All of the above pictures were taken by Jack Bell Keep in mind that the photos were taken when the fire was still approximately 5 miles away!

Other posts on this fire:
Massive Panhandle Fire
Fire Update
Our House

Here’s the link to the Johari Window Results from last week. To the 15 people who played along, thanks. If you missed it you can still join in and create your own as well if you’d like.

Jami’s Johari Window

We’re on our way to town so I have no time to post pictures or recant the story of the fire.
Please visit’s Dad’s pictures. Most were taken from our front yard.

NHISGRIP-A Day of Fire

I just called Jami. Their power is out due to the fire. She may not be able to post for a while.

The fire has moved on towards Dumas, Tx. Jami is safe. Her house and the other buildings around her were not damaged. Kurt is at the front of the fire right now.

Please continue to pray for the safety of those fighting the fire and for the people and houses still threatened by the flames.

Posted by Jami’s twin sister

You know the random question they ask: If you’re house is on fire and you can grab one thing what would you pick. Well our house is not on fire but we can see the wall of flames from here and we’re packing the van just in case.

Pray for those in the path, pray for the fire fighters and stay tune for some pictures. I describedd it as massive but that was probably an understatement.
Uh. . .Did I mention you should be praying? Get to it!

Living in such a dry climate I have a terrible time with dry skin.

Do any of you have this problem? My feet are the worse; it doesn’t help when I walk around bare foot all the time. I also love to wear sandals. I love to sneak over to Mom’s house and borrow her newest pair.

Until all of a sudden it happens: cracked and calloused my feet cry out to me for help. Not attractive at all I hide them in embarrassment. They look awful and to top off the unlovely appearance they hurt! When did this happen? How did I not notice till now? I go out and purchase the most nourishing lotion I can find then I tenderly nurse them back to health by applying the salve morning, noon and night. I also make myself wear shoes or at least socks through out the day, to protect my feet from the harmful environment. The pain I experience with each step reminds me of how important it is to moisturize, moisturize, moisturize. I follow this regiment faithfully until I get my feet presentable again, until they are “sandal worthy”. It generally takes a week till I can bare my toes with pride. Awh, it feels so good when I get them back nice and smooth.

But then I forget. Somewhere in there I forget. I start by reducing the lotion applications. “I’m running late, skipping this once won’t hurt.” Right? Then I bare my feet, kicking off my shoes each time I step in the door. Who needs shoes anyway? No big deal.

Then with out any notice at all (or so I think) I look down one morning and realize I’m back where I started with rough, dry feet, cracked and not at all up to being displayed in a strappy sandal. Why do I do this? Why do I ignore the signs, surely my skin doesn’t dry up instantly. Why don’t I just take the time to nourish my skin like I know I should? If I only would spend a bit of time a day it wouldn’t be such a big deal. A quick application of lotion after I got out of the shower and maybe one before bed would suffice. But no, I ignore, I put off, I make excuses.

I do this with other things as well; with prayer and Bible study. If I consistently do these each day my heart stays soft and supple; I’m growing, learning, actually being nice to people. Then I skip a morning because I wake up late. After you skip the first time it’s easier to skip the second and then the third. Till all of a sudden I look down and realize my heart is dry, cracked and calloused. I look awful! Grouchy, grumpy, snappy, snotty and to top off the unlovely outward appearance, it hurts! When did this happen? How did I not notice till now? Surely there were signs, why do I ignore them?

And so I go into moisturize mode. I go back to spending time with the Father, sitting at his feet each day; reading my Bible, listening to his word. I also go back to protecting my heart, covering my life with prayer and keeping it safe from the harmful environment. In no time I’m getting things back together. I’m actually easier to live with and I’m able to fulfill my purpose.

How easy it is to forget to nourish our hearts, to spend time with the living word, with the living God. Why do we do this? Why wait till it hurts, till we’re ugly and hard? I don’t know. But I do know that when we find ourselves in this predicament we can fix it. Hopefully we’ll learn a lesson, we’ll stop making excuses stop forgetting to take care of things and if we do forget again, maybe we’ll see the signs sooner and turn back before it hurts.

Maybe we can help each other. If you see me getting dry and cracked, please remind me to moisturize.

Joshua and I had a fabulous time trying to get the timer to work on my new camera. We’d push the button then run for the chair. With most of the shots being of our backsides or of Joshua running away this is the only one that turned out.

Kaleb made this cake with his Daddy and Grandpa. What fun! It was quite tasty but the icing/frosting stained our faces blue.

for more pictures: more…

Miah Mikayla was born at 8:19 a.m. [cst]

7lb 4oz

19 inches

Julie and baby are doing fine.

Jami says that Grandma was a very brave girl.