Our Memorial Day Weekend

We had a very full Memorial Day weekend. We started Sunday with an amazing Church service with over 50 people getting baptized. We then spent the afternoon at the Ocean City boardwalk playing Miniature Golf. Christopher got a hole-in-one and Tom got 2.

We then surprised the kids with a free concert at Ocean City Tabernacle. This was the kick-off of their Summer season. The concert featured 4 bands, Nevertheless, Krystal Myers, DecembeRadio, and SuperChic[k]. In case you do not know who these bands are, they all have hits on the top 40 Christian Bill board. DecembeRadio just received a Dove award, Krystal Myers was nominated for Best Female Vocalist, and SuperChic[k] has released several albums dealing with the way Christian girls should live their lives and their self esteem. We were able to be right upfront. Darlene and I were actually in the mosh pit. (I got a compliment when Darlene informed me that I proved I was not as old as she thought.) Darlene even got to sing into the mic during the Superchic[k] set. Both the kids met and got autographs from all band members. What an experience!!!!! I don’t know if I had more fun at the concert enjoying the music or watching Darlene and Christopher and remembering all the concerts and Creation festivals we attended as teenagers.

Nevertheless and Krystal Meyers

DecembeRadio and

SuperChic[k]

These are a couple of pictures of getting autographs with some of the bands.

Memorial Day started with Darlene marching in a parade in Absecon. She has signed up to be in the high school band for next year and was invited to carry the banner for parades for this spring and summer.

After the parade Tom and Christopher put together our new grill. This was a very frustrating project because the directions were as Dad calls them “Mickey Mouse Directions”. It took a total of 3 1/2 hours to put it together. But as Christopher said “It was worth the work.” Our first grilled dinner of the season was Steak and grilled potatoes.

"Engagement Photos"

As part of our wedding photo package, yesterday was our "engagement" session with Lori and Neville, our friends from church who are our wedding photographers. It was a good time. We went to Winterthur in DE. This is DuPont's estate now turned historical park. It was beautiful. Lori, who does most of the post-editing, will be going on a cruise with her family for a week. However, before she left, she put 5 pics up on their blog. We are really excited to see the rest of them. Take a look. We are really excited about having them do our wedding. If you want, take a glance at the wedding photos on their main site (more than on just the blog). They are really impressive.

Happy Birthday Sweety!

Happy Birthday to my best friend...  I love you!

Happy Birthday Song

We dedicated Tessa today...

In total, there were 50 children dedicated today.  Tessa was all smiles!  Today was great!  Becky's Mom is here visiting for about a week and Becky's brother and his wife and child (plus 2 friends) came for the day.  We had a great time.  See our website for pics...

Rob  

New Pictures...

Click here for Pictures from our Beach Day with Mom Mom and Becky's new Haircut. 

Things are going great!

Praise the Lord! Things are really going well for Becca and I right now. After deciding to buy a home, and searching for awhile, Becca and I just had a bid accepted and are signing the contract tonight. We expect to settle on June 13th! These are pics of the house. It is basically equidistant from both of our jobs. Unfortunately (and Fortunately), she works in a fairly affluent school district. This means that we really can't live that near to her job. The house is in Phoenixville, PA. We will be 35 minutes from both jobs, 20 minutes from church, 20 minutes from the Massanari's.

In addition, wedding plans are really moving along. We just got the invitation ordered. We are ordering them from this really cheap but cool place in India called AllWeddingCards.Com. We just got .jpg proofs and are in the design finalization stage. There are tons of other wedding details that we are really starting to make progress on.

I'm becoming a Mennonite. I currently attend Frazer Mennonite Church and will be accepted as a member there late June or early July. I have really appreciated learning about the incredibly rich history of this faith. A group who has its own roots beginning just after the reformation when they, the Anabaptists, were persecuted horribly by those heroes of the faith that the rest of us lift up, such as Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli. I have been very excited by the incredibly high importance the Mennonites put on living out our faith and trying to live up to the first two commandments, while fully affirming that we have all fallen short of the glory of God. The Mennonites have a few other signature beliefs/customs that are very exciting to me also, such as simple living, refusal to make oaths, a pledge of peace and non-violence, and embracing theological, spiritual, and relational diversity while being grounded in a desire to serve the Lord. Anyway, I could go on and on, but it is all very exciting.

Lastly, Becca is starting to wrap up school. It will really be a blessing this summer when she has the time to plan details of the wedding, begin the moving in process, etc.

Oh, and I'm down to 198 lbs! Look out Rob, I'm coming down!

God Bless

Happy Birthday Toby!

Toby celebrated his 14th birthday by taking his first turkey. He shot this bird at 43 paces in light rain and thunder. We set up in a blind with our decoys. About 10 birds walked by just before sunrise. This gobbler was the last one. The hens were closer but the Gobbler stayed further out. I called a few times to get him to stop but he kept walking so Toby shot when he turned slightly to walk away. The Bird weighs 20lbs, has a 9.5" beard and 7/8" spurs. A real trophy in our books. We are excited to kill our first bird. After several years of trying I have not killed one yet. I believe this Bird is an Eastern Turkey due to the dark tail feathers. We have Merriams around also. Sam was with us in the blind as well. He is excited to hunt turkeys next spring after he turns 12.

Our lives are forever changed...

2 days ago, it happened unexpectedly for the very first time ever.  Last night, it happen 3 times in a row.

Our lives, will never be the same.  We have to make some really big adjustments and think critically about how we will respond.

If you have been through this, you know what we face...

Curious?

Our Lives are Changed Forever Video

Rob

Becca's Shower was a hit!

Thanks for a great time!

On Saturday, April 7th, Becca and I attended her wedding shower (yes, I was graciously invited also). We were very touched by the amount of planning time and effort went into this event. Becca and I got to spend the afternoon with about 40 friends and family. It was hosted at a little development club-house very close to the Massanari's house. Obviously, Mom and Mrs. Massanari had been planning this event for some time.

It was a great day filled with fun, laughter, and good food (and great cake!). One highlight was the "How well do you know Brian" game that Becca played. I had been given this questionnaire to fill out a few days earlier. The trick here was that when Becca got a wrong answer, she had to put a piece of Bubble-Yum bubblegum in her mouth. For those of you who know this gum, the pieces are huge. Despite what the picture may look like, she actually did quite well.

We were truly blessed and humbled by the graciousness of our family and friends. We have had a great time getting to put some of the gifts to immediate use (Shari, our entire apartment smells like a cinnamonny dessert). It was a tough decision when we agreed that I would not use our bedding until the wedding.

When Mrs. Massanari was planning the food for the party, she remembered Becca and I raving about Mom's Iced Tea "recipe." So, she got Mom to make gallons and gallons of Iced Tea and drive them to the party. That way we all got to enjoy it. It was a funny and cute touch.

I must say, I felt especially proud to be a member of this family as I saw all of my friends and family reach out to Becca and really accept her into the fold.

Thanks again to everyone far and near! I leave you with a picture of Becca and I donning our new feather boas. They were given to us by, take a guess, Mom and Dad in honor of my pretend pet snake (feather boa) that I carried around when I was about 3. By the way, Becca and I did not intentionally wear our wedding colors, which were the shower colors. I swear!

New Media Available, plus...

Hey everyone, we've posted 2 new videos and more pictures on our website, check them out!  Will "Daddy" dunk Tessa in the pool?  What hymn has Drew been singing? 

Also, praise the Lord with us, our church officially joined our support team by financially supporting our ministry each month.  While we praise God for this, we remain under supported at 86% of our need.  We were down to 74%.   We remain concerned about this immediate need for additional support.  Please pray that we will be committed in the next few days to putting together a plan to raise the additional 14%, ($740 a month).  Interested?

Rob

Tessa's TRYING to Crawl

Tessa's up on all fours, rocking and moving those back legs! She even moves her legs forward as if she's crawling, but she hasn't yet figured out how to move her arms!

Tessa's always smiling! I may be a biased Mom, but Tessa's smile is my favorite!

Table and Chairs for Drew

I just got done making a Table and Chairs for Drew's 2nd birthday. Take a look!

More pics are on our website.

Wrestling Fun

Last friday Toby finished up his school wrestling season with a Conference tournament. He pinned three kids to win the 88lb weight class Conference championship. He has entered a few tournaments on his own now to gain experience in advance of next years high school season. Most of the wreslers he will face have been wrestling since they were 5. He was late starting but has progressed rapidly and is have a lot of fun.

Toby is holding the bracket card showing his victory in the 88lb class. Next year he will have to wrestling 103lb. His only loss this season in the school league was to the kid on the right who won the 95lb class.

Loomis Tournament Champions

Sam enjoyed playing basketball this winter. He played on the sixth grade team because there were not enough to make a 5th grade team and the sixth grade team was short players.

His team lost only one game the whole season and then won the Loomis Tournament.

Jesse who is a fourth grader got to play in a few games when other kids were sick.

"We are number 1"!!!!

A gift to locks of love...

Today Mattie had her hair cut for locks of love...
an organization that makes wigs for children out
of real hair blended with synthetic hair.



















what took so long to grow,
11 1/2 inches,
was gone so quickly!






















she's checkin out her new look!




















we decided on a wedge for the back,
with the front still long enough to
clip back or tuck behind her ears.



















the conclusion of her goal...
she's been planning this for a long time.
She has a very tender heart for those who
are hurting, and this was one small way
she could minister to other children.

Toby shot this doe on Monday 1/8 during the late antlerless season. It was about 150 yards when he shot. It weighed 100lbs. The deer ran about 30 yards after his perfect shot.






Toby shot this deer on Saturday 1/13, also during the antlerless season. We saw about 50 deer. I shot at a running doe but missed. We have not wieghed this deer yet but it is bigger than the first. Toby is quick to remind me that he has killed four deer in the past two years and I have killed two. If Toby looks cold that is because it is 6 degrees.

News from Nebraska

I figured Tom and Steph can't post this information due to no power so I am posting what information they have been able to send in quick emails.

Thursday Jan 4 - I just wanted to let everyone know that we arrived home yesterday about noon. The devastation caused by ice is quite large. We are now hearing it may be a week to two before we have normal power returned. Even Kearney is having rolling blackouts to conserve power. There are so many poles just snapped in half from the weight on the ice on the lines. Many miles of lines down.
We, however, feel so blessed. Through Toms involvement in the fire department, we were able to buy a generator that has heated up our house to 55 degrees, and climbing slightly. (I was so excited when I could not see my breath in the house!!!) I just jumped on the computer for a minute, as we have pretty much everything turned off to help keep the heat up. Within minutes of our arrival, some friends were backed up, unloading, and connecting the generator. So many others are less fortunate. We had one friend sleep over last night, and possibly more as we find those in need. With our camp stove and BBQ grill we are pretty self sufficient. Tom is out on a unit call right now (the unit was stuck on the country roads and I listened as Tom walked up to the house. The country roads look like someone melted wax and poured it over them, and it hardened. I have never seen such "Sheets of ice"), so a friend came just to check and refill our generator. It is indeed a blessing to live in a small town.
Please pray for everyone in our area, as many are truly struggling just to survive. I'm off to go help prepare and serve lunch at the red cross shelter at our school. School has officially been cancelled until monday, but really until we have power back. We love you all and had and truly wonderful time being with you. The memories made and the love shared are treasured, and we can't wait to see you again.

Friday, Jan 5 Hooray!!!!!!!!!!! Our power company brought several large generators to power our whole town. As of 2:00 PM Friday we have temporary power. The power went off at 7:00 PM last Friday. It may be 2 more weeks until we have permanent power again. We arrived home at 12:00 PM Wednesday and had a generator running at home by 12:30. However since we are fully electric we could only run the heat and few lights. We had to shut everything else off in order to run the hot water heater for a short time this morning so we could all take a shower. We have been eating at the red cross shelter at the school. Life has been fun. It has really be interesting to watch a whole town come together to care for each other. We are safe and looking forward to "normal" again. More to follow later.

New Blogger!

The Tom Thompson Family Blog has been switched over to the New Google Version. Apparently Google is making a change and moving more toward requiring Google Accounts. So, from now on, to post to this blog, you'll be required to switch your Blogger Account to the new version... which requires a Google Account. It's really very simple. If you go to your Blogger homepage, there is link there to switch your blogger account. It takes less than 5 minutes and is pretty painless. If you have any questions, email me at spenglerchip@yahoo.com

Although I won't point fingers, suffice it to say that I am not to blame for switching over our blog... I am merely informing you of the change :)

I hope you're all adjusting to the real world after our great holiday together!

Chip

What a wonderful Christmas!

I wanted to say what a wonderful holiday I had with everyone. What a special time it was. It is holidays like these that remind me of what family is really all about. As I look to start my own family very soon, I realize how lucky I am to have had such a wonderful example all of these years. I love you guys.