Tonight I witnessed two fairly amazing things. First, our BPOU (Basic Politcal Organization Unit) voted overwhelmingly for Ron Paul. Second, we brought four kids with us to the caucus. We had already promised to watch some friends’ kids, so after making sure the parents were okay with us taking theirs to our caucus, away we went!
The vote was something like:
- Ron Paul — 99 votes
- Mitt Romney — 84 votes
- Mike Huckabee — 53 votes
- John McCain — 53 votes
It seems that Romney won the state, but we’ll see how things go. The next phase of our caucus in March 15th. I’m an alternate delegate, so I’ll show up then and see what happens.
I just couldn’t resist using that pun. We got a new vehicle today. It’s a 1995 Honda Odyssey, and it is mostly a minivan.  I say “mostly” because it has four doors that all swing open like regular car doors and it’s not quite as big as a regular minivan. I want to call it a mini-minivan, and Tony has been calling it a ‘tweener.  It’s definitely an incremental step between a station wagon and a normal minivan.
The picture below doesn’t really do the color very much justice. It was hard to get a good shot in the late afternoon, cloudy light:
We still have the Volvo.  However after nearly two months without a working vehicle of our own and no end in sight to the Volvo’s woes, we decided we really needed a reliable vehicle. We feel very fortunate at having found a steal of a deal on the Odyssey — it was the first vehicle Tony looked at it. He liked it so much (and it was such an amazing deal we didn’t want to let get away) that I didn’t even see it before we bought it — we just talked it over on the phone!
Tony will continue to replace parts on the Volvo to find whatever is causing it’s abnormal behavior (10 parts have been replaced so far with little improvement). Our plan is to get the Volvo in shape to sell…and then either sell it…or keep it and sell the Odyssey if it turns out we don’t like it as much as our beloved station wagon after a couple months.  Tony is pondering putting them both up for sale when the Volvo is ready and then just keeping which ever doesn’t sell first. Or maybe we’ll sell both and fund Tony’s dream of having a vehicle that runs on biodiesel or electric power. 
Just in case you’ve seen the news and are wondering, we are indeed okay. I was in my office working at the time of the collapse. Though my office is very close to the bridge that collapsed, I did not even hear about the tragedy until about an hour after it happened.
I am now home, safe and sound.
If you don’t know what happened, the Interstate 35 bridge over the Mississppi river collapsed during rush hour today. Many are injured, and everyone is trying to make sure their loved ones are alive and well.
The story is on every major news outlet, if you’re curious.
Here’s a picture (click on “Bird’s eye view”) of the bridge that collapsed.
A couple days ago we had a huge downpour and this was the result:
Luckily, it only lasted for about 20 minutes. As soon as some of our neighbors saw what was going on, they cleared out some of the debris that had collected in the storm drains, and the water drained out as quickly as it had come.
You can see pictures of this and other things that have been going on around here in the following photo albums in our gallery:
Street Flooding July 2007
Art Car Parade 2007
Our Family –Â Late June through July, 2007
After being away for slightly more than 10 days, I think we are all happy to be back home. We left Atlantic on Saturday morning and then spent the weekend in Ames to see friends and attend Autumn and Jensen’s wedding.
It was definitely a hard week, but it was good to be together with Tony’s immediate and extended family as we went through this experience. Madeline had a blast playing with her cousins and Erik rarely had a shortage of people to hold him or play with him.
We started our journey home on Sunday afternoon around 3:15, and managed to cram a three hour journey into about five hours. Traveling with a baby who needs to eat every two hours or so always makes life interesting…with the added factor of four hot, sweaty and slightly crabby individuals in a car with broken a/c on a hot afternoon…extra stops are definitely a necessity.
We arrived home to a kitchen full of dirty dishes and spoiled food in the fridge. Having left in a real rush way back on July 5th, doing the dishes got cut from the daily schedule as I instead packed and washed laundry. We also never imagined that we would be gone for over 10 days, so all the rotten leftovers and no-longer-fresh produce were a sight I did not want to see! Tony is such a wonderful husband that he cleaned out the fridge for me and we then caught up on the dishes together.
And now back to our regularly-scheduled adventures…
In case anyone wants to join us or send condolences, here is the information:
Monday there will be a funeral service for Tony’s grandfather (his mom’s dad, Kenneth Schwartz) at 2pm. Tuesday night there will be a visitation for Tony’s dad (K.R. Hill) from 7-8pm. The funeral for Tony’s dad will be at 10:30am on Wednesday with a luncheon to follow at a church in the nearby town of Lewis, IA.
The both funerals and the visitiation will be at:
Hockenberry Funeral Home
1804 East 7th St.
Atlantic, IA 50022
If you wish to send a note of condolence to Tony’s mom, here is her info:
Margene Hill
61031 570th St.
Atlantic, IA 50022
I wanted to let everyone know that Tony’s dad died this morning after complications from gallbladder surgery. His grandpa died this past Thursday after being in poor health for quite some time.Â
While it is very difficult to have two deaths in the family at the same time, there was a small blessing in it as well. Because the whole family had been coming for Grandpa Schwartz’s funeral, all the kids were able to be present when Tony’s dad passed away.
The funeral will probably be Monday or Tuesday here in Atlantic, IA. We’ll update things here with the details when we know more. We’ll be here in Atlantic until at least mid-week.
Thanks for your love and prayers…the best way to reach us is probably our cell phones, but we will have intermitant opportunities to check email as well.
On the really, really good side of things we are past the inspection stage with the sale of our house in Ames! The current buyers had an inspection done but didn’t report anything to our agent — meaning that they apparently have nothing they want changed. Yea! This means that unless something really out of the ordinary comes up, we will no longer own our house in Ames after July 9th.
On the bad news side of things, Tony’s dad’s health continues to worsen. We heard from his mom a couple days ago that his dad was experiencing liver and kidney problems, muscle spasms in the leg with the infected foot, a lack of appetite, and generally was really discouraged. Then yesterday we heard that he had been sent from Atlantic to Omaha for further tests, and that some of the liver and kidney problems were possibly being caused by an enlarged gallbladder.  The doctors originally planned to remove his dad’s gallbladder late yesterday. Today, Tony heard from his mom that the doctors found out his dad has come down with pneumonia, so they couldn’t do the surgery. Please, please keep praying for Tony’s dad’s health.
Further bad news from Tony’s family is that his grandfather (his mom’s dad) may pass away any day. Tony’s grandfather has been in poor health for quite some time, and is currently in the hospital in Atlantic. Apparently the doctors thought a couple nights ago that he might not make it through the night. He is still living at this point, but things aren’t looking good. Please pray for Tony’s grandfather that he would be as comfortable as possible during this time. Please also pray that if this is “his time” to go, that the timing would work as best as possible with everything that is also going on with Tony’s dad.
Finally, of course be praying for Tony’s mom that she would have comfort and find strength from God during this difficult time.
I posted the news about my dad’s stroke here, nearly ten weeks ago.
Dad made it out of the hospital for a couple of weeks before he had to be hospitalized again five weeks ago because of a nasty foot infection. Now, five weeks later, his foot is still overrun with infection, he’s in a great deal of pain, and he is apparently getting very discouraged.
My mom is very concerned.
Please pray for them both.
K. R. & Margene Hill. (Atlantic, IA)
Thanks,
Tony
So, as we’ve previously posted, it is possible for a purchase agreement on a house to fall through.
That said, we have a new purchase agreement with a different party! So, we agonized and despaired for three days, and now have a new buyer that wants to close on July 9th.
Right now, we’re really happy, but there is certainly still room for this to fall through, so please pray that it doesn’t. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for this. Thanks also to Doug, TJ, Gary, and Boose for helping me take care of the place from afar!
We’ll keep you updated with the progress on this sale. Also, please keep praying for my dad, as he’s still in hospital. Currently, he’s dealing with a nasty infection in his foot.
