03-18-06 Journal

March 18, 2006

A Delicious Sunday dinner...	I dropped the lady folk off for Sunday school then went on into the jail for Bible study. During the preaching hour Bro. Wendell brought a message on "The Lay Ministry" Our church is planning to have an ordination in about a month and this message laid out the blessing that we have as a church in using lay ministers in contrast to professional ministry. Thought provoking and informative. Carolina Sue was really tired by the time we got home so we fed her and put her to bed quickly then sat down to a dinner of meat balls & sauce, corn, ranch potatoes, crunchy salad & dilly rolls. After a meal like that we just had to lay down for while to nap and digest... After a restful afternoon I made us popcorn and orange juliuses for supper. Carolina Sue wasn't feeling well at all so we tossed a coin to see who stayed home with her. Ina Sue won (or lost) and stayed home while I went to church. Chad Brubaker had the evening to talk about his recent trip to Asia with Global Tribes Outreach. It sounded like he had quite an experience! After I got home Jordan invited us over there for coffee milkshakes. A nice finish for the day!
Peach trees in bloom.	Monday was a lovely Spring day. Ina Sue got to hang the wash out on the line. I went in to work at 7:30 and had a hectic day right until after I finally got left about 6:30 in the evening. We got a call this afternoon that Papa Showalter had a fall and was in the hospital. Thankfully, by the evening we got word that he was back home again, sore but essentially OK. My nephew Todd (Kent & Rhonda's) is also in the hospital. He is really dehydrated from a rotovirus infection and his potassium level is at an extremely worrisome level. The doctors are working to get it up but their treatment doesn't seem to be having effect.
Vacuuming church after prayer meeting.	I left the wife and baby slumbering and headed off to work early on Tuesday. Carolina Sue actually slept in until after 10:30. Ina Sue did some sewing and made 2 batches of dilly rolls for the freezer. I worked down in Fairfax all day then came home to a scrumptious meal of lasagna, cheese bread, and salad. I headed off for Bible study at the jail while Ina Sue cleaned up and entertained the little one.
I've been working quite a bit here at a new OSB mill that is being built in Fairfax.	Ina Sue had a baby doctor appointment Wednesday morning but I had commitments I had to take care of at work so she took Carolina Sue along with her. My car wouldn't start in the morning so I drove our old beater truck to my first service call in Denmark. From there I came back home and again tried my car. Still no luck. It would turn over strong but acted as if it couldn't get fuel. Ina Sue had gone to Byers Tire after her doctor appointment to get an oil change. I called up and talked to Joe about my problem and he suggested that I spray some kind of stuff up into the air intake and see if the engine started. Ina Sue came on home and brought a can of the stuff with her. I unscrewed a doo-hicky and sprayed copious quantities of the stuff up in there while Ina Sue cranked the car. Sure enough, the car started right up and continued running. I drove it all day and the problem never re-occurred.
Carolina Sue shows Grandmother Daddy's comic book... :(	I spent the day running about trying to get all my service calls taken care of and didn't quite make it. When I got home Ina Sue had BLT subs for supper and freshly baked bars. After supper we went to prayer meeting where the discussion after prayer centered on our school's policy of admitting non-church students. I thought the discussion was very civil and extremely supportive of our school board, teachers & school. A lot of people shared and the meeting ran until after 9:00. After all the after-church fellowship we started in with the church cleaning. We were done by soon after 10:30 and headed home for bed. I'm gonna be ready for the end of the month and the passing of this job on to the next family...
Allen & Eva Showalter	Thursday was another lovely Spring day. I had hopes of taking today as my day off this week. I needed to go down to Grant Forest Products first thing and unfortunately got tied up there for most of the day. Then other calls came in and I wasn't able to take off at all. I did make it home around 5:30 for our evening with Grandmother Heatwole. Uncle Howards had an engagement for the evening and Grandmother had said that she would like to visit us again. We were thrilled to have her and except for a nosebleed episode part way through the evening we had a very nice evening with her. After she left I worked for a little while on updating the webpage.
Helping James Groffs move to Barnwell	Friday was another busy day for me down at Grant Forest Products. They have asked us to supply a full time IT person for them until they hire their own IT department. William Brubaker has been down there almost every day and I help out with what he can't get to. I was able to come home around 12:00 in time to spend several hours with Allen & Eva Showalter. They were on their way to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to celebrate their 35'th anniversay. Eva had spent several days with Mother Showalter and others helping us paint our house. It was fun to let her see the finished product of her labor. Allen & I drove around the community a little while the ladies talked. They pulled out for Florida around 3:00 and I went back in to the shop for the afternoon. In the evening we went over to Aden Diems for a snack and so that I could help him resolve several issues with his new computer. After the snack and the computer work we sat around visiting until about 11:00..
Planting first patch of sweet corn.	I got up in good time Saturday morning and started working on moving more dirt for our shrubbery beds. I thought I got quite a bit done before I needed to leave for Jimmy & Brenda's at 9:00. They have sold their house and are moving into a rental property in Barnwell. Uncle Howard, Myron Yoder & myself helped them move their furniture, and appliances in to the new house. We made quite a string of three pickups and two minivans piled high with stuff driving into Barnwell. We weren't quite able to get everything in one trip and had to come back for a 2nd load. We had everything pretty much in the new house by 1:00 and I was able to get quite a bit of our garden planted in the afternoon. We put in 6 rows of beans and 4 rows of corn.
	In the evening we went over to the annual soup & corn bread supper at the Govan Fire Dept. After visiting with our neighbors for a while we came back home and finished cleaning up then rested while we waited for our company to arrive. We have really been looking forward to this visit from Marcus & Beverly Gingerich. Ina Sue and Beverly have been great friends and talk on a weekly basis on the phone. They were down for a wedding at Abbeville and we were thrilled to hear that they could stay with us for the night. It was about 11:30 by the time they got here and by the time we ate a snack and visited for a while it was after 1:00... We were ready to hit the sack!