ANNIVERSARIES

25th anniversaray, July 23 1991
Medora, North Dakota

Tuesday, July 23 marked forty-seven years since our wedding day in 1966.  I wanted this day to be special, as it still is even without Howard to share it.  So I invited neighbours to come for supper and enjoyed the evening together with Jeff and Clare.  After supper we visited out on the deck.  It was a perfect evening - still, and better yet, no mosquitos or bugs to bother us.  The kittens came up to get some extra attention.  When the air started getting on the cool side we went inside for fruit pizza with a cup of tea. I had several phone calls from those who also remembered that it was a special day for me.  Thank you!

July 23, 1966
Clinton Pederson, Dave Bergum, Howard, Elaine, Mervin and Alan Erickson
Sandra (Erickson) Sanford, Wendy (Anderson) Patzer, Gary Erickson, Ardis Johnson
Wendy, our flower girl has several grandchildren!
Gary, our ring bearer is now 50.
Howard and Clinton have both passed away

I was thinking back to the last anniversary that Howard and I spent together, July 23, 2011.  Shauna made a delicious rhubarb cake and brought it to St. Joseph's.  Friends from Estevan as well as Aunt Viola joined us for anniversary cake and coffee.  Little did we know that it would be our last anniversary together.  Thanks, Shauna, for making that day so special for us.  It's a reminder to treasure each anniversary, birthday, or even each day as a gift.  We never know when the last one will be.

On our 25th anniversary friends and family joined us on the Sunday afternoon for coffee and goodies at the farm.  On the actual day we went to Medora, ND and enjoyed the musical there.

Our 25th, July 1991

Our family gathered at the Swantz cabin near Glacier National Park for our 40th anniversary celebration.  On the way home, we spent the 23rd at morning worship service at Bethel Lutheran, Frontier where we were married in 1966.

Clebrating our 40th at Lake Five, Montana
July 2006

July 23, 2006

July 23rd was also my parent's anniversary as we were married on their 25th anniversary.  They celebrated forty-three anniversaries before Mom's passing in 1984.  I am thankful for the forty-five years that Howard and I had together.  He lives on in my heart, in memories and in our precious family - our daughter, three sons, three grandsons, and five granddaughters.  "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow."

 I went to Crosby on Tuesday afternoon and came home with ten cases of peaches. At $16.99 for a 17 pound case, it works out to just over a dollar a pound with exchange on our Canadian money. Those then cases aren't all for me though!  I usually can a case for Laurel's and Clare's and they each buy a case to eat too.  Shauna does her own canning and her mom gets a case too.  The fruit is quite green so it will be a week or so before they are ready.  The fellow who took my cases out to the Escape for me said one fellow, a Canadian, bought twenty cases so I wasn't the biggest buyer that day. It brought extra business to the custom officers too!

So life goes on for me.  I am content to live here at the farm that has been my home for forty-seven years.  I plan to stay here as long as my health permits.  I am thankful for good friends and neighbours, a caring church family at Trinity and my wonderful children and grandchildren as well as extended family members who love and support me.  I am blessed and pray that I can use my days to be a blessing to others as well.  With God to guide me, I am not alone and have a "peace that passes understanding."