Glad to be alive ~ Thank you God!

Sedona  Sunrise

When I arose this morning and saw the beautiful sun shining out on our green backyard, it just filled me with such joy that I had to let everyone know how I was feeling! I thank God everyday for the life he has given me! I know that at any split second he could take it away just as quickly. I was online  earlier today with one of my wonderful “adopted” nieces, when she said, “Aunt Klod, I’m trying to get through life right now with Romans 12:12.” So I told her to hold on, while I grabbed my bible to look it up. Here is the scripture ~ Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.

If we all try to live this scripture, I’m sure it can only make our lives better.

Our Seven “J’s”

Many of you have heard me brag on and on about our grandkids, so I thought I’d just take a second to introduce them to you. Here they are in order by age, because they are definitely loved equally. They are all as beautiful on the inside as they are on the outside.

Jessica is 24, and we call her
our J-Lo look-alike, but even prettier.
She’s  as sweet as she is gorgeous!

Josh is 24, and our musician, playing violin,
guitar, and probably other instruments
that I’m not aware of.

Jana is 21, a surgical technician
along with many other talents including doing promo work for her boyfriends’ band “The Digg Angees”

Jon is 20, and could easily be on Jay Leno
or David Letterman as a standup comedian.
Always keeps us laughing.

Jenna is 18, and an amazing softball player
on the Roosevelt team. She is headed to the
University of Iowa on an academic scholarship.
Go Hawks!

Last but definitely not least are the two youngest members of our Fabulous Seven!

Joy, on the left is 8. 
Jordan, on the right is 7 .
Don’t let those smiles fool you, they are our lil’ “energizer bunnies” in every sense of the word.
What one doesn’t think of the other one will. But give them the Barbie basket and they are very content!

It would be a huge understatement to say grandpa and grandma are proud of these seven wonderful human being, but we must also give credit to their parents.
So kudos to our kids for giving us such treasures!
We are very lucky to have raised kids with true values and are wonderful parents.

Bike Night!

Here is what we will be doing the 3rd Friday of each month April-September, as long as the weather allows. Mother nature sometimes has a mind of her own!

http://www.bikedowntoitown.com/index.html

This is the largest and best bike night in the state. You usually can’t walk ten feet without coming upon someone that you know. There is wonderful food, good music and just a lot of nice people all around you. Not all are bikers either, many are locals that love to walk around, look at bikes, or bring their lawn chairs and setup on the sidewalks or in the grass of the town square and take in the scenery. Join us sometime and find out for yourselves how to enjoy a summer Friday evening.

Our Arizona Winter!

Most of you know that we now winter in Casa Grande, AZ. We have decided that it is about the best place in the U.S. to spend winters away from Iowa. Bob and Connie Roberts started all of that. They spent their first winter there, and when they heard rumblings from us about hating Iowa winters, they started in on us to join them the next year. Well after a lot of budget crunching, soul searching (can I leave the kids, can I leave the grandkids, can I leave the snow)..wait that wasn’t part of it, anyway, you get the drift…and we packed up the next December (2009) and headed to sunny and warm AZ.

This is us all setup last year. I must say, we have never looked back, except to say good-bye to some really wonderful friends and neighbors after wintering with them. So, since we had this wonderful experience (thanks Bob & Connie for your badgering) we made a pact to never spend another winter in Iowa. We followed through and spent the winter of 2010 in this very same spot. We have already reserved the spot for the winter of 2011 and God willing, we will again enjoy sunshine and warmth for these tired ol’ bones.

The difference this year was the fact that my brother and sis-in-law were right across the street from us this year and Corky was just around the corner and over a couple of streets. We have our own satellite HOG chapter right there.

I promise to keep this blog up as long as people show an interest in my ramblings and images. Enjoy!

Sedona Sunset

Sorry for the earlier jumbled pictures!

I had a bit of a problem adding the images along with the subtitles or sentences, so they aren’t in quite the order that I had put them. I’ll try to get this under control soon. In the meantime here is another image to see if I’m doing this correctly. Enjoy!

Rodeo

I took this image at the O’Odham Tash Rodeo in Casa Grande, AZ. It is an all Indian rodeo and we had so much fun, but I wouldn’t want to be this fellows backside the next day!

Mike & Ricki made their way across the street between dust squalls and we played board games and ate junk food all day. So we all just hunkered down and let it pass! Thank heavens it only last one loooooooong day!!

These next few images will show what our motorcycles looked like the next day...AFTER...we removed the covers. The dust just seeped right through the fabric and covered everything. Nasty!!!