The Howerter Family Homepage

Merry Christmas everybody!  The Christmas season is in full swing at our house.  The tree is up, and there are even 2 presents under it!  I am making good progress with my shopping, but I never seem to get finished.  John and I are going tomorrow afternoon, so I hope to get lots done.  My goal is to be completely ready by next Saturday.  I want to be able to relax and enjoy the week of Christmas.  We will see if that happens

I imagine that many of you are busy today preparing for your big dinner tomorrow.  If so, take time to relax for a minute.  If you are like me and are lucky enough to be eating at someone else’s house tomorrow, be sure to thank them for all their work.   Please travel safe and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

It has been a while since I have posted, so I will catch up on things.  Both Elijah and I have had our birthdays.  Mine on November 5, and Elijah’s on November 7.  John was in Europe that week, so I missed him.  Mom came up on my birthday, and we spent the day together.  That evening we went to the Cracker Barrel with all the kids, and it was wonderful!  Thanks Mom, Ryan, Sara, Elijah, Josiah, Lily, Jay and Katherine for spending my birthday with me.

Elijah had his birthday at Kicks.  Four of his friends came and played video games with him, and three of them spent the night.  He had a great time.  Ryan and Sara were very brave having 5 boys over night.  Josiah spent the night with me and Grandma Nell, so at least they did not have to worry about him. 

Then next morning, Ryan cut his thumb while working on his roof.  It was pretty deep, so I had to take him to the ER.  The doctor thought he cut the tendone in half, so she stitched him up and sent him to the hand doctor the next day.  Luckily, he can move his thumb fairly easily, so the hand doctor did not open it up to do anything.  He has to wear a splint for 3 weeks, but it has not stopped him from going bow hunting.  He actually went that afternoon.  Luckily, it was his left hand, so it is not the hand he pulls the bow with.

This weekend is shotgun deer season, so the boys are all a twitter.  Zeke came over this morning, and they all are practicing at our house this afternoon.  They will head out quite early in the morning to be in their stands before sun-up.  Hopefully, they will all have a succesful season this year.  It is so wonderful to see John, Ryan, Jay and Zeke enjoying something so much together.   Male bonding!

The weather is getting cooler, and the leaves are beginning to turn.  Fall is my favorite season, and I hope that it is a nice, long fall.  Enjoy the colors and cooler weather!

John and I are in Orlando. He had a conference here this week, and, for my birthday present, he invited me to come along. His just asking me to go is gift enough! We flew down separately Sunday night, and we leave tomorrow (Thursday). He of course travels on the corporate jet, and I am flying Southwest. It is not so bad though. Mom took me to the airport in St. Louis, and John was waiting for me in Orlando. He will drop me off tomorrow, and Mom will pick me up. I have enjoyed myself even though I am by myself during the day. (You are never really alone at Disney.) I have slept in, read, laid in the sun, shopped and walked lots. We are staying at the Dolphin Resort which is at Disney, but not run by Disney. I can certainly tell. Our room smells musty, and it is certainly not geared toward family here. It is filled with dressed up businessmen and kind of stuffy. I have actually walked over to the Boardwalk, Yacht Club and Beach Club each day to be immersed in all things Disney. John and I toured a model vacation club home at Boardwalk, and when the gal said “Welcome Home”, it just made me feel so good. It is crazy, I know, but I swear it is true. We always make fun of their continually saying “Welcome Home” when we are here at vacation club, but I must miss it.

We head home tomorrow, but we are actually coming back down in a week with Mom and Zeke and Carol. It will be good to be back in Disney quality again!

A very amazing thing happened yesterday at our house.  Ryan, Sara and the kids were over, and we were all outside.  Elijah asked Grandpa John if he would give him a ride on the tractor.  We were all in the barn when John and Elijah got on the tractor, and John started it up.  The tractor started to make a horrible banging sound!  John quickly turned off the engine, and we all looked at each other.  He tried it again only to have the horrible banging start again.  It sounded like a piece had broken off in the motor and was banging against the casing.  John took off the one side of the casing, and there was a dead mouse stuck on some cable.  Although this was pretty exciting for the boys, it was not the cause of the noise.  John then took off the casing on the other side of the tractor and looked in.  Pretty soon he said, “What’s that?”  He stuck his hand in and felt something cold and clammy.  He looked in again, and said, “It’s a snake!”.  We could not believe it, so we each took our turn looking in.  Sure enough, you could see the head of the snake as if it were posed just looking out with its mouth open.  It was obviously dead, but it was still pretty creepy looking to me.  Elijah and Josiah thought it was pretty cool though.  John got some tools to try to get this snake out.   We were all a little worried that the snake may have damaged the fan or broken something.  John grabbed the snake by the tail, and he was able to pull it out in one piece.  It was about 4 feet long and pretty chopped up.  It was coiled around the fan.  John threw it in the woods, and he started the tractor up.  It ran fine, so off John and Elijah went for a ride!  I don’t know what it is about these snakes, but they keep turning up in the most inconvenient places.  Life in the country is  . . . .

Mark Hayden was able to come home from Barnes on Saturday!  He was in the hospital for less than a month!  He is feeling well, but he is very susceptible to infections right now.  Please pray for Mark’s health and that the transplant is a success.

John and I went to the Wildwood Springs Resort in Steeleville, Missouri, this weekend with Bart and Laurie to see the Amazing Rhythm Aces.  John and I have now seen them there 4 times, and this concert we believe was the best.  We had a great time hanging out with Bart and Laurie too (as we always do).  We woke up Sunday morning to a bad storm and no power at the resort.  It was pretty dark in the building, but they did fix us a fantastic breakfast.  When we got home, we had over 3.5 inches of rain in our rain gauge!  We also noticed that we had a branch fall down and land on one of our swings out in the yard.  The swing is definitely hanging sideways, so I hope it is not ruined.  We sure have had our share of rain and storms this spring and summer.

Our good friend Mark Hayden had a stem cell transplant on August 30 due to a recurrence of leukemia.  As of yesterday, his ANC number (something in his blood) was at 1.325, and it needs to get to 1.5.  It needs to stay at 1.5 for 2 days, and then he will get to come home.  He should be able to come home Monday unless something goes awry.  They told him when he went in that he would be there for 30 to 100 days, and it looks like he will be in there for less than 30 days!  Thank You Lord!  Please say a prayer for Mark that the new stem cells are doing their job, and that his “sick” bone marrow is completely gone. 

Josiah is going to preschool this year at Cherry Hills.  Today is his second day.  I got to pick him up last Thursday on his first day, and he told me, “Grandma it was so much fun!”  Sara said he just went right in and started talking to his teacher even though he had never met her.   That makes it so much easier on Mom when they are not sad to leave you.  When I asked him what they did, he told me all about their snack.  That is my grandson!