Fun stuff going on...

Work usually doesn’t have much to update, but last week was the end of a term for our students and one student came up to visit me on Thursday. He is one of my favorite students. He is in a wheelchair and is full of joy. He loved school, was there everyday, and had great grades. I really enjoyed his outlook and determination. As I said before, he came up just to say goodbye because he was graduating. It was so great. You could truly see how proud he was. He said he couldn’t leave without saying goodbye to his favorite loan officer. How sweet! He really made my day.

We finally got the okay to hire someone at work (yippee!!) Hopefully that person will accept the position and will be able to start soon! I will be great to finally have a full crew once again.

I had a wonderful weekend. It all started Friday night when my office got to go out with our representative from Sallie Mae. We went to Huber’s for dinner and it was DELICIOUS. Anyone who knows anything about me know I LOVE food. I had a delicious pepper steak with a wine sauce and shitake mushrooms. The taste was so good I thought I had gone to heaven. I think they serve that steak in heaven…I truly do! LOL

Saturday morning Joe had to work for a while, so the boys and I took some time together to go to the Pumpkin Patch at Sauvie Island. We had a BLAST! I don’t think I have had so much fun with them in years. We were there for 4 hours (a lot longer than I ever thought we would be there) and we were all tired by the time we got home…but not a single thing went wrong. No whining, no fighting. Just a wonderful time together. We went to the barn and saw all the animals (including two cute pigs.) Next we took the hay ride out to the pumpkin patch and picked out our favorite pumpkins. While I paid for the pumpkins and took them to the van, the boys played on a pyramid made out of hay bales. They boys loved it. They even had a tunnel for the kids to crawl through. Then we had a quick lunch and proceeded to the corn maze. It took us about 45 minutes to get through it (3 miles of maze covering 8 acres) and we were all tired when we were done. After a quick rest we headed to the market and bought some fresh apples, peppers, broccoli, etc. The last thing we went on was my favorite part of the day. We went on a “cow ride.” It was a mini train-type ride pulled by a tractor and the train cars were made out of barrels and painted to look like cows. They drove us around the parking lot and then took us on a tour of the farm showing the blueberry and strawberry fields. It was a blast.
When we finally came home I intended to watch the Duck game (who lost…boo hoo) but I ended up falling asleep and didn’t wake up until morning! Even though the Ducks lost, Joe was happy because his Cougars (Washington State) won against Oregon State…so at least one of us had a good sports day.

Church on Sunday was great. Since most of our ministry team is still on a mission in India we were able to enjoy a new speaker this week. He is a member of our church, but he works with Promise Keepers as the National Event Volunteer coordinator. It was a wonderful sermon. He was talking about change and how we must continually change throughout our whole life. He likened it to climbing a mountain. He talked about a lodge half-way up a mountain and half of a hiking team stayed behind because they were too tired to go on and the lodge was so nice (with couches, hot coco, and a warm fire.) The half of the team that stayed behind was feeling pretty smug because they thought they had made the better choice (instead of 4-5 hours of climbing) until the other half came back talking about how wonderful the experience had been. He talked about how we might find a place in life where we are pretty comfortable and life seems to be as good as it can get…be careful…because the summit is still in the distance and if you strive for it you will not be sorry.

After church we stopped at Pizza Hut for lunch and I wanted the stuffed crust pizza, but Joe didn’t….so we decided to order the stuffed crust for me and Will. Joe and Zan ordered mini pizzas. When our order came it wasn’t quite right. Zan ordered a pizza with pineapple and it came with pepperoni. Mine was a pan pizza, not a stuffed crust. The waitress said she could add pineapple to Zan’s for free (free topping) and she said she could either have them make another pizza OR I could have the current one for free! What a deal. All we ended up paying for was our drinks and the two mini pizzas. God sure looks out for us!

While we were at lunch my dad called. He asked if I had my Grandpa’s bible. I didn’t, but I found out that my grandpa wanted to borrow it back from whatever family member had it. I find a lot of hope in this. My grandpa was raised knowing God, but felt it had been crammed down his throat and he fell away from all God related things when he left for college. In fact he and my grandma had decided that they would not even talk about God to their kids (my dad, my aunt, and uncle). My hope is that he is striving to connect with God again. It really makes me hopeful.

This week is going to be a busy week for the boys. Wednesday is picture day. I can’t wait to see how they turn out! Thursday Will goes to the pumpkin patch with his class. Thursday night Dusty is picking up the boys early to go on a mini-vacation. They are going to Bend. Dusty’s work is paying for it. They even get to go horseback riding. They are going to have a blast and I think it will really help them build some good memories with their Dad.

I am really looking forward to Women of Faith which is this Friday and Saturday. I saved up my secret shopper money. It is going to be so great. Plus I am going to have dinner with my mom Friday night. The conference doesn’t start until 7 and I get off at 5, so I thought it would be great to spend some time with her since I will have to eat out anyway. All in all, it should be a great weekend!