Our Granddaughter

 Well, Miss Elenna totally enjoys the midwest, country life, and

helping with the chickens.

So funny!

Basketball Camp 2022

 This is the second year Isaac and Joshua attended Basketball Camp, sponsored by

Concordia College.  They had a great time, and did skills, drills, and played games

from 8:30 - 4:30 for three days in a row for the middle and high school kids.

Elementary boys were there only for the morning.

Bonus for the hungry boys - they had great meals provided by the college cafeteria!

Over 300 hundred young men came from eight states this year!

I took these photos when we came to pick them up on the last day.

What a GREAT time!

A New Playset for the Grandchildren!

 When my parents blessed us in any area, my dad always told us, 

"Just do the same when it's your turn." 

 Joe's dad bought a swing set for our young family in those early years, 

which was a huge blessing for us.

So, here we are.  Rachel and David were really wanting a swing set/playset for

their children to play on, but wow......the prices are much higher than they used to be!

So Joe and I followed my dad's advice, and purchased a set for them to enjoy.

I distinctly remember a time when my parents were up visiting from Florida and Joe's

dad came over to help in getting the swing set up for Courtney and Rachel. 

So fun to go down memory lane!  Missing these two grandpas so much!  💖

So here we are, 28 years later................. David and some friends had already

gotten most of this up, but Isaac and Joshua were a big help in getting

the roof on.

FOUR boxes of screws and bolts of varying sizes.

Nathan certainly has been enjoying the slide!

What's left to assemble is the swing set, the tunnel slide and fireman's pole. But there

is enough put together now for them to have fun playing on it.

On a different note, Rachel prepared a delicious lunch for all of us with lettuce

and spinach from their garden!  Delicious!

And little Miss Kinsley?  Well, after her nap, she was on the hunt for Goldfish!

Work on the Man Cave

 We have a second driveway into our very large outbuilding, fondly known as

the Man Cave, or just simply the Cave.

We had the drive widened over the culvert area and it was very

interesting to watch!

More gravel was added.....

The backhoe put back the very large boulders, but Isaac and Joshua

helped relocate the smaller rocks to fill in.

Then, several weeks later, we finally had the outbuilding painted to match

the house!  It was a horrible shade of "smashed peas" color, and it now looks

so much better!  YEAH!!

This looks so much better!

Memorial Day 2022

 Joe's dad passed away in 2000 and is buried in a small, country cemetery in

Cedar Bluffs, Nebraska.  It's very small and surrounded by cornfields. 

We counted 39 "Krause" headstones there.  We made a trip up there on a lovely 

Sunday afternoon. Nobody else was there and it was very peaceful. 

Jonathan, at age six, made the small metal cross......and it's still there!

There's a Joseph and Anna Kraus already buried there, and I always seek out

their grave stones when we go visit.

Our family tradition is also to go by the high school football field where

Joe's dad played many years ago.

They have a WW 2 tank on display, which ALL of our children have had

fun climbing on over the years!

Joe's maternal grandparents are buried in the small town of Wymore, where

his mom grew up.  There are many Boettchers throughout that small

cemetery.  We have purchased a plot for his mom's ashes, right next to her grandparents

and parents.

Life is fleeting and death comes to everyone.  That becomes very apparent

when you walk through a cemetery.

Psalm 90:10

The days of our lives are seventy years;

And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,

Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow;

For it is soon cut off and we fly away.