My Mother in Law turns 90.

Joan and Charlie when I first met them in 1968.(Dad passed away at 84 years).

Happy 90th birthday to Bobs Mum, I call her Mum too,unlike many, I like my mother in law.I have not

 always felt liked or loved or whatever but for the last 30 years I have felt very much liked and loved.

We had a wonderful family gathering 8 hours away travel for us and our children, worth every moment.There were 44 people in all and thats just immediate family,Bobs side has definately been more productive than mine ! lol.

I do not have many pics as they used my camera to record the day,that memory card was then placed in a digital frame and Joan could watch them even as the day was ending, eventually I will get copies.

We had a Pinyta and pass the parcel as there were so many little children there but Great Nanna had to have first go!

Joan and our Michael,he was very brave to hold the pinyata lol what chaos when it finally burst ,lollies and goodies all over the hall!!!! kids scampering everywhere to fill their pockets.

In December my Mum will turn 90 but we will not have to travel for that one,we will have it either at our home or at our little church hall depends how many family say they can come.

Joan is still very active in her community going on bus trips each thursday and helping the elderly on and off !!! I am not sure when she will consider herself as aged .

This next pic is just a little print that is in our hallway.It takes people eye and they ask who are those children ?strangely enough my fathers family founded an old gold mining town way out in the dusty western part of Australia,he and his wife were both bad asthmatics and had a large brood of children,sadly many died and the children in this pic are reminders to me of the family babies,I have visited the graves.

This print is quite spooky  as when you pass by it faces appear in the trees etc.There is a soldier ,another  tiny baby and quite a few ladies in 1800 dress,they are very visible( I am not crazy) I have been told that black and white pics capture lost spirits,has anyone else ever heard of this?.I put this pic up as when I was reading Kimmies story the other day of her dream,and this pic came to me.The other strange thing is the number of children in this print is the number of children lost to this lovley man and woman,what a hard life they must have had,eventually they had to move on and went back to Sydney and made a life there.

I do hope you don't all think I am mad lol.

Have a lovely day and be blessed and smile at someone today,it might just be the only lovely thing that has happened for them today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB

On Saturday 11th september it is an anniversary for a horrible time in the world,but in our little world it is my husband Bobs birthday,this year he will be 63.

We first met when he was just turning 21 and I was just 19.

We had no money to do the "dating" thing as he was still in training and  we both loved old furniture so most of our time together was doing up a bedroom suite in my families shed and getting things together.

Bob asked me to marry him on the day we met 21st Feb 1968.I said yes but "don't ask Mum yet as she would have a fit" so he waited till the next day! the reaction was mirth of course.So 2 years from that day we were married.

We have moved so many times since we married but not the last 20 years.Bob was a train driver when I met him and still was when our daughter,Katrina, was born,then he wanted to become an Ambulance driver so that meant a move from the country to the city!! Boy what a change,there we had our son Michael,and moved in with Bobs grandmother to help care for her. Then were transferred out west  to a small town,had 3 years there,then back inland a bit for another three years,then another transfer to a town 10 minutes from here.

We were there for 10 years when Bob had a breakdown"post traumatic stress syndrome" they call it.

It shattered our lives,but we coped,we were in an ambulance home so after realising Bob could not go back to work we found our little cottage here and settled in. Katrina went to uiversity just months after our change she did not want to go but we said she must,she is now a very successful young woman ,a huge job that she juggles with the help of a lovely hubby who chose to be a stay at home Dad for a while and just works weekends to allow her to do this job and 3 gorgeous children, a wonderful Christain woman.She is a rock to us,we are so proud of what she has achieved but it is her daughterness that makes us more proud,she is so much loved and I just know she is there someone you can be "sure of".

Katrina and Stevens children

This is a pic I recieved on my phone sending Grammy a kiss on a not so well day just recently,they are Alexander,Olivia and William.I just love them.

Our son is a wonderful man, he has had lots of mountains to climb,he did not cope so well when his "rock",his dad crumbled but over the years has had battles with his demons.I am so proud that he has risen above his  barriers,found God and is doing so well at his job,  I do not think I would have the strength do be able to do what he has done and managed, he is just terrific.He is a good Christian man,always provided for his family and has enabled his lovely  wife to be a stay at home Mum.Just as with his sister I fell in love with Michael the moment he was born. Recently Michael thought he did not want to be of this worls any longer and it was the hardest time of my life,I know he will never go to that dark place again for he knows how much he is loved by us all and he is too good a man to to that to his family,I call it a hic cup in his life he has turned a corner.He has gone on to have 3 gorgeous children also.

They are Elijah,Lillian and Eden.Here they are off to watch their footy team play ,how gorgeous are they!

Both have been married for 12 years now,rough and smooth they are still together.Of couse I worry about them all but I just love the family that the meeting between two people generate 40 years on.

We both still have our Mums both of them turning 90 this year,how blessd are we.

It has taken many years for my husband to get on with life,he is now the town Postie as you would know ans I help.His breakdown was caused through so many children dying in accidents and fron cot death as it seemed to be so rife back 20 years ago, he had 3 on a Christmas day.That was the begginig of the end for him,he coped with the elderly dying but could not cope with anyone under 20.

He is a good man often has a dark far away look and I know the nastly memories are lurking there.

We have stuck together through thick and thin, I am at last getting health issues under control and hope I will be more pleasant to be around. He may not skittle up to the shed so often lol.

My husband has always had great respect for my belief in God and he knows I pray for him although he does not,he only ever made fun of me once and when he saw how hurt I was he never did that again.

My only complaint about him is he does not like cats and Iwould love a ginger one so much,I joke that if he dies first I will have a cat as quick as a flash,he says who says he is going first so I may still miss out!. lol.

When we meet and fall in love with our partener,we have no idea what is ahead, some peoples lives have a smooth road hardly ever a problem,others have nothing but problems,I think we came in the middle.We have no idea when we are all in the first throws of love what will be thrown at us but if it is a strong love and both are good people at heart you can overcome anything.Some people at the other end of life are still together if we are lucky these days,and still in love,some still together for companionship,some because it was too hard to leave and too much trouble,some ended one marriage and went on to have another union maybe happier maybe not.

I am a believer in marriage,got no idea why it is just there in my heart.Both our children did things the old fashioned way,engaged,married then children.I have many young friends that would not marry if their lived depended on it but have had long time parteners live by the same rules of marriage but don't think the paper matters,they are happy and content .Does it matter? that piece of paper? who knows that answer but I know it was marriage for me and here 40 years on  Grumble Bum and Grumble Mum at times in our home would not want to be with anyone else.

Have a beautiful day,enjoy the blessings in your life,the good and bad were meant to happen they are what makes our life journey,would we change anything,perhaps only words that we spoke but in the big pic the hard bits make us who we are.

Praise God for he is good, praise him for your seeds and praise him for just being.