a rainy day in the northwest

saturday afternoon and we are having our first all out rainy day in the northwest since we have been out here. and at least for now i am enjoying the rain.

tim schedule with school is in full force - as he will have his first quizzes and assignments due this coming week. yesterday he made himself lots and lots of hebrew flash cards. huge flashbacks for me to greek and the seemingly endless amounts of vocab. tim continues to greatly enjoy his time at regent - appreciating the diversity, emphasis on culture and high intellectual conversations that are happening in class. he has two discussion groups he is apart of for two of his courses and he enjoys those times as well, as they are a chance to engage with other students in a thoughtful way with the material they are learning in class.

we are set to move up to vancouver the first weekend of october. i think for tim especially it will feel good to be settled up there. i continue to try to soak up this time with my family and not having to work. :)

this week i was struck by Deuteronomy 11:22 which says -If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways and to hold fast to him, then... the author's summary of the commands of the LORD in this passage - love him, walk in His ways and hold fast to Him. some translations say to walk in obediance to him. those three statements have been rolling around in my mind - love Him, walk in His ways, hold fast to Him - all week. how critical are each of these things - and how much more do i need to live out of these things... i am grateful for the graciousness of the LORD and the equipping power of the Holy Spirit as i fumble around to live a life pleasing to the Father and even more grateful for the cleansing work of Christ which makes all of this possible.

as i have thought about things i have shared since returning home i realized i have neglected to post a bit about the things the Lord is up to in me - so for what it's worth - there you go.

may the Lord who makes all things new and good be with you today - and this afternoon i am thankful for the rain and the way He uses that to bring life.

an afternoon with the mosers

we spent the afternoon with the mosers. so fun. the days have been beautiful here. we went to the park and then hung out at my parent's house watching Psalty (huge flash backs for bekah and i as we both remembered all of the songs - haha) and football.

sweet Sam is 6 months today!
beautiful isa
ben commanding his ship (the playground was a huge ship)
taking a family photo can be difficult - isa the happiest child so serious for every picture
yes, i recognize this post probably belongs on the moser's blog. but their kids are just so cute. and we love them all a lot.

deception pass

tim's first day of school. it's early.
my mom, dad and me went on a little adventure today to deception pass. here are some pics:

mt. baker in the distance -
my dad and me after our picnic lunch
faith playing in the water - staring at a ball she never had the courage to get. poor faith.

mom and daughter - turbo hikers

cliff pic of mom and dad
the weather has been amazing. and we had a great day!

the latest with the move

last week tim and i received the amazing news that the 2 bedroom apartment on the first floor of the house where drew and bekah live will be available october 1st.  currently all of our things are at my parent's house (mainly in the garage).  they graciously offered for us to keep our things there for the next few weeks until the apartment is available.  they also are housing, feeding, suppling us with a car, and lavishly spoiling us.  so in spite of the commute for tim 3 days a week we are very happy and feel very much taken care of.  

we hope to move as soon as we can after the 1st.  not sure how it will all work out as the 1st is in the middle of the week.  we may just begin by sleeping on the floor for a few days and moving most of our stuff up the weekend following.  

nothing else new to report.  today i hope to get my b.c. driver's license.  and tim is at school - his first day.  i did take a picture at 5:45 this morning.  he takes a great picture that early in the morning :)  

go broncos!

in honor of the first regular season broncos game i am wearing for the first time the broncos shirt i got in israel. even though we have moved away i will continue to be a broncos fan.

the rest of the pics are from our night in vancouver with kurtis and erin this weekend. we went and had nachos and beer at one of their favorite places (a huge craving we had while in israel - we dreamed of this day)
we went and got gelato
and went bowling


the weather in bellingham has been beautiful!! and we are really enjoying it. yesterday we went kayaking and took faith. at first she was not so sure about being in the kayak but by the end of the time she had her paws up on the side taking in the wind and the view. tim begins school tomorrow and i plan to go with him - get my b.c. license (something i have to do within the first 3 months of moving to canada - good-bye colorado license) and hang out with bekah and the kids in the afternoon. no new updates with the job - i don't plan on knowing anything new for a week or so. and still very much loving being near to my family.

that's all for now - go broncos!

the coming of bobbi

well i figure that if both parent's have blogged about it i can safely blog about it as well...

gabe and brook are pregnant! and we are thrilled for them and for our whole family. i have never been an aunt but i hope to be a great one for little bobby (that is what i call the little one in brooke's tummy). if you want to read more about the progress of bobby click on brooke or gabe's blogs. i imagine brooke will be writing a bit more about him/her as she is feeling more of the reality right now. bobby is due april 10th. a think that sounds like a nice birthday.

brooke and gabe told us on the side of the road - just after we landed in denver. so our reunion was much greater than i could say a few weeks ago. they busted out an ultrasound picture and 2 huge grins and... well... there you go. we all just hugged a lot after that. an interesting site for drivers passing by to be sure.

so if you think of them- tim and i would be honored if you would join all of us in praying for bobbi and for brooke - for health, rest, preparation and joy. (and for gabe too for his life is also going to dramatically change). tim and i get a good chuckle out of picturing bobby a few years from now - blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin - drawing or writing or singing quietly in the corner - as our child (not yet even conceived) is marching around banging into things, falling down, unable to hold still. or who knows - we could be totally wrong. either way we are very excited for the coming of bobby.

happy 30th anniversary mom and dad!!!

Sunday night we celebrated my mom and dad's 30th wedding anniversary. We had an amazing meal out at their favorite restaurant - conversation filled with much reflection and thanksgiving regarding the past 30 years. here is mom and defense before we left for the evening. they are beautiful.
cute mom and dad.
tim, danielle and i outside the restaurant
tim and i after dinner.

it is great to be able to be home and with family, especially on such special occasions. we love you mom and dad. thank you for a wonderful night. and thank you for loving each other so well.

moving pics and wonderful news!

some of our things in the knipps' garage
tim and ken discussing the packing strategy
everything fits! the all-star father/son team!
tim - the driver - for 20 of the 22 hours.

our second night at our second k.o.a. stop. yesterday we unloaded the truck into my parent's garage. we found out this morning that we have a place to live!! it is such a blessing. we will be living in the first floor apartment of the same house as drew and bekah. we are incredibly excited. the plan is to move in October 1st. between now and then we will be with my parents. tim is at regent right now for orientation. classes start next week.

work permit - DONE!!

in spite of being extremely tired tim and i woke up early yesterday morning and headed for the border. we arrived before 9 and in 45 minutes and very little questioning later, we had a work permit for me!!! which means i can apply for jobs and actually be allowed to work in canada. i am extremely excited, especially because the first time we went the people treated me like i was crazy to think i was allowed to ask for a permit. but after much research and talking to people at regent we found out i am in fact perfectly able/allowed as a spouse of a full time student to obtain an open work permit in canada.

we also went and looked at a possible place to live and saw drew and bekah yesterday. so it was a great day as we get more and more excited about living in vancouver.

too many hours to count later

we are in bellingham. we arrived this afternoon after many, many hours of driving. overall the trip went well. tim was a bit stressed in the middle of wyoming with wind gusts up and beyond 45 mph. and i didn't like driving the truck much, so poor tim drove all but 2.5 hours. we both feel a bit out of it and tired, but we are glad to be here. i took many pictures along the way which i will post sometime this weekend. we spent the night at k.o.a. campgrounds. an interesting social phenomena to say the least. we also visited more mcdonalds than we have been to in a mighty long time because we were given a gift card and had a hard time rationalizing going to any other fast food place as tim thinks they all taste about the same. needless to say as we were driving through the northwest tim suggested some kind of intense vegetable/fruit based cleanse in the near future to get all of the nasty out of our bodies. haha.

well i am tired. good night. pray for us tomorrow. we will be crossing the border in hopes of getting a work permit for me.

car - SOLD!!

this morning we sold the jetta!! all-and-all we are glad to have sold it. a huge blessing to have the car sold before we head north tomorrow.

tomorrow morning we will pick up our moving truck - load it up - and head to bellingham. we are glad to not have a car to drive, so we can be in the truck together. we hope all of our things fit :) we would appreciate your prayers for safety and a smooth drive. we are looking forward to all of the time we will have to talk and process these past two weeks. we also are excited about beginning to read out of the silent planet together (by C.S. Lewis) - a highly recommend first installment of the space trilogy (thank you kurtis). tim and i have actually read it before as part of our freshman year at Taylor, but it will be good to read again.

well. that's about it. we hope to be in bellingham for dinner on friday. and saturday we are going to cross the border and try for a work permit for me. canada here we come!

dinner together at red robin

we met gabe and brooke in castle rock for dinner at red robin. yum. yum. the storm outside stopped long enough to get some pictures.

again we have a picture of gabe giving hugs - he loves hugs. it looks like brooke and janae do too.
father - daughter love (notice the anvil hat - my dad's employer - love you dad!)
not bad for not being able to tell what he was taking a picture of (good job tim)
not sure what to say - we are both smiling, that's nice.
oh, to be in love...

a picture where all of us look normal - a rare, but wonderful, thing.
we will all be together again in october in the midwest to celebrate grandpa and grandma stockman's 60th anniversary. we will miss gabe and brooke - it's great to like each other so much.

a dear friend and a hike

saying goodbye to our dear friend sonya (with her son dylan, niece kya and maci)

below - tim, dylan, and kya showing their guns, while maci looks on
tim, gabe and ken had a great hike climbing Mt. Princeton - here is the chalet where they spent the night
up, up, up
the man is cancer free - praise the Lord!

dad and son
three pretty cool dudes
brothers
crazy tim
they had a great time. and i am glad they are home.

please continue to pray for a place for us to live and a job for me. canada isn't exactly foreigner friendly but we are figuring it out. hopefully by the end of august i will have a work permit. pray with us that we have a friendly border crossing worker. we are here in colorado springs until wednesday. we will pick up our moving truck wednesday morning and we hope to be on the road by lunch time. vancouver here we come.

denver

saturday afternoon we met gabe and brooke in denver. we said goodbye to vickie and janae for a few days and have been enjoying time to be with our brother and sister in law, as well as with good friends for a few days. here are some pictures.

gabe loves hugs - i think brooke and janae do too.
beautiful brooke.
brother and sister-in-law - we like them a lot :)
brothers.
charlie, tim and gabe. we spent sunday afternoon with keri and charlie - such good friends.
brooke and i.
one of the highlights of being back in denver was visiting the gathering on sunday morning. we just enjoyed being with the community. it is a beautiful thing (now being an outside witness) seeing them worship the Lord and worshiping with them - they are genuinely love Him and love each other. we are incredibly thankful for the opportunity to be with them all and see the Lord's continued faithfulness to the community.

today we will have lunch with my dear uncle jim. and tonight we will be with good friends - kendal and sonya, and mark and brooke. it is good to be with friends.