New Mini - Old Mini

This afternoon we paid our friend Greg a visit. Greg has had this red “racing strips” new Mini for several years and I have ALWAYS loved his car (and he's known it). So, I had to show off my new toy and gain some perspective on the difference in size between the old and new models. The classic is much smaller than the new minis as you can see. Isn't it awesome that we both have the red mini with the white racing strips? Love it.

Da Mini

Well, I have to admit, I was not expecting this Christmas present. But oh my gosh! I'm in love with my new car! Yes that's right. I got a classic mini.
 

As many of our readers know, about 6 months ago Mike was looking into starting a classic mini cooper importing business. (In short) after hours and hours of research we determined that it was not going to work. So, I gave up the idea of getting a classic mini. Until Saturday when Mike completely surprised me with a gorgeous red mini in our driveway. It came all the way from Belgum through Dallas and took 6 months to find, purchase and arrive. It is a 1999, sport pack, fuel injected beauty. One of the very last years they made the mini-mini style. You’ve got to see it to believe it. VroomVroom…

Friends around the holidays

Some our of good holiday memories this year include our friends thank goodness. It is so fun to use the holidays as an excuse to hang out and catch up or just go out.





















Our friends Jason and Carolyn (pictured 1st): Jason is deployed right now and could use all our prayers.





















Old friend: Emily and super awesome boyfriend Brandon.

**Also, we did not get a photo of our friends Sheena and Chris but we just discovered that they bought the house right across from us. So we are neighbors which is way cool!

Project Done

 

This post is for my sister Megan, cause she asked for it. We've had a BIG project going on in our house since Thanksgiving and it is finally done. I honestly can't believe we hadn't done it sooner. We've lived in this house going on 2 years. Well, we painted the whole inside of our house (exlcuing the bedrooms and bathrooms that we've already painted). This included our 2 story stairwell. Mike was hanging off a ladder from the wrong side with his paint bucket attached to the back of his jeans. I could not get a picture because I had to "spot him" as if I was going to catch him if he fell. Ha! Then we put a chair rail up in the entry, which was almost the hardest part. Well the tree is up and the project is done. That feels good.

A High Maintenance Christian

The other day I realized that I am a high maintenance Christian. I constantly need encouragement, reassurance and direction. I am always looking for signs that I am on God’s path and not straying onto something my personal desires have invented. And I am not talking about every once in a while. I am saying I have a daily need for direction, conformation and encouragement.

Furthermore, I struggle with simple things in life like church attendance, who to send donations to and what constitutes appropriate viewing material on television.

So not only do I require constant attention, I also require constant corrections. I think this makes me a high maintenance Christian.

Every mother will tell you that some children need a lot of attention and encouragement, while others need very little. Only recently I have discovered I am the former and not the latter.

God wants us to be dependant on Him in our pursuits and life, but I wonder if I cross the line from a needy-child to a child with special needs. And if so is this a bad thing, or just a natural state of Christianity? After all, aren’t we all special and need special things to keep us moving in the right direction?

Psalms 62:7-8, My salvation and my honor depend on God; He is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to Him for God is our refuge.

Another interesting thought.

I find it worthy of note how we are instructed to
'boldly' approach the throne of God, yet we are also
instructed to 'humbly' approach the throne of God.
Which is it? IT'S BOTH!

I know Christians who never question their actions or
behaviors, they have somehow received salvation but no
change takes place in their behavior.

Jesus says that we must pick up our cross 'daily' and
follow Him. Which, to me involves a desire to grow in
Him and walk uprightly before Him. Walking uprightly
before Him requires daily maintenance. I believe that
God wants us to stay alert and be on guard for attacks
from the enemy, BUT....we have the Holy Spirit
dwelling within us who will "check" us if we start to
go off track. Ask Him for clarity and discernment and
He will give it to you.

And finally, remember who you are in Him, your His
Son, a co-heir with Christ, you have awesome authority
and favor resting on you! You are redeemed by the
Blood of Jesus! You are His treasured possession! You
are the apple of His eye! His thoughts for you
outnumber the sand on the seashore!
He chose you to be His very own!

Thanksgiving...with family

We took the chance while we were all dressed up to take a family photo for mom's Christmas cards while at the Singing Christmas Tree.
Thanksgiving with the Knoll family including, mom and dad, younger brother Josh, Megan and Jason and Grandpa Knoll. This year we had the feast at our house. Even though we're in the middle of some painting projects things were festive and cozy.
 

Mike normally takes on the adventuresome challenges of frying our turkey. But this year he also wanted to hand glaze our ham with a huge blow torch. I tell you...boys will be boys. But they both were delicious!

Kauai

Kauai Photo Album

We just returned on Sunday from our week in Kauai with my parents and my brother Josh. It was a really full and fun trip. Kauai is amazing and there is so much to see and do. Since Josh, Mike and I are all certified divers we did a lot of underwater exploration and got 6 dives in. As you will see in our photos, we also did some sightseeing, sunning and snorkeling.

This was our first week long, distance trip with my family since Mike and I have been married. I can say that after many trips together on our own it was nice to spend the time with Josh and my parents. They are adventuresome and easy going. It definitely made the trip more dynamic all around to travel with them. Since we have another large family trip coming up with Mike's whole family I felt that this was a good warm up to traveling tropically with family members. Enjoy the slid show (if you click the sunset photo it will take you to a site where you can play a large format slide show of all 160 of the pictures).

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Dive Stories from the trip:
I have to add that there were 2 blunder stories that I must share. To make fun of myself…since at the time they were TOTALLY UNFUNNY to me and now I can laugh at myself over them. Both revolve around diving.

I got certified to dive with my brother who I call “B”. I always called myself the weakest link of the class because it took me longer to do things and I had a few fears to get over too. Just wanted to preface the story with this tidbit as this was the first time I was diving with my brother since the class and did we our certification dives separately, his in the hood canal in February and me in Mexico. See, weakest and wimpiest link.

Story 1
We went on 2 boat dives on our 1st day in Kauai. The 1st was a deep dive to 90ft. At this depth you must be really careful with your decompression times and you must do a safety stop on your way to the surface after the dive. All 3 of us had bought new scuba gear for this trip. I’d not used my BC ‘buoyancy compensator” yet and it had an integrated weight system in it to keep me that deep underwater instead of a weight belt, which I was use to.

So, the story goes…we’re down swimming around at 90ft. and about 2/3rds through the dive I notice my brother is not with the group. The visibility is about 40 feet so since I can’t see him I start freaking out. I motion to Mike that my brother is gone. He did not seem to be concerned. I’m thinking…my brother has not been diving recreationally before, this is not good. He is out somewhere by himself. What if something has happened? I freak out. 1st thing NOT to do while diving…freak out. I start spinning myself around seeing where my bro is. I knock one of my weights out of the pouch, then the weight of the missing weight off centers me and the other weight falls out. This is not good…because it causes me to start shooting for the surface “almost like a rocket”. Mike sees me “thankfully” and comes to my rescue but he cannot keep me from floating to the surface. On the way up one of my fins comes off from all my kicking to stay under water. The group said it looked like we were having a garage sale on the ocean floor with all my dive gear. Anyway, turns out my brother’s air had run low and he went up to the boat just a few minutes before all this happens. Everyone seemed to know this but me. The whole thing was very traumatic but thank God…Mike and I were fine. We did not struggle with decompression sickness but it sure was scary. I learned that my brother is a really good diver and he motioned to me every time after when he was going to the surface.

Story 2 (this one will be a little funnier)
We could not do multiple days of boat diving since it was about $150 per person per day. So we found some shore dives to do instead. Our favorite dive was Koloa Landing and we dove there 3 times before wanting to find another spot to try. So we went to Poi’pu Beach Park, which was a nice beach where you entered through the waves. Now, dive gear is heavy, like around 50lb and you have to get all of your gear on before entering the water. You put your fins on once you get out into deep enough water. So we wade out into the surf and of course, weakest link me, I get toss into a big wave and lose my mask and snorkel. Mike and Josh got me out of the water, which took some doing, since once you fall over in the waves with all that gear on you can’t stand up easily. But my mask was gone. I was crushed, a $100 mask lost. We stood on the beach while Mike and Josh looked for it. For about 20 minutes with all the beach dwellers watching us. It could not be found. That was going to be the end of diving for me on the trip. No mask, no diving. Right before we left the beach, Mike spotted the mask. He swam out and finally got it. Hurrah!! But the mood was set…no diving that day. Waves were just too rough for me. I had had it.

A few point I want to make. God is good and really protected us novice divers on this trip. Diving is really worth it. Snorkeling is fun but diving is amazing. So don’t get the wrong idea because of my trauma diving stories. Last, my brother and Mike are safe, strong divers and really made the trip for me. I could not and would not have done it with out them. They rock!

Job Interviews

Today we had some somewhat big "job" things going on. Mike had an interview for a mortgage loan analyst position at The Standard. It went well but it is always hard to know with interview, especially 1st interviews. He’s looking for a new job now, though. Time to move on.

I connected with my contact at Nike, finally. The position we had talked about has not been approved - yet. It does not mean it will or won't get approved. Frustrating but that's Nike!! Basically, it was a good contact to make but I am not holding my breath for anything to happen. The contact I have had with the creative recruiting team is a great connection to have but she suggested that I connect with the Global Recruiting Director and she is going to pass my resume along with a great recommendation for him to meet me for other positions. So, we'll see. I guess this job is going to be harder than I thought to get.

Thankfully, I am ok with my current situation for now. Maybe I'll revisit this in 2008. But for now, it's time for a vacation and Mike and I are off to Kauai!! See you in a week.

Halloween

 

Mike got to wear his costume at work for Halloween. Lucky guy. Thanks to our students we really had a fun holiday. What I mean is, having our young students with us gives us a "good" reason to do kid like things, like getting dressed up so they will experience all the American traditions like Trick or Treating. And...with just a simple invitation we got our friends Oz and Kel to dress up too. We passed out candy to loads of darling little kids and simply enjoyed the pagan holiday tradition.

Fun Weekend Pictures

 

Making Homemade Pizzas
Carving Our Pumpkins 

 

 

 

This past weekend we had some fun with the students at my parents house. We went to the pumpkin patch, played the Wii and took rides on my brothers new moto.

Coursing

 

 

 

This past weekend we had a new experience, "coursing" or watching our friends dog race. Allan & Eryn effectionately known as A&E took us to see their dog Sife's race. He unfortunately came in last but it was still a blast.

New Turn

Just got the bug to redesign my blog this weekend. But as I know from experience, you can't please everyone. Mike doesn’t like it. Said it was “too pink” to consider it our blog. I said, “you're a guy and guys don't blog or go onto our blog often enough for your opinion to count”? But then I got to thinking, maybe it should be my blog? I'm the blogger so I going to go with pink for now. ;)

On to more important things...I really appreciate those who have been praying and thinking of me about my potential job change. I have felt an absolutely calming sense of peace about the waiting and the outcome. Which is huge. But, I am still waiting as these decisions with big companies like Nike can take a while to go through the process. I am told that I will hear the outcoming of their decision by Friday which means they will either get the approval for a full time staff position or they won’t. But if they do, they will have to go through the motions of posting the position, interviewing internal applicants and then I would potentially be made the offer. So, I am not going anywhere until at least December 1st. In the meantime, I am actually really blessed in my current job. Things have really slowed down and my team is surprisingly really, surprised me. In many ways that I won’t go into here. But thank you for your prayers for me. It means the world to me that you would pray for God to bless me with His peace and His will in this area of my life.

On one final note, I’ve been incredibly charged (like a battery) with energy, in so many ways and I plan to post some thoughts about this. In my marriage, friendships, our exchange students and my personal life. I appreciate sometimes posting things from my heart because I do desire to share with you what’s going on in my life. I don’t intend to use my blog as my daily journal but I really appreciate those out there who do. I am encouraged by you.

RV Road Trip

Redwood Trip

So before you open the slid show of photos from our RV trip I will give you a little background. We had not planned on going on this trip until 3 or 4 weeks ago. Mike has wanted to go to the Redwoods for as long as I’ve known him. In August we went to Glacier National Park with my parents which was one of 3 National Parks Mike really has wanted to go to. The perfect inspiration was Jennifer’s invitation for a trip just a month ago. So out of the blue, one of us brings up “what about renting an RV?” And that’s where the RV trip came from. And what a fantastic idea. Now we have a new exchange student, Bene and she is such a complete doll that we just had to invite her along. So all in all, it made for such a great combination. We drove from Portland last Monday to Florence, Oregon and spent the night. Then drove on along the 101 to the Redwoods and camped 2 nights in the forest. We did a lot of hiking, sightseeing and campfire grilling. After seeing the giant Redwoods we drove on to Napa Valley for some wine tasting, good dinning and a day at Calistoga Hot Springs Spa. Our trip back included a stop at Crater Lake which was snow covered and cold. Enjoy the photo show.

Jen's Birthday Dinner!!

Thanks to everyone who made my 26th birthday so special. I had sushi twice and as you can see, it was a lot of sushi the 2nd time. I went to lunch with my colleagues at Koji and then dinner at Mio. I'm all sushied out!

NIKE

I've been very hesitant to post anything about this, mainly because I thought it was not worthy and also I don't know who really reads my blog. But I feel strongly now that those (who I know read my blog) will be willing to pray for me about this.

So, I have been exploring an opportunity at Nike for a long time now. And about a month ago I made a connection with a fantastic contact, the Director of Creative and Marketing Recruitment. I've now had 3 meetings and the stars seem to be aligning for an opportunity there. I’m really looking for the right opportunity and I know how hard it is to get in with this company. I’ve been trying for a year.

The situation now (in a nutshell) is that last week I met with a new hiring manager, Shelly, who was asked to meet with me by the Director. We hit it off and had a great chemestry between us. Her recruiting pod does recruiting for Marketing and Brand positions, which is right up my ally (huge smile ;) and amazing news for me. She is loosing her recruiter and needs to replace them. But that person was a contractor not a full time employee.

This week Shelly, is going to the powers that be to see if they can get a full time staff position approved. This position has been needed for a long time, she says. But in the corporate world, getting this approval is very difficult and can sometimes take months. They need to hire now and very likely can bring in a contractor either way. I would be happy to be a contractor to get my foot in the door. However, it is not as stable and I really want a full time position to be offered.

I struggle to know how to pray about this. God knows my current situation and also my desires and I don't want to pray selfishly. I want to ask for God's will for the situation. The job has not been offered to me but I have many reasons to believe that it will be. I just got an email from the hiring manager giving me the update that they have several meetings with the "powers that be" this week. So I know that this is the time to be prayerful about the situation. I want to pray for God's sovereign favor over the situation and that His Will, will be done.

Will you please pray for me?

The Girl's Outing

Just wanted to post these cute pics of us girls this weekend. We went to the Gorge, Multinomah Falls and the Rose Garden on Saturday. I am so grateful for our great students!!

Benedict Fanscia

We absolutely love our students. It's really the best for us right now, having students that is. We feel like the parents of teenagers and it's great experience, I must say. Benedict "Bene" for short, our new student is fantastic. She's loving, happy, enthusiastic and we love her, so much already. Saki is hilarious and I love her expressions, pronunciation of English and inquisitive nature. They both are so humorous to listen to and interact with. We played truth or dare Jenga tonight with my sister Megan, Saki and Bene. Bene was asked to slow dance with a broom and I wish a got a picture, it was hilarious. Saki had to act like a rock star and she played a broom like a guitar like a pro to Pearl Jam. We’ve had such a blast already and look forward to many memories this next 3 months. And it just begun...

Projects & Preparing for New Guest

We have now had international students staying with us for 6 months. We've really enjoyed it and decided that we love having the students and also really like having 2 at a time, not just one. That was not in the original plan but now April our 33 year old from Taiwan, who has been with us since April, is leaving this week. We've enjoyed having her, but it's time for her to get back to life and work back home. Saki (19 from Japan) has lived with us since June and she is a complete joy to have in our house. She is staying through the end of the year and maybe longer...she plans to study in Portland for 2 years. So this Saturday we loose a student and ironically we have a new one coming that same day. Our new student, Benedict is from Belgium. So this weekend I finally painted our front guest bedroom so she would have a more homey room. The color I chose is called "Pumpkin Butter" (just in time for the Fall).




BEFORE THE PAINTING

Church Picnic & the pig

On Sunday Cornerstone Church had their 3rd annual church picnic at my folk’s house. For the 3rd time they roasted a whole pig in a pit just like the Hawaiians do. My dad learned this technique when he lived in Hawaii. It is always a big hit - the pig. I think they had over 250 people there. It was a blast. Baptism, BBQ and the service of course.

* 8 things about myself

...thanks Brandy and Tonya. I've been double tagged.

The Rules:
1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules. (If you don’t have a blog, email me)
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
* Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Now for the embarassing facts/habits I chose:
1) I fidget. I don’t know why, just a habit. Sometimes I do this because I am nervous and other times just because I need something to do with my hands. I don’t want to pass this habit down to my kids someday, so I am trying to break the habit now. But I play with my hair, my nails, and things around me. It annoys me but I don’t realize I am doing it.

2)I’m a gardener. It brings me joy, peace, wonderful flowers and herbs. Mike’s still reminds me that he thinks I buried our kitchen sheers in the garden somewhere and I keep my garden clippers in the kitchen drawer. Whops

3) I’m a country bumpkin but I work downtown. Many times I wear my gardening shoes to work because they are the only pair of navy shoes I have. People say I am a country girl but I love living in the city too.

4) I enjoy deep meaningful conversation. Not to say that light chitchat is not enjoyable to me. But lately I have been realizing again that I really need to be intentional in getting to know people and ask them about themselves. I also like to talk about the real things that go on in life. Get advice, give advice, be real, get personal – you know.

5) On that note. I’m a screamer (if you know what I mean).

6) I can’t spell. If you have read my blog you know this. I have thought about getting testing for some odd disorder like dyslexia so I would have an excuse. But since 3rd grade I have loathed a spelling bee. I suck at it.

7) I make up words. Like happenstancially for example. People think this is endearing but I am really trying lately to learn more “real” words so I can say what I am meaning to say without having to make something up that sounds like what I mean. I have always gotten corrected because I am surrounded by great scrabble players.

8) I love to drive fast with the music blaring. But I happened to marry a man crazier than I am behind the wheel. More and more now, I find myself telling him to slow down and be safe. Am I getting old? Guess I need to let it go.

Well, hope you enjoyed.
Tagged: Meg, Pam, Mom, Debra, Shawnda, Tara, Eryn

Glacier National Park Trip

Click the photo for a slideshow from Glacier Park

I really want to let these photos speak for themselves, as they are beautiful. Mike and I went to Glacier National Park for some clearing of the mind this past week. We traveled to Montana with my folks on Thursday but stopped in Idaho to visit some old friends from Good Shepherd, Carla and Dale Walker in Sandpoint Idaho. Look for the photo of the castle thought to be being built by Arnold Schwarzenegger (isn’t hat crazy?). Friday we made it to Glacier and we drove along the Road-to-the-Sun. We stayed and visited some amazing old lodges in Glacier. Overall it was an amazing trip with lots of little fun memories made.