| Yes, I am still alive, and no, I have not forgotton how to post on xanga.  It is just not always easy for me to get to since we don't have a computer, and the time at the library is always too short. We are enjoying the Iowa summer very much after a very long, cool, wet spring. There are a lot of hard storms going through, but my garden is looking pretty good in spite of it all. We are enjoying cherry tomatoes, and lots more soon to come. My work at the Kalona sale barn during the horse sales recently expanded to a part-time job. I had been trained to enter each horse #, the seller, the buyer, and the price it sold for into the computer as they run the horses through the ring, lickety-split! I had several days of splitting headaches and wanting to pull my hair out, but I am getting the hang of it, and it's enjoyable. But now the sale barn hired me as accountant in the office as well. I work Mon., Wed., and Thurs. I don't know how long I'll be doing it, but I am sure learning a lot! Last week Pete & Audrey came out for a visit. Oh, how great to finally meet Pete, and to see the two of them together after all we have heard of this wonderful man!  We all camped at Louise's house over the weekend, and had a very enjoyable time. I love to have all my family together, and Jim & Rachel were keenly missed! We kept looking to see who was missing, and it was Rachel. Philip turned 15 that weekend, on the 20th, so we had a little celebration for him too. ( Jim, our thoughts were with you on your day too!) Grace & I are getting all geared up for a trip to Pa. in about a week. We are going in with Louise, and will meet up with Rachel and Audrey too. All 4 of us are going out to the Maryland Beach to spend 4 days together!! Audrey is getting married in Sept., and will be living in NC., so the times where Mama & her girls can spend together will be more and more rare. We will also be able to take in Daryl's parent's 50th wedding anniversary celebration that weekend, so we are happy to be able to be there! Then of course in Sept. we head out to NC to Audrey's wedding. She has the date set for the 19th. It will be a pretty small wedding, held in a national park by the waterfalls where they became engaged. Daryl's work has picked up quite a bit lately. It has also shifted gears quite a bit! He used to be doing mostly demolition and salvage of buildings. But now the windmill servicing thing has really taken off. He covers a pretty large area of about 3 states, and also has a lot of local clients since the Amish use the windmills alot for water & power. Of course, the storms we've been having supply a steady stream of repairs too! Some pictures yet of life around our place... 
Penny, our new Lab puppy 
A windmill head that Grace just painted  
Phil, launching the swing from the tree branches. 
Pete & Audrey 
Phil's 15th Birthday 
My Sweetie! 
Talking to him too! Til next time, whenever that may be, Carol |
I also enjoy making new flower beds and arranging shrubs. I finally have the time to play around with some of these things now that my little ones are growing up!
Getting 15 people to all do a good pose at the same time is no small task. I admired the photographer. We made a lot of good memories...
