Do You Have a Will?

Do you have a will? Do you realize the importance of having a will? If you have children, having a will is so important. A will is a legally binding document that allows you to say who will receive your property (and more importantly, your children) when you die. It is not a lengthy process. All it requires is filling out the document and having it notarized. Then be sure to file it in a safe place (such as a safety deposit box). I suggest having two copies notarized, one to keep in your home and one to keep outside of your home (in case of fire, theft, etc).

My dad has created wills for many people in the past and is up on the legal specifications. If you do not have a will, I'd be happy to send you the template that we used when creating ours. Just leave a comment to this blog post or email directly at becky [dot] henson at gmail [dot] com. (I wrote my email address this way to reduce spam, by the way.)

The Dead Horse

Young Chuck in Montana bought a horse from a farmer for $100.
The farmer agreed to deliver the horse the next day.

The next day the farmer drove up and said, "Sorry son, but I have some
bad news...the horse died."

Chuck replied, "Well, then just give me my money back."

The farmer said, "Can't do that. I went and spent it already."

Chuck said, "Ok, then, just bring me the dead horse."

The farmer asked, "What ya gonna do with him?"

Chuck said, "I'm going to raffle him off."

The farmer said, "You can't raffle off a dead horse!"

Chuck said, "Sure I can, Watch me. I just won't tell anybody he's
dead."

A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, "What happened
with that dead horse?"

Chuck said, "I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars a piece and made a profit of $998."

The farmer said, "Didn't anyone complain?"

Chuck said, "Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back."

Chuck grew up and now works for the government. He's the one who figured out how this "bail-out" is going to work.

-Source Unknown

A Challenge: Things That I Love

Recently, a friend challenged us to create a list of things that we love. Here are the "rules"...
**You are not allowed to list the obvious (i.e., salvation, spouse, kids, parents, freedom, church, etc...--the things we ALL think are important).
**You are not allowed to consider how others will react to your list while you are making it. Otherwise, it may not be entirely truthful.
**There is no order of importance or minimum/maximum number set, because we all set our values differently.



So, here in no particular order, I love...

1. Rachel's excitement and giddiness over watching her bottle warm up in the microwave before bedtime.

2. The contagious laughter that Benjamin has when he gets really tickled about something.

3. Toasted poptarts and a steaming cup of coffee for breakfast.

4. Rachel's delight when I put her in bed and show her the blanket.

5. The ticking of the computer keys in Garth's office, knowing that he's hard at work, and that he's at home!

6. Coming home and finding my email inbox full of notes from friends and family.

7. Seeing the majestic mountains and sparkling water every time we drive to church.

8. Taking a meal to those that are sick or in need of encouragement.

9. Inviting people into our home and learning more about their lives.

10. The stillness of the house after the kids are asleep and the work for the day is finished.

11. The UPS truck or mail car pulling into our driveway with a package.

12. Standing in a long line at the grocery store and the cashier in the next lane opening her register and calling me over.

13. The energy I feel after a long, hard workout.

14. Getting on the scale in the morning and seeing the numbers are less than they were the day before.

15. The fact that even when my husband and I get to go out for dinner or a date, we always end up talking about the kids.

16. When Garth and I say the same thing at the same time.

17. To take a nap on a rainy day.

18. Staying up late with friends playing games on a Friday night, and then sleeping in really late on Saturday morning.

19. Value Village 99 cent days.

20. Finding lots of yard sales on a Saturday morning and saving lots of money.

21. Selling yard sale finds on eBay to make a profit.

22. Hearing Sarah play pieces on the piano that I remember playing as a student.

23. Being able to share a sad or happy moment with a friend and knowing it will draw us closer.

24. Eating chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven.

25. Knowing I am safe and secure in my Father's hand.

Now it's your turn! I challenge each and everyone of you to come up with a list of things you love and publish it on your blog (if you haven't already). It's encouraging to sit for a moment and think of our blessings.

President's Day at George Washington Inn

On Monday, we spent the day with my parents (owners of George Washington Inn in Port Angeles). Here are some pictures from our time with them.

Garth captured some of the beautiful sunset before we left.


Sarah posed out by the fence overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca.


You can see snowy Mt. Baker in the distance...so beautiful!


Here is the bald eagle that "lives" at the Inn.


The kids got to feed some apples to the neighbor's horses.

Great Wolf Lodge

Our friends invited us to go along on their trip to the Great Wolf Lodge this week and we had a blast! We took over 200 pictures so these are just a sample of the things we did. When we first arrived, we went to the kiddie area to "get our feet wet". The kids enjoyed spraying each other with water. Rachel is a fish in water and just couldn't get enough of splashing and walking around in it, even if it got in her face.





On Tuesday morning, we woke up to snow on the ground!! We were so glad to be inside in our bathing suits where it was warm.

I lost count of how many times we climbed the stairs and rode the big slides. Benjamin was unstoppable on the Canyon River Run (a ride for 2-5 people in a raft) and asked to do it over and over again. Sarah loved the water slides that you could ride without a tube and also enjoyed the various pools.





Another neat thing at the Great Wolf Lodge was the fort that you could climb up for some slides. At the top of the fort, there was a huge bucket with about 1000 gallons of water. The bucket would dump every few minutes and soak everyone underneath.



At the end of the day, Garth took Benjamin and Rachel to storytime and the Clock Tower show while Sarah and I enjoyed a few more rides.

We are all exhausted (and sore!) but had so much fun with our family and friends. We made lots of great memories and look forward to another opportunity to go one day!

Uplifting Others In Prayer (cont.)

Jennifer Jane Uwarow went home to be with her Heavenly Father at 7:45PM PST Sunday night. Please be in prayer for her family and friends.

Uplifting Others In Prayer

Please be in prayer for the Uwarow family. Bette (Jennifer's mother-in-law) was one of my coworkers when we lived in South Carolina. Jennifer Uwarow is very sick with breast cancer (for the second time). Below is the latest post from her husband, Pete, concerning Jennifer's condition.


The liver doctor's opinion is that 95% of Jennifer's liver is not functioning. The oncologist said that she has at the very most two weeks to live. She will continue to want to sleep more and more and then eventually will fall into a coma for about 72 hours, not experiencing pain Jennifer will meet Jesus. She'll be at the hospital for at least the weekend.

Please join the family in praising God for His mercy toward Jennifer, since being in the hospital this week she hasn't experienced any itching (which she told us a number of times was actually worse to live with than cancer and cancer treatment) and from what all of us can tell hasn't been in too much pain.

Pete