Catching You up on October

See that little drop menu to the left that files my posts by month?  Well, for the first time ever, I think, I will have a month with just this behind it: (1).  One blog post for all of October!  And I'm squeaking it into the VERY last day of the month, otherwise it would say: (0)!  So, this post will catch you up on a whole month of life, and it is for my sister, who is probably the only one still checking our blog! :)

 This fall we made it to every football game but one.  What a fun Friday night tradition this became!  The kids loved running around with all their school friends in our brand new, state-of-the-art stadium, while Dave and I enjoyed cheering for our almost-undefeated football team.  For about half the games, we'd meet friends beforehand and go out for dinner-- making Fridays even MORE fun!  Above, Delia is dancing on the field with one of our babysitters/cheerleaders, Kara.

Being a 5th grader, Ella also took up the call to join the band this fall.  She chose to play saxophone and has already made tremendous progress in playing it!  When she first started, there was much honking, squawking and cringing (by me).  Now, on her own, she is playing recognizable Christmas music from her piano books!

 There has not been much blog posting, because there are not many spare hours in a weekday!  Ella's homework load on some nights is pretty heavy, and every now and then, she'll work straight from afternoon to bedtime.  This was a particularly frustrating homework night.  The guinea pig on her shoulder helped a bit.

 On top of school responsibilities, we continue to let the girls do one extra thing each.  Ella is hanging in there with piano lessons, and Delia wanted to try a second year of dance.  She switched from a ballet class to a jazz one this year and is enjoying it a lot.  The music is peppier and there is more sass and booty-shaking in the choreography (even though this picture makes jazz dancing look like serious business)! 

  

 I had a lovely birthday way back in September.  My expectation was for a totally normal day, full of all our normal responsibilities, but I was abundantly loved and spoiled all day by family, friends, co-workers and students.

In the middle of life's craziness, I treasure these quiet moments too, when we all get to just slow down, cuddle up and be together.  I'm trying to be more intentional about keeping our weekends as free as possible so we can just relax and recharge. This (above) was one Saturday night and it was perfect.

 One weekend we did take an outing to my friend Dorina's house, though!  This was a special trip because it allowed us to spend time with and get to know Shawn better.  The story of Dorina and Shawn's relationship is one of the Lord's amazing Glory Stories.  I'll just say that one year ago Dorina was organizing Ericlee's funeral, and this year she's planning her wedding to Shawn, who was one of Ericlee's best friends.  If you want to read about it in Dorina's own powerful words, click here.  Grab some tissues first, though!

  

 We had to take advantage of our yearly invite to Pastor Appreciation Day at Funworks!  A blast, as always, we raced each other around the go-kart track, smashed into each other in the bumper car room and set the girls free on the huge play structure so we could watch the Cubs playoff game on Dave's phone! Pizza with our new youth pastor and his family rounded out this super-fun night.

Fifth grade and third grade are shaping up to be AWESOME years for the girls!  We just had parent-teacher conferences and Dave and I are glowing with pride over all the wonderful things Ella and Delia's teachers said about their kind, servant hearts, attitudes, behavior and grades.  Nearly perfect report cards were rewarded at Krispy Kreme, where they give you one free donut for each A.

 Just this week, our life finally got exciting! :)  Grandma and Grandpa made a special visit to California to celebrate Grandma's recent retirement.  While we finished up school for the first few days, they toured Napa.  Then we shared a couple beautiful days in Monterey with them as we were off school.  To show them how excited we were to see them, Ella came up with the idea and design for this huge WELCOME sign to sprawl across our driveway last weekend.

And since our Wednesday kind of felt like a Friday with no school for the rest of the week and since Grandma and Grandpa were just returning from Napa, we decided to test out the Halloween costumes with an outing to a nearby church's Trunk-or-Treat.  The girls were SO excited about this costume idea they thought up!  Yes, Ella spent the whole night in her roller-blades.  Yes, Delia confused a lot of people by dressing as the Stanley Cup ("Are you Jiffy Pop?"..."A satellite dish?").  And yes, they plan to do it all over again tonight for our own church's Harvest Party.  But, we had a great time sharing this taste of Halloween with Grandma and Grandpa.

More of our adventures with Dave's parents coming soon...

(No, I won't make you wait a whole month!)  

Breaking News: VMs Leave House for Fun Outing! :)

Check me out!  Two blog posts in two days!  Must mean we have a day off!

As previously mentioned, we've been in a bit of Survival Mode since school started.  If it wasn't for church, school or the grocery store, we weren't leaving our home.  This weekend we finally ventured out for a super fun couple of days.  Some church friends had the idea to open up their beautiful back yard to families wishing to camp out.  We pitched our tents with other friends on Friday night and enjoyed activities, like a potluck style dinner, discussions around the campfire, trampoline, s'mores, an outdoor movie and stargazing, until the late hours of the night.  Then we bundled up and slept in the wonderful, cold, fresh air.   

Our friends had this backyard camping idea because they live about a half mile from the park where the annual hot air balloon inflation and launch takes place at sunrise.  We actually overslept a bit and missed a good part of it, but the early morning walk through the orchard still provided us with a long-distance view of the balloons drifting into the sky.

And we got there in time to see something we've never seen before; the last few balloons DEflating because they were unable to battle the winds that had picked up.  We shrieked with delight at this huge chili pepper balloon sank practically right on top of us!

After all the balloons had either taken off or deflated, we made the walk back to our friends' house.  We ate our cooked-outside-on-the-camping-stove blueberry pancakes and eggs and started to take down our tents.  As we did so, we saw an amazing jet show right above us!  The flyover was intended for the festival, but our close proximity to it allowed us to enjoy it right from the backyard!

   

It took some time on Saturday to recover (read: lots of  smoke-scented laundry and some naps) from this grand camping adventure, but it was totally worth it and really the perfect way to experience the hot air balloons!

Back to School

For just under a month now, we've been back in our school routine.  We are discovering that many things about this year are already awesome: The girls, once again and as an answer to prayer, getting teachers that seem perfect for them; the opportunity to make new friends and to also reconnect with old and dear ones; a fresh crop of adorable and enthusiastic new students for me; a schedule already full of fun new school stuff-- like band for Ella and Friday night football games in our brand new, state-of-the-art football stadium.  

But, the year has had its challenges too.  Dave and I are both adjusting to changes in our jobs and new demands.  Both girls were immediately thrust into the world of nightly homework, preparing projects, and studying for tests.  I won't deny that a feeling of being overwhelmed sneaks up on us and the fear that no matter how hard we all work, we'll still never have the job done perfectly.  My friend Dorina likes to give a theme to each of her years.  Maybe ours will be "GRACE".  And it will include the grace you extend to me for neglecting the blog while I attempt to stay on top of life! :)

Here are some very belated pictures from our First Day of School! 

A Special Sunday

Last Sunday was a big day!  Our summer intern, who we have gotten to know and love, preached his last sermon about striving to be a unified body in Christ.  Then, perfectly and appropriately, our congregation commissioned Dave as the Lead Pastor and Pastor Patrick as the Youth Pastor.  Dave and Patrick were charged with questions.  Our church family made promises.  And we stood up front while the elders and deacons laid their hands on us and prayed for us and the church.  It was a moving day that was overwhelming and emotional.  I could write pages and pages about how blessed we've felt serving at this church the past 12 years.  And how honored we feel to be invited into a new leadership position. And how grateful we are for God's provision in giving us Patrick, who seems to be both a perfect partner for Dave and an awesome leader for our youth.  And how at peace and trusting we feel that, even though the calling seems daunting at times, we have the support of the congregation and we know with certainty that God will continue to be faithful in filling us with His Spirit and equipping us as we seek to glorify Him.

   

If all that wasn't enough, we got to spend a few hours in the afternoon with Dorina and her girls as she was passing right through town on her way home from a weekend in the Bay Area!  We had much to catch up on and celebrate in each other's lives.  This was a happy reunion full of Just Dancing, laughing, Mexican food, and every toy in my house ending up on the living floor (always a sign of a good time)!

This Sunday was also special because it was officially my last day of summer, as I went back to school the next day for in service meetings and prep for the big First Day on Wednesday.  I could not have asked for a better day to bring to conclusion one of our best summers ever!

Happy Birthday and So Long, Summer!

Since life was full of other stuff, like settling into Rehoboth, or JUST returning from Chicago, on the days of the girls' birthdays, I had promised them a special birthday outing that would take place at the end of summer.  We let them each pick one friend and we made a day trip to Monterey to visit the aquarium.  Working with the schedules of our friends, this trip had to take place on what would be the last week day of summer, so it was a great goodbye, as well.

We've been to the aquarium many times and we've shared it with many friends, but letting the girls each pick a school friend to hang out with for the day was another new experience.  It was so fun for Dave and I to sit back and take in their interactions.  Here are a few fun photos and their captions:

 Group shot in the octopus lair.

Wall of sardines in the Open Seas tank!

Jellyfish symmetry.

Admiring the seemingly hand-painted spotted jellies.

 The classic shot.

A perfectly beautiful Monterey day!

 Ocean selfie!

 Active otters, and our best spot ever viewing them right up against the glass.  We also saw a presentation in the auditorium about an otter pup the aquarium had rescued and rehabilitated.  I think otters won "Favorite Animal" of the day!

 Touching sea cucumbers, abalone, urchins and crabs.

 "I don't mean to alarm you, but there's an octopus right above you!"

Hiding in the kelp forest. 

 The penguins kept blocking my picture of Ella and her friend!

Laughing in the Wave Cave.

Cool sun beams shining through the kelp forest tank.

With a splendid summer drawing to a close and school starting in a matter of days, this was a great bridge between seasons.  This fun outing was something special to end the summer with. And the time spent with school friends, and learning who this year's teachers would be via email on the ride home, was just right for getting us excited about getting back into school routine next week!

More VM Family Photos

As previously mentioned, when we were all together in Chicago last month, we hired a photographer to get, what we hoped would be, ONE good picture of our family that we could frame and use for Christmas cards.  Welllllll, I think this was mission accomplished!  Our problem now is not knowing which ONE of these awesome pictures to pick as a favorite!  We are so pleased with how they turned out and love our photographer for capturing the fun our family has when we're together and for giving us CDs with the copyright to all 200+ images!