Yes, Aaron and I are officially moving again. It will be house #4 since we've been here in Vincennes. Our church recently inherited a house in town. The church has decided to make that the new parsonage. It's smaller but it is in a great location. Even though we are not excited about the actual moving part we are very excited about being at the new place. It is much better for raising a child, which we happen to be doing soon! :) Yesterday was the first official work day. The day started out with taking out all the stuff that was left behind. All the carpet was ripped out along with the bathroom sinks, mirrors, and toilets. They also started to cut up a fallen tree that is covering up tons of yard space.

Here is a list of changes/updates they are making to the house:
new bathroom sinks, vanities, mirrors
new kitchen counter tops
dishwasher
new carpet/laminate
electrical changes
painting all walls
more insulation in attic
yardwork
lots of cleaning!

Here are the "before" pictures of the house. I'll post them again with the "after" pictures once we get moved in!

And one more "before" that couldn't be captured with a camera...the stinkiness! It's got a ways to go but Aaron and I got excited yesterday seeing the potential in the house and what it will be when all the work is done. Aaron and I are supposed to pick out paint colors, carpet, counter tops, light fixtures, etc. They really want to make it nice for us and what we want. I feel a little nervous doing all that, knowing it's not our own home and we won't be the only pastor/spouse to ever live there. The goal to move in is spring break which is the 3rd week in March. If it's ready before then we will probably move sooner. We just want to be there and ready before the baby comes!

Aaron and I went to my 20 week ultrasound last week and found out that we are having a girl. We are so excited to finally be able to say "she" and "her". The technician said everything looked normal and she was basically average in all of her measurements. He said she weighed 13 ounces. She was fairly active. At one point he pushed down a little harder and it made her leg kick up. I saw it and felt it at the same time. What a neat experience! Now the next job is to pick out a name for our little lady! :)

This year for Thanksgiving we made our annual trip to Illinois. It was a wonderful few days of relaxation and family time.


We did some Black Friday shopping this year. Aaron and I wanted to get a video camera. Aaron did some research and picked one out. Best Buy happened to have it on sale for $100 off. Aaron and Jacob got up at 3:00 that morning and stood in line until 5:00. It was pretty cold so they suited up in hunting gear. Samantha and I went back to bed until they came back around 5:30. We had breakfast and then headed out for more shopping!

Last month Aaron was asked to participate in Cork Bowl. This is an event where a bunch of guys get together to play tackle football. It's a family tradition for one of the guys at church and this was Aaron's first year to play. These guys go all out. They video tape it and have commentators. There is also a website devoted to this event. You can view Aaron's stats here. He was named Rookie of the Year!

Slowly but surely my little bump is growing. I'm 18 weeks along and am feeling great! I couldn't ask for a better pregnancy...at least so far! :)We are getting super excited to find out the gender in the next few weeks. Time is flying! Thanks to all of you who have been lifting us up in prayer!

Last weekend we had a guys/girls day. The boys went skeet shooting and had a cookout.

The girls had a spa day. We have a licensed esthetician at church so she did nails and eyebrow waxing!

2 weekends ago Aaron and I made a quick trip to see my family. Our Bible quiz team was having a quiz in Winona Lake, which is only about 30 minutes away. We took advantage of that and asked if we could hitch a ride up north. Luckily they had extra space and didn't mind that we went along. We got there at 9:00 Friday night. Saturday I went out with my mom, sister, and grandma for a ladies' breakfast. It was also Dad's annual wood-cutting day. The sons that can make it come over and cut a huge amount of wood for Dad's wood-burning furnace in the shop. This was the first time that all of the sons were able to come. The women stayed in and talked and made lunch. I was so glad we were able to be there for that and see everyone! We left around 3:00 to meet the quiz team and head home.

Happy Fall Everyone! Sorry it's been so long since I've last posted! We are staying busy here in Vincennes. School has been abnormally busy this month. Lots of meetings and events that are outside of school hours. Here are some pictures of the recent happenings...

From a really long time ago!...
My mom, sister Natalie, and niece Kyla came to visit for the weekend! It was just the girls (+ Aaron) and it was absolutely wonderful! We did some shopping and lots of relaxing. It was a much needed time for all of us!

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Aaron and been diligently using the leaf blower. The city doesn't come pick up the leaves until basically the last one in town has fallen. So until then, he is blowing them towards the road.
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This past week our church hosted a free movie event for area teens. The movie was called "To Save a Life". If you have a teen or work with teens I would recommend watching it! Aaron put a lot of work into it and really promoted it in the schools with the help of our teens. We had about 100 teens in attendance Thursday night. The night was a success and we pray the movie impacted atleast one life!
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Today I made pumpkin pie with real, fresh pumpkin! For some of you, that may not be a big deal but it made me feel very Martha Stewarty. I love doing stuff like that! I made three pies today. I got the pumpkins from a student at school so I told my class I would make them pumpkin pie. And of course, I had to make one for us too!
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The little baby bump has arrived! To some of you it may not look like anything but there's definitely something there! I'm sure I've noticed more than anyone else. This past Thursday I finished up my 14th week of pregnancy. I've been feeling great and enjoying every part of it! I'm sure it's going to go by so quickly.

In case you haven't already heard, Aaron and I are going to have a new addition to our family...and this time it's not a cat! :) It's true! I'm having a baby! Our little bundle of joy is due on April 21st. We couldn't be more excited. And it's so great to finally have the word out! My first doctor appointment was on September 15. We got to hear the heart beat. There's nothing like it. :) My doctor scheduled me an ultrasound because she thought I might have been further along than they thought. So that same week we went to get it done. Turns out, I'm right where we thought I was. Here are two pictures from that:

(The head is on the left with a little arm sticking up!)

(This is the same view, just closer.)

The tech said the baby was only 3 centimeters long at that point. It was amazing that we could still see the beginning of a head and arms and legs. We could even see the heart beating and the baby moved quite a bit. We're excited to see it again at 20weeks!

I've haven't been feeling too badly. I'm sure compared to some other women it hasn't been bad. At the beginning I would get light headed in the mornings but lately I've been feeling gross in the evenings. Hopefully it won't last much longer!

This past Wednesday we had our youth group kick-off. It was at a youth leader's house. We had a huge slip'n'slide along with a cookout. The teens seemed to have a great time, although I am sure many of them were extremely sore the next day!

Click here to watch a video!

School is in full swing and it's going well. I've got a good class again this year. I've got a couple of students with strong personalities but we're working through it. :)I love still being able to teach my kiddos from last year too! I wasn't ready to say goodbye to them just yet. My second year has been much easier so far! It's just too bad I can't grade less papers the second year. Aaron has already been a big help! Not much has changed in my classroom. I purposly tried to keep most of it the same so I didn't have as much to do to get it ready like last year. My principal did, however, order me a new rug. It is pictured below.

This past Saturday was the third annual Youth Group Olympics. I always look forward to that day! This year the events were as follows:
*Cemetery Scavenger Hunt (ex. find a last name with 13 letters)
*Ski Ball
*Mini-golf
*Paper Airplane Tournament
*Rock/Paper/Scissors Tournament and as always...
*the Cardboard Boat Race

Here are some pictures from our Olympic day!

Last week Aaron and I helped out with VBS. This is the third year where our church has partnered with three other churches in town to put it on. We were hosting this year. I was a guide for the 1st and 2nd graders. Aaron lead the games for two of the nights and did some of the technology stuff when he wasn't playing in the church softball tournament.

Last week Aaron and I took 4 teens to the Momentum Youth Conference in Cedarville, Ohio put on by the Grace Brethren Denomination. We had a great time! I couldn't tell you all the things that happened or it would be a ridiculously long blog! The theme was Pursuit and the theme verse was 2 Timothy 2:22, "Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart."

Here were the topics covered:
*Doing more than what's required/Doing righteous things even though it's hard
*Sexual purity
*Reaching out to the needy
*Sharing your faith with unbelievers
*Making God the center of your life
*Not letting your feelings control your relationship with God
*Believing that God is your complete satisfier
*Committing to pursuing God
We all came away challenged and committed to intentionally pursue God!

Here are some pictures from our week:

Aaron's parents were here visiting this past weekend for the 4th. They both had Monday off so they got to stay a day longer than usual! Saturday we went golfing. Well, the men golfed and the women watched and talked while riding in a separate golf cart. :)That night we went to a fish fry and played games. Sunday we had a picnic at the park. That night we watched the parade and then fireworks by the river. We had a good time and we were glad to have them here!

My summer project at the church this year was to organize all the crafts/supplies for the children's department. They had materials in a few different places. Most of it was crammed in a cabinet and no one knew what was in there! So, I took it upon myself to pull it all out, sort it, and put it in their room closet with labeled baskets and tubs. It took quite a bit of time actually. I did everything from getting rid of unnecesary items to sorting paper clips and thumbtacks! Above is the finished product. Another woman in the church came and helped me finish up yesterday. We are still going to go through a few more cabinets at another time. I was hoping to have a yard sale towards the end of the summer for all the stuff we want to get rid of. I looked at the calendar and all of the Saturdays are filled. Sheesh! So, it may just all be going to Goodwill. I'm so glad I can use the church when I have the urge to organize something! :)

A few months ago I bought 3 different books that show you how to make cookie, fruit, and candy bouquets. The cookie and fruit bouquets looked like a lot of work and time consuming but the candy bouquets looked pretty easy. So, this summer I decided to make a few. I think they turned out rather well. They are relatively cheap to make. I got everything at the dollar store except for the candy. That's a little pricey. I hope to make more in the future!

I made this one for my nephews. My mom has a gumball machine at her house and they love getting gumballs from there. This bouquet looks like a gumball machine so I thought it would be fun. They loved it!

I made the two on the outside for my parents for Mother's/Father's Day and the one in the middle for my grandparents for their anniversary/Grandma's birthday.

This past week we went to see my family. It's always great to be with family. We had a great time!! Here are some pictures from our trip!

This weekend we had our annual car wash fundraiser. We have people make pledges for each car and then we have a free car wash. We didn't do as well this year. Last year we washed 94 vehicles and this year we only washed 50. We still raised a good amount of money.



On another note I thought I would post some more pictures of Lexi's many positions. (Sorry to those of you who think it's silly to blog about our cat but until we have kids, that's the way it's gonna be! :)
Lexi doesn't like dogs and I think you can tell that from this picture of her watching the neighbor dog. She gets the biggest mohawk and her tail gets huge!

A few months ago Lexi found a good napping spot up inside the house. We have a little window seat area that sticks out with an overhang on the outside of the house. She crawls up in there to get away from the world's troubles. :)

This is one of my favorite positions of Miss Lexi Lou.
Apparently we make it too bright in the living room!

After the crazy weekend we had, we left it all behind and took off for Illinois to visit Aaron's family. We spent Memorial day with his mom's side of the family. We ate food and played games, of course! On Tuesday we went to Springfield with mom, dad, Samantha and Jacob. We went to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. On the way home we stopped to check out Sam and Jake's apartment. We played games and went out for supper. Wednesday the men went golfing for the second time and I stayed at the house with mom. It's always so relaxing and quiet when we go there and it was much needed!

While we were there we got a call from friends back home that said they had some Cardinals tickets that they couldn't use. We couldn't say no, of course! So Sunday afternoon we headed to St. Louis. We ate supper downtown before the game. The weather was perfect for a game. The Cards ended up losing in extra innings. Since it was a night game we stayed in a hotel that night and took our time getting home the next morning. We are looking forward to more games this summer!

May was filled with graduations, parties, and wedding festivities. We had 8 teens graduate this year. One senior was homeschooled and another received his GED so that's why we don't have graduation pictures with them. We had a special group of seniors this year and it will be sad to see them go. They will be missed.

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During the graduation weekend we also were involved in a wedding of our dear friends Ryan and Ashley. They've become good friends during our time here in Vincennes. They orginally asked Aaron to marry them but he was not able to because he is not ordained. He was the sound guy instead. :) I was the wedding attendant. We had a good time and enjoyed helping out with their special day.

I have two more weeks until my summer vacation can officially begin! I'm really looking forward to summer as always. 2 weeks isn't much time but we sure have a lot of things crammed into them! I thought you might be interested in the things we have coming up:
*Retirement party for a man from church
*First church softball practice of the season(Aaron's been talking
about it for a few weeks now!)
*Senior dinner (We have all the seniors over for supper every
year.)
*Aaron to Indy for a youth pastor's meeting
*Youth group end-of-the-year cookout
*My birthday
*Youth leader's conference
*All-school music performance
*5th grade graduation
*Highschool Baccalaureate Service
*3 highschool graduations
*3 graduation parties
*Wedding rehearsal/wedding (We are helping at a wedding for
some friends at church)

That's just stuff after school or on the weekends, not to mention all the activities during school I have coming up! It's crazy but we love this time of year!

This past week was an extra fun week in the 4th grade. We are currently reading a novel and we (the other 4th grade teacher and I) planned some fun activities to go along with the book. On Wednesday we had a guest speaker come and talk to the students about bees. There is a man in our church that is super outdoorsy and is a beekeeper (one of his many hobbies). He told the kids really interesting things about bees and brought the tools of the trade to show them. The kids thought he was really knowledgable and funny and they loved his big beard! He also brought in some honey for us to try. Some of the students were a little apprehensive after they learned that bees make the honey by getting nectar and puking it up into the honeycomb! Mmmmm honey...

The other activity we did involved sling shots. The book talked about a bow and arrow but we decided sling shots would be better. We had the students make sling shots and then we had a competition on Thursday for distance and accuracy. Both winners were from my class. Whoop whoop! :) One boy from my class didn't make one. This boy has a habit of not doing homework etc., but I thought to myself, "What 4th grade boy would miss the chance to make a sling shot, bring to school, and shoot it?!" I'm pretty sure it's a once in a lifetime opportunity! Anyway, the kids had a great time and hopefully it will be something they remember from 4th grade.
Don't they all look like little Robin Hoods? :)

One other exciting thing that happened last week was that I was picked to be the Applebee's Teacher of the Month. Twin girls in my room nominated me at the restaurant and I was chosen! It really has nothing to do with my teaching ability, but it made me feel special that they thought I was worthy of it. I was given a framed award, a $15 gift certificate, and my picture is hanging up in the restaurant. Aaron and I went there for dinner last night to see it. They said my picture was going to be in the paper too but we haven't seen it yet.