Merry Christmas!

Ice Storm

Hello all... well, I planned to pack all day today as Eden went to the Jenkins, but we got a bit of an ice storm that left dozens without power and lots of damage to trees. The blizzard that shut down I-80 and Denver airport left us no snow, just a dripping cold mess. Here are some pics of our yard this morning. Note the trampoline under the broken branch in our back alley/neighbor's back yard.

Packing!

I have decided that packing is not really our thing. Sitting on the couch, looking at our beautiful Christmas tree and watching Eden play is more in our comfort zone. Even though the tree is only decorated on the top 1/3....

I have spent more time walking from one room to the next and back again, and not really getting anything done. Some think it's b/c I'm too orgainzed....I can't have something in a box that doesn't go with the rest of the contents. Therefore, it either goes into a smaller box (wasting time), or it sits, in hopes that something will come along from another room and fill it up. My dearest hubby, on the other hand, is trying to get organized as he packs, which is complicating matters even further. Our garbage collecter thought another bin might be in order and he's having one sent over.

Maybe packing is so hard because I really like the parsonage here just how we have it and I don't really want to box it up. Not to menion I don't know how to pack some of the things we've acquired. Anybody have any recommendations on packing a digeredoo? The fact is that I really need to be packing for our 10 day trip to Michigan after Christmas. Something I'm looking forward to immensely, but still need to find a suitcase.

Anyway...............................................................
Here are a couple shots of the parsonage we'll be living in in Bridgeport. We went out to visit a couple weeks ago and had nothing but good things to say about the people we met and the area in which we'd be raising Eden. I confess one of the elders strongly reminded me of my father, which helped. I'll miss Wilcox and the many good people I've met here. A few families here are irreplaceable, faithful strong holds to have as friends and neighbors and I hurt to leave that security. I think it'll be a good move and a fresh start, and however hard, I know we'll meet many more wonderful christian people. God loves us in all sorts of ways throughout life and this is just another example of His graciousness.

I'll detail more once we get out there. Thank you for all the prayers and support. More soon...

Westward Ho

Al announced to the congregation this morning that he accepted the call to be Pastor of St. Paul in Bridgeport. Our last Sunday here will be the 14th of January. Installation in Bridgeport will be the 28th of January 2007. Please keep both congregations in your prayers as they prepare for a transition of leadership once again. Keep us in your thoughts as well, as we get ready to pick up and move our lives to a new location with new people, new challenges and new joys.

Two calls

As some of you may know, Al received a call to serve St. Paul Lutheran Church in Bridgeport, NE. This congregation is part of the Wyoming District of the LC-MS, and is located in the panhandle of Nebraska, south east of Scottsbluff. As you can guess by the district, this location is not closer to home, and they, too, are Husker fans. However, we can't hold it against them, as that would be against the rules, I'm sure. Since his first call is to St. John's here in Wilcox, he has to make a decision as to which call to serve. Some have said that God doesn't give us many choices in life, so we should consider this a blessing to get to pick. Please keep us in your prayers at this time that whatever congregation Al chooses to serve, God's Will is being done and that all will be to His glory, even if it means being farther away from home. Click on the link to find out more about the town. Miss you and love you all!~

The Walking Wonder

Well, after 15 months of learning from the floor, Eden finally got up and walked
today. She's not taken steps on her own before today, but this afternoon, when her walker banged into the wall and she couldn't back it up, she just turned and walked away from it. Then, she realized that she was walking, figured out how much fun it was, and ran around the house the rest of the evening! When she's not practicing her sommersault position, she's in a dead run! Love to all~

Eden's 1 year pics...

A little late in the game, I realize, but here are Eden's 1-year pictures, that were taken in September by Jane on her ranch. She's weighing in at about 18 pounds now and just added tooth #3 to her collection. She enjoys being outside and LOVES to play with the dogs. The weather has been nice here, so it's worked out to get our dose of fresh air every day. Enjoy!~

Nativity Progress Continued

You may recall the beginning state of the nativity from December of 2005. Here is where it is at today. Well, actually a few days ago. There has been some light added, but that project is not yet complete.

Joseph and all the other furnishings are temporary to help give scale. After the initial primer and airbrushing, all of the bricks and rock received multiple layers of washes and dry brushing. I'm currently not content with the logs, but they will have to do for now. I liked the look of the chip board as a base, so I gave it a couple coats of stain and called it good. In the works is a lighted roof for the angel to stand.

Reformation 2006

Strawn Mad Carving Day 2006

Sarah and I have begun a tradition of carving pumpkins on the day of Halloween. After my Letterman disaster last year (see October2005 blog) we have decided that the day of will be fine instead of carving ahead of time. Fortunately our carving skills are improving which makes for more interesting designs. Unfortunately that means it takes more time. Here are our attempts this year. Enjoy!

Comedy and Tragedy (those wacky theatre masks) carved by Al.

Ghost Rising from Grave carved by Sarah


Luther's Rose (note the attempted use of food coloring in the heart and background) carved by Al (template homemade) I also attempted to use a Dremel grinding wheel to remove skin and flesh from the outer pumkin to allow more light to shine through. It worked well, even though it left pumpkin residue all over my glasses, face, sweatshirt, etc.


Headless Horseman carved by Sarah

This years attempts were hampered by freezing weather that did a good number on the pumpkins (interior ice and shriveling) and made our hands very chilly. Sarah's first attempts at more detailed carving came out very well and she has much to be proud of.

The pumpkins, adorned with great holiday music (Bach's Taccotta and Fugue in D Minor, themes from the X Files, Psycho, and other halloween favorites) once again garned comments from kids and adults alike.

Next year Al will attempt a 1973 Corvette, pumpkin style, and the famous painting of Jesus' profile. Stay tuned. :-)

Happy Halloween

Meet our little Tucan.

Al took Eden out for her first real Trick or treating adventure this year. They went all around town in freezing temperatures, layered in three sizes of clothing, but cute as ever.

She came back with a few pieces of candy for us, and a couple bags of cheerios for herself. She seemed indifferent, but we were well pleased!

Happy All Saints Day tomorrow!~

Rome wasn't built...

Everyone needs a hobby, and one of mine is building cardboard buildings. My recent endeavor was to build a complete modern day urban city for the game Mechwarrior: Age of Destruction. Here are a few photos of the progress of many hours of designing, printing spraying, folding, and cutting.

This a general overview of the city. All the buildings are made out of cardboard (cereal box weight material) with paper glued to the outside. The images are building found online, and some that I created myself using templates found online. All the buildings are approx. "N" Scale for you train buffs out there. After cutting and pasting, the corners are scored with an Exacto knife to ease the folding.

While many of the buildings are simple rectangles, some have multiple folds. The church on the left of this picture of nearly 20 pieces of cardboard folded in multiple directions. To make it even more fun, it was found on an all Korean site with no English instructions.

One of the tasks in creating a city is not only to make it to scale and unique, but to also make it usable for the rules of the game. That means some buildings need a flat roof to be usable, others need doors, others may need to fit into certain size specifications. It also means that there needs to be certain spacing between buildings.

Some future developments may be several communications towers, an overpass, and maybe another church.

I hope you have enjoyed the tour of my city!

Eden's New House

Eden recently got a new house and we thought the world might like a peek. It needs a bit of remodeling and the elevator needs to be fixed, but it'll be ready by the time she's old enough to reach the first floor! (I vote for a hot tub on the garden-roof.)

Fall Festival

Every September, Wilcox has their Fall Festival. The day begins with a short parade in the morning (we can still throw candy out here, so it's pretty fun), games and races for the kids, raffle drawings, dinner at the lion's hall, supper at the fire hall and garages sales all day. This year's added feature was the snow cone vendor parked on main street and it was a big hit! I had lemon lime and Al had some mountain berry flavor. Eden slept, so she missed out. Here is the float that St. John's had in the parade, in which the Sunday school kids rode on with Al, Eden and myself.

Camping Adventure

Without further adieu, the camping adventure….

Our 2006 vacation took us camping in our new used pop up camper to Yankton, SD on Lewis and Clark Lake. We arrived on Sunday night, just in time to get the last camping sight in the ‘first come/first serve’ campground. We ended up staying 7 nights in a beautiful spot amongst the trees and close to a water spigot. While we were there, Samson taught Hardy how to camp quietly, calmly and politely. Hardy tried his best, but continued to pee on the cooking grate, bark at everything that moved, growel at the things that stood still and tangle himself up in each tree.


Among the highlights of our trip, we took a rainy day historical tour of Yankton. Many of the homes in the tour dated back to the 1780’s, and some have a distance connection to fame. An example: the Shannon-Ohlman home was leased to Fed. Judge PC Shannon, who presided over the trail of Jack McCall, convicted killer of Deadwood’s Wild Bill Hickock. Another building, the Frost, Todd & Co building, was the first structure of Yankton. The “Todd” in the name was the cousin of Abraham Lincoln’s wife. Interesting. We also visited the Dakota Territorial Museum Park and looked in the buildings surrounding the museum, including an old school house that was used until the 1970’s. The ‘teacher’s rules’ were still hung in the hallway from 1920. They were very picky on what teachers could and couldn’t do in those days….


We crossed Gavin’s Point Dam, built in 1957 as part of the Pick-Sloan Plan. We checked out the visitor centers in the areas and drove to all of the look out points. We crossed the Meridian Bridge, and looked in the windows of the Territorial Capitol Replica, in Riverside Park. On the weekend, beginning Friday and going through Sunday, Yankton’s biggest summer festival, Riverboat days, was held. There was a big parade on Saturday that we went to. It lasted 2 hours, and had some great floats. We then put the dogs in the blazer, and walked down to Riverside Park, where there were carnival rides, food vendors and a huge art and music festival going on. We tooled around both Saturday and Sunday; there was so much to see. I bought a couple CD’s from the American Indian Rock Opera group, featuring Brule. The soft music put Eden to sleep. Also, I purchased a bracelet of different colored beads. Other hikes we did during the week included the Gavin’s Point Nature Trail, which began at the end of our campground, and looped around. We hiked the Trailhead to Paddlewheel Point. We walked part of the Auld-Brokaw trail on several different days (funded by Tom Brokaw and his wife, Meredith). We picnicked in Fantle Memorial Park and walked the perimeter of that. We walked several of the trails in Lewis and Clark Lake, and we hiked the Corps of Discovery Welcome Center Nature trail. Eden loved the hikes, and the dogs…well, that goes w/o saying.

On Sunday, we attended Concordia Lutheran Church in Vermillion, about 25 miles from Yankton. It was a nice small service, after which, we changed into hiking clothes and took off on a one mile hike up Spirit Mound. (I forgot to pack my socks, it was icky). This historic prairie was known by the Omaha, Oto and Yankton Indian tribes who believed that the mound was occupied by little devils, about 18” in height with enormous heads, who shot any person who came near the mountain. When Lewis and Clark’s expedition came to this area in 1804, the two headed out to this mysterious place to have a look see. They reportedly found sweeping prairie, their first heard of about 800 buffalo, and great flocks of swallows. But there were no devils or little people in sight.

On Monday, the 21st, Al needed to be in Papillion, so we headed down to the much talked about Mahoney State Park in Ashland, stopping to tour the lush Ponca State Park on the way. We made it by dark, set up camp, and took off for Papillion. On Tuesday, we were able to tool around Mahoney to see what there was to see. It was more of a resort for older kids than what we had in mind, but we looked for things to do. There were hiking trails, so we got a map and headed out. Well, that was a bit of a disaster. For starters, the hiking trails no longer exist, except on the map. They had been marked at one time, but the markers were all grown over. And the hiking trail we thought we were on, ended up being a horse trail that we were not supposed to be on. After a couple hours in the fly- humid heat, we found our way out of the bramble and went back to our camp spot to rest in the 100 degree heat.

side note: While setting up camp the second time, Eden was awfully quiet in the camper. When I peeked in, she was happy as a baby who'd found the tupperware of cookies! "who me?"....

Tuesday was Eden’s 1st birthday. Since we didn’t have much in mind to do, we headed into Ashland and found a “Dairy Cone” stand. We brought chocolate muffins and a candle (but forgot a match) and got some vanilla ice cream. The dogs and the three of us celebrated outside this ice cream stand. A whole year of her life has gone by already. We couldn’t think of a gift for her, but she didn’t know the difference.

On Wednesday, we decided to go for a drive and find a different place to hike. We drove the south side of the Platte River, and found Platte River State Park, in which there was much hiking to do! We took the camera and got some great scenic shots in the park while we hiked the quiet, solitary trail. We then drove to Louisville and across the Platte on the north side and followed it back to Schramm Park to see what there was to see there. On Thursday, we went back to Schramm Park and hiked the 3 mile National trail, before heading back to camp and packing up in the 95 degree heat to head home.

Of course, a vacation wouldn’t be exciting without a few mishaps. Eden had diarrhea for the first full week, we broke a buckle on the car top carrier and had to take apart a camp chair strap to fix it, we shut our spray bottle in the door and broke it, watched a lawn mower run over (and mutilate) Samson’s tie out, chain and clip and Al had 6 people in the hospital while we were gone. But, we managed to have a great time, as usual.

We do love to hike and Eden is the perfect age and weight to do it, so it was great fun. It’s nice just to sit out and look at the stars under a glowing campfire. No TV, no phone or internet, nobody to bug you (except for the bugs themselves). It’s always rejuvenating for mind and spirit, and I appreciate the fact that we were able to go. God continues to be gracious unto us. To Him be the glory forever and ever!