Moving day - and then some!

So (yeah...I start with "so" a lot, too, but I'm more of a "well" guy) it was another exciting day in Colorado. I was in charge of moving a LOT of stuff that had been donated to our church facility. All in all we took two loads - one from District 11 and the other from TCA (The Classical Academy.) While it was really hard work, Springs Calvary made out really well!

Let's see...we got 3 TV/VCR carts that can hold up to 30"+ TV's (really big ones), a bunch of those trapezoid tables for our kids ministry, some kiddy chairs that are in really good condition, about 35 brand new Herman Miller chairs (nice), and about 100' linear feet of brand new 5' tall dividers. WHEW! Frankly, the dividers nearly killed us...haha. I actually got a truck and a couple of guys from a moving company to help and BOY did they earn their money! Anyway, I'm tired and sore.


In other news, Jaden just won the best behaved baby in the universe award. No...really...he did. At least he won the award given out by his parents...and isn't that the only one that matters? Yeah...thought so.

He's growing like a weed! In fact, he nearly rolled over yesterday! He's sleeping through the night now (and Jennette hasn't stopped dancing for joy!) Both Taite and Trinity are really good with him. They're constantly trying to "help" which is a good thing at times....and incredibly trying at others.

For the most part the family has adjusted well to our lives here. Jennette is doing great with the kids and gets to meet weekly with Tamra Farah, Barry's wife. We'll most likely start having more of a social life once the church gets rolling.

At any rate we miss all of our friends back in Wichita and especially from Arise. It's kind of fun to see our little community grow more and more. I hope more of our friends start blogging and commenting on each other's blogs. It's a great feeling to know there are people out there that are genuinely interested in your lives. Blessings to you all!

New (Used) Car!!!

Four score and seven years ago (well, seven years anyway) we bought a very nice 1989 Honda Civic DX. It was maroon, had four doors, a decent amount of miles for the year and we, the Ross', were happy. The Civic (or the "drove car" as Taite and Trinity referred to it) was very good to our family. I think I changed the tires twice, replaced a battery and fixed the air conditioning (after 4 years of owning it!) For owning a car that long, we did very well - the Civic was a good car.

Fast forward to 2006 and the Ross Clan move out to Colorado Springs where the state has emissions laws (tree huggers!) I take my Civic in to get it tested so I can get my CO registration and tags. Costs me $35 and the car fails miserably. I am then told that it'll cost $90 for them to diagnose the problem so I can get it fixed. So I ask what's the ball park figure to fix it. He tells me it can be anywhere between $150 to $1500! Ouch! So there I am thinking "Ouch! That's a lot of money to sink in this car!"

Well suffice it to say we decided to try and get something else and retire our little metal go-cart friend. After going to probably 10 lots I was beginning to think I couldnt find a car with all the things I wanted for the price I wanted to pay. But God knew! So on Saturday we became the proud new owners of a 1998 Acura 2.3CL. It's REALLY nice and has everything I wanted in a car. AND we got it for $3000 less than retail! Praise the Lord! Anyway, here you go - pics as promised!

It's cold today!

Well I was going to go outside and take a picture of our new car (new to us) but it's literally like 30 degrees and cloudy outside. The weather here is so strange! This weekend it was in the 70's and then today it was FREEZING! Everyone here says that March and April are the worst months for weather. So I guess a week from now it'll be perfect, eh?

Anyway, I thought since I couldn't post a picture of the car that I could post a few other pictures. These first two are of our first service on Easter. We had 35 people all together and held the service in our youth area. If you look up you can see that the dropped ceiling still isn't finished.

These are a couple pictures of Barry the day they picked up that 22 ton beam and set it in place. Remember the crane? Well it seems we didn't need one because Barry was able to lift the beam all by himself.

Well there you have it. More fun stuff from Colorado. I'll post a picture of our new car sometime when I can get a nice picture of it. Blessings!

A little proof...

Well it occured to me that the pictures we have posted so far offer no definative proof that we are actually in Colorado. I could have simply grabbed those pictures off the internet somewhere. Well here is your proof. And rest assured that despite my constant attempts to learn photoshop, my skills are not yet there to create this picture artificially. At least that's what I'm going to tell you so we can keep the mystery alive.... HAPPY SATURDAY!!!

Worship, Chairs, Cars and Construction...

Wow. I'm really tired. It's been a very big day. It started off normal enough until on my way to work I was the 5th caller at a local Christian station and I won the new United CD/DVD. So I went to pick it up at the station and ended up getting an offer to do an interview about our new church! Pretty cool how that worked out.

So then it's off to the office. Currently we office in an office club about 3 or 4 minutes from the church. At any rate I wasn't there long because today was the big "pick" day - when they were going to pick the 22 ton beam up and place it in place at the church. Whoa....let me try and explain... Our church sanctuary is actually 4 movie theatres all "pointed" in the same direction. #1 and #4 are currently walled off to be used for future expansion. So between #2 and #3 there are about 5 or 6 columns that would run right down the center of our sanctuary. So basically we had a 22 ton metal truss fabricated to take the place of those columns. It's really is a monster - it's 5 feet tall! Anyway, here's some pictures:



So that's how you lift a 22 ton truss. Wow. And it's not even noon.

Off to Denver to look at some possible sanctuary chairs. I'm there for a bit and then on the way home I stop at several car lots to look for a new (used) car to replace my 1989 Honda Civic that recently failed its state emmissions test. (I refuse to pay $90 to tell me that I need to spend another $150-1500!) Once I get a car I'll post a picture here, too.

So I just got home and it's 9:20. Needless to say I'm tired. Tomorrow is (probably) another big day. As my friend Randy McCoy said, "welcome to church planting." It's a tiring job to be sure, but somebody's got to do it.

Honestly? I'm glad it's me. I love it!

A word or two from Jennette

What can I say about Colorado...wow, it's beautiful. I can't seem to get use to the fact that we live here now. There is still this part of me that feels like we are on an extended vacation. I'm still surprised by the awesomeness of the mountain every time I round the corner of our driveway. I guess I just forget how spectacular it is. Since we are up on a hill, we can look down into the city at night and see all the lights. There are lots of pretty views from every room in the house, I just need to allow myself to relax and enjoy them. Since I've been home schooling and all the kids are around all the time, it's easy for me to get caught up in playing referee between Taite and Trinity or diaper duty for Jaden. Taite is doing well with school and I've been working with Trinity as well. If I can have them do school with out them realizing they are doing school it seems to go the best. Jaden is as cute as ever. He's found his thumb and is now going to bed at 9pm and not waking up until 7am. We keep saying he's the best baby ever. Isn't the picture of him adorable? Lacy Hansen took this when he was 6 weeks old. If you are reading this and you don't live in the Springs, I can safely say that you are missed.

Finally - THE VIEW!!!

Well here it is - the view! We are so blessed. We're right on the edge of the Black Forest so we're a little in the trees at the top of this hill that overlooks Colorado Springs. We're about 1/4 mile off the main road (Black Forest Rd.) and you can see our dirt driveway in the picture below. We park behind the house so when we're coming around the driveway towards the road there is a stunning view of the entire front range. It really keeps me humble...haha.

Here's a picture of our house through the trees. On the other side of the hill there is a swimming pool with a hot tub! I'm sure we'll post some pics from the summer fun we'll have back there. The house sits on 40 acres - some of which is forest and some more like the picture above. The kids love to go outside. What a blessing!

Happy Easter, everyone!

He is risen! Praise the Lord! It's so good to know where we stand with the Lord...and none of it is because of anything we've done. It's all because of the resurrection.

At any rate, today was our first service....kind of. We actually only invited a few families and since the building isn't finished, we did a "make shift" service in the children's area. And of course since I was playing guitar during worship and babysitting our kids during the sermon (no kid's ministry yet!) I couldn't take pictures! I did ask somebody who was taking them to e-mail me some so I can show you all. But I did manage to take a picture of the bulletin - haha!

Overall it was a very nice service. The kids did amazingly well and everyone really responded favorably. In fact, when Jennette told Trinity that she was going to stay with us for worship, Trinity asked, "can I dance, Mama?" And of course Jennette told her she could...so as soon as worship started Trinity was twirling and dancing. She even came up and hugged my leg toward the end of our worship time - it was very cute. Taite got to be Pastor Barry's sermon helper and prop. He was very articulate and even had to act a little - he enjoyed the attention.

Well, tomorrow I'll post some pictures of our view. I think you'll enjoy them. Goodnight, all.

A week in the life....

Well this Sunday (Easter) is our first service at Springs Calvary and it's beginning to feel like we're actually starting a church. Barry and I went to the facility today to set up for Sunday. We've got 200 chairs that just came in that were supposed to be "taupe" but turned out to be more "brownish." It's actually a blessing in my opinion because they look nicer. But seeing them out in rows with the little computer and projector there in the middle was kind of surreal. Even though it's not our "official" first service, it's still a really important day that we'll always look back on. I'm definately going to bring a camera! (I keep saying that, don't I?)

Anyway, it's late and I'm going to head to bed. I stayed up too late anyway, but it's Jennette's fault because she was on the computer...haha! That's a change, isn't it??!! Goodnight , all!

Greetings!

Well this is my first blog ever. I'm sure a lot of these sites begin with that sentence. We made it to Colorado Springs 16 days ago and we still haven't gotten used to the view...or the altitude! I'll post a picture sometime of our view where we're at currently. It's nice that the church has allowed us the use of the "Ranch House" so we can take our time and decide where we want to live permantly.

Speaking of houses, we have a contract on 3955 Litchfield in Wichita! It was such a great house and we have wonderful memories there, but I'm really glad it's selling so quickly. God is definately blessing us!

Jennette has been doing school with Taite and Trinity which has been challenging with little Jaden wanting her attention, too. However, she's hanging in there and I think the kids are really enjoying it.

I'll hopefully post more in the near future. Blessings to all who read this! Post a comment and say hello to the Ross Family in CO!!!