Finish the Mission

Last weekend, Brett and I attended a conference hosted by Desiring God (DG) Ministries. We traveled and enjoyed the conference with our good friends R & S. The theme of this year's conference was "Finish the Mission: For the Joy of All Peoples." The topics of the break session were Frontier Missions and Church Planting. The main sessions were focused on pointing people to the Gospel of Christ and opening our eyes to God's heart for the nations. I encourage you to visit the DG website and listen to the main speaker sessions. The Lord used all of the speakers to really capture my heart and mind. Overall Brett and I had an incredible experience and we are thankful to have been apart of the DG conference this year! I'll write more about the impact it had on me personally in another post.

The four of us in front of the DG stage.

I randomly ran into my good friend from Camp Barnabas!!

Also... we definitely enjoyed our first visit to Minneapolis. We hope there are more visits to come. R & S showed us around Minneapolis. We visited this wonderful park with a great waterfall!

I encourage you to visit the Desiring God website!

A New Kitchen :: A Long Process

While I was out of town a couple of weeks ago, Brett and some friends of ours (Jacob and Leah) tiled our kitchen floor and entry way!!

There will definitely be more pictures to come of the new kitchen... it's been a process, but we are so thankful to have so many friends and family willing to walk through this time with us! Thanks EVERYONE!

School Has Started

It is obvious when school has started in our house::

:: the dishes are stacked in the sink

:: the laundry sits in the dryer for an extra day

:: floors are dirty

:: time with friends is short

:: time with classmates is long

:: the alarm clock goes off too early

:: I start drinking more coffee

:: Brett and I have to be intentional with our time together

:: leisure activities are sparse

:: time with the Lord is much needed

:: I wear a long sleeve shirt everyday even though it's 100* outside (because the building are 0*)

:: tons of money is spent on books (or tons of decisions about which books NOT to buy)

:: our schedule is full, but we do like having a schedule!

It's obvious:: School has Started!

Wishing...

Today I'm wishing I lived in the above picture! Colorado!!

:: Lately ::

:: Lately we've been ::

- super busy

- working on our kitchen

- (not) looking forward to school starting (can't decide if I am excited or not)

- making plans to visit with friends and family

- planning a trip to Minneapolis for a missions conference

- spending long hours working (both Brett and I)

- enjoying our new computer

- trying new foods

- loving movie date nights

- hoping for rest

- waiting for the day when we can enjoy a summer with no school

- having faith we are where the Lord wants us

- developing deeper friendships

- celebrating new babies being born and new marriages beginning!

- seeking more realness with the Lord

- trying to enjoy each day

Parent's Weekend

A few weekends ago, Brett and I traveled down to Arkansas with his parents, Dave and Jyl, to visit my parents, Tim and Jeanette! We had our own little "parent's weekend!"

As always, Lucy demands we spend time with her... and we LOVE it!

And she LOVES it too!

Saturday we spent the day visiting various historical places.

First, we went to the Pea Ridge National Military Park.

After watching a video on the Civil War, my Mom and Dad look a little too excited to tour the park!

A beautiful view from one of the look out points!

Dave and Jyl enjoy a breathtaking view!

Brett and I just couldn't resist a picture with this view!

The Elkhorn Tavern was the turning point of the battle fought at Pea Ridge!

After seeing the history of the civil war, we traveled to...

The Daisy Museum which was a big hit with the guys!

Living up the dream... ...of every little boy!

Anyone remember this from the movie 'A Christmas Story'?

The history of Daisy B.B. guns!


After lunch we traveled to Bentonville to visit the Walton 5-10 (five and dime).

This used to be the original store of Sam Walton, but now it is the Wal*Mart museum!

Here's the park in the Bentonville Square!

We took a few minutes to rest and enjoy the cool afternoon!

Dave enjoying the fountain!

My dad and Brett chatting in the park!

Here are the moms enjoying time at the fountain.

We all enjoyed the cool water on our feet after a long day!

Later, we took a nice little walk through the woods to find this amazing beauty.

Soon this will be the new art museum in Bentonville, AR :: Crystal Bridges

On our way back to the car, it poured down rain.

Thankfully everyone embraced the rain and enjoyed the day!

Sunday, we had family stop by for lunch and afternoon games!

My parents are seated to the far left with a few of my dad's cousins.

Yummy Food

Recently someone passed along some delicious, homemade peanut sauce to me!

Brett and I cooked up a new recipe including the following ingredients::

:: Carrots :: Red Peppers :: Sugar Snap Peas ::

:: Minced Garlic :: Soy Sauce :: Sesame Seed Oil :: Lo Mein Noodles ::

:: Homemade Peanut Sauce ::

:: And of course, some chicken ::

:: Cook the chicken in a sauce pan ::

:: Add the veggies, and you get this ::

:: Cook the noodles ::

:: Mix the chicken, veggies, noodles, and sauce ::

:: All this equals = AMAZINGNESS ::

:: Toss in the chopsticks and ENJOY ::

The Ridge

We have some good friends that have a lake house on Truman Lake! (The address of the lake house has the word "ridge" in it... thus the title) We've been out a couple times this summer already and we definitely look forward to more fun lake weekends. For the Fourth of July we ventured out to enjoy the lake and had a blast!!


Definitely enjoy spending the lake weekends with these ladies!



We had a small group that went out to the lake on the Saturday before July 4th, so I had the opportunity to learn how to ski! It was awesome! Here I am getting ready to try this out for the first time!



Trying, trying, trying so hard to get up! Either that or I'm falling backwards after getting up!



I finally got up for about 10 seconds or so before I fell again. I was satisfied with my attempts and really tired, so I decided to give it a rest after this last attempt!



Then the boys got to ski! Jacob's been skiing all his life and definitely seems happy out there!


My handsome husband is a great skier! (Jacob's in the background trying to catch the waves)



Jacob's hair was quite the site!



Brett and Jacob tried to stay on as John tried to throw them off!



Marina and I just going for a nice peaceful ride in the tube! Thanks John!



Later in the day, I tried a second round of skiing! Finally got up successfully! I stayed up long enough to enjoy a nice ride around the lake!


Considering it was my first day to ski... I thought I did pretty well! And definitely enjoyed it!



Festive Watermelon for Fourth of July weekend!



Love the wind blown, pinky skin, after-the-lake type of picture!



Another friend picture!



After a long day in the sun... this was a beautiful way to end the day!