It's Sunday morning and its very peaceful in our home. Cold weather is coming soon and I'm not sure I'm ready for it. Hank is though, all you have to do is see our 'little house in the prairy' shed of hard work. The wood is well thought out and full of love from Hank and even Daniel and Stephen and Kim.

I just thought I would add a picture of 3 of the men in my life, the ones that got dirty and wet hauling wood for Hank and I. The picture of 7 children to the left is only added because Hank and I are very blessed to have these precious children in our lives. They are each very amazing gifts from God, and we love them, love them love them. Its WONDERFUL being a grandparent!

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE TODAY!

:)

Here is a picture Stephen took of the cabin around the same time he took the video. Hank and Stephen said it went up so fast. It has a tin roof too that we paid extra for and it was raining like crazy when we took a walk last night up to the cabin. Inside the cabin it sounded so pretty, not too loud and yet it had a nice jingle about it. The guys said that the men who put up the cabin didn't smile much, but two guys laughed a bit at a joke or two. Mostly they were just pretty stoic.

Since Stephen and Dad didn't need to help with the cabin much, they cleaned all our gutters and the whole roof off of debris on our tall house. That means they were climbing all over the steep incline. I'm glad I didn't know about it. :)

It's 5 in the morning. I can't sleep and it's Saturday. What a huge bummer. Anyway, the computer's internet space is allowing me to publish this. I hope you get enough of a glimpse as to the look of this cabin. We are all pretty happy about it.

Unfortunately I'm unable to load the video Stephen made of the cabin. I hope to find then upload some pictures of the new cabin. It's wonderful. Daniel, Hank and I went up to the top of the hill at around 6:00 tonight to check it out. It has lots and lots of potential. We need all brave people around to come sleep up there sometime. Ok

Are you ready Spencer and Lucas? How about Eli, Henry and Alden? Girls, Maisy and Cassey, you can sleep with Grammy up there. (and Papa of course)

We just received a call from Joyce Evans that Bob Darnell past away less than an hour ago. He was sitting in a nice chair in his home with a smile and just took he last breath. I'd say that would be a nice way to go, he is now with our Lord and in no more pain.

Father and daughter.

BTW, Hank cut down a large limb from a tree in our front yard. He bought a "chain saw in a can" yesterday while with Rick and Cindy. Well...he went out early this morning a slung a rope/string combo attached to a heavy wrench up high in the sky and it landed on his branch or limb he was interested in killing. He then attached his new 'saw in a can' to the string/rope thing and began moving his arms back and forth, back and forth. When he was almost done, he broke the string/rope thing. He only had a inch or two more to go, I was asked to pick him up a better rope thing. As he went outside to check out the size of rope, he came back in and told me that the limb fell on its own because the wind brought it down.

Mother and daughter.

We have no camera that works, except this computer one and my camera phone. I thought I'd try adding a few pictures. :)

Here is a picture of two people some of you may know. They came over a couple weeks ago for dinner and they had a picture with the photo booth.

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howdyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yallllllllllLLLLLLLllllllLLLLLL!!!!

Hank squeezed between two buildings. :)

Cape Cod with Hank, Mary, Jason, Kara and Henry. Look at how beautiful the day was!

Here are some pictures of our trip to Boston. We had a wonderful time with Jason, Kara and Henry. Henry took a few hours to warm up to us, and by the time we left, he began to trust us a bit, and let us hold him. By the time we see him again we will have to start all over again. We love him so much, and want to watch his actions and his sweet-heart. He is a love.

Here is a picture of Jason and Henry, with a pinch of Kara behind Jason, looking out at the ocean, (Atlantic), while visiting Cape Code in Massachusetts.

Well, it's been months and months since I've taken the time to update this blog. I love looking at all the blogs I've been most fortunate to view throughout the year. It keeps us updated on our childrens lives in different parts of the United States. It allows us to see the lives of our childrens friends, who live everywhere too. I truly enjoy being able to do this. Kind of like reality T.V. shows.

It's June 3rd, 2008, so we have a whole summer ahead of us. I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I will. I could be just hanging at the house, or going to work, and I'll enjoy it, for the warm air, flowers and green all around, makes my heart happy.

Attached you will see a picture of something I've decided to spend 20 minutes to download. :)

Ok, I lied, it only took 8 minutes!! Hank wants me to ask you if any one knows what this green and white pattern is from.

Cassandra with her four babies. It was last night, and we were all watching "Snow Dogs". Man, we ROCK!!

Here I am in Union Kentucky. Lucas has some special candy, blue. Then, the other two pics are of me with Eli and Maisy. Notice Maisy's cheeks!

Please pray for God's will in Jason's future. He has possible job opprotunity's and God knows their needs. Here is a picture of Jason and his little family. Kara, Jason and Henry.

Many people are praying for you three. We all love you so much.

Around 2 weeks ago, I was driving our X-terra into our garage, going very slowly as I came close to the corner of the garage. Man, I really messed up, and caused this horrid crunch in our car. I felt sick to my stomach, and of course hated myself for it. That first night I couldn't sleep worth a darn, and kept thinking of ways I should have not done what I did. I hope and pray Hank can just pound out the dent, and we can put bondo in the curved parts, and then spray paint it. Hank said its good that I didn't get the light fixture, because that is VERY expensive to repair.

Here is a picture of our new "sports car". Spencer says its is a 'sports car', and we are willing to think it is. :) Anyway, its in our garage right now, and its 1 degree outside. So, in our garage it is probably 14 degrees. Yeppy skippy. Anyway, it is a Hundai Elantra. It is a 5 speed stick shift, and it has heat and AC. We really like driving it, and it gets nice gas mileage.

In Farwell with 6 of our 7 grandchildren. Left to right....Lucas, Alden, Cassie, Maisy, Eli and Spencer. Grammy Mary in the middle. We miss you Henry Anthony Tait.

Believe me, it was hard to get everyone in one picture at once. :)

Lucas Russell Herman in Farwell, with snow falling down. He loved going outside to check out the falling snow.

Cassandra in the backyard in Farwell. She is trying to knock off snow from the dish on our roof, so we can get this awesome internet service. (yeah right). Notice the snow, how deep it is on her leg. BTW, the long pole that she is holding is reaching all the way up to the second story. Its one LONG branch.

Here is a picture of me out in the backyard. Cassandra took the picture. In real life, the snow was up to the bottom of my knees, and that was with boots on, and not touching the grass at all (of course). Check out the pine trees heavy laden with cold snow.

This is a picture of Alden and his cousin Miles. The kids had so much fun together opening presents. Miles, Owen and a 9 month old named Witney were at Aldens party, along with Papa Ormand, Grandma Terry, Aunts Lindsey and Lauren. Also present were Grandma Linda, Papa Hank, Grammy Mary (me) and of course Aunt Christina.

Aldens birthday party was very fun. Kim and Daniel had so many nice touches in their home. Balloons with helium, around 20 I guess, all with a dangly ribbon. As you can see from this delicious cake, that Alden's Grandma Linda made for his birthday, there are many crazy candles on it. Alden LOVED his birthday.

I hope this picture of Christina and Dylan show.

Thanks.

Christina and her boyfriend, Dylan. He is a freshman at her high school. Notice the blue skys in the background...I love blue skys, it shows Christinas blue eyes. (if you look hard enough through her bangs.) Christina says Dylan has big blue eyes too.

Papa Hank being attacked by the green monster...Alden in the background laughing like crazy.

Alden and Papa playing with a green monster

Last Saturday Kim and Daniel went out on the town of Clare for around 52 minutes and 36 seconds. They didn't stay out too long because they missed this little girl baby who is at this point up in the air in her mommy's hands. Notice the snow out the window. It was VERY cold outside. Notice the dad looking at his daughter with amazment.

Cassie in her little papose type of blanket, laying on the floor, looking very tiny. She looks tiny because she is very tiny. Notice Christinas new stero system she got for Christmas near Cassie.

This is Alden at 3 in the morning, he is full of energy, and so we just "hung out".

Ok, that worked, and it will allow me to upload a video, but I can't because of this internet service, it still won't let me get to uploading photos, so, now I will tell you a little bit of my night last night.

I got home from work, and Hank said he wanted to have shrimp and chicken stir fry. (He had cleared all the snow that had fallen the past 20 hours off our driveway, and porch, and sidwalks, plus several other driveways and parking lots. Christina had the day off of school.) Well, back to the evening, so, I made dinner, and we ate, like usual, and I cleaned up, like usual. Then the strangest thing happened. I was walking around the living room, and looked outside in the darkness. It looked so pretty with our yard light shining on the new, crisp snow. I had my slippers on, and an blazer on, and actually walked outside, feeling the 15 degrees on my face, and it was so beautiful, and the stars were shining, and the world felt so very fresh. I also felt very, very small in this huge place called earth, and thought about what I'm here for. That is the million dollar question, isn't it?

Many thoughts have gone on since this past evening, and everything was peaceful at home. I walked on my treadmill then, FAST, and then went downstairs to watch American Idol with Hank and Christina, and continued to think about what I should now do with my life...

One thing is for sure, I CAN'T SING WORTH A DARN. :)

Now, I will try to go back to bed and with any hope at all, I will find some peace while I lay my old head down. MCT

Its 4 in the morning. I can't sleep, have been tossing and turning since 1:45 am. Give me a break!
So, anyhow, I finally was able to load a picture, after trying for 2 evenings to do so, and now I can't load anymore. It says "can't locate blogger.com". So, now I'm writing here, because I see, "blogger.com", and this square. If I'm able to send this, then blogger is working, and they just don't want me to upload any of my pictures of Alden and Cassie. (only pictures I have that are worth putting on my blog). So, here it goes.

It was quite cold outside on Sunday when I was up with Alden at 3 in the morning. I thought I would show you the actual stats via our clock.

Christina at school, looking cool.

Christina, the birthday girl, with her favorite dog Pretzel

Clare Michigan-with one very current movie. Anyone want to come and visit?

Notice the gloomy sky?

Notice the bare trees?

It was a warm, foggy day, and the good thing is, so much of the snow has melted. Now the snow and cold is back, but, the HUGE piles of snow from December have been melted. :)

A few years ago in Hermosa Beach on Valley Drive there were some very special people who were loved to pieces by parents and grandparents. From left to right the precious children were...
Daniel, Jason, Stephen, Andrew, Justin and Cassandra.

Notice the couch below the little one's legs. That couch is now at 11197 North Meridian Road.

Kara and Henry

Lucas playing his new keyboard. I wonder if they have time to play now that school is back and they have their buddies to play with in Union, KY. I sure think these kids are cute!

Spencer trying out his new gitar.

Eli and his Mommy playing the keyboard on Christmas day.

Alden wanting to touch Cassie's eyes...it reminds me of Eli wanting to touch Maisy's eyes too, just a few weeks ago.

Yesterday I visited Kim, Alden and Cassie for a short while. This is a picture I took, and all I can say is that Alden loves his little sister, and is very careful with her.

Kara being the beauty parlor lady...or better known as helping us out with our hair. Christina had cut her own hair a week before Kara came to Michigan, and Kara was kind enough to make the cut up to date and very stylish. Thanks Kara, you did an amazing job on Christina, Haley's and my hair.

Uncle Jason holding Maisy while both were visiting in Michigan. At least Uncle Jason looks pretty happy. :)