Rent this!

Angels in the Dust. You can find it on Netflix. It was eye-opening in many ways, and an amazing story. You can read more about it at Dream Out Loud.

Updated Pictures

Proof that we are still alive and well! ;)

Thanks Josh, nice bunny ears!

A nice blustery day at Edmonds beach!

Lance's Grandma, Happy 90th!

My and my grandpa, happy 85th!

Life Goes On....

In the midst of utter chaos! We leave in 11 days. Newsworthy items:

*We have over 300 pair of NEW shoes donated and and at least another 100 gently used pairs to bring. We have purchased shoes in Addis (in large quantities) twice in the last year and the quality is not great. We decided this trip to make shoes our priority. We are starting to pack orphanage items tomorrow night as a team.

*All 6 of us visited the Travel Nurse last week. She had a spreadsheet ready! We had a 3 hour block of time scheduled, and luckily made it out sooner.

We all got the Flu "mist" (50 percent more effective that the shot last year). Sami and Tsion caught up on a couple vaccines. Our typhoid shot (good for 2 years) expired, so Lance, Zach, Josh and I all got the Typhoid pill....which lasts 5 years. The negative is you have to take 4 pills every other day, on an empty stomach. (Which means 2 hours empty, then one hour till food) A pain in the rear especially on Thanksgiving!

We walked out with a prescription for Malaria pills (we will be in Nazret for 4 days, although we only saw one mosquito last year we will take it), an anti-diarreahal (a good thing to have!) and Ambian for Lance and I.....although I may rethink that later....just Kiddin!!! And...no, I have not picked them up yet, and I will probably have to pick up an anti-anxiety pill first, cuz I am sure it is well over $500. Yikes!

*We celebrated Lance's grandmas 90th birthday last week!

*Lance's Mom received her Doctorate 2 weeks ago.

*Tsion was listening as I asked Lance to do something, and he didn't hear me. She looked at me and said. "Mom, sometimes Husbands don't do what you tell them. But you still have to love them because we are a family." Speaking of which.......

*Lance and I got a free night at the Red Lion, and spent a relaxing couple days in Seattle last weekend.

*We discovered the ExOfficio store in Seattle, and headed straight to the clearance room. We got some great lightweight clothes for the trip, for a fraction of the cost. And just so you all know, we will be packing 3 pair of underwear from there as well. ;)

*Zach and Sami have two more "outdoor" soccer games, Josh starts indoor soccer this weekend.

*We are finalizing our trip projects. The first few days in Addis will be important as we work on that. Please pray for wisdom and discernment for us during that time.

Happy November!

Since I am so lame at blogging lately, I will at least leave you with this last video...maybe till January! We leave the 13th of December for Addis. (Note to mail thief: we have in-laws who now live here. Do not steal my Christmas cards this year!) Tsion and Sami will get to visit thier 4 month old sister, and we will be working on projects in Addis, as well as holding Young Life camp again.

One cute Tsion story. We found a pumpkin outfit on sale for $1. We grabbed it for her baby sister Eyrus. Sami was like "no, no way." Tsion looked at him in her semi-sweet and sassy way and said "I can decorate my sister however I want!!"

You can pray for our group and trip in December. We are dealing with some corruption in the orphanage we have been supporting the last year. The goverment in Ethiopia is involved, and we are not sure what will end up happening. More importantly, please pray for all 100 kids who are and are wrapped up in the mess.

Enjoy your family this Thanksgiving!

Ta-Da!

Did you notice? Sami got his contacts. It is so great not to have to worry about glasses and sports, and going to get the adjusted all the time cuz they are falling off!! His vision without glasses was around 20/2200. With glasses it was about 20/40. Now it is 20/25! Having the lens on his eyes helped that much. He is VERY exited about showing them off to his family and friends in Ethiopia!

Happy Halloween?

We did, I s'pose, have a "Happy Halloween." We have not celebrated Halloween for a few years, mostly because of my eldest. When he was around 8, the night started freaking him out. He has a discerning spirit, and he was asking "Why do we celebrate this night?"

So, while everyone is chatting about political flip-flopping, this year we flip-flopped on Halloween. The kids wanted to dress up, and hang out with their friends. We dug thru the Young Life bins, and came up with costumes....(except for Tsion, I had found her a cheerleading costume at Goodwill). Then, we did what everyone does...get in the car and drive to the "cool neighborhood." This neighborhood is almost completely blocked off, and cars have to park on the main road. There are kids EVERYWHERE! It was crazy. Will we do it next year? Maybe, but I would rather just buy a big bag of candy and stay home. ;) Zach did rename the night, he called it the "get-as-much-candy-as-you-can-night."

I happened to snap this as the smoke machine off!

Digging thru their stuff, they couldn't wait till they got home!

This was actually someones house! The yards here were decked out. You can see the ghost on the top right, he was going back and forth on a pulley system.

Pumpkin Party

This week we went to a pumpkin party at one of my friends house. She has the coolest set up for kids. They turned their garage into a "game room" with everything a kid could want! PS3, big screen, bean bags, 2 pin ball machines, a driving video game, and even a real Mrs. Pac-Man for us moms. ;) A great way to entice the high-school/middle school kids to hang out at YOUR house! (And yes, Sami is missing.....he was in HUGE trouble, and stayed at home with Lance's parents......)