A Memorable Memorial Day Weekend

This past weekend we headed to the coast with the Ashland and Weiss families. We rented a home in Lincoln City and it turned out to be such a fun time! On Saturday it was sunny and beautiful so the guys took the kiddos to the beach and had some fun in the sun! Meanwhile the girls headed to the outlet malls to do some shopping.
We ate lots, stayed up late talking and playing games, and even managed to squeeze in a lively debate :)
The kids all had a great time together and we were all pleasantly surprised that they all got along so well.
We did some worship together and Taylor led a bible study for the kiddos on Sunday morning.
The guys headed out Sunday night for some male bonding which included pizza eating, Lakers cheering and Narnia watching.
We are so blessed to have such great friends and we can't wait for many more times like this in the future!

Gotta love drugs

Matthew is so much better today! His fever is totally gone and he's awake so that's great news :)
He's not fully recovered but at least he's well on his way. Thank you Lord for antibiotics! Thank you friends for prayers!

And we've found the culprit

Matthew has a double ear infection :(
I had to wheel him in the doctor's office in a stroller and he slept through the entire exam. His poor little body is super wiped out. So now he's had his first dose of antibiotics and the doctor expects his fever to go down and his energy to go up in the next day or two.

Sickies, sickies go away!

Welcome to Sickville....I'll be your friendly tour guide for the next few minutes. Ok, I'm actually losing my ability to be super friendly right about now. It seems like we have been in a never ending cycle of sickness in our house lately. A couple of weeks ago Josh and Matthew simultaneously came down with the typical annoying cold. Both of them were feeling pretty yucky. On day 2 of the cold the two of them got pink eye. My sweet little Matthew's body does not enjoy colds, allergies or any annoyance to his respiratory system whatsoever. He gets pretty bad asthma with respiratory irritants so the poor guy just has absolutely no fun. When both boys were at least seemingly recovering from their colds, my husband called me from work to tell me he felt terrible. Like so bad he felt like he was going to pass out at school. That was Wednesday and he's definitely had a bad six days now. Lots of chest congestion, terrible cough, sinus pressure and a perpetual headache. Fun times! The saga continues.... Last night we were having dinner and I reached over to lovingly touch Matthew's little head. He was super hot to the touch. I felt his chest and he was definitely feverish. I took his temp and it was 102.6 under his arm. NO!!!!! The weird thing is he doesn't seem to be showing any new symptoms. He's just really tired, really cranky and really hot. I don't know if his little cold migrated causing an ear infection or what the deal is. We're on the way to the doctor today to find out.
We are going to the beach this weekend with some friends Friday through Monday so if all of my faithful readers could please be praying for Brett and Matthew to fully recover, for me to continue to escape this run of sickness and for Josh to stay better. These seasons are certainly trying on the patience. The hardest part of course is missing church which I could seriously use right about now.
This concludes your tour of Sickville. Thanks for listening to all the amenities this lovely community has to offer. I hope your tour guide wasn't too grumpy :)

Your Top Five Favorite Movies

I think it would be fun to compare movie tastes and get some good recommendations from others on good flicks. So, what are your top five favorite films?

Here are mine:

1. Return To Me
2. The Count of Monte Cristo
3. The Shawshank Redemption
4. More of a grouping - the Meg Ryan movies...You've Got Mail, Sleepless In Seattle,etc.
5. The Lord of the Rings (not so sure this rounds out my top five... I just can't think of anything else right now)

Banana Crumb Muffins

I've been a slacker in the recipe posting department so here's what I have in the oven as we speak:

Banana Crumb Muffins

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
3. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

These are incredible!

First little update on the job possibility

Well Brett didn't really get the chance to be interviewed per say.... The VP of Flock had a call from his boss so he had to cut the conversation with Brett short. But, Brett did say in the 10 minutes they spoke that it wasn't much of an interview. More like, "hey, we've seen what you've done, what's your time line like?" Short of a drastic change of events the job is pretty much his if he wants it. He already mentioned flying Brett up soon which will be the next major step. The timing on this is perfect with school ending in a little over a month.
So, they are supposed to talk more Saturday.... Obviously a lot of details need to be worked out.
Please kick the prayers up a notch. This is looking like a reality which means drastic change on the horizon. We have much to pray about!! I will be sure to update as events unfold....
Wow. The Lord is truly amazing!

Incredible Testimony

Jessie sent this out to our bible study group. Please take the 10 minutes to listen to the entire thing. It is truly remarkable and a beautiful testimony.

You'll want to watch this a few times over. Please note that everything he says, every word, every statement is directly from the bible. My desire is to be this fluent in our Lord's love letter that every conversation, every moment I have to share with someone I am talking / living my life / seeing my circumstances / understanding all things scripturally -- from the context and heart of our Lord, captured for us in the bible. We all have a long way to go, but know this -- it's possible. For we know all things are possible through Him.

Enjoy this work of the Lord.

Prayer Request

I just sent this out via email to some of you, so I apologize if this is a repeat.

As most of you know Brett has been praying about leaving the teaching field for some time now. There are many reasons but mostly he struggles with the direction and philosophies of public education. And of course on the financial front it is becoming increasingly more difficult trying to support a family on a single teacher salary.

When we first moved to the Northwest back in 2000, we did so expecting Brett to go into the tech field. He's always been gifted in that arena. For whatever reason the Lord led him in quite a different direction.
So for the past couple of years as a little side hobby, Brett started designing Firefox browser themes for fun. What started out as something little has really exploded into something quite bigger than he ever imagined or intended. To date his themes have been downloaded a whopping ten million times! Those are pretty staggering numbers and have generated quite a bit of attention. Over the past few months several companies have been in contact with Brett seeking to speak with him about opportunities in the field. He has been hired by one company to do contractor work on the side developing themes for organizations such as colleges and sports teams.
Most recently, a big name company named Flock contacted him about the possibility of coming to work for them full time. If he gets the job, what they are offering is nice on a lot of levels. The salary is comfortable, benefits are quite good and thankfully they would allow him to telecommute so no relocation would be necessary. It would be a pretty exciting first job (or 10th for that matter) and would give him experience working with some big name programmers in the field.
First and foremost in our lives we are seeking the Lord's will. We have been praying for the Lord to open doors and close doors thus making His will more clearly known in our lives in this area. It definitely looks like change is on the horizon so that's always exciting.
Brett has an interview with the Sr. VP via phone this evening. Please be praying that we get some answers and that if this is what the Lord has for us, that His hand be covering all the details.
If nothing else, it's been incredible to see my husband get recognition for his hard work and God-given talents. He has had real joy in working on these projects and I pray that he can work each day doing something he truly has a passion for.
Thanks for your prayers! I will post an update when I have one...
In the meantime, to check out Brett's work, click here: http://bodizzlethemes.blogspot.com

April Fun

I've been SO behind on posting pictures and family happenings lately, I thought today would be a good day to get caught up.
April was such a fun month despite the fact that Portland was still anxiously awaiting Spring :)
Here were some fun moments we caught on camera....

A play date with our friends Charlotte and Cyrus. This happened to be one of the nicer days that month so we headed outside for some fun in the sun!
Mr. Bear also came home with us that day for the week so of course we had to include him in the shots.

OMSI currently has a very cool dinosaur exhibit. The boys both went through a period of dino obsession so this was a pretty fun day for them!

The very silly side of Brett :) I am certain he is going to be so appreciative of me posting these!

Brett, Debbie and Casey came over for dinner last month too! We had so much fun together but honestly Josh pretty much kept Pastor Brett busy for almost the entire night :)
They had fun drawing pictures and Josh made some special requests. Note the fine art displayed here - hehe!

A couple of silly pictures right before bed on Mr. Bear's final night with us before heading back to preschool. Each night Josh was careful to put him in his pajamas and brush his teeth. Josh was a good bear keeper and I think we kept Mr. Bear entertained for the whole week :)

Too Much Chocolate Cake

Tonight we're having John and Jillian over for a little belated birthday dinner. I have a little pressure on me because I promised that I can out-do Olive Garden (a favorite of Jillian's) in the Italian food department. We shall see!!
Anyway, I have several recipes that I am making tonight but why not start with what counts... dessert! This is a sublimely easy and fantastic chocolate cake. I am going to bake it bundt style and then make a homemade caramel sauce to drizzle on top of it and the ice cream of course :)

Too Much Chocolate Cake

1 (18.25 ounce) package

devil's food cake mix

1 (5.9 ounce) package instant

chocolate pudding mix

1 cup sour cream

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1/2 cup warm water

2 cups semisweet chocolate

chips

	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
	In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs and water. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour batter into a well greased 12 cup bundt pan.
	Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool cake thoroughly in pan at least an hour and a half before inverting onto a plate If desired, dust the cake with powdered sugar.