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!!