Category: General

It’s sort’a like a junk drawer thing… No other place to put it.

Goose

We started watching these Canadian geese, after the female built a nest by one of the over-flow ponds on our street. She would sit on her nest morning, noon, and night, shine or rain or more rain and more rain. As we watched these birds (the male was usually close by), the excitement of seeing the goslings was something we had never seen before.

After reading about the birds on the internet, I learned that it takes 28 days for the eggs to hatch. On the day they hatch the goslings, hatch early in the morning with both parents attending. After the goslings are hatched the female will then get the goslings right into the water. 16 weeks, after they are born, the goslings can fly, that will be September!

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Our Canadian goose family grew by 4 this morning!
4 yellow goslings went for a swim, all in tow behind mommy! (I should have got a picture of that!)

I’m so excited for these birds. I have always thought Canadian geese were cool and I LOVE to hear and see them honk their way across the sky in that massive “V” pattern. We will keep watching these little babies as they grow over the next several months. There is also a family of ducks in the same pond area. So awesome!

Daisy Poem

Isabel has written another poem/story about Daisy.

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A portion of her story/poem of Daisy.

Chapter 1 Daisy
Daisy dreams about many things.
I’ll tell you some, treat(s), sleep, eat, and food.
Daisy always wants or dose (does) these things.
Plus she is a dog (I bet you know that.)
She also likes the sunshine on sunny days.
By Isabel

2013-05-10 002_edited-1She even drew a picture to go with her story/poem.
She told me she wanted to add to what she’s written but I haven’t seen anything yet.

My 1000 Post

My 1,000th posting has arrived!!

I am shocked that it’s here.

When we began this blog 6 years ago, I had no idea what to talk/blog about, let alone who’s going to read what I write!?! What do I have to say that is meaningful to those who read this blog?

Someone has been reading my words, most of those people have been family and a few friends. No one else has ever told me they read what I write, besides my own parents and they enjoy it. My father skims through the postings, mainly looking at the pictures and my Mother reads each one through. So someone does read it!

In those 6 years, I have really begun to enjoy blogging. I feel terrible if, I miss a day. This is my journal, about our lives and what we do. Some day, Isabel will be able to look back and read what she did on this and this day. She may even get a few laughs out of it and say, “Hey, I remember doing that!”

What I hope she gets most out of my words/blog, is that I love her very much. I want her to look back and remember those times that she has forgotten when she’s older. So she can sit at her dining room table (eating dinner) and tell her kids about the time she did this and the time she did that. Just like she enjoys doing with Daddy and I now and hearing about when we were her age.

So what I write is for her… remember to have faith, put your hope in Jesus. He loves you more. Laugh and enjoy this website.

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It’s for you, Squirt! I love you.

Helping Out

Today our friends Steve and Cooper came over for some help.

Cooper is entering a pinewood derby race next weekend with his AWANA group and they wanted some help getting Cooper’s car ready for the race. We’d be glad to help!

We purchased Isabel a monster truck so she could have something to build along with Cooper. Enjoy!

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Safety first in the wood shop for Isabel and Cooper!
Cute kids!
(they ditched the goggles after the photo!)

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Cooper had sanding to do on his car and Isabel just had to assembly her truck.

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Hammering those nails in straight!

After getting their cars sanded and assembled it was time for paint…

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Isabel’s monster truck came with stickers but she wanted to add some flames!

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More flames on this side too.

Since Cooper was only here for today to get his car ready for next weekend…

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His car sat in the drying bay (space heater).
Cooper painted his car after his favorite game “Mindcraft”.

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Cooper making sure the weight on his car was right for the race.

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While the kids had time to wait, they went out in the driveway
to fly their stunt planes Gino bought for them.

What’s Left Is Hauled Away

The remaining parts of the truck were picked up this morning! The junk yard men arrived bright and early to haul their junk parts away!

The parking break was on and with all the wiring fried the back tires didn’t want to go! So they ended up just dragging the whole mess down the driveway!

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Trying to get those tires to roll!

There are still a lot of good parts there. As one little neighbor boy pointed out, “If you stand at the back it looks just fine.”

2013-02-18 008_edited-1All loaded and ready for it’s finally resting home.

I do have to give the men credit for cleaning up some of the mess and taking some of the larger parts with them. Now that the truck is gone and out of the way, we can clean up the driveway.

I spent the afternoon sweeping up the remaining bits of ash, soot and debris. I came back in the house and my feet were black inside my socks and shoes!! What a mess! The remaining mess, we’ll use the power washer on and get something to get the oil cleaned up.

It’s weird not having a truck parked there…

One Smokey Night

We had an alarming knock on our front door late last night.

Only to find out that our truck was on FIRE in our driveway!!

  • Thankfully one of our neighbor’s saw the flames/smoke and heard the noise and alerted us to what was happening – we had heard noises but didn’t react thinking it was normal noises in our neighborhood.
  • Thankfully we are all safe and unharmed – the fire department arrived rather quickly after I (and several neighbors) placed the 911 call.
  • Thankfully our house DIDN’T get burned OR damaged – the truck was parked only 6 feet away from our house garage. Normally closer.
  • Thankfully it was only our truck – it can be replaced.
  • Thankfully our Spork (other vehicle) DIDN’T catch on fire as well – it was parked only a few feet away.
  • Thankfully God and his angels were protecting us from the unforeseen danger that  unfolded – the gas tank was FULL of gas and the fire didn’t spread beyond the front end…

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The first look in daylight of the fire damage this morning. It had rained a little bit during the night.

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Looking east up toward the garage. You can also see soot on the garage door and gable.

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Looking west toward the street. The heat from the fire warped the hood of the truck.

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Looking northwest. The fire didn’t get past the front of the truck.
I think it’s fine, give it a good wash and it’ll be back to almost new.

I had to get to work so I took more photos later that afternoon….

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Later that afternoon we went out to clean out what was in the cab that was salvageable.
For some strange reason, the door locks wouldn’t work?!?!!

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This was the radiator.

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After propping up the hood we got to see a better picture of what was left under it.

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What’s left of the trim piece around the front grill.

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So much wiring! If you look closely you can see into the front drivers side tire.

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The front driver’s side tire melted like a crayon.

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The side of the cab seems to be alright, just smoke damage.

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The extended cab looked even better then the front.

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Looking in from the passenger side. Most of the damage in the cab was on the drivers side.

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Looking into the engine compartment from the wheel well.

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Front engine compartment. The fan (on the left) still turns, well sort of.

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Back in the cab, I didn’t notice this before but just in front of where the driver would sit the dash toward the windshield is melted away leaving a large hole covered by windshield melted glass.

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This is where the windshield wipers used to be, there is only 1 now.

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Front passenger side of truck.

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What is left of the drivers side headlight. The passenger headlight is completely gone (see above photo).

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Soot on the garage. We’ll pressure wash it and it should come clean.

The only damage to the house was bubbled up paint on the trim and the seal on the garage door (can be seen in photo) got warped.

We are truly THANKFUL and we will walk away from this stronger together
and closer to the LORD!!