What matters most!

There are many days in life that make one question what it is really all about.  It is hard to get up and get going and you wish you could just take that extra few minutes in bed.  Somehow, through it all you finally begin to realize what LIFE is all about.  

This is my life....and THEY are what it is all about.  

Simply, it is just the bond between mother and daughters that can't be broken.  I love these two with every ounce of my being.  If I had to choose between my life and theirs, I'd give mine for either of them. 

Words can never explain the love I have for my children. 

There are days I think I need to make more money or drive a better car , or have more friends but in the end money won't make me happy nor will cars.  Having friends will but what matters most in my life is the two beautiful creatures, fearfully and wonderfully made by God, that call me Mom!  

Is it really that difficult to just be nice?

Dear Mr. Impatient. 
I am fairly certain you are related to the suntanned, flip-flop wearing, corona drinking god that I encountered at Wal*mart last week. 
Let me tell you how this works....
When there are still 3 cars ahead of me in line in the drive thru...DO NOT and I repeat, very nicely, DO NOT, honk your horn at me. There was no need for me to pull forward when the window was occupied. I am a correct change counter and this morning had problems distinguishing between nickles and quarters! Since you decided to act like a jerk, my vision suddenly became worse and, as I spoke to the girl at the window, I had to dig my glasses out. Did you know that today is her daughter's 5th birthday? What a proud Mama she is! Oh and her Grandmother is having surgery on Friday. Probably ought to say a special prayer for her. Continuing to honk your horn and wave to me with your middle finger, BEFORE I HAD A DIET COKE, didn't help your cause, any at all. Once I pulled to the second window, I thought it would be best (while I was stopped) to fire off that important text message and then, can you imagine, I couldn't get the paper off of the straw!? The girl at the second window has no AC at home and was having an awful morning. No worries though, I took the time to make her smile by tell her how great her hair looked today! Now you know how my world works, welcome to it!

Weddings, weddings and oh yea, WEDDINGS!

Here I am again, behind as usual.  I apologize right off the bat and get that out of the way.
There are many things I'd like to catch you up on and I will start with the bridal showr for my beautiful niece Lindsey.  She is marrying Jason Duckworth on August 25, 2013 in Rochester, Minnesota.  I am so excited to go and celebrate that day with them.  Ashley and Tony will be going with us as well!  Lena and Jacob are unable to attend due to Lena just starting her job and needing to take time off for her own wedding.  It will be a wonderful weekend and I cannot wait to see Lindsey dressed in her wedding gown!  She and I were talking this weekend and it suddenly came to mind that she was just one year old the first time I met her.  One, uno, single...Hard to believe that she is now 27 and getting married.  Her shower was beautiful, if I can say so myself!  We used a vintage theme and held it at the Wolcott house in the town of Wolcott!  It was the perfect setting to pull of an amazing vintage themed shower.

THE WOLCOTT HOUSE

I think the family was surprised at how beautiful the house looked, decorated in photos of Lindsey and Jason and filled with fresh cut flowers from Lindsey's Uncle Byron's flower gardens.  Lindsey deserved nothing but beautiful and happy and I truly believe we gave her both.  She was so grateful for the shower and even cried during her thank you at the end.  Emotions that were felt by everyone there.  

THE TABLE SETTING

Now that we have finished with Lindsey's shower it is time to focus on Lena's which is scheduled for the end of July.  She has decided to use a picnic theme so I will be stocking up on red and white items here in a few days after the July 4th holiday! 

In June we traveled to Kansas to celebrate the wedding of Eddie and Mandi Sandberg and I'd just like to say that it was amazing!  A beautiful couple of Kansas days filled with family, food and fun!  I'd like to thank the Sandberg and Valek families for inviting us to share in their very happy day! 

This summer seems to be flying right by and soon September will be here.  We are so anticipating the wedding of Lena and Jacob.  I can't wait to share their day with all of you.  I am sure it will be magical! 

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to play catch up once again! 

Don't miss the middle

Woke up this morning with this thought in my head. 
Some people will tell you that life is a journey, some will say that it is an adventure and even that famous country group will croon that "Life is a highway". I think life is a circle. You're born, you live and yes, eventually die. The things that happen between living and dying are what we call life. We celebrate beginnings, we mourn endings and we often move so fast that we neglect the middle. What brought me to this thought? 1 week from today Lena Tiede will make that walk, collect her diploma, and head, face first, into the rest of her life. I have thought about all her firsts. Her first cry, her first teeth (three of them on Christmas day 1990), first steps, first car, first boyfriend, well, you get it. Then I started thinking about the lasts. Her last day of kindergarten, elementary and middle school. The last time she drove out of the drive way as a high school senior. The last prom, the last day of her summer job, and most recently the last trip we took together before she becomes Mrs. Jacob Brown. Now, in her last week of college, we begin to look forward to more FIRSTS. Her first job (well REAL job) and her first time moving to a new town that will likely become her new home. We look forward with anticipation to her wedding in September and all the other firsts that will come with that. The circle is completing and along the way I see clearly that I focus way too much on the beginnings and the endings. I pray that God will help me focus on the middle. Right now, today. It is my prayer that I can make each and every day as extraordinary as a first and a last.

Spring "Break"?

It is THAT time of year again at the Tiede house.  The time of year where there are more dogs on the property than people.  Yep, it is spring break time.  I am happy to say that the dog house is full and actually, thanks to some clerical errors we are "over full".  It really is a good problem to have!  I am thanking God for showing favor on Honey Creek and blessing us abundantly!  Someone needs to remind me that I viewed a full dog house as a blessing about this time next week when I feel like I can't move!  The fun began this morning when I had to walk dogs before I left for the office.  I never really seem to mind it so much the first day.  Sophie was there this morning to great me and a new friend named Murphy!  He is a beautiful golden retriever with a heart the size of Texas.  I fell in love immediately, and I am sure it had nothing to do with his name!  I finished up the little dogs pretty easily and headed off to work.  I seemed to be distracted at the thought of all our guests that were scheduled to arrive today so I called home at noon to check in.  All was well and those who were scheduled to arrive in the AM had done so.  It's always nice to get off to a smooth start.  The weather forecast has but a little gray cloud over things however, calling for snow Sunday into Monday, a far cry from the 80 degree temperatures we enjoyed last spring break.  Byron reminded me that last spring break I actually mowed the entire yard!  No mowing this year.  The grass is still sound asleep and doesn't have the first hint of green!

So many people try to understand what we do and why we do it and all I can say is, "If you figure it out, please let me know!"  We do love dogs, we love the ability to work for ourselves and so appreciate raising two beautiful girls in the family business.  There are times when it is hectic even down right aggravating but the good times have by far, outweighed the bad.  So, with that said it is nearly time to go walk the dogs again.  Thank you all for loving us and what we do!

Til next week....Happy Spring Break!  

Come on Spring!

It is hard to believe that we are staring at the end of February. The thought of March is one that actually brings a smile to my face!   I so dislike this cold, wet, rainy, and gloomy weather.  This morning I awoke to the sound of ice tinging off the windows of the house.  I wanted to stay in bed with the covers pulled up over my head but the dog wasn't cooperating so out of bed I went.  I did my "BOB WALK"  (that is what my family calls it as I wobble down the hall like my dad always did) down the hallway and out into the living room.  The house was warm and smelled like coffee and my grumpiness seemed to subside just a bit.  I attempted to look out the big window but it faces the East and was covered with a thin coat of ice so everything seemed a distorted, kind of like looking through a piece of broken glass.  I strained to see what the black spot was in the yard and when I couldn't make it out I was able to see it when I opened the door for the dog.  To my surprise the black spot was actually 2 robins!  Yes, I said robins!  A sure sign that spring cannot be far off when the robins return to the Hoosier state.  I was certain they were having a discussion that went like this....
Bethel: "Harry, why did we come back to Indiana so soon"
Harry: "Wasn't my idea, you were the one that said it was time" "You were having the urge to feather the nest"
Bethel:  "Oh Harry"  "You know I get those urges every year. We should have lingered in Tennessee just a little longer"
Harry: "Yes dear, that we should have.  We will do better next year"!
So many exciting things await my family in 2013!  Spring is just the beginning of a truly wonderful year!

Hang in there dear friends, spring is just around the corner!

Thank you cards, Thank you posts,

It has been cold in Indiana for the past two days.  Cold enough for schools to delay the start of the day.  I seem to have it in my mind that if it is too cold for small, fragile children to wait outside for the school bus, then it is too cold for me to walk out of my 73 degree house, into my 45 degree garage, get into my car with heated seats and an awesome heater and drive to my 77 degree office!  It is a matter of life and death people!  Please cut me some slack!

Anyway, during my 2 hour delay on Tuesday morning, I was able to take the time to watch a bit of the TODAY SHOW, which I absolutely love but rarely get the time to do!  The topic of discussion was children and grandchildren not taking the time to write thank you notes to their grandparents for gifts.  Someone mentioned that it was the fault of the parent for not teaching their children to write an actual thank you note, and to some extent I would agree with that.  Today's society has lost touch with the art or writing just about anything.  We are all tuned into electronic media...I am currently typing a blog for crying out loud.  Years ago, I would be filling up a journal or notebook with hand written scrolls that would fade over time and my great grand children would probably never be able to make heads or tails of.  Rarely does anyone send an actual birthday card through the USPS but last year I received over 100 happy birthday greetings on Facebook!  As a child, I remember standing in the store picking out party invitations for my birthday party.  Today, one just creates a party invite on Facebook or sends a mass text message out with all the party info and magically just about everyone RSVP's with little or no time in between!  We do live in a society of instant gratification.  Case in point, the digital camera.  Yes, I had the little Kodak camera, first the "Instamatic"  and then that cute little one that took film and those crazy little flash cubes! We would fill up a roll of film and then either rush it to the drug store, if there were really important pictures on there, or if there were less important photos, we just threw the used roll in the "junk drawer" and waited until we had 5 or 10 rolls and took them in all at once.  Today, if you take a photo of a child the first thing they say is "let me see"! Personally, I do love the digital camera because it allows you to instantly delete the photo that you would never want anyone to see!

I guess I have drifted off the point a bit  but I will admit that I do still like to send thank you cards, birthday cards, sympathy cards, and even the occasional thinking of you card.  They seem to be just a bit more personal.  The lost art of writing a thank you needs to be brought back.  Teach you children to do these things while they are little.  Someday, they may just write you a note to thank you for it!

Happy Wednesday to you all!
Karen

Here I go again!

It's 2013!  I can hardly believe it!  Where on earth did 2012 go? I'm going to attempt to do a recap!
January Blah
February Blah
March warmer but still blah
April:  Celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary!  Headed to Las Vegas (blah) I don't recommend it.  Too many people, too many weird things, I guess I did enjoy certain aspects like the lights, the shows, the food and most importantly our day trip to the Grand Canyon.  To see the wonder that God created was truly awe inspiring!
May: Chilly
June: Hot
July: Really Hot.  Floated in the pool.
August:  Even more hot...Lots of dead crops. Floated in the pool.
September:  Tony and Ashley celebrated their 1st anniversary!  Floated in the pool.
October: Went to Georgia for the Atwater wedding.  It was beautiful!
November:  Had Thanksgiving with the family. Started Christmas shopping.  Lena and Jacob got engaged! They were at Soldier Field in Chicago for the Bear's/Texan's game.  Jake did the honorable thing and had dinner with Byron a week before he "popped the question" to be sure he had our blessings.  We gladly gave our permission and cannot wait to add Jacob to our little family!  As you can tell they are huge bears fans as he even had "Da Bears" inscribed inside her engagement ring!  And let me tell you...what a ring it is!  Custom built, a one of a kind...just like she is!

December: Christmas...had both my kiddo's home and was blessed beyond belief!
Now you are all caught up.  Let's proceed with 2013 and hope like heck I will diligently keep my blog up to date!

January 2013: We took a quick trip to Evansville on the 7th and 8th to celebrate Ashley Marie Klueg's 25th birthday!  25?  How on earth did that happen?  We are so extremely proud of her.  She is a work-a-holic, and I have no idea where that comes from?  She and Tony have succeeded in making their house a home. They are gracious enough to let Lena live with them for 1 more semester until she graduates from USI.  Speaking of graduation, it is May 4th and I have already booked a cabin for us a Burdette Park!  I absolutely cannot wait to watch her walk down that aisle and get that diploma! A 4 year degree in 4 years, nearly unheard of these days!  She has worked her tail off and we are just a LOT proud of her!   As for walking down the aisle in September, I will probably not be quiet as anxious, she is my BABY after all.  Yes, we are planning a wedding for September 21, 2013 on hole one of the Tippecanoe Country Club with a reception (or party, as she likes to call it) at the club house.  It will be a stunning day I am sure, one full of emotions both joyful and yet a bit sad...I know that she has made the right choice and that God will lead Lena and Jacob into the life he has planned for them.   Believe that brings us up to date for now.  I am hoping to make my blogging day Wednesday of the week so if you don't see a new blog this Wednesday please send me a message and tell me to get in gear!  Love you all!
Be Blessed!