I don't have time to write much, but will try to hit some highlights.
We had a disassembled family vacation at the end of February. Carol and I went to NC to visit Ambassador Baptist College; we spent much time alone and some with friends. Joel and Laura went to Grandpa and Grandma Bumgardner's. Grant, John, Josiah, and Kara went to Grandpa and Grandma Deatrick's house. Gardner stayed with a couple in our church, the Stilleys.
The old hospital, the AIBCI building that had been our church building for the past 13 years, finally sold.
My dad flew out of Chicago to go to Belarus on a 2 week trip to visit one of the missionaries that 1st Baptist in Wayland supports. I took him to the airport and our family picked him up on the return trip. The picture is of his plane flying right over our van just before it landed.
Before we picked dad up at the airport, we "cruised" Chicago and went down to Navy Pier. The kids had never seen any of the Great Lakes or downtown Chicago, so this was fun for them.
Here is what it is like driving an extended van in Chicago; too bad you can't use the "back-up beeper" at will when driving forwards (I guess that is the purpose of the horn?).
Our garage is nearly finished. I still need to run the electrical wires, make the stair well opening larger, finish a little bit of the siding on the back, and then organize everything that is already inside of it. For some reason, the picture makes it look kind of small. It is 24X24 with a 12X24 room upstairs. The door is 16X7 and it is over 16' at the peak.
Laura turned 10 on the 6th of May and Carol and I celebrated 12 years of marriage on the 8th of May. Our church folks gave us gift cards to Cracker Barrel and Carol's mom kept the kids and gave us nearly a whole day together. Gardner will be 1 year on the 15th of June!
My "little" brother (he's probably 2 inches taller and 20 lbs heavier than I am), Michael, stopped in with some of his friends on his way home from college.
Joel started baseball again. But as of now, Joel and Laura are at Grandpa and Grandma Bumgardner's house this week.
Things are really busy at church right now. We have been in our building exactly one year; we are currently building a new nursery inside and putting an addition on the outside of the building with new restrooms in it.
This picture is showing where the addition will be.
This picture is showing some of the men taking off the siding where we will add the new restrooms. (Bob Peterson, John and Josh Houston, and Allan Stilley)
The next picture is showing several men pulling staples out of the floor where the new nursery is going to be - there were literally thousands of 1 inch staples in the floor (previously holding down 1/4 inch plywood (Lowell Mest, Darin Kennelly, Mark and Allan Stilley; Dave Cook isn't in the picture, but he's pulled a good share of staples). Notice the original hardwood floor that was the roller skating rink.
The following pictures are of the walls for the new nursery. I didn't get a picture of him, but Ken Massey helped build the walls.
I hung the sheet rock on one of the walls of the nursery yesterday. I'd never hung a 12' sheet of drywall until this job; previously, I've only used 8' pieces, but there will be much less tape and mud to have to deal with. Josiah (Friday is his day to come with me) wasn't able to help lift the drywall, but he could hand me the drill and screws once I got it up and in place.
We've had a little bit of a problem with the church building project; our church garage, which we were going to use for storage, seems to have been hit by either a small tornado (supposedly, there was a tornado spotted the day this happened, but I haven't heard of any other damage), or really strong winds. It has been partially blown off of the foundation and so we are somewhat hesitant to put too many of our supplies in it.
Here is a picture of Carol. Though the picture is of her, it shows how she makes me feel.
Here are a few more pictures:Kara waking up from her nap.
Gardner.
Those of us who marched in the Memorial Day Parade. Me, Joel, Laura, Grant, John.
I didn't miss Josiah, he was in the picture with the new nursery walls.Well, until next time . . . take care.
