Happy Birthday, Becca!

Our sweet little Rebecca turned 5 in April! She is so excited that she is now 5. That means she gets to start Kindergarten in the fall - something she's been looking forward to for a long time.

Here are some pictures of her birthday party:

The Birthday Girl!

My little nephew, Aiden

Becca's Ladybug cake (I just couldn't get the icing red!)

Resting Place

At our Care Group on Tuesday night, one of the ladies led us in worship. She read Isaiah 66:1,2:

"This is what the LORD says:

'Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?' declares the LORD. 'This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.' "

I've heard & read these verses before, they are underlined in my Bible. But I don't think I've really understood these verses before Tuesday night. Before, I always had a picture of God sitting on His throne in heaven with His feet resting on the earth - pretty straight forward, but never gave much thought to the rest of the words. Because of my friend sharing her insight, I now have a different perspective.

I now see the focus being more on: "Where will my resting place be?" The resting place that God is seeking is in our hearts. He is looking for a place to rest, to hang out. It was like the light bulb went on! The resting place is in our HEARTS! Not some place in outerspace but in my heart! Suddenly these verses became personal! So then I asked myself: "What kind of a resting place do I have for Jesus? What is the condition of my heart?" He wants to dwell in someone who is humble and is contrite in spirit and trembles at His word. (Contrite: caused by or showing sincere remorse; filled with a sense of guilt and the desire for atonement; penitent.)

God wants to dwell, live, hang out in our humble & repentant hearts. He wants us to tremble, to be in awe at His word. How many times in a day do I mess up, get mad at the kids, not have a loving attitude toward Jeremy? How many times in a day am I selfish with my sleep time, quiet time, wanting my space, what I want to do...)? How many times does my work or the computer (e-mailing, Facebook, even blogging) take priority over God or my family? What a disgusting resting place I've created for the One who is more important to me than anything! It doesn't sound very restful to me! "Maybe that's why my soul hasn't been at rest lately," she states rhetorically! I know when it's time to clear the clutter of my heart because my heart is unsettled, my soul is not at rest.

God asks us: "Where will my resting place be?" My answer, taking it one moment at a time is: "Here, O Lord, I have prepared a resting place for You. I will wait for You alone."

Resting Place
Heaven is my throne
And earth is my footstool
Where is the house you will build for me?
Whom of you will hear the cry of my heart
Where will my resting place be?

Here oh Lord
Have I prepared for you a home
Long have I desired for you to dwell
Here oh Lord
Have I prepared a resting place
Here oh Lord I wait for you alone
Copyright © 1991 Mercy/Vineyard Publishing. All rights reserved. International copyright secured.

Thankful Thursday - UPDATED

Here it is January 3rd, 2009 and I'm just adding pictures! Jeremy found the cord for transferring pictures from our camera to our computer. So I thought instead of creating a whole new post & having to describe each picture again, I would simply put the pictures in where they should be.

Hope you enjoy!

I have much to be thankful for today! I have been wanting to post all week, but haven't because I want to post pictures with it. I can't seem to find the USB cord to transfer pictures from our camera to our laptop. So today's post will have to be without photos - Sorry!

November 9th, Jeremy & I celebrated our 12th anniversary! That is the super-condensed version! Despite not having much time today, I will elaborate a little more than that!

Earlier this fall, Jeremy told me that we were going to go away for our anniversary. He didn't want to say anything until a day or two before we left, but because of my new business & my babysitting schedule, he chose to give me fair warning. I knew we were going from Friday night to Tuesday (it was a long weekend because of Remembrance Day), but that's all he told me. I had no idea where we were staying or what we were doing.

This is how the weekend played out for me:

• Nov. 7th, Friday night - babysitting kids go home; we're packed but so are the ferries. We decide to wait & go in the morning.
• Saturday morning (Nov. 8th) we (Jeremy, the kids & I) headed for the ferry
• Saturday noon, we met my parents at Walmart near their home & left the kids & their stuff with them; Jeremy & I left for Victoria for the night to celebrate our anniversary
• Saturday - on the drive to Victoria, Jeremy hands me Envelope #1. Inside it told me where we were staying for the night
• Saturday - mid-afternoon we arrived at our Bed & Breakfast Mountainside Luxury Resort & Spa (turns out it was very close to where my grandparents lived when I was growing up!)

View from our room

The Parliament buildings in Victoria, BC

• I rested a little, showered & got ready for our evening out; Jeremy presents me with Envelope #2 telling me where we were going for dinner; Jeremy puts on his new suit (he looked awesome!)
• We go to Il Terrazzo Ristorante for dinner. We went there on our honeymoon & both LOVED it! If you're ever in Victoria and looking for a great place to eat (it's a little higher priced & not as suitable for children), definately check it out
• Saturday early evening, during dinner - Jeremy presents me with Envelope #3, telling me where we were going after dinner
• Saturday evening after dinner we walk to the Royal Theatre to watch a perfomance of the Victoria Symphony & El Viento Flamenco. It was like Celtic dancing meets Spanish music - excellent!
• After the perfomance we head back to our B&B. The next morning, Jeremy presents me with Envelope #4 telling me where we were going for brunch.
• Nov. 9th (Happy Anniversary) Sunday morning - brunch at Samuel's by the Park
• After brunch, we attempt shopping for a bathing suit for me with no luck
• Sunday afternoon we drive back up Island and meet my parents & the kids at my aunt & uncle's (their kids planned an open house to celebrate my aunt & uncle's 25th anniversay).
• Sunday early evening, my parents & the kids leave early from the open house to drop some things off at another aunt & uncle's; we leave shortly after and meet my parents & the kids at a swimming pool (my parents have time shares in Parksville so they can use the pool there whenever they want for free).


• Sunday evening my parents take us out for dinner in Parksville to celebrate our anniversary
• Sunday evening, dessert time for the kids - the waitress brings the kids their desserts & hands me an envelope!
• Envelope #5 - "Actually, there is one more thing!"
• Inside the envelope:

Dear Leanne,

You are the wife a man can only dream of having. You have walked with me through some of the hardest days of my life and some of the best days of my life. You have encouraged me, loved me, supported me, and embraced my inner being with deep love & great affection. God has blessed me beyond what I deserve by giving me you. What words or actions, pledges or wonders could I ever do to express the deep gratitude of love I have for you, my best friend.

I have worked on this anniversary since January of this year, looking at ways I could show my appreciation for all the work you have done and all the love you have put into our family. I hope our time in Victoria achieved my desire to let you know how much I love you and how much I appreciate all that you do for me and this family.

BUT, as I said, I could never do enough.

I have arranged for us as a family to spend the rest of this week, until Sunday, at Pacific Shores Nature Resort. I told ___ & ___ (babysitting parents) that you are not available this week and the Epicure party you booked for this coming Thursday has been re-booked for the following Thursday. I have arranged with Daniel's school for him to be away as well and have brought his work to be done.

What do I have planned for this week? Nothing. I have talked with my family about us being here and we can visit them through the week and do whatever else we want to do. This is our family vacation in honor of you and all you do for us as a family. Thank you, Leanne."

Needless to say, the tears were flowing down my face! So in the end, what I thought was going to be a weekend on the Island with Jeremy & I gone for one night, turned into us staying for the entire week! I was completely shocked!

That week was SO good! It was the first time we, as a family - Jeremy, the kids & I, had ever had a holiday by ourselves. When we have holiday time, we always go to visit family. Even when we went to Saskatchewan a few years ago, we travelled with my parents. I am so glad they were with us, but there's also something to be said about just being by ourselves with the kids.

We had a great week hanging out just the four of us. We took the kids to a movie, I finally bought a new bathing suit (yeah!), we played tourist, took pictures (sorry, I still can't find the cord), relaxed and visited family. I loved it! Each evening I'd sit in the living room, look out the windows into the darkness, look at the lights reflecting on the ocean water & sigh. It was so perfect.

My Dad - I love this picture!

Daniel's photography

Cousin time

Family Time

It's been good being home again, but I think I could have stayed another week! Maybe next year!

Thank you to everyone who played a part, in some way or another, in planning this surprise for me. I was completely shocked and amazed at all the details that went into it!

To Jeremy, THANK YOU! I don't know how else to say it! You touched my heart in a very deep way & I love you more than I can put into words. I am SO thankful that God brought us together. Two people who grew up on the Island, with common friends, going to the same church camp at the same time, but not meeting till years later...God's ways are perfect! I love you and I'm looking forward to the next 12 years and beyond!

Catch Up

Jeremy is out for the evening and the kids are in bed. So I thought I'd update a little before starting my movie.

Before Christmas, a friend from Bible school was out for her grandma's funeral so a group of us decided to get together for a little "girl's nite out". Each of us were unit-mates (lived in the same unit) during my first year at Columbia Bible College. The only one missing was my roommate, Elisabeth, who lives in Germany.

First we met at a local restaurant, then because it happened to be the time change ("hey, it's not as late as we thought...!"), we headed back to my place for a little further catching up. Jeremy was there so he got to reminisce with us as we looked through old year books.

Here are a few pictures of our evening.

Me, Laurali, Dolly, Lisa & Misty

Dolly, Lisa & Misty

Me & Laurali

Prayer Update

Several weeks ago, I mentioned about a friend of mine that has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She regularly updates on how she's doing. I have her permission to share the link with you. As she said, "The more people praying, the better". The problem is that I think I need to add your e-mail individually.

So, if you would like to receive her regular updates on how she is doing with her chemo treatments & how she is choosing to praise God through this challenge, leave a comment telling me so & I'll add your e-mail address to her CarePages updates (be sure to leave your e-mail address if I don't already have it).

If you don't want to receive her updates but still want to pray for her, her name is Danika. Her husband, Scott is a State trooper in Washington & they just had their 6th child just before she started her chemo. She is the same age as me - 36. It sure puts things into perspective!

Please keep them in your prayers.

~ Thank you

Family Time

A couple Sundays ago, we went to The Apple Barn here in town. Daniel had been in Kindergarten for a field trip but the rest of us had never been. We met some friends there from our new church and had a great time!

The kids went up and down the slide and through the little maze over and over again. We laughed and cheered so hard when Jeremy & our friends went down a very steep, windy & not-so-wide of a slide! I was wise and decided to stay on firm ground (okay - I was probably a little scared & I'm not that adventerous!).

It was a beautiful sunny, October day. It was good to be out in the fresh air and enjoying some time with new friends. It felt like old times (hanging out with people we know)!

Here are some picutres from our outing!

Prayer Requests

I have a couple of different friends who could really use prayer right now. I will omit their names, but please pray for them as God leads you.

#1 One friend is pregnant with her sixth child & just had a biopsy taken today (possible cancer).

#2 A blog friend is sitting by her husband's side awaiting his heart surgery in the morning.


Both of these friends love the Lord and are striving to remain firm. Thank you for your prayers.

Happy Birthday, Daniel!

Here it is Saturday & I still haven't posted about Daniel's birthday! So here goes!

Lst Sunday (the 28th) we had Daniel's birthday party after church. We came home quickly from church & finished our preparations (aka: decorate the cake!). Daniel turned 7 this week (on the 30th)! I was away on the Island last weekend doing an Epicure party for my Mom. Because we knew I'd be away, we made a decision to have Daniel's party at the local McDonald's PlayPlace. It was great coming home Saturday evening knowing I didn't have to quickly run around cleaning & prepping our home to be invaded by 10 other kids.

Instead, we let them invade the McDonald's. It was well worth the money!

This year Daniel was able to invite kids from school. It was great being able to connect again with the kids' parents.

Each year I have made the kids' birthday cake. I enjoy decorating it & seeing the look of excitement on their face when they see their cake for the first time. This year, because I knew I wouldn't have much time just before the party, I chose to go a simpler route. I made a double layer cake a few days before the party (I cheated & used a cake mix this time). Then, instead of cutting & creating a design, I worked with a flat 9" x 13" cake. We made green icing (for the grass) and blue icing (for the water). I had borrowed some Playmobil pieces from a friend and in the end, the cake had a little Indian theme, complete with a teepee, campfire, Indians, and canoe. Then we sprinkled on some brown sprinkles (for dirt!).

It was very cute if I may say so!

Here are some pictures of the cake and Daniel's party.

Look how much you've grown!

Happy 7th Birthday, Daniel!

Thankful Thursday

I couldn't wait for this morning to come, so I'll just get right into it!

Today I am thankful for:

• My wonderful, sweet, thoughtful & amazing husband
• Free Cycle/Full Circle
• Blessings that God gives us - just because
• My "new" patio swing!

Now for a little background! We are signed up with our city's Free Cycle (in our city it's called Full Circle). It's an internet-based "organization" with which people can post "Wanted" and "Offer" ads. All items must be given & received for free. The idea is to keep as much stuff out of the land fill as possible.

We have received a couple items already through Full Circle (click here to read about those). This past spring/early summer, I posted an ad on Full Circle requesting a patio swing. Because of the reaction my skin gets when it's exposed to the sun, I wanted to have a patio swing with an awning so that I could sit on it in the backyard, keep an eye on the kids and not get itchy in the process. I didn't receive any responses at that time.

Yesterday, someone was offering a patio swing that needs a little repair to the cushion & awning material. I forwarded the e-mail to Jeremy asking what he thought. He quickly dismissed it as not a good idea because of the repairs that would need to be made to the fabric. But I didn't want to give up that easily so I e-mailed the man back, asking if the swing was structurally sound. I never received a response back and the next thing I knew, the man had posted an e-mail stating "the patio swing has been taken".

My practical side said, "Oh well, maybe next time!" And that was the end of it. Or so I thought!

My wonderful, amazing, thoughtful, sweet...did I mention amazing?!...husband had taken matters into his own hands. With a couple of loving white lies (okay - they were rather blatant lies), he e-mailed the man himself and said he would love to take it as a surprise for his wife (me!). The man was concerned because I had already e-mailed him asking questions about it. So Jeremy (he's so smart) suggested the man (who happens to be a Christian!) send out an e-mail stating that the item had been taken. So that's what the man did; that's the e-mail I received which led me to believe that I had lost out on this opportunity for good.

Well, the next part of the story is pretty cool. Our next door neighbors were receiving some "new to them" furniture from their friends and we were taking our neighbors "finished with" furniture. As a stipulation (with a smile), our neighbor said we could have their funiture if Jeremy brought a truck home from his work to help them pick up their "new" stuff. So of course Jeremy obliged! He helped bring their old furniture over to our garage/rec room (it looks amazing now, by the way) then helped to pick up their "new" furniture. After all of this work, Jeremy told me that our neighbors' friend, Ian, needed help moving a couple things, so Jeremy had to go back out. No problem, I thought! Here's a great opportunity for Jeremy to connect with more non-Christians!

As it turns out, Ian didn't need help with anything. Jeremy took advantage of having a truck from his work and went to pick up the afore mentioned patio swing! He very quietly brought each cushion and piece up the back stairs onto our back deck. I was oblivious to the whole ordeal. When it came to moving the main frame, Jeremy enlisted the help of our new tennant. Together they quietly snuck it up the stairs and set the whole thing up.

I was sitting in the living room flipping through channels on the TV when Jeremy walked in. I asked how it had gone helping Ian. He said that it went well...there was some extra stuff on the back deck. What?! What extra stuff? Don't we already have enough furniture? Okay, I'll come see what's on the deck.

This is what I saw (well, actually I could barely see it because it was dark out and we don't have any lights on our back deck):

My FREE new-to-me patio swing!

For other Thankful hearts, visit Iris at Sting My Heart.

Our Holiday in Pictures (Part 3)

I'm realizing now that we took a lot of pictures on our holiday! That just means I can do more pictures and fewer words! If you haven't seen the first two sets of pictures, click here for Part 1; click here for Part 2.

The first set of pictures are from our day trip to Carp Lake for fishing, swimming & just hanging out. We arrived just in time for lunch so quickly roasted some hot dogs for lunch. After lunch, we launched the boat into the water and Ernie & Jeremy took Daniel, Becca & Kathleen out for a ride & a little fishing. After a couple of hours, they returned with one small fish that Kathleen caught. Although our kids didn't catch anything, they were excited just to be on the boat!

Ernie let Daniel & Becca take turns steering the boat.

They couldn't stop talking about it after!

Jeremy taking time out for a little fly fishing

Daniel ready to explore the lake

Mid-week we adjusted our plans. Jeremy & I had wanted to head further north to visit Jeremy's brother, sister-in-law & four girls but scheduling just didn't work out. So instead, we all (my sister & family, parents & us) headed south to Barkerville. If you have never been to Barkerville, I highly recommend going. Click here for Barkerville's website.

There were a number of these little guys eating popcorn that people had dropped on the ground

Taking a break from all the walking
(Dad, Ernie, Paul, Douglas & Daniel)

All the employees are dressed up in period clothing

One of the pictures Jeremy took at Barkerville

This church is the only building I remembered from the last time I visited Barkerville - many years ago

At the end of our day at Barkerville, we all said our sad good-byes. Poor Becca cried for at least an hour after we left. Over the almost 2 weeks that Daniel & Becca had been in Mackenzie, Becca really bonded with Kathleen. They were almost inseperable. But the time had come - Karen, Ernie & kids still had to drive 4hrs back home that night with terrible weather looming on the horizon. We had about a 2-3hr drive ahead of us as we headed south to Williams Lake for the night. Mom & Dad have long-time friends there so we usually stay the night as we pass through. We were fortunate enough to hit the bad weather on the way down too - thunder, lightening and heavy rain. At one point, Jeremy pulled over because he couldn't see the lines on the highway! After a bit, we continued on, driving slowly. Mom & I were doing whatever we could to keep the kids calm (and try to keep Becca from starting to cry for Kathleen again). We sang church songs, played games, told stories, anything!

The next morning, we loaded up the van and continued on our way home, this time with more favorable weather. On our way, we stopped for lunch at Horsting's Farm Market. If you're passing through Cache Creek, and the farm market is open, it is definately worth stopping for.

A picture of the Horsting's apple orchards
We used the distance for Daniel to expel his energy!

Jeremy - taken by Becca

And that is the end of our holiday! We are thankful for a safe trip and all the fun we had. 'Till next time...!