2007 in Review

• January - enjoyed New Year's in Hong Kong
• February - traveled to Thailand
• March - started furlough early and returned to Oklahoma
• April - Audrey turns 11
• May - God begins to talk to us about resignation/taking a church
• June - submit letter of resignation to the Board, effective July 31. Called by Immanuel Southern Baptist Church in Wagoner, OK. Agree to take pastorate August 1.
• July - move into parsonage in Wagoner, OK. Sally begins work as medical transcriptionist.
• August - begin first pastorate at Immanuel Baptist Church
• September - Emily turns 8
• October - Audrey nominated for Jr. National Leadership Conference in Washington, DC.
• November - enjoy first Thanksgiving with extended family in 5 years.
• December - celebrate 15 year wedding anniversary. Celebrate first Christmas in 5 years with extended family.

God blessed us so much this year. I still cannot believe that we have gone from Hong Kong to Wagoner; it still seems like a surreal dream. I can hardly wait to see what He has for us in 2008!

Friends

I mentioned that Martin Whipple and his family came by on Saturday... here is a picture of our families at Las Fuentes Mexican Restaurant in Wagoner, OK.

National Treasure - Book of Secrets

We just returned from a delightful evening started off by a great time with my friend, Martin Whipple, and his family from Enid. Martin and I went to kindergarten together and then he & his wife, Linda, and I all went to high school together. After lunch, they went on to celebrate Christmas with his parents. We, on the other hand, we to to Muskogee to see National Treasure - Book of Secrets. It was a really fun movie.

It is a great family movie; there isn't anything too objectionable and nothing to worry about with your kids sitting next to you. There was lots of action, excitement, and, of course, it left it open so that there can be a National Treasure 3. We all agreed that it was as good, if not better, than the first National Treasure.

After the show, we went for a quick bite (fast food) then took a tour through Honor Heights Park to look at their hundreds of thousands of Christmas lights. It was truly spectacular. Something that we'll be doing for years to come.

We were just a tad sad, however, as we learned that it snowed while we were in the movie and we missed it. When we woke up this morning, it was 51 degrees. When we got home just now, it was 29. Welcome to the first day of winter!

Christmas Concert

The third graders at Teague Elementary School presented their Christmas Concert today. The selection is called "Snow Day".

Band Concert

This is the Wagoner Middle School Christmas Band Concert. Not bad for a bunch of kids who hadn't even picked up their instruments until four months ago!

Electrical Challenges

Well, this certainly isn't the kind of electrical challenges we had when we lived in Africa, but it was a little scary, nonetheless! You don't like seeing your plugs iced over that much, but, at least they still worked and didn't burn down the house! Click on the picture to make it larger and look at how thick the ice was over the bulbs.

Christmas Baking

Here is Sally and the girls getting ready for our little shindig last Saturday.

Christmas Table

This is the table Sally set for our Christmas Open House last Saturday. I tried to take it where you could see it snowing, but you can't really see it through the window. She did a wonderful job of getting house ready for our guests and I think everyone had a great time.

Snow

Well, we certainly missed the biggest part of this latest snowstorm! PTL! It started snowing at 11:30 this morning and is still snowing a little bit at 6:30 pm. Not a lot, but a little. It was a very pretty snow, but only a trace on the ground. The temps have plunged since this morning and my front steps were icy when I walked over to the church a few minutes ago.

We had an open-house/Christmas fellowship for our church today at our house. We have been leery of the weather, but we had a house full of people. It was a great success. The snow only kept a few folks away.

This morning, the kids were waiting for it to start snowing and were extremely impatient. They got busy doing other things and when I yelled out that it had started to snow, you'd have thought they won a million dollars! They pulled their coats on and ran out in the front yard and opened their mouths to catch snowflakes. This is the first snow they have seen in 5 years! They both only remember the snow we had when we were on furlough back in 2002 in Tulsa. It was an incredibly great snow then, but not so today. I think we were all a little disappointed that there would be no snowman! Maybe next time!

Update II

We heard from Sally's mom this morning. She called PSO and asked when they were going to get power back on. The lady said, "Well, most of Vinita has power". As they looked into it, only 85 homes are left without power and my in-laws and Sally's sister are two of the 85 houses! The PSO lady said that it should be on by Sunday evening.

A report on TV last night said that there are still over 260,000 people without power in Oklahoma. Just in time for the next snowstorm!

Cool New Invention

I've been out to Wal-Mart, which seems to be busier than normal because of people in areas without power coming to our Wal-Mart that has power. I went out last night to buy some gift boxes for wrapping, and was met at the door by an odd sight. All of the Christmas items in "action alley" had been moved back and was replaced by flashlights, chainsaws, oil lamps, oil, and small camp-size propane bottles. The clerk behind the jewlery counter said they had just moved them in, directly off the truck.

This morning, I went back out to pick up some tissue paper, that I forgot to buy last night. I noticed that half of the oil lamps were already sold (at 9 am!) and many of the batteries and flashlights were already gone. Only one chainsaw had been purchased so far. I went ahead and bought an oil lamp and a couple of bottle of oil, just in case.

As I was purusing around the store, I made it through the camping aisle. There was a bare spot on the shelves where they keep the camping lanterns. That was interesting! As I made my way over the the grocery section to get some stuff for our party tomorrow (fat chance since there is a big snow storm coming) I found a really cool invention. I had never seen it before, but can see how, especially in times like these where there are lots of folks without electricity, it would come in handy. It was cans of self-heating soup!

The can was a little taller than a pop can. Underneath, there was a pull top, like on green beans or tuna. The directions said that you were to turn the can over, pull off the protective cover, and push the button until all the green water drains into the hole. Turn the can back over and wait 5-8 minutes, until the little indicator spot turns color. Shake well and drink. It went on to say that it uses "quicklime" and never touches the food inside. What a cool idea! Great for camping, road trips, or power outages!

Update

Audrey's fever broke on Wednesday and she went back to school today. PTL!

My in-laws in Vinita are still without power, but are staying warm.

My sister in Owasso has her power back on now and she is warm.

Sally and I are completely finished (we hope) with Christmas shopping.

It is supposed to snow here starting tomorrow afternoon and not stop til Saturday.

We are supposed to have a church open-house in our home on Saturday.

I'll bet we don't have 10 people come because of the snow.

What a Difference...

...a day makes (and a few degrees)!

This morning, we woke up to dense fog, rain, and NO ICE, at least here in Wagoner. We made it through without losing electricity and only a few branches down in the yard.

A report this morning on local TV said that there are 500,000 customers without power across Oklahoma. They said this was the single largest power outage in our State's history!

My in-laws reported that they made it through the night OK. They lit the burners on their gas range every now and then and wrapped up in blankets. They said Wal-Mart was open this morning so they were going to high-tail it out there to try and find some supplies, as they may not have power until next week.

On the home front, Audrey is still sick. She woke up with 102 degrees this morning. We have an appointment to see the doctor at 2 pm today. 4 days on antibiotics and still running a fever just isn't right.

Ice Pics

I've posted a few more pictures of the ice storm over on my Wunderground Weather account. Click here to see them.

Limbs falling

We have had two pretty good size limbs break off and fall in our yard. One of them hit the house right where the electrical service is located. We were fortunate that it didn't bust it all to pieces. While I was looking at it, another big one fell out of the walnut tree.

Since I went out this morning, the trees are whiter and the icicles are now about 6 inches long. As I drove to Sonic for lunch, I noticed that there are several big trees that are split and limbs all over the place. Fortunately, Wagoner hasn't lost power yet. PTL!