Purity is a Battle Fundraiser

Boyfriend Bears had a fundraiser this weekend at the Youth Barn.  They are trying to raise money so that their "Purity is a Battle" presentation can be professionally recorded on a DVD.  That way anyone, anywhere can buy it.  Pretty exciting stuff is happening for their little group! 

Here's Holly and her buddy Lauren.  They have been good friends since fourth grade and it's been so much fun watching them turn into such amazing young women.

The girls got to invite two special people who have made an impact on their faith walk to the event.  Here's Holly introducing her special guests and telling how Boyfriend Bears has impacted her life.

 Here's John and me with Holly's special people. 

Holly once again made me so proud...and not because she is part of Boyfriend Bears or because she can get up and speak in front of large crowds (although that makes me proud too!) but because she didn't run away screaming from all the popping balloons.  Holly HATES popping balloons.  It used to be the first thing she wanted to know when she received a birthday invite is if there would be balloons there.  To raise money, the Boyfriend Bears sold balloon which you then popped to reveal a number which corresponded to a prize.  There was a lot of balloons popping and Holly handled it like a trooper.  We got a big kick out of Auntie Denise's prize...

The gentleman that invited the girls to Arizona was there too.  He talked about the impact Boyfriend Bears had made on the girls at Mingus Academy.  He read portions from letters the girls there had written to the Boyfriend Bears.  It was amazing and sad and wonderful all at the same time. 
It was a good night.

Life

*Holly is going to be a ballet girl in this year's school's musical "Phantom of the Opera".  She was really hoping for a bigger role but she's okay.  She has a couple of lines (actually I am pretty sure all the lines are sung in Phantom) and her good friend Lauren is a ballet girl too.  It's going to be a great show!  Here is her head shot for the play she was in a couple of weeks ago.  I thought it was a good one.

*I think pretty much all of our leaves are down.  FINALLY. 

                           

*Holly and I went to a couple of craft shows last weekend.  Our highly talented friend Renee was one of the crafters.  She is an incredible knitter and I would show you what I bought from her but they may be somebody's Christmas present this year so I won't.  Check out her etsy site  http://www.etsy.com/shop/KnitGoodWomanKnit.

*Holly got this sock monkey cup cozey.  She loves all things sock monkey.

*I found this sign for my bathroom.  Holly said it was "so me".  

*We're doing a little remodeling here at the Hiemstra house.  We are putting in some new flooring in the kitchen, bathroom, hallway, and laundry room.  This meant all the baseboard had to come out.  This meant that I needed to scrape paint and clean the baseboards.  That was an ugly job.  I'm glad I'm done.

*John, Sam and Katie stripped off all the old laminate while Holly and I were shopping.

*Later in the week he took everything out of the bathroom.  I'll be so happy to get a new toilet in there.  We had "issues" with the old one.  With nothing in there, this room is like a blank canvas just screaming to be painted.  We picked out something really wild...stay tuned.

*Holly wrote a blog post for Boyfriend Bears.  I thought it was wonderful.  You can read it here http://boyfriendbears.org/blog/.  They are having a fundraiser this Saturday at the Youth Barn.  Please come!

*My practically professional friend Julie took the kid's school pictures last month but Katie still came home with the ones the school took even though I didn't order any.  They are HILARIOUS.  She's going through the "fake smile" phase. I'm glad I get to keep this for posterity's sake.

Halloween 2013

Neither one of these two were really excited to pull the guts out of the pumpkins but I told them I was not doing it all by myself so they begrudgingly helped me.  Sam carved Frankenstein and Katie carved an owl.

It didn't help matters any when Katie discovered a slug on the bottom of her pumpkin.  GROSS!

My princess cow (she wanted to be a cow and a princess so she wore her cow costume along with a tutu, beads and a tiara) and the world's cutest pirate.

Fall Music Concert

This past week the high school had their fall music concert.  The band, jazz band, orchestra, and all the all the choirs perform.  We got their early and got great seats...apparently it isn't common for high school concerts to run out of seating but it happens here pretty frequently.  I was a lame brain and forgot my camera so lucky for me, my good friend Kirsten took these for me.   

Holly isn't officially in orchestra this year (we just couldn't fit it into her schedule) but they are a small group so they let her "come back" just for the concert.  

Here is the chamber choir.  This is an advanced choir that practices two mornings a week before school.  I don't like Tuesday and Friday mornings because if Holly has to get up early that means I have to get up early.  You all know morning is not my favorite time of the day.  I don't understand how she can sing, I don't even like to talk that early in the morning.

Here is a close-up.  of my girl.  She is in concert choir also but she was standing right in front of the director so Kirsten couldn't get a picture.  I considered asking him to move but I guess that isn't good concert etiquette.  I also considered getting up and dancing the salsa with John during one of the jazz band songs (it was a date after all) but that isn't good concert etiquette either.

For the final song, all the choirs were accompanied by a symphony orchestra to sing, "This is My Father's World" which is LC's theme this year.  It was AMAZING.  Gave me goosebumps.  So good that I didn't want it to end.  I hope they play it again for the spring concert.

This song gave me goosebumps too.  The chamber choir sang from the aisles of the auditorium.  And guess who was standing RIGHT BY John and me?!  

Holly is so blessed to have amazing music teachers to learn from.  I am so thankful for them.  I am also thankful for friends who remember their cameras on special nights.  Thanks again Kirsten!