Merry Christmas from Rockes

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends

Jesus answered, "I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6

How thankful we can be that Jesus came to earth to live and die and rise again that we can have a way to God. And we are so thankful that all our family have chosen to follow Jesus and His ways.

Our family gathered together for our 'Thankmas' celebration on Nov. 28th. There were 23

of us gathered together for the celebration of Thanksgiving and Christmas before we headed to Arizona on Dec. 4th. We took pictures that day and wanted you to see our family.


During the year of 2009 we had a new great grand-daughter, Riley Sue, born in Feb. to Rachel and Matt Herrmann. Our grand-daughter, Jonica graduated from H.S. as valedictorian and is now enrolled at Indiana Wesleyan University. Josh Johnson (Sarah's husband) graduated from Logan Chiropractic School and is now a Dr. Another grand-daughter, Samantha Zehr became engaged to Jacob Cernek. They both graduated from Trinity University in Dec. 2009 and will be married on Jan. 2, 2010.


We are now in Arizona enjoying our Arizona family as well as the sunshine for the next 3 months.

We wish all our family and friends a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!!!









Our IL. home and AZ home

Alan and Joan Zehr

Denny and Laura Sailor

Aaron & Megan Zehr

Samantha Zehr & fiance Jacob Cernek

Mary & Beth Rocke on the swing

Bruce, Dianne, Mary, Beth, and John Rocke

Riley Sue and Auntie Mary

Rachel (Mommie) & Riley Sue

Matt & Rachel & Riley Sue Herrmann

Dr. Josh, Andrew, and Sarah Johnson

Jena & Tyler Klein and Chloe

Kleins - Bruce, Karen, and Jonica

Have a Happy and blessed New Year!!!!!!!!!!

Mary's ISU Madrigals

Last night we went to Mary's Madrigal preformance at ISU.

It was a great evening and so much fun to watch Mary in her preformance.

The meal was really good and the decorations were very nice.

They encluded a lot of songs about Jesus birth, of which we were very delighted to hear.

Here are a couple of pictures of Mary in her traditional madrigal outfit

(Mary is right in the center on the top picture) and

her contempory outfit when she sang last night.

A very nice beginning to the Christmas season.

Finally we have some nice fall weather.

This is in our front yard.

Nov. 8th was our Granddaughter, Samantha's Bridal Shower

Below are her bridesmaid. One of the girls was missing.

This was the lovely food table that we all enjoyed.
Thanks to our church ladies who put the shower on.

Our gift to Samantha and Jake for their wedding was

this quilt that I made.

It was a fun day and Samantha received many

nice gifts.

Visit with Josh, Sarah, and Andrew

Grandpa and I had a good visit with

Josh, Sarah, and Andrew.

Here are a couple of pictures.

Andrew is quite a young man, with a great vocabulary.

It was so much fun to be able to visit with Josh and Sarah,

and watch Andrew. Thanks for coming.

Love and prayers to you all as you head to FL. soon.

Weekend at IWU

Jena, Glenna and Tyler at Applebees

Mel and Jonica at Applebees

Above: Glenna, Mel, Jonica, Jena and Tyler

at Indiana Wesleyan University Grandparents day, 9/18/09

Below: Mel and Glenna, lunch at the student center.

This was at Grandparents day at IWU. It was like eating in a huge buffet. So much to pick from. It was very good. We got to see Jonica's art building and her room. She has a neat room (red and black decor). Tyler is grilling out this noon and he made his famous soup. Jena is making her puppy a bed to sleep on. They are so excited to get a puppy. It was good to spend this time with our grandkids and enjoy what they do. God's blessing to all our family and friends.

9/9/09 Visit from Gayle & Reg.

We were delighted to have our dear friends from AZ/Canada stop and visit us this past Monday evening through this morning. We met them in AZ. Reg is our hike leader and Gayle is my quilting and shopping friend. They live just down the street from us in our park. We had a lot of fun showing them around our farm and community. We were able to catch up on their trip out to the East coast and just to have a real good time visiting. It was great. Below is a picture of Gayle in Bruce's combine, Reg and Mel discussing machinery and Reg in the tractor.

Thanks for the great visit. They are on their way home to Montrose, BC.

See you in a few months in AZ.

labor day, 2009

Today we went down to visit Matt, Rachel and Riley Sue. (7 1/2 months) They recently bought a house in Morton. This is a picture on their patio. They have a very,very pretty home. Then we went to the Groveland Church and went to their annual labor day picnic. It was good to see Bruce, Dianne, Sarah, Josh, Andrew, Rachel, Matt, Riley, John, and Mary. Beth was busy in the marching band at ISU. We got to see my sister-in-law Connie and most of her family. We also saw quite a few of the people I grew up with, as this was my home church. Hope you all had a good labor day holiday.
God Blessings to you all.

pictures from our happenings

We went to see a Shakespeare play

and Mary Rocke (L) was in the ISU

Madrigals. It was fun to see her preform.

This is our newly decorated master bedroom.

It was painted and designed by Jonica and

Karen. I say they did a super job and we love it.

We went to Vincennes, IN. to see Aaron

and Megan. Below is a few pictures. Their

home, Aaron and Megan and their kitty.

And a pair of swans on their lake.(above)

a new phase of our life

Growing old:
We find that we keep having more aches and pains. Mel has had a lot of back pain the past year. He got injections 2 different times without much relief. We are now scheduled for him to have back surgery this coming Tuesday, Aug. 18th. He will have a laminectomy. They will remove 3 of part of the lower spine and it should open up the area so the nerves aren't pinched and thus will remove his pain. As it is now he just can't be on his feet or walk very much at all. Please pray for us for successful surgery and healing from God after the surgery. We will keep you posted after as to how things are going.
love and prayers to all our family and friends.
Mel and Glenna

Rocke Happenings in July

We decided to take a 'fun' day and just take off an enjoy the day yesterday.

We first went out to eat breakfast in Streator, then we drove along the Vermillion River

toward the Illinois river. The drive was real pretty. We ended up at Matthiessen State Park and

Illini Campground. We took lawn chairs and books and sat along the bank of the IL. river.

Soon a barge came by. It was big, with 3 abreast and altogether 12 barges.

Below are some pictures of our flowers in front of the house.

Shasta daisies

Petunias

Day lilies

Here is the waterfalls at Matthiessen State Park.

It was a fun day, we ended up in Pontiac on our way home and ended our day

with a Wendy's chocolate malt. Haven't had one of them in years.

A beautiful rainbow looking East from our porch.

Have a wonderful week to all our family and friends.

July 8,2009 update for the Rocke's

Hi,
It's been a long time since I've posted anything. We have been coping with Mel's bad back. He has a lot of trouble standing or walking for any length. He is much better in the morning, but bey noon he has to sit a lot. We have gotten injections in his back 2 different times. Neither time really helped all that much. The Dr. just don't know what to do next, so Mel decided to try going back to his pain Dr. he went to last year. He did get relief then, but who knows what it will be like this year. We manage to get things done around the place, but we don't do a lot of extra.
Mel has been spraying for the Japanese beetles that have appeared again. They are so destructive, they just eat the foliage off. Right now they are on our raspberries real bad.
We have had some nice rains the past week and the crops look real nice. That means we are still mowing the grass on a weekly basis. The garden is producing very nicely as well. We are getting zucchini, so many ways to use it. Laura and Denny are in Georgia now and plans to stay there. Joan and Alan just celebrated their 25th. anniversary and Bruce and Dianne just celebrated their 30th. anniversary. Karen and Bruce will celebrate their 25th in December. Just so thankful our family is doing well.
God's Blessing to all our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

our 2 great grandchildren

We'd like you to meet our 2 great grandchildren.

Andrew Johnson is in the background, he is 2 yrs and 3 months old.

Riley Sue Herrmann is in the jumper seat and is 4 months old.

Aren't they the sweetest little ones!!!!!

We praise the Lord for them.

Here are a couple of pictures of the roofers tearing off our old roof and they putting the new roof on. I think it will really be nice when they are done.

Rocke happenings, May 18-20, '09

Mel and I took our Pleasure way and went to Dawson Lake, (Moraine State Park) It was nice weather and this was the scene on the way down with the big wind towers and the lake from our parking spot. Mel was enjoying the sunshine. You can also see our boat docked at the dock as we did a little fishing. Not much was biting. We did get one meal of fish.

This is our home, with the Korean lilacs blooming in front of our house.

They smell so sweet, but do not last near long enough.

My Irises are starting to bloom as well. this is by our garage.

The clematis is just opening up as well. I guess spring is finally here.

God Bless all of you

Mel and Glenna