Sisters stand up for each other.

A note I wrote to my sister when she was having a tough day:

Your instructions for today...

Remember that time at church when your puppet, Bernard, and Annaliese, as a little girl, sang, "You're special. God made you that way?" Hum or sing that tune ALL day for yourself.

You are on a DIFFERENT plane than others.

You are walking on a clear plane of glass, and down below you see hypocrites, morons and the common low class mentality of people. You are genuinely first class: loving, caring, watching out for others.

Hug yourself several times and say this, "God, family and myself LOVE me. AND many, many people love you for who you are. Focus on them.

You do not need approval from short sighted mediocre, self serving nefarious fellow humans. You have God's blessings. That's all. "You're one of a kind", sister of mine.

You are worth your weight in solid gold.

I have more gold than you. :-)

Always loving my sister,

Charlene

This is an imperfect world.

In Heaven, you'll be treated like a saint (because you will be a saint.) So duke it out while you are down here. God has your soul safe and sound; I have your back.

SISTERS!

Old Glory, how long will we have her?

I was thinking how this courageous flag has fought for my rights. Throughout its history, our flag has been engaged in battles to keep us free from the very censorship that is threatening us now. Understanding that this nation holds out a welcoming hand to all does not translate eradicating "In God We Trust" from our coins or in our pledge, "One Nation under God", our allegiance to this flag. Why are we so fearful to step on some adversarial toes who wish to down trod the virtues of our American flag?

One of our rights is the freedom of speech. Albeit verbal complaints are allowed,as it should be allowed, but this "allowance" should not dictate changing our basic American principles for these few dissidents! The foundation to our Christian nation has begun crumbling. Are we not aware?

Consider the Americans who currently live in China, do they demand Buddha statues to be removed from their presence? In Saudi Arabia, a cousin of mine who lived there for a few years, was restricted driving a car, and she was expected to follow Saudi Arabia's dress code. She did not raise her hand to challenge its culture. But look at us! What has happened? Is our nation becoming a wuss?

We are not a barbaric nation because America's governing guidelines and our principles were based on the ten commandments. The Ten Commandments should have its rightful place in our courts anywhere. What our founding fathers have created, let us not alter, for it is that creation that has made this nation grand. If we stand firm, no "Hitler to be" can harm us. No confusion of what we are can erupt or corrupt us. To all and to one, do not mess with this nation's foundation. We are a Christian nation first and foremost. For the sake of our children's children, for all creeds and all nationalities to prosper in this beloved country, our respect, our loyalty, to old Glory's heritage will keep her flying forever until the end of time.

The Sequel from sinking the fishingboat to the next project: DAD DOO II, our ski boat :-)

I love our family. We can never, ever make life simple. There is nothing out there that I can recall that we were able to perform a simple transaction or function in our daily activities.


But we try.

I'll give you an example: Memorial Day Week-end, May 2009

Goal: To take the boat to the water and go boating.....a simple transaction...


It started well. Thursday, Ruedi and I removed our crusty, algae ridden boat out of storage to the car wash. After three hours of labor,we restored our 1996 Chris Craft back to her old glory days. In other words, we got the algae off. With permission from Ed and Joan, we parked Dad Doo II on the vacant lot next to our neighbors' home. We removed the plug for all the water to drain from the car wash.


Friday, Ruedi drove on a one day bus trip, and Diana, my sister, drove up from Memphis. Robin was at a state Special Olympics event in Searcy, AR. So far, simple transactions... then...


Saturday was delivery day, the day we headed out to the lake with our sparkling boat. The sun was out; the day was good. We drove down to George's Cove to launch the boat, a very short distance from our home. Ruedi backed the boat trailer into the water. I, the first mate, was already on board, and our second mate, Diana, climbed into the boat from the water while Ruedi parked Daisy Mae and the trailer.


A somewhat submerged dock was at George's Cove. Ruedi, not wanting to go into the cold water with tennis shoes and keys, managed to get on this dock for his pick up.

He forgot. First mate has never driven a boat to park at a dock. Second mate knows less than the first mate. I was ready to give it a try. I was anxious anyway. Dad Doo was acting sluggish and was sitting down into the water. We needed our captain.


I putt putt over to the semi submerged dock and right pass the Captain. He told me to go around and try again, and being a good first mate, I said, "YES, SIR", and gunned the boat for a second try. I killed the boat. It's beginning to sit even lower in the water, and the engine wouldn't turned over. I yelled to the Captain to swim over, but I was a fairly good distance away, and he said no. The second mate was waving to another boat in the lake for 911 assistance. Meanwhile I'm pushing buttons and inadvertently turned on the bilger pump that drains the water out of the engine compartment. Just as the good Samaritan rescue boat came closer, I was able to restart Dad Doo, and we waved to them good-bye. (This was after they got off their tubes where they were sunbathing, climbed into their boat, hauled up their tubes, secured their tubes, to start their boat, to come rescue us.)

Back to the Captain at a putt putt best speed, close enough that Ruedi could perform a Navy Seal maneuver to land inside the boat. (Don't let a real Navy Seal read this.) We had our captain!


Ah, the captain is remembering Dad Doo unexpectedly acting strangely the previous summer when he, Andrew, his son-in-law, and Bret, his future son-in-law, had gone evening fishing. It had taken them hours to return to the dock. Yep, Ruedi's memory flooded back.

Putting close to shore so that the captain with the tennis shoes could vacate his ship, the first mate and second mate, both in water, helped reload Dad Doo onto the trailer. The day and the evening passed on Memorial Day Saturday without our boating. Ah, But, Hey, there was SUNDAY!

Ruedi repaired the problem. An unattached hose to the engine was reattached. Tomorrow, Sunday, would be smooth sailing. We're ready to go! Because there was so much water in the engine compartment, Ruedi removed the plug placing it on the trailer. We waited for Sunday.


Sunday arrived and with its arrival came the rain. It rained and rained and rained. 4:00 PM the rain stopped and out the door we ran. Dad Doo, Dad Doo we're coming! Robin had returned from the state special Olympics, and she was with us to celebrate the first boating of the season.


Looking at the weather it showed signs the rain would be returning; we determined to make use of its temporary halt. Robin, Diana and I in the boat and Ruedi pushing Daisy Mae down to George's Cove fast and furiously. What could go wrong with this simple transaction?


THE PLUG sitting on the trailer bouncing where ever AND no where to be found....The day and evening passed on Memorial Day Sunday without our boating. Monday arrived. Ruedi left for his 6 day trip; Diana returned to Memphis. Robin is at her apartment, and I'm sitting at the computer pondering about that plug. It's a simple piece of equipment that keeps the boat afloat, but, you see, it belongs to a boat owned by the Imholzes. Enough said.

Next year on Memorial Day Week-end....BOATING for sure........or is that a maybe? :-)

It's God's rain; today is the day to remember the bravery and the sacrifice of our soldiers and the first mate's courage on Dad Doo II.

A Rainy Day @ Mountain Home, AR

A damaged branch hanging from a tree due to an earlier ice storm came crashing down on our steep, narrow driveway. Our neighbors on top of the hill, who know and see all, gave us a call. Since Ruedi leaves tomorrow morning in the wee morning hours, we were grateful our neighbors gave us a holler. We enjoyed seeing a beautiful rainbow later. It reminds us of God's promise.

The beautiful engagement ring and whom it belongs to

Whose ring???

Elegant

Exquisite

That ring belongs to my baby daughter, Annaliese Mae Imholz.
Bret proposed to Annaliese on December 20, 2008. We knew Bret was going to ask Annaliese since July, 2008. I had to keep my mouth zipped. Do you know that was a challenge?
Obviously, Bret has superb taste.

And, obviously, so does Annaliese. We LOVE Bret; he has horses. :-)
They plan to marry September 19, 2009, in Florida. That doesn't give me much time to diet. BUT the focus won't be on me. And when I get emotional, anxious, happy, I'll be by the wedding cake.... just in case.

The ICE STORM January 27, 2009

So many times before I have heard bad weather is coming in from Oklahoma. It would turn out to be spit. I believed we were going to get some winter weather, so I was thinking spit and a half. I dutifully went to the grocery store, as did the 11,000 citizens of Mountain Home, AR.

Robin is staying with us temporarily until she moves into her apartment February 12. Ruedi is on a bus assignment down in Florida for a few weeks.

As the weather approached, I felt confident that Robin and I would stay comfortable in our Swiss Hideaway. Our driveway is steep and narrow and tends to become quite icy, so we parked Daisy Mae, our suburban, up on top of the driveway.

The ice storm arrived. Limbs broke off in abundance from the weight of the ice. We could hear the snapping of the trees. I had just finished cooking lunch when our power went out. Here's my mistake. The neighbors knew to fill their tubs with water in case there was an outage. I didn't. Everyone here has well water with electrical pumps. Although I had bought drinking water for Robin and me, it did not occur to me that there would be no water in the toilets, no water in the faucets, no water in the showers, no water.

That night Robin and I stayed nice and warm under many blankets in our respective beds. When we awoke in the morning. we could see our breaths, as we talked. The night before Robin and I enjoyed playing cards by candle light. Admittedly, it was not as much fun the next day. No way to cook the food I had bought, our food source was peanut butter and bread. My family all knows I am for adventure. I said to Robin let's go to our refugee camp: my sister's comfortable, warm, home with great tasting Memphis water and restaurants.

Walking up the driveway wasn't too bad; the snow was on top on the ice allowed us to walk up. Daisy Mae was a different matter. She had about one half inch of solid ice on her. It took neighbors with knives to cut through the ice on the door handles and another 45 minutes to melt enough ice to see out. The road was a toboggan run, sheer ice. I put Daisy Mae into gear. Earlier, neighbors of ours, attempting to escape, had driven up a rather steep hill only to slide back down into a ditch.

I told Robin to hang on; with accelerator pressed down, we gave it the old heave, hove.

Daisy Mae isn't Knight Rider, but she charged up the hill gallantly; we were up and over.

It took nine days for the power to be restored. Meanwhile, at the Refugee Camp, Diana and Robin and I struggled which movies we were going to see, which restaurant we were to pick for that evening. And the toilets worked, and the showers worked. What a great adventure...!