Once Upon October 11th

Once upon October 11th, and new little person entered the world. Lizah Beth Waibel was welcomed to the world by Seth and Adrienne. She was seven pound and five ounces and twenty and a half inches long. Mom went to Mahomet at twelve in the morning along with Maria who drove down also. Seven and a half hours later Lizah entered the world. I went to school wishing that the day could go quickly. Thankfully it did, and at four thirty Dad, Kimberly, David, and I were in a car headed to the hospital.

Meeting Lizah for the first time.

At Seth and Jo's on Sunday.

She is such a good, little baby. 

Maria, Calvin, and Addie came to visit a couple weeks ago. Calvin and Addie hadn't met Lizah yet so Adrienne came over with Lizah. It was a wonderful day filled with family.

I love my nieces and my nephew!!

Hanging out on the couch.

Calvin loves Lizah so much! He would go play for a while then come back to hold her or kiss her.

Addie was the same way with Lizah. She would hold her and look at her and point at her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

One of my favorite pictures of Addie with Lizah. She was trying to touch Lizah's tongue and she would stick hers out at the same time.

Whenever when Calvin or Addie were holding Lizah, the other one would want to hold her. 

Sorry it took me so long to post this! Next month Maria is going to have a baby so I will post something on that little guy too!

All God's Creatures Great and Small

Right now I would be in Grammar class and learning something I may have already known. But instead I'm on our laptop sitting in my dad's lazyboy chair. Yes, we have a little bit of snow on the ground but no, not enough for a snow day. I am home because I have a sore throat and I'm not feeling well. I thought that while I look at the snow, I would share about to the trip to the zoo with Mom, Maria, Danny, Calvin, and Addie. Boulder Ridge is near Jim and Maria's house, and it is filled with fun and animals.

Walking around the zoo.

Going on a free bus ride to see more animals.

I love my mom!

She's such a good Grammy.

This cool little niece of mine hanging out on the bus.

Animals we saw on the bus ride. Sorry the pictures aren't great.

Waiting for the bud to arrive. Addie loved the ducks!

What an awesome God we serve! He designed each animal with special quirks. 

Calvin feeding this animal carrots we bought at a little stand.

Danny feeding the same kind of animal.

Addie is so brave! This camel didn't scare her one bit.

Calvin is so brave too! 

Feeding the giraffes.

Danny messing with a giraffe.

Reach for it! Reach for it!

Giraffes are so beautiful! 

Thanks for reading! Hope you have a great day!

Dear Old Golden Rule Days

Have you ever heard the song that goes School days, school days. Dear old golden rule days. Reading and writing and arithmetic. Some kids are about to start school. Tri-County, the public school that I would have gone to and where I went to preschool, start on the 9th. That means they only got two full months of summer vacation. Not the kids that go to Cornerstone Private School! We start on September 5th, the day after Labor Day. But thinking about starting school makes me think about last year. It was the first year Mr. Drayer came to teach and I was in his 6-8th grade class. Miss Young was my math teacher. What a year that was! I went to McDonald's two times for lunch while school was going on. The first time was because Mr. Drayer wanted to take all of us out to lunch with only our grade. Then we all went with Hannah, Naomi, and Stacy Drayer and did a flash-mob... we started singing Mary Rock without workers or other people knowing. Only our class and the Drayer family went to Parkview Haven to sing on Valentine's Day. After we sang, we got to eat lunch their. Then, after getting helium balloons, just us school kids went out and threw snowballs and jumped through the deep snow to the playground. There, we went on the merry-go-round. Sometimes, someone would through a snowball and one of us would get hit unexpectedly. We also built a snowman during the last period of school one day. We also picked up litter on Earth Day and ate pie, cake, fudge, and other sweets on special days of the month. Oh yeah, and we got a piece of candy every single day. Some other highlights were field trips. The first one, we sixth graders went with the elementary and pre-k, then the whole school went to see windmills and got to tour Freedom Foods. I was able to take pictures with my phone, but hadn't got them downloaded onto the computer until now. So, I decided to share pictures and memories from that trip.

Our first stop was the windmill farm. We went to a field and stayed on the path to see how big a windmill really is. When you are standing underneath it, it feels as if the blades are about to drop on you! It was a really neat experience and it's amazing how much a windmill weighs!

This might have a filter... but it is still a very pretty sight!

How you get into the windmill.

A very funny sign on the door entering the windmill.

My BFFs and I.

We then did a work project at the Harvest Call building in Wolcott. We were partnered with another student and did work together. When we later went to Freedom Foods, we stayed with our partner and explored together. I was partnered with Mandy Cook, who was in 2nd grade. Freedom Foods was my favorite stop, partly because I know the owners, Ryan and Kim Schleman, but partly they let us do so much and we got to interact and help plant food. I got a lot of pictures there. We split into two groups and one group went into one greenhouse and the others went into another. Then we all went together, jumped off their playset and then planted some things in the field with a cool planter thing of theirs. 

My partner, Mandy Cook. 

The other group waiting for us and jumping off of the playset. 

Entering the greenhouse with our group.

I took this picture right inside the door. So much green!

Ryan telling us how to make a tomato plant with an electric toothbrush.

Camille and Tabitha Drayer making baby tomatoes. 

It was so neat how a pretty yellow flower turns into a beautiful red tomato.

I have no idea what this plant is, but I think it's a cool picture.

Darling Amy Drayer loved to turn the toothbrush on and off over and over again.

Mr. Drayer helping his daughter pollinate.

Oh, the joys of bare feet! (Isaiah Drayer) 

MMMMM! Cucumbers! 

Oh, God, you are amazing!

Kim answering questions.

 Then we all headed out to the field. Some people got to "drive" the tractor. Two others got to sit on lower seats and plant something. Two younger kids sat on their laps and helped them. Everyone was sad to leave. It was very fun!

Ryan and Mike standing up by the wheel. 

Danny and Josie Leman planting together. Elijah Waibel and Vivienne Getz sat on the other seat.

Eli Getz and Tate Leman on the tractor.

I got the pleasure of eating a fresh cucumber! It was delish! 

 Now that I'm done with my post about the field trip, I thought I'd share a picture of my darling niece from January. 

The Imperfect Sand Dollars

Last week, my whole family went on a vacation to Kiawah Island in South Carolina. Although we made many memories and I could share a bunch about our time at the beach, I'm going to concentrate on one thing. One morning, Dad, Mom, Maria, Calvin, Addie, and I woke up very early and left our rental at 6:30 on our bikes. We went to the beach and started biking with the wind, looking for anything special. Dad was on the tag-along with Calvin, and they found a couple sand dollars. When he biked over to me he told me they weren't perfect, but I didn't mind. As I biked more along the ocean, I let my mind wander. I thought about getting rid of the sand dollars since they weren't perfect. Then a thought flooded into my mind. I am an imperfect sand dollar. You might think that sounds silly, but it is the truth. Every one of us is an imperfect sand dollar.

Before Christ came, people had to make sacrifices to God whenever they sinned. After Christ shed his blood on the cross, what we have to do is be born again. That might confuse people. Nicodemus was confused when Christ told him about being born again. What Christ meant is that we have to put away the old man and put on the new man. That means everything we do should glorify God and repent if we have sinned. We need to ask for forgiveness if we have wronged someone or pray for forgiveness if we have done wrong before God. These steps are definitely not easy. A young rich man didn't want to give up his riches when he wanted to serve Christ. In the Bible it says that by His stripes, we are healed. Now comes the analogy with the imperfect sand dollars

 I don't know how those sand dollars got cracked, but I know how we can get "cracked". Satan. He tries so hard to lead everybody into evil. He is very smart, but that doesn't mean he is wise. He only knows how to lead people astray. He learns about what you like by your actions, what you say, or what you enjoy doing. God is the one who should know your real heart. He makes us seem like good sand dollars by forgiving and He is the One everyone should follow. He will make you a "perfect sand dollar". That is the same with the cracked sand dollars. People may see them and pass them by, or throw them back in the ocean. But they don't they beauty of the sand dollar. It is God's creation. He did make it perfect, just like how we are as a newborn babe. But soon every person falls into sin. The only perfect human that was ever on this earth was Christ, who gave his life for every person.

Unfortunately, on the way home from the beach, the sand dollars got cracked when I went over bumps on my bike. They got into such small pieces that it would have been almost impossible to glue them together. I threw those pieces out, but God won't do that to you. Even if you get so cracked you don't think God can forgive you, He will try His hardest. He will accept your forgiveness if you let Him. He will turn an imperfect sand dollar into a perfect one.

The Red Carpet

          My daughter, Michelle, perhaps because she is an only child, has always had a creative mind. I laughed at her live frog shows when she was six, and on another occasion, I dutifully ate her pink, blue, and green pancakes. But my thirty-second birthday is one of my most cherished memories.
         My birthday that year was not celebrated with friends and family as in years past. Michelle and I had a quiet dinner at home. She hadn't had a chance to go shopping for a gift and was disappointed that she had nothing to give me.
         About seven-thirty that evening, Michelle ordered me to go to my bedroom and close the door with instructions for me to stay there until she came for me.
         Twenty minutes later, she opened my door and stood in the hallway with a dishtowel draped over her left forearm. On the floor was a "red carpet" Michelle had pieced together from various shades of red fabric scraps my sister had given her to make doll clothes. "This way, madam," she said in a very formal tone, leading the way. My carpet of honor led to a beanbag chair that she had placed in front of the television.
         Beside the beanbag chair was a TV tray with a bowl of one of my favorite snacks-popcorn-a dish of melted butter, and a saltshaker. After seating me, she filled a small bowl with popcorn.
         "Would you like butter and salt on your popcorn tonight, madam?"
         "Why, yes, that would be very nice, thank you."
         She poured the butter on the popcorn with all the finesse of a waiter in a fine restaurant. Before handing me the popcorn, she pulled the towel from her arm and spread it over my lap, as she had experienced in some of the finer restaurants we had visited. Then she filled a bowl for herself and snuggled in beside me.
         We sat there together enjoying one of our favorite weekly television programs, eating our popcorn one kernel at a time with our little fingers raised, as any proper person would.
         "Is your popcorn okay, madam."
         "It's the best popcorn I've ever eaten," I replied. And the best birthday I've every had, I thought, smiling down at my precious "gift" sitting beside me.
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That story is from a book filled with little two or three paged stories. It is Stories for a Woman's Heart. I had a similar experience. I got the CD titled Newsies for my birthday. Maria had gotten that CD for her birthday sometime or another and I listened to it over and over again. It would be my dancing music. I would twirl and twirl around, imagining that I was one of the characters from that musical. I had never watched the movie until I was seven or eight. After I got the CD since Maria's was cracked a little and skipped it dawned on me that I hardly remembered a thing from the Newsies. From then on I pleaded with Mom and Dad to let me watch it. It was last Sunday and I doubted we would watch it on a Sunday, but I still begged. After church, I went to the barn to see how are kittens are doing. When I came in, Mom asked me if I would like to see the Newsies! I screamed yes and almost an hour later, Mom, Kim, Danny, and I were sitting on the couch with popcorn, Danny's TV screen on the piano bench and the curtains drawn trying to keep out the afternoon light. That was one of the shortest two hours of my life. There was so much to gobble up I want to watch it again. When I listen to the music, it is hard to understand what the actors are singing especially since the songs are pretty upbeat. I am learning new lyrics everyday. Now that school is out, Mom might get driven crazy from me listening to that almost every moment I can.

Changing the subject, yesterday was my last day of school! It was only a half day (finished at 11:15!) and all we did was sit on the couch until Miss Young's class joined us in playing Sardines and a big game of kickball were everybody got to kick once at the very end. Then we had a grand review of all Psalm 34. Camille wrote me the nicest note. On the front, it said, You can count on me like 1 2 3. Immediately, I teared up. I am right now. Oh the memories we made! Camille, Brie, Edie, Erica. The four musketeers! I'm going to miss the bathroom parties!