Fall Events in Louisville :)

Fall is here and the gorgeous fall colours are OUT! It is still extremely dry here which has resulted in some nice weather... warm :) I did turn on the heat a few days ago, but now this week it is off again! We are cooking under all our warm blankies!

Halloween was fun once again. The kids dressed up enough to go and get some candy... as you can see Daddy dressed up a bit too! My favourite was Luke's shield... the pot lid!

Keith preached at our church this last weekend and did well! He is pretty tired after such a busy weekend, but thankful for the opportunity to preach and LEARN!

Ellie has started basketball and Luke will start this week too. Megan gets to learn more ART from a care group friend- lucky girl! I am busy with the house and keeping up with enough food in the fridge! Latesha continues to adjust to our Canadian-isms and is a wonderful part of our family! The semester is racing to a finish and Christmas will be here all too soon! I have been wanting to put up some Christmas decor, but somehow it does not feel right when Luke is still wearing shorts and flip flops!!

Love and hugs!

Teresa

Visit from Lukas and Natalie

How wonderful to have family come and visit! My cousin Lukas and his new bride Natalie are on an adventure driving across the USA and they stopped at our place for TWO NIGHTS! The kids were excited! I was excited! What a treat to have them here... in our house... hanging out... talking face to face! My baby cousin Lukas is 6'5" so my Luke looks up to him and think the WORLD of him! I certainly loved getting to know Natalie and the kids loved their new "Aunty" Natalie! We were not able to make their wedding last June so seeing them was awesome!

We wore them out as we toured Louisville... We ate KFC at the Colonel's grave, walked through Church Hill Downs, toured Old Louisville and checked out the seminary area. We also made yummy LEFSE with some friends and kept the Norwegian roots alive!

So now the big question.... Who's coming NEXT????? That was not long enough of a visit, but we'll take what ever we can get!

16 years and counting....

This week Keith and I celebrated our 16th anniversary! Once again I pulled out my foofy 90's wedding frock and tried it on. This year the girls all dressed up too with some fancy dresses while we had a tea party and watched "My Fair Lady." The men of the house coped by cooking (Keith) and eating (Luke) :) As you can tell from the picture Luke did his best to be a pest!

To celebrate Keith and I took the whole troop plus 2 more (Matt & Abbie) to Indianapolis to see a Symphony concert with the famous violinist Midori. What great memories we had from the event!

Then in the midst of all the busy I had to turn another year older... sigh! Next year will be the big 40... oh well... at least Keith gets to go first! Keith took me to the Louisville riverfront with take out sushi and no kids to celebrate.

Busy! Busy! Busy!

Wow- times flies when you stuff lots into your days! We are having a HOT and DRY end of summer here. Our poor grass is brown and in need of a good rain. Most of the trees in the area are losing their leaves- not because fall is here.... it has been a drought!

We also have an addition to our family since last post! Latesha has joined our busy family and is adjusting to life with the Hanson family! She is 19 years old and working in a preschool right now. She was at bible school last year and is now auditing some courses at SBTS to keep on growing and learning. She is one sweet girl and we are all growing to love her more all the time. She has been a big help around the house and is learning how to cook .... easy meals from me and tasty complex meals from Keith!!! (this picture is of the kids playing marshmellow guns in the yard!)

Megan's team is all done Volleyball and Ellie's team has just started games. I am trying to keep up without getting too sore, but I love watching the girls learn to play! I am a proud mom to say the least!

I have been keeping up with my SWI class and some other commitments. Somehow there is not enough hours in the day for rest or even better... a nap! And those kids of ours are GROWING! Ellie is past 5'7" now and rapidly chasing me for height! Megan just grew out of shoes I bought for her 3 months ago! Luke has almost outgrown his size 10 pants! I'm not even going to describe all the food they eat!

Our care group took a trip to Huber's orchard for apples and pumpkins- fun times! We are learning to love all the times we have with our church family because most of us are seminary folk who will be moving on all too soon! We sure have great fellowship and establish deep bonds!

Back to School for the KIDS!

Today was the day! Back to Dorothy Sayers Classical School and learning lots! All 3 were happy to go back- a little nervous, but who isn't on the first day of school??? The backpacks were full, the skirts were pressed, hairdos were slicked and we were even a bit early! We'll see how we do in a couple weeks :)

As you can tell I've have a bit of time for myself today and I'm updating the blog!

Take care!

Summer fun in L'ville

Summer is coming to a close ... 3 months went fast! Here are some pics from the Kentucky State Fair. We had a sweet girl- Carly- from our care group join us for the day! Once again there were amazing decorated cakes, intricate quilts and lots of livestock! It was fun to watch Keith judge the cows from a distance and choose the winners! They still all look like things that go MOO to me!! Carly got to learn all about cows... she did say that she preferred their smell to the pigs :)

Megan looks so sweet in her volleyball uniform! She has played 2 games and getting better each time! Ellie's team will start games next week! Busy times alright!

Year #2 here we go!

Yep- that's right- we've been here a year in Louisville and time has FLOWN! Keith started back to another semester of classes this week- a day after he finished his last paper from all the school classes he did this summer. He has been busy! His England/ Scotland trip allowed him to take 9 credits of classes and move along quickly with his MDIV program. He had the dilemma of deciding which classes to take this week- poor guy- all the classes are so good and he loves to grow/ learn /grow!!!

So- a year ago we were still in the hotel- the dodgy one bedroom America Extended stay. We had not bought our house, but were close! My dear Grand Pop had just passed away and I think I cried every other day! The kids were registered for school, but I still was teaching phonograms and grammar in the hotel to get ready for school! I am beyond thankful as I look back and see the miraculous and mighty hand of provisions from the Lord!

Speaking of looking back- Keith and I finally got rid of our Canadian cell phone. As we cleared all the memory, contacts and photos it was surreal. Sure, we have many friend/ family contacts stored in there, but then I could not believe all the farm stuff... feed sales, tractor parts, border broker guys, milk replacer sales, dairy farms, hay sales, veterinarians, calf buyers, seed brokers, parts sales, building supplies, real estate broker.... the list was so long and there was a memory for each of them. It is hard to believe that only 2 years ago we finished farming!

The kids are enjoying their last weeks of summer break. The girls have both joined the school Volleyball team and have practice twice per week. I've stepped in as an assistant coach- fun times! Meg had her first Middle school game last week and did really well for her first time! Ellie's JV team will start games in September. I also have all 3 kids in piano lessons with wonderful teachers! They have all kept up playing over the summer- we're still making up for lost time while we travelled and moved around.

So- sorry for the lousy grammar and sentence structure- hope it did not drive you all nuts!!!

Love you and look forward to hearing from you.

Teresa