a trip to the zoo

on monday, eric and i took molly to the zoo. this is the first time just the 3 of us have gone together. it was a lot of fun! we bought a zoo pass earlier this year, and we have really enjoyed using it. i thought i would share some pictures with you all. oh and one more thing, molly is walking everywhere!

august update

hey everyone! we hope you all are doing great! i just wanted to update you all on some things going on at the ridge. on aug 13, eric took 7 high schoolers and 5 volunteers to the lake for an overnighter. they had an awesome time! the kids are still talking about it. they rode the jet skis, tubed, water skied, and had a campfire. they also ate very well. jim, the guy who owns the house they stayed at, cooked for them, and they ate ribs, chicken, gourmet desserts, and a bunch of other great things. so next year we plan on going to the lake probably 3 times or so, just for all of the kids who didn't go this year, and also for the kids who had a great time and want to go back.
this past wednesday, eric took 8 jr. highers and a couple adults to six flags. they also had a great time. so student ministries is getting rolling. come the end of sept. we will officially launch, and start small groups. so please be praying for our official launch, and for our volunteers. also, for the kids and that we can have an impact on their lives, and ultimately for a relationship with christ.
eric is very busy with neighborhood groups too. thankfully he has some help. the ridge just hired 3 more staff. well one staff member left to start her own business, so we were able to find a replacement, and then we hired a part time worship guy, and another lady as our director of details. the ridge also will be moving into some bigger and better office space next week. so they all had fun picking out "new" used office furniture. we have a lot more office space, and a warehouse to use now. so we are pretty excited.
other then that, things are going great here. i am still plugging away at school, and molly is almost walking. she walks a little bit, but it's still faster for her to crawl. so after about 6/7 steps, she will get down and crawl. at her one year check-up the doctor said she was pretty much perfect, which we all knew that. molly is also talking a lot. she doesn't really say too many words, but lots of babbles and squeals. we have a lot of fun, me and her. i feel so blessed to stay home with her, and watch her grow and change everyday. thank you to all of you for allowing me to stay with her. thank you for your continual prayer and financial support too. we have almost been here a year! it's gone by so fast. we are gearing up for the ridge's 2 year anniversary on sept. 28. we have an awesome speaker coming, and it's going to be a great time. if any of you want to come up and celebrate with us, we would love to see you!
well that's all for now. again...please keep in touch. we love to know what's going on where you are! thanks for everything!

ps-how could i forget?!

oh, another thing happened when we were in ohio, our niece, mandy got baptized!! it was awesome to be there with her! it was on molly's birthday too. so now both granddaughters were "born" on the same day! we love mandy so much. she is an amazing girl, and god is going to do great things through her!!

august, so far

hello everyone! we hope you are all doing just great. eric and i just got back from spending 11 days in ohio. i know what you all are thinking, "you guys were in ohio, and you didn't come to visit!" we tried, but the day we set aside to visit, molly got her top tooth and it was an awful night and day! so we will hit you all up the next time we come to ohio, or we may just plan a special weekend trip to go only to cincy. trust me, we wanted to see you all! we just ran out of time. we were so busy running around visiting family, and friends. but trust me, we will see you all next time!

while we were in ohio, molly turned 1! i still am shocked that she is 1 already. this past year really flew by. we had a big party for her at grandma and grandpa's house. it was so much fun planning for it, and it was great to have all of our family there for it too. we made a plate at a pottery store and painted it, and then had everyone at the party sign it. so now she can eat off it on her birthday every year.

also in ohio, eric performed the wedding for his best friend, ryan. we had a great time! we got to see a lot of people we haven't seen since college, and just seeing ryan get married was truly amazing. he has always said he was never getting married, then karis came along, and bam! now he is married. they are awesome together. god is going to do great things through them.

i can't really remember all of the other things we did in ohio, but we were busy. eric played a lot of golf :) i will leave you with some pics from our ohio visit.

also, please be in prayer for our student ministry. tomorrow eric is taking the high schoolers on a lake trip. it should be awesome. we have been planning for this for a couple of months now. and then next week the jr highers are going to six flags. but in sept. we are launching our small groups for students. we are trying to do everything with excellence, and more importantly, with gods timing, and help. since most of our adults have not been "churched", it's hard to get their kids involved in activities. so please pray for participation, and encouragement for our students.

if you are ever in the area, let us know. we love visitors, and love to hear from you all!