Mary's Boy Child 

Long time ago in Bethlehem,
So the Holy Bible say,
Mary's boy child, Jesus Christ,
Was born on Christmas day.
 

Hark now, hear the angels sing,
A new king born today,
And man will live forever more,
Because of Christmas Day.
 

While shepherds watched their flocks by night,
They see a bright new shining star,
They hear a choir singing,
The music seemed to come from afar.
 

 Now Joseph and his wife Mary,
Come to Bethlehem that night,
They find no place to born her child,
Not a single room was in sight. 

By and by they find a little nook
In a stable all forlorn,
And in a manger cold and dark,
Mary's little child was born.

Hark now hear the angels sing,
A new king born today,
And man will live forever more,
Because of Christmas Day.

Trumpets sound and angels sing,
Listen to what they say,
That man will live forever more,
Because of Christmas Day.

Brother of the Son

Brother Of The Son
Don Francisco
Jesus, all I want to do is follow,
And give away the love You give to me,
To shine a light in someone else's darkness,
To say the words they need to hear to set them free.

Take this heart of stone and make it over,
For all my life it's all I have to give,
Fill it with your love and understanding,
Show me how to feel and how to live.
 

When at last the Book of Life is opened,
And accounts of all Your servants have been shown,
Lord, let me bring somebody with me,
And stand with all my friends before the throne.

 

Father, let your Spirit flow inside me
Till all that will not praise You is undone
Help me keep my feet upon the highway
And grow to be a brother of the Son.

Copper Falls

 I found this a little bit ago while looking through Lances pictures and it reminded me of yesterday when I was sitting at my desk and decided to write down all the things that I could remember doing this summer. I got a page of my little note book full and another one started before I finally gave up. And I did not even write down this trip to copper falls... Had momentarily forgotten about it. It was one of those gorgeous fall afternoons when the leaves are at their prime. Mom and Dad were gone camping and Lance told Amy, Brad and I that we were going to Copper Falls for the afternoon. Turned out Delvin's went too. We had lots of fun and looking back at the pictures I realized that it was one of my favorite memory's from this summer... I don't think Lance knows what a great guy he is! :) 

Bible School Picture

Okay, this is us. Somebody who is smarter than I is welcome to figure out how to get the sunlight glare off of our faces. But here we be. 

What I Learned

Fill Us with Your Love

Tom Colvin 

 "Jesu, Jesu, fill us with Your love, 

show us how to serve, the neighbors we have from You."

I really enjoyed everything I heard at Bible School, especially Cornelius Janzen's messages on Facing Reality.

But it was the last sermon I heard out there that had something in it that really stood out to me.

 John Ray Nolt preached a sermon on Who Our Opponents are in Life.

He had drawn up a base ball diamond on the board, with all the players on it and he would circle one of the players and say "now this player is such and such opponent". All of them where true but the one that I heard was: A non-disciplined life. 

Everyone has heard that saying "Live every day as if it was your last one." but I had never really thought about it before. It made me think about my everyday life and wonder what I am doing in it to make a difference in the world, every single day. I guess I came away with my favorite song from Bible School running through my head for more than one reason. It says perfectly what my prayer after going to Bible School has been.

                                                         

 Fill Us with Your Love

Tom Colvin 

Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love,
show us how to serve
 the neighbors we have from You.
 

Kneels at the feet of His friends,
silently washes their feet,
 Master who acts as a slave to them.

Neighbors are rich and poor,
varied in color and race,
neighbors are near and far away.

These are the ones we should serve,
these are the ones we should love;
all these are neighbors to us and you.

Loving puts us on our knees,
serving as though we are slaves;
this is the way we should live with you.

Kneel at the feet of our friends,
silently washing their feet;
this is the way we should live with you. 

 Refrain:
 Jesu, Jesu, fill us with Your love,
show us how to serve
 the neighbors we have from You.
 

Trip to PA

Okay so its Thanksgiving this week and I just got home from PA, how about a point by point post about "things I am thankful for that did.... Or did not!... Happen on the trip to PA and back. And just a few random things that happened.
*Okay the number one thing: Energy Drinks! :) They never did let me try drinking two at once though.
*A good trip out.
*The museum was REALLY REALLY neat. (We stopped and spent a day there on the way out).
*We got to stay with the Goods, it was SO fun to see them again, it had be I dunno how many years.
*I'm VERY thankful that we finally found Adam and Sana's place :)
*Adam and Sana were nice enough to open up their home for a bunch of crazy youth for a whole week.
*The boys did not get mad after having their light bulbs stolen I don't know how many times... I am innocent!... I think... Did I ever take them Abbey?
*I am, however, not so thankful that they found a place to get Vaseline to put big globs of on our door nob.
*That we got to go to the CAM open house long enough to look through their books and walk through the cannery. That place is HUGE!
*Monday Abbey went with us to Bible School, it was VERY nice to have her along to show us the way... It was rather overwhelming to walk into a room of around 275 people and be expected to be able to survive for a whole week when I did not know a soul there. I can't imagine what it would have been like with 600!!! Yikes!
*I can't very well write up anything about this trip without saying something about energy drinks, and the Prodigal Son skit and Occupation, I have no idea how many times we played Occupation. We learned that its kinda hard to play with only 4 people and that it does not work for everybody to put in two occupations. I also have no idea how many energy drinks we drank. I should ask on Sunday and add up all of them... Hm... Don't let me forget! And the skit... Well... Here, look for yourself: (When I can get this computer to work right I'll put a link in here).
*I'm also VERY thankful that Bible School went so well. About every one I talked to said that this was the best year they had ever been there. I really liked Cornelius Janzen's messages.
Someday... When I find my song book and stuff, I'll expound on this a little more. At the moment they are floating about in some odd place because I brought them down for Mom to look at and I have not seen them since.
*Chorus was REALLY fun, my favorite song was Fill Us With Your Love. The Songs of Faith and Praise book has it if you don't know it..
*Saturday we went to The Outhouse (a prankster store) in the morning and then went for chorus practice and testimony time at Bible School then we headed out  to the worlds largest Cabela's... That place was NEAT... Go sometime.
*Sunday night was the program. That was fun, and rather hard work, there is nothing quite like standing in the middle of a packed crowd of 250 and singing for an hour. Like I said before, I can not imagine it with 600 people and two hours!
* We headed out Monday and went to Austin and Melinda's place for supper and the evening, then we girls and Herb and Susan went over to some of Nellie's relations for the night. It was very nice to see Austin's again.They showed us around the chocolate shop, its a very nice place, every thing a chocolate shop should be. And then they took us through the back door into Thia Expression. There is some really neat stuff in there, its pretty much exactly what you would expect it to be.
*Tuesday morning after a late breakfast and an interesting conversation with our host's (we discovered that the grandmother worked for Gladys Martin's mother, I work for Gladys).
* Tuesday's ride was... Well... Imagen six youth who are very tired and have had energy drinks. A young couple, who is very tired, but probly not quite so much as the youth, with a small baby. And a middle aged couple.
 Now imagine a silly movie... called Up. Now it is getting later...8:00 o'clock, and the boys get thirsty, so they drink energy drinks because that is all that is in the van. Now the boys decide to quote Language in Context... The van was rather noisy for the last couple of hours! :)
*And now I'm home!!! And I get to stay home for a while!!! And when I'm home I have to do school work!!! Bye!!!

Of choppy posts and run-on sentences and bad punctuation.

I was reading over my last post the other day and it makes me feel a little sheepish... The way I put it together was rather sad, I don't think that anyone who read it would guess that I've done more than one writing course in the last few years. Why? Because I made myself sit down and write.
 My sister Amy enjoys drawing, when she feels like it. It's utterly impossible to get her to draw you a picture when she is not in the mood, and if you can convince her to try it looks awful when she is done. She simply can't draw a good picture when sat down and told to.
 Thats how I am when it comes to writing. If I force myself to sit down and write, when I'm done it looks choppy and has bad punctuation... And I'm in no mood to edit it so I hit the "Publish Post" and poof there's your new post. Like that last one.
The other two starts I talked about were both rather good:
 Hello from Wisconsin. I spent the majority of October in Nebraska helping Jenny repaint her kitchen and helping my aunt Amy after Matthias Jaymes arrived.  I keep trying to decide what all to post... The story about deer shining, the one about the "one suspender people", the one about David Burkey, or the one about... or... all of them!?  Okay, I'll tell all of them if that's what you really want.  But are you sure? It could take a while. Okay, well if you are positive...

 Once upon a time there was a girl... We'll call her Gertrude, no I wont tell you how she got her name because that is a different story, but it has something to do with a train game, and maybe a Holstein cow.   And this girl decided to go out to Nebraska to visit her friends and relations, but mostly the relations part. So she woke up one fine morning and after zipping her backpack closed and making sure that her wallet and phone were in her purse she headed out for the airport, in the passenger seat, beside her Mom, because Gertrude did not have her drivers license, no I will not tell you why she does not have her drivers license because that is a different story, but it has something to do with a silly drivers ed. program.  After going through security in the airport and sitting at her gate for a while, no it was not a farm, I don't know why they call it a gate, she boarded her plane, no I don't remember who she sat beside, when she told me the story she said that she can only remember who she sat beside on the second plane, this is still the first plane part, now stop interrupting!
After she arrived in Milwaukee she went and sat at another gate. 
 See it's better than the other one isn't it? It's in story form, not letter form, and I started it one day when I was in the mood, it's the raw thing, no editing, and I do realize that it needs some, but it's still better than that other thing.
 Another one of my problems is that I like run-on sentences. I know, shocking, but its true. Something about them seems so, um... comfortable. Like being told to eat the whole lemon meringue pie. The only problem is that when you are done and think back over it, or look back over it, you feel rather uncomfortable.
 So thats  my confession, about knowing that the last post was rather sad. Now for another confession: I'm NOT going to rewrite it. Why? Because I'm not in the mood! And as I've run out of inspiration for this post as well, I shall stop before it starts looking like the last one! -Frank

Good morning... No wait, This is the part that you put, "Dear Everyone" or something like that in, oh well, I feel like something different... "Good morning" will have to do this time!

Hello Everyone,
I keep thinking that I'm going to post and I get one started, actually I have two starts in my "Edit Posts" box, both of them rather good starts, but I always get discouraged after the first paragraph because so much has happened since I wrote last. I've been to NE twice, once for a quick weekend trip to pick up a kayak, which turned out to be rather eventful cuz we got a flat tire on the way out and the tranny went out on the way home. We ended up getting a tow to Minnie and then stayed at a hotel for the night... Which was not really in our plans but Abbey and I decided that the trip was one of the best we'd ever had. Oh, and Lance caught a nine pound cat fish while we were there. Its disgusting the way a person can catch fish in their stocked cow ponds out there! It's rather fun though, mostly, all but the fishing pole and worms part!
Then I came home for a few weeks, that I spent doing... I have no idea what I did! School probly.
 Mom and I were trying to figure out how to get me out there for the month of October to help Jenny repaint her kitchen and wash her windows (we got the kitchen done but not the windows) and my Aunt Amy who had a baby two weeks after I got there(a sweet little boy, Matthias Jaymes) then one day Mom told me "you fly out on this-particular-date (I have no idea what the date was) and you have a layover in Milwaukee".
Needless to say I was little surprised, but hey, it sounded good to me! It was too, had a marvelous time out there with all my friends and relations, mostly the relations part though, I did not go to any of the youth stuff while I was out there which got me a rather sound scolding from Marlesse Miller... And a "ha ha its your own fault", when I started moaning about it after I found out I was leaving a week earlier than I had thought.
 So now I'm home, for a week, I head out to PA next Wednesday morning for Charity Bible School, we are planning on stopping at the creation museum  and stay at various peoples places, all in all it promises to be a rather full, fun two weeks.
 And then I get to be HOME for a while, and catch up on my life again, and work for Gladys two weeks in a row, WOW! I did look through my school work yesterday and discovered that I'm not behind at all, which rather surprised me because I took quite a bit off while I was in NE. But hey, that was fine with me!
 The other thing that I'm looking forward to is getting back into NBCC again, its been kinda nice to pull out for a couple weeks and rethink the goal we have in mind, salvation for these kids. And how I can be an example and a witness to them when sometimes it seems like my role in kids club is so unimportant. I've been realizing again how important prayer is. It's His light we are trying to shine, not ours.
 That's all for now folks! ~Frank

You'll Never Walk Alone 

When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high,
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
Is a golden sky,
And the sweet silver song of a lark.
Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown,
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone.

Post number three! Colorado Pictures, I got them yesterday.

On Skyline Drive 

At Coyotes 

Our photo shoot that evening after I got a shirt to match hers. 

Friends and Relations

I found this picture while I was looking for Colorado pictures a little bit ago and thought I'd post it. I think its so neat the way there are people who just seem to get along and enjoy each other no mater how long its been since they saw each other. And they can always pick right up where they left off, six months, a year or two, or how ever long its been ago. Linda and Charity and I get along like that. I think my being second cousins to Lynda helps (I'm going to spell her name both ways because I'm not sure which one is right, and this way I get it right one way or the other)!
 One problem with being related to Linda is that it also means that I'm related to Milton, who thinks he has to be in on all the pictures! So he flopped down behind us, till one of us got irritated enough that he decided that he'd better get lost. I can't even remember who it was that evicted him. But, he still managed to be on the best picture of us. Grrrr.... I should figure out how to photo shop him outa there. -Frank

Chapstick anyone?

Last night Amy and I were discussing eating chapstick, I remember that one time when I was in first grade Miss Ruth gave me a chapstick, I think it was cherry flavored, and it took one evening for it to disappear. Hey, it tasted good!!!! But I also remember feeling like throwing up for the next couple months whenever somebody mentioned chapstick. And I'm just wondering how many of you peoples ate chapstick when you were in first grade? Or later :) -Frank

Summer

e

"The season between spring and autumn, in the Northern Hemisphere from the summer solstice to the autumnal equinox, and in the Southern Hemisphere from the winter solstice to the vernal equinox."

quinox."

I've been thinking lately about the difference in little girl summers, and teenage summers.

Last summer was long, much more lazy than this summer, and refreshing enough to be ready for schoolwork when it came time again in September.
This summer came in with a roar.
I started Drivers Ed. in June expecting to have my permit in a month and get all my driving time in this summer, I realize now what a blessing it was that it did not work out that way. If I'd have gone in and got my permit when I wanted to, there is no way I would have gotten all my driving and drive times in. How could I have?
My last day of drivers ed. was pure torture, I knew that Dru and Lisl and Jube were sitting in the living room at home and I had not seen them in a year, I'd never seen Jube.
So after a hurried goodbye to Emma, a girl I'd met in drivers ed, and promises to get together during the summer(I've seen her once since then), I headed home... And tore into the house to say hi... I have not stopped hurrying around since, well not till this week anyways. I told Mom the other day when I'd had to stay home from work because of the flue that this was my first day at home not having to do something since drivers ed.... And it was true, I'd not had one single day all summer long.
Dot and I were talking one day a month or so ago and she said something about wondering if it was the Devil trying to distract us from the important things. I'd wondered the same thing at the time but looking back on my summer I realize the important things were what kept me busy. Spending time with the family going camping, going to Colorado, Melinda's wedding, a family reunion, and so on and so forth.
My uncle Tim wrote a song called "Million Dollar Life", talking about how he would not trade the things he has done and places he has been for a million dollars. Well I've had a million dollar summer. Sure looking back on it I still cant quite decide if it was the worst or the best summer I've had, but there were so many memories made that for some reason God wanted fit into my 16'th summer that I still would not trade it for millions.
Amy and Brad have both asked me in the last couple of weeks,"Why aren't you ever home anymore? You're always at work or something". Well now hopefully I can not "always be at work".
I cant say that I'm looking forward to school yet, I still am trying to catch my breath from summer time, and knowing that all the time I spent gone this summer is going to be traded for sitting at my desk trying to cram a year and a half's worth of school work (that mom keeps adding to, she got an Economics book in the mail the other day and handed it to me, when I said " I thought I was doing Consumer Math!", she said "you are!", doesn't help much but if I'm going to graduate next spring, that's just the way things are going to have to be!
So yes, I'm glad summers over, no, I'm not looking forward to school.
But praise the Lord I'm me!!! Have a great Autumn! -Frank

"God made us cousins, because he knew our moms couldn't handle us as sisters."

NBCC Cookout

Tuesday night we had a cookout for the Indians on the rez here, hoping to be able to interact with some of the children's parents. Driving over with Lance I got this horrid picture of having not one person come and ending up having a prayer meeting with the church folks who came.
Then I was horrified at my lack of faith and prayed that everything would work out for God's glory. Afterwords when Lance and I were figuring it all up we decided that we had at least 40 probly closer to 50 people come!!!!
When we got there the first thing I did was dig out a trash bag and started picking up trash... It's amazing the things you can find if you look! Three pampers (I told Lance later that was the worst part of the whole evening!), an old shoe, cigarette butts... soooo many of those, two little toy green plastic solders, an old sweat shirt, beer cans, pop cans, and lots more. Thinking back on it I realize how much a person can find out about people even through their trash if they know the people even a little bit.
Imagine the little boy whose older sister drives past and hollers out the window, "you'ed better get home right now if you think you think you are going to get any supper", and she means it. So he grabs four of his six little solders, but cant find the other two, and one of his shoes (he cant find the other cuz he is sitting on top of the big plastic rock and it's underneath the swing set) and runs home top speed forgetting that his sweat shirt is under one of the benches. When he gets home only Auntie and his older sister are home, "where is Dad", he asks. "At the park with Uncle", Auntie answers. Then he's glad he left so fast. Dad is probly standing round at the back of the play ground drinking and leaving cigarette butts laying around and when he gets home he and Mom will have a big argument again, if Mom is back from her job at the casino by then...
Okay so you are all getting the picture. And don't think that it's a rare, I personally have seen and heard the adults arguments... I've heard the little girl sitting on the front step crying when she gets dropped off after school and mom has the door locked and dad's not home.
It happens... My question for you is: Do you care enough to pray?
Tuesday night we had a wonderful time with those people, last night at prayer meeting we thanked God for blessing the evening so well and asked that He help those people remember something they heard or saw. But how many of us remembered to pray today, and will remember to pray tomorrow?

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”

Life!!!!!!!!!!

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave
with the intention of arriving safely
in an attractive and well preserved body,
But rather to skid in sideways,
chocolate in one hand,
caramel in the other,
body thoroughly used up,
totally worn out and screaming
'WOO HOO what a ride!'"

Right now my life is very much going that way!!!! Three weeks ago Dru's came home for furlough, we have been very much enjoying having them around and getting to know Jube. Gabe and Jenny and Gwen got in on Saturday, Gwen has grown SO much since she was two weeks old!!! ;), and we had the whole family together again.

It had been a year. I still wonder how in the world Mom can go for so long at time without seeing her family, its been about 6 or 7 years since her whole family was together!

The next Wednesday we all headed out to go camping. Camping was allot different this year than other years, partly because there were two babies with and partly because it was a different camp sight than we are used to and partly because we had the camper along. It definitely was not what the Grabers generally call camping, but it was a LOT of fun. We started out on a walk around the lake one day and most of us chickened out half way around because the skeeters were so bad and headed out to the road to go back. Mom and Dad and Lance and Amy were a little braver and headed on around the lake. We discovered afterwards that we all walked about the same distance but those of use who took the road did not have to fight the mosquitoes.Friday Lance and I headed out to go get showers and collect a few more things. We followed a different rout home down a long dirt road miles of it with out houses, but there were plenty of pot holes, did you know that if you hit one of those things going about 40 the back of Lance's truck will do this cute little wiggly, jig thingy? Fishtailing I believe its called. We got home and my brave and mighty brother dug out his 22 and tried to shoot rabbits while I inspected window screens trying to figure out how to get into the house because we had forgotten to ask Dad for the key. I ended up going through one of the basement windows which would only open halfways, stepping onto one of the plumbing pipes that was half way down the wall inside, twisting around so that I could fit through the window without scraping myself to death and finally landing on the floor... Afterwards as we were climbing back into the truck to head out to camp again Lance asked me "wasn't the door locked or what?"!!!!! So I explained to him how I got in. :)

Funny thing is, when we got home the next day he and Gabe were both busy, while I climbed in the window again!

Sunday we had everyone over for a cookout and volleyball, I was busy trotting back and forth in between the pavilion and here. 

The next week was full of cleaning jobs and getting ready for Melinda and Austin's wedding and a trip to Colorado afterwards. I cleaned at for Gladys Friday then headed over to the church to help Abbey with decorating the arch. After running to Zellers twice (and the grocery store once to fetch more roses because my dear pregnant sister inlaw and the bride to be were put in charge of placing the groomsmen boutonnières in the fridge, which were found quite a few hours later, frozen solid).

I ended up going to the rehearsal, it was rather fun sitting and watching, and remembering our three rehearsals in the last couple of years.  After the rehearsal Gill and I ended up going to town, did you know that walmart is a little emptier in the middle of the night?

Got up the next morning and after having to find a different black and white outfit because I had not had time to try on the one I thought would work, Abbey, Amy and I headed over to the church with Dru and Lisl to finish some of the decor up. 

The wedding was lovely, very Melindaish :) 

The next Wednesday Dot and Anna took Charity and I over the Minneapolis airport. And we missed our flight by five minutes. After standing there wondering what in the world to do for a few minutes the lady who was helping us told us that she could get one of us one the two o'clock flight for sure ( it was about 9:45) and put the other on standby. So Charity to the seat and checked her bags in... It turned out that her second check in was only a dollar so with missing our flight she actually saved around 20 dollars because she had been planing to hand me one of her check ins since I was only doing a carry on.  I told Charity on the way to finding a place to wait, 

"We  have four hours to pray I get on that flight", and Dot got a prayer chain started. At one we went through security and waited by our gate for another hour. 

People started boarding and I stood beside the line still hoping and praying that I could some how get on, streams of people were boarding, and a few of them told me to "go ahead", "no, go ahead, I'm on standby". You have no idea how that sounds after having hoped and prayed about a trip for a month already (I'd thought that I might not be able to go because of chicken pox, and I'd lost my ticket once). Finally when there where only three or four people ahead of me, and three others who were on standby had gotten seats I went up and asked if there was an open seat. 

"Um... Let me check... Yup, seat number 20E is open" He answered in a bored tone.  How could you be bored!!!!!!!! I was about going hysterical!!!! I was the last person to bored that plane and I think I got the last seat on the plane. As I walked in  Charity gave me a thumbs up and another lady who I had told I was on stand by congratulated me. Charity told me later that that was when she started crying. I'd been crying inside all morning and had almost started bawling a few times but I knew if I got started I'd never stop so I did not let myself.  

Had a good flight, I sat in-between a man who looked like he was about 85, who asked me to shut his cell phone off for him because he could not figure out how, and a pregnant lady who's Indian husband was flying for the first time. "Good, so I'm not the only one on here going...", and he made a shuddery scared sound, when he found out that it was my first time flying.  

After walking what seemed like miles to find Charity's luggage and  the car we headed to "Hannah's House", the three NHM house have names, Hannah's house, Polly's house, and Central.  Charity is at Hannah's house.  

The next day I got to know the other girls in the house some and the little boys they are taking care of. Charity and I talked and cried for a couple hours  out in storage which is about the only place around a person can talk with out being interrupted.  It's funny how friends can talk no matter where they are, sitting on the orange carpet in a storage room with row's of totes on either side, in the babies changing room, on top of a hogback mountain, in a little western shop on main street, in a thrift store, and in the loft of a little coffee shop called Coyotes while sipping our smoothies.  All in all I had a very wonderful time with Chari! :) 

While we were at the western store Charity discovered a cologne that both she and I thought smelled really really good. All the way home and for the rest of the day she would sniff it and sigh... She told me that I'm not allowed to write what she said tho! :)  

Sunday night we got to bed at about 11:00 and after  being awake for half an hour I finally dropped off, only to wake up  two and a half hours later to Charity's phone making annoying alarm noises. So we got up and headed out to the airport in Denver. Did you know that following the signs for "Terminal Drop Offs", does not get you to the right place? We did get there though and about two hours early... We did NOT want to miss that flight!... and  I went in and checked in, after having a panic attack when they told me the plane was over booked and that I'd have to see if I could get a seat number at my gate, I went and and found my gate (got a seat number too, landed in first class even!) and dug out my journal, apparently I looked kinda funny cuz the man sitting at the end of the row looked at me like I had purple hair or something, and then after a little while moved! Which was fine with me :)  

When I got off the plane and called Charity she told me that she had "had a little accident".  She said that she was okay but her voice still sound scared, I could not hear her so I told her that I'd call her back as soon as I got in the truck. Next to me there was a couple who were arguing over a pack of cigarettes and their little girl, she looked like she was Brad's age or so was jumping up and down in between them. "Mom, stop... Mom listen to me, stop it, stop it!!!".

I stood there crying for a little bit then mom called and told me what had happened, Charity had glanced down at a stop light and bumped into another car, she was fine but the van was a little messed up.

While I was on the phone with her Lance walked up, there is nothing quite so wonderful as looking up and seeing your brother standing there after a horrid half an hour! People like me really should try to get more than two and half hours of sleep!!!! On the way home Lance listened while I told him all about my trip and told me that whenever I was ready he would take me wherever I wanted to go for breakfast/lunch. Brothers are AMAZING!!!! :)                                       

I cant quite believe that that was only last Monday, life has dropped right back into "normal" for me. I'm learning more and more that "normal is a setting on the dryer" like Mom always says.      

Yesterday I cleaned Gladys house for her then we headed down stairs to empty out a room she said she had not cleaned in 25 years, you could tell it too! There was an old iron bedstead in there that I took half an hour, a scrub brush, and the garden hose and got mostly clean. She said that she wants rid of it and I'm still trying to figure out where I could store the thing, I really, really like it. Its one of those things that a person could paint black, or white and then sponge blue over it, or dark red, or.... You get the picture.                                                                                                    

Today I finally had a day at home to do nothing but the weekend cleaning and sit around... Wonderful!!!! Now you all know all about my last month or so. God bless the next one!!!!                                                                                                                                   Frank 

Quote of the day:

Me during and argument with Amy over who is better at sewing: "I sewed the jumper you have on!" (she likes it). 

 Amy: "Yes, and the sleeves are falling off"!  

P.S. Charity reminded me that we shopping in Rice Lake with Kara and Danae Borntrager. Charity only stalled the car once (she had just learned how to drive stick) and there was only one bad hail storm... Okay, hail storm... We were standing in a thrift store getting ready to head out when hail started poring out of the sky, started out "nickel size" and in a few minutes it was closer to quarters size! The rain created a river alongside the road that I saw two by four floating sweetly along in. And as we stood in a circle watching it, a gush of water came down from the ceiling right in the middle of us, like somebody had turned a faucet  on upstairs. After it stopped we went out to inspect Danae's car, it is now rather speckled with dents. The tree's all shed a bunch of leaves too. Before we headed out shopping we went to Culvers for lunch, took a couple pictures that I would put on here but they wont go on in the right place. We went to the mall after the hailstorm and looked through the toy shop and the fashion store, tried on hats and sunglasses... I actually have a picture of Danae in a lovely outfit ;) But like I said, they wont go on right. By four or so we headed back to our car which was parked at walmart. It was not nearly as bespeckled as Danae's car but you could still tell that there was a storm. And now I think this long post is really actually finished!!! TTFN!!! 

If you dont have a smile, I'll give you one of mine.~Auther Unknown

Life is Good :)

I've been realizing again in the last couple weeks that life is GOOD. :)
Its summer time, my family is all alive and well. NBCC is going good. Gonna see Gabes in a "couple few" weeks and go camping. I made a new friend at drivers ed. The piano recital is over and I can stop having nightmares about it, it was silly having nightmares about it, the piano was so out of tune even I could not tell when I was making a mistake, let alone the old people! I've got plenty to do this summer: a tea party to plan, a camping trip to go on. Drivers ed to finish up and a permit to get. Cleaning jobs to do. A trip to Colorado. And just in general "people to talk to and places to go"! Also it is really, really nice to have Charity back from Colorado for a month or so here. I rode down to Kara's graduation with the Troyers yesterday. We did some shopping in Rice Lake including shoes for Charity and I, we were walking out to the front to meet up with the others and Tim caught sight of Charity's dress shoes for Melinda's wedding, "You're going to play volleyball in those!!!" :) We assured him that she wasn't! :)
Had a really really good time down there. Kara did not even look scared when she talked... No fare! It was really good to see all those peoples again.
We headed back to Troyer's place at 10:15 or so. After nearly hitting a raccoon and seeing if we could "coast all the way to the stop sign" we got back at midnight or so, Charity and I stayed up talking till around three. And slept till 11:00, its been a long time since I slept that late, but I guess its been a long time since I talked that late too.
And now I need to get back to work, I've got a lawn to mow, a room to clean and the "office" to clean. TTFN!!!!!!!! -Frank

A month ago when Mom signed me up for drivers ed. I had a gut feeling that it was not a good idea, now I know why... I'm beginning to get a very large dislike for my gut feelings, they almost always are right, and they are always negative! I found out today that I will not be getting my "temp", or "permit" next week as I was hoping to. Mr. Olin wont sign my DMV form till I'm "paid in full ", which means that I still have to give them a large amount of money. And that means that part of my cleaning money for the next two months goes to that... that is not quite what I had in mind! :P
What I would like to know is why we home schoolers have to pay twice as much as the kids who are enroled in HHS when we do pay our school taxes.
So today is one of those days that I am having a hard time "rejoicing" and "being glad" in!
Also tonight is the piano recital and I've already got a large amount of butterflies in my stomach.
Sooo, that's my moan for that day!!!!
Have a great weekend! -Frank

Little Bit

K, I only have time for a little tiny post so I shall do the point by point thing again, sorry folks.
* Last Friday when we were headed out from camping I called Gladys to tell her that I was going to be a little late and she reminded me, a little late, that I was supposed to clean on Thursday, so we decided that
I would clean on Saturday afternoon.
*Saturday was one of those days that you work ALL day long, from ten till nine thirty to be exact.
Mom went to pick up Val for Susan and Herbs surprise birthday party and did not get home till ten, and she found us all down stairs watching a movie, we got the brainy idea to go watch a movie at nine thirty. Why do Grabers do the things they do?
* Sunday morning was lovely, Val went to church with us and Susan was VERY surprised :) :) :)
Marv preached on Having the Mind of Christ and afterwords Lance and Noah headed over to the gym to make sure it was open for our "volley ball game".
*The gym was not open so we all scrambled around at the pavilion across from our place and people started showing up, it was interesting seeing all the different people from all the different back grounds.
*Herb said he knew that something was up but did not have any idea how many people would be there and Susan was very surprised :)
* Monday I started Drivers Ed. and other than getting there late because we could not find the class room, and we thought that it started later than it really did, it went really well. Its really interesting looking at all the different people in that class, the girl who asked questions like crazy, they guy who drones out the answers to her question from the back row in a bored tone and is always stretching like he just woke up, the girl who dyed her hair black underneath and blond on top... That looks weird btw, don't try it!... The guy who looks like he can't be a whole lot older than Brad... And the girl who actually talks to those weird girls who always come late (Eileen and I).
*NBCC went really good last night, there were only five kids though, about half of what we had been having. You can all be praying that they all keep coming this summer. We usually have hardly any children during the summer. You can also be praying that we would have the wisdom to answer the questions that they are begining to ask. Last night the question was "who made God?", some of the others are, "does everybody have a guardian angel?", and, "how could Noah live to be that old?".
I don't think we ever did convince them that Noah really did live to be "that" , old! :)
*Anyways its time for me to get going. Have a great rest of the week! :)
-FRANK

Camping

You should have seen all the ticks....

I think we three youngest were all guilty of violating this sign.

Mom cut out three dresses.

The trailer was a little crowded... Just kidding, Mom wanted a picture.

Guess what this is.

That's MY sister! :)

... Amy has informed me that SHE took this picture :)...

I was busy doing the dishes and Amy and Brad found a big hole on the edge of one of the fields.
We headed out last night at five or so and it was VERY dusting, by this morning it was VERY, VERY muddy.

When you dont understand...

"Trust His Heart"
All things work for our good
Though sometimes we don't see how they could
Struggles that break our hearts in two
Sometimes blind us to the truth
Our Father knows what best for us
His ways are not our own
So when your pathway grows dim
And you just don't see Him
Remember you're never alone

God is too wise to be mistaken
God is too good to be unkind
So when you don't understand
When you don't see His plan
When you can't trace His hand
Trust His heart
Trust His heart

He sees the master plan
And He holds our future in His hand
So don't live as those who have no hope
All our hope is found in Him
We see the present clearly
But He sees the first and the last
And like a tapestry
He's weaving you and me
To someday be just like Him

God is too wise to be mistaken
God is too good to be unkind
So when you don't understand
When you don't see His plan
When you can't trace His hand
Trust His heart
Trust His heart

He alone is faithful and true
He alone knows what is best for you

God is too wise to be mistaken
God is too good to be unkind
So when you don't understand
When you don't see His plan
When you can't trace His hand
Trust His heart
Trust His heart

When you don't understand
When you don't see His plan
When you can't trace His hand
Trust His heart
Trust His heart

Like What

Mom says I should post about something interesting. So I shall... Point by point! :)
* We had an end of the school year picnic Saturday. FUN!!!
* I stayed up late that night talking to Amy and Anna and Naomi, after crying because I was not in NE with the other girls... Silly me...
* Had a lovely church service Sunday morning. Terrible volleyball. And Abbey and Hannah showed up Sunday evening.
*Stayed up till one watching a movie and then slept down in the basement with Mom because all the guys were gone camping and down stairs had AC.
* Monday morning did odd's n end's around here and Mom and Abbey went up to the Library and got three more movies , we played Settlers with Dad until ten then we girls all headed out to the camper to watch a movie, we finished up at one and then came in and had root beer floats and showers and watched another movie, till three...
*Which is why I was so incredibly tired at NBCC last night. We had six children, who were all feeling a little cranky. But over all it went pretty well... Some day I'm going to remember to take the camera so I can make a poster for church.
*We also went over to Mullets and we girls went swimming in their pool while the guys went to the lake... It was WONDERFUL to be in the water again! :)
*And now it is time for me to go change the laundry.
TTFN-Frank

Taking pictures.

I was taking pictures when we went on our walk last night. Brad was sure that I was going to be "road kill" when I stopped in the middle of the road to take this picture. He was also sure that garage doors, shed doors, and mail boxes are odd things to take pictures of. So I explained how he would never find another mail box just like it so that meant it deserved to have its picture taken... Not sure if he believed me or not... He did find an old banana skin someone had thrown out the window, tilted his head back and held it over his mouth and told me to take a picture, not sure why something like that is worthy of a picture when cute garage doors are not! -Frank

I've got the best Mom in the whole world! :) Happy Mothers Day!!!!

Raindrops on Roses

Lately I've been learning to focus on the "rain drops on roses" in my life... And trying to learn not to dwell on the "dog bites and bee stings".
It seems like God is trying to teach me to rely on him for everything, the joy-and-peace that every girl wants, and also the friend-to-talk to that every girl needs.
I've been thinking about how the dog bites and bee stings in my life are the results of other peoples fulfilled dreams. Lisl marrying and moving to Thailand... Jenny marrying and moving to Nebraska... Charity going to Colorado. And so on. And it makes me wonder, when I go to fulfill my dreams, who all will miss me? How many people will suddenly realize that they don't have a best friend around to tell all their secrets to and go shopping with? Will my family wish I was here to sing silly songs on road trips, wish that I could have an orange car, and suddenly need cheese cake at ten o'clock at night when we are playing Settlers? What will people miss about me?
So, like I said before, I'm learning to focus on the "rain drops on roses" in my life. The seven new goldfish, NBCC, my flower garden, piano, singing with Mom and Amy, sewing projects, tea party plan's, ect. and (this is not a bright spot btw!) finishing schoolwork.
Anyways, I need to go finish folding the laundry. Have a good week! -Frank

Have you ever heard of trash can diving?

Yesterday afternoon Brad told me that we were going to Rice Lake when Dad got home.
"Oh good", I thought to my self. We headed out at 4:30 and went to Aldi and so on, finally we landed at...
Just guess.... WALMART!!!!! Amy and I trotted around doing this and that, I was looking at the sunglasses (All they have is those huge goggles that look dumb on me cuz my face is to narrow, but I got some.) And Amy came over and informed me that they had the watch she wanted, so I bought it for her.
We headed out to the truck before Mom and Dad where ready and we were happily sipping Dr. Pepper and trying on my new purple sunglasses.... When they called and said that whoever had bought that watch needed to come in, it was making the security, beeper go (We had thrown our stuff in the cart as we walked out the door).
"Oh great", I thought to myself and marched back in.
I came in the door and they where all standing around talking to a gray haired gentleman who was the security guard. "I threw my receipt in that trash can." I informed them... Sooo the gray haired gentleman and I went trash can diving! We must have looked a sight standing there laughing and inspecting crumpled receipts, but I found it! And Amy got to keep her turquoise colored watch.
Moral: Never throw away your receipts, even if you do pay in cash!
-FRANK

Its been a month, but I'm back!

We went out to NE last week to visit Jenny and Gabe, and of course Gwen! And Amy and I ended up staying ten days, FUN!
We spent the time shopping, sewing, window washing, visiting, and just generally enjoying ourselves.
The Saturday before we left Gabe and Jenny took Clark and Charlotte and Amy and I to The Arch, Its a museum over the free way. There was some pretty impressive stuff in there. Then we spent the afternoon having a picnic and looking for the sand hills.... They kept moving father away!... Well maybe it just seemed that way... At sunset we all went to a park and watched the sand hill cranes come in by the hundreds to roost by the river for the night. That is what the top picture is, I cant get this thing to put them in the right order. Grrrrr..... We headed home Monday morning, Had a very nice time coming home... Did you know that you feel much more "Alive, alert, awake, enthusiastic" After drinking... Well lest just say lots... Of Mt. Dew!?
We saw some pelicans along the way, but for some reason no one believed my claims of seeing hippo's and alligators... Wonder why? We stopped along the St. Croix river and sat and watched it for a while, it was beautiful down there! We took a beautiful rout home through some back in the boondocks farming country, It reminded me of the types of places you read about in James Harriot's books.
The day after we got home I dived back into "normal" life again, cleaning, NBCC, piano lessons, school, ect.
And speaking of school its high time I was doing some! See ya all later! -FRANK

Beautiful Weather

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous lately, yesterday Eileen and I sat in the bean straw stack at Rupert's for an hour and I actualy got a sunburn! And we ate outside last evening.
Summer is on the way folks!

It's Fine Today
Poet: By Douglas Malloch

Sure, this world is full of trouble-
I ain't said it ain't.
Yes, I've had enough and double
Reason for complaint;
Rain and storm have come to fret me,
Skies are often gray;
Thorns and brambles have beset me
On the road - but say,
Ain't it fine today?

What's the use of always weepin',
Making trouble last?
What's the use of always keepin'
Thinkin' of the past?
Each must have his tribulation -
Water with his wine;
Life, it ain't no celebration,
Trouble? - I've had mine -
But today is fine!

It's today that I am livin',
Not a month ago.
Havin'; losin'; takin'; givin';
As time wills it so.
Yesterday a cloud of sorrow
Fell across the way,
It may rain again tomorrow,
It may rain - but say,

Aint it fine today?

I'm Alive!!!

Its a lovely blue skied morning in Wisconsin today. I've just eaten a humongous breaky and I need to go fix the zipper in my Sugar on Snow dress, if there is one thing about sewing (and there is certainly more than one thing!) that I don't like its putting the zipper in. But I should like to know how in the world I'm going to sit down to a sewing machine when Mom brought home a new book from Grandma's last night and there is a snowmobile sitting outside!?
Sitting here looking out the window I can see the snow sparkling. Isn't it amazing that God not only thought to make snow white instead of... say green... He also thought make it sparkly, and cold, imagine having warm snow! People keep talking about how they can't wait till spring, I am like so totally NOT ready for spring! I mean, I've only gone skating three times. And I have not gone skiing once, and I have not had one single snowball fight and I haven't dug a snow tunnel.
Seems so funny, I cant remember one other winter that I did not go out to the big snowbank across from the fire hall and dig tunnels and slide down in Mom's biggest dish pan. But I have gone sledding and snowmobiling in abundance, Lance bought these snowmobiles and I bet I've spent at least twice as much time on it as he has!
Anyways enough rambling I need to go get my sewing done and I really should do some schoolwork. ~Frank

Happy Birthday Lisl!!!

Gray Hair and Hearing Aids

I've decided that sixteen is definitely older than fifteen, sixteen is when people start asking if you have a job. People ask what you plan on doing when you are out of school. And if you are going to Bible School next winter. But the question they ask most is "so, do you have your drivers license?". And you always primly answer no. Your younger siblings start calling you an old lady when you can't seem to get enough energy to go sledding with them, or hollering "watch out for her cane" when you start beating on someone for asking how many gray hairs you have found. Sixteen is the age when every time you are with a young mom she asks if you can baby sit next week (I enjoy doing this btw). Sixteen is when your older brother buys you a snowmobile for your birthday... Well actually he bought it for himself, but hey, if a guy has a sister who will say its hers, why not buy a third one!?
What makes a person feel really old is when you have two people congratulate you for being a grandma in one day!!!! And not just a first grandchild, a third grandchild! Okay, so maybe I should use my own chat instead of moms Google chat after this :)
But I discovered today that I am answering yes to some of the questions people ask.
Yes, I have a cleaning job, no, I don't have my drivers license, no I don't have contact's, yes, I'm graduating next year, yes, I'm planing on going to Charity Bible School next year (seems like I've been asked that by all the youth I know!), yes I will babysit next week, And no I haven't found a gray hair yet!
But I think that the most exciting yes I have is "YES, I'M GRADUATING NEXT YEAR!!!!!".
That's weird, that's something only older siblings and their friends do, not me!
I was rather shocked when I discovered today that I will be graduating next year instead of the year after next with out even trying, I mean, if you are out of schoolwork you kinda have to stop right?
------------
Quote Of The Day :
-Dad digging around with his contact case in one hand and bifocals in the other, "Frank? Did you take off with the contact solution!?".
-Me, grinning widely, "Um... Dad? I don't have contacts!".
-Dad, "You don't! Why!?".
I don't know why, but for some reason its always my fault if he is missing his leatherman or his contact solution.

Skating!!!!!!

We went skating last week for the first time.
FUN!!!!

“Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend.”

Precious Children

I was browsing through the pictures on Dads computer tonight and I found this picture of a little Native American girl who used to come with her sister and play at our house nearly every day. She and her sister had interesting names, that I will never forget, Heaven and Paris...
They where bright little spots in my life, especially Heaven. She would come running into the house (after someone opened the door for them, they never came into the house without knocking) and give me a big hug. She always wanted to play house, and was never overly interested in having story's read to her. One day she came to our house with her hair cut off to shoulder length, she had tried cutting it and her Mom had had to finish the job for her :)
They loved it when I would spend whole afternoons helping them make "stew" or "bread" in the little kitchen out in the woods. But Heaven liked it best when I would let her help me bake real bread in the real kitchen. They were the first children to say they would come to NBCC and they came to VBS at Northwoods one year as well. I pray that they never forget the things that they learned when in contact with us.
And then one day they didn't come, and they did not come the next day either, or the next.
They had been talking about maybe moving a couple months before, and then they where gone.
I have not seen them since, the man that they called "Daddy" when I knew them still lives just down the road from us. And I can only hope and pray that some day when I get to Heaven I will find them calling God their Father along with me.
Now I've got more Native American children to pray for too, Clifford, Bobby, Brett... And many many more.
Teaching at NBCC has taught me allot about how wonderfully much God has blessed me with my amazing Christan home... He gave amazing Christian parents. Who always know where I am, who are always happy that I'm home when I get home, and they always love me no matter what I do. So please, when you think of it, help me pray for all the precious little children on the reserve here.