Independence Day

Check out these five handsome guys...all from the same family, all serving at the same time (U.S. Army) in service to our country.  What a giving family.  The picture was taken at the wedding of one of their siblings.  One is a good friend of ours.  I believe there is one more boy in the  family who is not old enough to be in the service.

Drafted by Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and June 28, 1776, the Declaration of Independence is at once nation's most cherished symbol of liberty and Jefferson's most enduring document.  Here in exalted and unforgettable phrases Jefferson expressed the convictions in the minds and hearts of the American people.  The political philosophy of the Declaration was not new; its ideals of individual liberty had already been expressed by John Locke and the Continental philosophers.  What Jefferson did was to summarize this philosophy in 'self-evident truths' and set forth a list of grievances against the King in order to justify before the world the breaking of ties between the colonies and the mother country. You are invited to read a transcription of the complete text of the Declaration.

Mary Post Warren

copyright 2011, all rights reserved

Resurrection Sunday - He Is Risen

 2001 - Jerusalem, Israel - The Empty Tomb


                                                                

Matthew 28:6

He is not here: for he is RISEN, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

Mary Post Warren

© copyright 2011, all rights reserved, Mary Post Warren

St. Patrick's Day - Link

Link was a holiday gift who was given to us by Grandma Warren when the kids were little.  He came out mid March ever year, just for a day or two. 

Then he'd get a special treat and come out around Christmas time...he was small enough we'd could hang him on the tree...and a happy Leprechaun he was.  But, alas, one year he disappeared <gasp>!  We don't know if he ran away or if, worst yet and what we suspect, he accidentally got tossed out with the live Christmas tree. Or did Santa steal him...NAH, he wouldn't do that!!!  But he was gone and it seems forever and we miss him like the dickens.  And still talk about him every year.

Grandma Warren also had a story to tell about Link to the kids.  Link always seemed to be on some kind of adventure or getting into some kind of trouble.  To this day, all in their 40's, they talk about Grandma's stories of Link.  Maybe one of them would be so kind as to write and update to this posting telling of some of Link's (mis)adventures?
This little guy reminds me of Link - he resides at the school where I work and he comes out every year, just about this time of the year.  He's twice the size of the original Link but he's just as cute! The kids love him, just as our kids loved our Link!

Mary Post Warren

© copyright 2011, all rights reserved, Mary Post Warren

Christmas and Family 'Reunions'

Margaret Troyer Post's descendants and spouses/children

I just got home from my sister's house where we had a Christmas party/family reunion.  We had not had a family get together in 15 years.  We had to travel from Arizona to California but it was well worth the time/effort.  I've been planning this reunion since before Labor Day and it was disappointing that out of 130 descendants of my grandparents - Elmer Troyer and Mary Motzko Troyer that only 26 showed up for the reunion.  But let me tell you we had the cream of the crop when it came to the descendants.  Elmer and Mary had 2 children - my mother Margaret Troyer Post and her sister Dorothy Troyer Haines.  Four out of five of Margaret's children (now the 'elders' in the family) showed up with spouses for the party.  Dorothy had 4 children and all of them showed up.. Several of the next generation came (grandchildren of Margaret and Dorothy) and one of the current generation of great grandchildren. 

Dorothy Troyer Haines' children/spouses

I felt sad that more of the younger ones did not come.  Some are just too busy with raising families and others just don't care.   But I'm really excited because 2 of my cousins brought me some awesome "older" pictures...some going back to the 1800's, and I received many pictures from after the turn of the century.  I'm ready to scan away at these.  Another cousin told me she had a box full of pictures in the back of one of her closets...she says that I really wouldn't want them because they are undated and there are no names on them and they are 'really old'....I'm still working on her to let me borrow them.  She's hesitant to give them up even for a little while.

The older couple sitting in the bottom picture are my oldest cousin and her husband.  Both are in bad health, she has Alzheimer's and he has Parkinson's disease....they were both such a pleasure to have at the get-together...there were a few problems getting them there but we finally worked it out...it would not have been the same without them.  She spent quite a bit of time flirting with the guys!  She may have lost her memory but she has not lost her sense of humor!

Genesis 1:22   And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

Mary Post Warren

© copyright 2010, all rights reserved

Fun Fotos From Fourth of July 2010

Fun Fotos From Fourth of July taken at friends of our daughter's house where we spent the 4th of July, eating, talking, eating, and talking, and then eating some more.  Great food, nice people, awesome time.

These are the pants Howard has worn every year for 40 years (see yesterdays blog for the full story on these). The shirt has changed a couple times - we bought this one last year.  My pants I bought after the 4th last year at a thrift store - $2.00. You can't see them but I have on red, white, and blue Birkenstock sandals.

© copyright 2010, all rights reserved, Mary Post Warren

Fourth of July 2010 Ramblings

My husband, in his usual patriotic way, dressed in the red, white and blue that he has dressed in every Independence Day since the late1960s.  The material the pants are made out of is the old polyester double knit, which like the energizer bunny, just keeps going and going and going. Our kids love to tell the stories of 4th of July parties, or 4th of July church functions, or working in fire works stands and their dad wore this outfit. It is one of their earliest memories.


Not only is this outfit like the energizer bunny but my hubby is also like the  energizer bunny - at age 74 he just does not quit.  He keeps going and going and going. He still works part time, he runs my errands, he is the first one to offer his hand if someone needs a helping one. He also volunteers at our church and he visits many of the older people from church when they are in rest homes, assisted living, hospice, or the hospital.  He's my hero....thankfully our kids feel the same way about him. Anyone who does all this and still wears the same pair of pants after almost 40 years has to be my idol!  Plus he's put up with me for over 46 years.  HE ROCKS!

Howard looks much like Las Vegas' infamous mayor, Oscar Goodman.  Oscar has a colorful past with ties to the mafia. He's also been known to fall off stages while giving a toast at some function.  He's usually got a  showgirl on each arm at these events.  When we lived in Las Vegas people would stop us asking for his autograph.   He HATES to be compared to him - but he does 'play' it for all it's worth.

And that my friends is a tribute to MY #1 Uncle Sam!

Mary Post Warren 
© copyright 2010, all rights reserved

Happy Easter

 Jerusalem 2001

The tomb is empty! He has risen! Hallelujah, Christ the Lord has risen!

 He is not here, but is risen; Luke 24:6





Mary Post Warren

© copyright 2010, all rights reserved

 

Thankful Thursday - Easter

As we prepare this week for Easter my mind wanders back to our trip to Israel.  In 2001, my husband and I were blessed with the opportunity to visit Israel with a large group.  What an awesome experience.  We were queried by others back home as to 'why we would want to go there?'  Their reasoning is the volatile condition Israelis are in from day to day.  We did see things that reminded us of how volatile Israel was and is....the teens coming by the bus load to the beach (the Sea of Galilee)...dressed in fatigues, carrying loaded guns...for practice;  the metal detectors we had to walk through to enter a store or shopping area; the border to Bethlehem blocked off by Pakistan so that we might not be able to go to the place where Jesus was born.

Many 'warnings' back home almost made us think twice time about going but our theory always was - if it's our time to go (die) what better place should it be than in the land where Jesus was born, lived, ministered, died and rose again so that He could give ME eternal life!  I'm most thankful this week for this.  And that's what Easter is all about.

One of my very favorite hymns is "I Come to the Garden Alone'  Words and Music: C. Aus­tin Miles, March 1912.  As I sing and contemplate upon the words it reminds me of another Garden we visited one day...a Garden where Jesus walked, talked, mediated...a garden filled with calmness, and the Spirit of the Lord everywhere...the Garden of Gethsemane.

I come to the garden alone

While the dew is still on the roses

And the voice I hear falling on my ear

The Son of God discloses. 

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,

And He tells me I am His own;

And the joy we share as we tarry there,

None other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of his voice

Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,

And the melody that He gave to me

Within my heart is ringing.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,

And He tells me I am His own;

And the joy we share as we tarry there,

None other has ever known.

I'd stay in the garden with Him

Though the night around me be falling,

But He bids me go; through the voice of woe

His voice to me is calling.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,

And He tells me I am His own;

And the joy we share as we tarry there,

None other has ever known.

He is not here: for He is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. Matt 28:6 KJV

Mary Post Warren

© copyright 2010, all rights reserved