Donaldson Family Blog

It's the most Wonderful time of the year!

2011-12-06T04:57:00.002-06:00

Most of the time....

Things are pretty crazy with us right now. Ok, so I don't know that they are "never" crazy with us, but right now it's true.
I work for the Post Office and love my job. Yesterday was a little hard though. We had terrible weather on the weekend and it left a layer of ice over everything. With it being Christmas there are tons of packages, for which I am very grateful. I love delivering Christmas to people. The looks on their faces when they get a card or a gift from a loved one is a blessing to me. Especially the older folks when they get pictures and cards. They love it and I love delivering them. Yesterday was hard though. That ice really caused lots of problems for me and it slowed things way down. It's hard to stay "happy" when everything seems to go wrong repeatedly.

When I finally got home after a quick stop at the store, I made the mistake of just sitting down. Big mistake for me at night. If I can keep standing, I can keep going. If I sit down, I'm done. I sat here at the desk staring at the screen, but I'm not sure that I actually did anything. I think I might have just stared at the screen. I went to bed after I realized that I had been asleep sitting up with my hands on the computer keys. Pretty sad.

Today hopefully will be a better day. Jessalyn is going to run off and do something with her Aunt. Jacob is working on projects around the house. Will is off to work and so am I. We have a busy week planned too. Wednesday will be youth where we are composing a letter to our child Ashaba that we sponsor each month. Thursday night I'm sure will have something going on. Friday is blowing insulation into our attic and then the youth are coming over to have a pizza party and work on our huge Christmas project that is a present for the whole church. Saturday Will and I are going out with our friends for a shopping and lunching day. I'm looking forward to it. Sunday will be church, potluck, a funeral for a great friend of ours and then a pampered chef party that my friend and I are giving.

We were blessed with a way to get Will a new lawnmower and snow blower. Things have been really tight financially, but there was a little extra and he was in need badly for equipment that actually worked. He really did his homework and we traipsed around and found just what he was looking for. He got a huge discount on a 42" deck lawnmower and found a 28" snow blower. I hope that they both last as many years as the last lawnmower did. He's a happy camper. He has power tools!....insert Tim Allen man laugh here (he has been).

As I said...it's a wonderful time here. Things are busy. Jacob decorated the entire house inside and out with lights. Our ugly/beautiful fiber optic tree is lit and there is now snow on the ground. If we can get this week out of the way....we are on the home stretch for Christmas. I hope you all are having a great time too!

An Almost Free Christmas Tree

2011-11-14T05:31:00.002-06:00

For years Will has talked about using an artificial Christmas tree. I love the real ones, but we are terrible at having them. If it's not the cat climbing through the inside knocking all the ornaments off, it's the leaving it without water for days. Not to mention forgetting to "do away" with the poor thing until February or March. By then when you throw it out, it is naked as it goes out the door. The needles stay on it fine until you take the lights off...then woosh...they all fall down.

A couple of years ago, my Mom and Dad bought this beautiful fiber optic tree. They don't have to put lights on, because they are already on it. It's great. Will saw that and his "lightbulb" went on and that's what he's wanted ever since. Since then we(meaning "me") have watched for after Christmas sales for an artificial tree that would work for us. This is not a cheap endeavor since our ceilings are tall and we usually have about a 9' tree. Still I just couldn't find the right tree.

I have been shopping on ebay and found one that I thought we could try in our entry way. It was 7' tall, but thin. I didn't think that it was anything great and wonderful, but depending on the price would be worth $10 and people would be able to see it from the road. Yahoo...easy Christmas decorations. No standing out freezing my butt off stapling lights onto the fence etc. I bid my $4 to start and let it go. The price jumped in the next couple of hours to $50....way above my cheapskate limit. I thought "ok...we don't need that tree" and went on with life.

Low and behold I get an email with a second chance offer for the same tree at $4.00!! I bought it and figured what the heck...try it. It arrived 2 days later and when the lights are not on it is an ugly, and I mean ugly tree...but turn the lights on and it's beautiful. It's sitting in the middle of the living room where they tried it out and my hubby has to turn it on each and every time he's in the room. The strobe lights in it are painful and I'm sure would cause seizures after any amount of time, but you dial past those and it turns beautiful. Now they (the rest of them in the house) want to use it as our family Christmas tree this year. I'm not so sure that I'm willing to be outvoted on this one...you know if the mama ain't happy.....

However it works out...my hubby is happy...he plays his mafia wars each morning by "tree" light and I got to find a "deal" and an almost "free" Christmas tree (even the shipping was free).

Have a great day!

Getting ready for winter

2011-10-28T11:10:00.002-06:00

I am never ready for this time of year. I'm just now getting into the swing of things for summer and fall is already over. The leaves are still turning colors and many are still on the trees, but you can feel winter in the air. Yesterday even had that dreaded word "snow" in the forecast. I'm not ready. Truthfully, I'm never ready.

With so much of my fall devoted (lovingly) to Cranfest, I seem to miss the every day stuff that other people see. It feels like I go from hot, hot, hot to freeze. There is no in between around here. It's hard to get into the get ready for winter mode for me and then suddenly it's here.

In less than 2 months Christmas will be over. I don't even have any shopping done. Usually by now, I've at least bought a couple of presents...not this year. I'm running behind...

It's time to put plastic on the windows, put up the snow fence, cut and stack wood, start collecting my stash of emergency supplies, placing emergency kits in all the vehicles etc. Time to get serious about the cold even though my mind is still trying to deal with fall.

Will and I, along with kids and our friends will cut and stack wood next weekend. Hopefully enough to get us and my parents through the winter. The two fireplaces going really help when heating this great big house. I have them both going today and it's comforting somehow.

I hope you are all having a wonderful fall and will continue on and have a blessed Christmas filled with the wonder of God's love for us all. I say that because Christmas might be over before I get a chance to post again. I hope not, but you know me.

I remember.......

2011-09-11T07:13:00.002-06:00

I would imagine that there are so many blogs out there that are remembering September 11, 2001. I will have to join their ranks. Undoubtedly, I will probably disagree with many of them. As an American that is my right. Thank you God.

In my opinion what happened on 9-11 was a tragedy in more than one way. Americans died. Those people can never be brought back. It was and is a horrible thing. We lost them, but for a while there we Americans seemed to find ourselves.

We all pulled together and people prayed. Now....not so much.

As a nation we seem to be headed down a road that feels more and more like a nation not "under God". The government and other confused individuals have forgotten the principles that this nation was built on. They have forgotten the Declaration of Independence. They have forgotten the Constitution. There is a reason that the founding fathers mentioned God so often. They believed in Him. They knew that they only had this nation because of Him and they wanted to make sure that the world knew it too.

In arrogance people have started thinking that we have what we have because we earned it. We are a blessed nation because God made us that way. We said we were a nation under God and believe me, God takes care of His own. I live my life under Him and know that all things come from Him. If we had what we deserved it would be terrible....like maybe a falling economy, jobless rates that are on the rise, hatred and violence abounding, murder....you get my drift. We've forgotten where we came from, who we owe it to and what we should be thankful for.

My generation the 40 somethings and 50 somethings are not pulling our weight. We raise our children to lie, cheat, hate and in general expect everything to be given to them on a silver platter ....because they deserve it. BOLOGNA!!!!! We should be ashamed of ourselves.
Of course we were raised by that enlightened bunch of individuals from the flower children era.

People don't teach morals any longer. They are not taught in the schools. The schools teach rights. I have this right and that right. Give me a break. People try to take the 10 commandments away saying we shouldn't be forced to live by them. Tell me how would it be so bad to not lie, cheat, steal, murder, have affairs? What would be so wrong? Even if you don't believe in God, how can you say this would be a bad thing?

The greatest tragedy to me is all of the people in this world that do not know God. Especially those poor wretched unknowing, unloved, pitiful people that think that Jihad is the way to live. I have friends who are Muslim who are wonderful people that do not believe that way. Do I think all Muslims are evil? No I do not. I think that they are deceived and do not know God, the true God. That is a tragedy. They have this distant god that they pray to not knowing if he even answers their prayers, for that matter, if he even hears them. They have no hope. That to me is a tragedy.

As for the others. They are crazy sad people that are trying so hard to be someone special. Someone looked up to for something they've done. They are terrorists. No other way to put it. I'm really tired of the government trying to smooth things over. Let's not call it what it is. I can't help what they are. They mean to hurt people. It makes me really, really sad. What a way to live your life...

Let's remember where we came from. Where we were and who we owe it all to. I can guarantee that it is not our President who seems to be one of those lost people trying to be special. It's not our government who can't seem to find their own nose in the dark. It's all owed to God, the Creator, the Founder of this nation.

GOD bless America. Please.

2011-09-06T09:45:00.001-06:00

Where did the time go?

2011-09-06T03:58:00.003-06:00

Things have been on warp speed around here lately. It seems like I just posted last week and it's already 2 months later. Part of it could be that I have been working 6 days a week for 5 months now. That seems to put damper on most things. Oh well, it needs to be done. The good news is that I can now take all the time that I really need at Cranfest time and not have to use up my regular vacation days. I am pretty much using comp time. A winning situation for me.

Jessalyn is back in school now. HIGH SCHOOL! It's hard to think of my baby being that old, yet she has always been so smart that it kind of feels right in a weird way. Jake still has not officially graduated, but very soon. He had a few assignments (mostly due to his surgery last year) that he had to finish. He was going to do them during the summer, but then his teacher went away for a month or two, so now he's gonna finish up. I'm hoping to have him done by Cranfest.

We are now entering one of the favorite stages for me in my life. The count down to the Warrens Cranberry Festival. Once again this year, I am in charge of the Farm Market and am having a blast getting it all ready. It's like this huge puzzle with moving pieces that needs to come together each year and I love the challenge. With the economy, I was a little worried about vendors being able to come, but we are filling up slowly. There is always a push for people that insist on sending their applications in at the last minute. I am hoping for wonderful weather. This week should start all of the paperwork on the other vendors and then we go out and spray paint each and every one of the 1200 booths onto the ground, so that they know where to set up. I love it. It's a blast for me.
That being said I am not ready for fall. I had so hoped to have the house ready to list for sale and move into a smaller one in Warrens. The kids are getting older and this is just too much house for us. It's too much room, too much to clean and too much upkeep. We just don't have the time. Work schedules excluded, we just do not want to spend what time we have here on earth always working on the house. There's going on 2 acres to mow and no matter what we do the mower (any mower) keeps giving us trouble this year. It seems like every time we turn around it's something. I'm sure someone would love to move in here and work in the 8 or so flower gardens, the fenced in veggie garden, the 3 car shed, the mother in law apt, the back patio etc. I do not have time and the older I get I do not have the inclination. I am so ready to downsize.
We found a house that would be perfect for us in Warrens. The upstairs is perfect for Jessalyn, the down stairs is perfect for Jake and the main floor is good for Will and I. It has a nice sized, no hassle lot and a 2 car garage for Will. There's even a nice back yard to fence in for Will's parent's camper. The only trouble is that we need to sell this one to buy that one. Better yet, it's right across the street from my parents, so we would be close if they needed anything etc. It seems like a win, win situation. So far God has not given us a way for it yet, so we keep trying to get this one ready for sale and praying for diving intervention. I am so ready to be done with working on this house and I never thought that I would say that. I'm just tired.

Yesterday was a 65 degree 62% humidity day around here. We went with our friends the Fischers to Wildcat Mountain State Park down in Ontario. What a blast. I've lived here so long and I'm ashamed to admit that I've never actually been in that park. I've driven by it several times, but never stopped. It was great fun. We cooked out, the kids hiked, we played botchi ball and in general goofed around and laughed. Man, did we laugh. We just love hanging out with that family. The are great people.
Well, time to get busy around here. I have the day off for once, so there is of course too much house work to get done, so guess what I'm doing today?
Have a great one!
dea

Wait where did June go?

2011-07-11T09:07:00.002-06:00

It seems like I was just dealing with snow and here it is July already. We've already had the fireworks and they feel like just a blur. Life is traveling very fast right now. Most of it is caused by the lack of substitutes at work, due to one factor or another. I am working 6 days a week now, most of the time and that does not leave much time for anything else.
Our summers are so much cooler than the ones we had in Florida, yet I find myself not being able to take the heat. My comfort zone seems to be in the 70's now and anything above that really throws me for a loop. I guess I'm getting old.
Our lawnmower died a very painful and long death. The motor kept going, but it's poor transmission...well it has issues. Our friend Randy and Will tried taking it apart and fixing it. No go. So, we found one on Craig's list and Will and Randy are on their way to pick it up now. Randy is going to put our engine into his mower with no engine and that way something good will come out of all of this. The best part is that prayerfully, we will have a mowed lawn that did not require hours of walking behind a small push mower.
I am still having minor health issues. I call them minor in comparison to some people I know. My main frustration is that there is no rhyme or reason to when mine will strike. Usually, it is at the least convenient moment. I will go on though.
We leave Wednesday to take my youth group to Sonshine. A Christian music festival in Minnesota. It's for 4 days and they are really looking forward to it. Of course now is when my stomach decides to go crazy. I stayed home today because I've been awake almost all night for 3 nights now in pain. It comes and goes, but it's very frustrating. They want to do exploratory surgery, but until I get a sub at work (it's in the works) I'm stuck.
I'm praying that this will be a life-changing trip for each and every one of us that are going. I am looking forward to basking in the love of Jesus and hopefully being able to put everything else to the side and just letting God's love be my main focus. It sounds pretty refreshing.
On the upside/downside...Will and I are trying to make major life changes here. We are downsizing. We even found a house that we would like to have that would enable us to hopefully become debt free in about 3 years or less. The main problem we are having is this house. It's a wonderful house, but we would need to have that house, paint it and do some minor repair, move in to it and then sell this one. It pretty much needs to be in that order.
We will see what God has in his plans for us. We would love that house. We would love being debt free. I would love being closer to my parents, church and Cranfest and would love having less of a work load, but I don't want it, if it is not what God wants for us. Meanwhile, we wait on his plans...

No complaints here.

2011-06-24T04:50:00.002-06:00

I have thoroughly enjoyed the weather here in Wisconsin lately. While the rest of the nation is suffering from extreme heat, we are basking in 70 degree temps. I appreciate it greatly. There is nothing quite like being out on a mail route in a car with black interior driving in the sunshine with your window down...no cool air there. I associate it with being kind of like making "sun tea".

Yesterday was one of those days that you wonder....What's the plan here God? I woke up and got everything in order for my work and Will's getting the van taken care of . Gave him a list of what he had to do during the day (I had made the appointments while he was at work just like he asked me to). I went to work and he started off on his adventure. We have been dealing with a shimmy issue and didn't know what it was, but with 3 different places looking at it yesterday, I figured someone would find out the issue.
Place one-tires rotated. No shimmy.
Place two-new brake pads...then they found the issue. It was the caliper. The only problem is that I had taken it to the mechanic, not once but twice to get them checked because that's what we thought it was in the first place.
This day was turning out to be expensive. It seems that lately we have not been in the $100 here, $100 there mode. It's been $500 here $1000 there for months....it can wear a person down. When Will called I was at the point that I was just waving money goodbye. You can either get upset, depressed or just take a deep breath and know that God is going to take care of it somehow. You might not know how, but you just have to leave it to Him. Well, I took a deep breath and let go...
Will called back. They put the caliper in. Said it was under warranty, waived the deductible and only charged us for the oil change. Thank you God!!!! We still had to pay through the nose for the brake pads (which I understand cost twice as much for the van as they do for my jeep) and the labor for putting those on, but much, much better than paying for the other.
Even better...no shimmy. New brakes and a smooth ride make Will a happy camper.
God came through. I just keep breathing deep and hanging on.

That wandering bug....

2011-06-07T04:50:00.002-06:00

I don't know why, but lately, I have been just ready to hop in the car and go. I've always had a wandering bug and a desire to see what is around the next corner. Both of my parents have it (especially my Dad), so I guess I come by in naturally.
While I'm on the route, I listen to a lot of Bible studies, preachers, music and do a lot of praying. Not as much as I'd like to, but some days I cannot find the focus (I know, shame on me). I wish that I was much more disciplined, but some days when the sun is shining and the animals are out for me to watch, I just have to pay attention to the world. I do say thank you God many times on those days and thank Him for His works. He has done and is doing great and wondrous things.
On other days...
My mind will wander and I mean WANDER. I plan trips. I even have an atlas in my jeep to use when I need to check the geography in my head. I have trips to go almost every where in the US and another one to take in the countries that I would love to see in Europe (there are not too many of those). I have to laugh though because although most of my trips are designed around scenery, there are a couple that are designed around "food". Who designs a trip around what you will eat???? I guess I do.
For our retirement plans ( you think about this stuff when your kids start graduating), Will and I plan on selling everything, packing up what we need to keep and storing it, and then we are going to hit the road traveling in some type of RV for at least 5 years. That sounds like heaven. I figure in 5 years we can spend about 3 weeks in each state (for the most part) and never have to see snow again, unless we want to. I would love to spend at least another month on the Oregon coastline, or just plain in Oregon itself. Then there's the trip out east for the fall color. The trip down to the keys during some winter, just to see it. A trip to the Grand Canyon and of course I want to see the Hoover Dam. I don't know why I want to see the dam, but I'm thinking it could be pretty interesting. I want to see Gettysburg again (it was one of the most memorable occasions in my life when I first saw it). Go to Maine for lobster, Boston for chowder, Texas for BBQ, Memphis for BBQ and pretty much any where that has wonderful food, great scenery and new folks to meet.
My traveling bug is hitting quite hard right now. If Will said "let's go" I think I could have everything packed and taken care of in less than 1/2 hour. Kind of funny if you think about it. I drive for over 4 hours a day and I'm still ready to hit the road running and take off. Oh well, back to the real world. 100 degree heat, dirty dishes and peanut butter.....hmmm.....
Calgon...take me away!!!

Hail from the storm

2011-05-24T04:47:00.000-06:00

Update on the storms

2011-05-24T04:28:00.002-06:00

I drove around my route yesterday feeling like I was in a war zone. You'd be driving along and everything would be fine, turn a corner and the trees were all down. It's not a very wide destruction path in the scheme of things (about 600 feet), but to the people that it demolished it must seem gigantic.
Some friends of ours lost almost every tree in their yard and too many to count in their pastures. They have sheds blown apart, a barn with a caved in front, huge trees down on their sheds and damage to their house. It could have been much worse. Thankfully God held the roof down so they have a place to live.
A neighbor of theirs went into his basement and when he came back out his roof was gone. Then he noticed that his entire attached garage was missing...completely. They found his garage door a mile away.
Other parts of it were scattered all through the woods around his house. His pole barn is hanging in the trees around his house.

Barns and houses are missing roofs, trees are down in a path that looks like a big bowling ball (600 feet wide) just ran through the woods (except there must have been a spin on that ball because the trees are all twisted).
The eagle baby must have died. The parents were gone. I don't know if I will ever see them again and that makes me so very sad. I love eagles and having them on my route, to see each day, has been a huge blessing for me. This was the 4th family I had watched them raise. I've watched as the babies learned to fly, hunt and then spread their wings and leave. It's like the chapter of a really good book is closing. I didn't want the chapter to end, let alone the book.

Yet life goes on. Every day there are new blessings, new issues, new things to learn. I hope that as time goes by, I learn a few things along the way. Things like keeping my mouth shut and not telling the truth "in love" when really it's just criticizing or complaining. Things like remembering to put the coffee filter in before you make coffee. Things like taking the time to call that person you just thought of, even if you don't really have the time, because you never know if it will be the last thing you get to say to them. Even then, sometimes just calling them and showing them you care might be the most important thing that happened to them that day.

All of these things that happened are really, really sad, but in all of this you see the important things come to light...people. I'm going to try to be a little more about "others" from now on. I know that helping others has always been important to me, but I think as I get older it seems to be gaining ground as a main focus in my life. So much suffering, so many lonely hurting people. So little time.........

Tornado 5-22-11

2011-05-23T04:27:00.000-06:00

Hail stones from the storm.

2011-05-23T04:25:00.000-06:00

Here at the funny farm.....

2011-05-22T15:35:00.001-06:00

They could never say that life at our house is boring. In fact, it borders on the ridiculous quite often. Unfortunately for my children, I seem to have passed on the stupid things happen to Deanna rule.

Poor Jessalyn was working on the back patio and somehow slammed herself in the eye with the wooden end of the push broom and is now sporting a partial shiner. Only my child could do that.

Jacob was playing kick ball on Friday and hurt his ankle. He did not want them to lose the game and so he kept playing. He hurt it again. He continued to play and ended up colliding with another kid on top of 2nd base and hurt it again. They started to play tug o' war and he ended up twisting it in the wrong direction. We spent Friday afternoon in the ER with him. They don't think it's broken, but we have to wait and see. He still cannot put any weight on it, so he will probably have to get it xrayed again. Just what he needed. Forget that, just what I needed. Well, at least once it was someone else and not me getting a test for this stupid mystery illness that I have.

Bad storms are cropping up here, so I'll get off for now and check in again later.

Wow! Little did I know that when I signed off earlier in the post that things would get hectic around here. It looked like we might get a bad thunderstorm, but that's it. The weather radar was red, but then it just turned to yellow, so we were not too worried. Suddenly withing seconds the whole thing turned red, the tornado sirens starting going off and we had multiple tornados all over around here.

Will and I heard thumping and it was huge hail coming down all around us. The flag went from hanging limp on the pole to standing straight out and not moving at all just staying straight. Will was at one end of the house and I was at the other watching. We had our stuff ready in our tornado position, but somehow never made it there. It was all over that quickly.

Our house is fine. No damage. Although I did manage to save some of the hail in the freezer.

My mail route did not fair so well. I heard through the grape vine that a couple of my roads had been in a tornado. Will and I picked up Mom and Dad and went to investigate. If the roads were toast, I needed to know for work. Alternate plans have to be made. It was bad. Trees down on houses and cars, roofs blown off etc.

The hardest part for me though, is that my eagle nest has been destroyed. I have watched the eagles raise 4 families in that nest. Enjoyed seeing them every day as part of my daily routine and that is all done now. They had another baby this year and I don't know if the baby made it. It was not flying yet. I called the DNR and told them about it, so hopefully, someone will go out and check it out. I know they like to save them and rehabilitate them if they can.

I know that in the scheme of things, no lives were lost so it's all good, but I still feel like I am in mourning. Those birds were part of my life and now they hopefully will rebuild somewhere, but it probably will not be where I can watch the nest and see them daily. A part of my life that I enjoyed greatly is gone. I know, I know, life goes on, but sometimes things that happen are not what I would have chosen. Still, God in His grace continues to bless me each day with other great things. So I will head out today to see what the "new" plan is.

Before the Tsunami

2011-03-12T06:19:00.000-06:00

During the Tsunami

2011-03-12T06:17:00.000-06:00

Memories of Oregon

2011-03-12T06:04:00.002-06:00

Listening to the story of Japan has been heart wrenching. I cannot imagine what they are going through, but the Tsunami brings other thoughts and sadness to my mind.
It was just 11 months ago that Will and I took a wonderful beautiful trip to Oregon and the Northern most tip of California to pick up my mail jeep. The city where we spent the night is now changed forever. We gloried in sitting on our own private balcony right on the ocean watching the sun as it set. Now we wonder if it is still there. The hotel was right on the beach and in a very low area and supposedly that area received major damage. The port that we watched boats go in and out of has been completely destroyed.
We ate breakfast in Crescent City CA and drove around it just looking. I guess it received major damage also. Many of the towns we drove through on Highway 101 are dealing with water issues.
At one point Will and I stopped and took pictures. They are now showing pictures of the Tsunami waves hitting it. When we were there, we were way above the water. Now the water in the photos is cresting the scenic lookout area.
It's made me think of the times we spent there. I wish I could go back and see more. If Will said let's go, I'd be in the car in 10 minutes. It goes to show you how quickly things can change and how we should take advantage of every minute and not waste one. What a terrible thing to look back at my life and see the "regrets".
God has brought a change in me lately. It was emphasized on my conference trip. I am bogged down in "stuff". I have entirely too much stuff. I am so ready to get down to the basics of living. I have been trying to streamline things around here, but now I find that I am going to go much deeper. If I don't have it laying around, then I don't have to clean it. If it's important enough to keep then I'll keep it, but things are gonna change. They have to. Get ready for the garage sale of the year...coming here this spring. I'm chucking it all. I'm sick of cleaning. I'm sick of housework. I want to live. I want to travel...I want to see all that God has created and enjoy it and marvel in it's splendor. I don't think I'll do that dusting thingys that permanently live on shelves or in rubbermaid storage containers. It's all gonna go!!!!!!

Tirimisu in a Chocolate cup.

2011-03-10T06:28:00.000-06:00

A weekend of no stress

2011-03-10T05:36:00.002-06:00

Everyone should have a weekend that they can be stress free and pampered. The last 4 days were that for me. I attended the Wisconsin Governors Conference on Tourism from Sunday through Wednesday morning. What a blast!
We left right after church (well as "right after" as we are able to) and headed down to the Kalahari resort in Wisconsin Dells. That was where our conference was going to be held and I got special room rates for the family and our friends. We spent the afternoon at the water park. I had to sneak away to attend the opening reception and eat some marvelous food. Then headed back to the room for more family time.
They all left the next morning and I went on to my classes. I enjoy this conference. It's all about tourism, but more importantly it's about hospitality and that is my main "theme" in life. Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you I'm all about making other people feel special and spoiled. My family says that my life's mission is to feed the world. I'd rather do something nice for others, but I will admit that going to this conference feels like "me time". That's something I don't get very often.
I love to learn and I love to create and discuss and brainstorm and round table. That's what we do at this conference. I had classes in cultural tourism, native American tourism, mobile advertising and more. While I am in class, ideas literally jump into my mind and I spend as much time writing notes about the class as I do writing notes to remember the thoughts that I had during the class. To me it is like creative water seeping into my dehydrated flesh. I LOVE the whole tourism scene. After the kids are gone, I may try my hand at becoming more involved on a state level.
My conference started with meeting the Lt. Governor of the state of Wisconsin and then getting to congratulate my friend Stephanie on becoming the next Secretary of Tourism. There's something wonderful about looking at the top person in tourism and having her call you by your first name and give you a huge hug. Does wonders for a po-dunk little wife and mother from the metropolis of Warrens (population 250 on a busy day).
I entered a twitter contest that asked what you did in Wisconsin for fun. I won an I-pad. That was pretty neat, although I really have no clue as to what it is. I seem to have gained some "cool points" with my kids.
I was very impressed with our Governor who actually opened the conference and then closed it too. The previous Governor didn't seem to think it was very important to be there at a function that held his name and was supposedly hosted by him. He was usually in China or somewhere. With tourism bringing huge amounts of money and creating thousands of jobs in the state, you would think that he would be willing to promote it. The new Governor is. He called on us to help promote Wisconsin, love people, and to help create jobs. He asked us to sing.
I was impressed that his wife came with him to the banquet. I was impressed that he gave 2 speeches without teleprompters, without notes and they were good. Aside from a few "little" jokes (nothing cruel or even really political" he never even mentioned the issues in Madison. He focused on tourism and how it can help bring Wisconsin out of this mess. Good job Gov.
All in all, it was a great time. The food was absolutely marvelous and I want all the recipes. The hosting conference center went out of their way to show us a good time. I even managed to come away a winner at the Casino. Big spender that I am playing the penny slots and cashing out before I lose anything....it was fun and I'm thankful that I had the chance to go.
Now back to my life that was already in progress. I think I hear dishes and laundry calling.....I want to go back to the conference..there's no place like WIGCOT, there's no place like WIGCOT, there's no place like WIGCOT....

A wild and crazy ride.

2011-02-27T07:15:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I received a phone call from my friend telling me that our "adoptive" other son Luke was in the ditch down on the "dreaded" corner-Zingler's corner. I think every town must have one of those on some road somewhere. Some corner where accidents seem to happen. That's what ours is called. Zingler is the name of the family that have owned must of the land surrounding that corner for as long as anyone can remember. My friend said that someone was there with him pulling him out. I called Will to let him know what was going on.

Another friend called Will shortly after that and said that he was still stuck and she didn't know if they would get him out without help. Will and Jake suited up, loaded the truck and headed out. They finally got Luke out and he headed home.

Life went on as usual and so we headed over to the Fischer house for an evening of trying to put together the video presentation for our youth trip to Chicago. We spent a lovely evening there. Finally after plaguing their existence long enough...we headed home.

On the way home we turned one corner and there was a jeep in the ditch....way in the ditch. No one in it, so we headed on. Got to Zingler's corner and there was another car in the ditch this one with a lady in it. We called 911 because the corner was so dangerous and so very slippery that we couldn't stop on that side of the road for safety's sake. We turned around, came back and parked on the other side with flashers going to warn oncoming drivers as Will went to help.

As we were sitting there another truck came by, drove a little farther down the road and flew into the ditch. I called 911 because now we have 2 cars in the ditch. It's getting iffy around there. An officer is on the way.

We finally get headed home and are almost there when we notice another set of headlights aimed for the sky on the side of the road. This was a truck that had driven straight into the ditch. Someone was there with them, so we went on home, glad to arrive home in one piece. It was about midnight and we were all exhausted. We went straight to bed....and that's the story of our wild and crazy ride home.

The posting war

2011-02-26T06:17:00.002-06:00

Will and I have been teasing each other lately about who's turn it is to post. We are really busy. Of course, we both sit in front of the computer doing "mindless" things daily, but making the effort to type something intelligent seems to be above an beyond us. So....I'm gonna win the war for today (he just cheats and posts pictures anyway).

Thursday and Friday were completely strange for me. In order to explain I have to go clear back 15 years ago when I was pregnant with Jessalyn. You see Will and I were in the car and ...wham..a deer came through the windshield and hit me in the head. Totaled the car and in general caused bunches of problems. We thought it was all over until a couple of years ago.
About 2008 I started having facial pain that was up under my nose and along my upper jaw. Then the infections started and we found out that the deer had killed all of my teeth along the top of my jaw in front. I knew that I would have to have root canals on all of them and get crowns. I put it off as long as possible due to financial reasons, but also due to the fact that we didn't know which ones were dying and which ones weren't. I wanted to get it all done at once, not keep going in every couple of months and do it all over again.
Finally they all reached a point where you could tell what steps to take and I went and had the root canals. Let me tell you this...I love Dr. Blair Johnson in Eau Claire. Quick painless and hardly any pain afterward. He's wonderful and I cannot recommend him enough. I love my dentist too (he's my brother-in-law).
Jimmy did the work and got the temporary crowns on Thursday. He made it as pain free as possible (although working on those front teeth you can't kill it all the way). Everything went fine except...

Right in the middle of the procedure I started getting dizzy. Now remember I said Dizzy not dizty, so no smart remarks. They said the blood all drained out of my face. They waited a while and I started feeling better, so we went on. I was fine on the way home until the last 3 miles. Then I got really dizzy and weak. I drove about 30 mph and as carefully as I could and got home. I went straight in and laid down.
I spent the next 5 hours with a high fever and chills, unable to sit up and certainly unable to stand up. I told Will when he called that I thought I needed to go to the ER. I didn't want to go for many reasons..for one I could not walk, I could not sit up, stand up or motivate. I was so cold that I knew I could not go outside. I thought the walk to the car and being outside might kill me..really. I did not think that I would survive. Of course most of that was the fever, but I truly was afraid to leave the bed. That is not a "good" place to be in.
I asked Will to call Darin's house where the worship team was waiting for me to practice. They had already figured I would not be coming, because of pain, but really I didn't have much pain. Darin prayed with Will and right away my fever started going down. So we waited to see if I needed to go to the ER. I just went to sleep and slept most of it off.
I spent yesterday trying to recover feeling even weaker than I did after my hysterectomy. What a terrible thing that weakness. If the house was on fire, I'm not sure that I would have been able to get out at times. I feel better now, but not up to my usual capacity. I'm hoping it gets better since I now have to work today.
During this last week we lost 2 substitute carriers at work. They both moved on to different jobs, so we are now 3 short again. Lovely. The last time this happened, I ended up with Thursdays off instead of Saturdays...I sure hope that doesn't happen again.
Well, now that I've told you about the weirdness that is my life...How's yours going?

Some more pics we took from Oregon

2011-02-25T07:40:00.003-06:00

There! I posted! Nya Nya! ;-)

2011-01-29T06:57:00.000-06:00

Where does the time go?

2011-01-29T06:27:00.002-06:00

Will informed me that it was my turn to post. We both agree that we should post more often. Finding the time to do so is just difficult. I know I could take the time, I just either find other things to do or am a mental vegetable incapable of putting words together.
We received a letter from the high school the other day informing us that it was time to bring our "baby" in to get her ready for high school next year. High school?!? I'm still having a hard time dealing with Jake graduating this year and now you want my baby too!?!
Now don't get me wrong, I want them to graduate and get on with their lives. I'm a very "hands on" mom, but even I can see that these kids want to fly the coop. Jessa maybe even more than Jake. They have plans and dreams. I can remember those days. It's just that it would be nice if they could do it without me getting older.
It's not really that I dislike getting older...it's just the stuff that goes with it. I hate having gray hair (even though I'm sure I earned them). I still color it otherwise it would be completely gray and I'm not THAT old. Although I am grateful to wake up every morning (thank you God), I don't like looking looking in the mirror and doing the "chin count" (how many do I have today?). I absolutely hate the aches and pains associated with getting older. I feel like slapping someone that tells me "you know you're not as young as you used to be"....no duh.
The only problem is that my mind still feels that young. I still make plans that 20 years ago I would have been able to accomplish in a day...now it takes me longer. I still feel like I can "climb that mountain" only to find myself huffing and puffing and exhausted by mid way. Life is good, so I try not to complain (much). It's just this learning to be "less young". My body is going a way that my mind seems to be uncommitted to. My mind still says go,go, go and my body says...maybe I'll sit here and rest for awhile. It's frustrating.
I do find one thing enjoyable though about getting older. Thinking about retirement! I have a plan. I keep working on the plan. Will actually is in agreement with the plan. He's just a realist (I call that a pessimist). He says "show me the money". I'm gonna try to.
I want to sell pretty much everything off at retirement and put the rest in storage. I would like to by then have bought a motorhome and have it paid for. My dream/plan is to travel for 5 years and see the US. God made such a wonderful land and I want to see it all. Now I just have to work on the plan. It's on the back burner and not at the top of my list of things to do (that list includes, new roof, new insulation, new secondary car, etc. etc). I deal with the real list on a daily basis and pray over it, try not to fret over it, plan over it...you know the drill. BUT on the route in my mind's eye...I dream of vacations, retirement and LIVING. Living with no stress, no bills (or at least not many) no appointments, no stress (oops I mentioned that already didn't I?). I want to wake up each morning and just sit and contemplate God's world with my cup of coffee in my hand. I want to walk holding Will's hand through forests, down valleys, wandering through meadows, looking over canyons, standing on the top of mountains, staring up at waterfalls. I want to see it all. Whether God blesses this plan and we get to do it or not...I can at least imagine it every day out on the route.
I hope that you guys have this type of imagination too. Whenever stresses, problems or just plain "life" gets you down. When you cannot see past the problem...imagine the future without the problem. Remember God sees the future with this problem gone...so it's gonna happen. Remember he said it in the Bible..."and it came to pass".
Here's to life! Even if I have to get old (yuck) to live it. Have a great day. (I'd wave but I pulled a muscle and it hurts to lift my arm. See what I mean about this getting old stuff? I don't have time!)
Go out and dream!!!!!!

For our Military, Police, E.M.T.S, Firefighters etc

2010-12-18T08:14:00.002-06:00

Thank You! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. If you serve This country, This region, This State, This county, This township, This Street...My Family and I Thank You and Remember.

May The Lord Bless You and Keep You. May the Lord Make His Face Shine upon You and be gracious unto You. The Lord lift up His Countenance upon you and Give You Peace!

numbers 6:24-26

Thanksgiving....

2010-11-27T03:37:00.002-06:00

...was great! Everyone worked hard to get the house in order even though it was only for a couple of guests but it helped to let everyone enjoy themselves for the day.
It was a true "Count your blessings" day. I sat there amazed by the blessings in my life that I so often complain about. So many things can cause stress and concern and even worry, but when you take a moment to change your perspective, those worries are really blessings that I haven't been properly thankful for.
The roof on my house badly needs to be repaired yet, I HAVE a roof. In fact it often feels like this house is falling down around my ears faster than I can keep up with it; but again, I HAVE a house. There are things that are wrong (in my humble opinion) with a lot of aspects of my life that are only wrong depending on the perspective you take. Even my relationship with the Jesus isn't where I want it to be but then again, I HAVE a RELATIONSHIP with God(!) and His Son! How cool is that?? Throughout my day I can (and do) talk with Him and yes, He with me. I could be closer, I could be more dedicated and those are my goals but sometimes the strength that helps you move forward comes from seeing how far you've come. It is also part of the nature of God that the closer you get to Him the farther from Him you realize you were to begin with.

I am so very rich with a loving wife and two great kids. I have a home and not just a house. I have a job that pays well. A car, a truck, a s.u.v. and a van. Depending on what part of the world you're in, I am so very wealthy. My kids will have options when they turn 18 and were not told who they would marry or what they would do back when they were 13. I can go on and on but it's more important that YOU count Your Blessings than listen to mine. It's perspective. The Thanksgiving Holiday Is an American Holiday and the more I learn about the other countries around the world the more grateful I am for this one. Like my house and my life there are a lot of things that need to be fixed with the good ol' U.S.A. but there is still no other place I would rather live. So I'm taking a minute to be thankful and then it's time to roll up our sleeves and get back to work.

Numbers 6:24-26
Will.

Yeah, Yeah We know....

2010-08-25T19:05:00.002-06:00

.....We haven't posted in months. With all of us on Facebook we just haven't felt it was all that necessary anymore. Still, There are a few of you who might be interested in more on this page....Maybe. YOUR RESPONSE WILL MAKE ALL THE DEFERENCE in how much more we post. Not to say we will completely abandon this page no, no, no. This is our home page and works well in that capacity but if we don't get enough of a response, then there really isn't a point then is there? So we haven't forgotten this page we really are busy and I feel this page is becoming obsolete...like my computer...;-) numbers 6:24-26.

Will.

Running on empty..

2010-06-07T20:19:00.002-06:00

It seems that my whole life I have been one step behind where I need to be. This would be ok, except sometimes I actually try to get ahead. I have been working hours each night on the yard and the house for weeks. I am still working on my "to do list" for the year 2003. It's just not happening fast enough.

The kids are doing great. Growing..learning..making messes..eating.. You name it they're doing it. Who would have ever thought that I would have a 17 year old and a 14 year old? Wow. Time sure has flown. Next month Will and I will celebrate 20 years. At least I will celebrate...him..he might be in mourning. Something about the loss of his car (he drives a minivan now), his hair (his choice to cut it short and get rid of the mullet) his cool job (he is no longer a "personality", he just has personality.

We go on with our day to day. We look at each other now and again (actually quite often) and say that we really would like to go on another trip out west. His parents are there now on a trip to the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone. We want to go there too! Life just keeps getting in the way.

Summer vacation is just around the corner for the kids. They are itching to be done with this year of school. I'm just itching for them to be done with school period. It gets to be quite wearing-all this running around.

We took our youth group on a field trip to go and see parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls a couple of weeks ago. Amazing stuff, although I'm not sure if the kids were more amazed by the museum or the size of the burgers that we had on the way home. All in all it was a great trip.

This next weekend it is the 2nd annual motorcycle rally potluck at our church. We are really looking forward to it. I pray that it does not rain. It will ruin the day for too many people if it does.
Well, as soon as the kids get home from some school video awards, I'm off to bed.
See ya,
dea

The wild and crazy life of "us".

2010-04-01T04:27:00.003-06:00

Will has been after me to post because so much has been going on. I agree, it's just hard to figure out what to post about. While time has seemed to just crawl lately, I realize that it is actually moving much faster than normal and I'm not able to keep up. We have had so many changes in our lives, in just the last little while, that it is hard to know where to begin. I guess I'll take a stab at it and we'll see where it leads.

January was cold here with lots of ice. Years ago, I was the substitute on the mail route I now have. So I was not surprised by the amounts of snow and ice that cause problems on the hills. I was surprised to find out that the roads in the city were the worst. People did not shovel and the city did not plow. That in mind, Will and I made the decision to find a right hand drive jeep. Jeeps are very popular all over the world, but finding one with RHD and little or no rust is difficult since they are not making them anymore. Before you ask, the conversion kits are dangerous, with a "belt" running from a steering wheel on one side to the other. Most people would have no problem with this, but you have to take into account the "stupid things happen to Deanna rule".

We had been searching for a couple of weeks, with no success. We actually found one that looked great in Green Bay, until we actually saw it. There were lots of little things wrong with it and hidden rust all over. I kept looking...then one day I found a jeep online that he had put the advertisement up on that day. Only problem was that it was in Oregon. Still, I had to consider it, since I found it by what I thought was coincidence. We all know how God likes to work through that coincidence stuff. It turns out that it was not too far from my cousin Kent's house. I emailed Kent and he graciously went and looked at it and took pictures for me. He sent them back. I bought the jeep. Now it's sitting in Kent's driveway, waiting for me. All for less than a third of the price of the Green Bay jeep.

Mail count this year was stressful. I was worried that my route would get smaller, which means same amount of work for less pay. God was good as always and it turned out that the route was 5 minutes into the next larger pay bracket. Yahoo! I didn't have to count this year, but felt I should since the count last year was done by a substitute that had not counted before. I didn't know if it was accurate. Here I was trying to make sure everything was right and it could have blown up in my face,but it didn't. I'm thrilled.

So let's tally up the roster here.....mail count good (check), pay raise coming (check), jeep bought in Oregon with cash so no loan payment (check) life is looking pretty good, but there's more.

For the last 2 years I have been fighting with the insurance company that we had with Will's work. They kept raising deductibles etc. Then they refused to pay for 3 different visits to the tune of $1200 plus. We are still arguing about that. So, on January 1rst we changed to insurance with my work. It sounded really good on paper, but you know how that goes. About 3 weeks ago, Jessalyn suddenly spiked a fever of 102 that would not go down with tylen*l, started throwing up uncontrollably and had low right side pain. We were off to the ER.

Oh great. When we get there, I made the last payment on Jake's last visit (broken nose). I thought to myself. I wonder how much this one will set us back because she had oodles of testing and IV's etc. The benefits explanation came in the mail and I was afraid to open it.....eased it open and started reading (the last thing I need right now is another payment).....ok, hmmmm, charges are about $2700......what do we owe?? Page one.....patient responsibility....NOTHING! Page two......patient responsibility $75....ok, where's the rest????? What?? They payed the entire bill??? Are you kidding me? We only owe $75? Praise the Lord!!!!! What a shock after the previous years of deductibles. Thank you God!

The next week I was back in the Dr's office with Jake who was having chest pains and shortness of breath. In a 17 year old? You have got to be kidding me. They did tons of testing on him and drew blood, which is a hugely traumatic thing for a kid with a needle phobia. Everything came back normal thank you God, but he was still having the symptoms...hmm. I remember when I was about his age having the same symptoms. They called it Pleurisy back then. I don't know if Dr's agree that it's an issue now, but I remember how painful it was back then. I put Jake on an over the counter anti-inflammatory and it seems to be helping. Now we are waiting for this bill, but I am not as worried about this one.

Will and I are set to fly out to Oregon next week (Thursday) to pick up my jeep. This year marks our 20th anniversary, so we are going to take a whole week to come back and call it our anniversary trip. I have always, always wanted to see the Redwoods in California. It has been a dream for years and now it looks like, God willing, I will get to realize the dream. We are going to try to spend one night in a hotel on the beach and watch the sunset. I also would like to take my hubby out to eat some fresh seafood, which is something we both love, but do not get here in Wisconsin for obvious reasons. We plan on just toodeling home with a stop at Glacier. We will buy a new card for the camera since the old one is full and hopefully will share pictures with every one.

So there is the first bunch of happenings here in Donaldsonland....I'll try to post more soon.
Have a great day!
dea

Randy's Ramblings.

2010-03-28T07:43:00.005-06:00

Once again, here I am apologizing for how long it has taken us to post. I had really thought Deanna would have posted by now; she has had so many cool things happen to her but alas, those same things keep her too busy to post. So I have taken the initiative and .....

Stolen someone else's work. Meet Randy: A good friend of mine because I like the way he thinks. You will see why. Please feel free to comment and tell him how wonderful he is and maybe he won't be mad that I stole his work.....

Howdy folks,

Well, now it's official. We now have government controlled Healthcare in
America. I'm not really liking the whole "Let's give up on everything
America has ever stood for and turn it into Europe" mentality. I'm all
about Freedom, but what am I to do? There is no place left to move to,
right? Hmm....Or is there?

I wonder if there are any unclaimed islands left somewhere out in the
Caribbean where a guy could go. I think maybe I'll start my own country.
I could call it "The Camaro Islands" or maybe just "Oppositeland". Why
Oppositeland? Because I would do everything opposite of the way the rest
of the world does.

For example: People in Oppositeland would actually be free. No more laws
governing you against stupidity. Don't want to wear a seatbelt? That's
fine....stupid, but fine.

People in Oppositeland need to have jobs and make money, so there would be
no taxes imposed on companies willing to move there. How's that for
opposite? In fact there will be no personal income tax, either. What's
that? How does the government pay for stuff? Well, first of all, it
wouldn't spend very much. A few roads, basic police protection, not much
else. Secondly, we would have a small national sales tax on anything
purchased there. You only pay taxes on things you buy.

What about the poor? the sick? the homeless? I have faith in the
citizens of Oppositeland to take care of each other. They will help the
helpless, while building strength of character and compassion in their own
lives. Too lazy to find work? Sorry, sucks to be you. No government
bureaucracies needed.

The entire economy would be based on something I like to call the "Free
Market" system. Businesses would be free to compete with each other,
thereby guaranteeing the best prices, goods, and services available for
consumers. No overbearing government regulation here, either.

But what happens when some people get greedy and make risky investments
that affect others? Yeah....they'll have to go broke. No bailouts here.

So there's the basic layout of oppositeland. Somehow it seems vaguely
familiar to something another country set up once upon a time. Too bad
the people of that country lost sight of the vision that made it great.
It could have en a wonderful place to live.

I guess I'll start looking for islands. Who's with me?

-Randy

It's complicated...

2010-02-04T02:56:00.004-06:00

From Will:

...I'll explain the title of this post in a minute. It's three am on my day off and I have come face to face with my age/life once again: I am awake.

I used to live in Florida where one of the things they used to tell the tourists was: "You have to watch the sunrise (while on the beach) and THEN go to bed....
That was my lifestyle when I was a younger and much more arrogant man. Now I wake up (as opposed to "coming to") long before the sun rises; even on my days off, whether I want to or not.

I've always enjoyed listening to comedians. I used to laugh so hard as a kid to the older comedians telling jokes about getting older and the things that start to happen to your body. The best comedians simply tell the truth in such a way as to make you laugh. Now that I'm older I realize they are funny; what they're saying ....not so much.

We had friends over a few nights ago and we were talking about the changes in our selves since we were kids and all the old jokes were there. I'd heard them over and over and yet there they were as if they were new; because now we were living them: The hair on your head doesn't stop growing; it's just growing in other places instead...ears, back, uni-brow....etc.... when we were young we could sleep through the night (and then some) without having to get up to go to the restroom. Then when we finally did wake up and "went" as it were, my dad was sure if the whole world caught fire his kids could put it out - once we woke up...

When we were kids everything was simple: Eat, Sleep and quest for fun. More so for me being a certified Redneck. The people here in Wisconsin don't realize that Jeff Foxworthy does not tell jokes; I know the people he's talking about and I'm one of them. He describes a redneck as someone who is wonderfully devoid of any sophistication. Then he gives you examples. There was a point some years ago when I did have more appliances on my front porch then in my kitchen. I have (and not so long ago) mowed my lawn and discovered a car I forgot I owned. I have and know several people who have had to move their car transmission off the dining room table before dinner...The list goes on. There is no doubt I am a redneck.

So, while I'm un-sophisticated, this getting older (insert expletive of your choice here)...just makes everything else more complicated. I don't learn as quickly as I used to. In fact, learning itself is more challenging as I deal with eyes that don't see as well as they used to and hands that are much less coordinated; that, is a bad combination I assure you.

That brings me to the title of this post. Everything is more complicated.
Evidently, it's trend that is world-wide and is starting to encompass everything.
I have Facebook friends from all over the world and while I truly enjoy getting a glimpse into their lives. I've noticed a disturbing trend: "It's complicated."

"it's complicated"? This is becoming more and more popular as an answer to one word questions: "Single? answer: it's complicated."

See, it only takes ONE word to ask that question, it should only take one word to answer: Yes or No. If the word is supposed to be yes but you can't say that because your "significant other" (don't get me started on that one) has a spouse that doesn't know about how close you are....it's time to simplify your life! Really! If your relationship status is "complicated" then you should be working to simplify it.

Now why am I going on about this? Because the latest trend for the one word question "Religion?" is to answer....you guessed it...."It's complicated"...If what religion are you has become too complicated to explain in a couple of words It is SO time to simplify your life.

Here is a tip: Try Jesus! He has a way of making the complicated simple. His Love is simple: He loves you. No one has prior claims and nothing you can do or have done will change the fact that He Loves you.

And it won't matter if you grow older, have hair growing out of your ears instead of out of your head, He'll still love you. It won't matter that you go to bed when you used to be getting ready to go out. He'll Love you. When you're waking up when you used to think about going home, He loves you. When you turn your blog into a place to rant...Yep even then, He loves you.

Even Me.

Even You.

Take that with you today.

God Bless.

Will.

From Will.

2010-01-16T19:19:00.005-06:00

.It's been too long between posts. I'm Sorry. With our Facebook pages, most of what goes on around here winds up there but that's no excuse. To use the vernacular: My Bad.

There really hasn't been much going on around here just the usual post-holiday back to normal routine. The decorations are down but not completely put away. Maybe we'll get to it before the spring cleaning starts...maybe not.

As I posted earlier I let Jacob put the lights on the tree and other than some words of advice I gave him free rein. Well that meant he got to take the lights off the tree; lesson learned, Don't wrap the lights candy-cane style around the tree. I had explained a better way that would make it easier to remove the lights later but he took the opportunity to do it his way. Now he discovered how much more difficult it can be to take them off. Until. Until I gave him a chance to have a little fun.

The tree was in our sun porch with our newly stained cement floor. If we had any other kind of floor I probably wouldn't have let him do this but, He was willingly helping so I told him he could....
You see, Jacob likes swords. He has collected four or five metal ones and couple wooden ones. You see where I'm going with this right? I have tree pruners but instead I gave him permission to use his swords to hack the branches off one at a time with the admonition not to hack up my lights. By the time he was done there was this intense pine-fresh cent permeating our sun porch. Hacked boughs stacked neatly on table and floor and one lone, long stick poking up out of my tree stand (that still had 40 pounds of weights holding it down). He managed to avoid blister but I believe the wrapping on one of his "nin-gata" (ninja-style) hilts looked a little worse for wear. He was quite proud of himself and his accomplishment. I was too. I mean how cool is it to have a sword and a (reasonably) legitimate reason to use it? If you don't understand, odds are against you being a guy...

Well, hopefully that will hold you over til our next post, which hopefully won't take as long at the last one!

May the Lord Bless You and Keep You and Give You Peace!
Will

Holidays 2009-2010

2010-01-02T11:06:00.002-06:00

Well, they're almost over; the holiday vacation days for Christmas and the New Year. I just made the unpleasant and unpopular decision to not let the kids run off today. (Jacob wanted to go see his girlfriend). Deanna and I are home today and tomorrow and we've all been running off to parties and get-togethers without actually spending much time with each other.

Below you will see some pics of our cutting down our Christmas tree. That has been a family tradition for some time that may have come to an end this year. We've been getting our Christmas trees from the same farm for almost 15 years. They've been very good to us but they are no longer planting Christmas trees and getting ready for retirement. More than that , for the last couple of years we've been putting our tree up later and later as our schedules make it more and more difficult to find the time to all get together to go cut down a tree. Dea and I have decided it's time to look for a good quality artificial tree. Recognizing that this might be a last chance I had Jacob and Jessalyn put up the lights and decorations themselves with very little interference from myself They did fine with some exceptions that are normal sibling issues. Normally I let Dea pick the tree and I only use veto power if the trunk is too twisted. We've been able to enjoy 9 and half foot trees and larger but we were so late this year that there were very few to choose from. So, the first one she picked I gave the "okay" and let Jacob have the saw. Later as I tried to put the tree into a stand I realized how twisted the trunk was. I thought I had it up okay. Really, I did. Anyway, after the kids were done decorating I claimed the honor of putting the angel on the tree; only to drop and break it. No big deal we'll put a bow or something up there later. The angel being broke really didn't bother me the next morning when we found the tree on it's side with Christmas balls scattered over the floor. We put it back up with the idea of attaching it to the wall later. Ten minutes later, it was on the floor again. Neither time did we hear it fall. By the time I was done I had put two 20 pound weights on the base and tied the top to the wall. It's not going anywhere tell it's time to put it on the burn pile! (tomorrow maybe)

for longer than we've been together (20 years), Deanna has been holding a Christmas eve party. This year the forecast was an ice blizzard for Christmas eve. We didn't have any choice, we postponed for the following Sunday. It went well, but there were a lot of faces missing and I'm still not over the disappointment. I understand they're not being able to be there but as I said, I missed them. some of them it's the only time I get to see them all year. The worse part? The storm they kept predicting right up to party time never showed. I know we make the right decision but as I started out this post, sometimes the right decision really stinks.
That said, the Sunday get-together really was fun. There were fewer people so I may have to put off my New Years resolution to diet until all this food is gone...

This New Years eve we did something a little different. Normally, Dea and I are in bed long before midnight, but not this time. Our friends Randy and Diana Fischer have three great kids Adam, Ben and Dillon (sp?). We invited them and Luke Callaway ( a real good friend of ours and our kids) and Jacob and Jessalyn's cousins : Jessica Oakes, Skylar Sutherland and Analisa Sutherland. We then gave the kids our sun porch. The kids brought an extra T.V. and took two of ours and set them up with three different kinds of game consoles. I walked out to tell them it was almost midnight (hours after they started) and they were all having a blast! They also were being good as gold! It was a really good feeling seeing all these kids having a good time playing all kinds of games and just having fun...right there in my sun porch.

Diana Fischer stayed well after midnight and we truly enjoyed the conversation! The time flew but we all needed some sleep time. The next morning some of the kids were still going strong, so we fed them some breakfast, helped them get cleaned up and sent them on their way. Deanna's parents have a tradition of cooking up fry bread and chili for lunch on new years day so we spent the afternoon with them and their family.

That brings us to last night where there was a "grown up" party at Darin and Tiffany Oakes (Jessica's parents) house. Well, it started out "grown up", with great food and nice atmosphere, but then the Fischers brought a "Wii" console and set up this game called rabid rabbits. Suddenly there was a house filled with giggling, laughing, 40-something, adolescent kids. We laughed til our sides hurt and wiggled the controls til our arms ached and had THE BEST time! Thanks to all!

This morning was almost back to normal as the temps dropped to -10 (f) and below as I jump-started the truck to begin taking the trash out to the dump. I 'm not ready for the "getting back to normal". So yeah, everyone can stay home together today and maybe watch a movie or two together.
Perhaps a meal or tow together too. As long as it's together; for just a little longer.

May the Lord Bless You and Keep You and Give You Peace.
Will H. Donaldson

2010-01-02T10:22:00.001-06:00

Our tree either before or after it fell (twice) I forget.

2009-12-26T11:07:00.004-06:00

Our Warrens Christmas display

2009-12-26T11:07:00.002-06:00

Mini tree in the entryway.

2009-12-26T11:05:00.000-06:00

A Christmas weekend.

2009-12-07T05:25:00.001-06:00

It was a weekend filled with Christmas and I still don't feel like having Christmas. Strange isn't it? I suppose that after this next week, which is supposed to get snow everyday, I will probably feel like having Christmas.

Will and I had to make a mad dash to LaCrosse on Friday evening to get his signature on our new checking account. They could not order our new checks with his name on them without his signature on file. I can understand that. Since, no matter how I try, I cannot seem to live without checks, Friday was the only day we could fit it in due to his work schedule. We arrived there at 4:59 and they close at 5:00. I was actually calling them from the elevator saying "we're here don't close". That done we stopped at Sams for some quick refills on stuff (certain things are much cheaper there) and then ran home and started working on the weekend's events.

Saturday our church had it's annual cooking baking day. We baked cookies for every house in the village of Warrens, bagged them up and had them ready to go for Sunday. We ended up with about 120 dozen. I had thrown together some soup (chili, cheesy potato ham, chicken noodle and bean). My friend Judy had made 7 dozen rolls in the morning, so we had a soup and rolls supper with cookies for dessert for anyone that wanted to come. It was a fun time with lots of laughs and smiles and good food.

Sunday was church and there were enough leftovers for people to hang around and eat some more soup and cookies. We all went home and then the kids and I and my cousin Bill (our pastor) met back at the church to deliver cookies. We got all of them delivered except for one street and Jake and I will try to take care of that today. I met our friend (with his big diesel truck) up at the Cranfest office and we hooked up the Cranfest float/people mover. Everyone piled onto it (I think about 27 of us) and we started caroling. We caroled for almost 2 1/2 hours in the cold and dark. It was fun. Some people got cold and had to go home, but many of us stuck it out. We ended up at the senior apartments for a party that they hosted and had a blast. Jake, Jessa and I stayed for a while after everyone else and talked. We got home about 8:00 pm.

It was a full weekend, but well worth it. Now everyone can just do their own family thing and not have to worry about any other church functions. Things are starting to be Christmas here at Donaldson Central and I'm hoping that the joy of the season will permiate my bones. So far it has not, but I am trusting that God will make His presence known and I will begin to feel it. He has done it every year so far. We have a little over 2 weeks to get it all together.

So.......18 gift baskets here I come. Open House on Christmas Eve here I come. Christmas shopping here I come.....delivering mail in the snow, here I come....

READY OR NOT CHRISTMAS....HERE I COME!!!!!!!

Have a great day.

dea

The last day of fall...

2009-12-02T05:04:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was a beautiful day on the route with sunshine and warm temps. Today is supposed to be the official start of our colder weather. I am not thrilled, but I guess that I have nothing to complain about. We have had a wonderful November. Warmer temperatures and sunshine. It kind of made up for the terrible October with it's 5+ inches of rain and downright cold temperatures.

Now we can start getting ready for Christmas. Up until now it felt like Florida weather and I always had a hard time getting ready for the holidays there. I don't know how it would be living in Miami or some such place. Christmas in the 90's. Of course, if you are like our friends in Australia, I guess Christmas in cold weather sounds weird.

This Saturday is our second annual cookie baking day. I am planning on getting to the church about 8:00 am and starting to bake there. I will bake cookies here at home too before, for decorating there. Our plan is to make about 200 dozen cookies. We plan on giving a bag of cookies to each and every household in Warrens this year. So tonight the kids start decorating the bags. I have the cards in the bags already to print out. Saturday we will bake cookies, decorate cookies, bag cookies and deliver cookies. Then at 6:00pm on Saturday I will be serving soup for anyone that wants to come to the church for supper. Sunday is church and then after church we will finish delivering cookies. At 4:00 pm that afternoon we all meet at the church and jump onto the Cranfest float people mover and start our community Christmas caroling. We will carol all over and then we will be ending at the Hilltopper apartments where there are older people living that are going to host a small party for us. We ended there last year also and it was a great, great time.

All in all this weekend will be busy, but in a way that's good. It gets everything out of the way, so to speak, for the season and then everyone is free to do their family thing and not feel guilty about missing anything at the church.

Next week, we will start decorating here. We plan on getting the tree one day next week and then getting the decorations out. Our family will start cooking for gift baskets this year next week also. Included in the baskets this year will be homemade mixes, breads, cookies and candies. I think we are up to about 18 gift baskets now. It is a blessing for us to be able to give these to the people that we love.

Since money is tight this year for our family, as I'm sure it is for everyone, I have asked the kids to pick out one or two things that they would like to add to our Christmas time that they have always wanted to do as part of the celebration. Jessalyn picked a family meal night out at a restaurant with our family (I think she wants to recreate an Olive Garden commercial). She also would like to have a family game night for board games. Jake is still thinking about it.

Both kids have been very thoughtful in their gifts this year. They are both proving to have my "crafting bug" and enjoy working with their hands. Jessalyn has chosen a few projects that are going to be beautiful when finished and Jake has done some work at school that is marvelous. I wish you could see the drawings he brought home last month. I went and purchased frames right away. They are beautiful. He was supposed to draw one picture. He thought that was not enough to show his vision, so he drew 4 continuous pictures that can stand alone as a scene by themselves or can be stacked one on top of the other for a continuous picture. They are great and Will and I are extremely proud.

Jessalyn just brought me the sheet that she has been nominated by the teachers to be in the area quiz bowl. They suggest that in order to help her, we drag out the trivial pursuit game. Oh great. Nothing like a game of Trivial Pursuit to make me feel like an idiot. Let's just say that my answers are always Zimbabwe for anything geographical. Sometimes that answer is even right.

Have a great day!
dea

Thanksgiving at our house.

2009-11-30T05:56:00.002-06:00

This year Thanksgiving dinner was held at our house. We cleaned, dusted and vacuumed. We cleaned out the "new family room" (Will calls it the sun porch). We had it already to set up with the tables and chairs and then family arrived. I was in the kitchen cooking when my Aunt walked through the door. She sat down on a chair to talk to me while I cooked. Then my 2 sisters and brother in law walked in and they all pulled up a chair. We all ate muchies and talked while I cooked dinner. When it came time to go out to the other room, none of us went. We all were having such a good time right there that we all just stayed. It was kind of funny. Most of you know how I cook. I cook tons of food and try to make sure that there is enough. Here we all were sitting at this table covered with tons of food, making a little area for our plate to set while we ate and talked some more. It was a great time with lots of laughing.

Work is really picking up and I'm glad. I love the holiday season. The hours are long, but delivery Christmas joy to everyone is a pleasure and in some ways an honor. Every Christmas card brings a smile and a little happiness. It's great!

I have been working on getting Will's 2010 vacation calendar figured out. He has to turn in his requests on January 4th. Knowing now what we will do next year is not easy. I can pretty much decide a couple of weeks ahead, but he has to really plan it out. Well, I have to really plan it out and then run it past him. It isn't easy.

Well, time to get people off to school and me off to work.
Have a great day.
dea

Black Squirrels

2009-11-17T05:51:00.002-06:00

On my route I have a few black squirrels. It's really interesting that in Florida you see white squirrels and in Wisconsin we have black ones. This one is very friendly (as far as squirrels go). He sits there and looks at me and doesn't run away when I am very near. I guess he doesn't see me as a threat since I come and mess around there every day and then I leave. He sure can get himself into funny situations. He tries to carry these huge walnuts and hickory nuts that are twice as big as his head and then get them up the tree. Usually he gives up and comes back down the tree and goes to bury them somewhere else. I can't help but waste a few minutes watching him. I call it my lunch break and then I head out and he goes on with his life. I think he's pretty neat. Just some more of that useless information that I head rolling around in my head. Have a great day.
dea

Black Squirrels...

2009-11-17T05:49:00.000-06:00

2009-11-10T06:59:00.000-06:00

Fall color

2009-11-10T06:58:00.000-06:00

View from the top of the ridge down through the trees

2009-11-10T06:56:00.000-06:00

Fall color...

2009-11-10T06:47:00.002-06:00

The fall color around here was very strange this year due to the lack of rain during the summer and the cooler temperatures. The corn took forever to ripen and the tomatoes didn't really start ripening until late August. Weird. Suddenly mid October things started to really color up (must have something to do with the almost 5 inches of rain in October). The reds were pretty much done, but the yellows and oranges started.

On my route there is one ridge that I drive over that I have a great view on both sides clear down to the bottom of the valley on both sides. Both of those hillsides turned completely yellow. There were no other colored trees for the most part for almost 1/2 mile. It was beautiful when the sun would shine. It seemed to glow.

Right when the color peaked...disaster! We got 35-40 mph winds. There are no leaves left on any of the trees for the most part. Naked! Here I was looking forward to my drive during the day enjoying the fall colors. Not any more. Now I get to enjoy the unobstructed views.

The funny thing is that many of the people in town had their lawns all raked and out in the street ready for the city vacuum thinger ma jiggy thing to come and suck them up.....right. That wind hit and now they are all out raking the neighbors leaves that blew into their yard. Not only did they get to rake their leaves they got to rake someone elses. It just goes to show you that people like me that don't rake very often are smart. Why rake twice when you can put it off until spring?

Have a great day.
dea

About Honor and Blessing...

2009-11-06T06:03:00.002-06:00

I have been following a pair of eagles this year since starting my new route. I named them Honor and Glory (Glory is the girl). I had named them Honor and Regal, but Will said I could not name the bird Regal Eagle. I agreed. Well, Honor and Glory had a daughter this year. I watched her grow, learn to fly by flapping from branch to branch and finally take full flight. It has been a dream come true for someone who loves eagles.

I know that the offspring is a girl because she already outweighs her father by quite a bit. Male eagles are smaller than their mates. For some reason, the girl spends more time with her father than her mother. I don't know if he is the better teacher or what. I'll have to study on that one. It took me a long time to name her, but her name is now Blessing.

The other day I was out on the route and they were in a tree right above the road. I stopped and spoke to them and enjoyed a lunch break while watching them. I took pictures, but because of the overcast day, they didn't turn out too well. You can see the outline though. The bird on the right is Blessing. She is brown with white patches. She does not have a full white head yet, like her parents, but when the wind blows her feathers show white underneath on her head (like she had a bad dye job done). She is beautiful. On the left is Honor. You can see the size difference. On his left is a squirrel's nest so that is not another bird.

Just wanted to share.
dea

Honor and Blessing...

2009-11-06T06:01:00.000-06:00

I'm So Sorry...

2009-11-03T18:10:00.002-06:00

....I seem to be saying that a lot lately. Oh well. This time it's for going so long between posts. It isn't that we haven't anything to say or show but just not the time and energy to do it. Deanna has been going nuts with her camera phone and I was hoping that by now she would be able to post some of them but she works so hard that it just hasn't happened. My excuse? Well, I was kinda hoping to blame it all on her but I can't. I haven't worked the last two days; so, no excuses there. We installed a new front door to replace the old ugly one that has been there since this house was a convenience store. It was pretty rusted and hanging from it's hinges. A great big Thank You to Deanna's Dad Dave. I tore out the old one (the easy job) and he installed the new one (the hard job). Another thank you to Dave because he gave us the new door. He used to have it in his house for a little while but decided to do something else. So, he had to reinstall a door that had been installed before. If you've ever done that, you realize it's a lot harder to do (right) than to put in a new one. It's beautiful and waiting for me to finish trimming out. I should have that done by spring....maybe. Hopefully, I can get Deanna to post a picture of it.

She also has a couple of pics of some of the Bald Eagles on her route. There's a story that goes with them, so maybe you can get it all together.

Well, Jacob has a choir concert tonight and we're on our way but I couldn't put this (and you) off any longer; I couldn't stand the guilt!

God Bless!

Will.

Disturbing.

2009-10-26T03:53:00.000-06:00

On October 14, Lord Christopher Monckton, a noted climate change expert, gave a presentation at Bethel College in St. Paul, MN in which he issued a dire warning regarding the United Nations Climate Change Treaty which is scheduled to be signed in Copenhagen in December 2009. Below is the video.

2009-10-26T03:49:00.001-06:00

Random Dancing!

2009-10-15T15:05:00.001-06:00

Okay not really random dancing, that's from a kids show that I watch; but random pictures! Deanna figured out how to get the pictures off our very new (and yet, very cheap -cuz-we-ain't-rich) phones. Which means you get 'em. Be Thankful you aren't getting all of them! There are a lot and they don't all make sense. Below (hopefully, if I upload them correctly) You'll find pics of Jessalyn and her cousin Jessica doing the Cranberry Princess Runner-up "thing". Pics of the family playing football Donaldson style Fall pics and a pic of yours truly with Jessica's dad Darin. Enjoy! (or just suffer through it...it's not a full bore slide show after all)

2009-10-15T14:59:00.000-06:00

2009-10-15T14:58:00.002-06:00

2009-10-15T14:58:00.001-06:00

2009-10-15T14:57:00.001-06:00

2009-10-15T14:56:00.000-06:00

2009-10-15T14:52:00.001-06:00

2009-10-15T14:46:00.002-06:00

It's starting to look a lot like....

2009-10-10T10:18:00.002-06:00

Winter!!!

Arrrghhhhh!!

I'm praying that this is will be just a couple of days of the nasty weather stuff and then will return to fall weather so we can appreciate it. That's what I'm praying for. That, and that it will be a LONG Autumn followed by a short Winter, a damp spring (notice I said "damp" and not "Wet") and then another mild summer like we had this year. That's my Prayer and I'm sticking with it til God tells me otherwise. I sure hope He doesn't.

Having said all the above, I will say Yesterday was Gorgeous. The peak of Fall colors. Yellows bright enough to be electric. Oranges as warm as a hug. Reds that strive to prove that there indeed is over a hundred shades of that color; and trees that proudly try to have as many shades on one tree as possible.

The Temp would have been warm, with a clear sunny sky kept company by small white fluffy clouds, but the wind had a small bite to it. By late afternoon it was cold.

This morning, was the definitive of "crisp". I had a truckload of wet cardboard in the back of my truck that needed to be put on the "burn pile", so I could use the truck to haul the weekly trash away to the dump. Sam, our black lab was very happy to help. You could almost see his excitement at the day and the weather. The wind was bringing him all kinds of new smells. His face was the eyes-glazed-over-head-bobbing-with-interest over whatever information was on the wind; kind of like my kids when they're watching T.V.

Poor me. I would have enjoyed it more like Sam except I know what he doesn't: Snow is expected today. Less than an inch accumulation expected but the warning is implied: Wisconsin's Winter approaches. Yuck.

Both Deanna and I have cousins that live in Alaska. That happy reminder tells me it could be worse except we both have relatives in Florida who quite happily remind us it doesn't have to be this bad...Nice to have relatives isn't it? ;-)

I now leave you with this old tired joke that I used on Facebook with some of my Southern friends and family:

Wisconsin actually has four seasons while Florida only has three: "Green", "Brown" and "Spring Break!"

Wisconsin has "Almost Winter", "Winter", "Winters almost over" and "road construction".

May the Lord Bless You with the sense and senses to appreciate the wonders of His Creation.

Will.

And So on and so forth etc. etc.

2009-10-01T14:31:00.003-06:00

From Will:

Well, I guess I need to be the one to post the "post Cranfest" post! So this is my Post:

It is finished.

Not enough? Oh okay, Cranfest was very good. I really hadn't planned to be that much a part of it this year. The more Deanna has to do with it the more I need to be home keeping things going. It just so happened that Jessalyn had so much going on that involved the CranFest.

First, Jessalyn and her cousin Jessica were both "runners-up" for Cranberry Princess. Even though they didn't win (Yes there are pictures! They both were beautiful but I haven't figured out how to upload them yet. Patience.) they both still had obligations to fulfill for Cranfest such as stirring a giant pan of cooking cranberries for cranberry jubilee ice cream. This obligation became a scheduling conflict for Jessalyn.

It was no big deal really, but Jessalyn and Jessica are both in "show-choir" at their school. Both were scheduled to perform several shows during the same time as the pan-stirring thing. It was my job to get Jessalyn to the stage Friday morning and then they agreed to let her miss a show so I could pick her up and cart her to the frying pan across town in a golf cart. Walking and golf carts are the only way to get around Cranfest. Walking is faster and less stressful.

I figured that if I had to be at Cranfest in the morning and then again a couple of hours later I might as well stay and drive courtesy cart. The idea is that some people just don't realize how much walking is involved and some just can't make it. Courtesy cart drivers "cruise around" looking for these and offer a free trip to their cars or buses whichever the case may be. Sometimes they buy things before realizing how far they would have to carry say a...bed or a dresser etc. No kidding. People really go to a Cranberry Festival to buy bedroom furniture. Who'd have thought?

Originally, the plan was the Jessalyn would connect up with my wife after she was done "stirring the pot" and would spend the rest of the day with her mom. No plan lasts past the first engagement with the enemy. Deanna was SO busy. She'd given up her cart; lost her cell phone and really didn't have a way of looking after Jessalyn too. So, I stayed and Jessa and I ran courtesy cart in a Golf limo. That's right; Limo. It had three separate seats that would hold as many as nine people if they really, really liked each other. Six fit perfect. The weather was nice and we had a great time Father and Daughter.

Out of the mouths of babes: While driving courtesy cart we wound up driving these two ladies around the parking area looking for their car. They were sure that it was with-in three or four rows of where we were. They had been looking for quite some time before we found them and finally as we were nearing the end of the area where it "should" be my 13 year old daughter asks "do you have a panic button?" The woman had no idea what one was. I think she thought Jessa was joking I was too busy wondering why I didn't think of that ( Really! Why didn't I think of that???) Sure enough there on her key ring was the panic button. She pushed it and we could hear the car honking way out side where they were "sure" it would be. Points for Jessalyn.

Okay, I'm really taking too long and this is just Friday! As a treat I took her to get a "fry bread pizza" They're awesome but not as good as what we had for dessert: Chocolate-dipped-Frozen-Cheesecake-on-a-stick! (no relation to Jose' Jalapeno on a stick). One bite of that creamy frozen dessert and I knew it was SO Wrong and Yet SO RIGHT! Oh! it's Bad and it's wonderful!! It's so rich that the one I had on Friday and the one I had on Saturday will hold me till next year but every Cranfest I know I have to buy CashewCrunch (like peanut brittle with cashews) and that chocolate dipped (insert your favorite hyperbole here).

Okay, I'm out of room. Perhaps Deanna can fill you in on the other two days of Cranfest!

God Bless
Will.

What's Happening?

2009-09-22T06:30:00.002-06:00

From Will:

I just wanted to give you a short update on what's happening around here. First, of course it's almost CranFest. As we've said before, Look it up on the Internet if you would like to know more about it at Cranfest.com

Anyway, things are getting busier around here and Happily we get to add my Mom and Dad to the mix! I really enjoyed getting to see all the friends and family while we were in Florida for their Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary but we didn't get much "one on one" time together. Their coming up here is already making up for that and I am so grateful!

I of course am a Cranfest widower; with Deanna on the board, she is so busy that the kids and I don't get to see her much this month. The more and more she gets involved with Cranfest, the less and less that I do. I don't mind! I love what Cranfest does for this community and frankly Deanna has more to offer when it comes to this sort of stuff, so I willingly support her more and more as MY contribution. Deanna really is good at what she does and what she does, is a lot!

Dad and I spent the day listing things that needed to be checked or done with their Wisconsin Home (Camper-trailer), and got started taking care of the things we could fix, and deciding (grudgingly) what we couldn't fix.

This morning we hope to get his camper washed and maybe start on waxing it. This afternoon Deanna needs to pick up supplies in LaCrosse, which is 40 miles away. So, we're going to ride with her so we can spend some time together just the 4 of us. This maybe the only chance we get. We haven't decided where we're going to eat while we're there but considering the many choices is half the fun!

Jessalyn was up for Cranberry Princess along with her cousin Jessica. The two girls looked gorgeous in their dresses but didn't win...this year! Both were heartily encouraged to try again next year and said they will. Jessalyn, is still going to be quite busy with show choir and Crantastic Singers. She loves to make a big drama out of how she has to learn two different sets of songs and dance moves for the two different troupes. There is a lot of songs and dance steps to learn for each but I won't encourage her making a big deal of it. ( I am VERY proud though!!! Shhhh! it's our secret okay?)

Jacob will have the house to himself this afternoon which he considers a real treat! TV, Computer, Video games etc, all-to-himself! wooo hooo! Often I have come home and found him doing all three at once, quite a trick that!

Well, I have to go check my Facebook page; last night I checked only to find I had another 125
friend requests. That sounds like bragging and it is a little, but it's not that they want to "know" me, they just want me on their team for a game I play on Facebook. So my head doesn't get too big. Still, it's kind of cool that I have something like 1,300 "friends" and counting! I collect 'em like a hobby!

May the Lord Bless You and Keep You and Give You Peace!
God Bless America, we pray for you everyday.

Will.

Troops in Afghanistan Pay Tribute to Soldier Awarded Medal of Honor - FOXNews.com

2009-09-17T13:09:00.007-06:00

There is a link below to take you to the Fox News website with this story.

If you are an American; if the words in the picture above mean anything to you at all, click the link below and read the story.

It's Every Americans Duty to Remember.

Troops in Afghanistan Pay Tribute to Soldier Awarded Medal of Honor - International News News of the World Middle East News Europe News - FOXNews.com

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From Beka at "Diagonally Parked..." :

2009-09-12T05:30:00.002-06:00

A great, great day yesterday!!

2009-09-08T05:43:00.002-06:00

On Labor Day Will and I decided to be different and not "labor". Usually that is our day to work in the yard etc. to start getting ready for winter. We changed our habit permanently! We decided to go to the Chuck Wagon Races in Nashua, Iowa. Mom and Dad have been going for years with Uncle Leonard and Aunt Marion and have always wanted us to go, but things never worked out.....this year we went. What a blast!

Ok, so for those of you who don't know me all that well....horses are one of my "loves". I have ridden for about 40 years (man it's scary being able to say that). In high school and after I worked on a horse farm helping to train Arabians (volunteer) and have owned horses before. I love them, love their attitudes, love their looks. I feel at home the minute I walk into a barn. Given the right circumstances, I think I could have easily worked on a horse farm all of my life. God had different plans though and I'm fine with that.

Suffice it to say that the minute that I sat down on that bleacher and the first horse appeared, I was happy. Then they brought out the wagons. WOW. These wagons are pulled by retired/rescued race horses that love to run. The minute they step out onto the track they are pumped and ready to go... I don't know how the drivers hold them back.

Four horses pull each wagon and then there are 4 outriders that each have a job to do. They have put the wagons in a line and they pull out this tent type contraption from the back and set the poles in the ground like they would have in the cowboy days. Then there is this (pseudo stove) on the ground too. One guy stands at each of those. There is another outrider holding his horse and the other two while standing on the ground behind the wagon. The fourth outrider is standing at the heads of the horses that are pulling the wagon.

So the gun goes off and the guy grabs the stove and throws it into the back. The guy holding the stakes throws them and the tent into the wagon. The guy holding the team has already let go and the team is already heading out. They run forward and circle a barrel and then turn back and head out onto the track. Meanwhile the outriders are all busy sprinting for their horses and trying to throw themselves into the saddle before the horse is gone, because the minute that the other racers hit the track the outriders horses are ready to be there too. The track is 1/2 mile long and the wagons are FAST. The outriders race to catch up to their wagon. When the wagons cross the finish line, all 4 of the outriders have to be within 150 yards of their wagon or there are penalties.

Now this is fast and total chaos. When you hear about it, you think that you will be able to follow it all, but the truth is that from the time the gun goes off until the time the race is finished is about 1 minute. By then you as the spectator have your heart thumping in your throat and are holding your breath. I don't know how it happens, but you are hooked immediately. It was great!

They had races of single riders that were riding racehorses with tatoos (proving they had been racers) and then there was a farmer's race that was horses that were not tatooed. Man did that go fast. The one race was 1/2 mile in 46 seconds. There were chariot races and then the outriders raced their horses. There was even a "powder puff" race which was women driving wagons with a 2 horse team instead of the 4 for the men. That was great and I could well imagine myself being an outrider (man did it look fun). Will kept saying "No", but I can dream can't I?

All in all it was wonderful and we are already planning next year's trip to include a sightseeing trip and 2 days of racing. Right now I think I would make the 3 hour trip to go again today if they were there. What a Blast!!!

Have a great day.
dea

An interesting Quote in these terribly interesting times:

2009-09-03T17:41:00.002-06:00

I predict future happiness for Americans

if they can prevent the government

from wasting the labors of the people

under the pretense of taking care of them.

Thomas Jefferson.

Catch up work.

2009-08-24T05:29:00.002-06:00

I'm still trying to find the time to get everything organized. Before we went on vacation, I was doing pretty good at the managing to get things done thing....not lately. It seems that since we came home, I have not been able to "find the groove" again.

I feel like I spent this last weekend spinning my wheels. I WILL GET THIS FIGURED OUT THOUGH!! Today is work again. I think that I need a full week of no work, no practices, no meetings, no interruptions and I might be able to accomplish something. Hopefully, things will change here soon, and I will get myself back in gear.

Jessalyn is full swing into Show choir again. She has 2 more practices today and tomorrow before school starts next week. Jake is just trying to get all of his summer plans accomplished before school starts. I think he said that he has a whole lot of playing to get done this week. Goof ball. Jessa is in the Crantastic singers again this year. They lost one of their members this last year, so they are dedicating their last song to her and many of the previous Crantastic singers are coming back. So far I think that there is about 34 regular active Crantastics and 25 previous ones (including Jake I think) that are coming back to sing and dance in honor of Kendra. It should be great.

School starts Monday and both kids don't seem to be dreading it like usual. I think they miss their friends. Lots of their friends live in neighboring towns, so it's not like you can just ride your bike over to their house. I think that they are looking forward to seeing everyone.

I took the dog to the vet and he got a clean bill of health except for needing to lose some pounds. He is a very large dog and now weighs 109 lbs. They want him to lose 10. He is one diet food now and is not really losing, so we'll see what happens. Maybe we can all get into shape by excercising the dog. Yeah right.

Well, laundry is calling my name. Have a great day. I'll try to get better about posting to this thing, as I "get my groove back" or is that "get back into my groove"?
dea

A weekend to remember.

2009-08-17T04:29:00.002-06:00

You know the great thing about having older kids is the freedom (at some times). My kids are great kids and we trust them, so it's easier now for Will and I to head out for awhile and not worry (too much) that the house will burn down while we are gone. I had won a free hotel room in Black River Falls, so we decided to take advantage of that this last Friday and spend some time alone (a novel thought I know). My parents had Jessalyn over for a sleepover and Jake held down the fort here at home. He was going to have a cousin stay over, but that didn't work out, so he played bachelor all night and took care of the dog and cats. I think he was tickled to be able to do it. If anything had happened, help was just a phone call away. He did great!

Will and I got to do a lot of talking. Not about anything in particular, but just talk like we did when the kids were younger or even like when we were dating. It was fun. We went out to dinner and then we also went out to breakfast the next morning. WOW. It was great! I don't worry about us when the kids are gone. He's my best friend and we find plenty to talk about and things to do.

Saturday we came home and did a few little chores before heading out to a church family get together at our friend's house. Their last name is Fischer, so it's called Fischerfest ( like Cranfest, get it?). Anyway, it was a WONDERFUL time. We ate and ate and ate and played yard games galore. The kids threw water balloons and played games as well as video games after they all wore out. The adults that had not left yet started up these pitiful volleyball games. None of us were any good, but boy did we have fun. My sides hurt so bad from laughing. Then Jake and Jessalyn and their cousin Ryan came out and joined us. Jake is a card. You never know what he's going to do and when you added him into the already crazy mix.. things got interesting. It was a hoot.

Sunday morning we got almost 2 inches of rain in just a couple of hours. I slept in because with the thunder and lightening there was no way I could shower....so why bother getting up? We got to church just in time, but we made it. Headed home after church and believe it or not after some chores...I took another nap (it was one of those wet yucky days). In the afternoon, we went to the first annual Ken Oakes fish fry. Uncle Ken shared all of the fish that he's been catching all summer with us. It was great! Another evening of family and friends. We all sat around eating and talking. The weather had turned beautiful in the 70's and breezy. It was a great time.

Now we are back to real life after that minivacation of fun. Will and I are back to work today. The kids are out of summer school, so that's one less thing to worry about for now. I have a meeting or practice for either the kids or myself for almost every night this week (not how I like it to be, but oh well). The weather is cooler, so things around the house will be easier to get done. Last week the humidity was so high that it was all I could do after the mail route to deal with staying awake, let alone functioning. I do not like hot weather or humidity and it really does not like me either.

Hope you all have a great day.
dea

What to post and what not to post.....

2009-08-12T04:02:00.003-06:00

Will tells me it's my turn to blog...ok....fine....except...what do I post about???? So much has happened in the last couple of weeks. It's almost too much to take in, and yet, we go on.....

We spent almost 2 great weeks in Florida and probably could have spent a couple more if we had been able to. We actually accomplished almost every goal we had for the trip with just a few exceptions, but they couldn't be helped. I didn't get to see some people that I had hoped to see, but due to some scheduling conflicts between our schedules and theirs, there just was not enough time. Next time though, I hope.

One thing that the trip did remind me of is how much I like to travel. I just love to get in the car (van) and go. Road construction during the summer can be a bummer though. We usually do most of our traveling during the winter and I had forgotten how much construction there is during the warmer months. WOW!

We completely switched our hours of operation in Florida. Everyone down there gets up much later and goes to bed much later. For me that was hard. I'm usually in bed at 8:30 or so and up really early. Some nights we didn't get to bed until midnight or later. That was fine while we were on vacation, but let me tell you the getting back into a normal schedule here was a killer. It was like having jet lag, but we never left the ground. I'm still a little out of whack due to other circumstances and it feels strange.

We stepped back into our lives and right into school functions (both kids had summer school for varying reasons). Jessalyn is back in show choir and now Crantastic Singers has started for Cranfest. I came back and almost immediately started into Cranfest meetings. We are now, I think, about 44 days away from the fest. Which means I have about 41 to get my jobs done. People start pulling in as early as the week before, so we have to have all of the maps made up, booths marked out, fencing up, signs out etc by the weekend before, with just a few exceptions.

I won a free hotel stay at a local hotel and it expires in September. Now we all know how busy I will be between now and the end of September, so I think that Will and I might go and use up that free night this coming Friday. I don't want it to go to waste and I certainly feel the need to get "away" with my hubby, even if it is only for one night. We will have to be back by 9:30 the next morning...so it's not a lengthy deal, but hey, you take what you can get.

Well, time to go and deal with the dog. He has a yeast infection in his right ear. That means cleaning twice a day and ointment. He's really good about it, but what a mess.

Have a great day!
dea

The first of over 200 Vacation pics!

2009-07-31T07:47:00.002-06:00

On the boat tour at Wakulla Springs: Jessalyn, Deanna, and a squinty eye'd Jacob (Arrrgh! I'll be rippin' yur limbs to feed them 'gators if ya's continue your picture takin! arrrgh..)

Cause she said so!

2009-07-31T07:07:00.002-06:00

(from Will)

With my wife I usually have the last words. They're usually "Yes Dear" or "Sorry Dear"....

Anyway, She mandated this morning that I needed to "blog". She was right of course, but I'm going to have to make this short. Too much to do and too little time. You all have lives - so I know YOU know what I'm talking about. Still, you're important to us, so you deserve something.

I imagine that a lot of the up coming posts will be about our two week vacation and I will be posting lots of pictures. I hope to be opening a photo bucket type account to place these pics and then I'll hand out passwords to those interested if I can. If you have any experience with these sites and would like to make some suggestions I would love to hear 'em!

I just worked my first two days after my vacation and it took some getting used to. I have decided I really was built to be independently wealthy. I'm basically lazy until there is the prospect of spending lots of money to make me or someone else happy. Obviously, someone somewhere has made a mistake and given my lifestyle to some poor hardworking soul who is suffering untold luxury when he should have had my lifestyle instead. Oh well, we take what we are dealt!

I know that by a lot of standards I AM independently wealthy and I do give thanks for that everyday but the last two weeks were perfectly luxurious and decadent and I really could become accustomed to it; I'd at least like to try!

Thanks again to all my friends and family that made that possible! You will be hearing more on that (and them) in the future!

Anyway, after working two days I have the weekend off (yeah I know, I've got it tough) So I get to boss the kids around while we try to catch up on two weeks of chores. The nice thing about the grass being ridiculously tall is it hides the way the fence and siding need repair...

Deanna had a pleasant surprise yesterday. She was out trying to find our garden plot in the tall grass. She found the remnants of the garden fence and deduced the plot must have been inside. We never got around to planting anything despite our best laid plans but God had intervened. She found several squash plants growing all by themselves! In fact, she found a couple large plants with squash pre-ripe outside the garden where we've never planted any! I was telling this to one of my co-workers and he agreed with me that often our best garden turns out to be whats growing out of our compost pile! These plants weren't in our compost pile (this time) but I liked the symbolism:

We plan, we work, we contrive and scheme to cause a garden to grow and then God shows how easy it is for Him to do so much better. Yes God, you do good work.

Well, that's all I have time for today, remember more pics and vacation stories to come! (you poor souls) (insert maniacal laughter here)

Lord willing and the Saints don't rise that is!
Will

Weeeeeee're Baaaaack!

2009-07-27T04:43:00.003-06:00

...Did you miss us?
We left Florida around 12:30pm central time and made it home roughly 24 hours later. Our new (to us) van has a neat feature that lets it keep track of driving hours. It took 19 hours driving to get down to Florida and 22 hours driving to get back yet both trips took 24 hours each. I guess we stopped more on the way down than we did on the way back and took our time more when we did stop.

We did have a couple of interesting moments on the way back when we encountered a sudden and violent storm. I have to admit it was a little scary. Our new van did it's job admirably and carried all of us and our luggage comfortably and got good gas mileage along the way but it's still a van and the wind was rocking us and blowing us all over the place!

I had been watching the lightening in the sky for close to fifty miles. The wind was calm and the sun had already gone down so it was quite the entertaining show for me. Dea and the kids were sleeping. No rain. No wind. Just lightning. It was like this as I said for 50 miles when it all came on at once. It was like hitting a wall of rain while suddenly having a wall of wind hit you from the side. Within a minute the rain was mixing with hail and I knew I had to get off the interstate.

I took the next exit and began to wonder if perhaps I should have stayed on the interstate.

There were leaves and branches blown across the road. No gas stations; no convenience stores; no lights; nothing. Except another turn off that was really dark. I kept going looking for a place to pull over that wouldn't get me stuck, but was abruptly sent across a narrow bridge. I don't remember the sign for the river that flowed underneath just that at the moment I wasn't crazy about being on a bridge when it was all I could do to keep the van on the road.
Right after the bridge was what seemed like a tree canopied road. It was so dark it probably wasn't, but the way the leaves and branches were falling and the look of the road I just stopped. I backed up to a little dirt area that would let me drop the back wheels of my front-wheel-drive van off the pavement long enough to make a three point turn around and then headed back across the bridge. By this time Deanna was awake and looking at the map for an alternate route but there was only one other way to go. I turned down the dark little road and again, just stopped. There was a little dirt and gravel pull off for boaters. I just didn't trust the van not to get stuck and the sign ahead said: "narrow bridge". I thought the last bridge I went over (twice!) was narrow and they said nothing about that one!

I. Am. Not. Going. Over. This. One.

So as the van rocked I parked with two wheels on the road and two off with the back of the van towards the wind to try to keep us from being blown over and we waited. Listening to my emergency flashers blinking noisily we scanned the radio for information about any tornadoes or severe thunderstorms and got....nothing.

Evidently there was a 30% chance of showers.

I noticed lights behind me and checked my rear view mirrors. I could see both the exits and entrances for the interstate and in just a couple of minutes time I had been joined by three cars and three tractor trailer rigs. I actually felt a lot better knowing there was a group of us all sitting by the road waiting for this fast moving storm to just ....go...away.

Which it did. Because we were stopped and not traveling at 55 mph (don't get me started on construction zones arrgh!) the storm took a little longer to leave than it did to arrive but eventually my storm buddies started pulling away and so did we. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful.

We'll post more about our vacation later.

"Lord willing and The Church doesn't rise" that is!

Will.

I guess they have chickens in Florida....

2009-07-21T08:27:00.002-06:00

We are all running around like chickens with our heads cut off here, but it's been great. The 50th wedding anniversary party turned out great and I think that they were really happy with the results. We have gone to Wakulla Springs and have seen Alligators in their natural habitat. We even saw a manatee there with her calf as she swam under the boat. I will try to post pictures.

Yesterday was a day for the beach. We went to St. George Island and enjoyed our day on the beach. It was so cool... the weather was perfect...the sun was not too hot and the water was just wonderful. To cap the day off the dolphins came and swam near us twice! There were about 10 of them and we got to see them cavorting in the water. It was about perfect. Throw in feeding a couple thousand sea gulls from our lunch basket and it was a great day.

Today the men are all at the Car Museum and I hope they have a great time! Jessalyn stepped wrong on the boardwalk to the beach yesterday and got a huge sliver in her foot. Last night we could not get it out of her foot. Tonight we will try again. If not, I will call a good friend of ours and have her take it out in her clinic.

Jessalyn and I and whoever else wants to go today will be eating lunch at a great chinese restaurant. We will also be heading to a new Publix grocery store that they have here. Maybe a trip to Bradley's country store too. I hope to spend tomorrow and Thursday in Wakulla County with my Aunt and other friends, looking at old things and parts of my past. We head home on Friday at some point. We're not sure how long it will take us to get home or what route we will be taking to get there.

Everyone have a great day.
dea

I'm done with work, but now the work begins?

2009-07-10T18:49:00.002-06:00

I finished my last day at the office for a little over 2 weeks. I am ready for a break. It has been an extremely hard week. The stress level was way off the charts. Now it's done. I'm giving up riding in a car all day to "ride in a car all day". Somehow, I won't mind riding all day in the van though, it's mighty comfy. Throw in the new DVD player that we bought (2 kids = 2 DVD players). That will keep the kids happy in the night and when they get tired and don't want to look out the window, although I must say that both kids are very good about watching for things out in the countryside. Jake watches for cars and motorcycles while Jessalyn watches for and counts water towers and horses. I watch for hawks and eagles. Will watches for crazy drivers. It's a good system.

Now that I'm done with work, I can really begin the work at home. Tonight I started packing for real. Tomorrow it's errands, bill paying, shopping for dog and cat food, going to the library for comedy CD's for Will to listen to while we sleep and many other little things. Sunday is potluck and final packing. In there somewhere I need to wash, wax and vacuum the van, clean the house and do paperwork. Prayerfully, it will all get done.

I also need to "wash that gray right out of my hair". I refuse to look like Bea Arthur at the age of 44. I will go gray when the kids are done with school. Most people ask why not, but what they don't realize is that it is not a gradual thing for me like most people. My hair is already gray. Entirely gray. If I let it go naturally there will be no in between. I will go from looking like this to gramma Walton real quick. My mother has been pretty much all gray since her early 30's and she passed it down to me. Of course my choice was my Mom's gray hair and my Dad's fat cheeks OR my Mom's thinner face and my Dad's bald head. I chose to have fat cheeks and my Mom's gray hair. I'm not complaining, but I'm not giving in yet either.

Life goes on here and God continues to bless us. I don't always understand the plan or the system, but truthfully, that's probably for the better.

Time to get back to work. Have a great day.
dea

A mind of it's own.

2009-07-08T04:29:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was one of those days. You know them...you've had them. Everything you pick up - you drop. When you try to do something - you get sidetracked. You finish one thing on your list and it creates 3 new things to add to the list. I should have known. I should have crawled back into the bed, pulled the covers over my head and shut out the world, but NO, I ventured forth into the world. Then it hit...the stupid things rule....

After finally getting out onto my route, after dealing with all sorts of weird stuff at the office...I was out driving in the country. Went to turn a sharp corner and heard a terrible thump, followed by a screech and the whole car fell down in the front left. Great. Just what I need. I know what's happened. The ball joint broke on the car as I went around a corner. My left front tire had a mind of it's own and did not want to turn with the car. It was going sideways. Just what I need.

I call the car shop. They send the wrecker. Someone from work came to get me and we finished the day out. That may sound simple, but the truth is that it was about 20 phone calls in the making and took over an hour. I should have been done almost 2 hours before we actually finished. I could have got mad. I could have moped. I could have done lots of stuff, but God was working even then and I did not realize it.

You see first of all, I had just been out on a major highway near a military base and with spring training, I had convoys of soldiers all over. I could have had major problems if the car had done that while I was going 55 and turning on that highway. Instead I was going about 10 mph. Better yet, I was in a car with a girl that I have been slowly trying to get come to church and we have talked about the Lord, but it's a very careful thing with her. If I had thrown a fit when Will called to find out how it was going, or been ugly to anyone...just think of what she would have thought. Instead it was fine. Hopefully, it made her think because I was not "Oh woe is me" about the whole thing. I just told Will while she was listening that nothing that happened today was a surprise to God and that everything would be fine. Hopefully, it had some effect.

Although my poor hubby. Bless his heart. He called me hoping I would tell him something great was happening to me because his day was frustrating. Instead he gets.....well, the good thing is that I am not hurt and no one else is either...the bad news is.... He handled it well, but I could tell that after our conversation he felt worse.

I will say this though... with everything that is going wrong in our lives...this is a huge opportunity for us. All things work together for good and everything that is going on right now is leading up to something great! We might not be able to be happy about the junk that's going on, BUT we can trust God and KNOW that He is able and is working for our good. He is not going to let us fall. The greatest thing in all of this is that He does not rely on us to hold His hand, He holds ours. That way even if we let go, He never does.

I can be frustrated by what seems to be daily attacks from the other side (sometimes the attacks come hourly it seems), but I can and do hold fast to God and know that He is going to take care of all of this. He knows what our struggles are. He knows how hard things are, BUT He knows the answer. He knows the end of the book. I'm just going to trust him to work things out, supply needs, supply wisdom, supply answers and supply a way to deal with this stupid things rule....I know I have no other hope.

Have a great day!
dea

How to live a week in 3 days.

2009-07-06T04:15:00.002-06:00

This past weekend has been one of the most difficult yet wonderful weekends we have had in awhile. It all started months ago when I started sorting for a garage sale. My parents were too and we put most of it together starting Thursday at the garage sale. We did very well. I had sorted out over 20 storage containers full of stuff. It is now down to less than 4. Since we could not get all of it done for this one, we are planning another one in a month or two. That should give us plenty of time to sort some more, which is good because I got home and remembered 2 that I did not take in. Before you start thinking that we made huge gobs of money. I priced everything cheap, so that it would sell. Mainly we have the enjoyment of less clutter.

We packed up the garage sale Saturday afternoon and headed out for a well deserved ice cream cone. Both Will and I have been watching what we eat, but after all of that work, we splurged. In Tomah there is a cheese house that has hand packed ice cream in waffle cones. We all got the regular 2 scoop cones, but Jacob had to have 3 scoops. The cone was almost as big as his head. The sad thing is that he had almost finished it before everyone else did. The cones were so huge that Will had to finish over half of mine. I am not a big icecream fan, so next time I will get a single scoop or regular cone while the rest eat those big honkers.

Saturday night was our fireworks here in town. With Warrens being so small you would think that our fireworks display would be little too, but not here in our town. What a great fire department we have! They work all of Cranfest selling brats, steaks and beer in their station which serves as the beer tent for the festival. The proceeds go towards the fireworks. With contributions from local business people and a large one from Cranfest, they put on a huge wonderful display. It's great and it's wonderful to get home 10 minutes after it's done.

Sunday morning one of our great worship team singers was out of town, so I filled it for her. It was fun. I love singing with my cousins. I'm sure it was not as easy for them, because they are such a great team, but it was nice filling in and praising God at the same time. I don't want to do it full time, because I have too many irons in the fire, but I am more than willing to fill in and love it when I get to. To me, that's better than ice cream cones!

I am trying to find music to sing in Florida. I've been singing so long that my tapes have worn out and trying to find a new and meaningful "story" song these days is not easy. Especially with a range like mine. I'm kind of a strange vocal sort. I have a low voice range in my normal voice. The older I get the lower it tends to be. So many of the songs these days while effective in their own ways, do not tell a story for a "soloist". You need a different type of lyric for that and they are few and far between. I'm working on it though.

Jake starts summer school to finish up a few things on his Nova Net studies before next year. Then on Wednesday they both leave for Lifest. They are both excited. Last year they went to the music festival and came back with one of the speakers being their favorite part. I'm hoping for some life changing insight in the kids that are going. It would have been great if more of them had gone, but everyone has vacations and jobs to deal with.

The kids come home on Sunday from the festival in time for potluck at church and then it's home for showers and washing the remaining clothes. They will be exhausted, but I hope to keep them awake until it's time to leave to pick Will up from work that afternoon. We pick him up and head out to Florida and I'm hoping that they will be tired enough to sleep a good bit of the way that first evening and night. That way they will be pretty much caught up by the time we get to Grammy and Grampy's house. Grumpy children are not in the plans!

In the meantime, we are packing for the festival and packing for Florida at the same time. I have lists of my lists to keep track of everything. I'm trying to get the house sorted out "post garage sale" and make sure that everything is set here for our friend Vicki to house/animal sit for us while we are gone. I plan on "cleaning my way out of the house on Sunday". I like to come home to a clean house, so I try to get it done on the last day as a final step.

We are really, really looking forward to seeing family and friends in Tally. I still have an Aunt down there that is one of my favorite people and I have not seen her in forever. I have loads of friends to see that I have "found" on facebook and through other means. Many of them I had been close to for so long before moving. It has been like finding a missing part of "me" by finding them. I know that sounds strange but, friends and family are very important to me and I find that the older I get, the more they mean to me.

Well, dishes are going in the dishwasher. I'd better get the rest of them done and my second load of laundry needs to be folded. Have a great day.
dea

Declaration of Independence.

2009-07-02T16:55:00.004-06:00

It's been a long, long time since I read the whole thing. Since we are near to the 4th, I thought that it would be a perfect time to read it again AND I'm sharing it with you. Please read, remember and notice today's situations and how some sound very familiar when you read this.

God Bless America.
dea

Declaration of Independence
Here is the complete text of the Declaration of Independence.The original spelling and capitalization have been retained. (Adopted by Congress on July 4, 1776)
The Unanimous Declarationof the Thirteen United States of America

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
Source: The Pennsylvania Packet, July 8, 1776

Can you believe it's July 1rst?

2009-07-01T04:15:00.002-06:00

I am not done with the stuff for March and here it is July. What a bummer. Things are so busy right now that I cannot seem to remember what day it is.

The kids are really getting excited about going to Lifest. They love it and it's a chance to be away from every day life for them. They don't even mind the primitive camping or hot weather. I'm just hoping they have good weather for it.

We are still in the middle of sorting, pricing and setting out of garage sale stuff. Today is the day to get it all out there. Tomorrow morning we open up and I need all the time I can get between now and then. Pray that it all sells.

The weather has been absolutely beautiful here. In the 70's and breezy. We needed it to be able to do all of this sorting etc. I have loved being on the route. It is a joy each and every day to be out in the fresh air.

I now have 6 days of work left before we leave and when Will gets done today he will too. It will be nice to have the last couple of days before the trip at home without children. I might be able to get stuff done. Sometimes, it's hard to accomplish anything, when I am pulled different directions by other people's needs. This time. I can really set my mind to it and do it.

Friday night is a gospel sing here at the church and our group will be debuting 5 new songs. Hard songs to sing. It's great being able to put these intricate harmonies together and really try to produce a good sound. That we are doing it for God is the biggest blessing.

Hope your day goes great!
dea

Family Reunion Time

2009-06-28T06:48:00.002-06:00

Every year we have the Oakes Family Gathering. For the last 2 it has been held at Devils Lake. It has been great both years. The area is very, very beautiful. Almost unbelievably beautiful. It's one of those landscapes that you cannot help but look at and say "Thank you God, you really do good work". The kids love to go hiking up and down the bluffs and there is swimming too.

The weather on our side of the lake was breezy and cool. On the other side of the lake there was no breeze and it was hot. Strange how being in one side of the little valley was so different than the other.

It was really great to sit around talking with family and friends. We ate all day long, talked and watched old "slides" from the past (1950's and 1960's). Then we had another potluck about 6:00 with my Dad and I cooking burgers and hot dogs.

All in all, it was a great experience. I didn't get to hike because I had to make an emergency run to the store, but walking back and forth to the parking lot 8 or 9 times should count as a hike.

Today I go to play for my Aunt and Uncle's Quartet at Jellystone park for the campers and then it's back to the church to play piano there. My Aunt that usually plays went to her side of the family's reunion yesterday. I hope she had a great time.

This afternoon starts the garage sale preparation in earnest. We are setting up this week to open on Thursday. I have an entire room FULL of stuff to take and am still finding more as I go. I have not even begun yet in the storage shed. Just in this room where I'm sitting now, I have 5 large rubber storage containers full of stuff that I have not yet moved out to the "garage sale room". I hope it all sells. We will end up having 2 sales though, because my father has lots of building materials to sell also and we will do that at another time.

Jake and Jessa leave fore Lifest on the 8th (Wednesday) and they come home the morning of the 12th (Sunday). We leave the afternoon of the 12th for Florida. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone. Since getting on facebook, I have reconnected with many of my high school friends. Hopefully, I will be able to see at least some of them. I plan on spending at least a day hopefully 2 in Wakulla County where I lived for 18 years. I would like to show the kids where I grew up, went to school and church etc. My Aunt still lives there and I want to spend as much time with her as I can. I also want the kids to see Wakulla Springs and make them try the water for swimming to see how cold it is. They also really want to see alligators etc.

It should be a great trip. Now if only the weather will cooperate. It's in the 70's here and the 90's and 100's there for the next couple of weeks. Quite a climate change.

Well, off to Jellystone. Have a great day!
dea

The wonders of Facebook!

2009-06-25T06:29:00.002-06:00

It's happened to us and if you're not careful ( and if it's not too late already) it will happen to you. You'll find yourself on Facebook.

Deanna succumbed first. Like any addiction, it starts innocently enough. Like most drugs it has it's purposes for good but can turn evil if used incorrectly or too much. The personal networking site is not what I would call "intuitive". It took me a while to learn how it works and I'm still learning but the lure was great.

Unlike blogs (such as this), Facebook appears to limit how much a person can ramble on. This would seem to save time and indeed, in the beginning it does. Dea and I have connected with so many long lost friends it's scary wonderful! I have even connected with friends from elementary school that I haven't seen since the 6th grade! (How ya doin Hewlester!) Everyday at any hour you can "log on" and get a short blurb to see what you're friends are doing today.
Plus there are even games to play!

That is where the addiction starts to come into play. Not just the games though! oh no! My friends now number in the hundreds! So does Deanna (though most of hers are friends she's known while most of mine are friends I've made from playing games on Facebook). If each friend post a couple of sentences to tell you about their day...multiplied by a couple of hundred....

The games I play are strategy games that only take a few minutes a day to play and you don't have to play everyday but it helps. It helps if you play for more than a few minutes a day as well Next thing you know between the games and catching up on the friends and checking their pages and reading their posts and looking at their pictures....where did the day go????

I know this phenomena because it happens to me and my mother when we chat via webcam. What should have been a few minutes can turn into hours which usually ends with us having to hang up so we can run and do some chores so my wife and dad won't be disappointed with us!

So, for the joy of connecting with old friends and family as the lure and the loss of time as the price....I ask you, are all addictions bad? are these?

Before you answer, consider this: The questions rhetorical! ;-)

numbers 6:24-26!
Will

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-21T07:06:00.003-06:00

To those fathers who are out there....thank you. You have a difficult job and people often forget to say thank you for all that you do. For all those fathers who have gone on before us...thank you God for them too. We honor their memory.

Today I am very thankful though for our "forefathers" who built this great nation, basing it upon principals laid out for us in the Bible. Establishing freedoms for our nation that those in power today seem to have forgotten. As a nation we have forgotten what it cost those individuals who signed the Declaration of Independence. For many it cost their own freedom, families and lives. Would our leaders today pay the same price? Our nation seems to be bound and determined to take God out of everything and that is a road that I for one do not want to travel down.

I think it's about time that those of us who believe in God and stand for the same principals established by our founders.....step up and do our DUTY. Now is not the time to sit back and watch this nation established on the foundation of "GOD" step away from him and go our own way. It is not the time to take him out of schools, public assemblies and certainly not out of leadership. Without God, who is leading the leaders? I for one do not want to distance myself from Israel. I pray for the peace of Israel, but not at the cost of the nation of Israel.

The only way to make a change in this nation, is first of all prayer. After all, every thing that is happening now is happening by God's design. I understand that, but I also know that I am called for such a time as this. It's time to remember the sacrifice that those first Americans made on our behalf to establish a "Government FOR the people, BY the people and OF the people". It's time to get back to those basic truths. The only reason that leadership is doing the many times self destructive things that they are doing now, is that they do not know God and do not follow his commands or instructions.

The sad thing is that we elected them as a nation to do these jobs and now we complain because they are not doing what we want them to do. We should have thought of that during election times and got up off of our easy chair and made sure that people with Godly ideas were elected. We didn't and now the nation is paying for it. How sad... God please forgive us. It's time to do our part. It's time to get motivated. It's time to make an effort for God. Don't you think so?

God bless America and Thank you heavenly father for those who have gone on before. Please help us to honor their memory and to keep their ideals. Most especially God we ask that this nation keep you in your proper place as we once again become "ONE NATION UNDER GOD".
dea

Speechless

2009-06-18T04:10:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was a great day around here. My brother David decided to surprise my mother and father by coming to visit. He just didn't tell them about it. My sisters and I knew, but for once my parents were in the dark. Now you have to understand that this is something all of us kids grew up being a part of. We quite often when we were little would be plunked in the car to go for a ride in the country and then while we were on the road our parents would tell us "oh by the way, we're going to so and so's house". They also were fond of surprising my grandparents too. We would drive up in their yard in Rockford and have to go and tap on their window to be let in. So, having my brother surprise them with our help was great!

One time while I was living in Rockford with my gramma, I had one of the roles in a musical production at Cranfest. Not a big deal for most, but is was important to me. I remember making the comment to my Mom while we were talking on the phone that it would have been nice to have them there to watch. A couple of days before the Cranfest performance, my parents showed up out of the blue to see me sing. Wow.

When I was young in Florida, my cousins were going to move down and we were going to keep their horses at our house. I was excited. I love horses. I was glad they'd be there. Then the day arrived and the folks said "oh by the way, the gray one is yours". What a thrill. Made even better by the fact that this horse was the son of the horse I had ridden while we lived here, before moving to Florida 2 years before that. I even had known him as a baby. It was really neat to have a part of Wisconsin in Florida.

After growing up that way, it was only normal for Will and I on our first Christmas up here to turn around and surprise the folks in Florida. We worked it out with my friend Elise that she would pick us up at the airport and deliver us to their house. We went to Paula and Earl's house first, knocked on the door and starting Christmas caroling them. Their reaction was great. Then we all piled into cars and headed over to Will's parents house for more "caroling". What a great night. Of course we had to promise Will's parents that we would never do it again, but it was worth it. Years later they got Will back by surprising him for his birthday and arriving at the party. I think turn about is fair play.

I digress......yesterday my sister Dana and I were trying to find a way to keep Mom and Dad from leaving their house for a trip to the grocery store, because David was on his way. Dale comes walking in and says hi. Now for my parents this should have been a little strange because it's not always without planning that all of their daughters were in the same house. We all have very different time schedules, so this was rare. Then my brother walks in and my Mom's mouth drops open and she just stares. Dad's back is to the hallway that David is walking down and he has no idea why his wife is staring and doing an imitation of a fish. Suddenly she is up getting the front of my brother's shirt all wet. Then she hugged the stuffing out of our nephew Patrick. Then back to David for more crying. It was great. Dad was just grinning and we were all excited because we finally pulled one over on the folks. Mom was speechless and all in all it was a grand, grand moment.

Have a great day.
dea

Honor and Glory!

2009-06-16T05:06:00.002-06:00

No this is not a patriotic themed entry. Yesterday while I was on the mail route, I discovered the nest of the 2 bald eagles that are always around when I'm in a certain area. I have named them Honor and Glory. I previously had named them Honor and Regal, but Will said that Regal Eagle was a silly name. So, her name is Glory now. I have enjoyed watching them over the last 3 months. In fact they had just started showing up around there when I was a sub on this route 3 years ago, so it's great that they decided to stick around. I really, really love eagles, so this has been a blessing for me each day. When you drive the same route daily for 4 hours, you start noticing things and how they change daily.

So, I came home from work yesterday and we all worked around the house. When we were all pretty worn out, I told Will and Jessa to jump in the van and I would take them to see a surprise. I had been wanting to show them the area that my route is in, because it's one of the most beautiful around. We took the binoculars and headed out. They could see the nest, but the eagles were inside it and it's huge and deep so you could see nothing but one of their heads in the shadows. Still it was neat just seeing the nest and I'm sure we will be back to see it again.

The call is for rain today, so I'm not sure what's in the plans. I don't really enjoy having the water run down my arm into my shirt as I am on the route with that arm out the window, but I would much rather have rain than snow. I do know that I have to stop and get lids for jam/jelly jars. Rhubarb is calling my name.

Have a great day!
dea

What an awesome day!

2009-06-14T21:03:00.002-06:00

Our church held it's first Biker Potluck today. We had some new friends visit us from out of state last year and I guess they enjoyed it and wanted to come back. They brought some other great folks with them and we had a party! They all rode their motorcycles. It was a blast. Great worship service, sermon and then food. We cooked burgers and hot dogs on the grill and everyone brought a dish or two to pass. Of course there was too much food, but we all did our best to eat it.

The weather was beautiful if a little on the warm side. I think we got up into the low 80's but it was fun. We had lots of ice and lots of tea and lemonade. I think that we are already planning a "Second Annual Biker Potluck". I'm looking forward to it.

On a different note, Will is possibly planning on plowing my garden tomorrow. My plants are getting root bound in the sun room waiting. In our defence, we've been really, really busy.

The kids are getting excited about going to Lifest now. They are starting to think about what they need to pack. It will be a great experience for them, I pray. Many of their favorite Christian bands will be there. They will be gone from the 8th-12th
of July. Then after they come home on the 12th we hopefully will be finishing up on the packing of the van and picking Will up from work at 6:30 pm to head for Florida. That means I have tons and tons of work to do between now and then.

I have a huge bunch of rhubarb to make into strawberry rhubarb jam. The strawberries just started up here too, so that means strawberry freezer jam, sugarless jam for my Uncle Ken and regular strawberry jam too. By the time the strawberries are done it will be time for the blueberries and the blackberries. I should finish making jam right before the Florida trip (I hope).

Still sorting for the garage sale. We all have bunches already sorted and lots more still to sort. I will be glad to get it gone.

Well time for bed, I'm just typing this as I wait for Jake to get home from a friend's house. I try to be a mom that doesn't smother him, but I still have trouble sleeping until he's home. Of course he's late, so that will be a discussion in the morning, but with no school at least the rest of them can sleep in as I go to work.

Have a great day tomorrow.
dea

Landscaping Deanna style....

2009-06-09T04:29:00.002-06:00

Last year I noticed that I spend an awful lot of time weed eating. Not near as much time as I spend doing laundry though, but it's a close second some weeks. My parents and our household have decided to have a huge garage sale. We will open it up to friends and family to bring their stuff and put it out. They just have to make sure that it is labeled. Ok, so I know that this was a convoluted paragraph, but stick with me here it all pulls together. The consensus that Will and I have come up with is that we spend too much time doing some things (chores) and that needs to change.... so......with that in mind.

I have started scrounging for plants to landscape with that will keep me from having to weed eat so much. Jacob and Luke helped Will and I dig up 47 bunches of ferns so far and we have planted them around the outside of our front courtyard fence. It is very shady all around it and nothing seems to like to grow there except weeds. This is the cheapest way I could think of to cover 150 or so feet of blank canvas that otherwise would have needed to be weed eated. So far it looks wonderful. I just have to beef up the dirt and make sure that it stays watered.

I also have been seperating clumps of hostas and spreading them around the flower beds to create a larger bed, but one with less work. The iris beds are getting large and I will be adding more perenials as I go. Thankfully many, many people are sharing with me. I hope to have them finished in the next week or two.

We are going through the house with a fine toothed comb and getting rid of everything that is not vital or things that have so much sentimental value that it will hurt to give them up and even then some of them are going. I guess we are having sympathy pains for our friends Rebecca and Chuck who are moving. I must not be able to let them go through it alone, since it's pretty much the same picture here as it is at their house (I would think). Sort, sort, pack, pack..what to take, what to keep. The good thing is that if we do decide to downsize in the next year or two, we will have a major part of the work done.

Add into all of this the remodeling projects that are ongoing, the Oakes Family Gathering that is happening the end of the month, the First Annual Biker Rally and Potluck that we are having Sunday at church, the end of school, the planting of the garden, practice for our new CD that is hopefully going to be recorded soon and getting ready to send the kids to Lifefest in July, with us leaving God willing for Florida the same day the kids return from Lifefest(I think they might spell it LIFEST). It seems it's going to be busy, but just think of it......

A house with hardly any clutter and a yard that is pretty much self sustaining for the most part. A house that is almost completed except for cosmetic changes, empty storage space, organized work rooms and tool areas......what a dream!!

Lots of work later........hopefully it will happen.

Have a great day!
dea

Amazing what you can do with a piece of string...

2009-06-06T10:25:00.002-06:00

... okay, rope. Below you will find a video of the Kings Firecrackers. If anything could get both sides to give a standing ovation at a Army/Navy game it's these young ladies.

I was given some interesting information on them that I hope is correct: "...The Firecrackers are a team of elementary and junior high girls from Ohio. And they’ve taken jumping rope to the extreme. Their skills have made them a sensation at sporting events..."

"...The Firecrackers practice for two hours a day, five days a week. That’s on top of keeping their grades up. And each girl must pass an etiquette class to make the team. After watching this, you’ll see that they deserve every ovation they get."

I have to say I agree! The video is a little fuzzy and pixilated so I would not go to full screen but maybe that will work for you. I just wish they could bottle that energy! (the talent and skill in a bottle wouldn't be bad either!)

Enjoy!

Kings Firecrackers

2009-06-06T10:24:00.000-06:00

So close but yet so far...

2009-06-05T04:22:00.003-06:00

We are winding down to the last days of school before summer. Jake and Jessa wish that today was the last day, but it is dragging on. We have to go extra long because of snow days taken this last winter. Of course the kids loved having snow days, but now they are saying "it's not fair". You know how it is.

We are working together as a team to get the yard into shape and really try to get it as maintenance free as possible. I have been replanting hosta's (boy they don't like to separate into smaller clumps), moving flowers and dirt etc. I feel like the weed eater has become a permanent extension of my hand. I hope to replant ferns around the entire outside of our courtyards to save myself at least that much weed eating. Thankfully my Aunt's woods hold many, many types of ferns and I can dig them for "free".

Jessalyn tried out for "Advanced show choir" the other day and made it. She is really excited. They start practicing on July 27th to get ready with a routine in time for Cranfest. She is really looking forward to it.

Jacob is in concert choir this next year. He gets to wear a robe and everything. I think the best thing for him is that he will be in the class with his girlfriend too, but I know that he really loves the music. He loves music and loves to sing. In the last year his voice "ear" has really perked up. He is maturing and his voice has finally decided to settle down and stay in one place. He does a great job.

Will the tomato (sunburned) is finally getting better. I felt so sorry for him, but when you are that sunburned, there is not much you can do. I finally bought him some aloe with lidocaine in it. That about froze him, but it really did the trick. Now the secret will be to keep him from getting more sunburned this weekend. He's losing weight too and wearing skinnier clothes. I'm really, really proud of him. He works so hard. It's nice to see good things happen.

As for me...I'm about 90% better now that I have started on this new medicine. It is designed especially for me from a pharmacy in Madison. They took blood almost a month ago and finally got the results yesterday. Really in depth stuff. The thyroid is good. Even my cholesterol was fine (who would have thought that?) My hormones due to the surgery years ago were the worst that the doctor had ever seen. She said that she was surprised I was still walking. (sometimes I wondered the same thing. I had no energy). It's nice to know that all of the junk that was happening to me was real. They put me on a generic medicine to start out with and that helped so much with energy and the weight is really dropping now. She changed everything yesterday and told me that the weight should really be changing now and also my energy will be greater. WOW! I feel like I've won the lottery! To go from feeling like a wet dish rag (an old smelly one) to being this energetic and it's only going to get better? Praise the Lord!!!!

(Before anyone tells me that the all natural way is better, I tried it. Didn't work. I had no choice but to just hide in a hole and never move again or try this therapy. I prayed about it and I am perfectly comfortable with taking the hormones.)

We are working on having a garage sale on the 4th with my parents and others. It should be great. I already have about 5 garbage bags full of stuff to take to it and am working on getting more together. I am trying to become clutter free. I doubt it will happen, but I can at least strive to have less stuff. There is no way I will ever be a "minimalist", but I can keep from being a "maximalist". Here's to this weekend and all of it's possibilities!

Have a great day!
dea

The weathers gorgeous!

2009-06-02T08:10:00.001-06:00

(from Will)

When I work all weekend I have mandated that no one ask me to do anything on Monday. Monday has become a sort of sabbath for me; my day of rest. You'll notice that there is a small "s" on that sabbath. I can't exactly say it's a dedicated thing, nor do I keep it completely Holy either. I wish I was better at that but until then...

Yesterday started out that way. Correction: It did not "start" that way. It started with me waking up before 4am. That is the time I get up on the days I work. Usually when I have the day off I sleep in til closer to 6am, but the aches and pains of working hard (and old age) woke me and wouldn't let me get back to sleep. Besides that, I did the usual and started my morning on the 'puter. Checking emails and updating my Facebook page. (Mostly I play games.) by the way, because of the games I play on Facebook, I have been "adding friends" a lot. So much so that the Facebook people sent me a warning that I was "going too fast" and that I needed to slow down or they would block me. I guess they thought I was some rogue program or hack or some such thing. As my friend Bob G. would say "Friend police? who would have thought?"

Anyway, I have been known to "nap" on my days off but usually not for more than 20 minutes. After not being able to convince my body to let me sleep in, it was my body that suddenly couldn't stay awake. I dragged myself to the bed and was out like a light for a good two hours.(!) Then when I woke up, I had.....guilt. I don't know why. That is what my every-other-Monday is for! Nonetheless, there it was. And actually I do know what it was: Deanna works so hard herself that I feel bad for doing nothing. So, it was a gorgeous day and it seemed a terrible thing to waste. The sun was shining the temp about 75 degrees (f) and a very pleasant breeze coming from the west. There were a few biting flies I would discover later but it wasn't like you couldn't get away from them and there were no mosquitoes! Gorgeous.

Essentially, all days like that are traps! Terrible traps to cause you pain and suffering!

The weather is gorgeous and the grass needs mowing and I have a riding lawn mower. Here is a way of working hard that doesn't require me to do too much! And I am hoping to go to Florida in July so I need some color before I go. It's bad enough that I'll be a whale on the beach, I don't need to be a "white whale" too. So with new shorts on and t'shirt out into the gorgeous day I went. Yee haw!

I connected up the hose, kenneled and watered the dog. Picked up the dog toys and kid toys. Moved the lawn furniture and fired up the old riding mower. The day was gorgeous the weather was gorgeous and except for the occasional biting fly that I mentioned earlier, (oh and my mailbox falling into my lap when I bumped the post with mower deck,) it was all gorgeous! Until I put the mower away two hours later.

I walked inside and I knew that my arms neck and especially my thighs, knees and shins were going to have some "color". but I didn't expect them to be gorgeous! Red that is. no wait, beyond red. Glow in the dark, neon in the day, RED. I grabbed a rag and packed some ice into them and sat back down to the computer to chat with my mom online. All the while patting down my poor thighs with the icepack and then the cool damp rag after all the ice melted. My wife swears that mayonnaise will help it heal and brown faster. Perhaps, but it looks too much like my hams are being prepped for a sandwich for me to do that. I'll stick to the aloe-vera gel thank-you-very-much; which is causing my very very light pajama pants to stick to me right now.

But it's okay. Today there is a very cloudy sky and I just watched a couple of military Jet planes "dog-fighting" over my house complete with flares and high "g" turns. No sunshine, the temp is 58 degrees (f) and I think the weathers gorgeous! How about you?

Born Again American

2009-05-27T15:41:00.003-06:00

A car wash and bake sale...

2009-05-26T19:47:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was Memorial Day as everyone knows. Around here we do it up in style. We have the different programs at the local cemeteries and then we go and eat grilled chicken cooked by the Warrens Lions Club at the community building. This year was a little different....

Our youth group had a car wash and bake sale from noon until 4:00 pm. I woke up at 5:15 am and started baking. I baked rhubarb muffins, peach cobbler, pumpkin bars and 8+ dozen cinnamon rolls. At 11:30 we took it all in, along with all of the buckets, soaps, hoses etc that I had collected. Other people from the church came and volunteered to man the bake sale (as well as bring other goodies that they had baked to sell). The kids and I started washing cars, vans AND TRUCKS! I lost count after 26. The kids did such a crazy job on one of the first vans by completely missing the entire back end that I started washing after they had washed. They worked very hard washing and then I would wash every part again. We removed the tar, we washed dash boards off, we scrubbed tires, we did it all. My arm hurt so much last night I could not sleep. BUT, the good news is that we raised $247.00 towards their trip to Lifefest. A local huge Christian music festival in Oshkosh in July. The kids were excited yesterday and they have not even heard the total yet.

It was worth it, but I am worn out. I don't think the car wash part will be a monthly thing, but I think the other ladies in the church that participated would like to have another bake sale. They had a blast waving at all of the cars that drove by, selling the goodies and in general cutting up and having a good time. It was fun to see them acting like little kids.

Jake went out into the woods the other day without bug spray and wandered around a swamp for a couple of hours. He did not say a word about it when he came home. He just went to bed and then in the morning told us that he had not slept well. I wondered, but he said no more, so we went on. That night he asked me to look at a bug bite that was itching (he had been wearing long sleeves). When I looked at the boy he was covered with bites. He must have about 200 mosquito bites on him and never said a word. I would have been whining and crying like a baby. He has such a high pain thresh hold it's unreal. Now he is sick and says that his throat hurts and he is coughing. If he says that he is sick, I know he is sick. Besides his girlfriend is sick too, so I figure they shared it. (He's 16 and I try not to ask any questions). He's such a good guy, I hate to see him miserable.

Jessalyn leaves tomorrow for a 3 day field trip to Eagle Bluff. She gets to try repelling down cliffs, walking high ropes, kayaking, canoeing and all other kinds of neat stuff. Jacob loved it when he went in the 6th grade. They are both just itching to get out of school (bad pun in Jake's condition).

We have a very busy summer planned.

Time to head to bed.
dea

I'll make this simple:

2009-05-23T06:33:00.005-06:00

...stand behind our fighting forces....or kindly stand in front of them!

To the friends and families of the fallen; to our veterans and new recruits:

This family remembers!

Thank you
From the Donaldson's: Will, Deanna, Jacob, Jessalyn
(on the government watch list for believing in God and Country)

Something from my Mom.

2009-05-20T18:54:00.003-06:00

My mom sent me this and I thought it was too cool not to share with you. I don't know anything about the video but it's cool. If you don't like ballet, watch it anyway. Trust me it isn't too "girly" for you guys and it isn't to uppity either. Like I said, it's cool.

Thanks mom!

Hello again!

2009-05-19T07:46:00.002-06:00

From Will:

Still busy as ever and still getting so little accomplished. My parents 50th wedding anniversary is happening in July and we're still trying to make it. All of your prayers would be welcome in that regard. God continues to provide in His own way, but He makes us work for it.
Fair enough.
Don't get me wrong, there is no doubt that HE is providing but we have to do our part. For example: With the economy in it's current condition, my work has been slow and my hours decreased. Until lately. Recently they brought my hours back to where they should be (most of the time) and yesterday they needed me to come in on my day off for some overtime (O.T.). O.T. money is great! And getting any at this point is clearly God! I just had to work on my day off. See what I mean? Clearly God. Clearly I had to do my part.
The line from the song in the Fiddler on the Roof musical plays clearly in my head:
"...would it ruin some grand master plan...if I were a wealthy man???" But never the less I'm grateful to have a Job and to be able to perform it. The older I get the more I'm grateful to be able to do anything.

(digressing again...sigh)

So, today I nurse my sore back and try to catch up on all my home chores and responsibilities like posting this for you!

God made it clear to me that we needed this new van and even was specific about this particular van. I still wonder what He's doing. There is this whole "debt" issue that makes me question and then why this particular van?? Deanna will confirm that God chose this particular van for us and I am very grateful to have had His clear input! Still I have to wonder "what's up?" Ya know?

Speaking of which. Here is a question I would really appreciate as many answers to as I can get:

It's been so long since we've had a vehicle that was worth trying to keep clean. Wisconsin winters are hard on paint and carpet/upholstery. What do YOU use to wash/wax your car and to clean the (cloth) seats, carpet and upholstery? And why?

I know a lot of people use different things and that they're inventing new stuff everyday to go along with the new paints/materials. So what do YOU use and why.

Please! I really would LOVE to hear YOUR opinion!

Moving on but staying on just the vehicles part of "what is God doing?" My truck is still in the shop. They might finish it today. They might not. Don't ask what the total will be but lets say that mechanically I should have different truck than what I gave them. It's in a price range that suggests I could have bought another truck for that price, but at that price it too would need work; ya know?

Deanna is still nursing her old work car. I've tried to encourage her to pick out a newer one before the one she has falls completely apart. It's done it's job and then some. It doesn't owe us anything but it keeps chugging along...dropping parts as it goes. I just don't want it to "leave her" while she's on the route but I understand her dilemma: Still need to save money for Florida trip. Still need money for (lots and lots of) things around the house and if she orders the car she needs then it becomes that much harder to take care of the other things. Pray for her. I do.

In the last post I mentioned Jacobs concert. It was very very good! It doesn't matter where we sit in the auditorium something always blocks our view of him but this time I could really hear him! He sounded great! All the choirs combined to do bits and pieces from the musicals Oklahoma! and Chicago and did it with "show choir" flair. Really good!

Well, that's all the time I have allotted for now. I need to see if I can fix my lawn mower. Grass is high enough hide small animals. Which reminds me. The bear has been back and broke the big wooden box that holds my trash bags! Jake fixed that for me but I wish I had a picture of the paw shaped hole. It was cartoon like!

May God Bless you! He surely has me! And don't forget to give me your car maintenance tips!!!!!!
Will

(From Will) Okay, we have a second...

2009-05-14T15:58:00.004-06:00

...not really, but I can't let this go on any further. It's Thursday and our last post was Sunday, mothers day. So:

I KNOW God has been with us all this week working in His strange and mysterious ways but I'll let you decide what He's up to.

First, Mothers day: Deanna had really been aching to go to the zoo so as her present I took her to Madison (WI) to the free zoo there. There's a bigger zoo in Milwaukee but that's farther away and costs money. We've been trying desperately to get ourselves in a position to go to Florida in July by trying to save money (like everyone else) and yet still have a fun time with the kids. Also, it would be a chance to try out our "new to us" van on the highway to see how it would be in July.

The Van rode and drove just fine and visibility is good. As long as you bother to use it. As I was driving the almost two hour drive to Madison, I was noticing a terribly dangerous trend in drivers today: Self-Centeredness. This is more than being inconsiderate but about being in the center of your own little world and not being concerned (enough) with what might be going on outside of what YOU are doing in YOUR own little world.

For example the number of people who don't think the sign that says "slower traffic keep right". Means them. I've talked to these people and I've been told they "...interpret that to mean anyone doing less than the speed limit." Last time I checked you were supposed to have the words "Honorable Judge" in front of your name if you're going to "interpret" the law. The signs says "SLOWER traffic keep right" That means if someone is going faster than you: YOU are SLOWER.

But I digress.

There was another occasion that brought home this point. I was in the right hand lane with the cruise control on. In the left lane but still behind me was an elderly man in a Lexus who was very slowly overtaking me. I didn't mind; until. We came up on an on ramp that had a steady stream of vehicles entering the interstate. The car in front of me wouldn't move over to the left lane (even though she could) to let the merging vehicles on. I was stuck with the elderly gentleman now on my side. This man "had it going on". He saw what was happening and hammered the gas to get out of mine and everyone else's way. I was then able to smoothly give lane to the other cars. He was watching what was going on. The girl in front wasn't or didn't care. Scary that. Here is the important part: The whole way there and while we were in Madison were constant, vibrant reminders to really be watching whats going on around you and in front of you.

We had a great time at the zoo. The weather was sunshiny yet cool: Perfect! We got nose to nose with large Tiger (with glass between thank you) and enjoyed the bears and all the other critters! We struggled to find a restaurant that wasn't packed slam full on mothers day but managed a fine meal at Cr@ckerb@rrel and then headed home.

The ride to Madison had made me hyper-vigilant on the way home and very good thing. The weekend of about 15 people were almost completely ruined.

I was in the right hand lane of the interstate with a semi some ways behind me and he had a small truck tailgating him badly. I commented on this to Deanna. Again, off my left rear corner panel I had a car who had been there for a while, sometimes gaining on me and sometimes not. In front of me 5 or 6 van lengths was another mini-van. As I was assessing all of this I noticed a ways up ahead two vans in the right side emergency lane.

They were parked on in front of the other but both were starting to move and merge into the right hand lane. MY right hand lane. The van in back pulled out first and was almost hit by the van in front as it pulled into our lane. Sounds bad right? How about this: The first van that is now fully in the right hand lane just stops! (??!!)

Well, I saw all this from far enough away that there should have been plenty of time to make the lane change. Here's were bad goes to worse to ridiculous:

Remember the Van in front of me? He has no reason he can't pull over into the left hand lane. I have that car on my left rear somewhere. I do a quick look over my shoulder to make sure it's safe and when my head comes back around the van in front IS JUST NOW REALIZING WHATS GOING ON! They panicked. They hit the brakes HARD. No steering, just stopping.

When my head came around from checking for a clear lane, all I could see was taillights that looked like they were only inches from my windshield.

Left turn Clyde.

I yanked the wheel hard! I can say that the van handles what Canadians call the "moose avoidance procedure" very well. The tires were screaming as I made the lane change, stomped on the accelerator, corrected and changed back into the right hand lane once past the "parked" vans on the right.

Next exit, I stopped for...er...gas. Yeah! Well, we did get...er buy gas. And we took a minute for our hearts to stop racing. My son utters the words: Nice driving dad. As I flushed with that praise I sent a loud prayer to God saying the same thing.

When I have a few more minutes we'll try to fill you in on all the other things going on right now but Jacob has a concert tonight so we have to get ready!

Numbers 6:24-28
Will

Happy Mothers Day!

2009-05-10T07:01:00.001-06:00

Going to an auction..

2009-05-03T04:21:00.003-06:00

Yesterday morning was the Tomah City Wide Garage Sale Days. For those of you who don't garage sale, you're really missing something. For one thing, it is quite amazing to me what people think is too good to throw away and what they think things are worth. It's kind of like the $100,000 house syndrome. Someone's house may only appraise for $50,000.00 but, to them it's worth $100,000. so that's their asking price. Some item may be worth lots to them, but someone else wanders in and wonders why you would want it. It's funny.

I went to 5 or 6 sales waiting for an auction to start. There was an auction at a house that had a couch that one of my co-workers wanted, but since he would be on the mail route until early afternoon, I told him I would go and bid on it for him, if he couldn't get there before it went on the block. Ok, so I really wanted to go anyway and this was my excuse. I knew the person having the auction and knew she had really nice things.

I was right. I picked up a few really neat bargains. Examples: 1 large wooden bird feeder shaped like a barn in great condition on a pole and everything for $1, a 32 piece towel set (including 4 brand new beach towels and 14 bath towels) for $15, a set of antique sterling silverware with dates on them ranging from 1918-1921, for $1, a box of 8 hand weights for excercising (which my therapist wanted me to use) for $2. All in all it was a great day spent with friends in beautiful weather next to the lake. I even didn't spend that much money and that was really great. I love it when you find specific stuff you have been looking for and really get a bargain. Oh yeah, I also bought for $2 a whole tray of serving spoons, pie servers and other food service implements for our church (they all go missing for some reason).

We have a local youth ministry here that has started and although it has specific youth leaders, the rest of us that are youth leaders in the churches around have banded together with them to start an area wide outreach. Last night was the first concert in what they hope will be a series. They had 3 Christian bands come in at the fairgrounds and all area youth were invited. My kids went along with their cousin, friend Luke and Jake's girlfriend. Jake was so proud that he could pay for her ticket. I'm proud of him for wanting to take her and Will says it's just the first in a long line of his learning to give all his money to his woman. Sheesh... that's romantic Will. Makes us sound like a coin operated washer or something.

Anyway, it went from 8:00 pm until midnight. Yes, I remember the days of just getting ready to go out at 10:00, but now I'm older and 8:00 is time to start getting ready for bed (unless I'm already in bed). I didn't go. I prayed and sent the kids. They will have some daytime stuff and I will gladly volunteer, but not that late. Will got up at 4:00 this morning. I got up about 4:20. That would have been awful early in the morning after getting to bed after 1:00 am. I really am showing my age. The kids are obviously still asleep, so I don't know how it went. Hopefully, great.
Well, time to do laundry. Have a great day.
dea

We Did It.

2009-04-30T07:41:00.006-06:00

(From Will)

We bought a new mini-van. After paying a small fortune to repair Deanna's car and then a slightly smaller fortune to fix my truck only to discover that Deanna's car is broke again, we had to face facts and buy something more dependable.

The D@dge Carav@n. It's an '08 model with the fold away seats, dual air and remote start. I said "new" but of course it's really "used". It has 24 thousand miles on it and already has a few scratches so I don't have to worry about that "first scratch". We weren't able to jump through all the hoops they wanted in order to get the 0% financing on a "new" van so I told them to forget it, this one is good enough and we really did our research and paid a decent price for it.

There were two reasons we considered brand "new" over "used". One was the zero percent financing, the other was the "life-time" warranty available with a new vehicle. Our not being able to purchase new meant we couldn't have the lifetime warranty. We were however able to purchase a six year, 100,000 mile warranty; which made us feel a whole lot better about going into debt. The U.S. government has agreed to cover the warranty should the manufacturer go bankrupt and I've never bought a car warranty that didn't pay for itself. So again, I was much relieved by that addition.

Still, I would love all of your prayers that the Lord blesses this van with the most dependability and lowest cost of ownership okay? Amen!

The above picture is just one I pulled off of the internet. The one we bought looks exactly like it: A silver van that needs...something. I'm going to have to customize it someway that is both taste-full and subtle. I don't what or how yet but I can't stand the way it's so...anonymous. It just needs something that will make it easier to spot in a parking lot or so family and friends will know it really is us when they see a silver van. If you have any ideas we would love to hear or see 'em! Just remember the words taste-full and subtle; even classy okay?

The sad thing about all of this is we still have to replace Deanna's car. She can't use the van for work....

Well, because we haven't spent enough money yet to jump start the worlds economy - I know- it seems like I have- I now have to take Jacob to the eye quack..uh I mean doctor and see what's up with him. The other night he woke up and his eye was hurting. By morning, it was swollen shut. So we're off to jump start the economy! Woo Hoo!

Will

From Will: AARRRGH!

2009-04-26T18:24:00.003-06:00

...whew! I feel better...sort of...
First, I'm sorry that this blog has been so...inconsistent lately. It's been stressful around here lately with lot's to do and lot's going on. While we we're on the subject; I've added the "follow" feature on the right . If it works the way I understand it, it will notify you every time we post something new. If you get annoyed checking our site to find we've added nothing new, this might be for you. In the mean time we will try to get better about our postings; no promises or anything, but we'll try.

Part of the reason I'm not going to make any promises is that our "main" computer died last night. I don't think it's a hard-drive crash but a power supply problem; but then again, I'm no 'puter expert. We plan on taking it to the 'puter ex-spert this week and see what they say.

Which brings us to the next thing that's been occupying our time lately. Un-planned expenses. Stressful? Ask my wife she'll tell you that I took ten minutes to talk to her about my feelings and my thoughts (yeah I know, very un-manly of me but wait:) and basically all I did was babble incoherently. It's the truth. I finally ended my ramblings with "...Just take some time and think about what you think I'm trying to say okay?" No lie. No, I'm not losing it; it's long gone!
Why did my 'puter die? Nothing else on the surge protector had any issues! It certainly wasn't on the agenda of things to be replacing. At least not yet. Never the less, it did and we have to deal with it and this 'puter I'm working on now takes 5 minutes for int*rnet expl*rer to boot. It's old but it works...sort of. I'm so glad I have it though! or how would I use the internet to whine so??? My poor wife would have to deal with more of my senseless babblings! But thankfully we do have this antiquity so I can babble to you! whoo hoo aren't you blessed?

Blessed. That is the way I'm trying desperately to look at things. I'm trying to take the perspective that Deanna got her raise in time to take care of these things because we would never have been able to before the raise. But there is still a part of my flesh that wants to put the horse on the other end of the cart and ask how come right after she gets her raise and we might be able to dig our way out of the quicksand did her car suddenly need a thousand dollars worth of work? We didn't fix it completely, we decided we didn't really need air-conditioning...sigh.... THEN! my truck starts having issues and bam! there's another 600 bucks! So, there I am considering all the really big nickles and dimes that our vehicles are costing us and the fact we don't have a back up vehicle (we both have to have one), so the wife and I talk and decide maybe we need a newer vehicle. Now is the best time to buy a car that's only a year or two old. Well, it should be.
I thought about it hard and I gave up my spot at the real man's club and had to admit that a mini-van makes the most sense for us at this point. With stow @nd go seating it would be very practical and versatile. So, I agreed to the "mommymobile". We looked. We searched. We did our homework and Friday found the best deal on an 08 van with only 24 thousand miles on it. Looks new, acts new and drives great. Only, it's an "used" which means there is an interest rate on the car loan. If I buy a brand new 09 model I may qualify (key word "may") for zero percent interest. That means for a couple thousand more (less than a hundred bucks a month "maybe") we could have brand new and pay a bank nothing! I really like the pay the bank nothing part but there's more! the 08 comes with the remaining factory warranty but the 09 comes with LIFE-TIME warranty! As in as long as we own the car!!! wow!! what a deal! wow! w a i t!!!!
Still, a hundred bucks a month???? I don't know about you guys but that's a lot for us.
What. Do. We. Do????? really??? So we pray. We ask our parents and our friends for their advice and opinions. We go to bed and wake up this morning to a fried computer. We drive to church in our loaner van because my trucks in the shop and by the end of the day (now) I'm babbling incoherently.

What matters: I love that these are our problems!s My gosh when I think about some of the things my own friends and family have to deal with and these are our problems?
What problems?!? Yeah, money is tight again. We are very close to living at 100% of our means again and I hate that. But, Dea and I both have great jobs. More importantly we have each other. Most importantly we know God loves us and that He has a plan and we just have to watch and wait to see what He's going to do.

I've said it before and will again:
When you've done your very best and done all that you can do and it's still not good enough; That's when you have a 50 yard line seat to watch God work.

Don't miss it!
Will.

We're so proud of our speller!

2009-04-22T04:21:00.002-06:00

Jessa didn't make it to the final four this year, but she made it a good ways into the competition until she was downed by a word. She spelled the word right, but it was the wrong word. Misleading sentence to explain the word in her case. The word was "counsel" but the sentence they used made her think the word was "council", so she spelled "council". Frustrating for her and especially frustrating for me. I knew what she thought as soon as she thought it and there was no correcting it. Her face just fell when she knew she had spelled the word she spelled right, but they said it was wrong. It's hard to get out on a rightly spelled word. She did really well though and didn't cry. I almost did.

Will and I went with my parents and my Aunt to Olive Garden afterwards for lunch. Jessalyn went to Culver's for lunch and icecream with the rest of her schoolmates and one of her favorite teachers. She'd rather have icecream than about anything....something she has in common with both of her grandmothers. Anyway, we had a wonderful time in the restaurant talking about the government and what Glenn Beck had said recently. The people behind us were listening to us talk and every once in awhile I'd hear the woman say "did you know that?" or "I didn't know that". Too funny. It was a great lunch time.

Well, we went and looked at cars again. We have pretty much decided to go ahead and order my right hand drive jeep right away (depending on financing and rates). With my route being about 1/2 hills (big, steep hills) we have decided a right hand drive 4 wheel drive is the way to go. I need the 4X4 in the winter and the right hand helps for obvious reasons. We have also decided to bite the bullet and buy a minivan, if we can find the right one for the right price. The cars are at the point that they are costing more and more to fix. For what I have spent on my car and adding in the tires that I need to get, I could have made payments for about 6 or 7 months on my jeep. Now we're looking at lots of work on Will's truck. It's hard to know what to do. We've been without car payments for about 4 years now and going back into payments is very, very scary and somewhat depressing. We need wisdom Lord, bunches and bunches of wisdom.

Jessalyn's room is painted. This afternoon I plan on vacuuming the carpet and steam cleaning it before putting her furniture back in. I have one more thing to paint in there and that's her desk/cabinet. Right now it's this strange peach color and that really is not a good color for the 2 tone purple room. I hope to have everything back in there by tomorrow night so that I can start on another project on Friday. This weekend is also the time to plow my garden. I'm excited!

Well, time to get the kids off to school and then head out to work. Everyone have a great day!
dea