Elizabeth graduates...Tessa comes home!

A couple weekends ago we had the opportunity to meet Landon and Mindy at the airport and to help welcome home Tessa! It was precious...


AND we got to hang out with Caleb and Becca for a little while which rocked as always. As you can see they will be terrific parents to their baby girl. :)

Then we went to Anthony's niece's graduation in Wyoming. She was valedictorian and made quite a stand for Jesus with her speech. It was wonderful to be (mostly) all together again with Anthony's family. We were missing his brother in law and his kids, but his sister was able to make it from Oregon.

This is Anthony's clone 24 years later (his oldest brother's last child, Kenan).
Anthony's oldest brother and his family...
On our way home, we went past this coal mine which was pretty amazing.
Stickers also occupied little children considering we did travel over 1800 miles in a week and a half.



This is the place where Anthony will be having youth group...it's an old roller skating rink that the church bought.
I have one child who is very concerned about being messy or dirty or sticky.
And one who doesn't care. :)

Final Memories

Obviously there's been a lot going on the last few weeks. We are now in Huron and currently looking for a house and transferring all our life to South Dakota. Juliana is currently tearing up the remainder of a plastic wrap roll. While that happens, I'll put some pics up of our last days in Chicago.

Our final project was reupholstering some chairs for Miss Val. A friend took the girls for the day and Anthony and I worked together to get 'em done. There were 9 chairs, so by the time we finished, chairs had been named, christened, shot, and disciplined. The heat might have contributed to some lunacy.



Our dear friends, Alex and Sabrina, invited a few friends over for a last get-together. She even made green rice!

Sabrina with her boy:
Her husband, Alex, with Matthias, watching the bulls game, the feature of the night:
Jesenia, Jajaira, and Jajaira's fiance, Felix:

Thanks to this beautiful friend, AJ, we were able to leave on Thursday as planned. She spent at least 10 hours helping us pack up and clean up. She was a gift from God.


The back of our home for the last 2 years:
The front of our home for the last 2 years:
We attempted to get most of our stuff down to the garage before moving day. The question is: will it fit?

Tyrone and Alex (our middle floor and basement neighbors)
Wala! It fit!

Pastor who?

There is a reason God gives nine months for parents to adjust for a baby. There is a reason God gave us nine months to adjust to moving. A year ago, we would have thought you were crazy had you mentioned this. Little did we know God was cooking up something real good. An opportunity came our way last August the night before leaving for Lustre. Our Pastor and his wife (from Chicago) called telling us we had to stop by in Huron, South Dakota, and meet their friends and church there. Pastor Andy had also called their friends and told them he knew someone who would "fit like a glove". He had not known of their need for a youth pastor.


So that little visit we made in August has now turned into let's move and do it. We were not looking for this church and they weren't looking for us, but God put us together. So in a few weeks we will be moving to Huron, South Dakota, and Anthony will begin his job there as youth pastor at Bethesda Church. You can call him Rev. :)

Our new home:

Did I mention I was a flower girl in my cousin's wedding at this church about 20 years ago?

And that my uncle pastored here for 17-something years? God is funny.

Home of...

Never ever would have thought we would end up like this. I know you think, "Well, Anthony did go to BIBLE school for YOUTH MINISTRY." Obviously Ronda never put two and two together...until now. Please pray for us as we transition.

Faces

1. Oh?
2. Yawn!
3. Hallelujah
4. Hey now. (Go to Youtube and type in Evil Eye Baby)
5. Aah, shucks.
6. Haha!

Picnic!

I will try not to rub it in that we had a picnic to those of you who have forgotten what green grass looks like due to white grass that has grown and grown all winter. We did need to get out and you will notice all of our red noses. It was still chilly.


The Persistent Climber~
The Energetic Runner~

The Tired Worker~
The Red Nosed Family~



The view from our picnic spot - The John Hancock building with the green light at the top and the Trump Tower is the silver skinny tower with the tall antenna. The Trump Tower was not there when we moved to Chicago 4 1/2 years ago.

A-bone

Ronda: If you had an alias what would it be?
Anthony: A-bone
(His new nickname at work b/c he's the only one that comes from the city.)

(later on)
Ronda: If you got a tattoo, what would it say?
Anthony: A-bone.
Both laughing.



While dressing ConLai said, "I am cold because I put on my shirt."

I think we gotta work on cause and effect.

He's my friend.

ConLai has been very into her friends.

Situation 1
Daddy told her Andy would be coming over (someone Daddy gets together with every few months). ConLai said, "He's my friend."

Daddy asked, "are you friends with everybody?"

ConLai said, "Yeah. They're all my people."

Situation 2
ConLai prayed at noon:
Heavenly Father, thank you for Mommy and Daddy. Thank you for Ms. Estelle and Jeremiah (our guests). Thank you for my friends. Thank you for Moriah and Matthias and Abby. Thank you for Kayla and my friends. Thank you for Mommy, Daddy, ConLai, Juninana (her new version of Juliana). Thank you for all my friends. Amen.

Situation 3
We were walking and ConLai said, "Mommy, yous my friend."

Situation 4
In the car, ConLai said, "Daddy's my friend."

NOW TO KEEP THIS MINDSET....