STORM!

Yes, we had a severe thunderstorm last night. We were actually at an ambulance meeting/picnic when it came through, but about the time we were leaving we got a phone call saying the garage door in the shop had blown in... on top of Jere's truck parked inside. So we hurried back! With a quick stop at home to make sure our house hadn't blown away, we then went to the shop. Sure enough, the big, high garage door had bent and blown in, knocking down shop lights and scattering glass everywhere. It's kind of a heart-stopping feeling to see your truck under that pile! But, amazingly, the one door strut hit the truck and made a dent just above the windshield,, and there was one wee mark on the hood. That was all. If the truck had been just 2 inches farther back, the door would have come down on the windshield! We are very grateful that was all!

As far as the house moving thing, if anyone is wondering WHAT is going on, we got a call from the mover today saying they're getting ready to start jacking it up! The plan is to move it next week. Meanwhile, it rains... and rains... and rains... and the mud hole in the backyard resembles a fish pond more than a basement. The rain chances are HIGH most of these days, but we still need to finish digging (not THAT much left to do, but enough...) and pour footers, and lay up a frost wall. So, please pray God dries things up so we can get it done before the house arrives!

Meanwhile, we are preparing in other ways. Seems like everything we need is coming on sale at Menards, so we are making a trip up there on the average of every other day or two. Every time we load the big trailer up with as much block as the truck can pull, and are slowly moving our basement walls down one load at a time.

Digging out the basement before the rains hit too hard--Jere worked till 1am!

The block for the basement stacked in the only non-muddy part of the yard.

Little Miss feeding her "bah-bah" a bottle. Once I pulled out the blanket and bottles and showed her how to use them, she's been fascinated with playing with "bah-bah". :-)

Lots of activities!

 We've had a lot going on the last few days! My sister Michele came for a visit Wednesday, and leaves today. We've enjoyed having her here, and she's wearing herself out, as well as the children! She brought some fun gifts along, and they've spent their day yesterday blowing bubbles and throwing Frisbee.

Also, yesterday Jere started really tearing into getting ready for the house to show up. Here he's taking the roof off the deck in the back. (Yes, those are loader forks he's standing so casually on, not a bucket!)

Also yesterday there were a demonstration at the La Farge school about EMS, with the MedLink helicopter coming in for show and tell. Jere volunteered to help, and so we all went along to watch!

Here's the chopper flying in.

The ground crew watching it land.

My  handsome man!

Our kiddos getting a chance to peek.

My wonderful family!

 

Someone else snuck a shot of the 5 of us...

Here they're getting an explanation of how the patient gets loaded in the back.

After we saw the chopper, we took the opportunity to walk over to the Organic Valley headquarters to survey the damage done during their big fire on Jaron's birthday. Wow.

On the walk back from looking at the damage, we stopped at the swings for awhile. Leanna's hands-down favorite activity!

And here, Jere is taking the first pass, removing the topsoil from the site where the house is going. It's been raining a lot, and the ground is VERY soggy, but he got most of the sod removed last night.

In this shot you can see a little better where the house is going, and the denuded back deck with no roof and only 1/3 of the decking left.

 

I hope to keep taking pictures as things progress, but we'll see how it goes! Please pray that things will dry up, and stay dry for the next week, despite a 40% chance of rain for the foreseeable forecast.  Once the basement is dug, Jere has some concrete work to do and some block to lay before the house gets moved on, and it needs to be moved out by June 1. Thanks!

Photos of the new house

Here is a shot of Daddy and daughter removing the clotheslines together! The new house is going right where the clotheslines used to be, and they had to be moved.

Today we went down to the house and looked through it again, together, taking measurements and pictures so we have a little more to go on when planning for things. Here are a few of the pictures I took, so you can get an idea what it all looks like "before"!

The back entry.

The living room. (And please, don't ask what the platform is for--we don't know!!)

 

The kitchen.

The laundry room.

The play room/school room.

 

Master bedroom. Yes, THREE closets! Is that supposed to make up for neither of the other bedrooms having closets I wonder?

Leanna's room.

The boys' room.

The upstairs bathroom that needs some major help.

The children enjoying exploring every part of the house!

What will be the front (east) side of the house.

Look at those beautiful curls!!!!

The back (south and west) side of the house.

Hope you enjoyed the mini-tour! Once it's all fixed up you'll have to come for a visit and see it in real life. Or, if you like, you can stop by mid project to gawk. Though you may find yourself with a paintbrush in hand if you do that! :-)

Breaking news!

The house mover contacted us this morning and said the final paperwork has gone through! They plan to move our house next week! That is SO exciting! (In case you can't tell.)

But, it does mean lots of work on our end in the next week. Jere has an awful lot to do before we're ready for the house to be here. So, last night we opted out of an invitation we should have gone to, and moved our hedge. The above photo is of the spirea now planted at the edge of our picnic area, and in the background you can see the honeysuckle in 5 gallon pails waiting until the house is in place and we can plant it where it's supposed to go. I'd moved the lilacs last week. There are 3 small trees that need to be moved yet, as well as the clothesline and the propane tank. Most of the back deck will also have to be removed so Jere has room to run the bulldozer and backhoe to dig the basement. He hopes to start digging tomorrow, weather permitting. I'll post more pictures as things happen, and as I have time! Meanwhile, I need to go see if the garden is too wet to plant the sweet potato plants that just came in the mail today and possibly move the two smallest trees. Please do pray for good weather in this very wet and rainy spring, so that the basement can be dug and the footers poured and frost wall laid up this week and early next week.

Jaron's birthday!

Here are some pictures from Jaron's birthday party! He thought turning six was the greatest things that ever happened! We grilled hot dogs and ate outside. What fun! I think the rest is self-explanatory...

Here are some pictures!

Here are a few shots of the children, taken while Daddy was in Haiti. They were enjoying the warmer weather for sure!

And here are a couple of pics of the house we plan to have moved onto our property. Oh, I can hardly wait to see it HERE!!!!

 

Here's Little Miss helping me with some baking.

End of school year party!!! Jaron finished K5, and Eliott did some preschool.

Here is a new decoration I just put up in the living room. We'd brought back the words from Haiti last fall, and I'd asked Jere to find me a flower to put up with them. Well, he found me two! And I think it looks just splendid!!

 

Jere's home again!

Jere is safely home again, praise the Lord!!! We are very, very glad to have him back and have his strong, sure hand at the helm again. Things went pretty well without him, but it just doesn't seem right to have him gone... He had a good trip, learned a lot and helped out where needed. Nothing overly exciting happened, which in an unstable little country like Haiti is a good thing. Well, I guess a generator was stolen from the roof of the house right over where he was sleeping one night, but not much could be done about it.

I do have a handful of pictures to share, but we pay for internet by the GB and we're getting pretty close to our limit this month, so I'll wait till next week for pictures. Sorry!

One of the most exciting things that is happening is, we are getting a house! Due to the difficulty in selling a piece of property with a mobile home on it, with the "new" regulations on borrowing for such a place, we looked into the possibility of having a house moved on to our land. The Lord has graciously opened the doors for us, and we confirmed yesterday that yes, indeed, we have a house to move! It's a three bedroom, two story farmhouse, about 6 miles away over very hilly roads. We plan to place it in what is now our back yard, about where the clotheslines sit now. As you might imagine, there is a lot of work ahead of us this summer in preparing it to be lived in. It's in pretty good shape, but needs almost all new flooring and for sure new paint on the inside. Jere will be doing the excavating for the basement, and building that once the house is moved in (so he can get the corners lined up!). Then once the basement is built and the house set down, we'll be painting and repairing flooring and putting in new light fixtures and doing a little remodeling, and all that fun stuff. We are very excited about having a little more space for our growing family, as well as a place that should be a little easier to sell once we're done with it, we hope! Of course, I'll post pictures and updates as things progress, so check back. :-)

More than half-way!

Yes, we're more than half-way to Jere's return home! That was an exciting milestone for us! Things have been going very well. They have been keeping Jere busy in Haiti, and though he hasn't said much, I think he's been learning an awful lot, and he's excited at how the Lord is leading them to contacts and in preparing to make decisions.

We've been busy here at home, too. For the first couple of days Jaron was running a fever, so we sat tight, besides a trip to the city park one evening when he was feeling better. Thursday he seemed well again, so along with Jessie Horner and her 3 children we went to a children's museum in La Crosse for the afternoon. They had a blast! And were utterly exhausted by the time we reached home. It's nice to have them tired, then they don't miss Daddy tucking them into bed quite so badly. Yesterday we spent the afternoon with some friends, and had a thoroughly enjoyable time! Even though it was cold and rainy, the children went out to the barn and played. After supper Jaron didn't seem to be feeling so great again, so I'm not sure what's up with him.

We had a few days of warm, sunny weather. One day it got into the 80's! But then it turned cold again, and yesterday we woke up to a sheet of ice on everything, with freezing rain still coming down. Today is a little warmer, and I think it's supposed to sort of warm up over the next week. This is a cool spring! But at least we didn't get snow... :-)