Spring in the Bing

It has been one busy spring, and I have not been a good blogger. When the weather gets this warm, I just don't think to spend the time to update this thing...but for those of you dying to know what our life has been like the past month, here you go:

First, we had a party!! Not us, me and the girls from Girls Club threw a going away party for two amazing women heading out to the Middle East to serve as disciples of Christ in one of the darkest countries on earth...and that is why they are going there: to reach the unreached. Their role in the community? One is a doctor and one a nurse practitioner. Anyways, they are amazing and it was the Burundi girls' idea to have this big ole party and they did ALL the cooking. Oh, and it was a surprise!
Handmade banner and streamers decorated the Hebron house.
Party hats, and one random stowaway baby girl, were included.
A botched attempt at getting their faces :(
Yummy...on the menu? Goat, rice, African donuts (don't remember the name) and chapati (definitely didn't spell that right, but the most delicious tortilla like thing ever), Oh, and cabbage- African cuisine ALWAYS has cabbage.




Me and Susan, isn't she the cutest little thing ever? Last weekend I got to carry her around the neighborhood tied to my back with some fabric wrapped around then tied :)
The gang minus me. We will miss you, Michele and Stephanie. "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings good tidings, who proclaims salvation, and who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"" Isaiah 52:7

Other things keeping us busy this spring....hanging out with Henry, the 100+ lb. puppy.
We brought over some neighborhood kids to paint and goof off. Meet Rosa...
And Mohammad...
And Sammy...

Randy played a trick on Frank and locked him in Henry's dog cage.
We got a porch swing that we are currently in the process of staining.
I bought two pieces of yard sale furniture that will need to be refurnished/repainted. Fun projects for the summer!

And I finally got around to painting this 70's style sideboard for the dining room.
Finished product.

Not pictured: Binghampton Bayou Bash

My dad came into town (missed you, Mom) to visit us and it happened to be the day of the Bayou Bash: all you can eat crawfish and cornhole tournament. The "reluctant in-laws" (that was their team name) did well but didn't take home the prize...my dad of course was disappointed in this seeing as he really likes to win. We got to spend the rest of the short weekend with him and loved having him visit. Next time, we will hopefully have longer and I won't have to be in a bad mood from running an 11 mile run (of which Randy and my dad randomly drove by and yelled "Run Faster!!"...bad move, boys!)

And, of course, with the warm weather, we have been playing in the park. If you live in Memphis, come visit Binghampton park on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon...I guarantee you you won't be bored :)
Americans vs. Africans soccer game.



Happy Spring! There is less than two weeks until my Half Marathon, so you will hear about that soon. Hope you all take time this Holy Week to read and meditate on the Word. Thursday we will be attending our 3rd Seder Feast and then be spending Easter with family :)

10

I ran 10 miles this morning. And it was a PAIN. Seriously, every bone in my body ached. But, I was so proud of myself (and my awesome running partner) when it was finished. For those of you who know Memphis and where I currently live, we ran down N. Parkway to the Pyramid (which is basically the Mississippi River a.k.a. the end of Tennessee) then over to Poplar where we ran all the way back. Geez, it hurts even to relive it in writing. Too bad I have to run 11 next weekend.

Anyways, I thought I'd do a top ten since I ran ten miles and I am way behind in blogging:

1. Praise God from whom all blessings flow! I have had two huge prayers answered the past couple of weeks, the first being that my Pa is now recovering after having some very scary days in the hospital. He is in rehab to get his strength back but they think he will go home this week, which is incredible!

(Here he is behind my mom...he is about to turn 84 years old, or 85? I don't remember)
2. Jacob Daniel Hartman was born on Monday of last week, and mom and baby are healthy and great! Isn't he precious? I haven't gotten to see him in person yet, but can't wait until we can. He is a pretty special kid to have Dan, Jenna, and Luke as family. We can't wait to love on our little nephew. As Mamaw says, the Hartmans are now past having enough to form a basketball team, so she is now hoping for a Hartman football team!
3. We did 3 things over Spring Break that I am proud of....we completely redid the landscaping in our front yard; super organized and condensed our closet; and painted a credenza I had bought off of Craigslist for our dining room.

4. WE HAVE GRASS! Who would have thought it would be such a happy thing to say you have grass in your yard? Well, for those of us who live in dirt/mud, it is about the happiest thing to happen to your lawn (especially if you have a dog).

5. Henry is officially the slowest dog in the neighborhood, I don't even know why I try anymore. note: Randy would like for me to mention that his dog is "slow" in the context of running, not his mental capabilities.

6. Giving up sweets has been really, really hard. Especially those days when it was so warm and everyone wanted to go get ice cream. It has been a very good reminder of what this time of the year is for in getting our hearts and minds ready to celebrate Easter Sunday.

7. The refugee girls from Girl's Club planned the sweetest going away party ever for two girls in the neighborhood who are leaving soon to preach the gospel in Afghanistan. What a special night! I am so thankful for the work that will be done in God's name thanks to these two disciples.

8. We are anxiously awaiting and praying for our nephew (yes, another boy) who wants to come way too early. Hang in there, Reed (and Jen)...we cannot wait to meet you! One more boy to join the Hartman football team. Gosh I hope I don't disappoint the family one day!?!

Another baby I cannot wait to meet? Audrey Belle, who should be born this week! :)

9. I booked a flight to visit my bestie in SAN DIEGO! I cannot wait. T minus 4 months Kelsa!

10. For the first time in my teaching career, I am excited about teaching next year. At this time of year I am usually nervous and scared about the upcoming year, but this time I cannot wait to have another year of teaching the little kiddos at my school. Looks like Elementary School is where I need to be!

Why?

This is the question I have asked myself numerous times over the past several weeks...WHY? But despite my doubts, I "drank the koolaid" and decided to register to run the Country Music Half Marathon on April 30th. You see, it has always been a dream of mine, a "bucket list" if you will, and so many people in my neighborhood are doing it that I jumped on the band wagon. Now, for those of you that think I literally just signed up and that's it, you will be happy to know that I have been training. I have been running about 5-6 days a week and have gotten up to a SIX mile run. That's more than I ever did when running Cross Country (contrary to what my coaches probably hoped I did). So here I am getting up at 5:20 am to run with a 100 lb dog who is as slow as they come. Luckily, when I run in the afternoons I go with my friend Sarah and her dog who keeps Henry running like a champ. The long runs I have done on Saturdays, and I have yet to do any other exercising like crunches, push-ups, etc....I guess I should be starting that soon.

Anyways, another WHY question is WHY do I always choose desserts to give up on Lent? The answer is simple: because it is the hardest. Harder than coffee, harder than Facebook, texting, etc. Just plain hard. But I do it because it helps me remember that I am not the one in control, it is God, and he is really the only thing I need. I can do without desserts for forty days and it WILL NOT KILL ME! After all, we rely way too much on getting our comfort and satisfaction from food therapy, retail therapy, massage therapy, you name it, while we should be relying on God to be the source of fulfillment. So goodbye, sweets. But you better believe that tomorrow, Fat Tuesday to those celebrating, I will be living it up with the sweets!

On the agenda? El Toro Loco for some Mexican (Randy is giving up cokes so he will throw several back with his mexican food) and then YoLo for ice cream! Good thing I'm training for a marathon, right?!

a LOST weekend

This past weekend I met some of my best friends in Eva (Tennessee River/Kentucky Lake area) to hang out at Jessi's cabin for the weekend. Anna Grace is due towards the end of March, and we wanted to have one last hoorah before babies enter our world...because we all know "a baby changes everything" (that's for you Jessi, Julianna, Allie, AG, if your reading).

Anyways, we got there late Friday night and stayed up waaay late (for me at least) talking and eating...literally, that's all we did. It's kinda funny how when you finally see friends you never get to see all you want to do is sit and talk.

Well, saturday morning I wanted to go for a run (I'll have a post about my new running lifestyle later) and set out by myself. No phone, but it was dead so it wouldn't have been much help anyways. I told Anna Grace that if I wasn't back in an hour and a half to come looking for me. The run was great...super hilly but beautiful...deer everywhere, water to my right, no cars in sight, just beautiful. UNTIL I looked at my watch and realized I had been running for one hour and probably missed my turn. Instead of turning around right then, I just keep going to find out if the road is just a little bit up ahead. Soon I realize I have no idea where I am. Then I think, "I'm out in the country on a saturday morning, surely people will be out working"....nope. I try to flag down not one but two cars....nope. Finally, I hear some men in a garage welding or something, I run back there (it was way behind their house) and ask where I am...they proceed to tell me I am about 3 miles away from where I should be. At this point I can no longer run and am walking, but feel like I should be running so kinda do an in-between. I finally see my big turn, but then I am on all the back roads next to Jessi's cabin and lost again. I look at the watch...it's been 2 hours and counting since I left. Just as I topped a wrong hill and thought I literally couldn't move another inch, Jessi and Anna Grace come driving up saying my name...THEY CAME TO FIND ME!!

The rest of the day I stayed very close to the cabin :)

Funny side note: I found out later that Kelsa was lost around the same time in San Diego by HERself...coincidence? I think not!

Our humble abode for the weekend...so cute.

Ahhhh....the water.

You gotta love a retro kitchen.

And big vines wrapping around giant trees.

The gang enjoying the view.

I would have biked had I not spent over two hours on foot!

Last photo before baby Audrey?!??

After this crazy/fun/much-needed trip, I headed to Nashville. I really lucked out by getting to see so many family and friends in such a short amount of time! My sister and brother-in-law happened to be in Nashville from Ohio so I got to see them Saturday and Sunday. I also squeezed in some time with my the bride-to-be, Michelle, to talk weddings and Jen, my sister-in-law, who is on bed rest for a month :(. Basically, I got to do all the things Randy doesn't like to do...talk, talk, and talk some more...oh, and I got to see Audrey Belle's nursery and my parent's new sofa (Randy wouldn't much care for that either). Somehow I forgot to mention that I got some really good food along the way. Although getting lost wasn't fun, the rest of my weekend sure was!

Life in the Bing

Most days I forget I live in the "hood"...I don't even think that is the best name for it anymore. But every once in a while I am reminded that my neighborhood is far from ordinary...

..Our neighbors down the street have a love for animals, all animals- dogs, roosters, emus, you name it, they could possibly have it. So it came as no surprise to me when I heard that TWELVE police cars were stopped on our street to... ... ...watch the emu that escaped from their backyard. You would think they were busting a drug deal or something, but no, they were just checking out a giant bird. The guy next door had his car hit in the meantime and could they help? no, they were not in their precinct so the local police had to be called to come to the scene.

..At the end of a three mile run when I get pretty close to being back home, I take in a big breath on a beautiful day to smell...weed. Lots of it.

..After leaving Henry in our fenced in backyard for an hour or so, I go to let him in and find that he is just chilling with his homie. Apparently we have a hole just big enough for this stray that is a pit/boxer mix to come in and keep Henry company. So all that time that I thought poor Henry was by himself, he was hangin' with his homeless friend. Sadly, Randy filled in the hole because we didn't want it to get bigger and then run the risk of Henry getting out.

..My alarm on my phone happens to be a rooster crowing, but ironically, I also hear a rooster crowing around 5:30 just outside my home. We are far, far from the country, but yet we have a rooster on our street.

..Only in a home full of African refugees would you be served dinner on a crystal plate at 9 o'clock at night (clearly I had already eaten a full meal at home), with water in a crystal goblet, by a high schooler. In the house are 10 children who are home alone because their parents work during the evenings. Following the dinner, the younger ones fight for our attention and impress us with push-ups and dance moves.

..Talking to a Somali woman I have befriended, I find that although she has four boys all under the age of 5 and has escaped from Somalia to Kenya to the U.S., we are the same age.

..The best part of our neighborhood is that children are actually seen playing in the streets! Drive through the suburbs and you will see that this is a lost art, but in the Bing, you have your choice of street ball, soccer in the park, skateboarding on the sidewalk, or just playing on the tire swing. That is the beauty of a population without the likes of video games, internet, cell phones, and all other distractions that desensitize children from the real world.

Life is good!

Twenty-six

Twenty-six. That sounds so old! It doesn't help that two days after my birthday we went to a bible study that designated age groups...Randy was in the 18-25 and I was in the 26-35! How unfair is that?!

Anyways, my birthday was a wonderful day, although our snow day came the day prior to my actual birthday. All in all, I got two half days and one full day off on my birthday week, not too bad! Randy did a wonderful job surprising me with an early birthday present. You see, Henry (which, by the way means "home ruler"...no joke, look it up) chewed my other ones which I loved dearly. Because we are pretty cheap these days, I knew I shouldn't order a new pair just because mine were chewed because, in all honesty, they could still serve the purpose of boots, just not look cute. Anyways, I came home one day to new boots as a vase for my favorite flowers, tulips! And a little note of course. Is that sweet or what?


My actual birthday was spent at Ban Thai with delicious food and dear friends. Afterwards we watched a movie and ate homemade chocolate with chocolate cake...it doesn't get much better than that!

Henry was quite loving towards me on my birthday too, giving me birthday kisses and all:



Isn't he getting BIG? Thanks to all of you (family and friends) who either sent me a card, email, or text on my birthday...it all was very much appreciated, and made me feel quite loved :) My co-workers at school (both schools actually) gave me a mini little birthday too, so I really was spoiled. My biggest splurge with birthday money? A front porch swing, which is not bought or up yet, but I will include pictures when it is. So another birthday has come and gone, geez...I sure am one lucky gal! Here's to twenty-six and whatever God has in store for me!

Girls Club Retreat

A week ago, me, four other Binghampton ladies and seven Burundi girls, ages 12-20 (I think?!) loaded up and went on a "Girls Club Retreat" to.....

NASHVILLE!!

That's right, I was a tourist in my own hometown, and my parents were gracious enough to let us all stay at their house for the entire weekend. It was such an amazing time. Not only did we get to let the girls experience new things, but we also got to know them on a more personal basis, and reached a new level of sharing our thoughts about Christ. Our theme for the weekend was "Identity", which every teenage girl needs to look at, but it was as beneficial for me as for them in terms of studying God's word and understanding more about my value as HIS daughter.

So here are the pictures (believe me, I took much more) from the jam-packed 48 hour trip.

First activity: Dance Dance Revolution....by the way, Kelsa, I nailed Speed over Beethoven still after three years of no DDRing. :)

This continued all night of course.

Then to bed...all seven girls slept on sleeping bags in the big family room, and it reminded me of my sleepovers I had back in school.


Ester.
Necode.
Sikora.

Next on the itinerary was a pancake breakfast by none other than my dad! Only one of the girls could eat two of them, and I think she was force fed by the end.
Luckily it was a beautiful day, so when it came time to watch my dad do the potters wheel demonstration, we sat on the back porch. The girls were so funny, they asked two questions:

1. How do you get a house like this? (Made my parents appreciate what they have, my dad actually taught them a little about the finances of such a purchase)

2. Where IS everybody? (In urban neighborhoods like ours, people are always out, not in the suburbs)

Ester, Justine, Katie, Deniza, Necode, and Sikora.
Ellisa, Alisson (barely), Zena, Stacy, and Jan.

If you have never watched someone form a pot on the wheel, it is very fascinating. If you have never watched someone while ALSO thinking about how God is the potter and we are the clay, then you are missing out. What a powerful metaphor/image in understanding how we can be used by God.
Starting out, we are a lump of clay. The potter already knows what he will make from this.
The clay must be centered before it is formed, otherwise it will fall apart. Sound familiar?
Next you have to open it up, the potter has to get inside the lump of clay to do this.

girls: "How you do it?" dad: "It's maagic!"

The potter then starts forming what he had in mind for the clay to become. Finally the clay is no longer just clay but a vessel to be used another way. How can you be used?

See that one random man in the crowd? That is my dad's friend from high school who happened to "drop-in" to say hi and surprised my dad by speaking up in a sea of girls.

After some quiet time, it was off to Opryland Hotel.




The girls were blown away by all of the water features and landscaping.

They thought these horses were pretty cute, so we took a break for a photo session.




Then they found this guy:

On to something else, we went to Centennial Park to see the Parthenon, and it seemed as though everyone else in Nashville was there that day.




Next was one of the best stops we made. We took them to Lovers Circle, yes, the same lovers circle where people take dates. We wanted them to see all of Nashville.

And we proceeded to ruin many a couple's romantic evening by being ridiculously silly....sorry about that.



Last of our stops on Saturday was Old Spaghetti Factory downtown...the girls were quite reserved at first, but we eventually got them feeling comfortable and had a great dinner.

Group shot at dinner.

Later that night we watched a movie and had a discussion which was really good, so good that it lasted much later than I have stayed up in a very long time. The next morning we had breakfast and then a wonderful (another beautiful day) house church morning with singing, discussion, and prayer.

Then it was so long Nashville, hello Memphis. Thanks again, Mom and Dad, for having us!