Year in Review...

Hey guys...I know that we're gearing up for our big reunion (for which I'm REALLY looking forward) and I thought that it might be neat to get a little activity here on the blog. In order to do that, I wanted to posit a question for us to respond to:What is a highlight over the past year? What has been a struggle? You don't have to create a "login name" in order to respond. You can, if you want (it's easy and free), or you can just click "Anonymous" and then sign your name at the bottom. There...talk amongst yourselves...

Anyone else blog?

You may have noticed that whenever I post a new blog, the headline shows up on the left. I don't think that anyone else in the family has a blog, but if you do, let me know and I can get it linked up to show up. I have been writing a few things here and there that end up on the internet. They usually start on my blog in some form and sometimes get recreated in another place. Here are a couple of links to some things that I've written in the last couple of months:

My blog
Article that was in the UM Reporter on "Why I Stay in the UMC"
Article on CollegeUnion.org, a website for United Methodists in Campus Ministry
Prayer for a 40 Days of Prayer effort by some young clergy in the UMC

If you're a blogger, let me know and I'll get you linked up here!

A GOD STORY

A few weeks ago, Drew was in a pretty serious accident. He was coming home from the mall and had just merged onto the highway. In a effort to avoid the braking of traffic in the right lane, he was going to merge into the left lane but didn't see the 15 passenger van that was there. He sideswiped that van (the driver said he didn't even feeling Drew hit him, just saw it) so Drew pulled back into his lane and then pulled off onto the shoulder as he had been instructed to do in an accident. Unfortunately, there was a pickup abandoned on the shoulder and Drew rear-ended it. The impact sent the pickup across two lanes of traffic colliding with a Hummer and it sent Drew into the ditch between the poles of a highway sign.

Drew called Jeff right away, who in turn called me. When Jeff arrived at the scene of the accident, he was pretty freaked out because it ended up being a lot worse than he was expecting. The police had stopped traffic on the highway and there were three ambulances with their lights flashing. Then he saw the truck in the ditch with the front end pretty mangled. No one was injured except for a few marks on Drew's arm from the airbag deploying and a stiff neck for two days.

The driver of the abandoned truck happened to drive by while all of this was going on. He stopped to see what had happened to his truck and was given a ticket. He said one of his tires was low on air so he had left it parked on the shoulder and was driving something else.

We had our pickup towed to the house, which sat in our driveway for five days and was a constant reminder of what could have happened had God not had His hand on the situation. Drew was, of course, was very shaken by the ordeal and didn't to drive for a while. But we insisted he "get back on the horse" the next day, with a few stipulations.

The next day, Thursday, the adjuster came out and spent about 45 minutes processing the damage and making a thorough report. I went out and talked to him and he told me he was going to have to total it, which was no surprise. We talked about how nice it was and how hard it would be to replace this 15 year old truck that was in such good condition. He sympathised with me because he had an old truck himself.

That afternoon as I sat down to pray about the situation, a lady from the insurance company called with the settlement. Jeff had spent time on line looking to see what the value of our truck would be the night before. It didn't look good. She told Jeff that the adjuster gave it a very good report and they decided to give us nearly twice as much for it as we were expecting, and they would pay for the tow.

On Friday, another insurance rep came out and brought us our check and picked up the title for the truck. Saturday, Jeff wanted to go look at a replacement truck that he had found online. It was in Olathe and I was making a trip over there to pick up some Bible study guides. When we found the truck, we saw that it was a manual transmission and knew that wouldn't be a good choice for Drew. As we were coming home, we decided to go by the used car lot where we bought Kylie's jeep. It's just a small lot that usually only has 10 or 12 cars at a time. They had one truck; a Dodge Ram. We took it for a test drive and liked it real well. We bought it for $200 less than what we got from the insurance company. It's seven years newer and has 30,000 less miles on it than ours did.

When I went back to get the title on Tuesday, the owner said he had been at the auto auction that morning to find a replacement truck. He found nothing that was as nice or cheap as what we got.

So, there you have it. This is totally a God story. He protected Drew and all the others involved in the accident from injury-MERCY. He provided a new truck-GRACE. We'd love for you to join with us in praying for Drew's court appearance on March 19 and the outcome of that.

G
MERCY
A
C
E

The Story of the Traveling Moo-Cow

Okay...you may be wondering how this got the name "Traveling Moo Cow." Here's the story:

At Amy's wedding, Amy wanted to include a sentimental gift in with her gift to Kenton and Alison as a thanks for all of their hard work spearheading the reception. Amy and I brainstormed fun childhood memories and thought of the Moo-Cow creamer. She did what anyone would do, googled it, and found one online. When Kenton saw it, it sparked off the old debate about who has all the good stuff of Grandma Moon's and the general consensus was that Kristen had all the good stuff, including the Moo-Cow Creamer. After the late night conversation at Kristen and Mike's, Maddy, Jon and Kenton were chatting when Maddy piped up that she knew where the "real one" was. There remains some discrepancy about who was the culprit in making the switch, but by Sunday morning, Grandma's was safely hidden in Kenton's car and the imposter was at home in the Barn. It was decided that the Moo-Cow would have to be recovered by a trip to Kenton's house by Kristen and family and then it would travel to a new home. When a visit is made to that house, that cousin (aunt, uncle, niece, etc.) would then have to travel to a new location to visit another member of the family. I suggest we include a travel log inside the creamer to keep track of where it will go next. Will it end up with Julie? Or Stacy? How about Chuck? Maybe Brian. Kenton's got it now...where will it go next?

PS I'm sure that there's another "version" of this story. Feel free to post your version here.

PPS Following the excitement of the imposter Moo-Cow, Julie and family decided to name their little homeless kitty that they decided to adopt from Kansas Moo-Cow. Is the name going to stick?

Leaving a Comment

Okay...this post is for Gingie and Margie, and others who may need a little guidance as to how to make a comment on the blog. If you want to comment on something, all you have to do is click where it says "Comments." It will usually say the number of comments that are associated with each post. When you click on that, you'll come to a page where it asks you to leave a comment. Simply type what you want to type and then it will give you several options. The easiest thing is for you to click on the circle next to "Anonymous" and then you're able to just post it. If you choose to do this, you just need to remember to sign your name. If you are an Author, you will have a Google/Blogger account and you can use that as your sign in name. Finally, it will ask for "Word Verification" and you need to type the words that are in the box. The words will look a little smooshed, so don't call your eye doctor just yet! :) You'll figure out how it works. If you need help, ask one of your kids or grandkids, or just give me a call and I'll coach you through! :)

Want to post stories? Become an "Author"!

I know that you guys don't want me to be the only one to be able to post stories here, so I need others of you to create an account and I'll add you as an "Author." Anyone can post a comment, but only Authors can post a story. If you want me to add you as an Author, either email me at ashlee.alley@sckans.edu with your email address and I'll add you, or post your email address here. (Remember, this website is open to the public. My last name is listed here, but let's leave last names off in the future.)

The Creation of a Blog!

Recent weddings of Nicole (Edlund) Stiles and Amy (Alley) Foster have brought the children of Charles W. and Beaulah (Myrlin--the feminine spelling) Moon together twice during this summer. It has reminded us just how blessed we are to be able to call one another family! I (Ashlee) decided that it would be neat if we could have a place where we would be able to post things of interest to the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of Charles and Beaulah (or Moonie, as Kristen calls her). During Amy's recent wedding, many of us gathered on the front porch of Kristen and Mike's quaint farmhouse and told stories, poked fun, and laughed until our guts ached. And so our blog is called "Front Porch, a place for gathering." Here at the Front Porch, we can post items of interest, maybe a picture or two, tell a funny story about one of your kids or grandkids, or give us the latest on Moo-Cow, the new kitty of Julie and Doug. We can share prayer concerns or praises or whatever you think that someone else might get a kick out of. Hopefully we won't have to wait until another wedding to get together!

Here's how the blog "thing" works: Currently, I am acting as the administrator, but I'm going to set this up so that others will be able to post stories (stories are called "posts") too. Anyone is able to post a comment on any post. You can do that one of several ways:

1. You can post anonymously by just following the directions after a post, or
2. You can get a "blogspot" account and your name with show up. (If you have a gmail account, you should be able to just put in that login name and password and you're golden. If you don't, just follow the instruction that I will put on a separate post.) If you are going to want to be able to post stories, you'll have to create an account.

One more thing...several of us talked about how fun it would be to be able to rent a place and all get together next summer. We talked about Branson or the Ozarks area. I committed to investigating some options (I'm going to twist Amy's arm to help me after life settles down for her a bit! I think she owes us, don't you :) ). If anyone has any leads or ideas, let me know. We'll try to get a date on the calendar by Christmas so that we can plan accordingly.

At the risk of sounding cheesy, I just want to remind us that we have been given a treasure in having a wonderful family! I know that Grandma, especially, would be so pleased to see us continuing to enjoy one another! So...it's now time for Virginia, Margie, and Tige's kids to pick up where our parents left off in planning those vacations to Hoisington, Augusta or St. Louis, sleeping on cots, enjoying cinnamon rolls, fruit loops and milk out of the Moo-Cow creamer. Ah yes, the Moo-Cow creamer! That's probably something that all of us grandkids remember. Now it's time to pass that memory on to the next generation! And so, in the awesome memory of the Moo-Cow creamer, I give an address for this Moon family blog that reminds us of the Moo-Cow, TravelingMooCow.blogspot.com will be our address. The cow went home with Kenton, Alison and Savannah. Who will be the first to go and pick it up to take it to its next destination?