A JULY TO REMEMBER!!
Bev, Don and Hosanna came from Texas to AR for a visit over July 4th. We loved having them go with us to church on July 1st (and then lunch at On the Border)
That evening, we traveled to Little Rock to attend a Traveler's Baseball Game
Hosanna is such a delight!! She is so funny and has such a great personality!! Thanks Shawna and Nathan for sharing your girl with us!💗
The game was fun (even though we lost by 1 point) and we enjoyed the fireworks after the game!
Monday, July 3rd....
Rachel and I had worked hard for several weeks putting together a surprise 70th birthday party for Jeff. With so many variables, family traveling from Texas and Tennessee, there was always a concern we might not get it pulled off....and/or keep it a surprise. But we did it!!! AND JEFF LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!!
I am so very appreciative of Rachel and Jonathan for hosting all the family for this event. She did such a great job of decorating!
Honestly, Jeff really doubted he would see his 70th birthday.....his dad died in his mid 60's and Jeff always felt he would as well....but God has blessed him with 70 years of life (July 15th) and we are so grateful!💙💙
Not an easy task to get a picture of this crew 😆 (click on video link)
The surprise continued when Mom, Kaye, Rob, Bev, Don, and Hosanna came!!💖
It was such a fun evening with delicious food and lots of laughter!! Thanks so much to all who made it so memorable!
Rachel and Jonathan then kept all 9 grandkids (Avi had to work and couldn't come😢). Andy & Carman and Josh and Michelle came to Conway and stayed in our home. The grandkids loved staying in Aunt Ray Ray and Uncle Jonathan's big house!! (Thanks R&J for keeping them)!
(Laine slept on the couch in the family room)
We all felt so safe with these 3 Super Heroes protecting us!!💙💚💛
July 4th.....we went back to Rachel and Jonathan's and had one of the best 4ths together!!
I had created this little video of many of my favorite memories over the years. As I posted on Facebook:
4th of July has always been my favorite holiday. I get it from my Dad – I’m very patriotic (and yes, red, white and blue are my favorite colors!). And have such wonderful memories of many, many 4th of July’s growing up as my parents always hosted all the Boore family (and usually a Pastor or two, etc.) at the farm. We would have a big hamburger cookout, homemade ice cream, shoot fireworks there at the farm and then all load up in the back of pickup trucks (back in the day when it was legal!) and go about 7 miles to Pittsburg and watch the City’s fireworks. Such fun memories. My kids have those memories as well as we continued to do that until my Dad died in 2000. Then my cousin Greg and his wife, Michelle would host the family. In the last 12 years or so, we have had several occasions to be at the lakehouse in Bella Vista with my Mom, sisters and our kids, etc. A couple of times, we were in Branson together. And then other July 4th’s, just Jeff and I and our kids and/or had Saylor with us. I searched thru my blog and old photos trying to come up with pictures (immediate family for the most part) of those memories and am posting to have them all in “one” album. Happy 4th of July to all! May God bless America….and bring revival to our land!!
Click on this link to see those memories (and the new ones added from this week)
Pictures we took at Rachel's on this 4th:
Rachel and Jonathan have a great backyard that we enjoyed having a little fireworks show of our own:
Jonathan was so kind to buy fireworks and then shoot them off for us and at times letting the kids do safer fireworks/sparklers:
We did have lots of laughs....a few of the fireworks took off in a direction that gave these girls some scares!!
After doing our own thing, we drove to Pleasant Valley Country Club and watched their fireworks. Beautiful area (we will see a lot of this area in the future), perfect weather and some beautiful fireworks made for a wonderful ending to our 4th of July!!❤️🇺🇸💙
There were a lot of big beautiful fireworks, but pictures never do justice, so just take my word for it!😊
Saylor did come home with us that night as Josh and Michelle needed to head home fairly early Wednesday morning and it saved them 40 minutes not having to go back to West LR to get her.
I had to get a picture of her by our yard flag since I've done that two other years💞💞
Late Wednesday morning, Jonathan and Rachel drove both their cars and brought the 8 grandchildren to Conway to spend the day. Most of us (Andy & Jeff took naps instead) went to our friend, Lisa and David Martins and had a wonderful time using their beautiful pool!
Rachel and Jonathan once again took all 8 kids home with them that night and then Andy & Carman left Conway Thursday morning, stopped in LR and got the kids and headed back to Texas.
SUCH A WONDERFUL VISIT WITH ALL!! THANK YOU TO OUR FAMILY FOR SUCH A MEMORABLE WEEK!!
Rachel and Jonathan celebrated their 11th anniversary on July 6th. 💖💖
It's really been an eventful July for the McCrary's......they decided it was time to move!! So they looked at houses one weekend and had a contract on one before the weekend was over (in a nice area of LR--Pleasant Valley--Rodney Parham area) . It was a contingency contract upon their selling their present home. The first day of showings on their present home and they had two offers!! Both over the asking price! Amazing!! So....they are moving the end of August. We are so excited for them.....they will be closer to us and the new home has a pool (whoo hoo....DeDe, along with the kids, will love that!). Here is a picture of the home they have lived in for 4 years and has been such a blessing to our family for gathering over these years and then a picture of the new home/pool that I know will also be a big blessing to our family!!💓
A wonderful thing about this house -- no steep driveway or lots of stairs to get into the house and not near the stairs inside....for us old people, that will be a blessing!
We enjoyed having my cousin, Randy and Kimbra Brunk and their children and grandchildren in Conway on July 8th. We met them at Faby's for dinner and then a visit at Mom's house afterwards. Kaye and Rob were keeping their DeMott grandchildren so it was fun to spend time with them too!
Andy & Carman celebrated their 18th anniversary on July 9th!💖💖
Our July outing for our Senior Adults was a trip to Oark Cafe for the "best" cheeseburger and fries in AR on July 13th:
A Facebook post I created to celebrate Jeff turning 70 on July 15th!:
It’s hard to try to summarize Jeff’s
70 years of living into a small summary!
He has definitely lived life to the fullest – from a child onward!! As a young boy, he was a hard worker:
cleaning houses, mowing yards, delivering papers, hauling hay, etc. In high school, along with being a star
athlete in every sport, he also played in a rock band (and yes, was paid!). He was our Junior Class President, involved
in the music program at school as well as many other extracurricular
activities. Jeff has been writing his
own biography for years and has a long way to go to complete it, but it’s
already over 4,000 pages. Not sure
anyone will ever read it, but it’s been very therapeutic for him.
However, as full as his life was
before becoming an adult, it’s been so much fuller since! He is so thankful that Jesus saved him at 8
years of age, but fully took control of his life at the age of 18 and then on his 21st
birthday, he surrendered to the full-time call of ministry. God has used him as Pastor of 8 churches,
Associate Pastor of 2, Dean of Students at a Christian college, Bible teacher
in 10 Bible institutes, colleges and seminaries around the world, church
planter/missionary, Asst. Foreign Missions Director and at present Senior Adult
Pastor. He is also a writer (his greatest work is the Church Planting Module
that took 4 hard years of writing but is still being used around the world
today). God has allowed him to
preach in 30 countries and 19 states of the world. He’s also very blessed to be a part of a
wonderful men’s discipleship program, MD5, here in Conway and has loved the
opportunity to teach and mentor other men.
His proudest accomplishment is the
fact that he is Dad to three great kids and Papa to 10 grandblessings!
I created this video of pictures over
the years. I wish I had more pictures of
his early life, but don’t. I would love
to have one of him preaching in each church he pastored, etc. Oh, for cell phones over these 70 years, that
makes it so easy to snap a picture! They
are in no particular order….just “snapshots” over the years! And yes, there are so many more pictures (especially
of grandchildren) but I didn’t want it to be hours long…..
Happy, Happy Birthday, Jeff!! I thank God daily for His divine plan in our
marriage and our ministry and our lives throughout these 50+ years (70 years
for you personally)!! I love you!
(Click on link to watch video)
Jeff's 70 Years of Life Video
For a little "vacation" and to continue the celebration, we headed to Texas for a few days. We enjoyed time in Galveston at one of our friends, Mike and Ruth Cooney's AirB&B. We've known Mike and Ruth over 46 years. Jeff was their Pastor on two different occasions. Mike was in our Youth Group at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Garland, Kansas (and then a few years later, Jeff was honored to be a groomsmen in their wedding). And then many years later, they were members of our church, Calvary in Mesquite (and they had two young children then). It was great to catch up on life with them and to relax and enjoy the coast and surrounding area! Some pictures of our time there.......
The first night, Mike and Ruth treated us to a delicious (expensive!) meal at Rudy and Paco's in downtown Galveston.
Sunday, we went to church with them and their granddaughter, Stella at Memorial Baptist Church in Baytown. We really enjoyed their S.S. class and the church service.
Loved hearing Ruth play the piano and Mike the drums. Ruth was one of our wonderful pianists at Calvary, Mesquite many years ago. Mike played the drums for The Sojourners...one of our favorite groups from those Mt. Zion days, 46 years ago ("the Clary's")💖
Sunday evening, we did dinner together and then went to their home and played "Chicken Foot."😄👃
I posted this on FB Monday afternoon (Jeff and I was trying to find the spot where we pitched a tent 50 years ago):
Galveston, O Galveston🎶 50 years ago, Jeff and I came to Galveston for our honeymoon (we married in December 6 months earlier and didn't take a real honeymoon), so that is what we did.....setting up a tent on the beach. This is what Jeff wrote about that honeymoon in his 4,000+ page bio 💘😆😂
Too Much Sun and Not Enough Fun
In Galveston, we pitched our tent on the public beach. That afternoon, Wednesday June 6, 1973, we went swimming in the Gulf of Mexico for 45 minutes and we both received a severe sunburn. This surprised me because I worked out in the sun for 8 hours a day and 45 minutes seemed like a sensible amount of time to be in the sun. That night, Debbie and I were both miserable lying in a hot tent on the hard sand. We went to a store to get some vinegar hoping that it would take the sting out of the sunburn and Noxzema Skin Cream to moisturize our skin. Neither the vinegar, nor the skin cream, helped and so, neither one of us slept at all that night. Debbie and I were both so miserable that the next day, Thursday June 7, 1973, we took the tent down, packed our car, and headed home to Kansas. We wore as few clothes as possible on the way home because our Volkswagen did not have air conditioning and secondly, our clothes rubbed the sunburn. We drove to Dennison, Texas (about 8 hours) and stayed the night in a motor court. The next day, Friday June 7, 1973, we left very early in the morning when it was cooler and drove the rest of the way home, arriving shortly after noon.
I Thought I Was Going Crazy!!!
After we got home, my sunburn
started to heal, and then it began to itch. I laid on top of the air
conditioning vents on the living room floor with only a pair of cut-off jeans
on. The itching drove me crazy—literally! I thought that I was
going to lose my mind! I resolved that I would never get that
sunburned ever again! And to this day, I haven’t!
One & Done
Because my family camped when I was growing up, and I camped for many years
when I was in the Boy Scouts, I liked camping and assumed that Debbie would
too. Well, you know what they say about assuming. I soon found out
that Debbie’s idea of roughing it was a Holiday Inn without an indoor
pool. So, a few days after our “honeymoon” vacation to Texas, I
put our tent and camping equipment up for sale. Debbie and I’s family
camping experience was “one and done.”😉😂😉
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
I love water!! And my heart wanted to go to the beach but I almost didn't as I'm old, fat, it was 111 heat index and thought I might need a nap. But I walked in the water when Jeff and I were out and it gave me the "fever." So we went back to our apartment and while Jeff napped, I went, all by myself, down to the Sea Wall. Took one of the Cooney's beach chairs and sat in the waves for 1-1/2 hours (and loved it!!). And no, I didn't get burned!!
Later that afternoon, Mike took Jeff for a ride in his fully restored 1957 Mercury! It's a beauty!
Monday evening, we went to see the powerful movie, Sound of Freedom. Highly recommend it!!
Thanks, Mike and Ruth, for a wonderful visit!!
We had planned to leave Galveston on Tuesday and go to San Antonio for a day/night and then on to Ft. Worth and spend a couple of days with Andy's family. However, beginning last Thursday (the morning of our Sr. Adult outing), Jeff started experiencing double vision in his left eye. It only got worse over the next 6 days. He wore a patch 90% of the time as the double vision continued to worsen, that eye was drooping, along with a headache and blurriness in the other eye. On Monday, while still in Galveston, I contacted our regular doctor in Conway and also an ophthalmologist here in Conway for advice. Both said Jeff needed to go to ER and rule out some things before they would see him. In fact, our doctor recommended that if we came on home, that we stop at St. Vincent's ER in Little Rock as they would have a neurosurgeon available, if needed. So we decided it would be best to head home as we sure didn't want to be far from home with a medical emergency. So that's what we did. Drove the 9+ hours home Tuesday, arriving at St. Vincent's about 6 p.m. (and was there around 5-1/2 hours). They did a CT scan and two MRI's but said there was no mass or sign of a stroke. Wed. morning, he called the ophthalmologist and they squeezed him in Friday morning. After several tests, the doctor said, it was most probably a stroke 😥. This is what Jeff said she told him:
Doc. Smith said that she
hated to call it a stroke but that in effect was what I had. The blood
supply was stopped to the right eye & therefore the muscle that turns the
right eye to the right is not functioning. At a right angle of
approximately 45 degrees to the right, both eyes line up & I can see
clearly. But it has to be precisely at that degree. So, to see you
clearly, I will be looking approximately 2 feet to the left of you. She said the good news is that it will clear up when the blood flow to the
right eye is restored. That will take 4 weeks to 4 months. She
agrees that this episode has inflamed my Ménière’s disease resulting in loss of
depth perception, dizziness, & stumbling.
🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅
We do wonder why the ER tests didn't show that? Jeff saw his cardiologist on July 23rd. He will be wearing a heart monitor for a while. He will have a scan of his
carotid arteries on Aug. 1st. Doc. Steely said that the plaque from the carotid
arteries could have broken loose or a small blood clot could have caused the
stroke/blood flow interruption to the eye. After the tests, he will write a prescription that
should greatly reduce the chance of a stroke in the future. Definitely praying Jeff's vision will come back soon as he struggles so to read, work on his computer, drive, minister to folks, etc. All things he loves to do!
In the midst of all this, my washer flooded half my house (thankfully, when the repair man came 12 days later, he could find nothing wrong). It has been working without incident since (Thank you Lord). I appreciated Mom letting me use her washer during those 12 days. And then we had invasion of house flies!! We probably killed 50-60 of those doggone pests for 4-5 days. We never could figure out where they came from? Tried several things to rid them but not sure anything worked.....as of this writing, we are down to 3-4 a day!?!? I have wondered if all that flood water from my washer had anything to do with it?😠
😩
Life -- it sure can throw some curve balls!! But we are thankful, we have a Heavenly Father who knows all and we will trust Him!!
JULY HELD SOME WONDERFUL HIGHS AND A FEW LOWS BUT WE ARE SO THANKFUL FOR THE GOOD AND THAT EVEN IN THE DIFFICULT, IT COULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH WORSE! THANK YOU, LORD!
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