Idaho

View from Michael's house (If you look in the top right, you can still see a little snow on Schweitzer Mountain, I'll be boarding there this winter)

Last weekend we went to visit Michele’s brother, Michael, and his family in Sandpoint Idaho. They have a beautiful piece of property with a view of the lake and the mountains. On Saturday morning one of their two dogs started barking and when I looked out the window, I saw that both their dogs and ours had a big black bear surrounded. I thought that this would be the end of our dogs, but they scared the bear and he ran off into the woods. Nathan got to see their horse; he was scared so we never got too close. I got to ride one of their quads all over the woods and later we went out on the lake in their boat. Nathan loved the water. Later that night, Michael taught me how to roast coffee on his home roaster (My favorite part of the trip). I’ve been enjoying the coffee I roasted all week, thanks Michael!

Sunday, we went to church with everyone. I love visiting other churches; it’s always cool to see how other people show their love for God. We left around noon and were able to stop in Liberty Lake WA (just outside Spokane) and visit with Michele’s other brother, Mark and his family. We were able to hang out for just a couple of hours and then we were off. I ended up missing an exit on the way home and driving an extra hour and a half. Oh well.

This week it got up to 108 degrees here and then today it was in the 70’s. Everyone complains about the heat, but it doesn’t feel that hot to me because it’s not humid. Anyway, everything else is going well, work has been good and I just got offered some side-work welding in the evenings. I’ll probably do it and pick up a few extra hours a week. Michele’s doing well, for those of you who don’t know, she’s pregnant, about 12 weeks. She’s having a lot of morning sickness, especially in the evenings (ironic). Tomorrow she’s having a precautionary surgery because she’s considered high risk. She had the same surgery with Nathan and it went well, but we covet your prayers for this one. We’re supposed to close on our house in two weeks. Hopefully everything will go smoothly; apartment life is getting kind of old.

Well, that’s about it. We love you guys.

Peace,

Harold


Our new house

So much things to say

It has been a pretty exciting week or so. Things have been going really well at work for me. I actually enjoy going there and learn new things daily. Michele has made several friends at church and is able to hang out with them during the week. I was able to share the gospel with a couple who lives down the hall from us. It went really well. I also have been hanging out with this guy who is a Mormon. Please pray that God would speak through me, but that I wouldn't try to be salesmen. And we finally started looking for a house and put an offer on one this weekend. It's amazing because it is a brand new house. We'd never be able to afford this house in Virginia and definetly not in California. It's bigger than our last house which is a blessing and the best part is we'll actually owe less on it than we did our last house. We should find out tomorrow if they accept our offer and we should close by mid-July.

This weekend we went to the Pasco Farmers Market. We brought Nate's wagon and pulled him to all the stands. One of the coolest things we found there was a local farmer who provides organic beef. I've been really into supporting local business's and trying to eat more organic, whole, and local foods. But, the beef thing is of particular interest to me because my work does jobs at Tyson foods, which deals primarily with beef here. Let me just say you don't want to know what that place is like if you eat beef. Well, I'm sure you wanted to here about that.

Well, that's about it. Write when you can.

Peace,


Harold

PS I just got a call from our realtor and our offer was accepted.

New Blob

I know it says "new blob", but what it means is new blog. When I typed the titled, I made a typo, I liked it so I left it.

Anyway, I created a blog for my random thoughts on God and spirituality. Here's the link if you're interested.

www.haroldsthoughtsonspirituality.blogspot.com

Time Flys

I can't believe we left Virginia over a month ago. I feel like the transition here has been really good. Michele and I went to the DMV last week to make our residence official by getting WA drivers licenses. Turns out Michele's expired back in February, so she had to take the written and driving test again, she passed.

I started my new job last Thursday and I'm really enjoying it. I weld every day and I'm learning a lot. The hours and pay are good and everyone I work with is really cool. Thank you Jesus, and thank you everyone who has been praying for us.

Tonight, Michele went to a ladies Bible study with another girl from church. I think we're suppose to have dinner with a couple of our neighbors this week, which should be really cool. And I'm suppose to go fishing this weekend with another neighbor. It's cool, God has really been opening a lot of doors as far as meeting people. It seems like we meet a good balance of believers and non-believers. It's funny because I'm more excited about the non-believers. I feel like that's who I want to spend more of time with, if that makes sense. I'm not talking about back-sliding, I just feel like in Virginia, all of my energy was focused on "the church". I want ministry to be more outward here. We'll see.

Well, besides all that, I feel like I've been going through a kind of personal spiritual reformation. I've been really thinking about a lot of the ways I go about being a Christian. I really feel like we've been doing so many things wrong for so long that we're used to them and now we think they're right. Anyway, I think I'll start a seperate blog to write about that sort of thing, but please keep me in prayer. I'll let you know where I'm going.

So, that's that. Once again, sorry for lagging, but that's me. I'll post some photo's soon, maybe. We love you guys.

Peace,


Harold