There is a time in life when you stop existing and you start living. There is a time in life when you are given a new chance and new dreams. There is a time in life when the old is to be forgotten and the new embraced. There is a time in life...And that time is now...

copied from the web.

Some of our garden is starting to come in and here are some pictures of our peppers, basil and tomatoes. We are going to have tomatoes out the wazoo! The chickens should start laying eggs soon. Now we just need a cow and we could be pretty self-sufficient in the grocery department!

We decided that every Friday is going to be make your own pizza night at our house and you HAVE to try my friend Amanda's pizza dough. It is too die for! We made pizzas Friday night and they were wonderful. Check her recipes out at http://www.backtothetable.blogspot.com/.

Off to Bible Study for the evening!

Life is Good!

I am much better and WOW what a beautiful day! Getting the kids back today from Nashville and then going down for the weekend to help Chris' sister move into her new house. I will be very happy to spend next week just hanging out with the kids and getting the house in order. We are going to try and take them camping July 4th weekend if we can get a campsite. Good luck with that, huh?

Even though in our family (like many other families) we struggle with time management, finances, everday life stuff, etc., we are SO blessed with health, great family and good friends. Life is Good!

Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

Honestly, it is very hard to try and explain our family's experience at Pine Ridge, but a few words I would use to describe it are eye-opening, hard, life-changing, fun, depressing and most of all motivational. The conditions there are ridiculous and embarrasing. The poverty level is almost indescribable and the kids, well, precious. Chris worked on a house and the kids and I worked everday at a VBS for the children of the community of Porcupine, S.D. I could talk for hours about our trip, but for today I am just going to give you a glimpse of our trip there and back. I hope and challenge each of you to go out and help others (and take your kids with you if you can!). Blessings and peace. Melissa

Sorry......

still not able to post pictures or stories. Hopefully tonight. Had to go to hospital yesterday to get fluids pumped into me. Feeling a little better today. I think I am a walking billboard for "don't drink the water.".

WE'RE BACK......!

Just a real quick post to let everyone know that we made it in at 10:00 p.m. tonight. The kids are with my sister in Nashville for a night or two and thank goodness they wanted to stay there because I am VERY sick. I came down with what I think is rotavirus yesterday. I am quite sure I picked it up from one of the Lakota children at VBS this past week. Not fun traveling 20 hours the past two days with this type of stomach bug! More to come tomorrow - lots of pics. It was a GREAT trip. Just exhausting!

We finally made it!

Well it is 8:30 p.m. Mountain Time and we are in Hot Springs, S.D. staying for the night. It took us the entire day to drive across Nebraska. Of course, it would have helped if we had not all overslept this morning - forgot a wake-up call. We are off to see Mt. Rushmore EARLY in the morning and Wind Cave National Park and then straight to the reservation by 4:00 p.m. We had a fun and safe drive out. Love to all. Tomorrow we get down to the nitty gritty.

Melissa

In Omaha - Finally!!!

Whew! That was a drive and tomorrow is even longer. Omaha is packed with people, here for the little league and college world series. It is a really neat city - much larger than I thought and very clean. A few notes about the pics. We finally got a little crabby in the car about 30 minutes from Omaha. I was driving and the pics of Chris are him dealing with the kids in the car. On a more serious note, we saw the flooding from the Missouri River in Western Iowa. I can't even imagine what the central and eastern part of the State looks like. Very, very sad for the farmers.

We are headed out early tomorrow morning for Wounded Knee. Not sure about wireless. Pretty sure we won't have any, so this may be my last blog entry until Friday evening. Houston, we have a problem..........

Headed to Omaha

Got up early, ate a big free breakfast and swam a bit before heading out to Omaha in horrible storms. Pray for our safety...........Love to all, Melissa

First Stop - St. Louis

In St. Louis and it was a great trip. The kids were great and the drive wasn't too bad. We are going to head out to Omaha, Nebraska in the morning and then we are on to Wounded Knee on Saturday. Here are a few pics from the way here........