Our New Home!!!

After November 22, we will own half a house here in Silicon Valley! I say half because our wonderful church recognizes the out of control housing prices and will own the other half of our house.

Closing is Nov. 22 and we'll hopefully be moving soon after that. So, we have about three weeks to pack up! Reminiscent of seminary days, but this time we get to move to something that's ours!

God truly has His hand in this process and we are so thankful for all the people that helped make this happen. We are blessed to have a wonderful real estate agent and mortgage broker in our congregation who have been instrumental in all of this. The church voted on giving us housing assistance last Sunday and by Tuesday we knew where we wanted to live! They had to work fast, and we appreciate that.

We'll send you all our new address soon!

Like Mother Like Daughter

Two Sundays ago, I really hurt my neck. So for about a week and a half I have been pretty uncomfortable. I especially hurt at the end of the day after I've been lifting children and trying to do all the normal things that the day requires. Many evenings over the last week or so, I've asked Nate to do a lot of the lifting when he was home. Jenna must have picked up on that.

A few days ago, I asked her to pick up her toys in the living room. She looked up at me with her right hand cupped on her neck as she tilted it to the side and said, "I can't pick those up Mommy because my neck hurts!" She did the same thing this morning when I asked her to pick up her books from the floor. Both times I had to keep myself from laughing in front of her because I didn't want her to think she could get away with it like I did!

She's a smart little stinker:)

A New Call

It is finally official! Mt. Olive has called Nate as their Sr. Pastor!

Nate was called here right out of seminary as the associate pastor and worked with a great mentor, Mike Gibson for a year. Mike recieved a call to Southern California in June and was gone in August. Nate has been the only pastor since then. For about four months, Nate has been leading our church through the transition and enjoying his new responsibility and the ability to try new things.

Mt. Olive really is an exceptional church with people who are willing to take a risk for the kingdom of God. Come on . . . they called Nate, who's only 30, as their sr. pastor! We are excited to be part of what's happening here and know that God has us right where He wants us.

Another blessing that comes along with this call is that we get to buy our own home. Or part of a home! We will enter into an equity share with the congregation , so we hope to be in a new house sometime soon! We've moved four times in seven years of marriage and we absolutely despise the whole proces of moving. But, somehow this will be lots of fun knowing that are not renting anymore. Our money goes towards something . . . and we can paint the walls any color we want:)

Vacation!

It's been a while since my last post . . . sorry. We have a good excuse though. We were on vacation! Two, actually!

First, we went to Michigan for my friend, Katrina's wedding, and visited family too. It was a whirlwind trip, but so wonderful to be a part of Katrina's wedding and catch up with old friends and family.

Travelling is hard with kids though. Someone is always sick. Last time it was an ear infections and the stomach flu. This time Abby got another ear infection and Jenna got carsick twice. Not big deals, but pains on vacation.

The relaxing vacation came afterwards. My mom came home with us and stayed with the girls for five days while we went to Palm Springs with our good friends, the Lexows whom we met on vicarage in Houston and love dearly. The above picture is of me and Tamara. We had a blast. We sat by the pool, ate out a lot, and drank wine without worrying about being pregnant or nursing. (If you know me and Tamara, for our whole friendship, one of us has either been pregnant or nursing and having wine together was never an option).

Both vacations were awesome, but we're thankful to be home and back into a routine. Isn't it amazing what going three timezones away with kids does to you?

Peace out (as Jenna would say)