Work Day at Grandpa and Grandma Modrow's

This past Saturday we had a work day at my grandparents' house. Quite a few of my mom's siblings and their spouses came to help out.

Jason and my cousin Nick replaced some of the hostas with some new evergreen bushes. (At least I think that's what they were!)

Nick getting down and dirty

"Work, slave, work!"

I think Dad is hooking up the hose or something. I don't really know - I was just trying to get pictures of a bunch of people doing different jobs!

Mom suctioned out the leaves from around the evergreen groundcover. That's Grandma in the foreground, by the way.

Grandpa got the nice job of riding around "sweeping" - picking up the leaves we raked and taking them to the burn pile.

I made sure I handed the camera to Faith later on so that I could prove that I really was there working - not just taking pictures!

We did a LOT of raking that morning. The hardest part was raking the gravel out of the grass by the road that the snow plow had pushed there. I wonder if I was the only one with sore shoulders...?

Aunt Denise

Aunt Tammy

Rick, Kim and Gary hung blinds on the sreened in porch and removed some of the plastic covering that is there over the winter.

I know there was even more that was accomplished that I didn't capture on the camera, but I couldn't be everywhere at once.

When we were done working we grilled out and had a yummy lunch and visited for awhile.

Then my family and I headed out to the campground for another work day out there! Whew, was I ever ready for bed at the end of the day!

Little answers to prayer

It seems strange to me to post something without including pictures, but Mom said I should put this on the blog. So...
A couple of days ago I was riding my bike downtown by the river when suddenly the gears started making weird noises and I couldn't pedal. I looked down and to my chagrin, saw that a bunch of discarded fishing line had become tangled in my chain and all around the gears.
I crouched down and tried to unwind it, but it was pretty hopeless. And as I'm sure you know, fishing line is impossible to break with your bare hands!
As I endeavored disentangle it, I was thinking that I was going to have to push my bike all the way home and what a pain that would be.
I sighed and said, "Lord, right about now it'd be really nice if you'd send somebody with scissors or something to help me get this stuff off." Just a simple, short little prayer....
About a minute later a man walked by and got into a truck. As he was pulling away, he rolled down his window and asked, "Hey, do you need a knife?"
Of course I responded with a grateful, "Yes!"
He handed me a pocket knife, waited while I cut the line loose and then disposed of it for me. Then I was off on my merry way.
I know that many people would say that it was mere coincidence and not a big deal, but to me it was a demonstration of God's love. It just blesses me so much to know that not only does He hear the big, important prayers, but the little ones as well.
It put a smile on my face, just knowing that my God hears the words I say and delights in answering! Such a simple thing...but such a blessing. :)

Work Day at the Campground

A couple of Saturdays ago we had a work day out at Mendota Hills Campground. Quite a few families from our church came and helped out. Joy was all set to work with her little blue rake!

The Waasdorps were all such hard workers - even down to the little ones, Shayna and Yancy.

There were a LOT of leaves to rake and burn!

Becky and Melody

Tending the fires and keeping them going was awfully hot. We were glad we had sunglasses on to protect our eyes. Sometimes the smoke was so thick in amongst the piles of burning leaves that you could hardly see.

A number of us came home with blisters and burn marks from the heat and hot ash.

Ahhh, water break!

Zoe Zigler and Gabrielle Lee scraped old paint off the picnic tables.

Dad, Pastor John, and Mark Rogers (owner of the campground)

Oh dear, is it wise to give him a chainsaw?


John Zigler and Jordan Lee running the log splitter.

Dad, what are you doing???!!!

While the others were still raking, Crystal and I decided to clean the bathrooms. Those shower stalls took forever to scrub!

For lunch everybody brought different soups and cookies to share. Boy, were we all ready to eat!

It was a lot of hard work that day, but it's always so much more fun when you do it with friends! There's still lots to be done, but we're having another work day this Saturday. I suppose I'll have even more pictures to add this weekend!

Nice Ride

Last week Jason had his truck and trailer lettered. It sure looks professional!

This is the back...

The side....

He wanted to put the lettering on the side of the truck, but had to make do with the window because the silver stripes would have been in the way.

We all think it looks pretty cool!