Family Winter fun...

December was filled with plenty of hot chocolate, snuggling and playing in the snow. Here are some pics. See all December pics here




Ice Skating downtown.

snuggles

hot cocoa

and just plain fun

Christmas Party...

To bring the community together I thought we should have an informal get together for the neighbors and skate around the tree with some hot chocolate and caroling...Well, while we are at it, why not invite some friends...and people from church...and...

We all had a blast! More than 50 people came to make cookies, skate around the tree, have hot chocolate, s'mores at the firepit, BBQ, soup, very chilly caroling and equally intense rounds of catchphrase. You can see all the pics here.

The tree...

This year a coworker gave me the idea of having a "Community Christmas Tree" in the center of our court so I got a permit and went to Mt Rose for my tree after work. I figured I would have enough time before it got dark but brought a flashlight anyway.

Among the snow, about 1/4 mi off the road, I found the tree, a perfect 18' tree. It was getting dark so I turned the headlights on so I could see as I sawed the tree. I finally fell the tree and dragged to to the side of the Jeep. being alone, I had to figure out how to get this enormous and heavy tree on the top. It weighed too much to lift so I rigged up a ratcheting system, that would take too long to explain, and slowly inched it up front, back, front, back... to the top.

It was pitch black by now and I realized that I had left the lights on the WHOLE time. I got in and, as I expected, the battery was dead. My cell phone was also dead so I hiked to the highway with my flashlight and flagged people for an hour before finding someone willing to drive down a dirt road into the forest in the middle of the night with me to "jump" my car.

Mel was the name of my angel who helped me. I did get it home and built bracing to keep it up (the winds howled in December but it never fell). Getting the lights and ornaments on it proved scary for a person afraid of heights. I had my 12 year old neighbor hold the ladder as I twisty tied the huge lighted star on the top of that 18' tree.




In the end it was a masterpiece of pure genius even if it took several "stupid" moves to get there.

LEAVES!

One thing I always lived as a kid was playing in autumn leaves (something we had an abundance of this year being back from Guatemala). At first my plan was to just rake up enough to throw around...then it became, rake up enough to dive into...THEN, rake up enough to jump into from the railing of the DECK!!

We had some neighbors over and enjoyed the leaves until everyone was covered with little bits driven into our hair. We played until it rained on the day before Thanksgiving, which was good because it was the last opportunity before the rain and snow came in to stay!

see all the pics here

New house and New job...maybe

Its hard to manage several blogs. I never even did mention that I was laid off my job April 18th. The small firm I was with had work but couldn't collect on the accounts. On top of this, work coming in was slowing so the owner laid off his 2 employees. I was given 2 months severence so things haven't been too hard even though finding a job in this market has been much harder than I have ever experienced. I have always been able to get a job immediately. This time I have contacted and sent resumes to EVERY civil firm here in the greater Reno area with little promising response. I even spent 2 weeks doing janitorial work at the church (mostly to show the kids that if you can't find the job you want you do a job you don't want in the meantime.)

This last week or so has been used fixing up and moving into our new house. We bought a "foreclosed" house that was THRASHED! We are now mostly in (all the stuff is out of the old house and in the garage at least). Our lease for the other house still goes through June so we are hopeing that someone will rent it for June so we won't have to pay the $1550 for June.

Back to the job... just yesterday I received a signed contract to do some drafting work for the local water agency. Everyone was under the assumption that it would be about a months worth of work. Unfortunately it looks like it is more like a week of work. The good side of it is that it is a foot in the door and getting a perceived months worth of work done in a week and significantly under budget could bring me more work from them. That remains in the hands of the Lord.

The kids like the new house. It is the first house that has been OURS since 2004. The boys have a space room and the girls a pink/purple garden room. They haven't had a themed room since 2004 either. The significance is that the kids can paint the walls and there are no calls of, "Don't do that, this isn't our house." Eli, so eliquently said, "we could put holes in the walls and bust it all up if we wanted to because its our house". I let him know that the house WAS busted up and we have now FIXED it so we have no intention of busting it up again simply because we can.

So I may have a job or I may not, I will just have to do my best and see where it leads. Regardless of our circumstances God continues to provide just as he always has.

What's new...

It is high time for an update!!!

We are renting a house in Reno and have lived there since mid January. I have a job at a small engineering firm. It is a great opportunity for us. The only concern now is that the firm can keep a steady flow of work coming in during this tough market. Just this past week the weather warmed up and we have met a few neighbors with kids. One of the neighbors is a Hispanic family even! We are in negotiations to buy a house in the neighborhood (which is why we are renting this one in particular). Heather has started taking prerequisite classes for her masters program. THings are moving forward again.

We were able to close the church at the end of 2007 and some of the people continue to meet with us as we gather to minister to the poor and discarded in the community. We are not a church but just a group of people from different churches that all want to work together in ministering to the poor.

Eli turned 8 in January. He was sick on his birthday and then several of the kids were sick the next weekend where we had planned his party so it was canceled until the following weekend. Almost everyone had RSVP'd that they would not be able to come but still there was a decent turnout and we all had fun. He had a Star Wars birthday with lightsabers. Heather being a Jedi and holding training camp until I showed up as Darth Vader and they all whacked me with their lightsabers. (even cheezy plastic lightsabers can leave a hearty welt!).

We are adjusting to living in the states. Things are progressing and moving forward. We still miss Guatemala and look forward to the day where the Lord will call us back to the world's poor. But for now, for this season, we will minister to the hurting around us and, through the love of Christ, provide what most people, regardless of wealth, are poor with...hope.