April Showers and May Flowers

We have been really busy this past week. For starters, we are rapidly moving ahead on the purchase of our house. We can hardly wait to get in the place and begin to make it our home. We feel like we have been on a very long vacation and are eager to settle in to life.

As you can tell I have updated the site a bit. The picture at the top was one of the first ones I took here in KC. Now that I know how to change it, I will probably do so every few weeks. I am by no means a web expert, but the template html is pretty straight forward.

Two days ago we went to this place. We were told by Winnie that it is Disneyland for household goods. She was not kidding. We spent 5+ hours browsing through 80 acres of items for houses. They have everything! Extreme Makeover Home Edition could easily get everything they need for a house in this place. It was really fun to look around and imagine what our new house is going to look like. For starters take a look at this:

We found this rug at a local store and fell in love with it. The great room as we call it in the house (the one with a fireplace) is rather plain and this rug will have a lot of the colors that we are going to bring into the house. If you click on it you can see a bigger image. I especially like the medieval look to it.

Yesterday we bought a chair, but not just any chair, this one is made out of bamboo and is shaped sorta like a bowl. It sits on a bamboo stand and has a circular cusion inside of it. Here is a picture:

Ours doesnt look like this, but the style of chair is the same. The kids absolutely love it. It is hard to get them out of the chair and do anything now. Understand too that we havent had any furniture in our house since we got here except for one very old and smelly recliner that is not all that comfortable and 4 wood chairs for a table that came with the place.

So there ya go, an update that should at least give you a sense of what we are up to. The weather is finally drying up a little bit and I am told I must say goodbye to by blogger peeps and lend a hand claening the house. We have a fellow Alaskan and her roomie coming to play games and chat for a while. Keep in touch everyone and KEEP PRAYING!

Inspection Day!

Today we had inspections on our soon to be new house. For those of you that dont already know, we have found a great home within walking distance of IHOP-KC. It has a 20'X20' room built on to the normal ranch style house and has 3 bedrooms. The basement is half finished and is ready to be used as a homeschooling room and an office.

The inspections went very well with only a few minor glitches found. If all goes well from here foreward, we will be in the house by Rachel's birthday May 15th!.

I am keeping this post short, but I encourage you to take a few minutes to read this guy's post, http://www.brianzahnd.com/ . He is the pastor of a big church just north of KC. His posts the past few days have been on the book of Acts and I like what it says. The best part is that Jason Upton will be at his church in June!! I can't wait to see that! For you folks in Alaska, dont forget Jason will be in Wasilla in May.

Saturday Night Life

Today was a great day. We have been attending the Releasing Children in Power and Worship conference here at IHOP this weekend, and our kids had a blast. They danced, sang and prayed their hearts out to God. We didn't force them to do anything, they wanted to participate.

I cannot tell you what it does to my heart to see my kids pressing into God. Praying prayers with expectancy and faith that is way more than a mustard seed. My son prayed on the microphone today in front of over 100 people and prayed that God would heal his daddy from whatever he had (pneumonia), and that he believed God would do it inside of 2 weeks. WOW!

Our daughter loves to sing, but is really shy. Imagine our surprise when the kids were asked if they wanted to sing on the microphone and our her hand shot up in the air. She sang great, on key and everything and LOVED it!

Folks, this is why we are here. We want our kids being equipped with the reality of God. Not the cushy stories and the flamboyant puppets and pretty coloring pages. We want them equipped with an intimate knowledge relationship with their Heavenly Father. They are on the right track.

Thanks to Lenny LaGuardia, Joy Maas, and Derek Loux for a great, fun, weekend. This first of many more to come I am sure.

One other note, I am not sure the comments are working on here, if you read this, can you please just leave a comment so that I know it is working? People have been saying they have been commenting but they have not been posted. Weird! Blasted Blogger! Or is it Blogger Operator error....nah :-)

What a Week and Today is Tuesday!

As I sit here writing this at about 9:30pm, it is still in the 60's outside after what turned out to be a record breaking hot day of 91. It was only forecast to be about 75 or so.

Today, we had a meeting with Winnie to continue the search for homes. This has turned out to be quite the experience on a couple different fronts. First, and foremost, Winnie is flat out incredible. She has a knack for realty and an even bigger knack for people. She took us under her wing right away and made us feel special. She even gave our kids a really cool flip chart of just about evey tree you can think of that has a picture of the tree and facts about the species. We were given this because we kept asking what kind of tree we were looking at.

Last week on Friday we made an offer on a house. The house was really special and lots of custom stuff through out. There was instant equity too because the family was eager to move and dropped the price to ensure a sale. Long story short, we got outbid by a God thing. We had prayed that if God wanted us to have the house that it would work out, and if not, He would close the door. The next morning, after making the offer, we were out shopping and never even thinking about the house. Another family swooped in and made a high pressure bid that the sellers had to sign by noon. We never even got the messages until almost 1. We made a backup offer just in case the other one fell through, but really, that house is awesome, I would be very surprised if anyone backed out.

This all brought us to today. We met again with Winnie after being seriously disappointed this weekend. We werent even sure what we wanted to do. We managed to scrape up a few different homes to look at so by about noon, we were off and looking. There was a house that we couldnt get an appointment for until the very end of the tour. As it turned out, we ended up making an offer on that house. It is in the neighborhood close to IHOP, and from what we have seen, it is one of the best. It even has a fireplace which in this neighborhood is a rarity. Time will tell if this one goes through OK. Everyone that reads this please shoot up an extra prayer for us.

As for everything else, we are doing great. My pneumonia is getting better day by day. Te kids are doing great and getting more and more tan by the hour. We mowed the yard today for the first time of the season. Life is good. There is something about waking up to the sound of birds chirpping outside.

I Love the Number 13

All my life, whether on sports teams, or just painting a number on the Soap Box Derby car, I have loved the number 13. Some people say that it is the unlucky number, to me, I view the number as the underdog. The number that everyone picks on and kicks around. And I love underdogs.

April 15th, I love the number 13 for 13 reasons.

1. 13 years of marriage to a lady that gives Mother Theresa a run for her money.

2. A mother for my kids that men could only dream about; caring, compassionate, fiercly protective.

3. Where vows talk about "for better or worse" and worse was who I was, she never falted, never doubted, just kept LIVING 2 Peter, and praying for me. Thank God she did!

4. A true friend. This lady loves everything I do. She even shot/field dressed/packed out a moose!

5. I love her stubborness! Maybe it is her Irish heritage, (thanks to her dad) but my lady has backbone and will tackle problems head on with a tenacity of a piranha.

6. I love that she makes frugal people rethink how frugal they really are.

7. My wife is original, she isnt trendy, she cares a less what people think of her and she is not afraid to give her opinion.

8. I love the memory of one of our first campouts flyfishing, she fell in the creek right away, got drenched, stood back up and kept fishing...priceless.

9. My bride makes me feel like a king; I know I take it for granted!

10. My lady has a heart the size of Alaska and she shares it with anyone, but especially the poor, needy and helpless.

11. She is an intecessor; without all her prayers over all these years, I tremble thinking about how life would be right now.

12. I love 13 because after all our elementary and high school years of marriage together, we now start the college years, and begin the adulthood of our marriage.

13. 13 is my favorite number because I look back over these years and I KNOW that we are more in love today, than at any point on the journey, and I know just as well, we we will say the same thing tomorrow!

Happy Anniversary Rachel. God gave me a Queen! I love you!

Pneumonia!

After a week of fever and a cough, that was getting worse by the day, I went to the doctor yestrday. Thanks Winnie, for the advice on a place to go. We went to College Park Medical Center. This place is mostly, if not all Christian. While we waited in the lobby for the appointment, an instrumental of "As the Deer Panteth for the Water" played. I hadn't heard that song in years, but has always been one of my favorites.

Dr. Talbert wasted no time diagnosing the crackle in my chest. He knew we didn't have insurance so he gave me a ten day supply of sample antibiotics and prescribed a cough medicine with codiene in hopes I might sleep at night. The whole appointment w/meds was $50. A blessing for sure!

I sit here a little more than 24hrs later and I am felling better. Maybe not a lot better, but better none the less.

Today has been a bit of a strange day. we had a meeting this morning with Lenny and Tracy Laguardia. Lenny is the Director of the Childrens Equipping Center here at IHOP. We felt stronlgy that we should talk to them to see where their hearts are. The time was refreshing. Lenny and Tracy offered themselves to be available on an ongoing basis to help us find our niche, answer questions and just be friends. They just met us!

Through the course of the converstaion we told them about our heart for our kids and that they really are the reason we are here, anything else that takes place is bonus. We want to see the things of God firmly instilled in our Children so that as they enter adulthood, they will be equipped to make sound decisions for thier lives. Lenny and Tracy apparently liked what they heard and even invited us to their once a month CEC (Childrens Equipping Center) leaders meeting at their house later. It wasa really an amazing day watching things happen right before our eyes.

This weekend, Easter weekend, the CEC gets thier own building. For all the years IHOP has been doing the Prayer Room and the School of Ministry and other things, the CEC has never had their own space. As of Sunday however, they get a building of thier own. To hear the story of meager beginnings years ago to what there is now is incredible. Being faithful in the small things (and small rooms) for all these years has paid off with the CEC being blessed with a place that can house thier ministry. We saw the floor plan today and I am excited! This building will be equipping kids for a long time to come.

So things are starting to heat up here in many ways. It is even supposed to be near 90 on Thursday. On one hand I love the heat, on the other, I miss the Alaskan breakup. The sight of the first bits of ground that were covered for months with snow. I miss the increase of blood flow with the onset of bear hunting and fishing season. Most of all, I miss the friends up there that we would be inviting over for cookouts. Keep P R A Y I N G (did I speel it right Shari?).

Sick!

Yeah that's right. I am sick. It started a week ago now. At first, it was a fever, low grade and barely noticable. Then one night I woke up shivering and could hardly stop. The next day my fever spiked to 102. Since then I have had a fever every day and have since developed a cough. If the fever doesn't disappear by Monday, I am going to the doc. This is why I havent posted anything lately.

We are getting settled here. The house we are in is roomy, but then again, that could be because we dont have any furniture to speak of. We sleep on air mattresses, and luckily, the landlords left us a dining room table and 4 chairs. I think I mentioned before that we bought another dining table for $20. That one is currently our Information Technology Department.

There are two bright spots to my being sick. One, I am enjoying a good book by Frank Peretti, Monster. The other being that this is The Masters weekend. I love golf, and it doesnt get any better than Augusta National Golf Club. As of the end of the day today, the top 5 players in the world are all within a few strokes of the lead. Sunday should be a final round for the ages! Hopefully the fever holds off enough for me to enjoy it.

Rachel and the kids are doing great. The kids began homeschooling this week and are really into it. I am so thankful that Rachel has the drive and the discipline to ensure they are actually taught instead of neglected. We are excited by all that is around us and we are only beginning to discover the potential. In the days to come the kids are taking part in a fair at the local library and are doing a research project on the United States. They have some great ideas and I cant wait to see what they come up with.

Down and Out..and Back Again

This picture is of the 2 Kennys and Kassidy. Click on it for a good look at their expressions. The ride was at the mall in Edmonton. I have been promising Kassidy that I would put the picture up, but keep forgetting.

The past few days have been trying. I came down with a fever that just does not seem to quit. I dont have any other symptoms of anything, but a long lasting low-grade fever. Yesterday it did manage to go to about 102, but I stayed in bed and finally took some medicine and it went back down. Today I was feeling pretty good and thought I had kicked it, but as I type this, it is back around 99.5 and I am feeling achey again. What a drag.

There is a silver lining to this cloud. We went looking at some houses today. We may have even found one. We really like it, but we are still in the 'looking' phase. Also, we are told that the house in Fairbanks is closed and we should be recieving the paperwork and all that good stuff really soon. Almost a full month ahead of schedule!! God is good!

Keep paying everyone and dont be bashful about emailing us. Especially you frozen north types. I know the sun has been getting warm enough to thaw your fingers!

For the record, it is supposed to hit 80 here tomorrow for the first time since Nov 8th.

Little House on the Prarie

Here are some pictures complete with flowers getting ready to bloom in our yard. It was about 75 today and gorgeous. We found a nice kitchen table, recliner, 2 dressers, and a standup freezer all for $120 today. It was about a 30 second drive from our house. God is so good.

I am actually sitting in church waiting for the sevice to begin so I will write more later. You can click on the pictures to make them larger.