Sunday!

We went to church together as a family and had a great rest of the day!

Family Day

Justin had an early football practice and Andrew had to help Gram with some corn this morning and since they were already over there late Friday night, so they just stayed out there.  When they got home on Saturday, we got to all work together around the house with my dad and Heath.  Praises!

*Our High Schoolers*

The boys made me so happy when they let me take this picture this morning!  I know that it is not cool to have your mom take a 'first day of school' picture when you are a teenager, but they agreed!  Thank you boys!  Now, I get to show you off!

Daddy and I got to spend the day together getting tons of stuff done around the house and he took me to pick up my Honda in Mitchell.  A great day all around!

Last Swim

This morning is my last morning before my pool closes down for their annual cleaning.  This year they are going all out and repainting and everything.  It is going to be really nice.  The pool will be closing tomorrow for 8 weeks.  What is really cool about this though is that they let us reciprocate with The Splash pool in Scottsbluff.  They have both an indoor and an outdoor pool.  I haven't had the opportunity to swim laps outdoors since 2012 in vet school.  Speaking of school...the boys have their first day tomorrow already!!!!!!  Wow, how summer flies by!

When I got home from work, my Daddy was already here!  It was such a blessing to be able to have a wonderful dinner with him, Heath, and a couple of girlfriends I graduated with from grad school.  Candice was back for a few days from her long term missions in Mexico and Alissa lives here and teaches Ag in Bridgeport.  Candice is so good at keeping in touch and arranging for all of us to get together.  It was all together a wonderful evening!

God Wink!

WOW God!  How amazing it can be when you are faithful!  This morning, after my early morning workout, I showered and then walked out of the Y.M.C.A. to the river to sit on my bench and read my Bible.  I am still plugging away at reading the Bible.  Our Bible study leader, Pastor Wayne, challenged us to read it in a year.  I am way behind, but I will not give up, so I sat down and finished the chapters I had been working on for quite some time.  It felt good.  I felt like I had really accomplished something.  A quick prayer of thanksgiving and off I go to the next thing in my day.

I needed to turn in my timesheet for the classes I taught up at the college and pay for my photography class coming up before heading to work.  Leave it up to me, as I headed up to the college, I somehow ended up taking the scenic route.  My plan was to be there right at 8 am when I assumed they opened and then head right over to TLC.  But, God had a different plan for me this morning.

I pulled up and decided to let my pickup idle while I quickly went inside.  As I was walking into the building, I stopped at the front desk to talk with Pat.  As we were talking, a lady came walking down the hall with a big load of trash.  She appeared to be on a mission, but got distracted by our conversation.  Pat was just telling me that the photography class was now on Thursday evenings instead of Wednesday evenings.  I told him how happy that made me because I would not have to miss my Bible study.  When she heard both of those topics:  God and photography, she stopped and we got to talking.  She was hungry for the Word and wanted to come to Bible study, so, being Wednesday evening, I invited her!  I do not know how that happened....it just sort of came out and I hadn't even talked with Wayne or Linda yet to invite her to their home.  With her interest, I had her come out to the pickup to exchange information.  It was perfect because my Bible was in my front seat and still easily accessible.  I was able to find her one of Pastor Wayne's business cards with his contact info.  I also gave her a tract that Wayne and Linda had challenged us to give out last week.  And last but not least, I gave her Heath and I's card with our number on it.  With all of this and a nice conversation about God and what he is doing in our lives, I hugged her and left the college on cloud nine!

Photo of our lovely Pastor, Wayne, and his wife, Linda, taken by Mr. Bill Senkel.
This is where all the encouragement began!

I immediately called Wayne and texted Linda to tell them what I had accidentally done without asking. first  We got it all worked out and I was hoping that since she got tied up tonight with classes starting that she would come on Sunday.  "Keep praying for her," said Wayne.  SUCH a God thing!  Thank you Lord for the encouragement!  :)

The rest of the day was just great considering such a great morning with a great w/o (workout), my lady at the college, working with Krystal at TLC, a lovely lunch on the Emporium patio with my good friend Kristin, and then Bible study at Wayne and Linda's house and getting to share about my day and see my husband!!

Freshman Orientation

Today, we dropped off my car in Mitchell to get the timing belt changed and a new water pump put in.  Randy, from Randy's Autobody, is a pretty serious biker and so is his wife.  It was awesome when we walked into his store, he had a small section of his front room full of biking gear and ready-to-eat meals for camping.  I could see his passion for the sport.  It was super fun talking with him about this as biking is now one of my recovery exercises.  It is good for building my leg muscles while staying easy on the hip.  I now have a great resource for information.  I would like for him to show me how to fill my skinny tires with air and help me see if my bikes fit me.

Tonight, we had Andrew's freshman orientation.  It was for both parents and students to introduce them to the expectations of the high school.  His last two years, both his 7th and 8th grade years, were in the high school building, but they were still part of the junior high for sports and activities.  This was an informational meeting and Andrew seems excited to be in high school now.

Big step for mama here, two boys in high school already.  Man, how time flies...LOL!~  :)

And so it begins....

2013 Football Season after a Home Game

The anxiety has been building as we approach the new school year.  We are both praying for an improvement over last year.  We are excited about the sports as tonight we attended an all fall sport meeting at Mitchell High School where they introduced the coaches and told us how to be good fans.  It was an interesting meeting, they talked alot about concussions and sportsmanship.  We have one son in football and one in cross country.  The head injury is more likely in football, but nonetheless, all the kids got the lecture.

2013 Cross Country Meet Father and Son

After Heath and I went to the meeting, I headed for groceries at Walmart and Heath took the boys home and got dinner going.  What a great team we have.  I am a lucky woman!

*S*u*n*F*l*o*W*e*R*S* and Scottish Festival

After the Farmer's Market yesterday, we got a wild hair yesterday and decided to go to the Scottish Festival in Denver with Heath's parents.  Before we left, we stopped in Stegall to see some sunflowers.  We had fun with it!

Happy Man!

Heath picked me a flower!

We stopped in Cheyenne and ate ate Olive Garden, then stayed the night in a hotel last night.  It was fun!  This morning we took a shuttle over to the festivities.  They had bag pipes, athletic Highland games, traditional food, clothing, and Scottish dog breeds.

Great shot of my MAN!