Merry Christmas Everyone!

Welcome to my (Liz's) blog! If you haven't been here before, this is the place I visit occasionally to share bits of news in our life, things on my heart, or funny circumstances that seem to happen to us often! I hope you continue to visit here in the future, as there's always something happening in our lives! This year proved to be an eventful one for both of us, with many "firsts" happening. I went skiing for my first time, and though I was convinced I'd end up with a broken leg or be the guest of honor at my own funeral, I survived and even enjoyed it (somewhat). I'm still deciding on whether or not to try again in 2009.... :) I also had my first bout with pneumonia, and hope to never have it again!

In March, to celebrate our 2 year anniversary, Joe and I went to Washington, D.C. for a week-long vacation. Though I had been there when I was younger, it was Joe's first visit, and we had a wonderful time! My cousin, Megan, is stationed as a chaplain's assistant at Arlington Cemetery, so we got a first-rate tour and had the opportunity to spend some quality time with her. (Several of our favorite posts we made while vacationing there can be seen here, here, or here.)

In August, after much prayer and thought, I made the decision to go part-time at the bank in order to pursue teaching piano more actively. But I'm not just teaching piano! I am now offering basic guitar lessons for the first time ever! I simply had too many people ask me if I would teach their children guitar, so I decided to offer basic lessons and see where the Lord leads! So far, I have 3 guitar students and 6 piano students. I have also been asked to accompany for an event at the high school in the spring, which will be another first for me! I am so thankful for the students the Lord has provided and look forward to seeing what He has for me in the future!

Joe has kept himself busy this year by creating some of his first inventions! One is a coin map book, featuring several pages of maps from various areas of the world. Specific countries feature a coin from that country, embedded into the map. He did a great job and is currently looking for more coins to put into it. Any offers anyone? :) Joe's second invention has been hand-carved, hand-painted Christmas ornaments that hold the presidential dollar coins. So far he has sold over 100 of them! We both brainstorm on different ideas for shapes(snowmen, animals, etc.) and after he's done carving, I help him paint them. They've turned out really great, as you can see from the picture below.

While we're talking about Joe, I should mention that he returned to college this year to pursue his first official college major. Joe is attending Minnesota Southeast Technical School in Winona, MN and pursuing a degree in Electronics. He already had some of his classes out of the way (due to taking college classes while in high school), and his work will pay for the classes as long as he gets a passing grade. He has done well this semester, and will be taking 2 more classes next semester. It can get kind of crazy with working third shift, though, so pray for his alertness as he drives to class!

We continue to live in our little home in Nelson, WI and haven't done much in areas of home improvements this year. That's probably a good thing, though, as we experienced our first broken furnace and first replacement refrigerator. Thankfully, the Lord provided us with the money we needed to fix and replace both of these items. He is always faithful, isn't He?

Our church remains an important part of our lives, as we continue to help with the youth group and music ministry. Joe created Bible game shows for the first time this summer, and tried them out on some of our youth. They seem to be a hit and we continue to play them once a month or so. Some include Family Feud, Jeopardy, Pyramid, and Password. As for me, I have jumped into the music ministry even more passionately this year. I am currently compiling a Church Music Survey to poll the talents and opinions of our church. I am also stretching myself by playing guitar more often for Sunday services and creating power point slides for weekly services as well. Joe is such a help to me and I think we've both learned a lot!

Here's a few more random firsts we encountered in 2008:

• I began learning how to knit for the first time!
• We experienced our first mailbox smashing. The funny thing about living in a small town is that everyone and their mother knows that your mailbox was smashed -- almost before you do! For pictures and more information on that story, go to this post.
• My sister graduated from high school in May (hooray!) and is now living in a group home -- her first experience in living away from home. She's loving it though and we are sooo proud of her!
• My brother is about to get his driver's license! I just wanted to make sure I warned everyone to stay off the roads...you wouldn't want to be involved in his first accident!! :)
• We are expecting a new nephew! He won't be our first, but it's still an exciting event! We're hoping to meet him in late December or January.
• Joe was involved in his first hair-raising experience when the grill flared up in his face one summer night. Fortunately, he escaped with only the smell of burning hair for 3 weeks, as most of his facial hair got singed. (Again, to see pictures and read more, go to this post.)
  

Thank you for taking the time to read our Christmas letter. We hope you enjoyed it and pray that you focus on Christ this Christmas, the only source of true Hope and Joy. God bless!!

Love,
Joe & Liz