I feel like I live in the bleachers, watching the game of Pain

It is so heart wrenching to watch people I really, *really* love decide to live against God and then scrape through the consequences, bloodied and filthy.

The life of peace and calmness that He has given us brings with it the guilt of knowing that I don't deserve a single good thing.


Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace

*Yippee* - *Woohoo* - *Hurrah* and *Yeay*!

ITS SNOWING!!!

Over and over again.

It just makes my heart happy.

The kids have been outside a good chunk of the day - Jesh just came in, always the last one to quit! As I was helping him out of his SOAKED clothes, I pulled off his snowboots and saw his cute toes staring at me. That's right: the child was wearing NO socks. ~sigh~ I swear I made him put them on the first time he went out! Who knows how long he was sockless...

I got a few cute pics of the pirate snowman that we made - I'll pretend like that was the plan, but it was mostly because we couldn't get the second eye to stay and the creativity just ran wild from there! :~D

Today's goals:

The words that come out of my mouth.

The things that I let myself think on.

The songs that I let my heart sing.



I want to make my God smile.

Have I ever linked this?

http://www.xanga.com/PintorsinHonduras

Our old blog, from when we were in Honduras.

I'm desperately trying to get my online/computer life organized today...wish me luck!

Does this make you miss summer or what?!

I've spent WAY too much time trying (once again) to figure out how to make my computer and my camera get along, still to no avail.

BUT I found this pic, and I adore it with all my heart! This is my best friend's son and horse, my "bonus boy" bouncing, with Evy and Israel in the background - yes, Israel is jumping to *another* trampoline! We love life at Byron and Lisa's!!

Something new

Wow, I haven't posted since England. That was EONS ago!! So much has happened...

I guess the biggest life-thing that's been going on is that Vicente has had 3 meetings with the County Sheriff's office to become a deputy!! Now, we haven't been hired or anything, but it's looking like a serious possibility. :~)

The long and short of it is: laying woodfloors just isn't a consistent enough job these days. We've been praying tons about what to do - we're willing to move *anywhere* and do *anything*! But this cop thing just keeps persisting. The more the Vman thinks about it, the more its something he'd love to do.

So, we'll see! He's already passed the written exam and the physical exam (no big shocker there - he was hatin it sick with a cold, and still whooped all over the other applicants, LOL!), and had the oral board interview yesterday. When he left the room they "had their eyebrowms raised and were smiling and nodding to each other". Sounds like a good thing!

Honestly, we'll be fine if this isn't what's in store for our future - but it sure is fun being on the journey!

He's gone

Vicente went to bed at 1:30 (we've never been much for packing ahead of time) and was out the door by 4am!
I'm sure this is him right now:

Our pastor came to pick him up, while I snuggled back under the covers with prayers swirling in my sleepy head.
Thank You, Lord, for creating such an amazing man.





Sadness will hit soon - I'm in the overwhelmed/overcaring-of-kids mode right now. :~)

The Vman is flyin' out!

We're only 3 days away from take off! I'm starting to get excited. :~D

I was able to talk to Dr W (who insists on being called by his first name - "L") for about 20 minutes today. It was very nice to get to know him a bit. I guess its a little odd that he and Vicente have never met, and yet they're planning this big ol trip...but honestly, its so hard NOT to get along with my husby, they'll do awesome!

L is *very* kind - one of those souls that you know you're safe with. He seems pretty low key, which of course makes me subconsciously vamp things up a bit...poor guy, I probably hit him like a tsunami, LOL!

Our sweet friends who connected us with L (and are Brits serving in Honduras) have apparently done quite a load of leg work for us, and I'm so grateful! There's been a problem recently with Christian evangelistic efforts to Muslims being discouraged by local authorities in England. Our friend has made phone calls to his home church, a city manager, and even lawyers, to make sure that Vicente and L have their rights understood and defended. They will be taking a printout of the current laws of England in regards to this, along with the phone #s of lawyers ready to come to their defense if needed.

Praise God!! (And thanks to the B family!)

Oh I have bunches more to say, but I gotta go grab some kiddos off the school bus!

Man, I stink at this consistency thing!

Here's the deal: our camera and our stupid, old dinosaur, dumb, and ugly computer are still not in communication with one another. And without pics, I struggle to care enough about posting to make it worth it. Plus, my back hurts too much to sit at the computer too long these days...
So much has happened lately, life is good - but without visual, who really cares! :~D

I'm workin on it. This whole blogging thing is good for me. :~)

Today...and last night...and the night before (I am *such* a digresser!)

I called my mom last night just as she was getting off work to see if she'd like to join Evy and I in our "girl time".

Vicente has been on an after-work-side-job for days, and he'd taken the boys along. (Evy was with him Thursday on the same job while me and my little men went to the county fair and rodeo! I LUV getting my hick influences in whenever possible, LOL!) Basically Vicente and I have been playing Tag Team Kid Time...its been different, but not at all a bad thing! It's kinda fun having things mixed up a bit.

Anyhoo, as mom and I were talking she tried to start her car and it said "no" - dead battery.
Evy and I cut our nail painting short and rushed to Mom/Grammy's aid. Turns out the cables connecting to her battery weren't exactly connecting, (bummer cuz I felt so capable with my cute new plastic briefcase full of important car things!) so after a phone call to Les Schwab (the tire place) we decided to bag it all and go out to eat! Yeay, eating out is the absolute best!

Evy's favorite restaurant in town is the Thai place because, "It's quiet". So Thai fooding we went! (It's my fav because our whole crew can get outta there under 30 bucks...) Mom had never been, so it was fun for her to try new stuff - turns out she'd never eaten tofu!!! Crazy. Mom drove my car home so that E Jo and I could walk, (I love living near family! ) and on the way we spent a good chunk of time at a rope swing in the park. I was once again shocked at how tough my girl is!

This morning we woke up in time to get Grammy to work, then the kids and I spent the whole morning at the neighborhood church for Children's Health Day. It was so cool! Free vision, speech, hearing, dental, and whole body health check ups. And tons of fun games and prizes and a backpack full of school supplies at the end of it all!

I'm really not sure that I'll ever get over all the benefits of living in America!

We had to miss the dental check, though, because Evy and I had to rush to my aunt and uncles for the "July-birthday's tea". Too sweet! My Aunt Jeri worked *so* hard preparing a beautiful table and amazing food. Evy got to go on a nature walk with Uncle Dick, just like the ones he used to take me on when I was little! Have I mentioned that I love living near family?

Mom, Evy, Aunt Lala and myself ran to Target after the tea to get some laundry-eh? for a bridal shower tomorrow night, and I laughed as I pulled out the Target gift card Lala gave me for *my* bday to pay for a nightie for someone else in the fam, and we all just said, "It comes around somehow, doesn't it?"

I love living near family!!!

Always something new!

I am so mad at myself for not recording this newest journey of ministry. Will I ever learn? ;~)

Where oh where to begin!?!

Okay, for years now Vicente has had an itchin' passion to reach Muslims for Jesus. He has visited England twice, and each visit found him time and time again being touched by Muslim people.

Living here in Podunk, Oregon hasn't given him much of a chance to really build relationships with those of the Islamic faith. (Shocker) But he's a persistent fellow...

About a year ago he became buddies with Ibrahim, a worker at the local quick mart. He goes and visits and asks a million questions about Pakistan (Ibrahim's homeland) and Afghanistan (where I's family moved after a dramatic national siege of some sort). Vicente has poured over library books about different regions in the Middle East, and even, amazingly! gotten on line a few times to poke around news sites.

We've prayed with our prayer group for months that God would send workers to the Muslims, and that Vicente would be one of those workers, Lord willing.

Vicente gets up early every morning and does language study of Farsi and...another language (shame on me!), trying to prepare himself for any opportunity that may come his way.
Some sweet, sweet friends in Honduras gave us the number of a missionary with a similar heart as Vicente's in regards to Muslims. The two men began communicating, and after a time Dr. W invited Vicente to go on a missions trip to, of all places, ENGLAND!
We prayed, had our church pray, and prepared as best we could for this to be a Yes from God...and yet the weeks passed with no physical proof that it was His will. (IOW - no cash flow happenin!)
Last weekend, Dr. W called to tell us that he'd be buying his tickets the following Monday, and that he'd really like for them both to travel together. Vicente said he'd have to see what the Lord does in regards to funds...I'd told him that I'd be willing to put the trip on the credit card, but it'd have to be fully his decision, because I didn't exactly love the idea. But I *want* him to go!! He said that he'll try to get extra work and see what happens, and he was able to get a side job for this weekend, but after praying about it decided that any new $ should go towards our current bills, and the England trip would have to be fully from the Lord.
At Tuesday night prayer group Vicente asked for prayer because "we'll have to buy the tickets for England this week", and then he went into a LOOOOONG ol' request that there'd be a home they could stay at once they arrived.

I sat next to him, trying not to glare... ~giggle~

I mean REALLY!!!! Here we are, more broke than we've been in years, trying to figure out how to buy milk for breakfast the next morning (we got it - no worries!), and he spends half a breath's time to talk about the tickets (not even mentioning the $1500+ needed for this trip! Not one word about the fact that finances are the *only* thing stopping us here!), and yet he goes off with all these silly, eloquent words about going to a house and staying in it, etc. It cracked me up!

Well, my God set me firmly in my place (He's so dagblum consistent!) when Vicente came in from a talk with our pastors after prayer group and told me that the church is paying for the ENtire trip, including a bit of extra spending money!!!

Itinerary set, tickets purchased, a weeks paid vacation ready and a-waitin.

Wow! I like this life He's given us. :~D

My husby

God gave me such an amazing man.
My Vicente is SO good to me. I honestly and truly don't even come *close* to deserving all the caring things he does for me.

My cowkids...

Okay, so that doesn't sound like I wanted it to... ;~p


We've had quite a bit of horse fun lately. I *so* hope that I can keep this as a passion for my little guys - maybe that way I can hang out with horses more!

This pic is a bit fuzzy, but I just love that smile!
Lovin' on Dougie the horse

And after a long day of cowgirlin'

It's summer

I could honestly cry from the relief I feel.

I have spent the last 5 months with 3 different kids in 3 different schools with 3 different schedules, and two littles at home.
It was what the Lord had for us, for that season - and thankfully it wasn't a long season.
I knew getting into it that it would push me to my limits, and BOY was I pushed!

*My two bonus babies came to our house by 7:30 each morning (they are a 6yo girl and her 3yo brother)
*All kids had to be loaded and ready to roll because Jeshua had to be at his private school by 8
*Israel's public school started at 8:30
*"A's" afternoon kinder began at 12:25
*Littles rushed to nap because
*Jesh was to be picked up at 2:45
*Israel comes home on bus at 3:30
*We'd go to pick up A from her auntie's at 3:45ish
*Bonus babies picked up around 6
*Dinner (occasionally)
*Bedtime for my sweeties at 7:30

Well, that was besides Wednesdays, when my public schoolers began at 9:30 and 12:45 respectively, leading to a leave-the-house-every-two-hours schedule and a forget-naps-there-ain't-no-time afternoon.
Oh, and Fridays Evy and I volunteered at both boys schools, and then picked up our bonus babies at lunchtime.

Oh. My. Goodness! Writing this out, I see what a psycho American mom I must have looked like!!!

Funny thing is, I am so incredibly NOT like that. I could only do it because I knew it was temporary. I blatantly REFUSE to schedule our lives into a semi-regular panic mode...it just happened.

And it was good - on SO many levels, for SO many reasons.

But man, am I glad it's over!

I'm spending the rest of the night looking over homeschool curriculum for Jeshua and Evy next year.
Ah, sweet bliss!

I'm here....

I promise.
I really really WANT to be consistent with this thing. I love reading consistent bloggers...its a priority when I actually turn ON my computer.
But I suppose I think of this place more as Written, and less as Being Read. (Which is probably a correct assumption!)

My mind is full of the Fatherless (the tears come so quickly), and the Peace we have here in America (Lord, keep me from getting comfy), and of my little girl that wears sweet little full-length flannel nighties because she knows her Papa loves them. (Photos needed, I know...)

Lord God, burn eternity into my eyeballs...

I just want to live this life well.

Pictures

The best shot I have of Jeshua in a school play:
Our dog, Cephas, debating whether or not the fish were worth getting wet for:


A visit from our sweet cousin, Jacob...sweet because he wouldn't stop shoving sugar down the kids throats!

And the girls side of the table w/ a real life sweet cuz, Bethany:

My lovey boy doing homework:

Is there really such a thing as feeling "settled"?

I'm just wonderin, because I'm not too sure that I've ever lived in that particular state-of-being!

Contentment I get - that one is pretty much cake. Happiness is my gig and peacefulness isn't too tough to grasp either. But being settled? I can't seem to find it anywhere, and I'd like to.

I want to let it take up residence on my insides. Maybe I'd be a better person...

Life is so odd sometimes - okay, make that pretty much ALL the time. I'm an "experience it!" kinda gal, so most of my adult years have been a fun mix of making life-changing decisions every year and "Yeay! Let's see what God'll do!" I've been so blessed!

But we're coming up on our 2 year anniversary of living in the States(!!!), and I'm no nearer to having roots than I was for the decade+ that I spent on the mission field.

I live in my hometown, surrounded (quite literally) by friends and family, and yet here I sit: staring at a million-and-a-half loose ends that show absolutely NO signs of tying themselves up anytime soon. Ugh!

I'm tired.

Now, I'm *still* content and happy and peaceful, but I. am. tired.

I'd like to know if a house and land will ever really happen for us.
I'd like to know what my husband should do for a living.
I'd like to know what we should be preparing for in regards to school next year.
I'd like to drive a vehicle that has an "I'll be there for ya" kind of attitude.

I'd like to be settled.


Heaven really will be grand!

Too fun!

How crazy is this?!? From Discovery Toys Spring/Summer 2008 catalogue:Isn't he just scrumptious to behold?

We spent the day at the Oregon Ag Fest. It was an absolutely lovely golden day - perfect for getting all down and dirty with plants and animals! :0}

Have I mentioned lately that we'd really love to have some land? Evy prays everyday for "Mama to get land so that I can have my barn." Anyhoo...

After being throughly entertained by the cloggers (Evy now has a new calling) we were meandering along aimlessly and stopped at the Discovery Toys booth to play with all those bright and fancy toys. I was chatting with the lady that ran the booth, and Vicente had to do a double-take when he saw the catalogs spread out on the table because our sweet Israel is ON THE COVER!!!

How fun is that? :~)

Begging your pardon :-)

I had to edit a boatload of this post, because apparently I was giving out classified info...so sorry if you didn't get to read the un-edited version! :~D

This was the fun GOD update I wanted to give:

My Jeshua boy is now in 1st grade at an inCREDibly fantabulous Christian school. We homeschooled together up until February of this year.

Jeshua and Israel attended 1/2 days at a bi-lingual school when we lived in Honduras, for their Spanish tutoring, so to speak. Unbeknownst to us - obviously, because I'da hurt someone - Jeshy's teacher would chase the kids with sticks and she physically hit my boy a few times.
I hate her.
(Tempted to add spiritual stuff here, to make myself sound better than I am. Sorry. Pray for me if you want to.) ;~)
Now, Jesh is one of those kids that was metaphorically born with his heart on the outside. His tenderness is amazing to behold, and slightly annoying to guide through this life. But we try! He is truly one of the sweetest people I know.

And someone hit him.

Because of all this he has, understandably, had some struggles with classroom settings. No prob! I'd planned to homeschool him for years and years.
But I was noticing that, as his mother, I couldn't help but cotton-ball his life! I'm not *at all* a fan of "toughing kids up" just for the looks of it, or the parent's pride, but this was different - he was getting more and more sensitive, and I couldn't figure out how to stop catering to that. Its completely natural of me to make life fit *his* issues! But I struggled with how to help him to grow and trust and enjoy life, when he was so very dependent on me.

I dunno. It was hard...even explaining it is hard!

So we started praying about putting him in the Christian school for his 2nd grade year. I know a boat-load of people from the school - both from my growing-up years, and from church in recent years. We wanted a safe yet bigger environment for him.
I went into the office to start the preliminary process of raking them through the coals, to see if they were good enough for my baby. :~D I asked to meet with the first grade teacher, to talk curriculum, so that I could be sure he was close to the other students by September IF we decided to go that route.

I walked into her classroom, and at that moment I absolutely KNEW that he was supposed to be there. In that very classroom. FIRST grade. With THAT teacher, and THOSE particular kids. There truly wasn't a doubt in my mind, from the second I stepped foot in that room.
That was a Monday, and by Wednesday morning our scholarship jazz was approved, he was enrolled, and by God's amazing grace, absolutely *everything* fell into place.
It was SO God!!
He started at the end of January, and I have been daily blessed to see my heavenly Father's care for my boy. It's been incredible!

I love life with Him!

Welp, I might not never get to the schooling thing...

I've been tagged by Trish at Sowers4Pastors.

Here are the rules for this game of tag:

1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.


Seven facts about me...uhm...

1. I vacillate between hick and hippie, and I'm laid back enough to be okay with that!

2. I'm a powerful preacher on the importance of drinking plenty of water, yet I rarely drink enough myself.

3. I love pretty much anyone I get to know...or know about. Give me an hour with a person and I can almost guarantee you that I'll love that person and wish we were neighbors.

4. I have a really messed up back, and need to lay down for an hour or more everyday. Thankfully, its much improved - was a time I was down for about 4 hrs a day! Got some good reading in...

5. I'm really late to get packing

6. My skin is insanely dry, and I will most likely look like my grandma (who strongly resembles Yoda) when I'm old. I preach moisturizing too...

7. I'm passionate about seeing and doing and knowing this world and the people in it. I try to be very Present every moment of every day, and I'm so grateful to Jesus for making life worth it.

Ugh! I gotta run. Was there anymore rules??
SEVEN people - you kiddin me?!?! The chain is broken - my apologies! :~)

I'm baaaaack!

I figured out why I've been avoiding my blog!
(Other than the fact that I lead an insanely busy life, and now that the sun occasionally peeks out amongst the clouds, its getting even busier! I've already told Vicente that when the sun is out, he is NOT to expect a clean house or meals cooked!
His response?
"Good, the kids won't remember all that anyways!" Love him! I love him!)

I've had it in the back of my brain that I'd like to update my blog about our schooling situation, and that seems like a huge task to me.
So, in keeping with tradition, I have successfully ignore this huge task for months. ~giggle~
But now I'm ready to come and play, so I suppose its time! (Plus, I really should be packing for a weekend beach retreat with some friends, which is an even HUGER task in my book! Choosing the lesser of two evils, so to speak...I'm a panic packer through and through.)

Oh my! E Jo needs help getting scrubbed up...let's HOPE I make it back here to finish this off! If not, we'll just call it business as usual in Heidi's life! ;~)

Hello again

We had a bad laptop that actually had a lawsuit out against it, then we had no computer, than we got a laptop at FRY'S, and it freaked, and we had no computer. A few days ago we were given a big daddy of a desk top, and we are back in business.
But I lost our camera, so there is no reason for me to post w/o pictures.
I SHALL RETURN!! :~D

Fashion a'la Heidi's kids

My Evy is big on layering...now we've just gotta work on pattern choices!


And the boys? They're just dorks! :~D

So I found a few pics that I love!

We have a cemetery right behind our neighborhood that everyone uses as a kind of park...I suppose it sounds disrespectful, written out like that, but it's not...trust me!
It was a freezing cold day, and I knew we were going to have to have more to keep us busy than just a nice jaunt through the graves. (Though that is a *great* way to pass the time, don't get me wrong...just not when it's a million below zero outside!)


So the kids and I bundled up:


Headed out for our adventure:


Found a foe to be beaten:


Assisted each other in the battle:


Conquered said foe:


And looked cute doing it:


I can't pretend to be even remotely humble about how insanely adorable my babies are. ;~D

I got's me a new computer!!!!!!!!!

Woohoo, yeehaw, and hip hip HOOray!
I'm back on line!!! :~D

I'd love to post a pic of my stylin new laptop...but I can't figure out how to upload only the *new* pictures from the camera. (Turns out I've taken 362 pictures since our 10 year anniversary last September. Unfortunately my purty new HP wants to grab every blessed one of them every time it starts talking to my camera. I've banned their relationship for now...they need counseling.)

I'm dying to spend a good chunk of time just gabbing about what interests me - namely my family, of course - but every cotton-pickin time I get on this thing a pop up tells me how important it is to download something or another...and then it usually gives me grief for trying!

Basically, I haven't a clue what I'm doing, but I sure am wasting a good chunk of time doing it! I've been at this thing all weekend long, and I feel more confused than when I started...

BUT!!! This cute little computer actually stays on when I tell it to, so I have hope for our future together.

I'm glad to be back. :)

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Yesterday was emotionally exhausting. I'm always drained by the evening of the 3rd Monday in January.
Martin Luther King, Jr touches my heart.
The entire fight for Civil Rights is a subject I can barely talk about without getting all jumbled up on my insides. I struggle with the weight of the pain and restraint I feel in the fighters.

I want to stand strong with my fists clenched, ready to brawl.
I want to lay down and cover my head.
I want to intercede for the givers and receivers of hurt.
I want to scream and flail and make a fool of myself.
I want to hug everyone...
I don't want to offend, but I want to say I'm sorry.

So many I's. Maybe there needs to be more JESUS in there...

I don't know what to do, but I will keep seeking my part, and let Him have the rest.
Yesterday I packed out my van with kidlets (6 in all) and went to the only MLKJ event I could find in my area. We watched a video and read books and wrote poems and cried. I am so very impressed with my babies for wanting to learn, for wanting to understand.
God be glorified in our attempts.

On to the hum drum:
So, as a family we have been waiting since before Thanksgiving for a $3 an hour raise promised to us by Vicente's boss. "After the first of the year" he said.
The hope of it got us through a *very* difficult 5 weeks with little work, Christmas, and our baby boy's 9th birthday. Through it all we've repeated the mantra, "It's worth sticking it out with this company. It's worth sticking it out..."
Well, on Friday we learned that V's boss has changed his mind. No pay raise.
I won't say much about it because I might self-implode...we have made a few big decisions based on that promise, and it hurts to be lied to...

BUT! On to the fun of it:
We're looking for a new job for my Vicente!
We've considered the Oregon Youth Authority since before leaving Honduras, and it seems that may be where we're being led. It would be just perfect in so many ways. God's will be done!

Quick side note: My little battery icon on the laptop is telling me that it has 100% power!! I haven't a clue as to why it has decided to cooperate, but I ain't complaining! (I believe it has something to do with God knowing how much I can handle...but I won't make any claims.)

Zoo pics!

This was our New Years Eve adventure!
Have you ever been SO cold that you have to keep moving in order to even stay sane? Well, that's how that night was. It was about 7 hours of hopping around and blowing in our hands, but hopefully the kiddos have a couple of cool memories tucked away for a rainy day. :~)
It amazes me how many of the animals were out and about - I don't think I've ever even *seen* the tigers move, LOL! And the cougars and the chimps were down right antsy!
It was a great day all around - though we paid for it all the rest of the week. Both Vicente and I just couldn't get our energy back...
Oh my, is this what getting old is like?!? :~D

Here's our boys with J, a boy I watched all last year:
J and Jeshua. SUCH cuties!
Hoping that the elephant ears would warm us. (Please excuse Evy's corpse-like appearance...)
My E Jo, sweet as ever:
Israel being a dork.
A dinosaur:
An otter:
Da boyz: