Quin Friary

Last April, Abi and I were blessed to be able to make a second trip to Ireland. While there, we visited an old church, Quin Friary and Abbey.

A friend (your mom, Ashley!:) introduced me to an amazing photo editing program. I've been experimenting, and this picture of Quin Friary was one of the results.  I thought it turned out amazingly well! (If I do say so myself:)

I uploaded it in high resolution. :)

Green Beans

The boys were thrilled to death when Abi told them they could tear the green beans out. In fact, they were so thrilled that KK put a video together about it.

Enjoy! :)

For those of you with inquisitive minds, the rope you see in the video was definitely a part of the green bean pulling process. They it attached to the four wheeler, then tied it around green bean plants to pull them out. Hope that satisfied ya.

Tent Meetings, Cute Babies, Scenery etc

Boy, looks like I've been quite slack with my blogging. I have all the normal excuses up my sleeve, busyness, events, being tired ;), having no inspiration to write...

As we've been so busy this past month, I can't remember everything that went on, so, I'll let the pictures tell our story.

Sam has been taking boat loads of scenery pictures lately. Now that their four wheeler is fixed, he often drives down to the corner for sunset pictures.

We had a big storm pass through awhile ago. It turned a sickly yellow green outside and got really chilly after being in the upper 90s.

The wind was blowing super hard!

Our dear Dawse. :)

Another storm also came through. It was kinda a freak storm. It blew up really fast, hailed quarter size hail, then blew away. That's KK's hand.

We had Doughy and Lynna for the afternoon. Dober was very cute in his blue polo shirt that just didn't quite fit over his belly. :)

A bushell full of happy!

Mom changed his diaper and never got around to putting his pants back on, sou our little manny enjoyed some fresh air!

Notice miss active in the background. :)

Whenever Sam opened the door fast it would scare Katelyn. After awhile, though, she got to thinking it was pretty funny. That girl has more personality packed into one tiny body than she knows what to do with!

We had our annual Tent Revival Meetings again this year. There were several people that came from the community. This year we had more visitors from other churches, which was exciting!

Cleaning up after a meal can be nerve wracking. :) Our family was on for meal clean up this year.

The left overs...

Leonard Guenther from Kentucky was our special speaker.

Somebody gave the little people glow sticks. They had great fun with them!

I watched Katelyn for Ry and Kels for most of the meetings. Sunday afternoon, we couldn't find Ry or Kels, so Abi and I watched the littles. They eventually showed up, but we just kept the babies anyway to give them a break. We ended up over at church since it was so hot out. Katelyn was rocking and singing while we listed to the message. :)

Cutie pie

Take down is always fun! Unfortunately, I was so tired this year that I wasn't much help. 

Since we downsized the podium, just two people can handle it now. :)

The Guenthers were staying till Monday morning, so we had snacks and things Sunday night. Did we ever have a pile of dishes! It doesn't actually look like an awful lot, but it was.

The Meetings were a huge blessing! No one was saved, but we're still praying!

Abi made pumpkin muffins the other day. Scrumptious!

Sam again...

Hunting season is almost upon us... The boys have been bow practicing again.

Sorry, that wasn't much of an update. I've just been rather out of whack lately, so my brain isn't really with it. We had our busy week of cleaning (6 houses) the week before tent meetings, then we had a very busy week preparing our house for company, cleaning the church and meeting every night for prayer. Then, the week after the meetings we had our busy week again. Now this week we spent nearly 7 hours cleaning an elderly man's house in Atlantic. That was a chore! Abi and I cleaned again today and we have one more house to go this week. I've also been feeling under the weather most of this week too. Next week is our busy week again... I still don't think I've recovered from those extremely busy weeks. We'll rest in heaven, I guess. :)

Rainbow Vacuum Cleaners

Have you ever lost your cool due to an annoying inanimate object? I'm sure we could all agree on that one. The frustration generally portrays itself in banging the poor dumb object around, muttering insults at it under one's breath, heavy sighs... Yeah, you get the picture.

We clean for a lady that has a very beautiful home. She keeps it extremely clean, so working there is a snap. Hey, $25 per person for about an hour and a half or so...

It would be the easiest house I've ever cleaned if it wasn't for her vacuum. A Rainbow Vacuum. Owning one of those things is like living in bondage. The first flaw in the system is the water tank. You have to fill a canister with water, clamp it down on a round contraption with wheels, then set the vacuum part on top of it and clamp it down. After that, you have to hook the hose up to the vacuum base, then attach the other end to the head. Once that's done, you have to plug a cord from the hose into the head to give it power. While you're vacuuming, you have to hold the power button on on the handle. You also have to drag that, ahem, canister contraption full of water around behind you, trying not to tip it over. All the filth that you vacuum up goes right into the water. Once you have finished vacuuming, you have to repeat the whole process over again to take it apart, but this time backwards. When you reach the water canister, you have to empty all the gook out. Just envision hair, dirt, carpet strings, dead flies, etc all mixed together in one lovely stew. There's no easy way to dump it out either. You've just got to get everything swirling around fast enough then dump it, hoping all the hair and little rocks slip out. Most of the time they don't. It's not at all fun to clean it out.

Boy, I should be a Rainbow saleswoman. :)

Explanations aside, we were cleaning this dear lady's house yesterday and her rainbow was being particularly aggravating. It's extremely heavy and awkward, so trying to vacuum anything is a huge chore.

If I could have murdered that vacuum, I would have, regardless of the consequences. It would have been a pleasure too! Just envision the headlines- Murderous Assault on Rainbow. That would've filled me with out-and-out glee!

Actually, I would love to live to see an annihilation of all canister vacuums, Rainbow or otherwise. Give me an upright any day! They are so much easier to use! I have gotten extremely proficient at flinging a cord around over tables, chairs, couches, etc. But just try flinging a canister vacuum hose around. Wow.

Then, there's the bagless vacuum vs bagged debate... But that's a whole different discussion.

Thank you for listening to my rant. I hope you enjoyed it. :)

The Word of GOD

"His Word cannot be falsified, disqualified, modified or nullified. His Word cannot be distorted or inverted or reinvented or demerited or interpreted away. His Word is beauty, it is wooing, and it will all be accomplished absolutely.

The debate of the day may change, the crisis may change, the screaming headlines of the genuinely horrifying may change — but, in the entire heaving cosmos, this remains unchangeable, unstoppable, undaunted: The Word of God. His Word is absolute and resolute and it will remain until time concludes."

-Ann Voskamp