Moving, Church Dinners, and Tractor Pulls

Hi everyone,
My camera's lenses are on hard times right now, so the quality and quantity of my pictures is a little low right now. But hopefully you'll enjoy anyway. Oh, and if any of you have few hundred $$ laying that you don't know what to do with, let me know and I'll see if I can help you out of your predicament ;-)

Also, please keep my brother-in-law Nelson in prayer if you think of it. Last week he had surgery to remove a tumor from the one side of his thyroid. Well, the tumor tested positive for containing a small amount of cancer, so next Thursday (30th) he goes back into surgery to have the other half of his thyroid removed. Thankfully, this type of cancer has a 97% cure rate when found early, but he and his family could certainly use all the prayer and encouragement you can give them.

*Update - Thursday*
Praise God Nelson came through his surgery successfully today! Of course, he's rather uncomfortable right now from the surgery and drugs, so please pray for a complete and rapid recovery.


God bless,
Ben

P.S. I finally responded to all your comments about the VW bus.

Nostalgia

A few weeks ago, my younger siblings put on a play for the rest of us featuring a beloved character from my youth: Adam Raccoon!*

*BTW, has anyone else read the Adam Raccoon books?

Overcome with nostalgia, we dug out my old Adam Raccoon books and took a trip down memory lane.

Home Improvement

After much planning, we finally added a supplemental well tank to our house's H₂O system. It's such a blessing to be able to turn on the faucet and always have water come out!

Bet you didn't know Ben was an electrician. Neither did he.

Helping Matt and Emily Move

Somehow this mattress and boxspring need to fit into that trailer, but we need to leave space under them for items that need to be packed later.

"Hey, let's try strapping them to the roof!"

Clear the runway folks, I'm coming in for a landing.

"I sure hope you guys know what your doing..."

There's no stopping now, bring on the next one!

Muscle Power

Ah, the drama of moving! :-)

We're finally done!*

*Note: Later, because of some trailer malfunctions, all this stuff had to be unloaded and then reload back into another truck. But we didn't know that at the time - ignorance is bliss, folks.

Church Dinner

Eating and catching up on life.

One of the many excellent cooks that make church dinners so enjoyable.

Foodline

Eying up the cake. But they can't touch the work of art, until...

... we get a picture of the artist!

Anticipation

With Matt leaving for TX soon, it became urgent to pass on his knowledge of how to babysit the furnace. What a demanding piece of machinery!

"Aw, don't worry. If we have any questions, we'll just read manual."*

*Smart guys read manuals.

Tractor Pulling at the Local Fair

Timothy weighs in for the pedal tractor pull.

Ready... Set... Go!

Pedal that tractor, boy!

With flames shooting out of the exhaust stack (use your imagination), Isaac starts his tractor off with a ROAR!

Time for the big boys to have some fun!

Stiff competition.

Just so our readers don't forget what Aaron looks like. ;-)

Pretty much the coolest sisters around.

One day, while I was walking through the park...

Junior: "Hey Mom, look at the funny looking guy walking in our park!"

Mom: "Junior, stop staring at strangers get back to work this instant! Winter is a' coming and there's work to done."

~~~

The End

Car Shopping

Hi,
Is anyone still out there?? Wow, you've been way more faithful to this blog then I have been of late. But let's not dwell on the past, life moves on and so must this blog post. Speaking of life, a certain event recently occurred which impressed on me how quickly time flies - I took my "little" brother Josiah car shopping. Wow, Josiah buying his own car? It seems like just yesterday we were playing in the sandbox together with our little Matchbox® cars, and now here he is buying his own real car.

Everyone is growing up so fast... it's exciting!

Now, onto the car shopping pictures...

First, we stop at the car wash to wash my car. Why? Because I had a coupon for a free car wash, that's why!

All those spinning brushes and swirling water are kind of mesmerizing...

Is anyone feeling claustrophobic yet? :-)

Hey, if you got hold a sign all day, at least bring a book along!

First car lot. "This looks like a pretty nice car..."

A flat tire?! What's up with that? Things are not getting off to a promising start here.

Hmmm....

Hey! How about this one?

*checks the price*

Never mind...

Hmmm.... I see possibilities.

You're kidding me, right? ;-)

I doubt the budget is going to allow for that one....

I hear white limos are terribly romantic and I'm sure the plasma TV is a nice feature, but I'm afraid we're going to pass on this vehicle as well.

Is it just me, or is there something wrong with this picture?

Oil on the ground. Not good.

But finally, after many days and numerous car hunting trips, Josiah found his car. Praise God!

Josiah's New Car
May it provide many miles of safe transportation for you, Josiah.

A new vehicle for Ben?

In anticipation of having a family some day, maybe I should trade in my little Honda Civic and get a more, well, family friendly vehicle? What do you think?

*deafening silence*

What? Why are you looking at me like that? What's wrong? It just a minivan, right? Right??


~~~


The End