Wednesdays!

Playing at the beach during jazz class


Our Wednesdays are the busiest day of the week. School is done in the morning and then at 3:30 we head out for Jazz dance lessons that are from 4:15-5:15 in Kenai. While they are there I spend time with my friend whose daughter is in a ballet class at the same time. Sometimes we go to the library, or to the coffee shop or once we were even able to walk on the beach! Then the girls must change quickly so we can grab a bite to eat and race for awanas in Soldotna at 6pm. While they are there Heidi and I can spend some time together which we usually do at the coffee shop and then we head to Fred Meyer to do some grocery shopping. At 8pm we pick up Emma and Madison and finally are able to head home! The girls are doing really well with dance and they don't seem to mind the racing from one place to the next.

Trip to Anchorage 9/21/08

Anniversary

This last weekend Chad and I took a trip to Anchorage to celebrate our 8th anniversary which was really the 9th of September. We had a very generous friend who agreed to watch the girls for a 24 hour period and off we went. The B&B was very nice and private and had an awesome view of the ocean. We were also able to do a whirlwind shopping trip to stock up for the winter on some needed items, especially since I am not sure I will be making another trip to Anchorage before the baby is born. The nicest part of the trip besides spending alone time with Chad was the sun and the beautiful drive from Soldotna to Anchorage and back with the fall colors in full display. I had fun taking lots of pictures.
Fall has to be my most favorite time of year, just because I am a hopeless romantic and I like the rustic coziness that I feel inside as I breathe in the brisk cold air, and the thought of sipping hot chocolate, or in my case coffee, by a warm crackling fire. The smells of pumpkin spice and cinnamon and baking cookies all add to the experience and the thought of Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner makes all the bad parts of winter melt away. I guess maybe that is how I deal with the impossible cold and extremely long dark days (which I am not even in the worst part of Alaska for, when you say goodbye to the sun in September and in 6 months you can say hello to it again!!!). For Chad I know that it sparks his senses because it marks a new season of hunting...even if he may not go as much he would like to or as often as he used to, in Alaska you really need a lot of money or a plane or both to get to the places where the nice big moose, deer, and bear live.

Monday Night Football!

On Monday's we are back to the routine of watching football. The number of people coming to watch this year has been a little sporatic....anywhere from 10-27, so making the right amount of pizza is a little hard. So far we have been making about 10-12 pizza's a week and they are devoured quickly. I say we because this year Chad has kind of taken over the pizza making process because it is just too much for me to get the house ready for that many people and make pizza's for 2 hours while being 7+ months pregnant and be happy too. He does a great job and it makes my life a lot less hectic!

Mushrooms

We have the best climate for growing mushrooms I guess because there are probably 10 different kinds just growing here at camp....not that I know what they all are, but they come in all different shapes, sizes, and colors. I have taken a picture of just a couple but maybe with Emma's science project next year we will try and find and identify all that we can, and then give you an update!!!

Riding Bareback

On Sunday afternoon Chad took the girls for a little horse back riding. Emma and Madison would be over riding a horse at the barn everyday, so we try to get over there so they can ride at least a little. Heidi on the other hand is not so keen on the horses. They intimidate her a little, I don't know it might have something to do with their size! I tried to get her to have her picture taken on the horse and she would have nothing to do with it. I got some other cute pictures of her anyway :)! Next summer we might have a friend give the girls lessons....we'll see :) !! For now it will be left to Chad to let them ride around and give them pointers.

(this is the horse pasture)

Finger Painting!

Playing in the Rain

Persecution in Indian state of Orissa

From my church in Bozeman, MT I recieve many prayer requests from people who attend there. This pray request is from one of the missionaries that Grace supports and he recieved it from a friend that lives in India. I read it and felt the need to share with you what is happening over there.

Friends and Family,

“I have an urgent prayer request that I hope many of you can bring up in your church prayer meetings tonight. I don’t know how much press has been given to the outbreak of fierce persecution in the Indian state of Orissa, but things are out of control. Yet another well known pastor was burned alive several hours ago, and thousands of Christian homes, crops, and churches have been left in ashes by extremist militant Hindus. Several Christian leaders have been doused in kerosene and burned alive and one of these men was a close relative of my fellow student here named “Pitambur.”

Another good friend of mine named Tezh had had his house back in Orissa burned down for the second time since the last outbreak of persecution and his wife, children, and parents are now hiding in the jungle to escape the murderous radical Hindus. The Hindus have announced a goal of converting 5000 Christians back to Hinduism and they say that the killings and destruction will end at that time.

Unfortunately many Christians are beginning to buckle under the pressure and are converting back to save their lives and homes. This is far away from me and the Hindus here do not approve of this at all, but still no one seems willing to put a stop to it.

The poor and uneducated Christians are being targeted while they have no political voice or other means to defend themselves. Many of my classmates have immediate family who are hiding in the jungle to escape with their lives and meanwhile what little they own is being destroyed leaving them without means for survival.

Please take a few minutes to look up this story online and then post, request and spred the word for our brothers who desperately need our prayers for their survival, deliverance, and grace in the fires of this tragedy.

For our brothers,

Aaron

Heb 13:3 “Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.”

Feel free to share this information with your friends and family and remember to pray for these people in this time of persecution. How often we can forget that this is going on all over the world becuase it is not televised or we do not have to experience it on a daily basis as these people do. I feel so blessed to be able to talk about our Lord and express my opinion freely without the fear of being tortured and killed. If you want to learn more about the persecution going on in Orissa, you can go to persecution.com or persecution.org or if you type in persecution in orissa in your search engine it will give you a good list of places that have updates about this and other persections going on around the world.

The Phone!

What is a mother to do with three girls who love to talk on the phone already! My girls love to talk on the phone. They get quite comfy, as you can see Emma here talking to her grandma on the phone, and they could talk for a long time this way! I think that it is the cutest thing to watch. Heidi is my favorite when it comes to talking. She uses anything with buttons, caculators, remotes, play phones, and real phones, and jabbers on and on pacing around the room as she does it. However if someone really talks to her over the phone, that person would just hear heavy breathing!!! :) Oh what will we do when they are all teenagers! Thankfully we still have 7 more years until that happens.

Rasberry Picking!

Today we picked rasberries that we found at the top of the hill on camp. The girls did an excellent job picking and saving most of the berries...they only ate a few! Since the berries were so ripe and very mushy we made them into a nice sauce for icecream or pancakes or whatever instead of freezing them. These I must say are the sweetest and biggest rasberries I have ever seen or tasted! Yummy!

Today is Labor Day and well we are laboring! We started out this morning at 7am with our daughter letting us know that there is a leak from the ceiling into our bathroom downstairs. Neither Chad nor I wanted to get up but felt it was probably a necessity....it was. Downstairs the water was all over in our pantry and bathroom and headed for the laundry room. Upstairs the toilet had been plugged and then flushed, but it did not overflow then....no no it waited until the middle of the night when no one can catch it so we woke up to our lovely mess! Chad is now cutting the huge pile of firewood in our front yard and then he will split it for the upcoming winter. Luckily for us we have an overzealous friend who felt like killing time by cutting the trees down and hauling them over to our house!
I have been working on cleaning the upstairs and sorting through all the clothes that the kids have outgrown. The problem is that they keep growing and that means more clothes to go through! We have also been trying to go through piles and get rid of all the clutter. It is a slow process, but hopefully we can find a place for everything so that it does not build up again. Hopefully we can have everything ready before the new little one arrives!

Chad went halibut fishing on Friday and was able to bring home about 17lbs of meat, which is good, because right now halibut is about $17/lb. so we were able to save a lot of money! It was the most interesting halibut adventure he had ever been on. It was a beautiful day and I think that he had a great time despite some of the crazy mishaps that they went through. That though is his story to tell so you will have to ask him if you want all the details!