Our Soon-To-Be Home!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to involve you all in the excitement happening here, specifically in the housing arena of life! Basically, as I've told you before, we are living in an apartment right now. Although we're not exactly sure when, sometime in September, our house will be ready to be moved into! We've been visiting the lot every week or two and each time we go, so much progress has been made! It's really exciting! I'm already looking forward to the good times we'll have there with you fine folks. Enjoy the pics!

Char

How are you gonna spend your new life?

After countless pleadings, and begging me repeatedly, I have decided to please my wife by giving everyone an update from my perspective. SO, here you go...

Life for me has been VERY hectic lately. I usually work Monday through Thursday and take Thursday afternoons, all of Friday and Saturday mornings off. We have 5 weekend service at Sagebrush; so, from Saturday around 3 until Sunday at 1, I am swamped. It is so exciting to see the Lord moving among the people in the church but the sheer number of people is a bit overwhelming. I work on a great team who is supportive, active, decisive, and truly love what they do. As a result we ALL tend to be work-a-holics. There are even rumors in my office of beginning an accountability group, so that we can tell each other when to go home and be with our wives. The flip side is that there are some really amazing things happening because of hard-work and God's blessing.

One of the things I have been working on lately is developing a second international site where our church can reach Muslim-Arabs. Right now, I am focused on France and have been working on building a relationship with a missionary in Marseilles. I have spent a lot of time calling, e-mailing, and skype-ing this worker and he has been very generous with his time. Last week was our first 2nd Saturday event, in which we took about 80 people downtown and did some community service, a.k.a. mercy ministry. It turned out very well and was the culmination of many hours of hard work. Here is a picture...

My home life has been a bit crazy as well. Friday. I finally completed all my school work for my summer classes. My wife has been a saint as she has put up with me reading and doing reports every evening for the past two weeks. It has been quite funny to see her change since we have been here. She has never been inclined toward domestic duties but has found herself at home for countless hours over the past couple of weeks. She NEEDS to be working is what she tells me but I kinda like having her at home every night. I do not miss the days or nights of her coming home at 9:00 from the hospital. However, she is going a little bit batty. SO, if you ever think about it, give her a call and relieve her from her apartment-like prison cell.

All in all, we are doing well. I recently told a co-worker that I was just trying to keep my head above water, and she suggested scuba gear as a solution. I just might take her advice. Anyways, that's how we are doing, how about you?

Independence Day

Our New Life in New Mexico

Well, thankfully, we're starting to get into somewhat of a groove here. With the help of our good friends, Moses and Debra, we moved into our apartment on the morning of July 4th. We didn't realize it when we got the apartment, but on the night of the 4th, we found that our apartment was a prime location to see the Rio Rancho firework display. We just sat on our patio, sipped on some sodas, and enjoyed the beauty of the night! It was wonderful...a very nice ending to a hard day of moving.

The day after we moved in, Matt's mom, Charlotte, came to visit. Her primary focus was to do an Extreme Makeover: Refrigerator Edition. So, that's exactly what we did. The three of us jumped into the car and headed to Wal-Mart and wow, did we shop!? We got some real goodies. What a treat that was! Thank you, Charlotte!

Our first house guests, my parents, came the next day! We were so excited to have them visit and stay with us! It's good to be close enough to family to be able to do that! To those of you reading this, know that visitors are always welcome! So, if any of you need a place to hang out or crash for the evening, please come over! We'd love to have you! We thrive on that kind of thing!

So, Matt has really been enjoying his new job at Sagebrush. In the short time he's been there, he's developed some great relationships and has learned so much from the people around him. Each day, he comes home with something new and exciting to tell me about. We're so thankful to be a part of this church again!

As for me, I've still been job hunting. The most action has come this week! I will have a total of 3 interviews this week. The different areas include Labor and Delivery, Post-Operative (after surgery) Care, and an Access Unit (basically obtaining information from patients prior to their admission into the hospital). We'll see what happens! Although I have been enjoying my time off visiting friends and family, I am eager to get started!

Well, I guess that's all for now. Please write or call when you get some free time. It's always good to hear from you.

Love ya,
Char

P.S. Just to let you know, I inserted some pictures onto the last 2 blog posts (June 16th and June 25th). So, have a look if you'd like!