Happy Birthday to Mandie!

Mandie's 21st birthday was the 29th, but I didn't have access to a computer until today, so this is late. I also don't have pictures downloaded, so that will be even later, but I do want Mandie to know that we are so very proud of her. She has been a blessing to us for 21 years and we are so happy that she has found (or been found by :-) ) a man who loves her very, very much! We were able to spend four nights in Branson over the past weekend and it was so relaxing. We went to Silver Dollar City on her birthday and just enjoyed walking around, shopping a little and Bruce and Noel really enjoyed the rides. It was a gorgeous day, hardly a need even for a jacket until the sun went down! Manuel and I kind of hung out together, which was really a first at Silver Dollar City, since we are usually taking care of the younger kids. We enjoyed it so much. We all got together and rode the train before leaving the park. That was fun, too. I found a shop that is going out of business and found several beautiful items for our new house! That was really fun! I'll post pictures later. Have a Happy New Year!

Christmas Sunday

We stopped by our house on our way back to the apartment after church Sunday morning and took these pictures.

Woolaroc

We went to Woolaroc on Saturday night and had a very fun and COLD time! There were beautiful lights, which didn't turn out to well in the pictures, and then we went into the lodge and had chocolate or cider and cookies. There was a petting barn and we wandered in there. As you can see, Dafne found a friend! I don't think the llama actually "kissed" her! I hope not! Anyway, it was a fun evening!

Fun at Woolaroc

Update on our house

This is what our house looks like now, like we're moving, which we are! (Eventually.) There

was a team of four ladies who had the unpleasant job of digging through everything and packing up to send to the warehouse for clean-up.

Happy Birthday to my sister, Bev!

In all the happenings in my life in the last week and a half, I forgot to say that my sister, Bev, had a birthday on the 12th! I hope your birthday was just as special as you are, Bev! You have been so good to us and no one could ask for better sisters than I have! Love you lots!

I thought I would get on here and give just a little update of our situation. As far as I know, the fire was determined to be caused by a short in the electric lights on the Christmas tree. The tree was two years old, prelighted and we bought it from KMart, just FYI. We stayed for one night at Becky and Jerry's and then moved to a motel in Bartlesville for nine nights (How time flies!). We stayed at our apartment last night. It is comfortable, although pretty small for five people. We will be fine, though. It has two and a half bathrooms and one bedroom (go figure!). We've rounded up enough furniture to get by fine and thank you to Dolly and Dake Shreffler for sharing some with us. Mandie got on Craig's list and hunted down other essentials and there we are! Allstate is taking care of us, and we are just wading through the paperwork and red tape. Today we found out that they are "totaling" the house, although the adjuster said they don't use that word any more, so whatever, but I guess we will be house shopping! I might post some pictures of our apartment at some point if I can ever get it all together! In the meantime I need to run out and shop for Christmas again! Oh, well, I have what eight days? No problem! Lol!

The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord!

Friday night we came home from our Christmas dinner at my work to find our home on fire. The fire was contained in the family room, but the smoke damage was throughout the house. I am posting some pictures of the house for those of you who might want to see them. I was really glad that I had taken pictures of it before the fire. Our things are all smoke covered and I don't know how much can really be cleaned and saved, but the Lord gave us opportunity to be able to salvage some, by helping us to get home from the dinner just in time to call 911. We will be meeting with the insurance adjusters tomorrow to determine what will be done. We are trusting in God that He will help all the right decisions to be made. Many people are asking what they can do to help, and we appreciate every prayer and every word of kindness. It tells us that we have more friends than we realized. At this point we are in a hotel until we can find an apartment or something in Bartlesville to get into. I did want to share this with you. I called Becky right after Dafne got 911 called and on their way (my kids were tremendous throughout the whole process) and she and Jerry jumped in their two vehicles and started over. She said that on the way she was just saying, "God, please stop that fire!" When all was said and done, probably Sunday, she realized and put it all together what a miracle God had done. The firefighters told us that in five more minutes the house would have exploded. They got there in the nick of time to keep it from going up in flames completely, thus losing all hopes of salvaging any sentimental things, CDs, pictures, or whatever. Thank God for praying family and praying friends. Becky and Jerry were so good to us that night. We can never repay their love and help to us, as well as other friends who showed up for support. Love like that cannot be bought. Bruce was there that evening, having gone to the dinner with Mandie, and I guess he got his share of initiation into the family! Scott was initiated by the tree that fell and crushed our house right before their wedding, and Bruce got to see us at our worst during the fire! He was all over the place, trying to help Manuel see if they could get in before the firetrucks got there, and of course they realized it was beyond what they could do, so they didn't go in, but he proved to be a true "son" to us, just like Scott did during our tree disaster! Noel was so strong and trying to help his dad, too. Mandie and Dafne were wonderful. Bianca was on the phone with us and it was as though while the fire raged inside, our family melted together. I am so thankful for the love that we share. I thank God we were not inside asleep! I thank him that even though our clothes are smoked, we still have most of them. Dafne lost her collection of hoodies which melted because they were hanging on the back of her bedroom door, but that can be replaced. (As a "funny" if there is anything funny, Dafne and one of her friends climbed through her bedroom window after the fire was out to save her denim skirts! She said, "It's hard to find skirts nowadays!" That's my Dafne, always thinking!) What can I say? God is dearer to me today than He ever has been.
Just a side note for those who really don't trust manufactured homes: I was really impressed by the durability of our home through the fire. Three of the bedroom doors were closed and those rooms had much less smoke damage. The doors were charred on the side of the fire, but the insides weren't that bad. The house burned like any normal house would. We did a lot of research on our home before we bought it and finally decided on one from Kansas Mobile Homes in Parsons. It's a Spirit brand. I'm sure if it is replaced, we will go back to them.
Please keep us in your prayers. Thank you.

The picture with the curtains and mirror and plant are in our bathroom which was at the very opposite end of the house from the family room. Noel was intrigued by the melted blinds in the living room.

More pictures

I don't know what order these pictures will come out in, so I'll try to describe what each of these pictures are. This are pictures of the family room and the kitchen. The thing hanging from the ceiling is a Southern Living at Home metal candle thing, but the ceiling and/or light fixture has melted and dripped down on it. You can see the front of the oven and microwave that is completely melted. The fire was contained in the family room, but the heat in the house was tremendous and there is smoke damage throughout the house.

New puppies at our house!

This is kind of a strange shot of our two new puppies. The little brown lab is Manuel's puppy and Mandie bought him a little shirt that says "I'm not only perfect, I'm also Mexican!" Jazzy is a little Cocker Spaniel who also has a little pink shirt on, but you can't see it very well. It's actually a hoodie. And no, they aren't house dogs at all. We brought them in for pictures.

Christmas at Our House

Here are a few pictures of our Christmas decorations. The tree is in the Family Room and has an angel on top, but it got cut out of the picture. The fireplace is also in the Family Room and is one of our favorite spots. I set the Nativity scene on this old Singer sewing machine that Manuel gave me. The snowmen are in our kitchen window. We love Christmas at our house, as you can tell!

These pictures are posting in an order different than what I see when I am entering them, so forgive the following post. I do know my left from my right, ect. These are just more of our Christmas decorations. The tea cart in the dining room, one of my hutches that is decorated, but also has the dishes on it that I found (Binky found) on Craig's list. I think I mentioned them in an earlier post. The tree is the small one in the living room. The little tree is in the kitchen. And there is a shot of the dining room table.

This wooden Nativity Scene is from Bethlehem. Bev and Wayne brought it to us when they went. I think she said it is hand carved Olive wood. To the left is my Nativity snowglobe and the decorations on the piano. Just out of interest, the Promise Box that you see on the piano (right bottom corner of pic) was a wedding gift from Deloss and Frankie! We treasure it.

The pic to the right is just another thing I do at Christmas and below is a shot into one side of our dining room. Sorry about the bags! We were getting prizes ready for a work party.