Blog Changes

It is good to see so many pictures and updates. We really ought to get a decent little digital camera. Note to Cherrie (and if you are an OSHA employee, please do not read any further): as a dental assistant, you should be proud of your smile--drop that mask and show your pearly-whites!

Anyway, this free blogging site is now starting to push users to the NEW blogger. I am sure it is bigger, faster, smarter and will lead to world peace, but I haven't switched yet because it requires you all to get a GMail account. That isn't the biggest deal in the world, and the new log-in lets you create one very quickly. For now, I have not upgraded, but I think it is an inevitablility (and probably sooner than later). So, you may want to go ahead and set up a GMail account if you don't already have one. I will let you know when the change needs to be made.

FYI, GMail has a few good features to it, and I use it when I am at risk of getting spammed a lot.

TTFN

sorry we've been absent

I "updated" my account and somehow made myself not a member of this blog page and couldn't post. I've tried many things to get back, and just couldn't. So, I finally gave up and set up a whole new account and now I'm back!!!! We are happy and mostly healthy (I think Porter is getting a cough). We need you cold people to come visit us. It is rainy today, but on Monday it was over 70 degrees! I do love warmer weather. Good job Cherrie! and Kirk! You guys are so motivated! Speaking of motivation, good job Kristin too!!! Wow. I knew I was a lazy person, but you guys make me look really really bad. Love and miss you! Hope we can all get together around the 4th of July. And....what's the word on Nikki and her kids' health?

Who wants to get their teeth cleaned?

Can you tell who is behind this mask? ...


















That's RIGHT! It's Cherrie! And did you notice that her patient has a huge smile? Well why not? I think I would smile too if Cherrie were cleaning my teeth... unless I had bad breath, then I'd be too embarrassed to smile.


.......Or maybe it's just the Nitrous Oxide... Whatever.

The point is, Cherrie will graduate in July as a dental assistant. And she loves it. Oh yeah, and by the way, I'll graduate from my Masters program in May.

KIRK

Where is everyone?

I am just curious why no one has blogged lately. For some reason I was just waiting so that I didn't have two in a row. But why? Anyhow, I'm tired and need to go to bed, but I am wondering how my family is? We love you all. Here's a recent picture of Little Ben promoting his favorite product.

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-