MORE SNOW AFTER CHRISTMAS

You can see that we have more snow. This time it was 4 inches. This is showing our driveway with the camper that we were using while our kids were home. The last picture shows the driveway cleaned off after Rog used the snowblower to make the work a little less tiring.

CHRISTMAS 2007

Most of our kids and their families arrived on Sunday and we had one busy house until Thursday morning. A lot of the time there were 19 of the 23 grandchildren playing around the house and our home seems pretty big until we have everyone here. We had a camper in our driveway to make one more bedroom available. All of the 19 grandchildren that were here are 10 years old and under so that explains why we keep busy and are always cleaning. It was a wonderful time and we always look forward to having our kids and their families come home. We also have my parents living with us so they were able to retreat to their part of the house when the chaos was too much.


Below you see everyone listening to the Christmas story. Brendon & Caleb were reading it.

Here we are singing Christmas carols.

Time to pass our the gifts

This is our biggest table but we also had one going into the living room and one in the kitchen. We had 31 around the tables I believe.

The kids play lots of games but here they are playing rage. They would do this after the children were all in bed at night.

Here are some of the bigger kids playing Life.

Some grandsons watching a video.

There is always a swing to keep the babies happy.
This is Raegan Seaba.

Brooklyn liked the exersaucer but so did several other young ones that were just a little to big for it.

I found these girls at the bottom of the stairs in the basement and asked what they were playing. They said that they had no parents and Maggie was the oldest and had to take care of the rest of the family and since they had no money for a home, they were living in a cave.

It is quiet at gramma's house now and we look forward to their next visit.

ROBERTA'S BIRTHDAY

Today Roberta celebrates her 64th birthday. Don & Roberta have been with us in most of our Christmas activities and here she is holding Eli. She is enjoying our cold weather since she left the warm country in Texas. We hope you have a really good birthday Berta! We love you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

We want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and remind us that this is a time of celebrating our Savior's birth. We are so thankful that He came as a babe and gave His life so that we can have eternal life. The greatest gift of all and all we have to do is acknowledge that we are sinners, ask Him to forgive us of our sins, invite Him into our hearts, and we can have eternal life and live with Him forever when we leave this earth. Please consider Him today.

Since Sunday, we have had 21 people(my parents, Rog & myself, Damon & June & 5 children, John & Elisa & 4 children, John & Melanie & 2 children) staying in our home so you can see that it is quite busy. but oh what fun. Tuesday & Wednesday we will add 6 to the number staying in our home but we have a nice camper in our driveway that will house the overflow:) This morning 15 more of our family(Greg & Susan & 4 children, Phil & Julie & 4 children, Don & Roberta, & Liz) will come and we will enjoy having the family together for fellowship, opening gifts, and a feast at the table. God has blessed us and we are so very thankful. May He be honored this day.

Below are the 2 youngest of our 23 grandchildren - Hudson & Raegan.

Just the beginning of our gifts to share
(Last night we took the tree to our patio because we have 2 granddaughters that seem to be allergic to it)

Yesterday, Rog, Johnny & John went to cut some wood for us since we have used so much during the power outage. (We like to give them good times to remember:)

They were so good looking that we had to have a picture

Below, several grandchildren and Aunt Berta and grandpa are breaking up bread for the dressing for Christmas dinner.

LIFE WITH ELECTRICITY - Chapter 5 - OH HOW SWEET!

Praise the Lord, we have our power back on. Within 30 minutes from the time they arrived, these 3 men, who are from 3 different states(WI, AR, & MN) privately contracting work to help individuals get electricity back on, were able to get things in order and have us up and running. We are so thankful for these common everyday conveniences. We asked the men if they would be home for Christmas and they said "no". They have many more places to go so we must be thankful for their dedication.

men at our back door getting things hooked up at our meter after disconnecting our generator


Lights are on - Yeah!

Looks like we are ready for Christmas!

LIFE WITHOUT ELECTRICITY - Chapter 4 - STILL WAITING . . . . . .

We take so many things for granted and God is reminding us to always be thankful for the conveniences of our home. We are about to begin our eighth day without power and I must admit we are getting a little weary. We call in to Weststar every day(sometimes 3 or 4 times) so they don't miss us but it has not hurried the process along. Our house is the only one on Eastwood without power and there are 3 houses on Newport behind our easement without power and one of the houses has the service pulled off the house so we think that is the problem.
A street light is down by the house on Newport as well.

We still tend to reach for switches and expect lights to come on. I think it would take a long time to break that habit.

Below is a very important piece of equipment for my parents right now. It provides their part of the house with lights and heat and they are very happy about that. This is the generator that we had purchased for Y2K. It has been roaring outside now for 2 days going on 3.

This is the pole with the transformer behind our house that we keep checking to see if any of the Weststar people are back there.

I mentioned before that our neighbors on both sides have been so kind to let us use cords from their house to give us a little bit of electricity. Today we were able to use one of those to get our refrigerator going and that is really helpful.

As I write, there are headlights from a Weststar truck in our driveway and they are now in our backyard shining lights up at the pole so hopefully we can share some good news soon. Thanks to all who have prayed.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONDY!

Today Sondy is enjoying her birthday in the cold weather of Iowa where they have 8-10 inches of snow. She is 61 years old today(one of the younger ones of the family:) Sondy has been a wonderful wife and helpmete to Jim and is always busy working at home, at work, or at church. I'm thankful to have her for a sister-in-law. We love you Sondy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

LIFE WITHOUT ELECTRICITY - Chapter 3 - GENERATOR

Today we picked up our generator and brought it home. Greg & Rog worked a good part of the afternoon getting everything hooked up so the folks could move back into their cozy apartment and have lights and heat. The generator is on the other side of our patio fence so the roar is not too loud. Mom & Dad are very happy to be back in their warm place and not have to sit by the fireplace all day.(they didn't complain but it was not easy and with it getting colder outside, it was getting harder to stay warm)

Our part is still dependent on a couple of extension cords from our neighbors and with the folks having lights, we almost forget that we still cannot flip a switch and have light. We have burned a lot of wood this week but thankfully we had a good supply ready. Thanks for all the prayers and we hope the next Chapter will tell that the power is back on.

Most of you know that Dad always has liked to wear red socks for the Christmas season and this year is no different.

And tonight their Christmas lights are back on.

LIFE WITHOUT ELECTRICITY - Chapter 2 - ICE TO SNOW

It's a beautiful winter wonderland with 7-8 inches of snow overnight. The temperature has gone down so it is colder and we still have our fireplace going. It was still snowing some this morning. We did not have church last Sunday because of the ice and then Wednesday night we didn't because of the power outage and tomorrow we are canceling because the power is still out at the church. Yes, we are still without power here at home as well but at least there is a little sunshine outside right now. We have had to get an electric blanket out for Dad because this morning he just could not get warm. That makes us thankful for our neighbors that have enabled us to have a couple of outlets working. Pray that this does not take a toll on Mom & Dad's health and that they can stay well through these days.


Below is a picture of our camp stove that I didn't show along with our new refrigerator.:)
To the east of us below

To the west of us

The bushes in front of our house

Our bird bath

Our patio

Rog is going to pick up our generator that would not work for us a few days ago so we took it to be repaired and now it works so hopefully we can get heat and electricity to the folks part. Will let you know in Chapter 3.

LIFE WITHOUT ELECTRICITY - Chapter 1

It all started Monday afternoon with sleet and freezing rain. We had close to 3 inches of rain and it was icing the trees all around us. As we went to bed Monday night, we knew that there would be a chance of our electricity going off but little did we know that we would still be without electricity at the end of the week but make no mistake - WE STILL DO NOT HAVE ELECTRICITY - and all our neighbors do. Two of our neighbors have kindly shared an extension cord so that we can use one lamp, the fan on our insert in the fireplace, one small TV, one computer, and Dad's lift chair. A few things help our attitude I must admit. Now we have the snow coming down(already 3 inches) so we are not expecting to have our electricity by the weekend. Continue to pray for us as we care for our parents during these days as well.

We had stocked up with oil lamps and oil at the time of Y2K and just recently wondered if we should get rid of all the excess oil. Sooo glad we didn't because we have used a lot of it this week. Right now Rog is busy filling all the lamps for the evening and through the night. We have closed the door to where the folks stay in our house because we cannot keep it warm(48 degrees today). When their restroom is used, it reminds all of us of the old "outhouse".

Monday at midnight is when our power went off but everyone finished the night out in their own beds(Mom & Dad, 4 grandchildren and us). We are so thankful for our fireplace because without it, we would have been in a world of trouble. Tuesday we began cooking with our camping stove in the garage and tried to keep the refrigerator closed as much as possible as well as the many doors we have to our house. The grandkids did better than I thought at keeping them closed. That night we had all the same people plus Liz spending the night with us. We have enjoyed reading by flashlights and just sitting around and gabbing and so far we are able to keep our living room around 71 degrees. On Wednesday we cleaned out our refrigerator and put what little we could save in the garage and cold boxes. By
Thursday, we had hauled all the broken branches out of our yard and then had to unload our freezers and take them to other people so that we would not lose everything. The camping stove has now moved into our kitchen and we are doing dishes by hand. I'm also thankful that we still have water and hot water because we have a gas hot water heater. Some of our people in our church come from rural areas and do not have water.

Rog is cleaning out our eaves trough from the leaves and ice that have clogged them up.

Below are pictures of all the trees and ice on them - just yesterday most of it melted off of them.

This is our new refrigerator - not nearly big enough!

On Wednesday as the sun came out, the tree below looked like it was made of glass as it glistened in the sun. It is in our neighbors front yard(Taylors).

Mom is reading in the dark with only a flashlight - sometimes she would lay it on her shoulder so she could work her puzzles.

Sitting by the fireplace enjoying being together

Just yesterday our neighbor east of us offered us an extension cord coming from their house and we were able to have one lamp and the fan on our insert to our fireplace. What a blessing.

Some had already been picked up but our front lawn was a mess with branches.

The lawn is clean again and is now covered with snow.

Rog loaded all the broken branches onto the pickup and took them to the dump.

Rog is getting ready to clear the snow but it is still coming down heavy.

The snow is coming down and while I am writing this we have already gotten 3 inches.