Surprise Delivery

My sweet in-laws had these beautiful flowers delivered to me yesterday! What a wonderful surprise!

Spring Break Highlights

What a great spring break! Here are a few of the highlights!

*a full day of shopping at the mall!

*taking my Grandma Joan out for lunch downtown at the Secret Garden Tea Room

*spending time with camp friends from Minnesota--Nick, Katie, and Andrea--who were stranded for 2 days in Dallas/Fort Worth on their way to Mexico for spring break! They stayed with my parents, but in the meantime, I introduced them to Chick-Fil-A and Texas u-turns. It was SO good to catch up with them!


*having more wonderful Minnesota visitors--my dear friend Nicole and sweet little Beckett! We had a great few days together! Our adventures included....

dying our hair

emptying the dishwasher

tub time

eating Cheerios

pedicures, (another) trip to Chick-Fil-A, more shopping, watching "Sweet Home Alabama," enjoying walks outside in the warm weather, and a delicious meal at our favorite restaurant, Pappasitos!

Con Expo

Every 3 years, the world's largest construction conference is in Las Vegas! 150,000 people, including myself, attended this year's Con Expo. And, as a first-time attendee, I must say that it was INCREDIBLE! There was 2.2 million square feet of exhibits (which is equivalent to nearly 50 football fields!), and, in the 2 days that I was there, I didn't even see it all.

On one of the lots, they had TONS (literally!) of cranes all set up from every vendor imaginable. This picture didn't even capture 1/5th of it! One crane in particular had a lifting capacity of 800 tons (1,600,000 lbs.!) The hook on the block (hanging from the hoist line) was thicker than my torso and 18 parts to the line (the line running from the top of the boom to the hook and back up is considered a 2 part line).

Here's a few of the guys that I went with. We were living large at the Luxor buffet... Kal even got some prime rib! Although Missy was there, he was still able to eat amazingly well- even though he may never be allowed to eat another meal if she has anything to say about it. Kal just claimed that she wasn't going to be invited next time. :) Well, at least with the miles and miles of walking to the different exhibits he earned a little treat.

Here I am in the bucket of the Caterpillar loader they had on display. You too can own one of these babies for 1.6 million dollars. It runs on one diesel V12 but can carry 16 cubic yards of material in its humongous bucket. Believe it or not, Caterpillar makes a loader that is TWICE the size of this one here used mostly for mining operations... I'm sure it would have had a little trouble making it inside the building!

After a long day walking for what seems like forever, we had the evening to ourselves. As I'm not exactly a "high roller" I spent the time checking out the minature cities that are the hotels on the strip. Here at the MGM Grand where we stayed, the trainer in the "Lion Habitat" had one of the lions licking his hand... how sweet... meat?

TEACHER OF THE YEAR!!!

Bethany with some of her former students.

As my humble wife turns a lovely shade of red, I have to say it is my duty - nay - my great honor to announce that Teacher of the Year for Friendship Elementary School 2007/2008 is... (drum roll) Bethany Rinn!!
Being the devoted fan I am, this has been a long time coming... but I am her husband after all.:) On a purely objective note, I know how much time Bethany puts into her programs, lesson plans, and education towards her field. She truly loves ALL of the kids that she teaches; even the ones that drive her up a wall- and maybe more so those that do because I think she knows they need that love. I want everyone to know how proud I am of her and how proud the rest of our extended family is of her. Many teachers go their whole lives without such distinction and for Bethany to achieve this in four years of teaching- just two at Friendship speaks volumes! So to the love of my life I want to say, "I always have and always will believe in you. Congratulations, Sweetheart."

Here's a funny picture of Bethany--she's always trying to polish her "directing" skills! ;)

"It's a Miracle!"

This is what one of my students said yesterday while looking outside at the falling snow! Even though we are now Texans, we can both honestly say, having grown up in Minnesota and Colorado, that this really was QUITE a snowstorm!

At school, I was doing carpool dismissal during the very worst of it, and some of my students were TERRIFIED to walk to their cars in the snow. A few wouldn't even open their eyes, so they kept them closed while I led them to their cars! (In their defense, the snow was blowing completely horizontally and felt more like icy pellets than flakes!)

And, another student, while also looking outside from my classroom, said (in a very serious tone, I should add), "It hasn't snowed in generations." (Maybe she meant years?)

Since we thought the snow was so beautiful (and since we've never seen our house like this!), we had to share this picture!

The area out west where Dave is currently working received much more snow & ice than we did here, so he had a snow day! We got up really early to go out to breakfast together before I had to go to work.

(P.S. At this point, all the snow has already melted...but, it was exciting while it lasted!)

Trip to Indiana

Last Wednesday night we left for a wonderful, though whirlwind, trip to Indiana! We went for Dave's brother's wedding; but in the midst of all the wedding festivities, we also managed to see a lot of friends!

On Thursday morning, we met my friend Becca at Cracker Barrel for breakfast in Indy. Becca and I were piano majors together at Taylor, and we haven't seen each other for 2 1/2 years. It was great to catch up and hear about her recent wedding! Even though Dave had to endure a lot of girl talk, he was pacified with his favorite meal at CB--the Uncle Herschel's special!

From Indianapolis we headed to Upland to visit our dear college choral professor, Dr. Rediger. Dr. Rediger is very special to both of us, and, if it weren't for her, we may have never even met! We had a delicious lunch with her at Ivanhoes, an Upland tradition.
We spent the afternoon walking down memory lane at Taylor, visiting with other faculty, and then going to Sounds rehearsal. We had planned to just listen in on rehearsal, but Dr. Rediger insisted that we participate in rehearsal. So, just like old times, I accompanied the Sounds and Dave sang with the bass section!

That evening we drove to Fort Wayne to visit my best friend from Taylor, Michelle, and her new husband, Jeremy! Dave and Jeremy had only met one time several years ago, so it was a lot of fun to spend time all together! Jeremy and Michelle treated us to a delicious Italian dinner at Casa Mare, and then we spent the night at their house.

On Friday morning, Dave went pheasant hunting with the guys. Even though it was cold (especially to us!), they all had a great time, and Dave bagged two birds!


In the meantime, I went back to Ft. Wayne to go out to coffee with Michelle, who had the wonderful surprise of a snow delay for her school! (Something we only dream about in Texas...)

Since Emily was spending the weekend with us in Bluffton for all the wedding events, I went back to Taylor to pick her up. I had quite an interesting lunch with all of Emily's friends in the DC. :) While she went to her last class, I was able to have coffee with my friend Loralee, who is now teaching voice at Taylor. We also hadn't seen each other in nearly 2 years, so it was great to catch up. Of course, our hour together went much too fast!


The wedding events officially started on Friday night with the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Grandpa Rinn came from Arizona for the wedding, and it was great to be able to spend time with him at the dinner!

Dave and his grandpa




me with my sweet sis


the newly enlarged Rinn family

Emily did my hair and makeup for the wedding on Saturday, and she and Dave also had the all-important job of feeding the bridesmaids lunch. :) The wedding was beautiful, and it was fun for Dave and me to be in a wedding party together! I also played the piano, so I spent a lot of time running from my spot in the row of bridesmaids back and forth to the piano. :)



Rinn brothers goofing off as usual


Kristy's parent's surprised her by renting a Hummer limo for us all to ride in to the reception!



The reception was a lot of fun, and Emily finally proved in person to be the dance maniac that she's always claimed to be! :) It was a ton of fun, but by the time we left at midnight, we were exhausted!

Jon and Kristy's cake was decorated with all their family and friends' names.


Dave and Mike giving their co-best man toast!


It was wonderful to spend time with Mom & Dad Rinn...we hope to see them again soon!

Here's Emily and me showing our fantastic moves on the dance floor!

What a fun weekend! We are so blessed with SUCH wonderful friends and family!

"Wait"

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried.
Quietly, patiently, lovingly, He replied.
I pleaded, and I wept for a clue to my fate,
And the Master so gently said, “Child, you must wait.”

”Wait? You say wait?” my indignant reply.
“Lord, I need answers, I need to know why.
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By faith I have asked, and I’m claiming Your Word.

“My future, and all to which I can relate
Hangs in the balance, and you tell me ‘wait’?
I’m needing a ‘yes,’ a go-ahead sign,
Or even a ‘no,’ to which I can resign.

“And Lord, you have promised that if we believe
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
And Lord I’ve been asking, and this is my cry:
I’m wearing of asking: I need a reply!”

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate
As my Master replied once again, “You must wait.”
So I slumped in my chair; defeated and taut
And grumbled to God, “So I’m waiting, for what?”

He seemed then to kneel and His eyes met with mine
And He tenderly said, “I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens, darken the sun,
Raise the dead, cause the mountains to run.

“All you see I could give, and pleased you would be.
You would have what you want, but you wouldn’t know Me.
You’d not know the depth of my love for each saint;
You’d not know the power that I give to the faint.

“You’d not learn to see through clouds of despair;
You’d not learn to trust, just by knowing I’m there.
You would not know the joy of resting in Me,
When darkness and silence was all you could see.

“You would never experience that fullness of love
As the peace of My Spirit descends likes a dove.
You would know that I give, and I save, for a start,
But you’d not know the depth of the beat of My heart.

“The glow of My comfort late in the night;
The faith that I give when you walk without sight;
The depth that’s beyond getting just what you ask
From an infinite God who makes what you have last.

“And you would never know, should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that ‘My grace is sufficient for thee.’
Yes, your dreams for that loved one o’ernight could come true,
But the loss! if you lost what I’m doing in you.

“So be silent, my child, and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to get to know Me.
And though oft’ may My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all…is still…wait.”