Left for Dead

I 'Left for Dead' a Christmas Cactus my sister-in-law gave me back in May. It started dropping parts soon after I got it and continued to do so until about a month later I hauled it outside and put it on our basement stair ledge. I decided to put it out to dry - literally - and then take it to the plant graveyard. Well, low in behold (I know!! It IS a cactus...) but it began to get leaves.

NOW IT HAS FLOWERS!!!
Check it out....

Happy 7th Anniversary Clifford Community Church

The church we attend celebrated it's 7th anniversary this past week, so today was our anniversary service & potluck. It was a good time of remembering what all GOD has done these past 7 years, and even how He lead the Botts to Clifford.

As a visual, Greg set up candles to represent the 'lights' that we are to the community and how they have grown over these years. We sang 'This Little Light of Mine' as he stared the first one with a lighter, then he brought out the big guns! :) He lit them as he accompanied us on his harmonica. The last bunch for this next year was a big group of candles tied together, making a pretty big fire when lit! : ) Greg always has great visuals. :)











The food was yummy and fellowship good. This afternoon we rested, and Shane has been studying for the Sunday night study he leads. :) And, I am here blogging. Ahhh... it is good to be caught up. I will continue to take it easy this next week as I try to get over this cold virus. Thank you if you have been praying! :) We need groceries pretty bad, so hopefully I will be up to it tomorrow to head to Food Basics.... atleast L&M has the basics.

The 2007 Dutchie Cup

This Friday, (Yeah! I'm almost caught up!!) was our Dutch Blitz 2nd Year social. We played Dutch Blitz, BIG style. :) Joan and I were the Blitz Organizers.











Joan didn't mind doing all of the work, :) and I did the non-exertive tasks to try to conserve my energy. (I kept score, filled out the tournament chart, and took pictures.)

















Here are some fun pics.


































































































































































Dutchie Cup Winners!













Our other Winners!












And to finish the evening.... ONE BIG BLITZ GAME...talk about mahem! :) I missed the REALLY GOOD picture, this is just after the big ball of bodies broke up.

My Bread Machine

My honey bought me a bread machine for Christmas!!!! What a surprise, and a welcomed one at that! :) Here's my first loaf......












And us enjoying the fruits of my labours, ok, so they weren't mine... :)

Markus, Brad, Jeff, Elycia, & Hannah

After arriving home the night before, craming to put things a bit in order, and getting lunch started in the crockpot for lunch the next day, we crashed into bed.

We slept in a bit, then were up bright eyed and bushy-tailed scurring around like mice getting ready for the gang at 11.

Our day was GREAT! We sure enjoyed them all coming up and spending the day with us.

This is Brad showing Shane & I his pictures from their (Jeff, and Brad & Elycia) first semester out west doing cool things and neat ministry activities. Markus' pictures were great and we had lots of laughs as he recounted the funny story behind them. Jeff was in his group too, so we had to hear Jeff's funny stories straight from him. :)













We gave them a tour, and low down on a bit of what our ministry involves here. They had heard a bit from camp anyway, but it was great to have them here to show them around.













Hannah gave us more details on what she will be doing for her doubled soccer camp down in Ecuador this February. This will be her third year of doing this, and she'd appreciate your prayers that all goes well and that she is able to get equipment donated for the camps, as well as it will be fine going through customs.

Brad & Elycia are in Guatemala now for the semester, and Jeff & Markus are now in South Africa. They'd appreciate your prayers as they experience very new things - food, sickness, people, smells, and life's realities for those parts of the world. Pray for their spiritual growth and safety.

Home or Bust........

We had 2 more nights away before arriving at "Home Sweet Home", Michigan, Sarnia, and St. Thomas for a few hours.

In Michigan we stayed with a very sweet couple whom we never met, but they open their home up to missionaries passing through. It was so interesting to hear their life stories and to hear about their family now.

We then headed to Sarnia to spend the evening with Eric & Joyce. They are good friends of M&D Whatleys and we just had a wonderfully relaxing time with them too! (We showed them the pictures from M&D's surprise party in November. They were sad they couldn't make it up.)













The next day it was off to visit Alan, Rachel, Judah & Miriam before getting home late that night. (This is Judah finding his treasure from his drawn treasure map.)













This is Miriam and myself checking out her new girly magnetic book that we bought her for Christmas.













It was good to be home, but we quickly unpacked a bit and crashed. Company was coming in the morning! :)

Indiana..... but not for the races. :)

We were finally going to see the Ondrojacks! We hadn't seen the in 5 years and there was soooo much to catch up on!

















First we had dinner, though, and it was YUMMY! Then was dessert! Happy Birthday Megan & Shane!




























We really had a super time with Adam, Cristie, and the girls. We loved hearing and asking questions about their year on a 48 ft sailboat, just this past year. Wow! It was a great experience, a wonderful time for the family, and now they are settled on dry ground again. Thanks guys for a great time!!

Urbana Day 1

We arrived safely (read Shane's birthday blog entry)

We NTM Exhibitors had a meeting over in Zele's room, getting the low-down on what was going to happen and expections of us as well as introductions. (I took none of these pictures.)











We then headed off to a Urbana Exhibitor meeting. There were around/over 2,000 of us.






















Then attended the evening session...

Urbana Day 2

Our first morning and this is the sight you would have seen had you been in the same suite with us! Scary, eh?? :)












Today was a bright, beautiful day, so I headed to the 24th floor for whatever pictures I could get of the city. Not much, however, we were very privileged to be RIGHT next to the America Centre and the stadium where everything was taking place.

























We attended the second session, held in the stadium.....













and left early to eat lunch. We just ate at the America Centre and then went to our booth where the exhibitors could get in at 12:30, 1/2 hr before the students could come in. This is us all meeting. :) Not sure what Simpson is doing. :) Maybe he knew I'd blog this picture. hee hee (no, he'd not know.)




















GUESS WHO WAS ON THE NEXT ISLE OVER!!!!! Bill & Janelle from Mountainview! Ah, it was like old times! We did feel bad that we couldn't have spent more time with them... They were the only ones representing the school, so that kept them hopping. We did pop over a few times to see how recruiting was going. I think they atleast got one teacher for August!!! I'm so excited for the school, and hope that they get many more teachers down the road.











As you will see in another day's post, we did get up our nerve to ask if their fellow exhibitor neighbors could have a henna tatoo too... :)













After standing all afternoon, my legs and hips were killing me! Everyone else was hurting too, so Dora came over and I gave Kara and her foot rubs. (I did this atleast one other time if not two.) They were very happy, and I was very happy to serve them. :)













The guys hung out and talked, eating cappuccino wafer sticks given to us by my sister-in-law for Christmas. They had a really good time too. It was nice to have the time to just 'Hang' and visit with 'people our age', no commitments, etc. Just time to chill. Loved it!

Urbana Day 3

Doug, Kara, Jonathan, Dora, Shane & I headed out for lunch. We ate at the 'City Grocer.' An AWESOME place to eat!!! Their lunch special for 3 salads for $5.00 (1 meat, and 2 salad, salads) I had the crab salad, broccoli/sesame salad, and the mediteranian salad. Oh my goodness, the broccoli/sesame salad was SOOOOOOOOOOOO yummy!!!!! Shane got the same 'deal' except he had curry turkey, another salad, and the mediteranian salad also. We were going for not eating at the same place twice, so we didn't eat there again, but if we lived there I'd DEFINITELY be back!!!













Us talking with interested students....











Sights of St. Louis...