Did Hell Freeze Over?

I'm not sure, but I think Satan might be decorating his home with icicles. In less than a week I dumped 0.5", 1" and 1.30" out of our rain gauge. For a near-desert climate going through one of the worst droughts since the dust bowl, I have to assume hell has frozen over.
It's so nice to see things looking kind of green again!
Admittedly, not all of this rain was wide spread.  When we got an 1.30", three miles south of us they only got .20".

Look!  There's actually standing water!!!

The inch of rain came on Saturday night.  Earlier in the evening myself and the girls that went to Nashville to run participated in a glow run in Garden City. It was a fundraiser for the volleyball team. I'm definitely not in the running shape that I was when I ran my half marathon, but I still did pretty well.  The run started at 9 p.m. and not long after we got started, we could see the storm moving in.

Glow Run! We had a little bit bigger group than we did in Nashville! It was such a fun way to spend time with your friends!

Western Kansas Fact: The static electricity in the air here can create some pretty awesome lightning storms. 
As we were running, there was a lot of lightning in the distance. Thankfully we were able to finish before it got too close but when it arrived, it was one of the most amazing lightning displays I have ever seen. The flashes were like constant ripples across the sky.

This is a video of the lightning at our house.  It doesn't even come close to doing it justice because you can't really see all the other indirect flashes across the sky, but it can give you an idea.

This week Taylor and I turned my biggest bucket calves, Milo and Sweet, out with our cows that we moved across the road.  They probably weigh close to 400 lbs now.  They weren't quite sure what they were supposed to do at first.  The whole first day they were over there, they stayed next to the fence closest to the shed where I had been keeping them.  Since they weren't willing to walk around the pasture to find the water, I had to take some over to them.  The next afternoon, I went out to check on them.  They were getting thirsty again by that time, and they came walking up to me, mooing.  Since they were willing to follow me, I decided to just lead them to the water.  Together we walked (in Mary and her little lamb fashion) probably close to quarter of a mile to the water tank.  Once they knew they didn't have to rely on me to bring water, they were happy to join the herd.

Some weeks there are Scriptures and lessons that I can really experience in my daily life. This past week one of these Scriptures was:
Pray in the Spirit at all times, with all kinds of prayers, asking for everything you need. Ephesians 6:18
The lesson that went with this Scripture talked about living in God's presence during all parts of the day.  Once last week I went for a run in the evening.  Afterwards I walked a little bit, and during those quiet, relaxing moments, I could feel the peace of God's presence.  At that moment I realized I need to slow down more often in life, and give myself time to be with my Lord.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and can find time to slow down and relax a little.

Lyndee

Sing, Sing A Song...

Silence... In an old farmhouse with 6 people, it wasn't a sound we frequently heard growing up.  Someone would have been more likely to hear us kids laughing and playing, or fighting and arguing at times (I blame most of those times on my brother - he used to be kind of mean). :)  But there was one sound that could be heard almost constantly around our house... music.

For one, we almost always had a radio on.  My mom sang around the house all the time, too.  She used to sing with a band at the local Banner Grange square dance hall when I was really little.  Sometimes the band members would come over to the house and have a jam session. All of us kids were quick to join in on the singing, too. We'd sing some in church, for the talent show at the fair, etc.
When I was a freshman in high school, my sister Katie started singing at a local bed and breakfast (the Red Rock Guest Ranch) that had a chuck-wagon show and supper every Saturday night during the summer.  It wasn't long before it turned into a family affair.  We'd help serve the meal and then we'd sing after they ate. My favorite thing is to sing harmony. There's nothing better than when you get the perfect blend of family voices. For four years we spent our summer Saturdays singing at Red Rock.  It was a lot of work, and a lot of fun, but by far we always have the most fun when we're singing at home - it's a lot less pressure. :)

Even though I've moved away, my family and I have still found occasions to sing together. This past weekend we had an awesome opportunity - we got to sing at Joey+Rory's Bib & Bucklefest in Pottsville, Tenn. Rory had mentioned that if we ever had the chance to come to their Bib and Bucklefest (a one-day music festival they put on at their farmhouse the first weekend of June) that it would be fun if we could sing at it. We were all a little nervous at the idea, but when an opportunity like that comes up, you don't just let it go by. So for the past several months any time I was home, us girls and mom were practicing (Sadly my brother and his family weren't able to make it or he would have been singing with us too). Our cousin Jonathan Boatwright, who lives close by in Franklin, Tenn. was kind enough to learn the songs we were going to sing and accompany us on his guitar.

We were the first to perform on Saturday.  We were supposed to start singing at 1:30 but we got pushed back a little bit because there was there were storms moving in, so Joey and Rory had a construction crew that had been working on remodeling their performance barn come and build a quick lean-to over the stage so equipment wouldn't get ruined if it started to rain. We had to cut our set a little short because of the delay, but it was still such an awesome experience, and we were all so grateful to Joey and Rory for the opportunity.
Here's where our names were listed on the venue:
http://www.bibandbucklefest.com/2013/MUSIC.html

We decided to stick with "The Patterson Family" because it'd just be confusing to have "Patterson, Ingels, and Stabel" and abbreviating that to "PIS" just isn't classy. ;)

After we performed we went back to the merchandise tent, and a few people actually came up and asked us to sign their fans, shirts, etc.  We were pretty honored.  I think they were just a super nice crowd. :)

Later that afternoon it did start to rain, and they had to put everything on pause for a while.  Quite a few people left, but I was more surprised by the number of people that stayed and even sat out in the rain.  Eventually they moved everything under a big tent and kept going with the show. It all turned out well, and it was a great way to spend the weekend with family and friends.

"Fred Chicken & Willis" down on Broadway
 This weekend Taylor jokingly told Kolden he was going to  call him "Willis" so Kolden came up with a nickname for Taylor, too - "Fred Chicken"

Here's the website for the Joey+Rory tv show on RFDTV: http://www.thejoeyandroryshow.com/tv/HOME.html

Monday after we got home from our trip, I got three new bucket calves.  They were a little older than most of the other bucket calves I've started, so that has made them a little more challenging.  Calves learn to nurse from a bottle a lot easier when they're brand new.  These calves have been on their moms for a good 2-3 weeks, so the first few times I've fed them have been a little more like a rodeo than anything else. They're starting to calm down a little, but two of them like to kick and I've had a couple close calls. Thankfully I've been close enough to them that I haven't caught the kick full force yet. Hopefully my luck continues!

I named my new calves Wendy, Michael and John off of Peter Pan.

Western Kansas Fact: When it rains, you'd be surprised at what kind of animals will pop up. This week it rained. Taylor and I were over at his mom and dad's and when we went to leave, Taylor found a salamander.  I've never seen one out here before. And when we got home, you could hear frogs chirping in the distance. (Usually it's too dry out here for them, and their sound is one of the things I miss most about my hometown area.)

The storm this week had a lot of lightening and I got lucky enough to catch this strike.

This scripture meant a lot to me this weekend:
I praise you because you made me in an amazing and wonderful way.  Psalm 139:14
So often people degrade themselves or the way they look, but when they do, they are degrading God's holy creation, too. We need to remember that God made us a particular way with specific talents and that we should use those talents to bring glory to His Name.  This message was good for me to hear before we sang at Bib & Bucklefest because even though we were nervous, we could use the talents He gave us to honor Him.

I haven't found a lot of time recently to blog so here's a few things that have happened since my last post:

I helped with Vacation Bible School, Taylor and I visited the Oklahoma City Zoo, and we went to the Broadway production of Les Miserables in Denver.

"Lady Lyndee" & "Knight Eryka" at Kingdom Rock Vacation Bible School with our Bible Memory Buddy "Duke"

Hope you all have a great week!
Lyndee