Monday, Feb 9th
A needy family came by today and we were able to provide food for them!
The Hope in Transit group came by today, they completed classes quickly and left in a hurry. The mountains near AICM were forecast to get anywhere from 6-20 inches of snow that day! All day we watched the snow go around us. We could watch it get within a few miles and then the storm would split and we could see snow to the North and South of us, then to the East of us. At one point, we got a sprinkling of rain, but that was all during the daylight hours.
The snow flurries started about 9PM. They were the biggest flakes I have ever seen in my entire life! I had always thought those giant snowflakes at the beginning of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" movie were exaggerated, but these flakes were very large, I would say two or three inches in diameter. Then, about ten o clock the wind started and we had a blizzard outside. We had snow blowing in through our closed front door! Fortunately, the wind didn't last too long and soon it was just snowing again.
Tuesday,
A snow storm blew in after dark last night and today school was canceled! Jerry is not very excited about it, because he is anxious to keep his lesson plans on schedule, but I enjoyed it. I came into the office for a while and worked. Jerry took the girls outside to play in the snow. When I got back, they had already had the required hot chocolate and proudly showed me their snow man they had made outside.
Thursday
Art class went very well again! We used pencils and drawing paper to practice identifying light sources and shading objects in a picture accordingly. There are some really talented kids in my class! I really enjoy it. And Kelcy did really well with the shading practice too.
Friday
Valentine's Party!
Kelcy went to Miss Springer's class for the first time today! Miss Springer had offered to teach her one day a week and she started today. Miss Springer said she did very well. The whole class was making mail boxes to receive their Valentine's in later that day. After lunch, we all went down to party! There was cupcakes and brownies and hot Cheetos and juice! The whole school watched "Space Buddies" and ate snacks and exchanged Valentine's. It was a very nice day! Thank you Miss Springer for the Valentine's party!
Saturday
The Diehl's went to town today! We drove into Winslow and went to the Post Office and then to the Library. The girl's picked out books to borrow and so did Jerry and I. Next, we all went out to lunch and ate at Denny's to celebrate the holiday. It was yummy! Then, (as if that wasn't enough) we drove to the local playground and let the girls play for an hour or so outside. They had a great time with the bumpy slide and twirly slide!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Happy Birthday!
Feb 3
Jerry had a very nice birthday. He shared it with one of the school children. He said that he had never known anyone else who had his same birthday, so that was neat. The school kids sang to them both at lunch time. He didn't get his cake until Saturday, but he enjoyed a nice relaxing birthday.
Today, Miss Springer taught the Chapel lesson about not holding things inside. We stood outside in a circle and tossed around a can of soda until it burst and spewed everywhere. The point was that we need to communicate and not keep things inside, or we will blow up like that can of soda.
At lunch time, Miss Springer introduced the Marshmallow Wars. Now, I did not witness the spectacle, but Abby & Kelcy both participated along with all the school children present. Apparently, the children were armed with Marshmallows and they threw them at Mr. Diehl (Jerry)--at least that is how Abby described it to me. I did see the aftermath and the birds were having a meal of the few marshmallows left on the ground.
Wednesday, Feb 4th
After lunch today, the kids all lined up at one table for the hot Cheetos eating contest. The goal--see how many hot Cheetos you can eat without resorting to drinking water. If you have never tried the hot Cheetos, there are two types: the puffy and the crunchy. I find the puffy to be hotter than the puffy ones. Miss Springer had purchased the puff hot Cheetos for the contest. Needless to say, none of the teachers were participating. Neither did Abby or Kelcy or their friend Jessica, but everyone else did. I imagined the kids wolfing down the Cheetos quickly and then grabbing their drink. However, this was not the case. In the end, Miss Springer had to impose a time limit on eating the Cheetos to end the competition and I think last about 20 minutes, with several of the kids still eating Cheetos. Some even wanted to eat more after time was up! The champion was a young lady and she won the bragging rights and a prize. All of the participants were commended for their bravery and given a certificate or a prize. And a bag of hot Cheetos!
The Hope in Transit group that teaches music came on Thursday of this week. The kids all enjoyed the music class, as usual!
Friday night the girls and I made Jerry his birthday cake. He had requested a Lemon Bundt cake with a lemon glaze. Abby & Kelcy are both getting good at cracking eggs and are very interested in the baking process. The cake turned out wonderful and Daddy was delighted that all of his girls had made him a cake.
This Saturday, the wind blew most of the day, so we stayed inside and read and played the Dora Memory game.
Sunday, I got some new faces in my Sunday School class and they said that they would be back every week. I look forward to it! Church attendance is doing very well, I think. It is encouraging to see people returning each week to hear the word. Jerry has finished the "Facing the Giant" Sunday school program and is starting the "Oaks of Righteousness" series. Mr. Bill did a fine job with the message today! Tonight we had a pot luck at Dilkon. It was very encouraging to see some new faces there as well! Mr. Bill made us baked chicken, which was delicious. We had a nice visit to Dilkon and we look forward to the next one!
Jerry had a very nice birthday. He shared it with one of the school children. He said that he had never known anyone else who had his same birthday, so that was neat. The school kids sang to them both at lunch time. He didn't get his cake until Saturday, but he enjoyed a nice relaxing birthday.
Today, Miss Springer taught the Chapel lesson about not holding things inside. We stood outside in a circle and tossed around a can of soda until it burst and spewed everywhere. The point was that we need to communicate and not keep things inside, or we will blow up like that can of soda.
At lunch time, Miss Springer introduced the Marshmallow Wars. Now, I did not witness the spectacle, but Abby & Kelcy both participated along with all the school children present. Apparently, the children were armed with Marshmallows and they threw them at Mr. Diehl (Jerry)--at least that is how Abby described it to me. I did see the aftermath and the birds were having a meal of the few marshmallows left on the ground.
Wednesday, Feb 4th
After lunch today, the kids all lined up at one table for the hot Cheetos eating contest. The goal--see how many hot Cheetos you can eat without resorting to drinking water. If you have never tried the hot Cheetos, there are two types: the puffy and the crunchy. I find the puffy to be hotter than the puffy ones. Miss Springer had purchased the puff hot Cheetos for the contest. Needless to say, none of the teachers were participating. Neither did Abby or Kelcy or their friend Jessica, but everyone else did. I imagined the kids wolfing down the Cheetos quickly and then grabbing their drink. However, this was not the case. In the end, Miss Springer had to impose a time limit on eating the Cheetos to end the competition and I think last about 20 minutes, with several of the kids still eating Cheetos. Some even wanted to eat more after time was up! The champion was a young lady and she won the bragging rights and a prize. All of the participants were commended for their bravery and given a certificate or a prize. And a bag of hot Cheetos!
The Hope in Transit group that teaches music came on Thursday of this week. The kids all enjoyed the music class, as usual!
Friday night the girls and I made Jerry his birthday cake. He had requested a Lemon Bundt cake with a lemon glaze. Abby & Kelcy are both getting good at cracking eggs and are very interested in the baking process. The cake turned out wonderful and Daddy was delighted that all of his girls had made him a cake.
This Saturday, the wind blew most of the day, so we stayed inside and read and played the Dora Memory game.
Sunday, I got some new faces in my Sunday School class and they said that they would be back every week. I look forward to it! Church attendance is doing very well, I think. It is encouraging to see people returning each week to hear the word. Jerry has finished the "Facing the Giant" Sunday school program and is starting the "Oaks of Righteousness" series. Mr. Bill did a fine job with the message today! Tonight we had a pot luck at Dilkon. It was very encouraging to see some new faces there as well! Mr. Bill made us baked chicken, which was delicious. We had a nice visit to Dilkon and we look forward to the next one!
Friday, February 6, 2009
A Wing and a Prayer...
January 26 through Feb 2nd
We had a great week of school! The kids were again pretty well behaved. The physical education classes are doing great!
In art class, we made clay sculptures out of modeling clay. Two of the boys made army tanks out of clay and one made “Wall-E” from the Disney motion picture. I had assorted decorations available for use, including beads, feathers, sea shells, drinking straws, toothpicks, etc. We all had a good time. The winds were blowing this week, causing the electricity to go in and out. We continue to have warm weather, at least above 50 degrees in the daytime and about 10-20 degrees overnight (Fahrenheit of course).
Friday evening we learned that one of the school children had a little brother that was still born at nearly full term. I have never been so close to someone in this situation. It was really heartbreaking and I have prayed for this child and family a whole lot. I hope that you will, too.
Saturday started out okay. The girls woke at their usual early time, but they went to play in the living room, leaving Jerry and I to rest in bed for a little longer. Unfortunately, they made a bad decision, one that we had warned them about in the past. As soon as I sat up in bed, I noticed an odd smell. Then Jerry noticed and we both took off running. It was the smell of melting plastic. We found a total of seven Barbie dolls sitting on TOP OF THE GAS HEATER! The Barbie dolls were melting down into the stove. Among the dolls was Abby’s collector’s edition Barbie Cinderella doll. Cinderella’s dress was brown and smoldering! I was terrified. We had warned the girls not to put ANYTHING on top of the gas stove, even before we began using it for heat. Needless to say, they both got a stern lecture about what could have happened and we had to throw away four of the dolls, including Cinderella.
The rest of Saturday was good, we spent the day working around the mission as a family. It was a beautiful day and we all enjoyed being outside in January without hats and gloves.
Sunday was a great service at Red Sands Christian Church. I had three kids in my Sunday school class, which was good. Then, I had six kids in junior church with me, which was nice too. The kids used puppets and made a puppet show to illustrate using good manners. It was very cute. We had a good adult attendance and after church we had the pot luck meal. Mr. Bill made roast, we brought chess cake and broccoli casserole and Miss Springer brought green beans and rice krispy treats. Some of the other church members supplied drinks and large sub sandwiches to share, potato salad and macaroni salad. It was an excellent meal.
Sunday evening
We did not watch the Super Bowl. I wanted Arizona to win, for obvious reasons! We had plans. Some friends of ours from Corbin were visiting the area and they took us out for dinner on Sunday night. It was a wonderful meal and it was VERY wonderful to see our friends and hear about their travels and answer their questions about our work. Abby & Kelcy were pretty well behaved at the restaurant. Our friends were staying at the La Posada hotel in Winslow, so after dinner we visited their rooms. It is a very interesting older hotel with European styled rooms. They had rooms that were named after celebrities such as Mary Pickford and John Wayne.
Monday morning our friends came to visit us at the mission and brought juices and pastries for the children to share. The children really enjoyed the visit and appreciated the gift of food. I got the chance to show them that I was not exaggerating when I said that you can see 50 miles in any direction from the mission. It was a wonderful visit from our friends at home. They traveled onto their next destination, but the kindness of their visit will stay in our hearts here.
After we left the classrooms on Monday, Miss Springer’s class went outside with their cardboard ground hogs to see if they would see their shadow. They did lots of things with shadows that day.
Next week: Jerry gets older, Marshmallow Wars and a Hot Cheetos eating contests.
We had a great week of school! The kids were again pretty well behaved. The physical education classes are doing great!
In art class, we made clay sculptures out of modeling clay. Two of the boys made army tanks out of clay and one made “Wall-E” from the Disney motion picture. I had assorted decorations available for use, including beads, feathers, sea shells, drinking straws, toothpicks, etc. We all had a good time. The winds were blowing this week, causing the electricity to go in and out. We continue to have warm weather, at least above 50 degrees in the daytime and about 10-20 degrees overnight (Fahrenheit of course).
Friday evening we learned that one of the school children had a little brother that was still born at nearly full term. I have never been so close to someone in this situation. It was really heartbreaking and I have prayed for this child and family a whole lot. I hope that you will, too.
Saturday started out okay. The girls woke at their usual early time, but they went to play in the living room, leaving Jerry and I to rest in bed for a little longer. Unfortunately, they made a bad decision, one that we had warned them about in the past. As soon as I sat up in bed, I noticed an odd smell. Then Jerry noticed and we both took off running. It was the smell of melting plastic. We found a total of seven Barbie dolls sitting on TOP OF THE GAS HEATER! The Barbie dolls were melting down into the stove. Among the dolls was Abby’s collector’s edition Barbie Cinderella doll. Cinderella’s dress was brown and smoldering! I was terrified. We had warned the girls not to put ANYTHING on top of the gas stove, even before we began using it for heat. Needless to say, they both got a stern lecture about what could have happened and we had to throw away four of the dolls, including Cinderella.
The rest of Saturday was good, we spent the day working around the mission as a family. It was a beautiful day and we all enjoyed being outside in January without hats and gloves.
Sunday was a great service at Red Sands Christian Church. I had three kids in my Sunday school class, which was good. Then, I had six kids in junior church with me, which was nice too. The kids used puppets and made a puppet show to illustrate using good manners. It was very cute. We had a good adult attendance and after church we had the pot luck meal. Mr. Bill made roast, we brought chess cake and broccoli casserole and Miss Springer brought green beans and rice krispy treats. Some of the other church members supplied drinks and large sub sandwiches to share, potato salad and macaroni salad. It was an excellent meal.
Sunday evening
We did not watch the Super Bowl. I wanted Arizona to win, for obvious reasons! We had plans. Some friends of ours from Corbin were visiting the area and they took us out for dinner on Sunday night. It was a wonderful meal and it was VERY wonderful to see our friends and hear about their travels and answer their questions about our work. Abby & Kelcy were pretty well behaved at the restaurant. Our friends were staying at the La Posada hotel in Winslow, so after dinner we visited their rooms. It is a very interesting older hotel with European styled rooms. They had rooms that were named after celebrities such as Mary Pickford and John Wayne.
Monday morning our friends came to visit us at the mission and brought juices and pastries for the children to share. The children really enjoyed the visit and appreciated the gift of food. I got the chance to show them that I was not exaggerating when I said that you can see 50 miles in any direction from the mission. It was a wonderful visit from our friends at home. They traveled onto their next destination, but the kindness of their visit will stay in our hearts here.
After we left the classrooms on Monday, Miss Springer’s class went outside with their cardboard ground hogs to see if they would see their shadow. They did lots of things with shadows that day.
Next week: Jerry gets older, Marshmallow Wars and a Hot Cheetos eating contests.
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