Tag Archives: family

Happy Birthday, Jovan Marie!

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Jovan is turning 23!

Happy Birthday, sweet girl and amazing mommy.  Happy Birthday to the one daughter God gave me who was not a moment of work for me: just a gift!  Happy Birthday to the wife of my son’s youth, the daughter-in-law, who like Naomi’s daughter-in-law, Ruth in the Bible, is better to me than seven more sons could ever have been.  I am blessed among women.  I am blessed that you are mine by the choice my son made.

I am so pleased with you, Jovan, so proud of the young woman you are becoming.  I know God chose you from way back when for Rocky.  And though I did not give you birth, you are my beloved daughter.  I thank God for you and I am so glad He chose you for our family.  I love that you say you wanted to marry Rocky since you were 14.  I love that the long, winding road of life brought that to pass.  I love that the two have you have brought us Averi and soon her sibling.  You are a life-giver in our midst!

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In thinking about your birthday, I got to remembering that about 23 years ago I was asked to join this sweet group of people (the band, Parousia) as a vocalist.  They played at Catholic masses, community events and on college campuses around Nebraska.  The the first song I did with them was by Wayne Watson and it got a lot of play.  Rocky was just a little guy at the time.  He was climbing walls and sliding down banisters and making life exciting.  And I was asked to sing this song frequently and I think the reason it was very well received was because when I’d sing it, I would purpose singing it over my own children and it was a prayer of my heart.  So, in a way, before I ever knew you existed, I was singing this song over you, too:

Somewhere in the world today
A little girl is going out to play
She’s all dressed up in mama’s clothes
At least the way that I suppose it goes
Somewhere in the world tonight
Before she reaches to turn out the light
She’ll be praying from a tender heart
A simple prayer that’s a work of art

And I don’t even know her name
But I’m praying for her just the same
That the Lord will write His name upon her heart
Cause somewhere in the course of this life
A little boy will need a godly wife
So hold on to Jesus, baby, wherever you are

And often I’d change the words the last time through:

Cause somewhere in the course of his life
My little boy will need a godly wife
So hold on to Jesus, baby, wherever you are

And Jovanie?  I know for sure that God heard that prayer and began even then to prepare you for our family, to get you ready to be one of us.  You were born to be a Rhoades, sweet girl, my daughter and my friend.  And I love you so much.

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Jovan loves her sweets…and so does her daughter and her nieces and nephews (the five little monkeys)!

Twenty-three wishes for Jovan on her 23rd Birthday:

  1. Look at the sun shining today!  It is for your birthday. It is so you can have a happy, happy day!
  2. I wish for you to have a great pregnancy all the way until baby-number-two is born.  I hope these months will be full of fun and laughter and anticipation and your memories warm and happy of these days.  You are so cute pregnant, girl!
  3. Enjoy crazy-romantic-love with your man.  These are baby-days and busy-days, but keep the fires burning.  May Rocky love you like a real man should and may you receive it with unabashed joy!
  4. I wish for lots and lots of happy mommy-daughter times with Averi…Gilmore Girls reruns and Cinderella watching!
  5. Jovanie, I pray for you to know Jesus in a closer way than you ever have.
  6. Let this year be a year of discovery: finding out who God really created you to be and what He has really called you to.
  7. I am wishing for a gazillion kids, but no multiple births, as you wish.  But you guys make beautiful babies!
  8. May God enlrage your heart with an even greater capacity to love and be loved.
  9. I am praying for deep relationships for you.  I am praying the connections and relationships you have, both friendships and family, will develop and grow and be life-giving and true.  And I pray God sends you many new friends and puts people in your path both to bless and be blessed by.
  10. I wish sweet times of scrapbooking for you.  Those will be hard to come by right now, but I am going to wish for suprise pockets of time for it, anyway.  I know you love it.
  11. My wish for you is to find your own beat and to be unapologetic about marching to it.
  12. Jovan, I hope you will understand that you were called to us and will never be afraid to change us and impact us.  That is why you’re here!
  13. I am believeing God for financial blessing.  They always say you can’t get rich in ministry, but the Lord is your Provider and you guys are rich, but I pray for sufficient funds for planning for the future and raising your family.
  14. I want you to get the house you want, too!
  15. May your creativity continue to blossom and sprinkle color and light and life on everything you touch as you create home and memories for your little family.
  16. I wish for those traveling adventures that you and Rocky love so much to happen a lot over the next year.
  17. I also wish for special days, holidays, holy days and romantic nights to be festive and memorable.
  18. I pray you’ll find the ministry you were born to do and that the ministry things you and Rocky were created to do together will be fulfilling and sweet.
  19. Girl, let me hang with your babies so you can go out without a diaper bag sometimes!  Shop.  Or whatever you want.  I love Averi!  Can’t wait for the new little bundle!
  20. Happy Birthday, Jovanie.  May there be great and growing  joy-of-the-Lord in your heart.  It will be your strength!
  21. I am wishing for long nights of sleep, and happy days of rejuvenating living for you.
  22. I am praying for the enemy to have to flee as the perfect love of the Lord drives out all fear and trepidation in your life.  You are strong, Jovanie, in the Lord.   Don’t be afraid.
  23. And? May heaven hear and answer your prayers as you call out to the God who loves you greatly.  You have His ear, my sweet.  He is attentive to your heart’s cries.

Happy, Happy Birthday, Jovan.  You know I love you, right?…Mom (Jeanie)

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Chicken and dumplings at Jovan’s family party, her request.  Stef and Gemma, 2 pinkies in the pink and white decor; the pumpkin spice cake with 23 candles.

NOTE TO SELF:  Me.  Jovan.  Creating our legacy books with scissors-in-hand, tape and glue and piles and piles of photographs.

About the party from Facebook:

Tara Powers Status Update:  Truth or Dare for Jio’s bday tonight [using Rocky’s I-Pod Touch]. Outcome=Rocky tasting soap, Dessa talking for 3 minutes straight, Steph trying to tell each person one good and one bad thing about themselves {editor’s note: she kinda chickened out – it was her great chance in life to really get us all and she couldn’t do it!}, Tristan speaking with an Italian accent, Jovan describing her first kiss with Rocky, Stormie wearing items from everyone, Mom acting out… Lion King, Me NOT sitting on Rocky’s lap, and Dave telling everyone who he would marry in the room..ME=)

Stephanie Rhoades Kelley: You forgot the best part – when Tristan HAD to kiss me – thank you Lord that I was sitting on his right and not someone else!  *smile…

Scenes from a Good Summer or “Reunited and it Feels So Good”

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Ode to the Family of my Summer, for I shan’t and mustn’t acknowledge an autumn which does not truly begin until the September (or Autumnal) Equinox, on the 22nd day of this month ~ yes, just a couple of days from now, but still.  Despite the fact that my sweet daughters, Stephanie first and then Stormie, have brought me a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks each (how sweet are they??),  I won’t purchase my first until it is truly autumn.  I must sing of my love for the summer until the last verse fades softly…
 
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Ross and Norma with grandkids and great-grandkids
  
 
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Dad and the brothers visit

Press close, bare-bosomed Night! Press close, magnetic,
nourishing Night!
Night of south winds!  Night of the large, few stars!
Still, nodding Night!  Mad, naked, Summer Night!
~Walt Whitman

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 Joe’s wife, Robin with my dad; hanging on “Moslander Mountain”

 

Ross the Boss, Mrs. Moss, and all the Little Landers (Jeanie, Joey, Timmy, Tami and Danny)…except Tim didn’t come this year, but the rest did – with their spouses and children.

It was a divine time, full of remembering and creating new memories.  Cousins kidded and cajoled.  Siblings sought to reconnect.  Dad told us where we came from and gave us insight for our futures.  Mom cheered us all on and hugged the stuffing out of us.  Love was in the air and in our hearts.
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Gerron, Jordan and Austin being dudes
  
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Tredessa, Grandma Moslandr and Uncle Joe

Sister-in-Law, Dawn.

Dawn and Dan Moslander of Hobart, Indiana

Dawn and Dan share family secrets

Just the other morning my sister-in-law, Dawn, whom I have known and loved since she was 14, emailed me these beautiful sentiments about The Moslander Family Reunion:
“I took you all in during our time spent together. Kinda like a wonderful meal!  I feel full, but want to take in some more. Good memories, but missing everyone.”

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Cousins Rocky and Corbin having fun at the Phipps farm

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Riding horses at the farm.

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Brothers telling fish stories, no doubt

So blessed.

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Me with little sister Tami and her husband, Gerron; Jordan and Rocky-best cousins forever!

I love my family.  I am so blessed by wonderful parents and amazing siblings who have married so well.  They have gifted me with extraordinary nephews and nieces.  And everytime we are together, all is right with the world.
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Aunt Tami with her nieces; Aunt Tami pulling me into silliness.

“In every conceiveable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.”  Alex Haley

 

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Mom and Dad. 

Whom I have also sometimes (with great affection) called “Mammogram” and “Pap Smear.”  Not sure how they feel about that!  This is the result of these two people. 

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All my love to family, both near and far, both born to us and joined by love. 

Related posts:

Previous posts about the Moslander family reunion:

The perfect game for us

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Seen on Stormie’s Facebook recently (kicked off by her sly sister, Stephanie):

Stephanie Rhoades Kelley Stephanie  Johnny Depp – nudist beach – showering – horny toad……………………………..crank calling 

Stormie Rhoades Stormie   hahahahahahahahahahaha. yeah. September 8 at 8:44am

 Pearl Fernandez Younger Pearl  Nudist beach, showering, horny toad? What are you girls watching?!??! hehehehhe September 8 at 9:15am

Stephanie Rhoades Kelley Stephanie  Hahaha – we were all playing Cranium Party Play Off the other night, and those were the 4 final parts – lots of laughing! : ) September 8 at 10:19am

Tredessa Rhoades Tredessa   Classic! That game was so fun. September 8 at 9:26pm

 

It’s Cranium Party Play-off (it really is not a vile game) and the way you WIN is by arguing!  Yes.  This is correct.  It is a game where you can argue your head off.  We are in heaven.

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Tristan’s “Big Night” (because he is turning 29)

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Happy Birthday, Tristan Kelley!

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pictured: The sign made by Steph and Stormie with a nod to The Office, naturally.

You are at that age – you know?  The one everyone claims to be when they don’t wanna be the age they really are?  So pretty much, for the next year, everyone will think you are lying about your age.  But you’re not.  Like McCaulay Culkin, you are actually 29.  Which puts into perspective for me the little boy you were so many years ago when we watched Home Alone with our kids, and Stephanie, in particular.

Family.

When you chose Stephanie, when you decided (which in retrospect seems uncharacteristically devilish of you) to pursue Stephanie in spite of a road-bump whose name I shall not bother to mention here, you got us all, the whole loud, crazy, undone and un-in-law-tested bunch of us, lock, stock and barrel.

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And we are grateful to your parents for the wonderful son they raised.  We thank God that you were nurtured and encouraged in a godly home, prepared and equipped to be the man you have become – a great husband to Steph and a true daddy to the bambinos.  Tell your mom and dad thank-you for me, will you?  Because they did really raise a courageous son, one who, in spite of the size and girth of the sum of us, is not only equal to the task, able to withstand our faults and failures and shortcomings as much as enjoy any good, but strengthens us as a family, bringing rich character and treasure to us.  Who could have known when you became one of us that one such humble young man’s presence in a family could change our course so drastically?  Tris, you brought  an increase of the favor of God upon us and I can’t remember life before you became our “son.”  We are blessed.

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pictured: he must have said something funny at the family party; a shot from the recent Kelley photo shoot taken by Tredessa; the apparent Rocky/Tristan “butt” shot…for their wives only, I am sure.

 

Food ~ The Glorious Timpano

As usual, we had your annually-requested-birthday fruit pizza (see recipe) instead of a cake (but I really am game to create free-standing drum set someday), which nearly drove several family members into a sugar coma.  And, much to Stormie’s delight, your celebration became an opportunity for her highly-sought-after Timpano ~ as made famous by the cinematically beautiful movie, Big Night, starring Tony Shalub and Stanley Tucci.  The movie is wonderful.  The food they prepare is inspiring.  Stormie’s version is delish!

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Frolic.

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What a silly family we are, sometimes, huh?  But what great times celebrating each other and just being with people who’ll love you to the end!

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Twenty-nine wishes for Tris on his 29th birthday.

  1. May the storehouse of good in you always be full to running over!  “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him…”  Matthew 12.35
  2. I wish for you to know the deep things of God and to increase in wisdom as He leads you.
  3. I hope you and Stephanie will always remain madly in love, and that your life’s pursuits will  keep you running into each other in happy, romantic collisions.
  4. I pray that the love you bestow upon your children will come back to you a hundred-fold.
  5. Long life!  And may it go well with you because you keep the 5th commandment to honor your parents.  Keep doing that.  You can’t go wrong. 
  6. God?  Bless Tristan.  Really bless him! 
  7. I wish you 50% off days at Mile-High Comics every Labor Day!
  8. I wish for your full talent as a musician to be recognized beyond your wildest dreams and that you be compensated duly.
  9. May you get all the best drumsticks and Zildjian cymbals you ever need.
  10. I wish for you to have good students: the kind who don’t waste your time and who will really learn from the treasure-trove of musical knowledge you possess.
  11. I pray that as you have dared2work at dare2share, you’ll  get credit in heaven for the harvest!
  12. Tris, I hope you will always be strengthened by knowing that you are so well loved by our whole family.
  13. The time you need with the people you love.  Thank-you for working so hard to provide for your family, for doing whatever it takes, but enjoy time that belongs to you, too.
  14. And that secret dream?  May the resources and location come to pass quickly by the divine hand of the Lord.  He is on the look out for you, I know it!
  15. Rest.  I wish rest for you.
  16. Peace.  I wish peace for you, too.
  17. And joy.  I wish an abundance of the joy of the Lord to be your strength.
  18. X-box 360 expertise.  As if you even need this wish – may you do reeeeeally well in X-box tourneys and beat everybody (except occasionally let Rocky have a victory since he is your “little brother”)!
  19. I hope you’ll…laugh (you thought I was gonna say “dance”, didn’t you?).
  20. I wish for your sense of humor to get even keener, if that is possible, so you can keep us laughing!
  21. Surprises.  I hope this year will be full of really good surprises for you.
  22. I wish increased relationship and bonding between you and all the siblings (the sister you were born to and her husband, and all the ones you have because of Stephanie).  Their lives are so enriched in the knowing of you.
  23. Cool t-shirts, the perfect jeans, great hair cuts and shoes that make your feet go “ahhh.”  You have your own style and I wish for it all come to you easily this year!
  24. Songs.  New songs.  Lots of them.
  25. Beats and rhythms only heard previously in the halls of heaven.  Bring ’em on, Tris!
  26. I wish lots of English toffee for you and other sweet sundries, which I guess can be made possible if I will only get busy.  Sometime between now and Christmas, maybe…
  27. I wish more kids for you, but apparently you are not going to receive that little present, but can’t you just see it?  Six or seven more little redheads running around??!  Wouldn’t the world be a more delightful and magical place???
  28. I am hoping for lots more conversations with you because I learn so much and am so moved by your insight and wisdom on so many different topics.  You are truly one of the smartest people I have ever known in my life.
  29. And finally?  I pray for God to bless you back, in the same kind and with the same measure with which you have loved us, shown respect to us, honored us and become a part of us.  And if He answers that prayer, and I know He will, you will be blessed – on your 29th birthday and always.  And I am believing for that! 

We love you, Tristan.  I hope you will always know how much.  Happy Birthday to you!…mom (and so honored to get to share that role just a tiny bit even though you already have a wonderful mama)

NOTE TO SELF:  Break out the toffee recipe because Tristan is worth it, even if it isn’t Christmas.

My Girls

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Pictured*:

Jovan, Stormie, Tara, me, Stephanie and Tredessa at The Heaven Fest Appreciation Dinner (where I had the worst hair night, but a tremendous amount of fun in my Norma Kamali dress doing my rather-comedic, if I do say so, trivia observations about HF). 

I love my girls.  I am blessed by them, in spite of the fact that they tell me I am like Diane Keaton in “Because I Said So,” with which I must totally and vehemently disagree.  I may intrude a bit, but I am not as prudish and uptight!  And I wouldn’t wear those flouncy 50’s dresses, because I am more of a 40’s woman.  We do both make cakes, though.

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These are My Little Women.  And it is such an honor to work with them in all things life, love, family and ministry.  Heaven Fest has been one of my favorite things ever because we do it together.

 

Good lines from Because I Said So:

Milly:  I’m gonna be just like you mom.

Johnny:  Once I saw that you were a woman with profound static cling, I wanted to be that force around you…I love that when I breathe you in you smell like cake batter.  And I love that you have this insane way of talking in circles that makes perfect sense…I love your eyes.  I even love…your mother.

*Thanks to Luke Bodley for getting us in frame.  We thought there was no way in Hades this could turn out because of the way he lunged at us just as he counted to three.  But, wow, Luke.  You did it.

That cute Kelley family

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Stephanie and Tristan have been married since December 27, 2001.  I told them, having been a retail store manager at the time of their wedding (they got engaged and planned  a wedding during THE most brutal 4 retail months in an effort, I was quite certain at the time, designed to kill me), that I would eventually forgive them for their timing.  And I can truly say I have.

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Tristan told us he could remember church people (at The Assembly of God in Fort Wayne, IN) saying things like, “There go those red-headed Kelley kids,” about him and his sister when they were little.  Maybe they knew, or maybe they were unaware, but that little Kelley kid grew up to be an awesome man.  I am so honored to call him son, so glad he married my daughter and is a daddy to my grand-bebes. 

And the kid can play the drums.  Geesh.  And just about every known instrument in the world. 

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Now I have my own little red-headed Kelley kids to chase after.  Ahhhh.  The grandbebes.

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Gavin is 6.  He is in the first grade now and if he has his way will never. miss. one. day. of. school.  Not ever.

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Guinivere is 4 and knows a secret at all times.  Listen closely and you may get to hear it.

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Gemma is 2 and so delightfully good at it!

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Stephanie and Tristan are a colorful couple.  He is simply the most amazingly intelligent person in the fam.  We all call Tris about everything.  Everything!  And he knows everything about, well, everything.  He works at Dare2Share by day and teaches music lessons (need some?) and does consulting and building websites in his “spare” time.

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Stephanie is hanging at home with the kids these days, planning future trips and vacations to New York and London, their favorite cities.  She is exquisite and unique.  She is passionate, but so level and cool.  She is a suburban mommy with big-city taste.  She is so good at mothering these three, I wish I’d have had her as an example back in the day.  And she loves Tristan.

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Tredessa and Stormie did this photo shoot for Steph this summer (a delayed birthday present).

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I think they are a beautiful and dazzling family and I am certain there is no prejudice in that!

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all photos taken in Denver

Elise-the-Niece is Leaving Us

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Elise Rachelle Moslander.

A year and a half ago Elise moved to Denver.  I don’t think her parents, my brother Joe and his wife, Robin, of Aberdeen, were as excited as we were because she’d been in Hawaii with YWAM for over 2 years.  But we were very happy to have her near.

  

Elise smiles…these photos swiped from her Facebook…

And Elise has been a joy to have (“ketchup” with her here).  She roomed with a childhood friend and about 17 other college girls most of the time and has been crashing at Stef  and Wrex’s for the summer, but she infused herself into the life of our family from the start.  We’d never lived near Elise, only seeing her at family reunions and occasional visits and the veeeeeeeeeery rare photo her parents might send, but it was as if, when she arrived, we’d always been together.

YWAM.

Elise is taking a leadership position, once again, at the YWAM base in Hawaii until the end of the year and then moving back to Aberdeen to help develop her local church mission focus (where her daddy is the pastor).  She is leaving us and Colorado will be a little poorer for her absence.  Colorado will be losing a truly genuine, loving and sweet young woman with an easy laugh, a room-lighting smile and a helpful spirit.  We will lose a girl who loves God and is devoted to family.  Little children all over the metro area will miss her (she has nanny-ed for several families during her time here and her 2nd cousins, my grandbabies, all find her quite delightful).

Engaging.

“Engaging” is the perfect one-word description of Elise.  If you have ever had a conversation with her, you know that she speaks very pronouncedly with a slight lift/lilt to the end of all sentences.  Every story, every word, every sentence becomes, yet stopping just before, a possible question or response-requirer.  Brother Joe told me at reunion that she learned when she was four to be able to talk for 47 straight minutes in a way that simply made it impossible for the hearer to disengage.  He said it had become a lifelong art for Elise – the ability to keep you in because you might be called upon to answer…but then again, you might not.  So, she has this beautiful set of pearly whites and the full, shapely Moslander lips and she is simply fascinating to listen to and to watch.  And every word she says is all the more interesting because it comes from her.

Elise with the orphans of Honduras

I will miss you, Elise.  I will miss your enthusiasm about life and your commitment to family.  I will miss your loving ways and involvement in our lives.  I will miss your cool sense of fashion and your heart for missions and travel.  I will miss having the treasure of my brother Joe’s heart here close to me.  I will miss your love for my grandchildren and the happy dances you do with them at family gatherings.  I will miss your Holy-Spirit-given Gift of Faith and your childlike belief that everything will work out (and hasn’t God proven Himself to you time and again!?).  Never give up that kind of trust in the Lord, Elise – it will serve you well.

I don’t think Aberdeen is big enough to contain you, because you have sufficient personality to fill so much more, but that is probably why God has called you to the world and given you such love for people.  And today, knowing you are leaving and knowing our sun is losing some brightness, I just thank God for the time He allowed you to be here blessing our lives and infusing our family with joy and delight.  We will cherish it always.  We will treasure the memories and never forget you were sent as a gift for this time.

I am so proud I can say you are my niece.  You are a beautiful girl, both inside and out.  I am so proud for the choices you are making in your life.  I am so pleased to see you follow the call of God on your life.  You are loved and you will be so very much missed!  Be blessed when you go out and when you come in.  Be blessed in the country and in the city.  May your enemies be defeated and may everything you put your hand to prosper and be blessed!

I love you, girl, and I miss you already…Aunt Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  Learn to smile with total abandon like Elise does.  Can that be learned or will it require surgery?

Moslander Mountain

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A Pile of Rocks

Up Boulder Canyon, just off to the left side a few miles up the mountain, is a “rock pile” sitting above the rushing river.  We affectionately call it Moslander Mountain.  Here are 27 us (of the 35 total). 

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pictured below: Jovan and Averi, the family climbing and exploring

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pictured below: a rite of passage for the men is to get to the peak; the 2 on the right are both DP from different cameras.

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pictured below: Robin with her kids, Elise and Corbin;  “the boys” Gerron, Dan and Joe

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pictured below: the water was a little too crazy to wade in that day

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A Beautiful Day.

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Triumph.

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Psalm 95.4  NIV  “In His hands are the depth of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him.”

I am family-rich.

We are Family – I got all my sisters with me!

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See a more detailed report about our recent reunion here:  The Moslander Family Reunion… 

Me with my two younger brothers, Joe and Dan…and their amazing wives, my sisters Robin and Dawn!

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We are family
I got all my sisters with me
We are family
Get up ev’rybody and sing

The Other Sister

The sister I grew up with, aka the sister born into my family (as opposed to marrying one of the brothers), aka Tamera Dawn, aka “Tami.”  She is the bottle of bubbles at the party, the the whipped cream and the cherry on top of family gatherings.  She is the adored Aunt Tami, my little sister, and her husband, Uncle Gerron-the great one.

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Everybody can see we’re together
As we walk on by
(FLY!) and we fly just like birds of a feather
I won’t tell no lie
(ALL!) all of the people around us they say
Can they be that close
Just let me state for the record
We’re giving love in a family dose

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Joe and Robin ~ married for 25 years this month!

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We are family
I got all my sisters with me

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We are family
Get up ev’rybody and sing

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The golfers

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Living life is fun and we’ve just begun
To get our share of the world’s delights
(HIGH!) high hopes we have for the future
And our goal’s in sight
(WE!) no we don’t get depressed
Here’s what we call our golden rule
Have faith in God and the things He’ll do
You won’t go wrong
This is our family truth

Yes.  They are watching a bird play in a sprinkler puddle across the street.

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We are family
I got all my sisters with me
We are family
Get up ev’rybody and sing

We gathered, we ate, we talked and sang and took pictures.  We worshiped together as a family.  We prayed for each other, we cried sometimes and laughed a lot.  We ate some more.   We splashed in the pool and sunned a little.  We teased each other and told silly stories of affection.  We ate some more.  We golfed.  We danced and celebrated Joe and Robin’s 25th anniversary.  In short, we just hung out together~with love.  It was Ross the Boss, Mrs. Moss and Jeanie, Joey, Timmy, Tami and Danny.  Er, no…Tim didn’t make it… :[…sad face.

 

Previous posts about the Moslander family reunion:

Lyrics to We are Family, by Sister Sledge