The Rest of August

That title is a bit conflicting. August was anything but a month of "rest." I went to the Ozark Empire Fair on Saturday night with Todd, Heather and family and had a really fun time.

I'm not sure what Haven and I are looking at....some kind of baby animals

It's a pot-bellied pig, Jude!

Must be something interesting,

What fun to ride the ponies.........


At the Conservation Department building.......Smokey Bear was talking and moving....






Haven wasn't sure about him....

The kids got to ride a few rides......

The Ferris Wheel.....the BIG Ferris Wheel!

The Dragon Roller Coaster....

And, what else, the train.....

Of course, we had our corn dogs and root beer and loved every minute of it.

The fair always holds a special place in my heart. That was the first job I ever held. It was the summer after I graduated from high school, 1967. I was 17. My daddy's cousin, Carolyn Owen, was the secretary for the General Manager of the fair, Lewis Miller, and hired me to work in the office all summer. I worked and watched as this annual event was pieced together with vendors, carnival rides, livestock exhibitors, 4-H exhibitors and all the other necessary parts of a fair. We received entries and logged them in the books (by hand, no computers), counted out ribbons, answered phone calls, etc.....then it was Fair week! Such a busy week, but such a fun week. That was absolutely the most magical summer for me!

Thanks for taking this walk down memory lane with me....

Donna

Creatures of the Night

As if racoons aren't enough, look what is scavenging the bird seed now!

He apparently was oblivious to the fact that I had opened the door and was taking his picture, because I didn't get sprayed.......whew!

What's next? An armadillo?? A bear??

Living in the forest,

Donna

Denver Missions '09

I just realized that I didn't really post any pictures of the mission teams from the Denver trip like I did in St. Louis. We lodge at First Baptist Church, Aurora, Colorado and we just love this church and their Pastor, Bro. Rico, and one of their deacons who has been especially supportive of us, as well, Bro. Abraham.

Here's the food line in the fellowship hall at FBCA.

Our wonderful head cooks, Randy & Rosie Bumgarner from Lone Star Baptist Church and Ron & Vicky Elkins from Brookline Baptist Church. They have been at this church all four years and we appreciate them so much.

We had incredible students and leaders in both cities......

With incredible worship teams and speakers in both cities

Heather http://wallaces5.blogspot.com has posted some great pictures on her blog, as well.

Next year will be one big week in St. Louis. We're praying for 110 teams to blitz the cities of St. Louis, Missouri and East St. Louis, Illinois for a week with the gospel of Jesus Christ! Can't wait to see what God is going to do!

He's the God of this city!!

Donna

July continued.....

Well, I see that according to my last post, I am in Denver. Just to let you know, I did come home. We left Denver on Friday, July 24 about 5 pm and arrived home at 7:00 am Saturday.

I kissed Gary hello, then headed straight for the bed and slept until 12:30 pm.

I got up and started unpacking my luggage, washing clothes, and making a grocery list. Karla followed me into town to take back the rental car, then we got groceries. Gary was working on the guest bathroom he has been remodeling. Actually remodeling is not quite the word for it. He gutted the room...took out the shower, vanity and toilet. Took some of the sheetrock off the walls, took the flooring up. Basically started over with that bathroom. He knew he wouldn't get it all done before Wendy's family arrived, but he at least wanted to get the shower, sink and stool in and usable. He did get a new floor down, too, and it looks great.

Anyway, I had nursery duty Sunday morning. Doug and Wendy and the kids were driving in sometime Sunday afternoon and having supper with Doug's parents then coming over to our house. We were so happy to see them and just had such a good time all week.

Monday we had Jadon, Haven and Jude so the kids played and played. Here are the girls trying on Wendy's prom dresses.

Tuesday we met Lindsay, Cael, Gavin, Heather, Jadon, Haven and Jude and Sarah Boyd at Jordan Valley Park for our annual "cousins" picture. I can't wait to see them. They should be up this week sometime. Sarah does such a good job. This is our crew having a picnic lunch after they played in the fountains.

It looks kinda like we have a daycare.

Thursday we went to the Discovery Center. I bought a ticket for this bike because I thought Lucas might want to ride, but since he didn't, guess who had to use it.........

Friday night we went to Silver Dollar City. Several of us tried on this viking helmet......

Ruthie's feeling the Viking power.....

I think Bailey's singing opera....

What a fun dad!

Saturday was Gavin's 8th birthday and his "Snake" party was at Matt & Lindsay's house.
He had lots of friends and cousins there.....and several snakes.

He and Lucas are inspecting a rattlesnake's rattle...

Just what he always wanted....wolverine claws..

Sunday morning we went to church together at Springhill, then home for lunch with everybody together one more time before Christmas. The Bischoffs loaded up and left out about 1:30 pm. They stopped in Texarkana for the night then drove on home Monday morning.

What a wonderful week....in fact the whole summer has been great...too short...but great! Once June starts, we are finalizing summer mission trip plans, then VBS, then St. Louis, then Denver, then Bischoff vacation....and here we are...it's August.

Next thing.....our anniversary next Monday, the 10th......41 years. What shall we do, what shall we do? Branson? Unknown destination? Anything is fine with me...just some alone time with my husband will make me happy. I guess we'll find out next week.

'Til next time.......

Donna

Denver Mission Trip 2009

Here we are in Denver. Heather, the kids and I left about 5 am last Thursday and drove straight through. We got here about 7 pm.; then Todd flew in Friday night about 9:30 pm.
The band arrived Friday morning.

Jude and Cael are on my airbed. All of the Wallaces are sleeping in nursery rooms, so there are plenty of toys for the kids to play with.

Gavin, Jadon and Haven playing...

All 5 in their "Worship" t-shirts on Sunday morning....



We all went to Estes Park on Tuesday and hiked a trail up to Alberta Falls and Bear Lake. I think I could really get into the hiking thing. It was fun.

Cael in his new carrier.....



Beautiful families on a beautiful mountain.....





Matt found a little chipmunk buddy....


Watch out for slippery rocks.....


King of the hill.......


Haven wanted to catch that chipmunk so bad.....


Breathtaking.....




Heather took some incredible pictures of the scenery. We saw an elk on our way out of the park and she got some good shots of him.

The VBS sites are going very well. We have teams at 3 parks and two churches. Many precious children are being ministered to as well as teenagers and adults. A muslim man prayed to receive Christ yesterday. I can't wait to hear the reports from today. Tomorrow is parent's night at the VBS's. I'll try to post some pictures of those.

It's so nice to have the kids and their families here. I had the Bischoff family with me in St. Louis for several years when Doug helped with the project and that was such a joy, but Denver has been pretty lonely for me until the last couple of years. Todd is a speaker and Matt is in the band, and I am so thankful that they are involved in this project. Plus Joy and the kids are here with Bob and that's fun, too.

Well, I think my air mattress is calling me. Two more nights then......a real bed...my own bed.
Hmmmm. I wonder what they're having for snacks? Bed...snacks? Hmmmm.

Later,

Donna

This Is The Place!

Going through the food line:



What would we do without Rosemary Case?? She's a miracle worker in the kitchen.







Sunday evening worship....







My room/office.....Remember this, Heather Smith, Erin Ward, Wendy and Bischoff grandkids? Same room...


Boxes and boxes and boxes of t-shirts....



I hope I can get around to get pictures of some ministry sites tomorrow, because I will go home Tuesday night and get ready to leave for Denver early Thursday morning.

Those Pesky Racoons

This isn't my first post about racoons. Right after I started blogging, I lost some fish out of my ponds to a racoon. I still have 4 goldfish in one pond and two koi in the other. They haven't been bothered anymore since we put those little solar lights around the area.

But....the backyard is a different story. I had been noticing that one of my birdfeeders had been on the ground every morning last week. All of the bird seed spilled out onto the ground. I was wrongly blaming the squirrels. But I picked it up and put more seed into it and hung it back on the hook.

Here's the culprits:






You can't really tell from the pictures, but it is a family....daddy, momma and three babies. At least, it's two big ones and three little ones. I guess one of the big ones stood up and somehow knocked that feeder off the hook. But, hey, they didn't even run away when I walked out there and took the pictures! They just looked at me! I wonder if they sell racoon repellant anywhere? I do have a pellet gun. That might repel them.

Later....

Dead-eye Donna