Greeting to all my wonderful xanga friends! Sorry that I have been MIA for awhile now. I have been having a very busy summer...graduations, weddings, traveling, two classes coming up with loads of work attached...and I have been sick for over a month and would appreciate prayer since I leave Thursday for two weeks in Germany finishing my courses. Without a doubt the highlight of the summer was seeing my youngest graduate high school and then watching him get baptized!!! We are bursting with happiness for him.

Bear with me because there are a lot of photos here but I won't have computer access for the next two weeks so I thought I would just go ahead and add them all now. These are around town and the actual parade and the spectators. Newtown was around in the 1600's and was the county seat at one time so there are a few historic homes here still. There were so many lovely little children and families with their doggies. It was fun walking around town.

This is our pastor and his wife and sons....

Greg was invited to join a reenactment group for the Newtown Memorial Day parade...I had fun taking pictures... these are some of the lining up  and around town...more tomorrow....

Since we have been home some of us decided to start a once a month activity night for kids in first through fifth grade. This month we made candy to give to our moms for mother's day. We had fun in the process.
Here we are getting ready and waiting for all the kids to arrive...

I am giving instructions...

Some are actually listening...


We had a fun time together...



And today I got to pick up my cool new bike....

I need to start riding off some of these pounds!!!!!

I sincerely love my mom and I want to share some of the good memories I have of her. She is the kind of mom that liked kids and having a bunch of them around. Kids always enjoyed talking to her. She loved taking a bunch of kids on a picnic, to the zoo, to the beach, to the amusement park, to the drive in.
She loved her parents and was an example of devotion to them. My grandparents never learned to drive but she took them everywhere including on many fun vacations with us. I have great memories of weeks at the "shore" and a trip to Canada and my mom did all the driving.
She is a hard worker and had her own at home business. She likes fixing up her house and digging in the garden.
She has always loved stray animals and stray people...she is kindhearted.
Here is a photo of her (on the right) at her wedding. She was 18. Did I mention she is very pretty?
 

Was sunny today and I spent a lot of time in the garden..... the silver lining of the clouds is the birds have loved it and I have seen so many kinds here...unfortunately the feeder is not where I can gt  good photo. I like that Bulgaria (and other places in Eastern Europe) celebrate all women but mother's day is a good idea too.Hope you have good memories of your mother and if you are a mother that your kids have good memories of you!!!

We have been stuck inside because of rain for days now... today we decided to go for a walk anyway...it is not that cold so don't mind getting a little damp...
Not too long ago we got to meet and enjoy breakfast with some xanga friends danishdoll and peahater. They are lovely people and we hope we will meet up again  someday.
 
One sunny day we walked in the nearby park with Bindi...loads of other people had the same idea...
  

Happy Birthday, Nicole!!! And many more are wished for you! I don't have a clue why but every time I try to comment on your sight or get on it I get thrown off xanga...........so this is the only way I can get wishes to you!!!! Love From Ana!

We were invited to a concert Saturday night. A fried of ours was singing. Since we had never heaard the group we didn't know what to expect. They were phenomenal! They call themselves the Symphony NYChorus. they have all sorts of talent, instruments and singers. The blend of their voices was so good and they did some without instruments. They definitely made a joyful noise! One of the songs took me back to Bible college days where I sang this song myself.....
I can hear the Savior say, thy strength indeed is small, child of weakness watch and pray, find in me thine all in all. Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain...He washed it white as snow.

This is the main street in our town at the moment....... it looks like snow when these trees shed their blossoms...

I have a few photos I want to share but first I want to post a quote I read yesterday. It is full of wisdom.
" The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift...It is painfully won, and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned."
(from 2008 commencement address at Harvard University by J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books)
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (James)
"Pure joy" is not our usual reaction to adversity. Perhaps that is because we fail to see how God uses it in our lives and how it develops our character in ways that nothing else ever could.