The Word Became Flesh....

So here goes the preacher in me....

I just heard an amazing revelation (to me)about the date of Christmas. If you have been a believer for any amount of time, you've probably heard the Biblical Historical evidence that Jesus was almost certainly NOT born on December 25th.

Unlike my son Thor -- who was was trying to assure me that baby Jesus really was born at midnight on the 24/25th. (Got to LOVE that childlike faith... he doesn't need all the reasons why... he just believes). On the other side of that argument, I don't think there is anything wrong with going through the historical records, or scientific evidence to prove the Word of God. I know God's Word is true, because the Spirit living in me has given me the internal and external proof I need....

The clues given in Luke and Matthew's accounts of the birth of Jesus, give us a timeline for the actual birth date of our Savior -- likely sometime between September 25 - 29th. If you remember, there is an account of Jesus being circumcised on the 8th day, and is mentioned that is was also the Great Feast of the Tabernacles. This feast lasts for 8 days, meaning her was born on the First Day of the Feast of Tabernacles. Isn't it interesting how God chooses to have significant things happen on the same dates... consider also Passover and Easter. I really do love that about God.... His Word says that he will give us signs, all we have to do is keep a watchful eye open for them. (I think that also means a watchful Spirit, since not everything that is REAL is "visible" from our human perspective).

Is there any spiritual significance to December 25th, or was it really just a Pagan holiday turned "Christian" by the early believers/church? I have to say that in my heart of hearts it never bothered me if Dec. 25th was just a day someone "picked" to celebrate the birth of Jesus... In our modern world, people have tried to take Christ out of Christmas -- and focus on the material and commercial aspects of the Season... but for centuries before that Christmas really was (and is) a Holy Day for believers. The word "Holidays" derives from the Jewish "Holy Days." God created us with a need to celebrate and to honor special events.

Did God have a hand in helping the early church in choosing December 25th? I happen to believe so... and now there is evidence** of the significance of the 25th of Dec. In Jewish tradition there is a Holy Day late in December that is called the St. Michael and the Angels Feast... not recognized much now... but it is in their historical records. Isn't it interesting that we have a lot of Angels in our Christmas account too? ."


This is the MOST fascinating point.... If you count back 9 months, from the date of Jesus assumed actual birthday - September 25th, you arrive at a conception date of December 25th!! This was the day when the Angel Gabriel visited Mary.... and to quote John 1:14 "The Word became flesh, and made His dwelling among us."

How Awesome is that!!! I believe that life begins at the moment of conception... and perhaps this was God's way of marking Jesus REAL entry into this world... the day of his conception! The Holy Day for St. Michael and the Angels Feast was one small sign set in place centuries before... to mark the time when another Angel would play an important role in our Christmas Story!

**from Bruggerman's Bible Commentary - Appendix, page 198.

Liv is growing up!!

ok.. It's probably unfair to post new "happenings" with Liv, and not post a current pictuer... but I don't have a picture a the moment... Liv is sleeping... so I'm not going to wake her... and if I don't get this blog done now, while she is sleeping... I'm in danger of never getting it done!!

Liv has had a big month as far as baby milestones:
- she started sitting up on her own
- she can pull herself up to a standing position
- she is crawling
- she is waving bye-bye
- she wants to give kisses, but trust me, no one really wants one from her (too WET!)

Pretty good for our little 8 month old! This morning I left Anika and Liv at home with my dad for the morning while I went to Zion to make Julekake with Thor's 2nd grade class. (christmas bread) As I was leaving, I waved goodbye to Liv and said in my best baby-mommie talk "bye-bye"... Liv was doing her usual "mommie I don't want you to leave - laugh - cry" and said clear as a bell..."bye - bye"... My dad and I were both speachless... I have a witness for this, so it's not shameless mommy bragging!! But I couldn't get her to repeat it when I got home today???

Since I didn't have any good pics of the kids today, I thought I'd share some pics
from one of our favorite Christmas books -- The Christmas Treasury by Jan Brett. The stories are wonderful, adventuresome and fun, even for growing-up boys... but the drawings are the MOST amazing kids's-book illustrations I've ever seen. Thor, Anika and I all love "The Trouble with Trolls."

What is that thing called?

I just have to share Anika's latest...
As we are sitting at hockey practice, waiting for the ice to be reconditioned...

"Mom, when is the zambalonie going to come out again?"
"yes, honey... Zamboni... "

smiles

Can we EVER get the Lefse made?

I think most of you know "lefse"... if not, I've included a handy little photo.

It's been a family tradition for as many years as we can trace our family (at least back to 1890's). For my brothers and I, the connect is my Grandma Alice. In the years I knew her, she made lefse completely from scratch in her tiny little cottage house on the farm. I don't have a lot of memories of Grandma cooking anything... but lefse is kind of memorable because it's such a MESS!

Grandma was a pro, for sure. I still don't think my lefse is as good as hers. But I guess she had about 60 years experience under her belt before I even tasted it! I've been making it since I was about 20 (don't do the math, but I guess that makes 16 years for me). Grandma died when I was 12, and there was NO LEFSE for the family holidays. No one else had made it without Grandma before. (well, maybe Layne did once in college or something??) I was home from college and told mom, I think we need to make lefse. Thank goodness she knew the basic technique (also kind of messy)... becuase Grandma's recipe looked like a mystery to me.

As I recall it looked something like this:
10 pounds white potatoes with butter, salt, sugar and milk.
Mash. Rice.
Add
1 stick of butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt2 cups flour
more flour

Roll. Bake.

After a few tries and lots of severe mess ups... we finally arrived at a product that was soft, mostly round... and great with butter and sugar!

I remeber asking Grandma some other time of year,
"when are you going to make lefse again?" She replied quickly,
"lefse is for Christmas, ONLY."

Anyway, back to my point. I can give up a lot of things at Christmas, for the purpose of preserving my sanity.... we don't do stockings (or Santa), we have a VERY small tree (this year), we aren't doing a lot of Christmas cookies (becuase the two adults in the house would like to try to NOT gain weight this holiday season)... but I just can't have Christmas without some sort of lefse.... somewhere.



OK -- I have to re-phrase that.... "Some sort of lefse" does not equal mass-produced or commercially produced lefse. If I was satisfied with that, I'd go really cheap and schmear butter and sugar on a white flour tortilla. (sorry Jason).

Christmas Crazy

Just got home from spending a fun afternoon at Gp's Moeller's. Not like it's far away... just down the street. But somehow, when we get there no one wants to move (after dinner)... even it it's less than 100 yards to get to our house!

Mom and Dad had a great dinner of baked chicken, mashed potatoes and gravey, veggies, bread.... and warm apple crisp with ice cream for dessert. I REALLY wanted to take a nap after dinner, but Thor needed to get ready for hockey practice (3:30 p.m.) and Dirk wanted to get our drives and sidewalks "blown" of the snow. He hadn't had a chance to blow snow since the last snow fall on Friday. We have a lovely blanket, with a few inches of snow ... frosty trees, etc. It really looks like Christmas now!

Everyone has been asking.. I'm not sure why... but I give the same answer... Yes, I love the snow... all of November and December, snow is GREAT! Then, by the end of January I'm DONE with it. I'd love to spend February and March in 50-60 degree weather, with just nice rain... but no mud.... I know - it's not a physical possiblity... but that is my "dream" world. So yes, the snow now is great... we're supposed to have snow, it's Christmas!

Anika, Liv and I stayed home the rest of the afternoon and made Spritz cookies with Grandpa and Grandma. Liv was her normal happy self until JUST before I was ready to get the cookies put out on the pan. She just wouldn't be consoled by anyone... so Grandpa picked her up, to discover she was REALLY wet all over... how silly were we. She hadn't been changed since before she went down for a nap... and was quite upset about it all. 10 mintues later and dry diaper in place... and we were back on track... baking cooking and making memories!

Now we're getting ready to watch The Amazing Race -- eat a little popcorn and snuggle in for the night. Hope you are having a cozy eveing too?!

Anika's first wedding... flower girl

So this was the BIG weekend for Anika... her first (maybe not ONLY??)experience as a flower girl. She was adorable, (maybe a little too sure of herself??) and sweet for the wedding. She was patient with mom for the 30 minutes it took to do her hair (must be all girl/princess?) and loved all the "fru-fru" time getting ready. She and the groom's little sister were two adorable twin-princesses!

After the ceremony, on our way over to the reception Anika told me...
"A naughty boy made a mad face at me" (demonstrating that he stuck his tongue out at her)
"Oh, really?"
"Yes, and I made a mad face right back at him" (glared at him with her eyes)
I think she's almost ready for high school now.... (yikes!!)

It's beginning to look a lot like....

Christmas!! yeah... the first snow of the season came early this morning. I knew it was possible, and there was even more than I expected on the ground. It may seem trivial... but it never really seems like the holidays (Thanksgiving included) without snow! I'm just hoping it lasts long enough to get some sledding in on Thanksgiving Day!

Here is a "jog" down memory lane... Mark Moeller, do you remember the first Thanksgiving Dirk spent with our family in Rosholt? He spent most of the afternoon dragging you UP the hill behind your house, after you (and he) slid down on your little red sled? You were only 2 1/2, so maybe you don't remember... I just remember thinking that if Dirk was getting wrapped around your little pinky finger...along with all the other neices and nephews. It was a new experience for him to be an uncle... and kinda fun too!


Happy Thanksgiving everyone... especially you family back "east"... we're already missing being together with you guys... and all the fun at Don and Liddie's house for the big day... especially her dessert room!! Have a piece of pumpkin pie for us too... ok?

All State Chorus - AMAZING!!

So the big news this weekend was getting to see Maddie here in Rapid City -- and the performance of the All State Chorus and Orchestra. There were more than 900 students in the choir... and nearly 400 more the the Orchestra. It was an incredible evening of music. They were GREAT, by any standard... and the fact that they were all high school students... even more amazing!
Maddie was in town from Thursday night through Sunday morning... but her only real free time was Saturday afternoon. The kids and I met her at the hotel, and took her and friend Lindy to the mall for a few hours of "retail therepy."

This is Maddie and I at Enigma, having supper after the performance. It was fun to get dressed up all fancy-schmancy... the dress code for the All-State concert was Black Tie... so all the girls looked GREAT in their formals. Mom and Dad, Dirk and I joined Maddie and the group from Castlewood for supper at 10:00 p.m. Can you say "REALLY need a babysitter??" Yes, the kids stayed home with dear friend Katie for the evening.


I thought I wasn't going to be able to wake up Sunday morning, but as soon as the kids were up, it was "day as usual" for the household! Unfortunately, Anika had a moment of "flu" just after we got to church this morning... the rest of our Sunday plans were cancelled in favor of staying home and napping. Actually, it turned out to be the best plan for ALL of us!

FAMILY UPDATES:
Dirk: getting ready to go hunting Wednesday - Saturday this week. Can you believe, it's an actual vacation for him? We are getting the new camper packed
and ready to go... he is cleaning guns, working on ammo... anything is better than re-siding the storage shed! (actually, he is probably going to try to "rip" into that this weekend too, if he shoots his deer and two turkeys before the weekend is up!)

Thor: just finished session one of swim lessons. He "graduated" from Pollywogs to Guppies the first day of lessons, and after 5 more weeks, he almost graduated up again. He will get in 6 more weeks of lessons on Friday afternoons -- and then jump right into a new sport... hocky! He is really excited to start on the hocky league -- it's a "house" league (can you believe other 7 year olds are on travelling hockey teams?). I'm just looking forward to watching him learn to skate!

Anika: Also just finished session one of swim lessons and improved greatly as a Pike. She still needs to work on letting her whole face get in the water. But it won't be long and she'll be moving up to the "Eel" class too. She also just finished a session of Preschool Character Builders at the YMCA. It was a great class, for two hours each Thursday morning -- gave me a little time to run errands, etc. and only have to keep track of Liv and myself! For the 2nd session this fall she is going to do a Science class on Thursdays.


Liv: almost 7 months old? Can you believe it. She was 16+ pounds at her last check up, and doing very well. She did have a short time of being slightly constipated (I'm sure she'll look back on this and be so glad I've shared this with the world)... but now we know she just can't do a lot of rice cereal... oatmeal is much better for her!


Nancy: Life is back to a calm, regular routine. I'm "out" everyday, at least to get Thor at school... but I do try to plan around my "town days" and get all my errands done on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm thinking ahead to Christmas... brainstorming ideas for a Kids Program at church... and other holiday odds and ends...

We have a NEW camper!!

Yes, it's official... we are camper owners AGAIN. After 5 years of window shopping, and saying this Play-Mor camper was our "dream" camper for "someday"... we finally bit the bullet and got one for ourselves.

It's been a LOT of fun to purchase this camper. Not that I'm trying to compare, but we felt like the whole process buying the first camper was like major surgery... we were fighting and pulling every inch of the way. With this camper, every step along the way was so EASY... it was almost a God thing... (well, probably NOT almost... probably, certainly a God thing!!).


Anyway -- we have it home, and have started to pack the cupboards and storage areas with all the stuff we HEAVED out of the old camper after it was totaled. Dirk got everything worth saving out of the old camper after the hail -- but it didn't get much further than our garage floor.
Now everything is back in it's place, neat and orderly!! I have to say, my favorite feature so far is the toilet and the shower... and of course the sink, with hot and cold running water!! I sound like a pioneer experiencing indoor plumbing for the first time!!

The only bitter sweet moment was knowing we really didn't have a since night free to be able to take the camper out this fall, at least as the whole family. We did try the heater out, and it works great... so the guys will enjoy a comfy hunting abode in November... but that will be just for Dirk and Justin, for this first camping adventure. Maybe the kids and I will join them for an afternoon lunch or something??


Needless to say, we'll all be counting the weeks to spring, when we can take the camper out for it's first Official Morrison family camping adventure!!

This was one BUSY week....

Let me give you a quick run down...
1. Sunday, Setember 30th - the official beginning of our new year of Kids Ministry at Dove. I planned a partially catered dinner of BBQed beef brisket (from the Texas State Line) and scalloped potatoes (me)... enough for our whole church family. We asked everyone else to bring salads and desserts. It turned out very well, having a cozy afternoon in the fellowship hall -- and more meat that anyone could or should eat!
It was also Zion Lutheran School's 50th Anniversary -- with a huge celebration at the school and potluck dinner after the morning service. With the event at Dove, it just didn't work out to be a part of the Zion celebration at all.... what a bummer! It seems like when we are busy, there are usualy two or more things we could/should be doing at the SAME time??

2. On Tuesday I had to be ready to be the guest speaker at MOPS, on the topic of quick and healthy meals. I had 6 different meals planned to demonstrate and cook during the 2 hour meeting... letting everyone taste as we cooked. It's always a really fun morning... but lots of prep work ahead of time, I don't want to waste time cutting 60 carrots, onions and potatoes ... so I tried to have most of that done ahead of time.
It was fun for me too -- I always love to cook, and sharing some of my ideas of what it takes to make a good meal is fun... I mostly try to help moms 'lighten up' about following recipes exactly... but to make them personalized, the way thier family would like to eat it... and of course, help out with nutritional information too.
We made Sweet Potato Biscuts, Honey Butter, Chicken Pot Pie, Campfire Stew (Mom Moeller's recipe), Wild Rice Soup, Cashew Chicken and an Italian Antipasto Platter (appitezer tray).

3. On Thurday, Friday and Saturday I worked on the 200 cheesecakes I had contracted to do for a local wedding (cupcake size). They were less work in some ways, becuase I didn't have to do the family decoration, or worry about stacking towers of cakes.... but on the other hand I had to piddle around with 200 of those little cupcakes!! All it all, they turned out (hopefully the wedding party liked them too)... and were deliverd by noon on Saturday!

Now I'm feeling much more FREE and ready to tackle quite a few NORMAL weeks, with no extra projects... that is .... after I finish one last project .... speaking for MOPS in Spearfish! No cooking this time, just a regular guest speaker!

The one highlight of my week was getting to spend the money I made making the cupcake wedding cakes... I "finished" out my silverware service (now for 12 place settings)... the Fjord Design, Kristen pattern. I can only get it at the House of Scandinavia here in town... or on the internet. The local shop owners are very local-minded, and I love to support thier business. We came in with cash in hand on Saturday afternoon, and she still gave us a great deal anyway -- taking 15 percent of the normal price, even though there isn't supposed to be a sale going on! How sweet she is! Now I REALLY want to go back and buy from here every time!
Here is a pic of the silverward (from the internet).... still my favorite, after 10 years of looking!


Let me just give you

Changes changes...

Do you like my new car?? Thanks to the hail (back in August) we've been going through a LOT of changes here in the Morrison household! I have to say so far I'm not complaining AT ALL!! I LOVE driving the "new" Suburban! It's an '05, and was pretty loaded - DVD player and cordless headphone for the kids... leather heated seats for the grownups. We've all enjoyed the extra space! The kids didn't really want to say "good bye" to the Jeep, but honestly, I didn't have one bit of remorse letting it go. Did I say, I LOVE the suburban?

I spend a good share of my days before pickup up Thor from school each day on the phone with the various Insurance contacts. We have been very blessed through the whole situation. Many of our neighbors have had to fight for full coverage for their hail damage, including my parents. One neighbor even had to go so far as to tell the Insurance company they had visited with a lawyer about the situation. They didn't fully disclose that the lawyer happened to be the wife's father.... but that really wasn't thier business anyway. The Insurance company finally paid up after that!! (kinda sad!)

We got the settlement finalized for the pickup (we bought it back) and the house. The roof is supposed to be shingled sometime next week. Menards and Lowes both ran out of shingles (surprise surprise??), so we've had to wait an extra 2 weeks to get the shingling done. The camper situation has been a little long and tedious, but it's not that it's a "problem" -- mostly related to the fact that our insurance agent wrote the policy up wrong, so we've had to wait extra long for all the correct paper work to get processed, then a 2nd adjuster to take pictures, etc. But they promised me it would be finalized THIS WEEK!

Maybe we'll have to go camper shopping again this weekend?? (hint, hint Mr. Dirk??)

love you all!

Learning New Things...

Just thought you'd all like to see the latest "thing"... Liv is learning to sit up! AND I'm learning how to upload short video clips (personal) of our family, into this blog! We're all learning new tricks!! smiles to you all

Crazy August

What can I say.... it's been a BUSY two weeks... Photos and explanations to follow!


Hannan Campout
We headed to Hannah, SD (just a campground area not a town) between Lead and Spearfish. We found a good place to park the camper out in the woods, all by ourselves. We spent one night (with a few black angus cattle) and day treking through the wooded trails on our ATV and dirt bikes. Thor finally had a chance to ride his dirt bike endlessly... every time he would get a little bored of sitting on our camp chairs, he would say "Can I ride my dirt bike?" He didn't know it, but that is precisely why we went... to give him a safe, quiet place to ride back and forth and get used to the bike. It think we hit the mark! By the end of the day he had ridden up and down the trail (as far as we could see) about "a THOUSAND times" (according to Thor!). Now maybe he is ready for a real "ride" with dad and the boys?!

So the next weekend we headed to Rosholt for the big 60th Wedding Anniversary Celebration for my mom and dad!! LOTS of family and friends showed up for the big party... so many more people, from so far away... we didn't really expect it all... we just really didn't know what to expect! Mom and Dad had such a good time seeing everyone... but the poor basement felllowship hall of our home church, St. Joseph (out in the country near my hometown of Rosholt) was so crowded, they could hardly move around to visit with people. My brother said the basement room holds about 80 people comfortabley, and we counted 125 people during the 3 hour "open house!" We did get some great family group pictures with both the Moeller/Jackson and the Moeller/Nigg sides of the family. So many of these cousins I hadn't seen in 10 years (or more)... One group of cousins (kind of distant by the
time you get to my generation) came from Minneapolis and Wisconsin together. They visited the old farm place the next day -- now Layne and Betsy's home. They said they hadn't been the the home place house for probably 30 or 40 years!!

So then next... or actually WHILE we were off partying in Rosholt we had the biggest hail storm at home in Piedmont that has been seen in years and years.... maybe ever? Our neighbors reported that the hail came in three waves. There was large hail right from the beginning, some as big as a baseball. It started breaking people windows and windshilds right away. One elderly neighbor went out to try to cover a window and slipped on the ice... he got inside, thankfully.. or who knows! The next wave of hail brought softball sized ice mixed with all sizes of smaller hail. By this time every house on our street facing North had lost at least one window on the front of the house. Our house faces South -- we did not lose any windows.

The pickup truck with the topper camper were sitting right in front of the garage and took the worst of the hail. Our roof, gutters, eaves, one window (the frame was cracked/chipped) the siding, all
the above on the storage shed, our patio table, the grill and misc. kids toys were all eligible for "claims" with our insurance. We're still waiting to hear the final amount on the pick up, but the campers is a "total" for sure. The house repairs and personal property replacments will be covered 100%, Praise the Lord! (of course, after our deductible... which won't be that much considering).



You might think we'd have given up on "going and doing" after all that... but we had been planning a special camping trip with Abby and Anna, Holli and Jason since last
summer.... and had just settled on this late August date earlier in July. It was going to be a birthday treat for the girls, and an early birthday gathering for me. We actually did have a really good time, even though I was a little sad we don't have our camper anymore. Tenting went really well, considering it was very cool and rainy the first day and a half. The night time was a little chilly --
so baby slept between Dirk and I on our King sized air mattress. Who knew King size could feel so small?

We had all sorts of fun at the Grace Coolidge campgroup at Custer State Park -- bike
riding, playing in the water (even though the parents had forbidden it!), experimenting with meals over a campfire, watching a few buffalo, etc. As you can tell by my pictures, my attempt at making biscuts over the fire, in our dutch oven went pretty well -- but a bit too brown on the bottom. I'll just have to practice more often! I even made my own birthday cake in the dutch oven. No burning there either... just some very prominent carmalization (again, a nice way to say just a little too brown!!).





Thor starts school, 2nd grade, tomorrow. Maybe this will put me back on track with getting projects and usual chores done? Summer adventures for this year are pretty much done... and maybe I'll get a little more sleep at night now too??

Summer Fun

Only 22 days until Thor starts school again... Can you believe it? He is ready to be back with his friends -- but I'm still enjoying the time away from our regular routine. If you talk to Dirk, you'll know I never miss an opportunity to have fun! This weekend we had a great time at home... listening to the Sturgis Rally Bikers go by.

Anika tried a new thing, the "tag-along" bike. It makes any grown-up bike into a bicycle-built-for-two. Dirk had Anika "tagging" with him, and I pulled the trailer for Liv. As you can see in the pictures Liv wasn't totally happy... but really, that was just when I stopped to take the picture. As long as I kept moving she was a VERY happy camper! This might have to be my new exercise routine?? .
Every time I stopped biking, Liv broke into the 2nd Level (this means I'm serious) crying! Anika loved the tag-along bike too... and even gave daddy a break from peddling once and a while! (as long as they were coasting she could peddle "for him")

Here is a picture of our newest "fun stuff"... and part of the reason I didn't get a blog posted last week. We got a pick-up slide in, pop-top camper. (Lots of names for a really small camper!). Anyway -- it's a basic model, no bathroom, but a real fridge and freezer, and an AC unit too.
It's going back to the camper place for a few repairs... but they are a little busy during Sturgis week, so I decided not to leave it at the Camper Store while we waited for them to have time to fix it. We're planning on taking it out a couple more times this year. Who knows? it might even get used during hunting season?

The 2nd thing is our new trailer for the ATVs and bikes. Now we're all set to go for a weekend of mountain trails and camping! I'll let you know how Liv feels about her first 4-wheeler ride!

smiles,
N and gang

Thor's Birthday!! 7 Years!

So when did a 7 year old get to be such a little man?? Thor had a great weekend of celebrations -- spending Saturday with his Morrison grandparents and family... and Sunday with the Moeller grandparents and family.

Justin, Annette and Carrie Morrison traveled from Astoria, SD for quite a short visit, basically just Saturday and Sunday morning. It was a wonderful time, we're so glad they were able to get over here, even if it was short. We had made plans to spend the day at Sylvan Lake in Custer Park ... Gpa and Gma wanted to take Thor shopping for his birthday, so we thought we'd start the day with a trip to Target...
Grandma had just as much fun as Thor picking out all the things on his school supply list. It's much for fun to do that kind of shopping with your grandmother... she is willing to buy you the EXTRA big package of markers... and the special "cool" package of erasers... What a blessing for us, too! Now Thor is pretty much ready for school, just one last pair of sneakers to get... and the way his feet are growing, I think I'll wait until the week before school... just to be sure they last as LONG as possible this year!

In the afternoon, we thought we'd pack up and head for the lake... but as we watched the plume of smoke growing just south of us... we wondered what was the best plan after all. We heard on the TV that the fire was near the Nemo Road area, which is actually a number of mile from here (but then again, the recent fire in Hot Springs had travelled 11 miles before it was contained!)... but it still looked ominous. The next thing we knew, a group of black clouds were moving in... and we had a WHOPPER of a summer storm. It started out with just a few sprinkles of hail, but moved quickly into a dousing RAIN! No matter what other conditions were around, we were more than happy to get the rain. Dirk and I were betting on how much came down -- I said 3/4 to 1 inch... he said 1/2 an inch... Why are boys always right about these things?? quite unfair!! (it was just a hair more than a 1/2 inch -- dad said maybe 7/8th at their house).
So instead of going to the lake, the lake came to us! Thor wanted to play in the rain to cool off -- and cool off we DID! By the end of the storm, we were mostly wrapping up in towels to stay warm! The water was running many
inches deep in our gutter... great play time for Thor, Tante Carrie and the rest of us!

The next day we packed up the Blaster and Thor's dirt bike (his birthday present from mom and dad) to head south to Ted's. After we enjoyed burgers, hot dogs and ice cream (instead of cake) -- the boys and little girls headed out for the trails. Thor had his first experience on his dirt bike in the real woods. Thor said he crashed 3 times... and only "bent up his bike a little" (the gear shifter is bent in a bit) -- but he did great. Dirk was able to stick close to him and give him all the coaching and encouragement... When the found a mud puddle that covered the whole road (and steep side on both sides) Thor got stuck going through the first time, so dad helped him buy driving it through on the way home. They were gone for about 2 hours.. and came home with 4 VERY TIRED children. I think the girls had a great time too.. Brianna said it was more fun than riding a horse ... and Anika fell asleep before we hit the 7-11 road (less than 5 minutes!).

By the way, we heard this morning that the fire by Nemo Road (called the Box elder Fire, not to be confused with the town of Box Elder near Elsworth AFB) is 35%

contained. The rain slowed it down, so the fire fighters could make better progress, but it is still burning. We pray for the safety of all the fire fighters, and protection over the homes... none lost at the time of the last report.

New "old" Blaster!

Dirk's been working hard, and the rest of us get to have all the fun!! I think that is his theme for life... but anyway, now you all know the secret of why I love this man!! Dirk is making a deal with Layne for buying the old Blaster from the farm... so we can have enough recreational vehicles for our whole family to trek around in the woods... the Blaster wasn't exactly in the best of shape when it arrived... didn't run; the seat had no upholstery left; the tires were going flat... And now look at it! Dirk pressure washed the whole deal (at work) -- it was amazing how much cleaner it looked! Then we recovered the seat with blue poly...

The funniest part was when Dirk was working on the "mechanics" -- he opened the air cleaner and the whole cavity was full of soybeans (and mice pooh!!). Hmm... don't think it will start that way!! Then after a new spark plug (the real problem according to Dirk) everything has been running great! I'm even learning how to drive an ATV that has to be shifted... I thought for sure I wanted a 4-wheeler that was automatic, but really I could get used to this one with no problem!


So if you miss us all as we ZIP past you on our way to the hills...we'll try to wave and say hello on our way!! (oh yeah, Liv hasn't had a ride yet, but I'm working on getting used to it before I put her in the tummy-pack and go for a ride!)