Tuesday, September 22, 2009

From Beaches to Barns to Books

"He who believes in Me....out of his heart will flow rivers of living water" John 7:38
Hello ALL,
It has been a month since Cannon Beach and I haven't been faithful in my blogging. Sorry about that. It seems like it went so quickly. So I am going to put a lot on here to catch up. But first, the river. In the picture of a river, the river only knows its source. It never knows where it will end up. A river comes up against obstacles and may be blocked, re-routed, slowed down for a while, BUT it continues to flow, where??, it doesn't know. We too are like that river. And too, if we know God, we know our source. And if we focus on our source, God will take us through our obstacles, around them or even remove them. We as a family try and focus on our one true source. We then reach our potential of being a flowing living river of water for Him.
In the last blog entry, we were at Cannon Beach and we had worked on the Memorial benches to Susan. Four teak wood benches. They turned out beautiful. We bought some plaques to fasten onto the benches in tribute to Susan. They too captured the beauty of Susan in description of who she is. "Loyal Friend", "Beautiful Wife", Faithful Servant" and "Loving Mother". Here are pictures of the benches and the kids. If you are ever over in the Cannon Beach area, stop by and see the benches on the porch of the Pacific View Lodge at the Cannon Beach Conference Center.



The week after we got back from Cannon Beach, we then shifted gears and went right into the County Fair and 4H. Mary and Laura did the Sheep livestock project. Mary, Laura and Kayla did the pet rabbit project as well. Mary and Laura did an exceptional job in raising quality animals and well trained sheep too. Mary finished with Reserve Champion in Fitting and Showing of her lamb. Laura made it to the finals in both quality and Fitting & Showing. They really enjoy the sheep project and it showed. Here are some pictures of both Mary and Laura.


Here is Mary getting top showman for her Intermediate Class. She then went on to get Reserve Champion. Mary is turning into a pretty young lady. She just got her braces off, after about a year and a half.

And here is Laura showing her lamb. She too is growing up fast. She has done well in her 4-H career.


And the girls all did pet rabbit. But the highlight to this years rabbit showing was my dear Kayla. This was her first year in 4-H and she happened to take third place in the Junior Class for Fitting and Showing. Her rabbit cooperated for her which can be a huge part of showing rabbit. Kayla put the rabbit on the table to show her rabbit and the rabbit pretty much stayed right where she put it, didn't move much so Kayla was not distracted. Here is a picture of her with her ribbon and rabbit.

Two weeks after the fair, school started. The girls were so excited about starting school. They wanted to go shopping way early to get all of their supplies. It just seemed too early but I was glad to be done with it once the rush was on. But they are plugged in. Mary is on the Canfield Cougar Volleyball A-1 team. She really likes volleyball. Laura is in band with her violin this year at Canfield Middle School with Mary. She is continuing with violin again this year. And Kayla is at Dalton Elementary, alone since Laura moved on to sixth grade at Canfield. She has signed up for Road Crew which is a singing group. Mary and Laura ride the bus to school and Kayla rides with our neighbor Kelly and her kids to Dalton school. So the routine is working. I thank God for working out the details. He seems to do that.
Prayer requests and Praises:
1) Sarah is at home and still in her Nanny position for Jeff. Sarah is a great help around the house. I am so thankful for her. She is looking for additional work to fill in the gap between the nanny work schedules. So pray for some part time work so she can keep busy. Also she is praying about college and a direction there. So join in praying for a calling for her.
2) Hannah has started her nursing job at Coeur d'Alene Pediatrics. It actually started earlier than anticipated. She started two weeks ago and she loves it. She works with some really nice people and she works around kids. Her state board is on September 28th. So she is studying for that. So a prayer request is for Hannah to stay focused on the task in front of her, read and answer the questions with confidence and to stay calmed down. It will be a big relief for her once this is done.
3) Jason moved down to Bend Oregon to live with Leah in the house she bought in Bend. It was a struggle for Jason at first because he didn't know anyone there in Bend. But he applied at Applebees Restaurant as a Host/server. He was one of 80 applicants and Jason got the job. He has also found a church down there and is going to the College group there at the church. Some of his coworkers go to that church also, so that makes it nice for friendships.
4) Nathan and Michelle are doing well. They showed me the baby room that they have been working on. The due date is still Jan 1st. Michelle is doing just fine. They do not know the sex of the baby and we all have our thoughts of whether it's going to be a boy or a girl. Pray for Michelle to stay healthy and strong. And the baby would develop and also stay healthy and strong.
5) Leah is finishing up with her Forest Service Fire fighting job for the summer. Then she will head back to Bend and be with Jason. That will be good to have them together. Leah will keep tabs on Jason. That will be good for Jason to be under Leah's watch and care for a while. She was canning peaches yesterday when I talked with her. She will be working part time for the school district down in Bend. Pray for a teaching position for her to open up.
6) Aaron is in his Senior year at high school. He is still plugged into youth ministries at church as well as Boarders for Christ. Pray for direction and after high school graduation opportunities for Aaron. He will probably move over to Bend and work up at Mount Bachelor and do something in the Bend area while contemplating college.