Camry Update

Camry is off the CPAP and breathing on her own.  She is so beautiful.  She has lots of hair that we can see now that she doesn't have that cap on her head to hold the breathing deal in place.  What a blessing!  She has to have two consecutive days without breathing assistance and two days in a row with weight gain before we can leave.  Thank you so much to every one of you for your prayers and comments.  It is so great to feel loved and protected in prayer.  Annie is feeling well.  Her hemoglobin is low from the bleeding she experienced, but the doctors are confident she'll be okay.  She needs to eat lots of steaks when we get home to raise that iron level.

Better Day

Things are going better today.  Annie is feeling a ton better and her blood loss is under control.  Camry is still in nicu and probably will be for a week or more unless the Lord multiplies her development which I don't doubt He will.  We are grateful to the Lord for His provision and safety.  We are pleading the Blood of Christ over Camry for her quick growth.  We miss the other kids a whole bunch but are so grateful for family that are so helpful.

180 Reasons I love my job

Had a great night of 180 today.  We worshipped and then learned about the crucifixion.   Jesus really loved us a lot.  He still loves us a lot!  Got to have some fun, and sometimes awkward conversations with the high schoolers.  It was very fun.

Tomorrow is our Sabbath.  In the evening I have to do my studying for class.  This week is pneumatology, study of the Holy Spirit.  I am super excited to learn.  I wish I hadn't put it off to the last day, but sometimes life gets in the way.

I hope to get some more wood cut this week, but it is not crucial.  We are expecting our baby at anytime.  We are just shy of 35 weeks.  We are getting excited to meet our newest miracle.  We have a name picked out but I am not going to tell you...

Sittin

Today is a relaxed day for the most part.  I am chilling at home.  At about 3 I have to go set up the band at First Reformed church in Aplington.  We play there tomorrow morning for worship.

I split some wood and stacked it yesterday.  We are getting a really good like going.  I'm pretty sure we have enough for all of next years heating season.  That is a good feeling compared to dealing the bottom of the barrel to find enough.

Apparently we missed a good school concert last night.  I didn't know about it or we probably would have gone.  Tomorrow night is 180.  We are about four weeks away from finishing the boom of John.  It has been a long worthwhile journey.  There is so much truth there for us.  I hope my teaching has done it justice.

Pulled Tarp, Broken Heart

We rolled up the ice rink tarp at Stuco today.  I wouldn't be surprised ifthe temperature would drop to -20 for like a month straight.  We only had about two and a half good weeks of hockey this year.  That's not nearly enough, but it did limit the amount of injuries.  The wind was blowing about 25mph while Cameron and I tried to wrangle the 100' x 50' monster.  It was whipping around like me driving the conversion van on the icy Bethel Reformed parking lot.  A couple times if I would have had a better grip it would have flung me about 15' in the air.  At one point I was dragging the tarp and started to think I must be getting pretty strong because it didn't feel very heavy for how big it is.  Then I saw why.  I didn't know Cameron was helping me pull it.  He is apparently very strong.

We took a trip back to the hospital again today.  Annie had another interesting time with Allen's registration department.  We accomplished what we needed to.  Hopefully her numbers come back good. 

Tomorrow is the big night for ministry.  We got a little sidetracked because of some vandalism last week so I have the lesson ready for Herd.  Early Herd is a different story.  I feel like the Spirit wants me to teach about Power and Authority we have from Christ.  It should be interesting.

I blew the brakes out on my truck on Saturday.  Hopefully Scott will be able to fix them soon.  The garbage is piling up nice and high in the garage.  The cats and dogs wreck everything.  They may not survive much longer if Annie has anything to do with it.

A DAY WELL SPENT

This morning my mother brought the 3 older kids and I to see Spirit of Uganda at the Gallagher-Bluedorn. I was skeptical. Anything that has Spirit in the title and isn't blantantly Christian raises a lot of red flags for me. I went along so that my kids wouldn't be exposed to any new age or pagan junk without me there to guide them spiritually. I must say that they stayed away from anything that was actually spiritual. I appreciate that. I did a little research on the organization behind the performance and it seems pretty legit. It's called Empowering African Children. The organization helps orphans in African, of all places. It is not a Christian organization, but it sounds like they do good things. The concert really was amazing. They had young people from age 11-21 performing. They all did an excellent job. The costumes were beautiful and the rhythms were very fun. I was very impressed. They even did one song where the emcee said something about a song that almost sounded Christian. The particular song was from a people group of Uganda and the premise of it was, "how can we not dance and sing when we have a Creator." I'm not sure what kind of creator they subscribe to, but I know the One that I do and He is very worthy of dancing and singing for.

After the show Grandma Pam took us out to eat at Rocco JoJo's. I have always wanted to eat there because we have a child name Rocky and a Child named Josie. It was very good, but they didn't offer us free food or anything.

We headed home and Annie and I releft right away to go to a baby appointment. We got to listen to the baby's heart chug chug and answer lots of questions. Annie's blood pressure is a bit high so we get to have a big jug of urine in our fridge for the next 24 hours. Hopefully it comes back with regular protein or we're going to be getting on the BEDREST TRAIN. I think Annie would rather be boiled in oil than be on bedrest, but she'll do it for little baby Zamira's sake.

After the appointment we had to go to the lab at Allen by way of the ever helpful registration staff. I shouldn't complain. They did work hard to get it right. Then we got to sit in the Lab waiting room for an extended period of time while our paper work was lost and reordered. It really ended up to be a blessing though. We got to talk at length with a really good friend of mine. I used to work at Allen so it was very cool to chat with some of my old coworkers. When I say "old" Vivian I don't mean you, just "old" as in I don't work there any more.

After the trip to the hospital we got to go out for supper. Annie's food was sooooo good. I wish I had ordered what she did. She is very smart. Panda Express walnut shrimp is where it is at. Leave the mushroom chicken alone and get two helpings of the walnut shrimp.

I am in search of a shotgun. I hesitate to put that on here in case my mother ever reads this. We have gone to two sporting goods stores and I have gotten lots of advice from my good friends. I want to be able to hunt deer and dispose of any varmints that may be outside or inside the house. My mother is vehemently opposed to firearms. I need to ask her sometime why exactly. Now that I'm a big boy (mom still buys my underpants) I have begun to buy a few guns. It started with a couple bb guns that were way cheap. Then we jumped up to the Ruger 10-22. Now the Remington 1100 12 ga is my next purchase. I am really glad that I have friend who have a clue about things that I don't.

My wife is great. I like to put that because she is one of the one people who read this thing. I love her so much and she is very pretty. Even if she's on bed rest and I have to wheel her to the bathroom once an hour I'll still love her.

Blessings

180 was very good again.  The music was really fun and I really feel like we worshipped in Spirit and in truth.  We studied John 18 where Jesus is betrayed. 

We were able to go to the gym and play some dodgeball.  That was a blast, but it was even more fun to play basketball after a lot of people left.  We were making up amazing plays.

Tomorrow I'm going with my mother and some of my kids to a Ugandan drumming troop at UNI.  I hope its good.  I really hope they don't try to push any spiritual mumbo jumbo that isn't biblical.  I must say that I am skeptical. 

I hope I can actually sleep tonight.  It has been a struggle to stay asleep the last several nights.  I don't feel anxious or anything.  I just don't sleep well? 

Can't Sleep

I have been having trouble sleeping so here I am.  Yesterday we played in that basketball tournament.  We played really well.  I think maybe close to the best we can play.  I was very proud of our guys for competing well and giving their best effort.

In a few hours I have to get up to go. Get ready to play music at the Baptist church in Aplington.  It should be a lot of fun and worshipping always is great. 
I'm actually starting to feel tired so we will give the sleep thing another shot.

Not Lost

I have been neglecting my blog for a couple days.  Wednesday night went pretty well other than Jeffrey getting his back window broken.  That was a little distracting.  Worship at Herd was good.  We ran out of time to dive into our new lesson so I elaborated on last week's about Lazarus and we watched a movie about it. 
Early Herd was wild again.  They managed to drag a 10 minute lesson out into a 40 minute lesson.  Oh well.  I get paid the same regardless how long I teach for.  Our praise band for the sixth graders needs some work.  We are learning and we don't get to practice as much as I would like.
Yesterday we got two pickup loads of wood cut and stacked.  The pile is getting really big.  It feels good to have enough wood ready for next year already.  I am very thankful for all the help I get from my friends and family.
Tomorrow I am coaching a seventh grade boys basketball team in a tournament in Parkersburg.   It will hopefully be fun.  I'm a little concerned that we will stink because we haven't played in three weeks.  I will be glad if we don't get last. 

Dear Diary

Tomorrow is the big day of the week.  I should be reading John 12 and studying.  Valentines day was nice.  The kids gave me really sweet cards.  I ordered them some books on the internet.  I hope they get here soon.  The Grandparents really laid on the presents.  All sorts of candy and toys rolled in today.  We are very blessed to have close relatives who care for us so much.

I got to send pretty much the entire day with Rocky.  He came to "work" with me.  I did not know you can play duck duck goose with only two people, but we did, and it was a blast.  I'm not sure who won.  Rocky played a lot of Ruff Ruffman on the pbskids site.  I hope his iq didn't drop from playing too much video games.

I'm slightly unprepared for tomorrow night.  We have kind of begun a shift I feel.  The group of kids we have seems to be able to handle a little bit more worship and teaching and less games.  I'm not sure if this will decrease the number of kids that come, but so far so good.  We have a responsibility to show them Christ more than entertain them.  Time will tell.  I think this is what the Spirit wants so we will hit it full force.

There is a midde school basketball tournament on Saturday.   It should be interesting since we haven't practiced or played in two weeks.  Oh well.  Sounds like it will be a hodgepodge of players too.  I will just show up and do my best with what we have.

A few joys and I earned our redneck merit badges tonight.  I had a non functioning copy machine in my office.  We brought it out to the farm and pumped it full of lead.  My gun sounds like a cricket compared to Brett's.  It was a lot of fun.  There still plenty of it left for the next time.

School Day

We observed our family Sabbath today.  We had music and a lesson that kind of focused on serving and what is acceptable to do as "work" on the Sabbath.  I am amazed by how much the kids understand.  Josie has been studying Joshua in school so she shared what she has learned.  Macy knows her Bible even more and she told us what she knew about Joshua.  Finally, Rocky got to share about the shouting and the walls coming down.  He must have had that as a lesson at catechism.   He did not want to be left out of the teaching.

Daphne kept Annie and I up most of the night last night.  She was barfing and pooping up a storm.  Hopefully tonight is better.  Annie has definitely entered the uncomfortable stage of her pregnancy.  I am sleeping alone now.  She is unable to lay flat in bed anymore because of baby so she had to move to the recliner.  I feel bad for her.  She does well fro all the trials she endures in pregnancy.  We are less than six weeks away now.   I think she's ready for baby anytime because of her discomfort, but it'd be best if we can squeeze another 4 weeks out of this pregnancy.

Last night 180 was great.  We had a really long time of worship and the kids were very attentive for the lesson.  It was a very hard to understand passage.  John 17 Jesus is Praying for Himself and then us.  It is pretty humbling to know that He was thinking of us in His time of suffering.  We then related back to the woman at the well and how God wants us to be like Jesus.  How He wants us to approach the unapproachable.   I tester all of our students today that they needed to love a Samaritan.  This meaning that they needed to love someone that they or others might think doesn't deserve it.  I hope they follow through.

I listened to AP's tournament game on the radio!  They played really well and we move on to face Hudson on Thursday.  Very exciting that the fellas are playing their best basketball now when it counts the most.

Tomorrow is prep time for herds on Wednesday.   I think the sixth graders are going to learn about prayer.  The older kids have John 12 I believe.  I am looking forward to see what the Spirit has in store for our ministry in the coming months.   It is my hope and prayer that we will see a revival in our area!  God is capable!

Cool Day

<p>I spent a lot of time with my family today.&nbsp; Macy, Josie, and I had a drawing lesson.&nbsp; I was trying to remember all other things I learned in elementary art class from Mrs Klahsen.  Macy and I had a water lesson for science class.  We floated a needle in a glass of water.  I didn't know it would do that.  We also began an experiment on evaporation.   Saturday school would have been a punishment when I was her age, but we had a great time.

Tomorrow we are heading to Cedar Rapids bright and early to attend church with Scott. I hope it is fun, but I don't think we can make a habit of it. Apparently there is kind of a new church starting in Aplington on Mondays. We may pursue that, but I'm not sure. We have to leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow so I'm going to bed!

Shopping Day

I got to spend most of my day shopping.  It was wonderful to be with Annie and Macy all day.  The littler ones stated at Grandma Sherri's.  We were getting supplies for the girl's Lockin that Annie is putting on next week.  That kind of crept up.

We also had the joy of visiting Pastor Brett and Naomi in the hospital.  She is on bedrest as they await the arrival of their first child.  They are wonderful, Godly people.  It is good to have friends like them.  We are praying that all goes well for them as I am sure many others are.

Leon and I got the engine moved into the barn for the tine being.  Once it gets warm out we will tear out the old one and install it.  It will be a huge learning g experience for me.  I am not much of a motor head.  I think I ha e the aptitude for it, but I have never been taught.  Here we go.  Scott will he to be very patient with me.

Tomorrow is preseason baseball practice.  I think we will have a pretty decent team this year.  It is always hard to tell.  We do have a lot more experience this year than the last two.  I am not going to be quite as involved this season.  We are having our 5th child within the next month.  I am going to only be minimally involved this year.  I have mixed feelings about it.  I know I will really miss being there every day with the team.  I will also be very blessed to be able to be home with my family more in the summer.  We are so busy all the time it will be nice to be able to be with Annie and the kids more.  Maybe the garden will b manageable the more that I'm home to help.  Maybe we will have enough wood for the winter before December this time.  It will be an adjustment but also a great blessing.

Sunday I think we are going to venture down to Scott's church in Cedar Rapids.  He has been inviting us for months.  I think it may actually work this week.  Next week we pick up our world tour again with a trip to Aplington Baptist.  Church hopping is a very interesting experience that i will have to expound on in another post.

Engine Hunter

We have our end of season banquet tonight for basketball.  It should be fun.  Hopefully more kids show up or I'm going to have to eat 14 pizzas by myself. 

Afterward Scott and I are headed to Luana, Iowa to get a 400 small block engine for Annie and my camper.  We have been on the hunt for a while so I'm excited we might get one.

Sixth grade band practice tonight too.  Should be great fun.

Herdt my arm... ouch

Herdswere fun tonight.  The sixth graders were very rowdy.  I can see why.  It was so nice out today.  We had a lesson about Jesus being the Good Shepherd.  Jesus is one tough dude.  Don't ever forget that.

Herd was fun too.  We had trivia about me.  Apparently Hannah has been stalking me.  She only missed three.  I think that my wife missed two.  Creepy.  We played a little basketball and had a lesson about Lazarus being raised from the dead.  We had an awesome time of worshipper too.  I really thought the Spirit was in our worship tonight.  As Tobymac said God stole the show!  I got to jam a little with Dayton afterward too which is always a blessing.

Our small group had a field trip to the skate park.  I took a pretty good tumble.  Nothing broken but definitely hurt.  Oh well.  I landed my first ever ollie tonight after only about 10 years of skating.  That's not very good.  I'm pretty happy to finally have gotten it.  Carter pretty much taught me how to do it.  Id seen youtube videos, but he was a very good teacher.  These kids are really talented skaters.

Tomorrow I am hopefully cutting some wood!  I can't wait.  It is one of my favorite things to do.  Pray for safety and a good hard freezing of the ground tonight so its easier to move my tractor.

Praise the Lord for another opportunity to minister this week.  It really is a privilege.

New Guitar

I spent some time at Bob's today and came home with a "work" guitar.  It is very nice.  It will serve us well for worshipping our Lord and Savior!

Tomorrow Scott and I are going to look at an engine for our camper.  I'm Praying for a good deal.  Then we have to get it into the camper.  That's Scott's area of expertise.  I assume I will mostly be observing and handing tools.

Tuesday is big-time prep day for herds also.  I will spend a lot of time at the stuco tomorrow getting ready.  I think we are up to John 11 with regular herd and early herd is getting a message about the Good Shepherd.  Hopefully all goes well. Now that basketball is over I should actually be able to be on time for Early Herd.  I know, start the jokes, late to early herd.

Another Super Party

Tonight was the Super Bowl.  I must say it was pretty anticlimactic even though the game was close.  We had fun eating like pigs and playing silly games like throw thus ball at Jeffrey.  Then I got to be an extra in a short film about teen alcohol consumption.  We will see how that one turns out and if I get any calls from Hollywood.  

Tomorrow is our family Sabbath.  I am hoping that we can go shopping for a new guitar tomorrow.   I really need to get a nice acoustic electiric for the Student Connection so I can bring mine home.  I'm worried it will get broken and it is one that is special to me.  Hopefully one of my kids will play guitar and I can pass it down to them.  So I am hopefully going to Bob's soon to get a 'work' guitar.  I could buy one online but then I won't get to hear it first.  It has to be just right you know.  Picky musicians.

We are dine with basketball now.  I'm sure I will find something to fill the hole.  We started preseason baseball practice Saturday so that will keep me a little bit busy.  I am not going to be as involved this year as I have been in the past.  I have committed to being there every Tuesday, whatever happens to be going on.  I want to be involved, but my family is growing and I need more time at home.  I also take summer online classes and less baseball will give me more study time.  At least give me more time I should be studying.

Other projects for the summer include repairing our camper that we bought this fall.  The engine kind of blew up so Scott and I, well mostly Scott, are going to fix it.  Hopefully it is not just a money pit.  He seems confident and competent so I am excited to see how it goes. We also need to put up a fence in our lawn and put up some playground equipment.  We live out in the country, but it makes Annie nervous to have the kids wandering the property if she can't see them.  I would really like to work this summer on converting the old pig house on our property into a sort of apartment.  It will need quite the cleaning and lots of work, but I think it could be really cool.  I tried to talk Mark into moving in there and being our indentured servant, but he wasn't so sure.  Maybe Cameron would?  I think it would be cool to have it as kind of a retreat/ guest house/ emergency shelter.  It could also just be a fun place to have company.  Good friends of ours converted a shed into a gameroom and it is pretty neat.  I might have to call in some favors from them.

Good night and a blessed week to everyone.

Woodsman and Party Animal

I got to cut some firewood today.  I have not quite mastered loading wood into the trailer with the tractor yet.  I was pretty good at it with Mark's John Deers, but am not fluent yet with my own tractor.  Mine is a lot harder to operate and a lot older.  I resorted to just dragging a bunch of the big stuff home.  Hopefully the county guys don't come knocking on my door.  They should have no trouble telling who wrecked the road.  The drag marks run right into my driveway and end with a big pile of logs.  It was a lot of fun.  I loved going in road gear after the tires were caked in mud.  There was mud flying every direction.  It was so cool!

After the wood collecting I got to go celebrate my nephew's 8th birthday.  It seems like just yesterday when Annie was upset because there was a terrible snow storm and she was unable to be there for his birth.  She got to go the day after.  That was back when we actually got snow.  I can't say I have missed it.

After the party Mark and I went to Waterloo for a hockey game.  It apparently got cancelled.  I am assuming that the other team was unable to travel die to bad weather in Nebraska.  We went shopping instead.  I bought all sorts of food for our Super Bowl gathering tomorrow.   Hope I got enough food.

Cameron called me back after two days of phone tag.  I tried to get him to tell me about asking Bayley to prom, but apparently he was at an honor band practice and "couldn't hear me very well."  He couldn't have picked a better person to go with.  Bayley is a beautiful person that is very in love with the Lord.  Annie is very good friends with her.  What a special couple of kids.  These kids are part of why we stay inspired to do what we do.  Kids who are getting what God has for them because of the righteous choices they make.  Praise God!

We should probably go to church tomorrow, but I have a ton of stuff to do.  We observe our Sabbath on Mondays because I always work on Sundays.   Haters back off.  I'm not going to feel much guilt for not getting up in the morning to go.  Any guilt I do feel will go away with a good couple touches to the snooze button.  We will find the right church eventually.  It is just a matter if time.  We are praying for guidance in our search and are working on exhausting our options.

Lazyish day

Got to spend most of the day with Macy today. We had some fun.  We got to eat out at Stinky's which is always a highlight.  Had another tough game tonight.  I loved the effort but not the result.  We lost by four to a very good team.  We play DNH tomorrow.  They are the only team to beat us by more than 7 so we are pumped.  We did not play well against them last time and we were missing a starter so I feel good about our chances.  A win would be a great springboard into next season, but playing our best would also be great.  I can't believe tomorrow is the last game already.  I think the fellas would like to do a couple tournaments if possible too, but real practice is done.  Baseball preseason work started last week already so I have that to look forward to.  I also have time at home to look forward to.  It will be nice to have free afternoons again.  I will miss basketball until next season, but I have no lack of things to occupy my time with.

Annie is sick and the reason I'm up is Josie barfed all over her bed.  I wish I was still sleeping.  There is nothing quite like waking up to screaming and puke smell for a parent.  We are all settled back in now.  I suppose just waiting for the next puker to let loose.  I pray for healing and rest.

Herds of energy

Another night of youth ministry in the books.  The early geezers watched a Whats in the Bible episode and the big kids learned about the Good Shepherd. I used the term learned loosely.  I'm not sure that any of them heard what I said.  The Word of the Lord will not return void though right?  Tomorrow is my psuedo-day off.  Macy and I usually are pretty lazy on Thursdays while everyone else goes to MOPS.

Small group was extra wild tonight.  The last two weeks we've been able to play hockey.  This week we were stuck back inside talking about our feelings.  We get off track very easily and my office was a bad choice for a classroom.  I found that I have many distracting things in there.  We did have two newbies tonight, so that was fun.

Tomorrow is our second to last basketball game.  We already lost to Wapsie early in the year.  We are much better now.  I think we will give them a run for their money.   Playing at home is a definite plus too.  Next week sometime we will have our team banquet.  I'm looking g forward to it.  I do hope we can finish strong with two more victories.  We really have improved as the year has gone by.  It went very quickly so it must have been fun.