Ready for a Road Trip

Jackie and I decided it was time for another road trip back to North Dakota to see her family. We will leave Saturday morning and drive as far as Salt Lake City where we will spend the evening with my family and celebrate the 4th of July (a day early).

Then we will head to Sheridan, Wyoming on Sunday to stay with Jackie's sister Debbi for the second night. Hopefully we will get to see some of her kids and grandkids and even Nicole and her family as well. I know it is a bit much for one evening, but the more the merrier right? :)

Then Monday morning we will get up and drive the rest of the way into Williston, North Dakota where 2 sisters, 1 brother and many nieces and nephews live. Jackie's other sister Mary lives not too far from there in Wateford and we definitely hope to see her and her many kids and grandkids as well. Glori and Jim and Timmy will be in Williston as well that week which makes seeing the whole family complete. Other than Sheree, but we are lucky enough to have her right by us all year round!

We are both really looking forward to this trip because we have had a decent length vacation since Jackie's father passed away in March 2008 and that wasn't really what some would consider a vacation. I hope to post a few pictures and updates of the road trip as we go, but that might be hoping for too much, seeing as I haven't done that yet in the history of this blog.

Here's to hoping!

Time for Prayer

Yesterday at church we had a guest speaker that is serving as a missionary in Ghana. She shared that at the age of 9 years old God spoke to her and told her she would be a missionary in Africa! Can you imagine knowing what God has planned for you at such a young age?? I was just blown away and so amazed by this woman's testimony. She has spent a total of 36 years doing missionary work in Africa, the first 6 years in Ethiopia and the last 30 in Ghana. She works in a small village in Norther Ghana which is a 16 hour drive from where she flies to!!!

After hearing her speak I felt a very strong desire to go and join her in her missionary work. There is a need for people whether short or long time in Ghana and especially a need for work to be done with the children's ministry there. All of my life I have had a desire to do missionary work and a love of children that is completely unexplainable to some people. I don't know for sure if I am understanding this feeling completely, but I believe the Lord has put it on my heart to go to Ghana and serve the people and their children.

At first Jackie and I thought that we should both go and we would go for a year or two, but the more we have thought about it and prayed about it, we are both feeling more at peace with the idea of me just going, but for a shorter amount of time like maybe 2 to 3 months. It is still very much in the early stages of thought and prayer and the Lord may reveal to us that this is not His will for me, but we are praying very seriously about it. And we would love it if those of you that might read this would also pray about it with us.

A lot would need to happen in order for this to take place so we will know for sure whether this is the Lords will just by things falling into place. We would need to come up with the financial costs of me flying out there and living out there for 2 to 3 months as well as the financial loss we will see from me not working during that time period. That alone is enough to deter almost anyone as it is quite a bit of money, but if it is truly the Lord desire for me to go and serve His people in Ghana then it will happen.

The picture above is a picture from the website of the organization that our guest speaker serves through and the organization I would serve through as well. Doesn't that little boy just make you want to fly out there right now and give him a big hug??? What an amazing experience and journey this would be if it is the Lord's will for me to serve!

My Brother Brandon

I know it has been a while since I have posted anything and I know I still need to post about the visit from Jackie's sisters Debbie and Mary, hopefully before Glori comes out to visit later this week, but I had to take a moment and brag about my big brother!

My brother Brandon has had a love and passion for cooking for as long as I can remember. He went to the Culinary Institute of America in New York and graduated top of his class. Then he moved to Texas to work for the owner of Six Flags, Texas in one of his restaurants for many years. He has worked with several different prominent people in his career but has always had the dream of one day opening his very own restaurant....

Well, on May 2, 2010 that dream will finally become a reality. For more than a year now, my brother has been faithfully working towards getting his first restaurant up and running, with many detours and roadblocks along the way. Nothing has deterred him and I believe all those detours and road blocks have made him even more persistent to reach his goal! I am so very proud of him and excited for him to begin a new journey in his life! Congratulations Brandon!!!

Jackie and I are very much looking forward to flying out to Dallas with all of my family for the grand opening!

Family

I'm soooo excited family is coming to visit! Jackie's sisters Debbi and Mary will be flying into LAX this Friday and will be here until next Friday! We absolutely love when family comes to visit and we are able to spend time with them. Life is too short not to spend as much time with family as you can. Last time Mary came to visit was July of 2008 and Debbi hasn't made a visit in quite a few years. I love being able to spend time with sisters and enjoy all the fun stuff we end up doing while they are here.

Also, my Auntie Wendy is driving down from Utah this Friday for the long weekend and will be staying with my mom. I believe she is bringing her granddaughter with her and we will be able to have a girls days on Saturday. I don't remember the last time my Auntie Wendy came down, but it sure is nice to know that family wants to come visit!!!

And for any family out there that reads this blog... our doors are always open!!! We don't have a large house, but it is always available and open to anyone that wants to come down to California! :)

Time For Preparation

Today I received notification that I did not pass either of my CSET exams and so I must prepare to take them again on March 13th. Although I was a bit disappointed that some miracle did not take place I was very prepared to see a "Did not pass" when I received my results. I did not study for the test at all and was sure there was no way I was going to come even close to passing, but I did surprise myself and scored a 189 and a 185, a 220 was needed to pass. So, though I came close, I didn't quite do enough. This preparation will be my first true test to my attempt at no longer procrastinating!!! Hopefully I will be able to report that I had success!

On another note, since Jackie and I decided to honor the Lord with our finances He has truly given us reassurance that this is what He wants for us. We have been blessed with small little miracles that are making a major dent in our list of items to take care of and we feel His love and support in the decisions we have been making as we prepare!

God is good!

Following God's Will

This past weekend Jackie and I met with our Pastor because we felt it would be good to meet with her as we prepare to start a family of our own. Little did we know that the Lord would speak so clearly through her and our immediate plans would be changing.

In our meeting with Pastor, she shared how it is God's will that we be "financially" prepared to bring children into the world and that it is a Biblical requirement for couples to be financially prepared for children even before they get married. When we are financially unprepared we are essentially going against the will of the Lord and His blessings cannot be fully bestowed upon us. And in being financially unprepared we are allowing Satan to get a foothold in our lives as we raise children.

With Jackie and I both coming from families where money was minimal neither of us really thought about the need to be more financially prepared for our children than our parents were. We both felt our children would grow up just like us and learn the value of a dollar at a young age. We always thought we would be able to provide our children with more than our parents were financially able to provide for us, but we didn't see a need to have money put away and our finances in order before we had children. I know that may seem a little scary and naive, but we really just felt we would be able to do what we needed to, when we needed to, and that it would all work out just fine.

After meeting with Pastor we realized that not only is it wise to have your finances in order and money saved when starting a family, it is a Biblical commandment of our Lord and we always want to be following the Lord's will in all that we do. With that being said, we will be taking a break from trying to start our family until we feel that we have made the progress with our finances that the Lord would be happy with. We don't know exactly how long it will be, but we will be taking it one month at a time. Until that day, we pray that the Lord will help us be dedicated to following His commandments in all that we do so that He can bless us!

Life

Since it's been a little while since my last posts and one of my goals this year was to keep my blog updated, I figured it was time to share some things going on in our lives right now! :)

Last Friday we found out that our last insemination was not successful. So right now we prepare for another one in a few weeks. It has been hard for us accept the disappointment of no baby each month, but we completely trust that the Lord has His hands in this process and will allow it to happen when He feels the timing is right and all the details are in order. Until that time we will continue to put our trust in Him.

Yesterday I started another semester of school. I am taking a parenting in the 21st century class as well as a Calculus class. This is the first time in my college career that I am taking classes solely to take classes. Neither of the classes are required to earn my teaching credential, but I need to stay in school right now to keep my school loans in deferment. It really makes me look at school differently when I know I don't have to take these classes, it makes it hard to be excited even though I know they will both be beneficial to me and my future. I guess I am just really looking forward to a break, even though I graduated last May I haven't really taken a break from school so it doesn't feel like I am done. I know I will be done one day, just not seeing that day coming anytime soon.

It was also Jackie's birthday yesterday and because of how busy our day was we really didn't get to celebrate yesterday which was okay because we celebrated over the weekend. This past Saturday we drove out to Palm Springs and stayed at a Bed and Breakfast for the night to celebrate her birthday. We were also able to go to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for dinner to celebrate and it was absolutely fabulous! On the way back home we stopped at the Cabazon Outlets to do a little clothes shopping and found a few good buys! All in all I think it was a pretty successful birthday celebration and a relaxing weekend.

That is about all that is going on in our lives right now, but will update again soon!

A New Beginning

Today I decided it was time to get back on the weight loss wagon. I went through a long period of just maintaining the 16 pounds I lost on weight watchers and then over the past few months have now gained 8 of those 16 back, so I felt the need to start holding myself accountable again.

A friend of mine at work is using a calorie counter online that is completely free and it has you track what you are eating everyday as well as the physical activity, if any, you are doing everyday as well. It helps you create a realistic goal for the weight you want to lose and suggests the amount of calories you should eat. It also has a section on exercise that gives you ready made exercise programs or helps you to create one specifically for you and what you like to do. It also takes into consideration any health issues you have or if you are pregnant so that you are making sure you are not hurting yourself. If anyone wants to check it out, the website is: http://caloriecount.about.com

I am very excited about the new goal and the idea of having to hold myself accountable for the food decisions I make. Yet, I can also allow myself some things by just making up for it with exercise. This is a concept I am very much familiar with, but I think I just needed to forgive myself for the past mistakes and start new!

Hopefully I will have some good reports on the progress. :)

A New Year

I was just thinking about New Year's resolutions and what my resolutions would be, if I will be able to stick to them or if I am going to make crazy ones that I know I can't stick too and I decided that instead of trying to make a bunch of resolutions for the new year, I needed to try and make some personal goals to work towards.

1) Build a stronger and more personal relationship with the Lord!

2) Show Jackie just how much I love her and how lucky I feel to have her as my life long companion!

3) Update the blog more often so that we have a record of our lives together and the joys and sorrows we experience.

4) make better decisions in my food choices.

5) Create a more physically active life for our family by setting an example and encouraging us to get up and get active.

They may seem a bit redundant, but they are the most important things in my life and they should be at the top of my list each and everyday of my life!