FIRE!

My heart is breaking for all of our friends and our church family in Spokane. There are three wildfires that have merged and are now burning in the city. As most of you know, we lived in Spokane for almost 30 years, moving back to Omaha to take care of Dennis's Mom who had Alzheimer's. We will always consider Spokane home though, and our friends there are like family, since we had no family living close.

This is a photo of the house we had built in 2002 with our sweet Chloe standing in the front. We loved this house and planned to retire there. We sold in it 2020. Well, this house is now in the "Get Ready to Evacuate" zone. Many of our friends have had to evacuate because the fire has either already burned their homes or is heading toward them. That's the "Get Out Now" Level 3 zone. Our old house is in Level 2. 

It would be so sad to go out there next month and see this house gone. It's already going to be tough seeing all of the damage.

Flames burning near a friend of ours home. They still don't know if their home is okay or not.

This is the perspective from the Gonzaga University campus. Terrifying. This photo is fairly close the to first home we lived in when we moved to Spokane.

According to the officials, this is the number one priority fire in the nation today, although there are hundreds of fires burning around the country. There are more fires in Washington and Oregon than anywhere else in the country. They have not had a drop of rain in Spokane during the entire month of July.  We know over 700 homes have burned and most likely many more.

Please pray for everyone in the path of the fires. Although we got used to having wildfires around us every year when we lived there, I never, ever thought one would be inside of the town and literally burning much of the northwest part of the city to the ground and it's still spreading. The fire began in Riverside State Park on Saturday morning and spread very quickly.

Please Pray For Spokane!

Blessings and love,

Betsy

Home Again

Hello my friends! We got back from our camping trip in the late afternoon yesterday. There was no internet at the campground. Sometimes we had one bar on our phones, but not enough to get online. I apologize. We're home for about three weeks before leaving on a month long trip to Montana and Washington to see our son, grandkids and friends in Spokane.

It was SO HOT. Sunday and Monday the "feels like" temperature was between 117 and 120F. Tuesday was marginally better. I spent a LOT of time in the air conditioning in the camper and everyone else came and visited me. :-) I don't do the outside when it's that hot. The humidity was absolutely awful. It sure didn't stop the others though. Let me show you around.

Mr. Bear was right next to our truck welcoming everyone to the campground.

For the first time we had a group site, which meant we were in a square formation with our camper doors opening onto a central area with the fire ring in the middle. Needless to say, we didn't use the fire ring at all! This was great and we're definitely going to come back, maybe in the spring.  Our camper is on the left, Curt & Barb's is the A-frame and Jeff & Angie's is on the right.

We always have so much fun together. Amanda joined us this time and stayed in our camper with us. Longtime readers will remember that we went to her Masters in Nursing graduation in Kentucky last year. She's a blast to be around and is the same age as our daughter Mandy.

Evening kayaking the day we arrived. Sorry it's a bit blurry. I took this from our campsite

There was a deer with three little fawns just about 1/4 mile down the road. So cute!

Everyone, (except me), went on a 5 mile bike ride around the lake on Tuesday. Oh my gosh it was hot! They are all troopers. Left to right, Dennis, Angie, Curt, Jeff, Amanda, Barb. Jeff is our preacher and you can see that he's not always serious. Ha! Can you imagine riding a bike in such heat? Dennis and Curt are both in their 70's and everyone else except Amanda are in their mid-late 60's.

Taking a short break to catch their breath. These six ride or kayak together about one night a week throughout the summer.

Curt, Barb, Angie, Amanda and Jeff went on a 3 mile hike yesterday morning. (Jeff took the picture.) Dennis opted to stay home with me and relax. It was terribly humid, even worse than normal with 98% and hot temps and he was over it! Ha! Amanda just had major surgery 6 weeks ago and these were her first activities for the summer as the doctor just released her last week to be active again. She was done for when they got back from this hike. It was a good thing we came home afterward although they did go for one more kayak ride after the hike.

They found a beautiful water lily patch on the lake during that last kayak trip and got a couple of gorgeous photos. I think Jeff took both of these.

The view of the lake from our campsites. There was hardly anyone else in the campground, maybe three or four campers scattered around. It was so quiet and beautiful. Just too hot. We've all agreed no more camping in July or August around here. Maybe if we could all go to the mountains, but Jeff is still working and of course, so is Amanda and the mountains are at least an 8 hour drive away.

We've all had our picture taken in this chair and since it was Amanda's first trip with us it was her turn.

Proof of the temperature on Monday. This was without the humidity factored in. It was even hotter when we arrived on Sunday but we didn't take a picture.

Here's Jeff and the proof that we eat very well on these trips! Ha! We share our meals, with one couple responsible for dinner each night. Breakfast and lunch we pool resources. It's always a feast. 

Sunday night Dennis and I made chicken fajita's, refried beans and Watergate salad. Monday night we had  pulled pork sandwiches, watermelon and grape salad and chips. Tuesday night was a baked potato bar with leftovers from the other nights. Baked potatoes in the crockpot are a great way to do it on a hot day. 

Well, I hope you've enjoyed our camping adventure. Admittedly, I sat inside crocheting on a baby blanket or reading while the others were out on these grand adventures. Between my back and the heat, I can't participate in them, but we have plenty of fun at the campground too. We laugh, we eat, we talk, we joke around and play games. Good friends, good times and a love for God among us that is always the basic foundation of all that we do. 

We have our next trip planned for October after we return from Spokane. Needless to say, it should be cooler and we'll even be able to make s'mores on the campfire. Yum.

Blessings and love,

Betsy

Make Me A Blessing [Lyrics]
 by George Stark Schuler and Ira Bishop Wilson

Verse 1

Out in the highways and byways of life
Many are weary and sad
Carry the sunshine where darkness is rife
Making the sorrowing glad

Chorus 1

Make me a blessing make me a blessing
Out of my life may Jesus shine
Make me a blessing O Savior I pray
Make me a blessing to someone today

Verse 2

Tell the sweet story of Christ and His love
Tell of His pow'r to forgive
Others will trust Him if only you prove
True ev’ry moment you live

Verse 3

Give as 'twas given to you in your need
Love as the Master loved you
Be to the helpless a helper indeed
Unto your mission be true

It's been awhile...

Hello Everyone. It's been awhile since I've put a post up. Nothing earth shattering has been happening here. We've had several people at our church pass away and Dennis and I have been working at the luncheons and helping to organize them.  It's also been blistering hot, with a feels like temperature of 113F three days ago. Today it's a bit cooler and I thought I would try to get a post out. 

I've been going to water aerobics at the pool here three mornings a week and then I've just collapsed in the A/C for the rest of the day. Seriously. I haven't even been crocheting or knitting much. Mostly just coloring on my iPad and watching movies.

This coming Sunday we have a camping trip with our gang planned until Wednesday. We're going to a Corps of Engineer park in Iowa that we've stayed at before. It's only a little over a hundred miles away but I'm really not excited about it. It's supposed to be 100F again one day and in the upper 90's the other days we're there. I DO NOT tolerate heat well so I'll probably be sitting inside the camper most of the time. I truly enjoy everyone's company and we also have one lady staying with us in our camper so I know we'll have a good time, but I really don't like the extreme heat and humidity.

I did finish one blanket and have another  being made now, but for almost a month this is pitiful for me. 

I don't know if I'm just a bit down or what, but I have no excuse for not visiting your blogs or posting on here. I feel like I don't have much to write about that's different. It's the same old, same old every day. I've just kind of been a "blob." Well, except for the water aerobic's which I've truly enjoyed and I didn't think I would like and the funerals that I really would have rather not had to go to. I've gotten to know several ladies here in the condo's at the pool that I didn't know before ,which is really nice.

My sister went to our cousin's retirement party a couple of weeks ago and she had these photos on display. Melanie texted them to me and it was a lot of fun to see them. The first is our paternal grandparents on their wedding day sometime around 1918. Andrew John Saathoff and Dena Wilhelmina Hoefling Saathoff. They both came to the US as immigrants as babies in the late 1800's by ship and through Ellis Island. 

This is the Grandma that taught me to crochet, bake and sew. She left me her treadle sewing machine but my step-mother wouldn't let me have it. My step-mom was not a nice lady. I loved my grandma so much. I spent two weeks with her every summer until I started working. I loved that time with her. We would have tea and cookies every night before bed. Mine was more milk than tea, but I felt so grown up. It was our tradition and we never missed doing it. I also loved watching Lawrence Welk with her. So many wonderful memories. I was told that my grandpa's hands were so big they couldn't find a ring so he had a piece of pipe cut for him to wear. He passed when I was very small so I don't remember him as well.

This is my sister Melanie and me. I'm the little one. :-) She still has that same smile and mischievous spirit. When we were little, I never would have thought we would be so close and I would love her so much as adults. (She was a "bit" mean to me as kids.) And by that I mean a LOT mean to me. Ha! Ha! Now she loves me too and we really enjoy spending time together. That is one of the biggest perks to being back in Omaha for me.

That's about it. Dennis and I took Piper to lunch today at Cheddar's and then Papa came home and Piper and I went to three different Targets in search of school supplies. I can't believe that things are already sold  out. We still didn't find everything. She came over Tuesday afternoon and spent a few hours at the pool with Papa and me. That made four hours in the pool for me that day and even with sunscreen I got a burn. I'm trying to stay out of the sun for a few days to let it heal.

I hope you're all well and I'll try to be better about visiting you all. 

Blessings and love,

Betsy