Kansas Day ~~ Jan 29th

Now that we are KANSANS we thought we would act like it. A couple of friends invited Becca and I to the elementary school on post for the Kansas Day celebration. (Kansas Day is January 29th, but the thing at school was today). So Becca went to school today!

It was very impressive. We watched and listened to a group of Indians singing and dancing in the auditorium. Then we listened to 2 women share about different items from Civil War times.
Then we went into the gym where they had different stations set up. She got to: make butter, spin wool, make a corn husk doll, make a handkerchief doll, make a candle, learn to play marbles, learn to wash clothes in a wash tub (her favorite thing to do~ she went back 3X) (I now know who to give all the hand wash items to:) , make apple cider, make a sunflower pin, watch lace makers, look at 19th century toys and play with them, watch a rug maker, watch a basket maker, get ribbons in her hair, make a calico bird etc....... It was great fun for both of us!Kathy

Home from the hospital!

We have great news! Kevin's dad got to go home from the hospital yesterday! He had open heart surgery on Sunday and went home on Wednesday. I don't think I have ever heard of someone going home that soon. So that is a praise!

What is going on around here this week? Well, Sarah is feeling much better, Becca had a bit of something when we were in Joplin and she is doing better. When I gave her cough med before bed last night I told her that was probably her last night of that stuff (of which she was very happy~ doesn't taste good!), Josh started with the yuck yesterday, now. Sarah has a babysitting job tonight, tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow night! She will be wiped out, but she is raising $ for a trip to Teen Pact National Convention.

After Christmas break Becca was able to get back on our normal school routine which is 3 weeks of school and one week off. So this week she has off of school. Because of the move last summer and not getting books on time Sarah and Zach will not be able to get on that schedule. It looks right now like the only week that they will get "off" will be the week that the 3 of us spend at Teen Pact. So it really isn't a week "off" ! Hopefully we will be able to get back on the 3 weeks on, 1 week off schedule during the summer and then next year. I look forward to that week off as much or more than the kids do! :)

I would like to start on a new quilt I am going to make. It is a "whole cloth" quilt for our bed, so it will be queen size. It is such a HUGE project that I keep putting it off. But I need to start. If I could only get myself to start it I would be over the hardest part. But I have to draw the whole pattern on by hand and I have never done that before. So maybe if I tell all of you I might be shamed into starting it!

Sarah has had the sewing bug lately and is almost done with a new skirt. I will post pics when she gets it done. And while we were in Joplin she sewed a new doll quilt for a little girl that she babysits for. She just had her 3rd birthday so she will take it to her when she babysits tomorrow.
Not much else going on around here right now. Very cold out and just a bit of snow on the ground. I think it was 25` out this morning and it is sad to say that feels warm! It was 6` yesterday at the same time! But it is supposed to hit at least the 50's on Saturday so the snow should all be gone.

This pic is of some wheat grass that I planted last week. I was shocked ~ it was only about 1/2 inch tall when we left for Joplin and 4 1/2 days later it looked like this! I love to have green growing things around. I had never planted any of this before and it was so easy! I think I will start some more for a center piece at Easter.
Enough rambling, have a great day, ya'll!
Kathy

Papa update

Kevin, Becca and I were able to come home on Monday. We were planning on staying down there till later in the day, but they had an ice storm coming in so we left after the 9 am visiting time.

Papa is doing great. He was moved out of CV ICU this afternoon. :) He is getting up a little. The docs say that today and tomorrow will probably be his hardest days. He isn't getting too many visitors since the roads are covered with ice and schools and businesses are closed down there.

Thanks for any of you that prayed for him! Keep on praying for a while!

Kathy

Update

Papa made it through alright. He was doing much better then most people do the day after surgery. I don't have all that much info so more to come from Mom and Dad later.

-Zach

Update

Hey there, it is Sunday morning at 10:30. Rolland has been in surgery for about 30 min or so. They moved the surgery up because he has had some bouts with chest pain. They say that he should be in surgery for 3-4 hours if all goes well.

So if you are reading this Sunday morning, pray!
Kathy

Change in plans..........

Well, our week started out pretty normal, but didn't end that way. Thursday afternoon we got a call that Kevin's dad was going into the hospital that afternoon. They scheduled a heart cath for Friday. So Kevin and I jump in the truck after dinner for the 3 1/2 hour trip. We got about 1/2 mile from home when I called to tell the kids something and Becca said she wanted to go. So we turned around and picked her up. (doesn't take a 10 year old long to pack)! We got here about 10 pm. His dad had the procedure today and they found blockage. The doctor who will do the surgery came in late in the day and said he would have the surgery Monday morning. He will need a double bipass. They will be keeping him in the hospital all weekend.
So prayer need #1 is for him and his recovery.
Prayer #2 ~ I got a call from Sarah this morning saying that it hurt really bad to breath and she couldn't swallow! That is hard for parents to hear when you are over 3 hours from your child. After a few minutes of panic thinking she was having an allergic reaction we started working a plan . After MANY phone calls to friends, clinics, kids, a nurse etc. we got her scheduled for a doc appt. Josh drove her and our friend Kimberly met them and went into the doc with her.(thanks Kimberly) She has bronchitis! 2 days ago she had the sniffles and today she can't breath! UGH
Prayer #1 Kevin's dad
Prayer #2 Sarah

Thanks!
Kathy

Christmas photos

I know that it is way past Christmas, but there is one thing that I am letting stay up for a while. It is our wall of cards and photos. I LOVE getting photos with our cards. We have so many friends that we only connect with at Christmas time. That is one of the sweet parts of military life ~ all the friends around the world that God has given us. The sad part is that it is sooooo long between times that we get to see them. Thus my love of Christmas cards and photos. I so enjoy reading and seeing how the families are growing and changing! So everything else related to Christmas is put away in our house, but these will stay up a while longer so that I can walk by and see this:Kathy

Becca's Tepee

Becca and I made this tepee last year to go along with the Little House on the Prairie unit study that we did. She got it out again a couple of days ago and she has had much fun in it. Playing with friends in it, eating dinner in it, watching a movie in it etc......
In the above picture she wanted a fire and she figured out how to do it. She took some of Josh's old rope lights and wadded them up inside a clear bowl. Then she wrapped it in orange tissue paper. Then she taped white streamers to the top to represent the smoke. Wish I could have gotten a good photo that showed it glowing.

This morning .........

Josh taking care of the driveway..............
Sarah playing with the camera today:
Have a great day ~~~~~~~ Kathy

COLD

I just went out to start Kevin's truck.

-3` and -18` wind chill !!!!!!!!!

Kathy

School project

We have been wanting to make dog treats for KC for a while so yesterday afternoon for Becca's project we made some. So off to google we went to find a recipe. We picked out a peanut butter based recipe. Next on the list will be chicken or beef flavored. They were very easy and Becca was able to do most of the work. And you can tell from the photos that KC was very pleased with the end result!

Kathy

She is a happy girl !

Becca got a good report at the doctor today. No more cast ~ just a check up in 4 weeks. :)

The only therapy that the doc told Becca to do was to play with Play Dough to strengthen her hand. We looked when we got home and we did not have any so she and I whipped up a batch VERY quickly. So for the next few days she will have to do some play dough playing! Tough assignment. :) Kathy

A game, anyone?

Last night after church a few of the kids came back over here for some games, laughter, hot cookies out of the oven and a glass of milk! Fun had by all.
Kathy

Broken Things

There is nothing deep or thought provoking with this posting, but it is on my mind.

Since August here are a few things that have broken:

garbage disposal
instant hot water heater (at the kitchen sink)
dryer
washer (went out this week)
refrigerator (had gone out when we were in Joplin last week)
toilet (plastic thingy inside it broke this morning)
furnace (I don't remember why they came and worked on it)
TV (that was less than a year old)

Thankfully none of these problems were horrible and not fixable. And I have a handy husband who isn't afraid to work on stuff! :)

Kathy
A couple of random photos. Top one ~ self explanatory and bottom one was taken a couple months back when we saw the Ringling Brothers Circus in KC.

The arm

Playing games at Papa and Grandma's house.

Playing with her cousin at Grandma's house.
~~~~~~~~~

Becca went to the dr last week for an X ray and they put the splint back on for one more week. She was not happy, but she is doing really well with it. I picked these 2 pics because you can see the splint. Kathy

Wonderful dinner

The kids surprised us with a fabulous anniversary dinner tonight. I was kept out of the kitchen for the majority of the day. After Kevin got home from work we were escorted to the basement for our "anniversary dinner". It was wonderful! Great service, wonderful food, soft music in the background and very few interruptions during our meal. (only to check on us and see if we needed anything else) At the end of the meal we were told that our check had been taken care of!!!!!! :)

Beautiful flowers on the table from Kevin!

Lauren and Becca stopping for a pic during the work.

Lauren, a friend from TX, has been here visiting Sarah since last Thursday. What fun to see friends from there!

Kathy

24th Anniversary

Today is our 24th anniversary! Just thought I would share.
Kathy