Monday, August 31, 2009
Matthew
We didn't want to leave Matthew out so here's a few photos that Anna-Marie took of him. She had a photography lesson a while ago from a friend and wanted to practice some things. Matthew was a willing model, he got all dressed up and then marched around seminary posing for her.
School
School starts tomorrow for the kids. Dorothy Sayers changed their uniform policy on us this year so we had to go out and buy new uniforms for the girls but they do look smart. Joel has to wear this shirt and tie which makes us laugh as unlike Matthew he hates to dress up.
Joel with a funny look on his face because he is looking at his Latin book.
Joel with a funny look on his face because he is looking at his Latin book.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Lemonade Stand
It is a very American thing to have a lemonade stand at some stage in the summer. Joel and Matthew along with two of the boys from next door set this one up outside our houses. They did really well and actually made $10 each, $40 in all! They also sold 'Walking Sticks' which was just bamboo cut from a plant at seminary :-).
Abandoned Kitten
We came home one Sunday from visiting friends in hospital to find this cute little kitten in a box with some food and water at our doorstep. Someone had just left it there! We were very unsure what to do with it as one of the girls who lives with us is allergic to cats and it is not practical for us to keep it. Our neighbours were able to take it which was great as we are still able to watch it grow.
Contemplating
I have been laying in bed contemplating a few truths:
Firstly God is good. He has been so faithful to provide our every need and His grace and mercy has covered all our sins, beyond my comprehension.
Now for some much less important truths:
no 1 - Mark still snores, although not as badly as he use to.
no 2 - The Hanson's (the Canadian family we helped move in yesterday) have a really nice coffee machine.
no 3 - I have very little will power when asked to join good friends for coffee even when it is not DECAF.
no 4 - I'm blogging at 2:30 am which may indicate that I am still very sensitive to CAFFEINE!!
no 5 - I must be in the mood to blog as this is my 4th post in less than 5 hours.
Firstly God is good. He has been so faithful to provide our every need and His grace and mercy has covered all our sins, beyond my comprehension.
Now for some much less important truths:
no 1 - Mark still snores, although not as badly as he use to.
no 2 - The Hanson's (the Canadian family we helped move in yesterday) have a really nice coffee machine.
no 3 - I have very little will power when asked to join good friends for coffee even when it is not DECAF.
no 4 - I'm blogging at 2:30 am which may indicate that I am still very sensitive to CAFFEINE!!
no 5 - I must be in the mood to blog as this is my 4th post in less than 5 hours.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
What have we been up to since Mum and Ashleigh's visit???
Good question. Here I am, still blogging Mum and Ashleigh's visit and it has been over a month since they left. We loved our time with them and were sad to see them go. We tried to talk Ashleigh into being home schooled and staying in America but she missed her family too much, aye Ashleigh :-).
Well, for the last month we have been trying to enjoy the last few weeks of summer. We went for several more trips to Kentucky Kingdom before the water park closed and have been able to spend time outdoors as we have had a very mild summer.
Rachel and Joel have started cross country training which has been going very well for Joel. He has been running 5-6 times a week sometimes running as much as 3 or 4 miles, (5 to 6 km). Rachel, however, has been having trouble with her knees. It has to do with the rate that she is growing and her tendons having trouble catching up with her bones. She is resting it at the moment and we are unsure at this stage whether she will be able to run.
We have also been busy getting to know a precious family from Canada, whom we met through our blog. They were looking for some information on Dorothy Sayers Classical School, where the girls went last year, and found our blog. They had just come back from 6 months travelling around New Zealand and were about to make the move down here to Southern Seminary so we became instant friends. It has been great to be able to minister to them in the same way that we were ministered to when we first arrived. We helped them move into a house today, our children get on really well, and we have a lot of fun talking about their time in NZ.
Talking about school, both the girls and Joel are attending Dorothy Sayers next year. Over the last few weeks we have been getting uniforms and sitting Math tests in preparation, stationary shopping still needs to be done and so does some more organising here at home. Matthew does not seem to mind the idea of it just being him and I for two days a week. He is looking forward to Mum time. I'm so blessed.
Mark however has not really had a summer break. The day after class finished in May he started working on his summer classes for his England/Scotland trip. He worked hard at the pool or for the housing department at seminary, or on class work until he left; and when he got back from the trip he had a huge amount of work to do. He worked hard but in the last week he still had 85 pages of books to read a day (not easy books to read), two book reports, a 7 page paper and two exams to do. He completed all this by 10pm on Sunday night and started fall classes at 8:00am on Monday morning, poor guy. He is looking forward to being done now and really does need a break from the books. He should be able to graduate in December, thank you Lord!
This semester Mark has a slightly lighter load than in the past, which is a nice way to finish. He has three classes; Systematic 3, Old Testament 2 and Applied Ministry. Applied Ministry is a class where he has to do at least 4 hours face to face ministry a week. He is going to do this by continuing to teach a Sunday School class on the family and by visiting the people in the class. I am excited about this as I get to be a part of it. We have always loved serving in this way in the past and it will be nice to be able to do it again.
Well now to the kids. Anna-Marie continues to do well. She had a pacemaker check not long ago and all is well. God still graciously provides for her health care needs through a foundation here. She is still riding horses and volunteering at the stable once a week. Her riding has really improved and she looks like quite the pro now. Anna-Marie enjoyed school last year and did really well, winning several awards for academic achievement. She is excited about school starting and loves to do homework. Her and Rachel also are having lots of opportunity to do some babysitting for several families in the church which they enjoy. She still reads a LOT and is best to live with when she has a good book. She did read several more theological books this summer, including 'Why Christians can't trust Psychology', 'Emotional Purity', 'Soul Searching' and 'Unveiling Islam' which was good for her.
As I mentioned earlier Rachel is having problems with her knee which is slowing her down physically. This is a little frustrating for her as she is still very athletic and enjoys being on the go most of the time. She is also enjoying the opportunity to babysit and is very good with young children. We sometimes call her the kid magnet! She is very patient and sweet with children and they enjoy her. We have a little girl next door who is eight and she has five brothers so Rachel sometimes invites her over for some 'girl time' and they watch a movie or bake together. She is not shy and will often introduce herself to someone new at church and chat away, we love that about her. She loves to read and we also asked her to read some more theological books this summer. She read 'Lies young women believe' and several others including the Left Behind series for teenagers. She also did really well at school last year and is looking forward to school but mainly to see her friends, I think.
Joel is looking forward to school. It will be a very new experience for him but he already knows several boys his age there through friends of the girls and through cross country. He will have a wear a tie which makes us laugh as unlike Matthew, he does not like to dress up. I will post some pics when the time comes. He is also great with little kids and him and Matthew get on most of the time and still enjoy lego and star wars. Their play has also become much more physical and they are often having stick fights out the back yard. Joel mows the lawns for us and is growing in responsibility, something that school will help quick start. He is a good runner and swimmer and we look forward to seeing how he does in the cross country meets. He also loves to read but as this summer was not too hot this year and we have 5 boys next door to play with he did not do so well with his summer reading.
Matthew continues to be the little boy who lights up many peoples worlds. He is still a chatter box and will chat away to anyone about anything which can be dangerous sometimes. He still makes us laugh a lot and comes out with cute sayings. He is also growing up though and is now quite the boy and really looks up to his Dad. He loves to play outside also but still loves to be the leader and for everyone to do what he wants to do, at all costs. He is really great with children younger than him. We had a family with three young boys around a few nights ago and he got the children's bible out and read stories to them and then explained them. I hope his theology was good. We decided not to put him into school this year as he is so social we could not imagine much work being done and he is at a great age academically for some one on one time. Even though he can not run with the team as he is not enrolled in Dorothy Sayers he has been training with them and has been running between 1 and 2 miles. He runs like he talks, with lots of bounce and energy.
I have been helping in a ministry at seminary this summer called the Attic. It is a place where people can drop donations, clothes, books, furniture, kitchen stuff. You name it, it's there. We sort through the donations and organise it, no easy task. It has been good and the children have been really helpful but I am not going to continue doing it through the semseter with still having all four children home to school three days a week and Matthew all five. I am enrolled in seminary wives again this semester and am taking Dr Mohler's class on Worldviews. I am excited about it but I am hoping that I will understand it. Anna-Maire is able to attend the class with me which will be good. Worldviews is a good thing to learn as a teenager.
Well that's our update, it has been awhile coming, I am sorry about that. Look forward to hearing what's going on in your world's. We would love to hear from you.
Well, for the last month we have been trying to enjoy the last few weeks of summer. We went for several more trips to Kentucky Kingdom before the water park closed and have been able to spend time outdoors as we have had a very mild summer.
Rachel and Joel have started cross country training which has been going very well for Joel. He has been running 5-6 times a week sometimes running as much as 3 or 4 miles, (5 to 6 km). Rachel, however, has been having trouble with her knees. It has to do with the rate that she is growing and her tendons having trouble catching up with her bones. She is resting it at the moment and we are unsure at this stage whether she will be able to run.
We have also been busy getting to know a precious family from Canada, whom we met through our blog. They were looking for some information on Dorothy Sayers Classical School, where the girls went last year, and found our blog. They had just come back from 6 months travelling around New Zealand and were about to make the move down here to Southern Seminary so we became instant friends. It has been great to be able to minister to them in the same way that we were ministered to when we first arrived. We helped them move into a house today, our children get on really well, and we have a lot of fun talking about their time in NZ.
Talking about school, both the girls and Joel are attending Dorothy Sayers next year. Over the last few weeks we have been getting uniforms and sitting Math tests in preparation, stationary shopping still needs to be done and so does some more organising here at home. Matthew does not seem to mind the idea of it just being him and I for two days a week. He is looking forward to Mum time. I'm so blessed.
Mark however has not really had a summer break. The day after class finished in May he started working on his summer classes for his England/Scotland trip. He worked hard at the pool or for the housing department at seminary, or on class work until he left; and when he got back from the trip he had a huge amount of work to do. He worked hard but in the last week he still had 85 pages of books to read a day (not easy books to read), two book reports, a 7 page paper and two exams to do. He completed all this by 10pm on Sunday night and started fall classes at 8:00am on Monday morning, poor guy. He is looking forward to being done now and really does need a break from the books. He should be able to graduate in December, thank you Lord!
This semester Mark has a slightly lighter load than in the past, which is a nice way to finish. He has three classes; Systematic 3, Old Testament 2 and Applied Ministry. Applied Ministry is a class where he has to do at least 4 hours face to face ministry a week. He is going to do this by continuing to teach a Sunday School class on the family and by visiting the people in the class. I am excited about this as I get to be a part of it. We have always loved serving in this way in the past and it will be nice to be able to do it again.
Well now to the kids. Anna-Marie continues to do well. She had a pacemaker check not long ago and all is well. God still graciously provides for her health care needs through a foundation here. She is still riding horses and volunteering at the stable once a week. Her riding has really improved and she looks like quite the pro now. Anna-Marie enjoyed school last year and did really well, winning several awards for academic achievement. She is excited about school starting and loves to do homework. Her and Rachel also are having lots of opportunity to do some babysitting for several families in the church which they enjoy. She still reads a LOT and is best to live with when she has a good book. She did read several more theological books this summer, including 'Why Christians can't trust Psychology', 'Emotional Purity', 'Soul Searching' and 'Unveiling Islam' which was good for her.
As I mentioned earlier Rachel is having problems with her knee which is slowing her down physically. This is a little frustrating for her as she is still very athletic and enjoys being on the go most of the time. She is also enjoying the opportunity to babysit and is very good with young children. We sometimes call her the kid magnet! She is very patient and sweet with children and they enjoy her. We have a little girl next door who is eight and she has five brothers so Rachel sometimes invites her over for some 'girl time' and they watch a movie or bake together. She is not shy and will often introduce herself to someone new at church and chat away, we love that about her. She loves to read and we also asked her to read some more theological books this summer. She read 'Lies young women believe' and several others including the Left Behind series for teenagers. She also did really well at school last year and is looking forward to school but mainly to see her friends, I think.
Joel is looking forward to school. It will be a very new experience for him but he already knows several boys his age there through friends of the girls and through cross country. He will have a wear a tie which makes us laugh as unlike Matthew, he does not like to dress up. I will post some pics when the time comes. He is also great with little kids and him and Matthew get on most of the time and still enjoy lego and star wars. Their play has also become much more physical and they are often having stick fights out the back yard. Joel mows the lawns for us and is growing in responsibility, something that school will help quick start. He is a good runner and swimmer and we look forward to seeing how he does in the cross country meets. He also loves to read but as this summer was not too hot this year and we have 5 boys next door to play with he did not do so well with his summer reading.
Matthew continues to be the little boy who lights up many peoples worlds. He is still a chatter box and will chat away to anyone about anything which can be dangerous sometimes. He still makes us laugh a lot and comes out with cute sayings. He is also growing up though and is now quite the boy and really looks up to his Dad. He loves to play outside also but still loves to be the leader and for everyone to do what he wants to do, at all costs. He is really great with children younger than him. We had a family with three young boys around a few nights ago and he got the children's bible out and read stories to them and then explained them. I hope his theology was good. We decided not to put him into school this year as he is so social we could not imagine much work being done and he is at a great age academically for some one on one time. Even though he can not run with the team as he is not enrolled in Dorothy Sayers he has been training with them and has been running between 1 and 2 miles. He runs like he talks, with lots of bounce and energy.
I have been helping in a ministry at seminary this summer called the Attic. It is a place where people can drop donations, clothes, books, furniture, kitchen stuff. You name it, it's there. We sort through the donations and organise it, no easy task. It has been good and the children have been really helpful but I am not going to continue doing it through the semseter with still having all four children home to school three days a week and Matthew all five. I am enrolled in seminary wives again this semester and am taking Dr Mohler's class on Worldviews. I am excited about it but I am hoping that I will understand it. Anna-Maire is able to attend the class with me which will be good. Worldviews is a good thing to learn as a teenager.
Well that's our update, it has been awhile coming, I am sorry about that. Look forward to hearing what's going on in your world's. We would love to hear from you.
Louisville Bats Game
To give Ashleigh a real taste of America we took her to a ball game, here in Louisville. It was a fun night. Here are a few pics.
Frankfort and Louisville, KY
One Sunday we took a drive to Frankfort, which is the capital of Kentucky. Being the capital it has the capitol building of Kentucky which has beautiful grounds. We had a picnic lunch here. 
One of the houses we passed on a scenic drive that we took from Frankfort to Lexington. The drive has many horse farms and we even saw a deer.
We then went for a hike that Mark and I had done before, just outside of Lexington. It has some great views.
At the very end of our hike, Ashleigh nearly stepped on this snake. She screamed but still managed to get this great photo.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Chicago
While Mum and Ashleigh were here we wanted to do some kind of trip. Some friends of ours here at Seminary have family and have spent time in Chicago. We were able to stay at their parent's place and they showed us the sights. It was really helpful, I would have never done something like this without Mark. Ashleigh took these photos as she was the only one who was faithful to remember her camera. Thanks Ashleigh. This photo is of the boys at the zoo. Chicago has one of the best zoos in the States. It was pretty cool.
The Sunday we were in Chicago we went to Broadview Baptist Church which is a large black church. It was a lot of fun, their choir was amazing and they also baptised about 6 people that day.
Millennium Park.
The famous Navy Pier.
The famous Navy Pier.We ate pizza at a famous place in Chicago. You can write on the walls in this restaurant so the children had fun leaving their mark.
Ashleigh and Rachel with Janet, our guide.
Ashleigh and Rachel with Janet, our guide.Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Mum and Ashleigh's Visit
While Mark was away we had my Mum and my niece Ashleigh visit from New Zealand. They were here for a month. Ashleigh had been saving for the trip since we moved over here and it was so good to have them visit. We did lots of things around Louisville, went on a few day trips and went to Chicago for 5 or 6 days. Here are a few random photos of some things we did around Louisville. More later.
Dessert at the 'Old Spaghetti Factory'. A beautiful restaurant in Louisville.
The girls at the slugger museum.
Ashleigh with 'static' hair at the science museum.
Krispy Creme is the famous American donut. The children get a free donut for every "A" they receive on their report card so we had saved getting these for when Mum and Ashleigh were here.
Picking blueberries at Hubers. We went back there for Mark's birthday a few days ago to pick peaches as they are his favourite fruit. 
Lounging around at the Bas Pro Shop. I think Matthew is pretending to be a bear or something.
Ashleigh ordering lunch at Sonic.
I took Ashleigh and Mum to the stables one day to watch Anna-Marie ride and Ashleigh took this lovely photo of her at the stables.
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