Exciting Week

This past week was the week of the SEMO (Southeast Missouri) District Fair. In Cape Girardeau the SEMO Fair is a BIG deal. The kids from the congregation showed animals and other various 4-H projects. This is the first time that Nate and I have experienced the livestock showing and a horse show. We also got to see two concerts at the fair. We saw Bryan White which is famous for his song he sang with Shania Twain in the 90's, "From this Moment". We also saw the John D. Hale Band which is a local band. We had the chance to experience a deep fried Snickers bar. It was delicious and like all good foods, horribly bad for you. It's okay though because the fair is only once a year. All in all, the SEMO District Fair was a success with the Wollenbergs, fun and fellowship with a lot of great people.

The biggest part of my week was that, Sara, a wonderful woman from our congregation took me with her to the Cardinals game on Monday night. She works for Drury Hotels so we got to sit in the corporate seats, five rows behind home plate. It was awesome! When the ump and Yadier Molina (Cardinals catcher)were arguing I could read their lips. Fredbird also ended up coming to our section, sitting down next to people and messing with them. It was amazing! Sara and I had a great time!





Other exciting things that happened this week include me getting my first substitute job! I subbed at Jackson High School for a para-professional in the Special Ed department. I was very happy to get some work. I also ordered a sewing machine!!! I got a brother CS 6000i. Isn't it pretty?



I'm so excited to get it! I have used sewing machines a few times before but never on my own. We'll see how I do!

Nate is excited that football has started. He is keeping up with his and my fantasy teams. I don't pay as much to my teams as I should. He, of course, has not forgotten about baseball and his first place Yankees.

Anyway, all is good in Cape. God is good!

Goodbye Summer

Over the past month things have been good in Cape and elsewhere. It has cooled down significantly in the past couple of weeks and we are experiencing some very nice weather along with some rain which was greatly needed. Nate and I attended the wedding of our dear friends Shayla and Andrew. It was a wonderful wedding that we both got the pleasure of standing up in. We could not be happier for two of our best friends.





Before the wedding our friend Rachel McCall came to visit in Cape. We had a great time spending time with her. We gave her the grand tour of Cape Girardeau! We introduced her to stuffed jalapenos, which are delicious, they aren't spicy.

I am still looking for a job. Until I find one, I am thinking about taking up sewing as a hobby. I think it would be an excellent hobby to have and it would be fun. The only obstacle now is finding an inexpensive machine. I have been looking at some projects on Marthastewart.com and think it is definitely doable. I still like to bake as a hobby but I don't need extra sweets around the house. I did make an Oreo pudding pie which turned out nicely for the Rally Day Picnic at church. I will keep up the baking when there are events to take the goods to. :)

Things have been pretty normal up at church. Nate experienced his third funeral since we have been here. That might be kind of morbid for a blog but he is training to be a pastor and funerals are part of the biz. He has been preaching on a regular basis. If you would like to hear his sermons you can access them buy going to the iTunes store and typing in "Hanover Lutheran Church". If you go to the churches page you can watch the sermons.

God is good! That's all for now.:)

Life in God's Country

The past three weeks starting out in Cape have been great! One of the great things is that I have been able to bake and use my beautiful red Kitchen-Aid Mixer. I'm trying to think about what to name it. As most people know, my car's name is Mona and Nate's truck's name is Black Magic. I'll have to think about that one. So far I have made chocolate chip cream cheese bars which were a big hit on the 4th of July when we went to Lanny's. I made camp coffee cake. :) And today I made apple crisp. I'm not done yet either. I'm trying to think of what the next thing that I bake might be.



Last week on Monday morning, I was surprised by a most repulsive smell in our house. Knowing that the sewage had backed up in the basement of this house before, I really didn't want to check the basement and have that be the case. I looked in a bunch of places and then finally checked the basement. Sure enough...sewage. The pastor and his family generously took us into their house for a few nights while the plumbing was getting fixed. Turns out that there was a 5 gallon buckets worth of 1-inch gravel in the plumbing line in the backyard. They even had to tear up the street behind the house. It was kind of a bummer but it built character when we had to clean up the basement. We learned something new! Haha.

The congregation here has really been taking care of us. They have given us lots and lots of veggies. Today we were given a great deal of meat and some freshly smoked ribs. AMAZING! We are so blessed!

Last Sunday was the first week that Nate preached at Hanover. He did great. It starts with the readings. You can watch it by going to http://www.facebook.com/HanoverLutheran?ref=ts. It is not actually 20 minutes long, it starts with the readings. You can also go to Hanover Lutheran Church on itunes and download the podcast.

That is all for now. :) God is good!

We've Moved!

Almost two weeks ago Nate and I moved to Cape Girardeau, MO for his vicarage. We were welcomed with a counter full of food, a wonderful house and wonderful people. It took us a few days to get settled but we have definitely made this place our home for a year. We have been so excited to finally get to use our wedding gifts. Everything is new and works great. I will be posting pictures of the church and our home on this site and you can also go to them by going to facebook.



Our House



The sign at the church welcoming Nate!
God is good!

Nate and Kate in the "Badger" State

It is the season of weddings! Nate and I spent a week in Wisconsin going to the weddings of Becky and Clay Buie and Chris and Rachel Davis. Nate DJ'd the Hillenbrand-Buie wedding and he was in the Davis-Kirk Wedding. We had a great time celebrating the weddings of both couples. These marked weddings 2 and 3 of 4 weddings in a row. We were invited to 13 weddings this spring/summer; we will not be attending them all. We wish all of the couple best wishes though. We have been so blessed to share these great times with our close friends.



We had a great time hanging out with many people that we hadn't seen in a while in Wisconsin. There are things that I won't miss about Wisconsin like scraping the ice off the inside of my window and driving in the snow. Nate would have snow everyday if it were possible. He loves it. I like to look at it for a couple days and then it can melt. The brown snow that sticks around for 3 months just isn't my thing. We do miss all of the people that live in Wisconsin and that we went to school with at Concordia. We had a great time hanging out with the Kelm family, who was nice enough to put us up for the week. We visited Pizza Shuttle, which is where we "met" and where we spent many good times. The best part was seeing all of the people though.

We will be heading to Indiana, Connecticut and Canada next! Stay tuned!