Restored...

OK, I confess, I blog in groups. Praise the Lord, we have power! It was closer to 6 p.m. and finally blinking lights showed up in our driveway....city utility trucks! Halleluiah! Can you see the expectation on the kids faces? The generator was a blessing but we still we are limited power, no TV, laundry, microwave, several rooms were without power etc. So tonight we turned on the Christmas lights inside and out and the children have both tv's and both computers going! We are such pansies!!! I almost feel guilty because there are so many other people who will go the Holidays without power, our prayers are with you. Our generator made it's way over to Mike and Staci's house so they can keep they can use water and the fridge and freezer. We had about 6-8 inches of snow as forecasted last night which made for more pictures:

Powerless!

On December 10th KS got hit by quite an ice storm! People were predicting a bad storm (over reacting I thought!). Those way out in the country prepared for power outages...it's common when you live out in the country. We were thankful we lived so close to town, we don't often lose power during such storms....until now. Monday night we started hearing significant size branches fall from trees. Bill and Paula were already out of power and firing up the generator. I woke up at 1:30 am to darkness and cold. Soon after Alan woke up scared because of the pitch black. We lit a few candles and huddled under blankets. I slept fitfully watching the candles. The City Power plant number was busy until 4 am. By 6:30 we had power--phew. I made a pot of coffee, actually 2 and put one in the thermos. At 8 am the power went off again and it's now Saturday at 5 pm and we stil are powerless. Praise God for the generator that Chris bought to help service harvest equipment in the field. He was able to wire it to the house and have minimal power (fridge, freezer, heat and water). That warmed our spirits and our bodies. Until we learned that we probably ruined the furnace running it on low / sporatic voltage. We will see, we are thankful that we should be getting power soon! Here is our tree back by the kennels Sunday afternoon before Monday's storm, we'd had a light freezing rain...

Here os the same tree Tuesday morning! Our chicken coup is buried under the second picture. are buried under it, f ortunately no one was hurt.Here's the tree in our front yard. It was the first one to go. It was so eerie walking around Tuesday morning listening to everything creek and make noise like it was going to fall down.

Deer Hunting--Graphic photos

Ok all you deer hunters, you have got to come out to KS to hunt with Chris and Mike! These guys have it down to a science. They went out at 4 p.m. yesterday. By 5:30 ish I got a call from Chris that I would probably have to take Collin to piano because he and Mike both got deer. Mike's was not dead and they were looking for it but they could see the trail it left. Anyway, by 7:48 he was home with his deer. They are out again looking for Mike's this morning. I hope they find it!

More Fall Fun

We had a quiet Thanksgiving. We met with Mom and Dad A and Bill and Paula for a nice Turkey late lunch.

It snowed on "Black Friday" and on White Saturday the kids had fun following tracks that critters left in the snow. Seems some bunnies were checking out the chicken coupe & then headed to the RR tracks.

It was warm that Sunday so I decided to see if my big evergreen tree (that still had last year's lights on it) would still light up. Of course, a year's worth of KS wind rearranged the lights thoroughly, so I had to get the ladder out and fix some. It actually lit up, although the tree has out grown these lights and needs another strand. I had some helpers! I think I had all 6 kittens up in the tree with me "helping" me grab onto the lights. Especially those deep in the tree.

Fall Overview 1

OK, time for my bi-monthly blog update!! I thinking I have Halloween parade, Thanksgiving, Christmas lights and hunting to cover. Where to start... this Trick or Treat was a bust! We had church and AWANA that night. We had a very fun time at school They had their parade through town and fun parties in their classes. However, to get some trick or treating done before AWANA we needed to hustle and get started early. This really upset Collin who loves the idea of going around town in the dark.... Erin was kind of headachey and did not want to rush, but was willing to let the whole thing go. The younger boys fell in line with her. They did not even get back into their costumes for me... :o( Fortunately I have pictures from the parade. We forgot to carve the pumpkins we got too. Did I mention that I started working on Monday of this week??? Oh well, like Erin said, what's more important learning about God or a trick or treating. Here's Alan the Power Ranger, Hans the Storm Trooper, Erin the vet and Collin another storm trooper

Gutsy Pastor

You may have seen this already, I am not sure exactly when it happened, but I thought it was worth posting!
It seems prayer still upsets some people. Please read....
When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate,
everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard;

"Heavenly Father, We come before you today To ask your forgiveness and To seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good" But that is exactly what we have done.

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium And reversed our values.
We have exploited the poor and Called it the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness And called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn And called it choice.
We have shot abortionists And called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline Our children and called it Building self esteem.
We have abused power And called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbor's Possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and Pornography and called it Freedom of speech and expression.
We have ridiculed the time honored values of our Forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh, God, And know our hearts today;
Cleanse us from every sin And set us free. Amen!"
The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa and Korea. Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio Program,
"The Rest of the Story," and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired. With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our Nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called "one nation under God."
"If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything."

My Man!

Staci tagged me on her blog to complete this set of questions. Pretty fun!
1. Who is your man? Chris
2. How long have you been married? 12 years 8 months.
3.How long dated? Met in December 93 Engaged July 94. Married in Feb 95
4. How old is your man? 39
5. Who eats more? Definitely Chris, although I can do a hurtin' on a bag of m&m's
!6. Who said "I love you" first? He did, we were dating long distance and after we hung up he called me back and told me and then he called me again and told me.
7. Who is taller? Chris, but even children are taller than me!
8. Who sings better? Chris, I looooooove how he sings!
9. Who is smarter? What a silly question!
10. Whose temper is worse? Hmmmm, another silly question! We both have our moments!
11. Who does the laundry? Me and lots of it!!!!!!!!!! The children have started helping with it more though .
12. Who takes out the garbage? Hans
13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Me and it is terribly hard for me not to.
14. Who pays the bills? Sometimes I write the checks but since I haven't been working, he always pays!
15. Who is better with the computer? me although he sometimes will patiently work at something and figure it out. I usually cave and call Mike for help!
16. Who mows the lawn? Chris and Collin
17. Who cooks dinner? Me, but Chris does pancakes Sunday mornings, better hamburgers than I do (per the kids) and makes a mean chili
18. Who drives when you are together? Chris, unless it is an all nighter to PA and then we take turns. I am dreading that this year!
19. Who pays when you go out? See question 14.
20. Who is most stubborn? Chris
21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Me
22. Whose parents do you see the most? His live local so we see them most, but my mom comes 2x a year and stays for 2 weeks. So she catches up...
23. Who kissed who first? He kissed me first, wow that seems like a long time ago.
24. Who asked who out? His sister in law called him in KS and handed me the phone in PA to invite him to PA for Christmas that year to meet me. So it's her fault right?
25. Who proposed? Chris, with his trusty dog Jake at his side, and then in between us and then behind us, "Jake go away!". I wondered why he was so upset at the dog and then he knelt down next to me...
26. Who is more sensitive? With out a doubt...ME
27. Who has more friends? That's hard to say.
28. Who has more siblings? Me. I have 5 older sibs and he only has 2.
29. Who wears the pants in the family? Well, we both wear pants, but Chris' pants are definitely bigger than mine and he is definitely the head of the home.

My MAN!

I'd tag some of my friends but they don't have blogs: Kathy, Tara, Ruth you are tagged...now make a blog and get going!