Choir Concert

Peirce had a Fall Festival Choir Concert tonight. It was 5th-12th grades. A little different from my small Christian school, but still very nice. The high school choir director is a Christian and is still able to sing sacred songs without any hindrance. I have been impressed with the music that Peirce has brought home with him. The older high school concert choirs that the kids try out for were quite impressive. Peirce's choir sang "Gonna Get to Heaven on That Judgement Day!" and "Dreams" (which was written by his director). They also sang some fun ones with the other choirs. We already knew a number of kids in the different groups, so it was fun to watch friends in each choir. Peirce has really enjoyed this group. I'm so glad! I think out of our three kids, we will get two that enjoy being involved in choir. Mitchell, at least for now, does not seem to be headed that way.

FALL

I love Fall. My allergies don't, but I do. When I have to be at church early, I go by the lake on my way home to pick up the kids for Sunday School and 2nd service. Just wanted to share a pic of Fall at Clear Lake.

Pastor Appreciation Day

I don't know who "created" pastor appreciation day. I know that it has been going for at least 10 years. Yesterday was Pastor Appreciation Day at our church. It was a full day. Baptism, luncheon, business meeting. In the midst of it they presented the three pastors and wives with cards and this neat pumpkin floral arrangement. I hope that this will be around for Thanksgiving when my family is here.
I am proud of my husband. He never reads this, so I can take a few lines to brag on him. (I do tell him this often; he just wouldn't like me telling everyone else.) He is growing into this new role so well. He knows names of everyone which is such a great gift as well as discipline. It can be overwhelming at times when you think of things that need to get started, but it is wonderful to see how the Holy Spirit brings wonderful timing into the whole picture. I spoke to a MOPS group a few weeks ago and came away with even more respect for my husband. To be prepared each week with something that will teach and challenge the people is a high calling. Dan has a wonderful way of making scripture so applicable without dumming it down. Not that my former pastors have not challenged me, but it is so different when it is your husband.

Cross Country and Football are done...for this year

Tuesday ended both cross country and football for our family. There are still some Varsity games for both, but for JV CC and 7th grade football, we are done. Peirce had his best meet on Tuesday. (Of course, this was the only one that we did not get to.) Mitchell's team ended up 1-4, but they had a good time. Mitchell was responsible for someone getting carried off of the field on Tuesday. (For a 7th grade football player this is a badge of honor.)

For those of you who have been wondering, our friend Warren passed away last Friday afternoon. He is finally without pain. It has been very encouraging to read the comments and "hear" from people that we have not seen in almost 20 years. Warren and Tana have been a great testimony to God's grace in the midst of trial. I just pray that Tana continues to feel God's arms as she and their three children continue on in this journey.

I don't know about where you are, but Fall is here in Iowa. The trees are so pretty. We saw a very pretty harvest moon tonight. I did have to turn the furnace on today. I dreaded doing so, but the house had gotten down to 61. It was 29 last night here. I do love Fall though. Last Saturday we cleaned up the flower beds. Before too long, we will be raking leaves.

Sorrow

I write this with a sorrowful heart this evening. I have been watching a blog of a guy that Dan and I knew in college who has been battling cancer for two years. It has been a long battle. Warren, in college was one of those fun guys to be around. Always joking and laughing. Well, it seems that God is going to be taking Warren home to be with him very soon.
I sorrow for Tana and their three children. If you have a chance and want to look at their blog it is www.brokeringfamily.blogspot.com. Please pray for this family.

Field of Dreams

This is another thing that we did while Jane was here. I think that with this, I am all caught up. If you remember the 80's movie, The Field of Dreams, it was filmed a few hours from here. It is between our home and Dan's parents, so we took Jane there when we were travelling to WI. It is sort of an interesting place to visit. The house was the house in the movie, and the field and corn is right there. Do you remember the line, "Am I in Heaven?"? "No, you're in Iowa." I just think that is so funny now that I live here. Here are our pics of The Field of Dreams....

Dad Jordan's 85th Birthday!!

I wanted to get this in before now, but I had so much to fit in before it. We went to Wisconsin a little over a week ago to celebrate Dan's dad's 85th birthday. Jane had flown here the night before in order to see where we live and then to get there to surprise her dad. Well, the surprises did not stop there. Laurie showed up just as everyone was heading to bed. She had left Maryland after teaching school and had flown to Milwaukee. She had called to tell her dad happy birthday while she was driving to see him, but he didn't know that she was not in Maryland. It was a lot of fun. Saturday morning Dan's brother David stopped by on his way from Ohio to Omaha, NE where he is starting a new job. Dan's nephew Stephen and his wife Elizabeth came over from Milwaukee area. It was a lot of fun. It was so neat seeing Dan's dad surprised. Dan's mom didn't know Laurie was coming, so that was a great surprise also.



The other thing that we had to do while in WI was buy cheese. A trip to our favorite cheese factory was in order. We came home with many pounds of cheese. Oh, so good. We are in the land of corn of soybeans...cheese comes from KRAFT.

Extreme Makeover Home Edition

A few years ago we started watching Extreme Makeover Home Edition. We have not watched it as faithfully in the last few years, but we had the opportunity this week to see one of the homes being built about 45 minutes away from here. We had an errand to run near there, so we thought that we would go. Dan, Kirsten and I had a neat time watching all that happened in the hour that we were there.



Dan was able to go back up last night and do some dry walling. He said that it was amazing to watch the organization. As they put the sheet rock up, the guys were taping and mudding behind them even in the middle of the night.



We may go up another time because now we are totally intrigued. And the boys were actually dissapointed that they didn't see it. We think that we will have to stick with one more time due to the distance. I'm trying to think of more errands that are up that way.



How many of you are wondering if we saw Ty??? Actually, it burst our bubble to find out that he is there at the beginning and leaves after demolition. They took the house down Thursday around noon. We were there on Friday afternoon, and he won't be back until Sunday. Does this dissapoint anyone else? We thought that he was active in it all. What editing can do. If we get back up there, we'll get pictures of the outside finished. I think that they turn over the keys to the designers on Monday or Tuesday and the family gets home on Wednesday. We saw Eduardo, but could not get a picture of him as he seemed to be avoiding the public. We are not sure if we saw anyone else as we don't know all of the new people. We do know that Tracy is there as we saw her on the news interviewing for the show.





I know that this is insignificant in the scheme of life, but it is sort of fun to see, and very amazing to witness the choreography of it all. I can't imagine who organizes it all. I know that an area builder is in charge of that aspect, but what builder is used to building a $400,000 house in a week? This show airs in December. It is the one in I believe it is Hayward, MN

When we first arrived at the house this is what we saw. Half of the roof was covered, no windows and no chimneys.

When we left, the windows were in the right and middle sections, chimney was being built, and the roof was almost all on. This house had not even been there for 24 hours. Amazing!

MOPS

Tonight, I had the privelege of speaking at our MOPS. (Mothers of Preschoolers) I have been out of that role for a few years, but being the pastor's wife, I was asked. I do not really like public speaking, but when Jenni mentioned the theme, I knew that it was what God would have me speak on.
The theme was "Identity" as mothers, wives, and Christians. I have known about this for a month and have had so many things going through my head. I finally had time this week to sit down and "be still" for God to take my many thoughts and make order with them.
One thing that I appreciate about God is that He uses our strengths to show Himself. I am a visual person. I wanted to try to get a few different senses used to get the point across, so I asked God, and he showed me how to use this. I talked about the world's view of the identity of a wife, mother, and Christian. I held a baby, made dinner, talked on the phone, and carried my briefcase to show the fact that it is impossible to do what the world expects.
I shared how God showed me that my identity was in Him. The only way that I can be a good wife and mother is to seek after His wisdom using Prov. 2:1-7 as my passage. I gave them a list of Who I Am in Christ that Freedom in Christ Ministries put together with many scripture verses. How incredible to be called Christ's friend; joint heirs, beloved....so many.
I spent a good part of the afternoon today working on this. I felt wonderful...up on a mountaintop. I guess that satan wanted me down as he brought up a doozie in this house this evening. How greatful I am that God gives us the strength to work through those times that Satan tells us that we are not capable of doing what we are doing.
Tonight went well. I felt very much that God was using this and had a few of the ladies share with me afterward. I'm excited because this is a ministry that Dan and I have had before, and I wonder where God may lead.

Music Man

My mom was here last week, and we did a little bit of sight seeing while she was here. Of course, that is not to mention that every day she was here, she had to make a trip to Cabin Coffee. (Our sweet little coffee shop that is owned by people in our church.) I don't mind. I don't like coffee, but I do like their Chai tea.
Besides all the coffee stops, we went to Mason City which is 5 miles away to Music Man Square. Merideth Willson was from Mason City and that is the true River City Iowa in the movie and play Music Man.

We walked down the Main Street of River City. This is a replica of the movie set--sort of neat to see.


We are so thankful that grandma could come spend a few days here. We have really missed being able to see her often. We were so glad to have a few days to spend going to games and just hanging out.