Our New Home in Douglass, Kansas

We love the new front porch on this 1916 Bungalow style house. We will be installing a porch swing just as soon as possible.
I love that this house is surrounded on two sides by huge maple trees and sits on a corner lot.

The living room has big picture windows on the front and beautifully refinished hardwood floors.

The beautiful, original fireplace and built in bookcases are at one end of the living room.

This is a large finished room upstairs that we will utilize for a guest room on one end and a craft room on the other end. It will feel very cozy and nice and bright with a dormer window and a window on each end of the room.

David assures me my very large dining room table will fit in this room. Notice the pattern of the hardwood floors. There is also large windows in this room making it nice and bright.

This is the master bedroom. More wonderful windows and hardwood floors! I will have to become very organized with our clothes and storage as this house does not have ample closet space.

The bathroom (yes, we will only have one!) has been completely remodeled and is beautiful! Since this house doesn't have a basement, we will also probably be utilizing this room for our tornado shelter since it is windowless and the central most part of the house. All we will have to do is carry in the materess from the guest room down the hall to enhance protection. Our mothers will be very anxious for us, I am sure! HAHA!

The kitchen has new cabinets and ceramic tile floor. There is a gas range which I am very excited about. If you have never cooked on gas, you are missing out!

I am very curious about the choice of blue for the countertops in an otherwise very neutral colored house. These will change eventually. In the mean time, I will just have to buy some new dishtowels!

You only see about half of this room in this picture. This is also where the back door is and it leads to the kitchen with 2 closets. Nice and clean and bright!

At least part of the detached garage will be full of boxes! Very thankful for this space!This building is about the size of a one car garage. It has electricty and plumbing (the extra bathroom is out here haha). David is excited about utilizing this for projects.

So this is our new home as of January 7th. Our physical address will be

202 S. Walnut

Douglass, KS 67039

Our mailing address will be a PO Box which we will get after we arrive.

David will start at Rose Hill Friends Church the following week. His first Sunday will be

January 16th.

Little Church in the Country

This view is looking east from the church. All you can see is ranch land. It is absolutely beautiful. The church is located about a mile and a half from town and is surrounded by ranch and farm land.

This view is looking south onto farm land.
We met at the church on Saturday afternoon with the associate/youth pastor, Gabe and his wife Sarah, and the presiding clerk, Jeff and his wife Deanna to tour the church. The church was established in the 1870's by Quakers from North Carolina and Indiana. The originial part of the church was built in 1917, with several improvements and additions through the years. We were very impressed with what we saw. The church has a wonderful atmosphere incorporating the old with contemporary touches. I didn't take pictures until the morning we were to fly home so we were a little hurried and I didn't get the entire building but I wanted you to have a little window into what may be our new world.

The double doors in the above picture lead to the church office, bathrooms, the pastor's office, nursery, and 2 classrooms. If you turn right inside the doors you will be led straight to the large fellowship area where the church dinners are served and the sanctuary.

This is the back of the church next to the parking lot. Most people enter the building through these doors and will enter the fellowship area with the youth pastor's office on the right next to the library/classroom.

The church had a carry-in dinner in our honor on Sunday and immediately after church this room and part of the sanctuary was filled with tables beautifully decorated for fall. It was a well organized process that only took a few minutes. There is a full kitchen on the left in this picture.

Several years ago, the church decided to best utilize their space, they needed to remove the pews and replace with chairs. This enables them to use this space on Sunday evenings for youth removing some of the chairs to set up a pingpong table.

This view is facing the back of the sanctuary where there are 2 classrooms used by adults for Sunday School.

This hallway leads from the fellowship area outside the santuary to the church office, bathrooms, pastor's office, nursery and classrooms. On the right side of this photo is stairs leading downstairs to 3 or 4 more classrooms, bathroom and storage areas. I didn't get pictures of those areas but they are nicely finished and welcoming.

This is Gabe Hancock, the associate/youth pastor.

This is Deanna Linville, the church secretary.

The pastor's office.

The ladies bathroom has been recently remodeled with a victorian theme.

The men's restroom has been remodeled with a car theme.

Children's classrooms

To see more of Rose Hill Friends Church go to www.rhfc.org

We are really excited to see what the Lord is going to do in Rose Hill and Hanover. We will know Sunday if Rose Hill will be extending a call to us to be their pastor. We really enjoyed our time with the people at RHFC and found them to be very warm, friendly and desiring to grow in the Lord. We also got to spend time with Gabe and Sarah who are a very sweet couple and eagerly serving the Lord and anxious to partner with the new senior pastor to lead the church. The community of Rose Hill is about 3500. There is not much of a business district but there is plenty of shopping with in about 6 - 8 miles in Derby and Andover. Wichita is about 15 miles to the northwest. We enjoyed spending time driving around town and the countryside getting to know the area. It seems like it will be a nice place to live.

Young Love, Sweet Love

31 years ago today, David and I had our first date. We went to Pratt to Pizza Hut and the Barron Theater, showing "Love At First Bite". Not a great movie but definately a GREAT date!

I really love this guy!

A New Toy!

Guess who this cutie pie is!!!

I recently got a new printer/scanner and plan to have some fun posting pictures for you. Enjoy!

BTW, I figured out how to email my blog to you so you won't miss anything! ;-) Let me know if this is a problem. :-\

Spending time with Hannah & Charlie

David and I got to spend some time in Kansas recently helping Patrick and Jana. They moved to Pratt about 2 months ago and have been working on a house. David only got to stay for 5 days and most of that time he and Patrick got to work together painting, fixing floors and enjoying working together. So Jana could also help at the house, I got to spend time taking care of Hannah and Charlie. David and I both felt thankful for the chance to help out!

Hannah and Charlie are so special and have such great personalities. Hannah is very busy and has a great imagination which she can verbalize very well. Charlie is such a sweet baby! He is very mellow and happy all the time. He started "cruizin" around furniture while I was there and will soon be making life much more interesting for his big sister.

Hannah loves to read books and we love to sit and read them to her!

Hannah is a big helper! We just finished washing dishes together. She actually does a great job and follows direction very well. We had a great time!

It was a quick trip and very busy so we were thankful that we got to see several family members. David's parents and my mom have been able to help Patrick and Jana with the house and with the kids. It is great Patrick and Jana get to see them regularly now. I know it is a blessing to all!

Cruizin!

We set sail on RCCL "Freedom of the Seas" from Port Canaveral, FL on May 23rd to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. We were so excited and looking forward to one of the best weeks of our lives!
We decided this trip was a long time coming and only a balcony room would do. We were not disappointed with our room at all. We weren't there a lot but when we were we had plenty of room to relax and spent some time on the balcony everyday!

We enjoyed room service our first morning at sea!Our first stop was Coco Cay, Bahamas, RCCL private island. We decided to take advantage of specials in the spa in the morning. This was our first time getting massages and LOVED it! We had no idea what we were missing!

I have always wanted to para sail!

This was one of the most exciting things we have ever done and plan to do it again sometime!

We enjoyed relaxing near the pools. David actually read a whole book! Next time we go on a cruise I want to do more of this activity!

David loved exploring the ship!

Our second stop was St. Thomas. We planned to take "The Best of St. Thomas" tour. The day started out a little overcast and by the time we were on our way back to the ship it was pouring rain. Unfortunately the views were not as pretty because of the weather. I guess that means we will have to go back to see it in the sun!

We went to this cafe in St. Thomas which we found out later has been featured on the travel channel! St. Thomas is famous for jewelry shopping with 300 jewelry stores on the main street. We enjoyed the old buildings and beautiful foliage found in this tropical area.

We thoroughly enjoyed our dining experiences! The food was excellent and the service was beyond exceptional!

Alicia was our waitress each night. She is from Trinidad and has 3 children who are taken care of by her mother. She is on the ship for 6 months at at time then only has about 6 weeks off. All the staff were so friendly and always made us feel special.

The first Dr. Pepper David had in several days was found in St. Marteen, our last port of call. We again had a cloudy, rainy day making our power boat/snorkeling excursion a little less than perfect. We had a lot of fun anyway, getting back late and being the last people back on board the ship!

I think he is so handsome!

The last day on the ship, David climbed the rock wall and did the flowrider! How fun! We also did a walkathon for Make a Wish and spent more time in the sun enjoying an absolutely beautiful day with glass like seas and a gorgeous blue sky! Perfect!

We spent our evenings going to various shows including an ice show. The promenade was always busy with activity such 70's Dancing in the Streets and a circus parade. There were games and live music all over the ship for constant entertainment. We truly had the time of our lives celebrating the many blessings of our life together.