Blessed Christmas & a Happy New Year!

Here's wishing you God's blessing on your Christmas celebration and may you receive much comfort from the true meaning of this season. We always comment on how empty people must feel after the commercial frenzy of the season is over and the pretty lights are gone. It's so easy to get caught up in our own version of things and forget what all the fuss is about. It's truly a time to reflect on Christ's birth and God's goodness and grace to us his people. We surely have a comfort that knows no time limits... May God surround you and bless you as you enter the New Year 2010.

So far we've been enjoying the company of many friends and family members - a great birthday celebration for Henry, a neighborhood get-together, family over for Christmas dinner and more. Lots of games have come out of storage and a new game (Poker) is being learnt and enjoyed (no gambling, just chips...) Today Henry took Alec & a friend ice-skating while Hannah and I went to look for some badly needed clothing (yet another growth spurt...) Again I've been too busy cooking, baking, serving and talking to remember to capture some of the fun on my camera. I'll try to remember next week!

Happy Days!

Last week Thursday was our school's Christmas/Band Concert. It was a very nice evening, but the best part about it was we would be leaving at 9:00 pm to drive to SeaTac Airport to pick up Lorelle. It was fun to hear the days being counted down & expressions of how much the kids were looking forward to having their family back together. We arrived without incident at the airport and waited for 10 minutes before their plane arrived. Her roommate's families were also waiting by the time we arrived. Here's a photo of everyone who greeted her at arrival (her good friend came with us) - less mom and dad. An excellent start to a happy holiday!

Warning: Contents Are Very Hot!

For lack of anything else exciting to write about I thought I'd try grossing you out. This past week I was making hot chocolate for the high school Spanish Class who planned to practice singing their spanish songs at our house. I shook the "pump style" thermos I had filled with hot chocolate to make sure it was well mixed and the hot chocolate shot back onto my arms. This caused a great deal of pain & left it's mark in the form of (possibly?) third degree burns on my wrist. Here's my arm, in all it's glory... or should I say "gory".

Our anniversary - 20 years flies by!

This past month we remembered and celebrated that 20 years ago we were married and began our journey as husband and wife. It seems like time has gone by quickly - yet so much has happened. We are thankful that God has been with us and blessed us each step of the way.

We were able to get away overnight thanks to some wonderful friends that shared the benefits of their timeshare membership. We drove to Leavenworth, WA which is over the mountain pass about a 3 hour drive. We've been several times with our kids when they were younger & have fond memories - both in summer when it's blazing hot and in winter when we could get our "snow fix". Here's a few photos of our trip. They don't look too exciting - probably because we're getting older and just enjoy reading a good book and enjoying some quiet time together.

Honor Band 2009

This past week Jocelyn was busy practicing with the San Juan Music Teachers Association Honor Band. Each year many of the public and private high schools in the county (& beyond) submit names of their top band students in hopes they will be chosen to play with this honor band. This year 2 from our school were chosen and Jocelyn was one of them. She plays trumpet & the other girl from our school that was chosen plays tuba. The performance also included an Honor Orchestra and an Honor Choir - our school does not have either but it was beautiful to listen to. Here's Jocelyn after the performance - happy to be done. It was a great experience for her and she realizes the talent out there & that there's much to aspire to.

End of Outdoor Soccer Season...

It's been a while since I posted - I almost couldn't remember how to download photos! This past week has been very busy - I'm not envious of those moms whose work takes them outside the home. It's truly a challenge to do a good job at both. Last Saturday was the last day of soccer for our kids and it was a very nice day to be outside. Both Hannah and Alec took home trophies for first place in their age group. Here's a photo of Alec's team at Dairy Queen later that week celebrating their victory over ice cream cake. The other is a photo of Alec & his best friend (well, almost).

Employment Update: We're going into Week 6 - but whose counting... Please pray that Henry's daily search will be rewarded soon.

Sorry, no photo!

Lest you think nothing is happening in our household and that we're sulking around without any excitement....I better at least post something short. This past week has been extremely busy. I've been given many more hours as Visit Supervisor/Transporter for an agency that contracts with DSHS. Basically I transport foster kids to their court ordered visits with their bio family members and then supervise and make reports on these visits to DSHS. You're right if you think this could be a little depressing - but some visits show some hope in that parents are either acting in a way that will ensure they have their children returned or in a way that will ensure that they don't. Either way it's up to them to change their lives around to make things happen. So I get to see the other side of things - in the past I've been shielded from this as we took kids into our home and someone else came to my door to do this job. This past week we had two foster kids stay with us. Too bad it's against the law to post pictures because these were the most adorable and well behaved little ones we've had. It was just a week of respite & they went home on Sunday back to their foster family.

We spent Sunday dinner with two wonderful families in Langley celebrated our Canadian roots. It was a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with the two E families - much to be thankful for. I took my camera with but it did not leave my purse - so sorry, but no photos this post.

Matthew 6: 25-34

I've been putting off posting because it's just hard to articulate what we've been going through as a family this past week. For the first time in our married life, we have found ourselves unemployed. The statistics and bad economic news you've heard from the media for the past year have finally included us in its numbers. Last week was one filled with so many different emotions; from disbelief, anger, numbness, fear, and then peace as we realize that even this is in God's hands. So many bible verses come to mind and give great comfort. Matthew 6: 25-34 is well known in our household (Steve Green) - the kids had this one memorized as toddlers. We'll go forward in this comfort and pray that God will open doors elsewhere and that we indeed will not worry about tomorrow!!

Soccer Saturday!

Well, it's been a while since I posted. The kids went back to school two days after we came back - August 26th. So we've been back into school routine for several weeks. Along with the beginning of school comes the start up of LYS Soccer in our community. Jocelyn plays very early Saturday morning (7:30) so I don't always get to see her games. I watched the second half of her game on Saturday and they lost by one point. Alec and Hannah usually play in the same area at similar times. So, I have to decide which one to watch - or just watch half of each game. Henry refs for this soccer league in the higher age groups while older kids ref the younger ones. Jocelyn is also coaching a 2nd & 3rd grade girls team. She says it's hard work - you've got to be all over the place encouraging & teaching. In this age group this is allowed during the games as well. The encouraging can include getting them to stand up and/or stop crying if they're hit by the ball. I'll have to check out her little ones' games one of these Saturdays as it sounds very entertaining.

A highlight...forgot to post

Here's a couple photos I forgot to add to the last post. This was a highlight for all of us as we had never gone whitewater rafting before. Here we are on the Yellowstone River.

To Iowa and back...

It's been very quiet on the blog front lately... The summer has just flown by - lots of friends & family have visited while our family continued to work very hard during the day. We knew that the end of summer would bring our turn to go on vacation. Our plan was to bring Lorelle to Iowa where she'd begin her college studies at Dordt. We left late Tuesday evening after a full days work. We figured the long drive had to be conquered one way or another.... so we drove 13 hours to Billings, Montana. We found a campsite close to Yellowstone Park and thoroughly enjoyed our time there. We sat and waited for Old Faithful to be faithful and spent an afternoon white water rafting on the Yellowstone River. After 3 days we travelled on (7 hours) to the Mt. Rushmore area. We camped there (sometimes a Kabin at KOA), enjoyed the tours and presentations about Mt. Rushmoor as well as drove through Custer National Park and the Black Hills area and saw amazing wildlife and geological wonders. You can't but agree that God is the amazing creator of all things - at times it just took our breath away. We carried on with our travels only to stop at the Badlands area within a hour of getting on the road. After that, we drove to Sioux Falls, SD where we spent two evenings just resting - playing games, a little shopping, etc. We headed into the wide open country of Iowa after that. We helped Lorelle settle into her dorm - talked with the other girls that had arrived from our area and introduced ourselves to the young lady from Nebraska who would make number 4. The following day we had to face the sad goodbye's - and the looooong trip ahead of us to get back home. We were enriched with the preaching at the Belgrade, MT URC and arrived home Monday morning early. Here is just a small sample of the many photos we took. It's hard to capture the amazing sites we saw - but I think you get the picture.

Our trip to San Juan Island

Henry & I were able to get away for an overnight trip to San Juan Island. The weather was beautiful - somewhat cooler at times than the mainland - but the weekend really was perfect. We had a gift certificate to use at Anthony's - one of our favorite restaurants and then we went on to Anacortes. We stayed in a tiny little hotel room - Captain's Cabin - and in the morning took the ferry to Friday Harbor. We rented mopeds to tour the island. We spent time watching numerous orcas playing in the water - they put on quite the show!! By 5:00 we had toured the entire island, stopping whenever we liked what we saw. When we arrived home we had enough time to unpack & spend a bit of time preparing for my cousin's family from Ontario who will be using our driveway as a camping "pad" for a few days. Lots of summer fun!

Oh baby, it's hot!!!

So, what's been happening this past week? Um...it's hard to think when it's this hot!! We've been enjoying beautiful summer weather again this past week but the last few days feel a little like I remember Ontario weather. You open the door from an air conditioned building and there's a wall of heat & humidity that hits you! I'm not complaining - but it takes some getting used to. I just don't count on getting much done this week. In fact, I'm packing to go camping at the lake for the next few days. We'll be tenting it but having a lot of fun on the boat, I'm sure.

Here's a few photos from the past week. Alec gave Henry a certificate on Father's Day to take him out golfing at Raspberry Ridge. This is his second time golfing and he absolutely loved it! It's genetic I'm sure - just not my genes. Here's a picture of him practicing his swing on the lawn.

The next picture is of my finch feeder. I know it's only one bird but we finally have been able to attract finches. The feeder has been up for a month and I was thinking our dog & cat were just too scary for them. It appears they can live together because we now have both yellow and purple finches - especially in the morning there can be up to 5 at a time. I'm thrilled because I've always been inspired by my mom and sister who are able to attract a wide variety of birds to their back yards. What should I try next? (Not blackbirds - they came the last time I tried to feed the birds...)

The next photo is of Alec having a lot of fun at the creek. We don't have a pool this year as we decided to sell what was left of our last one. We don't always have such heat and there have been years where we spent a LOT of money on chemicals and a LOT of time keeping the pool clean only to have the kids swim in it occasionally. Henry thought a few trips to the pool made more sense. But with this number of hot days & weeks it does not make sense for me to be driving to the beach or pool each day. So we discovered that the creek down the road works well to cool oneself off. I try hard not to think about what's all in that creek so it's a firm rule that the kids shower down completely when they get home. They're making a nice little spot there. I helped to cut down some reeds today and make some steps with a shovel while Alec swam.

Hot Summer Days!

This past week has been very beautiful!! It seems we've had hot, sunny weather for most of our summer so far and it's been wonderful. Hannah returned from Stepping Stones just bubbling over with excitement - her week was fabulous, the counsellors were wonderful, the chaplain did an amazing job teaching through the theme of "God is our Fortress". We picked her up on Saturday morning and each cabin pack did their "cheer", we sang a bit, saw a power point of the week, kids received their certificates, etc. and we ended with a lunch.

While she was away, Jocelyn turned 16 and I took her for her driver's test. She is now the proud owner of a Washington State Driver's License and I no longer have to take her back and forth to work each day. The only downside to her turning 16 is that she no longer can cross the border because we've been waiting to apply for a passport. We wanted to wait for the over 16 version which is good for 10 years instead of 5. Alec had a friend sleep overnight and they had a wonderful time playing boy stuff - sword fighting, going to the creek and getting rides on the 4-wheeler. Since the house gets so hot by dinner time we managed to escape to the lake with our boat and enjoy our dinner in a cooler spot and get some tubing and skiing in.