Faith's Mom's Blog

Over the last week, we have had a chance to see and visit with some very special friends. Our string of visits started last weekend when we traveled to Hazen to visit with some friends that Rob and I have both known since before we were married. While living in Watford City, there was just Tuck, Greta and their son Kaden but since then, their amazing family has expanded to three more boys and a girl. It was a beautiful drive and it was great seeing the haying season in full swing with lots of golden hay bales dotting the thousands of acres of farmland. While visiting and seeing their new home (they just moved there from Washburn), we found out that they are now attending church at New Life in Beulah, which means we are all part of the same church family! (The New Life church in Bismarck is an extension of the church in Beulah.) It was great hearing about their Junior Bible Quiz adventures including driving all the way to Texas for the national competition. It was obvious that Aubry

I loved the shocked look on my friend's face on the 4th of July when upon asking, "So did just your dad come down for the 4th?" And I told her, "my parents live in Bismarck now." In March of this year, my dad officially retired from the oilfield after 35 years, most of those years spent driving an 18-wheeler. Shortly after his retirement, they officially became residents of Bismarck. In fact, their home is just down the road from my younger brother's place. They still have their land and their home in Watford City though so whenever my dad starts missing home, he can always go back to visit! They were blessed to have met some great people to rent their home out to who moved here from California to work in the Bakken. Welcome to my parent's new place! (I made that sign when I was a freshman in high school!) My youngest sister, dad and me on Father's Day. Besides my parents moving here, my youngest sister also moved here from New Town. So n

Our church service (along with many other services throughout the area) was canceled today because of our spring blizzard. So while I didn't get to go to church, I was still thinking about it! The photos from this post were actually taken from last week's church service.  Finding “the perfect” church is not an easy thing to do. Especially when you are trying to find one that works well for each member of the family, one of which has special needs. For me the perfect service consists of charismatic praise and worship, an inspiring, truthful message followed by fellowship with other church attendees. For Rob it is different though. He could give or take the praise and worship and get right down to the sermon – the more intellectual the better. Rob likes to take a message he hears and chew on it for days thinking, pondering and mulling it over. And then there is Faith. She does not like loud and she does not like microphones, sudden clapping or spontaneous "Amens

This year in review is a little belated - I had wanted to do it before the New Year actually began but both Faith and I fell ill with the flu and I had zero energy. It's hard to be creative with no energy! While I became sick shortly after Christmas, Faith got sick on New Year's Eve. On Friday, she finally felt well enough to go to school. Thank goodness for the miracle drug, tamiflu, which helped decrease our symptoms and the flu did not last as long as it might have without it. I am also thankful that although Rob had mild symptoms for a few days, he is already back to being well. So while we did not end 2012 very well, the New Year started off great as on January 5th the NDSU Bison won their 2nd straight football championship! Here is how 2012 went for us: JANUARY - Although last winter was pretty mild for us here in North Dakota, January still got pretty cold which kept us indoors a lot. One of Faith's favorite things to do is SKYPE with our friend Kimberly in

Me and my little family of three have a Thanksgiving tradition of going out for thanksgiving dinner on our own. This year, though, we invited another family of three to join as as they had done years ago after we first moved to Mandan. We had met this family at a church in Mandan and have recently reconnected with them as we all now go to New Life Church. So thankful to be reconnected with this wonderful family! So today we headed out to one of the buffets at a local hotel. I was looking so forward to eating a delicious turkey dinner and having pumpkin pie with whip cream for dessert. As we walked into the dining room, however, the first thing I noticed was that the pieces of pumpkin on the dessert tables were not topped with whip cream. I wasn't going to complain though, as I didn't want to appear to be ungrateful on Thanksgiving of all days. As we sat around the table, enjoying our delicious turkey dinner I couldn't help but notice that nobody was taking the bare

For Faith's birthday this year, we decided to keep it pretty low-key. And even though we really didn't do a whole lot, Faith had a very fun-filled birthday. On Thursday, she took her favorite snack - goldfish crackers - to school to share with her classmates. Then after school she got to play her new Wheel of Fortune game on the PS3 with daddy. This is what I found when I came home from work that evening: Of course Faith wanted to play her new game with me, which I very happily did. During all of this we took a little break to talk to Faith's Grandparents from Canada who called to wish her a Happy Birthday. We opened her presents from them while both Grandmother and Grandfather were on speaker phone. Friday evening was another night of playing Wheel of Fortune then on Saturday, we finally had a chance to have birthday cake, for which Grandma came over. We also opened some cards from her aunties and their families. We've definitely had a great three days of celebr

It is so hard to believe that it is already that time of the year - time for parent-teacher conferences.  I don't know why but I always get a little emotional at these meetings. I think it might be due to the fact that as Faith gets older it becomes more apparent that Faith does not have the same skills as her classmates - and I become very aware of her disability. In fact, due to a new grading system, Faith is probably going to be graded as a first grader instead of a third grader. But at the same time I am so proud of Faith for how well she is doing. Faith at school with her dad. Those around her at school seem to be noticing a difference in her wanting to be at school rather than asking when she can go home. It seems to correspond to the time that I began staying home in the mornings to help her get ready for school.  I'm not exactly why this is because she still fights some mornings about not wanting to go to school but I'm glad to know that once she gets there

Faith and daddy happy at home Lately it seems that Faith is becoming more and more of a homebody, meaning she likes to stay home more than she likes to go out. I'm not really sure if it is a good thing she is turning into such a homebody - I think her dad is having an influence on her because I know she doesn't get it from me! Take this weekend for instance. My sister Tesa and her boys were coming back through Bismarck from Watford City on their way home to Nebraska (lots of geography in that sentence, I know) and planned on staying over in Bismarck. At first, Rob, Faith and I were planning on meeting them along with my mom and aunt for supper. But then, Rob laid down to take a nap so I thought just me and Faith would go. At the last minute, Faith decided she didn't want to go and told me to just go by myself. This was partly understandable considering she hadn't slept well for two nights in a row plus Michelle had come over yesterday morning and they did their

On June 3rd of this year, my parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. It wasn't until this past weekend, however, that they were able to celebrate the momentous occasion with their five kids, eight grandchildren and a few of their siblings as well. The festivities began on Friday when my family arrived from Nebraska, Montana, parts of North Dakota and from across town right here in Bismarck. My youngest sister and younger brother fed the large group at a picnic at Sertoma Park with grilled burgers, hotdogs, homemade potato salad and lots of other goodies. Saturday we all reunited where the celebration continued on the Lewis and Clark Riverboat on the Missouri River. Unfortunately, due to the high winds, the boat was unable to go anywhere but it was nice nonetheless. It did not escape anyone's mind that last year around the same time the very parking lot on which we all parked our vehicles had been well under water. Faith loved her first time on a boat, even tho