dodgeball

What's a good thing to do in Gburg on a cold February Saturday morning? Participate in a dodgeball tournament! See Terry in there anywhere?

What about now? Red shorts, white shirt and high socks. Nice right? That would be Kenzi's fault - the girl in the blue shorts next to him who recruited him for the team. She even made him wear a pink armband. He's just lucky he didn't have to wear a headband like everyone else.

Terry played in only three warm up games. They always got him out right away because he was the biggest threat. We couldn't stay since we had lots of other things to do for the day but it was fun for a while.

'12 Dare2Share

Dare2Share was last weekend. I'm late in posting because I needed a whole week to recover you see. Because, yeah, it's exhausting. But at least I was able to go this time since Samuel wasn't a brand new little baby like last year. And here's the '10 post even though this was Terry's fifth time taking gburg students.

We took a total of 106 people - 94 students and 12 leaders in 2 charter buses. Oh, and D2S is a teen evangelism training conference. The students had a great time. The leaders were pretty tired. But it was still good. I think three students accepted Christ and all were refreshed, challenged and encouraged. However, one junior high student did knock out his tooth when he ran into a wall in the middle of night while illegally running around the dark church. So he got what he deserved I suppose! ;)

Here's the stage.

Aw. How cute are we? I had a nasty cold and we were getting hot chocolate. Oh, and our shirts glow in the dark. Terry printed them again.

This was our "flag" that we used to show our group where we were sitting in the large Pershing Center. Terry had a good idea doing that.

We stayed overnight on the floor at a Lincoln church along with several other groups. We had to kick out the strangers who thought the pizza was for them as well.

Saturday morning Terry, Shawn and I went to the leaders meeting which was really great. And we gave each of the speakers a signed t-shirt - Greg, Zane and Propaganda. Here's Terry and Shawn with Greg, the man who started D2S.

Our annual photo in front of the capitol. See if you can find me, like Where's Waldo.

We walked around this school picking up trash and praying for them.

Then we went to the mall and shared our faith with a stranger. We finished out the conference that night with one final session before heading home at 930pm. Terry talked to our bus driver, a Mormon, on the way home while most the bus slept. We got to bed at 130am, glad to be home but thankful for one last trip with these students.

done doors

We have been getting our house ready for sale, which means finishing all those things we've meant to do all along. I already posted about this, but I thought I'd share the finished product.

Here's what the upstairs bathroom doors looked like before we took them down with the intention of painting or replacing them.

This is what we have been living with for nearly two years.

And we finally got them back up all painted shiny pretty.

Nice.

baby all gone

I am in mourning. For Samuel's hair. Look at how cute that baby face is!

But look at what we did to him! We chopped it. It was getting in his eyes and it was just time.

The result turned out well and he handled is so, so, so very much better than his brother who absolutely detested his haircut until he was like five years old. For goodness sakes.

The back.

He looks cute. But no longer like a baby. While I was cutting it I was so intent upon my work that I didn't look up. When I did I was shocked at the little boy looking back at me in the mirror.

He likes climbing in that little shelf. He's so pleased with himself.

He's so cute! But not a baby anymore. Sniff sniff.

school project 8

In school we have been learning about how plants grow. I've never been into gardening so it's been fun. The kids were especially excited when it was discovered by Evie yesterday just how far our experiment has come.

So on February 2, nearly two weeks ago, we "planted" our little kidney beans in a wet paper towel in a jar. I also threw in a couple other dry beans I had just to see what would happen. The black bean has sprouted a little but the white has just molded.

And nearly two weeks later this is what it's grow into:

Again, two weeks ago

Today

This is just like magic (thank you Professor Lockhart)! I think I may have to get some dirt and plant these things since I feel too bad to throw them away.

noah's art

Noah is really into coloring all of the sudden. His whole life he could have cared less about it but within the last six months are so, he's started to enjoy it. He's even branched out and started drawing some pictures of his own. For Christmas he drew all his relatives "ball machine" pictures that we added to our Christmas card envelopes. They were like a pin ball machine sort of and he could tell you all about where the ball was going and what it was doing - it defies gravity. And sometimes it knocks people over or hits them in the face.

But yesterday at the building, he drew a couple pictures that I thought were actually really, genuinely great. Any idea what it is?

ANGRY BIRDS! How cool is this?! Now, he could tell you all about the various kinds of suicidal birds and what they do and how the structures fall down but I don't have any clue since I refuse to play the game. You'll have to ask him. It's hanging on our fridge b/c I just thought it was supremely awesome of him.

house for sale!

As detailed in my previous post, we are moving. Now we have to sell our house. It's quite hard to say good bye to our family and friends here in Nebraska, and it's also tough to say good bye to such a fantastic home. We have put a lot of hard work into updating it and we love it.

Please call if you are interested: 308-529-2593. And click here for a collection of several pages of before and after photos.

Here it is: 2102 Avenue G. This updated four-level brick home built in 1970 by Al Fickenscher has three large family rooms, four bedrooms, two bathrooms and an attached two car garage with a square footage of 2784. The garage is 560 sq. ft.. There are two mature maple trees in the front yard, three pine trees, one to the south and two to the north, and one large, trimmed maple tree shading the back yard. The roof was re-shingled and gutters added in fall 2010. Air vents were added to the soffit at that time as well. There is a new steel front door and new storms windows and paint to all upstairs rooms. The garage door opener was installed new in spring 2010.

We completed this stone patio fall 2011. We added railings to the already completed deck spring 2010.

Here is the view of the large back lawn, maple tree and alley access. The tree was trimmed away from the house in the summer of 2010. The chain link fence was added in the fall of 2010. Our trampoline is over a garden area. There is a cement basketball court, brick shed and a fort over a sand box all parallel to the alley.

We trimmed both north pine trees summer 2010.

We are thankful we were given a riding lawn mower because the lot is very large: 90 ft x 154 ft or .31 acres. Also there are underground sprinklers.

The highest level of the house has three bedrooms and a bathroom. The hall has a new ceiling fan. Here is the master bedroom. New wall and ceiling paint, new light and new storm windows.

A second bedroom next to the master. New lighting, wall and ceiling paint and storm windows. The window shutters have new room darkening fabric in them.

Here is the third upstairs bedroom which is across the hall from the bathroom. New lighting, wall and ceiling paint and storm windows.

This is the upstairs bathroom. The Congoleum vinyl flooring was installed approximately six years ago. The white wall tile, new toilet and faucet, wall and ceiling paint, lighting, drawer pulls and new shower head were completed in spring 2010. A laundry shoot leads to the lowest level laundry room.

This is the main floor that contains the first family room, dining room and kitchen. All the updates were completed spring 2010. The stairs have new berber carpet. The large family room has new hardwood flooring and trim. New wall and ceiling paint. New recessed lighting with dimming switch and ceiling fan. New steel front door.

This is the view from the upstairs landing. The room leading off to the right is the dining room.

This is the view from the front door. The dining room and kitchen flooring is the same Congoleum flooring as the upstairs bathroom and it's very durable and in very good shape. The back door leads onto the back deck.

This is looking into the dining room from the kitchen. Both ceilings were textured and painted spring 2010. New wall paint was done at that time. The built in hutch was re-stained. Three hanging lights over the counter and new counter tops were also installed spring 2010.

The view of the kitchen from the dining room. New recessed lighting. Painted cabinets and new pulls. New tile back splash. New sink and faucet. All new appliances. The dining room light was moved and re-hung to be centered over the table.

This is the next level down with the second family room. New berber carpet, lighting and paint. The two windows look out on the patio and back yard.

This built-in shelving was remodeled to make room for a large flat screen and the cabinets, drawers and shelves were painted.

From this view you can see two doors. The left leads to the fourth bedroom and the right leads to the second bathroom.

Fourth bedroom. New paint, carpet and lighting. New window prior to our acquirement of the house.

This is the second bathroom. Just this winter the room was repainted, including the walls, ceiling and cabinets. A new toilet and faucet were installed spring 2010. There is a laundry shoot here as well.

This is the lowest level of the house with the third family room looking in from the stairs. It was our home school and play room. I painted the ceilings and walls summer 2011. We cleaned the carpets spring 2010.

Looking east. There is a door in the left corner that leads up to the garage. There are seven sturdy shelves.

Looking east to the front of the house.

Summer 2010 I painted the laundry room to match the rest - ceiling, cabinets and walls. New light. New water softener spring 2010. New utility sink summer 2011.

There is also a storage room with a lot of shelving. This is where the furnace is located.