Bible Quiz Nationals - Rochester, NY

The theme for the week:  Pursue

As you know, every year we travel with the Vincennes FM Bible Quiz Team to Nationals every year.  This year nationals took place at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, NY.  We had a great week at nationals this year, watched lots of quizzing, played lots of scum (a card game...so fun), and even ate a garbage plate!


It is always encouraging to see and hear so many youth memorizing the Bible!  I know not all of them are making the best decisions, but the Word of God is in them, and no one can take that from them!

Hannah, Me, Amanda ready to play SCUM!

One of the things I love most about nationals is the time we get to spend with our friends and David's family!  This year, Amanda came too! (she is Jonathan's girlfriend) AND this is the first nationals that the Swanks have been married!  I LOVE having the girls around!  Before last year, I was the only older girl (besides the actual adults)!  These girls are such a great added blessing to my week!

Amanda and I at Lake Erie 2013

We also snuck away one evening to get a Garbage Plate!  Oh my!  I will post about this later!  YUM!


On the way to Rochester, we stopped at Lake Erie!  The Great Lakes are named appropriately, because they are HUGE!  It is so crazy to not be able to see the other side of a lake!

Niagara Falls 2013

On the way home from Rochester, we stopped at Niagara Falls.  I have now been there 3 times. (Once, I stayed in Canada with my sister and brother-in-law...and now twice with the Bible Quiz Group)  We did the Cave of the Winds the last two times that we have visited.  I like it WAY better than the Maid of the Mist!

Overall, it was a great week...exhausting, but still great!

David and I wearing our OCU shirts, as usual!

4th of July FUN!

I know I'm late with this post, but I wanted to share some pictures of our 4th of July fun! 

Depoister/Hose Picture

This year we watched the Vincennes Parade with the Depoisters and even got to sit with my sister and her family!  Unfortunately we sat close to the end of the parade so the kids didn't get much candy, but it was still fun to sit and relax with some friends and family. 



Courtney, Addie, and I enjoying
the Vincennes parade!

A not-so-pleasant surprise was that a rotten egg fell from the building and splattered all over the sidewalk right in front of some of our group...oh my word!  It smelled SO bad.  Yuck!  (It was definitely a smell we will all remember!)  Jason (my bro-in-law) sprayed some Lysol on the sidewalk where the egg was, and that helped tremendously!  Yay!  Jason, our hero!

David and the Swanks waiting for the
Vincennes fireworks to begin!

Next, we went to a new pizza place in Vincennes and met up with our friends, the Swanks!  This was the first time we have gotten together with the Depoisters and the Swanks!  It was so nice to hang out with both sets of friends at the same time!  Isn't it great that God sends us so many good friendships in life.  I am super thankful for the time David and I get to spend with friends.  I think it is important for young married couples to have good friends.

David and his little buddy, enjoying
the fireworks...she kept saying, "wow!"

After supper we all went to the river-front to watch the fireworks!  David's family met us there so we could all watch the fireworks together, like we try to do every year!  It was so nice getting to hang out with so many people this 4th of July!

I know it doesn't sound like our day was very glamorous, but we really enjoyed the day (minus the stinky egg) with our friends and family!

Cincinnati 2013

We have been blessed with GREAT friends over our married years.  Well, this year we decided to go on a Memorial Day Weekend Trip with the Depoisters.  You may remember reading about them from my past posts.

We had a full and fun-filled weekend...and had a blast!

Friday: 

We left after work and stopped in Louisville at the Cheesecake Factory.  Then we checked-in to our hotel and played some euchre.

My thoughts on the Cheesecake Factory:  over-rated and VERY over-priced...their cheesecake wasn't even as good as the hype...Sweet Stuff Bakery & Cafe in Petersburg, Indiana is WAAAAAYY better, in my opinion...and much more affordable...here is the Sweet Stuff Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sweet-Stuff-Bakery-Cafe/115441976407?fref=ts

Saturday: 

Our main plan for our first full day in Cincinnati was to go to the Creation Museum.  The Creation Museum is actually in Kentucky, but super close to Cincinnati.  It wasn't as interactive for children as I thought it was going to be...there was A LOT of reading to do throughout the museum.  There are a few different theaters/presenters throughout the day.  They also have a petting zoo (I even fed a duck out of my hand...it was such a weird and frightening experience), camel rides, and a really cute outdoor walking trail.  New this year they will have a zip-line course, but it wasn't open yet when we were there.  I really enjoyed our trip to the Creation Museum.

Next year they are supposed to have completed a FULL-SIZE replica of Noah's Arc.  Oh, wow!  I can't wait to see this!

My husband and I, as well as the Depoisters, like to be frugal so rather than eat at the museum we decided to drive a couple minutes down the road to eat at Skyline Chili, a staple in the Cincinnati area.  It was really good!  I LOVED how much cheese they piled on top of everything we ordered...it was heavenly.

Saturday evening, we went to Taste of Cincinnati...it was a street festival in downtown Cincinnati where we were able to try more awesome Cincinnati food.  Some of my favorites were:  Fried Cheesecake, Bread Pudding (it was different than every other bread pudding I've ever tried before), and my favorite...Fried Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich!  It. Was. So. Good.

Sunday: 

Sunday we went to the Reds/Cubs Game!  We were there cheering on the Cubs!  When we first began our planning for our trip, we thought about visiting Chicago and going to Wrigley...but remember, I mentioned being frugal?  It was MUCH cheaper to watch the Cubs play at Great American Ball Park...and our seats were really great!  That ball park was really nice!  They even let you bring in your own snacks AND drinks!  I took half of my leftover lunch in the game with me!  Also, they have a $1 stand where you can get child-sized hotdogs, sodas, and peanuts. 

Oh, and before you assume they didn't...the Cubs DID win!

Monday: 

This was our travel-home day.  We stopped to have lunch first at Tom & Chee.  Oh. My. Goodness.  This was BY FAR, my favorite place we ate the entire trip!  We definitely saved the best for last.  It is a grilled cheese place.  It has even been featured on Man V. Food!  Their specialty is a grilled cheese glazed donut!  Hey!  Don't knock-it 'til you've tried-it!  It was surprisingly delicious.

After Tom & Chee we got ice cream from Graeters, which is an ice cream shop in the Cincinnati area...I got Mango Sorbet...it was fabulous.

We had such a great time getting away from the OC area, and really enjoyed spending time with our besties!  < Am I too old to use that term??  Oh well. 

As I most often do, I will leave you with some pictures from our trip...I took tons, so I will try to pick only my favorites!

 

Office Fun

I am SO very blessed and thankful to work at Oakland City University, my Alma Mater.  I work in the Campus Life Office as the Administrative Assistant.  I LOVE my job, and especially love my co-workers.  It seems weird calling them co-workers though, because most of the time they seem like family.  David and I actually just returned from a vacation with my office mate David D. and his wife Megan D. (Megan is a blogger too!  Her page can be found here:  thedepoisters.blogspot.com Over the past few years, Megan has become one of my dearest and best friends!)  A big reason I love our office, is because it is such a fun and most of the time a very pleasant place to work.

Last week, our boss (the Director of Campus Life) was in Honduras leading a group of OCU students on a mission trip.  Well, we...being the loving office people we are...decided to pull a little BIG office prank on him while he was gone.  He goes on this trip every year, and last year we really wanted to do something but chickened out/ran out of time...SO this year, we decided early-on we would be dedicated! 

We decided to wrap his office in newspaper...



Panoramic of the whole office!



SEE no evil, HEAR no evil, SPEAK no evil...

♪♫These are a few of my FAVORITE THINGS♫♪

I'm way behind on blogging, but today I wanted to bring back a little bit of Christmas!  This year, I did something completely new and hosted a Favorite Things Party!  (Yes, I got the idea from Pinterest!)  I figured, I like so many things from Pinterest that now (Well, December) was the time to actually begin using some of the ideas I have found!

Anyway, here is is...Favorite Things Party 2012!

The whole idea is, everyone invited thinks of their favorite thing (or group of things) in the $10-$15 price range and ask them to bring three of them!  So everyone brings three of the exact same gifts wrapped and their total spent should be $30-$45.   ALSO, everyone who came was asked to bring one of their favorite desserts or appetizers to share with everyone...we had QUITE the spread!

These are the numbers I chose to set for my party...I have also seen it done where people bring six $5 items, or three $6 items.  Set your cost based on what you think your friends will be able to afford.  I liked the thought of bringing bigger gifts rather than try to figure out a descent gift for $5 or $6. 

The idea is, you bring three of your favorite thing and you take home three friends' favorite things!! Fun, right!?!  Well, let me tell you, IT WAS!  I am already looking forward to planning my next Favorite Things party for December 2013! :)

Here are some pictures of my very first Favorite Things Party!




This isn't the whole group, we are missing a few...because we had to wait for one of our gentlemen to come take a group photo! Aren't our men, so good to us!?!






I LOVED sharing this party with some of my Favorite Friends!



 

This was what I gave as my Favorite ThingS...Watermelon Jolly Ranchers, Bath & Body Works Hand Sanitizer, Bath & Body Works Infused Socks, a TOMS Sticker, a TOMS Bag, a $5 Moe's GiftCard, and it was all packaged in a Birch Box Box (If you don't know what Birch Box is...I may just have to write a post about it)!  Some of them said I went a little overboard, but it was my party, so I could break the rules...right?! :)

 Some of the other items gifted were.......

Scarves, the Hunger Games DVD, candles, Christmas tumblers, homemade cookbooks, seasoning, $5 giftcards, chocolate, cute socks, etc.  We had a good variety of items...and I'm already trying to think of my gift for next time!!

♫♪ Hello, Seattle! ♪♫

 I am a LOT late getting this out, but I think that is okay and I will be easily forgiven seeing as I only have 5 readers anyway (and that is being generous I'm sure!)...

For those of you who don't know, David has been involved with the Free Methodist Bible Quizzing program for 12 years now!  It has now turned into a ministry for the whole Hose family...David and Jonathan go as quizmasters and this year Wendell did too, and Lynette goes as the nurse each year.  I go as a tag along and joke that I am David's "official" score keeper...I have to admit...I am a PRETTY GOOD scorekeeper! ha!

Bible Quizzing has really meant a lot to David over the years, and if you have ever been involved with quizzing, I'm sure you understand why.  Watching these young kids and teenagers memorize God's Word almost sends chills down my spine.  It is wonderful to watch them quiz over the words and know those words are in their heart for their lifetime.  Even if they don't remember it word for word, they still are full of so much Scripture that will come in at just the right moments throughout their journey.

We had so many good times while we were in Washington...this was our journey...

This is the great group of people we spent a week and a half with! :)

We left on a Sunday, and it was before church time so we met at the Vincennes Free Methodist Church, and had a devotion and communion together before heading towards St. Louis.

We had a direct flight out of St. Louis into Seattle...we flew Southwest!  My friends, Southwest is the way to go!  I REALLY enjoyed our flying experience with them, they really do their best to make it "the best flying experience you've ever had" as our pilot kept announcing!  I sat between David and Jonathan both the way there and the way back...we had a good time!

Monday we didn't have any Bible Quizzing plans until the opening program later in the day, so we went to the Space Needle, the Pacific Science Center, and EMP (Experience Music Project)  It was a good day! David even got to spend some extra time with his dad while they viewed the King Tut exhibit!

Then the week of Bible Quizzing got started!  This year, the school that hosted BQ Nationals was Seattle Pacific University!  It is a really nice campus and the Admissions Staff did a great job with events for us for the week.  (I would never want to live there though, becuase you would ALWAYS have to park on a giant slanting road!)  The worship leader and speaker for the week did a GREAT job!  I think they were the best team we have ever had at Nationals!  OH, and did I mention my husband and two other guys he quizzed with got inducted into the Free Methodist Bible Quizzing Hall of Fame!  One day we took a walk to Gas Works Park!  It is a park that has a great view of the city...it was a lot of fun to visit!  We even went back with our whole group to get a group picture!  It was on someone else's camera, so I don't have it to attach it here. :(

We had a great week getting to hang out with friends that we only see a couple times each year!  This is one of the many things I look forward to about Nationals each year! :)

After Nationals, we went to Jason and Laura Colberg's house (they housed us and the Bedford team at the same time...there were 40 extra people sleeping in one house!)  They had a tent set up in their adorable yard, right next to a babbling brook!  We had a great time, and the Colberg's were SO kind to us, they were excellent hosts!

We went to see the locks, and watch salmon swim upstream, we ate at some fish place (I ordered a chicken sandwich with peppered bacon on it and it was DELISH!)  One day we went to see the Freemont Troll which is actually under a bridge!  It was neat!  We ate at a neat ice cream place called Molly Moon's...earl grey tea was the best! (good pick, Jonathan!)

Some of our group went on a hike at Mt. Rainier National Park!  I think it was my favorite day!  It was soooo pretty, and I know my pictures don't do it justice!  I felt like I was in a Twilight movie! ha!  When we reached the top of our hike, we fed birds cherries out of our hands!  It was so neat!  We even learned how to trick them to make them stay on our hands longer for pictures! :)  Sneaky, I know!  It was a bit cloudy when we were up there so we didn't get a really good look at Mt. Rainier...or great pictures, but that is okay...the experience was still great!

We spent a day at Pike Place Market, went to the Aquarium, and went on an Argosy Harbor Cruise!  That was a great day!  I loved the market (except for how crowded it was at times!)!  While we were at Pike Place, we visited the Famous Gum Wall and the original Starbucks...the line was WAY long, so we didn't go in.  :(

The aquarium was fun, but definitely not my favorite...Once you've seen one aquarium, you've seen them all, right?! (Am I the only one that feels this way)

The argosy cruise was fun, except for a guy that sat close to us who was training to be a guide...he would say things and then get so excited when the guide said the exact same thing he said a few minutes earlier.  Oh, and did I mention he was drinking and drinking (which made him much more annoying in my opinion!)  The cruise was a neat way to see the city and learn some fun facts!

Our last day in Washington, Jason and Laura took us a couple hours away for some of our group to go white water rafting!  No, I didn't go. :(  I had been once before in Colorado, and I haven't mentioned that I was sick during the sight seeing days!  (The not being able to breathe, sore throat, gross sneezing kind of sick!  yuck.)  While some of the group was rafting, the rest stayed at a neat park surrounded by beautiful scenery...and others went to a nearby town, Leavenworth!  It was a cute little German town...very touristy.  I went to Leavenworth, and really enjoyed the day!  Probably because most of our time there we were trying to find Natalie Grant!  (You heard me...NATALIE GRANT!)  Unfortunately we didn't find her...it turns out she left that town about 10 minutes before we arrived.  She did tweet one of the girls in our group a few times...and that's how we knew she wasn't there anymore. Sad day.  We bought some tasty cashews and some really good cheese, then headed back to the park.

While we were trying to find Natalie Grant...David and some others were having an adventure!!  Their raft completely flipped and they all floated down the river for a bit...David somehow ended up finding the two young boys (around 8 years old) that were on his raft and floated with them for about a mile-ish.  No one was hurt (Praise the Lord!) but it was definitely a ride they will all remember!  I am so thankful and proud of my husband and all that he did when the raft flipped!  He says he didn't do anything, but I don't think I could have carried two young children down a river! 

After a week and a half, we came back to the awful heat of Indiana...got lots of sleep...and got back to our normal routine!  It was a great trip!! 

                                           I'll leave you with a few pictures from our week!

This is David, David, and Adam with their Hall of Fame Plaques!  I am so proud of these guys!

We visited the famous gum wall!  It was neat to say I've been there, but it was completely gross!

David and I next to a waterfall!  This is one of the times I felt like I was in Twilight!

On our hike at Mt. Rainier National Park.



David and I with the Freemont Troll...that is actually under a bridge!



David, Jonathan, and I on our hike!  I was so thankful for Jonathan while hiking because anytime I stopped to rest (which was very often on the way up, because I was sick most of our trip) he was right there with me so I wouldn't get too far behind the group!  Being sick on a hike is really draining!  David also carried the backpack with ALL of our water the whole time!

                                                     


When we were finished with our hike, we drove up the mountain to see the snow!

The Hose Family at the Space Needle!