Geliena, Ill (story 2)

A little ice cream shop where we got our free popcorn

Here we are in Geliena, ILL.  The first night we just drove around a bit and then headed to our motel after stopping at Subway and picking up a little Miller 65.
The motel is perfect and in the perfect location - it really couldn't have gone any better than it did!
All is well, I am with my friends and enjoying life, leaving work and responsibilities behind.
I am tired, Carol not far behind...
Ringo heads to the bathroom and makes her self a perfect little cove under the sink with her sleeping bag and cripto's!  She is used to getting up and down during the night and watching TV and proves to be more comfortable behind closed doors.  After waking up and getting herself a cup of coffee she falls asleep with the coffee in hand...
we won't talk about what happens when you do that in a small cove in a motel room!
We all get up on Saturday morning and head to uptown ...
I love it here...
it is a beautiful place to

Geliena, ILL (story one)

On Thursday November 7th we load up in Robins truck and head to Carol's house.  There is an excitement in me that can not be contained. I would imagine it to be close to how Curt feels when he leaves for Nimrod for deer hunting week-end.
We arrive at the Hacker farm and are on our way about 9:00 am.
We have taken these little fall get a ways sense our 50th birthday - this the first one that Robin has gotten to go on.
Our first stop is in NewUlm (we haven't gotten to far yet...)
Walgreens for reading glasses - then the book store for my book "The Power of a Praying Grandparent".
On we go down the road - heading through Mankato, on to Wells and then to 35W.  It is a perfect day for a drive, which is good as it is a long one.
Our other trips were to Winona, RedWing, and Buffalo, this trip is a 5 hour journey - with Carol behind the wheel the whole way.

Here is proof of her wonderful driving and her heroic parking skills -
she did it!
Parallel parked, on the streets of Geliena, with room to spare!

The Northern Lights

She lines her medications up in a row, I'de say there is at least 12.
They help her to live  life.
As she stands next to me in the drive way her voice raises with excitement...
"look, oh look up there, it is the Northern Lights! I haven't seen them in years and years, I never thought I would see the Northern Lights here!"
I know in my mind, that is not shrouded with the affects of medications...
((these are not the Norther Lights, it is the moon shining through the clouds that are filling the night sky))
Before I say anything I look up to the sky again...
Maybe they are the Norther Lights?
Who am I to decide that they aren't?
Does it really matter the term I use to describe what has brought her such joy?
Together we stand
and  look up in awe at the beauty of the Norther Lights as they light up the sky.

Chicken feet ll

While I was gone on my November Hiatus...
I noticed that gramma forgot to cut the toenails off the chicken feet...
and I heard that Lindsey took a bite -
Oh the fun they had with this chicken on a Sunday afternoon in Foley.

A November day in Foley

Conner D, Jordyn Noel, Cassie Grace, November 2013, Foley

Our oldest and our youngest 2013, Foley

While the guys went deer hunting to Nimrod (pictures to come). Lacey, Nola and Gramma D went to Foley for the night.  Lindsey and Cassie met them also.
My momma
My three girls
Their five kids
and a whole lot of love!

backdrops

Hands hold her high as the son falls over the leaves,
they bathe her in His light, in His colors...
and the golds and crimson surround her tiny shape...
making it appear as she is a part of the back drop that the artist created just for her this beautiful fall day.

Until we meet again

I have always said I don't like the sound of "good-bye".  I have tried through the years to think of different things to say or do so I can just kind of avoid the word...
"se la vie"

Then I see this picture...
I can feel the wave in the air, the excitement in her little body , the love of a mother,
and I realize that we never really do say good bye
we feel it in our heart and hold it there until we meet again.

God's thoughts

He tells the story of " how when he was a tiny baby he started out in his gram-ma's tummy.  God knew that Grammy couldn't handle him so He saved Conner Dallas for Emily.  Conner was then actually born years later to his mother and then that left gram-ma more able to take care of him.  All the while that gram-ma was raising Emily (Conner D's mother) he just waited with God until it was time."
It makes me smile, he is so sure of himself...
and sometimes I wonder if children know more than we do?
Does he know...  the excitement I feel inside when I see him?
Does he know...                                                                                                                                    that when his momma's heart soars with happiness in his each little achievement that mine soars even higher?
That when she cry's I cry?
That in away, God knew of Conner Dallas Harren before there was time, before the first baby's smile, He knew we would have a brother bear blesser in our family -
He knew that although I wouldn't be the one to give birth to Conner, that I would be the one who gave birth to his mother...
my, what a circle of love...
starting way back when...
in God's thoughts.