Post from 8/16

Where the crap has the summer gone? Seriously....oh my goodness gracious. It's the 16th (happy birthday Micah) and we only have 20 days-ish till school starts again. That's exciting because it's a whole new year, new place of employment and lot's of other new stuff but still i feel like it should be July.

This summer has been a lot of fun though. Camping with Dusty's Portland relatives and the Sticklers, Women's retreat, Moving, Heatwole family camp, road trip to Spokane, our third anniversary, Summer school, Ikea opening and a bunch of other stuff I'm sure that i have forgotten, has made for a very busy summer.

It was hard to say good bye to the Clack ESD kids. I truly loved that job. It opened my eyes to a whole community of people that i have learned to adore. It was some of the most challenging moments but I learned so much i wouldn't take that time back for anything. The day after Labor day, I'll be starting at Ellsworth Elementary, in Vancouver. I'll be working 1 on 1 with a student. I'm excited about this new challenge but I'd really appreciate prayer for patience and endurance.

I'm also very excited about the fact that we are now living in Vancouver and will be able to get involved in our Church more(which is here). If we end up working at AWANA again, I hope to have the opportunity to invite some of the kids from school, to club.

Well i need to get some things done...please let me know how i can be praying for you. I'd also love to hear about some things that you are learning.

the MOVE is complete

I just wanted to say THANK YOU to all who helped us move this weekend. A few of us agreed that this was by far one of the smoothest and quickest moves we've been apart of. The U-Haul was loaded and emptied, and the Steele St. address cleaned out and had a walk through in about 4 hours.

Thank you also to Molly, Micah, Yvonne and Lillian for helping us paint. It took 2 days and was a huge project but we are so thankful we got it done before our stuff was in the house. I'll hopefully get pictures up at some point but we'll see.

MOVING!

So the plan is we will be closing on the new house, this Wednesday June 27th (happy birthday Molly!) On the 28th we are getting keys and priming like mad. :) Then we are filling the U-haul on Saturday morning and moving on up to Washington land!!

Please continue to pray that closing will go smooth! need more info or if you want to help from either the Oregon side or Washington side, email me bethany_ahrendt@hotmail.com.

New House.... please pray with us that this will work out!

New house preview

This has been quite a process! We knew that it would be but i guess i thought that once we found one then things would get rolling. We've put four different actual written offers on places that we thought would be right and one verbal but each time the door has been closed..some softly others more like slams. The one above, we are both very excited about. If things go smoothly we'll be signing papers on the 27th of June and getting keys on the 29th. So, if anyone would like to help us move or paint..please let us know :)

We've done the inspection and that went great...now it's all about financing :)...Please pray that we'll be patient and really be seeking the Lord in this time. What ever happens, we'll be out of this place by the 30th because our lease will be up. So if things take a few more days with the financing then that, then we'll be staying with Dusty's sister. Let me know if you have any questions!

the Old days

So I'm down in Hauser right now to hang out withy my mom for Mother's day. We got a call at 5 this morning, from a lady in the park, saying the lower field was on fire. So i got dressed and ran down there and Bill (my dad's bestfriend who lives across from my mom now with his family) and Betty where already down there. Somebody decided to start a fire in the burn pile without telling anyone about it so a concerned neighbor called the fire department. Caleb(Bill's son) is a Volunteer at the all Volunteer fire department in town. So with their sirens blazing they came down to save us all. The guy got a talking to about what channels he needs to go thru to do something like that. Being the Oregon Coast, everything was damp from the morning dew but it still needs to be checked out by the Forest people.

Oh to be home again.... :)

Moving to Vancouver

We put an offer on a house and it was accepted! We still have the inspection and all that but i thought i'd at least share that for now. :)

God Bless

This last week or two

It has been a long time since I've written in here. It seems I've had a chance to do a lot of things recently and see a lot of people but it hasn't really been our new things. A couple of weeks ago i went down to hang out with my mom for a few days, over my spring break. While we were admiring the view up near Fircroft, in Bandon, i got a call from Joy saying her water broke. I was planning on heading up to hang out with her for a few days before she had her baby, so when i got to the North coast i got to meet Nora Evangeline Duff. During those two days i stayed with the Cherry's in Cannon Beach (Dusty's relatives). That was a lot of fun and was close to Ecola so i got to hang out with Heidi Ogg and Tina. It was a great long weekend..but it was good to get home and see Dusty. We were hoping to get the Sticklers moved that weekend (i got back from the beach on Wednesday) but that didn't end up happening until the next week. In the middle of this we went up to Dusty's cousin Stevens wedding in Seattle(pictures on the Cherry blog) So that was weekend of getting there house and yard cleaned up and then getting them finally moved on Wednesay of this week the 4th. But i'm sure one of the Stick's will eventually blog all about it and you can read more details about that adventure then.

Last night we got back from hanging out in Yakima with Dusty's parents. We got to Yakima on Saturday night and stayed with the Ahrendts. Aunt Elaine, Nicole, Tristan, Little Caileen, Shellie, and Matt all came over to play games. (i hope i didn't forget anybody) Then on Sunday after Easter Service, we went up to Leavonworth for a night. That was fun and very beautiful. The snow is still all over the hills and it's a beautiful place anyway. I'll try to get some pictures up sometime. The next day we headed back to Yakima for the night. Before we headed back to Portland we hung out with Grandma and Grandpa and then went out to Dusty's dad's school to see his classroom. He's a second grade teacher and it was cool to see his classroom even if we were to late to see his kid's.

Ok this has turned into a journal...i'll write more later.

Chuck E. Cheese

Today i went to my cousin Tanya's daughter Kaysha's 3rd birthday party. It was a lot of fun and the Chuck E. Cheese in Beaverton was pretty nice compared to the one that's near our house, which hasn't changed since the 1980's. It was sensory overload but the kid's had a blast. Here are a few pictures.

Beachy

Here are a few pictures that I got from my mom, of Cannon Beach last weekend. One of the Pastor's at Hauser Church, were at the Conference Center and took them. I thought they were pretty awesome and wanted to pass them on. This will always be a place that will feel like home to me. So many good memories and what a challenging two years it was, that i spent there. I have never seen Cannon Beach with this much snow but there's something sweet about place that is so beautiful seeing a and
treasured in it's dress up clothes. It would not have been so special if it happened every day or every year.













Right before Christmas, my friend Heidi was flying thru Portland and we decided that it'd be a good idea to get a few of the old cronies together for the weekend. Heidi flew in on friday and hung out with Amelia till i got off work. We headed down to a little town that i can't even remember the name of, outside of

Newberg and picked up Julie. She works at Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch, outside Bend and was able to hitch a ride up that far. The next day, Heidi, Amelia, Julie and I headed to Seaside to see Joy. There was no electricity over there so we hung out at Joy's house and had a small baby shower for Joy and Amelia who will both be mommy's in the next few months and then headed to the beach. We were in Gearhart so enjoyed the beach there. It was clear and beautiful, we couldn't have asked for better weather after such a big storm that same week. After goodbyes, we headed back to the city and had dinner at Red Robin. It was Heidi's birthday so she got sung to and then we headed to Melissa's house for some more hanging out time.

World of Warcraft wives

Below the spider image it says: Gamers other half
http://www.cafepress.com/gamerwidow/690242

on my heart

It's been a long time since I've really blogged what's been going on. If you even check on my blog, then you probably already knew that my dad passed away October 4th at 2:15am. We had his graveside service last friday and the memorial service was at HCC on that saturday. The Church was packed and the service went very well. The reality that my dad is gone has finally hit me, during this last week. Little things like saying i'm going to call my parental units and then rephrasing it to, i'm going to go call my mom. After a year of dad being so sick, i'm very thankful he's finally Home but still it's hard because i miss my daddy and am sad that my mom is alone at home.

I knew that someday it was very likely that one or both of my parents would go Home before me. It was a hope that it wouldn't be before a lot of stuff in our life happened such as giving them grand kids. I knew my dad would be an awesome grandpa.

But now i look back at what i've written and this is the reason why i had a hard time blogging over this last year. I don't want to seem ungrateful for everything the Lord has blessed us with during this last year. I'm very thankful that dad was able to be healthy during the time that his girls got married back in 2004. I'm thankful that they've been diligent about getting things payed off and a lot of house stuff updated, so it's not a burden for my mom to have. I'm thankful that the church back home was so encouraging and helpful with my parents this last year, so my mom was able to take time off and take care of dad. I'm so very thankful that they're surrounded by handy people who were able to do so much around the house they didn't have to hire out for people they didn't know. I'm thankful that we still live close enough that we were able to spend some quality time with dad before he passed. I'm thankful that the job i have prepared me to see dad in such a needy place physically.
I'm thankful that we got to see such an awesome example of a godly marriage, how hard times can bring the best of marriages even closer.

We saw a t-shirt the other week that said, "Live your life so that the preacher doesn't have to lie at your funeral." That has stuck with me during these weeks because i know my dad did. He was not perfect by any means but he was a man who truly loved others and put other before himself. Go ahead and click here if you want to get to know a little more of what my dad was like from my perspecitive and what i said at the memorial service.
Thanks for reading all this. :) I wanted also to thank all of you who have been such an encouragement to me during this last year. :) ....

plans

I got a call last night from my mom. They are giving my dad just a few days to live. Christa and i are heading down to North Bend tonight to spend time as a family. I'd really appreciate prayers right now for strength and encouragement i can give to my mom and sister. Thankyou...I'll update when i can or give you a contact who can email or call with questions.

till later

The start of a new school year...

Tuesday is the first day of school. I remember the feeling back in grade school when you started counting down the days till school started again. I loved the summer...it was always busy and we went on lot's of adventures. But there was something great about getting your class list of supply's and heading to Bi-mart for all new pencils, paper, and a sparkly purple pencil boxes that just made me get excited. I'd lay all my new school supplies on my bed, looking at them for awhile and then packing and repacking my backpack a few times, to make everything just right. From 1st- 5th grade, getting ready for school for consisted of wondering if i'd be going to private or public school that year.

As i got older, the end of the summer started early because of daily doubles in Volleyball or Soccer but still there was a jittery anticipation of another year, about ready to begin.

When i started with the ESD, it was near the middle of November and being a sub, i was going from school to school. This year is completely different. I got hired on at the Clackamas HS LEEP classroom full time. We've been busy going over the kids IEP goals and getting the room set up. I'm going in as a teacher rather then a student, but yet i still have the butterfly's in my stomach of what this year could hold. Here come the new haircuts, Home coming assembly's, and the smell of fried cafeteria food, all over again.

Being 25

I feel the need to write in my blog right now but i really don't have a specific subject..so let's just see what happens. I turned a quarter of a century last week and it's hard to believe, i suppose. It doesn't seem to long ago when i thought this was the start of being old. :)

I can't believe this summer will be leaving us behind in less then a month. We only have 3 more days of summer school. I haven't hear yet if i'll be working as a Temp in a classroom or back as a sub, for the fall. This summer has been great...lot's of camping and sunburns but it really has flown by. Hmm...what will this next year hold? My dad is turning 58 in four days and it will be a special birthday i am a thinking. This last week, it seems, the turn around that we've been praying for for months is finally upon us. My mom thinks he's gained two pounds and his mouth was full of walnuts (and he seemed to be enjoying them) when i called yesterday. These things are huge blessings.

Every week it seems that we find out about a new friend or family member being pregnant. It's funny how this is the summer of baby's and the last five years the summers were full of wedding bells. Such is life.

Dusty has been riding to and from work almost everyday. I got a bike for my birthday so it'll be nice to meet him on his way home and go for a ride. I know that i'm not always very positive about living in the city but one of my favorite things is having so many bike paths, so accesible.
http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?a=haccb&c=deiaj

Well i'm going to leave this blog entry rather abruptly but i'd love to hear about some things you all are learning this summer. Please comment and i'd love to hear pray requests and such too. Either posted or you can email me. betany_h15@hotmail.com

till later...