Snow

One Friday, February 5th a snow storm moved into our area. We were predicted to get 9-12 inches of snow. This picture is the front of my new house on Saturday morning - it was still snowing and continued to do so until Saturday just after noon.

Here is a shot of the backyard during the storm.

After all was said and done I had 12 1/2 inches on my back deck.

The dogs really don't appreciate the snow. If they are out too long they get little snow balls (which turn into big snow balls if they are out toooo long) stuck to their fur.

Here is Maia with snow half way up her back...making outdoor "stops" a little interesting. : )

This is a picture of the woods in back of the house, after the snow stopped and the sun came out. Right after this picture the snow started falling and it wasn't quite so pretty. I think the Lord gives us these beautiful sights to tell us He loves us.

On Saturday at 2:37 pm the power went out. Which meant that we didn't have heat. We braved it through the night and by morning it was down to 55 degrees in the house. My neighbor has been plowing for me, so we waited for the driveway to be cleared - but it didn't happen. (Found out later that he tried, but the snow was just too deep for him to get through) By Sunday evening it was 52 degrees in here. At this point I have to explain that my parents are visiting so they were blessed to experience the outage with us. We all just wanted out of the house, so I started calling around and found a friend who came to plow us out...thanks so much, Jason!! We ventured out to some friend's house and watched a movie and warmed up. On the way home we encountered the AEP truck looking for the reason for the power outage in my little neighborhood. At 10:36 p.m. Sunday night the lights flicked on. The furnace ran for a couple hours to get things warmed back up. The picture above is my driveway after it was plowed. My driveway curves to the left and then it curves back to the right and along the edge of those trees and it continues off the right side of the picture.

New house happenings

We continue to settle into our new house. Here are some around the house shots.

Lydia installing the new toilet paper holder in the upstairs bathroom.

We slept in the basement for a couple of weeks and here is Caleb reading one of his school books. He is snuggled under the covers b/c there are no heat vents in the basement, so it is pretty chilly down there.

JoAnna pinking...I mean painting up her new room.

JoAnna making Aunt Stephanie's taco casserole recipe for lunch.

One morning I asked JoAnna to take the dog outside and after quite a few minutes I noticed that she wasn't back inside. I looked out and this is what I saw. JoAnna, jumping on the trampoline in her pajamas, no hat, no coat, only her gloves and boots. What must the neighbors think of us!!

Vacation to Seattle

I can not believe that 2 months have passed since my last blog posting. How did that happen? Well I'll try to explain. Since the last post we have sold a house, bought a house, spent a week in Seattle, moved and painted almost the entire inside of our new home. Phew!! I'm tired just typing that.

Lydia seems to make friends with every dog she meets. Here she is on our first day in Seattle...making friends with Grandpa and Grandma Abernethy's dogs. I call her the dog whisperer number 2. : )

This is the view from the house we stayed in...we were in the Cascade Mountain range. Breath taking and a wonderful place to sit and watch the sun rise as you read the Word before the day starts.

JoAnna and her cousin, Olivia, built these snow people, Wilson and Christina.

The kids had a great time learning how to ski. I love JoAnna's body language.

Here I am skiing. I kept going so fast and while trying to stop I ended up in several snow banks. When I asked my instructor what I was doing wrong she told me that I was doing everything right, BUT I didn't know enough to slow myself down. I had great fun, but my shoulder still hurts from the first fall.

As I packed things for moving I took Chris' box out of the closet. I felt strongly that I did not want to take the rest of his ashes with me to the new house. I knew that I needed to take the rest of the ashes with me to Seattle. When we landed in Seattle I thought, "I feel like I have brought him home." It was an incredible sense of peace. While at the house we stayed in we found this place to take the ashes. Money Creek is a beautiful place...I knew that Chris would have loved this place. The beauty and especially the sound of water rushing over the rocks...yeah this was the place.

We spent Christmas Eve night in our new house. I had the kitchen items put away so that we could have a nice Christmas dinner. Here are the children ready to eat at the island. We are still eating at the island, b/c the piano is still in the area where the table is going to go. We're slowly getting things where they belong.

Life

It seems that every year at the fair one of the 4-H groups puts together an Ohio State booth. JoAnna is putting on her best disgusted face. Her mama brain washed...er...um...trained her little Michigan fan well.

JoAnna riding "Catching Air" with the Satterthwaite's grandchildren.

MMS had a bonfire and hayride in October. We had to take 2 trips on the hay wagon. Lydia is the young lady hiding her face.

JoAnna was able to hitch a 2nd ride, she loves spending time with her friend, Hannah.

Lydia and I enjoy sewing together. We work well as a team...she is so much like me. I look at her and see me--all over again--with her daddy's eyes, chin and teeth.

JoAnna helping me make soup for dinner on one of the first cold fall nights. She loves to help me in the kitchen.

This past weekend we helped a family from church put up some wood for the winter months that lay ahead. JoAnna and I were in the storage shed stacking the wood.

Lydia worked to bring the large chunks of tree over the creek (if you live in this area of Ohio that word in pronounced 'crick').

Caleb helped with loading and unloading that large chunks of wood.

Paul and BJ were responsible for the work party. Paul and his wife, Jenni, will enjoy the fire wood this winter.

October 20th

Today is the day I remember my sweet Christopher's home going. 3 years ago on this day Chris' brother, Tim, raced across the country side with his parents, in their car. He was intent on getting to Good Sam hospital in Zanesville, Ohio, so that we could disconnect Chris' life support. When we left the ICU that night the nurses on duty were all crying. The next morning one of them called me (though she said that she wasn't supposed too, but felt she had to) and told me that the whole ICU nursing staff was touched by Chris' story in the short time he had been there. They were the most touched by the MMS guys who went to sit by his bed (even though he was in a coma) and read Scripture, talk to him, sing to him, joke around with him and pray with him. The character of Chris' visitors was an evident testimony of Christ.

I created this video tribute for my dear Christopher, who even as I type stands in the very presence of Jesus Christ, his Savior.

Houston

We spent September 23rd through October 2nd in Houston, Texas. The company was wonderful, the weather beautiful and the time priceless. The best time for me was the time I spent with Stephanie. We sat on her new covered patio and enjoyed warm breezes and cool evenings. Priceless. We also traveled around a bit and did some fun things.

We journeyed to San Antonio to check out the Alamo. It was fun to learn the history of this famous battle. Did you know that Ohio had a part in the battle of the Alamo? Apparently the city of Cincinnati sent two cannons (named the twin sisters) to the fort before the battle started. We also enjoyed the Riverwalk...it was a Friday night and all the lights were pretty as we walked along.

On the way home the Lord had His protective hand on us. Stephanie and I were deep in conversation when she noticed that her gas gauge was below "E". We were on a long stretch of road that doesn't have gas stations and we prayed that the Lord would keep us going until we found a place to stop. When we finally pulled into a station I asked her how big her RAV's gas tank is. "14 gallons," she told me. We all watched the gas pump display and when it kicked off at 14.027 gallons we were all relieved that the Lord had literally kept the car going.

Another thing we did was visit Space Center Houston. Aunt Stephanie and JoAnna tried to figure out this cool looking game. Unfortunately, all they figured out was that it didn't work - "Houston, we have a problem."

Caleb wanted to see how much he weighed on Mars. He says he doesn't remember how much it was.

Lydia and JoAnna wanted to see what an actual moon rock felt like.

On our tram tour of NASA we saw this astronaut in training.

This is Apollo 18, it has never flown on a mission. It was pretty impressive to stand next to. I was surprised at how massive it is.

These are the initial booster rockets for Apollo 18. Just breaking free from gravity takes a great deal of fuel and power...WOAH!!

After learning about space we drove to Galveston. The girls enjoyed finding pretty seashells they could bring home as souvenirs. We also saw a really cool part of the Lord's creation. We saw good size sea birds flying along and all of a sudden one of them would just fall out of the sky. He would crash into the water and come out with a fish in his bill. I have pictures, but my zoom lens was back at the house, so the birds are too far away to realize what is going on.

On our last day we went to the police station from which Tim worked. Stephanie explained that a new captain, who had never met Tim, heard so many stories and good things that he suggested that they give this gym a name. It was officially named the Timothy S. Abernethy gymnasium.

Tim's picture was also added to a special wall that honors fallen officers.

Right before Tim died he found out that he was going to be going to Bomb Squad School. Stephanie told me that Tim had finally found his calling - what he was created to do. She took us to see the Bomb Squad and we enjoyed learning about what they do. Before we went to see all of the cool equipment they took our picture with the dynamite blaster. Stephanie is ready to blow us all up!!! Maybe it's time for us to go home. : ) After the Bomb Squad trailer we were able to see the SWAT team truck and trailer. Then we were taken back to the hostage negotiation trailer - it was pretty impressive. I really enjoyed learning more about what they do. Truly amazing what these men are trained to do to protect us.

The SWAT team was just back from a call and they invited us in to see their armored vehicle. JoAnna is trying to open one of the many holes in the side of the truck.

Trip to Michigan

Since a picture is worth 1,000 words I thought I would "say" more in this blog...lots of pictures!! One of the best parts of the trip was spending time with my brother and his little boys. A few months back I browsed the realtor.com website looking at houses in my home town. I found a house that I thought I would like to live in. Unbeknownst to me my brother saw the same house and he bought it. On this trip I was able to see the house that I had "admired from afar."

When we head north we always get excited when we see this sign...we know that we are half way to Grandpa and Grandma's house.

JoAnna and Brendon on the swing set in my brother's back yard.

Caleb and Logan playing with my brother's i-phone.

Pere Marquette Beach

JoAnna playing in the sand

Lydia building a sand castle

My mom, Lydia and I took a bike ride one night. Maia sat right there in the basket the entire time we were out riding...about an hour.

Me and my beautiful children

Caleb

Lydia

JoAnna

My brother, Tom, and his sons Logan and Brendon.

Grandpa May and my mom. Grandpa celebrated his 96th birthday last month. I was able to be part of the birthday celebration with my family. I sure miss them all - I wish I could go home more often.