January 18, 2008

Sara Lynn & Carolina Sue washing feet. Ina Sue and Mother cleaned house in VA Friday morning.  Then Ina Sue and the children went down to Robert & Lori's for dinner.  Lori also hosted the three fellows who were working on their new barn.  Then Ina Sue and the children came back to Mt. Crawford and went down for naps.  An old family friend, Kitty Walls, dropped by with her children to visit for a while.  In the evening everyone went up to Uncle Lee's for a quilting. 

In the meantime, in SC, I had a pretty full day morning of work then left around 1:00 to drive up to VA to reunite with my family.  I got to Mt. Crawford around 8:00 only to find my family still gone.  They got back soon and we were really glad to see each other.  Papa Showalter also got back from his Florida Disaster work week this evening.
Robert & Marsha's new free stall barn. I got up early Saturday morning to get ready and go to a Puerto Rico meeting at Pike.  It is so very very nice not to be chairman of these meetings anymore.  Much less stress.  Thank you Ellis!  We ate dinner at the Dinner Bell Cafe in the Rockingham Farmers Market then finished up our meeting by around 2:30.  Ina Sue spent the morning doing laundry.  For supper the whole Kenneth Showalter family including Keiths & Roberts went to Dayton Mennonite church for a benefit supper raising money for the late Eric Koogler's family.  It was very good food and a nice time visiting.  There were about 300 people there eating.  I took Ina Sue and the children back home then went back to Bridgewater to wash the car.
3 new dresses for the granddaughters. I woke up Sunday morning to the sound of sirens.  Later we realized that we had no power or water.  An accident out on Rt. 11 had clipped off a power pole.  We finally got the water back on around 9:00 and were able to get everybody ready in time for church at 10:00.  We went to Mt. Pleasant for church.  Mother had made each of the little girl cousins new dresses so they all showcased them this morning.  When we got back from church we quickly packed everything in the mini-van then ate a quick lunch.  We were on the road to SC by 1:30.  The children both had some real issues on the way home.  We had to stop way to many times to administer disciplinary measures.  I think they were testing the limits after being away from Daddy too long...  We finally got back home around 10:00
And the models. It was great to have the whole family back in Govan Monday morning.  Ina Sue spent the day unpacking and doing laundry.  I had a busy day catching up at work.  Hendrick is of course still teaching at Heritage so that makes even more work.  It was a beautiful day with lovely weather.  I came home for a supper of skillet lasagna and corn.  A nice evening with family in Govan...

I went in to work at 4:30 Tuesday.  I had a service call to do that we needed to finish before the company opened for business.  Ina Sue and the children slept in a bit.  It was much colder outside today.  By the time I got home at 6:30 it felt like I had had a pretty long day.  Ina Sue fixed a wonderful supper of shrimp scampi, savory herb rice and kale from the garden.  After supper I read to the children and played Ina Sue a game of Word Guess.
Robert & Adrian. I was off to work again on Wednesday.  It was still getting colder so the wife and children spent quite a bit of time snuggling in our "really really cold" house.  She did find time to update the finances, and make supper for Leon & Beth Dueck.  They and their children are ailing from some bug.  Mother Strite and Judy Yoder stopped in for a while in the afternoon.  Judy is writing the book about Grandmother Heatwole and Mom is on the editorial committee.    After I got home and we ate supper we went to prayer meeting.  Mark Hochstetler talked on the topic of Baptism for our discussion period.  His talk was good but Landon was very bad.  It was hard to focus on what was being said.  After church I went back in to work for several hours.
Getting her morning exercise. Thursday was a cold drizzly day.  Ina Sue found out that they had a beautiful snow in Virginia and got a bit homesick.  She took the children to Aunt Miriam in the morning while she went to the midwife for our first visit for baby #3.  July 17 is the projected happy day.  She stopped at the library and bank then came back and picked up the children in time for naps.  I asked them all to come in to Barnwell and eat supper with me so I could continue working.  We went to Mi Rancho for a quick and delicious supper.  After supper Ina and the children did a quick trip to Walmart then home while I worked on accounting.
Eating raisins in bed. I got up Friday morning and fixed my family corn bread and sausage gravy for breakfast then headed off to work.  I am still having to work pretty hard to keep everything going on the computer side with Hendrick off.  Ina Sue cleaned the house then made us rice and gandules for supper.  At supper we told Carolina Sue about our expected new arrival.  She was pretty happy and decided to start praying that God would send her a sister.

Ina Sue made me my favorite breakfast casserole Saturday morning then I had to go in to work.  Ina Sue took the children and a big ham to Hilda Grocery to get it sliced up.  After they got home she did a few sewing projects then made supper.  My car died on my way home from work so Ina Sue had to come and pick me up.  After supper I helped chop up the 14 lbs. of ham for freezing.  Ina Sue did some more cooking while I studied for my topic on Sunday.