May 03, 2009

Trimming the ivy off the front porch columns Our Youth Mission Conference continued Sunday morning.  The church was pretty packed out.  Bro. Duane brought the message on "Living the Faith".  Lunch was provided for the youth and visitors but we came home for lunch.  Ham loaf, baked asparagus, carrots, fresh strawberries and custard.  I stayed home with the children in the afternoon while Ina Sue raced back for the afternoon session.  The sermon was on "Being Real" with a round table discussion afterward.  She got home for a short nap then we all went back to church for the evening service.  The Sonshine Chorus from GA gave a number of selections then Bro. Duane game a presentation about Mennonite Air Missions in Guatamala.  Home for orange strawberry smoothies.
Savannah doesn't care for her new play pen... We slept in a bit and got a later start on the day Monday.  Ina Sue used her new washer and says she really likes it.  The clothes get rung out much dryer than the old one did it.  She still needed to run to Hendricks to use the dryer because we didn't feel right using this brand new one when we knew we weren't going to keep it.  It was a hot day and unfortunately the fan on our heat & air system came apart over the weekend.  I took the fan with me in to town and have a new fam ordered that should come in tomorrow.  I was fasting again today.  After I got in we worked for a while out in the garden.  Our tiller kept cutting off so I decided to drive it over to Nelson for repair.  Unfortunately, when I went to drive the truck over I bumped over an old stump we have in the yard and the truck got stuck.  I spent the rest of the evening trying to extricate it.  Finally got it off after dark and got the tiller delivered.  Ina Sue made a batch of strawberry jelly and I put up crown mold in the laundry room.
A tea party for the ladies at Mary K's. Pancakes for breakfast on Tuesday.  I headed off to work and Ina Sue got the children ready.  They went to Ms. Mary's for a tea party in honor of her sister Miriam who is visiting.  She said it was really nice to spend time with the ladies who were there.  Bethany Heatwole dropped her girls off at 3:30.  Our children always enjoy getting together with Caroline and Michaela.  Ina Sue fixed us breadsticks, fried mushrooms and tossed salad for supper.  After supper I entertained the children while Ina Sue caulked the trim in the laundry room.
The children like my new game "Goblet" Wednesday was a lovely Spring day.  I put on the new fan in our cooling unit yesterday so that is working fine now.  Ina Sue got up early and worked on painting the laundry room cabinets while I made breakfast.  I had a normal day at work.  Ina Sue took the van up to Joe Byers for an oil change in the afternoon.  For supper she fixed us asparagus puff pancake, water cress salad, almond brownies and strawberries.  As you may have noticed, we love asparagus!  Our power was off again for an hour or two in the morning and when it came back on our town water system stayed down.  What a pain!  We all ended up getting our showers over at Wendells. (They have their own well)
A common sight with our "tool man" Landon in the house. We still didn't have any water Thursday morning.  I took a sponge bath using the little water that I could trickle into a bucket then made breakfast for us.  Ina Sue put wallpaper primer on the laundry room and painted the last coat of paint on the cabinets.  We are about ready for that job to be done!  Our kitchen is really starting to go downhill without any water to wash dishes.  Thankfully our good friend Carl pulled in in the afternoon with his "fire" trailer complete with two big water tanks and a pump.  He hooked it up to one of our outside spigots and we have water again.  We need to crank up the pump whenever we need water and then turn it off again but it does allow us to run the dishwasher and flush the toilets.  What a life saver!  Grilled catfish, fresh squash and a salad for supper.  Afterward, I bathed the children and put them to bed then went back in to work.  Ina Sue hung the wallpaper border in the laundry room.
Carolina helps pick strawberries. The Govan water system was still down on Friday.  We are so thankful for Carl's water trailer.  The tanks are about empty though.  Ina Sue started washing several loads of laundry and I headed in to work.  I had a service call for several hours with a customer down in Allendale.  In the process of working with him he very kindly gave me a digital cutter.  It is called a "Silhouette SD" and hooks to the computer and allows you to cut out letters and graphics from paper or vinyl.  I knew my wife would love it for her scrapbooking.  She seemed pretty thrilled when I showed it to her.  We were again thankful to Carl for bringing us two more big tanks of water.
The old Interstate 77 to Virginia. I had to work on Saturday.  I stopped by the strawberry patch on my way in and picked two buckets of strawberries.  Ina Sue spent much of her day packing up.  We were again thankful for Carl's water because otherwise we would have had to leave the house in a terrific mess...  It sounds like it is going to be sometime next week before Govan's well is fixed. :(  I came home from work around 3:15 and we left for Virginia by 4:00.  We had a good trip up with just a quick stop at McDonalds for a bite to eat.  We were at Ina Sue's home by 11:30.