Chile!

We leave this Saturday for Chile! I can't believe it's almost here already! It doesn't seem real yet... it probably won't until we are getting on the plane.

We will be working with a team of 34 people from all over the US and Canada at a girls orphanage in Santiago. We are working with Vision for Chile and will be doing various building projects and spending some time with the girls there. I will be working in the kitchen a lot, as I agreed to be head cook for the two weeks. Yikes! I am a little nervous, as I have never cooked for that many people before, but I am excited, and from what I have heard I will have some good, experienced help on my team! I have spent the last few weeks putting together menus and recipes and shopping lists, and I feel almost ready. Ok, not really, but I know that God is really the one in charge, and that things will work out. :)

It takes a looooooooooong time to get to Chile... about 18 hours total travel time!! We fly from Boise to Salt Lake, then to Atlanta, then overnight to Santiago, Chile.

Please keep us and the rest of the team in your prayers for the next few weeks.

Some things you can pray for are:

• Safety as we travel, and as we work
• Unity among the team members
• Ability to communicate despite language barriers
• For God to prepare the hearts of those we are trying to reach
• For humility and willingness to serve where needed
• For wisdom for me in my leadership role in the kitchen

We return home on October 21st. I will try to post pictures as soon as possible after we return!

*I was going to try to post the pictures from our road trip to Arizona, Nevada & the Grand Canyon before we leave, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. I will have to do it when we get back... our computer is going to the computer doctor while we're gone, so hopefully it will run much faster and make posting much easier when we return!

2 Years

On September 17, we celebrated our 2 year anniversary!
We have been so crazy busy getting ready for our trip that we didn't have time to plan much, but my wonderful, sweet, romantic husband made the day extra special anyway. He took me to lunch at the Milky Way, where I had their macaroni & cheese... mmm, comfort food.

When he picked me up from work later, he brought me a smoothie (my favorite - I could live on smoothies!) and a box of yummy chocolates!

Then he drove me up to the Idaho Botanical Gardens, which is in the Boise foothills, and we walked around for a while, enjoying the quiet and reminiscing about our dating days and our wedding. We were there at exactly the same time we were getting married in a garden 2 years before. Awwww... I told you he was sweet. :)

Then, as if I wasn't spoiled enough, he took me to dinner at new restaurant called Brick 29. It had good food and great ambiance! I had the citrus cooked trout... mmmm.

It was a good day! :)

Birthdays & Bees

I just downloaded a few pictures from my "little" camera, the one I use for casual snapshots, so I thought I would share them.

The first ones are from the surprise 30th birthday party we had for our friends Candy & Heidi. Arin planned most of it, and she did a great job - it was really fun! It was a fall theme, with lots of cute decorations, a sweet slide show (it made me cry!), pumpkin carving, bobbing for apples (Robert took 2nd place - he lost to JJ, whose strategy involved his long neck) and line dancing (which also later turned into swing dancing).

Earlier in the summer, we found out that I am sort of allergic to bee stings. I had never been stung before... not in 27 years!! Luckily, I am not deathly allergic, since I got stung while we were halfway through a 2-hour float trip on the Boise River! My hand swelled up pretty good, though, and I've been told that the swelling gets worse each time you get stung. Ouch! Here's hoping I'll go another 27 years before my next one. :)

I actually replaced my "little" camera this week... I've had it since I graduated from high school (almost 10 years ago!) and it has been great, but it's getting a little beat up and I decided it was time to retire it. I got a Nikon L12 (I am a loyal Nikon girl... I always look at other cameras, and end up buying a Nikon). It's not the most expensive or the fanciest one out there, but it works for taking good pictures when I don't want to carry around my SLR. And it fits in my pocket! Yay!

Old Camera

New Camera