Poem by Breanne

THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

The first day of school really sucked
I tripped on a rock and fell in the muck
I was really running low on my luck
when I got to school I looked like a fool
just my luck there was Tuck
he was the bully
of junior high school
he got all the girls
because of his curls
he beat all the boys
and stole all their toys
he was so mean he had his own team
of girl cheer leaders
then I told the teacher Mr. Peters
that Tuck was bad
mean and lean
and he had his own fighting machine
Mr. Peters saw him
he said, Your right,
he's mean, lean
and has his own fighting machine.
Mr. Peters expelled Tuck
then I said, It must suck to be Tuck!
The End

By: Breanne Vanlinge (12 years old)

I thought you might enjoy this. I for one do!

Breanne is Debbie's daughter. You might remember me talking about Debbie, she works in our office. She is slowly taking over from me, so that I can take more time off. Debbie is one of those special persons you treasure as a friend.

As you might recall, her husband Gerald was suddenly taken from her last September. She found strenght in the Lord to go on. She came back to work and even took over during my time in the Hospital and recuperation. Yes, during that time we were on the phone a lot!

I have a prayer request, Debbie's father is having a serious operation tomorrow morning at 8:15. They found cancer in the prostrate. I just phoned him and I promised Gordy, We'd be praying for him. Would you please join us in prayer? I promised Debbie's Mom I'd be putting a request on my blog.

I so remember people praying and interceding for me. They don't know that many people who believe in prayer. On behalf of them, thank you!

Love Trudy

Been thinking!

God is good, yes He is!

As I mentioned previously, we have been married 45 years. I have been in Canada as long as that as well. I came as a young girl, with one thing in mind, to marry this man I'd fallen in love with.

In the near future I would like to tell you how we met! But that would take too much space for today.

Because of what the Bible tells me, and from what I have experienced in my life. Even though, spiritually I was then not what I am now. (And yet, I have many questions). But because of the assurance I have within me, which the Bible would say is the Spirit of God, I simply accept the Bible in faith. There is no other explanation.

But.... What puzzles me is, that some people doubt the decisions they have made in their lives. This is where God comes in. Looking back on my live. There is nothing I could have or would have done differently. (Except not to loose my cool with the children, I could be like an army captain, very strict.)

I so believe in the following verse: I put my name in it!

Psalm 37:23
The steps of Trudy are established by the LORD,
And He delights in her way.
24When she falls, she will not be hurled headlong,
because the LORD is the One who holds Trudy's hand.

Because my intentions have always been to be true to God:

Romans 8:28 That is why Trudy can be so sure that every detail in her live of love for God has worked into something good.

The next verses puts the icing on the cake as far as I am concerned

I find these verses so out of this world, I do not want to muck these up by putting my name in it. So you use your imagination. This is great stuff!

1 Corinthians 1:14
The unspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can't receive the gifts of God's Spirit. There's no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness. Spirit can be known only by spirit--God's Spirit and our spirits in open communion.
15 Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God's Spirit is doing, and can't be judged by unspiritual critics. 16Isaiah's question, "Is there anyone around who knows God's Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?" has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ's Spirit.

God's Spirit and mine are one. He lives in me. How then can I make decisions apart from Him, you tell me. In every detail of my life I can be at peace. What about you? Think about it.

I am now off to work, doing what I am supposed to be doing.
Is'nt it great, that after this big operation, I am able to do this?
Would I'd rather be home?, yes I would. But going to work is, "one step ordered by the Lord!"

Have a wonderful day all of ye.

Love Trudy

Chemo cycle five!

We had a very nice day on Friday.

My TCScan was at 9:am, then we both had our blood work done. Ted's was more extensive than mine. This time for me was not the cancer marker, but only to test my hemoglobin, and that is looking good. Ted's result we find out June the 9th, that is when we both have an appointment with the oncologist.

After our appointments we went out for breakfast, as I was not allowed to have anything to eat before the scan.

I did start with chemo cycle five on Friday. For some reason, my hand and feet have not stopped feeling sensitive, but it is manageable. The nurse told me how badly some people's hands look. The chemo seems to peel the skin off both hands and feet, what a strange drug! So I just have to wonder how this cycle is going to work out. I keep slapping on the "Udder balm", which works very good, it so softens the skin. My niece Monica got it for me in Toronto and mailed it to me, thanks again Monica!

In the evening we went out for supper at Dalton's, very nice place and the food is good. Isn't it great to be alive? I am just so thankful we were able to do this together.

It was such a nice day weather wise as well, so I decided in the afternoon to get some bedding plants. So far I have not been able to do any work outside. But tomorrow promises to be a nice day.

As you can tell, some of the tulips are coming up.

Love Trudy

Compliment!

Ted, my husband, likes to give me compliments often!

But the following tops them all.
This one he told me during our breakfast in the restaurant on our anniversary.

He said: "Sweetheart, you are just so beautiful, every wrinkle is in the right place!"

Well, thank you!

45 years

HAPPY

45th

ANNIVERSARY!

Today, Theo and Truus celebrate their 45th wedding aniversary!
Yep. And what a 45 years its been!

From Holland to Winnipeg to Brandon and back to Winnipeg again...
3 children,
the untimely death of Paul's hamster,
The equally untimely death of Ron's pet crow (Reject)
2 cats, 2 dogs,
one autoharp,
3 weddings,
5 grandchildren,
countless garage sales,
and 2 bouts with cancer later....

they are still in love, and still holding hands.


Congratulations, Mom and Dad!

Chemo cycle five

I just took the contrast in preparation for my CTScan tomorrow morning, yummy!!

So I'll be glowing in the dark, any takers?

Tomorrow morning I'll get to have another 16oz and then we'll be going to the hospital. The scan will be at 9:00 am. After that we'll both have to have our bloodwork done. Ted will have a CTScan on the 30th. Would have been nice if we could have had the scan together for our anniversary celebration.

We decided, since I am not able to have breakfast before the scan, we just have to go out for breakfast after and we'll go out for dinner in the evening as well. We are really living it up, aren't we.

Tomorrow I also start with the chemo, my what an exiting day we are going to have!

Today we were invited out for supper at my nephew Tim and niece Sandra, they have such a cute little boy Logan, yep that makes us Great Aunt and Uncle. I will post a picture of him, he is just worth showing off.

Sandra and Tim, both made a beautiful supper what a treat that was for us, everything was done on the barbecue. I am not that good on that thing, as a matter of fact, we put it in the shed. So, if there is a needy person you may come and pick it up. It is in very good shape. Right now I am not really interested in making meals in the kitchen, nevermind on the barbecue.

Going to bed now to get all rested up for this exiting day tomorrow, ha,ha,ha!

Love Trudy

Been Thinking!

Yes, I do think once in a while!

Ted, (my husband) used to say: "We make a perfect couple, I am the thinker and you are the talker. Problem is, you talk faster then I can think."

I thought of the perfect solution, I began to think for my self! Ha, ha, ha.

But read the following which I picked up.

A runner at a school track meet crossed the finish line just ahead of his nearest rival. A bystander, noticing that the winner's lips were moving during the last couple of laps, wondered what he was saying. So he asked him about it. "I was praying," the runner answered. Pointing to his feet, he said, "I was saying, 'You pick 'em up, Lord, and I'll put 'em down.'"

That athlete prayed for God's help, but he also did what he could to answer his own prayer.
When we ask God for help, we must be willing to do whatever we can, using whatever means He gives.

Years ago, I heard a sweet young girl saying: "I became a Christian and that makes me happy. But..... she continued, I am afraid to give my life completely over to Him, because I am afraid He is going to send me away to a far away country as a missionary."

Most people think that God is somewhere up there giving orders to His angels, "Hey, you there, go to Trudy and make her quit her job and tell her to become a cleaning lady. Hit her over the head if you have to, now, run along and don't waste any time!"

I'd be an very unhappy person, first of all, I LOVE what I am doing, (now as I get older, I do enjoy working less). I have nothing against cleaning ladies, but that's NOT my thing. I do what I have to do to keep my home presentable, but to start cleaning some where else, forget that!!!!

This is just a silly example. But how does God get through to us?

When I was barely 20 years old, would I have come to Canada on my own? What for?
But.....then I met Theo, (who'd come to Holland for a vacation to see his family). We fell in love, no 10 horses would have kept me from coming. My heart was sooooooo ready, I dreamed about him and Canada, every minute of the day. We met just after Christmas 1959, he went back to Canada 10 days later. We got engaged by mail Feb 5, 1960. I came over April 20, and we got married May 20 1960.

Yes people, this Friday the 20th, we have been married for 45 years.

Going back to how God "makes" us do things. Circumstances, opportunities, our own desires, all play a roll. If God has created us in His image. Genesis 1:26, then we are able to think and act like Him, we have great possibilities. We can actually do and are allowed to do what ever we want. It is so simple.

Now there have been times when God might speak very plain to us, to our hearts and minds that is, there is absolutely no getting away from that. I mean He spoke to Paul on the road to Damascus, Acts 9:4. He might speak to us in dreams, (which has happened to me several times), but to wait for it, does not always work.

Simply, lift up your feet and ask God to put them down and go for it.

Love Trudy

Trudy's sanitizing hand soap

Well, my niece Sandra suggested I post this, so here we go.

As you know when you are on chemo, because of low, low resistance, I need to sanitize my hands a lot. While shopping at Shoppers drugs store, we, Yvonne and I found those delicious fruit smelling shampoos and farther down the isle the same enticing smells in an antibacterial hand soap.

Now the shampoos were half the cost of the handsoap, thrifty as I am, I figured, what is good for hair, is certainly good for my hands. I choose banana's, you could almost taste them!!!!

I came home, put some in a pump bottle, soap comes out in foam, but you dilute the soap with water. I looked at my bottle 10 sec atibacterial stuff, you know the stuff that kills all bacterials in a second. I thought, why not put about one oz of it in the soap pump, voila!, I got my self an antibacterial soap. Pretty smart huh!

But after a while of using the once attractive, enticing, banana fragrance, it reminded me of, yes, baby puke! Yvonne said, Mom I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.

Well, I am not throwing this out, I remind myself, this is a fresh yellow looking banana.
The next bottle will be another smell.

Why does this remind me of baby puke? Well I used to feed Ron and Paul for lunch a fresh banana mashed with the juice of an entire orange. (I was not in the habit of buying baby food, I was just as thrifty then as I am now.)
Ron, who is 41 now, used to easily gag on food, many a time he gave the stuff back to me. (He now tells me that he is allergic to them!) Bananas is one thing, he did the same with beets and spinach, how that stained his outfits!

After all those years, I have not forgotten the smell!

There you go Sandra! Happy sanitizing to you all! All you diaper changing Mommies.

Love Trudy

Chemo cycle 4 done!

Well, I did it, I finished the whole two weeks and no side effects. But before we get too exited, I kind of took a nose dive yesterday. Thursday evening I took the last two pills. But Friday my emotions were all out of wacko. I'd cry about little things. I warned Ted early in the morning he better be careful else I'd chew his head off, could that friendly face on this page do that? Yes it could!!
I have a pill rest till next Friday for the 5th cycle.

I watch TV and see something a bit emotional, and the tears come. What is that chemo doing to me. That certainly was not on the list of side effects.

But today I am back to my just about normal self!

My brother Nic called this afternoon and I mentioned this to him, he said, boy am I glad I did not call yesterday. That's right I told him, you might have thought I'd been hit with something sharp!.

Because Yvonne, the girls and I usually go out on Friday, I told Yvonne, we better go Thursday. I knew from the past that this happens. No it is not a negative anticipation, it just comes.

But Yvonne, the girls and I had a good time. Aila got exited already when she saw the back of Wal-Mart. Once inside we have to turn left immidiately to the big "M"(McDonald's), hardly having the patience to wait for the food. Yvonne handed her the whole Cheeseburger which she attacked as if she had been on a hunger strike for the last couple of days. Smearing ketchup all over her self.

Anneka sitting there with her two dainty fingers eating her fries and chicken. Then looking at me saying:"Did we not forget something Oma?" "What might that be I wonder Anneka!" then she whispers "Icecream!" Of course, I knew that was coming!

When my brother Nic called, he told me they were looking after their first grandson now nine months old. "Hey", he said, "nobody needs to teach me how to act as a Grandpa, it just comes naturally." "That's right," I said, "and the joy of having them you cannot explain to somebody who has not hath that wonderful experience. The smile on their face when they see you. Just to hold and to hug them etc."

Yep, life may have its sorrows, but equally as many blessings.

Love Trudy

Had a Good Day!

Yesterday morning Jason called me to find out if the girls could come over, he wanted to clean the house before Yvonne came home. I told him, Jason, you are too good to be true!

For the girls it is always a treat to come to our house, besides, there is always something in the pantry for them to eat. And they just love their Opa!

Today I went to work, it was very busy and I found it rather tiring, so I was glad to be home. I guess, I am getting lazy! Ted made supper so that was nice. Yes and he served tea with cheese and crackers as he does every evening. He also drives me to work and picks me up, does the shopping. He is like Jason, too good to be true. I'll keep him for a while!

We got some cute pictures from our son Paul taken at the beach. Their little girl Samantha is getting so big and cute. She will be four years old in August. Hopefully we get to see them soon, they are 3000km away. Yet she knows us very well and every time we talk on the phone she asks us when we are coming. How do you tell a child that I am not able to travel for a while. Even if I felt good, to get insurance is impossible.

By the way, I have two days to go on this chemo cycle and so far no problems. I feel very good actually. Praise the Lord! Can you say amen somebody?

Love Trudy

Re: Yvonne's blog May 2

My Mother started blogging when she got cancer (blogging is great for cancer, did you know that?) and she noticed that she'd get TONS of comments when things were rough (or the post was sad) but when she's happy, chipper, or feeling good....NADA! Is she losing readers because she's winning the cancer fight? Or maybe people are just P.O'd at her overly enthusiastic-get-over-your-whining-and-appreciate-your-life attitude. People seem to rally around misery, I find.

Now I (Trudy) could've commented on her blog but then decided to do it here.

As you noticed, I have not blogged for a while, why? Did not feel good. I got a cold, picked it up in church because of low resistance. Because of abdominal pains I had to go to the Hospital. I am not the type to moan and talk about it. Does that mean I am not interested in a bit of sympathy? I sure am interested, but I asume that when people are praying for me, the Lord will tell them, give that girl a call she needs it. So...... how I appreciate it when friends do call me, just to ask me how things are going.
Yes I do have an (quoting Yvonne now)overly enthusiastic-get-over-your-whining-and-appreciate-your-life- attitude.

But, I do have cancer, people having cancer, or are in remission, (such as my husband)will tell you that it is a fight and a very lonely one. As I have mentioned before, the cancer can show up just anywhere in your body. It really hits home, when I realize, that they NEED to do bloodwork every three weeks, NOT every three months, (which is already nerving) or once a year!

I am able to take this above mentioned attitude, because, after knowing the Lord intimately for so long, I have to trust in Him. He has been faithful, and He will give me the strength for what ever comes. But, it sure is nice to get a call for instance from my sister in Holland, or my dear friends Marlene and Barry, my friend Miep, or to chat on MSN with my two dear nieces in Ontario Monica and Nelly, and tell them of my woes! Because they genuinely care.

A little bit of sympathy is just so necessary, the need to cry the odd time, like I did talking to Jennifer, I could so feel her pain after losing the baby. And because she still was able to think about me, I sort of lost it! (being brave that is)

So when God puts someone on your mind, there is a reason, be obedient to it, pray and if possible give them a call. The person may say, I am fine, but might just not be telling the truth. Am I making sense here?

Love Trudy

Thank you Yvonne!

My sincere thanks go out to my favorite and only true daughter Yvonne, for making my blog site so incredibly beautiful. This took her many hours she told me.

It is like inviting you into our home every time you visit my blog-site.

And a very welcome to you all, a cup of coffee, Dutch coffee, is brewing for you!

My Delft Blue collection started with this windmill (very expensive right now) you see on the small shelf on the wall, (by the way, Yvonne gave me these two small shelves), just perfect I think. Check out the pictures Yvonne inserted on yesterday's blog.

The windmill I received form a dear family friend who was very good to me as a teenager after my Mom passed away as a 16 year old. Actually, she was the mother of my best friend Willie, who later became my sister-in-law. Her Mom, whom I called, Moeder Maria, (Mother Mary) why? I can't remember, but it just stuck. She passed away in 2004, in her mid nineties as Moeder Maria! It is amazing how some people can have such an impact on your live. I am very grateful for her.

Love Trudy

ps....So, again Yvonne, thank you for doing all this work for me, I am so proud of you and I love you so very much!

Love MOM