TWO LITTLE SWEET PEAS

LITTLE MISS ANNA

LITTLE PACKER FAN

It was a beautiful Sunday in St. Louis. The weather was perfect with a wonderful breeze. Church was great, we are blessed to be at a great church called St. John's in Ellisville. It is a church with over 5,000 members so it gives us a lot of opportunities to see some different kinds of ministry and worship. It is a pretty amazing place. They have 4 different worship venues each week, all very different from one another. Everything from a traditional Saturday night service, to contemporary Sunday morning services to a service held in a banquet room of a restaurant/brewery on Tuesday nights. Greg and I are also getting to participate in a Bible Study on Sunday Mornings that is studying the book Revolutionary Parenting. We are enjoying it and it gives us a lot to talk about on the way home from church. Today's message was on Sexual sin, the theme for this series of messages has been secrets. It was the story of Amnon and Tamar from 1 Samuel. It was a great message and with a theme like that also gave Greg and I a lot to talk about on the way home:) They actually forewarned us so we took turns going to church and Sunday School and watching the kids. We were blessed.

BLESSINGS ABOUND:)

A HUGE DONATION TO THE SEMINARY FOOD BANK

THIS YEARS KNITTED CAPS HAVE ARRIVED

SOME SWEET HAT MODELS:)

Once again we are so blessed here at the seminary. On most Saturday mornings I usually head up to the food bank to help unload the produce truck. There is a wonderful gentlemen that picks up produce and bread from local grocery stores. They are getting rid of it all because it is usually on it's way out. But it is great if you can eat it in the next few days. We put the produce and bread out and it is free for the taking. Anyways... before Dennis arrived we got a huge donation of food from a church in Clayton Illinois. Really it was HUGE! The top picture shows some of the people who drove the donation here to the sem. The picture just shows a portion of what they donated. It was awesome! Before I came here I didn't realized what an amazing help the food bank is to all of the families here. It is a tremendous blessing and really helps us all to be able to stretch our food budgets:) It is so neat to see all of the ways that God has used His people to help, serve, and bless others. They really have been the hands and feet of Christ to us.

The next picture is of 2 lovely older ladies that work with 1 more to knit bags of beautiful items for the families on campus. All of those bags in that picture are packed full of hats, scarfs, hot pads and baby blankets. I can't believe 3 ladies could do all of that. It took me over a year to knit a baby blanket for Caleb...I think I finished it just before Anna arrived. Anyways, they are obviously a lot faster than me :) and each year they donate their time and talents to bless all of us here at the sem. Last year it was chilly when the hats arrived and it was so funny because almost immediately you saw tons of kids running all around campus with these sweet, brightly colored hand made hats on. Now today on the other hand was around 85 degrees but you still saw plenty of kids out with the hats on:) It was such a treat for our kids to get to go up to the food bank and pick out their hat. The two younger lovely ladies in the picture are Sallie, the food bank manager and Miss Wendy ( as the kids call her ) and her son Joey, they volunteer with this Hintz crew up at the food bank a couple of times a week to help unload food trucks. Joey is one of Anna's new special friends. She has really taken a liking to the babies on campus as of late.

Anna and JOJO had a touch of some bug this week but thank the Lord, I think they are on the mend. I was blessed with the opportunity to be with a couple from the seminary this week when they celebrated the arrival of their sweet son Asher into the world. A babies birth is such an amazing miracle. It was such an honor for me to be there. The bigger boys are enjoying the seminary kid's soccer league. They will play every Saturday for a little over a month. The biggest boy is really busy studying. He is doing great, we are all really proud of all of his hard work.

LITTLE RASCAL AND THE RABBIT

OUR LITTLE RASCAL:)

THE BALLOON RACE AT FOREST PARK

THE ENERGIZER BUNNY BALLOON

We have had a busy last few weeks. School is in full swing for everyone. Greg is especially enjoying his Marriage and Family counseling class. I am enjoying it too:) He has come home from class and said, "I think Dr. Hartung hit the nail on the head." Then he will go on to explain something that I have been trying to help him understand about me for years. Somehow this professor seems to make it all make sense. Yeah, Dr. Hartung! :) It has been great, pretty funny actually. I think it will greatly benefit Greg's ministry down the road. This class will go great with the Marriage and Family Life Masters degree that Greg was working on before we came to the seminary.

The weather has finally cooled down. We actually broke out the blue jeans this weekend. We are all well and enjoying all the fun things here in the fall. Jojo always has us laughing. He is starting to use the potty and is just plain silly. We have so much fun with him, all of us. I wouldn't call it the terrible twos, more like the terrific twos. He can definitely get upset when things don't go his way, but he is really easy going for the most part. It just warms my heart how all of the other kids just love him so much. Today Louis put him down for a nap and they were both so sweet together.

Last night we went to the balloon glow in Forest Park. We hiked over there with a group of about 20 from the sem. and saw them light up all the hot air balloons. This year they seemed to bring them down earlier last night. I think there was too much wind. But today they had the balloon race. They were expecting over 200,000 people in the park. It was a beautiful day and we had a blast just watching from campus. I wanted to get a better picture but we were a good mile away. Caleb counted at least 25 balloons in the sky. The energizer bunny balloon was by far the kid's favorite. For us Wisconsin folk who are fortunate to even see a hot air balloon in the sky once in a summer, to see so many is a real treat. We are always amazed at all of the fun things there are to do here. We are trying to take in as many as we can while we are here. Last week we went to the Clayton Art Fair. Apparently it is one of the best in the nation. Louis now says he wants to be a glass blower when he gets bigger.

FIELD DAY FUN

PANDA BEAR FACE PAINTING

ANNA SHOWING OFF HER TATTOO

Today was field day on campus. Basically it is a day for the kids on campus to kick off the new year. It is so much fun, face painting, play dough making, snacks, games, tattoos, and lots more. We played two family games called "MOM call" and "DAD call". All of the moms or dads are blindfolded in the middle of a circle with all the kids surrounding them. If there are multiple kids in a family they all stand together. The blind folded moms and dads had to spin around 10 times. Then at the same time all the children yell "MOM" or "DAD" and the mom or dad has to find their child or children. It was hilarious. Greg actually won when we played it with the dads. Yeah, he knows his children's voices:) It made for some pretty funny video.

The other highlight was the Clayton Firetruck. The firemen bring it in, hook it up and let it loose on all of the kids in the field. It was a blast, they got a major soaking. It was a beautiful morning, perfect for a little cool down. Greg is helping at church tonight and the kids and I are heading over to the picnic the seminary is hosting on campus. The seminary does so many nice things for the students. It all really helps to build a sense of community and family. That is what makes it such a wonderful place. Things are starting to pick up on campus as most of the 4th years are back from vicarage and the new 1st years have arrived. We all start back to classes on Tuesday, sad, scary, fun and exciting all at once. Summer comes to an end once again:)