Weekend Wrapup

Today for church Grandma came up and joined us and then stuck around for lunch and to see us give our Holy Land Presentation again in the afternoon. This time 33 people came out to watch and we had a great time revisiting our trip and sharing the memories and pictures again!

After we got done with our presentation, the boys came out with their sitter (thank you Miss Wendy!) and grabbed ahold of the microphones on stage and started talking away. We got this sweet picture of them sitting together yapping away at each other.

Grandpa was missing from all the fun because he is still in the hospital. We would appreciate your continued prayers. He has low blood pressure and low hemoglobin and they suspect he might have some internal bleeding so they ran a test today and will run another tomorrow to check for this. Once they can get all of this squared away than he can go to rehab.

Then tonight we watched some of the prep for the shuttle launch on NASA's website and then after its launch went outside to look from our front yard. We had an incredible view and Parker was really excited!

Church and more Church

Last night was Ash Wednesday and we had a wonderfully, powerful service at church in the evening. Then after standing around talking to folks, we ended up having to do take out for dinner and get home just in time to put the kids in bed.

Tonight we spent the whole night at church again. We grabbed some takeout and ate in Mommy's office. Then the boys played happily (and loudly) in the cry room with Miss Rael while Daddy and Mommy gave a presentation on our trip to Israel. We had 45 people show up to listen!!!! We paired our 850 pictures down to 225 and put them in a powerpoint presentation and projected them up on the sanctuary wall. Then we switched off back and forth talking about our trip. Even though it was really late when we finished, everyone was so excited and asked a lot of questions. It was a lot of fun and we're so glad we got the chance to share! We also set up a table with some of our souvenirs and resources we picked up and some of the maps we got.

Although we've enjoyed the last two nights at church, we are all seriously looking forward to spending a nice quiet evening at home tomorrow night!!!

Monday Musings

* All of our pictures and explanations from our trip to Egypt, Jordan and Israel are up on the travel blog now.

* This past Saturday we started doing the Walk to Jerusalem through First UMC Hudson. They're organizing teams of people to wear pedometers and chart their steps over the course of the next two months - the added bonus is advocating a healthy lifestyle and a specific prayer theme each week. The goal is to add everyone's mileage up and "reach Jerusalem" - which is 6,700 miles from Hudson. We'll let you know how we do.

* We have a sick boy. Parker came home from school saying his tummy hurt and has been throwing up all afternoon. We know he doesn't feel good because he just lays around. Finally, Parker crashed out on the loveseat.

* Wesley continues to get into everything in sight and "childproof locks" don't always work. He has figured out how to drag Bubby's stool over to the kitchen and bathroom counters and reach up to get what he wants. He's still working getting those molars all the way through and to go along with that now has a bright red rash on both his cheeks.

* We only got one piece of snail mail today, but it was an important one. Daddy received his confirmation letter from the Board of Ministry about the results of his interview and look how it was addressed - so cool!

A Praise Report and a Prayer Request

Our trip to the Holy Land was a three credit hour class for Daddy. He had to read several books before we left and then afterwards had to write a 12-15 page reflection paper. In addition he had to keep a journal for a week before we left, every day while we were gone, and for a week after we returned. He sent off his journals and paper via email to his professor on Saturday. Yesterday he got everything back graded with comments and he received an "A" for the class!!! That's our praise report.

Our prayer request concerns Daddy's candidacy in the UMC. Tonight we will leave and go to Leesburg and stay in a hotel, because tomorrow morning at 8:00am is Daddy's scheduled interview with the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry. The interview process will take a few hours as he will meet with a small group of 8 people for about 45 minutes and then meet with the whole board of about 40 people for 15 minutes. In between these sessions they will meet to talk and discuss his answers. And then finally he'll get called back to meet with the Executive Board and find out their decision. This step in the process is crucial to receiving an appointment as a pastor in the Florida Conference in July. We would covet your prayers for Daryl and the members of the Board tomorrow as he goes for his interview. And we promise to let you know the results as soon as we can!

We're Home!

We are finally home! This is what we saw as we pulled into Grandmommy and Granddaddy's driveway on Saturday....

It truly was an amazing journey that we will never forget and we are so grateful for the incredible opportunity!
2 new continents for 3 new countries visited.
6 hotels and 2 over night flights in 14 days.
4 different tour guides and 3 bus drivers on 3 different touring buses.
854 pictures on the digital camera!

Even though Daddy caught the stomach bug going around and wasn't feeling well for a couple of days, we were very fortunate to not lose anything and to not be injured. Two couples missed connecting flights because of bad weather and arrived late (1 day/2 days) and neither couple ever received their luggage for the duration of the trip. One girl lost her passport in Egypt and had to return to the States. Two folks were injured coming down Mt Sinai and one required surgery for a broken foot.

We also cannot say thank you enough to those who helped care for the boys while we were gone. They had a great time and a whole adventure of their own while staying with Grandmommy and Granddaddy, Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Daniel and Miss Joan. We are so blessed by your generosity in caring for Parker and Wesley and we love you all so much.

We're still trying to adjust to the time difference and life back in our house. But we promise to share our pictures and stories in the days ahead over on our travel blog. We'll use this site to keep up with day to day life now and to update with some pics of the boys' adventures while we were gone.

Thanks for all your prayers and support.

One Last Post Before We Travel

So the bags are finally packed! We weighed ours tonight and they are each just a couple of pounds under the weight limit. Not a lot of room left for souvenirs though! The boys' stuff is already out in Seffner thanks to Grandma and Grandpa who stopped by today to get car seats for their car and haul all the boys clothes and toys and stuff back home.

Despite all of the packing and cleaning we have managed to squeeze in some more fun together with the boys and with our friends in town. This was Parker and Wesley in the kitchen on Thursday waiting for Aydenn and Emma to arrive.

And while they were here, the boys had a blast playing Guitar Hero. What should they name their band?

Then today Miss Rael came to hang out most of the day to help play with/take care of the boys while we ran errands and packed and cleaned. Parker watched us do the Wii Fit and later on tried some of the yoga poses. Here he is doing the "tree pose."

So it's late and we're tired and headed off to bed. Just a few things to finish up tomorrow and then we'll head to Seffner to drop off the boys and spend the night at a hotel in Orlando for our early morning Sunday flight. Please keep us in your prayers. We probably won't be blogging since only two of our hotels have internet access. We promise to have lots of pictures when we get home though!

Tempus Fugit

Time is quickly flying by. It's only 8 days until Christmas. It's only 17 days until Mommy and Daddy leave on our trip. So much to do and so little time left to get it all accomplished. Still have to finish Christmas shopping and need to wrap everything up. Still need to shop for some items for the trip and pack up, as well as pack the boys, and make sure all the legal loose ends are tied up for the boys' care in our absence. Still have to tie up all the loose ends at the church for things to happen in Mommy's absence.

But even as the ToDo list seems to grow longer, the excitement and anticipation are mounting. We are so much looking forward to this Christmas with Wesley because he's at an age to really enjoy playing with the presents (boxes/paper). We're thrilled about the upcoming trip and the possibility of fulfilling some lifelong dreams in visiting Egypt and Israel. But really until we get past Christmas, the trip in many ways just seems surreal.

So in the middle of it all we continue to try and enjoy the little moments. Today "the mans" stopped by Mommy's office after picking Parker up from school. The boys love visiting Mr. David at church and getting the chance to play with all his electronic gadgets. Their favorite today was still the Hess Truck with the cool snowplow!

Exciting News

Two bits of exciting news in our house today!

The first is that Wesley has a second tooth that's broken through the gumline. Soon he'll have two beautiful little pearly whites gleaming out at everyone. Of course, we weren't able to get up close and get a picture yet; but we will try soon!

And for the second piece of good news, you must follow this link to find out.