In the summer time, we find ourselves up in Michigan more and more. Have you ever been to Michigan?? What with the Lake (which is more like an ocean if you ask me), all the harbor towns, ALL the fruit stands and farmers markets… It’s pretty much my new favorite place.
We typically take guests to the lake, drive up for an afternoon for a change of pace or head up to spend time with J’s maternal side of the family.
Last year we signed up and ran our very first half marathon. We picked Kalamazoo, MI because it was close and the date coincided with our schedules.
Here’s a picture from Borgess Run for the Health of It 2011:
We ran and sweated and absolutely fell in love with the Kalamazoo community. Thousands of volunteers line the streets for the entire 13 miles cheering, ringing cowbells and playing music. It’s an incredibly fun atmosphere…. so we decided we had to do it again this past weekend.
Training wise, we fell off the bandwagon about 6 weeks ago, so both ran slower this time… but it was well worth it. We both felt 100 times better the second time around than we did the first.
We also got to spend some (short) QT with J’s Michigan side of the family. It’s always nice getting to see them.
Here’s to you Kalamazoo… thanks for being awesome. See you next year!
A few things:
1. Exactly one week until I am unemployed
2. One month until our basement is finally utilized properly as Elisabeth will be joining us for the summer.
3. Approximately 3 days until our half marathon. I quit competitively training 6 weeks ago…my main motivation is the bacon cheddar cheeseburger and sweet potato fries I’m going to devour after. This is what drives me.
4. I can’t wait to tackle an assortment of things on my two week break before school: washing windows, planting our garden, organizing/cleaning our garage, etc. Jealous, aren’t you?
5. I’ve been going through bakery boot camp for the past few days.
Now that Deb has moved, Elisabeth is taking over her early morning baking routine. E is going to Europe for 2 weeks at the end of May so I’m filling in for her.
Here’s Obi-Wan Kenobi Deb showing me the tricks of the trade and teaching me all her secret recipes…
(Photo from 1000 Park Baking Co.)
It’s been really fun learning all the ins and outs of the bakery.
Here’s to another month of baking!
Living it up while I can.
The girls came over after work Monday for happy hour.
Now it wasn’t your typical happy hour in that there wasn’t any alcohol present.
Since Lena’s due any day now, Mallery had a great idea of making “Mommy Mojitos”… so basically it was apple juice, simple syrup infused with mint, strawberries, lemonade, lime juice and carbonated water… So good!
It was raining so we sat on our porch, chatted and sipped our “cocktails”.
These girls are so fun and I’m so blessed to have them in my life.
When I was younger, I used to LOVE change. I mean I L.O.V.E.D. it.
When my parents told me that we were packing up and moving everything to a far off land call Midland, 8 hours away from the very place that I had been born and lived the first 8 years of my life, I was elated. I got excited when it was time to move houses, change up rooms or even switch schools. Everything was new and fresh and you could be whoever you wanted to be.
It’s been awhile since my last big change. 2 years to be exact. It’s also been awhile since I really loved big transition periods. Somewhere along the line, they lost their glitz and glamour and came along with anxiety, and sometimes sadness and a sense of loss.
We moved to Indiana 2 years ago come July. I was incredibly sad to leave my family yet excited for what lay ahead of us. I was quite homesick and tried to suck it up as much as possible. The day I had to put my mom on the plane in Indianapolis, knowing that we would be 17 hours from each other, was a day that still makes me tear up a bit. It was hard and I was afraid of being away from my family. I grew up surrounded with love and family. Moving to Indiana was a big step and I was scared. I could no longer call on my dad/mom/brother and them be there in a heartbeat. I was leaving the nest and as exciting as the change was, it came with fear of the unknown. Yes, I had an INCREDIBLE husband to take care of me and I could ALWAYS call on him, but I was still feeling a bit scared.
In stepped the J’s family. My new addition to my family.
All my fears washed away within the first month of living here. Sure, I was still homesick and missed my parents and family A LOT, but the fear and anxiety had resided a bit as I had been inducted into this family that would shower me with love and acceptance. They adopted me as their own (literally) and have given me and shown me so much. I am an incredibly blessed woman to have such an incredible family of my own, but also to have married into an awesome family as well.
Today is the last day that my in-laws will call our town home. They are moving to Grand Rapids and it hurts my heart to say goodbye. Yes, I realize that they will only be 2.5 hours away, but it’s a sad thing knowing that there will no longer Sunday afternoon brunches at their house, middle of the week impromptu dinners, running into them around town or late afternoon summer porch sitting.
Sunday was our last brunch together before they moved. Here’s a pic… we missed you Aaron and Anna!
(excuse the whiteness of this pic… it was on manual didn’t adjust the settings :)
Here’s to the change in our lives and the great things that the Lord is doing through the W family! Thank you for adopting me and loving me as your own. We will miss you more than you know!
Love,
Kirby
I walked in to the basement from work this week only to find this…
Yep, that’s our t.v. from upstairs. J’s got a pretty big paper due Tuesday and he uses it as a second monitor.
It’s times like these when there is no doubt that I married a man from LeTourneau.
In other news, I put in my resignation at work Monday so I will be officially leaving on May 10. That’ll give me about 2 weeks to get some stuff done around the house and get ready for school.
We’re really excited to see where the Lord will use both of our gifts in the future.
In case you didn’t know, to say that Indiana is big on basketball is pretty much the understatement of the year.
It’s like saying that West Texas kind of likes football…. you get my point.
We are very fortunate at Grace to have an amazing new basketball facility where we can host great things. An All-Star organization contacted Grace and asked if we could host a game there. Of course, our A.D. agreed.
This past Friday night J and I took a little date night and went to see the game. There were players from Duke, UNC, Wake Forest as well as some players from our very own local conference.
Even though I definitely AM NOT a UNC fan, I was really there just to see Tyler Zellers play… he is such an incredible athlete and so fun to watch!
They had a dunking contest during half-time and our very own Clint-dawg got to participate….
It was a short, fun game to watch and there were definitely some great laughs. J and I also go to catch up with my friend Megan. Megan’s husband Josh is the Sports Information Director at Grace so she flies solo to most sporting events… we love to take this time to talk about life and catch up on what’s going on.
Megan and I met this fall and have become friends pretty quickly. It’s so amazing to see how the Lord brings awesome people into your life when you least expect it… this girl is a great friend!
All in all it was a fun night. Of course we ended with a trip to the ice cream shop… we spent 4 months with it closed so we have to make up for lost time!
It’s the second week of April and I feel like it should still be January. I can’t believe how fast time has flown since Christmas.
I just returned from a week in Texas. My mom had surgery (she’s doing well) and I got to use that as an excuse to go home and spend some QT with family and friends. Because of her surgery she wasn’t allowed to leave the house for two weeks, meaning that we really just lounged about for a full week. Going into it I was wondering how both of us were going to be able to handle sitting around the house since both of us like to be constantly moving.
I tell you what… it was great. We lounged in the sun in the backyard, we chatted about life and dreams and caught up on some fabulous Hallmark Christmas movies. My dad drove up to take me out to lunch the day before I left and then stopped over at the house to see my mom. It was a great time visiting with both my parents and just enjoying the amazing work that the Lord has done in my family. I am seriously blessed.
The month of March came and went. You know that saying, “if March comes in like a lion, it goes out like a lamb”? Well it was definitely lamb all the way. No lion. It was warm, beautiful and now everything has bloomed and is green. I am LOVING spring. I was reminded when I got off the plane a few days ago in Chicago and it was 29 what spring was like. I left Tx at 85 degrees… got to the midwest at a high of 65 and a low of 30… I am loving the seasons here in the Midwest.
We went and visited J’s aunt and uncle in Tennessee at the end of his spring break. It was so fun. We even got to stop by and see our good friends Todd and Julianne and their sweet baby Jay. It was so good to catch up with them, I only wish they lived closer! Here are some pics from that trip….. we didn’t get to take a pic with Doug, Lisa and the kids which was a bummer.
J passed his big oral exams this past week and I couldn’t be prouder. He also passed his language exams which means that he has passed all of his big tests he needed to take before graduating. Praise the Lord! He only has one big paper standing in his way and a final or two and then he’ll be done. My class is wrapping up as well. I admit that I have not spent as much time on it as I should have but knowing that I’ve already been accepted to a program and only need a C does not lend one to be motivated. I only have 3 more weeks left and couldn’t be more excited.
Soccer starts up this weekend. J has 3 games and I have 1. We’re really getting pumped for another season. I’ve decided to go ahead and pursue some licensing in coaching to hopefully move up in ranks in my club. Not proffessionally, just as a hobby. I really enjoy coaching and my girls are so awesome. They’re pretty much the same group I’ve had the past year with one new face… but I love them! I couldn’t ask for a better team.
I have stopped working regularly at the homeless shelter because of everything going on and only go about once a month now. I miss the women so much but I was feeling a little overwhelmed… but of course, what did I do with all that time?? Filled it with another commitment of course! I have a problem saying no to things :) I’m now teaching an exercise class on Monday and Wednesday nights. It’s really fun but I’m looking at actually getting certified in something so that I feel more confident about what I’m teaching. The girls have been great though! It’s really fun to be the teacher too!
I did a pretty terrible job of posting pics throughout March so here are some of the things that we did in the last half of the month.
We celebrated Mallery’s day of birth with a surprise party…
Started our summer garden…
And enjoying time with this guy…
Ignore the pile of laundry in the back :)
Life is good at the Medelia (our house). Happy Friday!
I have been so blessed living here in Indiana. One of the many things that the Lord has given me is friends.
One of my very first friends here in the Midwest was Lena. I have gotten the immense pleasure of getting to know her, spend time with her and her awesome hubs Greg and even go on vacation with them! This past weekend I co-hosted a baby shower for her.
It was a BLAST getting to watch as people celebrated Lena and their lil bundle of joy that will be joining our gang in May.
Lena, I am so thankful and blessed by your friendship… more than you know. Thanks for being totally rad!
I have had a longing on my heart for the past few months to help people. I know that’s an incredibly broad statement, but in all reality, that is why I am hoping to be going to nursing school this summer.
A lot of people have asked me, “do you really want to be a nurse?” After thinking about this for the bajillionth time, I realized that it’s not necessarily that I am pursuing nursing because I am just dying to work in a hospital… or administer medicine… or clean wounds… etc. I am feeling a call on my life to help people in need.
Nurses do that.
I want to be able to do medical missions and gain entrance into closed countries.
Nurses can do that.
I want to meet the physical need but open the door to meeting their spiritual need.
Nurses can do that too!
J and I are still talking about this and I haven’t officially been accepted yet, but as our friends and family, we would appreciate your prayers as we navigate these ideas. I would appreciate prayers of clarity as well as a passion for whatever career/route the Lord has for me.
I’m still trying to figure out, “what I’m going to do with my life”… and honestly, it seems to change constantly. So we’ll just have to see where I/we end up.
For now, I’ll stick with things I can do. Like promoting Invisible Children and their new video.
xo,
Kirby
It’s Monday.. but not my typical Monday.
My typical Mondays are not usually enjoyable and I often don’t have the pep in my step that I do today.
This morning is different. I can’t help but be overwhelmed with the Lord’s provision and with His Grace.
As I think back on the past couple of years, yes years, and remember the stress that we (ahem.. I mainly) have been trying (ahem failing… again me) to supress and the burden we’ve been carrying in regards to where J would end up for his Ph.D. It seems so obvious now, that the Lord was and is always in control.
I am a planner folks. I like to have a life plan. It makes me feel better to know what we will be doing 6 months, 12 even 24 months down the road. I know some of you are like me. As cool and fly by the seat of my pants that I try to be, it always comes down to this, “I want a plan”. I’ll tell you one thing… being married to a man in graduate school does not often help with those plans. You may know where you’re going to be for 2 years but after that… it’s all up in the air. It was all fine and dandy until about a year into J’s Master’s program. That’s really when I started to get anxious about leaving all of these friends and family members that I have come to love and care for so deeply.
We started praying.
We prayed that the Lord would lead us to where we could be used for His glory the most. We prayed that the Lord would provide for us an affordable but nice place to live for the next 5-7 years. We prayed for deep relationships that are constantly challenging us to better our spiritual lives. We prayed for a year, maybe a little more.
The Lord has answered and gone beyond our prayers. We are staying in Indiana and in our home. We have deep relationships that are challenging us to grow. He is faithful.
This Monday is a day of thanks. It’s a day of stopping and realizing the blessing that the Lord has given us and giving him that praise. It’s a day to say thank you to all of you who prayed faithfully with us for the past 12+ months. We are beyond grateful for you and your friendship. Thank you for being on this journey with us and being a constant encouragement.
We love you.
J and Kirby
