Jeffrey Got His Real Driver's License!

After more than a year of studying through a parent taught drivers-ed course, and driving >80 documented hours, Jeffrey passed his Driving Test and got his real license on Friday May 23. Congratulations Jeff!

This picture shows Mr. Daryl Wilbanks, Driving Inspector, congratulating Jeff on his successful passing, at the completion of his driving test. Jeff's "first car" is a 1988 Chevy C-1500 pickup. We have been updating the condition of it for several months, and this week we replaced the very corroded and leaky radiator, coolant hoses, thermostat, etc. Jeff really got into it ;-)...

Dad and Jason helped.We trust that this affordable truck will serve him well until he saves much more money.

ABE PAINTING

As some of you know, and others might not, our sons Randy and Tim have started a painting company in Joplin, MO where they both now live. They formed an LLC in Missouri: Albertson Brothers Enterprises (thus the ABE). They had a lawn service company in Colorado during their teen years, which was Albertson Boys Enterprises, LLC dba abeLawns.com - note the change from BOYS to BROTHERS in the LLC name. My Albertson siblings will know how proud their Grandpa Albertson would have been!

They are currently doing business as ABE PAINTING. They bought a 14-ft box truck, which serves as transportation, storage, and workshop for their painting operation. It easily holds all of the ladders, compressor, air and airless spray equipment, etc. It has a rack for various sizes of paint containers, a bench for any prep work, and other storage bins for brushes and other supplies. They hope to get a generator soon, so that they can have electricity for the power equipment at remote sites; the truck box even has a microwave oven, awaiting that generator.

They have been very busy painting most days since they started in business. Joy's brother David joined them in May, and so the three of them are trusting that they will keep busy enough to suppport three housholds. So-far-so-good, thanks be to the Lord!

This is an apartment complex in Pittburg, KS (near PSU) that they have the contract for painting the inside of 108 - 2, 3, and 4 bedroom units. It was a great way for them to start out, but they have worked some very long days to meet the schedule of the builders.

I survived a real F-3 tornado yesterday!

Many of you have heard by now that we had very destructive tornadoes in our area yesterday, Thursday 22-MAY-2008 at noon. Here at home, ~10 miles from the tornado, we only had heavy rain, hail, and hard wind. Our electricity was off for about 18 hours, from all the downed power poles, lines, and substations.

But…I was at work in Windsor, CO and our building took the brunt of the storm! We were warned about 10 minutes before it hit, so everyone was in safe zones. When the tornado hit our building, the 3-story concrete structure shook like an earthquake, and many of the suspended ceiling tiles and lights fell out of place. My lungs felt like I was suffocating (really frightening!) for about 10-15 seconds, the electricity went off, and the air in our safe zone filled with thick dust (they quickly passed out manatory dust masks), and there was suddenly a horrible sewage stench, as if the water had been sucked out of the traps in the floor drains, toilets, etc.
After about 30 minutes, we were allowed to go outside, where we saw the very strange damage done. Most of the ~250 vehicles in the parking lots had two or more windows broken out. My van had two windows missing, with glass scattered throughout the vehicle. The windshield had 4-5 different impact cracks, but I was able to drive it home. Two vehicles were on their tops, one on its side, a pickup on top of a motorcycle, and many cars jumbled around. The brand new flag poles were bent, one at a 45° angle! About ten 40-50 ft pine trees were uprooted and tossed aside, like plucked dandelions. Many of the building windows were blown out. You get the idea. After awhile the authorities said that we were required to go back inside to our safe zones, as there were still tornadoes in the area, and all of the roads were closed anyway. Over two hours later, we were asked to go home very carefully. I got home safely, and helped the family get supper on with no electricity (Coleman stove on the deck, lanterns, etc.) We borrowed a 5000W generator from friends who had power, and plugged in our freezer full of meat and garage 'fridge, with all our perishables. So you see, we were very blessed and helped by an Unseen Hand throughout this ordeal.
Our building at Carestream Health Colorado, where we make XRAY film, color paper, color display film, and inkjet paper and film sustained very severe damage. I have no idea when we will be allowed to go back to work, or what we will be doing when we do return. This could have a significant impact on the availability of these materials worldwide. As far as the managers knew, standing in our safe zones yesterday, we will be paid in full, for which we are very grateful.

New pictures on the sidebar

If you scroll down beyond the blog archive on the right you will see pictures of all of us Johnstown Albertsons.

God's Girls' Bible Study trip to George Washington Carver museum

While we were in Joplin the end of April, Beth, Emily, and I joined Joy and her God's Girls Bible Study group on a field trip to the George Washington Carver Museum in Diamond, MO. We didn't take pictures in the museum, but we did on the mile long nature trail walk that we took. If you have a chance to go to the museum, it is well worth your time. It is a God honoring museum. Mr. Carver was a real Christian man who gave God the glory for all that he discovered and the good he did in his life.All along the nature walk were signs with quotes of words Mr. Carver had said. I thought they were all very good. This is an example of his sayings.
Here are the girls, Emily, and Joy. If all the girls could have come, there would have been about 3 more girls. Joy meets with these girls 3-4 times each month, does a craft with them, and has a Bible Study with them. She tries to answer their questions and role model the life of Christian girlhood.
This is a bridge over a stream on the nature walk.
Joy sitting down in the second house Mr. Carver's adopted parents built in this area.
When the Lord brings it to your mind, pray for this ministry Joy has with these girls. They need to know the Lord. He can give them a bright and happy future. Joy loves each of these girls and wants to be the example and blessing in their lives that they need so much.

Pampered Chef Bridal Shower for Brenda

On May 13, we hosted a Pampered Chef Bridal Shower for Brenda and Tim. Tim did not get to be here, because he lives in MO now, but we had a nice turnout of friends and neighbors. The PC consultant was Julie Henkel, our long time friend for 25 years. Her husband, Greg, was Rowen's best friend from about 3rd grade and was the best man at our wedding. This is our neighbor, Johnnie Ullmann, our friend for 19 years, and LaDeana Desmond, my cousin.

With Brenda in this picture is Norena Hays, Maria Hays, and Sally Hays. We have known Sally for 19 years also. Her two daughters-in-law have had Brenda as their babysitter most of Brenda's time in Johnstown.This is Carmen Cruz, our dear friend from Greeley.
From the right of this picture is Sunshine Gearhart and her daughter, Tatiana. We have known them since they moved to Johnstown in 1999, I believe. Next is Paula Grzenia, a relatively new friend we have had for about 3 years. Nicole Hinkle is sitting by Paula. We have known Nicole about 3 years. We have Bible Study with Nicole and her family every other week. Bonnie Peterson is the other friend in this picture. I have known Bonnie for about 6 years. Bonnie and her husband employed Tim for part of 3 years in their restoration and rental businesses. All of these ladies are homeschoolers, and Tatiana graduated this year.

The children at the party were Phoebe Hinkle, Emily, Lexi Peterson, (to be the flower girl in the wedding), and Beth.

Brenda demonstrated some of the Pampered Chef tools making this yummy Strawberry Cream Trifle. Here she is with the finished product.
Brenda also received PC gifts from our friends, Chris Owen and Pam Lutey, who were not able to attend the party. All of our friends were so kind to purchase items that Brenda had on her wish list from Pampered Chef. It was a fun evening.

Mother's Day Picnic

For Mother's Day we had a picnic in South St. Vrain Canyon. It was our first mountain picnic of the year. We really enjoyed it, but Brenda missed Tim. We had a nice picnic, followed by a cheesecake and strawberries, yum! The only problem was that the wind came up several times, so we had to hold our plates and everything else down. After that, we sat by the river, and some of us walked on the rocks.

This is Mother standing by a precariously situated picnic table, which is not the one we used.

Around the table from left: Jeff, Jason, Bren, Beth (me), Emily, Mother. Daddy was taking the picture.
Brenda eating her last bite of cheesecake, and trying to keep it safe from everyone else.

"What are you guys looking at?"

"Ok, now everyone SMILE!"

Daddy and Mother being sweet, as usual!

Emily, Mother, and I on a rock whose top wasn't really big enough for all of us. Scary!
Me, sitting on the same rock.

Below: Through a series of scary stunts Jason crossed the river and posed on this rock.


Jason again.

I thought this was a cool picture.

Emily getting ready to throw a stick.

Spring Time in the Rockies

Yesterday, Saturday May 17th, we traveled to Red Feather Lakes, CO to further investigate several details that we needed before Tim and Brenda's wedding July 11th. While we were in that part of the mountains, we decided to go to a family-favorite camping site - not to camp, but just to see what condition the road was in, and do some hiking. It was about 70'F and clear blue sky - a perfect spring day in the Rockies. You should have been there!

I took this picture of the family standing in the gazebo behind the Chapel in the Pines www.redfeatherchapelinthepines.com/, where Tim and Brenda's wedding will be on July 11th.

After we were done at the chapel, we drove higher into the mountains north of Red Feather Lakes Village. On the way there, Brenda's keen eye caught sight of this cow moose. Can you spot it? Though you could never tell from this picture, we stopped and watched long enough to confirm the huge head and strange mouth of a moose. They are known to be in the area, but we usually don't see them. There are also mountain lions, bobcats, deer and elk in the area.

The kids were begging to go hiking, so Rowen, Jeff, Jason and Emily left the others in the car to read, while we walked ~1/2 mile to Creedmore Lake #1, then around the lake and climbed on the kids favorite rocks in our mountains...

Here they are, doing what they love to do - climbing all over these rocks on the west side of Creedmore Lake #1.

Almost to the top of the mountain in the first picture, with the lake!
View of Creedmore Lake#1 from the top

Some maps of the area where these pictures were taken; all the same area, with increasingly wide areas.

Red Feather Lakes Village, CO

Garden Planting Time!

On Friday 16-May-2008 we were finally able to get our 2008 garden started. It has been a cold spring here in northern Colorado, with frost several nights per week up until now. Finally late last week, we suddenly began summer, with daytime highs in the upper 80's(F) and nights in the 50's - so we quickly got the garden in. You will see in the first picture that the lilacs are still in bloom, but nearly done.

We planted romaine lettuce, radishes, carrots, zucchini, 16 tomato plants, 4 double rows of bush green beans, sweet and hot peppers, onions, 2 types of cucumbers. Last year we re-planted spearmint, after my cousin Katie Gafford shared several roots with us. It is coming up wonderfully! We look forward to frequent mint tea this summer.

In the pictures below, you'll see that Jeff gained some more experience with the roto-tiller, Brenda enjoyed helping, but didn't want to get her shoes dirty ;-)), and we all enjoyed working together on it. Jason also helped a lot, but nobody got him in a picture.

You all come to see us this summer and share with us the fruits of our harvest! Or, perhaps you'd like to help with canning all those tomatoes and beans in August and September!







Now we just have to water it every other day, weed it, and enjoy the harvest!