April 28, 2007

My beautician at work... Sunday was a gorgeous Spring day.  I am so thankful that God provided for a day of rest...  I don't see how some people can make it with a 7 day a week work schedule.  Bro. Mark H. brought a message on "Putting our Faith in God" from the story of Ruth.  We came home for a dinner of leftovers and a delicious fresh juicy pineapple that Ina Sue just sliced up.  We had hoped to get in a nice nap but Landon didn't seem to want to cooperate.  I watched after him for a while while I wrote a bit on the journal.  Ina Sue went outside and napped for a little on the swing.  We went to church in the evening.  Hendrick had the main part of the service on "Lessons we can Learn from the Early Church".    After the normal visiting we came home and had a bedtime snack/supper of popcorn & strawberry milkshakes.
Aden looks too happy behind the big guns of the battleship "Alabama" I got up early and went over to Carl's Monday morning  for some last minute work on their computer.  Then I came home and ate a last breakfast with my family before driving over to Aden Diems to hook up with the group going to Mississippi.  We got left around 8:00 to drive down to Pascagula, MS, where Christian AId Ministries is running a disaster relief center doing repairs on Hurricane Katrina damage.  Aden Diem, Daniel Brubaker, Brent Hege, Benji Brubaker and Franklin Heatwole made up the rest of the crew from Barnwell.  We arrived in Mobile Alabama around 4:00 and had some time to kill so we went to the "Alabama" museum/battleship there in Mobile.  We spent about 2 1/2 hours touring the WWII era battleship and looking at the different exhibits. 
The Disaster Relief crew from Barnwell The museum also had a bunch of airplanes parked outside that you could look at.  Hurricane Katrina though had done quite a number on most of them.  One of the planes had the whole front/engine ripped off of it.  Others were missing noses and had holes gouged in them...  We drove from there to a local seafood restaurant for supper then drove on down to CAM headquarters around 9:00.   The coordinator gave us some basic orientation and we all hit the sack before too late.    Back at home, Ina Sue kept busy with the washing and the care of our two children.  She said they acted pretty grumpy.  In the afternoon they all went outside and Ina Sue worked on pruning up our azaleas.  Landon really seems to enjoy being outside and cheered up considerably. 
We were fed extremely well. For some reason I can't figure out, I slept very poorly and got up sore & grumpy on Tuesday.  (Maybe I was missing my wife??)  The coordinators here at Pascacula right now are Curvin Martins from PA.  He seems like a really nice man and his wife seems to be a great cook.  They served us a delicious breakfast then we had devotions together and he gave us some more directions for the day.  They had been expecting a crew of eight from Iowa to work along with us but they cancelled out at the last minute.  So the week's work depends on us! 
With relaxing evenings at headquarters. The team leader went with the other five guys out to a new house being built in D'Iberville.  They hope to get it all framed up and dried in this week.  Curvin took me out to a home in Pascagula that is waiting on the trim.  I began hanging and trimming out doors there.  I was a little disappointed not to have anybody else to work with but enjoyed the work.  We knocked off around 5:30 and all met back at headquarters for a delicious supper and time of relaxing in the evening.  
I spent my week doing trim on this house for Ms. Mary. The CAM headquarters here are actually in the back of a Methodist church.  The church is a large metal building with the sanctuary in the front and a gym/multi-purpose room in the back.  The church has allowed CAM to take over the multipurpose room and CAM has put in an ingenious system of temporary walls, bunkbeds, showers, etc. to house up to 21 workers at a time, all while not doing a bit of damage to the existing structure.  I am amazed how they engineered such nice living quarters without putting in a single nail hole.     I already miss my family...  We talked for a while on the cell phone after supper.  Ina Sue said the children were pretty good today.  They finished up the washing and spent quite a bit of time working out in the yard.
The other guys worked to frame up and dry-in this house in D'Iberville. Wednesday was pretty similar to Tuesday for me.  I continued working by myself on trimming out the house in Pascagoula.  The staff here continue to treat us royally with delicious meals, plenty of cold drinks and all the amenities...    Back at home, Ina Sue spent the day caring for the children and doing odd jobs around the house.  In the evening she went to sing at the nursing home with what remained of our small group and Nelson H's group.  She said the singing sounded pathetic... :)  After the program they all went over to Merle Diems where Thelma served them up a light supper.
The CAM headquarters staff. Ina Sue seems to be on a roll without me around to hold her up.  Today she cleaned out all our bottom kitchen cupboards, did some sewing, took the children to Bamberg to the library, and went shopping at Piggly Wiggly and Family Dollar.  In the evening she sewed on a new dress until about 11:30pm.   Meanwhile, in Pascagoula, I continued my solitary trimwork while the other guys were putting trusses up on their newly constructed house.  They acted like it was pretty hard work...
My little girl was glad to have me home. Friday was our last day in MS.  I was able to trim out my last window in time to clean up then drive over to the building site where the rest of the crew were trying to put the OSB on the roof of their house.  I worked with them for about two hours until we ran out of OSB.  It was a little disappointing to get so close and yet not quite have it dried in.  We drove back to headquarters for dinner then got showers and loaded up for the drive back to Govan.  We stopped in Atlanta for a supper at Arby's but otherwise drove straight through.  We got back around 12:30 in the morning.  I am so glad to be home.   Ina Sue spent most of the day cleaning.  In the evening she and the children went over to Ann Marie Diems for a "Mississippi Widows" pizza supper.  Benji's wife Charity was also there. 
Landon, is ready for his Saturday evening bath. I was pretty beat Saturday morning so we slept in until the children got us up around 7:30.  Ina Sue made us waffles for breakfast (or "washulls" as Carolina would call them)  I mowed grass until dinner time then we put the children down for naps and Ina Sue took over mowing the Govan square.  I worked on cleaning up in the house then when the children got up I took them with me to Denmark to get groceries, wash the van, and pick up milk from Carls.  Ina Sue fixed us tacos for supper.