I did in fact… just this past week. I guess I can’t say that I personally drove them all, but between the wife and I we cleared a grand quite easily.
The ranch used to be a 7 hour drive if we kept moving and only stopped for fuel. When you add in kids, it turns into an 8 hour trip. When you potty train one of those kids it turns into a 9 hour trip. And when you stop in Grand Island to do some grocery shopping it comes in at a nice round 10 hours. We left on Monday afternoon and settled into our beds at about 1:30 AM on Tuesday.
Tuesday morning was Aunt Elaine’s funeral. It was about 1.5 hours back the way we came so we got to get up nice and early to make it to the church by 10:00 AM. The service was good – lots of family and it featured some excellent music. We got back home later in the afternoon and the relaxing was able to begin.
Wednesday was an “open day” where the kids got to live the ranch life without interruption. They are both big fans of cows now. Thursday was the Thanksgiving celebration which was met with much feasting and watching of the Style Network. Style Network? Not football? Yes, the Style Network. Friday saw more ranching and some pizza with friends. Saturday we hit the road again and made it home just in time for the KU vs. MU football game.
It was a good week with the obvious exception of the loss of a family member. We were blissfully disconnected from the cell phone and the internet which I found to be extremely therapeutic. We talked a lot with the brother in law about the pitfalls facing the church in this culture and got to sort our our long search for a church to call home a little bit. We got to sleep in, take naps, feed cows – I don’t think anyone could really ask for more.
Now, as soon as the computer at home is back up running there will be pictures. We even have one of Hayden hiding in my lunch box, so keep an eye out!
11:41 am on November 27th, 2007 1
That’s a lot of lunch!!! Looking forward to more pics as usual. We Missed you guys for Thanksgiving, however, Alex got lots and lots and lots of attention so maybe he didn’t miss you as much…..(j.k.)
Putting a bid in on the “grandma house” this afternoon. Keep your fingers crossed for me!!!!!!!!
2:33 pm on November 28th, 2007 2
Request for your next article title: “Pitfalls Facing the Church in This Culture”
I would love to read about your thoughts on this subject.
7:59 pm on November 28th, 2007 3
Jeff, I shall try to accommodate in the near future!
Angela, what news of the house?
10:04 am on November 29th, 2007 4
Thought you might have something interesting to add…..
HELL EXPLAINED BY CHEMISTRY STUDENT
The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington
chemistry mid term.
The answer by one student was ‘profound’ that the professor shared
it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have
the pleasure of enjoying it as well.
Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic
(absorbs heat)?
Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law(gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.
One student, however, wrote the following:
First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I t hink that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.
As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the different
religions that exist in the world today.
Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their
religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these
religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we
can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle’s Law states that in order for the emperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand
proportionately as souls are added.
This gives two possibilities:
1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in
Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.
So which is it?
If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year
that, ‘It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,’ and take
into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct……leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the exsitence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept
shouting ‘Oh my God.’
THE STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+.
11:00 am on November 29th, 2007 5
JUST BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
10:03 pm on December 6th, 2007 6
HI Bill and Clarinda – Tony gave me this website because I was asking about you guys the other day.
Your kids are adorable!!! They are both SO big – the last time I saw Hayden he was about a month old!! Hope you are all doing well!! Keep in touch
Anna
5:32 pm on December 9th, 2007 7
Thanks for stopping on by, Anna! I’m getting ready to post a few new pictures of the little folks as we speak. We’ll definitely try to stay in touch!