Our Days

Chilly October

2008-10-29T12:54:00.002-06:00

Goodness...it has been rather brisk in good 'ol Southwest Missouri the past few days! I'm wondering if this is a preview of the winter to come...I'm holding out for some serious snow(NOT ice)as it's been a good long time since we've had anything worth getting out and playing in. Since I'm planning for snow, I've begun a new knitting project...not giving up on the old one, but just needed a new challenge. My good friend, and amazing knitter, Sarah Kerner (see her cool blog here)helped me to get started actually knitting in the round using the "magic loop" technique. I think I'm actually going to end up with a hat! I'll keep you posted, and although we all know I'm the WORST about getting pictures posted, I promise to try to get something up here soon.

Speaking of pictures...on Sunday, we took Sylvie out with our new friend Alex Crowder to get some pictures. Alex is the girlfriend of Brian Fitzgerald, a guy Darrell and I play with in our praise band at church. She is an absolutely AMAZING photographer, and I hired her to do some fall pictures of just Sylvie. You can see a sneak preview of 3 of them here. Not to brag, but I just think we have the most beautiful daughter (and handsome son too!!). God has blessed us with a wonderful family.

Projects at work are continuing and multiplying. Still exciting work, although sometimes overwhelming. I'm really looking forward to 2009 and all it will bring in terms of beginnings and progress.

Until later!

Fall, Autumn...whatever

2008-10-09T16:23:00.003-06:00

I think this may be my favorite season of the year, and hence, I've taken up my walking quest again. If you know me, you know that this walking thing comes and goes for me, but I'm really trying to keep it as a somewhat regular part of my routine as it tends to really make me a happier person. At any rate, I walked today, 2nd time this week, and it felt good. Lately I've changed up my routine a bit and have been bringing my walking clothes to work with me so that I can take long walks around the neighborhood where I spent most of my growing-up years. It's been fun to reacquaint myself with the streets and houses that were once so familiar to me.

Things at work are good...busy and good. It's been fun to see people begin to step out and seek areas to serve as a result of our Revealed study, and I am praying the trend continues. I really get a lot of joy out of watching people connect, whether it be in small groups, service teams, whatever...it's neat to watch them find a home here and begin to grow in their faith.

Well...it's off to an evening meeting for me, and then the Haase tradition - Thursday Chinese Night!! Yeah!!!

Fun Crazy Week

2008-09-21T18:22:00.002-06:00

This past week started off bittersweet, but actually went on to be a lot of fun, and a great week of catching up, recharging, and getting inspired to continue with this amazing, but challenging job in front of me. The funeral for my sweet friend's dad was last weekend. It was a beautiful service, and a chance for many of us to catch up who had not seen each other in a number of years. Saturday evening, Dyke, Aaron, Julie, Cathy, and I all met for drinks and to look over some OLD pictures from back in the day. It was a really wonderful time and so good to see these people again. They were such a huge part of my childhood/teenage years, and it brought back many good memories.

On Tuesday, Matt Kerner, Tim Smith, Angela Robinett and I all jetted off to South Bend, Indiana for the annual Innovate conference at GCC. It was awesome, as expected, and it was also GREAT to just relax and laugh with these 3 other crazy people who I adore. We had some funny experiences (Tim and I stuck on the runway in Chicago for an hour and a half with a guy from Holland and a priest...you had to be there; and getting lost a million times with Kerner who supposedly has the "spiritual gift" of direction). I missed Darrell and the kids, but it just felt good to not be responsible for anyone other than myself for a few days.

Now it's back to work, but I'm excited to see what's in store. It feels like things around here (Schweitzer) are on the brink of change....in a good way. I feel very blessed to be here.

Another Day...

2008-09-08T17:33:00.002-06:00

Well...today was the day. The father of one of my closest childhood/teenage friends passed away. He was diagnosed just a few months ago with a very aggressive cancer, and although they tried a couple of attempts at treatment, it was quickly obvious that nothing was going to achieve any kind of a cure. My friend, Alek, was in town a little over week ago to see his dad, and we met for a drink. I hadn't seen him in probably 15+ years, although I had seen his parents fairly regularly over the years. The whole thing has really thrown me into the past. I have vivid memories of spending time at the Webster house...especially on snow days when my mom was at work and his mom was at home. I remember playing in the snow for hours and then coming in to warm up and his mom making hot chocolate for us. I can remember being there when his dad would come home from work, and he always just included me as though I were a part of their family (and I craved being a part of a "normal" family like that when I was a kid). Then there were all the times when we were in high school, and I would spend hours talking to Alek on the phone or hanging out at his house. He was like a brother to me, and his parents felt like family to me too. It's just so strange to think about his dad being gone. It just reminds me of how time is passing so quickly, and how this is the kind of stuff all of us have to face. I'm not quite sure what all of the lessons have been in this crazy, difficult year of being 39, but I hope soon I can look at all of this and make some kind of sense out of it, or at least some kind of peace.

Happy Birthday Jacob!

2008-08-27T09:55:00.006-06:00

It's official....my baby son is now 16 years old. It's so strange I can hardly believe it. I always thought "older" people were so goofy when they talked about how
time speeds up the older you get, but it's honestly true. We had a weekend-long celebration, starting with dinner at Gilardi's on Friday night. Grandad then surprised Jacob at home by passing on his 2003 Alero to him. Jacob was completely surprised, and completely thrilled. Dad (Grandad) gave him a good talk about being responsible, etc., and Jacob seemed to take it very seriously....at least we hope.

On Saturday, Darrell, Jacob, and Grandpa went to the shooting range so Jacob could try out his Uncle Jeff's shotgun, and then we all met up later at home for cake.

MeMe and Dave took us all to lunch at Red Lobster on Sunday afternoon, and on his actual birthday (August 25th), Jacob started his sophomore year.

Today will be attempt #1 at obtaining the coveted driver's license. I am picking him up after school to take him to Ozark (we hear Springfield is rather difficult). I am hopeful this will be the first and only try necessary as it will be much more convenient for Jacob to get himself to school at 6:15 a.m. for cross country practice!

Fall is Coming

2008-08-19T13:52:00.002-06:00

I cannot believe this is the last official week of summer! But, as usual, I'm actually kind of looking forward to fall. The kids start school next Monday, and I think they're both actually ready. I'm certainly ready! With this being my first year working at the church, I'm learning the ebb and flow of things a little, and realizing that I really should've taken time off during July when things were slow. Things are certainly not slow now...yesterday was an unbelievable day with back to back things that just kept coming up and needing to be dealt with. The biggest mistake I made was making a "to do" list when I got here yesterday morning. Needless to say, I didn't get very far with that. Today has been somewhat better.

I'm really looking forward to this conference I'm going to in a couple of weeks (Innovate 2008). I was (and still am) hoping to take someone in the church with me who might be interested in stepping up to lead in the hospitality ministry, but so far, no one has become apparent. At this point, it'll be me, Matt, and Tim going....guess I'm a little outnumbered, but I can usually hold my own! I've just decided if we don't find someone else to go, I'll use this as a time to get recharged and come back with hopefully some new ideas that will be well received.

All for now!

VBS is Complete!

2008-07-31T17:02:00.002-06:00

Tonight's the finale of VBS at Schweitzer for 2008, and it really was a fun time. The 2nd graders were a lot of fun, and other than having to play nurse to one of the kindergartners who fell down, split her lip, and was just about to pass out from hyperventilation, I don't think we had any major catastrophes. I'm a little bit tired, but really glad I got to participate this year.

I can hardly believe there are only 3 more weeks until school starts! Where on earth did summer go? I called and got details about car insurance for Jacob, and heard pretty much what I expected to hear. It's certainly not cheap, but we'll figure it out somehow (send donations to 4219 S. Linden....: )).

Today is my mom's birthday. I called her at work and we chatted and made plans to have dinner tomorrow night at Argentina Steak House which should be fun. I'm really grateful to have a relatively young mom. My sweet friend Paula is in the midst of walking her mom through end-of-life issues, and I can see the truly excruciating experience it is. Not to say that I don't do my share of worrying about having to do this for my parents in the future, but I am glad I (hopefully) can put it off for a few more years. Heck, my dad is in better shape than I am, or ever have been for that matter!

Well...off to gather the 2nd graders for the program!

Until later.

Day One Complete

2008-07-28T14:00:00.003-06:00

Today was the start of Schweitzer's Vacation Bible School, and I had the daunting task of "guiding" 15 second graders from station to station all morning. Actually, they were really well-behaved, and seemed to have a good time. My last experience with this rather large event was several years ago when I took on the 4-year-olds, and I can honestly say that I'll take second grade ANY day over that! I even managed to talk Jacob into helping out, and he and several of the other youth group kids performed crazy experiments involving soda bottles and Mentos out on the lawn for the younger kids to watch. Three more days to go - we'll see how it all turns out!

Zak and I are still working on the videos for a new class we will be offering at church this fall. This has been a big project so far, and I honestly don't know what I would've done without Zak's great technical ability and creativity. We are VERY lucky to have him.

That's all for now! Until later!

Midsummer

2008-07-24T11:19:00.002-06:00

I can hardly believe that summer is over halfway finished! Time just moves entirely too quickly. This has been a strange summer in so many ways....many people have passed away (my neighbor, Jim Metz; Fred Miller to name a few), and others have gotten bad news of horrible health diagnoses. It also seems to be the summer of several of my friends deciding to call it quits with their marriages or experiencing extremely rough patches in their relationships. It's just been a little rough around the edges to say the least. Work is going fairly well....lots of planning and preparing for fall. I'm trying to stay excited about things, but sometimes it just feels like work.

The kids' schedules have finally settled down a bit. Baseball is over, and Jacob had a good year. Playing in the Freshman Legion Allstar game was definitely a highlight. Sylvie had a lot of fun swimming on the Southern Hills swim team this year and managed to place 2nd (out of 62 7 and 8-year-old girls!) in the breaststroke at the Greene County Swim Meet. I will post pics later.

My next goal is to try to find some time to truly relax and enjoy the rest of summer. We've been trying to find time to plan a trip to Chicago to visit some family and have some fun, but so far have not been very successful. It's also time to start planning something exciting for Jacob's 16th birthday (which falls on the first day of school!). I'm hopeful that some happy times are ahead.

2008-05-22T11:16:00.003-06:00

It's strange really the way events can bring life into perspective. I woke up this morning and was watching the news only to discover that the 5-year-old daughter of one of my favorite singers, Steven Curtis Chapman, had been killed in a horrific accident yesterday afternoon in the driveway of their home (www.stevencurtischapman.com). I'm sure many of you are familiar with this popular singer, but for those of you who aren't, he is one of the true pioneers of contemporary Christian music, and was instrumental in drawing me in to this genre at a time when I had really decided Christian music was irrelevant and unappealing. Not only is his musical gift inspiring, he has also been a voice for the past several years in the realm of foreign adoption, having begun a foundation (www.shaohannahshope.org) to help defray expenses for those pursuing this path for creating family.

Life truly moves so very quickly. Days come and go, kids grow up - we do our work, enjoy some free time (not enough), and way too often miss completely all of the little wonderful things that make life so amazing. I can't even begin to put myself in the shoes of the Chapman family today. The very idea of it brings immediate tears to my eyes and makes me want to run to my children and hold onto them. The thing is, though, that holding them doesn't guarantee that nothing bad will ever happen to them - and I'm reminded so vividly that none of us really have anything more than just the moments right in front of us, and even those can be tenuous at times.

I'm sorry to sound so philosophical and melancholy, and please know that I certainly realize that unthinkable things happen to people every day....just not always to those who are so visible in a public way. I only hope that I can do my best to not waste any time overthinking the future or spending too much time remembering the past with rosy glasses, and try instead to relish this gift of now that I have been given --- because it truly is a gift.

It's Winter...no it's Spring...no it's Winter!!! Ahhh!!!!

2008-03-02T18:29:00.004-06:00

My desire for a big snow storm where I can't leave the house for days and can stay in my pj's by the fire has finally left....it was like 70 degrees yesterday and today....I got outside, enjoyed the sunshine, began having spring fever....and now, you guessed it, they're predicting the snowstorm to beat all snowstorms!! Since I have absolutely ZERO faith in the KY3 Stormteam (and "chief meteorologist Ron Hurst"), I will believe it when I see it, but it just figures that right when I start to get in the mood for warmth, here comes the snow. Oh well.

Anyway, it's been a really busy and fun couple of weeks. Last weekend, Darrell and I hosted a dinner at our house for us and 3 other couples. This was through our church/Ozarks Marriage Matters, and was just basically a casual dinner between couples to have fun and talk about being married, etc. We knew the other 3 couples, but they didn't know each other, so it was kind of fun to see them all interact. Everyone brought their wedding albums and we had fun telling stories about our wedding days and laughing at how ridiculously young we all looked (Darrell in particular who looked like he was about 12 when we got married!), although I don't think anyone could beat the Muzinger's lovely plaid taffeta bridesmaid dresses. Classic 70's!!

The next morning, we went with a group from church down to The Kitchen to work in the warehouse and help in the kitchen for the lunch service. This was a really neat experience because the group that ended up going were, for the most part, fairly new to our church. When we got there, we thought we would all be working in the warehouse, but then they needed some help in the kitchen, so a few of us headed over there. One of the families that went with us used to be in the restaurant business, and they were able to walk in and basically handle making lunch for all of these people. The Kitchen manager was thrilled because apparently they have a lot of trouble finding helpers that actually know how to cook and use the professional equipment. If we hadn't been there, they would've only had 2 people to get the whole place ready for the lunch crowd. It really felt like a God thing. Not being talented at, well, basically anything, I picked up a bucket and rag and cleaned everything I could find, and then did windows. I knew being germophobic would come in handy someday!! Anyway, it was fun, and it was really inspiring to see the spark go off in these people who clearly have a heart for service. This kind of thing really needs to happen more often.

That took us to this last week which was Glendale baseball tryouts all week long. Jacob did great and found out on Friday that he is, in fact, an official Glendale Falcon baseball player!! Yeah!! We are so excited for him, and can't wait for the season to start.

Friday night, we went and saw the Newsboys in concert. I was honestly so tired, I really considered not going, but since we had already bought the tickets, I went ahead and went, and it ended up being a good show. I have to say that Rush of Fools, who opened for them, was really the highlight of the evening for me. They had a pretty good first opening band, then a kind of weird second one, then Rush of Fools. Newsboys did great, but they didn't really play all that many songs. The lead singer preached for a fairly long time in the middle, and his message was good, but I thought it got a little long for a concert. I would've liked to have heard more of their songs since they have so many.

Anyway...now it's Sunday night again...another week about to begin.

Until later!

Bad, bad updater

2008-02-19T13:30:00.002-06:00

Ok...so I'm the worst journaler/blogger person of all time. But I'm working through this, and am truly going to try to get better. I think there needs to be a support group for "undisciplined blog updaters"...yes, I am coining that title myself.

So....life has changed in the past, um, well, 6 months. Kids are growing, more ice storms have occurred, the generator has actually been used a second time (I swore this would not occur when it was purchased), and I completely changed career paths in January. After much prayer, thought, and a bit of teeth gnashing, I left my beloved job at The Women's Center to begin a journey working full-time in a new position at Schweitzer. This was actually a bit on the frightening side for me, and not without a lot of questioning and uncertainty. Just ask Darrell....I think if he heard one more "are you sure I'm doing the right thing" from me, he was going to either take off for the nearest forest or tie me up and lock me in the closet. Luckily, we made it through, and the good news is that this has been one of the most exciting, neatest, greatest changes I've ever experienced. God is really amazing in the way he prepares us for things and sets them in front of us at just the right moment. This job has been a true testament to that fact so far.

My goal is to really try to maintain this journal...more for myself than anything...so that I can hopefully document and learn from my challenges, successes, mistakes, etc. along the way. The wild thing about occupying a brand new position is that there is no precedent for how it is to be done. This is not completely unfamiliar territory to me as I really was fortunate to be able to "create" my last position as well, but if I've learned one thing clearly it is this....It is extremely beneficial to keep track of what works and what doesn't in order to continue to progress forward.

If any of you are reading, I'm charging you with holding me accountable to keep my thoughts recorded. Don't hesitate to hound me!

Until next time...

Summer

2007-08-12T20:22:00.001-06:00

So, I realize I have not "journaled" for the ENTIRE summer. Things have just been nuts, but that's nothing new. We have had a great summer, and I thought I'd catch up just a bit. We've, as usual, been very occupied chasing Jacob around to various baseball games, and in July, we traveled to Florida for the USSSA 14 & Under World Series, and to say the least, we had a blast! Jacob's team (which did not have a great track record with tournaments up to this point) not only won their 1st game, beating the Florida all-star team, but went on to win 2 more games, and ended up finishing 6th out of 11. The team was especially excited to have beat a team from Kansas City who had actually placed higher in the Missouri state tournament. They went WAY beyond anyone's expectations, and really had a great time. We stayed at Disney at Pop Century resort, and managed to find an awful lot to keep us all busy when not at baseball games. I'm including some pictures here. Before heading to Orlando to the tournament, we decided to extend our vacation with some days with our friends the Rist's at the beach at St. Petersburg. We had lots of fun hanging out on the sand, digging up sand dollars with our toes, and just generally having a fun time. Susan Rist and I decided we definitely should not wait so many years between vacations!

The rest of the summer has been full of more baseball, including Sylvia having a GREAT first season playing baseball herself, and various work activities, swimming at the pool, vacation Bible school, and playing in the band at church. The past 3 days I had the privilege of participating in a terrific leadership workshop as a part of the vision committee at church. It was sponsored by Willow Creek church in Chicago and was simulcasted to Ridgecrest Baptist here in Springfield. It was extremely motivating and inspiring, and really sparked my excitement for the future of Schweitzer. We are so blessed to be a part of such a vibrant church family.

Now here we are in August, and school is a mere week and a half away! Jacob is getting very excited about getting his learner's permit after his birthday on the 25th, and has already started studying the driver guide. Sylvia will start 2nd grade and will start back to ballet class very soon. She has really gained her confidence in the water, and has been jumping off the diving board. Quentin Rist really got her started on that during our vacation.

It's hard to believe the summer is almost gone, but it will be nice to get back into the swing of fall. I'll try to do a better job of keeping up with this thing, but then again....well, we'll see!

Exhaustion, lost teeth, and baseball

2007-03-30T22:39:00.000-06:00

So....I apologize for not updating a bit sooner, but free moments for sitting at the computer for anything other than money-making (i.e. transcribing) have been few and far between. This week has been Spring Break, although I am continuing to question what exactly it has been a break from as the week has been as crazy as any other week. Jacob had a GREAT time on the 8th grade trip to Washington, DC, and I'd upload his pictures, but there are nearly 600 of them!! A full 70% or so are of various people sleeping on the bus, but one should never question what makes for interesting photo opportunities for a 14-year-old. I'm sure I am just not cool enough to understand :) Sylvia claims that she only missed Jacob a little bit (but I secretly think she was very glad for him to come home). She did manage to finally lose her other front tooth (with some help from Daddy) while Jacob was gone. She insisted on telling him about it when he called home that evening. Gratefully, it came out before her dentist appointment on Monday where I'm sure it would have been pulled. Of course, she looks adorable with her big gap. See pics.

We are back into baseball season in full-force. This year is proving to be even busier as I have taken a position on the board of Springfield Metro Youth Leagues, and we have leased the property in Fordland known as Baseball City. In short, this boils down to many hours working in the concession stand, running errands for the concession stand, getting volunteers for the concession stand....you get the picture. It's actually fun work, although tiring, but I must say that I have fulfilled my lifelong dream of getting to run a cash register (okay....so my dreams may not be huge, but at least I'm fulfilling them!).

Next week is back to school. I honestly have a raging case of spring/summer fever for the kids. I can't wait for school to be out, which won't be for another 10 long weeks, but with our crazy schedule, it will wiz by. We're also anxiously awaiting the birth of Max (which I am supposed to attend as a birth coach!), and we're expecting him to arrive sometime in mid-May. We'll keep everyone posted.

I've reached the end of my energy for the day, so I will sign off.

Until next time!

Baby Affair

2007-03-05T22:26:00.000-06:00

Last weekend was our annual Baby Affair at the hospital, and this year was extra special as my sister-in-law, Heather, came down to model for the maternity fashion show. She was honestly the most beautiful of all the models (even if I am a little biased), and just looks lovely in everything she wears. Pregnancy definitely agrees with her!

In other news, our small group study at our house began this last week and went really well. We have such a neat bunch of people, and I'm really looking forward to this week as we will have a few more joining us. I can feel God working already, and am excited to see what he has in store.

Baseball tryouts went well this past weekend, and we managed to run the concession stand at Fordland for the first time without too many hitches. It's definitely going to take some practice, but Pam, Susan, Jennifer, and I (with a lot of help from Sylvie!) actually had a lot of fun hanging out together. The boys did well, and it looks like we have the makings for a great team this year. I love baseball season!!
Enjoy the pictures. More later!

2007-02-24T12:24:00.000-06:00

Sorry I haven't updated lately. It's been a crazy couple of weeks (but what's new), and I think I've decided to go with Facebook for my notes. Sylvia is FINALLY better after being sick with the flu (fever, chest congestion) for over a week. We left her with Holly & Steve in St. Louis last weekend while we chaperoned the middle school choir tour from church, and her fever started the day after we left her. Of course, I felt horrible, but luckily Grandma is a pretty good nurse, and Sylvie did just fine. We had a REALLY fun time on the trip. It's been years since I've laughed as much as I did in the span of 3 days. Of course a little sleep deprivation had something to do with this, but honestly, at the first church service we attended, I felt like I was watching a Saturday Night Live episode. The lady pastor who preached began her sermon by attempting to sing "It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" from Mr. Rogers....she was only about 3 octaves too high and only on key with roughly 1 out of 3 notes. I nearly broke Darrell's finger trying to keep my composure. This alone would have been enough to seal this service in my memory permanently, but then she went on to preach about how important it is for us to remember that we should not emphasize the "I-ness or you-ness in the world, but rather should focus on the WE-NESS." Yes folks, that's right, she actually said "We-ness." I literally almost fell off the pew....and let me just say right here....having Kiesha Daulton sitting next to me did not help the situation in the least!!! (Hey Kiesha!!). I really hate having fun at someone else's expense, but I have to say, laughter is really good medicine, and this did a lot for my down and dull mood of late. The rest of the trip was great as well. We had fun at the top of Sears Tower, shopping on Michigan Avenue, seeing Navy Pier, eating at Malnati's Pizza, and The Blue Man Group show was spectacular!! Several of the chaperones (including moi)had a rousing card game of Chicago Rummy and were reprimanded twice by the hotel staff...(Way to set a good example for the kids!).Overall, it was so much fun, and such a nice break from the real world. It is really an honor to chaperone the kids from Schweitzer, because they continually rise to the occasion and behave beautifully. I am SO proud of all of them. This next week is the gear-up for Baby Affair, so my life will be even crazier than usual. More exciting, however, is that our small group series begins Tuesday evening at our house. I'm really looking forward to how God will work in this study. Until Later!

Sock Hop

2007-02-10T22:10:00.001-06:00

What a week this has been! It all started on Super Bowl Sunday when Jacob came home early from the youth party not feeling well. He was running a temperature (about 100), and had some cold symptoms. By Monday, the fever was higher, and I called Dr. Atwood and requested some antibiotics as I was fairly sure he had a case of bronchitis. He went to school on Tuesday since they only had a partial day and were officially scheduling for their freshman classes, but by Tuesday evening, he REALLY wasn't feeling well. By Wednesday night, his temperature was peaking at 103, even with regular doses of Advil. NOT FUN! We put him in the bathtub to soak and it finally came down by Thursday afternoon. He went back to school Friday, but still has a pretty bad cough, and this seems to be what hangs on with others who have suffered this horrible flu. We are really crossing our fingers that Sylvie avoids this as we are heading to Chicago for Middle School Choir Tour next weekend, and she is staying with Holly and Steve all weekend.

The pictures above are from the annual Sequiota Sock Hop Friday night. Sylvie had a blast, and really enjoyed running around and dancing with her friends. I'd give anything to have as much energy as those kids....they just never stop!

It was a crazy week at work as we close in on our Women and Heart event next week. After that, it's time for Baby Affair, and then Red Hot Nights. I really love my job, but it sure can be chaotic at times.

Tonight was a really nice service at church. Our pastor has been preaching a sermon series on relationships, and tonight's was on marriage. At the end of the service, he invited couples to come to the front and renew their wedding vows, and we decided to participate. It was very sweet up until the part where Darrell says, "I, Darrell, take you, Sylvia..." So of course, I had to return the favor with, "....take you, Jacob." Talk about kids being the center of your lives!! Brother!!

My prayers continue to be with my friend (and our church accompanist) Cheryll as she continues to mourn the loss of her husband, and our prayers are with Matt and Heather as well as Matt's Uncle Joe passed away on Thursday. In addition, My cousin Jan called me on Thursday night to inform me that my Aunt Kathy's son had passed away on Tuesday. This was quite a shock as he was a young man with young children. Our prayers are certainly with his whole family.

Thank you for visiting! I may be changing to the new Windows Live blog site, but I will transfer these entries, and will be sure to let you know.

Later!

Snow

2007-02-02T21:37:00.000-06:00

Well....we finally got some snow this week instead of ice, although I have to say it's still not the all-out 18-24" snowstorm I'm dreaming of. We still have some winter left, though, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

It was another busy week around the Haase house as usual. Everyone was back to school as usual, and grade cards came out today. I'm happy to report that we are very pleased with both kids' evaluations. Darrell and I just had a heart-to-heart with Jacob last night about how important it is going to be for him to really do his best in high school as it will not be easy, but I have to say, his grades are really looking good, and I'm hopeful he will continue on this trend.

Jacob went out to eat with the neighbors, and we took Sylvie out to Toys R Us to spend her birthday gift cards. She picked out a set of pretend food (from Subway) and a mini Etch-A-Sketch. We then came home and ordered pizza, and I actually had to guide the pizza man to our house via phone as he was lost. I think that's the first time that's ever happened. He said he didn't even know this neighborhood existed....guess he's new in the delivery business.

Later!

Freshman Orientation

2007-01-25T22:07:00.000-06:00

Wow! I think I'm crossing into a new phase of motherhood. Tonight was Jacob's freshman orientation at Glendale. I can hardly believe he'll be in high school....I was just rocking him to sleep and dressing him in little outfits the other day! I think the fact that he will be attending the same high school I graduated from makes it even more of a surreal experience. Just being there this evening was strange....I honestly don't feel like it's been long at all since I was a student.

Today was a busy day at work. I had several very elderly patients in the clinic, and one lady in particular stood out to me. She was a little 89-year-old lady, very stooped over, but very pleasant. As I was preparing her for her DEXA scan, I was positioning her legs, and I noticed that, although she had the normal age spots and thin skin of an older lady, the skin in the area around her knees was actually very pretty and very clear. For some reason, I was just able to imagine what her legs looked like as a young lady, and how pretty she must have been. It was interesting to see a shadow of her youth still there at the age of nearly 90. I often look at these patients, and in my mind, know that someday (God willing) I will be an old woman too, but I hope I can stay as positive and happy as this lady.

More Later!

Happy Birthday Sylvia!

2007-01-21T22:05:00.000-06:00

Today is Sylvia's 7th birthday! I can hardly believe it....it's gone so fast. The slide show is full of pictures from her party yesterday. She had a Fashion Funway party at one of the local children's clothing store. It was really fun. Each girl got to pick out an outfit to model, then the girls who work at the store (high school and college gals) fixed their hair and "makeup" (mostly just sparkly powder). They then got to put on a fashion show on the store's little runway. It was VERY cute, and the girls really seemed to have a good time. Thankfully, Sylvie was finally feeling better after her flu which didn't really let up until Saturday morning. I'm still praying the rest of us manage to avoid it. Today we had a little celebration with MeMe, Uncle John and Dave with lunch at our new Red Robin restaurant (Sylvie's request). This evening, Grandad came over for a visit, and we ended the day with cake and candles. Overall, it was a nice end to what has been quite a crazy week. I'm still feeling pretty out of the ordinary. Sylvie and I stayed home from church this morning as I wanted to let her sleep in, and I honestly think this is the longest I've gone without setting foot into church for as long as I can remember! I miss it! The kids still have one more day off school (already planned for a teacher work day), and then maybe we'll get back to some semblance of normal.

Also on our task list today was bathing Mac and Tucker. Although not an easy task, they did fairly well, although Mac was shivering afterward and had to be covered with a towel.

More later!

Ice Attack

2007-01-19T22:38:00.000-06:00

The title of this post is a direct quote from The Springfield News-Leader regarding our recent storm event (wow...is that an understatement!). What a week this has been. Sorry I have not blogged sooner, but nothing has gone as usual this week. The infamous ice storm began a week ago today on Friday afternoon, and at first just seemed to be rain....albeit hard rain. Even though the forcasters continued to warn about ice, we honestly started to believe this was probably just another in the usual line of misforcasts around here, and hence, we decided to get out of the house and go watch the first round of the Tournament of Champions at MSU, specifically wanting to see Glendale play. After absolutely soaking ourselves getting into Hammons Center and watching a great game (although Glendale lost), our first clue to the severity of the storm came when the family in front of us received a cell phone call from a neighbor saying that the power was completely out in Willard. We finished watching the game and quickly started home. It still just seemed like hard rain, although we could see the beginnings of icicles beginning to form on the trees. We were VERY grateful to get home and find we still had power. Upon awaking Saturday morning, I got a call from mom (in her 2nd day of battling a major flu) stating that they had lost power during the night, and still were in the dark. We turned the TV on and began hearing reports of widespread power outages, but naively thought it would be back on very soon. With ours still on and strong, we went on with our day, and by evening were feeling fairly confident. Jacob and I headed out to hit Wal-Mart, and I swear, the store looked like a refugee camp with people wandering around just to have somewhere to be with light and heat. I ran into several people we know, and it became quickly evident that we were in the minority with still having electricity. We made our purchases (including 2 gallons of ice cream....I know...I'm crazy!), and headed out. Not 5 minutes after leaving, my cell phone rang, and it was Darrell letting me know that we had joined the ranks of those in the dark.

We made it home and began scrambling around for flashlights, candles, etc. My goodness are we unprepared around here! We did, however, have a battery powered radio, and Darrell got into the attic and got down the kerosene lantern which successfully lit the living room and made things much better. I handled the call to CU, and after about 30 minutes, managed to get through and register our outage with the rest of the city. Reality then began to set in when the operator told me we were looking at "days" rather than hours to have our power returned.

We made the best of it on Saturday night, reading in the living room, and finally tucking ourselves in. The house actually stayed really warm on Saturday night, but by Sunday morning, it was REALLY cold. We turned the radio on and began hearing reports about the power possibly being out for a week, and that there were a few generators available across town at Granger Supply. We decided this was probably the thing to do, so we quickly dressed and headed out on the town. It honestly looked like a war zone. We had no idea how awful the damage was. We made it to Granger, along with the rest of the city, and were obviously unsuccessful in obtaining a generator there. However, while standing outside, Darrell heard a lady come by and yell out her car window that Smillie's IGA had a truck in the parking lot where generators were being sold, so off we went. After an hour-and-a-half wait, we were privileged to obtain a $600 generator, mistakenly thinking that we had tackled the hard job of the day. We then headed off to get gasoline to power said generator, and found that this would be the true challenge. We ended up in Ozark before we found a station that had gas and power.

After making it home, I began calling to check on friends and neighbors. I got my friend Susan who said they, too, had a generator, and that Jeffrey had it hooked up to the furnace, so they were nice and warm, although a bit bored. I quickly jumped on her comment about the furnace, and she told me Jeffrey would be happy to come over and help Darrell get ours set up. What a Godsend!! After Jeffrey left, we had heat, light, and television. I've never been so thrilled with a purchase in my life!

All in all, we have truly been one of the lucky households. Our power returned on Monday at around 11:30. Mom's came back on Tuesday afternoon, but we still know many, many people without power, and with no hope of power until late next week. To top that off, we are expecting snow tomorrow...so our prayers are with all of those who are still in very uncomfortable circumstances. Schweitzer served as a shelter until just today when they finally closed down and transferred the load to some other churches. It has honestly been the craziest thing I've ever lived through in my life.

The rest of our week has been quite out of the norm. The kids are not going back to school until Tuesday. Sylvia got a horrible stomach virus on Wednesday night, and is just now starting to feel a bit better. Her birthday party is tomorrow, and I really hope she sleeps well and feels more like herself in the morning. Jacob has been a bit bored and not wanting to tackle his homework. Coach Baker managed to get the team some practice time at The Courts, so they practiced 2 hours yesterday and 2 hours today. I think that was really good for them to get out and get a good work out.

Well....I'm out of energy for now, but will write more later in the week. Enjoy the pics. The field up the street from us truly looks like a scene out of Narnia, and we have hence nicknamed it as such.

Pershing Generals Basketball

2007-01-10T21:22:00.000-06:00

Today it was Pershing versus Jarrett, and what a game it was!! Jacob played REALLY well....probably the best I've ever seen him play. He was just really on fire! I can't remember the final score, but it was something like 27 to 13, in Pershing's favor. Awesome game!

Tonight it was back to our normal Wednesday night church activities. It was my night to lead our mom's Bible study, and we discussed patience.....something we all agreed we need more of. It was actually an excellent discussion, and it's so reassuring to know that other people have such similar experiences to mine.

After that, it was dinner, and then choir practice, although Kevin was sick this evening, so Cheryl led us. It was a nice rehearsal, and we got finished at 7:30, so it was nice to get home at a decent hour.

Tomorrow is a work day, and then the first of an upcoming string of meetings for beginning the high school scheduling process for Jacob. I can't possibly have a child almost in high school, can I?

Later

Sunday

2007-01-07T21:34:00.000-06:00

Today was a nice day. I honestly had to drag myself out of bed for church this morning, and probably wouldn't have except that I was scheduled to sing with praise band at 9:45. I was awake in the middle of the night not feeling extremely well, but I felt better once I got up, and I'm fairly certain it's just side-effect from the antibiotic. Luckily my doctor is also a fellow church member and was nice enough to write me a prescription (right at church no less!) for a different one. Anyway, I'm glad I went. It's really helping to sing with Kathy and Susan, and the last two songs today felt especially worshipful. What a truly amazing gift to be able to sing with these two wonderful women!!

After church, Darrell was nice enough to let me curl up with my book and rest for a couple of hours while he took Sylvie to sell some Girl Scout cookies....then it was off to Bunko with Heather. Today's game was at Launa's house, and we had a really good time eating white chili, chocolate turtle cake, hot cider, and rolling our dice like crazy girls. Suffice it to say the dice were not rolling in my favor either way today. I was extremely mediocre, but had a great time anyway. It's really fun to just get together and giggle and act goofy without any husbands or kids around once in a while.

I have some prayer concerns tonight....my stepdad Dave is having a lot of pain in his back and a lot of trouble getting around. I am praying that some rest will help, but if not, I'm praying that he will be willing to at least see a physician and get some advice. I'm also praying for my friend Tania who is really struggling with some health issues. Of course, I have many others on my prayer list, but these are just two particular ones at the top tonight.

Tomorrow is back to school (thankfully as the kids are REALLY getting on each other's nerves....and ours!), and back to another crazy week of activities.

Later!

Overflowing

2007-01-06T22:05:00.000-06:00

We just had a spectacular experience today and this evening. We had a worship workshop at church with Todd Sukany and the praise team from The Vineyard, and my spirit just feels filled to the brim. It was so exciting to hear ideas expressed and reinforced that my spirit so agrees with. Worship is such an amazing, living thing, and an outward expression of our love for God, and I feel so blessed to be included in our praise team at Schweitzer and so honored to be allowed to help others experience and participate in worship in hopefully a meaningful way.

I really needed today. I've been pretty down in the past few weeks about singing. I had such awful stage fright during our cantata, and I know I wasn't able to sing my best. It was so frustrating, but I really think it was God's way of teaching me a lesson. This is not about performing....it's all about worship, and I feel so completely different when I am truly singing with an attitude of worship (i.e. praise band on Saturdays or Sundays). It's so funny to me because when I was younger, I sang solos all the time, and never felt nervous, and always felt confident (and I think sounded confident), but I guess it's just been such a long time that I've lost that confidence. Something Todd said tonight really stuck with me, though, about constantly working on improving his skills. I have so wanted to take voice lessons all of my life, and never have taken the time. I think I'm really ready to begin working on these skills if I am truly serious about continuing to serve God in this way (and I TRULY am!). I'll have to start asking around about voice teachers.

In other news, aside from the workshop, today was a fairly productive day. I managed, with the help of the kids, to get the house clean and straightened, then answered a bunch of e-mails, and did some work on my upcoming class reunion. The weekends just zoom by too quickly! It's back to school next week for the kids, though, so things will begin to get back to our normal schedule.

Later!

Skating Away

2007-01-05T23:14:00.000-06:00

Today was the middle-school skating party, and although we didn't have a huge turnout in terms of kids (there were actually more chaperones than kids!!), all had a great time. I chose to sit on the sidelines to visit with one of the other moms as I have a raging sinus infection and feel dizzy even while sitting still. I broke down and begged my doc for an antibiotic today, so I plan to be on the mend shortly. Mom and I ran into each other at Wal-Mart and had a nice visit while browsing. I mention this mainly because she told me she had read my blog and was not mentioned, so I'm remedying the situation : ).

One Less Tooth

2007-01-03T14:13:00.000-06:00

The big news around here yesterday was Sylvia finally losing her front tooth which has been hanging by a thread for about 2 weeks. It was just finally unbearable to look at anymore, and although it took much wailing and gnashing of teeth (pardon the pun!), it was finally dislodged last evening. The tooth fairy came through generously with a $5.00 bill. She must have added a little in for pain and suffering.

In other news, we had a nice shopping trip last evening to supply our ever-growing son with a new pair of tennis shoes. Of course he opted for the new Nike Shox with the "Tune Your Run" feature so that his I-pod actually communicates with his shoes to let him know how far he has run, how far he has to go, etc. Pretty cool, but pretty pricey, and he had to pony up roughly half of the money on his own. He did so willingly, but I'm just hoping they last for a few months without being outgrown yet again! Stay tuned.

Today is a day of transcribing, laundry, shuttling Jacob to and from basketball, etc. Sylvie is spending the day at her friend Sarah's. No snow in the forecast yet, but I'm holding out for another good storm before winter ends.

New Year's 2007

2007-01-01T17:50:00.000-06:00

Well, here it is.....the start of my attempt at blogging. Call it a New Year's resolution, but I'm just one of those creatures who needs some kind of arbitrary beginning point (like Jan. 1) as an impetus to begin a new project. I initially looked into My Space, but felt a little bit old (sigh) for that community, and after taking a look at my friend Kim Morrow's site, this seemed a more comfortable format.

The new year rang in at the Haase house with the usual fanfare. Actually, this was the return of our annual New Year's Eve Bash as we skipped last year due to the installation of the new wood floors and my inability to put the house back together in time for a houseful of company. But, by popular demand, this year we managed to amass large amounts of food and drink and fill the house with an abundance of friends and children for a party that lasted well past 1:00 a.m. We had an interesting Trivial Pursuit - Totally 80's Edition tournament, and lots of good fun and conversation. Today we are recovering. Jacob and his friend Austin (who stayed behind after his parents left last evening :) didn't manage to join the living until about 1:00 p.m., and Darrell, Sylvie and I have been running at slow speed most of the day.

Tomorrow is back to work, although the kids are still out of school until next Monday. Jacob will have basketball practices Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and then we'll be back into full swing with our crazy schedule next week. I'm hopeful that this blog will help me to be more intentional about keeping up with journaling and picture taking. I'll certainly try to update and post on a regular basis.

Happy New Year!!