Ben’s review of Starship Troopers

Last month when Ben and I drove to TN and back again (28 hours in the car), my dad let us borrow his iPod. This gave us access to all of his Audible books, and so we have tackled a couple of them in the past month. We gave a listen to Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein, and Ben got the chance to write a review for it on our friend Ian’s blog.

Whenever I read something that my husband writes, I always am a little mystified by how great it is. I mean, I know he was an English major in college, but I think his amazing illustration skills seem to take center stage when people think about his talents. Ben is truly gifted at telling stories – with pictures or words – and I highly recommend you give his review a read!

 

Tags: Ben, books

Sage turned ONE!!!

Last weekend, Ben and I had the delight to drive 28 hours round trip to TN to visit the family for our niece’s first birthday. We left on Thursday night and drove through the crazy rain to Little Rock. We stayed with one of Ben’s Forge brothers and his sweet new wife (Wade & Kara). They were wonderful hosts, and it really helped splitting up the drive. We arrived in Nashville on Friday (my mom’s birthday), and it was so much fun to surprise the heck out of my sister – she had no idea we were coming!! We promptly gave Sage all of her birthday gifts, which included the tricycle below, the Jesus Storybook Bible (which I highly recommend), and an almost silly amount of clothes I got her at a consignment sale.

On Friday night we went out to dinner with the family to celebrate my mom!! It was so good to have the whole family together!! Unfortunately, the lighting of the restaurant was really weird, and everyone turned out super RED in all their pictures. All I got was a good picture of this cutie. Look at that smile!!

On Saturday, we went to my brother’s lacrosse game! There are a couple action shots below. He partially tore his MCL during this game, which is bumming him out because this is the year is going to be scouted. On the bright side there will be no surgery, but he’ll have to sit out of at least half the season. We will be praying for a quick recovery!! (He’s #21, btw)

       

On Saturday night, we had the big event –> Sage’s B-day Party!! The theme was Owls!! There was family, cake, and presents abounding! Here are some great pictures from the night!

Also, it was so fun to watch her actually open her presents!! It is crazy how quickly her little mind is growing. She knew exactly what to do!!

Probably the best present of the night was the little gem hidden in the back of the picture – a Lifetime Hunting and Fishing License in the State of TN – oh Guil

All in all, it was really good to see the family and celebrate the birthdays of my mom and Sage! Definitely worth the 28 hours in the car

Tags: adventures, family, injury, life-events, Sage

Free time, yes it’s free time!

As I said in the post earlier today, I’ve got loads of free time without TV.

Sunday night, I sat down and looked through Pinterest for awhile via Chelsea Pershall‘s account, because she’s super crafty and I really like her style. After deciding that pretty much everything I saw looked too difficult for me to attempt in one night, I decided to take out my sewing machine (that’s right folks – I HAVE A SEWING MACHINE!!) that my sweet friend, Laura, gave me for Christmas. She is a gifted sewer, and got a super-duper fancy sewing machine and gave me her beginner one! Very, very kind of her. Here is a little iPhone picture for you…

It has sat in our guest bedroom for the last two months, looking at me with intimidating eyes saying, “I dare you to try to master me on your own!!” Apparently my (nameless) sewing machine has a pretty strong will, because it has won our battle of will every night until Sunday. I decided that if I ever wanted to create something fancy (like a pillow – ha!), I should probably learn how to sew in a straight line. I got everything all plugged in (Laura helped me get thread on the bobbin last time she was here, so it was all ready to go), and I stared at it for a good 15 minutes, trying to find the lever that would make the foot go down. After my friend Google helped me – I finally figured it out. We were off to a slow start.

I sewed two pretty pieces of long, skinny fabric together (back to back) in order to make a double-sided head band. I got so excited when it worked – I just kept going. I laid out 5 other pieces of fabric that I thought looked cute together and decided to practice my straight lines. I really didn’t know where I was going – but after two hours and some creative thinking – I ended up with this!

Impressed? I sure was! And my cute head band that I made? I decided to use it as the handles of this awkwardly too-small purse! I’m not quite sure what I will make next, but this got me really excited. It even has a pink-leopard liner inside. Whoa – maybe The Woodlands has rubbed off on me more than I thought. Does anyone have any suggestions for beginning sewer’s crafts? Please let me know!

Tags: adventures, crafts

A week with no TV…

So as the title of this blog suggests, I will be watching no TV this week. Is our TV broken? No. Am I giving it up for Lent? No. So why am I doing this? Well, this past Sunday at church I was talking with my 5th and 6th graders about the widow’s offering from Mark 12:41-44, and we were discussing the ways in which we can give everything we have back to the Lord. For kids, their most precious resource isn’t really money, but other things – like TIME. For me, the biggest thing that takes away from that precious resource is TV. So, I decided to let my kids know I was giving up TV this week in an effort to take that time and give it back to the Lord.

This seemed like an awesome idea on Sunday morning. And then Sunday evening hit – and I realized that I really like watching TV. It’s probably unhealthy how much TV I watch – or just have on in the background of life. This will definitely be a difficult challenge for me. (No Downton Abbey, or HIMYM, or Once Upon a Time, or TNG, or New Girl, or Big Bang Theory…for reals – this is going to be hard for me.)

I’m not writing this so folks think I’m just so great for giving up TV, it’s actually more of a confession that I actually follow all the shows listed above on a regular basis. (Actually, Ben and I are currently watching through The Next Generation and Big Bang Theory right now on a nightly basis…) I obviously have way too much free time – I’m assuming this will change once we have kids…haha.

Well. Here’s to my week with no TV – fun things have already happened and it’s only Tuesday! I will update soon with the details

Tags: adventures, middle school

My dad’s skiing tumble

So recently, my dad had a fall on his shoulder while he was skiing in Colorado. He took the rest of that day off, and then proceeded to ski for the next two days.

I assumed that he wasn’t hurt that bad since he kept skiing, but talking today I found out differently! He completely tore his pectoral muscle and his bicep muscle away from his left shoulder! Ouch!! He also has a smaller tear in his labrum muscle, and he almost dislocated it! Dad is in great spirits, and his surgery will be scheduled soon to take care of all the injuries. Please pray for him and my family!

I love my dad so much, and I know this won’t slow him down too much. I’m pretty sure he’ll still be going off ski jumps 20 years from now

Tags: family, injury, vacation

2011 Book List

Over the past two days, I have rediscovered one of my favorite book series. I didn’t eat much or sleep, but I finished Ender’s Shadow over the course of Sunday and Monday afternoon. If you have never heard of Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card and the rest of the series that follows – I highly recommend it.

It also got me thinking about all the books I read in 2011…so I decided to make a list! In the list below you will find that there are quite a few young adult novels (and mostly fiction). In my defense, I went on a tad bit of a binge during the first month of summer (especially with the Percy Jackson books…), and I like to finish a series once I start it…

Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins
Mocking Jay – Suzanne Collins

The Passage – Justin Cronin

The Westing Game – Ellen Raskin

The Testament – John Grisham

The Lightning Thief – Rick Riordan
The Sea of Monsters – Rick Riordan
The Titan’s Curse – Rick Riordan
The Battle of the Labyrinth – Rick Riordan
The Last Olympian – Rick Riordan
The Lost Hero – Rick Riordan
The Son of Neptune – Rick Riordan
The Red Pyramid – Rick Riordan
The Throne of Fire – Rick Riordan

Eye of the World – Robert Jordan
The Great Hunt – Robert Jordan
The Dragon Reborn – Robert Jordan

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling

30 days to Understanding the Bible – Max Anders

Heaven is for Real – Todd Burpo

A Voice in the Wind – Francine Rivers
An Echo in the Darkness – Francine Rivers

Inheritance – Christopher Paolini

Whew. All in all, I’m pretty proud. Out of all of these – I would most highly recommend The Passage or The Hunger Games trilogy…interestingly enough, both are set in a rather dreary future with characters who will fight against everything to have hope. Well…I’m already hard at work on my 2012 list, hopefully there might be a few more non-fiction books…but we’ll see

Tags: books, friends

Two years – too fast.

As the first blog post of 2012, I will go ahead and do a little bit of reflecting. As I think about it, I have to say that the past two years have been the best of my life. There are lots of reasons for this but most of the credit goes to Ben Humeniuk…because our first date was exactly two years ago – yep – January 27th, 2010.

Here we are when we found this random VW Beetle that was decked out like a Yellow Submarine (belonging to a Beatles Tribute Band).

In 2010, I fell in love and got married. I trained for a half-marathon and hiked up and down the Grand Canyon. I also finished my first year of teaching, and moved out of my college apartment to start a new life with the hubby. I owned my first iPod EVER – because I won it in an online survey. I also spent my first Thanksgiving and Christmas away from my parents, but the trade-off was well worth it – I was welcomed with open arms into the Humeniuk clan.

2011 was a year of crazy happenings. Ben and I found incredible community in Waco, and our marriage began on a really strong note. I found my footing as a high school math teacher – and started enjoying my job in the day-to-day. I became an aunt (yay Sage!!) and became closer to my sister than ever before. Ben and I directed an inner-city youth camp for six weeks during the summer. We then decided to take our exit from Waco after Ben finished his Master’s Degree and head towards The Woodlands, TX. We both changed our careers and started working for StoneBridge Church – I as the Middle School Director, and Ben as the Communications Director. We paid off all our school loans (hallelujah!) and got life insurance. We celebrated one year of marriage. We are constantly being blessed and challenged by our two families, friends, and co-workers. Ben got appendicitis – and then got worse – and then got better. I learned that my mom and sister are my two best friends (outside of Ben).

God is faithful. I can’t believe that it has already been two years since Ben and I were walking around downtown Waco, skateboarding on the riverwalk, and balancing across the top of the suspension bridge. I am thankful for these two years – and excited for many more to come!

Tags: anniversary, Ben, life-events, love, Marriage