been awhile . . .

Between losing my camera cable and just being plain busy settling into life in AK I temporarily dropped off the blogging scene. There is so much to catch up on I have decided to just pick up where we are now or I may just keep putting blogging off.

For all Ben's family and friends out of state our apologies for not keeping you as up to date with life back in AK. We are LOVING being back home! Ben is finally settling in to a more "regular" ministry routine with all the summer youth trips and VBS wrapped up. Between preaching twice a week, planning fall and winter youth events and spending outside time with youth he is keeping plenty busy. I started work a couple weeks ago working full time again as a speech path for my old district here in the Valley. I'm at Snowshoe Elementary this year and have a great staff and much smaller caseload to work with compared to CA.

One really neat blessing we have experienced since being back is a new vehicle. Before leaving CA we checked discount dealerships in WA and ID to possibly buy something cheap in the states and drive it up to AK when we moved. Long story short we decided not to go that route in hopes we'd find a good deal in AK. Specifically we (I maybe more so) really liked the Toyota Sequoia. We were looking for a mid size SUV that is 4WD. There was a decent deal on one in ID but we passed it up. Long story short a few weeks ago we found a Sequoia on Craigs List and the seller was from BIG LAKE! Not only did we get a better deal than the one we saw in ID but the family we bought it from lived approximately 10 minutes down the road from us! An even cooler part was the vehicle came with nearly new snow tires!! We would not have had that extra bonus if we bought it in the states.

God has really blessed us with vehicles just in the year + we've been married. We got a free replacement from a seminary student in LA last year, one that we were able to pass on for free to someone else when we left. And now we have a 4WD SUV that is exactly what we wanted and prayed for! God doesn't have to give us anything but sometimes He choses to bless us not only with what we need (4WD vehicle) but also what we want (Toyota Sequoia). Thank you Lord for your provision!