First Family Live at St. John

Last Saturday was the 1st Family Live Service held at St. John-this service will be held the last Saturday of every month. The service is designed to be family oriented and family friendly. It is high energy, has dramas, singing, time for families to dig into the bible together, a sermon geared for kids and adults, and focused on giving/prayers/etc time. It is fully church with a little jazz. Ryan was and will be the preacher and recently highered a guy who is very talented and gifted in this area. Ryan was curious about how many people would attend and said probably 75 or so, so was pretty surprised when 225 people attended. God is good and He was fully present! It was awesome! Prayers for this ministry as it continues to change, and shape the way God wants it to be. Next FAMILY LIVE will be Saturday Feb. 28th at 5 PM. See you there!

Oh, what a January

You know that I am busy when I don't keep up with my blog. I am going to blog all of Christmas, my birthday and New Years at one point because I love having it as a diary and to share some fun pictures. Andrew and I stayed in WI for a week, while Ryan came back to MO. Mom and Dad Z. drove us back and stayed a while which was fun. All of the following has happened between January 6th through January 18th. Fun stuff...

1) Over $600.00 spent on Ryan's Car (huge oil spill)--We spent $500.00 in Nove and $300.00 in December and the car is probably only worth $2,500.00 We are debating if we should sell it or keep it now that it is all fixed. Anyone interested...Toyota Camry, 1997 with 166,000 miles.

2) Garage door broke---spent $233.00 getting that fixed

3) We have a leaky shower in the kid bathroom that we have been ignoring because we don't even want to know how much a plummer is going to cost.

4)Andrew had his first ear infection and lucky him it was a double ear infection.

5) Kristy got a cold sore--GO FIGURE (havn't had one for 2 years and then I had one for my SURPRISE party that Ryan threw me...bummer).

6)Kristy temp of 100.00 for 2-3 days and Dr. says it is a viral Sinus Infection so no antibiotic.

Needless to say I am ready to get back to normal life. It has been a rough week plus but I know that there is only one way to go...up! So, if you haven't heard from me, I am still alive and will hopefully feel better soon!

"OH BA MA"

Well, Andrew can say all of these sylables, and so we were trying to get him to say it all together. Maybe once or twice we heard him say Ohbama's name. We had to laugh.

Surprise Birthday Party!

And a surprise it was! Ryan really got me, once again. My parents, Andrew and I all traveled 8 hours in a car from WI that day, so when I got home and he said that he wanted to go hang out with co-workers because it was a hard week, I absolutely refused. I was tired, Andrew hadn't been feeling well (diagnosed with a double ear infection the next day)and I just wanted to spend time with Ryan because we hadn't seen each other in a week. I got really mad when he kept bringing it up, and then I gave in. I was still in sweats at 6pm, I threw something on quick (didn't even shower because we had an agreement that we would only stay for a hour) and off we went.

What a surprise! 65 people greeted me at the door with a big shout! I looked awful, I had a cold sore, and all eyes were on me. Yikes! After I got over that, I had such a good time. It was great to have young and old friends there and for my parents to be able to meet all of them.

Ryan did an excellent job planning. He was so cute...he totally over bought because he was scared he wouldn't have enough food. He had wine, beer, soda, water, sandwiches, appetizers, dessert, decorations, etc. I could tell that he put a lot of time and effort into making it great for me. I love you honey! You really did get me! Thanks for making my birthday so special!

Our Little Family Celebration

What a merry night we had! On December 23rd we celebrated the birth of Jesus with "Our Little Family" (Ryan, Andrew and I). We opened gifts while having appatizers, then had a porkloin and sourcrout soup dinner (a Slovak tradition), opened more gifts, had a fire in the fire place and just played with all the new toys. I now realize with kids Christmas has a extra joy to it and that I don't need to plan out the whole night, because what we enjoyed most is playing together as a family.




While making sourcrout soup and baking a poppyseed stullen (with raised yeast etc) while wearing the apon that my Grandma Gebhardt made I teared up because I missed my grandparents. My Grandma Gebhardt died when I was in 4th grade while my other 3 died when I was in college. I was't there when any of them passed. And it still bothers me to this day considering I am at other peoples bedside when they die (considering I am a hospice nurse) and that I wasn't at theirs. Although, I do know that I was a big part of their lives and vise versa and for that I am thankful.

New Years Day Celebration

We drove "home" from our mini vacation to my parents house where they hosted a little get together for my 30th Birthday. Mom and Dad Zeman and Peterson were there. My parents set it up so nicely (even using Grandma Gebhardt's china which is only used on "really" special occations). We ate, played family feud and had dessert. Andrew enjoyed having both sets of grandparents there to show off his musical skills. He is so blessed to have such wonderful grandparents! And thanks mom and dad for making it so special for me!