Oh What A Night!

I begin this blog by saying everything is okay and we are fine! I knew I would have to include that first after I told my mom, who usually does not jump to the worst conclusion of a story, on the phone this morning and she had to interrupt me to ask. I also have to say, sorry it is so long and without any pictures, but this wasn't the night to be capturing with the camera!

We began yesterday evening with us both being home early due to the weather, and making a decision about if we should cut the water off to the hot water heater. We discovered it was leaking yesterday morning. Fortunately, we have a home warranty plan that we got when we bought the house, so it will help with the expense of replacing the hot water heater. The downside is that they can not fix it until Thursday. So we turned off the water to the water heater and our plan is to only turn it back on for showers. I guess no dishes or laundry until after Thursday! Too bad!

So, we did enjoy our evening at home with a fire, a movie, and a few rounds of Yahtzee. Then around 10:30 the long night began. The lights began to dim and flicker and the heater went off. We assumed that we were having a power outage due to the ice, but thought it was strange that we still had some electricity. So, Joey went to the breaker box and checked it out. We then decided to call the electric company and they told us that there was an outage in the area so we got blankets out to add on our bed. Then we began to hear beeping that we could not figure out what it was, so again we searched trying to find the source. Then as we are getting ready to go to bed, the smoke detectors begin to sound in a continuous beep. We both jump up, put on shoes, jackets, etc. Joey begins to check things out and I begin to panic to the point of tears. We did not see or smell smoke, but they kept going off and the lights had been doing strange things, so I thought some wires might be on fire somewhere. So I said I was going to call 911 and Joey told me to wait a minute, but as the alarm continued to sound he said okay call. So I called and explained what had happened and that we did not see smoke, etc. and they said they would go ahead and send a truck to check it out. There was ice on the roads, freezing rain and sleet was coming down, so it took a while for them to get here. Meanwhile, Joey was moving the cars out of the garage to get to the attic. Before they got here Joey decided to look at the smoke detector more closely because he knew sometimes they were wired into the electricity and that could be the problem. Now we know that ours are, but it was a little late because the fire trucks red flashing lights were approaching the house. Joey went out to them and explained the situation, but they offered to check everything out anyway. The neighbors across the street, Bill and Cookie for those who have met them, were alarmed and came out to see what was going on. The firemen, one of which was a dad to one of the boys in my class, didn't find anything. So we thanked them, and I felt a little silly for my panic. But as they said it is better to know and that is what firefighters are for even though it was difficult for them to get there. As they were getting read to leave, the electric man was in the alley. Joey went to talk to him and what he first thought was a transformer that went out, was actually wires down in a manhole behind our house that had burnt out. So he said he would have to turn our power and several other houses completely off to fix it, but that it would only take about an hour once he was back from getting supplies. So we went to bed and continued to hear the occasional beep from the smoke detectors.

This morning when we woke up, we had electricity again. Now to the job of resetting everything and figuring out why my oven now will not heat. It is all electric, so I am guessing it has something to do with the outage. But since Santo cancelled school today, I guess I will have all day to reset clocks and figure it out.

So, as I began we are okay! We just need to reset the oven and get the hot water heater fixed! It definitely was an experience, but we did learn that if we ever have another power outage that our smoke detectors will go off. I am sure if Joey was typing this he would have some witty way of ending it, but I can not come up with anything! He is much better with words and wit than me!

A Visit to the Artic

The Artic Via Santo Elementary

Since we have been back at school from Christmas break, I have been an igloo builder and a teacher! I asked my kids and their parents, other teachers, and my friends that are house parents at the Foster's Home in November to save gallon jugs for the 6 feet in diameter igloo! Today as I crawled in it once more to add more jugs, I realized that it goes up to my shoulders! I am going to estimate there are 200-250 gallon jugs hot glued together with more needed to close the hole in the top! I have been doing the gluing while the kids play and watch during free center time. They have been "oooing" and "ahhing" all along!! We have done many fun igloo and Eskimo activities to go along with the igloo building!

Teach a child the way

Call me one very proud - and teary - uncle.

On the way home Friday from Cody's stockshow - see entry below - Leslye told me some very awesome news. News I knew would change our plans for the rest of the weekend, but I knew there was nothing more than I wanted at this time.

Les told me Cody - our nephew, Jeff and Tami's youngest - wanted to be baptized. When the older two boys were baptized, I lived in Missouri and I couldn't make it down for either glorious event. I wasn't going to miss this one.

I knew that after a trip to San Angelo for basketball and back on Saturday, I would be tired. But I found a song leader and Bible class teacher for church Sunday, and on four hours sleep, I headed to Olney with my wonderful wife.

God has blessed me with the opportunity to teach the Gospel to several people, and I have also had the opportunity to baptize several as well. One of my favorites - don't know if you are supposed to have those in this situation because all are blessed occasions - was getting to baptize my "neice" Sadye Cox. I will never forget when she asked me to do it, and being an "adopted" member of the Cranfill family, it was a very special moment for me to welcome a new sister into Christ.

But on Sunday morning with my grandmother, my parents, my sisters, my brother-in-law Jeff, two of my other nephews, Leslye and myself, I got to watch something that to me seemed even greater.

As I watched my nephew walk down the aisle where his parents exchanged their wedding vows, I started to choke up a bit through the invitation song. The preacher, Scotte Clark, performed Jeff and Tami's wedding ceremony; helped me prepare my first sermon; has always been a close friend to me; helped us cope with the loss of my nephew Steven; and who has done so much for Jeff and Tami, stood in front of the congregation from which I graduated high school and talked about how he and Cody had talked about this day and this decision for a long time.

My tears started to flow slowly as he talked about people who have made this decision guiding Cody to this point – including his family - and that those who were here could rejoice with him today, and those who had moved on from this life would rejoice with him in reunion some day, they flowed even more freely. Thoughts of my beloved grandfather - my mother's dad - rushed from my memory. Thoughts of my dad's mother - we called her Mom - came forward as well, along with memories of Steven and others who are gone from this life.

I had a hard time singing the songs being sung after Cody gave his confession and they went to the back to prepare for the baptism. The memories kept flowing - and so did the tears. My lovely wife sat there holding my hand, and the tears flew down my cheeks because her squeeze sent my mind into overtime thinking of the future.

Thinking about the day - if God so chooses to bless us - that we have kids of our own. I can't help but want to feel the pride Tami and Jeff felt at that moment for my own children. I can't help but want to strive to teach my children about the Gospel. I can’t help but want to be in Jeff’s shoes – or waiters in this occasion – and get to welcome my child into God’s family by saying goodbye to their old self and hello to their new self all in one motion by baptizing them myself – with God’s help of course.

There were a lot of moist eyes in the small auditorium of 97 people this morning rejoicing in the coming home of a young man that made a decision to be different and stand out by putting his Lord on in baptism. Mine were two of them – and don’t think the rest of my family was any different.

I could go on and on about how proud I am today, but I don’t know if I have the blog space.

Tami did tell me today that Cody had a hard time choosing between Scotte, Jeff and me to baptize him. She said he said “Joey is my uncle, and he is such a great Christian man.”

Do you know how hard it is to drive at 70 miles per hour down the highway when you are retelling that to your wife who didn’t hear it being said the first time and tears flowing down your face?

I would have been honored to share that with him, but I am glad he chose his dad. Tami added that Cody then said, “Dad is a great Christian man, too.” Yes, Cody, he is. And your mother is a great Christian woman. And I was honored to be able to be there to share that with you and our family.

Cody Wayne Harvey is a special young man. His smile is contagious. His laugh is infectious. His choice today makes me proud to say that he is my nephew.

But even more so, it makes me proud to call him my Christian brother.

What A Showman

On Friday, after school and work, Les and I headed to Graham to watch Cody show his two pigs at the Young County Livestock Show. He did a great job.

With his first pig (Petunia), Cody got third in his class with his Yorkshire breed. With his second pig (Porkchop), he got fifth in his class in the cross-breed. They sold the second pig and brought the first pig home because the breeder wants to buy her back to use her to breed.

Leslye sat with Mom, Dad, Tami, Jami, Angela and one of our friends, Amy, while I mostly walked around and also tried to keep up with Jaden, Jaxon and Sidney (Justin and Angela's little one). Justin helped Jeff and Cody with the pigs.

After the show, I helped Jeff pack up the box of supplies while Justin and Jeremy (Amy's husband and Justin's good friend) went and hooked up the lights and the trailer. Once they got that done, there was a line to load the pigs so we thought we would circumvent the line and take the pig through the cattle runs. No problem right?

The boys moved the trailer while Jeff and I went to take Petunia through the back door and to the runs. Getting her to the back pin where the door was was pretty easy, but then she decided she didn't want to go outside. We'd almost get her there, and then she'd find away to get around us and back to the starting point of the area. Thanks to Justin, Jeremy, Cody and one of his friends, we finally got her through the door. I grabbed a loose gate and set up a fake fence while Cody and his friend did the same. The other three grabbed boards and pushed and pulled Petunia to the door, we lowered it, and then they got her to the trailer as I pulled the supply box outside.

Whew... it was a lot of work, and I am sure everyone around wondered what in the world we were doing since she was squealing like nobody's business. I am sure it was pretty funny to watch, too. I then realized, I know why I never showed growing up - other than can you really see my mom and dad helping Tami, Jami and I with animals and sitting at stock shows- now that's a funny thought. Of course, with grandchildren, it's a whole other story. They have done it with all three of Jeff and Tami's.

We all went to eat and then Les and I drove home. We got home around midnight, and then I got up and got ready to head to San Angelo for Tarleton basketball games.

We had fun hanging with family, and we are very proud of Cody! What a showman, and what a nephew!

Som-amore Christmas!

The Christmas decorations are down, we are in the new year, but tonight we had our Christmas dinner. We had originally planned on having our Christmas together on the evening of the 22nd before we began our travels, so I was planning I nice Christmas dinner. I was hoping that since this was our first Christmas in our house that we could start some traditions. I planned on an Italian menu since that was something I knew we would not be having anywhere else for the holidays. I was going to get down some of our china to serve dinner, BUT then as many of you know I got the stomach bug and none of my big plans happened!! I hardly felt like eating on the 22nd, so cooking was not an option!



Because of our schedule and other reasons, tonight was the first night that I could get back to the Christmas dinner. I did change from my original plans. We did not eat off of the china, although I did pull the red place mats back out with the white dishes. We did not have salad or candy cane cheesecake as originally planned with the Chicken Parmesan, holiday noodles, and garlicky cheese bites (Yummy! See the picture and recipe below!). The holiday pasta from World Market was too cute with pasta shaped like Santa, a Christmas tree, and a present! I couldn't resist getting it for our Christmas dinner! The whole meal was planned around it!




I am planning on making this meal with the addition of a nice salad and candy cane cheesecake the traditional Christmas dinner at our house before we go and have the tradtional dinners with our families! I am not planning on the stomach bug becoming a tradition, so next year we can have the meal in December not January!!

Garlicky Cheese Bites

1 can refrigerated garlic-flavored breadstick

4 sticks mozzarella string cheese

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 24 mini muffin cups with cooking spray. Unroll breadstick dough. Cut dough crosswise into thirds; separate into 24 pieces. Cut each cheese stick into 6 equal pieces (24 total pieces). Place 1 cheese piece on shot end of each dough strip; roll up cheese in dough. Pinch and seal dough to completely cover cheese. Place rolls, seam sides down, in muffin cups. Turn rolls in cups to coat all sides with cooking spray. Lightly sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Remove from pan to serving platter. Serve warm with marinara sauce (1 1/2 cups) for dipping.

Happy Birthday Leslye!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful, lovely wife Leslye!

My wife loves to have strawberry cake on her birthday (though I am pretty sure she would eat it all year round if made). Gran (her grandmother) bakes her a cake each year during the Christmas time at her house. Since Leslye has her birthday so close to Christmas, she gets to open her family presents the day after the big guy in the red suit comes to visit.

Well, this weekend, both sets of parents and my grandmother came to the 'Ville to celebrate the 26-year-old's special day. She got more presents and I told her I would try my hand in the strawberry cake making. She said she loved it, and I'll take her word for it.

Here's a slide show from her birthday at Gran's house during Christmas and the cake Gran made.

The following video is from her actual birthday here at our house. Les insisted on taking pictures of me preparing her birthday cake. Then I took pics of her while opening presents.

Happy Birthday Les! I love you!

Wii all had fun!

Well... Leslye and I were blessed with a visit from my mom and dad and grandmother. We met them in Weatherford for a little shopping and Chic-Fil-A (yum!) and then we came home as they went to Fort Worth.

When they arrived at our house, I had just finished something I'll tell you about later this weekend and had turned on the Wii. After everyone got settled, I challenged dad to a little bowling and tennis.

Then Granny decided she wanted to try so I tried to help her.

Then she decided she wasn't ready to play, but Mom stepped in and picked up the bowling game against Leslye.

Wii all had fun, and then we finished the night of action with myself rallying to beat Les in tennis,2-1, after she won the first game of the match.

If anyone wants to come and play, come on over. Les and I will be glad to beat you! :D!

Happy New Year!

Welcome 2009! Joey and I had a nice New Year's Eve at home! We went to eat at Cotton Patch and then came home for an evening of fun and games. We played on our Wii for a while and then played Scattegories. We really enjoy playing games with each other and do not get to do it very often. Around midnight in NYC we watched the ball drop, and then watched the Big D NYE (Dallas pretending to be New York City) to ring in 2009.

We watched the Rose Parade this morning and the TV was on with football for the rest of the day! For dinner we had a delicious grilled pork loin, hashbrown potato casserole, and the traditional black-eyed peas and cornbread.

Then for dessert we had Flaming Jubilees, a New Year Day tradition by Gran. Flaming Jubilees are pound cake, ice cream, cherries, and a sugar cube soaked in orange extract that is lite on fire. Since we did not have any sugar cubes, Joey tried to make some sugar cubes with sugar and water. After they dried then I poured the orange extract. Our makeshift sugar cubes worked! (Not quite the flame that a real sugar cubes puts off, but they worked!)

Our makeshift sugar cubes

Of course to make the tradition complete, we sang Auld Lang Syne before blowing the flames out. It is a fun, yummy tradition!