Prayer Needed

I am just putting out this quick post to be asking you all to be praying for friends of ours from our homeschool group. Last night their house burned down. Thankfully no one was hurt but they only got out with the clothes on their back. Please be praying for them! Their names are Monty, Donna, Erin, and Ian.

Thanks so much!

A Great Trip With No Pictures

Chris and I just got back from Annual Convention in Marysville and we had a great time! Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures. :o(

It was so fun getting to see so many old friends and meeting new people, too. We really like going to convention. The worship was great, the preaching was good, and I even enjoyed the business sessions. A couple issues got a bit heated, but it is good to know that people in the LB are passionate about things.

This year they kind of threw together a pastors wives' session that was really nice. It was good just to get to be in a room of pastors' wives that had combined ministry years of over 600! And there were wives that were at convention that weren't even there. Before that session some of us that were at sem at the same time had lunch together. It was fun to see them but I missed those who weren't there.

I am still kicking myself for forgetting our camera on our trip to Seattle with friends from Canada. Mike had never been there and we saw all kinds of great stuff! It was a really fun day of great friends, great sights, and great food (like Ivar's seafood, baklava, fresh produce, and chocolate covered cheesecake)! Yum!

We are already looking forward to being at convention next year in Fergus!

Buried Treasure

It was another cold day on the river, but the boys insisted that the water feels warmer when the air is cold. Okay, whatever! I think they must have been a little cold because they buried each other in the warm sand.

Setting sail on a log boat

The boys sailed out to climb on the pilings

Andy's head

They buried Will standing up in a hole

The Kitchen Is (Almost) Done

A little over two weeks ago, following the drain incident, I decided to finish doing all the little things I have wanted to do in the kitchen. One was to replace all the rubber molding along the floor and to paint the insides of all the cupboards.

To do that you first have to take everything out of the cupboards!

It's all out!

All clear

Then when everything is out you can start priming and painting. I never realized how deep the cupboards were until I had to climb in to get them painted. I had paint all over me at the end of the day. Everyone knew I was painting!

They are all primed and ready to...

paint!!!

After all the cupboards were done, everything went back in. Well, not everything. Some was added to the ever-increasing "yard sale pile".

Chris got all the trim up, I put everything back on the walls and where it belonged. And it looks great!!! Now I hope I don't mess it up when I try painting the counters. We'll see how it goes.

Looking into the kitchen

Looking out of the kitchen

Now, we are going to do the bathroom. The faucet is leaking and had to be replaced today, so I decided it will be next...

He's Home!!!

We got word on Friday morning that Andy would be home on Saturday! His brothers could not have been any more excited than if we had told them we decided to celebrate Christmas twice this year!

They made signs and displays out of Legos, and waited anxiously by the window just watching for him to return.
All of the Lego men are welcoming Andy home!

Needless to say, Andy had a GREAT time! He saws tons of great stuff and had some fun adventures to share about! My parents had all of the pictures he took developed and brought their memory sticks so we could put all almost 2000 pictures on our computer and watch them on the TV. There are some beautiful photos and I can't wait to start his scrapbook! It was fun to see all the things they did, but Andy was more interested in catching up with his brothers.

Looking at pictures

When I have sorted through them better, I will post some of Andy's favorite pictures and see if I can't get him to write a little about his trip.

The Shipping Lanes

We went down to the river to play today and to watch
the Navy ships heading to the waterfront for Rose Festival.

Unfortunately we only got to see the last one, but there were other ships to watch too.




Navy ship










Ship #1


















Ship #2













Ship #3













It's really cool to be on the river when the ships go by, especially the really heavy ones, because they displace so much water (like ship #1). The water rushes away from the shore while the ship goes by and then rushes back in huge waves after it passes!

Friends met us there and the kids had fun playing in the water (despite the fact that it was only 58 and cloudy today), running around, and racing their RC cars and boats.






It was a fun afternoon!

Prayers and Picnics

It has been a crazy week around here! But we are done with school for the year, so we are all excited about that! With all the busy-ness, it was easy to be distracted about the fact that we hadn't heard from Andy and my parents for a while. Well, it got harder when my grandma called (again) to see if we are heard from them yet. It had been 8 days since we had heard and for a few days their phones went straight to voice mail. Although I kept a brave face, my mind was racing with all the horrible things that could have happened. So, I decided to just pray about it. I prayed about it all day on Thursday. After all, God is in control and I had to give it all to Him. Why is that so hard?

Then at 7:30 that evening, my sister calls and said my mom e-mailed us. So I ran down and checked my mail and sure enough there was an e-mail from my mom. They were at a museum in the Yukon that happened to have free internet access and computers for public use. They also just happened to have a movie that was not over until 8:30 so I could e-mail her back for a reply. Why am I still surprised when God answers prayers? Well I am just thankful that He is patient even when I am so slow to catch on. :o)

Today was our End-Of-the-Year Church picnic to celebrate the end of our "year" at church. We had a great time and the weather was perfect! (Another answer to prayer) Everyone had lots of fun! Now we go into summer mode at church. It will be nice to have a break and it makes it more fun when you start back up in the fall.

I wish I had pictures to share of all the festivities, but I was so busy having fun that I completely forgot to take any pictures. :o(