Reflections On Follow Me by David Platt Intro & Chapter 1

I got Follow Me today and started reading it! I just finished the introduction and the first chapter.

I gotta say, Platt makes a lot of points that I agree with and have thought of in the past. Our culture has a bad taste for Christians because so many people claim to be Christians when they have no idea what they mean!

It's challenging though, I mean, I agree that faith and works are intertwined, hand in hand, and/or build off of one another. Our beliefs create action and action leads to a deeper love/knowledge of God & Christ which effects or beliefs, and they cycle repeats!

Now, I agree with it and have said that I agree with it, so I must allow God and others to show me my inconsistencies and change. OUCH

The Great Commission Matthew 28:18-20 NIV

'Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

The "What do you want me to do with my life?" question we've asked time and time again, waiting and praying for an answer Jesus answered quite clearly after he rose from the dead, and no it isn't an option, it is a command."THEREFORE GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS, BAPTIZING THEN IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER AND OF THE SON AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND TEACHING THEM TO OBEY EVERYTHING I HAVE COMMANDED YOU."

Feel overwhelmed?  Keep reading! "AND SURELY I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS TO THE VERY END OF THE AGE." We are not in this alone, and we cannot do this alone. We died to ourselves and repented of our old life (which means to turn and go the opposite direction), we do not live for ourselves once we've declared Christ as our savior, our actions have to go hand in hand. You can't have one without the other. That'd be like saying saying you were on an all meat diet and never eating meat; you'd be saying it, but not living it. Like I said earlier, it's a circle.

No where in the bible does it say pray a prayer and you are saved, but it does say in Matthew 16:24-25 NIV "Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants 

 to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it."

When it was said in John 3:16 that "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Jesus is talking to Nicodemus and calling him to a new way of life, a new way of living, it isn't just words we say it's truth we live with our entire being.

David Platt says this on pages 23-24 "Ultimately, our reason for living changes. Possessions and position are no longer our priorities. Comfort and security are no longer our god. We now want God's glory more than we want our own lives."

CITATION and RECOMMENDED READ:

Platt, David. Follow Me: A Call to Die. a Call to Live. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2013. Print.

Mountain Tops and Valleys

"There is still work to do, and that work is down the mountain." (Ackley, Curtis S. "March 8." The Upper Room Disciplines 2009. Nashville, TN: Upper Room, 2009. 79. Print.)

The summer I spent in Zambia was ended with a week long debriefing during which we worked through a book entitled "Miraculous Mountains to Victorious Valleys." The title has stuck with me since then and I've referred to it many times in conversations. While as Christians these "mountain top" experiences we have, the times when we are filled with joy, laughter, and/or in awe of what we are seeing and experiencing, are fantastic and encouraging, we do not stay on the mountain tops forever. Our life changes, we hit rough points, death, stress, sickness, world events, and so much more can leave us in a dark valley.

I've come to know that these dark valleys can be places that I see, experience, and trust God more fully then the mountain top places. One such experience would have been the sudden passing of my 16 year old brother Shaun when I was 8 years old. God was the one who understood how my 8 year old self was feeling and doing, and it was God who stayed each moment with me, cried with me, and understood me. God carried me through that dark valley. I came out stronger and more confident in God and over time as I have experienced many ups and downs my faith has grown and desire more to know God and to share God with those around me.

Today I was spending some time reading Mark 9: 2-10 a passage about Jesus' transfiguration on a mountaintop with 2 disciples (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark%209:2-10&version=NIV). As I was reading the coinciding devotional referenced above the author wrote about how the disciples must have wanted to stay on the mountain top to soak up, understand, and mark this event (the passage says they wanted to set up tents), but the event ends and they go back down the mountain. The author writes "There is still work to do, and that work is down the mountain," while the author was referencing the rest of Jesus' time on this earth, I cannot help but see how applicable this sentence is to our lives. While we desire to stay on the high mountaintop moments of life, Jesus knows that we have more growing to do and more of God to share with others so that all may experience the Mountain Tops with God, and grow  in the Victorious Valleys. So that together we can encourage one another, know God more, and journey the valleys and mountain tops together.

 "A universe that contains much that is obviously bad and apparently meaningless, but containing creatures like ourselves who know that it is bad and meaningless." 

(pg 42)

The fact that we know the world is meaningless reveals that there is a God because we know that there is more to life than just a daily routine, of eating and sleeping, there is a God to love!

Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity: A Revised and Amplified Edition, with a New Introduction, of the Three Books, Broadcast Talks, Christian Behaviour, and Beyond Personality. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001. Print.

At the Sound of the Alarm Clock

my life today: Heard the alarm, felt tired and not ready to face the day mumbled to Nathaniel "hit snooze." 

10 minutes later alarm sounds again. Reluctantly I got up to shower & ask Nathaniel to take Moses out & feed him.

After my shower I open to door & Nathaniel is STILL IN BED! Unhappy and harboring anger that he was still snoozing said  "What are you doing, why aren't you up yet?" 

My wonderful, groggy, and confused husband replied  "What? It is 3:00 AM." 

me "Nu-uh, I did not just shower at 3 AM."

The alarm had gone off to wake me up to take the puppy outside to pee as he is not yet able to hold his bladder all night.

Fail, well at least my shower for the day was done and we got a great laugh out of it later.

1 year Anniversary

Today is Nathaniel & my anniversary.

What did we do this past weekend to celebrate?

Well nothing for our anniversary, but as we are youth sponsors for the high school youth group at church we did go white water rafting on the Youghiogheny River in Western, PA! We drove the late crew who had sports Friday night and arrived at our camp sight around 3:00am Saturday Morning. We were up at 8ish had breakfast (thanks to camp hebron who supplied the tents, food, and had 5 persons who joined) and went to the river to wetsuits & prep.
 That day we were out on the river having a grand ol' time. We had 3 rafts & a ducky (looks like a kayack, but inflatable like a raft). We had the youth pastor who was the guide on the duck and  2 experieced captins, so the captin of our raft had been rafting once or twice but never been a guide. We did not have any youth in our raft (3 sponsors & 2 persons from Camp Hebron). For the least experienced raft we did great! Making it through all rapids & challenges but one with laughter, conversation, and enjoyment.

Unfortunately our raft did "kiss" dimple rock, the hardest & most dangerous rapid on our stretch. We hit a hard knocking 4 of the 5 of us out of the raft and tumbling through the rest of the rapid.

Here is a video on youtube I found of a guy sucessfully going through (a different raft type, but you get the idea). It is longer rapid, and imagine being IN the white waters without a raft in the current and capping water.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czMc3e6W2UE
3 of the 4 of us manged to hold onto the raft when we dumped (the 1st big rock is dimple rock). Nathaniel stayed on, we got held up on a rock and the other 2 could not hold on at this point as while the raft was stopped we swimmers were in the middle of a strong current (the other 2 swimmers eyes were HUGE at this point). As they floated on Nathaniel was able to maneuver the raft around the rock it was stuck on to a better point and get me in. We then did our best to follow the other 2 and get them in, it took a bit as we could not get the raft still enough to grab the swimmer or swimmers close enough for them to grab on to a paddle. The 4th who dumped was not able to hold on at all & after falling & splashing through much of the rapid (& passing other rafts who offered her no help) was picked up by a raft with a family from Baltimore.

Quite the experience, while the fall was dangerous & NOT a great time it made a good story for us all to talk about around the fire that night. We all said we would go rafting again which says a lot about the experience of white water rafting as a whole.

A good adventure & a line to cross out on my bucket list (looking forward to next years trip & a successful run through dimple rapid)

What else for our anniversary? Well, meet Moses our new puppy our gift to one another. He was 2.5 months old when we got him from a rescue. He is a basset hound/beagle mix (although we think he may have more in him then that).  Right now he is 10 pounds, quiet, and loves to cuddle.

 

 Moses

We are quite happy to have him as we've both wanted to have a dog before we were married and were plesently surprised to get our landlords permission to do so a several weeks ago. Keeping a clean house gets the credit as they said they knew we would not let it ruin the apartment. We are thankful for their trust.

 

Sleepy Dreams

The night before last I was snoozing away.

As I was dreaming, I wanted to move this bundle of whatever to a different place.

I carried it out of the bedroom and dropped it in the music room.
Back in bed sometime later I woke up chilled and sleeply sat up reaching for the foot of the bed where my sheet and quilt must have been. Up not easily finding them I reached further and began waking up a little more.

It was then that I recalled the bundle I was dreaming about early was real. I vaguely remembered stepping over the box fan in the doorway and deciding the the music room was far enough for the sheet and quilt as I wanted to be back in bed.

While I am not sure what caused me to wake up enough to remember having the sheet and quilt in my arms, yet not enough to know that they belonged back in the bedroom, I am thankful that I did wake up enough to remember. As when I was groggily searching for the blankets later in the night it would have been much more of an ordeal and I would have woken up Nathaniel in my searching, lights would have been turned on, and an all out confused search would have begun. Still, I think about what a funny conversation my husband and I would have had over  which one of us was the culprit who had carried the blankets out of the room!

I am wondering if  I woke up a bit while stepping over the box fan, maybe it took a little more conscious effort alerting me enough to step over it, but not enough to fully wake up as I do not remember leaving the bed, or getting back into to, only dropping the armful of bedding. Although while I woke up enough that later in the evening I knew where the blankets where, I did not wake up enough to realize that my sheet and quilt belonged on the bed, not in a different room.

Today is Nathaniel's Birthday

Today is Nathaniel's birthday! His schedule for the day: work, Softball practice immediately following, and home around 8-8:30 tonight. So no birthday meal today, I hope to make a appetizer or something else light for him to have when he gets home from practice. We celebrated his birthday on Saturday going to the Phillies vs Braves game in the evening, and while we lost we had a great time! Nathaniel is the best and so while I wont see him until late tonight he does enjoy playing softball with the church so he will have a good birthday!

On another note, it has been not, humid, and dry here. That seems to be the pattern for most areas in the country right now so that may not be news. We have gotten a few light showers along with lots of wind and heat lightening; however, like many places the rainfall does more to increasing the humidity and not enough rainfall to feed the ground. Here is to hoping for rain for the crops.

YA 2012 Service Trip

For the Young Adult (college aged) service trip this summer we went to Camp Luz! 22 of us (including my parents who joined us for the week) did all sorts of camp prep work. My mother and I helped Rochelle in the kitchen most of the day; however, we usually had a couple of hours in the afternoon to help with the work projects around camp.

Some of the work projects:
Insilating the garage
Landscaping & weeding
Mulching...lots and lots
removing the old dock
painting
staining
and more...


It was great to be back on Camp property and be able to share a bit of my favorite place with a group of people who are great!

Making a house a home

This spring I spent quite a few hours hand digging up around my & Nathaniel's brick porch so that I could create a small flower bed. After a few big roots, many many small trailing roots, grass and weed clods it was finally dug up and ready!

If you look you can see a few tulips on the left that I bought on sale last year and planted in a small dug up space last December. On the Right under the bay window I planted Ferns, Iris, Hostas and a bit of mint all collected from extras my Grandma Andrews had in her flower bed! Thank you grandma!

Now after some shopping I have this! 

What is the big empty space for? Well I am glad to let you know that my wonderful mother gave me Zeni and Cosmos seeds that I planted in that space! They are just starting to sprout now and I am excited to watch them grow!

Now the chives in the front middle there have little purple flowers on them! The chives were another gift from one of my grandma's flower beds!

I am so proud of this hanging basket I designed! I think it looks fantastic.

 I do want to move my Trusty Rusty plant (the red leafy plant in the top picture), and I have weeded it already, the hard part of making the bed is done! This touch of color, while it is a small bed, helps make this house a home. I am so glad God created these beautiful plants for us to enjoy!


On a similar note: I noticed the all to familiar "popcorn flowers" on the ground today around the farmhouse apartment and looked up to see a Catalpa tree here, and as I looked around again tonight I saw another Catalpa tree! I am so grateful for these trees as they remind me of the home I grew up in! Thank you God for that wonderful surprise~

Profit & Faith?

What does it mean to work for a business that exists to be profitable AND is owned by persons who claim Christianity?

A missionary of several decades calls a local business to get information on having some products shipped to him across the country (as he is back in the USA for a bit). Shipping products across the country is expensive for customers and is very profitable for the company. After speaking with the customer service personnel who loves Jesus too the missionary learns some about the employee and prays for the employee during their conversation. This phone call comes to a close with the employee having the information he needs to look into the next step of shipping for the customer. Excited about this phone call the employee shares it with a coworker or two. It is obvious that the phone call encouraged, and fueled the fire in the employee's vigor for Christ. The employee proceeds to relay the phone call that enlightened him to his employer who responds with a quote about like this "Just make sure you charge him a lot, I don't see a red cross on your back."

True Story.

Will you Marry Me?

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Time: 3:00pm

 Today was the Detweiler (Nathaniel's mother's) side of the family Christmas, and Nathaniel's immediate family Christmas. Sharon had a few presents she needed to wrap and asked that Anna, Nathaniel, and I disappear. I was going to play piano where I was out of the room and thus out of sight of Sharon's work when Nathaniel asked if I would like to go for a walk. At this I was quite surprised because it is usually me asking if he would like to go on a walk and often being declined.

I responded with a "Really?" and after him confirming quickly got up to get on shoes, my coat, and mittens to keep warm before he could change his mind.

We walked down his parent's drive and up a tractor path towards a woods. We had not gotten any lasting snow yet, but there was plenty of iced puddles to jump onto and crush. I even managed to scrape up enough snow to attempt the first snowball throw of the year; I stress the repeat because as soon as the flakes left my mitten the loosened into a snow dust cloud. 

Upon reaching the edge of the woods we discovered a smooth 12' frozen puddle which provided us with a perfect place to skate around on our shoes and enjoy the outdoors. After I plummeting to the ground after a miscalculated slide I quickly got up and ran down the path a bit more and hid behind a sapling to prove to Nathaniel that I was just fine. Playing along Nathaniel pretended to search hard for me before approaching my simple hiding place and catching me in a hug before I could escape.  

Nathaniel proceeded to tell me that I was going to be mad at him and after my inquiry as to why in the world I would be he went on to explain that he had purchased a gift for me even though he and I had agreed to spend a day in Lancaster together instead of buying gifts for one another. After genuinely reassuring him that I was not going to loath him for doing something kind and thoughtful I began to turn toward back up the path towards his house where I presumed the gift was in order to assure him that I was ready to go retrieve the gift from the house and show him my joy in place of where he seemed to think I'd show frustration. Nathaniel stopped me and asked where I was going. I passed him a confused look and replied that I wanted to go and get the the gift at the house. When he told me he had the gift with him I smiled, enjoying every moment of this adventure.

I did not expect his next step to be down on one knee, nor for his hands to hold up the beautiful ring he had picked out himself just for me. "Will you marry me?" He asked with a smile on his handsome face. Astonished and surprised I replied "NO WAY! YES!" as we burst with smiles, laughter, and pure joy.

Filled with excitement and thankfulness to God for one-another, we heading back to his parents house laughing and talking ready to share our joy with those inside.

Oui, I agree with the Frenchman

"He who does not live in some degree for others, hardly lives for himself."
~French Essayist Michel de Montaigne

Thank you Michel de Montaigne

Always learning

Why hello,
I suppose it is time for an update. As of Friday last week I am now employed at a local food distribution warehouse. My position is customer service; it is a mixture of receptionist/secretary. I am at the front window and call to the warehouse for orders and such when customers come. I also take orders, update prices, do shortage reports, prep special orders, and other receptionist secretary type things. I really do enjoy it so far and have learned a bunch about how to use the computer system there, which by the way is going to updated into a new computer system sometime in the near future so I will have to learn how to run the computer all over again. :) I do not think the switch over will be too rough, I actually am assuming that it will help everything work even better.

My parents came out to visit labor day weekend which was awesome! I got to show them around where I live and all of Nathaniel's grandparents got to meet them. It was great hanging out with them, taking them to church, and just chit-chatting. The 4 days together went by too quickly.

At the end of the month I am getting a roommate/basement-mate from Ohio. She is moving here for much of the same reason I did, which is uber cool! While I do not know her, she is from the camp area where I spent 2 summers working and many summers as a camper. It'll be fun to make a new friend.

An update especially for The Amazing Danae King

This goes out to Danae King's request that I keep my blog updated. Sorry, I'm not as good at keeping it up like you.

I've been at my new place for about a month now and am truly enjoying the southeastern part of Pennsylvania! My living arrangements are amazing and I enjoy hearing the footsteps and cheers of the kids upstairs. A few weeks ago I awoke to the sound of my electric piano playing and opened my door to find one of the boys who had snuck downstairs playing a "melody" on the piano. A different day I came home late in the evening to find my bag of runts on the back of the toilet...not the most ideal place, but I sure did get a good laugh.

I'm spending my working time at R & J Farm Market where I weed, pick tomatoes, beans, peas, zucchini, earlier in the season strawberries, plant fields of pumpkins (with this awesome contraption that is pulled by a tractor, I wouldn't be able to explain it if I tried, but basically I sit on this thing as we go up and down the rows). I'm also in the store at times or out at the wagon. My farmers tan is looking great and rarely do I leave work without a several great laughs.

My next door neighbors have a pool that I am free to use whenever I wish, that has been a great way to cool off after a day in the sun. I also have discovered how wonderful and relaxing swim by oneself can be!

The Martin's have me over for dinner almost every evening so I get wonderful food and many laughs with them! After dinner Nathaniel and I hang out, play games, read, and have oodles of hysterically fun times.

Thursday Nathaniel took me to my first MLB game! This was so much fun and I am super excited to go to more games! Of course it was a Phillies game which made it really exciting to see the players that I've watched on TV for the last season and a half in real life. The game was at home VS Cincinnati and was a 1:00 game. It was uber hot with very few clouds to cool us off. Well, up until the 8th inning that was true. At the 8th inning a big storm cloud billowed in and we were all told to take cover under the stands. Everyone became a little more than damp because of the wind blowing the rain. We even witnessed a tent being blown down to our level from a deck up. Looking out across Citizens Bank Park we could not even see the other side, instead while billows of rain blew all around while the grounds crew stood on the field trying to keep it as covered as possible. When the rain died down a bit we left since the game was already 12:2 we knew it as a win and it was safe to leave even. After a 1.5 hour delay the game was started up again and we listened to the rest on the car radio while wrestling with Philadelphia traffic.

Nathaniel, his family, and most of the young adults from church have headed to Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp for a week to help with repairs and such around camp. The few of us who remain are having a great time getting together even if so many of our ranks are missing.

Danae King is amazing and I hope that this update exceeds her expectations. Missing Camp Luz and hoping all is shaken up and on fire for God.

~Brooke

Graduation and moving

Graduation was May 9. My parents, Nathaniel, and Nicole all came for my graduation. It was a good time seeing them and spending a few more nights with my Hesston friends. Strange to think that my late night Drubers and Newels runs are finished and that my friends are no longer at the college we all met at and reeked havoc on with our movie marathons, weekend trip to lake Wilson, and roof climbing, and numerous other adventures.

On the way back from Kansas we stopped in Iowa for a day to see family. It was wonderful to spend some time with them laughing and carrying on like we always do. Shannon has had her baby since then so now Scotty and her have a young baby girl to care for. I wonder when I will get to meet her?

I spent a few weeks at home and then moved out here to Telford, PA. I enjoy that I am within walking distance from church and am hoping for many good weathered Sunday mornings so that I will indeed partake in a walk. I'm living in the basement of a family from church and babysitting once a week for them. While I haven't gotten to babysit just yet, I am quite excited to get started. There are three children 2 boys Bryce, Brandt, and one girl names Brooklyn (of whose name I must say is quite wonderful).

For the summer I'm working at a produce farm in the store, the wagon, and picking. My employers are great people to work for and I often wont go home without a nice laugh or two.

Nathaniel and I are both happy to no longer be living 1,188 miles apart. Being able to see each other and spend time together each day has been well enjoyed by both of us. He has another church softball game this evening that I am looking forward to watching, maybe one of these games it'll be cold enough for me to take my snuggy he got me as a gag gift at Christmas.

I really ought to stop procrastinating from cleaning up my place,besides not much else to say right now. I'm just glad to be moved out here and am working on adjusting to new surroundings and roads.

Oregon

Bel Canto arrived back on campus late last evening (March 1) after our tour in Oregon. That state is B-E-A-utiful! Right now the trees are blossoming revealing there breathtaking light pinks and whites, the grass is a vibrant green, the mountains were snowy, and the Pacific was obviously right there too!

We left Wednesday evening performed three 2-a-day concerts and took Saturday off to sight see along the coast and eat a Mo's (a famous restaurant out there with yummy seafood). Getting to sing in all of these different churches/schools was an awesome experience. Tiring, yet quite rewarding.

My hosts were great! The first night we arrived at our hotel around 12 (3am back at college) and being tired from all the flying were eager for beds. The man inside took 10 minutes to come to the door and another 20 minutes to hand out the keys that were ready for us. The 8:00 meeting that Thursday morning came too early for us all. The rest of the evenings we were with hosts.

Tuesday March 23 was Hesston's music department concert. This marked the end of Bel as it is time for European Chorale to meet. Since I am not going to Europe this summer, I am done. Well, mostly done, Monday and Tuesday we will have our last 2 recording sessions for our CD and sometime in April Bel will go to Bethel College for perform for one of their Chapels. I miss meeting everyday and singing with this group, it has been an awesome experience, and being able to hear my own vocal growth throughout this semester has been a wonderfully encouraging thing for me.

Amen [Let it Be So]

My Lord my Savior my God

Save me from my ways

Convict me when I need convicted

Let me know what it means to know You

Let me follow in your footsteps

Keep me from straying

Teach me your ways

 Save me from my numbness

Convict me with the Holy Spirit

Frustrate me until I change

For you are the only thing that should matter

Why do I doubt You?

Why do I not continuously praise You

Let me change

Let me live in your way

May my actions reflect You and only You

May people see You when they see me and not evil within me

May perverse things not come out of me

May Your Glory be revealed in my every step

Where would I be without you

I’ve had glimpses of that way and God I don’t want that

Charge me anew

Let me glorify you

May I not become so comfortable with my falseness that I accept my perverse ways as how I am designed to be

God afflict me until I understand

Frustrate me until I grasp my mistakes

Charge me until I meet Your request

Challenge me to uphold Your truth

Surround me with accountability even when it hurts

Lord show me You

Hesston Mennonite Sermons

Back in December the campus pastor here asked me if I was interested in helping with some sermons at Hesston Mennonite after Christmas up to Lent. I agreed and my what a time it has been; we are studying Genesis.  5 of us (the lead pastor, 2 church members, and 2 Hesston College Students) are helping with this and are having such engaging conversation and study. 2-3 people meet each week discuss ask questions and meet again Sunday morning with a final rough outline for the sermon. The congregation has been responding each week with e-mails and verbal questions and comments about our discussions. We are not pretending to have the answers to everything, but our discussions seem to be prompting discussion within the congregation. Tomorrow I will be helping with the fall story, from our discussions we have too much to continue asking and discussing, it'll be interesting and exciting to see where we go and what makes it into the outline and out to the congregation.

Soprano Surprise

I made Bel Canto! For those of you who do not know what Bel is I should say that it is the choir at Hesston that one has to audition to get into.

It happened pretty quickly; Thursday night I checked my e-mail around midnight and read an e-mail that said there was going to be 1 or 2 openings in Bel this coming semester and that auditions were Friday between 11:30 and 12. I figured I did not have much to lose and auditioned. Around 4:20 that day 10 minutes before I was leaving for work Anna congratulated me. I asked her for what and she said that I made Bel and should check my e-mail.

This is a big deal for me because I have never really thought that I had a singing voice. I had a good friend tell me when I was young that I could not sing. College here in Hesston is that first time that I sang in a chorale. I am happily surprised that I made it into this 20 member group that one has to audition for!

This opportunity is exciting and I am very much looking forward to my time in the group.

Thanksgiving weekend at Hesston

I am grateful that I was able to see both Nathaniel and my parents during this weekend. Nathaniel drove out here which is 25 hour drive when 3 hours are added for sleeping time. He got here Tuesday evening while I was at work. My parents arrived Thursday afternoon they had gone to see Caleb and the other Gugel's in Iowa before they came down.

As seems to be a pattern we played lots of Apple's to Apples. Bill sent out some of his smoked pork with Nathaniel and we enjoyed that with the cookies sent out for me with my parents. The 4 of us went to see my cousin Mark on Friday in Hutch, we went out to Chili's and then back to the VS house he lives to continue talking and catching up for a while. After the fun there we headed to see "The Blind Side" which was a great movie that all four of us enjoyed.

Now I am turning back to my school work for 2 more weeks, a few days of exams, and then Christmas break!