tulips!

When we bought our house, the previous owners had mentioned that there were tulips around the tree in the front yard. Andrea was super excited about this since her favorite flower is the tulip. So, we had been waiting in anticipation of the blooming of these tulips. So, we'd like to share a little of the color in our yard!

This little [big] guy is one of many culprits in our yard. We have several rabbits running around and were hoping they would stay out of our tulips.

Thankfully the rabbits stayed out and these are our wonderful tulips...about 50-100 of them!

These pictures were taken a few weeks ago, so our grass is greener and other plants/trees are currently flowering.

Andrea wanted to cut some and bring them inside to enjoy.

Andrea's birthday

Andrea's birthday was a couple weeks ago on a Friday. So Joe had planned some fun outings for Friday and Saturday for us to do. On Friday, we went to Starved Rock State Park and did some hiking. On Saturday, we went to an outlet mall near Champaign, IL to go shopping for the day. We had a blast, as usual..and these are some pictures to prove it:

This was traveling on Saturday to the outlet mall. We basically shopped til we dropped. Then we got some Amish goods [salsa and peanut butter sauce]. We also at Texas Roadhouse that night for dinner...Andrea's favorite.

We ate at this rootbeer stand in Oglesby, IL near Starved Rock. We saw it when we traveled toward the park and decided to eat there for dinner afterward. It was definitely an experience and the rootbeer was delicious!


The remainder of the pictures are from Starved Rock. The park is located next to the Illinois River and is composed of lots of sandstone. Thus, many canyons and waterfalls have been created over time. We had a blast exploring the canyons and trails, with only one scary moment of scrambling across a drop-off.

concert..

Andrea and I went to a concert a few weeks back called WinterJam. It was a concert that included several Christian rock bands including Newsboys, 10th Avenue North, and Third Day. We went with Andrea's sister and husband, Jill and Glenn and their two girls Ellie and Ava. The concert was here in town in Normal at the university.

Us at the concert

Andrea and Jill at the concert

Glenn and Jill

Andrea and our nieces Ava and Ellie

Spring Break 2010

We have been so busy lately it just seems like we don't have time to do anything extra such as updating our blog. Hopefully it will become better updated in the future.

We went to Berlin, Germany for a weeklong trip for our ministry with Campus Crusade for Christ. We took 7 students with us to connect with other CCC staff in Berlin and to help reach out to the students on some campuses in the city. We had such a great time learning the culture and history of the city and being able to be a vessel for God while we were there. Here are some pictures from the week:

Us at a coffee shop-chocolate dessert drink and crepes!

In front of Humboldt University-once where Einstein taught..back in the day.

Joe enjoying a German feast...pork knuckle, saurkraut, potatoes, and mashed peas!

Laying on beds in an atomic bomb shelter in the city.

Trying on a HUGE backpack.

Waiting at a train station.

Waiting at a train station..some of the ladies with us.

The Brandenburg Gate

The Berlin Wall

One of the many bears around the city.

Bricks lying where the Berlin Wall once stood.

Our first night in Berlin...currywurst and fries!

Projects, Projects, Projects...

Well, God finally blessed us with the house on O'Reilly Ct. We moved in on January 30th with the help of family, friends, and students. It's been nearly 2 weeks now since we've been in the house and it's beginning to feel like home. Since moving in though, there have been lots of projects to do.

The first project entailed painting a pink bedroom which ended up being our office. The gray walls and ceiling are much better than the pink. Joe has also begun to replace the doorknobs and deadbolts to the exterior doors-4 doors to be exact. That project, which we thought would be short (about 30 minutes per door per the instructions) has taken much longer-and is still not complete.

We bought some new furniture for the basement including a sectional and ottoman. We also bought a kitchen table, but have yet to buy chairs for that table.

Joe has become very well acquainted with The Home Depot which is right around the corner, thankfully! He has bought paint, tools, storage bins, shelves, etc. He has also been enjoying blowing the snow off the driveway and sidewalk with the snowblower from Andrea's parents.

We definitely feel blessed to be in this home, but seem to be very tired every night. Andrea is having some female students over tonight for a slumber party. It's such a joy to be able to use this house for ministry and for God's Kingdom!

Crazy..wow..what?!?!

Yep..the title sums up our life as of recent. The Christmas season is always busy with us trying to visit family in Ohio and our annual conference with Campus Crusade for Christ in Indianapolis, IN. But, within the past month we have added to the craziness in our life.

We are becoming homeowners for the first time in our life! We found a wonderful house in Normal, IL as we began casually searching for houses in the area. We fell in love with it, the location, the possibilities for our family and ministry, and following the Lord's direction. We quickly went through the process of purchasing the home and will close on the house on January 28th! Here is the house:

We are very excited for the future possibilities of working with the college students! We plan on moving January 30th! Pray for good weather!

Also on the agenda was Joe having surgery on January 8th on his wisdom teeth. Thankfully everything went smoothly and he hasn't had any problems thus far-not even swelling!

Thanks for all of your prayers!

Make a bee-line for tree-line...

More Colorado... more hiking... more adventure. We had a day off while at national staff conference and took advantage of the day by going on a long hike. We went with some of our good friends and headed out at 4:30am for Rocky Mountain National Park. For some reason, I never get car sick anywhere, but when heading to the Park. Two years ago, I felt super nauseous... and this time.. not too good.. As we drove around this snaking road up and around and really high, I decided I should probably get out briefly to help with the car sickness - just to walk around. Instead I got out, took ten steps, and ended up throwing-up. Not what I was planning... before a 11 mile hike.

Eventually, we made it to the trail head for Mt. Ida. It was pretty neat as we knew we would hike some of the Continental Divide. It started as a beautiful day and super cold.. so cold we wished we would of had gloves. We hiked and hiked and hiked.. and almost all had some form of altitude sickness.. and got pretty wore out from the elevation change. For much of the time, we were above tree-line...which basically means, no trees.. but on this trail it also meant, no nothing... for most of the time (not even rocks). The reason I tell you this now, is there is quite a story later where I will mention the tree-line.

The nothing-ness above tree-line...

So, pretty tired.. we kept trekking for the summit. As we were getting higher and higher, we noticed more and more clouds and were getting more and more hungry... and less and less energy... and feeling the effects of altitude sickness. We saw several people going back down and advising us they were turning around because they didn't like the look of the clouds. They didn't want to get caught above tree-line in a storm. We weren't at the summit yet, but knew we needed some added energy and decided to eat. We made a group decision that indeed the clouds didn't look good and even though we were like a 1/4 mile from the summit that we should take others' advice and head back down the mountain. Oh, and the reason we left so early in the morning is because you want to summit and get back below tree-line before 2ish, because storms can blow in quickly and you don't want to get stuck above tree-line, because as I mentioned before... there is nothing.. no trees.. and in our case no rocks... no nothing. So, you are basically the tallest thing for miles and thus lightning can strike you way more easily.

So, back down we headed... and lo and behold in blew the storm.. way earlier than most storms typically blow-in above tree-line. It began with rain, which I could handle. Then it began hailing... and hailing.. and hard hailing.. and then I heard it.. the loudest crack of thunder in my life and down I fell. No.. I didn't get struck by lighting.. but knew lighting and thunder tangoed and knew that I was the tallest thing for miles.. and so my body reacted to that truth by falling instantaneously after the thunder. I have a good bruise to prove it.


I was scared.... yup.. really scared. Praise the Lord that I have the greatest husband ever, who immediately started claiming Bible verses and praying. We were literally face-down on the side of the mountain giving adoration to the Lord, praying that He would protect us, protect our friends (who are pregnant), and spare our lives. Joe told me later that he was the most scared he ever was in his life.. but knew I needed him and so didn't act scared. We finally arose after what seemed like the longest 15 minutes in my life. Then we ran... ran.. ran so fast... even though 20 minutes prior we all thought we were so tired that we couldn't walk another step. God gave us His strength and adrenaline. We ran almost all the way down.. it took us 2 hours to get down the mountain when it had taken us 5 hours to get up! We were freezing from the hail and pooped.. but so thankful for the Lord's protection!