Hiatus

I wanted to get caught up with blogging today because our moving truck is coming a week from tomorrow!!  We are slowly dismantling our house to pack it up and I'm not sure when the desktop computer will be next.  I also don't know when it will ultimately get hooked back up and am worried with Thanksgiving and then Christmas following the move, that I may not be back to the blogging board for a while.  I know I will catch up at some point, but wanted to explain the hiatus in advance.  It's exciting to think that the next time I enter a blog post, we will be settled in our new home!!!  Hooray!!

We Have a New Pastor!

Elizabeth and Don, Jane, David, Ann, Me, Billy, David,
Kim, Rick, and Matt

For the past year, I have been a member of the Pastor Search Team at our church.  We started in October of 2011 with the grueling and difficult task of ultimately recommending a pastor for the church to call as it's new senior minister.  I was so very honored to be selected for this duty and felt blessed for the opportunity.  I owe much to my sweet hubby who spent many hours playing Daddy-daycare as the team often had weekly 2-3 hour meetings and multiple out-of-town trips.  Looking back over the past year, I can say now that it truly was one of the most spiritually rewarding experiences of my life.  The nine-member team gelled like I have never witnessed a team gel before and we relied on prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit throughout the process.  We witnessed God in action through events that took place along the way and knew His hand was in all of it.  I have come to admire, respect, and love the other eight members of this team and am a bit sad that we will not be spending nearly as much time together in the future.
It was with excitement, pride, peace, and relief that we presented Dr. Don Gordon to our church this past weekend to be called as our new pastor.  We are all giddy with anticipation and have so much hope for what the future brings with him leading us.  After a long but successful presentation weekend, the church voted 285 to 1 to call Don as our new pastor beginning the first of January.
I cannot wait for what is in store for our church.  And I especially can't wait for the rest of the congregation to get to know Don and discover how inspiring he is.  He is absolutely the perfect person to lead our church into the next decade and beyond.  God is good!

Reading to Daddy

Halloween!

This year, Jack was a lion ("rooaar!") and Anna, at the last minute, decided to be Cinderalla again.  On Halloween late afternoon, we headed over to Nannie and Pops' so they could see the kids in their costumes.  

Such a cute little lion!

Then we walked over to trick-or-treat at Aunt Erin's.

 After a speedy dinner back at the house, we raced out into the neighborhood to see some friends.

Anna with Sophie and Ellie

Jack shocked us this year.  Anna at his age might have trick-or-treated at 5 houses, then she was done.  We kept waiting for Jack to be done, but he was loving it!  Once he figured out he got candy in his bucket, he was all about it.  He would run from house to house and got frustrated that he couldn't keep up with Anna.  And towards bedtime, Anna was the one to say she was tired and ready to stop.  I bet so--you both ran all over two neighborhoods!

Ready for a lollipop!

Proud of her loot!