A cozy little lake life

When Baby Makes the Schedule

2010-02-22T13:35:00.000-08:00

Let me tell you there are times when it is very hard to work for a church, one of those times are when you are pregnant and the baby has not been born on the exact day the doctors say you are due. Now suddenly everyone looks at you mystified and demands. "Where's the baby." Like I somehow have a say in the matter and I am intentionally delaying the baby. As if we somehow stepped into some twilight zone where all babies are born exactly when they are due and I am somehow messing with the system. I am so glad that everyone is excited for baby, I am excited too, but baby will come when she wants, and I am just fine with that.

February Brings New Life

2010-01-25T15:03:00.000-08:00

It has been an exceedingly long time since I last wrote and it has not been for lack of material, or lack of time but probably for lack of commitment. It is just so much easier to check in on all of my friends and see how life is going for them, then it is to take the few minutes required to write what is new with me.

Quite a bit is new. Like working with a new pastor who I hate, then because of the new pastor doing a job which I love has become a struggle. I find that working with/or for (as I have been so informed) someone who is fake, cruel, manipulative, controling and underhanded can be a little exhausting. I have also found that it manage to seep the joy out of other things which should be ever so joyous. Like the fact that my husband and I are pregnant and very soon to be expecting. Very soon as in next month. Pregnancy can be a roller coaster in the best of situations. These past 8 and a half months have taken lots of deep breathing exercises to let go of the pain, frustration and disappointment with work and to remember that there is a little miracle soon to enter our lives.

Night Prayer

2008-11-13T15:19:00.000-08:00

Eternal Spirit,
Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:
The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In the times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
now and forever, Amen

--found in A New Zealand Prayer Book

A season of perfection

2008-10-28T09:44:00.000-07:00

This fall in the Idaho Panhandle has been spectacular. Sunny days that are golden, a crispness to the air, a kaleidoscope of falling leaves, and the scent of wood smoke.

Sunday morning when I was driving into church there was still a layer of frost on the ground, the leaves were falling thick like snow flakes and the smoke from the chimneys swirled in the air and wrapped the houses until they looked like they were draped in a fine gauzy mist. It was amazing. I think autumn is the only season where the light is golden.

I know that soon we will have the rain that also always comes in fall, but even that carries with it it's own special enchantment.

Ahhh, I love the fall.

Gun Jumper

2008-10-22T11:58:00.000-07:00

Serves me right for complaining so early in the day. I just got a card and a birthday wish from the folks at the church, and I just got a birthday call from my sister. Granted I also just took a short nap in the sunshine (up at 6:30am to get the pets out of the house for the furnace guys.) So that was kind of like starting the day over right?

Birthday Blues

2008-10-22T10:14:00.000-07:00

It is my 31st birthday! That should be a happy thing right?

This time of year is often busy for me, but this week has been unusually busy. So we are getting a new heating/cooling system put into our house (our old furnace broke on the first day of snow last year). With all the work going on at our home our cats and dog and rat have been at the church with me during the day. I have also just recently started a second job at a yarn shop, which fills in many of my hours.

So today, my birthday, is also the weeknight that we have all of our kid's programs at the church. So I will be working for my birthday. That is not enough to make me sad though, because typically I love the nights that I am with the high schoolers. I think a part of it is that no one at the church ever remembers that it is my birthday, even when year after year I tell them. So far today the only one to tell me happy birthday is my husband (good man!) Even having my birthday forgotten is not enough to make me sad. I think what it is was that I just found out today that my friend (the new mother with the husband who had a tumor found in his brain), her husband died yesterday. That makes me sad, to lose someone so young. To expect a life time together, creating and caring for your family, and to have it all come to an end so fast. That makes me sad, and I suppose that the rest is just a bit of self-pity, and a generous helping of exhaustion.

Prayer Needed

2008-09-02T11:50:00.000-07:00

I have a dear friend who is a new mom and a fellow youth ministry worker, who just had her husband diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. They are currently down in Texas trying to find out their options. I ask that you please keep them in your prayers. My friend is Kirstin, her husband is Ben, and they have a young baby son. Thanks!

Long Time

2008-03-06T00:22:00.001-08:00

So it has been months and months, and much has happened.

We have been surviving an exceedingly snowy winter here in North Idaho. Finally all is melting and it feels like spring is around the corner. Yea!

Also after the death of our dear Meggie in November.

We have had three new additions to our home.
Toby: a spunky Shet Tzu
Muggles: our beautiful tuxedo cat

and Mandisa (Mandi) our sweet Egyptian princess.

Life has been very busy for the past 21 days, as I have been in the middle of a huge fund raiser for my church. Flocking peoples yards with pink flamingos in fact. Let me tell you these bright pink yard ornaments are even brighter in all the snow.

It has been a very successful and fun way to raise funds. This particular fund raiser is to help get our youth to Mexico this summer for a mission trip. So far after 21 days we have raised $2, 500.00, the response from the community has been amazing. In fact we were suppose to end after 18 days but there were still so many people on our list who were waiting for the flamingos we decided to keep going for a bit longer.

My hope is to be a little more faithful in getting updates in here, but the reality is that my schedule will only be filling up more as I head into the spring and finally the summer months. So my goal is to at least get updates in here more often then once every 6 months.
We shall see.

Gretchen the dog of many talents

2007-09-16T22:39:00.000-07:00

So my mom's oldest dog Gretchen has done many things in her 11 talent filled years. She has done agility, had a stint as a tracking dog with search and rescue has taken to dancing in nursing homes and now she is trying her skills on a movie career. There is a movie about a dog walker that is filming a bit in Spokane, the dog walking bit in fact. Gretchen gets to be one of the walkers. Tomorrow will be her first day of filming. I am glad to say she is not letting all the new excitement go to her head. Here are a few pictures of the cutie

Gretchen and Ana dancing. Gretchen is in the pink

Gretchen and a few of her movie star friends

So the last picture is what it looks like when you have 8 dogs and one poor dog walker. I got to be the person trying to walk a pack today and let me tell you it is a real work out. I will keep you posted on how Gretchen's filming is going.

A tumultuous Tuesday

2007-09-11T13:32:00.000-07:00

You know the one thing that always surprises me when I come back from vacation is that the world did not go into some extended pause while I was gone. Where do you start when you return to find a mountain of needs all clamoring to be dealt with first? Why didn't all those, "small items that could wait until I get back.", wait patiently for me to get back? Now I find that they probably should have been done before I even left. So now I have returned after a lovely two week vacation to sit in my office with seen and unseen "things to be done", and I wonder, "Can I just go back on vacation?"