Artists in the making

Nadine's Cat
Jourdyn's Pyramid's
Nadine's watercolor
Nadine's finger painted dove

Pictures from Regional Quiz

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Mt. Vernon Nazarene University Trip

Last night, the family headed out to Mt. Vernon, Ohio. Jourdyn competed a while back and made it to the Regional Bible Quizzing Competition that was held at MVNU today. We are so proud of her!! She worked so hard at learning Genesis!!! I bet she could put any of us to shame! Well, today she did a great job!!! She earned a Gold Achiever with a perfect Round. She only missed two questions in the whole competition. YEAH JOURDYN!!! So she came home with a trophy, a red ribbon and a blue ribbon.

While there we went to the bookstore, and bought her a little gift. She was excited because she finally has earbuds for her mp3 player that fit in her ears. We also got her a notebook and some markers for her purse and a pair of earrings.

The kids aren't traveling as well in the car anymore. Rowan hates his car seat and tries to climb out. Nadine still does well. But Rowan can be a complete terror while traveling!!

We are home now and I have a paper to write!

Maumee Fire Truck

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We all met Julie and Bro at Red Robins for dinner last night!!! and Bihn Excavating filled in our pool for us.

Stage 4 - level and seeded

Stage 2 & 3

On the concrete goes inside the pool - the backhoe broke it all up.

Then the fill dirt goes on top!
Then they rough grade it.
There is still one more thing. they have to put all the topsoil on top. I'll post more picture when they are finished!

Stage 1

Well, John, Rowan and I were off to visit family today. We went to my Grandpa & Grandma Nuzum's first, Uncle Bobby was there. We visited for a while and then all went to IHOP together for lunch. After that we went to Uncle Jeff's and visited with him and Jenna for about an hour. Then we went to pick up Jourdyn from school and while there we visited Aunt Connie.

We also went out to Grandma Krempa's gravesite, which always bugs me. I didn't cry though...I held it back. It really just reminds me how much I miss her. Aunt Sally's stone isn't engraved yet, but it's there and her grave doesn't have grass yet. They are pretty close together. What's weird is that any other person wouldn't know that Sally Lucas over here is sister to Bernadine Krempa just stones away. I feel the need to make a family tree for them or something. I can't remember where Aunt Mary, and Aunt Gene are buried. We seem to think there but we couldn't find them, so it may be some place else completely.

Today, began Stage one of our pool demo:

A Visitor

I am driving up to Detroit today to pick up my brother!! He is coming home for a visit for a couple of days!! YEAH!!!!!

I was in the car this morning waiting for Nadine to go to school. And a song came on. I loved it and what I love more about it is who was singing it!!! Chris Sligh, one of my favorites from Idol last year. I was absolutely ecstatic! And I am pumped to get his CD in May. What I really love is that he is staying true to God. His parents were missionaries and he actually went to theological seminary for a while but felt called to go a different direction in music. I would love to meet him, he also has a blog... http://frommymindtoyoureyes.blogspot.com/

Listen to this song: http://www.thealley.org/temp/emptyme.mp3
(mom fix your speakers - you are missing out on a lot of great stuff!! Did you buy new ones and install them??)

Visiting with old friends

First I have to tell you that Rev. Rod Trim spoke at our church today. He spoke about obedience to God's call to ministry in the missions field and full-time ministry. I really needed to hear everything that he had to say today. It was one of those sermons that you just know that God was talking to you and that it was meant especially for you. I was very blessed this morning!

When I left church I had a text message from Evalee saying that Ginger was coming to town for a couple of hours and that I should come out and see her. So that's what I did. I haven't seen Ginger since Rowan was a baby. I'm not even sure she has even seen Rowan. It may have been right before I had him that I last saw her. But anyways, Jesse, her daughter, is 14 and about 6 foot tall. Well, maybe not that tall but definitely taller than me. Here are some pics. Evalee, me and Ginger
Amanda, Jourdyn and Jesse

(see Amanda is my height about 5 ft. Jesse is about a foot taller!)

Below is Amanda, Evalee and Ginger

I gave Ginger this website - so maybe she'll chime in with a comment!

But it was great to see them. I really miss leaving right next door to all these people.

Living on Woodside was such a blessing, God blessed me with so many friends from that one small neighborhood!!! Love you all!!!

Talent Show

Saturday night Jourdyn had a performance at her school talent show. She played her saxophone in the 5th grade band. She didn't want to do an individual performance. They did a wonderful job! I was very proud!!!

Wildwood Park

The weather was so nice today! My car said it was 82 degrees. Woohoo!!! So I took the little ones to the park today! Rowan who loves the slides at Mickey D's, wasn't too sure what to think of these ones.

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Perspective

"It is not the right human thoughts about God

which form the content of the Bible,

but the right divine thoughts about men.

The Bible tells us not how we should talk about God

but what He says to us;

not how we find the way to Him,

but how He has sought and found the way to us;

not their right relations in which we must place ourselves to Him,

but the covenant which He has made with all who are Abraham's spiritual children

and which He has sealed once and for all in Jesus Christ"

~ Karl Barth

from

"The Strange New World within the Bible"

Nadine's First Trip to the Dentist

today, was Nadine's first dental appointment. She asked me what a dentist was and I said a doctor who looks at your teeth. She said, "No, mommy, Doctors fix your heart!" So I explained that this is a different kind of doctor that has a tooth fetish! Well, not those words but you get what I mean! She did great! She hopped up in the chair and did everything she was told!

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God talks back

With Oprah, a false prophet spreading lies and telling the world that the old rugged cross is pointless and Jesus Christ isn't the only way, that you are your own salvation, with all this and even more, I pray hard that our nation and our world would open their eyes and see the through the lies to the TRUTH!!! There is only one truth and it is Jesus Christ!

Now I have racked my brain as to what I can do to combat Oprah's wickedness (that what it is, she is denying God and becoming her own god)and I have been left with just talking about it and making people aware of what the devil is up to these days. But let me tell you what, my GOD is up to something BIGGER!!! My God is up to taking over the #1 show on TV, My God, Jesus Christ is saying "I'll show you who's Lord! I am GOD and there is NO OTHER!!!" Check out this clip. Remember pause the music at the bottom of the page (and then crank up your volume! because I serve a huge God who is worthy to be praised!!!!)

Dinner with Friends

Last night we had dinner at Melissa & Tom's. It was very nice! We had ribs, chicken, a Paula Dean salad (Miss loves Paula) and Obrien potatoes. And I can't forget the awesome 5 layer brownie! She makes the best desserts!!!! Here are some pictures of the kids playing!

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I'm Home!!!

WOW!! What a weekend! It was awesome!!!
Here are some of the pictures - the rest are in Jackie's camera so when she gets them to me - I'll get them to you.

Highlights of the Conference:
1) Liz Curtis Higgs was great. She shared a bit of her testimony but mostly was just hilarious!!! She is great woman and very on fire for God!
2) Kay Arthur was great too. I had never seen her before but she was excellent! She talked alot about Jesus being the only way and our country turning away from Him.
3) Charles Billingsley and the praise band, Exodus, were awesome. I didn't buy a CD, so I am going to have to find one online.
4) Jeremy Camp was amazing! He has such a heart wrenching testimony but it was so awesome to hear how God is working so strongly in his life. He asked for a volunteer - I was standing right on the side of the stage by myself pretty much - I raised my hand (along with 100 other women at the front of the stage.) He looked at me pointed and before I could move, this other lady ran up there. He looked at his guitarist looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and went with it. It was cool though, she got to sing with him. She didn't like to sing and she didn't really know the song. But it was fun!
5) It was just really nice to be able to be in the presence of God in such a beautiful place and be refreshed in Him!!!

I'll write more later. I'm tired and I'm going to bed.

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Today, we had a great morning. We heard Liz Curtis Higgs speak and Kay Arthur. It was very inspiring and funny. Both of these ladies are such strong women - I would love to be like them.

Then we went to the aquarium (did you expect any different from me???) Here's a couple of pictures. I'll have more when we get home.

We are off to the Jeremy Camp concert!! And to Bubba Gumps for dinner.

Jody & sharon h

Did I mention that we had 90 degree weather on Friday. We arrived at 530 am and slept in the car until 7:30 am - then we went to the Pancake Pantry to eat breakfast. We then traveled to Seveirville to shop at Tanger Outlet mall. I got some scrapbooking stuff (not much) and some shorts at Aeropostale and some shirts at Gap.

Crystie & Jackie B at the conference on Friday night. There were 6547 women. It was sold out. Friday night we heard Priscilla Shirer speak - she is AWESOME!!!!

This is the View From hotel room - we are staying at River Terrace on the sixth floor - we have a whole view over Gatlinburg.

Women of Joy

I'm going out of town this weekend!!! (with Crystie, Jackie B., Sharon H and Jody H) We are all going to Gatlinburg for the Women of Joy conference. We get to see Liz Curtis Higgs, Kay Arthur, Priscilla Shirer and Jeremy Camp. I am very excited!!!!

Anyways, Rob is staying home with the kids for the weekend! This will be the first time that I have left them all for more than a day. So pray for me! But more importantly pray for Rob and the kids. He is on 2nd shift so we are doing some juggling for child care. So prayer is definitely gonna be one of the only reasons they make through the weekend! :)

I am going to try to post down there - I have to take my laptop for school. But I'm not sure that i will have internet service at all anyways. We leave tomorrow at 5 pm - pray for safe travels!

Spring Cleaning

Rob had the weekend off! (His first in a long time!) So we decided to some spring cleaning! We started in the garage. He put plywood floors up in the attic of the garage so all my Christmas and storage stuff could go up and he would have more room in the garage. So the garage at this point is semi-clean. I say, semi-clean because we still have a lot more junk to get rid of and to pack away.

We moved our freezer into the garage and began to tear down our sun room. This is an after-picture. The deck may be salvagable. We have to have the building inspector out to look at it. Part of it is coming off for sure because the original owner actually built an addition to the original deck before he put on the sun room.



We are also going to fill in our pool ASAP. We've decided while we would love to have it. It would one cost a lot more money than we want to spend and two I would be a wreck always worrying about the kids.

So we didn't not do anything inside the house! We tore out Nadine's carpet. Shortly after we moved in we discovered that the 3 original bedrooms had hardwood underneatht the new carpet but decided that we would wait until the carpet was destroyed before we tore it out. Well, Nadine's room has had drinks poured on it and Mia for some reason likes to pee in her room. We thought maybe the previous owners had pets and that's why. We may be right there are stains on the wood. Anyways, I decided this week to look in the vents and see what was underneath the carpet and lo, and behold, oak hardwood!! YEAH!!! So we ripped it out! The downside is who ever re-did the house before didn't care about the floor and there is white paint all over it. I spent a couple of hours with murphy's oil soap and a scraper and have cleaned about half of the floor and it is all coming off. YEAH again!!!! But here's a picture of what we found under the carpet. I will post an after-cleaning picture when I am done cleaning it. But it is going to be beautiful!!!

Okay, so I'm a Loser!

Yes, Jason Castro is my favorite on American Idol! Don't worry I'm not filled with false hopes. He's not gonna win it! But he is awesome! Of course, Taylor Hicks was my favorite and he won! Although like season 5, Taylor's year, this year is packed with excellent vocalist and musicians! So after Kristy Lee Cook and Syesha are sent home, I think any of them deserve to win it! I believe David Cook is going to win this year. He has been the most consistent and he knows exactly what to do with the music to make it his own.

It wouldn't be right if I didn't comment on this week's music content: Dolly Parton! The great thing about Dolly is she is so gospel filled. Very few of her songs don't mention Jesus or faith, so many of the contestants sang gospel-filled messages this Tuesday night. It was so GREAT!!! Then Dolly sang Jesus & Gravity on Wednesday, and some other band sang This Little Light of Mine. It was so awesome! Millions of people heard about Jesus. And I have to think that is probably why Ellen Degeneres copped out of American Idol Gives Back this week. Officially, I think she has said she's just too busy but what a sorry excuse is that. I am more convinced that she didn't like what she heard this week.

Here's Jason's performance: Travelin' Through
(PAUSE THE MUSIC IN THE PURPLE BOX AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE)

An afternoon out and about

Jourdyn had a dentist appointment this morning, so she went to school late. Rob and I decided to go out and about instead of going all the way home and having to turn around pretty quickly. We went to Dick's to look at softball equipment, both he and I are going to play on the church softball team this year. That means I need a mit and some cleats. I found a mit at Anderson's but I really liked one at Dick's so I might go back and get it. I also found some cleats at Dick's that I really like. Didn't buy anything there though because I knew I had a coupon at home and I am a bargain shopper!!!

We then went to Libbey Glass factory to check out some prices on some things for our banquet next month. While there we went to lunch at the Erie Street Chawder House. It was delicious, reasonably priced and tons of food. They had a great seafood bisque!!!! If you're in the area, you should try it.

Here's a picture of Rowan with the giant frog! And of course, you know that he just loved it!!!

Busy-ness

The class I am in is Christian Theology. It is keeping me extremely busy these days! We are reading theologians like Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Wesley, and lots more. Barth is this week and he is a hard reader! Very hard! I feel like my brain is going to explode after reading him. Once weeded through he is pretty interesting.

I haven't been to lifestyles since this class started. There just hasn't been time. If I'm not doing school work, I'm mom's taxi, or I'm playing with my kids, or cooking or cleaning! It's just been a very full week!

Great News!

Okay so you have to know that I am kidding!!! It's not June or July yet. And since we just left March, it just wouldn't be right timing for me! I just am so unimaginative right now that I couldn't think of anything else to April fool's you over! Well, at least I couldn't think of anything that wasn't morbid!

My car has been in the shop for two days now! I have finally proven to them after two years that I am not crazy and that my windshield does leak. Although, I think they knew and just didn't want to fix it. Because today they tried to charge me to fix it...even though it's been an ongoing problem since the day we bought it. I talked to the owner's son and he said that there's no charge. We'll see how well that goes tomorrow when I get it back (if that happens!)

Here is some more artwork! Nadine's this time! I think we are going to frame the middle one! It's pretty cool! We'll hang it on her wall in her bedroom.