Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
A House!
Things are really coming together for our impending move. I just keep being blown away by how God just seems to be leading us at this point in our life. First, we were patient and turned down other job offers in faith that the offer we really hoped for would, indeed, come. It was tough to let good jobs go by, not knowing if we even had a chance at the one that our hearts felt called to. But time went on, we interviewed, candidated, and were asked to come. And our hearts are rejoicing in that fact that we will be calling Philadelphia MB home.
The next step was finding a place to live. Having moved boxes into 4 different "homes" in the past two years, we were really dreading the thought of renting a place in our new hometown, only to pack up and move again before too long. We really longed to buy a place where we could put down roots and make ourselves truly at home right away. At first we didn't think it would be possible to buy a house straight out of seminary, but as time crept closer to our ideal move date, we were realizing more and more that it could be possible. I can only call it God's provision that we have been able to make an offer on a house. It shouldn't have been possible. Yet there was the perfect amount, sitting in our bank account, ready for a down payment. God is good!
So, without further ado, our house:
The next step was finding a place to live. Having moved boxes into 4 different "homes" in the past two years, we were really dreading the thought of renting a place in our new hometown, only to pack up and move again before too long. We really longed to buy a place where we could put down roots and make ourselves truly at home right away. At first we didn't think it would be possible to buy a house straight out of seminary, but as time crept closer to our ideal move date, we were realizing more and more that it could be possible. I can only call it God's provision that we have been able to make an offer on a house. It shouldn't have been possible. Yet there was the perfect amount, sitting in our bank account, ready for a down payment. God is good!
So, without further ado, our house:
Isn't it kinda homely homey?
(more pictures will come once we're all moved in...possession date is August 2!)
Monday, June 20, 2011
Mommy ran the camera out of batteries again...
I had Levi outside today and, well, I just had to grab the camera! Enjoy!
(if anybody wants to print any - family most likely - just let me know and I'll send you the full size copy...that goes for any pictures on my blog)
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Picture Post Wednesday
Here's a little of what we've been up to lately...
We've been picnicking (sp?!) in our backyard.
We've been eating watermelon...actually, we didn't eat any of this one. Worst watermelon I've had in years! YEARS!
Eating animal crackers and chewing on empty spools (thread) and just generally being cute.
Making silly faces and playing with monkey while just standing around...you know, on our feet...
Swinging at the park.
In the huge, oversize baby swing that is actually for 9-24 month olds...no danger of falling out of this one yet!
Aah...how I love summer. How I love being a mommy. How I love being a mommy in summer. : ) So good!
Aah...how I love summer. How I love being a mommy. How I love being a mommy in summer. : ) So good!
Monday, June 13, 2011
Job Search Update!
We are employed once again and oh, what an exciting feeling it is! From the moment we heard about this position at Philadelphia MB Church (Pastor of Discipleship), we have been feeling pulled and tugged in this direction. As with any huge decision in life, there are always things that we ask God for, whether consciously or subconsciously. Some of the things we were asking for were being close to family, being in Saskatchewan, good position for Nathan (good fit), small town (but not too small), place where we could call home for a LONG time. Well, this move looks like it will be an answer to each of those prayers AND MORE! Isn't it wonderful how God knows how to give good gifts? Things we didn't even think to ask for? Like 40 kids in the church under preschool age for Levi to grow up with? Wow. Honestly, I thought we would have to settle for just a few of the things we were hoping for, or even just be ok with letting our dreams go and learning to be happy wherever we ended up. But this? This just has us surrounded in peace and joy. This is where God is leading us and there is no question about that.
Join us in celebrating! Wahoo! God is good!
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
8 months.
And, we have an 8 month old! What a little mover, wow. This has been a month of many, many changes! Let's see, where should I start?
This is our son at 8 months old! Isn't he handsome? So cute...especially those little toes in the bottom corner of the picture!
It wasn't easy to get this picture, though. Observe:
And there were many MANY more like this. He actually fell right off the chair at one point but I was close enough that I swung my arm out and caught him like a superhero catches the princess before she hits the ground. Saved the day with that one. Whew.
Levi has been loving the standing this month. I don't actually condone standing in the bathtub, but when he reaches his little arms over to my hands or the edge of the tub and starts to stand, I figure the safest thing to do is to hold onto him and at least keep him safe!
He's gotten pretty good at standing by himself...
But we always stay close by in case monkey doesn't catch his fall. As he pulls himself up more and more on his own, though, it'll be harder and harder to always break the fall. He's gotten so many more bumps and bruises since he's started to be more active. He doesn't enjoy them too much, but hey, who enjoys falling when they least expect it and hitting their head on the sharp edge of a bookshelf?
Levi has also been scooting around for a few weeks now. He can get anywhere he wants to go, making several trips a day from the kitchen to the living room and back again. We're slowly baby-proofing and learning that we need to keep certain doors closed if he's on the loose. : )
Levi has started eating solids this month! Well, we started him on solids before he was 6 months old, but he just never caught on to them until this month. He now eats 3 meals a day with us, plus a night-snack. Of course, most of his nourishment still comes from me, but it's a start! It's exciting to see him open his mouth for bite after bite of ANYTHING after 8 weeks of refusing everything. He even inhaled his grandma B's garden peas (pureed) after refusing them weeks ago! Now there's a boy with some good taste buds! YUM!
Levi still has only the two bottom teeth, but has been working on the two top teeth for about two months already. Some days I can see the little white tip right there in his gums, but then it seems to recede a bit again. We've had a few days of teething that haven't been fun, but overall we've got ourselves a happy camper!
Last month I mentioned that operation "sleep through the night" was going into effect this month. Well, Levi slept through the night after only 3 nights of letting him cry-it-out and not going in. It was easier than I thought once we just stopped going in (as opposed to going in to console him every few minutes which just made him more and more mad!). BUT, I messed with a good thing and thought that a "dream feed" might earn me some later mornings. Instead, it's seemed to have taught the little man that he needs a feed at midnight and he's started crying for 1-2 hours between 11pm and 2am. Ugh. And then he's still up at 6:00-6:30am to eat. But, I am thankful for those couple weeks of glorious 8 hour nights. I'm hoping that I'll get to sleep stretches like that again very soon : ) It seems, though, that we just don't have a naturally good sleeper which, at 2am, is quite frustrating to say the least! (He's an excellent sleeper when I feed him multiple times during the night but not when he doesn't get what he wants...hmm)
Certain noises and places still scare Levi. He seems to be a bit of a softie when it comes to certain things. Here, I was reading a book to him and we got to a page that had lion sounds and he pouted every time. So cute. He'll go to strangers pretty well, but it seems only in short doses. On Sunday when we were candidating, he would go to others, but after a few minutes, he would see me and start to pout/cry and want to come back. I guess he comes by it naturally, though. I was the same way as a kid!
Levi has also been gabbing alot this month. He's starting to imitate words that we say. He was saying "dada" alot so I would say "dada-daddy" to him and he would just watch me really closely...you could tell he was listening. After a couple hours (not straight, don't worry), his "dada"'s were becoming "da-ee"'s. I was so excited! He's also been saying "dad" alot. I'm working on "mama" and "mommy" but so far no dice. Ah well. It's exciting to see him learn and develop, whether or not he starts with "mama". It's not like he knows what it means anyway...though I'm starting to wonder if he's figuring it out!
Size-wise, Levi is stretching out but not getting alot heavier. I'm guessing the solids might help the weight-gain, yet the amount of moving he does every waking second probably counter-acts the calories pretty quickly. Levi is still wearing his 9 month clothes (been wearing them for 2 months now) but has some 12-18month shirts that fit pretty well. His bald spot is completely filled in (I think it has been for a month or two by now) and his hair is quite blonde compared to what it was when he was born. He's a tanner, not a burner. I hardly ever put sunscreen on him (oops!) and he's only ever tanned. His hands are almost as dark as mine are! We go for lots of walks but I usually have him in long sleeves so his tan stops at his wrists!
Levi continues to be a sweet boy who we are so so thankful to call our son! What a blessing he is! Nathan keeps saying that maybe we shouldn't have any more kids, cause there's no guarantee they'll be as easy or good as Levi is. : p I keep saying it's worth the risk. ; )
It wasn't easy to get this picture, though. Observe:
Levi has also been scooting around for a few weeks now. He can get anywhere he wants to go, making several trips a day from the kitchen to the living room and back again. We're slowly baby-proofing and learning that we need to keep certain doors closed if he's on the loose. : )
Levi still has only the two bottom teeth, but has been working on the two top teeth for about two months already. Some days I can see the little white tip right there in his gums, but then it seems to recede a bit again. We've had a few days of teething that haven't been fun, but overall we've got ourselves a happy camper!
Last month I mentioned that operation "sleep through the night" was going into effect this month. Well, Levi slept through the night after only 3 nights of letting him cry-it-out and not going in. It was easier than I thought once we just stopped going in (as opposed to going in to console him every few minutes which just made him more and more mad!). BUT, I messed with a good thing and thought that a "dream feed" might earn me some later mornings. Instead, it's seemed to have taught the little man that he needs a feed at midnight and he's started crying for 1-2 hours between 11pm and 2am. Ugh. And then he's still up at 6:00-6:30am to eat. But, I am thankful for those couple weeks of glorious 8 hour nights. I'm hoping that I'll get to sleep stretches like that again very soon : ) It seems, though, that we just don't have a naturally good sleeper which, at 2am, is quite frustrating to say the least! (He's an excellent sleeper when I feed him multiple times during the night but not when he doesn't get what he wants...hmm)
Levi has also been gabbing alot this month. He's starting to imitate words that we say. He was saying "dada" alot so I would say "dada-daddy" to him and he would just watch me really closely...you could tell he was listening. After a couple hours (not straight, don't worry), his "dada"'s were becoming "da-ee"'s. I was so excited! He's also been saying "dad" alot. I'm working on "mama" and "mommy" but so far no dice. Ah well. It's exciting to see him learn and develop, whether or not he starts with "mama". It's not like he knows what it means anyway...though I'm starting to wonder if he's figuring it out!
Size-wise, Levi is stretching out but not getting alot heavier. I'm guessing the solids might help the weight-gain, yet the amount of moving he does every waking second probably counter-acts the calories pretty quickly. Levi is still wearing his 9 month clothes (been wearing them for 2 months now) but has some 12-18month shirts that fit pretty well. His bald spot is completely filled in (I think it has been for a month or two by now) and his hair is quite blonde compared to what it was when he was born. He's a tanner, not a burner. I hardly ever put sunscreen on him (oops!) and he's only ever tanned. His hands are almost as dark as mine are! We go for lots of walks but I usually have him in long sleeves so his tan stops at his wrists!
Levi continues to be a sweet boy who we are so so thankful to call our son! What a blessing he is! Nathan keeps saying that maybe we shouldn't have any more kids, cause there's no guarantee they'll be as easy or good as Levi is. : p I keep saying it's worth the risk. ; )
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Still no pics, but an update nonetheless!
Our internet situation is, well...sporadic. We canceled our internet as I mentioned a couple weeks ago. Ok, one week ago. (it feels like forever ago) Since then, we've discovered a decently strong signal in our laundry room/entrance. The only catch is that Nathan's computer is the only one that picks it up. (the only one...that makes it sound like we have a plethora of computers in this house...well, perhaps we do...) Anyway, my computer is the one with all the pictures on it and with all my stuff on it, so I'm finding it less enjoyable to add pictures to my blog since I'll have to transfer them all to my computer one day and because Nathan is still doing a bit of homework so when I do feel like blogging, I don't necessarily have a computer at my disposal. Not that I would dispose of it, but you know... ANYHOO...
Levi is growing like crazy. Well, not really since apparently he's only gained 5 ounces in the last two and a half months. But he's learning new things and that is always exciting! I'll write more about that tomorrow when he officially becomes an 8 MONTH OLD! Yikes. Where has the time gone?
Candidating on Sunday went well, we think. It was a fun day. Mingling wasn't nearly so bad as I feared it might be. It's tiring but way less stressful when you're the people everyone wants to talk to! All we had to do was stand in one spot and people came and introduced themselves to us and we would talk a bit and then they would mosy (mosie? mosey?) on and new people would come up to us and chat for a while. All in all, a great day. Now we are just waiting for the church to vote, which will happen on Sunday, so we hear, and then hopefully HOPEFULLY we'll be asked to take the position! We will almost literally be bouncing off the walls in this house if we are asked to take the job cause seriously, it is a wonderful church and wonderful community and wonderful people. Oh, and a wonderful job that looks like it will be a (you guessed it) WONDERFUL fit for Nathan. So if you think of us, pray that this opportunity is in reality what God wants and not just us being excited about something while failing to see where God is actually leading. It sure seems like a God-thing though...
I am not up to much these days. I am about to go sit on a chair beside Nathan, who is playing some NBA basketball on the ol' xbox 360, and whip out some yarn action and MAKE something. I'm not really sure what to make though. See, I've taught myself how to knit recently (like, maybe two weeks ago?) and am loving it, but so far I haven't had the patience to actually finish a project! I'm working on a toque for Levi but it's going so slowly and I can already see flaws in it which, like any first real project, are bound to happen but I'm tempted to just rip it all out and start again. See, I've been crocheting for about 20 years or so, so I'm used to my projects looking, well (humility aside), I'm used to them looking good. And when this project doesn't look perfect like I figure it should, despite only having known how to knit for under a month, I will probably end up ripping it out and starting fresh. *sigh* I'll never finish anything at this rate : ) But at least I'll have fun in the process!
Ok, now I'm rambling cause I'm tired. : ) Time to go sit with my hubby and relax for the rest of the evening. Catch ya all later!
p.s-I gave my brother-in-law a mullet today. It's pretty sweet if I do say so myself. I once vowed to never give anyone a mullet. It choked me a little to break that vow, but hey. Anything for family, right? As long as it's not a rat-tail on my son...or a mullet on my husband...there have to be limits, people. There HAVE to be limits...
Levi is growing like crazy. Well, not really since apparently he's only gained 5 ounces in the last two and a half months. But he's learning new things and that is always exciting! I'll write more about that tomorrow when he officially becomes an 8 MONTH OLD! Yikes. Where has the time gone?
Candidating on Sunday went well, we think. It was a fun day. Mingling wasn't nearly so bad as I feared it might be. It's tiring but way less stressful when you're the people everyone wants to talk to! All we had to do was stand in one spot and people came and introduced themselves to us and we would talk a bit and then they would mosy (mosie? mosey?) on and new people would come up to us and chat for a while. All in all, a great day. Now we are just waiting for the church to vote, which will happen on Sunday, so we hear, and then hopefully HOPEFULLY we'll be asked to take the position! We will almost literally be bouncing off the walls in this house if we are asked to take the job cause seriously, it is a wonderful church and wonderful community and wonderful people. Oh, and a wonderful job that looks like it will be a (you guessed it) WONDERFUL fit for Nathan. So if you think of us, pray that this opportunity is in reality what God wants and not just us being excited about something while failing to see where God is actually leading. It sure seems like a God-thing though...
I am not up to much these days. I am about to go sit on a chair beside Nathan, who is playing some NBA basketball on the ol' xbox 360, and whip out some yarn action and MAKE something. I'm not really sure what to make though. See, I've taught myself how to knit recently (like, maybe two weeks ago?) and am loving it, but so far I haven't had the patience to actually finish a project! I'm working on a toque for Levi but it's going so slowly and I can already see flaws in it which, like any first real project, are bound to happen but I'm tempted to just rip it all out and start again. See, I've been crocheting for about 20 years or so, so I'm used to my projects looking, well (humility aside), I'm used to them looking good. And when this project doesn't look perfect like I figure it should, despite only having known how to knit for under a month, I will probably end up ripping it out and starting fresh. *sigh* I'll never finish anything at this rate : ) But at least I'll have fun in the process!
Ok, now I'm rambling cause I'm tired. : ) Time to go sit with my hubby and relax for the rest of the evening. Catch ya all later!
p.s-I gave my brother-in-law a mullet today. It's pretty sweet if I do say so myself. I once vowed to never give anyone a mullet. It choked me a little to break that vow, but hey. Anything for family, right? As long as it's not a rat-tail on my son...or a mullet on my husband...there have to be limits, people. There HAVE to be limits...
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Job Search Update:
Oh, job searches. Fun fun. Nathan and I have been keeping our eyes and ears open for our next job for months now. I do believe Nathan started checking the Briercrest website for job postings back in August 2010. That's almost a year ago now. He started applying/inquiring about jobs just before Christmas. And he started interviewing in February/March of this year. I'm not sure how many interviews Nathan has done...3? 4? 5? At any rate, it feels like it's been a long process. But, as I alluded in my last post, we do feel like the job search may be ending soon! At least that's what we've been praying. See, we've been unemployed for the last two years (aside from a cleaning job at the seminary that was enough to cover our groceries but not a penny more) and are itching to get back into the workforce. Well, our bank account is itching for us to get back into the workforce! Anyway, I'll give you half of the exciting news and hopefully the second half will follow in a couple weeks. We are candidating tomorrow. For those of you who aren't familiar with the process of hiring a pastor, most often it goes like this:
- you apply - send resume with cover letter like any other job
- they ask for more information
- you spend a couple hours answering the further questions that they have
- if you answer their questions correctly, you make the "short list" of 5-10 people who they interivew
- interview - either in person or through Skype, depending on where the church is
- if they still like you and feel that you could be a good fit for the job, you are asked to candidate
- a date is set and you either spend a day or a couple days with the congregation who is thinking about hiring you, usually over a Sunday, and do things like preach, share your testimony, and mingle (just generally get to know people and give them a sense of who you are)
- if you make it through all that and everyone is on the same page about God's leading, hopefully you get a job offer, and that's that. You have a job.
So we are at the candidating stage. One of the last stages before actually being offered a job. If all goes well tomorrow and we are all hearing God say that this particular position is a good fit for us, we'll hopefully get a job offer before the end of the month! If not, I'm not really sure what we'll do as we've closed all of our other doors. (It just didn't feel right to pursue more than one church once we were in the candidating stage.) SO, I say all this to let you know where we are with the job search stuff and to ask you to PRAY! Being an introvert, the thought of spending a full day with a bunch of people, wonderful though they may be, who I don't know sounds intimidating and tiring. Don't get me wrong, I am really really excited to meet the people who will hopefully become my church family, but mingling...small talk...not my thing. I plan to just take it one hour at a time, one conversation at a time, and I'm sure it'll be not nearly as intimidating as I think it will be. : ) But prayers are still welcome. Thanks so much and I'll let you know how it goes!
- you apply - send resume with cover letter like any other job
- they ask for more information
- you spend a couple hours answering the further questions that they have
- if you answer their questions correctly, you make the "short list" of 5-10 people who they interivew
- interview - either in person or through Skype, depending on where the church is
- if they still like you and feel that you could be a good fit for the job, you are asked to candidate
- a date is set and you either spend a day or a couple days with the congregation who is thinking about hiring you, usually over a Sunday, and do things like preach, share your testimony, and mingle (just generally get to know people and give them a sense of who you are)
- if you make it through all that and everyone is on the same page about God's leading, hopefully you get a job offer, and that's that. You have a job.
So we are at the candidating stage. One of the last stages before actually being offered a job. If all goes well tomorrow and we are all hearing God say that this particular position is a good fit for us, we'll hopefully get a job offer before the end of the month! If not, I'm not really sure what we'll do as we've closed all of our other doors. (It just didn't feel right to pursue more than one church once we were in the candidating stage.) SO, I say all this to let you know where we are with the job search stuff and to ask you to PRAY! Being an introvert, the thought of spending a full day with a bunch of people, wonderful though they may be, who I don't know sounds intimidating and tiring. Don't get me wrong, I am really really excited to meet the people who will hopefully become my church family, but mingling...small talk...not my thing. I plan to just take it one hour at a time, one conversation at a time, and I'm sure it'll be not nearly as intimidating as I think it will be. : ) But prayers are still welcome. Thanks so much and I'll let you know how it goes!
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
No internet!
It'll probably be a little quieter around here in the next month or two (or three)...we'll have no internet from now until we move. Hopefully that will be August sometime, but we'll see. I'll try to update every once in a while so keep checking!
Update: In case you're wondering where we're moving, hopefully we'll have news on that shortly! But no matter what happens with the job search, I imagine we'll be moving at some point this summer, regardless. But here's hoping we have something exciting to announce soon...
Update: In case you're wondering where we're moving, hopefully we'll have news on that shortly! But no matter what happens with the job search, I imagine we'll be moving at some point this summer, regardless. But here's hoping we have something exciting to announce soon...
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