It's the most beautiful time of the year....

School is going to start!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's one thing moving to Wisconsin it's a complete different thing when you move after school is over and the kids have no friends except you. Every day Isabel says to me "what are we going to do today?" I can't take much more.

Everything is Holy Now

My favorite song right now is by Peter Mayer's "Holy Now". It's such a great song! If you get a chance to listen to it you can find it on iTunes and the lyrics are online.

I've decided what is going to be my next adventure. As soon as school starts my sister-in-law Janet and I are going to make a movie about Wisconsin, about all the wonderful and wacky things that make it unique. We have to make it quick because the more time I spend here the things that used to make me laugh are becoming normal.

Today I spent some time filming the grocery store isles in a local store. The amount of Brats, Cheese and Pizzas they sell in the stores is incredible! We are going to do interviews with some interesting people and special landmarks.

We went to a great marble show at a local art museum, I had no idea that marbles were made so long ago...some were hundreds of years old and beautiful - maybe a new thing to collect.

For my friends in CA, I have something to say. Sometimes you can fight doing what God wants you to do so hard it makes you miserable and when you finally give in and do what He wants you may think "I'm such a dope for fighting" and then you find our wonderful Heavenly Father there - ready to bless and pat you on the back and congratulating you for doing His Will. He is so nice and forgiving it's like he doesn't even remember your stubborness. He even can trick you into thinking it was all YOUR idea....but it wasn't. Time for bed. Love to all.

Misc. Pictures

Church in the wedding chapel, Swimming lessons, missing the beach, Packer Fans and cousins.

Fireworks

Every five years Appleton, WI hosts the Pyrotechnics Guild International convention. I wish I could put video on this blog but unfortunately you will have to enjoy still pictures - it was incredible! For 5 nights companies (usually family owned companies) perform the best fireworks in the nation. Mike and I took the kids for 3 nights and the show goes for two hours so after a while whining was louder than the fireworks and it wasn't any fun. So the final night was Friday and Mike's sister offered to baby sit and we got to go out to dinner at a great restaurant and went out to a field and opened the back end of the van and enjoyed the best fireworks I've ever seen. They set a world record and the Guinness Book of World Records and lit 10.5 million firecrackers at one time.

Do I need to say more

The Packers and Reggie

Yesterday we got to experience our first real taste of Title Town USA, we went to Family Night at Lambeau Field to see a Packer scrimmage and also see some of the most incredible sights a replanted Californian can see. We (our family and Mike's sister, husband and 2 of their 4 children) drove to Green Bay and parked in a really great neighborhood surrounding Lambeau Field, had our own little tailgate party and walked about 1/2 of a mile to the stadium, that was a fun part to see what the people in the neighborhoods surrounding the fields do, someone of them rent port-a-potties and let people drive up on their lawns to park. Some have 'brat cook outs' (BBQ's to those of us from California).

I do exaggerate, BUT almost everyone had on either a Brett Farve jersey or a Reggie White Jersey, or at least something with the Packer logo. The kids had a great time, you've got to know that marketing people who don't have children were sitting around a table and said "let's give out thunder stickers for family night" so suffice it to say it was loud! I remember going to football games in CA and liking it but yet it really wasn't a family event-not here, this was all about family and kids and fun. There were fireworks afterward the weather cooperated and it was a beautiful night.

There were some teenage boys behind us, 2 California transplants from Southgate and one homegrown Green Bay boy. They were so nice and we talked about the differences about here and there and the boys from Southgate say, well actually everyone says "great place to raise kids" and then they kind of wink at me and say..."but it was more fun in CA", I could totally relate. The Green Bay boy was so nice and he kept saying "well I always have lived here and I love it here".

Very memorable night. I wish you all could have been there.

Reggie White was inducted into the Hall of Fame yesterday in Ohio. They did a great 15 minute tribute to him last night (sniff, sniff, wiping tears) and some funny articles in the local paper today about things he did. God sure did use that man.

My View

I thought I would show you what I see in the mornings for reading and devotion and checking email time. I love the view from my window, I remember telling you all that the courtyard in SJC would be hard to loose, and it is. But, the view from this window is so peaceful and the birds, squirrels and bunnies are usually busy outside in the mornings.

The other pictures are of the living room and the front of the house. I had a friendly competition going with some friends on picking the color of the living room. Well girls, I didn't choose any of the colors suggested so I won't be sending any cheese curds. Thanks for the help though.

God Church Camera

Mike couldn't stand me not having a camera anymore so great guy that he is I got the new improved model of camera I used to have...so I'm back in business. I haven't been writing for the past few days because without photos to back you up it's just hard to read and hard to write.

Today I'm sitting on my living room bench seat a place that I love, looking into the backyard. The kids are still asleep. There are two things I've wanted to talk about lately one being God and Church and the other is being lonely. I'll start with the God and Church: God has consistently directed me and our family, I never had any doubts about what choice we made when we decided to come here, I had tons of fears and sadness but I knew that this is the place that we needed to be. God continues to be ever faithful and whenever those fearful feelings come he comforts or sends or speaks to me just the right thing. The last few weeks I've been thinking that I accidently got put in the wrong place. This land is full of Lutherans, and the thing about Lutherans is they come in many different Lutheran denominations and I'm not kidding about this; there are Lutheran churches about every half mile around here.

Some Lutherans are separatists and they feel like they are the ones who have the corner on the market of eternity and are not allowed to fellowship with others. They have their own church and school so the kids don't have to mingle. Nicest folks and very....o what is the word...let's just say they are 'packaged very nicely'. They don't seem to smile very often or laugh.

The last few weeks I've been around a lot of Lutherans so I was very happy to go to church this last Sunday with our church which is called San Damiano which MET downtown until last Sunday. The bar that we have been meeting in is in the process of changing ownership so we are going to meet in a BAPTIST WEDDING CHAPEL!!! That ought to be interesting!

If I were going to try to find a church like Capo Beach Calvary this would be the church that would be closest. The pastor is great, it's a young congregation (under 1 year old) and the people who attend run the gammut of musicians who perform in local bars to retired folks to a few families. The worship can change radically from one weekend to the next, once we came and it was bluegrass, the week before last it was some recordings from Johnny Cash a great song called 'Help Me', this week it was Gilllian Welch's song 'One More Dollar' to 'Breathe' to an old Hymn 'Be Thou My Vision'. I love the eclectic mix of worship they do. Some of the people seem strong and some weak in faith but willing to grow. I've attached some pictures of church, the guy with the beer, he kind of looks like the pastor. I guess we get to take that picture with us to the Baptist Chapel, but that could be a problem.

Ok, from going to a place where I had a ton of people to talk with and hang out with to coming here is a bit of a shock to my delicate gregarious extroverted personality. Please pray for all of us to meet people that are a little crazy! if you know what I mean. There is entirely to much common sense around here.

I better get going! As I sit here there are big bees and bugs flying into the window trying to escape the heat today! Go figure the hottest summer for a long time! Bye all!