Chilly October

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

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

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...

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!

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

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!

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

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

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.

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!!!!

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

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...