Glimpses of our June...

We are chugging through these summer months all too quickly! Ours has been a little different, considering I've been in a cast for the last seven and a half weeks. I thought time would slow down a bit, but it hasn't. Here we are at July 3rd!


The very happy green cast :-)

The first Saturday in June, our young adults hosted a church picnic/going-away-party for our neighbors and friends, Rob and Stephanie. They were with us for a couple of years while Rob attended school here in Lima. We are going to miss them, but we know that they achieved their goals here and they are excited to get back to their Florida home.

We've fallen in love with their kids, too.  It'll be a little different not to see their smiles peeking through the blinds or over the back fence when we pull into our driveway each day!
 



 

Austin found a snake in the park. All boy.  :-)

On the 10th my mom took the girls and I to Cincinnati for a quick overnight trip.  Mom and I had a mtg at the Bible College campus the next day, so the girls were able to spend some extra time with their great-grandma, aunt, and cousins.  It was my first trip out of town since my injury, and I was nervous.  It ended up being a lot of fun, and it was SO good to get out for a few hours!

This is Allison's trademark look these days.  She thinks she's so
funny.  Here she is with a Skyline coney in her mouth.  :-)

 

It's hard to believe that my grandmother's cancer diagnosis came almost a year ago.  She seems to be doing very well, and we are so thankful for another year that God has given us with her!

 



On Father's Day weekend, we took our RV to Frankfort, IN to set it up for youth camp.  That night was a trial run for me to see if I would be able to navigate the steps and be able to live in it for two weeks!  We ended up getting into Frankfort super late, and ended up sleeping in the RV in WalMart's parking lot.  The kids always enjoy that...lol. 

The next morning Greg quickly set everything up and we traveled the 150 miles back home to get to a graduation party.  Congratulations to three of my former students (Ashley, Nathan, and Jennifer) who all graduated from college this spring.  They are siblings, so it kinda worked out well for their parents!  :-)

Father's Day 2013 - So thankful for my husband who is on a daily quest to be God's man...

Early the next morning, we headed back to Frankfort to begin PYC '13.  This was Evan's first year to be a camper, and he was so excited.  My sister and her husband were able to spend the week there with the Bible college group, so that was a huge help for me - thanks, Valerie! 

Frank Heidler (Pennsylvania) was our youth camp evangelist.  We had approx. 170 campers and the presence of God saturated the place.  The final night service began with a preservice at 6:30, followed by a worship service at 7:00.  Traditionally, there is a "banquet" after the final service and then skits and comedy that continue until midnight or so.  This year, however, the worship service didn't wrap up until about 11:45.  There were several altar services, and our teens were blessed to experience God and express their worship in a way many had not previously.  5 hours is a long time for anyone to be in church, but I didn't hear a single complaint.  Isn't it funny how God's presence completely changes things?

Apparently I should have had them turn away from the sun.  :-)

 

My nieces had fun in the camper

As well as a certain little guy named Prince

  



 

I was sitting outside the camper one evening, and the next thing I knew, something plopped onto my shirt. Surprised, I yelled, "It pooped on me!"  My sister and I laughed till we almost cried.  By the way, it's considered good luck to have a bird choose to poo on you.  :-)

 

 

One of our pastor's wives provides a VBS type format for all the kids through age 11 who are too young for youth camp.  Kait and Alli had lots of fun participating in that, and they were thrilled to have the rest of the day to play, play, play! 

 

Our youth camp and church camp are back to back, so although it can be tiring, we enjoy spending that two week block of time away.  Greg was able to join us for the entire 10 days of family camp again this year. 

 

Our church's job for the 1st half of camp

 

And we celebrated a birthday during church camp! 

 



 

Thanks for the accessories, Sherry!
He failed to hold up his pink
'Happy Birthday Princess' balloon! 

Our friends, Jerry and Becky Glick, provided music at the camp.
Since their children live close, we were blessed to have them sing, as well!

Rev. Harold Jackman is one of our pastors from Illinois. He
will celebrate 50 years at his church this coming fall.  I gave him
a ride to his camper on my golf cart...it was so cute.  He loved it!

 

Allison with some friends...and her signature "crossed eyes" pose.
That's gotta stop.  :-)

 

Kaitlynn and a couple of friends camped out in a tent.
Vanessa (middle) is the daughter of one of my best high
school buds, Annette (Hart) Forsee.  We can't have kids this age, can we?
Carissa Line is on the left.

 I didn't have my camera out a whole lot this month, so I'm impatiently waiting for www.midwestphc.org to publish some camp photos.  I think our youth camp photographer took over 1,000 per day!

 

Anyway, that's the wrap on June.  I hope you are having a fantastic summer!

 

If You're In The Area...

Register for VBS HERE!

Update on Stephanie

Click here

May 2013 Awards

For the last couple of years, our Women of Worth group has had our May meeting at a steakhouse. For many years we did a large mother/daughter banquet, but May is such a full month and many of us were so crazy busy that it was almost overwhelming to add in yet another event. This year a few of us brought our little gals. A little guy made it in, as well. :-) They had so much fun!

Paul, Sallie, Allison, Halie, Kaitlynn

Add in Emilee

Ryan played a trumpet solo at the Awards Program.  He has
an awesome teacher, and we are so happy that he has progressed
so much in the last 5 months!

Had I been able to move around a little better, this pic would
have been a little less busy.  :-)  If you can decipher the
4 kids standing with me, they are my piano students.  They
each played pieces at the Awards Program.  So proud of them!

These two ladies, Marea and Brenda, are my
co-workers.  I'm so blessed to spend my days
with them doing something we are all totally
passionate about!

This year marked the end of my 15th year of teaching at PCS. I can't believe it - it happened so fast! The school honored me with a beautiful wooden plaque (P. Graham Dunn, if you're familiar), and a large gift bag full of notes from the students. Many were handmade, and made me laugh and cry at the same time. :-) Those will be treasured forever. There were also some notes from parents and gift cards for me to spend this summer. Our reception theme was western, and we had a bbq with all the fixins'. Knowing my love of anything chocolate (the darker the better), they ordered a cake that would tame any chocolate lover's sweet tooth! We finished up the night by watching videos from Student Convention. You can view those on You Tube under Rooster Cuts. Good stuff.

Another year is in the books, and before we know it we'll be starting all over again. So thankful that God has blessed our family and helped us through the year. Giving our kids a Christian education isn't the least expensive option (at least not financially), and it's certainly not always seemingly the easiest, but God is blessing and rewarding our efforts. We are seeing spiritual growth and depth in our kids more than ever before, and they are developing foundations that are strong, consciences that are sensitive and tender, and hearts that are passionate about focusing on things that are "true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report." (Phil. 4:8) One of our goals as parents is for our children to be "...wise to that which is good, and simple concerning evil." (Rom. 16:19) We are not ashamed or embarassed about the fact that we don't want our children to get doses (however large or small) of evolutionary "science", revisionist "history", or moral relativism. I commented to Greg the other day that I've never seen a time where people are calling good evil and evil good like they are today. It's just unbelievable how wicked our society has become. Anyone who doesn't think so should seriously get their head out from under a rock and take a look at the things that are affecting us in every corner of this great nation. I say that tongue in cheek, but honestly, our ignorance about our national condition will be our demise. Now that school is out, we are just taking a few days to enjoy the slower pace and prepare for all the fun that summer will bring. Enjoy the sunshine if you are lucky enough to have it today. Things are bright and beautiful here in Lima!

Update on Stephanie's Condition

I hadn't originally planned to share these photos, but I guess it never hurts to shed some pride.  :-)  My first dr visit was Friday afternoon.  I'm so incredibly blessed by the fact that my husband delivers 5 days a week to a large medical park known as Orthopaedic Institute of Ohio. Their foot specialist did my surgery, and I am able to have any follow up along with therapy, etc., there at the institute.  Because of Greg's "connection" (that's what the employees there called it), I was able to get the surgeon that Greg wanted and he came in at 8:30 p.m. the day of my injury to do the almost two hour procedure. 

Before Friday, I hadn't been in OIO.  It's a pretty impressive place, and everyone was so kind.  They love my husband, so they already liked me, too.  Nice perk.  :-)  The head of therapy spent a little time helping me to learn to go up steps backwards on one foot, and he attempted to help me with crutches.  After spending a little time wobbling around with the crutches, we were both convinced I should stick with the walker. 
After saying, "Hi!  It's so nice to meet you, too!" what felt like a thousand times, I finally made it into the exam room and they removed my cast.  The plan was to remove the stitches, but there was still too much swelling.  I could only imagine what was under that cast.  As soon as the sweet girl removed it, Greg let out a small gasp along with an, "Oh my goodness!" and immediately began taking pictures.  I couldn't see it at that point, and I was expecting the worst.  The pictures really don't show the full amount of bruising and swelling that were still present, but you'll get the idea.  It ain't purdy...

I have two screws on the inside right ankle.

Dr. Briggs inserted a plate on the outside right ankle.
Allison asked Greg if they had told me about the pan in my leg.
She was talking about the plate, but by the size
of this incision, it may have actually been a pan.  :-)

I have to say that after 2 weeks, it felt great to get the cast off and at least have a minute for the leg to breathe.  While it was off, I went to x-ray and moved around a bit there getting pictures.  After the dr checked things out and compared the x-rays, he explained how things were healing and gave me a great report.  The cast tech gave me a lime green cast (my request) which I will wear until June 4th.  At that point they will hopefully be able to remove the stitches and put on another cast that I will wear for a few more weeks.  I'm not sure whether that one will be hot pink or purple...the votes are still coming in.  :-)

Who knew that a little stumble could do this kind of damage?!  There's so much involved in the healing process and it's changed our world quite a bit.  I'll be blogging my thoughts about that here.
I'm so thankful for all the friends that God has sent along to help carry our load and brighten my days.  What a blessing they are!