Sunday afternoon fall walk

We took a walk in Pioneer Ridge subdivision today where Jeff and Jason have spent so many hours mowing and trimming this summer. The trees and bushes there have a lot of brilliant colors that I enjoy. I am from Missouri, where yellow is NOT the main fall color, as it traditionally is in Colorado! So I like to celebrate the reds we can find. Here are a few pictures from our beautiful day. The sun was bright, almost unbearable to look toward, so don't mind if you find our eyes squinted or even closed in some pictures!

Here is the link for the Johnstown Quilt Show pictures

I have tried repeatedly today to upload some pictures from the Johnstown Quilt Show to our blog. Finally it has let me upload this one. This is the quilt Beth and I recently made which was in the quilt show. Click here for the link to the rest of the pictures of some of the quilts at the show.

Just an update

The lengthening afternoon shadows, the falling leaves, and the cold mornings remind us that snow will be flying soon! Emily loves to rake the leaves...

As most of you know, life is so daily sometimes! (quote from Joni Erikson Tada, years ago). This is how our lives are during this time of year, but it is not a bad thing! Some might think that our family's lives are boring, but as long as we are each striving to obey God, and to grow in our walk with Him each day, then we can be thankful for the steady, quiet, studious time in life.

We have been studying the book of James in our evening family devotions, and each of us has again seen ways that the Word is a mirror to help us see ourselves. We thank the Lord for opportunities with open, honest discussions about how the Bible speaks to our hearts. How can you call that boring?

Beth has been challenged to have a couple of jobs lately that were "out of her comfort zone". It is exciting to see her grow from these opportunities...maybe she'll blog about it all.

Tomorrow night we get to help set up the local Quilt Show, which we all enjoy helping with. Here are pictures from last year.

We're anxious to see our Missouri family soon, and celebrate our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary! More later...

Last Sunday we had the opportunity to see many friends from former days, when we went to a Homecoming Concert at our former church in Loveland, CO. Many people were there we hadn't seen for many years, and others we don't see very often. Some middle-aged guys that had been in various quartets at Kansas City College and Bible School many years ago, joined Steve Desmond to put on a concert that sounded a lot like Southern Gospel - and they weren't too bad! We enjoyed being there.

Janet continues to enjoy being quite active on facebook.com...look her up if you aren't already her friend. Rowen is on there too, but he is not nearly as active or friendly.

Janet and Jeffrey have been in classes this week, to be election judges. Janet is the local vote center supervisor, so she has to have three classes to learn it all, and Jeff will be a voting-machine judge. They encourage highschool juniors and seniors to be election judges. I'll try to get Jeff to do a blog post about his experiences after the election. You do think that there will be life after the election, don't you? Do you think we'll still have electricity and the internet? Maybe at least for a while.... ;-\ }}

Our friends Wanda and Debbie came to visit

On Tuesday this week, Debbie Gardner and her precious children, Madison and Chase, came for a little visit.  They live in Idaho so it was very special to get to see them for a little while.

Debbie's mother, Wanda Skeen, our former 'pastress' (pastor's wife) also came to see us.  It had been a couple of years since we had seen her, so we were blessed.  Wanda was visiting Colorado from Kansas City, MO.  Wanda and Debbie have been very special to us for 25 years.

Jeffrey and Jason's Quilt is all Done!

Those of our faithful readers will remember the posts on this blog in August, 2008 about a quilt that Beth and Janet pieced for Jeffrey and Jason's bed. Now, in the middle of October, Janet is hand finishing the binding around the edge after it was quited in Missouri. It is beautiful, and looks like it will be warm and snuggly!






As you probably guessed, Janet, Beth, and Emily have already started a new quilt for Emily. They are using their discretionary time cutting, sewing, and ironing as they create the quilt top. Do you think that they should have had a blog just for their quilts? Watch for updates in the coming weeks!

Life Chain 2008

Our family was able to participate in the Life Chain event along south 23rd Ave in Greeley, CO on Sunday, October 5th, 2008. We were so grateful for the Lord's provision of perfect weather (68'F, full sun) when the forecast the day before was for temperatures in the low 50's with rain.

Janet, Emily, Jason, Beth, and Jeffrey (Rowen took the picture)


Rowen's sister Esther, with her daughters Kwani, Hadassah, and Sarah stood with us.

The local newpaper photographer took many pictures of these precious girls, but they were not published in the printed paper.

Just to show you what Johnstown folk are like!

   The post below this was taken from what came out in our Johnstown Breeze (newspaper) on Thursday.  Today I was in Loveland at Wal-mart, asking a question in the pharmacy department. As soon as I turned around to go find the item for which I had received directions, a lady who was standing there said to me, "Are you the lady who was in the Johnstown Breeze this week?"

   "Yes, I am," I answered.

   "Well, I want to tell you congratulations and happy anniversary," she said.

   Of course I asked her her name, which she gave me and said she lives in Johnstown and reads the Breeze.

   This was an "upper" for me.  I couldn't quit feeling blessed and special that the lady had taken the time to speak to me.  Beth told me the lady must have a personality like mine, "because you would do the same thing, Mother."

Our 25th Wedding Anniversary Announcement

Rowen and Janet Albertson of Johnstown will celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary with a reception scheduled for Oct. 25, 2008 at the Assembly of God Church in Riverton, Kansas.

Hosts Randy and Joy Albertson, and Tim and Brenda Albertson, have planned a noontime meal and renewal of vows. Friends and relatives are invited; email us if you can come, ASAP!

Janet Scoles married Rowen Albertson on Oct. 22, 1983 in Overland Park, Kan.
For the first six years of marriage, they lived in Loveland. They moved to Johnstown in 1989.

Janet was a registered nurse with Hospice Inc. of Larimer County until the birth of their first son. She has been a full-time homemaker since.

Rowen has worked for Kodak since age 20 and is now a microscopist at Carestream Health Inc.

They raised their family in Johnstown, home-schooled their children, participated in the Johnstown Historical Society, the Johnstown-Milliken Homeschoolers, and the Johnstown Centennial Committee.

The Albertson children include Randy and wife Joy Albertson, and Tim and wife Brenda Albertson, all of Joplin, Mo., and Jeffrey, Elizabeth, Jason, and Emily, all of Johnstown.
Rowen and Janet also have a grandson, James Aquila (Quil), and another grandchild on the way.

Basketball - Family Style

Basketball Video taken by Rowen from the garage roof on 10/1/08

We enjoyed playing basketball together tonight (9/30) and last night (9/29).

Last night Jeff and I only got in on the last 10 minutes, but we were all there the whole time tonight.

We began with warmup-everyone shooting randomly from all places to get prepared.

Then we played a new version of "Around the World": We marked 16 places on the cement, stood in every-other place (there's 6 of us, but we adjusted the every-other-person as necessary). Each of us would shoot twice from whichever number we were on - if we missed we had a mercy extra 1 or 2. After everyone shot twice from their spots, we rotated. We did this almost all of the way around the driveway.

Then we started playing a real game. Dad, Mother, and Jeff, against Jason, Emily, and I. It was a hard fought game. Both teams were good... but the younger beat 22-16!
Through this basketball playing we accomplished several things: exercise, enjoying each other's company, and winning (whether in attitude, or in points, or both.)

WE HAD FUN!

Beth 15th Birthday Celebration and Activity

This week we celebrated Beth's 15th birthday.  Her birthday was Friday, the 26th.  We always allow birthday people to choose their dessert or cake and other meal entrees on the day we are celebrating.  Beth wanted Dirt Cake this year.  It is very yummy, made with oreo cookies, french vanilla pudding, cream cheese and cool whip.

Beth was serving everyone; she was pretending to take that big bite!

For her birthday gifts, Beth got the new turtle neck shirt, dressmaker scissors, a Kodak pocket knife, 2 Hershey candy bars, fuzzy house shoes, some money,  and an mp3 player.  She also got a jumper which is featured in a post on her blog: 

The birthday activity was to go to a Living History presentation in Arvada, CO.  It was presented by a church group that has a lot of homeschoolers in it who are interested in history. There was a play first, then eight different stations we went to, to learn about different parts of colonial life during the time period right before and the starting of the Revolutionary War.  At several stations, the characters gave a short lesson of comfort from the Bible "for these perilous times."  We couldn't help but think how appropriate it was for "our perilous times" as well.

In this picture, Beth was being a "camp follower", washing clothes for the soldiers of the militia.

These were other people in our group, doing what we had just done, but were not able to take pictures of ourselves doing:  filling straw tick mattresses for the soldiers to sleep on.  

While we "women" were being "camp followers", the men and boys were becoming part of the militia.  Here Jason and Jeffrey are getting some training by the officers.  Our friend, Mathew Hinkle is the French officer on the left, dressed in white.  He explained to all why the French were interested and involved in the colonies' struggle for independence from England.

This picture is similar to the one above, but Rowen is also in it.  He took a half day vacation to go on this outing with us.  We were so glad to have him with us, even though he doesn't appear in many pictures!  It appears that Jason either doesn't want to be in these pictures or there is something else distracting him!

We were at an agricultural station, learning about animals and crops the colonists grew.  We also learned about indentured servants, as there was one who told us all about it!

These girls played some beautiful string music for us in the music tent.

This is a girl who explained how to make candles.

Emily took turns with a line of smaller children who dipped candles.

At a woodworking station Jeffrey and Jason helped the town by cutting firewood.

Emily also helped out by cutting firewood.

This was the clothing and education station where we learned about the schooling methods in colonial times and the different articles of clothing worn by the colonists.

One of the stations was games the colonial children played.  All the games were made from readily available resources.  This video is of our group moving a hoop made of twisted vines all around the circle while we were holding hands.

The one station we did not get a picture of was the longhunter camp.  The word longhunter is not about the very long gun used, but means hunting for a long time period--two or three months at a time.  We saw lead bullets being made there and visited with the longhunter.

At the end of the afternoon, there was a trial for a traitor who was in the camp!  It was conducted by the mayor of the Virginian town,  on the right, and the town attorney, on the left. We were supposed to collect clues about who the traitor could be throughout the afternoon.  The traitor was supposedly stirring up the Indians against the settlers, thereby furthering the British cause.  Lots of the children present brought accusations against several individuals as the traitor.

The boy on the right was determined to be the traitor.

A jury was chosen to determine his guilt and sworn in.  Jeffrey was chosen to be part of this jury who found the young man guilty.

We didn't get pictures of it, but the young man was put in stocks for "24 hours" and pelted with Virginian tomatoes!  (water balloons!)  Emily got to throw a water balloon at him.  It was too crowded to see or get a picture, but Emily told us he got drenched and muddy from the breaking water balloons.  He was in stocks on the dusty ground.

After all that fun and learning, we found a park in Arvada to eat our picnic supper.  It was a beautiful day.

This was a bridge over a canal or stream in the park.

We had a fun day celebrating Beth's birthday.  We are thankful to have her in our family.  She is a blessing to all of us every day!

My Mother's family at the Smith Family Reunion

On August 30, most of my Smith aunts, uncles, cousins, and their descendants got together at my cousin, Ron's ranch near Bolivar, MO. Our family couldn't go, except for our married sons who live in MO, but the reports we got sounded like a good time was had by all. This picture is of my mother and daddy and my siblings, nieces, and nephews, and sons' families who got to go. My mother is the oldest of the Smith siblings. From the left, standing up: Leah Owens, Andrew Owens, Brenda Owens, Charles Owens, Mandy Scoles, Tim Wampler, Sherry Wampler, Joy Albertson, Randy Albertson, Tim Albertson, Brenda Albertson, Scott DeOrnellis, Marlene DeOrnellis. Sitting from left: Austin Scoles, Caleb Wampler, Wanda Scoles, Quil Albertson, Rex Scoles, Tasha Wampler, Rebekah Owens, Cody DeOrnellis.

Austin Scoles, Marlene DeOrnellis, Wanda and Rex Scoles



Rebekah, Leah, and Andrew Owens with Quil

Leah monitoring Quil as he watched the chickens.

Recent pictures of Quil

Our daughters-in-law very industriously picked all these apples last week.  Now they are busy making them into applesauce, apple butter, and apple pie filling and canning everything.  Quil was very intrigued by the apples and had a hard time leaving them alone.


Here Quil was helping his mother sort through some fabrics.

I call this picture, "Quil writing a letter to his favorite Grandma!"

Joy and Quil, taken on 9-19-08

It looks like he is finally getting some hair, even though it is very blond!

We are anxious to see him again a month from now when we go to MO to celebrate our 25th anniversary, Oct. 21-27.  Our anniversary is Oct. 22.

We Love Janet's Krautburgers!

Janet mentioned on facebook.com that she was making krautburgers for her family one night this past week, and got several interested and perplexed responses, so we decided to document the event and blog about it - during this gorgeous but monotonous time of year.

Recipe:  Krautburgers (or called Cabbage burgers in Ukraine)

1 lb. hamburger

1 small head of cabbage, chopped

1 med. onion, finely chopped

salt and pepper to taste  (lots of pepper is yummy)

Roll dough (your receipe or 1 package of hot roll mix).

Lightly brown hamburger; add onion, cabbage, and 1 cup of water.  Cook until liquid is gone.

Drain meat and vegetables.  Let dough riase 1 hour.  Roll out dough and cut into squares.  Place a scoop of meat mixture in center of dough square and pinch corners of dough together to seal seams. (or wrap it up as you want.)

Place on greased cookie sheet and let rise 30-40 minutes.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 min. or until lightly browned.

Scoop it up... out of the skillet...  (I don't drain the liquid, but have my skillet on a "tilt".  The liquid is yummy to drink afterwards!)


Pile it on...




Fold it up...


Ready for the oven...

Yummy! Let's eat! I like to cut a hole and add a bit of butter or margerine while it is still steamy..