Goodbye Sonny

Monday we had to put our Sonny down. Even though he hasn't been with us that long (it would have been three years this May) he has become a big part of our children's lives. Hey, when you are only four years old, three years is a long time to have a dog!

I am sad. It's not so much about the dog (don't get me wrong, I do miss Sonny. He was a constant companion. My walking buddy. My greeter when I came home. My foot warmer when I would watch tv, or read, or blog). The thing I am most sad about is that I can't protect my kids from hurt. I can't make this sinful world unbroken. There are going to be many times that they will be hurt deeply in life. I wish it wasn't the case, but there is no way around that. I will say this; I am very thankful for the hurt. They can learn from hurt. I can learn from hurt too.

Sonny's death is the first real time Josie and Addie have had to deal with that in life. We have had some great conversations since Sonny has gone. Conversations about life before sin, and life now after. Conversations of life after death. Conversations on how painful it must have been for God to give His only son, Jesus. (We just lost a pet. Imagine loosing your son?)

So, farewell Sonny. You were a good pet. You brought more to our family than one could have imagined when getting a dog. You are helping Adelaide see.

Always smiling... not just an underbite.:)

Here he is, just a puppy at the lake. He always looked like an old dog, even as a puppy.

Spring Fling 2011

Last weekend the Campus Life group put on their annual "Spring Fling".They put a lot of work into setting up the event, and it showed!

The theme was Hollywood, and everyone was to come dressed as their favorite movie character. After a yummy dinner in the beautifully decorated dining hall, we went to watch the talent show.

This year I decided to take the girls along. They performed in last years show, but we just watched this time. They are getting a little older, and can handle events like this,and late nights. It was a fun evening.

There was 900 balloons on the ceiling!!!

This is one of the acts from the talent night. They were so good! Who knew there was so much talent at New Tribes? :)

Josie went as Cinderella. It was kind of funny that her shoes kept falling off. This was not on purpose, they were just too big. We made it work though!

Addie was Sleeping Beauty. This is pretty accurate as I didn't take their pictures until we came home. They were all sleepy!

Emma went as Wendy Darling from Peter Pan.

It was fun to have the girls participate in the evening. They got to go to church the next day telling their friends they were up all night at a college party. Just kidding... they were in bed by ten. :)

Icy Road Trip

Our trip back was an interesting one. It was delayed for two days because of the snow and ice storms that lower Michigan got hit with!

We took our time. We wanted to be safe on the roads, and the views were spectacular. Everywhere I looked, I could not help but be in awe of God.

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." Psalm 19:1

We stopped at the welcome center on the Michigan boarder. It was as if the storm decided to only go from the boarder to south of highway 94.

My view the whole way back. (Don't worry, I slowed to about twenty to take this pic, and there wasn't a car on the road!)

I pulled over in a little town called Homer because the sun shining off the ice covered trees was simply gorgeous.

My girls are good travelers. We had a great time!

Where I Have Been All Your Life...

...No that is not some mixed up pick-up line, but more of an explanation to my lack of blogging. You see, the girls and I took a road trip down to see my sister Tomesia and her family. When we arrived, we had a crazy fun time catching up, and hanging out. I went to come home on Sunday (almost two weeks ago) but as I was loading the kiddos in the van, Josh called. "You can't come home" he said. There was a terrible snow storm coming, and he didn't want me to drive through it. Monday he called again. We would have to wait yet another day because an ice storm was coming. We came home on Tuesday evening, played catch up with the rest of the week, and then I got very sick on Saturday. I got the flu, and then strep. That was for about a week, and then Josh got the flu, and Josie got strep. They are still sick, and we are praying Addie and Emma don't get it. It is NO fun.

Now that I am feeling a little better, I wanted to blog a little about our trip down to Indy. We were able to take this trip because the girls had Friday and Monday off of school (and Tuesday, because of the ice storm! We didn't know that yet though.) We went down Thursday after school. The girls had so much fun playing with their cousins, and I had a fun time going to antique shops with my sister, eating Chick-fil-a with her, Joe and the kids (hey, we don't have Chick-fil-a up here!) and just chillin out at their house.

The highlight of my visit though would have to be seeing Tomesia and Joe's band, Somewhere Familiar, play in concert. I knew these guys were good. I have their cd, and have heard Joe and Tomesia play for upwards of 12 years with little jam sessions at my parents house, but nothing could prepare me for their live show. They are SO talented. It was a very special thing to see my sister up on stage. I loved it!

My sister, the rock star.

Somewhere familiar is great. Let me know if you'd like a cd. I am their biggest fan! :)

Alex, Emma and Solomon loved playing Batman all weekend.

Pretty sure these two would be inseparable if we lived closer. Ivy and Josie were attached at the hip all weekend.