Didn't want to overlook this...

These pictures were taken the day we got back from our trip to Indiana in May. May 22, 2011, to be exact. We had just arrived home and were totally taken unaware by the marvelous colors in the sky. It was as though everything was tinted red. The white gravel on the driveway was even tinted pink. A large colorful rainbow was in the sky.

And as though a powerful painter was painting with vibrant colors (and He was!) the sunset was absolutely splendid!

Oh, and if the date rang a bell with you, this was shortly after the E-5 tornado in Joplin, on the other side of Missouri from us. Amazing!

Reminds me of Psalms 19:1 "The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands."

Posted by Pam

Now that's big!

Just past the Indiana border in Northwest Ohio we drove through a wind power plant. We were amazed at how large these are. That is a red pickup truck and people standing at the base of it. (You may be able to click on the picture to enlarge it a few times.) We counted at least 50 of these and they are still building more. Only one was turning so far. Interesting....

Summer is here....

It has been nearly 3 weeks since we have updated our blog - our apologies about that! Excuses range from we've been out of town, no access to a computer, and the computer we do have has been acting up... Yep, sounds like a bunch of excuses.

Following our very nice trip to Fort Wayne, we tried to finish up our school year, and got pretty close to being done. I (Pam) spent another week with my mom and my sister, Liz, following the death of my dad. Even though it was a sad occasion that brought us together, it was still a pretty neat week. We spent a lot of time going through old pictures, letters, even diaries from the 1940's and 1950's, which was a real treat.

My family spent a few days vacationing after the funeral. We went to The Creation Museum, in Petersburg, OH, and the Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, IL. They were both pretty neat in their own unique ways, and I'm glad we had a chance to visit them. I will try to post more about them later - when our computer is straightened out!

Since we have been home Jenny has been busy with lifeguarding at LPBC - our nearby church camp, and volunteering two mornings a week at the hospital. Walter has started cutting hay and we will be doing that as the weather allows over the next week or so, or until we get it done.

Our house building project is moving forward. We have selected a builder and are scheduled to begin this fall. We also have started working with an architect to draw up better house plans that will be easier for the builder to follow. We were pleased with the ideas he had for us, and it is getting easier to start feeling good about this process!

We have 3 new additions to our family - kittens! Chloe the calico, Dixie the gray tiger striped, and Rika, the orange tiger striped. They are so much fun to watch.

It has been a lot of fun to watch the activities on the lake this spring and summer. The most boats we have counted at one time have been 7, and our favorites are the kayaks and sailboats. There are also a lot of people who just fish from the edges, or just come to eat a picnic lunch it seems. It is really a beautiful lake to live near, and we feel blessed to have such nice views out the front porch.

That pretty much sums it up here. Will try to get some pictures posted soon.
Posted by Pam

Metamorphosis survives 2 moves!

At the end of last summer we found a beautiful large green caterpillar at Lions' Club Park. We put it in a jar and it started spinning a cocoon right away. A few days later we found another slightly different caterpillar, put it in the same jar, and it also started spinning a cocoon.

The jar traveled with us last fall when we moved and resided for a couple of weeks in Liz's kitchen, then moved into the guest house. The jar made it safely through the move to the camper, and stayed on a shelf in the very small living room through the winter. This spring I set it out on the porch, and a couple of weeks ago Jennifer happened to notice that a beautiful moth had emerged.

The 4 spots were translucent - just amazing.

See his beady little eyes?

I'm so glad God chose to create such interesting creatures. There are probably some good lessons to learn from them. Things like patience, perseverance, and God's sense of timing.

Williams House Happenings now in book form!

Well, I (Pam) feel like I am really starting to catch on to a small part of this massive digital technology that is available. I have just published our family's first blog book! It was super easy. I used a company called Sharedbooks, and I was very satisfied. Here is their website if you are interested:

http://blogspot.sharedbook.com/blog2print/googleblogger/index.html

I entered my blog's website address, and it uploaded my blog. All I had to do was to select which blog entries I wanted to include or exclude, and other options, such as what to put on the front and back cover. I had options to just get it as a PDF file, and print it myself, or print in black & white, or color pictures, as well as soft or hard cover.

There may just be hope for us yet since making family scrapbooks don't seem to be a talent of mine!

Time for "Plan B" & in the meantime...

We have been enjoying our respite from the stresses of moving out of our house. Liz & Lewis have been most generous with sharing their guesthouse with us. We were waiting to hear if our Plan A was going to work out or not. We have heard now, and looks like we will be going with Plan B, which is to live in some type of temporary housing at our farm. We are exploring some options we may have with the structures that are already there, or with possibly bringing in something like a mobile home. Hopefully, we will get it figured out fairly quickly so we can ease the stresses of transitional living!

In the meantime, the kids have been rather busy recently. Cordell & Ryan are participating in a First Lego Robotics Challenge and so have been busy with their teams preparing for it. Cordell's team is researching the lungs and respiration, and Ryan's team has narrowed their research down to the use of biomedical engineering helps for macular degeneration. Rather interesting!

Cordell & Jenny are both playing basketball with the homeschool teams through RHAA, and have had practices twice a week.

We had to put up some new fencing for our cows at our new farm. Tomorrow is the big day for turning them out of their temporary round pen.

Well, all for now.
Posted by Pam

Contract on House!

Less than 2 months after putting our House For Sale by Owner sign up, we have a contract to sell it. We used Rollanet & Craigslist to advertise it, which are both free classified website listings. We are just amazed at how God is providing for us, and with His perfect timing. We are closing by November 8th, or possibly sooner if our buyer can get everything done on their end. This is right after soccer and volleyball, but before basketball and deer season. Not to mention perfect weather for moving as well.

The surveyors and termite inspectors are here today. We have started packing up our extra stuff. Walter has already moved a lot of the outside farm equipment to the farm as well.

You might be asking where we are moving to? Well, we are not sure ourselves yet. We have a possiblity we like, called Plan A, but won't know more about it for a couple more weeks yet. So, we are also preparing a Plan B option in case the first doesn't work out. So, you will have to be in suspense for a couple of weeks, just like we are!

We have really enjoyed living here these past 9 years. Great location close to our church and to town, beautiful scenery, and I have especially liked watching the squirrels play in the trees through the kitchen windows. The creek has been a great place for the kids to play, at least before the poison ivy gets bad. I am already missing living here before we have even moved!

But, I believe God has other things planned for us, and His plans are even better than what we can think of. So, I will quit reminiscing, and get busy packing!

Posted by Pam

Masquerade Party!

Jenny recently attended a 16th birthday party/masquerade party for her friend, Shaylynn. Jenny wore the French Revolution time period dress she made last fall. She was in a literature group studying "The Scarlett Pimpernel", and made the dress as part of the study.

This is the front view. Luckily, we found a huge crenoline slip/skirt to wear under the dress that helped to really poof it out. Apparently the goal back then in the late 1700's was to show how small your waist was by expanding the hips!

Just to give the full idea, here Jennifer is showing just how full the dress is! I remember Jenny saying how hard it was to gather all the fabric together. No wonder! The girls had a great time and even went for a stroll about the neighborhood. Well, not to sound biased, but I thought Jennifer did a great job with her costume, and even made a neat mask from paper mache - complete with feathers. Great job, Jenny!

Posted by Pam

House for Sale

Well, it is official now. We have a "For Sale" sign in the yard and we will be glad to show our house to anyone interested in buying it. It is a 4 bedroom, 2 and a half bath ranch home on a full finished basement.

This is the living room. It has a gas fireplace, vaulted ceiling and beautiful car siding. That last thing means it has wooden boards on the wall. There is also a nice deck from the living room.The kitchen features a tray ceiling, ceiling fan, gas stove, lots of oak cabinets, plenty of counter space, and a beautiful view of the tree tops out of the kitchen sink window and the bay windows at the dining table. I personally love watching the squirrels play in the trees, and you can see the brook in the woods at the back of the house.The lower level is bright and sunny with windows all across the back side. It has a concrete patio out the back door, a wood stove, and TWO large storage rooms. I call them "His and Her" storage rooms since I have one and Walter uses the other. You can see the new wood laminate flooring and the new carpeting we did this spring. There is a long family room, a side room for whatever you want, and also 2 bedrooms and a full bath on this level.

Outside there is a small creek in the woods behind the house, just right for exploring, a pond with catfish, peach trees, blackberries, a nice garden spot, and plenty of space for playing. The pasture is about 7 acres, and has electric fencing. Our land is actually three 5 acre lots put together, so we are willing to sell it with 5, 10 or all 15 acres. Oh, and we also have very nice neighbors, and that is worth more than you might think.

So, for more info, let us know! (And help us spread the word. We are trying to sell it without a realtor first.) :) Posted by Pam

When I grow up, I want to be a....Christian!

Just in case anyone is reading this who might be interested, our church is holding a VBS next week. It is going to be a lot of fun and we are looking forward to it!

Here are the details:

63 South Church of Christ in Rolla

Friday, July 30 from 6-9 (dinner included).

Saturday, July 31 from 9-1 (lunch included).

By the way, does anybody have any refrigerator boxes they want to get rid of? We need a lot of boxes!

Posted by Pam

The New Flowerbed

A post by Pam:

There is something very satisfying about doing something you have intended on doing (for quite some time, I might add), but hadn't gotten around to doing yet. I have always intended on creating a new flowerbed under the large tree in our front yard because the grass doesn't grow well there anyways. Last week with the help of Cordell and Ryan I was able to complete it. What you can't see is how many loads of dirt we had to shovel and bring over in the lawnmower trailer from a dirt pile!

To those of you who saw my earlier fuzzy picture, my apologies. These are better. Notice the solar lights. Again, another thing I have always wanted to add, but never had. I am so glad God gave us flowers to enjoy! Oh, and mulch is a pretty nice thing too. Walter took the time out of a very busy day in the hay field to bring home a trailer full of mulch for me. That is when you know someone really loves you!

I also finally reclaimed the front flowerbed and converted it from its previous jungle status! I personally love my wagon wheels and the hand cultivator. The red thing is a tractor front axle which I find quite interesting.

To finish it off, I even got out the old rusted milk can from the garage (where it has been waiting for years for me to do something with it) and painted it for a planter. The old Maytag washer Walter brought home one day. It has a motor on the bottom of it and came from an older gentleman in Webster Groves who wanted to get rid of it. The wringer swings around from the back. Well, I am trying to brighten some corners!

Need another suitcase?!

This is a rather interesting traveling trunk that Walter acquired some years ago, and we have decided that now is a good time for it to find another owner. It is a 1920 Herckert and Meisel Trunk made in St. Louis.

Here is a link for Herkert & Meisel. They are still in business, since 1888! Currently located in Owensville, Mo, they now specialize in sample cases and bags.

http://herkertmeisel.com/history.htm

Check it out!

It has 6 pull out drawers, and all original fabric and leather linings, wooden hangers, etc.
The little tag states that you should store your 3 lb. traveling iron here.


This is my favorite part. The bottom drawer opens up to reveal two little knobs to store your bonnets on to keep them from getting crushed.

The trunk was guaranteed by the H&M Trunk Co. for 5 years. Looks like it made it for 90!
This trunk weighs a ton empty. I can't imagine what it would weigh full. I suspect whoever traveled with this trunk didn't have to worry about moving it (at least themselves). It seems like the sort of thing that travelers on the Titanic would have used.
Let us know if anyone is interested and we will make you a great deal!

Posted By Pam