Isn't it weird that I have not posted anything for several months? I can't believe how behind I get.

Actually, I will confess that I like Facebook better because it's more "instant". I can just say a line and then go on about my business.

Our family had a wonderful time traveling to Franklin, OH for the dedication service of their new Family Ministries Building. What a wonderful asset to that church. They have needed that for a VERY long time.

After we had a wonderful lunch there we went to Otterbein Home to visit Chris's mom and her 93 year old husband. He was sharp as a tact the whole time we were there. Chris's mom says that is not always the case!

The kids were so kind to the people at Otterbein Home. Those older people just love to see youth come in the doors. Caleb said and old man stopped him and ask him if he ever wanted to be a pilot. Caleb said "yes" and the man told him he was a retired Marine Pilot. When they parted ways the man said "Semper Fi". That was impressive to my 14 year old's mind. God please guide him in his decision making!!!

Ross is the sweetest old man you'll ever meet! I believe he loves the Lord with all his heart. He is educated and has taught Jr. High Music for I don't know how many years! God bless Ross in these days.

Two boys love their grandma. I was really glad we went there.

Blessings!

I was up at 5:11 this am. Our water heater isn't very generous so, I get up a little earlier so the kids have plenty of hot water to get ready for school. I checked the computer. My faithful desktop weather informed me that is was only 6 degrees outside. Brrrrrrr.....cold. I spent some time sipping my coffee and enjoying all my friends blogs. I love the days of the internet. A quick check of local school closing revealed that my kids do not have to get up this am for school. Oh well, I don't need that much sleep anyway.

Last Friday night the boys went to the home Basketball game. I left the game and left the kids there to attend another appointment. Chris was to be at the game shortly. Daniel had his phone and called Chris a couple of times. Ya know, just checking on you dad! kinda stuff! After they arrived home his phone was NOWHERE to be found. He has never abused it, let other kids play with it, or borrow it, or anything like that! I prayed sincerely, as we have no home phone, that his phone would show up.

Last night (Wednesday) we had devotions with the kids and sent them to bed. 10 minutes later we heard a pounding down the stairs that Godzilla would have been proud of! Daniel, with phone in hand is so excited that he can hardly speak. Yes, he had dropped it and it had made it's way under his bed. (I had looked there but apparently missed it!) Thank God that He cares about our lives!

Special Thanks at Thanksgiving.

Chris's "cracked" windshield. KingAir 90

About 5pm Tuesday evening Chris called me and told me he had to land the airplane in Columbus because they had a cracked windshield. This picture looks a little more than cracked to me! He declares that they were never in an emergency situation and landed the airplane safetly in Columbus where it is being repaired. This Thanksgiving I am thanking God for the mercy and safety he has given our family especially Chris in his job. Over the years of our marriage God has shown His mercy and safety several times. We do thank Him for that!

First Day of School

Wow, I can't believe I haven't blogged since September! Where is the time going? I guess you get busy when you are trying to enroll your boys in a new school. These past few weeks have been nerve racking!

Today we sent the boys to school. Caleb hasn't gone to a school for 7 years and Daniel has never gone to a school before. This is a scary step for all of us. Caleb said he was so nervous yesterday (Sunday) that a Corvette Stingray drove right past him and he didn't even notice!!! A friend had to point it out. He said "I would have never missed that if I hadn't been so nervous!" To him that was the ultimate in being unobservant!

Daniel hasn't said much except that he wants to go. We'll see what he says tonight.

God go with you and bless you Caleb and Daniel as we partner with school teachers for your education!

Caleb and Daniel will be attending Licking County Christian Academy. It is right here in Newark near our house.

Signed, Sold and Closed

The Millard family no longer owns property in Middletown. We closed on the house on Friday Sept. 12. It was truly a wonderful moment. The bubbly "kids" (seemed like kids to me!) that bought it think it's so "cute" and "just can't wait!" to be in there! I loved it. They were so excited. Of course, we were pretty excited to hand it over. Thanks for all your prayers on our behalf in this matter.

To God be the Glory, great things He has done!

Summer Pics

Today we needed to find a Buckeye tree. Why? Because it ist the Ohio State Tree and Caleb needed to add to his Ohio State Study. So while we were out at the Arbaritum today I took quite a few pics. I'll share just a few pics of the good-looking guys.

Caleb just got his new phone today, we added texting this time. It was either take the picture with the phone, or no picture!

My friend Amy and her 2 girls went along. We helped each other with pictures.

Love those eyes!

OK! I'll put the phone down a minute! The battery's almost dead anyway.

Oh yeah, almost forgot...the Buckeye Tree!

Pampered Chef / Trap Shoot?

Our whole family was invited to a Pampered Chef/Trap Shoot Party. It was so much fun. The host did not stand up and show us her stuff, she put it all out on the table and gave us the recipe books and needed items and we got to play with the stuff! It was so cool!

After we cooked, ate and visited, her husband got out the trap and trap shooted and all the men got their guns. (The invitation had told us to bring them.) They shot trap until it was too dark to see.

Offer Made, Offer Accepted!!

Friday, August 8th we got an offer on our house in Middletown. We accepted the offer. If all goes smoothly we will close on that house September 15, 2008. I think that is very close to the 2 year anniversary of it being on the market. I would have to check with the first listing agent to be sure.

Goodbye House Sweet House

A great Day

Last week was kind of a strange week for our family. Caleb went to Youth Camp and hence my babysitter was gone so...we had Daniel go spend the week with Chris's mom in Lebanon, OH. A ten year old in a retirement community for a week! Wrap your head around that! I lectured him for days about moving slowly around wheelchairs and walkers and speaking up when talking to the people. They all just love him because whether they can hear him or not, he loves to talk to anyone of them.


Well, all that said, it means Chris and I had the house to ourselves. I worked most of the time, but on Friday I didn't have to work. Chris's airplane was in S. Carolina getting some work done on it and he needed to rent a car and drive down there and fly it back.



Friday morning we left at 6:30am and headed down interstate 77. I have never driven on that interstate that I know of. It was beautiful. For 10 hours it was beautiful.

Road weary, ready for air travel

Everything is running smoothly.

The Heavens declare the Glory of God.

This was the view most of the way home. Causes my heart to lift in praise!

The trip home took one and a half hours. It was smooth! We were able to get home, make connections with Caleb's ride home from Youth Camp and sleep in our own bed that night! I just love living in this century!

Merry Christmas

I knew you were going to ask what I am doing for the 4th of July Holiday. Well, I am making Chirstmas stocking for our "Christmas in July" drive for our Missionaries. I have always wanted to try this. Well now I have my chance. I spent this morning making stockings for each person. I was only able to get 12 done with the kit that I had. My friend Elaine has the other kit. I am thankful to have her help!

So, with the warm winds blowing in through the window, and the sounds of lawn mowers and children playing outside, I am gluing and pasting fun-foam stockings together.

Day Off

Today was a day off work for me. I worked quite hard here at home and then off to the pool with the boys for an hour. That was so fun. My kids swim well, so I just turned on the iPod and lay back to sleep in the sun for a few. It was great.

One thing of note...Our house was shown today to a return couple. They saw it Monday and wanted to come back today. Please, Pleae pray that they just feel as though they can not live without that house. We really need them to take it off our hands.

Later..Blessings to you my friends.

Kidz Adventure 2008

Bible Bowl Questions

Boys Craft time. (They made airplanes)

Chiann

Rachel

Heidi

Daniel

Wow, have we ever had fun this week. I took Daniel and 3 other girls Chiann, Rachel and Heidi, from our church to Kidz Adventure 2008. It was a kids camp held on our own Beulah Grove Camp Grounds. There were 55 kids there and we had great fun! This camp is put on by Appalachia Youth Ministries. This ministry is headed by Bro. Mac (McCrary) and his son Bro. Ray McCrary. They do a wonderful job. It was a camp for kids 7 - 11 years old. What brave souls to take on kids of that age!

I was asked to be one of the camp medical personnel so I was there in that capacity. Another girl from our church, Yvonne Miller, a mom of one of the other kids that went, was there with us also. We also enjoyed being with some of our friends from Franklin.

Fallen But Not Forgotten

Some of you may know that our church gave one of our own to pay the price for our freedom. Spc. Kyle P. Norris was killed in action in Iraq on May 23, 2008. He and his family have attended our church for many years.

http://www.zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=NEWS01

Our church, along with the Norris Family has been through a long 2 weeks from the time the news came until we were able to have closure! This was quite an experience for our family. The US Army did a great job of honoring Kyle.

I took some pictures. I wish I knew how to put up an album like some of you do, but I don't at this time.

The Flag drapped coffin

One very hot boy. This was our first day of really feeling like summer!

Salutes from every discipline! The Bikers for Jesus, Sheriff, Zanesville Police, Army, Navy...

The Bike Parade

Our tax dollars at work! The Sheriff had to jump the Army van because they could not get it going, while we all waited in the scorching hot sun! They never did get the van to go and had to move it out of the line so the procession could go.

Some of us just love the uniform! Go Army!

There were other good looking men there too!! My own of course! Caleb helped with parking detail.

Other Noteworthy Items

I just wanted to show off my new favorite toy. I've had it for about a month. I just love it. It's my phone, PDA, and internet. Thank you Verizion! I started out with a Blackberry Pearl. That is a cute little phone, but there were some of the features that I didn't like and so I returned it for this Palm Treo. I love technology!!

Finally!

I finally made connections and got my camera back from Middletown! That took some doing. Like the planets had to line up just right and the weather and all....but whew! It's here.

The new thing in our house is Caleb's Xbox 360. About a month ago he ordered one off from Ebay. We waited patiently for it to arrive. When the UPS truck showed up, he delivered an empty box. Tampered with and only bubble wrap inside. Chris and I were both at work and Caleb and Daniel were home alone. The disappointment was real and deep.

We are in the process of a dispute with all kinds of people, seller and UPS and all. We decided to let Caleb take money out of his saving account and go ahead and purchase an Xbox from Best Buy while we go through the dispute process. So now we have a very happy boy who is doing his best to get his school work done each day so he can spend time on his Xbox 360.

Millard Status Update

I think that blogging with out a camera is a real drag! I don't need a new camera, I just need to get the one I have from a friends house. That would require a 150 mile trip from Newark to Middletown. Gas prices are soaring in our area so a trip just for the camera doesn't seem to be a good act of stewardship.

Let me put up some news from the Zanesville Bible Methodist church. It is the church we have been attending since moving to Newark. We are excited to be one of the new churches in the Hartland Conference. President Sams and his wife were at our church on Sunday morning to make it official. A great time was had by all.

One of my friends at our church made this cake to commerate our new church name.

And another view...

So, Thank the Lord for phone camera's!

Well, I'm on my way to take the kids swimming at the YMCA. Bye.

Catch Up!

It has been so long since I have posted anything on my blog. It is not due to lack of interest, believe me! I read alot of blogs and love to hear and see everything that is happening in the lives of others.

Myself, I have been very busy. I have been out of town a lot working on our house in Middletown to get it to sell. I took lots of really great pictures so I could show off all the neat things, but alas, I left my camera at a friends house and can not retrieve my pictures to show off.

The boys have been enjoying the warm weather. Caleb did an annual cleaning and inspection on their bicycles and they are up and running. They really took a hit over the winter as we did not have a protected place to keep them. We are looking forward to warm mornings and drinking our morning coffee out on the back porch. ummmm! Love that!

New for me is my new Palm Treo! What a great toy. It is my PDA and phone all rolled into one! It is a totally cool toy for those who love electronic toys! I'm more dependent on it than I ever was my phone or PDA! Is that good, or bad? Makes ya wonder, doesn't it?

Must continue on with our school day so that is all the updates so far. Will post pictures as soon as I get back in touch with my camera

Keep writing all I'm reading!
Julie

Warm, Windy Day

We were so thankful to have a nice warm day. The boys did their school work with record speed and spent the rest of the day outside playing.

I took them to the park and let them fly their kites for a little while. We wondered if the wind would be strong enough to fly the kites, but I think it turned out OK. Caleb kept his up in the air for almost an hour. Daniel's kite had some technical issues and we had to work at it a little harder.

Caleb's is the red kite and Daniel's is the orange. As you can tell by the pictures, Daniel's was harder to chase with the camera.

The End

We have come to the end of the Basketball Season. Daniel learned a lot during the 12 or 13 weeks that we were involved in it. Can't say enough about that program. His awards banquet (with no food or snacks! I always thought a banquet was to eat and celebrate, but I digress...)His awards banquet was really great. All of the players received a basketball.

They had the Juggler for Jesus come. He was funny, entertaining, gave the gospel in a simple way. He presented the same gospel so many different ways with his juggling. We were impressed.

http://christianjuggler.com/

Thus we close the year on basketball. A good time was had by all.