Happily Busy

Things have quieted down a bit (literally). There are now a just few blowers down in the basement to finish the drying process so that we can start with the restoration. Yes, we're doing the routine again. We're dealing with the folks at Servepro from Canton. If you ever have this kind of water issue in your house, these are the guys to call; they're great. They did the cleanup last year when we had 4 inches or more in the basement of the church. Anyway, we're drying out.

Baseball and softball are kicking into gear. Katie has already had a few practices and Michael's practices start this week.

My mom and dad are down in Bloomington, Indiana. My dad is receiving proton beam therapy to destroy the cancer that he has. Things are going well. He's had a cold over the past week or so. Please keep him in your prayers - my mom too.

Sandra finally decided to get a facebook page. Yeah! She's already been in contact with some ladies she went to high school with, as well as some other pastor's wives. I think she likes it. ;-)

Pray for me. Dealing with these water problems has really kicked in my arthritis. I have an appointment this week with my doctor, but that won't change anything. Winter is drawing to a close so know I'm in summer preparation mode for church stuff: VBS, Camp, Summer sports ministry, etc., etc. As long as summer is on its way. So, we're...

Goin' on with the Song!

Watching the Weather & the Sump Pump

It's about 1:15 a.m. Wednesday morning and I've been up several times checking out the weather. No, I'm not doing this because I'm a "weather bug", but because the sump pump is running about once a minute; that's 60 times an hour. I'm praying that the thing lasts through the night.

As some may know, the pump failed to work properly overnight Sunday into Monday, and we had a flooded basement -- again. Sandra took the day off work (without pay) and we worked from 6 a.m. until about 12:30 in the afternoon, shop vaccing the basement. It's still damp and musty down there. It may take a couple of weeks, hopefully no longer, to get it back to normal.

Well, tonight, with all the rain we're getting, I'm not sleeping much. I've got a little portable pump ready just in case, but I'm afraid that it won't pump as fast as the water is coming into the sump hole. I'm thankful that Bro. Lentz came over Monday night and we installed an alarm that will call the parsonage phone number when the water level touches a sensor. What that will do while I'm home is wake me up (if I'm asleep) and let me know to start running the portable sump pump.

I'm praying that the sump pump will work throughout the night and that I can get some much needed sleep. I'm still very sore from the clean up. Please keep us in your prayers. Thank you.

The Hugans - 4 By Grace

Long Time - No Post

Well, it's now February and I haven't posted anything since Thanksgiving. Yes, the blog has been on a back burner for a while.

Everyone is doing fine here at the Hugan's. We had a good winter break over the holidays, though the kids were ready for school to start again. Two weeks with not much to do got a little boring for them. Michael and Katie are now busy with school. They're also both gearing up for Spring sports. Michael is working with his pitching trainer and Katie has a lady working with her for softball pitching. Then there's homework, homework, and more homework!



Sandra and I are doing well. With work, church, Bible institute, the kids, and catching the water dripping down from our bedroom ceiling due to faulty construction of the roof, we're staying busy.

And by God's grace, we'll keep...
Goin' On With The Song!

Happy Thanksgiving to Family & Friends

Michael's Birthday

Katie - Junior High Volleyball

Katie had a great season in her first year of volleyball at school. She played well and her skill level matured as the season progressed. I'm not sure what the team record was, but they won most of their games. Katie was very impressive in her serving ability and her overall playing skills contributed greatly to the team. I have more video footage than I do still pictures. I'll try to figure out how to put those on the blog. Good job Katie! We're very proud of you!

Here's one picture I took:

Happy Birthday Katie!!!

Today is Katie's 12th birthday. Here are some pictures of her party from last week:

Is That Fall That I See?

Well Fall has begun! Where did the summer go?

Our Fall has begun in full speed. We're busy, but having fun with it. With school in session, the kids are busy with school work nearly every night. I just don't remember having that much homework when I was in school. That may not necessarily mean that I didn't have it though. ;-)

Michael is in driver's training. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Just kidding; he actually is doing very well. He says he's pretty comfortable at the wheel. I don't know if that should make me concerned or not. Seriously, he's doing fine. He takes a break from sports during the Fall. He'll do basketball in the Winter and baseball in the Spring. He's done some throwing practice over the summer. However, we often switched places at pitcher and catcher. I wish I could do what I can do now with pitching when I was in high school. I've actually surprised myself. There have been times when I've gone out and thrown the ball at the tarp we have set up, without Michael catching. It feels pretty good, but I think I'll keep my day job. Speaking of my day job - the Bible institute has begun at FRMBC. Check it out here.

Katie had her first volleyball game yesterday. Her team won the first two games. I think the scores were 25 to 18 and 25 to 23. They play the best out of three. They played the third game to 15 and they won again, 15 to 10. Katie did a great job! Her serves were spectacular!! I'll get some pictures up soon. I think I may have only taken one or two because I didn't want to distract her.

More later.

Summer Almost Over

I have been terrible about posting this summer. With planning and implementing ministry and dealing with the church basement, it's gone by fast. Our family has been busy. We haven't even been able to take a vacation anywhere. Most people don't realize the small window that a pastor has to take a vacation with all the "things" going on. I can't just drop things and take my family and go. People tell us, "Oh yes you can." No offense but... they just don't get it. Anyway, the details are too personal to post. Sometimes I just wish people could see things from where we sit. Enough of that though.
Michael and his friend Tom have been up at my parents since last Friday. They'll be back this Thursday. Michael, Sandra and I have to be at the school for orientation on Thursday night. Katie and her friend Cassandra did their annual trip to my parents a few weeks ago.
Most of the summer, Michael hung around the house during the day. In the summer time he does all the lawn maintenance. He does a great job! If I had a dollar for every time I heard him say that he was bored, we'd have enough money to take one of those vacations [oh yeah... no time ;-) ].
Katie's summer was typical of the last several summers with having to do "vacation station" - a workbook to give her "practice" (so they say) on "school" work. She hasn't had a normal summer vacation in several years. I don't think her school has handled her situation very well, but that's another personal thing. Katie was still able to do volleyball camp for a week this summer. She loves volleyball and is planning on playing on the Junior High team this year at school.
Of course the summer included Vacation Bible School, Youth Camp, and we just finished a great week of revival meetings. Now we're in the last week of summer vacation for the kids. Their school starts next week and the Bible institute starts on September 8th. So it's back to the grind! At least we can be together as a family in all this busyness and the Lord's work is getting accomplished.