Albertsons' involvement in Johnstown Barbecue Day June 2

Rowen walked the parade route carrying the Johnstown Historical Society banner with Pat Kiovsky.

 Several years ago, Jeffrey worked on this clown car to get it running for Pat James.  We were glad to see her driving it in the parade this year!

 Janet was at the Parish House all morning in case people wanted tours.

 Rowen participated in a ribbon cutting of our town plaza dedication.  The Historical Society was involved in the ribbon cutting with the Town Board because of the historical pictures on the wall behind them.

 Rowen, Janet, and Emily worked at the Historical Society booth in the park.

June visitors

On June 16, the Worden family came to visit us from Kremmling, Colorado.  They spent Saturday and Sunday with us, even going with us to our ministry to children in the evening.  This is a picture of Beth and Beth Ann Worden.  They have been penpals for several years.  We had met the Wordens in person two years ago when we stopped in Kremmling on our way to Delta.

 Hannah Worden and Emily

 A six person Foosball game!

                                     

 Paul and Faith Worden, parents of Beth Ann, Daniel, Hannah, Cherish and David

 The whole Worden family

 We enjoyed the kids playing hymns together on instruments.  

Beth, piano, Beth Ann, guitar, Jason, cello

 Emily and Daniel, violins, and Hannah, recorder

 We also went to the Walker Hymn Sing together.

 On our walk around Johnstown Lake, we saw this blue heron.

 The Worden kids at Johnstown Lake

We were blessed to get to spend this time with our friends.

Book Review: Where Lilacs Still Bloom

Where Lilacs Still Bloom by Jane Kirkpatrick

                This is a novel based on a real lady’s life work and life story.  Hulda Klager was an amazing woman, who with only an eighth grade education, learned to breed her beloved lilacs for the characteristics she desired.  The author visited Hulda’s garden before starting to write this book and I’m sure that is the reason behind the title.

                The setting is Woodland, Washington, where Hulda and her family lived between the Lewis and Columbia Rivers, both of which flooded regularly to the detriment of Hulda’s gardens.  The story picks up in 1889, when Hulda was a young mother expecting her fourth child, and goes through 1958, though Hulda lived to be nearly 97 when she died in 1960.

                The bulk of the story is about Hulda’s attempts to grow first a crisper apple, then a deeper hued daffodil, and for most of her life, the creamy white, and red, lilacs with 12 petals.  Her life struggles are with the rivers overflowing, necessitating starting over so many times, some people judging her for trying to change things God had made, and the family health needs and losses along the way.  Hulda loved her family deeply and ministered to them with flowers through the sad times.

                There were fictional characters added in to the story that were hard to follow or figure out how they were ever going to connect to the story.  Eventually, the connection was made—people Hulda loved and taught and healed through her flowers.

                Hulda spent her life fulfilling her father’s wise words of advice:  “We are not here just to endure hard times until we die.  We are here to live, to serve, to trust, and to create out of our longings” p. 8-9.

                To me, this book was not an exciting “can’t put it down” type of book, but was a “friend” I could pick up and learn from, enjoying the good times, crying with the sad times, and exulting in the successes of Hulda’s experiments with nature.

Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for review purposes.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the Blogging for Books program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

June Activities - Part 1

On Friday, June 1st, we had a family get-together with Rowen's sister Esther's family, our niece Shirlene's family, and all of us Johnstown Albertsons. 

Albertsons, Mendezes, Manoharans, and Kazmaiers (photo by Jeff Kazmaier)

...and the rest. (photo by Jeff Kazmaier)

On Friday, June 8th, Rowen and Janet got to go to an ice-cream social at the Hinkles' home.  Jason and Emily were not feeling well, and Beth had to work too late to come, but R&J enjoyed it!

Our friends' beautiful clamatis!

Ladies visiting at the social.

And the children looking sweet!

...and the men.

June 9th was Mike and Carmen Durkee's wedding reception.

The happy couple!

Looking at the quilt Janet made them as a wedding gift.

Handbell Choir Concert

We went to hear the Wesley Bell Ringers play on Saturday (June 9th) evening in Longmont.  These teens are really good at what they do!  We enjoyed the music.

Fashionable Hairdo!

How Janet's hair looks this month.

Photographer's View

Emily's been pretty excited about having a new camera!

VBS this week at Joplin

This is a cell phone picture of Jeffrey giving the sermon/story at VBS tonight.  Please pray for this VBS to be used by God in these kids' lives.

2012 Garden

 We planted our garden on May 21, late for us, but after our Cincinnati trip.  Rowen had so much to catch up on after being gone 10 days for work and the Historical Society, we decided to bless him by getting the garden planted while he was at work.  We had an extra helper, since it was Monday, Lincoln Brown.  He even went to the garden center with us to buy the seeds!  Jason and I talked it over and decided to arrange the garden differently than we ever had before.  The zucchini would go on the north, then the tomatoes, and the beans on the south.  The spaghetti squash and a couple cucumber plants on the east.

First Lincoln helped Jason plant the tomato plants.

He was almost big enough to dig the hole!

Beth and I planted the cucumber plants.

Beth, Lincoln, and I planted the green bean seeds.

 Beth gave him a stick to use for measuring the distance between seeds.

It was much faster not to measure.

A week later, we all, including Lincoln, were happy to see the beans coming up.

And up!

Unfortunately, the weed seeds also enjoyed the watering and came up too.

Today Beth and I weeded the beans on our hands and knees.

It looks pretty good now.  I hope it will stay that way for awhile!

So far, we only had pea sized hail for five minutes, so we are thankful.

Most of these pictures were taken by Emily, who didn't get pictured when she was planting.  (The life of a photographer!)