Recent happenings

I hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable Thanksgiving this year! It's nice to take the time and reflect on the many blessings that God has given us. I'm thankful for Godly friends and family members in my life! They all have been an huge encouragement over the years!
I praise the Lord for safety and direction. Last week we were planning on having Thanksgiving in Greenville, SC. But with a job opening for Joe, a road block on the highway in NC, and a mild November, we decided to stay in Midland and have Thanksgiving with Joe's family.
We're thankful that we have this extra time here in Midland and always enjoy our time with friends! But we do want to keep my BIL and his family in our prayers. As they were heading to Alabama for the holidays, they ran into some trouble with their fifth wheel and were stranded in Ohio for the rest of the weekend. God has a purpose for everything and we always try to seek what God's will is for us in any situation. Very thankful that their family is safe!
Next week we start up our Christmas tour in the south. We are all excited about being down south! I will try to keep an update on where we are so that if we are in your area, you can come check us out! :)
I've been bad again and I'm not a photographer of any sorts. I wish I did take pictures. My kids aren't going to have any pics of themselves and will never know what they looked like when their little. I took a few of Lincoln this past week and thought I should share with you! Since I sending this from my phone, I don't know what order they will be. Please bear with me!
Whenever we go to the mall, its a family outing. Joe and I enjoy watching Lincoln have the time of his life in the rental strollers!
One night when Joe was finishing with work, the family that hired him invited us to have supper at their house. So the pic with Lincoln having a flower headband is bc of three lil girls having a lil boy for a playmate. Lincoln had a blast playing with pink balls and musical instruments...and headband flowers!
The other pic is just lunch time and he was imitating me saying "cheese"!
Have a great weekend!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Lincoln's first Birthday!

Finally I'm able to update you all on the events in our lives. I haven't been able to sit down and upload my pics and type out a post. I've missed my blogging friends and am looking forward to keeping up with you all when we settle down in Greenville for a bit.

We just finished practice, Lincoln's down for a nap, so here I am in Pastor's office with my lil computer and I'm using what precious time I have to share! Hope these photos come through for me! (connection is lil slow...)

Right now we are in Harrisville, MI with a week of meetings. This is the third time in a year that the team has been here. We always enjoy our stay and love seeing people that we've gotten to know over the year.

Last week we got a little break and celebrated Lincoln's birthday in our home-town, Midland, MI. We celebrated on the 31st at Grandma and Grandpa Ortega's house with his cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents/GREAT grandparents!

(Lincoln with Grandpa and Grandma Everson)
Lincoln enjoyed all his gifts from everyone! But for sake of time, I have to show the gift that Mommy and Daddy got him! :) (sorry everyone...)

On the 3rd, we celebrated his REAL birthday at Buffalo Wild Wings with cake! He really liked that! :)

Trying it...
Thinking about it...
YEP! It's good! :)

After this week of meetings, we go back to Midland and get another lil break before the big trip down to Greenville, SC for Thanksgiving! There we will be with the Snow family! Joe and I are ready to head south for the winter, but will miss family very much over the holidays.

It's hard to believe that Christmas is creeping up on us and that we as a team are going through our Christmas numbers and program. Right now I can hear Joe in the other room recording a peice that he's working on. Gets a little annoying at times... : \

I've spent too much time already twiddling with the pics and stuff. I should go. Keep me updated on what's to come in the blog world this holiday! Looking forward to connecting with everyone again! Until then, Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Then and Now

On November 3, 2008 at 2:55pm my life completely changed. I became a mommy. This little person became apart of my life and now has me wrapped around his little finger!
Today he's not so little and doens't need mommy to do everything for him. Only sometimes.
He's adventurous, outgoing, not very shy, and rides a four wheeler in our little house by himself! He enjoys meal time, sitting in daddy's before nap time, reading books, and finding every little thing he's not supposed to have.
I thank God for allowing us to raise Lincoln Joseph.
I wish I was more faithful to my blog so that you all can see how much he's grown and where we've been. I will try harder!
Happy birthday buddy! I love you and can't wait to see how much you grow this next year! But you'll always be my lil man!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

more pics from our trip to Wisconsin

Mom sent me some more pictures of our stay in Wisconsin... :)

Good times!

Quick note before I get to bed...
I had a WONDERFUL time in Wisconsin with my family and Joe's family! But I am HORRIBLE at taking pictures! (sigh...I don't take ANY!)

We parked our lil house in the Everson's driveway for 2 weeks in Northern Wisconsin near campus. It was nice to visit campus and see old friends and meet up with my brother and sister. It got VERY cold really fast. I grew up in the North, but I never liked the cold... : / I enjoyed the times we had with Joe's family as we had 2 weeks off of traveling and stayed at their house during that time. It was very relaxing! :)

My parents met us on campus to have an early celebration for Lincoln's first birthday. (just a month early) I had to steal these pics from my mom's facebook! :)

The Birthday Boy!

Grandpa giving Lincoln a taste of the YUMMY cake! (Thanks Mr. Gaugler!) :)

Opening gifts from Grandma and Grandpa with mommy and Grandpa!

Grandma made a special gift! She put familiar faces under the puzzle peices so that Lincoln will remember his Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Brooke, and Uncle Brennan! So cute!

Lincoln had other ideas what he should do with the puzzle peices!

More gift opening with Grandpa!

Sitting back and talking on Aunt Brooke's phone during supper.

Grandpa lets him drive on campus...

Later that week, we took the hour trip down to my hometown to stay at my parent's house for a couple days. I decieded that we needed to put together a HUGE party for the Packer/Viking game! I invited my friends and my sister came from school to make the big event! Lincoln even had a handful of grandparents attend! :) Not sure if they were there for the game or what... But even though the game didn't turn out as we would have liked, we still had fun! I wore my Brett jersey from his Packer days...But I DID NOT cheer for him.

The Friday before we left, a bunch of our friends from the college, siblings, and their friends, went out bowling. I miss those days of young college bliss! It was fun, but I was in the mothering mood and Lincoln was running a low fever. He did so well in his stroller watching everyone bowl and did not complain one bit!

We left for Escanaba, MI and did Revival America in the Sunday Evening service. From there we were off to Pittsford, MI where we had a short week of meetings. All through this, both Everson family's on the BRM team were sick. I think I got through it without getting the ruff end of it. But poor Joe and Lincoln were up countless times b/c of trouble breathing due to congestion. (and that takes a toll on mommy)

We just got in at the church in Williamstown, WV and will be doing a FULL week of meetings here. Hopefully we are all recovered from all our sickies.

It's been an exhausting couple weeks...ready to head down south. :) But now I need to go to bed. *Night!*

Lincoln looking out

Right now we are on our way to Wisconsin to Joe's parents. It should be a 6-7hour ride. Not too bad.

This past week we had some visitors and Lincoln enjoyed his view outside our front door!

I should be back with pictures of our week. My parents are meeting us at NIU with the rest of the family members (my siblings) to have an early birthday celebration for Lincoln! I'm so excited! Can't wait!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Fun Fall!!!

Let's see...where do I start?! Since the VCY Rally in Milwaukee, it's been a whirlwind of sorts! The Rally was awesome, the people responded very well and it was fun to do! On Sunday we did another Revival America in Hartland, WI. So that means we did Revival America 3 times in one week! It was exhausting!

Sunday was the opener of the NFL season and I am a die hard Green Bay Packer's fan! Born and raised in Wisconsin, it's a given! The big game was that evening and I had Lincoln all decked out in his outfit! :) He went to Sunday evening church like this!

What a cutie!

I was so excited for the Bears/Packers game! (Old Brett Favre jersey from his packer years...)
Joe made my day when he got the screen and projector all set up! It was so much fun! We watched the game outside, it was a beautiful night and the Packers won! :) So this was literally my "view from my front door!"
Near the end of the game it was time for Lincoln to settle down for bed...BUT the game was too exciting for him to be settling down for bed!!! :)

After Hartland, we traveled an hour to Utica, WI. I played basket ball against Utica in high school and it was nice to see some of the girls that I played with! I also met Kim and Erin and made new friendships with them! Lincoln loved playing with them when they came to visit during their lunch break!

Now we are in Inver Grove Heights, MN. We spent all day Friday at Mall of America and even got to go to IKEA. (never been there, mom said it was a MUST!) We enjoyed browsing around, window shopping, and visiting the sharks in the underwater adventure! For lunch we went to Rain Forest Cafe, Lincoln wasn't too sure of that place. I found out he doesn't like thunder storms or fog...
My mom has a shot of me and my siblings in front of this very lego statute from YEARS ago!
One of the things that I've really liked about traveling is the chance that we get to see some of our really good friends. Jon and his wife Elise don't live too far from where we are at now! We enjoyed having them over the last couple evenings! Jon's a great friend that we met in college, he was in our wedding...it was so nice to meet his wife for the first time! We love them and it seemed that Lincoln did too!
I dont have much more time...but these picture are for my mom and Brooke...(and who ever else wants to enjoy them!) He's wearing his Charlie Brown shirt from Brooke!

Making faces as always!
I can't wait till next week! We will be in Northern Wisconsin at the Everson's (in-law's) house for about two weeks! It will be nice to get to spend time with the family! I'm planning on visiting my family for a few days and visiting my siblings at NIU. I always LOVE going "home" whenever we get the chance. Northern Wisconsin is beautiful! Will always be home to me!

Well, I've wasted way too much time...I need to get ready for the evening service!

Slight change of plans

This week has been SO relaxing as we don't have meetings every single evening. But if it were up to me, THIS is how I would relax! :)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our original plans were to leave today for Hartford, WI and get ready for our program with VCY Radio.

(Click on picture to visit their website)

The team will be performing our Revival America media presentation at the VCY Rally in the Waukesha Expo Center on September 12th (get the info on that here.) You can probably watch/listen if you'd like! :)

Anyways...there's been a slight change of plans because we needed someplace to get everything ready and to practice before the rally. The church here in Madison enjoyed our music on Saturday and Sunday, that they have let us stay and do another service on Wednesday. So we are setting up, practicing, and making sure everything is in good condition for the presentation. I'm so glad that we are getting the chance to run through the program before the BIG program. We haven't been together all summer and are a little rusty on our speaking/and singing parts! :)

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So that's the reason we are still in Madison. Which is fine! It's funny how in each church I find myself drawn to the people that make up the church. Each person is different and play a special role in their home church. But to come in and visit and to see and get to know a new person/new body of believers every week is very fun and interesting! I guess it's just the bond that all Christians have! :)


I was just thanking God for the sweet fellowship that we find all across America with fellow believers. Just last week I had a lady walk up to me and shared that the Lord was prompting her to pray for me and asked if there was anything specific that she could pray about! That was a difficult week for me. Trailer problems, leaving my comfort, home, family...(SUMMER ENDING!) I was in a discouraged state. But I believe that God brought that sweet kind lady to show me that these people are my family as well! They are my brother and sister's in Christ! I was so encouraged by that!

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I thought that I might as well show you a look outside our front doors too while I'm in the blogging mood! I thought it would be fun each week to share what we see outside our doors as our view changes from week to week. I haven't been real consistent with that lately, and will try harder! :)


Here's our trailer next to Ben and Amanda's fifth wheel. Not a fun picture really...(I guess that's why I don't do too much on the topic "outside our front door." Everything always looks the same....) If you look closely, you can see Joe laying under the front of the trailer. He's been "Mr. Fix-it" man since he fixed the brakes and water pump. Right now he's hooking up a little tv into his "garage/storage station" so that he can watch the Michigan State games outside if need be. (Rolling the eyes and sigh) At least it keeps him busy. But we've been to the hardware store a few times too many buying who knows what... :)


Behind our trailers are some swing sets that the kids play on...It's been beautiful outside this week!

Lincoln's sad that he's missing out on everything that's going on outside...(and that his nap was interrupted a little too early!)