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This is a picture of Oscar and Piper's great grandmother, Nellie. 


Nellie is Chip's grandmother and David's mother.  Nellie is an amazing woman with an amazing story.  Nellie intended to head to the mission field with her young family, when her husband died tragically in a fire (another very heroic story).  Instead of an adventurous life abroad, she worked in an egg factory.  She never remarried.  She did, however, raise her children to serve Jesus.  She has a son who worked as a youth pastor and then took his family to Argentina to run a school for the children of missionaries.  She has a daughter who is currently in the mission field in Ecuador.  She has (at least) two grandsons who are pastors and many other faithful offspring.  Nellie has left a beautiful legacy and we are grateful for her tender heart and her authentic love of Jesus.  Thanks Nellie.  We pray that our children would continue your example of service in Jesus's name.

Apparently, I have too much time on my hands!

Lots of fun with the kids this week:



Hope you are having fun too!

We hope your Easter was joyful, peaceful and good.  Here are some photos of our celebration.

This is a belated happy birthday post for our cousin Cole.  We can't believe he is already a year old!  We saw great cake-on-the-face pictures, so we know he was well celebrated.  Oscar and Piper worked hard on these happy birthday banners...

Well, the 2008-2009 Durango High varsity cheerleaders have been selected. Congratulations to the 18 wonderful girls who make up the team. I can't wait to see what this next year hold for us.

This year's tryout was not so fun for me. Usually, the hard-ass Jenn enjoys tryouts...the experience requires the returning girls to be their best and the new girls usually freak out entirely. I used to enjoy the suffering and the struggle. Now I just cry.

As I drove down the hill on the way to tryouts, I could only think of the relationships I have developed with each cheerleader - and how they have grown so much as a result of the team experience. It broke my heart to think that some girls wouldn't have that same opportunity. The entire experience became as stressful and gut-wrenching for me as it has always been for them. Fortunately, I felt peaceful about our decisions, and I know God will find the girls who didn't make the team in some other way. If you can, pray that those disappointed girls will have something wonderful happen to them this year.

A couple of weeks ago, a boy in Piper's class (no hiding his name in this case!) told her she didn't know the ABCs. He kept repeating them over and over to her until, much to her delight, he was sent to the time out chair. As she was still telling the story two weeks after the incident, she decided to purge her frustration once and for all. After school one day, she wrote his name on one piece of paper, the ABCs on another and taped them together. She intended to take it to school to show this miscreant just exactly what she knew. I am sure Hunter had long forgotten the conflict. Fortunately, her writing process was cathartic...she hasn't mentioned this unfortunate event again.



Three cheers for catharsis! You go girl!

Today I took the cheerleaders to a middle school in town to promote cheerleading tryout, which start next week.  The girls performed their amazing routing during each of the three lunch periods.  The sixth graders were impressed, and so tiny!  The seventh graders showed interest among the special needs crowd.  One girl imparticular seemed to have the special need to invade my personal space.  The eighth graders were particularly cool, as one would expect of typical campus darwinism.  After performing, a couple of my girls approached a noticably mature group of dominant females.  They asked if anyone at the table would like an application and were rebuffed with, "Hchah, no.  We play real sports." 

Live it up little girls.  Your particular party ends in August.

Seriously though, until this town gets either middle school or rec cheerleading programs...recruiting is going to be a sad affair.  I may actually end up with a smaller team this year.  Hchah!

I can't believe my baby will start Kinder in the fall! What is happening!? I can't believe Piper is growing up so quickly. Oscar has kinda always seemed old (not in a bad way) but Piper has always been my round, brown eyed baby. Sigh. She was telling me today about the stegasaurus. Her face was mere inches from mine, eyes big, describing the plates of iron rock along his back and how he is a fierce fighter who can scare away tyranasourus rex (which ashkually means thunder lizard). Picture all the "Jennish" expression in her face. She is hilarious these days.