Its my mom's and daughter's fault!

I don’t really feel that I have too many issues from how I was raised. I have a fairly laid back family and we’re pretty close so I don’t spend my days sorting out things from growing up. Until this week.

We didn't travel a whole lot when I was growing up because we lived on a farm and it was hard to get away. But we did have a lot of company. Because of that I learned one thing from my mother that practically gives me panic attacks every time we have company. It’s this: Your house MUST be spic-and-span before company arrives.

I know why we always did it, and it is really nice to have a clean house for when company comes. I have been busy at work so I have sent myself into a mental frenzy for weeks trying to decide how I am going to get the house clean. I bring this up now because we are are expecting company in a few days for a whole week including my daughter and her family.

So will the house be clean, you ask? You bet! I have had my fair share of running around the house making lists of what I needed to clean before everyone arrives this weekend. Today I mowed the lawn, washed the outside windows, cleaned off the deck, finished planting my flowers AND I made sure I scrubbed the bathroom floor this time. All thanks to my daughter who comments every time she visits that my bathroom floor is dirty. Check it out Amy when you get here!

Birthdays!

Happy Birthday to my sister! Today she turned 53 and I have had the privilege of knowing her for almost 51 years. She is my best and closest friend. Since we have three older brothers we have had to stick up for one another through the years and have done that well.

I called her up this morning from work to wish her Happy Birthday but had to take another call. I was supposed to call her back and I didn't so I decided to wish her HB again on my blog.

Devonne - hope you had a good day. Love you.

By the way, your present is on the way!

Grandpa, Isabelle and Grandma

To Denise, Melissa, Sherry and Stephanie. The only four people who really read my blog. Here's to you. Enjoy!

Ankeny Family Reunion

This past weekend about 90 members of the Ankeny Family got together at Tilikim Center for Retreats in Newberg. My two cousins, my sister and I had been planning this family reunion for the past six months. We had a lot of fun conferencing about this reunion via phone and email. And we pulled it off. We all had a lot of fun. Family members from a year and a half to 80+ were in attendance. The reunion was purposely planned to have plenty of free time a long with bits of scheduled activities to bring everyone altogether.

We played an Ankeny Family Bingo game that was the first night's mixer. It was great because we found out a few things about each other that we didn't know. Then the next night we had our talent night. It ranged from the 16 month old attempting to play his piano piece to a french horn solo, saxophone solo, a poem recitation, a trio singing a song and "MR. Magic". We had a great night. There was a lot of talking, laughing, crying, eating, hanging out, playing games and just being together. Probably the best part was our worship time on Sunday morning where family members shared how God is working in their lives. We prayed for a cousin who is dealing with cancer, young adults spreading their wings, people who have been ill and general health and safety of our families. God is good!

Milestone

I turned 50 on July 11. But, on July 7th my family, husband, children and sister planned a surprise birthday party for me. Since we work at a camp our summer schedule is horrible at times. So the best time to throw me a party was on a Saturday between two camp sessions. And surprise me they did! Wow. I was blown away. On Saturday am the 7th Michael, Melissa, Joseph Thouvenel and Leslie Murray (Tween Camp Director) and myself went to coffee shop to have a "meeting' about Tween Camp registration. While at the coffee shop in Garibaldi I thought I saw my brother-in-law Ken drive through town. Every one was wondering what I was doing as I ran out the door to see where he went, but I couldn't find him. Then Michael's cell phone alarm or ring kept going off and all he did was just stop it. Then they decided to go to the marina in Garibaldi to see a big conference room to "maybe" have a camp staff celebration there. I was taken to a room upstairs with about 60 people waiting for us. I was blown away. I had absolutely no idea that they were throwing me a party.

The best part was that my daughter Amy had flown in from Colorado to be here and then she said she was staying for three weeks so she could help at Tween Camp, hang out with us and be here for our Ankeny Family Reunion that we just had this past weekend. What a wonderful 50th Birthday party!

The kids gave me a beautiful mother's ring as their present to me. I was totally thrilled and feel SO blessed to have wonderful children. It was also touching to have so many close friends, relatives and camp staff be at the party that I was speechless. Me, Bev speechless. Yes, it did happen.

For all of you who planned the party and for everyone who attended, THANKS. I feel so blessed to be loved by so many wonderful people. All of you have made my life rich.

Vacations!

Sometimes I think it is harder to get ready for a vacation rather than actually going on vacation. I am in Colorado Springs spending a week with my daughter. Her husband is on a business trip to New Mexico so it is a perfect time for us to have a girls week. It seemed like I had a million and one things to do at work in order for me to leave. There are so many details that I oversee in my position that sometimes I overlook something. So I called the camp several times this morning to have camp folk do a few things for me in order to be ready for our guests this week.

So, I am here in Colorado Springs. It's cold but the sun is shining. Amy has our week planned. We plan on shopping for a dress to wear for Nick and Lindsay's wedding; go to Archivers to make a picture frame and drool over all of the fun things they have there; watch "Charlotte's Web' at the matinee; shop some more; and probably stop at Starbucks a few times. Since Amy works at a Starbucks I imagine we will stop by there several times.

I plan on taking naps during the day, reading a couple of books I brought and go through a bunch of receipts so we can get our taxes done. (That last part I don't look forward to but I have to get it done.)

I just read my friend Sherry's post about her trip with her "girls" to Seattle. I look forward soon to be able to do the same thing with my "girls", Amy, my daughter-in-law Melissa and my soon to be daughter-in-law Lindsay.

Lindsay's engagement ring story: When we found out that Nick was thinking about asking Lindsay to marry him I decided to let him know that I have my mom's wedding ring. If he wanted to look at it and give it to Lindsay for her ring I would give it to him. He looked at it and thought it was great, but we decided there was a few little things that could be "updated" on the ring. After all the ring is 64 years old.

So, Nick took it to Wayne's cousin who is a jeweler. They talked through what they could do with it, made a few changes, cleaned it up, reinforced it, sized it and it was ready to go. We took a picture of the before so we could see the difference. Wow, I wish I had the pictures here in Colorado to post, but it looks great. We saw the ring on Sunday and it looks beautiful. It still has quite a bit of the original ring design but with a modern twist. I told Nick and Lindsay that Grandma Ankeny would be pleased. I just about cried.

Milestones

Milestone #1 - We are nearing another milestone in our lives, that is my husband and me. Our son, Nick is engaged to be married to Lindsay Jacobs on May 20. He is our last child to be married and we are thrilled. It is very comforting when your children find wonderful lifetime mates. We feel blessed.

Milestone #2 - 50! I will be turning 50 this summer.

Milestone #3 - Wills! Drafting a will that is. We did that when our children were babies but haven't looked at it since. So, the camp had a representative through the NWYM to come out here to talk with us about estate planning. We made up a new will.

Milestone #4 - We are selling our Newberg house. Our renters recently moved out so we decided it was time for us to sell the home we bought before we came out to the camp and move on to something else.

We all move through these type of milestones in our life. We also have a choice as to how we move through these milestones, with gusto or dreading it. I am in the middle, between gusto and dreading. I'm leading toward gusto!