Sunday marked a very memorous day for us. Marks parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. God has truly blessed them. We celebrated with them enjoying a wonderful meal and great family time together. It is hard to believe that they have been married so long. To me, it seems impossible. In many ways, they seem much younger then me. I look to them as I watch them faithfully overcoming any obstacle that God has allowed to enter their life. They have stayed together through the good and the bad. They have raised 4 children, struggled through the "lean" times, and rejoiced in any abundance. They have lived and loved life together. I rejoice in the gift of their marriage and the example that they have set.

It also experienced another memorable moment as our state was hit hard from the remnants of Hurricane Ike. We experienced winds that hit gusts between 60-85 mph. It was rather unexpected and extremely cool to watch (though at times, rather nerve racking). We were at Mark's parents when it came on and quickly headed home. On the way home, we watched the wind become quite furious. At one moment, steel roofing sheets from a construction site flew across the road. Mark was able to avoid them. It was pretty crazy watching them fly through the air. When we arrived home, we were without electricity (& still are). Mark made a brave walk through the woods, investigating any damage. As he walked, he heard trees snapping. It was pretty wild. The winds were intense, but oh so fun to watch. At one point, we heard a man screaming. We continued to hear him scream, so Mark, Sam, & I took off through the woods trying to locate the man. We realized that it was a man looking for his lost rotweiler. He came into our drive a little later asking if we had seen it (we had the day prior). He mentioned that if it weren't so windy, he would go through the woods and look. Me, being silly, offered for him to go look (mentioning that Mark had been back in it earlier). He took me up on the offer. Mark and Sam went with him. The winds were pretty furocious by now. After a good 20-30 minutes, I was getting pretty nervous. Jacob and I were standing by the back window watching for them (and praying for their safety). The winds had picked up even more. As we watched, a huge tree in our backyard fell. A few minutes later, I heard a knock at our door. It was the gentlemen who went with Mark and Sam wanting to know if they were back yet. At that point, I took off running through the woods.... full speed, yelling for them. The guy was at my feet, both of us rather worried. I jumped over limbs, trees and anything in my way. I ran across the bridge Mark had made (that is veyr high off the ground and normally I am very, very nervous even walking acrossed it). We yelled and yelled. We called home, and they had not come back. It was getting dark, I was getting turned around with all the fallen trees and the storm was still wild. We heard a scream and I took off in the direction of the scream. They screamed again and I screamed back. I was going as fast as I could, until I saw the house and realized they were in the backyard screaming for us. Needless to say, I was quite relieved!

Since then, we have been cleaning up debris left over. The kids have been out of school for 2 days.

Well, I will tell more later. I have to go. Just wanted to let everyone know why I haven't been on. I am borrowing my parents computer as we speak. I hope we have electric when we get home :). It has been quite an experience!