Grandma - 93 years Later

My Grandma is an amazing woman that I want to share about. I was named after her which has been such a blessing to share that with her. Her full name is Ella Dena Faye Stirling and she goes by Dena Faye. I found some old pictures that I had of her and my Grandpa as well as her and myself. When I think of my Grandma I think of Proverbs 31: Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband does safely trust in her, so he will have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. She seeks wool, and flax, and works willingly with her hands. She is like the merchants' ships; she brings her food from afar. She rises also while it is yet night, and gives meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens. She considers a field, and buys it: with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. She girds her loins with strength, and strengthens her arms. She perceives that her merchandise is good: her candle goes not out by night. She lays her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. She stretches out her hand to the poor; yea, she reaches out her hand to the needy. She is not afraid of snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet. She makes herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple. Her husband is known in the gates, when he sits among the elders of the land. She makes fine linen, and sells it; and delivers girdles to the merchant. Strength and honor are her clothing; and she will rejoice in time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looks well to the ways of her household, and eats not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also and he praises her. Many daughters have done virtuously, but you excel them all. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that fears the Lord, she will be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates. ~ Proverbs 31:10-31 My Grandma is such an encouraging woman that loves the Lord and has served Him so willingly over the years. She is such a blessing to those who she comes into contact with and everyone loves her. I have been blessed to have a Grandma who has grown old gracefully and that has taught me so much over the years and particularly during my time in Texas. She has passed on to me the ability of being able to quilt too. I am so thankful she did because now I can pass it on to the next generation. I pray that the next generation will want to learn this heritage that has been passed down over the years. I hope that you enjoy all the pictures and Grandma I pray that you will be able to experience many more years. Thank you for coming to see my new home! I love you and Miss you very much.

Family Visit to Sacramento-Last Day

I started out my day with morning dishes and my one of my boss' said that my niece Rachel could come back and help me if she wanted to so Aaron started training her on dishes that day. She is starting young but we are training up a future summer staff member (she caught on really fast too). It was fun for me to have her helping me and able to have that time with her. :) After dishes I took Rachel back to her cabin and then we went to say goodbye to my parents because they headed home after breakfast. After that Alanna, the kids, and me went on a hike on the Serenity Peak trail before they left.

I thought this picture was too funny of my sweet pups who spent the entire time (except for bedtime) outside in the yard. This is after everyone had left and they reclaimed their chair and slept all afternoon. :)

Family Visit to Sacramento-Smores

To finish off the day we decided to build a campfire and have smores. It was a lot of fun and it was so nice sitting next to a fire again. It has been a long time since I have done that. The kids had a hard time roasting their marshmallows due to how hot the fire was. The last time we made them we did it in a small grill. They did a good job though with making the smores. Afterwards we smelled wonderful! :) It made me miss the camp I went to as a youth in Washington. So many camp memories then and so many being formed every year now. I have decided to work on the fire circle so I am putting rocks all around it to make it a bit more safe for the future. I am just bringing home a few rocks at a time so it will be a little while before it is finished.

Family Visit to Sacramento-Pedal Go Karts

We had a lot of fun on the Go Karts too. The kids were taught how to ride them and brake with them too before they could try. They had a lot of fun riding around the parking lot. My sister had fun as much as they did I think.

Family Visit to Sacramento-Play Time with Wreckless

This trip is the first time that the kids really played with Wreckless. Wreckless has always had so much energy and I was always afraid that he might knock them down so I haven't really let the kids into the backyard ever to play. I was watering and feeding them because they spent the time my family was here outside. I asked Luke if he wanted to come with me and he said that he did so I gave him some treats for each dog and we gave it a try. At first Wreckless wanted to jump on him but after being corrected the one time he stayed on all fours and played really well. Luke had a lot of fun and later wanted to play with him again so Rachel gave it a try also. I am so thankful that it was fun for them and for Wreckless too! :)

Family Visit to Sacramento-Tether Ball, Vollyball, and Soccer

After dinner with the family my Grandma and Aunts headed back to the Snyder area because my 2 Aunts lead the music at the Churches they go to. The rest of my family came back to camp and we spent some time playing games on camp. We played Tether ball to start out and it felt good to beat my sister (who is older) at it. :) She always beat me at everything growing up and so it was fun to play her game after game and win. :) She did come close once but I still won.

Later we played Volleyball of which I am not very good at all!

I think I spent more time chasing the ball then hitting the ball. :)

Even Baby Wade played ball. :)

We had a youth group on camp that weekend and

a couple of the boys took out time with my oldest Nephew Luke and

my youngest Niece Kate and kicked a soccer ball around with them

and tried to teach them how to play.

It was so encouraging to watch them work with the kids and do so well with them.

Family Visit to Sacramento-Birthdays Celebrated

Part of our family time was celebrating my Grandma's 93rd Birthday which was the 2nd and we also celebrated my 32nd Birthday which was the 5th. We went into have dinner at Mayhill Cafe which has absolutely wonderful food and they bought a cake for us too. The waitress at the cafe was wonderful to offer to take a picture of our family. It really was a wonderful day!

The cake says:

"Happy Birthday Antique Dena & Modern Dena"

Our Family Picture

My Mom with Rachel, Luke, and Kate outside of the cafe

My Grandma and Me

Family Visit to Sacramento-Hanging Out

This is my niece Rachel with my baby nephew Wade

My Dad took Luke and Kate to look at the fish in the pond

Some local cows came to have breakfast at the dining hall

and my Grandma and 2 Aunt checked it out. :)

Family Visit to Sacramento-Family Pictures

My sister Alanna, my Mom Linda, my Grandma Dena Faye, my Dad Bob, and myself

Mom, Grandma, and Dad

Me, Dad, Mom, my niece Kate

my niece Rachel, Alanna, my brother-in-law Chris

my nephew Luke, my aunt Lorita, my nephew Wade

Grandma, and my aunt Joy

Me, Grandma, and Alanna

Me and Grandma

Rachel, Luke, Grandma, Wade, and Kate

My Grandma with all her kids on her Birthday

Lorita, Joy, Grandma, and Dad

Joy, Dad, and Lorita

Who Is God: Part 1

One night I was struggling with sleep much like tonight and I opened the precious Word of God and while I was opening it up not really knowing what I was going to read or anything a piece of paper fell out that a wonderful friend of mine gave me in Canyon. It is a HUGE list of names, titles, and descriptions of God. It is amazing how long the list is. As I was looking at one of the verses there was a description of who God is that jumped right out of the pages to me and I really wanted to take out time and share this with you. The verse given was in Nehemiah 9:17 but I really would like to give some context so it will make more sense. The children of Israel took out a day and were confessing their sins and here is part of what the Levites spoke: "Moreover you led them in the day by a cloudy pillar; and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they should go. You came down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments. And made known unto them your holy sabbath, and commanded them precepts, statutes, and laws by the hand of Moses your servant. And gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, and brought forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promised them that they should go in to possess the land which you had sworn to give them. But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to your commandments, And refused to obey, neither were mindful of your wonders that you did among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsook them not." ~ Nehemiah 9:12-17 (The part in italics is what I am focusing on to describe the God I serve and I pray that all of us serve). As I read this I just sat back and was humbled by who God is for me. Israel has made mistakes but guess what I have made mistakes too. I look at this and I am so thankful I serve a God who will show me the grace and mercy needed so that my sins can be forgiven. He is a God who died for me on a cross so that I would have the opportunity to experience the forgiveness of the Father first hand. I am so thankful that He is slow to anger and my prayer is that He would provide me the ability to be slow to anger as well so that others might see Him in me. I deserve to have Him give up on me and yet He has chosen to be kind to me and that is how I should be to those who I want to give up on. I feel so thankful to have a God so forgiving towards me and my prayer is that He will teach me how to forgive like Him! I have a strong desire to delight God the Father and to bring Him glory in all I think, say, and do. I hope that the Lord encourages you today and that you (nor myself) would return to the bondage that He has freed us from but instead that we would be "mindful of His wonders"!

My Morning Surprise!

This morning when I was getting ready I went to get some things from my sock drawer and noticed that a slipper was chewed up. I had seen some signs of a little friend living in that drawer so I had a couple of traps set hoping that I would catch it and get rid of it. When I went to get rid of the slipper low and behold this is what I found!

The little friend had babies in my sock drawer! I didn't know what to do but I knew I couldn't handle it on my own so I called Randy and Karen for help and Randy came to save the day. Randy pulled out the sock drawer and we took it outside to dump it out on the ground. We were afraid that the momma might still be in the drawer. The momma wasn't in the drawer so we decided to look for her by pulling out all the drawers. When we got to the 3rd drawer the momma mouse jumped out from behind the drawer and I jumped up with a gasp and I scared poor Randy. :) We continued to pull out the final drawer and reset the traps in a better spot. As I was bringing in the sock drawer I heard a noise from another drawer and told Randy and we found one more baby mouse in the second drawer. So we dumped out all the drawers on the ground to be safe but there was only 3 baby mice in the drawers. I haven't yet found the momma mouse since she jumped out at us so maybe she left to finish having her babies and is now living there. :)