Duluth

This is the view of Lake Superior from the house where we stayed!

We had a wonderful time visiting with Great Lakes Church in Duluth, MN. The congregation has such a passion and excitement for serving the Lord. The praise and worship was wonderful - you could definately sense the presence of the Lord as the church sang, "There's no God like Jehovah!" Kevin delivered a great message and then began to pray for specific needs as he felt the Lord was leading. At the end of the service the pastor gave oppportunity for testimonies and people shared of how they had received healings - even restored hearing in a deaf ear! I wish I had more time to write - I could share so much! The hospitality was excellent, the house we stayed at was beautiful and it had a wonderful view of Lake Superior. Thanks to Phil and Kathy for treating us so special while were there!

We are continuing to pray for God's guidance on this one!

The girls had a wonderful time with my mom and dad. It was nice for them to have the younger two. I guess Rach really took on the "Big Sis" role. She can never do that when Jord is around! Rach has already asked me when would be the next time that they could stay there without the rest of us!

In other news, we found another praying mantis yesterday! We gave it away to another family in our homeschool group so that they could watch this interesting insect devour other insects! We are also gearing up around here for Election Night. At this time, we are planning a "party" (immediate family only). I took a book with us on the trip about the whole Election Process, the job of a President and different aspects of the government. Zach, Jord and I made it through the book on the never-ending roads of Wisconsin. We are now prepared to track the Electoral College on Election night to see who will become the next president! We plan to order pizza, stay up late and take the day off school on Wed.

Do you think we will know who the next Pres. is by Wed? I have this feeling that there will be alot of voting issues that will hold up the results.

This Friday night our church is having "Family Fun Nite". So, if you live around here we would love for you to come. Candy, games, crafts & prizes! No cost! We hope to see you there!

Homeschool group is tomorrow morning and Friday afternoon our group meets at Sports Ohio for indoor games and blow-ups!

I pray you all are having a wonderful week,

Stace

We're On Our Way!

We are just about to pull out of Kellerman Ct. We're headed to Kokomo first to drop off two little girls and then quickly getting back on the road for a whirlwind trip across through "cheese country" and back. Should be fun! We had to rent a van, because we were not sure that our "ole dependable" would make it. The girls have been it the Chevy Uplander all morning ready to go. They come in periodically to see if we're ready yet. Everything is clean, everything is packed! I'm waiting on Kevin to send a few e-mails and reports for work.
Keep us in prayer as we travel and the little girls as they are with my mom and dad. Most of all, that God would speak to our hearts about this ministry opportunity.
Thanks to Aunt Alma and Shelli for taking all the kids last night so we could pack and clean. Also, thanks to our neighbors for keeping our dog, feeding our bunny and taking our praying mantis in (that's the hard one to take care of because you have to find fresh, live bugs for it to eat everyday).
I'll update soon!
Love you all,
Stace

Here are the Family Pictures!

Well, here they are the family pictures for the year. I bought the dresses at Kohl's around the 4th of July - can you tell? With the dog or without the dog? What do you all think?

Our "news" is that we are going to Duluth, Minnesota for the weekend to visit a church there. Kevin was asked to candidate for the Sr. Pastor position by the Elder Board and after completing a questionarre and a phone interview they have asked him to come and preach this Sunday. I know you are all thinking - where in the world is Duluth? Almost to Cananda, I think! Not really, but it is to the far reaches of the north! At this point, we are trusting God to CLEARLY speak to us about this ministry opportunity. Please pray that as we travel there this weekend that God will clearly show us if this is where we are supposed to be.

We are going to leave Rachel and Abby with my mom and dad - Kokomo is on the way - and pick them up on our way back! Zach and Jord are traveling with us.

Well, there is alot to be accomplished around here before this big weekend trip - does it seem like we are always going on a trip around here? I'll keep everyone posted!

Thanks for praying!

Stacy

Family Pictures

We are having family pics taken today. The outfits we are wearing are ones that I picked out this summer. I have made the appointment 3 times now and finally, I think we are going today!
I had to cancel when Abby got that huge black eye and then again because of sickness, so hopefully today is the day.

I have news to share about a trip we are taking this weekend, but I will have to get to that later because I do not have enough time right now - I have 3 little girl heads of hair to do for pictures!

Our New Pet

How quickly the week can go by -- a couple days ago we found a praying mantis right outside our front door. We immediately found a container for him and began looking up information about this insect on the Internet. We have captured these before, but have never kept them very long. This time we have found a small aquarium to put him in, with grass, rocks and small tree branches. The kids are spending time in the afternoon and evening looking for bugs to feed him. Crickets have been the food of choice recently, although there are plenty of those "lady bug" beetles around right now as well. It is so interesting to watch him eat his prey alive! A little disgusting to watch, but all in the name of science. Zach just started a unit on invertebrates, so this capture is perfect. Jord calls him "Shirley" - not sure why!

We have had a good week of school and Rach is starting to put together 3 letter words. Zach is studying Canada, and Jord has been actually enjoying some creative writing. Abby loves toothpaste, gum and chapstick - that is what she is always getting into. She also loves to be a part of school likes to have her own books to work on while everyone else is working.

The temps have changed here - 60 degrees today - still not bad and we still haven't turned on the heat. It did get kinda cold last night and I covered the girls up several times, but Rach and Abby still crawled in my bed this morning crying, "we're cold, we're cold". They were a little chilled but not too bad. Maybe I'll dress them warmer tonight.

Tomorrow we may hit a pumpkin patch and run a few errands. The Buckeye game is a must for us in the afternoon and while we watch the game we are going to put together shoe boxes for children/orphanages that will go to the Bahamas at Christmas time.

I'm thinking of an Election Night Party - just for our family. Zach & Jord are the only ones able to grasp the concept and stay up a little later. I've seen some great ideas such as maps of the US to be colored in as the candidate wins that state and keeping track of the Electoral votes as well on your maps - what a great way to learn/reinforce the location of each state. I also ordered a book about the whole election process that I would like to start looking at - I'm not sure how excited they will be, but I'm sure the promise of a late night, popcorn and soda could force them have enthusiasm.
I pray everyone has a great weekend,
Love to you all,
Stace

More pics- Brown County & Birds

The first 2 pics are from Brown County - The kids enjoyed a some catch with my dad and the other picture is of the lake that we our trail took us by - isn't it beautiful the way the trees are reflected on the water ? The other 2 pictures are from Luke's "4th" birthday party. The bird was flying around and kept landing on Savannah's head. Kevin would love to have a bird again someday.........
We made it home from our weekend trip and everyone today is feeling tired and a little under the weather with some sore throats and coughs. I think I handed out medicine to almost everyone at some point throughout the night. Rachel is the only one who did not wake up last night. She may be the only one to go to AWANA tonight.
I just want to note that the weather we have had around here has been wonderful. The weekend temps were in the high 70's t0 low 80's and it will be the same around here today!
We have not had heat or air on for almost 3 weeks now - At least we won't be dreading the electric bill yet.

Brown County State Park

Our Weekend Getaway has taken us to Brown County, Indiana. The first picture is of the cottage where we are staying. The deck/porch is wonderful and has served as our dining room for meals. The 2nd picture of the loft bedroom where the kids are sleeping - they think it is so cool to be sleeping up there.
Today we headed to the State Park where we took on horseback riding! Rach and Abby rode ponies around a track (led by Nana and Pappy), while Kevin, Zach, Jord and I took on a 30 minute ride on a trail through the park. Needless to say, we all have sore "cheeks" tonight! The horses know the routine very well, but I seemed to have a horse that was finished working for day and kept wanting to go her own way. Jord's horse picked up some speed on an uphill climb and it scared her a little bit, but other than that, it was a great experience for us all!
After horses, we headed off to find a good spot for lunch - the park is huge and there were so many beautiful spots - I'll put some of those pics in my next blog - I could only get 5 in on this one. After lunch, we found a trail that seemed easy enough for us and headed off to tackle "trail #6". We had made leaf journals at home and spent some time while we were on the trail collecting different leaves to bring home to put in our journals.
Exhausted, we headed back to our cottage for some rest and dinner. We spent the night playing games on the deck and the kids enjoyed taking a bath in the jacuzzi tub!

On the job front, after having 2 weeks with very few orders - Kevin has gotten in 20 orders this week and has been trying to fit in some work while we've been here. This is why I am able to blog tonight - he brought his laptop and I have taken it over at least for now - I think he wants it back!

Happy Birthday to Papaw! We look forward to sharing some Pumpkin Pie with you soon!

Weekend Getaway

We are off on a weekend getaway! We are meeting my parents in Brown County, Indiana close to the State Park - we have a cabin rented! We have trails to hike, horses to ride and leaves to collect - we have made "leaf journals" that we are taking to collect our leaves in and label them! It sounds like fun to me - Well, we are packing the van now and getting ready to head out so
I'll post pictures when we get back!

Our First Commercial

The Brown kids have made their first commercial for Redeemer's Church Westerville. The commercial is promoting their Family Fun Night (alternative to Halloween). Just thought you all would get a kick out of seeing it. For those of you that live close - you are all welcome to come!
(view the clip at the bottom of the post)

We had a great weekend - a movie night, a grocery run, a birthday party, a Buckeye game, church and another birthday party. Tonight is AWANA. A few of us moms on the street are taking turns keeping the little ones while the older ones are at AWANA. Last Monday was our turn, so Abby will go to a neighbors while the others are at AWANA. I almost don't know what to do with my hour and a 1/2. Cleaning or running errands I guess!

Today we are taking a Science and History Day! Zach has a Tree Project that the rest of his classmates finished last week, so he is working hard to finish his display board and gather all of his samples and facts about "Elm Trees". Jord just needs to catch up and make sure that knows her early American History facts - especially about Jamestown. She is taking a Human Body class at our homeschool group that is what her first unit in Science is all about so I just need to sit down with her and make sure that she is understanding it all! Rachel is also doing Human Body with the homeschool group so she will sit in on my time with Jord. She is also sitting here beside me now asking me how to spell words - she is trying her best to sound them out.
We are also doing some chores - cleaning bunny cage, basement clean-up and still continuing to clean up the closet mess from last week. We'll see just how much we get done today. It's easy to make a list, but getting everything crossed off is the hard part.

Enjoy the Clip!

Pics - Finally!

Here are some pics that I have been meaning to put on here for a while now.

The first one is of Abby when she had her asthma attack and had to use the mask - it's supposed to look like an elephant face and trunk!

The others are of the Hurrican Ike winds that we hit here a couple weeks ago - we had Ellie and Noah that weekend - Look at the girls hair blowing in the wind!

And then there is our dog and bunny being such good friends!

We had homeschool group classes today so everyone is tired and watching TV right now. The girls are going to see Charlotte's Web tonight at the Children's Theatre. Julie & Ellie Long are going, as well as Teresa, Savannah and Luke. My girls are going with Memaw because I have Praise and Worship practice tonight that I had forgotten about, so Memaw stepped in and saved the day!

Changing over the Closets

Well, it's October 1st and it's chilly here. I just barely had the windows cracked today and the girls have been complaining of cold feet all day. We will have to get in the habit of wearing socks again. Today has been putting the flip-flops away, getting out the jackets and changing over to fall/winter clothes. Alot of trying things on around here today - in between school. Somehow we still managed to get almost all schoolwork done - and Jordan started division today!
My upstairs hallway is lined with clothes - what of Jord's goes to Rach and what of Rach's goes to Abby and what will not fit Abby - as well as the summer piles that need to be stored and Abby's that are too small and can be gotten rid of. I will not get to Zach until the weekend probably. It takes the girls a long time to try things on and they have to go look at everything in the mirror! The washer has been going all day - it started with my bedding (because some little 2 yr. old likes to play with the toothpaste and squirted it out on my bed) along with all the pants and shirts we are pulling out from totes in the basement.
I think it is supposed to get back up into the mid-70's the first of next week and we will be digging for a pair of shorts!
Happy Fall!