get ready

We are getting all geared up for a new school year. The first day is tomorrow. Backpacks are all packed, lunches made, uniforms cleaned and ironed. We have a short week because we are going to SC. David's high school is celebrating it's 40th anniversary and his sister is turning 40 as well!
We are so excited to be a part of all the festivities. I don't feel like writing a lot so that's it for now...I need to go enjoy my last evening before school starts.

the Browns

Bunker and I are relaxing on the deck after canoeing on the lake.


Aren't they cute?! I love this couple! We were on our way to the lake to go canoeing and kayaking.

David and Herb chatting after breakfast Sat. morning on the screened in porch.

I love, love, love this fireplace. It is double sided. This side faces the kitchen and eating area and the other side faces the living room.
We had so much fun this past weekend. The Brown's home is like a little haven for us. We start relaxing as soon as enter into the neighborhood. It's therapeutic. We have known the Brown's for about nine years. We love Herb and Susan and there daughters. We have shared our ups and downs in life and walked along side each other. I pray I am half the blessing to them as they are to us! Our weekend was all we hoped it would be and more! It came at a perfect time. Thank you to all who helped with our kids, the Hesses, Taylors and Foggy's. You were a huge blessing to us as well.

my funny kids and other randomness

Kate thinks she is a big, fat, white whale! hah!
I can't wait to get her senior pics from Nick to prove her wrong! I think she is beautiful and I know I am right about that one!
It is the beginning of cross country season and so being out of shape is really beginning to be noticed and discussed a lot around here. I think we all could use some butt whuppin'! We are going to have to crack the whip and start working out more!
The boys started fall baseball this week and Mary Ellen started volleyball. I'm so glad for the opportunities they all have been given to participate in these activities. It has been so good for them. Kate has this quote on her wall that I love about cross country that says, "Our sport is your sports' punishment." good one, huh? Maybe Meredith could make her bumper sticker with that on it...hmmm could be a Christmas present.
I got to come home to today to a nice clean house and dinner! I feel so blessed and so rich! God has blessed me beyond anything I could imagine with a wonderful family and His bountiful grace and mercy which is new every morning!
Jacob helped me clean the fridge yesterday. I hate that job and I don't think I had done it in over a year. So it was pretty gross. Then today all the Stover boys worked while Kate and I were out gallivanting around the country.
I am actually looking forward to school starting now and fall! I am always ready for the change of seasons and I LOVE fall. I love pumpkins, leaves changing, cooler weather, Aunt Melinda's pumpkin pie, football and all things fall! It's coming...............after at least one more trip to the beach!

new job

David just got a new job at Chick Fil A. It is a great company to work for and it is closed on Sundays. So he can still help do church planting with our church. It isn't as much pay as he originally thought. He will have to work a lot of hours in order for this to work. But he was doing that with teaching and then bringing the job home! It seems like a great company and great people to work for. We know some of the people already and Katelyn has been working there all summer.
It has been a great experience for her as well. On to the next adventure...I wonder where this will take us in our journey.

family friends

This picture was taken this summer on our trip to Iowa. The lady on the left is my mom's friend, Liz. I was thinking the other day about Dan and Liz and how much we enjoy being with them. It is so nice when your parent's friends become your friends as you get older. We always loved being at their house. Dan and Liz were my parents best friends and their kids were like our cousins. We took trips together and spent many Sunday nights at one family or the other's house. It is rare, I think, when both the husband and wife of one family are both best friends with another couple. I found in my married life that usually I will be close to the wife of one couple and David will enjoy the friendship of a husband of another couple. Not that we don't get along with the other spouse...it's just not as close a relationship. It is rare to find friends like Dan and Liz were to my mom and dad. We lived close to each other until I was ten and then we moved two hours away.
So tonight I am excited about having dinner with Dan and Liz at my sister's. :)

end of summer

I can't believe the end of summer is upon us! Yesterday was my first day back at work. It was good to see some friends. This year I will be part time again,working in the afternoons teaching 1st grade Bible and 2nd grade science and doing some tutoring. David has done some serious job hunting this summer. It seems like every time he gets a job it is through word of mouth...someone we know, knows someone else, etc. Being jobless is a scary time and I feel like it has consumed our lives for the past couple of years even though he had a job teaching last year. By March he knew he didn't have that job anymore. Being jobless takes you to a whole new level of trust. Do I really believe what I say I believe that God will provide, that he loves His children and always has their best in mind; that He will never desert me when I am faithless; that everything he brings into my life is from the loving heart of my Father? So "yes", "yes" and "yes" to all the above. He holds me and my life in his hands and nothing I do can change who I am and nothing can change how my Father feels about me. The things my heavenly Father brings into my life don't always look good and it is hard to understand why certain things happen. But the great thing is I don't have to understand, I just have to trust. I don't have to figure it all out! I just follow. I'm sure I have written about all this before. But I need to preach it to myself over and over.
So a new school year is upon us. School starts Aug.24. Some of my kids are more excited than others. Mary Ellen can't wait to see her friends. This is a big year for Kate, of course. We have been looking at colleges and applying for scholarships. Jonathan moves into the upper school (7-12 grades). So he gets to go on the retreat this year. Jacob is in 2nd grade and gets to have his mom for his science teacher. He actually is pretty excited about that! He has great friends at school and enjoys his class very much. He will have a great teacher this year, Mrs Brunson. I love her. She is so thoughtful and does so many little things to make the kids feel special.
Well on with a new day. Today Mary Ellen has her class party and we are going up Lancaster to my sister, Melinda's to have dinner with them and some friends from Iowa.