Gap-toothed boy

Xander lost a tooth last night. He's really starting to look like a first-grader!

Our first week of school has been good. Maia got to go to daycare for the first time ever in her whole life last week on Thursday afternoon. I took her to a big commercial daycare just down the street from us because of where they're located, their reputation, and the fact that they'll take kids as drop-ins for an hourly rate.

When I went to pick her up, they said, "She did.... okay." Not the glowing review you hope for when it comes to your kids! They tried to put her down for a nap, but she didn't have her blanket, and also she doesn't usually take a nap until 3:30 or 4:00 (works good with my after-school lesson schedule), so she was not having anything to do with that.

Oh well, she'll start to enjoy her time eventually, right? Hopefully, it's not a permanent solution for us. I'm thinking we should be able to find a college student to help us out a few days a week. We're going to need someone to put the kids to bed on Wednesday nights since worship team practice won't start until 8:00, and we're going to kind of have a small group (we're not going to be an official one until we find out about whether or not we're switching churches... Read Matt's blog) on Sunday nights, so we're going to need some regular help.

Xander, meanwhile, loves school. All City Elementary is a great school, and even though the drive is a bit of an inconvenience, it's so great to get to be a part of his classroom every week. I go on Thursday afternoons (that's why Maia has to go to daycare), so last Thursday was my first day. It's a great way for parents to get to know every kid in the class, and several of the parents, as we volunteer together. We get to do such things as playground duty, lunch duty, grade papers, help with classroom work, make copies, and basically anything the teacher needs. It's a great concept. The school doesn't have to pay teacher's aides, the classroom size can be a lot bigger, there is hardly ever a discipline problem- because your mom or someone else's is always there!- the kids really are respectful, no student gets "left behind" because there's always someone available to help him or her, and we as parents get a realistic view of our kids' performance in the classroom. It's great. I'm so glad we have been given this opportunity!

This week, Xander brought his "Me Bag" to school. The kids were given a small paper bag to put 5 items in that help explain who they are. Xander put a picture of him and Maia, a Bionicle, a Lego robot that he made himself, a green Hot Wheels car and the number 6.

Dancing with Daddy

Aren't these the sweetest pictures?

Fun Weekend

We had a final weekend of fun before starting school on Monday. The kids and I went down to Yankton for Riverboat Days. We spent the night Friday night, the kids stayed over on Saturday night too. We had a great time. A little too much sun, perhaps, but it's a good fun to have as a good-bye to summer.

We went to the parade Saturday morning. Here we are waiting for things to start happening:


Things got kind of interesting once the parade finally got to us. We got to see the Budweiser Clydsedales, (I think I caught the horse on the left mid-whinny!)


Some other interesting parade entries:

...Fat guy in a little truck

You know why bagpipers walk while they play?
To get away from all that noise!

Interestingly, the Wells Fargo Wagon was one of the parade entries that didn't throw candy... I guess kids don't really care if the Wells Fargo Wagon is a comin' down the street anymore.
I love this one. He was in the parade last year too. For those of us not schooled in farm machinery, it's a manure spreader.

Here's a SD style "howdy" to end the parade.

After the parade, we went to the park, where we indulged in fair-style food (Tina, I don't think the Indiana State Fair has anything on the food at Yankton Riverboat Days!) Then Xander enjoyed the teeny ferris wheel
and the inflatable kid zone


Meanwhile, Maia danced with Spider Man. (Inflatable kid?)
After that, it was time for a nap (for everyone except Xander). We went back to Mom & Jim's and rested for a while, had some dinner and then went out on the boat. Xander is quite a water bug. He had a great time.
He and grandma spent quite a bit of time in the water (it wasn't as hot out as it looks in these pictures- there was a lot of teeth-chattering going on all around)

Maia spent more time on the boat. All of it, really.

Xander learned how to go in the tube with Uncle Casey a couple of weeks ago, and wanted to show off his mad skills. He tried it at first with Grandma, but felt like they were tipping over backwards. That's because they were.

Then did it all on his own.

The other thing he learned from Uncle Casey is that it's OK to pee in the lake. He was delighted to demonstrate that ability as well. Off the back of the boat. I didn't take pictures, but I was proud- as you can imagine.

There was some reference to a "Redneck Yacht Club"

First Day of First Grade

Well, today was Xander's first day in a 'real' school setting. He did great. Loved it. Only one little hitch. I got a phone call shortly after noon from the principal at All City Elementary, a public school that has required parental involvment, a reorganized weekly schedule and is really hard to get into. They had a last-minute drop-out, and had a spot for Xander available tomorrow if he wants it.

So I had to go pick up Xander from one school, apologize to his teacher and principal and gather all his stuff and get him re-registered at a different school.

ACE will be a lot farther away, about a 20-minute drive, and I'll have to figure out what to do with Maia on Thursday afternoons when I volunteer in the classroom (with 2 other parents). It's going to be a tight squeeze getting back home in time to teach lessons after school on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, but hopefully we can hook up with a carpool from this neighborhood.

So, it was a bit different than I expected, and Xander was slightly put out with me because he made a new friend today and didn't even get to say good-bye.

I guess we'll have a second first day of first grade tomorrow.

Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday, Matt & I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary.

14.

I feel really old! Next month will mark 18 years since we started dating!

But we had fun anyway. We had some expert babysitters (my dad and step mom came up for the evening), went to see "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" (I think I liked the first one better), then did a little shopping at the mall and went to have sushi at a wonderful little Japanese restaurant downtown.

This was only my second experience in eating sushi, the first was at a little restaurant in Greeley, CO. Because if you want to eat really fresh raw fish, Colorado and South Dakota are the places to do it! We got a sample platter of sushi and a sample platter of deep fried fish. The first fried thing I bit into had long stringy tentacles! I was surprised at how tender the raw fish was, especially the tuna. I guess I expected it to be really rubbery and smell like the Missouri River or something. I did not like the texture of the squid, but the tuna, salmon, scallops, shrimp, and eel were all very good. (We had a map, or I wouldn't have been able to identify the fish except by color- Mmmm, pink). And I feel fine this morning. I'm not sure about Matt, he's still asleep. (Coma?)

In other news, we get to have Xander's Open House carnival at school today. He'll get to meet his teacher, and find out which classroom he'll be in, hopefully meet some classmates, then we get to stay for fun at a carnival sponsored by the PTA, complete with inflatables and games and food and stuff. Lucky for Matt (who just LOVES stuff like that), I get to leave early because I have Bible study tonight. He gets to drag the kids home and put them to bed. I get two nights off!

We only have 5 more days until school starts, so we're going to try to use them as well as we can. Matt's off work again today, two days in a row feels like a holiday or something! (If it was a real holiday he'd have to work, but he'd get paid time and a half.)

Reading Right Now

I've started two new books. Well 3 (to imitate the writer of Proverbs). I am currently reading:

"Divine" by Karen Kingsbury, a contemporary parable of the life of Mary Magdalene
"Velvet Elvis" by Rob Bell, and
"Living Beyond Yourself" by Beth Moore.

It's interesting that these 3 books should intersect at this point in my life. I read a lot. Usually I average a novel a week, though last week I read 2 1/2. Of course, those are usually Christian fiction, stories that get me roped in and invested in the lives of the characters. The kind you can't put down. And unless I recognize the cover, I sometimes read them twice and don't realize it until I'm over halfway through.

"Velvet Elvis" is nothing like that. It's one of Matt's favorite non-fiction books. I've only read the introduction so far, but if I were to sum it up in one sentence, I'd say the gist of the book (at least the introductory chapter) is this: Christianity is an ever-evolving faith that must be deconstructed and reconstructed by each generation, building upon the wisdom of ages past and understanding the current culture enough to realize that the truths that former generations built their lives around are as real today as ever, in order to understand that the Word of God is living and active and so is the Christian faith.

That's a really long sentence, but really, do you expect anything different from me? (See former entry: "FOUR things about me." HA!)

So I can see that "Velvet Elvis" is going to be challenging and educational. (I'll have to force myself to read it though)

"Divine" is unlike any other Kingsbury book I've ever read. Karen usually has a way of writing that makes you cry and laugh within paragraphs of each other. Your heart gets very emotionally involved in the story she tells and she's very romantic. Sometimes to the extreme that I wonder if romantic "first love" feelings become a bit of an idol in her stories. But this book is much different. I told Matt last night that it's much more Francine Rivers in nature. It has a lot of the same flavor as Rivers' book, "Redeeming Love" or "The Atonement Child." It's an excellent read for anyone involved in counseling victims of sexual and physical abuse. It's helping me remember that life is a lot harder for people not in my little social circle, and that the devil sinks his talons deep once he gets a foothold (or stronghold as Beth Moore would put it).

"Living Beyond Yourself" is a Beth Moore Bible study, my fourth one since last September. It's an older study of Beth's but her topics are timeless and so God-directed that no matter when you do one of her studies, God speaks to your heart loud and clear. This one is on the fruits of the Spirit. (Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness and Self-Control). I'm doing the study with only 2 other women, Martha and Laura. We are all in serious need of some fresh living water in our lives.

Things I've gleaned so far: God's ways are so much bigger than ours and completely beyond my comprehension. I guess I have to be reminded of this frequently. His purpose for me is beyond what I can accomplish on my own, my current situation is beyond my control and in His hands, and I need His help to shape my character in my daily interactions with my family and others. Women have been given the gift of influence, and we're really good at it. THAT's why we need to be filled with the Spirit. We need to use our power for good! :)

The topic of martyrdom vs. prosperity preaching also came up. A quote that I found particularly interesting was from a missionary to China who was later beheaded for his ministry: "Let us remind ourselves that the Great Commission was never qualified by clauses calling for advance only if funds were plentiful and no hardship or self-denial involved. On the contrary, we are told to expect tribulation and even persecution, but with it victory in Christ."

I think our brand of Christianity is pretty tame and doesn't take risks leaning on the strength and provision of Jesus enough.

Matt & I also had a conversation the other day that really boiled down to this: If Jesus is the ONE THING, the thing we truly center our lives around, then we don't need to be concerned about other people's struggles, habits, addictions, or lifestyles. That's Jesus' job to work out in each one of us. We are called to center our lives around him and "The things of the earth will grow strangely dim."

OK, so that was a very outward focus (martyrdom & evangelism) and a very inward focus (Jesus as the center of my life). I suppose that's the paradox for my life today.

Anyway, all this to say that it's not all about macaroni & cheese and potty training at my house. I have thoughts that could fit in with Matt's blog too!

Little Known Facts

In response to being called out on my friend Tina's blog, I am answering some information about myself, though most of my readers are immediate family, so this may not be as revealing as one might think.

Four Things About Me
Things you may not have known about me...

A) Four jobs that I have had:
I can't narrow it down to 4. Here's 4 periods of my life and the various and interesting jobs I held during them. Am I an over-achiever or do I have ADD?:
1. Jr. High/ High School- Sheldon, IA:

• Paper carrier for the Des Moines Register at age 14- one of those 5 am, 7 days a week deals (money which actually paid for our wedding rings only a few years later!)
  
• Lifeguard for the Sheldon Indoor Pool
  
• Pharmacist's Assistant at Family Drug
  
• Checker at Hy-Vee (grocery store), including a summer doing night shift. All the commercials about working night shift at a grocery store are pretty accurate.

2. Undergraduate USD- Vermillion, SD:

• Checker at another Hy-Vee (no night shift this time)
• Housekeeper at the Comfort Inn (cheerleaders have the second worst rooms to clean up. Obscenely overweight guy who used the sheets instead of the toilet was the worst)
• Front desk worker at the same Comfort Inn. Extreme step up in the world of hotel workers.
• Singer/ Dancer at the Red Garter Saloon at Valleyfair! Theme park South of Minneapolis, MN. Perks included free admission to the park (as long as we didn't wear our costumes), and getting to work in any other area of the park for the same elevated pay rate, so I also worked in wardrobe and the IMAX theatre.
  
• Staff and eventually head honcho at Sheldon High School Summer Theatre program (5 summers)
  

3. Graduate School- UNC- Greeley, CO (I did all this while a full-time graduate student):

• Graduate assistant- recruiting, rehearsing & directing my very own collegiate choir.
• Receptionist- MIRROR student newspaper.
• Music Reviews- MIRROR student newspaper.
• Advertising Manager - MIRROR student newspaper (I spent a lot of time there)
• Children's Choir Director- First United Methodist Church, Greeley
• Adult Choir Director- First United Methodist Church, Greeley
• Private Voice and Piano lessons (started in 1994, I'm still at it 12 years later!)
• Model (short lived, unsuccessful career. Photos all destroyed. Don't ask.)
  

4. Life after college:

• Music/ creative arts associate at Hanfield United Methodist Church (nice new webpage!)
• Voice teacher - Indiana Wesleyan University
• Voice & Piano teacher - my home
• Crisis Pregnancy Center peer counselor (volunteer, but I thought of it as a job)
  
• Independent Jewelry consultant- Premier Designs jewelry
• Soon to start: Voice teacher - University of Sioux Falls.
  

B) Four movies I would watch over and over:

1. Far and Away- I know it's old, but I'm sentimental and I love the story.
2. When Harry Met Sally- same reason.
3. Phantom of the Opera-at the risk of ruining theatre attendance, I wish more musicals would make productions like this.
   
4. Pirates of theCaribbeann - mmmm... Johnny Depp. 'Nuf said.
   

C) Four (OK Six) places I have lived

1. On a farm outside Lake Andes, SD
   
2. Sheldon, IA
   
3. Vermillion, SD
   
4. Greeley, CO
5. Marion, IN
6. Sioux Falls, SD
   

D) Four TV shows I love to watch:

1. Lost
2. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
   
3. American Idol
   
4. I'd really rather read than watch TV, so to add to the list,
   

Four Books I've Enjoyed Lately:

1. The O'Malley series by Dee Henderson
2. "Death Match" by Lincoln Child
3. "I Am Not But I Know I AM" by Louie Giglio
4. "A Heart Like His" by Beth Moore (a study on the life of David. Also available as a group study)
   

E) Four places I have been on vacation:

1. Orlando, FL- the whole Disney/ Epcot/ Universal thing with my family when we were all grown. Great memories
   
2. Matt's grandparents' place in Ontario, Canada
   
3. Black Hills, SD (see earlier post from June)
   
4. Vacations have been limited to going home to visit family from IN, and now, going back to IN to visit friends. Next summer is our 15th anniversary. We really need a real vacation, don't you think? (We'll accept donations)
   

F) Four websites I visit daily:
I don't visit much daily. I do try to keep track of my friends' blogs, including Tina's, Kyle & Adela's and Matt's (good to know what he's pondering every once in a while). Mostly, I visit my bank's website, the weather channel, maybe look for recipes online... Not very exciting, I'm afraid.

G) Four of my favorite foods: This year, I have developed a new love of cooking. It's interesting that I make most of my favorite foods.

1. Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas (recipe courtesy Grandma Georgie)
   
2. Thai Chicken Pizza (Recipe courtesy Martha Swift)
   
3. Ice cream in the peanut butter/ chocolate category
4. Mediterranean Steak Salad (Recipe courtesy Pampered Chef)
   

H) Four places I would rather be right now:…
This seems like negative thinking. Why would I want to be anywhere but right here in my own living room with Maia in bed (key element to my rest) and Matt & Xander playing cards on the floor a few feet away? I guess if I had to choose...

1. Living in our own house here in Sioux Falls with 3 bedrooms... but I don't see this happening in the near future.
   
2. A real vacation would be nice. See "E" above.
3. I like dressing up to go out and do anything, attend a concert, participate in a concert, go to dinner, go dancing... just getting dressed up for a night on the town is fun. (hint, Matt) :)
4. Worship conferences/ big events are always a lot of fun. Haven't been to one in about 2 1/2 years.
   

Four Interesting Facts About Me
This isn't part of the original list of questions, but this is information that wasn't covered elsewhere.

1. I've had 4 concussions in my life: 1.) hitting head on ice on my birthday at Grandpa Eitemiller's (probably about age 5 or 6- I don't remember, I had a concussion!) 2.) Falling from the top of the ladder of the high dive to the cement, age 8 or so; 3.) Nasty bicycle accident (age 15) in which I ran over a cat (we think) and went head first over the handlebars, went to the hospital, etc.) 4.) Heck if I can remember what the 4th one was... I know it happened though. How did I graduate on the honor roll?
2. I intentionally dyed my hair purple when I was in my 30's.
3. Matt & I started dating 18 years ago. Before most kids that are going to be this year's high school seniors were born. I don't feel that old!
4. Aside from two brief forays into Canada, I have never been outside the continental US. I've never even been more than a few feet over the Continental Divide (we did go up and visit while living in Colorado). Sounds like time for a trip to Europe... :)
   

I am supposed to tag four people. I'm not going to. If you think this is fun, you can send me your answers via email (mattnamy@sio.midco.net) or post it on your own blog.

Maia's Alphabet

(To be sung with as much enthusiasm as possible)
"A B C B E B G! H A B E M ... G!
U M F, G U P,
Double-Y, F, My G!"

I also enjoy her rendition of the Spongebob Squarepants theme song: (also sung with as much enthusiasm as one can muster. Any tune will do.)
"Bushe Bob Pancake,
Bushe Bob Pancake,
Bushe Bob..... PANCAKE!"

Run Away and Join the Circus

As a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), I regularly get audition information for all kinds of national and international opportunities, but today's mailing was by far the most unusual I've ever received. I got an invitation to audition for the Cirque du Soliel. I have to say, the parts they are auditioning for sound very interesting, and I haven't aged out of most of them yet. I'm not sure I'm exactly what they're looking for, however. While I enjoy a great amount of diversity of styles when it comes to singing, I really couldn't tell you what "Ethnic Arpeggiations" are and I have none of the prerequisite Bulgarian singing in my background required for one of the roles.

I told Xander what the letter was about and he thought it sounded like fun until I told him that unless Daddy could get a job with the circus as well (the available male roles really don't suit Matt), then I'd have to be away from our family for 2 years. He didn't think that sounded like a good idea. Though Matt pointed out that it might not be the craziest thing we've done in the last year. I think he might like the change of pace.

Back in the real world, the kids and I went to the local free wading pool for the 3rd day in a row. Matt has the day off and got to join us today and I was surprised to realize that he'd never been to the McKennan park pool with us. We met up with Rena & Lexi this afternoon, so Matt had a chance to catch up with his sister- until I put him on Maia duty and I got a chance to talk with Re for a while. As usual, Xander & Lexi played together really well, and were disappointed to have to part after a couple of hours. I was especially proud of the way Xander handled a situation when a younger boy got mad at him and started hitting him (the boy's mom came and intervened pretty quickly). Xander did not hit back, even though he got pretty upset. Good for him.


So I guess my life isn't exactly as exciting as life in the circus, but there's good fruit coming out of it, and I think I'll stay where I am for now and not run away to join the circus.

Camp

We've been back in town for 24 hours now, and I have a rare free moment to myself, so here's the update on our camp experience last week.

First off, it was SO nice to drive a car with fancy features like cruise control, a left turn signal that shuts off by itself, a windshield complete with NO huge stars caused by a big oaf stepping onto it so that he can load his bike onto the top, air conditioning that works everytime you ask it to, not to mention an engine that didn't make us worry about whether we would make it there and back or not.

I took the kids down to my mom's last Friday morning, she is a braver woman than me. She also had Casey's two kids (Casey was there to help, while Heidi enjoyed a week in Hawaii), and Chase and Maia, who are both 2 (well, Chase will be 2 in October), are a bit of a handful. Before I had left that afternoon, Maia had already discovered a red permanent marker and left her signature on some hardwood, a pillow and a blanket, and Chase had fallen down the steps for the first time.

Xander and his cousin Rylie (4) don't get along the best as a rule, but they seemed to make a noble go of it, and Xander says they had a lot of fun in the hot tub together (with supervision of course, and 'hot' is a very loose term). Xander's favorite part of the weekend was going tubing behind Grandma's new boat with Uncle Casey. He thought that was all right.

Mom handed the kids over to Matt's folks on Monday, and apparently told George (Matt's mom) to potty train Maia. Oh, and she also cut Maia's bangs before the weekend was over. Thanks Mom. Grandma Georgie got the potty chair out (she potty trained both of Matt's sister Rena's kids. Why not this one?), and bought her some Pull-Ups, but she's just not ready. We now have pretty princess diapers. I guess she sat on the potty several times and used it accidentally once. I haven't seen any huge progress in the potty training department, and I'm not going to push the issue. She'll let me know when she's ready. No matter what Grandma Marilyn says.

The ongoing gag that Maia seems to have right now is that she calls all grandparents "Grapa." The conversation goes something like this:
"Hi Grapa"
"I'm Grandma Georgie"
"I'm Maia"
"I'm GrandMA Georgie"
"I'm Maia"
"I'm GrandMA Georgie"
"....Oh GRAPA!"

She slipped and called Grandpa Bruce, "Grapa Boo" which seemed to tickle Matt's dad. She said it again as we were leaving. Very cute.

While the kids were arguing identity with their grandparents, Matt & I had a great time at camp. It's always good to be around people that help sharpen you. Fred, Rob, Sheila, Karla, Jamin, Kyle, Jon, and the rest are not only fun to be around, but there's just so much spiritual depth to our conversations. You can't help but go away changed.

I was so blessed this year because I got to co-counsel a cabin with Rachel Vetor. Rachel was a 5-year camper who graduated 2 years ago, and she was also my voice student for 6 years. She's my little superstar, a phenomenal talent, and my only high schooler to go on and major in music (though that only lasted one year, I still count it). But more than that, we have developed a deep friendship over the years, and it was so fun to be grown-ups together this week. I think we're each other's biggest fan!

We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was mid-80's at the highest, and cool most evenings. We had a couple of summer showers that made for some good clean fun (until it got really muddy!). We were very lucky, considering the 105 degree heat we hit almost immediately upon leaving.

I can't not mention that we almost lost Matt's front bike wheel while driving 80 mph (I mean 75) on the Minnesota interstate the morning that we left for IN. It popped right off the roof rack, onto the road behind us, somehow missed the cars behind us, and into the ditch. THEN it bounced out of the ditch, still rolling, and made its way across the road (again avoiding cars) and into the median before finally stopping. We tested the Bert's off-road capabilities and whipped through the median and parked for a few minutes on the other side of the interstate while we walked both sides of the road, looking and praying frantically. We finally found it, completely unharmed, then had to push out the adrenaline rush that accompanied that little adventure. The wheel made the rest of the journey on the inside of the car.

It was a different week at camp, as far as spiritual depth goes. One of the comments that I made to Matt was that in the past, and from the foundation of what used to be known as Bible Conference, these campers have been treated as spiritually mature and have risen to the occasion. This year, we had a professional camp speaker who does camps all over the country all summer long, and we didn't go as deep. He did a great job, and the kids really loved him, but we didn't dive to the depths that we've reached in past years.

Worship was fun, but it took a long time to hit our stride. Thursday night, we finally broke through. There was some progress on Wednesday that made it possible, but Thursday night was the night when we finally broke the chains and worshiped in freedom. Charlie spoke on worship, and we spent a lot of time with the music afterward, interspersed with some teaching on worship, why we lift our hands, giving kids permission to fall on their knees, or dance before the Lord. It was really beautiful. Then we brought things back up at the end with "I Am Free" and afterward, were supposed to take a break and get ready for the talent show. They wouldn't let us leave! They wanted to do more and more and more. I think we did 3 more songs after that. How 'bout that? 3 encores. Never expected that!

Our band was great. We brought Dave Brown along from Hanfield as our drummer. He was able to jump right back in as if we hadn't missed an entire year playing together. He was sensitive to to mood of the room and where the music was going, we felt things together and moved as a unit. He was also really a great addition to the staff. He was excellent at finding the kids on the fringe and talking to them, praying with them, and drawing them into the community of camp. (Rachel was really, really, really good at this too).

Keaton Whitehead was our lead guitar player. He's old enough to be a camper this year, which thrilled and delighted us, because we've been playing with him at Hanfield since he was in the 6th grade. That kid has an anointing on his life! I don't know how else to say it. I mentioned that to his mom (my good friend, Melissa), and she said, "I know. I've known it since the moment he was born." Can't wait to see what God's going to do with his life.

We roped another camper (non-Hanfiledite) in to play bass for us, Kyle Salazar. He looks the part of a rock star. He's got the piercings and long hair, and stickers all over his guitar, and the kids all think he's "Da Bomb" (do kids say that anymore?), but he bore it all pretty well, and learned the music fast considering he was a last-minute addition to the team.

We also got to play with one of the other youth pastors, Jamin Garoutte (sp?), who strangely enough was one of the finalists for Kyle Bixler's job at Hanfield, and wound up somewhere else so last year was a little weird. But Jamin's a great guy, really funny in an understated way, and a heck of a sax player. He improvises over the rest of the music, not flashy, just nice. Lots of fun to play with him. Solid musician.

As always, I come away worried about some kids. One graduate in particular, and a couple of my cabin girls. Life at home is just so rough for some of these kids. Our job as parents is so important. I'm also really impressed with the maturity of many others, and know that this camp experience is something that is making a difference in their lives the whole year through. I love to see kids like Chad and Raphi come back completely changed from the year before. It's not just a one-week experience. God gets ahold of them and doesn't let go.

On a side note, tonight as I was praying with Xander before bed, he did his usual litany of "Gobblesses" "and... gobblessnemomaiamommymeanddaddymajaandmorpheousgrandpasand
grandmasauntsandunclesallmyfriendsamen."
Only tonight he added "blah blah blah" before the amen.

I said, "do you think that that's a very respectful way to talk to God?"

He looked at me, mortified, and said, "I guess not."

I said, "Don't you think that maybe you should put a little more thought into the list of people that you would like God to bless?"

He buried his head in the couch and started to cry. "I need to think about it."

I said, "Oh buddy, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. Can I have a hug?"

"I'm thinking about that too. That's 3 things I'm thinking about. Can I just do one at a time please?"

"Are you upset with me?"

"Yeah, a little."

"Can you forgive me?"

"Just give me a minute!"

So I did. When he finally came up for air, I asked him if he'd like to ask God's forgiveness. He said, "I think I already did, but I don't feel any better. I can't stop thinking about it." We talked a little about how God forgives and forgets, but that we have to remember our sins so that we can learn from them, and he thinks he'll be able to do better next time. We did the God bless portion of his prayers over and thought through them a little better (finally omiting the fish that died almost a year ago).

Then I prayed for him, and reminded him about how much God loves him and thanked God for his sense of humor, and asked God to to help Xander to use it in the right way. When we were done, I finally got my hug and Xander was just looking at me pretty intently. I said, "Do you have something else you'd like to say?"

He said, "I forgive you" and burst into tears again. "I'm not finished!" he wailed. I asked if he had more to say or wasn't finished crying. He just wasn't finished crying, so we cleared the air and read a book about a boa constrictor on a basketball team that was originally supposed to be a ballet class.

I am so thankful for a little boy who is so sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and who really wants to do what is right. We're really blessed.

Church Visit

OK, in case anyone is really dying to hear my opinion of the church that I visited Sunday morning, here's my take.

It's a small congregation (which you would expect since the church is merely 10 months old). Everyone seemed very friendly, and several people introduced themselves to me before the service started, and remembered Matt from his visit last weekend.

The pastor led the worship, which I understand he's been doing in the absence of a worship leader, and the band was really good. They have an excellent electric guitar player with a bunch of gadgets and pedals, a really good drummer (worth his weight in gold, I'm sure), a bass player that didn't stand out, and a couple of pretty good singers, one guy that led one of the songs (and whom I could help with just a few voice lessons) :) and a chick singer that sings harmonies well, but prefers not to lead songs. The pastor led from the piano. That sounds cheesier than it was. Their band was really good.

The presentation on the screen was worse than bad. It was obviously done in Power Point (we've become spoiled by using Media Shout for the last several years) and whomever was running it really had no idea where the songs were going or what was coming next in the service. It was very distracting, and we rarely had the right words on the screen for several songs that I was completely unfamiliar with.

The worship style was great. I enjoyed the flow of the service was really good, and the freedom in the worship was a nice change of pace. We had several sections of free worship (which meant we didn't have to worry about what was on the screen, just make up our own words), and the elements of the service mostly flowed very nicely from one to another.

The pastor had a really good message, basically challenging Christians to grow up, and it was the final sermon in a 6 week series based on a book that I didn't catch (but Matt did), dividing the spiritual growth process into 6 different levels:

Level 1: Recognition of God: Salvation
Level 2: Discipleship
Level 3: Productive worker in the church
Level 4: Journey Inward, which leads to THE WALL (when questions without answers rock your faith foundation)
Level 5: Journey Outward- healed from your wounds and use those life experiences to give to others.
Level 6: The Life of Love- the place where your priorities are Kingdom-centered. The main characteristics of this stage are

1. Total obedience to God,
2. Wisdom gained from life's struggles
3. Compassionate living for others
4. Detachment from things and stress (wonder when I'll experience this?) where sacrifices in the eyes of the world are no big deal because "stuff" doesn't matter
5. Life underneath or on top: a realization that prestige doesn't determine worth and
6. The Life of Abandon: our needs are secondary to God's Kingdom plans. People at level 6 are hard to understand because they don't do things the "normal" way.

He gave a clear vision for their church to be filled with people at all stages of spiritual growth, ever moving forward. He is clearly visionary, and has a passion for missions and for the lost in a way that I haven't seen in a long time. I appreciated his thoughts on the church not wanting to get stuck in producing a bunch of Level 3 and below Christians, without challenging them to go deeper. I appreciated that his vision was very outward focused and not about growing "our" church, but about growing the kingdom.

I'm not stating this all very well, but it was a very challenging message, and I appreciated it.

Even though this is a Pentecostal, charismatic denomination (Missionary Alliance), I didn't get a sense of any over the top weirdness. I felt like the pastor had a good grip on the balance of an abandoned spiritual life but with both feet firmly planted in the South Dakota soil.

I couldn't stick around very long to chat with anyone afterward, because Matt had to work after church and the kids were over at New Hope having lunch with some friends.

So do we belong there? I think we could fit really well, and it would be a good theological challenge for us, switching denominations. I wouldn't really have an outlet for the atmosphere setting or thematic planning that I've been enjoying being a part of at New Hope, but musically and spiritually it would be a refreshing fit.

So the bottom line is, I don't know. Matt's been really struggling with the idea of where we're supposed to be in ministry, but he's not as deeply involved at New Hope as I am. I am thankful that I don't have to leave my friends, because I've really developed some great relationships over the last year. No matter where we go to church, if we stay in SF, we'll stay in close contact.

New Family Member

Yes that's right. We adopted a new family member yesterday. We haven't decided on a name yet, though we've narrowed it down to Bert or Frank. He is 5 years old and a beautiful blue. Here's a picture:

That's right. We bought an Aztec. I guess I'm more like my mom than I'd like to admit sometimes. I like to think of it as being like mom, but cheaper and more colorful... (her Aztec is beige with all the bells and whistles)

Some big changes have been happening fast around here. I went for my interview at USF yesterday, and it went better than I expected. The music dept. there is very small, I think there's only 3 or 4 full-time facutly and a lot of adjuncts. I had a chance to finally meet Nancy Wilcoxon, who is the only full-time voice teacher there. She studied with my voice teacher from USD (the wonderful and amazing Dr. Frank Aiello), and I had heard great things about her from Dr. A for a long time.

I was thrilled to discover than she is a kindred spirit. She said at one point in the interview that she's a Christian first, and a musician second. Yeah! Me too! Her life is evidence to that conviction, and I'm reallly looking forward to having her as a friend and colleague.

I will be one of 5 voice teachers (3 other adjuncts besides myself), and the only one with a Master's Degree, so I get first pick of the music majors after Nancy fills up (I KNEW that degree would come in handy someday). I will probably be able to carry up to 22 students a week (one at a time for a half hour each), without having to pay for daycare because Matt got his schedule worked out so that he'll have predictable shifts each week. PLUS, I should still be able to have 12-15 students in my home studio after school 3 days a week.

That's a lot of work, but I figure it's about time I started pulling my weight around here.

Changes Afoot

Well, me having a job with an actual paycheck that is a regular deal every month (unlike my jewelry business which is very irregular and not going so great) means that we can look into a slightly larger place to live.

I called our landlord to see if they had any 3 bedroom rentals in the central part of Sioux Falls. We still have to rent, of course, because our stupid Indiana house won't sell, but that's another story. And not a very interesting one.

She said that she had one right now, gave me the address and said it would be available the first of September for us to move in if we wanted it. She'd easily let us out of the last month of our lease.

With only one choice, I figured I'd look at it and say, "hmmm. Well, it's the best we're going to do." You know, like buying a used car. You rarely get the car of your dreams. But I went over and checked it out and look at it:

It's so pretty! They might even let me take those shutters down and repaint them cranberry red. It's not a perfect house, and it's not new by any means, but I've always said I liked older homes and I've always wanted to live in a yellow house. We haven't seen the inside yet, and we might get inside and discover there's no room for the piano (kind of a big criteria), but I've been told it has 3 bedrooms, and a partially finished basement with a family room, so I'm very interested. Also Janele, my realtor is really honest and wouldn't put us in a junky place (she offhandedly said, "I've got a 3-bedroom apartment, but you wouldn't want it, it's s**tty".)

We've really enjoyed this company that we're renting from for the last year. They have been very responsive to repair issues that we've requested, they mow our lawn every Tuesday morning, they remove snow for us. Not a bad deal!

Ever the perceptive one, Xander said, "But if we keep on renting, we'll never be able to afford to buy a house!" (Yes folks, he's six years old). I explained that renting is our only choice right now because we haven't sold our house in Indiana yet, so it would be really hard to convince a bank to loan us the money to buy another one.

As far as I'm concerned, trying to sell the Indiana house has soured me on ever buying again. Apparently the kinds of houses that I like are too junky for anyone else to buy, so if I'm going to buy one, I guess I have to live there forever.

Oh, and I forgot to mention one of the best parts about the house is the location. It's only 4 blocks from the campus of USF, and just a short drive from the school we want to send Xander to.

All this is contingent upon me actually getting this job. I have my interview in about 2 hours, but I'm not too worried about it. It's like I'll be doing the same job I was doing at Indiana Wesleyan, just in a different location. My hope is that they'll let me take about 20 students. We think we have the scheduling thing worked out so that we don't have to incur the cost of daycare for Maia. Matt talked to his scheduler last night and aksed if he could have a regular schedule that is permanent for 3 days of the week, so it looks like I'll be able to do all day Wednesday, as well as Monday and Tuesday mornings. And with the short commute to work shouldn't even have to worry about getting home in time to get Matt off to work. (His commute will be cut shorter by about 1/2 mile as well).

So we decided that Monday morning, we're calling the NE church and telling them that we won't be coming for an interview. That's all in Matt's blog if you want to take a look at his perspective on all this (plus a lot of commentary on the Tour de France).

I suppose I'd better go get beautiful for this interview.

Job Offer

OK, so this isn't exactly the direction we were thinking, but I got a job offer yesterday. I submitted a letter and resume to the University of Sioux Falls music department as a potential adjunct voice teacher about a month ago, and got a call back yesterday. They must be pretty desperate because I'm going to a cursory interview tomorrow morning and the paperwork has to be turned in on Monday.

So what do we do about the job interview in Nebraska? It's scheduled for the first weekend of August. Good question. I've pretty much just committed us to Sioux Falls for a year.

I'm also in the process of getting Xander enrolled in school, and we're trying to figure out if it's going to be possible to get Matt a fixed weekly schedule at Scheels so that we could potentially do without the added expense of daycare.

Meanwhile, last Sunday, Matt visited a church in Sioux Falls where he applied for a part-time worship pastor job. He really liked the church, and it's my turn to visit this weekend (we are able to continue our commitments at our current church that way). I'll write an update about that after I go. Probably shouldn't form an opinion until I actually go myself.

AND camp is coming up soon! We're so excited to go back to Indiana and lead worship in a wonderful atmosphere with some great kids. Camp has always been the outlet for some more high-energy, rockin' songs as well as a place to really submerge ourselves in the Holy Spirit and get refreshed. Only 10 more days!

Body Art

Our daughter truly has a visionary artistic outlook.

When she begins a work of art, she will not quit until every part of it is complete:

Including her feet

Legs

and even her own back.

I just hope this does not carry on for her whole life. She'll probably want to be covered in tatoos by the time she's 40.

Fancy Cookin'

Unbelievable.

Everyone in my house loved supper last night.

I know, that shouldn't take much, but I have two little picky birds who more often than not choose not to eat the food I serve them.

I have really gotten into cooking over the last few years, and I just had a Pampered Chef party, so I have a bunch of new recipes and fun cooking gadgets to try out. It's not unusual for me to spend 2-3 hours on dinner when Matt's planning on eating with us, trying out new recipes, making fun things, etc. And they almost always turn out pretty good (if I do say so myself), but my children would prefer to eat cheese. And crackers. Strawberries are a big hit. But they rarely eat what I make for dinner.

Usually Xander is a pretty good sport about at least trying everything he's given. But that often means that he'll only eat about 2 tablespoons worth of dinner each evening. Then he complains of being hungry 20 minutes later. Maia just screams if she doesn't like it, or if it LOOKS like she won't like it. (Our little drama queetn) She actually got put to bed one night last week at 6:30 while we were eating supper because she just screamed and screamed when I set her dinner down in front of her. I came back out of her bedroom and said, "I'm really sick of people screaming about the food I serve." I was angry and there was tension in the air, which Matt broke by saying, "I only scream good things about the food you serve."

Well last night was different. I made baked potstickers (wontons), filled with chicken, onion, ginger, etc. They were really good, and because they were baked instead of deep fried, they even looked pretty good- but not like a typical macaroni & cheese meal that the kids would eat.

Get this... the kids loved them. Maia ate a whole wonton, and asked for more, Xander ate 5 of them!

I KNOW!!!

He wouldn't eat the fried rice that I made, though he tried it. When I asked him if he was done, he said, "I tried that rice, and I ate 5 pizza rolls, can I be done?"

OK, so he thought they were pizza rolls, but he still ate them.

I'm sure that life will go back to normal this evening, and the coconut shrimp cakes that I make for dinner will be a flop with the kids and a hit with Dad. But it was nice to have general consensus for one night.

Drummer Boy

This morning in church, Xander was really rockin' out to the worship music. He was standing on the chairs and drumming along with the beat. Afterward, our guest drummer, Steve, asked whose kid that was. I said he was mine, and he thought he was great. I think he had more fun watching Xander than playing the music! He asked if he could give Xander a pair of sticks. I went and got Xander and he was very polite, but really excited to get a real pair of drumsticks (that hadn't been used the point of breaking then taped back together, like the ones in my old office at Hanfield). Steve told Xander that he was 7 when he got his first drumset... I hope there's no expectation for a drumset to go in our apartment... Maybe the garage? Steve was impressed with Xander's rhythm, and encouraged us to get him started drumming soon. Real drummers are born, not made.

Here's a reenactment of Xander pretending to drum,


And here's Xander with his cool new sticks.

We've had a busy week. We went to Mom's in Yankton on Wednesday because she wanted me to help paint faces at the hospital's ice cream social. There were fun games for the kids and lots of food and entertainment (a couple of bands and a dance studio provided some acts as well).

Xander got to be Batman this year (he was Spiderman last year). It's fun to paint his face, then send him out to play the games and see how many other little boys want to be Batman. I think I did about 5 or so.


Grandpa Jim was our ticket taker, and we thought that a 3rd eye on his forehead would be a fun addition to his already sparkling personality. Actually, things were quite slow when we first opened because everyone was visiting the food booths, but right when I started painting the eye on his head, things really picked up, and it was left unfinished for much of the evening, prompting a lot of "What's that supposed to be?" type questions. He says he had to finish painting it himself, so I don't exactly take credit for the artistry shown here!

We went over to Yankton early and played in the hot tub at Mom's for a while. Maia's very comfortable in the water there- her favorite activity that day was to sneak up behind Xander & dump water on his head- but get her in the big wading pool at the park with all the other kids, and she just wants to sit on my lap. We wanted to go swimming yesterday, but both kids were suffering some gastrointestinal distress, so I decided we'd better hold off for a while.

I'm having a Pampered Chef party here at my house on Monday night, so I started cleaning the house yesterday. Probably a big mistake. I'm sure that everything will be completely messed up again by Monday, but it was a nice thought.

On the job front: Matt's got an interview with a church in Nebraska sometime in July. They actually haven't given us an exact date yet, but it looks like it will be either the 2nd or 3rd weekend. It was supposed to be the first weekend, but then they discovered that, it being a holiday weekend and all, not all the staff would be there.

He also found out about a couple of possibilities here in Sioux Falls, probably both part time, both at different churches than the one we currently attend (obviously), but at least he has something else he could do with the other part of his time.

I also have a job opportunity. I read in our newspaper last week, that the music department of one of our local universities is suddenly needing help for the fall, because one of the profs quit rather suddenly. He was the choir guy and did some voice as well. The band director submitted his resignation in a more civilized manner, and they've had time to do a nationwide search to fill his position. I sent a letter and resume to the remaining full-time faculty member and dropped as many names as I could. I asked if she wanted my help in teaching voice in the fall, and she got back to me yesterday and said she would be interested in the possibility. So I might be helping out there in the Fall.

Of course, that would most certainly mean that Xander would have to go to public school in the fall, and Maia would have to go to daycare some days. I think it will be good for both of them.

Xander's doing good in the library's Summer Reading program. They have to log every day that they read for 20 minutes or more. I don't count computer time as reading, even though he reads a lot while on the computer, he's really playing games. They started the first of June, and he's got 19 days so far. They get lots of cool prizes when they complete 30 days.

Discouragement settling in again

I woke up this morning to find Matt on the couch in a real funk. He's really discouraged again. Finding himself asking, "What am I even doing here?" He's frustrated because he doesn't feel a real connection to Sioux Falls at all, he goes to work, he comes home. That's about it. He doesn't feel like any of the friends that he has here really truly 'get' him (I'm afraid that includes me), and he doesn't have anywhere to really share his feelings on the post-modern worship that he's so passionate about. He misses his Indiana friends, Kyle, Luke, Erik and Jason, who seem to understand him better, and feel the same way.

I guess we both go through seasons of up and down, luckily, we don't usually hit the bottom at the same time, so we can try to help hold each other up, but I feel so helpless to pull him out of this pit right now. He's pretty stubborn, and if he wants to feel this way, I can't talk him out of it. Of course, ultimately, only God can lift him up and pull him out of dispair, so I leave it in His capable hands.

I've been learning a lot from the life of David this summer. For Mothers Day, Matt & the kids gave me a book called "A Heart Like His" by Beth Moore (sorry, I don't know how to do links. Look it up yourself). It's just the hardcover book, not the full-blown Bible study, but I've been taking a chapter a day and using it for individual study, and once again, Beth Moore is teaching me a lot about God's Word and applying it to my life.

So what I've been learning from the life of David is: sometimes God calls you to a ministry, but then doesn't give it to you right away. Maybe you will find yourself in a servant role, slowly building up your skills until you're put into a position of leadership, but even then, things might not go exactly as you thought they should, and you might end up living in a cave and leading a band of disgruntled followers, while God shapes you into the person He wants you to be. Meanwhile, it's OK to cry out to God in your distress, fear, discouragement and anger because you don't understand what He's doing with your life, but always remember that God is sovereign and faithful and well... God. And as such, He is worthy of our praise.

At least no one's trying to kill us. See? Could be worse! :)

So that's the update on the spiritual temperature in our house. Please pray for us.

Thanks!

Job Application

So I applied for a job today. That's normally Matt's department, but in the paper this morning, there was a story about one of the local universities who very suddenly lost 2 out of 3 of their music faculty. The only remaining faculty member should be a little panicked, don't you think? They said they might have to fill in some of the gaps for the fall with some local musicians. I threw my hat into the ring as an adjunct voice teacher. They have some need for a choir director too, but I'm not sure I'm up for the task. I'm not qualified to be a full-time professor, but I have enjoyed my stints as an adjunct prof. at IWU in the past.

Also, Matt has an interview at a church in Nebraska, probably on July 1&2. We'll be heading there for the weekend to test the waters and see if we're a good for them, and vice versa. Guess we'll have to see...