Christmas at home

I may have lived in Lynden Washington now for 4 Christmases but I still think of Oregon as HOME. I get giddy as we cross over the Columbia River on the bridge that separates Washington and Oregon. I cannot even explain it, I just start squealing on the inside. STILL. But I love it. I love going home. I thought I would share some pictures of Christmas at my house in Lynden as well as some in Portland. Northern Washington certainly gets more snow.

So Miles and I have a lot of fun cutting down our Christmas Trees. A LOT OF FUN. I grew up having a fake tree so it is a big deal to me to have a REAL tree now that I am married. I remember Dad taking all three of us kids out to get a tree and it was always wet and cold and one of us would be fighting or have to go to the bathroom (as we were in the middle of no where) and then there was the picking of the right tree- and my poor dad would usually end up cutting down two or three other trees as some poor woman needed his help. By this time he was usually cranky- frozen- and this is not even to the part where they had to strap down the tree to the top of the tank of a Volvo that we had and that was always a chore. Needless to say it was onlya few years of that "nonsense" and Mom and Dad got a FAKE tree. I missed the smell of evergreen of Christmas-but even the fake tree was pretty and the tradition grew that the day after Thanksgiving we could set it all up. That was the fun part.

Well, now that I am married we ALWAYS have a REAL tree. We live in the country now so there are beautiful places to cut down trees and so far every year it has been snowing. VERY FUN! Miles and I usually have to find the one with the most personality. Last year we lived in a tiny place and got a very tiny squably looking thing....we named him Charlie because he really was a funny looking tree. Yes, that is right, we even name them.

1st Year 2004-Carol
2nd Year 2005- Chris
3rd Year 2006-Charlie

4th Year 2007-Yule

Every year after Christmas the Boy Scouts come around on the Sat. a week after and pick up the trees that you leave on the sidewalk. Well we left Yule on the sidewalk until a wind storm hit us that night with winds so strong Yule could blow into someones' window. I could not sleep so Miles got up in the middle of the night to throw it in the back of his truck. In the morning Yule was gone. It was pitch black and there is no way that the boy scouts could have seen it in the bed of the truck....Yule was GONE WITH THE WIND. I seriously hope that the dumb tree did not end up inside someone's living room. So funny. Silly tree.

Reflections of 2007 - Answered Prayer and Dreams of 2008

As we started off 2008 Miles and I have been thinking a lot of want God has in store for us. We have been doing a lot of praying and looking into our futures a bit these days. Miles is not yet finished with his thesis, not sure yet about PhD work, and still wants to try for a baby. Miles needed a better job for this to happen as well as God to do a miracle in my body as Endometriosis has its risks and I have been struggling a lot with pain this past year. We have tried for a year and no baby (yet), but God did provide Miles' a job Miles started yesterday at Logos Bible Software. No more Home Depot! Despite the wonderful new job, even if we did get pregnant, in order for us to make our rent I will still need to work - a lot, because Logos is not paying him much more than I make now. So baby may not be a good idea now. Or, our thought is, we could just move. AGAIN (?) Yuck I hate moving!! But we are now looking for a cheaper place. We are kind of hoping some people would move out of the house on Badger Rd at the Buys place(our landlords other place) because we need cheaper rent or that the Lord will provide us a mortgage on a nice little place we can call our own. We did go look at a condo on Aaron street because the mortgage would be about 300 cheaper than our current rent. Crazy…and it was super cute. But we cannot have a baby there (no one under 18 can live there as we found out it is a retirement community) so now we are back to praying. Maybe a baby isn’t what God wants for us for the next few years even, but that is where we are at. Thankful for what we have, and God’s provision, and wondering what the next step is. I suppose we just continue to wait for His direction and timing.

My dad is really struggling still with cancer. It seems that it is getting worse as his body is not recovering from all the “research” the doctors have been doing over the last year. We knew going into these “treatments” that the research is why he was there, and the doctors are very biased towards research, and that is alright, but scary. These studies really were killing him. It was really hard on his systems and his body is just not recovering from the latest dose. I just talked with my mom, and she gave me the latest CT scan results. Dad’s cancer was not lessoned by the latest treatments. Unfortunately it did nothing in terms of helping the cancer so he is pretty sad. Because this is the second round of basically no improvement they had to kick him out of the program. There is nothing more they can do, and he is pretty discouraged. So is my mom. They just thought that the cancer would be beat. She has the right attitude --that now we just allow God to take over the rest and thank Him for every day we have and pray that there are lots and lots but he is done with the medicines. We believe that they were starting to kill him, so I am relieved on that front, but at the same time a little bit sad. My brothers do not understand the seriousness and devastating news that this is. But is really really tough and I think it is harder when there is nothing left that they can physically do to stop the inevitable but allow God to have the glory in what time is left. You know what I mean? From the purely physical/human standpoint -it stinks.
Thanks for the prayers. Thanks so much!!!!

Back to some good things though, here are some more details of Miles’ job.Miles’ new job is amazing. He LOVES IT. And he just started. What an answer to prayer this is. He walked in the place is huge, brand new, and full of friendly faces anxious for him and the “new team” to get started. He is in training for this week, but in the first day computer programming was down just like another foreign language. I am impressed with my man. Logos Bible Software provides coffee, espresso, sodas, bottled water, Sobe, and various other teas and beverages free for the taking all day long. He is so stoked about that. Logos provides a locker room with showers so he can go for a run in downtown B’ham on his breaks and a Fooseball table so he is beyond excited. He also has his own cubical and he is anxious to get into it and make it his own.
Finally no more retail jobs for him! That means we have the same office hours, same holidays paid, additionally benefits, a discount, and weekends off together. There were some weeks I I felt I never saw him because our schedules were so opposite, but now I am looking forward to the same everything which means more fun, communication, meals, and just time-in general- together. His actual job title is Book Designer. He takes books and puts them into electronic format. He gets to use fun fonts and colors, and texts with indents…he is all excited about the indents…where he can use his own creativity to make these books user friendly and all coded correctly. It sounds too intense for me, as these books are in Greek or Hebrew or something and then you have to put them into another language…But he is so smart, and good at it already, so he will go far with this company.I am excited for him to be in the academic community again. He gets to read commentaries all day long. How perfect for Miles is that? Then he takes those commentaries and put those online. This job will keep Miles in the world of scholars which should encourage him to be on top of his own academics. Hopefully in the weekends to come he will remain completely focused and actually finish his MA and then he can decide whether or not to then go on for his PhD. I am excited for him and it is soo good to finally see his excitement in what he is doing. It is so neat!

Oh my goodness, I am thrilled!!!!!!!!!!

Praise the Lord!

We are continuing to praise Him and may He bless you all in 2008