Update on Ruby

If you haven't been over to the TenHaken's blog in a while, you should head on over!

My weekend away

Actually, it was more than a weekend! Thanks to the kindness of my parents (the ticket), Darin's mom (the child care), my sisters (the lodging), and my husband and kids (for letting me go) I just spent 5 days in Oregon with my mom and sisters. It was wonderful. I hadn't seen my sister, Laurie, for almost 2 years! I flew out on Tuesday, and was greeted at the airport by Kristi and her boys. She took me home and I went right to bed. Wednesday we had a lazy morning, then took Laurie out for lunch. After bringing her home, I tried to take a nap. I used to have no problem with the 3 hour time difference, but my 30 year old body isn't really such a fan.

Thursday I took Kristi's car and drove myself to my old house on Hrubetz Road. I "met" the new pastor's wife through her blog and was so happy that she agreed to meet me, a virtual stranger. If you read this Amy, thank you again for welcoming me into your home and letting me reminisce about my childhood. I hadn't been in that house for over 15 years. It looked a lot the same, only smaller. I used to think we had the biggest living room ever, but that isn't the case. The bedrooms that seemed so roomy had also shrunk a bit. I even got to look through a recent church directory. Now that was fun. I haven't seen most of those people since I was in middle school and it was fun to look at the different families and think back to the time we spent at Sunnyslope. My mom came in Thursday afternoon and we had dinner at the Molan's Thursday night with her. Then I stayed up too late watching Survivor, The Office and Parks and Rec. I am so very thankful we do not have a DVR as I would be an addict for sure.

Friday morning the 4 of us headed to Portland. We did some shopping, ate at the Cheesecake Factory (avocado egg rolls, mmmmmmmmm), then checked into our hotel. My crazy mom and sisters headed out to another mall, but I stayed behind and took a nap. That night, we headed to the Coliseum to see Beth Moore. It was awesome! If you ever have a chance to see her live, do it! The worship was amazing. There were over 7,000 women there for the event (and a few brave men). We learned that our main objective in life, summed up in 6 words, is "Ego crucified. Christ formed in me." The main obstacle to obtaining this is "My life. My way. That's it." Her whole message was from the book of Galatians, and it was powerful. I couldn't even begin to do it justice, so I won't even try.

Saturday morning we headed back to the Coliseum. Again, it was a fabulous time. It is really strange because there is just something about Beth Moore. You feel like you really know her, like she's your friend. It is so funny listening to people talk about her, because we all talk about her like she's our pal. She really is super funny and engaging. So again, if you get a chance, go hear her, or do one of her Bible studies. I also have a new favorite song that you should go listen to here.

After the conference ended, we had some time to kill. My plane didn't leave til 8:30 that night. So we headed back to the Cheesecake Factory and ordered the exact same meal that we had the day before, minus the two pieces of cheesecake. Don't worry, we went to Starbucks a couple hours later and had our cheesecake there instead. After hanging out at Barnes and Noble we went to IKEA where we wandered aimlessly for an hour or so. Then we went to a frozen yogurt place and ate again. Around 6:30 they dropped me off at the airport. I am so thankful I was able to spend such an amazing weekend with my three favorite women. I know they were as blessed as I was by what we experienced.

After a long night of flying and layovers, I made it back to Michigan around 9 a.m. Tyson and Jori were SO stinking cute at the airport. I can't even count how many times Tyson said "I missed you" and "Did you miss me?". Jori kept saying "Mommy, you're home now". I love those little babes so much. I really did miss them while I was gone. They have been such a joy since I've been home. I am surprised the honeymoon period has lasted into the 3rd day!

He is Risen!

He is Risen Indeed! We hope you have all had as blessed of an Easter weekend as we have had. We are so thankful that we live in a country where we can openly participate in services that recall the sacrifice our Savior made on the cross and His resurrection.

Yesterday we took the kids to a local park for an egg hunt. I know these pictures aren't the best, but they were the only ones I managed to take during the hunt, which lasted less only a couple minutes.


This video is proof of the chaos. Tyson and Jori were in the section that had been roped off for 1-4 year olds. There was a lot more gathering than hunting going on, so I am not sure why they called in an egg hunt. Oh well. It was fast, which was kind of nice.

Today we had a wonderful Easter service. Tyson sang in front of church with the Wonder Years kids. Darin was in the back doing lights and Tyson spent most of his time on stage waving at Darin instead of doing the motions. He looked so handsome up there. We stayed for the beginning of the second service so that he could sing again. This time he managed to say "Hi" into a microphone. He was very proud of himself. I actually missed it because I had a very wiggly Jori with me the second time around.

This afternoon we had a lunch of left over pizza. Then we headed to the zoo. It was great to have Darin along with us as it is usually just me and the kids. Their favorite parts of the zoo were the snakes, little crocodiles, and the Komodo Dragon. We stayed to let them run around on the playground for a while and they both loved showing off for their daddy.

Now it is bedtime. Tyson heads back to preschool tomorrow, Grandma Karen will be arriving sometime tomorrow and then I am heading out for Oregon on Tuesday to see my sisters and mom.

Pray for Ruby

Do you see the new "badge" in the top right corner of my blog? This precious little girl is the daughter of one of Darin's former coworkers, Mark TenHaken and his wife Kelli. Her name is Ruby and she came home from Ethiopia in September of 2008. Since she has been home, she has been struggling with seizures. The TenHakens have been to several hospitals to seek help for Ruby, but have not heard anything very encouraging from the doctors about Ruby's condition. They also had a little boy, Charlie, in February and he has also had health problems.

Mark's family is from Worthington, MN, so I am sure some of you who read this know them. His brother, Paul, was in Darin's class at Dordt. Please pray for this family and feel free to stop by their blog to give them some encouragement. All you have to do is click on the picture of Ruby and you will be brought to their blog.

Kids say the darndest things

This post will mostly be to satisfy the grandmas, who both love to hear stories about their grand kids. That being said, my kids are pretty funny, at least I think so. Today we were at Meijer. I have started a little "tradition" that I am sure I will come to regret soon. For those who don't live around here Meijer is a grocery store that gives kids free cookies!! Even though I have asked the people at the bakery SEVERAL times to make sure the cookies are indeed free, I still feel like a thief when I open the door and take out two cookies for my kids. Anyways, our new tradition is that the kids get their free cookies, I get my 59 cent cookie and $1 pop and we go and hang out in the little eating/break area. There are usually a few older folks sitting in this area as well (especially in the morning when you can get a donut and coffee for $1). So this afternoon we are enjoying our little treat. There was one "grandpa" in there with us and he was sneezing and blowing his nose. After one particularly loud blow, Tyson said "I guess that grandpa must be allergic to kids". I do not know where that came from, but I almost spit my pop out. An older couple came in as we were finishing and Jori had to ask what their names were and Tyson wanted to see the grandpa's gloves. Then as we were leaving, Jori ran back to show them both her new package of big girl undies. They acted quite impressed, so she was pretty happy.

This morning I made some "Resurrection Eggs". (If you do not know what they are, Google "Resurrection Eggs" and then come back to read the rest of my post.) In one egg, there is a miniature cross. We had just talked about how Jesus was whipped and his back was so sore, and then I was explaining how he had to carry the heavy cross on his back. Jori picked up the cross and said "It is NOT heavy, see." and she put it up by her shoulder. Yes, you are right sweet girl. The two inch replica mommy made is not heavy. We did the eggs again with Darin tonight and again she had to point out that the cross is not heavy. She says the same thing about the stone that was rolled away from the tomb. I try to explain that the REAL stone was very heavy, but she just rolls the little rock I picked up outside and says "But it's not."

What else is new here? The word "poop" has become fascinating to both kids, especially Tyson. He has even picked up the phrase "poop head". At Meijer today, when we were walking away from the grandpa and grandma he said "I wonder if they poop?" in a non-inside voice. At dinner Darin was telling the kids that he used to eat rice and brown sugar (which we gave them tonight) and Tyson said "Did you poop when you were little too?". I am hoping he gets over this phase by the time spring break is done so he doesn't go back to school talking about poop.

For those of you who are on Facebook, this is old news, but I'm retelling it for the grandmas. The kids have been hanging out with the neighbors a lot. The youngest neighbor is 7 and the oldest 2 are in 5th grade. The other day Tyson and Jori ran into the house and started telling me that there were bees living in caves underground and that the kids had all gotten stung. Then he told me that the kids all went to the doctor and had band aids, but you couldn't see the band aids because the doctor cut their arms open and put the band aids inside their skin. I told him "They are just telling you stories. It isn't true." "Nuh-uh mom. It IS the truth". So I tried explaining what a "tall tale" is and they finally ran off to tell the kids "Thanks for the funny story". The next day they came running home again to tell me a dinosaur was about to hatch in Ian's house. The expression on his face was priceless as he LOVES dinosaurs. He looked so thrilled, but again I had to burst his bubble and tell him it was just a story.

That's all for now. Grandma Karen and Grandma Willie, I'll keep the stories coming!

Beach Day and Bedhead

The end of March was a busy time here in Hudsonville. Last week, Tyson had Beach day at preschool. He had been talking about it for WEEKS. Here he is the morning of:

Of course Sissy had to get in on the action too. Shorts, sunglasses and winter coats-quite the combination!

Here's a little bath time fun. Tyson and Jori came up with a creative way to keep water out of their ears. One ear is covered by a rubber duck, the other with a plastic comb. I don't think it was really effective, but they were pretty proud of themselves.

Here's our little Jor-Jor. The sideways picture kind of looks like a mug shot to me. This was right after she woke up from a nap. Talk about a bad hair day!


Today we got a package from Papa and Gram. It had these cool glasses and some eggs for a mini Easter egg hunt. Good times were had by all.