Our Life in the Past Two weeks

            Well, you have not heard from us in more than two weeks, and believe me they have been two very busy weeks!  Life seems to just be going faster and faster for us here in Rapid City.  We wake up at 5:30 in the morning, and before we know it it is time for bed.  Although we are running like crazy, I just wanted to let everyone know that we are still alive.  You see, part of the problem is that we do not have Internet at home, so any updating we do to our blog has to be at the church where we do have internet.  Most days, by the time we are done with work, we do not really feel like staying until 6:00 p.m. just so we can update the world on our lives!!  If we did that, supper would not be ready until 7:00 or 7:30!


            We are thoroughly enjoying all of our busyness. Since the last time we posted, we had our first "real" company over!  I say real, because we have had the teenage girls over a couple of times and Tyler's parents over for desserts and games, but this time it was the full thing.  We had a sweet, older couple in the church over named the Mondts.  Mr. Mondt coached college football for about 30 years in Texas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and I think a few more places.  He looks exactly how you would think a college football coach would!  I am sorry we did not get a picture of them to show you all. We rushed home from work, and I started to put the last details on the food together ( I had prepared some of it the night before), and Tyler very graciously finished up some of the cleaning for me. I was sort of a nervous wreck for a little bit, because I wanted everything to be perfect, but once they came in the house, I was calmed very quickly because they enjoyed everything and we had so much fun talking!  I made lasagna (just like my mom's), spinach salad, garlic bread, sweet tea, and Peanut Butter pie.
     

This was the lasagna.  Tyler said it looked weird, but that is how it always looked at home!  Once he ate it, he thought it was the best lasagna he had ever eaten:)!

This was of course the Peanut Butter pie.  It was very yummy.  The bad thing was that we then had it sitting around for several days because there was so much of it.  It did not help our diet any!!!

         


            Another thing we have done since our last blog was take the youth group to a teen rally at Pastor Matt Furse's church in Custer, South Dakota.  That was great fun!  We went with Mr. and Mrs. Betz, the couple in our church that takes care of the teen activities, etc.  I rode with Mrs. Betz in the girls' van, and Tyler rode with Mr. Betz in the boys' van.  It was nice enough outside to have games.  It was hilarious to see them try some of the games out-they were pretty creative.  We had pizza and pop (of course), inside games, skits, songs, and preaching.  Two of the Betz boys did "Who's on First" and did a great job.  Even though I have heard that so many times I could hardly stop laughing.  The guest speaker was Evangelist Bill Smith.  He had a great message that spoke to my heart, and I think many of the hearts of the teenagers.
         

            To change the subject a little:  Tyler has learned how to master grilling out!  His brother gave us an old grill of his, and his parents got him a propane tank for his birthday.  He was so excited and could hardly wait for the first nice day to grill out.  The first thing he tried was steaks, which have been in our freezer since someone in the church gave them to us right after we got married.  They turned out really great, especially since I put them in a marinade the night before and let them sit in the refrigerator all night and all day.  The thing that did NOT turn out was the corn on the cob we tried to grill.  We did not turn it and one side got burnt beyond recognition as a piece of corn!  Since then we have tried, hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken.  They have all been wonderful.  We did try corn again, and the second time it was perfect!  If you have never tried it, you have to!


            Along with the fun things we have been doing, we have also been doing our normal work at the church and school.  School will be finished one week from tomorrow.  We are going to take the Elementary kids to one last field trip at a petting farm near here.  We have also been working very hard on the program for the closing night.  I did not realize how hard it was to make up a program!  There were some parts that I had to keep on going back to and editing because words were too big, or it was too long, etc.  The kids are doing really well for the most part, and I am proud of them.  The little k-5 girl will get "embawassed" sometimes and just won't read, so hopefully we can get her where she needs to be.  I am a little sad that I will not get to be at the program, because the same night I will be in Indiana at my graduation.  We are going to try to get it recorded so that I can watch it later.  I am not sure if I am more nervous about their program or about my own graduation!!  I feel as I have accomplished one more thing in my life, because I taught Jonah how to borrow when he is doing subtraction.  It took a lot of explaining in a very animated form as well as examples with a classmate of me borrowing rulers and pens, but he finally mastered it and was able to do about 12 whole problems all by himself!!

     
           There has been much more going on in our past two weeks, but I am sure by now most people are tired of reading my ramblings.  All of our other adventures will have to wait for another day and another post!