A "God Thing"

Next weekend will be Jeremy's and my 11th Anniversary. Last year, we'd hoped we'd be able to celebrate the milestone 10-year anniversary with a splurgy trip somewhere - like Hawaii. Of, course, with the birth of our son that year it just didn't seem feasible. So, we thought we would just postpone it a year when the kids would be a bit older and could be away from us for more than just a day. However, those plans got scaled back this year as the reality of tight finances and a busy summer work schedule for Jeremy set in. Instead, we decided we'd just take a short weekend trip somewhere nearby. We'd talked to my parents and they had agreed to come watch the kids while we went away. So, we were all set to get away for 2 whole days of uninterrupted grown-up time.

Then, a few weeks ago, we were informed that our house had sold. We rent a basement apartment in a house. The house had been on the market for quite some time, so this was not a surprise. We have spent the past 3-4 months looking for a house to buy anticipating that a move would be in our near future. Now, though, we have a set deadline. The sale of this house will close mid-September. So now the pressure is on! If we are going to buy a house, we have to find one - very important, obtain financing - also important, pack and move all of our belongings within the next 6 weeks. Needless to say Jeremy and I have suddenly felt our stress level increase.

Just a few days ago, we decided that with the expenses of a home purchase and move just around the corner, this might not be the most prudent time to take our getaway weekend. This was a very tough decision to come to, but it was one of those things that God just laid on my heart one morning as I was driving to work. I was mulling over in my head all that needed to get done in the next 6 weeks and running all the "what-if" scenarios over in my head. Then just all of a sudden the thought came to me, "maybe we need to wait on the trip." When I talked with Jeremy about it that night, he also had been thinking the same thing which just confirmed that this was the right thing to do.

The very next night, I sat down to the computer and was checking email. I saw a message from ParentMap, a local publication for families, telling me that I'd won a contest I had entered a while back. The prize - one night at the Salish Lodge in Snoqualmie Falls. I was in complete shock. I'd totally forgotten about this contest, and I never win these kinds of things anyway, so I just figured someone else must have won. The timing of this, coming right after we'd decided to postpone our anniversary trip, and the fact that my name was chosen randomly out of hundreds of other entries, can only be attributed to God. It also has brought me great comfort in the fact that I know that if God cares enough to bless Jeremy and I with such a little thing, then how much more will he provide for the really big things - like a place to live.

So, even though the thought of finding a new place to live and moving still is stressful and I will probably have many more anxious moments over the next 6 weeks, this will serve as a great reminder to me to lean on God and not on my own understanding.

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding: in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths.

Family Reunion

Over father's day weekend we took what could probably be considered our first family vacation. We drove to Caldwell, ID for a family reunion and memorial service for my aunt Freda who passed away just a few days shy of her 100th birthday.

This was the first time the kids had met most of my extended family. They were the youngest kids there and just ate up all the love and attention that was showered upon them.

It was a wonderful time visiting with family who I hadn't seen for quite sometime. Only wish we'd been able to spend a little more time with everyone.





The photos in the slide show can also be viewed here:

Family Reunion June, 2010

Tide Pools

We had a couple of minus tides back in May, so Jeremy took Evelyn down to the beach for a look at some of the sea life.

an empty crab shell - it had molted, I had no idea crabs did that.

touching sea stars.

Evelyn's Birthday - 3 years old!

Evelyn turned 3 on May 17. I can't believe how quickly the years have flown by!

We celebrated the occasion with some of our close friends.

Blowing out the candles on her Rocky Road cake.

So many wonderful presents! This stamp set has been a favorite!

Julie managed to coax a smile from Isaiah.

More presents!


Celebrating with Grandma J and Grandpa Phil the following week. Grandma made the cake and both Evelyn and Isaiah got to blow out the candles again!

Thank you!

Reading Books

This was actually taken a few months ago, but it's so cute and shows how well Evelyn and Isaiah play together most of the time. Isaiah has really gotten interested in books and loves to be read to, I think he even has his favorites. Evelyn has always enjoyed books and has begun "reading" them to herself or Isaiah, though she much prefers it if one of us reads to her.

Happy Birthday Isaiah

Isaiah turned 1 on April 27, 2010. I can't believe the year has gone by so fast!

He has really accomplished a lot in just a short time. Although he's not walking, he's really close and he does crawl pretty fast! He's starting to say a few words - mostly "ball" and "balloon". He also says "sock", "mama" and "dada" and "tatum." He loves playing with balls, having books read to him, and playing with Evelyn.

We celebrated the occasion with a few friends.

9 Months!

Isaiah is 9 months old today! It's hard to believe that this little guy has already been in this world as long as he was in the womb. In just 3 more months he'll be turning 1, then before you know it he'll be driving, and going off to college, then getting married and having kids of his own! Somebody stop me before I completely freak out!!!

Needless to say the time has just flown by. We love our amazing little guy and enjoy his antics and seeing his personality devleop. He is fearless and curious about everything. He is fascinated by Evelyn and enjoys being around her and playing - though he is also very vocal about when he's not happy about something! He's pulling himself into a standing position now - we're taking bets on when he walks unassisted. All in all he's a pretty happy boy. Now if he would just sleep through the night!

More from Alaska

We're approaching the end of our vacation in Alaska. It's been a great time of visiting family, but I think we are ready to be home and back into our familiar routine. Two weeks is a long time for a 2-year old to be without a regular routine. We've tried to do a few activities to help Evelyn pass the time.

When we first arrived in Anchorage just before Christmas, the weather was mild for this time of year - mid 30's. Right after Christmas it dropped to the low teens and even got as low as 5 degrees on New Year's Eve. It hasn't snowed any more since we've been here, though there was already plenty. Jeremy is a bit disappointed about that since it is supposed to start snowing on Monday when we leave.

Evelyn really seemed to enjoy playing in the snow when we first arrived. However, either the colder weather, or maybe the fact that she got stuck in deep snow has made her more wary of it since. Here's a few pictures of Jeremy with her out in the snow trying to make a snow angel.

Next we tried ice skating. We weren't sure if the skating rink would even have skates small enough for a toddler, but there were quite a few kids about Evelyn's age zooming around the ice like pros. It took a little while for Evelyn to get confident about not having Jeremy hold onto her. She liked it best when Jeremy carried her and skated around the ice, but apparently we were breaking the rules by doing that because one of the employees asked us to stop.

Evelyn threw a fit when we told her she had to do it herself. That we would hold her hand and she could hold onto the wall. We tried to encourage her and explain that we had to obey the rules. Finally we were able to get her to skate around by having her touch each of the speakers placed along the wall. They were spaced just a little ways apart so once she had that goal she actually did quite well and even let go of Jeremy's hand and skated a little ways on her own to me. It's something we'll have to try to do again once we get back to Seattle.

Getting a little more confident.

On New Year's Eve, we braved the cold and went downtown for the fireworks show which was at 8 p.m. so we felt it would be OK for the kids to be up a little past their bedtime. Evelyn's opinion on the fireworks was that it was "too loud." And it was especially with the pops and bangs reverberating off all the surrounding buildings. When we got home we had our own little celebration with the little party poppers that shoot confetti and streamers everywhere and had hot chocolate and cookies.

This morning - Saturday, we got up early and drove up to Flattop overlooking the city to watch the sun rise. Below are pictures of the dawn breaking at 10:15 a.m. It was so cold! And a slight breeze up on the mountain made it even colder. I'd forgotten my gloves so my fingers were frozen after taking just a few pictures.

9:55 am The moon is still up!

Officially, sunrise was at 10:15 a.m.

10:30 a.m. The sun is coming up behind us and starting to turn the tops of the mountains pink.

Brrr it's cold! Poor Isaiah's nose and cheeks were quite rosy and chapped from the wind even though we were out for just a few minutes!