I was not able to get any pictures on the work sites because I didn't bring my phone or my camera, but I  did get some pictures of the youth and Silver Dollar City, our fun day!

The Fun day at Silver Dollar City. The kids riding on a ride together

Played a trick on the kids. You see the 3 doors? The one in the middle that is open spits out fire. The door on the left of that opens up then squirts water. None of the kids knew that, so we told them that we wanted to get a picture of the group right in front of the door. ;)

Time to get the guys

Roller coaster that I did not go on, of course! The swing

The morning that we left to come home, we had some fun dancing before getting loaded up in the van. The guy in the blue shirt dancing is one of the other directors showing his moves. 

Another director (in the black shirt) showing us how to do the swing.

Some of the youth showing us how to dance.

A couple of the youth sleeping. 

Parents came to pick up some of the kids, so we had to take one last picture of the group. 

The boys posing. Showing us their muscles.

That is Hoth's pose (on the ground)

Doing the cowboy! 

The hospital that got torn up in the tornado. 

What my bedroom looked like. 

This is my first mission trip ever. I really did not know what to expect. So, here is my daily diary of what my experiences were. I wrote this on a daily basis every night right before bed. I hope you enjoy my experiences.  

Day one... Sunday June 17th

We got out itineraries to look through. Here is the daily schedule...

6:30- Rise and shine
7:00- Breakfast/morning devotions
9:00-2/3 p.m-  Work. (lunch at 12:00).
3:00-6:00-  Showers and down time
6:30- Dinner
7:30- 10:30 Worship and family groups
11:00-  Quiet hours

On our way to Joplin! Went to church then met everyone who was going on the mission trip 
afterwards then packed the bags into a haul. We didn't leave the church until about 12:35. 
Drove to a gas station and met the rest of the crew from the Panama church.

Got back on the road at 1:17p.m. And now we are cruising along. 
Planning to stop in Nebraska City, which is about 45 minutes away. 
We'll see if it works that way.

We wound up stopping at Nebraska city subway and at lunch. 
It will be hard on this trip, but I'm trying to eat healthy! 
It is 2:43 and we are back on the road.

7:05 p.m

Made it safely! We are staying in a town about 10-15 miles away from Joplin called Carthage. 
We are sleeping in this old, old house. It is huge. I
t has 4 bedrooms, 2 baths but in one of the bathrooms the toilet doesn't work but the sink works. 
In the other one the toilet works but the sink doesn't.

There are 10 youth girls, 12 counting myself and the other female director. 
Us girls have the upstairs rooms with 3 cots in each room and the guys (3 boys and 3 directors) 
have the whole down stairs. 
The guys have it made.They get the air conditioner down stairs and in their 
bathrooms they have 3 showers and we only have one. We actually had to buy fans for each room. 
We switched bathrooms with the guys since there are more girls.

We have 2 different buildings that we are using... 
One building is for meals, morning prayers, and showers (church) and the second one (house) 
is for sleeping and daily converses.

Day 2  Monday, June 18th
Day 1 of working

First official day of working. Not really what I expected. We had to water trees. 
We had to fill up 5 gallon buckets with water, carry them to every tree and water the trees. 
We had to use 4 buckets on each tree. We had to do 3 parks. 
We had to fill up the buckets with water with a faucet type thing and carry the buckets
 to the tree and start all over. Sometimes we only had to walk 10 steps to the tree other 
times we had to walk a mile (seriously!!)

I did not know what to expect when we got here. 
After a year after a tornado you never know what to expect. 
The first park we went to must have had its own little path because just by looking at the park 
( other trees and houses) you wouldn't think anything happened. 
But if you walked through the park you could actually see the old tree stumps. 
There was a church right across the street that they were rebuilding.

The second park we went to is more of what I was expecting to see. 
There was still debris everywhere and there were brand new houses. 
There were houses still under construction. There was a house with just the foundation and nothing else. 
While we were driving around I saw a house that looked like it was just hit yesterday.
 It was just amazing to see all the construction going on and all the rebuilding.

Even kind of ate a little healthy today. Had 1 pancake with no syrup for breakfast. 
A sandwich for lunch. And lasagna, salad and a roll for salad.

Day 3 Tuesday, June 19th
Day 2 of work.

Had a bowl of grapes for breakfast. We had cereal this morning, but I don't eat cereal.

We watered trees again today. This time we were at a cemetery. 
Like I said before you can't really tell until you walk through the place that there was a tornado. 
If you looked at the top of the trees there would be just the branches where the leaves used to be. 
When we were walking through the cemetery you could see debris everywhere still. 
Once in a while you could see the fake flower petals from the cemetery plots all over.

Today was a short day. We started at 9 and worked until 1:30.

 Our itinerary says that we have to have quiet time at 11:00. That is not working so well! 
Sunday night everyone was up until at least 2 a.m. 
No reason, just sugar highs and the adrenaline from the trip. 
It didn't help that we went to Walmart at midnight.

Monday night we had everything done and were running on
 schedule to be in our rooms by 11 when we had a little distraction. 
Okay it wasn't a little one. One of the youth girls has back spasms at home and she had one on 
Monday night at 10:30. they lasted until midnight. It was very scary to watch. 
It is almost like watching seizures. 
We had to run to Walmart again at midnight to get her an air mattress for her back.

So, needless to say we have started a tradition of making a point to go to Walmart at midnight every night. 
We'll see how long that lasts.

Day 4 Wednesday, June 20th
Day 3 of work

We got told on Tuesday that we wouldn't have to water trees again. 
We have been having a lot of injuries. 
We think that the back spasms were due to lifting over 40 pounds of water 
by yourself and walking a half mile to a mile ( that's actually how far we had to walk for each.) 
Another girl dislocated her shoulder and another girl's shoulder hurt her.

Well, I don't know if today is much better than the other 2. 
Today, we had to clean debris off of a private property. 
It wasn't as good as it sounded.
 I was expecting there to be a house and we would just have to remove the tree branches and what not. 
We get there and there is no house, just an empty lot. 
There are rocks and sticks everywhere. 
We had to rake up the rocks and these aren't just big rocks that we had to pick up by hand, 
these rocks were like the little tiny landscaping rocks that you put in your yard. 
These were everywhere! They gave us rakes to use, but the rocks went right through the rake. 
So, most of us used shovels.

This was not easy. You think of shoveling rock and you think of shoveling snow. 
It's not like that... There were not piles of rock.. 
These were rocks that were stuck on the ground that we had pull out.

We made our nightly run to Walmart. It was fun.

Day 5 Thursday, June 21st

Today was fun day for the kids so we went to Silver Dollar City. 
It was super fun. The kids had a great time. 
We left the house at 8:30 am and didn't get home until after 10 pm.

Stopped at Wendy's on the way home and ate supper at about 7 p.m. 
Came back to the house and still did our family groups. That lasted until 1 a.m.

Day 6 Friday, June 22nd

Day 4 of work.

Today we didn't do hard labor. 
We just walked around surveying people who were affected by the tornado. 
It was interesting to see their reaction and hear what they had to say. 
It was good for the kids to hear some of the stories and see how important our 
mission trip is and the reason for watering trees. 
Some of the youth thought it was silly just to water trees then 
we explained to them that these trees are symbolizing a time 
of rebuilding and we have to nourish the trees like their parents nourish and take care of them. 

Pretty tired today. We've been getting up everyday by 7:00 am. I am ready to be home. 

We get to go home tomorrow morning. 
We should be getting home by 3-4 p.m. 
But that depends on what time we leave. 

Day 7 Saturday, June 23rd.

Going home today! We got up at 7:30 a.m and got packed
 (most of us were already packed from Friday night). 
Cleaned up the house then headed over to the church for breakfast. 
Finally left at 9:30 to drive home. Stopped in St. Joe, Mo for lunch. 
then continued home. Got home about 4:30 p.m.
 I drove about 3 hours and the other director drove the rest of the drive. 

This is my daily diary of what happened on my first mission trip to Joplin, Missouri. 
I hope you enjoy! 

Now that school is out and Summer is here, the kids still need to get their "education." I have come up with a plan for the kids to keep them entertained and still learning.

• The kids still do the calendar every morning. This teaches them numbers, days of the week, weather, colors, and words.   
• The kids have to read for 20 minutes every day. Keira finds a quiet place (usually her room) and reads a couple of books by herself (I try and pick out a book that she has never read before because she has to tell me what happened in the book, so I know she actually read it. ) Aden and Taygen will sit on the couch between me while I read to them. We are planning on going to the library every week to get new books. 
• The kids have to do their work books for at least 30 minutes each day. Keira has a kindergarten and 1st grade book that she does, (she will usually get bored with the kindergarten one within 10 minutes and go right to the 1st grade book). Aden has a preschool and kindergarten book that he does. 
• Taygen and I color. While the other kids do their workbooks, Taygen and I will color. In doing this, she learns her colors, control, patience, what to color certain objects; example, grass is green, clouds are white, sky is blue, trees are green, etc., communication; please pass the green color. When she wants a color, I will lay 3 or 4 colors out and she has to pick it out; for example, if she needs green..I lay out green, white, blue and black and she has to pick out the green one. 
• In between these activities we will go outside and play on the swings and slides. Just so they don't get bored, lose focus or lose interest. 
• Just for something fun for the kids, we will have a scavenger hunt around the house. Example; Find 4 red objects, find 5 circles, etc. It's pretty fun and it's pretty interesting what the kids come up with, some things that you may not think of. Aden had to find 3 circles one time and he showed me the door handles. Pretty clever! I would have never thought of that. It's just something that you see every day, so you really don't think of them as circles, even though they are. You never know what you will learn from your kids each day! 

These activities are fun for the kids and myself. It definitely keeps them active, but also ready for school. These activities do not 'weigh' down the Summer time fun and still keeps school fresh in their minds. A lot of kids lose focus in the Summer time, but isn't that what Summer is for, to get school off your mind....mmm not really. Kids still need to learn whether it is in a school setting or a home setting. Always try to find ways to keep your kids educated, whether it is going to a park; pointing out trees, animals, the swing goes up and down, you go down a slide, pointing out that the grass is green, etc... You can make learning fun! 

I changed the dry erase calendar to June and realized that every single week except the last week (25th-29th) are full with the kids' activities.

• May 29th-31st Swim lessons- 10:45-11:25 a.m 
• June 1st- Friday...Keira's eye appt.
• June 4th-7th, Mon.-Thurs., swim lessons, 10:45-11:25 a.m
• June 9th- Saturday- Wedding
• June 11th-15th, Mon.-Fri., vacation bible school 5:45 p.m-8:30
• June 16th- a friend's 10 year anniversary BBQ
• June 17th- Father's Day
• June 18th-22nd-  Mon.-Fri., Summer Day Camp (for Keira and Aden), 9 a.m-1:45 p.m 
• June 25th-29th- Absolutely Nothing...yet ;) 

Saturday, May 26th Vow Renewal Ceremony

I didn't get any pictures of before the ceremony or the ceremony, but one of my friend's video taped it for me and is supposed to be emailing it to me, so when she does that then I will share it. 

This is what the ceremony looked like....

Scriptural Greeting- Ecclesiasted 4:9-12

Statement on the Gift of Marriage

Wedding Video from 10 years ago

Prayer

Scripture- John 2:1-11

Homily/Meditation- "Marriage is a Family Affair"

The First Decade- Slide show 10 + years

Declarations of Intent

Vows

Family Bouqet

Prayer of Blessing

Special Music- Lonestar Amazed

Charge and Benediction

Release of Lanterns 

You can see both the Wedding video (from 10 years ago) and the slide show (10 +years of our lives) from the ceremony by clicking on one of the links above..they are on the same link. 

Here are some pictures from the reception...Of course, this is not all the pictures, but I guess you had to be there to see everything! The old saying goes..."You had to be there." 

Didn't get a picture of Tay by the water because she slipped on a rock and fell in. 

The kids at the balloon release. 

Today is our 10th wedding anniversary! You think 10 years is long...just wait until you hear how long we have been together all together.....wait for it....wait for it..... 16 years! 


I never thought I would marry the man that I met when I was in high school. Okay, not at high school, but I was going to high school when I met him. He was 18 and I was 16. I had had a couple of relationships before him and I didn't get treated good in any of them. When I met him, I thought he was too good to be true. I thought he would date me for a couple of months and leave or do something dumb like the others did. I kept waiting and waiting, but nothing happened. He was sticking around no matter what!

16 Years Ago...
I saw him one night while my mom, my best friend and I were out at a bowling alley. He was bowling with his mom and dad and a couple of his friends. I told my mom that I thought he was cute and she is not a shy person, so she went and told him and got his number and she gave him mine. His mom chimed in saying he already has a girlfriend. I thought there was no way he was going to call me now since he was already in a relationship. I got home that night and was laying in my room with my best friend (having a sleepover ;) ) and the phone rang, my mom brought me the phone and it was him. We talked for a little bit and set up our first date. Come to find out he was still dating her when we went on our first date....and that's when it all started.

I could only see him on the weekends because I still lived with my mom in Utica and he lived with his mom in Seward and worked in Lincoln. We later moved to Marquette (over by Grand Island) and he stayed in Seward and Lincoln. He was going to school at UNL and working so I still only saw him on the weekends. That was about a 2 hour drive for him. Finally, it happened..the snow storm that changed it all. I was staying with him one weekend at his parent's house and there had been giant snow storm that weekend. My car was trapped and was not leaving, therefore, I was not leaving either! I called into work the rest of the week and eventually quit. We both said I might as well move in and that's what happened. We got an apartment in Lincoln with some friends and lived together ever since.

10 Years Ago...
That day feels like it was yesterday! I was so nervous! I had my sister in law as my maid of honor and my best friend at the time as one of my bridesmaids. Dan had his best friend as his best man and soon to be brother in law as his groom's man. We didn't want a big wedding party. We only wanted the people closest to us to share our big day!

We had a family meal/brunch that morning of the wedding. Then it was time for hair and makeup. Dan's aunt (which is a hair stylist) did my hair and makeup, as well as my wedding party and the mothers. I am not one to let someone else be in charge, so I was panicking all morning wondering if everyone had their respectable flowers on, if everyone was dressed in the appropriate attire. If everyone was there that was supposed to be by that time. I think it would have went a lot smoother if I hadn't been worrying so much ;)

Anyway, we had planned for a photographer of course, so he was there. I didn't want Dan to see me in my dress before the wedding, but we wanted individual pictures, so about an hour before the wedding we set it up that the photographer would take mine and my bridesmaids pictures by ourselves (without the guys), which surprisingly worked out great! Then it was the guys' turn.

You don't realize how much stuff can go wrong until that day! Everyday up until that day, you think... oh nothing will go wrong, I have been planning this for a year or two....wrong! If I have any luck at all it is bad luck! My personal attendant didn't show up (I guess she had more important issues at the time), so I had to ask Dan's aunt to do my hair and make up. My older brother (of 3) was having his first daughter that day... he didn't know he was until about an hour before the wedding started, he was supposed to be one of my ushers. So, a family friend of ours, he's just like my little brother, had to step in for him. My youngest brother was the ring barrier. I had asked my real dad to walk me down the isle and his daughter was going to be my flower girl, but that didn't happen because he called me about a week before the wedding letting me know that he wasn't going to make it....because he had a bad tooth..really? So, I didn't have a flower girl and my dad that has been in my life since I was months old walked me down the isle!

The ceremony was beautiful! We walked outside to our awaiting horse and carriage and took a stroll through the little town of Seward. Stopped in a park and took more pictures. Headed over to the reception and had a blast!

We left the reception and stayed the night in a hotel by the airport in Lincoln to catch our honeymoon flight to Vegas baby! Since then we have been to Vegas 6 times. I really don't know what made us go to Vegas. Dan had been there one time and I had never been there, I think he thought I would like it. I did like it. We stayed at Bellagio. Very beautiful!

To Dan....
We have had some rough times, some trying times, some happy times, some sad times, some exciting times, but most of all wonderful times. We have had our ups and downs, our bad days and good days. What kind of relationship would it be if you only had good days or only had bad days, you have to have both to even out a relationship. We have had our shares of arguments, tears, pleasures, challenges, but I wouldn't want it any other way. I love you! Here is to another 90 years! That's if I live that long ;)

I dropped Keira off at school one day and the teachers gave me a monthly newsletter. One of the dates, right there in bold, you can't miss it, says "May18th Last day of school." My first thought was Summer break! I love Summer! Most parents are petrified when they see or hear the words Summer break...because that usually means that they are stuck with their kids....oh God forbid that your child is around you! I love Summer break, it's no different than if she was going to school.

Summer to me means.....picnics. Staying up late. Late nights outside. BBQ's. More time with the kids. Parks. Swimming. Running in the sprinklers. Sitting outside. Doing yardwork. Family vacations. More activities for the kids. You are probably wondering why I haven't said camping yet? I do not camp! I am not the camping type. I will only camp if I have a camper.

Summer to me, is just cheerful. It means more time with friends. I play volleyball in the summer and am on a pool league. Being in those two activities makes the Summer go fast, but it's all worth it!

I had a great birthday. The hubby had to work, but got home about 3 p.m. It was a surprise ( I like surprises!) Picked Keira up from school and came home to find his car in the garage. I was pleasantly surprised, since I was asking him the day before to take the day off for my birthday :) The kids were surprised as well and was screaming in the car when we pulled into the garage..."Daddy's home! Daddy's home. I see daddy's car!"

The hubby and kids went shopping for my birthday present Monday night while I was playing volleyball.  They went to NY&C in the mall and this is what each kid picked out for me....

Aden picked out these shoes. These are not normally my type...have to have my heels, but they are surprisingly comfy and cute! Good job Aden!

Taygen picked out these beautiful blue earrings. 

Keira picked out this blue and black necklace. 

The kids did an amazing job picking out my birthday presents...considering I am a very picky person and probably have most of NY&C's jewelry. The hubby didn't know what to get me, so he just gave me $50 to spend on my self. Not sure what I am going to get yet.

Had a great birthday considering I was sick to my stomach and the hubby had to play pool that night. The hubby was also...we think it was some kind of food poisoning...something only the 2 of us ate because the kids are fine.