Man-made Music

Amazingly, I think this is the first time I (Joey) have posted on our Blogger blog! It seems one of us is more responsible when it comes to keeping in touch... Anyway, I was going to title this entry Monthly Music, but Kim laughed at me and told me it was a silly idea because I would never follow through with it. I was planning on writing that I would try to write and post a song once a month this year for your listening enjoyment and because writing music is selfishly therapeutic for me. But Kim's probably right, so I'll just post one song now and then maybe one or two more some time in the distant future. I can't figure out how to just upload a song, so I made a video (sneaky sneaky) with a picture of a cloister in Norwich, England, where we visited with Jesse and Kelly. Also, I recorded this on the wonderful Mac software of GarageBand (which I actually really love), so apologies for the rough recording (and the occasionally flat and/or weird backup vocals).

The lyrics, as requested by Mom:

In dawns and breeze

and summer streams

We wake our means

We shake our dreams

In moons and leaves

and fallen trees

We rest our heads

We make our beds

And down the sun will go

and east the wind will blow

and streams will flow toward

the ocean indistinguishable

We drown, we drown

It's hope, belief

It's fantasy

You lift your head

As moons turn red

And death, she's free

and broken knees

Will fill like trees

Will tumble like leaves

We walk down her streets unseen

We feign invincibility

And laugh out loud as if we'd

never know her crushing defeats

We drown, we drown

I plead for relief

In death is peace

My God is inextinguishable

My heart stops beating

And down the sun will go

and east the wind will blow

and streams will flow toward

the ocean indistinguishable

We drown, we drown

And down my sun will go

and east my wind will blow

and streams will flow toward

my ocean indistinguishable

I drown, I drown

In other news, things are going well for us. I'm just winding up with my summer classes and getting mentally ready to get back into the swing of things with school. I'm teaching Western Civ still and am excited about Round 2! I'm also coaching 9th grade volleyball in the fall, which should be interesting considering I know next to nothing about coaching volleyball. Good thing I took a volleyball class in college!

Navajo vacation bible school-Hardrock, Arizona

Here are a few pictures from our missions trip we took as a family to Hardrock, Arizona.  We stayed on Navajo mission compound on a Navajo reservation for a week and helped run a VBS for the Navajo kids and adults.  My job was babysitter of Ellie, Gabe and another little girl, Addy (occasionally) so their parents could help run the VBS.  They were very nice to me and gave me an easy job as I am quite pregnant these days! :)

Joey was in charge of one of the adult bible studies which included about 12-15 adults between 20 and 30 years old with a few older than that.  Our pictures are somewhat sparse as the camera was in our trailer (which was air-conditioned unlike many of the other houses on the compound other workers from our church stayed at) most of the time, but hopefully you can get the idea.

Here we are on our way (our day started at 4:45am and we went to bed at about 11pm that night):

The Tao's sat across from us on the plane ride over.  We tried to keep the babies together for entertainment sake and so that screaming babies would be limited to one area! :)  Though I must say both babies did extremely well!

This is the cafeteria where we ate all of our meals:

Here are a few pictures of the compound we stayed on.  It currently acts as a church.  I believe almost everyone who works for the church lives on the compound.  This VBS we did has been run by our church from St. Louis and another church from California for about 10 years now.

The cafeteria and multi-purpose building-yes, that's a horse running through there:

The Chapel:

The compound and some of the housing:

The area surrounding the compound was pretty deserted:

This is what Ellie did most of the trip:

And this is Joey's class working on their final project:

They studied Nehemiah and this was their wall:

Joey's class also made baskets the entire week for the second half of class.  Here are some of the older women making their baskets (they're from the older adult class which was completely translated into their tribal language from English):

Here are some of the kids on the last day during lunch:

We usually had most of the afternoon off after lunch, so one afternoon the three of us took a trip across the street to the water hole.  This is where many of the Navajo who don't get running water to their homes come for water:

As you can see from Ellie's face it was extremely hot there.  Ellie and I would usually get comments that we looked sunburnt after being outside for only seconds because we both get flushed easily in the heat.

On Saturday morning at 5am Joey and some others from our church along with a few Navajo from the church went hunting! Yes, hunting...with real guns which kinda made me nervous (can you tell I'm from the city?)

We were going to go to the Grand Canyon later that day but they were experiencing record highs of 115 degrees, so we didn't end up going.  I was actually quite thankful for that! :)

And finally Sunday, bright and early again we were on our way home!

It was a great trip overall with great experiences.  I must say I was quite exhausted most of the trip, but was happy to experience a missions trip with my family.  I know Joey had an amazing time and I know Ellie loved it too!  It did take some adjusting for Ellie to not spend every waking moment with Gabe, but I think she's learning to adjust. ;)  We had a great turn-out of Navajo kids.  Many of whom our church group have gotten to know over the years because they keep coming back.  What we loved about the trip was that the relationships that we made and the conversations we had with some of these kids about Jesus will be followed up by the people that go to that church and live on the compound.  These kids come from all different backgrounds.  Some of their parents are active members in Christian churches and some of are active in Navajo traditions which includes the worship of gods other than The God.  So pray for these kids and their families!  

We're home, we've moved, we now have internet!

Things have been a little crazy around here as of late.  After returning home from Arizona Sunday night, we started the moving process and haven't stopped!  We've had a stream of guests coming to help and now it's all said and done.  Our boxes are unpacked and we are settled, with the exception of one box of decor yet to be put up in our dining room and a few pictures to be put up in the "office"/new baby's room.  We have been living in our new place since last Friday, but internet was not set up here until today, hence the update! :)  While I was at work the other day, Joey and Ellie had fun with photo booth (see collage below).  Today Ellie said to me, "Momma, cheese....more.....momma?" and then stuck her tongue out.  I think she wanted more photo booth fun! :)

what's next and a special thanks

1.) Joey, Ellie and I are leaving for Hardrock, AZ on saturday with our church to run a VBS for the Navajo.  We'll be in HOT AZ for a week. Pray for us!

2.) When we return we will have a visitor (Nathan Clifton) waiting for us to spend the night! :)

3.) When he leaves we begin to move into our new and BIGGER apt.  It's in the same complex we are currently in with THREE bedrooms instead of two AND a basement!

4.) This is a video of Ellie receiving her gift from Sarah Torgerson.  Thanks, Sarah! She LOVES it! :)

England Highlights-Day 6-7: Cambridge

I have found more time to write about our England adventures! :) 

The last few days of our trip we spent in Cambridge doing what I'm sure most tourists do in Cambridge.

The day after we returned from London, we had a nice relaxing morning and then headed into town for some shopping.  

This is King's College right in the middle of town with shops across the street.  Amazing!

I am aware I've posted similar pics but, this is just too pretty to pass up! 

I have no clue what these guys were all about, but definitely picture worthy (yes, they are in red one-piece spandex suits):

Among getting some grocery items, we stopped into a bakery shop and bought all things necessary to have high tea at home!  Grandma Donna and Grandpa Wayne gave us Torgy grandkids a generous allowance to use as we wished while in England.  We decided quality high tea would be appropriate.  We, of course, had tea as well as scones and clotted cream (which is SOOO delicious, by the way).  We also had little fruit tarts and cupcake-type-yummies! Oh yes, and a black currant pastry. YUMM!

And day 7 of our trip we spent Punting the Cam!  It was Jesse's desire to punt all the way down the Cam to a tea garden, which they had never done before, so that's just what we did!  

Here's the crew waiting to get on the boat:

It took a little longer than desired (is that an understatement, Kelly?) but we did make it there! The kids did wonderfully (is that an overstatement?) despite the long trip:

Joey's first punting experience:

This is a bunch of kids jumping off a bridge into the Cam:

Joey and Ellie:

We didn't get any pictures at the tea garden as we were a little tired and hungry by that point! :(

Kelly, Edmund, Ellie and I walked home (which saved about an hour of time) to get a much needed nap in after a LONG morning. But it was definitely fun and a good experience (I just should have remembered that "Torgerson Time Optimism") :)