Nathan and Audrey videos!

I feel like I've struck paydirt! I'm going to post any videos I come across so I have them in one place and so Great-Grandpa Glenn and Great-Grandma Mary can see them. :D Nathan (17 months)performs his daring "stand up on the stool" routine. Ta-dah! His little cousin, Audrey,(5 months)drives her spaceship! (At least, that's what we call it.) :)

I'm having fun collecting videos. Can you tell?

Nathan opening Christmas gift, on You Tube!

I love the way he taps his foot! What a smart little grandboy! ;) (Son, Josh, assisting.)

And here's Nathan's smart dad! Both of my boys have videos on You Tube and it's so much fun to see them in action. This one was several years ago, but I wanted to put it up so Grandpa and Grandma can see them. (Oh, that's Josh's brother, Jordan, choking him. lol!)

Love You Tube!

Jordan leading worship...

This is my son, Jordan, on the left, helping to lead worship at his church in Joshua, Texas. We're always glad to come across a video so we can see him in action. Our son, Josh and his family also live in Joshua. We miss him a lot, but we're glad they're doing what they feel the Lord has led them to do for now.

A Quiet Christmas day...

Well, sort of quiet, except for Audrey's jabbering in the background. She's a lot of fun!

We had a Christmas breakfast of scrambled eggs, waffles, bacon and OJ and then began a very long game of Monopoly. This is the new version with electronic banking. We finally had to take a break. We're also watching an Indiana Jones marathon. How Christmasy!
Audrey ripping into a gift!
Adam's relatives sent over lots of goodies. I'm glad I didn't bake a lot of sweets. We need to spread them out a little!
Hope you're having a great Christmas. We miss those of our kids who aren't nearby!
Thank you, Lord, for coming down to earth to rescue us. Sometimes we don't even know we need rescuing. I'm glad you're smarter than we are! :)

Minnesota State Bird...the goldfinch?

Some years ago my husband drove what is called The Heartland Express bus. He drove it for about 10 years and transported one young lady who had Down Syndrome. She lived with her grandmother who appreciated the special treatment Bob gave her granddaughter. To show her appreciation she gave Bob a quilt she had made. The quilt is all white and is embroidered with state birds of all of the states, as far as I can figure. Anyway, I put the quilt away in a drawer thinking I would use it someday when the kids were grown and not likely to soil a white quilt. When we moved into our new home recently I came across the quilt tucked in a drawer probably 10 years ago! Finally, I could spread that quilt on our bed in all of it's glory and enjoy it without fear of tiny grubby hands (and feet)!

Anyone who has done embroidery will appreciate the work that went into this quilt. While looking over Ellie's work I came across the Minnesota State bird. Ellie had stitched a pretty little goldfinch and behind it, the state flower of Minnesota, the Lady Slipper. But wait! The state bird of Minnesota is the Common Loon! What? Well, upon doing a little research I find that back in 1932 there was a vote taken to determine which bird would represent our state. The goldfinch won the vote! But apparently it wasn't official and in 1961 the Loon was officially chosen as the state bird. It sure makes me wonder. How long ago did Ellie MAKE this quilt? Wow! Sometime between 1932 and 1961 apparently! What an interesting treasure we've inherited.


I'm feeling very blessed to have been entrusted with this beautiful piece of needlework. I believe Ellie passed away years ago, but I'll be thanking her when we meet in Heaven! :D

Partial family reunion....

Missy and Trev having a deep discussion.
Of course, it's not a family visit without a trip to Rocky's Pizza. (Left to right: Chelsea, Hailee, Aaron, Missy, Adam, Micah, Audrey, Lisa, Bob, Bob III, Tiffany and Trevor.)
Micah, being domestic!
Bob, visiting with grandson Aaron, Chelsea and ggdaughter,Hailee.
Missy reading to Hailee and a sleeping Audrey.
We had a good visit on Friday with Trevor, Bob and Tiffany, Missy, Aaron and Chelsey and Hailee (our great-granddaughter). Trev flew in from Baltimore, Bob and Tiffany from Longmont, CO and everyone else from Fargo. It was their grandpa's 85th birthday and they were surprising him by having a party for him today. So we got to visit on Friday.

Getting settled...

We're beginning to feel a little bit more settled in our new home. We've got all of the necessities and some of the luxuries, such as my bookshelves and books! :) We still have lots of odds and ends to go through and decide whether we need them in the house or if they could go into storage for the time being.

It was a quiet Thanksgiving for us. Micah, Adam and Audrey had Thanksgiving breakfast with us and then headed to Adam's paternal grandparents' house. They reappeared at our place for a few minutes and then headed off to the maternal grandparents'! Oh well, we have them to ourselves most of the time, so we can't be selfish. Bob and I enjoyed our Thanksgiving feast...twice! Then the kids came home for the night and sampled some of the leftovers.

I took the day off from schoolwork, but tomorrow I'll probably dive into more of it. With the sememster end just three weeks away there's a lot to get done. Hopefully, after December 15 I can spend more time blogging, drawing and posting photos!

Happy Thanksgiving to anyone who happens by! :D

Chubby Bright Eyes...aka Audrey!

Foggy day...

I just came across these on my camera. Pretty!





My colorful little oak tree.

Still here!

Daughter Micah and hubby Adam had some really cute pregnant pictures taken just before Audrey was born. I love this one!
Grandpa can always get a reaction!
She still loves to sleep, but lately she's been awake and making some cooing sounds! We're excited! We're getting to spend a lot of time with Audrey because we babysit when Micah works. She grooms dogs on Thursdays and helps to teach a little kids gymnastics class every afternoon. In November she will be the assistant coach for the high school gymnastics team. She's also learning to be a Medical Transcriptionist and hopes to work from home so she can spend lots of time with Audrey.

School's going well. Some days are more stressful than others, but tonight I actually have time to visit blogs, so I must not be too far behind! :D

Having a nice fall here in Minnesota! Hope you are too!

Scaling back...

I had to make a difficult decision yesterday. I dropped my two nursing classes! I will reapply for next fall, but this semester I need to just concentrate on the three generals I have to finish. Five classes was just too overwhelming and I feel like I need to give 100% of my concentration to those nursing classes when the time comes. My nursing instructor was very kind and helpful. I'm hanging onto my pile of nursing books and I will try to read through some of them in the spring and summer so I have a head start for the fall semester. I feel so much better having more time to work on Chemistry, Nutrition and College Writing II!

I went for a two mile walk yesterday and hope to continue doing some walking at least every other day. Now that I only have three classes I may work in four more days of work each month. That should help with the pocketbook.

The next three years will be challenging intellectually and financially, but the Lord can get us through it! :D

My study area is ready for business!

I spent a couple of hours today in my study area in the loft. I cleaned out the leftovers from last spring semester and dusted. Then I took the shrink wrap off of all of my new books and installed them in two small bookshelves. Tomorrow I'll check in on my online Chemistry class which the instructor is opening early. I'll feel better if I get a head start! Other classes begin on August 22.
Bob bought me a new lunch pail for school! (Actually, I'll probably use it to store some of my watercolors in!)


I found these two old books at a garage sale. Even if I never read them, I love to look at them. Do I love the covers more than the books themselves? I'm not sure!

This is a book I picked up at the library book sale. I've read it before and I wanted to add it to my collection of writing books. It's old, but lots of the info is still good to have.

Have to get to bed soon. See y'all!

Here comes school!

I made the long drive to Wadena to the college bookstore to pick up part of my books for the new semester. There were so many I had to borrow the bookstore cart to haul them out to my car! These were just the books for my two nursing classes! I'm hoping that many of them are reference books that will be used for many years to come.

The UPS delivered my chemistry, writing and nutrition books today and I'm expecting another shipment in a day or two with my lab kit. Tomorrow I'll drive back to Wadena to pick up a "nursing kit" that wasn't available when I went the last time.

The huge number of books is a little daunting, but I've decided not to freak out. It's a decision. One day at a time.

Hubby, Bob, and I cleaned out our old camper today. I've stored a lot of stuff in there over the years. I found many treasures in the process. Much of the stuff suffered water damage from a hole in the skylight, but I salvaged a lot of my kids' school papers from our homeschooling days and many old books that I had squirreled away. There were several boxes of books that will be donated to the library book sale, but many others I will keep. There were things in there that I'd forgotten I owned! One tin contained a piece of hardanger that I didn't make. I must have gotten it at a garage sale, but it's very cool. There were also some decoupaged boxes my mom made for me years ago. My collection of salt and pepper shakers were among the finds. I've wondered where those went! I kept a stack of "This England" and homeschooling magazines, along with some "Israel My Glory" magazines. These will be "someday" reading. I'll try to add some photos to this post later.

With the birth of Audrey, the coming of the fall semester and our efforts to sort through a 21 year accumulation of stuff, things are busy around here. I found a copy of "Streams in the Desert" (another gift from Mom!) and I think I'll begin reading it to help keep life in perspective when things get crazy! :)

Shalom and goodnight!

God is good...

"God IS good ! He's the definition of good. He's the reason we need the word good, so we can describe things that remind us of Him." My son Jordan expressed this sentiment on his Facebook wall yesterday. He's beginning a new life in Burleson, Texas and has lots of time to spend with God and practicing music for his new role as worship leader at his church. I agree with him wholeheartedly!

I thought of Jordan's words as I watched television this morning and somebody said, "I have some bad news." Where did bad news originate? Not from God...so I only see one other alternative; Satan. Up until the time he came on the scene everything was good. That's not just a coincidence.

How often do we give God credit for the bad things that happen in our lives? Doesn't He make the sun shine on the bad people as well as the good? No, I think that sneaky deceiver who poses as an angel of light can take the credit for everything bad that happens.

Did you notice that Jesus healed everyone that came to Him for healing? The Bible does mention two exceptions. There were two towns where he couldn't do many good works because of their unbelief. So I have to come to the conclusion that doing good is His will, but we get in the way sometimes. Or maybe we DON'T get in satan's way when we need to?

I don't say that as someone who has a perfect life. My mother is going down the Alzheimer's road, my granddaughter has extreme diabetes, my husband has many health issues. It's not popular to say, but this is our fault! Or at least mine! God gave us all of the authority we need to come against such things, but we've become wimpy believers in the area of healing. Too many have droned on about healing being something for the past. Why? Why would it be just for Biblical times? We still need it obviously. So, the only solution is to see what Jesus did, and do the same. He said we would do the same things He did and more. I don't know when that all became obsolete.

As a Christian I do have the comfort of knowing that those I love will be healed when they reach Heaven, but I think healing as well as all good things were intended for life here as well as Heaven. Sorry for the sermon; my son just got me thinking. :)

(Afterthought: This post is aimed at myself. I have no business judging anyone else's walk. Somebody may be praying mightily against some illness but healing has not been manifested yet. We have no way of knowing what's going on in others' lives. I'm holding myself responsible because I know I don't pray as I ought.)

And now for some of those good things! I took some photos of my weird assortment of flower containers and some of my tomato plants. As I've mentioned before, I'm a bit of an old hippy, so you'll have to excuse the weeds and rustic surroundings. I kind of like it! :)
I love this old wheelbarrow. My hubby found it at the dump after someone used it for mixing concrete. I only planted half of it with flowers and intended to plant some lettuce in the front, but I didn't get around to it. Oh well! They look very pretty anyway!
Yes, I think this IS a chamberpot that these petunias are occupying. It works! :D
I have so many old water bath canners lying around, they have found a new life as planters. My tomato plant loves it!
And this little bait bucket has lots of drainage for sure. I have to water this little flower more often.
A promising spot of red bespeaks the presence of an almost ripe tomato. I picked one a couple of days ago that was bright red, but not quite ready. So I'll try to be patient!
This clump birch in our front yard is a great place to enjoy the shade on a sunny day. I would love to draw its beautiful bark, so I'm putting it here for that purpose.I love this ancient swamp willow. It was old when we moved here 21 years ago and it, as well as many others on our property has just about reached the end of its lifespan. So, I wanted to immortalize it on film and maybe in pen and ink later. I've enjoyed sitting in its shade overlooking a large vegetable garden we had next to it years ago. Now it's pasture for our horses.

Thanks for letting me share my sunny day! Have a beautiful day wherever you may be!

Sketching and holding the babe...

It was a lazy kind of Saturday. Bob ran outside and did chores, trying to beat the rain. He didn't quite make it, but he did get the chores done! I sat in my favorite chair and did some sketching and visited a lot of art blogs to watch videos. I got a lot of good ideas and learned a lot about watercolors.

By lunchtime Micah and Audrey arrived to catch up on some laundry. Their dryer is on the fritz, so we did a few loads and Grandma and Grandpa got to hold our cute little peanut of a granddaughter. Micah seems to like her a lot. I think she holds her about 20 hours a day. She's enjoying it while she can!

Have a great weekend!

Two little precious kiddos...

I just came across this photo of grandson, Nathan Aslan Richards, who lives in Ft. Worth. He just turned ONE YEAR OLD yesterday. I'm not sure if the picture is right-side-up, but it sure is cute! Awwww....

This is our sweet little brand new granddaughter, Audrey Rayne Yliniemi. She just turned ZERO YEARS OLD on July 18! My children were all pretty much bald at birth, so we were amazed at Audrey's hairdo. I guess it's common on her dad's side of the family. Do you notice something in common? Binkies! You gotta love 'em! :D

I just thought that these were two superb pictures. I don't have pictures of all of my grandchildren online. I should work on that. Hmmm.... I could visit Facebook and steal photos from my children's albums. Good idea!


We now have three grandchildren with birthdays in about a one week period! Wow!

Library sale!

Have you seen on the news that Border Books is going out of business? It's a sign of the times, apparently. It was mentioned that e-books/Kindles are the main reason for the demise of this huge bookstore chain. To that I say...

BOOK LOVERS UNITE!

I, personally, do not intend to succumb to e-books. It goes against everything that is enjoyable about reading to me. I love OLD books with history behind them. Books that have been owned by lots of people before me. The old yellowed pages are part of the charm of the experience.

Determined to do my part to preserve the old-fashioned paper books many of us love, I will continue to grow my personal library so that my grandchildren can enjoy the heft of a good book; so they can turn pages and enjoy illustrations up close and personal. What better way to collect these treasures than through a library book sale!

Below is a list of all the books I found for a grand total of $8! Of course, I also spent an additional dollar for the quilt raffle. :)

Children's books:
(Many of these books I chose for their illustrations and they will probably spill over to my art blog in the future! Others I picked up just because they are delightful books to read to youngsters.)
Ride a Purple Pelican-Jack Prelutsky/illus. Garth Williams (love Garth Williams!)
Arthur's Christmas-Marc Brown
Brownies-It's Christmas! by Gladys Adshead/illus. Velma Ilsley (quirky little old book...reminds me of Scandinavian folk tales)
The Snow Queen-Illus. Bernadette Watts (beautiful illustrations)
Diary of an Early American Boy-Eric Sloane (love his pen and ink drawings!)
Georgie and the Magician-Robert Bright
The Great Cat Chase-Mercer Mayer (a favorite illustrator)
Star of Wild Horse Canyon-Bulla
Groundhog's Horse (These two horse stories are for granddaughter Audrey because she will LOVE horses!)
The Coriander-Eilis Dillon (This may be a YA book. I bought it to read myself!)
On Market Street-Arnold Lobel/illu. Anita Lobel (another favorite illustrator)
I Can Color-Usborne (some coloring activities-cute little book)
The Egg Tree-Katherine Milhouse (unusual Pennsylvania Dutch-type illustrations)
You Are Special-Max Lucado
Fantastic Mr. Fox-Roald Dahl (My 29 year old son, Jordan, loves quirky movies and we've watched a movie based on this book. I didn't realize it was based on a children's book. I'll be mailing this to him as an inside joke.)
When We Were Very Young-A.A. Milne
Now We Are Six-A.A. Milne (These two A.A. Milne books are full of wonderful little illustrations by E.H. Shepard. Drawing practice! What a treat!)
The Little Golden Book of Poetry
Farmer Boy-Laura Ingalls Wilder

For Paperbackswap:
Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All-Gurganus
Chop Wood, Carry Water-Fields
The Creators-Boorstin

For me:
Dialogues of Plato (I keep giving away my copy and have never read it!)
Cashelmara-Howatch
Country Woman-Smith
Gossip at Thrush Green, Battles at Thrush Green, No Holly for Miss Quinn-Miss Read
If You Can Talk, You Can Write-Saltzman (This title and next for my writing collection.)How to Write and Sell Greeting Cards-Wigand
The Golden Bible Atlas
Vanity Fair-Thackeray
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings-Angelou
The Brothers Karamazov-Dostoevsky
The Country of the Pointed Firs-Jewett (about a writer)
The Sketchbook-Washington Irving
(Some of these are classics I just want to maybe read someday and others just sounded interesting. If you see something here that you know is really strange, let me know!)

My bookshelves are bulging, but I keep culling and adding new things. I love the feeling of knowing I can always find something wonderful to read anytime of the night or day!

I feel like I had a baby....

Actually, my daughter Micah did all the laboring and delivered a beautiful Audrey Rayne Yliniemi into the world yesterday at 6:23 p.m. Audrey weighed in at 6 lb. 12 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long. The doctor thought she was a month early, but we think they miscalculated, because she's a fine size and very healthy.

I left my laptop with Micah at the hospital so she would have something to do when she wasn't feeding and holding her new treasure. This computer tells me I don't have disk space to hold more photos, but here is the link to the Facebook photo album I made of Micah's birthing day. Hopefully you can still see them even if you aren't on my Friends list!

Micah began having back labor on Sunday afternoon. She and husband, Adam, were on a shopping trip to buy baby stuff with Adam's two sisters (one of whom is due with her own baby any day). They were 2 1/2 hours from the hospital and didn't have their delivery day suitcases with them in the car. After all, she wasn't due for 3 or more weeks! So they ran home, got the bags and headed to the hospital. Micah labored the rest of Sunday, through the night until Monday afternoon, at which time she finally opted for an epidural. Poor thing! She worked really hard at labor, but she was so relieved after the epidural. She had had about 1 1/2 hours of sleep, but she really perked up after the epidural. She labored a few more hours and Audrey came into the world. She has the greatest doctor and the nurse was so good with her. Micah and Adam are 20 years old and have been married for 2 years. They are eager to learn how to care for their little girl, so she is staying in the hospital until tomorrow to get familiar with this new little person and also because she has a blood clotting condition, so they want to watch her. She's having no problems, praise God!

Grandma (that would be me) acted as photojournalist, and I posted pics on Facebook as quickly as I could so Micah's six brothers and sisters and assorted friends scattered over the continental U.S. could follow her progress.

All is well, and Micah and Adam are excited to be parents and finally see their little girl. Grandma and Grandpa are excited to get to do some babysitting!

Ira Sleeps Over...

This is my latest Paperback Swap acquisition. I loved reading this book to my boys years ago. I think I liked it more than they did.
I love Ira's intellectual/musical family....
and the charming old New York row house they live in...
I love the way his parents are so easy going and slightly hippyish...
I love the secure feeling of having a best friend that lives just next door, so sleeping over isn't so scary!
And I love this little attic bedroom. Bernard Waber really captured the fun and tribulations of sleeping over. :)

The demise of the cloth diaper...

My dear daughter, Micah, is due any minute and a baby shower is planned next Saturday. After looking over all of the elaborate plastic "stuff" that has been created in order to separate young parents from as much cash as possible, I decided to take a more practical route. Though Micah intends to start out using disposable diapers she is open to also using cloth, so I thought I would set her up with diapers, pins, waterproof pants and a pail. I never realized how difficult it would be to reach this simple goal!

I purchased two dozen cloth diapers at Wal-Mart. Mysteriously, they do not carry waterproof panties or pins. What do they expect people to do with the diapers? Oh, I see. It says you can dust furniture with them!

So, I drove to both 24-hour grocery stores, Family Dollar (where the lady said, "Oh, nobody uses those anymore."), a pharmacy...and then I gave up.

I did find a pail at Family Dollar that will suffice as a diaper pail. For the waterproof panties and pins I had to resort to ordering online from clothdiaper.com. I also found a good article on caring for cloth diapers at The Diaper Pin which I will copy and include with the pail, etc.

I realize that the majority of people opt for disposable diapers, but I think they're ridiculously expensive, not to mention...where do they all magically disappear to when we throw them away? I also know that there will be days when the money to buy a box of astronomically expensive diapers may not be there, and that's when I can feel good knowing that Micah has a backup plan! :D

Good luck to all of us old hippies who still believe in cloth diapers! And thank you clothdiaper.com!!!

I brake for garage sales!

Actually, I rarely go to garage sales because I know myself well enough to know that I'll bring home lots of stuff I don't really need. Today we were supposedly taking our daughter in search of inexpensive furniture for their new home. She did manage to find a coffee table and end table, but mostly I had fun buying "lots of stuff I don't really need"! And heeeeeere it is! :DA northwoodsy throw complete with loons and a cabin. I love loons...AND cabins!
A little duck family and "Strawberry Girl" by Lois Lenski. Love those illustrations!
A colorful crocheted throw. I don't crochet, so I'm always impressed by those who do. I want to learn some day if only to crochet my own pot scrubbers!
A couple of cute tea cups embossed with leaves. Teacups are another favorite thing of mine.
See! :D I love the little detail inside of the cup.
I think the pictures on this set are beautiful. My love of drawing influences even my choice of dishes!
Here's the set. Minus a cup, but a steal at $3! (And I can only use one cup at a time anyway, lol!)
A cute little bluebird plaque...
...and a another plaque with a good message.
A Psalm plaque, a couple of "I Spy" books for when Audrey (my granddaughter who's almost here) is old enough...maybe six years from now? And a cute roll of wallpaper border with colorful birds.
Oh, I almost forgot! I also got a Sewing Genie, which is a tiny sewing machine, for $2. Hope it works! I don't have a machine and am not a sewer, but every now and then I wish I could stitch some quilt squares together or something, so it's nice to have.
Gee, I guess I really DO need all of this stuff! :D