Trying to Finish Well!

Where to begin,...had a good time when my parents came up to Portland for my graduation! I appreciate everyone support and am excited to be done with my Bachelors degree. Shane & I took separate vehicles down to Idaho, so that I could come back to Portland when I needed. He headed to North Dakota the evening of our 11th Anniversary. We got to spend most of the day together, so that made it special! He made it there safely, and is keeping busy along with trying out new jobs that he can do to keep busy. He finishes there the morning of the 7th, then heading back. The kids and I had a grand time at the grandparents house and playing out at Uncle Tad home. The received many great toys from Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, and Parents. They've been playing well together on and off as expected. Neva and Jason had there little girl Katherine Lee-Ann on the 21st, she is anticipated to go home Friday, so today! Mom rode home to Portland with us on Wednesday, then we took her to ...

The blogging silence has stopped for a while, it was a crazy month of November. It started with me getting an answer to prayer on what I'm going to do with my education from school? The answer, go into a Masters in Chaplaincy! The reasoning is that I can combine my love of God with my love of Fire! The direction God is putting on my heart and after much discernment, prayer, and seeking advice, I have applied to the Masters program here at Multnomah. It took four weeks of this stage before I am happy to announce that I start my Masters program in January, after I graduate with a Bachelors in Arts this Friday the 9th! I had truly thought I was done, but not for a while longer. The next step in our journey is that we will be done with Portland this coming May after Shane graduates, and the kids are done with school in June. Our plan thus far unless God directs us elsewhere is moving me and the kids to Idaho to be near my folks. Shane is planning on getting a job with one of his ...

It was a fun Mid-semester break for Shane & the kids. We took off Friday afternoon after Kelli's well child check up. She is 4 foot 4 inches and 50 lbs. Doing good health wise. We drove up to my sister Dawna's house and surprised the kids with Grammie being their also. They had fun playing with their cousins Bryn, Ansely, & Paige. Shane & I enjoyed visiting with Mom and Dawna. Kurt was on the East Coast so we were unable to see him. That night we finished the drive and spent the night at Neva, Jason, and Thomas' house. The next day at lunch time, Dawna and crew came up so we were able to spend the day with family. The three musketeers had grand time with Grammie letting cars slide down the driveway slope, and the oldest girls played inside and out all day with the slew of neighbor kids. The bonus was we decided we could make it to Portland the following morning so we could spend another night with N & J so Neva and I played a video game together befo...

Latest happenings in my families lives since last time I posted. It has really been acting like fall here in Portland, Shane & I are still running full speed trying to hurdle obstacles that have been placed in our path. Kids are still all healthy, we've been pushing airbourne with the normal everyday vitamins to keep kids immune systems up to the crazy weather. Finished up my hectic week of writing final paper and journal for Hebrew-Revelations, the final project was prepare a lesson using the 6 themes of perserverance, Christ is coming, purity, hope & encouragement, reward & recompense, and giving Glory to God. Yeah! talk about a intense project but it was a great learning experience once I was able to see light at the end of the tunnel. I also started Church and Future things with a professor who likes to see your thought process out in writing. So that was extra work but once again well worth it experience and learning wise. I have 9 weeks of class done until I ...

Seth and Dakota being silly when we were watching the neighbor kids. Seth and Dakota now fit the rain jackets that we got for Kelli and Daniel when they were 4 & 2. It's crazy to think of the years that have passed and the experiences we've had as a family. Dakota trying to sneak past me when she isn't suppose to be wearing her dress to play over at a friends house. Points for being very creative in the covering up. Well we are in to October with rain and cooler temps. I picked all the tomatoes off of the vines before the went moldy and have set them in a box top to ripen. We'll see how that experiment goes. I'm at my mid semester, switching classes this week so it always crazy this time in my schedule. I have 10 weeks left of school before I graduate and am done. Yippee! Shane's mid semester is the end of next week. It's amazing that we've made it this far, but only by the grace of God and good communication between Shane & I. Kids are al...

Well the kids have all been in school for over a week now. Everyone is thoroughly enjoying themselves after the initial getting things figured out. Seth and I have 2 hours to ourselves in the morning after we get everyone else off to school (Dad included). Shane takes Kelli and the neighbor boy to school every morning. I take Daniel and Dakota most mornings. We are trying carpooling with one of our neighbors whose son goes Tuesday and Thursday. Then Kelli gets picked up by a neighbor, and I pick up Daniel from school. I've been walking every morning for at least an hour then home to do dishes or laundry. We've about got a reasonable schedule set for Shane's needed study time to make it through this semester. We are also praying that God shows us were we are to go after we are both done with school in May. As always should be interesting, and the finish line is in sight but may obstacles in the path. It been a beautiful couple of weeks here but Fall is in the air.

Update on our lives beginning were I left off from my last blog post; Shane didn't have work for a week so we made a trip down to my folks house to pick & can greenbeans, & apricots. The kids played on the rope swing, and in the ditch. We made a trip up to the Southhills to see the Copper Butterfly's and just enjoy the peace & quite the Hills provide to our lives that are surrounded my noise & chaos. We were able to go camping again last Thursday-Saturday in Mt. Hood National Forest I'd say we finally found the perfect spot to go camping, it was secluded with limited number of people, lots of trees, no plugins or a spiket for water, we had to hand pump our water from a central location. It wasn't as refreshing as I'd like, but it was most enjoyable to enjoy the trees. Shane starts school this coming Monday, Kelli starts Tuesday, Daniel & Dakota start Wednesday, Seth will be the only kid home for two hours everyday. I am wrapping up P...

The finish line of being done with school is slowly showing over the horizon, I have entered the last semester at Multnomah and I'm on schedule to finish December of this year. As I told Shane last night it feels like I have senior-its but it's been so long since the last time I was this close to being done with school. Then we wait till Shane is done in May and the kids in June before moving somewhere else. We have been enjoying Summer since it decided to make it's appearance here in Portland, we've been camping again and taking short trips out of the city to enjoy the area. My garden is doing good, I've picked peas a couple times and green beans yesterday. I feel like I need at least 8 more rows besides the two I have of either crop to make it worth canning. ;-) We've been fighting mice since we got back from Idaho in July, so far we've killed or captured 6. I've done plugging of holes, and cleaning up messes, we haven't ever had this kind of ...

It seems like God is stretching me of late, once I get a handle on one thing He seems to say, "Good Job, however the middle of that test your faith isn't were I'd like to see it, so I'm giving you a similar test to pass well and true." Right now Shane and I are being tested, being stretched in the passing of yet another loved one, this one closer to my heart like the passing of my Uncle Keith. My Grandpa Buck passed away this last week unexpectedly from a fall. Even though I hadn't seen him in the last years since Grandma passed away he was still special to me and I have fond memories of the years I had with him growing up. He and Grandma had to make sure that I knew Shane had their approval and that if I wanted to marry him one day I could. :-) And when I was younger and would be visiting him and Grandma in Clarkston with my sisters Grandma would send me with him to run errands, and somehow we'd end up in Lewiston getting ice cream. I'm glad he ...

Were to begin, I don't remember were I finished last time. We've had like most of our married lives a crazy past 6 weeks or more...Dakota finished her 3 to 4 year old class for the year just before the end of May and will be moving next year to the 4 to 5 year olds. Daniel will be restarting Kindergarten this coming fall at the same school we have Dakota. Next we spent Memorial Day weekend at Neva & Jasons in Everett, going down to Seattle on a Sat. to visit with Dawna & Kurt and meet Paige. Cousin Steve also joined us it was a blast to enjoy visiting with family and helping Kurt dig a ditch in his backyard and also enjoy the sunshine. Kelli finished with school around the 2nd week of June, and we ended up making another trip to Everett this time for a funeral of Jason's brother Joe. It was a sad occassion but we were able to visit Neva, Jason, Thomas, Chad, and Smiley. Along with seeing Jason's Mom. We went camping with our neighbors the Meyers last we...

Well, lets see since last time Shane finished up school,his Mom came to drop off her camper for the Summer in Raymond,Washington; I drove down to Idaho to attend my Uncle Keith funeral and bring my Mom up to Seattle to be with Dawna before her big day, plant a garden, celebrate Daniels 6th Birthday, went to the beach, and started the three youngest in Survival swimming. I'm glad we got Shane through this year of school, Fall semester was touch and go with his father getting worse in September and passing away in November. Praise the Lord he got through his class and maintained his overall GPA so he can stay on track to Graduate May of 2012. The Spring Semester went really well, his professors helped him through the languages. Two days after Shane's finals were over I jumped in the car without kids, and drove down to Idaho. It was a fun drive down, something I haven't done by myself since I worked for the Forest Service. The car did awesome and made it safely to my folks...

I had a technical glitch on my internet explorer whiched caused me to be unable to publish my blog post, which lasted since the 12th. I'm proud to say I finally fixed it by uninstalling Internet Explorer 9. I have to say most time progress isn't a good thing. Other times it is. We had a good Easter, we went to Church and then to our friends Manny and Donna Aertes? They are an older couple from Gateway who don't have grandkids and were kind enough to invite us over for dinner and another Easter egg hunt. This was the third and final. Seth made instant friends with Manny and I believe we all had fun. School is getting into it's crazy period once again. Shane is finished with finals next Wednesday, he starts them this week. I am wrapping up "History of Christianity" it was a interesting and fun subject class but Oh My Goodness, there was a lot of homework, and final papers. I'd say out of the year and a half I've been back in school this class has...

That was something one of the gentlemen said at the Easter egg hunt at Church last Saturday, we've been mostly rain free since. Not warming up really, it's in the low 50's outside, but the sun is shining so that makes up for it being chilly. Shane is out roofing today, then again on Thursday and Friday. Yippee!! He has two weeks till end of the semester. I have a week until the end of my Historical Christianity class gets over and began my next. Luckly the professor this week took it easy on us and let us only do two chapters of reading opposed to the 7 to 8 Chapters we've normally had. It was crazy the amount of homework I handed in for this class. It's been an interesting class and I'm gleaning some from it, hopefully my final papers will reflect that. I don't know when the kids will be done with school, end of May beginning of June? This sunshine has been a blessing though. Oh and Seth keeps surprising me with the words he repeats. Going to spend ...

To find the good in disappointments, and to share it with others so perhaps they can gain something from our experience. Well, Gateway Church voted on either accepting Shane as an elder on the board or not, he got 64% of the vote, but need 75% to be on the board. This wasn't something we had totally set our hearts on so this rejection of a minority isn't what saddens me or Shane. For us we know God has bigger plans for the Church, and will find some other way for us to be of help to Gateway Church body. Our plans are still in God's hands for after 2012, and we trust in Him for pointing us in the direction we need to go. The weather has been bizarre and not sure what it wants to be, today is nice so I have some towels drying on the clothes line and the kids have made bows to play with outside. When it is raining I've been letting them play with the playdough set that they got for Christmas from their cousing Bryn and Ansley. Shane is roofing today with our neighbor Se...

What a wonderful recharging Spring Break we had, unfortunately real life and school jumped right back into our lives without hesitation. But the peaceful time was very peaceful, and we are thankful for that. This past weekend Shane & I were studying and doing homework for our classes Monday, but we were able thanks to our friend Zora to get a dinner out. We went to Gustav, a German resturant in town with wonderful food. We came home around 7p.m. to have our neighbors the Meyers come over for a round of games before putting the very tired kids to bed. Today was Seth's well child check up, he weights 30.5 lbs, length 36 in., and 19 c.m head 75 percentile straight across. The boys are full of energy and our outside blowing it off. I also decided to quit facebook, it's been something I've been praying about lately and finally decided to do it. I still love hearing from people and seeing pictures. Everyone is recoverying from the off normal bed times, and early morning...

We had a fun time escaping Portland, for five days this past week. We left for Seattle and my sister Dawna's house Friday mid-morning. Stopped over at Seed Law Group I.P. to visit Shane's old law firm, and the Attorney's,& Personel that still work there. It was good to see familar faces and let them see how big the kids are getting. We arrived at Dawna's around 3 p.m. and played with the girls, until dinner time. Visiting with Dawna and Kurt until it was late, then loaded up the kids to head to Neva, Jason's, & Thomas house to spend the remainder of our time. It was fun having Neva & Jason's as our base, the kids slept in the extra bedroom and we slept on their new enormous couch. Played x-box with Neva & Jason, had dinner with the family, cousin Steve, and Sidney. Enjoyed the sunshine, and visiting. Sunday we went to our old Church Alderwood to the Encourager class, shared tears & hugs with all of our friends that are still there, the...