A Hard Days Work

After a long day of running back and forth between rooms that we were working in, Ryley decided that it was time to zonk out.

Actually, the main reason we took this picture is to show that Ryley wanted to help. If you look on her ribs, you'll see that she managed to use her body as a paint brush.

We just got done painting the front bedroom/office with two different colors of tan. Now it's on to the final bedroom in the house. We spend most of last night stripping the wallpaper, and we're almost done (I hate wallpaper by the way). Then we'll be all ready to get the painting done. Then no more (except we really don't like the color in our maste bath...it might get changed).

Today is supposed to be our church golf league, but they're giving chances of rain, so I might not get to go golfing. Jessica has a doctor apt. to draw blood and let us know that everything is pretty much back to normal.

And to steal a sign off from my good friend Cole Small:

for now...

Downy is a miracle worker

Before we moved into our new house, we painted the main part. All except the 2 guest rooms and the guest bathroom. The one bedroom (the biggest one) and the bathroom had ceiling to floor wallpaper - it was ugly. So, we tried a little home remedy. Mixing Downy fabric softner in water - and it does a pretty good job. So, if you ever have to tear off wallpaper, you may want to give it a try. It's fairly cheap and it smells good too. We tore the paper off and washed the glue Thursday night and Jonathon spent his day off on Friday painting the bathroom to surprise me when I got home from work. Here is a before and after. What an improvement. We're spending today tackling the "easy" room - it just has a border to tear off.

News to Share

We went to the doctor today, because I had some unusual occurences with the pregnancy this weekend. We are sad to say that we have had a miscarriage. We had what is called a blighted ovum (no idea if that's spelled right). Basically, it was a fertilized egg, but it never implanted and so nothing ever happened - no baby ever formed. Once my body gets back to normal, which could take a couple of weeks to a month or so, we will be completely recovered and can try again. We were definitely dissapointed and sad, but we know that God's timing is perfect and He is in control.

Happy Birthday, Jonathon

Last night, our door bell rang at 9:40 p.m. We looked at one another and thought that was strange. We slowly went to the front door only to discover that someone had left Jonathon a big birthday gift. After careful examination of this act, we have decided it must be someone with quite some experience. We are sure they were very proud of themselves, and it definitely made us laugh!

Golf Lesson

Last night was the first time that we've gotten to get all of our youth sponsors in the same room at one time. It was an exciting night. I hate calling those times a training meeting, but we did get to go through a lot of stuff pertaining to the youth ministry. There was a lot of excitement in the room as we talked about everything that we were going to be trying to do. I really had no idea how the meeting would go, but really walked away with a sense that God is going to do a lot through that group. They are a very special group, and very dear to my heart.

This is a graphic that we had made for our new Wednesday Night Program. It was done in-house, by a member who is talented at Graphic Design.

Thursday nights are our regular date night, and tonight we are going to be going to a golf driving range. I am really excited, and Jessica tells me that she is excited. This is going to be her first Golf lesson, if you don't count the one earlier in the summer on the front lawn. We have decided that she is going to try and take up the game, and if she likes it, it will give us something to do together. Cool how that works out well for me. I'll have to let you all know how the lesson goes.

First Anniversary Celebration

Over a month ago, we mentioned our first anniversary. We went out to eat, I think, but put off doing something extra special until now. This last weekend we drove to Indianapolis to visit some friends Eric and Jessie. We were able to eat supper with them Friday night and visit for quite some time. It was great to see them and catch up with them. Thanks again Eric and Jessie. Saturday we were able to sleep in a little bit. The plan was to go to the Inianapolis zoo. However, we made a couple of pit stops on the way. As the pictures reveal, we stopped at one of my favorite stores, Joann's. We began looking at some fabric for baby stuff as well as a little for the both of us. We compromised on lunch and stopped at Jonathon's favorite place, Wendy's. Then we finally made it to the zoo, which was fun. Our favorite animal and by far the most entertaining was the walruses. We decided that Indianapolis was much easier to get around the Chicago, and not too much further, so we are planning to make trips to Indianapolis more frequently!

First comes Love, Then comes Marriage, Then...

Comes the baby in the baby carriage! For those of you that have not heard, Jonathon and I are going to have a baby! We found out last week that we were pregnant, and we are both very excited and looking forward to being parents. How the baby develops and grows and the entire process from beginning to end is amazing and something only God could orchestrate. At nine weeks, our little baby already has most of its organs (although most not functioning yet) as well as the beginnings to all its fingers and toes and he/she is less than 2 inches long! We are very thankful for this incredible blessing! Our due date is March 13, 2007.

All Dressed Up and No Where to Go

I just thought this looked fun. She really does love me.

A HOT Weekend

This last weekend we had the opportunity to take our high school students to the lake for a relaxing time of jet skiing and boating. A couple in our church has a boat, jet ski, and camper at Bass Lake and offered for us to use all their stuff for our youth group camping trip. The kids had a great time tubing and whatever else their little hearts desired.

I woke up early on Sat. morning in my tent as I was already sweating from the heat, so naturally I decided I better have some coffee in me (yes, hot coffee). After getting some breakfast it was off to the lake for a day of boating with the kids. They really had a good time.

This was also Ryley's first time of bing in the water. We weren't too sure how she would like it, but she ended up having a great time splashing in the water. As you can see some random kids loved coming up and petting her.

Things continue to press on. Summer is fast leaving us, meaning I have to get busy with the final planning steps for the fall kick-off. We're excited to see what another year of ministry is going to bring. I was just talking with a guy in the church today and realized that it 10 days we will have been here for 8 months. It's hard to believe, but we're excited to see what God is going to continue doing through us here.