Sam Enjoying Peanut Butter

Sam is crazy about peanut butter. Today, Rosie was mixing up bird feed that called for peanut butter. During the process, she emptied two partially full peanut butter jars. Sam enjoyed licking both jars. He has a real hold on those jars.

Yummy! That's really good stuff.What's next on the menu?

Helping Doug Move, June 15 - 19

After Doug's graduation from Ohio State, Rosie and Bob helped him move from Columbus, OH, to Midland, MI. Although he had professional movers pack-up and move all the stuff from Columbus to Midland, there was a lot of cleaning to do on both ends.

Here's a picture of the house Doug shares with Kyle Cowden (home owner who also works for Dow).

The movers didn't unpack so we got the joy of unpacking everything and putting it away. The nice part about that is we could clean as we went along and unpack at our own pace - slow. Here are pictures of the kitchen and dining room - before and after. We hope you can tell the difference; the angles aren't exactly the same.

Doug's room is on the second floor at the back of the house. Here are a couple of pictures of his room.A lot of the furniture and electronics he had in the living room in Columbus had to go into the basement. Here's his layout in the basement.All three of us had a real sense of accomplishment when the house was cleaned and all the furniture, clothes, electronics, dishes, etc. were in place. It looked really good. Now we hope Doug and Kyle can find things. If not, Rosie is only a phone call away.

Doug's Graduation

Today, we (Rosie and Bob) attended Doug's graduation from The Ohio State University Fisher School of Business. Doug completed his MBA. Doug looks good in his robe, hat and hood.

Mom and Dad were very proud.

Ashley got to join us for the graduation festivities.

Following the graduation ceremonies, we attended a reception at the Blackwell Inn which is next to Fisher Hall (the Business school). Here's a picture of Doug in front of Fisher Hall.Here's the entire MBA class of 2009.We'll be here for the next week helping Doug pack up and move to Midland, MI, where he'll be working for Dow Chemical. He's excited to be headed back to the "working world."

UMCOR Sager Brown

May 17-22, we (Bob and Rosie) went to UMCOR (United Methodist Committee On Relief) in Baldwin, LA, on a mission trip with friends from Mountainside Methodist in HSV. Here's most of our group at Monday's breakfast. The food far exceeded our expectations - it was very tasty (Southern style cooking) and there was way too much. We had dessert at lunch and dinner (or dinner and supper, if you want to go Southern)!

The various mission teams had "kitchen ministry" which included clean-up after meals. Here's Ted in his clean-up gear.

We had a group picture taken on the bridge behind the kitchen. UMCOR is on the intercostal waterway that connects to the Gulf.

One of the highlights during our week was loading a container truck that would carry health kits to Armenia; actually, 31,000 health kits. Here's the truck and the 47 pallets that we would load into the container truck.

Rosie's team is unloading pallets to make a row in the truck. Two pallets make one row.
Bob's team unloading pallets near the end of the truck. We had 4 teams and each took a turn unloading 2 pallets. Three teams rested while one unloaded. We were so glad there were enough folks for 4 teams. Luckily it wasn't an extremely hot day in southern LA.
After the truck was loaded, the entire team joined hands for the "blessing of the container" and prayed for the materials and those that would receive it. It was a great opportunity to have a part in God's global ministry.

Our Mountainside team (Dennis, Ted, Leila, Barbara, Bob and Rosie) was all smiles after the truck was totally loaded.

Folks on the team had multiple opportunities to work during the week. Leila spent a good portion of her time making school bags. Rosie also helped in the sewing room.
Bob - being a totally unskilled laborer - spent most of his time making health kits. It's simply putting the items listed together into a plastic bag. On Thursday, Bob and Ted worked as part of a 4 man team to build a ramp for a home in the Baldwin community. Here's the frame of the ramp at about noon. We finished the ramp before quitting time!FLOOD BUCKETS. UMCOR also sends flood buckets to areas across the US and the world that need them. They contain supplies for cleaning the floor of a house that has been devastated by a flood. It doesn't do the entire job, but it's a great start. Flood buckets are kept in multiple warehouses across the US ready to be shipped when needed. Here's part of the supply in Baldwin, LA.
Side Trip - Tabasco Sauce. We travelled a short distance from Baldwin to Avery Island, LA, where the global supply of Tabasco Sauce it made. We had a fun tour and got free samples - YUM! We also got to sample jalapeno and sweet & spicy ice cream. Fun to taste, but I wouldn't buy to take home.

THE TREE. There's an interesting tree in Baldwin within walking distance of UMCOR - actually everything in Baldwin is just about within walking distance of UMCOR. It looks like the tree fell over and a limb that touched the ground established another tree trunk. However it happened, it's a neat looking tree.

Before we left, we got a picture of the team beside the UMCOR sign at the entrance. If you can't see the sign it says, "When the earth rocks, UMCOR rolls". A great slogan for an organization dedicated to helping others anywhere in the globe.