Watson Reunion

Today was an awesome day for me.  The whole weekend was awesome, but today was very awesome.  A couple of Sunday’s ago, I believe it was Father’s Day, but I could be wrong… Pastor Charlie Nelson, a former pastor at Grace, did the sermon.  It was called “What’s Your Legacy” or something along those lines.  I was thinking about it and wondering what mine was.  Looking back at that Sunday I think the devil totally blocked certain things in my head and make me wonder where I came from and who I was, in Christ and in my family.  Such hurtful feelings I had that day. 

Well, this morning God gently reminded me in so many strong ways, what my legacy is.  Part of our 4th of July celebration when the 4th falls on a weekend is to have our own church service as a family.  This is the first one that I have been to since becoming an adult, since it only happens every six or so years…  Anyways, today was one of those days.  As everyone started coming this morning I was packing up our tent and stuff from the day before.  Then I changed and headed to the garage where we had our service.  We started with a few songs, and as everyone found a seat I started to cry.  And spent most of the service in tears.  I stood up and went to the back and started counting… This is what I saw

What you can’t see in this picture is that there are 70+/- of my extended family in this picture.  There were a 105 people there yesterday, give or take a few, to enjoy the food and fun of the 4th.  Today the majority of the family came back to worship God!  There were a few missing that were celebrating the life of Nathan Junker in a service to honor God and share testimonies with everyone, and they did want to be with us, but thought it more important to spend this time mourning and rejoicing with the church family that just lost so much. 

There are 4 generations in these pictures.  I am going to try to get the story straight, and I know that I am going to mess something up, but I am going to try and someone can correct me (PLEASE) so that you guys can get a glimpse of MY LEGACY!!!  Martin Vall was a part-time farmer, part-time builder/construction worker.  I believe him and his wife had 6 children, none of whom were living for the Lord.  This weighed heavy on his heart and he would spend a good amount of time praying for his children and their salvation.  I think I have heard that he had a stall in the barn that was kept empty for his to pray in, but don’t know for sure…  Helen was one of his children, one of the older ones I believe.  She was teaching in the area.  There was a revival tent meeting that started in the town and the kids all went.  One of the brothers said he was so convicted that he wanted to run away, but my God is good and put up walls and he had to stay.  Everyone of the Vall kids and most of the children in the surrounding families were saved in those camp meeting.  Martin started praying for his children to marry Godly spouses, and to share the Message with their children and their children’s children and their children’s children’s children and so forth.  Martin Vall was my Great Grandma Helen’s father. 

Martin----->Helen------>Earl Douglas----->Stan------> Sharalee

I am part of (at least) the 5th generation of Christians in our family.  What an amazing God that I serve to be able to have this to hold up when I am attacked my satan.  I was prayed for before my grandfather was born!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  How cool is that. 

Here are a few more pictures that I took during the service…

  This is the baby in my grandpa’s family.  Sharing an experience that God shared with her. one of the newest members to the Watson family, Noah Benjamin Watson, I think he is number 183! Below is his Daddy praying of his son and the rest of the children in Noah’s generation.  Keeping the legacy going. Great Uncle Everett sharing the story that I shared with you earlier in the post.  Below is the Mark Watson Family, minus three of the older children. Ty sharing about how God can provide for us even in trying times.  He might not give us what we think we want but he gives us patience to get through it, faith to over come anything, and the knowledge that out God can do anything. This was our sanctuary this morning!  Our God is awesome!!! Aubrie checking out the guitar.  Uncle Mark sharing something.

 

After Everett shared his story, Ann (who is seen playing the piano in some of the pictures) said that she would like us to sing a song that goes right along with the history that Everett shared with us.  I took a video on my point and shoot camera and so I know it isn’t the best quality, but I wanted to share it with you.  You can hear a few other people singing with her, I had tears pouring down my face so I am not in there.  She said it was called Hosanna, and I don’t remember hearing it before…  Enjoy.

Watson 4th!!!

This is something that I look forward to each year!  My dad’s family gets together over the 4th for fun, food and family.  As many of the family that is able is there. 

This is the family that comes, or the starts of them!  Howard and Helen Watson are the parents in this photo and are my great-grandparents. (If I have this wrong someone tell me…)  TOP TO BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT:Earl Douglas (my grandpa), Howard, Janet, Helen, Helen(yes there were too Helen’s!), 2nd row: Lesley (Les), Stuart, Kenneth, bottom row: Morris (Morrie), Everett, Albert

Not everyone is able to come, and while we would love to see them all it would be WAAAAAYYYY over whelming!  I still don’t think I have meet most of the family.  Everett’s wife, Linda, has a list of everyone that is in our family, in the order they joined the family (birth or marriage or adoption…) and she said by next year we will be 189.  Howard and Helen are numbers 1 and 2…  I am going to try to get that list to have, but still fun to see each summer!  She also has a calendar with everyone’s birthday on it.  So I probably won’t be online for a while, spending the weekend out at Linda and Everett’s house on the lake!  Lots of fun for everyone.  Look for lots of pictures next week!!!

Not for the faint at heart… be warned.

A few weeks/months ago we bought some baby chickens.  Yesterday was time to say good bye to the ones that we bought for meat.  We bought fifteen of them, only eight survived the first few days.  So we brought our eight to my dad’s to add to their 70 +/-.  We showed up at 9ish and left a little before 3.  They had started before we got there, but when we were leaving they were done.  Here are a few pictures from our day.  Please be warned that there are pictures of dead chickens in this post.  Only look if that is ok with you!   This is how they “bleed” them out.  The buckets are nailed to a board and there is a whole in the bottom.  The neck comes out and then off… Normally they stay in the bucket, but every once in a while… 

Then from the bucket to the boiling water, then to the “plucker”  This is a motorized machine.  turn it on and it spins and takes the majority of the feathers off.T Most of the chickens weighed between 4 and 6 pounds.  They sell some of them for 3$ a pound, so if anyone is interested let me know… My baby brother hauling the chickens to the buckets. The kids were at my mom’s for a while, she brought them over on her way to Al Hermiston’s funeral.  I thought they would be grossed out, or something but they were very interested.  Nevaeh even carried one from the bucket to John!  Wyatte got a couple turns turning the plucker on and off.  Watching the chickens flop around in the bucket. Wyatte got to see what was going on when the machine was on.

Kirk, Dad, John and Mike cleaning chickens.  When the kids showed up I got cleaned up and quit helping.  Was too scary to have Aubrie running around.  She likes to put stuff in her mouth… gross.Wyatte checking out the turkeys.  Dad said last year when the butchered these guys they were around 50 pounds…  HUGE!!!

Update on my last prayer request.

This is a picture taken earlier this spring of Nathan and his family.  Samantha, daughters; Lauren, Alexandra, Journey; and son, Lincoln, and Nathan. 

Sunday late afternoon, they found Nathan Junker’s body in Pokegama Lake.  Here is an article that was in the Star Tribune about what happened to Nathan and the older man that he was on the lake with, whom also passed on. 

Star Tribune Article

Here is the article that was on WCCO about Sunday afternoon, and the resulting search. 

WCCO News Story and Video

Here is the article that was on WDIO about Sunday afternoon and the search.

WDIO News Story and Video

Some of you that read this have already heard about Nathan and Al, and know all of the stuff that you are reading and seeing in the above links.  Some of you might not care about the links above.  This post is mostly for me to remember what happened to bring our community back together again after losing another loved one. 

If you are out there and you feel for this man and his family they have opened a memorial fund for Samantha and their 4 children to help with expenses.  I am only sharing this to let you know that there is a way to help them if you feel lead.  Nathan was a youth pastor at a fairly small church.  That was their only income that we know of.  Now that Sam is left with 4 kids to care for and no husband, and no job to fall back against there are going to be lots of expenses.

Here is the link to the Nathan Junker Memorial Trust.

Also if you are going to be around Grand Rapids, Minnesota on Thursday night there is a Community Prayer Meeting to pray for the families of Nathan and Al, our community, our church family.  Please feel free to come.  It will be at the Alliance Church, which is pastored by Nathan’s father, Randy Junker; and will start at 6:30.

The funeral for Al Hermiston will be Friday, not sure of the time.  I think that it is going to be at the Assemblies of God.  If anyone wants to go to that let me know and I can get details to you.  I mi

Nathan’s visitation will be Friday from  5 – 8 at the Assemblies of God Church also.  His funeral will be Saturday at 10 AM at the church as well. 

Prayer Request

Just sharing some news that got passed on to me.  Nathan Junker is the Youth Pastor at Faith Baptist, he is the father to 3 or 4 young children (sorry I can’t remember for sure, if it is only 3 the 4th is due soon I believe…)  He was out on Pokegama Lake for a youth event for his church.  He went swimming and is now missing.  The divers were out looking for him tonight, but they have been called off until tomorrow morning.  Nathan’s father is the Pastor at another church here in town, the name of which escapes me right now. 

Please pray for him and his family and those searching for him. 

Some stuff down…

I have been getting ready for Nevaeh’s birthday party.  I finally have a date nailed down.  And because of that date and time I am planning some stuff for some older boys as well!  I think it is going to be great!  I am not too stressed out yet.  I do think I bit off more than I can chew at times, but over all it is going well.  I have two of the 7 skirts done…

I do know that there are three pictures there, but there is only one skirt!  I just wanted to give you a few different angles!  I got the idea for the skirt on this blog, with a few adaptions to suit me!  I used sparkly green and white tulle.  Two different thickness and color green ribbon.  And a ribbon waist instead of the elastic that she used.  I think they are going to be adorable on the girls!  I still need to figure out if I am going to make anything for the two little boys that are might come. 

 

The girls that come get to take this skirt home as one of the party favors!  I also dyed some tank-tops green and they will get to take them home too.  I am hoping they will put them on at the party and let me get a cute pic of them all together!  Other party favors for the girls include a tinkerbell chapstick, and a small purple clutch bag.  And a candy necklace/bracelet that they are going to make.  Tinkers like to build/make things, don’t you know!!! 

I have the invites done finally!  At the reminding of a reader (thanks erin) I “waterfalled” out our address and phone number, just in case!  So the bottom where it looks like a bar code is just for showing you guys purposes.  The real one says “the party will be at…” and “please RSVP to…”

This is the one for the girls that are getting invited.  I got the pic of Tinkerbell off the internet.  Then used Picnik.com to add the text and the green frame.  The envelopes each have the girls name on it (in a Walt Disney font of course!!!), surrounded by flowers.  There are three different colors of ribbon for the tops.

 

Same thing for this pictures, I “waterfalled” our number out…

This is the one for the boys.  Two of the main characters are Clank and Bobble, two of the funniest guys you will see in an animated movie I think!!!  I used green and blue ribbon on the boys, and printed their names out in the same font as the girls names, but don’t know if I am going to put an stickers around them or not.  I am going to have to look next time I am in Walmart…  I guess I am going to have to go tonight because I am passing them out tomorrow at church!!!

 

I finally figured out what I am going to do for the cake too!  A cousin (of some relation, sorry Mikki not totally sure how you are related) posted a pic on Facebook and I LOVED IT!!!  Does this not look like FUN!!! 

Here how she did it…

She used a red velvet cake recipe, with out adding the red.  Then separated the cake batter into 6 different bowls.  Using gel food coloring she tinted it.  Then “stacked” it into the cake pan.  I am going to try to do this, only in a round cake pan.  The cake I am going to try to make is going to look somewhat like this one.  (Go check it out.) Only I am hoping to have richer colors.  I was also having a hard time finding a cake topper.  We were just going to order a small cake from walmart and then eat that cake and use the topper on the cake that I was going to make.  Well wandering around walmart the other day, I found a totally perfect cake topper!!!  And you will never guess where I found it… 

(don’t pay any mind to the fact that my bed isn’t made! or that my sheets and quilt don’t match…) This wonderful figurine came off of a……wait for it……wait for it………wait for it……..wait for it……A BUBBLE BATH CANISTER!!!  For cheaper than what I could get the cake, or the topper in the store!  So I took it off the bubble bath right away, washed it well and it has been sitting in my birthday stuff pile since!!!  I am getting excited.

 

So I think this post is long enough, and there aren’t even any pics of the kids!!!  Oh well I had fun, hope you enjoyed reading this!!!

Finally!!!

This morning John couldn’t find his sunglasses and debit card.  He needed both because he was going mowing.  What he did find though was my CAMERA CHARGER!  What a relief.  Even though I did go ahead and order another battery and a charger off of ebay, and they showed up today too!!!  The wonders of modern life. 

Anyways, we had a lake date (like a play date only at the lake!!!) this morning, so I plugged the camera in and we were back in business!  Until I left it here and had to turn around to get it.  Good thing we were going to a lake a short distance from our house.  So here are a few pictures from our morning!

 Wyatte was the first one to jump off the dock!

I was able to put Aubrie in the floaty/ring and she stood there for a while.  As you can see she isn’t the happiest of kids but she did do it for a while!  She even took a couple of steps, until she lost her balance just a little and then she just wanted to be held.

 

nevaeh loving the water!  Such a smile on her face!!!

 

One of wyatte’s jumps!  I tried to get one of him in the air, but that is going to have to wait for our next swimming trip.

 

Neveah just lounging in the water.  So nice to have her comfortable in the water this year.  Last year she was pretty scared of it, especially if you weren’t holding on to her.  THis year, now that Aubrie likes is still able to force into the water, it is nice to only have to have one hanging on you!

My chicken kids as we went for our water walk!

Wyatte looking with interest as we walked deeper and deeper and deeper farther and farther and farther, without the water getting any deeper!  Such as nice place to swim with small/young kids!

 

Nevaeh wanted to come with us for our water walk, but thought it was too deep for her.  Such a sad girl...

 

Wyatte and Sam filling up a squirty thing that miss Heidi got at a garage sale.  The kids loved it! 

 

Wyatte found a huge rock and this is the result of that rock!  I only let him throw drop it a couple of times!!!

 

Nevaeh playing with one of sam and seth’s boats.  she is finally getting brave enough to go in the water alone.  Most of the time she has her floaty (ring) on but not always!

 Her little butt was kinda hanging out of her swim suit and I couldn’t pass it up!  You can’t really see it in this picture, but…

 

Sam, seth, Wyatte and Nevaeh playing after they got done eating.  I think they were making a fire pit or something like that!

 

        Aubrie getting into our food!  Or maybe this was when she was putting it away!!!

Nevaeh and Aubrie enjoying some lunch after we swam for a while.

We decided that since our family, and now the Barton’s like this lake and landing soooooo much that we are going to share it with some of our other friends!  So hopefully someday in the future we will have more lake date pictures to show you all.  RIght now though I am going to enjoy the sun drying my clothes!  Have a great day

Alphabitty Moments, brought to you by the letter R

Head on over to 4 the love of family to see what Mama Bear and other did this week. 

This week was fun for me!  I know I have been remiss in doing these pages, but I am getting back in the swing of things.  Wyatte’s pages are first with “Rides”

The text says “1st: Wyatte and Nevaeh getting ready to go to the underwater adventure. 2nd: Wyatte and Nevaeh giving daddy a ride in the big rigs. 3rd: Going up in the big balloon ride 4th: Daddy pulling the stroller up the stairs to the ferris wheel because we couldn’t find the elevator! 5th: Wyatte and Nevaeh by a huge statue of a turtle at the end of the underwater adventure.

 

Aubrie is next.  Hers is pretty cute I think!!!

 

Nevaeh’s is pretty much the same as Wyatte’s I did switch one of the pictures in Nevaeh’s because she wasn’t in the one of Wyatte and John on the log ride!  So this is her first page, and her second page will be the same as Wyatte’s, the one with the five small pictures.