I Wish I Were An...

What's more to say... :)

Happy beginning of the school year!

Here are the 18 munchkins that will be taking up so much of my time this year.... and I'm sure entertaining me all along the way.

Grandma Foster would be so proud!

I broke out my sewing machine for the first time in a couple of years yesterday. Years ago Grandma Foster spent about a week with us teaching me the art of sewing. Unfortunately it's the kind of skill that unless practiced often, gets easily forgotten (at least in my case). Or maybe I'll rephrase that in saying that the skills may still be there, but the confidence in those skills is lacking. My friend Sadie spent the morning with me yesterday and kept me company while I reunited with my sewing machine. We worked together to transform a shower curtain (which matched my new bathroom rug and hand towel) into curtains for my 1/2 bath.

I was having so much fun after that project that I kept at it after Sadie left and made pillow shams to match the guest room curtains. I'd purchased an extra set of curtains probably 9 months ago, thinking that I would do this, but never had the confidence to actually dig in and try.

Grandma has been gone for several years now, but I'm so thankful that I had that opportunity to learn from her before she passed away. Now every time I pull out my sewing machine (which hopefully will be more often now...) I'm reminded of my grandma and what a talented lady she was with a needle and thread!

(Grandma Foster with Mike and me at Disney World back in '81)

Read ahead!

I've just spent the last hour and a half updating our blog..... finally. Read ahead to find out what we've been up to this month!

Summerfest 2009

This evening was our second annual "Summerfest" at Five Oaks Church. Here are a few pictures from the event!

The first hour, we volunteered...

Melissa helped roast marshmallows at the firepit.

While David took pictures of his shadow (and other things as well).

After that we enjoyed burgers and brats with our friends and finished the evening with a little improv comedy with Comedy Sportz. It was a fun time and we were blessed with beautiful weather for the event!

Garden update

Well, some things in our vegetable garden seem to be doing very well, while other things gave up quite a while ago. On Friday we were able to harvest our first fruits of the garden. I'd never grown broccoli before so I wasn't real sure what I was getting into. It was looking like it was ready to harvest, so I did a little research online first just to be sure. After cutting the heads off (that sounds bad, doesn't it?), I brought them inside and gave them a warm bath in water with vinegar because I'd read online that would help rid the broccoli of any stowaways. Post bath, there were a few at the bottom of the sink so I assumed we were good to go, chopped up the broccoli and proceeded to steam away. As I was plating up the broccoli, I noticed a slightly pale looking caterpillar on one of my pieces and nearly lost my appetite altogether. We spent the next 5 minutes meticulously inspecting every piece of broccoli for more caterpillars and found 2 more and some kind of egg sack (eek!). We traded plates and double inspected each other's broccoli. Finally, we worked up the courage to still eat it, even though it was mostly cold by that point. The verdict: in spite of the uneasy feeling we had eating food that we'd just picked caterpillars out of, it was better than any broccoli we'd ever eaten from the grocery store. I just learned a lesson that day. Next time I will inspect my broccoli MUCH more thoroughly before ever considering cooking it. It makes me think a little about how carelessly I "wash" the broccoli I bring home from the store..... hmmmm.

To Indiana and Back

Two weeks ago we made a spontaneous trip down to Indiana and back. David's dad ended up in the hospital in Ft. Wayne for a couple of days and we thought he was going to require some pretty serious surgery for a while. He broke his nose in a few places and had several ruptured/bulged discs in his neck from a fall. Thankfully the Lord healed him enough that surgery didn't look necessary and the doctors have decided to see how things heal on their own. By the time David and I arrived and saw him, he was doing so much better we teased David's mom that it was all just some big elaborate (expensive) hoax just to get us down there. Once we were down there, we decided to just make a vacation out of it and stayed for several days. It was good to be able to visit with some family and see our nieces again. On our last night there we were able to pop on over to Ivanhoes for some ice cream and strawberry shortcake.

David's cup raneth over and made a very big mess!

Instead of driving straight home (about an 11 hour drive), we decided to split up the trip and spend the night in Chicago. We pricelined a hotel in Schaumburg for $35. Though my family lived in the Chicago area for 10 years, it was all after I graduated from high school so I've come to discover that I had somehow missed out on some Chicago staples. So we made a point to stay in the area long enough for 3 meals. We had lunch at Portillos so I could enjoy my Chicago style hotdog....



We had dinner at our favorite restraunt Rosebuds on Rush after watching Cirque Shanghii on Navy Pier. (no pictures of dinner or the show...)

And we had lunch the next day at Giordannos for my first authentic Chicago style deep dish pizza.


This post makes it look like we live for food. Well, when we're on vacation.... we kind of do!

Small Group Twins game

A few weeks ago, a small group of our "small" group went to the Twins v. Yankees game in Minneapolis. Our seats were really good (not really)! This should give you an idea of what I mean...

The Yankees smoked us pretty bad and most of the fans left the stadium long before the end of the game. You can see here how we were pretty much the only ones left in the last inning.

That was ok though; we had fun anyway!

Liddick family Christmas in June

When your family is spread out all across the US (NY, MN, KY, AZ), you celebrate holidays whenever you can and for a family in ministry, that's not always during the actual holiday. We decided to give Christmas in June a try this year and I think it's a new tradition that just might stick. Traveling in June is a lot easier than in December and there's much more that you can do together, rather than being cooped up in the house (not a winter sports family). We decided to meet in Kentucky at Matt and Brianne's house since they just had a baby recently. We were delighted to find this on their door when we arrived.



They had also put out their nativity and a small Christmas tree. It was beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Our first day there was "Christmas Eve", so what better activity than to go Christmas Caroling! It turns out that Matt and Brianne have become good friends with Joe Wells, who David and I knew from his internship at CWC in Michigan. So the four of us sported our scarves (it was probably 85 degrees at the time) and sang "Silent Night" for Joe and his wife. I admit, I mostly giggled and didn't get too many lyrics out.


On Christmas day (which coincidentally fell on June 25, exactly 6 months from and till the actual holiday) we all met at Olive Garden for our main meal at lunch time. Our waitress got a real kick out of hearing what we were celebrating (or at least she pretended real well).


After lunch we all went to see "UP." Loved it! Very heart warming. Brogan was a champ and snuggled his uncle Mike during the whole movie.

We returned to Matt and Brianne's for the remainder of the afternoon/evening and opened presents together.

Waiting for the festivities to begin.

Brogan says thank you for the Cubs blanket Aunt Melissa made him.

I finally upgraded my favorite movie from VHS to Blu Ray!Aunt Melissa was the lucky duck that got to snuggle Brogan during Christmas!

I wasn't sure what to expect, this being our first time celebrating Christmas not even remotely close to the actual holiday. But I was pleasantly surprised. Every family has their own traditions. Being a pastor's family, we've always been fairly flexible with our traditions and have remained open to trying new traditions along the way. There are a few things that have held consistent along the way. The one thing that really truly matters was that we were all together, which was a blessing. Many Christmases that's just not a possibility. I think for us, it's more important to find a time, any time, that we can all be together; and that's what made it feel like Christmas...even in June.

The Liddick family
** June 2009 **

A New Journey

David and I have officially entered into a new journey today. Only the Lord knows how long the journey will be and what the trip will look like. We submitted our application for (domestic) adoption today. We would appreciate your prayers as we continue to learn about the whole process and work through the necessary steps along the way. We're excited to discover what God has in store for our little family!

Food, friends, and flowers

When you are a "trans-plant" to the state where you live, and you have no family around, it is SUCH a blessing to have some "old" friends nearby. Dan and Angie are a good hour north of us, but we're so fortunate to have two fun cities, full of lots of things to do between us. We met on Monday in St. Paul at Como Park for a picnic. We probably spent 2 hours just sitting at the picnic table at the edge of the park, eating and talking. After that we popped over to the Conservatory to enjoy the beautiful flowers. We'd taken my parents to the Zoo a couple of years ago and that was a bit on the disappointing side, but the Conservatory was beautiful. (However, it does make me want to spend too much money on my own flower gardens at home...).

Dan and Angie Leverence

Melissa and Angie
Dan and David

Our new kitty?

Melissa's been doing quite a bit of gardening lately, and we've discovered a cat living underneath our smoker BBQ grill. The grill has a cover, and over the past couple of days there has been a "mewing" coming from underneath. Yesterday the kitten emerged to pull on our heartstrings a little, but we remained strong. If we start feeding this stray, then mom Liddick can't ever come to visit, and we love our parents/inlaws!

This cat has an adorable face with huge "Precious Moments" eyes, but you can tell it's had a few run-ins with other animals in the woods. There's a hefty chunk taken out of one of it's hind quarters and the tail looks a bit weird.

We had our small group meeting tonight and the cat sat outside the open windows and meowed during most of the meeting. At one point it actually jumped up on the window; startled us all to death.

And this is where it sits now. Sitting outside our front door, pleading to come inside. If this keeps up, we may have to call someone.

An Evening Out With Nacho Mamas...

Sunday evening I decided to take my lovely wife out to Stillwater and see what all the fuss was about surrounding a mexican place called Nacho Mamas. For those of you who aren't native to Minnesota, Stillwater is a small berg on the East side of the state nestled up against the St. Croix River. The downtown area is old and thriving! I can't believe that there are this many people out and about in an old downtown anymore. Finding a parking place is extremely difficult due to the lack thereof, but if you ever get the chance to drive up and visit a place called Nacho Mamas, it will be worth it all.

Melissa and I sat down and ordered what we hear is their signature nachos and a smothered burrito. The waitress looked confused, but just said, "You mean the small order of nachos, right?" We said sure and she proceeded to tell us that the large order usually feeds 5 adults. For only $12, it looks like you could eat for less here than your local burger joint.



Our meals came and we knew we were in trouble. The burrito probably weighed about 5 pounds, and the nachos were more than the two of us alone could eat. Fantastic company, delicious food and portions big enough for my old high school basketball team. What a fun night.

Memorial Day

Sorry about the lapse in posts. I may have no readers left by now!

We enjoyed the beautiful weather yesterday with some great friends and delicious food. Several couples from our small group came over to join us for the evening. We grilled brats, burgers, and corn, and when we were full we played. The guys played bocce ball outside and the girls played scrabble. I thought I had the game in the bag but Emily beat me by one point on her last move. Too bad. I think I might demand a re-match.

My birthday, 2009

I celebrated another birthday on Friday. The other teachers on my temporary team (for only 1 more week) at school brought a cake for me at lunch. That was nice. In the evening we went out to dinner with our friends Erik and Jennifer Fair. A couple of years ago, I decided that I wanted to try some place new for dinner every year on my birthday. So David asked around and got several recommendations for Trattoria da Vinci's in St. Paul. We had a great time, all enjoying the "pasta experience" for dinner. (you pick the sauce, veggies, meats, and pasta and they make it for you). The waitress even brought me a free dessert with a candle and everything since it was my birthday.

Our licky dog just got lickier...

Allie was naughty tonight and snuck a hamburger bun and slice of cheese off the counter when we weren't looking. What made this funny was that she somehow managed to get a piece of cheese stuck between her teeth and lip. For the next 15 minutes solid she couldn't stop licking the air in a desperate attempt to release the cheese from her teeth.

The Grass Is Always Greener (Not ours, but someone has green grass, right?)

It's been awhile since I have posted on the site, (David) so i figured a rainy Saturday morning is the perfect excuse to write an update. Not all that much going on with the Gaffords lately, but we have been doing a lot of work in the yard. Purchasing a home that was vacant through most of last summer has presented us with more than a few items of home maintenance. Things like reseeding, aerating, and de-thatching our yard have been new experiences. Trying to figure out how to keep grass seed to stay on a steep hill when you're watering it daily is fun. I have also learned that owning an aerator is a great way to meet your neighbors... :) Everybody loves the neighbor with lawn implements! Allie was also a great big help with the yard work, and here's the picture to prove it... She likes to pull all of the covers on the bed into one big pile and lay on top every now and then.

Conversations

Teachers in public schools have to be careful about what they say when it comes to religious topics. Pretty much as long as you don't bring it up and the kids are the ones doing the talking though, we're ok. That's what made yesterday kind of fun...

We were doing calendar and I reminded the students that we didn't have school on Friday. One student raised his hand and asked "why not?". Several hands went in the air accompanied by "Ooh, ooh, I know, I know." I called on a student who proudly announced that it was Good Friday. "What's Good Friday?" another student asked. Again, the hands go up in the air and I call on someone. "That's when Jesus raised from the dead." Another student interjects, "No it's not; Good Friday is when he died on the cross."

A few minutes later we were adding April-related words to an April poster (that I should have done earlier in the week, but forgot about it until yesterday). The kids were suggesting words to add to the poster. One student suggested "Passover." Again the questions, "What's passover?" The student who suggested the word went on to tell the whole story (the parts that she could remember) about the Passover with a little help from another classmate. When she finished I told her that she knew her Bible stories pretty well. At which another student asked where in the Bible that story could be found. A student tried to answer him and he responded, "I'm going to read the whole Bible so I can find that story!"

In one day we had two separate conversations in my classroom that I barely spoke a word in. All I did was allow my students to answer each others' questions. That was kind of fun.

The Free Ticket Fairy Strikes Again!

We've lived in the Twin Cities for 2 years and 10 months now and in that time, the Free Ticket Fairy has been very kind to us. We've been to 2 Twins games, 1 Timberwolves game (when they still were good), 3 Wild hockey games, 1 play, and now one concert at the Xcel Center... all free of charge. Our great friends Dan and Angie invited us to accompany them to the Chris Tomlin concert last night. Dan had been given the tickets by the local Christian radio station as a token of thanks for agreeing to direct a mass choir for a Michael W. Smith concert this fall. KTIS was very kind to Dan because our seats were incredible! Right in the second row, just feet from the stage.


Israel Houghton and New Breed opened for Tomlin and they were fantastic. I would have been happy with just them. Tomlin's concert was great of course, and we were pleasantly surprised to notice that Christy Nockels had joined up with him for this concert.

We met up early for dinner at the infamous Mickey's Diner.

Notice I'm standing on my tiptoes so as not to look so short. Real effective, huh?

Happy Birthday!

We celebrated Allie's 5th birthday and Mom G.'s ?? belated birthday on Friday night. We (humans only) enjoyed a delicious meal of crab legs thanks to Cub's $4.99/lb this past week. We've probably been waiting close to a year for crab to get that cheap again. We ended up buying about 10 pounds to keep in the freezer. What can I say, we love crab... especially when it's not $12 a pound. We had an ice cream dessert and let Allie enjoy a scoop of vanilla since it was her birthday.