Lulu's Surgery Send Off

I wanted to do something SPECIAL for Lulu

while she was in the hospital and recovering from surgery.

 She will be away from home, on the other side of the country, in New Jersey

Being so far away from family, friends and home

will be hard.

So I thought about something that will put a smile on her face.

I made this card and had most of our church

  (we attend to the same church)

sign it and add a verse.

Then had friends write on a note card a prayer or 

encouragement for her.

But first I made a mock-up card.

I purchased all my supplies, plus some.

I used three pieces of tag board for the folder

part of the card.

Leaving space in between each piece, 

using packing tape to hold it together.

The flowered paper went on the outside,

I took a few clues from Pinterest on how to do 

fold the corners that are inside.

I covered up the folder part of the card with

 a blank piece of paper.

It came together very easily for me.

Next, I added some vinyl letters that read,
We Are Praying For You!
 Ribbon ties were added so it can close.
Plus, it looks cute with a bow.

The finished card.
Inside, are all the signatures.

Lulu has a lot of friends and I took pictures of

each one, mounted it on a  ziz zag frame, that I made.

That way Lulu can set it up in her hospital room.

Even her big card can stand up, it she chooses.

It flattens down for traveling.

I thought I was done but I wanted to have the

pictures and note cards from her friends to be apart

of the card.

So...

I added pockets made out of note cards and dollies.

I took a heart dollie and folded it in half, 

put it on the open end of the pockets.

Flower stickers were added for more "bling".

I can't wait to give it to her!
Lulu, I love you very much.


💗💗💗

My girlfriend's daughter, Megan made this T-shirt
and book bag for Lulu.

The shirt says;
"I just had spine surgery...
I'm all screwed up!"

Lulu wants to wear it on the plane coming home.
She loves it!

This young girl has been through a lot.
She will have a six week recovery time.

She also had surgery on her tendons (both legs),
a few years ago.
click here to read.

Prayers:
Lulu's surgery in on April 1st.
They fly back to New Jersey on March 30th.
Recovery is 5 days in the hospital and
about 5 days in the hotel.
Please, keep our family and Lulu in your prayers,

Lulu's little sister, Ila May, will be going with them to New Jersey.
She's helping keep Lulu company and give extra love.
Which in turn, helps with recovery!

Sisters and best friends!

When Lulu has fully recovered,
it will be Nathan's turn to have his skull surgery.
More prayers appreciated.

~~~~****~~~~

"No one has seen God at nay time; if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfect in us."

1 John 4:12

First Day of Spring (?)

Tom and I took a quick trip up to McCall, 

where we have two vacation rentals.

It was a good time to check on them.

McCall has had a record breaking snow fall, 

this year.

The ride up was so beautiful.

Cold but sunny!

My heart always starts to pound and 

beats faster, when I see this sign.

I love it here!!

This is the entry walkway to the front door 

of The Thomas, one of the homes.

Look at all that snow!

This is the view from inside 

The Christine, the other home.

 A huge snow pile.

Our neighbors don't mind all the snow.

We drove around the town to look at all the snow.

As you can see, the roads were bare and dry!

But the piles of snow made for some interesting

pictures.

This is the same house above and below.

It's buried in 5 ft. of snow or more!

This poor, cute house, had all the snow slide off
it's roof and landed in the front yard.
Good thing they have a covered front porch!

Snow plows don't mind where 

they put all the snow.

This house has it's view blocked by a pile of snow.

The next set of pictures are the same,

only I cropped and put a red arrow on one.

This is the frozen Payette Lake.

Beautiful!

Look closely and you can see a man and two dogs.

(don't worry if you can't. I couldn't either)

This picture below should help find them. 

Here I blew up and cropped the picture.

Yup! A man and two dogs!

On the way home it was interesting to 

see all the equipment that 

the farmers used, all snowed in, 

just waiting for the  snow to thaw

Tractors...

Sprinklers...

Cattle herding pens...




Once down from the mountains,

it was more like...

The First Day of Spring!

~~~~****~~~~

"The winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of Spring has come...

Song of Solomon 2:11-12

Celebrating 40 Years Of Marriage! 

 (March 10th 1979)

Tom and I wanted to do something special
 to acknowledge this milestone.

So we hit the road.

Five states in 10 days!

We had a destination but as we drove, our plans changed,
That's the fun of just getting in the car and just going.

We started out in Idaho and drove the first night 

to Salt Lake City.

Mostly snow! 

Leaving Utah and crossed over a small corner of
Arizona....

which was beautiful!

Our next stop was Las Vegas, Nevada

I was so thrilled to see the Eiffel Tower, even

though it wasn't the one in Paris.

The streets were packed with cars, buses, trucks and people.

Daytime picture of the Eiffel Tower

We did go to a show...

Tony and Tina's Wedding

They call it an "environmental/ immersed theater".

Where the audience is part of the show .

And being our anniversary, why not go to a wedding?

We stayed two days in Las Vegas. If we go again,
we'd stay only one day.

 So off to California.

We crossed through the Mojave Dessert.

The smell of the dessert was wonderful!

I had my head out the window most of the time, trying to taking in the fragrance.

It was a sweet, perfumy smell. 

Something like a rose.

Ahhhh.....

Once we got over the mountains to the 

coastal side of California, it was acres and acres of

farms and orchards.

Thousands and thousands of 

Almond trees in bloom with pink and white flowers.

It was so beautiful.

We stopped at, The Bravo Farms

Where we bought several kinds of almonds.

Great traveling snacks.

Mt. Shasta

Lots of rain and snow.

I had heard of the little town of Drain, Oregon.
It has several old and elaborate and historical homes

So we made a quick stop.

The little city of Drain is close to Eugene and
that's where we spent the night.
From there we headed West to the coast.

All long the coast are small towns that
offer amazing seafood.

I'm always looking for the
 BEST CLAM CHOWDER.

Tillamook Oregon is a very important stop.

At the Tillamook Creamery,

you can see how cheese is made.

Taste different types of cheeses.

(I buy only Tillamook cheese)

Buy any kind of cheese

and

there is an ice cream store!

Yummy!

Our last planned destination was 

Cannon Beach.

Lots of memories for our family are at this beach.

We wanted to spend our anniversary day, there.

After driving for several days, 

it was good to walk the beach.

We have a favorite restaurant in the middle of town, that we go to
to get the best Fish'n Chips.

We had just finished eating our fish and chips,
when I looked up at these darling kids!
THEN I LOOKED AGAIN!

SURPRISE!!
It was OUR grandchildren!

The family had driven 8 hours to spend the weekend with us,
celebrating!
I was so surprised.
I guess I screamed when
I realized they were right in front of us!
I also cried!

For the next several days we played on the beach.

Walking a mile down to Haystack Rock and back.

The weather was cool but sunny!

March 10, 2019

We planned a renewal of vows on the beach.

Tom bought us matching sweatshirts.

 Here is Silas handing my new ring to Tom.

Mark read Colossians 3:15 and
Romans 1:8

Isaac came over and stood next to us.

****

That evening was our last time at the beach.
We bundled up and went for a walk.

The sunset was so perfect.

This was the best anniversary!

It was special for many reasons.

But for one young girl, it was really special.

Lulu will be having her spinal surgery, soon.

Lulu had so much fun running into the waves and
playing in the sand.

Jumping for joy!

***

Back home after a whirl-wind road trip,
that had the best ending!

~~~~****~~~~


"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful."
Colossians 3:15

First I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world."
Romans 1:8