TruLucks Resturant

So our last night in Austin Texas Darcy and I decided to venture downtown to eat at a nicer resturant called TruLucks; it was awesome! A very fancy pants resturant if you will. Darcy decided on some sort of Lobster and I went with smoked salmon. Both types of seafood was amazing. I also ordered the best side dish I have ever had - sweet potatoe fries; which is an actually sweet potatoe but in the from of a fries and than they are deep fried! Oh my goodness....AWESOME! After our main course the manager, ED; talked us into some carrot cake and coffee. Again - AWESOME. Ed must have liked us a lot cuz he stopped at our table a couple of times to chat and than gave us our carrot cake for free! Nice. Darcy thinks that I was 'working it'; I just think that Ed happened to be a very nice guy. On our way out we stopped in the restrooms and to much of our surprise found mouth wash in the bathroom. A nice touch to a pretty fancy bathroom. Darcy also highly enjoyed the towels. After that we walked the streets of Austin for a spell and than headed back to the hotel. It was a fun evening out on the town. If you ever make a trip to Austin Texas I highly suggest TruLucks downtown on 4th Street. Currently we are packing up our suitcases and getting ready to head back to the airport and back to Minnesota, where I hear is 101. YUCK. All in all it was a good teacher workshop conference, a good time in Austin and a good time getting to know my co-worker better. She is very cool.

BLAST FROM THE PAST

So I am not sure if this has ever happened to you
before, but it has happened to me on a couple different occassions. I boared a plane this past Thursday bound for Austin Texas to attend a teacher workshop there. I and my co-worker Darcy sat on the plane and started to chat. After about an hour Darcy got up from her seat and a guy from across the row was smiling at me. I tried to ignore him at first cuz I had no idea what he was doing. Was he flirting with me? Was he just trying to look out the window? What? After what seemed to be minutes, which actually was only seconds; he finally said - 'Your JoAnn Venhuizen right!" "Yes, I am"....and than it dawned on me. Matt Belkholm (did I spell that right?) from high school, he was a good friend and graduated with my older brother Chris. "Oh my goodness...." as I moved over to the isle seat and we began to catch up on life. He looks just like he did in high school, except with a bit more facial hair, being married and having a son. It was great to see him. A definate BLAST FROM THE PAST. Man, I had such a big crush on that guy! (didn't tell ya that on the plane Matt- heehee) He is as nice as I remember him being in high school. We decided that we hadn't seen each other since 1991 - holy buckets- I guess I still look like I did when I was a 1oth grader in high school too. Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Anyways- it's always fun to see people from your past and actaully recognize each other. I hope you had a great time with the in-laws Matt!! IT'S A SMALL WORLD HUH!

Baby Will - July 22nd

Baby Will is a miracle. I had the honor and pleasure this past Saturday of being a part of Will
Anderson's baptism. Ryan and Darla (Will's parents) asked me to be his God-Mother, which is a complete honor and a big charge. But...more than that, Will's story is so awesome and shows the love and power of God . Will was born 10 1/2 weeks early on March 1st and weighted in at 3lbs 4 oz; he was so tiny and had so many things wrong with him...the main being he had chronic lung disease. He spent the 1st couple months of his life in a incubator with tubes all over his little body. His mom and dad spent day after day lovin on him as best they could through the walls of the incubator. I am so amazed at how they kept life together and how they responed to all the problems the doctors kept bringing them. The power of prayer is so evident in Will. So many things were against him...yet God was for him; and because of God and prayer problem after problem disappeared... even when doctors weren't sure they would disappear! The miracle of it all is this past weekend Will weighted in at 13 lbs 13 oz and is doing awesome. He no longer is hooked up to any tubes and he is a happy baby. I think the doctor even took him off the permi charts! Praise God.
This weekend I got to hold Will for the 1st time and soaked in the feeling of his warm little body, his chubby cheeks, his cute little smile and the way his snuggled into me when he feel asleep. I could do nothing but thank God for protecting his life. I think I was a bit of a baby hog that day but couldn't get enough of him. The charge that Pastor Dave gave me and Craig (the God-Father) this past weekend to help Will see Jesus is a big charge, but one that I am exicited for. I cant wait to see how God moves in Will's life and how he wants to use Craig and I.

My First Tri-athlon

On Saturday July15th I took part in my first (unoffical) Tri-athlon. I was nervous and a bit leery of my abilities to actually compete. Plus, it was soooo hot; upper 90's! But regardless of the temps we took part anyways! Chad Miller's (one on the left) friend from work does a 'fun' tri-athlon around Turtle Lake in Shoreveiw. So at 9 a.m. we started out on our run (they switched the rotation of events due to the heat). The run (3.2 miles) is by far my weakest event and made me the most nervous, thus I was glad to get it out of the way-took me 35:35! I was looking forward the the swim (1/2 mile) and the bike (10 miles) cuz I seem to be pretty decent at them. So....after I told myself over and over again that I was a 'whimp' and needed to keep going regardless of my body and what it was feeling...I finished the race in 92 minutes and 3 seconds. I am not totally upset with my time, but know that if I was a bit more trained in the running area - I'd finish alot quicker! So, I guess I know what I need to work on before July 30th, which will be my 1st 'offical' TRI. I like the discpline of training for them and I like how hard you have to work and how much you sweat to finish, plus- I really like swimming and biking; so much easier on the knees. The cool part about this TRI was that I got compete with and against Chad and Mike (middle of the picture). Mike is my best friends dad...I have known him since I was five years old. Who would have thought that we'd ever be in a TRI together. Fun times. I also find myself very thankful for my body and what it can do! God gave me a working body...I best take care of it!

boys basketball camp

I got the pleasure this past week (July 10-14) of coaching at George Palke's Christian boys basketball camp. It was a hoot. This is my team...consisted mostly of 10-12 graders. They were great. They were bit shy at first, but after a couple of days and me coming up with some funny questions to ask them they opened up. I am always challenged in some way when I finish coaching camps; sometimes it with how I can become a better coach, sometimes on how I need to become more discplined, and sometimes in my walk with God. This week I was challenged by the other coaches; mostly Chad Miller. For those of you who know him he is a great guy. He had such good things to challenge the whole camp with- including me. He share his CIDER theme with us. Which are Godly character qualities that every Godly man (and women) should have. The C- character. How we act and how we respond to things. I- integrity. How we act when know one is looking. D- discpline. With our bodies, with our minds, with our faith. E- encouragement. Do we do it? How do we do it? And should we do more of it? And the R- respect. Gotta give it to get it! I went home that night and thought alot about me life and these five areas. I was highly challenged with the integrity part and how I act, what I say and how I do life when know one is looking. I was also challenged with encourgement...I feel like I do a decent job of that but can offer so much more to so many more people and I just dont do it! So, thanks Chad, I hope to work on this two areas of my life for a spell! I challenged my boys team to consider these five areas as they left camp and to evaluate them and to challenge themselves to stay a CIDER guy. I also gave the a couple verses out of Titus to reference! I love Titus, one of my all time favorite books. I love coaching- so many opportunities come about to talk about God through ball. I hope and pray that my boys had a good week playing ball and learning about Jesus! They were a riot...

south dakota

so i decided to get in a car this weekend with a great gal named joni and head to a wedding in south dakota. i coached (basketball) joni at northwestern college for four years and now we have a cool enough relationship that we can hang out in a car with each other for 14 hours (7 each way). she is great and is full of life; and i am thankful she finds it fun to hang with a 31 year old coach. joni and i were headed to heather thompsons wedding- who i also coached the past two years, and she is a beautiful girl, inside and out. her wedding was great fun. very cowboyish... if you will. of course heather looked like all brides do on thier day- full of life and beeming with beauty! some of heathers teammates showed up to the wedding as well and linda (head coach) and her family - taylor is her little daughter and was the flower girl in the wedding. i am always amazed at how weddings work. so many people, so much to do, so much stress on those involved- yet they always seem to go off with out any major problems. like i always do when i attend weddings;i ponder my own wedding... and of course will sit before the throne of God and continue to ask (maybe pled) for my husband to be! although i get frustrated with single life, and honestly frustrated with God at times- i know He has my best interests in mind. so i will sit and wait on Him and be patient and yet excited for my wedding day to arrive. but as for heather and nick- my guess is they will live happily ever after for always and always. amen!!!!

Family on the 4th

so i went home to dad and mum's house for the 4th the hang out with my family and friends. it was a great time. chatting, volleyball, cards, jumping on the trampoline with the kids, eating as much food as possible, and sharing my photos of down under, and of course setting of some fireworks. it was nice to see everyone! this picture is of some my cousins (which are all boys), my two brothers and all their wives. i am so thankful for my family. it is so great to go home and feel loved! i love where i grew up, i love all the memories i have with all my cousins and i am so glad that i can go back and make more of them as an adult!
of couse, i also love going home cuz of these four youngsters. (from left to right) matt, emma, tyler and austin are so much fun to be with. matt and emma are my older brothers kids, and tyler (who will be one very soon) and austin are my younger brothers kids. when i go home i love playing with these kids...they make me feel young again. and they make me laugh all the time. it's so amazing to see how quick they grow up. emma loves school and i think she is going to grow up and be a writer. the boys are just like there dads and
they love trucks and get dirty no matter what they do. tyler is the baby of the group and is strating to talk more as he gets older and of couse has a smile that just makes everyone around him smile. i love being around them so much.
so i guess i am going to continue on with this whole blog thing. so keep the site around and check it out whenever you feel like it. and i hope you are ok with me not using proper grammer...i hate caps'ing my letters. no worries, right! out

HOME BOUND AND READY!

HI...How are you going? (that how are you here amoung the aussies.)We are sitting at Sydney Airport waiting for our long (17 hour) flight. We have a quick little layover in San Farn and than to ChiTown -than to MN! so....it will be a long day. Since I am using the aipports computer i cant enclose a picture of our last couple days adventure! JUST WANTED TO SHOUT OUT A HAPPY BITHDAY TO MY MUM! HOPE YOU ARE HAVING A GREAT DAY MUM! YOU DONT LOOK A DAY OVER 30....YOUNG and FULL OF FIRE!!~~ Anyways...I will see most of you soon. Remember, I have no phone and will be unable to connect with most of you until i replace the lost one! bugger.