Awesome, awesome. . .

We had the great honor of being invited as guests of the Bethel Family at Patterson, NY. We attended the Family Watchtower Study, and then afterwards enjoyed a lecture by Gilead Instructor, Michael Burnett. The theme was "The Fear of Jehovah -- That is Wisdom."

It was wonderful to be reunited with old friends, some we were not expecting to see due to be recently reassigned to the complex. Jack Barr gave the morning worship program, what a love. He is one that makes you so glad that the annointed are taking good care of us, just a reflection of Jehovah's love.

Since we were overnight (in house) we had the run of the place, so we were able to wander around and go from department to department and pop in on our friends, they were all so gracious and we loved seeing them. David got to tell his fair share of old Bethel stories!

Maria and the girls held the fort down for us, and we realized that this the first time we have been away together, without our girls, ever! Wow.

Now for something completely different.....

Last Sunday we had a Monty Python and the Holy Grail night. It was a hoot, and just what we needed. Some brave Sir Robins dressed up as various characters, I was not a witch, they dressed me up to look like one.
Tom was a theocratic Ka'nigit, Donna was Zoot, of course. We had killer rabbits and coconut shells, ducks on scales and a very nice shrubbery, not too expensive. It was a very silly evening.

Sad news...

Sadly, Stella Rosier, one of our ladies passed away on January 6, 2010. She had been with us for six years and died in my arms. She always had a winning smile and weathered the tough times. Now we await the call of Jehovah and see her stand again.

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