End of October!!!!

Where has October gone? We have had a busy end to our month....and the great news is that as soon as we are moved, we will have just 2 activities--swim team and piano lessons--we will have plenty of time to unpack and spend some quality family time together. Since August, our family has been moving at the speed of light, it seems!

The above pictures represent Colin this week--1) What can I throw down that hole? I see my sisters throwing clothes down it....perhaps I should add toys to the mix?! and 2) Who needs toys when you can climb on the boxes that mom is stacking in the living room! It's a home-made climbing wall!

1 1/2 more weeks....until we move! However, we've had lots of fun stuff happening in the Glynn family's life!

Today, we were able to watch the last practice session of "Celebration", a swing-choir type group that Ellie and Jayna have been participating in at school. In a nutshell, it was amazing.

Last September, the girls had to audition--it was scary! They had to sing a solo in front of 3 judges and all of the children auditioning and then be observed learning simple dance steps. Today was the 7th week they've been meeting after school for 1 hour each week and what they've learned was just beautiful. They are really coming along as a group and you can tell they are growing in their confidence. The instructor "Miss Sheila" is also amazing--she has such a passion for this type of 'worship performing' and we could see that she makes these practices really fun. Ellie has loved each week of it; Jayna....not so much. However, if you view the videos, you will see nothing but JOY coming out of Jayna--she just LOVES it now. We are thankful that she stuck it out and ended up loving it!

Today, they did their practice and then they showed us the 2 songs they have been working on "Open the Eyes of my Heart" and "I am a Friend of God".
To view "Open the Eyes of my Heart" click HERE and HERE.
To view "I am a Friend of God" click HERE and HERE.



This week was also a special week at church--the 1st graders were presented with a "real" Bible (as opposed to a Bible storybook for a child!). It was a special service in which the parents were able to observe the children's worship as well as join the 1st graders for the presentation. The director of children's ministry told a great story that is worth paraphrasing:

There once was a man who lived on an island where it rained everyday. One day, he walked to the boat dock, he waited for a boat and then sailed to the mainland to go shopping. He picked up an umbrella; did not know what it was for and upon finding out it was to keep him dry from the rain, he bought it. He then walked back to the boat dock, waited for the boat, and sailed back to his island. It started to rain and everyone laughed at him, holding the umbrella that was doing NOTHING to keep him dry. He became upset; went back to the store where he was told "You have to hold it over your head to keep you dry"....so back he went, to his island. Of course, it started to rain AGAIN and this time, he held it straight over his head....and he got wet from the rain. He took another trip back to the store, wanting his money back as the umbrella was not keeping him dry. The store keeper realized that the man didn't know to OPEN the umbrella; he showed him how to open it and the man went back to his island. By this time, all of his island friends were laughing at him and making fun of him....and it started to rain again. The man finally opened his umbrella and stayed dry. A Bible is like that umbrella....many people have a Bible on a shelf, or they carry it around with them....but it doesn't do a lot of good if you don't OPEN it up and use it. (This story was so cute--the children had learned little actions--it was totally interactive and they really were focusing on the message!)

After the story, the Sunday School teachers presented the children with their own Bibles and it was darling--all the kids were sitting on the risers in the music room and they all had their heads down, inspecting and reading different parts of their new book. Even cuter has been the activities in our home this week: the requests to read to the family from Jayna's new Bible, the excitement to take it to school to "share" with the classmates and the request of "Mom....will you make sure you leave my Bible on my booster while I'm at school? I want to read it RIGHT after school..." Awwww....

Sunday starts November.....Not only is it Ellie's birthday month, but it will be "moving month" as well--stay tuned for documentation of all of that fun!

Ellie's 1st Swim Meet!

Tonight we had a fun "first"...Ellie's 1st swim meet! We really had no idea what to expect....I think things have changed a lot since I was on the swim team in elementary school! The meet started "late" at night, at Ellie's regular bedtime hour! But, that turned out to be a huge blessing...Andy had been to Madison to see the Hawkeyes play the Badgers and he was able to meet us at the Oshkosh YMCA for the meet.

Ellie did great! And, she had fun! She even said she wants to do another meet and keep swimming! :) Tonight's meet was low key--each swimmer chose 2 events and all races were 25 or 50 yards. Ellie chose the 25 yard Butterfly race as well as the 50 yard Freestyle. Click HERE to see her freestyle race! And click HERE to see her butterfly race!

Grandparents Day at NHCS

As mentioned in the previous post, today was Grandparents Day at the girls' school.....what a fun day it was!

The original plan was to have Grammie and Grampy split their time between the 2 girls' classes....because Andy's mom was helping his sister who just had baby and wouldn't be able to make the event. Thursday night, Ellie and I got home from her swim team practice and Andy's mom called us....she was almost to Appleton! She made a last minute change of plans and was going to surprise the girls in the morning.

The surprise was precious--the girls were finishing breakfast and Ellie said "Grammie and Grampy are here....wait....that's not them....IT'S GRANDMA! GRANDMA?! GRANDMA!"

The above picture is 1) Grandma and the 3 Glynn Girls 2) Ellie having a conversation with Grandma at lunch 3) Ava and Grammie at lunch and 4) Ellie and Jayna with Grammie and Grampy at lunch--Fuddruckers!

The children worked hard for the chapel service today--one of the things they were working on was "My God is an Awesome God" in Spanish. It was beautiful...all the singing was beautiful!
Click HERE and HERE to hear part of that song. A lot of work went into planning the morning at school today and it looked like great fun was had by all!

The House...

Today was Grandparents' Day at NHCS. It has been an insane week, with so many crazy things happening. Andy was traveling this week and arrived home late last night. Early this morning, he had a breakfast 'date' with a friend to talk about buying their house. The girls were on pins and needles...and we had a code--2 thumbs up meant "we got it!", 1 thumb up meant "we're still working on it" and thumbs down meant "we need to find another option"! So guess what happened? I forgot about giving Jayna "the sign" and gave her 1 thumb up as she walked by me to sing in front of the Grandparents' Day chapel service! ACK! The look of fear on her face reminded me and then I did a huge 2 thumbs up and wished I had caught her expression on camera!

The short story is: the picture above is where we'll be moving...the girls will be able to walk to school, we will not all be fighting to use our 1 bathroom in the mornings and Ava will finally get to sleep in that beautiful 'big girl bed' that has remained empty in Colin's room ever since we tried to have them share a room.

The long story? Well, it's quite a testimony....a testimony of patience, of God's loving care for us, and a testimony of trusting God for the right timing. We serve a mighty God who does indeed know the desires of our hearts. Four years ago, I 'found' this house as a friend of mine went to pick something up from the current owners. I had the strangest feeling of "I have to live here"....but the house wasn't for sale. It became a joke and then around Colin's birth, we were asked 3 times in 1 year if we were ready to buy the house. Each time, there was NO WAY it would work--there were MAJOR uncertanties in our life each time; it was very clear to us that our answer continued to be "We'd love to, but we can't."

Over the last years, people have asked me why we were not thinking of moving and I always said "God will have to be really big--I just don't see it working out." We became content with our cozy little home (cozy for 6 people!) and continued to wait on God. In April, we found out about the KC re-organization...yikes...and that stress lasted almost all summer, until the end of July. It wasn't until the beginning of August that we even thought about selling our current house, and that endeavor really took up all our energy and time until just recently. I (Katie) went to many open houses with the children and each time, I was affirmed that the above house was "the house" for our family.

So many details have worked together to make this a reality for our family--it truly is a blessing from God. The economy that has been such a struggle for so many has helped us in many ways...interest rates, selling our little home fast etc. I never thought it would all come together...but God has been REALLY BIG.

The other day, the children were watching a DVD that mentioned Psalm 78 verse 4 "We will not hide these truths from our children but will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord. We will tell of his power and the mighty miracles he did." Buying and selling a home....it's commonplace. But for the 6 Glynns, this situation has been all for the glory of God, a tremendous blessing that we never could have imagined would work out, yet was the desire of our hearts. Praise be to God!

Now.....how to move with children--THIS is an endeavor that I said I'd never do; I would only move if KC did all the work. Hmmm.....I guess this is a lesson in "never say never"!

Fall Take 3...

Fall take 3.....see Happy Fall Take 2. Aunt Megan must have one sharp mind...recognizing the long lost Elmo hat that was only worn by Ellie....here was it's debut! Awww...what memories! And how scandalous it was to put a 2 yr old girl in a blue jacket!

Happy Fall Take 2....

Notice anything different about Colin? He now has a RED (manly!) chair to sit in, thanks to my parents. My Dad agreed with Andy "He can't make that PINK chair his home!" The day after the red CARS chair arrived, I was getting the girls into the van before school and I turned around, only to see Colin at his new chair....but with pink princess purse by his feet and holding an American GIRL book! I guess we will take small steps with Colin! :)

We have a TON of leaves...despite not having many trees that drop leaves in our yard. Apparently all the trees of the street get together and say "OK...when you drop your leaves, wait until the wind is blowing toward the Glynn's house and drop all of your leaves right then!" The girls have enjoyed having huge leaf piles to jump in, and Colin has discovered how fun it is too....I'm just not sure of letting Colin play in the leaves with his PJs on....ick! Last Friday evening, we just had Ava and Colin at home and they enjoyed making a huge pile and then wrestling with Andy in the leaves!

Happy Fall!!!

Is this the cutest picture collage or what? Cute BOYISH Colin in the pretty pink throne...poor boy! (Colin can now crawl up onto chairs and he LOVES the pink chair!)

Andy mentioned that the blog had not been updated in awhile--he was right on! We have been busy! Aside from letting Colin nurture his feminine side by playing on the pink chair and with the millions of purses around this house, we have:

started teaching Ava how to ride a 2 wheeler! Who would have thought?! It seemed to last just 1 day, but she did a pretty good job before realizing that it was a tad bit easier to just ride with her training wheels...and back they went, onto her bike!

School and activities are keeping us REALLY busy. The big girls are both taking piano lessons and one afternoon, I peeked around the corner into the living room and saw Colin up on the piano bench with Ellie while she practiced!

Jayna and Ava are in swimming lessons; Ellie is taking diving lessons and just joined the swim team at the YMCA.

Ellie and Jayna auditioned for a singing group at school called "Celebration"; it is a ministry of singing and dancing. We were so proud of them, for singing a solo to audition--that took a lot of determination! They both have said they are loving it (Yes, for those of you who know the whole story...Jayna is back to loving it!) and want to auditon again when this session is over!

Ava is enjoying preschool; Colin is enjoying Elmo and becoming very 'toddler-ish' in all that he does.

Andy is busy at work and enjoying the Hawkeye football season; I am busy trying to remember what activity is happening each day and making sure nothing is forgotten :)

However.....

the biggest news of this season is that our house is officially sold! Jayna made this picture for Andy the day after everything was official--it was so sweet of her! The short story is that offer # 1 lost out to offer #2 who had no contingencies on the purchase of our home. We continued to have interest in the house and now, the sign is gone from our yard; the internet states "Accepted Offer"...and today, offer #1 called to tell us that if anything falls through with offer #2, to call them--they finally cleared their contingency! Needless to say, in 6 weeks, we will all be learning a new address and phone number!

But back to Jayna's picture....what a fun experience it was, selling our house with Valley By Owner...and Andy was quick to acknowledge that it took ALL of us working together to sell it--to keep it clean, to get out of the house during open houses, to show the house etc--what a crazy summer it was for us! From start to finish, it only took 5 weeks! Amazing!!! We are so thankful that things are starting to fall into place--what an amazing blessing to have everything happen at just the perfect time!