Spring is Slowly Springing

This is a picture of our house one year ago today.

This is a picture of our house today.

 

Did you notice the foliage?  It did seem like Spring was late in coming this year and I was right!  Sadly, another change has occurred in this picture.  The next close up shots of the front deck will reveal the problem.

Yesterday, the soaker hose for this flower garden in front of the deck (which we couldn't get to work at all last summer) all of a sudden started working and we couldn't get it to shut off.  Ed had to tear out most of the deck to get to the hose underneath.  What a mess!  We don't know what we are going to do as it seems to be a problem with our whole sprinkler system. We have 5 guests coming this weekend to finish the foundation for our back room.  Thanks for your prayers!

Youth Fundraising Dinner Part Two

Yesterday at Liberty Chapel, Julie's youth group put on another meal fundraiser for their upcoming trip to a national conference in Salt Lake City.  They collected $777.  More is coming.  I helped with the meal and cooked some of the BBQ pork.  It had to be slow cooked overnight and in the middle of the night, the power went out in that socket.  I got up early enough to put the meat on high and it turned out fine. But, I arrived at church a bit frazzled trying to get everything done on time. These pictures aren't all that clear since I forgot to bring my camera and ended up borrowing one (a good camera but I don't know how to work it).

After we ate, Chaplain Smith auctioned off the kids for various work projects such as babysitting, lawn mowing, organizing shoes (?)...

Julie was the only girl to go up for bids.  One of the Smith girls was sad that they didn't win the bid on Julie. There were at least 8 guys to go up for bids.

Chaplain Smith has been our regular preacher since we got here.  We very much appreciate his expository preaching. He will be gone for various assignments and schools in the upcoming months.  We will miss him while he is gone.

Prom Night

Garret and Julie went to the prom tonight but not before I got some pictures. 

My friend, Jodi, a professional photographer met them at the park in town and took even better shots.  Let me know if you want to look at them and I will get you the access information.  She also put some of the shots on her blog page which is:  www.smithusaf.blogspot.com

Expelled - the Movie

Last night, we went with 10 other folks from the base to see "Expelled".  I enjoyed watching it and would love for everyone who reads this to go and see it.  When the movie was finished, many in our audience cheered and clapped their hands in support of it. I looked on the internet for reactions.  The other side of this debate seems very threatened.  World magazine interviewed Ben stein and asked him "are you harboring any hopes for the kind of oscar attention Michael Moore and Al Gore have received?"  Stein answered Laughingly, "No I don't expect any oscar attention.  i think we will be mocked and belittled for this production."

More Whistle Pigs

I have been maligned as of late for spending time watching whistle pigs.  They are so "old hat" here.  Julie took these shots yesterday.  There were quite a few of them beyond the fence.  Aren't they cute?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hard to Say Good Bye

A few Sundays ago, our congregation on base said good bye to Tyler and Katy.  They have been transferred to Europe.  We have only known them since last Summer but have grown to love them dearly.  They both love Jesus and it shows through the various ministries they were involved in here at the base chapel.  They were involved in our Truth Project study and they plan to purchase their own set and use it in Europe. I will especially miss Katy as I have had wonderful conversations with her.  They are excited to pursue ministry abroad and we are excited for them.

Chaplain Smith brought them up front so we could all pray for them.  Tyler and Katy, you are loved!

 

Ed and Suzie's Day Off

We haven't taken a day off together for quite some time.  We were going to do the same ol' thing and go to Boise for the day.  Instead we decided to enjoy the natural beauty here in our area.

We went on base and marveled at the "whistle pigs" (rodents that are like little prairie dogs).

There were hundreds of them and this is the best shot we got!  They really do a lot of property damage with all of their holes.

We then went out a different gate that took us towards Bruneau.  We headed to the Bruneau Canyon Overlook.

It is fairly remote and it took awhile to get there but it was well worth it!

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

There was no one there to take our picture for us and no suitable rock to set our cameras on so we both held out our cameras at arms length....

 

 

 

 

 

        

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ed has longer arms.  Can you see our arm reflections in his sunglasses? It was a lovely day with temps in the low 70's. Thank you God for such a lovely creation!

 

 

 

 

A Very Sad Sign

Our very dear neighbors, Dallas and Marna are moving...

They have been the best neighbors anyone could have.  If you think you might want to move to Mt. Home, would you want to be our neighbor? There are two other houses within sight of our house for sale....

 

Ed and I were observing that in the past year, five of the eight houses on our culdesac have been on the market!

PWOC Baby Boys

Today at PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel - on base) I took this picture of three moms (Jennifer, Tierra, and Cathy) with their precious boys.  Children are a blessing from the Lord and our PWOC is VERY blessed.

Ed in Baltimore

 

Recently, Ed went to a chapel staff conference for National Guard members.  Here he is with 2 chaplains he worked for in Missouri.

 

 

Staff Sgt. Edward Buri.

Ed got to see other old friends also while in Baltimore including a chaplain we had worked with in Germany. What a blessing!

Congratulations Gospel Service

Yesterday, the Gospel Service at the base chapel celebrated their one year anniversary.  It was a blessing to participate in the celebration!  This was their dance team.

Chaplain Toney preached and then we had a BBQ lunch. 

 

 

A Trip to Fairfield, Idaho

Today Julie and I drove to Fairfield, Idaho to speak at the mother/daughter event at the Community Church there. This was my second visit to that lovely church. It takes about an hour to get there on Highway 20. After about 20 minutes of driving the whole landscape was covered with snow. Julie and I got to Fairfield early so we drove to Soldier Mountain to see some trees.

Julie loves trees (so do I). We then had a lovely meal and fellowship with the ladies from the church in Fairfield. I spoke for about 20 minutes and Julie and I sang a duet. They took the picture (below right) of us there. My eyes aren't closed but they look like it, which is normal.

On the way home we marveled at the beauty of the area.

A special thanks to Jerry and Fay who organized things and made us feel so welcome. I was so busy chatting that I didn't get the pictures I wanted of the ladies there and their building. Maybe next time....

Still, it was a great time of bonding with my precious daughter, Julie. I think I won't let her go when it is time for her to leave the nest!

Winter Won't Let Go

 We woke up to snow on the ground this morning.  Julie pointed out that we had some snow in November, so this is the sixth month with snow in it.

The Dig - Part Two

Yay! The hole is done.  Kenny and Kyle gave up a Sunday and finished the task.  Thanks so much Kenny and Kyle!

Kenny and Kyle after a job well done!

The Dig

We started our building project yesterday morning.  Ed was gone on his National Guard drill. The equipment was here, Kenny (the one who knew what he was doing) was here, the helpers were here (thanks so much!) but we still hadn't been able to move the fifth wheel.  Kenny's wife Alyssa, and I went to a neighbor's house a few blocks away.  We noticed that he had the same type of fifth wheel we had.  He graciously agreed to move it for us but couldn't do it right away.  So we got started on our project later than we had expected.

 

Here is our house a few hours before the dig and this is our fifth wheel being moved!

The initial dig was shallow so we could give the sod to some friends.

 

At first we had to haul the dirt in wheelbarrows to a trailer parked on the street.

To expedite, the rest of the gate was taken down and the trailer brought to the back.

We also had to wait around a lot since Kenny had to haul the stuff and he was the only one who knew what he was doing.

 

Kenny and Alyssa's kids with a worm.  The soil is so good here, Kenny sold some of it to help pay for our project.  We got 2/3 done so still had to rent the equipment for another day.  One couple who were helping gave us $300.  With that and the money from the soil, we were able to rent the trailer and the machine for one more day. Isn't that great how God provides? I plan to put a picture of the finished project in this blog when it is done.

National Prayer Breakfast

Here are Chaplains: Toney, Sands, Barfield, Smith, Richardson and Anderson.

Here I am (in the back) with Chaplain Richardson and some chapel staff and chaplain's wives.

Today our guest speaker for the base prayer breakfast was BG Cecil Richardson, the Air Force Deputy Chief of Chaplains (soon to be the Chief of Chaplains).  He spoke on trusting in God using the book of Job as his text.  Wow! His message really touched my heart and encouraged me.  This man of God has a fantastic testimony of how he himself learned to trust in God. I am extremely excited to have him as the Chief of Chaplains.