Weddings and Parties

It is the month for weddings...One every Saturday for the month of July. 

First up: Shane and Susie. We know Shane from Juneau and just recently met Susie here in Portland. Their's is a lovely story of redemption and finding each other after being friends as little kids. God is truly a good God and has gifted them with marriage. 

Gwyndolyn's 5'th birthday party!!

Our youngest niece turned 5 finally and had a wonderful princess birthday party! Check out the cake my sister made!! I will probably hire her to make mine when we finally have kids. She is an amazing mom!!

John and Melissa Penewit!

Congratulations to these two. I've known John since high school and also recently met Melissa. There was a wonderful group of people whom I've know for so long there, so it was a good gathering of people!! And such a beautiful location and the food was awesome!!

Old roomies from college and high school classmates, Amanda and Bethany. 

Two more weddings to go! And, three more weeks of work for me (Wendy). Then, two weeks of freedom...and we fly to Russia on Aug 19th!

Fun at the Zoo.

I was very excited to go to the zoo with my two good girlfriends, Amanda and Lisa. I hadn't seen Lisa in over 3? years...Yikes!! So here's the show!

Watching the elephant do some minor tricks for the handler. 

The cheetah's had just woken up and were very close to the glass. Beautiful!!!

Amanda and Lila petting the "tame" creatures at the zoo.

I love giraffes. What an amazing creation. God had a great imagination.

Me, Amanda, Lila, Lisa and Sarah. 

Random pictures

Here is a random collection of pictures from the last month that I've been meaning to blog about. Just some fun shots to enjoy. 

Our nephew Isaac and Monty. Monty sporting some new goggles.

Gabriel Joseph Stuart, born to my best friend Sarah and her husband Dan. What an answer to prayer!!

Happy Father's Day! Our special treat for Brian's dad, Matt. The Portland City Grill, yum, with an amazing view!

Congratulations to Brian, his sister, Sarah and her boyfriend, Rodd. They all graduated with their Bachelor's degrees this year!

Me and my love. 

Outside the city of Florence, Oregon. A wonderful day!

Brian worked on this stump for a few days; many hours of work attempting to get it out. Then, finally it came out! He had a little help along the way. Here he is with Jeremiah.

So, the month of June is almost over and we will be moving out of our home at the end of July. In the meantime we have FOUR wonderful weddings to go to in July and then we head to Russia on August 19th!! 

Moving to Russia!

After nearly two months of searching and waiting, we finally got the email this morning that said, "We would like to invite you and your wife to teach with us for the academic year of 2012-2013."

A few months ago I brought up the idea of living abroad in Russia for a year or so after Brian graduated. I figured we were in a good area of life, no loans of any kind, car is finally paid off, no children, no house payment, money in the savings account...we have a freedom right now that we probably won't have in the future. Brian liked the idea of going to Russia for a while (of course) so we started applying for TESL (teaching English as a second language) jobs for him. No one responded. We had over a month of silence. It was a little discouraging, but we kept trying, with a deadline of Brian's graduation (June 17th) to stop applying and stay in the States.

And then...there was a response, and it was quick! One day after applying Brian had a return email requesting an interview over Skype. That was completed and a second interview was requested a week later. That was also completed and then 6 days after that, they FINALLY said, YES, WE WANT YOU!  I say finally, because the 6 days of waiting was torture for Brian and I. We were stressed and worried and uncomfortable with waiting. All the while trying our hardest to trust in the Lord, knowing He had an awesome plan for us.

And He does. So, no official date yet, but sometime in the end of August we will fly over to Nizhny Novgorod to live until June 2013.
Brian's job? Teaching English. And even better, the interviewers were pleased that I was coming and offered me an assistant teacher job to Brian. So, we will both have a class of 3-6 year olds from 9-12:30pm daily and then I will be free to do what I want and Brian will then teach teenagers and any adults until 4pm or so. PERFECT.
Can I stress how good and perfect God's plan is? Not only do we have a job, but I have something to do daily also that will make my days more fulfilling and fun.

We don't know too many more details yet, living in a little apartment somewhere, three vacation weeks off during the school year (Oct, Jan, and March), and hopefully me learning a little Russian here or there. :)

I will blog again when we find out more details! We will have quite the adventure coming up ahead!!

COME ON FEEL THE ILLINOISE!!!

Last week we went to Illinois for a wedding/family reunion. We always love going back to the midwest and seeing such fun family. It was a quick four days and we didn't even milk any cows. However we still managed to have some good old farm fun. 

  WENDY MANAGED TO CAPTURE THE WILD BEAST OF THE LAWFER FARM. THIS BEAST HAD BEEN TERRORIZING THE FARM FOR A LEAST A MONTH. WENDY MANAGED TO WRESTLE IT TO THE GROUND AND MAKE IT SUBMIT TO HER WILL. WAY TO GO WENDY!!

 WENDY MADE US POSE FOR A DRESSED UP WEDDING PICTURE. THE TOWN (MONROE, WISCONSIN) WAS THEMED AFTER A GERMAN VILLAGE . IT WAS PRETTY COOL. AND GOOD CHEESE AND MILK WAS AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE.

 AT THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER MUSEUM YOU CAN EXPECT TO SEE COOL CREATURES LIKE THIS MASSIVE CAT FISH. IT JUST SO HAPPENED I KNEW HOW TO SPEAK CATFISH. TURNS OUT HIS NAME IS LEON AND HE'S DOING A 5 YEAR SENTENCE IN THE TANK FOR MISUSE OF HIS WHISKERS. HE IS APPEALING THE JUDGES RULING.

 " O I'M BEING EATEN BY A BOA CONSTRICTOR, OH GEE HE'S UP TO MY KNEE, OH HECK HE'S UP TO MY NECK, OH DREAD HE'S UP MMMMHHHMMMHMHHHMMHH!!! " SHEL SILVERSTEEN

 FUN COUSINS ANNE (LEFT) MICHELLE(RIGHT) WE ALWAYS LIKE HANGING OUT WITH THEM AND MICHELLE IS GOING TO BE THE NEXT BIG PHOTOGRAPHER.

 I TRIED TO GET THIS PRETTY LITTLE LADY TO DANCE WITH ME, BUT SHE TURNED ME DOWN. SHE MOST LIKELY DIDN'T WANT TO MAKE WENDY JEALOUS. I LOVE MY GRANDMA.

THEY HAD A PHOTO BOOTH AT THE WEDDING SO WE COULDN'T RESIST. SOMETIMES IT IS HARD TO THINK OF POSES SO I PRETENDED TO BE SCREAMING IN WENDY'S EAR, SHE HAS A GREAT FACE IN THIS PICTURE. 

APE CAVES!!!

So Wendy and I had a free Saturday, so we decided to go for a hike. I guess this blog is becoming the hiking blog or something like that. We decided to go to the infamous Ape Caves. These caves are the largest lava flow caves in the western hemisphere. I was not sure what to expect, Wendy had already hiked them, but 7 years ago. They actually took 2 hours to get through the whole thing.  

 This was a really cool part where the tunnel got really narrow and eventually ended. I was expecting to find some strange creature living back there like Gollam from Lord of the Rings.

 I found a hole in the rock and decided to use the opportunity to create an optical illusion.

 Here is Wendy in very large part of the cave. Doesn't it seem as if a large beast is about to eat the unsuspecting hot girl in the cave? Well not on my watch, I would defend her with my life.

 The light from the camera is deceiving, if you turned out your headlamps, you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face. This walk would have been absolutely impossible without light.

Hike #4

Continuing on my goal to hike every month, I ventured out on a lovely day to Angel's Rest in the Columbia Gorge. This time, Troy and Trisha Welstad came with me which was tons of fun. 

I am really excited for the snow to start melting so I can get higher in the mountains, I enjoy the Gorge, but I really like hiking around Mt Hood or St Helens. Another month or so I think.