Ice Arrives

 Brr we had a cold morning for our walk.  When we reached mom's house Ruth called Diane on facetime. They were on their way home with an eta of 2:30 pm. They got up at 1:00 am and left as we have an ice storm predicted this evening.  After the walk Mark went out to the back garage to work on his golf cart. He needed a little help with the batteries. Today he wanted to take the back battery out and replace it with the battery Fedi fixed but to do that job we had to remove the 3 front ones first. Each battery weighs 90 pounds so it really did take both of us to lift them out. 

Once we had them all in place I went back to the house while Mark worked on putting the battery wires all back in place. 

I needed to put my golf cart back in the barn to warm up but when I opened the door there was still too much lumber in the way.

I took the golf cart around to the side door but couldn't get that door to stay up. First a broom was put under it to hold it but that wasn't tall enough to get the cart through the door. Finally I got it lined up, gave the door a big shove then quickly jumped on the cart and gunned it getting it inside just in time. The battery was too cold to plug it in and I didn't go back this evening so will need to run over in the morning to plug it in. I'm only posting one more picture of the construction of all the pictures I took of the progress today. Those will be saved for later.

This evening was family night at the church. When we left at 5:20 pm the windows on the car were all iced over and each one needed to be cleared of ice before we could pull out. We actually checked phones and email to make sure church wasn't called off. The ice really wasn't supposed to hit until this evening but a fine mist was coming down coating everything. The drive to church was fine. The trucks were out salting the roads. Tonight Rosie and Mike along with Jane and Jim served a wonderful dinner serving over 100 people. We had slow roasted pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw, veggies, dip, chips and sweet bars for dessert. 

Everyone was having so much fun visiting after supper no one was in a hurry to make their way into the sanctuary. We were supposed to have had a visitor from Taylor but with the weather and road conditions they didn't come. Craig Stickling had the message. To watch that message click HERE.  He started with the 2023 warning from the surgeon General of the United States. Any guesses what that would be?  It wasn't a new disease. You can google it if interested or just watch the message, it will be worth your time. Little Chelise was so active even trying to answer some of Craig's questions and trying to sing when we sang.

We got home from church around 8:40 pm stepped out of the car and were both shocked at our drive. It was covered with ice. Somehow we had to get from the car to the house without falling. We both shuffled along very slowly like the old people we are. 

Berean Day

 What a change in temperature from yesterday's warm sunny day. It was only in the 20s this morning on our walk. We noticed trucks coming up the drive showed the drivers were to go and then opened the doors for them before finishing our walk.  Ruth, mom and I left for the Berean office around 8:15 am. That office was nice and warm today. Below are a few pictures of our morning. Skip did almost all the computer work today while I ran the postage machine and worked on a few other problems.

After finishing processing all the studies Vonnie, Shirl and Ray went to work in the other room.

Mom almost finished getting this box of envelopes stamped with the return address. Of course I was taking them out when needed so she really almost filled 2 boxes.

I'm not sure how many Bibles were sent out today but we had enough that everyone that asked got mailed a nice large print Bible.

After finishing our work we sat for a while drinking coffee, eating coffee cake and visiting but soon it was time to leave if we wanted to get to the post office before they closed for their lunch hour.  After dropping off the Bibles at the Hanna City post office we dropped Ruth off at her house before going home. Phil had plugged the lift in last night but it didn't charge. Mark tried to find his charger but couldn't then borrowed mom's charger and told me that wasn't working either.  There was no one at the barn, the lift hadn't charged and Mark was having trouble getting a battery charger on the lift so we went first to the back garage and indoor arena to look for his charger but no luck then to work over at the new barn.  I just took the extension cord over to a different outlet and that worked. The lift is needed tomorrow. 

We got the lift charging then left for home to make some lunch. We decided that when Mike get's home from Gulf Shores we will bring Tatiana and Jewel home, get Jewel sonagrammed and have Oliver checked out by Dr. Hoerr at the same time. He is growing and I would like to see if he is dropped but don't want to take a chance on getting kicked so will have Dr. Hoerr sedate him before he gets checked out. 

The horses all have plenty of hay and all the waterers have been working well which makes things easy. After everyone left for the day we stopped in for a quick look at their work. This is just a tease.

You'all will just have to wait for the big reveal and that might take a month.

64 and Sunny

 We had a BEAUTIFUL sunny warm day I'm not sure what the high of the day was but I know at one point 64 degrees. Diane called while on the walk and visited long distance. The walk seemed to go quickly and before we knew it we were in visiting with mom. Diane was sharing everything going on in Gulf Shores and she had us laughing. After the walk and after breakfast I went straight to the barn to start the laundry and get some cleaning done. Mark sent a message that the contractor crew was coming tomorrow to start framing on the upstairs. That meant I had a LOT of work to do. I had to move that heavy furniture to the other side of the stairwell. 

The couch, chair and loveseat are very heavy. I was able to just roll the bean bag chair. All of the chair beds were stacked on top of each other.  Mark came to help remove the rubber tiles just as I had moved the last of the 2 cupboards.

He brought up one of the carts to load them on. I brought up two more as pretty quickly I could tell we were going to need them. These rubber tiles are heavy.

We had the above removed when we heard the propane truck so both of us quit and went down to make sure they filled the right tank.

By the time we got down the stairs and outside they had backed up and were already filling mom's tank. She also needed propane so this worked out well. He came to our place next.

Below he is changing the defective meter while Mark visits with him.

I went back up to keep removing tiles and finished with all I could do.

There are 60 on 2 of the carts and 47 on the 3rd cart.

I wasn't able to move the treadmill nor the video console. There are also rubber mats under those. I also wasn't sure how far to go on the West side so stopped just at the beginning of the stairwell.

I left then to go to Glasford Elevator to pick up a couple dozen eggs driving my OWN car that was dead but now alive. Mark had it on a charger and now that the weather is warm the battery is fine. When I got back I really needed to rest. My back was sore from moving furniture and bending down pulling floor tiles and loading them on the carts. Mark told me he was going to have Mackenson help this afternoon around 4:30 to move the treadmill and video console so we could finish then.

I saw Philip's truck going down the drive so took the golf cart over to the barn and was shocked to find while I was gone he not only moved those two big heavy things but had also removed more of the rubber tile. He may have had help from Anna but I'm not sure about that. 

Mark was pretty happy when he heard we didn't have to go back and had me send a text to Joan that we did not need Mackenson.  About then the pictures started arriving of people enjoying the warm sunshine both here and in Gulf Shores.

A bit later Anni brought Dexter and Harvey over to visit. Dexter loves the toys.  Harvey is such a good baby and both boys enjoy coming to great grandma's for a visit.

Unfortunately the warm weather isn't lasting. The cold front has already moved in and the house is feeling cold. It is already down to 39 degrees and is going to drop into the 20s by morning. Oh well we sure did enjoy today. I started a fire in the living room wood burner.

True Story

 I was up early and iced the cakes baked last night then got the peppers cut up for tonight's meal.

I left for church at 9:00 am. Joan dropped mom off at the front door at church then parked the van. I took mom into church and was surprised when Joan didn't come right in. Only later did I find out why.

There was a fight in the front church parking lot this morning and it was so shocking that poor Heather was traumatized. She was trying to tell me but was so shook up all she could say was "I've never seen your sister act like that."  I was a little lost trying to figure out which sister and what happened but had left mom to get a tissue for her so figured I'd find out later what happened. It wasn't until lunch time that I got the whole story. Molly dropped Nancy off next to mom's wheel chair van as Joan was parking it. Nancy had a HUGE bag stuffed full with her so Joan put it in the van then turned to hold Nancy's pills when Nancy started yelling at Joan, screaming, "I want my bag, that's my bag, give me my bag."  Joan grabbed Nancy face held it and told her, "You do NOT speak to me like that" and didn't let her go when Nancy didn't stop. Joan told her, "You look at me, Nancy LOOK at me and stop." Nancy finally realized what she was doing, stopped yelling, looked at Joan and said, "I'm sorry." at that point all was well. As Nancy and I were walking out of church at the back door I saw Heather and told her, I know my sister shocked you with her behavior. You really need to behave around Joan because if you don't  you saw how she responds." Heather looked a little confused then realized I was teasing and laughed. Yes Nancy can go from sweet to horrible in an instant but calmed down that quick too. The morning message was given by Caleb Plattner and today we learned all that the Bible says about Melchizedek. Click HERE to watch this message. Hannah was sitting in front of me with Chelise. 

The afternoon message was given by Gregg Rumblold. It really was good to have him back in Peoria. He spoke on Mathew 8. Click HERE to watch that message. Nancy was all smiles at lunch, she loved Sunday school. She wanted to show mom her paper. 

My guests at the foaling apartment left early, the guests staying in the barn left in the afternoon. Both will need to be cleaned but neither will be done today. I took Nancy to mom's then home to start the meal. That turned out well. Most of the kids couldn't come today so a few other family members filled in. After supper Rebekah's family arrived along with Tyler, Samantha and Lucy. Tyler went out to play volley ball but had to stop to wave at Lucy through the window.

Rebekah's went out to play on the carts with Taegan and Berlica.

Below is a short video of how well that works

They were also short on volleyball players having only 3 on each side so didn't play as long as usual. Rebekah's kids were missing all my grandchildren so Rebekah and Brian took them over to great grandma's for a visit.

They were having so much fun with great grandma's toys when I stopped in to get Nancy for her drive home. At home I was reading some history books and heard about this story of our very first president. 

It is told by Dr. Ben Carson and is a true story: George Washington was a courier for General Bradock, one of the English generals during the French and Indian wars. All of the couriers were killed and Washington had two horses shot from beneath him, and he had 4 bullet holes in his jacket but no flesh wounds, he had bullet fragments in his hair but no flesh wounds. Many years later, he still hadn't become president yet, he was back in the area and one of the Indian chiefs who had been involved in the war and was elderly at that point, and near death, He said to his braves, "take me to see this man, I must see him before I die." When they brought him into the presence of Washington, he said, "sir, I'm an expert marksman and I shot you 17 times and my men shot you and pretty soon I told them to stop wasting their bullets. I just wanted to meet the man who is protected by the great Presence above.  Dr. Carson shared that this story used to be in ALL of our history books until it became politically incorrect.  What a shame, hopefully ALL  SCHOOL kids can be told the story and keep it alive another generation.

Is She a Thief

 I started laundry early as it was my turn to be with mom this morning getting 2 of the 4 loads done before heading over. When I arrived Karin's car was already gone. Karin saw Ruth walking with her boys and asked if she could come in and stay until I got there. We had a good morning. Below mom is listening to Aunt Jinnie reading a story over the phone.

Aunt Jinnie calls each day and reads a chapter, sometimes two. I'm not sure how many books they have gone through. Rhoda and Lee arrived with Iris and Zeke. We had a nice visit with them. Later after lunch we went outside for a little sunshine. It was fine as long as the sun was out.

The sunshine didn't last long enough but it was still nice to get out for a bit. As I was heading back to the house Rhoda called to let me know Kensley was playing in a basketball game in Glasford so I quickly changed and drove over to watch. In her first game she made so many points, rebounds and assists she really was the mvp. 

The second game was quite a bit harder. The team they were playing had blown out their last opponent 60 to 4.  Well Kensley made the first basket of the game and held the other team to 0 for quite a while. At the end of the quarter though it was 4 to 4. (I think) I wasn't paying too much attention to the score. Below she is getting ready to swipe the ball out of the hands of the girl bringing the ball down.

She stole the ball and ran it down and scored again.

The other team called a timeout. Kensley's number is 52.

At half time Rhoda took Iris and Zeke to the concession stand to pick something out. They both picked out a basketball cake pop.

Below is a short video clip of another steal but this one didn't end up in a basket. She was quite good at stealing. Not sure how I feel about that term. Is she considered a thief?

Their team lost in the end but held that opposing team to just 12 points. After scoring 60 in the game before they were all a little shocked at these Hanna City Tigers.

Iris and Zeke enjoyed the Tiger.

I met Gertie and Dennie at the game and we watched together. After the game we made plans to meet at the Bartonville Diner for dinner at 4:30 pm. I drove home and was able to and get another laundry load done before it was time to leave for the diner. We arrived 2 minutes early and Gertie and Denny arrived 1 minute late so we chose the table.

Both couples chose to share the senior meal and it came pretty quickly but we were in no hurry to leave and the diner wasn't busy so we sat and visited for at least and hour. When we got home I quickly got 2 cinnamon cakes in the oven to bake then went back to work on finishing the laundry. The cakes are now cooling and as soon as I can cover them we will head to bed. Another good day and I am thankful.