Four Years Ago

In loving memory of my wonderful nephew

Matthew James Killinger

9/20/77 - 3/16/06

It doesn't seem possible that Matt has been gone for four years already!! I have such good memories of him growing up and turning into such a fine young man! Then I have sad one's when he was soooo sick, but God definitely healed him when he took him home to Heaven. No matter how much time passes down here, Matt will always have a place in my heart!! I can just see him walking around up in Heaven with my Mother, Father & sister!! One day, I hope to join them all. But until then I'll just keep on going down here!! I love you and miss you, Matthew!!

Happy Third Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to two of my favorite people!

It's three years ago on St. Patrick's day, I might add, that our oldest son, Brett and his wife Karissa were married!

Congratulations!! Dad & I wish you a very happy day together!! We love you both (and the Little Man, too!!)Brett & Karissa are expecting their second baby in a few months!! We're soooooo excited!!

They just found out last week it's another boy :o)

In the above picture, it's not that Caden wasn't cooperating with getting his picture taken, but was very upset!! We were at the airport getting ready to leave him and he was not a happy camper that we were leaving!
Again, Happy Anniversary!!

An Awesome Experience

On Saturday evening, we received a phone call from a lady who's brother has been in the hospital for quite sometime. He had a stroke which left him really crippled with his feet and legs drawn up under him, unable to talk and he's almost blind. Then just on Friday he had to be put on oxygen. Like I've said on here before Dennis goes into the hospital usually at least four times a week to visit the sick. He's visited with "Gideon" many, many times already and a few weeks ago he gave his heart to the Lord. Well, the phone call on Saturday evening was that Gideon wanted to be baptized and Dennis told the family that he would go in at 1:30 yesterday afternoon as they wanted to be there for this special occasion. I had been cleaning as Saturday is mainly my day for that particular task, but yet I wanted to go to the hospital. You see one of Gideon's sisters come to our Church and is a very, very sweet lady who we've come to love. So I decided I was going along!! When we got to the hospital there was our Associate Pastor and another who is very good friends with Gideon's sister, Josie. We went up to his room and there ended up being 12 of us in his little room. Dennis introduced me to the family and then he went over to Gideon's bedside and began talking to him. After awhile a member of the family asked him if he wanted to be baptized and they got no response. Then Dennis asked him the same question and very quietly and softly he replied, "Uh, ugh!" (Yes!) It was awesome!! He asked him if he knew his heart was right with God and again Gideon replied, "Uh, ugh!" That's all he could do or say! I don't think there was a dry eye in the room!! Dennis explained to Gideon that he was just going to put a little water on his head and proceeded to do so while he prayed. We also sang several songs together with the family!! That was so great!! After telling everyone good~bye, we made our way to another room to visit a young man in his early twenties who about four or five weeks ago jumped off one of the highest buildings in George Town. Needless to say he was left with many, many life threatening injuries. Dennis happened to meet this young man's Mother while at the hospital that day and she told him about her son. Dennis had prayer with him and later he was flown to Miami for treatment, but before he left they said they didn't think he would live through the flight, but he did and he's back in Cayman. Well, when we went into his room he was asleep and Dennis tried waking him. He opened his eyes and said he didn't want us there as he was really tired and had a bad headache. So, we didn't get to visit with him! When we left him, we walked to another room to visit an elderly gentleman who Dennis had been visiting quite a bit who's sister also comes to our Church. In the past few weeks, when Dennis tried to talk to him about God, he wasn't interested in hearing it. But yesterday, he wanted to pray and ask forgiveness of his sins. Another awesome experience!! We left him to go see a lady, who is a Christian and her twin grandson's come to our school. She's been sick with pneumonia. As we were leaving the 2nd floor, we were walking through the Critical Care Unit's waiting area to go to the stairway. Three ladies were sitting there and as Dennis always does, greeted them. After talking a minute, he asked if one of them had someone in that Unit. One of the ladies husband was in there very, very sick, so we had prayer with them. Another awesome experience to add to my list!! I forgot to tell you about the two gentlemen who were outside of the hospital's entrance when we got there. The man (again his sister comes to our Church) has cancer and a lot of other physical problems. He's lived a pretty rough life from what I understand, but a few weeks ago, he prayed and asked forgiveness of God! The other gentleman's Aunt is in our congregation and I believe, had problems with his heart. He had gone home, but ended up back in the hospital. While he was in there his little 4 year old Grandson was killed. So pitiful! Anyway, he's a very nice gentleman and said he's coming to Church sometime once he goes home. I said all of that to say this ~ now I know why Dennis enjoys going to the hospital so much to visit the sick and afflicted. These people are just so nice and open to God!! Can I say it one more time? What an awesome experience!!

Hats.....Hats.....Hats

Quite a few of the ladies wear hats at our Church on Sunday's. In fact, there's a row of sweet older ladies that sit in the pew behind me that are known as the "Hat Ladies!" My dear husband has said several times lately in Church that he thinks that I would look good in a hat. Well, a few days ago while I was at school working an older lady from the Church called me to say that she and another lady wanted to take me to get a hat. Now this isn't just any 'ole hat ~ we're talking about going to a Hatterie and getting fitted professionally for a hat!! I thought I'd die!! So, the plans were made with her to go tomorrow (Saturday) for the fitting. A short time after that call Dennis had called me and I informed that there was going to be a murder, because I was after him for saying something about me needing a hat! Well, he's not home right now as he's over with the Youth tonight, but I just had a phone call from the lady saying she's been sick since yesterday. Now unfortunately for him and fortunately for me, I won't be going to the Hatterie tomorrow. She's insisting I get a nice hat or as she said "bonnet" for Easter Sunday. Just let me warn you to be careful what you say in jest, because someone's wishes may just come true :o)) I'm sure sooner or later I will be going to the speciality store to get my hat. There's going to be soooooo many choices! Do I want one with flowers or one with feather's or one with a wide brim or maybe even a little flat one that will sit on the top of my head like a saucer. Decisions, decisions, decisions! Maybe I should take Dennis along and help me to decide!! Do I want purple or red or white or black or what??? Make sure you keep checking back here to hear the rest of the "hat" story!! Maybe you'll even get the privilege of having a peek at the hat!!

Beautiful Sunset

Recently we were driving down by Seven Mile Beach while the sun was setting. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of it over the Sea. Hopefully one day I will! I thought the colors were still very pretty!!

Sports Day Chapel

You may remember the post I did about the School's Sports Day in February. Last Wednesday, they had a special Sports Day Chapel to give out awards to the winners. It was really good and the kids loved it!! Dennis handed out the awards to the students

The kids . . . . .

and the rest of the kids (and some of the teachers as well!)

Boy, can this high school guy run! He actually goes and competes relay races, etc. around the Island! He's really fast!!

These were honored for being the top in their age groups

What a fun Chapel it was!!

Norwester's + Wind = Angry Sea

Here in the Cayman Islands we don't have Noreaster's like up in the States. Down here we have Norwester's!! Pretty interesting, right? In the last few weeks we've had three Norwester's go through and they bring in cold fronts. The last three weeks or so, all but a few days have been heavenly temperature and humidity wise. You just couldn't ask for better weather than we've had. Over the course of last week and maybe even longer I had noticed that there were no cruise ships over at the dock in George Town. Remember, I haven't lived down here to long! I thought maybe the bad economy was affecting the tourism which I'm sure it is. Anyway, Dennis made his daily trip to the hospital last Wednesday to visit the sick and came by my office when he came back. He was telling me that they had the main street closed in George Town down by the Sea and the water was coming up there. He said the waves were crashing in on the shores, etc. and they must have been up to 100 feet high! I was telling him not to tell my anymore, because I wanted to go see it but had to stay in the office and work until the end of the day :o( He told me he'd take me down there when I was finished!! In the meantime, we went to the cafeteria to eat lunch and sat with some of the teachers. Dennis was telling them about the "Angry Sea", how rough it was and that the main street was closed. Then the subject of no cruise ships came up. Here we were told that when a Norwester comes through here and the Sea is so very rough that they take the ships further East about 2 ~ 3 miles and dock there at South Sound. They then bus the tourists up to George Town. So that's why I wasn't seeing the ships across the Sea from us!! When I finished working, we headed to George Town right away. Dennis said the Sea had died down compared to what it was when he was there several hours earlier that day. But I still got some good pictures. It seems I just couldn't quite get the waves crashing in!

The next three pictures were taken from Burger King parking lot

See where the cranes are? That's the dock where cargo ships come to unload. Needless to say it was totally cleared of cargo.

Do you see those little tents? That's the dock that the cruise ships usually come to. Majority of the time it was covered with water from the crashing waves!!

Finally, here are the cruise ships docked only between 2 ~ 3 miles down from where they normally are. Look how calm the water is!! I would never believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself. It was unbelievable!!!

A lot of fishing boats docked at the end of a long day!