What a wonderful day with my family! I love being at home with Holly. I was careful not to eat too much, and take several naps on Thanksgiving Day. I got the biggest drumstick I've ever seen! We had a super time with the moms, Carol and her friend, Don. We loved having you at our home Don!

Life's Not Always Easy

Hello from Hank! I've got some prayer requests today:

This week's been a busy one from a Police/Fire Chaplain's perspective. On Friday, Bourbonnais' First Responders were called to the home where a four month old baby had died. Please pray for mom and dad and the babysitter. My good friend, Chaplain Brett was on the scene and at the hospital with the family. He stopped by my office afterwards for a debriefing. He's got two very young children himself and this call hit "close to home".

On Tuesday, I was on the scene where a young mother was assulted by her husband with a large kitchen knife. She survived and his recovering in the hospital. Her two beautiful girls where home during the attack and they are pretty scared. The husband was captured early the next morning and arrested. For the last several days; I've been working with detectives, family members and various social agencies in the community to try and help mom get her life together.



They are beautiful children...Lizette and Brenda. Please pray for psychological, emotional and physical recovery for mom and for psychological and emotional recovery for the girls. Also pray that we find a safe home for them to move into, furnishings, etc. I'll keep you posted.

Also...during this last week I've been handing out promo materials to the Fire Departments where I serve. An awesome movie called "Fireproof", opened in the theatres on Friday, Sept. 26 and my hope is that every First Responder that I know goes to see it. It is an awesome story of a firefighter to rescues people from burning buildings, car wrecks, but cannot save his marriage. See: http://www.fireproofthemovie.com/

The message from this movie is one every First Responder needs to see and hear. (Actually everyone needs to see this one!) Please pray for the men in women in my fire departments and throughout the country. Their jobs are tough and many of them struggle with their marriages.

(Holly and I saw the movie last night and the theatre was nearly full (sold out on Friday night) and not a dry eye in the place at the end.

On the home front...well the very extended home front, Holly and I are grandparents. A little more than 10 years ago Holly and I had a young lady, named "Lena" from Russia live with us. We fell in love with her and we've often referred to her as the daughter we never had. We'd kept in touch for a long time, and were very proud as she completed her education and she's now a Cardiologist traveling to several countries in Europe and Russia. We lost touch with Lena for the last three years and we've learned that she's got a precious little girl named Anna.




So we're very proud "Parents" and very happy "Grandparents."

Thanks for "listening" and thanks for praying.

Hank

Summer Critters

This has been a summer filled with critters. Not like the big ones we had on the farm, but little ones. 'cept the snake that I couldn't catch in the back yard...that seemed to be five foot long and an inch and a half thick! I sprinkled stuff around the yard to get rid of it so Holly would come outside again and it disappeared.

This baby Robin was so tame it let me pet it.

This frog we found while bike riding was so big I could hardly hold it with one hand.










The other picture is his nose....oh, I guess it's a horse's nose.

















Here's the rest of the horse.

And our cat getting high on fresh catnip from the backyard.

Amie feeding the goats. They wanted to eat really baaaaad!










Here we have your basic pet banana.



Like I say, it's not like the farm was. This photo of my family is from July Fourth weekend eleven years ago. (Our last family get-together before Dad died.)


If you look really close you'll see that Dad's holding a chicken. Amanda is holding a newborn kitten. The deer were pretty tame.



Pretty great memories as I realize that the Lord has been very good to us.



God bless you and thanks for stopping by.

Trip to South Dakota June 2008

Holly and I took a trip to my hometown, Watertown South Dakota. We drove a day and a half to get there, stayed at the Midwest Bible Camp for one day and drove a day and a half to get back home. We couldn't stay but a day because I had to do a funeral on Saturday, plus we neede to keep a close eye on my mom. Here are some great friends in the camp kitchen, Mitzy, Gladys, Mindy and Kay.

While we were there, we drove 30 miles to see my dad's grave. It's a pretty lonely place, at the sight of the former Our Savior's Lutheran Church, where my dad's family attended when he was a boy. The church has been long gone, but the cemetary still exists.

It rests on top of a slight rise about three miles Northwest of Bradley, South Dakota. You can see forever as you look over the prairie

We've been havin fun all summer long!

Great News, mom hasn't fallen in over two weeks! We've got her glucose under control, she's been eating great and staying upright.

That's not all....she found a boyfriend when we were at the doctor's office to get her cast off her right arm. I was hoping that she'd find a rich doctor to take care of her (us) but this one's too skinny!












We went to a car show two weekends ago and what fun that was. I saw several great Chevelles and drooled over some Camaros, but this little roadster, a 32 Ford if I remember right, won my heart. I could have taken it home for about $28k, but I think I could have talked him down to 26.

Last photo for now. Lacey drinking from my glass. What a goof!

Holly and I have been enjoying the summer evenings bike riding and walks. I have been out rollerblading most days and find that my favorite place in the world is our patio.

I hope that you get a chance to enjoy God's goodness this summer...loving your family, resting, enjoying all the blessings you've been given. Don't spend it running and working...life's too short...yoouuuchhh, the summer's too short!

Memorial Weekend

Our friend, Amie drove over from Ohio on Friday and Saturday we (Holly, Carol Amie and Hank) loaded up the car and drove about 5 hours South and spent two days hiking and goofing off in the Shawnee National Forest.

First we hiked in the "Garden of the Gods" area.

Then we drove further south to the Cave in the Rock, and then circled up and east to Rim Rock. This was a fantastic place for photos.