Major on the Majors:

(This is something that our Director talked about this summer as a kind of mission statement for Frontier. I really appreciated it and think it would make a good personal mission statement.)

>ministry before money
>the word before the world
>hope before humanism
>caring before counting
>character before competence
>peace before power
>prayer before pride
>joy before judgement
>service before self
>faith before fear

Do I really value these qualities? Do I display them? Do I direct others towards them?

Someone I Want To Be Like...

Ok, Can I just say that this girl (pictured below) is amazing!!



Notice our AWESOME matching jackets?! Yeah, she made them. Mine is even "prego specific".
It's not just because of her mad sewing skills though, that I want to be just like her.
-Meghan has a totally "out loud" relationship with God. It just radiates out of her.
-She has a huge, generous heart for people that takes priority over most everything.
-When asked how she's doing, Meghan says it like it is. "This course I'm taking is draining everything out of me, but that's great because it means more room for God!"
-She's so hard-core.
-Just being around Meghan makes me want to pursue a deeper relationship with God. I don't know many people who can make it as easy and natural to incorporate God into normal conversations as Megan can.

It's so encouraging to be around people like Meghan. She's a great example of someone I want to be like.

Nothing like it...

I've been learning (or re-learning) some things about myself lately...

-God is calling me to raise a big, adventurous family. I am SO excited (and nervous!!) to dive right in!

-I really like dancing to hip-hop and pop music when no one is around.

-I actually like being lazy.

-I love having people over and being their host. I've just been burned out of people for so long that I forgot that.

-Certain music inspires artistic urges in me. Yesterday I pulled out my sketch book and painted for the first time in years.

-I LOVE having a clean house.


I really like that even now I am learning new things about myself... it keeps things interesting.
:)



PS. An awesome family friend put together this website for Tim and I as a baby registry type thing. She's been keeping it updated and trying to encourage people to join and such. Here it is: http://babytaylorbump.webs.com/
(Thanks Sheila!)
Have I told you how excited I am to meet this baby??!! Babes is dancing in my belly right now! I love it.

...

Summer is gone just in time for Tim and I to go on vacation.
We left Camp on Thursday and have had a couple minutes of sun since then.
We headed out to Kananaskis to camp with a couple of Tim's friends. It was really fun to spend the weekend with a bunch of babies and pregnant women. We did, however, threaten a few times to leave to go south to get away from cold rain and (get this) FLUFFY SNOW! Ugh.
I am now sitting in Starbucks in Canmore in the warmth, with a deliciously warm cinnamon dolche latte.
Today is Tim and my anniversary, and to celebrate Tim went paddling with Brad and Ken. Haha. I did give him permission to go, but it's still bitter sweet. :)
I love him so much!! This has been the best year of my life!!

I wish I had my camera cord here...
-There are red strawberries hanging in our window and I have eaten 2 so far!!
-We have 3 cherry tomatoes growing on our plants.
-I've been harvesting awesome little carrots for about a week now.
-My belly has like tripled in size since that last picture was up. (I'm 17 weeks now!!!)
I've felt baby move 4 times now. SO EXCITING!!! And, we decided on names.
Jaxon is going to be such a jealous pooch when babe comes along. He's been sleeping in our tent the last couple of nights. It makes it like 10 degrees warmer in there. Specially when he sleeps in the bottom of our sleeping bags. Spoiled boy.
:)

Well, it's time to go pick up the boys from the river...

14 Weeks and Counting...

I'm 14 weeks now and babe is over 3 1/2 inches long. The First Trimester is over and I think that Tim and I can relax a little more now as the risk of miscarriage goes down drastically.
I'm getting so excited. I find it VERY hard to be patient and wait... I just want the stages to come faster.
:)

Well my parents and Lanny have been here for the past week and it has been quite nice to have the time off with them. I have to admit though, I've had to take a couple of breaks as I am not used to this much consistent interaction. Haha. I must be getting old or something.

U-13 Wilderness Camp starts today. (Dad is speaking at the campfires). Only 3 more summer camps left! Crazy. This summer has gone by so fast. Sometimes (like right now) I like to pretend I'm not working and slack off... and then sometimes (like right now) I feel bad about slacking off and head back to work... but then other times (like right now) I get hungry right before I head back to work so I let myself get distracted a little longer and go eat some food.

The End.

How Does Your Garden Grow...

I was feeling quite discouraged about my little "garden". The tomato plants were very little and weak looking, my cucumbers don't look like cucumber plants, the carrots were tiny, and the strawberries looked maybe alright...
But then one day it was like Nordegg garden season opened, and everything started growing and looking green and such. I'm still feeling only slightly hopeful, but things are looking up.

My Tomato Buds:



Strawberry Buds:



Delicious looking Carrots:



Something else that is slowly growing:



(No weight gain yet, just a growing bump)
Babe is now between 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 inches long.
Apparently the size of a fig... which doesn't help me, because I have no idea how big a fig is.
I also read that my uterus is now bigger then a grapefruit... CRAZY.
:)

By the way:
A huge answer to prayer... we got a midwife! We are so excited and thankful that they picked us.
Basically, there is a huge interested in midwives, but not enough midwives to go around. So they do interviews and such and see which couple is the most compatible client. Tim and I had an interview with 2 very nice midwives and found out that we were 1 of 15 couples trying for 4 spots. Not that great of odds, considering this is our first (so usually harder clients). But we prayed about it lots and really felt at peace about whatever happened. A little over a week later I got an email that said that they are very excited to work with us. Tim and I did a little dance with joy. :)
Thanks God!

There's a Baby in my Belly.

Right now Babe is as big as a blueberry.
I'm due somewhere around February 5th. (A birthday present for Andrew :)
This means that I am about 7 weeks preggers.
I feel sick when I'm hungry and when I eat to much.
Just great.
:)
We're SO excited to have a family.
Frontier Staff have already started making fat jokes.
I want ice cream all the time.
Mint Chocolate Chip to be exact.

Tim and I are moving into a bigger trailer within the next couple of weeks.
It has a baby room.
WOOHOO!!

I don't know what to say...

I feel like I should have many things to update you on... but I just can't think of any of them... so, random facts:

-I finally got my first cell phone. (Actually it's Tim's and mine, but Tim says I can call it mine. :P ) (You should all email me with your phone/cell phone numbers so we can actually communicate once in a while now)

-Jaxon has gained 10 pounds since I got him.

-I got my first sunburn of the year.

-Groups are coming in full force now.

-All my tomato plants died. :(

-I will be buying more.

-I would really like to get some chickens.

-Tim and I are having a date night tonight.

-He just got home so I'm going to have my date him now.

-Goodnight.

Something to do with Love:

My Birthday Present.
Isn't my husband the BEST?
I had actually even stopped pursuing getting a puppy, and then all of a sudden we were skipping a wedding and driving 3 hours to pick him up.
Jaxon's great. He sits on command already, eats like there's no tomorrow, beats up a dog 3 times his size, and follows me around everywhere I go.
I think it has something to do with Love.

Coffee Cake and Breakfast Shakes...

...that kinda almost rhymed.
Haha.
But it is an amazing breakfast.

I'm super excited that spring is on it's way... I love spring because it means that summer is just around the corner. And I have a feeling that this summer will be a good one.

There are a lot of changes going on right now at camp.
We have a fairly new maintenance manager, who is doing fantastic things around camp. (like getting rid of that hideous trailer by the parking lot, for those of you who have been here before).
Two of our senior program staff, and our assistant program director are leaving in April. They will leave gaps that will be hard to fill. We trust that God will provide all the staff we need. But perhaps you could help God out a little... if you know anyone who would be interested in working at a wilderness adventure camp... or more specifically anyone who would want to be our kitchen manager, starting... now. You should tell them to get ahold of us.

Lately I've been working a lot on our backcountry food prep. That means that I cook meals and then dehydrate them and prep them for our backpacking overnights. I quite enjoy it. It gives me a little project to call my own and baby a bit.

But that's really all I have to say, because not much has been happening here except cabin fever.

Being married is awesome. Tim is awesome.

Does anyone know anyone giving away cheap/free puppies? Preferably a larger breed? Because I REALLY want a puppy. I think Tim is actually getting tired of me talking about it. Haha.

And I think things might get a little too random if I keep typing, so I'm going to stop before it gets out of hand.

Goodnight.

You know you're turning into "suzy homemaker" when:

-you get really excited when you get a new used stove.

-you sit for an hour watching your tomato plants grow.

-you feel fulfilled when people like a new recipe you tried.

-you spend the whole day cleaning and it energizes you.

-you ask your husband if he has any mending he wants done just so you can sew something.

-you have two kinds of cookies cooling on the counter.

-you research dirt so you can start a garden in the spring.

-you read a cooking blog every day.

-you like being in your house more then anywhere else.


I'm turning into such a lame-o.
I love it.

:D

I made him into a Sudoku addict...

Is anyone else just LOVING the weather we've been having?? Cause I sure do. It's a treat.

Tim and I actually went rock climbing on Monday. Yes, I said rock climbing. It got us pretty pumped and we promptly started planning our summer vacation. :D

The second Adventure Race was completed this last weekend. It went super well. I liked having two in a row, as it made everything go so much smoother. The two teams that Tim and I were cheering got first and second place, so that was cool. (am I allowed to say things like that?)

Now we're in Edmonton eagerly waiting for Donna's wedding to be done... I mean... we're here to join in their happiness. :P
We were helping out with decorating tonight and WOW, what a gong-show. I LOVE Tim's family, SO MUCH... but I pretty much hung out where the people were not. Heh heh.

Anywho...
Later Days...

One Foot of Snow.

Well I kept meaning to update this silly blog, but life it seems had other plans.
Now I've got a bit of a breather, so how about I tell you what I've been up to?

Tim and I took a quick trip to Kamloops for Andrew's Birthday and for some good ol' quality family time. It was super fun, but we missed his surprise party.
Right away when we got back... and I mean within a few hours of our return, we jumped right into hosting the Prairie Aviation Survival week. Sunday was all training for them (and Tim, who helped teach part of it), and prepping their food (what little they got) for me. Then on Monday we headed out. We hiked them out for about 2 hours to an "unknown" location. Next we dropped them off in their 3 or 4 man teams at their "crash site". Then we (Tim, myself, and 2 leaders from Prairie) tromped over to the leaders camp and made ourselves at home. The funnest part of the first day was that we had hiked all our gear out the night before - all 70lbs of it... each. Let me back up a bit.
The location we had hiked out to was actually only about 15 minutes from camp. We just took them in in a round-about fashion. Also, we as leaders did not eat the same as the students. While they had barely enough food for 4 people for 1 day, let alone a whole 5 days, we had leftovers every meal. So we had decided that we wanted to hike our heavy packs in the short way. So we did. And then we convinced them that the little packs we carried in on Monday, containing pretty much only water, was all that we had to survive on.
Anyways. We spent the week eating, sitting by the fire, playing cards, eating, checking up on the students, sitting by the fire, eating. It was great.
It ended up being a fairly easy week for the students because it was fairly warm and sunny out. Each group built a lean-to with pine bows and ended up being warmer then we were in our tents.
But moving on.

Immediately following Prairie, the first of 2 Wycliffe Adventure Race's started. I've talked about the Adventure Race's before, in this blog and in my newsletter, so I won't say much about it this time. It was a super good weekend. The weather was amazing and the teams did fantastic. We've got the second Race this weekend.

After the Adventure Race Tim and I had 3 days off. We had worked for 9 days straight, so this was a welcome treat. Today is the third of those 3 days. They have been mostly restful days, though today was not as good, as Tim and I both have symptoms of Strep Throat. If you could be praying for us that would be awesome. This weekend would be a bad one for us to both be sick.

Well that's about as good an update as I can muster right now. My fingers are cramping up from typing so much. :P Hahah...



PS. Jill, we've been pounding your "miracle tea". We both actually like it quite a bit.

Finally an Update...

Well, this might not be exactly the update you were looking for... but I need to do this for the sake of my grieving process.
Yesterday (Sunday the 31st) in Edmonton, I had a miscarriage. I was only 6 weeks pregnant, but we were already pretty attached to the "little fart", as we called it. (by "it" I mean he or she). Anyways. When it happened I felt a solid peace from God and knew that it wold be alright. Sometimes though, knowing that God is in control doesn't really make it hurt any less.
I took today off work so I wouldn't have to face the crowds just yet (the staff), and so I can have the chance to process what's going on inside of me.

I covet your prayers as I ride this emotional roller-coaster.







I promise I'll do a real update soon!

Finally an Update...