Bob's 2nd Most Favorite Thing To Do

Next to camping, Bob loves to go bike riding. Yesterday he decided to try a new place for us to go ride. We drove out to Shawnee Mission Park. It is a really big park with nice paved riding trails (which I prefer, but Bob likes the non-paved better). It started out really nice and realtively flat, and we were just enjoying the scenery and a couple of deer that we spotted. We decided to head down a couple of side paths, and my "easy bike ride" became the workout of a lifetime! Next to giving birth to my 2 girls without any drugs...this was the most physically taxing thing I've done. We rode 20 miles...and honestly I think all but about 8 miles of it was uphill! The worst part was that Bob never huffed and puffed once...or even broke out in a sweat! He was sweet to go slow (very slow) for me and encouraged me along the way. Bob took a picture of me afterwards...I'll post it as soon as we get it off his phone.

My daughter, the Risk Taker

I read a book recently by Mark Batterson "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snow Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars". It talks about creating opportunities out of every day life situations and making great things happen because you trust God to do so.

Jenn is such a good example of the principles in this book. She places herself out of her normal comfort zone on a pretty continual basis, and has some pretty neat stories to tell about it!

Living on her own in Winston-Salem, buying a house by herself, standing in line for 10 hours to try out for "Deal or No Deal", running a marathon, starting a small group bible study, helping with the special Olympics, learning to ski (slalom) and walking around NYC by herself while Bob was at work there....and much more. She never ceases to amaze me...I'm so very proud of who she is!

Kelsey gets 2 firsts!

Have you ever gone to a brand new school? Well, Kelsey has done it twice! She attended a brand new elementary school from 2nd grade to 5th grade, and now she will attend a brand new high school. She will be the 1st graduating class of Staley High School. Here's a link to the new school...they have some pictures...it is so beautiful! http://www.nkcsd.k12.mo.us/sths/

Camp Blog

Kelsey's youth counselors are posting a blog daily about their adventures at camp. If you get a chance to read it, they have 5 things they'd like you to pray for while the kids are there. Here's a link http://aymhscamp.wordpress.com/.

Long-Distance Staging

My sister and her husband are moving from Hot Springs South Dakota to West Virginia. She e-mailed me a bunch of pictures of her home. I told her I was going to treat her just like a "client" and give her lots to think about. We spent about 45 minutes on the phone...I was looking at pictures and she was walking thru her house. It was so much fun! She was a real trooper and took all my suggestions and recommendations and went straight to work. She sent me pictures just a day or so later that are beautiful! I wish I could come up with a marketing concept for people who live in areas that Home Stagers don't exist..and give them recommendations via the internet/e-mail. It worked perfectly for her...maybe it could work for others! Anyone with some ideas?

Check out all her hard work!

Bob's Favorite Thing To Do

Bob loves to go camping. We usually just go to Smithville Lake, but I think it such a pretty place, that we feel like we are out of town! We had a good time, but our blow-up mattresses didn't blow up...so we slept on the ground....which got really hard by the end of the night!

Kelsey Left Today For Camp

Kelsey has such a fun group of friends. She has gone to camp with 3 of these girls since she was in 4th grade! They always have a blast. She will be in southern Missiouri until Wednesday afternoon. I hope God works in her heart, and I can't wait to hear how it goes!

Bob thought he was funny to sneak in the picture!

Bob's sabbatical

Bob has a really nice benefit at his company. Every 5 years he is eligible to take a sabbatical. So this year he started planning his time off, thinking about what he would like to do. Well, the inevitable decision came, and he decided to paint our house. We thought it might take him a little over 2 weeks...but we were so far off in our estimation. He basically finished the very last day of his sabbitcal. I felt so bad for him, but we had some really great things to be thankful for.

1. He did not fall off the ladder.
2. The weather was absolutely beautiful. There was rain quite often, but it mostly came in the evening.
3. We bought the paint on sale.
4. The next 2 trips to get more paint .......were on sale too. :)
5. We didn't like the color at first, but now that it is all done, we like it just fine.