Oh Melissa - what a joy!

Melissa's birthday was this month and her mom, Mary sent me some new pictures - yahoo!!!!
Mary and Artie raised their family far from the rest of the extended family so it is great joy to be able to share some of their growing up with us.

Melissa with sister, Teresa and their beagle, Wendy. What a great picture of the girls!

What a cute picture Melissa, you would make a great scuba diver . . .

Oh my goodness, what a cute little person you were - and what a GREAT person you have become!


Wow, look at this adorable picture - you were, are absolutely beautiful! Hope you had a wonderful birthday Melissa. Mary, thanks for sharing some of Melissa's life with us, what a joy to get to know her a little better.

This Week's Birthdays!

The 24th was Rhonda's Birthday and tomorrow is Angela's Birthday - so this week belongs to Virgil's family.

I'm sure you all got together at some time during this week - maybe at the lake - and had some good times together. I pray Virgil is feeling well and staying out of trouble!

Happy Birthday Rhonda and Angela!

Thank you Iowa!

This is the company I work for, I am in the HR Department and we appreciate your business. There have been technicians, sales people and engineers going in and out of Iowa for the last year demonstrating this new product. Every time they go I tell them to tell Iowa "hello" for me. They don't particularly like going there in the winter, especially into Storm Lake, Ames and some of the other DOT location. I guess we get used to not having those harsh winters down here, I know I am. I don't know if I could get used to driving snow again.

Anyway, I was pleased to see the connection with Iowa again. Thanks!

This past week was dominated by Dorene's family!

Melissa's birthday was the 16th, I hope you all did something wonderful for your special day.

Yesterday the 18th was Lyndy's birthday as well, Lyndy has a couple of great kids and loves them to pieces. Lyndy, hope your birthday was wonderful and full of surprises.

And Jim shared the day with Jane, the 13th of April. Maybe you and Lyndy were able to celebrate your birthdays together.

Happy birthday to you all - love ya!

Happy Birthday Jeff

Today is Jeff's birthday and he is in Cedar Rapids, Iowa - had to call HyVee and have them deliver a cake to him. I mean after all, who can have a birthday and not have a cake, right?

Jeff at the Black Hills during one of his many tours -


Jeff showing off his "Cubs" apparel - he is so into the Cubs so it is easy to find gifts for him.


And his favorite picture of himself when he was able to attend a game in Chicago, he had some terrific seats and came back with some great shots. Look at that face!!!!
Happy birthday Jeff!

Rhubarb -

What is one of the first signs of spring?? Rhubarb!!!! I made rhubarb sauce over the week-end, remember how it just kind of makes your teeth feel like there's fuzz on them. Oh my gosh, grandma would make rhubarb sauce, rhubarb pie, rhubarb & strawberry jam. I LOVE RHUBARB!!! I think I will make a rhubarb pie this week-end. It is almost as good as Gooseberry pie - right Frank?

For some reason, Jane would just stick her nose up at rhubarb, only tried it once and never really acquired the taste for it. But that was alright - more for me.

Happy Spring everyone (at least I hope it comes to Iowa soon).

Today is Jane's Birthday -

Everyone is looking at Jane, I wonder what was said?
As you can tell, I love this picture! Left to right is: Bernadette, Frank, Mary Ann holding me, Jane next to Bernie and Mark. I wonder if we all took turns riding that bike and if that was the only one they all had, or if it was new? Anyway as you can tell from who's missing - that Dorene took the picture with her trusty "Brownie".

Another Dorene photo, Jane and myself with our favorite dolls. (our only dolls) I still have mine, just waiting to be passed down.

This one is a little hard to see, but it is Jane and me sitting in front of the 'ol swimming hole'.
Grandma was always worried about Jane, she was scared that some evil people would come in power and euthanize the handicapped people. Having lived through the WW II, she had many fears - thank God that none of those came true for Jane. We know that God had His hand on Jane all along and was waiting for her when she died. Jane was not capable of sin, so when she died we know that she was perfect in every way - beautiful!