Reece the Electrician

Recently our cousin Reece came by to help us with some electrical problems / projects. Reece has been going to a trade school to become an electrician for over 4 years now. He is a "journeyman" electrician.

He helped us to install a 220 volt electrical plug for our arc-welder. And he did it in a little over an hour, start to finish (although he probably spent about half an hour at Home Depot!). Thankfully, the new welding setup is a lot more convenient to use than the old setup.
Me, Welding with the Old Set Up in November 2008

Also, we thought our Venta-hood over our stove had a bad socket for the light bulb. So we thought that we would have him take a look into fixing that too. When I came in from the garage to see if I could help him repair it, he had the light cover in the sink washing the grease off of it. I started to ask him if he needed help fixing the fixture, until I looked up at the Venta-hood, and the light was working! All Reece did was replace a light bulb, and it worked! We had tried this in the past, but it had not worked for us, so I guess it just needed an electrician's touch.

Clownsters

Here are clowsters (a.k.a: Clown sisters):


Phoebe


Me (Johanna)

The School Room Responsibility Act of 2009

Caleb is working through "Blessed is the Man" (a 2 - 3 year workbook for young men), and one of the assignments was to write a bill. So he wrote this "bill" (a little humorously), and got it passed into law (actually it was already law!). He had fun writing it, and it's a good reminder to keep the schoolroom clean and organized! You'll get a good laugh out of reading it! :)



[Scanned] picture number 1


[Scanned] picture number 2.

Mallory Boyes ~

We're here in Tyler at our grandparents house, about to leave for our uncle's baptism. On our way here we stopped off at our "adopted uncle's" grave. Uncle Mallory died unexpectedly in 2006 of a massive heart attack. We were all shocked and very sad. We haven't been able to stop by his grave since we were there for his buriel, so we stopped to take a picture and view the grave stone.

Babies (part two)

Here are more baby photos:

Hannah Faith playing

Smiley :-)

Alex Malachi

Logan Lucas Levels :-)

Hannah, spinning around.

Zinnias ~

Johanna took this beautiful photo a few days ago when we were gardening at our second garden

Hot Air Baloon Puzzle

The last few days we have been working on a 1000 piece puzzle. It's a picture of a bunch of hot air baloons, and we finished it yesterday. It took 3 or 4 days, with 5 people working on it. Puzzles are a lot of fun to do. A quiet, non-competitive activity.

Puzzle progression: #1

Puzzle progression: #2

Puzzle progression: #3

Puzzling over the puzzle.

Painting our "schoolroom"

Recently, we painted most of our "schoolroom". We painted it white. Although it was already it was already white, it really needed to be repainted. Phoebe funded all of the painting supplies.

"Watch out! I might get paint on you!!!" ;-)

The rollers running

Abby, doing the detail work.

Smile :-)

Getting in all the cracks

Four Eyes

Two weeks ago I (Phoebe) got another set of eyes, to help me see things at a distance better. It has helped a lot!

Me with my new glasses

Last Goodbyes

Wednesday night we went over to Chik-fil-A close to our house, and met Uncle Jimmy & Aunt Naomi, and Grandma & Grandpa to say our last goodbyes to UJ and AN. We visited for about 30 minutes, while they ate their supper. Then we took a family picture, said our goodbyes and they were off!

Joel chatting with Uncle Jimmy about his college program.

Visiting around the table

Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Naomi. "How sweet it is."

The Johny Kautt 2009 family picture (without the Knowles family)

The Un-Constitutional Census

I am an unusual person, and thus I enjoy reading the Wall Street Journal (online) on an occasional basis. In more than one instance I have been (pleasantly) surprised by their straightforward, concise and truthful reporting of the facts.

I ran across this article about the up-coming 2010 census and how it will invade the privacy of Americans with its pointed questions and means of "figuring out" just who we are. Unfortunately, the regular media has neglected this issue for more interesting items of news.

The authors argue that since 1980 at least, the census has not truly answered the question it was initially set up to answer: citizenship. The census is only supposed to number citizens, not non-citizens for representation purposes.

States such as Texas, Florida, California, Ohio and New York would see an increase of Representatives from their state due to the excessive number of "non-citizens" that "need representation." And yet, those non-citizens don't abide by all of the laws of this land! Do you see a double standard here?

I would encourage you to read the article and come up with your own conclusion, but maybe it will make you re-think this whole census issue before the member of the "head counters" comes around next year.

Cute babies (part 1)

We have a lot of photos of babies we know, so I thought I'd post some of them. I took a few of them, but some are not taken by me. Here they are:



Alex Malachi, helpin' out! ;-)


Noah John and Abby


Camille W., Abby and Jaden enjoyed playing with this baby at Rendezvous. All of the photos of this youngster were taken by either Abby, Camille, or Jaden. I took all of the other photos.


Annie W. (Camille's older sister) also enjoyed holding this bright-eyed youngster :-)


Jaden plays with the "happy baby".


I can't imagine what this little one was saying! The expression is priceless! :P


Hannah Faith K.


"Bong, bong, bong"-- Hannah loved to bong on the metal chairs! ;-)


Cousin Nate

That's all for now. More to be posted!

Daily Life~

Well, it has been a while since I have posted anything "personal" but I guess you probably know that I have my own blog which keeps me busy, besides micro-blogging at twitter as well. :) No excuse, I should let you all know what I've been up to lately.

Even though Mom is doing better each day she has still not resumed her full duties - actually, she mostly does not perform any tasks, which is fine. I still do the majority of the housework, cooking and cleaning, which I enjoy very much (especially the cooking). Entertaining guests has become something I enjoy as well, and I have had multiple opportunities here lately to try my hand at becoming a better hostess.

I continue (along with my fam) to do things on the political front, which is almost a full time job! :P Since we get school credit for each minute we spend doing activism, we try to take a few minutes each week to contact our leaders in D.C. to let them know our opinion on certain issues, pieces of legislation, concerns, etc. I was so nervous the first time I called my Representative, but that has worn off to some extent. :)

The last week and a few days we have been vastly enjoying the visit of my father's brother and his wife who serve as missionaries in Tuebingen, Germany. Since they live so very far away, and since it is very expensive to travel, we only get to see them about once a year. Those visits are treasured times for us all, and we look forward with bated breath to each sabbatical. They spent the night Sunday, and were with us until the early afternoon yesterday. Hopefully, we will get to see them at least a couple of times more before they leave for their homeland.

This weekend will find me in Tyler (East) Texas, Lord willing, helping my Aunt Jen celebrate her pregnancy. Her friend is throwing a baby-shower and us girls and Mom have been invited. I am looking forward to seeing family on my Mom's side, we don't see them very often and besides all that, its in the country. :)

I was reading a book the other day about this girl with cancer whose illness affected the rest of her family, causing stress, bitterness, grief and worry to weigh them down - and I was thinking how very similar the young lady's (who's perspective the book was written from) perception of her sister's sickness and my perception of my mother's sickness were. The story is very sad, and yet abounding with hope, because the family had The Hope - Jesus Christ to see them through the valley of the shadow of death as it were. Even when we cannot see the purpose of what we are experiencing at the moment, I was reminded that I should always trust in the sovereignty of God's plan, He always knows best! [the name of the book is: Dana's Valley by Janette Oke and Laurel Oke Logan]

On the first of this month, I read Psalm one and Proverbs one and it struck me how both of those passages speak about wisdom (and her worth) and folly (and its destruction) and I was comparing how many times both speak of wisdom and folly (or imply it at least) and I counted 8 munitioning's in Psalm 1 and in Proverbs almost every verse has something to say, in a comparative way about wisdom versus folly. Obviously, this is such an important concept and I realize that almost every day when my beloved littlest brother does something silly!

Well, lunch awaits so I must be off. God bless your week!

Our Anniversary From Julia

David,
Twenty-eight years ago I made public vows to love, honor and obey you, in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, till death parted us. Today, I publicly thank you for all the wonderful years of marriage.

I'm so grateful to the Lord for His grace and mercy, leadership and provision to us during those years.

You have been so faithful to stand by me through the thin times, and through all those nightmarish months of illness. What a shining example to a watching world of Christlike love and compassion. Thank you, dear. Here's to at least 28 more!

Love always,
Julia

Happy 28th Mom and Dad ~

From Abby's blog:



"Yesterday was my parents' 28th wedding anniversary! God has truly blessed our family with a wonderful example of biblical, Christ-centered marriage. Through the years I have been so blessed by their commitment to each other in a world where divorce is rampant, in the world and in the church. Thank you, Mom & Dad, for being such a blessing! God bless you with many, many more years of happy marriage!!!"

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!