Christmas Letter 2012

Dear family and friends,

It's that time again to update you on our lives over this past year, with our Christmas Letter! Which is a good thing, since we were pretty awful at blogging this year. Here goes the update.

Sam is 2.5 years into seminary, and we are still confirmed that this is where we need to be. He took Intro to Counseling this semester and "found out" that he is a perfectionist, and lives with a major perfectionist -- oh the clarity it brought! This year has by far been the craziest year in seminary. We have been so blessed by his new job at Apple, especially because he loves it so much... but it has added a whole new craziness to our schedules. During the holidays, he's been working 35+ hours a week in the midst of finals! Yikes! He made it through finals though, and is finally enjoying a little time to himself, as well as doing lots of laundry for me! Love it! He will be taking one J-term class in January, and the second semester will resume the last week of January.

I have been so blessed this year with a wonderful class at South City Community School. I enjoy my students' more everyday and they have brought so much joy to my life. The school itself has been a huge blessing. I have felt loved, nurtured, stretched, and challenged -- a good balance of all of those things makes for a fantastic first trimester to the school year. Nannying has also started looking up, after a rocky start this past August. The kids are beginning to respect me more, which has allowed for us to get along a lot better. Grayson, when talking to a friend about me, even said I was "legit" (yay!). They are in a major time of transition for their family, and could use our prayers. Its also been very exhausting having two jobs. That being said, most days I am just so incredibly thankful that I am doing what I love, that I feel like the energizer bunny!

 Sam is still playing drums in the worship band at church, and I continue to teach Children's Worship once a month. We love our church, and we are so thankful for feeling loved and cared for by our church family. We are excited to move into our own building on January 13th! A lot of praying, fundraising and work days have gone into owning our building, but it will all be worth it. Our prayer is that we will see the Kingdom of God growing through our outreach and worship in the neighborhood we are moving into. Sam will start his internship at South City this May.

As you all know, our little dog has been through the ringer this year. She is a champion! In fact, for the first time since July, she drank water this morning (she has been getting it from her food). Sam and I smiled at each other and Sam made the perfect comment, "Its funny how ordinary things that all dogs do,  have seemed so unordinary with Ethel. Do you think she feels okay (because her water drinking what such a shock)?" Something as simple as drinking water is GREAT news, for it will help rinse her teeth that have started decaying like crazy. YAY for the small blessings! If there is one word to sum up Ethel's year, it is thankful. Thankful for a living (adorable) dog, thankful for outstanding doctors in Indiana and St. Louis, thankful for parents that have footed doctors bills that we wouldn't be able to, and overall thankfulness for a God that delights in our little dogs!!!!

Being in seminary, we (too) often hear "what are your plans after seminary?" That's a good question! We have no idea. Our plan right now is to move out to South City in May (2013). This is the part of St. Louis where our church and the school I teach at are and we spend about 10+ hours a week going to and from South City (about 30min from our apartment now). It makes the most sense for us to live in South City for convenience (especially with Sam starting his internship) and it will also give us more opportunity to be involved in church ministries. Our apartment at Gulf Drive has been wonderful, but it has also felt very isolated and is not in a very nice/convenient part of STL. We look forward to apartment hunting in the next few months (NOT the packing part) and finding a new place by Tower Grove Park, which is our favorite park in St. Louis! That being said, right now the "plan" is committing to stay in St. Louis for at least a year after we graduate. My job is wonderful and will eventually be really wonderful with offering part-time teaching and free on sight childcare provided by the mothers of students (amazing!!). We are also hoping staying in St. Louis will be a good time for Sam to pick up more hours at Apple after graduation and a rich time of connection making and gaining more pastoral/church ministry experience.

One word to sum up our year is blessed. We are blessed by each other and our marriage. We are blessed by our sweet pup. We are blessed with parents and in-laws that love us unconditionally, support us, and desire to see us flourish. As well as the overwhelming support of our wonderful extended families, and the great love of our grandmas and grandpas. We are blessed to have wonderful friends in St. Louis, during such a transition phase of life. We are blessed by a seminary that nurtures and teaches Sam and blessed by a school that cares for Katelyn so well. We are blessed to live in a city that gives us opportunity to love others, outside of our comfort zone. We are immensely blessed by our church family and the way they loves us and point us to Jesus. I could go on forever. Thank you Lord for blessing us, even though we are so undeserving of all of these blessings!

And as we come in to Christmas, we are blessed to worship our King! "Hark the Herald Angels Sing, GLORY to the NEWBORN KING!" Hoping that you have a blessed Christmas as we celebrate the birth of Jesus. 

We love you.

Love,
Sam, Katelyn & Ethel

Autumn update

Dear family and friends,

Here we are again with another gap in our blogging. Instead of apologizing for my lack of blogging, I'm taking the blogging advice of a dear friend and deciding to blog once a month. That way, I can recap the month and it seems a little more feasible with our busy schedules.

That being said, October was beautiful. The weather was gorgeous (of course, now we are seeing the 80's again), and we really just enjoyed having the windows open and feasting on pumpkin pie the whole month. Since pictures say things louder then words, here is our month recap in pictures --

The biggest update -- our little pup is on the road to a full recovery! The first picture was taken the day after her surgery in Fort Wayne, IN. The second picture is after her 12 week appointment, and finally -- after her 19 week appointment this past week, as we were on our way home "cone - free"! Yay! The doctor said her jaw has completely fused back together and there is no wiggling anymore! She gave us the go ahead over the next few months to transition her back to crunchy food, which is great. However, she came back with a cough and doesn't seem to have an appetite this weekend due to the tube they put down her throat for her wire removal... prayers are appreciated for the next few months as we finish the recovery!

The other exciting news is -- Sam got hired at Apple!!!!! Praise the Lord!!!! He LOVES his job and even stayed 45 minutes late last week because he was working with a customer and didn't notice the time (that never seemed to happen when I was at the daycare?). God has gifted Sam with wonderful people-skills and he really is "in his element" at work. Apple is a wonderful company to work for, and we both feel so blessed to have this job. We are even talking about staying in STL a year past graduation and Sam is hoping to go full-time as an Apple man for that year.

Katelyn's class update -- how I love these kids! In the midst of our study of mammals and Jane Goodall, we took a trip to the STL Zoo and enjoyed seeing the baby elephant as well as sketching an ape in the primate house. These kids soak in everything, and I love watching their brains take it all in.

This is my sweet friend, Amber. As Sam and I reflect on all the things we are thankful for, I am so very thankful for this lady. For those of you that don't know, moving to STL and being in seminary has been quite the adjustment. The first year was really rough and Sam and I struggled a lot with making connections and feeling very lonesome for "real" relationships. I've had one best friend my whole life (16+ years!), and the fear of never becoming close with anyone during this very transitional time in our lives was a very real, and scary reality. That being said, I am so thankful that for a God that hears and answers prayers. Amber and Sean moved in during our second year of seminary, and the friendship was instant for both Sam and Sean and Amber and I. I am so very thankful for close friends here in St. Louis, in Chicago, and all the way in Washington. Thank you, God for blessing us with "real" relationships.

Update on our church -- we have bought our own building!!!! Praise the Lord for his provision. Our church will be moving into our new building on Jan. 27th. We are still loving our church and our church family :) Sam continues to play drums every Sunday, and I lead Children's Worship once a month. South City Church is such a blessing!


That's about it for our recap. Sam is really busy with school and work, but is enjoying both. I am a very proud wife! We are trying to find a good balance with busy schedules and taking time for ourselves and each other. Life is always changing! We so very thankful for all of you, your prayers, and your love, support and encouragement. We are blessed.

Love,
Sam & Katelyn

Recap #98498549353

Well, life lately has been a little crazy. What's new, right? Here comes yet another "recap" blog, but hey- at least we're blogging!

Last weekend we surprised the Dean's and showed up at the WNHS football game! It was too perfect! We had a blast getting to watch little gup play in his first big home game as the starting center for Varsity! Proud big sister moment. He played an amazing game! We enjoyed spending time with the Dean's (including Grandma Dean!) on Friday and Saturday, then heading over and spending time with Gaye and Jim Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately, the weekend ended with heavy, saddened hearts for our dear friends Anna and Scott who gave birth to their second miscarried baby boy in the past 6 months. We were thankful to have been home to spend time with them in the midst of such a horrific time and we look forward to meeting little Seth and Caleb in Heaven someday.

Next up, is an update on our little Ethel. Gaye came down for her 8 week follow up appointment this week, and unfortunately we didn't get the best of news. Her jaw doesn't seem to be healing, so they have given her 4 more weeks of cone wearing and recovery. When we go back in 4 weeks, they will re-assess and decided whether or not doing surgery to implant plates and screws would be beneficial. Ethel doesn't have the best dental health, so that could have something to do with her delayed recovery. Poor thing hates the cone, and is just not herself with it on. We are praying (and would appreciate your prayers) that her jaw would fuse back together in the next 4 weeks to avoid major surgery again. Isn't she the cutest cone head you've ever seen?

Now for an update on my class. Teaching has been such a huge blessing -- I am enjoying every minute and soaking up their sweetness daily. My class is seriously wonderful and I am enjoying teaching more then I ever have before. Of course, there are days that are frustrating and very exhausting. Last week, one of my sweet boys said, "Miss Katelyn, I can tell you've had a rough day. You keep saying "SHHHHHH" a lot." Way to call me out! The first few weeks of school we have really enjoyed getting to know each other, working on our class garden, and beginning to ease into curriculum. Here are few pictures of center time, gardening and of course a class pic.

With that, I am also nannying part time (we couldn't swing my part-time, private school salary). So, my school day goes from 8:30-1pm and then I nanny from 3:15-6:30. I started last week, and I am enjoying my time with them. They really are sweet kids. Here is a pic of them doing their homework!

And finally, an update on Sam and I. Praise the Lord -- Sam got a job! For those of you that didn't know, Sam left his barista job at Shaw's in May. Which ended up being a blessing because he was able to work a very flexible maintenance job for our landlord (during all of Ethel's recovery). However, he has been on the hunt for a job since May and I am so proud of him for taking a job as a window washer! Yay Sam! He will be working for a company called Kings, that primarily employs seminary students. He will work the 8-noon shift on M,W, F (he doesn't have class those days), and he gets weekends and holidays off! We are so thankful.

Today we soaked up this beautiful weather by taking a trip to Castlewood State Park (about 40 min from us), and took a 3 mile scenic hike. It was perfect. We came home, opened all the windows and are now enjoying some quality relaxing time together (and of course, coffee).

I think that's it. We will hope to be better this month about posting -- but I've made that promise one too many times before! We hope you are enjoying this beautiful weather as much as we are!

Love,
Sam, Katelyn and the pup.

Time flies.

Wow! It seems like forever since the last time we blogged. A lot has happened this summer to make it a "summer to remember" and very hectic at that. For those of you that don't know, our sweet little Ethel was in an accident with another dog in July and had reconstructive jaw surgery in Indiana during the Haist family reunion. It was extremely scary, and we are finally feeling out of the "funk". Ethel, of course, has handled everything like a champ. September 5th we go for our follow up appointment, and we are praying from there that she will be free from the cone! Here is a picture of Ethel the day we took her home from the hospital (left), and her 8 weeks later (right) when she got her stitches taken out! Happy as always!

 That being said, the family reunion this year was rather eventful (in a not good way). We did enjoy seeing the Haist side of the family for the time we did. Its always a blessing to spend time with them! Here is the only picture we took... Gaye and Mr. Alex from our day at the farm... he will be ONE this month!

We also had a wonderful weekend at home with the Dean's at the end of July. It included a trip to Ikea, Ava's 4th birthday party, a visit with Grandma and Grandpa Nelson, Christina and Jensen's Wheaton wedding reception and quality catch up time with Mom and Dad. It was a fun weekend, and it was great to be "home". Here is a picture of Ava and Lauren blowing out her candles!

Then comes... August! Classroom time! My last day at the daycare was Thursday! Then Friday, I started training at SCCS. The carpet in my room was being cleaned on Friday, so Sam and I had to wait until today to "move in". We had so much fun!!! I can't say it enough... this is such a huge blessing to have my own classroom, and at such a wonderful school! Praise the Lord!

I know my family is dying to see classroom pictures, so here is round one. We will have to make a second trip up to school with more fun classroom additions (including my beautiful rocking chair!). So for now, use your imagination (my table legs and third round table won't come in til next week either). Thank you for all of your encouragement... what a journey this has been and it has only begun! Here is a picture of my classroom last week before I "moved in" today...

...and here are some after shots!

Well, there you have it! The remainder of our summer in a nutshell. Sam and I both start school at the end of the month! Time flies.

We love you guys.
 Sam & Katelyn

P.S. I forgot to include a very important picture (and blogger won't let me insert it above the rest), but Sam went under care of the Missouri Presbytery in July! He is officially an intern of the Presbytery. I am so proud (and how cute is his bow-tie)!

Alabama getaway.

Hello!

We have safely returned from a wonderful, restful, and sweet time with family at Lake Martin in Alabama. Uncle Dave and Aunt Sandy so graciously opened their beautiful home to us. Not to mention their boat and wave runner! We had a blast.

I don't want to make you too envious of our time (or detail every day and write an extremely long blog post), so I thought it would be a good idea to highlight our time at Lake Martin. Here are just a few of the highlights.

1.) Fathers Day - we enjoyed gorgeous weather as we had church outdoors (on the lake) at Church of the Pines. It was beautiful. Then we ate a delicious lunch at The Willow Point Country Club. It was a great day of celebrating our dads! We even got to celebrate with Papa J (Dean) from a distance (thank you video chat!). On top of that, a highlight of Fathers Day was watching Jim's 30 second tubing session on the lake. What a trooper! 

2.) Boat Day- Sam claimed one of the days of our trip as "Boat Day" (and when he gets going on something, he really gets going). It was a fun day spent entirely on the boat and docking only to eat lunch on the lake. Boating, tubing and wave runner-ing were huge highlights of the trip in general. Sun and lake, there is no better combination (except maybe coffee and chocolate).

3.) HAPPY 30th ANNIVERSARY MOM & DAD!  On June 19th, we celebrated the marriage of Mom and Dad Haist. We felt so blessed to have been there to celebrate with them on this special anniversary.We celebrated with a delicious steak dinner at the house.

4.) Walks- I am convinced that if we lived in a place as beautiful as Lake Martin, we would be more motivated to exersise. Sam and I have been attempting to walk every morning as a way to start our day together and with the hope that we will get more in shape. We had some beautiful morning walks along the lake and enjoyed each others company.

5.) The Spring House- YUM! Pictures below won't even do this restaurant justice. It was gorgeous. The food was impecible, the company wonderful, and the scenery breathtaking.

Those are just some of the many things we enjoyed at Lake Martin. The greatest of course, was spending time with family and relaxing with no agenda (other then "boat day"). We were in wonderful company and are so glad we were able to take the time off work to enjoy ourselves. We hope to be back to visit Lake Martin before too long. A huge thank you to Mom, Dad, Dave and Sandy for a wonderful trip. We are truly blessed.

Love,
Sam and Katelyn

P.S. - This was the longest we have been away from Ethel and let me tell you, she missed us (maybe not as much as I missed her :) ). 

Dave and Sandy's lake house on Lake Martin, was the perfect getaway for a whole week! A huge thank you to Dave and Sandy for your hospitality and allowing us to stay at your beautiful home.

Those are some good lookin' people! Jim, Gaye, Sandy and Dave.

Enjoying an early morning swim.

On Father's Day, we enjoyed church on the lake! It was a gorgeous morning!

Happy 30th Anniversary!!! We are so glad we got to celebrate with you.

Matching brothers at The Spring House.

The view from our table at dinner.

Sam and I at The Spring House.

The night we got home, our sweet dog slept with her head under my side of the bed all night. Oh how I missed this dog!

Surprise visit!

This past weekend, we had some surprise visitors! Uncle Tom, Aunt Maria, Seth, Nathan and Faith came to visit us on Saturday, on their way home to Peoria from Texas. What a wonderful surprise it was!

For those of you who don't know, my Uncle Tom was in a very scary medical state two months ago. A text on March 29th from my mom read:

"Tom isn't doing well. His lungs can only do 20% of his breathing, the ventilator (life support) is doing 80%. Conflicting reports from doctors. He is in too serious of a condition to do a biopsy. He is so swollen he can barely open his eyes. He is still in critical care. Keep praying."

I went to Peoria to visit Uncle Tom the previous weekend and could barely stand the sight of seeing someone I love in that condition. It was heart wrenching. When I visited, Uncle Tom couldn't talk because of the life support tube into his lungs, he couldn't walk due to the high volume of blood clotting, but he was still the strong man I knew him to be. He is a fighter. It was an extremely scary time for all of our family. During his month in the critical care, his wife, Maria stayed a constant encouragement and source of "chuckles" for Tom. As well as his kids who constantly prayed, visited and sent cards. What a beautiful picture of God's intention for family and community.

We kept praying. We asked Covenant Seminary to pray along side us, as well as our wonderful church family at South City. On March 30th we received this text, after a "miracle doctor" came into the picture, identified the source of the problem and took Tom into his own care:

"He is doing well! Praise the Lord! They will start giving him more nutrients as well as begin an insulin drip today. He is beginning the weaning process off of the life support. Slow process but good news. Tomorrow or Sunday they want to get a cat scan done and check on the two masses. Other than that, he has had a great day! :)"

What a journey the past few month have been for Uncle Tom and his family. Its not over yet, but he continues to fight the medical battles. We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful praying community around us, who cares enough to lift Tom and his family up in prayer daily.

PRAISE THE LORD! For he does work miracles, and has brought Tom out of a very scary time, into a time of surprise visits and sweet times with his beautiful family. Our God loves us, he cherishes us as his children, and he holds us in his mighty hands. We praise you, Lord, for the miracle healing in Tom!

Needless to say, their visit was beyond wonderful. The kiddos enjoyed some fun Wii time with Sam (not sure who was enjoying it more), as I got to stare in amazement at Uncle Tom sitting in front of me without a breathing tube! And of course, visiting with him and Maria (and Faith too, who enjoyed the adult conversation more than the boy Wii time :) ).  They were such a blessing to us this weekend, and we hope to find time to visit Peoria later this summer. We are so thankful for all of you, and your fun surprise visit to St. Louis.

Love,
Katelyn & Sam

Ben's graduation!

On May 17th we boarded the plane and headed to New Orleans... it was a wonderful trip and we had an absolute blast celebrating Ben and spending time with family! 

The night we arrived in New Orleans, we took a tour of the city. It was neat to see the city at night and all lit up. I must admit, I was pretty exhausted and fell asleep on the ride back to the hotel :) The next morning we were bright eyed and ready to go. 

We took a tour of Tulane's campus (it is gorgeous), and got to sit in on Ben's accapella group as they sang a few songs (including Ben's solo song!) and they sang The National Antheum. They are a very talented group and it was fun to see them live singing instead of on YouTube! Friday, we also got to see the Art Exhibition. Ben did a beautiful job making the advertisements for the exhibition, and his piece in the exhibition was extremely creative. Ben was and is a very valued member of the Art Department at Tulane and is very well respected by his professors. It was fun to meet a few of them, and some of Ben's friends. 

We stopped Friday for lunch at The Rum House, which was to die for. The tacos were out of this world! Let me tell you something about New Orleans -- if I can take away anything from my short time there, they know what they are doing with food. It was some of the "best eating" I've ever experienced. That afternoon we enjoyed a walk around Audubon Park and the Wave Goodbye Party on campus that evening. After the party, we took the Street Car (so fun) downtown and I experienced for the first time ... Cafe Du Monte. One word- amazing. Beignets are out of this world. Coated in powdered sugar, a billion deep friend calories a piece, and worth every single melt in your mouth bite. 

Saturday morning we woke up early and got ready to roll for the BIG DAY OF GRADUATION at the Super Dome! Tulane's graduation was no joke -- complete with bag pipers, jazz bands, Trombone Shorty, Ruby Bridges (the first ever African American to walk into an integrated public school during the Civil Rights Movement) being awarded an Honorary Degree, fireworks, confetti, and oh the list could go on. Talk about a celebration! And of course, the best part of the graduation-- Ben earning his Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art and Digital Media. We couldn't be more proud of him. Ben is extremely gifted, and we know that whatever he puts his heart into he will succeed. First stop, UCLA in the fall. Next stop, we're anticipating seeing his name in the credits for Pixar in the near future ... Congratulations Ben, we can't say it enough, we are SO proud.

The night of graduation we had an exceptional meal at Commanders Palace. Words can't even explain the delectable food, wonderful conversation and the overall experience that was...Commanders Palace. That night, we headed to bed early in anticipation of a very long drive home on Sunday. We arrived home Sunday night after a wonderful trip to New Orleans. We couldn't have done the trip without Gaye and Jim's generosity. We were so happy to have been there to see Ben graduate and get a small taste of where Ben has been the past 4 years.

Congratulations again, Ben. We are glad we got to be at your big graduation day. UCLA is going to be blessed to have you join their campus... and oh the places you will go... 

Love,

Sam & Katelyn 

Waiting to hear Ben's acapella group, THEM sing. 

Riding on the Street Car! 

Po'boy sandwiches for lunch-- YUM!

Just a small glimmer of the fireworks...

A very proud momma with her two bow-tied sons!

What a great trip!!!

Life lately...

 HELLO from Sam, Katelyn and Ethel! 

Sorry we have been missing in action from our blog, life lately has been crazy. 

May started off with 3 birthdays, Sam on May 8th, Ethel on May 10th and Katelyn on May 11th. Birthday week was definitely a success! Above, you can see that between my sweet husband and myself the kitchen was festively decorated for the week.

 Happy Birthday Sam!!!! Enjoying breakfast before heading off to work/school. Sam requested birthday brats for his b-day dinner and I put in my request for waffles. Overall, we had wonderful birthdays and felt very celebrated and loved by our family and friends. A few weeks later, Sam completed his 2nd year of seminary on May 16th-- I am SO incredibly proud of him and I finished up the school year at Hancock on the 23rd.

 Happy 3rd Birthday sweet dog! We celebrated Ethel's birthday by giving her some new Dingo Chicken Chews. She was pretty pleased with how we celebrated her 3rd birthday. She even got some leftover steak that night. She's pretty spoiled -- just look at that sweet face!

Other exciting news in the month of May- we got a new couch!!! Our good friends, Anna and Scott bought new couches for their house and asked us if we would want their current couch... OF COURSE we did! Here is a picture of Sam and Ethel relaxing on the couch. Special thank you to Jim and Gaye who brought the couch down to us AND spent 3 hours helping us put it together. It was much more complicated then you think. 

May has been a crazy, busy and fun month for us. Not only did we celebrate birthday week, complete our 2nd year of seminary and finish up the school year at Hancock-- we also attended one very important and exciting graduation for Ben Haist!  We thought his graduation deserved its own blog post, so see the next blog for our adventures in New Orleans! 

We have spent our Memorial Day weekend relaxing, taking naps, hosting our Community Group BBQ, and tomorrow we are planning a picnic in the park with our good friends, Amber and Sean. Tuesday I (Katelyn) start back up at the daycare...just for the summer! We hope all of you are enjoying your long weekend, and remembering our soldiers both past, present and future this weekend.

Love to all of you. 

Katelyn & Sam