Evie's baptism!

On July 28, 2019, Evie was baptized!

Terry did the short devotional about baptism. It's not a salvific thing, it doesn't save you. It's a picture of a salvation that has already occurred! 

Russ interviewed all the people so we could know they were actually trusting in Christ alone and not in their baptism. 

Evie had already believed that she was a sinner deserving of Hell and in need of Jesus rescuing her from her sins. He did this through his death on the cross where He took on all of humanity's sin and was punished by the Father entirely. He paid our debt, something we could never do through our good works (like baptism to many people). Our good works (like relying on baptism and acts of service or a good life) are like filthy cloths to Him since He is so entirely perfect and holy. But if we cry out to Him in conviction over our wrongs against Him and trust Him alone to save us, He does it. 

Evie's good friend Abigail was baptized as well. 

And so was her mom and my friend Amanda!

Terry even go to baptize Evie. 

Going under the water signifies our death with Christ. 

When we come out of the water it is symbolic of our having risen to new life with Christ in His resurrection. 

Thankfully my mom got a video for me since the video I did end up getting couldn't really see the baptism at all. Mom's video is first and mine is second. 

Abigail coming up. 

And I just had to include her hugging her dad Danny afterwards because it was so precious. 

Afterwards the church went to a nearby park to celebrate and eat a picnic together. Noah's in that tree. 

This is fairly random but has to do with baptism. I gave Evie an old book of mine from high school and college that I used to keep favorite quotes in. While perusing it we discovered that little circled "quote" my dad inserted. I had no memory that he ever did this. It's so my dad, and funny. I must have read it at that time though because I commented "What?" and my sister inserted a translation, "baptize." "You can't baptize a cat."

July '19: VBS, Hills Alive, hiking, YG tubing

Evie was technically too old for VBS (I think? or it was her final year) but she went all the same.

I believe the kids raised money to support a Nebraskan church that was flooded out during the wet spring. They also worked toward taping Zeb and Moses to the wall. 

I love that look they're sharing. 😂

One day while the kids were at the church Terry and I drove down to visit Paul and Jana. Love them! 

There's always hail in summer but there aren't always dahlias that are behind in their growth. Terry was so kind as to run out there and cover them all up. 

I loved him running around under that umbrella for me. 💚

The following weekend, July 21, was Hills Alive. It had been a while since we'd gone but For King and Country drew us out. 

Evie with Sarah and Naomi.

Evie dancing with Grace.

Samuel and Ezra already look so much smaller here to me (it's February while I write this though).

It's always a huge crowd. 

Happy girls. 

Bouncing girls.

I did a more professional haircut for Luna since I finally figured out how to use the guards. 

David took Noah and Moses out a few times for hiking. 

He's the best! 

Beautiful. 

Creeper Noah 😂

Terry still does youth group in the summers when he's not on a trip. This particular event had been already been rescheduled to this night, July 24, due to rain and lightning. But even still it was cloudy and cold! 

Terry and Steven constructed a huge waterslide!

The littles had so much fun. So did everyone else!

The fall was very quickly approaching and I had to get my school stuff in order. I spent hours and hours planning and shopping. 

That kitty is so chill. 

The littles helping me water my dahlias. 

Haircut time for Evie. 

Our very good friends from Nebraska, Shawn and Becki, visited us on July 27 while they were here for their anniversary. 

summer car shows & one award

Two summers ago Terry got the 1977 Chrysler New Yorker fixed up well enough to drive safely around town. We don't actually drive it much so he entered it into two local classic car shows. He actually won the first one he entered! 

Terry drove downtown to the Police Department's Cruiser Car Show early in the day, July 13th, and registered, luckily finding a spot to park the old girl. Our friend Eli, a policeman, encouraged Terry to enter, otherwise we probably wouldn't have known about it. 

The kids and I joined him a couple hours later. It was quiet fun to walk around and take it all in. The kids especially enjoyed this beach buggy. We had just seen a show about them not long before. 

Who would've thought that after an entire childhood of despising our old station wagon I could ever possibly think they were cool. But it happened. 

Art Alley. 

The police put on a presentation about their K9 dogs. I vividly remember sweating down my back it was so hot. 

We decided to let the car sit until the end of the show and went home to have pizza movie night. After finishing our pizza Terry got a phone call informing him that he'd won an award! We booked it down there.

They gave away awards for the best-of cars of their specific decade. Terry was passed over for the 70's but won the orphan award for the car that's cool but doesn't quite fit anywhere. The reason he ran to the stage was because the announcer kept encouraging all the winners to "rush the stage," but they were all so old that they just took their sweet time getting up there while we all clapped for them. Terry finally rushed the stage, the young buck.

The trophy is on top of the car. 

Our Mexico mission trip bus driver Jerry happened to be walking by so we visited for a bit. 

The car had been running enough to drive but actually not running well. Terry described the problem as a chugging. Turned out two or three of the cylinders weren't hooked up! Once he fixed that, it ran so much smoother and was more reliable. So we went for a little joy ride that night. 

Trouncie needed to check it out when we got home. 

The very next weekend, July 20, Terry entered into a very small show at Hardware Hank. No awards were given but it was kind of fun him. 

He put the car to work giving out gospel tracts. People seemed intrigued by the car so he had lots of conversations. 

The kids all got free root beer floats and we enjoyed walking around the parking lot to look at the all the cars.