Proof is in the Pudding.

Really? The pudding? Why do people say that? Well -- here are photos to prove that my sister was HERE!! Hooray!

Genell came to visit. (She has the cute glasses on.)

(See how my teeth don't line up with my nose?)

Here is Wayne hugging Annie's neck when they first arrived. He hadn't seen her in real life for over 15 months... he is only 30 months old. Think he remembers her? She is very huggable.

They donned snow clothes after a quick bite to eat. We had nachos and brownies. Sound nutritious? No -- but it was delicious. The brownies I copied BooMama's suggestion of putting a candy bar in the middle. Oh. My. Word. The pan was empty when they left b.t.w. It was a success. Praise the Lord - or else I would have eaten the rest by myself, I'm afraid.

Here is Milo resting after skating on the frozen creek.

Tyler was almost camouflaged in all the trees with his white and grey on. I found him... but only after searching for a while -- we could hear him and couldn't see him.

Here are the girls sliding down the bank on their bottoms. No sleds required. No wonder my kids come in so wet after sledding. They start AT the tree.. not before the tree. ;P

And here are the boys - minus the napping one.
Milo, Mansel, Tyler and Trevor. My boys are in awe of their older cousins. The older cousins are so kind and gracious with them. Mansel loved wrestling with them. They let him hang on for a while -- then pinned him. Gotta keep him in line.

Dani got cold first. Her feet were COLD. But the rest came in side shortly after she did. So she hung out there almost as long as they did. She's leaning on some wood Dan just cut. There was a tree that was ruined, after the ice storm, in our church's front lawn. The ice brought a branch down, but it was a big branch and it caused the tree to split down the middle. It'll have to dry and we'll use it next winter for heat, since it was a live tree. Doesn't it make a good leaning spot?

Tori and Ann stopped for a moment to pose for the camera. I'm so glad. Aren't they beautiful? When they left Tori said, "I'm so sad they are gone." She isn't very demonstrative... so I know it probably seemed to them that she wasn't very excited to see them -- but she WAS! I know she was. I saw her hanging back a bit at first and I wanted to just shake her -- THIS VISIT WON'T LAST LONG SISTER!! Don't waste any of it getting over the jitters. Oh -- she is so her daddy's daughter in cases like that. I'm a jumper inner, not a hanger backer. LOL


So - before everyone pooped out -- I made them all sit down one more time. I think I've got 5 photos of myself as a child. My kids say, "Mom -- enough pictures already." Ü

Just ONE more!!

Then the rest of the photos are un-posed. I put my camera on "mute" so they can't tell I'm taking photos any more. Sometimes the un-posed natural ones are the best ones any way.

Don't you agree?


Thanks for coming Genell! Thank you for sharing your children with us. You are doing a great job with your kids. They are beautiful and have wonderful spirits! Every time we get together I leave with the feeling that you are doing an excellent job as a parent! You are in our prayers often.
I love you - Jennifer.

Through Ice and Snow

Contrary to popular belief, the United States Postal Service has no official motto. Did you know that?? I always thought it was...Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. Or something like that. Neither snow nor ice will slow them down... or let's get this mail out -- I want to get home.

That saying is an inscription that appears on some of their buildings, the most familiar of which appear on postal buildings in New York City and Washington, D.C.

Too funny. Learn something new every day -- AND -- our mail man got us our mail -- ON TIME each day of the December Ice Storm.

THANKS USPS!

December Ice Storm, Photo Colage

If you will click on the photo - it will enlarge -- to return to the blog, hit your "go back one page" button on your tool bar.

December Ice Storm, Day 3

We had a breakfast of bacon and eggs. We were still able to cook on our gas stove top. I found it easy to find things to give thanks for during this deal. Praise God for a gas stove.

Oh -- but it was a sad day. My sister Becky and her daughters Julia (4) and Sophia (9m) are leaving. Of course I act like my dad and pull out the tripod! °Ü° I tell ya -- it's genetic.

Before they left, I braided sweet Julia's hair. Too bad I didn't do anything to my hair before this photo. YUCK. Oh well. Angela -- ya like Wayne's shirt? Funny... we aren't really Iowa Fans... but we have these shirts. So -- we wear them. Especially on Day 3. The boys were digging shirts out of their dirty clothes basket. I think Day 2 was their laundry day... so -- dirty clothes it was. Actually... they could have started wearing church clothes. But they preferred dirty clothes over church clothes. LOL



Julia has on "tie dyed" socks. (Mis matched socks). Her parents are so creative. She has inherited some of their creative genes, I think. That girl is so cute. She plays and plays and plays. I'm so proud of her for never complaining about not having anything to do -- with no TV or computer. She was a blessing to have around. We can't wait until she comes again for another visit!

We still did not have any power on this day. But Becky had to get home... she was going to pick up her dear husband at the airport the next day. He had left home for a 2 week class. That's why she came a visiting. We were her distraction. Hooray!! I love being a distraction. My dear husband said she was free to come and stay every time he had a 2 week class. YEAH!! I love my dear husband. Ü



After they left the kiddos and I piled into the 4-wheel drive truck and went to town. The generator need 5 gallons of gas every 8 hours. So -- I needed to refill our containers. We took back our library books and picked out some more. Got some pizza hut personal pans that they earned through the "book-it" program, and picked up some $1 double cheese burgers from McDonald's to finish off the meal. Funny - McDonald's has power.

As we drove around we were in awe of the beauty of the ice. Some damage was done. This is the fence that goes around the graveyard by the little church down the road from us. I think that was the only damage we saw. Well -- besides the power lines.

This is our neighbors wire fence.

The offending power line that was down to our house.

After our trip to town -- which probably took longer than it should have, because I was taking pictures like crazy -- we came home. I refueled the generator and then -- I took a nap. Ü

That evening we had grilled chicken. Just about the only thing we couldn't have had was a casserole -- because we didn't use the oven. Becky and I kept marveling over the fact that it almost seemed normal. That was due to the fact that my dear husband wanted to make us so comfortable. He really did a great job with that. We had hot water to shower with, a stove to use, a warm house, lamps to clean by.

I didn't really clean my house this whole time -- no vacuuming... but we did straighten every once in a while.

This night I made a trip to my brother-in-law's shop to pick up a plug. My husband was going to fix the generator so that it would go directly into the "box". Don't ask me the official name. But he could flip those switches and turn stuff OFF that we didn't want on, and then we wouldn't have extension cords running all over the house. You could plug the appliances into the wall. So then his sleep apnea machine could plug into the wall in the bedroom. He also turned on the bathroom lights, but not the wall outlets. He was could be selective on what he would turn on.

As I was driving home, I saw the knights in shining armor out and about. In the dark cold nights the Mid American Energy and all their men who traveled from other cities and states were out fixing the down power lines. As I pulled into our country road from the highway, there was a truck working on the power line closest to our house. I told Dan, "Perhaps we'll have power in the morning."

I was right. When Dan got up to go to work, he said our pole light was on outside. It's over -- all but the story telling. 3 days with no power. Thanks to an Almighty God, and a dear husband that is a great provider and protector, we endured it with relative ease.
That's the end of day 3. All we have left are the memories... well and a generator.

Tomorrow -- some random photos. (remember, if you click on the photo it will enlarge)

December Ice Storm - Day 2

Let's see -- what did we do on day 2. I think we woke up and fought for a chance to hold Sophia.

Then we had another fight.

Then I zoomed in and took about 5,000 photos of Sophia.

Yeah -- that's about it. ::snort::

OK -- we did a bit more then that. Did I mention that Sophia is a doll? I real live cute snuggly doll? She is the most patient baby -- letting my kids hug her and squeeze her and poke her and kiss her. She was amazing. All this -- while teething. I'm not sure if Becky knows this or not. But Sophia is an amazing baby. Very laid back. A few whines here and there... but no screaming fits that couldn't be quickly resolved by removing some bothersome big kids from her space.

On Day 2 we woke up to ice still and still no power. Dan had decided to take off work to get a generator. He'd asked his brother - who sells Lawn Mowers in Southern Iowa - to find him a generator. He did find him one -- and we bought it and Dan filled her up with gas and started plugging things in. We decided saving the food was more important that having lights. Praise the Lord -- I'd just gone grocery shopping on Saturday and the freezers and fridge were full of food. That would have been a big loss. I see some of the commentors told me to put my food outside. Dan did think of that -- but I wanted that to be a last resort -- because we have a dog that loves people food. (dumb dog). We would have had to hang it from the trees like you do when camping, so our dog wouldn't have eaten it. Doable I guess... Funny looking -- but doable.

We had cereal and milk for breakfast. Oh my kids loved that. That was easy to fix.

We decided to let the big kids play out in the ice again this morning. Blow off some STEAM.

We ate lunch meat sandwiches for lunch again. Easy fix.

Then during nap time. C.O.D.A. tournament. I kept telling every one that I was the Queen of C.O.D.A. I'm not really -- but I was trying to build the excitement. We decided to play that during nap time -- because there isn't a lot of counting or moving with Coda Just mostly thinking. Becky, Mansel, Tori and I played Coda It was fun. I think we all won at least 1 time. Yeah -- I'm not really the Queen of anything. Ü Oh -- it looks like you can't buy Coda any more. That's too bad. Becky -- you and Jeremy will have to come here to play Coda -- be sure to tell him I'm the Queen of Coda LOL

Then it starts getting dark fast. So I started thinking about supper. Then what do you know... Dan says, "Let's order pizza!" OK !! HURRAY!! So I did the ordering. Woo Hoo. Dan did the picking up. Oh it was D-Lish. But isn't all food that you don't have to prepare or cook for yourself? I think so. Yum...

Dan educated me on how to fill that generator up with fuel. How to rotate things around -- we couldn't just plug in everything we wanted plugged it. We had to alternate between the 2 freezers in the basement. We'd keep the fridge plugged in all the time. He even rigged up some table lamps to plug in while doing dishes in the evening. How handy was that?

That night -- I had the kids all bunched up in the living room with their "orchestra instruments" and we were singing kid songs and choruses out of the hymn book. Dan all of a sudden strode into the living room and started fiddling around... he TURNED ON THE TV!!! Oh my heavens... you'd have thought he was throwing around million dollar bills. He unplugged something and plugged in the TV and DVD player. So -- on Day 2 -- after dark -- they watched TV. Good heavens -- were we ever spoiled. How many of you think Dan had a limit on how much pot play, rolling pin pounding, spatula clanging he could handle? LOL HEY -- what ever works.

Another early bed time. It gets dark early -- did I mention that?
This is the end of Day 2.

December Ice Storm - Day 1

This is what we woke up to on Tuesday Morning. Ice covering everything... this is our first branch down.

When we woke up 5:00 ish in the a.m. we were not alarmed. Well -- our alarm DID go off, but we had no fears.

My husband did make an early start to work because of the ice. He called me after a bit of driving and listening to our local WHO News Radio Station and said, "I just drove around a tree on our road and wouldn't have made it up the hill if that truck load of something heavy hadn't of torn up the gravel going down the hill yesterday." He was able to drive up our road in the truck tracks. The gravel roads were a sheet of ice. He mentioned that several cities around us had already lost power. Perhaps I should get ready in case we lost power. He then drove by some power lines on a highway close to our home. "Oh man - these lines are sagging - a big truck wouldn't be able to drive through here."

OK -- I'll prepare. But isn't the ice beautiful?




So I started making a good hearty warm breakfast. Melissa's Breakfast Burritos. D-Lish. We decided to play Monopoly. We played the short version since I have little kiddos to attend to -- I can't dedicate 3 days to playing a Monopoly game like I'd like to. LOL So we play for an hour. While we were playing, 8:45 a.m., the power went off. Well -- it was daylight out, so I'm not sure what our first clue was. I think the furnace fan quit running. The furnace fan runs all the time because our wood heat furnace in the basement, is tied into our house furnace heat ducts. So it pushes the heat through the entire house. I didn't have a fear of getting cold. I thought if worse came to worse, we could all huddle around the wood furnace in the basement. "At least we will stay warm," I thought. So I got up and fixed the furnace to run with out electricity. I had to remove a filter.

Then we finished the Monopoly Game. Mansel won. That hoarder. He hoards in real life too. He wants me to put his cash on a "credit card" so his wallet will be slimmer. I said he could take all those 1 dollar bills and change it into a $20 dollar bill and it would be slim. He didn't like that idea. Hmm... sounds like we'll need to do some educating. He gets gifts cards for birthdays and Christmas some times. I think that is where he is getting that idea. Julia and Milo were on my team. Julia counted the dice. Milo was the mover. I was the thinker. Maybe I should have changed that up a bit, since I got beat. As you can see -- Wayne was the cheer leader.

Well -- who could look at all that ice from the window and not want to play in it. I had them promise - scouts honor - that they would stay in the backyard away from the power lines, and not camp out under any trees. They did promise... so we started the bundling process. I think that took an hour -- or three.

We decided to forgo our library trip that day. We'll play outside instead and just read some library books at home.

Even the babies were going outside.

Isn't Sophia beautiful!?! She looks like a little peanut. She fits so nicely inside her mother's coat. Becky is a great mother. She didn't let the idea of having 2 babies and no electricity bother her any. I will say -- having her and her children around during this deal made it a lot more fun! No chance to get bored with nothing to do when you have cousins to play with!

When they were playing outside, I ventured out and took some photos.


Tori was being a good big sister/cousin and making the ice fun for the little ones.

Isn't it beautiful? Did I already say that?

We had lunch meat sandwiches for lunch. Easy to prepare, and quick clean up with paper plates!

I think during nap time the big kids played outside some more. That's when I gathered up the candles.

Dan came home from work early with an inverter. He hooked it up to his truck, then ran the truck all night long to keep our wood heat furnace blower running. We noticed that hot air rises. Our upstairs got so warm, that I took off the comforter during the night.

But very quickly - it got dark, and we started supper. We had grilled hot dogs, mac-n-cheese, and something else. Maybe it was veggies. I don't remember.
Almost the only reminder that we didn't have power was the dark. We had heat and we had gas to cook with. When we didn't have the water heater plugged in to anything, we ran out of hot water. I had to ask my dear husband why we ran out of hot water with a gas water heater. He explained that we have a NEWER gas water heater. Instead of using a metal chimney for the fumes out the top of the roof, it has an electric something or other and it blows the fumes out of a PVC pipe... so when the electricity goes out -- our water heater does too. We had enough hot water to take showers with the first day. Then we boiled water the 2nd day for dishes. So Kris... does that explain it?

THEN - after supper we all gathered in the living room and wrestled in the dark.
OK -- not all of us... they eventually settled down and we sang Christmas carols by flashlight and some candle light. Those candles sure don't give off much light. No wonder the folks in the olden days went to bed early... and Becky said, "no wonder they had so many babies." LOL What else was there to do? It sure gets dark early. °Ü° Of course Becky and I sat up and talked by candle light...

That was the first day.

We've Made it Through

It was wonderful to see God's amazing power. Just drop a little bit of ice on those thin little wires and see what happens. OK -- I know that's not theologically sound... but it's been fun to give thanks in all things the last 3 days.


I don't have time to tell all right now -- just thought I'd post a THANK YOU FOR PRAYING note... really quick! °Ü°

We are safe and sound.

I've got pictures. LOL

I bet you can hardly wait!!

AND...I'm still the queen of C.O.D.A.!! ::snicker:: OK -- not really -- but I played C.O.D.A... does that count?? And I played Monopoly. I played pick up soggy socks. Oh wait -- that's not a game...

I'd better quit while I'm ahead --

I'll be back soon -- with the DECEMBER 2007* ICE STORM... (Hear that said with a loud announcer's voice)

Here is a peek into the past. Electricity off at 8:45 a.m. Tuesday... back on sometime while sleeping Thursday/Friday. Fun was had by all... well -- most... I'm not sure if my dear husband thought it was fun... OK -- I know he was a bit stressed... Is stress fun? I don't think so. Fun was had by most... let's keep it real.

*ETA: Yeah -- let's not get older any sooner than we have to - THANKS Dawn. ;)