Can Bob build it?

I have shown several of Bob's carvings in the past and have posted about some of the other woodworking he does. A few people have asked about his workshop. About 12 years ago he put up this building to use. Until then he had been working in our basement. Here are a few pictures.

He has a wood burning stove so he is able to use it all year long. Near the door is a telephone. He also has an intercom system so I can page him and talk to him from the house. He has built tables and cabinets to use for storage of his tools.
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In the back corner is a dust collection system - very handy when you generate a lot of sawdust!
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The little hanging cabinet shows some of the antique tools he has collected.
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A few years ago, Laura bought this poster and put it up on his back wall. The black tool next to the poster is an old manual drill. It's special to us, because it was my Grandpa's.
Now you have seen where Bob spends a lot of time. He works on things from small carvings, to large pieces of furniture out here. I will do a post soon, showing you some of the bedroom furniture he made.

Guess what day it is?

Yes, it's someones birthday and it's not mine! It's my husband Bobs, 50th birthday today. He is feeling old because it is one of those landmark birthdays, but I think 50 is still young, and he is still going strong. Dawn, a friend from church told me that they were talking to their young daughters about going to Grandpa and Grandmas house and someone said something about them being old. One of them said "they aren't old. You aren't old until you are 100 but most people die before then!" Don't you love the way kids think?

Happy Birthday Bob! I am blessed to be your wife and look forward to celebrating many more birthdays with you!

Ouch!

This weekend I was doing some shopping with my daughters when Heathers cell phone rang. She says - "it's Dad. He was hanging a cabinet and it fell on his head. He says it's bleeding like crazy and he can't see it and doesn't know if he needs stitches or what." Well - that's a great feeling. I am too far away to run over there and don't know how bad he's hurt himself. He called his brother to come check it out. They decided he didn't need stitches. Tom said his pupils were okay and Bob was acting normal. Tom put a big bandage on and I came home. I ended up putting some steri-strips on to hold the edges of the gash together and re-bandaging it. When Tom called to check on him a little later he said Bob had blood running down his forehead, into his eyebrows and looked quite a mess. There was blood on the floor and in the bathroom. Head wounds are notorious for bleeding badly. It had pretty much stopped bleeding by the time I got home and Bob is doing fine - he's just walking around with a large bandage on his head! He may wear a cap to church tomorrow!
Here's a picture of it, once it was cleaned up:

Surprise!

We had such fun on Friday night. We had a surprise birthday party for Bob. He will be turning 50 on June 9, but we wanted to have the party while Andy was home. It was more of a surprise this way too! We told him that we were planning an open house for Andy on Saturday evening, but that we were going to set up on Friday night. We even made up a fake invitation for the supposed open house and had it hanging on the refrigerator. He never suspected a thing and was really shocked to walk into that room of people yelling "Surprise"!

This is the front of the invitation we sent out. Wasn't he a cute little thing?

Here he is - realizing we had gotten him good!

We had a lot of fun going through old pictures to set up. We also put out several of his carvings.

Laura made up these flower arrangements to set on the tables and some other ones for the food table. We wanted it to be cheery, so everything was decorated in bright blue and green, with orange accents.

Here are some of the family and friends who came. We had salad, lasagna and bread sticks and of course some birthday cake!

This is one of many family pictures we took. This is Bob's Mom with our kids.
Laura, Mom, Heather, Andy
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Bob did give me a good scare last week when he told me his schedule had changed and he had to work on Friday evening. I called his boss and explained what I was planning and he changed the schedule again. It was a relief to pull it off and not have any other slips! We all enjoyed it, especially Bob and it was wonderful to have Andy there to enjoy it with us.

The sun shows its face!

I'm happy to report that although it's still cold here, the sun did shine on us today! It was so nice to see it again and the snow on the trees looked beautiful in the sunshine. I had the day off today and went with Bob to the Dr. The roads weren't great, especially in the morning when we left. As a matter of fact, I think every school in our surrounding area was closed due to the roads and the extreme cold. Anyway, as I said, Bob went to the Dr today. He had another good report. All of his tests have come back good. The Dr is going to run a few more labs, but he doesn't feel the problems he had were heart related. I know this Dr from when I worked in the hospital and trust him, so will just wait and see what these labs show. Bob has been feeling good and hasn't had any further problems. Thanks to all of you for your concern and most of all for your prayers. I also have to thank my brother-in-law Mark, for really coming through for us and blowing out our driveway twice in these last few snowstorms! I don't mind shoveling, but when the drifts are to your knees it's kind of overwhelming! I'm sorry to say we are supposed to get more snow tonight, but not in the quantities it came in last week.
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Don't forget to show a little kindness to someone this week!

We're Home!

Bob was discharged from the hospital this afternoon and is happy to be home. I'm happy to report that all of his test reports were good and showed no problems. He will have to see our Dr next week for a follow up. If he has any further problems you can be assured that I won't let him ignore them! On the one hand, I'm happy that they didn't find damage or problems, but it's also frustrating because I'd like to know what was causing the issues he had. He has tomorrow off work and goes back on Wednesday. He is supposed to avoid stress and any hard physical labor. I guess I'll be doing the driveway the rest of the winter! (and as I told him - I'm happy to do it!)

We so appreciate all of your prayers. It is really humbling to know that people from all over the world are praying and we thank you all. Please keep praying that the Dr's get to the bottom of this.

You may be wondering what the picture has to do with the rest of this post. It's showing a bracelet that I bought at the hospital gift shop. The words on it say: "For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord." Jeremiah 29:11 I've always liked that verse and thought it was really fitting for a health scare. Isn't it reassuring that God has plans for our lives? The rest of the verse says: "plans to prosper you, and not to harm you". That doesn't mean that everything that happens to us will be wonderful, but it does mean that God is taking care of us and even when bad things happen they can be used for good by Him. We also have to remember that God sees the "big picture," when we only see a little portion. Knowing this sure does help during difficult times!

Prayer Request

It's been a crazy day for me. My husband has been having some problems with being more tired than usual lately, and occasionally being short of breath. Being a man, he didn't listen to me when I told him to go to the Dr. When he started having chest discomfort this morning in church, I told him we were going to ER now! He still resisted and was worried about doing something during the second service, that he had committed to. I made him leave anyway. His family has some heart history, and although he is only 49 and is not overweight, nor does he smoke, I don't want to take chances. The tests they have done so far look good. They admitted him to the cardiac unit where they are monitoring him and he will have a stress test in the morning. I know some of you have heard about this through my sisters and friends blogs and have already been praying, along with our friends from church. Thanks for your prayers and keep it up! Our God is the great healer and provider and we have faith in him to see us through this. I have felt his strength today!
One way God took care of us today was shown when our regular Dr came in. He spends 12 hours a month being on call, and staying right at the hospital. We "happened" to be there during those 12 hours. It also "happened" to be my weekend off, so I was in church with Bob. I know he wouldn't have gone in if I wasn't there. Bob also has had a cardiologist assigned to him and I have been told by a friend who is a nurse in the CCU that this is one of the best cardiology doctors on staff. Thank you Lord for the ways you look out for us!
PS - I hope you will excuse me from commenting on your blogs for a few days. I think my computer time will be quite limited! :)