Tuesday, September 26, 2006

House of Hope

Last Saturday night Lani & I attended a dinner for the Hope of Hope - Portland. I want to encourage you to learn about House of Hope (they may have one in your community too) and to consider supporting them. They offer support, counseling, intervention, and (eventually in Portland) residential treatment centers for troubled teens. My brother-in-law, Troy Wagner, is now serving as the Executive Director for House of Hope - Portland as they build a base of support and begin to offer services in the Portland area.

You can see their website at: http://www.houseofhope-portland.org/HofH/House_of_Hope_Portland.html

Of course, at the banquet they asked for everyone's support and took up a collection and pledge cards. I wasn't able to give a whole lot there, but started feeling convicted about how much stuff I have -- just plain EXTRA stuff that I can't even use -- and decided that all the things I'd decided to list on Craigslist could just go to benefit House of Hope. Now, I'm not telling you this to say how good I am or anything (I'd much rather not let my right hand know what my left hand is doing here!), but I want to encourage you too to see what resources or stuff you might be able to let go of which can then benefit a good cause like this. It's been pretty cool. We've sold about five things so far and collected more than $300 and still have more items to go. It's a win-win-win situation too because I'm getting rid of things I don't really need, House of Hope is going to benefit, and other people are also picking up stuff they can probably really use. It also makes you feel good to be a part of reallocating God's resources for use somewhere else (it's all HIS anway, right?)!

So, what could you let go of and bless others with?

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

They grow up so fast!

I'm not even talking about my own kids! Yesterday, our very good friend, Jennifer Hamilton and her daughter, Olivia, stopped by our house. They are on their way up to Seattle Pacific University where Olivia is about to begin her freshman year! It was great to visit with them for a little while -- along with Bruce & Shirley Hamilton and Molly House (Jen's mom) -- but what a reminder of how fast all our kids are growing up! They gave us a picture of their son Lukas in his football uniform and he was looking like one tough, grown-up dude. On the flip side, our guests all commented on how much bigger and older our kids looked too.

All of this is just reminding me that I really need to cherish and enjoy the time I have with my children now, because sooner than I think they'll be out the door and off to college or work or who knows what.

Love your kids today!

Friday, September 15, 2006

End of the week update

Well, the second week of school is complete and I'm starting to settle in a bit. I'm also exhausted after staying up too late this week working on the downstairs bathroom at night. Good news there is that it's mostly finished and looks pretty nice!

Hannah got a part in the Gresham H.S. musical!!! She figured yesterday that maybe she wasn't going to be cast, but found out today that she'll be Rapunzel in the show, "Into the Woods". It's really cool because this show has a very small cast and being new and up against alot of other kids, the odds seemed stacked against her landing a part. She'll be really busy for the next couple of months. Shows are the two weeks prior to Thanksgiving.

I'm attending the Portland Symphonic Choir retreat this weekend -- Friday night and daytime Saturday -- and then going to see the musical "Wicked" Saturday night. For a couple of days, no working on the house!

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Trying to find time to blog!

Life has been busy!!! And to any friends or family watching here for updates on life here, I'm sorry that I haven't had time for posting much on my blog.

I'm now into my second week of teaching at Hollydale and starting to get a feel for my schedule and the people here. I probably know only 10 or 15 student's names at this point and am trying to figure out who everyone is and what I'm to teach them. There are 18 classes of students in our building and I see most of them twice a week.

At home, we're still trying to unpack the scores of boxes that are piled in the garage and in many corners of our house. We don't have room for quite a bit of the stuff we own and are really trying to let go of a lot of things. We've got a bunch of furniture that just won't fit in this house that I'll be craigslisting (when I have to time to photograph it and post some ads!). I'm also still finishing up many of the remodeling projects that we started. This week I should be able to put the downstairs bathroom back together now that I've finished grouting and sealing the slate floor (and painting the walls and wiring in new lights, etc.). We have painted every room in the house, put slate floors in the entry and three bathrooms, put new light fixtures in almost every room, and reworked the walls in the kitchen/dining/living room area. We'll replace the main electrical panel in the next couple of weeks and then totally gut and redo the kitchen sometime around Thanksgiving or Christmas. Ah, the joys of home-ownership!

Hannah and Micah seem to be adjusting to Gresham H.S. pretty well. Hannah has been driving them to school each day (at least for now). Hannah is trying out for their musical today. They're doing "Into the Woods". Micah is in band again and also got into a men's choir. Caleb & Levi go with me to Hollydale and we've been walking together since it's only about a block and a half. They seem to like their teachers and are starting to make new friends here. Lani is busy doing two jobs in the David Douglas School District: 2 days a week on a long-term sub/job share, and two and a half days a week teaching TAG. She's been very busy!

Well, I'd better go and get my plans ready for today's classes!