Storms and other stuff

Thanks for your prayers for my Auntie Grace.  Her surgery went well.  Hopefully she can come home from the hospital soon. 
On Wednesday mornings I am able to live stream Dordt's chapel service.  It's pretty cool that Holly and I can watch it at the same time.  We usually text and discuss it a little afterwards.  A lot of my family and friends are going through "storms" in their life right now so it was pretty appropriate when today's message was "Calming Storms".  The text was from Matthew 4:35-41.  It begins, "On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, "Let us cross over to the other side." Now when they had left the multitude they took Him along."  Dordt's chaplain pointed out that Jesus said, "Let us" and then the disciples "took Him along".  He challenged how that is many times how we treat Jesus.  Jesus invites us to start our day with Him, to face our challenges with Him, to give up our worries to Him, but instead we just take Him along.  I know I am way too guilty of just taking God along with me as I go about my life.  I am really being challenged lately to quit living my life as if this earth is my home. It's not.  That means that I need to quit living so selfishly, maybe get my hands dirty, step outside my comfort zone, and really seek what I am being called to do.  This is a little exciting but mostly scary.  We'll see what happens.  Enough preaching.
Every other Monday nights are going to be busy in the Hiemstra House.  Sam is back in Cadets and this year my baby started GEMS (how can she be old enough for GEMS?)  I have to remember to turn some lights on next time I try to take pictures but you get the idea.
I just love a guy in uniform!

Katie was so proud of her GEMS shirt and bag!

By the way, GEMS is selling Butter braids for a fundraiser.  If you'd like to buy a delicious, flaky pastry-of-goodness for $10 from this sweet little gal, let me know. 
Aren't the back of their shirts cute?  I wonder if my very talented friend Julie (who is the head of our GEMS program) designed them?

Running picture from yesterday.

And from today.

Life lately

First of all, about that blood moon...it wasn't all that impressive however it gave John and I some crazy, weird dreams last night.  I really don't remember much about mine except they were scary and strange.  John however dreamed about wolves and was thrashing and kicking so bad that I finally woke him up. 
Next, please pray for my Auntie Grace today.  She is having surgery to remove a mass (non-cancerous PTL) in her stomach.  She is the sweetest, kindest lady I know and I want her around longer.
Okay folks, with this blog post I am officially caught up.  This is just some life lately stuff.
Holly sends me pictures once in a while and sometimes I steal some off of Facebook.  She is loving college life and sometimes she tells me she even studies!
Her roommates who she loves.  Such an answer to prayer.  Hannah is from Michigan, Morgan is from Minnesota and Tara is from Iowa.

With Rachel, her cousin, after they had been on the slip-and-slide.

Before her first orchestra concert. 

 Tara also plays violin.

At the first football game.

I think this was from Freshman Olympics.

Her first care package.

Just being silly with Morgan.

We Skype with her on Sundays. 

I love this girl.

Back at the Hide-a-way, I am trying to get some projects finished up.  I finally picked out some more lighting.  I needed an entry-way light, a sconce for the mudroom, and outside lights.  Have I told you how horrible I am at making decisions? The closet door in the den was installed.  I still have to do some clear-coating on the wood and get a door knob.

The finishing carpenter also build my bookshelf.

I painted the wall behind it a soft gray and the shelves white.

It's all done!

Poor Lucy got her womanly parts and her front claws removed.  It took a couple weeks but she's back to normal now.

 Yes, that is a pain patch on a cat. 

 Katie brought home this book from the school library just for me!

Sam found out he is playing the part of "Hank" in the 6th grade musical.  I think he has about a dozen lines.  I would love to say how thrilled and excited he is but that's just not my Sam.  It takes a lot to get him thrilled and excited.  When I asked him what he thought of his part he said, "It's fine."  I think he was kind of hoping to get the part of a 70's disco dancer so he could wear an afro.

The jog-a-thon was last Friday.  Sam told me I could come to watch him but he'd rather I didn't run with him.  Good thing.  I don't thing I would have been able to keep up with him!

He ran with his good buddy Nathan pretty much the whole time.

 He got 37 punches which means he ran a little over 4 miles in 45 minutes.

 Katie let me run with her!  She got 21 punches. 

 She mostly enjoyed dumping water on her head after every lap.

Katie asked to be a black cat for Halloween so I was pretty excited when I found cat ears, collar, tail and nose at the thrift store for $2.99.  She has pretty much worn this outfit constantly since I bought it.

Finally, my running picture for the day. 

This one is dedicated to my brother-in-law Kurt who desperately misses his sheep.

 



 

Back to School

We got back from Iowa just in time to go back to school!  It was strange taking pictures the first day, new house and I was missing one girl.  Good thing Grampa and Gramma Hiemstra were still here to give me some moral support!
I think this one is my favorite.  Sam obviously thinks he is getting way too cool for first day pictures.

 My beautiful second grader!

 My handsome sixth grader!

 

Gramma and Grampa got in on the teacher shots this year.  It was lots of fun having them along to drop the kids off the first day.

Horrible picture but you get the idea.  DeAnn, next time check the picture to make sure Sam has his eyes open and Dad isn't all blurry.

John joined us for convocation (which was held in the gym this year because of rain) and then (per tradition) we went to the bakery to celebrate.

Holly started school about a week earlier.  She sent me a first day of college selfie.

Running picture from Thursday.  It was overcast but it's still beautiful here.  I never get tired of looking at the mountains.

And from Friday.  I really wanted to take a picture of my new sports bra but I knew if Holly was around she would roll her eyes and say, "Mom, no one needs to see that."  So you get this cute guy instead. 



I don't have a running picture for today because I haven't run yet.  Saturdays are so hard to get going!  Okay, I am getting my lazy butt off this chair right now. 

The rest of Iowa

It was a quick trip to the Midwest.  We dropped Holly off on Saturday, August 22 and we headed home on the morning of the 25th.  On Sunday we went to church with Great Grandma and then to my sister's place in Pipestone for lunch.  They bought a house in town and moved in about a month before we did.  It was fun seeing their new place and seeing all the improvements they've made to it already.  Monday Katie and I spent some time with my Grandma while John went golfing with Uncle Glen.
I've said it before but I'll say it again, I have one foxy Grandma.  This lady is 93 years-old.  Wow, I hope I got a bunches of her genes.

Sam got to babysit the newest member of the Kramer clan, my cousin's little guy named Weston.  He's the first baby since Katie so he's pretty special.

 Of course, we had to try out a new ice cream shop in my parent's town before we left. 

It was pretty strange going home with just these two in the back seat.  This was the first time Sam has got to sit in the middle on a road trip, he's usually stuck in the way back with all the luggage!

We drove past lots of pretty sunflower fields.  We usually go home in June so we've never seen these blooming before.

We decided to stop at Devil's Tower on the way home.  Holly was the only one who had ever been there.  You can see it from a long ways off, pretty cool how it just sticks up out of nowhere.   

We got there about 5:30 in the evening which was perfect since that day it had gotten really hot.

We spent a little time in the visitor's center (John was a little disappointed there was no film) and then headed back outside to walk around the Tower.  The paved path is only a little over a mile. 

There are lots of Indian folklore stories about how Devil's Tower came to be.  Most of them involve someone climbing on a rock because they are getting chased by a giant bear, the person praying to the great spirit to save them, the great spirit causing the rock rise from the ground so that the bear cannot eat them, and the giant bear leaving deep claw marks in the side of the rock in an effort to climb it.

Don't they look thrilled to be hiking around the tower?

We spotted two vultures sitting in a tree.

About 1 percent of the visitors to Devil's Tower are rock climbers.  We saw three of them about 3/4 of the way up.  Those people are CrAzY.

We stopped in Gillette, Wyoming the first night and Moses Lake the second night.  The kiddos were awesome travelers as usual.

I love how they both stick out their tongues when their concentrating.

We did our part in reducing the insect population on our trip home.  I still haven't washed these off my car. 

Grampa and Gramma Hiemstra did a great job of taking care of Lucy while we were gone but she was still really happy to see us!

And my running picture for today.

I know it's not very exciting but I was crabby today.  The kids didn't have school so I was thrown out of my routine and I really didn't want to run, my free trial of "great 80's songs to run by" ran out and I didn't realize it so I didn't have any music to listen to, I'm on week 3 which means I have to run for three minutes straight, and my sports bra has still not arrived.  Don't you love my bright pink shoes though?  I got them at the thrift store for $5.  Real runners would probably advise against getting your running shoes from a thrift store.  They work okay though...besides, I spent all of my money on that sports bra that has still not arrived.