It's been a long time

Wow, it has been a very long time since I last blogged! Not sure how I feel about that. Part of me is glad that I've been too busy living life, than the other part of me is sad that I haven't had just a small amount of time to sit and record the blessed part of living life!

So much has happened and is happening in the Dietzel household. Probably not productive to rehash the last year and a half since I last blogged so I will just bring you up to date on the "current events" of our family. We have had a very blessed year. Our family has been happy and healthy and blessed. ( I know that isn't proper grammer, but it's my blog and that's how I want to say it)

Austin is now 15. He is tall, 6'4'' to be exact. He will be in 10th grade next year. He is becoming a wonderful young man. He played freshman basketball this winter. He did well. That was a tough balance for him with grades and basketball practices and games, some nights he didn't get home until 11pm then had to do homework. I wasn't sure how I felt about that, but we wanted to give him that opportunity. He enjoyed it, for the most part. Then this spring he took driver's training, which was a little scary for us but he is very cautious. He did great. We are very proud of him. Austin and Dave are headed to Nicaragua this summer, like next week. we are so excited!! I really hate it when Dave is gone away, but I am praying the time flies by. I am praying that this trip is life changing for Austin!

Emily just turned 13. My baby girl is growing into a beautiful, smart, responsible young lady. She served on student council at school this year. She loves to do drama, so she is pursuing that at church for now, and eventually I hope at school. She will be in 8th grade next year, I really can't believe how time flies. When I look at Emily, I see myself in many ways. Sometimes it is weird to see how God leads our lives and grants us the desires of our hearts.

Elijah is our little whirlwind that is turning 9 in July and will be in 4th grade next year. He has enjoyed playing baseball and is getting very good at it! He loves to steal bases and because he is so little, he does it well! Elijah is our child of one-liners. We just never know what will come out of his mouth next. He has a very tender heart. He loves to play with legos for hours. He is very creative! He is also a very inquisitive child. We are enjoying watching him grow in every aspect.

I just finished my 7th year working at McComb school. I love my job! I am not sure what next fall will hold with all the budget cuts happening, but whatever happens, I know God is in control.

Dave and I have both been busy with the church. We are growing which is exactly what we want to see happen. God has been faithful!!! We are looking forward to getting some renovations done this summer to our sanctuary. We are looking forward to the future with great anticipation. We have been here 8 years and we are loving where God has placed us. We love Caro. We not only love our church but we love this city. God has big plans for Caro, and we are honored to be a part of them!

I know there is more, but my husband is sitting on my beautiful deck waiting for me to come out and sit with him. So that's all for now......

Christmas Fun!

We had the awesome privelidge of hosting the Senior adult dinner for our church this year. We had a great meal at PJ O'Briens (a cozy banquet room in town). We played games, sang songs, and had the kids participate by being Santa (Austin) Santa's helper (Emily) and Rudolph (Elijah). They passed out gifts to everyone and ended up being a huge hit! We were quite proud of our kids.

We had about 40 people there and those "senior" adults really know how to have fun!! We were glad that our kids were able to share in this special night and realize that "grandpas & grandmas" are amazing people and have alot of love, wisdom and laughter to share.

I know that is a night that none of us will soon forget......especially our kids!
The DQ on the way home from mom, just to say "Thanks for helping out" didn't hurt either!!

It's been a long time!

I haven't blogged since Chicago~ That is crazy!

I've been busy:

Since school got out I have been spending alot of time at the church. I've been trying to get a crash course in some things that Kelly has been doing because they will be moving. I think I am pretty good to go, I'm sure everything will be just fine. God knows what we have need of and I'm confident that He will bring someone our way to take over some of these responsibilites in His time. If not, then He will work out my time so that I can continue with them as needed.

Praying that God will direct us as we continue to look for the right person (people) to come and serve in the ministry with us.

Planning future events, church picnic for one.

We are working on our landscaping for the summer. That has taken a back seat. Have to get going on that.

Dave is doing a Quick-fix on the deck. We really need to replace it but don't at have the funds right now.

We are checking in on Daves mom and dad, daily. Dad is recovering from a hip replacement. His mom is having some physical problems right now. So some of our time is spent there. We are happy to be able to help, just trying to find that delicate balance with everything.

We've been going to our church softball games to show our support. Sometimes 3x a week. We've been having fun. It's a nice relaxing down time.

Can't really think of much more that we are doing. I know there is more, with the church, there is always something going on. I have to do better with my blog. That's it for now....busy summer so far!

Chicago

We had an amazing time in Chicago! We enjoyed every minute of getting away, by ourselves! God was so gracious to us in many areas. Every day we saw His hand in the things that we experienced. This was a trip we won't soon forget. We are already anxious to go back!!

This was our hotel room in Chicago. We absolutely loved the hotel! Very friendly staff and the amenities were great. They even gave us free parking for all 3 days we were there. That was awsome! God already had his hand in the little things. We stayed by the O'hare airport which was nice, each day we rode the rail into the city. It was nice to get out of the city at night and be in a little quieter area.

We ate at Giordano's Pizza as soon as we got there, after checking in to the hotel. This Pizza was amazing! Our new favorite pizza ever. We were quite hungry after the 6 hour drive and neither of us had eaten since breakfast. When we got there they told us a 20 min wait, then she just turned around and said "I'll seat you now". We had a nice little corner booth, couldn't have asked for anything better. We looked back to see about 50 people come in right after we were seated! Thank you Jesus!! Then, she said our pizza would take 40 min. We prayed it wouldn't take that long, and, yep 30 mins later we were eating, yay!!

We loved the sights of Chicago! It really is a beautiful city. What a relaxing time to just walk the streets and take everything in. Yes, we did do a little shopping! When we were walking down the streets we were able to minister to a lady who had lost her subway ticket. She was quite destraught and was asking us for only $5 to get another subway ticket to get back home after being in the city to visit her son in the hospital. We never give people money, never!! We will buy them food or gas, but never give money. This situation was different. Dave and I were both in full agreement to give her the money. We just knew she needed this help and felt that God put us in that spot for such a time as that!! Everything that led up to us being there right at that time was definately God!! We were both so thankful for the Spirits voice to confirm what we needed to do, no doubts!

Shopping was quite fun. This is Macy's! 8 floors of shopping, almost Heaven on Earth. Dave actually had fun as well. He just could not get over how much "stuff" was in this one store, and to think - there were 2 Macy's within 2 miles of each other. We did find some really good deals!

We also ate at the Cheesecake Factory! YUM!!! Another one of our new favorites! A 14pg menu, crazy! We shared a salad and it was PLENTY! Plus who can pass up the cheesecake, We shared that too, we had turtle!!



We went to the Hershey's store! So much fun!! Of course we LOVE chocolate! This was so neat, this was one of the times we wished we had the kids!


We went to the Hancock tower which had amazing views. 95 floors up! I did feel a little queasy, at times. Didn't like getting too close to the window.

This was navy pier, it was beautiful. We were so thankful for the amazing weather God blessed us with. What an amazing time. We are so thankful for the time away. We are also very thankful for Annie watching our kids so we could go away and relax with no worries!!

I forgot one picture

I forgot one picture. Also the spot underneath the chair rail will be painted white!

I painted the Kitchen

I started painting the kitchen today. I am far from finished, but so far I think I like it! I think painting the cubbards could be in the future. We will see how things go. For now I am happy with the results of the color. Makes me want to paint more rooms in the house. I will probably paint as much as my marriage can stand!! My husband is wonderful and very supportive, but we both hate the process!

Austin's Sick :(

Austin is sick. He came home yesterday with a temp of 101.5. This morning it was 102.3. He went to the doctor today and got an antibiotic and a new inhaler. He got the antibiotic for an upper respitory infection. Finally, today, he learned how to swallow a pill! Yeah I was very excited! Swallowing a motrin beats the heck out of him drinking like a half of bottle of childrens motrin!! It is funny how animals just know when something is wrong with someone in the family. Stella jumped right up on the couch to cuddle with Austin while he slept. She is a cuddly dog anyway, but I just thought that was so sweet.

There seems to be a virus going around that has a high fever and not much else. Austin is about the 5th kid that I have heard of in the last week to get this. People are saying that it lasts about 4-5 days. I am sure praying that Austin feels better soon. It is so hard to watch a child be sick and not be able to make it instantly better.