2009

Happy New Year everyone! I bet you thought this blog was no more.

Well, I just need to write about our newest grandson, Cael Steven Wallace, born December 3, 2008. I know everyone who would read my blog already saw his announcements on other blogs (especially his mommy's, http://exceedinglymore.blogspot.com/ ) and facebooks, but I just have to say how happy and proud we are of this little blessing! Here's Pappy with his newest "pappymint" buddy. "Pappymints" are what we call the peppermints he carries around in his shirt pocket to give the grandkids.

It sure was a joy for our family to sit with our dear friends the Jones's , Dixon's and Ward's and wait for Cael to make his arrival. Then when he got here, we were all amazed at that long, black hair (which he still has). We must have set a record for cameras there and pictures taken that night.

I am hoping to get high-speed internet soon so that it doesn't take me so long to write a blog or load pictures. You know, it hasn't been that long ago that I was just amazed to get to communicate by email, then the blogs, then facebook, and now, that's not enough....... I have to do it faster.... easier....better.

Well, it's time to go to bunco. I wonder if little Cael will attend his first bunco night with Mommy. Hope so!

Inconsistently yours,

Donna

Typical Micah

I just have to tell this story that Wendy told me about Micah. He was at school the other day (1st grade) and he got a reward for good behavior. It was a sucker and, apparently, not his first one. The other kids that were standing around him wanted it. One kid said, "Micah, next time you get a sucker, would you give it to me." The other kids said, "Yeah, me, too." Micah said thoughtfully, "You know....I could do that, but, it's going to take me a long time to get enough suckers for all of you." That's Micah! Such a sweetheart! He'll probably try to save them up to give everybody one. He seems to make it his mission in life to be kind and helpful to everyone.

I love you, Micah Steven,

Mema

Glory!!

We got the most wonderful call last night from our grandaughter, Bailey. She said, "Mema, I asked Jesus into my heart last night." I can't describe to you how that moment touched me. I immediately was reminded of the joy Gary and I felt, not only of our own salvation experience, but when each of our children were saved.

Bailey has made the choice to receive the greatest gift that our Heavenly Father has given us....His Son Jesus, who became the perfect sacrifice for our sins when He was crucified on the cross, so that we can be forgiven of our sins and begin a walk with Jesus that will take us to live forever with Him in Heaven.

Bailey is 7 years old (8 in November) and has loved Jesus and known that He loves her for a long time now and she has memorized many scriptures. But Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 is now her spiritual birthday...the day she just knew what she had to do. "That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." Romans 10:9-10 NIV

Wendy said she went to pray with Bailey at bedtime, as one of them usually does, but Bailey asked for Doug to come in, too, because she wanted to be pray and ask Jesus to live in her heart.

She is excited to tell people and to be baptized. After Bailey called me, I called her Uncle Matt because August 26th is his physical birthday. What a great birthday blessing for him!

When Lucas was saved and baptized, Doug and Wendy planned a special luncheon for our families to celebrate together. We went around the table and each one shared our salvation stories with Lucas. It was truly a special time! We look forward to Bailey's celebration

get-together.

I love you, Bailey Boo!

Mema

40 Years and Counting

So...to continue my story....after lunch on Saturday, the 2nd, we went to Roy and Belinda's (Lindsay's aunt and uncle and our good friends) house for Gavin's 7th birthday party. They have a beautiful home and pool and Gavin loves to swim. He opened his presents and we had brownies and homemade ice cream.


By the way, I told you I would let you know when the pictures are posted, so check out http://www.capturedbysarah.com/ and go to client galleries, then click on "w8grnkids". They are even better than I imagined. Sarah Boyd is the photographer and she did an excellent job!


Back to the story...Sunday evening, Wendy, Bailey, Ruthie, Karla, Me, Carlene, Gina and Allison all loaded up in Gina's Tahoe and went to the Branson Landing. We had such an enjoyable time. Doug and Larry had taken the boys to a Springfield Cardinals game.


We said our good-byes and the Bischoff's headed back to Houston on Tuesday.


Next thing to look forward to ...Gary's vacation started on Monday the 11th. Since he didn't have to work on Saturday, the 9th, we decided to take off for a drive to celebrate our 40th anniversary on August 10th. Gary brought me beautiful roses and a card. We hadn't really made any plans. We're not big vacation travelers, but our best alone time is in a car driving somewhere...anywhere. We packed an overnight bag and drove out Highway 60 towards West Plains. We visited Gary Hirsch at his Kosh Warehouse (just before closing time), then went to Alton to visit David and Rosemary Case. We had a wonderful visit with them before we drove on back to West Plains. We ate at Ziggie's and spent the night at a Super 8. The next morning we drove west through Gainesville and Theodosia and Protem....until the road was covered with water. I mean, the highway drove right off into Bull Shoals Lake. They had a ferry to take you across the lake. So, since we had never ridden a ferry before, and it was either that or turn around and go back, we decided to go for it.













We got home Sunday afternoon and decided to visit Glidewell Baptist Church for their evening service. We hadn't been there since Frank became their Pastor and Todd the Music/Youth Mnister. It was good to see a lot of family who attend there.

We had a really good week. Gary was working on a project, and I worked on a few things, but we went to a movie, played with Jadon, Haven and Jude, took Gavin on an outing Friday evening, then he spent the night with us.

So now...here we are... back to regular stuff. We've got Matt's birthday coming up on August 26th. Then, we'll probably go to Houston for Ruthie's birthday October 9th. October is such a full month. Another two or three posts, at least. (Or one very long one)

Okay, it's 9:40 pm and past my bedtime, so I'll say goodnight.

Donna

Where Has Summer Gone?

Well, one bad thing about not posting in so long is trying to remember what all has happened in the last month and a half. I see that the last one was July 2 and I know that we had Heather's birthday cookout on July 4th, as we usually do. She always likes a cookout with hamburgers, hot dogs and a flag cake (white cake/white frosting with blueberries and strawberries making a flag on top). Then we shot fireworks as soon as it was dark enough. The next week, I left on Thursday afternoon and drove to St. Louis. The St. Louis 2008 mission trip began on Friday, July 11th. I had to leave on Tuesday, the 15th, so I could catch up in the office and get ready to head out to Denver on Wednesday. Heather and the kids went with me. We left at about 10:00 pm and drove through the night so that the kids would sleep most of the time. When we got there , we already had a hotel room to go to because Jenni, Justin and Stuart (GEM's summer team) had arrived the day before and we shared Jenni's room on Thursday night. It was Jenni's birthday, so we ate at the Aquarium. This shark was so gracious to pose with the kids. We moved over to First Baptist, Aurora on Friday morning and got settled in our rooms and set up for registration.

Todd flew in on Sunday morning and we went to the airport to pick him up. We got back in time to hear Pastor Abraham from FBCA preach. Todd was the speaker on Monday and Thursday mornings and Heather helped me with administrative stuff. But we did get to go to the zoo on Tuesday --our day off. It was a good week and we started home Friday night and pulled in about 5:30 a.m. Saturday.

Then Sunday, Doug and Wendy and the kids arrived. Doug had to leave on Monday for a conference in Orlando, FL, but Wendy and the kids stayed with us. When he came back on Thursday, they all moved over to Carlene and Larry's and stayed until the following Tuesday.

Bailey had fractured her arm on the playground in Houston, so we had not seen her with her arm splint until they got here.

The cousins all got to play together and then on Friday morning they got their picture taken. We all met at Dave and Carol Wright's house, because they have such a perfect house and yard for the pictures we wanted. They were very generous to allow us to invade their space for a couple of hours with eight little cowboys and cowgirls. Sarah Boyd of "Captured by Sarah" met us there and photographed Pappy and I with all the grandkids. The kids wore blue jeans, white shirts, boots and cowboy hats. I can't wait to see the pictures. I'll let you know when you can check them out on Sarah's website. Thanks, Lindsay, for posting the pictures you took. They turned out really good.

Then on Saturday, our kids surprised us with lunch at Springfield Brewery for our anniversary. August 10th, 1968 was our wedding day....40 years ago! Besides all our kids and grandkids... Karla, B.J., John & Beverly, Cozy & Steve, and Curt, Amanda & Jackson were all there. Here's our beautiful bunch!

Well, it's late, but there's more to show and tell, so I'll have to continue this another time.

Goodnight!

Yikes!

Time Flies When You're Havin' Fun!

I have some more cute pictures to show off since my last post. On Friday, the 13th of June, Wendy and Bailey flew in for Heather Smith's wedding. It was Bailey's first time to fly on a plane!They stayed until Monday and we drove them back to Tulsa Airport to fly back to Houston. It was a great weekend. On Friday night, Wendy and I did some scrapbooking. Bailey stayed all night with her cousin Allison. On Saturday night, we had a cookout with all the kids, B.J. (my brother) and Karla (my sister). Bailey and Gavin stayed all night with us.

On Sunday, we went to church and then Gary, Wendy, Bailey and I went to Cracker Barrel for lunch (Gary's choice for Father's Day.) Here's Dad and his girl:

That was the day we got the wonderful news about new baby Wallace. Matt, Lindsay, and Gavin brought Pappy a card for Father's Day and signed it "Matt, Lindsay, Gavin and new baby Wallace (due December 16th).

Sunday evening, Wendy and Bailey went to Mimi and Papa's (Doug's folks) for dinner. Then Monday morning our dear friend, Micky Kittleman met us at our house and rode to Tulsa with us. It was such a good visit for all of us, except for the saying good-bye part.

I spent the next week making my final preparations for Vacation Bible School, June 22-26. Sunday was the kickoff with hot dogs, dunking booth, inflatable pirate ship bounce, an Army helicopter which landed on the parking lot, fire trucks, and a sheriff's car. It was a fun time!

Here's Gavin driving the fire truck:

And in the army helicopter:

VBS theme was "Outrigger Island" with tropical activities and decorations. Here's my room. I was a Bible study teacher and taught a different age group each night.

I also loaded some pictures from Wendy's camera. Here is one of Bailey and Ruthie after they had been to Libby Loo's at the Galleria mall in Houston. It's a strictly girls' store where they can get their nails painted, hair done, some glitter make-up and had a really fun time.

Here's Micah, the cowboy!

Well, this has taken me all day, so I'm going to quit for now. The summer mission trips are less than 2 weeks away, and we have so much to do. I'll try to post again before I leave on the 10th of July, because I won't be back until the 27th of July.

Hope your weekend is glorious!

Donna