I happened to be looking at the last time I had written anything in here and realized people might be thinking that I had fallen off the face of the earth. Well, I haven't.

The past 6 months have been busy with many things, not the least of which was moving to Poughkeepsie and getting settled in. It has been such a blessing to be living close enough to Mark to see him for dinner. It has also be great to really start planning the wedding. I bought the dress and have picked out the bridesmaid's dresses. It has been fun making decisions of what Mark and I want for the wedding. Really, I show him something and if he likes it, that's final; if he doesn't, I try to convince him that it would be best.

We are trying to start up more kids programming here but it has been hard getting leaders. We have really been praying over the decision of who to ask to lead the programs. We had a great week of VBS with 24 children accepting Jesus. We want to keep the momentum of the week going. This includes starting skate night back up for the school year.

Gotta get back to work....

I am so sorry for my laps in posting. It has been a long weird road but here I am. I have spent the last few weeks repacking the few things that I have taken out of boxes and whatnot. We moved from the old quarters to a new house in Irwin. It is only about 5 miles from the corps but it seems like a lot longer. It makes me feel that I can finally get away from the corps. Funny the difference between 1 mile and 5. I know that there are some who live on the building and I would be spending so much time at places like Panera and that just being out and about.

Not a lot has really gone on. I mean, I get to preach everyother Sunday and I get to talk to Mark a lot. That really is the extent to my day sometimes. I am currently working on Christmas cards. I have a lot to do yet if someone would get me the addresses that I have asked for.

I went wedding dress shopping and I found the dress of my dreams. Unfortionately, I can't post pictures because then there is a certain someone who would see what the dress looks like. He knows some of the elements but not what it looks like. We had a blast. The wonderful people who went with me were my sessionmates because we were at First year institutes. Stephanie was a trooper as was Sally trying on dresses that I needed to see side by side. Pam was moral support! I could tell by her face what things were going to work and what wasn't. Amanda made a wonderful photographer and the reason that I have pictures of the dresses!

I should get back to work... or get food.

.....a lot has happened over the last few weeks.

The last week of July/first week of August was the VBS here in Rochester, PA. It was such a great time but both Annie and I were so extremely tired that we were nearly useless by the end of the week. Thursday we took kids to camp (which meant getting to the corps by about 7:45 AM). So we took our time getting back and had a relaxing lunch. It was nice to sit and talk and just get a few things done that we had not been able to do all week. Each day, I began picking people up for VBS at 4 and didn't finish until 5:30 after 2-3 trips to get all the kids. See, there is only a 12 passenger van and there were between 25 and 35 kids on any given night. Getting them home was an interesting story and it all worked out.

Sunday we had a VBS graduation celebration. There were 9 children and their parents who came out for the event. I consider it a success because it got families into church. On a normal Sunday there are 8-10 people, on this Sunday, there were over 30. God blessed our efforts!

Mark came in for a visit as well. It was so nice to see him. I had not seen him since June 11th. The day that he showed up will forever be burned into my mind because it just happens to be the day that he proposed to me, August 4th. He had just pulled up in the van after driving all morning to get there. He handed me this cheesy plastic ring first. I thought that it was cute and said "awwwww, how sweet". It was a pretty ring. One of those metal ones with the plastic pink stone in the middle. He then started shaking and had tears in his eyes, got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. He says that I said yes, although, I can't remember much else but hugging him!

I spent the rest of the time that he was here visiting putting him to work at the corps and helping him get his stuff together for training. I took one afternoon and went up to the outlets to help him find nice uniform shoes that he really likes and finds comfortable. That was a task but well worth it.

Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure