Sunday, March 30, 2008
Okay, so I’ve been doing a horrible job of keeping you all updated on our blog and it’s because I’ve been so incredibly morning sick….except with me, it’s more like “all day sick.” So I apologize to you all, but I’ve been in major survival mode for the last few weeks…if they kids are alive and fed and we have a roof over our heads by the end of the day, I call it a successful day. ☺ I’m starting to feel better and now am overwhelmed by the 500+ e-mails in my inbox, the business things I’m behind on, etc. So, here’s to catching up.
Since I’ve last written, we’ve moved twice. We stayed at Ben and Kami’s for 4 or 5 nights and had fun days filled with lots of cousin time. We just got back to the Duck House from spending a week at Ben’s parents’ house. They are empty nesters in a 5 bedroom house, so they offered for us to come use up their rooms if we ever needed to. David, Ben’s dad, travels for work and is out of town 4 nights a week and Chung Hee, his mom, is a nurse and is gone most of the day, so we had the house to ourselves a lot. They have a little white lap dog, Petris, and the kids just went nuts over him. Everything was “Petris, come here boy, Petris, no! Petris, come! Petris, Petris!” Sydney sampled his dog food and Elisa licked his face. She said he was licking it, so she thought it must taste good. Our poor pet-deprived children.
Now we’re settled back into the Duck House and it feels great. It definitely feels like coming home. We only have one more interruption, so it’ll be great to get that over with and then be staying her for 4 weeks straight after that. Our kids are attached to this place. One night when Elie was saying her prayers at dinner time, it went something like this, “Dear God, fjidlsn fiefiljsdijf sdiflji Duck House fdsoif ducks fdoij Duck House dfildfj thanks for Duck House sdjifjids and the ducks. Amen!” and Sydney kept begging to go home to the Duck House. I guess it’s nice for them to have a place to call home since we don’t really have a home right now.
Jeremy and I picked up the game of Poker. It’s pretty fun and a great way to get to know people. Don’t worry ma, no money exchanged hands! ☺ We’ve had some really fun date nights on Tuesday nights. We hire a sitter and all 4 couples go out. Two weeks ago, we had Outback and then went back to Ben and Kami’s, put the kids down, played poker and ate dessert. Last week, we ate at this place called Claimjumpers known for their huge portions where it took us 25 minutes to decide if we were going to get a dessert, what it would be. ☺
As far as discipleship goes, things have been going really well. The Tuesday Koine training with the core team is productive. We’ve been studying passages about discipleship and why we should do it and we’ve also shared a lot about how Koine came about.
The Story-formed Life course has been doing it’s thing. The content is all Scripture, so to watch it come alive and transform people or at least cause them to question some deep-rooted lies, has been phenomenal. Next week is the big week…Lordship! So, pray for soft hearts. Jeremy and I have been trying to do one-on-ones with the Crawfords and the Joneses and we’ve also been helping a couple we met out here with some marriage counseling. I have been a little less consistent with my commitments than Jeremy has.
Erin has been doing Creative Writing with Kelsey and Jackson on Mondays and it has been really cool. They’ve been learning about metaphors, similes, parts of speech and using those to write non-fictional stories about their time here. It’s been fun to watch. We’ve been keeping up with Latin, spelling and reading, so all that combined with the Creative Writing, I figure it’s a pretty good “summer” as far as school goes.
Friday was pretty exciting for me. We got to go to our old midwife for a pre-natal appointment to check on this baby! I’m 12 weeks a long and we got to hear the heartbeat! We took Kelsey and Elisa with us (Jackson and Syd stayed with Chung Hee) and it was extra exciting b/c that’s the same midwife that tried to bring Kelsey into the world almost 9 years ago at the same birth center where mommy spent too many hours trying to get stubborn Kels to come out! That was pretty exciting for me and Kelsey…real bonding.
We actually had snow out here last week and it was gorgeous to see all the pine trees covered in a layer of huge white fluffy snowflakes. The last few days have been nice and sunny which is such a wonderful change from the overcast, dreary, rainy it has been since we’ve been here.
I’m attaching a lot of pictures to show you a few of the adventures we’ve been on in the last few weeks.
Uncle Ben had the great idea of taking us to the Reptile museum. Lucky for us, we arrived just in time for them to bring out the dead rats and baby rats to feed the reptiles. Here’s a picture of me trying not to loose it.
Here’s my crazy oldest child daring to allow a snake crawl around her neck!
The girls gather around Jack. 
The kids taking turns on the computer at Ben and Kami’s house.
Hanging at the Crawford’s with the Knowltons.
Yummmm! We had “Camper’s Roast” or something like that where you put steak, potatoes and all kinds of other delicious things in foil, add some seasoning and butter and put it on the fire and voila! A delicious meal!
We all got ready for bed and the watched the “Frozen Tundra” episode of Planet Earth. Very educational! How many thumb suckers do you count?
On Saturday, 3/22, we went on a hike. Uncle Ben talked us into it by saying it was a 1.5 mile hike. Well, 5 hours later when we arrived back at our vehicles….we were pretty tuckered out.
Elias got worn out with all the exertion. Colin and Jeremy had a nice visit on the trail.
Elisa had a little too much and just had to take a break. The trail got very snowy about 1/3 of the way up and it ended up being really difficult for the kids to walk on, not to mention, all their shoes were completely soaked and frozen. We were surrounded by so much beauty though, it made it worth it.
Here’s a nice group shot of everyone on the trail. This is the core team folks! Front Row: Jackson, Sydney, Dove, Kelsey, Back Row: Erin, Seven, April, Ford, Ben and Memory, Kami, Grace and Eden, Colin and Elias, Jeremy and Elisa.
Jackson and Kelsey got to keep going on the trail w/ Uncle Ben, Erin and Ford when the rest of us tuckered out. They were rewarded by the amazing view of the waterfall!
We persevered that night even though we were all exhausted and had the gathering. Grace is an amazing hostess and whipped up enough enchiladas for the whole crew. If you’ll notice at the end of the table, there’s Andy and we had two visitors, Nate and Margot.
Jackson and his buddy Elias.
The Pryor kids on Easter morning. Grace made us all an amazing breakfast and then did an easter egg hunt for the kids in their basement. So thoughtful! It was absolutely pouring outside.
Jackson and Kelsey playing a game as Petris, the beloved dog, looks on. This is at David and Chung Hee’s house.
Kelsey in the same room where mommy tried to get her to come into the world 8 1/2 years ago! These are amazing rooms in the Newlife Birth Center with a wonderful Christian midwife.
Sydney in a brief moment where Petris actually sat on her lap. Very exciting!
Kelsey earned a tea set with her marbles and very generously put on a tea party with her sisters and mother. She made a whole meeting complete with chocolate pies, cinammon rolls, and icing covered marshmallows.
The four kids with the Seattle skyline complete with the Space Needle in the background. This is taken from Gasworks Park. Notice the beautiful expression on Sydney’s face. She was being photographed against her will.
