March Update

February 22 was the big day!  We celebrated Ella and Cody’s wedding with all of our kids home for it, including my son-in-law, Kevin (Hannah’s husband), and Kortney’s fiancé, Mat, as well as Krista’s sister, Jolita, and her husband, Phil, and two of her daughters, Janessa and Jaycie.  They all stayed at our house, so we were wonderfully crowded, and we loved it!  Yes, 19 people in one house.

Some of the 19 people

Their wedding was beautiful, and the reception was tons of fun.  Ella and I danced to “Cinderella” by Steven Curtis Chapman for the father/bride dance.  You can look it up on YouTube if you’re not familiar with that song.  It’s a real tear-jerker, especially because of the story of his loss of his Cinderella.  But my Cinderella and her new husband live in an apartment right near us, so we still get to see them a lot.

Some of the cookies we made for the reception

We made lots of cookies and candy for the dessert reception

The car Ella and Cody drove away in all ready for them

Then just a week after that, Krista, Cai, Abigail, Amelia, and I went with our Awana Journey teens and leaders to St. Charles, Illinois, (near Chicago) for Summit 2014, the national Awana Journey competition in Bible Quizzing, Games, Fine Arts, and Volleyball.  We had two quiz teams, and they both made it to the Silver round.  We didn’t have a Games team, and our Volleyball team had bad luck in the random drawings to be put up against the two best teams on our court, so we were quickly eliminated.  In Fine Arts, we had three Gold medal winners, including my daughters, Abigail and Amelia, who sang in a trio, and a Silver and Bronze.  We also had three girls (Abigail and two others) who earned their Citation awards at this Summit.  This requires them to complete 10 years worth of Awana books, which means they memorized nearly 1000 verses of Scripture.  All in all, it was a successful, if exhausting, trip.

Abigail and Amelia (top row) in the Summit Choir

Abigail and her two friends with their Citation awards (our Awana missionaries are with them)

Abigail getting her award autographed by the 96-year-old founder of Awana, Art Rorheim

After the events of the weekend were over, we worked in the Awana warehouse and toured the headquarters before leaving.  The teens that were taking the train had time to do some touristy stuff in downtown Chicago.


The Citation Achievers Wall in Awana Headquarters:  Hannah!

Caitlin!




and Cai!



Some of our teens in the Willis Tower in Chicago

I noticed my brother, Ken, didn’t mention his 59th birthday (which was on March 6) in his monthly update.  Probably he’s so old, it slipped his mind.  You’d think he’d remember his final birthday before the big 6-0!

On March 12, we got hit with a blizzard like we haven’t had in several years around here.  This whole winter has been more snowy and colder than any since I’ve been in New York (since 1987).  They actually closed Xerox at 10:00AM that day and sent us home.  As I was headed home, I hit some slush or ice or something and went off the road.  By God’s grace, neither I nor my car was hurt badly, and I was able to get back on the road by myself and make it home.  I did break a tie rod that made the drive home very tricky, as the car didn’t handle well at all, but that was a relatively inexpensive repair.  We got about two feet of snow in that blizzard, and everything was cancelled that day.  We’re now back to “normal” and still hoping spring actually springs sometime soon.

While you were all wearing green yesterday, we were wearing blue because that’s Kortney’s favorite color, and it was her birthday.  Actually, I accomplished both by wearing Seahawks colors, blue and green.  J

Talk to you in April!