Has anyone seen the month of April..

I think I may have lost it. :)
I can't believe the month is already gone. Things have been busy and crazy here the past month.
Baseball season began. Zeke has a great coach this year. Mychal is playing an orphan in Pollyanna at one of the local theatre's. She loves it. Last week was the toughest week...she had two full dress rehearsals/family nights. Then the show opened and we had 4 nights of shows. That was 6 nights in a row. Then all the rehearsal's that were the few weeks before. I love it when the show finally opens. It seems like such a relief from the busy schedule of rehearsal's.

Justin moved out and is living in town with friends. It seems weird to not have him here. He is doing well and we talk once a week. I think he is kinda starting to miss home a little. Dad was telling him about all the work of hauling old sheet rock and etc to the dump. He was like..you should call me, I would come home and help. He has been home once since moving out. That was to pick up a few more things and sort the rest, as to yes I want this, but don't have the room for it currently..to no get rid of this.

The remodel...well it is moving along slowly. Since Justin moved out, we moved all the furniture from that room to the girls bathroom, that is still not done. Thus creating a empty room. That room is now repainted with floor going in hopefully this next week. The room is Zeke's. The paint colors match that of the Minnesota Vikings. Purple, gold and sand. The floor was just tile squares. We have started to pull them off, as some had come loose. Now what we have bought...is multi purpose paneling...that will be placed on the floor and painted...green with floor and porch paint. The green is to make a football field look. We will tape white stripes and numbers. We have some before and will have after pictures (post those when it is done).

Kodie also started therapeutic horseback riding...she loves that. I will have to get some better pictures. But Ethan and Mychal have photography classes at the sametime, so the good camera is with them.

Hopefully I will get more posted before May disappears .

Memories of my Dad..Saturdays

My dad was a self employed Barber. He had his shop in town and it was open Tue-Sat. Every once in a while we would get to go with dad to work on Saturday. This was always a special treat, as being a child in a large family of 6 kids, one to one time with a parent didn't happen as often as we would like. We would leave the house early and stop to get a donut and hot cocoa. Then it was to the shop to work. We would get to help sweep up hair, talk the customers, visit the shops that were along the same strip. At one time there was this glass shop next to the barber shop. The lady was really nice and I loved to look at the little blown glass animals. That year for Christmas, Dad bought each of us a blown glass animal. There was the shoe shop that was owned by George. I got my first pair of cowboy boots there. As I grew the shops would change. At one time there was a Pizza place on the far end. I got my first paying job there at 15. Made 3.10/hr. That was alot of money.

For lunch we would go the Chinese Place, it was always fun, as dad knew the owners and we would get extra cookies. Sometimes we would go to McDonalds. I still have a peanuts glass from the late 60's that I got. My mom had put them away and when she was sorting and cleaning out the house. She gave each of us kids one.

Dad had this old cash register. It was so fun to play with and take the customers money and give them their change. Occasionally they would let me keep the change. Then after work dad would take us across the parking lot to King's to spend the money on something.

The other fun thing to do was to play with the barber chairs. We would usually just pull the release so we could spin around til we were super dizzy.

These were all great and fun times. One my dad passed away, by that time he had another barber working with him. Dennis left the name the same and my oldest son was able to have his first haircut there. It is gone now, in fact the entire strip mall is gone. The only thing left from my growing up days is the Chinese food place. Dennis retired this year, when he had to move the shop, he called my mom, to make sure it was okay to not carry on the name. It was fine. I still stop by and see Dennis every few years. It was great to share stories.

That is all for this time.
I think next month...I will share about Camping with Dad.

Sports weekend...

I wanted to update and post this earlier, but I have limited internet here at the trailer.
Norm did bring home a verizon card so now I can use that.

So last weekend...Saturday was Zeke's first wrestling tournament. He did lose both his matches, but hey it was the first time and he did pretty good. He is with the Sons of Thunder Club here in Bellingham. For the first few months he was in the elementary school group, as he is 5th grade. Then about 3 weeks before this tournament they moved his friend Sam and him up to middle school group. They were to have 2 more weeks of practice after this tournament. The coach has invited Sam and Zeke to continue with the High School group, to get 6 more weeks of the season. There are a couple of other tournaments that he could do. So depending on his baseball practice schedule, he may continue wrestling for a bit. He and Sam have to go together, as they need each other to practice with.

Then on Sunday Mychal and Zeke had Karate Tournament. They both did well.
Zeke received 1st place in sparring and 1st place in Kata.
Mychal received 3rd place in sparring and 4th place in Kata.


Then we headed off to the trailer for the week.

When God prompts us to pray...

My little sister was in Guatemala this past week. She was down there with some members from her church on a pre-missions trip. It is a trip they have planned to take the High School Youth on this summer. Her church sponsors an orphanage there. I had been prayed for early in the week that they have a safe and uneventful trip there. That all the details fall into place.
This past Thursday, I felt a strong prompting to pray for her. Kinda like a weird pit in the stomach feeling. I prayed for a hedge of protection and that she be kept safe. Then the feeling was gone and I went back whatever I was working on. I knew my sister was due back this weekend. I called her house and left a message. I called my mom, this morning just to make sure I had the day right.
She said she arrived home yesterday. My mom said, that I do need to call her, as she has a long story to share, of something that happened while she was there, that it was scary at first, but they were held somewhat captive for 12 hours. I then asked mom, "that didn't happen on Thursday, did it?, I told my mom about that feeling on Thursday, she had the same one on Thursday night.

Well it was on Thursday, I haven't spoken to my sister yet, to get the long story and all the details, but they had gone into the market place to do some shopping for food, for the orphanage.
While they were there, there was a uprising of some type. The police in riot gear surrounded the marketplace and would not let anyone in or out. That is all the details I have now.

If we listen, God still speaks to us.

Update: So I have spoken with my sister, they with 2 people from the orphanage had gone into the city, to the fruit and vegetable market. The market was a very large and secured complex, about 1 square mile, surrounded with high fences with razor wire. Originally they had planned on going to the market on Wed, but the escorts didn't attend that day, so they went on Thursday. Within the 1st hour of their arrival the uprising occurred. They heard a mob of people coming through the marketplace, screaming, banging sticks. Their escort, said we need to leave now. Kim could see on an overpass that overlooks the market, several police officers with riot gear and machine guns. They tried to exit the market and every exit was blocked by the government police officers. No one was allowed to drive out. So they parked the truck and their escorts took them to a far corner of the market where they would be safe. The mobs continued and grew larger each time. One of the escorts, left to ask about what was happening. It was the vendors, that created and began the uprising, it was a protest against the government and taxes. They had shut down the market. They would continue to stay put. They were told the market would open back up at 1:00 pm. So 1pm came and went without it opening. The mobs were getting larger and people were getting angry. At 2pm one of the escorts was able to walk out and get a pizza and bring it back in. By this time, Kim Sharon and the escorts had returned to the truck. They sat in the back and ate the Pizza. Then the escort went out to find out when the market would most likely open again. He could not find out an exact answer. It was about 5pm when it opened back up and things just resumed as nothing had happened. Kim said she never really felt overly afraid, as in afraid for their lives.

It was not until they returned home and found out several people were prompted by the Lord to pray for a hedge of protection.

I did share with my sister my full prompting, that I felt her life was in danger, I didn't tell my mom that part.

Thanking the Lord for getting her home safely.

They will still take the youth, but the youth will not be making a trip to the market place. They will stay and work within the grounds of the orphanage.

Kristy

Angel Boy Art Featured Artist for March

Well it is none other then our little Kodie. Who continues to love of seeing her art work on the world wide web. It also means that she is the spotlight for the newsletter. This is what we submitted and was printed in the newsletter.

March's Featured Artist

Kodie Smith

Kodie Smith is the youngest of five children. Kodie has changed our family so much and for the better. We thank the Lord each day for blessing our family with 5 wonderful children and for opening our eyes to the all the little things and the big things in the world. The excitement when Kodie finally accomplishes something that she has been working so hard to achieve, like walking at the age of 3, riding a tricycle at the age of 5, after months of working with her physical therapist to learn how to pedal the thing, the steering was another fun adventure. I think she has left a few marks in the hallways of the hospital from crashing into the wall with the tricycle. The frustration of trying to transition from trike to bike, to realize that is something that may not happen and the sadness of her outgrowing the tricycle, to the blessing of her dear friend Rishi and his Gift Foundation, buying Kodie an adaptive tricycle this past Christmas season. The joy she had as it was presented at HomeConnection’s Joyful Celebration and off she rode through the church.

To see the world through her eyes is so fun, she can find joy in the smallest of things. She is bright, energetic, funny and full of life. The years have brought us on a roller coaster of emotions, frustrations, fighting the insurance company, and many more adventures. Through it all we have grown as family.

One thing that Kodie began early was her love of coloring and drawing. Pictures that began to emerge around the age of three, she would draw what she saw and with amazing details. Although now she will draw stick people on occasion, she never began drawing people as sticks; she drew them with legs, arms and bodies and then colored on the clothes. She then discovered animals, mostly rabbits, rabbits and rabbits. Well the animals have expanded into penguins, orcas and a few other critters on occasion. She was able to go to Sea World this past summer, as we were in California for a family reunion. We figured we would take her to see real penguins. She fell in love with not only the penguins, but also Shamu. When most kids would have found it all overwhelming, she hung in there all day…but the meltdown did occur, when we had to leave. That is about the only time Kodie has meltdowns, she hates to leave places where she is having fun and seeing all sorts of things. She loves to go on adventures and we know she will never leave a stone unturned. She has a wonderful zeal for living life to the fullest. May we all learn to live life to the fullest and to take advantage of all the Lord has blessed and given us.

She also has Dee (Diane Rhodes) as her art mentor. So now Kodie gets a few emails a week, encouraging her to keep on painting and drawing. I email for Kodie, telling Dee what we have worked on.

We have sent out some inquires about having Kodie featured locally. Our biggest one and what I thought was the longest shot...we have actually heard back from. That is with KING 5 TV out of Seattle, they have a daily program called Evening Magazine. I emailed them Kodie's story including the recent things with Angel Boy Art. I submitted it through their website as a story idea. Well I heard back, we at lest made it through the initial hoop...they accepted our story idea and passed it on to the group. So now I guess we wait and see. We have also emailed some local monthly/weekly newspapers/magazines that have sections that focus on the arts.

Memories of my Dad

Well I got this idea from another friend Amy, she has a one dedicated to her mom. So I thought I would share about my dad. I think this will be a good challenge for me. What I want to share first is my last day with my dad. February 15, 1982. There was no school that Monday, since it was President's day and my dad was a self employed barber, his shop was always closed on Sunday and Monday's. The day started with the usual farm chores. Then later that day, I was to go to a Rodeo Play day with friends. They were going to come to the house and pick up my horse, Sparky and me. Dad was concerned that we might not get Sparky out of the pasture, as the gate was somewhat frozen in the mud. We worked on it and we were able to get it open enough that I could get Sparky out. I then continued to get ready and my dad went in the house to help my little brother with his train set. At this time, my parents were separated and I along with my two younger brothers continued to live on the farm with my dad. The older of the two younger brothers, was a second cousin, whom my parents adopted when he was 3. This weekend, he had gone in to stay with his grandparents. So left at home that weekend was my brother, Bill age 10 and myself a teenager and a stubborn one at that.

Back to the story, my friends arrived with truck and trailer in tow. We loaded all the gear and then I went to get Sparky who was tied at the hitching post. I brought her around and loaded her in the trailer. As soon as we closed the trailer gate, the truck stopped running. My friend's Dad, Jerry, was a auto mechanic by trade. He tried to restart the truck and it would not start. After a few minutes the horses started acting up and getting restless. So we unloaded both our horses to calm them down. Once the horses were out the trailer Jerry again tried to start the truck and it started. YEA!!!! Once again we loaded the horses. Guess what??? The truck again stopped running. So Jerry lifted the hood again, the horses became restless again, so Shannon and I unloaded them. Once again the truck started, we loaded the horses and for the third time the truck stopped running, horses were restless, unload horses, truck starts, load horses, truck stops. This scenario continued for 30-45 minutes. It became quite apparent that Shannon and I would not be going to the Rodeo play day. So she saddled up her horse to ride him the 3-4 miles back to her house. While I put Sparky and the gear away.

I headed back into the house, my dad was downstairs at this time, and something was wrong. He told me he needed aspirin and if I could run to the store and get some. So I jumped in the truck and headed to the store. I returned home about 10 minutes later. Dad took the aspirin, and I had to help him, as he dumped the entire bottle into his hand. I told him he could not take that much and gave him 2 tablets. He then got up to go to his room, he stopped in the bathroom and began vomiting. It was at this time that I headed to the phone to call the doctor, looking for his number in the phone book,my brother had come downstairs by this time. The next think I hear is my brother screaming dad, dad. The way our house was designed, I could see from where I was standing in the dining room, through the kitchen, into the laundry room, into dad's bathroom and then into the bedroom, as long as all the doors are open and they were. My dad was now laying on the floor not moving. I grabbed the phone and called 911, I think, it may not have been readily available, it was not enhanced. I gave my name, address and stated the emergency. I had to switch phones (no cordless phone in those days). It was there that the that I was first coached through an emergency, my dad was not moving nor was he breathing. They instructed me through the steps for CPR. My brother, was falling apart at this point and I sent him outside to watch for the emergency personnel. The first person on the scene was deputy with the sheriff's department. He took over the CPR and I went to the living room, by this time the ambulance and fire truck were arriving on scene. My grandparents, who also lived on the farm, were calling, to ask what was happening, as they could see the emergency vehicles. I told them through the tears, it was dad and I didn't know, he stopped breathing. They soon arrived to the house, along with some of our neighbors. I called my mom at her house. The rest is somewhat of a blur, I am not sure if my mom arrived before they wheeled my dad out. I know our neighbor, Mr Hahn, who was a Fire Chief, took us into the dining room, so we not see them wheel him out, he siad it was because of all the IV lines and etc. I know we arrived at the hospital and they took us to a private room. We waited for what seemed like forever. They did come and tell us that he did not make it. He had a major heart attack. That day I lost not only my father, but my best friend. I could not return home, I instead went with my friend Shannon to her house, I called them from the phone at the hospital and they came right away. I think I stayed there for a few hours before finally returning home. The next few days were filled with people, food, flowers and picking out clothes for dad and planning out the services.

Today I am able to reflect back on that day and know that God was there. Recall back to the part of the story...the horses, the truck and trailer. My friends dad, Jerry, never ever found out why the truck did what it did that day. It never happened again and ran wonderfully as it had before.
It took a year or two to pass by and one day I shared the story of what happened in a Bible Study group. It was that day that I realized God was true, alive and still preforming miracles. I believe it was a miracle that occurred that day. Yes a miracle, I believe with all my heart and soul, that God above was watching over us that day. I believe the Lord our God, was the one that kept that truck from taking me away from the home. I do not think, my brother would have know what to do or even how to handle the situation. I was needed at home that day.

I do miss my dad, and I know that someday we will be together again. I think I will now work on scanning some pictures of my dad and share them here, along with other memories.

Thanks to Amy, for inspiring me, it was by reading her blog and her Monday Memories of Mom, that I too have decided to share my Memories of Dad. Not sure how often I will post memory. I'll just keep you all in suspense.

Kristy

I guess I need to work on the posting thing...

I had really planned on posting at least once a week. Well like they say it takes 21 days to develop a good habit. So I guess I will continue to work on updating this more often.

Things are going pretty well. Zeke is temporarily on the side lines at wrestling. Last week he was moved up to be with the middle schoolers, along with his friend Sam. They were at the grade school level, but both being bigger boys. They could only A- wrestle each other or B- wrestle with one of the high school boys that help, the high school boys had to be careful. So once the boys had some experience under their belts, it was decided to move them up with the middle schoolers so they could get some more experience wrestling kids closer to their size. Well Zeke came home form that first practice with the middle schoolers with an ice pack on his hamstring. He went to the doctor on Thursday morning for a exam of the injury. He has a small tear in his hamstring. So that not only sidelined him from wrestling for a couple of weeks.

Today he headed off with his friend David, for their last big Cub Scout event. They are locked in at the Science Center in Seattle. I am sure he will have a ton of fun. We sent him with one of those little digital cameras. It will be interesting to see what pictures he brings back. Then next week he will have his Arrow of Light Ceremony and then a few days after that he will cross over into Boy Scouts and join Ethan with Troop 3. He and David have been together since Tigers and have earned each badge of rank together. David is also crossing over to Troop 3. It will be so fun to watch these boys grow up into young men.

Mychal competed this past weekend at the Seattle Highland Dance Association Winter Competition, she placed 5th in the Highland Reel. She stayed with her friends, in Everett and then attended a 3 hour workshop the next day. Spent the rest of the day and another night with her friends and then I drove down on Monday and picked her up. That is one of the things I love about homeschooling, no strict school schedule. Her friends are also homeschooled. They did do some home economics in the morning. They made Valentine Cookies and they were great.

Take care and may God Bless you.