10,000 Years

Happy Easter!

Randy has this t-shirt that asks the question, "Where will you be in 10,000 years?"

Today's Easter service was not a warm, fuzzy look at Jesus. It was a look at the reality of His power. He alone is in charge of the Heavens and the earth. He alone decides if I take another breath. He alone decides if I live another day. He alone decides the same for you. So I found myself thinking of that t-shirt. Where will I be in 10,000 years? Where will you be? This life is not all there is. We have big, important, ETERNAL decisions to make while we are here. Will we believe? Will we ask for forgiveness? Will we follow Him, the only one who gives eternal life? I am and my hope and prayer is that you would too. I would love to see the faces of those I love in 10,000 years, wouldn't you? This is an awesome quote I found on another blog...

"There is no tragedy in being ushered from this life to the next when that next life is spent in the presence of God. The only real tragedy is a life that ends without that hope. When a person rejects the free gift of eternal life God has offered through a relationship with his Son, that is a tragedy."

Much love to you this Easter, as we celebrate the life we have in Him and Him alone!

We Moved In!

Instead of moving in slowly as we originally thought we would do, we woke up Sunday morning and decided to go for it! So we did! In one day we moved most of our stuff over to our new home. We also cleaned, set up our bed and bought a washer/dryer off of Craigslist! Thanks to the help of Randy's dad (thanks Carpenter!) and our good friends (thanks Curits and Katina!) we were able to do all this and sleep in our house for the first time last night. We are very happy to be in our new home. It's so big we don't know what to do with ourselves! After all this we were even able to make it to the 5pm service at church! What a day... Oh, and the whole 2nd dog thing didn't quite work out. He and Marley fought so bad I thought for sure one of them would be going to the vet for emergency surgery. So we brought him back to the lady we got him from and she will be finding him a new home. It is sad but it's what's best for both dogs, and us!

I am so excited to start painting on Friday! :)

I'm off to help Randy pull up the baseboards...

The One Where We Became Home Owners

It's official! The house is ours! We closed escrow today. We officially owe the bank A LOT of money!! It feels great to be done with the whole home-buying process and to be moving on to the home sprucing-up process. We feel so blessed and thankful for the opportunity to live in this great home. Our hope is to use this home for God's glory.

The paint saga continues... So I went to Restoration Hardware to buy some sample cans of paint. I actually got the images below from the Restoration Hardware website and I really liked the colors. Pictures online can be so deceiving. When we went over to the house tonight, we put those colors up on the wall, and WOW, they are so different! One is too light (almost white), one is way too dark, one is too blue and another is too green. I actually mixed the green and blue ones together and liked it a lot. When we go to the store this weekend for paint we will experiment and see what we come up with. Thank you for those of you who told me your opinions. #4 won!

If you need a good realtor, let me know. Ours was awesome! She even went to the house today to leave us our keys and left us a beautiful plant and a very generous Home Depot gift card. She was so fun to work with!

Feel like painting with us? You are invited! Food and drink will be provided!! :)

Please Sign Here

Wow! My hand hurts! We just signed all of our loan documents. Since we read what we signed, it took over two hours. We are so glad to be done with all that signing! All we have left to do is wait for our loan to be funded (with no glitches hopefully) and then get the keys on Friday. Then it is on to the fun stuff... cleaning, painting, ripping out carpet, putting down floors, ripping out lots of overgrown landscaping, putting in RV access, moving our stuff out of our old place in to the new place, cleaning the old place, etc. etc. etc. This is all very exciting! :) Take a look at the paint colors I am choosing from... Cast your vote!

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

The differences are subtle, but the colors are different. Ok, so it's so subtle it's ridiculous, but that is why I am having such a hard time. Seriously, tell me the color you like best. I need help!!! :)

House Updates

Things are moving along well with the house. We are set to close on April. 3rd! We just found out that before we close we have to fix some termite damage in the garage. Our funding is contingent on making the necessary repairs. So this Sat. Randy will be hard at work, replacing what is damaged. In the meantime, I have been sorting through several paint samples, trying to figure out what paint colors to choose! I know paint is easily changed but this still feels like quite a permanent decision. Anyone want to go to Home Depot and mull over paint decisions for countless hours?

Please click on the pray for Stellan button to learn about his story. He is still in a very serious state. Thanks.

Baby Stellan

I have been following this awesome blog for months now. Baby Stellan's parents were told he would die in the womb or at birth and by the grace and mercy of God, he was born perfectly healthy four months ago. Stellan became sick with what his parents thought was a cold a few days ago. He is now in the hospital, fighting for his life with the very heart condition he was suffering from in the womb-SVT. His heart rate has been consistently at 250-300. Please join me in praying for this little one and his family and visit their blog link on the right. Click on the praying for Stellan button.

Craigslist. Am I doing all I can? Love. Blankets.

Craigslist.

Can I tell you how much I LOVE Craigslist? To date, we have bought our patio furniture, dining room table and chairs, couches, a 1 year old fridge (today's purchase!), and bar stools for the island in our new place. WOW! I love Craigslist because we are able to spend so little money while still getting quality items for our home. Love it!

Am I doing enough?

Last Sunday at church our pastor, Francis Chan, encouraged us to evaluate our lives and ask ourselves a very important question... Are you doing all you can? There are so many needs out there. Am I showing my love for Christ and His love for all by taking care of needs in my neighborhood and my community? There are so many who are broken, alone, abandoned and in need. What am I doing? How will we use our home to fulfill needs? Is there someone who needs to live there? What about foster care? So many little ones need a home. Now we have one. Am I doing all I can? By no means are these things intended to be a "works" sort of faith. By grace we have been saved, through faith. But what is this fruit in our lives? We are praying for God to reveal to us what needs we should help meet. This could be small. This could be huge. We want to do all we can. Would you pray for us?

Love.

Can I just tell you, I love my husband so much. That's it. Love.

Blankets.

So in my blogging adventures the past few months, I have found countless blogs with heartbreaking stories of children struggling with cancer and heart related problems. My heart breaks for these little ones and their families. I am overwhelmed with sadness at times, and feel like there is so little I can do. Praying for them is important, but I also feel the need to DO something tangible. I have found a wonderful organization called Project Linus. This organization collects handmade blankets from people and distributes them to children in the hospital. I have made 2 of those fleece no-sew blankets where you just tie the fleece strips together. I have prepped another 4 for my class to do together. They are really excited! Would you join me in providing comfort for these precious kids in their time of need? Click on the Project Linus link on the right to learn more.

Have a happy Saturday!

More pictures of our new Home

We are moving forward on this house and have finally received some documents from the bank. Enjoy the photos.

Master bath

Future RV Access.

Backyard with massive tree and area for fire pit

View of Mount Boney

Fireplace

Our Home

I haven't blogged about this yet, partly because I didn't want to jinx it, and partly because I didn't want to get my hopes up, but it's official! We are becoming homeowners!!! We have a verbal commitment from the bank (OK, it's verbal, but it's still pretty official) that they have chosen to accept our offer on a home. We are thrilled! It is a 4 bedroom, 2 bath home with a big, open kitchen/family room and a great view of the mountains from our backyard. It's in a great neighborhood with hiking/biking trails nearby. We love it!

Blessed be Your Name

Thinking about this song a lot lately in light of some recent events...

Blessed Be Your Name
by Matt Redman

Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name

Every blessing You pour out I'll
Turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name