A Day at the pool with my cousins! :)

Today I, Danielle, spent the afternoon with my cousins and several of my cousins kids! We had a blast! I love playing with these guys, they are so much fun! I was really thrilled to spend time with my cousin Val's kids, Emma and Josiah! They are sweeties! I had to post these pics because they are all so cute, and especially to show you Reese's Mohawk! It's INSAINE! It's totally real and very permanant!! HA!! :)


Here is Blake having a BLAST! He loves to show off his tricks on the diving board and the slide!


Here is most of the crew I played with today!
Emma in the front, and the boys, Blake, Reese, Josiah, and Austin!


Here is the Mohawk! I can't believe it, he is Mr Cool!! :) He's showing off his big muscles!!!


Here is Bekah with our friends JB and Misty's daughter Lizzy, I've spent the last 2 days with these two, we have so much fun, Lizzy is oh so animated and very dramatic! She did signlanguage to my dog yesterday, I thought Bekah and I were going to explode we were laughing so hard!!


Is she not just the cutest thing??? She is very smart, I love her. She and her family live in Texas right now, so it was an extra special treat to see them today!! She is expecting a baby brother in September!! :)

Pop vs. Soda

One of the intresting things we have noticed since moving back to Indiana from Mukwonago is the fact that people here call Soda Pop "POP" you can walk into any grocery market and ask the person behind the counter..."Excuse me, where do you keep all your pop" and they will know exactly what you're talking about. Unlike Mukwonago, if you asked for the "pop" they would think you're loopy. So what do you say? Pop? Soda? Coke? or other...which is my other quesiton...what is other??

jf

Good Parents gone Bad!!

I don't want to say we are bad parents, I just want to say we have made poor choices in our first week of parenting our new dog Zoe....Ok, here is the story...when we first got Zoë we had great intentions of helping her become the great dog God has created her to be. We spent a lot of money on toys, good food, fancy dog dishes, fo-rhinestone collar, a long leash, balls, Frisbees, and a big fluffy bed. We have fallen in love with her, and the joy she finds in all these things. We laid down the house rules so she would know our standards of living: here are our rules:

1. NO getting dirty in yucky nasty ponds. Labs love to swim, and Zoe is no exception, she grew up swimming in a pond out her back door, however, the ponds in our area are nasty and full of seaweed, plus when she comes out she is no longer beautiful blonde but black from the mud and grime.

2. NO swimming in Rosie's (Grandma walls) pool!! Her nails can hurt the sides, and plus, dogs should not play in the pool.

3. NO SLEEPING IN THE BED! Dogs are dogs and don’t belong in beds.

Well you can see by the pictures below, we have given in on all three of our core rules. We tried to be good parents, but in one simple week we have given in to her cuteness. I just want to say for the record, all the rules have been broken through Danielle, as the one picture can show.

We love our Zoe and are having fun with her anyway!! This is good training for future additions to our family, but at this rate, we are not doing to well with rules.

Picnic

Last night Danielle and I had dinner with a small group from Church. We are unable to be apart of their Sunday school class, because we are teaching "Breakfast Club" but they adopted us for their picnic. As we all shared about work, family, life, and our new puppy, I was reminded of the deep joy that grows through community. We had a great time last night, and really loved the people we had dinner with.

Side Note: If YOU are not involved in a Christian community, and I don't mean Sunday morning worship...I mean a group of people that you know care about you personally, and connect with you. Work to get this, as if your life depended on it. Because truthfully, I believe your spiritual life does!

Thank you so much Scott and Jill for inviting us. And Patty, Mark, Jay, Ann, Kelly, Alisa, and all the kids, THANK YOU for allowing Danielle and I to fit right in! We loved it!

John's New Grad Blog

I am doing all the work, you can benefit! Enjoy and of course, LEAVE A COMMENT!

Do you love the Bible? Then check this out!

http://www.thebricktestament.com/

If you love the Bible, and have gone through Danielle's 12 Stages of the Ages teachings you will love this site! To all the CRM friends who went through a semester of BIBLE101, you will love this site!

BIBLE RAP!!! YEAH!!!!!

Pictures of ZOE!!!

Our new Daughter

Well, it has been over a week since our last post. We had ICD Teen Camp (Indiana Central District) this past week

http://www.icdteens.com

and had a great time hanging out with Jeremy and Andrea Summers. Also, this was a key week for Danielle and I to bond with our new students here in Fishers. The week went great! We love our new students and really had a great time laughing with them. Camp was rainy most of the week so that was a bummer, but it did not dampen the movement of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. God moved through the worship sets and speaking, we were very thankful to be there.

At the same time, this years camp for me was hard. I really miss our students from CRM, and found myself often thinking back to camp days in Wisconsin. God is teaching us many things, and giving us a ton of hope and love for Fishers. Our heart is growing into our new home and our new ministry here.

God has been blessing Danielle and I. We have been going going going going and my back couldn't take any more. On Wednesday after a great late night basketball game my back gave out. I guess I really hurt it bad. I suffered through the rest of the week and then went to the chiropractor on Saturday. He said I had a bulged disk and confirmed my pain. He adjusted me a bit and sent me on my way!!! It was a miracle!! Tonight, I feel awesome, and tomorrow i will follow up with him again. I have to say thanks to CK for giving us his name. ChiroSpa in Fishers Indiana gave Danielle and I a great deal because we are clergy. ChiroSpa feels that it is their business' ministry to minister to Pastors, so they give care to Pastors and their families for next to nothing. I really appriciated them and hope you choose them if you are looking for a Chiropractor. We have used them and love them!! And now we LOVE CHIROSPA of Fishers!!

[ side note...Danielle is on the phone right now with her family in Austrailia...they were singing her Happy BIrthday...because in Australia it is Danielle's Birthday!! Thanks Blackwoods, we love you all!!

http://www.blackwoods.us

Well, Danielle's Birthday is tomorrow. She is going to be 26!!!!! We are closer to 30 than ever before! I can't believe it! We are starting the 5 day celebration of Danielle's birthday, so give us a call and say hi! Mike and Tina always joke about how we celebrate such long birthdays, and this year we have a special celebration with ZOE!!!!

LET'S tell you about ZOE!!!! Zoe is a our new little girl. She is an 11 month old yellow Lab. She is so beautiful and full of energy! She really gives Danielle a run for her money when it comes to playing. And Zoe loves to fetch the ball, in fact I think she is obsessed with it! She is very well behaved, knowing how to sit, lay down, and fetch. She is very house trained, holding it today for a record 5 hours during church. We were so proud of her!! Right now, she is standing next to me holding her tennis ball, just hoping i would have a spurt of energy at 11:23pm on Sunday night and want to play fetch. HAHAHAHAHAA

Anyway, Danielle and I love our new girl. We are showering her with gifts, love and attention. Everything she does is so great! It is hard to leave her alone, because we want to rush back to her. She is a beautiful gift! She was totally free!!! We are so lucky!! We can't wait to show her off to friends!

In our next post we will give some pictures.

Some Pictures from the Freed Family Foto Booth

Here are some pictures we took this week during July 4th of friends in the Freed Family Foto Booth!


Grandma Cole, Danielle and I

Mom and Dad Freed::: i love having crazy people for parents!

Mom and Dad Freed

Crazy Mama Freed

Great picture of Grandma Cole

Some more pictures of Guatemala

Here are some more pictures of our missions trip to Guatemala. You can read the journal entry below. thanks for checking in! Leave us a comment!!

back...for now

WOW! It has been a whirlwind of two weeks. As you know...if you have been keeping up on this blog or calling us...we have been in Milwaukee and then last week we were in Guatemala doing missions work. While the trips were both really short, they were extremly "impacto" on our lives. We have been running from one project to another. In Guatemala our eyes were open to huge devistation from mud slides, along with poverty stricken fmailies that live in grass huts. They have no shoes, and many of the children have worms; however, God opened doors for us to serve in little ways, but mind you, little ways for Jesus are big ways for eternity! We gave 250 pairs of shoes to children in a little village called San Juan. These children had very dirty feet, some even bloody and we washed them with baby wipes and placed new shoes on their feet. They never asked what brand they were, or what color, they were just so excited to have something. We also gave pounds and pounds of candy away. The children, don't get a lot of candy, so we gave lots!! While we were visiting the children and playing with them, we went to a school and gave de-worming medicine to the entire school grades k-6. The stuff tasted nasty but the students knew they needed it. And finally, I helped build a kitchen. That's right...with only a trowl and knife i helped a man build a kitchen. It was a huge learning experience for me, but brought some beautiful memories.

Thank you so much for all of you who prayed for Danielle, the students and myself as we travled and ministered to people. God's truly blessed our two weeks with strength, power, and new vision for our ministry in Fishers. Danielle and I cried often while we were in Guatemala it was very hard for me to see the pain and devistation this nation has. But at the same time, I knew God was there, and these people who had nothing, really had more than what appeared to my Western, materialism driven eyes. They were all very conected with family, they really cared for each other, and everyone smiled. They did not have much food, or clean water, but they smiled, because life was about more than gaining and storing up...it was about love. God's love is very much alive in Guatemala, you can feel it in the hearts of the children when they climb on your back and whisper "thank you" in broken english because of a piece of "dulce" [candy] you have given them.

Our words nor blog could ever describe the imprint Guatemala left on our hearts. We hope to go back next year...and yes...take you with us!!

Special thanks to our family Jodi and Paul for giving us a tour of their village and home in Guatemala. The coffee is amazing and your home is very beautiful!!! (And Danielle sends well wishes to the dog!)

Well.....I am all caught up with the two weeks of Grad work I left here, our Apartment is still not all the way moved in, and we have the begining of a week of Youth Camp on Monday...life is good...busy...but really good!!