Save us a seat, Doctor Dale

In the past we have written about our good friend and our family physcian, Doctor Dale Boersma and his struggle with ALS....a cruel and dehumanizing disease. We are pleased to annouce Doctor Dale has gone home.....home to be with his Lord. He is now whole and healthy and filled with joy in the pressence of his Lord, Jesus Christ. Although we mourn his passing because it is our loss, we rejoice and celebrate his going from this life to an eternity spent in glory....a place without tears, pain, and unhealthy bodies. I can picture him singing praises to the Lord and even dancing for him. He must feel so free.

While we do have sadness today it is a relief to us that Doctor no longer is held captive in a body that won't respond. He no longer is suffering. For the last two years he had been unable to do all the things he loved to do, sing, help people by being a doctor, work in the yard, study scripture, worship his Lord, spend time with grand kids, and fellowship with other Christians.....oh yeah, and make very corny jokes and puns that made his bride, Helen, roll her eyes.

We are just so thankful we got to share in his time here on earth and we say thank you, Doctor, for your wonderful Christian example and for the love you showed to me and to my whole family. I am happy for you being set free and Jim and I look forward to seeing you again in heaven.... save us a seat!

Basketball?...what, me?!

I don't really like to watch sports on television. Right now I can't believe I am watching basketball.....but Penn State is playing. For some reason basketball just isn't that fun ....not unless you are actually there. I mean....it is like ping pong....back and forth. It is fun watching the ball swoosh through the hoop, and when someone steals a ball, if it helps my team I just love that! Yet, I get bored with it. Call me at the very end of the game and just let me watch it in the last five mins. Maybe it is sports ADHD....or maybe it is just that I have never played a lot of sports.

I enjoy football and I really like to watch golf... maybe it is because the players are outside. I don't know....although baseball is the hardest of them all for me to watch....I mean with all the scratching and spitting. Hahahaa... it just drives me nuts. Now if someone I know is playing that makes it all different.

My dad and my step dad are football guys...they had football on the TV lot...so all my life I watched football more than anything else. I think it is just in my blood. I like the variety in the plays....or maybe their love for that game rubbed off on me.

A couple times I really got into tennis....into Wimbeldon and loved all of that, but that is rare. I usually forget it. I will watch a horse race, too. Now if you have a fav that is exciting, but it is over way too fast.

So you see I really am not a sports watcher....but I seem to watch a lot of sports. Bizarre isn't it?

Yipppeeeeee Penn State just won against Florida! Maybe I will turn into a basketball watcher after all!

Who are they going to play next? I will be checking that out and setting my dvr

St. Patrick's Day Ramblings

I have always known I was part Irish, but knowing my Great Grandfather spoke with a very thick Scottish accent led all of us to believe we were really more Scotch than Irish. Also, my spending habits suggested the same. But when my mother visited the municipal building in Glasgow, Scotland, she found the grandfather she thought was Scotch was actually a refugee from Ireland living in Scotland before bringing his family to the United States. I guess we should have figured that out as they were Roman Catholics. Now, I am not 100% sure I don't have any Scottish heritage, but I am 100% sure Irish blood runs in my veins.....so St. Patrick's day is one holiday I now like to acknowledge. I really never thought that much about it while growing up.

When I was a kid going to school I wore orange to school and not green because as I said above I was operating under the belief I was Scotch and not Irish....soooooo now days I am actually wearing green. Today I wore my shamrock necklace and was proud of my relatively new found Irish heritage .....even if most of my great aunts had Irish cankles instead of ankles. (Yes, I am the lucky recipient of the cankle gene.) I know my grandmother on my mother's side and father's side were both English. I guess that makes me a bonafide, WASP. Hillary Clinton must be a WASP as well, cuz she has her some fierce cankles, too. It is the only trait we have in common....I hope anyway.

So what is my point? I am not sure either.....I am so sleepy I can hardly keep my eyes open. If I think of one I will edit this tomorrow.... or better yet if you find a point to all of this nonsense you can let me in on the secret. GOOD NIGHT

The Non Christmas Sweater

Well, I guess we do look a little different.....amazing what 30 years can do and yet the sweater is still the same! I want to know its secret. Funny thing though.....it used to be a lot bigger... ;-) Jim has on a similar sweater...but his is not the wool one. I think he might actually have this same wool sweater from the first pic, but this larger, cotton one is much softer!

Last night we were planning to go to the patio at Sundown for good friend, BC's, non-birthday. (As usual we had a good time.) It promised to be chilly out there...about 45 degrees, so I thought I would dig out my 100% wool sweater from J.C. Penney.

This sweater is at least 30 years old and maybe a couple more.... I have been saving this sweater, even though it is pretty itchy to wear, first be cause it is warm and second because I like it. I probably have worn it about 25 times in all these years. I wore it several times when it was really cold in Illinois, but because it is sorta itchy, I only wore it when I thought I was gonna be really cold and I should pull out the big guns...the 100% wool.

Anyway, I was so excited to put it to the test...and when we got there the patio was closed for a private party and we found ourselves inside. Because the outside door was opened and closed numerous times it was chilly where were and I ended up feeling toasty ....even though we were a little itchy.

What I am wondering is if it is time to retire the sweater? If I get rid of it then I don't have a really warm wool sweater anymore. We live in a society that tells us that we need all sorts of stuff....BUT that we need a new one....of everything..... every so often. Can a person get one really warm sweater and let it be THE only warm 100% wool sweater they will EVER need? (bar moths or other age related deterioration). Just a thought....plus if we end up living in the Mad Max world some predict...( I sure hope they are wrong!!)...then I will need my super warm itchy sweater for sure! The down side is the amount of space it takes up in a drawer. So I am thinking about this......as I do every year for 30 years when I swap the winter for the summer duds.

Now my feet have been size 6.5 ever since 9th grade or maybe before. Jim might read this and argue that one good, sturdy pair of shoes would also be enough...but that is a whole different post for another time.