My daddy

12/10/13

I sat there looking at pictures today of the past 14 years.  From the time my dad became my dad, up until now.
I have never thanked him the way I should have.  Ever.  SHAME ON ME.
He took me in and treated me as his own.  He didn't have too, but he did.  He became my daddy, my role model, my night in shining armor, and my protector.  Yes, we have our rough days, our disagreements and fights, and we both happen to be stubborn and tend to butt heads.  But in the end he's still my daddy.
I  NEVER realized how much he did.  I always looked at what he didn't do, where he fell short, and when he wasn't there for me.
When I was there (in Idaho with him) I didn't take into account the times he carried us on his shoulders.

The days that he held us and cared for us while we were sick. 

The fact that he took time out of his day to teach me to shoot a gun.

The time he spent cooking with us when cooking is supposed to be mom's forte.

All of the road trips,

fishing,

playing in the snow,

camping, 

and hiking.

He's always playing with us, 

                                      

wrestling, 

and always has time to read with us. 

He is CONSTANTLY teasing us and joking around.

My dad has always jumped in when I am stressed; he's spent hours pinning quilts with me way past bed time even though he had to work the next day.  He jumps in when I am in tears because a cake is falling apart.  He comes to my rescue when he see's how overwhelmed I am with cooking. 

He's dyed my hair for me,

and ridden horses with me despite the pain, simply because he knows how much I love it.

He's let us do crazy things to him, and is willing to try new things he knows we will love.

He's taught me how to drive and change tires, 

he's taught us to mow, 

and drive ATV's and dirt bikes.

He's fed us, 

 coached us,

 loved us,

he's adopted numerous other kids into our family and loved them as his own. 

He's cried when we cried, and laughed when we laughed; he's rejoiced in our accomplishments and encouraged us when we were down.

He's done so MANY more things that I can't even began to list.  He's danced in the rain with me and taught me to play ball and to work hard, to serve others with a willing attitude and live out my faith.  He's showed me how to love others and how to remedy past mistakes.  He has always stood behind us and supported us.  He is one INCREDIBLE father and and amazing man of God.  If I get married someday, I sure hope my husband is even half of what my dad was and is to me and my siblings.

I love you daddy! Thank you so much for inspiring me and those around you. 

Laundry day

12/9/13

Saturday I got my first taste of hand washing clothes.  Woohoo! 

Joseph and Pacit 

The actual washing machine is the white thing to the right, ...

But the rinsing must be done by hand. 

Ugh I never knew this was so hard! 

Lil brothers showing off their muscle ;)

Whew that's a lot of laundry! 

It is so easy to use clothing when you know that you can just throw your dirty clothes in the washer.  It changes your perspective when you have to do all of that work with your own hands.  You began to use your clothing a lot more conservatively when you see a women spending an entire day scrubbing away at your clothes.  Your actions affect others.  When you know your actions affect others in such a way, use a little less and do a little more.  Use less clothing to lighten their load a little, pick up your trash on the table when you go out to eat so its easier for the waiter.  Just make sure that you are thinking about those around you and not only your own comforts.  Because trust me!  Washing tons of laundry begins to hurt your hands!

Yolanda relief supplies

11/15/13

Shiloh has been collecting relief supplies to send to nearby islands affected by typhoon Haiyan.

Sir Ben sorting supplies.

Folding clothes.

Sir Ben, Sarah, and Miss Joy sorting supplies.

Miss Joy and Franklin 

Jacob and Sir Al.

Sir Al, Nico, Jireh, Andrew, Sydney, and Jezack

Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda

November 9th, 2013

Well, I have just barely survived my first typhoon.
Due to typhoon warnings, school was cancelled on Thursday.  So like any other off day, we hung out around the house.
Friday, the storm picked up.  It poured rain, and the wind loudly made its existence known.  At around 11:00 am the adventure began!
The lights flickered off, and because of the dreary day everything was slightly dark.
The first step to getting out of a black out?  Sleep!  So yes, I promptly fell asleep.  Nap #1 of the day checked off of my list.
Next step?  Find something exciting and suspenseful to do.  And so, a thrilling game of chess ensued.  Jake and I battled fiercely until the very end.  The game concluded in a stalemate, and we agreed to end with a tie. (Truth be told Jake more or less won. Shhh!!!! Don't tell!)
A game of Egyptian rat slap followed, along with rummy, gin rummy and then lunch by candle light! (I completely killed Jake in all of those games.)
Once lunch was over, we resumed our game and proceeded to decide that a change of scenery was needed. So what else is there to do but have a 14 year old, 17 year old and 18 year old play hide and seek tag?  Let the games begin!  Jake was the first seeker, and after finding us and chasing us around the house Joseph was next.  From there Jake dominated. (He also wanted me to add that he is a 6"1 and would like everyone to appreciate that it was very hard for him to hide.)  Joe and I were constantly the seekers; it was dreadful.  After a round or two of hide and seek tag we decided to play Filipino style.  Once we ended our hide and seek games, the boys took up Chess again, and Miss Karen and I started supper.
We ate supper by candlelight, and started a rousing game of Apples to Apples.  After a while of that, we headed off to bed at around 8:30.
It was around 17 hours of no electricity before it was turned back on.  It was a long, slow, but enjoyable day for us.
There are other areas are facing much more devastation than us; islands on the eastern side of the Philippines got hit with the full force of the storm.  It is still unknown how many are dead and injured.  The devastation was minimized for several reasons.  One, the storm was very fast moving, unusually so. Therefore, it did not have time to dump as much rain, and flooding from excessive rain is what usually causes most problems.  Second, the disaster management agencies were able to evacuate a lot of people from high risk areas, and many people were more cooperative with this than they have been in the past.  Third, for us, typhoons lose their intensity as they are going over land, and this one had to cross 3 islands before it got to us.  Something else unusual that happened was that as the storm approached Bacolod from the east it ran into two mountains that are east of the city which seemed to block lot of the storm from hitting Bacolod.  The storm did also hit Bohol, the island which was hit by the earthquake around a month ago.  That island is on the eastern side and would have been hit pretty hard by the storm but because of the problems caused by the earthquake, we do not have a lot of information coming from there yet.  Iloilo has a lot of structural damage because they are in a low-lying area that floods easily.  There are many people on the east side of Leyte where the storm hit the hardest that would not evacuate, and so suffered the brunt of the storm. We are praying for them. While it was a terrible storm, and many families have lost loved ones and homes, it could have been a lot worse.  And we are thankful for that. Please keep everyone in your prayers.

(Red lines are the areas that I mentioned above; green is where we are located.)

Chess! It was a tie!

Gin Rummy

Some of the damage done to our own property.