and Raves!

1.  Several weeks ago, after a year or so of ice cream for at least one meal a day, I had some friends who talked me into going to the Diet Center.  I had done that program once before when my children were in grade school with great success and kept the weight off for several years (until the dr. gave me elavil for my migraines....that stuff made me eat like there was no tomorrow and I gained 40 pounds in 2 months...)...well, after 3 days of eating healthy - fruits, vegetables, grilled chicken, salads, NO SUGAR, NO ICE CREAM, my stomach was killing me - I mean worse than labor pains!  So I called my friend, the gastro doctor  and he told me it was probably my stomach just trying to get used to the change in diet.  It still wasn't much better in 3 days so I went to see him.  After a cat scan, found out I have diverticulous...He put me on antibiotics for a week.  Then last week, I had to go back in and have a blood test...I have an infection in the lining of my stomach!  More antibiotics and in six weeks I have to have another test...Should have just kept eating ice cream every day...It might have killed me sooner, but I would have died happy! On the up side, I have lost, at the last weight in, 9 and a half pounds. I'm pretty sure it will be more next time because my jeans are getting really loose.

2.  Tim and I have an appointment with an attorney this afternoon about the Kroger thing.  They finally called with an offer which was not enough to even cover the medical bills, so...

3.  I have misplaced (I hope it's misplaced and not stolen) my wallet.  It had $200 in it that was left over from the Toronto trip and that is making me really crazy!

4.  Tim bought his airline ticket to go back to Toronto to get his plane but he DIDN'T buy me one so he will get to see Laura and Nigel and John and I won't!  He's going to owe me big time for that! 

5.  And now I'm like Reagan...does no one love me anymore?  No one is making comments on my blog!  (except for Beth....Thanks!  I love you, too!)

Time to Spare, Go by Air

Well, coming home on Sunday was certainly an adventure.  We got up at 6:00 in order to get home in time for Sunday night things and lo and behold, when Tim taxied out to do the final run up on the engine, the right mag died so we could not fly home in our plane.  We took it back up to the terminal and got a taxi to the international airport where we were given the choice of three flights home.  We picked the middle priced one (though still very expensive) that was supposed to get us home by 1:00 Sunday afternoon.  We were late boarding our flight to Cinnicinati about 2 hours.  It was a really rough flight (Thanks, IKE).  Then they closed the Cinnicinati airport because the winds were so strong that it wasn't safe for the guys to be in the control towers so we spent most of the day sitting in the airport.  We finally got out about 9:40 Sunday night - at least it was a direct flight to Memphis and Joe picked us up.  What a day!!!  Not like one I want to experience again for a long time!  When the plane is fixed, we'll have to fly back to Toronto (unless I can talk John or Laura into taking flying lessons and flying the plane back home to us) to get it and I guess we'll just be forced to see Nigel again sooner than we anticipated.  What a pity! 

Finally, Tim came back to the room, and here is a beautiful picture of Nigel having fun playing peek-a-boo.  

Here is a photo of me and Laura with Nigel last night at the Italian restaurant.  He is learning to smile for the camera, and I am learning to keep my eyes open.

Sitting in Tornoto

We are Tornto. No prpblems at all with the plane - Thank the Lord! Laura and Nigel were waiting for us at the hotel! That was such a sweet pleasure. We ate at a very authentic Italitan place last ( not too good for my diet...I've lost 9 aand 1/2 pounds) but it was really wonderful. Nigel has grown so much. We took lots of photos, but I'm having to work on Tim's computer this morning and I don't think he down loaded any of them last night, He was to busy playing with Nigel. He has that same precious little face but he smiles so much more. At first he wouldn't let me carry him around too much, but he evntually warmed uo to me and let me hold him. I think I could cuddle with him all day. Laura stayed with us until John finished his meditation and the he came to pick them up. I tried to trade Nigle for a piece of Teramisue (SP?) that we had bought for John at supper but he was a little selfish and he wouldn't go for that...he wanted them both! Which is just as good, I guess since I don't have the equipment to feed Nigel anymore...well, I have the equipment, but it's not in working order right now.

Tim has classes in the mornings and is free in the afternoons so that works out really well. Laura and John and Nigel will get alone time in the mornings and then in the afternoons we can all do stuff together.

Oh, and Laura got her hair cut really, really cute. I'll post pictures when Tim gets back to the room and shows me how.

Nigel video

Look at Laura's blog for a cute video of Nigel. I still can't believe MY child has a child of her own! He is so precious and she and John are such good parents!

Trip to the old home place - for Tim's mom

Carol and Joan
Joan and her grandparents' graves
Laurel, me, and James
Joan in front of the old house where Auntie Bert and Uncle Gene lived.
The gate to where the old house used to be where George Benson (Joan's uncle) grew up.
The sign "Crestview" at the farm
The old church building

We left early Friday morning last week and flew out to Oklahoma to see Tim's mom's old home place where she grew up. It was really neat. At first I was not certain I wanted to go and didn't understand why she wanted to go, but after we got there it was abundantly clear. She pointed out a tree that her dad had planted and we looked through the house her Auntie Bert and Uncle Gene had lived in. She pointed out other special places in the area. We went to the grave yard where her grandparents and great grandparents were buried. It was really neat and touching. We also looked at the old church building where Joan and her family had gone to church.

Then we left and went to Lubbock to see Joan's sister, Pat. We had a nice visit with her and on Saturday, we went to Shervport to eat dinner with Carol and Charley and James and Laurel. It was a really neat trip.

Christian the Lion - the full story (in HQ)

I am so grateful for all of my friends - new and old as the saying goes, one is silver and other gold!

Family Reunion

Singing and loving it! Aunt Ruth, Mike Williams, Uncle Tom, Billy Williams
Singing some more! Terry Williams, Mike Williams, and their sister, Cindy.
This is just as we arrived at the reunion. Mike Williams who worked so hard to put it all together, me, Aunt Ruth and Uncle Tom, my mom's youngest brother.

We had a great time yesterday at the Williams Family Reunion. My mom's mom was a Williams. We got to see people I haven't seen in years (or some since Mama's funeral. As always we had a wonderful time of fellowship and singing! We used to do this every summer at Ma and Pa Horis's house in the country and we'd have literally trailers loaded with food and then we'd sing til we couldn't sing anymore. It was a wonderful day!

More Nigel Photos

Chicago and Toronto

We had a great time in the Windy City seeing Wicked. I think even Vivian enjoyed the show. She and Tim about walked my legs off but we had fun.
Then we went to Toronto. We landed at the Toronto City Island Airport that is in Lake Ontario and then we had to take a ferry across to the mainland to meet Laura. We went to eat with Laura, John, and Nigel that night at a neat little Italian restaurant down the street from their apartment. They live in a neat part of the city called the Junction. All the light poles have little trains on them. It reminds me a lot of the Cooper-Young district in Memphis. Vivian, Tim and I spent the next day riding on the double decker bus touring the city and seeing lots of historical sights then John, Laura and Nigel came to our hotel and we ate at a restaurant down the street from there. The food wasn't so great but the company was wonderful. The next day, we went to Gilbraltar Point Island. It had a neat light house and lots of other neat things to do. That night Laura and John went out for dinner and let us babysit Nigel. That was so fun! Vivian gave him a bath in the sink. He really liked playing in the water and she also introduced him to a pacifier which he really seemed to take to. I had fun just holding him and kissing him. I was singing to him when he was being fussy and all of a sudden, he just "koncked" out. Then I just held him the rest of the night...that is what grandmothers are suppose to do isn't it?

Here are a couple of more photos of Nigel. We are leaving on Friday and going to Chicago for the weekend to see Wicked (we're taking Vivian with us - she's dreading having to go see Wicked, but she's excited about seeing Nigel!) We tried to get Diana to go but she has to babysit her house and getting it built. She says it is coming along nicely. I might have to run down there tomorrow to see it! Then we are going to Toronto to see Nigel and Laura and John and their new apartment. I can't wait to see my babies (all three of them) and get new photos and see how Nigel has changed!

A few more photos of sweet little Nigel. Looks like he's puckering up for a kiss in the last one, doesn't it?

Nigel

This are not the best photos of Nigel that I've taken, but they are the only ones that I could find after I put them on my computer....too bad Tim isn't here. I guess I'm lucky to just get these on here at all. Nigel is so precious. He just eats and sleeps and hardly cries at all. Laura is a good little mom and John is a good little dad. They have let me hold him some and cuddle with him. Every time I think he's smiling and get the camera set up, he's not smiling any more! But I am loving to get to cuddle with him! We went showing today for several things they needed including a bassinet so maybe Laura and John will get a better night's sleep tonight. I'll put up more photos when I get home and have Tim to show me how to pic the exact ones I want.

Welcome to our world!

Welcome to our world Nigel Timothy Hacker-Wright! He was born on May 30, weighing in at 6lbs, 15oz. He is precious according to his mommy and I'm sure his grandmother will agree when she sees him. Both Mom and Nigel are doing well. She ended up having to have a c-section - no surprise to me, she's so little and will be in the hospital until Monday. I'm leaving next Tuesday to go to Canada to be with Laura and John and Nigel for about 5 days. I can hardly wait! They just live too far away...looks like I'm going to be wracking up air miles to Canada! My only regret is that my mom and Papa Mutt didn't live to see this precious little bundle.

Party Weekend

We had a cookout here Saturday night for the music ministry. Special thanks to Ken Cox and Eric Channey for patting out the burgers. I cannot stand to put my hands in hamburger meat! After we ate, we all went upstairs and listened to the newest CD they are getting ready to do. It sounds great so you are all going to have to come to Sycamore View so you can get one for free when you turn in your visitors card.





We had a fish fry at the Inman's on Sunday night for the Pepperdine group. It was lots of fun. The food was good and the company even better. The kids had a great time playing outside and fishing in their pond. This is Brenda South making great hushpuppies and Crista cooking fish and chicken fingers for the kids. Also Fadea is in the pink pants with the pony tail and Candice Goff id there with Brenda. Sorry I don't have more close up face photos....but I never had the camera in my hand! That's Hannah Newsome fishing in the pond. The photo with the children playing in the wagon is so great. They are have a great time. The two little blonde girls in the wagon are Carlyle and Kaycee. I've got them talking Tim into buying me a big diamond ring like their mothers have. They are so funny. They call him the "purple man" or "pink man" or whatever color shirt he has on and every time they see him, they tell him that he needs to buy me a big diamond or either a swimming pool. They are cousins and they are so cute!

Oklahoma

This was the weather we enjoyed in Oklahoma when we went for Tim's aunt's funeral. This was actually a toronado....we were just too close to it to see the funnel...we were hiding under an overpass...Tim did a great job with the service and we enjoyed getting to visit with his mom and dad and cousins a little while. It was not nearly as difficult on me as I had feared it would be. God is good!

Great Week at Pepperdine!

Can you believe that this is Allen Gillespie....he used to be little Allen who threw temper tantrums and got up and walked off if no one was looking! What a handsome young man he has become! He introduced our group one night.
The Pepperdine campus was beautiful and we took photos of these deer right on campus!
This is precious little Corbin....I'm still not real good at getting these photos in the order I want them in this blog!
We had a great week at Pepperdine! The Sycamore Praise Team and Lynn Anderson did a great job of presenting the Psalms. The Psalms of Lament night was a real tear jerker, but wonderful never the less as were all their presentations. We got to see lots of old friends and it was so good to see them. This photo has Tim and me with Curt and Nedra Sparks, our former preacher. It was so good to see them and get to visit with them. Curt's presentation and the Overland Park Praise team were both great, too!
We also got to see Allen and Sara Gillespie and Brett and April and Corbin Emmerson. Allen and April grew up next door to us. Allen now works in Development at Pepperdine and Brett and April are missionaries in Togo. They just happened to be home on furlow. It was wonderful to see them and I got to play "granny" to Corbin a little while one night during the main session. He was a little fussy so I got to take him out side and let Bret and April both stay inside and listen. I loved doing that....getting ready for Nigel's entrance into the world!