Sniff

So, the owner of the house suprised us at church by presenting us with a gorgeous collage of pictures nicely framed. It will be the first photos that will be hung on our walls down here. So there I am up there crying because he it talking about what our family has meant to him and what all the help from everyone around has done for them....
I took the liberty of scanning a couple and decided to post them here since... WOW! I'm in them! :) I am normally the one BEHIND the camera, and I thought maybe family and friends might want to be able to have a reminder of what I look like?? ;) Really, I thought that the picture of the "two girls" was a good one - looks a LOT like her mommy!! The other picture is of our sheetrock unloaders, so they NEED to be in there. :) Thanks for your help, guys!!

What To Do With Your FEMA Tarp From Your Roof When You Are Done With Them

"This is a blast!"





"Aha!! You missed me!! "

"Gotcha that time!!"

Cool at last!

Boy this is tiring!

Little Update

So, you will have to wait for the pictures, but this week has been fun. It was my first Easter without a ham dinner.... crawfish instead. Wow!! Pretty good! And we also figured out what to do with your FEMA tarps when you are done using them on your roof -- Slip - and - Slide!! Pictures will follow - eventually. ;)

What Happens When You Pray

Some of you have heard this story, but I will retell it for those of you who have not. That way the pictures will make a little more sense.

We are currently living in a house right on the bayou. I talked about it some in a previous post... the one letting all of you know that, yes, we are still alive. Anyway, this house needed everything but the frame and we have been working on it slowly but surely. We have been helping the owner of the house fix this one and a few of his others and have an "answer to prayer" deal for living in this house. Johnny spent some time praying for favor and for specific supplies for the house. A few weeks ago when we had the SOS team in, we got a phone call and were told to come pick up ALL of the sheetrock for our house (both upstairs and downstairs.) The truck and a trailer were laoded up with the sheetrock, and then with ALL of the tape, mud and paint to finish the walls. While Johnny was loading the sheetrock, the man that orchestrated this told him that our insulation would be in within the next week or so. For those of you that know anything about building, you know that would have been a large cost. This was GIVEN to us. The timing of the sheetrock was wonderful, as well. We were able to share with the kids from the mission team what God will do if you pray! A real life, hands on example. They had to help unload it!!

Last week John went to pick up the insulation. The owner of the house came over and told John that he looked like the Construction Santa Clause pulling in our road with a truck and trailer load of free insulation. We've been able to share with him the power of prayer. Someone asked me why we had been praying for the sheetrock and insulation or other supplies for the house. Wasn't the owner of the house buying all that anyway and it never was going to be an expense for us? This is true, but you know, I will pray for all sorts of stuff to come in and bless this man... he has provided us with some very precious accomodations and you better belive that I am asking God to bless this man's socks off and what if this the thing that brings him to salvation? He came to church with us last week and when an alter call was given asking if we are where we should be with God and would we like to put our lives totally in God's hands and walk away from our old ways, he raised his hand... Keep this man in prayer that God will continue to work in his life and that John and I will have ample opporutnity to minister to him.





Our Sheetrock and insulation... What a beautiful sight! :)

How Johnny Spent THIS Afternoon

Poor guy.... Let me just say that he has a MUCH stronger stomache than I do. This "water" (and everything else in it) *insert shudder here* have been sitting in this jacuzzi tub for 6 months and 2 weeks... Gross... I have not personally seen or smelled anything that wretched since we have been down here... or maybe ever for that matter.









He said that he might be holding a cat at that point. Eww...











I am SO glad that he somehow squeezed his hands into MY rubber gloves and did that ... He did say that the gloves cut off ALL circulation in his hands. Ya think?

One of Life's *LITTLE* Lessons....

.... Or "How Johnny Spent His ENTIRE Sunday Afternoon AND Evening."

Ok, I have no ONE picture that could possible do this... event... justice, so you will have to wrap your head around the enormity of what one little kid with one little lighter can start with the minimal help of the pictures included. These are pictures of PART of the damage done by a 400 acre forest fire... Started by a child somewhere between Tanara's age and John Tylor's age. He got ahold of a lighter and headed for the back yard and ended his day with three fire companies fighting this fire for eight-and-a-half hours. John was fighting for seven of those. The fire started back up the next morning, was put down again, and started back up again yesterday and is burning in places still today. The fire was a couple miles away from our house, and the kids and I still spent the day breathing in smoke and watching ash "snow" all around our house. Not so good...

So, lesson for the day... Keep that stuff out of reach... seriously. That little boy's parents are now looking at a very large bill.... and there were a number of houses that somehow managed to escape being caught in that blaze... thanks to the hardwork of all the firefighters there.

This week....

*I got to make banana bread IN MY OVEN! IN MY HOUSE!!! :) He is not actually wiring the kitchen in this photo, but you get the idea...














*Tanara was Joe's little helper for the week. :)














*I got another window in my bedroom! :)













*Tanara learned how to ride her bike with NO training wheels with a little bit of help from everybody, but Bud is the one that taught her the all important lesson of how to corner and he has been a great riding buddy ever since.

Me?

If You Need a Laugh...

You SERIOUSLY need to go see "Ice Age 2". It was SO funny! And the best part is watching it with your kids and all of you laughing so hard that your bellies hurt. Then, on the way home from the theater, ask them what their favorite part was. Be prepared to laugh again!

Yes, I am alive....

Ok, for those of you that have been keeping track of this site, I am done being horrible and not posting... for today.... :)

We are still alive and well down here in MS and I spent my first birthday away from home AT the BEACH! Now how cool is that?? Normally we are shovelling out snow... I am liking this...

The "new" house is awesome! (We've moved from North of I-10 to down on the bayou much closer to the beach) The rough wiring for electricity was finished Friday and the plumber will be there Monday... after those two things are done and inspected, we can put up insulation and sheetrock. Woo hoo!! In case you were wondering, we are in a gutted house that was under a litte bit of water. (A little bit translates to water up to the ceiling in the second story.) We live on the second (main - most houses there are on stilts and the only a few actually having living quarters on the ground floor) floor and J's cousin and sister and my brother's brother-in-law live on the first level. JT and T LOVE it and get to ride bikes all over the street and adore the owner of the house... He makes a fantastic "great-grandpa" figure.

Last week we had teams from North Dakota in with Sons of Salvation in Florida. What an awesome experience!! It was a Senior class from a Christian school up there and working with them and then having the chance to minister to them at the end of the week was unforgettable. Can't wait to do it again! :)

J is keeping very busy helping people to rebuild... Big project, but taking it one job at a time. There are days that he feels like there is not enough time in the week to get everything done and then days here and there that he remembers to slow down and take a breath. Thankfully, today was my birthday so he was FORCED to take the day off and play. ;) I think it has done him some good. :)

I will be posting again... Keep track... I just won't promise to post on a daily (or even regular?) basis for right now. I'll get pics in here as well.... Eventually ;)