Lennon's Day Out!

Its hard to believe that our lil' Lennon Adele is now a few days short of being 20 months old! Here are some pics of her first trip to the park of the year!!!!!!!!

Lori's 40th

The pictures say it all!

Happy Birthday Brenda Lou!

Happiest of birthday wishes to you! Hope you're feeling better. :( Enjoy your birthday!

Joel, Stacy, and Edith

T4G '08 Conference

I had the opportunity to go the Together for the Gospel conference in Louisville this week. It was great. For someone who loves congregational singing it was a little bit of heaven! I was just really disappointed we didn't sing more, but I guess that wasn't the purpose of the conference. You can visit the site to hear the sermons if you want.

Warning: Not for the faint of heart (or Arminians either, for that matter)!

Seriously, if you want to hear some good teaching, it is great. It was also a blessing to see how God is using Al Mohler to help bring the Southern Baptist Convention back to solid biblical theology.

Bob Kauflin, who led the singing, has a list of the songs we sang on his blog.

Saturday Afternoon

Some photos of Edith & Stacy on a relaxing Saturday afternoon.

Shirley Kathryn is 1 today!

As the kids say:"Life is great...with Shirley Kate!" We can't believe it has been a year already!

Italian Holiday

Over spring break, I went to Italy with the entire senior class of Cottey College. We arrived in Rome on March 10, and travelled to Florence by bus. While in Firenze (Florence's real name), I saw Santa Croce, the Palazzo Vecchio, the Duomo, the Accademia Gallery (and of course, the David), the Il Bargello Museum, the San Lorenzo Basilica, some markets, cafes, and the Uffizzi Gallery. Our hotel was close to the historical center of the town, so I got to walk everywhere - I think I walked over 40 miles in Florence alone! I liked everything, but my favorites were the Palazzo Vecchio, the Dome of the Duomo (I climbed all 450+ steps to its top!), the Uffizzi, and Santa Croce. The Palazzo Vecchio was originally a fortress that eventually the Medici family used as one of their residences. When they took it over, they commissioned a lot of spectacular art in almost every part of the interior. Each room's ceiling was elaborately decorated with paintings and detailed gold trim. The Duomo was amazing because of the spectacular exterior (it is completely covered with pink, green, and white marble) and the view its dome offers. I liked Santa Croce because it also has an elaborate marble facade, but I actually enjoyed seeing its interior more. Galileo, Michelangelo, and Machiavelli and buried there. Its many beautiful frescoes make it spectacular!On March 13, we left for Roma. I have to admit it, I liked Roma best. I can't even really explain why. : ) My absolute favorite site there was the Trevi Fountain - I actually visited it each day that I was in Rome. I also saw the Colosseum, the Forum, Palentine Hill, Circus Maximus, the Pantheon, San Ignazio's basilica, the Vatican city, St. Peter's basilica, the Sistine chapel, and some Vatican museums. They were all equally amazing! I rode the Metro for the first time (and discovered that my balance is awful!), tasted my first gelato(a form of ice cream resembling frozen custard), and just tried to take it all in. : ) I'm sure you will all want to know if I saw the Pope. lol He actually did not make an appearance - his visiting hours are only on Wednesdays. : )I flew back to Nevada on March 16, and have since been very busy with studies. I loved Italy, and I would love to go back to Europe to visit England and France someday. Until "someday" comes, I will be wishing I were back in Europe! : )My pictures are a bit mixed up, sorry. The first 2 are of the Palazzo Vecchio, the next is a typical street in Florence and the back of Santa Croce. Then one of the Vatican, then a square in Rome where I ate dinner. The next 4 are of historical Roman ruins (I'm sure you'll all know them), then it jumps back to Florence for the next 6 pictures. All the pictures are placed I've mentioned except for that of the Pucci store. The rest are all of Rome. I am not sure how to explain all the pictures any better, so I guess you can all use your imaginations to figure them out. : ) Otherwise, Google is a very helpful tool. : )

Update - Bowling Green Move

I just want to take a moment to update everyone on our progress towards moving to Bowling Green, KY.

I have a start date for my new position. I will take over as Loss Prevention Manager on May 19th. One unfortunate thing, the supervisor (her name is Melanie) that will work for me has National Guard training from May 12th until July 15th. So, it may be more challenging to get acclimated and make changes while my supervisor is away. I will be in Bowling Green the week of May 5th to spend time with Melanie before she leaves. Hopefully, this will allow us enough time to get prepared for the upcoming transition. I’ll be back in MN Friday night, and the following week, as we prepare to move to BG.

With the start date being so soon, we will not have much time to get our house sold before the move. The house was listed yesterday, so we are now on the market. I’ve included a link to the listing at the bottom of this post. I haven’t had a chance to take my own pictures yet, but the realtor’s photos are on the listing. You will see from the photos that we were able to get a lot of work done in a short amount of time. This is due, in no small part, to the help of our friends, family, and a contractor. We were happy to have Mom & Dad Ham come up from IL to help with a good part of the work. Mom & Dad Leeman were integral in organizing, prepping, and applying paint to many walls and ceilings throughout our home. We had a Saturday, two weeks ago, where a couple of men from church (John & Rich) came and helped paint the basement. Finally, our contractor, Arric, a guy I had met while painting with Uncle Ken, did a fantastic job transforming various parts of our home. He was able to finish all of the projects Stacy and I had started, and then some. We are really happy with how everything has turned out and look forward to enjoying our “new” home for a little while longer. Thank you, again, to all who helped us along the way and to those who will help us in the very near future.

We were able, with the help of Stacy’s mom, Ruth, to find a new home for Boomer. A woman from Ruth’s work talked to her about looking for a dog. She mentioned an ad for Lab puppies, but “complained” that they weren’t hairy enough. :) Ruth showed her some photos of Boomer and told her that we were looking for a new home for him. She was very excited and called me to make arrangements to get him. We delivered him last Saturday to her home. She has a big, fenced-in backyard and a park across the street. She has had many dogs, so we are confident she will be able to care for Boomer quite well. Stacy and I are happy we were able to find a good family for Boomer to go to. It was a little sad to see him go, but not too much. ;)

So, as you can tell, the Lord has been at work. We ask for your continued prayers as we experience the many ups and downs that will come our way through this process. It’ll be time to move before we know it and we have a lot to do before we get there. We are thankful the Lord is on our side. Praise God!

Joel



Click the following URL to see the listing:
http://matrix.northstarmls.com/Matrix/Public/Email.aspx?ID=4524696932

Also, if you’d like to see what our house looked like when we moved in a little over a year ago, click the following URL to see our House Hunting Hams blog: http://househuntinghams.blogspot.com/

The REAL God's Country

We are having a phenomenal time in the Rockies. It is beautiful. It's been snowing up at the cabin most of the day. We drove over the Continental Divide. It was fun to go up that high in the mountains. Andy and Sara went skiing today. We are having a blast.