Painting Project!!

What have we been up to lately? We have been painting, painting and painting some more!! The exterior of our house has been a work in progress for over a year now. With Jon's crazy work schedule and our travels we have not been able to get the whole entire house painted. So this week Jon had 6 days off and we have gone nowhere and have stayed home to work on the house. Woo hoo!!! :)

Jaeden and Levi think it's the coolest thing to scrape and paint the house, so they have been great helpers all throughout this process.

A honey-do project the kids and I worked was our porch. It needed fixing. A plank had broken after a large chunk of ice fell on it last year during the Winter. We finally got it fixed then we painted the porch to look more like a deck. Here it is:

We finished the East side of the house and are almost half-way done with the South side of the house. We worked on the West side of the house last year so that is done. So we are moving right along and pray that the weather holds so we can finish the job!

So far the weather has stayed in the 50's and is supposed to stay that way for another day or two. So we'll be up and at 'em again tomorrow!

Anyway, that is what we are up to this week! More pictures to come....next week!

Meeting with a realtor

A little break between photos of the MTC campus to show you some of the latest happenings going on around here. We met with a realtor today to sell our house. It seemed surreal to be signing the paperwork to sell the house! 

It seems like only yesterday, as young newlyweds we filled out the paperwork for this turn-of-the-century vintage house. Jon told me to try to contain my enthusiasm when we did the first walk through in this house so as to not let the realtor know I really liked the house. Haha, I have such a hard time keeping a straight face!

But Jon and I both fell in the love with this house, it just felt so homey and so...us! Here are a couple photos of our house throughout the years and throughout the seasons.

 Spring is one of the best times of year to enjoy our house. I am so grateful the previous owner had a green thumb and did some nice landscaping that was easy to keep up with...for the most part! ;)

Jaeden and Levi in the lawn when they were little bitty guys!  Lots of play time happened out in this yard.

The front of the house after getting a little "bit" of snow. All my boys love playing in piles of snow. For those of you living in warmer climates, you may be asking how we can stand these long cold Winters? The positive side to long, freezing, c-cold winters? At least their snow forts and snow men don't melt away right away. :)   

I really don't have a Fall picture in front of the house. But you get the idea. This is our house.This house has been good to us! 

Monday the "For Sale" sign goes up in the yard. The realtor will start advertising our house online and around town within a few days of getting all of the paperwork together.

Please pray that the Lord brings the right buyer at the right time for the right price. Thank you!

I have a few more MTC photos to share in the next post. Stay tuned! 

MTC Part 2

 Can't start a blog post without seeing this cute little face! I love his little dimples on his chubby cheeks. :)

Okay here are more photos from our trip to Camdenton, Missouri to the New Tribes Mission Missionary Training Center. We start with the administration building and the lounge room.

 Here is one of the many small classrooms they have set up. I like the idea of a "smaller" classroom size so I can ask a lot of questions and feel like we are more one-on-one with our teacher.

 Here is one of the classrooms we will spend most of our time studying in. Together! Jon and I are so excited about being in school and taking classes together! We can not only help each other out with our homework, but we can also flirt a little on the side! ;)

 The staff said the Winters are relatively mild in comparison to our long winters here in MN. This campus seems like it will be a great place to hang out and explore as a family. Here is another classroom and if I remember right they also eat here.

 These huts look like something for the kiddos to play with, but it's actually part of the tribal training they do for the adults. Learning how the huts are set up and what to expect.

The picture above shows a gathering place for students.A large part of the MTC's training is interacting with each other. Since the mission bases are a small community, learning how to get along with our fellow missionaries is a big part of our "education." So the campus is set up with a lot of spots for students to connect with eachother.

It seems these photos are not meant to be shared all at once. Uploading this many photos today took a while and the kids seem like they know when I want to take time on the computer. It's like sharks and the scent of blood. :) Oh well, you have more photos to look forward to in the next day or two to come.

Mission Training Center

We had the chance to travel to the New Tribes Mission: Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Roach, Missouri last week to take a tour of where we will be living and studying starting in January.

I know, I know, I write that very calmly, but yet it's too bad a blog can't display how we really feel inside. For a small idea of how Jon and I are feeling it goes something like this:  Wowie, it's exciting!! Yet a little nerve wracking at the same time! How in the world did all of this happen SO fast? Are we ready? Will the house sell? The Lord will provide and make a way if it's His will...but still WOWIE WOW!!!!  So there you have it, a small taste of our personal feelings. ;)

We had a nice guy named Adam who gave us the tour. It took about 2 hours to get through everything. The boys did okay. As well as can be expected for 3 rambunctious boys in the middle of the afternoon. And after being cooped up in an airplane for several hours. Lots of energy! We got through it though and let the boys hike up some touristy trails after our tour. Best.idea.EVER!!

In case you want a little more information and background on the New Tribes Mission MTC here are a few links for you to check out. Here is the blog link for MTC:  http://usa.ntm.org/go/training/training-center/
Or you can take a short video tour if you click right here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGmScupQxJc&noredirect=1

 I took photo after photo during our tour and I am trying to figure out how to upload an album as well as on Facebook and post the link on here. I don't think I can post all of the pictures on here, but I will add a few more so you get a sample of what we got to see.

Well that will be it for now. My little guys are getting restless. I guess I can only blog so much before everything falls apart around here.

Going Home

Jon's Grandmother, Verna, died September 10th at the age of 98 years old. We were able to attend her funeral. Grandma Verna had stopped eating and drinking several days before she died, so we knew it was a matter of time before she passed away. Jon's Mom sat by Grandma Verna's, (her mother-in-law) side daily, comforting her, praying and singing to her. Other family members visited during her last few days of life as well. There was scripture read aloud to her and hymns sang to her. Someone shared at her funeral, that after several hymns, Verna who had been lethargic and unresponsive managed to say out loud, "Amen."

She also said to my mom-in-law, "I'm going Home." And after hearing several family member's stories of Verna's life, they said Verna knew where she was going after she died.

The theme throughout her funeral was Verna's giving to others. Her niece shared that there were 3 things that made her think of Verna:

Bible: Because Verna had her Bible on her lap and read it constantly when anyone visited her in the nursing home. She knew scripture passages and liked to talk about them. She had a strong faith in God.

Beans: She had a large green bean garden that she grew to feed her growing boys. Rows and rows of them.  Verna had adopted Jon's father and his brothers, when her sister, Jon's Grandpa's first wife had died from breast cancer. Verna married her brother-in-law and adopted his sons. She stepped right in and took care of the boys treating them as if they were her own.

Behind-the-scenes: She was a quiet woman, but she was always giving to others. She liked to help her church's ladies group.And as a farmer's wife, she made hot meals for the guys in field, did the accounting, did parts runs to town and fed anyone who happened to stop by the farm. She did things behind-the-scenes and she liked it that way. She did not like attention on herself.

Jon shared that Grandma Verna was a giver and we can all learn from her. But Grandma would say, that it's not what she did on this earth that got her to heaven. She is in heaven because she believed that she was a sinner, she needed a savior and that God gave His only son to die for our sins on the cross and she asked Jesus to forgive her of her sins. She is in heaven because she accepted God's gift of salvation.

When it comes to dying, we can't take anything with us. But we can die with the knowledge that we shared the good news with others. The good news? Believing that Jesus' death on the cross to free us of our sins was so we can live with Him eternally (FOREVER) in Heaven after we die. It's that easy.

If you would like to read more about God's simple plan of salvation, please click here: http://www.godssimpleplan.org/gsps-english.html

We are blessed to have had Verna in our lives and her legacy of faith has been passed on to others.

Psalm 116:15,"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His faithful servants."

Motivation and coffee talk

Some might think this is an unusual post for a missions blog. But I see this as exciting LEAP, as far as changes go in this family! And seeing as how we still have a few months before anything mission related happens, I will be sharing some family updates. :)

As many of you know, Levi who is over 3 years old now has taken his sweet little time to be potty trained. He just has not had any interest-whatsoever.For the longest time he could stand there in training undies and wet them and run around like nothing happened. It did not faze him!

Well, recently he had become more aware of when he needed to go or had gone. But he would chicken out as soon as the little potty chair came out.  I figured, "Good, we are headed in the right direction. It might just be a baby step, but it's A STEP! I'm not going to push him." Veteran moms have told me, "He will do it when he is ready. Just give it time."

Yesterday Levi and I got to talking about him growing up and being a big boy. He was SO excited about the prospect of being grown up. His response? "Mom!!! I am going to be a man. Then I can drink COFFEE!!" When the subject of his growing up came up throughout the day, coffee was always mentioned. I guess men drink coffee!

And with his enthusiasm, volume and general zest for life, you would think he was already a coffee drinker! ;)

So yesterday we get home from church and Levi starts to do "the dance" and we ask if he'd like to try the potty chair. To our surprise he said yes. He usually gives up after a few minutes. But not today! He jumped up with excitement yelling, "I did it, I did it!" Sure enough, he had done it. Jon and I started jumping around with excitement and lots of cheering. We must all be coffee drinkers around here.

Last night we had a dry night. Today Levi is still gung-ho about visiting his froggy potty chair. One day I will tell him, over a cup of coffee, about his potty training story. And even show him this picture. Won't this cute picture be a fun one to share with him and his friends one day. ;)

Life Lately

What is going on in our lives lately? You would think we'd be scrambling around like crazy people getting ready to go to school in January. But so far, all is calm. We are filling out the rest of our application for NTMA and we plan a visit to the Mission Training Center base in a few weeks. How exciting to see where we'll be living during our school days!

We were able to get out this last weekend and go to a friend's wedding and visit family this weekend in Iowa. Good fun and a nice chance to get away from the work for a bit. We had a nice visit with all and a nice relaxing time!

Jon thinks he will be done with spraying this week...?? He is working his regular shifts then during his "times off" he is spraying crops or doing flight instruction. So if he IS actually done with the spraying for the year, we'll have a lot more time on our hands to get ready to go! Jon wants to finish painting the last 1/3 of the house and put our house up for sale. Thinking we'll go with a realtor to get our house sold, instead of trying to sell it on our own. Pray that the right buyer will come in God's perfect timing. And if no buyer, a possible renter--a good, solid, rent paying, responsible renter! :)

Meanwhile, I am holding down the fort with the kiddos. Changing diapers, feeding everyone, cleaning up around the house, laundry,dishes, taking walks, running errands, reading books, doing crafts, starting up kindergarten with Jaeden and trying to let the boys play outside for as long as possible. We only have a few weeks of this wonderful warmth left, we don't want to waste it!The picture above is an example of finding fun things to do with the kiddos. A friend (of 4 busy boys) suggested shaving cream as something to do for fun if the boys needed something to keep them busy. Such a good idea! The boys spent a long time playing with the stuff and drawing pictures in it, finally adding a bucket of water to the mix. They were in little boy heaven! It worked to throw them in the tub right after this, they were already lathered up and smelled pretty nice.

On our tour of the Mission's school in a few weeks, I will be taking pictures and posting them on here to give you a glimpse of where we will be living.

Phone call and loud, busy boys and not enough brain power to think of anything else to update you on.

Please feel free to ask any questions if you have any, about anything about our journey to the mission field.

A special, "Hello" [wave] to Kirsten L. who I received an email from with questions about our missionary goals and is now reading our blog and interested in missions herself! :) Say hello to your family for us!

Pray a special prayer for Jon's 98 year old Grandma who is in hospice and will be possibly dying soon. She has not had anything to drink and has been unresponsive (but still has a heartbeat) for the most part. Although I hear a report that she was awake today for a bit. She is a believer, pray that she dies comfortably and peacefully in the Lord's perfect timing.

Toys are starting to fly around here...until the next post, we thank you for your prayers!