Farm Park

One place we recently ran across is Norristown Farm Park. It is a colonial era farm right in the middle of the suburbs. All these pictures are from our time walking along the park trails:

Micah gives the boys a tutorial on how corn grows.

Andrew on the tracks.

A Pine Tree with another tree growing up its side... beautiful!

We see a lot of landmarks dating back pretty far around here. The year 1919 is carved into a small train bridge.

Along the trail... something must have been really interesting to my right.

New Church Experience

On Sunday, we visited a church whose senior pastor is a Southern Grad. I was introduced to his wife through a mutual friend of mine from my working days on campus. It is such a blessing to know so many people who know so many people all over the country; especially when you just don't know where you are going to end up next! Anyway, the church happens to meet in a movie theater. I really didn't think that much about the location. I have long been accustomed to churches meeting in all different kinds of buildings; homes (basements in other countries where Christianity is not allowed), abandoned factories and industrial buildings, etc. So why not a movie theater? What Micah and I forgot to do was prepare the boys for where we would meet with God's people to worship. The minute we pulled in to the parking lot and they realized where we were, shouts of excitement exploded from both boys, "We're going to see Chance of Meatballs!!!" If you are unaware, they were referring to the movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. This is a flick they have wanted to see for a while now. Immediately, Micah and I extinguished their hopes and instead, focused on how fun and different it would be to have church in a movie theater. They were confused for a while, but handled it well. As we walked in the door and the smell of buttered popcorn and visions of cartoons to come consumed our senses, we again tried to refocus their attention on the task at hand. The really good news came when we realized they served coffee and doughnuts to those in attendance. Doughnuts can pacify little boys in a pinch when the prospect of candy is all around.

We got the boys into their respective "theaters" with children their ages and Micah and I joined the service. It is always an encouragement to see where God has sent and how He is is using those trained in ministry. I met face to face gals I had only talked to through mutual friends and made those connections as well. Always a plus when you are alone in a new place.

After the service, the race to transform the space back into a place to see movies began. As we exited, we noticed the first glimpses of electronic signs above the doors to each theater lighting up with the names of the movies playing that afternoon. One mom walking beside me told her husband, "I'll go get Johnny. He's in Zombieland~". You can imagine my surprise. I had heard of churches giving names to kids classes to differentiate them, but this was a new take on what may be appropriate! Sure enough, above the door to Theater 2 where Elijah was learning about Jesus with other 3-year-olds, Zombieland was playing just 40 minutes later. Andrew was on his way to viewing Hangover had we stayed around longer.

We were thankful for the experience and thankful the boys were given an example of how the church is the church regardless of where it meets. Andrew was able to clearly articulate the lesson he had learned in his class (no references to drinking at all:)). We look forward to visiting a couple other churches over the next weeks and then settle in to one for our stint here in PA. There are of course churches around here with significant historic significance Micah is interested in checking out.

Last Days in Louisville, First Days in Philly

We have been so fortunate to have some dear friends in Louisville. I wanted to share this particular picture of us with the Copeland family. We had many dinners with them in their home and in ours during the course of the last 8+ years. Another family we have enjoyed getting to know is the Wolter family. They have a blog as well and put a great picture on it of all our kids together as well as a sweet goodbye message. You can see that here.


Now for pictures of the move:

Elijah evaluating my work after cleaning our old apartment.

You have to look closely, but you can definitely see our big boy Andrew riding in the co-pilot seat, helping Daddy navigate the big truck.

The boys in the van with all our clothes piled in the back.

The boys in the the lobby of our hotel/home for a week.

Supper at TGI Fridays.

Our first ride through downtown Philly. This is the Ben Franklin bridge... I am pretty sure. It is beautiful at night!

Last Thursday, we moved in to our new place here in PA. Two days later, I had all the boxes unpacked and out of the house. After eating out for almost a week, I was eager to get back to cooking meals. Needless to say, we are settled in.

One of the boys' favorite features of their new rooms is that they have really large alarm clocks beside their beds. They have a lot of buttons and the large numbers make them really cool, according to Andrew.

Sometimes they like to set them just for fun. Reminiscent of our first night in PA, we have had more middle-of-the-night drills. Now instead of fire drills, we have drills to see how fast we can identify which room the noise is coming from and how fast we can find the "off" button in the dark. Micah has, on occasion, failed the drill and hit the "snooze" button instead and had to face the 5 minute, re-drill consequences~

They also love the fact that we receive our mail through a slot in the door. When it is mail time, I now am alerted by both boys screaming and laughing at the envelopes, advertisements, postcards, etc. falling into the foyer. It teaches me to find joy in our journey to have kiddos that enjoy the simple things in life!