You Gotta Be Kidding

The day was going fine until my nalgene-type water bottle slipped from by backpack and fell to the ground. It cracked and started leaking water! These lexan bottles are supposed to be indestructible. I heard stories of people dropping them multistory buildings and they didn't break. This one dropped from a few inches higher than my waist. This was an older bottle and still had a large opening from which it is hard to drink. Joshua and I have splash guards to remedy the problem. So I get a spare bottle we have and find that the industry must not have a standard for the size of openings because the spare bottle's opening is too large for the splashguard to fit. All things considered, we are truly blessed and hope you have God's blessings on your new year.

Drivers License

Today I drove for the first time without someone over 21. I got my drivers license yesterday, and I decided to make sure it worked. Of course at the moment my license consists of a slip of paper, but it works. Well Grace and I returned safely from the first trip, and hopefully that will continue to occur.

A Simple Christmas (part 2)

Once there was a girl named Mary,

She was engaged to Joseph and going to marry.

God sent the angle Gabriel,

He appeared and said Hail!

You shall conceive of the Holy Spirit,

Just as Isaiah prophesied about it.

Mary said, I am the Lord's handmaid,

May it come to pass with His aid.

Then Caesar Augustus sent out a decree,

"Everyone shall pay taxes to me!"

Joseph with Mary went to his home town Bethlehem,

But when they got to the town there was no room for them.

They were forced to stay in a stable,

Where Mary gave birth to Immanuel,

Shepherds kept their fields at night,

Then angles appeared in heavenly light.

"Peace on earth good will to men!

Christ is born in Bethlehem."

The shepherds said" let us go see this thing,

And worship our God and King."

They rushed to the stable,

And knelt before the makeshift cradle.

Three wise men journeyed from afar,

Following yonder star.

They found Jesus whom they longed to behold,

And offered Him frankincense, myrrh, and gold.

Christmas Traditions

We were blessed by the annual visit of Mike and Jerilyn Malone with "Aunt" Sheila Lisman. I don't know when their annual visit started but they are as consistent as Christmas. I taught the Malone's children, Jenny and Mark, in the South High vocal music department as well as in musical theatre productions. This first picture shows from left to right Aunt Sheila, Mike and Jerilyn with Joshua Grace and Velda in the foreground.

Velda opens a gift while Jerilyn looks on.

Grace looks at the book "Because of Winn-Dixie" from Aunt Sheila. We also have a little bit of history with her. Years ago we painted her house in Hutchison. We visited at least one other time to affect some repairs. It was enjoyable to stay in her house while we worked.

Here's a picture of all three. Sheila and Jerilyn are sisters.

That same evening another tradition of sorts was continued. For years, again I don't know how many, we have received a monetary gift anonymously. In the past it was received by mail in the form of cash with a note. This time none other than Santa himself appears on our porch. He handed me a box of Hickory Farms cheese and sausage with a red envelope. Inside the envelope was a monetary gift in cash with a note. I feel that it was especially meaningful that it was delivered by a person dressed as Santa Claus because the historical Nicholas was a saint dedicated to giving.

Sound

What do you look forward to at Christmas? I love seeing the lights, reindeer, santa claus, snowmen, christmas trees...etc. I also love hearing the sounds of snow falling, bells ringing and of course Christmas Carols. We went caroling with our home school choir. There were about 37 of us including six alumni. We went to three nursing homes and one home. Throughout the evening we saw people's faces light up to hear our singing including the nurses. One nurse went running after Michelle Dennis to make sure she was okay after getting her wisdom teeth out. The people didn't really care what carols we sang just that we were there was great for them. Once I was walking with the Newcomer girls and we got separated from the group. Nara started up with "The First Noel" and we all joined in for the first verse and the chorus. On the start of the second verse I mainly hummed and put in a word or two. As Nara began the third verse Jenna said, "the end." Not many of us knew all five verses. Several times the back group of carolers got confused and started singing a different song than the front group. We eventually figured it out. I don't think anybody minded much. Knowing my personality does anyone have any guesses of my favorite Christmas Carol? Have a very Merry Merry Merry Christmas!

Duet

Sharon Luka is a blind friend of ours. Lately she has been coming to dinner on the night of my Winter Concert and attending it with my family. This last time while waiting she and Grace decided to play a duet. Below is a link to a video of the event. It's not perfect yet it's precious.

Duet

Let It...

Snow! Even though we live "way up north" in Kansas we usually don't start getting snow until January or February. I'm usually okay with that and have gotten into a schedule. Well you can imagine my consternation when it snowed in October! Then to my relief that ground hadn't frozen yet and it didn't stick. Then last Sunday we heard we were supposed to get ten inches of snow and to my delight we got eight! Now you must understand that snow in October is not fun but snow is supposed to come in December so I'm excited. I've already got hit by several snowballs but paid them back in return. My cats weren't so excited. The kittens reaction to their first snow was hilarious. I called them and they came running toward me. Suddenly they stopped short and seemed confused. One began shaking off it's feet and the other sniffed tentatively. They wanted to come to breakfast but they refused to take another step. Just when I was getting ready to go rescue them they came up with Plan B. Walk on the bricks bordering our yard where the snow wasn't as deep. Have fun in the snow and don't be like the kittens!

A Psalm of Thanksgiving

I praise thee Lord for your many blessings and misfortunes; for my loving family and the special relationships you have given us, for a warm home with heat that is available during our season of cold, for the challenges of broken appliances that help me realize how much I take these marvelous tools for granted day in and day out, for your wonderful variety of creation that often puts me in awe of your majesty and yet at other times makes me wonder why did you create these things Lord? Yes I will praise thee O Lord my God with all of my heart I will glorify thou name forever! Our Thanksgiving celebration has some unique twists this year. First of all we slept in a bit then prepared to go the Applebees' to serve Thanksgiving dinner hosted by our local Salvation Army for anyone who desires a home-cooked meal for the day. All of the preparations and servers are volunteers from the community. Meals are also delivered for any who are unable to come to the restaurant. It was an enjoyable time for all. Later we got together with friends for snacks and games. We celebrated again later on Saturday with worship and fellowship and of course the full feast again with the Reilly/Tieman families which was a great time of fun and fellowship

A hectic Christmas

"Oh no! Look at the calendar dear,

It's that time of year.

Lights, Christmas parties, shopping,

It really keeps you hopping

The kids are more impatient

And they are in the Christmas Pageant!

What is Christmas all about?

Are we putting Jesus out?

He is the true meaning of Christmas!

P.S. I'll talk about that more in the second poem.

Our Tract Record

I have watched a DVD series hosted by street evangelist Ray Comfort and actor Kirk Cameron (star of Fireproof) produced by their organization The Way of the Master. It challenged me to get more involved in evangelism. The Yoders, friends of ours who live near Hutchison, KS, related to us how they passed out gospel tracts to people waiting for a parade to start. Salina had an upcoming parade called The Parade of Lights. It is the Saturday before Thanksgiving and commemorates the city's Christmas season by turning on the Christmas lights downtown. I decided to take my family there and pass out tracts to the people waiting for the parade to start. Joyce Songer, a member of our church joined us. We started where the parade was supposed to end and worked our way towards the beginning for 30 minutes until the parade started. Velda, Michaela and Joyce were a team on the east side of the street while Joshua, Grace and I were on the west side. The other team made it farther than ours because I kept running into people I knew who wanted to visit. Otherwise we felt good about our efforts to dabble in spreading the gospel. I was especially pleased with Joshua. Our son who is normally reticent in public (especially with people he first meets) handed out all his tracks but one. I stopped passing out tracks to watch him in amazement. Click on the link to view a video of him reenacting what he shared on the streets.

Joshua's Tract Record

Hello everyone. Long time no post. If you were a follower of our family blog but are no longer I completely understand. As the representative of the family I can safely say we are all very apologetic about our lack of posts and we will try to work on it. My brother and I are teaching a Good News Club by ourselves for the first time this year. Keeping track of all the records and reports has really made me work on the quality of thoroughness. Here are some memorable things that have happened after the last two months.

I am teaching a Bible lesson on Abraham getting tested by God to sacrifice Isaac. Being a little dramatic I raise my hand as I say, "Abraham raised his knife to kill his son Isaac." One girl couldn't stand it any longer and covered her eyes with her hands.

Another time the children are listening as they hear that if they believe in Jesus they can be saved. One girl wildly raises her hand and when called on says this, "That right first you believe on Jesus and then you can get bap-u-tized. Bap-u-tism is when you they put you under the water. My pastor bap-u-tized me. Here I stopped her short and thankfully was able to keep a straight face. She was so proud that she knew what bap-u-tism was when all the other kids were clueless. But I don't think her explanation helped.

Then just today when I am giving the invitation at the end of the lesson an interesting scene took place before my eyes. A boy sitting at the end of the row began having slight trouble keeping his eyes open. Then it became more noticeable when his head began bobbing up and down. As I finished my invitation for salvation his eyes closed for the last time and they didn't open. Joshua was sitting right next to him and didn't even notice. I signaled to him to wake the boy up. He turned and a sinister smile crossed his face. He raised his hands and slowly moved them towards the boy. The kids were all very quiet. Then in a flash his hands came down on the boy's shoulders and he jerked awake. He was really too groggy to be very startled. Don't worry he didn't bring them slamming down either.

Ah, how I absolutely love working with kids! May you be spurred on to do the same. We have really enjoyed the children this year. Every class is an adventure!

My Own Account

Just in case you guys have read Joshua's post I believe mine will give a different view point. Upon entering the garage this morning to feed the cats I immediately smelled a disgusting smell which seemed to come from the back of the garage. Because our kittens in the garage I thought perhaps our mother cat had pooped back there. All I found were our mewing kittens. So I decided to feed the birds. When I reached my hand into the bag I noticed that it was wet and then I saw a hairy opossum's face right on top of our seeds. I was so startled that a yell erupted from me and I fled into the house. The smell was so awful that I immediately assumed it was dead and heralded the news to my whole family. Joshua was unanimously voted to take care of the carcass. Out of curiosity I followed him outside but would not get even close to the garage doorway. Joshua poked it with the pitchfork several times to no avail further confirming to us that it was dead. He tried to get me to help him carry out the container but I kept a wary distance. Once outside he said there were two in there. Of course I had to go see them. After all dead possums don't jump on people do they? He decided to dump them down the cistern in our backyard and once again he was on his own. Then he said, "Hey Michaela I think it's breathing." And sure enough it was. Well he then tipped over the container and started poking both of them with his pitchfork. All they did was bare their teeth and try to go out the back door(which didn't exist). I got a shovel from the garage and started banging on the sides and top of the container which was a very satisfying action after my fright. Finally they both ran out and Joshua hit them so hard with the pitchfork they flipped over which was also very satisfactory to see. They weren't even full grown but even as young it is my opinion that possums are the most ugliest, smelliest, most disgusting creatures in North America. After that Joshua made me wash out the container. To conclude I have been washing my hands regularly throughout the day. Ah, it felt good to get that out.

A Little Surprise

This morning began as all mornings, nothing particularly special. Until Michaela entered the house after feeding the cats with a shriek. Now Michaela does not usually enter the house with a shriek (and our cat already had its kittens) so Grace and I immediately drew our attention to Michaela. Michaela instantly declared "There's a dead opossum in our bird food container!!!!" There was a brief moment of silence, and then my mother noted the obvious "Well get it out of there." Of course, I, the "man of the house" was instantly selected for this glorious and envious task. My first decision was to make sure that this opossum was dead. I armed myself with a pitchfork. I carefully prodded the opossum with the pitchfork, the opossum didn't even flinch. Obviously it was dead (right?). Of course, I wasn't about to stick my hand in there gloves or no gloves. So I brought the container out into the light. Our little surprise suddenly turned into two. Now I had two dead opossums on my hand, and two sisters giving pointless commentary on the whole proceedings. Still not wanting to touch them, I decided on the course of dumping the whole container into our cistern. Fortunately, (for the opossums) I noticed one was breathing. Although I am a homeschooler, I'm positive I learned somewhere that dead things don't have a tendency to breathe. I prodded the opossum once again to make sure, to my great consternation the only movement it did was breathe. (And people think I'm a heavy sleeper). I turned the can sideways, still no movement. After about ten jabs with the pitchfork, one opened its eyes, and the other moved its leg. After another ten jabs, they were both making definite action to get out of the can . . . the wrong way, through the bottom of the container. (Just to make sure you know there is no opening in the bottom of a container). Finally I managed to get them out, and sent them scurrying out of the yard each with an extra jab. Then turning to his sister Sir Joshua, Opossums-bane, quoth "Now I leave thee to clean out the can." Thus ends the narrative.

Here are my pictures

The Washington memorial in the reflecting pool.
What a breathtaking sight!
The Lincoln Memorial
The capitol from a view on the bus.
The statue of Martin Luther King Jr. in the Capitol
The ceiling of the dome of the capitol.
My Uncle Frank, Grandmother, Granddad, Auntie Sherri, and Aunt Jessie
Washington's D.C.s national harbor.
Baltimore harbor on Sunday.
My grandparents and I at the Dallas airport at 4:30 in the morning! We look pretty good for that time.

Exciting News

On Saturday Eddie and I went to the YMCA to start our family membership and for us to begin swimming again on a regular basis. This is exciting news after being away from regular swimming for more than a year now. Previously, we swam regularly at the high school ( 7 years or more for me) but because of new policy concerns we are no longer allowed. Therefore going without swimming this past year or so has been sorely missed. I am grateful to my generous daughter who helped encourage this idea with her Mother's Day gift and instruction booklet that we finally redeemed as a helpful benefit for the entire family. SURF'S UP! Yeah!

Good For the Soul

Today we started what we hope will become a new Creer tradition. We gathered in the living room and spent a time of confession. We confessed offenses to each other and general instances of falling short of God's standard for us. We will conclude the time with a celebration meal where we will share answers to prayer and personal victories. Besides the benefit of God's forgiveness (I John 1:9) we are also expecting healing and our effectual fervent prayers to avail much (James 5:16). It also is an added bonus that we are having hamburgers and french fries tonight :)

Sound Effects

Yesterday marked the beginning of choir. This year we are singing Christmas music which has both pros and cons. The good news is that I'm familiar with most of the songs. The bad news is some songs the only thing I do is sing ding-dong and brum-brum (supposedly the imitation of a drum). Oh well, I'm sure I'll still have a great time.

SMS has started!!

Every year we do something called SMS. It stands for Scripture Memory System we memorize Bible verses every week. It started on Tuesday, I'm so excited!! ( I'm the only one in the family who's young enough to do it.)

Over&Out

GRACE

The Return of Michaela

Hello everyone, I'm back! Ok, well I'm back in Dallas and will return to Kansas next Thursday. Here is a brief recap of my time in Washington D.C. On Sunday morning I arose at 3:30 so we could catch our flight at 6am. All the way to the airport my grandparents and I yawned and yawned. We arrived in D.C. around noon and my cousin Warren picked us up. Then who should drive up but my Auntie Sherri who surprised me. She was supposed to be in Dallas! We went to Baltimore harbor and D.C. harbor that day and didn't go to bed until ten.
Bright and early Monday we set out to see the sights. The American History museum was simply amazing and I definitely want to go back to finish seeing all of it. A highlight was seeing the original Star Spangled Banner which flew over Ft. McHenry sparking our national anthem. We also saw the Air and Space museum. You could barely see the ceiling of the building there were so many planes hanging from it!
Tuesday was my favorite day because we finally got to sleep in. Then we took an excellent tour of the nation's capitol and took a bus tour of the Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln memorials. These two tours let me see what our nation was made of when we started. The monuments were awe inspiring, gigantic, beautiful, thought provoking... I could go on and on.
For a grand finale on Wednesday we (drum roll please) took a tour of the White House. Need I say more? In the afternoon we went to Arlington national cemetery which was full of interesting things. I know what you're all waiting for: pictures. Well as it so happens I did take over 200. Please place your ordrs here and each picture sent to you will be $15 a piece(just kidding) Pictures will be posted on a later blog. You see in order to transfer pictures on a computer you need a little magic cord to help you. I left the magic cord in Kansas so you'll have to wait at least a week. But don't worry, they are coming so be prepared for the blizzard.

Catsup

I'm going to do a little 'catsup' about events after the post by Michaela about our trip to Horn Creek Camp. After the camp we drove North to Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs. It was very picturesque with the mountains in the background. While there we passed through the wardrobe into Narnia and Grace had some fun in the imagination station. Upon leaving Colorado Springs we visited a high school friend of mine in Golden. You will see Rob and Kathleen Farrington playing ping pong. What you don't see is that Velda and I are the opponents. It is probably best that way. I will say that we mixed up the teams and Rob always was on the winning team. Home court advantage. Next came Velda's birthday that we celebrated at a friend's house. I will let her tell you how old she is. I don't have Velda's permission to post this but since I suspect that she doesn't read our blog that much I feel fairly safe from repercussions. Our garden is in full swing. I think that we harvested over 90 carrots. About 200 tomatoes was this week's tally not to mention cucumbers (which is an oxymoronic type of phrase). There was a late frost that affected our pear blossoms adversely. I was hoping for 20 from a tree that usually produces over 100. There are maybe 5 and I took a picture of the only one that looks edible. Michaela is gone for a couple weeks to spend a time with Velda's family. Her grandparents gave her a trip to DC for a graduation gift. Some of the blog is to keep her updated. We started our fall garden last Saturday and Thursday the radishes had already sprouted. Today some black seeded Simpson lettuce also sprouted so it looks promising. The green beans seem to be recovering from the attack of the grasshoppers. Mom's canned 30 quarts of tomato soup, a fair amount of spaghetti sauce and (are you ready Beckmans) she and Joshua

will now start on a new batch of salsa. By the way if Rob is reading this blog, after we put paper bags on our grapes we got a rain storm with 90mph winds within a week. I guess you don't get that kind of weather in Golden.

50 to 0

I typed fifty words per minute, with no errors. Mommy and Daddy are very excited about it, so that's why I put it on the blog.

Over&Out

GRACE

170

This past month my dad and I have biked 140 miles, in seven 20 mile segments. We are doing this because of the program we are in called Alert Cadets. The assignment of the handbook was to ride 170 miles. As you can see we are close to our goal. We began averaging under 10 m.p.h. we have more recently averaged over 13 m.p.h.. It has been a new experience and I can barely wait until we finish. (Which might be when I graduate from high school since my dad wants to continue after 170 miles).

Oh Honey!

I have decided to avoid white sugar for a year, at least. There is nothing beneficial about it. It is one if the main causes of tooth decay and adult onset diabetes. No one in my immediate family is following me on this but they are helping. Joshua made brownies with honey last night. Half of the brownies had no icing. I drug out a cookbook on honey that I bought when single. I think I was on some kind of health kick at the time but I really don't remember. It will come in handy. Michaela and Joshua's first response was along the lines of, 'No way you can do this'. I calmly told them this will be one of the easiest things I have ever attempted. My first major test is coming up this week as I go to a birthday party.

Spring Garden

Ah, sweet spring garden,

So lush and green,

Beautiful flowers blooming,

And more beautiful growing,

Now on to Summer.

Five day clubs

I have been busy this following week with two five day clubs. The first had three boys who were 12 and two were 14. This club was challenging but enjoyable. The second club had 12 children with ages between 3 and 12. This one was able to raise the astonishing amount of $53.53 in four days for the missionaries. The Lord blessed both these clubs as Michaela and I taught them.

Not in Existence

At one of Michaela's and Joshua's all boy five day clubs, the boys think they made up having a little sister. (Do they really tell all those outlandish tales about me?!) Anyway, that made me feel pretty unimportant. So I want them to take a picture with them today.

Over&Out

GRACE

Built Up

This title expresses my mind, body, and spirit after our vacation to Horn Creek Family Camp in Colorado. Our time together and with other families was so valuable and uplifting to me. We had a wonderful assortment of activities as well as quiet study and alone time with our our Creator. As is the subject for many is the altitude and its effect on the heart, yet Gods' grace towards us during this past week far surpasses the vastness of air in Colorado. As we left the camp and travelled on to Colorado Springs to visit Focus On The Family visitor center and then onto Golden to visit friends in the area, the sermon on Sunday reminded us what God desires for us in keeping ourselves in the Love of God;being grounded and secure in the words of Christ. Here are a few verses from the sermon: But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. Jude: 1: 20,21,24,25.

Recovery Room

After jumping through a few hoops which another member of the family might elucidate on, our entire family loaded in to DW and made the eight hour drive to the Horn Creek family camp in CO. We left at five so when we crossed the border at eleven we had quite a welcome. Almost as soon as we entered CO a enormous lightning and rain storm washed down on us. We could see pretty well because of the lightning but the pounding rain kind of blurred everything. Welcome to Colorado!! We met some great families at the Lodge where we stayed and boy was the food good. Our speaker talked about how God's love should be shown through us as Christians and he used excellent illustrations to show that. Now comes the series of pictures showing what we did which you can decipher yourself. My favorite activity I will let someone else blog about

Good News, Home Alone and More

Grace had worked this year for the purpose of going to Good News Camp. She saved $80 and sent in her application only to find out that the week she could go was full and our family would be out of town the other week. We did not have a happy camper at that point. We encouraged her to give thanks in order to acknowledge that God was in control. On Sunday Michaela and Joshua left to be counselors at this camp. On Monday, some of Grace's friends left to be campers. We were proud of the fact that after a fair amount of tears initially, she help up really well. Especially since others around her were talking about the week with excited anticipation. Mid-morning on Monday we received a call from Good News Camp telling us to bring Grace. There was an opening for her because of a cancellation. I would show you a happy Grace picture but she was such a blur getting ready and leaving that you will just have to imagine the look of our happy camper after she heard the good news. This now leaves Velda and I home alone. I have a choral directors state convention Thursday through Saturday leaving Velda by herself a couple of days. Finally we painted our porch. I'm the painter in the red shirt. Velda got a great deal on some high quality paint for the deck. She got it without taking regard for the color. She would best describe it as plum. It is glossy and shows dirt immediately. In the last picture you can see a faint reflection of Grace and Velda on the porch deck. We will be providing a shoe/foot cleaning station for use before entering the porch.

How Wide

On Tuesday Michaela and I helped out a five-day club. Since I was in charge of the songs I decided to do the classic How Wide and Deep. This song brought back great memories of CYIA and when I used to sing this song in club as a participant. The kids and the teachers enjoyed the song, the only problem was Michaela and I started cracking up in the middle of the song. (It might have had something to do with how I was "accidentally" poking Michaela during the song.)

Lessons

This is actually CYIA report Part II. While at camp our dorm mom talked about being gracious. She explained some of the characteristics and even gave some examples. That devotion really stayed on my mind for a while. For those of you who know me pretty well I can be loud, obnoxious, and very blunt all at the same time. In fact some people are even scared of me(we won't say names but I have learned that some people from different cultures just don't go around hugging strangers). God was trying to tell me that graciousness was something that could definitely be worked on in my life. So during CYIA I picked someone who seemed quiet and shy and attempted to carry a conversation with them without scaring them( Shy people do tend to be scared of me). We ended up having a great conversation that lasted about twenty minutes which went very well. Now since then I've had countless failures at being gracious but you don't learn God's lessons in one day. "A gracious woman retains honor." Proverbs 11:16a

Two Porches, 1 family

Two of our summer projects are to paint our porch and a friends porch. We started our friends porch today. While I played with their children.It was very hot and tiring work, and I sweated a lot even though the only thing I did was sweep the paint chips.(the weather might've had something to do with it too, but that's not the point.) Anyway, those are two things we will be doing this summer.

Over&Out

GRACE

Beijing Olympics 2008 or The Matchmaker Returns

We have just concluded a wonderful time with my great friend Judi Boyer. We haven't seen her since our wedding nearly 19 years ago (July 28). The reason being that she spends most of her time in China working for Scope Ministries and more importantly our Father. This time her furlough worked out for us to see her. She brought us the nearly matching (except for Grace) shirts commemorating the Beijing (that's pronounced Bei-jing, not Bei-zhing Mr. Costas) Olympics. For those of you who know the story of our union, this is none other than the beloved matchmaker that lured us both into attending the same ski trip unbeknownst to the fact that the other was attending. Pretty sly Judi. Of course there are no hard feelings on either side, after all we are happily married. We toured our 90 year old house, toured the garden, saw what God has done in our lives, is doing in our lives and prayed for what we would like to see God do in our lives in the years to come.

Rising to the Challenge

Christian Youth in Action, aka CYIA, is a camp that Michaela (4 years, see her previous blog) and Joshua (3 years) have attended. Elfrieda Harder has been associated with CYIA for time in memoriam (that means a long time in the past of an indefinite nature). A loose tradition has been to serenade Elfrieda some evening with a song. The group of boys who have done it lately were not attending camp this year. 4 boys, including our Joshua, decided that the tradition must not die. I don't know who initiated this but I suspect that it wasn't Joshua. Anyway we members of the Creer family were fairly shocked at the animation that Joshua portrayed in this serenade as well as the volume while singing (he is a good singer, trust me on this I'm an expert). Joshua is a somewhat verbal and animated person at home but rarely in public (except during some sports as far as animation but not the verbal). I want you to know that there wasn't an earthquake during the video. Michaela was laughing so hard that she couldn't hold the camera still. I had to use YouTube to get you this rare footage because the blog site was taking too long to upload. Enjoy. (Paste the following link to your browser)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL_Y02eNeGY

Ah....Summer

The summer days here thus far on the home-front have been reasonably slow yet eventful,let me explain. The first week that Michaela and Joshua were attending CYIA training was also an evening bible school at the local bible church here that Grace attended. Her bible school started with a dinner meal each evening. As a result, Eddie and I had several evenings that week to spend together that were reminiscent of our first year together before children. Our evenings included candle light dinners, walks in the garden, and quiet times to visit or just read a good book. Our own bed and breakfast right here at home. Other activities around here for the past several weeks have included lots of gardening and yard work as well as repair of fix-it projects around the house. We have so enjoyed our harvest thus far of fresh lettuce, rhubarb, and broccoli and look forward to more to more fresh produce to come. Hope all who are reading are enjoying their summer as well.

CYIA Conspiracy

For my CYIA blog, I'm going to talk about pranks. Now the boys in my dorm were plotting against our dorm supervisor Micah Wissman, and I made sure not to be involved. Yet, I was thrown into it by accident. What the boys were planning on doing was taking some of Micah's stuff put in a box and mail it to him. The rule at CYIA is you have to sing in front of everybody if you get a box. Another funny fact is that Micah's girlfriend had been sending him letters. But she had addressed them to "Mr. Handsome", "Sweetypie", and Honey Buns." And they did read these names out loud. So the boys took the stuff while Micah was gone and began placing it in the box. Midway through my friend, Jacob Swehlah, decided to take out Micah's underwear and return them. As he was doing so, Micah reentered the room. Thinking quickly Jacob dropped the goods . . . right by me. . . while I had just woken up and had no clue what was going on. "Quick, hide them!" he whispered. Still half asleep I obliged him by stuffing them under my pillow when Micah wasn't looking. The next day Micah received a mysterious box addressed to Cutiepie. He opened it and found to his shock his deodorant, socks, and beef jerky. All that morning he had been looking for these objects. He had even run to Wal-mart because he simply couldn't find them. We all laughed together at the prank. But this was only the beginning . . .

New Things

For starters, I am not doing this of my own free will!( Daddy forced me.) Anyway, a few weeks ago I got new glasses, they're adult glasses and Mommy says they make me look older(I think they make me look bug eyed.) And then, two weeks ago I got new left-handed scissors. We finally found some at Wal-Mart.

Over&Out

GRACE

The End of An Era

I have just finished my fourth year of Christian Youth in Action camp. I cannot even begin to tell you all the countless stories, answers to prayers, lessons, and frustrations that happened there, so give me a minute...

Okay, here we go. First of all this year we had a new director named Jake Wulbecker. He fit into the role of director so easily that all I can say is that it was smooooth as butter.(former CYIAers know what that means) I really liked him and the first day he challenged us to give not only our summer but the rest of our lives to God. This is something that has to be done daily. Another thing that really stuck with me was to share my faith on a regular basis. That can be pretty scary for me but I've been thinking of some ways how. Also this year there were four first fourth year students who were all girls. That's right we are the only ones who faithfully came four years in a row but others will definitely take our place.

Now for the fun stuff. My second and third years at CYIA we have always been late for supper the first day. So determined to get there on time this year we set out at 3:30pm to get to the church by 5pm. Because our van's air conditioning doesn't work at all we decided to take my dad's car. Well about half way there my dad notices that the engine is getting really hot so he switches the air to vent to give it a break. Everyone gets really hot so he switches it back to air. In order to accommodate the engine and the people he switches about every five minutes. When we are fifteen minutes away we notice the engine is very hot and it won't cool down. So we pool into a gas station and it starts steaming! It is now about 4:30pm., plenty of time. Well we spend the next half hour cooling it down with a lot of water. So once again we pull into the parking lot fifteen minutes late! Oh, well everyone is just used to it by now: the Creers will be late. Random facts: I misplaced my camera three times, two people stole my shoes once, the boys stayed up till midnight playing basketball one night, Mr. Peepers died, Mr. Snoopers took his place, my teaching partner told me Happy Birthday at least ten times Roscoe the flamingo was kidnapped(and returned), and I came home exhausted and ready to go.

Michaela Is 18 Today

Our culture has certain landmarks for ages (e.g. 10-double digits, sweet sixteen, 18-entering adulthood, 21-entering adulthood again, 30-over the hill, 40-farther over the hill, 50-no comment). Michaela has reached some landmarks not ordinarily recognized by our culture. She regularly communes individually with God, has a heart to serve God and others, has shared the gospel with many children and led some to Christ and is a nice person to be around on a daily basis, to name a few. We pray that God will greet her some day, saying, "Well done thou good and faithful servant".

I Am Not Fond of Cats

So you may be wondering why I have a picture of cats considering the title of this blog. To take it further, I am allergic to cats. I have a daughter (or two) who love animals. We conceded to cats and banished them to the outside after some unpleasant episodes indoors. Well I was working outside and I noticed the mom cat had finished nursing the kittens and they were all bundled together asleep. At this point I will interject that I took a class in college that included instruction in basic photography and developed an enjoyment of photography. I still use my Pentax 35mm SLR ME Super with the zoom lens at times. So as I passed the cats, the lure of a good picture overwhelmed my aversion to cats.

And Back Again

I am nearly recovered from my trip to Boston with The New Dawn Singers. I have included some pictures of interest. One is of the old State House and site of the Boston Massacre. The State House stills bears the symbols of Great Britain. If you look closely at the corners of the roof you will see a lion (England) and a unicorn (Scotland). The site of the massacre is in the median of the street in front of the building. Being with students who are involved in theatre we had to reenact the incident. I played the part of Crispus Attucks. OK history buffs why do you think I was cast in that role? Also is the tower of the Old North Church. Question #2: What important part of the revolution did it play? That is a really tall tower and can be seen way out in the harbor. Another shot was an impromptu performance for Dr. Hugh Morgan Hill aka Brother Blue. He specializes in the African-American tradition of storytelling and oral history. We sang him a Negro Spiritual which, as you can see, he greatly appreciated. Lastly as I was walking through Cambridge (Yes I went to Harvard, so to speak) I saw a display of root beer bottles. This is my beverage of choice. This picture is 1/5 of the display, all root beer drinks unopened from antiquity! The highlight of my trip.

A Tribute

A little over a week ago we said farewell to someone who had become a special part of our family. She challenged and stretched her three students here with humorous stories and antidotes that gave purpose as well as understanding for how and why you perform with certain accuracies while playing the piano. She often drew me into the lesson with her contagious laughter that could be heard throughout the house whether upstairs in the schoolroom or downstairs in the basement she often put a smile on my face while here in my home. Although I find myself still listening for her voice as she passed on so easily her love and passion for music, she does in a very real sense remain here with us as her spirit of joy and enthusiasm is a special gift that remains with us. We give thanks to the Lord for our season with our special friend: Mrs. Bev. Studderheim.

Secrets

Recent discoveries have shown that whoever last lived in our house was a smuggler. Probably the builder purposely bought the house to be used for his own evil purposes. The other night my mother and brother while preparing to lay carpet on the back steps found two secret unknown compartments. One was completely empty(he took his money with him when he moved.) While the other had ancient artifacts probably worth thousands of dollars. Possibly even family heirlooms which they hid to protect from robbers.

For those of you who are gullible please just look at the pictures and decide for yourselves. The second compartment in the last step was found after I took the

picture.