What a woman!

I think all of you should be aware of the greatness that is in the form of my beautiful wife. I am so proud of her. I usually let her do all the blogging, but tonight I must give a shout out to her prowess.
As many of you may know, Kristin is teaching the boys school at home. I chip in on occaisson when I am home, but she does english, math, etc. while keeping tabs on the littler ones with periodic feeding feedings in between subjects. There are of course the many normal duties around the house...laundry, cooking, general cleaning and putting out fires (not real ones thankfully). She is also in the primary presidency and without her organizational skill things could be a little scary. She is also a devouted wife. The best a man could ever hope for. She is here in Minot North Dakota of all places because the Lord and the Air Force brought us here. Its a nice place but it is far away from all her loving family that at times she truly longs to be with.While I am gone for close to 36 hours at a time several times a month, she willingly presses forward alone, doing things on her own that would be a whole lot easier with two parents instead of one (bath time and sacrament meeting for instance). And to top it all off, she has become the tool belt diva at the construction site known as our house. Our latest project has been the kithchen in which Kristin textured and painted the walls...but, even cooler than that, while we were intalling the new countertops, sink, dishwasher, garbage disposal all in the same night, she single handedly solved the plumbing issue underneath the sink. While my brain was to tired from the whole experience, she directed the succesful intallmentof the p-trap, t valve, drainage hose and disposal all on her own. It was magnificent! I also came home yesterday to find that she had hung four doors and screwed a small countertop onto a cabinet in the laundry room. Wow. Way to go Kristin.
I am sure you all do great things and even try new things from time to time. I guess life's all about overcoming our fears and discovering we really can do "stuff".

Grandpa Wes, Jim and Karalee

This is Cherrie. We got a christmas card from Grandma Vera with these pictures. Can you tell who is who?

Benge Family Blog

Benge Family BlogToday is Tuesday, Dec. 12. This is grandpa writing. Ruth and I are at Kirk & Cherries and will be all week. Kirk had some special training to attend in Dallas, Texas. (He is learning to run some special computer aided machine that will help him identify strange, obnoxious-behaving life forms--his family background made him an obvious choice for such training.) Mom and I came up here to be sure KC was fed. Now Kianna is babysitting all of us. We will be here the rest of the week, or more correctly, we will be staying three days then taking the kids to our place for a couple of days, and then returning to pick up Kirk and Cherrie at the airport. Mom encouraged Cherrie to accompany Kirk. I am sure that is wise. Now, I would encourage Kristin to accompany Ben on a special mission to Phoenix. I am sure that I saw evidence of enemy activity when we were in Phoenix. However, I may have been misseled. (Or is that evidence of enema activity and I was misled?) Whatever.
We read of the Schlenske's car problems and our hearts went out to you. We knew the Mazda was barely clutching to life, but we did not expect her to betray you so quickly. Ben, I will try to call and tell you of a possible remedy.
One other report I must make: we are living rather closely with the Wilson crew and already it seems as though we are all family. (We scream at each other, trade insults, and just generally act like siblings.) But now to the news. Tara was divorced as of Nov. 30. That next week she was asked out at least three times. Mom and I undermined the first two dates she had by not being able to babysit until late. So the men in each case canceled the dinner plans, picked Tara up at 8:30 pm when we were home and the kids in bed (or was that vice versa?) and then she went out on the town until about 10:30 both times. (I think they went to Wal-mart for both dates.) But, hey, a shopping mall social life is better than no social life.
We are looking forward to getting home as I really do miss swimming every morning. Kirk has borrowed our camera, but I will try to get mom to load a picture or two for this site. In the meantime stay warm. I thought it was cold here, but then I read Kris' letter. It made me feel all warm inside and out. Our love to all of you.

North Dakota

Certainly our storms cannot compare to that in the Philippines, but i must share our experiences in North Dakota. "Why not Minot?" is a slogan here. The answer is "freezin' is the reason." It is seriously cold! It is subzero temperatures with wind chills diiping into the -20's or so. Right now we are having wind gusts so hard I'm afraid our house will blow down! We got ready to go to church this morning and our van wouldn't start. We have a block heater ( a must here) so that our gasoline won't gel, but we think the cold outdid our battery. Luckily we had a nice neighbor friend who made double trips so get us there. The little black Mazda Ben got from Mom and Dad won't work either. The clutch won't work. We're not sure if it is frozen, or if it just popped and needs to be fixed. The same neighbor friends have been kind enough to lend us an old beat up truck, so that at least Ben can get a new battery (hopefully that is the problem) and use it for work temporarily. Anyhow, does anyone want to come visit North Dakota! It is adventurous! We are still alive and happy however. The boys are as cute as ever and would love to see anyone that wishes to come our way. We are sad we couldn't be there for Rachel's blessing, but thought of the Dave Benge family all the while. That is the hardest thing about being so far away. We miss being there with all of you. We love y'all.

Typhoon wreaks havoc in the Philippines

Well, we've been watching and waiting, and finally last night at about 1:00 a.m. we were able to contact family in the Philippines. That little house we spent the last few years building was completely destroyed, but everyone is OK. It's been hard to make contact because the first big storm to hit the area several months ago knocked out power throughout the province. That limits every body's ability to recharge cell phones, and makes it hard for us here to be able to contact them.
We spoke a few days ago with Cherrie's brother living in Manila, and he was on his way out to Manito (the little town where Cherrie's parents live) to see if they were OK. He was especially concerned, as he had left his young daughter (about Kianna's age) with them to babysit for a while. So yesterday he finally made it down there, and we were able to talk to everyone (he brought a fully-charged cell phone with him). During the storm, the wind blew out every window, and then ripped the door off it's hinges before tearing off the entire roof and causing the joists to collapse. Cherrie's Parents and her niece took refuge under the kitchen counter and sink and waited out the storm.
We actually fared much better than many. One of our good friend here in Salt Lake has her whole family living in the same area. They were unfortunate enough to be living right at the base of the Mayon volcano. Luckily, someone in the family noticed the approaching torrent, and the entire family was able to climb to safety as the mudslides completely buried their home. It appears that they, like many other thousands, lost everything but the clothes on their backs.
Cherrie's dad says he plans to rebuild everything. We are grateful that they had a good little cinder block home, because at least all four walls are still standing. The next-door neighbor had a house made of traditional bamboo with a thatched roof, and nothing is left.
So now we are going to try to help them purchase some materials to at least repair the roof so that they can be out of the rain. It might be hard though, as the whole area is affected and I am sure that there will be significant shortages of building materials, not to mention the difficulties in transportation.


KIRK

Rachel's Blessing

We will be blessing Rachel this coming Sunday (December 3) at 11:00 AM at our meetinghouse on the corner of 86th South and Fayeway Drive.

If you can't make it, I will be terribly offended and never forgive you--unless you have a reason, such as you are giving a lesson in your ward, or you live in North Dakota, or you forgot. If you can make it and you are a worthy Melchizedek Priesthood holder, then please join me in the circle.

I wish you all could have come to our little Thanksgiving gathering. It was fun. 'Til we meet again.

Schlenske news

We still have a hole in our living room. However, progress has been made, and the one day Ben had off, he bought stuff to board it up for now. We were hoping we would have a couple of nice days after it got cold, but no luck. It is cold, especially with wind chill. I feel badly that Ben has to get out and even attempt to board it. But he's tough. We just started tearing our kitchen apart for remodeling. I'm most excited for the kitchen to be done, but not for the process. I'm sure most of you know how hard it is to live with a mess in the kitchen. I have been living with it pretty torn apart since we got here, but now the real fun begins!
Little Ben was blessed last week. That was special. I am posting a couple of pictures of him with a his blessing outfit on. Thanks Darcee! And Congratulations to David and Susan! We love you all.

Rachel Winn Benge

Look at the 19 inch child who arrived at 1:50 P.M. weighing seven pounds even. It's Rachel Winn Benge! Mom and baby are doing very well, and even Lucy is excited. Rachel may not look excited to be here, but she is faking.

KC AND KIANNA ON HALLOWEEN (PLUS THE GOULISH MONSTER KIRK)

A request

A request:

So, I've always thought the blog was a great idea, but I haven't been great about using it much. I decided the other day that I would post something at least once a week to update everyone on the happenings of our family. Perhaps because winter is coming on, or is actually here in North Dakota, I am feeling lonely for all of you and would really like to know more of what goes on in your lives. I also really like to show our kids pictures of extended family. Hence, I am requesting that all of you post more often, for my sake. I miss all of you.
With that said, let me tell you of our happenings. We are still working on our house, and even though with wind chill it has been below 0 degrees nearly every day this week, with snow, we still have a hold in our living room wall and are trying to figure out what to do with it! We have plastic and other things piled in front of it to keep cold out in the meantime. Ben has been working in the missle capsule a ton lately, he upgraded to a commander, and then comes home and tries to get as much done as possible when he is off. Sadly, it looks like his work load is going to increase even more. The Air Force is trying to save money and has decided to have the missleers go on alerts for 3 nights (four days) at a time, with little break between alerts. We are hoping to survive such a schedule. In the meantime we enjoy every moment Ben is here. The band of brothers are thriving. Little Ben is a smiley guy and becomes more fun every day. I am homeschooling the others and Jeffrey sure loves it. He is technically in Kindergarten, but I must brag on him - he is doing 2nd grade math and is reading superbly right now. He is loving to learn and is usually quite easy to teach. We go over to a friends house a few days a week, and teach our children together. It is demanding, but fun. William is still William. He is either the sweetest kid on earth, or else causing all the mischief. He has quite the orginazational brain. He is doing quite well reading now too. Abel is the joker of the family and the dramatic child. Dallin is sweet as always, but has the occasional 1 1/2 year old tantrums.
I'll stop there because I'm taking up too much time and room.
We love you all!

Sumo Porter's First Halloween

We went to trunk or treat to show off our little chunk. He was a hit. He had two costumes...one was for when he got too cold. Mom and Dad went as Tacky Hawaii Tourists. Enjoy. Please post your kids costumes.

chimney demolition

I thought many of you may appreciate a picture or two of our project this week: that of demolishing our chimney. We scheduled a wood stove insert to be put into our existing fireplace chimney, but when they came to do it, they discovered that the chimney was falling away from the house and was unstable and unsafe. We were told we needed to tear it down. We have a gaping hole in the side of our house now and are not sure what to do next! But I thought you would enjoy the pictures. In addition, our oven went out. We purchased a new one of those already, but to our alarm the breaker just flips when plugged in. We are dumbfounded. Why would that be. Everything seems to go wrong at once!
Love you all

I won an IPOD!

So, a couple of weeks ago I entered a drawing here at work put on by a vendor of lab equipment. The drawing was for a new 60gb apple video ipod. Yes, a little device that lets me listen to music, save and display pictures and videos... up to 15,000 songs 25,000 pictures, or 150 hours of video. Well, I won. I'm kinda excited. Actually, I'm listening to it now.

40

Thank you for the kind expressions on my (gulp) 40th birthday, and thank you for the very fun surprise birthday party. It was good to see and hear from so many I love. And, I promise to play my drums at least as often as I write in my journal. (Oo. That was a spineless commitment. They really will be used!) Again, thank you all!

Our Family Pictures.

Thank You Darcee!

Hello Darcee! This is Cherrie. Thank you for the card! IM PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN! Ilove you and i miss you. -Cherrie-

please comment

so, i guess we are good at looking at the pictures, but not READING the blog (except, of course, Dave). so, in my last entry, i mentioned a family reunion in the winter in phoenix. anyone up for it? dave suggested in January. i'd really like to know if you guys would all try to come. i could find people to let family members stay with, or yards to camp in....or maybe find a place for us all to go camping. i could see if i could find a heated pool to use, etc. let me know if you think you'd want to get out of the snow....and when. let's discuss it. (that is what the blog is for, right?) love you!!!

Cherrie is now a U.S. Citizen

I just wnated to make it known that Cherrie participated in an Oath-Taking ceremony last week and is now a full-flegded American citizen! Now she can legally VOTE, GET WELFARE, FOOD STAMPS, AND MEDICAID. So I guess I can quit my job now if I want.

schlenske info

Thanks Dave for putting the pictures on for me!
I wanted to let everyone finally know our new address and phone number. Things have been so crazily busy that I forgot completely about letting people know our new info. sorry. I'm going to try to send a picture of the house, just one of the outside for now. It is definitely in need of TLC. We have done much work and have much much more to do. It is not the mold house though, Kirk. That didn't work out, but we're hoping this home will prove to be improved and a good investment for us. Love to all.

Photos of Benjamin

Update on Porter/Reunion?

Just thought I'd send some updated pictures of our little man. He's doing great! He was blessed on Sunday by his daddy and joining them were Grandpas Benge and Johnson and both of Daryl's grandfathers. It was nice. And the big news (for any mom) is that he sleeps from 11:30 or 12:00 at night until 5 am now. What a good boy!!! (Of course, he's only actually done that twice, so we will see if it keeps happening.)
I am finally completely well and now just need to lose a whole lot of weight. Daryl is a wonderful husband and dad. He is constantly working....no lazy bones in that boy anywhere! He helps with dishes and laundry, makes shelves for porter, doors for the shed, plants new grass and mows what is there, fixes cars, and then works on bicycles when he gets a chance.....by the way....He opened his own business called "Gears to You" and is now a mobile bicycle repairman. If you know anyone who needs a bike fixed or tuned up....just bring it to phoenix (cuz he's not THAT mobile).
So, Mom and Dad stayed here over the weekend. Mom flew out yesterday to go see Krissy, and Dad just left here this morning to go help Tara load up the van and drive to Utah. We sure are going to miss her tons! She had a wonderful turn out last night to help load up the moving truck! I don't even know how many people showed up. It was amazing!
I'm thinking maybe we should have a Wes Benge reunion this winter. What do you think? During the Christmas break. You can all come to Phoenix and we can swim and stuff. I think I could make arrangements with just a few different ward members and family members to find homes for everyone to stay in. Daryl's parents already said Dave & Susan can have their guest room and their kids can camp in the back yard. And Daryl's grandparents could put someone up....and we have camping space in our yard, and I know there are quite a few old ladies in our ward who probably have some room too! In fact, if we plan early enough, Daryl's dad said they could try to leave town and let us take over their whole house. So, let me know what you think. If most people wanted to try to come, I would start looking around at our options.

What's up with the pictures not showing

I don't know why it didn't show the pictures. Try again.
sorry, for some reason it is not uploading my pictures. I'll try again later, or just send them to you all in personal emails.

Baby Info

Yes! Benjamin Walker Schlenske is definitely a boy (we keep checking to make sure) ! Dave was right, August 5, is his birthday. He was born at 17:54 hours, which for all of you civilians is 5:54 P.M. He weighed 8#7 oz. and 20 1/2 inches. He is beautiful and well. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment.

Benjamin Walker Schlenske

Welcome to the world, young man! Congratulations to the Schlenskes'. Yes, you probably already heard and you heard correctly, Kristin's little girl is a boy. I believe he was born August 5, Mom & Dad's anniversary--correct? Hopefully Kristin will post more information soon, and I hope she sends pictures too (although I bet he looks just a like a blend of his brothers--same style, different texture).

You know, my nephew Jimmy (Susan's side of the family) was supposed to be girl, too. Our little girl-but-maybe-really-a-boy is due in November. By the way, Andrew (pure boy) turned 4 last week and he will tell you everything there is to know about it at 100 mph and 100 decibels if you give him a second. You should let him. It is very entertaining.

From the Totally Weird department, we just had a family move into our ward with an 8 year-old boy named Gideon. What are the odds of having two Gideons the same age in your ward?

While I'm here, let me tell you that we just painted the living room and hallway and will be getting new carpet soon. I will be doing base boards this week. I think it will look nice, but I am already tired of trying to get everything to look good.

Also, I am now doing "something else" again for work, but I hope this will be more permanent. I have successfully navigated through a series of interviews--my last one today--and I am now part of the GA Team. GA is for Genereal Authority. I am excited and a little nervous, especially since my duties take me to the Admin Building a lot. But, I think I may be through moving from project to project without doing anything. I hope so.

Oh, and you missed a fun Franklin Walker family reunion a few weeks back. I wish everyone could have come. See ya!

some pictures

bretjeep
Originally uploaded by Kirk & Cherrie.

I found some old pictures of me and bret camping and stuff, I am slowly trying to get some of them online. This is one of my favorites. Bret in the middle of nowhere with the old jeepster. This is near the Dirty Devil River, out by Robbers Roost.

DIRTY BABY

KC was caught sneakily eating this chocolate spread... You can see more pictures on our blog.... scroll down to the link on the right.

Hi everyone, if you haven't heard, we are in the process of buying a home. If all goes well, we will close on the 19th and moving right away. Hopefully the baby will not want to come eary so that we will have time to unpack. I have been wanting to write and send pictures more, but things are very crazy right now. In fact, they sent Ben on a 6 day alert while I'm here trying to finalize and pack everything myself! I will not complain however, because I am so glad we have people willing to protect our country, even if it is a 70 ft. below ground deterent. Love you all.
Kristin

before & after

porter is looking good & mommy is feeling much better. he's gaining weight quickly and not looking quite so yellow anymore. here are some before and after photos

Porter Scott Johnson

I am sure you all know about Porter Scott and Darcee. But, why not post it anyway? We are excited for the Johnsons and hope all is well. Here is the email Mom and Dad sent:

Announcing the birth of Porter Scott Johnson to Darcee and Daryl. He was born 3 June 2006 in Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona. Baby was not due until early July, but mom was having problems and an ultra sound showed the baby to be around 7 pounds, so doctors did a C-section. Baby was 7lbs 15oz and doctor is trying to figure out why the baby was so big and what is causing Darcee's problems. Baby doing well and is breathing on his own, but not eating on his own yet. Darcee's problems: extreme water retention and then she started throwing up. Doctors were concerned that she may have fluid on the brain. We will probably be heading to Phoenix in a day or two, but will wait until she is out of the hospital.

This really did start out as just an announcement of Porter's birth, but I ended up added a few details. Hope all is well with you.

KC's Birthday

Yesterday was KC's first birthday, and I got to celebrate it with kidney stones! Actually, my kidney stone problems began Sunday afternoon when I was struck by the extreme and debilitating pain that only a misplaced rock can cause. Cherrie drove me to the LDS hospital emergency room, where after a mere half-hour of consent forms, insurance forms, emergency contact forms, next of kin forms, etc, etc, etc, I was FINALLY given some much needed pain medicine! In addition to the wonderful benefits of relieving my pain, the medicine also made me feel joyful, exuberant, and energetic, and sort of made everything feel a bit wavy and two-dimensional. I was very happy; Just ask Cherrie.
After a CT scan and other tests, it was determined that I was indeed suffering from a stone in my kidney. How did it get in there you ask? Well, my personal theory is that someone who obviously dislikes me very much must have hired a witch to cast a spell on me. This spell somehow involved the magical relocation of a very rough and pointy stone out of my garden and into my kidney. That is the only logical explanation I can think of.
I thought I was fine though after the pain medicine wore off, and I had no further problems until Tuesday afternoon, when the pain hit once again. This time however I was prepared. I immediately took TWO Oxy-somthin-or-ruther pills that the doctor had prescribed, and within just a few minutes I once again found myself in the pain-free, floating happy world of La-La Land.
Grandma and Grandpa stopped by later to wish KC a happy birthday, and we all went out to eat at our favorite little Vietnamese restaurant. I think they enjoyed a minty, vegetable-filled treat. Devin too stopped by even later, and we stayed up late watching Twister with him and THEN he slept at our house.
I guess that is the news from the K and C Benge family.

Susan Is Pregnant

I keep thinking that I need to write and update everyone on everything that is going on. Not gonna happen. So, I will just blurt some news in the title.

Oh, I guess I could say a thing or two more. First: HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

A bought a little Ranger pickup that is requiring much more work than I thought. I also sold PutterButt (or however Darcee spelled it) to Pick-n-Pull, along with another old truck. I recommend them--they actually give you money for your car. (I got $141 for PutterButt.)

Awhile back we went to Disneyland. It was very busy but we had a very good time. If any of you are going, there is one must see attraction: Turtle Talk with Crush. You need to see this. Don't quibble with me. You need to see it. Go twice. Trust me. It is the best thing there.

Andrew really wanted to go back to Disneyland the other day and insisted that I take him RIGHT NOW. I told him it was really far but that I would be glad to go on a walk with him. He was excited and got his shoes on, and insisted that we were now going to walk to Disneyland RIGHT NOW. I admire his determination. I do not admire his grasp of reality. He also dug a large hole in the back yard and insisted that I help him build a house for Grandma and Grandpa Benge there. I fear that the next few years of my life will be spent destroying this child's dreams.

We also still have 5 other children, and like them most of the time. I still have a job. Life is pretty good. We love you all and wish we could see you much more often. We think it is cool to have the Adsits closer (even though it seems like we never get to do anything). It was great to see the Schlenske family recently and we think they should drive over more often. We were glad the Johnsons came to Fairview, too. You are good people to be with. Take care of each other!

Benge Family Blog

Benge Family Blog So, Thanks David for reinviting me. I still can't figure out what I possibly used for my password! We enjoyed seeing so many family members on our trip to Utah! We love you all and were so grateful for the time we got to spend. I was going to send some pictures. How do I do that? Okay, so I just got back on and figured it out. Here goes an attempt to send you a couple photos of our trip.

SPRINGTIME PICTURES

Family History

Hi there family. For one of my history classes, I have to do a service project that is history related. For this project, I am planning to do a Benge family history. Anyway, I would like to either call each of you, or perhaps just have you guys email me some memories. I'm not sure yet. For now I was just wondering if somebody could email me a list of everyone's phone numbers and email address. I have some, but I don't know if they are current. Anyway, if somewould could do that, that would be awsome. Also, if any one has an idea of how best to do my project, I would appriciate any input. Thanks.

Judas - The Long-Lost Gospel ?

Judas Is No Traitor in Long-Lost Gospel - Los Angeles Times

This article in the LA times, tells of a manuscript, which scientists date to the year 300. It is an account of conversations between Jesus and Judas in the last week of their lives. It is very interesting to read about. The ideas portrayed in this "unknown" gospel would probably be considered pretty blasphemous by the early catholic church, and even by most christian sects, but I think much of it fits nicely with our faith and with modern revelation. You can read the EXCERPTS FROM THE ORIGINAL TRANALATION HERE. (in pdf format)

Cyclops

Cy, short for Cyclops, a kitten born with only one eye and no nose, is shown in this photo provided by its owner in Redmond, Oregon, on Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2005. The kitten, a ragdoll breed, which died after living for one day, was one of two in the litter. Its sibling was born normal and healthy.

Source: Yahoo news