Thursday, October 30, 2008

Another Election Day Perk

here's another freebie passed along to me...(thanks Missy - don't you love how it's the RUNNERS that are passing along these very HEALTHY things? :) )

Krispy Kreme is giving away free star-shaped patriotic-sprinkled donuts on election day to anyone with an "I Voted" sticker. The question is will they give them to my kids? The old people at the poll places always give stickers to my kids too!!!

http://www.krispykreme.com/images/hot_vote_now08_pop.jpg

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Pumpkin Carving Time!





We're sort of traditionalists on this one. No fancy carving tools or stencils. Just a knife and a sharpie. This year, Josiah designed his own pumpkin! I love these memories!! (BTW, both boys refuse to get their hands in their and squish the seeds and goop around...this was always my favorite part!!!)

Hallelujah Harvest

I'm a bit annoyed that all of a sudden, blogger is uploading my pictures in some crazy order!! Is anyone else having this issue? I'm too tired to mess with it, so I'll apologize now for the crazy order these are in. Good grief!!

Anyways, our church had our annual "Hallelujah Harvest" on Sunday night, and it was amazing!!! Totally packed with the community, which was AWESOME to see!! This was the first year that our family volunteered to be a "trunk or treater" car, so we got to decorate and hand out candy to all the kids. I loved getting to serve in this way, because I got to see each and every face of the kids as they came by. It was fabulous. The kids loved it - totally had a ball. We are so blessed to be part of a church that commited this year to really reach out to our community by making this even free. I know that it made an impact!!! It was GREAT!
Katy, Callie, and Sadie (Yoda) at the end of a long night!
A tired, and slightly afraid little bumble bee (this guy behind us kept revving his motorcycle, and it was freaking her out...)

Carter the puppy

Emily, as Little Red Riding Hood (isn't that the CUTEST costume?)

Ryan (Superman), Niko (uh-oh...is it a Power Ranger?), and Anderson (Dash)

Erin (Dalmation...I'm sure a very specific one too!)

Parker is Optimus Prime in this shot....it was the only picture I could snag of him...he was too fast!

Greyson (Orioles player...again, I'm sure a specific one...) and Alexander (a very HAPPY Darth Vader!)
Josiah (Obi Wan Kenobi), Jacob (Batman), and Bradley (Spiderman)
These are Kristina's girls. She is in my Weds. biblestudy and in our new small group on Sunday mornings. Her girls were Strawberry Shortcake and...a strawberry! Isn't that adorable???

Maggie & Abby (Stephanie is the girl I run with every week - these are her girls)
BROTHERS!

Very much enjoying the pony rides


Mandy Jansen was the one that roped us into trunk or treating with them. We both decorated our vans in a star wars theme, and this is the whole gang of Star Wars people!

Sadie was adorable at Yoda!

I just couldn't resist taking this kid's picture! Hilarious!

Luke (dinosaur) and Zach (indian)


Grayson (firefighter)

Obi Wan Kenobi & Darth Vader (Josiah & David) in front of the 'galaxy'...note how serious Josiah is posing. He said he was "using the force"...

The kids had so much fun playing together while we were getting set up. We even found a clone trooper a few cars down that wanted to join our forces! :)

Callie was a bumble bee. I sort of forgot about a costume for her because the boys' costumes were so easy...they just picked one from their dress up collection. I had to call a friend at the last minute to borrow one...but wasn't she cute? I loved the little stinger!

The Schrodt gang! Jacob woke up from his nap that afternoon and was in quite a mood. He was crying that he didn't want to be Darth Vader and said he was scared. Of course, he's been pretending and dressing up for months and months and has been fine! He just was in a mood. So whatever - he picked another costume from his closet and said he would be Batman instead. So David got to wear the Darth Vader costume instead! :)

Good vs. Evil battles it out in the front yard!

Back at Liberty...Finally!

What a great time we had on Saturday! It's been 10 years since I graduated from Liberty, and we've been saying for all these years "We have GOT to go back for homecoming one year!" The school has undergone an incredible transformation and growth explosion since we graduated, and we have been dying to go back and see the campus. It brought back such wonderful memories. We whined about how the students have it SO much easier now (we weren't allowed to wear shorts on campus, had to wear ties & dresses to class, etc, etc). We completely LOVED our YouthQuest reunion that night. It was so great to catch up with wonderful friends and hear about what God is doing in their lives now. These are the people that we ministered with every weekend on different trips. it was amazing. Very refreshing and encouraging to say the least. We are SO grateful that God brought us both to Liberty - what an incredible place! It was awesome to see how God continues to bless the school and see how Jerry Falwell's legacy continues to live on.
This is David in the lobby of the new Demoss building. None of this was here when we were there. It's amazing! Like a REAL campus! :)
This piano was in the "Jerry Falwell Museum" that we walked through. It's the piano that Macel Pate (Jerry's future wife) played at church the night that Jerry Falwell got saved!


Here are the NEW Falwells! It's Jerry Jr. and his wife Becki. He is the new chancellor at the school.

Dr. Falwell is buried on Liberty mountain. It's a beautiful site. Overlooking the campus and the mountains. What a legacy he left. Truly, a giant of the faith.

A very PROUD alumni of the Dept. of Family and Consumer Sciences!!! YES - I'm using my degree!!!
These are some of the new "apartment-style" dorms they have built since we graduated. Just LOOK at those mountains! Gorgeous!

Here's my attempt at a Dwayne Carson sighting. He was our campus pastor when we were there. He's in the red shirt...
Mr. and Mrs. McCollum! :) I finally got to meet Daniel on this trip! Jamie and I were on the same hall our freshman year, and have reconnected since blogging!

Michael Tait (formerly of dcTalk) performed at halftime (he's an LU alum too)
It was fun going to the homecoming game. The score was 42-0 (Liberty) when we left - it was great! Such a fun atmosphere. WAY better than when we were there.

Me and Jamie - it was SO great to get to hug her neck and see her again!!! She's in Charlotte, and I'm trying to convince her to come and run the Shamrock Half Marathon in March (no pressure Jamie!!!)

These pictures are from the YQ reunion. This is David and I with Sean and Mindy. They were on the same team with David and met the same semester we did. They got married the same summer as us too!! He's leading worship in OH now. GREAT seeing them. (Oh, and Sean made the Top 50 on American Idol the same season as Carrie Underwood!)
Me and Andrea. She was my boss in the YQ office. LOTS of fun times in the office, for sure!!

David and Matt Willmington. He was one of the faculty back then and was the leader in charge of YQ. Great man of God. He's been at a church in Atlanta and is now back at TRBC. So good to see him again.
Laurie (Captain) Rice, Amy (Marston) Feigel, and Katy (Maxfield) Schrodt. GREAT seeing these girls. They were on the team with David as well. Laurie's dad was David's ALL-TIME favorite psychology professor at LU too!
Mike Reffner, Sean O'Neill, and David. All on the teams together at Liberty. I can't tell you how great it was for David to reconnect with these guys. It was so encouraging and so much darn fun!!!

Monday, October 27, 2008

Quick Mini-Update

The weekend was GREAT!!! Our trip to Liberty on Saturday was SO much fun. The kids all did great with their "fill-in families" that day. We had an unbelievably great time catching up with our old YouthQuest friends that night. Even though we didn't get home until 2:15 AM on Sunday, the trip was SO worth it. More later on that.

We were back at church at 7:30 AM that morning...had a full morning of worship and our small group, but it was great. Came home, everyone (except ME) had a good long nap, and then it was off to Hallelujah Harvest that night at our church. Had a WONDERFUL time - so many pictures and more to post on that later, but it was GREAT!!

Fixing lunch for the boys now, babies are in bed, and once everyone is done eating, EVERYONE is going to take a nap today. I'm exhausted from the weekend, and the Titans are playing tonight on Monday Night Football, so I've got to be ready!!!

I'll post more on everything later tonight....

Friday, October 24, 2008

Rink Rats!






I took Josiah to a birthday party tonight for a friend from his class (btw, it is SO fun seeing him interact with all his new friends from school). Jacob & Callie had Daddy night with David! He took them to our skating rink and they had a blast!!! Look at these little rink rats!! I've never seen an 18 month old skate like Callie. Seriously! She's been playing with the boys' old skates in the backyard, and David said she absolutely LOVED it!