Boise--31 Years Later

Amanda flew into Casper last Wednesday night, and Matt and Crystal were due to fly in on Thursday night. Only problem for them was that their flight was overbooked, and they got bumped. Turned out ok, as they were able to get onto a Boise flight, and not have to get into a car the next morning to drive with us to Boise. So far, so good. Thursday night we were again checking the weather reports, and saw that it was supposed to snow some 10 inches on Friday in the area that we had to drive through. We decided that we probably wouldn't be able to go. Problem: Matt and Crystal were in Boise. Friday morning, after again checking the weather reports, we decided to go ahead and try it, and threw everything into the car and headed out. It was a snowy, windy trip, but the roads were not slippery, and we made it through fine.

We had a great Saturday and Sunday visiting with Richard's brothers and folks, and cousins getting to know each other who had only met once or twice in their lives--many years ago. We missed having Lancy, Kathryn and Nikki there, but had a good time together.

Sunday night Caleb checked the weather reports again, though we weren't planning to leave until Tuesday morning. They looked worse than they had a couple of days earlier--10-14 inches of snow expected. After much debate about the snow coming and the thought of getting stuck in Boise and not being able to return to Casper for a few extra days, we decided at 9:00 last night to start the trip back a day early, so once again threw everything together and loaded up the cars, leaving there at 10:00pm, and arriving here in Casper at 11:30 today. It was another snowy, windy trip, but thankfully we made it through just fine. Haven't checked the weather reports today to see if they got the 10 inches they expected, but we are glad to be safely home.

Merry Christmas

Jocelyn

Jocelyn, 19 months, and Audrey, 3 days

Too Cute Grandkids

Meet.....

Audrey Diane Rose Kull

Born December 14, 2008, 4:30pm
8 lbs., 21 in.

Parents: Caleb and Rose
Siblings: Josiah, Richard, Jocelyn

Tuesday Afternoon

Richard and Rose are painting the living room. I keep telling them that I will help as soon as I catch my blog up.....so I am finally getting that done!

Snow Tuesday!

More Snow

We are in Wyoming now, enjoying being with Caleb, Rose, Josiah, Ricky and Jocelyn. We are awaiting the arrival of baby #4 any day now.

Sunday night/Monday morning, it began to snow. I decided on Monday that I needed to go out shopping, but waited until the kids were done with school. That was my mistake! I had not driven on snow for probably 25 or more years, but figured that if I went slowly enough I would be fine. Got to Sam's, and by the time we got back out it was really snowing hard. We hurried through Walmart too. Driving home was a bit more of a challenge. Got to one spot and the traffic was pretty well stopped. When I got going again, I was really sliding around. Talked to a police officer who was there, and he said that the sand truck was on its way. I pulled over and waiting. Once the sand truck went by, some good neighbors help push me, and a bunch on other cars back onto the sanded road, and I had no more problems getting home.

The snow is beautiful here, everything looks so pretty. The kids have been out playing for the last hour or so. I'm surprised that they have made it this long without freezing!

First Snow

Sunday, the 30th of November, was Janelle's first snow. It didn't snow very much, but it was the first time she had seen it.

Awana

Thanksgiving, Tamales and other fun things

We had Thanksgiving this year with a number of my family, and a few friends thrown in. Two Chinese high school students were staying with Brad and Ali for the week of school vacation, so it was good for Janelle to have them to talk to a bit, though she is sooooo quiet that she didn't say a lot. They are both at a boarding high school in Missouri, but are also from Shenzhen, where Janelle was living before joining our family.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we made tamales with a couple of families who had come down to Bernal in October from the Nixa church. They were yummy!

Tuesday after that we went to Branson for the day for a couple of free shows for area residents. It pays to have Missouri drivers licenses at times. We saw Celebrate America in the morning, then The Promise (life of Christ) in the afternoon. It was lots of fun.

Amanda

We enjoyed attending a concert that Amanda played in. It was the Springfield-Drury Civic Orchestra.

I thought that once we were in the States that I would have time to blog and to scrap, since I wouldn't have my regular activities to fill my time. WRONG! I haven't had time for anything along that line. First, school takes up the morning, as usual. We brought along work for Janelle and Taylor, and they work every morning. Shopping doesn't take up a lot of time in Bernal, as Walmart and Sam's are 45 minutes away, so I only get there about once a month, and do all of my shopping then. If I don't have something, I just do without or make something else. If I need veggies or milk we shop at the tienda on the corner. Sure is different here. The small Walmart is only 5 minutes up the road, or the big one 10 minutes the other direction. Seems we are always needing something for dinner, or for the kids or whatever, and run up to Wally's.

One weekend in November we took a quick trip to Mississippi for a reunion with our adoption group from when we adopted LiAnne. It was fun to see everyone again, and to see the changes in the girls---and their siblings. The weekend was over too quickly! We are thankful for the good relationship we have with the great families that we traveled with four years ago next week.





We have enjoyed attending the church here in Nixa. It has been good to visit more with the folks who came down last month to help in the construction in Tequisquiapan, as well as with others that we know at the church here. All three of the kids have enjoyed going to Awana. The church gave them books, vests and carry bags. They loved that. They will be able to take them with them to continue to work on learning the verses when we go back home.

Thanksgiving we spent with family over at Brad and Ali's house. There were 20some of us there. Some of the non-family who were there are from China, so it was good for Janelle to be able to visit with them in Chinese. Two teen boys are students at the nearby military high school who needed a place to stay for the vacation week--and were staying with Brad and Ali. They were both from Shenzhen--where Janelle is from.