Where am I?

Well let us see if you can guess;) At the moment I am sitting in a room at a nursing home, looking out at waving palm trees and a few flowers. It is currently 75 and partly cloudy. It is supposed to get up to 80 to day.


Well if you guessed California you were absolutely and 100% positively wrong! Texas? Nope no palm trees, and definitely not 75 down there right now. Hawaii, well that would be nice I guess but can you imagine the expense! Did you guess Florida? Well you just happen to be right!

My Grandparents live in Florida, and in December Grandma fell and broke her hip. Our Aunt went down there twice to help Grandpa and drive him to the nursing home. Now it was our turn and Mom decided it would be good if I came along too. Seeing that the last time I flew I was 8 or 9 I was quite excited. We were able to get through security alright, and when we sat down at the gate, we saw our plane drive up, and could even see the pilot through the window!


The sight from the plane was absolutely breathtaking! We flew over the Detroit river and lake Erie, then over a cloud bank. It looks as if the horizon was endless.




We flew over the coast, and God blessed us with clear skies, so I could take pictures of the beauty.


When we landed in Orlando the sky was sunny and the day gorgeous.


A very kind friend of Grandpa's drove to Orlando to take us back to Grandpa and Grandma's house. We all wondered if the tank we passed was full of Orange juice!=)


I know this picture is fuzzy but I had to show you. That truck is full to the top with Oranges!!!! I have seen at least 10 of these trucks just like this one since I have been here!!


Grandma is doing very well in the nursing home and is able to walk all the way down the long hall with a walker. Please pray that she would be able to go home before we leave.


Mom and I were able to take a walk around the mission village where Grandpa and Grandma live. There is a beautiful pond/lake in the village and a peninsula with their chapel on it.


My pretty Mumsie agreed to pose for me on the bridge.


The not so little chapel on the lake.


We were able to get a picture taken with Grandma in therapy. We are so glad to be down here helping Grandma and Grandpa, and are having fun along the way=)! God has blessed us with beautiful weather and we are having a lovely time. Please pray that Mom and I might be able to be a blessing to Grandpa, and that Grandma will continue to improve, and like I said that she will be able come home very very soon! I promise to post pictures of the animals and other curious things I have seen while here, so keep checking.

~Chs

A funny little face on a furry little animal.

A little while ago, Faith and Josiah found this funny little creature in our backyard. After bringing it inside and checking on the computer, we confirmed our suspicions that it was a star nosed mole.

As cute as this fellow was, we were not quite sure if we wanted him in our yard. So after calling Mr. Reiche who we thought would like to see the funny rodent, we packed him in a basket and drove over to the Sutherland nature Sanctuary.

We had read that the star nosed mole like to live in soft ground or in banks near a water source. So we tramped through the snow, toward one of the many streams traversing the Sanctuary.

Mr. Mole was very glad to be released. He let out a series of hilarious squeals and grunts whenever we got near him. We were glad to be able to observe yet another part of God's amazing and diverse creation.

~Chs

Building a milking stanchion

One other thing we were able to accomplish, was building our own goat milking stanchion.

We had been borrowing one from the Farm for a very long time, and decided that it would be a very good time to make our own while the boys were home.

Josiah, Josh and Dad, suffered, I mean, uh, worked, out in the cold Garage to put it together.

A couple days ago Josiah and Dad took it down to the basement to paint it. They used what they thought was Burgundy Paint.

Well it turned out more like bright patriotic red. But, Fiona looks very stylish in bright red, don't you think?

~Chs

Family fun!!

Despite the many gatherings and parties we had while the boys were home, we did manage to have some time just as a family. One of the fun (and slightly hilarious) things we did was to decorate Gingerbread men. Some of the results were quite amusing.

Here is the base. What will it end up looking like?


Well it being Josh's man, and he just wanting to eat the thing with his hot chocolate, it kinda ended up looking like it was wearing a large lumpy knitted sweater. But hey, it tasted good.


John, never has been the creative or artistic type, so his looked like....

himself. Complete with a stubbly shaved head;)

Faith was extremely neat and meticulous, and hers, when it was finished, resembled Frank Sinatra.

No seriously. Doesn't he?


A pair of dancers!! We had a wonderful time and lots of laughs over the many creative, strange and slightly disturbing gingerbread men we created as a family.

That night Charity made this beautiful Andes Mint cheesecake.

Gorgeous, delicious, mouthwatering, beautiful, decadent, and rich.

Another special once a year thing, we were able to accomplish was our special new years eve dinner.


Out came the fancy teacups, pretty lace,


and delicate crystal, to make the meal special.


Complete with the extravagant fare of Ham, Au Gratin potatoes, Broccoli with cheese sauce, and cinnamon hot canned apples. We are so thankful to God for the time we were able to spend with the boys while they were home, and are praying for their safety. They both left on January 2nd Josh we took down to the airport to fly back to basic, and John and Grace drove down to Texas. Please pray for Josh especially , as he continues his training.

~Chs

More Family and Friends.

Monday morning rolled around and more visitors arrived. The Kinne family (or most of them) came up for a day of fun and frolic.

Immediately after our lunch the boys raced out back to explore and us "ladies" followed in a more leisurely fashion.

Hannah found a icy spot under the snow and cleared it off for her very own ice rink;)

After a few rides on the tire swing, always a necessary part of a trip to the Sauve's house, we packed up into our vehicles and headed out to Mr. Reiches sled run. (which I informed you of in a earlier post)

We were dismayed to find upon our arrival that the snow was still a bit sticky from the recent warm up, and the sledding was not at its' peak, so some of us started by walking around the trail that Mr. Reiche has blazed around his property.

Despite the slight slushiness of the snow, some of the younger, more persevering ones continued to travel down the slope as far as they could.


The more traffic that went down the run, packing down the snow and solidifying the ice, the better the hill became, and soon everyone was lined up waiting for a turn.

Sam had brought his new snowboard along and did amazingly well for his first time, almost always making it all the way down the second hill.


Though the snowboard was his preferred means of transportation, Faith did persuade him to try going backwards down the hill on the "silver streak" with her.


Josiah and Noah tried racing, but they somehow ended up crossing paths and Noah met up with his "friends", the tires, that were piled up against Mr. Reiche's garage, (Noah met with those tires quite a few times during the afternoon;) while Josiah went off track in the other direction and ended up between two trees.

We had a blast that afternoon and were very glad that some of the Kinnes were able to make it up to play in the snow with us.

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The next morning found us all very busy preparing for our Thanksgiving meal take 2. Josh having missed thanksgiving dinner with our family since he was at boot camp, requested to have one while he was home. So Mom and I got up and stuck him (the turkey not Josh;) in the oven.

Faith, the expert pie maker set to work as well.

We were delighted when we learned that Eldita's parents who had arrived from Mexico the night before, were going to be coming as well. One of the first things done when they had all arrived was to go down our newly finished snow slide!

Levi was the first one down.

Go Aunt Carmen!!!!!

The boys even got Eldita, their mom, to go down.
Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of the rest of the evening, which was absolutely wonderful. Dad was able to have a great conversation with Enoch, Eldita's father who is a pastor, about his work in Mexico, through Al who acted as interpreter. Then we had a singing time, some of us sang in English and some in Spanish, it was marvelous. We were so grateful for the fellowship we were able to have with believers even in another language.

~Chs