Amazing week of rains and flooding

So many people that we know had inches and even multiple feet of water in their basements! We were so lucky not to have that issue. Kristen took a couple of pictures of some water on our property that are below. This was way after the worst of it...but I am glad she got a few shots.

We had more of a moat situation. It didn't come in the house...but you also couldn't get into our house without waders on. It is making me dig some new drainage ditches and I will have to spend some time fortifying some areas where the water does run so that it will be directed properly. All in all, not bad considering we were a disaster area :)

Happy Easter

I hope everyone is enjoying the day and celebrating the fact that Chris is risen! I figured I would share what we did a week ago in pre-celebration of Easter with the kids for this post. After all, it includes a parent doing something painful for their child to give them a chance for joy too...

After church last week, Kristen, the boys and I went to town center to participate in the festivities even though it was a little chilly out. We were meeting a friend and his kids and it was better than sitting at home :)

Anyway, after standing in line to get a picture with the Easter Bunny, we realized as we left the lodge area that he was in, everyone else was lined up for the egg hunt and they were starting to go! We told the kids, "GO!" and away they raced so that they could try to get a few eggs before they were all gone.

Now, most everyone knows that Kristen had hurt her sciatic nerve a few weeks ago and she has had good days and bad since then....some days she hobbles and others she doesn't want to move at all...well, despite this, she was determined to get Jude down there and let him get to an egg or two. So, she picked him up like a football and started running down to the field!

I am happy to report that each of the boys got at least something...though most the eggs did get cleaned out before they got even got down there. As for Kristen, she was hurting a bit from her stunt, but I think she was happy that Jude got to get an egg too...so way to go Mom!

HAILEY GRACE ARRIVED

I haven't been posting much...which is why I didn't do this earlier...so shame on me! I am a week late on this post.

A sweet baby girl, born at 3:18 am on 3/27...her name is Hailey Grace Wallace and she was 7lbs 2oz, 19 in. long, healthy and beautiful!

She already has tons of pictures up on Facebook, but I have to share some myself on this site.

We are all so excited and Kristen is itching to get out there in just a couple of weeks to spend time with them. It will be hard for us boys to have her gone (especially Jude), but we are excited for her to have some Auntie time that will be special for her, Joy, Hailey and everyone else she can see while in Colorado.

Hey...look at me! DOH!

Boys will be boys...first nice day around here and the boys were excited to be outside.

which, of course, led to this....

Don't you just love the "Dad" fix on this? Used up some heavy duty paper clips and away he went :)

WorldVision - Step into Africa

http://www.worldvisionexperience.org/minisite/minisite.aspx?id=209

Excited about this exhibit that is coming to our church. Both Kristen and I are going to be volunteers and we are trying to help drive traffic through there as well so that people will see the impact that AIDS is having on the country and especially on the children. The kids are getting to be involved too as they get to go through a "day in the life of an African child". Hopefully, it will be a good experience for them as well.

Kristen's back in class

After a very nice break, Kristen is back in classes as of a week ago Wednesday. She is enjoying it...but it does make our calendar more hectic. In fact, my Wednesday night class had to move to Thursdays (how nice are they for doing that?) so that I can be home with the boys on Wednesday night...and of course, since that moved to Thursdays, my men's group had to move to Mondays. I am pretty sure Jaden's baseball is going to be practicing Tuesday evenings...so, we will be pretty much booked all week, every week...at least for the next 8 week's of her class. Wish us luck.

Test Back from Bethel exam

Got my test back this evening. And, while I wish we had gotten a little more feedback on it based on the effort and time spent, I did have to share one comment...

As our teacher handed them back she made comments to each person about what she appreciated or liked about the way they laid out their topics, or how they wrote it up. When she got to me she said..."And Jason...I think that you should get some sort of seminary credit for what you wrote up."

I knew that I had written more and spent more time than others...but I still found it fairly amusing.

Happy Birthday to the love of my Life

Happy Birthday honey!

You are more beautiful today than you were when we met...and yes, I really mean that :)

I just thought I would jot down a few things to tell you I love you:

- I love what an incredible mother you are. Our children are so blessed to have you and if not for the way you worked your magic in this family...we would not be anything close to what we are today.

- I love what an incredible woman you are. The way you share your life, your feelings, your heart with others...the way that you have made a great life out of difficult circumstances and the way the you see the world is a blessing to me and to everyone that we come in contact with.

- I love what an incredible faith you have developed. I have seen you change over the last few years as you have grasped what God means to you...to have a relationship with Him and how you want to share that with those around you. That has been amazing for me to watch, is an amazing example that you set for our kids and I truly believe you have been an awesome influence on many around us.

So many more things to say...but some stuff has to be left for the letter...

I love you and wish you the happiest of birthdays!

Joined BookSneeze

As everyone knows, I love reading books and then I pretty much always blog about them :) Well, I found this site called BookSneeze and essentially, they will give me a book at a time to read and blog about. They just ask that I do a write up and post it on multiple sites...which is pretty easy to do...and then I can do what I want with the book.

The first book I requested just arrived in the mail. It is a John Maxwell book on communication. I know that his books take a little time to get through, but I am looking forward to it! Hopefully it will even help me with my communication skills :)

Long Test!

Took a very long essay test yesterday for Bethel. I was at the church from 7pm to about 9:30 writing 9 pages of content on the New Testament. I was struggling with the references that I wanted to use but thought that I did a good job with the overall content.

Essentially the question was...you are on a cross country trip, on a bus, and you strike up a conversation with someone who is interested in Christianity...especially Jesus, his life and the church. Go through those things with references to scriptures as you have this conversation.

Would you be able to write anything on this :) ?