Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Hallelujah!

John and I laughed and laughed at this video. I think CHA should implement this into their graduation ceremony....what do you think???


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCFCeJTEzNU
You'll have to copy and paste this link, but trust me, its worth it!

Monday, December 7, 2009

Christmas Time is Here....

I love this time of year! Everyone seems to be in such a good mood! I love walking around the mall and hearing all the Christmas music. I love all of the decorations. I love the spirit of good cheer. Most of all, I love the real reason for Christmas....the birth of God's Son, Jesus! I am so thankful for this gift!

John has been working shorter hours recently, so we took an afternoon to go and look around the Broadmoor and see the gingerbread house display! Can I say AMAZING!!! It was a cold, snowy, blustery day; but we had a great time! I took some pictures of the awesomeness. :)





They made an apline village for their gingerbread house theme. The cathedral is my favorite. John's boss created it and John said he spent over 40 hours on it!



This is the one John worked on. He was sick during most of the time they were working on it, but he says they like what he contributed. Good job Babe!



One of the lobbies at the Broadmoor. I love the table display!





Just some random trees and a wreath. I love the poinsettias!





These are of the golf clubhouse. It is one of my favorite places at the Broadmoor. Even though it is huge, it is nice and cozy. :)

And now, for my own, not so elegant but just as Christmasy, decorations. :)







Friday, November 27, 2009

Thanksgiving

This year like many future Thanksgivings are new adventures. I started out the day at 2 am. I woke up and got ready and went into work. At work, my co-workers and I finished the task of putting on the final touches for our Thanksgiving Buffets. We are able to serve 2,000-3,000 people. The work went smoothly and I happily made it home by 10:30. I cannot say how good that was considering the last Holiday (4 of July) when I worked an 13 hour day. So anyways, getting home early allowed us to fully enjoy thanksgiving dinner at our dear friends house. The dinner was to start at 1 pm so we had plenty of time. We brought the sweets to the meal. We brought a pumpkin pie and some of our freshly baked Christmas cookies. We spent the afternoon playing games and talking. Becky and I made it home by about 7:30 where I spent the rest of the night on the couch watching a little football and going in and out of consciousness. While we do miss spending time with our families we know we are where we need to be.

closing thought

Do all things without grumbling or disputing: so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. Phil 2:14-17

Happy Thanksgiving

John

Saturday, November 7, 2009

November

Hello everyone! To our 5 readers Greetings:


November is truly the best time of the year. Can I count the ways? 1. Best Holiday 2. my Birthday 3. election season (congrats to local colorado springs saying no to more taxes)and now every professional sport is in season. Thanks to baseball the fall classic now ends in November. Shout out for Becky as her Yankees have triumphed. I am sure she would have participated in the ticker-tape parade had someone sent her an invitation. In other news on the sporting front, rumor has it that there is an important game being played in Lincoln today. From past experience i will not go out on a limb and predict a winner. I just want a well played game and to the victor go the spoils :).

Okay enough jibber-jabber. Becky and I are really loving Colorado Springs. I am a full time at the Broadmoor hotel in the Bakery. Check them out online if you want the full scoop on the Broadmoor. All i will say is that it is by far the best place i have worked to date. We are thankful that God has provided to cover all our expenses and have a little extra for savings. We have found a church that Becky has really been able to plug into and connect. As I have Sunday's off, like tommorrow, I am able to go. The blessing has been finding a lifegroup that meets in the evenings which I am able to attend each week and has really been very encouraging. One of our couples in celebrating 25 years of marriage tonight so we will have the privilege of celebrating with them. (Looking forward to great Italian food)

parting thought

Therefore prepare you minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

much love
John

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Just a few pictures :-)


























Forgive the volume, but I couldn't find the cable to import pictures from my camera, so I have a lot to share. This doesn't include the pictures I took from Britt and Lauren's wedding! These are just some of our adventures here in Colorado. We took John's grandparents to the Broadmoor and there are pictures from Mom, Dad and Bryce being here. The rest are just from our galavanting around! Enjoy!

Friday, July 17, 2009

We really like Colorado!

Hey everyone,

I think John and I have tried to take advantage of everything the middle part of Colorado has to offer in the first 3 months of living here! We have really enjoyed doing different things around the Springs and the surrounding area. This past weekend, we took a tour of the Rockies. We went to a hot springs in Buena Vista which was fabulous! We spent the night there and then took a drive up through Leadville and Frisco (near Breckenridge for all you skiers) and then came home through Denver. It was a gorgeous drive! Such a nice, sunny day. We have had a lot of thunderstorms lately, so everything was green and vibrant and the Arkansas River was flowing nicely. In Frisco, we stopped at the Frisco Bay Marina and looked out over a lake. They will be hosting a boat show in the next couple of weeks....I think it would be fun to go see, but don't know if it will be possible due to John's schedule. We stopped in Castle Rock at the outlet mall there and did a little shopping....always dangerous. We had a really good time and it was great just to get out of the house for a couple of days. Unfortunately, I forgot to take the camera, so you'll just have to take my word for it on how beautiful it was.
We have found a church that we like and have attended for the past four Sundays. It is Chapel Hills Baptist Church and is located in northern CO Springs. It is about a 25 minute drive for us, but we have really enjoyed the worship and teaching there, so we feel it is worth it. They have a more contemporary worship service than your typical southern baptist church, but it is something John and I both enjoy. I think there will be plenty of ways to get involved, which is another selling point for us. We both want to be able to serve with the talents God has given us and we feel we will be able to do this here. This is a definite answer to prayer for us!
I am still looking for a job, but trust that the Lord is going to take care of us in every way. I am looking forward to Mom, Dad and Bryce coming up in early August and then heading up to Detroit for Jim and Lisa's wedding August 15. So, maybe not having a job right now is not such a bad thing! But, continue to pray that God will provide one soon. The job market here is a little hard right now, as it is everywhere. There are jobs available, but most of them require a specific skill.....like being an RN or welder or something like that. :-) Not exactly my areas of expertise!
John is doing really well in his externship. He is more than half way through and enjoys his work. His hours right now are from 3am to 10am. However, he usually works until at least noon....which means overtime! We are getting used to this schedule and trying to take advantange of his days off to spend time together. It can be difficult, but we're making it!
That's all for now! Love to all.....

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Hello.....long time, no blog

Well, obviously a lot has happened since my last post. John and I finished our time in Pennsylvania and made the move with his parents to Colorado Springs, CO. We are so thankful for God's provision and protection during our move. We made the trip in 2 days and had no troubles at all. We had great travel weather and made great time....two things I was very thankful for. We unloaded and got a lot of things unpacked while John's parents were with us. They were a huge help to us! We also got to do some sight-seeing with them. John and I have discovered that Garden of the Gods is one of our favorite places here. The landscape changes everyday with the changes in weather or time of day. It is absolutely beautiful! Since being here, we have also been to a lake up in the mountains (I can't remember exactly where), and to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo...really cool place! They have a great giraffe exhibit. You can actually pet and feed them! We were really impressed. While at the zoo, we drove up to the Will Rogers shrine on the side of Cheyenne Mountain. Great view of Colorado Springs, even though it was raining.
I was able to go to Oklahoma for a week to witness Britt and Lauren's wedding. I thought there was a lot of work involved in my wedding, but putting together a rehearsal dinner was a lot more work than I expected. It was a great week, but I had to rest for a couple of days just to recuperate! It was so good to spend time with my family. I hadn't seen some of them for a year, so it was good to catch up with everyone. We did a lot of shopping, running around and cooking. :-) I must say, my 4 month old niece, Kinley, is a trooper. She went with us just about everywhere and did remarkably well! Also, my brother-in-law Nathan was a huge help. He kept Brianna and Nate most of the time so that Beth could run around with us. I really appreciated that. And my sweet sister Brooke gave up her room for me! I really appreciated that too....especially since she slept on the couch all week! It culminated in a great wedding ceremony for Britt and Lauren. I was honored to be a part of it all!
I missed John immensely while I was gone and it was really good to get back home. I've just been finishing up around the house and doing a little bit of job searching. I'm not in full out job hunting mode yet. God has been gracious in His provision for us, so I don't have to have a job right away. However, hopefully in the next couple of weeks I can be able to start one.
I'll post some pictures of CO soon....it kind of takes a while for them to upload and I usually don't have the patience to wait for them. :-) Don't worry....most of them are just different views of Pikes Peak....amazing!
Talk to you later!

Monday, April 27, 2009

The Last Sunday

Well, we made it to our last week in Pennsylvania. We also made it to warm and humid weather. Today was miserable at work because they haven't turned the AC on yet....it felt like I was literally working in a sweat shop!

However, that is not why I am blogging. I wanted to share with you about our last Sunday at Calvary Evangelical Free Church. We love this church family! They have been so good to us and made us feel right at home from the first time we went there. As you may know, I have been working with the Kid's Choir their. I have been so proud of them. I started with about 8 kids that I could barely get to sing and ended up with around 14 who sing very enthusiastically!

Senior Recognition was Sunday, so of course John had to get up and tell what his future plans were and all that jazz. I was sitting with the kids because we were getting ready to sing. The MC, our good friend Gary, asked that I come and stand with John since we were a "couple". Anyhow, when I got up, he started explaining how I worked with the kids and how much they were going to miss having us around. When I turned back around to the kids, they were all getting out of their seats and I knew something was up. As a token of appreciation, each of the children brought me a red and yellow rose. It was so sweet! I started to cry and was totally surprised!. In all, I got a dozen red and a dozen yellow roses. AND, I don't have to pack them and can enjoy them all week!



The kids sang later in the service and did a really good job. I sang a solo on one of the songs, so they actually sang without a director since I went up to stand with them. They did a really great job!

Anyhow, it was a great way to end our time there. We'll be with them again Wednesday night and then our time of service there will be finished. However, I will always be so grateful for the wonderful family we have here in Indiana and will look forward to visiting with them again when we come back to Pennsylvania sometime.





Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Update

My life right now consists of packing, packing and more packing. Not so much fun and not very exciting. :-) This last month before we move is going to fly by.
I can hardly believe our time in Pennsylvania is coming to an end. There are some things that I will definitely not miss......like living in Indiana.....however, there are some things that I will miss greatly! First and foremost, I will miss living close to Mom and Dad Henderson. It has been wonderful getting to know them and spending as much time with them as possible. I personally have learned so much from them and love them dearly for all they have meant to us in our time here. We have a great relationship and I couldn't ask for better in-laws! Second, I will miss our church. If we could just pack them up and take them with us, we would! They have been our family away from family and God has been so gracious to us through them. I can only hope we can find a church half as loving and welcoming to us as they have been.
Like I said, our last month here is going to fly by and be very busy! We are having an authentic Seder at our church this Saturday which we will get to participate in. I am so excited about this! I have observed as Seder before and I wrote a paper on it in college, but I have never gotten to actually eat the food and participate. I think it is going to be very cool. The man leading it is a Messianic Jew and has spoken at our church before, so I know it will be good. We will be going to see Julie and Brian in Maryland the weekend of April 18. Can't wait to see their new house! And, see them, of course! We will miss being only a few hours away, but hopefully they can come see us in Colorado Springs. After that, we'll be on the home stretch and ready to roll on out of here May 4. Whew!
I'll try to update again before we turn our cable and internet off, but I make no promises!

Love to all!

Friday, March 13, 2009

A Good Time at Home

We spent John's spring break in Oklahoma and Colorado Springs. The Lord was very good to us! We got to do everything we wanted to do in Oklahoma and were able to find a place to move into right away in Colorado Springs. It was an extremely busy trip, but a good one!

We arrived Saturday and spent the day hanging out at Mom and Dad's. Then we headed to FSBCDC Sunday morning for church. It was great to see all of the wonderful things going on there. We had lunch at the house and Granny and Grandpa were there. Granny looked better than I expected and it was good to have a visit with her. We went to Grace for church Sunday night. I enjoyed their new building and getting see friends there, also.

Monday morning, John, Bryce and I hit the road for Colorado Springs/Denver to look for an apartment for me and John. We got to stay with Regina and Garry, which was great! I hadn't had a good long visit with them in a long time and enjoyed catching up with all that is going on in their lives. We spent Tuesday morning looking at apartments. We looked at six places and ended up putting a deposit down on the first one we looked at. It is a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom with washer/dryer hookups. More than I thought we would ever get on our budget! God is so good! We then went up to Focus on the Family. John and Bryce enjoyed the 3-story slide and I enjoyed the bookstore. :-) That really is an amazing place! We spent that evening enjoying more time with Regina and Garry, watching movies and talking. We got a special treat Wednesday morning. John had called ahead and made an appointment to tour the Broadmoor, so they were expecting us at 9:00. We had a great time walking around the main campus of the resort and learning a little of the history of the place. We got to see some of the kitchens that John will be working in. I think Bryce was most impressed with the golf course.....or the ducks on the lake. Either one. :-) It made John super excited about starting his job there in May!

Thursday, we got to see all of the grandparents. This was especially wonderful for me! We had good visits with all of them....I even got to sing for Nanny at the nursing home during their chapel service! It was great! Then, Thursday night, John and I hung out with my ABC sisters. We went to Cheesecake Factory for dessert and got to see Brooke in action. We had a great time! I always enjoy getting to catch up with my girls!

Friday, we spent the day relaxing and playin on the Wii. We went to Ted's Friday night with the Gibsons and Pepa....yummy!!! Good Mexican food is hard to find in PA! Then we went bowling with all the kids and had a great time doing that. It was a great way to cap off the week!

Here are a few pictures of the Broadmoor and one of me and Nanny. I wanted to get a picture with all of my grandparents, but the batteries went out of the camera, so that was that......


Bryce took this one....its a little fuzzy. :-)


Ducks on the lake.


Buffalo head in the main driveway.


Front of the main building.


In front of one of the old carriages in the carriage house.


Me and Nanny