Tuesday, May 29th,

Well, Memorial Day is over, we enjoyed a picnic in back yard, with way too much food. We also did a cleanup on my back porch. The pictures above, show the wood being taken away to Paul's and Chris's place. We figured it up, and it had been on my back porch for 22 years, with nary a bit of it ever used.

I was sitting on it a few minutes ago, and a nice cool breeze was coming through even though the thermometer said nearly 80 degrees in the shade. Think we are going to enjoy the use of it, especially once I get some electrical run out there, so can plug in the stereo or small t-v. This is somewhat a sore subject, with my better half, but I think my logic will win out. We think we know how we want the lattice panels set up now, so will take it one step at a time. I tend to rush things, and Donna wants to go slower, so a compromise is in order.

When I did my electrical remodel, I lost power to the light in the garage, which powered the lights on my sumac tree. So yesterday morning, I figured out a new way to get the electrical to the tree, and now I have 260 little white bulbs shining in night. And a friend had given me a piece of water pipe with a faucet still on it. I buried it about 8 inches in the ground, and then supported it with patio stones, and if you don't look too close, it looks like I have a 21 foot flag pole with the American Eagle on top.

I think its time to download those pictures, and then get back to work on the porch, or else on Sue's bathroom cabinets. So, will say Cherrio!

Monday, May 28, 2007, MEMORIAL DAY

Today, we celebrate the remembrance of Loved ones who have passed into eternity, and especially I want to Honor loved ones who have served in the Military of the United States of America. Today, I honor Great Uncle Wallace Cook, my father Spencer Howard Stephenson, both serving in World War I, cousins Robert Stephenson, Charles Stephenson, James Stephenson, Warren Stephenson, George Machacek, and uncles Ray Whipple and Ralph Cook serving in World War II, then nephews Robert Keith Cook, William (Bill) Cook, brother Harold Stephenson and myself, all serving in the Korean Conflict, and Brother in Law John Christenson serving in the Viet Nam War, nephew Terry Stephenson, and lastly my great nephew Patrick Lazenby. May this list never get any longer.

I would be remiss however if I did not also Honor Herman Walters Jr, my best man, Roy Steck my bunk mate during basic training, Ralph Wetmore, James Clancy, James Drubel, Ardith and Cledith Smith, Gene Zingula, Donald McAtee, Marvin Sherman, Henry Pohs, Bob Tudeen, and a host of others, many I can no longer remember their names.

As I grow older and get more forgetful some of my good Army buddies names just won't come to my mind anymore. I'm struggling with my buddy who lives in Denver. Got it. There may also be those ancestors who served in the Spanish American War and the Civil War, but todate my historical searching has not turned up any such brave men.

War is not a pleasant thing to be looked forward to. I know when I was awaiting my "Greetings from the President" letter, I didn't have a fear of dying should I go to war, for I seem to recall thinking that my blood if spilled was no better than someone else's. I would not be where I am today had I not served my Country. It was because of my service, that brought me to the West Coast of the United States and because my Army buddy Jr. Walters (Herman Walters Jr) lived in Portland, it was here that I met my wife of now 51 years.

So, war is always bad, we think of the maiming and killing that takes place, and this is bad, but there is good in serving our country, possibly the greatest country in the world. Good can be because with sufficient man power the threat of war from other countries is diminished.

I'll leave War for now, and also honor and remember other great people in my life, and that would be my mother Clista, my in laws Paul and Irene Buck, Donna's brother Pete, Aunt Stella Whipple, Grandpa and Grandma Schmickle and Stephenson's. Aunt Myrtle and Uncle Adlai, Uncle Ira and Aunt Stella Stephenson. Grandpa and Grandma Cook and Grandpa and Grandma Buck. Kelly and Jewell Cook, Val and Eva Cook, Margie Cook, all passed on into Glory now.

I think of Pastors who I have sit and listened to who have gone onto their Eternal Rewards in Heaven, Willard Backer, Rev. Kearney, and who can forget all the wonderful Christian brothers and sisters who have reached their goal. I visited several of their graves just the other day, and will visit them again probably today or tomorrow again.

And, yes, Donna and I have chosed the plot of ground that we will someday have our bodies lowered into, and children, grandchildren and loved ones will someday visit us too. What more can I say, God is so good to each of us.

I close with a quote that my mother sent in one of her letters, that I think is appropriate, "what your do for yourself dies with you, what you do for others lives on and on". Do good for others today. Cheers!

6:15 Thursday morning.
Well, I'm getting there, printing out the last 10 pages of my blog, so won't duplicate too much I hope. I have a friend back in Kansas by name of Ron who has a radio talk show every Saturday night. He plays the top 10 Christian artists songs that are popular today. I'll have to confess, there are very few that I know, but he puts some very interesting insights into every day Christian living, that you ought to check out. You can find him at www.rockinronks@hotmail.com . You'll be glad to see what this young man is doing, he's got my vote for "Christian of the Year"

Well, I see that picture didn't look to impressive. Most of the berries will be as large as my thumb nail when they are ripe. I enjoy taking a cutting from this large bush, and dipping some starting powder on the cut end, and putting it into some soil, and starting new bushes from it. As I said earlier, I have some to transplant, three in fact. Not so sure that a 75 degree day is the right time to transplant, but they are in the way of another project that's just getting started, and that is cleaning off the 25 year accumulation of lumber from our back porch area. The area is about 8 feet by 20 feet, and when Julie, Dan and Micah are here, we're going to have a party with the other family members and make this a nice comfortable area for Donna and I to sit and watch the world go by.

I'm opting for a plug in or two, so we can have a small t-v (hooked up to the cable, of course) lamps for reading and some nice comfortable patio chairs, table etc. Cleaning off the old wood is a project I've been wanting to do for a long time. There is a lot of good exotic wood mixed in with black walnut, 60 year old oak (church pews) and probably lots of mice and bugs. So, the projects seem to roll on and on. Hope this old body of mine can keep up with the ideas that are being generated, hour by hour.

I mentioned that I am also working on the basement laundry room. Got some studs up the other day, and my new neighbor Quinn brought his gun over that shoots nails through studs into the concrete floor, so the floor plate is now down near the stairs.

Another important document going to recycle is a 2005 email from Betty telling me she has been wearing hearing aids since 1998, and mentions some brands, oops there is some info in it about her travels to Ireland that I think I want to keep. How about a note from Harold's farm that gives me the name of Spinzels, a sort of pretzel that they get at Menards. Of course we don't have any Menards here, so guess I'll have to check the internet and see if the manufacture has any distributors out here in Oregon.

I can't say enough how much my great neice Carrie has done in putting together Family History. Check out her website at www.geocities.com/carriejeanjacket/genelinks I'm learning things from it I never, never knew. I knew my grandfather came from Germany in 1874 or thereabouts, and I thought from the town of Wittenberg. Her website shows the town where he was born, Marbach, which is near Stuttgart. And a earlier e-mail from Dan tells me that two towns, Einod and Kleinaspach ties into this also, and they are all it looks like within a few miles of each other. Hardly know what to do with that copy of the email, guess I'll put it into the notebook of Schmickles.

About a year ago, I bought 6 good sized notebooks, one for the Cooks, Bucks, Notbohms, Schmickles, Strawns and Stephensons. Those 6 books should take care of most family tree members, altho if my kids tree is complete I need to include the Lunds and (can't remember Paul Bucks mom's maiden name) So, someday, those folders will be full, and I hope to put all the pictures I have into the correct notebook.

Don't see that I've mentioned that Donna and I have picked out our FINAL resting place for these mortal bodies God has give us. Thursday of last week, Donna and her sister Lou went out looking for the correct funeral home & cemetary. Found one just off Sunnyside road and Hwy 205. They liked it, so after I had visited the brain Doctor, we went out and looked at it together. We liked what we saw, so signed up for our two burial lots, picked out our caskets, and I guess we're all set. Its all paid for and waiting for us now. We just don't want to get into too big a hurry to get there. I'm planning on going to 120 years of age, so hope mine will still be there when I get there. I'd always wanted to be buried at Willamette National or at Columbia Cemetary, but after seeing how sort of lonely Willamette is, and how unkept Columbia has been lately, this new place looks ideal for me. Will maybe show some pictures on a later blog.

Time for me to sign off again, and go read my Bible and the daily newspaper. One is filled with Good News, and the other is mostly bad news. So, till next time, Cheerio!

5:30 a.m. Thursday, May 24

The phone rang a hour ago, it was the wrong number, so I went back to bed, but after tossing and turning for a hour, decided to get up and do something worthwhile that was nice and quiet so Donna could keep on sleeping.

So, where do we start today, well a good black hot cup of coffee is where we start. hmmmm it tastes so good first thing in the morning. Gets my blood moving about, quickens my brains thinking power ( I think) and energizes me for the day. Which makes me think of yesterday.

There has been this 4 x 8 foot area near our back porch that sits just beneath the kitchen nooks baking area. For years I had a grey piece of siding material laying there, and we would put potted flowers on it. Finally the weeds started coming through the holes in the siding, and it was rotting away. Sometime last week, I bought 7 x 9 paver stones, and early this week, took up that rotting mess and quite a bit of dirt.

My pickup had some alum scrapping in it, so took it to the recylcle place, and on the way home stopped for a scoop of sand. Man, a half scoop didn't look like enough, so I got a full scoop, and now I sand coming out of my ears. I do have some low spots in the lawn, so think I'll utilize what extra I have.

Discovered the old 4 x 4's that formed the border around the siding material was rotted away, so need some new material. A new 2 x 4 for the back side, and some used 4 x 4's but new looking took care of the sides, and after putting down some material that is supposed to keep out weeds, I applied the sand and leveled it all out. Started laying those heavy little jewels, used my radial arm saw and a old carbide blade to cut some in half, so I would have a staggered pattern, and by days end, it was done.

And, by that time, around 4:30, I was done also. A nice hot shower and clean clothes and I was ready for supper and then choir practice last night. So, that brings me up to this new day that God has allowed me to live. The lawn needs mowing, (its supposed to be 75 today) so I think its going to be the first project. Then spread the sand over the low spots. Transplant some new gooseberry plants. The old bush is really loaded with berries this year, see the picture at the top of this blog.

While I was waiting for the picture to down load I started cleaning up the mess around my desk, ugh! that is a full time job, anyone want to come and volunteer to help me on the job?

Actually, its very hard to decide whether to keep or throw away this precious material. For example is a list of Irish books I made up, have you read The Templars, The course of Irish history, The First Crusade, The Fourth Crusade, Ireland a Concise History, etc, etc, well the list just made it to the recycle bin.

I'll have to admit I am sort of a packrat saver, I see here a 1967 United Buckingham tax statement for 1967, a 1993 Legacy Laboratory statement for a phlebotomy specimen fee , guess that was to check my P.S.A which is at 1.6 right now, for according to another antique document that I keep, see that back in 1993 it was up around 5.4 and I was being carefully screened, and had a biopsy (that word is misspelled, but can't find it in my 1966 Webster dictionary)

Am going to close this blog, and print out the last couple of blogs to see what I've already said, so, Cheerio

Monday May 21, 2007

Time to bring this up to date, Donna did recover from her short bout, but didn't go to the planned Mothers Day picnic in Westmorland park. Chris & Ryan, Sue, Paul, Stephen, Brenna, Andrew and I did. The kids picked up some sub sandwiches, and brought along pop, chips and few other goodies, and we kept it simple.

I took along some wood balls, (4) and had put two different designs on them, and we sort of did some lawn bowling. Think Ryan had more fun than anyone else, thought I grabbed a picture of him rolling the ball instead of me. oh well, eyesight going too now, I see.

I reported a blog or two back that I have something goofy going on in my body. I seem to sense a throbbing or quiver (nothing moves that I can visibly see) on my left side, mainly the leg, so the Doctor sent me to a Dr. Elizabeth North on Friday, she checked me out, and couldn't find anything. She is a neologist, and her conclusion was that I need to have my head examined, well she didn't put it exactly that way, but that what it amounts to. So tomorrow afternoon, I will go in for a E.E.G. on my brain (guess to see if anything in there is working) and after that I may have M.R.I. on head, neck and spine to see if they are all connected yet.

I make light of this, hope they are not doing this just to make some money off my insurance, but I guess if there is something wrong, we ought to put a patch on it, before too much brain power leaks out. Saw my P.C.P., today about my chlorestral level, which is today exactly what it was in 1991. Too high, know I took some medication which was supposed to lower it, but on a test 1 year later, it had only dropped a few points.

Am wondering what Lois's, & Betty's are, Harolds is not doubt way high like mine, and I wonder if mom's was ever checked? They probably had not even heard of HDL and LDL back when she was seeing the doctors. So, keep tuned, I'll let you know the outcome...

Was telling the Doctor today that 2 years ago in March, I had some extensive tests done, as one Dr. found a heart murmur, so before we went to Europe, I had a EKG, stress test, and they ran a camera up through my groin and checked the cylinders and according to my PCP today after he had read the results, said it looked darned good. He's a 37 year veteran of the Navy and a week ago when he wanted to check around the jewels for a hernia, said "Drop them", think most doctors would have said, drop your pants and shorts, but not him. I do like him however and that is most important.

Working on the basement getting ready to sheetrock the ceiling and behind the freezer covering the open staircase. Biggest problem is getting the sheetrock down and somebody to hold it up while I put screws in. They do rent a machine that sort of does that, will have to check in on it, or have a work day here next Monday. hhmmmmm maybe that would work.

Better get off, if any of your are interested in family history, check out the website that my great neice Carrie has put together. Its not complete, but my goodness she had 3 little ones Maybe 4, can't remember for sure, but its very interesting.

Cheers

Sunday, May 13th, MOTHER'S DAY

Good morning, It's 10:25 and normally I would be sitting in a church pew listening to our pastor give the morning message, but today my wife of 51 years got a touch of food poisoning, and we had to leave and come home before the service started.

So today, we will come to God in a different way of worshiping. In reading over the brochure "Connection" which comes in our bulletin periodically, it talked about Dundas Castle, near Edinburg, Scotland. I looked up the website on Google and was delighted in what it told about the castle and its long history. Look it up. God uses so many different castles, flowers, birds and humans in connecting folks with one another.

From time to time in our church we share "God Sightings", something that brings our attention to God in a new different way. This week, on Thursday and Friday, I had many "God Sightings" for I attended the Best of the Northwest Choir Festival at the University of Portland. This group of choir's were from Northwest Schools in and around Portland, although some came from as far away as Spanaway, Washington and Olympia, Washington.

The group to the left above was a 20 member choir from LaCenter, Washington, the smallest group of singers in the two day span. This group sang seven selections, one titled "Even When God is Silent" a very touching song that we all should hear and think about. Roger Doyle, Professor of Music at the University selected this choir as his choice as best choir, siting the choral selections, the performance of the choir, and the leading of the choir director.

The largest choir, the group to the right above is the Sprague High School Concert choir of Salem, Oregon was selected as the number 1, choir by the judges. This 117 member choir, won for the 4th year in a row. Again some excellent numbers. When this choir came in, around 25 were left on the stairwell on the left and around 25 to the right stairwell to the stage. When they sang their first number this "surround" music was just outstanding. I recall they did this last year as well.

I listened to approximately 558 voices on Friday, and many more on Thursday, and my heart just swelled up to hear so many of our youth in America perform in this way. In looking over the songs selected, over half were directed to the things of God. I am not very good at latin, and many were titled in latin, so they may not all have been to God, but many, many were. PTL for that.

I look at these young faces, and say to God, "Oh, if they would all stay so innocent and sing to your Glory for the rest of their lives, or at least till they leave High School", just think of what our world and country could be like.

A very sobering thought as I looked at the newspaper articles that Julie & Dan sent of the tornado damage to the town of Greensburg, Kansas. Block after block of homes and businesses are just wiped off the face of the earth. This town of 1400 people will rebuild, but its very sobering to see what can happen in just a few minutes, remember them in your prayers.

Will try and put several of the photos on next posting. Must close for now.

Cherrio

Well, its 4 hours later, had to go see who was at the door, was my son, wife and two grandsons. ANd they had some very good news, have heard from Holt Adoption Agency, and their little 10 1/2 month daughter Grace will be theirs in 3 to 5 months. She is a cutie, and I'm sure we will love her as much as any grandparents can. They are so excited, and if I had her picture on my computer I'd post it right now.

Was telling you about the beach trip, how about I try and put a picture of a old couple on next, Well, its there, not like I thought it might be, but thats a couple who were going up a very steep path, that needed to stop for a rest, and a cute gal obliged me by taking our picture. Sorry, if you thought we looked better these days.

There is so much we have to be thankful for these days, good friends, lots of Loved Ones, and you are included in this group, and of course our health is pretty good. My doctor thinks I have high blood pressure (probably do) and is concerned I may be ready for a stroke(could be). Since Easter I have had a sort of tremor on my left side, starts at my foot, and so long as I'm active I do not notice it, but when I sit to watch t-v or read a book, I can feel it. You can't see any skin or body part move, but it seems to be an internal thing. Have a appointment on the 18th with a neurologist. Maybe she can hook up some wires and see what makes me tick.

Well, folks, its time for 10:00 news, so I'm off to the t-v set. Cheerio

Well, its been a week or so since I put on the past post, so will try and bring you up todate on what Donna and I have been doing. As you can see by these pictures, we've been to the beach.

A friend of ours (yes we do have several good friends) offered their beach home for our use, so we thought it would be a good place to celebrate our 51st wedding anniversary. Left Portland on Thursday morning, and went to Rockaway Beach, the weather was great, the company was excellent, and we had a good time. Met a very nice couple who was also celebrating their 5th Anniversary. They live in Portland so we hope to see them off and on this summer. She was from Maine, and still had Maine plates on their car, so was easy to spot their car.

This picture was taken at the little burg of Cape Mears. The ocean was beautiful that day, and that night the sunset was great too with the sun beaming behind some clouds that didn't bring us any rain that day. We went to the Cape Mears Lighthouse, lets see if I can include that picture too.

Well, I got the picture added, but it's at the top of the page not here where I would like it. For some reason right now, everytime I add a line it keeps moving the picture down.

Well, I have some very important company here, so I must sign off. Will add some more later

cherrio