Monday, April 27, 2009

More grandson pictures

It's hard being so far away from our grandsons. Thank the Lord for digital cameras and email! We got these pictures tonight from our son, Randy and his family. I think the first one was probably taken on Easter or the week after. It is on a Sunday afternoon in my parents' house.

Randy and Joy were in revival in Coweta, OK this past week, and since I don't recognize the surroundings, I think these pictures were from their time in Coweta.

Micah is 3 months old now and he is very precious!

I think he has big eyes like his grandma Albertson!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Bearded folks around our house

Everybody knows Rowen has had a beard for many, many years. But this week, all of his unmarried children sported beards!
Believe it or not, here is Emily--also known as Joseph in 'his' coat of many colors.

Jeffrey looks a little suspicious here, but it is really him.

Jason, another one of Joseph's brothers...

Would you believe this is Beth?

Bible characters meet technology... Jeffrey from Genesis 37 to Facebook!

Scripture quilt top completed!

For my birthday in August of 1998, I received some fabric from my oldest son, Randy, who was not quite 13 at that time, that he wanted me to make into a quilt. Believe it or not, I finally did it!! The scripture blocks all around the edges of the bed came from that fabric. Through the years, I put other fabrics that had similar colors in the bag with the gift from Randy.

When I pulled the bag out a month ago, I found the large panel in the middle of the quilt as part of the collection. Because of using that and the scripture blocks, there was less piecing in this quilt and it went pretty fast. The only piecing was the strips between the scripture blocks and the four corner small square areas.

The triangle border is supposed to match the small triangles in the middle panel. If you click on the bottom picture and make it bigger, you can see the small triangles.
Now the quilt top is in MO and will be machine quilted soon! Hopefully we will get it and Emily's quilt in July and get the binding done soon after.

Friday, April 10, 2009

What will you do with Jesus?

As we have entered this traditional Christian holiday weekend, I feel like every one of our blog readers ought to have the opportunity to answer this question. There is a song that I really appreciate, that I encourage each of you to carefully read and consider this timeless question.


Here are the lyrics of "What will you do with Jesus?" Albert B. Simpson, c.1905

Jesus is standing in Pilate’s hall,
Friendless, forsaken, betrayed by all;
Hearken! what meaneth the sudden call?
What will you do with Jesus?

Refrain

What will you do with Jesus?
Neutral you cannot be;
Some day your heart will be asking,
“What will He do with me?”

Jesus is standing on trial still,
You can be false to Him if you will,
You can be faithful through good or ill:
What will you do with Jesus?

Will you evade him as Pilate tried?
Or will you choose Him, whate’er betide?
Vainly you struggle from Him to hide:
What will you do with Jesus?

Will you, like Peter, your Lord deny?
Or will you scorn from His foes to fly,
Daring for Jesus to live or die?
What will you do with Jesus?

“Jesus, I give Thee my heart today!
Jesus, I’ll follow Thee all the way,
Gladly obeying Thee!” will you say:
“This I will do with Jesus!”

Lord bless you each one.

- Rowen, Janet and Family

Thursday, April 9, 2009

New pictures of the grandsons

We are incredibly partial to our grandsons and love getting pictures of them! We got these on email last evening.
Quil seems to be trying to share a book with Micah. He apparently realizes Micah needs to see the pictures and words from the proper direction. I'm sure Micah was fascinated with the book up until the second before the picture was snapped!

Micah looking precious! He is 2.5 months old.

Another sweet picture of Micah. I love his fat cheeks and legs!

A precious picture of Quil, who is now 22 months old.

Thank the Lord for grandchildren!

Mike Durkee in his new house

On the way home from Colorado Springs, we stopped south of Denver in Highlands Ranch and had a tour of Mike Durkee's new house. We are so happy for him at this milestone in his life! His house is very nice and we were glad to get to see it!

Weekend trip to Colorado Springs

We didn't know whether we would get to go to Colorado Springs last weekend for the Arms Around the World Missions Convention. The weather forecast was the worst possible for all of our area, south to Colorado Springs. We were bracing for 8 to 12 to 14 inches of snow. We prayed about it, telling God we really wanted to go, but we were not going to be foolish about it. When we woke up Saturday, there was just a skiff of snow. We took courage and went about our morning activities. Jeffrey had his ACT test in Greeley; Beth cleaned at the Chamber of Commerce; I went to the Parish House for docent training. When lunch time came, the snow had stopped without really bothering the roads at all. There was a little snow on the ground. Rowen checked the weather again and this is what he saw:

Johnstown is approximately at the Red X.
The storm stayed north and east of us! Even in Greeley, 20 miles from here, where Jeffrey tested, he drove through deep snow on the roads! We felt like the Lord intervened in the weather so we could go. Denver and south looked good, so we hurriedly packed a few things and left for Colorado Springs shortly after 2 pm. We had a good trip. The only snow on the road was in Monument Hill region, (of course, it will always be there if it is anywhere) and we had no slowdowns. We stayed with Rowen's cousin, Katie, and her dad, Uncle Alvin, where Seth Stevenson, one of our "adopted sons" was already staying. Seth was a big reason we wanted to go so badly. He lives in KY now and works at a Christian radio station and we hadn't seen him since Tim and Brenda's wedding last July.

We enjoyed the services Saturday night and Sunday morning at the AAW Convention and saw some of our friends who were there for the services.
Ben and Lori Kalovsky, from Mitchell, SD.

Walter and Carolyn Hagameier, from Burns, WY

Jerry and Heather Esparza, from Lakewood, enjoying a weekend celebrating their recent 26th anniversary!

Lloyd and Durenda Bley, from Mitchell, SD and Wauneta, NE.

There were many others there--packed church, and packed pastor's home where we ate Sunday dinner. It was a refreshing time for our souls and we were so glad we could go. Seth came home with us for the rest of Sunday evening and part of Monday, before we took him to the airport on Monday afternoon.
This is a view of Pike's Peak from Uncle Alvin and Katie's driveway. They get to look at this every day!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Home School Day at the Capitol April 3, 2009

It is our privilege and duty to attend the Home School Day at the Capitol Rally in Denver each year. We have missed a few years, but usually Rowen takes the day off work so we can go as a family. There are lots of dads who must do that, because dads are very well represented in the crowd each year. We are thankful for the good home school law we have in Colorado, and pray that we get to keep it!
This picture is of some of the home school supportive representatives and senators with the mc of the rally. At least one other very supportive senator was missing because of a funeral, and I believe some had to leave for other obligations. One was going up the stairs in this picture.

Rowen took this picture of the rest of us in the crowd. There would be no way to get a good picture of how many people were there unless you were up high with a wide angle lens.

We liked seeing these words in the west capitol steps.

Someone else took this picture of the Albertsons by the banner after the rally.

Some of the crowd dispersing after the rally. Notice the umbrella on the left. Rain did sprinkle on us for about 10 minutes during the rally. We were thankful it wasn't worse!

More of the crowd dispersal.

Some of the home schoolers had a tour led by Senator Ted Harvey with the Generation Joshua Club after the rally. We appreciated the tour and the "Legislation 101" overview Senator Harvey gave us here in the Representative House Chamber.

Part of the home school group with Senator Harvey.


Up in the dome!

The view from the dome.

Rowen took this picture when we were leaving the capitol for our several-block walk back to where we parked. We were thankful for the beautiful day!