February Update

Welcome to February!  We’ve been in the deep freeze here lately with high, yes HIGH, temperatures around 2.  Overnight lows have been sub-zero with wind chills 20 – 30 degrees below zero.  Of course, my son-in-law, Mat, being from Minnesota, says, “That’s nothing,” but it is unusually cold for us.  Also we keep getting snow, snow, and more snow—never too much at one time, probably no more than 12 – 15 inches at once, but it just keeps coming.  We have piles around our driveway well over 6 feet high.  Last Saturday, I went out and chopped the top off of one so I could see to get out of my driveway safely.  Even where it hasn’t been piled, like in our back yard, it is easily 3 feet deep.

Anyway, here’s the news of the last month from my family:

We celebrated Jemmie’s 12th birthday on 1/21.  Well, that was her birthday, but we celebrated it on 1/23.  As is typical of my girls, on their 12th birthday, I take them to get their ears pierced.  It’s sort of sad that I won’t be doing that anymore after this.  My girls are all grown up now.  Good thing I still have an adorable granddaughter!  Hazel even came to Jemmie’s birthday party.

Jemmie with her birthday dessert:  Worms and Dirt.  Yummy!

Hazel with Aunt Hannah and her mom at Jemmie's party

Friday night and Saturday, January 30 and 31, our church had a men’s retreat.  I was able to go with my son, Zach, and two of my sons-in-law, Kevin and Cody.  Our speaker was Don Gordon, a former Major League Baseball pitcher, mostly with the Cleveland Indians.  He now has a ministry mostly focused on discipling men.  The retreat was excellent and very challenging.  It was a great kickoff (or maybe I should say, first pitch) to a men’s discipleship ministry our church is starting.  Please pray for me as I am discipled, and as I disciple other men.

Of course, I was disappointed in the Super Bowl outcome.  All I can guess about throwing a pass then was that they were either trying to catch the Patriots off guard since everyone was expecting a run, or it was a way to manage the clock with just a few seconds left.  Still it was exciting, and being back-to-back NFC Champions is nothing to sneeze at, even though it is so cold here.  Maybe the Bills will actually join the Seahawks in the playoffs next year!

We celebrated Abigail’s birthday on 2/2.  Once again the actual party was delayed until 2/6, and she had a special guest from Minnesota at her party.  Kortney was here then visiting her new niece and was able to come to the party.

I stayed home from work on 2/2 because we got a pretty big snow storm that night with lots of blowing and drifting of snow.  I went out to try to get my car free so I could go.  Then I remembered that our snow blower had stopped working a while ago, and suddenly it was a crisis.  So, I ended up calling the repair place and taking it to them.  They got it fixed the same day, so we were able to get the snow cleared.

That snow blower was a gift from our next door neighbors.  They are an older retired couple that just recently moved to an assisted living facility, so they didn’t need it anymore.  None of their kids needed it either, so they gave it to us with the only condition that we keep their driveway clear too since their kids need to come and go occasionally from the old house.  We are very thankful for it!

Anyway, I ended up spending that day clearing snow and running tons of errands.  Krista had sprained her back a few days before shoveling snow, and it was really causing her a lot of pain.  We decided to see a chiropractor, and she’s had a few appointments with him now and is feeling much better.  Please pray for her complete healing.  It was nice to be able to be home to get it all done!

We had our Awana T&T (3rd – 6th grade) Bible Quiz at our church on 2/7.  All of our church’s teams won first place!  Levi got a perfect score in his tests, and Jemmie tied for the highest score of everyone in her book on her tests.  I’m very proud of their accomplishments, and more proud that they are very early learning the value of hiding God’s Word in their hearts.

Cody’s birthday was on 2/11, so we had yet another celebration.  Yeah, we like to party.

My brother, David’s, birthday was on 2/14, but we pretended that was a national holiday and celebrated the holiday instead.  I did remember him though.  The pizzeria where Abigail works, Salvatore’s, makes heart-shaped pizzas for Valentine’s Day, so I ordered Krista and myself each one, and we had dinner alone at a “fancy” table in the living room while the kids ate downstairs.  It was low-key, yes, but perfect for us.

Yesterday (2/18) was Caitlin’s birthday, and it’s also winter break in our local school district, so our church is not having Awana.  So, we’ll have yet another party with those two excuses reasons in view.  Wow, that’s five birthdays in one month’s time.

Until March!