Homely News

I think everyone knows all or most of the the big Benge news, but I thought I would post something since we often aren't real good at posting news.

Tara and David found a home in Springville and are moving. In fact, I think they are moving a bunch of stuff today, but I don't know when they will actually start living there. Tara and David, be sure to send us all an email with your new address, phone number, etc. (you probably won't want to post it on this site).

It is a good thing they are leaving Mom & Dad's basement because our house is also now for sale. We have it listed by a realtor but are also able to sell it by owner, and I would like to offer an incentive to the family: if you refer someone to our home and they buy it without assistance of a real estate agent, I will give you a 2 liter bottle of pop (of your choice) and $250. You may be asking yourself how I am able to offer 250 clams. Answer: 1) that ain't nothin' compared to what a real estate agent will get (and please remember that we can sell it cheaper if we don't pay a real estate agent), and 2) I doubt you would be able to do it. Let the games begin. We are asking for $1.5 million, but have it listed for $268,000. I hope it sells.

I sometimes wonder if trying to get a bigger place is selfish, and if such a move is wise or not. After all, I bet Grandma and Grandpa Walker would have felt like royalty to put 13 people in a house as big as ours and let them stretch out. But, it seems like a good thing to do.

I'm not done yet. Kirk is also selling his home. He has found another, and the owner accepted his offer, which is contingent upon the sale of his home. Thus, I am certain Kirk would also appreciate you sending business his way. I don't know what kind of incentives he is offering, but I am sure a big hug and a vow of eternal servitude are part of the deal. Wouldn't it be great for them to have a bigger place before Cherrie's parents come over?

Last of all, I wanted to tell you about a young lady I met yesterday just as Mom and Dad were pulling out of my driveway. She asked how much I was selling our home for, as she was renting just down the road but was looking to buy. After I gave her the information, she told me she grew up in the house, and she wanted to know if it still had the raspberry bushes. She was glad to know they were alive and productive, and that four fruit trees had been added. I told her I'd give her a great deal if she wanted to move back. I was surprised to talk to one of the prior residents because they had moved to Wisconsin.

Remember: 2 liter bottle of pop and $250. Eternal servitude. Etc.

We love you all and pray for you daily. Don't be strangers, and don't be stranger than me.

Family Service Announcement of a Great Idea

I realize that none of us are big time travelers (at least not yet). But when we do need a hotel room, www.cleanhotels.com seems like a terrific choice. This website lists hotels in your selected area that do not show pornography, including pay-per-view porn. The CleanHotels website has more information about how and why they do this. Rebecca Hagelin of the Heritage Institute also has an article about it with some interesting information.

I recommend we use this service. I am so very grateful that there are people out there using their brains and talents for good.

Computer programmer testifies regarding election fraud

I've been neglectful

I had a goal of updating people more regularly, but I haven't done so well. I wonder how many people are checking the blog frequently, because if it is just not being used much, I might as well send emails. So if you read this, could you comment back to me to let me know who I am reaching?

We are nearly finished putting in our new floor in the kitchen and in the dining room. It looks so much better that i can hardly believe it. We have even hung most of our pictures now too and so it feeling like a nice livable house now. We had a couple of really nice warm days here a few days ago, and now it is freezing again with new snowfall. We are anxiously awaitng some springtime weather. It feels hopeful now, that someday winter will be over. Our next big project will be to paint the outside of the house when we get some steadier warm weather.

In a couple of weeks, Ben will start going to the capsule for three nights at a time. We are a bit confused as to why the Air Force thinks this might be a worthwhile thing to do, but we roll with the punches. Ben is a great and dutiful officer and though he doesn't like to be away from us, he doesn't complain and does a good job.

All the rascally boys are very alive and active. They are super excited about our upcoming vacation in the summer to visit all of you.

I thought you also might enjoy this boxing picture of Batman Dallin.

A visit from porter

it seems a shame we never post to this.....myself included!
anyway, i am compassionate service leader in RS and a lady in my ward ended up in the hospital with vertigo. i went to see her and now she is my new good friend. she was wanting to go to utah for a week or so during conference time, but didn't want to drive the whole way by herself and wondered if porter and i would like to come along. so, as long as her vertigo gets better, porter and i will be leaving on the 23rd to come visit you all....except Krissy.... :( ♥. anyway, hopefully we will get to come. of course, i have only been away from daryl 1 night in our 2 ½ years of marriage....so it won't be the easiest thing i have ever done, but i am so excited to see everyone and to have porter meet you all! ♪♫
oh, speaking of callings.....i was daryl's assistant in primary, but now i am the primary teacher because daryl got released...he is now our ward executive secretary. his dad was made bishop the week before, and his dad's dad is a bishop in salt lake, so we tease him a lot that he is learning the ropes so he can follow in their footsteps.

Updated Blog

Now that the Schlenske's started having problems, too, I went ahead and give the go ahead to update the the family blog. To post anything, you will need a google email address (gmail)--it will walk you through registration if you don't have a gmail account already.

Good luck! May the force be with you!

FYI, for those of you without gmail, it is OK. You don't have to use it for anything, although it can be handy. I use it for my email address when I fear I will be getting a lot of spam for something, and it is great for that.

Later.

Be happy in Winter

I am writing to help everyone feel better about cold winters, except for Darcee, who doesn't have cold winters anyway. I love you Dar! Anyhow, two weeks ago is 40 below zero and our fuel in the van froze. We had to pay a bit of money to rememdy that. We were told to use more additive in the fuel and we already have block heater. But we are discovering that living in North Dakota is detrimental to vehicles. The last few days it has been either -40 or -50 with wind chills. Our van, once again seems to have gelled fuel. There seems to be no let up either. The forecast predicts the highs will not get above zero for a few days, and even so, the wind chills are extreme sub zero. The little Mazda's battery died from cold and now the brakes don't work. I guess from the cold too! Luckily, we feel very blessed that we have great friends that lend us vehicles or give us rides. Has anyone ever lived in a place that when you walk outside you get a gust of 40 mph wind that burns your face and within two seconds you think you have frostbite? I question why anyone ever decided to homestead here. Despite the fact that it is cold, we are all happy and well. We miss you all so very much. And I hope this update makes you all feel warm and cozy!

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)