In Loving Memory...

Marjorie Virginia Hamlin

April 9, 1918 - June 19, 2012

The last several days we have been living life in slow motion.  
Our hearts and prayers were with our precious Grandma Hamlin during her last days in this world.  
Yesterday evening, she stepped into eternity.
I loved this lady like my own Grandma.  I am so grateful to have known her.  She was such a treasure...  Being a late-in-life child to my parents, my memories of my own Grandmas are limited.  I lost them both before Mike and I were married, so I was very grateful to inherit his two beautiful Grandmothers.
I felt insecure about "fitting in" to Mike's family...but I remember feeling loved and accepted by Grandma Hamlin from the very beginning.  I can honestly say that she was the sweetest person I have ever known...I feel very honored to have had her in my life.
Marjorie Virginia Thorson was born in the spring of 1918; a farm girl, and a child of the depression.  
On December of 1945, she married Richard John Hamlin.  

I remember her saying to us on several occasions, "Richard was my life."  And he was.  
She was fiercely devoted to those she loved.  Richard and Marjorie had 2 children, (Norma Jean and Gary Richard), 4 grandchildren (John, Michael, Darcy and Kristi), 1 great grandchild (Elizabeth) and 2 great grandchildren on the way (a boy and a girl).
She was simple, and sweet, and spunky and adorable, and stubborn, and dignified, and dramatic.  She loved her family and her friends...and coffee and cookies and chocolate.  (about 2-3 pounds a week in her prime.)
She loved her sweetheart...

...and her sweetheart loved her.
So...we say good-bye to someone very dear to us.  And now we reflect on the years of good memories; they were a gift.  From holiday meals at her country home to dinners at Homestyle Pizza in Spring Valley to "hiding" her Sunday cookie at her apartment in Rochester...we have much to smile about.  Oh, but we're gonna miss her.  
Her memorial service will be on Monday in Spring Valley.  

(I hope to post some memories on the blog between now and then.) 

Walk for Life

Awesome.
It's a word I typically don't use very often.
I like to save it for acts of God...things that can't be explained apart from His power and provision.
I've been using it a lot lately.

Today, I walked for LIFE.
12 days of fundraising...
14 sponsors...
104% of our goal...
$781 raised...
4 people answered the call to join us...
$1391 raised by our team...
AWESOME.
When we set a goal of $750, neither of us thought we had a chance of raising that kind of money in 12 days.
But our God is greater than our expectations.

He is the Author of Life

And He is FAITHFUL.
I am so . very . grateful . for those who came along side us both physically and financially.

And now, some memories from the day:
When we arrived it was pouring.  We were prepared to walk rain or shine, but thankfully they decided to delay the walk until 10am.

Here's our little team.  (There was another family from church who was also a part of our team, but we didn't get a picture of them, unfortunately)  We sent out an e-mail to folks from our Bible study requesting that they consider sponsoring us--or joining us--on the walk.  We were so pleased to have these folks come...
(And yes.  I'm hiding behind Hailley.  It was intentional.)


I didn't take a lot of pictures during the walk.  I was pretty focused on getting 'er done.  By this point we were on the home stretch:  

The race to the FINISH:

And again, THANK YOU to each and every person who supported us, and other members of our team, on this walk.  We don't often put out a call for support.  I don't like asking for peoples' money.  But this is a ministry that we truly believe in.  We knew our time was short...we had no idea what to expect.  Many of our donors were anonymous.  (And yes, we have greatly enjoyed speculating who you might be...)  We have no idea who you are, but God knows...and while we can't thank you personally, we have been thanking God for you often.

It was truly amazing to see God come through for us in such a big way with the fundraising.

Click here to see our fundraising page.

But I knew that He could if it pleased Him to do so.  I think it was just really special to me how He did it.  We had 14 sponsors...and several others we know who supported other members of our team.  There were walkers who had gifts of $500...$1000...even $5000.  And that is cool.  But, to be honest, most of the people in our life don't have a lot of money.  Many of our gifts were $25...and each one of those gifts represented someone who believed in life.  I know that there were small gifts given that were truly sacrificial...and it means the world to me that those people cared enough to give.  We received one gift of $1...given by our daughter...with as much love and concern as anyone who ever gave a thousand dollars... 

This day will go down in my heart as a very memorable day...  

Thank you, Lord, for the miracle of life, and the privilege of coming out to support it today.

Hello again...

My blog has been dormant, once again, for several months.
For awhile, I stopped by occasionally and it broke my heart to see that there were still people visiting.
So, I quit looking.
I don't suppose I'll be "caught up" anytime soon.  But I have a few things worth posting about so you might see some action around here in the near future.
I'm learning that I'm not a natural blogger.  But facebook, on the other hand, is a poor substitute.
So, welcome back...  :-)

Day trip

Wednesday was the "unofficial end" to our Christmas vacation. Mike went back to work on Thursday. Beth and I are still off school till after the New Year... But Mike always likes to put in a couple days of work at the end of the year when everybody else is gone. So, I know you're dying to know... What did my family and I do for our last day of Christmas break?? Why, they accompanied me to the Cities to see a hormonal specialist!   Yay! Yeah, not exactly festive.  But they were booked out over 2 months...so I took the first date they had to offer.  I don't especially enjoy Doctor's appointments.  Especially when it's talking about the...ahem...intimate details of my life and health with a man I've never met. But the guy is supposed to be good.  So...I went. And normally it's not the kind of thing that I would blog about. But I'm making an exception because instead of being a day that I want to forget . . . . . . it ended up being a day that I want to remember.  We ventured up to the appointment just under 2 hours away from home.  Then, my family checked out some stores in the area while I had my appointment...which was basically a consultation that lasted over an hour. When it was time to wrap up the appointment, the Doctor asked me, besides regulating my hormones, to list a few things areas where I hope to see improvement.  I explained to the guy that I wasn't hoping for any miracles, and that any steps in the right direction would be much appreciated.  But, I listed 3 basic things...  I said I hoped that I would be able to sleep better...which would result in a bit more energy...and that I would be able to handle stress a little better...   I came out of the Doctor's office and there were the smiling faces of my family waiting for me in the waiting room.  I can't tell you how much that meant to me at that moment.  Something about seeing their faces was just the most comforting thing in the world to me at that moment.  And really, just their "being there" was enough... We left the office and went down to the van, and guess what was waiting for me?  

 Flowers . . . 3 bottles of lotion . . . . . . and dark chocolate peanut butter cups.  Shhhh . . . If you look closely at the bottles of lotion, you will see their names: Stress relief . . . Energy . . . Sleep . . . Now, obviously, nobody in the world knows me better than my husband.  But it wasn't like I expressed a lot of anxiety about the appointment or gave him a run-down of what I hoped to gain from seeing this Doctor.   You might say stress relief, energy, and sleep are something we all need more of, and they're generic enough to explain away as chance.  But I don't think so.  My hubby is not exactly the sort of a guy who showers me with flowers and chocolate.  So, this was unexpected to say the least.  But more than that, it was just so comforting to know that--no matter what the future holds--I have the loving support of my family. We ended up finding a great business district right across the highway from the clinic with lots of restaurants and an outdoor mall with lots of fun stores, and it ended up being a really fun way to end our Christmas vacation. God is good! 

The Last of Christmas...

 Well, at our house, the Christmas season begins the day after Thanksgiving, and ends at New Year's. So, today, outdoor Christmas lights came down. The rolls of Christmas wrap and bags and bows and tissue paper are all placed neatly in the bin and tucked under the guest bed...with a roll of tape and a scissors for next year...which I will probably forget and hunt for a roll of tape and a scissors all over again. The tree will come down tomorrow. Christmas 2011 is done. It was fun.  Here are a few random pictures from this season's celebrations:  We no longer do gift exchanges for most of our family Christmas gatherings, but Beth's Grandma and Grandpa Amundson still enjoy shopping for her...and she doesn't mind...   They got her these stylish new glasses to add to her dress-up collection.  Funny how certain accessories have an instant transforming effect on the personality...   



Our little tree at home:  Our little tree has gotten a bit wobbly over the years...not to mention, a little small to hold our ornament collection.  We might have Mike persuaded to let us get a new one next year.  Maybe.  I'm finding myself more drawn to muted colors as time goes by.  But not so with wrapping paper.  I like lots of brightly colored wrapping paper.  Maybe it's the quilter in me, but I like to have as many kinds of wrapping paper as possible under the tree.   Time for our little family to open gifts:  Here, Beth is opening her doll clothes that I purchased for her off of Etsy.  These were her favorite gift that she didn't expect. 

And here she's opening her favorite gift that she had to confess she had figured all along...

Here's Gretchen (wearing her Snuggie) with Elizabeth helping her open her favorite gift--an Angry Bird toy which she loves.  She was tearing around the living room with it tonight.  She has figured out how to make it talk and I'm sure she will work hard to tear his stuffing out and find the noise-maker inside (she thinks that's the ultimate goal of all stuffed toys).

Here's a brotherly volleyball competition on the Move:

 Ooh...  and Husband vs. Wife.  Looks a little intense... 

 Can you believe he dared to show up on our doorstep with that abomination on for a shirt?  We shoulda made him turn it inside-out... Well, that about wraps it up.  ;-) I've successfully blogged Christmas just in time for New Year's...  

Family Gatherings

 We enjoyed spending lots of time with family over our Christmas weekend. On Mike's side of the family, they like to capture a picture with everyone who's able to attend.   I picked a few to share...   Dave Amundson family Christmas: 

 (Mike's folks, his brother John and his wife Hwa, her sister Haley and the 3 of us)  Hamlin family Christmas: 

(Grandma Hamlin with her children and grandchildren and families)

Amundson family Christmas:



 (Grandma Amundson and her children, grandchildren and families)  

On a side note...

Several years ago, when we went to a small rural church near Zumbro Falls, we decided to put on a special Christmas program.  I spent hours sewing costumes of all sorts for Mary and Joseph and angels and shepherds and wise men...

Beth Marie was an angel in that program by the way, and I happen to have found a picture:

She's the little angel on the right...does that melt your heart or what?

Well, years have passed, and we no longer attend the little church in the Zumbro Valley. 

The Christmas costumes found their way into a Rubbermaid bin on a shelf in the garage...

Honestly, I thought of giving them away for scrap fabric because seeing that bin made me a little sad for days gone by and I figured there wouldn't be a reason to use them again.

Until this last summer when Elizabeth asked if she could take them out and play with them.  Well, I must admit, I wasn't thrilled with the idea at first.  All I could think was it was gonna be a big mess and what could she want with a bunch of old Christmas costumes?  But I reluctantly agreed, and I'm glad I did.  She spent many a summer afternoon running around the yard in Bible costumes.  And many of the neighbor children were thrilled to join her--who knew Bible costumes would be such a hit?  She even enticed Mike and I to join her on occasion.  One night we drove around the neighborhood on my dad's golf cart all dressed in Bible garb.  (Sorry...I don't have a picture...  I know.  How rude of me to tell a story like that without a picture...)

Well, I was pleased that my old Christmas costumes weren't going to waste.

But when the Berean Christmas program rolled around, guess what?  They were short on Christmas costumes...  And the old costumes came out of the bin once again to serve the purpose for which they were created.  And now, my little stash of Christmas costumes will live on as I look back fondly on my video of all of the pictures on the farm that day in Lake City...and I won't be sad anymore when I look at that bin on the shelf in the garage. 

I thought that was pretty special.