Back into the swing of things....

Of course I don't have any pictures right now, but just wanted to give you a little update on our life as of the last two weeks. As you saw my earlier blog, my father in law, John Coleman passed away on May 16th. It was so amazing. We knew he was waiting for Katie's wedding, then after the wedding, he was heading downhill a little, then he found out that his brothers and sister was coming for a visit. That perked him back up a bit because he wanted to share the Lord with them one last time... They came on Mother's Day and he got to spend 20min or half an hour with them alone and shared with them about the Lord. And seriously, after they headed out, we figured he wouldn't make it through the night, but he did. But starting on Monday, he was heading downhill quickly. By Wednesday, he'd just about stopped walking on his own. Thursday, Hospice came and it was a big day - he was exhausted. Once they got the bed set up - he took a nap and started to become unresponsive, he wasn't talking anymore. He was unresponsive all day on Friday and passed away on Friday night around 9pm. He'd been praying that the Lord would take him home in his sleep and that's what we'd all been praying. It was an emotionally exhausting time - but we are so happy that he is healed forever with no more pain because without a doubt, he is running and jumping and fishing in Heaven!!! We sure do miss him though. The funeral was on Tuesday May 20th. And there was so much to prepare to get that done, but what an amazing testimony of God's goodness in his life - there were about 490 people at his funeral and we are still getting tons and tons of stories of how he impacted people! God is good and may I learn from his example. Well, family all left on Tuesday and we were down to the immediate family - we celebrated Judah's 17th birthday on Thursday night. We went to see Indiana Jones - a slight disappointment. But it was fun. Then over the weekend, Katie and Mike headed down to the Cities, Sadie and Nate headed back to Fargo for a graduation, Ruth, Judah and Charlie headed off to the East for a week, Johnny started a new job here in town and Sam and I took 12 4th-6th graders north to Lake Metigoshe for a camping trip! So we all had a great opportunity to get away a little. So while John is sorely missed, he will forever be in our hearts - life continues to stay busy and passes by!

So our camping trip went really well, except for the fact that it got down to 28 degrees the first night. And with my long johns, sweatpants, long sleeve shirt, sweatshirt and wool socks that I wore to bed - I wasn't quite warm enough! So the next night, I wore long johns, sweatpants, hiking pants, tee-shirt, TWO hooded sweatshirts and a stocking cap, oh and wool socks, I was as snug as a bug in a rug! The days were beautiful though, no rain, no wind - just beautiful sunshine! Between the 16 of us that went, we caught about 75 Northern Pike - it was a ton of fun. Then one day, we portaged our canoes up to Canada and had a great little picnic lunch! We got back on Thursday and it was a great time. Then on Friday, we ran down to Rapid City, SD to visit with Wes and Cindy. They had been vacationing there for the week, so we went down and took them camping on their last night out. It was beautiful... We got to see tons of animals and spend some good quality time with them. Sam got lots of good photos and he's already started more paintings! Anyway, I'd better post this before I loose it due to the Internet shutting down on me. I will post some pictures, it's been great! Then we started on some house projects last night - Sam is always trying to get our yard just perfect, but the rain has started, so now we're inside working on some much needed projects - maybe I can rustle up some "before" and "after" pictures - we'll see! Have a great day! Thanks for the all the prayers and condolences - they are much needed!