Thanksgiving Treasures

Memories are treasures. Aren't they? We had a fun time making memories this Thanksgiving. My mom drove back to SC with us and spent Thanksgiving week at our house. It was so nice to have her see our trailer as well as just experience life in our neck of the woods. We were also able to drive to my sister's house in NC on Thanksgiving day. Ethan was so excited to see his cousins again (he calls them "my friends") as well as Dixie, the dog we were watching all summer. One memory is hearing my 3 year old nephew say "Why is her tummy so big?" as I got up from our Thanksgiving table. Maybe he thought I ate too much :-) After nap time we had the boys decorate gingerbread houses. My son let me do all the decorating while he sat there and pigged out on marshmallows :-)

Family Fun & Fall Favorites

We love the fact that we are now stationed at home until baby #2 makes his appearance. It is so wonderful to be able to spend time with family. Here are a few pictures of Ethan and the fun he's been having with his cousins...

Ethan couldn't figure out how to get his shoes off. Leave it to a girl :-) She does so much better with shoes than he does!!

Best of Friends

Ethan was proud to show of his "fif wheel" to his cousins when we arrived home. It was like a big play place for them!

Enjoying the fall leaves in Pennsylvania!

Visiting Papa at his store, Home Depot. Ethan was fascinated by the forklift and all the Christmas decorations. He even got an orange apron like Papa.

So glad we were able to see my Pop-pop (Ethan's great-grandpa)!

Ethan is ready to help in Grandma's kitchen

We had such a nice trip to Pennsylvania to see my family and church. Wish we lived closer! (I am 7 months pregnant by the way with boy #2)

The Case of the Missing Hat

As we have been traveling, I have been teaching myself to crochet. It helps to pass the time while we are driving and it keeps my "creative juices" flowing :-) One of my creations this fall was a winter hat (as modeled above by a cute little boy). It was fun and relatively easy to make. At the beginning of this month, he finally had a chance to wear it! As I was cleaning up after his first day of wearing the hat, I couldn't find it anywhere! We were packing up our trailer at the time, so I thought maybe it got mixed up with all that I had packed so far. I couldn't get it out of my mind though. Not that it was an expensive hat, but I had put a lot of time into making it, so I really wanted to find it. Well, at the same time I was looking for a missing hat, I was also wondering what had happened to the pile of trash bags I had sitting outside our trailer waiting to go to the dumpster. It had mysteriously disappeared during nap time. I normally wouldn't care about that, but the place we were staying that week was back in the woods, and I was often "home" alone. Naturally, I started to wonder if there was someone creeping around outside my trailer taking trash and a random hat that I may have dropped outside. Well, I put my husband to work on the case when he got home that day, but we had no answers by the time bedtime rolled around. The next day being Sunday, I scoured the church for the missing hat while my husband searched the dumpster for me, in case whoever took our trash took the hat by accident. (what a sweet guy!) Nothing turned up with either endeavor, but as we were heading back to our trailer, my husband noticed a dirty diaper in the woods a few feet from our doorstep and then about 20 feet away, the rest of the stolen trash. Hoping that the hat would be there too, he looked around the area, but did not find it :-( Apparently Greenville must have unusually strong squirrels to have carried the trash that far away, not just one bag, but 3. And judging from the size of the acorns around our trailer, they must be well fed squirrels too. Well, we went inside, still very disappointed that the hat was no where to be seen. At this point I had started making another hat and hoping that whoever took the first one really needed it. Before church that evening, my husband was packing up the trailer and walked to the opposite side of the trailer where the trash incident occurred. There, about 20 feet away in the opposite direction he saw the hat!! It looked like the squirrels had tried as hard as they could to tear it apart to make a nest out of it, but the seams were too tight and they just left it! O happy day!! I had my hat back, although it looked pretty pitiful. But with a little TLC, it is back to normal and ready to be used. Who knew what a bunch of squirrels could do!

God still answers prayer!

I don't know about you, but I've often read missionary stories with wonder as they tell of specific answers to their prayer. At times I finish reading a book and think how wonderful it would to be that missionary. Their faith in God always seems much stronger than mine will ever be, and they always seem to receive such amazing answers to their prayers. I often doubt that I could ever be like them.

As these thoughts swirl around in my head, the Holy Spirit frequently, yet gently guides my thoughts in another direction...I may never actually be like them by experiencing the same adventures in their life of faith. I may never have the same prayer requests they have, but I do bow before the SAME God. Even though my requests may seem small and insignificant compared to the great victories read about in missionary stories, my God receives just as much glory in answering my prayers as He did in answering their prayers because both of us are depending on Him.

So as I share these simple answers to prayer, glorify God with me and see what simple requests you can bring before Him to receive your own answers.

If the shoe fits...

My husband has been in need of black dress shoes for a long time. I don't even know how long...the only way I found out was by asking him why he wasn't wearing his black suit to church. He then finally showed me the problem with his shoes. (Obviously a big male/female difference...he just stops wearing something to solve the problem, I on the other hand would be frantically looking for new shoes.) Church shoes can be on the expensive side of things, so I started praying right away for some new shoes for my husband. This was sometime during the summer months. I didn't feel like it was really a "need" because he has brown shoes and a brown suit that he was still able to wear. Off and on I would price shoes in the store to see if they would fit in our budget. Off and on I would pray for the shoes. Several Mondays ago, the Lord answered! I hadn't even thought about it for sometime. I was visiting a thrift store with a pastor's wife we were spending the week with. It was half price Monday!! I had a few things in mind to look for while there, but shoes were not one of them. It was so hot and crowded in there too that I really wasn't focused very well on getting a "good deal." Well, while allowing her to have time to shop I scanned the store over a few times. I really just found myself stuck in the men's aisle with people on either side of me. While waiting to get out, I saw men's black shoes right in front of me in excellent condition. I picked them up with little faith that they would be my husband's size, but they were! And they fit him too! What a great reminder that God hears our prayers and remembers them, even when we may have forgotten.

Our old truck and hospital bills

At the beginning of our journey this fall, I was hospitalized overnight for what turned out to be the flu. Since then we have been praying that God would specifically provide for whatever bills we would receive. Upon returning home from our travels, there were several bills in the mail but also a surprise check! Somehow I must have overpaid one of our doctors last year and they were sending me a check for the discrepancy. The following Sunday we learned that we were finally able to sell Jonathan's faithful but now old and dead truck. We never even imagined we would get paid for it. We thought we would have to pay someone to take it away :-) Those two blessings combined were enough to cover the costs of the pressing doctor bills at the time. Another great encouragement!!

I just wanted to end with a verse that I have been bringing before the Lord often in my prayers. "And my God SHALL SUPPLY all your need according to His RICHES in glory by Christ Jesus." Phil. 4:19

Be Still...

We heard a wonderful message at church this morning about standing still and allowing God to be God. It was one of those messages that was exactly for me to hear. Now that we are home I have been looking back to all that happened to us during our travels. Many of the things that came our way were not circumstances that we would have asked for (we have not even left home if we knew ahead of time what was before us.) For me it wasn't just the "big" things like car repairs or illness, it was also the small things like missing family and friends, having to use yet another gas station bathroom, putting my son to bed way past his bedtime again... that caused me to question why God has called us into this ministry right now. Whether big or small problems, it does no good for me as a Christian who has hope in Christ and the promise of His CONTINUAL presence with me to question whether He knows what is best or to cry out to Him with a complaining heart when things seem unfair.

Today's message focused how the Lord lead the children of Israel to be "trapped" between the Red Sea and the Egyptian army. Moses' command to the Israelites was to "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord" (Ex. 14:13). Standing still at that point doesn't seem like the first option I would I have chosen. I would instinctively say "Run!" or "Hide!" But when they stood still, God did greater things than they could have ever imagined!

It may feel at times that the Lord has backed me into a corner and I have the option of either trying to find my own way out or simply standing still to see what God will do AND what He wants to teach me through it. I know how hard it is for me to stand still and wait for God when I don't physically see anything taking place or I don't have the answer handed to me in clear terms. But, I do have the unfailing promise from God that He will never leave me nor forsake me (Hebrews 13:5).

Las Vegas & Grand Canyon

It has been neat how our basketball tournaments have taken us places that you always hear about, but don't always get to see. Two weeks ago we had a great time helping a new church in Las Vegas host a tournament. I've never seen such a large city like Las Vegas. Not that I haven't seen large cities. It is just different from any large city I've ever seen. Maybe it's because as you are driving through the desert to get there, you see basically nothing and then, boom...there's the city. It was also unique because there are no trees or mountains to block your view, you have a clear view of the whole city which is pretty breathtaking at night. And it is one of the cleanest cities I've been to...clean as in no trash, very well kept, not clean as in the billboards etc. We took one part of an afternoon to go see the Bellagio fountains in the downtown part. They were amazing!! We saw them during the daytime and I am sure they would have been even more impressive at night, but I didn't really want to be downtown at night. Here is a picture of our family near the fountains.

After our week in Las Vegas, we began our journey home. We left on Sunday and finally reached our house late Thursday night!! We were able to stop by the Grand Canyon on Monday as we drove through Arizona. We just had part of the morning to spend there, but enjoyed every minute of it. In trying to describe the Grand Canyon to Ethan, I told him we were going to see a "big hole." I guess it stuck with him because sometimes he still talks about seeing the "big hole."

Here is what my husband does at the Grand Canyon. I should have just left him there...



Oh the trip home...maybe you can imagine what it might be like with a pregnant mommy and a two year old. (daddy did fine :-) Mommy kept asking to go to the bathroom every 15 minutes and begging daddy to switch lanes to the less bumpy one. The two year old was like a broken record..."Daddy, go outside??" Let's just say, lollipops do wonders at keeping kids quiet. We all have the Curious George and Baby Einstein movies memorized, even Ethan! I did finish croqueting a baby blanket on the trip and Ethan learned how to look out the window better and find ways to entertain himself. Apart from seeing miles of nothing, we were able to see the largest cross in the western hemisphere, the Hoover Dam, and many other things that left us wondering ;-) By personal experience, I could also tell you what roads NOT to drive on while pregnant.

But for now, it is good to be home again for a little while. Time to rest and let our bodies remember what it is like to live at sea level with humidity and in eastern standard time. I'll tell you how long it takes to adjust :-)

Our San Francisco Treat

We have enjoying our stay in San Leandro this week. It is so nice to be back at sea level!! It is surprisingly cooler here too. My husband has been here a few times, but I have never been in California before. We saw some beautiful orchards all along the way out here. I had been looking forward to visiting San Francisco while here, but after the breaks went out on our truck, I didn't think we would make it. Thankfully the problem was fixed in enough time for us to take a quick trip to San Francisco yesterday afternoon. We took the train in which was one of our little guy's favorite parts. Here he is on the Barta.

Once in the city, we decided to take the trolley to the pier. After waiting for quite some time for it to arrive, we finally got on a crowded trolley. At this point I was carrying little guy and my husband was handling the folded up stroller. I had to walk almost the whole length of the trolley before a woman actually stood up and let me have her seat. What happened to being a gentleman? Anyway, we made it out to the pier. It was a beautiful day with no fog! We were able to see the bridge...



Lots of boats...




Alcatraz...



and the sea lions...



Here is our family observing the day...(I am around 21 weeks pregnant)

Our wagon train across the West

As we have been traveling many miles across the west, I look at mountains like these (and even bigger) and wonder how in the world women went with their husbands and children in wagon trains in order to settle out west. Not to mention there were probably many women who were pregnant like me bumping around on those rough roads, not exactly knowing where they would settle or what it would be like. I think I would have called my husband crazy if he asked me to do that! I'm having a hard enough time as it is with the paved bumpy roads.

Well our travels have brought us out to Utah. Here are a few pics of what we've been doing.



This was the location of our second week in Utah. Ferron. The town didn't even have a stop light. Oh so nice and simple and quiet!! I loved it for the week, but don't think I could live there b/c Walmart and any shopping was about 45 minutes away. If you look closely you can see our trailers in the background.





There were many different places to hike while there. This is the only place that I ventured out to. While I was standing in the spot where my picture with Ethan was taken, those on the rock above me kept saying..."Is that a rattlesnake?" I moved out of that spot in a hurry!! It was a definitely a rattlesnake hiding in the rock above me! Gross!!





We had lots of fun at the park in Ferron!! The little girl is my neice. Since I don't have a little girl to pamper, I like to take time to paint her nails and do her hair when she lets me. She is little guy's age and they have many adventures together. This park even had a climbing wall that little guy was ready to conquer all by himself. Thankfully daddy's a bit taller than him to get him over the top.



Here's what my husband does when he's not working. And I wonder where my son gets it from :-)

We also spent a week in Salt Lake City. Took a quick trip out to the great salt lake. It was a long walk from the "salt beach" to the actual water and a storm was coming up over the water so I never really got to stick my foot in it, but here are a few pics.



Little guy enjoyed the gift store and had his first taste of salt water taffy.



Couldn't leave out these pics of haircutting time. He's never looking at the camera b/c he's watching his favorite, Curious George.




We visited the Mormon Tabernacle before we left Salt Lake, but I didn't take any pics b/c my husband had already been there, done that. The grounds and buildings were beautifully kept. One part of the visitor center has a large statue of Jesus in the heavens and at various intervals a voice comes over the loud speakers as though it was "Jesus'" voice. We took little guy up to that room and the first thing he said was "Look, David!" (meaning David and Goliath David) As we left the many mormon cities in Utah to drive to CA, we had to drive through parts of Las Vegas. It was so eye opening to think of the vastly different ways that Satan blinds the eyes of the lost so that they will not hear or believe the glorious gospel of Christ. The mormons were very good kind people and for the most part clean cut. They "believe" in Jesus along with so many other things in order to make it to heaven. They are VERY religious. Las Vegas on the other hand seemed to be in a state of constant motion. Everywhere you turned there were things to look at and places to go. So many distractions, how would they stop to hear the word of God? What a deceiver our enemy is!

Looking forward to writing more about what we've seen here in San Francisco. Next week we'll be stationed in Vegas, so I'm sure I'll have more to say about it! (please excuse spelling errors. I'm too tired to proof read)

Praying for Others

Have you ever had someone just "pop" into your mind that maybe you haven't seen for a while? That happens to me quite often! This poem is a great reminder to pray for those "random thoughts." I believe the Lord brings people to our mind for a specific purpose, so take time to pray for others!

I can not tell why there should come to me
A thought of someone miles and years away,
In swift insistence on the memory,
Unless there is a need that I should pray.
We are too busy to spare thought
For days together of some friends away;
Perhaps God does it for us -- and we ought
To read His signal as a sign to pray.
Perhaps just then my friend has fiercer fight,
A more appalling weakness, a decay
Of courage, darkness, some lost sense of right;
And so, in case he needs my prayers -- I pray.

2 year old in the house!!

After posting so many serious thoughts, I thought it was high time for a fun update!

Happy Birthday "Days"

We had a few different birthday celebrations for Ethan's 2nd birthday. According to my husband, I go crazy when it comes to celebrating birthdays. But to me, birthdays should be special and fun and something you remember for a long time. You will only turn 2 once :-) It was so different this year to plan a party, invite friends and actually get party bags together. Never had to think about these things before!! We had a fun time at a nearby park with cousins and a few friends. It was hard to pick a "theme" for Ethan because he likes so many different things. I chose to go with a dump truck theme (hence the truck on the birthday cake). I crushed up oreo cookies to use as dirt for the bulldozer to drive on. One of the little party attendees was quite concerned that there was actually dirt on the cake and wasn't so sure if he wanted to eat it :-)


For a while after the party, Ethan kept saying, "Happy Birthday to Ethan," and thinking all presents that he saw were from him. One funny flashback of something that happened before his birthday... I chose to hide his birthday presents from us in our closet. I didn't work too hard at hiding them, although they were out of sight. One day after realizing Ethan was upstairs and very quiet, I walked into my bedroom to see him coming out of my closet holding his birthday presents! So thankful that kids his age are easily distracted!! He was excited to open that present later, but somehow it seemed like he was expecting it :-)

On his actual birthday, we found ourselves in Colorado, quite a ways from home. I still tried to make it a special day with balloons and streamers and a few presents. We were able to celebrate with the rest of the team traveling with us after supper. Ethan is definitely becoming an expert at blowing out candles!

Everyday Adventures

Ethan has a love for keys. Not just any old plastic keys. Oh no, they have to be the keys mommy and daddy have to use everyday. He prefers to hold one set of keys in each hand. Then he likes to go over to the door and try to lock or unlock it. Sometimes, like in this picture, he packs up his bag or pail with toys, gets his keys and says "Bye, Mommy." Curious as to where he is going, he tells me, "The store."

There have been many times that I am about to leave to go somewhere and, you guessed it, I can't find my keys. Thankfully my son is very predictable. I've figured out his hiding places :-)

Our next adventure is in the area of music. I am far from thinking my child will ever be some famous musician. But he does love to play the piano! He is sure to have the song book right in front of him. As he "plays" he is singing at the top of his lungs. Then he stops, turns the page in the song book and continues singing at the top of his lungs. Now, as we travel, we don't have a piano. He still comes to me at times and says, "Mommy, sing." So I get out the song book and he sits down on the couch and then says, "Mommy, music." (pointing to the cd player and trying to tell me to put some music on for him to sing to) Just recently he mastered singing most of Jesus Loves Me along with me.

The last adventure for now is actually one of my own. I have tried for a few years to make a successful and delicious homemade pie crust. I have failed for years too :-) My mother-in-law so graciously came over one day this summer to set me straight. She is an expert pie crust maker!! I think and hope I learned something from her. We did make two pie crusts together and they both tasted delicious. Now the next step would be to make one on my own. I'll have to let you know how that goes. Here is a pic of the cherry pie we made together.