Name Witheld

If you live in Rochester, MN and know who I am referring to, please do not leave a comment with her name in it. I would like to keep this as private as possible.

Please be in prayer for a young lady of Rochester, MN. Last night she overdosed on prescription medicaiton. She actually took a lethal dose of Effexor. She was taken to the hospital and so far has had no side effects from the overdose.

I don't want to go into much more detail than that. Like I said I would like to keep this as private as possible. She is a friend of Veronica's from when we lived there before and I am trying to give her privacy while asking for prayer support for her.

Please pray that the doctors are able to help her through this situation and find out the reason for her taking so much medication at one time. I am not sure that she was trying to harm herself or what her reasoning is, but hopefully the doctors will get to the bottom of it. Other than praying for the doctors I don't know what else to ask for. Just let the Lord lead you.

Thank you in advance for the prayers.

Ebby Ray

Where is Spring!?

Okay this is ridiculous! Where is spring? Where is the sun? I konw that April showers bring may flowers...blah, blah, blah. But geez! It's time for some sunny days. I doesn't help when my lovely wife calls and says, "Yeah, it's 80 degrees and perfect here today." One hour later: "I was wrong. It is 83 and perfect." Cruel...just cruel. Oh well.

The good news is that I get to go back to SC in 20 days. It will be so good to see my family and have some human contact. I am not referring to the naughty kind either. I am talking about hugs from the kids, hugs from Ebby, curling up on the couch with them, layin' together watching TV, etc., etc. There is something to that. I am missing that A-LOT! I have tons of friends here, but no one to hug or whatever on a regular basis.

Anyway, have an amazing day. God's love is all around you.

TAG!! I'm It!!

Well I am the one who started this blog, then I kind of left it to Ebby to keep you all filled in on the happenings. Now it is my turn to pick up where she left off.



The Ray's are doing well. 24 days until we get to see each other face to face. I can hardly wait. This time I get to go for an entire week, not just a couple of days. Another good thing about this trip is that I will leave and arrive early on the day that I go. I will also have some time the day I leave. I don't have to leave before the crack of dawn to get home.



While I am in SC, we will all be piling in the car to drive to KY. My second cousin Bethany will be getting married. Bethany is one of six kids whose mother tragically passed away about four years ago. She is the first from the other Ray family to get married. I usually call her my niece because her dad, who is my cousin, Scott, is like my brother and all of his kids call me Uncle Ronnie. It will be a joyous occasion, a great opportunity to re-connect with family and friends. We are excited about going.



Last night I went to an event for the Salt and Light group here at CCC. Salt and Light is the college-aged singles group. I will be leading them beginning in June. So I thought I should get acquainted with the members. There were about 30 people and we did a photo scavenger hunt. My team did not win but I found a get-away driver if I ever pull a bank heist. Jesse is a crazy driver with a fast car. It was fun.



Here are a couple of the pictures:

With restaurant workers

In a dumpster (thankfully it was empty-ish)

Cartwheel on a pedestrian bridge (Hi doggy!)

Handstand in an elevator

All wearing hats (My team was Jessie, Emily, James and Armando [me])

Well, that's about all for now. I will keep posting posts to keep you posted.

Checking out for a while

Hi All!

Just wanted to let you all know that I won't be posting anything for a little while. There is so much going on and this really captures my attention...even during work. :( I catch myself checking it and other peoples blogs all the time. I am just going to take a break for a while.

This will give Ronnie a chance to write some posts about the happenings up there in Rochester, MN. From what I hear he is quite busy and it is getting warmer up there. Take some picture and post them for those people who have left the polar region of MN so that they can see it for themselves.


Wendi I will see you May 19th!! Yeah!!
We will be moving back to Rochester around June 20th-June 27th sometime.

See you all later....Ebby Ray

Dude! Part 2

Last night when I went to bed there was a bass drum peddle, a music stand, a radio and mardi gras beads on my bed. I guess Hunter said Dude! 4 times yesterday.

The boy has to knock it off. He has as much stuff in my bedroom as I do!

DUDE!!

I have been trying to get Hunter to quit using the word DUDE as an exclamation point. He says it just about every other sentence. It was really getting old. I told him that for every time he used the word Dude he had to give me something.

We started off with him giving me his hat. I then had to turn around and give it backt o him because I used Dude in one of my sentences. Within a couple of minutes he had to give it back to me. :)

The next day Hunter came to me and said, "Mom I can only remember saying dude 3 times today at school. I may have said it more, but that is all I can remember." I told him that was fine, but that he owed me three things. (Yes, I was catching on to the fact that he was telling on himself. I wasn't around to know when he said it, but he was being very honest!)

I didn't think to ask him what he gave me. I just told him to put it on my bed. When I went to bed later on that night after all the kids were tucked in I found his payment. A drum, electric guitar amp, and a belt. He is really being hard on himself if he gave the a drum and the amp. The belt made me stop and wonder "why?" Why a belt? It really made me laugh.

The good news is that Hunter isn't saying DUDE as much any more. This is good news since I am running out of places to put all of his things in my room.

Quick Post...(by RR)

I am enjoying a glorious day off. I spent most of the morning watching My Name is Earl. A friend gave me season one on DVD. It is awesome.

I am eating dinner with a different family everyday this week. Monday was tith the Jensens, Tuesday was with the Rietvelds, Wednesday will be with the Ganz family and Friday with the Deiters. It has been a fun week so far.

As promised this post is coming to an end.

Have an awesome day!

Our day at the beach!

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at the beach. Veronica, Kayla, Hunter, Cole and I plus 4 of Veronica's friends had a great afternoon of being lazy. Even though the day was some what over cast it was still great to be able to go lay out on the beach....

don't be a hater people...don't be a hater.

This is Veronica's friend, Jake, in the big hole he and the boys dug.

I love tide pools. They are neat to walk around in a look for hermit crabs. That is Cole way off in the distance.

Veronica and Kayla when we first got to the beach. Veronica and Kayla
Hunter and Cole getting ready to dig the big hole.
All the kids sitting down in a tide pool. I thought that this was funny.
Veronica wearing the sun glasses I found on the beach. No lenses and they were broken. Hunter and the future hole

The sand dunes

Kayla just chillin'.

Beware! Long post ahead!

I will start with the fact that I know that I am a slacker. I don't have any pictures from when Ronnie was here or of Kayla yet. I will get some of Kayla as soon as I can.

We have had a great week here at the Ray house. I will start with Kayla's arrival. Last Saturday Kayla came to live with us. She will be here until we head back to Rochester. Kayla's mom is a friend of mine from Rochester, and she and Veronica hung out when we lived there. Sunday was a relaxed day for us all. On Monday I had to go to work and the kids were at school. When I got home from work I was blessed by Kayla having done the dishes sometime during the day. I about passed out.

I felt sorry for Kayla all week. She was stuck here at the house most of the time by herself since we weren't able to get her enrolled in school right away. She will start school on Monday.

Yesterday I was once again blessed by Kayla and her cleaning ability. When I got home from Veronica's game last night the house had been cleaned and carpets vacuumed. We were switching bedrooms and Kayla did all the work yesterday while we were all gone. She moved dressers, book cases, desks, clothes...you name it and it was moved to the new room. I about passed out again!! Some how between all of her cleaning and moving things she found time to go to the pool and acquire a tan line. She was so excited to have a tan in April.

Now on to Ronnie. He came into town on Monday evening and left on Thursday morning. Although he was really only here for two days it was a great time. He took the kids to the movies and miniture golfing. He also took the boys to the music store so Hunter could drool over a guitar he wants. On Wednesday he and Kayla were able to spend some time at the beach and then they came and took me out to eat lunch. On Tuesday I was blessed again by Ronnie having to do the dishes and then on Wednesday he cooked dinner.

I HAVE HAD A GREAT WEEK!!!

It was really hard to say good bye to Ronnie this time. We won't see him again until the middle of May. :(

Last night Veronica had a softball game. They were keeping up with a team that had beat them 15-3 and 9-0 the other two times they played. In the 6th inning with the bases loaded and two outs Veronica came up to bat. She tends to get nervous when she is at bat. This time, after a couple of pitches, she roped it between the 1st and 2nd base players and hit in two runners. I about jumped out of my skin. It was so exciting. That brought them to 5-5.

In the top of the 7th the other team scored a run. The bottom of the 7th inning at bat found Veronica's team with runners on 2nd and 3rd. The batter hit a line drive to the short stop (yes she caught it) who then caught the runner on 3rd off base and made a double play. The next batter was out.....end of game...6-5 the other team.

Even though they didn't win they played an excellent game. Actaully both teams had a good game. One of the girls on the other team hit an over the fence home run. How exciting is that!? I was very proud of all the girls and how they hung in there with this team (who is one of the top teams in their district) and actually had a good chance of beating them.

What a wonderful week it has been. I have been pampered with Kayla and Ronnie doing things around the house and giving me a break. Now the boys are off to Murrels Inlet with the neighbors and the girls are going to the church for an event. I will hang out here by myself for a couple of hours before the boys return. I just realized my wonderful week hasn't ended. I will be by myself for a couple of hours. Oh my gosh!!

I thought that we were moving here to bless my mom, but she blessing us more. I thought that we were here to help Kayla, but she has blessed us more. I thought that Ronnie was just coming home to visit, but he blessed me more. It always works out differently than I think it is going to. I look to bless, but get blessed even more in return. Thank you Lord!