Hopeful's: November 2007

I just wanted to post something real quick. I was one of the ones Elisa referred to that complained about what was being put up on the blog, and I want to publicly apologize. I complained that she had posted on the blog that we weren’t in the best shape financially. My wife’s faith sometimes amazes me. She has always told me that if we are doing what we are supposed to be doing, God will provide. We did have a potentially catastrophic plumbing problem not including the fact that we needed to replace the fixture which I accidentally broke. We called a friend of ours that night who happened to be a plumber. She fixed the leak (after smashing some tile to get to it.) and even gave us a toilet. Our total cost was $18.35. It was really good that we fixed the leak when we did. We pulled about 20 gallons of water out of the wall. Thankfully, it doesn’t look like there is any rotten wood or mold. God has truly blessed us and proven that he is watching out for our family. We love you all and hope you have a Merry Christmas.

Nativity Display

Hello All, This is Bruce. We went to the nativity display last night adn had a great time. Here is a photo of the family. It's not great since I had to scan it in, but we should be getting a digital copy via e-mail soon. Merry Christmas everyone!

More to come!

I am sorry, but I am not feeling bloggy!

Here is why; I have heard 4 times from 4 different people that I divulge too much info.

So I was debating; do I tone it down or tell them all to bite me?

Being my passive-aggressive self, I just avoided the situation and haven't written for month.

There.

Thhbbtt!

I have alot of stuff I want to write about that I will either stick in my journal or do a personal blog.

This is my sister Michelle's picture, it is in Tokyo. No, it's not my sister, just some girl. I love the outfit too!

Mineral Wells!

This is the drive into the town of Mineral Wells. It is about 1 1/2 hours from Arlington. The town is in a valley and before you get to it, going west on the freeway, overlooking the town is a state park. It has mountains! and a lake! and is pretty! I have to say, I was not impressed with the town. It was dirty, run down and had alot of what looked like crazy people. But with some effort, it looked like it could be a nice place to live. Alot of former glory.

Anyways, we went to Mineral Wells because we saw a special on the local news about how there was this spring with minerals in it that is bottled and sold to the public. It has lithium in one of the bottled waters. For people with different chemical ailments. Plus calcium!

If anyone remembers, Bruce hurt his ribs a couple of weeks ago and is still recovering. Bruce has a calcium deficiency and I believe it is why he gets injured so easily and takes so long to heal. So we went to buy this water to see if it could help me, with the lithium (I have never taken it before) and to see if it could help Bruce heal.

This is a picture of us next to the original arch ad at the only operating well left in a town that was born because of the mineral water. It's called the Famous Water Company.

There were alot of people there that weekend and they were super busy. So busy that they had to ration the amount of water you could buy. I bought an organic minty lemon soap and a cinn. apple lotion that they make with the water. Smells so good!

These are the huge storage cylinders that they keep the water in, that they pump out of the ground. The wells are tapped anywhere from 100 ft to 300 feet under the ground.They actually had a garden and play area for the kids, so they could play while we bought the water.

We went to eat at taco casa (yuk) before we went hiking at the State Park. It was five dollars per adult, kids under 12 are free. Nice, huh?

Did you know you can buy a state park pass for $60 for your whole family that you can use at any and all State Parks? We are thinking about buying a pass next year.

Here was one of our first views. It was at the back of the park.

This is actually a lake, it looks like a river to me!

This on our way down to the lake. This is on a rock staircase.

Rocks are all over the place and make for good climbing and there are some cool little crevasses, only little kids seem to fit in them, tho'

I thought about climbing this but changed my mind when I realized it was almost upside down and sideways, to try to climb. Lilli made the perfect addition to the shot.

This is a big rock in the lake that we managed to get on. I really like this picture.

This is under the rock-climbing cliffs. On top of the cliffs, they have clip-in ties for climbers.

Bruce managed to squeeze into the crevice. Don't ask me why.

By the way, Bruce is healing much better than before and has been drinking less than a cup of the mineral water a day.

It's a little hard to see, so click on it!

Tagged!

1- I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE showers and baths. I could shower for hours on end. I usually fall asleep in the bathtub! No, I haven't almost drowned, yet! I love feeling clean! I love smelling good!

2- I hate giving a suggestion, then being ignored and then someone brings up MY original suggestion at a later time, in my presence. Bruce does it to me all the time. I have given up trying to beat it out of him, he doesn't learn.

3- When I was 16, I shaved my head and was a real punk rocker. I wore bad clothes, bleached my hair, quit school and went to rock concerts all the time. Surprisingly enough, I learned alot about myself, and somehow my older sister thought I was much cooler than before.

4- I love learning, I love education. I will learn how to diagnose and treat different ailments with natural, nonintrusive methods and herbs. I want to eventually be a MD. I don't know when it will happen but it will....!

5- People who are mean, dismissive and disrespectful to their families drive me crazy, including myself. There is a NO excuse!

6- I want all the children in the world to be loved, respected, cared for and taught. I have to learn to be one of those kind people, because for some reason, it is really hard for me to be sugary sweet nice to other people's kids. I don't think I'm the only one.....!

Please leave your blog name/link on comments!

I deleted all of them on accident, unawares, Sorry! If you aren't registered, or have an account, send us an email, please!

I want to keep in contact with everyone and I didn't save all the links!

bruce.hopewell@sbcglobal.net

Happy halloween! New template!

I hope everyone had a nice, safe Halloween!

We couldn't find the mask and cape to Dylan's outfit but oh well, he probably would have taken it off anyway.

Lilli didn't really trick or treat, she just snuck up on Ethan and starting digging into his bucket. He was too busy eating too much candy to push her away. Maybe I'm a nerd, but I love homemade costumes.

This guy is actually an iron worker in real life so he wore his work outfit and clipped the kids on to drag them around and Dylan didn't like it, but Ethan did.

Eva, Ave and Sa!

Sorry, I didn't know how to tie the pretty kimono Nicolle gave me, plus I didn't have the right belt for it.

I just love this pumpkin (guy). Looks good enough to kiss/eat!

We had some of our friends come out to the trunk or treat.

Lilli wore a dress from Costa Rica. She doesn't quite pull off the hispanic look but it's ok cause some of my mom's family is from Holland.

Dyaln was suppoused to be a robot too but chickened out at the last minute and went with an easy costume, Batman.

Eva's authentic Spanish (flamenco) dress that my sister got for her.

Here is Ethan tirade of today, referring to me: "I work so hard to be nice to you and all of the sudden, you start getting cranky and start pouting and it is awful and mean of you." Sounds like me, doesn't he?

Daddy, Ethan and Dylan at church.

Eva wore this to school.

Daddy's Halloween trick for Dylan. He lied to Dad and got a habanero-covered lollipop. You can't tell, but his eyes, mouth and chest are red. He ended up puking all over the floor. Dylan is not easily convinced of the benefits of obedience. So we are trying new methods of persuasion. I'm not sure if they are working either....