Soccer Queen!

Here is a picture of Morgan getting her soccer award. The coach gave her the "Get-r-Done" Award. Both she and Katelyn finished out the season well. They are now on to tennis. A much more laid back sport- that part is for me. :) I needed the less stressful schedule. William has been studying, studying, studying. We at least get to see him at breakfast and he kisses the kids goodnight. We'll both be ready for the Thanksgiving break!! Are we exchanging names this year for Christmas?

Concert was a blast!

Hey guys, I had someone take a picture of me at the concert so you could see what it was like! I'll tell ya what that music could make you move... before I knew it i was leading a dance revolution!!!

I'm hard at work too!

I'm sitting at home tonight. Not really wanting to, yet willingly. There is a concert tonight in Kranj that we've been planning on going to. The Ricklicks' (missionaries that used to live here) choir from their church in Modesto, California are here in Slovenia doing gospel concerts and their last one is here in Kranj tonight.

We asked so many people for babysitting, but no one was available and all our students that we would normally ask are at the concert (which is way more important!), some with their parents and family. We were going to possibly just take Abigail but after her afternoon nap it was apparent that she would need her normal bedtime tonight and not lose 3 hours of sleep just so I could go to a concert. Times like this make me miss living closer to grandparents. : )

Drago called this afternoon and asked Joel if he could video tape it, so I'll be able to see it that way.

Joel was so sweet in offering to stay home and I go in his place...he also reminded me that I have the most important job right now. Taking care of Abigail, myself and the coming baby.

So to illustrate that, I made this for you:



Okay, so I just saw one on someone else's blog and thought it was cute and wondered what it would look like if I did it for myself. You can make one too! It's from meez.com or something like that. Enjoy!

Hard at work

Joel is, that is, not me.

Here's a few photos of the latest progress. We're moving forward. Hopefully tomorrow or the next day the electrician and plumber come to finish up their work. The cabinets are scheduled to be installed next Monday or Tuesday. Yay!

It's a little bit hard to see since we just have the one lamp right now. You can click on the pics to see them bigger. Joel's a hard worker!

Autumn Day in Summerville

It's a beautiful Autumn day - windows are open and it feels great! When I was cleaning this morning I heard a flock of geese flying over to the "lake." Dad went to a book sale this morning at the Timrod Library. He picked up 4 old history books which made him very happy. I did some cleaning, laundry and spent a couple hours going through the junk mail and other stuff piled on the computer table. Where does it all come from? Next Wednesday I leave for Greensboro, NC with Donna for the ACSI convention. We go up early and get all the registration material so that when the teachers come up later that day we can save them time by already having their material. We always have fun stopping at Cracker Barrel and a few stores here and there. :) Josh McDowell is the key note speaker this year and I am looking forward to hearing him again. I think he will challenge our teachers too. We'll be back some time Friday evening. Poor dad will be on his own a couple days. He's had a good week going to some Historical Summerville and chamber of commerce meetings. No tours yet, but he's ready! Grandma and Grandpa's house finally closed this week which is a praise. The closing had been postponed I think atlease 4 times. They are supposed to close on the new house in Ohio next Wednesday.

Love you all-
Mom

Sun!

I wish you all could have been here today. The weather is wonderful and the colors are stunning. We have spent a lot of time outside since we won't be doing that much for a while.
Yesterday was Noah's 6mo birthday. We celebrate half birthdays in my family so my parents (and the neighbor) came over for dinner and cupcakes. It was fun to get together.
Today was just so beautiful that I wanted to share my joy. Thanks for "listening".

Another first...

We all went up to Mt. Hood today for a Sunday afternoon drive. They had 11 inches this past Friday up there and we wanted to let Noah see (and taste) snow for the first time. He seemed to like it, although he doesn't complain about much except sleep time :) I can't wait for Christmas. We already have a present for mom and working on one for dad. This blog will be a great way to ask santa what we want to Christmas!!!! Have a great week everyone.

tornado

I was going to put a youtube video on the blog, but I can't figure it out - and it looks like too much work. Anyway, there is tons of footage on there. I didn't realize how close it was to me at work until I got home. Apparently it went right over us, but didn't touch down until two streets over. Crazyness! Hope everyone is having a happy Sunday:)

A brand new car!

Okay, so it's not brand new...it's a 2000 Chrysler Grand Voyager yet it's brand new to us! Niall & Tawnya McSheffrey are missionaries with JV and were living in Prague for about 10 years, then moved to Croatia a couple years ago to start ministries there and then the Lord took them back to the states this summer. They needed to sell their minivan and Josh Patty thought of us.

We've been saving up for one for quite a while but when we bought the house, we had to put that money toward renovating things here and decided we would just have to wait for the van.

Then when we were moving out of the other house, the new renter asked us about selling our ministry van. He offered 1500 Euros for it and Joel took him up on it. Although, he hasn't actually bought it yet...so we'll see.

About a week later, Josh told Joel about the McSheffrey's van and suggested Joel look at it. Joel thought it was great. It has about 160,000 miles on it, so it's pretty used, but for us it's great. So Joel emailed Niall and told him we had 1500 Euros to offer and he wrote back saying he would sell it to us for $4000 and we could pay him over the next year. (Which he could easily get $7 or 8000 for it.)

Well. Joel is still hoping that man will buy the van, if not he has it listed on the Slovenian internet for sale and we hope to sell it to someone. In the meantime Joel wrote a couple supporters asking if they would like to donate some money for it and one couple wrote saying that they were going to mail a check to JV for $3000. Joel had asked for $2500 and they said they wanted to give $500 more for an oil change, insurance and a tune-up. Amazing, isn't it?!

Just one more thing to be grateful to the Lord for!

Abigail's walking...

Well...she has been taking steps since August, but this afternoon she was choosing to walk, walk, walk more than just 5 or 6 steps. It was fun to watch her go.

Here's a slideshow of pictures. I didn't have the video camera with me. Oh...and there are a lot of her cute little face too...just cause. Enjoy!

woodard boys

Here are some pics of the boys. There's not too much going on here in Pensacola. Things are going good for us! It seems like when we get discouraged or have a need the Lord is right there to pick us up. My work is going really well. I'm working with a good group of people, most of which are Christians. It makes a big difference. Ben was able to get some new stuff for the youth room really cheap. The teens are so excited. The Bible study at the high school is going good too. It will meet for the 3rd time tomorrow.

Matthew is crawling, pulling up and now standing up and taking steps if he holds on to something. He does have both ears infected right now :( I think he's going to end up with ear tubes like Ryan. Oh, he's 18 lbs now!Growing up so fast! Ryan is really good a golf! He practices in the back yard everyday. He just got a new toybox that a man at our church made. He thinks everything has to go in it:) even shoes.

Hope everyone is enjoying fall!

Morgan

Morgan asked Jesus into her heart yesterday. I was at a conference and came home about 9:30 and she was sitting on the couch with William. She had been lying in bed and was crying because she wanted to ask Jesus to come into her heart but she didn't know what to say. William and I were able to pray with her. She has been asking questions but we haven't felt she was ready. Last night there was no doubt. What a blessing! :)

Three Reasons I love Fall...

Color, color, and color. :) I just wish the leaves stayed dry enough to jump into them. We'll write more later, for now the pictures will have to speak for themselves. We're doing well.
Love you all and oh yeah..... CONGRADULATIONS MORGAN!!!!!!!!! Grandma told us the great news today. :)

Joel

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!! We wanted to be the first to say it :) Hope your day is wonderful and that you get some well needed rest and relaxation with the fam! I think it's 2 am over there, so I think we are officially the first!

Ryan's 3!!

Today is Ryan's birthday!!!! Yeah Ryan!!! Our camera is 'sick' currently, so, when it gets 'better' we will post some pictures. Ryan started his day with a school bus ride (he's obsessed with school busses) and a cop car tour. Then, Ben took him to get a putter and a driver to complete his little boy golf club set. Then, he came home and got his presents.... an art easel, chutes and ladders, memory, and a doodle board. We had cake and talked to nana/papa and grandma/grandpa on video phone - but Ryan was too busy pouting to enjoy either. Then, daddy took him to the driving range to practice with his new clubs - he's actually pretty good. He's now sleeping quietly in his bed. Where have 3 years gone? Wow, people tell you time flies, and they really mean it. My little boy is growing up!!!! 3 years ago right now, Ryan was only 6 hours old...3 more years from now and he will be 6 years old...

Getting Settled

Well...we're in our new home. It is so nice to be here. We're all feeling so good about it. The previous owners left a swingset for Abigail and she's just loving being in the ...I can't remember what it's called...it's like a swing but with bench seats. Is it a teeter-totter? Hmmm...anyway. She loves it!

We've met all our neighbors now and there are 3 babies within a couple months of Abigail. We just had coffee with one set who have a baby girl, 10 months and her boy cousin who is a year old. It'll be so good for Abigail to have babies/kids her age to learn Slovene with BEFORE school starts so she'll start off really well. As we were leaving one of the mom's (Ingrid) said that the preschool here in the village is opening up tomorrow night for everyone because they got new toys, so they're inviting all the parents and babies. So we're going to go to that and hopefully meet some more moms and kids. There are so many moms walking around the village with their baby strollers and I'm on a "Hi" basis with almost all of them, so I'm looking forward to the chance to actually meet some of them.

Yes, the kitchen is still in the same condition. Although, the door to the outside in our dining room is now in, so the home is much warmer now. We had a gaping hole for, I think, 3 days...the rainiest and coldest. But we survived and we are really going to enjoy having that door to the backyard from the kitchen/dining room.

Our fridge is plugged in outside in our utility room and we have a plastic outdoor table that we've set up outside and have also brought into the living room a couple times. We're making due. Upstairs we have our hot pot plugged in, a toaster and a microwave. Today I went to the store and bought a pre-cooked chicken that was delicious and will stretch for several meals. We're right across the street from the little grocery store, so we've had fresh sandwiches most days for lunch. We're doing okay and it's really beautiful weather right now so that really helps to keep a positive attitude! Especially when you have to go outside to get anything from the fridge.

So far almost everyday something is being pushed back a day or two on getting the kitchen completed and the projected completion day(s) was for the 10-12th of October...so we'll see. The actual kitchen cabinets are all completed, we're just waiting for the room to be prepared. The plumber was supposed to come on Friday, which stretched into Monday, Joel called him today and he said he'd come at 1pm, he called him again at 3 and he said he'd come tonight, if not, "for sure" tomorrow. The electrician, who seems to be the most reliable said he would be here tomorrow and that the plumber MUST do his job first, so hopefully the plumber will arrive tomorrow and work fast. We'll see...

Well...Abigail is down for the night, so I'm going to go relax with Joel in our semi-arranged living room! We enjoy reading all your updates and especially seeing the video of Ryan and Matthew...so fun to see and hear them! Joel said, "he's a little Ben!" And Jon and Erin, good job on your harvest! So cute to see the little veggies, they're Noah size! Good job you guys!

Love you all!
Amy for us
Oh...P.S. I just love A's expression in that picture of the two of us. She is talking almost non-stop lately and even is talking with her hands...almost more than me! Such girly fun!