Catchin' Up with the Bennetts

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2010-01-21T21:29:00.003-05:00

Well, we are OBVIOUSLY not keeping up with this blog. So check us out on FaceBook or our NTM my ministry website. that's were you will find us from now on. there are links on the side -------->

tRaNsiTioN

2009-05-06T23:10:00.004-04:00

gotta love it!
you can't avoid it, not in this business anyway...

I can't believe that another year of training is almost over. Only 2 weeks left and then we are hittin' the road, on our way back to NY for the summer. It is such a bitter-sweet time as we leave new friends and reunite with old ones. We will be "losing" 6 families and 2 singles who were in the support track. They have been such a joy to get to know and will certainly be missed. But we will also be gaining about 70 new students in the fall so there will be many new faces to get to know.

Our kids have enjoyed these last few months here in Missouri. The weather has been great and it's been so nice to be outside enjoying the sunshine. Today Chloe, Ellie and their friend found a lizard, it's a blue tailed something or other. Chloe has been wanting one since we got here but I didn't want to invest in a reptile that might live longer than we plan on being in the country. But I guess as long as she can keep it alive and she keeps it outside we'll let her keep it until we have to go home. Right now he is in an ice cream bucket out on the porch.

Speaking of "pets" our friends across the street have adopted a couple of chicks and the kids LOVE going over there and trying to catch them so they can hold them. It's funny to watch them get real close to them but freeze in fear, I don't know if they think it will peck at them or what? Ellie finally picked one of them up after about 10 mins of trying, only to drop it and run off with her friends.

Here's some of what we've been doing
spring has sprung

time for baby chicks! and this chick is having a baby (not me!)

and hikes in the park and playing with friends at the park

and of course, making sure the rope swing is still woriking

Well, that's our update for now... see ya'll soon!

DC or AC that is the question?

2009-03-07T14:40:00.008-05:00

Which electric do you use?

Which electric will we be using?

What kind of appliances can run on DC (direct current) and which have to run on AC (alternating current)?

These are all questions that our Tech Tips class has been answering for us. This class has given us all kinds of information about what kind of situations we will find ourselves in as we live over seas. From electric to water to housing. All of the cool gadgets, information and technology tips really makes me feel like James Bond.

We have given each other shots, looked in each others ears with an otoscope and learned how to take blood pressures.

There have also been a few really nice days where we have been able to get outside and have some fun.

God continues to show us that HE CAN DO IT. It does not matter what it is God supplies and through that He is continually building our faith in Him.

We have the privilege of hearing our fellow classmates speak in our Student Teaching class as well as in our Romans (Christian Life) small groups. What an awesome thing to hear and see the Body of Christ living, growing and being conformed into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29).

God truly has engifted His body (the Church) in just the right way so that as we rub shoulders together we build each other up in Him and spur one another on in His love.

We pray
that God will continue to challenge us, our classmates as well as you to further conform us into the image of His dear Son, our Savior Jesus Christ.

Some RANDOM picture:

New Year, New Van

2009-01-16T09:50:00.007-05:00

Here's a little of what we've been doing...

NOVEMBER

on the way to Michigan for Thanksgiving we saw the Arch

Chloe and Ellie with Uncle Pete
We stopped over night at my brothers house

Derek and Eun Chan
Best buddies

DECEMBER

Tori and her friends all dressed up
for the winter formal
They looked so grown up!

Decorating the tree even tho we were only
going to be here for a couple of weeks

Cousins reunited for Christmas!!

They were so happy to see each other again

Tori and Aunt Tonya
sporting the new hats

Uncle Brett giving Derek a "Flowbie Cut"
He's not a big fan of the vacuum or haircuts so you can imagine how this went

JANUARY

We made it back
(with a new van!!!)
THANK-YOU NBC
you guys are awesome

wow! time flies when you're having fun!

2008-10-18T22:17:00.006-04:00

we sure have been enjoying the beautiful weather around here! it's just starting to get a little chilly in the mornings. people are still sporting the flop flops, trying to keep summer around just a little longer. the lake is too cold to swim in but it sure is gorgeous in the morning. i am still amazed that i live on the lake. it has been a dream of mine for many years, there is just something about it, it's so peaceful and calming to me.

our classes are getting ready to change again. we are starting phonetics on monday! there is homework every day for that class and there is a 20 hour homework due in the middle of december, so we will be putting iinto practice our time mangment skills we just learned. funny how that works around here. you learn something and then you start using it right away.

this last month has been filled with plane rides, game nights, iron chef dinner, and good friends. john has been working with the youth group here and they were busy washing cars, raising $ for their retreat in a couple of weeks. Tori will be going but John won't this time. he chose to attend one at our church with a friend from school, so one seemed like enough.

the kids are doing great, the girls had a sleep over last night and tori has been busy with her new friends here and at school.

Here are some pics to keep you in the loop.

Ellie's birthday

John's creation... the light saber cake

"what not to wear" nite at Awana

we are in the middle

Settled in...

2008-09-07T13:55:00.011-04:00

The boxes are unpacked, the bedrooms are settled and school is underway!

We have 68 kids on the bus (max. cap. 70) going from New Tribes every morning and afternoon.

Derek is enjoying pre-K along with his 16 classmates. There are about 70 kids in the childcare program from 5 months to 5 years, and a couple more on the way.

Last Saturday we had a Kodiak event at the local airport. NTM had new airplanes built to carry more people and cargo, and take off with less runway needed. The MTC was giving away rides in an hourly drawing as well as selling rides to who ever wanted to go up. They had 12 flights go that morning. As soon as we got there my name was drawn so I got to take a ride!! John did some face painting for the kids and they had a bouncy house too. Local pilots flew in and gave the kids FREE rides throught the Young Eagles program, so Chloe and Ellie took a ride too. We all had a great morning!

The kids have made new friend and we are slowly getting to know our almost 400 new neighbors.

Some we like...

Some we don't...

We have spent the last 3 weeks in orientation, taken a world view class with George Walker, and discovering our learning styles. It is deffinately more relaxed here so there are lots of oportunities to get to know people better.

Thanks for your prayers and support as we continue with our training!

Becki for the Bennetts

The Bennett's "End of the Summer Adventures"

2008-08-14T09:29:00.018-04:00

Our trip from Corning, NY to Roach, MO.
Began with a stop in Canada along Lake Erie at Todd and Kelly Duston’s cottage. We spent three days there with them and their 6 kids. We ate, talked, played and swam a lot. I even play “king of the floating dock” but ended up with the worst of it as the picture shows,thankfully there was no damage other than bruising.

After our time in Canada we went to Jackson, MI. to be part of Mitch and Amanda's wedding. I was a groomsmen, Chloe and Ellie were flower girls, Derek was the ring bearer and Tori was in charge of the guest book.

After the wedding, we loaded our moving van and spent one more night in Jackson, MI. We got up the next morning, put our small bags in our van and left for Bloomington, IL. to visit Becki's brother Pete and his family. Becki drove our van while I drove the moving van and the last time we traveled through the Chicago area we sat in a traffic jam for about an hour, but this time we never had to stop, horray!!! That day we drove for about 6 hours and finally arrived at her brother's house and got to see our neice, Ivy, for the first time. Then they took us to the State Farm recreation park were we spent a couple of hours swimming and fun!!!

The next day we finished our trip with a 6 1/2 hour drive to Roach, MO.

We arrived at the Missionary Training Center around 5:45 pm and were greeted by about 9 guys to help us unload the moving van, which took them about 30 minutes to complete.

We are very thankful for their help.

Here is what it looked like after they were done...

...we are living on the Lake of the Ozarks...

...Chloe is quickly getting used to the surroundings...

...and so is everyone else.

This week we have been enrolling the kids in school, settling the house and getting to know our way around Osage Beach, Camdenton and Raoch, Missouri and hope to update this blog again real soon.

We would like to know what you think of our blog - leave us a comment.

Just click on the word "comments" below to leave us a message.

Thanks, John.

Summer time!!!!!!!

2008-07-06T17:14:00.013-04:00

No internet, cable or phone; just sky,trees and grass.

Oh and 2 ponds that attract deer and bears and bugs.

We have been roasting marshmallows, climbing trees and chasing snakes. The boys love to skip rocks into the pond and the girls like playing in the mud. yep, the mud...

the 2nd group of girls from the youth group that came over coverd their arms and legs in the mud from the pond. It was much cheaper than the day spa but just as effective.

We found a tree frog

figured out how to make smoke rings off a stick they poke in the fire and

most of all RELAX !!!!!

8th Grade Dinner

2008-05-29T10:00:00.002-04:00

Tori and her friend Andrew

(not her date!)

Last night Tori's 8th grade class

had a dinner as a good-bye.

It was very nice,

and they got all dressed up!

Doesn't she look pretty?

Does anyone recognize this kid??? yes we finally got his hair cut,

but he wasnt happy about it!

sorry about the over exposure...

but atleast you can see how short his hair is.

Graduation Day Has Come and Gone

2008-05-26T09:00:00.002-04:00

I can't believe it over...

It seems like just yesterday that we sold our house. In fact, it was this weekend 2 years ago that it sold. Now we are packing up again and moving on to Missouri for the next phase of training. But not before we go to New York and use what bit of energy we have left to try to keep up with the teens at North Baptist for the summer. .

Graduation went by so fast! John was voted as the class speaker and he did a great job, of course he had to throw in a few voices for his fans.

Derek really liked the hat!

It has been an amazing 2 years here, we have made new friends, studied the entire Bible (well John did anyway) and now are saying good bye :( to staff and teachers. The halls are quite and we've helped move most of our friends out. There are only 3 or 4 families left, scattered through out the building, with darkened halls filled with "dorm furniture" it's definitely strange around here. We have been slowly packing up, our walls are bare the attic is empty. We've moved out a couple storage dressers and toy boxes, it's amazing how much more s p a c i o u s it is around here. Once again we are faced with our stuff... move it or chuck it. I tend to lean towards chuck it! We have been so blessed with "STUFF" that it's getting hard to navigate the living spaces. I think that the next place might be a bit smaller so we will have to get creative and down size once again!!

We spent some time with the cousins for Memorial Day, they had a great time. We went to a zoo but they mostly played on the new wooden play set and had some sparkler fun. that is until Abbey burnt her finger.

A recap of the week

2008-05-03T23:00:00.001-04:00

We had a fantastic time at camp Wayumi in Jersey Shore, PA

Here is a little scrapbook just for fun.

We all made it home safely, and are almost all unpacked.

Ma ke a Smilebox scrapbook

Today the kids come to camp

2008-05-02T22:00:00.001-04:00

Today we had classes in the morning and went to the "village" in the afternoon.

This is where we have a reinactment of a tribal village. Two of the staff members dress up like the tribe they went to and they talk and act like they would. They teach us a few sentences and we have to find out 4 different words and write them out like we think they sound. Like what their name is and how to say finger, banana, baske ,etc. It was really cool.

The kids got their right before we were done so they got to come in and see the people. They were really unsure of what was going on. They wouldn't even go near them, let's hope they do better in real life some day!

John's parents brought them and so they stayed for dinner, looked around then headed home. We all were tired afer a long day, so we went up to our room and let the kids watch a movie and John went to play some volleyball. The kids seem to really like it here, it's fun to be outside and be able to run and play! Here is a pic of the mess hall. It's very nice for a camp!

First we HIKE then we EAT...no classes today!

2008-05-01T22:56:00.001-04:00

Most everyone went on a 3.5 mile (up hill) hike through Ricketts Glen State Park.
We were supposed to do the hike on Thursday afternoon, but the forecast shows a good chance of rain, so we changed things up a little. Flexibility is KEY on things like this.

They left at 8:30 in the morning and it was COLD!! I (Becki) drove up to the top with lunch and then we went back with John (about a 1hr drive). A few of the adventurous ones walked back down, there were only about 5-10 of them though.

Here is some of the AMAZING scenery.

After a picnic lunch at the top of the trail we drove home to get cleaned up and ready for our class picture then our class "banquet". This was also an hour drive, we went to the Country Cupboard in Lewisburg, PA. My mom and dad came down for dinner and walked around the store, bought some fudge, then we headed back. It was a beautiful day, and kinda cool to have my parents come down and meet some of our friends and staff. We ended our day hanging out with friends playing euchre.

MuMu and Skeet shooting

2008-04-30T14:42:00.008-04:00

What a wonderful day,the sun was shining and the pig was cooking. Well, not until we filled a big hole with hot rocks and wet banana leaves. We layered the pork, potatoes and cabbage, more wet leaves and then comes the covering. Cardboard boxes, a piece of paneling and then a tarp, all secured with dirt. The meat and veggies cook underground by the rocks.

John hard at work placing the leaves.

Even Eun Chan helped out!

In between the cooking and the digging we had a skeet shoot.
We all got to try if we wanted. We both tried 8 times and still never hit one. It was still a lot of fun.

Time to go dig up dinner...

About 4 hours later we went and dug it up and ate it for dinner YUMMY!!!

Here is the "after" pic of the pig. Much more appetizing this way. We actually had some of the heart and I think that tasted better than the pig meat. It was tender and kind of tasted like beef. MUCH better than I thought it was going to be, I would definately eat it again.

What a great day!!!

WARNING!!! not for the squeemish

2008-04-29T01:30:00.004-04:00

It was a little rainy today well, a lot rainy!
We were in class from 8 until 12:30 and then lunch. In the afternoon we had some free time. There was an activity for your free time if you so chose, which we did...I will let the pictures tell the story.

Psyching himself out for the KILL!!!

Yes, we were able to help butcher a pig!!! There was a professional butcher directing the entire thing so nobody got hurt well, except the pig!!! One of the students got to slit the throat after it was shot, then they had 4 people pick it up by the legs and drag into the garage where they put it on it's back on this wooden thing, that looked a lot like what you would see in a manger scene for baby Jesus to be lying in, to start the butchering process. John was one of those people and he was on the bloody side so he got some on his clothes.

The weirdest thing about it was that the legs were moving and it looked like it was trying to run. My friend Amy is in the brown shirt skinning it along with 3 others. Notice that 3 of them are girls!!! Pigs are stinky when they are alive and this one was particularly stinky when he was dead.

After all the excitement and gagging which I did my share of, we went to get cleaned up and read some more of our book before dinner. I hope you enjoyed the pics!!

1st day at camp

2008-04-28T00:30:00.002-04:00

For those of you who don't know John and I are in Jersey Shore, PA for one week. We are on our senior retreat and taking a class while we are here at the "old boot camp" part of the training. There are about 80 of us here including staff. Yesterday we all gradually trickled in, it was a beautiful day! We got here at 3:00 pm, got unpacked and settled in our room, then off to see the campus. Here are some of the pictures of the village that was made by students and lived in for 2 weeks or so.

We had dinner and Orientation then free time (John played indoor soccer)then off to bed.
The campus here is just beautiful and has many newly remodeled parts. Here area some pics
Enjoy!

Easter Fun

2008-04-13T21:44:00.000-04:00

I will never again say that I will be updating this more often, I promise!!!!
I know that I have really let some of you down over the last couple months, I am sorry, so so sorry!!
Enough about that...

Here are some pics from Easter. Our church had an Easter Egg hunt and lots of fun and games for the kids. A lot of people from our school go to this church so it was fun for all ages.

We took one of our friend's sons with us.

Easter Sunday Morning

I hope you enjoyed these pics

Please leave a comment so we know if anyone looks at this.

Happy Birthday Chloe!!!!

2008-01-31T23:10:00.000-05:00

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

Here's the Birthday Girl on Sunday

As many of you know, Chloe was saving her money for something she wanted for her birthday. We were out on her birthday looking for one and couldn't find one anywhere, so we told her we would keep looking on line and we'd call the stores to see if they had any in stock. We found one today while she was at school so, we put the games in the purse where she was saving her $$$$, and when she got home I told her to go get the purse so we could count her money, one more time. This is the video of her getting it.

I think she was excited!!! We put her hair in Tori's

spongy curlers overnight and that is what it looked

like after a day at school. It was much curlier in the

morning, sorry I didn't take a picture then.

Well, we only have a couple more days left in our first block. We are done reading and just getting ready for the finals.

There is a lot of illness going around, Tori said that 25 out of 50 7th graders stayed home sick today and 10 more were sent home . We have been fairly healthy, except for Derek, last Friday he had a temperature and throwing up. There were 21 kids out in childcare that day?!?

We got our physicals done this week so we can finish up our application for MTC. We went to the same Dr.'s office John did when he had the pox. They see New Tribers for FREE!!! That saved us $300 EACH. We hopefully will get them out by Friday or Saturday. The quicker the better, I hear they have already got 150 applications and they only have room for 75. Not to worry though, they "save" some room for people they know are coming from the BI (Bible institute). I guess there are a lot of people who want to go through MTC (missions training center) that haven't been through the BI.

The kids are hoping to have a snow day tomorrow, we're supposed to get 6-10" by Friday afternoon.

Other that that, not much is going on. Thanks for your continued support and many prayers!!

Happy New Year!!!

2008-01-14T13:53:00.000-05:00

We had an awsome time seeing everybody, we stayed up too late, we ate too much food, we played games into the wee hours of the morning and we got more stuff than would fit in our van for the ride home. If you haven't heard our van was protesting the trip back to MI, we had stopped in Erie, PA for a pit stop and the van wasn't going another mile. Apperantly the transmission leak we thought we got fixed before we came home didn't fix the problem!? Anyway, we were very thankful there were 4 hotels to pick from, one right in the same parking lot. So we stayed the night and got a fresh start in the morning. We were home by 2pm. Although it's great fun to be home in NY with everybody, it's also good to get back to our own beds!

The kids were back to school last Tuesday and we go back this Wednesday. We have spent the week unpacking, restocking our refridgerator and getting our trees down. The kids always hate to see them go, but if we didn't do it before classes started they might be up until summer. I'm glad that we didn't go all out decorating this year, it makes for easy tear down!

Here are a couple pics from Christmas Eve and morning

We are so thankful to have been able to spend so much time with our families and friends over break. Our last year has been a great one of growth and learning here at school and we can't wait to get back into our classes. We are getting registered today and tomorrow, then John will start with Daniel/Revelation @ 8am, we will both be taking Philippians and I II III John @10 and 11. We are getting excited about getting back to learning and reconnecting with our friends here at New Tribes.

Top 10 list for 2007 (not in any particular order)
1. Romans class!!!
2. Overnight in Canada w/ kids at indoor water park
3. Staying up all night with Merrills (to bring in the new year of course!)
4. Being youth leaders at North Baptist for the summer
5. Dinner at McBrearty's (the one without kids)
6. Leadership training with NTBI
7. Weekends at Matt & Connie's
8. Day at the beach with the kids in Holland
9. Dinner at Santoso's- Indonesian style
10.Flying to Atlanta by myself

I will be trying to update more often, so check back weekly!

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas

2007-12-13T16:00:00.001-05:00

Well, things sure have been busy around here! John got the chicken pox as most of you know, and that really messed things up! He has spent the last 3 weeks catching up on his work. Now that he has recovered we are finally getting a minute to update the blog.
This was day 8

this was a gift from the guys down the hall

This was the kids table at John's brother's house
where we had Thanksgiving. His parents were
there too, and then they came back to visit us
before they went back home.

We had a great time and the kids have loved getting to know their cousins better.

The kids decorated their own tree

We have 12 hours before we are suposed to leave for NY.
I guess I had better go pack!!!

PartyTime

2007-10-12T04:39:00.000-04:00

Ellie and Derek's birthday parties!!

John's brother Matt and his family came for Ellie's party.
Derek had friends from school come to his.

Tori is playing soccer on her school team- GO DEFENSE!!!!
This is her 1st year being able to play on a school team and she is doing great and is having a blast.

Don't forget to take our poll! ----->

Here is a great video to watch!

Here Am I, Send Me - MercyMe

[via FoxyTunes / Mercy Me]

Le tour de le dormatory

2007-09-22T09:12:00.000-04:00

Becki took a couple of pictures and I thought maybe we should share them.

This is the kitchen and dining room.

This is the living room.

Hallway from livingroom to bedrooms.

That was the short and the long tour. :)

A couple of weekends ago we had a chance to get together with John's brother Matt and his family, who now live near Grand Rapids, MI. We took the kids to a fun park and spent most of the day there.

The Lord has given us a lot of opportunities to enjoy things that if we were not here in Michigan we would never had been able to enjoy. So we praise God for providing for us.

We thank you for praying for us. Our classes have been really awesome as we see all that God has done for us through His Son. Oh, that the world would know Him.

Please let us know how we could pray for you.

Trust God. He is faithful.

First test of the semester!!!

2007-09-05T11:24:00.000-04:00

We just got back from our first test this semester. It was for Romans class, from chapter 1 - 3:20, where Paul argues that ALL mankind is condemned whether "heathen", moralist or Jew, we are all condemned.

Praise God that Jesus has paid all that we could never have paid!!!

Today in Chapel, our speaker shared from Matthew 11:27-30. What a privelege it is to be a Christian and to be conformed to the image of His Son through getting to know Him. The context of this section is on getting to know God and Jesus says that we will learn from Him. When we take His yoke upon us He will teach us, just as a mature oxen teaches the young oxen as they plow a field. The mature oxen leads and does all the work until the young one learns. Isn't it GREAT that we can and do learn from Jesus, through His Word!!!!

We thank every for thinking of us and praying for us as we, by faith, follow God's plan for using us in this fallen world.

We can't wait to hear from you and to hear what God is doing in your life.

Please continue to pray for our kids as they have started school again and will have a busy schedule again. Tori is planning on play soccer with her school and we are hoping to get Chloe and Ellie back into Saturday morning gymnastics class.

Back to school!!!!!

2007-08-24T12:27:00.000-04:00

Obviously summer was too busy to BLOG, so now that we are back and life has calmed down again... here we go again!

School started on Wednesday, and God is again showing us that He is the one who initiates world evangelization.

Romans 10:14-15, 17

"How are they to call on one they have not believed in? And how are they to believe in one they have not heard of? And how are they to hear without someone preaching to them? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How timely is the arrival of those who proclaim the good news." "Consequently faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the preached word of Christ."

God has given the message (the Gospel) to be preached and He has commanded us to "go into all the world".

A qoute from our Romans class notes:

"It is His gospel that He promised beforehand in His scriptures that He inspired through His prophets that He had chosen to speak His message - it is the gospel of His Son. And it is God who is reaching out to the world with His gospel."

We are so glad to be able to spend so much time in studying God's word. A special thanks to all who have helped us to get here and to all who are continually praying for and supporting us while we are here.

Our home church, North Baptist Church, treated us so well this past summer, what a blessing it was to be able to go home and feel so loved and be so blessed.

On another note... as most of you know we moved from our "white house" (as Derek likes to call it) off campus, to an apartment in the school building. We are LOVING being so close to all the students and the "action". We had the awesome opportunity to get to know some of them better while we attended 10 days of intense training mixed with some down time at the beach, learning a new way to play ping pong, and star gazing. Derek has made some friends with the men in the dorms, he was spotted helping someone buff the hallway yesterday! The girls are getting to know the women here as well, they love going to visit and came home with some treasures from some of them. The students here are great and we are privileged to be learning along side them!!

here are some pics of the last couple weeks!!

Sleeping Bear Dune, Lake Michigan

At leadership training the Little country church we met in

Back in Corning, NY

2007-06-28T10:39:00.000-04:00

We arrived back in our hometown of Corning on June 14th and got settled into our house for the summer months. We thank all of North Baptist Church for allowing us to stay in, and for wonderfully preparing, the green house across the street from the church.

The kids have enjoyed staying the night at friends houses and getting to know each other again.

Becki and I have been blessed by so many people already. We have had the opportunity to have dinner and fellowship time with friends and our "small group" buddies, along with seeing our families again.

Derek capturing his cousin Josh.

We got to celebrate Josh's birthday!!

I have been working with the youth group for 2 weeks now and have been able to get together with some of them individually to talk. They are a great bunch of youth people! We have TEEN WEEK starting July 23rd, please pray for the teens as they participate in evangelism and outreach, as well as some serious fun.

We are looking forward to having time to meet with many other people over the next 5 weeks or so. We want to share our hearts with as many people as we can while we are home.

Thank you for praying for us as we continue to seek God and His will for our lives.

Movin'...movin'...movin'...

2007-06-02T13:25:00.000-04:00

It seems that we do this a little too much lately. We will be doing it again next year too! Saying good bye to our "white house" as Derek calls it, and hello to apartment living has been a challenge to say the least. We moved into a 3 bedroom apartment last Thursday. We have all of our stuff at the school, some of it is in the hallway, some in a classroom, we've realized that it won't all fit. Now it's just a matter of what to do with it!?! The living room is bigger, but the dining room is smaller, the bedrooms are much smaller! We do have a 1/2 bath in our bedroom tho'! YEAH! Over all we have gained a few hundred thousand square feet! The whole school is an extension of our apartment and the backyard is HUGE! The kids are doing great! They have been swimming 2x in our indoor pool, they have made friends with the 3 little girls next door, and we all love being about a 30 second walk away from our new friends the Turners! They have 3 boys, but they share a love for video games. This is the outside of our apartment for now. Hopefully we will find a home for it all. Our door is the 3rd one. The 1st is a men's bathroom which will come in handy for John and Derek. The 2nd one is a "slop room" and then there is ours, surrounded by piles of stuff. There are 2 other apartments in our hall and one men's dorm. The gym is also down at the end on the right, which Derek is a huge fan of, and it's right next to our classroom, so the walk to school in the AM will be much shorter!!!! We are excited to get home and see what God has for us this summer. John will be working with the youth group and doing other things around the church and we will be staying right across the street from church so that will be very convenient. We have about 1 1/2 weeks to get ready to move again, I sure hope we are all settled by then!

My email changed mi.becki@gmail.com

cell 517-416-3832

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She's Back!

2007-05-19T20:34:00.000-04:00

Tori had the awsome opportunity to visit the Grand Canyon a few weeks ago with about 20 kids from her school. (7th and 8th graders and 2 of their teachers) She had a great time and thought the airplane felt like a roller coaster. They were busy the entire time, they went to a minor league baseball game, a museum, a cavern, and of course the GRAND CANYON!!! Here are a few pics.The1st one is from the airplane window.

VISITORS!

2007-05-11T14:33:00.000-04:00

John's parents came out to visit us this past weekend and we all had a great time catching up! We took them to Holland (on the others side of the state) and looked at a few tulips along the way. Then we went to the beach, but it was too windy. The sand was hitting us so hard it was sandblasting our legs. After we got some lunch we tried another beach that you had to walk 15-20 minutes through a wooded trail to get to. It was beautiful there, but we had to head home (2 hour trip!) so we only stayed 20mins.

Tori is headed to Arizona this Wed. til Sat. on a school trip to the grand canyon!! I'm hoping she takes a lot of pics because chances are we won't make it out there any time soon. Not much else going on except the lasts few days of school. John has 1000 words left on his BIG paper and then it's pretty much smooth sailing until the end! We will be moving on or around the 25th of May and we will be heading back to NY in the 2nd week of June. see ya-all later!

Sorry there are no pics this time, I'll try again next week.

Fun in the sun

2007-04-23T15:03:00.000-04:00

Saturday was John's birthday,since it was going to be in the high 70's we decided to go to the beach in Grand Haven on Lake Michigan . We stopped in Grand Rapids to see the Fredrick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Gallery, which had it's butterflies on exhibit. We saw hundreds of butterflies up close! Some of them even landed on people while they were walking around. We chased this blue one around for about 10 minutes until it finally landed with it's wings open so I could get a good pic.

Then it was off to the beach. We had a great time even tho' the water was FREEZING!! The kids loved the sand and they were covered in it by the end of the day.(so was the inside of the van!) We played in the sun all afternoon and when we were getting ready to go to the pier, that's when we realized something was missing! Somehow John's wallet fell out of his pocket, and we think it got burried in about 4 or 5 feet of sand. There was a crew working on taking the snow fence down and the bulldozer made 4 foot ruts in the sand, which we had to climb through to get to the beach and back to the van to leave. We think (we hope) that it fell out there and got dozed over with sand. By the time we got back to the beach to look for it , the sand was all smoothed over and nobody had turned it in. But we weren't about to let that ruin our day, so we went to the baordwalk. While we were walking this huge ship came in the canal and blew it's horn so loud that I think everyone on the boardwalk jumped! We got half way down the pier and Derek had to got potty. And when a 3yr. old little boy needs to go... ya let him go. Luckily there weren't too many people going by right then so he wasn't too embarassed. After that we walked to the end where we sat for a while and looked at the lake while the sun was setting. It was a gorgeous day and hopefully we will get back there again soon.

SPRING BREAK 2007 !!!!!

2007-04-08T19:35:00.000-04:00

We really wanted to go home and be with family this past week, but we had a nice time at home finding tax info and catching up on much needed sleep. It has been so nice to sleep in until 9:00 every morning (not that I slept much after 8:00)-the kids were up, but they are getting old enough to get breakfast on their own, so I enjoyed my comfy bed a little longer than usual. (2 1/2 hrs to be exact!)

On Saturday AM Tori had a flute duet for a competition at school and she did great, she even got a metal! At 4pm we went to Ann Arbor with our Malaysian friends to a South East Asian Exhibit, food tasting and performance. The kids enjoyed trying new foods and pictures from the different countries but I think they liked the "show" the best. We had to leave a little early because of the 45 minute drive home, but it was a nice evening with the Cheah family, learning more about their culture.

By Wed. the cold weather had hit and the snow was flying again. Brrrrr! On Thursday we enjoyed a Mexican dinner with one of our Deans and 2 other families. They were missionaries to Mexico and learned how to cook some yummy food while they were there! On Friday we went to Ann Arbor again to visit the Museum of Natrual History. We spent 2 hours looking at dino bones and fossils, checking out how we "really" got here.(ha!) It was interesting, and gave it us an opportunity to reinforce creation! The kids liked it, but not the walk from the parking garage to the museum! It was COLD and blowing snow sideways!! We ate at a Potbellies for lunch which specializes in sandwiches on toasted foccacia bread. Good stuff!! -if you ever get the chance to eat there, do it.

On Saturday for lunch we ate with the Cheah's. It was a potluck, they made Thia curry chicken (red) and another missionary couple from Thialand made yellow curry chicken and potatoes (both over rice of course), and they also made some Thia noodle dish that was very good but very spicy!! Derek has some off the top and must be all the spice went to the bottom, so when he asked for more he got the HOT stuff. It was so hot he shook, but he kept eating it!?!?!? We finally took it off his plate. Then,we went to our neighbors, the Kay's, for dinner and just hung out for a while. The last few days of visiting has wore the kids out and they are tired!! But not too tired for an Easter egg hunt, and one last outing to the Turner's for Easter Dinner. They were gone all week to Virginia so we didn't get to spend any time with them over the break. She made a hash brown casserole, baby carrots, green beans, & cupcakes. I brought turkey breasts done in the crock pot, corn on the cob, rolls and cranberry sauce. It seemed more like Thanksgiving, but it was snowing most of the day so we didn't mind! We had a great break week, we are all so tired going back to our regular routine should bring back some sense normalcy if there is such a thing!!

Here we go again, this time with Pics!

2007-03-25T12:38:00.000-04:00

Tori had a couple of friends over for the evening a while ago. They had pizza and played games watched Man vs. Wild and just hung out. I think they had a good time, by the end of the night they were either extreemly tired or overly caffinated. Two of the girls got a little crazy. They found John's martial arts air shield and kicking pads, and they started attacking people with them, but all in good fun!! By 10:30 they were ready to head home, so John took them back.

We are almost done with this block of classes, Tuesday is mostly tests! (our anniversary) We have a couple of days of our new classes, then we have our break. It looks like we will be staying home for the week. We are just going to stay home find our tax stuff and go through our house again because we have another move this summer. The school has decided to get all the students on campus as long as they have room. We actually wanted to be on campus next semester, so this will be a good thing! We don't know where we will be yet, but it's between a 3 bed, 1 1/2 bath on the 2nd foor that is will be a tight fit, OR we will get a bigger ALMOST 4 bed on the 3rd floor. Getting our stuff up 3 flights of stairs would be quite the job ,but well worth the space. They both have laundry in the bathroom, and the one on the 3rd floor is right across the hall from a bathroom with showers, so it will be like and extra bathroom (with 3 stalls and 2 showers!)

Here is John with his long hair!!

Keep us in your prayers as we hoe out and pack
up again. The move won't be as hard because it's
only 2 blocks away and we can do gradually.

We know that God is in control and He will
put us where He wants us.

That's all folks!

For the first time...03/17/07

2007-03-17T16:47:00.000-04:00

Here we are and this is our blog!

This is so you all can keep up to date on all the happenings in our life. we will try to update every other week or so with pics and news.

Enjoy!