What have we been up to?

A LOT! ~It has been one big fun blurr lately!

Joy and Andrew had their last JBQ District match which is the last one of the year. ~Both teams came in first place in their flights. Whoo-hoo. A fun way for Joy to end her JBQ years!










Nathan had TBQ Districts and his team came in 3rd place and will most likely advance to the regional competition with a wild card invitation.


We went on a field trip to a big cat sanctuary and saw all kinds of neat cats that have been rescued.
This animal reminded me that God has a sense of humor.
This is a bear cat and its spray (aka urine) smells JUST like.....
You'll never guess......













Just like buttered popcorn! I kid you not!
When the tour guide asked us if we smelled buttered popcorn I was like "Yes! Yum!" Until I found out what it was of course. EWWWW!!!


We were blessed to hear a lion roar!











What a gorgeous animal he is. And his roar was nothing like what you hear on TV.


Joy and I finished a sewing project we were doing for a sweet friend's new baby that is due to arrive any minute! I made the blankee and Joy made the matching bear! It was fun.














And THIS week we took spring break!
Our dear friends from TX came to spend the week with us and we had a blast!

It wasn't long before we were all knitting together.... LOL!
Nathan came in and said "Oh no! My mom has brainwashed you." ; )
But they wanted to learn and help us make hats for missionaries so it didn't really count as brainwashing.

It's fun to see how much our kids love being together because we sure do!

~Becky

Lots of parties

I'm happy to say that no "la ratas" showed up for the teen game night.
It turned out to be a really small gathering, but fun.

Saturday, our very sweet Junior Bible Quiz coordinators threw their end of the year party which includes a barbeque and lots of boating fun since they live on a beautiful lake.

It included sail boating the regular way...And sail boating with a twist. Literally.

The sweet dad who manned the sailboat would tip it over on purpose to add to the experience. When he said "we are going over," I thought he meant like over to the other side of the lake. But no, he meant over, over...

Then the kids would climb up the high side of the boat and jump off of it into the water. The kids loved it. (sorry I didn't get a photo of that!)

(it was a little embarrassing when other boaters would come by and ask if they needed assistance though)

We also did lots of tubing which is SO much fun. I couldn't pass up doing it. (even though I was the only adult who went) ; ) And that is why my arms are so sore today! Right after that party my hubby and the boys had another party to head to...
His "Raising a Modern Day Knight" Sunday school class had a ceremony for all the sons in the woods. They hung out, threw tomahawks and had a barbeque. Then each dad gave a speech to each of his sons encouraging them to spend their lives living for the Lord.
Each dad presented his son with a REAL sword. Oh. My. Mercy. Three happy boys came home that night with massive 'Solomon' swords.
And this mom is very thankful for sheaths!!!!!!

I'd say we are all partied out for now! : )
~Becky

JBQ districts

Today we had our last Junior Bible Quiz match!!!

It was the district finals with 300+ quizzers from all over our state coming together to play each other.

Here is Joy winning a ribbon for being in third place for highest number of points scored in

our flight! Whoo-hoo!

And Andrew had three positive quiz outs. Yay!

Our team was in flight number 6 (out of 9 flights) and we came in third place!

She and Andrew have worked really hard and they've had a great year.

My hubby and I enjoyed our first year as coaches!

(I wish I could post our team photo but I'd want to get all the parents permission first)

What a great group of kids we get to hang out with!!!! (their parents are really awesome too!) ; )

~Becky

Two weekends of Bible Quizzing

Congrats to our quizzing kiddos!!!
You guys are amazing and you bless our socks off!

Nathan had his Teen Bible Quiz match last weekend.
He is a lot of fun to watch. It is never boring. He keeps us on the edge of our seat. :)
He is quite a quizzer.
Their team is in 6th place in our state out of 10 teams. He memorized the book of Philippians. (my favorite book but I sure haven't memorized it)

This past Saturday, Joy and Andrew had their Junior Bible Quiz match.
They are together on the team that my hubby coaches. They both blew us away by being in the top ten for their scores. (Out of 11 teams, ours is in 7th.)

And a big thanks to Zach who helped us by being assistant coach with Dad while I was one of the scorekeepers. You rock, Z! : )

I can't say enough good about TBQ and JBQ. If you have a program at your church, check it out.
All of us have made some wonderful friendships with adults and children through it and learned unbelievable amounts of Bible. It is a blessing.
~Becky

Football lingo and JBQ

Here's a picture one of the kids took on our way out the door for our big date. : )


Ignore "the Judge" in the background.

That is quiz box for Junior Bible Quiz matches and it holds the buzzers.

I thought if I kept it by the door, and just about tripped over it all day, then I would remember to take it to yesterday's match.

The JBQ match was a lot of fun! My hubby was working, so I coached our team solo for the first time. It was a blast. Everyone on our team buzzed-in in almost every round. Yay!

And I learned what not to say, while coaching a JBQ team

and I think it is safe to blame it on football season.

We were playing against the team with the top quizzer in our league. (and maybe our state)

Our team was giving it their all and I was so proud. It was the last match of the day (9th round) so we were all gettting really tired.

During the time-out I said: "You guys are doing great. Keep fighting."

Joy turned back around and said "Mom, what do you mean fighting?!"

Me: "Um, well, you know like in football? I just mean keep playing hard. Ya know, keep fighting...?"

-She looked at me like I was from another planet. ha ha
I guess "fighting" and quoting Bible facts and verses really don't go together. ; )

~Becky

JBQ and Joy's "Strong verse"

During our Junior Bible Quiz practice time the other morning, we learned this new 30 point question:

Quotation Question. What should be our prayer about our speech and thoughts? Psalm 19:14 "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer."

Joy knew the verse already but it really struck her this time. She said "Wow, I need to meditate on this one." (so do I Sister, so do I)

She loved "the Rock and my Redeemer" part! And then she ran off to find our friend Carlos, who is working on our kitchen and asked him if he wanted to hear "a strong memory verse." And he did. : )

Speaking of JBQ, my hubby and I were asked to coach Joy and Andrew's team this year. Our kiddos are really excited about it. We love JBQ and since we are at all the matches anyway, we might as well. My hubby said he planned on being a laid back coach. Then, just to tease me, he started quoting lines from the movie Kicking and Screaming. You know the part where the coach is all hyped up on coffee and only cares about winning...
I'll make sure he doesn't pray over a match and then tell the team to "break someone's clavicle." I promise! ; )
~Becky

District Finals in JBQ Saturday!

We attended the Junior Bible Quiz District meet for our state.
(around 250 kids were in it) For this match, the teams are divided into Flights with the best teams being in Flight 1 and so on down to Flight 11. Your flight is determined by how many games you won this year and then you play other teams from the state that ranked the same way.
What an exciting day!


Great job, Andrew!!!
I didn't get to watch Andrew and Joy's team but my hubby said that Andrew "carried them to an almost undefeated title." They lost only one match. They were in Flight 8. They came in second place!
He loves JBQ. He is so determined and plays with such enthusiasm. He started out the year, really wanting to get a positive quiz out and I told him that it was his first year and that he probably wouldn't this year but that he probably would next year. (what a dumb thing to say!) Did I ever underestimate my little guy! He had three positive quiz outs this year and had two more today! Amazing!!! Hurray!!!

Awesome job, Joy!!!
This is Joy's third year and she loves it! She had several positive quiz outs this year and had one today. I am amazed at how many questions she knows and how many verses she has memorized. I'll never forget her very first match when she was the newest player on her team and she buzzed in before anyone else and answered her first question correctly. The audience isn't allowed to talk unless there is a time out or we could get our team fouled, so several ladies looked over at me and raised their eyebrows. : ) I think they thought she would be shy like her mom, but no way! She loves the competition. She is the picture of grace and never gets ruffled or discouraged. She's confident and takes it all in stride. (by the way, I absolutely could never have done JBQ as a child! Way too shy!!!)
Here's what I love about Joy being in JBQ. She has taken these scriptures she's learned and made them a part of her life. When she has a nightmare, she either sings worship songs or she goes to war with her verses! She had one recently and crawled in bed with me. I was half asleep so I don't know what the references were that she was quoting but I heard her quote three verses and then tell the devil that he couldn't give her anymore nightmares because she "belongs to Jesus and He is the Way the Truth and the Life and the Good Shepherd and the Door and the True Vine and the Bread of Life!" (this is the answer to "give 5 of Jesus' I am sayings from the book of John") And then all I heard was deep breathing, and I rolled over and thanked God for maybe the hundredth time for JBQ!

What a way to go out, Nathan!!!
Since Nathan is in the 6th grade, this is his last year and this was his last match! He and I were both a little chocked up after the final round because it's the end of an era. (and we are the sentimental type!) JBQ has been an awesome part of his life. It's been so exciting. The Lord's blessed his efforts at this, that is for sure. It's been a great confidence builder and he has a wonderful coach that he loves. His coach has told us many times what a pleasure it has been for him to coach Nathan and what a gentleman Nathan is. Ohhh, does that ever bless me!!!

Nathan's team was in Flight 4. They came in third place. The shocking highlight for all of us, was that when they were listing off the high scorers for the day in Flight 4 they said "And first place for highest score in Flight 4 goes to Nathan ______." We were floored! I jumped up and grabbed my camera and made my way down to the front to snap this picture. The cute thing was that Nathan hadn't really been paying attention at that point (it was long ceremony) and he was so surprised that he asked his coach twice, if this blue ribbon was really for first place. : )



We also want to thank Zachary for officiating! You are great under pressure! I could never multi-task like you do! He was the time keeper and the judge for one of the rooms!

Congratulations Olive Plants!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for 'hiding God's word in your hearts that you might not sin against Him.' It will not 'return void!'