Wisdom Resources Advertising Campaign

As we gather for our "annual business and marketing strategy conference," the prospects look dim.

The light goes on in Dad's head. "I think we all agree that the biggest problem is our lack of customers. The current ratio of customers to inventory is very poor. Soon we won't be able to keep the lights on or pay the slaves."

The slaves pour over How to Get Traffic in Your Home-Based Business.

One of the slaves: "I've got it!"

Slave 1: It's got to be this big... or bigger!"

Slave 2: "I'm telling you, we need to keep this within township regulations."

I don't know... Isn't this a type of sign? I'm afraid we should have applied for a permit.

*winks* I know what I'm doing.

Conrad straddles the "crane" and...

...compilation begins.

See that tailgate disappearing? The driver didn't even look at the sign; seemed to be looking at something behind it in fact. Can't imagine what.

Slave becomes master: "You there! Move your hand...

...and move snow instead."

You'd be frightened too if...

...your non-too-scrupulous brother were threatening to tip the dumper.

The completion of Phase 2 is celebrated, if not with a company banquet, at least with a lot of noise.

Conrad points out our fourth and coming victory.

Mr. Snowman's head appears to have been made mighty small, which raises the question, "Do either of these two have brains?" ;-)

The nose - symbolizing the nosiness we hope to inspire in passers-by.

Embracing hard work.

"HEY, don't look at us! Look at the sign."

Within an hour of completion, our scheme toppled. Literally. And in falling, it nearly knocked our sign over.

The next day it rained. I suppose you could say that we had cold water dumped on our plan.

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And with the end of our snowman comes the end of this post.

God Bless your fortnight.
Carmen

A Special Addition to this Sat. Edition

This is the closest I've ever come to live blogging. And it's appropriate on an occasion of new life coming into this world. This little fellow has a true team spirit, contrives to be born on Saturday (and a posting one at that) and is already posing for pictures without complaint. (Did you all figure out what this means by now? :-)

Phares Lee Martin

Named in honor of his maternal grandfather Phares Newswanger, whose 100th grandchild he is. Lee is Dad's middle name.

This photo has "stats" written all over it. Here we go:

Born: today at 8:57 p.m.
Weighed: 8 lbs. 7 oz. (in fact, still does)
Place in the Pecking Order: tenth of ten ;-)

The delivery went smoothly and Mom is doing fine. We are rejoicing in this blessing to our family. To God be the Glory.

Carmen

P.S. Keep going for today's "real" post.

Hello Everyone,

I really wanted to start out this year with these photos, the Sufficiency of Scripture Conference as well as some Thanksgiving Day ones. Life doesn't get much more important than Scripture and giving thanks. I tried my best to limit the quantity of photos and inside jokes. I'm afraid there's quite a few of both, however. :-)

Being the fan of chronological order that I am, Thanksgiving comes first...

Thanksgiving Day

Art ;-)

Passing on a tradition.

If you follow through with tradition too far, you end up with some scary looking folks at the dinner table.

Mervin, it's Thanksgiving. Give thanks for the natives. They're scary, but not very.

Scary... but not very.

Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be thankit.
- Robert Burns -

Right after Dad said "Amen." :-)

We serve cranberry salad every year simply to test certain individuals' ability to be thankful.

The Apples and the Press

Full dish.

One in, whole dish to go.

All in.

All but two.

The historic moment - the last apple.

Or not so historic? Sort of anticlimactic, not, to find another whole dish of apples?

We stand outside the ring of dedicated cider-makers. We have christened ourselves the "outciders."

More "outciders." They're out of cider and they've brought their pan to get some.

But to get some, you have to join the work crew, become an "incider" in fact!

We wanted some cider - wanted it bad.

Cider is obviously in. So are denim coats it appears.

Conrad gives a demonstration of how I used to try to make he and Candace "die" when we were playing "killed by Indians." They never could do it - fall flat on their faces keeping their arms behind their backs. As their drill sergeant, I used to get so frustrated. I wonder why I never showed them how it's done?

This is how the Einwechters start sword fights.

This is how the Einwechters end rubber-band fights.

Candace, take some lessons from Abigail...

...she watches what she's doing.

Jenga - a game of inevitable doom.

That doesn't mean there aren't small victories along the way though.

(I can't call this photo terrible since Jonathan took it, but... :-)
They were all clamoring for me to post it. I figured I get a lot of fun at other people's expense, and so I might as well let you have some at mine. ;-)

Don't breathe for one second.

What did I tell you... Inevitable doom.