Tour De Corn, a midwest travel (first edition)

Oh the Midwest . . . John and I braved the corn and the rain for a trip to see some of my family and our friends that live along the way. Our prayer this summer is to add financial partners to our ministry in Florida. Going out to share our vision was fun and we are looking forward to more opportunities to travel and share.

We had to stop and see Rush. They really age well those men. We had both been there before as little children. But it was fun to see as a family.

John is thinking of running for president? What do you think?

He has that stoic good lookin' man with great hair face.

Really, he has no problem with Abe.

It seems like we have not matured much since the last time we visited this national monument.

Maybe next time.

Tour De Corn, a midwest travel (second edition)

My husband and I really enjoyed our time in South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska. We tried to fall into tourist traps, but we only succeeded in the free or cheap traps. We took a brief little jaunt through Wall Drug. It is a small town that used to have one shop called Wall Drug. A store with your typical drug store finds. But it became pretty popular and so other stores copied the idea and started selling more and more souvenier treasures. Today it is a street long store, shop after shop is connected to each other. Naturally John tried on a cowboy hat and holster. And naturally he looked a bit goofy and sexy at the same time.
It seems goes well with the basketball shorts and new balance tennis shoes.

John tends to have a desperado smoldery yet lone on the range look right.

A famous treat at Wall Drug is 5 cent coffee. I am not sure what I expected, but brown watery mud floavor is not what I had imagined.

We stopped for a little stretch break and found a little haven next to the Missouri River. A relaxing and memorable little moment.

And we had the privilege of seeing the home in which my mom became a baby. She grew up in this house in Brandon, South Dakota before they moved to Minnesota. A cute little home for sure. I can see a baby momma running around in the front yard.

For he's a Johnner good fellow

I know we already celebrated John's birthday blogger style. But there are some great pics to share. For starters we will see Mr. Teten's handcrafted sign for John's special day in Colorado Springs.

What a big boy

He schooled his brothers and sisters in a game of "everyman for himself"

We were able to celebrate in Fort Collins a couple of days later. My Dad shares the same birthday as John. The guys made a makeshift putting green in our backyard.

And my beautiful cousins entertaining me!

Man these girls love their cousin John. They drew him pictures for his birthday. Thanks Katelyn and Averi.

How Boring!

It is so unreal of me that I have not blogged in a month. While in Fort Collins John and I live with my sister and brother-in-law. And April for sure reminds me when I have been lacking in my updating dilligence. So sorry, John and I have been trying to keep up with Fort Collins life with all of our family and friends close by. I have been up to my nose hairs in textbooks. But it has been refreshing to be on campus at Colorado State and enjoy FoCo in the summer, a true delight. We have visited New Belgium Brewery our fair share and are looking forward to doing some tubing the Poudre before we leave.
The Hofmanns have been so gracious to us. Allowing us to come and go on our hectic and uncertain schedule, and they are so incredible for it.
I will do my best to post a bit here and there about our time.


On our first anniversary John and I stayed in Denver, and the next day we went back to Belmar to have some lunch. It was so rainy and frigid that we hardly spent any time on our friendly balcony of love and quickly drove home to warm up.

All of the weather and construction made us so thankful for God's provision of perfection the day we got married. We had a beautiful view of the mountains with warm warm weather.

Birthday Boy

My baby is 25. We celebrated his entry into a quarter of a century with Vangaurd Church, brats, basketball, homeade salsa, frisbee and fajitas! What an amazing husband I have, and now we can rent a car! What could be better?

Hooray! For the Birthday Boy.

Best First Year of the Rest of My Life

Wow, John and I just celebrated a whole year of marriage. It has been the best year of my life. Even with all of the changes and challenges, being united with John under Christ has been incredible. God surely does love me in wonderful ways. And one of the best ways is through John. Praise the Lord.
We spent the day and night in Denver and went back to the Belmar. Here is a little trip down memory lane.

Thanks for everyone who remembered and thank you to all who have made our life together so amazing. We love you!

Mom's Day

This Mothers Day my fam drove to Colorado Springs to enjoy an evening with Mom Teten and fam. We went to Vangaurd church, which is my favorite church in the Springs and America for that matter. The fam had never seen Glen Eyrie or Headquarters of the Navs. So we took a small tour of the castle and grounds and took a hike up to the waterfalls. What should have been a small hike turned into a challenge due to all the rushing water that no one had seen in years. So we helped my poor mom cross the river many times, and she gracefully did not get wet at all.

Eric's Mom, Geri, joined us too on the day of Moms. This is just before those with tennis shoes stopped and the Chacos went on. It was too hard to do without getting wet.

The boys: John, Eric and Brandon hiked up further to the punch bowls. They are little pools of frigid water formed in the hollows of rock. You have to run up the side of the rock to get any air into the pools. Here is my brave husband before he looses all ability to breath submerged in the icy water. Oh I wish I could have watched.

Because there was so much water the waterfall was more powerful than I have seen it. It was misty and cool just standing yards away from it. It was so much fun to see with my fam.

And here are those brave men before they hike further to the cold bowls.

Later we had BBQ with the Teten fam and played some card games before my fam had to head home. But Mom Teten made some delicious food and we enjoyed homemade ice cream before they left. Thanks for such a fun and delicious day Fam. I am so blessed to have such an incredible family and I could not have even dreamt of a better family to marry into.

Victory in Christ

John and I are so proud of his Dad. Bill ran the Colorado half marathon. He had been training for this goal for a while and it was so exciting for John to see him cross the finish line. (I was still at Starbucks.) Sorry Dad Teten!

Here he is representing the running legs of the body of Christ.

Later we went to a new place in Fort Collins called Dempsey's for breakfast. David and Pamela (tired from her late night bridal shower) joined us.

And so did John's beautiful sister Kristi and her husband Jens. It was a lot of fun to get some Teten time! Thanks.

End of Spring

We ended the spring semester with a wootie! The graduating women shared some delish dessert at the Melting Pot as we celebrated their accomplishments. Good Luck you girls.Then we had our regional staff meetings in St. Pete beach. We spent some great time with our staff that we really love to see. While the men went golfing, we were given money to spend at the cutest little scrapbooking store. We scrapbooked one page about what God has been doing in our lives for a while

This is my page. God has been teaching me for about 3 yrs now. He has been reminding me time and time again about the true freedom that I have in Him. A verse that has been huge in this process is Psalm 119:45. It says: "I will walk in freedom for I have devoted myself to Your commandments." So I had fun creatring a free page. With the verse written on the card with a key on it. I believe so much that by devoting my heart to the Lord, it has set me free. I just need to remember it and chose to walk in freedom.

We then got to share these lessons with the other women on the beach. With chai and cookies! A little bit of worship and prayer ended our time.

Beauty!

It is 7:00pm and it is 85 degrees outside, only two little degrees below the suggested high for today. Why? It is night time . . . what happened to breezes and decreasing temp? Its about time for some Colorado evenings. Say May 5th?

Just Laying out the Welcome mat!

John and I joined a staff couple from USF on a trip to Penn State. We spent five days observing their campus and ministry in action. We were lucky enough to be there for the warmest weather of the year for them. We spent our days enjoying the people, the lovely old homes, the campus and mostly the staff of the Penn State Navigators.

The first night we were there we joined some staff and students for some ice cream. We happened to be there on Blue and White weekend, their spring football game. Which means that Stage College was in an uproar with football and warm weather.

This lovely couple provided all of our training while we were visiting. Dave and Cathy Bowman. They have spent at least 12 yearts ministering to students at PSU.

The Gatlyn's, Chris and Jana. The couple we were lucky enough to travel with. We have been training with them since we have been in Florida.

We are so thankful for our time in State College. We are eager to see our new friends at future staff conferences and training times. We learned so much from the Bowmans and look forward to sharing our info with UF. Lookout students.

Pain in the Root

We solicit your prayers! John has been in tooth pain for a while now, and we found out he needs a root canal! The Lord has been generous in giving us a dentist who goes to our church! But we cannot get him in until April 27th. So he has been on Amoxicilin and Vicodin and will continue both until the infection is gone and thus pain-free. The meds have obviously messed with his stomach and his head, so we would love to see the pain go away so he can function normally! Would you pray for my hurting husband? And you can be praising God too for how He has already provided for us in big ways. The dentist is willing to cut costs in order to help us!

Best Easter Ever!

John and I were having a quiet Easter this past Sunday, we went to church real early and enjoyed much food. The best part was yet to come. We were surprised Easter Eve by Joe and Joy in Gainesville! We were shocked to see them come around the corner when we sat down for dinner at a local restaurant. We kind of looked at them in disbelief until we realized that they were really standing in front of us. John and I were so thankful to have them come out. We feel incredibly loved that they had been planning it out since November and went to so much effort to visit us. The weather was average so we spent so much time talking, eating and playing cards. It was the best time.
We took a brief and chilly walk near lake Alice, looking for an alligator. It was so cold they were nowhere to be found. But they look so happy even without an alligator sighting!

The Nugents were in on the secret and helped plan it out. They are so sneaky, John and I never saw it coming! Thanks so much Maschhoffs!

It is just what we do . . .

. . . we win National Championships. Or I guess I should say, it is what the amazing athletes do at the school where we love the students! John and I joined thousands of students once again at the O Dome to watch the Gators win yet again another championship. The last basketball championship game we watched in Fort Collins, knowing this is where we were headed. It is a great time to be a Florida Gator.Our friend Chase made a Noah's Ark for player JoaKim Noah. Two by two we got our pictures taken, and two by two we are taking home championship trophies.

The rowdy crowd . . . minutes away from winning!

The thing to do in Gainesville is run out onto University ( equivalent of Laurel St. in FoCo) It is shut down and overcrowded with students. Yelling, climbing trees, standing on cars you name it, we saw a kid on an office chair pushing himself down towards University.

We have ourselves a little tradition already when we win such titles. We climb our way through the crowd and get pizza at the busiest establishment in the city at that moment. And we thought . . . why are we trying this again? But it is fun, and I hope we have another chance to do it again.

Well Said!