Fun Day

Posted on July 1, 2009 by David

A few days ago Joshua gave his daddy a card for father’s day that stated he likes to go to Worlds of Fun with his daddy. So after a long day of moving yesterday we were given beautiful weather today to head to the park. We were 20 minutes from the house and realized we forgot the camera so we picked up a disposal at a Dollar General. I sure missed being able to see the pictures after I took them, I guess that makes me a digital camera junky.

family_rides_mainOnce we arrived I asked for 2 maps when I parked because I knew that I had two little boys that would both want to help be the navigators, I highly recommend this to all parents coming with multiple children.  As we parked, they planned out our assault attack plan on the amusement park. We headed straight to Camp Snoopy, the home of a big lovable white dog that really seemed to scare Joshua. Jonah loved giving Snoopy a high five, I’d post a picture but I need to take the camera to the store.

After all the kid’s rides except the Worm, the kid’s roller coaster, which was closed because of a part in the motor that was broken we, picked up some lunch. After lunch we found some bigger adult rides that the kids could also ride on. The favorite ride of the day was the Viking Voyager, sort of a plastic looking log that goes up and down and splashes in some water; we went on this ride twice. They were selling priceless pictures of our family at the top of the hill of this ride; everyone had their eyes closed looking nervous except Jonah who was looking at the camera smiling.

Before leaving the park we picked up a snack for the ride home, Jonah wasn’t even able to open his bag of cotton candy before he fell asleep in the back seat. Joshua had a great time but I’ll need to find another activity for him to write about for next Father’s Day since Worlds of Fun will not be an option. Overall I would have to say everyone had a great time.

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Moving

Posted on June 30, 2009 by David

I thought I would try something new with the boys when we moved to help them with all the upcoming moves we have. I’m hopeful that this will help ease some of the stress and anxiety they have with relocating. I had them walk around to all the rooms with daddy and we said good-bye to each of the rooms. They really got into this and said good-bye to the closets and the kitchen sink and thanked them for holding our clothes and Jonah even tried to give the living room wall a hug. Then before we left we thanked God for allowing us to have a place to live and all the blessings that surrounded us as we lived there. We will miss our little duplex on Addie but we know that God has a different location for us and we will just continue to be thankful for where ever He allows us to lay our heads.

2219 Addie Dr Pleasant Hill MO

2219 Addie Dr Pleasant Hill MO

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Farewell video

Posted on June 30, 2009 by David

Here is the video from Sunday’s service at Deerbrook. Many thanks to Kathy for making this video!

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Consecration Service

Posted on June 28, 2009 by David

Today was a very special time in our journey to serve with Wycliffe. This was our last Sunday at our home church Deerbrook Covenant Church and they had a special time of consecration as they celebrated the time that we have been at Deerbrook and prayed for us and blessed us and the work that we will be doing. We were able to affirm our beliefs and our call that God has placed on our life in front of the entire congregation. It was a sad and joyful time as we said goodbyes to some friends that we will not see in person for over five years. I’ll try to get the video that they shared today posted to the blog sometime this week, it made me cry both services.

We were all able to celebrate and fellowship together afterwards with a very tasty taco/nacho lunch. So many worked together to make this a very special time and I’m very thankful for everyone that had a part in the service or planning for the service or providing for the dinner. We are also very thankful for all the financial gifts that were given today to help support us. We look forward to the work that God has called us to and we are thankful for the church family that will be supporting us with their prayers, encouragement and financial support.

Prayer

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Road Trip

Posted on June 25, 2009 by David

The road trip to the Windy city came and went as fast as the wind blows off Lake Michigan. We were gone 38 hours and spent 20 of those hours on the road in the silver bullet, that’s the nick name for our silver minivan. Using my Garmin GPSmap 60Cx (a farewell gift from the VA guys) we were able to make it to the city in record time, and by record time I mean we played every movie that we had and even a few from a stop at the Red Box in order to help keep peace in the back seat of the van. The GPS did a great job of showing the shortest distance to our hotel but not the fastest route. We were able to force the GPS to obey us and stick to highways for the drive home; it did a great job of recalculating the route when we refused to exit as it told us.

The boys were so excited about spending the night in a hotel that they were bouncing off the glass at the lobby check-in counter and we knew we were at a fancy La Quinta when the guy at the door was insistent on carrying our red cooler, duffel bag and laptop bag to our room. Our kids acted like they had never rode in an elevator before as they took turns pushing the button to our floor. The buttons in the elevator could have provided endless hours of entertainment but we only had a limited amount of time and we had a mission to accomplish.

Really big mirror

We decided we would check out to see if we could walk to the consulate so we began the 12 block walk to Michigan and Lake. The boys had a blast looking at all the big buildings and Jonah made it almost 4 blocks before he had to be carried. We took a break in Millennium Park because they had tons of kids running around and playing in the fountains. Our two little ones who love to play in anything that gets them wet got stage fright and they just watched the other kids enjoy the cool water on the hot day in the city. They also had fun climbing on all the art work in the park, not sure if that was allowed but none of the security guards told us to get down. We walked the remaining few blocks and decided that since we were dripping in sweat that we would need to take a cab to our appointment the following morning.On our way back to the hotel we stopped for a bite to eat and asked the boys if they wanted to go to the top of the tallest building in the city. They thought that sounded like fun so off to the Sears tower we went. The boys loved pointing to the little cars as they looked down from the 99th floor, the 103 floor opens up next month for a new Sears Tower viewing experience. Even though it was past bed time we agreed to a quick dip in the hotel pool before retiring for the night.Sears Tower

The next morning we ate our breakfast and flagged the boy’s first taxi and headed off to our appointments. We arrived on Anderson time, meaning we were there an hour early. I thought for sure it would take more time to get there and go through security. So we sat and waited for the consulate to open since we had the first appointment of the day. Our interview was not what we had anticipated and it went quickly and we had all the correct documentation and now we are just waiting for their final approval.

We headed back to pick up the silver bullet and we were on our way back to Pleasant Hill. It was enjoyably uneventful and the boys were glad to get home even if it is for just home for a few more days.

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Father’s Day

Posted on June 22, 2009 by David

Joshua did an awesome job at putting some tears in daddy’s eyes and also managed to squeeze in a request to go to Worlds of Fun in his Father’s Day card this year. Jonah also did a great job of making a collage of pictures that daddy would like.

My Dad’s name is David

My Dad’s eyes are Brown

My Dad’s hair is Black

My Dad’s favorite color is Blue

I like it when my dad plays Games with me

I like to go to Worlds of Fun with him

At night I like it best when my dad gives me snacks

My dad thinks I’m special because he hugs me

My dad is the best at fix computers

My dad is strong when he moved a couch

My dad is special because he kiss me

Many thanks to Joshua’s Sunday school class for allowing him to make a Father’s Day Card. And I’m sure that Joshua is glad that I’m going to squeeze a trip to Worlds of Fun before leaving Missouri.

Front of Card

Father's Day Card

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A Very Special Anniversary

Posted on June 18, 2009 by David

“But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus-the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God” (Acts 20:24, NLT).

George Cowan, former translator in Mexico and former director of the Bibleless Peoples Prayer Project, began praying for the Sinte Romani speakers of Europe in June, 1983. There are 30,000 Sinte speakers in Serbia alone, with more than 250,000 living in a dozen other European nations. George has been praying for the Sinte speakers for 26 years, but they have waited even longer to receive God’s Word in the language that speaks to their hearts.

Praise God! On the very day marking the 26th anniversary of George’s commitment to pray, Wycliffe USA received word that the Sinte Romani New Testament will be published this year!

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Blueberry Patch Adventure

Posted on June 17, 2009 by David

Today I found out about The Berry Patch and thought the boys would have fun picking some blueberries. So we drove to Cleveland MO to get some fresh blueberries to bring home to Mommy. It was a little hot, 104 degrees with the heat index according to the radio on the way there, but a little sweat never hurt us. We had our water and were ready to get to picking. We parked, and they told us that patches 11 and 12 were open. So we walked down the lane to find out where these patches were, the people that had done this before must have known that you could drive closer to the patches, silly me to think that parking meant the location where left your vehicle. But, we walked in anticipation of some delicious fresh blueberries right off the bush.

We finally made it to patch 9 and the buckets were there for us to tie around our waist, as we crossed over patches 9 and 10 to get to 11 the boys were able to find the mud that the previous day’s rain had created for them. I guess if the amount of mud that you get on your socks is any measure of how much fun you are having they were having a blast and we hadn’t picked one blueberry yet. As I showed them the color of blueberry to pick they watched which shade they should pick, the blue ones. Not the green or red ones. It didn’t take long until picking had become a contest to see who could pick the most, I did not win. We had finally sweated through all the clothes that we were wearing including our shoes, so we decided we had picked enough and went to pay. The grand total was 2.2 pounds; we paid our $6.50 and headed back to the van.

But there were some hay bales that were screaming play on me that we had to conquer before heading home. Before we left Jonah wanted to try one of his blueberries.  So, after I picked the big green worm out of his bad, not really sure how it got in there, he picked one out and decided he didn’t like it so he spit it out.

It was a exceptionally quiet ride home as two little boys slept the entire way after learning that being a professional berry picker would be hard work but was fun to do for an afternoon.

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No Colored Pencils Required | JAARS

Posted on June 16, 2009 by David

Read how Bible Translators are working with computer programmers to come up with new tools to speed up the process and bring God’s Word to life.

No Colored Pencils Required | JAARS

Shared via AddThis

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Cricket in the wall

Posted on June 15, 2009 by David

Normally the chirp of a cricket doesn’t wake me up or bother me in the least, but last night I started noticing a chirp every few seconds that sounded like it was right beside the bed around 3 am. During the morning I was working on the computer and it was quiet in the house except for this chirp that seemed to be following me wherever I went.

CricketI thought it was coming from the garage so I searched everywhere and moved everything away from the wall and no cricket could be found. It was almost like he was taunting me saying Nah Nah Nah Nah you can’t find me.  So I gave up, put everything back, and came inside and the sound was even louder. So I got the hammer and starting hitting the wall lightly where the noise was coming from, because I was sure the vibration would cause the chipping to stop. It didn’t. So we decided that it was in the wall and if we removed the baseboard and some of the trim around the door to the garage we would be able to take care of this chirp.

After we had the trim off I could see part of the cricket and he was stuck between the drywall and the door. So after an attempted rescue to free him and take him back to the outdoors the screwdriver slipped and I punctured the cricket. So now the chirp is gone and the trim is back and the house is quiet again. Next time I’ll use a different tool to try and rescue the cricket. Joshua witnessed the rescue attempt and was very sad that the cricket died.

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