Monday, February 20, 2012

FANTASTIC WEEKEND!

This weekend was full of so many great things!  Friday April and Gretchen came up together with the McCarl kids.  Daniel was so excited to find out that his best friend, Dominic, was coming up earlier in the day....more time to hang out together. (I think that he is too old for me to say that he was excited to "play" together.)  The kids were excited to have Dominic and Kaylee walk into town together and go see the frozen lake and hang out.  We called ahead and put money on an account at Cabin Coffee so the kids could warm up a little after that walk to the lake with some hot chocolate.  They had a great time!  Friday evening we were joined with more guests....the Boat family, the Nick Tank family, and then Terry and Dylan came up from Des Moines after they got off work.  We all enjoyed tacos and all the fun stuff that goes with tacos.  Also, Gretchen brought chocolate chip cookies....we all love her chocolate chip cookies! With this group of people we had a lot of kids in the house....12 kids total :)  We all stayed up nice and late, but had a great time together, except Dominic who seemed to be coming down with something, but he did gain strength to join in the fun on Saturday.

Saturday morning was a little slow getting around, but we all enjoyed a wonderful breakfast casserole that April made. (Thanks again for making that....it was delicious!)  Then the guys headed off to see the warehouse and then went into Mason City for a little bit.  Us ladies stayed at the house.  My parents also came up that morning...and they brought my birthday present.  Lots of fun little things and under all that was a beautiful necklace....THANKS MOM AND DAD.  Also, mom and dad brought great deli meats, buns and chips for lunch...that hit the spot.  After that we all headed out to the lake to enjoy the kite festival.  What a beautiful day to be outside enjoying God's wonderful creation with family and friends.  Daniel got a new kite that we can not wait to fly from Grammie and Pop for his birthday.  He is looking forward to a kite flying lesson from Larry.  After a nice time out at the lake we headed back to the house to enjoy more fun together.  The guys headed off to see a movie together, the kids played, and us ladies we played games together and laughed so hard.  What a wonderful time!  Dinner was also great....thanks again April for the roast and potatoes!  Again, nice late night, but great fun!

Sunday morning we started the day out by going to church together with my parents and April and Dylan.  Then Rib Crib for lunch....YUM!  Then the ladies went shopping...we found some GREAT deals.  I got a $118.00 jacket for $11.80 what an awesome deal!  The guys ended up heading north and spent some time together at Cabella's.  So after shopping April, Nattalie, and I enjoyed a movie together. 

As you see, just a great weekend with family and friends.  So thankful for the people the Lord has put into our lives.

To change the subject a little from personal to Harvest Bible Chapel Clear Lake.....we have been so excited to see what the Lord is doing here.  We had a Vision Night on February 12th and it was just amazing to see so many there.  The Lord is building His church and providing in amazing ways!  It is so incredible to be a part of what the Lord is doing here in the Clear Lake area.  What a blessing to be called to be a part, thank you LORD!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

CLEAR LAKE

What a blessing to say that Clear Lake is HOME!  We moved into our rental home on February 1st.  We were greeted we with a fantastic surprise from some members of our core group....food and supplies to stock the pantry.  SO BLESSED!  We got to work right away moving everything from the garage into the house....wow we have a lot of stuff.  But I can say that we are 90% unpacked and settled at this point.  We are waiting on one book shelf that we ordered which should be delivered today.  Then we will unpack more of John's books.  His office area will be complete once we find a chair and a desk for him.  Yesterday we finished unpacking all the home school stuff so this morning was back to the grind stone for the kids....they are doing great!

Speaking of the kids....they were so excited to have their own rooms and to set them up.  You can definitely see each of their personalities in their rooms.  Johnathan has guitars all our his room and he also has the family keyboard in there.  Nattalie's room takes on a very girly look and was completely organized within a few hours after we asked them to work on their rooms.  Daniel's room is a mixture of all the things that he is into....cameras, yoyos, and also Knex (which all have to be put back together).  So fun to see them growing up and getting their own "style" of their room.....now of course I will go in often to make sure that our "styles" stay clean.  :)

We actually have a place to set up our home exercise equipment and leave it set up.  We are excited to get into a routine each morning in making sure that we are taking care of our bodies.  I would love to say that we have this all up and together, but hopefully that will fit the agenda for this afternoon or this evening.

God has been paving the way for us here in the Clear Lake area with so great help of our hardworking core group members.  We are truly blessed with workers who diligently complete tasks and continue to ask..."What's next?"  Currently we are working on preparing our meeting place which is a warehouse area.  With a clean coat of paint, chairs and carpet this will be the prefect place to meet.  We have been blessed with free carpet not only for the warehouse, but for the church building in the future.  So exciting to see all the doors that the Lord is opening here in the Clear Lake area!

We are getting to know people in the community and are truly amazed at how God is preparing this community for HBC Clear Lake.  We have our first vision night/core group meeting on Sunday night.  We are praying that God will lead many that will join us on this journey!