Starting School

Summer has come to an end, and Tyler and I are returning to our classrooms.  I start school tomorrow, and Tyler starts on Thursday.  We are excited, nervous, anxious, happy, scared, and so much more about this school year.  We ask that you continue to pray for us as we are with our kids every day, and are teaching them about God and the world.  Please continue to lift up the Crane family as well.

Love and miss you all!

Crane Family

So much has happened in the last week, I don't even know where to begin.

Austin has gone to be with Jesus and his mom.  He was announced brain dead on Wednesday, and his body was finally shut down on Friday after he was able to donate 7 organs so other kids would be able to live.  He is a hero, and it is amazing to see how God is working through this already.  I know that this is what I am going to have to tell my kids on Wednesday, and I know it's true, but it is going to be so hard to face my kids, talk about this, and not cry.

Summer and Tia are doing as good as can be expected.  Both are still in medicated comas, but hopefully Summer will be coming out soon, and then Tia not too long after.  Dad is facing surgeries aggressively so that way he can be there for his daughters.

Tonight was another hard night, as a mom who was able to be there with Austin all week told us all about it.  It was a great therapy session and I know that we are all going to be effected by this for quite some time.

Once again Im' asking for your prayers for myself, our school, our staff, the Crane family, and our school families.  We are all going through this together, and are all trying to figure out what we can do to help.  If you feel led to help prayers are much appreciated, and soon I believe there will be a link on our school website so that way you can donate money to help with medical bills.  I don't even want to think about how much their medical bills will be once they are all recovered.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support.  We miss and love you all!

Prayers please

A school family was in a fatal plane crash this afternoon, and I just found out.  We had Ben and Alison over for dinner tonight because they leave on Sunday to move to Florida.  I came upstairs and saw that both Andy and Matt had called me.  I knew it couldn't be good, but was never expecting this.  One of our families was flying home from San Diego, and the plane went down.  Mom was announced dead at the scene, and now the three kids and dad are in critical condition, but at different hospitals.  Please keep the family in your prayers as they are fighting for their lives, and then will have to figure out how to go on.  I love this family, and I am really struggling with this right now, and I know other staff members and school families will be as well.  Please keep our entire school, and school family in your prayers as well.  They are such an awesome family, and the mom was amazing.  It's hard to imagine that I won't see her next year, and the hard times those kids are going to have growing up without a mom.  Thank you all for your support, and prayers.  I really appreciate them, and know that their family will as well.

I just keep going back to my go to verse.

Isaiah 41:13
"For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do NOT fear; I will help you."

All I can do is lift up my prayers to God, and know that he will be with that family.  At least I have the comfort in knowing that they are a family who fully believes and relies on Christ.  She will be missed, and I will make sure to keep you all updated.

What happens in Vegas...

This week I was able to go to Vegas and spend some time with Bree and her family.  Her parents were awesome hosts, and made me feel like part of the family the whole time I was there.  We stayed at Ballys, but walked the entire strip on Wednesday.  I drove up Tuesday afternoon, and had to leave on Thursday to get home.  Bree and Nicki were leaving too though, so mom and dad lost three of their kids that day!!  We had a blast, and I would love to go back and do it again!!

Dinner the first night at Margaritaville

A little beer pong on the way to the comedy show!!

Mom and Dad!

 

Enjoying our time together!!

Having fun!!

We were a little hungry around 2 am.  :D

Happiest Place on Earth

Our first vacation was to the happiest place on Earth!!

In front of the castle!

They knew we were there to have a good time!

It was a lot of fun, and a blast to be back.  We even bought season passes again!  I was super excited about that, because that means we HAVE to go back.  No way did we get our money out of it this time.  I think that we might be traveling back through in July, so I'm excited for our next trip already!!  We were able to see the new parade, which isn't much of a parade, but more of like the block party from California.  It was still a lot of fun because our good friend Stitch was right in front of us the whole time!!

While we were there we finally got to go on Toy Story together.  I went when I went in October, but Tyler hadn't gone yet.  I thought that since he hadn't gone I would be able to dominate.  Man was I wrong.  We went Thursday and Friday, and Tyler beat me both times!!  The first day he got the high score of the hour too, but I didn't grab a picture of that.

Our scores.  I'm sure you can figure out who was who.

Tyler's best score in the car!

While we were in Orange County we were able to meet up with some friends too!!  We had dinner with Kelly one night, drinks with Jim and Nina, dinner with Jessica and Adam, and lunch with Jon and Nicole.  I also got a special girls night out with Nicole.  We had a blast, and love seeing our friends that we don't get to see that often any more!

Dinner at Buca with their tentacles!

Yummy drinks with Jim and Nina!!  We realized after we only took pictures of the drinks!

To end the trip we went camping with my youth group for the night.  It was a lot of fun, and beautiful to be on the beach again!

Piol Wedding

Tyler and I were able to travel up to Sonoma for Breeann and Kevin's wedding the weekend before school got out.  It was a lot of fun, and we had a blast.  We were even able to eat at our two favorite places at my mom's house before we drove up for the wedding.

Friday I met up with the girls for us to get our nails done, and then we all headed over to the country club for rehearsal.  After rehearsal we went on a nice little adventure to find dinner.  It was super yummy, and a lot of fun!

Saturday was the big day.  We woke up early to start with our hair, and keeping Beautiful company all day.

Before Beautiful got dressed

The wedding was amazing, and so beautiful!!  I'm so happy for them, but we miss them tons.  I even called my mom and told her we were going to move home because I miss them.  :D  No worries though, we're not going any where.  Hopefully on vacation to visit this summer, but we're not leaving Phoenix any time soon.

Two of my favorite people

Our family

Had to bring it back from 2007 :D

We love them, and wish them nothing but happiness!

Summer Vacation

Tyler and I are so excited to be on summer vacation!  We ended the school year right before Memorial Day, and have just been relaxing ever since.  Our friend Christie left yesterday to move to Detroit, so we had a going away party for her on Saturday night.  That was a lot of fun, but we didn't take any pictures.


Last week we headed up to Sedona to hang out with Jeremy and Rachel for the day.  That was a blast!  We made plans to hopefully go up again some time soon.  It was nice to escape the heat for a day!

Tyler and I in the desert somewhere

Rachel and I near the Devil's sink

Tyler and I on top of Mushroom rock

The steps, we drove DOWN these!

Out for a nice dinner

Rachel and I enjoying ourselves

Our awesome hosts, Jeremy and Rachel

Sedona

Tyler and I just got home from a pretty cold trip up to Sedona for Spring Break.  It was beautiful up there, but pretty chilly compared to down here in Phoenix.  While we were up there we had the heater on the whole time.  We also were wearing jackets and sweatshirts when we went out.  Then we drove back here, and it is 80 degrees today!!  It's crazy that it is already getting this hot!

While we were up there we were able to enjoy some of the beautiful parts of Sedona.  We went back to Savanah's for dinner on Sunday night, and had another delicious meal.  This is where we went the first time we went up there, for our 1 year anniversary as well.  The food and service was outstanding again, and we would recommend the place to any one! It's a little pricey, but delicious!

Monday we decided to try and go hiking.  Tyler took me to a spot he went in high school.  The hike was supposed to be three miles long.  While we were driving up to the hiking spot, we were met by some snow though.

I had to jump out of the car, run across the freeway to take this picture!  I was so excited!

Tyler was having fun taking pictures of the snow, mountains, and river!

Our only picture from the trip of us together!

We found where we were going to go hiking, and set off.  We were a little nervous because we had no cash with us, and you were supposed to pay $10 to just park and hike.  I'm a little glad we didn't know, and you'll find out why.  We started off on the hike, with our lunch in our backpack because we had planned on eating on the trail.  The hike starts in the dirt, and then all of a sudden we are in the SNOW!! There is snow all over the place, and you are walking through the snow trying to find the trail.  Eventually we made it to a creek, and we knew we weren't going across.  It was way too cold, and who knew where the trail was on the other side.  A family came up behind us, and the dad was determined to figure out how to get across the creek.  We didn't wait long enough to watch him fall in, but while we were walking down the trail, we heard a yelp and figured he fell in!!

Monday night we went to watch the sunset up at the airport.  There were a lot more people than I expected.  I don't know why I didn't expect that many people to be there.  It was really chilly as the sun started going down though, so we didn't wait until it went all the way down.  It was really pretty though, and fun to see the city from up high!

Up at the airport watching the sunset, 6:20 at night.

Tuesday we just relaxed, and played a lot of games.  We were very excited to be on vacation, and enjoyed ourselves.  Now we are back at home, and getting ready for school to begin again on Monday.  Can't wait for two more weeks, when we are on vacation again for Easter!

New Stuff

Our house is now complete!!  We were lucky enough to be able to buy our house one year ago, thanks to some help from some very special friends.  Due to that, we were able to receive a new refund from the government this year.  With that money, besides saving, we decided to purchase some things for the house that we really wanted!!  Here are our new friends in our home!!

This is what the living room looked like when we took out our old couch.

Now with our new couch, which fit perfect!!

We were also able to purchase some new storage space!

Tyler was really excited about his newest toy!  He was able to buy this with money he received from Christmas presents from his kids at school.  It has come in very handy!

We were also able to finally buy a bedroom set!!  I was so excited to not have to sleep on the ground any more!!  Before our mattress was just on the ground.

We made friends with Greg at JC Penny and he was able to give us a very good deal!  We bought the whole bedroom set, and the couch from him.  Now he sends us cards telling us to come back all the time.  He must think we like to shop!  :D

Our last purchase, and probably our favorite!!

We'll finally have ice!!  Won't have to ask Matt and Katie to bring some down the street any more!!

I just realized Tyler's favorite new purchase isn't in the collection.  We have had this since the day after Thanksgiving, so it's almost not as exciting, even though we have very happy with our new washer and dryer!!

Tyler was so excited to do laundry in these that first weekend.  We sold our old ones to our friends Ben and Allison and ended up in their wedding sermon because of it!!