The "Silly" Thing God Blessed Us With!

This weekend my parents came to visit (which was a blessing in itself). They were able to make down Friday afternoon to watch Kyle coach the Kettle Moraine JV basketball game. After the game we came back home to hangout and eat some pizza.

As we were waiting for the pizza to finish cooking my dad was telling us about the Pastors Convention he just went to earlier that week, in the Twin Cities. He was telling about the great speakers that he got to see and hear. They talked a lot about prayer and how our prayer to God should be just as if we are sharing things with a friend (sharing anything and everything on our mind). He shared what the speakers had to say about having faith in God and knowing that He is capable of anything and He will answer any pray that fits with His will. And if we are in God's word, spending time with Him, our prayers will match up with His will; resulting in many answered prayers!

Then Dad began to tell a story, he started by saying do you remember calling me about a week and a half ago just to say hi? I vaguely remembered. He went on to remind me about telling him that I got to use an iPad in my classroom (I loved it and so did the kids...they had so much fun!) and I then told him that I wanted one. He laughed a little and then encouraged me to start saving my money :)

Well at this convention my dad was at, there are a bunch of vendors that you can go around and visit, and while you were visiting them you got this "passport" stamped. If every vendor at the convention stamped your passport you were able to be a part of a drawing including lots of prizes (the top one being an iPad). So, remembering our conversation dad decided to try to get his passport stamped and see what God would have him win. He said a prayer, something like this..."God, I know that Nikki said she wanted an iPad and if you want to give her one, you can do that...you can do anything!" He turned in his passport and was entered in to the drawing. After the session that night some 1,600 pastors gathered to see who won what prizes (there was a list printed out). Standing a ways back Dad looked in the top left corner (figuring the top prize would be listed first) and..............it wasn't his name (someone from California was listed there). So he thought oh well, and then continued to look at the list of names to see if he had won anything. A little ways down the list he saw Ken Casey, MN................iPad! OH WOW! He couldn't believe it! So dad gave me an iPad this weekend and said, "I guess God wanted you to have this iPad." He shared about how this has been about SO much more than an iPad; he has told so many people the story and it has been an encouragement and a testimony about how God can and will do anything; even through something "silly" like an iPad........God will find a way to show Himself!

I can't wait to see how else God will use this story and the iPad for His Glory!!!!!

Me and the new iPad :)

A New Year

I am so encouraged by God's faithfulness in the first 15 days of this year! A dear friend of mine started to blog about how God has shown himself in her life, so she can look back on the year and notice (instead of miss) all the blessings He has put into her life. I loved this idea! It is so easy to forget how God has worked in our lives and I am so excited to have a journal of how God has stood by me throughout 2011.

So here we go!

Today I want to give thanks for Kyle! I am so thankful for the man of God the Lord has given me to spend my life with here on earth. Kyle is so amazing and he is the most selfless person I have ever met. He will do whatever it takes to serve others and always seems to put our family’s needs before his own. I find comfort in Kyle's patience and his love for me! I am so humbled at the thought of God having me in mind as He was making Kyle. It is so evident that he made us to fit together and I am honored that God chose me to be Kyle's wife!

Meeting Cole Bradley

On Thursday at about 1:45 a.m. I got a call from Krystin informing me that her water just broke! We were all very surprised, because she wasn't due for about another month. After a long day of praying and waiting at school, I got another call from Krystin's mom letting us know that Krystin and Kyle had a healthy baby boy at 4:32 p.m. He was 6 lbs. 11 oz, 19 inches long and they named him Cole Bradley Dieringer.

On Friday my Kyle and I were able to go to the hospital and visit Krystin and Kyle and meet Baby Cole! He is so cute and it was so much fun to see the new mommy and daddy. Kyle was so good about building Krystin up and being such a great help, and the way he talked about Cole, it was very evident that he is proud dad! Krystin was so natural with her new baby boy! God definitely made her to be a mom! I am so excited to watch Cole grow into a little boy and to watch Kyle and Krystin grow into Godly parents. We are so thankful that we are able to share in this blessing with them!

Okay, so I am finally going to try to start a blog. I always love looking at every one's so I thought I could share what is going on in our lives. Kyle and I are High School sweethearts; we started dating the summer before our Jr. year of high school. After we graduated Kyle went to (and is still going to) school UW-Platteville and I attended UW-Whitewater. On December 20, 2007 Kyle proposed to me on a walk to Central Park (in downtown Platteville). After a year and a half of careful planning and preparation, both for the day and for our lives together, we tied the knot on June 27, 2009. We have been happily married for about five months now : )

For our Honeymoon we took the train from La Crosse to Chicago and spent about a week there. This was our first time visiting The Windy City, so we hit a lot of the tourist spots. We had a great time and I am excited to go back again someday soon!
Here we are eating on the 94th floor of the John Hancock Building in the Signature Room!
We went to the Shed Aquarium, saw lots of cool animals and...

Planet Earth in 4-D!

We couldn't leave without visiting Millennium Park and seeing "The Bean."

The Brewers were playing the Cubs at Wriggly Field...so we couldn't miss that!!

A look at the city from Navy Pier.

The new look out decks at the Sears Tower.

And the highlight of Kyle's trip...
Meeting Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun.

We are now living in Lake Mills in a lovely one bedroom apartment. We have some wonderful neighbors (my cousin Nick and his fiance Lindsey)! We are enjoying starting our lives together and can't wait to share it with all of you!