Study Break

Check out the beautiful job the workers did on my car. Now when my lights are on my car has one I open and one half closed (check out the headlights!)









As a Study Break I wrote you all a little song:
I'm a little sippy cup
Short and Stout
I don't have a handle
But here is my spout
When I get all filled up
Hear me shout.
Kids tip me over
But I don't pour out!

I found this little sippy cup under our couch....yes still with milk (well I think it was milk) in it......YUCK!!! Talk about good quality sippy cups, I can't believe it didn't smell! So if anyone is missing a cute little sippy cup from April (yes 3 months ago) let me know...I'll bring in home next weekend.









I take my certification exam Tomorrow (Friday at noon) and Aaron takes his Step 2 Boards on Monday (all day), so if you have a moment we'd appreciate a little prayer! Love you and miss you all!
Booxy

Back from Canada...

...And my hubby's already planning the next one. Good greif! Maybe some of you didn't even know, but yeah, we went to Canada. It was nice...beautiful weather, fun times, decent fishing, but it's good to be home. It was much needed, the relaxing, quiet, not a care in the world schedule. And guess what...I caught the biggest fish! =) (hehe...Chad doesn't like hearing that) I'll just throw a few pic's on here from it. I also want to say, Matt and Rebekah, I can see how you would feel bad about this, but it honestly could have happened with any of our kids. (esp mine) We are always having to tell them to be careful and slow down around older people. One Sunday Kelsey just ran and jumped up into my Grandpa Farney's arms, and Praise the Lord that 89 yr old man caught her!! But I couldn't believe it! And Sarah...you certainly shouldn't feel bad about Josiah's rock incident. That was completly a freak thing!! We love you all, and are thankful she's doing well. When my Grandma Hoffman fell 5-6 years ago, somehow she banged up her face bad! My uncle sent out an email of her picture, and "UFO: Unidentified Fallen Oldie" So compassionate! But she even laughed. I still can't figure out how she could have looked so bad from a fall. Grandma looks great! :) Well it's getting way too late, so I'm gonna sign off. Good night, girls.
Kristy

My precious car!

Just thought I'd share with you the nice dent job on my car! It was more of a hassle than anything this last week. But I did get a nice rental car (2006 Mazda) for the week...stay tuned to see the new and improved Ford Contour!



Aaron and I watched "While you were sleeping" last weekend and I'm glad to share with you that Aaron is a fan. He was a little apprehensive of a "chick flick" but laughed alot and will now be joining us on our fequent quotes from the movie.
Love you all and miss you tons!
Bekah

We are SO Sorry!

I just wanted to make an apology to the whole family for our major role in Grandma's accident. We feel so horrible about it. We know that you aren't all furious with us but we are with ourselves! Anyway, I think Josh has learned that he can't push Grandma. He keeps saying, "No! No! Pushing Grandma josh!" So, I hope he understands.

Anyway, I wanted you to all know we're very sorry for what happenned.

Love,
Rebekah

I'm not sure why I can't move these pictures around to put them in the right order! Oh well...
this is a picture of Matt and me on Sunday in Washington D.C. Don't we have a lovely A.C. church in D.C.?! :) Actually, this is a "side door" to the National Cathedral. It was very beautiful. We went there after church on Sunday.

This is Matt and me at Arlington Cemetery. There was this beautiful garden area around Lee's home at the top of the cemetery. But since we tried to take this picture ourselves, you can't see any of the beauty...just my greasy face! Yuck! I was so dumb and didn't wear or even pack my tennis shoes for this trip. I thought my "comfy" sandals would be good enough. Not so much!!! Walking aproximately 7 miles in sandals will make any sandal feel like a torturing machine!! But I still enjoyed all the sights. Matt said next time we are going to have to think about practicality before fashion! I said, I wasn't even wearing my fashionable shoes!! He just shook his head...poor man. I think he thinks I'm crazy!

This is us posing on the North side (I think) of the Washington Monument. The Lincoln Monument is way behind us. Unfortunately, we weren't thinking and posed right in front of it.

I took this picture of Darci a couple days before we left for D.C. I would pull out my camera and look at this picture every time I would get lonesome for her on the trip. This is one of her favorite things to do. Whenever she sees me loading the dishwasher she crawls at top speed towards me and stands up next to it and tries to pull everything out that I'm trying to load. It can be frustrating, but I still like the picture.

Here is the capitol. We had gorgeous weather the whole time we were there. The only time we had rain was when we were sitting in the airport ready to leave. Then we had a horrible storm which made our flight late, which meant we were going to miss our connecting flight in Atlanta. So we ended up staying one more night in Washington D.C.

On Saturday, we went to the Holocaust museum. I think it's a must for anybody who has time to go there when they visit Washington D.C. It was so moving and sobering. We were there for 6 hours and still didn't read or see every single thing. They finally had to kick us out because it was closing time. I still think about it everyday...sometimes multiple times a day. Matt and I said that after being there we feel like we should never complain again. It's pathetic how quickly I fall back into complaining again. We had so many emotions and thoughts after being there. WE just talked and talked afterwards. WE had questions like, "What would we have done in that kind of a society?" "Would we have been courageous enough to stand up for the Jews even if it meant possible death?" "Why did God allow such a horrible thing to happen to them?" "What must God think throughout history as He was watched the 'church' persecute the Jewish people?" "Are there people in my life that I look up to so much that I hardly question anything they say? (like the people of Germany did with Hitler)". Anyway, those were just some of the things we talked about.

Well, I don't want to be depressing. I was just sharing what we did there! We felt so thankful for our country after being in Washington D.C. It makes you proud to be an American!

Well, I better go now. Love you all!

Love,
Rebekah

Hey, good lookin's!

How are the hoffmann gal's, on this beautiful Friday Morning?? it hardly seems like a friday-seems like the week just started with the 4th stuck in the middle of it! Bekah, that pic of Aaron is hilarious!! You take some great pic's! ('course your hubby gives you plenty of opportunities!) :) Is everyone having a good summer??
OK...here's a question for ALL of you! What has been your highlight so far of this summer?? I think our's might still be coming...we're leaving for Canada thurs. the 13th! We haven't really done much so far, except for camping this past weekend. It was certainly a highlight, but not a very good one. :) It all started when we got there and had a hard time trying to level the camper. It took a long time, & tried our patience. We got a dent in our van from this, as when we re-hitched it to move it a little, it slipped off the hitch and hit the van. It was so hot, and the a/c unit on our pop-up went ka-put last summer, so we were regretting not getting that fixed first! Oh, and our awning broke because there was so much wind one night! Abbi got a tick on her head and Chad had one on his leg! This was the last time using our camper! It's just too much work, and with the ages of our kids, it's not worth it. Camping is more stressful, than relaxing right now! Now that I think of it, I don't know how much we'll get for our camper...sounds like we have some repairs to make! But we need the money right now, instead.

Alright, enough of my rambling...sorry for boring you all. Hope you have a great weekend!
Kristy

Sleeping Bear Dunes

Aaron and I spent a relaxing couple days at the Sleeping Bear Dunes. If anyone is looking for a nice place to stay at a bed and breakfast for a get away let us know. We stayed at a wonderful home just 20 minutes from the Dunes. The owner of our B&B recommended a conservacy area just 5 minutes away from the B&B that had just been acquired by their group. The No Tresspassing signs were still up but he told us to have at it. So we explored the area a ton. We also spend an afternoon kayaking on the Platte river, which goes from Platte lake to Lake Michigan...and is as warm as bath water! The weather was perfect and enjoyed having a few days before the business of studying sets back in. Hope all is well!
Bekah

Tree Down

Hi all,

Thought you would like to see a picture of our beautiful Ash tree! We had quite a storm Thursday afternoon. I went to the basement until the storm was over. I came up and this is what I saw! It was so disappointing. It was such a nicely shaped tree. Now we have a mess to clean up. It could have been so much worse. There are several trees closer to the house. We are very thankful it wasn't one of those!

love ya,
Aunt Barb

Cute Pic's

Thanks for posting those, guys! Looks like you had a great time! That's great that you pushed Grandma up Laurell Falls - bet she loved it. Well I gotta keep going...have a Great day, everyone!
Love you all, Kristy

More pics...

Hey all...

Hi there everyone! Not much going on here, but I thought I'd say hello. We had our Bible School Program Friday night. It went really well. We had nearly 400 students sign up this year and probably 80-90 teachers. The songs that the big group sang turned out very well. I had so much fun the past 2 weeks, but I am ready for a break from 35 6-year olds. It can make you crazy after a while! (o:
Hope everyone is having a good Father's Day. We gave dad the movie Glory Road for Father's Day and we watched it tonite. It was very well done. Very clean too! I would recommend it. Not much romance, Aunt Bonnie.
Klint and I were annouced 3 years ago this weekend. Crazy, huh? Time flies (when you are having fun!)
Kristy, I hope things are going better with little Josiah. That sounds really stressful!! Hang in there! Well I hope you all have a wonderful week!
LoveinHim-Sarah

Gatlinburg

Just thought you'd like a few cute pics...aren't they adorable! Yes I made it home safely, a tad later then I had hoped...work was a little rough the next day....Anywho, I'm going to put together a little "book" of pictures (since I don't scrapbook) of Gatlinburg, so if you've got some really go pics post them on the blog or email them to me!

Love you all...booxy
ps that last pic of Aaron and I was at the SuperBowl Winter festival.
pss Jamie, email me if you want your pics...I don't have you email address.

We'll be lonely this weekend!

Hi everyone! I don't know if any of you will even get a chance to read this before you leave, or not, but we will miss ALL of you this weekend, and we'll be praying for all of you as you travel! No, we are not going on 'cation, in case any of you hadn't heard. :( :( :( So think of us, and we'll be thinking of all of you! (I'm really wondering right now if we made the right decision?!?) But I know we did...it would have been crazy! And as I just checked the weather, it's planning to rain most of the weekend, (here) so this isn't going to help things at all! Can we re-nig and just pack-up and come?!? (j.k)

Well, here's an update on Josiah...with his 'BM' trials. This week has been better...He's actually going poop occasionally without major ear piercing screams! SO...yesterday I brought down EVERY pair of underwear he had in his drawer. I said...That's it! This kid is getting potty trained TODAY! Well......we made it until about 3:00, and that's when I smelled something. Yep! you guessed it! He had pooped in his underwear, and was just sitting there still playing!!! I just can't understand that boy!! SO...I had a nasty mess to clean up, and that was enough to do me in, and back-on went the diaper!!! AAAHHHHH! Chad said he came up stairs last night with nothing on! So he took off his diaper/shorts for some apparent reason?!? This is a first, so MAYBEEEEEEEE he's starting to dislike having a diaper on, and we're getting somewhere?!? Just pray for him, and us, ;) we are so very ready for this stage to be done! We were watching home video's the other night, and he was over in the corner, having his BM fit, (on the video) and this was over a year ago!!!!!! So it's gone on long enough. (Yes, I've taken him to the DR)

Hmm, did any of you bring a laptop on 'cation?? Maybe you're reading this there! =) Well, in case you are, HI EVERYONE!! WE LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU!!!
Wow, this is a marathon post, sorry ladies! Have a wonderful time, you guys, and someone had better post lots of pic's on here when you get back!!!
Love you all!
Kristy

The continuing saga

OK, so the last picture I posted was from a fun filled adventure to downtown Detroit during their County Howdown (a very strange site in downtown Detroit, white people in cowboy boots and cowboy hats) Anywho, that was the world's largest boot.
So here's your next picture, it goes back a few months...and yes Aaron likes to be "excited" in every picture, note the green gloves.....
Booxy
PS OK, I love Kristy and Rebekah's blogs...but I know there are others out there who can blog....ahem....Leah.....Jamie... so ladies.....

"hey, this is Rebekah. We are really busy, so i don't have time to type anything to my wonderful family!" .......

NO, actually I do. I've just been lazy! Thanks for being the blogging queen Kristy! What would we do without you? Okay, I'm just going to post so that everybody else out there will have the courage to post even when they think there life is as boring as can be and they think they have nothing to say!

This morning an Orkin guy came to take care of our bee problem. WE have some HUMONGOUS bees that have been drilling holes in our deck and frightening me! I'm so afraid that they are going to sting my kids. So Matt calls the Orkin guy yesterday to come and get the job done. They send out a guy who needs to climb up on the roof but hasn't brought his own ladder. So he needs to borrow ours. Well, he doesn't really seem to know how to use ladders so the thing slips and crashes into our screen and leaves two nice big gaping holes. He laughed when he told us that the "ladder just fell into the screen". No "I'm sorry". grrrrrr. Then he trampled one or our newly planted hostas. I guess he doesn't know about stepping around things that are planted on the ground. Anyway, he comes to the door and says he thinks he's done so Matt went out to look at it and points out about 5 different holes the guy hadn't filled! We are so frustrated because this is supposedly a $100 job! Whatever!! All he did was spray some stuff in a hole and destroy our hosta and screen. He's coming back later today to finish the job. We'll see what other casualties he leaves behind this time.

So, that has been the "adventure" of the day. This morning Marie and I took our kids to Tipton Park where they have water sprays and stuff. It was pretty fun! There was a bully that was bugging Joe (and Marie and I). He really was a bully! He would push Joe and other kids away from the toys he wanted to play with. It was very frustrating. The place was crazy! There were so many moms there with lots of kids. I guess everybody had the same idea we did.

Okay, this post is starting to bore me. Well, hopefully this boring little post will give you all the courage to write about nothing as well!

Love,
Rebekah

Just thought I'd share some pictures of Abbi I took last month. Where is everyone?!? I know someone's reading this right now...so just post a little note! :) Even if it just says: "hey, this is ________ We are really busy, so i don't have time to type anything to my wonderful family!" (hehe) Alright, let's see how many of you follow through. =) =) =)
Have a great day in HIM! Kristy

Here's some more pic's from the discovery meuseum. It's such a fun place, if any of you haven't been there yet! TON'S to do! The pic of Josiah and Abbi, they're 'dancing' and then the big screen in front of them had like a digital shadow of them - they had fun with that.
Hey, by the way, my friend Lisa I've talked about is in remission!! Praise God! She's coming home today after like 7 weeks in the hospital, so we are SOOOO excited for her! She does still have to have the bone marrow transplant to hopefully decrease the chance for reoccourance. So be praying for her as she prepares for that - It'll be hard, since she'll have to go to Iowa for a while, and won't have the family and friends with her like she has in Peoria. Plus it sounds pretty intense and painful.
Have a great day, girls!
Kristy

Bekah, you and Aaron are hilarious! He looks almost as excited as he was to meet Carrot top's cousin!! by the way, I've tried to look up his real name, and I just can't find it!! I am learning, though that he is a VERY unique individual!! (a little sketchy, too) But thanks for sharing that pic! Hope everyone is doing alright...and didn't get blown away tonight! WOW! Keep the 'chattin' coming!! Goodnight, girls!

The Saga of Aaron and Bekah's Life in Detroit!

Thought you'd enjoy this cool picture of my husband and I with the world's largest boot. Yeah, bet you wish you were in Detroit!
To be continued.....that is, if others decide this little corner of cyber space is worth blogging on!

Luv you all!
Bekah (and Aaron)

Kaeb Kid Pictures!

Hey, girls! Just wanted to share some pic's with you from when we took all of the kiddo's to the Discovery Meuseum! We had so much fun! (So did Mom K, as you can tell!) =) Hope you are all having a good start to your week! We really enjoyed seeing everyone this weekend, even though it was SUPER busy and stressful, it was worth it!! We love you all and look forward to vacation! Wow, it's creeping up fast! I have some more pic's I took of Abbi i'll share a little later...gotta get going!

Love ya one and all!! Kristy

La La La La Life Goes On

Happy belated Mother's Day to all those Mother's who read this blog. Hope you each had a wonderful day! Aaron and I send our hello's from the big DEEETROIT. I thought a little note would cheer us all up on this dreary continually rainy week. We had a sliver of sunlight tonight when Aaron and I went out on a run...yes me, Booxy actually went on a run with my husband. He was very kind to me and when I was tired and stopped and walked the rest of the way with me...what a guy. So anyway, it was great to see the sun a little bit. This weekend is a much anticipated weekend for me as we're going to be hosts for the first time (excluding family of course!). Amber and Tim Lehman are coming up for the weekend and I'm so excited! We're praying for sunshine!
What are the plans for vacation? Is there any chance what-so-ever that anyone would be coming back on Monday rather than Tuesday! I really need to work on Tuesday if at all possible. I'm also curious of how those of you from the Leo/Bluffton area will be traveling? Do you guys go down 75? Anywho, I'm just trying to work out details at work and need a few answers...Of course we'd ALL love to hear from you on the blog. But since we seem to have a fear of blogging or something, (Aaron told me it's a classic case of blogaphobia and the best anecdote is to blog your fears away) I'd appreciate atleast a phone call....please?
Hope all is well!
Booxy

I'm here! =)

Rebekah, those pictures are PRECIOUS!! I love the one of Darcy sleeping in the grass...too sweet. Good to hear you had a good trip, Booxy! Stressful, but good. And I'll be praying for you and Matt, Rebekah! Potty training isn't fun...I've tried a couple times with Josiah, and he's no where close! He's actually taking a laxative right now, since he has been having BM problems for a while! He will hold it, and hold it, and then he is in so much pain he just screams, and was even waking up at night. So the Dr suggested this...we'll see if it works! But I'm sure Josh isn't having those problems, so I hope it goes easier for you! (if he doesn't catch on, don't worry - I hear boys are more difficult) Well, I don't know if any of you know Lisa very well, but she has a web site now...I don't know if I've given it to you on here, or not?? But it is: www.caringbridge.org/visit/lisajourney

there's alot on there, but there's some pictures of her, and her journal that she writes in everyday is neat to read. There is a guestbook you can sign too, if you'd like.

Well, I hope we get some more action on this blog now! I check it alot, but there's not much new. We have a BUSY weekend...Kelsey's bday party w/family fri night at Chuck E Cheese, Her 'friends' party here Sat, my 2 nephews bday party sat night, then Mother's Day sun. (at my parent's) Next weekend is worse! :( I am looking forward to vacation, though!! Will you all be coming?!? Ok, I'm running out of conversation, so have a wonderful 2nd half of your week!!
Kristy

Just a Couple Pictures

Darci taking a snooze outside
Darci reminds me so much of my Mom in this picture.
Josh being a little monkey! Darci wondering what on earth he's doing.
Josh enjoying the sunshine!
I thought it was time for me to put a couple new pictures up here. This blog has been so quiet lately hasn't it?

How is everyone doing? Matt has been pretty stressed with his finals. He has a very hard final that he is working on right now. It's a take-home. He seriously is putting in over 20 hours on this thing. You can pray for him. He is very discouraged about it.

As for Mother's day I think we might be with Dad and Mom. I still need to find out if my sisters are going to be alone or what.

I am going to start potty training tomorrow with Josh. I pray that it will go as smoothly as possible! I've got a book that I'm trying to read and understand.

Well, I better go for now.

Love you guys,
Rebekah

ANYONE HOME?

Hope all is going well with everyone. I've made is safely home from Boston...and yes Aaron and I both survived our 5 days apart...but I'm very glad to be home! Boston was great. I learned a ton at the convention and we spent two evenings down near Harvard wandering the through that part of Cambridge. Our hotel was in Cambridge so we actually didn't get to see much of Boston. We were up and at the conference atleast by 8 (sometimes at 6am) and not done till after 6 sometimes 8 so we were pretty exhausted. So I guess that means I'll just have to go back right? But just a note, if you ever go to Boston learn to use the public transportation, traffic is horrible and taxi's are overly priced!
So Lizzie, how was Florida (or Barb or Sarah)?
Does anyone have great plans for Mother's day? We're hopefully coming home to Bloomington over Memorial Day weekend to celebrate.
Otherwise I don't have much else to say. Life is great, I love being married and life sure looks up when it's sunny and warm outside! Love you all and miss you much!
Bekah

Picture time

For those of you who don't know already. My family came up to visit us in Deeeetroit! It was fun adventuresome weekend. The family came up in a camper to keep the kids entertained for the 7 hour trip. We had a birthday party for Joe at my apartment then traveled up north to an indoor waterpark/hotel. It was an fun filled weekend and thought I'd share a few pictures from the weekend.
And a small prayer request. I leave next Tuesday for my conference in Boston. I've never been away from my husband for more that 2 days...so it's gonna be a little hard to be apart for 5 days...and pray that the girls I'm with don't want to party at night but that we can experience Boston and have fun touring as well as learning a lot at the conference. Thanks! Love you all
Booxy

Come on, girls!

Good BEAUTIFUL Thursday morning to you! How is everyone doing?? Now i know we all could think of SOMETHING to say...can't we?? Or are we all outside from dawn till dusk enjoying this beautiful weather?!?

Well, I've got a couple prayer requests for you all. First, my Dad and brother are in Mexico this week at Magdalena! But we heard 16 in the group are VERY sick! Mom's worried about Dad, and not being able to have contact is hard on her. He's been very week for so long she's hoping he's not 1 of them!! But just pray for the group!

The other one is Lisa Gerber. She and Byron lost their little Micah last fall, and now she is in the hospital with leukemia!! PLEASE pray for her and Byron through this! It's difficult not to question 'why her??' But God has His hand on this, and she has an amazing attitude right now...she told me "either way, I'll win!" If i can't fight this, i'll be with Christ and Micah...but if I do I'm here with my family and friends! They have a very possitive outlook for her, so that's encouraging. But please lift them up in prayer - she'll be getting chemo treatments for the next 3 weeks and they're keeping her in the hospital the whole time. The risk for infection is so great.

Sorry for the depressing post, but we need to pray for one another!
Love ya! Kristy

Not much to say....

Yeah....thought I'd post something, but I'm really not sure what...hee hee, my life's not that exciting! But here we go: Aaron and I had a great discovery (ok so he actually discovered it) the other day. About a mile from our house is the old Ford homestead. They have 300 acres of land which they've now donated to the public/UofM Dearborn as a nature area. It has tons of trails, and none of the those "please stay on path" and no "don't pick the flowers" signs...we're really free to explore. It has a lake, river, streams, swamp, old rose gardens and awesome open fields that would be great for ultimate frisbee! Speaking of frisbee I just bought a new one...what is it with buying something new, it's just so exciting for some reason. Anyways, thanks to everyone for putting pictures on the blog from the weekend. We've really enjoyed them. Are pictures are pretty much the same thing as all of yours, so we didn't post them...but thanks for putting yours up! And Kristy, your little Abbi girl is adorable! Love you all and miss you tons!
Bekah

Abbi's 1 year pic's

Good morning, everyone! Wow, this blog is turning into the picture blog. :) But I love pic's, so I hope you guys don't mind that i keep posting them. Hope you are all doing well - safe after those storms!! We were at Communion Sunday night, and we had to go to the basement! It looked aweful outside, and a large tree was uprooted out in the cemetary!! A friend of mine, who's an EMT and was upstairs through it said the doors were blowing open and slamming! So scarry. But praise God we were all safe. I felt so bad for some of the parents who were really upset and crying since their children were home alone, if they had older ones to watch them! The fire dept wouldn't let anyone leave. Some did anyway, but it was so bad out!! When we walked out to go down to the basement it felt like we were in the middle of a tornado - the trees were blowing almost sideways. The only damage around here was a large shed about 2 mi from the church lost most of it's roof. But that's all i've heard of so far! What a powerful God we serve!!

My dad and brother are heading to Magdalena this weekend!! I was hoping to send something with them for Seth...do any of you have an idea?? Something small, but Barb - is there anything he needs or would love to eat/have/read??? Well, I'd better keep going! I think it's time for some more questions, Rebekah! Get some conversation going again!

Love you all! Here's my abbi girl!
Kristy