The End of our Journey

We are back in Wisconsin hardly able to believe that our time in South Carolina is over. Life has essentially picked up where we left off, which is why it has taken me nearly two months to close out this blog. Here is a brief summary of our transition back home.

We had a whirlwind final week in Columbia with school programs, packing and getting together one last time with friends. Chip and Beth Edgar hosted a farewell party in our honor which included most of our dearest friends in SC. It was an evening to remember, complete with a buffet of southern dishes to enjoy. On May 28th, Jacob and I joined a team of seven others from Columbia on a missions trip to Rwanda. It was a trip of a life time! We will be sending out DVD's to all our supporters summarizing our trip soon, so be on the lookout if that was you!

While Jacob and I flew across the world, Rob and the rest of the kids loaded up the U-Haul (with a gang of SC friends) and traveled back to Three Lakes with the assistance of Jackson Edwards from Columbia. He will be attending Wheaton in the fall and is working at HoneyRock for the summer, so it worked out perfectly for him to drive our Suburban while Rob drove the U-Haul. They were all able to stay with the Carlson's in Kentucky, enjoying an afternoon of waterskiing on the river. After a long trek home, the gang was greeted by friends from HoneyRock who helped to unload, unpack and get them settled back into 1543 Dam Road. Jacob and I returned on June 14th and our family was together once again (if only for a short time as camp sessions began the next week!).

While staying healthy on our African trip, I did come home very exhausted and picked up a cold bug that kept me down for a week. I did however manage to unpack the remaining boxes and put our house back to order again.

We thank God for the experience of a life time that South Carolina was. In fact, it will be regarded as the "best time our family every had"! Thank you to everyone who invested in us in South Carolina, and those back home who supported and encouraged us while we were gone. We are truly humbled and overwhelmed to have such amazing friends. While we are glad to be home as we are true "Wisconsinites" at the core, we will always hold a special place for South Carolina in our hearts!

Weekend Getaway!

Who would have predicted that a weekend to Chicago would prove to be so eventful? After arranging all the logistics for four children to stay with different friends for the weekend, including getting to soccer games and other events, I was relieved to finally get myself on the airplane to Chicago. In just seven hours I would be with my husband for a romantic weekend in Chicago, including attending the wedding festivities for our dear friends. But storms in Dallas (in which my round-about ticket took me) caused delays and eventually a cancellation of my flight from Dallas to Chicago until the morning! I spent my first night ever alone in a hotel! It wasn't so bad after I adjusted my expectations and knew I could still get to the wedding in time the next day. As a matter of fact, I quite enjoyed the evening to myself which included room service dinner, a king sized bed, and a good "chick flick".

Once I made it to Chicago, Rob and I had so much fun! Bonnie & Jason's wedding felt like a reunion of all the friends I had to leave the past ten months! We stayed in a beautiful room on the 21st floor of a hotel downtown, and spent most of Sunday enjoying the city and exploring Navy Pier. My departure came too soon, but this time I only had to say goodbye to Rob for five more days as he is back in SC tomorrow. One more week and we leave SC.....hard to believe!

May is a very busy month!

May tends to be the time when many things are wrapping up for the school year. We can attest to this as our calendar has been full for the last week, with no break in sight until June!

Some of the highlights include: a wonderful Mother's Day celebration by Eli's fourth grade class (I teared up several times during the program!), Hand Middle School band concert (Ben's beginning band group really showed great improvement since Sept. and Jacob's Advanced band was stellar), kayaking with friends/neighbors Matt & Maureen Petkewich (while all the kids were in school!), a fun day at Carowinds amusement park in North Carolina (Jacob and Ben went with the band, Rob, Grace & I drove up separately, and Eli chose to go to a friends for the day since he doesn't like rollercoasters!), many lunch and dinner dates with friends (Kanefts, Goddards, Browders, Edgar, & Shannon Walker!), Rosewood Elementary School picnic and Friendship Festival, USC baseball game, climbing at Stronghold gym, & lots of soccer games!

Lowlight was of course taking Rob to the airport again on Sunday! He will be back in two weeks, but this time I get to see him halfway as we are attending Bonnie Evon & Jason Larusso's wedding in Chicago this weekend!! Thanks to Lambersons, Petkewichs and Edgars for keeping the kids!

Less than a month to go!!

It is wild to think that we have lived in Columbia for nine months and our time here is dwindling down!! Jacob and I leave for Rwanda on May 28th, and Rob and the rest of the kids will begin the U-Haul journey home on May 30th! All of this comes with mixed emotions...excitement to get back to our friends in Wisconsin, our home, our cat, and our washer and dryer (okay that's me). But there is great sadness to end this chapter of our lives which has been filled with some of the most significant life moments and friendships we've ever experienced! What a testimony to the people and to God's amazing goodness!

The most exciting news this week is that Rob has finished what we came to South Carolina for in the first place....the main part of his dissertation. He sent out four copies of a 230 page "master piece" to his dissertation committee in California, and will give his proposal defense next week! Basically they will drill him to make sure he knows what he is talking about, and then give the go ahead to conduct his research this summer. We are all so proud of Rob. The morning after he finished the paper, all of the kids wanted to see the final results! It is what they sacrificed for this year, and they were proud!!! We celebrated with a night out for pizza! Now Rob is enjoying a lighter schedule until he returns to HoneyRock this Sunday.

As our time winds down, we have been brought back to the "must do" list our family created when we first arrived. It is with great thanksgiving to see that we had done everything on our list except to canoe a river in SC. So, last Sunday, Matthew Fletcher a friend from our church took, us kayaking down part of the Saluda river. We went through three sets of fun rapids and throughly enjoyed our afternoon. It was crazy to see the city of Columia as we paddled down river!

Sabbatical is over!

On Saturday we had to say goodbye to Rob, as his six month sabbatical is over (we drowned our sorrows in Krispy Kreme donuts!). It is hard to believe, but he is now back at HoneyRock teaching a grad class and then beginning to assimilate back into his role as Director. Fortunately, he will be able to return to SC next Friday and stay for two weeks. Then he will go back to Wisconsin for two weeks and return to Columbia for a week followed by moving the family back home! We are thankful for the friends we have made here who are making our time without Rob a little more bearable!!

Spring Break 2010

I have waited to write about our spring break trip hoping that each person in our family would document his/her favorite part of the adventure. But let's be honest...if it's going to be entered before we leave SC, then I guess I'll go ahead and give my version and any entries by other people will be a bonus!

The Monday following Easter, we packed up the trusty old Suburban and headed to Washington D.C. Being only an 8 hr drive from Columbia, it seemed to be the perfect Spring Break destination...and it was! The expected 8 hour trip took more like 10-11 hours because of BAD traffic along 95, especially an hour or so outside of D.C. We arrived at the Bader's home (HoneyRock camper parents, Wheaton grads AND Cynthia and I attended girls camp together in the U.P. of Michigan in the late 70's early 80's) which is just inside the Beltline, and made that our homebase for three days. They graciously hosted us and gave us all the ins and outs of the D.C. tourist thing.

Highlights included, riding the Metro subway, Capital building tour, National Archives, Museum of American History, Lincoln Memorial and snow cones! The most favorite spot was the Holocast Museum in which we spent 3 sombering hours. The weather was perfect and our feet were very sore by the end of each day. We certainly learned a lot about our country and left feeling proud to be Americans (mostly!).

We were able to share a few meals with Bader's and also past HR Counselor Daniel Ball who teaches in D.C. Many fun times around the table. Lawson and Cynthia were generous and fabulous hosts, inspiring me to be a better hostess to our future guests!

We ended our trip with a visit to Wilmington, NC to the new home of friends John & Lauren Welsh and their son Cohen. A brief trip to the beach and just catching up with friends was great! What fun and memorable trip!

Grace's Baptisam

On Esater Sunday Grace got baptized at Church of the Aposles. Now I can take camunion. I got a bible with a pretty dimond dizine on it. (mom takes over typing while Grace dictates!) My mom and dad came up to the front with me. I had to stand on the stage when I got baptized. There were two babies getting baptized too. Mr. Edgar baptized me. He also took oil and made a cross on my forehead. My sponsors are my brother Jacob and Mrs. Pulver. They promise to pray for me as I grow.

Fundraising Success!

Raising $5000 for Jacob and I to go to Rwanda in May has proven to be a big task. However, knowing we serve a BIG God, we were up for the challenge! Though we have received many generous donations from friends and family, we still pondered a way to raise money using our "marketable" skills. The problem was, I couldn't think of anything I could do that was really marketable AND doable here in SC. I finally decided to try out my newly acquired cake decorating skills. With the help of a few friends, we baked 150 sugar cookies on a stick. I then spent 8 total hrs decorating them. What resulted were 30 "cookie pots" and two dozen individually wrapped cookies which went on sale to the congregation of Church of the Apostles. Every single pot of cookies sold, as did all but six individual cookies, netting a whopping $900 toward our trip! I can't thank Church of the Apostles enough for their generosity, and especially Beth Edgar, Gaye Sunshine, Nancy Lamberson, Rob, Jacob, Ben, Eli, and Grace for their help and encouragement.

This, that, and the other thing....

It seems like we are having little trouble keeping busy these days! Rob is diligently trying to reach his goals for his dissertation in his remaining two weeks in SC:(((( Jacob and Ben are attending practices for the Hand Middle School Festival Band (Ben is the equipment manager for this event!!). Eli is busy practicing and playing soccer games (as well as Jacob, Ben and Grace. Rob is coaching two teams!). Grace is trying to get rid of as many baby teeth as possible, and I am working hard to make cookie bouquets for a Rwanda fundraiser, enter Rob's references for his paper onto the computer, and figure out something for dinner tonight! It seems like if each of the six of us does only one thing, it still creates a busy household! Speaking of which....I better get to the grocery store!

Girls Weekend!

While Rob and the boys went to the mountains in North Carolina for a father/son retreat with Church of the Apostles, Grace and I set out to have a weekend of girl time!

We started with shopping at Old Navy,dinner at Chili's followed by going to the $2 theater to see "The Princess and the Frog". We snuggled in bed that night reading "The Pink Princess". On Sat. we went to the St. Patricks Day parade in 5 points and later met friends for the kiddie carnival in the park. In the afternoon we went to see the Columbia Ballet perform "The Little Mermaid". It was awesome! We bought $12 tickets in the balcony, but were able to sit on a lower level after intermission. On saturday evening we picked up a pizza and a movie, some new nail polish and nail "bling", and a peel off face mask! As you can see above we had quite the funky toenails, and a lot of laughs as we peeled each others faces:)

It is an awesome privilege to spend an entire weekend alone with your daughter. I hope we will have many more opportunities in the future!

Jackie & Eli's Big Race!

This past Saturday morning, Eli and I ran in a 5K to help support home delivered meals for the elderly! It was my first organized run since high school track, and Eli's second. The run went through the Columbia Zoo and Botanical gardens which was beautiful but also had a few steep inclines! Eli pulled out in front of me right from the start and I didn't see him again until I crossed the finish line and he was standing there cheering for me! Congratulations to Eli who placed second in his age bracket and took home a trophy! Congrats to me for running the whole thing:)

There's No Place Like Home!

I was able to spend five days in Three Lakes this past week and it was wonderful! After a long and mechanically (airplane) challenged day, I arrived in Wausau where the Pulver family (who hosted me for the week) picked me up! Cheryl and I went directly to Kari Vandervelde's home where several of our friends were waiting to enjoy an evening of hanging out together. It was a great time!

On Sunday I was able to go to church at TLEVF and see all the wonderful people there. It just so happened that the afternoon was a scheduled "Fun Day" for the church at HoneyRock. It was a picture perfect northwoods winter day! I had fun tubing down the big hill and eating dinner in the dining hall.

On Monday I had my hair cut by my stylist of 15 years!!! She can work magic! I spent some time in the afternoon visiting with a dear friend Carol Siemiakowski followed by picking Braden Pulver up from school. I enjoyed having him give me a tour of his kindergarten classroom and also running into several teacher friends. We swung by my house to see Shadow on the way home, only to be slightly disappointed that the cat could have cared less!

Cheryl Pulver and I stayed up way too late talking both Sunday and Monday nights, but how can you possibly go to bed when there is a good friend to visit with?

On Tuesday I had the privilege of going to the hospital to wait for the c-section birth of Pulver baby number 4, which turned out to be a BIG 10 lb 5 oz boy! He was later named Blake Gabriel Pulver. In the evening Laurie Kirby and I went to a Zumba exercise class and a movie in Rhinelander. Spontaneous fun is the best!

Then on Wednesday I headed back to the airport, but was able to hang with Becki & Liz Henderson who were on my flight from Rhinelander to Minneapolis. We all had three hour layovers (they were headed to Orlando for the Disney Princess 1/2 marathon) so enjoyed a nice lunch together. I finally hit my head on my pillow at 11:00PM! Thanks to Rob for holding down the fort while I was gone.

Wheaton Roomies Reunite!

You'd think rooming with me for four years at Wheaton would be enough for Susan Landis Kraft Hockerman, but to my delight she came from St. Louis to visit us here in Columbia over the weekend!

Her time in SC was ushered in with attending a crazy Nickelodeon type game show put on by the organization who sponsored the kids basketball league. Sue, Ben, Grace and I laughed through an evening of crazy antics. Apparently, watching me jump rope with flippers on and Ben with feety pjs was entertaining as well, all on stage in front of a crowd of 500 or so!

On Saturday Sue and I drove to Charlotte to visit Wendy Williams Ellis. She is another Wheaton roomie who lives there with her family. We had a great time reminiscing over college photos (I'd convieniently forgotten my old boyfriend had a mullet and the fact that Wendy had given me a perm!), touring Wendy's beautiful house, eating and shopping at Ikea, and ending our time at Trader Joe's. Sue treated Rob and I to a nice dinner in downtown Columbia when we got home.

Sunday was spent going to church, walking along the river trail and watching the Olympics! After shopping and enjoying a nice lunch on Monday, I drove Sue to the airport and said goodbye until we see each other again in July when her daughter comes to HoneyRock.

Grandma & Grandpa Moak visit!

I'm not one to believe in jinxes, but it is a little ironic that South Carolina has not seen 7 inches of snow in 20 years until the weekend my parents come from Wisconsin!!!!

While Rob attended a conference in Colorado this past week, my parents Ken & Lora Moak came to see us! They first went to Charleston and Hilton Head, SC ending with a long weekend in Columbia. The kids and I enjoyed their visit very much! They were innundated with concerts on the trumpet and french horn, as well as lots of chatter and laughter from the grandkids! We sampled southern fare from a variety of restaurants and enjoyed many hours swimming in my parents hotel pool (the kids that is!).

I was thankful as always for my dad's expertise in fixing things around the house! He repaired a broken dryer belt and six wobbly diningroom chairs. He also brought the kids four rubberband shooting guns which quickly became the hit of the weekend. I am still finding rubberbands in the craziest of places!

We were sad to see them go on Monday afternoon, but were so thankful to be able to spend time with them!

Snow.....really???

Friday afternoon I received a disturbing phone call... "This is Hand Middle School with an emergency message"! My mind immediately went through the list of catastrophic things that could possibly be wrong with my kids! The message then prompted me to push the #1 to hear the report...."school will let out an hour early today because of the impending snowy weather". This was hilarious (and relieving) to me as I looked out the window to see a partly cloudy sky and nary a flake! We were told this kind of panic is typical of South Carolina folks who are neither used to nor prepared for snow! As you can imagine, those of us who typically live six months out of the year in snow found this to be quite normal.

Well the joke truly was on us this time as Columbia was blasted with seven inches of snow overnight! We awoke to the entire town shut down and a winter wonderland covering every inch of space! We were actually hoping to go an entire year without snow, but did feel an odd sense of nostalgia to see this familiar trademark of winter.

You wouldn't know today that there had been snow as the grass is showing again and things seem to have resumed to normal. Who would have known that we would be here in South Carolina to witness the "big storm of 2010"!!

Jacob Goes to Honor Band

Hello everyone! It's Jacob Ribbe writing from snowy South Carolina. Recently I tried out for the Richland 1 Honor Band. This honorary band consists of the top instrument players in the school district (nine schools). The audition consisted of playing my scale sequence, my etude (solo), my chromatic scale, terms, and sightreading. When I got to school the next day I found out from my band teacher Mrs. Schwieckert that I had made second chair behind my friend Danny and in front of my friends Joe and Seth. The Hand Middle Shool band ended up taking 47% of the seats in the honor band. Hand dominated the auditions. Once I had made the band I got the permission for the clinic signed. Eventually on January 27 and 28 I attended the honor band clinic at Dreher High School. I missed to days of school to play trumpet! We had two days of rehersal with the band and then on the 28 I had a concert. I enjoyed the experience and am looking forward to Region Band (25th chair and 1/5 of the state). That is coming up this month. Thanks for reading.

-Jacob Ribbe

Blessings, blessings and more blessings!

Coming to South Carolina, while difficult in some ways, has been more of an opportunity to see God's abundant love! In the midst of starting everything new, he provided friends, a church, kind neighbors, a good landlord, spiritual mentors, bible study groups, and access to two universities. With limited income because of tuition, rent, and other expenses with things here and back home, he has showered us with gifts such as Broadway in Columbia tickets, condos for vacations, dinners out, airplane tickets, help with tuition, scholarships for youth soccer, and most recently a second car to use! A very kind and generous couple from our church in Columbia said we could use this car until we leave the south! Not only that, they gave us their gas credit card and said they wanted to pay for all the gas for the year! Wow!!!! We have been blown away by the love God has lavished on us! As he is working in our lives to refine and draw us to himself, God is extending his strong arm of love and grace and making the journey incredible!

A Visit from Kari

Nothing is more chicken "soupish" for the soul than a visit from a good friend! This past weekend, Kari Vandervelde was able to come to Columbia from Eagle River, Wisconsin. Her husband John had surprised her with a ticket for Christmas, and stayed back to care for their three young children. I think Kari's first impression of Columbia was relief, as she left -25 degree wind chill temperatures in Wisconsin! I can't say the SC weatherman rolled out the red carpet for her though, as it was rainy and low 30's most of the weekend, but being a tough northwoods girl, I don't think it mattered!

We enjoyed shopping, eating, exercising, good conversation, watching movies, a trip to Charleston, painting ceramics, going to church, and driving all around Columbia. Kari was a trooper to leave the chaos of three young children to come and endure the loud confines of our rental house with six (four being quite loud) people.

It is so fun to share our life here in Columbia with someone back home, as well as to hear news and greetings from home. My only complaint about Kari's visit is that it went by too fast!!

Boys Basketball

(Ben) Eli and I have a joined a church basketball league called Upward. Our teams name is the Pacers. We practice once a week and play a game each Saturday. Eli and I play well together. So far we are 1-2. Eli and I have scored a lot of baskets for the team. We have three games left and then spring soccer season starts!

the basketball season

(Grace) we are sorry we haven't writen in a wile are computer has not been working.

the basket ball season has been going great so far.my coach's names are coach Ridgeway and coach moore. my games are on Saturday at 11:00 and some at 10:00 they are really fun to do.

my taem mates are Abby,Emma,Ali,Ann murphy,Alexandria,Grace,Lily,McCall,sidney and I forgot some one

we have won all are games so far. Today I scored a basket.I love it.

The Southern Southern Adventure Continues

As noted in the last few posts our southern adventure covered the south over Christmas break. After 6 days in Florida we headed "north"...the only direction you can go from Marco Island..towards Memphis, TN. We discovered that FL is a very long state. It took us until 7pm to reach Alabama where we stayed for the night. We paid homage to the University of Florida Gators as we passed by their home. After a short night's rest we loaded in the car again to cross Alabama (home of the soon to be national champion Crimson Tide), cut through Mississippi, and arrived in Memphis in time for dinner. Over 1,000 miles in 2 days...ugh. Make sure you thank a truck driver next time you see one. Thankfully we were able to park the car at Aunt Sandy and Uncle Pete's house for 4 days. The 4 Ribbe and 4 Hansen cousins energetically filled the Hansen home with noise and fun from mid-morning til night. We celebrated a second (or third) Christmas, ate very well, and had many great conversations. On New Years Eve we blasted off a slew of fireworks over the backyard pond in 20 degree temperatures. It was freezing!

On New Year's day we loaded the car again and headed east across the long state of Tennessee to the Knoxville area to visit HoneyRockers and former Ribbe babysitters Kit and Ryan McCaffrey. Ryan is ranch manager at Wears Valley Ranch, a year round boarding school/ministry for teens that also runs a summer camp. We had great fun catching up, playing Wii, feeding the horses, reading stories to Louise and holding baby Hope. Our snowless winter was smashed on Saturday morning when we woke up to falling snow...what a bummer! Though it only snowed an inch, it was enough to close the Great Smokies National Park and force a 2 hour detour around the perimeter of the park. On the up side, it gave us an interesting tour of the backcountry hills of TN. I only saw 2 rusting stills on the tour.

To pass the time on our 2,600 mile journey we participated in 2 surveys that are worthy of note. First, we could only eat once at a fast food company restaurant and then voted on which was the best when we arrived home. Sonic--the southern drive in burger restaurant--received 3 first place votes, Chick-fil-A received 2 first place votes, and Subway received 1 first place vote. The Jack-in-the-Box burger chain was voted last by all 6 of us. The second survey involved checking off the state license plates we saw on the journey. We saw 42 states. It took about 5 days to see WI (we couldn't count our own). The far west states of UT, AZ, NV, ID, ND, SD, MT, and HI were the only ones we didn't see. All in all, it was a great trip with many fantastic memories, connections with great friends/family, a few crazy moments, and lots of fun. We're grateful our rusty Suburban made it all the way without issues. Ironically, when we arrived home the hot water heater was busted so cold showers and 18 degrees greeted us on our first morning 'home'. Wasn't it supposed to be warm in SC? The boys have received their back to school haircuts and tomorrow morning we get back on schedule with early morning wake-ups and school.

Ben's Beluga Whale Interaction

On December 22, I was able to participate in a beluga whale interaction at Sea World. This was a gift from my parents for my 12th birthday.

First of all I would like to thank my parents for the opportunity to interact with these amazing arctic creatures. And I would also like to thank my grandma and grandpa Moak for giving my family and I the chance to go to Sea World.

First I entered a back door that led to lockers for changing. There I changed into a wet suit preparing for the 54 degree water we were going to be kneeling in. After that I was taken to the back of the arctic exhibit where the belugas and other arctic animals were located. Passing through the back of this exhibit I got to get close and personal with arctic seals! After looking at them for a while I met up with my trainer and entered the whale exhibit. When interacting with the whales I sat on a ledge that was under about 2 to 3 feet of water. The whales I got to interact with were 7 and 6 years old and were named Klondike and Oracle. My favorite trick that they did was when I splashed them in the face, they spit water right back at me! There were many other tricks and I enjoyed this a whole lot!