Safari

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This morning, we took a nature walk at the park.  We looked for leaves and pretended we were on a safari.  We drove around the “game park” looking for animals.  We discovered deer, turkey, flying geese, chipmunks and lots of squirrels.

Holly

HollyThe neighbors own two barn cats.  Often, Holly will come over to visit.  Often, while the kids are outside, Holly will walk through the back yard to see what they are doing.

She is not super friendly, but she likes to be around the children.  If they don’t try to hug her too much or pick her up, she will hang around the backyard watching them.

 

 

Soccer Weekend

Soccer2This weekend, Andrea’s soccer team participated in a fall tournament. Even with cold and rainy weather, they played very well.

The first game was good, though cold!  The girl’s had a shut out game of 5-0.  The second game was miserable; it was very cold, breezy and started to rain.  However, the girls pulled off another shut out game of 8-0.  They were excited!  They knew they had a chance at the playoffs.

The sun was very low when they started playing at 8:15 Sunday morning with the weather clear and around 38 degrees.  It was a tough game.  The referee seemed very fair even with some controversial calls. We won again, 2-0.

We thought the third game was hard, but it was easy compared to the championship game!  Our girls ran and fought for the ball the entire game.  The other team was sneakily “dirty”.  They fell often and we noticed them tripping or pushing our girls. Our girls aren’t perfect, but usually play fair.  The referee tried hard and he called many of the fouls. After a very exciting, loud game, we ended up losing 0-1.

The girls played so hard!  Most of them needed a break, did not have enough subs, but continued playing their best. They ended up in second place!  We learned later that the last two games they played were with Level 1 girls, and our team is Level 3. So they played a lot better than they realize!

Mulberry Inn

MulberryInnAndrea had a soccer tournament this weekend.  This year, Allan found us Mulberry Inn, a Victorian house that Deana, the owner, told us was built before Abraham Lincoln became president.

It was a pretty house with a nice yard for the kids to explore. We were able to rent the whole second floor and were told we could use the room on the Widow’s Walk if needed.

The inn was perfect for our needs this weekend.  It was inexpensive, the hotel would have cost more! We needed to leave by 8:00 on Saturday and 7:00 on Sunday to get to the fields in time for practice.  We were supplied breakfast food, but we prepared it when we wanted in the full kitchen in our room.  We used the kitchen again for dinner on Saturday when we decided to eat in.

Do you enjoy spiral staircases, dolls, antiques and knickknacks?  Prefer a casual bed and breakfast?  You might enjoy the Mulberry Inn.

Maple Leaf

Maple leafHebrews 12: 1 ESV “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

Arrived

Mark at site
Mark at transmitter site, almost 3 years old

After watching a map all afternoon to see approximately where Mark was, we knew that he arrived in Jo’burg at 9:18 on Tuesday evening. We knew that he would be exhausted.

Today, around 3:30, Mark called. He said the connection was bad, so he could not e-mail, but he could talk for a little while. He mentioned he was tired, that the flights were long, whenever he started to get hungry they started passing food out again and it was mostly cloudy the whole trip.

They spent the night at a guest house and drove to Swaziland this morning. He would have talked more, but the phone was acting up and Mark was sounding so tired.

Thank you for praying for his safe trip there. If you want to see what he is doing, check out his blog here.