WOW!

Ok Melissa you were right! I want the 1 degree temp back. Today we left the house and it was -13 degrees. I think it's warmed up a bit to -5 now. Bring out the shorts!!! Our windchill today is -36 and the kids are still going strong in school today. They will be antsy by Friday I'm sure. We love ya'll...

Oops

So I went to post all of our pics from the last few months and found that all of them have been deleted. I have no pictures of halloween, thanksgiving, or our Christmas programs. Sorry about that. Our kids have been playing with the camera and they must have hit the button. We are all excited to be almost done with school until next year. We are just living day by day in this cold tundra. It reached 1 degree last night when I was on my way home from church. Wow, I never thought I would be able to function in that cold temp but really you get used to it around here. The kids go out at recess except for when the windchill is below 0. Craziness!!! Well, I'll try to retake some of our Christmas pics that we took at church on Sunday. They were so nice and pretty. Hope you are all doing well. Much Love...

Posting

I am so sorry to those of you who read our blog on a daily basis. Please do not give up on us. We are extremely busy with Christmas programs and our computer died at home. We will be spending Thanksgiving here in SD alone with just the 5 of us (Joe Joe was included in that). Hopefully we will have a chance to blog some. We brought Mike's laptop home from the church and will try to get on the web to share some pics with you. We miss you all and wish we could be with you for the holidays.

Where's Fall?

I thought it was about time to blog for all of you that follow us. Our computer at home got a really bad virus and won't even turn on now so it has taken us a while to get back on here. We are now in the middle of winter it seems. I think I just blinked and Fall was over. Yesterday was Veteran's Day and we got snow. It got warm after that and started melting. I think that is it for a few days. Now we are enveloped in fog. We don't seem to be able to get out of it. We are all doing well. Alex has developed her annual nasty cough. Tym is excited to build his snowmen outside of your townhouse. Yesterday he built sissy. School is going well for him, grades are awesome, behavior we are working on. Mike is busy as always at the church, bowling, playing basketball etc... Kris is busy putting the finishing touches on the Christmas program at school. Only 4 weeks left AAHHH!!! Joe Joe is lonely, awaiting the arrival of his best friend Ottie. Someday they will be together again. We love and miss you all.

Halloween

Just a note to let you all know that I haven't forgotten to blog. I just don't have any new info to share. We are having some beautiful weather here and are gearing up for our Harvest Bash tomorrow night with the youth. The kids are going to trunk-or-treat tonight at one of the baptist churches here in Sioux Falls. That should be fun. We are going to be taking lots of pics for all of you. We love you so much...miss you

NO SNOW!

Well, everyone was really worried that it might snow today. No luck...so sorry. We had a lot of rain in the last few days. It didn't stop at all. I think they said we had 2 inches of rain. It got real cold yesterday at about 32 or so. Now we have to swim every where we go. Everyone here is doing well. Tym has finished up one semester already here at the school. If you are interested in raising money for our school here's some info on how to do it for free. Go to www.goodsearch.com. When you get there put Christian Center Elementary School in the charity box. Every time you use goodsearch.com it gives us money. It's just a search engine through yahoo. You can get to all of your regular sites on there it just gives us money when you do it. Thanks in advance...We love you all and miss you too.

Howdy

It's been a few days since I've updated you on the Hofer's. We have been trying to get back into the swing of things. Mike has been gone a lot in the last few weeks and that usually throws everything off. The big thing here in SD right now is that it's raining a lot and we have a chance of snow tonight. Wow, it's only October. That's what we get for moving to the real north. Winter coats, hats, gloves and scarfs have been found and have been used for the last few days. We are so thankful for a warm house to live in and a garage to put our jeep in. No scraping the windows this winter. PRAISE THE LORD!!! Hope you are all doing well.

Some pics of NY

Here's some random pics. The gram's and Sarah were waiting while we were making Melissa and David's grilled pizza. Here's the famous gram Liddick's snickerdoodes.











Papa with Nathan and Robbie. Unfortunately their mom likes the Jets.

The Following Days...

So, I made it to NY and Mike made it home safe. We had crossed paths on Saturday and are just waiting to see eachother again. We have been going through the motions of the passing of Wally. It has been surprisingly uplifting. We all loved grandpa and will miss his smile. So many people have been to see us and they all say the same things. It's all about what we learned from him and that is to serve others without asking for things in return. BE A SERVANT AT ALL TIMES!!! That's what gramp did and it has showed this weekend. Mom and I (Kristen) were able to get through "I've Just Seen Jesus" originally sung by Sandi Patti and Larnell Harris. We made it through and there wasn't a dry eye in the building. How powerful!!! We've seen aunts, uncles, cousins and friends that we haven't seen in 15 years or so. They really don't recognize Sarah and I and we really don't recognize them. It is so neat how death brings us all together again. Melissa, I have a picture for you that I'll post when I get back to SD. I took a pic of Gram's snickerdoodles for you guys. I got some great hugs from your folks today too!! Wish you were here. Well, tomorrow is the graveside stuff and then we will celebrate mom's birthday. Yep, going from one emotion to the next but mom deserves it. Continue to keep us in your prayers. We have felt them so far and thank you for them. Much love from NY...

NY Bound

I just wanted to thank everyone for their prayers. Mike has arranged for me to get back to NY for my grandpa's funeral. I will get to see family and friends. It's a sad time but it will be good to see familiar faces again. Of course we knew this was coming we just didn't know it would be so soon. I leave for NY at 5am tomorrow and return on Tuesday. Hopefully I will be able to update you while I am away. Much love...

Grandpa VanHarken

For all of you who know my family... Just letting you all know that Grandpa Van went to be with Jesus early this morning. We have been anticipating this for quite a while but it is still a shock when they are actually gone. We've been praying for his suffering to go away quickly and God heard our prayers. Gram said that she prayed last night that God would lessen his suffering and then she got a call to go to Gramps side this morning. He passed away right after she got there to hold his hand. How sweet...just to know that he waited for her. The family is doing well and we are hoping to get home. Keep us all in your prayers while we figure this out. Mike is in Atlanta and I am here in SD. Much love...

Nothing New

Just thought I would write something so you all know that we are still here. Mike is leaving in about 10 mins. to go to Catalyst in Atlanta. All the pastors are going from our church. He'll be gone until Saturday so you all know what we'll be doing. Staying home and getting things cleaned up for dad. We all enjoy being home but dad loves to be on the move all the time. So if you are a reader that loves to pray for us...that's our prayer request. At least we all go to the same school at the same time and we don't have to find helpers for that. Hope you are all doing well.

I've been tagged

This is a first for me. Thanks for including me:

Meme Rules: Each player answers the question themselves.At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment letting them know that they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve answered the questions on your blog.

10 years ago (1998):1. I was 20 years old.2. I was a Junior Church Music/Applied Voice major at Indiana Wesleyan University. 3. I was rooming with my favorite cousin in the world Melissa. 4. I was in the quartet Rejoice at IWU 5. I was still searching for a husband at that point.

5 things on today’s “to do” list:1. Finish some laundry 2. Put away the clean dishes 3. Read my kids a book before bed. 4. Finish this blog and figure out who to tag since I don't know that many people. 5. Watch Numbers on the DVR

5 snacks I enjoy:1. Anything with chocolate 2. Grandma Liddick's chocolate chip cookies from the freezer 3. Real Key Lime Pie from Emeril's 4. Mike's Apple Pie 5. Mom's ice cream cakes that she makes for my birthday

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire:1. Pay off all of our school debt 2. Tithe 3. Put money into Retirement 4. Put money into my kids college fund 5. Charity

5 places I have lived:1. Newark, NY 2. Antioch, CA 3. Decatur, AL 4. Marion, IN 5. Sioux Falls, SD

5 jobs I have had:1. Cashier at a grocery store 2. Ophthalmic Tech/Surgery 3. Ophthalmic Tech 4. Certified Paraoptometric 5. Music Teacher/K-5

Now, I’m supposed to tag 5 others:1. Christin Carpenter 2. Jenn Mealy 3. Cammie Delph 4. Julie Lamb 5. Megan Hutsell

A few more pics

Here some pics from this weekend.

The 1st day with Teresa and Amy

They have finally arrived. Friday was Grandparent's Day at Christian Center School. Teresa and Amy came to eat lunch with us and the Amy and Alex went to the mall. Imagine that.

No they didn't go to Victoria Secret, it's just a bag. Teresa stayed with Tymothy in his class and watched them do show and tell and a few other things, then we had an assembly.

We finally went to the church and got Mike out of work. We went to Johnny Carino's for dinner. Wonderful Italian food if you haven't ever been there. Then we came home and made brownies and watched IronMan.

After all that we were exhausted and we all fell asleep during the movie. We have lots of things planned for Saturday. We'll keep you posted.

Another Thursday

Yesterday was another big day for us. We had 80 again at youth last night. We are doing really well so far. Mike is happy with that but would like to get more adult help I think. Not that we really need it here. The students are so great and they just do their own thing. They don't really need supervision. What a change from before, huh? Teresa and Amy are on their way here and the kids are about to jump out of their skin. They are so excited to see some familiar faces and probably can't focus too well in school today. They talked with them on the way to school this morning just to make sure that they were on the road. We'll take lots of pictures of Grandparent's Day at school for you grandparents that couldn't be here. We will be thinking of you and missing you all very much. I'll let Teresa know how much you appreciate her for filling in for you:).
With much love...

Apple Butter Pork Chops

So Mike decided to be a chef this evening. Some of you know what that means. That's when I miss having Brittan Bush around. He used to eat all of the leftovers. Tonight on the menu we had Organic Corn on the Cob, Garden fresh Green beans, Mini sweet potatoe fries, and Apple Butter BBQ covered pork chops filled with shredded cinnamon apples in the middle. WOW!!!! It was amazing and so was doing the dishes afterward.

BEES!!!

Well, we are officially South Dakota residents. We went and got our license plates today. Now we have the faces of Mt. Rushmore on our vehicles. Yes I said vehiclessssss. The blue car is still alive but not moving. Our car guy, Dennis, is looking for a new engine for it. He said that he has been able to get engines for 400 or so bucks over in Japan. They can only drive the toyota's over there up to 50,000 miles then they have to replace the engine. So, he's trying to get us one and then we'll pay for the shipping. At the end of it we will only pay 1,000 instead of 2,500 for a new car. I can dig it. The car is in great shape except that it doesn't run.

So today was Mike's day off. Monday is always that day in case you have tried to contact him and he doesn't respond. After we went to get our plates we went to the driving range. It was really windy but very beautiful. Alex and I both hit some balls today before we went to school. Before we even got onto the range Alex was stung by a bee for the first time. Her middle finger of all places. It's pretty swollen but she has taken it pretty well. Not much else is going on here. We are gearing up for Grandparent's Day at school. We don't have an official grandparent coming but she might as well be...Teresa Francis, who is teacher of the year in Grand County. Congrats!!! Teresa and Amy are coming this weekend and we are soooooo excited to see them. If any of you Hoosiers need to get something to us let her know. She's leaving on Thursday.
Love you all.

A Beautiful Day

We have had some beautiful days here in SD lately. I'm afraid that they will be saying goodbye soon. We have finished another week at school. Everything seems to be going well so far. Can you believe that in 2 weeks I will be starting to teach the Christmas program? Wow!!

Well, not much else is going on. We are just hangin' out tonight and the kids are playing (trying to find a new frog).

Phones

Just so you are all aware...If you have tried or are currently trying to reach us on our old IN numbers, you will not get us. We had those phones terminated due to absolutely no service here in SD. Please call us at home: 605-743-5856 for now. Mike has a work phone through Verizon. He will contact you with that number if he already hasn't done so. Kristen now has Alltel and will be entering some numbers in her phone for her MyCircle. That means free mobile to mobile with the 10 people she chooses no matter what type of phone service they have. She will also be contacting you with her new number. Sorry for the inconvenience, just another hiccup in moving around the states.

APPLES!!

Today we decided to swing by the apple orchard on the way home. We went into the shop they have there and it smelled like home (NY). The orchard is just around the corner from home. I love taking Mike to those kinds of things because his smeller says "buy me, you smell good enough to eat". So, for dessert tonight we will be eating a fresh baked apple pie. They make it and freeze it, then you bring it home to bake. The house smells wonderful. Then we got some Macintosh apples. Wow, I can't wait to make Grandma Van's homemade applesauce, even with the red hots. We also got some apple barbeque sauce. We'll let you know what that tastes like. We will try it soon...

A Brand New Week

We enjoyed some cookie dough this weekend:)

It's Monday again. How does that happen so fast? I don't even remember the weekend so I don't really think I had one. Not much is going on here in South Dakota. We are all just doing our thing. It's been pretty windy here lately, 35 mph winds all the time. It makes your head spin. I guess it's like that all the time here so I just can't wait to have that with -30 degree temp.



Don't forget that See You at the Pole is this Wednesday for all you Youth Sponsors and Pastors. We'll let you all know if something exciting goes on.
We do have a new home phone. If you want it let us know and we can get it to you. We are also in the process of getting local cell phones. We will be texting or calling you to let you know of the change. Love you all.

Our precious car!!!

BLUES CLUES

1994-2008

We have been informed that our car has died. It suffered a few blown rods and will cost much to replace. We ask for your prayers while we deal with this extreme loss in our family. Survivors are Mike, Kristen, Tymothy, Alex, Joe Joe, Oddie (in IN), and Goldie the Jeep. Donations can be sent to Car Fund, Hoferland, USA.

The day after!

Today is another Thursday. The day after the crazy Wednesday. You all know what I'm talking about. It's always hard to wake up and get going the following morning and last all day long. We had another great Wednesday night. The worship and the word were much more prepared and the students really did a great job in leading us into the word. Tymothy and Alex are really loving the children's church area. They are being challenged and come home with bible verses memorized and stories of the bible to tell. Tymothy said "Mom, I know something that you don't know...did you know that Noah was 600 years old?" My son is able to retain a whole lot of info and I'm glad that those things are exciting for him to remember.

Our Toyota finally bit the big one. It is at the shop and probably not going to return. We are now praying for a new, cheap car that Mike can drive to work. Right now we are having to commute across the city every morning. That gets a little crazy in the Hofer household in the morning as all of you know that we are so punctual all the time :). So, if you know anyone who has a car for cheap or free we would love to have it.
For now that is all that is going on. I'll keep you all posted.
Much love.

New Pics

South Dakota Football. WOW!!! This was just high school.

Who's kid is that?

Alex was just chillin' at Life Light listening to Building 429.First day of school.

Tymothy got to ride the pony at the zoo here in Sioux Falls.

Finally Friday!

Well, I guess it's my turn to get on here and fill you in. The Hofer's are moving right along with life here in Sioux Falls, SD. Although the pace of life is much slower here I feel like we are going 100 mph. Of course we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves if we weren't doing that. Tymothy and Alex are doing great. They love their new school, Christian Center Elementary School. I (Kristen) am teaching Music K-5 now at the school so it's nice that we can all be together during the day. Mike had his first big Wednesday night at The Filling Station. We had a wopping 115 show up to our grand opening. Wow, 5 adults just doesn't do it for that amount of students. We had fun getting to know our new students and feeling as unprepared for music and the word as we ever were. We definately were not ready for that many students to show up. This weekend we will be going to the President's Bowl here in Sioux Falls. All of the high schools here are named after presidents, just like Mt. Rushmore. They all rival and have a huge football bowl and that is what we are attending on Saturday. They also have the marching bands play and all that fun stuff. I am excited to hear the bands of course but Alex can't wait to see the cheerleaders. I think she will wear her Indy Colts cheerleader outfit. Some of the cheerleaders go to our church and are really encouraging her in that way:).

We have a few new pics to put on here from lately. Of course we are in delay with that. They will get on here soon. I hope as you read this blog you are having a blessed day and just remember to pray for us whenever you have a minute. We are missing home, family and friends so much. We've missed funerals and babies being born...Madelyn Carpenter. We love you all and just know their have been tears shed by us for you.

New ADDRESS

Here is our new address: 140 S. Shebal Ave. Harrisburg, SD, 57032
Halla at us! We are going to try and keep this thing updated more, now that we live a little bit farther away from family and friends!

We now have a blog!

We are going to seriously be bad at this be we sure are going to try! LOL!
World meet The Hofer's (scary thought)!