Another Victory Won!

Wednesday Night I got a call that Grandma went to be with Jesus.
No one was expecting this, For me reality has not yet hit that she is gone.
But I am rejoicing that she has won her Victory and is now in Heaven
with Jesus and Grandpa.
Please pray my family through her funeral this weekend and
the transition of not having her around.
Thanks.
Blessings.

Merry Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve it snowed and snowed and I was thankful
that I didn't have any where to go since the roads were
awful and my parents lane was worse.
Aunt Becki was brave and ventured out and upon her return
she pulled into the lane and its normal for you to fish tail down the hill
(at the top of the lane)that spits you out onto the dam....

As Aunt Becki fish tailed down the hill and attempted to
cross the dam she did a little off roading and ended in the gully.
Her other options on the other side of the dam...

the lake. She didn't feel like swimming so went gully side:)
(yep thats my dad out on a blizzard day with just his jeans
and a long sleeve shirt...no coat... no boots...)

as Aunt Becki and Dad argued about what "really" happened

I just smiled to myself thinking of what I will go out in
to get a blog post.

Since there was no way the truck could be driven out and
we didn't want it to slide any further down the gully and
into the creek

so ropes and chains were gotten out of the barn

and phone calls were made to find a tractor that had 4-wheel drive.
(a perk to living right by cnh and having a cousin that has
access to their big tractors)

once the truck was chained up

and dragged across the gully it was finally pulled out and we were
able to drive it back to the house.

A few hours later we got a call from my other Aunt who was stuck
in the snow a few miles away and needed help out too:)

Praising Jesus for the safe arrival of everyone in time for Christmas!

Time with T

Wednesday Morning I was up at 5 to travel out to Albion to hang
out with T (and Matt:)

T and I
(Tina was trying to zoom real close to mess up the picture
and it actually turned out to be a really good one:)

Wednesday consisted of lots of catch up talking, sugar cookie
making, soup making, movie watching, book reading
and blink playing. It was an excellent day!

Thursday T's siblings and Kalika (the girl T interprets
for) came over to decorate cookies, eat soup, and
hang out for the day.

Before T's siblings, nieces and nephews came over Kalika
and T made frosting to decorate the cookies.
While they invented a recipe, not finding one they liked in
her 100+ cooking books,

I continued to look through cook books while drinking
lots of coffee....

and standing in front of their wood burning stove
trying to keep warm:)

As they were testing the frosting for taste Kalika smeared some
on T's face and she thought it was Hilarious!

Jessi doing an amazing job decorating her cookies

Some of the finished products.


Praising Jesus that the weather stayed nice and the roads
stayed clear so I was able to get away and
catch up with those I love for a few days!

So Far...

So good. yes its cold, but the house is warm and the company
has been fun. I was greeted early yesterday morning by Jax
who came over to play for the day and of course he kept
asking to go outside...

so after figuring out all the clothing apparatus and how it was
to be applied to a 1.5 year old we went outside.

Kristen got her car stuck on mom and dad's lane after
dropping of a phone for me to use. So we attempted to dig
her out.

This is my excited face that I got to go outside (yes I'm still
in my pajamas) and scoop snow! YAY!!!
The scoop out of the car was a fail and we had to wait for dad
to get back to push her out...
I tried pushing her out too and failed at that also:)
Drove for the first time once the roads were cleaned off.
I made it half way to Goodfield on the wrong side of the road
before being corrected by the on coming car and doing okay from there.

Last night we went to one of Ryan's games.

I got to hang out with Colt as he spit in my face and pulled my
hair (thus the face I am making). He thinks both these
tricks are great performing them regularly.

Coach Davis giving his team a pep talk before the game

Time Out!
They had a great come back in the second half after
being down 21 to 11 at the half. They only lost by 1
but the 25 turnovers (yikes) really hurt them.
Good Job Trojans.

As of This Afternoon

I am back in the states and BRRRRRRRRRR.... Its Cold!

Blessed

This weekend I was blessed by a fun visit from Tashi. Selfishly I was
thinking of being lazy and enjoying a weekend of just us, but of course that
didn't happen once people found out she was here:)
Friday Night after she arrived we had fun playing games with JB and Andrea,
Sat we both enjoy our sleep so slept in until a very late hour, stayed in
our pj's for most of the day as we took a long time waking up and digging
into the word, then Andrea came and we made Christmas cookies!

Tashi "the perfectionist" was the quality control inspector
for the cut out cookies. Only the perfect ones got onto the pan:)

Tashi and Andrea did most of the work...

I just took a few pictures and rolled out the dough when they
got frustrated with it.

Once they were baked and cooled the decorating began.
(thanks Plattners for the decorating supplies and food coloring:)

Once cookies were done, a trip to JDV was made to set up for bible study,
then a few stops in town for food before coming back home for supper,
and working on putting together our bible study.
Nothing like procrastination.... and lots of tangent conversations!
We finished up working on the bible
study at 1 a.m. the morning of the study:)

Tashi and I at Bible Study.

The "A Woman After God's Heart" Bible Study Group.
I praise God for each one of these women. Looking at this
picture just makes me heart smile:)

So Blessed Am I!

Audiologist

This past week we had Susie the Audiologist come with her assistance
Nancy the botanist, and Amanda the grant writer. They spent Tues night-Friday
afternoon here with us at KP working . The days are long and very busy but I really
enjoy working with Susie and those she brings down to assist her.
They do such an amazing service for us and I praise God for them.

Sending Sunshine Your Way.

I was up before the sun Saturday morning so we could drive to Negril.

This was our first stop for the day. The Reggae Marathon
I thought this sign was funny:)
Blake had co-workers (from his Indy job) running so we went
to cheer them on

Here they are finishing the marathon in 5 hours.
Good Job Ladies!
I know I could never do that:)

From there we went to wait at a little restaurant on the cliffs.
I was able to make my weekly calls back to the states while
enjoying a cold Pepsi, the sun, and the view.

At noon Ricks opened so we drove the short distance to
jump the cliffs

My first jump the landing hurt a little but minimal
salt water was taken is so I would count it as
successful.
(no worries I did not hit the Jamaican boys
climbing the cliff on my way down)

My second jump the landing was smooth and
not painful but the salt water intake was an overload
so after that jump I was done.

boy... didn't your momma ever tell you not to do
hand stands at the ledge of a rocky cliff?

Once the road to the beach was opened (it was closed due
to the marathon so we had to wait for it to end)
we jumped into the car and went to the beach.

Ahhhh..... My HAPPY Place!

the view I opened my eyes to after my afternoon nap:)

there were conch shells everywhere. As we walked in the water
we were stepping on so many that we started throwing them
up on the beach.

Kadene found one with a creature inside that was def.
not a snail:)

I like this picture its like I can just pick up the sand
off the screen and hold it in my hand

As the sun was setting we loaded up for the drive home.

Thank You Jesus for Perfect Days like these.

My Life As A Play Ground Monitor

Many afternoons you will find me on the play ground.
The kids now use my camera regularly to take pictures and its
been interesting the pictures they capture of me.
Enjoy a sneak peak of a big use of my time:)

a picture with Allesha

walking around

a picture with Kara Lee

Me getting sick of the kids taking pictures of me

Allesha following me around

telling some kid to stop doing something:)

listening to Gawayne's jabber

Kara Lee and Me

Tajay taking our picture

spelling with Paris

explaining again to Nickayla that she can't have whatever
she wants

Truitt, Brittania and I

making the rounds

hanging out on the bench

no idea but a lot of kids are trying to get my attention so
maybe this was swing change time.

Praise God for sunny afternoons spent on the play ground!