Recent Updates

Welcome to my new blog!!

Same content.  Just new location.

  I’m not really sure what happened but the site that I have used to record family memories for the past 19 years was suddenly marked “dangerous” to the online world, so while I work to get that cleaned up, I’ll continue to post here and continue to save pictures and memories for our family’s keepsake.  And now that you know the biggest event that has happened since we’ve returned to our back to school schedule, I’ll add a few other things that have also been happening around here.  

It's definitely been a slower time since we've returned to school after the holidays and my heart is thankful for the extra rest and the lightened mental load, that is for sure!

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Noel received a 2000 piece puzzle for Christmas from my parents and he has started putting it together the past week.  It's twice the size of the puzzles we normally do so he had to pick up a larger table so all of the pieces fit.

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Marissa went back to school on the 2nd because she had a week of intense winter training before her classes started on the 12th of January.  Except for the basketball teams, our swimmers were the only other group of students on campus during this week so I am very thankful for the parents who provided dinner for the teams every night while the cafeteria was closed.

And at the end of the training week, they traveled to Danville, KY to compete in a two day / three session Colonel Classic.  

I had to laugh when I saw this posting on the swim team's IG page.  LOL

Marissa had the opportunity to take a break from her normal events at this invitational as she was able to swim the 500 freestyle and the 100 breaststroke instead of her normal sprint events.  She still participated in her normal relay events however.  Overall, Marissa wasn't really happy with her results from the weekend, but that's okay.  It was a long tiring week and many of them just felt exhausted, both physically and emotionally so they did the best that they could.  Hopefully all of the long hours, late nights, and excessive yardage pays off for them when they travel back to Danville for their conference championships in a couple of weeks.  

We weren't able to go to this meet so I was pleasantly surprised when I got a text on Saturday and opened it up to see a blurry picture of Marissa and Griffin (a former high school teammate who currently swims for Center College).  Apparently his parents were able to attend the meet and they didn't see us there so they wanted to make sure that we were able to  "see" Marissa.

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The team followed up that invitational at Centre College last weekend with a quick trip to Midway University for a conference match-up on the 17th of January.   It is a four hour drive there and then after the meet, they came back later that same evening so it was a really long day.  The girls team won the event, but once again, many of the swimmers complained of fatigue and the slower times across the board definitely reflected that.  Noel and I keep trying to encourage Marissa to "trust the process" and just to do the best that she can.  Believe it or not, there's only one more regular season meet remaining in her sophomore year.  Where does the time go??

And speaking of that one remaining meet,  as Marissa's parents, we are definitely looking forward to her swimming closer to home this next weekend when IWU takes on Anderson and Bethel in Bethel's home pool.  We are definitely looking forward to watching her do what she loves to do.

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Morgan went back to school on Monday, January 5th and is already ending her second full week of classes in her last semester of undergrad studies.  I don't know that she would agree, but the last three years have just flown by with her as well.  I mean, wasn't it just yesterday that we were visiting Trine for the very first time to see if it was a good fit?!

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We received an email from the Registrar's office at the beginning of this week congratulating Morgan on being name to the President's List for the fifth semester in a row.  

Congratulations are in order, Morgan!  Great job!  We are so proud of you!!

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Noel and I didn't have any plans last weekend, so we decided to head over to the high school gym on Saturday night and catch one of the high school girls' basketball games.  Our Lady Tigers are currently ranked #1 in the state and they were taking on a highly competitive and tough #13.  It was a very intense and hard fought game and we weren't sure if our girls could hold on but thankfully, they pulled away in the final minutes to take the win and remain #1 in the rankings.  

The game was so much fun to watch as both teams were high energy and aggressive in their play, but it was an even sweeter moment to see all of the girls from both teams come together after the game for a time of student led prayer.  This is happening more and more at our high school events and it is always such an encouraging sight!

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As we were leaving the basketball game, Noel got online to look up the score for the Bears and Packers game.  He just shook his head when he saw the score.  Once again, it seemed that Noel would be disappointed by the Bears, but thankfully, they managed to pull out the win somehow and will survive to play another week.

I think he got pretty nervous during those final minutes...

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Nolan continues to practice for his upcoming orchestra competition, which will take place on January 31st.  He will be playing in an ensemble with a couple of his orchestra classmates and I am really excited to have the opportunity to hear him play.  

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With a return to a more predictable routine, I have been able to get back outside and to walk again in the mornings.  It's been a lot colder in recent days, but it's been such a great time to clear my head and to spend some time praying and interceding for my family and friends.  It is definitely a favorite part to my days / weeks.

On this day, there were a lot of ducks swimming in the creek.  This is only a portion of the large group that crossed the road in front of me and then flew down into the water.

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On Wednesday the 15th, it started to snow while the kids were at school.  We only got about two inches of snow but then the ice began to mix with the snow and covered the roads, making them really slippery.  The police started reporting a lot of slide-offs and requested that people didn't travel unless they absolutely had to so all after school and youth group activities were cancelled for the night.  That gave us a nice relaxing evening to eat dinner together and just read or listen to music.  Then we had a slower morning as well because the school had a two hour delay and then school was eventually cancelled due to the condition of the roads.  We were able to get around at a much slower pace and then after I finished my work, the two kids and I had time to get out and run by the library.  Unfortunately, Nolan doesn't care for e-learning at all so he said that he would much rather have gone to school.  LOL

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On Friday evening of the 16th, Marissa had the opportunity to attend "Rebash" for the first time at her school.  It is a welcome back dance that is hosted by the Student Activities Committee of IWU in January of every year, but last year she was at a swim meet on the same day and wasn't able to attend.  Once again this year, she thought that they would miss the event because of another meet so Marissa didn't bring back any dresses with her.  Then she found out last week that they wouldn't be leaving until the next morning so she borrowed a dress from her roommate and they got all "glammed up" and had a really fun time together!!  

Here are a couple of the pictures that she sent us after the event.

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And finally to finish out the last two weeks, Melayna had the opportunity to go to Michigan with her youth group for a fun winter retreat.  It was a great winter weekend with plenty of snow and they had a lot of fun tubing, tobogganing, and playing in the snow together, along with several sessions of study and worship.  I'm not sure how much sleep she got though as she came home and immediately fell asleep on the couch.

We have definitely enjoyed the slower pace of the last two or three weeks, but with indoor track season about to officially kick off, our schedule will get busy again soon enough.