Our Christmas Visitors

We were really excited when Mike called to say they wanted to drive out for Christmas.  It would be a short stay --- but those can be the best of times!!!!   They would arrive on Wednesday evening.  We had JDC but they wouldn't be here until after 8:00 - so no problem.  As we drove in we saw their tail lights.....they had just arrived.

We have quite a bit of room in our trailer but we were a bit short on the beds.  We called Lee and asked if Mike and Julie could come and use "Gpa's" bedroom...."you bet".   So we had Mike and Julie taken care of........  Sidney and Halle would share the full size bed......  Rick, Brennan and Austin on the bunk and twin beds.  That left Trenton and Colton in the living room.   Julie said they were the first ones up in the morning......so Trenton was on the couch and Colton on an air mattress.

Things did get a bit messy  --- boots and more boots.....

.......but spirits were high and we just didn't worry about the small stuff.

Christmas Eve we all went to church for a candle light service at Lakeview CRC.  And then we would share Christmas Dinner with Dwight, Marvanne and Rob and Lee.....and Pastor Mark, Dawn, Michaela and Evan.  The size of our group made us decide to have it at the Community Center.   What a feast we had!!!  Then we got the Aggravation boards out and things got intense.

OH ----- I forgot to mention Diesel ----  a dog that looks like Toby's twin.  He took the ride in stride-----slept the whole way up and back.

They got along just fine --- yes, there was a fair amount of growling at times...... but mostly Toby put up with Diesel.  We have an extra dog run - so that was no problem.

When they weren't outside - hunting - they were in the house doing puzzles (the brain teaser type) or playing Aggravation or Uno.

Rick was very glad that we have wireless --- so he spent a lot of time on his computer......when he wasn't trying to win at Dirty Uno.
Halle's not into hunting yet but she was never bored either.

 When we were in Michigan, Sidney got her cedar box out ---- it was the first one that Grandpa had made --- wow was it ever little.  So Grandpa decided that Sidney needed a new "jewelry box" sized one.  Sidney's birthday is January 11 -- so he got right to work making it.  We let her open her birthday gift early --- so we could see her.......

Love those thank you hugs!!!    

Mike had been watching the weather. The plan was to leave on Sunday but with the snow we received on Christmas Day, Mike wasn't so sure --- he was willing to stay thru Tuesday - but NOT leave early !!!!     Then the weather man started talking about "Goliath"............  They would leave on Sunday!    Gary made sure that they would be able to get out ----- He called Rob and Dan ------ assurance that the driveway would be cleared for them.  Dan came Sunday morning about 8:30 --- he had the road clear all the way to the Lakeview/Crookston road.  THANK YOU DAN!!!   They did get stuck right in our driveway ----- that 15 passenger van does NOT have 4 wheel drive!   But we got them on their way and they had clear travel all the way home. 930 miles!!!!  They arrived at 12:30 (midnight) in tired but good shape.  THANK YOU Lord!!!!   

What a fun time we had ------ all the food making and the mess and the clutter and the noise....... worth every minute.    We sure hope they do it again!!!!

Wishing you and your family the most wonderful New Year!!!!

Gary and Barb

                                                                                                     

pictures

Well how about that........NOW the computer will upload photos for me again......so there you have it --- put these pictures with the last update and you have the full story.

I will now have to get the latest pictures on here of our Christmas "party" with Mike and Julie and Rick......Trenton, Austin, Sidney, Colton, Brennan, Halle and last but not least Diesel.

We have JDC tonight --- so don't look for it right away.    Sorry.
Barb

Wintertime..........a trip to Michigan

We made a fast trip out to Michigan via Amtrak ------ our son Rick had come "home" for a couple of weeks from the Netherlands.   Sadly it was for a funeral of a 17 year old daughter of a friend of his.  But wanting to see our son --- we packed up and headed for McCook, NE where we get on the train.  The train was 2 hours late.......should have given us a clue that this was not a good idea.    Arriving in Chicago 2 hours late meant that we missed our train to Kalamazoo......that was no problem (for them) ----we just took a later one....arriving in Kazoo at 9:15 in the evening.

We rented a car and drove to Grand Rapids to pick up Rick at his friends house.   Then back to Marti and Tim in Kalamazoo for the rest of the day.  We played Aggravation that evening.   WOW - that game can really get intense!!!  What fun!!!    Then the following morning we went out for breakfast and said our goodbyes to Rick.\

The train ride home was uneventful........  things at home were anything  BUT uneventful!!!  We knew we were coming home to trouble -- just didn't have a clue as to just what we would find.   We knew that we had no electricity and that there were a lot of power poles down by the storm that occurred immediately after we left on Monday evening...Tues morning.

As we came along our last mile west we could see the damage.....power poles down - snapped off at the bottom.   Apparently the lines had been coated with about 3 inches of ice.  Between the Crookston/Lakeview road and just past Don Schelhaas there were 30 poles down.....within 3 miles.  And then beyond that we heard a total of 80.

WELL ----- it was 23 degrees in the house.....my plants are all dead - froze solid....we have yet to see how our water pipes faired.  But we got the generator going and our portable heater......... --- so heat is coming slowly into our home.   Gary left to get Toby and, of course, the generator ran out of gas.   AUGH!!!! get back home!!!!!

We are now - at 3:00 p.m. (we got home around 10:00 or so... we are up to 60 degrees in here - feels like heaven compared to 23 degrees.   The men working on the lines are saying "power by 5:00 tonight."

We finally had power around 7:00 p.m.  So far the only problem with our water works in the house is our shower head doesn't want to give us any hot water. .......and the spray nozzle in the kitchen sink is leaking.   Other than that - we haven't got a thing to complain about.      We have another shower and Gary will do something (when it's turn for that fix) with the kitchen spray nozzle.  As I am typing he is cutting a hole in our bathroom wall......I'm just not looking.

We just heard from our son Mike and they are coming for Christmas   YEAH!!!!!!!  The weather sounds perfect....praying that it holds!!!
God is GOOD --- all of the time!!!!
Gary and Barb
p.s. I tried 3 times to put pictures on this thing -- - computer giving me grief.  sorry!!!!!

Pillowcases.....for Lakeview Elementary - from Overisel Reformed Ladies

This all started when I went out to help our daughter, Holly, after she had some major surgery.....in October. (By the way - she is doing great - back to work and feeling good).  Glenda Peters and Bette Sternberg had an idea.....maybe it was mostly Glenda who had an idea....but she passed it on first to Bette.  And then it really went after that.

The idea was to make pillow cases for our Release Time kids.....for Christmas. They had seen a pattern on Pinterest and got excited about it.  But the ladies at ORC had so much fun with it and so many wonderful donations of $$ and material and ladies doing the sewing..... that a question was asked...."do you think it would be OK if we made a pillowcase for EVERYONE at the school?"    Absolutely!! --- the school was totally in favor of the whole idea.  The final count of pillowcases was 60 --- we needed 52 for all the kids.  There would also be a new pillow for everyone.

We took some of the pillows back with us after Thanksgiving (our back seat was totally full of pillows)......and the others were shipped to us (thank you Robb Lubbers!).  We knew that the shipped package had REALLY been stuffed as full as it could be.  When we cut the box open the pillows literally "oozed" out of the box about 6 feet onto our living room floor.  I wished I  had taken a video!!

This video is of Pastor Mark and Gary playing around .....this was nothing like the box we opened at home!!!

I really should have laid all of the pillowcases out and taken a whole bunch of pictures of them.   They were SO CUTE!!! There were monkeys, birds, star wars, trucks, sharks, minnie mouse, cats, elk, circles, paw prints, geometric, paisley, baseball, football, plaids, crayons, lady bugs, dogs, flowers........I think there was about anything you could imagine.

Picking them out went fast.......one humorous thing that happened......  two boys were doing "rock/paper/scissors" to see who got the star wars pillowcase.  While they were doing that another boy walked up and made a decision for it real fast.   No there was no yelling or anything --- all taken in stride.

Having gotten a new bed pillow to put their new pillowcase over - there was some discussion.   The K-2 teacher thought about a "nap time".....the 3rd -4th you see below sitting on them for a cushion and who knows what the 5th-8th did.....I heard some talk about sleeping in class ..........  the teacher wasn't for that - but they could "use them".

The other sweet part of this was that there were just enough  extra pillowcases so that all the teachers and the 2 Aids got one too.   Some were going to their child or their grandchild.  Everyone was very appreciative!!   The ONE child who wasn't at school was not forgotten --- she got a real cute one picked out by her teacher.

Below are a few photos and movies.

This is the K-2 group.  We told each group that the ladies had been praying for them and that Jesus loves them and so "do we".

This is the 3rd and 4th graders.  The teacher, Mr. Walkling, came to say that everyone was using their pillows and I might want a photo.

And this, of course, is the 5th - 8th grade group.   Yes - as they get older they get more shy in front of the camera.  But they are a beautiful bunch of kids!!

You can tell by all the videos that everyone was very happy with their pillowcases and truly thankful for them.

Once again, we have been blessed by our friends at ORC.  I hope you know what a blessing you are to us and to this community!  THANK YOU!!!

Thank you Glenda and Bette for getting this all organized and accomplished.   And thank you - all of you who donated and shopped and sewed and prayed!  You are a blessing!!
Gary and Barb