April 25, 2009

Mother, Marsha, Emily, & Kimberly with the children. Savannah did not sleep well at all Sunday morning.  We got every one ready though and went to church together.  Gary Hege preached from his series in Genesis. "God's Order for the Family".  We came home to a dinner of sarmales, hot rolls, water cress salad and strawberry pie.  All the women took naps while the children and I took a long walk.  After we got back Mother & Kimberly took an even longer one.  My Dad and Mom stopped in for an hour or two in the afternoon to visit.  Ina Sue and I were responsible for children's meeting in the evening and I had to go in to the shop to print out some stuff for it.  Dad had the main topic of the evening on "Hearing God's Call".  Ina Sue and I had a childrens meeting on how we should treat children who are different from us. "Special needs children"  After church we came home for a snack of popcorn & grape juice.
Practicing the story for children's meeting. Ina Sue made us and our company breakfast on Monday of asparagus quiche.  They left for Virginia around 8:30.  I drove in to work while Ina Sue started on the regular laundry.  She had to use Hendrick's washer because ours was still down.  She liked the way his worked but got tired of hauling everything over to his house.  In the evening I helped fold the clothes and we got to bed in decent time.

Tuesday was a lovely day.  Ina Sue spent most of her free time working on the laundry room. Spackling and painting.  She also vacuumed out the car and finished the ironing.  I came home at 5:00 and kept the children so that she could go along with Betty & Carolyn to a "Taste of Home" cooking school in Orangeburg.  I can't imagine what they could teach her....  They ate a quick supper at Arby's on the way home.  The children and I had a nice evening together but had the misfortune of losing the children's kite in the top of our big pecan tree.  They were pretty sad.

Marsha & Kimberly with the Strite family. Wednesday was hectic all through.  I started by making a fast run to Orangeburg to pick up supplies for our evening project.  When I got back I worked for a while to move our big hot water heater out of the laundry room and reconnect it temporarily outside the door so that Ina Sue could finish painting the laundry room.  I ran into numerous problems with that and ended up having to make several trips to the hardware store.  I did get it connected back up though.  Ina Sue finished spackling and painting behind where the heater was and finished up the 2nd coat of paint.
Taking the wash over to Hendrick's.  In the evening our small group met at the town square to take on several projects.  A big pecan tree had fallen several months ago and destroyed a section of the chain link fence along with the gain.  Danny Hege and Wesley worked to repair that and put in new gates.  Ivan brought his tractor and a trencher and he supervised laying pvc pipe for water and electric lines to the Govan sign.  The ladies worked on re-doing the landscaping around the sign while Eric Hege mowed the lawn.  Everybody worked hard and it looks much better.  We didn't get the water or the electric hooked up yet but I will finish that up in the next week or two.  After we finished work we had a pizza supper on the grounds.  It turned out to be really nice evening and the weather was great.  After we got home Ina Sue put another coat of paint on the laundry room.  In bed at 11:00
The ladies helped redo the landscaping Ina Sue says she hates having her house all torn up...  To top it all off she was getting ready to start putting the last coat of paint on Thursday morning when the power company turned off our power for two hours.  She was pretty frustrated!  I was very busy at the shop but took off a bit early so I could keep the children while Ina Sue had a back appointment.  She did a little shopping afterward.  I took the children down to the square with me and worked on hooking up the sprinkler under the sign.  The plants we have planted there really need the water.  After Ina Sue got home and we go the children in bed I went back in to the shop to do accounting.  It went well but I didn't get home until the next morning around 5:00.  Tired!
Ivan supervised laying the pipes for water & electric. I slept in a bit Friday morning.  Ina Sue made us waffles and sausage for breakfast.  Then I took Carolina Sue and Landon along with me to work and dropped them off with Bethany Heatwole.  There were invited there for the morning to help celebrate Caroline's belated birthday.  Ina Sue was invited as well but she decided to make use of the free time to finish her painting project.  She also needed to be around for when our new washer and dryer were delivered.  She had finally made up her mind on a top loading Kenmore system.  We got a pretty good discount on it and I hope it works good for her.  Unfortunately, when they finally got here they had the wrong dryer.  They left it here anyway and after I got home I called in to talk to them about it.  They agreed that it was the wrong one but said it would take a week or so for them to get in the actual one we ordered.  They said we should go ahead and use the one they had left in the meantime...   For supper Ina Sue fixed us chicken, rice & cabbage stir fry.  Very good!
Danny & Wesley rebuilt the crushed chain link fence. Saturday morning Ina Sue and Carolina went to Barnwell to pick some strawberries for us.  I and the two youngest worked to clean out the shop while they were gone.  I worked for a while then to rework the plumbing in the laundry room and hook up the new washer.  We ran the first load through it and are very pleased.  It is very quiet and Ina Sue says it does a very good job on the clothes.  Ina Sue spent most of the afternoon cooking while I mowed our yard and the square.  In the evening I went to church for the first evening of our youth conference and took the two oldest.  Duane Eby is the main speaker.  Had a very good talk tonight.