Better late than never, right?

One discipline that I've struggled with over time is journaling. It's no surprise to me that I don't update the blog that often.

The Bakers are doing quite well, feeling overwhelmed by all that God is doing around us.

The church has moved into their new building and are near the end of their search for my replacement, hiring a full time children's pastor in my place, I'm quite excited to see the light at the end of the tunnel of this tri-career time in our lives.

Young Life in Surprise is going GREAT with the volunteer leaders doing a fantastic job loving kids and sharing God's love with them. We continue to pray for finances as we still are short of our goal to come on staff full time.

Rachelle continues in her stability with her part time physical therapy to special needs kids, working with many of the same families that she has for years.

Kate is our mini-teacher and super reader, with a very sweet and kind heart, taking extra care of a girl with special needs in her class.

Ryan is a fantastic little ball of energy that is so funny and often surprises with his silly comments and desire to wrestle.

On another note, we purchased (and expect delivery tomorrow) of our new camera, so I hope to gain better knowledge with photos and share some of my work.

Ryan's Biopsy

Biopsy procedure went well today. Ryan was so great, what a blessing! He had nothing to eat or drink and was not taken to the operating room until 9:30am (up at 6 am). He was in good spirits the whole time, enjoying the toys at PCH! The people there are so so great! Ryan loved getting a stuffed animal and trying on the mask they would give him the medicine through. When they wheeled him to the operating room, he gave us a hug and kiss and did not fuss one bit - he had his blanket and new stuffed animal and the nurse was talking it up with him about something with a balloon they were going to do, so Ryan was happy. The procedure took 1/2 the time is was supposed to and Ryan came out of the anesthesia fine. His first words were "I want a milkshake" (we told him that we would get him one on the way home). He did not like that the nurse wanted him to drink some juice - too tired/groggy and all he wanted was the milk shake. Ryan slept most of the day today and complained of a tummy ache and headache here and there, but that was all.

We find out the results one week from today, when we get to drive back to PCH again to meet with the surgeon and find out if Ryan needs another surgery. At least he was not traumatized by this surgery at all. In fact, I think he will be excited to go there again! He keeps talking about "when the doctors fix my bum bum". I pray they can!

Thanks for all of your prayers!

Rachelle for the Bakers

Milestone

We've hit another major milestone in the Baker household.

She's been trying for so long, but finally it caught on today after much practice.

Rachelle can hula-hoop for the first time in her life.

Congratulations cards can be sent to....

Prayer Request

We took Ryan to a pediatric surgeon on Wed after being referred by the GI doctor concerning his bowel problem. The surgeon confirmed that all of the pooping problems are from his Hirschsprung's disease. Looking back, we now see that we have been a bit nieve that Ryan's problems were behind us. As the surgeon said, once you have Hirschsprung's, you always have Hirschsprungs - and explained to us that Ryan's colon will never be "normal". After another thorough rectal exam (not fun for Ryan, but he is getting so used to them, as he just takes his legs right up off the exam table and waits for the doctors to investigate the area while the doctor is still listening to his heart!!), the surgeon advised that Ryan's muscles in that area are very tight. Also, she said that after looking at his barium enema, stools are just floating around loosly, so in short, the end part of his colon is too tight to pass stools, while other parts of the colon are not doing their job to get the stools compacted and down to the end (this is such a fun subject to read about isn't it?). Anyways, this is why Ryan cannot poop when he wants to and why poop comes out when he does not even know it is going to come out - I guess stools just keep building up inside his colon until there is too much and then they seep out around the tight muscle area. Enough of the details...

On Sept 11th, Ryan goes in for a biopsy of his colon at PCH - unfortunately he has to be put under anesthesia. If the ganglion cells are not present, they will have to schedule another surgery to remove more of his colon. There still is a good chance that all of the needed ganglion cells are present and his muscles are just tight - I guess this is common to Hirschsprungs. In that case, other measures will have to be tried to loosen up the muscles and try to get his colon working a bit better.

Thanks for your prayers....specifically for the biopsy to go well and the next step to be very clear, as well as for Ryan's self esteem, as this 3 yr old potty training age is a hard age to have a problem with bowels that he can't control - he is starting to get frustrated and embarrassed.

Thanks!
Bakers

Pic

We have not changed mucho, but the kids have.

Here's a recent pic of the two cuties.

They call me coach.

One of the great joys of YL and it's ministry to kids, is the fact that I get paid to hang out with kids. One of the ways that I thought would be most convenient for me to get to know them is to volunteer coach with the Cross Country coach.

I really didn't realize how much I missed coaching. I have been out there three times already and have been able to memorize all of the kids names.

Another thing. The first day I was out, I figured I'm still in pretty good shape. I stayed with the varsity guys for some mile repeats. "Hey", I thought to myself, "I can still make varsity on this team"

Then I went out Thursday. Wow, it was hot and we ran far. I should say I ran pretty far and they ran really far. Then I climbed into the golf cart with the other coach and met the team back at the school. Running in 110 degree heat is really tough and I was not prepared for it.

Today I went again. I realized my mortality and did more coaching and less running. Still sore, but was able to help the guys finish a strong workout.

I love my new job.

Slacker McSlacks a lot

Well, I see that it has been some time since I have actually taken the time to type, actually better than two months.

Here's the lowdown on the Bakers in convenient bullet format for those who have other things to read.

• Bakers had 3/4 of the Swanks out for a visit in late July. Appearantly the head of households don't seem to make these trips.
• The over 30 Bakers took 2 nights away from the under 30 Bakers to celebrate their 10th ann'y in San Diego, where we did some beach running, visited the Gennaros, did some shopping at a lot of sleeping in.
• The Bakers moved. Again. Not kidding. This time to a house that God has blessed us with, that has an especially comfy guest room for anyone travelling through Phx. This also happened the day after we got back from our SD trip. Again, not kidding.
• Keith is now officially on staff with Young Life, striving to reach kids in the Surprise area with the Good News of Christ.
• Kate started Kindergarten! It was an exciting first day that Kate was more ready for than Rachelle or I. Rachelle cried, my eyes sweated a little (it was hot) and Kate has been more and more comfortable with school and is doing very well.

I hope that you find this posting a convient read that simply catches you up on the 'stuff' of the Bakers.

We are praying for each of you, and appreciate the same with numerous changes in the famlily right now.

Swim time

The summer in AZ means lots of time logged in the pool. The kids are getting quite good at it. Kate has the freestyle stroke and back stroke down and is working on the butterfly and breast stroke at lessons. Here's some videos that I took today while Rachelle worked.

YL Staff

Rachelle and I met last week with John Irwin, the regional director with YL in the area and decided that our family would join staff on a prt-time basis to help get ministry going in the Surprise area.

We will officially be moving as soon as we find a house in Surprise and can close on it. Please pray for that process, as we have a home that we LOVE, but so do many others, so we are in a multiple offer situation with a forclosure.

We are very excited to get going and begin reaching out to kids in the Surprise area.

Vacation

A couple of weeks ago, our family went separate ways for vacation time.

I took 3 boys from Surprise (our new ministry area) and went with the 90 or so others from the Northwest Valley on an 18 hour bus ride to northern California and YL's Woodleaf.

It was a great time for many of these kids who had never experienced YL before, seeing them go from not so sure about this stuff to going all out in participation. From the mud obstacle wars to the mud wars, high ropes course, tower of terror and ridge runners, these boys ran full-on into their fears while learning to trust in their leaders and trust in God. Each day we had time (or two) to sit in small groups and discuss what all of this "God stuff" was about. I was blessed by all of the open and honest feelings that were shared along with difficult stories about life and what really happens.

There were about 300 kids from parts of CA, ID and AZ, and I would estimate that 50-75 stood up at the "say-so" and dedicated their life to Christ (still causes chills). What a blessing.

I hope to get Rachelle to write soon about her trip to TX with the kids. Here's one of my favorite pics from the trip.

Separate ways

Rachelle and I are heading separate ways tomorrow.

I head off for a week at Young Life outreach camp north of Sacramento and Rachelle and the kids go to visit the cousins in Dallas, even Rachelle's parents head off to Lake Tahoe.

I am dreading the 17 hours on the bus, but looking forward to bringing kids to the foot of the cross to check this Jesus guy out. Please pray for the time that we are up there. Pray especially for safe travels. The school that we do ministry at suffered the loss of 3 classmates during a charter bus accident over winter break, so there are some fragile nerves getting onto the charter bus to travel over night through CA.

Also, pray for safety and smooth sailing for Rachelle and the kids, it's never easy to travel with two ornery kids alone. Last trip home took 14 hours because of lovely TX weather.

Thanks for the prayers.

R.I.P. Fluffinator Baker ????-5/14/08

Yesterday we noticed flies around Fluffs cage, which we attributed to the warm weather and rabbit smell.

Turns out Fluff had an infection on his backside, complete with maggots and fly eggs.

They wanted $178 to attempt to clean the wound and there wasn't any promise of a full recovery.

R.I.P. Fluff

Kate handled it well, considering everything (did not know anything of this until 5 pm). So she lost her rabbit quickly! She went to the vet with Rachelle- we figured we would have him put down so wanted her to be able to say good bye and have closure on it. We are proud of her

Catch and Release

So appearantly ducks poop a LOT, so it was only about a week into their little lives that we decided that it was time for Peg and the gang to move to the big urban pond just around the corner from our house.

Here's some of the exciting footage

Here's me capturing mama duck first

If you ever need ducklings caught, just call Kate.

We now got to visit at the release site daily, and happy to report that Jack appears to be a very good and protective daddy and the family (well 5 of the 8 ducklings have made it) seem to be enjoying life in the pond.

I fought the hills and the hills won....

Today was the Whiskey Row Half Marathon in Prescott, AZ. The elevation change was rolly and went from 5,500 to 6,600 ft elevation.

I thought that the elevation would kick my little behind, but it turns out that the hills beat the elevation to the punch.

I think me being sick and tossing my cookies on Thursday night didn't help me being ready (I didn't have much of an appetite to carbo-load) so I was a bit dissapointed with the time, but I finished without pain.

I took 58/209 men and 9th in my age division. I was only beat by about 25 of the 228 women and I wooped the 12 year old! (something I have not always been able to say)

Here we go again

I've done some dabbling in 1/2 and full marathon running and always seem to get hurt toward the end of my training time or during the actual race.

I've set a goal of a HEALTHY 1/2 marathon. I set my training schedule and only allowed myself to sign up if I completed 100% of my training runs for the first 6 weeks of my 10 week training schedule.

I completed that, healthy none the less, and this Saturday marks the completion of my first healthy 1/2 marathon, right?

I did forget to mention one thing.... I signed up for the Whiskey Row 1/2 Marathon in Prescott, AZ. This is significant because it's considered to be one of the, if not THE, hardest marathons in America. For the 1/2, the race starts at 5,500 ft elevation and the turnaround is at 6,600 ft elevation. That's a lot of elevation change for 6.55 miles.

If you think of it on Saturday, say a little prayer for the race in the morning...that is right after you laugh at me for being so foolish.
:-)

The things we will do...

As we get closer to the summer, it looks more and more like we'll be moving to Surprise. With this comes lovely school choices (said sarcastically) The school district in that area is one that I used to teach in, but is one that doesn't have a great reputation for being solid. The problem is that the district is growing so rapidly (they've added 14 schools of about 1,000 each from 2003-2008) that they can't afford to bring in a ton of experienced teachers, so they have to bring in newbies, great for energy, bad for experience.

As I've been looking at schools out there I began to think of the teachers that I taught with and would want my kids to have. 3 immediately came to mind. I started searching and found that all 3 were independently at the same school. As I researched the school more, it's a great school that centers everything around Science, Health, Math and Technology, with my Master's in Education Technology, this really interests me.

I researched how to get in and apparently first-come first served on the day that they begin accepting the applications. I made plans to get up at 3am or so to be one of the first for "list". Now the list was no guarantee, as they don't know if there were going to be spots or not.

With that, I began getting nervous the night before, so I just decided to pack up the Mountain Dew, laptop, chairs, blankets and DVDs and show up. At 9pm. I only thought myself a nutcase as I sat there for 10 minutes alone, as #2 showed up at 9:10pm.

Kate is officially the first kindergartner on the list. We're praying that she's able to get it, especially after my 11 hours in line.

Happy Birthday to you.. and you... and you... and you... and you...wow

Today is a special day here. It's Kate and Ryan's cousin Makaila's birthday.

That's not the main reason for the post. It also happens to be the birthday of 9 new ducklings that have been incubating in our back yard. So adorable. Here they are interacting with our kids.

Willow Creek

As I type this I am sitting in the basement of Willow Creek Church in Chicago, IL.

This facility is something to see. I say basement, but I would guess that in the room, there are easily 200 people, and there is another just like it flanking the 3 story waterfall.

This conference (Children's ministry) has been a good one as they have kept Christ at the center. Yesterday's second session was over an hour of worship and we took communion.

One thing that I see in all of this that they put on is one thing; excellence.

They do not stray from doing everything with excellence with God. I agree that when looking at the waterfall(s) and escalators in the mall-like lobby of the main sanctuary, it could be easy to get lost in the awe of it and think of how all of the money could have been spent on something better.

I've tried to look at it from a different perspective. If we are reaching out to friends and family who do not know Christ, we want to create an atmosphere that they can come and learn more about Christ where they do not feel indimidated. They atmosphere should be warm and welcoming and make you feel like you belong here. I got that when I first arrived.

While I agree that there's no importance with numbers and size, way to go in creating a comfortable and welcoming atmosphere, where the people of Willow Creek can bring friends and family to learn more about the Savior.

Time is of the essence

In every real estate contract and lease, this line appears buried on the page of "lawyer isms"

I thought about it as I drifted off last night and how, as a Christian, I should take such a phrase to heart. Time is truly of the essence with every relationship you have. Whether someone has placed their trust in Christ as the Lord of their life, or whether they have bitterness toward Christians, the time you spend with them is truly significant.

I think back to time that I've spent with some of my high school friends lately and realize I need to concentrate on the essence of the moment and how I may lift that person up and point them closer to the foot of the cross.

Also, time with my family is of the essence. Too often, I take them for granted as I selfishly watch TV on the couch, rather than realizing I don't have an eternity with them at home and me with a flexible schedule.

That is my prayer, that I would have the wherewithal to realize the essence of every moment.

Nice Surprise

About a month ago, I made my weekly trip to Sprout's (the local fresh food market) for our weekly supply of fresh fruit and veggies. I paid for everything, put the kids in the car and drove off (notice I did not mention put the groceries in the car-DOH) I noticed about 1/2 hour later (after my weekly trip to Trader Joe's) and came back to find that nobody turned the groceries in, so I re-purchased my goodies and wrote off the $15 as a learning experience.

Today was the first time that I made the trip since that incident. We always use Juanita to check out because she and Ryan have a special bond. She asked me today about what happened and if anyone took care of me. I told her that they looked, but nothing ever came of it. She then explained to me how she thinks that they need to take care of their clients better and proceeded to give me a $15 credit toward my groceries for the day.

What a nice surprise that she would think of it and that she would do something about it!

My son's a champ

Ryan is taking to this potty training thing like a champ.

He's had 3 or 4 accidents and none in the last two days, which today included his day that he spends in the playroom at Kate's preschool.

He got all of the ladies who run the playroom dancing the "Ryan's going peepee in the big boy potty" dance.

Watch out ladies, Ryan's got a way with women!

Multiples

Looks like Peg and Jack (Mallards as we learn more) are going to be parents of multiples.

We've read that 5-14 eggs are typically in a nest.

We have evidence of 3 tucked back behind one of our bushes along the back wall.

It's Time

It's finally time that Ryan learns to potty train.

We started yesterday and he's doing quite well. A few wet accidents, but other than that, a true star at this thing.

This morning he really wanted to earn his jelly bean (1 for peepee 2 for poops) and stood there for at least 20 minutes trying to get it out. He finally earned 2 jelly beans (see above)

He's not really into using the little potty. He's really into standing up and using the big white potty like daddy. So cute

Here's a photo that will be used as blackmail sometime in the future I think:

Gettin Jiggy Wit It

I think our ducks, Peg and Jack, have been spending some intimate time together.

We have a duck egg in our backyard behind a bush (hopefully picture to come)

Visitors

Last week, Rachelle's brother and his family were here for a very fun trip.

The cousins are very close in age and had a blast together going to train parks, duck parks, egg hunts and even one sleepover night.

Spending time with Rachelle's family always blesses me. It shows me how the love of Christ can and should be lived out in a family, and I never had the chance to experience that.

I thank God that he's given me Rachelle's family, so my children get to experience that.

Now if we can only get them out of Texas... :-)

Meet Peg and Jack

A few days ago we awoke to two of our neighbors in our pool! They ended up leaving, but they came back again this morning.

They wouldn't tell us their names, so the kids named them Peg and Jack (also happens to be the names of my grandparents)

Here they are:

Jack is quite the swimmer, looks like he's hardly trying and he moves pretty quickly.

On another note, Chad, Teralynn, Makaila and Cole come to visit through Easter today, which means some fun, sun, baseball and golf for me.

My apologies to the Cubs fans that read this for mentioning the spring training baseball that's here and the Cubs that are here for the entire month of March at games that you can go to for $6 and where said Cubs fan could stay for free.

Travels

Rachelle and I were reminiscing the other day about our trips and some of the friends that we've loved spending time with.

We remembered this really neat couple in some eastern coastal state that we would really love to spend some time with.

Hope they know that they are always invited, welcome and desired in our home.

Learning

I'm realizing something I think I already knew, but wasn't acutely aware of.

I need to be trusted.

As I've been in real estate, I've noticed that my honesty has cost me many deals. I've talked many people out of buying a house, as I thought it wasn't a good time for them to do it, or a good financial decision. For this and other reasons, I kinda trust myself that I can give unbiased opinions on real estate, knowing that I can set aside my monetary needs for those of my clients (what we as agents are REALLY called to do if you really believe the code of ethics we agree to)

Then there's these clients of mine that I've known for probably 8 years and have recently started working with them. I've spent a TREMENDOUS amount of time and energy with their two daughters, both of which I advised to WAIT when they could have bought, and I could have made a few grand each.

Now that I am working with them, they really treat me as if my work and efforts and investment in selling their home and helping them buy is them doing a favor to me somehow. During the negotiations of the contract, Mr. client actually wrote down a bottom line number that they were willing to take and slid it across the table to me like I was some crooked car salesman that was trying to make a fast buck off of them.

To make a deal work, I cut my commission and was treated like that was what I was supposed to be doing in this situation.

We've been looking at new homes and Mr. Client reminded me today that he's going out of his way to make sure that I go with them to the new home communities so I am eligible to make a commission off the sale, again like it's a favor from them to me.

I'd love to just work with people that trust me and don't look at me as some sleezy salesperson.

Lesson #2 from this is that I'm ready to move on from real estate. It's been good and has provided flexibility and finances during the last 5 years, but it's time for me to move on. Soon. I've been praying heartily for a way out for 2 years, I really hope we're getting close. Not sure how much more I can handle.

Thanks for letting me vent. I know I really have nothing to complain about, God is great and has provided more than enough for my family meeting all of our spiritual and physical needs. Please pray that I can keep that as my focus. Also, that I would have the correct focus on where I am without looking too much at where I'm going.

For the positive spin, I am LOVING the work I get to do with advancing YL in the Surprise area. I've met so many neat people that share excitement and vision for the lost kids of Surprise. I look forward to the next week or so when we have our first committee meeting and begin a fundraising plan.

The "unofficial" plan is to have committee meeting #1 (YL committee is like the board of directors for an area and piece #2 of the puzzle [prayer is #1] to get YL going in an area) be a fundraising strategy meeting and then meeting #2 would be a staff decision meeting. I will seek prayer during that meeting as I hope to be confirmed as the Area Director at that meeting.

I might be in trouble for this one

Maybe even sleeping on the couch, but I don't care, it's funny.

Rachelle's obviously been inspired by the kids.

Not to be outdone

Ryan gets into the action as well.

Check out the voice control.

American Idol

I think we might have a TV worthy one here:

Then she kills a bug.

Excitment for today

Today is another exciting day for me because of what God appears to be doing in Surprise with Young Life.

I have two meetings today, one with the regional director (my potential boss-man) and then another informational meeting with a group of interested folks out in Surprise. This meeting includes a couple who the husband just retired from working for the city as the city manager, so he's very well connected within the city and wants to see YL out in his area.

Surprise is a neat 'town' of over 100,000 now and the school district has grown from about 6,000 students in 2000 to over 21,500 students today, and has grown from 1 high school to 3 with a fourth planned to open in 2009.

The sense is that there is a great need for a ministry such as YL out there, and we are praying that we can be a part of that.

Our Trip

This last week we took our quadrennial trip to L.A. to visit my family.

The main reason for this trip was to visit my new neice, Kayla Marie Baker, who was the first baby born this year at her hospital (4am or so on 1.1.08) and missed saving mom and dad on their taxes by about 5 hours! lol

It was a trip not unlike many of my long distance workouts, long drives with short bursts of seeing people. We started on Thursday by driving from home to L.A. (with a stop at the Cabazon outlet mall) and spent the afternoon and evening with my grandma, mom and a few aunts, uncles and cousins. It was nice to catch up with people there and spend time taking pictures of 3 of the great grandkids.

On Friday morning we made the short drive to visit my dad in Santa Monica and spent an hour or so at the beach (too chilly for real beach weather) and then had lunch before heading down the coast to San Diego (with a stop in San Celemente at the Rainbow store).

The time in SD was a blast, we always love visiting the Gennaros and they are so much like us in their views and challenge us in the way they live out loud in their love for Christ. The reason for our trip to SD was to visit the Gennaros who new little boys that just got home from Uganda. They have been in process of getting them adopted from Uganda for over two years and they brought them home a few months ago. They are both ADORABLE.

Julia (the oldest who's a freshman now-was a toddler when we were at PLNU) was on the crew for the Beauty and the Beast performance at the high school, so we packed up the two vans and headed to the show that night, which all kids enjoyed.

The next day we spent time just hanging out in the morning and continuing to catch up with our friends with the kids making new ones. We took a couple of shots before heading off back home on Saturday. All-in-all a good trip. Julia had a party in the morning, so she was missing from the pics.

Sad Day

Yesterday was a sad day.

THREE and a half years ago I received one of my most used gifts of all time, a pair of palmetto flip flops as a gift for being a groomsman.

Toward the end of last summer, the palmettos stared sadly at me as they realized that the end was near. I'd nearly worn through the bottom on both toes and there was cut marks all over the bottom from digging out thorns.

As the weather has heated up, I tried to ignore the fact that these sandals were no longer comfortable, as I had an attachment to them emotionally.

Alas, on Saturday we were in San Clemente, CA where they make these 'guaranteed for life' flip-flops called Rainbow Sandals that many of my friends have raved about and sell them at deep discounts. I was forced...ok not forced...but I bought a pair (actually 2).

Last night the palmettos found their way (after a small service) into the garbage can.

Sad day, sad day indeed.

Thanks for the ride palmettos, thanks for the ride.

Surprise, Surprise

A couple weeks ago I was invited to a fundraising dinner for an organization called Amahoro, which strives to empower young leaders in Africa by giving them the tools and connecting them with the resources to strive in their own countries without the west's help. It was an interested dinner, but not a mission that I connected with.

One thing that did happen is that the mayor of Surprise was at the dinner, and I was able to not only meet him, but enjoy a lengthy conversation with him about Surprise and the work that I've done to get YL out there.

He told me of some friends that he knew of that tried to get YL out to Surprise a couple of years ago. He then mentioned the name and the guy who was heading that I've met because I taught his kids my last year of teaching in Surprise.

Seems like a lot of dots are being connected. Please continue to pray. This is fun for me to watch!

Another formal complaint

A couple of days ago these white and gray things invaded our skies and blocked the sun. They even had the nerve to drop this water stuff out of the sky.

It's happening again today and it's just plain annoying I tell you. This is a desert, not Seattle.

Surprise Young Life

We had our meeting in Surprise for interest in getting Young Life started out there.

The meeting was a REALLY positive one and much different that I expected it to go.

Before we talked about areas can be started either with a volunteer team beginning ministry with a committee to support or in can start with a staff member who pulls everything together (well, God pulls everything together, but you know what I mean).

John (AZ director of YL) came out and said that Surprise needed a staff person. Then the discussion went into a very specific discussion regarding finances, what would need to be raised and how soon we'd like to get started.

There was two people there who I think will be valuable leaders that are about my age who asked the question, "How long? 2-3 years?" and one lady (who appears to be a strong fundraiser) who looked appaled and said, "2-3 years, I'm thinking 2-3 weeks!" . We did talk about fundraising throughout the spring and summer and then bringing on staff in the fall.

Now throughout all of this, my prayers that I would be that staff person have been kept quiet, as we didn't want to build false momentum with someone thinking "oh, we have a staff person, let's get rolling". We wanted to make sure that the community support was there before that happened. Tuesday's meeting someone asked specifically if John had someone in mind for the area and "the cat was let out of the bag" :-) that this is why I've been helping and where I am hoping and praying that God is leading our family.

It's very exciting to think that I could be working for YL in the fall of this year! It's also very scary and daunting at the same time, there is a significant amount to raise before this can get started.

Please pray for this process as this seems nearly impossible, but we know that God is bigger than this whole thing.

Cute kids

The Lord has blessed me tremeandously with kids that look like their mom, so they are awefully darn cute.

Kate continues to show the fact that she has Rachelle's academic bent. She's actually reading! We have a series that we got that are beginning readers from Rachelle's mom (who is in last year of teaching cleanout mode) and she's taken to them like a fish to water. The last few days she's read to us a couple of "Critter" books and one of those "If You" something with a mouse. Clearly, she is her mother's daughter. My lips still move when I read.

Ryan is becoming quite the little crackup. He's always wanting to do everything "My Big Self" unless you talk about his pacifier, then he wants to be a "Little Big Boy" (we tell him big boys don't use pacifiers). We also tell him to be on his best behavior and he lets us know that "I will be good have". He's a little cuddler and a sweetheart, the other day he even told Rachelle that she was "My Best Girl". Not to soften him up too much, as he is a climber/wrastler as well.

So Cute.

Am I a baby?

Last week the weather was in the 70s. This week it's only in the upper 60s and I'm rather annoyed that I have to continue wearing socks.

Am I a baby?

Nomadic

We moved...again.

We were renting a house from a very nice gentleman who is an investor from California.

He only has one flaw as I see it.

He doesn't pay the mortgage. Not quite sure what he was doing with our rent, but the bank saw to it that we move as they declared the house legally theirs. Forclosure is an ugly thing.

On the bright side, God provided a family in our church that was looking for renters at the exact time we needed a home, and the new rental has a chlorinated cement pond in the back yard. Couple more months and nightly swims will be had.

Frequency

I read today on a friend's website that I don't update my blog very often. I used to be mentioned as this person's colleger roommate, but sadly I am just a slacker.

This Tuesday marks the second meeting for those intersted in Young Life in Surprise/El Mirage Arizona. This is significant, as for some reason God has placed this area and the fact that they do not have Young Life (but do have 4 high schools) on my heart. About a month ago we had a first meeting and there was a significant amount of positive energy from the event.

Rachelle and I are praying for clear direction in this. We could definately see ourselves moving to Surprise and doing YL as my new occupation, but as of now, no such job exists.

On another note, the fact that I currently hold two "part-time" jobs (neither of which is as part-time as I hope) will be the excuse for a 3 month (to the day, I might add) hiatus from posting on this website.

My "Interim Director of Children's Ministry at Faith Bible Church" job is good, but there is one thing that I must find a solution to; I don't get to go to church or attend adult Sunday School, both highlights of my week. I struggle with this, as I have received very good feedback as to the job that I am doing (both from kids and parents) and there seems to be positive energy. The struggle comes in the fact that although it is perceived that I am good at it, I really don't enjoy it that much. Is that bad?

My heart keeps longing to do more YL work. I pray that's where God is leading our family.