Monday, June 30, 2008

Whaddaya think???

So I totally love my friend Tabitha's new background for her blog, and was playing around a bit, thinking of changing the background for this one. So, what do you think? Be honest! Do you like it better than the old all-black one??? Let me know!!!!

Thursday, June 26, 2008

me mosaic


Saw this on a fun blog that I read often, and thought I'de try it for myself!! All you do is:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your favorite celebrity?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

Can you guess what my answers were?

Please play along if you want and let me know in the comments if you do - I'd love to see yours!

A Week of Posts #7: Abby's little pool

What is cuter than a picture of Abby in her little baby pool?

A video of Abby in her little baby pool!!!

I have found that the swimming pool, no matter size, is probably the best invention for moms, second only to the excersaucer and the baby bjorn. Alright, so it was invented WAY before these two things, but for a mom in the summer time, it is a MUST HAVE! Just 20 minutes in the pool- the little one in this video here, or in the "big pool" at Derek and Patricia's- tires out Abby enough to pretty much gaurantee a nice long afternoon nap. An added bonus being that I can work on my tan while Abby plays. Can't beat that.


Just ignore the (slightly) annoying voice in the background.... ugg does ANYONE like the sound of their own voice? Do I really sound like that? Anyways, we're off to the pool!!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Week of Posts #6: An evening on the Drill Field

One of the best places to spend time at is the Drill Field on Tech's campus. THe other night Andy had an ultimate frisbee game there, so Abby, Bruiser and I walked over to watch. We had a BLAST, as you can tell!!

Abby LOVES going for walks, she kicks her legs in excitement the whole time

Bruiser's dog heaven: being able to run, uninhibited

And roll. But hopefully not in poop (which happens, unfortunately, quite often...)

And lounge


And play ultimate. And by "play ultimate," I mean "chase people and bite at their ankles when they run away."


Abby sits like a champ now! She hates being on her tummy or back, but will sit forever as long as she has something to entertain her. And surprisingly, she really likes sitting in the grass, even if its a little long.


Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Week of Posts #5: no post, sorry :(

So, I left my computer charger at VBS this morning and my computer is about to die, so no exciting post today, sorry. But tune in tomorrow and we'll have some new pictures up! (Dad, try to hold yourself back from checking the blog every 5 minutes tomorrow,I know it will be hard...)

See you tomorrow!

Monday, June 23, 2008

A Week of Posts Day #4: Kids are funny!!

Little kids crack me up. They say the funniest things, and are totally serious about it.

Like today at Vacation Bible School. Kyle (one of our pastors), was asking the kids to tell him about a time they received a gift.
"Christmas!"
"My Birthday!"
"Easter!"

"Memorial Day!"

Umm, hmmm. I didn't realize three-year-olds knew there was a memorial day.

Or, when Kyle was right in the middle of explaining how Jesus' death on the cross was Gods gift to us to cover our sins, the same little boy pipes up and says,

"umm 'cause you see the other day I got some black licorice and I HATE black licorice so I put it in the toilet and flushed the toilet so I didn't have to eat it."

How do you get back to the cross from that?

Saturday, June 21, 2008

A Week of Posts Day #2.. Silly Saturday

Disclaimer- I put up the last post YESTERDAY, on Friday, but it says Monday, because I started writing it on Monday and finally finished it Friday. So, I haven't missed a day yet! Ha!

Peas Please!

Upside-down paci

Dan looses a battle with a bottle of hot sauce

This one speaks for itself

Monday, June 16, 2008

Soooooooooo about my desire to blog more this summer.... Does anyone even still check this blog?

Life is BUSY! And I thought things would slooow doooown in the summer. I thought I'de FINALLY put up some pics from WAAYY long ago, mostly for the grandparentals. But, I really do want to be more disciplined to update the blog more often. I just got myself into a rut- you know what I mean? The longer I didn't post, the harder it was to just sit down and crank one out. Its not like there has been a shortage of things to blog about that's for sure.

So here's what we're going to do. For the next week, my goal is to do a post a day, to get myself back in the habit. Sound good? Here we go....


**Dan graduated from Virginia Tech!!! Yay for Dan! But not yay for us- this means he is LEAVING!!!!! Who's going to eat all of our bacon when we go out of town? Who's going to stop by on his way home from campus just to see Abby? Who's going to fall asleep on our couch while watching Top Chef or The Bachelorette??? I know he is moving on to bigger and better things (like, a beautiful new wife named Katie who we LOVE), but really, couldn't he just stick around for one more year? Good thing Matt's coming in the fall.
She gets her "Berlin eyes" from these two- my Dad and grandmother

Goofy brothers, as usual. I can never get them to take a serious one. Bah.

Aren't they so sweet?

**Abby was baptized! What a joy and blessing! Our biggest prayer for our precious covenant child is that she will know the Love that her heavenly father has for her, that she will know that she is a sinner and has no hope for salvation without Christ, and that she will call upon Christ at a young age. What a humbling task it is that the Lord would entrust us with her. We know that we cannot do it by our own strength! What a blessing it was to be surrounded by so many who love and follow the Lord, and who pledge to help us in raising Abby to be a woman of God! And we know that our hopes for Abby are not in vain, because we serve a faithful God, and we trust that he will draw her to himself. I can't wait for that day!
Her pretty baptism dress


Doing her "dance" on grandma Benson's lap

I absolutely LOVE this one. Could they be any cuter??

Abby loves reading so much now! (Although she mostly just eats the books...)


**We went to camp! Every May, InterVarsity hosts a week long camp for our students at a Young Life camp in Goshen, Va (yeah, Rockbridge!!). Students sign up for different "tracks" that they will go through throughout the week, on different topics such as learning how to read and study the Bible, how to lead a Small Group, Justice and Kingdom work, how to follow Jesus, sharing the gospel, etc. They also have LOTS of crazy fun!!! Staff are responsible for working the tracks- teaching, leading small groups of students, etc. I got to work with future Small Group Leaders, which is my absolute FAVORITE thing to to as IV Staff! My students were awesome, and I can't wait to see what God is going to do through them next year! Here is a picture of the students I had for the week:
You may notice that half of them have on VT shirts and half have on UVA shirts. Thought they may be bitter enemies on the football field, these students love each other so much and had a great time together, learning from each other all week. There were lots of jokes and teasing, of corse, but we had a GREAT time!

Rockbridge is famous for their food- the best camp food on the east coast. And the BEST part is dessert. For every meal. Yummmy giant cookie with ice cream!!

Abby with one of my favorite students, Vicky. She's graduating this summer and going on to do Engineering Missions with EMI, I'm so proud of her and will miss her a lot!

Andy was my hero all week. While I was working every day from 9-12:30 and 6-9:30, he watched Abby. Fed her, changed her, put her down for naps, took her for walks... He was SO great with her. But I have to say, it was pretty hilarious watching him roll up to meals with her- he's so tall and the stroller is so short!!!



The whole Virginia Tech chapter. I love these students!! I think I probably have THE BEST JOB in the entire world.

**Matt graduated too! YAY FOR MATT! And YAY FOR US- because he is coming to Tech in the fall! Matt has wanted to go to Tech his whole life- all you have to do is walk into his bedroom at home and see all the Tech stuff all over his walls, and there should be no doubt as to where his loyalties lay! He worked so hard throughout high school to get there- hands down, Matt is the most disciplined and driven out of the three Berlin kids. I mean, the kid is nuts. For example, when we go to the beach as a family, Dan and I are content to sit on the beach for HOURS- reading, sleeping, whatever. But Matt has to GO- he's gotta be doing something- throwing the frisbee, swimming, running, playing tennis, whatever. Just not sitting for longer than 20 minutes. And thats one thing I really love about him. He knows how to set goals and pursue them with gutso. I'm so proud of him, and SO excited to have next year with him! It has been the biggest blessing to live near Dan this past year- it has made us such good friends, and I can't WAIT to have the same gift of a year with my "baby" bro Mattiephish! (sorry Matt, it had to be said- no matter how you protest, you will always be my baby bro.) We love you!

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Summer Happenings

Summer is officially here in Blacksburg, which means:

20,000+ fewer people around than during the school year. Which means:

Less traffic!
Shorter lines at the grocery store!
Fewer pedestrians to stop for every 100 feet on Main Street or Prices Fork!
A fully stocked Target!
Shorter lines at Starbucks!
Less traffic!

Not that I don't love the students. I really, truly do, and I miss them! But, just like it was in Harrisonburg, summer means things slow down and quiet down A TON around here, and that is niiiiiiiiiice.

Here's a quick look at some things we've been up to in the past month (now that it is June!):


Relaxing in the hammock:


Visiting friends in Harrisonburg:

LOVE the matching pants! So classy, and incredibly cute.

Katie's graduation from the JMU music school:

Cooling off in the backyard:

(ok this is my favorite one, because as you can see Bruiser thought Abby's pool was his watering hole!)