The Stockwells

He made it!!!

2008-11-29T11:12:00.001-08:00

November 15th, 2008 Grandpa Beal got to see Jesus!!! We are so, so happy that he is with Jesus. What an amazing legacy he left with us. He served the Lord faithfully his entire life and is grandchildren are reaping the benefits of it. We will miss him a lot but are so eternally thankful that he is with the Lord. It makes heaven so sweet!

WATCH THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-10-13T23:19:00.000-07:00

This is soooooooooooooo good. Pass it on to everyone you know!

Im not lying.....I have been busy

2008-09-26T16:56:00.001-07:00

Here are a few pictures of the things that we are doing around my parents house. This is mostly for my sis who lives in Monroe and Curts Mom who wants to see what we have been doing around here. Everyone else can enjoy it if they want :) Now mind you, my Mother has been convinced that she likes white walls and that is what has been in their house for 7 years. So the color may no be a big deal to you but to my family it is a huge mile stone in my Moms life :)
So in the family room Jay and Curt just finished building in the builtins around the fireplace. Now I am painting them and not quite done, that is why there is nothing on them :)The bedroom pictures are of my parents room. They had a old water bed headboard on their bed forever, so we built them the one pictured. It turned out so good! We also had new carpet installed and I painted the base of their bed. We are trying to make it look as much not like a water bed as possible, but we cant get rid of it because my dad needs it for his back. Then miracles of all miracles my mom let me splurge and buy new, somewhat expensive lamps for their room. Miracles do happen people :)
Then of course the new tile all through out the entry and kitchen. It looks like I am doing a lot of work but Curt did the majority. He is such a great man!
Basically every wall in the house has colored paint on it and it looks awesome. Im trying to convince my Mom to paint the cabinets in the kitchen white but I think she is starting to tune my ideas out. I think I overwhelm her a bit. Slowly I am determined to wear her down. The picture of the front door is also a small miracle because my parents let me get new hardware and it makes the door look so nice. The random paint next to it is my big mistake in the color of paint that I bought. It looked so nice on the swatch but turned out to be a horrible yellow color. I love yellow but not this yellow and it just looked wrong in her house. So I had to paint small patches of paint everywhere until I found the right color. Finally I did and it looks great! I also made covers for the couches in the living room. They look a bit disastrous in this picture but good in general. Some day I will be a master sewer.
Hopefully soon we will get carpet everywhere but my parents told me that I need to quit spending money everywhere else so that they can spend it on carpet. Ha!

I've been tagged...

2008-08-19T22:34:00.000-07:00

This is for Julia, because I hate her so much! :)

Rules of Engagement:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post rules on your blog (copy and paste 1-6).
3. Write 6 random things about yourself.
4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

SIX RANDOM THINGS ABOUT Julia:

1. I love projects and like to get them done as soon as possible so that I can see the fruit of my labor and how great it looks.

2. I freeze during the day and roast while I sleep at night. I usually only use 2 thin blankets to cover up. I think its because Curt is an oven.

3. I have only ever owned Volkswagens and hope that I never own anything else.

4. My middle name, Kyllo, is my Grandma Beal's maiden name.

5. I have broken both of my arm's but not at the same time.

6. I would choose sweets over real food any day.

Okay, here we go:

People I am tagging:
1. Elizabeth
2. Judy
3. Jenn
4. Kate
5. Lei
6. Suz

Update!

2008-06-29T15:56:00.000-07:00

So I am finally getting time to post about our life. I seriously dont get to check my email these days so sitting down to post about life is majorly overwhelming and a nice break.
So for those of you who dont know it, we made it to Washington....but barely. I dont know if ya'll heard about the tornados in Colorado at the end of May??? We were fortunate enough to be able to miss them by just a half hour on our way out of the state. We came upon Fort Collins right after the tornados had hit in neighboring citys. Had we not had a few delays on our way out of town we would have been smack in the middle of it. Thank God he kept us safe!!! We ended up staying the night in Fort Collins (just an hour outside of Denver) that night just to be sure all the crazy weather had passed. There were tornado warnings in effect until 8pm that night and Curt didnt really want to drive our huge truck in windy weather. We saw overturned semi's and didnt really want our truck to do the same. I dont think I would have been mad if our truck had overturned and runied all of our things but I would have been ticked because of all the work we did the day before to pack that stupid truck with the utmost care.
So Friday morning we made it an all day event and drove 19 hours to Spokane. I drove the truck too and reconfirmed to myself that I would make a great trucker! That thing was fun to drive!
We had about 5 days in Spokane before we drove to Seattle and flew out to the East Coast. My sister from across the state was here with her 3 kids to add to the chaos of just moving. And our things were everywhere so it made packing to travel and real treat. Probably not the smartest move to go on vacation 5 days after you move to a different state but none the less we had no choice at that point and had a really nice time with Sky and Suz. I will make a whole other post about that later.
We got back to Spokane on the 10th of June and have not stopped moving. I have been helping my parents re decorate their home. I have the whole main floor of their home almost painted and all last week Curt and I tore up the entryway/kitchen/dining room floor and laid tile all the way through. It looks really really nice but what a huge project it has been. Nothing is ever as simple as you hope it will be. We arent quite finished yet either. Tomorrow I need to spend the day grouting all 340 sq feet and then seal it and put all the trim back up. Next we will be recarpeting the whole house. I love projects like this so I am really having a ball but its definately hard work. I wake up early and dont stop until my body cant move anymore. One thing I hate is unfinished projects and I cant rest until its all done :) I will post pictures when everything is done.
So thats our life for now. Curt has been crazy busy with web stuff or doing little projects for me. I am leading worship on Wednesday night for the womens group, I spend as much time as possible with my nephews and family. I cant express how wonderful it is to be here. We get to see Jenn and Bill a lot too and that is just fabulous!!! So nice to be with them again. Part of me feels like Colorado was just a dream but when I have time to miss it I miss our friends a lot! Life is good! God has blessed us.

Dont be jealous

2008-05-20T09:35:00.000-07:00

This is what I get to go home to!!! Yay! Arent they just stinking adorable. Dont be hatin because I have such cute nieces and nephews!
So its my last day of work! Hallelujah! Tomorrow we get the truck bright and early pack and clean all day and then Thursday we head out.
I hate goodbyes.....they are the one of the worst things in the world. But I love hello's and usually they go hand in hand.

Packing!

2008-05-15T12:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have a little bit of a problem. Our social calendar is full from here until Tuesday night and I am not done packing. We honestly have every inch of our life scheduled out so that we can see everyone before we go, even lunch time.
So this has been my plan all week and will be until we pack the truck......I leave work, go hang out with my friends, come home, pack at least four boxes and then jump into bed around 1am, get up the next morning and do it all over again. I think it should work just fine.
One thing that is challenging about packing this time is I have to seperate what I want to take to my parents and what I want to go to storage. You see we will be living with my parents until we find a house, which goodness knows when that will happen. I have the perfect house in mind and wont buy it until I love it :)
I have so many pictures to post of fun things that we have been doing but I just have not gotten a chance to steal computer time from Curt. He has been crazy, and I mean crazy busy with building websites and all our pictures are on the computer that he works on. Poor guy comes home from work, works on the computer till about 11pm and then crashes into bed. He is awesome! Im sure its making him a little nutty.....
So I usually prefer posts with pictures but I dont have any right now.
I may have a mental breakdown in the next 3 weeks. Here is our schedule, hang with friends from today until Tuesday night, finish work on the 20th, pack the truck on the 21st, drive out of town early the 22nd, get into Spokane sometime on the 23rd, settle in, Monday the 26th sister and 3 kids come from Seattle to visit, Thursday the 29th drive to Seattle and fly out for New York at 11pm, get into New York at 7:30 and start our vacation with Sky and Suz.
Whoooo, I am tired just thinking about it. But it will be fun!

Life after 30!

2008-05-12T15:46:00.000-07:00

So I have been 30 for a week and 4 days now. I don't feel older and now I can see how older peole always think they are cool or good dressers. I'm not old, I'm just realizing how you still in your mind think you are 20 but you keep getting older. I still feel like I am not old enough to be 30. Ha!
My birthday was OK.....The day I turned 30 I was in Texas for Leslie's graduation. That was totally OK with me. She graduated from college and that is a HUGE deal. I am so proud of her. But it definitely didn't feel like my birthday....Then Curt threw me a party this last weekend. Half the people who said they were coming did not come, so I had made twice as much food and dessert than I needed to. The enchiladas and cupcakes did not turn out how I would have liked them to and that is always a bummer. There is always those feelings of disappointment when things don't turn out the way you want, like your party, but on the flip side you are so grateful for what you got. Does that make sense? I hate feeling like a burden to people.
I was so thankful for my friends that did come. We had such a great time! Elizabeth and Jill may have gotten me the best present I have ever gotten from anyone accept Curt. They got me a Tiffany's charm with an inscription that said "Love J & E". That is exactly the kind of things that I love....something that is sentimental and will make you remember those people for the rest of your life. And I love Tiffany's. I have 2 charm bracelets from there, one that I got when I was in New York and another that Curt got me when we got married and it has my new initials on it. I still cannot believe they did that. I'm still in shock. Its not very often that I am surprised with something that I will adore.
Curt was great! He had games planned for the party. A trivia about me and a word search puzzle and he even had prizes for the winners. He got me a new Seahawks sweatshirt with #97 on the back - Patrick Kerney is my favorite Seahawk. That dude is a machine. He also got me a Starbucks mug with pictures of my neices and nephews in it. I could not have asked for a better husband! He is so good to me.

We are busy busy packing up the little condo. I cannot believe that it is only a week and 2 days until we leave. Curt and I know that we will both be crying as we drive out of town. We have such great friends here. And so many people we wish we had a little more time with to get to know better. We will miss them all terribly.
We get the privilege of going on vacation with Sky and Suz at the end of this month. We are going to fly to New York and then rent a car and drive all around the New England states. We are all history dorks so its going to be a lot of fun! I cannot wait! I have always wanted to see the history in New England. I have already been to New York and Washington DC, but now I will get to go to Boston and see Plymouth Rock. Yay!
So we have lots of fun things coming up! Life is good!

Why is life this way?

2008-05-05T10:47:00.001-07:00

So, some of you know, some of you dont know, some of you have heard rumors, some of you dont care....but Curt and I are moving back to Washington on May 23rd.
When we felt the Lord telling us to move down here in the Summer of 2006 I knew it was the right thing for us at the time but I was ready to get down here, get it over with and move back to Washington as fast as possible. I never ever expected to move down here and fall in love with our church and find friends that I would never want to leave.
I am a deep friendship type girl and I never thought that I would find friendships here that would last forever. There are so many people here that I just adore.....Plus, I LOVE our church. I love the people that I am on worship team with. I love Pastor Aaron and how he leads Elevate. I love Pastor Reece and Sarah and the direction that they are taking the church. I love their heart for people and the Lord.
But on the flip side....I miss my family. I think I have flown 8 times this year to Washington alone. My nieces and nephews are growing up without me and it makes my heart sad. Even before Curt and I were married it was important to both of us that we raise our family around family. We dont have kids yet but when we do we want to be close to the fam.

My favorite phrase when things are sad for me is, "why does God hate me?". Curt hates it when I say that, and of course Im kidding, but I do think that about this situation. At least God could have made all the people down here really lame so I wouldnt be sad to leave them....but no......he had to make them cool, and fun, and my friends.

So I write this post with a sad and happy heart. We are moving to Spokane to be with my parents and help in their church. That is weird and exciting all at the same time. If you are a PK you know what I mean......
We get to be near my brother and his wife and two boys who live in Spokane, my little sister just graduated from college in Texas so she will be back in Spokane too. All my grandparents are still alive and they live in Spokane so it will be nice to be around them for the last few years of their lives. Plus I have lots of aunts and uncles and cousins in Spokane that I will get to see more too.
Our bestest friends Bill and Jenn live a block from my parents house and we are thrilled to be near them again....my best friend Suz is just a few hours away, which is better than 20 hours away :)
I guess this is the great thing about life....things change, I go through different experiences, but God is still God and even when a situation, like moving to Colorado, isnt exactly what I want to do, God makes the experience really wonderful and life changing.
Definately one reason to look forward to heaven....we will all get to be together for eternity :) Wont that be fun! That and I know that we will come visit Colorado when possible.

South Beach Update

2008-04-28T15:42:00.000-07:00

This is for Judifree :) I am no quite sure how much weight I have lost at this point. I dont have a scale at home and I usually go to the gym late at night to work out and weigh myself then. Well my weight that late at night, depending on what I have eaten for dinner, is always different. I need to buy a scale. But, good news is my pants are fitting a lot better and I can definately tell my body is smaller and more firm. Yay for me!
The one thing that was hard for me for the first 2 weeks of the diet was that I had a hard time running for long distances on mostly protien. It seriously at points felt like my legs were 50 lbs weights. Now I can have a little more carbs so running is a lot better.
I feel good! Its a fun challenge to find new recipes and fun things to eat. And it definately feels good to be disciplined :)
Does anyone have good tips or recipes that they have done while getting back into shape? Judi - I know that people want to know how you lost 40 lbs on the South Beach. How long did it take you? What are your secrets?
As soon as I can weigh myself at a normal time of the day I will let everyone know the progress.

EXPELLED!!!!!

2008-04-22T10:27:00.001-07:00

Curt and I went and saw "Expelled - No Intellegence allowed", on Saturday night. It was such a good documentary!!! I urge everyone to go and take as many people with you as you can. It is a great move for kids 12 and up to go see too. Liberals are up in arms about this movie and I think we need to supoort Ben Stein in this.

South Beach

2008-04-07T12:56:00.000-07:00

How to weigh yourself and get the most accurate result.

I cant believe that I have been doing it wrong all these years!!!!
We Must get the word out!!

So, I started the South Beach diet today. I must admit that this last year and a half has not been my trophy period of eating well and working out. I think the "big move" to Colorado got me out of sync with myself and away from everything and everyone that I love, which therefore made food a joy and comfort. Also, has anyone else noticed that when you get married you seem to start eating more for no apparent reason? It has been shocking to realize how much and how often men need to eat. For example, lets say that I am not hungry, or forget to eat lunch until about 2pm in the afternoon. At 6pm we are meeting a bunch of friends for dinner at PF Chang's so I know that I don't want to eat a full lunch at 2 pm because I wont be hungry at 6 pm to eat a fabulous dinner. Therefore, I will just eat something small or veggies or something like that. If the same thing happened to Curt, he would eat a full meal at 2pm and a full meal at 6pm.

Friday night we were planning on going to a really great restaurant for dinner. Curt wanted to go home first and chill for a while before we spent the night out at dinner and a movie. Well, by the time we left the house and got the restaurant, there was an hour wait to get a table. Of course I would have been just fine waiting, but Curt got a panicked look in his eyes and said quite decidedly that he could not wait that long to eat. So driving between that restaurant and another restaurant that could seat us faster, he about died from hunger. Why you ask? Because men just need to eat. They cant just make a mental decision that they will wait a little longer or they will have a nervous breakdown and get really, really grumpy. Am I right? Or is that just my husband? So I say all of that to say, when you are first married, you tend to take on the eating habits of your husband, even though you don't need to. At least I did....

I have heard that once you hit 30, losing weight is a whole new challenge. Well, I turn 30 on May 1st so I decided it was time to get on the ball before everything goes south. Scary isn't it....turning 30. Wow.....I don't think I am ready.

Here are my thoughts on the opposite side of dieting....whether you think I need to lose weight or you think I am crazy for talking about it. I am extremely passionate about this subject because I feel that our country, and even christian women have turned our bodies into idols. I am all about being healthy and exercising but our culture is obsessed with looking good! For some reason we think that the value of the person lie in how they look.

I hate, hate, hate that the devil robs us of so much joy in life because our happiness depends on whether we are 10 pounds over weight or not.

Life is so not about looking good. I think its one of the main things that the devil, or ourselves, use to distract us from what really matters in life. We obsess about 5 pounds, or the jeans or bathing suit that we want to fit into and don't fill ourselves with the things that will last for eternity.

I just recently had a really long conversation with my good friend about this subject and I know that every woman out there struggles with this stuff to a point. So, work out and eat healthy if you want. I know that working out just makes me a happier wife and friend. And if you love yourself just the way you are, hallelujah! But make sure that you are working on that which lasts for eternity more than that which will fade away in the next 50 years :) And be sure to encourage all the other women you know to do the same thing.

God made us PERFECT!!!! Ephesians 6:12 - For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Friends and random pictures

2008-03-29T23:53:00.000-07:00

My friend Jill and I went shopping together for clothes to take on the trip and knowingly bought the same exact shirt but then ended up wearing it on the same day by accident. We obviously could have changed before we left the house but we really didn't care :) There is also a picture of Jill and her husband Matt in the mix and they are one of our favorite friends here in Colorado :)
In another picture, there is a group of us praying for two ladies. These ladies were walking by the church, saw us all in their praying and came in and asked if they could receive Jesus as their Savior. Can you believe it! I was so awesome!
There is a picture of 3 African girls, Barbara, Gloria and Julie, who were our favorite girls of the bunch. They just really bonded with the girls on our team and will always have a place in our hearts!
The two pictures, before the last picture are of the group eating at a food court in the mall in Uganda. I think I had Chinese food and Curt had Greek food. There was about 6 different restaurants that you could choose from and it was all great food.

The very last picture is of Dean, (who is on the far left) he is the reason that Curt and I met, and he led our team, Pastor Robert; who is the pastor of the church we help plant in Wakiso and then Bill from China who is a great evangelist that came to minister with us.

The End :)

Noah

2008-03-29T23:49:00.000-07:00

This is Noah, one of the boys that we support to go to school. He graduates this year and has good enough grades to get him into law school :) We are so proud of him. This was my first time meeting him, Curt millionth time. He was so sweet, very shy around me but sweet.

Curt Preaching

2008-03-29T23:41:00.001-07:00

Curt preached Sunday morning at his friend Pastor Emmas church. I think the church was only about 3 months old. It was definitely rural :)Curt did such an awesome job. He just has an amazing way with people and they love him!
Im sure it was his preaching that kept the people so enamored, but then again, they could have been thinking, "I had no idea they made men that large". :)

Ugandan Food

2008-03-29T23:19:00.001-07:00

Here are pictures of the Ugandan food they served us for lunch. Actually, the first picture is of a fish that we got at a restaurant on our way to the airport, leaving Uganda. The fish is called Talapia and they give you the whole fish and you just pick the meat off it. Some people actually ate the eye but I wasn't that nuts. What some people will do to get attention :) Next to the lovely fish in the green bottle was my favorite drink called, "Bitter Lemon". I had this drink a lot when I traveled Europe and I think the best in the world is in Germany, but Ugandan bitter lemon is pretty good too :)

So the food on the tables in no specific order - The stuff that looks like flour tortillas is called "chapatti". Its a thin deep fried bread that is to die for. I think I ate that whole plate. Then there is a picture of a pumpkin. They peeled the pumpkin, gutted it, filled it with veggies , wrapped it in banana leaves and cooked it over an open fire. It was pretty good and any kind of fresh veggies that you got you would eat because they don't have a ton of them.
The brown, poop looking food was peanut sauce. That was really good. They usually put it on rice to eat it. I love Thai peanut sauce, but Curt does not like it, but he likes Ugandan peanut sauce. Thai peanut sauce is sweeter than Ugandan, just to give you an idea.
In two of the pictures, there is a plate of yellow mash looking stuff that is called "matokie". Matokie comes from the banana family, it looks like a little banana when they are still green. and they grow in clusters like the banana. Matokie is a staple in Uganda; it doesn't really have a flavor, has the consistency of spaghetti squash and mashed potatoes mixed together. They pour a really good meat broth over it and eat it that way. I liked it but Curt hates matokie :)
The purple and white looking food is their version of a yam. Looks nothing like our yams, has a chalky consistency and not much taste. They always had fruit, bananas, pineapple or mango. Their fresh fruit was the best.

Random Pictures

2008-03-29T22:18:00.001-07:00

These are random pictures of Ugandan life. The 3rd picture down is a huge billboard that says, "Say no to Sugar Daddies." It had a picture of a council man, a student, a sugar daddy and a community member. I guess Uganda has a huge problem with young girls, basically selling themselves to rich men for college fees. The rich men will take care of them during college in exchange for other fees. So much so that they need billboards to promote saying no. We drove by it everyday and it cracked us up every time we saw it.
Every morning we drove straight through the city on our way to Wakiso and every morning we would see huge groups of men standing around. We still dont know what they were doing....maybe it was their job to stand around? I dont know :)

They had a few supermarkets there but they were mostly used by foreigners. The natives used small markets that were every where. You could basically set up a stand in your front yard and sell products. Then of course they had large open markets where people brought their products to sell. All the meat was out in the open. Its not cut as nicely as our meat here :) They just start hacking away at the meat and leave bone and fat on it. So when you eat it, you have to eat around a leg bone, not like ribs here :) It was quite interesting.

The Hill

2008-03-29T21:55:00.001-07:00

So the driving in Uganda is indescribable. Chaotic to the point that you think..., "how are we even getting anywhere" or, "how are we even still alive?". Thank the Lord that we had the BEST driver in the universe taking us around everyday. But not only was the driving from one side of the city to the next everyday bad enough, before we got to the house we had to encounter the "Hill". I swear to you this thing was straight up. And Cabugo (probably not how you spell it but it is phonetically correct) was a master at getting the 30 passenger bus up it everyday. I kid you not, there were houses on one side of the hill and a cliff on the other. I swear to you I got saved again every time we drove up it. One time it had rained so much and it was to slippery and muddy to make it up the hill so he had to stop in the middle, let us all out and we walked the rest of the way. The pictures of the hill are us walking down the hill the next morning to get to the bus that they had to park at the college. And yes, that is a road in Uganda.

The house

2008-03-29T21:32:00.001-07:00

We stayed at Papa Ron and Mama Shirley's house and it was such a blessing. It was like staying at a Hotel. Curt and I were the only married couple to get our own room. It was such a blessing! Mama Shirley and Esther cooked for us every day. We had fresh coffee waiting for us in the "Starbucks" room every morning at 6:30 am. The "Starbucks" room was the outside porch that we would eat on every meal. It has the most breath taking views of the city and was so peaceful.
The food that they cooked was so amazing!! I think its the first missions trip where a group gained weight instead of losing it. All our food was as American as you could get. They made tacos with homemade flour tortillas, pancakes, cinnamon rolls, Lasagna, huge meatballs with a great sauce over them. It would take me a while to name all of the great food they made. We ate breakfast and dinner at the house and then would have traditional Ugandan food at lunch.
I loved waking up early every morning, going and getting coffee and just sitting and
looking at the beautiful view and talking to the Lord. I wish I could have brought that aspect home with me. I dont quite have the same motivation to get up here at home :)

Curt designed the Courtyard, which is in the back of the house, years ago when he was there. Isnt it BEAUTIFUL! Its not the best picture, but it was such an amazing space. He did such a great job.

Animals

2008-03-22T21:35:00.000-07:00

They didn't have very many animals cool in the area of Uganda that we were in. If you saw a dog it was usually running in fear trying to hide somewhere. Goat, chickens, cows were all common. They had these huge birds called Marabou Storks and they are scavengers and HUGE!! They only hang around the city so they can eat garbage. They looked like a cross between a stork and a vulture and look so depressed all of the time. When they flew, they looked like small airplanes in the sky. It was crazy.
The tall dirt pile is a termite mound and they were everywhere and all of them were that huge.
The cow in the first picture; Curt kept mooing at it until if finally mooed back. Its hilairous!

Kids

2008-03-22T21:15:00.001-07:00

The kids in Uganda were so sweet. When you would walk by them they would just stare at you or they would wave and yell, "Hi Muzungu, Hi muzungu",which basically means "white man". Many times kids would run up to me touch my arm and run away. I think they just needed to see for themselves that I was real. The little girl in yellow in the first picture was my favorite! She was so sweet and always playing in the crusade area. There is a picture of Curt holding a little baby in a dinosaur costume. That was just an everyday outfit for that baby....it must have been so hot in there!!!
You would see so many little kids carrying little babies on their backs. It was so strange to see. And I dont even remember seeing parents for these kids. I cant imagine intrusting my little 8 year old or 6 year old with my 5 month old. But kids everywhere were doing it.

School Ministry

2008-03-22T21:07:00.001-07:00

We went to 10 or 15 schools while we were there. We would do skits and sing songs and then of course give testimonies, etc. You will see the signs in the yard in the mix of pictures...those were right on the school grounds. Isnt that funny!The people in Africa love when husbands introduce their wives to them and they would just cheer and cheer when Curt introduced me to them. It was so cute!

Crusade

2008-03-22T20:47:00.001-07:00

We held a crusade Monday through Friday and about 1600 were saved and 2500 were filled with the Holy Spirit. There is a picture of Holly and an african lady in the mix, and that lady came to the crusade one night weak from weeping because she had recently found out that her newborn baby had aids. Holly and Curt ended up praying for the baby to be healed. The next night the Mother came back and said that she had taken the baby back to the Dr.'s that morning to get retested and the test came out negative!!! Isnt that amazing!! God is so good.

Painting the church

2008-03-22T20:32:00.001-07:00

The church that we support in Wakiso which is a little town on the outskirts of Kampala, rents an old dance hall for their sanctuary. We painted it white from the crazy colors that they had for the dance hall. The paint was mixed with some sort of paint thinner that had the strongest smell in the world. I am pretty sure that we all lost a few brain cells painting that whole place. I love the picture of me with the guy in the Mariners shirt. He went to the church and was helping us that day. He already owned the shirt, what a small world.

Oh, Beautiful!!!!

2008-03-20T10:23:00.000-07:00

Can you guess who this beautiful girl is????

I know, I know. I need to post about Africa. I have SO many pictures that I feel a little overwhelmed. I need to organize them into groups and then it will be easier to post.
So, life.....life, life, life. Its been going really well. We are still working for Curt's friends, sitting 3 feet from each other, but now we are in a bigger office so I'm not so claustrophobic. I do not recommend working with your husband, ever. And Curt would not recommend working with your wife, ever. You just don't have time to appreciate each other because you are together all of the time. But God is good and we are learning lots of good things about each other and how to communicate :)

I got to go see my family a few weekends ago. Julia turned 5 - (talk about making me feel old!!!) and Josslyn was dedicated. I didnt get to see Eliot and Owen because Jay and Lins couldnt make it. Such a bummer.....but my parents got to be there and it was just a nice refreshing time seeing the fam.

I've started running again. Thank God! I use to be so committed and then we moved to Colorado and I got out of my routine. I could run in my old neighborhood at 9 pm an feel safe; here I can run in the middle of the day and feel like I need to be careful. So we finally got a gym membership and I am feeling more like myself. I would like to run the Boulder Boulder this year but we will see how fit I am by the time it rolls around.

Im so thankful that spring is coming! Im so thankful for my little flower in the picture. The nice weather and sun is life giving. Im excited for the summer.

I hope everyone out there is doing well!! Thanks to everyone for keeping up on their blogs. I love to read them.

We are back!

2008-02-25T11:22:00.001-08:00

We got back from Uganda Saturday the 16th and have slept for the last week :) Not really, but every night last week I went to bed at 8 or 9 pm. Im such a night owl, I dont think I have been to bed before 9pm since I was 12. We had such an amazing time! God did so many miracles, over a thousand people got saved and more filled with the Holy Spirit. I have a lot of pictures to post and stories to tell so I promise to get it done soon. If ever you get a chance to go to Africa I highly reccommend it.

Uganda!

2008-01-31T13:30:00.001-08:00

Curt and I leave for Uganda, Africa on Monday for a 2 week missions trip. We are very excited! Curt is excited because he has wanted me to go since we started dating and I am excited to go because he wants me to go. We are going with our Bible Study group of about 20 people and will be staying in the capital city of Kampala.

We are going to be helping a new church plant while we are there. The church has been there for almost a year so we will be holding a crusade, painting the church,
going to schools in the area, etc.

We have two boys, Noah and Joshua, that we are supporting while they go to school and we are taking them a Seahawks hat and shirt and a Broncos hat and shirt as gifts. Noah gets Seahawks and Joshua gets Broncos. I wont be the one to break it to Joshua that he is a huge nerd if he wears the Broncos gear. Just kidding :)

We fly from Denver to Minnestoa, Minnesota to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Entebbe, Uganda. We will be going just under two weeks. So if you think about us, pray that we are safe, all goes well and lots of people are touched by the Lord.

Making Cookies

2007-12-30T20:54:00.001-08:00

Julia loves to help in the kitchen. We had such a fun time making sugar cookies. She had a hard time looking at the camera when we were trying to take pictures. Jace loved to help too, although every time he was finished decorating a cookie he would say, "all done" and then go to pick up the cookie and eat it. I kept having to tell him that we were decorating cookies for other people too, not just for him to eat. He was our little naked chef. He was so cute!

The Kids

2007-12-30T20:37:00.000-08:00

Christmas with my family

2007-12-30T20:25:00.000-08:00

I couldn't bear the thought of not having Christmas with my family so we decided to have Christmas right after Thanksgiving. My Mom and Dad had just gotten back from Israel and they brought us all Nativity's made out of olive wood. What a cool gift! And its always fun watching the kids open gifts. The boys got Garbage trucks but when my Mom bought them she didn't realize that they made noise. That was quite enjoyable hearing two dump truck noises out of sync for the whole night.

Thanksgiving with my Family

2007-12-30T18:49:00.000-08:00

This year Thanksgiving was with my family and what fun it was :) Isn't that picture of Curt holding Owen adorable? Curt's Sweater was scratchy so Owen out his arm in front of his face to sheild it. I love it!This is my Dads side of the family. We went to his brothers house for Thanksgiving day. My Dads parents are still alive but Grandpa Beal is almost 90 and doesn't like a lot going on around him so he opted to stay home. Grandma Beal came though and we are sure glad that she did. Aunt Teri's parents came also which was a nice treat. They own a restaurant and have had to work on Thanksgiving for the last 25 years. Wow! It was so nice to have Josslyn and Owen around this year. I love my nieces and nephews!

Welcome Josslyn Ann Farley!!!

2007-11-14T11:28:00.000-08:00

Jana had her baby last Saturday! It was fun to finally find out that it was a girl! I was hoping for a girl because if they had a boy then it would be 4 boys against Jules in our family. I was lucky to get to be up in Seattle for her birth and get to spend time with the kids. She is just beautiful! Definately looks like Jules when she was born accept less grumpy looking. But poor Jules was stuck behind Jana's pelvic bone for 5 hours before they had to do an emergency C-section, so I think that would make anyone look grumpy. Jace and Jules love her! They are so sweet and gentle. Jules would hold her and kept saying to her, "hey girl, hows my sissy'? It was so cute! We are so happy she is finally with us. She was 8lbs 6oz, 21 1/4 inches long. More hair than Jules and Jace had combined. What fun!!! I love babies.

Trunk or Treat

2007-11-02T20:02:00.000-07:00

So we had Bob the Builder, Raggady Any and a Pumpkin for this years costumes. Arent they stinking cute!!! Bob the Builder (Eliot) went out Trick or Treating with his friend Koda (Dakota) and she dressed up as a Lady Bug. They only went to a few peoples homes but Lindsay and Michelle (Dakota's Mom) would prompt them to say trick or treat but they would say,"thank you" instead. Isnt that cute!
Jules and Jace's church has what they call Trunk or Treat every year. People in the church decorate the trunks of their cars and put games and such in them. Then they park them in the parking lot and the kids go around playing games and getting candy. Jana said that they got there a little early so they just walked around waiting for it to start. Jace and Jules got a few peices of candy before they started Trunk or Treating and so Jana said they could eat some. Julia took out a small sucker and that is all she had but Jace ate M&M's, a Reeces pieces stick, a small hershey bar and skittles before Jana caught on to him! LOL!! He takes after me.... I just love candy and have no self control!

Jules thought it was hilarious that she got to be a boy like her Dad and Brother for the night. Oh, kids! You gotta love them.

More Beach....The Kids

2007-09-28T20:18:00.000-07:00

I dont know how we had fun at the beach before we had the kids around! In the pictures where the boys are throwing money into the fountain, we ended up running out of change. So Jace and Eliot started taking the money out of the fountain and throwing it back in. Some random lady made a comment that they were taking out other people's wishes. What??? Random! People really believe that?? It wasnt like they are adults taking out the money and buying coffee with it.

Owen Thomas Beal!!!!

2007-09-14T09:17:00.001-07:00

Jay and Lins had their baby boy yesterday at 5:44pm. He is 7lbs 7oz and 19 inches long. Isnt he cute! I think he looks like Jay. I dont think he looks like Eliot when he was born. But I could be wrong....it happens once in a while :)
This is the only picture I have for now, hopefully I will get more soon. Its times like these when being down here in Colorado becomes less fun! I wish I could be there to meet my new nephew!
I love you guys! Congratulations!!!!!

More to come...

2007-08-23T22:51:00.000-07:00

I have so much more to post, but my butt is numb and its time for me to go to bed :)Tata for now!

Seaside!!

2007-08-23T22:26:00.000-07:00

Every year we go to Seaside for an evening of Skee Ball and Elephant Ears. The cool thing about Cannon Beach is that they passed a law years ago that no commercial business could come into the area so its all mom and pop shops. I love that about Cannon Beach. Seaside on the other hand is not that way so they have lots of loud arcades to go to and things to do.
As you can see Julia did not like that ride, Jace does whatever Julia does and Eliot was thinking,"I dont see what the big deal is? My cousins are whimps!" But they all liked the Merry Go Round so everyone left happy. There seem to be a lot of photos of me, all taken at the Elephant Ear shop......

Cannon Beach Bakery

2007-08-23T22:05:00.000-07:00

The Cannon Beach Bakery has been around forever. One of our favorite stops in the week. Jace loved his doughnut! He ate all the chocolate off the top then handed the half eaten doughnut to his mom went around to everyone looking for another doughnut with chocolate. The love of suger sure starts young :)

The Family

2007-08-23T21:35:00.001-07:00

My parent bought us all shirts when they were in Thailand this last June. They say "Coca Cola", except the boys t-shirt's because they couldn't find ones small enough for them. Of course you must notice that Jana and Lindsay are HUGE! Just kidding, not huge but well on their way to giving me more wonderful nieces or nephews. Actually, Jay and Lin's are having another boy which they are going to name Owen Thomas. Isn't that cute! Jana and Justin are keeping it a surprise, even from themselves. I hope for Julia's sake she gets a sister. I am so blessed with such a wonderful family!

Mom Dad and Jules

2007-08-23T21:30:00.000-07:00

We met my Mom and Dad in Portland Saturday night and stayed in a hotel with them. I begged them to bring Julia with them and they heeded my wishes and brought her. The other picture is my Dad trying to sleep while my Mom, Curt and I talked late into the night. We had a lot of fun! It was a great way to start out vacation.

Bosie State

2007-08-23T21:17:00.000-07:00

For those of you who can appreciate the best college football game ever played, my dear husband really wanted to visit Bosie States football field. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about I urge you to You Tube last years Tostito Bowl between Bosie State and Oklahoma. By far the best college game, maybe the best football game I have ever seen. The fact that they pulled off the "Statue of Liberty" as the last play of the game still amazes me.
The picture of Curt on the phone is when he was talking to Bill saying,"Dude! guess where I am?" It was a fun little stop in the race to Cannon Beach.

The Trip there...

2007-08-23T21:08:00.000-07:00

We are back from vacation and had such an awesome time!! It went by way too fast of course, somtimes I wish I could live on vacation.We started out our trip to Cannon Beach Friday after work and to save money we slept in the back of our Passat in a Wal-Mart parking lot. LOL!!! It was SO fun! Except for the fact that we are large people and it was tight. But what an adventure, a memory we will never forget.

Jace and Leslie

2007-08-03T09:46:00.001-07:00

I just had to post this adorable picture of Jace and Leslie! Isnt he just a doll!!! Im sure that you all bore of pictures of my neice and nephews and food but since we have no children of our own, we must post about those.

Vacation!!!

2007-08-03T09:35:00.001-07:00

So Leilani got on my case about my lack of new posts so I thought I would post before I go on vacation today!!! Curt and I are driving, yes driving, up to Cannon Beach, OR for our annual family vacation. This will be our 30th year at the beach! Can you believe it? I have been there every year since I was 4 months old.
We love driving and are so excited about taking a road trip! Im even more excited about seeing the kids!
I wont be posting for the next week or so but I will have lots of pictures to post when I get back.

Dinner and the Farmers Market

2007-07-16T22:09:00.000-07:00

Saturday night we went to this really great steak house called Robert's Steak House. Creative isnt it? But the atomsphere and the food were fabulous.
Sunday dawned early. We went to this Irish Crepe house for breakfast. I didnt realize that Irish meant it was a bunch of dirty men making manly crepes, if there is such a thing. I think there was maybe 1 crepe on the menu that had anything to do with fruit and it certainly was not fresh, it was canned strawberries. Totally disturbing to me. When I think crepes I think dainty and yummie. Not so stuffed with meat and other things that they are almost unrecognizeable. And there happened to be a Lacross tournament going on that weekend so we had about 15 young guys that crawled out of bed and into their dirty clothes, stuffed into this tiny restaraunt trying to get breakfast. Did not fit my idea of a romantic breakfast.
They had the farmers market going on that weekend also. That was a lot of fun! Great food and fun things to look at. We bought homemade chips, dessert cookies, fresh lemonade, BBQ sandwhich, Gyro and Starbucks! I think Starbucks was the best thing we found :) Just kidding. Actually, we I go to certain Starbucks down here I want to be a little snooty. They just dont get the importance of what they are serving sometimes. And the Yahoo's that they had working on Saturday certainly didnt know what they were doing. Curt had to go back and get our drinks fixed and I think he was about ready to crawl behind the counter and make the drinks himself. All I have to say is if you are going to work in coffee, know the language. If you dont, ask for help. Ok, Im done. Off my soap box.
We had such a fabulous time. Anniversaries are such a great time to celebrate life and love and all the many reasons that you got married in the first place.

Our Hotel

2007-07-16T21:53:00.000-07:00

The hotel we stayed in was beautiful! Its not often that we get to stay in such a nice hotel :) The room was beautiful,we had down comforters and pillows and the view from the deck was amazing. We had so much fun pretending we were rich.

Vail

2007-07-16T21:27:00.000-07:00

We took a nice trip to Vail for our anniversary! It was SO good to get away from life and spend time together. We live together, work together, drive one car together but its still so much better to spend time together away from the norm. Its marriage reviving. We drove up on a Saturday and found this awesome little French cafe to have lunch at. The food was awesome! I had baked brie with walnuts and apples on bread. Yum! Then we took the gondola ride up to the top of the mountain and played frisbee golf. It was gorgeous up there! I felt like singing just like Maria in the Sound of Music. Curt quickly hushed me.....obviously cant appreciate GREAT singing.
I cant remember who won, Im sure it was Curt. What man just plays for fun? Not mine.

Sushi!

2007-07-16T21:12:00.000-07:00

On our anniversary night we went out for Sushi but forgot to take pictures of it before we ate it. Dorks! So we took pictures afterwards. At least we found really good sushi here in Denver. Coming from Seattle, they really dont have a lot of good seafood anywhere else.
Curt took me to sushi on our very first date.....aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Isnt he a doll :)
Then we went to Whole Foods and got yummie dessert! I posted the pictures backwards :)Oh,well.

Happy Anniversary to us!!!!

2007-06-26T08:23:00.000-07:00

Three years ago today we were roasting our way down the isle with 95 degree weather in Spokane, WA. I picked the best day in the world to get married too. The same weekend as Hoop Fest, Ironman and a soccer tournament all in the Spokane area. Needless to say, there was no hotels for anyone to stay in and people were busy.
BUT, it was the best day! I dont remember one second of bride brain or worry. I just enjoyed every minute of that day. Now the week before was a little overwhelming. I felt like my brain was 10 sizes too big for my skull and I had SO many people from Curts side that I had to meet and look interested in meeting but that is really the last thing that you want to do. That is one hard thing about marrying someone not from your state, is you tend to met all his family and friends on the biggest day of your life :)
I remember when Curt and I were dating and he was in Africa the summer of 2003. I had bought Nora Jones CD and listened to it the whole summer. My favorite song of hers is called "Shoot the Moon" and the very first line says, "summer days are gone too soon". I remember thinking to myself, "not this summer", because the days kept dragging and dragging and it felt like years until the day Curt finally came home. Its crazy to think that was 4 years ago!! And now I wouldnt mind if he went away for a few months! LOL!!!! I am kidding!!!
I love you Honey! I am so thankful that the Lord brought us together from states apart and the perfect time. He gave me everything that I asked for and so much more. I couldnt imagine my life without you. We have had such a wonderful, challenging, fabulous 3 years. So much life has happened it all most feels like we have been married longer :) I love the adventure that we are on right now and I look forward to all the adventures of the future (as long as they take us back to Washington :))I'm thankful that we serve a big God who knew from the very beginning that you were the perfect man for me. Happy Anniversary!!!

Oh! to be this free....

2007-06-15T17:50:00.000-07:00

My little fashion model, puddle jumper, swimmer and bike rider all in one. Wouldnt it be nice to be free to wear whatever you wanted at anytime.
So I have A LOT of pictures and stories to post about my trip to Washington but our computer is at the Dr.'s so I have to wait. I hope to get to it soon :)You can all wait with great anticipation until I get it all done. Until then, enjoy looking at Julia - the fashion model.

I am Elizabeth Bennett

2007-05-29T23:39:00.001-07:00

:: L I Z Z Y ::

You are Elizabeth Bennet of Pride & Prejudice! You are intelligent, witty, and tremendously attractive. You have a good head on your shoulders, and oftentimes find yourself the lone beacon of reason in a sea of silliness. You take great pleasure in many things. You are proficient in nearly all of them, though you will never own it. Lest you seem too perfect, you have a tendency toward prejudgement that serves you very ill indeed.

Pride and Prejudice, I think, is my favorite Jane Austin movie. Its so hard to chose! Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice are my number ones. Emma a close 2nd. If I had to be another character besides Lizzie, I would want to be Elenore Dashwood. She is just fabulous and I still tear up every time I see her cry when she realizes that Mr. Ferris has not married the ugly little girl with which he has been secretly engaged to these many years. My sister and I watched the 6 hour P&P 4 times in one week a few years ago. Such a great movie, great characters, great acting. Who can resist Mr. Darcy's character? You just hate him and love him all in the same breath. Oh, I love Jane Austin!

So many excuses....

2007-05-25T23:14:00.001-07:00

I just thought I should post a quick note so that people would have something new to read if and when they visit my blog. Nothing more discouraging than to go to a blog for a month and not see anything new. I am in Washington right a this moment. I am in Spokane visiting my parents and tomorrow Jana, the kids and I drive back to Seattle. I have to do a few things on our house that we are selling in Maple Valley before I am able to go back to Colorado. Its a little bitter sweet. I am having to stay a bit longer than I anticipated which is "yay" for me to spend more time with family and friends, but also sad for me because I will have to be away from my husband longer. The last time we were away for this long was 2 months after we got married and He went to Africa for 2 weeks. Talk about the stupidest decision that we ever made. Newlyweds should never be away from each other for that long.
Anyways, I am trying to make sure I see everyone before I go back to the "land of thin air". When I am home I will post the millions of pictures that I took of all the kids and tell you all the great stories that I have :)

National Day of Prayer

2007-05-03T10:49:00.000-07:00

President Bush has declared today a national day of prayer. Here is a prayer that Dr. Charles R. Swindoll wrote for our nation:

"Almighty God, we pause to reflect on Your character as we seek wisdom for such a time as this.
In these unsafe days, You remain all-powerful and able to protect;
In these uncertain times, You remain all-knowing, leading us aright;
In the unprecedented events we're facing, You remain absolutely sovereign.Our times are in Your hands.
Therefore, our dependence on You, is total, not partial . . . our need for Your forgiveness is constant. . . our gratitude for Your grace is profound. . . our love for You is deep.
We ask that You guard and guide our President and all who serve the people of these United States. May uncompromising integrity mark their lives. We also ask that You unite us as truly "one nation, under God." May genuine humility return to our ranks. And may that blend of integrity and humilityheal our land. In our Lord's name we pray, Amen".

I thought it was a great prayer to pray over our nation today. I hope that all of you are taking time to thank the Lord for his blessings on us and the wonderful United States that we get to live in.

Happy Birthday to me!

2007-05-01T21:28:00.000-07:00

I'm a year closer to 30. At least I'm not Lisa who will be 30 in 10 days - LOL! My darling husband woke up early, went and got me Starbucks and then took me to " The Original Pancake House", which serves the best breakfast in the world. I had the crepe's with fresh strawberries. Yum! Then tonight we went and had sushi with our friends Paul and Lori Trani. Curt bought my favorite cake from Whole Foods. Its called the Chantilly Berry Cake and oh my goodness! If you get a chance, go to Whole Foods in Bellevue and try it. They sell it in individual pieces. The picture of the cake is at a funny angle because we had eaten the other half :) But it is a beautiful cake.

So I had a really nice day :) Bill and Jenn sang me the most energetic version of the Red Robin happy birthday song. It was invigorating! All my family and Curts family called to wish me a happy birthday. I am blessed.

Headboard

2007-04-23T21:23:00.000-07:00

So, here is the headboard that Curt and I made. I am still not sure if I like the bump in the middle, but Curt does and so for now it stays. I am very pleased as to how it turned out. It was our first attempt and I think we did well. Now all I need is bedding that I like to go with it. I actually like the bedding that I have but I think I want to try something else. Curt thinks Im crazy because we have not had our current bedding very long. Im sure that he is right. Our room looks a bit bleak from this angle, but its actually quite cute, espescially when the bed is made.

For Sale

2007-04-12T21:13:00.000-07:00

Well, the time as come to sell our adorable home in Maple Valley. Our very first home that we ever owned, sniff, sniff. We just dont know how long we are going to be here and therefore need to let our home go to someone else who can love it a lot. We bought it 6 months after we got married and have so many great memories in it. I think every Sunday Jenn and Bill came over for veg day after church. We always seemed to make tacos or Papa Murphys pizza. Then we would make the boys go down to Safeway and buy brownies and icecream. Safeway was just down the hill and what a wonderful shopping area to have within walking distance. We always got to see Mt. Rainier as we drove out of our neighbor hood on a clear day. Curt and I walked a lot in the neighbor hood because it was such a great walk and a peaceful place. It was also a great place to run. When Jana and Justin and the kids lived with us we would take the kids to the awesome park we had. Jana and I would walk to Starbucks every Saturday morning to get our fix and some exercise. I feel teary as I type. We are really going to miss our house and the most awesome neighborhood in the world!

Found it!

2007-04-12T21:07:00.000-07:00

Look at this adorable table that I found! I had been looking and looking for a table to fit that wall because I felt like the wall needed to be anchored. I was browsing Ross one night and bam! there it was. Its hand painted and had a broken leg so I got 40% off. The broken leg was nothing, very fixable, so I got a great table for a lot less :) And I am happy!

Guess what!!??!!!

2007-03-23T21:26:00.000-07:00

Our family is expanding!!!! We are adding to more too the brood this fall. Jana and Lindsay are expecting!!! Lins is having her baby around September 22nd and Jana is having hers around Nov 17th. Im SO excited!!!! More babies to love :) Hooray. Julia was telling me all about the baby in her Moms tummy. She said that they hope its either a boy or a girl. I asked "what if its neither?" She was confused. She asked Jana if the baby had toys to play with in her tummy? Kids are so cute! So that is our happy news for now. I swear, there is something in the Washington water! So many women I know are pregnant. Fun!!!

Valentines Day!

2007-03-20T21:23:00.000-07:00

We had a great Valentines day. I got up early that morning and made Curt a special breakfast with my Grandmas amazing syrup recipe. I made french toast, eggs, fried potatoes and orange juice. Yum! Then he took me on a date on Saturday. It was a suprise and he planned it all by himself. We started off the day with Starbucks, who can beat that, and then our first stop was the "Unsinkable Molly Brown" house. I grew up watching that movie and then of course everyone who is a Titanic fan knows her from that movie also. I was so amazed that he remembered that I liked that movie and would love to see her real house! Isnt he awesome. Then we went to the Colorado History musem which was lovely also. After that he took me to one of my favorite restaraunts the "Old Spagetti Factory". He actually doesnt like that place so it was a huge sacrifice for him to take me there :) After that we went downtown Denver and went shopping and then to a movie. We went to the Cheesecake Factory afterwards and got dessert. Yum! What a perfect day and what a wonderful husband!!!

Future makeup Artist

2007-03-20T20:45:00.000-07:00

This is Julia and her friend Reagan and then of course Jace and Reagans brother Josiah. Arent kids so wonderful!

Happy Birthday Jules

2007-03-20T20:26:00.000-07:00

Julia turned 4 on the 6th of March. My goodness I still remember the day she was born. My Dad called me at 5:45 in the morning to tell me that she had been born. We didnt know whether it would be a girl or a boy so it was sure exciting when we knew it was a girl! I had no idea my life would never be the same.

We had so much fun putting together her gift and mailing it. I think we had more fun than she did opening it. Here are some pictures of what we sent.

A package coming in the mail...

2007-02-16T21:24:00.000-08:00

Look what Jana is getting ready to mail me!!!! I'm so excited. Now all we need is for them to stay in the box for a few hours. These are my favorite pictures! I especially love the last one where Julia is getting out of the box and she is totally squishing Jace. The pain and annoyance is all over his face :) Here's a funny story. I was talking to Julia on the phone the other night and she was asking me where Uncle Curt was. I told her that he was at school (hes back in college :)). She said, "No hes not, school is for teenagers!" I'm sure she is a bit puzzled as to why old Uncle Curt is in school :)

Our Friends and Boss'

2007-02-16T20:42:00.000-08:00

Curt and I both work for Joe and Kerri Smith, old friends of Curts. He has known them for 10 years or so. We are so blessed with our jobs! We work about a mile from our home, we work out of their home so its casaual, they are so giving and so nice to work with. And for the first time in my life I have health insurance. Isnt that wonderful. I am SO grateful for everything. These pictures are from Joes parents 53rd wedding anniversary. We were so honored to be invited to the celebration. Joe's Dad may be the funniest man ever. They got married after only knowing each other for a week! Can you believe it. Oh how different America would be if people would have that kind of commitment to their vows. How many marriages would last these days if they got married after a week of knowing each other? I think its awesome that they have been married 53 years! Its a great example for Curt and I.

So the pictures are of Joe and Kerr, Joes parents, Joe and Oliver and Curt and I. Dont you think Curt looks like an old fashioned thief? All dressed in black with a knitted cap on? Actually we hate to admit it but we have fallen on financial troubles and Curt is now a professional thief. Keep him in your prayers

We survived........Football season :)

2007-02-04T22:17:00.000-08:00

The season is over and our marriage is still intact :) The Colts beat the Bears!!!!! Hooray!!!! Its not that I hate the Bears, my inlaws love the Bears, but I love Peyton Manning and Coach Dungy. It was Peytons time....it was the Colts time. And how awesome is it that the owner and the coach gave glory to God!!!! And when Coach Dungy was asked how great it was that he was the first black coach to win a Superbowl, he said that it was more wonderful that he and Lovey Smith were the first Christian coaches to be in the Superbowl and were able to show that following the Lord and doing things the right way works. Something like that anyways....its too late to be articulate.

To my wonderful husbands credit it was his idea to put the X on the sweatshirt because I didnt have any Colts gear. He is a great sport and I have a lot to learn from him.
We spent the day with our friends James and Karen and Joe and Kerri. For some reason I didnt get any pictures of Joe and Kerri. They had to leave at half time so I didnt have enough time to get er done. We had a great time. Superbowl, no matter who is playing is always fun. I am just so glad that the Patriots were not in the Superbowl this year, last year or any year in the future. That actually could ruin a Superbowl :) Anyways it was a wonderful way to end Football season. You can ask anyone who knows me and I have said since the beginning of this season that of course I want the Seahawks to be back in the Superbowl but it would make just as happy to see the Colts win it all! They deserved it, Tony Dungy is a class act and I am so pround that he gives all credit to the Lord! I love Peyton Manning too. Go Colts....... and Go Seahawks next year :)

Cards anyone?

2007-01-27T16:26:00.000-08:00

It wasso nice to see Jenn and Bill while we were home for Christmas. We miss them SO much. Words cannot explain. They came over one night and played cards until 2am. We got a little punchy and started taking werid pictures. It was so fun! We all look horrible.....as the night went on we looked worse and worse and more tired. They put Bella to bed in the living room and she did not want to sleep. At one point we heard her growling, which I guess is her telling Bill that she wants to play. We cracked up! she is such a doll.

And More....

2007-01-27T15:08:00.000-08:00

More Christmas pictures

2007-01-27T14:00:00.000-08:00

When we are with my family for Christmas we have three Christmases, one with my Moms family, one with my Dads family and one with our immeadiate family. So much fun! One tradition that we have is our Christmas "dinner" is mexican food. Namely nachos with taquitos and jalapeno' poppers. We LOVE it!!! I look forward to it every year. Its making me hungry just thinking about it. I think we have had that tradition for 26 years. Thats a long time.

Snow!

2007-01-25T21:12:00.000-08:00

These are a few pictures from snowland. Ok, so the pictures I posted earlier werent really recent snow pictures, they were actually from Denvers last big snow in 1913. All these pictures were taken on different days but still say the same thing...lots of snow. It has snowed every weekend since before Christmas' huge 3ft snow. We are suppose to get snow this weekend too. The dog in the picture belongs to the people we work for. He is 4 months old I think, and an Alaskan Malimute. Hes cute in the pictures but good grief what a stubborn breed. We take him for walks a few times a day just to get out of the house and get fresh air. What fun! I am actually enjoying the snow. Our parking lot at the condo is shrinking, that is probably the most frustrating thing. But I think the snow is beautiful and it makes you slow down life :)

100 things about me

2007-01-20T13:32:00.000-08:00

1. I'm 28 years old
2. I'm 5'9
3. I still like wearing heels because my husband is 6'5
4. I married a tall man so that for the rest of my life I could feel small
5. I was always taller than my friends so I felt like amazon woman
6. I'm naturally blond
7. I don't like that anyone can be a "blond" these days
8. I have blue eyes
9. My husband has the most beautiful blue eyes
10. I met my husband just like I had imagined I would
11. He was everything that I had asked God to give me
12. I didn't think God could do it
13. I have more faith now
14. I love football
15. I might love football more than my husband
16. I'm the angry one when my team loses, not Curt
17. I pray that the Seahawks will win a Superbowl before God comes back to take us home
18. I hope there is football in Heaven
19. I love the Lord
20. I don't know how people can live with out the Holy Spirit in their life
21. My relationship with the Lord is the most important thing in my life
22. The more I learn about Him the more I realize I don't know anything and I need him more
23. I cant wait to be a mom
24. I'm afraid that my kids will be ugly and dorky compared to my niece and nephews
25. My life changed forever when my sister had Julia Neree Farley
26. My life again changed forever when I realized that I loved my nephews as much as I love my niece
27. I love Starbucks
28. People who don't drink coffee have boring lives
29. Curt didn't drink coffee until he met me
30. Im very persuasive
31. I love to decorate
32. My favorite show is Designed to Sell
33. Someday I am going to buy a really old home and fix it up
34. My husband dreads the day
35. My 2nd favorite show is "What not to wear"
36. I don't like flying
37. Every time I fly I think I'm going to die
38. That tends to be a problem now that I live in Denver
39. I love to decorate
40. Everywhere I go my mind is always spinning with the possibilities of what something could be
41. I love to refinnish old furniture
42. The first piece I ever refinnished, I was 12 and my mother though I was crazy. She thought it should be in the burn pile. I proved her wrong.
43. I love the United States of America
44. I hate it when people go overseas and then come back to the US and bash on it
45. I think people who are not patriotic should move to France
46. I feel so blessed to live here
47. I want to be in politics someday
48. Not until I have raised my kids
49. I think there is no greater job that being a Mom full time
50. Somehow we have lost the value of motherhood and I think we are paying for it as a society
51. I have the greatest husband in the world
52. He makes me laugh so hard
53. He doesnt think Im funny
54. But Suzanne does and thats all that matters
55. He is so laid back and I love that about him
56. I also hate that about him
57. All of my Grandparents are still living
58. My 80 yr old Grandma Horlacher made my wedding dress
59. She also made my Moms wedding dress
60. I loved my wedding day
61. I had the best reception, although it was 100 degrees outside
62. It was my greatest joy to watch Julia walk down the isle as my flower girl
63. She stole the show and thats what I wanted
64. No one believes me but I am naturally shy
65. God has given me the greatest friends in the world
66. I dont know what Curt and I would have done without Jenn and Bill in the first year of our marriage
67. I have the best sisters and brother, sisters in law and brothers in law
68. There is no other people I would rather spend time with
69. Im not ok with plastic surgery, unless its truly to fix something that is broken
70. I hate the emphasis that our world puts on outer beauty
71. Its a rat race, no one will ever be beautiful enough and its a never ending battle
72. I love people that are totally comfortable with who they are and who God made them to be
73. I love mexican food
74. I love to eat
75. I dont love to exercise but I love how I feel after I exercise
76. I love Volkswagens, everyone in my family owns at least 1 volkswagen
77. I love Jesus and Im so thankful that he gave his life so I could have eternal life
78. I have the best parents in the world
79. I love listening to my Dad preach am so grateful for the Father and man of God that he is
80. I love that my parents actions speak louder than their words
81. I hope to be just like my Mom when I grow up
81. She is the greatest example of a Godly wife and Mother and Friend
82. I so thankful for the Godly heritage in both sides of my family that goes back at leat 8 generations
83. I love to travel
84. I spent 6 weeks in Europe with Angie when I was 20 years old
85. I want to take Curt to Venice, its so romantic
86. I play the piano
87. I love to sing
88. I love Seattle
89. I miss the NW
90. I like to shop, espescially for purses
91. Christmas is my favorite holiday
92. I care too much about what people think about me, Im learning to not care
93. I love Dr. Pepper
94. I love Starbucks peppermint mocha's
95. I think its hilarious when people who work at Starbucks dont understand what drink you ordered
96. You really only find that outside of Washington state, like Colorado and Texas
97. Black is the best color in the world
98. I love new adventures, for about a month, then I want to come home
99. Im so thankful for my life
100. I look forward to what the Lord has in store for Curt and I

Snow Snow Snow!!!

2007-01-19T22:52:00.000-08:00

People have been bugging me to post some pictures of all the snow we are getting in Denver. I finally collapsed under the pressure and posted some. Enjoy!

My thoughts exactly

2007-01-19T22:50:00.001-08:00

No need for words.....

(click on the pictures and they will get bigger)

2007-01-19T22:48:00.000-08:00

This was taken one morning when I was dropping Curt off at the train to go to work.....he was late so he had to chase it.

2007-01-19T22:45:00.000-08:00

Its hard to get in our front doors

2007-01-19T22:42:00.000-08:00

Curt is constantly sledding with the neighborhood kids......Maybe when the snow is gone I can get him to take out the garbage again.

2007-01-19T22:41:00.000-08:00

I dont know when we will get our car dug out but I am sure sick of using our horse and buggy for obvious reasons.....see below.

2007-01-19T22:29:00.000-08:00

The traffic jams are crazy!

Pictures of our Condo at Christmas

2007-01-16T19:22:00.000-08:00

Christmas

2007-01-14T17:07:00.000-08:00

I found some pictures! Curt had downloaded pictures while we were still in Spokane so I have some to put on our blog! The rest of them are stuck on our camera until we figure out what is going on with it :) Heres a Christmas miracle for you. The Wednesday before Christmas, Denver had the 4th biggest recorded snow in its history. 4000 people were stuck at the airport for 2 days because there was so much snow they had to shut down the airport. Friday at noon they finally opened the airport. A friend of Curts had given both of us buddy passes to cut the cost of flying home for Christmas. Well buddy pass people are not the first priority for any flight but espescially when there is 4000 people trying to get out of the airport for Christmas. Him getting to Spokane looked bleak to say the least. There was about a snowballs chance in you know where that he would get out of Denver before the 26th. So we fought a lot about how to get him out of there. I wanted him to camp out at the airport until he got a flight and he just wanted to listen to everyone at the airport that said he was not going to get out of there anytime soon. Anyways, to make a long story longer he went back to the airport on Saturday morning around 5:30 to try and get on the first flight out and if that didnt work he would stay all day and try to get on every flight possible. He decided to just take a carry on instead of trying to check luggage and that turned out to be the best idea. When he went to the counter at the gate and told the lady that he had a buddy pass and was wanting to try to get on the next flight to Seattle she laughed at him. She then said that she was sorry to laugh but the chances of him getting out before Christmas was like a....well you know. He said I know, I know all of the reason why it will never work but Im going to try. Well miracle of miracles, he got on that flight. He said he was high fiveing all of the people on the way into the plane. I guess there were a bunch of peole who were still stuck in the check in and serurity lines. My Dad came and woke me up to tell me that Curt got on a plane and I cant tell you how happy I was. I danced around the house. It was the best feeling in the world!!! So I had the best Christmas because there was a point when we didnt know if I would get to spend Christmas with my husband!

Amen....

2007-01-11T09:59:00.001-08:00

I just had to post this. Its written by our friend Ben Hanses in response to our "prayer request"! Curt and I have been laughing hysterically since we read it!

Sounds serious! Let's pray right now!! "Dear Father, You see all that is in our paths, the trials and tribulations... You know the strain that life's matters can put on any relationship, especially a marriage. I just pray that You would give Kelly and her wayward husband the sight to see the path clearly.... and that You would allow the Seahawks seconday not to wilt, and that the offensive line would protect Your servant, Matt Hasselback, and allow him to deliver good works to his teamates... For we know that these two things will be the key to a great and glorious victory, and will allow Your servants a victory over Goliath, er, the Bears... Amen."

Prayer Request

2007-01-08T21:56:00.000-08:00

I dont know why the Lord choses to put so much pressure on one marriage but his will be done. For those of you who dont know, we have a huge battle going on. Sunday my beloved Seahawks will be playing the Chicago Bears. This may not seem to be such a big deal, but for those of you forgettting or those of you who dont know, Curt is from Illinois. Curts whole family is from Illinios......Curt and his whole family are huge Bear fans. This is a problem....we covet all of your prayers.

On a lighter note...I am having trouble downloading my pictures to my computer. As soon as I get it worked out I will post Christmas pictures and stories. Until then :)

Go Seahawks!!!!

2006-12-07T19:28:00.000-08:00

Curt and I had such a fun time at the game!! We kept going back and forth on whether we should go or not because of the potential strain that it could put on our marriage :) That is sort of a joke but actually not really. The very first day that I met Curt he found a way to bash on the Seahawks; I remember it like it was yesterday. We were standing out in the middle of Pastor Ed's yard and had been talking not even 3 mins and somehow he mentioned that he was a Broncos fan....and I said "oh really" and he said, "yeah, the Broncos are supposedly rivals with the Seahawks but we have never felt there was any competition". My first thought was, "did he really just say that"? then it was, " the nerve!!", then I thought," I think I might kill him", then I thought," I don’t have many options and, well nobody is perfect so this is one fault I can deal with". Grrrrrr......So that was the day it started. And actually, we fight a lot about football.
When we got there I was waiting inside the gate for Curt to get through security and I found myself some Seahawk fans!!! I think they had already had a little to drink so they were quite friendly and opinionated. Some how it came up that my husband was a Bronco fan and one of the guys yells at the top of his voice, “DIVORCE HIM!!!!!" I laughed and said that not everyone can be smart enough to be Seahawk fans or who would cheer for the other teams? He agreed with me but then when Curt finally walked over he kept saying to us, I pronounce you divorced!! The other guy kept telling me to tell Curt that I wear the pants in the family. It was fun to talk with then since there were few of us fans there.
As Curt and I were walking to our seats some guy started booing me because of my jersey.....I thought to myself, "now how fair is that?, there is one of me in the midst of thousands of Bronco fans, how could I counter that?" I would have to walk through the crowd booing everyone I walked past! How ridiculous would I look!?
I’m sure I made 30 friends that night. You just wanted to go up and hug everyone with a Seahawk jersey on. It felt like you knew each other. It was great!!! A little piece of home in Denver.
There were Seattle fans near me and a lot actually but none were in my row or around me so I was very alone in my cheers. Every time the Broncos did something great Curt got to high five about 10 people. When the Seahawks did something great I got to high five myself or give the thumbs up to another Seahawk fan 10 rows away and hope that he saw me. There was a 10 yr old kid right behind me who was so obnoxious!!! He kept screaming at Hasselbeck that he sucked and the whole team sucked and then when I would stand up and cheer he would tell me to sit down. His Dad was encouraging his obnoxiousness and I wanted to spank the Dad for raising such an obnoxious child! Don’t get me wrong, when our kids are cheering for their team they can cheer all they want, but they wont be allowed to make fun of the other team and put people down. It’s just annoying.
So there were moments in the game when Curt was ecstatic and then moments when I was ecstatic and we had such a fun time. We prayed that it would be a fun game, not just a blow out, and boy was it. We went numb after about 15 minutes. I think they said the low was like 11 degrees with the wind! Boy was it cold. Fortunately we had friends who had winter clothes that I could borrow. We froze and it was worth every minute!!!
Bill Thomas called Curt Sunday before the game and said that he had a dream that the Broncos won 34 to 10. Oh brother! Bill, Bill, Bill.... wishful dreaming. Maybe next season. Don’t let Curt or Bill talk to you about the game because their logic on why the Bronco's lost is that it was Jay Cutler's first game, the Seahawks got lucky etc, etc........Boo on that. The Seahawks are good...that is why they won. Just remember that.
After the game I called my parents. When my Mom answered the phone the first thing she said was, “I hope you are acting like a Christian." Good grief!!!!! I said, "Mother, of course I am!" She said, well when your Dad heard that the Seahawks won he said to me, “I hope Kelli is acting like a Christian." Oh brother....could Curt get any better in-laws??? They don’t even care that my team won they are just making sure that I am not gloating about it. Don’t they remember what Curt did the very first day he met me!!!!! :) Anyways....we love each other, we had a lot of fun...Curt is a good loser :) Go Hawks!

Seahawks 23, Broncos 20......

2006-12-04T22:13:00.002-08:00

2 tickets to the game = $200

1 hot chocolate, 1 bratwurst = $11

Clothes to keep you warm during 15 degree weather = $100

Watching your team beat your husbands = PRICELESS!

A small revelation

2006-11-06T17:02:00.000-08:00

Jessica Cagle really inspires me when she talks about the Lord on her blog and so she has inspired me to do the same. This wont be very long but what I am about to say has impacted me a lot. To some of you this may be an old thought but to me its a million thoughts put into one phrase. I am a girl of deep convictions. I know that Jesus Christ is the only way to eternal life and I have served him as long as I can remember. Because I love him so much I always want to do things that please him and bring glory to his name. Of course I dont always do it right and fail many many times. The Lord has always spoken to me clearly about things he does not want me to do and I feel passionate about those standards that he has asked me to keep. Sometimes I wonder what the point is in it all and then the other night a man at Bible study said something that I will never forget.
He said, "If I married my wife Carol and then said to myself, I am going to keep my committement to Carol but try and figure out everything I can get away with while keeping my committment, what kind of a marriage is that."
It is such a simple picture but a million words in it. I dont want to serve the Lord half heartedly, Im tired of seeing friends and family "taken out" by the small compromises that they make in their christianity. The devil doesnt want to take our salvation. He just wants us to become so compromising that we make no impact on life around us. Im ready for the day when christians make things popular to the world, instead of the world making things popular to christians. I always go back to the verse, "all things are lawful for me but not all things are profitable". I think we waste more time figuring out things that are lawful for us to do instead of looking around our world and seeing that everything we think is lawful for us is distroying the people around us. What we do in moderation, those we should be an example to will do in excess.
I hope that example impact you as much as they did me.

I've been stalling...

2006-10-29T12:12:00.000-08:00

So Im back from Seattle. I had a wonderful time with my family and seeing the beautiful NW again. I have been stalling to post because I dont have any pictures to post yet. My sisters camera broke so before I came she kept reminding me to bring mine so that we could take pictures. I was so paranoid about making sure that I packed it, I never once considered the fact that it may need to be charged. Typically when we go anywhere Curt is the one who makes sure all chargers are packed and it didnt cross my mind that I should take the charger. So I get to Seattle, so proud of myself that I remember the camera, whip it out, take 2 pictures and it dies!!!!!!!!!!!! I could not believe it! So immeadiately I call Curt to see if he will over night the charger because its so important that I take pictures. He went to mail it and found out that it would cost about $40 to over night it. Arrrrrrgh! So annoying....Curt then has this brilliant idea that I should just buy a disposable camera and we will just have the pictures put on a disk and I can do whatever I wish with them. I was reluctant but desperate so I took his advice. Im not sure that I have ever felt like a bigger nerd in my life. I felt like my 80yr old Grandma whipping out her wind up camera, saying, ok kids gather around...then trying to figure out how to turn on the flash and then starts to take the picture and has forgotten to wind it. I kid you not, I think my 1 year old nephew Jace thought we were joking when we heldthe camera up to our face and told him to smile. Everytime we did it he would look at us like...."what in the heck are you doing?, Is that a toy?" The first few times I took pictures, Julia would ask if she could see the picture on the back of the camera. We explained to her that this was a special camera that didnt have the picture on the back. She looked at us like, "HUH? What does that mean?"Its amazing the technology that kids are growing up in. They get to see pictures instantly and think its bizzare if the camera does not have that feature :) So needless to say I have not had time to go get the pictures developed....well, maybe I have had time but I keep forgetting or maybe I am just throughly embarassed to take my wind up camera into Costco.
So, cute story. Jana taught both of her kids sign language before they could talk, so ofcourse Julia doesnt use it anymore but Jace is really into it. Its so adorable. Anyways, Sunday morning Jana and I got to church and she realized that she had forgotten Jace's milk cup. That was a bummer but she figured he would be ok for a while. After church Jana and Justin had to stay for a while but I wanted to get home to watch the rest of the Seahawks game. I grabbed both of the kids, stuck them in the car and raced home. On our way the car was slient for a while and then all of a sudden Julia starts yelling at Jace, "Jace, NO!!!! Stop IT"....I was a bit confused as to why she was yelling at him because they were both being quiet . I asked her what was wrong and she said " Jace keeps asking for milk". I about died laughing.....of course I couldnt see him asking becuase he was signing for it but when he asks for his milk he will just stare at you and sign for it until he gets it. He must have been staring at her and she just got really annoyed with him. Kids!!! They are such a joy in life.....I have to go...my husband is patiently waiting for me at the door. I will post again shortly......

Im a whimp.....

2006-10-09T15:56:00.000-07:00

So I have been here a little over a month and I am coming to visit Seattle on Wenesday! Hooray!!! I need to check on our house in Maple Valley and pick up some towels that I had Pam at Sew-it-is put our monogram on. They dont have a Bank of America anywhere in Colorado (how can you call it Bank of America? maybe bank of a select few states would be better) so I need to d0 some banking. Of course the main reason that I am going is to see my precious family. My parents will be in town for meetings so they are going to stay at my sisters for a few day. I wont get to see Jay, Lindsay and Eliot because they will be in Spokane, that makes me really sad. But I will take whatever family I get :) Plus were flying to Spokane for Christmas so I will see them then. Im so excited!!! I can hardly stand myself... I also will like being in Seahawk country again....for a while :) So thats all for now.

These two stinkers....deliquent bloggers

2006-10-09T15:09:00.000-07:00

They might not deserve it because no on in blog land has heard from them since May!!!! But I must post, none the less. I met sweet Marisa through......you guessed it! MC!!! She is just so sweet and loving and kind and down to earth...who couldnt love her? We think a lot a like, like the same things, love Thai food. Its a friendship made across the Puget Sound with her living on Bainbridge Island and me in Maple Valley. None the less we have made it work. Now she has a beautiful son Quentin and a wonderful husband Jeff. I really adore you Ris! You are wonderful, I love you.
So Melody...Melody and I have always talked about becoming friend but have just never gotten around to it. She is so popular its hard getting a slice of her time. Seriously, since Curt and I got married 2 years ago, Melody and I have talked about getting together 15+ times. Since we found out we were moving, we hung out about 5 times in 3 months. Go figure. She is so fun! For some reason I think she is hilarious and she thinks I am hilarious.....we laugh and laugh when we get together. (which isnt often, but we would talk at church...does that count?) Heres a memory though....when I was in MC in Maple Valley she was in MC in Spokane so I didnt get to know her and was scared of her. Everyone from Spokane MC was scary! LOL!!! Am I the only one laughing here??? Anyways, I dont know if it was when we were in Marisa's wedding that we started getting to know each other or what but Im glad we did. And Im glad shes not scary anymore. Hopefully when we move back to Maple Valley someday we will get to spend more time together.
The picture was taken when we went to see Marisa before I moved. Dont I look like a giant!? Scary, and I think the reason we are laughing is because I squatted down so I would be more their height. Just think if I wouldnt have squatted! Yikes....But Mel and I had such a great time on the ferry ride over....shes great! You both are great and I miss seeing your faces.

Sisters!

2006-10-09T14:17:00.000-07:00

So everyone knows that I stole this picture from Lisas blog.....I searched and searched my pictures and I could not find on of them that was digital! They are all paper pictures. So anyways, Lisa and Laura what can you say about the Moran sisters :) I met them both through MC, see that MC is popping up again. If you want great friends, go through MC, well actually you would have to have done my MC class because that is where most of the cool people were :) Sorry...anywas Lis was a student and Laura was our intern. Lis, Suz, Tom and I were good friends then Lis and Tom ended up getting married! I was so honored to be a part of Lisa and Lauras double wedding..how many people can say they were a part of a double wedding!! Not many.....but I was. Sad to say that a life gets busy and I dont get to see them as much as I want but love them none the less. Thomas help Curt and I find our first house that we bought which happened to be right across the street from them. Then they decided living at the bottom of the hill with the commoner's wasnt good enough so they built an amazing house at the top of the hill!!! We missed them as neighbors so we just moved to Denver. They had beautiful Berkeley last November...one of the most adorable girls I have ever seen in my life. And a sassy personality just like her mom. Laura lives in Bonney Lake and I dont get to see her much but I will always remember what a wonderful intern she was, so encouraging and uplifting. Taught us to dance like nothing else, actually I cant dance so she wasnt able to teach me a thing but everyone else looked great! J-lo has nothing on her! LOL! If anyone wants a hair cut from heaven, go to Laura. We had the best fondue parties over the years, great Christmas partys and a lot of fun being together. Until you have spent time with Lis and she breaks out into her crazy Lisa self, you have no idea how funny she is. I will never forget driving around in her Subaru singing Celine at the top of our lungs or driving fast and listening to Top Gun! I know we dont get to see each other as much as we use to but I love both of you and have lots of wonderful memories to cherish forever.

Two in one...

2006-10-09T11:27:00.000-07:00

These are two of my favorite people who are also really close to each other so posting them together seemed like the right plan :)
I met both of them through MC...see doing crazy thing's like MC can bring such wonderful things to your life!!! Amy was in my class, and my very first memory of her is seeing her walking down the hall at Tahoma Jr High and Kate telling me that it was her cousin. Moving, isnt it. My next memory of her is the fact that every day she would bring a frozen water bottle to class...one morning as we were all arriving and putting our stuff in our cubbys, Amy set her solid frozen water bottle on the shelf and it rolled off and smacked Nikki, who was putting her stuff in a bottom shelf, in the head. You could have cut the tension with a knife..... I dont even really know how we became friends, but we did and she is priceless!!! While she was interning for MC she came and lived with Angie, Olivia and I. Then Amy suggested that her crazy friend come and live with us too.....and what an adventure that was!!!! LOL!!! One time Ames and I were riding her Seadoo...well actually when you ride the Seadoo with Amy you only ride it for at a time and all the rest of the time she is trying to get us off, and this particular time we flew off so hard and fast that when we hit the water we were still in the sitting position...my arms were still around her waist. We could not stop laughing!!! Of course, hysterically laughing while you are treading water is very dangerous and potentially deadly. I love you Amy! You are wonderful and I am so glad you are my friend.
Leilani, Leilani.....first memory of Lei, I was living with the Strattons (who didnt live with them?? they are so giving and wonderful) and she was a new student for MC coming to live with them. She had called the house when no one was home and left a message that I will never forget...she sounded like she was on suger and crack all at the same time! She was so excited about coming and talking a million miles a minute. We all laughed and wondered what she was going to be like in person. Of course when we met her everything made sense! She is a wonderful expressive ball of energy and personality all wrapped up in one! We have had a lot of fun together and made wonderful memeories. Here is a crazy story that shows how small the world is. Leilani went to YWAM in Hawaii a year before Curt did. When I was first getting to know Curt I was telling him about my friends and about Leilani who lives in California. He kept saying to me, she sounds so familier. Then he put two and two together. When he went to YWAM all his leaders would talk about this girl LeiLani that had been there the season before him! So he knew her without really knowing her. And it is so true with Lei, if you meet her once you will never forget her :) Now she is a wife and a mother!! She just gave birth to Max in September. I cant wait to meet him. I dont get to see her a lot with her living in Cali and now me in Denver but thank God for email and cell phones! I love you Lei. You are very special to me.

Twenty years and counting....

2006-10-09T10:59:00.000-07:00

Can you believe that I have know Angie for 20 years! I remember the very first day I met her. I was 8 years old and my Dad was preaching at her church in Sandpoint, Idaho. As we walked up to the church I saw Angie and her friend and they had on HIGH HEELS!!!!! Can you believe it!!!! I was shocked...where I came from 12 year olds did not wear high heels. LOL!!!! Actually I wasnt shocked, I just thought they were so old and mature. Angie was my sister Janas friend first because they were about the same age but later on Ang and I became great friends. We went to MC in Maple Valley together and then lived in an adorable house on the lake after we graduated. We cracked the 10x10 picture window at our house by having the wood stove going to hot and travelved Europe for 6 weeks together!!! What an adventure! We lived together in Maple Valley and I was at the Puyallup Fair with her when she met John for the first time. :) Now she is married and has a beautiful daughter named Emma. We certainly dont see each other as often as we should but she will always have a very special place in my heart and life!! Twenty years is no drop in the bucket, LOL! We are gettting old. I love you Ang!

2006-10-08T14:27:00.000-07:00

Kelli gets to post all the time, so it is my turn....GO BRONCOS

That's all for now

The sweetest flower girl ever!!

2006-10-08T13:46:00.000-07:00

I just found this picture and it is one of my favorite memories in my life. Jules stole the show at my wedding and Im so glad that she did! It was just the way I wanted it. Quick story...rehersal night when it was Julias turn to practice going down the isle she started throwing a fit because she didnt want to go. Jana was already on stage so my parents stepped in. My Mom grabbed one arm and my Dad grabbed the other and said, "Julia, you are not going to act like this, you stand up right now and walk.. and basically proceeded to drag her down the isle. The next day at the actual wedding, my Dad and I were standing at the back of the church watching every one go down the isle and when it was Julias turn you could almost see her brain turning saying to herself..."you might as well just do it because you know what happens if you dont", and it was like she took a deep breath and marched down the isle. It was hilarious! Then my Mom was so busy watching how cute Julia was that she forgot to stand up and my Dad and I were half way down the isle before she figured out that she missed her cue!!! Now Julia is getting so big! She loves wearing wadult (adult) shoes.....and when I talk to her on the phone she tells me that she is going to drive her Passat down to see me when she becomes a teenager in a few weeks. Shes a little spoiled..her parents gave her a Passat for her 3rd birthday (joke).I love you Julia Neree Farley!

Three in one...

2006-10-08T13:12:00.000-07:00

I cant find any pictures of Kiane and or Autumn and I so I will do them together. Autumn was my partner in crime when I first moved to Maple Valley. We lived in the Ranch house in Issaquah together and made a lot of great memories. One of them being talking with our friend Lloyd in the Red Robin parking lot until 4 in the morning with all of us having to be at work at 8am. Things you do when your younger and dumb :) Autumn and I went on great trips to the Bahamas and Florida, worked in youth group and went to summer camps. Dreamed about life and our future hubbys :) I was just so blessed to have her in my life for those few years. Then Kiane joined the fun at the ranch house!!! She joined Autumn and I at summer camp for the youth group and we just all became great friends. Kiane is one of the most wonderful people anyone will ever meent in their life. Genuine to the bone and keeps it real. What you see is what you get for sure :) I love you Kiane and Autumn. You both have been a huge, wonderful part of my life.
Of course I didnt forget Rose!!! Rose was my roomy when Suzanne moved to California for 6 months. Poor Rose! She moved in right around the time that I met Curt and since I had been waiting for Curt my whole life, I had to talk about him all the time. Then Curt went to Africa for 5 months and so Rose had to endure my sadness and then anger and then sadness!! LOL!! What an angel. We had fun times together and it was a great time in my life so I will never forget her! Rose you are wonderful!

On we go...

2006-10-08T12:51:00.000-07:00

Taracina has been such a blessing in my life. I just have really great, solid friends. She and I think so much a like its crazy sometimes. We crack ourselves up everytime we are together. Others dont get it, Im not sure we get it most of the time but we laugh our heads off and that is the best part of life. If we didnt have Chipotle, Im not sure we would ever eat together. T went to MC a few years after I did and then we were sort of friends for a while and then Suz and T became good friends so I moved in on that. Then when Suz moved away I took over - LOL!!! Just kidding, but we have become better friends over the past few years. Now that I live so far away we talk through voice mail, we never seem to get each other on the line!I love you T - you are a blessing to me.

Im not done....

2006-10-08T01:27:00.000-07:00

Ok, Im not done posting about people I love.....but its 2:30 in the morning and my husband is yelling at me to get to bed. Well not yelling but strongly encouraging me to get to bed so that I wont sleep during church tomorrrow...not really cool for a PK to sleep during church :) Goodnight!

Suzannie......there is no one like her :)

2006-10-08T01:14:00.000-07:00

Oh Suzanna! We met at Masters Commission in 1996...oh my goodness we have been friends for 10 years!!! Definately soul mates if you believe in that sort of thing. Im not sure I do but I do know that God truely blessed me with a best friend.....She just gets me and I get her. She got married a year after I did so now Curt has a friend to be with while Suz and I hang out :) LOL! We love Suz and Skyler the only problem is they lived in Yakima so we didnt get to see them as much as we would have liked...and now we live in Denver so its even worse :) I love you Suz!

Our favorite Jenn and Bill....

2006-10-08T00:59:00.000-07:00

They arent our favorite friends because we have been blessed with a lot of friends, so we will call them our favorite Jenn and Bill. God knew what he was doing when Jenn and Bill, Curt and I got engaged within a week of each other and then got married within a week of each other. Every newly married couple needs married friends to spend time with and we were so blessed to find Jenn and Bill. Curt was from Colorado and Bill was from Oregon but for some reason they are both Bronco fans!! ( God knows why? Everyone knows that Seahawks rule, but that is another post at another time) And they are 6'5 and 6'3 respectively....so the Lord knew that large men need large friends...right? Of course Jenn and I were already friends but not as well as we are now. I think for the last 2 years we have probably spent 4 nights out of 7 together. We went on a road trip to the Grand Canyon for our first year anniversary and we had a baby last January!!! Actually Jenn and Bill had a baby....but we have done everything together so far so we just call Bella ours too....they didnt consult us on the timing of having children, we were planning on having our kids a week apart just like everything else we have done but they didnt give us enough time to plan so they have to share Bella :) We miss them terribly....But we will see them in December for the Bronco vs. Seahawks game!!! Go Seahawks!!!!!
The picture was taken on our road trip a year ago...Bella was with us but she was in Jenn's tummy :)

Im feeling sentiemental....or maybe just mental

2006-10-08T00:37:00.000-07:00

Its Saturday night and I am missing the beautiful NW! So I thought I should post about everyone that I love in Washington :) Actually that will take a lot of time so I am going to post about almost everyone that I love in Washington...... Perfect place to start is my WONDERFUL family!!! I cannot begin to explain how much God has blessed me with my family. My parents are such great examples for marriage, christianity and parenthood. If I can be a fraction of what they are to me to my kids I will be doin a great job! I have wonderful sisters, brother and inlaws. We are all just great friends and like being with each other. This picture was taken at Cannon Beach, Oregon where we have vacationed as a family for the last 29 years. Thats a good history...And of course my amazing niece and nephews......I will blog plenty about them. Cute story about Julia...when I talk to her on the phone she always asks me "Are you at Denver"? Like Im at Target or the mall :) She is so so so precious...

Memo Board

2006-09-29T23:15:00.000-07:00

I really wanted a memo board to hang in our kitchen but I couldnt find the perfect one, so I built it! Actually I had the idea and then Curt took over and finnished it. I guess he thought I wasnt doing a good enough job...so we built it together :) It turned out perfectly!

Finally!!

2006-09-29T22:58:00.000-07:00

We are done!!...well basically done. There are a few odds and ends that we need to finnish but for the most part we are done. I need some decorations behind the couch and a curtain for the sliding glass door, I think I need a rug under the dining room table but I think basically it looks good. There are no pictures of our bedroom because we are building a headboard but when its all done I will post some of those. Curts parents are in some of the pictures...they came all the way from Rockford, Illinos to help us and what a HUGE help they were. They stayed for about a week and we had a great time with them. All in all it was done in about 3 weeks maybe less and boy did Curt and I learn a lot about each other. It sure brings out personality traits that you dont know you have :) And challenges your patience...but we had a lot of fun doing it and are really glad to be living in a house that is not trashed and full of tools and the smell of paint.

And More...bathroom

2006-09-29T22:46:00.000-07:00