Post-Vacation Busy

It's Tuesday after vacation. Actually, it's still vacation... Braden is still home from school, we're not working...well, actually, we are working...on the house. Thursday we go back to work, so between now & then, we're trying to finish up the work that we began last week in the basement. Holland and Aidan went to school today to take advantage of the quiet time preschool offers us.

Our vacation had a few hitches, like sick kids (H & A for the first day; B for the last 2 days) & a sick dad (allergies?), but other than that, it was grrreat. And God provided for us in an unexpected way! We had 3 nights planned at Treasure Island hotel & waterpark. Pay for 2, get the 3rd night free. Well, they offered us 2 more nights if we'd listen to a timeshare thing. I'd sworn off those, but they had a fun licensed childcare room for the kids, so we went with it. We didn't buy, but we did get 2 more nights at Treasure Island. They gave us "special" permission to use the nights to extend our stay over Saturday & Sunday...but only if we agreed to move to a different room right away on Friday. "Sure." Oh, and by the way, we need all the 2-queens-1-sofabed rooms, so we're upgrading you to a Captain's Quarters. "OK, fine."

We walked into our new room...and...would you believe, it had 2 bedrooms, a living room with a fireplace, balcony, kitchenette, bathroom with shower--and a whirlpool tub in our bedroom! And we stayed in it for 3 nights absolutely free! God provides...and in a BIG way!

Our hotel had a deal with Denny's, where kids eat free...so we ate there thrice. And their food was surprisingly great! We made some of our meals in the hotel. On Friday morning, we were given free tickets to the Kalahari waterpark, which is the largest one in the country (supposedly), so Eric took B & H there while Aidan & I took a trip to Wal Mart for some underwear (can you guess who didn't pack enough pairs?), food, and a few little toys.

We spent lots of time just lying around, reading & watching lame TV (they didn't have many channels to choose from). But it was perfect for us. We are well-rested. The waterpark was just as fun as last year, and Holland & Aidan are getting braver on the waterslides & in the wave pool. On Friday afternoon, we went to Wizard Quest, a scavenger-hunt-style fantasy game. Sounds a little funky, but it was fabulous family fun...and for the most part, we were the only people in the place! Our team name was the Believers. (They had a list to choose from, & we thought it went well with our profession. More appropriate than the Druids. Haha...) We all loved it...well, Aidan was a little freaked out a couple of times, but he had fun too. Lots of mazes, mirrors, slides, etc. We freed 3 of the 4 wizards & found most of the things we were looking for. We recommend it to everyone!

We came home yesterday (Monday) after a final stop at Denny's. Now Eric's working on the basement & I really should get down there to help him.

Hope you are all well.

Blessings!

Friday Friday Friday

I guess I'm on a blogging roll this week.

Despite your overwhelming response to our shower plumbing problem, we have it figured out. If the water doesn't work, we just screw the shower head off, run the water for a minute, screw it back on, and then it works. NO, I don't know why. Everyone in the family loves the new shower (except me). The kids like the fact that the walls are clear, so they can see out and write in the steam. I don't use it because none of my "stuff" is down there, and, door on the laundry room & saris hanging or not, I still feel exposed taking a shower in a glass box in the corner of a large room.

Our vacation is fully planned now. 2 days working on some home projects (making use of Tuesday's preschool day for some alone time for Eric & I), 1 afternoon at the Mall of America's amusement park (or at least Chuck-E-Cheese), 4 days (3 nights) at Treasure Island in the Dells, 2 nights at smaller waterpark hotels (taking advantage of lodging specials), and 2 days finishing up the home projects. It's a nice compromise between Eric (adventure - guy) and I (stay home and relax surrounded by the comforts of home but with no responsibilitiesv- girl).

Today we looked at two possible office spaces for the church. One really seemed like a good idea, but we're determining if the rent is feasible. Well, it is feasible, but knowing it's at the expense of hiring a youth pastor, or doing more advertising, etc...we're not sure. With five people on staff now, it would REALLY be great to have a few offices rather than a 9'x18' room holding 3 computers on 2 desks. I suppose if you count the kitchen table, we have 3 desks. :-) We'd appreciate your prayers for wisdom. And our (Eric's) ability to take wisdom from the elder board in this area too. It's easy to sacrifice this area of our personal comfort for the sake of reaching people. (Which of course, God calls us to do. But he wants us to live healthily too...and having a working office 7 days a week in our home takes its toll on our family.)

Anyhoo, Eric's at Menard's picking up some things in preparation for our projects. He found ceiling fans for $10 and $12 apiece, so I think we're getting them for each bedroom (MUCH NEEDED!) Our other projects for next week include painting some 1"x4" (?) boards and installing them as baseboards in the boys' room; and scraping the flaking plaster & installing a chair rail & wainscoting/paneling on the lower half of the basement wall...and painting the upper half. I think Chrissie might come & help with that since she's currently "between employment situations."

We're just super grateful to God for His continued presence in our church, and in the ministries of it. He is bringing us some mature believers as leaders in the church, and this is wonderful! In the next couple of weeks, we're starting a class on prayer, a new Beth Moore Bible study for women, and a Dobson class on parenting. Exciting! In April, all of our addiction groups will be meeting under the umbrella of Celebrate Recovery, which will be a Thursday night worship service followed by small groups for the various addictions. Please pray for the leadership team of this endeavor!

OK, enough of my rambling. Be sure to keep in touch! You can comment here or email us!

Sunday, January 15, 2006

We are tired this evening, but it was a good day.

There were nearly 300 at church again today. We've been over it once but are still flirting with that next milestone. Brad (one of our actors) and I did a rap today to introduce the topic (the Flipside of the Tablets: How the Ten Commandments Bring Freedom). We were a little nervous about this new (unique) way of approaching a topic, but it was quite a hit, drawing lots of laughter & applause. Brad is just hilarious anyway, and for some reason people get a kick out of seeing their pastor's wife do goofy things like that.

Eric spoke on the first two commandments today. "Be obsessed about God & only God...and don't worship other gods" (and he went on to discuss things our culture tends to worship instead.) It was excellent. You can now download text (rough notes) and audio-- listen online or burn to mp3 or cd--from our church's website.

We had a bunch of our "old" Grace kids over for lunch. Of course they're all college-age now. It was fun to just hang out with the old crowd for a while. Most of them are with us at The Crossing anyway, but don't get much attention from us because we're busy serving together & ministering to all the new people. When we got home, two of the guys were boiling the water & stirring the pasta sauce. Funny. Britney (our office manager) is so comfortable here, she got into the magic bars & milk and had dessert first.

Tonight Eric and I have a date to watch the season premiere of "24". We never watch much TV-- pretty much our only TV habit(s) include 10:30 pm That 70's Show about once a week.
We do watch a lot of DVD's, though, and recently finished watching last year's season of "24."
We were pleased to find out that this new season is starting up--and on an evening when we'll actually be able to watch it! The children will be watching "Felicity--and American Girl Adventure" upstairs. I told Braden that it has Revolutionary War fighting in it, so he's ok with it. :-)

This week Eric installed a shower in our basement. He and my dad had started it in November, but had to move a pipe & cement the floor at that time. So it's finally in...I used some saris my Aunt Diane gave me to make it pretty & private in that corner of the laundry room... Eric used it 3 times over the last couple of days...and then, poof! the water won't work any more. Anybody have any ideas what might be the problem??!!! All the other water faucets work just fine!

Next Sunday after luch at someone's house, we will begin our family vacation. At this point our only firm plans are 3 nights at Treasure Island in the WI Dells. Still are unsure of exactly where else we'll go, what we'll do, etc. I vote for relaxing at home some of the time, but that's totally against Eric's nature! :-) We'll see!

In February Braden will be flying to AZ with Eric's parents to visit the Boehlje's. He doesn't do well with unfamiliar situations/change, so we're working hard to get him excited about it! It will be SO GOOD for him! I'm excited for him!

Well I guess that's about it for now. Keep us posted on what's up with you!
Blessings,
Kelly for the Dykstras