Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Memorial Day Madness!

It was a great holiday weekend to be with friends, and since we moved to PA, Sandy got to be a part of it, finally.

Caden made a new friend in the neighborhood. I do believe this is the first place we have lived that he has boys his age to hang around. They played video games on Sunday after church, then went to the pool on Monday afternoon.


CJ and Sandy getting their Moosetracks time together.


This was Sunday night after the storm, it was a rough one! Took a tree out just north of us on 4th St by the Morrisons and on 2nd St. Sandy broke out his chainsaws and he, CJ, Billy, Bo and Breanna stayed out for a couple hours cutting and clearing the streets.




 This is how CJ, Billy and Bo made the memorial Day newscast. Even though CJ tried to plug Redeeming Grace Church, and spoke of serving others for Christ, they cut that out...but he tried. So cool....check it out here:
http://www.abc27.com/video?clipId=7336708&topVideoCatNo=193316&autoStart=true

The Ellis clan joined us for breakfast on Monday morning. We feasted on sausage gravy and biscuits, scrambled eggs, home fries, the gooiest best homemade sticky buns I have ever made, and fresh fruit to say we had something healthy!





We loved having our old neighbors stop by...good memories were made and old ones remembered.

Then a surprise visit from Grandpa, who also appreciated the sticky buns. He took CJ to his home and office to help mow, then took him around and showed him the area.



For dinner, we had the Faith church planting team come by, along with the Morrisons, who brought these incredibly awesome chocolaty super rich cake pops...they were GOOD!


For dinner, salad, Aunt Betty's jello salad, roasted chicken, ham, mashed potatoes, ham slices, butternut squash and gravy with fresh raised yeast rolls. It was like Thanksgiving.







It was a great time, sitting around and chatting with old friends, and new ones. Michelle was gracious to have dinner with the crazy lil ones (who were sunburned from the day at the pool with their new neighbor friends).




That's Brad doing his strong man impression :)

Overall, it was a fabulous day with friends, and lots of cooking for me...but I love to do that for friends anyway.

Time to get unpacking the rest of the boxes!

First morning service - "Redeeming Grace"


 The first morning church service for "Redeeming Grace" was held at the Harrisburg YMCA on May 27, 2012. It was wonderful to have the Ellis and Mitchell family in attendance. CJ was playing guitar while Shawn and Lesa led the singing portion of the worship.




It was incredibly awesome to have a special singing during the collection, by Stephanie and Sarah Ellis. Because of my cheap camera, the end of the video messed up. So once I get Cianna's help to edit it, I will get it posted. They did a FABULOUS job :)  KC will be proud of his daughter's singing talent!

Billy presented a great teaching from Hebrews and clearly explained the gospel and truth about salvation, even though it was very muggy and hot, and over the loud fan to help keep all of us cool in spite of the heat and humidity. Harrisburg is definitely getting its share of this May heat wave too!



 After service, we went to Camp Curtain elementary school and had a cook out. It was a great time to get to know the church members better.










Tuesday, May 22, 2012

For waking up today with no expectations aside from emptying numerous boxes...WOW! We did have a tour of the STMS for Cianna at 9:30. We met with the guidance counselor, who had a very lovely 6th grader named Dallas give us a tour of the building. The school is smaller than WFRMS, and much older, but yet the people we met were very kind and helpful. Dallas answered all of our questions, and when we happened upon the lady gym teacher, she recommended and gave us much information and contact numbers for those involved in the township sports programs, along with the heads up as to be where and when in order to register and get the free sports physicals.
While coming home from that, the HS called and had a 1:15 appt for CJ's schedule. We spent 2 hours with that counselor, devising a schedule for the next 2 weeks left of school so he can sit in on classes now that may interest him for his senior year, and formulating a tentative schedule of his required courses for 12th grade. She went above and beyond helping with our every need. Then she took us on a tour of the building to see where all the classes are. Again, its a very old building, smaller than WFRHS, but the staff and teachers were extremely kind and welcoming.
The funny part was watching CJ walk down the hall, in a school that he has only visited twice, having guys high five him and teachers and the principal come shake his hand as they passed us in the hall...his reputation was clearly built up by the football players he met about 6 weeks ago when we visited, and by the Shays who have done a great job at getting the local kids excited about his arrival.
As we were getting his bus assignment at the office, the athletic director approached him, and was followed by a scout, the O-line coach from U Mass, a D-1 college in, of course, Massachusetts...who took down his information, stats, etc and spent some time explaining what their college could offer CJ. He handed us both business cards and said he'd be in contact. I was blown away! When we got outside, CJ explained to me that this same thing happened several times at WFRHS too...South Carolina, NC State, Kentucky....he'd spoken to several already who are keeping tabs on him. SWEET!
I came home and put up some curtains so we are no longer in a fishbowl...looks good now...pics to follow when I get my camera cord out of a box...somewhere. I have about half of the boxes unpacked now. My running to schools has slowed me a bit, but progress is a-comin!
So far Harrisburg has proved to be a lovely and friendly place to be. The in-town house, not as scary as I thought, with streets that are relatively quiet...which is amazing considering our proximity to the Capital. We are very blessed where God has placed us. As I was unpacking today, and doing loads of laundry, I was very thankful that we did not get a house with flights of stairs. I am certain God truly knew just where he wanted us, and did allow things to unfold as they did, because I surely would not have chosen this smaller home if I knew CJ would be coming...but it has proved to be very good home, meeting all our needs. I am also THRILLED that it does have air conditioning, since so many did not...because it is always so comfortable in here, unlike the rental we just moved from. Life is good! Exciting things are happening! We are blessed to be here, a part of this church plant!