Well, hello friends and family!! Hope your year has been good so far! We have been enjoying some sweet times already this year, so I'll get right to it! January 18 I had the awesome opportunity to go with Nicole and her friend to see Les Miserables at Tampa's Straz Theatre. I couldn't believe how incredibly amazing every single cast member was! I was thinking they could all have snagged the lead roles in the play - so much talent! It was a fantastic experience!
Tim left on January 29 for a 10 day missions trip to Burkina Faso (for those of you like me who have never heard of that country, it is in Africa). Unfortunately, he got sick on the way over there and was laid up for the first 3-4 days of the trip, but God still opened some doors for him and he was able to do a live radio show about marriage that was broadcast pretty much all over the country, and then he had the opportunity to do a marriage seminar to about 150 couples! When he stood up on the stage at the marriage conference he was staring at a room full of men on one side of the room and women on the other side, so he already spoke with the leadership and received their approval to shake it up and request the men actually sit with their wives! There was a lot of giggling and awkwardness at first, but after they moved and settled down he had them practice some communication exercises together and they loved it! He was at a college, and the president of the college loved it so much he asked if Tim could come back and bring me! I haven't seen any pictures from the trip yet, but if I ever get access to any I'll post them here!
In the meantime, while he was away, there was a Jonny Diaz concert at Nathan's college, where Nathan and his college worship team opened up for Jonny! Here is a picture of them with Nathan at the keyboards:
In the meantime, while he was away, there was a Jonny Diaz concert at Nathan's college, where Nathan and his college worship team opened up for Jonny! Here is a picture of them with Nathan at the keyboards:
The next day I took a drive down to Port Charlotte and spent some overdue time with my dad and sister. We had a very nice visit where I snapped this picture of my sister and me!
About a week later our youngest, Nicholas, made himself one honking sandwich, that I just want to include here just because!
On Valentine's weekend, we met a bunch of couples from our marriage ministry at a Date Night comedy event - tons of fun to be had that night!! Here are just a few of us at the event:
The week of 2/18 - 2/20 we attended a pretty intense Thrive conference (Mon-Fri 8am - 5pm) at our church with our daughter, Nicole. It had to do with brain science and was all about returning to joy, finding rest, and suffering well. Very interesting stuff! The Saturday after that conference we went to The Send - an all day event in Orlando where we got to see our son, Nathan, and also Nicole was there! Here's a picture we got with Nathan:
A couple days later we drove down to Sarasota to meet my Dad and Diane and their best friends for lunch at the famous Amish restaurant there, Yoders. They were going to come visit us on their way back to Michigan the next weekend, but we already had plans so they suggested that we meet for lunch. Great suggestion! I was so full I didn't eat dinner that night! Loved getting that time in with them!!
The first weekend in March we had another opportunity to drive up to WinShape (Chick-fil-a's retreat center) and be a Host Couple for one of their marriage conferences. At these conferences, they usually have a segment of time hosted by WinShape teams where they have the couples do some team building type of exercises. We did some activities as a group where one spouse was blindfolded (thank you, Tim!), and then they had a ropes course couples could do together. Tim and I were assigned this wobbly pole we were supposed to climb up and stand on the postage sized platform and then dive off the platform to catch a bar. Well, we missed the bar completely (we weren't even close!) but thankfully the ropes we were attached to held onto us well and our belay team let us down easy. Check out the animated picture that shows the sad progression of our failed attempt! The last picture I have included here is of us with Michael & Erin Bryan - a couple who lead the worship at many of these events. We have fallen in love with these 2 - they are just precious! He's an attorney and she's a homeschool mom, but I think they have some type of music calling (worship leaders at a church? creating an album of their own?). I don't know what it is but I could literally listen to them all day - they are amazing!!
The only downside was that we got caught in that horrible storm that killed all those people in Alabama on our drive home. We were getting tornado warnings and alarms sent to our phones telling us to take cover and we ran into some pretty serious hail - it was crazy! I was literally praying out loud for protection while Tim did some awesome driving to get us through it. We breathed a huge sigh of relief when we made it to Valdosta and could see on the weather map we were on the other side of it! Whew!
That was Sunday the 3rd. Monday the 4th we went to Apollo Beach (about 20 minutes from our house) with Nathan. It was SUCH a gorgeous day and just a great time hanging out together!!
That was Sunday the 3rd. Monday the 4th we went to Apollo Beach (about 20 minutes from our house) with Nathan. It was SUCH a gorgeous day and just a great time hanging out together!!
Finally, Friday March 8 we met Tim's sister, Sue, and her husband, Mike, at a restaurant on Anna Maria Island. It was another amazingly beautiful day, and such a great time with them - they are awesome! So thankful we were able to connect with them!
Well, that's it for now! Next update should have some pictures from a WinShape and Samaritan's purse joint venture helping the citizens of Mexico Beach dig out from last year's hurricane that we are planning on participating in sometime within the next couple of weeks (still waiting on the details). So until then, blessings everyone!!
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