Grice Journal: Baptisms 2014

We have had a revival here at Glory! In the course of a year, 5 young people have given their hearts to the Lord! I just wanted to share the pictures of their baptisms, well, after the preliminary pictures.

The week before the baptisms, our family was busier than we'd been in a long time! The week is a blur, but I'll try to brief you on what we did. :)

Monday, we worked on apple pie filling and babysitting Katelyn. Kelsey had given us a big tote and a couple crates of apples, so we made them our priority for the week. Mom, Aunt Carol and I cleaned a house in the afternoon, arriving home about 3:30, only to do more pie filling.

Tuesday, was more pie filling till we ran out of clear jell, then while Mom and Aunt Carol ran up to Maryville for more, Abi and I cut up apples for apple butter. We cook our apple butter down in the oven on a really low heat usually over night. When it's done we can almost stand a knife up in it. Yum! Once Mom got back with the clear jell, we continued on the pie filling. Abi and I decided to pull an all nighter as we just wanted to get the apples done. We didn't crawl into bed till 2 am Wednesday morning...

Wednesday, both of us woke up around 7 am and couldn't really fall back asleep. Ugh, only 5 hours of sleep. Honestly, I don't remember what we did that day. :) Oh, I think it might have been laundry, but I'm not certain. I guess we did have church that night. I think that we got to bed around midnight... :)

Thursday, Abi and I had a house to clean, so we were rolling out the driveway around quarter to 9. When we got home, we started cleaning the bedrooms upstairs in preparation for our weekend company. Alan and Tammy Strong and family were going to be staying with us Friday- Sunday. We finished the day out by washing bedding. Bedtime was midnight again. :)

Friday, we started bright and early on cleaning the main level of our house, making food and preparing Gram's camper for Andy and Abby Weisenfeld. Around noon, we rushed off to pick Annetta up to help us clean at Zook's. Usually, Lois Ann helps us, but she was out of town, so we called on the Martins. Thank you, so much for helping, Annetta! After we dropped Annetta off, we had another cleaning job to attend to. We clean a granary office every two weeks and this week happened to be the one that we had to clean. We arrived home around 6 after an exhausting day. We barely had time to grab a bite to eat before the Strongs arrived. Andy and Abby Weisenfeld arrived a couple hours later. I was so busy that whole week, that I neglected meals. Bad idea. I barely ate anything on Friday. After we went to bed, I couldn't lay on my back because my stomach would growl. :) Anyway, after going to bed at midnight, I didn't fall asleep till 3 am Saturday morning... I think that my adrenaline was pumping too much.

Saturday, I woke up at 6, after just 3 hours of sleep. I had to get breakfast in the oven by 7 (thank you mom, for getting it in for me) so I just got up. Our church had an adult retreat day planned, so we needed to be at church by 9:30. The retreat was a blessing, but oh, so tiring! After the retreat, Dad had asked Andy and Abby to do a Seder or Passover supper with our church. We started at 4 and didn't finish till 8! I rushed off directly after the adult retreat to pick up the little people from Gavins. I took Ry's van since Katelyn was there too. Unfortunately, I forgot that Ryan's van locks the doors when you start driving. Yep, you guessed it, I locked the keys in the car, just like the loon I am. We ended up making the Seder a half hour late... :) I didn't have our camera, so sorry, no pictures of the Seder. It was another late night, I didn't fall asleep till almost 2. :)

Sunday, we had 6 baptisms planned. Our little church on main street was packed to the hilt! The baptisms were so sweet! Josh; Avery, Micky, and Ataley Smith; and Lois Ann and Caleb were all baptized. Simon was going to be, but decided to wait a little longer. Once we got back to church, all the families that came back had a great big clean up! Fun, fun! Ben and KK took Ricardo (a man whose been visiting the past couple Sundays) home, then, when Ben dropped KK off, he, Ben, stayed till almost 11. After he left, most of us children gathered in the attic, talking, lifting weights, arm wrestling and having a great time! :D

I hope I didn't exhaust you with that novel...

The boys have been doing a lot of hunting lately!

The squirrels have been pesky!

Weisenfelds brought 2 big boxes of Dunkin Donuts from Denver Friday night. After sitting there for awhile, I looked at Addison and asked, "Do you want a donut?" Of course she said yes! We all converged over the donuts. Boy, did they ever taste good!

One of the donuts was decorated for Halloween. I was looking at it and was wondering why it had dog bones sprinkled on it. Then it sunk into my thick skull that they were Halloween decorations! :) The dye was disgusting!

This was a pumpkin filled donut. It was scrumptious! After nearly starving myself that day (not to mention the former part of the week), nothing tasted quite so good.

The four girls

Poor Lynna was very tired.

After Nate led us out in several songs, Edward gave a short challenging message to all those that were being baptized.

Avery went in first.

She was so sweet!

Praying over her.

Mickey went in next.

People rallied around the baptized ones!! :)

Ataley's turn!

Lois Ann and her dad walked out together.

We will have a short intermission and look at Katelyn... :)

She really is too cute to pass up!

Julianne led Lois Ann to the Lord, so this picture is particularly special.

Caleb was born again the same day that Josh was.

He even got a hug from his little nephew, Clayton! :)

This is the only picture that I was able to get of Josh and Caleb together.

You should have heard Edward and Josh as they walked out into the water! I guess it was pretty chilly! Later, Josh told Rachel that she should've seen Edward's face. She said that she didn't have to see it, she knew what it looked like just from his exclamations. :)