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RE: Another Timothy story - 4/17/2008 8:12:58 PM
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Consecrated2God
Posts: 4976
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From: Formerly Jesus Land
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We have had such a crazy week so far. On Monday we went to the library and checked out some books and I've barely started the first one. Monday evening we got a call from the ball team that they've finally gotten a team together, so Jay started practices on Tuesday. He also had practice tonight. On Wednesday there was a team coming up from South Carolina to work on a house here in town that's going to be a home for troubled girls, and our church was bringing lunch for them. After that, I took one of the ladies to Terre Haute and we shopped for Passover, and I didn't even have time to comb my hair when I got back before it was time for church. One of the ladies I met at Co-op has started coming to our church and she's helping me in Missionettes now, so I only had to teach two clubs at once instead of four.
Then of course today is co-op, and yesterday the music teacher called and asked if I could help with the recorder class. She's got some students that are not catching on as quickly as the others and wanted me to take them into another classroom and teach them. I don't know how to play the recorder, but I can read music, so I agreed to do that. The girls taught me G, A, and B and I worked on those notes with two boys and a girl. One of the boys decided halfway through the class that he didn't want to take it anymore.
Share-the-Fun (the 4-H talent show) was on the calendar for tonight, but I wasn't sure if we were still having it or not. The lady at the extension office had said only two other acts had signed up, and had talked about canceling it. Today she called and said one girl had dropped out and she couldn't get a hold of the other girl and so she was saying the girls could just go on to the Area contest since they'd be winners by default. An hour later she called back and one of the girls was going, so it was still on. We rushed the girls through showers and they put on their leotards and I did their hair and make-up and we took off.
As the girls were going up on stage, I got a call on my cell phone. I had set it to vibrate. I looked at the number and knew it was important. Sure enough, it was my brother-in-law calling to say that my sister Emily is in labor. I was pretty excited. When I returned to my seat, the re-announced the girls since I'd missed it, and they did their ballet. It was beautiful. It turned out they did have competition, but the girls won and are going to the Area contest.
Tomorrow Erick is going to be gone at a Vision Team retreat for a couple of days. Our old church is paying for our church to go through it. Then Sunday is Passover and my family is coming down. I'm so ready for a week with nothing going on.
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<--Plantation house in Louisiana
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I'm an aunt! - 4/18/2008 7:28:34 AM
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Consecrated2God
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My sister had her baby last night, at 1:00 AM. Baby Evangeline was breech, so she was delivered by C-section. She was 6 lbs, 8 oz. I can't wait to see her!
We had an earthquake this morning, about 5:45AM. It woke us up. It shook the house pretty good, but it didn't last too long--maybe half a minute. It was kind of scary.
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<--Plantation house in Louisiana
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Long day - 4/25/2008 8:26:14 AM
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Consecrated2God
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Yesterday I loaded up all the kids, plus one, into our van and took off to go to homeschool co-op. I had been taking the car, and leaving Timothy at home, because the van gets better gas mileage. I can only fit six people into the car. But one of the girls' friends spent the night, and also Erick had asked me to take Timothy with me so he could concentrate on working on a sermon.
I filled up with gas at a town halfway between here and co-op. Actually, I only put in about thirteen gallons, but the pump automatically shuts off at $50 when you use your card now, and gas was $3.57 a gallon there. I think my van must have fainted, because when I went to restart it, it just made a click and that was all.
I called Erick on the cell phone and he came about fifteen minutes later in the car. If I hadn't had a guest with me I might have just gone home and not worried about trying to get to co-op, but her mom was going already on her scooter and doesn't have a cell phone so I knew she'd be worried about her daughter if we didn't show up.
I did take the kids in the car, double-belted, except for Timothy, and brought them to co-op. We were only about fifteen minutes late. Then I went back to where Erick and Timothy were waiting for me. He had gotten help and pushed it to a nearby parking lot. Erick thought it was the alternator, so we went back home and got tools and then came back to the van and took out the alternator and the battery. We drove to Auto Zone (in the same town where the kids were at co-op) and I left him there to get the battery tested, and I went and got the kids because co-op was over and it was lunch time. I also stopped and got some McDonald's for Erick since we hadn't packed a lunch for him. Then we drove over to the park, next to Auto Zone, and Erick walked over and joined us. The alternator and battery both tested out fine, so that wasn't the problem. We ate our lunch at the park and the kids played for awhile. Then I went to take them to the gym time at another church, and Erick and Timothy walked over to Walmart to get a few things we needed while I was gone. I met him back there, and then we went back up to the town where the van was.
We started to put the alternator back in, and then realized that one of the nuts was missing. They had forgotten to put it back on at Auto Zone. Instead of driving all the way back to the other town, we went down the street to the hardware store and bought a new one for a nickel. Then we went back to where the van was, put in the alternator and the battery, and then he banged on the starter and that did the trick. He and Timothy took the van home and I went back to the gym and got the rest of the kids and took them home, because by that time gym time was over.
So we need to replace the starter on the van. Erick is talking about buying something newer and financing it, which I really don't want to do. We haven't had debt in a couple of years. He's worried that it's not going to last much longer, and the amount we have saved back would only buy us another old beater. His idea is to put down about $1500 and finance $1500 and get something in the $3000 range, and pay it off in about six months using the money we are putting back in savings each month. That would put us back some in our plan to save for retirement. He doesn't want to wipe out our entire savings which is why he's talking about taking out a small loan. I suppose it wouldn't be the end of world, but I really don't like the idea. He doesn't think it's going to last much longer.
I'm considering starting a ballet school here, but not for another year. I want to teach it at co-op first this fall and see how it goes before I try and start one of my own. If I could make some money doing that maybe we can get back on track with our financial plan. Erick's going to find out if our church board has any policies about making money using the church building. If I could do it there and didn't have any overhead, I wouldn't have to charge very much for lessons and I could still make money. I think it would be better than trying to take a part time job.
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<--Plantation house in Louisiana
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Jay's first game - 4/30/2008 7:42:32 AM
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Consecrated2God
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Jay had his first baseball game last night. We all went. It was actually the first time I've been to a real baseball game. We used to play with the neighbor kids growing up, but that's all the exposure to baseball that I've had.
The uniforms from the sponsors hadn't come in yet, so they told the kids to all just wear shirts with a number on the back. They must have also had said for them all to wear red shirts, but somehow we missed that part. Jay didn't have a red shirt with a number anyway, so he wore a purple one. He was feeling really out of place wearing a different color of shirt, but I think he'll survive.  Besides, their uniforms come in Friday.
Since Jay's team was kind of thrown together at the last minute and began practices late, they really hadn't had much time to work on things like batting or stealing bases. They'd worked a lot on catching and running, but that's about as far as they had gotten. So they lost their first game, 7-1. They were really happy for the one run they did get.
Jay struck out both times he was up to bat. They have him batting left handed for some reason. He's right handed, so I'm not sure what's up with that.
It was cold, though. We all wore jackets, and we wished we had worn coats. I finally took Timothy into the van and read a book. The purple shirt Jay was wearing came in really handy, because I could see him all the way from the van and I could get out and watch him when he was up to bat. If he'd been wearing a red shirt like the other boys, I wouldn't have known who was who.
At one point in the game, one of the boys hit the ball over the fence and it busted out the windshield of a van out in the parking lot.  It was interesting.
Jay's next game is Friday.
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<--Plantation house in Louisiana
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Van - 5/3/2008 1:31:29 PM
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Consecrated2God
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We bought a van off Ebay! It's a '94 Dodge Ram van. It's in Illinois, so we'll have to drive over and get it, but we got it for $800 so we didn't have to go take out a loan on it. (Big sigh of relief!) We just have to sell our other van now. The motor is great in it, it's just the body that's falling apart. He replaced the starter and it hasn't had any more problems.
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<--Plantation house in Louisiana
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RE: Van - 5/6/2008 10:03:33 AM
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Consecrated2God
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We picked up our van yesterday, which was also Abby's birthday. She gets to pick her seat first, since it was her special day. We had a little party for her, and she got a doggie in a doggie carrier and a kite, and on Thursday we're going to take her and one of her friends to McDonalds after co-op.
This morning Erick and I sat down and made a list of all the vehicles we've ever owned. We're up to twenty-nine now, if we've counted right. We've spent enough money on buying used vehicles over the years that we could have owned some really nice ones by now. <sigh>
Here's the list we came up with. The first three he owned before he even had his driver's license.
$100--Chevy Citation, 82, red and rust
$50--84 Renault Alliance, red
$100--72 Ford pick-up, blue
$0--Tan Dodge D50 with wooden homemade bed, 82 or 84 (This had an unique feature--the passenger side door didn't close right. We nearly lost our chaperone a few times when we were out courting.)
$500--79 gold Chevy pickup
$100 plus trade--79 White Caprice (This is the car we had when we got married)
$1000--87 Chevy S10, 2 tone gray
$0--Blue Chevette, 88 (This is the car we had when Jay was born)
$1000--Gray Ford Tempo, 87 (first loan)
$500--76 Chevy Crew Cab, red
$3000--87 Oldsmobile, Delta 88, blue (second loan) We gave this one to Erick's sister after she helped us for six weeks when Erick was in the hospital.
$100--plus trade (he traded the red Chevy Crew Cab--one of the worst deals we ever made!) 78 Ford F100, sea green
$0--Brown Chevy Van, 87 (we never actually drove this one--Dad gave it to us, but we never came and got it so he gave it to someone else.)
$50--Red Dodge with no engine, 84 or 85 (Erick tried and tried to fix it but finally gave up.)
$0--Pontiac Parnesian? (We fixed it up and gave it to a single mother who needed a car.)
$500--Ford Ranger, 84, black
$800--Burgandy Chevy Van that we got in Decatar, 87
$500--Tan Dodge Van from Erick's parents, 86. (I'm not sure if we actually paid them for it, though. I think we finally just gave it back to them because we couldn't come up with the $500.)
$1000--White Jeep Wagoneer, 4X4, 79, (The back window kept falling out. He bought this when he had his newspaper route.)
$0--77 Ford F150 Extended Cab, Long bed, bad blue and black paint job.
$0--Brown 75 Ford Crew Cab. This was given to us by a friend, but he couldn't find the title. Erick parked it down by his Mom and Dad's house before we moved to Missouri, and Ericks family eventually got tired of having it around and got rid of it.
$8500--98 gold Ford Windstar. Third and biggest loan. Sold it for way too little. First vehicle we bought when we moved to Missouri. We wished we would have kept it. It was nice.
$1200--87 Mazda 323, gold, dependable until the wheel fell off.
$2200--87 Suburban, blue. This is what we bought for the family when we sold the Winstar.
$500--89 Pontiac Safari Station Wagon, rust in abundance.
$1000--94 blue Buick Skylark. Died the day we moved.
$0--Blue 84 Ford Van, given to us by a homeschool family.
$1650--Mecury Grand Marquis, white, 92
$800--Dodge Ram B150, white, 94
So that's our the sordid history of our vehicle ownership. I've always said that I'm sure glad Erick doesn't go through women the way he goes through vehicles!
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<--Plantation house in Louisiana
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Rain - 5/11/2008 8:58:47 PM
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Consecrated2God
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We have had so much rain this week. On Tuesday we planted grass seed in the front yard. They had done some work with the drains last year, and it was all still dirt, so we worked all day tilling, raking, and leveling it off, and then planting grass. We were so tired by the end of the day, and then it started raining. It rained Tuesday night and all of Wednesday. We had a fish fry at the church, and they had to do it under the car port because of the rain. Jay was supposed to have had a game that night, too, but it was cancelled. It rained all Wednesday night. It rained all through co-op on Thursday. I was helping with the preschoolers, and we couldn't take them outside because of the rain. We also had Abby's birthday party, and we had hoped to go the park, but it was raining. They also cancelled Jay's baseball practice.
It continued to rain Thursday night, and most of Friday. It stopped for awhile, and Erick went out and mowed the lawn. The grass was really too wet to mow, but the church had just purchased a brand new mower, and so he couldn't resist. About the time Erick left to take Jay to his game, and I left to take the girls to the Area Share-the-Fun (they didn't place) it started raining again. It rained off and on through his game. (They didn't win.)
It rained some Friday night, and didn't rain almost at all on Saturday. Erick finished up the lawn. Towards evening, it started clouding up, and it rained all night long last night. It was storming really bad by this morning, and the wind was so loud I had a hard time sleeping. It's rained through church and rained all afternoon and evening, and it's still raining.
I'm ready for a sunny day.
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<--Plantation house in Louisiana
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Sun - 5/16/2008 7:31:40 PM
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Consecrated2God
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We had a beautiful sunny day today--such a nice break from all the rain! We spent a good portion of the day outside. We'd bought some fun items with our stimulus check, and we finally have a good day to be able to put them to use.
We bought one of those Easy-Set pools last week, and finally got around to setting it up today. It's not all the way full yet. It'll take awhile to get it all the way full, even though it's one of the smaller ones, something like 12 feet by 3 feet. Something's wrong with our pressure tank, though, so we've had to stop the filling-up process for awhile while Erick figures out why the water is only trickling out of the hose. Of course, being only partly filled hasn't kept the kids from playing in it, though.
We also bought another tent. We had the green tent that's in the picture for awhile, but we needed another one. So we bought a bigger, two-room tent--the blue one. We're going to try it out tonight. We're planning on using it next week and camping out in my in-laws yard when we go to District Council.
We also bought a fire ring and a grill thing you put over it for cooking. This will be really handy when we go camping. We cooked supper over it tonight, just to try it out. It works pretty well, although it was taking too long to boil my rice so I brought it inside and finished it up.
Our favorite purchase, sort of an impromptu one, was a swing. We've wanted one for a long time. We put it right at the top of the hill so we can look down into the backyard and watch the kids in the pool and on the trampoline. It's really nice and I think it will be my new favorite place to read and do school.
Here's a view of the backyard from the deck. I think it's so pretty.
And here's one more picture--the view of the back of the house from the backyard. :)
< Message edited by Consecrated2God -- 5/16/2008 7:38:49 PM >
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<--Plantation house in Louisiana
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RE: Sun - 5/21/2008 2:22:33 PM
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Consecrated2God
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We just got back from District Council. It was really interesting. We left Sunday after the evening service and spent the night with Erick's parents, and then went to council Monday and Tuesday, and came home this morning. We set up a tent at his parents' house but ended up only sleeping in it one night. The first night we slept on the floor because were too tired. The second night we ended up sleeping at a hotel, because our pastor from our old church had reserved two rooms (one for their assistant pastor and his wife) and they weren't able to make it at the last minute. Since they couldn't cancel the room, they let us use it. That was the first night Erick and I have ever stayed at a hotel together. We also went to Outback Steakhouse for the first time. It was pretty expensive, and since the church reimburses us for our meals when we go to a conference we decided to stick with fast food for the rest of the trip to make up for it. 
The business meeting was really fascinating. I love a good debate. I didn't participate in it myself, but I enjoyed watching the others do it. I went as a delegate, so I got to vote. The biggest issue of the day was whether or not to separate the office of Secretary-Treasurer into two offices: Secretary, and Treasurer. There were some people who were in opposition, but it ended up passing.
The speaker was Alton Garrison, who is the Assistant General Superintendent in the Assemblies of God, and he was really good. They had various church groups, mostly from church plants, leading the worship.
I did want to share one funny story that happened. One of the groups was leading worship, and there were no words on the screen to the songs at first. I didn't know the songs, and it seemed that most of the others didn't know them either. After the first song, the leader was calling up the sound booth, asking where the words were. He said, "I know I gave them to you!" and proceeded to crack a few jokes about sound men and IT guys.
Halfway into the next song, the words suddenly came up on the screen. The leader called a quick "Thank you" up to the sound men in the middle of the song. We finished out the verse, and instead of the next verse appearing on the screen, it went dark. A few seconds later, up popped a verse: "The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away; Blessed be the name of the name of the Lord." Everyone laughed. I guess the sound men must have decided to get him back for the jokes. 
Yesterday we went to a CBC Alumni breakfast and a Missions breakfast. After the afternoon business session, though, I was tired, so Erick took me back to his parents' house. One of his sisters was having a birthday, so I went to her party and Erick went back to the last session.
It's been a really neat weekend.
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<--Plantation house in Louisiana
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Poor Timothy - 5/25/2008 7:53:55 PM
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Consecrated2God
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Timothy got his tooth knocked out today.  It was during Sunday School, and his class meets downstairs and has a cement floor. He fell out of the back of the chair, slid out under the headrest, and tipped his chair back and he caught his mouth on the edge of the seat as he went down. It came out completely, with the entire root. It was so long. It had to have hurt, poor thing, although he didn't cry as much as I probably would have if I were him. He sucked on an ice pack through the rest of church.
We had a Memorial Day picnic afterwards, and two of Erick's sisters had come down for the weekend so they got to go too for part of it. It was a nice picnic, although Sarah got a fish hook in her arm and Rachel cut her foot. It's been one of those days.
On the fun side, we played Corn Hole. I'd never heard of that game. It's kind of like a cross between a bean bag toss and horseshoes. We played a full game--Sarah and me against Erick and one of the teenage boys, and Sarah and I won. That was fun.
Now we're all home, dirty and tired and stuffed full of food. Timothy got soap in his eyes and he's mad at me for washing them out and even more mad at me for taking him out of the tub when he felt he wasn't ready to get out. I think I want to go to bed early tonight.
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<--Plantation house in Louisiana
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12 years - 5/30/2008 9:00:13 AM
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Consecrated2God
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Yesterday Erick and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. We didn't really have much planned, because we ate all the fancy food we could take for awhile during District Council, and then we'd had his sisters down, and the Memorial Day picnic, and tomorrow we're headed back up to my parents' house for a family reunion and my sister's graduation. Plus VBS is next week. Jay also had a game last night, so we decided to celebrate simply.
We spent most of the day gardening. Erick tilled up a HUGE garden next door across the street from the church. They own a piece of land there next to a gravel parking lot, with a woods behind it and a field next to it. The field is all blooming with bright yellow flowers. It's not a crop (at least I don't think it is!) but it sure is pretty. No one has tilled or planted the field, and the stalks from last year's corn are still in the ground in between the flowers. The contrast of the yellow flowers and the green trees and the blue sky is so pretty. I need to get a picture one of these days.
We put out a ton of beans, sweet corn, and other vegetables. The only thing we'd already had in the garden was tomatoes and some peppers. It had been so wet that we couldn't get anything in the ground. Hopefully it's not too late to garden.
We grilled steaks for us and hot dogs for the kids for supper, and wrapped sweet corn in foil and put it on the grill too. That's gourmet, in my opinion. Beats Outback Steakhouse anytime! Mmmm!
We went to Jay's game and Erick and I bought a special treat to celebrate our anniversary--big soft pretzels with nacho cheese. Jay's team didn't win (again). They've won one game so far this year. The boys on our team are all smaller than the boys on all the other teams for some reason. They've been getting creamed. They lost 5-15. They called the game after the fifth inning since our team was so far behind. Jay says he's learning to be a good loser, though. We've got another game tonight, and a couple next week, and then the tournament games start. I don't imagine we'll get too far in those, but at least we won't have to spend the gas money getting to all of them.
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<--Plantation house in Louisiana
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Busy - 6/5/2008 8:18:49 AM
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Consecrated2God
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We've been so busy lately. I keep thinking I'll blog when everything slows down, but things I want to blog about are piling up, so I thought I'd take a few minutes this morning before I have to leave for VBS and catch up on some of it.
Last weekend we went to my sister's graduation and also a family reunion on my mom's side of the family. I saw my grandpa (the only remaining grandparent that I have) and his wife, my grandpa's brother (my great-uncle) and his wife, their two grown children and one of those children had a husband and daughter. I hadn't seen my great-uncle and aunt and cousins since I was about seven, I think. It was pretty neat.
My sister graduated with seventeen other homeschoolers, and it was a neat event. Each family unit did their own unique little presentation, and they were all allowed to choose their own cap and gown as well. It definitely said a lot about homeschooling. I was very impressed with how intelligent and mature these young men and women were. I was so proud of them all. It did seem a little strange, though, not knowing most of the graduates this time. There were about four I think that I remembered, but as babies.
Here is a picture of my sister getting her diploma:
Here is the graduating class of '08: (Well, most of them, anyway...some of the ones on the end...including my sister...got cut off.)
So that was one story I wanted to blog about...
We've been doing Vacation Bible School this week, but I'll probably wait on that one until it's over.
Yesterday we had a huge storm. We had a couple of girls over, and we were watching a movie when the storm came. It was raining and blowing and lightning and thundering so loud, we sent the kids to the basement while we checked the weather. It was unbelievable how much rain it put down in a short time. When the rain had died down some, we went and looked out back, and rain was just pouring down over the road and into our yard, sweeping the gravel from the road down with it and going into our little creek. The water was so high it was into the duck pen (which made them very happy) and it was pouring into the culvert so fast it washed all the dirt away from around it. It was unbelievable how much dirt and rocks and cement it moved. It carved a ditch across the road where the water was running.
After the storm, we went out and looked at all that the water had done in an hour. We talked about how powerful water is, and how scientists say it takes billions of years to carve places such as, oh, the Canyon. If water in just under an hour could carve out what we saw yesterday, I imagine that 40 days and 40 nights of torrential rain could easily create all the mountains and valleys of this world.
Here is a picture of the water pouring over the road and into our backyard.
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<--Plantation house in Louisiana
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Rain - 6/7/2008 9:26:22 AM
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Consecrated2God
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We have had so much rain lately. I don't know if our poor tomatoes are going to make it. They were looking rather sickly yesterday when we looked at them our garden was flooded with water Wednesday. Some of them were starting to pull out of it, but, then we got eight more inches of rain last night. I haven't been outside yet to see how they look. There is more gravel from the road down in our yard.
Years ago there used to be a creek that cut down through our backyard. They filled it in and redirected it, but it looks like it's trying to cut a new creek there. Many of our roads are covered with water, and all of the county roads are closed. It's a good thing we don't have anywhere we need to go today, because we couldn't go anywhere anyway.
Jay is at a camp for Royal Rangers. I hope they are having fun in all the rain.
I'm glad that VBS is over, anyway. After the rain Wednesday the basement flooded, and we had to move our craft room to the nursery for Thursday and Friday. Last night when it started to rain again, water was coming into the basement again.
Except for the flooding problems we had, VBS went really well. We combined ours with the Baptist church in town, since we're so far out. I am really impressed with how well the denominations work together in this town. At one point during the week when I was praying with some kids at the altar, I thought how unusual it is for an Assemblies of God pastor's wife to be praying for the daughter of the pastor of the Community church at the altar of the Baptist church. In many places that scenario just wouldn't happen. It was such a blessing to be able to do that. Several children were saved this week, and it was so wonderful to be a part of it.
Erick was the leader for the 5th and 6th grade class, and I helped in the craft room. We did nametags the first day, a journal the second day, sand art the third day, nature prints the fourth day, and photo frames the last day. The journal was the hardest craft of all, because they had to lace up the spine with these cords and many of the kids just didn't get it. The youngest class especially had difficulties with it. We ended up sending the unfinished craft home with them in bags, because twenty minutes just wasn't long enough to finish it.
Our craft room was called "Wacky Crafts." All the helpers wore lab coats, but the other lady in crafts and I decided to look the part and dress wacky. I had a different wacky look each day. I even tried to dye my hair orange with Kool-Aid, but it didn't show up so I must have done something wrong. We had a fun time with it. The kids kept pointing out that my socks didn't match. They thought I was kind of strange, but it was fun.
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<--Plantation house in Louisiana
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Local flooding - 6/9/2008 8:09:56 AM
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Consecrated2God
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The flooding in this area has been unreal. I'm not sure if the roads are open yet, but as of yesterday all the county roads were still closed. Almost everyone came to church anyway, though.
In Terre Haute, there were evacuating people from some housing additions and a nursing home due to flooding and gas leaks. Some of our roads actually collapsed, because the entire culvert was swept away by the water. Many houses and barns are under water. We heard stories at church yesterday of local farmers having to swim the horses out of their barns.
In the towns we are close to, the levee broke and they have no water. The fire stations are giving water out, but they are rationing it to three gallons a day per household. They will be without water for the next four to six days if we don't get anymore rain. We have water because we're in the country, and we haven't had much flooding except in the backyard, and it's all down now. It's a really strange feeling being better off than just about everyone else around us. In the past, we've always been the ones in need. We let the people at church know that they are welcome to use our washing machine or our shower if they need it.
I heard this is the biggest flood this area has had since 1913. There are 44 counties in our state that are disaster areas. I am so grateful to be in this house and not at the house we used to live in. We'd be so flooded out if we lived there, and our drains wouldn't work for months after a rain this heavy.
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<--Plantation house in Louisiana
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Misc. - 6/13/2008 5:02:41 PM
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Consecrated2God
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From: Formerly Jesus Land
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I ordered some ballet stuff yesterday online, since I'm going to be teaching a class at co-op this fall and I needed to be prepared. I measured myself to figure out what size of leotard to order, using their guide in the back. I took the typical bust, waist, and hip measurements and compared them to the chart. It said my bust is size medium, my hips are size small, and my waist is size extra large! Yikes! I ordered a medium, figuring it'll do.
After I had placed my order (leotard, tights, ballet slippers for me and for Rachel, and some dance music) Abby told me that she needed some dance shoes, too, because "her ballet slippers were growing out of her."
As we were going to bed last night, we found that we had missed some calls on our call phone, and that Erick's brother and his fiancee were in Terre Haute with a bad tire. They were on their way to St. Louis to get one of her bridesmaids for her wedding this next week. (This is brother of Erick's that's marrying my brother's sister's wife.) They ended up coming down and staying the night with us. The kids were surprised in the morning to see them here. Erick helped his brother get his tire fixed and they went on their way a few hours ago. We'll be going up there next Friday for their wedding.
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<--Plantation house in Louisiana
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Jay - 6/14/2008 2:26:37 PM
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Consecrated2God
Posts: 4976
Joined: 4/4/2005
From: Formerly Jesus Land
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I was just outside, throwing balls to Jay so he can practice his batting, and he was doing pretty good, actually. The coaches have had him batting left-handed for some strange reason, and he's struck out every time. I had him batting right-handed and he was hitting everything I managed to throw in the strike zone (so I'm not a good pitcher, sorry!) and they were going really far, too. I was doing a lot of running after balls.
I was finally getting tired and said, "Wow, Jay, you're making me get my exercise today!" and he answered, "That's okay--you were looking a little chubby." 
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<--Plantation house in Louisiana
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Wedding - 6/22/2008 7:52:36 AM
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Consecrated2God
Posts: 4976
Joined: 4/4/2005
From: Formerly Jesus Land
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Erick's brother's wedding was Friday evening. We made it there and back safely, but it was one of those days when just about everything went wrong.
We had planned on going early and going to the Children's Museum for awhile in the morning. Erick had worked on the new van and got it all ready to go. He'd switched seats over to convert it from an 7-passenger van to an 8-passenger van, and then switched the tires on our vans since the ones on our old one were new and the ones on the one were old. He put insurance on it, and changed the title and plates. We had driven it around and everything was working fine. This morning we loaded it all up and went to start it, and it wouldn't start. The engine wouldn't turn over. He tried and tried, but it just wasn't working.
We saw soon enough that we weren't going to get it running in time to go to the Children's Museum, so we skipped that idea. We tried calling rental places to see if we could rent one, and every single place we called was booked for the entire weekend and had nothing available. We even called someone from the church to see if we could borrow their van, and it was in the shop. (Later we remembered they were on vacation anyway.) Finally, we called his sister (the one who stayed with us when Erick was sick) and she agreed to meet us halfway and take some of the kids. So all eight of us squeezed into the car (which holds six at the most) and went and met his sister and she took half the kids in her car. Towards the end of the trip, our car started acting funny, too. I think something in the transition is going bad, because we couldn't put it in overdrive for the rest of the trip.
The wedding had it's own share of troubles. The air conditioning in the church wasn't working, for one. It was pretty hot in the church. The wedding itself was very pretty. The colors were yellow and red, and everyone looked very nice. The brides two sisters (one of them is my brother's wife) were both wearing matching maternity dresses and looked adorable. She (my brother's wife) had broken her tailbone a couple of weeks ago and so she wasn't able to sing at the wedding like she had planned.
The reception wasn't planned very well, though. It was a potluck wedding, but no one brought drinks. There wasn't any punch with the cake, and we ran out of plates and food. The pictures took too long and some of the guests left before the bride and groom ever arrived. We all enjoyed ourselves, though. Sometimes things just don't go as planned, I guess.
I counted up the remaining siblings to get married. Erick has six more, and I have five more, so we have eleven more weddings to attend, and then our kids will be getting married, and then the nieces and nephews. It's going to be crazy.
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<--Plantation house in Louisiana
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Misc. - 7/3/2008 1:01:12 PM
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Consecrated2God
Posts: 4976
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From: Formerly Jesus Land
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We've been so busy lately, I haven't hardly had enough time to post anything. Well, the main reason I hadn't posted in my blog was because we bought a van about a week and a half ago and I hadn't gotten around to taking a picture for my blog yet, so I'd just put off posting in my blog altogether. Erick kept asking me when I was going to post about our new van, and he finally went out and took pictures of it himself this morning just so I'd post about it. I think he likes the van. (Hmmm, Erick...maybe you should start your own blog sometime! )
So, here's the long-awaited picture of our new van:
We did finance one, finally. I think it'll be okay, though. The payments are only $64 a month and we should be able to pay it off entirely next spring when we get our tax check. It was a little sad to have payments again, but our vehicles were just getting worse and worse. We traded in the two worst ones on this new one and kept the one we bought off Ebay. He got that one running again (it needed a new coil) so we have two working vans now. We bought another bench seat to make this van (it's a 2004 Dodge Grand Caravan) seat eight. It is nice to actually push on the gas and go, and push on the brakes and stop, and other small things like that.
So mostly lately we've been busy with 4-H projects. We've got the fair coming up in a week and a half, and we've been trying to get them all done in time. Sarah's still got a ways to go on her skirt. Joy's was nearly done, but we've got to adjust it because it's too big. Jay hasn't even started on his computer project yet, but at least we've got three projects finished so far.
We've also been busy trying to keep up with the weeds in the garden and going to all sorts of events. I think there's been some sort of an event every day this last week except Tuesday. Life is definitely interesting.
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Now I can post pictures from back before I had a digital camera. I scanned four pictures from some of my photo albums to share with you. 
