hope and heartache

This past weekend, we headed up to Wichita to join Aunt Patti for Race for the Cure and watch Ren kicking at Bethel's first home game of the season.

We arrived Friday night in time to enjoy some dinner with Ren before heading to bed — we had to leave by 8 a.m. (i.e. 7 a.m. mountain time) for Race for the Cure. The three of us arrived at the mall bright and early while the guys slept in a little longer. After checking in, we wandered around, scored some free swag, and took photos with some wandering stormtroopers. It was so exciting to see so many people there (nearly 7,500 racing), raising money and awareness for breast cancer. There was so much information about risk factors and early detection, and with the money Susan G. Komen raised and continues to raise, hopefully the cure is one step closer.

The walk, our race, started at 9:15 a.m. When we arrived at the starting line, I couldn't believe how many people were walking.

After 5K, we finally arrived at the finish line.

addition: I just found out we made it on TV! If you watch close (we go fast), you can see us girls walking in the video clip here, and you can read the article here (we aren't quoted or anything, just if you're curious).

We made our way back to the stage and vendors, where the guys met us to visit more booths (including free Starbucks!). We picked up a little more free swag before heading to the Good Egg for lunch. My banana-coconut pancakes were fantastic but if I were to do it over, I would get a single pancake instead of two — they were massive!

I took a much needed power nap, and we all got decked out for Ren's night game against Kansas Wesleyan. Ian's cousin Alli made it to the game, and we got to meet Carson, our first cousin once-removed, for the first time.

Bethel played great — it's a tribute to the coaching staff and players that they were able to come back and play well after a heartbreaking loss in the last seconds at their game the previous weekend.

In the fourth quarter, Bethel was trailing KWU by six points. After recovering a fumble, they put together a solid drive to score, and Ren nailed a perfect point after to pull the team ahead with 15 seconds remaining in the game.

The defense did a fantastic job, and after two plays — an incomplete pass and a completed pass that fell short of a touchdown, the clock ran out and Bethel started running out on the field. KWU's coach started arguing with the referees, saying he called their final timeout with one second remaining. The refs conceded and put back one second on the clock.

As KWU ran their final play, their quarterback scrambled and finally launched a pass into a mass of players around the five-yard line. Bethel defense was doing its job, then one of the KWU players pushed off a defender to catch the pass. In the newspaper article the next day, the player admitted he pushed off, which should have incurred a penalty. After catching the ball, he looked to the refs, then seeing no flag ran in for a touchdown, making the final score 19-14, KWU.

I've never seen refs run off the field as fast as they did Saturday night. The Bethel crowd was in disbelief and angry at the series of events that ended the game. The refs allowed an additional play for KWU at the request of the KWU coach (perhaps correctly — I can't watch replays), then they missed a big offensive interference call that even the offending player acknowledged to the newspaper. Perhaps KWU would have managed to score after a penalty, but we'll never know.

It would be one thing to lose in a heartbreaker to a classy team after a tough and evenly matched game. What makes this loss hurt more is what we witnessed at the game: the lack of class shown by the Kansas Wesleyan coaching staff, players, and fans. Near the beginning of the game, a KWU player threw a very late hit, punching a Bethel player in the helmet. While they received a penalty, he was not ejected or pulled out by their coach — he continued to play. Fans shouted obscenities at the Bethel players as they headed to the locker room at halftime. After the game, a player chanted something along the lines of "you can't stop us" although the win leaves room for questions and was by no means a blowout.

I'm very thankful for the coaching staff at Bethel, knowing the character that Coach Moore instills in his players. To him, football is much more than winning or losing. As painful as the game was, I'm thankful for Bethel's integrity and class and I admire their resilience in the face of defeat. I wish them luck in their next game.

caleb's big week

I wanted to take this time to update you on some big family news: Caleb finally got his braces off! Yesterday afternoon I went home for an eye doctor appointment, and it just so happened to be the same day as Caleb's big orthodontist visit. After I finished "eyeballing," I came home to Caleb's sparkling smile — I'm very thankful I was one of the first to see his new and improved shiny pearly whites!

And not only did he get his braces off this week, he also got pneumonia! How many people get their braces off AND have pneumonia at the same time? He was diagnosed earlier this week and is currently on antibiotic (the doctor said it was fine to still go to the ortho). To avoid getting other people sick, Caleb has a designated bathroom. Mom and Dad also informed me I should maintain a 3-6 foot radius to avoid the "droplets" which can transmit bacteria (it's not airborne). They, however, did not tell me this until I was already sitting right next to Caleb on the sofa. Maybe since I've already had pneumonia, I'm immune. Ian is crossing his fingers as he reads this, I'm sure.

Happy braces off, littlest biggest brother, and thanks for holding your breath to prevent germ transfer when we hugged goodbye!

that trip to Philly...

It was a crazy idea to fly to Philly a week before moving out of our apartment. So why did we do it? Olin and the facilities office at Penn provided valuable assistance and advice to Ian for his master's project, and so he wanted to present his project to them. Monday, June 22–Tuesday, June 23 just happened to be the window that worked for them.

We flew out Sunday morning and arrived early in the afternoon. Luke, from our small group, picked us up at the airport then took us for some Rita's Water Ice, which we'd seen and heard about but never tried during our 8 months in Philly. Not bad! We walked down to Rittenhouse Square before heading to Tenth for the evening service. We surprised a few people, and also were surprised to find out Fred and Laura were expecting in late August! (Anna Thomas was born August 27 and she's beautiful!) After the service the church hosted an outdoor coffee/dessert event, which gave us time to catch up with some friends.

Monday morning we took a stroll down the Parkway to see what was new. It turns out a lot. Instead of the Juvenile Detention Center facility, we saw an open grassy block fronted by a curving wall describing how the Barnes Foundation is moving to the Parkway. The Barnes "is home to one of the world's largest collections of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and early Modern paintings, with extensive holdings by Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, Renoir and Modigliani, as well as important examples of African sculpture."

It was amazing to see how demolishing one building made such an impact on the area: many homeless people spent their nights huddled in sleeping bags next to that building. With the building gone, it was very noticeable that the area's homeless population was down. I couldn't help but wonder where they went and how they are doing. However, in terms of planning it seems like a smart move. City Hall and the Philadelphia Museum of Arts bookend the Parkway, which is home to the Perelman Building and Rodin Museum as well as a public library and Logan Square. The addition of the Barnes will add to the visual appeal of the Parkway and increase the draw of the Museum District as a destination for the arts.

We wandered further down the Parkway, pausing at Logan Square.

Our walk ended at our favorite Philadelphia restaurant: Caribou Cafe. And a meal here would not be complete without the brioche bread pudding drenched in butterscotch and white chocolate.

After lunch we headed to Penn to take another look at the space Ian spent all year designing and drop off his master's project book with the facilities office. It was fun to be back on campus, and it was my first time visiting the facilities office. We also saw the construction on Franklin Field, where they are adding a fitness center, and the work at the Penn Park site.

After leaving Penn, we headed to Eastern State Penitentiary, an attraction we missed during Ian's internship. It was pretty incredible to learn its history, and see the restored wings as well as the areas kept in a state of suspended ruin. And of course, we had to make sure we didn't miss Al Capone's cell.

After our tour we met up with Amit for some food, fellowship and ice cream.

Tuesday morning we packed up and headed to Olin, where Ian gave a presentation on his master's project to a couple of the partners who helped him out with his project. It was great to see everyone at the firm, and the two partners took us out for lunch after the presentation. It was wonderful for me to get to know Ian's old bosses a little better. With the economic downturn, they told us they were thankful they haven't had to lay off a single employee, but couldn't say when they would be hiring again. We both really respect their honesty and their efforts to maintain job security for all their employees. I'm thankful Olin was where Ian fulfilled his internship requirement.

After a delicious lunch, we rushed to the airport to catch our flight back, but we did take a few moments to get one final photo.

before we leave: the conclusion

In the rush of trying to hit as many places on our list as possible, taking a trip to Philly, throwing Ian's birthday party, and the process of actually moving, I never got around to blogging about how we fared with our pre-moving list. So, just in case you were curious, here's the final update!

the list:

• the zoo
• the Beach (museum, that is)
• the insect zoo
• "our" hill (i.e. where we started dating and where Ian proposed)
• Tuttle Creek
• Konza
• Tallgrass Brewing Company
• So Long Saloon
• Daylight Donuts
• The Chef
• Call Hall
• Tad's Sno Cones
• Grandma's

We missed out on the insect zoo and Tallgrass Brewing Company, and didn't make final visits to "our" hill, Tuttle Creek, and Konza — all of which we can still try to make whenever we're back in town. We did get most of the list done, and even squeezed in a few unlisted fun things before we left that made up for some of what we missed. Here are the highlights!

We took a night stroll at Jardine. The pond is beautiful and full of frogs, which are fun to find and watch. At night, they shut off the fountain so it's really peaceful sitting by the pond, listening to frogs, and enjoying the beautiful evening.

Board games at the Haydens' also turned into a really fun unlisted evening. Ryan has a large and eclectic board game collection, which he's accumulated through garage sales, thrift stores, and online board game trading. Raceway 57, Scotland Yard, and Carcassonne kept us up late into the night. We both especially enjoyed Carcassonne and added it to our Christmas wish list!

Even though we didn't make it to the outdoor attractions: "our" hill, Tuttle, and Konza, Fox, Ian, and I did go to Ian's professor's farm to watch the sunset. This is where Ian and Fox were building a dry-stack stone wall for a fire pit for their professor. Her family has a beautiful home and an incredible view and the sunset was gorgeous — we took lots of photos!

On the list was a Daylight Donuts run. We went around 8 a.m. — if you go too late there isn't much selection left, then drove home and enjoyed them on the picnic bench outside our apartment.

We also checked off Sunset Zoo, and after waiting for five years, we ended up picking one of the hottest afternoons to visit. It was still lots of fun, and the zoo, although small, has a variety of great animals and is done well. There's even a petting zoo, where Ian met a one-eyed goat he dubbed Uno.

Our final completed item from the list was visiting Grandma on the farm. My biggest regret from college was not taking advantage of living so much closer to family. I got really busy with homework and activities and I know I missed out on some great times hanging out in Grandma's kitchen learning to make amazing food and enjoying time together. Squeezing in a visit right before our move doesn't make up for lost time, but I'm thankful we could make it work during a busy time of moving. I'm also very thankful I have such an amazing Grandma — I see what love is when I see the way she takes care of Grandpa. We spent some good quality time with Grandma and visited Grandpa at the nursing home. He's still doing about the same, but for a person suffering from Alzheimer's, that's a good thing.

As I've mentioned before, our move was unnecessarily stressful, but we finished moving out and cleaning the apartment just in time. We have some great friends that helped us with the whole process — Ben and Storm came over to help load up heavy things, Chandra helped clean, Britni and Joe are letting us keep the bulk of our things in their attic and extra bedroom so we didn't have to rent a storage unit and/or a moving truck, and Karen housed us for a couple days as we tied up loose ends.

If you notice our move-out date and the few days we spent with Karen, you might realize we left town on my birthday. A four-hour drive isn't the best way to celebrate a birthday, but Ian's family met us at my parent's and we had a little party with pizza and a yummy cheesecake Micki made. It was a welcome relaxing evening with our families after all of the moving stress!

And just four days later we were on a plane to the Philippines. We don't mess around when it comes to keeping busy!

if you like pranks...

In June, a couple smart and bored individuals decided to prank Ben and Storm while they were away from the office for a week at camp. I witnessed their reactions when they got back. Whoever it was that pranked them was really happy about the responses, and the whole office was impressed with the prank. I was not the brilliant individual who came up with this idea, but if you decide to do this, I do know it took a lot of foil, so go with the cheap stuff! And please note, they took the time to individually wrap markers, pencils, scissors, headphones, thumbtacks... which really put the whole thing over the top. Great job — you know who you are!

one month later...

We've been back from our Philippines trip for exactly a month. In that month, we've been to SC, Denver five times each — one of Ian's Denver trips included a hiking trip with Ren to the mountains, and Manhattan twice (thanks again, Britni and Joe, for housing us and our things!). In between, we've kept busy here at home, bookkeeping, blogging, playing with Pfluff, running errands, and helping around the house as we wait for a job opportunity for Ian. We've been praying about Ian's job, but are thankful for this time with family — we understand why God is saying "not yet."

Some of you already know that Micki's cancer is back again. This is the third time, but each time has been a different cancer, none of which is genetic. The doctors are really interested in her! The tests for this cancer came back with the best-case scenario — hormone positive and HER-2 positive. This means that the herceptin she is taking is still effective and also will work for this new cancer, and they know exactly what to do to cut off the "food source" of the cancer, which is hormones. To address the hormone issue, we went to Denver on Tuesday, and she had laparoscopic surgery to remove her ovaries on Wednesday. She's a little sore but recovering well and we appreciate the thoughts, prayers, and delicious food from a great support network! Also, she'll start Femara. This newer drug is much easier on the body than tamoxifen. For those of you who don't know all of the technical terms, just know God has answered prayers in a big way and we are very thankful.

We're also happy to have lots of time to play with Pfluff, the family's curious and acrobatic cat who plays fetch. She brings joy to our days.

And as we wait, I've added to my experiences at the family funeral homes. Today, I helped Micki assemble a temporary grave marker, helped Dane move out a casket from the casket room, and Ian and I helped Dane move the body to the casket. It was much different than Take Your Daughter to Work Day with my dad at the Ag Service Center! After finishing up at the funeral home, we came home, made communion bread, and Micki and I enjoyed a little at-home foot spa while listening to the K-State football game. What a great way to end the day!