Oh Boy!!! What a busy week!!! Whew!!!

Wow! What a busy week this has been!

* This last Sunday we worshipped in church and then had the opportunity once again to head out to the Wyoming Boys' School to minister to the boys. The worship was well received and the Name of Jesus Christ was lifted up in a big way!

* Monday started with the kick off of the Washakie County Fair. Good food! Visiting friends!....of course Tuesday was the day that all our goats and sheep had to get checked in and weighed in. Kudos to Sandra, our boys, and Uncle Chisum for getting the animals there while I had to work.

* Monday night Caleb Garza, Kaleb Craft, Jarod Craft, Nic Craft, and Nick McMarten played a two hour concert at the Washakie County Fairgrounds. They really rocked the place! I think it could have been even louder!

* Caleb, Jacob, and Joshua (our boys) showed their breeding lambs, market lambs, and dairy goats in the goat and lamb show on Wednesday! I can't believe how hot the day was.....the animals were panting in the heat....I think the owners were too! Whew! The boys did very well in the competition. They were able to place several times including some championships and championship reserves.

* Thursday night the whole worship team got together to prepare for the upcoming "Biker Sunday" this coming weekend. We learned a new song called "My Savior Lives" that really rocks for the Lord. We are looking forward to playing it in church this Sunday.

* Can you believe we are in August now? Wow! Time is flying!

* It has been so busy I had to start this post on Thursday and finish it today...(Friday). We finally made it to Friday. The sheep sale is on Saturday! I can't wait for it to be over. Then we start all over with the new week.

Thank you Lord that you helped us to survive this week!!! God bless you guys!

Not the right time for fishing!

Well...yesterday's events were pretty much done, the chores were finished, dinner was over, and Caleb had some friends over to practice music for the fair. So..... Jacob, Joshua, and I decided that we would go fishing for a little while at the Worland pond behind our place.

The sky was getting dark and stormy, and Sandra warned us that we better be careful if we were out there. After we got to the pond, we had just gotten our worms on the hooks for fishing and casted out into the pond, when the wind started to pick up and lighting was going off around us at a distance. We thought that everything was fine and that we would continue fishing.

After about a half an hour not catching any fish, the lightning started to get a lot closer, but we still wanted to fish, so Joshua and I decided to go further around the pond through the weeds and brush. As I was leading Joshua through the brush, I heard a hiss and rattle. Just a few feet ahead coiled and warning us was a rattlesnake. WE DECIDED THAT WE WERE DONE FISHING FOR THE EVENING! Needless to say....we decided that we would probably have better luck on another day without a lightning storm and rattlesnakes!!!! It was time to get home.

Hard working student from FBC!!!

Let me tell you......our kids from First Baptist Church are working hard on their mission projects with Student Ministries. I also have to tell you that Pastor Jess and Heather Rollema are doing a great job of leading these kids in our community for Christ. Instead of going out of state or country on a mission trip, the student team decided to make their Christ driven mission right here in Worland, Wyoming. Instead of World Changers like they did last year...they are calling the projects..WORLAND CHANGERS!! It has been exciting to see our youth working in the name of Jesus Christ!

I had the privilege to be able to work on one of the projects with them last Friday.....and that was to help a local lady clear her back yard of brush and leaves. It took nearly all morning, but it was a blessing to see the middle school and high school kids diligently getting things done. They also stacked all of the extra fire wood that was in the back yard in a storage shed. To top it off, when the students were done at that house, they made their way to another on-going painting project for another elderly couple. I'm impressed Jess and Student Ministries! Keep working hard!

I do have to tell the story.......I took 5 students with me in my pickup to take a ton of branches to the dump. While the engine was running and all got out, someone accidentally bumped the electric lock on the door, locking all of us out. The truck sat there running while we desperately looked for wire to break into my truck to be able to get back to the project. One of kids even thought she could pick the lock in the door of my truck....we just laughed. Finally I was able to get the door open, unload the truck, and get us all back! Fun! Fun!

Washakie County Fair!

I can't believe that it's that time of year again. The boys are walking their suffolk lambs to get them ready for the 4-H show at the Washakie County Fair. They are making sure that they are getting plenty of lamb grower feed. Caleb, Jacob, and Josh are starting to trim and shear the lambs. The only trouble that they seem to be facing this year is that they should have been working their lambs a little earlier this year. The lambs are still a little wild and hard to handle. All I know is the lambs better be tame enough for the show on July 30th. Just to give you an idea how wild some of the lambs are, Joshua tried running his lamb, he tripped still hanging on, and the lamb drug him several yards scraping up his knees and hitting his head on the gravel road yesterday.

This year both Jacob and Joshua will be showing our nubian dairy goats too. We are excited because they will be presenting the goats under our new registered herd name: JS Wyokiddin' It is always fun to see them show all dressed in their dairy white.

Good luck to all 4-H members in the Washakie County Fair starting the last week in July. It ought to be good competition this year. It should also be very hot weather....so take care of your animals and get them plenty of water!

Ugly Duckling!

Okay! Okay! Sure....I'm being teased a lot lately because of my Volkswagen Baja Bug. Unfortunately Sandra and I had to take measures to help with the gas crunch....that was to buy a cheap Beetle and park the pickup. Can you believe these gas prices? It was cheaper to get the Bug than to continue filling up the Ford pickup with gas to get back and forth to work. All I know is I thank the Lord for providing a cheaper way to get to work and back. If you see a goofy looking tri-colored orange....white....yellow......RUST!.....bug going around Worland, WY......don't laugh too much! Just wave and say hello. It's just me trying to pinch pennies. God bless you guys!

1st Baptist Church Picnic!

Hey everyone! This last Sunday was great! First of all we worshiped the Lord loudly with our voices in the morning, listened to some great teaching by Pastor Shaun Matako.....and then it was time to run over to Sander's Park for the annual church picnic. Here is a list of things that my family really enjoyed:

* The deacons did a great job cooking up some burgers and hot dogs. I wish I could have had a whole lot more.

* Pam Hart and her team did a great job organizing the picnic.

* The carry'in side dishes, desserts, pop, etc. were awesome! I'm still full!

* Of course...visiting friends from our church was a highlight. I hope even more people will come next year.

* Jacob, Joshua, and I really enjoyed getting into the games that Jodi Matako planned. There was the water balloon toss (I got to splash Joshua and then he got me back in front of everybody in the seat of my pants!); we had spoon and egg races; we had a candy parachute (We shook the parachute too hard to pop candy out of it......we accidentally ripped the parachute, so we threw the candy everywhere for the kids to get!).

* At this time I had to get Sandra home because her ankle was aching bad from the sprain she had gotten that morning from stepping of a curb. I took her home and had to head back for the kids. Don't worry.....Sandra went to the doctor yesterday, and she is doing a lot better!

By the time the event was over, we were beat. It was then time to go home and take a nap. I can't wait for next year! I hope the weather will be perfect for it again. Thank you Lord for a wonderful time with my family and church family!

What a 4th!

This year our family got together for a dinner and fireworks out at my father-in-law's ranch in Manderson, WY to celebrate the 4th of July. The food was great! Barbecued hamburgers over a wood fire grill! YUM! The kids had fun playing games throwing bean bags and getting rowdy! The biggest rowdy kid had to have been Uncle (Pastor) Jess. You should have seen the fireworks that he set off!!!

Believe it or not, one of the highlights before we even started lighting the fireworks was catching the fish in the cow water trough with our hands and little nets. The boys made a muddy wet mess! It was great laughing at the kids!

Little Trae Bennett had a great time walking around with sparklers. It is fun to see the little kids taking on the traditions that we have celebrating the Independence of our country! Amber celebrated by making sure that little Karys was warm in the pickup and out of the wind. Heather celebrated knowing that Baby Rollema will be born soon and will celebrate next year. Sandra, Grandma and Grandpa Bennett, and I just sat back taking it all in as the boys, Uncle Chisum and Uncle Jess went nuts!

Toward the end of the fireworks we were lighting off, Jess decided it was time to set off the FINALE that he had been working on for several hours in his basement at home. He pulled out the fireworks, nailed to a piece of plywood, which had been in the back his vehicle. Yes....he drove it to a safe spot to be fired up! We laughed so hard at what the firework display looked like. It looked like an amusement park on a piece of wood. Fire, light, explosions, whistles.....it did it all! I especially like the two bottle rockets that were supposed to explode in the air.....ending up exploding on the ground. KABOOM!! WHAT A SHOWER OF SPARKS!!!!

Anyway.......thanks Family for a great time of celebration. Thank you God for the country that we live in. God Bless America!