A happy birthday song from grandson Nathan to his Uncle Jordan...

Lyrics:

Happy birthday, Jordan.
I love you!
(Or something like that.)

I should say it's from Nathan and Ellie aka Starry. She does make a cameo appearance at the beginning. Too much joy not to share!

Jordan is in Florida as we speak at a big seminar where he will compete in singing and such. It's the culmination of the past year he's spent with a Christian talent organization called Actors, Models and Talent for Christ. As you can tell, I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, but he's hoping it will help him in his ministering abilities. Hope he's having an exciting time. (You can find out more about AMTC by clicking the link above.)

It's the 4th! Bob took me to a flea market this morning to browse. Now I'm back home and he and Micah are on their way back to town with the grandgirls to watch the parade. I worked so hard yesterday that I really wanted to stay home today... so I am! :)

Here is what I purchased while "browsing" at the flea market.

Four bucks!

 

 

Another $4! (And it has a basket, Pom!)

 

 

 

Most of the puzzles at the flea market were $1. I thought this one was pretty. Haven't done a puzzle in years, but I thought we could leave it out on the dining table and do it while admiring the garden outside.

 

 



 I bought lots of little frames! Cheap!

I especially like the two frames shown below. They are both heavy metallic frames. I'm not sure if the pictures are of "real" people or advertising, but they're intriguing enough I just might hang onto them!

 

 

 

The lady who sold me the two frames below, for $1, also had many oil paintings for sale. They were painted by her husband and were really pretty good. Since I couldn't afford one of those I bought these! (She lowered the price to 50 cents but, since I was feeling magnanimous, I paid her the full $1!)

 

 

Yay! Peter Rabbit! Audrey will love it!

 

 

Sorry, for 25 cents I just couldn't pass up this ceramic spoon rest thingy!

 

 

That's it! I even had money left over!! :)

 

 



Have a great 4th!
Shalom!

Nathan and Starry...

I haven't posted new photos of little Nathan and Starry for a bit. Jess and Josh post a lot of photos on Facebook, but this grandma has trouble keeping up. It's so much easier to take photos these days that they proliferate faster than we can categorize and put them in virtual albums, blogs, etc.! Anyway, these were pretty cute, so I thought I'd share.

 

Nathan seems to be enjoying his new home in 'Tucky, as he calls it. Josh said that the other day Nathan climbed up into a patio chair and got stuck and couldn't turn around. When Josh asked if he needed help Nathan said, "No, the firemen will come and help me!"

 

 

The bathtub was having technical difficulties, so Nathan and his pirate ship adapted to the situation.

 

 

One of my babies...

 

 

 

Starry eating Goldfish and giggling...

 

 

Those little barefoot southern kids!

 

 

Old Jord playing at a church concert on Saturday, I believe. (I probably wasn't supposed to steal this photo. Shhh...)

 

There's a cute video on Facebook. Glenn, you may be able to see it if you click on this link:

 

https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=10200965295232108"

 

Gittin' late. God bless y'all and shalom on your households!

 

One more time, folks!

I'm almost embarrassed to mention it, but to keep Grandpa Glenn up to date...Josh and family have moved BACK TO TEXAS AGAIN! The job at the potato plant sort of turned sour. After promising him 40 hours/wk they ended up giving him more like twenty, which isn't enough to pay the bills by a long shot. SO...off they went. Well, I'm glad they are safely ensconced at Jess's folks' place and they can concentrate on doing their college classes. I think little Nathan missed the grandparents he's grown up with there, so I'm glad for him in that regard as well. His little sis, Starry, wasn't as aware of what was going on, but I was feeling sorry for Nathan. I think this sort of moving around can really compromise a little one's feelings of security.

STARRY

 

NATHAN

 

We'll miss these little boogers! Oh, and here's a photo Jordan put on for his new Facebook profile picture.  This was quite a while ago when he went to Uganda on a mission trip. (Pom, he's the bald guy in the back on the right.)  ;)

 

SAFARI!

Have a wonderful day, y'all!
Shalom!

Things keep on changing, don't they?

Well, what we thought was a permanent move to Minnesota by our kids from Texas turned out to be a short visit. As Josh explored the job market and cost of apartments he came to the conclusion that the cost of living is actually higher here, in our little backwoods community, than it is in the Ft. Worth area! There are a lot of complicated issues behind the scenes, but the end result was that they decided to call this a vacation and turn their van southward once again.

This mom was disappointed, but I really feel that they will be happier in Texas. They are still unsure about whether Jess's parents and siblings will be moving, so they will stay with them while Josh finds a job and they can get an apartment there. I think they are really attached to the community there and that's where they feel at home. So, once again, we let them go. We didn't really have any control over that anyway. They're grown up and have to figure things out for themselves.

We sure loved seeing them and they promise to visit again before a year is up. Here are some photos from our visit.

The first meeting of the cousins who have only seen each others' photos on Facebook!

Audrey and Nathan playing with her little house filled with balls. His favorite toy!

Starry borrows Audrey's jumperoo...

Grandpa's loving it!

Nathan meets Dachessa...

...and Jesse.

And drives Grandpa's tractors...

With Mommy Jess...

and Daddy Josh.

Well, sometimes these big decisions about moving are trickier than we think. Our love follows them wherever they may live, and I'm very happy for Josh's brother, Jordan, who will be glad to have him around. Also, I can't imagine how Jess's family felt when they left; not knowing when they would see them again. These babies have lived with them most of their lives and to see them move away must have been heartwrenching. I know they're rejoicing at the news of their return. I'm praying that these young folks can make some wise decisions and get their family settled in a place of their own soon!

It looks like our lives will settle back into their regular rhythms, until the next change comes about. :)

Praying for safe travels for our loved ones. Thank you, Lord, for blessing us with them!

Shalom!

The kids and grands are on their way!!

As I type this Josh, Jess, Nathan and Starry are on the road. They last checked in from Kansas and hoped to reach Des Moines, IA to spend the night. Then they will arrive late tomorrow. Josh and Jess both have job interviews Tuesday, so there's not much breathing room.

Praise God, Josh reports that the kids are traveling well. They have a video player, so Nathan is enjoying movies. (What a difference from when WE were traveling with little ones!) They are renting a nice little house in Park Rapids, which is about 12 miles from us. They will be close to work, when they find work.

Please pray for safety as they travel and that they will be able to get at least one job between them. They're still trying to figure out if it makes sense for Jess to work, or if she should stay home with the babes. With the cost of childcare she might be better off staying home, which would be her dream!

The Lord is good! When they moved to Texas I never expected to have them back here in Minnesota. You just never know, do you?

It's hot everywhere, so STAY COOL...somehow! :D

Shalom!

Exciting news!

We've had some joyous news at the Richards/Yliniemi household  (aka The Commune)! We've received reports that son Josh and his little family will be moving back to our area! We are now in the process of making numerous calls back and forth to figure out the logistics of moving a family with two small children to a new community where Josh does not yet have a job nailed down. His old employer at J&B Foods (where I work) has expressed interest in rehiring him, but they haven't solidified that. They have an apartment spoken for, but have only a small stipend with which to get here, so Josh will have to work for a bit to come up with rent money. It's really a leap of faith to make this type of move! Of course, we can shoehorn them in here to keep a roof over their heads for a while, but we're praying things will fall into place quickly. It will be SO wonderful to have them here and to get to know our little grandkiddos!

Josh and Jess

Mr. Nathan Aslan Richards

Miss Danielle Starry Hope Richards

Their little cousin Audrey can hardly wait to have more cousins to play and grow up with! (She has one cousin on the Yliniemi side, but these will be the first Richards cousins she will meet!)

Miss Audrey..."Are they here yet?"

Besides this good news, I've gotten to spend a lot of time outside this morning. I did a little hoeing in the garden, helping daughter Micah with her horse and dog chores and snapping a couple of photos.

Bob and I are going back out to play now, so I'll talk to you later!

Shalom!

A snowy day off...

Glenn! If you happen by and see that I've been neglecting this blog for a few days it's probably because I'm spending my spare moments drawing and painting. I've joined up with several art challenges on my Pen and Ink blog and I find I'm spending more time over there, not only painting, but looking at other "artist's" works. So come on over and see what's up! :)

Meanwhile, here on the farm things are quiet. I mean REALLY quiet! Bob is sleeping in his big chair with Audrey sleeping in his lap, while Micah is sleeping on the couch. I'm tiptoeing around doing a little housework. The cable is out-of-order for the moment, so I finally slipped "National Velvet" into the DVD player just to make a little background sound. Now I'm sitting in the art corner of my bedroom composing this epistle. Later I would like to go over to the old log cabin and do some more cleaning and organizing. We have several inches of snow on the ground right now, but later (after the snow melts) we'll need to load more stuff up to move to storage, so I thought today might be a good day for cleaning and organizing.

To spice things up a little here are a couple of pics of the grandkiddos!
Big brother Nathan watching over little sister, Starry.
Starry at one month of age.
Sassy Nathan in his froggy slippers. What a cutey!
There he is again!
These four photos of Audrey were taken by her Uncle Jordan (my son) with his "vintage" camera. (He picked it up at Goodwill for $14 and is having lots of fun learning to take artistic shots.) I think he's captured her personality very well!



Adios for now and...
Shalom!

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!