Where in the World...

Last Monday my friend Jen posted this on her blog...

The boys are studying world geography in school this year. One of the projects they are doing is to collect post cards from as many places as they can. The cards are then placed on the wall in the hall outside their classroom with a string connecting them to a map showing where they are from. They would love it if they received a post card from my faithful readers. Even if you live in Idaho. Or are traveling over the holidays. If you would like to make the boys happy and help in their education you can send the cards to:

Josh and Adam
c/o Coeur d'Alene Christian School
6439 N. 4th Street
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho 83815

Thanks so much."

Yesterday my friend Alyson posted the following on her blog...

"My fellow blogger, Jen, has two sons at the Christian school where I volunteer. They're studying geography and doing a project where they're trying to collect post cards from all over the USA, or even the world. So if you live somewhere besides Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, please send a post card to the address below. I know I have AWESOME readers, and I'll bet ya'll can send them a whole boatload of post cards. And if you go somewhere on vacation for the Holidays, send another one!"

I already knew about Josh and Adam's project from their mother's blog. I have even sent them a post card from Santa Fe, New Mexico when we went. However, after reading Alyson's blog, I had an idea!

Alyson doesn't know this yet (but she will when she reads this) but we are going to have a contest to see which of the two Allisons can bring in the most post cards for our friends Josh and Adam. Josh and Adam will love this too - so really it's a win win situation!

So please send a post card from your home base and then make sure to grab one from wherever you are traveling to for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Make sure you put my name on it somewhere so that they know who it came from. They are collecting these post cards for the rest of the school year.

Thanks! I will let you know the results!

Transition Time, Again…

Now that Patrick and I have concrete knowledge of where we are moving, we have been able to make concrete plans for when to move. I know many of you are interested in that time frame and process so I thought I would inform you.

11/22 - Moving Prep Party! - (You have to say party to make it more exciting) 1pm -4pm - Men move hot tub to the Harlan's house, Women pack up the kitchen at Ford's

12/7-12/11 - Pack and Clean House - (afternoons/evenings)

12/12 or 12/13 - Pack Moving Truck and Finish Cleaning House - Whichever day more people are available to help.

12/14 - Leave Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

12/15-16 Spend time in Colorado Springs with Friends

12/17 - Arrive Santa Fe, New Mexico & Unload Truck

If you are local and able to help us out during any of these times feel free to call and come over and help! Especially on the truck packing day, it will go faster with more hands!

Another good thing about knowing when and where we are moving, we also have been able to make more concrete plans for Christmas instead of hypothetical plans.

12/21 - Drive from Santa Fe to Dallas - Spend time with Allison's brothers Family

12/23 - Drive from Dallas to Memphis - Spend time with Allison's Family

12/28 - Drive from Memphis to Athens area - Spend time with Patrick's Family

1/1 - Drive from Athens to Nashville - Spend time with Friends

1/3 - Drive from Nashville to Memphis

1/4 - Drive from Memphis to Santa Fe or Dallas

1/6 - Patrick starts work at Santa Fe Church of Christ

Santa Fe, New Mexico, Job Search Update # 8...

Santa Fe, New Mexico... Our new home!

Read more about it by clicking the link above.

Patrick and I went to Santa Fe, New Mexico this past Friday for a job interview at the Santa Fe Church of Christ. October 20th we had a phone interview with the elders of this congregation and felt really good about the opportunities there to serve. We had that same feeling while we were with them this weekend. It was obvious to us that the elders were men of God, possessing the qualities that the scriptures call for of leaders. We continue to be amazed by there faithfulness, patience, understanding, openness, love and generosity toward us. They are Christ's presence to their families, their flock and to this world. It is also evident that the church body is a reflection of their leaders!

We had a really good weekend meeting with the church and getting to know the members and leaders better. We got to interact with them in several different settings which is also helpful. The meeting times we had with the elders were really good for us for building relationships together and beginning our work together.

The elders offered Patrick a

job on Monday night and we accepted shortly after that. This church is only able to hire one minister at this time and that is why I will not be on staff; but I have another possibility that I will share with you later when I know more details - and I am pretty excited about it!

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We plan to move from Idaho to New Mexico mid December so that we can get settled in before

Christmas, go do our Christmas travels and come back and start to work. The house to the right is our new house located on the church property.

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The house has about 1700 square feet and has three bedrooms with two living areas. It is plenty of space for us and the best part is that it comes with the job!

While we were there we also got to go see some of the city. Santa Fe is often called "city different" and for a good reason too! It is not anything like any other US city i have ever been to. Of course it is the high desert so there is less grass and more dirt and rocks; but what makes it even more different is the architecture and buildings there. It is city laws that everything be made out of adobe and that buildings may not be more that 3 stories high. So the whole city looks like a different country; but when you leave the city things all look normal again.

On Monday, we walked around in the downtown area and got to see the Indians with their hand made jewelery and crafts (pictured on the left). We bought a few things and then went on to see 3 historic churches in the area. The first one is call Saint Francis Cathedral, the second Loretto chapel (home of the miraculous staircase), and the third San Miguel Mission (the oldest church still in use in the US - built in 1610). You can learn more about them by clicking on the link above. I decided not to post our pictures since they are included on the website above and they were about the same as theirs. However I am posting a video Patrick took of some of the history of the San Miguel Mission. You will have to pause it to read it - a few of you might find it interesting.

Victoria, BC...

As readers of my blog, you know that we have been gone to Victoria, BC for a few days. We went with our friends Michael and Jessica Hrehor. Jessica was auditioning for the Victoria Symphony while we were there. She didn't end up getting the spot but we all had a good time in Canada together.

We left Coeur d'Alene, Idaho at 4am on Sunday the 8th to drive past Seattle to Port Angeles Washington to catch the ferry to Victoria, BC.We ended up having some extra time before the ferry left so we ate lunch at a restaurant on the ocean and watched the ferry come in.

We didn't take the car on the ferry since it cost more and about everything we wanted to do in Victoria was with in walking distance or easy to get to by bus. Here is a great mountain view and all the cars lined up to ride the ferry.There were so many cars that went on and even 18 wheelers and RVs; it was crazy! The ferry ride was

about and hour and a half long and by the time we got to Victoria and to our resort it was about 4:30pm and we were all pooped having already been awake for 13+ hours and having only gotten about 4 hours of sleep the night before.

Our Resort had a great view! On Sunday night we enjoyed our new temporary home and ate Mexican food in and then went to bed pretty early.

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On Monday Patrick and I had most of the day to our selves since Jessica had a tour of the graduate school in Victoria and also had a violin lesson. Patrick and I walked around down town and did some shopping, went to the Under Sea Gardens (kind of like an aquarium), and then went to the imax to see Africa, The Serengeti. After that we

met up with Michael and Jessica to catch up from the days activities and ate out at a steak & seafood restaurant.

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On Tuesday Michael & Jessica left for the audition early in

the morning and Patrick and I slept in and waited around for their return. After they got back and we had heard about the

audition we all headed out to the Craigdarroch Castle. The castle was neat, very large, and made of lots of fancy stuff. The view from the top was very cool. After the castle came Patrick favorite part of the trip. We went to China town and ate out at a Chinese restaurant. We all enjoyed it, but you don't want to get Patrick started. He will tell you all about how the Chinese food in Idaho stinks and so on and so on.

Wednesday we basically just packed up and left the resort for the ferry. Since we were more awake on this ferry ride we got out and explored a bit. There were very pretty sights to see on the way back: distant views of cities, ocean & mountains.

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We spent the whole day travelling back home. Along the way we stopped to buy some Boars Head Bratwurst for Patrick of course since they don't sell it here in Idaho. We pulled into our drive way some where around 9pm last night and we leave for Santa Fe at 6am tomorrow.

Kansas Trip...

I met Tiffany in my Greek class my first semester in college. We were both Bible majors, so we had a lot of classes together over the years. We became roommates my junior year and were roommates till I got married. Tiffany used to like to make fun of me for being late to Greek Class because I was out in the square at Lipscomb talking to Patrick. I also met and started dating Patrick my first semester in college. Tiffany has been present for the whole relationship. Tiffany and I have always had a good time hanging out, watching movies, cooking and eating Wendy's 99 cent chili. (Wendy's- Please note, Tiffany and I are very upset that you raised your price on your chili! If you lower it back to 99 cents will will resume buying it on a regular basis.) Tiffany is now a youth pastor for a church in Lawrence Kansas.

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Tara and I became friends when she started attending the same high school as me. She also began coming to the same church. I don't really remember actually meeting Tara or how our relationship started I just remember being friends. We have been close ever since. We both enjoy singing and were in our schools accapella together and sang on the praise team at our church together. One thing that contributed to Tara and my friend ship was the fact that she didn't have a license and actually didn't get one till college. So I was always driving her to and from places. We got to spend a lot of time in the car together. Through out high school, mostly we just talked and listened to each other. Sure we went out to eat or to do things occasionally but mostly we just talked and listened. Tara went to Harding and I went to Lipscomb. So during our college years we tried to catch up over the holidays when we were both back in Memphis.

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Tiffany & Tara were both bridesmaids in my wedding and continue to be great friends to me. they also have both moved to the Kansas City area in the last year. So this past weekend, I took the time to go visit both of them.

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Friday morning I flew to Kansas City and Tiffany picked me up from the airport. We went and had lunch together and caught up and then went to Lawrence, Kansas where she lives. I got to see her apartment and then we chatted some more and watched a movie before we went to the last half of a high school football game to see some of her students. Because of the time change I was still pretty awake after the game so we went to Chili's, one of our favorite restaurants. Saturday we slept in some and then had some lunch and went o walk around down town Lawrence, where we got some smoothies! We ran some errands then went back home for a while before her churches trunk or treat. We attended that and passed out candy to some very cute kids and then she took me to Tara's house.

Tara and her husband Chris and I stayed up talking and catching up for a while and then headed off to bed. Sunday, I went to their church where I met some of Chris's family; and we went out to eat with his grandparents and their out of town guests. We had a good time eating Mexican and chatting. Sunday afternoon Tara and I went to a pottery panting place and spent some time being crafty. We had dinner with Chris then watched "When Harry Met Sally". On Monday Tara and I went to breakfast and spent a couple hours just talking and listening. Just like old times! On the way to the airport that night we went past Chick-fil-a the best fast food restaurant ever! We really hope God will put us in a place that has chick-fil-a when we move!!!!!!

It was a fast weekend but a good one. It had been to long since I had gotten to spend some quality time with these girls!

While at Tara's, I might have met Patrick and my 1st pet as a married couple. Well at least 1st real pet, we have had fish, but they were mostly mine. Joya (sounds like hoya, means jewel in Spanish) is a very cute 3 week old puppy that needs a home. Chris and Tara have not decided yet if they will keep Joya since they already have a dog. But if they decide not to keep her and if we are allowed to have pets where we move next and if we want her (which I do), then we will do a switch off a Christmas when we are both in Memphis. I know that is a lot of ifs but I know you all like to see pictures of cute puppies so I thought I would show her to you!

Job Search Update # 7...

A. Santa Fe, NM

We are going to visit this church for an interview November 13-17th.

B. Nixa, MO

Still waiting on this church to start phone interviews. They are reviewing resumes.

C. Jackson, MS

Got an e-mail from this church yesterday asking for a phone interview. We have scheduled one on November 4th @ 4pm our time.

D. Franklin, TN

Still haven't heard anything from the search committee at this church.

E. Brentwood, TN

This church is waiting till the spring to start their search process.

These 2 churches are likely out of the running but it's not official yet.

Livermore, CA

This church has asked 2 of the candidates in for interviews.

Brunswick, GA

This church has asked 1 of their candidates in for a second in person interview the weekend of November 15th.

Family Promise of Noth Idaho...

Very few of you know what I am about the share. I have a new job as of last Thursday. Very few of you know this because I have been very busy with the new job ever since. I am the new van coordinator for Family Promise of North Idaho.

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Family Promise is an organization that helps families who are temporarily without permanent residence not have to live on the streets. The organization helps them find jobs, save money, and keep the family together during rough times. Families enter the program and are permitted to stay for 90 days. During that time they stay in a different church each week. The churches also feed them during this time. Family Promise also provides them with a day center for them to come to during the day to use computers or just relax. You can read more on their website just click above.

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Cindy, one of my best friends here in Idaho, is the executive director of Family Promise. Patrick and I have volunteered for Family Promise ever since Cindy and her family moved here and started it. Lately, since Patrick and I have had more time, we have been helping in other kinds of ways. Patrick has done some technology work for the organization and I have been helping Cindy see ways that the organization can be better organized. I have recently written up a vision of personnel responsibility's in hopes to help Cindy and the board set a vision for where they would like to be as an organization in the coming months.

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During the last few weeks, Cindy and I have been talking about how Family Promise had gotten a grant to pay a very part timer to do the van coordinating & driving when needed. At the same time their volunteer van coordinator was moving away. All of this came to a point last week. When I took over the van coordinating. I will be in charge of getting volunteers to drive the guests to and from the churches and day center each morning and each evening.

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Another thing Cindy and I have talked about is how I can help organize this position so that policies are in place and things will run smoothly when I move and someone else (hopefully more permanent) will take over the position. So not only am I doing the job, I'm helping set the job description and vision for the job and getting things more organized.

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Over the past few days I have spent a lot of time driving vans, calling volunteers and getting acquainted with them, and asking them to sign up to drive. I have also been researching information about board members, host churches, host church coordinators and all kinds of other things. It has been a busy start, but it is all needed in order to be organized and know what I am supposed to be doing. I also need to do a lot of work up front since I am going to be out of town so much this month. I have to plan ahead!

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So this is the reason I haven't been blogging or really doing much communication with anyone over the last week. The next 35 days are going to be very crazy and busy now with 3 part time jobs and 5 trips.

November Plans...

We have been making some plans lately for all sorts of reasons; but yesterday, I was looking at my November calendar and realizing how many plans we have and how close together all of our plans really are. This was not planned to be this way . Above is a screen shot of my November calendar. If everything goes as planned, I am out of town 17 day of November and in town 13. It is actually possible, I am out of town 20 days and in town 10, we still have a trip that is tentative.

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The first weekend of November, I will be in Kansas City visiting two of my very good friends Tiffany & Tara. The next week Patrick and I are joining our friends Michael & Jessica on a trip they had planned to Victoria, BC (Canada). Jessica has a violin audition on Nov 10th for a symphony, so we are going to have a little fun while we are over there. The next weekend we have been asked by a church in Santa Fe, NM to come down for an interview. After that we are tentatively planning on visiting a family in Washington for the weekend - this was supposed to happen in October but they were all sick that weekend, so we cancelled. And well the next week is Thanksgiving week, and since we wont be down south with our family and we have most of the week off work, we have planned a 6 day road trip. we are going to stay in Bear Lake UT for a few days and Steam Boat Springs, CO for a few days. My friends Mary and John are going to join us in steam boat springs for a few days, they live in Colorado springs. It will be good to see them! And well at that point November is over.

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November is going to be very crazy! Crazy fun!

Job Search Update # 6...

Last night, at 5pm we had our phone interview with the church in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It went really well. We talked, laughed, asked questions, and answered questions with the 3 elders for about 1 hour and 15 mins. It felt very comfortable, relaxed, natural and conversation came easy.

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After talking with them and learning more, it sounds like the church there is really looking for someone outside the box. Someone to come in with new ideas and help the church work as a team to accomplish the shared goals. They are looking for someone to come and focus heavily on evangelism and in teaching the church how to evangelize. They are looking for growth, especially in the youth ministry.

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At the end of our conversation last night, they asked if we would come for a weekend so that we can experience the church and community and get to know each other better to see if this might be a good fit. So we are flying down to Santa Fe, NM Friday, November 13th and returning Tuesday the 17th. Please pray for us as we continue to learn more about the Santa Fe church and the needs that they have while also pursuing the other churches that we are talking with. Pray for clarity in where God wants us.

Job Search Update # 5...

We have gotten some new information about some of the churches we have been in contact with. Some of that came voluntarily from the churches by email or calls and some of it we got from contacting the churches yesterday to get more information.
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These churches have found someone else for their position:

Memphis, TN - Somerset, KY - Chesterfield, VA - Fayetteville, NC

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The following positions are still open and still have our resumes:
A. Livermore, CA

We are still waiting on a response from them. We did get an e-mail saying their process was taking longer than planned and that they were still reviewing the answers to their questions form the multiple candidates.

B. Santa Fe, NM

This church has reviewed our resumes and e-mailed us this week to set up a phone interview. We have a phone interview with them this coming Tuesday (10/20) at 5pm our time.

C. Nixa, MO

This church has begun their process and e-mailed today to ask for digital copies of our resumes and to let us know they were still looking at us and that they were trying to narrow down their choices soon. They will contact us when they know more.

D. Jackson, MS

This church emailed us on the 7th to let us know we would be contacted with in two weeks by a search committee member. So we should hear something next week.

E. Brentwood, TN

This church is still waiting till the spring to start their search.

F. Franklin, TN

I e-mailed this church yesterday asking about the status of their search. I know they began their search recently but we haven't heard anything yet.

G. Brunswick, GA

This church is already strongly interviewing two canidates and it is likly one of them will be hired with in a week or so. They are keeping our resumes for now incase they do not hire one of the two.

In other news, I have about gotten to the point that I can't pack anymore until I know we are moving. I might be able to pack 2 or 3 more totes. I have about 55 totes packed and stacked in our garage and ready to go as you can see. We are still trying to eat up the food we have in our cabinets and freezer before we buy anymore. And I'm still trying to use up all the unwanted shampoos and conditioners at our house; their are so many choices!

Friends...

Patrick and I have great friends! We have great friends in Nashville. We have great friends in Coeur d'Alene. Pretty much we have great friends all over the US.

In the last several months, I have been thinking about our friends more. I've been thinking about some because of how good they have been to us over the past few months, and what an encouragement they have been and continue to be. I have been thinking about others because of how exciting it could be to live closer to them when we find out where God wants us to serve him next. I've been thinking about others because of the pains or trials going on in their lives now. And I have been thinking of others just because I don't feel like I have been in contact with them enough, and I wonder how they are and when we will get to catch up next.

Today, I think about two friend in particular, and thanks God for them, because today is the day in between two of my best friends birthdays. Tiffany's birthday was yesterday, the 14th and Mary's birthday is tomorrow, the 16th.

Tiffany and I, met in college. We were both bible majors and then we got to be roommates my Jr & Sr. years. We always had a blast together. Thanks to Google chat and a job where I am free to use chat at work, I stay in touch with her more than any of my other long distant friends. We still keep in touch about struggles going on, prayer needs, and also the joys and excitements in life. I get to go visit her and one of my other close friends Tara in Kansas in about 2 weeks and I'm super excited! I don't think I have seen Tiffany since January and I can't remember how long it has been since I have seen Tara, maybe our wedding. It will be fun to have a few days to hang out with each of those girls!

Mary and I have been friends since roughly 1995. She lived down the street from me as a kid. After we got over the idea that we were supposed to hate each other (still not sure why each of us felt that way, it's not like we had a meeting and decided that) we became inseparable. We hung out all summer long and in the afternoons and weekends during the school season. Mary is a year older than me so she went off to college in Clarksville, TN and a year later I went to college in Nashville, TN. We were 45 minutes apart and spent some weekends together through out college, though now looking back, I wish we had spent more weekends together. After college we both got married and moved out west. Mary lives in Colorado springs now. We have exchanged visits to each others homes and still like to keep in touch, though we don't do a great job of it. But we always have a good time together. We are silly! Mary, and one of my other close friends Melissa, have decided to have a girls vacation every other year so that we can continue to make memories together and catch up through out the years even when we live so far apart from each other. the next trip will be happening in 2011 because they both came to my house just 3 months ago for our first trip together.

Happy Birthday Friends!

Harry Potter Books...

If you know me very well, you know I am not generally a reader. I never have been. I think it is a mixture between the having to sit still to read and the content of most books that turn me off. I don't like books that have to do with school, I don't like most fiction books, and large books intimidate me. Then the whole sitting still for long enough periods to actually get into the book or get a chapter read is hard for me too. Most books I have started, I have not finished. The longest into a long series of books that I think I have gotten was into the 3rd Little House on the Prairie book as a kid. I generally like practical books or true story books. I have found a few books/writers that I have liked over the years. Dave Pelzer's books, Mitch Albom's books, and now the Harry Potter Books.

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I started the Harry Potter Series a few months ago while on a plane trip to and from Nashville but recently have had more time for reading. I have been flying threw them, as least flying for me. I am about the start the 4th book, HP and the Goblet of Fire. It might be the largest book I have ever set out to read (734 pages). The other three have been good, and I would recommend if you haven't read them to try them out even if you don't like reading. I am reading them and then after I finish one, we watch the movie. I have seen the movies already but it is fun to watch them again after having read them.

I also have been able to start running again because of the books. I have an old elliptical runner that I bought when we moved here for $100. I ran on one in college some but always brought a book to read while I was running because I felt it was boring with out a book. So now I have a book to read while running which helps me actually start running again. I have done it off and on since we have been here. I can't just run with any book either, it has to be an easy to read book so that I am not constantly getting distracted by a word I don't know or a complicated sentence I have to reread. So Harry Potter is perfect.

If you haven't read them give them a try!

30 years of marraige, 30 years of videos...

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

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Yesterday was my parents 30 year wedding anniversary! On October 12th, 1979 they committed their lives to one another. They have been married 27 1/2 years longer than Patrick and I have. And to tell you the truth they seem the exact same as they did back in those first few years. Well they look different of course. But their personality's haven't changed one bit!

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I know that because lately, I have been working on a project that Patrick and I are doing for my parents. It started as a surprise 2 1/2 years ago when we moved to Idaho. When we had our 22 foot moving truck at my parents house, May of 2007, I asked my mom for all of her home videos of our family. She reluctantly gave them to me. Very specifically making sure I knew not to let them be in a hot place for fear of their melting and us losing all of the video and memories that lie with in.

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We plan to take all of the videos and copy them on to our computer and then edit them and make them in to dvds. Over the past two and a half years we have been busy. I know that's a surprise to you. So we haven't gotten as many videos done as we have wanted; but because of the slower pace that life is taking these days we have started working on them more heavily.

This past week I watched and copied to the computer Jeffrey's first few birthdays, swim lessons, chapel programs, family Christmas' and swim party's, beach trips to sand farms, Halloweens, Easters, fathers days, me learning to walk. Ive made it to 1987. And will say my family is pretty funny! In particular, my uncle Gary might even be crazier than my mom. It is also funny to hear and see my cousins Mindy and Trey as teenagers. They were 13 and 15 when I was born so I don't really remember them as anything but college kids and adults.

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All of this to say that my parents in those videos seem just the same as now. In the videos, you see my mom acting crazy, or telling my dad what to say or do on the video "Sonny tell them the date","did you get that on tape, Jeffrey do it again so that dad can get it on tape" and my dad humoring her and saying or doing what she says. You see my dads laid backness and moms enthusiasm.

Now remembering that video taping was fairly new while all of this was going on... we have many shots of the floor, sky or the inside of the massive suitcase the video camera goes in, or the lens cap has been left on. You also have to remember that the video camera held a full size VHS tape, not a memory card, and was about the size of a toaster oven. It was massive compared to todays video cameras. Remembering all of that....we have 67 tapes to copy edit and burn to dvds and that doesn't count the video footage after things became digital. We haven't even gotten that digital footage from them yet. And not to mention their is new footage all the time. As time goes on our project gets bigger. But it will be really cool after we are done!

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We have been and will be giving theses DVDs to my parents as birthday gifts, Christmas gifts, fathers day gifts, mothers day gifts, etc. for a long time. But they are excited about it. Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

Gardening season is over...

Gardening season is over here in North Idaho. We have started to pull up plants and clean up the space for next year. Our pumpkins that have survived the deer are still growing a bit, but every thing else is done.

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A few days ago I went and picked all the tomatoes and peppers so that they don't freeze. There were a lot of them still waiting to ripen. I was told they will keep ripening if we moved them inside, so that's what we have done. There were so many of them, we took what we wanted and then we took them to lifegroup and shared them with everyone.

Gardening has been a fun adventure for me this year. I still don't think Patrick has cared anything about it, if he has then he has been hiding it very well. In the future, I would like to plant Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Peppers, Corn, Squash, Zucchini, Lettuce, Green Beans, Raspberries, Strawberries, Blueberries, Lime Trees, Apple Trees, and Cherry Trees. I'm not sure of what else yet, but I am sure that's plenty for my first try by myself!

Silver Mountian Gondola...

Yesterday afternoon, Patrick and I drove the 40 miles out to Kellogg, Idaho to the Silver Mountain Resort to ride the longest gondola in the world. We hadn't done it yet and I wanted to do it before we left this area. It was fun, but I think the view from Schweitzer Mountain's lift is better than this was.

Here we are at the loading house preparing for our ride.

The ride is about 20 minutes long over hills and through valleys. This picture doesn't even show the whole trip but if you can see the cleared line through the trees we started further than you can even see in this picture.

The day we decided to go was the windiest day ever. The news last night said there were gusts up to 50 miles a hour in our greater northwest area. While that was going on, we were in the gondola swinging back and forth with the wind on our 20 minute ride up and 20 minute ride back down.

We also were at the top on a mountain in the 32 degree wind chill. We were kind of scared we might die. We were discussing the best tactics on jumping off the lift in case of an emergency.

They actually had told us they were closing the gondola early because of the high winds. After we had done the ride we thought that was a good idea! At least we got to go before they closed it and we didn't die!

And the winner is...

I know all 11 of you who actually took time to post on our blog post "Who Reads this Blog?" have been sitting on the edge of your seats to see if you won the prize or not. Well wait no more! The winner is...

CORY MARTIN!

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All of you who are stunned you didn't win can ask my co-workers Holly & Steve if it was a fair drawing - they will tell you it was.

Now, I know that there are at the very least 20 more people that read this blog. I know that because you have told me you read it. I'm guessing one of the following 3 is true for you

1. You were not interested in a prize.
2. You didn't want to world to know you read our blog.
3. You really wanted to win but you didn't know how to post a comment.

Instead of picking two winners this time I am going to give you another chance. And this time, just in case, I am going to give you instructions on how to comment. If you commented on the first post commenting again will not increase your chance of winning.

How to Comment on a blog post:

1. First get to the blog post you want to comment on.
2. Click your mouse on the word "comment" at the bottom of that post. Shown in the following picture.
3. One of the following views will appear not both. Type your comment.
4. Type the word verification if the one on the right appears.
5. Choose an Identity. If you already have a Google account you can use that one, other wise just pick the anonymous one. If you pick anonymous then make sure to put your name in the actual text of the comment so that I will know who you are.
6. Press Publish Comment or Post Comment and you have finished.

I hope those instructions help for those of you not as familiar with commenting on blogs.

This time you will still get to pick from the two prizes from the original post and the winner will be our second and final winner. This winner will be announced at the beginning on November. Happy Posting!

Job Search Update # 4...

We haven't heard too much new info. The church in Webb City, MO let us know they had hired someone, but other than that we are still down to 4 churches with our resumes in hand. 3 of which have just recently started there actual review of resumes and are beginning the search process and 1 which will begin this process after Christmas.

While we have been waiting on these churches, we have also continued to look for other churches who have posted their job openings in the last few months or weeks. Yesterday we printed more resumes and packed more envelopes to send out to 7 more churches today. The map above shows the locations of the old 4 and new 7. Patrick will update our "Church Search Map"soon and will keep that updated as we hear back from churches.

Time with the parents...

My parents came to visit September 19th-23rd. I haven't blogged about it yet because I was waiting for pictures to get to my house from my moms camera. They came yesterday...

For my Dad's 60th birthday in August my mom told him he got to come to to Coeur d'Alene and play at the Resort where they have the worlds only floating green. So they planned the trip quickly not knowing how long we would be living here.

When they arrived that Saturday evening, I had, I meant got, to go get them from the airport alone since the Georgia football game was on. When we arrived back at he house, we found Patrick watching the game on ESPN360.com with his dog Uga. We watched the rest of the game with him and then headed off to bed since my parents body clock told them it was about midnight.

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Sunday we woke up and were getting

ready for church when we found out my Dad was sick, and wasn't going to leave the house. So we made a change in plans and stayed home and had a lazy day together. My mom and I took some time Sunday morning and walked about 3 blocks over to the garden. She wanted to see it since I had been blogging about it. We picked some cucumbers, green beans, carrots and tomatoes. I wanted to make a trip that day because we were supposed to have our first frost that night

and I didn't want the produce that was ready to be damaged. It turns out the frost wasn't so frosty and everything was fine. While we were walking my mom noticed the cows in the pasture near by. I called them oreo cows and she loved that.

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After a day of rest my dad was feeling better, it must have been a 24 hour bug. So my parent went out to the Coeur d'Alene Resort Golf Course to see what it has to offer. My dad was very pleased with the course. He said it was the most well kept course he had ever played. My mom rode in the cart with him the whole time taking pictures and enjoying the moment. This picture is of dad on the 14th hole with the

floating green. On Monday he actually made a birdie (where you score one under what they think you should) on this hole, and because he did that he got a certificate! It was a par 3 hole and he scored 2! He was not so lucky on this whole when they went back on Tuesday. Tuesday they went to the same course again. Dad wanted to be able to try it again after knowing what the course was like, and he did better over all as planned and expected.

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On Tuesday after they got back from golfing we all went out to

Cedars Floating Restaurant - also owned by the resort. We had a very nice meal filled with salad, bread, steaks and veggies. It is a fun place to take visitors to the area or go for a special occasion. After we ate we went back to the house and played my new wii! I got a wii

a few weeks ago with left over birthday money and money saved but haven't had a whole lot of time to play it but we got some good play time in that night. We played we sports and Mario Party 8. Now I just need 2 more controllers for Christmas and we will be set! (hint mom!)

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The next day we went out to brunch in Spokane at the Cottage Cafe on the way to the airport. After

we ate we had some time so we went to the Spokane Riverfront Park to look around. I had heard recently about it and had seen some pictures (thanks to Alyson!) and thought it might be worth checking out. We had a

good walk checking everything out. Mom loved the slide. She even went down it twice! Dad was not as excited about the slide though I bet he would have been is Hannah, my niece, was here!

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We had a good but fast visit with my parents. the next time we will see them should be Christmas. You can make it mom!

My Stress & You...

"Stress is simply a fact of nature—forces from the outside world affecting the individual. The individual responds to stress in ways that affect the individual as well as their environment. Excess stress can manifest itself in a variety of emotional, behavioral, and even physical symptoms."

I would like to send out an apology to those who have encountered me in the past 3 months and maybe even longer than that. Though I can not apologize for being stressed, I can apologize to you for having my stress effect you by my emotional, behavioral, or physical symptoms. I think the above quote is right when it come to one persons stress affecting their environment, and well you are part of my environment.

I have realized over the past week that I have not been the easiest person to get along with, and if you talk to Patrick, he might even say I was one of the hardest people to get along with. I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to realize this, but never-the-less it has been realized. I have been tired and cranky, I have been emotional and irritable. Now for those of you who haven't been around, I haven't been this way 100% of the time but I have been it too much of the time for sure.

Sure, life has not been as planned the past few months, and it's events have led to unexpected stresses but that doesn't give me the excuse to be so hard to deal with or unkind. Sure, I do want to be transparent, and I want to have help from Christ's family to get through these "un-known" times; but I don't want to hurt you in the process. So if I have unknowingly hurt you over the past few months, I am sorry. It was unintentional.

As you know big life changes bring a lot with them. Please continue to keep Patrick and I in your prayers as we seek to look more like Christ and as we seek his will for the next stage of our lives.

Unique Observation...

The toiletries below are the only ones I use on a regular basis. As i'm sure you all know it is very rare for shampoo and conditioner to be empty at the same time (unless of course yours is a 2 in 1 - then it is very normal). I guess it is because bottle sizes are not always the same or you use more of one than the other on a daily basis. Well, knowing that the above is abnormal, something very unique is happening to me. .

Almost all of the above items are running out at about the same time! Sure not all on the same day - that would be amazing - but with in a week or so of each other. I wish I could say all of them were running out, but my deodorant was replaced a few weeks ago, so I think it would be stretching it to include that one. But, everything else is just about empty at the same time. I emptied a bottle of hair mouse at the end of this past week, I used my last Q-tip this past weekend, my tooth paste might have 1 more day worth in it, the shampoo/Conditioner and body wash might have 2 more days left in it (they may actually be empty on the same day), and the face wash bar will probably be gone toward the end of this week - it's pretty thin.

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This has been a crazy observation and I thought you might want to share it with me since it's so unique! If you didn't think it was cool then you should stop reading now, it wont get any better.

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Since we are preparing for a future move, I have been going through the house packing and pulling things aside that need to be gotten rid of and that kind of thing. I took a whole truck load of stuff to the dump Saturday and we are trying to eat up what we have in our freezer and cabinets instead of buying more food.

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I have also taken it upon myself to use up all the unwanted and collected shampoos, conditioners, body washes, and other body chemicals before we move. Why take a bunch of half used bottles with us when we can use then up here. So here is my collection that I have found around the house. I am not allowing myself to open the new items (which I had already purchased, before i had this idea, in preparation of my present bottles being empty) until all of these bottles of similar product have been used up.

I have even considered using shampoo as body wash (since I only have a little body wash to use up) in order to get through these faster. What do you think? Would shampoo do the job? Would it dry out my skin? Would I have to follow up with conditioner? Is it worth trying it in order to get all of the above bottles out of my house faster?

The latest on the great "Church Search"

We don't have any tremendous or momentous news to share, but the big list has gradually been whittled down. We continue to search for new opportunities on a daily basis, but for now...here's where we are looking--and being looked at.

View Church Search in a larger map

We are honored and encouraged by your thoughts, notes, calls and hugs and as we seek, search, wait, hope, imagine and prepare for our next steps. Thank you.

Biking with Amy, take 2...

Amy and I go biking about once a week. A few weeks ago when we went the camera wasn't working properly so I didn't get many pictures. This past week we went on the same trail and got some pictures. The trail is basically from the bottom of the above

map to the top of it. It is a 9 mile (round trip) section of the Centennial Trail. The trail is really neat because the whole thing is right on the edge of the lake. The trip is very pretty and scenic. It has many hills, some that are big and very hard to bike.

We thought we were going to be so sore afterwards but we weren't at all. It was a big surprise the next morning when I woke up, I felt fine. We had a good time together as always. We always enjoy chatting about work, family, gardening, religion, and just life in general.

We plan to do the same trail for the 3rd time on Thursday. At the end, of the part of the trail we went on, there is a statue of a man with an old fashioned camera. I'm not really sure of it's

significance but here I am with him.

Job Search Update # 3...

Not to much to say at this point, but I did want to let you know that on Friday we attempted to contact churches who we had not heard back from once we sent our resume. Here are the results...

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Hired someone already:

Kaufman, TX

Springboro, OH

Una (Nashville area), TN

Madison, TN

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Updates on the 6 that are left:

1. Livermore, CA - We are waiting on them to review Patrick's answers to their questions.We sent those to them a few weeks ago. We got word that their process is taking longer than planned and that they will be having a meeting soon to review their candidates and will contact us soon.
2. Webb City, MO - We are still waiting for a response to our asking for update.
3. Nixa, MO - I talked to a church Secretary on Friday who was very excited to hear from me. She told me she had read our resumes and was pulling for us! I felt famous - she asked me if I was Allison before I even volunteered my name. She asked me to send in some more information about Patrick and I - just about our story, where we grew up, how we met, what are our hobbies, etc.. This church has a search committee meeting this coming Sunday (9/27) to start the review of candidates. We should hear more after that.
4. Brentwood, TN - This church will not begin their search until after Christmas. Hoping to have some one hired in the spring.

5. Franklin, TN - This church has a search committee meeting soon. they haven't reviewed any of the resumes yet.

They are hoping to have someone hired for a start date of early January.

6. Statesville, NC - Change in plans at this church. They are currently looking to hire a preacher and have put their youth minister hire on hold. They did say they would hold our resume until the time comes to start that search again.

Job Search Update # 2...

It has been a few weeks since I gave you a job search update so I thought I would let you know that not much is going on. We are still waiting for God's direction, and it is getting harder the longer we wait. So please pray for patience and a sense of God's presence in this process.

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14 Churches have had our resumes for about a month now and we have heard back from 7 of them at this point. You have heard about 6 of those in a previous post. Here is the 7th... On Tuesday, we got the following email from the church in Statesville, NC:

"Thanks folks for your resumes. At this time we will not be filling the youth minister position. Our pulpit minister of 13 years has left to go back to Alabama to help with his dying father. So currently we are searching for a congregational minister and may not fill the youth minister position for sometime. I will however keep your resumes on file for future reference. I wish you all the best and always know God has a place for all of us."

The Church in Livermore, CA had asked us to answer some questions and send them back to them. Patrick did that a few weeks ago and we haven't heard anything back yet.

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You may recall from the previous post that I had a skype interview with a church in Nashville. The interview went good but I was extremely nervous while it was happening. I think I was nervous because I was having to answer all of the questions by myself even though Patrick and I were both wanting the job. So it was like I was having to answer for both us us instead of us getting to do it together. I definitely like doing it together better! I have heard back from that interview and they had decided to go with someone else. This particular church is looking for a full time male and a part time female, but at this point they are only interviewing the female and are not ready to even think about the male position. I am sure that is at least one reason they didn't want to go any further in the process with me. We had told them that Patrick and I both wanted to be on staff and that we would not move unless Patrick was to get the job. We only said that since the female job was part time. If it had been full time it is likely we would have moved if I had gotten it no matter what the verdict is with Patrick. We are working on obtaining a full time position first before anything else. They did say they would leave Patrick in the hat for the other position for when it comes time to search for that - which will be in the spring.

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The other 4 churches, that had contacted us back, have hired someone already. We had come in to late in the search process. Patrick and I are going to contact the other 7 churches, who have not contacted us at all since we sent our resumes, to make sure they got them and to see what state their youth minister search is in. We would at least like to know where we stand and if we should begin a new search for churches hiring. After we hear from those churches we will have a better idea of what our next step should be.

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In the mean while we are still packing and preparing things for a move. Patrick has been trying to get his truck fixed up for a sale and I have been busy packing our crates. After this picture was taken, I packed about 5 more and I will be packing more this week. Soon we will have a whole wall of packed crates. Yesterday the rest of our crates came in at ACE Hardware so we need to go pick them up soon.

In other news... I had told you that we had told our land lady that she had our permission to put the house up for sale, since we would most likely be moving soon and we would have to break our lease. But, I don't think I ever told you that our house is officially up for sale. She decided to try and see if she could sell it with out loosing much money. If she's going to loose money she would rather keep it as a rental at this point until the market goes back up. She is also hoping the money back thing with the government will give someone an incentive to buy the house. So she will leave the house up till November 1st when that offer is over and then rethink her plan. Of course if it sells by then she won't have to rethink anything. That is another reason for us to begin packing, we may have to move to another house even before knowing God's plans for us. Our first house showing was this morning.

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Know anyone looking for a house in Hayden Idaho?

A Good & Productive Weekend...

This past weekend was full of activity! Over the past few weeks and months, Some of the teens have been asking us to have a sleepover and others have been asking to hang out. So Friday night we had a cook out at our house to give them a chance, if they wanted it, to come by and hang out. I also had a teen girls sleepover afterwards. We have been missing being a part of the teens lives over the past 3 months and so it was good for all of us to get to have a little reunion together.

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You will see in the picture above how Caleb, a first grader, hits on Jane, a high schooler. Caleb is such a funny kid; he is always doing something funny. Like this story about his year book signing adventure. or when he pulled his pants down at school to do the underpants dance for his class. Caleb has a thing for girls, which on one side is good since he is a boy but on the other side it might be a bit to early, but he will figure things out as he goes. Caleb is always asking girls to be his girlfriend. I have seen girls respond well to that and other just look at him like he is crazy. There are also those girls who don't yet know that they are his girl friend. All that to say Jane was quite flattered that Caleb would move a chair over right next to her and talk with her. He also brought her a drink. The teens were amused by all of this! Well I guess I should ask Josh what he thought since he and Jane are dating - but he was a good sport.

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5 girls spent the night at the sleep over. We had a good time hanging out together. We spent a lot of time talking and catching up. We also spent time watching a movie and in the hot tub. When it was late and the girls were settling down a bit they decided to at least go to their rooms. And of course with out fail all 5 girls want to sleep in the same bed. Now at the age of 24, I can not relate to that. So the girl spent the first 10 minutes or so trying to get comfortable. I found out the next morning over freshly baked banana nut muffins that only 3 of the girls slept the whole night in together in the bed and the others had been sleeping else where. Thanks for coming over girls!

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After a full day of cleaning house, doing laundry, and chasing down flies that made it into our house during the party, Patrick and I watched the Georgia and South Carolina Football Game. It was a good game to watch, non of that boring we are 30 points ahead of you stuff. We of course don't have cable so we watch the games on ESPN360.com. So we sit in the GA themed office at our house and watch the games.

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On Sunday we had made plans to visit Lake City Community Church with our friends Michael & Jessica. They have been going there for a month or more and are considering making it their new home, and they wanted to share it with us. We didn't know till we got there that Jessica had been feeling sick, so she wasn't able to make it, but we had a good time sharing the time with Michael.

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After that we decided to go to Olive Garden to use a gift card we had been given. Don't you hate when you forget to pay with the gift card? I guess we have to go back! After lunch, we mowed the grass and cleaned the carpets in our house before life group. I must say after that our house looked really nice for the house showing Monday that got rescheduled for another day.

Gardening Lesson 101...

Deer & Quail in Amy's mom's back yard.

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I have told you before that Amy's parents have a great garden. I am always amazed by the growth and organization of their garden. I have been meaning to take a picture of it but forgot when I had my camera at her house.

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Last Thursday I went over to Amy's parents house to meet Amy and her mom for a gardening lesson and a walk. I wanted to share with you what I learned; but also, I wanted to record what I learned somewhere so that I can look back at it when it comes t

ime to have my own garden.

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Now you experienced green thumbs out there will have to either stop reading now or bare with me as I talk about the basics of gardening. I knew nothing about it before this summer and so the following has been all new to me but it is what I have learned.

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Amy's mom started our telling me that in the fall of each year after you tear everything out of the garden, you should prepare the ground by laying horse manure all over the top of where you garden will be the next year. She says that the horse manure should be at least a year old when you put it down. This fertilization in the fall will help your soil be ready the next spring. It allows for the nutrients to soak in during the winter months and will help your gardening results the following year.

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She also told me how to know what fertilizer is best for different plants during the growing season. You see the bag above has three numbers on it 15-30-15.

1. The first number is nitrogen, it is the chemical that will help the lush greeny growth of the plants.
2. The second number is phosphorus, it is the chemical that will help the actual flower or fruit of the plant.
3. The third number is potassium, it is the chemical that helps the roots grow strong.

These numbers are important to look at because each mixture will do something different to the plants. You wouldn't want to get a fertilizer with real high numbers on the first and third and real low number on the second. Then your plant would be really great but it wouldn't bare much fruit. She said to make sure to pay attention to what you buy and which plant you put it on. Here are some examples of what she thinks should be used on certain plants.

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15-30-15 - Strawberries

5-10-10 - Tomatoes

18-10-10 - Grass

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Here are some random tips she shared with me about different plants.

• Raspberries - In the fall after the growing season, cut the old growth down to 6 inches or so and cut the new growth down to about 4 feet. It is good to plant these in a line so that you can get to all the berries when they are ripe rather than making it like a big bush where they are hard to get to, like in my yard.
• Strawberries - It is generally better to buy these as plants instead of seeds. Tristar everberring is a good type to buy, they grow and produce fruit all summer. They taste yummy! I know because I ate about 12 during our lesson!
• Cucumbers - plant them one inch apart and then put some fencing type stuff right next to it. You can tie them up on the fence as they grow, like vines, then they don't take up so much room on the ground. She had cucumbers coming out of her ears!
• Green beans - Pole beans get really long but if you grow blue lake beans they grow like vines and you can have them grow up a fence or strings or something to get them off the ground. They will climb.
• Carrots - plant a lot of them in a rectangular space then thin them out as they grow. Then the ones left will grow better.
• lettuce - 4 in 1 lettuce is recommended. All the seeds are mixed together and then when you plant them you get multiple kinds which make for a good salad.

Amy's moms opinion on when to do things in North Idaho:

(of course this will be different depending on where you live.)

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Cold Weather Plants - meaning you can plant them in the ground earlier than others.

• Potatoes
• Onions
• Lettuce
• Broccoli - start from seed in March
• Green Peppers - mid march

Warm Weather Plants - wait longer to put in ground

• tomatoes - start from seed in February put in ground in may
• zucchinis
• cucumber
• peas

My observations are that a garden needs a lot of water and if it doesn't get it the growth is much slower. I think that is what happened to our garden. It needed more water!

That is all I have for now.

Gardening, Day 114...

Yesterday, I went past the garden and picked a few things. I picked these green beans in the following picture. There is also several things growing a bit bigger, so here are some pictures. Garden season is ending quickly so pictures will stop coming in the next few weeks or so.

Green Beans

Peas

Squash

Pumpkin - there are about 7 or 8 pumpkins growing now. One for each of the kids for the families who are doing the garden with us! Turned out just perfect!

Cucumber - There are more than 10 cucumbers growing in the garden right now, some are ready to be picked. Patrick and I would be pretty excited about the cucumbers but a friend gave us about 12 last week and then another friend gave us about 8 so we have quite a few cucumbers around!

Sunflower - Our friends who headed up the garden adventure this summer wanted to grow sun flowers so that they could just have something pretty to watch grow. Well the deer really like the sunflowers too. So they ate them before they could really start growing. The our friends put some wire around one to try to save it. It is finally budding up after its delay on growth and might even produce a flower before the first frost. We will see.

This is what i came home with yesterday. Lots of green beans, 4 corn, 3 tomatoes, 1 carrot and 1 radish. I picked the last two just to see how they were growing. The apples are from a friends tree. I called on the way home to see if I could pick some and so I got a whole bowl full.

Life Group Camp Out...

This Past weekend we went camping at Camp Prince's Pines with our Life Group. We had a good time! There were 28 of us there through out the weekend, and that wasn't even all of our life group. It is always fun to watch the kids interact with each other and to watch the families help each other, We really do have a great community! Our life group works really well together and helps out where ever needed. This summer, probably once

a week at least someone was watching

someone else's kids or going over to someones house to help do a project. Our group is really good at serving each other. I hope when we have kids we are part of a community like this!

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This weekend we played games, put together puzzles, played in the dirt, took boat rides, and

mainly just fellowshiped together. It was good to have a weekend away with such great friends. A weekend in bed would have been nice, but it is worth being tired at the end of a long weekend when you spent the weekend with friends!

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The weekend as a whole was good but Friday could have definitely gone better! Our plan was to be up at camp by around 4pm, so we were going to try to leave our house by 2pm. It was important that we were at camp first since I had the keys to the lodge and I was in charge of bring all the food for the weekend - including dinner for that night. Well,

Patrick and I were running a little late but the truck was packed with all the food and we were ready by 2:20. Christina and her two kids were supposed to be meeting us at our house at 2 to ride up with us. She didn't show up until about 3 and hadn't called to inform us because she had forgotten her cell phone at her house. We finally got on the rode about 3:15 and were about 10-15 miles out when Patrick's truck started over heating. We had never had this problem before so it was unexpected. We stopped and bought some coolant and kept going. A few miles later we had to pull over. We tried going a few

more times but could only get a mile or two further. At this point, we decided the truck was not going to camp this weekend. It was about 3:45 by this point, so the earliest we could make it to camp was some time after 6pm. But we still had to figure out how to get to camp.

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We called our good friend Santa

Clause (Ray Rayburn) who

lived near by to see if he could help. He came and got me and Christina and her kids - one of which had already fallen asleep in his car seat - and took us (20miles) back to our house to get the other vehicles. Mean while Patrick tried to make it 2-3 more miles to Ray & Karen's house to keep the truck there for the weekend. Christina and I got our vehicles and drove to Rays house

to pick up Patrick and all the stuff that was in the truck and then headed back out - this time around 5pm. We made it to camp with no other problems but 3 1/2 hours later than planned. Luckily most of our friend showed up right around the same time as us. We all worked together to get the hamburgers, hot dogs, and fries cooked, dinner ready, the cars unpacked and the coolers unloaded in to the fridge and freezers.

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Things did not go as planned but every one was safe and life goes on! The rest of the weekend was good. We did have that 16 hour power outage sunday night/ monday morning becasue of a storm, but we made it through.

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When Patrick and I got back monday we unloaded things and then later went back to Rays to get the truck. Patrick had about 20 miles to go to our house and it took him and while and he had to stop a few times but it is back in our drive way and now he has to replace the water pump. After I got back from Ray's & picking up a pizza for dinner in our car, before Patrick had arrived - I saw this, a double rainbow.

Gackles Visit...

Sarah, Jordan, Alice, Jordan's brother and mom Gackle came through town and stayed at our house on their way to North Dakota from Vancouver, BC. Sarah, Jordan & Alice are moving their family is helping in the process. Sarah is one of Patrick's close friends from college. We had a good time eating dinner and catching up. We hadn't seen then since February of 2008 when we stopped in at there house to stay on the way to Alaska, so it was good to see them and to meet some of Jordan's family. Sarah was pregnant with Alice when we visited before, so we also got to meet her. She is very cute. She at times has a mohawk as you can see above. We took this picture for our friend Kristen - Kristen is sad that she didn't get to see Sarah so we all dedicate this picture to her!

Who reads this blog?

For a while I have had a stat counter for my blog. (you may have noticed the link in the right hand column) It tells me when people are reading the blog and how often and how many people are repeat visitors, etc. It does not tell me who you are it just tells me your IP address and what city and state you are in. Over time my numbers have continued to grow, in August, I had 200 repeat visitors. And well I would like to know who you people are!

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A few of my friends have done this and now its my turn...

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I am offering a prize...... or a bribe, either way you want to look at it. Please comment on this blog post and tell me who you are and what you like best about our blog. When you comment your name will be entered into a "hat" for a drawing. You will get to choose one of the following for your prize.

1. A $10 gift card to a place of your choice
2. If you live close by you could win a night for your family at our house, including a free home cooked meal and a night full of fun with the Fords. This could also be used as a night of babysitting for your kids while you go out on the town.

On October 1st, I will anounce the winner or winners if I feel like doing more than one. That time frame gives my occasional readers some time to post.

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Happy Posting!

When & Where are we moving?

We have no idea! But...

...we are preparing for it.

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We know God will call us to his place at his time. Last night we went to our local Ace Hardware and picked up 50 butterfly Crates that we had ordered from our friend/boss with our employee discount. We will pick up the other 25 later. We decided that over the next 50+ years it is likely we will move quite a few times, it is also guaranteed that we will know lots of people who will be moving. So we decided to "bite the bullet" (in the words of Ben Heater our friend/boss) and buy some nice heavy duty crates to move in and to let others use when moving. They are also handy for storing things in the garage/attic, camping trips, teen retreats and more!

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While at Dalton Gardens, we used about 6 of them to carry food to retreats in and then just stack them all inside of each other when the food is gone. I think it is the best way to do it, especially with teens or kids. Before we got the crates for church we would get to a retreat and all the bread/buns would be smashed and other things like fruit or veggies bruised from teens rough housing around them or dropping something, etc. After we bought the crates everything arrived safely! So for those ministers out there... butterfly crates are the way to go! Another plus is that you can't lose the lids because they are attached. We had some large plastic boxes with lids we would use before and some how we would always lose lids. It is possible the teens were out sledding on them. hmmmm......

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After Labor Day, my plan is to begin packing things that we do not use on a regular basis. I will begin with books and items we intend to sell on ebay one day, but have not had time yet. This will help clean up the house a bit for potential buyers and it will help us not have to pack so much at the last minute. So in any spare time I find I will begin the packing process.

In other news our land lady has decided to put the house up for sale. We gave her permission to do this a couple of months ago when we found out we would be looking for a new place to live and minister. We feel bad because we don't know when we are leaving so we can't give her a date that we will be out by, also we will most likely break our lease when the time comes. So she is putting it up for sale until November 1st to see if anyone will buy it with the money back thing that is going on if you buy a house by then. If she does sell it we have had offers from others to live with them or to live in an extra house they have till we move. So we will plan to do that if the time comes for that and then we can save some money not paying rent during that time. But who knows if that will even be needed. So life continues to be up in the air until God shares with us the plan. But for now the plan is to pack and prepare for the move, or in other words begin building an ark for when the rains come - because they will. God is faithful!

Gardening, Day 104...

I have noticed that our garden is growing much slower than other gardens around this area. Amy's parents have a garden and everything has been ready sooner and has been larger. Her mom gave me about 12 cucumbers when i was over at her house on Monday. I am going to get a gardening lesson from her before we leave. Her garden is amazing! One piece of advise she gave me is to put manure out over the garden spot in the fall so that the nutrients can soak in to the ground for several months before planting. I don't think we put any extra nutrients on the ground this year, and that could be why stuff isn't growing as fast. Who knows?

I went past the garden yesterday to pick some tomatoes for our life group camping trip this coming weekend & corn for some company we are having tonight. (Jordan, Sarah & Alice Gackle & Family! Sarah went to college with Patrick. They are moving from BC Canada to North Dakota and stopping by for a place to stay and visit on their way.) The garden wasn't much different than a week ago. Things are coming along slowly.

Pumpkin & Zucchini

Pepper Serrano

Cherry Tomatoes

This is the box full of veggies I came home with yesterday. Corn, Tomatoes, and Anaheim peppers. I am only picking what I plan to eat in the next few days since there are 3 other families eating from the garden too. There was a lot more ready as far as peas, cucumbers, green beans, lettuce, carrots, beets, and zucchini. I will get more later.

Biking with Amy...

When I started working at NIC I became friends with one of my coworkers. Amy and I have hung out a few times outside of work. Mostly we go biking, and we try to do it at least one time each week. We have a good time together just talking and biking. Last night we decided to try out a trail right on the lake. It was beautiful! We first went and got the salad bar at Dockside and then biked 4.6 miles. We would have probably gone farther if it weren't for a really steep hill along the way. We drove it after we biked it and found out we were close to where it was going to level off, so next time we will go further. We drove up to where that part of the trail ends and it would be a total of 9 miles so we are going to try for that maybe on Thursday. I took Patrick's camera so that I could capture some of the beauty along the way, but something weird was happening and it would only store one picture. So here is the picture we decided to go with. It is pretty dark on us but you can at least see the sunset. Next time we will check to make sure the camera is working before leaving the house!