Monday, September 05, 2011

Back to School Time!

Tami here, with a quick update (long overdue, I realize!)

In order to actually get this published, unlike the few times I started a transition post this Spring and Summer, it will be primarily done in bullet points. Since most of our readers are also facebook friends I will also leave the photos out as we have posted them there for you to see. However, since facebook posts get lost over time and there seem to many friends just catching bits of our journey, we decided that it is still a good idea to keep the family blog going, and one of us will try to post at least once a month.


  • Our permanent address is now Dubuque, IA. If you do not have this address, and would like it, please send us a private message or email. (We quickly and successfully sold our house in La Crosse in April! and then stayed at the farm (thanks Mom and Dad Groth!) until moving here in July)
  • We moved to Dubuque to attend Wartburg Seminary (we as in Tami and Shawn)
  • Shawn just completed Summer Greek as the first requirement for his M.Div degree at Wartburg. He finished with an A if any of you are wondering. This means he can translate New Testament Greek (or knows how to find and use tools to do so).
  • Tami and Shawn both start Fall 2011 classes this week! Watch for links to our blogs to follow our specific journeys more closely.
  • Tami is looking forward to getting into a fall routine that includes leaving Thursdays after class to go up to "the farm" to spend time with Megan. (This means I will spend all or most of each Friday studying somewhere in La Crosse -- let me know if you want to provide a study break sometime.)
  • Shawn is enjoying not having to mow the lawn or fix bugs!
  • Shawn embarked on a Paleo/Primal nutritional plan earlier this summer (with Tam's help), and has lost about 30 pounds and several inches (he didn't take great before and after measurements because the intent was solely for health reasons rather than weight loss. He is also walking and doing a few other exercise and feeling great!
  • Tami is exercising for the love of it rather than training for any races and now does as much walking as running as she looks forward to getting back to Yoga as well as possibly trying some new exercise classes her in Dubuque.

  • Nessa has always been slow to warm up to changes that are not her idea and takes extra time to transition so we are so thankful that she is making lots of new friends and doing wonderful here in the Wartburg community!
  • Nessa started first grade here a couple of weeks ago, and seems to love school. So far, she does her homework without complaint and is enjoying all subjects.
  • If asked, her favorite "subject" is still recess, lunch or possibly PE.
  • Nessa has decided to be a snow princess for Halloween. This is good news for mom because the most I will need to buy is a new tiara to replace the one that broke.
  • Nessa made the final decision on where our Dubuque church home would be, and she selected, St. John's Lutheran Church in St. Donatus, IA
  • Nessa lost her first tooth a couple of weeks ago -- while eating homemade ice cream! Doesn't say a lot for our ice cream making skills, but it will be remembered!
  • Nessa says her favorite thing about where we live now is "the kids!!!!" She LOVES playing outside and learning new group games (there are about 40 kids in our Wartburg student housing neighborhood)

  • Megan is remaining in the La Crescent area to attend school and is looking forward to starting 8th grade this week!
  • Megan started her second season of Cross Country by running her personal best one mile at the first meet!!! (we're so proud of you Megan!)
  • Megan again took many projects too the Houston County fair, and looks forward to returning to take goats again next year.
  • By observation I would say that Megan's favorite thing to do is hang out with her friends, and why not they are a wonderful group!
The much-appreciated cool weather that arrived today has me even more in the "back-to-school" mood, and has confirmed that this is indeed my favorite time of the year.

If you are interested in following our blogs that will focus on faith and our journey through seminary, you can find them here:

Shawn's is at: Leaving Myself Behind
Tami's is at: Love and Belief

And as always you can find our various brief updates on Facebook! (For those of you that are new FB friends, our family blog posts as a note in both of our FB feeds.) But if we neglected to tie up all the loose ends and answer your questions about what we are doing these days, please just ask! (And we know we never sent a Christmas letter last year ... we will try to send something out this year, but are not making any promises). We appreciate hearing from each of you in all ways (here on the blog -- please comment -- or in person or other places online).






Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The official listing links!


I wanted to post this Monday but the activity on the house (and the rest of life) has continued to keep me busy!

So this is a nice link to use to see the shots of the house:

Or, you can see the original Trulia listing here:

Here is the Gerrard-Hoeschler site as well which is a good one to forward to people as you can easily request a showing via the online form :-)

There is an open house this Sunday April 3rd from 11 to 12:30!

and a bonus for pic for all of you --

From 2011-03-25

Nessa enjoying the new pillows she discovered in our bedroom!


As a reminder Shawn and I are both off of Facebook until Easter. This will show up as a note in both of our FB feeds. We will see comments via the emails we get but will not be replying via FB, so contact us privately or reply directly on the blog for any comments back from us please. Thank you for your support, thoughts and prayers this Spring and always!

Friday, March 25, 2011

The sign is up!


Quick note from Tami (reminder to FB readers -- blog posts end up under BOTH my FB notes and Shawn's FB notes*)

I will update with a longer blog post and link to the full listing, but wanted to quickly share my own photo of Nessa next to the For Sale sign that went up in our yard this afternoon! Nessa is not thrilled with the fact that we are selling the house, but is I think glad that I won't be quite so busy prepping the house for sale (of course she doesn't know the reality of having a house for sale yet either).