Reynolds' Family

Last Friday evening, Ben and Marlene Reynolds and their precious children, Kassie and Titus, came up for supper and game playing. Rowen preferred playing with the kids over the game playing. Here he is singing "Stop and Let Me Tell You (what the Lord has done for me)."

Kassie liked the stories Rowen read to her.

Titus loves tractors!

Marlene and Kassie had fun jumping on the trampoline.

Beth, Emily, and Titus watched their antics.

We only played one game; the evening was too short! We were playing Dealer's Choice that the Reynolds had brought and we must have been slow learners, because Ben won.

We need to get together again soon. It was a delightful evening.

Helping out at our friends' Kids Church

On May 3, we went to Federal Heights to Ben and Marlene Reynolds' Kids' Church. We had been there in April and started the story of Joseph and his brothers. This time only Jeffrey helped act out the Bible Story. He was Pharaoh and Ben was Joseph.

This is when Pharaoh put Joseph in charge after Joseph interpreted his dreams.

Joseph got a new royal robe to wear since he was in charge!

We have enjoyed helping out, even though we don't do that much. We will probably keep going down to Federal Heights when we have opportunity.

Teddy Roosevelt visits Johnstown

On Tuesday evening, President Theodore Roosevelt visited Johnstown. Johnstown was founded in 1902 while he was in office, so it was only appropriate that he come and make a speech here. He said it was 1909 and told us his life story.

He had a lot of good things to say. We just wish we had a statesman like him for a president in 2009!

His second wife, Edith, and son, Quinten, were also present for the occasion.

Our daughter, Emily, was honored to be pictured with Ethel Roosevelt.

These reenactors are dear friends of ours, Mathew, Nicole, Phoebe and Ethan Hinkle. Mathew is a history enthusiast and enjoys reenacting several people in different periods of history. His favorite president is Teddy Roosevelt; he has studied his gestures and voice inflections, besides memorizing many quotes and facts from his life. He does an excellent impersonation. We were glad the Johnstown Historical Society hosted the Roosevelt family for their History Alive Quarterly Meeting.

Mother's Day weekend 2009

Here is an updated family picture of us Albertsons! This was taken Mother's Day evening. It was a blessing to be with all of our children and my parents for Mother's Day weekend!

Last week, I was pondering about how long it had been (for everybody besides me) since seeing the rest of our family. Thanksgiving was the last time we had all been together! We see them occasionally on video chat and we talk on the phone regularly, but a great desire came into my heart to have everybody together! On Thursday morning, both Randy and Joy called and asked, "Can you come this weekend?" Being Mother's Day weekend, it seemed an appropriate time to go. Rowen was able to get off work. So being the spontaneous people we are, we took off at 9:45 am Thursday and arrived in Joplin about 11:30 pm. We stayed at my parents' house.

At breakfast Friday morning, a violent storm came up with winds over 85 mph and rain. The electricity went off and was not back on again until mid afternoon on Saturday! Daddy lost a couple of big branches from his trees, but we were thankful to not have any tree or limbs fall on the house. A lot of people were less fortunate with smashed cars or roofs.

Tim and Brenda did not lose their electricity, amazingly, because most of the town was without. Many stores were closed and the traffic signals did not work. ABE Painting was still able to work with indoor painting to do--even without electricity--because of the bright, sunshiny day we had after the storm was passed. Rowen, Jeffrey, and Jason got to work with Randy and Tim and their other workers on Friday and Saturday and enjoyed the fellowship of working together.
This is the uprooted tree where they were painting:

Tim painting inside the great room in that house.

A picture of Tim and Brenda at church on Sunday. He does clean up nicely!

Brenda and Emily playing a violin duet with Jason accompanying them on the piano.

Randy and his second son, Micah

My precious Mother and me on Mother's Day morning.

The Albertson clan with Grandma and Grandpa Scoles

Sometimes Quil is silly:

I bought this Bumbo seat for Micah. Something like this was not available when my children were little!

Emily enjoys time with her nephew, Quil.

Quil seems to be fascinated with Jeffrey's braces.

We made sure to get pictures of each of the CO kids with Micah this time! Here's Jeffrey:

Emily and Micah:

Beth and Micah:

Jason and Micah:

Randy, Joy, Quil, and Micah on Mother's Day

Grandma and Grandpa Albertson and Micah at Tim and Brenda's for supper:

We had a good time with our kids and were thankful to be safely home again Monday evening.

Painting the House project

A few weeks ago, Rowen published a picture of our house with a request for suggestions for colors of paint we should use on it. We considered sage with white trim, but upon discovering we had a lot of trim paint already paid for, we decided to go with a color compatible with the trim color. We ended up choosing Icicle, which is a blue-white color, for our main color. Our house needed some construction work before we could start on the painting. Rowen and the boys replaced several rows of siding and the front and west end gable fascia boards. Of course, there was much sanding, caulking, and scraping to do as well. This first picture is of the west (garage) side new siding after it was primed.

Beth was in charge of the shutters. She took the hearts off, preparatory to painting them and the shutters.

Some of the hearts broke, so she glued the repairable ones, and actually made a brand new one from scratch!

After all the painting, she reassembled them.

Emily was the only one small enough to comfortably paint under the overhangs.

Jason was only three last time we painted so the whole experience was new to him. He had to get used to painting on a ladder, either handedly, even though he is a lefty.

Here he is priming up higher. After a couple of hours at this, he felt very shaky and had to have a break!

Rowen and Jeffrey started the rolling process. After four of us did some rolling and we had streakiness, we decided to let Rowen do all the rolling the second coat for consistency's sake.

Janet on the roof doing the gutters with the Phillipsburg Blue trim paint.

Emily loved to paint anywhere within her reach.

Rowen and Janet enjoying some "together" time painting by the shed.

Several of us cutting in at once. Janet had just relinquished her position to Emily in favor of making lunch, but Beth insisted I stay in the picture. So I said I would "shake the ladder!"

Jeffrey caulking up high.

Janet and Jeffrey on the plank, doing more cutting in.

Emily, with a look of concern, watching the headless people painting.

Rowen sanding the gutters on the back. We were very thankful for the wonderful, sturdy ladder we were able to purchase off Craig's list this spring. It was very necessary for the high parts of the house.

Jeffrey cutting in on the east side of the house.

When Rowen was busy putting up the shutters, Janet needed to leave to go to Sam's Club. There was never a good bye kiss just like it!

Beth needed to conquer her fear of heights. The ladder is leaning against the gutter three feet away from the house.

Virtually finished! April 30, 2009. We still have the back passage door of the garage and some touching up to do. We will want to paint the deck too, before putting away all the brushes. The kids are anxious to get the tent set up on the deck, so we will do the deck painting as soon as the weather gets nice again.

Keep in mind, it is not a "white" house; it is "Icicle" color!