SOUTH DAKOTA, HERE WE COME!

Views of downtown Rapid City

Mama Linda in the backyard -Lot # 5 Timberwood
subdivision, Piedmont, SD

View of the front of the lot (future view from the

front of the house-north)

Angled view of the lot towards the east

View of the lot (south) from the street

Road leading to the subdivision

THANKSGIVING IN SIOUX FALLS, SD

DC

Jorge and I in our room. Me with some of the men and women who were at the Gala and patients at Walter Reed. The photo of me with a soldier and a lady in a dress, she is the injured soldier, as they are both in the Army.

M
Myself, Sgt. Martin G., and Twyla, who volunteers with SA. The lady in the blue dress is Patti Patton-Bader, the founder of Soldiers Angels.

That is Line and I in our matching black dresses.

These are pictures of Arlington, always a favorite visit. For the first time we went to the Womens Memorial, and here is a quilt hanging there. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it.

Our hotel in DC was decadent and very beautiful.

If you give a mouse a cookie...

Okay, so I'm greedy, greedy for my veterans!

First I wanted a cookie...

I thought I'd make one quilt for one veteran who was injured, and be done with it... one year and seven quilts later I knew I needed to enlarge this project to beyond myself, there were too many veterans to cover. With the help of some local ladies, and joining the Wyoming Quilt Guild, we have given out over 50 quilts to veterans, and have more made ready to give out. To get the quilts out, I needed larger forces, hence my involvement as a VACTL for our local VA.
Then the words my husband kept repeating about so many veterans in the nursing home have so little, tumbled around in my head, and through SA I heard about the lapghan project for VA nursing homes. I spoke to the local Fiber Guild, and SA, and now we have 33 of the 50 we need for Christmas (the local ladies reasured me yesterday that three of them have a total of 9 more, and through SA I am reassured the last ones will be here too - big applauds to Shelley) - now we will cover all 50 nursing home vets with lapghans at a party in early December!!

Okay, so I have a a few more cookies, but I'm greedy you know, I want more, no I want the whole pack and some milk to go with it...

There seemed to be so much need at the VA for other things, of which SA has been very generous - blessings to Patti, Twyla, Sam and everyone else involved. But their is a greater need at the Domiciliary, soooo, I new I needed to apply to Wal Mart for that grant of which we got $500! I had SA give them the items in gas cards and vet packs (they are awesome by the way), but I look at the 5 vet packs, and now I want to cover EVERYONE in the Dom with a vet pack.. and I am adding fleece blankets I purchased to each pack, but still, we need so much more.

Now I want a case of cookies, and a few gallons of milk...

We have decided to have some of the local media come in to see the quilts we are giving out, the lapghan project in its near completion, and the vet packs and other items from SA... I am thinking people might purchase more vet packs for the dom?.?.

Perhaps, just perhaps we can do this by Christmas, so I am going to look at all the SA info, and work every angle I know how to get each person in the dom one vet pack, and one fleece blanket...

Did I tell you how much I love cookies..????

OCTOBER SNOW STORM IN MT

The jet stream dipped south, resulting in a visit from that cold Canadian air with lots of moisture in it. Wet Fall snow has been coming down since yesterday, with foot deep roof and driveway drifts. Hot tub's filled and hot, just in time. Chickadees and nuthatches have suet and seed, but the roses are done 'till Spring, trimmed and covered with mulch. Another Winter arrives and we welcome it. We are so blessed and privileged to have this unique opportunity to touch and feel Nature, and to be able to experience it's energizing grip. JIR

This is Jorge taking pictures of the snow. There isn't much wind to blow the snow off the trees, but we hope it is still just warm enough to have it melt off before the trees lose too many limbs.

We are in Helena, and this is what we woke up to this morning! A little bit of winter gift wrapped our trees and deck. I hear we are lucky, as we ended up with about 6" to 8", but Billings said on the news they had over a foot of snow.

Gifts given, gifts received.

Jorge and I each received Certificates of Appreciation from the U.S. Army. The packages came along with letters, pins and decals. The very next day I received a flag flown over Iraq, along from a certificate of authenticity.

The Certificates of Appreciation were requested for us from a person I know in Iowa, who has had me send quilts to injured veterans (the quilts are from our state wide Quilts for Heroes group). The flag is from a soldier that I sent one box and several letters to. He also has relatives in the area, and I had driven down to Buffalo to get him pictures of all the places he remembered visiting as a child. He states in his letter that also arrived with the flag, that as it was flown my name was called out.

What treasures!

Wedding in California

Here are some pictures from California. The top picture is of my nephew David, and his wife Rebecca, at the wedding reheasal. The next picture is of my sister Pat (the grooms mom), her husband Rob, and to the far left is the grooms dad, Sheldon and next to him is his wife Ronnie. I had not seen Sheldon in 35 years, so it was a reunion of sorts for all of us.

Then are pictures the day of the wedding, Jorge and I before the service. It was a beautiful day for an outdoor wedding. Pat and I, Me and Rebecca (David's daughter from his previous marriage), Pat and Rob dancing, and the bride and her dad.

The following are pictures of Jorge, myself, Pat and Rob on our visit to San Francisco and Napa wine region. All the pictures with a bridge in it are of us and the Golden Gate Bridge. There is one with Alcatraz way off in the distance out by the water and one of Jorge and I standing at one of the wineries.

It was a great time, and a city I would love to see again.

Let the weather begin..

We woke up Labor Day morning, to 33 degrees, and snow falling! Luckily it was only up and our altitude, and our drive home consisted only of rain. Now it is time to fill the hot tub!

More pictures of Oregon

All of these are either at Danny and Lindsay's or at the U of O. We had a great time, and look forward to going back for a visit soon.

One more picture of the winery.
Jorge and Lindsay at the U of O.