Just Like Europe

Ah, Europe...I love Europe and love the simplicity of Europeans' lives! During my trip to Europe, I saw so many gorgeous sights and just fell in love with the people. I loved watching people bike everywhere, get ice cream from a little stand, and take long walks in the gorgeous parks. Okay, so why am I talking about Europe? Well, for the last two days, I felt like I was back in Europe....even though I was actually in Cherokee, IA. :) Here's the story:

On Sunday night, Aaron and I were talking about our weeks...keeping each other informed on when my parent/teacher conferences were, work schedules, and when Aaron would be gone to a youth pastor's retreat at Hidden Acres. Background knowledge*We have two cars on insurance right now...a Crown Victoria and our new little Miata convertible. Only Aaron can drive the Miata because it is a stick shift and I don't know how to drive a stick shift* While we were talking, we both realized that Aaron needed the bigger Crown Victoria for his trip to Hidden Acres that was yesterday and today, leaving me with the Miata....I've driven a stick ONCE and was awful...killing it every few minutes! So, we concocted a plan: Erika would ride her bike to and from work while Aaron was gone on his retreat. Ha! Not a bad plan but I certainly felt like a European...except I couldn't exactly remember all the hand signals and couldn't remember which side to ride on (I'm so used to the country!) that I just found the nearest parking lots and avoided as many cars as I could and ignored the many stares and probably laughs from people :)....not quite as quaint and fun as in Europe...but still very fun. I might even make a habit of it.....maybe :)

A little cafe in Liepzig, Germany~May 2006

Golden Birthday

On April 24th, it was my 24th birthday!! :) I had an incredible golden birthday with friends and family! I feel a little vain putting up all these pictures of just me....haha, oh well :) (Aaron documented everything that I did on my bday so this isn't even half of them!)

We made a little "golden" birthday cake

Complete with 24 "golden/white" candles and wonderful gifts

And a hilarious "homemade" card from Aaron....always entertaining :) And, a beautiful "gold" ring with cute diamonds in it from him... :)
Then we went to the Olive Garden (hey, it has "gold" on the sign!).

And ate "golden?" fettucine alfredo :)

(complete with the spinach artichoke dip appetizer...yum!)

It was such a good birthday and I am SOOOO thankful for the 24 years on this earth God has given me to glorify and live for Him. He has blessed me beyond what I deserve and I am so thankful for the life he has given me.... :)

Too Busy to Blog!

This is just a quick note to say that I have been too busy to blog lately, but hopefully soon I will be able to blog about my incredible golden birthday weekend!!! :) It was such a blast and I'm sad that it's over now! But, tonight we have our first bonfire with our senior high students so I am busy setting up for that and so on!! Soon though, I shall blog again! :)

3 Proms in One Night?

We really want to support our high schoolers in every way possible...especially going to things they are involved in. However, when we found out the majority of our students had prom tonight and 3 different schools were represented....each being at least 20 miles from each other, we thought it was absolutely impossible. But, I love challenges and love being in a time crunch (that's why I make an excellent procrastinator...not a good thing!) Anyway....our title of our blog "Journey" definitely represents what we went on tonight! Let me tell you the story about the time we went to 3 proms (grand marches, that is...we didn't actually go...oops, I should have clarified that sooner) in one night:

We started on our journey at 4:30pm...Kate and Daniel were going to Sioux Central which is 30 minutes from Cherokee. The grand march was at 5:30 so we wanted to be a little early. We made it in great time...however, it started 10 minutes late and the spotlight didn't work...pushing it back 5 more minutes! Ah! I never plan for those unexpectancies! :) But, alas, we saw them and their "rock and roll" theme!

They were 38 on the list, so they came through at 6:20 and we needed to be in Aurelia, 25 minutes away, by 6:30. We literally ran out right after we took a picture and drove our little Mazda Miata as fast as it could go without speeding too much :) We walked into the high school at 6:45, but because Aurelia is so small, the Grand March was already over! However, it turned out very well, because we saw our next students, Desiree and Austin, took a picture and ran out to the car again to try to catch the last prom that started at 7:00! :)

We left Aurelia at 6:50pm and drove to MMC school, 30 minutes away from Aurelia. We were really hoping we were wrong on the times or they started late, but we finally arrived at 7:20ish and were able to see three of our students announced and one of them be announced as prom king.

We were absolutely exhausted by this time...BUT, we successfully saw ALL of our students! :) So, 3 and a half hours and 100 miles later, we are home and exhausted from our 3 proms and praying sooooo much for our students and the other students at their schools to make good choices tonight and every other night for that matter. I somewhat know what it will be like to parent teenagers because I feel like I have 20 teenagers already that I love and care for deeply and want the best for them. But right now, I can't worry....all I can do is....pray. And that's what I'm off to do......

College Freshmen

Yesterday, Aaron and I had the awesome privilege of meeting up with two very special college freshmen who were in our youth group last year. They both attend Northwestern in Orange City (we like to call it "the other Northwestern", however, they call St. Paul the same thing! ha!) so we decided to take them out to eat last night and see how their freshman year of college has gone. It was an incredible evening filled with deep talks and great laughs...it was so good to reconnect with them and it made Aaron and I reminisce about our freshman years and all that God taught us while being freshmen...wow, I truly think you change the most during your freshman year of college. It is such a growing time in life. Anyway, we went to Blue Mountain in Orange City...here are a few pics!


P.S. FYI: My picture had a really strange picture in the background, so I had to crop it a bit, making it a bit different than the others! :)

A Day in the Classroom

On Thursday, we had a very special guest come to our preschool....Aaron!! :) He played his djembe for the kids and told them about African drums! What a hit! It was such a fun day!!

Have you ever heard of.......

So, tonight at junior high youth group, the students and I had the most hilarious discussion about "old shows" they sometimes watch on cable. I was laughing hysterically when all of them were shows I grew up on.

Emily: Hey, guys, have you ever heard of the show "Rin, Tin, Tin"?
Katy: No, what's that? Hey, have you heard of the show "Saved By the Bell"?
Erika: I LOVE that show! It's my favorite!! If you ever want to watch it, I have all the seasons!
Emily: Saved By the Bell? Nope, I've never heard of that.
Emily: What about Full House? Have you seen that?
Katy: A few times. It's okay.
Erika: I LOVE that show!
Emily: Family Matters? Oh, and that one guy....Urkle or something.
Erika: *laughing hysterically*
Erika: Have you guys ever seen MacGyver?
Emily: What's that?
Katy: Huh? Nope.

The conversation went on for a while longer with the comments such as "That show is sooooo old. You had the best tv when you were growing up." and so on. It was hilarious. Thought I would share this story with all of us '80s folk! :) Oh to live in the '80s and '90s again!

Winter To Summer?

I don't exactly know where spring went, but it certainly feels like summer outside today in Iowa! Yesterday, however, we woke up to fresh snow on our ground! It was absolutely freezing and we felt cooped up in our house. We were especially sad for our students who had prom last night....it was sooooo cold...I think in the 30's? Yikes. Our two girls still looked gorgeous, though, amidst the coldness. Hopefully our kids who have prom next week will have better weather.

Today, Aaron and I were able to enjoy the outdoors by having our first campfire! A little Sunday afternoon campfire....we're looking forward to many more this summer. As I was watching the fire, I got a sudden desire to go camping and become a wilderness woman....*sigh* maybe in a few weeks :)

Fabulous Finds For Kids #1

Every day working at the preschool, I get so many ideas and come in contact with such great resources but I always forget to talk about them. Today, however, I was talking to my lead teacher, Sandy (who is the senior pastor's wife at our church...two pastor's wives teaching together, isn't that funny?) about blogging and I got this grand idea to share some AWESOME resources we use in our preschool! It seems like so many of my friends are pregnant or have small children at home and these are great not only for preschool but for home activities! I'll call these my "Fabulous Finds for Kids"

So, my first one:
GET FIT KIDS

by Kristi Dear

This is an amazing DVD workout video to help get kids into shape and keep them active! The kids love it and it works on arms, legs, and cardio movement as well as having a warm up and cool down time. Whenever we do this, I follow it as well and get a workout, so it's great for moms to do with their kids! Also, it has catchy tunes and easy to follow movements. I highly recommend this DVD!

Encouragement...just when I needed it

I am amazed time and time again at how God works. I absolutely love the little surprises He gives us every day and the ways He reminds me time and time again that He knows what He's doing in my life. This week has been hard...but also good in many ways. Aaron and I decided we wanted to take initiative and get to know people. So, we scheduled four dinner dates in four days! Haha...we were a little too hard core :) On top of the scheduled events, life threw it's extra craziness and yesterday I found myself finally done with everything at 10:30pm. I was truly exhausted and really just needing encouragement.

After our dinner date tonight with a student, Aaron looked at me and said, "I order you to not come to youth group tonight. You need a break. Relax and watch a movie." Well, I opted for American Idol instead, but it was a somewhat relaxing night. Around 10:00, Aaron still wasn't home and I heard this knock on my door. I tried to figure who in the world would be knocking at my door at 10:00 at night, but when you're in ministry, that actually isn't that abnormal, so I cautiously went to the door and saw two wonderful youth group girls standing at my door! :) They had written me a note telling me they missed me in youth group and they hoped I felt better. They probably thought it was such a simple gesture but it encouraged me so much and reminded me WHY I'm in ministry. These students need an older sister/mentor just to come alongside of them....and in the same way, God is using them tremendously in my life. I have learned so much about myself and about relating to others this year, but most of all, I have been soooo encouraged by them. I am so thankful for the people that God has put into my life and I pray that I will be as much of an encouragement to them as they are to me :)

Simba?

Our dog has a striking resemblence to Simba from the Lion King, don't you think? (Good thing Aaron doesn't look like Rafiki though!) :)

Do I really look THAT young?

Well, I'm finally awake after a really long, but really fun lock-in with our junior high students! It seriously went sooooo fast and I have to admit that I think Aaron and I were more awake than any of our kids! There were quite a few other churches there so it was fun to meet other youth pastor's and their wives and other students. I thought I was finally starting to look older and as it's nearing my 24th birthday, I thought I was finally looking like an adult. Well, last night proved me wrong! I thought I would share this hilarious story that happened last night!

About 4:30 in the morning, a few students and I were playing a game of Sorry. A girl from a different church came over and was complaining about how tired she was. She had a few energy drinks and she was still exhausted. Very energetically I said, "I'm not tired at all!! But, it's probably because I slept all day to prepare for this." She gave me a confused look and said, "Did you skip school or something?" haha! She thought I was a junior higher! My mouth dropped and I started laughing....she was really confused and said, "Oh, I'm sorry...did you graduate already?" Laughing harder, I said, "Haha! Actually, I graduated from college, I'm 23 and married to the youth pastor!" She did not believe me at first I don't think but finally said, "You look like a junior higher. Are you really married?" hahaha...oh the joys of looking young!

On the bright side though, I decided this is a good thing. Since I look 13 when I'm 23, that means that when I'm 30, I'll finally look like I'm 20! And, when I'm 40, I'll only look 30! haha...I'll just have to endure looking like a junior higher for a few more years until I can finally look like a high schooler! :) haha :)

Spring Cleaning...Finally!!! :)

The temperature outside is.....61 degrees!!! Finally!! I'm in shorts and a t-shirt and have the windows of my house wide open! The hope of spring is finally here! Isn't it funny how when you have to wait for something, it is so much better? Today is our day off so we are spring cleaning and getting ready for a junior high lock in tonight! Although both of us could stay up until all hours of the night in college, for some reason (age, probably!), we have a little harder time staying up for these lock ins! I still don't know how I used to start my homework at 11:00 at night and usually didn't get finished until 4 or so in the morning! But, we'll try our best tonight to stay up the whole night and have energy to play with the junior highers! I had better go and get to my big project of spring cleaning!

Music....blesses the heart :)

Over Easter, my dad tuned my piano...it was terribly out of tune due to the move from Forest City to Cherokee so it was a little hard to play before then. This past week, I have needed some familiarity in my life. Although it has been almost a year since we moved to Cherokee, we still feel somewhat new around here and I needed something from my past. I looked at my piano and took out every book I had ever played from. Aaron was gone to a meeting and I played and played until my fingers couldn't play anymore. I was so encouraged and incredibly inspired to keep going...to keep perservering....to keep trying....and to keep hoping. I don't know if music has the same effect on any of you (although I'm sure it does...it has a way of blessing and inspiring us!), but I felt refreshed and renewed. God spoke to my heart and I was incredibly blessed! I love how God created music for us to enjoy and uses it to speak to the very core of our heart....wow :)