So, it's not done, but want to take a PEEK at what we are working on?!?!?! :) Lots of little details coming together like brown travel sign painted orange, pale blue farm window turned robins egg blue to match the rest of the house, blue screen door to go on coat closet...... We eat dinner inside the apartment now, still paper plates, but yes, progress! New beds are UP! Unpacking antique treasures from the past year on the road.... Our room still needs to be decorated, but need to find white dresser and night stands first. Kids think the space under their loft beds is so cool! Onyx shower going in....Dale works so hard and has saved us tons doing these things himself. I am so grateful! To do list: finish the "Betty" countertop into a desk/folding station. Build a linen closet in bathroom next to shower. Finish kitchen grout and bring in rest of appliances. We've come a long way, but all these details to go........plus, SO MANY BOXES to dig through! 150 to be exact. I promise to update you soon, and when its done, we can do a GRAND TOUR POST!!! Or video or something fun so you can really see it. What do you think?
Yawn. Off I go to open more boxes...... Hugs, T
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In the midst of apartment finishing, Avery and I had a birthday! I love sharing my special day with this sweet little lady. 08-01-81 and 08-01-08 :) Since moving in the RV, we have stopped doing actual gifts and have been focusing more on experiences, out to eat, bowling, a movie, queen of the day, picking the dessert etc. But this time, there were actually a couple things that made sense to give her gift wise.... She was at camp on her birthday, so she opened her gifts early, while Papa and Drea were here! She got a Kindle fire to read books on, a bonnet she BEGGED for at a museum and we said no to, and some play food. She wants to create a little house under her loft bed in the apartment! Right after she opened the food and pots and pans from Grammy and Papa Clay, she says, I sure wish I had a little kitchen to use this stuff in.......out walks Daddy with a KITCHEN!! I bought this for her 3 years ago, during a huge sale, knowing she'd want it. Well, that was right about our RV move time, so it never happened. How PERFECT to unearth it in storage and be able to give it to her now. God is good! :) Once we find loft beds, it will tuck underneath! Oh her big day, she headed off to church camp. Camp Kanakuk was an AWESOME experience for our kids! It they ever come to your local church, be sure to check it out. Tons of hype, excitement, Bible learning and adventures like rock climbing, bungie trampolines, ziplines and more. Since it was her bday, Avery got to give a pie in the face to her counselor and go up on stage! :) After camp was over for the day, we went out to a restaurant called The Barn, with amazing plate sized chicken fried steak and homemade mashed potatoes, rolls and pb pie. YUMMO! I share a birthday with my best friends husband too, so we all went out together! :) SUPER fun! My momma got me a gift card to my favorite local restaurant, and my bff got me darling earrings, which I promptly got the matching set to! I had the perfect occasion to wear the set because....... Dale and I were privileged to take the first Diamond on our doTERRA Dorothy team, out to dinner with her hubby, while we were in town to CELEBRATE!!!!!!! Meet Amy, the momma of the Emerald City Rock Stars! She is the second Diamond in the state of Kansas, after Dale and I! Isn't that awesome?!?! Eeek! We are THRILLED for her! Then it was back to the reality of apartment work, paint clothes and all! After a month of painting and construction dust, I don't even bother changing out of my paint clothes to go to town anymore. I NEVER thought that day would come, but alas, function over fashion. In the midst of it all, I even discovered I could fit not one, but TWO, toilets in my car. Impressive, right!? ;) I'll give you an apartment update tomorrow!
Hugs, T :) My friend Jenny messaged me last night, and asked if we were writing verse on our walls before we painted. We had planned to pray over the home before me moved in, walking from room to room, but hadn't thought of writing verses!!!! I did a little research, and apparently it's a "THING". Cool! So I was thinking about it, and I remembered the verse in the Bible that talked about doorways, and writing on them, so I looked it up. Deuteronomy 6:6-9 says, "These commands that I give you today, are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates." So today, in the midst of painting, that's exactly what we did..... We picked a verse for the front door, and a verse for the back door..... Front door: Joshua 24:15 "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Back door: Deuteronomy 28:6 as pictured below. Dale added 1 John 4:16. Each child got to pick a special verse for their bedroom door frames as well. They thought it was SUPER cool to write with permanent markers on the boards of the doorways!!!! Dale picked several verses, 2 for our closet doors and one for the main doorway from Song of Solomon. I even got a love note out of the deal! ;) ![]() I also had picked out one from Song of Solomon and wrote a little love note too. The verse I chose, was about my beloved. One of my favorite things about my "new" marriage is Dale treats me so much like his cherished one, his beloved. It brings tears to my eyes, and I know the Lord works all things for good, for those who trust Him with their messes. Praise God for beauty from the ashes, right?! Amen. The upstairs orange half bathroom got it's own special verse about patience, haha! Moving back downstairs, I chose a 2 verses for the Laundry room and 1 for the bathroom. We prayed over each room as we went, inviting the Holy Spirit to dwell here in this place, for the Father to grant us peace and joy in the walls of this home sweet hub whenever we stop through, angels of protection in Jesus name. You know? When we were all done, the whole place felt different. There are no words! We worked the rest of the day on the ceiling planks, we primed, then painted each one. Its very TEDIOUS with all those cracks between slats that take lots of time and attention, we do about 5 at a time on the main floor, and have another 6 going upstairs we rotate through as they dry. Dale rented a tool to help him start to get them up to the ceiling and in position. The hardest part of his day, is cutting around the ceiling lights. Poor guy! He is doing a great job though! The biggest trick is figuring out where to move them to as they are dry and waiting to go UP. We are figuring it out, but there is just not much room to move around these days! Stay tuned for more pics as we work the next couple weeks before our trip up north...
Hugs, T We got SO MUCH DONE while we were home!!! The apartment is coming along nicely, we had a family wedding to attend, and lots of team events and classes, meetings and such. Our work rarely feels like work because we adore connecting with our team so much. We were so thankful to be home for Dale's cousins wedding. Guess what? He was a junior attendant in our wedding 15 years ago. WHAT?! How are we this old? He got married out at the BEAUTIFUL farm we renewed our vows at. We used the all brick gorgeous horse barn, he used the gorgeous lawn for ceremony and the brick airplane hanger for the reception. Yes, this place is AMAZING! :) I was excited to get to wear my second Stitch Fix wedding dress. One more to go in Oregon! Imagine my surprise when I find out that my NANNY kids were there! If you followed my old blog, you know I nannied for a family of 5 and a family of 2 right up through the time Dale and I got married. Anyhow, the Wiens family, they are super close friends of the bride. I was SO happy to get to hang out! So get this, Abby (in red) is pictured up in my wedding photo, holding hands with yup, you guessed it...the groom, Dale's cousin Matt. I had so much fun introducing them again after all this time. :) Can you believe those little guys laying in a circle above, are the same as in the pic below? They have grown into amazing adults!! The kids danced the night away, it was a gorgeous wedding! The rest of our time at home was spent taking bike rides, seeing family and friends, and working on the apartment..... Mother's Day started off with a yogurt parfait in bed. My sweet family knows that breakfast is NOT my favorite! :) They brought me sweet cards and kept me company while I ate. After church and a lovely late lunch at Dale's mom's restaurant, we headed to the lake. Dale wanted to fish and I had plans to read a book or two in the sun. My sweetie girls came up and asked if they could "do my nails" and give me hand and foot massages. Haha, SURE! :) I got some AWESOME chairs for Mother's Day. I call them my porch candy, they are so colorful and beautiful! And totally retro like our apartment theme.... We ran to pick them up from Orscheln's. And I found a present I wanted WAY WORSE... OH MY GOODNESS. I want this sweet little BUNNY for my RV pet! Sophie would surely love some company. I wasn't alone, all the kids were smitten. In fact, we visited this little bunny several times. But alas, Dale would not budge. Something about not wanting a litter box in the RV and knowing, that in the end, I really wouldn't either. ;) Too bad, she sure is cute. We named her Cassia, after the cinnamon essential oil. Sigh. I miss her. One quick lunch date with my BFF, and a 45 minute run to go pick up my broken wedding ring from AGES ago it seems, and it was time to leave for our west coast trip..... Kasey had some boring errands to run in a town about 45 minutes away, so she called to see if I could go and we could make it a quick girls lunch and shopping trip. We had a leisurely lunch at our favorite high class joint, and then ran to the stores she needed. SUPER fun! So thankful we got some time together before we hit the road. I don't know if you saw this on Instagram, but months and months ago, I went into a kitchen cupboard and caught my beautiful band on a mean ol' bolt in the hardware. Something had to give, and thank goodness, the ring did, right where we had it sized. Apparently, people strip all their skin off, break their knuckle or break the ring where it was sized. PHEW! Feels good to have it back on my finger before we go! We had to run to Kansas City before we left town to go pick up our new trailer, aka garage. I'll share about that soon! It's time to hit the road again.....
Hugs, T I can tell you, there is nothing more special then getting to live all as a family on the road all the time. But I can ALSO tell you, that it was WONDERFUL to have some Dale and Tonya time over a long weekend away. Thank you Nana for watching our precious ones and coming out to live in the RV while we were gone!!! May 25th, I get to celebrate 15 years with this guy! Woot woot! Now let me tell you, back in the day, on our honeymoon to Maui, we decided to come back at 5 years. HA. Seriously. By 5 years we had lost 4 babies, had Destiny and was rapidly approaching 3 kids, a mortage and 2 car payments! So we decided 10 years. Surely, we'll be ready to go by then. Nope. Not happening. We were literally going through the hardest time in our marriage, finances and all. 15 years it is.....which brings us to present anniversary! :) <3 And NOPE. Doing an apartment, so all our funds are being funneled into it right now. And besides, we only have Hawaii, Alaska and North Dakota left on our map to pin before we have visited all 50, so the kids want to go! Maybe at year 20? ;) A weekend away will have to do! :) We have a favorite hotel in a metro area about 45 minutes away. Super luxurious, close to shopping and restaurants, and just time away, which is what we sought. We had SO MUCH FUN!!!!! We ate TONS of good restaurant food, both out and in...... Indian is always a favorite. They took such good care of us at Kebabs , especialy once they found it was our anniversary! We also go to go design our kitchen at Menards, pick out doors, floors and all kinds of fun things for our apartment. I cannot wait to show you more as it progresses!!! Eeeek! :) It was a super overcast, rainy weekend so it was the perfect weekend for shopping, holing up on our room, watching movies, reading, talking, and just relaxing. We also had a couple meals "bed picnic" style like we used to when we were first married. v Look how grown up and sensible we are, taking our vitamins. Haha! We both HATE when we forget, because there is such a marked change in how we feel throughout the day. I am not even kidding. doTERRA's Life long vitality vitamins keep me from crashing and snacking mid afternoon, so amazing! So our anniversary weekend was supposed to be Friday through Sunday, right? Well, then I get a message from the local news station, that they wanted to interview the RV oilers on their morning show, live. HOLY COW! Tv again?! LIVE this time??? That part made me nervous. No retakes!!! Okey dokey, let's do it. We've been asking the Lord to expand our territory, and apparently, it includes TV shows now! ;) To Him be the glory! So we shifted our trip to Saturday, Sunday, Monday and hit the studio early Monday morning for the show. I was nervous, but my FB friends helped me pick an outfit I felt confident in. Shane, Frank and Allyson were SO NICE, and we got to meet some other amazing bloggers too! You can go watch our segment of the show here: http://www.kake.com/clip/13291253/blogger-week-rv-oilers Talk to you again soon! Now that we are on the road again, I have better wifi, so I am trying to get caught up! Hugs T Our schedule always gets super full when we are home in Kansas, but only because we have so many fun and amazing people in our lives! Here are some of the HOME Happenings and a camera dump so to speak.... We took a homeschool field trip to Aviate trampoline park with my best friend and her family, and had a BALL! Great way to get some exercise and play too.... We hit up all our favorite local restaurants, including Braums! Mmm good beef for burgers and amazing milk and ice cream. Poor Paxton, sometimes your finger looks JUST like a fry, doesn't it?! ouchie. But we all had a good chuckle over it. School is going well, although I can tell we are ALL anxious for a summer break.... After 2 years of loving our Chore Sticks, and each kid drawing two to complete each day, it was time to buckle down and get a little stricter again. We made a schedule for the fridge of how the day should go, and a chore chart under the shower schedule on the shower door. Isn't it amazing how that pendulum swings too far one way, and then it has to go too far the other before you find a new middle ground? After 2 amazing years on the road, we were getting sloppy. Obedience was going down and voices were going up! Not cool. This has ALREADY changed EVERYTHING! We are getting yes ma'm, we are seeing the kids quicker to obey (slow obedience is no obedience). Avery says, oh mommy, I LOVE our new schedule, I cannot WAIT for tomorrow when we can use it again! Seriously?! Pretty awesome, and proof kids crave boundaries.... It rained and rained and rained and then it rained some more....sigh. We can only play so many games, and read so many books, and play playdough for so long, before its time to get creative! We decided to play Dictonary Pictionary: Sooo, it was still dreary and raining! Ugh ugh ugh. (this cloudy overcast weather went on for a WEEEEEK) Time to break out the big guns.......movie time, but FIRST, a picture scavenger hunt! I hid in the back and quickly made clue cards....while they cleaned up our other activites, I meandered around the house and hid them in the correct spots. It hurts my brain to do these but I LOVE THEM! The key is to flip them over and write the correct location of where each clue should hide, to lead to the next clue in the right order..... In the end, it all ended happily with the new SING movie! All that rain made the ticks come out in force, good thing we have an awesome homemade bug spray! I am so so thankful for doTERRA, and how we have literally replaced all the products in our home with something simple I can buy or make myself. When you are ready to makeover your home, I'm your girl! :) I did 10 drops of each oil listed with water to the top, shake and spray. Smells amazing! For Sophie the wiener dog, I do a mist on her legs and belly and use the terrashield oil dripped on her collar as a natural flea repellent. You can shop products here at www.mydoterra.com/rvoilers but I'd rather you message me on this website so I can help you get everything at cost! Friends don't let friends shop retail!!!!! I am so so thankful for doTERRA, and how we have literally replaced all the products in our home with something simple I can buy or make myself. When you are ready to makeover your home, I'm your girl! :) We are blessed to have about 3,000 people on our doTERRA team. We call ourselves the Dorothys as a little nod to our Oz Kansas roots, where it all began. While we are home, we try to get together with the builders and just reconnect and encourage each other...this time, we had some new paperwork to cover, so we planned a business training. It went great! Did you know you can cook with your doTERRA oils? You sure can! They are like the most beautiful cooking extracts, straight from nature. Lemon rosemary chicken, cilantro lime rice, lemongrass ginger stir fry...the list goes on. For our meeting we made Wild Orange Dark Chocolate brownies, Double Chocolate Cinnamon Brownies and Triple Fudge Peppermint brownies. YUMMO! They were all amazing. We did like 6 drops orange in the batter, maybe 4 peppermint and 8 cinnamon. A trip home would NOT be complete without a GIRLS NIGHT..... We started off with a ditch your bra party! Yup, its a thing. And yes, you can be comfortable and much healthier for your body when wearing these awesome cami's! UNDERWIRE is HORRIFIC for you, it blocks the flow of your body and causes all kinds of issues for womens health, so does deo. That's a different subject for a different day. I choose a molded cup non wire bra carefully, but this is even a step better. (*Note, since writing this post, I have had it for nearly a month, and I NEVER want to take it off. The day I wash and hang it to dry, I am sad to have to go back to regular bra. I am LOVING how it makes my tummy feel too. SO stretched out from babies!!!) Ruby Ribbon is the name of the company. I haven't worn my regular bra since this party. Why would I when I can lose 2 inches, have a smooth back, all while being FREE in this cami bra?! ;) Check out www.rubyribbon.com/stephaniearnold She'll take SUCH good care of you!!! After checking out, we went back to Momma B's house for cards and homemade PEACH pie with ice cream. (Oh my lanta was it good!) And DigestZen essential oil shots to help us deal with ALL THAT FOOD in our bellies. And then, for fun???? we all ate some kind of nasty year old fermented pickled stuff that helps your tummy. My mom is into all that. It worked amazing!!! Unless your me. Then it just makes you gag, and dry heave and bloat and get gassy. Pffft! Just sayin.... ;) Guess I need to eat year old food more often??? Slide show of all the fun That's it for now....we are hard at work on the apartment we are building for our Home Sweet Hub to stop through as we travel.
Hopefully I can blog that soon, but right now, its just kinda the boring stuff like HVAC and electrical. All important, but not that fun to take photos of! :) Hugs, T Destiny got home from our Florida winter in time to compete in a Nazerene youth competition called Extreme. We found out the rules last minute, and realize the things we prepared over the winter, weren't going to work after all. YIKES! We quick ran outside with the camera for 2 shots, one landscape and one portrait, and hoped for the best. It was VERY brown in Kansas at the time, so we had to work with what we had. Bleh. I had her use my "big" camera, and after a quick photoshop tutorial, let her go to town. She did great! Then the song, we went round and round and round, and at the last minute, she came up with Francesca B. "This is the Stuff" since she knew all the words from the radio. Here goes nothing...... You can watch the video here. https://www.facebook.com/daleandtonya/videos/10158469140160230/ She was super nervous and swayed alot, hee hee, but still got a 1 rating on both her photo entries and the song and moved on to MAX, the regional competition in Olathe. YAY! We decided to make a fun weekend of it, go to IKEA, book some essential oil classes and see our friends in the area. I fell in love with these lamps from IKEA for our retro kitchen. LOVE the pop of orange! We got this HUGE hanging one, and the matching lamp one that will be altered for hanging above the sink. To give you an idea of how huge and awesome this one is, let me share another pic with the kids in it, for perspective! On to the FERCHOS for some F U N! Remember the RV family we met last Spring? I LOVE that the Lord orchastrated all the details for this amazing meeting. Dale and Dawson met, then Tiffany and Tonya, Sophie and Summer the dogs, and all those fun kids that fell stair step to each other and got along AMAZINGLY from the start. www.rvoilers.com/blog/meandering-the-midwest It was a Ferguson Fercho reunion! :) We went to church together, hung out at their house several days, just talking and catching up while the kids played. We drove in to watch the competition several times throughout our stay..... Avery found her photo right away! We got to hear the College choir sing, that was super awesome! https://www.facebook.com/daleandtonya/videos/10158619012745230/?l=5483768151054113180 Here is Destiny's performance: https://www.facebook.com/daleandtonya/videos/10158618999545230/?l=3461767273288885427 We found out at the end of the weekend, that she got 2 perfect scores from 2 different judges on the Avery photo, the log one also got a 1 and her singing got a 1. YAY Destiny! Now that we had our girl back, we planned to hang out with Fercho's and get all caught up! Tiff took us to the Freezing Moo, a super COOL rolled up ice cream place! I got the Pink Lady, which was vanilla base with graham cracker, fresh strawberries and sweetened condensed milk. I got to pick 3 toppings so I just did those 3 again, SUPER yum! Watch how they do the ice cream rolling here: https://www.facebook.com/daleandtonya/videos/10158618924670230/?l=3876085257283225106 They had a printer so you could print your rolled ice cream selfie. We also got to go enjoy a day at the Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead. Free after 2pm during the week and SO DARLING! It was a gorgeous warm spring day, and perfect for goat feeding, enchanted forest walking and playing on the barn playgrounds. They had so many cool animals, and exhibits too! The old school room was really neat too! Check out these CRAZY rules for teachers of 1872!!!!! The GIANT wind chimes in the Enchanted Forest was my favorite part. They sounded amazing! I made sure to get a video of it, but its on facebook, so use this link to go take a listen. www.facebook.com/daleandtonya/videos/10158618997645230/?l=419352533112005713 | Is that not the BEST sound?! Hope you all had an amazing weekend and start to your week! Sending blessings and hugs from the Fergusons...
~T We were blessed to be home for Easter, and enjoyed each of our families for this celebration of a Risen Saviour! Dale's 36th birthday fell on Good Friday..... We didn't have anything big planned, but as is tradition, the birthday boy gets to pick what we do that day, what we eat, or where we GO eat, if they want to eat out. First stop was headed up to his momma's restaurant for lunch. While we were there, he noticed a guitar case in the corner..... "Whose guitar?" he asks his mom. "I don't know!" she says perplexed. "Guess you better open it and see....." the kids and I chime in. Oh the look on his face when he realized HIS. Love it! He kept sputtering, "But - but - but I don't know how to play it...." WELL buddy, then owning one is a GOOD FIRST STEP! Right?! :) hahahaha Destiny, Avery and I had snuck down to the guitar shop on the guise of "shopping to use a certificate" Destiny had won at a downtown boutique....got a heck of a deal, and slipped the gift into the corner while Dale was in the kitchen visiting with his chef brother. We picked that gorgeous multi colored one they called sunrise or something, you can see it about 5 guitars back. The nice guy at Sparks music, Todd, threw in a case, a strap, pick and some instruction to boot! YAY! :) As long as I have known Dale, he has wished he could play! Well, now is as good a time as any, since he is retired and has TIME on his hands! Besides, how amazing will this be, when we can all sit around a fire at an RV park, some quiet starry evening, and have worship time. (chills already!) He is already doing a good job using you tube to teach himself some chords..... He sure must love us, because he picked MY favorite sushi place for supper, Freddy's for their amazing ice cream sandwiches for dessert, and Lego Batman movie for the kids afterwards. We have a cool domed screen movie theater in town that shows full length movies at a lower price. I love that you feel like you are moving because of the dome shape, pretty stinking cool! Love the first Lego movie, I wouldn't waste my money on the Batman one, unless you need a nice place to nap! Dale and I both had a nice siesta. Shh, don't tell! The next day was our first Easter celebration with Gigi and Nana.....they had been hard at work preparing a two house egg hunt for the kids. They were SO excited I was actually going to let them EAT whatever was in those eggs!!!! Some had gourmet jelly beans (supposedly dye free), some had marshmallow eggs, some had chocolate pb, some had money, some had slips of paper that said book or movie. I unearthed a bin of gifts, New Testament Jesus movies and the Christian Bearnstein Bear books. PERFECT! We played Hand & Foot, the awesome card game with Skipo cards, and then ate Ham sandwiches, veggies, chips and all kinds of yummy stuff. We headed home by 7, for pie making, showers and early bedtime. It was going to be a busy Easter Sunday with Destiny singing in all 3 services with the youth, and Dale's big side of the family getting together after. The Easter service was fantastic and the worship had me in tears many many times. It just hits you at times, how incredible the gift we were given. The gift of VICTORY, the power of the BLOOD OF THE LAMB, the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus. The sacrifice. Wow. We headed the 40 minutes out to the farm to spend the day with Dale's side of the family....I used to try to coordinate our outfits every year. This year, I was just happy to dig in our storage and find things that were warm enough for everyone on this coolish day! Hahah! Priorities have changed :) Lunch was incredibly delicious, and as soon as they were allowed, the kids changed out of their nice clothes and headed out to see the animals and play with their cousins. I have to show you, Avery and Pax made the CUTEST carrot dip....it was 2 things of cream cheese softened, green onions, a couple tablespoons dill and ranch dressing powder. Shape like a carrot, pat with cheddar cheese and allow to harden. Before serving, carefully lift top of carrot to add washed parsley. Serve with crackers. IT WAS DELICIOUS and darling! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a really happy Easter celebration! HE IS RISEN! Death had no hold on our Saviour.....Hallelujah!
Hugs, T The photos in the following post come from news sources, friends and family that took photos, as we were not here for any of this part. March 5th we got word that the area right by where we built our home sweet hub, was on fire. All our neighbors were being asked to evacuate..... We started praying and continued the rest of the day, the kind where you breathe in, and breathe out a prayer. They were able to get it out, and watched hot spots for a while, but a few days (a day?) later, it all flared up again, WORSE this time by horrific winds. March 6th - The wildfire is 0% contained as of this morning. Firefighters are weary they have been fighting fires for 4 days straight. At this point we had no word on how many structures were destroyed. 10,000 people have been evacuated out of homes at this point, and schools are cancelled. Our area was evacuated again, and this time people were reporting seeing flames from their deck before pulling out. Things were getting bad bad bad! We had heard nothing about our property, but continue to remain hopeful that all was well. We were praying without ceasing for the firefighters and families effected by this tragedy! These are the last photos we saw of the area close to our home for days and days until they started letting people back in..... We had no idea if our property was fine, or if there was damage from flying debris, or the fire itself. Because our streets grasses burned up to the property line that first fire, we were hopeful that helped to prevent new blazes. We felt so helpless! But if we were home there is nothing we could've done anyhow. Crazy feeling...so we lived it all through news outlets and facebook posts of friends. March 6 evening Facebook post on my wall.... Fire crews are forming a line on north edge of Hutchinson along the road. Standing in the gap between the city and fire. They just told the firefighters to only fight the fires you can reach from the road!!! THIS JUST GOT REAL. A HUGE area of the rural properties is being evacuated, literally from our old house north east of town, to our new property north west. WOW. Oh Father, we cry out to you for rain, for protection, for your power and presence. Wake the people that need to get OUT, grant safety for those traveling away from the fires now. Give the firefighters energy and stamina that only comes from you, protect them, Father. Protect the people, the animals, and the homes in the path of this blaze. Calm the winds with your hand, Jesus. We need you now, to surround Hutchinson, Ks with your protection, mercy and grace. We ask all this in your mighty name.....Amen. (so be it!) I am far far away from Oz, but my hometown is near my heart tonight! I will pray long and hard for you all! I am praying over our home there as well, that was already spared once today, praise you Father! xoxoxo ~T From fb news outlet "At 7 a.m. the fire was 0% contained and estimated to be 1/2-1 mile wide, 25 square mile area was evacuated and most are still unable to go home." There were other fires too, all at the same time, in Oklahoma and Texas! We are so thankful for the fire fighters and the days and days they were out there risking their lives to save peoples homes! There are some heart wrenching stories about total loss of lives, animals and livelihoods in those ranching areas. Our town lost 7 houses total and we were told that only one life was lost, from smoke inhalation. It could've been so much worse! We saw SO many houses with burned marks up to green grass where sprinklers and fire fighters kept homes safe. It was within 15 feet of many homes!!!! Including our neighbors house..... We found out the fire had burned down our road, literally straight for us. The winds switched and the blaze turned left, went around our precious neighbors home, and kept burning the entire prairie behind her place. WOW. Wow wow wow. Sometimes, there are just no words. March 23 As we walked our property today for the first time since the wildfires, I had complete chills and utter disbelief, at how close the fire was to our place.... I was even more shocked to see 3 distinct burn spots out back, that clearly never spread. As in, we can see where the log burned but nothing to the left or right is touched. I can only assume the fire fighters were near by (Thank you to those hard working heros!) or the hand of the Father is miraculously shown here! And GLORY to my Father in Heaven for sparing our home so clearly......the closest tree that burned, is 20 feet from our shed. I am also so blown away and blessed by the nudging of a spirit filled friend, who called to encourage us to plead the Blood of the Lamb around our belongings, WEEKS before this occurred. I have no doubt this is the answer to that prayer and testimony of the POWER of the blood fo the Lamb! Thank you, Jesus! Lots happening around here this week, the builder came. I will show you photos soon! :) Hugs, T Here is a slideshow of the trees from our backyard: The images in this blog post are not mine, but from news articles and friends facebook messages and posts, as I am not there to take any of my own. A few weeks ago, a dear friend of our called an encouraged us to plead the blood of Jesus over our home and lives, and even our unfinished shed house in Kansas. It was a great conversation, encouraging as always, but because of her prayer burden for us, we took her call extra seriously. So pray we did, the blood of Jesus specifically and often, over everything we owned. This is something we usually do in passing, like angels of protection in Jesus name, but we specifically asked for the blood of Jesus AROUND our home. So Sunday night, we start getting calls about evacuations happening because of wildfire in our neck of the woods. We prayed and prayed and prayed some more. It almost didn't seem real! Then we start getting messages from the neighbors that the fire was literally traveling down our road! And boy did we feel helpless, but we know the important things are here with us. Right? The rest of that stuff, is just stuff. (ooo, and photo albums and home videos. Sniff sniff!) But just stuff we can't take with us anyhow. It will all pass away when we move on to eternity. That's how I slept that night...I just kept telling myself that! Because I have sweet neighbors and friends who love me, they were out checking things at our place, as SOON as the evacuation was lifted, and the sun was up. One friend in particular called me bawling....it's overwhelming, I think, the smoke and the burnt prairie. The homes just a few feet away from the line of black! The video she showed me was mind blowing! I had to sit down and breath a little to take it all in. You all, the fire literally traveled down our road, crossed behind our neighbors home and kept going north. We have one burnt tree. One. I was shaking, crying and praising God for being so faithful to answer the prayers of His children! This is taken from our neighbors drive. That is our tree row over across the road.... Here is our neighbors home and how close it came to her before moving on north behind her property! God is so good to have protected her home. Sadly, despite fire crews parking out there all day and watching hot spots, AND bringing in the National Guard to drop water on the area, the wildfires STILL started back up again Monday night. This time the wind shifted and blew TOWARDS town. They called in firefighters from all over the state to help, but by Monday evening, were instructed to all line up on the road and stop the fire from spreading to town. Its SERIOUS business when they go with that line of action. That means its going to run wild and free in the country, before being contained as best as possible at the road to city limits. Oh I pray for peoples homes and barns. Horses and animals. Livelihoods and dreams. All of our country friends north of town, were evacuated. From our new home site northwest of town, all the way over to the property we sold to move into the RV, northeast of town, asked to pack up and leave their homes. All looking back towards a flame filled night sky. TERRIFYING. ![]() I have got to go to bed. I have been super sick the past few days, but I will finish this when I wake up tomorrow and hear what happened. Until then, I am praying without ceasing! Thankful to all these heros from near and far coming to help! It's Tuesday morning, here is what I am learning: "Reno County officials estimate 6,000 acres have burned in the county; 4,500 acres of that is from the Highlands Area subdivision grassfire. At least 30 homes are destroyed, with the possibility that more are damaged. Local officials have been unable to get into the area to asses the damages." The fire continues to burn and has not been contained. We have been unable at this point to determine damage estimates. However, a fly-over is planned today with a Hutchinson firefighter and Kansas Highway Patrol to get a more accurate picture of the damage. We know many residents were evacuated and anxious for information about their properties and homes, so we hope to begin damage assessments later today so we can give out accurate information. The evacuation area remains closed. The area is Hendricks Street to Hwy K-61 from 30th Avenue to 108th Avenue/county line. However those with physical addresses on 30th Avenue have been allowed to return. All areas north of 30th remain closed. We have heard reports of residents returning to homes to collect belongings. We strongly emphasize the importance of remaining out of the evacuation area. When the wind shifts and there is a great deal of unburned fuel, there is no way to be safe. Also helicopters are doing water drops, and if they spot people in the area they must abort their operations. Law enforcement officers continue to provide security in the evacuation zone. The shelter at the Encampment Building at the Kansas State Fairgrounds remains open and there were 70 evacuees in the shelter this morning. There is also a pet shelter open at the fairgrounds, including space for horses. For information and updates, residents can call 2-1-1, which is an information hotline run by United Way. Also the United Way of the Plains will be taking financial donations for those impacted by the fire. You can contact 2-1-1 about the donations; 100 percent of those donations will be back to the local community. Also evacuees are encouraged to register as “Safe and Well” on the American Red Cross website: www.safeandwell.communityos.org so that loved ones know you are safe. We have been overwhelmed with the generosity of the community in donations for our first responders. If you wish to donate items please bring them to the Garden Center at Wal-Mart, 1905 E. 17th. Requested item include: water, Gatorade, high protein snacks, eye drops, contact solution, baby wipes, over the county allergy medication, and phone chargers. Please do not bring items to the fire stations. Salvation Army and Red Cross are coordinating the feeding of first responders. National Guard will continue air drops throughout the day. Just a reminder to local drone operators that they are prohibited during these air drops. If a drone is spotted, the air drop operations will be halted immediately. Currently there are over 230 responders still out on-scene from 116 agencies. We are asking for everyone to remain out of the areas so the first responders can do their jobs safely; because this is a long way from being over.o assess damages due to the fire." This was taken from the clubhouse of the area we live in. Praying for everyone involved!!!! I will update as I learn anything new.
Hugs, T We left the day after Thanksgiving, but not until after lots of fun with family and friends....if you followed the 4 little Ferguson's blog, you know we spend noon and after with Dale's crew, and dinner and games with mine. These photos show the 18 leaf table, plus there are 3 other tables, that house all of us there. That's one big happy family! :) We even had some surprise cousins from Philly pop in at my moms that evening. It's always a joy to see Jason and Karena! Our social calendar leading up to Thanksgiving was the fullest it had ever been. We left exhausted, but it was so good to see everyone! Even squeezed in some babysitting for Destiny, a girls day out with my BFF for a steak and lobster lunch, shoe shopping, and of course getting the kids together for a playdate...... My momma in law was wanting some help with her big tree at the restaurant before her private Christmas parties start. Dale was my human ladder,and we got the job done right! And yes, he is standing on a chair. He thought he was so funny dipping and swaying around. ;) And because momma in law has recently redone her beautiful home and kitchen, she has new colors in her house. Well, far be it from me to decorate her tree with her old color scheme, so I asked if she wanted a new one in her new colors......off to Hobby Lobby we went, and created the most beautiful theme! Oh I just adore it! It's like a breath of fresh, cold, wintery air! Being home was not without its challenges, in the midst of the fullest calender we have ever had, we moved too! Not really moved moved, but relocated the stored items from the future apartment side of our shed, to the RV side of our shed, anticipating the builder coming to start working on the apartment. When his schedule got pushed back to January, and with the temperatures PLUMETTING, we made the decision to move the RV indoors. We were not wanting to deal with freezing kids and freezing burst pipes. Sooooo, Dale moved the boxes BACK to the apartment side, in order to open up the shed side enough to pull the RV in to stay warm. He wrapped the pipes in insulation inside too. Yup, it was that cold. We had pillows in front of the door and sleeping bags over the blankets on the kids beds, to stay warm. RV's are luxurious, but they are NOT designed for cold. We were fine, and the heater does a good job, just not ideal. :) Sophie agreed. It is PAST TIME to go to Florida! After 3 plus weeks in Kansas, we were antsy to hit the road again. We headed south to what we thought would be warmer weather. Nope. It was cold and windy in Texas too! And they were calling for an ice storm later in the week. ACK! We have a blossoming team here, so its important we see them again before hiding out for the winter. We wished we had more weeks so we could go deeper in Texas and see all the rest of the Texas doTERRA Dorothys as well!!!! But made the most of it, coloring, playing games, swimming in the rv resort indoor pool, watching Christmas movies and just having fun. We ate our favorite restaurants and revisited some sites from past trips through as well. The RV park we were staying at had a fun Longhorn Limo service that took you to dinner. Yehaw! We thought that'd be such a fun surprise for the kids......they loved it! We were celebrating, and PRIME RIB and STEAK was on the menu! YUMMO! A year ago on November 30th, we made the Diamond rank with doTERRA. To explain, Diamond rank is the 3rd from the top leadership rank, and for a long time was the ultimate goal of ours. We have hit Diamond many many times this year, but as of November 25th, we hit it organically, without any special planning or buying in. PRAISE THE LORD! I hope this is the new normal!!!! :) God is so good to provide for all our needs, and allow us to help others in the process, with life changing health. We have been to Cadillac Ranch before, but we didn't have spray paint. That just isn't acceptable, so we tried tried again.
But that's a nother post, for another day! Hugs, T We headed back to Oz after a WHIRLWIND of classes!!!! We have been home ever since, working our tails off on our "Hub" and seeing family, friends and team members! If you want to grow in popularity, move away and then come back home, the calendar gets so full its often unmanageble. We are doing our best to swim through 17 functions and get togethers in the next 20 days! Here is a photo DUMP of all the things going on from Missouri to Kansas. We hope to be back on the road by December and escape the COLD! Found a YUMMO all you can eat Sushi place. HEAVEN ON EARTH!!!!! Uno Dare is our new FAVORITE game! Funny things like walk the a runway model until your next turn, everything makes you cry and pin a card to the wall with your nose until your next turn, had us in HYSTERICS! :) We of course had to see our Fercho friends on the way home......we always have a BALL with them! Trips home are always full of tons of family get togethers while the Grandma, Nana and Gigi get their Ferguson Fix..... Loads of family get togethers and team meetings too! We were also honored to be selected by doTERRA to host a Post Convention Tour in our town. Great info on the heart of doTERRA and all the businesses they give to, the upcoming work being done with amazing ministries, the science behind the oils, and the upcoming Medical Journals on doTERRA oils by Johns Hopkins. Great turn out and a great event! We also rented a theatre and had a team movie night, "Ancient Secrets of Essential Oils." It was SO GOOD! The rest of the time was spent doing the normal day to day activities like school, trying to stay warm long enough to insulate our shed, {we have to park outside while we work}, waiting for the builder to come work on the apartment and moving our STUFF around so he can do just that. Below are pics of my bookworms reading at bedtime, a very cold Sophie girl, a mud mask date night and some new jeans and unearthed boots I had forgotten about. {Its amazing how exciting old things are when you haven't seen them in a year and a half} My visual learners are working on memorizing passages of Romans in school right now. Can you figure out which verse these are? I am so so thankful for My Father's World curriculum and the literature rich, Bible based teachings, we get to utilize and enjoy each and every day! Did you figure it out? I am no artist, but am AMAZED at how this helps our kids remember their verses!!! We want them to hide God's word in their heart! How special that its part of our school day. I will show you the answers below in case you are struggling.
In the next blog I want to show you around our property and the shed/apartment we are building as we have the cash. We don't want DEBT, so its slow and annoyingly tedious, but worth it. Right? Its worth it? Sigh. That's what I keep telling myself!!!! :) Hugs, T We spent our final days of summer, in Missouri, hanging out at the pool and the super cool playground at Basswood RV park. We also had a nice home church, everyone was asked to share a passage and what it meant to them... We utilized the RV parks movie screen as our stage. Our main objective and mission on the Missouri/Kansas border, was to get the first week of school under our belts. I didn't have any scheduled classes, so we could really focus in on getting it right. We pretty much hid out at the Hillsdale lake all week, focusing on school all morning, swimming all afternoon, and hiding out from the storms every all night. We were in a flash flood warning several times! And BIG ol' thunderstorms, ahh, welcome back to the Midwest! We started school Monday morning, bright and early. Sophie is always my little school helper, close by at all times. After school and lunch each day, we pretty much spent the rest of our time here, just fishing, swimming and relaxing... ![]() I cooked most of the week, but Thursday night we took the kids out for dinner to celebrate a GREAT first week of school. We went to the #1 Trip Advisor restaurant, Joe's Kansas City. WOW! Yummo. Have you ever made the Million Dollar Spaghetti that goes through facebook all the time? WOW. Was it ever good! Serve it with a HUGE green salad to make yourself feel better for eating all those amazing dairy fats. Cream cheese, cheese, cottage cheese and BUTTER. 4 main food groups, right? I used this recipe, but did linguini noodles, a lot more seasonings, including seasoning up the cream mixture. Everyone went crazy for it! http://sugarapron.com/2015/10/21/million-dollar-spaghetti/ The highlight of our time in MO/KS, was reconnecting with some friends we made along our journey this past year. Meet the Fercho's....... So we are in Texas last Spring, waiting for the Midwest to thaw out enough for us to go back home for a while. We are just chilling, enjoying the Texas sunshine and teaching classes. We park for a few days at an RV park and as we awoke, look over to see a family our age, piling out of an RV. Everyone else is in school, so right away, the kids are intrigued. They have kids! They have kids! they shout to us. Dale walked to the bathhouse and noticed they had Kansas tags, and struck up a conversation with the dad, who handed him a cool Meet the Fercho's calling card. Dale looks down at it and says, That's funny, our last name is Ferguson. The conversation proceeds to, my name is Dale. Oh wow, my name is Dawson. What's your wife's name? Tonya. What? My wife's name is Tiffany. Crazy. Turns out, they too, hit the road for a year of Adventure with their 3 children. They too, were road schooling and seeing the United States from the comfort of their RV. WHAT are the odds? We all go about our day, and the next morning, Dawson Fercho, walks up to Dale Ferguson, and says.... OK, what's your middle name? Dale says, Lamar. Dawson, No way! Mine is Lee!!!! DLF meet DLF. Hahahaha!! HOW crazy! :) Our families spent the next 3 hours together talking as fast as we could get words out, before we had to pull out to head to classes in Amarillo. We had so much in common!!!! Their 3 kids, all similar ages to our 4. We found we had so many things alike, even down to their dog named Summer and our dog named Sophie. White and big, black and small, but still "S" dog names to match the theme. :) We love how the Lord works to bring people together! Turns out, we had literally been staying at the Florida Sun N Fun RV park the same week, and just never met. Thankfully the Lord brought us together in the Lone Star State! Well, as soon as we pulled out, we knew we had to get the Ferguson's and the Fercho's together again ASAP! Fast forward 5 months, and here we are, within 30 minutes of our new friends home base. We HAD to see them! The kids were shy around each other for like .5 seconds, then went right back to where they left off....... We spent the day at the lake, then the evening having pizza at their place. We stayed way too late, and had way too much fun. We could barely drag the kids apart by the end of it all. Love love love this family, and how the Lord just brings Brothers and Sisters in Christ to encourage and fellowship with each other, in every state we go to. We are already talking about some winter trips, Ferguson-Fercho Style! Love this crew! Bye friends, see you soon!
Hugs, T |
Tonya Ferguson
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