Old Videos

Sorry for the terrible lack of

interest for this blog, but my camera has been in Nicaragua, and without it I feel like I dont have much to say!

Ashley had a wonderful time with Jo, Gary and Nikki, and she wants to return. She took thousands of photos and if you would like to see them send me an email and I will have her send you the link to her snapfish album.

Actually life has not been dull, Stella, one of our clients was diagnosed with breast cancer. She has had two surgeries and will start chemo in a week. Needless to say it has been stressful.

In the meantime though we have redescovered our many videos of when the girls were little. I am converting them all to DVD format so that I can get snapshots like the ones above. They were so cute, and now they are beautiful!

I will try to do better at keeping up to date on the news, so until next time, Toodles!

Patterson

We had a wonderful day yesterday. My sitter for Thursday's, whom has been curious about JW's and questions us regularly about our belief's etc, accepted an invitation to visit our Education Center in Patterson, NY. She was totally impressed and amazed. First off, the luggage left in the coatroom. She stated that she could probably leave her purse there, and on a further look she saw a purse sitting on the hat shelf!

We had a lovely lunch of salmon and rice, with our hosts and artists, Alan Boyle and Gayle Chambers. Afterwich we had a personal tour of the laundry and art department. We were able to see the photography studio which was stunning.

Today, when Beverlee came to sit for us she was still smiling about her day. She was very impressed with the fact that the people she met were so humble and despite abilities and talents volunteer for their God.

Next stop: Watchtower Farms!

Sing to Jehovah

We are all very excited to get the new songbook and music from the jw.org website. So much so that we spent the weekend listening to the new music and trying to figure out what is what and where it is.

Tonight we had our first Hooteenanny (British translation, from American Jibberish: A get together to sing songs.) According to David. Anyway, a number of dear ones in our congregation came over to sing some of the new songs, it was a lot of fun. Two of the most beautiful songs, in my opinion, # 110, 111. They are not easy songs to sing, but we will get the hang of them. One of the hardest tasks was learning old words to new melodies, like From House to House, that was hard! By the way we didn't all cry when we sang #111, we were distracted with trying to sing it right, but after we master it we will.

David is recovering from his foot injury, so much so that he is hoping to play golf tomorrow. We'll see.

The mouse hunt is in full scale. We have tried to design a major mouse trap but so far we are back to the drawing board. One thing we have learned is that while mice are very fast they are also very agile, able to jump at least three feet into the air, don't ask why we know this.

Ashley is off to Nicaragua in October, tomorrow she gets all of her shots, she will be one sore puppy.

Later . . .

When it rains it pours

Can you keep up with this? When I talk about rain I aint talkin about da weather!

Yesterday was just a beautiful day for weather actually, so much so that David decided to mow the lawn. Pretty good idea I thought. So, just when he was about a foot away from the Housatonic River the steering quit and he lost control. Quick thinking caused him to ditch the mower and bail. The mower went into the river, but unfortunately his foot got caught in the blade and suffered a pretty nasty laceration. (Boo boo)

At first he thought he had sprained his ankle and was able to hobble to Maria's cottage. After bleeding all over her house she whisked him to the ER. That's when they called me. I was at the court house collecting data. He got himself pretty good, about a four by one laceration to the top of the foot. Well the surgeon decided to stitch him up right there and while I started to watch, well, lets just say to stay vertical I let the doc do his job sans audience. Fourteen stitches later he was back in one piece.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE LAWN MOWER??

The lawn mower was saved by Tom Boinay and his massive truck and our super neighbors who helped. I owe them all a roasted beef tenderloin.

David is resting today with little pain, but a weeping foot.

Like I said, when it rains it pours.



Julie

Can you stand two entries in one day?!

Well, another great project finished, that is two major jobs for me this summer. The gazebo is all screened in and potentially bug free. Before I made the "doors" so that they could be rolled up David decided it would be a great place to study his Watchtower in. Expecting lots of praise I went out to see how he liked it, he stated that he and the flies were having a wonderful time. It seemed quite a number of flies had made their way in and couldn't get out! Now that the doors can open the bugs know what to do, and if not we have a wicked good battery operated bug zapper, hee hee hee.

This one's for Mickie

The globe trotting Beans, just back from a month in europe!

Newlyweds Brianna and Nathan, and the most cute Sammi.

Braving the rain at Tanglewood, Marty and Barbara Wallace.

We decided to call it a night!


Some of the 08 Pioneer School class mates.

Well it has been a very soggy month. We got totally rained out from the James Taylor concert, although out guests decided to tough it out and returned to catch JT, Sheryl Crowe and Yoyo Ma.

Our warm dry beds were louder than the music that night!

Ashley hosted her first year Pioneer School Reunion. Everyone is doing great, most are still in the pioneer service. Again, rain was threatening the evening but the spirit overcame the weather and all had fun.

You are problably wondering how my mouse hunt is going, well today the count stands at 62 little ones, and more to come I am sure. Enjoy the pics!

Julie

More Old Photos

To celebrate our thirty-first wedding anniversary we look our 8mm film of our wedding and had it put on DVD, all 3 minutes of it. But it is fun to revisit the day and the beginning of the best days of our lives together. Who would have thought we would be where we are today and yet still in this system of things, but not for long. The very best is yet to come.

Well summer came and went in a weekend, we have had more rain and more rain. Oh its been raining lately too. But that doesnt stop our fun, we are grateful to have running water.

The patio is almost finished and the porch floor is sporting a nice new paint color. If it ever stops raining we can paint more stuff.

Later!

PS The first photo is the first time the "JulieRoseLook" was ever caught on film, but many times repeated.

Summer's here at last!

We finally have some sun and no rain in the forcast! It is still mild for this time of the year, only 67 degrees right now, but clear and sunny.

We are embarking on a few much needed jobs outside on the house. David decided to paint the side porch, he had me verify the color, but low and behold it is 1961 New World Translation Green. See the photo. So back to the drawing board and a new color.

My job was much more fun, digging out all the old concrete on the patio and re grouting. Many of the flagstones are loose so they have to be cemented down too. It will take a few more afternoons to finish the job, its fun and messy.

We have the honor of feeding our Pioneer school lunch in August. We decided you can not go wrong with beef tenderloins, baby carrots and new potatoes, and I have a great recipe for grilling the whole tenderloin on the grill with a peppercorn crust. Makes you wish you were going back to school.

Well my master is cracking the whip so I better get back to the quarry to dig up some more cement.

Later!

More Blasts from the Past

We are continuing to have lots of fun looking through the old home

movies, and today we took 14 more reels to get put on DVD. Seen here first is David and I in 1975, I was about to begin regular pioneering at the ripe age of 16. We had just toured the London Bethel and this is at the pub next door, the Adam and Eve. I thought this was a good one since today is our 31 st wedding anniversary, yeah for theocratic marriage! Then Mum and I at Birmingham Airport around 1963 or so, we were there to welcome cousin Billy who had gone to Ireland for school. Taken that same time I think is Nanna Rose, Poppa's Mum. We have few pics of her so I was thrilled to get this one. This photo is just the way I remember her, when she wasn't arguing with Grandad she was smiling. The last by not least are the original Rose girls, again taken around '63 at Poppa's company annual fair.

We celebrated our anniversary by taking our wedding film to be digitized, then had a splendid lunch at our fav. Italian resturant. David got his gift, a new titanium driver, I will get mine when dishwashers go on sale. Just kidding, I get to pick something out I dont have, that might take a while.

Talk to you soon!

Oldies but Goodies

Well it has been a whirlwind of a week, we had our visit from our CO, Scott and Laurie Henry, and our DO, Everett and Pat Rodriques (pronounced Rodricks). It was a very good week, the talks were some of the best I have ever heard.

But the exciting news here is that we were able to get over one hours worth of 8mm film converted to DVD. The films were taken back in the early sixties and seventies. They include two weddings a couple of baptisms and lots of waving! The discs come with a program that enables you to take snapshots so here are a couple. I will be making copies for anyone who would like them, they are nothing terribly exciting, but for the family they are priceless.

My mouse hunt operation has been pretty pathetic this week, I got four new state of the art mouse traps, live traps of course, and have only caught one mouse. In fact I think they are viewing the new traps as their new 7-11, they usually take the peanut butter and run. Needless to say I am having to review my arsenal.

2009 District Convention, Amherst, MA

The 2009 District Convention is everything advertised. The symposiums were a highlight, as was having my new Bible study and wife in attendance Sunday. David also had a Bible study attend. Another highlight was having dinner with James and Gloria Howard, he is the physician who told us we were having Lauren!! They are still serving at Brooklyn Bethel.
Ashley volunteered to guard a contribution box, and Lauren was thrilled to be reunited with some of her friends she hasn't seen in a while.

The weather was really great, a little drizzle, but nothing uncomfortable. As you can imagine we are all a little weary and we are taking a day to regroup since tomorrow begins the visit of Scott and Laurie Henry, our CO as well as Everett and Pat Rodriques, our DO. The spiritual good times continue.

Rainy Thursday

T'was the day before the District Convention and all is wet, rain for the next four days, perfect weather for a Convention.

David is paying bills, Lauren is watching Lion King video's on You Tube on her most excellent new netbook, as well as decorating David with Post It Notes.

Charlie is sleeping and hoping his bladder can hold out for four days.

We are the first District Convention at Amherst this year. The program so far is getting great reviews. Many friends have already attended and said the information is very exciting. One comment was, "If you don't think the end is coming soon, then you missed the whole point of the program.

We had a fun family worship night this week, we listened to a talk by a CO named Ed Feriance. Don't know him, but he gives an awesome talk on youths. The title is "Youths Build for the Future with Jehovah's Organization." Anyone who wants a copy of it let me know and it's yours.

We have two families of baby geese this year, twelve babies altogether. They are growing so fast, and going through six loaves of bread a day. Its a good thing we have a "dead bread" shop nearby, $1.89 for a big bag of birdy bread, perfect for growing geese.

As some of you know I have declared war on the mice in this house. So far I have trapped and released 32 of the little darlings. Some have found escape routes, one found itself in Truffles mouth. By the way, that one was tossed into the river and promptly swam back for more peanut butter and crackers!

Well thats all thats new on the river front today, I will let you know how the Convention is!