Wishes to all our family and friends, Dec. 25, 2008

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

to all our family and friends!

December in Arizona

An evening spent with friends. This was a full moon over our mountain.

Mel,Roger,Marg,Jean & Virg.(L-R)

We had a fun evening at Crays.

We went to see the lights at the Morman temple

after supper and spent the rest of the evening visiting.

An Arizona sunset.

We have been in Arizona since December 4th.

This is the big cross

in Oklahoma as we drove thru on 40.

I have been having a little trouble with getting on the internet, so it has been a while since I've updated. Mel and I are doing fine. The weather has been just great until today. It clouded up, got cooler, and is raining a little. They are saying it will snow in the higher elevation. So we may see snow on the top of our mountain tomorrow.

Lots of our friends are here in the park already and we are especially enjoying having our cousins, Allene and Howard Miller here and only 4 doors down from us.

May God bless all of you who read this.

Mel & Glenna

'THANKMAS' AT ROCKE'S 2008, Nov. 29th.

Sunday, Nov. 30, 2008

We woke up this sunday morning to 2-3 inches of snow, what a surprise. I guess we just

have to have snow before we leave for Arizona.

This is what our barn yard looks like.

On Friday night the girls all went to a baby shower for my granddaughter, Rachel.
She is expecting her first, a little girl to be named Riley Sue.
Then on Saturday we met as a family to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The girls call is our 'Thankmas' celebration.

Below is a picture of all 35 of us.
We were so blessed to have all of our children, spouses,
grandchildren and great-grandchildren here with us.

The grand-kids enjoying the meal and each other.

This was taken in our basement rec room.

Our traditional fluff was served with 3 almonds hidden in it.

The winners of the kids were Mary, John, and Sarah.

Court won the almond on the adult table.

We had such a good time getting together and enjoyed all the good food every one

brought for the day. We had too much!

Of course the day was spent in playing 42, caton, card games and many others games.

We had a gift exchange for the boys and one for the girls. The boys most prized gift was

an ice scraper with de-icer. Little did we know that the next morning it could be used.

We all had a good time seeing what each other received in the grab bag.

We gave Jesus a gift of $112.00. It

will be sent to pastor Godfrey in Malawi Africa for his work.

Wishing you all our love and prayers.

Saturday night @ Jonica's musicale

Yesterday, we had a fun evening watching Jonica perform in her H.S. musical.

They put on the play, 'Once upon a Mattress'

Jonica played the part of the princess, Winnifred.

Here are some scenes from the play.

Jonica is on the right.

most of the cast, Jonica is the one in the middle laying over.

Jonica, the prince, and queen in front center

Jonica and 2 of her friends.

We had a fun evening, Joan, Bruce, Dianne, Beth were there to enjoy it with us, as

of course her parents, Karen and Bruce and brother Tyler and Jena, plus all of the Klein side.

Have a good week and God's blessing on you all.

Mel & Glenna

Friends

Last Saturday and Sunday our friends from Iowa came

to spend the week-end with us. It was great to see them again and to spend this

time together. They were on their way to Florida for a family wedding.

from L. - R. is Jerry, Roseanne, Norm, Dee, and Mel.

Of course we had lots of good fellowship around the food. We plan to spend

Christmas with Norm and Dee in Arizona, and then in Jan. Jerry and Roseanne

will be down for a couple of months. L - R. is Jerry, Roseanne, Glenna, Dee, and Norm.

Last night we were over to the Loewens for an evening of food and fellowship.

L. - R. is Kathryn, Dwain, Glenna, and Host, Rollie.


L. - R. is Virg, Jean, our hostess, Gladyce, and Kathryn.
We had a great evening with lots of good food and fellowship.
We played bible lotto and uno. Gladyce had prizes for all the winners and
we all went home with prizes. Thanks to the Loewens.
Blessings to all our family and friends,
Mel and Glenna

fall camping

Bruce Klein combining our corn.

Beautiful fall colors!

Last week Mel and I went to Dawson Lake to camp for the last time this year. We took our boat and enjoyed the pretty trees and the nice warm temperature. We had a campfire at night and cooked wieners and had s'more's.

On Saturday we went around our neighborhood distributing the booklet "A Christmas Carol" for our church along with all the upcoming events for the holiday season. We stopped at 16 homes, some were not home, but we left them a book. We had a good response from the ones that were home. We have about 8 to do yet, so we need to find a day to do that.

On Sunday Mel sang on the worship team, and he and Joan sang a special number for church. After church we went to the co. jail and talked with about 29 men and women in 3 different groups. We shared the following story. "What is it like to be a Christian? How does it feel to know the love of God - to know that he has washed away your sins at Jesus' cross and given you new life, a life that really counts and will last forever? Someone has said that it's a little like being a pumpkin! God comes to us and picks us up from a lonely, cold field. He washes off all the dirt of our sin. He removes the seeds of doubt, fear, and hate that has grown inside us. Then he places within us the light of his love. This love warms our hearts. What was once filled with darkness is now flooded with light. That love puts a smile on our face. Now the whole world can see God's love shining in us!" Matthew 5:14,16 "You are the light of the world...Let your light shine...that others may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven".

We talked with all of them after this and 4 of them accepted the Lord Jesus! PTL

Monday, Bruce came and combined all of our corn. The bins are full and we are so thankful to God for again supplying us with a good harvest. I had the fun of riding in the combine while he did our corn. We saw lots of rabbits, a skunk, a coon, and some pheasants. They were all hiding in our field, and got chased out when he combined.

God Bless all of our friends and family,

Mel & Glenna

Visit with my brothers

Fall trees along the river. L-R Suzie, Connie, LeRoy, Mel, Glenna, and Wayne

LeRoy and Connie looking at the photo book of Wayne and Suzie's 50th anniversary. We all met at Woody's in Groveland, IL. We had a good time visiting and catching up on family news and finding out what everyone is doing. We had a good meal as well. It was great to be together again. LeRoy surprized us with gifts. Lee made me a partridge candy dish. It is really pretty. He does an excellent job. Wayne got a plaque he made with a deer on it.

After our lunch Mel and I went over to Peoria to see his dermatalogists. He had about 4 areas on his face taken care of and we go back in 6 months. It seems we have been going to the Dr. a lot lately. Last week Mel had steriod injections in his back for back pain. It has helped a lot. I had an endoscopy done and they removed 3 small polyps. I go for follow-up in a week.

Hope you all have a great week.

Love and prayers.

Jonica's senior volleyball day

Last night we went to Jonica's senior night. It was the last home game for the team. Here is a picture of Jonica, and her mom, Karen and dad, Bruce.

This is a picture of Jonica running after she was introduced on the team. They played Gridley-ElPaso and won the match in 2 games. Jonica had a lot of good serves to really give the team a boost.
Jonica is our last granddaughter in high school, so our days of going to high school events will soon be over. Then it's on to our college grand-kids.

Have a good day!

Harvest times

Oct. 10, 2008 They are unloading beans at the auger to elevate them in our crib for storage.

Bruce is unloading beans from the combine on a grain cart. They then drive the grain cart to the crib to unload.

This is a picture of Bruce harvesting our beans with his new combine. We were blessed with a good yield of beans this year.

Last week Mel & I traded in our truck that we had for pulling our 5th. wheel in on this new car. We truly have downsized. We were so thankful to get rid of the truck with the gas prices the way they are. We enjoy our Chevy HHR.

This is a quilt I finished piecing for our church. Our ladies will quilt it and it will be auctioned off for charity next spring.

Have a good week and God Bless all our family and friends.

Rocke's

A new experience

Sunday afternoon we attended a band concert at ISU. Our grand daughter, Beth is in the back row. She plays an euphonium. She is a freshman and was chosen to play 2 solo's in the concert. She did a super job. The band is ISU's best band and Beth is 1st. chair, so that is quite an honor and shows what a good player she is. She is in the back row, 3 people left of the bassoon.

Another big experience I (Glenna) had was togo to a therapist last Thurs. for my dizziness. The therapist did a canalith repositioning on me. What that means is that within my semicircular canals in my ears their is a sac containing crystals. Sometimes these crystals get loose within the middle ear and cause you to be dizzy. I was tested for this and found out that my right ear was the worst, but it was also in my left ear. The therapist had me lay down as quick as I could with my head turned a certain way and then I was to turn the other way without moving my head. After that treatment, I was very dizzy and it took most of the day for me to feel ok. But I think it has really helped me. I go back on Friday to get the crystals but back in my left ear.

On Saturday I went with 3 other ladies from our church to a quilt show in El Paso. We had lunch there and saw 180 quilts. I showed 4 of my own quilts. It was a fun afternoon.

We went to several of Jonica's volley ball games they are always fun to go to.

I got my haircut up at Jena's Moms shop

in Pontiac. I really like it.

Here is a picture of the hummingbird that comes to our feeder, our corn field by the house that is about ready for harvest and our apple trees in the backyard.

We went to 2 of Jonica's volley ball games this week. That is always fun.

Have a good week all our family and friends. God Bless !!!

Glenna & Mel ><>

about our week

We have had a good and busy week. Lots of grass to mow since our recent rains. Lots of gardening to do, like pick squash, apples, raspberries, etc. The bugs are so pesty outside we do not enjoy being out doing that without bug spray. We also cleaned out our garage this week and burned the junk and got a box ready for spare & share. The crops are getting close to harvesting.

We just got back from a wonderful week-end in Indiana. It started out with us camping a couple of days at Mississinewa Lake near Peru. Then on Thursday, Sept. 18 we drove over to Marion to spent the week-end with Tyler and Jena. It was Grandparents Day on the 19th @ IWU. We saw the campus and had a little taste of college life. Their campus is beautiful and very nice buildings. We got to see Brianne Sailor Thurs eve. She is a freshman there at IWU going in the nursing program. Friday afternoon we drove over to Taylor Univ. to see Samantha Zehr and her V.B. team from Trinity University. Aaron and Megan Zehr drove up from Vincennes and was with us as well. The big event that day was to have supper at Ivanhoes. The next day Samantha also played VB. Joan and Alan came for that day. So we had a mini family get-together. Two of Sams friends, Leah and Courtney came for the day as well. It was a fun day. Then on Sunday we went with Tyler and Jena to their church. We ate out at a Mexican restaurant. We celebrated Grandpa Mel's birthday. You will see on the picture what it looked like. They brought us a sopapia with lots of whipped cream. The waitress spooned the whipped cream all over his face. Grandpa said he was trying to eat it, but she didn't want to put it in his mouth. They sang to him in Spanish. Later we said our good-byes to Tyler and Jena. (They have a very nice apartment and they treated us royally, with good meals and lots of games). We drove over to Huntington and spent the rest of Sunday and Monday morning with Laura. At noon we started home and arrived safely. It was Mel's birthday that day, so we stopped and got some rocky road ice cream cones to celebrate.
It is good to be home!

Mel's Birthday

Grandma laughing after Grandpa received his birthday treat at the Mexican Restaurant in Indiana with Tyler and Jena.

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