And here we are, back again, ready for fall

I love fall. I love the cool evenings and the fall colors.
I do not necessarily like all the changes, but I do get used to them.

Moving Anika into Spring Arbor University was fun, and hard, and emotional, and beautiful. Every year... .except this year oddly enough.. .we release monarch butterflies. And every year I think about how letting them go so they can fly and be who they were created to be.

Anika's roommate Kendall

This year, I had to let my own little butterfly loose.

First day of school pic!

And the other three ready for their first day:

Brandon 11th

Jessica 9th

Maria 7th

All at Western Michigan Christian

 Jessica is once again running cross country. This is her about to finish one of the fun races they do each year.... a 3.25 mile race with hay bale obstacles every so often. She did great. She is running JV as she is not one of the 7 fastest, but she is out running every day and mostly enjoying it.

This is part of  her team ready to run another race. Its the Cow Run 5k and proceeds sponsor Country Dairy's sister dairy in Uganda. We LOVE Country Dairy.. ok maybe we love their ice cream, chocolate milk, food, etc. The owners send their kids to WMC and support the school in various ways. Maria and I also ran the race. The cross country team all wore these onesies... Jessica is the cow - so funny to be a cow running the Cow Run! and I bought ice cream to take home - even better!

Brandon is playing varsity soccer and enjoying it. He's gets a bit of playing time each game.

Maria is also playing soccer, and once again is playing for a new team with a new coach. Last spring, the PE teacher saw her playing for the WMC middle school team and asked her to try out for her premier team. So, Maria went up a couple levels and knows the coach. We will see what this year brings. She is excited to be on a higher level team, but this also means her playing time will go down which could be interesting as she hasn't left the field in any game situations in two years. Here we go.

Fun facts we hear from Anika:
she joined the soccer team.... ummm. yes... she joined the SAU college team. There was an announcement asking for 5 more girls to complete the JV team, so she went. I'm guessing she won't play much, if at all, as she hasn't touched a ball in four years, but she is meeting more people and getting some exercise.
She is working the dish pit in the cafeteria for her work study job... she volunteered. I guess stick with what you know, or sort of. Her job at the Maranatha dining room gave her lots of time near the dish pit crew.
She loves band
We've sent her two packages already, one with her black shoes and pants for dish pit, and one with soccer equipment. She told me later, she doesn't actually need the soccer equipment because she raided the lost and found and got shoes, socks and shin guards. That's my girl! The lost and found is the best second hand store EVER.
If you want to write her, just put her name and Spring Arbor University with SAU's address. Somehow they find her without a specific box number or dorm or anything.

This is the volcano she made for Maranatha for their Labor Day Luau. She wasn't there to enjoy the Luau, but she made the main centerpiece from paper mache - 14 hours of work, but it looks pretty cool! There was a tube in the center which was the path for the dry ice 'smoke' to escape.