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.