Happy Thanksgiving....

Happy Thanksgiving One and All.
( Or Cranksgiving for those of you who eat to much )

The Really Cool Thing We Did On Saturday!

FINALLY I get to post...

Saturday We got to go and take a tour of the Cement Plant!

(Dad's department at least)

Aren't the hard hats and safety glasses quite flattering? ;)

2 things to note: 1. it was REALLY dirty.
And 2. Dad got to be our tour guide!

The dirt note was just to explain the really blurry pics.
The part about Dad being our tour guide is cool.
Because they trust him (and probably because he's worked there for 24 yrs...)
We didn't have to have a supervisor come along, and we also
got to go/do a bunch of things that "regular" field trip groups would.
Here's me opening a crank valve for a silo (dropping a bunch of cement
into something else and then an auger takes it to wherever its supposed to go.)

This is underneath the silos. I was surprised that this picture turned out so well lit.
It's pretty dark down there and in some places the lighting wasn't very good.
We (or at least Rach and I) had fun tramping through the inches of cement dust and crawling over all the different stuff.

HEEERRRREEEE'S RACHEL!!!!!
AAANNNDDD CRYSTAL!
Wow she's strong!

I can't remember what this was...

I would just run around looking at everything I could.

Quite a few times my family didn't realize that I wasn't with them

and they moved on without me (or maybe they meant to lose me)

But once I was all by myself in a fairly dim room and couldn't hear

any sounds to clue me in on where they were at... Thankfully

though I just called for them and heard someone say "back here"

So yay! I didn't get lost in a dark, dirty, creepy if you're all by yourself place.

Here's R. using the air blower to clean up a bit.

And here she is using the laser thermometer thing.

This thing was so cool! You point the laser at ANYTHING and it

gives you that things temp. Believe me we tried everywhere...

Inside, outside, hard objects, soft ones, eyeballs, mouths, nostrils, ears...

Here's Dad in his 'office'. He said he did the most of his

sermon preparations at this desk.

His friend John saw us taking our tour so he went and got permission

from his supervisor to take us on a tour of his department!

Rockin' Awesome!

So we got to go through the majority of the plant.

And then we were abducted by space aliens and taken to their U.F.O!

Just kidding, this is actually the very out of date (Like, most

plants haven't used this stuff since the '50s) control room.

They do have some new equipment but they run primarily off of this stuff.

Here we are nearing the end of our tour.

But we still have one more place to go.

We ended up having to leave mom behind because she was cold. :(

On TOP of the silo's!!!

We had gotten to go up here one other time, and figured

we might as well give it one last hurrah!

And now we're going down the spiral staircase.

This is how dad gets his exercise in the winter.

Thank goodness they had an elevator though, we all know I wouldn't have been near as thrilled to go atop the silo's if we would have had to climb stairs all the way up.

But going down was fine.

(although a little dizzyfying having to look down at the stairs while moving down is circles...)

Thanks again for the fun tour!

Snowy Day...

The other day we got some snow.

Now, I don't think I'm quite ready for the ground to be covered yet,

but it did look pretty while it was falling!

I decided to go and fly a kite in it.

That was something I had never did before (flying it in the snow)

It was fun!

Rachel, being the good twinly that she is, came out to "help"As you can see, she was a very good "helper" ;)
And Crystal of course came to take the pictures...

I don't know if this one turned out how she wanted it to,

I think it looks like we're getting a plague of locusts or something.

The kite was VERY persnickety.

I tried, and tried to get it to fly...

It took quite a while to finally get the hang of it.

It was a glider kind of a thing and I'm not used to that kind.

(or at least that's what I'm claiming)

FINALLY! Sweet success and victory!

Marvelous, Glorious, triumph!

(over a cloth stretched between plastic sticks!!!)

Once I got it in the air, and figured out how to keep it up,

I enjoyed myself.

A little cold, but lots of fun!
I stayed out for a while, but once the sun started to set

it got too cold.

Thank you Lord for the beauty of life itself.

You never cease to amaze me.

VERY OLD picture

I came across a VERY VERY OLD picture.

I couldn't resist putting it up.....

I'm not entirely sure what we were doing, but I know it was a skit, ( I think it was like an Indiana Jones type thing.... ) I Thank God every day for great friends like the Ziglers.

--rach

Shoeboxes Revisited

Sunday Evening found us once again at Tommy's Hut.

Truck one was almost full, but we were determined to fill it by night's end.With our trusty weapons in hand, Becky and I were ready to conquer any boxes tough enough to make it down our way.

Our Entertainment squad.

We did 810 last night!!!

Sweet sucess......

1 truck full. Truck 2, - You are not safe.... Prepare to be filled.






--rach

Its The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!

It's that time of year again... (and yes, I know it's not Christmastime yet)

Laverne and Norma B. have opened up "Tommy's Hut"

And we, along with some other families & friends have been going to work.

For those of you who don't know, "Tommy's Hut" is a garage

that during the month of November gets turned into an 'Operation Christmas Child' Workshop.

Thousands of shoe boxes get filled.

OCC, is part of Franklin Graham's Samaritans Purse Org .

Specifically though, OCC, delivers shoe boxes full of small toys and candy to children in desperate situations, and most importantly, delivers the message of Jesus Christ.

Out of their love for these children, that they will probably never meet,

Laverne and Norma donate their own money to buy everything that goes into these thousands of boxes (the ones that come from Tommy's Hut) and ship them. They are such sweet people.

And their love for Jesus is displayed in everything they do.

My words do not do them justice.

They accept as much help as they can get with packing these boxes. And I mean PACK! Boxes get filled with toothbrushes, soap, school supplies, toys, jewelry, stuffed animals, coloring books, CANDY, and other stuff. Everyone stays busy!

And at the end of the assembly line to fill the boxes some one puts rubber bands around them to hold them shut. Sometimes they are so full that you have to practically sit on the boxes to get the bands around them. And then an age group get written on it. (So some 12 yr. old doesn't get a teething toy) :)

OCC, provides some fold able boxes and lids but other than that people can donate old shoe boxes and they get wrapped in colorful wrapping paper.

The other night some of us were folding boxes and decided to time ourselves.

4 of us folded 100 boxes in 8 minutes!

We also folded the lids that go to the boxes...

(no they don't reach all the way to the ceiling, but I liked the angle...)

We probably had at least 600 lids stacked anywhere we could fit them.

And as you can tell from the picture below...

We have NO fun whatsoever while working. :)

There are more people that come and help out that just the ones in the picture, but they weren't brave enough to try on the hats. Maybe someday... :)

Riding Lessons take 3

This Tuesday I had my Riding Lesson with Emily, Trixie, and Rave.

( Literally )

It was really fun Having Emily Ride also.
We did some pattern things that I don't remember the name of,

( and after a while, I actually got the hang of it.... Awesome )

The Dogs, ( who are forever making lessons hard, because they have such cute antics ) Were playing Tug-of -War with each other.
( the brownish dog is Buddy, and the white dog is Gabby )

They are so cute, that Crystal could not resist taking a bunch of pictures of them. Buddy reminds me a lot of Taffie.

( the Black Dog is Windsor )

I had a lot of fun, and the horses did an amazing job. ( they even got treats for being so good at the end of the lesson..... :) )

( Trixie )

( Rave )



--Rach

Afternoon with the Happ girls.

This Monday, we had the opportunity to spend some time with our Missionary friends, The Happs. ( 2 of them at least )

( Becky, Me , Crystal, and Lindsay H. )

Now for Mrs. H, and my Mom.



We went out to lunch with them to a little diner place called Jay's. ( it's in Oregon )

I went All American, and had a Bacon Cheeseburger, and Fries........ It was great.

This Diner had an old-timey theme.... :) the 70's or 80's or something like that..... We decided to pose by some of the decorations.

( the contemplative Charlie Chaplain look expertly portrayed by Crystal )

( Cowgirl Lindsay Taking on John Wayne..... )

(Beck, Rockin' It all.)

( For the unenlightened ones of you, this is Laurel and Hardy. In the picture, Hardy needed to see something, and didn't have a light, so Laurel lit his thumb. It always has fascinated me how he could do that, and I was completely amazed to find this picture. So here's me trying to light my thumb.... )

( Now this........ This is absolute Heaven. A ginormous Ice Cream Cone. It doesn't get any better than that. :) )



( Posing with the Great Pumpkin. )


( this was when we got bored with the mom's talking, and did not want to sit in an uncomfortable booth much longer, so we went for a walk. We found an old truck. And it was for sale ! Wouldn't we all look great in it ??? )


We enjoyed being together, and hanging out. We walked down by the river, and of course, when Crystal's involved, a camera is never far behind.

Thanks so much for letting us be a part of your day, and for taking time out to see us on your short trip home Happs.


-- Rach