Appointments

So I had two appointments in Invermere today. The first one was for our truck. We want to fix it up to sell, so that we can get something which will fit 3 (yes THREE!) carseats in it... crazy. Hopefully they'll all be in booster seats before we know it! Anyway, we discovered today that our truck needs another $700+ worth of work to fix one bearing and (?) something in the back end (?). Add that to the work we just did to fix the ball joints and you've got a grand total of too much! To top it off, the other front bearing is starting to show signs that it will also need to be replaced... we had both of them done less than two years ago too! Our mechanic informed us today that driving gravel roads is not good on light-duty trucks. In other words, we are over-working our poor Dakota and need to either find a 3/4 ton for all our off-roading (collecting firewood and camping adventures) or get a nice family vehicle that sticks to the paved roads. If we sell our truck, only one vehicle will be feasible at the moment so we're feeling a bit stuck... we'll see what happens there! That brings me to my second appointment of the day. My first prenatal doctors appointment. I'm wondering how in the world I'm going to juggle childcare throughout the week while trying to borrow the vehicle from Kevin for regular Dr. Apt's. He may not be working in town forever, which presents a problem when it comes to getting him to and from work the day OF my appointments. Two vehicles would be ideal very soon! Anyway, I suggested the idea of a midwife to my doctor today and she quite agreed that it would be a good and necessary option! I was a little surprised, as I figured I was sort of taking work away from her, or that she might think I find her incapable. She said that she was concerned about the number of doctors in the Invermere area who would be able to deliver a large baby, as mine generally are. She speaks a lot of good things about all the doc's in the area, however said that there is only one other with the amount of delivery experience that she has, so it's a bit of a concern with higher-risk births. Also, Invermere doesn't have surgeons at hand so any emergencies are sent to Cranbrook by ambulance, a 1.5 hour drive away! Too far for my quick babies! Aiden was very big (10lbs 1oz), was born very quickly (3 hours of labour total, born half an hour after the doctor arrived) and got very stuck! Infact, I didn't know until today, exactly HOW stuck Aiden was. She had to turn him around after his head had come through b/c his shoulder bones were so broad. She said she was relieved that Aiden's collarbone didn't break from having to squeeze his shoulders together to get them both through. "Oh my gosh", I'm thinking! I had no idea! I knew he was big but thought everything went pretty standard. So she's concerned that I deliver in a place where there will be lots of compitent hands around, just incase. Eeek! Conveniently, a good friend of mine has been raving about her midwives and I think that since this is my last baby and may very well be a big one (I think mainly/only if it's a boy), I might as well give a midwife a try:) I really appreciate that they have so many natural methods of delivery, as opposed to calling in an emergency if things don't go according to standard. I love my doctor and she is damn good at what she does! Really!! But I'd like to have more "natural" options at my disposal this time, should things get tough. Big and fast aren't a good combination when it comes to labour... might as well be prepared:) On that note, my due date is officially May 22nd, 2010. We'll be finding out if we're having a boy or girl, especially now that size is a concern (those boys!!!). Besides, I only have baby clothes for a girl, as I borrowed all Aidens from a friend. So if it's a boy I intend to sell all of Atalie's and get some that are, well, less pink! :)

"Doubt hard on the heels of every belief..."

I can tell autumn is approaching... when there aren't trees to cut down I find myself at home with the kids doing "homey" things, like baking, blogging, cleaning, cooking... preparing for another season. If you keep coming back to my blog I'm going to assume that you're not really getting tired of hearing my ramblings on faith and finances and my quest to find the missing link in connecting and making One work for the other. So here's an inspiring quote I read on Ryan Dueck's blog, one I actually haven't visited until today, when I stumbled upon it while visiting anothers blog. The author of this quote is Frederick Buechner, from his book "Secrets In The Dark: A Life In Sermons". For me it describes perfectly the insecurity and absolutely bliss that is often felt when learning to living by faith! "Faith is a way of waiting—never quite knowing, never quite hearing or seeing, because in the darkness we are all but a little lost. There is doubt hard on the heels of every belief, fear hard on the heels of every hope, and many holy things lie in ruins because the world has ruined them and we have ruined them. But faith waits, even so, delivered at least from that final despair which gives up waiting altogether because it sees nothing left worth waiting for. Faith waits—for the opening of a door, the sound of footsteps in the hall, that beloved voice delayed, delayed so long that there are times when you all but give up hope of ever hearing it. And when at moments you think you do hear it (if only faintly, from far away) the question is: Can it possibly be, impossibly be, that one voice of all voices?"

falling firs

Well, we've been busy as of late... trying to gather wood for winter so we don't have to use our furnace. I figured that if we went out every evening and cut down 1 tree, we'd be done in a couple of weeks. A couple days ago we found a huge fir tree. When I say huge, I mean it was the biggest one we've cut down yet. We're guessing it was about 150' tall and 20" wide. Falling a tree that size felt a little out of our league (or at least mine), but we couldn't just leave it there! So we carefully took into account the bend, the breeze (which was ever so slight but always a concern when a tree is that tall and sways easily) and the lean... and fell it perfectly onto the road where Kev bucked it up and chopped what he could (to avoid mess in our driveway - which will happen regardless seeing as how you can't humanly chop up a tree this size in a couple hours). My job is, of course, to watch the tree incase it changes course on us all of a sudden. It's a little challenging to communicate with someone who has to look down at what he's doing, with ear plugs in and a blazing loud saw next to his ears. My only method is to stand where he can see me, keep low (try to wear a bright coloured shirt so he can see me if I start waving wildly) and try to stay out of the path of the falling tree. It's a lot of fun actually!! This fall was especially exciting b/c I've never felt the earth shake like it did when it hit the ground. It snapped in half (unfortunately - bit of wasted wood there) when it fell but we took most of it home. We were quite surprised that it was standing there in the first place, perfectly beside the road! Who, in all the redneck, chainsaw-crazy, wood-burning town of Canal Flats, would leave such a tree standing? Don't know. So we claimed it for ourselves;) In the end it took a few loads to get all home but it gave us the same amount of wood that three regular sized trees would have, so we're ahead of the game;) Here's the last load that Kevin stuffed into our tiny 5' box and brought home last night... it took some time to organize so it would all fit ...our poor truck! :) Just look at the silly grin on his face;) Boys...

message on "Privision In Hard Times"

I finally found the message I began listening to by Steve Foss. God has been speaking to me for awhile now about preparing for our future and about seeking Him. Two very basic principles in a Christ-followers life, I realize... seek the Lord, make wise choices... nothing new, I know. But as you also will know, God has a way of taking what is old and making it new. He's been specifically laying the topic of prayer and finances on my heart for awhile now, to the degree that I have to seek and find orelse I know I will regret it incredibly down the road!! Every get that feeling? It's like a warning bell going off... not one that makes you want to dash for the door, but you know that if you don't pay attention now you will want to dash for the door later on! SO. I've linked these video clips, which I've found to be very interesting. Part 1 and Part 2 are on YouTube but are not the complete series. You have to purchase the DVD to hear it all. And personally, I don't agree with the fact that he's selling something which he says God told him to share with his people... if this topic is so deeply embeded in his heart to share, perhaps the entire package should be shared (freely!) as opposed to partially shared. Anyway, regardless of that I think what he has to say holds a lot of truth.

The quest thus far...

At what cost does this quest for faith and freedom really come at? Since blogging about this I've seen both hope and opposition. ***new paragraphs will be marked with bold print to avoid mass confusion - sorry! "enter" still isn't working on this particular blog*** The one thing I ask is that you, my lovely and faithful readers:), don't assume why we are where we are financially. I've chosen to share these struggles b/c I keep hearing of other friends/family who are also struggling in the same area and I think it's important to share with and encourage one another! WHY we get into tight $ positions is important but I think I'll address that soon enough as God leads us into freedom! So please don't worry - our situation is not dire, we're not big spontaneous spenders and we're not on the verge of bankrupcy. The point in writing this is that the devil has a grip on a lot of peoples finances, he has spoken a number of lies to make us believe that life is hard so suck it up, and we need to find the truth in order to stop believing all the crap. I don't claim to have the answers but I am willing to share this journey in hopes that others may be encouraged as well (and not feel so alone!). There is truth and hope when our issues (sins) are brought to the light:) So let's light up these dark spots and blot them out for good! First of all, here's a quick rundown of what we're trying to accomplish, just to be clear: We're learning to managing money when we don't have it (although we are continually learning how to manage what we do have b/c it seems to fluctuate quite a bit lately!). We've buckled down to clear both large and small debt many times in the past, yet it just acquires again at some point b/c we are unable to save up for the big stuff (vehicle repairs, dentist apt's, living expenses while Kev goes to school, missed work, new wardrobes b/c of weight loss/pregnancy - or weight gain in Kev's case) and choose to use our creditcards as backup until we get on our feet again, instead of waiting for God to provide in other ways - that's where we get caught! I think God wants to teach us to trust Him with our needs so we don't go into debt and He knows this is the most difficult area for us to trust in. Here's what we've been seeing so far that has been really encouraging!! I've been writing down all our needs and prayer requests and how they've been met, as they are. One request was provision for our chimney to be cleaned before fall/winter so we can use wood heat instead of the furnace. I wasn't sure if we'd end up meeting someone who'd offer to do it at a discount or if God would provide the money, but Kevin ended up talking to his boss who said he owns a chimney sweep that we can just borrow. Sweet!! Small towns really have a lot of benefits, lemme tell ya! And Canal Flatians are all do-it-yourself'ers. I put in a couple other prayer requests for things like buying a few groceries (again, could have used mastercard like we're used to doing in tight times but I decided to wait and see what God would do)... and well, nothing fell from the sky! Imagine my shock. Just kidding... He responded in a very practical manner: I remembered that I had a little jar full of coins sitting on the desk so I counted them all up and had exactly enough for what I wanted to buy:) On the flip side, we jumped the gun on God a couple days ago when we went to Cranbrook to put a cheque in the bank... we had to fill up the truck with gas at Skookumchuck but realized that until we put the cheque in the bank, there wasn't money to pay for our gas. So Kevin tried to use his mastercard (which has plenty of space) but neither of us could remember our new pin numbers (not a fan of the new mastercards, btw!) so we couldn't pay for our gas!! The guy working the gas station knew we were leaving our camping trailer there until we got back so he offered to let us go ahead and get some cash and just come back to pay later (small towns rule - once again!). This was a reminder to us that we don't need our creditcards b/c HE will provide if we will just allow Him to. That same trip to town we also debated whether or not we should get groceries b/c we needed the money we'd now deposited for automatic bill payments which would be coming out of our account the following week... so I transfered some funds (via another credit source) at the bank machine so we could buy groceries and still have enough money to pay bills. Turns out we didn't need to do that either b/c we received cash (an unpaid amount from one of the parents I babysit for) and food (from a few friends who have abundant gardens and just wanted to share! thankyou!) the day we got home. So yet again, it pays to WAIT for the Lord. He very gently reminded us of His provision this week and I am greatful for His grace:) A slightly different story: I've been praying for faith - specifically that God would bring knowledge to us in how to get out of debt and rely on him for provision and prosperity. Well, an opportunity presented itself when a wonderful family member told me of an inspiring message on the topic of finances by Stephen Foss. "Sweet!", I thought. I found it on a Christian website and hit "play". I quickly got a sense that this guy was genuine and knew what he was talking about... such as the fact that debt brings bondange, thus destruction (nutshell version) and we needn't help God out by using our credit cards before giving Him the chance to come through for us. About 11 minutes of this message went by when Stephen began a story on how one of the churches he was pastoring was destroyed by the debt he allowed it to acquire... however, his story was cut off by another voice telling us listeners that if we want to hear the rest of this message we need to purchase the CD/DVD. Seriously?? So I looked into the cost, only to discover that there wasn't a cost but a "donation" required - I'm beginning to feel as though I'm attempting a rigged game of ringtoss at a carnival. Since when are donations mandatory? Since people like tax breaks? I'll admit I like a good tax break. But I don't care at this point. All I want is to hear the message on financial freedom. Now I have a decision to make: do I buy this CD in my quest to financial freedom, knowing I have to put it on my creditcard but don't have it in this months budget to pay it back; or do I forget about the whole idea and ask God for the free version elsewhere? Who knew there was literally a price to pay for freedom? I was frusterated and discouraged. I don't blame this website for needing to make money to continue their ministry. After all, if they continue to have speakers featured like the one I listened to then they need our support. I guess I'm just frusterated that I can't give it to them and that getting support requires giving what I do not have. Anyway, there you have some "tidbits" of our journey thus far.

The Grand Finale - Premier Lake

We ended our camping season at Premier Lake Campground with our good friends Jen and Adam Koenig (and Gabby and Joshy!). We did a couple hikes, swam (ok, dove in and got out relatively quickly) in a couple lakes, stayed up too late talking around the campfire and got up too early b/c we both have kids. It was fun:) Jen and Adam with Gabby and the two boys (Aiden LOVES the chariot and insisted on sitting in it with Josh). Boys just chillin... which doesn't happen very often;) Gabby got stuck in the bushes. Not sure why she wondered in and sat down... I think it took just as much effort to get in there as it did to get out! :) Atalie and Gabby swing together:) Kevin insists on hardcore dog obedience training while at the park. Our newest little hiker! We were so proud of Aiden when he hiked all by himself up and down the path to the lake. He had a few spills and needed to be carried for a small portion of the hike but he did so good! Gabby with her Mommy, rounding up the troops and hiking onward! Aiden stops, not to smell the flowers, but to feel the tall grass:) Kevin, Koda and Jen all go for a swim in Cat Eye Lake. Gabby is being splashed by Koda but seems to love it:) No longer loving the water, after having fallen in completely! Aiden manages to stay dry, although I don't know how! Look how cute he is!!!!! Everybody should be carried now and then;) Another dip, in Premier Lake this time. Sweet Gabriella. Joshy boy:) Adam showed us some sweet cliff jumping at Quartz Lake, close to Premier. I think the highest they did here was about 45 feet. Fun!!! The kids, Jen and myself waited patiently for our husbands to do their cliff jumping (which I admit to being jealous of!)... A fun weekend:)

Baby #3

For those who haven't yet heard, here it is. We are officially expecting our third bundle of joy and chaos about 8 months from now. To answer a few questions... YES it was planned:) YES we're excited!!! NO we don't plan to have any more after this one and YES we will likely find out the sex beforehand (I only have baby clothes for Attie so I would like to be prepared ahead of time if it ends up being a boy!). I haven't had a doc apt. yet so I don't know the exact date, but seeing as how it's not really rocket science, I can confidently guess that it'll be around May 21st. Of course, I'll be posting updates on all that in the future:) There ya have it.

Vacation Part 4 - Camping in Kelowna

This last vacation post is gonna be a short one... the weather in Kelowna was cool and cloudy for the most part when we came back on Thursday evening. We were prepared for hot beach days (optimistic but possible for September in the Okanagan!) but instead spent our two days hanging around the campsite, playing games with the kids and visiting some friends whose kids we hadn't yet even met! Aiden only got to open his gift the morning we left Seattle, so he had yet to use it at all (except for the little cars which went with it). Kevin set it up for him when we got to the campsite and they played with it all weekend long! Thanks Nana and Papa!! Atalie is "shoo'ing the disgusting bugs (flies)" from our campsite. It was nice to sit and relax while the kids entertained themselves for awhile:) We made sure they had new toys to play with this trip so moments like this would be possible! I stored away toys they hadn't used in awhile and bought a couple new movies, nerf balls, markers and lots of cheap glow-bracelets for night time! Worked like a charm. Above, still hangin out:) Below, I think I was making spaghetti this night... we've all gotten used to using the asian rice noodles for spaghetti nights, as it's much simpler than cooking two types of pasta! And so quick!! We packed up on Sunday and drove back home... luckily! Ya really. We couldn't believe the evasive manouver someone pulled while heading through the mountains. We were pulling our trailer of course, following another vehicle who we could not yet pass, when someone (a big idiot) decided to pass us. Let me set the scene for you: Uphill, solid line, oncoming traffic. For some reason this guy (or gal?) decides to pass us at this point while driving at least 140km/hr. As he whizzed up to pass us Kevin says, "uh oh." and sure enough, there is another vehicle coming towards him, soon to be beside us. The oncoming vehicle moves into the shoulder with some serious quick thinking, the guy trying to pass us panicks and swerves right to left a few times, hesitates and speeds up a few times, to finally squeeze up past the vehicle infront of us before hitting the next oncoming vehicle. That was all in a matter of seconds and I'm very thankful to still be alive. Although, I could have strangled the moron who was driving that vehicle. Anyway... all in all it was a great trip and we even came home with another family member. We just have to wait another 8 months to meet him or her;)

Vacation Part 3 - Seattle

We arrived at Mom and Dad Israelson's house Sunday evening and headed straight to the Woodland Park Zoo the following day. Little Tucan Sam and his friend, above. Not so little lioness. We all took turns pushing and chasing these two around for over four hours! The penguins were pretty cool:) Atalie's first ride on a Merry-Go-Round. Atalie poses with Nana infront of her favorite animal. Who doesn't love otters? The kids squealed with delight as they raced to and from each side, trying to keep up with the otters. That evening Atalie helped Papa pick blackberries. I think Atalie picked a few and ate a few more;) Tuesday was a full day as we hit the Aquarium, Science Centre, Animalopolis Imax and finally the Space Needle. Above, Atalie touches the starfish in the child-friendly tank:) Nemo had his very own tank. More starfish:) The Salmon Ladder. They hatch salmon here year-round. This tank was in the shape of a dome so you could look around about 360 degrees and above as well. There were huge fish, star fish, small octopus and a couple sharks. I'd feel pretty small too;) Watching the sea otters play. The Science Centre was a hit, mainly b/c of all the toys... nothing was really learned I suspect. The Animalopolis Imax was fun though and the kids had a lot of good laughs during it:) This thing above is a big submarine with a slide coming out of it. They didn't want to leave! More toys... at least they're interactive toys;) )Perhaps the only lesson learned here was, "for every action there is a reaction". ? Space Needle... obviously. The highlight of our day. Sitting down for a coffee! ...I am slowly going crazy... one two three four five size - switch! Finding seashells by the seashore. Forget the seashells. Play in the seashore! The beach is always a good time:) Okay this one is good. We celebrated Aiden's 2nd Birthday while in Seattle so Mom put two fireworks in his cake (ran out of candles - who wouldn't think to use fireworks instead???). He couldn't take his eyes off the cake until the fireworks were lit. Then he was off! Kevin had to chase after him and bring him back so we could finish singing Happy Birthday to him and take a few pictures. Poor guy ~ hahaha... we couldn't help but laugh of course... and poor Nana and Papa ~ the only other birthday they've been to of the kids' was Atalie's 2nd Birthday and she cried when we lit the sparkler. We had to stop singing and convince her of her safety. Oh my children. The after-results of using fireworks on a birthday cake. Just don't. Trust us. It seems like a good idea at the time (and Nana's reputation really has gone up in the adventure category!) but every bite you take afterwards will taste like the smell of Yellowstone National Park. Haven't been there? Well, then imagine your last trip to the hotsprings, multiplied by a hundred. Haha!!!! We scraped the top off the kids' cake so they wouldn't cringe... we, on the other hand, insisted on eating around the sulfuric flakes but couldn't seem to get every last molicule... it was bittersweet! But mostly bitter... with a lot of laughter!! Aiden and Atalie CAN sit still for a picture!?!? Unpresidented!!! :) Kevin and Mom light the rest of the fireworks we didn't eat. Aiden opens his gift! A Little People car/garage. Aiden LOVES cars and trucks! He is a boy thru and thru. How we feel after a week of vacation. Ok, not really;) Self portrait of our growing little family:)