It's Fall!

MY BEAUTIFUL HORSE
20 1/2 YEARS OLD HERE

MY HUSBAND AND JACKSON AT
THE UNIT FORMAL

THE KIDDOS ON HOPE
FRIEND SARAH, ABBIE, SHELDON
AND ZANE THROWING GRASS! :)
HOPE IS SO SWEET TO THEM!

FRIEND SARAH, ABBIE AND SHELDON

JAMES AND RACHELLE AT THE 2009 FORMAL

BEFORE THE FORMAL, LOOKING SASSY!

"I DON'T WANNA DO SCHOOL"....LOL!






~IT'S FALL ~

Holy Cow, September went by so fast that I barely remember what happened this month! I figure it's school that is making it go by so fast! :)

I feel so bad that I haven't been able to blog but once a month, but I just haven't felt the desire to pour out my heart online much these days. Mostly, that is because my husband is home now and I can pour out my heart to him when I need to! :) Still, I wish I could post more often and not just my monthly report, but something with more depth and feeling...hmm...maybe this winter!

What a glorious season Fall is, especially in Washington! :) It's warm during the day and cool at night. I love it! Mostly I love it because I don't have to worry so much about surviving horrid winters, here, like I had to in Idaho.

Well, we've been doing school, doing the church thing and we started AWANA this month. I am now the Sparks Director and it's a hefty job, so please pray for me as I go about this endeavor and ministry! I am NOT a good speaker and like Moses, I feel inadequate. Maybe you all could pray about that when you think of me. It's a very big responsibility and there is a lot of weekly preparation, so it takes time and much studying and prayer, on my part. I need it though. I love children's ministry, so it should be even better for me than when I was a Color leader for Sparks. I need to grow in the Lord and this is a way for me to come out of my shy shell (shy when it comes to presenting the Gospel, anyway). I have SO many color leaders, though! I am so blessed with their willingness to serve God and to help me. Our Sparks team lacks organization, so I am definitely thankful for these willing members of our church, in this whole thing! I have more than enough leaders, so I think we'll have a great year!

Church is going well...we are SO INCREDIBLY blessed at McKenna Community Church!!! I cannot say it enough. Each Sunday I am blessed, filled to overflowing, taught, drawn out, and just happy! I love our church. I'm so glad and thankful to God that he has led us to this particular one. What a LOVING, KIND, CARING and ALL-KNOWING God we serve! WOW! I have made so many good friends, too, many of which who have become dear to my heart already.

School is going smoothly! :) Zane is doing very well and I get better each day it seems. Homeschooling takes practice and I know it will be a few years before I reach my potential, at this whole thing!

Our Unit Formal went well! I will post pictures of that! We had a great time. The food was wonderful and the ceremony meaningful ( especially so soon after Terry's death). We enjoyed watching the drunk people. It was hilarious. We will probably go again next year. I had fun and felt like a Princess!

Oh, the first week in September my husband's Grandfather and Step-Grandmother came for a visit, while on their RV trip across the US. It was great to see them and give them a nice home-cooked meal! The kids enjoyed seeing them and they enjoyed meeting Sheldon for the first time.

This past weekend I got to meet a facebook friend that I've known for a little over a year but never got to meet. Amy and Sean and their little girl, Sarah came over for dinner and we saddled up Hope for them. They seemed to enjoy it and I just loved meeting their family. They are an Army family, too, and just got stationed here at Lewis.

My Ladies Bible Study group starts tomorrow night! I am so excited to have some one on one time with my girlfriends without the children around. :) I think James might be doing the Men's Bible Study (at the same time) but they have child-care at the church, so that will be great.

Really not much else going on to report about. I stay super busy doing all the things I do around here! :) I do want all of you to know that I think of you often, love you and care about what is going on in your lives! Let's keep in touch! <3

Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us".

If you are a believer, never forget what Christ did for you....where he pulled you up out of....that he saved you when you were still in sin! If you aren't a believer and have never been converted, know that God cares, that He loves and that he saves the lowliest of sinners along with the little child who has hardly sinned yet in his/her lifetime...we have ALL sinned and we have all fallen short of His Glory.

Rachelle

August

Terry...a follower of Christ, a soldier, a husband, a father, a friend...loved,
respected and honored by the many who knew him. Missed by all.
r

Abbie riding Hope

Me leading cousin Carson on Hope

Us Girls in the kitchen! Left to right: Ashley, Me, Cierra

Playing in the hot tub

At the Seattle Aquarium: Left to right Zane and I, James and Sheldon
Cierra, Clayton with Abbie, Ashley and Emma

Sheldon, Emma, Abbie and Zane

Abbie and Sheldon (with a blackberry face)

Daddy and Sheldon

Stair step kids! Sheldon looks to be catching up to my petite
Abbie

abbie and I

Wow, what a month! It's been exciting, but also hard. So much has happened that I don't even want to write about it...but post, I must...it's been too long.

The first week in August brought much of James's side of the family for a small family reunion. We had my mother in law Sherri, my father in law Jim, my SIL Ashley and her two children as well as one on the way :), my BIL Clayton and his wife Cierra. It was a great time! We visited the Seattle Aquarium, the Pacific Science Center, The Space Needle, and The Museum of Flight. The guys all went Golfing twice and one of the times, Zane went along with his own Junior Golf set and apparently he has a great swing! :) Us Girls (and Clayton) all went to the Pike Market and had a glorious shopping experience! I bought, some very nice Lavender, Egyptian Geranium and Vanilla Bath oil, some Organic Muscle Rub for James, many things to taste :), candy for the kids and a few other things! :) Sherri surprised me with some AMAZING raw Blackberry Honey! I love honey! My dad was a bee-keeper when I was a baby. Once he joined the Army, he had to let that go, but he always had MANY flavors of honey in the house! :) It was hard seeing everyone leave and knowing that it will be awhile before we see them all again!

I have many pictures to share from the reunion so I'll get those posted as soon as I can.

The next two weeks in August I spent being very down with Migraines that were so bad that it felt like I had the flu, plus a cold that was mostly a cough, and other "things" to complicate the matters. Then a bad eye infection. I was perfectly miserable and became very behind in my housework.

On the 20th I got a phone call early in the morning from LaNette. She's a good friend of mine that I knew before I was married, and got to know even better while James and I were stationed at Campbell. Her husband is retired Army. At the church we went to, we got to know Gina, an Army wife who's husband worked with my husband. She is LaNette's best friend and a good friend of mine. Anyway, LaNette called to tell me that Terry, Gina's husband had been killed during a training exercise in Colorado, when his Blackhawk crashed. It was a very, very sad day/week/two weeks for everyone who knows them. It was just so untimely, so unthought of, so horrible....and so unexpected. It was Terry's last trip before retirement, having served for over 22 years (I think). He left Gina, their son, Braden (8) and their daughter Emma (5). His children are so young and they had already sold their home and were planning to move to Kansas. Terry had, had his retirement party as well. He always dreamed of owning his own ranch and Gina was looking forward to their new life outside the Army. They were more than able, financially to make his and her dreams come true and all came to a screaching halt. Three other soldiers were killed, as well. Prayer is appreciated for all of them. James knew all of them. Very sad...

Terry and Gina were members at the church we attended, while stationed at Campbell. Terry was devoted to Christ, his family and to the Army. He was honored with two memorials and his funeral. He was one of the best pilots in the Army, and will be greatly missed by the whole Grace Bible Church family and his affiliated Unit in the Army. If you would like to listen to the message that Pastor Mark Totten gave at church, the following Sunday go to: www.gbctn.org Go to Messages and search for "When Life Throws You a Curve". It was AWESOME! It is a great sermon for anyone. It will help you learn how to deal with the unexpected or just with things that don't make sense. I encourage you to listen!

So, I think we all had a hard time functioning, initially. I imagine it will take a very long time for Gina to.

We bought all of our hay for the winter. A load off of our minds. Hope is nice and fat this fall, so I'm sure she will do especially well this winter.

The children are doing well in school, so far. Zane started his first grade and reading is about 1/2-way clicking! I cannot wait until it fully clicks for him, so he can enjoy it more. Abbie is doing preschool again, this year. She turns 5 in April, so she will start K next fall. In some subjects (Math, Phonics, Science) she'd be ready right now for K, but in others (Reading and Writing, she isn't ready. I think waiting until next fall will be best and I bet she will fly easily through K! :) She is very, very intelligent and a very fast learner! :) Sheldon is doing a little preschool. I am working mostly on colors, shapes, numbers and letters. He has a very short attention span and causes a little disruption and distraction for Zane so, we are working on a play schedule for him and Abbie. What I have been doing this week, is he and Abbie have a playtime in their rooms alone, and then later in the day they have a play time together in Abbie's room. I use these times to help Zane with Reading and Math, when he needs the quiet. I am still not too fond of Art, and am doing it once a week again but plan on doing it twice a week in a little while. I just don't have the patience for Art. I love the idea of it, but when it comes down to it....ugh....I just don't enjoy it. At least they are getting it once a week and the projects are meaningful! :)

My friend Amy is getting stationed here and will be here in the middle of September, which is very exciting! :) She has a three year old little girl who doesn't talk well, so I think she and Sheldon will really hit it off, since he doesn't talk either! LOL!

Oh.... :) My friends at church! I am so happy with our church and the wonderful women I have met there! They are all treasures and I am learning from them each time I am with them! :) We are all starting our Ladies Bible Study on Sept 29th! It's a Beth Moore on Esther! I am SUPER excited! I love that book of the Bible, so I am excited to get started. I always become a lot closer to the women in our churches when I participate in the studies! :)

We have a lot of Blackberries this year, so I made some Jam and some homemade Icecream with them! Yummy! :) Our garden has done really well, although I am sick of cucumber, and no one likes the summer squash but me. We got about 12 gallon freezer bags full of corn. I blanched it all and it is super good! I also blanched a lot of green beans and the other day I saw lots of new beans starting, so I should get a lot more!

My little sister, Naomi (who was pregnant at the same time as my middle sister Sarah) miscarried this month. She was 6 weeks pregnant, I think. Everyone was so excited and looking forward to the double baby showers and just the fact that both sisters were pregnant at the same time. It was so sad for her, since it was her first pregnancy and everyone was so thrilled. I talked to her a few times on the phone to give her some support. I know how hard that type of thing is and people forget very quickly how hard it really is. :(

Naomi did say that she wants to try again, so Lord-willing she might be pregnant with Sarah again, after-all! :) A new pregnancy is always a healing balm after miscarriage, so I hope it is God's will!

I have a feeling that Sarah will be having a girl! :) I hope I am right! She wants a girl really bad since she already has a boy and only wants two children! Keep your fingers crossed!

Well, I don't think I have much else to report on. James is doing fine at work. He's trying to get ready for his Board in October and Lord-willing again, maybe he will be promoted to e-6. He already does the job of one and really deserves it, so we are praying for that!

Have a glorious fall, everyone! And I'm sure all of you can understand how happy I am for winter to come! I'm sure it will be an easy one here in Washington! I feel so much better about it! God Bless!