Happy Thanksgiving!

Psalm 16
Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge. I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing."
As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight. LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.
I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Praise God for all He has given and continues to give! And today, dad and I praise Him for each of you! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY!

I remember the first November 25th that you spent with us-red velvet cake, I think. We have been blessed to have you added to our family. Thank you Joel! May your blessings this next year be abundant and special!

Hope you've had a great day. We love you!

It has begun!

Well, the holidays have officially begun here in Sandy. Erin's brother and wife are arriving in town tonight from TX and we will be celebrating Thanksgiving/Christmas with her family all next week. Erin's parents and us went out to cut down a tree. The place let us come a week before they opened so we got first picks of the 3 acres of trees. We were wondering what you all pay for trees where you are at. Oregon is one of the largest producers of Christmas trees so it must be cheaper to buy here than back East but I was wondering how much. We paid $28 for a 7 ft. Noble. I don't remember ever having a Noble growing up. Was it because we didn't like them or they were just too expensive? That's my question for you all.

We decorated the house today and Erin has been busy smelling up the house with home baked goods. It even smells like the holidays! We decided today that camping and decorating for Christmas are among the two top events that require an insane amount of patience when you have kids. "Let's not touch that", "Oh, that looks like fun but those lights are suppost to stay on the tree", and "No, daddy doesn't need help up here on the ladder" were some of the numerous conversations we had with Noah today. He is obeying and listening pretty well though and despite our lack of patience at times we are having so much fun watching him explore life. Nothing in life is taken for granted when you are 19 months!

Erin has been working a lot the past few weeks and I have been working less :) Both of which are necessary right now. Erin has been substituting quite a bit at the college (which pays very nicely) and I have cut down my hours from 50-55 a week to 45- maybe 48. I actually went to the doctor yesterday for a physical. I figured since I can't remember the last time I went to the doctor I should act like a responsible adult and find out from a professional how fast or slowly I am dying. It looks like I am dying at a fairly slow rate. I will let you determine if that is a good thing or not. The Pony (my car, thank you Amy) passed DEQ on Friday. That is the equivalent of a physical for a vehicle except if the doctor (the state) doesn't like the way your breath smells you are not allowed to leave your house. Soo, all that to say things are going well here and the Lord has continued to demonstrate His grace on us in so many ways.

3 1/2 weeks!

clarification

okay, so we need a little clearing up of the gift exchange. I think I(Debbie) have Erin, right?? In my family when we exchange names, some people still buy for everyone anyway, thus making those who stuck with their name only feel bad and unprepared. SO I'm asking ......what we are REALLY doing:) And, I thought we decided to let parents buy for their kids, right? I just want to make sure we are prepared and ready. Oh, and I am definitely off! We got the official holiday schedule out. Everyone is bringing their stocking, right????

As a family we are doing well. Ryan is still doing great with preschool and is the class favorite:) Matthew is finally saying some obscure words like Kee Kat for the kitty cat and two muffled 'b' syllables for basketball-his new favorite. He's trying so hard and gets so frustrated when he's trying to tell us something. Poor boo:( Anyway, the church is going well. They are finally almost finished with the new renovations. The carpet was in last week, we are just waiting on the new pews to come in. A friend from work, Renee, has been coming with me every service for 3 wks now. Please pray that she gets saved! She has never really gone to church at all and is very open to the things of the Lord. It's so hard to talk to someone who has no knowledge of the Bible at all. I guess Joel and Amy y'all know what that's like:) I've been praying for her for a while now and out of the blue, she called me and wanted to come to our Wed night service. She says she doesn't 'get' the whole church thing, but she'll give it a try. It has been nice, too, since Ben has been sitting up in the balcony doing the video/media stuff. Ben and I are reading a new book together His Needs/Her Needs. It is really good and I recommend it!!! Being the skeptic that I am, I have to say it's a little man-sided:) But still overall very very good. Sometimes life gets so busy you forget the little things that make such a big difference in our marriages.

Ok, I've written enough and BROKEN THE SILENCE:) :) now it's your turn......

Fall

We had a break in the rain yesterday and took some fall pictures, wanted to share some with y'all (I told you I was getting ready for Christmas). First batch of Jerky is complete, don't worry though it is for the local folks here. Santa's jerky will come more fresh than that!

Thought this would be fun to see. Ryan riding his bike without training wheels for the first time. Notice the helmet but what you don't see is me setting up a small ramp the next day so that he could jump. :) He did it too. We haven't done that again though. As soon as I figured out he would try anything as long as daddy would say it would be cool.

Notice the great fall? I didn't until I saw the video right before I uploaded the video. I showed it to Ryan and he wanted ya'll to see him go down. :) Just thought this was be fun to see.