Summer!

Hello Everyone! I am so sorry its been so long since I have posted anything. The past three months have been a blur.. like usual though. We are doing fine, and school was out on Friday! YIPEE!!! Not that we don't like school, but we are in desperate need of a break. The past month was crazzzzyyyy... We attended Joel Abberger's funeral in Indiana in March. It was good to see all of his family again. The service was a BIG blessing, and God was honored in every part. He will surely be missed, but its a blessing knowing that he is in Heaven, happy and pain free. God never makes a mistake, so we rejoice in His promises.

in April our school has competitions with Bible and Fine Arts. We did great this year again.. and the kids learned alot. The end of April we traveled down to TN to see the kids a few days, then Mike's family had their annual get together in Gatlinburg. We had a great time and although we had to come back early, it was good to see everyone. I will post a few pics from that trip. We had one week inbetween that and the Senior trip. We go with the principal and his wife to California every year to take the Srs. This year we had 18 kids. The Kosa's were already out in Lancaster for their daughter's graduation from West Coast Baptist College. We had to take the group to the airport and and on the plane. Sunday night, we got the worst rains we have had in years here in VA. Around 11:30, Mike said, we have to go NOW.. or we will not get out of our drive way in 4 am!!! The rain was already a foot on the road down from us, and the creek had risen out of the banks to the road in 3 hours!! We packedup, suitcases, blankets and pillows and headed for the church. We had to turn around a few times due to road closures and finally made it to church at 1:00 am. We chose the pews to sleep on since the auditorium is the darkest room. At 4 am, we got up, and started to pack the bus for the trip to the airport. We even left a little early because all the kids were on time!! amazing! Our trip was pretty good, and as soon as we landed at LAX we were on the run. First stop is Santa Monica Pier, so the kids can see the Pacific Ocean. We eat lunch, the kids buy souvineers, and we are off to the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. Its one of my favorite places to go, so interesting and the setting is just gorgeous. From there we go to the Anaheim Angeles baseball game.. which was actually alot of fun to watch this year.. lots of action and even fireworks! We go to the hotel around 12:00 which 3 am VA time.. so we were zonked after the 24 hours of being awake. We ARE getting too old for all of this stuff!!
Tuesday we drove to the Sierra Mountains.. and this is one of my favorite drives. We were unable to get to the Trail of 1000 Giants.. they were opening the road the very next day, but we did snoop around and found some other places we have not been to and found someone who told us about a few of single trees.. so it was not a wasted trip.. it was beautiful, and there was still snow so the kids had a blast with snowball fights, and hiking. We did not get back down the mtns..and done with eating till after 11:00 that night. Whew.. Wednesday is white water rafting, in the Kern River.. and it was FUN!!! There was lots of snow melt and the rapids were flowing good. It was not even that cold! There was a group before us who had canceled, so the kind people fed us lunch also.. it was so nice of them. We got back down to the valley and went to Lancaster where we atteneded church at Lancaster Baptist Church. The kids got a tour of the college after the service, we ate at Marie Callendars, and back to the hotel.. again 11:30. Thursday is amusemant park day, we to to Six Flags in Valencia. Its really nice this time of y ear and the kids ride over and over because the lines are not long. We left the park a bit early so we can eat at Claim Jumpers before heading to the airport. Its everyone's favorite restaurant, and if you ever get a chance to go to one on the West coast DO IT.. you will not be disappointed. Our plane left at 10:00, and were back in DC and at the school b 8:00 am.. dragging a little I must admit. All in all it was a good trip. We missed the big flood that had 4 feet of water at the end of our drive, and closed our road for two days! Some of you might have seen the national news where there was a sink hole in Dale City created by the water, that closed 4 lanes of one of our major roads for three weeks. I think the final total was 10 inches of rain in three days.
The next week was graduation week, so that means we had to be out every day and night. We also kept two of the grandkids for four days. Yesterday was our church's 27 anniversary, and we had Heritage Institute of Ministry graduation last night. We had one graduate this year.
The summer should slow a little. Next week there is a Father/Son campout, Mike goes to camp the end of July with the Jrs.. and I go with the girls in August to Hilton Head. There is a possibility that my brother will come for a visit in July, and I will go siteseeing with him if he does.. it will be fun. He has never been to alot of places around here, so it will be fun for him too. I hope it works out. There is much to be done on our house, so I am planning to do some of that. And of course.. the garden!! We are eating broccoli already, but then again still need to plant some also. I don't think the time will last as long as I want it to this summer.. but we are both thankful for a break in the norm.
I will try to do more on here.. I think some of you probably have given up on me! Have a great summer!

The Passing of a Very Dear Friend

Today is a very sad day in our lives. Its bittersweeet, as we are both sad and happy. Joel Abberger, a friend we have known since Tennessee Temple days went to Heaven this afternoon. He had been suffering from brain cancer for several months. We know God's way is perfect, and we are so glad that he is not suffering any longer, and that he is rejoicing in heaven, but we will miss him greatly. Please pray for his family, his wife Ginger, daughter Amy and two sons, Mike and Matthew. The funeral will be Wednesday in Indiana.

Hurry Up Spring!!!

Hello everyone. Hope this finds you all well.. unfortunately I know many have been sick. The flu has invaded our family, although not in my house, two of our kids families have been down with it. In fact, we had to cancel our plans to visit our TN kids this weekend because everyone is sick. Daniel is doing better, but its a very hard hit when it comes. He missed several days of work, but is back on the rebound now.

As far as church goes, we had a Sweetheart banquet earlier this month, and a Family Confernece last weekend with Bro. David Sommerdorf. This week starts our ODACS Bible and Fine Art compeitions, which will take almost the whole month of March. I get to hlep judge in the art department with crafts and textiles, which I enjoy. In the next few weeks we have two new churches starting up, based out of our church. One is local, in Loudon County, VA, and one in Springdale, Arkansas. We have beed phone calling for one church for a few months now with very good results. The next three Saturdays we are canvassing and then the first service is on March 16. Mike is taking a group from church to AK the week before the first service is held there in April. Its exciting to see just how the Lord is working in allowing our church to help with all these new start up churches, and a priviledge to be a part of. The churches in Arizona, North Carolina, and Virginia are doing very well also.

Family news: Joel is back to work after being off for 6 weeks due to the weather. Its still cold tho!! He and his dad went to West Virginia with some of the other Tangeman clan on a ski trip.. they had great fun!
Josh and Wendy are keeping the TN front moving. Spring is always a busy time in their ministry. Pray for them so they can get over this flu bug that has hit their county with a vengence.
Daniel and Kristi are doing good also. Kristi has a couple more bouts with the emergency room, and the drs are still trying to figure out how to help her. She really likes the dr she has now, and he is helping her alot. We praise the Lord for that blessing! Daniel started his own business last summer, and so far it has provided enough work for him. Its a home improvement type business.. and it seems everyone needs that around here!
We had three birthdays in Feb.. Joel turned 31 on the 5th, Jeremy turned 2 on the 14th, and Seth turned 7 on the 24th! We have been having lots of parties!

Have a great week, and keep up all of your blogs!! Its so fun to read what everyone has been up to. We love you all!!

Hello everyone! I hope your New Year is going well so far. We have been extremely fortunate so far in our area of the USA, we have had a very very mild winter and in fact the temps broke a record yesterday! It seems more like spring for several days then back to winter. We have not had hardly any snow, so it does not seem like REAL winter.

I have had the kids the past few days because Kristi has been sick again. I took a few pictures of the boys so thought I would post a few. They surely keep me on my toes. Please continue to pray for her. The dr. gave her a possibility of three things this could be and they are in the process of trying to find out what the problem is so they might be able to help her more.

The Wildgame Supper was in January and we again had a great turnout. There were 19 men who accepted the Lord as their Savior. We had a nice surprise this year, as Mike's brother Tim, and our good friend Bill Slone came for the Supper and spent the weekend with us. We had a really fun time, well.. they did. Joel brought his Wii over and they spent several l hours trying to outdo one another. On Monday they went hunting and Bill shot two deer to take home.

This weekend is our Sweetheart Banquet at church. The theme this year is "Take Me Out to the Ballgame!" Mike spends countless hours working on all the details of these banquets, and they always turn out so nice. These two come very close together. I am sure everyone will have a good time. We have a record number of people coming this year too.

Till next time... we love all you guys!