Firsts - Take Two

Last September I did a post of some firsts here at NTBI. As I sat down to write this long over due blog, I realized that we've had many first again this school year. So once again I thought I'd share some first from this September.

Yes indeed, this may be my son's first selfie, he's taken many since.

Grace had her first day of child care without Grady. She's doing really well at it.

We of course had to take our first day of school picture. We started with Romans, Church History, and Family Relationships. God is using them all to really work us over, realizing our position in Christ, and shaping our understanding of living out a life that's walking in the Spirit.

Kent went to a Michigan game with a friend, so the kids and I went to our first dog show with my friend Brenda Lei and her kids. As you can see, we're not with the dogs in this picture. The kids enjoyed the dogs, but loved playing together more.

GRADY HAD HIS FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!! It's hard to believe that my Grady is 5. He's doing so well in school. We love his teacher, Miss Craddock. She's very good with him. Waking up early is the worst part of school, but we're trying to adjust. We miss him being home each day. We're always glad for our family time each night.

This really isn't a first of anything, but was taken on Grady's first day of
school. I really just love the picture.

Our first visitor was Lala, my mom. She came for a Saturday and took us out to breakfast and enjoyed the day with us. It was good to have her come.

We've been living in MI for a year now and have never visited a Lake. Now I should have learned from by orchard experience that "a Lake" in MI would not be like "a lake" in IN. The lakes here are like going to a park only with nice water that your kids can swim in. And the majority of them have a really large shallow area that the kids can play in, and then they also have a nice playground close to the beach. As you can see, it's a great time to get away from NTBI, allow the kids to play, and hang out with our friends.

Grady lost his first tooth on the second day of kindergarten. It was coming out and the tooth behind it is already grown in. It was hanging by a nerve, so I flipped it and it popped out. He put it under his pillow and I traded it for a dollar. The next morning at breakfast, Grady asked if I had just taken one of his dollars out of his penny bank and put it under this pillow, of which I told him no I had given him a new dollar.

Grady, Grace, and I got to ride our first Bluffton Street Fair ride together. Grady went last year with my mom, but this year we all went together. Kent's mom was kind enough to buy the kids bracelets so they could ride.... she was also kind enough to buy them balls to win fish..... so now our kids have their first pets, two goldfish named Fred and Ted.



At the street fair, Grady and Grace also got to ride their first real horses. They seemed to enjoy it.

Here they are all in one place!!!! Grady and Grace got to see Owen, Grahm, and Cole for the first time in 2 years. It was such a blessing.

And here I am with my two amazing sisters. We were able to enjoy church together for the first time in two years. I don't know how many times we'll get to do this but it was a blessing to be able to share this with my sisters on Bobbie's first Sunday back in the states. Oh, how I love my sisters and am so thankful for them.

 My birthday was last week, not my first one, and Kent sent me flowers in the mail. It was the first time I'd ever gotten flowers in the mail. It was pretty neat.

We were crazy and took our kids to their first Michigan game. Kent found cheap tickets and used his birthday money to buy us all tickets. Let's just say... it went, but we won't be taking them back any time soon. It probably didn't help that Michigan was terrible and lost yet again.

However, as always, they seemed to find their silly faces long enough for just one crazy pose.

Lastly, this morning, Grace told Kent she painted her nail. I was in the other room and didn't realize that she meant she really had painted her nails. She actually did a pretty good job and didn't get any on the carpet.

So there we are, five weeks into school and so many first. We've been very busy with school, Grady's school, SWP, homework, and everything in between. This semester has been more challenging to find time with our classmates. That's difficult for me, but something I have to accept and hope will be better after our Romans class.

In December, we will have another first, watching our friends Josh and Brenda Lei leave NTBI. I don't think about it much because it's just hard. Bobbie told me that a missionary in Africa told her that you have to play it hard till the end. There will be time for crying later. So that's what we're doing. Playing it hard till the end, with all our friends that we love so dearly.

STP Training

So what is STP? IT stands for Student Training Program. It's a wonderful time of focused study about what the word says about leadership. We arrived back to NBTI on Saturday, August 9th and STP started on the 13th. We spent two days here and then went to Camp Good News to have some time away from campus and be together for a time of bible study, teaching, and play.

So what did I learn (or was reminded of) during our stay at camp....

~ My identity has to be in Christ and Christ alone.
~ That in love, I need to meet people where they are at.
~ That I can give my opinion about a matter, but I cannot force them to do it my way or to think that my way is best! (This is a tough one for me.)
~ I'll never be done growing in Christ. If I were to ever "arrive" at wherever perfection would be, I would have no need for God.
~ The needs I have before I was saved is the same needs I have after I was saved, it's just now that God is able to completely meet my needs.
~ A leader is really just a servant.

So things that many of you already knew, yet is good to be reminded.

So what did our kids do? Well,

They played in the dirt/sand

Watched the Lego movie

Played in the water

Ate ice cream

 

Of course, played super heroes

After a great four days and learning about leadership and how we all work together, God was so good to show me the body of Christ in action....

On our way home from camp, I fell asleep in the van and was awakened by a very large crash, which ended up being our van. A lady was coming at us head on, so Kent swerved to miss her. However, she hit our front wheel, driver's door, and driver's side passenger's door. It took our steering out, leaving Kent with no power and sending us crashing into the guard rail.

As we tumbled out of the van, so did the people behind us (which was vehicle 3 in the line of 8 NTBI vehicles). Before I could even react, the police had been called, Kent was on the phone with the insurance company, people were moving our things to another van, they moved people around so we could go to another van, the police came, and our van was being towed away. It all happened so quickly that this is the only picture I was able to take (and I didn't even take it).

We drove back to Jackson, about a two hour drive, and went to the hospital beside NTBI. As you can see here the kids were fine. Kent and I got x-rays and everything showed up good.

Kent is sore today, but recovering well. All the glory for this accident goes to our Heavenly Father. The out come could have been a lot different. My friend said, "Some people walk away from accidents really bad hurt, others don't walk away at all. However, today either of those things are true."

Out of all 8 vehicles traveling together, we were the only one hit. We were also the only van that was having trouble and that needed to be repaired when we returned to Jackson. People had been praying for our van for a couple of days. I believed God heard them and answered in a way we didn't expect. We're thinking that the van will be totaled and hoping to be able to buy a nice van that will get us to and from Jackson this year and then two years to and from Roach, Missouri. I believe God already provided and will do so again.

Praising God that I was able to tuck my two healthy children into bed tonight.

12 Weeks of Summer

I'm sure that many of you feel that summer has just flown by. Just twelve weeks ago we pack our bags and headed south for the summer. How does a person share twelve weeks of her life in a short blog post? Well, I thought I'd share twelve pictures that sum up what we did this summer.

1. Grady's riding without training wheels!! He had been asking us to take them off while we were still in Jackson, but we said he had to wait till we got back to Bluffton. On the second day we were home, Kent took them off and Grady was off and riding in five minutes. It was pretty cool to see.

2. We celebrated Gracie Bee's birthday. She was so fun to watch as she opened each present with care.

3. We enjoyed a Tin Caps game together with the tickets that the kids got from the summer reading program. Their favorite part of the entire night was  "Ernie," but most of you will know him as Johnny.



4. Our Family Vacation to Florida. This picture ended with two kids in wet clothes. They couldn't resist getting into the waves!

5. I was able to spend a lot of time with my sister Brandy this summer. It was such a blessing. She even took me to share in her spa day that she had received as a gift. I'm so thankful for each hour I get to spend with her and will miss her this school year.

6. We had a garden at the community plot this year. We got a lot of produce but had to leave a lot of it there, as we have now returned to Jackson.

7. My dad broke both his ankles and shattered one of his heels. He seems to be healing well, but I know he's antsy to get out and working again.

8. We were able to spend time with all of our parents and cousins. We're thankful that when we go home to Bluffton that they're all in one town. The kids enjoyed this outing because it involved Lala and ice cream!!

9. Grady was very brave during our vacation and learned how to swim. He's very good and its amazing to watch him. He loves the water!

10. Grady was able to enjoy his first race. He was telling Kent that he would like to go back to the races again.

11. At the age of 5, Grady got his first professional hair cut. It looked amazing. So good that someone told me that I should have it done professionally from now on. Hmmm, maybe I didn't do as well cutting his hair as I thought I was doing.

12. This summer we did a lot of babysitting. I babysat two kiddos two days a week up until the week we watched two foster kids. The week right before vacation we babysat for two foster kids for an entire week. It was exhausting, but God gave us the grace to work though it.

There's a lot more I could add about our summer, but I'll leave it at that for now. When we were leaving NTBI in May I knew that there was going to be a lot I was going to need to trust the Lord with over the summer. He was faithful to carry me through. Reminding me that he's faithful no matter of the outcome. I'm thankful for everything that we were able to do, work through and enjoy.

Our Summer Vacation

My sister, Brandy always teases me about how much a love number. I'll be counting things out to the exact number, and she'll just start and figure it out later. So I thought it would be great to sum up our vacation with a few numbers:

• Over 2,500 miles traveled
• Slept in 4 Hotel Rooms
• Swam in 3 pools
• Went to 3 Beaches
• Ate at 15 different restaurants
• Visited 1 Major Theme Park
• Watched 14 movies in the car
• Visited 1 Zoo
• 6ish fill ups on Gas
• Visited with 2 Friends
• Read 2 entire Novels

It was a busy week, but a good time for us to be together as a family. We drove 17 hours to Sanford, FL and stayed in the NTM Headquarters. Grace and Grady loved the DVD player and the van we barrowed from Tim and Gwen Drayer.

 

 

 

The we stopped at Dayton Beach on our way into Sanford. We also visited Cocoa Beach and New Smyrna Beach. The kids absolutely loved the waves and sand, not so much of the salt water. 

Our guest room at Sanford was smaller than I thought it would be. The kids shared a bed and as you can see Grady was pushed to the side each night.

Due to some credit card points we had to use, we were able to buy four Disney Magic Kingdom tickets for the price of one. So Wednesday morning we packed up and headed out. It was a busy, but good day. I believe that Grace will probably remember this,

 

 

 

Although I hope she remembers this as well. 

 

Grady loved the roller coasters and the driving the race care; however, I hope he remembers this the most.

 



Or this would be a good memory too!

We also got unlimited pop while we were at Disney World. The kids were CraZy!! I was actually pretty funny to watch.

Our trip ended with one last trip to the beach. I took this picture of us and then had to laugh. We have a picture like this of us on our honeymoon. I'm pretty sure the only things that's changed is Kent's goatee.

I told my friend today that the trip was great but it wasn't restful. I'm glad that we were able to go.... and thankful to have a place to come home to.

The Honey Bee is Three

On July 1st, we celebrated Grace's third birthday. When I woke up that morning I realized that our Honey Bee was Three. I thought that we pretty funny, I even got a smile from Kent about it. The day was going to be a little crazy so I wanted to make it as special as possible for Grace. And how else do we do that.... by having special food! So for breakfast Grace had three donuts and a poptart.

Grady and I sang her Happy Birthday and Grace chimed in singing "Happy Birthday to Me!"

She enjoyed hot dogs and macs and cheese for lunch and then we had chips and salsa for supper. However, Grace was so excited that she didn't even eat anything. She was to excited for her party!

Two weeks ago, I asked Hunter to make Grace a bug cake for her birthday. Grace loves bugs and loves hunting for them. Hunter did a great job of looking up cakes and finding one that was just right for Grace

 Grace loved her cake. She wasn't too sure about a "bug" cake, in fact she said, "Yuck!" when I first told her. But she seemed to like it in the end.

 

  

So did her cousins! 

Next we opened presents. It was pretty fun and completely different than Grady. She took her time with each present and thought about what they were. As you can tell she was very excited about them.

 

She even sat and let me read her the cards!

 



She especially enjoyed her new princess bike that she got from her Grammy and Pa. She's now riding around like a pro!

 After a long day, Grace ended it by playing with her all time favorite toy. Puzzles! Grace plays puzzles every day. Aunt Brandy was kind enough to buy some new ones. Grace was super excited and took the time to do each one before her party ended.

 

The party was a blessing to me. I had my family and my friends there. As some of you may experienced, birthday parties are sometimes as much for the parents as the kids. Grace's party was so different last year, for a number of reasons, so it was nice to have one where it was a big celebration. It was also the first party we had at the Lockwood's home, where we live. We're thankful that they let us use their home for the party.

 

Thank you to everyone that came and celebrated Grace's big day. I can't believe our Bee is three.