Whistle While You Work.

It's past time for an update.  I have some friends and family that aren't on Facebook and only get my Blog posts.  We think of all of you often and hope to see more of our Indiana connections while we are here, hopefully, until June.

We are doing work with Jeff to justify our parking spot here at the church that Jeff and Rachel work for.  There's lots of things to keep us busy at the four Churches in four cities that Jeff overseas as Facilities Director.  He is so talented that he does most major work himself and saves the church lots of $$$$.

Jeff's family had a home built and moved into it in December.  They had been waiting for warmer weather to put in the yard.  We made it a family project and Todd came to help.  If we wanted full-time jobs as landscapers there would be plenty of business just in that neighborhood, but it takes awhile for our bodies to recover.  It was a lot of  sod, but if was a couple of days of the warmest Indiana days so far this year. In fact, we all got a little sunburn.

Just two weeks earlier, Craig and Jeff built this deck in a driving snow storm.

Jeff and his son, Ty, working the Bobcat.

Jeff and Rachel with the finished product.
Their oldest daughter, Kristen, turned 17 on the 15th and we went out to dinner as a treat from our family friend and Todd's boss, Katie.  It was great food and fun and LOUD celebration when they surprised us all with a Birthday Blast!

Kara, Ty, Rachel, Jeff, Todd, Kristen, Katie and Craig.

There are always side projects to do, too.  Craig and Jeff worked on the non-working generator trying to keep it running.  But, it took a trip out to some good friends for someone who knew how to completely clean the generator.  Jeff uses this to keep the batteries charged on the fishing pontoon.

We have also had a few hours to fish on that pontoon.  It's a bit slower this year than normal, but we have been able to catch a few bass like this one.

It's a pretty little pond, but for the algae and weeds are starting to grown up.  The trees have had a hard time getting their buds going.

The guys have a constant running dig about who is using the best bait.  I'm just out to enjoy the time.  We see beavers and birds of all kinds around here.

One of our work projects was to clean out the old cabinets, paint the walls and install and stain new cabinets in the nursery rooms at the Hobart Campus.  We just moved everything to the middle.

Below are the two completed rooms. 

There are too many projects going at the same time to cover them all.  In between painting and building and reorganizing rooms we also set up and took down the baptistery, moved it to a new location and today will be building a stand for one at the Cedar Lake Campus.

It was cold and windy yesterday, but that didn't stop the guys from putting the siding on the entrance to the gym in Hobart.  It was too cold to prime and paint, though. 

This picture is taken from the north side of the Crown Point Campus.  It's a very large facility.  On the far right of the below picture you can see the unused farmhouse and the place they have allowed us to park while we work to earn our keep.

It's only in the 40's this morning, but Craig is out doing one of his favorite things..... mowing on a zero turn radius mower.  The man that normally cuts the grass here had to go out of town and he ask Craig to cut for him this week.  I'm sure he would enjoy it more if the sun was out and it was int he 70's.

Blessings,

Kathy

Spring in Indiana?

We are getting settled in to living in Indiana for the next couple of months.  We are in our hometown of Crown Point.  We love spending time with our two boys and their families that live here.  We also looked at a lake home just east of here, but haven't made any decisions to buy at this point.

Jeff and his family have moved into a new home in south Crown Point.  They have a nice pond behind their lot.  We are helping with a few projects there.  The first one was to build a deck on their back porch.  It was cold and blowing snow for most of that build.  I have to admit that I helped by taking photos only.

It's been so nice to spend time with our two sons, Todd and Jeff.  Todd actually lives in Illinois and works in Chicago.  We have a family gathering planned for this weekend.

Craig, Todd and Jeff

The guys also blessed us with a very nice evening out for dinner for Craig's Birthday.  I took him out for a Birthday breakfast, also.  I'm sure there will be more cake with extra icing as we get ready to celebrate our grand daughter, Kristen's Birthday this weekend. Craig was also given some gift cards to Bass Pro Shop.  He picked out some new goodies and had a good time setting up his rig.

We usually work with Jeff when we are in Crown Point, so he worked out a "work camp" type of deal with his Church to allow us to stay on the property on the back lot by the old farm house in exchange for us helping Jeff with projects for the church.  It has worked out well for us.  We woke up to snow on the ground one morning.  We are praying that the cold weather has passed!

The farm house behind us is unoccupied.  It flooded a while back and has not been restored inside.  They hope to tear it down in the future.

Jeff is the Facilities Director for the church that has four Campuses in four cities.  He has worked hard for the church in Hobart and the gym has been his latest project. Jeff did most of the floor by himself from hard wood that he got from a gym that was being torn apart. We took down the old backboards and put up new ones and installed sound proofing panels this past week.  Once we finish the painters will paint everything and then the floors will be refinished and repainted for basketball and volleyball courts.

Jeff, Kathy and Craig

We did manage to get out for a very short time to fish on Jeff's friend's pond.  It was cold and windy, but Craig got to try out his new rod and reel.

We really enjoy seeing all of our old friends and having time to spend with them.  We were invited to Wayne and Linda's with Bob and Denise for a wonderful dinner, but I forgot to take any pictures.  Then, we attended one of the churches in CP and had lunch with another group... no pictures.  Last night, Jim and Marie took us out to the best meal we have had in a long time and then it was topped off with cake and ice cream back at their house! We had a great time of fellowship and look forward to more while we are here.

Craig, Jim, Marie and Kathy

Praying that you are able to enjoy your spring.  It certainly has been an unusual one!!

Blessings,
Kathy

Back Home Again in Indiana or (Alaska)

We weren't able to make it back to our home town of Crown Point in Indiana for a family Easter, but we did get back the following week. Our first stop in our home state was at a little park we stopped at a couple of years ago called, New Vision RV Park.  There is a nice pond that is so pretty and has small bass that we had some fun catching.

We had a pretty strong rain storm while we were there.  

Three years ago we camp in Canyon Lake, Arizona and met campers that were also from Indiana.  We have become good friends and try to stop in to see them each time we go near their place in North Salem, Indiana.  Carolyn just had shoulder surgery and both she and Ron were worn out from sleepless nights and lots of pain.  We tried to help out where we could but felt we were more in the way than actually helping, so we moved on up another two hours to Crown Point.

Craig, Carolyn and Ron

Ron moved this original cabin to his property and uses it for his construction business office.
We parked for a couple of days across from that office and it was very foggy one morning when we woke up.

 Carolyn was starting to feel a little better, so down the road we went.... in the rain.

We parked in our son, Jeff's new driveway just long enough to decide that we didn't want to crack the nice driveway. So, Jeff had made arrangements for us to park in his church lot back by the old farmhouse.

Kristen, Kara and their father, Jeff with the dog, Calvin.

 They put in this cool LED fireplace.

We dropped our Honda CR-V off at the Collision repair place to see what damage we had from that construction barrel we ran over in Texas.  They are working on it and we have a rental.  Jeff's church is kind enough to allow us to park in the old farm house parking lot.  It's a pretty wide open view. It has rained off and on with some sunshine, then snow, then wind, then wind and snow, and then sunshine.  It's also pretty cold and will hit freezing the next few night, so I had to bring in my portable garden.

On Thursday, my mom's sister, Rosie got back from her time in Florida.  Kim, my cousin, met her at the airport and helped her get home and settled back in again.  We had a nice visit.  Kim lives in TN, so I don't often get to see her.

Our front window view.

 Last night's sunset.

Jeff has been trying to find time to finish the deck he has started on the back of his new home.  Craig also braved the cold wind and blowing snow and they finished most of the under structure and now just have the planks to put down.

 The guys showered to warm up and we had some lunch and then they went on to the next project of getting us hooked up to electricity and water and septic. The weather has not been very cooperative.  It is cold and goes from sunshine to blowing snow off and on.  Todd stopped by and I was able to get a picture of Craig with our two sons.... or as Tana used to call them, "The boys".

Craig, Todd and Jeff

One of the white outs that happened this afternoon.
I pray it's warmer than 37 degrees wherever you are.  

Blessings,
Kathy