"Imitation is the highest form of Flatery"

Last night our Youth group had a costume party. And our oldest son Kyle, & his girlfriend Olivia dressed up like John & I. So, either they admire us and want to be like us, or they view us like some sort of cartoon characters to dress up as. I'm not sure which.

Everyone couldn't believe how much they looked like us. Kyle with his bald head was carrying around a mac computer. Olivia chose an orange top to wear, as did I. (And I had no idea they were doing this!) and she went out and bought herself a big yellow bag like mine. She even used a marker to make my tattoo. Can you tell who's who?

Pastors Appreciation

October is Pastors Appreciation month, and at our church they take up an offering for the pastoral staff, and we are given cards and notes of appreciation and thanks and even gifts. Last Sunday they brought all the Pastors and their families up on stage to Honor us.

What blesses me the most is that they don't forget the pastor's kids. They got to come up on stage too. (They love their time in the spotlight!) And they gave them a gift as well. People don't often realize the sacrifices of the family. Pastor's kids spend way too much of their time at the church. Sometimes they are held to different standards than other kids just because of who their father is. But they are still just kids! They help out and work behind the scenes—a lot. And I love that our church thinks of them too as part of the ministry team.

I just want to say Thank You Mesa First. For honoring and blessing us. We love you.

Our Staff pictured from left to right: Mike Heim, Children's Pastor - Greg & Debbie Petersen, Adult Ministries Pastors - Us (Kyle, Zach, Erica, Alexia), Worship Arts Pastors - Sam & Dana Frederick (Abby & Sidney) Youth Pastors - Jeff & Melissa Kossack (Ethan, Eli, Hannah & Jonah) Lead Pastors.

Ode To Michigan

John and I are Arizona natives, born and raised in the land of the sun! Kyle and Zach were also born here. Then when Kyle was 2 years old, and Zach was 10 months we moved to Michigan. We lived there for over 8 years. Erica & Lexi were born in Michigan. It's what the boys remember of their childhood years, when asked where they are from, the boys answer Michigan, not Arizona. They root for the Detroit sports teams before the Phoenix teams. Fall always makes me think of Michigan. When we first moved there we learned that the word Weather has many different meanings. In Arizona, we go from Sunny & Hot, to Sunny & Warm, and if we're lucky we get Sunny & Cool. I love the Sunshine, but I also learned to love having different seasons. In Michigan the weather changes often.

Fall was always our favorite time of year there. Remember we grew up with Palm Trees & Cactus, neither of which change colors. But the fall in Michigan is so Beautiful! All the leaves turn every color from Green to Orange to Bright Yellow and Red. It really is amazing. And one of our favorite things to do every year as a family while we lived there was to go to the Pumpkin Patch. We would ride the hayride out to the Pumpkin patch and choose our pumpkins, then get back on the hayride and ride into the apple orchid and pick a bushel of apples. (For City Folk, this is very fun and exciting!) Then the hayride would take us back into the Cider Mill where we would have Apple Cider and cinnamon donuts. Yum! Then we'd go home and carve our pumpkins and make & eat the pumpkin seeds. Great Memories! We have really missed this since we've moved away from Michigan.

Since that time, occasionally we have bought pumpkins from the store to carve, but it's hasn't really been the same. We moved back to Arizona after a couple of other states along the way. And we heard about a pumpkin patch up in Prescott. (about an hour and a half north of us here in Phoenix) So our first year here, a lot of my family all drove up there for a fun day, we were in 3 or 4 cars & vans. And right before we got there a storm hit. They closed the place down. No Hayride, nothing. They wouldn't even let us buy a pumpkin to take with us. We just had to turn around and drive back down the mountain. The next year that pumpkin patch was sold and closed down for good. So much for reliving our Michigan memories. The girls have gotten to go to a pumpkin patch on a school field trip when they were younger, but it's not quite the same thing.

We've been back in Arizona for almost 7 years now, and every year at this time we still talk about how much we miss Michigan and how much fun that was. So, last week when the kids were off school for Fall break and John was off work we did something about it. We found a local place that sells pumpkins, and they have a 10 acre corn field maze. It was fun. We made our way through the maze (3 & 1/2 miles). Of course, being in Arizona, we were in the middle of a corn field and it was 93 degrees out. (It was never 93 degrees in Michigan! But, anything under 100 is Fall to us!) And I kept flashing back to my teenage years when there was a movie out called Children of the Corn. But we made it through okay. We Choose our pumpkins and carved them that night and our Pumpkins seeds were the best! Here are a few pic.'s of our adventures, then and now.

We miss you Michigan. Know that we think of you, and talk about you often. Some of our favorite memories, and most cherished friendships are from there. (Don't worry Arizona, I love you too and we'll sing your praises in another post at another time, but right now is all about Michigan!) Good Times, Good Friends, Good Memories. We love you.

A Chip Off The Ole Block

This past Sunday we had our Youth Worship Band lead worship in our main service. Which means Zach was the Worship leader. Zach leads worship in youth on Wednesdays, and he plays guitar on John's worship team as well. Kyle sings and plays drums both in youth and for John. It was exciting for the kids and for the church as well. They Rocked! They all did such a great job. It was really a lot of fun.

Zach feels called to follow in his dad's footsteps and become a Worship Pastor. He did really well yesterday. I'm such a proud mama! Unfortunately I can't really take any credit for any of this, since I'm pretty much the only one in the family that is NOT musical in any way! Oh well. I wanted to mark the occasion, and share a few pic.'s with you. Thanks for letting me brag a little. ;)

The Team

Kyle at the Drums

Zach leading Worship
Kyle's girlfriend Olivia is playing Guitar

Celebrating 21 Years

Yesterday was our Wedding Anniversary, and John gave me a Great day! He brought me beautiful red roses, and we went out on a Fun date. We wanted to do something different, not just dinner & a movie as usual. So this is what we did, we went out and ate really good crab legs. Yum! Then we went to a comedy club that does improv. It was really a lot of fun.

They asked if anyone was celebrating a special day, there were two people having Birthdays, and John told them it was our Anniversary. They asked him how many years we'd been married? (21) How we first meet? (on a Blind Date!) Who set us up? (My Brother & Sister-in-law) Where we went? (a concert) Do we have kids? (yes) How many kids do we have? (4) Then they asked the names of our kids? and John paused, and looked at me, as if to say "why don't you tell them, instead of me doing all the talking" and everyone broke out in laughter as if he forgot the names of his kids. So he just said their names really fast so they would know he knew his kids names. (Kyle, Zach, Erica & Alexia) Then they asked me how old each of them were (18,16 & 11) Oh, twins? (yes) etc.

Then they proceeded to turn us into a comedy sketch. Instant Hilarity! With a couple acting as us, when 'John' says to 'Star' "I just realized why people are treating us so badly, whenever we say our kids names fast it sounds like 'how's Yak's anorexia?' (Kyle, Zach, Erica, Alexia) the whole world thinks we have a malnourished Yak. Peta is calling, now you know why I pause every time someone asks me our kids names!" They acted out our date that night with the husband telling the waiter, "you know, I didn't even know what she looked liked when I first met her, dangerous I know, but, it turned out to be a good thing!" Then he yells at the waiter for giving him a menu, cause "what am I gonna do, order ribs? This is a Crab Shack!"

So, our first date, followed by a year of dating, and then 21 years of marriage, and 4 kids, all rolled into about a 10 minute comedy sketch. Everyone was rolling with laughter and congratulating us on our anniversary. So we really accomplished doing something different for our anniversary this year. We won't soon forget this night.

What is your favorite date night?

Little Ditty About John And Star

A little ditty about John & Star,

Who'd have ever thought they'd have come this far.
21 years ago today they said "I Do"
with something Borrowed, something Blue.

There's been a lot of Happy times, and some sad.
We've enjoyed the good times, made it through the bad.
Four Kids and four states latter,
Knowing that TOGETHER we could be something greater!

Oh Yeah, Life goes on,
long after the thrill of livin is gone.
Oh yeah, Life goes on,
long after the thrill of livin is gone.
They walk on.

Let it Rock!
Let it Roll!
Jesus Christ has come and saved our souls.
Hold on to your young hearts as long as you can,
changes come around real soon
make us women and men.

A little ditty about John & Star
21 Years, and here's to Many More!

Fall Break

I'm so sorry my posting has been lean this week. The kids are out of school on Fall Break this week, and since John was gone all last week, he's taking some time off work. So, we have been spending some quality family time.

So far this week the girls competed in a state wide Fine Arts Festival with our church, both doing Drama, and Lexi doing art as well. It was their first time. They did really good. It was fun. Then we got to spend a little time with my family. We spent a day in John's home town with his parents. (It's a small town about an hour away from us.)

John and I went on a date! ; ) He'd been wanting to see the movie Eagle Eye for his Birthday. It was good. He loves a good action flick. It reminded me of The Net, the older Sandra Bullock movie.

And the most exciting part so far was getting our teeth cleaned at the Dentist! Okay, maybe not! The kids took a vote and let me know they prefer being taken out of school for their dentist appointments rather than me scheduling them for days they are off. My response was "too bad, I would rather get it done with out you missing any days of school. And just think I'm really saving you from extra homework!" Yeah, they didn't buy it either, oh well. Each of the girls were the only ones who had any cavity's, one each, and they just happen to be in the exact same tooth. Weird. Is it a Twin thing, or just bad hygiene? Who knows.

We're off now to gather Pumpkins to carve. I'll let you know how it goes.

Hope you are enjoying the Fall.