What a week! No school Monday, Inauguration on Tuesday, home with a sick child on Wednesday, reality of work on Thursday, and ready for Friday!!

The kids had a great day on Monday hanging out with friends and being lazy around the house. Ok Kristen did e-mail me to see what needed to be done around the house, so that was nice! I can't believe we are to that point in our lives of having the girls stay home while we work and actually do odd jobs around the house! Life is good!


Tuesday was a day that made history! Kristen and MiKayla had the opportunity to watch a few of the days events during school. The girls asked alot of questions and worked on sorting things out in their heads of I'm excited to be able to see history in the making, yet how do we handle things spiritually, what does he believe, what if he asks us to do something we don't believe in? Learning how to respect and trust someone who doesn't have ALL the same beliefs as they do is a learning experience all on its own. The conversation ended with Jake saying I wish the guy with the gray hair had won! Oh, the innocence of a child. The biggest thing that can be learned is even though we may not see eye to eye, God has a plan for His people and we need to trust Him. He put Obama in the White House and we need to respect him and pray for him and his family.

On Wednesday, I spent the day at home with Kristen, she had strep throat and I have a sinus infection, so needless to say we spent the entire day lounging on the couches! Guess I should be thankful since it is my first one this winter!

Thursday was a great day for the kids and Nate, and an extremely difficult day for me at work! Had to make some tough decisions that no one would like to make, but I am grateful the Lord gives direction when I stop and take the time to call upon him!! The older I get the more I realize that I am doing that WAY more than I use to! Which is why I am so thankful Friday is only a few hours away! Better yet, Saturday is that much closer too! We are enjoying a few Saturdays hanging out at home, because our yearly tour de'Iowa is right around the corner. Kristen is playing in AAU (Amateur Athlete Union) Volleyball with some girls from SFC and we are gone every Saturday for about 6 Saturdays straight with all but one tournament in Iowa! EARLY mornings are a must also!

As some of you know we have been looking for a different church to worship at! These are the days we wish we would be back in Huron with about 3 choices of where to attend instead of 25 choices! Just kidding! The point being we know where we would be going and life would be that much easier, I know we would have challenges there like are everywhere else, it is just where family is and all the kids feel at home there!

We can definitely tell a difference from being with a church home and the feeling like we are floating around saying which one do we visit today? We were at Linwood Wesleyan a couple weeks ago, which happens to be the same church Jake's kindergarten teacher goes to and Bekah and Jake's music teacher goes there also, anyway as we were sitting in the service, Jake's teacher's husband who is a pastor there was preaching and mentioned that he was going to be leaving this church because they were being called to a different church! Needless to say my heart was in my shoes and I glanced at Nate like "Oh No what are we going to do for kindergarten", as if Jake's teacher was leaving before January! Our ears were a opened very wide to listen to see if he was going to say what they were going to do. As it turns out they are involved in a church plant on the west side of SF and it would be starting after the new year.

Last week we visited "The Ransom" for their preview service in the Carmik Theater, yes I did say the theater! The girls thought it was cool to be going to church in a theater, Bekah wanted to have some nachos to eat while we worshiped and Jake asked if they could plug in the video games so he could play.

What a morning!! It was such a blessing to be able to be part of that experience! The pastors are on cloud 9 and have been for 2 weeks since the preview service. They weren't exactly sure what to expect for a preview service, but the theater was packed with 140 people and very few of them were there because of hearing about the service from Linwood! One of the pastors was following up with those that visited and was able to lead a gal to Christ and share the vision of The Ransom Church with others! It will be a blessing to see what the Lord has planned for The Ransom Church and the west side of SF!

Until next time have a great night!