A Smattering of Pictures: Beds, A Tooth, and Some Flowers

In June, Kirk and I were talking about sleeping arrangements when the family came. We started discussing moving the children around. Originally, my youngest son had his own room and slept in a crib. My daughter and middle son shared a room. We were discussing getting bunk beds for the boys and giving my daughter her own room. During the hunt for a bunk bed, my husband found theme beds and he thought he could do that. So he went to work and in about a week and after spending around $250 for both beds combined, my sons have a fort and my daughter has a castle to sleep in. The kids are very excited about their beds. Kirk is pretty handy!


The day that Kirk left for CIY, my daughter lost her second tooth. She wanted to keep this one and didn't want to give it to the tooth fairy. I guess she doesn't trust the tooth fairy on account that the fairy forgot to give money for the last tooth on the very first night.

I really wanted to go to CIY this year with the group. This is the 3rd year in a row that I haven't gone and I just had a desire to go, but Kirk and I decided that it costs too much money to take the kids along. My 2 older children would cost over $100 apiece, so I stayed home. Much to my surprise, on Wednesday Kirk sent me flowers. I read the card, it said, "HA HA, Love from CIY" At first I didn't think anything about the card, but later that night a thought came to me - could he mean "ha ha I am at CIY and you are not"? I called him and asked him -what do you think his answer was? I guess I will let you decide if Kirk could really be so mean, maybe you should ask him.

Weekly Bible Reading Update

I am still behind. I thought I could read on my vacation, it would have been great to read God's Word as I sat in nature, but with 3 little ones to keep track of, I just didn't get it done. July 24th's reading, Romans 8:38-39 NLT, I love this passage.

38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[a] neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Today I hope that you, a Christ-follower, are convinced that nothing can separate you from God's love. If you aren't a Christ-follower, please know that there is a love so great that you can possess. All you have to do is choose to believe that Jesus is God's Son and that He was sent to earth to save us all from our sins, He died on a cross, and rose again. I think that you are in need of that kind of love.

I have been playing around with this movie maker. These are the pictures from our camping trip. Enjoy!

Lake Alpine

Kirk jumped off the side of this little island. He said that it was about a 20 foot drop. The video was taken by my daughter and she held it side ways, so you need to tilt your head a bit.

Weekly Bible Reading Update

I am 2 days behind. I have to tell you that at the moment it is a little repetitive. I am in 1st Chronicles, which somewhat repeats what I read in 1st Kings. Besides that, this Bible had me read the whole book of Psalms and now I am repeating that. I am in the book of Romans and since I have been reading that I have been inspired to do a study on that book. I don't think I have done much study in Romans before. So that is where I am getting the verse today, The July 21st reading, Romans 7:6. "But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit."

I have been posting a lot lately, so this probably will be my last post for the week. We are planning a camping trip with our little ones, so it will be interesting to see how that goes. I hope that you have a great day and I want to encourage you to serve God by "living in the Spirit".

The Steele Family Visit: The Last Days

Sunday, we went to church. Monday, Tom and Suzi's family went to San Francisco. It sounds like they had a great time. My kids enjoyed spending the day with Grandma and Grandpa. I baked a cherry pie for dad (I didn't send him a card for Father's Day.) I am sorry to say, but we didn't share that pie with Tommy and Suzi, we ate it all before they got back. The consensus was that my crust was flakier and if I would have entered that pie in the contest it would have won. (I think that my other pie should have won anyway.)

Tuesday was the last day. The kids and Tommy made sure that they got one more swim in before they left. Which was nice for those who were packing, because the kids were busy doing something else and not bothering them.

The Grandparents with the 5 best grandchildren in the world.

It was also a blessing that Tom and Suzi came out and we are so glad that they did. It is hard to say good bye, because we aren't for sure when we will see everyone again. Deacon started crying, saying he didn't want Grandma to go, which was hard on Grandma. I would like to say that they had an uneventful trip home, but it was rough. They didn't make back to Omaha until 3 something in the morning. Thanks for a good time Grandma and Grandpa, you are such a blessing to us.

The Steele Family Visit: The 4th and 5th of July

We finally took that family picture. It is blurry, I think because of the setting on Mom's camera. We didn't discover that until later. We celebrated the 4th at the house. I think that the kids and my brothers went swimming almost all day. Our friends, Kim and Lance Marshall came over, so we had an extra full house. We grilled out for both meals, Kirk made ribs for supper and Kim brought some super yummy frog eyed salad. Our youth group runs a fireworks booth, so we purchased a bunch of fireworks for Friday evening.



On the 5th, Paul and Alyssa had to leave. They left early in the morning. It is always sad when someone has to leave early. I didn't think that Paul was going to come at all, so it was a blessing anyway. It was a double blessing for Alyssa to come.
My niece found the herd of snails that live in my front yard. I think that she wanted to keep one.

That night we had a gathering at the church. I was a little stressed, because Kirk was busy all evening and I had to figure out what was going on. Besides that, I had decided to enter a pie into the pie contest (That meant baking 2 identical pies, one to be tasted and one to be auctioned.) I didn't get pictures of it, but I got 2nd place and my dad won my pie at auction. I think he paid $16. There was music and food and a haywagon ride. When it got dark they shot off fireworks.Lance and my youngest on the wagon ride.

My 2 boys enjoying their ice cream.

My daughter writing her name with a sparkler. Did you know you could do that?

Kim and my boys watching the fireworks.

The fireworks

Steele Family Trip:Yosemite

On Thursday we traveled to Yosemite. It is about a 2 hour drive and even though we went the best way, I was feeling a little sickish when we got there, and I rode in the front seat. After getting to the park, we wanted to eat our picnic lunch. That was the first stop that we made. As you can see, my youngest needed a ride to the picnic spot.

We ate near the river. Of course the kids wanted to check it out. My daughter thought that maybe she found some gold, that is what they are doing with Kirk in the picture.

This is the Red Chapel located in the park. That is the next place we stopped. I didn't get a picture of it, so I pulled one off the web. The last time we went to Yosemite, the chapel was locked. It was open this time, so we went in for a peek.

We tried to get all the kids kneeling on the prayer kneeler thingy (I don't know what they are called.) We couldn't get them to do it all at the same time. You should have heard me, (looking back at it I just laugh,) in a very stern voice I was saying, "GET OVER THERE AND PRAY." I am still frustrated that I couldn't get the picture perfect. Oh well.
Since we were in a chapel, it is close to our 10 year anniversary, and my brother Tommy was our minister, we did a "sorta" renewing of our vows in the red chapel.

The kids loved finding sticks that they could use for hiking.


My nephew wasn't too keen on seeing any bears. Mom saw this sign and made him take a picture next too it. But what do you know........


we saw a bear! Okay, it was just a baby bear. At first we were wondering where the mom might be, but we decided that the bear didn't look too healthy. Maybe it had been on it's own for awhile - at least we hoped.

Some deer that Kirk and I found let us get pretty close to them to take this picture.

We hiked all the way up to Crystal Lake, to find that it was not a lake, but a creek that you could wade in. I am guessing that it is usually more full and looks more like a lake during the rainy season. Another reason could be that we are in a drought this summer. Boy, was that water cold! (By the way, if you look real close, you can see Kirk's mohawk. I think this is the only picture I have of that.)

This is a better picture of what we found of Crystal lake. This is a picture of Tommy and the girls. The girls are busy looking for rocks. My camera was especially acting up on this trip, so I didn't get many great pictures. We were suppose to take a family shot at one of the waterfalls, by the time we got to the waterfall, the 3 youngest members of our family were asleep and it was still 1/2 mile hike to the waterfall. Needless to say, we didn't get a family picture taken that day. It was a great trip, but it was so nice to crash when we got home that night.

The Steele Family Visit: Swimming

The house that we rent has a pool. We have enjoyed using it, especially the kids. We have been able to use it for our ministry - parties with the youth or for baptisms. (We don't have a baptistry in the church.) One of the first things that the family did when they got to the house was to go swimming. We went swimming almost everyday. I think everyone went at least once. I didn't get a ton of pictures on this trip because my camera was giving me fits, but Mom is sharing (hopefully Suzi too).

Jumping In!

Come On Alex, go! The kids loved to go down the slide. I think my brothers and dad did too!

Hey sis!

Why is it so fun to splash?

I will post more family pictures next time!

Communion Devotion July 2008

When I worked as summer intern for Christ In Youth the interns got an allotment of money to use for our meals throughout the summer. I remember eating at some real nice places on a regular basis. Where we were eating our next meal was always a topic of discussion. We would just be getting done with lunch and we would be talking about where we were going to eat supper. The same thing happened when my family from Iowa visited a couple weeks ago. My mom and I were always talking about what we were going to eat next because feeding 13 people for about a week’s time is quite a production.

There is no denying it, eating brings people together. It doesn’t matter what you are eating, but sitting around the table with good friends and family is a pleasure and can sometimes last for hours. That is called fellowship.

We as Christians also partake in a meal called communion. In many ways it is a solemn meal, remembering what Christ did for us. That His body was broken and His blood was shed so that each one of us can have forgiveness of our sins and live eternally with Him in heaven if we so choose. As we take communion it should be very personal, but at the same time it is to bring us together as brothers and sisters in Christ for we have a commonality of purpose. That is why it is so important to be in church, to share in the Lord’s Supper together.

Acts 2:42 says this of the early church, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread (in other words, communion) and to prayer.”

As you take communion today, remember what Christ did for you on the Cross, but also consider the common purpose that we all share and take joy in that.

The Truck

For those of you who don't know, my husband has been restoring and redesigning this old '62 (I think) Ford pick-up. When he got it, I thought it was a good idea, because it was something that he has always wanted to do and it would keep him out of trouble. There are times when he works on it so much, he doesn't participate with the family and that makes me a bit grumpy. He has been working on it for 2 years. He is getting closer to being done, but he still has interior work to do and then he needs to paint it.

See, sometimes my kids like each other.

I caught this precious Father and Son moment. I was needing to give him a bath before bedtime and my other two were already taking theirs. So when I walk out to the garage, this is what I see. Very cute!

My story ends with this, a '62 Ford Galaxie. My husband has apparently never learned the lesson of, "finish one project before you start another." He found this car and he felt like it was in great condition and that he may not find another one like it. He has been admiring this kind of car, but his friend Tommy and his wife told him that he shouldn't buy it, but he did. The problem is that I can't say no to this man and he ended up convincing me that it was a good idea. Time will tell this story. I am just afraid of what the neighbors are saying about us because not only do we have 1 old truck, we have 2! Kirk bought a second truck last year for parts. So we have 2 trucks, 1 car, and one minivan and the only car I want to drive is the minivan. Kirk sometimes drives one of the trucks to work on the days I need the van. What am I going to do with him? Love him, but if he buys one more car before getting rid of what we already have, we will be in need of a good counselor.

The Hair Cuts

Kirk challenged the kids at Vacation Bible School that if they could raise $1100 that he and his boys would get mohawks. They raised that amount, which is great and my boys needed a haircut anyway. For whatever reason, I didn't get a picture of Kirk's mohawk, just his boys.

Vacation Bible School - Power Lab

I am behind on pictures. Since my husband is gone, I probably will take this week to catch up on old news. We had a great week of VBS, and we had more kids than last year.

Kirk designed t-shirts and I wrote my kids' names on theirs. Aren't they cute! It was my 2 year old's first time going to class. He usually has been in the nursery. He is growing up!

The lesson that I taught this night was about Peter walking on the water. They had to try to walk on cornstarch and water. If they walked fast they wouldn't sink, if they stopped, they would start to sink. It was suppose to take 24 boxes of cornstarch, but because of my mess up, it took 30.

Kirk led the singing for VBS. His name was Professor Wigglesworth and the kids loved his hair and flashy glasses.

Kirk, with the help of a few volunteers, made the set.

The last night of VBS, the highschool kids ran up on stage and helped Kirk with the singing.

I had to video Kirk leading songs. It was real dark in there, so you can't see his face, but the guy jumping around is Kirk. It is a long video, so after the song ends, feel free to shut it off. Kirk starts talking and I let the camera run probably longer than I should have.

Why buy expensive toys?

My friend Angi sent this email to me. Just try not to smile when you see this.

Weekly Bible Reading Update

I missed last week's update because my computer was down, but I wouldn't have had much to report because I was about a whole week behind. After my family left, I caught up in my One Year Bible, except today I am a day behind. Today, I read July 13th. The Romans passage cut me to the heart. I was only going to quote a part of it, but I decided to post the entire passage.

Romans 1:18-32 New Living Translation

18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.^[a] 19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.

28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

That passage just makes me think of the society that we live in and how we accept the foolishness that is going on around us. That we foolishly watch T.V. shows and movies that shouldn't be acceptable to us. That we gossip easily and don't keep our promises. Maybe we are being as foolish as those who say they don't believe in God.

Keep Kirk and the youth group in your prayers - they are at CIY this week. I hope that they come back refreshed, energized, and encourage to MOVE! (CIY's theme)

27 Dresses

My internet is back up and running. It didn't take as long as I thought it would.

I just got done watching "27 Dresses." I can't stop thinking about it. I am a sucker for "chic flicks." Of course I shed a tear - Why am I so sentimental? Truthfully, they could have done without the bad language and the one night stand. The part that got me was the discussion of the groom's expression as the bride starts to walk down the aisle. Everyone usually stands and they all look at the bride, but that is the time to look at the groom. That is the time to get a good idea about what the groom is thinking. The movie ended with a wedding, of course focusing on the groom at the exact moment and he does what is expected of him - the look of joy and anticipation and awe. So when the movie ended and I sighed a big sigh, you know where my thoughts went? I wondered about the look on Kirk's face when I came down the aisle. BAD, BAD, BAD idea! I try to fix the actor's look to Kirk's face, but that just made him look like the actor and not Kirk. My final conclusion is that I can' t remember and it is probably better that I don't. Wouldn't that be terrible if he wore a confused expression or a look of horror? Good thing a marriage isn't built on the wedding. It takes years and years of confused and horrified looks to build a good marriage. We are still working on it. Almost 10 years down. Were you at my wedding? Do you remember Kirk's face? Probably best that you lie.

Hey Everybody!

This is a quick note to tell you that my internet is down and it won't be back on until next week. I am posting from my husband's office. I am caught up on my Bible reading - yeah me! I had a whole week to read after my family left. I will post more later. Love you!