A very Literal start to the Fall season!

So a couple of weeks ago the big wind storm hit Ohio and was one of the craziest storms we've ever seen. Silly us, we were out driving checking out all the damage before the storm was even over. We were anxious to get home to our very wooded lot to see if anything had happened there. And these are those times when we know that Jesus really watches over us and hears are prayers. We had one tree fall and instead of hitting a shed that would've cost probably $1000 to replace or our new tree house that would be several hundred dollars, it landed on the side of our swing set which is the cheapest and easiest thing to replace in our yard!

Another amazingness blessing from the Lord... it perfectly missed my lilac bushes that just bloomed for the first time this spring, landing right between them. And it just barely missed my dogwood tree. How is that possible! This tree could not have landed more perfectly in our yard!
Cole and Lydia did not agree with where it landed but once they get their swing set fixed they won't even remember this. This is what's left of it after removing the branches. Thankfully, the side with the slide platform wasn't damaged at all.
We had several days of good family bonding as we all worked hard to drag braches to the front and stack wood. A few Chi Alpha guys came over the day after and with Steve and some chainsaws, they made great ground in getting it cleared up.
We were one of the first neighborhoods that the city got to in their pick up efforts. As we were walking Cole to school we passed them one street over so Steve rushed back to start bringing the rest of the debris to the front. We didn't want to do it too much ahead of time or we wouldn't have any place to park!

We thought we would be one of the last homes to have their power restored since our electric meter and pole got ripped off of the house (bringing with it a 2x4 from INSIDE the house). Dayton Power & Light weren't working on individual houses, but we hired an electrician, and DP&L reattached the main line so we got our electric restored the same time as the rest of our block. We were only without power for a week. We were very content and all of us had great attitudes through the whole week. Internet took a while longer. We just got it back a few days ago! That was actually more inconvenient since I do most of my work from home. Steve was fine since he had it on campus everyday and on his phone to check his fantasy football.

It isn't autumn unless you have pumpkins on the porch so the kids were all excited to get some. The only problem- squirrels!! So Cole had a plan. He collected a bunch of apples from a farm we were at and placed them around our yard as decoys. Then we made Scare-squirrels (instead of scarecrows) to scare them away from our pumpkins. They were very excited about making them and we just hope that they don't scare our friends away too!

School Starts!!!

Cole had his first day of kindergarten a couple weeks ago. He was so excited and a little nervous. The school is a 7 min walk away and one of my good friends from church teaches 1st grade there so we get the inside scoop. It is a great school and he enjoys it immensely. His only complaint so far, it's not long enough!

Still smiling when we picked him up after his first day. That's a good sign.
Lydia also started school a few days after Cole. She goes tuesdays and thursdays and also loves it. She goes to a public preschool nearby and as you can tell by the other names on the lockers, it is very diverse, including internationals. She loves it and it's nice because she doesn't know any different. She's probably just glad the teachers speak english!
School started for our kids but at the same time we were gearing up for WSU's start. We had our Action Team in Training (AT 'n T) a few weeks ago. We spent about two days with our leadership casting vision and preparing for the fall start-up. It was a sweet time and some of our upper classmen thought it was the best one... yet.
One of the first things we do to reach out and connect to incoming freshmen is moving them in. We partner with Wright State to do Move In and this year we had over 30 students from XA volunteer! WSU loves us and always has so much praise for our group and what we do on campus. First weekend is a crazy weekend with move in, Do the U, Orientations, Boogie on the Bricks and Painting the Rock. And this is all within 2 days time. Our students have been rocking it so far. They have been reaching out and loving on students. We have had more students already get plugged into XA and our first meeting isn't until tonight! The world pulls students away so quickly that our hope is to get as many Christians plugged into groups on campus before they fall away from lack of fellowship. One need we provided for the first time this year was a church service on campus for all of the students who just moved in but have no idea where to go to church yet. Since it was our first one, we didn't do the best with advertising but still got amazing turn out! Over 45 new students came out for it and were very grateful to have a place to go since most of them would have just not gone anywhere. We worshipped, Steve spoke on making it a point to feed yourself through God's Word, we ate donuts and passed out a flyer with local church info. It was a sweet success and we loved meeting that need. The University must have liked it too because we found out later that it was on their website. Next year we're hoping to partner with the orientation stuff that goes on all weekend and make it officially through the school.

It was the perfect setting for a service, outside by the gardens and right next to the dorms. We will need more chairs and blankets next year!

Seeing the fam

Cole spent a week at Safety Village to learn all about riding bikes, crossing the street and fire safety. It was a fun week for him and he graduated with honors. Now he tries to teach my social butterfly, Lydia, who strangers are since she thinks that everyone is a friend and yells hi. The world we live in...














We headed up north for the 4th of July stopping in Norwalk for a quick parade and picnic at Liz's Grandma's and then went on to Painesville for a small reunion for Steve's side of the family. And had an awesome time out on their sailboat.


Cole got to learn a bit more about sailing from the pros, Aunt Sue and Jack.
Steve and Tom loved the chance to jump in again.


Our day on the water was beautiful and relaxing. Cole and Lydia even fell asleep!
Posing with Aunt Marla
After a speaking at a church service, we headed to Great Gran's to spend the evening. She is eighty-eight years old and planning her 90th birthday bash!

What we've been doing so far!

Here's the almost finished product of the amazing tree house that Steve made this spring. All that's left is a good coat of stain. The kids love it and have no problem climbing up into it. Steve also made chairs out of the leftover wood and the kids got to paint them. It's a good life being a kid!




Lydia just picked up "pumping" to swing by herself last week. It's amazing what a second kid can do. Cole just learned earlier this spring! She's just a few beats behind him. Of course she thinks she's right up there with him like when she tried to jump off something "just like Cole" and took a nose dive into the sand!
Cole loves this hanging bar we have. He's learned to do flips and all sorts of tricks on it.



Our park and Graeters friends, Kate and Ben from church. They are great buds.







And when Mom's working, we like to go and yell Mimi! We try not to catch her in the middle of something so that we don't get her in trouble! She loves her job at Trader Joe's and they love having her!

Starting the Summer off Right!

My trip to Tulsa to help out with Jess's baby was wonderful. Greta is such a good baby. She doesn't even spit up yet! I kept looking for burb cloths cuz it was so hard for me to even hold her without covering my whole body with a cloth. That's all my kids seemed to do. Spit up and drool. Maybe that will still come for Greta. We'll see.


Jess and Greta flew back with me and stayed in Dayton for a week to show her off to the rest of the family here and up north. Cole and Lydia are so proud to finally have a cousin! They kept talking about "their cousin". Lydia loved to pet her and Cole wanted to hold her a lot. And they were very interested in the whole nursing thing.
Poppy's pool is open!!! We're at the Poppy's, chi chi! My Dad worked very hard this spring to get it cleaned and ready for us to jump in. And we are so very grateful and ready! The swim lessons earlier in the year paid off. Cole is jumping in by himself and swimming under water. It's amazing. Lydia isn't very fond of going under water yet but she loves to jump into our arms and do motor boat. It's very fun and we plan on making it worth Poppy's hard effort by using it a lot. We already have a Chi Alpha baptism planned for one of our newly saved students with a pool party following it, of course!

Don't you just love Lydia's pose. It's so funny how dramatic she is. I don't know where girls learn these things. I surely am not like that at all!

My little boy is growing up!

Cole graduated from preschool tonight. We were glad that they let him graduate since he wasn't there the whole year and his credits didn't transfer from Pasos Chiquitas in Mexico. Cole has enjoyed his preschool immensely and even said as we were leaving on his last day that he wanted to live there with Miss Walker forever. We consoled him by reminding him that he's that much closer to starting kindergarten and then he was excited again.

Right after we celebrated by eating at Friendly's, we headed to the ceremony

Look at those blue brannan eyes.

Right as he was receiving his diploma and I was zoomed in with the perfect shot, the guy in front of me stood up to let his wife back into her seat, blocking my view completely and missing the moment. Ironic and sad but then we remembered that this is only a preschool graduation. (And Steve got it on video, too)

Cole is now ready to take on the world!!

Pee Wee Soccer Star

Here are some shots from Saturday's game. After a rained out game and practice we were thrilled to have beautiful weather.

Cole scored the first of the only two goals of the game! Everyone was surprised, including him! He's not the best one on the team but he's really starting to get the idea of the game and loves playing and having friends on the team. Who knows what he'll end up playing if anything, but if I could choose a sport to watch... it's a lot more interesting to watch then baseball! (and a shorter season!)

Cole's posing but he really does get down and serious. It is hilarious to watch him get so into it. Unfortunately, our offense was so good that he didn't get much of a chance this game to show off his goalie skills. He did get to throw the ball in once.

It was picture day and this year Cole decided to do a really good smile instead of his sad face from last year! It is amazing the difference a year can make!