Who am I and where have I been?

I am sure you all wonder that. At least that is how long it feels like it has been since I have posted.
Well, after finally getting Nathan back to a regular life, we got 7 inches of actual snow. We played in it with Brett and Amy one weekend. That was really fun. I hope that we are making an influence on them, considering they don't have a personal relationship with Christ.
School has been good for both kids. They are doing awesome. We had parent/teacher conference with Hannah's teacher and she is more than ready for kindergarten. She said that she thought the structure of public school would help Hannah to blossom when it comes to her social problem.
Nathan is finally getting his top teeth in. He is so relieved. I think he thought that they were never going to come in. He and his class are learning about living and non-living organisms , so they got a bunch of class pets. He said today that their boy crab died. We asked him if the girl crab was doing ok and he said, "Sure. Ms. Kingery says that if she eats all her vitamins she will have babies. That is how mom's get babies, you know." We laughed about that!
So, Heidi, when you want to start a family, you better stock up on your vitamins!!

Hannah has already been asked to get married. I guess one of the girls for show and tell brought a huge fake diamond ring in. So the 2 boys were asking around who wanted to get married. Noah asked Hannah, "since they were friends". She told him, "No way!" I asked her if that upset him and she said, "No, he just went and asked Alaina. She told him sure." Hope her parents, Tom and Nancy, know about that:-) She also has gotten a couple of class pets. A fish and a snail, named Chuck. We were telling someone at church about them and she said, "Well, we used to have a snail named Chuck, but he had to go back to Walmart." We thought that was hilarious!

Chris has been busy at work. They are doing spring reset. With the huge cold snap and the 2 winter storms, he has had some upset customers because they have had to clearance out all their heaters to bring in patio furniture and grills. We got a really nice electric fireplace for cheap. Looks real, so that is cool. He also got a settlement letter from corporate for when they lost their salary and went to hourly. Someone in the company filed a law suit for back pay and won, so any department manager who has worked for Lowes September of 2001 and on gets any back pay that the company owes them, minus a small fee. It will be interesting to see what he actually gets.

As for me, I am still watching Abram a couple of times a week. Amy has gone to part time, which is nice. She wants to have another baby and work herself into being at home. So, I have applied at the school to substitute teach on Mon, Wed, and Fri. When Hannah goes next fall, I can do it full-time. I have the hours and experience. I am kind of looking forward to it.

Tomorrow I go to Kansas City to pick up my grandma from the airport. She has been in Arizona with her brother, Dave ,visiting family. She is going to be here for the rest of the week. Then Mom and Dad will come up this weekend and take her home. Unless Lorrie has her baby, and then they won't, because they will cover at the farm for John and Joy.

Well, I think that is about all. I want to get some of our snow pictures up, but that will have to be for another day. I am so behind as it is and I am still so very exhausted.
Hope all is well with all of you and would love to hear from you. Leave us a comment or two when you get a chance, just to say hi. We would love to hear it.
Sending all our love to you!!

Wow!!

I'll tell you what. It hasn't been a week since I have posted, but so many things have gone on.
Last week Nathan developed that cough. By Wednesday night, he coughed all night long. Took him to see Dr. Evans and he put him back on Singulair. He said that if it would work, we would notice right away. He gave us some free samples and we started Nathan on it right away. The coughing subsided within one day. Still coughing, but not constant like before. He had a half day Friday and yesterday and today off. Over the weekend we were supposed to get a winter storm with snow. Hannah was praying for it because she wanted to make a snowman and sled. We waited and waited for the snow. It snowed a little Friday morning, but by Saturday it was gone. Saturday it sleeted in the evening and it freezing rained all Sunday. That was the end of it. of the front, anyways. Hannah continued to pray for snow and everyone went to bed disappointed. When we woke up Monday morning, it had been snowing since 6:30 am. When looking at the radar, the only place in missouri with consitant snow was over St. Joseph. I asked the kids about what they thought about it and Hannah said, "It is God. He brought me snow."
We went and sled and played in it twice, amidst the 9 degree cold.
Chris and I talked about why is it that we were so amazed that it snowed when we know God can do all things. It was Hannah who was not surprised.
Today we spent the day inside playing and hanging out. It was super cold, so we decided that we would play tomorrow after school.
Anyways, so that brings me to now. I am sitting here, looking at the last of the weeks laundry on my bed that needs to be folded. Tomorrow I am running to the library after the kids go to school and I walk with Margret on Friday.
Well, hope everyone has a good week. My brain is shutting down so I need to sign off. Till next time.

What a difference a week makes!

Hello all! It has been over a week since I wrote and wow! All I can say is that last week was clean clean clean. I felt this week like I had nothing to do compared. However that isn't true.

both kids had a great first day back! So glad to be getting into the swing of things, however, the going back meant they came down with the colds that everyone picked up over the break.
Nathan's asthma flared and we are trying to get that under control before Friday when we expereince "the mother lode of arctic air" that KQ2 says is coming . I saw -25 for a forecasted low Friday night. I can only imagine what that will do to nathan.
Thursday night i went to my first ever praise team practice. it was so nice to actually hear what we would sound like together before standing in front of 200 people. I think I am going to really like it I just need to gain the confidence in playing again. The keyboardist said it sounded nice. She wished they could mic me. We will see what this thursday brings. I went walking with my friend margret Friday. We caught up on holiday stories. it is so nice to find someone who thinks the same and can identify so well with each other. she is such an encouragement to me.
sunday, nathan's cough was pretty bad and Dr. Evans was at praise team practice, so after talking to him about the fact that the influenza virus is going around really bad these next 2 weeks, hannah and I went to the 8 and 9 am services so I could play in the praise band and then we headed home so that Chris could go to work. they read and sang here at home. it was good for both of them.
that is about it. Kids have been doing school, i have been catching up on correspondances and such and Chris has been working. We are supposed to get that batch of cold air and with it the possiblity of snow. My kids are praying really hard for snow. They haven't seen any this year. They have a 4 day weekend, so they are really hoping.
Until next time, keep warm and keep Christ close in your heart.

Some other pictures

Got programing up on the laptop and am going to attempt to post some pictures you missed from the last few months. Also, we went to Independence to see Chris and Cindy and Nathan Coker the Saturday before Chris' birthday. Will get those pictures posted too.

Happy New Year!!!

Hi all! Sorry it has been so long!
Things are well on their way to returning to normal. Nathan went back to school today and Hannah returns tomorrow.
We had a nice 30th birthday for Chris. He worked in the morning, so I got his cake baked and stuff together. When he got home, he opened his gifts and then we had reserved to go bowling and eat pizza there. It was really nice, just the 4 of us. He really appreciated the book I gave him. He said it was so much better than a party. If you haven’t sent something and want to, please feel free to. There are several people who are still working on it.
Fast forward through the week, to Christmas Eve, the church had their Christmas eve service. It was packed. A Candlelight evening service with the choir singing was really nice. The kids had a hard time going to sleep. They were up Christmas morning at 7:30, dressed and had their beds made. They opened gifts from Chris’ parents first and then each other. It was really simple and nice. They got a toy, book and CD from Grandma and Grandpa Crosswhite. From each other, Nathan got Curious George movie, a lego nascar and a transformer train. Hannah got The little mermaid movie, an Aurora soft doll, and a Cinderella broom. The kids made me a shirt and necklace. Chris got two star wars ornaments. We had gotten a new home stereo system for each other, so he got me ultimate worship Cd to play in that and I got him the new Chris Tomlin. It was nice.

Chris was supposed to work Tuesday and Wednesday so that evening the kids and I headed to my parents. We had chicken and noodles and then opened gifts with my family. Tuesday we hung out with Jon and Mary before they had to head home and then went over to the farm with my sister Karen. We saw a calf that was one day old. Wednesday we went to Grandma’s and ate lunch and played games. We all laughed so hard. It was so much fun. Chris got to Kansas around 8 and we played hide and seek in the dark after he ate supper. Chris had 5 days in a row off, so Thursday,after heading to the café for breakfast with Grandma and Dave, we went to Glencoe, Oklahoma, where Chris’ brother lives.
We stayed with them for 3 days. Brent and Sarah have 3 kids; Robert-8, David-7, and Jennifer-3. So they were pretty close in age to our kids. The boys had such a great time. The girls did too. Hannah was a little worn by day 3. On day 3, we went to Chris grandparents for a big dinner. Hannah got sick due to nerves. Being around that many people and having Jennifer follow her around got to be too much. We went to Brent’s church Sunday morning and heard him preach. It was a great sermon about renewing ourselves in God. We headed back to Kansas. We heard we were driving into snow. The kids were thrilled. We stopped in at Grandma’s and had supper and stayed the night. On our way home yesterday, we had lunch at Mom’s and saw my cousin, Lorrie, who is due with their first child in February. I haven’t seen her since she began to show. She is so cute. Will be nice to have another young mom in the family.

We got home yesterday about 6pm to see that we had gotten a couple inches of snow, but it had melted during the day, so we missed it. It was the first snow in St. Joe and the kids were pretty bummed about missing it. Today Hannah and I unloaded bags and restocked the refrigerator to make it to payday on Friday. Chris was so exhausted that after supper tonight he crashed. The kids went to bed a little early too.
Will attempt to post pictures of our trip. The video I loaded was when we were at my parents house. We found it and thought it would be neat to share.
Well, I hope that all of you had a great Christmas and rejoiced in the birth of our savior. I pray that all of you will find a new way to honor God this year!! Until next time, all our love!!