Unruh Cousins Reunion

Last Thursday we headed out after Justin got off work, we picked up my mom and made our way to Guymon. We got there about 8:30 and spent the night there. The next morning we left and drove to Alamosa, Colorado to pick up my dad who had been Elk hunting the week before. After a really good and somewhat spicy hot Mexican meal we went on to Westcliffe, to Hermit Basin Lodge. Some of the family had planned the first ever Unruh Cousins reunion. There ended up being about seventeen families represented from the 10 children born to Cornelius and Julia Unruh. One of those children was my grandma Minnie Wieler. All of the 10 children have passed on and several of their children have passed on also, but almost all of the surviving first cousins were able to make it, along with several of the next generations. Some traveling from Canada, Oklahoma, Arizona and Pennsylvania. Most of them I had already met, but there were a couple of them that were new acquaintances. We had a great time catching up and learning more about our family tree. We spent a lot of time looking at old pictures that some had brought and talking about years past.

This is all of the first cousins that were able to make it to the reunion. Back row: Paul Howerton, Hank Siemens, Louise Jassman, Bud Penner and Willis Ratzlaff. Front row: My dad, Judy Laubach, Marie Sept and Norma Adler.

This is a picture of the cousins born into the family not including the spouses. The additions to the top picture are Tex Wiebe, Doug Sept, Pam Blackburn, Vernon Wiebe, Me and Candace Adler.

We did some fun things too, including a day trip to Bishop's Castle, hiking and going into town and doing some shopping. We also had to make some special trips in to get ice cream cones. The weather was perfect. We could wear shorts in the mornings, but then in the evenings we would have to resort to jeans and jackets. We had such a good time.

This is Bishop's Castle. An interesting place to visit, it is built by hand by one man determined to do it all by himself. He has been working on it for 30 years and it is still a work in progress. He is on hand there working and visiting with all the people that stop to see the castle. You can go all the way to the very top of the highest point and most of our group did. You can't even see the top on this picture. I couldn't get the whole thing in.

Justin and I found this cool carving and log bench downtown Westcliffe, while we were on our shopping trip. We even stumbled onto a pioneer day parade.

This was the whole group that made the trek to Colorado for the Labor Day weekend. It was kind of tricky trying to get every one in the picture. The shirts were really cool. The front was a tree with all the names starting with my great grandparents Cornelius and Julia Unruh and all their children. On the back, since we are of German decent, was a long list of German words. I had no clue what most of them were.

We were told what they all said. I should have written them down, because I will never remember what they are.

Orange Beach, Alabama

This past week we were on vacation with Justin's brother and sisters families. We had a fantastic time! We spent a lot of time just swimming in the ocean, laying on the beach and doing sand sculptures. Our niece, Kenzie, got stung by a jellyfish on the inside of her leg the very first time in the water. On Tuesday they made us get out of the water because there were some sharks that decided they liked our beach. We stood on the shore and watched them swim by. Justin estimated that they were probably six or seven feet long. They would surface and show us there dorsal fins. That was very interesting. Some of the kids decided after that they were finished getting into the water at that point.

Justin and his brother Scott taking a snooze under the umbrella!

The Enclave was the condo we stayed at in Orange Beach. We also got to go deep sea fishing which was so much fun. This is the boat we went on "The Distraction."

Me catching my Bonita. It wasn't as big as I thought it was, but it fought like crazy. They made fun of me, because I guess I put on quite a show trying to get it reeled in.

These are some of the King Mackerel we caught. We couldn't keep the Bonita, because they are more like bait fish and not good to eat, but they sure were fun to catch.
Here is the Mermaid sand sculpture that Kenzie, Madison and I sculpted. It was getting dark, so it is a little hard to see. I have to say that if we had had the contest that Mike wanted to do, we would have won! Ha Ha!

Thursday night we took family pictures out on the beach. We each took individual families and then a group. This is the whole group that went. I was a bit sad that none of my kids could go. It isn't complete without them. We had a great time and we are planning to go back again.

Front row: Me, Kenzie, Debie, Kim, Kylee and Megan, back row: Scott, Madison, Taylor, Justin and Mike.

Swimming Lessons

Emma and Ella are taking swimming lessons this week. Sara had appointments this morning so I got to take the girls. They love the water and are having so much fun with the girls that are teaching them.

Hunter went with us and he is not to fond of the water. I did persuade him to get his feet in the water, but I should have known with his leg problem he would fall and he did. He got his clothes all wet and I had to strip him down. He was definitely ready to go bye-bye after that and he let me know it too! He didn't cry, but he was adamant about leaving.

At the end of lessons the girls got to go down the big red slide. Emma loved it, but Ella was not very excited. It took a lot of coaxing and determination, but she did it and loved it!

HUNGRY, HUNGRY HIPPOS!

I wanted to find some things that I could do with the girls this summer when they came to stay with me. I remembered that my boys had a Hungry, Hungry Hippos game when they were little and they loved to play it. Last time I went to Wal-Mart I looked to see if they even sold it anymore and they do! I bought one and the girls love it too. We have spent a lot of time playing lately. I finally have to tell them that's enough and put it up or they would play all day. It is so noisy, it just about drive anyone not playing crazy! Fun times with the grandkids! We're making memories.

And the Verdict Is............

I had a fun afternoon at the lake with a few friends. Debbie had just got a different boat and invited Melvena, Linda and I to go out for some fun. I was determined that I was going to ski since I haven't done it in probably 15 years. Not only did I intend to ski, but I was only going to slalom. That is all I ever did before. To my disappointment I was unable to get up. The very first try, the rope pulled the muscles in my forearms and I was instantly in pain. I tried a couple more times, but it was too late. I had already messed myself up to bad. I hate the realization that I am not able to do some of the things I was able to do when I was younger. In fact it makes me down right mad! This is Debbie and Linda getting us ready to go out.

After I tried to ski, I was exhausted so we went out in the middle, grabbed a life jacket and jumped out in the water and just chilled out for a while.

My arms were still hurting, but I decided I wasn't going to let it ruin the rest of the day. We threw out the tube and Linda and I got on. It's a good thing we put on our chapstick before we got started, because we kissed the water pretty good a couple of times. Arms and legs went flying!


We tried riding that tube lying down and on our knees and sitting up. Then we tried each of us doing different things at the same time.

We had a lot of fun, got some good sun and wore ourselves out. That was Thursday when we went. Today, two days later, I am so sore I can barely move, but it was worth it!

Learning New Technology

They say you should never stop learning, so I have been trying to get out of my box and try new things. Some of my friends and family have been texting me, so it forced me to learn how to text back. It was taking me forever and a day to reply back on my razor phone 1): because if I don't have my bifocals on I can't see what buttons I am pushing and 2): I have to really concentrate on where the letters are and how many times I need to push the same place. So I decided a while back to invest in a slider phone in order to be more efficient at replying back sooner than the 15 minutes it was taking me. My boys have harassed me unmercifully about having a teeny-bopper phone, to which my reply was "Hey, whatever it takes!"

Last week my friend Debbie came over and was talking to me about her face book. She said you should give it a try. I never was interested in it, because I new my kids had face book pages and I didn't want to intrude on their territory. I didn't know how any of it worked and didn't know they had to accept me as a friend before I could even view their page. However, after she left I decided I would look at it and decide whether it was something I could keep up with or not. Well I started Friday night at 9:00 and didn't get off until 11:30. Now, anyone that knows me very well at all knows that that is way past my bed time, but I was enjoying looking at the pages of everyone that had accepted me as their friend. When I finally did go to bed, I couldn't go to sleep for a long time. I just couldn't get my mind shut down.

Last night I was on it until 10:30 and again, I couldn't shut my mind down for a while after going to bed. I guess I am going to have to stay off of it just before going to bed! I know, I am weird. Justin and Tyler have razzed me to no end about being a texting and face book junky. It is really cool to be able to connect with people you haven't talked to in forever. So far, I haven't been able to find many people I went to school with on fb. Maybe THEY are technologically challenged! Or maybe they just have better things to do with their time than I do.

For now I'm just trying to stay up with the times.

Honestly!!

I have officially been convicted!! Today I was reading the Proverbs 31 devotional I get every day and what Lysa wrote hit me right between the eyes. It was all about temptation and the struggle with weight issues. I have been so guilty about making excuses for not losing the 20 pounds I need to lose. Satan has planted all kinds of lies in my head like: "You can't lose because you had chemo and radiation, so your metabolism is all messed up, plus the fact you have hypothyroidism. You better just get used to the way you are and be content with it." Although there could be a little bit of truth to that, the reality is (confession time) I recently read the book by the Biggest Loser's Jillian Michaels "Master Your Metabolism" and she said we should be eating organic as much as possible. So I made a trip to Oklahoma City to the Health Food Center and bought a fridge full of organic fruits and vegetables, which was very expensive. The very next day I was hungry so instead of taking the time to fix a salad with the veggies I had bought the day before, I went to Taco Mayo and got a chili-cheese burrito and a taco. I did forego the large coke I really did want and opted for a tea instead. What a sacrifice I made! This mind game I am playing has got to stop.

Here is the devotional written by Lysa TerKeurst:
"Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress." I Timothy 4:15 (NIV)

I think we all get to a place sometimes in our life where we have to honestly assess, "How I am doing?"

It's not really a conversation I have with a friend or family member. It's one of those middle of the night contemplations where there's no one to fool. There's no glossing over the realities staring me in the face.

I know certain things about myself need to change but it's easier to make excuses than tackle them head on. Rationalizations are so appealing:

I'm good in every other area.
I make so many sacrifices already.
I need this comfort in this season of life- I'll deal with it later.
I just can't give this up. The Bible doesn't specifically say this is wrong.
It's not really a problem, if I really wanted to make a change, I could - I just don't want to right now.
Oh for heaven's sake, everyone has issues, so what if this is mine?

And on and on.

But excuses always get me no where fast. This is especially true for me in the area of healthy eating. Even if that's not your issue, I suspect this same script of rationalization has played out in your mind over other things.

So, the cycle continues day after day, week after week, year after year.

A whole lifetime could be spent making excuses, giving in, feeling guilty, resolving to do better, mentally beating myself up for not sticking to my resolve, feeling like a failure, and then resigning that things can't change.

And I don't want to spend a lifetime in this cycle.

Nothing will change until I make the choice to change . I have to want it, spiritually, physically and mentally. The battle really is in all three areas.

Spiritually: In Colossians 3 1-5 we are told to set our minds and our hearts on things above. In order to do this, we have to put to death whatever belongs to our earthly nature which sets itself up as an idol in my life.

Idolatry is trying to get my needs met outside the will of God.

Bingo. Can't deny it. This described food for me at times. Again, it wasn't a huge problem where I was medically in danger. But, any idolatry, no matter how small is a problem.

Physically: According to an extensive study done by Northwestern University, calorie restriction is the key ingredient for managing weight issues. (The link to see this study can be found on Lysa's blog today.) Of course, they state that exe rcise is also important but good nutrition is crucial.

Bingo. Can't deny it. It does matter what I eat. My weight is a reflection of what I consume.

Mentally: Don't settle. Don't compromise. What happens when you cut the "com" off of the word compromise? You're left with a "promise."

We were made for more than compromise. We were made for God's promises in all areas of our life.

Honestly. I am made for more than a vicious cycle of eating, gaining, stressing - eating, gaining, stressing...

I am made to rise up, do battle with my issues, and using the Lord's strength in me, defeat them - spiritually, physically, and mentally - to the glory of God.

Dear Lord, help me be courageous enough to speak honestly to You and to myself in those areas I'm giving in to compromise. Show me how to rely on Your strength for more self-discipline in my life - not for my glory but for Yours. In Jesus' Name, Amen.