baby brother.

I've spent the past four days quietly reflecting on what life would be like if Kyle David lived longer than he did. Sometimes I'm not sure I could have handled two little brothers. Other times I've wondered if I would have the same friends I do now or if he would have been friends with them instead. I've wondered who he would be more like. Would he like golf? Play the piano? What would he be studying in college?

Then my attention turns and I remember that it's not up to me to decide all of that. God is the giver of life and what he gives, he also has power to take away. It's up to us to be thankful for it all no matter what the situation. So, today I'll be thankful for Kyle's short time on earth - for the smiles I'm sure he gave my two-year old self; I'll be thankful that he's worshiping Jesus even in this very moment; and I'll be thankful for the way he causes me to think about how small life is and how big God's sovereignty is - especially on these few days every year in mid-November.

Kyle David Vander Heide  |  November 11-14, 1989

mr. b's first snow.

Well, friends, despite the fact that the sunshine is currently reflecting off the pretty yellow leaves on the tree in the front yard, it happened. It S-N-O-W-E-D today. As much as I dislike snow, even I have to wear a smile when I see the first big flakes fall from the sky (especially because I knew it wouldn't stick to the ground for long and would be melted by tomorrow!). The first snow of the season reminds me of the happy times that are ahead: celebrating Christmas, sitting in our warm house sipping coffee in the morning while we watch the snow fall, wearing sweatshirts and sweatpants, and all sorts of other good things.

But this year the snow meant something else: Mr. Beacon Puppy's first snowfall!

He loved it.

Here he is trying to bite the snowflakes. It's like it was playing a game or something.

And here he is being the cutest puppy ever catching snowflakes on his tongue! 

Rob and I are currently reading the book Cold Tangerines, by Shauna Niequist. It is an awesome book. If you've never read it, you should. The tag line for the book is: "Celebrating the extraordinary nature of everyday life." I feel like we did that today by celebrating Mr. B's first snow - celebrating the little things that would be overlooked by so many...but make us stop and smile and say: "Thanks, God, for this awesome life and all the good things you've given us."

24.

Today, I am thankful for...
1. My Husband
     Who sang to me to wake me up this morning and let me open birthday presents in my robe and slippers.
2. Mr. Beacon Puppy
     Because he loves to snuggle on my lap in the morning and play Frisbee with me at night.
3. Seattle's Best Coffee
     Speaking of which, I'm going to go brew a fresh pot now.
4. My Parents
     Who celebrate me every day and who have loved me since before my birthdays even began.
5. My Siblings
     Because they know how to play "catch with a wettie" and make me laugh until I cry.
6. My In-Laws
     Father, Mother, Brother, Sisters - because they make me feel like I've always belonged.
7. Our Warm House
     A roof over my head is a gift on a cold, windy day like today. I can't believe we've been here for a year.
8. M&M Cookies 
     ...for breakfast. Yup, I just did that.
9. Friends
     Because whether they are old or new, near or far, they have made the last 24 years worth celebrating.  
10. Blogs
       Let's be honest, I just love reading about other people's lives...speaking of which, YoungHouseLove probably has a new post up by now.
11. Middle School Youth Group
       Small Group Night last night = 5 awesome girls, painting pumpkins, and a dance party. Win.
12. Intentional Communities
       ...and Rockford Reformed Church, in general. Thankful to be a part of a small group and a caring church family.
13. My Jobs
       So many people go without and yet I have two.
14. The Bible
       Which teaches me that even though the rain may fall, God will never use it to destroy the earth again.
15. Dog Training
       Because without it, I don't know if we would have ever taught Beacon to sit.
16. School (and Homework?)
       Even though it keeps us busy, I'm thankful for the opportunity Rob and I both have to get an education in fields we are passionate about.
17. Free Things
       Like a free birthday dinner at Ruby Tuesday and buy one, get one free birthday coupons for Cold Stone!
18. My Car
       Because Brett had to bike a mile across campus in the rain yesterday to get to class. Yuck.
19. Laughter
       There's nothing like laughing until the tears run down your face. Thankful that it happens to me often.
20. Electricity
       ...and the fact that we still have power, even though 5 Consumer's Energy trucks just drove down our road.
21. A Cold Coca-Cola
       Yum. Already know that's what's going to get me through writing a paper this afternoon.
22. Singing Along to the Radio
       We can meet God anywhere and worship in any way (even if people look at me strange as they drive by).
23. Date Night
       One night a week, just me and my boyfriend (and that my birthday fell on date night this week!).
24. The Reality of Life Everlasting
        Death, crime, pain, tears, and sickness seem more prevalent then ever recently. Thankful that this is not my forever home.

...and to God, who has - for now - blessed me with all these things...and another year to enjoy them.

not home yet.

We have a hope and a future.

So thankful that He has already WON.

middle school.

Last night was Chaos Day with the middle school youth group at Rockford Reformed Church! I had never experienced Chaos Day before but boy, am I glad I experienced it last night. What an awesome and fun relational way to allow for a safe place for students to be themselves! (If you saw how the leaders were dressed...let's just say that no one could feel out of place!)

As small groups we competed in a bunch of crazy games. Just imagine a 2-hour long combination of Trix yogurt, a hoola-hoop, saltine crackers, a sardine, string cheese, a pair of pantyhose, Cheetos and a bottle of Mountain Dew. AWESOME.

It is inspiring to watch leaders interact with students, exciting to watch students encourage and cheer for one another, and so refreshing to laugh and laugh and laugh. I'm so glad to be back with youth group this year.

Here's a picture of (most) my small group from last night in our chaos gear. We're missing one person but she left before I had a chance to grab my camera. Can't wait to spend the year investing in these awesome girls!

And here is a more accurate depiction of our night...and hopefully a perfect foreshadow to the year ahead!

I know there are people out there who think we're crazy for loving to spend time with middle schoolers. To that I will say: "How do you look at those faces and not want to spend time with middle schoolers?"

The last two weeks as I drove home after youth group, the song below came on the radio. There is no better feeling than to have seen God actively at work in the lives of students and then jump in your car, roll the windows down, and drive down the highway with these words blaring through your speakers...Christ is risen from the dead, that's what this really comes down to anyways, right?

catch up.

I think it is time to play a little game of catch up. Unfortunately, we don't have much exciting to share. Now, that's not to say that life isn't so good. We are blessed abundantly with a warm house and good food and dear friends and family and a cute puppy and the season for hot caramel apple cider and the fact that we only have one little tree in our yard to rake leaves from. Life is good. It's just really busy which means we don't have a lot of exciting stuff to share. Boo.

Here's a look into our typical week:
Sunday - Enjoy a restful morning then attend church at RRC (on a rotating basis we set-up for the service or run sound) and soon we will be starting to participate in the small group ministry that is starting up. We are calling them Intentional Communities and we are both really excited to get to know some new people.
Monday - Steph works at Kuyper, Rob works at Spectrum Community Services. Rob goes straight from work to class at WMU. Alyssa and Hannah come over to watching Dancing With The Stars while we all do homework. Oh, and the puppy goes crazy multiple times throughout the evening.
Tuesday - Steph works at Kuyper, Rob works at Spectrum. Steph goes straight from work to class at SAU (until 10pm!). Rob sometimes works at night (either from home or on the road) because he has to make up hours that he's using for his internship. We collapse into bed by 10:30pm.
Wednesday - Steph is to work at Compass College of Cinematic Arts by 7:50am to make a million pots of coffee to help the students make it through the day. Rob spends the morning working at his internship with Hospice and then spends the afternoon working at Spectrum. He heads straight to class after work. Steph has dinner at church and then hangs out with awesome middle schoolers at Youth Group. (Then we watch an episode of Criminal Minds.) 
Thursday - Steph works at Kuyper and Rob works at Spectrum. We FINALLY have a night when we are both at home. Usually we're too tired to do anything. We get to make supper together and catch up on the week's episode of Biggest Loser that we missed on Tuesday.
Friday - Steph works at Compass and Rob puts in a full day with Hospice. At night we try to do something fun - last week we went to ArtPrize! (If you haven't gone, DO IT.) This week we're celebrating Alyssa's birthday.
Saturday - We spend the morning trying to clean the house up from the craziness of the week and do laundry so we have clothes to wear again. In the afternoon we have puppy training so that we can learn to control the crazy ball of fur that lives with us now. *Insert mental image of the crazy ball of fur sleeping peacefully by the back door right now...* At night we usually have to do homework and maybe get to work on some projects around the house. (And then we watch more Criminal Minds.)
And then we do it all over again...whew.


As we were getting ready for bed last night I said to Rob, "When people ask how things are going, I don't like to respond because I always just feel like I'm complaining that we're so busy...but really, I'm not complaining." We have both come to realize that God has created this season of life for us and we're so grateful for the things we are learning and the ways we are growing. And we're thankful for a puppy to cuddle with at night, Mountain Dew and Diet Coke, and our bed that catches us when we collapse at the end of the day.

Here are a few pictures of some things we've been doing to try and relax and do things we enjoy.

It was definitely time to replace that yucky old light that was falling apart outside our front door. We had been on a hunt for quite some time for a light set that we could put on the garage and on the porch but everything we found was so gosh-darn expensive. And then it happened. One Saturday morning Rob was looking at the Menard's ad and found a 2-pack of lights for $14.99 - SCORE! So, we picked up 2 packs (4 lights total) and we put one on the front porch, two will go on either side of the garage and the 4th one will go on the back patio. Behold the goodness of a new light below.

And Oh! what a beautiful light it is. The glass is textured. And I love it.
(I also just realized that these two pictures could be one of those "What's Different?" games.
Feel free to play if you'd like. Consider it our gift to you.)

We also wanted to find a cheap solution to our nasty old garage door that is completely miscolored. It actually sort of looked white when the old tan siding was on the garage, but now that we've replaced the old siding for this shiny white vinyl stuff, the garage door stuck out like a sore thumb. So, I went for it with the industrial strength, flat white spray paint and primer. This is obviously an in-progress picture and it's a bit more completed now but it still needs another coat (weather got in the way, then life did). 

Like I said, we're also in the process of puppy training. We're going to a class on Saturday afternoons in Allendale where we learn how to train Beacon and then we come home and practice. The picture above is one of the few times he's actually sitting still (the puppy, not Rob). Right now he only sits when we have a treat in our hand and are pushing his nose up so he has to sit down. We're also supposed to be teaching him "down" and "heel" this week too...but something makes me think that we're not going to be the star pupils in class on Saturday. Oh well. You win some, you lose some. He's cute though, huh? (This time I'm talking about both Rob and the puppy.)

And there you have it. Life as the Bergman's currently know it. Crazy...and great.

beacon. day 2.

Well, we're coming to the end of our second full day with Beacon at home with us. Boy, is he cute. He's cute, that is, when he's not peeing on the carpet or biting our hands or barking 427 times per night while we try to sleep. Ok, fine, he's still cute then, too.

Remember when he looked like this?

Beacon, 3 weeks old.

Or when he looked like this?

Beacon, 4 weeks old.

Or what about when he suddenly shot up like a weed and looked like this at our third visit?

Beacon, 6 weeks old. Alyssa, 1086 weeks old.

And here he is during his first night at home with us.

Beacon, 8 weeks old. Stephanie's hair, 2 days old. (Please, forgive it. It knows not what it's doing.)

Hard to believe he was so small and unpuppy like when we first met him 5 short weeks ago. We're already thankful for the fun he's brought us and we know that he will end up being an important part of our family in the days and years to come. So far he seems to have a great personality and makes us want to snuggle his soft fur all the time. I never had pets growing up, so this is a new experience for me...and I think I like it. *Insert silent cheering and high fives here! (Don't want to wake him up, you know.)* Beacon has now gone to his crate by himself and fallen asleep twice tonight! We must be doing something right with this crate training thing after all. 

Some of our friends from church asked us today how things were going with him. When we were talking with Beth I mentioned that I think it's a good thing we don't have kids yet - I don't think I can handle this getting up every 2 hours throughout the night thing for too much longer. She just laughed and said, "Puppies are harder than kids. If you can make it through training Beacon, you'll be just fine when you have kids. We did the puppy thing after we had kids and I will NEVER have a puppy again." Glad to know all the rumors of "puppies prepare you for kids" are actually true! (Here's a treat, Beacon. Our future kiddos thank you.)

And, just because he's cute, here's one last picture for the day. All tuckered out and ready for bed (I hope)!

Pardon the poor lighting. I didn't want to wake him up with the flash. It's easier to do homework when he's sleeping.