So many firsts!

We are constantly celebrating firsts these days, from baby signs and cute expressions to discipline.  Mostly fun things, though.  It was great to celebrate Jackson's first birthday even though he didn't really get it.

So many presents for such a little guy!  He really liked ripping the bows off.

That little orange dinosaur is about the cutest thing ever and handmade by Jackson's special friend Marlyse.

Since we don't give Jackson any refined sugar (except for trace amounts) I made him a healthy rendition of some sweet potato pie.  At first he wasn't sure what to think of it, even though he loves sweet potatoes (who doesn't?!), but then he got into it.

Not too much of a mess to clean up either, which was nice  :)

Jackson may have liked it, but Nana needed to add some sugar to hers...haha

Here's another one of our little man surveying the bounty on Christmas morning.

Life sure has changed a lot this past year, but Tim and I love being parents and can't imagine parenting a sweeter little person.  We look forward to growing our family, but aren't sure we'll get "so lucky" the next time around.  haha  One thing is sure, Jackson has brought a lot of joy this past year, especially on the hard days!  We praise God for him.

So who reads this anyway?

Tim and I ask this question all the time, who reads our blog anyway?  Sometimes blogging feels sharing your life with everyone and sometimes it feels like I blog and Tim reads it and that's it.   So if you read our ramblings, often or irregularly, drop us a comment to say hello. 

This Christmas season was strange for our little family.  We were blessed to meditate on the birth of our beloved Savior, we got spoiled with lovely gifts and we enjoyed time with both sides of the family, but it was also a bittersweet reminder of where we are at.  We have never doubted our decision to stay and not go to Senegal, but we haven't yet reached the point of being happy to be in MN.  We are still sad.  And if you catch us in a moment of vulnerable honestly, we don't FEEL like we have that much of a life here anymore. 

Even though we figured it was a pipe dream, we were hoping to be out of Mom and Dad's by Christmas.  We love my parents, but living with them is certainly not without it's challenges.  I especially crave a place that I can make into a home for my family.  Most days, we feel rather homeless, unsettled and directionless.  However, God is SO good and we are able to whole-heartedly praise Him daily for His presence and faithfulness in our lives. 

I think we could use a break.  Sometimes a change in scenery does a world of good.  In August, the three of us went camping for a couple days and it was really refreshing.  Some of you have been consistently offering your homes, it just hasn't worked out yet, but THANK YOU!  We have appreciated your offers SO much.  (I thank you assuming you read our blog......)  Since Tim wasn't asked to stay on at Costco, we have lots of time on our hands again.  So if anyone is going to be out of town for the weekend and we could "do you a favor" by watching your house or something, let us know.  We are really good at watering plants :)  haha  Or maybe you know someone with a year round cabin that might be available for our use, let us know.  Thanks friends.

Happy 1st Birthday Jackson Oliver!!!!

Our little boy is ONE year old today!!!  Hooray for Jackson!  I can't believe this year has gone by so quickly, what a blessing he has been to our family.

Here's another family pic from Christmas and a few from a party we went to.  This is my first gingerbread house ever!  I had never decorated one before, it was really fun....I feel a tradition coming on....

A few more cuties of baby Jack from the weekend :)

In other news, I told Tim this morning that since we are now buying whole milk for Jackson, I will no longer be buying half and half for the coffee.  I don't think he was excited.  

It was a Merry Christmas

We had a good Christmas but we were sad to miss out on seeing my (Tim) sisters.  The snow and ice kept us from making the trip to Dresser, WI.  It was nice to just hang out with Heidi's family but I missed seeing my own.  I guess that is a part of living in Minneasota.

The other pictures are just to let everyone know how cute our little boy is.

Jackson discovers sugar

We have not allowed Jackson to have refined sugar yet but he apparently has a taste for it. The following pictures are from when he found a plate within his reach that had some apple crisp left on it.

 

 

 

Back to work, for now.

I have finished two weeks of work at Costco. I am a seasonal, part time worker and Heidi and I are happy to have the income. The first few days I spent unloading carts for the cashiers to ring up the items and then I would reload the carts after the customer paid. It is tiring work but I started to get into the groove after a day or so. I also spent time putting away merchandise that the customers either did not want when they got to the cashier or simply left on the nearest shelf. If it was a perishable item, I would return it immediately and try to get back to keep loading as quickly as possible. Since Costco is a warehouse store, not everything is always in the same spot every day. That makes putting items that I find back where they belong much more interesting. Often I try to put something back in the place I saw it the day before only to find that it is in another part of the store altogether. I am starting to get the hang of it, so that's good. Lately, though, I have joined the Marketing Team. That is a fancy way of saying that I hover around the cash registers and try to get people to upgrade their membership. It is going well and my manager already told me that he was pleased with my work. I am not a natural salesman but at least I know that most people who upgrade end up saving money so that makes it easier. It's better than collecting carts from the parking lot, which I did one day last week. In this difficult economic time, I am grateful for work.

A week ago I had a promising interview with Kids Against Hunger. A secular nonprofit based in New Hope, a suburb of Minneapolis. That job would be an excellent fit for me and I am praying hard that they will bring me back for a second interview. I expect to hear something later this week.

Jackson got his first ear infection a few days ago. He has responded well to the antibiotics but is still not back to his normal self yet. Normally such a good sleeper, he has not been sleeping well the last few nights and therefore, Heidi and I have not been either. Hopefully this passes soon and we can get back to normal. Otherwise, he is doing well. He has mastered crawling and can move at incredible speeds. His favorite thing is to crawl to the nearest bathroom and try to stick his hands into the toilet. Good times.

Some photo updates

We made the treck to WI to see Tim's sister a few weeks back, it has been awhile and it was great to see them.

Jackson is such a great kid. And I think as far as babies go, he's pretty easy too. For now anyway.... :P Here he is checking out the swings at the park.

Finally a picture of our little chicken on Halloween

Yip-Yip!!

Today is a good day. Tim started a seasonal job at Cosco this afternoon and right before he left, he got a call for an interview for Monday for a job he's really interested in. AND we just found out that we have a signed, 18-month lease for the upstairs of our duplex. Wow. Exclamation points can't even scratch the surface of how thrilled we are. This is like the best day of my life!

Even with a full duplex, the rent we are bringing in is still quite shy of our mortgage, but we rejoice that it's full nonetheless. The coolest thing about all this is that about a month ago God told me that when things started to happen for, the provision was going to get a jump-started. Praise the LORD for His faithfulness.

We sure have a lot to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Our life is not so exciting right now

Our life is not all that exciting right now. Heidi and I pretty much spend our days at home and try to see friends on the weekends. My job search has been pretty quiet until today when Costco gave me a second interview. It is a part time, seasonal stop gap job but we could use some income. Once the drug test and background check comes through, the job offer will come. I will still keep looking for full time work but it will be nice to have something to do. Heidi is also looking for some part time work. Our desire is for her to be able to stay home but she may have to work for a little while until we can get settled again. The duplex still has an empty unit and that is causing our bank account to drain at an alarming rate and cause us to seek extra income. Hopefully we will have tenants soon and that stress will be over. We'll keep our readers posted.

My Denver Broncos have taken a promising 6-0 start and flushed it down the toilet with three straight losses. This Sunday's game against San Diego could determine the season. I am not hopeful.

Jackson is a full fledged crawler now. He can travel the length of a room incredibly fast. The other day I left the laptop on an ottoman and went into the kitchen for a moment. Jackson raced across the room, pulled himself up to his feet, and started banging his hands on the keyboard as hard as possible. After I rescued the computer, I noticed that he has decided that he has a new favorite activity. Every time the computer is open, he goes for it. Why does he pick the most expensive thing we own besides our cars to play with? Despite that one thing, he is a sweet baby and we sure love him.

Halloween

Today is Jackson's first Halloween. We are not fans of Halloween but we are big fans of costumes and free candy. We'll post Jackson's costume picture when we get a chance. He's pretty cute. We intend to take him Trick or Treating but only because we would like to meet the neighbors on our block. It's too good an opportunity to meet people to pass up. Since we do not know how long we will be living with Heidi's parents we thought we should meet some neighbors. Later on we will head to Chipotle for free burritos. Mmmm. Chipotle. Mmmm.

This week I interviewed for a job that would have been an excellent fit for me but I was not selected for the second round of interviews. After feeling sad for a few days I am again feeling hopeful for the future. Job searching is not fun at all but I must continue. Thanks to everyone who prayed for me when I had the interview. I am confident that something will come along. God did not leave us stranded. He'll take care of us.

Jackson can sort of crawl now and is good at finding the remote control. He is 100% boy. I sure do love him and Heidi.

Here is a bonus picture of Jackson. He loves the Denver Broncos.

Job interview!

Tim has a job interview on Monday for a job he's actually interested in! If you could pray for him, that would be great!

October Fun

Last night Tim and I got to go on a date!!!! A date! We don't get those very often and it was much needed. We had a great time and it reminded me of the "olden times" when we got to go on fun dates all the time. I fear we took those days for granted.....We went to dinner at Chili's and got 3 courses for $20, pretty good deal. It was WAY too much food though. We wanted something ethnic, of course, but we live in the suburbs now, so Chili's was fine. haha We had fun just talking and catching up, running around, being silly, it was really fun. Love you, babe, glad I married you!


Last Sunday, we went to the MN Landscape Arboretum with some of my friends from college, it was a beautiful day for it.

Jackson has been getting a lot of use out of all the clothes that my mom kept that my little brother wore when he was a baby in the early 80s. Here's a sweet little track suit that I just love. He also gets a lot of wear out of the clothes that my grandma made for Dan, can't believe she sewed all that stuff....Thanks for keeping this stuff Mom!

A family photo at the Arboretum.

Dharma and Amanda :)

Keeping the faith

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I had a job interview with Volunteers of America. I found out yesterday that I did not get it. That is the second time in my life that I have interviewed for a job and not been offered the job. I guess I am fortunate that it has not happened more. So, I am keeping my head up and am applying for new jobs every day. My faith that God will provide is still strong and He often provides in ways that cause our faith to build in the process. At the same time that I am not getting paid, our duplex has an empty unit. We are living with Heidi’s parents and our expenses are low, so we will be okay for a while. Despite the fact that we have no money coming in and lots going out, neither Heidi nor I are stressed about it. As trite as it sounds, all I can do is trust God and work hard at finding a job. Why worry about anything else? This does not come easy to me. I have to return to Matthew 6 and the words of Jesus to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness. That’s what matters. Even if we had no earthly possessions, we have God and that is enough. We will be okay. That said, we covet the prayers of our friends and family for a job and renters for the duplex. Thanks.

On a far less important note, I sure am enjoying the Denver Broncos season so far. You can’t get better than perfect, with five wins and no losses so far. Monday night’s game with the Chargers is big. The Broncos win this one and the division is pretty much a lock. Go Broncos!

I sure do love Heidi and my sweet little guy. Jackson just gets cuter and cuter every day.

Obedience is better than sacrifice

Last year I was a part of the mom's group at our church, which was great, but this year they switched it from Friday morning to Thursday night, making it a lot harder for me to get to. I was feeling really sad for myself and was praying for another outlet to connect with God and other moms that was during the day. Lo and behold, my God provided and I was invited to join a mom's group that was birthed out of a group of friends that Tim went to college with. It started out as a guy's Bible study about 10 years ago, then it was a co-ed Bible study based out of Woodland Hills and a few years ago came to include a weekly mom's group. It has also provided Tim with a part time job! While we meet upstairs, Tim gets paid to watch the kiddos downstairs :) Super cute. He gets Dad of the Year for sure!! Only 1 or 2 of the little girls are scared of "Mr. Tim."

We have only met 3 times, but I love it. It's a really neat group of 9 women who truly love the Lord and are passionate about Him, which leads them to being passionate about healthy marriages and healthy families.

We are reading through a book together and this week's chapter brought us to 1 Samuel 15, which REALLY blessed me. Through the voice of Samuel, God told King Saul to destroy the Amalekites and everything that belongs to them. Everything. Seems pretty clear, right? Well, apparently, not to Saul....he spared King Agag and the best livestock. The Lord was grieved over Saul's inability (or unwillingness) to follow His instructions and here's where it gets funny. So Saul says to Samuel (probably with a big grin) ' "I have carried out the Lord's instructions!" baaa, baaa....' Hm, is that a sheep I hear???? A sheep that you were supposed to destroy...interesting. Even though Saul intended to use this choice livestock as a sacrifice to God, God was NOT pleased and told him that obedience is better than sacrifice and rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft. Strong words.

I get encouraged from this as I see such a prime example of how seriously God takes our obedience. By staying back from going to Senegal, Tim and I have been obedient to God and we believe that He will bless that. It was a salve to my hurting heart to see confirmation of that in Scripture. We could have acted under a similar motivation as King Saul, acting out of sacrifice to God. We knew there would be sacrifice involved in serving overseas and we were ready for that. But there was something else God desired more from us than that sacrifice, and that was obedience.

Although the dust has settled and most people are used to the news of us not going anymore, Tim and I continue to press through the thick fog of what that means for our family now, practically speaking. There is still much healing to be done and we so thankful for a God who speaks to us often by His Spirit and through His Word.

Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as
much as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
1 Samuel 15:22

Job search update and a couple pictures

Since my last post I have a coupe updates on my job search. A week ago today I interviewed to be a substitute teacher at a small Christian school about 15 minutes from Rogers. The woman liked me and now I am waiting for the paper work to be completed. If I can get a day or two a week, that would help offset some of our costs in the short term. On Thursday I had an interview for a full time job with Volunteers of America at their affordable housing complex in downtown Mpls. I am supposed to find out at the end of this week if they have chosen me. It's not my first choice but I think I would like it.

Jackson got to enjoy his first few Broncos games in his Brandon Marshall jersey. (Thanks Kyle and Mandy!) He is a lucky football fan. His team has not lost yet. Against all expectations, the Broncos are 4-0. Go Broncos!

sweet victory

Trader Joe's had a cereal for a while that was lovely. It was called Trader Joe's chocolatey filled, whole grain cereal squares and it was wonderful.....until they discontinued it. Sad day. Well, today I went treasure hunting at Goodwill with my sister in law, Ellen, and we found many treasuer for $1.50 - good day. Then we stopped at Aldi. I was overjoyed to discover that Aldi now carries an even cheaper version of this fabulous cereal!!! Happy day! And it is delicious! Yay for Aldi! You have won my heart yet again.

Job search

I (Tim) am in the midst of searching for a job. It's not an enjoyable process and it is certainly a slow one. Most days I spend a couple hours searching job sites and applying for the jobs that look interesting. I am amazed by how everything happens through the internet now and how you do not interact with human beings until the interview stage (which is usually preceded by a phone interview) of the hiring process. There are several kinds of jobs that I would enjoy. Any kind of parachurch ministry would be great. Heidi and I love our church and are not interested in a church job since it would take us away from there. I am also looking at social service jobs and HR, mostly in staff recruiting. There have been some great leads but no interviews yet. The rejection letters and emails get a little discouraging but I am in a good place of trust.

In the last couple months I read the first five books of the Bible in my personal devotion time. In this time of transition I feel like the Israelites after they escaped from Egypt. Their job was to trust God and worship Him. He pretty much took care of the rest. He gave them food, directions, and gave them a tangible means to know He did not leave them. All they had to do was look and see the pillar of fire or smoke and know that God was watching out for them. Yet still, they rejected Him. I feel like my task now is to keep looking for a job and to trust God to take care of us. So far I have not made any golden calves or prostituted myself to Baal, so that's good. Heidi and I do appreciate your prayers in this. I'll keep the Blog updated when there is any movement in the job front.

Duplex

Please pray that Tim and I would have wisdom to know what do with our duplex. We really need renters for the upstairs and we're praying about whether to open it up to Section 8 again. We have had some bad experiences with Section 8 over the years, and were hoping not to have to "partner" with the state of MN again.

There hasn't been much interest in that unit this past month so we have dropped the price a couple times already. We are considering moving back into the duplex (again), but until we have some income coming in, we'd prefer not to. Please pray that we would hear the voice of God, that the perfect renters come along and that our management company would be blessed with the wisdom of God as well.

Thanks!

double coupon day?!?!?!

I thought that double coupon days were a thing of the past, like Tab and Deloreans, but I was wrong. I am ALWAYS looking for a new edge at savng money and much to my joy, double coupon days are alive and well at Rainbow Foods around the metro area! Hip, hip, hooray for hump day! I saved a bunch of money and then hit up the Rogers farmer's market for some sweet deals on fresh veggies, yum-o. Couple that with Goodwill and Aldi and I am a money-saving machine. It really gives me a thrill, in case you can't tell... :P

On another note, I have been exerting a half-hearted effort at losing the rest of my baby weight. Some days I try...and others I don't. It's not a method I recommend! It's working, but VERY slowly. Anyway, today I was really trying and was doing a great job....until....Tim. We were at the farmer's market, I was looking at some tasty squash, and I turned to Tim, only he wasn't there anymore. So start to look around for him only to discover he has somehow made it aaaaalllllll the way down to the other side of the lot near the, go figure, ice cream truck. Hmph. This does not bode well for my diet, I think to myself. As I walk down there, I see the ice cream man handing Tim spoon after spoon of samples. This story ends with us sharing a small cup of delicious maple lusciousness, so I will spare you the details. I did, however, eat lots and lots of veggies today :)

A Jackson Update

For all of Jackson's fans, here a few cute ones!

At Panera

In the sweet chair my mama scored for me at the thrift store.

With my first girlfriend, Miss Ivy. She's reeeeaaaal cute.

My early morning survey of the estate with my nana.

Rice cereal for the first time!! (this one is a few months old already)