Grandpa's 80th Birthday Bash

rena and I had a ball in Kansas City! it was so good to spend time with her in the city. sometimes  you just need to spend time with your sister.
we stayed in wesport and took our time browsing antique and retro shops.
on Saturday we went to the nelson art gallery, we had not been there since our days in grade school in the 70's!
dad was so excited that we were able to come to his celebration. steve and his gang were there as well as our long lost bro- damian. we gave him such a hard time. dad was sooo proud that all of his children were sitting at the head table with him. there were over 100 people in attendance. a whole chunk of family were there to support him. folks from Mississippi, Arkansas and Virginia packed the room. he was overwhelmed. georgia outdid herself and dad cooked some amazing fish for everyone.
here are a few pics. i will be adding pics to a slideshow later today. enjoy!

 

What Will You Do with God?

Hey guys, I've been reading through the Bible in 90 days, and a Bible study on the side. You guys know by now I have a passion zeal for God. Why? Why do I have it. All I can say is I want to know him. Who is this guy? I don't want to just have people tell me about him and I just believe it. I wanted to find out for myself, and that's when my life began to change. I believe a man needs to be challenged in his beliefs. He needs to have conviction in what he believes in. I've talked with plenty of people over the years who spoke strong convictions, but their actions say differently.
At times, I've been one of those persons, but God has been gracious to me and has patiently strengthened my belief and convictions in Him. I've been learning to find my joy in him. I'm able to do that because I don't take what people say about God as gospel truth. I find out for myself, because I feel I need something solid under my feet. I can't live my life like I'm running stop signs at an intersection and hope no one hits me. I need something sure in my life and the Word of God and talking to God has done that for me.
Hey guys, don't just listen to people, check it out for yourself and don't just listen to the lies of your heart. The bible (Jeremiah 17:9) says the heart is sick, it will deceive you. It is incurable. No one can understand how deceitful it is. A sick heart is not a well heart, it is not healthy. The heart speaks of feelings, emotions and reasoning in the bible. The only way they can function properly is if the emotions and reasoning matches up with the word of God. Look at your world around you and you will see people messed up in their thinking and confused and their emotions. They assume things and they assume wrong, and they base their whole life on wrong assumptions. 
What will you do with God?
The D.A.D.

Evening Corporate Family

I hear that folks are jet setting all over the place. Jet setting to all kinds of meetings and conferences.
Well, my meetings and conferences are all the same. I dig holes in the meetings, I fall in the meetings and I roll out of the meetings. Some conferences I come out clean, most times they are dirty and sweaty. Some get rough with me, they jam my fingers. They cut me, they twist my ankles. At the end of the day I just want to wash the dirt off from the meeting. Yeah, I always carry a shovel with me to those meetings, cause there always is a bunch of stuff that needs shoveling. Is that the kind of meetings you guys go to?
THE D.A.D.

Yo Har!

HOW DID THE SHOW Go!!!

Baby Shower

just wanted to let you guys in on what happened at James and Megan's surprise baby shower.  of course, they had a "feeling" that something was up, but they were genuinely surprised when we showed up at the shower. the D.A.D. had an excuse though. we had received a piece of mail for James and he told them that we were just delivering his mail!  they have a good group of kids in youth group and they are so excited for the baby.

check out the pictures in the slideshow.

i took a side shot of Megan for you guys to see how she is progressing along.....

 

 



Updates from Junction City Rivers

Hello All,

James sent out a brief update a couple of days ago about our 4D appt. All is still going well in the Baby Zone.

Now, I would like to brag on James  bit! I am currently sitting in a restaurant downtown Russell Kansas as James is out taking pictures and analyzing the street scape for his research. We are off to Peabody next, then to Cottonwood Falls for more pics. He is really making progress. Both James, himself and his professors are happy with his work. Keep him in your prayers, this is crucial time for him as he presents everything next month! He is well on track to be ready, all while taking amazing care of me, and his son!

I just got done with going to conferences myself this past month. One conference was about conducting the assessment/evaluation to diagnose Autism through KU. The  conference I went to last week was the Behavior Disorder Symposium which allowed me to attend several seminars and learn techniques to address behaviors my kiddos have. The week after a much needed Spring Break, I will be going to observe an Autism Resource Classroom in Olathe, in hopes to help my school revamp their program. On top of trips, my caseload is keeping me very busy but I truly enjoy my job.

Both James and I are still active in church, helping out with the youth group, and I'm in the bell choir. James had the opportunity to join the Trustee committee in our church which is the group that calls the shots on all the maintenance and redesign of the church. He has really enjoyed being on the committee, learning alot, and I proudly say...he is making a very respectable contribution that our church needs so desperately.

It has been great hearing from all of you today! Prayers for all of you!

Much love from all 3 of us!!

Sent from my Windows Phone

Updates from Wichita!

Hello Family!

Things are well down here with both of us keeping very busy! 2014 has been labeled our year of reduction and as such we've been doing our best to tackle both our financial debts and the extra weight. So far we have been able to stick to our goals to get on track to becoming healthier in both senses of the word.  

Ashley has coordinated and managed several events this past semester, including Friends Day at the Exploration Museum, several basketball games, and a special presentation/documentary on eating disorders. On top of all that she is very active in the University's strategic planning initiatives, through the Foundation's of Excellence program. She has received many high remarks of admiration for her work as both committee member and committee chair for issues of diversity and student first year experience. Also, she has done tremendous work with the International Affairs office, submitting new budget proposals, program restructuring and engagement strategies. She's kicking butt and taking names! 

Positive points aside, there is a dark cloud that looms over the college. The work environment at Friends has been a bit tense lately as the school is facing many difficult financial decisions due to persistent enrollment declines the past decade and a half. That being said, staff and faculty moral is low and uncertainty towards the future is very prevalent. While we are confident Ashley's role within the International Affairs program is safe, we have begun planning contingency plans for any worst case scenarios, i.e. looking at new positions at other institutions. While it is far too early to tell which way this situation will go, we think it is always a good idea to have some back up plans. Prayers are more than welcome during this potential transitional phase. Ashley has spent the past few days in Council Grove to see family, relax and recharge. 

For me, work continues to keep me active and engaged. My new grant initiative, the University Tobacco-Free Campuses, is about to publicly launch so I have been busy meeting with our communications team to establish marketing roll out strategies, as well as setting times to meet with the editorial boards of the many University newspapers. If you will all recall that I attended a training last fall in North Carolina that dealt with tobacco marketing at the point of sale in convenience stores. That training was put to the test a few weeks ago when the Foundation partnered with the local tobacco prevention coalition to conduct store audits around the city of neighborhood. From the data collected we hope to present the tobacco industries' marketing strategies and deliberate targeting of poor and minority communities with our city. The presentation will be to a variety of stakeholders at a summit in May at the Leadership Center. Finally, I just returned from a conference down in Orlando, Florida late last evening (my apologies for any missed phone or text messages). The conference, which started on Tuesday (3/4) centered on community health improvement and strategies to improve population health. It was a great experience that  I learned a lot from and I look forward to incorporating some new ideas into my future work! 

Going forward, we would both greatly appreciate your prayers for patience and helping us check our own will to make sure we are putting God's first. We have made it our goal to remind ourselves daily of our blessings and to be good stewards of those blessings. I hope everyone is doing well and we love you all tons! 

Love,

Ashley & Jonathan  

The Houstonites March Update

Hello Family,

All is well in the Lone Star State. We are having a bit of bipolar weather, cold one day and in the 60's the next day. We are loving all of the posts about the family's adventures. Keep them coming.

Lee has been traveling for work, attending conferences, speaking on panels, visiting Congressman to continue funding global outreach and international education. He is pretty much living out of a suitcase. He was in D.C. two weeks ago, in L.A. last week, and will be heading to San Diego at the end of March. He is still playing the guitar as much as possible and has added a few songs to his repertoire and is looking for a race to put on the calendar. He has been injured so he has been biking and doing light runs of about 10 miles to get back into the grove of things, and hoping to still run a Boston-Qualifying Marathon this year.

Q is busy with work and business. She is organizing a Survivor Dinner for Sexual Assault Awareness Month, getting fitted for a Houston fashion show (proceeds going to survivors), and hosting some networking events for our business. She is still training with her Coach, looking at competing in August and headed off to Dallas in the morning for a conference. Her new investigative research role is confidential and has to remain hush-hush due to the nature of the work (actively searching for trafficking victims or girls thought to be trafficked, and tracking down Johns via the Internet).

Our lease is up in May, so we have been searching for some small homes within The Loop of the city. We are so over the apartment lifestyle, especially in Houston where you are paying for the name of your neighborhood, not necessarily the amenities. We are asking that everyone keep us in your prayers that we find a house with all of our needs/wants and within our price range.

March is looking to be a great month. We miss and love you all!!

~ Lee + Q

Update from New York City

Hello everyone!

All is well in New York.
Working
And writing.

David is away for the weekend.
His nephew is getting baptized!
So I have the apartment to myself
Which
Is
Glorious!

Some news:
I have a reading on Monday!
And it's big
MOSTLY because of the cast.
Tony winner Chuck Cooper
Tonye Patano from TV's "Weeds"
Karen Pittman from Broadway's "Passing Strange" and TV's "House of Cards"
Jon Michael Reese
Jon Norman Schneider
Francesca Choy-Kee
Stephen Tyrone Williams
& Carolyn Michelle Smith

I will let y'all know how it goes!

Much love,
H

Morning People

we the parents would like to hear some updates from all of you. don't know what your schedules are, but it would be nice to get a nugget or two of new stuff.
being the one who posts these messages, i will probably see your posts 1st...
so it would be wonderful if all of you would text your D.A.D. so he can know if you are still alive
(as he puts it). it would really be awesome if you would send messages all at once. he won't be able
to contain his joy- he really is a softie!
anywho, i am up here at the church with the D.A.D.- they have a men's breakfast this morning. i had to leave the kitchen because the men couldn't find stuff and i saw a potential disaster about to happen. it was just best for me to leave and not worry about it, it will get done and it will be yummy.
later on this morning, we will be prepping t-shirts for tie dye. my sunday school class will be tie dying tomorrow and next week. we will make shirts to wear to monthly outings and sell the rest as a fundraiser for summer camps.
yesterday was momma day- helped grandma g with her new refrigerator and took grandma a grocery shopping. i rewarded myself with a large coke!
hope you all have a great weekend!
He is Risen!

Megs and I want to keep those who are interested up to date on everything baby and so the latest update is that we will be getting a 4D sonogram Friday March 21 at 3pm.  For those who are saying to themselves "whats a 4D sonogram?" it is simply well... I really don't know exactly.  I haven't taken the time to google all the particulars like a good little nerd, but basically is a high definition scan of the baby giving you a high quality 3D image of your little one; live and in color.
We are both pretty excited to hear that Rena will be in the area and may join us and take part in the experience.  We invite anyone else who wants to come see baby Rivers for the first time to carpool up with us to Topeka!

A glimpse of the shenanigans baby Rivers may be up to during our appointment.