An Inspiring Olympic Story

This comercial always makes me cry:



Here is the actual race:



I find this so inspiring because it is such a picture of the love of our Heavenly Father--no matter how badly we collapse, He is there to help us finish the race!

Big Decision

Dear Family,
As some of you know my name has come up for a duplex at the nursing home. It is one of the first one's that was built so is about twenty years old. The lady that lived there went to Arizonia every winter so was only there about half of the time so it is in very good shape. She has always owned it up to now. It is good sized as it has 1325sq.ft. compared to the 1515 I have here. It has a kitchen, huge living room, two bathrooms, bedroom and the second room to be used as you desire. The kitchen is somewhat dated with the cupboard doors being white. It has a full basement that is unfinished. There are many details of how it all operates with the home that I'm not going to go into. Tim's, Eldon's. Eileen and Faye have all seen it. Right now I've told them I'm interested but haven't made the final commitment. It is a hard decision to make. My heart is here but my head tells me it might be a good time to make the change while I'm in prettty good health. I need your love and support in this. Love, Mom and Grandma

We're home & I made it!

Ty & I got back yesterday from a five day four night backpacking trip in southern Colorado! We went with his dad & mom and some friends. I climbed my first 14,000 foot moutain! On Thursday we summited Uncompahgre at 14,311 feet. I've attached pictures to prove it :) I found that camping is not my cup of tea, but it was all worth it when we finally reached the top! It was really all worth it when I got a hot shower a great meal & a warm bed with nice fluffy pillow on Friday night! It was great weather the whole time we were hiking. A little cold... it got around freezing every night. On Saturday we went white water rafting down the Royal Gorge, it was cold a rainy the whole day, but the rapids were fun! Hope everyone is enjoying the summer! Love you! Beth

Go Team USA

Good Morning America - and family

This is a photo of my breakfast from this past 4th of July. No, it isn't still sitting on the counter. I ate it. I'm just patriotic that way. No wonder my kids call me 'weird'.

In other Florida news, Faye and Tara are on their way to Illinois. The body shop finished Tara's car in time for the trip. Tara had a great week at Wycliffe. She was asked if she was related to Barry Hohulin and to Dick & Lou. Small world - but pretty neat.

Faye's mom is home from rehab and the hospital. She is doing much better and gaining her strength back. Faye and Sue have still been taking turns spending the night with them.

So Faye left for the weekend - and Tropical Storm 'Fay' may be on the way. I hope they both behave :-)

-Mike

Storm Damage

Duane and I went to Branson for a long weekend to celebrate our 33rd anniversary. We got home on Monday night. On Tuesday morning we had a severe storm go thru the area. The two trees in our yard didn't come out so good but the damage to our house was minimal. We were without power for about 8 hours. The pile of branches and logs in front of the house is now about as tall as the house. We hope the city will be by to pick them up soon. The town of Eureka lost a large number of old trees. Dave and Tara Prather had a tree fall on their house. They live about a block from us. We heard they have rafters broken. There are other houses in town that were damaged also. We are thankful that ours was so minor.

Eileen

Florida Update

Hi.

Thanks for all the postings. I've enjoyed reading and looking.
But Tim, really? With all those cute grandkids - what's with the pig?
Nice artwork Eldon - kinda dresses it up a bit.

Faye's mom fell in the hallway just outside their condo on Wed. 7/16.
She was bringing groceries in and caught her foot on the carpet.
We thought she broke her hip - but are thankful that is not the case.
She did get beat up pretty good. Vi was in the hospital until Sunday 7/20.
Since then she has been in a local nursing/rehab center.
The plan is for Vi to go home on Tuesday - so we will see how she gets along.

Andy has been living here at home for the past year.
However, he just moved into an apartment with two of his high school classmates.
They are just east of US1, so he is only a couple miles from the beach.
Grandma, you can continue sending all those delicious cookies to us here, and we'll make sure he gets some.

Tara can't decide if she wants to be in IL or FL this summer.
She was in FL for about 4 weeks right after spring semester.
Then back to IL for about 5 weeks for summer school.
Now back in FL for about 4 weeks.
But she leaves in a week to head back for her senior year at ISU.
Tara will attend a week long linguistic conference with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Orlando on her way back to IL.
On Friday, Tara and Faye were taking Ed over to see Vi when they were rear-ended in Tara's car. So her car is now in the body shop. We hope it will be fixed by the time she needs to leave for IL. Otherwise, it will be a very long walk, right Kayla?

Wish I could have been in IL to see my big brother Keith.

Lots of love,
Mike

Fishing was Great!!!!

Back from Wisconsin with a boat load of fish. We had a great time on our trip. It was good to get to see Keith and the rest of the family on Thursday. Well I said that I could do a better photo of Tim so here it is. Sorry Tim I couldn't help it.



Eldon