The Rains Came, the Winds Blew and the Power Kuputzed

It is so good to be in my nice, warm, cozy bed tonight with the power and heat on in the house. Anyone watching the news the past couple of days knows that a HUGE storm hit New England. Depending on where you were, you either got rain or snow, but I think everyone got the wind. I have never in my life experienced wind like I did last night. According to my neighbors, the winds blew up to 90 mph! I believe it.

Our power went out about 11ish last night. The kids were already in bed and asleep, but the wind must've awakened Shaylen. When she awoke to a pitch black room and howling winds outside, she was terrified. Her cries woke up Marshall which put them both in our bed. None of us got much sleep. I think with every howl of wind Shaylen scooted closer to me. I doubt you could've squeezed a piece of paper between us.

When we dragged ourselves out of bed this morning I checked our yard. There was debris everywhere. In the back just behind the garage an extremely large limb or section of a pine tree had cracked off. I'm so thankful that it didn't hit the garage because it could've done significant damage. The break was wa-a-a-a-y up in the tree. I pointed that out in the picture below left and below on the right (after the "..."). Taigen's going to have a fun time chopping this up and getting rid of all the wood.

When we ventured out in the car, we were surprised to see huge trees snapped in two or yanked out of the ground entirely, roots and all. Pine needles were scattered all over the road. Small streams became rivers today and many roads were blocked because of flooding or trees lying in the middle of the road. Lots of businesses and homes were without power. The power at the church was out and we were unable to access the building because the road was blocked off. Hopefully everything will be back to normal by Sunday. Starbucks was open however. I was so thankful for this (and the gift card I had gotten for Christmas...thank you Sherry or Kyle). It was warm, huge and had caffeine...something very important since I was lacking in sleep and energy.

We were able to go over to our friends' house today (the Meroffs). It was nice to be in a heated home, check email and also recharge my cell phone. I was able to bring soup to be heated so we even got a warm meal tonight.

When we were on our way back home, the kids and I were watching for lights in homes to see if they had power. We got so excited as we saw lights on in homes even as we got closer to our own. When we pulled into our driveway and saw our porch light on, we all cheered! So thankful for all of the hard work our utility workers put in today so that we could have power. Approximately 300,000 homes were without power in NH today. That's a lot!

Life Does Not Slow Down

I remember thinking back in college at how busy I was. I would lay awake at night planning the next day. "Let's see. If I get up at 5:30, I can study my Doctrine's verses after I take a quick shower. Then I'll work at 7, and then..." I remember thinking how much I was going to look forward to "slowing down" once I graduated.

Life has not slowed down. It took a breather once we got off the BJU Musical Ministry Teams, but then I picked up teaching at Cornerstone Baptist Academy in Scarborough. It slowed down briefly in the fall of '03 when was I was pregnant with the twins and had been advised not to start another school year. Then the twins came and life has been a whirlwind since.

Ever notice how silent this blog sometimes is? It's because the Whirlwind of Life has come and decided to make itself at home here in NH. This past week was a prime example. Sunday we were able to have missionaries Eric and Barb Fisher (and their daughter Anna) over to our home for lunch. They have been supported by our church for many years, but this is the first time we had met them. What a delight they are! We were excited to meet them and get to know more about them and their ministry to the Marshall Islands.

Monday was semi-calm. Taigen went out in the morning during school and purchased two new lights for our entryway. One was broken and hanging limp from its socket. We had been to Home Depot on our date last Monday and I had spotted some that I thought would match our decor. I said to him, "You can get me one for my birthday and then one for Christmas." He had different plans. He left, came back and had my new lights all installed by the time we were done with school for the day! They look awesome! After lunch we discovered a new store just down the road that carries a truck-load of home-y decorations that make me drool. I know where I'm going to be getting my decorating needs met in the future. For a while we've been wanting to find something to go on either side of my wreath in our dining room. We discovered two wall sconces that would fit perfectly. To our delight, they were also on sale!

Tuesday afternoon & evening, we were going to head down to Fitchburg to see Mom and Dad Jorgensen, Brennen & Lydia Jorgensen and Stephen & Erika (Jorgensen) Wetterlund. The snow hindered our trip though. Even though we missed seeing all of them, it ended up working out well because we needed a "Catch up and Prepare for the Future" night.

On Wednesdays I usually go down and do choir for the little half pints (Marshall and Shaylen's class), and then run across the hall and do choir for the older children. The rehearsals run a half an hour each. This week however, when I walked into the older children's class, the Fishers were there sharing a missionary story. Eric and drawn a wonderful picture on the white board that fascinated me. He does marvelous work! The kids were enthralled. When they asked if the kids had any questions, hands were popping up like popcorn. It was such a wonderful time that I had no problem letting them ask away. When I looked at the clock, all of our rehearsal time was eaten up. It was probably a very memorable time for our church children though. Priceless.

Thursday after school, a friend came over for lunch and fellowship. I love sitting and getting to know people. Elisabeth has proven to be a joy and a blessing to me personally and to the church. We had a wonderful time together and the afternoon quickly passed. After she left, I got ready for the Fishers to come for a casual dinner. We were going to just have potato soup, salad and asagio cheese rolls. After dinner, we sat around and chatted and Eric drew (pictured above right) a picture just for Marshall and Shaylen and explained the story that goes with it. Isn't the picture so good (pictured left)? It makes me laugh just looking at it.

Friday I baked a double batch of sour cream cookies to bake and decorate for our Valentine's banquet on Saturday. I wanted each couple to have a set to take home as a "party favor." Although this is time consuming, I thoroughly enjoy doing this. Creativity can be an addicting drug for me. The house could be falling apart around me, but boy I can be creative!

Saturday was full of preparations for our Valentine's banquet. After lunch we all went in to the church and got everything all set up. We were going to have 16 couples come and Eric Fisher was going to preach. I prepared a quiz for the couples to complete during dinner and Taigen prepared a group game (complete with power point). After all was set up, I went upstairs and completed my secretarial work. I worked until time for the banquet. It was a busy day! Kids didn't get home and in bed until 8:30, but I think everything was a success. Praise the Lord!

Sunday the Fishers did Sunday school for our church and then he preached in both services (morning and evening). We were able to have them (and our friends the Gicks) over again for Mexican food for lunch. We have thoroughly enjoyed our times with them. The kids really, really liked them.

And there you have it. That was our whirlwind week last week. Here I am posting on Thursday and am four days behind on this week too. Oh well.

Life is good, but it sure is fast. Thankful for each and every moment that God brings to us.

A Fresh Coat

We got a wonderful, fresh, new coat of snow last night. The storm was supposed to start yesterday morning early. I expected to wake up to a dusting on the ground already. It hadn't. Then I expected it to start snowing during school. I expectantly watched outside to see the first flake. It didn't come and it didn't come.

Finally about lunch time the flakes started to fall. We were expecting anywhere from 4-8 inches so when the snow stopped shortly after lunch I was disappointed. It came and went all afternoon and didn't really pick up until dinner time.

It was still snowing when we went to bed late last night (due to the Olympics), but when we got up this morning, the sun was shining and glinting off of the beautiful snow. I LOVE living in New England!

Trek to Maine

Last Thursday, Taigen had the opportunity to go and preach in a chapel at Cornerstone Baptist Academy in Scarborough, ME. When Mike and Brenda Bowman heard that he was scheduled, she asked if we could all come, go to their house sometime after chapel and then stay for supper. How could we pass that up?

The kids were so excited and worked really hard at finishing school early for the day (it helps when we have two tests...the lesson time is much shorter). We packed a lunch and hopped into the van for the trip.

It's always good to go up and see everyone in Scarborough. It's amazing how much those teens change! I had to do a double take for many of them. Marshall and Shaylen turned a bit red from all of the comments about their growth! You could tell by the teen's comments that we hadn't been up in quite a while. Marshall and Shaylen are getting very tall!

After chapel, we went over to Grandpa Mac's for a visit. It was so good to be able to sit and talk just with him. He showed us pictures from his recent CO and PA trips and filled us in on all of his family's news. Being so far from Papa is hard because we can't have the frequent contact that we used to. We miss him (and Mom Mac) tremendously.

From Papa's we went to Westbrook for dinner at the Bowman's. It was so nice of them to invite us over after a long day of work. We love the Bowmans. They are close...like family. We had a wonderful and relaxing visit. Dinner was fabulous. They made lasagna, salad, out-of-this-world garlic bread and ooey-gooey brownies with ice cream. It was an army to feed too! There was Mike and Brenda, Paul, Tanya and their son Caleb, Janelle and a fellow teacher Bekah and then the four of us. It's so much fun to sit and laugh (and poke fun at Janelle and Bekah because of their new boyfriends).

I wish we could've stayed longer. It was a wonderful day.

Poolside Fun

Normally I wouldn't let the kids do this, but there weren't any people in this section of the pool to bother. I decided to loosen my collar and let the kids run and jump in one time at the end of our pool time and make a big splash.

Confident Swimmers

It's been a while since I posted anything regarding swimming. Marshall and Shaylen continue to love it! They took the Introduction to Swimming Class (Level I), passed into Level II, and have now started Level III. In this class they will begin to learn the basic crawl stroke and, I think, the beginning steps to diving. At this point they are doing a glorified doggie paddle (attempting to extend their arms out), but they are managing to stay afloat and propel themselves to the other side of the pool so I'm not complaining. The teacher has even had them jump into the deep, deep end, come up, and start swimming toward the edge. This was a huge step.

One of the head teachers said that if they did hand out awards or certificates (which they don't), Marshall and Shaylen would get a "Most Improved" award. She was impressed with how well they are doing.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

We've had a request for a picture. I'm hanging my head in shame that I didn't get one myself. I must have gotten so wrapped up in the Events of this weekend. Please forgive me. So, without further ado, here is an approved picture of the two friends that graced us with their presence this past weekend. Too cute, eh?

The LONG Anticipated Weekend

I'm thinking about taking out stock in Puffs. Just so you know. I have a feeling that this weekend was the beginning of something really, really exciting. So exciting, that I'm hoping an event involving white, music, flowers, promises, cake, and Puffs will take place in the future.

This weekend the Pileggis came up to stay. (Bear with me. They play an important part in this whole post.) While we know that we are not blood related, we might as well be because we are thisclose. And even though we are thisclose, they really didn't come up to see us. They came up for An Important Event.

Marshall and Shaylen play a crucial part too. They helped me get ready for our special guests by cleaning and making Valentine themed cookies for our dessert at lunch on Saturday. This is the first time I've ever made Valentine's Day cookies. I decided not to make them Psychedelic Valentine's Cookies because this Event warranted a little more, uh, shall we say, seriousness? classiness? thought? (After all, not everything we do is crazy. We are normal, educated, mature people that make good impressions on new people. Especially people coming to THE event.)

The kids were so helpful. They helped make the cookies (mostly by being Official Dough Testers), cut them out and then helped decorate them. They turned out beautifully!

I love having a house-full. I cannot believe how fast little Lily is growing! Enzo and Julia were such big, good eaters on Friday night and the kids played so very well all weekend. It was a wonderful time together. As full as our house was, people were still missing.

Janelle was headed down for the weekend too. That's always special. All of us always look forward to times with Janelle. She is a dear, dear friend. Janelle plays a very important role in this blog story too. But not the most important. So, maybe I should say someone was missing. It was the most important player in the possible, probable, much hoped & prayed for Event.

It was a guy. Yup. A guy. Not just any guy, but a guy-friend. Dare I say "boyfriend?" Janelle was bringing a guy down to NH to meet all of us. All nine of us. And we were going to meet him.

I must say, that we were all very impressed. He fit in like he has always been a part of our group. It was a great time. Marshall and Shaylen started bombarding him with puppets and stuffed animals and airplanes and drawings and...okay, they liked him. Jason and Joni liked him. Taigen and I liked him. Enzo and Julia liked him. The only one that didn't express an opinion was Lily, but since she's only three months old, her opinion doesn't matter at this point. We played a few games and laughed extremely hard.

And so, we come to my first point. I'm thinking that taking out stock in Puffs would be a great idea at this point. I have a feeling. It's one of those feelings that you want, but you don't want. One of those tug-at-your-heart-because-you're-so-happy-and-yet-so-sad feelings. I liked him. I really did. Only if I had liked him, really and truly liked him would I have given a thumbs up to one of my dearest friends.

Pass the Puffs please.

Shaylen's Cowboy Compositions

I've got a bit of time today that I thought I would post some of Shaylen's Cowboy unit compositions. Sorry it has taken me so long!
On the left is her composition that mentioned California as well. Didn't realize that California was so popular for cowboys. Governators and overpriced real estate, yes, but cowboys? ANYway, whether it was too hot or too prickly, we might never know, but we do know that Shaylen didn't stay long.

This second picture was in addition to her composition of the day. She was to imagine herself as a horse. She was to describe what she looked like and what she would do. I loved her illustration on the back.

This third picture says:
I once was a cowboy and I was riding to the north. Suddenly, I kicked my horse with my spur because it had stopped. And I said, "Giddy up!" In a flash, the horse was on its way. I hung on and the horse went faster until we arrived. I was thirsty!

I'm thinking the horse was probably thirsty too.

My ultimate favorite composition from our cowboy unit was this one though. The kids were prompted to write their own "Wanted" or "Reward" poster. Shaylen decided to write up Daddy for doling out coffee cake for breakfast instead of Fiber Munchies or Shredded Straw. At least the carbohydrates helped her in school this day.

Homeschool Fine Arts Recital Video

This is my last attempt at getting this video online for all of you who are interested. The file was too big to upload as a whole, which meant it was impossible. That finally dawned on me only after three tries lasting over two hours each (I'm a slow learner, I guess). So, I split it into three parts so Blogger would like it. (That was easy because there are three verses to the song.) So, here ya go...be sure to turn up the volume on you computer. These kiddos are cuties!

We Belong to Jesus by Fanny Crosby

My Three Favorite People

I don't have time tonight to post some of Shaylen's cowboy compositions, but I do have time to share with you these two pictures of my three favorite people in all the world. I am so very blessed to have the best marriage (I'm in love with my pastor!) and the cutest, sweetest and most wonderful children.

Marshall's Cowboy Compositions

During our Cowboy unit, we had various and sundry topics for the kids to write on. On this particular day (right), it was asked of them to write what they would like to do if they were a cowboy. I'm not sure where Marshall would get the ingredients for his cake, but it probably would have sounded really great on the trail.

On the left, here's a composition that asked the kids to write down what they would need if they were a cowboy. Marshall's says, "I would like to be a cowboy!! I would wear a hat and spurs and boots and chaps and a vest and a bandanna and a rope and sunglasses!" (Talk about a run-on sentence!) It sure is cute though.

This composition on the right was what Marshall envisioned the desert being like: Hot and dusty and it had to be in California for some reason.

Apparently, Marshall slacked off one day because he had a calf get out. THEN, he deliberately didn't fix the fence. Don't know if I'd want him as my cowpoke.

And let's just say that the cows got out of line. Marshall could always whip out (literally) his whip and whip them into shape. At least that's what he did with these cows.

And here's the last one in this set of cowboy compositions. It is one that I find particulary funny because of what Marshall said after he did this composition. Part of their introductory lesson talked about Itinerant Preachers in the old days that went from village to village and preached. It was an arduous job. Imagine trekking through rain, snow, sleet and hail for each church service...on horseback. Some people have trouble doing that in cars with heat and plush seats. Hmmmm. Marshall said that being a pastor was a tough job. I told him that it could be. He then said that being a mommy was not a hard job at all.

Nice. The kid has got a lot to learn.

Sometimes You Just Need A Jammie Day

As I post this, some of you are wrapping up your day in the office. If you're a woman, you're probably like me, hoping to take off your nylons the moment you step in the front door. (Actually, you'd probably like to burn them...) And if you're a guy, maybe you're hoping that necktie regulation will be dropped in this following year.

Marshall and Shaylen don't have to wear collared shirts, belts, dress khakis or skirts, blouses and tights throughout their school day, they still are required to be dressed and at school (the guest room) by 8:30. Most days we make it, but there are a few exceptions. Even though they have no school uniform, I guess even jeans and a t-shirt seem constricting at times to them apparently, because they always long to do school in their comfy cozy jammies. Can you blame them?

Sooooo, some days their principal & teacher (i.e. ME) is r-e-a-l-l-y nice and lets the kids have a Jammie Day (it's all approved by their school administrator of course!). This is usually because they've been up late due to their parents being the last ones at church some nights (Note: Jammie Days, if they happen, would be on a Monday or Thursday). I let them sleep in a skosh longer. You won't find me in my jammies though. Sorry to disappoint you. They are a sight, bed head and all, but they're sure enjoying their comfortable day.

Oceans, Ships, Forts, Stairways, Rock Walls...

The possibilities are endless. It's amazing to see what the twins come up with on a Saturday morning when they are in no rush to get dressed and hop on up to the classroom. Instead of putting their noses in their curriculum, they are using their great imaginations to create worlds to visit, Olympic feats to overcome and adventures to dream up. There are sixteen couch cushions/pillows, four blankets, dozens of stuffed animals and two water bottles. I promise you, each one has been used in various and sundry ways this morning. I have proof.


And for those of you who think a pastor's home is always flawless, you are wrong. Very wrong. How can it be when creativity is at work?