Grand Theft Auto?

Not sure whose hog she riding but she loved getting out and letting the wind blow through her hair!

Holding Court

Holding court with the neighbor girls.  

What's on your nightstand?

I hope it isn't the crazy-fun books like you see here.  This isn't my bedtime reading.  It just happens that my desk is right next to bed and I have a ton of assignments due this week.  

Gideon's New Book

The kid LOVES to read.  Last night I caught him lying in bed read the new book in the series that he loves.  I love it that he loves to read.  

Reading Happens Everywhere

Even while waiting for Gideon to get off the bus.

So apparently she can spell

Neither Kathee nor I knew she knew how to spell Terwilleger before today.  We found that out when we learned she can also write it!  

She loves writing on the board in my Sunday school room before the junior high boys arrive.  She says she wants to get married and be a teacher when she grows up.  She also says she's the Princess of Pink.  So we'll see where the Lord leads her.  For now, I'll just keep being proud of her!

Playing with Mazaré

We take another Covenant student with us each week to church.  The kids really like her and we think she's super cool!  Today Mazaré came for lunch after church and played some games with the kids while we got lunch on the table.  Living in community has its perks!

No more naps

We decided a few weeks ago that Hope was done taking naps.  We think she doesn't need them anymore.  The proof is in the pudding!

Esther Reading

Reached my goal!

Over 1,000 miles for the year!  I've now totaled 4735.6 miles since I started riding 4 years ago!

She's Back TAing

Kathee has been asked to TA-hostess a class for first-year students and their spouses.  Kathee and I took it last year.  Doctor Douglas' wife, Rebecca, who attends the class and leads the breakout session each class for the wives, asked if Kathee would TA.  Kathee's responsibilities are to buy snacks for the first couple of weeks, set up the snack table, make the coffee, and keep the coffee pots and water pitchers full.  

So after 4 years of doing catering all through college, she's back to catering and hosting the table and welcoming first year students.  

As I went to lunch with a new student today who has had a very difficult transition to Covenant, Kathee's role, though not grading papers and whatnot, had a hugely important role!  

I'm really proud of her!  And after she agreed, she found out she'll make a little bit of money (we thought it was a volunteer position).  So each Monday night, Kathee works from 5-8 to serve and help.  She is SO COOL!

Fall Classes Start Tomorrow!

So after a couple weeks off, the fall semester begins tomorrow.  I'm excited to have a bit of variety back after spending all summer focused on the Hebrew language.  So this semester I have the following classes:
Acts and Paul
Counseling in the Church I
Exegesis and Homiletics Lab II
Mentored Ministry Practicum I
Old Testament Exegesis and Communicating the Scriptures
Pentateuch

A couple of comments and then I should shuffle off to bed.  First off, I'm only taking 11 credits this semester (thanks to having already taken one from a distance).  That being said, a friend of mine told me the other day that the saying goes that it's going to be a tough semester if you have one exegesis course (basically that means you'll be doing a lot of translation work from either the Greek or the Hebrew).  This semester, I have three exegesis courses (with OT Exegesis, which is Hebrew 3, Pentateuch, and Acts and Paul).  And, bear in mind that two of those classes I will be doing a lot of translating from Hebrew to English, and one class will be from Greek to English.  I'm up for the challenge, excited for the challenge, but know it'll be a ton of work!

My Acts and Paul professor was my Greek 1 professor, and I decided that I wanted to take any class I possibly could with him.

My OT Exegesis and Pentateuch class are taught by the same professor, who is becoming one of the leading scholars on the book of Leviticus.  His layman's commentary on the book of Leviticus just came out last year or the year before and he has a scholar's one coming out soon.  I had him for Covenant Theology I.  My boy's wicked smaht.  So I'm excited, and a bit intimidated about having him.

My Exegesis and Homiletics lab prof I'm also a bit intimidated by as I had him for Christian Ethics a few years ago (from a distance) and know he's also wicked smart.  And he just came back to Covenant after being the preaching pastor here in St Louis at a large church for 10+ years (while teaching here as an adjunct).  He went to Yale, blah, blah, blah, I'm intimidated and am excited to sit under him and learn how to be a better preacher.  In the scheme of things, who else would I rather have as I continue to grow and learn how to preach to adults!

The rest of the classes are fine.

I'm not chomping at the bit-excited for any particular class yet (I think I'm still a bit tired from Hebrew this summer), but assume that will come back to me beginning tomorrow as I head back to class.

God is good.  All the time.  All the time.  God is good.

Night all.

Brother's Gran Fondo

So I'm pretty proud of my brother Nathan.  For the second year in a row, he and his business partners, who are also his friends, have organized the Dubuque Gran Fondo.  It's a road bicycling race, that in Italian means "great endurance."  Basically, it's a road race that is brutal.  This year's gran fondo race was almost 80 miles, with the medio fondo being almost 40!  As part of the course, there is almost 12 miles of gravel (which on a road bike is AWFUL) and many feet of climbs (which, in my opinion is also AWFUL).  However, gran fondos are a pretty big deal in the world of road cycling, with more and more springing up each year.  Last year, Greg LeMond came and rode a bit of the race and stayed around to sign autographs and other things!  

Although I'm not sure I could do the actual gran fondo (the most I've ever riden is 40+ miles), I thought I could have done the medio-fondo this year.  However, as we weren't able to make it to Dubuque to participate, and since I didn't have class, I took one of my days of riding last week and did my own grueling version of the DGF.  40.1 miles was fun, and hard, and tiring.  

Maybe next year I'll be able to actually ride in the fondo.  That would be AWESOME!  It would be the first time I'd ever particiapted in an actual organized race.  And how cool that my brother is one of the organizers for it?!  That would make my day!

As a side, this past week was my best week riding.  I logged 164.3 miles.  I'm within 100 miles of my annual goal of 1,000 miles.  I know I can get to 1,000 now!

This One Marches to Her Own Drummer

Each morning when I wake up, Hope is dressed in some sort of Princess outfit.  The other day, she had on her fairy-apron princess dress.  What is that you ask?

 Well duh, it's when she puts on one of her aprons as a dress and then puts on one of her pairs of fair wings...

And then puts on another apron for the front part of the dress.  I'm just glad that as she's gotten older, and has taken this fashion to the streets, that we have been able to talk her in to wearing something on underneath the aprons!  

She's happy.  And she thinks it's cute.  And she did it herself.  So we are all good here!

It's a Chore

Kathee does a great job of expecting the kids to participate in housework.  A few months ago she started having the two older kids put away the dishes each morning after breakfast.  And now that Gideon is back in school, they have to get it done before he leaves for the bus.  Sure, there is a lot of bickering and fighting.  Normally one of them ends up in tears ("she's not helping out," "she's not handing me the glass correctly," "she's being mean," etc) a couple times a week, but it's still a good exercise for them.  Last week, Esther got into the act of wanting to be on the countertop to help her older siblings put away the dishes.  She thought she was the big time!  She is.    

Knocked Out

Had quite the uneasy experience today as we were getting ready to leave church.  After helping Esther down the stairs, we started walking toward the door.  In the process, Esther must have tripped over the back of my foot.  I saw her fall down out of the back of my eye, so I stopped, picked her up, and gave her a quick lookover to make sure she was okay.  As I turned her toward me it looked like she had knocked the wind out of herself in the fall and that see was winding up to catch her breath.  Her eyes were enormous (looked like fear) and she kept winding up.  But nothing came out.  She looked afraid.  So I started saying, "Esther breath, Esther breath, Esther breath."  Then her eyes started rolling back in her head, so I said, "Esther look at me, Esther look at me."  She was kind of in and out and then she just passed out.  And reawoke a few seconds later.  It was quite frightening for me (when stuff like that happens, Kathee is the calm one and I kinda freak).  She didn't cry much and just seemed disoriented.  So as she started snapping out of it (with no vomiting) we started asking her questions, of which she knew all the answers.  So we got in the van (with Kathee sitting next to her) and didn't allow her fall asleep on the way home from church (which she normally does each week....Esther, not Kathee).  Anyway, she's back to normal.  Frightening.  Something I don't want to see in any of my kids again.  

Officer Costas

Rode up behind this policeman on the Rock Island bike path with my friend Justin Wilson yesterday on our ride.  We decided that as a joke we'd draft off him and banter with him a bit.  I took the lead.  Then as I pulled alongside him I was going to ask if the bike path is like driving, where you can't pass the policeman because if you do they'll pull you over for something.  As it turned out, it was Zach Costas (who was in my youth group 15 years ago)!  We talked for five or ten minutes and then Justin and I rode off.  How awesome is that?

I passed Hebrew 1 with flying colors!

Hebrew 1 final is in the bag

Now I wait for Professor Goldstein to grade it to see if I made it into Hebrew 2.  That starts Wednesday at 9:00am.  To pass I needed to average 70% on the 14 quizzes (which I did handily) and have to get over a 70% on the final. I'll keep you posted!

I did wear my Husker "N" shirt to the final (which I do for most finals).  Why, you ask?  Because the N stands for knowledge.  And I need lots of it when taking tests!

Last Quiz For Hebrew 1

For some reason this didn't post.  It's from Thursday night.  It's now Saturday.

So I'm at the hospital cafeteria.  Because that's where I study when the library is closed.  I'm here for about 3-4 hours on Tueaday and Thursday nights.  

Tomorrow is the last day of Hebrew 1.  In 8 weeks of class we have covered 40 chapters.  That's over 400 vocabulary words.  We have thoroughly studied one pattern (called the Qal) that has 6 paradigms (see the blank worksheet below).  

So there are six patterns, with each pattern having blanks like the one above.  

Tonight I've been running vocabulary cards (all 400+) and writing out paradigms, so that I can do it without thinking on the quiz tomorrow.  

So here's my work from tonight...

I'll also have to be able to fully parse 8-10 words, translate 2-4 sentences, and completely fill out the Qal Strong paradigm (the first worksheet above).  This is why each quiz, which we take everyday in class, takes 30-40 minutes.  

Monday is the final.  Oh boy!

Hope wanted to make a robot superhero outfit. So we did!

On the train at the zoo

Because the entire family LOVES the zoo AND trains!

Lewis and Clark Museum in St Charles

Gideon has really gotten in to a book series dealing with historical people and events.  One of the books he recentl read and really enjoyed was about Lewis and Clark.  He learned a ton from reading about them.  So I took him to the Lewis and Clark museum up in St Charles during my week off from classes.  I was surprised how much he knew and how much he retained from his book.  

One of the best part for him was the scavenger hunt the museum had made which included the majority of the taxidermied animals in the musuem.  He enjoyed searching for them and filling out the sheet.  Upon turning it in, he received one of those flattened pennies that had the name of the L&C museum on it.   

I had him bring his book along, and he was given a coloring book with his $2 admission.  

He thought it was pretty cool that he was looking at the place where Lewis and Clark started their journey.  He hadn't put it together how close we were to where they started before we drove up and visited.  

He also enjoyed seeing their journey acted out on the tv.  As we watched there were mutliple times where he would tell me "what happened next."  It was awesome!  

After going to the museum we took a side trip that Gideon wasn't as hep on.  My brother Nathan is organizing (for the second year) a grueling road bike (in the biking world it's called a fondo) in Dubuque.   This year and last I took some of the posters which promote the fondo to bike shops in St Louis.  So knowing that the Katy Trail starts in St Charles, I thought I'd take some posters up with us in case we ran into some bike shops.  The Katy Trail is a 200+ bike trail that runs from St Charless to almost Kansas City.  People from all over the nation ride this trail, and this coffee shop/bike shop is a huge stop-off point for supplies, food, bike fixes.  This bike shop/coffee shop is right on the trail.  So we stopped and dropped off two posters there, hoping that people will see it and decide to head to Dubuque in August for the ride.    

St Charles

On Thursdays Kathee trades childcare with the family downstairs.  So on Thursdays our kids go downstairs from 9-3.  Since I had no classes all week (yet did Hebrew everyday but Monday), we went to St Charles on Thursday.  It's a city about 20 minutes north of here.  Not only is it the first capital of Missouri, it is also where Lewis and Clark started their journey up the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean.  It is also a sort of Galena, IL, place.  Old-timey business district with antiques, good-smellin shops, and other stuff.  It's a cool town.  So we went up there for a few hours.  

We ate lunch in the beer garden of this place that sat along a creek that used to be used to power or mill.  It was awesome!  The food was fine, but the company and sitting beside the creek made it totally worthwhile.  It was a fun date in the middle of the week.

Grilling out on Edwards Lawn

One of the fun things about living on campus is the impromptu picnics that happen on the Edwards Lawn (right by the playground on campus).  On Friday, a family who recently moved away was back for the evening.  So about 30 of us grilled out and had fun together (grill your own meat and bring a dish to pass).  We enjoy living on campus for reasons such as this!   

Time with Uncle Zach

My brother Zach came down Thursday night to spend the weekend with us.  We have had a blast (so far) with him.  

One of the things I've wanted Zach to do for a year is to teach Gideon how to play Tublici, a card game a former youth pastor of my brother Aaron's and me when I was in junior high and high school.  It's a game of addition and subtraction.  As Gideon enjoys math and learning, I thought it would be a game where Gideon could grow in his math skills without feeling like "school."  

So Zach taught Gideon the game and Gideon really enjoys it.  In the picture above, we are at Jefferson Barraks in South St Louis waiting for the fireworks to start.    

Not wanting to go to Forest Park to watch the fireworks, and having a bad experience at the Chesterfield Mall parking lot last year, we opted for Jefferson Barracks a bit south of St Louis.  

Jefferson Barracks is a national cemetary and has been around since the Civil War.  Before the fireworks, we drove through the cemetary, which none of us had ever done before.  Wow!  It was something else.  Something else.  

After driving through the cemetary part, we drove to where the fireworks were to be launched.  They had people directing traffic and it was easy to get in and park. 

After parking and getting to the amphitheater (where literally thousands-- maybe 10 or 15k?) I spoke with some people trying to figure out which direction the fireworks would be fired.  So we got our spot and settled in.   

The kids had fun, the weather was great, and the bugs weren't bad at all.  

The show started soon after 9pm and lasted about 30 minutes.  Aside from waiting for an hour to get out of our parking lot, we were all quite impressed with the fireworks.  We'll go back next year.  

Today we hung out.  For supper, Zach wanted to check out Lion's Choice.  It's a roast beef place about a step or two down from Abry's (if that's possible).  We had a good laugh, the food wasn't awful, and we enjoyed our time together.  

After supper, we took Zach to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, which is a St Louis go-to place.  Until tonight I wasn't very impressed.  However, I read that the Carmel Apple was a good choice.  Holy smokes!  It was awesome!   

The kids all enjoyed their custard as well.  

And as our friend Jeff Tunberg (owner of Whitey's Ice Cream) says, "you always see a smile on the face of someone with ice cream!"  Although it isn't ice cream, it's the same concept!