Opportunities and Creosote

I can't believe it has been 9 months since my last post!! We have had alot going on.  Alot to do with my Dad's fight with cancer, and keeping his blog up to speed. Dad went home to be with our Savior on Jan. 21, 2012, and we will greatly miss him.  You can read about his last few months or even the last few years and the memorial service on my other blog www.teamjanszen.blogspot.com  . He was an amazing man.


Knowing that scripture says, laughter is good medicine, I have a few things to share about another amazing man in my life.....
We have had some ups and downs this past year.
Some of them have been opportunities......."opportunities" are what Ray calls his projects for the whole family!!
The pool..... Well, this past summer, it turned green, and looked natural, for the second half of the summer. We had an extreme winter, and then very hot summer, so our pumps froze, cracked, then melted because of the temps in Texas this past year. We limped the pool along half way through the summer, then when it finally all died, we decided we had to get it fixed or fill it in.
  
Oh please, don't fill it in, the five kids love the pool, and it is a great place to have people over and cool off in these hot Texas summers. But, we can't swim in green, or we might as well be swimming in our pond! 


So, after Ray got several bids on fixing the pool, and about had a coronary every time he received one, he made the famous announcement, "I will fix the pool and save us thousands!!"
Oh boy, here we go again. Honestly I doubted, and kept praying that he would give in and let me call someone to come fix it.  But no was the answer to that, and as we began to receive large boxes from the UPS guy, with the words "Discount Pool Supply" stamped on the side, I knew it was inevitable. We were going to fix the pool ourselves.


Well, life does not stop, nor does Ray's schedule, babies coming, emergencies at the hospital, so the pool continued to turn into a deeper, lovely, aquamarine color, all while these large boxes sat posed on the back porch, ready to be unpacked and installed.
  
Again I asked if I could hire someone to come finish the job....No way!  
Eventually, the job began to unfold, as Ray would find little sections of time to unpack the pumps, begin the fitting process, and carefully place them onto the concrete slab, to connect to the already existing pool equipment that had not died. 
Well, these pumps are heavy, and awkward to lift, so as Ray was working on this, he was also working on making his back worse. (he has some disk issues) 
So, about 2/3 of the way into the job, he was out, with back surgery!! 


Yikes!! what are we going to do now, not only with the pool, but with Ray's work?


In short, God got us through, He provided, and He used some of the men in our church to help meet the need. As a matter of fact, I had 2 of Ray's good buddies tell me, "When Ray tries to do something stupid, call me, and I will come do it for him." (Partners in crime :) ) (He was supposed to be on total rest for 2 full weeks after his surgery!!) Needless to say, he was out trying to work on the pool equipment to finish the job, the day after surgery!! I quickly called these guys, and they came over several times during the week, and helped him finish the job.  They truly were the "hands and feet of Christ" to Ray.  Literally!!


I have to say, I never thought the water would be crystal clear again, aside from hiring help, but it is!  He did it, Wow!!! What a man. And really without much encouragement from me, I am sad to say. It only took a few extra months, but he "gotterdone!"


Now, one of the additional things Ray wanted to do, was build a shelter around the pool equipment, so that we would not have this problem again. (you know, protect it from the heat and cold) He did wait another month or so, to let his back heal, before he began to tackle this job.  When he finally did, he headed out to Home Depot to purchase a prepackaged shed to build around the equipment.  Again, he came home with just some lumber and nails. 
"What?! where is the package deal?" I asked. 
"Oh, those stinking things are so expensive..... I can do this for so much less!!!"  Really?!


Oh boy, so here we go again.  Jesse and Ray started building the foundation to this shed, trying to level it, trying to get it just right.  I have to say it actually looked pretty good, but because of time, it was a slow process.  Over the next couple of weeks, they completed the floor, but before adding the walls, we had a friend stop by, who is a professional builder.  Such a kind young man, who loves Ray.  Ray took him out to show him his progress.  
He didn't say anything negative, he just offered to come help Ray out with the rest of the job. He said he could come the next day, but that was Ray's surgery day, so Ray wouldn't be available until later on in the day to work with him.  The friend came on out anyway, that morning, and when Ray got home that afternoon, He had completely redone the entire job, it was perfect. 
Ray had mixed emotions, sad that what he had done was gone, and obviously had not met the professional builders specs., but also amazed and thankful/overwhelmed at what he had accomplished in such a short amount of time. :) 
Again, the hands and feet of Christ, at work in our lives. Ray accepted the help from our friend, to get the walls and roof on, but Ray and Jesse are finishing the job, as I type, of putting on the tin roof, and building doors to the shed.  I saw the doors a little bit ago, and they are amazing.  


Who knew?...he can deliver a baby, save a life, and build some pretty good looking doors.  Maybe he needs help on leveling the floor of a building, but, hey, you can't be good at everything!


As I think back over the past few months, Ray has tackled a few other great feats.  One that stands out was burying the large square trampoline in our back yard, like Kanakuk's if you've ever been to Kamp.  


Some asked "why are you doing this?" Ray said "Why not?" Sounds like what Robert Kennedy said,

 "Some men see things as they are and say why. 

I dream things that never were and say why not."

It really is cool, and the kids love it.

Digging the hole

The funny thing was, that when Ray finally got the hole dug, this took weeks, it is a huge trampoline, he wanted to line it with creosote soaked railroad ties, to keep the dirt from caving in.  He found some at the local feed store, and was so excited to get these ties cut and in the ground. 

 Ray finishing the logs and the trampoline leveling.

Well, did ya'll know that creosote burns??  We didn't!!

Ray was working on this job alone, for some reason, all the kids were gone, and he had a free Saturday, so he attacked, knowing he could get it done if he just kept plugging along. I was in the house, it was hot, hot summer, but would occasionally go out with a glass of lemonade, or an encouraging word, to cheer him on.  

He would use the tractor to lower one of the logs into his hole, then use the chain saw to cut the log into the exact length he needed.  

Chain saws usually cause sawdust to fly in the air, and coat whatever it lands on.  Ray, being careful, had protective goggles on, but because of the extreme heat of the summer, had on work boots, with shorts, and a short sleeve shirt, along with work gloves.  

After several hours of cutting, moving, placing, and shifting railroad  logs, he noticed a little burning on the exposed parts of his skin.  He assumed it was the sun, and he was feeling the affects of a sunburn.  He thought if he could just keep going, that he would finish quicker, and get in out of the sun, so he kept working.  

He was almost done with the lining of the hole, when I looked out and noticed him, almost hopping around.  Puzzled, I walked outside and asked if everything was ok.  He said no, and by the sound of his voice, I could tell things were not good.  He said, "I'm on fire, something is burning me!!!" 

What?

Then he hollered something about creosote.  I ran back in and googled creosote.  The first thing that popped up was, "Danger, do not touch creosote with bare skin, can cause severe burns!!"

Oh crud!!! I then quickly read what the treatment was, and as I ran back to the back porch, Ray was running, no, sprinting to the house.  I hollered what I had just learned, and instructed him to remove all clothing that had creosote on it.  Well, this included everything he had on!!! Thank goodness all the kids were gone! As he ran from the back of the yard toward the house, clothes were flying, leaving a trail behind him.  As he came in the house, I sent him straight to the shower, where he was to rinse off with soap and cool water for at least 20 minutes.  I then made ice packs, and had him lay in the recliner, where I had to rub "Preperation H" of all things, all over the burning parts of his body, which was most of his legs, arms, and face, then we packed him in ice packs.  This was supposed to stop the chemical from continuing to burn.  I felt so bad for him, but kept thinking, this is great stuff for the blog.....you can't make this stuff up!!!

The good news is, the treatment worked, and within a few hours, the burning had completely stopped. Thank the Lord for google.

I am never short of being amazed at the crazy life the Lord has given us to live here.  We truly are trying to worship the Lord through all of this stuff.  God is good, and funny at times. He is faithful, even in, and especially in, our crisis.

Thanks for reading.

I will post again soon, Lord willing,

JJ Ford

I hate Goats..... Pictures.

Bruno, one of our billy goats

  

Ok, well, let me just say, God answered prayer. 

Yesterday, had all the potential for evil, as well as good. 

It was a great day.  The weather was perfect, beautiful to be outside all day.

We started off by having a big breakfast, and discussing as a family, stewardship.  How does God want us to be good stewards of what he has blessed us with, time, things, gifts, talents?

Ray then, handed out job lists to everyone, and we headed out.  Each had their part, whether is was mowing, so we could get the fence put up, feeding animals, herding them here or there, or handing Ray the tools he needed to fasten the fencing.  (a few of them picked blackberries along the fence as well, not part of the job list, but oh so fun.)

Good day of work

For those of you that have ever worked at Kanakuk, it felt just like work week to Ray and I.  The coolness of the day, the hard work we were doing, the fun we were having just being together and accomplishing something.  It was a great day. Certainly not because of me, I am naturally a griper.  But God, gave me a joy, working side by side with my husband, on a project.  It is not what I would choose to do on a regular Sunday, but it was exactly what we needed to do, and we really had a great time doing it, all together.  Obedience is better than sacrifice.


No, the fence is not complete, we still have some work ahead of us, this week, but a huge part was accomplished yesterday.

Working hard on the fence

Joshua by the post hole digger!!

Jesse on the mower

Anna helped some, but mostly picked blackberries.

Ruth and Esther

Enjoying frozen lemonade at the end of the day.

I hate Goats, or at least when they are on my porch!!

OK, I am in confession mode, and frustration mode right now.


We still have goats, I will soon post pictures of what spring has looked like out here on our little farm.


But, yes, we have goats, about 12 or so.  Our little heard has been doing fine in the back of our property, where they have been eating and having a great time, and I have been having a great time, because they are not up on my porch, or in my flower beds eating my plants.


Well, as of this past week, the goats had eaten most of the GREEN stuff in the back, sooooo, they broke through the fence, and are eating the GREEN stuff up by the house.  Which means, they are on my porch, pooping, and basically taking over wherever they want to.


I have been reading LOVE and RESPECT (highly recommend it for married people!!!) this spring.  A wonderful book, with lots of interesting thoughts on marriage, and how important it is for husbands to love their wives, and for wives to respect their husbands (UNCONDITIONALLY).

We have been having a great season in marriage this spring, (last year was rough!) But part of it, I am sure, has to be with how I have been applying the Love and Respect ideas in my marriage.


Well, when I woke up Wednesday morning to goats trying to ram through my glass doors on the front.  (I have double glass (storm) window doors on the front, and the goats see themselves in the reflexion, and try to butt themselves!!!) It scared us to death, like someone had a battering ram, and was trying to knock the front doors down!!! 


I screamed, yelled for Ray to get up and save the house from the goats, then proceeded to steam in my frustration of "why didn't he have the fence fixed better in the first place, to keep the goats in?!"


He ran outside, and I ran to the bathroom, so mad, knowing that this just meant more work for us, in fence repair, and/or new fence to be put up, and also, more goat poop on MY PORCH!! I know you are laughing right now, but believe you me, I was not!!
In the bathroom, I began to formulate the lecture that I was about to give Ray, then my heart stopped, as I heard the Lord begin to whisper in my ear, respect him, no matter what.


Without giving you the long boring details, Praise the Lord, I was able to march back out there, and give him the respect that God has called me to give, even with goat poop on my porch.  (we all have some kind of goat poop on our porch, in our lives, don't we? It just comes in different forms, shapes, colors.)


But, sadly, the rest of the week was hit or miss.  Literally, wrestling with my flesh, on a moment by moment basis!! Some moments, the Lord would win, and I would surrender to Jesus, and show great respect, join him in helping build the fence, encourage him in his work, remind him of all the great things he is doing with and for our family, and then....... sometimes, my flesh would win, and I would carry on like a spoiled, angry, frustrated wife, who was not getting my way, and who was sick of the poop!!!


Right now, this morning, we stayed home from church, to be together as a family (we have been going crazy the last few weeks, with spring football, volleyball, wedding stuff, out of town) and also stayed home to work on the goat fence!!! Again, what is more pleasing to the Lord, Obedience over Sacrifice.  We have a wonderful opportunity today to work together, hard work, but treat each other with kindness, respect, laugh as we work, or, we can be mad that the goats have kept us from church, gripe and complain about the fence, the poop, etc.  What, I ask myself again, is more pleasing to the Lord?
I am about to put my boots and jeans on, and head outside, to work side by side with my husband and kids.  I will be praying, moment by moment, that my heart will be to respect, encourage, and laugh.  Not to be bitter, gripe and complain.
I do have much to be thankful for.  Give thanks in all things, right?
God is good all the time, goats, not all the time, but God is still good.
If you want a great book for your marriage, read Love and Respect.


In Him,
JJ aka, fence builder

You can pay someone to do this!

A few weeks ago, we had just finished dinner, and were about to settle in, to what I thought, was going to be a quiet evening.  I had some plans in my head to work on a few things on the computer in the recliner, as the kids played outside for a little bit longer, before time to get ready for bed.  All was going as I had planned, until my husband walked in and announced he needed my help.


Being the Godly wife I am :), I quickly hopped up from my chair, and headed down to the barn.


He was on the last step of a project that he had been working on, for literally, months.  He was replacing the awning on the trailer.  You see, when we got this trailer, it was a hand-me-down from his brother.  A great little trailer, but the awning was in great need of repair, better to say, replacement.


We had taken it down to a repair place, here in Cleburne, a few months ago to see what they could do, and as soon as they quoted Ray the price, out we pulled.  No way was Ray going to pay that!!


So, he started looking on line, googling "How to replace your awning on your trailer."


There are youtube videos for EVERYTHING!!  


Anyway, all of these sites that gave instruction on "How to"... all had a warning that said..."This is very dangerous!!! Do not attempt alone, and must have at least 3 to 4 adults helping." The tension that is wound up inside the tube of the awning, is appearantly very strong, and can take a finger or hand off!! 


This is what ALL the websites said.  Yikes!! After reading that, I thought we would surely take it back to the RV place, but NO Way!!! Not Ray Ford.


After we very carefully took the awning off of the trailer, and took it apart, Ray found the part numbers and ordered what he needed to replace. Several weeks went by, and I kinda forgot about it, until he came in to get me the other night.


After briefly instructing me, and reminding me of the danger (He didn't have to do that, I hadn't forgotten!!) , we started the process.  We actually didn't have too much problem getting it threaded onto the tube, and then actually winding the tension.  It was a little nerveracking, thinking that this thing could spin, and take off one of Ray's fingers, but we did it!! The funny thing was, I was so nervous, that I lost count of the turns on the spring a couple of times, so we had to start over 3 different times!!! 


The worst part was yet to come.  After getting the thing wound onto the tube, we then had to pick up this huge tube, with the awning hanging off of it, and thread the other end onto the side of the trailer.  No problem, except the thing weighed a ton, and it was just the 2 of us. Remember the warning, "This is a job for no less than 3 to 4 adults!!"


All I can say is, it was a total disaster!!  Ray was trying to balance one end on his head, while I was holding the majority of it on my shoulders, and then needing to pull the end of the material, so it wouldn't bunch up as Ray was pulling it through the track!! It was windy to boot, so the tarp part was flapping in the wind, and eventually blew us over as well as the ladder we were standing on to reach the side of the trailer where the track was to attach the awning.


We just stopped, looked at each other feeling completely defeated, (I did), but not Ray.  He said, "Hey, let's get Joshua to help us!!!" 


"He is FIVE!" I said.  Not exactly another adult to help us.


"Ok" he said, "we'll wait until the big kids get home from youth."


When the kids got home, my sister,, Joy was with them, she had brought them home.  Oh, thank the Lord for another adult!!


We quickly recruited her and Jesse, our 14 year old son, to be the other 2 adults!!  As I was explaining to her about what we needed her to help us with, I said, "You know you can pay to have someone do this, but......" Joy interrupted, "Hey, another blog post, right!?"

Anyway, after recruiting a few extra abled bodies, things went alot better.  it was still rough, but we did it!!! Yeah, success, or so we thought.

We all waited in anticipation as we watched Ray pull the switch, which should have caused the awning to roll up all by itself, with ease, into a nice tight roll to travel down the highway.  Much to our dismay, nothing happened...well something happened, we heard a whizzing sound inside the tube for a moment, but no movement of the awning rolling up. Nothing. What??? What was wrong?

Much to our dismay, we had wound the tension in the wrong direction!!  So, it was going to roll out like a champ, but rolling back up was a different story!!
I asked, "Can we just leave it, it is sooo late?" No, we couldn't, a storm was coming in that night, so we all had to use our strength, to roll it up, as tight as we could get it, but it was very heard, as we were all rolling against the tension, the super tight tension, that we were warned about on the websites!!


It took all four of us, but we finally get it rolled up enough for it to not catch the wind, but I was done.  The thought of having to take that thing down, and start over was a little too much for me.  Needless to say, I think Ray knew that, and actually he and Jesse were able to reverse the tension and get if fixed, working perfectly, without me at all.  They both felt a huge amount of accomplishment, and what a great feeling to get it done, and save us all that money.


Anyone need any RV repairs, check with Ray first!


Have a blessed week, and remember, He is Risen!
JJ

Unexpected Trip

Just a quick note about a trip Ray and took last week.  

We HAD to, we really did, Have to go on a CME, (continuing medical education) trip for Ray's work, in ARUBA. 
 Yes, that is right, Aruba.  It was bad timing with work, kids, etc. , but since Ray had a quick approaching cut off date to get in all his CME's we really did have to go. It was amazing, God knew best that this would be a good thing for us! But the funny thing we realized  when we arrived, is that our personalities changed somewhat.  
When we arrived in Aruba, I, who am usually the cautious one, didn't care if anyone knew I was a tourist or not, I was just sooooo excited to be in another country, and to finally have my passport stamped.  Ray on the other hand, the adventurous one, who usually is the risk taker, became like Jason Boerne on Boerne Identity!!  I am not kidding!  He was analizing every person we passed, every street we walked down, every alley we went by.  I didn't care, I was just so happy, but he was totally in CIA mode.  It really was funny to me.  
Ray's name means "protector", and boy was he doing that.  

We did have a great time, went snuba diving, kite surfing, and walks on the beach, and Ray got all his CME credits in!!
Just had to share how my man was totally into "Operation Treadstone" mode while we were there, and I was "Sabrina," clueless to any danger, if there was any.
Thankful for my protector,
JJ

Boer Goats

If you have been a part of our lives for the past year, then you know about the goats.
It is almost hard for me to write about them, because this is not just a distant memory, it is closer to home than I want to accept and has been a source of contention to say the least.
A little over a year ago, back in October of 2009, the kids and I were at home getting ready for our evening routine, when the phone rang.
It was Ray, of course, calling to let me know that he was on his way home, but for all of us to come outside to the porch... he had a surprise!!
Oh Boy, was all I could think.  The kids all got so pumped, because Daddy's surprises were always very exciting.  Not like mine.  My surprises were things like, making brownies for dessert, or renting a fun movie to watch as a family.  Good surprises, but not life altering.
Daddy's surprises are always, "in your face, get ready to embrace whatever curve ball he is about to throw our way, you REALLY will never guess" kind of surprise, and always very exciting.


We all went out to the porch, where we stood and looked down our driveway for Ray to come home.  We saw a truck, that we didn't recognize, pulling in the gate through the trees.  As it got closer to the house, we could see Ray in the back, holding on to something.  It was alive.


As the truck pulled up to the porch, the kids all started to scream, "It's a goat!!"  The girls, especially Esther and Anna started calling it "adorable." The rest of us just approached it slowly to check it out.
Now, to Ray's defense, we had discussed having some animals on our 10 acres, besides dogs and cats.  The summer leading up to this, we had started raising chickens, and had entered the "farm fresh" egg business.  We had also talked about getting some goats, eventually, because I love goat cheese, and thought it might be kinda fun to have fresh goat milk.
But, at this point, our property was not fenced for goats.  Cattle and horses, yes, but not for goats.  We have bob wire and pipe fencing around the entire property, and cattle guards.  This is great for large animals, but not so good for goats.
After the excitement wore off from the kids, I inquired as to where we were going to put this goat.
Ray said, "Oh honey, it will be fine, he will just walk around and eat all the weeds and brush."
So, for the night, we turned her loose, by the way, her name was "Sassy."  Also, she was FREE.  You have to be concerned as to why someone wants to give you a FREE goat.


Anyway, the next morning, was a Thursday, and I was leaving on an annual get together with some friends from college.  I had lots to do, as the homeschooling mother of 5.  We had to pack their bags, leave meals for Ray, load up all school work, pack my bags, get the kids to where they were staying, and just get out of town for the next 3 days.  This is always a stressful thing anyway, getting out of town with 5 kids, but then to top it off that we had this goat roaming around.


Now, I will say, that it would have been no big deal, except that this goat is a friendly goat, loves people, and thus, wanted to be as close to us as possible.  So, she had camped out on our porch all night, and if any of you know goats, anywhere they stand for any amount of time, they poop. (Sorry if this grosses you out!!) Little goat poop everywhere on the porch.  And if you don't know goat poop, it doesn't really look like poop at first sight, it looks like little black balls, not really that noticeable at first, until you know what you are looking for.


Well, I had not been outside that morning, I had just been sending kids out with armfuls of stuff, loading the car for the 4 day weekend.  On one of the many trips, my sweet daughter came marching in to get her pencils for school, and I saw her tracking, what I thought was mud, into the den on the carpet.  Once I started cleaning it up, with her helping, we realized, it was not mud, but poop!!!


I screamed halt, for all people to remove their shoes, thinking at first that this had been a mishap, and Ruth had accidentally walked in the grass.  What I didn't realize was that all of them had been walking back and forth through the goat poop, since it was all over the porch, and we hadn't noticed it, since this was a first for our family.
I went outside, after cleaning it up, and saw that it was EVERYWHERE.  We were living in a goat litter box!!
I screamed at the kids, to get in the car, we were running late now, because of the clean up, and I called Ray on my way out of town.
With the most Godly voice I could muster :( , and with the most respectful words I could find, I basically told him, that was it!  After only one day, it was the goat, or me.  That goat had better be off my porch when I get home!! I am sure the Lord was honored in that conversation!!


I headed off for the great weekend, hoping to forget this all happened.
On Saturday, my cell phone rang.  It was Ray.
He said, "Did you know goats can jump 12 feet straight up in the air?"
"What?!"


Ray had decided, since he wanted the goat to clear out the brush on our property, and the only place we didn't want the goat, was on our porch, that he would lay an electric underground fence around the house and yard, so that the goat would not come onto the part where we lived and played, but would still have access to all the other parts of the property to eat the brush down.


Do you know that goats are related to sheep.  Sheep are thought to be some of the most dumb animals in the world!! That is why the Shepherd has to LEAD them to water, and MAKE them lie down.  We are compared to sheep in the Bible....but anyway.
Ray thought it would be a good idea, to put a shock collar on the goat, Sassy, and then flip on the electric fence he had soooo diligently worked on to keep this goat off of my porch.
He turned it on, then shooed the goat towards the house.  Ray said, as Sassy approached the electric underground fence, she began to baaah a little louder.  By the time she was on top of the wire, she jumped straight up 12 feet in the air!!!
Ray couldn't believe it.  She turned and ran!! Ray thought he had Victory!!
He was so proud of himself as we drove in on Sunday afternoon.  So proud of the way he had fixed the problem.
He demoed it for me and the kids several times to show us how she would turn and run. Success.
That night, as we unloaded the car, and all were on the porch, I guess Sassy just couldn't stand it.  She would get closer and closer, and as the current would get stronger, she would just keep pushing through, until finely, she would leap across the current, baahing loudly the whole way.  She would then happily walk up to the porch, for us to pet her.
Ray thought maybe he just didn't have it turned up enough, so he cranked up the current to the highest setting, then we all snuck into the house so Sassy wouldn't see us, and prayed that she would stay outside that underground fence.
To our dismay, the next morning, there sat Sassy, all curled up on our porch, happy as could be to see us!!
UGHH!
Well, all I can say is the Lord is using this as a refining fire for me.
More to come on the goat story later.

Have a great day in Him, the Maker of all things, even Goats,
JJ

Ski Trip?

Well, we just got back from what was supposed to be a wonderful ski trip with my family, the Janszen's.  This was going to be a special treat for all of us, kids, spouses, and grand kids.  Mom and Dad had invited all of us to come meet them up in Colorado for a week of skiing in the beautiful mountains.
The mountains are MY thing, by the way!!! Love the mountains, topped with snow. Just love them!!
We all also love to ski, well, sort of, Anna, our 6 year old still isn't really sure yet, but all the rest of us LOVE it!!
Well, as you know, if you have kids, a job, a house, a life, it is HARD to get away, out of town.  After Ray,  flipping the call schedule around, making arrangements for all the animals, chickens, goats, dogs, cats, house, mail, etc, we headed out 2 weeks ago on a Monday morning.
As we headed out, Jesse, our 14 year old son, complained of a sore throat, cough, and ended up having some fever.  We treated him for the fever, and felt this would probably pass, so we kept going, definitely not going to turn around for that.  This would pass, he rarely gets sick.
That night, in a tiny town in New Mexico, as we all slept in a hotel room, Jesse was delirious with fever, so much so, that he tried to leave the hotel room mistakenly, then started breathing soooo labored that we had to throw him in the shower, then out in the -12 degree temp outside, to shock the chest into opening back up again.  After we got him calmed down, we treated the fever again, and prayed for the morning to come.
Good thing, the next morning, we were able to drive into Co. Springs to pick up some medicine that would help.  Still thinking that this would pass, we headed on to Beaver Creek.
We arrived that afternoon, so happy to see my family, parents, brother, sister, spouses, fiance', and niece and nephew!!
We told them to all just stay away from Jes, but the rest of us were fine.
Poor Jesse was not doing well at this point, feeling awful, just wanting to rest. No skiing for him.
The next day, we got Jesse situated, then headed out for our first day of skiing.

Ruth and Joshua on our first run!!

I made ONE run with Ruth (my 12 year old daughter) and Joshua (my five year old son). As we came down the mountain, Ruth said she thought she might throw up, then said she was so weak, she might faint.  I told her, "Don't you dare faint, I cannot carry you down this mountain, and get your little brother down also, this is his first run this year! Whatever you don't, don't faint!"
Praise the Lord, she did make it back down to the lodge.  We quickly popped our skis off, and one of the guys from the place we were staying saw I needed some help.  He ran and got Ruth some water, then he helped Joshua while I took Ruth on in.  I really thought she must have altitude sickness, and felt if I got some water in her, she would be fine.
As soon as we got indoors, and sat on the bench, she fainted!! Scary!!! I have never seen anyone faint before, especially my own child. I scooped her back up onto the bench, and she came back to me.  The guy who was helping me with Joshua, came in about that time, and I quickly got Ruth back to our room for her to get re hydrated, and rest. (I did go back and get Joshua right after that!!!)
So, first day of skiing was over.
Next morning, as all the family began to wake up, my kids started filing into mine and Ray's room. Anna first, with fever, then Joshua, then Ruth.  Oh no!!! Now we had four with fever.
We talked with my whole extended family, about us just packing up, and taking our sick crew home, but they all wanted us to stay, knowing we had just driven 2 days to get there to be with them.  We decided we would stay, and hoped this would be a quick sickness, and give it another day or two, and we would all be skiing together soon.
Esther, who was the only one without fever, wanted to go ski with the cousins.  I bundled up, and we headed out.  After about two runs....., you know what is about to happen!!! She starts talking about how weak she feels.  Yep! She had fever too!!! So now we were 5 for 5.

Hanging out in the pediatric ward, doing crafts and watching movies.

Ray ran to Walmart and got crafts, Lego's, and anything you can think of to do together in our room.  For the next few days, we didn't sleep much at night, doing med call for fever and cough, for 5 kids.  Ray and I had a few turns skiing some runs, while my Mom and Dad took turns hanging with the kids, but for the most part, it was pediatric ward for us.
We thought a few of them were doing better the last day of our stay up there, but the morning we left, all 5 had fever of 103+ Yikes!! One was even 104.9!! Scary!

The trip home.

We knew we had a miserable trip ahead of us, but we had to do it, so off we went.
The next two days, we had kids throw up 5 times in the car, 2 times had diarrhea in the car (YES that is right!!), one fainting in a Taco Bell parking lot, had to change clothes in a Casino in Oklahoma, and a gas station in Kansas, one go to the bathroom on the side of the road, with 30 mile an hour freezing winds howling, as we held them up between two car doors, constant coughing day and night.  Let's just say, it was a rough trip home!!!

Pure misery!!

As we approached Ft. Worth, Hallelujah!! We realized that something we had been planning to buy for Ray's business was going off of sale at midnight that night, the same day we were driving in.  We thought, "Why not?" We have made it this far, the traffic is bad in Ft. Worth, let's stop, let the traffic clear out, and run in an buy this item at Lowe's.
Boy, did we look like a motley crew.  Had not showered in two days, kids had on half clothes, half pjs,(because of the diarrhea incidents) hair a mess, all of us still wearing snow boots.  We looked rough!! I think the salesman felt sorry for us, he certainly didn't think Ray was a doctor, which was good, we didn't want him to know that anyway.  He gave us a great deal, and he even gave us a better price than what was on sale.  I'm tellin' ya, we looked so bad!!
So, finally home.  Yeah!!! Praise the Lord everyone slept good that night.  That was what we needed, because the sickness was not over, and to make a long story short, the kids stayed sick that whole next week, as well.  Another whole week off from school.
While we were trying to survive the second week of sickness, the challenges continued.  We had pool equipment freeze!!, audit letters come, and a pipe freeze, burst, and flood our storage and part of the apartment in our barn. After that pipe burst, Jesse thought I was losing my mind.  I just started walking around thanking the Lord for sickness, busted pipes, frozen pool equipment, audits.  Just thanking God for what He was doing.
Jesse said, "Mom, what are you doing??!!"
"I am thanking the Lord for these things, scripture tells me too." "I don't have to like them, but I will thank Him, somehow good will come out of this!"
I have to say, not sure what that is yet, but I do know this.
Because we were sick in Colorado, it really made us slow down.  My family is a go getter kind of family, lots of activity, fun, adventure. Because we were forced to be inside more, together, we had some sweet times of prayer with my Mom, Dad, Sister, and her husband.  My kids had some sweet times of dominoes with their "Buddy and Babe." We watched some fun movies together, and played scrabble.
So I can say, though, it was not the ski trip I would have chosen, some sweet times came from the sickness. As far as the frozen pipes, and things once we got home, not sure how the Lord will redeem those yet!! :) But like my father in law always says, "If money can fix it, it is not a real problem."
So I will continue to praise God, in the midst of the stuff.
God is faithful,
JJ