I'M BACK!!, says Grandma G....

Hello Loyal fans of Grandma G, and new friends who click in to see what I am all about!

I woke up this morning snuggled in a warm bed and didn't want to get up.  Then I thought of the handful of ladies who faithfully attend water exercises even when I don't, and I inwardly smiled with gratitude for my circle of friends.  I got out of bed and on to water aerobics where 3 ladies were defying the years and getting on with life. I was happy in my spirit again.  

I have been in a slump since late September.  That is a polite way of saying that I have given into LAZY.   It has been easy to listen to negative, troubled thoughts and feelings. This has been a strange, difficult year for me.  Even at the start of the year there was something warning that 2018 was "off track", an uphill climb, an opposing wind, a struggling rock climb.   Now with the year almost over I can look back and declare, it has, indeed, been an off year, but also one of great strides forward in life! 

For now, let me be kind to myself and say that I have needed this time to rest, to heal, to refocus, to get back into energetic life.  I want to enjoy this last month of 2018 and leap into preparing for Christmas, a celebration of light and life!

    The challenge that has faced me (literally) since  September 18 is recovering from a fall onto my face (face dive) onto the blacktop in front of my home. I tripped over the in-ground sprinkler.
     Five days later I attended the wedding of my son at a southern California mountain resort.  I decided to adorn the "mountain raccoon" look....

   

 I am about 90% recovered but a few problems remain to clear up.



Enjoy a photo recap of the autumn season......

Raccoon!!

Bill and Amanda's beautiful mountain wedding... 










Flying with family from San Diego to northern Wisconsin for Louie's celebration of life....3 days after the wedding.

GeoLou family at his service..Sept. 29









Fall colors back home in the PNW....geese returning to the local wet lands

Excursion on the Willamette River...boat houses..









Church Family Fun night....Frodo came to visit Curly....

 Thanksgiving Time....

4 generations....Great Gram G,Grandma Deb, Daddy Zach, Rosie

This has been a good "many recovery" days in the life of Grandma G.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?--No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."  (Romans 8: 35 & 37)

RIP, BIG LOU.....

                                                                                      

On Sept. 5, 2018, at age 80, "Big Lou" passed from this earth.

He was my husband of 47 years and significant other for 54 years.   

We met when I was 18 and he 26, though I thought he was in early 20's.  We married 2 years later.  Within 10 &1/2 years we had our family of 5 boys and 2 girls.


Debbie,Burt, Angie, Gerry, Lou, Chuck, Al, Georgia, baby Bill. 1977

35 years later at the Grand Canyon

A little Louie                                               Athlete Louie

 Winter Firewood Lou and neighbor. Walter....
Sheet metal man Lou....

   

  American Gothic Lou and Wife.....visiting Alaska...













Schmidt Men and baby Gemma at the San Diego coast

Open heart surgery 2014 to replace a valve and 4 by-passes

Recovery outing with the grandkids in central Wisconsin

Lou's last Big Adventure...
Jan-March 2015
Plane trip to Vancouver, WA
to visit with me, the Millers and the PNW

Shortly after returning home to Park Falls, WI, Lou became bedridden and tube fed for almost 3 years.  He was home where he wanted to be and greeted everyone with a cheerful, "I'm counting my blessings".  That is, when he wasn't pretending to be sleeping if he didn't want to visit.

Life with Lou was a mixture of blessing, fun, high energy, stress and trauma.  He struggled with alcohol and all that entails.  He loved me and our children, though he didn't always know how to express that. 

I am grateful for the good parts of our life experience, grew to understand the illness that haunted his life, and have concluded we did in the midst of it all, have a love story.  
____________________________ 

Lou always wanted to be included in family events even when all he could do was to "look forward" to them and not actually be there.  He did, however, make it to the last family event 
one week before his own.  

Sept. 22....Bill and Amanda's wedding at a California mountain resort

All the Schmidts were there, even Lou in his traveling sheet metal container.....


                                                                   

Family at Lou's celebration of 
life in Park Falls, WI  Sept. 29
Sheet metal urn, custom made by son, Al....




GeoLou Schmidt progeny minus 9 members....

Scene along the Flambeau River in northern Wisconsin the evening before Lou's service....
Rest in peace, Big Lou!  We look forward to meeting with you again in heavenly eternity.....




















This has been a sad, good 35 days in the life of Grandma G.

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love."  
(1 Corinthians 13:13)