Visiting the Great Grandparents

Today I went to meet my Aunt Genny in Cheney to pick up the cloth diaper covers that she finished sewing for me (the washable velcro wasn't so washable after all), but before I met with her for lunch, I stopped off to see Josiah's Great Grandma & Great Grandpa! We had a nice time visiting and they were just thrilled to see little baby again. They had seen him only twice before, once in the hospital after he was born and then at their 60th anniversary celebration in August (see post). Grandma was singing him a Norweigan song that she knew in this picture and Grandpa was all smiles as he was holding the little one. He also whistled a tune or two for baby and Josiah liked that a lot.


I also got to show them how he can roll over now (he actually did it on cue for them) as well as how he plays with his toys. His special favorite of late is his little driver's console toy. It makes sounds when you pull the gear shift, turn the key, honk the horn and so on. When he first started playing with it and "accidentally" pulled the gear shift his eyes would get really big wondering where that sound was coming from!

Baby Tour 2005

Today we took our first major trip with baby Josiah. We had promised our old church choir back in Bothell that we would come and visit them after the baby was born (as we moved right when we got pregnant). We stayed with one of our friends in the choir, Lana, for Friday and Saturday night and went to Northshore Baptist church on Sunday. We also got to visit the choir members on Saturday at their choir retreat and had lunch with them as well. It was great fun to see them all again and I think they enjoyed meeting our little one also.

After church on Sunday, we visited lots of friends on the way down to my parent's house. We saw Melissa, Darcy & her husband, & Abby for lunch at the Olive Garden. Then we went to my Great Aunt Gen's house in Seattle. We then went to see our friends Marc and Katie in Renton. Following that, we went and had dinner with Mara & Jeff in Bonney Lake. We ended our journey that day in Eatonville at my parent's house. It was a long day and all three of us were very tired.

On Monday, we went to Olympia to visit with our old friends from the Young Careers group (where David and I met). There we saw Brett, Katie, Charlie & Janice (who incidentally got engaged THAT day), Gina (my old roomie), and Betsy, Becky & Mari (teacher's from my old school). We also visited my old school before dinner that evening and I saw some of the kids all grown up that I used to teach.

On Tuesday, we went with my parents to the Puyallup fair. It was a nice day for it and we looked at all the craft exhibits and mainly just did a lot of visiting and fellowshipping with my parents.

It was Wednesday morning that we left back for home and we made it just in time for me to teach some lessons at 3:30. It was a long journey and both Josiah and I ended up getting sick for a week afterward. Lucikly, it was nothing too serious and we are better now.

Performing for SMTA

Today I performed the Fantasie Pastorale Hongrosie by Doppler on my flute for the Spokane Music Teacher's Association meeting. My friend Ann accompanied me on the piano. I had committed to do this last spring when I was pregnant and did most of my practicing then and just a little touch up work after the baby was born. I had performed this piece in college, so it was just a matter of reviewing it for this performance.

It was a good experience for me to get out there and perform again. It wasn't as intimidating either because most of the people there were piano teachers and weren't familiar with the piece. A couple of the teachers also teach flute though and did know the piece and I think they enjoyed hearing it.

The Spokane Music Teachers Association (http://www.midilab.com/smta/default.asp) has been a good resource for me. I have met a lot of nice people and have picked up some new tricks and techniques for teaching the piano along the way.

Teaching Sunday School

Due to sharing my testimony for church, the Sunday School director called me to see if I would be willing to teach the 3rd grade Sunday School class. She asked me to pray about it and get back to her. I knew that I would be gone for at least a couple of weekends and told her that, but she said there were 3 substitute teachers this year and so it would be OK if I had to leave a couple of times.
As it turned out, it was a great opportunity for me to serve in the church and another lady named Dionne was also interested and so she and I are team teaching the 3rd graders. This works out nicely for the times I need to be gone and for her when she needs to be gone too.

We are teaching them about Joseph and are doing a precept study for children by Kay Arthur. It is pretty in depth for 3rd graders, but it is really fun to teach and I think we will all learn a lot about what God can teach us through Joseph's life.

I got really creative and cut out a multi-colored tunic to hang on the wall and then took each of the kid's pictures and asked them some basic questions and posted these on the tunic. I also made each of them some nametags from the same material (glued onto tagboard) in the shape of a tunic as well. It was really fun to do. Dionne designed a rewards system where the kids get stickers each week for attendance, bringing their book, completing the lesson during the week, memory verse and bringing a new friend. This has proven to be a great motivator for the kids as they get a piece of candy every 5th sticker and will get a full size candy bar after 25 stickers.

Teaching this first day was really rewarding and I am looking forward to getting to know these kids better and learning more about God's word myself through on this journey!

D & H Become Members at Valley Fourth Memorial

David and I became members of our church today along with around 10 other people. We all attended a class to learn more about our church as well as what they stand for and believe in. It was also a neat way to meet other people who are new to the church as well as get to know the senior pastor.

Normally, people are asked to give their testimony when becoming members in front of the congregation, but in the past many people decide not to do so. This time we were all "strongly encouraged" to do so since the elders of the churh as well as Pastor John thought it would benefit the congregation to hear about how God has worked in our lives.

David and I wrote out our testimonies to read & then when we discovered we were the only ones with a written script, David improvised his testimony. I am not good at improvising, and so I read mine and of course started crying in the middle of it, true to form!

Everyone before me that shared was either a pastor's kid or a missionary's kid and so before I spoke Pastor John jokingly said, "Didn't you know that to be become a member here at Valley Fourth Memorial that you have to be from a Pastor or a Missionary's family?" Everyone laughed and then I said, "And to follow the trend, I also am a Pastor's kid!" The man that spoke after me said, "I hate to break this pattern, but I didn't grow up in a nice Christian family like these folks." Pastor John then pretended that he wasn't going to become a member after all and again we all laughed.

As a side note, becoming a member of the church has nothing to do with our salvation into the Kingdom of God, rather it is just a public commitment to serve in our church and be under the leadership of our Pastor there. David and I both do not like to be pigeon holed into a specific denomination, but rather go to churches that preach what the Bible says and hope to grow spritually wherever we are planted.