Back to School

It's hard to believe that it is time to go back to school. I have been busy working in the classroom - arranging furniture, cleaning, throwing out LOTS of stuff, rearranging, organizing, stuffing folders for Open House, and getting everything ready for my students. I love the beginning of the year - Everything is clean and new and everyone is eager! I can't wait to meet my 18 little ones. We are going to have a great year learning, playing, and growing together.

News from Kate

I received an e-mail from Kate this evening. They are still waiting for 4 bags to arrive - hopefully tomorrow. Here is part of her update:

"The past 2 days the medical team has gone south of where we are staying, about 2 hours away, to a church up on some mountain. It's pretty cool weather up there. We had to go down some mud road that was like randomly cut out of the bush and then people live all back in there. It's kind of crazy. The little kids took us to their school today and showed us their classrooms. Yesterday I was one of the "doctors." Haha, talk about practicing medicine without a license. We had a little 2 month old baby come in with pneumonia. Oh and today Jon and I cut off a little tumor/growth thing from some ladies ear. It was pretty cool."

I know everyone is being blessed by this experience and appreciate all the prayers that are being sent up on their behalf!

On Mission

Yesterday Kate left with 24 other believers for Project Chacocente, Nicaragua.

They will be providing medical services; helping with construction and farming; and teaching and sharing Jesus with the people of Nicaragua.

Kate called me while they were in Atlanta. She said that they were not sure that all of their luggage had made it on the plane. Each member of the team had taken 2 check bags and 1 carry on. Apparently, they were on a small plane from St. Louis to Atlanta and someone thought they saw some luggage being taken away from the plane. Many of the bags contained medical supplies and school supplies. Please pray that all luggage arrived in Managua, Nicaragua with the team so they can carry on with their mission.

I will try to keep you posted if I learn any news from the trip!

You can learn more about Project Chacocente by visiting the link below:

www.projectchacocente.org

Proud to be an American

Our National Guard Battalion just returned to Farmington! They have been in Iraq for the past year. We went out to welcome them home. The streets were lined with people waving flags. Law Enforcement from all over the county escorted them to the Armory where family members were waiting. The Fire Department had a big American Flag hanging for the chartered bus to drive under. It was all so cool! I am proud of these men!

Some Summer Fun

Levi, Haley, Kate & Colby at Grant's Farm

Colby is visiting us this week! Yesterday we took him to the city for some special summer fun! We began at Grant's Farm. After riding the tram and seeing some deer and elk in Deer Park we decided to feed the goats. What an experience - those little goats are aggresive!! You would think they never get fed. Colby had to hold on to that bottle with a death grip! He had 3 goats trying to get to it and the biggest one would take it away from the littler goats.



But everyone survived the experience and we enjoyed all of the animals at Grant's Farm. Before leaving we got close up with the Clydesdale Horses! Colby just wasn't sure about that big horse right behind him! We couldn't get him to look at Nana with the camera - He wasn't about to take his eyes off that big horse!


Next, we went to Chuckee Cheese for pizza and games. Colby played games and I think he must have ridden the little Merry Go Round about 15 times. After Chuckee Cheese we went to Maggie Moo's for ice cream before heading home. We had a wonderful day - The weather was perfect - Everyone had a good time - It was relaxing fun!! The best kind of summer fun!!!

Cool ABC Book

I love books!! Being a kindergarten teacher, I am always on the look out for cool and unique books for the classroom. I found this really cute book on line. I can't wait to share it with my class when school starts. Hope you enjoy it!

http://lookybook.com/mainpage.php?name_id=1632

Happy 4th!!

God Bless America

As we prepare to celebrate our freedom tomorrow I wanted
to share this with you:

My oldest son, Seth, graduated from Basic Training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, TX a little over a week ago. My daughter Kate, my daughter-in-law Jessica, grandson Colby, and myself went down for the ceremonies. Everything was a new and great experience for us. One of the things that was optional was church at one of the Base Chapels on Sunday morning. Seth asked if we wanted to go with him and, of course, we eagerly accepted the invite!

It was a really cool experience! The whole front half of the church was full of trainees shoulder to shoulder from one side of the auditorium to the other side. The music and atmosphere was contemporary worship with a band. Everyone was celebrating, clapping their hands, raising their hands, swaying - it was a 'joyful noise' service. The back half of the auditorium was full of the grads - Airmen - and their families. As I stood there watching these big strong men and small women praising & worshiping, some with tears streaming down their faces, I began to think that this may be the first time that some of these young people have ever been in a church service or had the opportunity to hear the gospel message. I became very interested to see what the chaplain had to say. Was it going to be a 'feel good' message or a 'meat' message. The sermon was to be about family and I wondered if that meant literal family, spiritual family, or military family. Turned out he talked about all 3 and brought them all together. He did an awesome job of combining the gospel message with the military message. He explained what needed to be done to surrender your life to Christ and made himself available to anyone who wanted to talk with him. Young men & women are graduating every week from Lackland and a new group of trainees comes in every week. Each group was recognized & encouraged at the end of every service. Every week they show the video from Mark Shultz' "Letters From War" - we were late and missed it though.

The military has a great opportunity to reach a large segment of people who come from a variety of backgrounds. They encourage the trainees at Basic to attend church and provide a variety of chapels to meet the various worship choices. I realize that these young people are homesick and in a vulnerable state but our Heavenly Father uses every situation to speak to his children and draw them near to him. God is in control and His work is being done all around our country and world.

God is Good!!

I am proud to be a citizen of this great country and I am proud to be a child of God!


I love this picture of Seth & Colby after church on Sunday.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 1 or fewer people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

I'm on a Roll

I'm feeling pretty good about this! I have my page set up and am ready to blog. So here goes.

I am so proud of Kate! She just called and had an interview for a ER position and she got it. I know she will be great in the ER! Here's Kate at her pinning ceremony last spring. Of course, she looks different now with her hair shorter and wearing scrubs instead of nurses cap & dress.

My First Blog!!

Wow! This is my first attempt at blogging. I am trying to figure out how to get the page set up and what all I need to do. I'm sure this is going to take some time.