On the Same Note

"I have community with others and I shall continue to have it only through Jesus Christ. The more genuine and the deeper our community becomes, the more will everything else between us recede, the more clearly and purely will Jesus Christ and his work become the one and only thing that is vital between us." Dietrich Bonhoeffer Part of our Community: Chipotle with Jon (Taylor's RA) and Kelly (Jon's girlfriend)

Bound

"God does not choose to be bound to this poeple because it serves some need God has; on the contrary, God enters into covenant relationship with Isreal as a strategy of reconciling all of creation to it's Creator." - Philip D. Kenneson, Life on the Vine
This is an excerpt from a book my class and I are going through. As I was reading it I wondered how this applied to us. As I understand it, we are supposed to be reflections of God. How then do our relationships with others (Husband/Wife, Family, Friends) reconcile creation to the Creator. No answer for now, but the mouse wheel is going.

Home Safe

After a 9 hour drive through the night, we arrived home in Beaver Falls. Only a few more weeks till we will head out again for Christmas. We loved being with family. Our nephews always make us laugh, but keep us firm on our plan to wait 5 years to have kids. I love being an aunt! Teaching the boys how to skip rocks. We are sitting in Panera Bread right now, while Wes is "working" on a paper that is due when he gets back to Boston. He leaves at 6:00am Monday morning. Good Luck Wes!

Big Sister

I was talking to a friend the other day and I made the comment, "The older I get, the faster time seems to go." Joanna and I feel so behind as time is flying past us. There are so many of you whom we have neglected to call, so many things that continue to fall down the to do list, and so much that we have failed to blog about. The dilemma is that we feel like in order to do justice to our deficient communication, we must find a large amount of time to express and share life. We are currently in Iowa spending the Thanksgiving holiday with Joanna's sister(Jody) and Brother-in-law(Andy) and their four boys(Dawson, Gabe, Max, and Quincy) (our cousin Wes is here too.) Jody has proven our above theory bogus. Here is a woman who is chasing around four boys under 7, is in the process of painting a house before they move into it in less than a week, and has graciously hosted us all while keeping up her blog. Pathetic, lazy, lethargic...we feel all these things. Thanks Jody;). Apparently the key is to not think about it. Just sit down for a few minutes and let fly. So with our new inspiration, here's to hopin we can "let fly" and keep up with our big sister. We love ya Jody.

She's the one peeking out of the barrage of boys

Website of the Week

Over a friendly game of cards, music snuck it's way into the conversation. A website submersed in everything music was brought to my attention, I feel the need to share this great joy with you. The website is

Pandora.com

. It goes something like this: Type in the name of your favorite artist; Pandora compiles a personal playlist based on the same type or "gene" of that artist; You are exposed to hundreds of artist you otherwise would not be; If you don't necessarily like one of there choices, you tell them and they further narrow the playlist you are listening to...instantly. I've been pretty impressed so far. It's worth checking out. If nothing else, it's always good to see inovation, and this is exactly that. If you want check out the theory behind the site, it was born out of the Music Genome Project.

Emily Visiting = LOTS OF PICTURES!!!

Emily flew across the country from Seattle to suprise Joanna and spend the weekend with us. Apparently we have to fly our friends in:) It was such a blessing to have her here. She is an incredible friend.

Quick Thought

"The church is not a museum for saints, but a hospital for sinners."
-Morton Kelsey
Refreshing and Challenging. Thank God for Grace.

More Pictures!!!

Cash from Coffee

God continues to show us that we are supposed to be here in Beaver Falls. His latest confirmation has come in the form of a new job for Joanna. She is now the closing manager at the Riverview Cafe (Geneva's Brand New Coffee Shop). Her last day as a Therapuetic Staff Support was this past Thursday and she will begin working full time at the Coffee Shop this Monday. It's a good move and a big blessing.

New York, New York

We met the Sprague Parents in New York City! It was Richard's 50th Birthday Trip and they really spoiled us. Get ready for some pictures.

Our first Subway trip



The Parents



Lady Liberty in the distance



We planned on seeing some crazy things in New York, but we weren't expecting this. There was a wild turkey in the middle of Battery Park. So weird!



Downtown wrapped in Fog



On the ferry to the Statue of Liberty



There she is. The history here is overwhelming.







Wall Street. I don't think she realizes where she's standing.



The view from our hotel room.



We ate dinner at Sardi's. This is a celebrity frequented restaurant right next to Broadway and Times Square. The food was amazing.



Times Square



For Taylor's first Broadway, we went to see Chicago.



DJ Shooter, a close friend of the Sprague Family, is a senior at Yale University. He is also a stud football player there. We took a train from Grand Central Station to New Haven, CT to go visit him.







The Yale Bulldogs remained undeafeted in there division as they beat the Penn Quakers 17-14 in Overtime. DJ is #80.



Taylor and DJ



Chad and Hailey flew into New Haven to spend the weekend with DJ. It was a mini family reunion!





One last train trip, a limo ride, and a plane flight brought us back home. I can't believe how much we did in two short days. It was just enough to make us want to go back. We had such a great time and we are so grateful that we have parents that let us join in their fun. Thanks Mom and Dad Sprague.