He is Risen!!

I was very excited for Easter this year! I'm not sure what I was more excited about, going to Church as a family for the first time (that I remember), the play that was going to be done at the Church, having a great time with family, or all of it!! 
It was the first time that I remember the we all went to Church on Easter as a family! The Church we went to did a play, The Diary of the Cross Builder. The Church is still really new so it was just the Pastor reading the diary with a slide show going in the background. (The Church is using the theater, they dont have a Church building yet). It was very good, as Kevin put it, it open his eyes and made him think.  The Pastor read it with so much emotion, that you felt all of the emotions.  The diary began in January, the boy (dont remember his name but he was 21 if I remember correctly) grew up in a fishing family and has a little sister, Elizabeth. He gets sick on boats so he chose a different profession, since he likes working with wood he became a carpenter.  He went to school with 30 other people to learn more of the carpenter business.  During his schooling he sees a beautiful woman (Rachel) and tells his father and the father works out details with her father to arrange a marriage.  As soon as he graduated from carpenter school he had to get a job so that he can marry Rachel.  The only job that he could get was as a cross builder.  He didnt know what the crosses were used for.  He made one before he ran into the crowd on Palm Sunday.  He didnt know what all that commotion was for and was late for work.  When he did arrive at work he was given the order to make three crosses and he the end of the week to get them done.  Still not knowing what the crosses were used for, he completed two of them.  When he started the third one, there was a feeling that he felt inside that this cross was for someone special.  He took his time in creating the third cross, he smoothed the wood and made it look nice.  The next day he came upon the crowd once again and this time he saw a man, Jesus, carrying the cross he spent time on.  He was confused as he remembered seeing Jesus and everyone was waving palm branches and now they were mocking him.  He followed the crowd, and then he understood what the crosses were used for.  He goes on to tell of how they nailed Jesus hands to the cross and how he stayed there until it was finished.  When he went home that night, he told his wife that he could no longer work as a cross builder. His last entry, He was walking and came across Jesus, and how Jesus explained everything to him.  The Pastor said that he hopes that this play can become an annual thing and the he hopes to do the play with real actors.  It was powerful just listening to the play, I can only imagine what it will be like acted out.
After Church we went to Mom and Dad's for Easter dinner.  Anneke came up, a co-worker of Dads (Jerry) and Jonathan's girlfriend (December) were also there!! Had a great time enjoying yummy food!! Anneke took pictures, Mom cooked and I made a cake!!

The table!

Braided Easter bread, it was fun to make!!

The cake!

After eating, we went outside and had an Easter egg hunt with the kids!!  They had a blast! Anneke took family pictures for us, it was a little windy but I think that they turned out good!!

 

One more picture, Jacqueline and Lucy before it was time to eat.  It was a great day.  Look forward to more of these days to come!!

Our Home and Other Buildings

This post is mainly pictures showing our place and buildings on the place.  Our place hasn't been kept up in a good 3 years or more, defiantly some fixing to do, but its going to be fun to do!! I'm starting at the back of the place and working my way to the house itself. (I will get inside pictures in another post, slowly getting those pictures taken!)

 The Quonset is going to get a cement floor once it is all aired out and mud free.  This is going to be used by everyone, especially when planting and harvesting comes around.

 Not sure what we are going to do with this shop, tear it down or fix it.  The dog house (behind the shop on the left) is going to be cleaned and fix so it can be by the house for Chena (our dog) to use!

There are 2 of these pens, not sure what they were used for. I think that we are going to take them down.

The chicken coop.  It looks as if it was never finished and got damaged last fall when a 'surprise' snow storm came through. (It was a bad one, almost all the power poles snapped from the blizzard.)

This shop is going to get cleaned and it will be Kevin's shop.  There is electricity to it already.

The corrals  by the barn.  Once we get the well water going, there will be animals here eventually.

The barn.  It too, needs fixing.  All the doors will be replaced and match the new white one and the roof needs repair.  Other wise it is a really nice barn.

Our garage, the right door is half put up.  That is in the plans to get done this spring.  

The side door of the house, (the main door). The screen door broke yesterday, so now we have a self made doggy door. :) It's not going to stay that way, it will get fixed.  The window closest the to door is the kitchen and the big window is the livingroom. The right window upstairs will be craft room/storage room. And the left one is a bedroom. The wild lilac bushes are all going to get taken out and a flower bed will be put in!!

Front of the house. (And Jacqueline!) The bushes here too are going to be taken out.  The porches needs repaired. (Sorry about the mess on the porch, haven't gotten the last of the stuff moved in the house yet)  The flower bed will wrap around and be on both side of the steps (when it gets done, pictures will be posted)

This is the yard, I know its not much to look at right now, almost all the snow is melted and I did see a few green blades of grass walking to the mailbox this morning!! The building in the center, it is an old Church.  Our neighbors daughter would like to get it fix up and get the area kids together and do a vacation Bible school there.

Here is a picture of the Church.  Picture thanks to Anneke.

As things get fixed I will show the results.  I am so excited to start fixing things up!! It is going to be fun!!! Cant wait to get started. 

A Little Bit About the Area and Our Home!

Before I tell you about our new place I'm going to tell you about our old place.

We used to live on the reservation, 11 miles from town in a double wide 4 bedroom 3 bath home.  Nice yard where the deer and the pheasants came almost every day.   The home was nice, and that is all it really was.  We couldn't paint the walls or add any new nail holes to hang pictures.  There really wasn't anything to do in the town or in surrounding towns.  I didn't meet any of the neighbors, except one, the drunk one (when he was sober he mowed the yard for us).  We lived 4.5 hours from Ashley and Anneke and 2 hrs 15 minutes from Mom and Dad.

Now we live in a town that is in South Dakota and in North Dakota.  We are on the North Dakota side (same county as Mom and Dad!) We are further out in the country then before, (seen lots of deer, antelope, and pheasants) but only 22 minutes from anything.  There are four surrounding towns and we are like in the perfect spot as it does take 22 minutes to get to them.  They all offer something fun to do.  Now we live 5.5 hours from Ashley and Anneke and 40 minutes from Mom and Dad!
We were only here for like a month I think when we (all 4 of us!!!)meet one of our neighbors.  They had some furniture that they were giving away and they had it loaded and a crew to help move it later that evening for us! Really nice people, (meet the wife briefly at the grocery store 2 days before, nice surprise for both when we saw each other) almost right away we were told that her daughter does babysitting on the side and she watches Sandy's kids (Nathan's wife) and that if I needed a few hours to myself give her a call.  The kids were told that they need to come back when the grand-kids are they so they too have someone to play with! Really nice people in this area, a few grouches too but at least friendly. We met some other neighbors one Sunday afternoon when we drove around to let other people know that our dog, Bailey, ran off.  One said she was going to call some people and let them know.  One of the ladies she called, called us the next morning to make sure the information was correct and also said she was going to call others!! (Sadly, we still haven't see Bailey its been almost 3 weeks)
Ok, now the house!! We live in a older farm house two story with a full unfinished basement, 4 bedroom 1 bath.  It needs some work, but we get to do it and fix it up the way we want it!!  I can already see what it looks like all finished!! I will show the progress when we start to get things fixed!  I am really excited about this place (I will get pictures in another post to show!), there is a chicken coop. It needs a little fixing up and then its ready for chickens!! There are a few other pens that I don't know what they were used for, not strong enough for a pig but to big of a gap in the wire for other birds.  There are two shops, both need lots of cleaning, a barn with pens build for cattle or horses.  I am finally getting to garden and get to put in a flower bed!!
One last comparison of the 2 place before I get ready for Church.  Before when we used something and returned it and when to say 'Hi' that's all it was and we went home.  Last night we returned a trailer and stopped at the house to say 'Hi' we didn't really finish saying "Just wanted to stop in and say 'Hi" before Sandy asked if we had eaten and invited us to stay!!!  The kids get along great with their kids, Kevin gets along great with everyone he works with. He had been told by Nathan's brother, Jeremy, his Dad, and by Nathan himself they they are glad he is here and that he is doing a great job!!! (complements were very rare at the other place) The best plus of all....I am accepted by all. Both Sandy and her sister (Angie) want to be friends with ME and want to do things with ME!!!
Before its time to leave for Church and I have to go as is (in pjs) I need to go and get ready, but I have to say this... I LOVE this place!!! God really is amazing in the way He works, yup, still pinching myself!