Aaron, Jeff and I pooled together to get my Mom & Dad tickets to Celine Dion's concert at the Qwest Center here in Omaha on Thursday, Feb 26th.

Included with their 6th row seat was a five course meal with transportation to and from the concert. We had a G-R-E-A-T time!



I didn't take as many photos as I wish I had, but here are the salads.



...and the entree.



I love giving gifts like this! What fun!


We enjoyed dog-sitting Aaron's parent's dog - Kobe.
Here's a taste of his cuteness while he was staying with us.













While I was away from home working on "Operation Heirloom" with my family Aaron was at home sweating and putting in a new kitchen floor!

Before


After



Eh? Eh? Good huh! :)
Aaron did a terrific job and we've loving our new floor. S-O MUCH BETTER!

Happy Valentine's Day my love!


Hey friends!

It's been a while since we've updated, we hope you're doing well!

Something very exciting that's been going on is
renew
omaha! It's our name for a movement that exists to unite like-minded and like-hearted people who want to bring renewal and restoration to individuals and families in neighborhoods through relationships and prayer.

Our heart is to do this in our neighborhood!
We have this house in our sights. It about a block south of our house.
It has a HUGE yard and we can both see a huge potential for restoration & outreach.



Here are some photos of what it used to look like!




Here's the tour of the inside.
The front room/living room.


Leading into the dining room


Kitchen at the back of the home

No one has lived in the home for a while, so upstairs was a little cold.
There are four rooms upstairs and one bathroom.



Front bedrooms


Back Bedroom



If you are not already enjoying a missional lifestyle in the neighborhood you live in we want to invite you to come do life with us.

Since moving into our house, we have developed relationships with families and elderly on our street. We’ve experienced the challenges of trying to connect with people around the corner and down the street. We would love to partner with like-minded and like-hearted people who want to help us pursue a creative, long-term strategy to re- neighboring.

Thank you to our families & friends who have supported us so far. Truly, you know who you are, thank you!!! We would love to continue connecting with friends who have a heart for those in need all across Omaha who are working on the same thing…leveraging their lives to renew this city!

Give us a call or drop us a line at if you have any questions.

Love from here :) A&L





*storyboard in honor of valentines day & feeling girly and loved*



Schools out today at 11am for Parent Teacher Conferences at King Science & Technology Magnet. It's tradition that I join Aaron and his team of teachers for walking tacos...


...and fruit pizza. I stayed up last night after we went out to The Upstream to make the cookie for the base of the fruit pizza. This morning I didn't want to wake up but when I realized I still have to doll up the pizza I shot outta bed and finished it up so Aaron could take it to school.


I'm sad I'm not there today. I'm sure they're enjoying it together right now .... Oh well. Yay for a 1/2 day of teaching, eh Aaron? The only downer is ... I don't get to see him until 8pm tonight. It's hard work, but there really is no one better for it than Aaron.
Whadda stud.


Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
1 Corinthians 13: 6-7




I'm headed westward this weekend to work on what I'm calling my "Heirloom Project".
My father's family homesteaded Merna, where my parents still call home, and we have a treasure trove of photos and stuff in a giant trunk in our garage from the journey.

I've known this much about my family forever, really. But its time for me to know who was married to Andrew and who was married to Alvin. I want to know get the order straight and names with faces.

Talk about a cool project! My Grandma Cole is still kickin' at 88 and she knows who is who. My goal for this weekend is to sort and organize the photos in the trunk and get them into albums that my dad and his brother can work through to identity who is who and such.

Big picture goal? Create a book.

I'd love to combine the photos with a history of where we came from because I just love the fullness of a good story. Here's a taste of what I'm talking about ...

Andrew Sommer, one of the earliest settlers of his part of Custer county, has through the years of his residence there been identified with the progress and upbuilding of his, county and state and is well known as a successful stockman and farmer, owning over nine hundred acres of land within the limits of Custer county, and having other land interests in the state. He is a native of France, born November 25, 1844, next to the youngest of the five children of John and Barbara (Gerrig) Sommer. He has a, brother and a sister in Illinois. His parents, natives of France, both died in Illinois.

Mr. Sommer was but four years of age when he was brought to America by his parents. They located in Illinois and there he grew to manhood, being educated in local schools and later engaged in farming and coal mining. In the spring of 1880 he came to Custer county and secured a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres of land on the northwest quarter of section thirty-two, township eighteen, range twenty-one, where he has made his home throughout the years since. He also took a timber claim of the same size and brought both to all improved state. He was instrumental in organizing school district number fifteen in 1882 and for ten years served as treasurer of same. He also served several years as justice of the peace and is now township clerk. He filled these various offices most acceptably and stands well with his fellow citizens.

Mr. Sommer was married in Custer county, July 3, 1885, to Melissa Keedy, a native of Illinois, daughter of Abraham and Elizabeth (Bickel) Keedy, the former a native of Illinois and the latter of Indiana. The father died in Colorado and the mother in Arkansas. One daughter, Mrs. Bell Stevens, lives in Merna, and another lives in California; one son lives in Illinois; Mrs. Sommer is the only other survivor of the family. Mrs. Sommer had been married before to a Mr. Tygart and has one son by that marriage, Perry W. Tygart, living with his mother. Five children have been born to Mr. Sommer and wife: Almore, at home; Eva, wife of Alvin Cole, of Dunning, Nebraska, has one child; Benjamin and Lizzie at home; one daughter deceased. Besides his nine hundred and forty acres of land in Custer county, Mr. Sommer owns some land in Blaine county, Nebraska. He has made a specialty of the stock business and has found this line very profitable.
He is honored as a veteran of the civil war, having enlisted from Peoria, Illinois, in September, 1864, when not quite twenty years of age, in Company E, One Hundred and Eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, in which he served to the end of the war. He participated in the Siege of Spanish Fort and many minor engagements and skirmishes. He received his discharge at Chicago, in August, 1865, having won a good record for faithfulness and devotion to duty. At the time of his muster out he had not yet reached his majority by a few months. Mr. Sommer is a man of high character and probity, having a large circle of sincere friends.




Thanks to everyone who signed up for home community through Core Community Church.
We had our first get together last night and it was terrific! We hit the potato bar around 6:30ish and spent a lot of time eating & mingling. After that, we split up into smaller groups to break the ice and talk about the book of Nehemiah and after that - even smaller groups to pray together.

Aaron and were both so pumped after our first get together -- this is going to be great!
Just what I need. I look forward to more people coming (we miss you guys who couldn't make it!) and praying for & watching God at work in us and our city.




I have been working alongside Core Community Church since late 08 to design a series of banners and visitor information tools. The banners turned out GREAT! There are some more in the Core Kids area that I forgot to snap a photo of...stay tuned until next week!




We have been wondering for some time now whether we could handle getting a dog. Just so happened the perfect opportunity arose for us to "try before we buy" :)

Aaron's mom and dad are leaving for a 2 week adventure to Egypt and Israel and the family dog, Koby, is hanging with us until they return.

Look at him...



Since it was a beautiful day (58 degrees!) Koby spent a good amount of time exploring our urban oasis of a front yard.



So far, so good! We'll keep you posted as we go :)