ORU at O'Charley's

What was planned as a birthday dinner, turned out to be just a cheer me up get together, when one of the birthday girls chose her grandchildren over us. Yes, we were just fine with that. We would all have done the same thing.

Paulette is one of our July birthday girls, but she got the chance to take her grands to Canada for the week. They had a great time.

The rest of us fared well also. Since we already had this outing planned, we went with it. We really appreciate these fun dinners which are farther apart than they were when we were younger and more stationary.

This time we chose a restaurant that was closer to home and it turned out to be a very good choice. Our evening exuded with happiness there at O'Charley's.

Local members of ORU present: Sali, Jane, Phyllis, Becky and me, Lou Ann

The Ohio River

Ron and his friend Bob drove down to Marietta  to check out some small shops.  Our two oldest daughters live down that way and joined  the guys in touring the small city. Thankfully, Bob got a photo of April and Kim with their dad for me.  The girls have been here briefly for a little visit since then, but I never get to see them enough.  I love the pictures with their smiles to cheer me up some times.

By the way, I need  to say that Ron is truly fascinated  by this river with its floods. He has a app on his phone that tells just  how high the river is at present. Actually, he never had an interest in that fact until April moved  right beside the river. So it is a personal thing with him.

Pampered One

 

It may not look like it here, but our dog is quite pampered. You wouldn't believe how I grind up chicken for her, keep it in the freezer, then heat it in the microwave along with her kibble. And when bed time comes, she hops up on her  big king sized bed, but fortunately she does allow us to sleep with her.

More Midwest Anime

I'm sure Ashely enjoys these anime meetings  more than I do, but I'm not sure how. It is always a lot of fun for me to see these pictures of each character she portrays so very well. This is  Kagome 

Higurashi from Inuyasha.

Stars and Stripes Forever

Here is more from Independence Day, July 4th. I'm so glad  to have gotten these pictures of our grandkids, taken at the parade in their home town.

I have lots of cool papers, etc for July 4th, but we didn't get many pictures of our celebration here at the lakes. There were  two other couples with us and we had lots of fun, but I won't have much to show for it as far as layouts go.  Here at the house, I have left up my decorations this year. I really want to show my love for our  country; so I'm just not ready to put away the patriotic things.

Midwest Anime

In the first week of July, Chicago hosted the Midwest Anime at the Hyatt Regency. Ashley was excited to go. Her mom and Mason went along and visited friends while they were in town. 

Ashley had  three characters that she played quite well while there, starting with Yoshimo from Date Alive on Friday night. Here are pictures depicting Yoshimo. The cape was an intricate design and Ashley's Aunt Tracie helped a lot to put it together for the cosplay.  I am not familiar with the one eyed rabbit that goes along with this outfit.  Perhaps if you google it, you may come up with his name and part.

It's a Parade

It was quite a pleasant surprise on a hot day at the 4th of July parade to see a Fort Collins policeman riding his bike and carrying a cooler with icy treats for all the kids. This made a very good impression on Caleb and Oliver, who got ice cream sandwiches and Julia who picked a pretty red, white and blue popcycle. God bless America.

Yesterday you saw Ava with her great grandmother on a porch swing. Today's picture is also of Ava. This time she is sipping her tea.

Porch Swing with Grandma

The term for grandmother in Ecuador is abuela.

Here is our little great granddaughter, Ava. She is visiting with her maternal grandmother, abuela, Ameda.  I'm hoping this layout will keep this sweet memory alive for Ava over the years.

Life Isn't Perfect

I've been putting a lot of time into my physical therapy and it has paid off. I'm feeling very good. My physical therapist was so impressed over the progress I've made that he cancelled  our last session. He told me to continue the good work at home, exercising every other day. He praised my hard work so much, that I asked him if I would soon be ready for the Olympics, which gave him a laugh.

I haven't been saving  time for doing layouts and that is one of the most enjoyable things to do. This evening I did this one of Ashley and her newly recolored hair, which was something that her new job required. I  love it. I didn't realize how very pretty it really is. I hadn't realized it was this long either.

Her birthday is coming up soon. She'll be 17... all too soon. What has happened to the time?

Little Fish

One of these days this little sweetheart will be swimming like a fish. In the meantime, we like to think she is the cutest little fish in the pool.  Here she is with her Mommy, Brittanie.

Flash Back to 2018

I just found this picture and love it. It is our granddaughter and her fiancé.  They were at a friend's wedding. When I started work on this layout, I was thinking the picture was taken this year on her birthday. Hopefully I'll get a real birthday picture soon. Until then, I'll just enjoy this one.

America the Beautiful

John and Beth took the  kids,  Caleb, Oliver and Julia to the July 4th parade in Ft Collins. They really enjoyed it, especially when a police officer came down the street with a cooler and gave each child a special treat.

Independence Day is a great day to celebrate as a family. 

As our children grow, we hope that they grow in independence in a healthy way. We want them to become completely independent some day. We want them to be able to make wise decisions and to support themselves. 

That is not a whole lot different from why we celebrate July 4th. We are grateful that our forefathers made the decision to break off from the countries from which they came and especially the country  who wanted to reign over us with the same laws we were escaping. We were determined to become a free people, independent from Europe and dependent  on our God to guide us instead. It was a noble call. Freedom has been a great thing. We have had our struggles, but we were better for them. They taught us lessons. We had to fight to give women a voice. We had to fight to give all men and women equal treatment under the law and in practice. We did it. 

We were doing quite well until some who want us to fail and fall into socialism started dividing us into groups, women against men, blacks against their white brothers, rich against poor, college educated against self educated, moral against immoral, etc. It isn't right. We are all one, no need to divide  unless you are wanting to cause bad feelings and real trouble.

Lets pull together and defeat those who want to divide us.

Baseball Season

Back in June, on the 21st, the Phillies played the Miami Marlins. Lauren and Pat were there. It was a special day in that it was the first day of their vacation.

Both are hard workers who put their all into whatever they do. It was good to get a break, even if their team lost. 

Independence Day 2019

Although today is Independence Day, we are holding off our big celebration until Saturday when we here at the lakes celebrate with fireworks over the lake.  

However, we did get to witness the greatest patriotic happening since  I was much, much younger. Actually,  I would rank it above anything I've seen. It was the speech by our president who gave a very good history lesson of our country. We watched our wonderful military planes flying over our National 4th of July military parade.

It was the joy of seeing the National Mall completely filled with people happy to see our president.  It  was the introductions of many heroes and the fact that Trump said  all the right things. God bless America. Our president said that we will never be a socialist country. I pray he is right about that and that the people of this country will remain free.  I won't have long to live, but I really want the best for my children and grandchildren.

My layout is not patriotic, but it shows someone else I love dearly...our little Julia. Last night, I posted a layout of her after her haircut. This one is  made of her pictures going  through the process of washing and cutting her beautiful blond hair.

Beauty Shop

Julia is so pretty. She surely can keep up with the boys, but she is definitely a girly girl as well. This was her first visit to the beauty shop for a haircut.   It was a beautiful day.

Blue Heron

The blue heron came to the Cuyahoga National Park in  1990.  After they grew plentiful, we would drive up there to see their nests. However, in the last 5 years or so, they have migrated here to Portage Lakes and are now well represented here. One year I caught one fishing in our gold fish pond. I frightened him away and have not see any evidense that the heron have been back to the pond. 

They have  found  our boat house to be a good lookout and this fellow seems to have taken a liking to our yard. 

It's a little strange watching this blue heron 'walking' around the yard, acting as if it is his home. He certainly does not look able  to pay the taxes here.

Our Beautiful Ashley

Ashley changed her hair to go with her new job. We think she looks fantastic. I have several pictures and all are good, but  I just got them  tonight and  haven't had time to put the others in a layout yet.

I played with this one for some time, but finally decided  I like this rendition best...I think, well maybe I'll change my mind later before I publish the book. In the meantime, I'm quite pleased with her new look and this layout.

I can't help but mention another subject. Tonight I was able to see our president on the Tucker Carlson show at 8:00.  We enjoyed the interview of the president by Tucker.

They were in the east for the G20 Conference, and while there they made a memorable trip to Korea, North Korea that is.

I wish everyone could have seen it like I did, nothing was deleted. It is easy to see why our president does well with people. He truly likes mankind and wants the best for all.

God Bless America.