More Fun Pumpkin Pics

Tyler are you enjoying your carmel apple?








Ashley loves her pumpkin!




















From left to right: Trista, Ashley, Brandon, Merissa, Andy



















Trista is having fun!














Guess Who??

Pumpkin Pics

Having fun with pumpkins!




















Andy wanted to free hand his pumpkin instead of using the kit. He ended up putting 3 faces on it.





Malea is enjoying herself.

Ooh, a new post!!

We have been gone from Oregon 2 months now. When we moved, I threw away all of my sudoku books because they only had a few puzzles left in each one. I use to work on sudoku everyday, and have missed it sadly. Today I broke down and bought a new book from the dollar store. I am a happier girl now. Not near as happy as I will be when we finally get to close on our house (next week sometime:) but maybe as happy as all of you are who wanted a new post, so I hope you've enjoyed it and it was worth your wait.

A Nice Weekend

This past weekend was so nice. On Saturday Dale, Andy and I went shopping. We had several items on our list, mostly just window shopping, not buying. We looked all through the kitchen, bathroom, lighting, and decor section in several stores. (Andy wasn't as nice as Dale, he escaped to the electronic section a few times) One of my favorite stops was Pier One. They have a lot of clearance, I was pleasantly surprised. Dale and I Meandered through the whole store. It was a blast! We were dreaming of our future house and the things we would like to have for it.

For lunch we sent Andy in to a Chinese restaurant for their lunch buffet to-go for one. He came out with a dish heaped with lomein, fried rice, teryake chicken, egg rolls, and still more beef and chicken, all for $6.45. What a deal! We didn't get to stuff ourselves, but it was quite satisfying.

After shopping all day, we arrived home famished and tired. We ate some leftover hearty chicken soup. Yum! Then proceeded to watch Happy Feet. Dale and I had never seen it and it was a great end to a nice day.

Sunday we went to Brandon and Merissa's and carved pumpkins. I made carmel apples and Dale roasted pumpkin seeds while everyone else did their pumpkins. It was a fun time all in all. I took pictures and will try to post some later.

Amazing New Developements

I have felt lately that I am just sitting here biding my time, wondering what God's plan is. Why is this house not working out? I have been trying to have an open mind and pray for God's will in it, but honestly as of late I have gotten a bit discouraged with it all. Then yesterday came. We have had an offer in at Countrywide Bank (they own the house) for a week with no word from them. Here's the gist of the situation:

• Asking price for the house $84,000
• 2 weeks ago we offered $70,000 plus they pay our closing(4,600)
• 3 days later they lowered the price of the house to $80,000 and offered us that as a counter, so basically a full price offer as a counter and no closing costs included
• 1 week ago we offered $73,000 plus they pay our closing again, so we were about $10,000 apart on the numbers total
• No word from Countrywide, anger, anxiety and prayer all going on in this house
• Yesterday, the deadline day, Countrywide accepted our offer!!!!

I was in complete shock. When my Realtor called and told me, I didn't believe her, then I started jumping up and down all over the kitchen in excitement.

In the days before that, I was getting very angry because I thought the bank was being arrogant and letting us just sit the week out with no answer when they were not going to accept anything less than full price. I had so many conversations with them, in my head of coarse, about how they were acting sure of themselves in these economic times, and that house had been on the market for 8 months and the price had only come down the 4,000 in that time. At night we would watch the news and see the stock market dropping and hear about the mortgage crisis and wonder why the bank wasn't jumping to sell when they had the chance. We had made plans to go look at more houses and basically move on. I thought that's what my realtor was calling about. I had totally given up. But I can see now they had to wait and see if they got a better offer before accepting ours at the last minute. I am so thankful. Some other amazing things played out yesterday too that has allowed me to see that God has perfect timing and he was in control all the time. The bank accepted our deal on Wednesday, Oct. 8 2008 because that's when it was God's will. No doubt about it.

Hopefully all goes well from here, I feel drained at this point and all we have accomplished is getting an accepted offer. We still have inspections, appraisals, and closing to get through. I know that God is in control and will accomplish his will.

*In other totally unrelated news, Andy has made a huge turn around in algebra. He is putting a lot of time and effort into it and while it's not coming easy, it is coming and he is thinking about taking trig next year! Thanks for your prayers!

Just a few tidbits about life in general

1. We are in the middle of our house deal. We offered, they countered, and now we've countered. This has all happened since Friday the 26th. The house is bank owned, so we are impressed with their speed.

2. I went to my first big quilt fair last Friday. It was huge! Similar in size to some of the larger homeschool fairs. They had some very awesome quilts and projects. I just finished my own quilt project. It was my first rag quilt. It was basic, but very cute. I thought it would be bigger when I was done. Next time I'll remember that. My precious new nephew, Gabriel, is the recipient.

3. Church has been very good lately. It seems that God has been speaking directly to me, it's amazing. I was praying about testifying last night when a brother got up and read 150th psalms. It is all about praising God. The brother talked about how he sometimes made the faith more complicated than it was. God wants us to praise him. We ended up having several testimonies.

4. Doughnuts. When we lived here before, we started inviting the brethern over after church on Wed. nights for doughnuts from this wonderful little doughnut shop with fresh, hot doughnuts. About 3 years ago we came through on a Wed night for church, then after church we got everyone to go to the doughnut shop. Since that time the brethern here have been going every Wed night. It is awesome! You walk in the back where they have racks and racks of fresh doughnuts and make your pick from bavarian cream, old fashion, long johns, glazed and twists, huge chocolate topped pretzels, raspberry filled.......mmm..... When we first started going years ago, the owner loved Andy and would always give him free doughnuts, which is comical since as most of you know Andy didn't like doughnuts or sweets when he was little, but we definitely took the doughnuts with a smile. We didn't want to hurt Mr. doughnuts feelings and the doughnuts were enjoyed, not to worry. In any case, 3 years ago when we came through, Mr. doughnut recognized Andy when he walked in the door. I was amazed. It had been over 6 years since he had seen him. Last month when we went in on our first Wed night here, Dale and I went in the back room to choose our doughnuts and owner was friendly but didn't recognize us. A few minutes later Andy joined us and the guy looked at him and instantly asked, "What's your name?" Andy told him and he got so excited. "I knew it, I knew it, how are you Andy, it's been a long time..." Imagine all of this coming from a short, little, asian man with a thick accent. Come and see us and we will take you to the doughnut man. mmm... Whew, this tidbit could have been its own post!

5. The terrible, awful, stupid, pointless, dreaded ...ALGEBRA 2... I have never taken algebra 2 but Andy assures me that these are all words that describe it completely. Last night in church one of the testimonies was from a brother who talked about being in college and feeling totally overwhelmed by his studies. He said he would often ask his mother and the brethern to pray for him. He said high school had always been easy for him, but when he took his first college chemistry test that he had never studied so hard for something and done so poorly. He was devastated. Dale, Andy and I talked a lot about it last night and part of the time Andy was very upset and wanted out of the class no matter what the cost. Later when he was talking more rationally, he realized he needed the class to be able to take the science classes that he is VERY interested in. Dale offered to help at night and we will all be praying him through.

6. Dale's job is going good. We feel that God blessed us with it.