Busy Summer almost over!!

I know it has been way to long and I apologize (again) to those of you who check back here faithfully. Our summer has gone by way too quickly but it was a fun one. I went out to Connecticut for 2 weeks to visit Ryan and Kjirsti and their family. It was wonderful to spend so much time with them. Then we relaxed for a couple of weeks and got ready for church camp. We were at camp all last week and had a ton of fun. And now after catching up on laundry, it is time to get ready for school again. It's amazing how time flies when you are having fun. Here are some pictures from the summer. Also the other piece of news is that we have a new member to our family! No, we are NOT expecting...we got a kitten! His name is Maestro. He provides a lot of entertainment and fun for us though our arms and legs look like we have been through a briar patch. Well, enjoy the pictures! (The pictures: Kaylee and I the day we left camp; Brian and I the last day of camp; Ronda with her camp girls; Kristin, Ronda, Melissa, and Ruth when we went to see "Wicked"; Maestro)

2 blogs in less than a month!

Here are some more pictures from when Kjirsti was here. The sculptures are from the Desert Botanical Gardens and the Chihuly exhibit. It was really warm outside and in the second picture of Annie, she is holding a cold water bottle by her legs. I think she enjoyed the coolness of it. It was really amazing and beautiful. Enjoy the pictures.

It's Been Too Long

I know it has been way to long since I last updated this so I apologize to those of you who consistently check back still. Thanks for being patient. Spring is in full gear down here in Phoenix. Spring break was nice and relaxing, especially since Kjirsti and Annie came to visit. It has been a few years since Kjirsti has been here so it was nice to have her down here again. Annie has never been here but I'm sure she won't remember it. Anyway, things are going well but they are very busy. There are no breaks between now and the end of the school year so we take a big breath, pray a lot and charge on ahead and hope to make it to the end of the school year in one piece. We usually come out unharmed on the other end, so Lord willing, we hope the same for this year. Well, here are a few pictures from when Kjirsti was down here. I hope you enjoy and I will try to do better at posting more often, even if it is just something short.

A Short Update!

I know it has been a while and I apologize to those of you who check back here often. School is as busy as ever for both of us, especially now that we are into the performance season of the holidays. I love this time of the year and I hope that you all enjoy them, too. I will update you more later.
For now, here are a few pictures of some things Brian and I got to do this fall. We went for a drive up north and saw some beautiful scenery and some scary but incredible tarantulas. We were in our car when we took the picture of the tarantula but even then it was still kind of creepy. We saw it crawling across the road about 20 ft before we pulled up next to it. That's how big it was. The picture doesn't do it justice. We also saw some beautiful scenery.


The other pictures are of us at a Diamondbacks game back in October. It was a lot of fun, as you can see! Well, enjoy and I will write more later.

The Storms of AZ

I love the storms that we have here in Phoenix. There is a lot of lightening and wind and sometimes a lot of rain. Recently we had a wonderful storm. Brian and I went out driving to see the lightening and rain. When we came home we saw a very funny sight as we turned on to our street. They are doing construction on our street and so they have port-a-potties for the workers. Well, in the strong wind this night, it carried the port-a-potty into the street. It was really a funny sight so we thought we would share it with you. Enjoy!

Back from Camp, Back to School

Well, it is that time of year again, time to get ready for school as our vacation days are quickly disappearing. It's okay though. I have come to the realization that we weren't meant to just sit around all day. God intended us to work and to be fruitful. I have found things to keep me busy such as sewing and organizing my office but Brian is definitely getting bored. It is time to go back to school. We finished off the summer by going to church camp last week with about 50 others from our church, both campers and counselors. The camp is at Palomar Christian Conference Center just south of San Diego. It is a beautiful place on the top of Palomar mountain. It was literally in the line of fire last year when all the wild fires were down there but God spared the camp. The rest of the mountain burned but camp was not. While we were at camp, the director told the story of what happened and it was evident that God was watching over the camp because it should have been burned to the ground. It's incredible.

Well, we had a great week. It has been a while since I have been in that type of setting where I get to be with kids and be free in speaking about my faith. I loved it. I counseled 6 junior high girls with my friend, Monique. They were wonderful girls and it was fun to get to know them through the week. It was also fun to get to know Monique better. Brian counseled high school boys with his friend, Nate and he had a lot of fun, too, though, his week was a little more challenging, as high school boys can be. The campers come from CA and AZ and some of them come from rougher areas and so it can be tough to really get to know them on a personal level. But all the challenges, the kids, the sleep deprivation, the busy schedule was so worth it. It was neat to watch some of the campers go through a change during the week as they heard about God and his love and forgiveness for them. We both look forward to going back next year, Lord willing.

Until next time...

My latest project

I recently acquired a sewing machine (many thanks to my mother-in-law) and so I started a relatively small project of making a baby quilt. (no, it's not for us :) The last time I made a quilt I had my mom beside me to guide me and so this time, I couldn't just ask mom what to do. I just had to go for it and figure things out on my own. So far I think I have done okay. I did have to rip a few seams out but that's not too bad. Well, anyway, here are pictures of the quilt. This is just the top and I still have to put the batting and back and binding on so there is still work to do but this is the most interesting part. It has been a lot of fun to figure this out and hopefully it is the first of many. Mom, I hope you enjoy and know that all that I learned about sewing is from you so thank you!