My mom came to visit from the 22nd to 26th. Here Laura is reading "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi." We met the kids for lunch on Friday, rented Cars that night, Saturday got nice at the end of the day so we could go outside a little. Sunday was a beautiful day so we headed to the Wilderness Center after church. We hiked a total of 4 1/2 miles. We saw 2 Garder snakes, some deer and a muskrat. There's a spring on the far side that we love to go to and was especially needed since we were running out of water. The spring is situated on land that was granted by President Jefferson in 1808. It was later aquired by a family who built there. we went and looked at the rubble of what was there home and shelter back when the Indians were roaming the land.

Hey, I found if I import my image "small" like the one of the spring and not "large" like the one above, then you can click on the image and make it very large to see better.

We had an early birthday party for Adam and he helped make the cupcakes and frost them. 7 years old, can you believe it? (I thought I figured it out but i guess not. this pic of adam was "large" but when i published it i could click on it to make it bigger. whatever.) For his Birthday Meal we had waffles, blueberry sauce and whipped topping in a can, bacon and strawberries. YUM!

After school Laura was outside and she was yelling for us to come outside and look. She found our first spring flowers:

HAPPY SPRING EVERYONE!

if you eat frozen dinners, i don't know how you do it. i've been trying out different convenience food so that when i'm up at the office i can pop something in the microwave and keep working. so today i put one in. i ate the mashed potatoes and corn and choked down a little of the brown stuff they call "meat". i just couldn't finish it so i gave the rest to my dog! he even wasn't sure about it. there was surely no "scarffing" taking place that is natural to a dog when given people food. i think my best bet is just to get a bag of Pizza Rolls and keep them in my little freezer here. hot pockets are pretty good too.

its been dry enough to get the pocket rocket out. adam just goes up and down the road. he stops every once in awhile and says some part of his body is sore. he says its not b/c of the bike, he just doesn't know why it hurts. its from the bike. i think he thinks we'll tell him not to ride it anymore. its funny. but he just gets right back out there. one of the times he stopped and needed a break but didn't want the bike to shut off b/c he can't start it so i said i'd keep it going for him. yes, adults ride these things. they actually race these things like any other race you'd see. anyway, i'm not going to sign up any time soon but here's a video clip, of me: (The sound doesn't transfer from our camera phones so you'll have to make your own sound effects)


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Here's Matt showing off. that little bike's got some pep!

This week Matt and James didn't have too much work so they framed up all the rooms in the upstairs. This was a very exciting thing to see. I didn't help too much. The guys work together good and so I just stayed out of the way.

Next Up: Electrical

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US! Matt aranged for James and Heidi to watch the kids while he took me to The Outback Steakhouse, my favorite resteraunt. Laura took some pics of us before we left. She used our big camera which is pretty heavy and she did a good job.

It snowed overnight and apparently the snow plows couldn't get the roads cleared off in time even w/ a 2 hour delay. I might add that everyone knew the storm was coming. It begun to warm up and melt the snow by midday. But first the kids and I went for a hike down to the creek. Here are the kids on a rock that is along the way.

Matt had already laid the hearth stones the other day and today they hooked up the chimney and put in the wood stove. Yes, that's an instruction manuel you see. Of course they didn't get it out in time to avoid certain mistakes, or rather they got it out after the fact.Matt and I split some wood for our new stove. I definetly need to do it more frequently so I get in shape b/c I wimped out too soon in my mind and my wrist was sore from swinging the ax around. Here's a cool picture of Matt cutting the logs off w/ the chainsaw:

Matt was asked to pull a haywagon over at Skyview Ranch (a local Christian camp) for a retreat they were having. He went and got a friend's tractor which had a cab. It was cold! The camp had 270 kids there so they were trying to have many things for them to do. Laura and Adam went with Matt to pick up the tractor so they got to go on the main road.A group came to help with the retreat and our niece, Kristen, came. It was great to see her.

{{I'M WAITING ON A PIC FROM KRISTEN THAT IS CUTE BUT I'LL JUST PUBLISH THIS W/O IT FOR NOW. I'LL PUT IT ON WHEN I GET IT.}}

February 25-March 1 we had visitors from Chicago. We knew Karl and Selene from our time there. They are beginning to raise support to be missionaries to Mexico. Selene is a native-born Mexican so you can guess what we ate all week. It was great, I didn't have to cook and she made authentic Mexican food for us!!

They have three boys, which Adam was looking forward to. They all got along great-and nobody got hurt (5 rambunctious kids, [4 of them boys, and one Laura] indoors b/c it was so wet out, that's pretty good for no injuries).

Here we are starting w/ Laura and going CCW:
Laura,Karl jr., Adam, Karl,Selene,Matt,Jen,Heidi,James,Abraham,Zachary

House update: Matt, James and Karl framed up the bathroom! And we got our woodstove. We bought it from an Amish wood/coal stove shop. The Strittars spoke at our church Sunday and Wednesday. If you know of any churches or individuals who are looking for missionaries to support, let me know.