I forgot one, this is Zachary winning first in his piano duet (his duet partner had to leave early with her parents).  He also won second in his piano solo.  He played El Shaddai by Natalie Grant and it was amazing!

Where on earth do I begin!  This summer we have gone all over the west and I found that honestly my favorite place in all the world is Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah!  I have absolutely fallen in love with it!  I can honestly say if Brian said to me "Kim, I think the Lord is calling me to pastor in Utah, I would be the first one to call U Haul!

We went on from there to the National Convention in Birmingham, Alabama.  (You will see pictures in a little bit of that). 

Now we are getting ready for school to start.  This is Hannah going to sleep on a towel without gownie and her thumb.  Isn't she cute!

Here are some pictures of the national convention.

This is my little Mozart.  He was absolutely amazing.  He surprises me everyday at his talent on the piano.  He has only been taking for 1 1/2 years and this year he won 2nd place the national competition.  WOW!

This is Ben (the blonde on the end).  He did handbells with our church.  These are the DING A LINGS...and oh they most certainly earned their name! 

This is Zachary and a part of the Sanctuary Kids.  Zachary is skilled in so many things musical!

This is the Sanctuary Kids winning first place at the national.  They scored a perfect score!

This is the Ding A Lings, they also won First Place at the national.

This is our new addition to the family...Abigal! 

She waited until Hannah laid down to take her nap to come and sneak over and sleep with her.  Otherwise, Hannah is wanting to hold her constantly!  Hannah thought this picture was so cute!

Well, now that we have our computer up and running, I can finally start posting some pictures of our vacation, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, Zion National Park, Salt Lake City, Utah, Park City, Utah, etc.  I will try to work on those over the weekend.

Well, gotta run and get to bed, see ya guys!

You know during the year things are always busy and we constantly have something going on, but honestly I almost dread seeing the summers come!  We finished school in mid May and left the next week for vacation, gone for 13 days, came back to state church meetings, church youth camp, VBS, national church convention and then we start into football with Zachary and start back in school.  I honestly think that summers are really not for vacation, it is to try and see how much can you pack into a few weeks and still actually function - which is questionable right now how much I am functioning!

We are getting ready to leave for our national church convention in Birminham, Alabama.  As of Monday of am all packed, except for Brian and he has to do that himself.  Zachary and Ben are both competiting this year, Ben in handbells and Zachary in handbells, piano solo and piano duet....boy what a year it is going to be!  Hannah is coming home to TN for the week of the convention, it will be much easier on her and us if she just spends some time with the grandparents.  Then as soon as the convention is over all the kids come back to TN for a week and Brian and I get some much-needed time alone - 10 days alone, whatever shall we do with ourselves! 

Well, gotta start working, see ya!

I guess I am going to have to just wait a life time to put the pictures on the web of our vacation...OH WELL!

So, onto to bigger things.  We are in full swing summer around here.  Tons of stuff going on all the time.  Last week alone we had baseball on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday (Ben's team got last place...poor boys....put Ben had an awesome season...he was awesome...on the last game he caught a foul ball...he jumped for it and did a flip after catching it and still came up with it...he was so excited...and so was his mommy).  Zachary's team got first place...which was kind of ironic because he played the team that our neighbor's oldest child is on...he was the pitcher and he made the last out and Zachary's team one 4 to 3....SHEWWWW!

Then onto Saturday we went...fundraisers for our church youth group...we have made all the money we need to get to nationals in Birmingham, Alabama this year...then we went to a wedding of some friends of ours and then we went to the movies..."Cars" and the kids seemed to enjoy that....

Then onto Sunday...we had normal church on Sunday morning but our little town dismisses all churches on July 4 weekend and they have a community service...which we skipped and went and spent some time with fellow-pastor and his family...we got home at 12:00 last night (or this morning I guess would be right). 

Then onto today...groceries and working and tomorrow we have plans with friends from church to celebrate the 4th...BOY THESE HOLIDAYS ARE KILLERS!

Well, that about sums us up for the past weekend...I AM TIRED JUST TYPING IT ALL!

We had a swimming party last night for the youth at our church…it was open for children birth to 18…and of course their parents.  One of the families in our church own a campground which has a pool and they let us have a party there last night for the kids…so, about 10 minutes after getting there I was standing beside the pool watching Hannah and Ben and some other kids playing in the pool…and I look up to see a little girl named Kinley (AGE 5)  running toward the deep end of the pool…like she knew exactly what she was doing…I thought to myself…BOY SHE MUST BE ABLE TO SWIM SINCE SHE JUST JUMPED IN THE DEEP END.  I kept my eye on her as she had ridden with someone else and that person and her mother were not in the swim area yet…and quickly discovered that no she couldn't swim that well.  I yelled at Zachary who was standing there but apparently there wasn't enough panic in my voice so he just slowly started making his way to her…as she continued to come only enough to the top for the tip of her hair to come out…the rest of her was staying under water…so at this point I decided that I must jump in and get her as she wasn't coming up…so in I go and become the GUARDIAN ANGEL OF THE NIGHT…here is the funny part…I had decided that it just wouldn't be pretty to let the people of the church see this body in a bathing suit…so I jumped into the deep end of the pool…FULLY CLOTHED!!!  And if that wasn't bad enough…I was wearing white cotton pants….YEP YOU GUESSED IT…IT WAS WORSE THAN A BATHING SUIT…YOU COULD SEE STRAIGHT THROUGH THEM…I brought the little girl to the side of the pool and refused to get out until someone could bring me a towel…

Just imagine it…me, sunglasses and all jumping into the pool and saving the poor child…I told someone later if she wasn't traumatized enough by almost drowning then she is saved by this huge woman jumping in after her fully clothed…that had to have been just as scary.  I couldn't sleep last night for thinking about what could have happened…OH MY GOODNESS….I am just so thankful that the Lord was watching over her…

We left Las Vegas on Friday morning heading to Park City, Utah.  We stopped on the way through Utah at a national park named Zion National Park...OH MY GOODNESS.  We didn't get the chance to walk down into the Grand Canyon but we did drive through Zion and I would imagine it would be like driving into the Canyon...huge rocks, large mountains and the most amazing colors...IT WAS ALL WORTH THE DRIVE FOR THIS PLACE.

We then made our way to Park City, Utah (one of the places where they held the Winter Olympics).  This city was beautiful.  We spent 7 nights and 8 days in Park City (which I understand why they held the olympics there...THIS CITY IS BEAUTIFUL).  We basically just rested for this stretch of our vacation.  The ironic thing, Thursday night in Las Vegas it was 104 degrees and Sunday morning when we were getting up for church it was snowing in Park City...we got about 2 inches...IT WAS TOO FUNNY!

We did spend time in Salt Lake and did the Morman Temple.  My husband is a Free Will Baptist pastor so this was obviously not our religion but oh my goodness, this trip has changed my perspective about missions...and sometimes there is a huge mission field right here in the good ole' USA...not just across the world...it was too much SPIRITUALLY SPEAKING!

We went to a place in Salt Lake called Antelope Island...it was sooooo fun.  On this island that is made by the Salt Lake, they have a wildlife reserve that is amazing.  Large herds of bison and various other animals just roaming all over the place...I was within 5-10 feet of a group of bison, about 6 of them and I just kept thinking to myself as I stood there looking all touristy with my camera in front of 6 HUGE animals that could crush me in a moment....NOW WHAT ON EARTH WOULD I DO IF THESE ANIMALS CAME AFTER ME....but they didn't and I got some great pictures...again, I will try to get them on this week.

We were scheduled to leave on Thursday to be back Friday to rest on Saturday but that didn't happen.  I woke up at about 3:30 that Thursday morning with a huge stomach virus...so, I basically stayed in bed all day in the condo (when I wasn't in the bathroom) and Brian and the kids spent the day in Salt Lake...I was a bit jealous that they got to go back, but I was too sick to care.

We celebrated Hannah's 5th birthday at the condo in Park City...we went to Build A Bear and she enjoyed a big day...

We left for home on Friday morning and pulled into our home on Saturday after driving across Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas and parts of MO.

OH WHAT A VACATION IT WAS...3,900 MILES IN 13 DAYS.....I WILL NEVER FORGET IT.

The Lord showed himself all over this vacation...from the mountains of MO to the plains of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada to the majesty of the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park and the complete beauty of Salt Lake and Park City, Utah...oh what a land our LORD has created for us.  I just kept thinking while on this trip how different our country is...104 in one place and a days drive later we have snow...ONLY THE LORD COULD CREATE SUCH A PLACE!

Hopefully you will understand my excitement after I put the pictures up....it still won't be the same as being there!

I am still working on getting my pictures for this, so I thought I would just write and tell you all about it. 

Before we got to the Grand Canyon, we spent some time in the Painted Desert...which is a place where water and trees came together to crystalize the trees to make these most beautiful rock/tree masses.  Then onto the big ditch! 

IT WAS MORE AMAZING THAN ANY PICTURE YOU HAVE EVER SEEN!  Brian was a bit teary eyed when he first saw it!  My thought was BOY DID THE LORD EVER SHOW OFF WHEN HE MADE THIS PLACE!  It was just about the most beautiful thing I have ever seen (and after 3,004 miles, I have seen alot on this trip).  The colors are just amazing.  They are purple, pink, orange, brown, (not much green), red, beige...and that is just at one point in the day...when the sun rises and sets they are different colors.  The shadows make it amzaing.  I will admit though I was a bit scared with the kids.  We did some walking but basically for 12 hours I had my hands on Hannah and Brian had his hands on Ben and Zachary was just about as close as they were without having his hands held! 

We were there at 9:00 in the morning and stayed until sunset...and boy was the entire trip across the completely barren state of New Mexico worth this. 

We all came home a bit baked though...it was pretty warm that day...Brian and I had some funny looking tans...farmer tan arms, sunglass tanned faces and for some REALLY STUPID reason I pulled my hair up in a braid that day and my entire head was sunburnt...it was quite funny looking.

We spent Tuesday nigth and all Wednesday there.  We left first thing Thursday morning and headed to the Hoover Dam and Las Vegas...WORD OF ADVICE...DO THE DAM BUT SKIP LAS VEGAS.  We spent the entire time in Las Vegas literally with one hand covering Ben and Hannah's eyes and the other one was covering Zachary's eyes.  I knew that it would be that way, but what I wasn't expecting was the newpaper racks and BUILDING SIZE BILBOARDS full of stuff the kids couldn't see.  We basically just ate and slept there and headed out first thing Friday morning for Utah.

That will be what we discuss later...gotta eat supper and get ready to do some more legal transcription work...see ya!

Monday morning we left bright and early for parts unknown.  We basically the first two days just drove hard.  We made it to Amarilla, Texas.  Let me tell you...there is absolutely nothing there.  In our time living in Texas we really didn't go to west Texas...NOW I KNOW WHY!  It is flat and empty out there.  We were basically driving in some seriously barren land...then up pops a town and then back to nothing.  We got there in time to check into a room, eat supper and sleep.  We basically just slept...in Amarilla...and basically there wasn't much else to do!

Tuesday we got up early and head to Williams, Arizona (an hour from the Grand Canyon).  Again, having never gone west I wasn't sure what to expect...and now I know...MORE OF NOTHING!  Let me tell you, New Mexico is dirt and flat...that about sums it up!  It just amazed me.  Growing in East Tennessee in the mountains I didn't realize that land could be that flat and dry...I WAS WRONG!  I just kept asking Brian "Where do these people go to the grocery store?  Where do these people go shopping?"  I was just so worried about that!

We pulled into Williams just as the sun was going down.  We came across the mountains there as the sun was setting behind it...it was beautiful. 

Well, gotta get some chores done...I will write about the big ditch tomorrow!

Monday morning we left bright and early for parts unknown.  We basically the first two days just drove hard.  We made it to Amarilla, Texas.  Let me tell you...there is absolutely nothing there.  In our time living in Texas we really didn't go to west Texas...NOW I KNOW WHY!  It is flat and empty out there.  We were basically driving in some seriously barren land...then up pops a town and then back to nothing.  We got there in time to check into a room, eat supper and sleep.  We basically just slept...in Amarilla...and basically there wasn't much else to do!

Tuesday we got up early and head to Williams, Arizona (an hour from the Grand Canyon).  Again, having never gone west I wasn't sure what to expect...and now I know...MORE OF NOTHING!  Let me tell you, New Mexico is dirt and flat...that about sums it up!  It just amazed me.  Growing in East Tennessee in the mountains I didn't realize that land could be that flat and dry...I WAS WRONG!  I just kept asking Brian "Where do these people go to the grocery store?  Where do these people go shopping?"  I was just so worried about that!

We pulled into Williams just as the sun was going down.  We came across the mountains there as the sun was setting behind it...it was beautiful. 

Well, gotta get some chores done...I will write about the big ditch tomorrow!

It seems kind of funny that after four weeks I am finally back home and on some sort of a normal schedule...WHATEVER THAT IS!

I know all my family and friends are just waiting for pictures from our vacation, but since they are on Brian's laptop and his laptop is at church, you will have to wait a bit longer! 

But, I can tell you that in 13 days, we drove 3,904 miles!  We were in

Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas and back to Missouri in 13 days and 3,904 miles! 

I have been on many vacations and have seen alot of places, but nothing like the western part of the United States!  I can say beyond all reasonable doubt that Utah is probably the most beautiful state that I have ever been in...we saw large rock mountains, flat areas, and snow covered mountains in Park City, Utah (where we spent a week).  It was just something to see!  Of course, we did the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas (actually, Brian and I saw Las Vegas, Zach, Ben and Hannah saw basically the streets of Las Vegas as we covered their eyes almost the entire time we were walking the main strip in Las Vegas - at one point, Ben reminded me that I needed to be watching for poles and making sure he didn't hit one, as his head was tucked under my arm with my hands over his eyes hiding all the billboards and signs they weren't allowed to see).  I can though say that without a doubt that Utah is a beautiful state and you should most certainly visit there if you have the chance to!

We had a great time, we enjoyed the time away from all the stresses of church life and pastoring life.  I ended it though with a splat though (pardon the pun)...we were supposed to leave Utah on Thursday and start home, but I woke up at 3:30 Thursday morning with a raging case of the stomach flu.  I was sick all day and we couldn't leave until Friday and we didn't get as far as we wanted to then, we only made it to Denver and had to stay for the night which made for 13 hours in the car on Saturday!  Pretty much for me, Thursday, Friday and Saturday were a blur, but it was good to be home - at 10:00 Saturday night.

I will write all about my trip when Brian gets me the pictures, but the best thing I can say about the trip is that God has made the United States a beautiful country and He blessed us over and over by a safe trip with no accidents, no car trouble, no tire trouble, no portable DVD troubles (and if you travel 3,904 miles in 13 days with 3 kids and a hubby, DVD troubles are a big deal) and great weather, we didn't even hit a serious rain (we did though wake up to snow on Sunday in Utah - two days after 104 degrees in Las Vegas)...I am just so greatful that we came home safe, healthly (most of us) and somewhat rested....ISN'T GOD GOOD!

Zach before handbell performance
 Zachary just before singing
 Zach and Danielle getting award
 Zachary and Danielle playing
 Ben waiting for his turn to play
 Ben finally getting to play!
 Little bit of advice from mom before handbell performance
 Ben killing time!

The kids did great.  Benjamin's handbells are going to the nationals.  (They were so cute).  Zachary didn't win in bible memorization (which he really was quite excited about...after several years of this, I can't say as I blame him) and he didn't win at his singing solo (the girl that won...OH MY GOODNESS...SHE IS GOING TO GO PLACES....) BUT HE DID WIN his piano solo  WE WERE COMPLETELY SHOCKED, and he won his piano trio and his handbell group won as well!  This should be one interesting national.  As soon as Brian gets my pictures downloaded for me I will post some!

Our church has once again lost a member.  Kevin (the 42-year-old) man from our church just lost his battle with cancer.  He died at 3:45 this afternoon.  Please pray for my husband as he pastors Kevin's family and our church as we hold them up.

We made it to Nashville and back without any major problems.  We were able to travel all the way to Nashville without any rain (we basically kep chasing the rain but never caught it and it never caught us.)  We had a short but good trip in Nashville, came home ready to go!

And boy have we went!  Of course, Wednesday was school and church and you know how busy that is for me.  Then on top of that we have state competition this weekend.  We start tonight with handbells (which both boys are in...I will try to get a picture and post tomorrow of them.)  Then tomorrow is all about Zachary...he is in bible memorization, piano solo, piano duet and vocal solo....boy, he is going to run us hard tomorrow.  Benjamin (and I) decided that he wasn't quite ready for bible memorization this year...he was quite relieved, especially knowing how  much Zachary has had to work this week! 

So, basically that has been our week in a nutshell...OH, I ALMOST FORGOT...OUR STUPID, WORTHLESS, PIECE OF ONE-YEAR-OLD JUNK COMPUTER CRASHED AGAIN ...WE ARE STILL WORKING ON IT.

FINALLY!

This has been a long week...ever had those kind of weeks where you just think it will last forever...THAT HAS BEEN THIS WEEK FOR ME!

We have been so busy, but that hasn't helped make the week go faster! 

We had a funeral on Wednesday (a man from our church) and it looks like another one is right around the corner.  Brian has been back in the swing of things and doing way more then he should be!  I gave him a good talking to and he still did what he wanted to....GUESS I DON'T HAVE THAT KIND OF POWER AFTER ALL!

Today though we did get our piano...two wonderful men from our church went to great lengths to go get and deliver our piano to us...I can honestly say that had they not done that we wouldn't have a beautiful piano in our living room and we have less furniture in our sunroom.  We gave our old furniture (the furniture we bought when we got married years ago) away to a couple of girls from church have their first apartment and had only a love seat to sit on...it dawned on me today that we could give them the old furniture and it would be new to them and out of my living room!....WAHOO!  So, all at the same time we had people coming to get the old furniture and then the men meeting here to go get the new piano...IT WAS COMPLETE CRAZINESS....and Christy called right in the midlde of it....sorry sister, I was a bit on the "crazy" side at that moment!

So, here I sit at 9:12 p.m. typing an entry waiting for a job to come up for me to work on...CAN'T YOU JUST TELL MY EXCITEMENT!  GOTTA LOVE TYPING!

Well, we do though have something to look forward to...we are going to Nashville next Sunday - Tuesday with Brian.  He has foundation board meetings in Nashville with our denomination and we are going to spend time with our best friends Pam and Ron too....and to beat...the kids are getting out of two days of school...I think they are excited but that excitement might be short-lived when they get their homework...but, hey....two days out...can't be to hard to catch up on at the end of the year!

Well, gotta run and get ready for a job....see ya!

I think Monday's are about to become as busy as our Wednesdays.  Zachary started baseball last night......and on top of that last night piano practice and he had his final choir concert (which I missed but it was the same songs as they did last Friday at the competition, so at least I had seen them)...and this was all going on at the same time my ladies bible study was happening at church.  Well, Brian had to get up and help with this day.  I will admit that he started doing more over the weekend and I wasn't happy about it.  He basically didn't stop at all yesterday.  He went to Lebanon to sign some radio papers (remember, our church owns...for a little while longer now...a radio station and Brian is the station manager for it...for lack of a better word).  Then he went to lunch with a friend in Lebanon and then came home around 2:45 (he left at 7:45 yesterday morning).  Then he went and picked up Zachary up from piano practice for me...then onto church to get the projector set up for my bible study, then home to eat supper (which thank the LORD above I had remembered to put in the crock pot) then he took Zachary to baseball and his concert and he basically didn't stop until around 8:00 last night......OKAY.......THAT IS WWWWWAAAAAYYYYY TOO MUCH !  Then he was up again this morning to go to a meeting and I called him at 10:00 to find out where he was and informed him he needed to get home and go to bed....to which he replied he was on his way home and came home about 15 minutes later....and as soon as he got home went straight to the pill bottle and took medicine...of course, I was right on his heels asking why he was taking the medicine and he said because his back was bothering him.........wonder why it is bothering him?  He is in bed right now and should stay there the rest of the day until he has to go to a meeting tonight about a wedding he is doing this weekend.

Well, we did though get some sad but happy news yesterday.  One of the men from our church that has been in the hospital died yesterday.  Okay, that is both sad and happy news.  The poor man has suffered for 10 years with a serious disease that has basically kept him in constant pain and constantly on pain medication.  His name is Joe and he leaves behind a very loving wife and family fully devoted to him and God and finding peace right now with him being with our Lord and finally not in pain any longer!   I know his family is suffering because of his death but I also know they are celebrating because he has just been made completely whole!

Well, off to work I go....Have a great day!

First, let me praise the Lord my hubby is feeling better from the allergic reaction he had to pain medicine this week and PRAISE THE LORD HE IS FINALLY GETTING SOME RELIEF FROM THE BACK PAIN!

It took 2 weeks and a couple of days but the pain is finally letting up.  He still has some pain at the end of the day but I am just so excited!  Yesterday we went to Springfield (with me driving) so he could do some visitation.  Then last night we took a couple of foreign missionaries out for dinner.  He actually drove that trip....(I was so excited not to be driving.....WWWWWAAAAHHHHOOOO!.....can you tell I am excited.  He said that next week he is going to start going into the office in the mornings and come home in the afternoons and stay home for the evening....I HOPE HE STICKS TO IT!

Well, my days out with Zachary were exciting.  We went to Silver Dollar City in Branson on Friday and had a blast.....I WAS FINALLY THE KEWL MOM!!!  Then we went to the College of the Ozarks for his honors 6th grade choir to perform....AND BOY WAS I AMAZED!!!!  They were awesome.  They got a score of 1 (which is the best!).......

Then today is SUnday and we have a couple of foreign missionaries with us this morning....I am of course busy as usual on Sunday...so gotta run!

See ya and have a great Sunday!

Zach and Mark Hall of Casting Crowns
Zach and the drumer and guitar player from Casting Crowns (they were hilarious!)
Zach with Nicole Nordaman.

We had a blast and got home at 12:30.  Now, I am off to get ready for Silver Dollar City....OH I THINK I AM WAY TOO OLD FOR ALL THIS FUN!

Last week completely flew by, but this week is taking forever.  UGH!!!!!

It may have something to do with looking forward to the weekend...tomorrow night Zachary and I are going to a Casting Crowns concert.  If you are a contemporary christian music fan you know what I am talking about....and the icing on the cake, we get to go back stage and meet them....Zachary is so excited, and I must admit I am too.  Then on Friday I am going on a field trip with Zachary to Silver Dollar City in Branson and then onto College of the Ozarks for his school's honor choir to perform.  We leave at 7:15 and don't get home until after 7:00 that night, it should be interesting......

And of course on top of all that, I am still being nursey at home....Brian is doing okay...still frustrated that he isn't feeling completely better...but that will come.

Yesterday though we went and found a piano that we are going to buy for the house.  Zachary is doing great but needed to have his own piano...and we found one.  He is playing El Shaddai for competition and it sounds beautiful but he needs way more practice...and this will greatly improve that!

Well, gott get started back to work....see ya!

Okay, so why is it when you need sleep the most you end up with such severe leg cramps that wake you up at 2:00 and keep you up all night.  I slept from 11:00 until 2:00 and then have been up the rest of the night and all day....this was me today......it was so bad at one point tonight I had Zachary standing behind me helping catch my mistakes and keeping me awake....oh I am so ready for bed...UGH!!!!...