Another one from Abby

This week Abby said, "Mommy, I want Granny and Papa and Grammy and Pops to be my parents."

I said, "Well who would tuck you in every night?"

"They can do that," she said.

"Well, wouldn't you miss me kissing you all day long?" I asked.

She thought for a moment and said. "Weeeellllll.....I guess I'll let you stay then."

Phew...I thought I would have to leave the household behind.

Hi Nikki :-)

Look Nikki...I'm doing a special post just for you...so you better leave a comment (mm hmm)! I keep meaning to tell you about this website called the Preschool Express www.preschoolexpress.com that Natalie will just love! Print off the activity calendar for the month, and then look at all the fun things they have for preschool age kids. They have the holiday station, the alphabet station, the music station, and a lot more. I've been using this website for a few years now, and the kids love it. All the activities and projects you can do with stuff found around your house. You can tell Natalie to thank her Aunt Jana when she's having so much fun!
Love ya!
(I know...this post sounds like a commercial...but they didn't pay me to rave about it.)

Oh, Christmas Tree!

This Week in Pictures

Our backyard last week...Elijah is aiming his stick gun at you!

The view from my kitchen window...I love it!

The view from our front door.

Today in our backyard!

Hi From Spokane

Well we Alexander's are settling in to Spokane. We've been here a little over two weeks now. We are enjoying being in a house...and having cable for the first time! The kids seem happy, but a couple of times there have been tears over missed friends. So I've introduced them to the joys of letter writing. Boy did that take off; they about emptied my card stash...not to mention my stamps. Today was our first "real" day...we added homeschooling back into the mix. It was a bit rocky. But I've learned that when something isn't going well, don't get all jumbled up in it...just change something. So I have some ideas as to what to "change", and we'll see if we have a smoother ride tomorrow.
We've already had a few adventures here...we've acquinted ourselves with the local E.R. (Ben), and almost had two Christmas trees become flying missiles from the top of our van while traveling 65 mph on the highway. But thankfully Ben is all healed up and and our Christmas tree is sitting pretty in our living room (the other one was for a friend).
It's nice to be back in the city, though we definately miss some aspects of Moscow, including it's small borders. It's a hard habit to break allowing no more than 5 minutes to get anywhere. We've been rolling into functions and get-togethers by the hair of our chinny-chin-chin timewise. But city perks are nice...Super Walmart for example ;-) Okay, well maybe not Super Walmart, but more restaurant, shopping, and entertainment options are. Last weekend the Farley's gave us a tour of Downtown Spokane. The kids rode on the Carousel and fed the Trash-Eating Goat. If you want to know what the Trash-Eating Goat is like, well you're just going to have come visit us, and we'll take you Downtown to see it...and feed it...for yourself! It's quite a hoot, and we do have a guest bed now!

Some Things Don't Change...

With all the hustle-and-bustle of packing and moving, and saying good-byes, and looking ahead to a new home in a new state with a new church and new people and a new career for my husband, it's so easy to start fearing all the unknowns, and regretting all the friendships I'm moving away from. But one thing that struck me this week while I was up to my eyeballs in packing paper, was that some things don't change. In particular, I was looking ahead to our weekly Sabbath Feast that we have every Saturday night, on the eve of every Sunday Sabbath. I found comfort in the fact that we would have our Sabbath feast here on Saturday, and even when we move, we'll still have our Sabbath Feast! What a blessing from God traditions and holidays (holy-days) are! It's one of those anchors for the soul that God has graciously given to us. We know that every Sunday we have a rest from our labor, every December we'll celebrate the Light in the darkness, and every Spring we'll celebrate our hope in the Risen Lord! And what a blessing, every week, we have a reminder of our Risen Lord in a weekly Ressurection Sunday Sabbath! What a reason to feast, both around our tables in our homes, and at the Lord's table in communion with Him and His saints...every week! Thank you Lord for the truths that I can rely on...that don't change when all else does. And these are just a glimpse of Heaven!

Reformation Day Carnival

Reformation Day Party

Friends!

Another Abigail funny

The other day I said to Abby, "Don't talk like a baby." She replied, "But babies don't talk, Mommy."

"Oh, I guess that's true, isn't it?," I thought to myself. "I guess my five-year-old is smarter than me."

A little info on Spokane

Just to fill you in on some details of our move to Spokane: Ben will be the pastoral intern for the next five years at a church called Christ Church Spokane. You can look at their website here www.christchurchspokane.org . Ben will be paid fulltime for ministry, which will be a first for us. He will still be working on Greyfriars and working towards pastoral ordination (possibly in October of 2008 or 2009). While in Spokane, he'll basically be filling a pastoral assistant's role, while learning the ropes from Pastor Joost Nixon, a godly shepherd of the sheep full of wisdom.
We covet your prayers over the next five years as God continues to mature us towards pastoral ministry. It is not a calling we take lightly (Let not many of you become teachers, knowing that as such, you will receive a stricter judgement. 1 Peter). Please pray for our little ones, as a change in their environment and friendships can be stressful for them too.
We will be moving into a house temporarily, while we wait for the parsonage to open up. God willing we will be moving into that soon.

This Week in Pictures

Our aspiring pianist!

Happy Reformation Day! We carved pumpkins (a tradition we carry on from my side of the fam!) and we went drive-by-trick-or-treating. The kids dressed up all by themselves (since I was too busy with packing boxes to make any costumes, and I wasn't about to spend $12 x 4 kids on costumes from Walmart), so we had two Sleeping Beauty princesses, and one Chinese Spiderman (Elijah wore his outfit from China as well as his Spiderman outfit...quite the look!) Julia dressed up in her pajamas. After the kids were dressed up, we threw them in the car and took them drive-by-trick-or-treating to church members homes. It was quite the social evening! Unfortunately, taking a picture of the kids in their costumes never even entered my mind. However, this Saturday our church is having a belated Reformation Day party...I'll take pics then.

I'm not sure who's happier...Abby or the pumpkin!

eeny, meeny, miney, mo!

hmmm...Which house should the Alexander's move into for temporary housing? We were in Spokane last Sat., and Ben was in Spokane today (Friday). But I think we finally have it figured out!

...and I think we have a winner! So this is the house we will be moving into in about 9 or 10 days. We'll be living here 2 - 6 months, Lord willing.