a few things

First off, sorry for that rant last time. Staying up late studying for an exam on vacation will do that to you. Jesse, you're right- it HAS to be academic at some point if anything will be learned- and I LOVE your idea of rewarding the kids for reading & studying during the week as well as memorizing. Making it as easy as possible for kids to love the Word is fantastic.

We spent a few days last weekend with my brother's family, then a few days this week with my sister's family. Sophie loved all her cousins and aunts & uncles! She took a nap on both Aunt Carrie and Aunt Andrea- you know they loved that!


Ok, I wrote that a few days ago. What can I say, things have been busy.

So, I'll resort to more bullets. Pictures will come soon, I promise:

~ Went to Kent City (my old church) for three weeks. The first week I thought, "It was cool to see everyone again." The second week was "Hm. I really like it here." By yesterday I didn't want to leave. I have some more thoughts on that for a later time...

~ Went to Mars Hill Bible Church last night for the first time. I really enjoyed it a lot. It was a very small service, being the evening and a holiday weekend. The songs were great (by far the coolest version of There's Power in the Blood EVER) and the sermon probably was one of the best I've heard in a long time. He (not Rob Bell- it was another pastor) preached from Luke 24 about the man walking to Emmaus and the hope that Christ brings. I left refreshed.

~ Sophie saw Poppy (Jon's dad) and her aunts and uncles for the 4th. We opted out of going to the fireworks, and I was glad! I had realized earlier in the day that I wouldn't be able to go anyway, what with a sleeping 7-month-old. Poppits and sparklers in the driveway was much more fun!

~ Sophie also met her great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother on Saturday! It happened to be Jon's great-grandmother's 97th birthday, and it was great to celebrate with her! I asked her what her secret is to living to be 97... she said she didn't really have one. Actually, her exact words were "Well, I got on this roller coaster and I just haven't gotten off!"

~ Finished and submitted by far the worst paper I've ever written. It's just hard to be motivated to write an 8 page research paper on vacation.

~ We have gotten some more down time over the past few days- that has been great!

~ Sophie is getting stronger! She rolls ALL OVER the room and is starting to push up- she'll be crawling soon!

Ok, that's it for now. I really am too tired to write much, but I just wanted to get something up since I pretty much sounded like a jerk in my last post...

More later! :-)