One more season past and another season well underway... Fall has definitely showed her face here in Spencer Iowa. An average of 55-70 degrees, wind, and a slight chill in the air. I have officially begun wearing long skirts, long sleeves, and scarves every.single.day. I keep hearing mumblings about a terrible winter ahead of us, suppose to be "one of the worst ones we've had in awhile"... but to me they are just mumblings because mentally im plugging my ears and saying "la la la la la". Thats the LAST thing i want to endure while im here... a wretched winter! yuck. sometimes i wonder why people even live here!
As i stand here writing this Im feelin like becky home-ecky cookin a pound of hamburger for dinner tonight (decided to make real food tonight for once). But even better than that, I have the washington illinois sermon streamer going. Listening to Bro. Fred Witzigs afternoon service from last sunday. As i stand here listening to it i cant help but be thankful for the opportunities that we have to listen to the word of the lord whenever and wherever we are. speaking of where ever...My little fun fact for the day is that.. last sunday i complete my 6th sunday here in the midwest in Eureka. Marking the 5th church that ive been to out of the 6 weeks ive been here! The list is as follows: -West Bend, Oakville/mediapolis, Lester, Morris, and now Eureka!:) My goal by the end of this 9 month journey is to attend all of the churches in Iowa and as many as i can in central illinois.
This past Friday Rebekah Jones and I set out for Oakville around 5:30. Several bags of candy, fits of laughter, and 5 1/2 hrs later we arrived at Joel and Abis!:) This excited auntie would like to announce that the Belly is getting quite large and has predicted baby Steiner to come into this world sometime in the next 10 days..! ok so thats actually her due date, but by the size of her belly and the amount of uncomfortableness she is enduring its very possible that this little booger will be here sooner:)
Saturday morning we had a leisure morning getting up and getting back on the road for Emilys. I hate cutting my time short with any of my sisters but since i already have 2 wknd in october set aside for abis it was only fair to give emily more of this wknd. Bekah and I got to Emilys around 1:30 and were met by a diaper cladden , wiggly little worm. Miss Brielle:) The auntieness in me kicked into high gear and that poor little squirt was showered in hugs and kisses and was hauled around for most of the afternoon (when she wasnt crying). Bries been fighting an earache so as long as i kept her out of the view of her mother she was pretty chill. It was so crazy to see how much shes grown though since july. Her hair is so long as well as the rest of her body. Shes army crawling around everywhere and has begun pulling herself up on just about anything thats at a comfortable height. Shes such a little gift from God, and im so so thankful to call her my niece!:) The anticipation is growing rapidly to hear whether ill be an auntie of 2 nieces or a niece and a nephew. Baby steiner sure is teaching me patience:)
As i stand here writing this Im feelin like becky home-ecky cookin a pound of hamburger for dinner tonight (decided to make real food tonight for once). But even better than that, I have the washington illinois sermon streamer going. Listening to Bro. Fred Witzigs afternoon service from last sunday. As i stand here listening to it i cant help but be thankful for the opportunities that we have to listen to the word of the lord whenever and wherever we are. speaking of where ever...My little fun fact for the day is that.. last sunday i complete my 6th sunday here in the midwest in Eureka. Marking the 5th church that ive been to out of the 6 weeks ive been here! The list is as follows: -West Bend, Oakville/mediapolis, Lester, Morris, and now Eureka!:) My goal by the end of this 9 month journey is to attend all of the churches in Iowa and as many as i can in central illinois.
This past Friday Rebekah Jones and I set out for Oakville around 5:30. Several bags of candy, fits of laughter, and 5 1/2 hrs later we arrived at Joel and Abis!:) This excited auntie would like to announce that the Belly is getting quite large and has predicted baby Steiner to come into this world sometime in the next 10 days..! ok so thats actually her due date, but by the size of her belly and the amount of uncomfortableness she is enduring its very possible that this little booger will be here sooner:)
Saturday morning we had a leisure morning getting up and getting back on the road for Emilys. I hate cutting my time short with any of my sisters but since i already have 2 wknd in october set aside for abis it was only fair to give emily more of this wknd. Bekah and I got to Emilys around 1:30 and were met by a diaper cladden , wiggly little worm. Miss Brielle:) The auntieness in me kicked into high gear and that poor little squirt was showered in hugs and kisses and was hauled around for most of the afternoon (when she wasnt crying). Bries been fighting an earache so as long as i kept her out of the view of her mother she was pretty chill. It was so crazy to see how much shes grown though since july. Her hair is so long as well as the rest of her body. Shes army crawling around everywhere and has begun pulling herself up on just about anything thats at a comfortable height. Shes such a little gift from God, and im so so thankful to call her my niece!:) The anticipation is growing rapidly to hear whether ill be an auntie of 2 nieces or a niece and a nephew. Baby steiner sure is teaching me patience:)
On saturday night bekah and I got to experience our first Central Illinois Singing. we had both heard so much about these signings that we were pretty excited to go. To be honest though we werent as impressed as we thought we would be! The singing was beautiful no doubt but we were expecting a ton more people to be there! We were disappointed in all of my cousins though...not one of u guys showed up!! Oh well maybe next time we will catch ya:) All in all it was a good experience. Its just cool to meet people of all ages, from all different places and to have the most important thing in our lives in common, Jesus Christ.
After we left the singing Em was still up so bekah and i spent the remainder of our evening chatting with her and eating mac n cheese:) Never underestimate two 19 and 20 year old girls. Mac n cheese takes better at 10:30 at night! try it sometime:)
Sunday after a great day in Eureka Church we headed back on the road with a 7 1/2 hr trip facing us. Im so thankful to have bekah here in Iowa with me, since were both Oregonians we can relate on every level that only oregonians can understand:) Shes such a solid girl, its a joy to have her nearby!
2 bags of gummies, 1 bag of jerky,2 blizzards, 1 disgusting dq box of chicken strips, numerous chocolates, cookies and 14 hrs later. We arrived safely back to Spencer. It was a whirlwind of a weekend but fun none the less:) God is so good! He continues to shower blessings down upon this little abode here in spencer iowa each day!
After we left the singing Em was still up so bekah and i spent the remainder of our evening chatting with her and eating mac n cheese:) Never underestimate two 19 and 20 year old girls. Mac n cheese takes better at 10:30 at night! try it sometime:)
Sunday after a great day in Eureka Church we headed back on the road with a 7 1/2 hr trip facing us. Im so thankful to have bekah here in Iowa with me, since were both Oregonians we can relate on every level that only oregonians can understand:) Shes such a solid girl, its a joy to have her nearby!
2 bags of gummies, 1 bag of jerky,2 blizzards, 1 disgusting dq box of chicken strips, numerous chocolates, cookies and 14 hrs later. We arrived safely back to Spencer. It was a whirlwind of a weekend but fun none the less:) God is so good! He continues to shower blessings down upon this little abode here in spencer iowa each day!
I wanted to share a cool experience that happened to me yesterday evening. On tuesday nights i have speech from 6-9. We were schedules to give speeches about a personal experience of ours. I had written my speech 2 weeks prior and looked at my note cards only a few times. every time i practiced i was about 10 seconds short of the 3 minute mark that we had to reach at a minimum. I allowed my self to be proud and over confident about giving this speech. When we arrived to class we broke off into groups for a speech lab and practiced our speeches for one another. When i stood up to give my practice speech i was super nervous and the words just WOULD NOT form. my intro and conclusion went smoothly since we were allowed to write it down word for word on our note cards. Our body however was not allowed to be written word for word, we were only allowed bullet points. I fumbled around, stuttered, and did absolutely terrible. Thank Goodness it was just a practice right!? my group mates gave me advice and encouragement to add more words, to be more confident. They told me id do great i just needed to keep practicing. So i did..about 4 more times. They both only practiced once as their speeches were both great and well polished. I was mortified! So much for the confidence that i had built up before the class even began. When we went back into the room to present our speeches before the class i was dreading the moment that I would have to give mine. So i said a little prayer asking God to help it go smoothly and to give me the words to speak. When i got up to the podium it was crazy, my nerves weren't nearly as bad as i thought they would be. And words just flowed from my mouth. When i got done i was flustered. I seriously felt so strange. Like Yes i had given my speech but it went ridiculously smooth for how unprepared I was. At the end of the class hour our professor stood up and gave a verbal report to each one of us about our speeches. I about died in my seat as my instructor gave me an unbelievable amount of praise. Im not saying this to be arrogant, or cocky. I couldn't take any of that praise, because i didnt deserve any of it. God did. He helped me through that speech, he was right by my side, and he answered my prayer. Its the little things that he does to remind us of his presence. I am SO thankful to be a daughter of a King who loves each one of us so greatly! It was so humbling. Before the class i was proud and confident in a selfish way like "I got this" and by the end the i was humiliated and the Lord brought me back down into reality and then blessed me. He has a way of humbling us all that is for sure!
TOTW: Carly Wag sent me this today so i thought id share it:) " You are the only person on earth who can use your God-given talents and abilities"
- definitely something to think about.
May God bless you all in the remainder of your week and on through the weekend!
****10 weeks and 6 days till Oregon!:D ****
TOTW: Carly Wag sent me this today so i thought id share it:) " You are the only person on earth who can use your God-given talents and abilities"
- definitely something to think about.
May God bless you all in the remainder of your week and on through the weekend!
****10 weeks and 6 days till Oregon!:D ****