Callie's First Chore

Since we live in the bitter cold Minnesota with dry air, we sleep with a humidifier in our room at night (Callie has one as well). Almost every morning after we wake up, Callie goes in our room and takes the water tank off of the base of the humidifier. We need her to do this every day so that we can clean out the tank for us to use the next night. We have called this her first chore. She doesn't seem to mind the work at this point.

I Survived!

Everytime I try and take Callie's picture these days she squints her eyes up really tight in anticipation of the flash. This is best I could do. So, this post is entitled I survived, because Callie and myself endured a crazy morning. I was meeting up with some other moms from our church at a play area inside a mall. I had never been to this mall and it was a little further out from the cities than I usually go. Thankfully, I found it easily. While I was trying to get us both out of the car, the unthinkable happened (well, actually it is at least thinkable). I had both car doors open, had set my purse in the back seat next to Callie and got out to lock and close the front door. Upon locking and closing the front door, my hip hit the back door by accident and it closed just enough to lock. I had locked my baby, keys, purse, phone, everything in the car. I just stood there for a few min. saying this is really bad, really really bad. I ran inside the mall. I borrowed a phone and a lady got a security officer to help me. Charlie was a good 25-30 min. away and in a meeting and was hard to get hold of. They called a police officer and he came and tried for 45 min. to get it open but was unsuccessful. Charlie ended up arriving with a key before the officer could get the door open. All in all, she was locked in there just short of an hour. Now, I will tell you the best and worst part of this story. The worst part was that two security officers (extremely nice guys by the way), the police officer, and myself were standing outside (none of us with hat or gloves) for the entire hour. We had not yet made it to our high of 12 for the day and the wind chill was negative 7! It's one thing to walk to and from a heated place in those temps, and it's another to just stand there, esp. without hat, gloves, and long underwear! But, it wasn't like I was going to leave her! So, the best part of the story is that Callie was asleep the ENTIRE TIME! She literally woke up 20 seconds before Charlie pulled up with the other key. I was so thankful. I mean she slept right through the officer banging/scraping this metal rod in between the window and door. So, all that to say, we survived (It did take me close to an hour and half for my core to warm back up) and we have a true Minnesotan story to tell!

Stir Crazy

Callie is getting a little stir crazy having to be inside a lot. Apparently the occasional trips out in the snow and the regular trips to the library, mall, and bookstore are not keeping her entertained enough. Here is her latest activity to help pass the time:


She has also gotten into the habit of wanting to sit down on everything. It is funny because she will see something in the house, walk up to it, turn around, and then back her way onto whatever object it is. Here is an example of Callie sitting on the steps:


Callie misses her friend Kaboodle from Atlanta. But she enjoyed getting to see him again on a Skype call a few weeks ago. Callie seeing Kaboodle on Skype (we don't know why the sound isn't working on this one...imagine her screaming as she points to the computer screen):


And here are a couple of pictures that a friend took yesterday while she was babysitting Callie:

Fun on the Ice

Last week we had fun in the snow, this week we had some fun on the ice. I got some hockey skates last week so I can begin playing hockey with some of the students here. We took Callie to the park last week for me to try them out. Jennifer was a little nervous with me skating around with Callie, but there were no close calls at all.

I pulled her in her sled on the ice and she seemed to have a pretty good time.

We think we may have pushed our luck a little bit by keeping her out there about 20 minutes instead of the usual 15. She cried on her sled ride back to the house, so Jennifer had to hold her in her arms. It has been fun to play with her outside in the Winter. We are thankful for this warmer weather.

Fun in the Snow

It warmed up to about 30 yesterday, so we took Callie out to play in the snow. She absolutely loved it. We pulled her around in her little "sled." The roads and driveway are a little bit slick with a thin layer of ice, so it worked out well for us to pull her in the sled. She also had fun walking around on our driveway. When she first started walking on it, she laughed all the way to the bottom of the driveway. She slipped a few times, but never got hurt because of her massive snow suit that provided much padding.


She liked pulling the sled herself also.

Walking on the driveway (looking like a marshmallow with her snow suit).


Here is a video of her walking on the driveway:

Taking it back

Charlie and I realized that we forgot to post about our time in Spartanburg which included Callie's birthday (Christmas Eve) and Christmas day. So here you go.

One highlight to our time in Spartanburg was Rachel, the dog (or puppy rather). Callie really loves animals and it is so fun to watch her interact with them. Too bad we have no room for a dog in our house up here, and it would certainly be inhumane to leave one outside!



Callie had a great birthday! We were so blessed to have family there to celebrate with us. She had her first taste of cake and we helped her open presents. It was a sweet time to celebrate her life. She is such a gift from the Lord. We prayed for her that one day she would walk in the truth of the gospel of Christ.


This is Callie with her Greatmama.

Here we are on Christmas Day (just the immediate families)

Milwaukee New Years Conference 2009

Our New Years Conference was a success again this year. Many students were impacted by the gospel again. Here are a few quotes from different students about what they learned and how they saw their need for the gospel to change lives:
-"I realized that peoples' joy is at stake...I want to be on my knees in prayer for people more."
-"My hope is often in things of this world...God is breaking down my idols because He loves me."
-"It is amazing to me that so many people can get together for so long just to talk about Christ."
-"Self-motivation to minister doesn't help."
-"It is such a joy to see people worship, be transformed, and be built up to spread the gospel more on campus."

That is only a taste of all that God did. This is a picture of all of the Northwestern (NWC) students at conference.


A few of the guys (L to R: Mike O, David L, Josh W, and Levi). Mike O and Levi meet in discipleship groups with me. Josh plays on the NWC basketball team and has a vision to reach that team with the gospel along with Levi. This was his first major CO event.


Northwestern girls at the conference. There is a good mix of seniors to freshmen in this picture. A lot of the younger girls were at conference because of the ministry of our older students.


David and Sam. Sam became a Christian a year ago and transferred to Northwestern. It has been fun to watch him grow in his walk with God through our ministry some this year.


This is Callie after my seminar talk. She "attended" the seminar by running around in the hallway outside the room, so Jennifer could hear my seminar.

Callie's Skit Premiere

Callie was in a video skit at our New Years Conference. You can view it here:

If you are curious about the second half of this skit you can view it from the COM vimeo page. Callie is not in the second half of the video.

As soon as my talk from the conference gets put online, we will let you know how to listen to it if you are interested.

Milwaukee New Years Conference

We just got back from our 5-day conference with students in Milwaukee. Here is a video recapping the week's events. We will post more on the conference later this week.