Update

Well, I am still mad at the US gov't for making my life so difficult. The policies are still making it very difficult for them to "hire" outside of the country. And KD would be a NEW hire even though he has worked for them for 7 years, because of the temporary cessation of services. What timing!! So really we don't know where things stand at the moment. He's getting a bit more avid in his searches elsewhere now that what we thought was about 95% sure around the start of Sept. is now looking rather dim. We're praying, but not as avidly as we should. We feel frustrated and not very directed by God, and would like some more clear vision, so you can pray to that end. Through it, we want to remain faithful, on the object of our faith. So we really seek new joy in our faith journey, eyes to look at the bigger picture, and contentment in the moments. And we're hoping for positive response from one particular resume in town here!

So, some good moments.... 3 volleyball matches and 4 edge of your seat action soccer games this weekend. It's fun to see the kids excel at some things they are good at. We've have been so BLESSED this year by fabulous coaches who really LOVE the kids. Erin's coach, friends of ours from church, are having a big wind up party there tonight for the girls :) Erin got invited to a birthday party on the weekend, she was thrilled, it's been awhile since she'd been invited out somewhere so fun. Middle school girls and the drama are really getting to us, so we slog through and hope we, but mostly her, come out the other side with self esteem intact. And I think of all the girls and friends I know that I hurt during those years and never had a clue at the time! I'm so sorry friends. And all the hurts that happened that were so big then, that were a result of other people. Hormones magnify the emotions! I am all about inclusion!!! This exclusion business is good for no one!

Good moments...
"Mommy, I love you".
"Hey, guess what, I'll be driving in a year and a half, if we move to AB, I can start now"
**Leftover cheesecake from my Mom's visit that I forgot about in the freezer
** a really great group of girls meeting Monday mornings for Beth Moore, with lots of toddler and baby noises in the background (gee I'm glad I'm past that stage, and can be assumed to be the older wiser one- haha- what do they know?) "No Mommy, this (toy power saw) isn't noisy"
** soccer season is over... sigh :)

Walnuts

Our neighbor told us to come on over and get some walnuts and I am never one to turn down free produce, so we came home with about 7 ice cream pails full! Yippee! After drying them for a few weeks, Kevin took to the task of cracking/husking opening them up. They will make some yummy, nutty Christmas baking, or so good on cereal, toasted or whatever!

He doesn't normally stare blankly off into space :)

I'll Stop Bragging Now

Remember these... here they are today...


And other wilted messes from last nights' early freeze... Should have picked those tomatoes.. oh well I have so many I don't know what to do with already. But this basil... I knew that should have been picked last week...

Fall Colours Tour

Back when we lived in Washington, we had this group of young married couples we did some stuff with. One of the guys liked to plan what he called the "fall colors tour", a scenic drive through some of Washington's back roads to enjoy the fall leaves with lots of stops in small towns for lunch and coffees and swapping passengers. Well 8-9 hours later....

Yesterday we embarked on our own "Okanagan fall colors tour", knowing the passengers weren't up to 8 hours (we could visit Gramma in that time), we headed out. The colors certainly aren't as spectacular as the areas around the Cascade Mountains... but the water vistas were incredible!

Kalamalka Lake with it's amazing turqoise hue, not really captured here out the car window


Here is where we nearly headed home for dry clothes as I was backing up, backing up trying to get a photo and literally stopped at the edge of the dock. If my steps had been off a bit I would have been IN!! With my camera :) Definitely a notable photo!

View of Kal Lake
Gotta have some road kill

Hello honey
Move over Charles Ingalls...



By the Shuswap River- yes actually I am attacking him... sometimes I can't help myself...

And we thought boys were the silly ones!

This Week in the Garden

Oh I do love the colors of fall.... today is the day... I always know winter is on the way when KD blows out the sprinklers. I know you're picturing him down on the ground with his lips up against the underground sprinkler lines, but we're high tech now, he got an air compressor for Father's Day last year. So now it's just the flip of a switch. Men like their power tools. I don' t know what it is, but every Friday when the Canadian Tire flyer comes in the paper, all the men are glued to the tool section. I know this for a fact, because I have seen it time and again in other homes than just my own! I guess it's sort of like women and their Tupperware parties, imagining all the storage possibilities and kitchen organization they will achieve.

My asters are so purple, they are almost hard to look at. But yesterday, I saw my sister-in-law's and they are much fuller and more bushy than mine. I don't know what I'm not doing right.

lThe burning bush really is this red, it's SOOC, I didn't tamper with it!

I seem to be followed every where I go. It's like I'm the queen or something!! Give me some space black dog! The kids call me the "mothership". When HE sees me, they always say, "the mothership has landed", and I become his world. Funny I'm not his world when a flock of quail are across the street and I'm calling him to come.

I heard Calgary got snow....

Last weekend in the lake... do take note though, he is the only one in there, but still... I do like to brag at this time of year to family about how warm it is here. Pretty much AB has had similar weather to us for quite sometime, and I hate the thought of snow. It is so true, my friend said the reason so many of us hate fall, is that it gets so mixed up with winter.

I'm mad at the US government

In case you missed my facebook status from yesterday, I thought I'd elaborate on the latest. Things were looking good on the unemployment scene for Kevin. We had decided he'd take the summer off, and really he did. He got working on a few websites, one for his company and the other to display his photography... for sale. He's had more and more people tell him lately that his work is amazing! It's sort of more of an experiment at the moment. He hasn't applied for a single job, and by September, rumors were starting that they would need him back, which is sort of what we had hoped for and were trying to just wait it out. Now as of yesterday, the company in Portland has had a military audit in the summer and is not allowing any foreigners who work for the company to have access to anything that might be at all related to some of the military contracts that the company has done or is doing. Because it is a US based company, this will make it difficult for them to in essence hire him back as a "new" contractor. Had he still been working there, it may not have mattered, but the timing seems very strange. So we hope that something can work around these new regulations, because apparently they are so busy now and have gotten behind since all the layoffs that they have more work than they can do.

We watched an interesting documentary last night on the Lost Boys of Sudan, "God Grew Tired of Us", and it certainly gives us so much perspective on suffering. We don't suffer one bit. Imagine 5, 6, 7 year old boys walking across 2 African countries, running from violence, and maybe never seeing family again, or knowing they have all been killed. They, 12000 of them, ended up living in refuge camps in Kenya for 10 years, with no hope of work, or future. Not knowing ever what their lives would become. We have friends from church here that are moving to Uganda with their 4 children, to help build a school/camp for just such kids, child soldiers, lost children, ones with no help and no family. My heart aches for them. For the cause of children with no love, no homes. And what can we do from so far, caught up in our own lives and busy struggles here. I read recently that if you make more than $25000 a year, you are richer than 90% of the world. We are the rich, we are the wealthy, we are the ones who complain the most about not having things. One of the men on this documentary was taken as a refuge into USA and he just could not figure out our Christmas. What is with the trees? and the lights? and Santa? Yes, they were beautiful, but what was the meaning of them? Back at home, on Christmas Eve, he says, we just dance and sing and celebrate the birth of Jesus. We are so happy for that day, the day we welcome HIM to earth and into our hearts. And he continued to work 3 jobs to send money to his long lost mother of 17 years that was living in Uganda.