Pieces Falling Into Place

Well, our dear little house in Kentucky sold June 29th! Praise the Lord for that blessing!

The past few weeks have been pretty crazy! The same week that we sold our house, Dave had 4 interviews (3 first interviews and one second interview). Then the following week, he got his first offer and two days later he got his second offer from a different company. So, he ended up flying up to Pittsburgh to check the companies out and to decide which job he was going to accept.

He decided to take a position at the local hospital that was looking for a new IT position. We felt very a great peace about accepting this position. He starts his job July 30th. So, all that to say, we have less than 2 weeks left at our position at New Tribes. The Lord has been so gracious to us and made it abundantly clear that the timing is now.

We have been spending the past several days packing, sorting, throwing away, giving away, packing some more, saying goodbye, crying, laughing, packing, swimming, packing and just generally getting ready to move. Time is ticking away and we are trying to make the most of our last days in Florida.

Happy 4th of July

OK, so the blog I just posted was about the beginning of the 4th of July, this one will be about the rest of the day. What a great day. We ran the Watermelon Run in the morning. Then we had our dear friends the Whites over for dinner and some fireworks fun in the evening. Right behind our building, they shoot off fireworks for the city of Sanford. So, we can go in the big yard behind our building and watch the amazing display on July 4th.

The Whites came over around dinner time and we had normal 4th of July fare- hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, watermelon, corn on the cob and desserts.

Then we let the kids play upstairs for a while before heading down to the pool.

I just love the celebration of the 4th of July here at New Tribes. Lots of families come down to the pool to celebrate, swim and hang out. Our kids had a blast swimming so late in the evening.

Love this picture - all of the older kids of the Whites and Mateers

Anna and Kara

Sparklers!

 Then after it was good and dark, we watched the fireworks. 

What a wonderful, wonderful way to celebrate the freedoms we have in this country. Happy Birthday, America!

Watermelon Run

Every summer, we try to set some goals of things we would like to do in the summer or things we would like to learn. This summer, Sarah decided she wanted to run in a 5K. Joshua also said he wanted to run in one. So, we found the Watermelon 5K in our area and thought that just might fit the bill.

Yesterday, Joshua, Sarah and I ran in the Watermelon Run in Winter Park, FL. It is a fun run (not timed) and they had free watermelon and snow cones afterward. What a fun way to start out the 4th of July! We were there with 4000+ other people running in a 5K celebrating our nation's independence. It was a lot of fun.

Sarah and I with the watermelon as our "smiles" after the run

Sarah saw this picture and she said, "I look tired!"
She did a great job for her first 5K!!

Joshua and Sarah after the race.
Josh didn't run with us (he is way too fast for us!)  but we all finished!
It was great fun.

A wonderful start to our 4th of July

Happy Independence Day!

Change

I don't know anyone who LOVES change. Somehow it seems scary to us. Yet, change is not a bad thing. Sometimes the Lord has to change our surroundings, our job, our security, so that we rely on Him. Sometimes He brings about change for us to have the chance to grow.

We know that there are changes on our horizon. Perhaps changes coming very soon. About three weeks ago, Dave was contacted by a recruiter from Amazon.com. The original position was for Seattle, but then after talking they had another position in the DC area. Now, the interesting thing about that is that Dave was not actively pursuing employment outside of New Tribes, as of yet. Our house was pending a sale and we were kind of thinking we would wait until that was wrapped up. But, once he was contacted by the recruiter, we decided to go ahead and check out jobs in the Pittsburgh area, so that we would have something to compare the job in Virginia to. (Also, moving back to Pittsburgh is our first choice.) So, Dave did some research and sent out some more resumes to some companies in the Pittsburgh area.

Well, as I said all this happened about 3 weeks ago and so since this past Friday, Dave has had 3 interviews - two in Pittsburgh and one with Amazon - and today he had a second interview with one of the companies. So, all this to say, we have no idea what is going to be happening, but we feel like things are moving.

Speaking of moving, we are currently hoping to completely close tomorrow on selling our house that we had in Kentucky. Praise the Lord for that blessing as well. He has worked out so many details on our behalf and we are grateful.

Of course, we don't have any idea exactly when all these things are going to take place, but somehow it seems close. The Lord knows and His timing is always perfect. So we will just wait and see and continue to look to the Lord for His guidance and leading.

Gospel Coalition Women's Conference in Orlando

A couple of months ago, Dave saw on the Gospel Coalition's website that there was a woman's conference in Orlando and he really wanted me to go. It was a conference for women, but it was not about women. It was called "Here is Our God." It was excellent. Absolutely the best conference I have ever been to.

It was filled with speakers such as Don Carson (one of Dave's favorite teachers), Tim Keller, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Paige Brown, Kathleen Neilson and John Piper with music by Keith and Kristyn Getty. They took this trip starting in Exodus 19 with Mt. Sinai threading their way through Bible leading up to the culmination of history in Revelation. The journey showed the anticipation of looking ahead to Christ from the Old Testament and the supremacy of Christ in the New. Each speaker focused on a different passage. The first talk was on Exodus 19 (as I already said) and it was about "On the Mountain, the Terrifying and Beckoning God." Next we 'traveled" to 1 Kings 8 and learned about  "In the Temple, the Glorious and Forgiving God." This sessions was taught by Paige Bennet Brown and it was EXCELLENT! I had never heard her before. She was so versed in the scripture and also a very erudite speaker. I told Dave I had never considered seminary training as a way for women to learn how to equip other women in the Bible. She blew me away! After hearing her talk, I think I know what I want to be when I grow up. ;)

Then later, in the other sessions, we headed to Isaiah and then to the New Testament to see the thread of Christ as the bodily form of the holy, beckoning, and loving God of the Old Testament. The final 2 sessions were on Revelation and what we have to look forward to in the new heavens and the new earth. Absolutely incredible. I can't say enough about it.

Just an FYI, in a few weeks, ALL of the talks heard at the conference will be available for free download on the Gospel Coalition website: www.gospelcoalition.org. They are not up yet (I have checked), but they will be.

As I said, Keith and Kristyn Getty did the singing. It was EXCELLENT. It was neat because Kristyn actually led the 3500+ women who were present from all over the world in the worship times. What a neat thing to hear all these women sing together and a great reminder of the beautiful truth found in Revelation 7 "After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb." and in 
Revelation 5:9 And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll
    and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
    and with your blood you purchased for God
    persons from every tribe and language and people and nation."

Downtown Disney With a Few of our Favorite People

The kids and I went down to Downtown Disney today with some of our good friends down here. Free dinosaur dig at the T-Rex restaurant; free ghirardelli chocolate at the Ghirardelli store; and free boat rides around Downtown Disney.
Then there is the Lego store. Not a free stop, but a whopping-good time!

 Anna and Sam at the Dino Dig

 Tim also at the Dino Dig

 A few pictures of Anna and her good buddy

 two little princesses and a Disney princess

 (Yes, they have on matching outfits. Two cute-patooties!)

 The coolest picture of all - in front of the LEGO store

 on the boat

Then after we completely wore the kids out at Downtown Disney, we went to IKEA to complete the exhaustion. It was a very good time.

This was just one of those things that was on my "bucket list" to do before we left. It was a great day. So very thankful for all of our dear friends down here in Florida.

Summer Splash Party

OK, here is another blog about my Sarah. She has been wanting for a while to have a summer splash party with some of her girlfriends. She misses not getting to swim for her birthday (which is in December) so she asked to have some friends over to go swimming in the summer. Dave took the boys out Geocaching and Sarah and the girls went swimming. She sent out invitations and the whole thing. All but three of the little friends she invited were able to come. She even invited a friend for Anna to play with. It was very sweet. It seemed like a birthday party, but there were no presents. She enjoyed telling people it was to celebrate her half-birthday. It was a very fun day.

Sarah's "flip-flop" cookies.
(Thanks, Tracy, for the cute idea!!!!)

Sarah's cake that she decorated at our cake decorating class on Friday

the girls splashing around

perfect Florida picture

Anna and her buddy that Sarah invited for her

A great time was had by all!

The Best "Girl's Day" Ever

On Friday of last week Sarah and I had a special day together. We had scheduled a cake decorating class at JoAnn's Fabrics for Friday, but since we already had a friend watching the other children, we decided to make a day of it.

Sarah has been asking for several months (years?) to get her ears pierced. I have been putting it off because I was 13 when I got my ears pierced. It seemed like a major rite of passage to me. But, this past Friday we went and got her ears pierced at the local Piercing Pagoda at the mall. It was such a special time. She was so brave! She didn't even cry, but I did.

 Sarah getting ready for the big event

 Look closely - you can see the cute little earrings. She decided on her birthstone in the shape of small flowers. Very cute.

After we went and got her ears pierced, we went to Wendy's for lunch. She said that was her favorite place to go.

 Finally, we ended up at our special cake decorating class (for children). It was a fun and special day - just me and my oldest girl.

Joshua Spielberg, Take Two (or three or four...)

This is another one of my videos. It is about a secret agent named Robinson and he is trying to escape from a few bad guys. Watch this movie to find out the full story. (Well, not the full story, just part of it.)

Carefree Play Summer Days

A few years ago, my mom gave me a book by the name Carefree Play Summer Day. We are having a bit of our own summer fun today. Sarah had a friend invite her out to play American Girl Dolls and the rest of them were playing Romper Room. (Yes, they do have on their bicycle helmets. Romper Room in our Living Room can get pretty wild!)

Also, this summer we have had the pleasure of enjoying our pool. Plus, our local bowling alley is giving free bowling to the kids - one free game every day the whole summer. Our bowling alley even throws in free shoes. Last week we went bowling 3 times! This week has been really busy, so we haven't gone bowling so many times again.

What have we been busy with this week? Well, our dear friends the Whites know how to throw a great party and yesterday we had a movie day at their house. The older kids watched Hugo and the younger kids watched Miss Spider (an adaptation of a book) - both free from a library across the lake. (Unfortunately, our library locally does not provide free movies, but that's OK. One of the other girls who came brought the movies from her library.) There were about 16 kids and 6 moms. We had popcorn, candy and drinks for the kids to "buy" with green "dollars" made from construction paper. It was a fun day.

Have I mentioned that I love summer just as much as the kids do?

The Flower Girl

Last weekend a friend from church got married. She is the pastor's daughter and she works in our nursery. She had the girls in the nursery be her flower girls, and one of them was our Anna. Katrina (the woman who was getting married) was so kind and thoughtful and even included Sarah to be the person in charge of the guestbook. It was a fun couple of days. (Although I will admit that I had no idea how tiring it was being the mother of a flower girl!!) We went up last Friday night for the Rehearsal and the Rehearsal dinner and then back up on Saturday for the wedding. What a special and joyous occasion.

This picture was at the dress rehearsal - 

all of the flower girls wore pink, but it wasn't even planned!

Sarah and Anna before the wedding

 the flower girls admiring the dress before Katrina got married

(OK, I admit it - this one was one of the professional photographers picture that I "caught" from behind him!)

 the bride and Anna

Anna going down the aisle

 Anna and her best buddy 

What a sweet and joyful day!

Not a Free Donut Day

In case you didn't know, today (June 1st) is National Free Donut day at Krispie Kreme. I love Krispie Kreme. Somehow it brings back nice childhood memories of the glazed donuts kids in our neighborhood sometimes sold as a fund raiser for school. When Dad or Mom would buy them, we would enjoy them early on Saturday morning. YUMMY!

Well, here in Florida, our closest Krispy Kreme is about 35 minutes away. Not exactly next door when gas is so expensive. So, the kids and I went to a really close Dunkin Donuts and just bought a 1/2 dozen for them to enjoy. Enjoy it they did!

Deep thoughts about completing 4H books

Today my children turned in their 4H books to show what we have done in 4H this year. They did such a great job on this! I was so proud of how they incorporated the different things they had learned throughout the book. I wish I could publish the whole book on this site, but you'll have to take my word for it that it was a neat accomplishment.

My friend Bonnie and I were talking about the books the other day (her son is doing one too) and we were talking about how gratifying it was for us to see all that our little 4H group accomplished too. Sometimes our meetings were kind of chaotic, but it was so neat to see in one place all the things we completed. So, here are my deep thoughts about our 4H books:
Sometimes my life seems chaotic too. Sometimes I don't have a clean house, the kids argue, or things just don't go like I plan. It is hard to see what in the world I could possibly be accomplishing in this crazy life. Yet, I pray, that by God's grace, at the end of my life, the Lord will show me these things I was trying to do really did have an impact. I pray that He will open the books of my children's lives and show me, "You know what? All those prayers were answered. Here is the book of your children's life. It wasn't wasted time. Look at what I have accomplished through you." I pray that He takes these little lives that He has so graciously given me and HE makes them into the people that He wants them to be. That their lives become trophies for HIM. That is my prayer and the hope of my life.

It is also my deep thoughts about those 4H books. :)

Happy Memorial Day

We are so blessed in this country with the freedoms that we enjoy. I am so thankful for the many, many soldiers who have given their lives for the freedoms that we have. I found myself wiping tears away yesterday as we were celebrating with parades, hearing the national anthem, seeing the flags, and enjoying fellowship with friends because I am so thankful that we can. We can worship freely on Sundays - without threat of persecution. So many of our brothers and sisters in Christ cannot do that! One of our pastors often prays for our country, our leaders and that our freedoms may endure. He takes his prayer from 1 Timothy 2: 1-6

"First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kinds and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and Men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time."

The kids and I did enjoy a fun parade in Sanford in the morning. This is us waiting for the parade to start.

Then we went over to Memorial Park where Sarah's friend from New Tribes was singing the National Anthem with another girl from NTM. They did great! It was fun to see her sing it. 

Then, in the afternoon, we went over to our dear friend's from church to enjoy fellowship and some yummy grilling!