Fun Week

My parents (Gram and Gramps) and my sister Sarah were here this past week to spend some time with us here in Iowa. Dad and Sarah hadn't met Ella yet so it was fun to have them here. We spent lots of time playing with the girls and Dad took Sarah and I shopping one day (I love the GAP!!). It is always sad when they leave but Maddie and Ella and I are excited to be going to see them in Indiana for 2 weeks in July while Eric is on a mission trip in New Mexico. Here are a few pictures of our weekend!

The Fam

I was noticing that the last picture we have of the whole family on our blog is from Easter last year! So here we are...

Now who's winning!!!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am now beating Eric by 2 games!!! Unfortunately I have Duke and UNC in the final game and since Duke lost last weekend I am hoping UNC can pull it out...after all the winner gets a "morning off". Which means that when I win, I will be getting to SLEEP IN on a Saturday morning while Eric deals with the girls!! Wish me luck!!

Bracket busters

How is your bracket doing? I went 22 for 32 in the first round (yikes!). In the ESPN tourney challenge, I am near 1,600,000th place. However, as poorly as I did, I am still beating Kate by 1! I also did a bracket with the other pastors at church. I'm not sure where I rank there. Hopefully things get better for me.

MEGA-Surge

Last night we had our city-wide middle school event - MEGA-Surge. We had somewhere around 400 middle school students and 75-100 adults. We had 5 bouncy blow-up games, 2 courts of dodge ball, swimming, pizza and pop. Unfortunately I couldn't do anything but walk around because my stupid ankle is still pretty sore. We brought in Seth Franco, a former Harlem Globetrotter, to perform, share his story and the message of Jesus. We had several students indicate a decision to give their lives to Jesus. We'll be following up with them in the coming days. Overall, it was a great night!!

New boss

Yesterday our church voted to offer the senior pastor position to Lloyd Grant. Lloyd accepted the offer so that means I have a new boss. He'll be starting some time in May so I have a couple more months to do anything I want :-). Really though, I'm excited for Lloyd to come and am hoping our church will begin a new phase of making a difference in our community.

Madeline Day is 2!!!!

We can't believe Maddie turned 2 years old yesterday! We had a very special day. Yesterday morning I had MOPS so Maddie got to go and play with all of her friends at church. Then we came home for lunch and she got to open some of her presents and eat chocolate birthday cake and ice cream. After dad got home from work last night we went to Chuck E. Cheese's for pizza and games. Maddie had never been there before and we had a great time! She played "ski ball," rode the rides, and even got a sucker and some stickers with all the tickets she won :) We are going to get her a swingset for the backyard for her birthday when the weather gets a little warmer but she got some other nice gifts too...a few of her favorites include a microphone and keyboard set from Omi and Papa, Playdoh from Gram and Gramps, new boots from Aunt Sarah and Uncle Chris, and VeggieTales DVDs from Grandma Di and Grandpa Dennis. Ella enjoyed her first trip to Chuck E. Cheese's too and can't wait until she is old enough to play with all of her big sister's new stuff too :)

OUCH!

Thursday night Eric decided to go play basketball at open gym night up at church. Since we moved to Iowa he hasn't really gotten a chance to play sports like he did in Rochester so he thought it would be fun. He left about 7:00pm then at 8:30 or so he called to say that he was on his way home and that he had hurt his ankle. He thought that it was either badly sprained or broken. My first thought, "he is never playing sports again!!! :)" He got home and was in horrible pain and up most of the night on Thursday night...so I was too (of course that was the one night so far that Ella decided to sleep 7 hours straight!). On Friday morning we went in and got it X-rayed and it isn't broken so that is good I guess. In the mean time he is on crutches and has it wrapped. It is still really swollen and painful and he can't walk on it at all!
So we are praying for a speedy recovery and that he can walk on it again soon. At least it is his left foot so he can still drive and he isn't 8 months pregnant like I was when it happened to me...I am definitely having flashbacks to winter camp '06 when I broke my foot!
Maddie's 2nd birthday is tomorrow and we are planning on going to Chuck E. Cheese's for games and pizza. Hopefully "gimpy" can come along with us :) I will keep you posted...