February Twenty-Third

Happy Birthday Mitchell David!

Nineteen years ago today, you were born ... our first son. The boy that would save our family name! With Dave being the only male on his paternal side, in his generation, it fell to us to produce at least one male, and with you & Kevin we have an heir and a spare!

From a very young age you proved that you would not sit still for long, and would push us to "keep up" as you explored and investigated all that was around you!

At about age 6 I followed you upstairs to your room one hot summer day, because I wanted to know what you were doing with that arm full of extension cords. I discovered that you had placed 4 oscillating fans outside your window on the flat roof. You told me you wanted to cool off the outside!

You have created some really amazing machines through the years ... this one you built with the back 1/2 of a go-cart, a John Deere tractor seat, the handle bars off your outgrown bicycle, and who knows where those front wheels came from. The cool thing about this machine was that in the winter you could take off the front wheels and replace it with an old snowmobile ski that you found in the barn (or stole off an existing snowmobile). All this with the welder we bought you for your 14th birthday!

You introduced us to the fine "sport" of 4-H Animals. Your choice, with great influence from Aunt Julie, was poultry. In your first year you captured the Grand Champion ribbon of the meat pens with your gigantic Roaster that you raised. We couldn't figure out why there were so many flies in the chicken barn here at home, until we found out that you were feeding the chickens corn syrup! You misunderstood the 4-H leader when she said to feed your chickens corn oil to help fatten them up! I'm sure your chickens loved you more than anything!

Age 16 ... big trucks, mud, and fun! Lots of prayers and grey hairs for Mom!

Sad to say that your zest for life didn't leave you free from injury. You broke your leg skiing when you were in Kindergarten and at age 11 you received stitches in your finger from a cut from a stanley knife. But this injury at age 16 was the most traumatic. Your experiment with bottle rockets and muzzle loader powder just didn't go too well! You suffered severe burns to your arm and fried your hair (thus the haircut), but God spared your face and your eyesight! As your Mother, I wanted to take your pain as my own. It was a journey of recovery, but miracles allowed the journey to be shortened to about 4 weeks when the Doc assured us it would be a 2-3 month process.

And about the bottle rockets ... you should've learned your lesson when you were 12 and lit your desk on fire after dropping sparks into the drawer that hid your stash of bottle rockets. Good thing you shoved that burning desk out of your second floor bedroom window, smashing onto the ground below! The poor babysitter didn't know what was going on when she saw you running through the house with a fire extinguisher!

Your knowledge of engines astounds me! Here is a rebuilt and freshly painted engine that your friends are pretending to have helped with. :) Dad and I are proud of the different awards you have won through your years of schooling!

I followed you into town one day this past fall, we were meeting for breakfast. As we entered downtown, where there isn't much room on the two-lane highway, we met one of those dreaded double wides! You politely pulled over to let the double wide pass and for some reason it really tickled my funny bone. Luckily I had my camera with me and was able to take a quick shot. Perhaps I find these kinds of things humurous because your big red truck screams "big & bad, get out of my way", but inside is a driver who is kind, patient, caring and compassionate. That might also be why you have managed to get by with many warnings, and only recently received a speeding ticket - much to Aunt Sarah's enjoyment! I'm convinced that the burly policeman marches up to the window of your truck and is bewildered to find you with your bright smile behind the wheel of that big red truck, and in his confusion he simply gives you a verbal warning. Like you tell Aunt Sarah ... "you just have to be nice to them"!

I am proud of the young man you have become! I am thankful that you are enjoying your first year at college and have been able to exceed beyond ...

I am forever grateful that you are always willing to help me out around the house. Taking off screen doors, chopping wood, shooting wild animals that get into our barns, helping with big 4-H horses, entertaining your younger sibs, fixing my Gator, on and on ....

My continuous prayer is that God will always wrap you in His arms of protection. That you will strive to become all that He intends.

Happy Birthday to my almost grown-up and handsome son! I Love You!

E.T. ... PHONE HOME!

Abbi says they could see us from Outerspace! That idea really isn’t that far off! Do you believe in Otherworldly Beings? I’m not sure that I do, but I am waiting for some Martian to spot our place here on Amish Highway 35, and decide to drop in for a visit! Let’s just say that when the Space Shuttle embarks on it’s next mission, the astronauts will count their revolutions around the Earth by using our barn light as a marker.

I returned home last night after a few “Mom Personal Days”, and after several months of doing battle with our electrician over the satisfactory lighting option for the outside of our barn, he installed the latest solution while I was gone. And this is what greeted me when I got home.

Pictures don’t do it justice, I took them with and without flash, and I simply couldn’t capture the feeling that we’re on the main strip in Vegas! When my dear friend (who took some personal days with me) pulled into our driveway to drop me off, she commented something like “Wow! They could’ve just landed the plane here!” I’m not sure of the exact words, I was too busy being mortified, and quickly thinking how I could scale the wall of the barn and unplug that offending light. The saga of the barn light began when our absolutely perfect lighting structure gave out, and we had to pick out something else. Something that the government said was more eco-friendly, in other words they don’t make our old kind anymore. We waited while the electrician healed from a broken heel, then up went one light … much too dim! All we could see were the moths that were flying within 3 feet of the bulb. We wanted to be able to see when cars came and went, not that that happens much at our place. :) In the meantime the electrician broke his leg again (no joke), but in a couple of weeks he was able to come back and take that one down, and put up this new high-tech one. What I wouldn’t give to just be able to see the moths again!

I am sure that our electricity-less (Amish) neighbors in the surrounding ½ mile are very grateful for the security lighting that we are providing them, free of charge! Or they’re grumbling that if they wanted to live in a place where the sun really never sets, they would’ve moved to Alaska!

As I was doing my Mary Poppins sweep of the home late last night (remember I had been absent for 7 days), I felt a sense of embarrassment. I really don’t have a desire to SHOWCASE our home. Then I pulled up my boot straps (or apron strings in my case) and decided I would just have to look for the humor in this. So looking for any humor I could find, I tiptoed into the bedroom to check on my snoring husband, and I’m pretty sure it appears that his ears are beginning to show signs of pointedness. I thought I married a Water Doctor, did someone say Dr. Spock? Any day now, Star Trek will hover, and my Pointy-Eared Husband will go to the great spaceship in the sky. I am also going to hide all the Reese’s Pieces, just in case E.T. decides to pay us a visit. I don’t need any more long-term guests in my house!

So if y’all live close by and want some free entertainment, go ahead and drive by after dark (that’d be after about 6:30 - had to tell you what time, because you won’t know its dark when you drive by). Go ahead and honk your horn, it will make me feel better knowing that I’m sharing with others!

Don’t wait too long … the electricians’ boom truck is now broken (no joke) and as soon as it is out of the mechanic’s garage, he’s going to come over at night and “adjust” the light.

BEAM ME UP SCOTTY!