As 2016 comes to end, it's an opportunity to reflect on the memories and share a few of the highlights.
Ron and I are enjoying our retirement. A highlight of our lives is our 20 month old granddaughter Bethany. She spends three days a week with us while her mom, Kathie and dad, Ike work here in Missoula. We also have two surrogate grandchildren: Gillian, a kindergartner, who spends Thursday afternoons with us, and Luke, a 2 year old, who comes for Friday morning play dates with Bethany. Between the three, we have many adventures.
Our back yard has become a playground, complete with a treehouse with a slide, a preschooler slide and gardening and playing in the dirt (or snow) depending on the season. Of course there are the horses and donkeys next door to feed! Our house is full of toys and things to do. We had a great time making Christmas cookies with all 3 kids. My hobby of creating little videos has been a fun way to document the fun we have. Check out this video with Bethany, Luke and Gillian! (While you are there subscribe to my channel-- I post videos periodically of our fun activities!)
Ron keeps busy with gardening and moving snow, depending on the season. He has worked as autism consultant. I have created and taught a couple of online courses for paraeducators. We are both active at our church- doing whatever needs to be done! Of course we LOVE spending time on the river in whatever boat suits our fancy. We had some great trips with family members this year.
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| Enjoying our favorite weekly adventure! |
We also had a great apple crop and appreciated all the help we got from friends and family- picking, packaging and making juice!
We purchased an R-Pod (travel trailer) in 2015 and finally got to use it. We had several adventures, from overnight weekend trips, to a trip to the Oregon coast and a trip to Glacier in early October that surprised us with a dump of 12 inches of snow overnight. We are looking forward to even more trips next year.
In February Ron's mom, Shirley began having some health issues. She spent some time in the hospital and then came to live with us as we tried to find out what was going on. After several months it became apparent that she wasn't going to be able to live on her own. After checking out several retirement home options, she chose to move to Missoula and got an apartment at Brookdale Senior Living. We so appreciated having her close by. She had a special relationship with Bethany. The other added bonus was that we got to spend more time with Ron's family as they came to Missoula to help her move as well as spend time with her as her health declined. Her brother Scott and his wife Patty came from Florida in October to see her. We think she was waiting to see them as a week after they arrived, she passed away on October 5th.
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Bethany, Gramma Shirley and Erik
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Terri, Uncle Scott, Levi, Melissa, Chris and Ken join for Family Dinner for Shirley at Brookdale.
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Paula, Patty, Shirley, Ron, Kathie and Ike
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We celebrated Shirley's life with nearly 40 kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids on October 29th here in Missoula. So fun to have them all together to renew their connections. A highlight was all the grandkids and greats- singing "I'll Fly Away" as the sending song!
Our year ended with a trip to Louisiana. Ike, Kathie, Bethany, Ron and I flew down and met Erik (from Arizona) to celebrate Liz's Master's Degree from LSU. We are so proud of her. She is on the way to getting her doctorate. We also drove to the coast and played in Gulf of Mexico and enjoyed some great food in New Orleans!
Her fiancéé, Chris will graduate soon from law school at Southern University and they are busy planning their wedding December 30th, 2017 in Missoula. Mark your calendars and plan to come for a wintry wedding.
This season of Advent/Christmas has been bittersweet. Having lost both of our mothers in the past year, there was much to remind us of those women as we celebrated Christ's birth. One of our devotionals by Pastor Jan Richardson talked about how "Advent has a way of triggering memories that, when we are in grief, can be particularly painful. There is little to shield us against the sheer quantity of seasonal sights and sounds that remind us of holidays past, when our loved one was with us. In the face of such memory triggers, intentional remembering can, paradoxically, become one of our most powerful practices. Mary knew about the art of remembering. The Gospel of Luke tells us that after everything—after her pregnancy, after Jesus’ birth, after the proclamation of the angels and the visit of the shepherds—Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart (Luke 2:19). She understood that the heart is a treasure house of memory. The heart is a space where our memories can be gathered together and made whole in the present."
I'm hoping these intentional rememberings bring a smile to your face. If you get to Missoula, be sure and come visit. Blessings for you in the new year.
Love,
Ron and Nancy
Stay in Touch with us
mslamarks@gmail.com Nancys blog: http://missoulamusings.blogspot.com
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Nancys Youtube channel: http://youtube.com/mslamarks
3524 South 3rd St West, Missoula,
MT
