And without further ado…

Yes, someone is engaged…

Hmm…somebody looks a little excited here, don’t they?

Yes, you saw right…that’s my crazy brother Joe. And my ’sister’, Katie. (See, Beth and I already called her a sister…we are the triplets, you know…she just had to go and make it all official-like. )

Yes, they are a goofy pair!

Katie wrote this and graciously allowed me to post it here for your reading enjoyment:

Joe and Katie’s Story [so far]

Some of you have been asking about how Joe and I met. Joe and I met two years ago at our mutual friends’ house and later God provided ways for our families to get together and I got to know his sisters. After that, Dad and Joe got together for lunch on a weekly basis for several months. It was a good time for Dad to get to know Joe and for Joe to get to know Dad because they were able to talk freely about their beliefs. These are some points that I’ve kept in mind and that I believe are very important in relationships.

I believe that dating is dangerous because it encourages a false sense of feelings. In dating, there is a greater chance of getting physical before the proper time. Also, when people date, there is no real commitment to each other. People sometimes will date several different people before they marry anyone and by then, they’ve given a little bit of their heart away each time.

I believe that God’s timing is always perfect. When we give ourselves and our relationships to God, He will bring things to pass when it’s best. It is important to always give everything to God, not just in relationships, but in all of life. When we give something to Him that maybe we really want, He will bless that. He will either give it back to you, or He will give you something far better! God knows what is best.

God’s hand has been so evident in my relationship with Joe! He knew just when for us to take each little step. After each step, I would pray that if this wasn’t God’s will, that He would end it right there, and He never did! He continued to open doors and we continued to go through them.

It is very important before even considering someone, to make sure that they are a believer. If they aren’t it causes so much pain and trouble in the long run. 2 Corinthians 6:14

I also believe that parents need to be involved. Joe first went to his Dad before he went to my Dad. Everything we have done has been with our parents’ permission and approval. Parents have so much wisdom and God has placed them over us to train us and guide us. They see things that we don’t, so if they say, no this isn’t a good thing, we need to listen to them and trust them. Proverbs 23:22, 24

One thing that our culture doesn’t seem to understand, is that love is not a feeling. It’s a decision. There are times when we don’t feel love for people, but we must love them anyway. I believe that we must be able to think rationally before we allow feelings to come out. In dating, I think feelings become involved so soon that people are unable to see what the other person is really like. Dad and Joe were able to talk about things and think rationally before feelings came into the picture.

I also think that getting physical too soon is very dangerous. Even something as “innocent” as holding hands, if done too soon can cause problems. It can cause feelings (there they are again!) to show themselves.

Most importantly, I think that in everything we do, our ultimate goal should be to glorify God. If we seek to do things for our own glory or if we do what we want, when we want instead of in God’s timing, he can’t bless that. I have prayed through this whole process that God would be glorified in all that we say and do.

“Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” 1 Timothy 4:12

*insert technical spiel* Sorry for the lack of pictures…the gallery I was using messed up and was too hard to redo so I’m uploading my pictures to Facebook (since I usually do anyway) and discovered a plugin for my blog to insert my Facebook photos. So you can have pics now! Yay! *end technical spiel* (if you didn’t understand it, that’s alright…the point is, I can post pics!)

Without further ado! (If you click the link it’ll take you to my Facebook gallery…the larger pictures were too big for my template! And evidently it didn’t work to click the individual photos…so click the Facebook gallery link below! Hover for descriptions…if none pop up, don’t panic, it means it doesn’t have a description! And there are a few more in my Facebook gallery that aren’t posted here.)

(Thank you to Mr. H. for a few of those pictures!)

For some reason, even though we eat all the sugar in the month of December, in January we are usually sick a good part of the month. This time it seems to be pretty bad (although not as bad as one year in particular).

Let’s see. First we’re all kind of passing around colds. And the swollen-tonsils bug (which is nasty!!), and the cough bug, and the red-slightly-swollen-cruddy-eyes bug (gross). Yeah. So like, two at a time will have it, so it’s nice and spread out. Oh and I forgot, the one-or-two-degree-temperature-feel-really-miserable bug. Yesterday I was feeling miserable and almost wished I had a temperature to justify it (I mean, besides my stuffed-up running nose…how does that work at the same time, anyway?…and my slightly swollen tonsils and cough and red eye). So later on I took my temperature…and I did have one!

Ok, and then was it Monday? The boys were at Kelly’s fixing Joe’s bumper and Mom got a call and Joe was freaking out saying “Kelly says Ben cut his finger off!!” and Mom didn’t know if he was joking or not, or if Kelly was joking or not! (Both are such big jokers it’s hard to tell when something actually IS wrong!) So finally it came out that he had a cut on his finger (left middle…no more flipping people off! OK so he doesn’t do that!) because when they were throwing the 100+ pound bumper in the back of Joe’s pickup, it landed on Ben’s finger, and since they could see bone when they opened it up, Kelly took him into the Emergency Room.

So they’re in there, and Joe takes a picture on his phone of Ben on the table, and his finger. Gross. Well, the verdict was, the finger wasn’t cut…it was burst! Now doesn’t that sound just disgusting?!?

Anyway, so the doctor was giving Ben a shot on either side of his knuckle on his hand, on the top side (the burst was on the underside). He’d poke the needle in…then wiggle it! Then he’d poke the needle through Ben’s hand and squirt the underside of his hand with the numbing stuff! And then…he poked the needle through Ben’s hand and into his own! He jumped and told Ben “Don’t move!” like it was Ben’s fault!

Well, he got six stitches, and a bandage, and the nurse gave Eric the forceps, tweezers, and scissors (which Eric gave to us girls for sewing scissors!). And they came home.

Then yesterday, Joe was hammering something (to do with his bumper again, I think!) and whacked his finger really hard (left index). It hurt for a long time! Mom and I were wondering if he might have cracked his fingertip bone or something. We told him to take Tylenol. After all, that’s all Ben’s prescription was…acetaminophen!

Mom went to town yesterday to meet Dad, and called and told Eric (who was helping Joe with his bumper again) he better be careful. He wanted to know why. Mom told him there seemed to be a trend…first Ben’s finger, then Joe’s,…so Eric better watch out!

Anyway. This isn’t a complaining post, I promise! Just…one to let you know…if you never hear from us again…we disintegrated!

I doubled the recipe for a 9×13, because it didn’t look like much…but it raised a lot more than I expected. I also doubled the cooking time.

If you think you’ve had good brownies before…you should try these…rich, fudgy, chocolaty brownies. MMMMMMM. I’m making myself hungry here!

Tabitha’s Mom’s Brownies
1 1/3 cup Flour
3/4 cup Cocoa
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Salt
1 2/3 cups Sugar
3/4 cup Butter, melted
2 Tablespoons water
2 Eggs
2 tsp. Vanilla

Combine everything and bake at 350º for 20 mins in a 9×13 pan.

Like I said, I doubled everything, and doubled the bake time as well. And they turned out absolutely AWESOME!!

Anyway. I should wrap this up now before I’m really tempted to make some more! Hmm…now there’s an idea…I wonder how Dad could resist fresh-baked brownies at…say, week two. (And since he reads my blog he’ll get this in email and the surprise will be spoiled!) He says he’s adamant about lasting the whole month. We’ll have to wait and see!

Happy New Year to y’all! Do you have any resolutions?

10:00 a.m. And we’re off! Got out the door sooner than I thought. Feels like 12 though!

1:00 p.m. We’re here. We stopped on the way in and got some hamburgers to eat (from Burger King!!), and some stuff at Walmart. I hadn’t ever been to that Walmart before! It had freezers that had motion sensors on them so when you walk down the aisle, the lights turn on ahead of you! It was neat. Ben said the ones at our walmart do that too, but people are always in front of it so you never know!

Bear Mountain

The van and the girls’ camper)

left to right, Eric, me, Ben…man I look short

5:10 p.m. We just had cheez whiz, summer sausage, and Ritz and Triscuits for celebrating Mom and Dad’s 24th wedding anniversary. And we had sparkling cider, sparkling white grape juice, and sparkling red grape juice. I liked the red grape best; it tasted like the grapes we picked! That was our surprise. Later we will have ding dongs for dessert ^_^ they don’t know about that quite yet though!

Rase eating Triscuits

After setting up camp, we took a turn around the Loop, then just been hanging out at camp. The season doesn’t start until tomorrow, so we have a whole day to do nothing!

Joe let me use his old film camera. It’s harder, but fun. I’ve taken a few pictures already; hopefully they will turn out! I can’t post them until they get developed though. Too bad!

Me taking pictures with the film camera

Joe posing

It’s kind of windy, and the wind is chilly. The smoke keeps getting in our eyes! Mom said “Smoke follows beauty!” but Dad said “Smoke goes to the one with the pink underwear!” So we kept teasing the boys, when they got smoke in their eyes!

Em was holding Elle, whose fingers were cold, so since Joe was closer to the fire, he offered to take her. She didn’t want to go! So he pretended he had some stuff in his hand, but that didn’t work so he got a flourescent earplug out of his pocket and pretended to eat it! Elle wanted it, so Em was saying “eww, icky!!” Elle didn’t like her saying that so she leaned over and pinched Em’s nose!
I told Joe, “You sure make earplugs look tasty!”

We’ve already had our traditional candy-swap.

I’m tired.

Jay wanting to swap candy with Joe

Elle Janie

Elle Janie again…her expression cracks me up!

Duke, watching candy-eaters intently

Dad’s perfect marshmallow

6:30 p.m. I laid down for a while…chilly! Dinner’s ready though.

8:00 p.m. Dad can’t get the heater on…good thing I brought my ‘cloud’ blanket! It’s soo nice and cozy!

8:20 p.m. Dad’s gonna read Pat McManus. Hunting (or camping) standby!

9:25 p.m. BED.

Sunday

6:05 a.m. Most of us are gonna go to our stands. Well, all, I guess, just Beth and I are last cuz we’re closest!

6:20 a.m. Still an hour to shooting light; I think I’m not going out quite yet! It’s pretty brisk out there…not as cold as some days, but pretty cold! It was sleeting earlier, Dad said. It’ll probly get warmer later!

We’re at the spot in the meadow, because there’s a fence across the old spot. I mean, where we’re camping. It looks like nobody’s driven down to the old spot in a long time, and there is a lot of snow covering the road. This spot is closer to ‘my’ spot, but the other spot is nicer because it’s cooler for hanging deer!

7:25 a.m. At my stand now, looking at the creek I drowned a deer in once. It’s getting light fast now. I suppose I should get the camera ready! I plan to shoot with my rifle before I shoot with the camera, though!

There’s a cold wind!

At least my mouth is feeling better!

1:45 p.m. Ben’s going home now :(

At about 9 (we were supposed to meet back at camp at 9:30), I saw Joe walking on the hill across from me, and down the hill on the right. He walked back up, out of my view behind some trees, then into a clear spot in front of me. He started dancing!! It was sooo funny! He did an egyptian thing, and peekaboo’d (he said…I didn’t catch that part!). Then he left and Beth came up to meet me, and we went back to the campers.

Evidently, just after we turned our backs on the hill, three guys popped up where Joe had been dancing and were scoping us and the trailers and stuff! I was pretty mad at them! Abby kept calling them “stupidheads.”
Joe and Eric came up to camp, and we told them about the “stupidheads”, so they took off in Joe’s pickup. We saw the boys walk up to the guys, then the boys walked away. They didn’t come back for a long time (the guys left shortly after the boys talked to them), until Ben, Dad, and the twins came back. Joe and Eric were walking! Joe’s pickup had broken down or something.

We had some cup o’ noodles, then Ben and Eric took off. After a bit, the rest of us (including Mom and the little ones) did a turn around the Loop. We didn’t see any deer, but did happen upon Ben’s unlocked pickup, windows rolled down, with a nice .22 rifle in the gunrack! So we snitched it.
We got around to where Joe’s pickup was, and he got it going (with Dad’s help). Dad gave him a pull out of the place he’d been backed into (it was downhill so he couldn’t get up the hill or out of the mud or something), then we got to camp. We’ve just been hanging out.

Ben and Eric came back a while later (around 12:30). Both got one! Ben got a little buck, and Eric got a doe. Ben used the knife he made and Dad sharpened. Ben had whittled a 2×4, then used it to gut his deer. He said he cut through the breastbone (not along through the ribs) one-handed, like butter. He was pretty proud of that!

Ben’s .44

Ben warming his hands after gutting his deer. Smoke follows beauty!

Dad carrying Ben’s microcompact .45

He’s left now though. He’s actually going to work, then home tonight. Sounds like Mom and the kids are going home tonight. Which would be nice because it would mean more sleeping room…Tess was next to me on the big bed (which was left to right, Kate, Tess, me, Beth…Em slept on the floor), and she kept putting her feet under my rear and wiggling her toes!! I had about four hours’ sleep or so. After I woke up at like 1:30, Duke kept making disgusting mouth noises, and someone (I think it was Kate) kept grinding her teeth really loud! YUCK!!!
BUT, it’s fun having them here, and we’ll miss them if they do go!!

I’m sooo tired!!

We’re gonna do the Loop now. It’s just after 2.

7:30 p.m. After the Loop, we came back to camp, kibbutzed a while, and got out to our stands. After shooting light ended, we met back up…well, Beth and I were walking cuz we were cold…we met Joe and Eric (Joe was driving..he got a doe!)…had to tell all our stories, of course! Then Dad and the twins came up, and the stories had to be retold! Back at camp now…waiting for hamburgers!!!

10:00 p.m. Yay bed. Dad was reading but I was asleep mostly!

Dad reading

Monday

6:20 a.m. We’re up…shooting light in an hour. We slept nice and long! I had weird dreams.
Last night Dad said “Do your sleeping where you should…on your stand!”

1:30 p.m. Well, I didn’t sleep on my stand, but I tried to! Nobody saw deer today, at least deer not on private property. Kate and Dad heard a mountain lion, and Em saw a bear!

After meeting back at camp at about 10, we went around the Loop, then went to the other Forest Service entrance, then back to camp. A game warden was checking our three deer and very interested in Ben’s because he wasn’t there!
We’re just hangin’, waiting for 3 when we’ll go back out.

4:45 p.m. We did a Loop, and are at our stands now.

It’s Mom and Dad’s 24th wedding anniversary today!

Mom and Dad in our sweet hot rod hunting rig!

Sounds like Ben’s gonna come out tomorrow, too!! We miss him!

7:35 p.m. I’ve gotta watch the clock very carefully; we’re timing the ‘pop’ biscuits. You know, the kind in a can thing that you unpeel and they go “pop”. I love those! Except I don’t like opening them!

At our stands, I saw the babies of the mama doe Joe shot yesterday (Joe said they were making a whistling noise, which only the babies whose mamas he’d shot made that noise!), but they were spooked and motating. And I’m not that desperate yet!

Beth and Eric saw a moose walking up the creek!

Tuesday

6:55 a.m. Shootin’ light at 7:25…Dad and the twins and Ben went out to their stands already. They had far to go, though. Eric’s going in his spot; I’m going in mine; Beth’s going to where Joe shot the doe the other day, and I don’t know where Joe’s going.

3:10 p.m. After the morning stand, we went around the Loop. Ben left at quarter to two. We’ll see him Thursday.
Gonna go out again soon; Beth and I are going to walk.

9:10 p.m. Oh man I’m TIRED! Beth and I walked for like two hours. We saw the little bull moose they saw yesterday! OK so he isn’t exactly LITTLE…but his rack is small for a moose! We were walking up a little trail, and there was a Y in the road. Suddenly the moose came crashing out of the brush about 20 yards away in the right fork! We scoped it a bit and stuff…it was totally unconcerned, looking at us and eating and stuff. We were scoping it and saying like “You are so dead moose!” I told Beth, “He’s probably thinking ‘those are the weirdest looking bears I’ve ever seen!’”

Bedtime!!

Beth

Beth keeping tabs on our actions!

Wednesday

5:30 a.m. Beds are all made…not sure where we’re going this morning. No fresh sign anywhere, soo…anywhere’s as good as any I guess!

Yesterday when Beth and I walked at night, we walked from the gate in the meadow to the beginning of private property, then up the road (and off two side trails, that’s where we saw the moose) to the van. We had to cross the creek…Beth went first and got her pants wet, so I said I did NOT want to get my pants wet, so we went downstream, and I found a log to cross so I crossed on there.
We saw a bit of fur on the barb of the fence; Dad thinks it was coyote.

Well, we’re gonna have breakfast.

Em

Em again!

No, this isn’t Em again! This is Kate

7:30 p.m. Let’s see. This morning we went to our stands. I was just down the hill from the Big Rock (where Joe and Beth had been the other days, and where Joe had shot his doe); my back was to the road, and I was like five feet down a steep hill so I couldn’t see the road. Well, this jogger lady came by. I’m so paranoid; I thought she was a moose running down the road! Then I saw this big black rear end wiggling around over a little rise; I thought it was a bear! Then I saw orange on its neck and thought it was Beth, crawling around on all fours to scare me! But then I seen it was a dog, and another dog came up.

After the morning stand we went back to camp, ate, and went on walks. Dad and the twins went up Red Lodge Creek Trail; Beth and Eric went somewhere (and got kind of lost when the mountains moved from the south to the north…how uncooperative!), and Joe and I went up an old two-track. We walked FAR! We got almost to the top of a huge hill (not labeled a mountain, but I say it was!). There was like a steep half mile to the top, and I didn’t want to go up! Joe said “If Eric or Ben or Dad was here they’d climb up it with me!”
“Yeah, but guys LIKE to conquer mountains!” I said.
I had great cell reception up there, so I suggested calling Mom to tell her I was on top of a mountain, but Joe didn’t want to. So I checked my voicemails! LOL (none :( )

The wind was blowing in some clouds, and it started to sprinkle, so Joe and I pert’near ran down the mountain!

Beth and Eric almost got lost really because the compass on Eric’s new watch points North every direction he is facing! But then they got unlost!

So Joe and I got back to the pickup. On our way walking, Joe had said he wanted to see a moose. So we’re going along the road and all of a sudden two moose jumped out in front of us and walked across the road and went to our right! We watched them for like 10 minutes! It was the small bull and the medium bull.
Dad and the girls saw two cow moose and a calf, so that was cool too.
Anyways, as Joe and I were going back to the campers, he seen a deer in the road, so he jumped out and went up the hill a little, and shot twice. He thought he hit it, and saw a spot of blood on the snow where it had run by, but it was too spry and he couldn’t find it.
Dad and the girls came by, and we told them about the moose, so they went up and got Eric and Beth, then went up and saw the big and medium bulls, and took pictures (with the film camera…hope they turn out!!) and videos!

Then we had our evening stand (I listened to my mp3 player! it kept me awake!) then back to the campers. I made the fire. Boy scout fluid FTW!! (that means boy scout fluid rocks)
We had our traditional backstraps and fried potatoes last-day dinner. Dad added in some really yummy sausage. Sooooo good!! We saved some for Ben for his lunch tomorrow! We had yogurt and granola for dessert, then Dad read.

Good backstraps and potatoes!! That sea of ketchup kinda ruins it…I prefer mayonnaise…but oh well! It wasn’t my food!

9:10 p.m. We’re going to bed. It’ll be soo nice to get home tomorrow! It’s fun here but it’ll be good to be home!

Thursday

5:30 a.m. We’re gonna have breakfast…

11:10 a.m. Going to leave for home soon.

When we left this morning for our stands, Joe and Eric went out to the Deer Jump meadow, Dad and the twins walked up Red Lodge Creek Trail I think, and Beth, Ben, and I went to the other Forest Service entrance. Beth and I walked along one fence to a little valley, and Ben walked somewhere else. There were two little deer, but I’m still not desperate enough for those! Beth and I walked just over the hill, and sat there in the morning. I was so comfy I didn’t want to leave! But finally we got up and walked to the pickup; Ben met us, thinking we had gotten something because we were taking so long!

Then we went to camp…had lunch…it’s now 11:50 and the campers are being hooked up and we’re gonna leave!

Eric was doing interviews of us on video, that’s why it took so long to get that all spit out! He is a great anchorman…he used words I didn’t know were even in his vocabulary! O:-)

Eric interviewing

Eric interviewing

My interview

The twins’ interview

Ben’s interview…yes, eating is the normal state of Ben!

Joe and Eric

Eric being interviewed!

Joe goofing off with the camera!

Joe interviewing Eric

2:25 p.m. HOME!!

On Friday we processed the deer, and two goats from Mrs. B. in exchange for pizza. It was worth it! And we’re promised her awesome homemade pizza next time we come home from hunting! Yay! And no, we didn’t butcher goats on helloween on purpose; we forgot it was helloween! And no, we didn’t draw pentagrams or anything like that either. And yes, the pizza was awesome!

And now since it’s the official start of NaNoWriMo and I am officially done with this post, I can go start writing! YAYNESS!!

The twins were in heaven, I think. They must’ve spent more than two hours on the backs of those horses!

Yeah, I got on the horse! Dad made me pose with the too-big hat that flew off my head right after the pic cuz it was so windy!

Me and that hat again!


Me and one of the wilder kittens…yes, she was happy, and cuddling under my chin, actually! They were soooo cute! There were 6 tamer ones, and they played with me and cuddled up to me and slept. ^_^ And played with the strings on my hoodie.

Beth and Abby; Abby was riding the (very patient) pony Shandy.

Ben posing with the hat!

What you do with your baseball cap while wearing a cowboy hat

Ben riding the horse…he looks awful happy for not liking horses!

Beth riding

A very cool pic of Dad!

Proof that Dad rode!

Em…she looks pretty much at home, doesn’t she!

Joe, trying to pose with no smile and not quite managing it!

Joe again; I don’t think he was posing for this one though!

Joe riding!

The twins running their horses

Kate on the left, Em on the right

Rase riding the long-suffering pony…Katrina V is leading him (they’re the same age)

Tess riding the pony

Rase pushed a little V twin in this car…the smirk on the twin’s face was soo funny!

Mr. V. and his peanut butter-frosted cake (that was sooo good!!) and his little twins, Micah and Amos (and I don’t know which is which!)

Well, that’s all for now! I’ll get some other posts posted as soon as I write them…like, the visit from the Suarez’s…and the twins’ birthday…and Elle Jane’s birthday…and Rase’s birthday.

Anyways! I’ve got a whole lot of pictures here (we all know everyone loves pictures, right? And if a picture is worth a thousand words…this will definitely turn out to be a novel!). Hover over the pictures for a caption and a larger image.

Thursday/Friday, June 19, 20
Saturday, June 21
Sunday, June 22
Monday, June 23
Tuesday, June 24
Wednesday, June 25
Thursday, June 26
Friday, June 27
Saturday, June 28
Sunday, June 29
Monday, June 30

A big thank-you to Grandpa, Grandma Kathy, John, and Paul who opened their home to us; Immanuel Lutheran Church, the Manor, and Lacomb Bible Church for inviting us, and all the wonderful people there…and the biggest thank you to the Lord Jesus Christ who made the whole trip possible and provided for us bountifully through His followers! Glory to God! Amen.

And we’ve been home ever since! Pi (my cat) was soooo glad to see me, she’s slept with me every night since we came home!

Then the boys and Dad set up the music stuff (which took a few hours), and we did a soundcheck, then went across the street to Uncle Steve’s (he’s the pastor there) for a bit, then we changed into our concert clothes, and went back across the street and gave a concert. I think that one went better than the one at Grandpa’s, too! After that was a very nice finger food buffet (everybody wants us to get fat, I think!), and after a while there, we went back to Uncle Steve and Aunt Barbara’s to change and hang out for a bit.

Uncle Steve restores and remodels cars. I guess this is his latest finished product!
Uncle Steve and Aunt Barbara. In case you can’t tell, Aunt Barbara is the pretty one on the right and Uncle Steve is the other one.

Then we went back to Grammoo and Papa’s, where Grammoo loaded our trailer with food! We didn’t get out of Grammoo and Papa’s until 1:45 am. Duke was very happy to be with us again!

We had dinner there…it was soooo good! There was a potato-chicken casserole; pink cabbage salad; a salad that tasted like scalloped potatoes; a green salad; and these biscuit/pastry things that were round that were stuffed with sausage, then for dessert: diamond wafers (like from sugar wafers), layered with Russian caramel (that’s better than our caramel, it has the consistency of lukewarm hot fudge sauce, and is less sweet than our caramel), and these cookie shells about the size of a walnut, also filled with Russian caramel. It was all very good!

Us and the Russians…left to right (back row): Diana, Mrs. N., Mr. N., Dad, Mom, me, Beth. Middle: Vita (with the Daddy’s girl shirt), Em holding Elle Jane, Kate, Tess, Jay, Eric. Front: Stephen (Victor’s friend), Victor (who wouldn’t smile for the camera!), Joe, Rase, Abby, Ben.