sounds of falling...

I don't think I'll ever get used to the sound of a tree falling. I have goosebumps on my arms as I type this. A huge tree just fell across the street in my neighbor's yard, thankfully it missed the houses! I'm going to try and get pictures tomorrow. Loren went over to check it out with my neighbor. He said that he hadn't seen such a large rotten center.

Taxes filed and tree pictures

Ahh, the feeling of relief. We did a final review of our taxes and filed last night and we are getting a refund from Federal, but we owe a bit to the State. It works out positive in the end, so it's a happy ending. We'll be paying down our credit card debt that was acquired in the need to remove that mammoth oak tree in the yard last fall. After the straight-line winds and tornadoes of last week, I am so very glad that tree was gone.
I'm finally uploading a few pictures of the tree removal. Cynthia had fun taking pictures, we have a minute by minute update of the tree (almost 300 pictures), especially the stump grinding. Although I have to admit the process was pretty fascinating, half my neighbors stood outside and watched. When the top 8 feet of the tree came down the house shook, they said that section weighed about 2000 lbs. When the last 20 feet came down my neighbors down the block said their house shook too. Can you see the clouds of dust in the picture?






Daniel Baptist will be holding their Vacation Bible School on July 13-17 in cooperation with New Vineyard Church. The theme will be a Judean Village. We were supposed to be out of town, but we are currently trying to rearrange our schedules to be back in time for VBS.

The Tree

This is a picture of the tree that is supposed to be coming down, see that it is marked with a blue ribbon now. The tree guy stopped by on Saturday, "to see what he was up against" were his words. He said he could be by Monday to take it down, but would only be able to haul it away on Tuesday due to a truck that broke down on Friday. Then he walked around some more and asked if he could access the tree from neighbors driveway and would I be able to get the power lines removed. Yeah, I guess the tree needs to score one more battle in leaving us without power for the day. I'm supposed to call the power company in the morning and arrange it for Tuesday. Do you think everything in the fridge and freezer will be okay with a day without power?
We picked Loren up at the airport last night, his flight was delayed in leaving Houston by 30 minutes. They waited for some mechanics who needed to fix a plane in Jackson and that flight was the last flight they could get them into Jackson that night. I'd better make sure and get all Loren's clothes done tomorrow, before the power is off, so he can be packed to head back out to a conference Wednesday.
This is a picture of the limb that knocked the power lines off the house on Monday.

tree wins another battle

Well, should I say that the tree wins another round in escaping being cut down. Humberto has delayed the scheduled removal. I prayed that all branches would remain in their proper places as the storm swept through Jackson, thankfully not much wind but a lot of rain.
We are headed to the Dr this afternoon, John has a rash all over his abdomen and started running a fever about 30 minutes before the rash appeared. It always amazes me how fast they can go from being 'a little warm' to 'burning up'. He slept in my arms for about 30 minutes and just now woke up wanting to watch a movie. It is now baby sister's turn to have mommy's attention. She's hungry.
Actually Miss. Rebecca is into rolling over. Two days ago she really started rolling over from her back to her stomach, now every time you put her down she thinks she needs to flip over. She's getting so big, and she's just so cute ;-)

Tree Update

Well, it looks like the tree may win the war, one way or another. Estimates to have it removed range from 1500.00 for partial delimbing to 3500.00. The best option is looking at 1900.00 right now. I'm making a few more calls in the morning, praying that all the limbs stay put and hoping to get rid of the tension headache so I can sleep tonight.