Farewell to Junior High

My kids are officially out of the building I teach in.  Ellie celebrated her final finales in May for 8th grade.  She had her Spring Fling dance.  She invited Kinslee and Bailey over to get ready – hair, dress, a bit of food.  Heather, Bailey’s mom, came over for hair support staff.  It was fun to have her here to chat with as I curled Ellie’s hair and she curled or straightened the other two’s hair.  In the end, they all looked beautiful and ready for a fun evening out. 

    

After the dance, Ellie headed to LincWay with a “few” friends – a large group of 7th graders joined her, Kinslee, and Mary there.  A group of moms sat in the next room chatting and observing the laughter and lightness of the girls.  (I snuck over for a few pictures because I have no shame!)

   

That evening, she invited Marita over for a sleepover to end the night.

Before the last day of school, Ellie worked really hard to bake cookies and create beautiful notes for her friends.  Each note was thoughtfully written; she has a big heart, full of encouragement. 

8th grade Celebration – a finalizing of one phase of life, certificates, one final band performance, a slide show of memories, hugs, tears, and pictures with friends.

Farewell, Teachers: Mrs. Greer, Mrs. Walton, Ms. Aumend, Mr. Dillon, Mr. Crawford, Mr. Johnson

Presentation of certificates by Mr. Jackson:

Final band performance:

Family Farewell… well, really you’re stuck with us!

    

Farewell to 7th grade friends to share the building with – Alaina, Amelie, Maddie, (Ellie), Josie, Janie, Marita

Farewell to 8th grade friends for the summer – Bailey, Maylynn, Harper, Mary

    

I am again so excited for this next step for Ellie – as she spreads her wings in high school, as she discovers new friendships and preserves the ones that matter, as she tries out new experiences, as she accepts new challenges, and as she finds her place in this big world!  I believe she is built for love, for relationship, and for courage.  I am so proud of the way she is growing leadership skills and testing things out – organizing Bible studies, navigating friendships through conflict, embracing hard things, laughing with friends, and sharing stories with family.  Time flies …. First day of kindergarten to the last day of 8th grade

    

We love you, Ellie!

Farewell, Columbus!

It is (was) official – our townhouse sold in Columbus!  The story we believe is a God thing.  We went down to finish vacuuming and putting the finishing touches on one evening; we had scheduled for a realtor to come take pictures the following day so they could list it.  Jeremy had posted the listing on Zillow for about 1-2 weeks on a whim – hoping to avoid the realtors fee if possible.  There were no bites…. until the day we left to go finish things up; the day before we handed it over to the realtor.  The young man that called worked til about 10pm, but we told him we would still be there working if he wanted to stop by.  He did!  He thought it looked like a good place, liked that a lot of the mechanicals were fairly new, and thought it would accommodate him and two college roommates fairly well.  He took his family to see it that Saturday, made an offer the following week, and we waited for closing to come – May 29th.  Everything went so smoothly.  We did get we were asking for it, which was a steal of a deal if you ask me; we did not get enough to cover what it took to fix it up (paint, carpet, etc); we did avoid realtor fees; it did not sit on the market needlessly.  Blessing upon blessing!  (With a little bit of bitter aftertaste for Jeremy since our profit was not significant.) 

We had promised the girls and overnighter before we officially sold it.  So, the weekend before closing, we went down for the night.  We all slept on the living room floor – one happy sleepover! 

Here are some pictures of the finished home – nothing fancy, but clean and new.

         

I brought cinnamon rolls for breakfast and pb&j for a sack lunch at the zoo.  Mike and his kids, Sasha and Beckett, met us at the zoo; it was fun to reconnect with him and his kids.  (Anja had to work.) 

So, we fondly wished Columbus farewell that weekend, knowing we would be handing the keys over a few short days later.  It was a great place to live, and I am thankful for the memories we have there.  (I am sure we will be back to visit the zoo, some shops, the upcoming IKEA, and other things.)

Going Away

I never posted anything about the actual move away.  We had a small, spur-of-the-moment going away party at the park on a hot Sunday afternoon.  There were a few friends able to make it to hang out one more time…

Danielle, Rob, Mia, and Evelyn – they were some of our small group buddies.  During my maternity leave, Madison, Ellie and I went to story time with them as well.

Josh, Hillary, Graham, and Jillian – Josh was Jeremy’s co-worker at one of his jobs.  We didn’t get together with them much, but when we did we had fun. 

Deb – Jeremy’s ONU friend and my book club buddy.  She is always fun to chat with, and she is willing to entertain kids :)

The kids had fun finding “fireplace man.”  It sent them home super dirty, but kept them laughing!

        

Myla – Madison’s Sunday School buddy…. every Sunday we would look for her.  Her parents helped with the youth group at the same time we did as well.

Jim and Ruth, our neighbors, came to say farewell on moving day.  Madison enjoyed going over to their house to visit.

Saying Good-Bye

I had a wonderful trip back to Kansas. I drove on Saturday afternoon with my mom and dad. I am glad I could go with them and give my mom a little extra company up front. We stayed overnight somewhere, and made it to my aunt's house by about 3pm on Sunday. Everything kept moving from there on out. We had a time of sharing memories over supper on Sunday night, and watching a great slide show of my grandpa's life my aunt and cousin had put together. Then, Monday, we went for a private viewing of my grandpa. That was hard. No matter how prepared you are to say good-bye, it is always hard to actually do. I am so blessed to know that my grandpa is in a place prepared for him by his Heavenly Father. It is great reassurance and gives me hope in what is to come! In the evening, there was calling hours. It was a time of a lot of laughing. There were a lot of people I didn't know. Since moving to Ohio, we haven't been a part of a HUGE family reunion, so that is more than 20 years of not having seen people. It was neat to watch my dad (and my mom) reconnect with people - friends and family that they were close to for many years. I knew some people from when we lived there and it was good to see them again. It is always a long night when receiving people at calling hours though, so it was good to get some rest that night. The funeral was on Tuesday at 2:30pm. At the service, the my dad and his siblings had a time of sharing their memories of their dad. Then, we grandkids had compiled memories to share about grandpa. It was a neat experience for me to hear what all my cousins picked out because we all had a little different memory that was special to us. I think it gave people a good picture of who my grandpa was. It was about 95F at the burial site - another heat wave for our return to Kansas! My brothers and I hit the road after faspa (zweibach, jello, ham, cheese, and cookies). We stopped at Braums (the best hamburger and ice cream joint in the world!) for ice cream. We stayed at a hotel and left the next morning at 5am. I got home by 3pm. It was fun to be with my siblings in the car; it is not often we are alone without kids anymore... a little like the old days without having to break up wrestling matches in the backseat :) Thanks for all the prayers for travel (30+ hours on the road) and healing.

Just a side note: When my brother was talking to the pastor at my grandpa's church, he said that my grandpa's obituary had more hits online than any other story in the Newton Kansan paper that day. It just reminded me that my grandpa's life must have reached so many.

We're so excited!

We leave tomorrow afternoon to go to Albuquerque. Our flight home leaves on Thursday, December 20 at 8am. Please pray for us as we travel. We are so excited to come home and see family. Hopefully, we will see many of you as well. We plan to be at Salem Mennonite Sunday, drive down to Columbus (maybe Thursday the 27th), and visit with family. Our blog will probably not be updated until we return (the 3rd). So, enjoy your break from logging in to the site, but mostly, have a great Christmas!!!