Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Sunday, September 15, 2013
New Beginnings: another summer has ended and a new school year has begun
Well, when I left you last Faith was about to undergo surgery on her elbow, and THANK GOD everthing went well. It was such a crazy week and CRAZY rest of the summer that I never was able to take the time to give an update of what was happening.
Her surgery went well, and her dr. was amazing. Even though the actual surgery time was delayed about 3 hours due to a back up in the OR, we were able to chat awhile with her surgeon, hear his personal testimony and be reassured that no matter what happened, God had it all under control.
We didn't actually leave the hospital until after 8:00 that night, got a few hours rest, I sent her home with a friend around 6:15 the next morning, and me & one of our youth who stayed with me all night, headed back out to Charleston @ 6:19 to meet up with our youth group for the last day of camp. Luckily we arrived about 10:15 right as the teams were leaving to go off campus to ministry sites and we got to participate in a full day of ministry to a group of children in a housing project.
After returning home from camp, our family got to take a vacation (first one we've had with just our family in over 3 years) and went camping for 2 days in St. Augustine, FL @ the state park. We had a LITTLE excitement on the first day there when Faith and Timothy disappeared after breakfast to go to the playground and we had to get the park rangers assistance in finding them. Instead of going to the playground RIGHT in front of our campsite, they had wondered down to the playground @ the beach, which was probably about 1/4 mile from our site. After being scared to death and Artie putting the FEAR of GOD in them, we were able to enjoy a nice RELAXING day @ the beach, and even got to swim with a family of porpoises for about an hour after lunch!! It was soooooo cool. After 2 days at the beach we went to visit Trey and Artie's family for a few days before bringing Trey home for orientation @ NC State.
Trey got "orientated" all except for his band audition, which he missed but was able to reschedule with the band director at a later date, and then he flew back to FL for his last week of work for the summer. He then drove ALL the way home on his first SOLO trip on the interstate. He went to State the following Monday for his audition, was accepted into the marching band and left for NC State band camp just NINE days later. Classes started for him on August 21 and he is having the TIME OF HIS LIFE. We are so glad he is getting to experience so many new things, but miss him terribly @ home. We went to NC State on August 31 to watch him march in his first EVER college football game!! Other than being 150 bajillion degrees that day and sweating off our tailgate lunch of ribs, pork chops, macaroni, beans and potatoes, we had a BLAST!! After the game, we enjoyed a nice celebratory dinner @ Kanki, Japanese restaurant. Trey, our friend's daughter, Leeann (aka "Sissy") and myself got complimentary dessert of rainbow sherbert to celebrate Trey's first college half time show and mine and Sissy's upcoming birthdays this week. It was a BLAST!!
As for us here at home, life just continues as normal. We finished up the summer with just a little bit more "excitement" as has been the norm for us. Poor Casey, who wasn't feeling good already, broke her toe and lost her mama cat (the one she rescued as a tiny kitten from the FFA building @ school 2 years ago) while we were with Trey @ orientation. That left us with 5 four week old kittens to look after until we could find them all new homes. They are now 8 weeks old and have found homes for 3 of them. As summer wound to a close, I prepared to go back to work and the kids prepared for school. School started back for me on August 15 and the kids first day back was August 26.
Casey is a junior and has a FULL schedule this fall with HONORS and AP classes, chamber choir, chorus, etc. She brought home her schedule of events for chorus and chamber choir and she will be BUSY, BUSY, BUSY from now until Christmas singing her little heart out. She has been doing cross country training this summer with her sister, but since she broke her toe @ the end of July, has not really gotten back into running, YET, but is still attending practices and helping out with the team for now. Hopefully once she is fully healed she can slowly get back into the swing of things.
Leeann is a sophomore, running cross country again, is taking ROTC (instead of animal science) and food science. She has decided instead of going into the medical field that she wants to be a chef, so we will see how that goes. She and Casey have also begun taking piano lessons with Faith. Leeann has expressed interest in wanting to play the keyboard with the band next year, so we will have to wait and see how that pans out.
Jonathan is in 8th grade, top dog class @ the middle school this year. He is STILL in the band, playing French horn - 1st chair, is in the jazz band, and is playing in the marching band
at the high school as part of the pit /sideline percussion playing the marimba (bells/xylophone). He is LOVING every minute of it, as am I, being a veteran band member. They have SEVERAL competitions scheduled for the fall, one of which is the Land of the Sky marching band festival in Enka, NC, where my high school band used to come every year from TN to compete!!! VERY EXCITING!!
Faith is a 4th grader this year, and has a wonderful new teacher, Miss Turner, whose sister played softball with one of our youth that just graduated this past year. I know that she will have a GREAT year!!! She is still playing the piano and is interested in doing Girls on the Run again this year, if they have it.
Last, but not least, may baby boy started KINDERGARTEN last week. I don't have ANY more babies. They are ALL in school and doing well. Timothy loves his teachers!!! He has the same teacher that Faith had in kindergarten and a wonderful assistant who I have known and worked with for 8 years at Springmore. She and I are actually "sharing" a bus route this year. I do mornings and she does afternoon.
As for me and Artie, we are just trying to keep up with our Gang and ALL their many activities. We are still working with the children and youth at our church, and I am still working in my same position as a kindergarten assistant at our local elementary school. We are also helping out with the marching band - meals, driving bus, working with pit crew, etc.- and will be the new WyldLife leaders for our local middle school this year, beginning in about 2 weeks. We are very excited about what God has in store for us in the days and weeks ahead. But are still in need of prayers, not only for us and our family, but also for our church.
Our pastor has decided to retire and our church will begin the process of searching for and hiring a new pastor in the next few weeks. For now, Artie is the ONLY full time staff person at our church. We lost our outreach/discipleship pastor this summer to cancer after a yearlong fight, our music director is only part time and our pastor was part time/semi retired since before we came to the church 4 1/2 years ago. He decided to stay on as pastor when Artie was hired 4 years ago to be part of what God had in store for the youth/children's ministry, but due to some recent health issues and other things, he has decided it is time to step down and take a break, for himself and his family. He informally told the church last Sunday and read his letter of resignation this weekend.
BUT in the midst of all this our church will still go on, we are still growing, God is still moving and WE WILL SURVIVE. We will continue moving forward in anticipation of what God has in store for us in this next phase of life.
Thank you God that you will never leave us NOR forsake us in our time of need, and now we need Him more than ever. I pray that God finds all of you well and that whatever stage of life you are in or what you may be going through, that God will lead and guide you in all of life's journeys and decisions you face. We covet your prayers and Pray God's richest blessings on you!!!
Until we meet again!!!!
In Christ's love,
The Hubbard Gang
Her surgery went well, and her dr. was amazing. Even though the actual surgery time was delayed about 3 hours due to a back up in the OR, we were able to chat awhile with her surgeon, hear his personal testimony and be reassured that no matter what happened, God had it all under control.
We didn't actually leave the hospital until after 8:00 that night, got a few hours rest, I sent her home with a friend around 6:15 the next morning, and me & one of our youth who stayed with me all night, headed back out to Charleston @ 6:19 to meet up with our youth group for the last day of camp. Luckily we arrived about 10:15 right as the teams were leaving to go off campus to ministry sites and we got to participate in a full day of ministry to a group of children in a housing project.
After returning home from camp, our family got to take a vacation (first one we've had with just our family in over 3 years) and went camping for 2 days in St. Augustine, FL @ the state park. We had a LITTLE excitement on the first day there when Faith and Timothy disappeared after breakfast to go to the playground and we had to get the park rangers assistance in finding them. Instead of going to the playground RIGHT in front of our campsite, they had wondered down to the playground @ the beach, which was probably about 1/4 mile from our site. After being scared to death and Artie putting the FEAR of GOD in them, we were able to enjoy a nice RELAXING day @ the beach, and even got to swim with a family of porpoises for about an hour after lunch!! It was soooooo cool. After 2 days at the beach we went to visit Trey and Artie's family for a few days before bringing Trey home for orientation @ NC State.
Trey got "orientated" all except for his band audition, which he missed but was able to reschedule with the band director at a later date, and then he flew back to FL for his last week of work for the summer. He then drove ALL the way home on his first SOLO trip on the interstate. He went to State the following Monday for his audition, was accepted into the marching band and left for NC State band camp just NINE days later. Classes started for him on August 21 and he is having the TIME OF HIS LIFE. We are so glad he is getting to experience so many new things, but miss him terribly @ home. We went to NC State on August 31 to watch him march in his first EVER college football game!! Other than being 150 bajillion degrees that day and sweating off our tailgate lunch of ribs, pork chops, macaroni, beans and potatoes, we had a BLAST!! After the game, we enjoyed a nice celebratory dinner @ Kanki, Japanese restaurant. Trey, our friend's daughter, Leeann (aka "Sissy") and myself got complimentary dessert of rainbow sherbert to celebrate Trey's first college half time show and mine and Sissy's upcoming birthdays this week. It was a BLAST!!
As for us here at home, life just continues as normal. We finished up the summer with just a little bit more "excitement" as has been the norm for us. Poor Casey, who wasn't feeling good already, broke her toe and lost her mama cat (the one she rescued as a tiny kitten from the FFA building @ school 2 years ago) while we were with Trey @ orientation. That left us with 5 four week old kittens to look after until we could find them all new homes. They are now 8 weeks old and have found homes for 3 of them. As summer wound to a close, I prepared to go back to work and the kids prepared for school. School started back for me on August 15 and the kids first day back was August 26.
Casey is a junior and has a FULL schedule this fall with HONORS and AP classes, chamber choir, chorus, etc. She brought home her schedule of events for chorus and chamber choir and she will be BUSY, BUSY, BUSY from now until Christmas singing her little heart out. She has been doing cross country training this summer with her sister, but since she broke her toe @ the end of July, has not really gotten back into running, YET, but is still attending practices and helping out with the team for now. Hopefully once she is fully healed she can slowly get back into the swing of things.
Leeann is a sophomore, running cross country again, is taking ROTC (instead of animal science) and food science. She has decided instead of going into the medical field that she wants to be a chef, so we will see how that goes. She and Casey have also begun taking piano lessons with Faith. Leeann has expressed interest in wanting to play the keyboard with the band next year, so we will have to wait and see how that pans out.
Jonathan is in 8th grade, top dog class @ the middle school this year. He is STILL in the band, playing French horn - 1st chair, is in the jazz band, and is playing in the marching band
at the high school as part of the pit /sideline percussion playing the marimba (bells/xylophone). He is LOVING every minute of it, as am I, being a veteran band member. They have SEVERAL competitions scheduled for the fall, one of which is the Land of the Sky marching band festival in Enka, NC, where my high school band used to come every year from TN to compete!!! VERY EXCITING!!
Faith is a 4th grader this year, and has a wonderful new teacher, Miss Turner, whose sister played softball with one of our youth that just graduated this past year. I know that she will have a GREAT year!!! She is still playing the piano and is interested in doing Girls on the Run again this year, if they have it.
Last, but not least, may baby boy started KINDERGARTEN last week. I don't have ANY more babies. They are ALL in school and doing well. Timothy loves his teachers!!! He has the same teacher that Faith had in kindergarten and a wonderful assistant who I have known and worked with for 8 years at Springmore. She and I are actually "sharing" a bus route this year. I do mornings and she does afternoon.
As for me and Artie, we are just trying to keep up with our Gang and ALL their many activities. We are still working with the children and youth at our church, and I am still working in my same position as a kindergarten assistant at our local elementary school. We are also helping out with the marching band - meals, driving bus, working with pit crew, etc.- and will be the new WyldLife leaders for our local middle school this year, beginning in about 2 weeks. We are very excited about what God has in store for us in the days and weeks ahead. But are still in need of prayers, not only for us and our family, but also for our church.
Our pastor has decided to retire and our church will begin the process of searching for and hiring a new pastor in the next few weeks. For now, Artie is the ONLY full time staff person at our church. We lost our outreach/discipleship pastor this summer to cancer after a yearlong fight, our music director is only part time and our pastor was part time/semi retired since before we came to the church 4 1/2 years ago. He decided to stay on as pastor when Artie was hired 4 years ago to be part of what God had in store for the youth/children's ministry, but due to some recent health issues and other things, he has decided it is time to step down and take a break, for himself and his family. He informally told the church last Sunday and read his letter of resignation this weekend.
BUT in the midst of all this our church will still go on, we are still growing, God is still moving and WE WILL SURVIVE. We will continue moving forward in anticipation of what God has in store for us in this next phase of life.
Thank you God that you will never leave us NOR forsake us in our time of need, and now we need Him more than ever. I pray that God finds all of you well and that whatever stage of life you are in or what you may be going through, that God will lead and guide you in all of life's journeys and decisions you face. We covet your prayers and Pray God's richest blessings on you!!!
Until we meet again!!!!
In Christ's love,
The Hubbard Gang
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)