Prayer Request

Hey gang, just wanted to quick let you know that Tom starts another round of chemo tonight. It lasts about five days and is awful. It'd be great if we could all pray for him over the next few days. I can't imagine how difficult this must be for him.

Be Afraid-

To get you in the halloween mood, here are a few pictures of some posters that appeared on the walls of the high school today (*note- the posters get better when enlarged). Speaking of mood- they are soooo Bloomingdale. "Be afraid- for free"!

Lyrics

Hi guys. I'm trying to remember the words to a gospel choir song. I feel like there was one with the phrase "my life is in your hands". Anyone remember the rest of it? It seems like all I've heard from the Lord in a week and I want to grab hold of it.

Mike's at an interview now for a computer job. He also has a meeting with the detective doing his background check for Southfield Monday morning at 8am. We would love to work there. Pray, fast, please. He said she sounded mean and is wondering if she's a lesbian. I feel weird writing that, but it seems like spiritual attack that she would be the person evaluating him. There's also a gay and lesbian community center opening on mainstreet in Ferndale nearby that Jennifer Grandholm came to bless. It seems that lifestyle has become tons more acceptable just in the last few years to the general public. I want to love the people, but they can't be in charge of our communities. It seems a bunch are coming through for foster care and adoption too lately and it's my job to say if they're O.K. and I can't say "no" based on that.

Gettin' crazy

Teaching prepubescents has been, well, a bit tasking lately. So I figured I had to do something drastic to capture their attention. And I figured that crazy hair day during spirit week was the day to do it. Good thing I love lots of attention!

We had a great church retreat last weekend and have set a goal of enslaving 200 adults in our Vineyard group by next fall. Hopefully, this is my last year of teaching. Michael and I and Sarah Hawthorne are playing at a coffee shop this Friday night, we have a guy coming to do a seminar on de-mystifying the prophetic (right up my alley) on Sat morning, we have Saturday Night Vine Saturday night and a Halloween party on Sunday night. So it's a big weekend. Big quizzes tomorrow in Spanish, as well.

Here are some pics of my lovelies.

Recently

October 15, I performed my first wedding. Above is the only shot I currently posess, and you can't really see me at all (I'm hidden behind the groom, but you can see Rachel on the left). I married my sister-in-law, Johanna (Rachel's little sister) to a dude named Matt Poole, who I like pretty well. Also in attendance were: Kool (aka Bob Villa), Melissa, Denise, and our friendly neighborhood Randall. Randall stole his share of the limelight that night by making the final toast of the evening to the bride and groom (both of whom he barely knew). I thought alot about when Benjamin married Bryan and Jen and hoped I could live up to that masterful performance. It was kind of a wierd wedding - there was a woman who spoke briefly during the ceremony about Christian marital sex being a "community activity" - leaving the mother of the bride thinking she was referencing group sex. Matt's grandma also spoke for about ten minutes and ended by explaining her recent difficulties connecting to the internet. Reception was a pot luck and there was dancing to follow. But, all in all, it was very pretty and unique, and went off smoothly.

After church the next morning and a brief post-marathon party at 92 East, Rachel and I drove Sunday night to the cabin in Indiana and proceeded to do absolutely nothing for a whole week. It was heavenly. Here are some action shots:




We pretty much read and napped and stared at the fire and stared at the lake and stared at the leaves, then read and napped some more. I did watch two baseball games and saw the Astros beat my Cardinals. Damn Texans. Um, and we visited Rachel's parents for a day, most of which I spent playing "Microsoft World War II Flight Combat Simulator." Rudy and I found it much too boring to try to find the German columns in the Falaise Gap and so instead thoroughly entertained ourselves machine gunning and repeatedly bombing our own air bases and other friendly planes.

One more picture before I sign off: Kool working on the sink.

new bathroom and kitchen

Last night Jared, Rachel, Missy, and Denise came over with the digital camera, so I no longer have an excuse to not post pictures of the work I'm doing on my house. Jared helped me drop the new sink into place at it's new location in the new kitchen and this picture is Missy and Denise commenting on it's splender. The next picture is the (nearly) finished bathroom project followed by the post-demolition, pre-construction of the bathroom. The next shot is the stove covered with tools and our good friend Kitty. She loves to explore the construction zone.
In other news, the Shadow turned 100,000 miles yesterday. To celebrate this momentous occasion, I looked down at my odometer and said something to the effect of "Man, that's a lot of zeros."

My friend Sarah...

Hey, Jared, would you send an invite to Sarah Bublitz? I thought to tell you long ago, but finally remembered. We've talked about the blog and want her to get into it. He email address is sarahbee3@gmail.com. Thanks.

The Bounty of the Harvest

Remember Harvest Fest? Ah, the good times. Fall is totally one of the coolest things created. I love having a way to see pictures of what is going on in everyone's lives. To tell you the truth, sometimes I'm starving for outside contact and it's raining so I check the blog to see what's new. Jeff was away all weekend at a Vocational Discernment class so it was just us girls at home. It was kind of a long weekend. I did finally get to take a shower when Sienna was patient enough to sit in her bouncy seat for 15 minutes in a row without someone playing with her. We had fun, even though we missed Jeff. I mean, at least there was more room in the bed! So after the course Jeff has decided next we're going to.... just kidding, we have no idea except that we are moving somewhere in May. I think the priority is to find a community in which Jeff can discern if he is going to go into "full time ministry" meanwhile he'd hold down a job to support the girls. Please pray for us, this next move is going to be tough, exciting, crazy, emotional. I am so looking forward to not moving every year, I want a house with a yard!!!! Here's some pictures of me and Sienna and her getting ready for a bath with Jeff in case you were wondering what we look like now.

long overdue

Remember how I was going to post some pictures of Joel's wedding? Well here they are. I'm the guy in black, Joel is the guy who looks like me in white. The middle picture is when my sister Mari Jo and I sang "La Bomba." Just kidding, we lead worship. With that look I think that I could make it as a mariachi.

Eventually, I'll get my hands on a digital camera so that I can share some pictures of my kitchen's transformation. This weekend I I installed two of four countertops.

What else is happening? The marathon was fun. I don't have pictures of that either.

A Vacation

I went to Mike's parents' house in Harrison, Michigan last week with my two office mates for a break. I haven't felt peace, joy, and purpose like this in quite awhile. What a wonderful respite from the hardness of life. It was gorgeous. Jessica and Pam are both believers and single. We had awesome prayer times because they were desiring freedom. Did some theophostic type praying (not officially since I'm not trained) and singing over them.

The week before that we were housesitting and were alone together in a house for the first time in over a year. Also very relaxing even though I had commitments every night. Just coming home to only Mike was wonderfully peaceful.

The weekend before that we were at our all church retreat. Steve from the Evanston, IL Vineyard that sent us came with his disciples ( I know that sounds weird but that's really what they are) or posse. The Holy Spirit moved in power there and rejuvinated and called out many of us.

So now I've come down the mountain and am being browbeaten. Ugh.
But at least I have some fresh memory for wind in my sails.

P.S. Thought you might enjoy seeing the T-shirt. I love it. Thanks guys.
P.P.S. I want to hear from Kool, Beth, Jared, Rachel, Heather...

First swim

We took Abby for her first swim last month. The cold pool water was quite a shock to her little system seeing as how she was probably expecting the water to be warm, inviting, and with lavender bubbles like her ritual evening bath. She practically crawled up on her daddy's shoulders when she felt the cool, chlorinated water. Poor thing. However, she was styling in the bathing suit that I wore when I was her age. Yep, polyester at its best! Thanks for saving my baby clothes, Mom!

Are these girls cool or what?

Vintage.....

Here are some classic pictures I managed to scrape up.....if you click on them you may get a better view. I had to scan them in and the resolution wasn't the greatest. I especially like the authoritative stance Ben has in the picture from The Well

Baby Henderson

Here he is. Yup, he. It's a boy. The ultrasound was incredible. He's totally perfect and amazingly cute.

Can you find us?

This is what the starting line looked like on Sunday. We're in there somewhere! It was a beautiful day, great race, everybody did awesome. Missy and Denise finished strong (ahead of Rachel and I but a hair behind Kool) in their first ever 26.2. Kool spanked out a PR. Rachel ran the entire way 5 months pregnant. An excellent day, and did I mention we TRASHED Beth's apartment?

Before our time

Who was I throwing that apple at? Was it the larger Swier? I mean, who can resist scooping up a juicy brown wrinkly sphere, aware of the possible sweet explosion it could have upon impact? A blemish on my otherswise stoic and uneventful resume, I am sure.
What will be even worse is when Cadence and I get thrown out for doing the same thing. He is so much like me, its unbelieveable. I can see it now, not only will I get kicked out, but I will have chucked the apple too hard at Cadence, he will be crying something like, "but I wanted to jump on the apple!" and the staff will be threatening to call the police. They won't believe me that I am just doing some "Wild at Heart thing" with my son. Cause that's what we were doing, right? We were just before our time. We were taking risks, discovering our adventurous spirits and awaking our souls to the warrior within us. Pretty soon, it'll be a part of some John Elderidge retreat. Everyone will go to the local Wal-Mart and get kicked out.
The picture is not really us, but I thought it appropriate.

Good Luck Marathoners!

We're so proud of you all! We'll be thinking of you running your little hearts out this Sunday. Have fun. My advise: make sure you look good when you arrive there... and if you need to take a break to fit your hair and reset your bra, so be it. Just kidding - hey, stop at nothing. RUN RUN RUN! GOOD LUCK!

Who Remembers..........

As I drive through Fennville every day on my way to the home of the mighty Bloomingdale Cardinals, I can't help but let my mind wander back 6 years............ The season was fall, the day was a Sunday. A group of gung-ho college students without a care in the world, boarded a big red van and an old Jeep Cherokee for the drive down to a little known apple orchard where they thought that they could run and frolick until their hearts content. The anticipation was so thick you could "throw an apple into it". In fact, that is exactly what happened. The van pulled in and the excited college students jumped out. A group of 4 outdistanced the rest and were making their way through the neatly cultivated rows of apple trees when......... I think this is the perfect spot for me to leave off and another person who was there to pick up with our little story.

Post-it note party

It was a dark night on 37th street. A group of masked 17th street gang members converged on the Tennants house with a nefarious agenda. The house was locked, but that was of no consequence. The ringleader had seen this before. One by one, they hoisted each other in through an unlocked window. For the next forty-five minutes, the house was abuzz with the sound of peeling post-it notes, cabinets opening and closing, underwear being sifted through and muffled laughter. Finally, the malevolent tricksters gathered in the living room, lit only by a small flashlight. The only sound was now a cat loudly protesting for affection. As quickly as they entered they exited. Their round bottoms were quite a sight squeezing out of the undersized window. They wasted no time, however. Obviously they had done this before.

Who remembers this little incident? The picture represents our latest post-it finding, now two years later. When will it end?

Here are some snapshots of Tennant life in Texas. Cadence and Eli and learning to fight and to play simultaneously. Here they are being quite jovial. Eli is setting in my birthday present from Mom and Dad, a new bag for my bongos. Thanks Mom and Dad! Another picture is of Simone at a local climbing wall. We went last Friday and had a blast. The last is a picture of our last Saturday Night Vine (our church service) in a rec center multi-purpose room. There were 52 people there, our most yet. We sense God's hand growing us and forming us. Simone is receiving appropriate kudos for being so organized in her efforts to provide learning experiences for children on Saturday nights, as well for planning such excellent events and retreats for the church.

Happy Birthday Cruiser!

A very special person is turning 15 today. See the picture if you are wondering who. He was probably about two inches long when born and has lived a long life bringing cuteness, furriness, and love to all, especially in my family. He is 105 in dog years and we consider him a senior dog now as he requires intensive in-home care (provided by my dad and his wife).

Beth is Great

I just want to say how great Beth Tworek is. She may be the most hospitable woman in the Chicagoland area. She has given up her apartment to four sweaty marathoners and invited us to "do whatever you want...treat it like a hotel." What a sweetie! And has just given invaluable information about how to get into the city on the morning of the race, where to eat pasta the night before, etc. etc. I also want to welcome her as she just found out about this blog and will be reading it for the first time! Thanks Beth! What a friend!

You asked for it...

Karen, how could any parent not respond when you ask for pictures? Well, here she is and I've been told she looks like me in the first picture, though I'm not sure that I see the resemblance. The second picture is in her super stimulating crazy baby gym of color, that wasn't the name on the package but the thing is supposed to make her smart. Things are chugging along here in the Kelley house. Jeff is working super hard with school and he also works in the coffee shop that I used to be the manager of before I went on maternity leave (which rocks here in Canada by the way, I get paid half my salary for a year, imagine being paid to stay home with your babe! I'm sure the hourly rate doesn't work out to be very good though). That was a lot in ( ). Sienna is amazing! The other night Jeff said "time for bed" in a sing-song voice and she repeated the tune back to him! Either that was an incredible coincidence or she is a genius, I prefer to believe the latter. Though it was an isolated incidence....
Anyway, being a mom is great one reason (among the many) is that I love to snuggle and so does she so that works out well. She's sleeping longer and we're getting used to this parenting stuff, although both of us feel too young to be parents, I think I'll feel 23 for the rest of my life. Feel free to tell me how cute she is. :)

No stumbling Ben.....

O.K..... Ben asked for it. This is Stage 4 of Mount Pinatuba, about 8 miles southwest of the Mackinac Bridge. Feel the burn!