Taylor Tragedy

It was released today that 4 Taylor Students and one Taylor employee from Hartford City were killed in the accident on Wednesday night. This tragedy made the news-even in Chicago on TV as well as in the Chicago Tribune. Please continue to pray for the families of these individuals and for the community as a whole. It is said that this is the worst accident in the area in years-possibly ever. Monica Felver is the woman killed in the crash and is relation to police officers in Grant COunty as well as Hartford city. For more info-go to:
http://www.chronicle-tribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
Thank you for your continued prayers.

Thoughts and Prayers

Joel just heard on the news that there was an accident involving 5 kids from Taylor-they were killed. They aren't releasing many details yet, but just thought I would let you all know to keep these families in your prayers and thoughts during this time. It is a terrible tragedy. All I know is that a Taylor van was on their way home from Ft. Wayne and crashed on I 69. If you want to find out more info go the the CHronicle Tribune website (yes they have a website...)
It's http://www.chronicle-tribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

I'll keep you updated...

Spring is here!

I always can tell when Spring is here because I see a lot more stuff being done outside. One of my favorites...SOFTBALL! 2 of our nieces, Brianne and Bailey are playing for a travel team in INdiana, and we finally got some time today to go watch them play. Growing up playing softball of course makes me appreciate this and makes me wish there was something like that when I was growing up. Anyway, I am so shocked at how good these girls are. The pitcher on their team throws 50mph and she is only in 4th grade!!!

It was a ton of fun for us and got me back into the mode of playing ball again. I can't wait for our season to start. We play 16 inch, CHICAGO style softball here. It's a little different, but lots of fun.

We can't leave Braedyn out. Our 2nd youngest niece isn't quite big enough to play with the big girls yet, but she cheers loud for her sisters. We had fun in the stands today.

THis ends my ode to softball. O yes, the girls won and are playing in a tourny tomorrow! We are proud of them. Brianne got a triple tonight, it was actually a home run on an error, but it sounds good. Bailey (the smallest one on the team and the youngest) got a couple of great hits. She hits better than most of the rest of the girls on her team! We are proud of you girls!

A Time Away

As much as it may seem that we have been MIA, we have actually just been out of Chicago. We had a great (although shot time) visiting with both Joel's and my side of the family. We left on Easter after the service to and went for Easter dinner to Joel's parents. It was a great meal and so fun to see MOSt of our nieces as well as Joel's sister and brother-in-law. Our niece Braedyn REALLY likes jello as you can see. We spent lots of time with fam and loved hearing Braedyn say our names for the first time. Previously we were Uncle "Dole" and Aunt "Tim". It was so fun for us to have her be working on our names and say them. She was very excited too! We also enjoyed watching the bluebirds at their house. Joel's mom keeps them around and even had a nest of babies. Since it is Spring, we saw tons of beautiful flowers and trees in bloom. It made me miss the country.
We then went and stayed in a small town called Porter, IN and met my parents there. We stayed in a little INN and enjoyed all the flowers as well and got to catch up on our lives. It was great to see them and also have relaxing time together as well. Our pups enjoyed the trip too and have just been sleeping since we have gotten home. 3 nieces, grandparents, and 2 other puppies to play with would wear ANY dogs out!
We did come back from our little vacation to feeling overwhelmed with all that we have to do-that is another blog in itself. I will save that.
I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and truly remembered Jesus's gift to us all!
HE IS RISEN!!
Hallelujah!

A Day Out with the Delp's

We had a welcomed surpise this week. Joel's parents called and said that they wondered if we had any ideas of a place where they could go for a day. We said to come to Chicago!! We had plans to go to the Art institute, go up the John Hancock, etc...then we found out the Cleveland Indians were playing the White Sox. We quickly changed our minds and went to the game instead. We picked a great game too-it went into extra innings and the Indians pulled out a win to top the Sox in this series 2-1! WOO HOO--go TRIBE!
Well, you can imagine what it's like to go to an 'Indians' game in SOX territory (since they did win the World Series last year). Mix some alcohol with 95% of the people at the game and you can imagine what happens. Well, us Indians fans do cheer (although not as loudly as the Sox) and we endure many slanderess comments as we walked out-EVEN AFTER WINNING! Well, as one of the pictures show, there was a fight between 2 guys that captured the attention of most of the stadium about inning 101/2! It took about 10 security guys to try to get the fight under control. I heard one person say "They must have been CUBS fans!" I thought that was an interesting comment since both of the guys had Sox clothes on from head to toe. Anyway, all this to say it was a great day to spend with the Delp's! We even ventured to try new food--Mediterranean-and it wasn't JUST Hummus that we tried! So if anyone ever wants to catch a Baseball game in CHI-TOWN just come on over! We'd love to have you. Thanks Ruthie and Earl for makin the drive out here even in crazy Chicago traffic. It was a blast!

Signs of SPRING!

How do you know Spring is coming? Well, I noticed a lot of ways today. The flowers are finally starting to bloom-even after it was 32 degrees last night. People are out walking, running, blading, skateboarding, etc. I have walked the dogs TWICE today-long walks too, just to be outside. It's awesome! I LOVE SPRING! I even saw someone mowing their lawn today! I am so glad we don't have that job to do. One of the perks of renting...
Well, one way that WE are celebrating spring is that we got BOTH dogs shaved yesterday. Usually this is such a traumatic event for Hireq (the brown dog) becuase she has no idea where Patah (the white dog) is going for 3 hours. Well, yesterday they got to be together. You always have to wonder what is going through their minds during this time-this is once I wish they could talk to tell me what it's like.
So what are some ways YOU are noticing SPRING?
I love this time too because Easter is coming. I watched the Passion of the Christ last week and although it is such a hard movie to watch, I believe that it is good to be reminded of what our Savior went through...for US!
Let me know what you think!