Good Morning...or maybe afternoon? What is today?

Since that momentus day on Sept 29, 2009, I haven't been able to keep up with the days, to save my life - they all sort of melt into each other. Did you know the other day I found out it was NOVEMBER?!?!! And now someone told me the movie, "New Moon" was coming out today and I was like, Oh no, that doesn't come out till the 20th! Note to self: Never seemed so assured of yourself unless you have a clue! November 20th???? That means Thanksgiving is like 1-2-3-4-like next week! Which, by the way, I'm very excited about because I GET TO GO HOME TO VIRGINIA!!! That means Gabe gets to meet his whole other side of the family! Granted, at this point, Gabe is kind of take it or leave it, but I am very excited and his other grandparents are very excited!

I had some new pictures for you but here's my deal. This is what I've been up to a lot lately.....



...and this is what Sam has been doing a lot lately....



So there you have it folks. All that to say, besides the fact that my life is a perfect tragedy, Sam is out hunting again today and took the camera with the new pictures on it, with him!*

Congratulations to my mom! She has finished her rounds of radiation with flying colors! Now she is busy preparing her house for all the Thanksgiving festivities. My aunt and uncle are coming up from Florida tonight or tomorrow and they are off to parties and festivities. Then on Tuesday, Sam and I fly in with the Gabe-meister. We land in DC and stay there with extended family till Thursday, when my brother and sister-in-law arrive from FL! Can't wait to see everyone and I'm so glad that mom has finished her radiation and had a little time to rest up in preparation for everything!

Gabe-man: He's doing great, besides the fact that he just spent the last 30 minutes crying himself to sleep. I put him down sleeping like a baby and 10 minutes later, he woke up crying, it was a tired cry and I was fighting myself for going in there to check on him or pick him up and snuggle that adorable little man, but everytime I couldn't take it any longer, I'd head in that direction, he would stop crying and act as if he was sleeping.... Then I'd come back and get settled in - all over again, for 30 minutes!! But I haven't heard him for the last 15 minutes, so I think he's finally sleeping! He's starting to smile more! That sure is fun! Whenever I have things to do and people to see, he doesn't seem to make that too easy! I think he likes getting uninterrupted sleep! Imagine that! Anyway, among my new pictures to post are some smiley ones of him, so keep in touch - they will be arriving shortly - as soon as Sam gets home from earlier mentioned hunting! :)

And me: I'm getting stronger and stronger by the minute. In fact, Sam and I went on a walk yesterday and I climbed a huge hill with the little Gabe man attached to me via Moby wrap. It was really quite nice! Speaking of our walk yesterday, well, maybe I'll wait for my camera for that story.

I was complaining to Sam the other day that I've lost all my funny-ness. I'm pretty sure that my stories revolved around the crazy things he does and now I spend a lot more of my time feeding the baby, changing diapers, laundry, dishes and straightening the house.... There really is nothing funny in that. And although our walk yesterday didn't turn out too funny - still, another crazy adventure!!! Tune in next time...

Well, folks, the little guy just woke up again... I'll have to check on him and get him calmed down - actually he stopped again... But I should go - it's getting close to tax time, so I need to get my paperwork in order! Until next time,

Concentrating on my blessings in the Tundra,

Love, Sarah

*My life may not be accurately pictured here. Some facts may have been exaggerated to illustrate a point. Some pictures could have been brought in from archives, but alas, some are current! I still have the best husband ever even if he has been gone the last 15 weekends in a row for whatever reason! ;)

The Big Debut!

Well, not that big, because I don't have any pictures right now! I need internet at home and basically to get my poop in a group! Turns out the library won't let you upload photo's to their computers! :P Go figure!!!

SO..... GABRIEL NEALE COLEMAN!!!!!!!!!!! Weighing in at 8 lbs. 2 oz. 21 inches long of pure adorable sweetness! Seriously, he's the sweetest, cutest, most adorable, most delicious, most perfect baby in the whole entire world - everyone tells me, so I must not be prejudice! :) (At least, they'd better tell me that if they know what's good for them! HA)

We went in to be induced last Tuesday morning at 2am. I was 0 dilated, will try not to go into all the gory details, but anyway, here goes.... I was given the prolactyn(?) gel and the contractions started a little more than I had already been experiencing. The whole while, I'd planned on going naturally, then during that time of NO SLEEP, I was figuring out how to get pain medicine REALLY fast! In fact the nurse came up to me to ask me what my pain plan was and I told her I didn't have one, but I was figuring one out really fast! :) So by 8am, the Dr. came in to break my water, I was about a 1 dilation - holy cow - 9 more to go?!?!? Kill me now! So then by noon, I was about at a 3 and begging for an epidural! We had an amazing labor and delivery nurse - seriously, I couldn't have asked for someone better, she basically camped out in my room! She got an anesthesiologist in there for the epidural with contractions coming about every 5 minutes at like a pain level 0-10? well, I'd say about a 55! The epidural was a rough go. You have to be so still and he couldn't get it. I guess Sam said I get poked about 10 times. He even nearly passed out! Finally it took around 1:15 and I fell asleep immediately - this is after about 2 days of not sleeping! At 1:45, I was awakened to put an internal contraction monitor in and the nurse decided to check and I was immediately at a 10!!! Holy Cow! All it took was a half an hour rest! Go figure, having babies wasn't quite as hard as I thought! ....Or so I thought! So it's time to push - Sam, got your camera??? The time is here!!! I was ready - couldn't feel a thing - amazing!!! So I started pushing at 2. and pushing....and pushing... and pushing.... and pushing... At 3:30, the Dr. came in and said that the baby's head was stuck and turned in the wrong direction and they couldn't even get in there far enough to get him turned around. She suggested a C-section. I was devastated. This was NOT turning out AT ALL how I'd planned. But I'm flexible. I told her I'd like to keep pushing for another half an hour... She agreed and let me go. I went for another 45 minutes and the little guy didn't even budge! So now, it was off to prepare for a C-section... The little guy - Gabe - was born at 5:05pm and he was just beautiful! Sam followed him right away to get cleaned up and got to spend the first good hour with his son, holding him and loving him...It was so special for him!! I was recovering... and having a hard go of it! Turns out, to make a long story short, I'd lost a lot of blood and continued to do so all during recovery. My hemoglobin plummeted down to a 6.7 and is only now starting to climb. It's a long road, I've noticed. Sure that was only a week ago - but seriously!!! It's so hard to "take it easy!" But when I look at little Gabe and see his precious bright eyes looking around and stopping to focus on my face as I feed him, or his dad's voice as he loves on him and talks to him - it's all worth it!

So all that to say - please continue to pray for us! We brought Gabe home on Friday and have been learning all about him since! He's already changing so much, getting bigger, more alert (don't know how that's possible!) and he's just beautiful! I can't wait to introduce him to my mom and dad, his namesake - Neale, in November! I've been feeling extremely tired and like I said, having a hard time taking it easy - I feel like I should be able to do all the things from before! I've been way more emotional than I like. In fact, it's a good thing I'm sharing this via internet, or else you'd have to pick through the sobbing tears to figure out what I'm trying to say - and I'm at the library!!! Sad, isn't it?!

On a side note, which should be more fore front than side note, my husband is seriously perhaps the most amazing man in the world. Now I realize that I've made some pretty big calls all during this post, but it's my blog, I'm allowed to! But seriously, I can't even explain to you how well he takes care of me and little Gabriel and our home and everything! He's still got his art show coming up in a few weeks, which is a BIG deal and he's got a lot of things to do for that, but he's just so amazing! There is no way I could do it without him! So just a plug for most amazing husbands in the world - if you've got one, stop right now and run to him and give him a big kiss and tell him he's the most amazing man in the world! 2nd only to Sam Coleman! I plan on doing this as soon as I see my man!

Well, we've been home for three nights so far and we've had two "off" nights and one "on" night. I'm praying that tonight is an "on" night! We've been spending our days figuring out what we did wrong yesterday and changing our actions so that it doesn't happen tomorrow! I have a feeling I'm going to be spending the rest of my life in this particular state! I have learned that nuks are evil - even if you only use them for 1 hour. I've figured out that just because babies are super cute when they sleep - don't let them do it for as long as they want! I've learned that even though newborns don't have teeth - they can still bite! Ouch!!! I've learned that you want to keep the hospital id bracelet's on for a couple days after coming home, just to make sure that your precious gift wasn't switched at the door for an alien child! I've learned that having a lactation consultant for a good friend is indespensible! Three cheers for St. Aleycia Gerlach! There are a lot more things that I've learned, but it turns out the library is about to close and I need to go now. I was just informed there is an hour time limit per day on the machine and I'm getting an evil look!!! Will check in later!

Feeling overwhelmed in the Tundra,

Love, Sarah

End of another week....

Ok, I know that I promised pictures of the nursery at this point, but I just remembered I have a baby shower on Sunday and maybe I'll be getting some treasures, so why not make you wait a little longer! It's not going anywhere, and besides, I have maternity clothes flung all over the place in there and nothing on the walls yet. So I am going to make you wait a bit! I still have to find a place for some things and I want to give you the grand tour!

On another note, for those of you participating in my Giveaway and are anxious to find out how I'm feeling - still good. I know that I've passed at least one of your dates, so I'm sorry for your loss in the Giveaway, but don't give up on me - there will be more! :)

It's still summer here. As in, summer came last week and it's still here - miracle above miracles!!! I was telling some friends of mine last night that I think I got jipped. I honestly thought we'd get weather like this when I wasn't quite so pregnant. I was counting on some serious fall weather by now! How can I even decorate my house with corn stalks when it's stinkin' 80 degrees outside? There is something VERY wrong with that!!! Oh well, I think next week, it's suppose to cool down a little. I really have nothing to complain about except for the fact that I can't walk out of the house without pouring sweat and that's just plain disgusting!

On the home front - Sam, the main man, has been painting! Oh man, you should see some of his work. Last night, he got home from guys Bible Study about 9pm and started a painting, while we were watching Hannah Montana, the movie (I know - side note later) and he ended up staying up till, well, frankly I don't know - 3am maybe? Anyway, I looked downstairs this morning and he had completed this whole huge painting and it's just BEAUTIFUL!!! I know that I'm a bit biased, but seriously, this is a keeper. There are some of the ones he does that don't really tinkle my bell, but this is a beautiful one out in the badlands with some yellow flowers in the fore ground - amazing and so real to life!!! So how about that - I really think the Lord is blessing his diligence. Please continue to keep him in your prayers as he is feeling the crunch time to get these paintings done for his one man show in October. I know he can do it though! So, yeah, the Hannah Montana movie... well, remember #1 that we deal with youth on a regular basis and it's good to keep up with Youth Culture! And for #2 - Sam loves Hannah Montana - HA! I think that's so funny! He thinks she's the funniest thing. So here we are watching this movie last night and laughing away! It was so lame in a lot of parts that we couldn't even help rolling our eyes and laughing! But let me tell you - Hannah Montana knows how to put some good music in her movies! :) I did keep me awake all the way till midnight and that is more than I can say for about 99% of the movies we rent. That might be pretty sad, but it's a fact!

Well, I guess I'll close for the weekend.... The street fair is this weekend, maybe I'll get out a do a little walking! Should be a good time! I'll be checking in Monday, so have a great weekend!!!!

Waiting for Fall to hit in the Tundra,

Sarah

Waiting to find out if I won some amazing boots....

Ever the optimist. Trying to win something on Pioneer Woman! One day, I will succeed and I'm afraid it might just be one of the biggest highlights in my life!!! Is that sad? Wait. Don't answer that. Guess what? It's POW WOW weekend - do you realize what this means? Only the biggest yard sale weekend of the YEAR!!!! Nevermind that we haven't gone to a yard sale the rest of the summer. We decided we have too much junk in our house as it is and we don't need anymore. I did a little the beginning of the summer looking for some baby treasures and that's what I plan on doing this weekend! I'm not exactly sure what I need, but don't you worry, when I find it, I'LL KNOW! My one brother in law, Judah, thinks it's all junk, but my other brother in law - the kindred spirit, Charlie, he sees it all for what it really is - a treasure!!!! Sorry Judah, but I'm sure you'll come around one of these days! :)

Well, we are on countdown for a lot of things. #1 - Rally Sunday, that's this Sunday and that means Sunday School starts back up again. So after being gone from church for too many Sundays to count, we'll be back, full fledged! #2 - Rally Wednesday is this coming Wednesday night (16th) which is the start of Confirmation! We are switching things up quite a bit and so Sam's got a lot on his plate right now. But it'll be nice when that is over. The first one - you just never know how it's gonna go, but we have a lot of people that have put a lot of time into this service and I'm pretty sure it's going to knock everyone's socks off. The only dilemma I have is that my Women's Bible Study is at the exact same time. So I just don't know - I'm so torn. I need the fellowship, but I might have to skip the first one just to gain the momentum of the back to school spirit!!! We'll see. I'll keep you posted. #3 - Thursday night (17th) starts Sam's league Men's Volleyball. Yes, he signed up for a weekly league to play V-ball with the boys and have a Bible study afterwards. Good for them. That goes till December or something. #4 - Friday night (18th) is our back to school kick off for Jr. High Crossfire. #5 - Sam is starting back to school with Liberty Theological Seminary. I don't know when his class starts exactly. #6 - It's time for the annual Papa's Pumpkin Patch family fun day! Which crazy enough, Sam is in charge of! But he says that he's pretty much handed those responsibilities over to someone else, but we'll see. #7 - Sam's got a big commission art piece that he has finally started on and I pray he feels like he's got a good start, because I think it looks great! Don't know exactly when that's due. #8 - Sam's also got a one man art show the last week of October! Hmmm.... I should be working on some invites for that. At least getting some labels ready for that. Thanks for the reminder. He just has to get 30 originals ready to put up... No big deal, right? #9 - We have 2 senior and 1 family photo session to edit and 2 more seniors to take during the Fall. #10 - Oh, I almost forgot - we have to squeeze the birth of our first born son in there somewhere between #6 and #7. So you can see, we've got a lot going on. Any prayers you've got to spare, we'd sure appreciate it!!! And winning the oh so cool cowgirl boots on Pioneer Woman sure would help! But I'm not going to hold my breath! (Pretty much winning anything on Pioneer Woman would help!)

I know I need to add a few more pictures, I will. I actually got the nursery straighten up yesterday. It looks pretty close to being ready to welcome a new person! I've got laundry washed, books ready to read, diapers ready to put on, and who knows what else? I don't really have a clue what I need for a new little baby, but we'll figure it all right? I've decided that you can really get inundated by all the "things" to do to prepare for a little person. You've got people telling you that "life is never going to be the same" "you'd better sleep now - you'll never sleep again" "you've got to change everything that you ever knew" "you'll never have fun again" "this little tiny person is going to take over your life" "your whole entire world will be turned upside down" "Sam will finally have to grow up" "you'll never have peace and quiet for the rest of your life" "you won't even know what hit you" "you better do whatever you want to now, ie, travel, etc. because you won't be able to do it again for the next 18+ years" "you'd better get out of your system everything you ever wanted or hoped to do it because now you have to do whatever your kid wants to do" - but.... "it'll all be worth it." Yeah right. No wonder parents are super heroes. It's been about 9+ months to get all of this hysteria out of my system and actually look forward to meeting this little guy. I have to remember all the advice is coming from other people with other lives and they aren't me. Sure, I'm sure some of it is legitimate, but I think we'll figure out how to adjust to our new little addition. There might be bumps along the way, but I have an amazing husband, who is surprisingly a lot more grown up than a lot of people give him credit for. And most of all, we have a God that loves us more than anything and has already filled our life with lots of loving people that have already offered to come along and help us. He's given us this little blessing for a short while to raise in the nurture and admonition in the Lord, and we will do our darndest to make sure that happens, even though I know we'll screw up - we always do! But God is bigger than us! So that's about where I stand these last few weeks as we look forward to meeting our new little guy! (PS. I know you think I'm kidding about all that advice, but it's true, I heard every bit of it and more at least once in the last nine months!)

On another note - please continue to pray for my mom. Her radiation starts on 09-22-09. And she'll have it for 5 days a week for at least 6 weeks. So if you work out the math there, it means, we're hoping she'll finish up before Thanksgiving and that also means, no time to come out when the baby is born. We will be heading back to VA for T-giving as we have a lot of family coming from all over to meet our little fella and fellowship. So there is no sense in Mom and Dad coming out. That also means our projects get put on hold for another year probably. It's quite disappointing, but I want mom to get better and healed up! So please pray for her during this time as well. Thank you!!!!

Sorry for all the writing and not so many pictures... Pictures will definitely be coming! Thanks for your patience!

Fall is on it's way in the Tundra,

Sarah

Post 100?

Whoever knew that I would have enough to say to fill up 100 posts on a blog. Some of you may beg to differ that really, I never did have enough to say to fill up that many posts, but I did it anyway. And really, you can't stop me! Even if everyone decided to stop reading my blog, I'd probably write anyway. It's fun. So there. Besides, how else would all my college students go away to school and feel so homesick that they just need a little bit of home and so they tune in to the good ole' blog that stays with them through thick and thin and realize that they aren't alone? They don't have to feel crazy for being homesick - there are craziers out there - and they go by the names of Sam and Sarah Coleman!!! I'm here to make other people's life more bearable - that's what I've decided. A long time ago, I told Sam I was here to teach him patience, but it turns out that didn't really work. And I'm not going to be patient enough to teach him patience. So I've decided to move on with my purpose in life. Now I'm going to make other people's life more bearable!

Now, what was I saying? Ha. I guess nothing really. HA - and you wonder how I can fill up 100 posts! Hey, you don't have to read them, you know.... Well, we are on countdown for the big meeting of Baby Coleman - 5 weeks left, I hope no more than that. Ahhhhh - 5 weeks????? Ahhhhhh!!!!! I don't think I'm ready for this!!!!!!!!! I guess it's too late to turn back now! What was I thinking???? Breathe, ok breathe, ok, I'm sure I'll be fine..... Sorry about that.

Well, I'm busy uploading videos on facebook of our tubing adventures! Unfortunately, I missed the best parts because of hitting a bump in the water and nearly flying out of the boat - the tubers - mainly Sam - flew straight up in the air - we are talking VERTICAL while still holding on and then came soundly down on Tiffany - the 4'6" tiniest girl! I think there was a permanent indention of her body on the tube. I felt really bad for her - she'll probably never bounce back. Anyway, all the boys have been complaining about how sore their muscles are since their tubing/wake boarding adventures - let's see if I can upload some for you!!!

This is Sam's first time wake boarding - pretty impressive, if I do say so myself!



Now let's see if I can get a video on here...



Well, that took quite a while, let me see if I can post this for your viewing pleasure!

Livin' it up in the Tundra,

Sarah

I'm trying...

Sometimes, it's so frustrating not to have the time to do the things you WANT to do, do you know what I mean? And then when frustrating things like your computer is super slow.... Oh well... I need to get some photos uploaded!

Anyway, this is what I was busy doing last night while Sam was out hunting clay pigeons. And from what I heard, he only found half of them! But good for him, he had a great time and is getting in practice for hunting season, although I think Tonto needs more practice than Sam!!! I don't know much about hunting for clay pigeons, but something tells me, it'd be pretty hard to sniff them out and nearly impossible for T to retrieve them anyway, so I guess it's all good! :) So here's the nursery. It's coming along. I would have taken more pictures, but this is the only section I've gotten done so far.



I think the red is super cute and I'm so glad that Sam encouraged us to go with the brighter colors.

I have a bunch more pictures and video footage from the weekend at the Hinemans, let me see if I have a couple minutes to get them on here. Actually, since my computer has been acting up, I don't. So you'll have to tune in tomorrow and hopefully things will be cooperating better!

Tune in later!

Summer has finally arrived in the Tundra! (or maybe it's Indian Summer - a little early, don't you think?)

Love, Sarah

Updates....

Well, just so you know, there was no one at my house painting our steps in the rain. Sam ran the "Homeless" fella's situation by everyone at church and they told him he'd be crazy to bring him home and give him a job and that not a one of them were coming to the morgue to identify his body and I guess that made Sam second guess his decision. So there you have it - me waxing philosophical on my husband's sensitive heart and the church shooting him down. Oh well. I still take you back to the heart motivation....

I was running late this morning and wanted to get pictures of the rocking chair I covered and the valence that I made yesterday. Our nursery is coming along nicely. We finally picked up a dresser. Just need to get the crib now and things will start to be underway!!! It's definitely coming together and it's already so bright and cheery. I suppose soon, I'll have to start washing clothes and get ready for the little guys big debut! When I think about the whole new adventure getting ready to come and all that goes along with it, it's very intimidating, but when I focus on the little guy and just getting to meet him and know that he is half of me and half of the love of my life - our very own, lent to us for a short while by a great God who trusts us enough to send him, well, I just get so stinking excited!

My mom just called and she has a meeting with the Radiation Dr. in a couple of weeks to start her radiation...Please pray that all that works out. I feel very confident in her decision and the Lord has brought confirmation after confirmation to her regarding her own decision and so I'm very thankful for that! So most likely her radiation treatments are going to overlap Baby Coleman being born - well, maybe, we'll see.... So please continue to pray for this situation! Thanks a tons!!!!

Well, I'm off to the Lake this weekend. Looks like things are going to warm up in the Tundra - we're looking at 80's on Saturday and 90's on Sunday. We'll be back in time for church on Sunday, because our church is getting together with a bunch of other churches, where it's called "The Gathering." All of our churches get together at an outside amphitheater and worship together. It's quite cool! Well, that's about all going on in the Tundra this weekend!

Looking forward to sharing some new pictures on Monday!

Have a great weekend!

Livin' it up in the Tundra!

Sarah

Entertaining Angels?

Last night was our last Garden Tour of the Summer. The summer is winding down here, that's for sure. I guess it was 100 degrees for a couple days while we were away, but it's been chilly since we've been home. I guess yesterday it did get up to 80, but mostly staying in the 70's. Everyone says it's going to be another early, cold winter. I don't know if I'm really ready for that! In fact, I know I'm not ready for that - I'll tell you what I AM ready for - all this Global Warming that everyone and their mother keeps talking about! Bring it on baby!!!

Well, anyway, it was a perfect evening for touring people's yards. I have no idea how they make their yards just so perfect. I have an idea that they don't plant things 2 inches away from each other so that at the end of the first season, the plant bed looks like it's been there for 30 years. That's just ONE idea. Sam says he's probably going to have to dig up every plant and space them a little better - I don't guess now would be the most appropriate time to say - "I told you so." So I'll just let it rest at that.

On a whole other note - did you know that my husband has a soft spot for hitch hikers? It's true, he picked up countless numbers of them during his college years and hauled them between Bismarck and Minneapolis. He's had some interesting adventures in talking to a lot of them. Most of them were aching to get out of the car once it slowed down to a mere 30 mph. It was also usually by the time Sam got to the salvation message. I'm not sure if it had to do with the way the conversation was going or if it was just his driving. The jury is still out on that one! :) So last night, on our way to a Garden, we saw a fella holding up a street corner with the following sign - "More then Willing To Work - Renovation by trade but will even clean toilets" He was a clean cut individual, looking to be in his 50's? 60's? Sometimes you can never tell. What's their story anyway? What brings them to standing on the corner of the biggest road in Bismarck with a sign like that? Bad choices? Bad luck? Unfortunate circumstances? You just never know. It's a wonder he didn't think we were stalking him. We drove past about 15 times and then went and parked in a parking lot across from him. Sam's heart went out to this fella. He wanted to talk to him. I'm a lot more selfish. I was sitting there figuring, how in the heck are we going to pay this fella to do jobs around our house that we could do ourselves? Where are we going to let him sleep? I don't especially want to bring a stranger home tonight. I'm tired. Why do I have to deal with this? Meanwhile, my soft hearted husband is sitting beside me thinking - we just got paid some unexpected money from some art that sold. We have those steps that need to be painted. He could sleep downstairs. I wonder what his story is. Why does he have a cane? Who can I connect him with to get him a job? I just want to talk to him. How do I get over there to talk to him? So you can see a little glimpse into the life of a Saint and Sinner. The whole time, scriptures are running through my head - taking care of the least of these my brethren... entertaining angels unaware... don't worry about tomorrow... look how I take care of the lilies of the field. I could go on. But you already have enough of a glimpse of my utter selfishness. So then Sam said outloud - How are you suppose to talk to him, just pull over on the ramp of the interstate - I just want to talk to him. And from somewhere else inside of me came - You could pull into that parking lot and walk over and talk to him.... Hello - where did that come from? So Sam immediately goes and parks and as soon as he did, this fella picks up all his stuff and starts walking toward us. I start praying - God, protect us. May your will be done and not mine. Sam jumped out and talked to him. He was sleeping right there in some bushes by an old abandoned building. He was clean cut. He was from Butte, MT. He was desperately looking for work. While Sam was talking to him, a little Native American girl came running over to give him some money. He graciously and embarrassingly took it. I'm more convicted. But I'm getting more excited about helping this fella and I'm especially thankful for such a wonderful, sensitive husband. He had a cell phone. They exchanged numbers. Sam told him we had a little work, but not much - he said, he didn't care. He'd do anything - except work for crazy people, he'd done that. He said he'd be ready first thing in the morning - give him a call. This morning I woke up and reminded Sam to not forget about his friend, LR. I don't know what happened today. It rained. He can't paint outside in the rain. Sam had staff meeting this morning. I don't know what's happened with LR or if he's even still around. Heck, he could be at my house painting treacherous steps down to the road. But let me tell you - I had a lesson in trusting the Lord last night. It was a hard one. Maybe we ended up helping LR, maybe not - but God certainly used him last night to teach me to trust Him and not when it's convenient and fun. But there are people who have needs for whatever reason all the time. To be on the look out for them - just like Sam is. Every morning, Sam and I pray for opportunities to serve others - here was a perfect example - and I think the lesson comes like this - whether you actually serve or help someone is besides the point, the point is to just be WILLING to. Be sensitive to the Lord's leading. Whew. Wow, that was hard. Thanks for letting me share my lesson with you. I hope you have a fantastic day finding lots of ways to see the Lord working around you!

Also, I wanted to update you on the status of my mom. She goes into to visit with her Oncologist tomorrow. I think she's decided to just do the radiation and hormone therapy, not the chemo. So I would like to continue asking for prayers for her healing and that she would be confident in her decision. That she would not be anxious through radiation (5 days/week for 5-6 weeks) that she's not going to make it to Bismarck in time for Baby Coleman to arrive. (Please don't pray that he's late either. Thanks!) Pray that the Lord's promised healing hand would be on her and give her the peace that passes all human understanding - just as He promises! Isn't it wonderful that we serve such an amazing God???

Humbled in the Tundra,

Sarah

****Warning****

I just finished posting about my previous 10 days, so scroll down for previous post before reading this one - unless of course, you are one of THOSE people, who like to read the last chapter of the book before you even start the book - but don't EVEN get me started on THOSE KINDS OF PEOPLE! Just do me a favor, ok? Scroll down and read the other post first... Geesh, why do you have to be so difficult? - some people's children.....

So HI! I'm back! It's been a full 10 minutes since I last posted, but I have a lot more pictures from Colorado. We were home for a little over 24 hours, just enough time to do a little laundry and re-figure some packing, remove our forks, go to the Dr. for a check up, rent a few audio books for the long drive, go through Sam's goods from Guatemala, tell our dog hi, and have a little bit of sleep before we got up at 4:30am on Saturday morning to begin our 17-20 hour drive to CO! We did make it the first day to Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes, CO - with 7 people in the Suburban and Sadie and Nathan in their van. When we got to Cheyenne, WY, we got to spread out a bit... Anyway, here's a couple pictures from our evening hike up to a waterfall that night.

What a hunka hunka burning love, aye?





The next day, we headed out again, all through the park, it was really pretty, except it was called "Alpine Tundra" instead of my fond name for ND - the "Arctic Tundra." But you'll have to understand the definitions of the two so that you understand that I'm not exaggerating when I call this place the Arctic Tundra! The "Alpine Tundra" has to do with elevation, while the "Arctic Tundra" has to do with the temperature... ND does not have elevation, so I've been right on all this time - and for you all you crazies out there that think I'm being SO DRAMATIC - whatever. If you drive to the highest paved road in the United States - in Rocky Mountain National Park and stop at the visitor center at the top - like 12,000 ungodly feet, you can read the sign for yourself! So there!!!! Enough of that.

It was really COLD here too though...



We picked up Katie and Mike in Buena Vista, CO. It's great to see them again! And then we headed off to Family Camp. Seriously, after 3,000 (maybe slight exaggeration) hours in the car, I thought I was going to loose it in the windy, twisty road down to the Camp. We ended up just outside of Lake City, CO - ever heard of it? Yeah, me neither. But it's beautiful. I mean REALLY BEAUTIFUL! And guess what, there were houses for sale EVERYWHERE - so guess who decided that's the new place we are moving too - yep, you guessed it - Sambo says we're moving. But then again - he always says that, so don't get your panties in a wad, ok, Most likely, we're not going anywhere! You can take the guy out of the Tundra, but you can never take the Tundra out of the guy!

Well, here is a plug for Camp Red Cloud. What an amazing experience! We were there for a Creation Mountain Adventure with Alpha and Omega Institute. And it was a great week! 0 as in ZERO cell phone reception, no tv's...basically no contact with the outside world... Here are some fun things we did....

Self portrait - pretty talented, ain't I? these were "family communication building" games... Needless to say, the staff at Red Cloud were NOT sure what to do with the Coleman Clan.



A hike to a waterfall....



High Ropes Course....







Biking for the girls minus me (you should have seen how tiny those seats were - shiver....) and fishing for the boys plus me (you should have seen how tiny those seats were - shiver....oh sorry, did I already say that?!)



I guess this is the only picture I have from fishing - here's the thing - I got a one on one tutorial on fishing with my main man finding me a grasshopper and getting me all rigged up - he even casted for me and showed me how to do it and everything. I sat there and sat there. Then he left and I reeled in and casted myself and within seconds, maybe even milliseconds, I caught my own fish. THAT picture must be on his camera - so trust me on this one - Sambo was NOT the only one in the family catching fish. There, I've said my piece!



On Wednesday, we had an all day event - Rock climbing....



Let's see, what else.... Repelling! I didn't repel - OBVIOUSLY... But here's a great shot after the Outlaws came down!



Some people went on an early morning horse back ride to Breakfast - again, NOT ME! :) So don't you worry your pretty little heads out there in blogger land! I'm taking care of myself, I promise!



And finally, for the pies de resistance - the POWER POLE!



This picture is a little dark and hard to see, but what the heck is a Power Pole, you might ask? I'm glad you did. It's where crazy people climb up a 23 foot telephone pole and stand on the very tippy top of it and then if that's not bad enough, they jump off of it to a trapeze thing and then they let you down with a rope. Yeah. Sounds insane to me - and you didn't even see it happen. Let's just say, I'm pretty glad that I had an excuse not to go on a lot of these things because frankly, I'm sure I would have ended up shortening my life. Can you believe people do this kind of stuff for fun?! :)

Anyway, after all this, we headed back to the Tundra on Friday and stopped in Colorado Springs on Friday night, finished our trip on Saturday and got back at 3am on Sunday morning and do you what to know what my normally extremely active husband had to say about all this?



'Nough said!

We're happy to be home in the Tundra,

Love, Sarah

Finally found it!

Seriously, I think I would loose my head if it weren't attached! So I finally found the cord to the camera after putting it in a "safe place" and not being able to find it for the life of me!!! So enjoy some of these adventures....

Here's a picture of only the most amazing man in the world!!!



Some crazy shananigans!



If you look real close, you can start to see the "Third Eye" making it's appearance!!!



They didn't last too long with this craziness going on!!!



What a happy boy!



Well, gotta figure out a better way to upload videos...

Having a crazy day in the Tundra!

Love, Sarah

PS. Tune in next time, live and unplugged from the East Coast!!!

Dolly Parton rocks the house!!!

The Imagination Library is this awesome program that Dolly Parton set up for preschoolers to encourage literacy. I won't go into it, because she explains it so much better than I do - but if you have tots, ages newborn to 5 - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE check this out and see if it is available in your area!!! Let me just say FREE - FREE - FREE BOOKS! And who doesn't love something FREE! And books, at that - children's books! I have no idea why I haven't posted about this so far because the email has just been sitting in my inbox waiting for my little guy to be born and get a name and birthdate before he gets signed up! But I know there are a few out there with preschoolers, so CHECK IT OUT!

Other than that, my man is home again and all is better with the world. It's been a rough weekend to be sure. I've had a lot more heart-aching things going on this summer than funny ones! (Much to my dismay!) The most recent - I've been diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I was devastated. I just found out on Monday... I've met with a Dietitian and hopefully we can get everything worked out. I was told that it wasn't necessarily anything I could have done, some people are just more prone and it could run in the family and just not know it, etc. There are so many different reasons. I think a lot of it comes from our hectic schedule that really doesn't allow me to eat at regular intervals. It's been an opportunity to trust the Lord in ways I've never had to before. I was so completely discouraged, but the doctor assures me they treat this quite a bit more aggressively than a lot of other dr.s so that no harm comes to my baby. I find comfort in that. I also find comfort in knowing that God is in control and that He knows what's going on and He loves me so much. This is an email I just wrote to my brother this morning actually regarding it - and it just sums up what the Lord has been showing me these last couple of days.

Hey - thanks for your call yesterday - I was just about to go into the Dr.'s office when you called and then I never had a chance to give you a call back. Plus, it's all very emotional to me - even still! :P (which is EXTREMELY annoying to me! especially when I'm work and can't get the waterworks to stop.) I have been getting some pretty amazing emails from folks who don't even have a clue and they are so encouraging to me... But today God is telling me VERY CLEARLY that He is in control and the He loves me no matter what and that nothing is going on without Him knowing about it and holding me through the very midst of it. So while it's all very discouraging and disheartening - I'm remembering that God is bigger than my problems and He's got to be my Lord even through the dark times, reminding me to maintain my positive and cheerful attitude. No lie, that sentence just came through my daily devotional with David Wilkerson, the email I read right before I looked at yours. So see, God is taking care of me. And talking to me so plainly, He might as well be using neon signs!

So you can see - God uses these awful things to draw us unto Himself. And even though this is an "adventure" that I don't want to experience - just like my mom's cancer is an "adventure" that none of us want to experience - if God uses it to bring me closer to Him, so be it. It's really very difficult for me to come to that conclusion - it's not one that I settle on lightly, but I don't want to fight. I just want to be closer to my Jesus. I've learned in my short life that it's so much better to walk with Jesus and not away from Him. There are a lot of kids especially out there who think they need to experience things for themselves and make their own mistakes (I know, because I work with a bunch of them!), and I'll give them that, but honestly - I hope beyond hope that they learn sooner than later that it's so much better to choose Jesus than our own way. We are so much happier and more content and isn't that what we're looking for? Isn't that what everyone wants out of life - the American Dream - life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? It's in Jesus. All of it is in Jesus.

Well, I've probably waxed pretty serious at this point, hopefully you don't walk away feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders. The day is beautiful here. We are heading out to Lake Nelson - I should rename it "Third eyeball Lake" because there is a nuclear power plant right there that keeps the water nice and toasty and I always tease the boys that if they spend too much time in it, they WILL grow a third eyeball - probably right in their forehead (But secretly, I think they like that idea! Boys....sheesh...) Anyway, tubing for them, boat rides for me. And enjoying the man of my dreams for a few more days before we are separated for 10 days while he's in Guatemala and I'm in VA! :*( (Boo hoo) I'm so excited to see my family - I'm excited that he gets to go to Guatemala - but I wish he could come with me to see my family and I could go with him to Guatemala!!! I hate being apart! And there has been too much of it this summer! Hope you have a fantastic day!

3 years, nine months and the honeymoon isn't over yet in the Tundra,

Sarah

Guess what?!

That's right folks - That's a picture of me - taking a picture....with my brand spankin' new birthday present!!! True, it's not an SLR - but here's the deal... Sambo got me a digital Canon Rebel for my birthday - tangibly held it in my hands and everything. But when I took it all out of the box, turns out they changed the look of the battery. So before we go and start buying all new accessories - we decided to take it back and do a bit more research. We already have two canon batteries, why do we want a totally different one? We are all about being able to inter-change. So after thinking about it long and hard, this is what we decided to do. Take it back. That's right, after all this time, I wanted to take back my beautiful birthday present! But in the meantime - isn't it nice to have a point and shoot. Especially for your purse, especially for "gotta-capture-this-moment-right-now,-not-look-for-my-bulky-camera-and-switch-the-lense-and-get-the-settings-right", especially for UNDERWATER - yeah, ya heard me!, especially for your husband who goes through cameras like most people go through underwear, especially one that's crushproof for up to 220 lbs., yeah, especially one that's shockproof for up to 6.6 feet - that's right - you can drop this baby - sit on it - leave it in your pocket while you are swimming (only to 30 feet though!) - it's practically indestructible! When I saw it - I thought - this is the camera for us! Especially with Sam getting ready for a trip to Guatemala - gasp, he couldn't go without a camera, we are way to limited in our finances to have him use film - can't afford to develop all that film! and there is no way in you know where I would let him take his good camera! So this is the perfect solution to our dilemma!

Anyway, yesterday turned out to be about one of the best birthdays ever! I came home after work to the most beautiful roses EVER!



And that's when I got to check out my new Rebel, even if for a short time! Then we headed off to Paradiso's, where you get a free meal on your birthday! So after that, we ran a few errands and took back Camera #1 for Camera #2!!! Then Sam says we had to get home pretty quick because some very important friends of ours were coming to see us! I asked him who and he said it was a surprise!

Well, we roll into our driveway and surprise, oh surprise - who's car was there - you might have seen it before.....



That's right - Erik!!!! So we went in and couldn't find those kids anywhere - they were hiding all the way in our basement (never mind that my house is a total mess!) Luckily kids don't care! We found them, Erik, Bridget, Brittany and Tiffany!!! How sweet is that???? They spend their morning making me a cake! (Bridget is quite the chef/baker extraordinaire!) And then they came over and surprised me for my birthday! How special am I that a bunch of Sr. High kids would give up their afternoon for me???!!! The only problem is that I don't have a picture of them, because we had to charge up the new little camera, but lucky for you - I have a picture of the cake!!!!



(For those of you who missed the earlier postings on the pictures of Sam's pond, here it is - forever imbued on my birthday cake!) That's right folks, there is the Love Pond, right there - in living icing!!! Isn't that amazing??? Can you believe these guys decorated this so perfectly for me??? How cute is that - there are even some fish in the pond! (Shhh....don't tell Sam, but they are probably bigger than any fish Sam will ever have in the pond! HA!) I crack myself up!

Then, we sat down and played some serious hands of Ultimate Solitaire! Erik was confident that the score keeper always won, just because I keep the score and I always win... But I proved him wrong - he took score this time, but I still won. I know, it's a hard life, but someone's got to live it! So maybe we aren't all pro's at blongo ball - but we've all got skills, right, Erik?

Anyway, then we had to had off to Childbirth Preparation Classes, or whatever the heck you want to call them! (Much to Sam's dismay.) But it went a lot faster than last week and I thought it was pretty fun - I mean, seriously, how often to get that much of Sam's complete attention completely uninterrupted? Ok, a lot, but that's besides the point. We got to practice relaxation - so I got lots of hand massages and back massages, that was fun!!! Ok, one more night, one more night, you can do it Sammy!!! We actually got out a little early and there were some pretty epic clouds, so we took off - storm chasing! Luckily Sam had his camera and so we took a little drive. It was really beautiful! Then to end the night - Ruth, Sam's aunts Barb and Jane all came over for some yummy ice cream cake from DQ and to visit - so you can see - how does a birthday get much better than that, I ask you? (I have yet to cut Bridget's cake because I wanted to take a picture of it and was planning on doing that last night before an ice cream cake came - unfortunately I have a glucose test today at the Dr. so hopefully I don't throw them over the edge with all my celebrating!) But I'm definitely looking forward to tasting a bit of the pond - Bridget's version, of course!!!

Ok, for Rhonda and the rest of you, just going to post a couple more pictures and then I'll be done for today, ok? This is taking way longer than I thought!!!

My hottie husband, as if I had to tell you - pshaw!


Yes, a very pregnant me....


And this is the crib set that my good friend, Lori gave us.... And the yellow fabric is another fabric I found to do some accents around the nursery - It's not the best picture, but I was anxious to show you!


Ok, well, that's all for now folks! But tune in next time...for some better pictures, once I figure out what I'm doing! :)

Loving the day after my birthday in the Tundra,

Sarah

Exhaustido!

Well, after one week of getting myself into a nice, neat routine of going to bed at a decent hour, waking up early, getting ready for work, having time for breakfast, actually feeding Tonto before I left AND getting to work on time - Sam's home! And all that flies out the window!!

Well, it did start with getting up early on Saturday morning to receive a brand-spanking new dryer from my parents and aunt and uncle!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Now, my clothes will not only dry in record time, but it's so quiet, we can actually watch a movie in the other room while the dryer is running. Now, granted, I haven't really had time to use it yet, but I've tried it out - and it's beautiful - if a dryer can be beautiful!

Then we had a surprise visit by some of Sam's cousins, which was tons of fun! We whipped up a little brunch and got to visit with them for an hour or so!

After that, we ran to get rid of all the canoes back to their owners from the Boundary Waters trip and then out to the Colemans since Sadie, Nathan and Ethan were in for a visit. Didn't leave till close to midnight, so it late night #1 for me! And then up on Sunday morning for church - and out to the Colemans for a ride on their new-to-them boat! That was fun - and such a beautiful day! Then we were out to Volleyball - which was a forfeit from the other team and so we won by default, but we still played 6 or so games - it was fun! I only played three - no worries about me! I know when not to over-do it! ;) Then back out the Coleman's to visit with Sadie and Nathan and home again, home again jiggity jog - around midnight! Up this morning and back to the routine things of life!

Sam and I did figure out that our next free weekend is right after Memorial Day. Ugh - sounds overwhelming, but the Lord will help us get through it. We just have to remember to focus on what's ahead of us! For now - Sam has an art booth at the Art in the Park this weekend for the 4th of July - please pray for us about that - it's been a busy year and we don't have much to put up right now - at the same time, we'll probably have the Youth Group serving up Ice Cream at another booth! It'll all work out - it always does but the big picture is definitely too overwhelming for me! Focus on the task at hand - that's my motto! The rest will fall into place.

So that's about all that's going on right now - today has got to be one of the most beautiful days in all the world! So all that busy-ness going on over the weekend - I've got to say, I LOVE having Sam home! It's amazing how much he adds to my life - he makes me so very happy! So thank you to the man of my dreams, making them all come true! Thank you for being such an amazing husband for me!!!


So content in the Tundra,

Love, Sarah

Excitement reigns in the hearts of all - well, at least me!!!

That's right - my main squeeze is coming home today after a week in the Boundary Waters!!!! That's right, without me. But don't worry, that was my choice - it was either stay and save the health of my unborn baby, or go and get eaten up with mosquitoes and whatever else kind of bugs they had, sleep on the ground, carry heavy packs and canoes and never shower for a week straight. I think I made the right decision!!! But I sure did miss him! I always miss him. I didn't get as much done as I wanted. It was more behind the scenes kinds of stuff I got done, like read three and a half books...go through my clothes for the rummage sale...laundry (but guess what, there's more!) And I did leave two guys at my house this morning to finish caulking up the shower, actually to start AND finish caulking up the shower!!! That's a nice project to have out of the way. But don't worry, I did water the plants - the day it rained. But that's beside the point. I got to hang out with some really great people! I ate a big breakfast everyday. Then a not so big lunch and I can't even remember what I had for dinner all week, but I'm happy. Tonto is really happy. He got to sleep inside for 6 nights. He's not going to be very excited tonight. The first night, he was really confused, like he wasn't suppose to be in the house, but it didn't take him long to get used to it.

Anyway, as a treat to the greatest husband on the planet, I'm making dinner tonight. And I make no promises for any days past today! :) I'm just so excited to see him, I just don't know what to do with myself. 6 more hours.... Whew, I get so excited just thinking about it!!!! Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can't hardly stand it in the Tundra!

Love, Sarah

Not so much going on here....

The Lord held the rain off yesterday. It did rain a bit this morning and I'm just praying that the ground had a little time to dry out! Started on the massive mountain of laundry - still don't know the long term effects of wet floor - but you can keep praying!

I think the stress is getting to him.... Sambo, that is... Lots of you know that he has some pretty crazy and intense dreams. But usually they are after a big event, so I didn't even see this one coming. Also, on a side note - he did stub his toe while hauling out bucket loads of water, and it may be infected now - yuck! So anyway, back to my original story... We've had a pretty busy couple of days and I haven't gotten much sleep and last night I must have been in a VERY deep sleep, or so I thought. I did wake up to Sam laying in bed saying, He couldn't go to the Boundary Waters and no one was going to be able to go. I thought he was just dreaming again. But he wasn't slurring at all and talking normal. Then he says his toe is killing him and he's been throwing up and having diarrhea all night. That really woke me up! Then I noticed he'd put a shirt on - I mentioned that, and he said, Yeah, just in case someone stops by. I said, Someone might stop by in the middle of the night? He said, Yeah, I think I was dreaming that. But when he had mentioned getting sick, I checked his forehead and I was still a little out of it - I thought he had a fever, but he was just sweating... no fever. I said maybe you are dreaming. He said, No I'm not. I said, Well, it is weird because you are talking normal and he said that he's talking normal because he's awake like normal. So I started getting worried - there is no way he can take a bunch of kids on a trip when he was sick - then I prayed for him... I woke up off and on all through the night to check on him and every once in a while, he would actually get up out of bed and I would worry a little more... When I woke up this morning, I asked if he was feeling better and he said yes, but his toe still hurt.... And then right before I head off to work this morning, I said I just can't believe you were up all through the night and I didn't even know it! Then he tells me he thinks that was all a dream - he never did throw up or have diarrhea! Can you believe that?? And here I was loosing much needed sleep and praying over Sam's health issues, meanwhile, he doesn't even have a clue as he's sleeping there sound as a baby! Anyway, what is a girl to do?

Just thought I'd throw that out there and let you know that Sam is still up to his sleeping shenanigans!!! Have a great day!

Loosing sleep in the Tundra,

Sarah

Blessings....and cursings.....

Good Morning folks. My apologies for all those who stopped by yesterday only to be completely disappointed not to find my oh-so-intelligent musings! Let me tell you about my day yesterday. Actually I have some REALLY great news and some REALLY not-so-great news! So I'll share the REALLY not-so-great news first so that we can end on a good note!

Tuesday night we had torrential rain. I mean, non-stop down pour for like 12 hours! It was insane! Thunder, lightening, the whole nine yards. It was wonderful to fall asleep to. And then the morning came. Our next door neighbor called Sam's phone at 8am to tell him that she had ankle deep water in her basement - That's just awful. I was glad that I went to check if we had leakage before we went to bed. Nope. Anyway, Sam was on his way out the door to hang out with a friend and pick up said blessing that we will discuss later. And I was ready for work and ran downstairs just to make sure we didn't have any water. Well, I guess Sam had the same thought, because when I got down there, I saw some water and some towels thrown on the floor. And then I looked in Sam's art supply room where there were frames, sitting in water! Oh goodness. So I tried cleaning it up as best I could, collecting towels from all over the house and then I noticed that water from UNDER OUR LAMINATE flooring was pouring out as I stepped across the floor. Oh man. I couldn't really sop it up fast enough. So then I called work. Gonna be late. From there, the events of the day just kind of meld into a pretty much hysterical mess. All I could think of was the $500 laminate we just put down LAST SUMMER - submerged in water! I called Sam. He wasn't going to be home for a while. What do I do??? Well, here's the answer to that question - when there is nothing else to do and your whole house is falling apart - break down in heart wrenching, body wracking sobs! It really makes the world a lot nicer place to live. All you girls - do you agree or what? Think about all the terrible things that have been piling up on you and just let it all out - and especially when you get the wet vac and are sucking up water as fast as you can and you are just about deaf from the noise of it - cry louder! That way that neighbors don't even have to listen to you! I don't know what was pouring out faster, water from under the floor, or water from my eyes! Again, just to reiterate, it was not a pretty sight! I suppose pregnancy hormones don't really help the situation. But anyway, my man finally got home around noon and told me it's all going to be alright. Everything will be alright. Phew. Take a deep breath. He said it, it must be so. Why is everything a thousand times better when your man comes home and hugs you and tells you everything is going to be alright? Why can't I tell myself that - and believe it? Well, I was exhausted. I'd been through quite a bit that morning already. Sambo told me to go and lay down, I probably need a nap. Thank you. Thank you for telling me it will be alright. Thank you for making me lay down and take a nap. Thank you for taking over the sucking of the gallons of water "seeping" into our house. Thank you for loving me despite my exaggerating drama-ness. Thank you for keeping me calm and loving me despite all of it! Now, everyone - go home and thank your man for being the provider and leader and lover of your life!!! Yeah! Now, where was I? Oh yeah, nap, then I got up and we ran a couple of errands in town and came back to even more water in our living room. Ugh.... We figured out a system though. Suck up water, empty into large plastic trashcan at the top of the stairs, which is being siphoned out by water hose into the yard, and pick up sopping towels, take to the washing machine for a run through the spin cycle, replace with newly spun towels, wait 30 minutes and repeat. Simple enough. But at 2am when my man is still sucking up water - well, what can I say? You just got to love that man!!! On a side note, I was praying like crazy that the water would just stop - that the torrential rains would stop and that God would dry up all the landy landy! This morning, I wasn't quite sure what I would find when I went down there, but God is faithful to take care of us. There was water, but it hadn't "grown" quite as much as it could have! Now, I want the wind to come to dry out the land. We don't usually have this problem, but 6 inches of rain in 12 hours is enough to do it to ya! I guess there is this town south west of us who got 12 inches of rain in 4 hours! Can you imagine? So if you would - you are all such amazing pray-ers - hence our volleyball win - now I'm asking for prayers for a dry house! Thank you. I don't know what our long term problems are going to be - mold - warped floors, completely taking up all our laminate and introducing our little one to what it's like to live in a third world country even though they are in America! Whatever! The one thing I know and Sam knows and what I want our little guy to know - beyond a shadow of a doubt, is that we may not have the nicest things in this world - but GOD DOES TAKE CARE OF US BEYOND OUR WILDEST IMAGINATION AND DEFINITELY BEYOND WHAT WE DESERVE! Amen and Amen!

Enough about all that drama - do you want to see how God takes care of us in a practical way? Well, while sometimes it seems like the world is falling down on us all at once, we have to look with purpose for ways to see God working in and around us, cause guess what? He is! Many of you know that our vehicles are not necessarily the nicest in the world and sometimes give us a little problem now and then - our $300 MANVAN has it's own anti-theft system in the sliding door since the door handle has been missing for the last year and a half and you have to open the passenger door to reach back in order to open that door. We think it's pretty clever. It's a 1996 Ford Windstar - the weirdest color green in the world. But it's been good to us. Very good. It's hauled stuff, kids, fishing stuff, kids, camping stuff, kids, art stuff, kids, hunting stuff, kids, taken us across the country to VA and back, up to the UP of Michigan and back. We camped in it. We've off roaded in it. We've on roaded in it. It's hauled family, it's hauled much more than it's allowable amount of people in it at once - the back seat belt got chewed off by one hungry puppy a few years ago on a trip up to NW ND. Oh the memories.... Most kids think it is pretty embarrassing except for the fact that we are very proud of our MANVAN and tell them about how God provides - and now they all have a healthy respect for it. It's been a teaching tool. God has used this car. There are a couple little annoying quirks. Ok, maybe more than a couple - the speedometer doesn't work. Well, it kind of does. But for the most part, it just waivers back and forth. So we make it work. We take the average and assume that's how fast we are going. For a while, we could start it without the key! That was always fun - and I hope after all this description, NO ONE is entertaining the fact that we were ever afraid someone would steal it! Anyway, lately it developed this annoying little habit of beeping incessantly every time you go below 15 mph! So needless to say, we've had some really interesting rides in the MANVAN when Sam is about up to here with the beeping. Can we say - HANG ON!!!!! For fear that this entry is getting entirely too long, let me finish my blessing story. Some good friends of ours, I haven't asked their permission if I can use their name, so I'll leave that out for now, but God provided people to help them purchase a new truck and they were so humbled by God working in their lives like that, they wanted to turn around and bless someone else! Well, after reading my blog entry, entitled Off Roadin', they decided that God was leading them to bless us with their extra car! So they just wanted to give us their car - their All wheel drive, Honda CRV that gets 22 miles to the gallon. And it was all paid off and the mechanic just said there were tons of years left in the life of that thing. They just wanted to GIVE it to us. Did you get that - GIVE it to us? For no reason at all, just because they were obedient to God who had already blessed them so much! I don't know about you - but I was flabbergasted - that is seriously one of the most humbling things that has ever happened to me. So now, we are the proud new owners of a Honda CRV that drives like a dream and we can totally rely on it! Thank you friends, and mostly thank you God! There are about a thousand lessons in this, but just remember to Look for the Lord working in and through you, because He is. And it's awesome!

Well, I should probably wrap this up - since I need to proof-read it still and get some other stuff done today!

Overwhelmed, in a good way, in the Tundra,

Love, Sarah

Have to write quickly...

I see a warning (scheduled outage at 12:00 on Monday 6/15). Oh wait, I guess that's PDT. So maybe I have a little bit of time. So anyway.

Guess what we did this weekend? We thought about going to Medora. Isn't that fun? Seriously, on Friday, we packed up our car, we didn't really feel like driving out there, but then thought we should take advantage of the opportunity. So we packed our MANVAN full of camping gear/art supplies/pictures and whatever else! ;) (that was for you, Lori!) And we headed out....yard sale-ing! That's right. We decided we needed to run to town to do a couple things, so we would stop at some yard sales. Now it was too late. We'd just go tomorrow. So off we went to a bunch more yard sales. I got some good deals. Then we stopped for coffee. Now we were feeling so good, maybe, if we rushed, we could make it out to Medora by dark. Ok, let's go. But let's just go to one more rummage sale! In the meantime, Johnny, Sam's brother called to go fishing. So now we were having another dilemma, should we go? (It was more Sam's dilemma, just for the record.) So no, we should probably stay here and go tomorrow. Going, staying, going, staying...staying? We headed home to meet Johnny and decided to call our good friends, the Gerlachs, who we hadn't seen in forever and see if they wanted to come over for some dessert! Ok, so we're staying. But on the interstate home, Sam said, we could speed and still be out there in time! AHHHHH!!!! NO!!!!! We are not GOING, we are STAYING and going tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We did stay. Whew.

Johnny came over and we packed a quick picnic dinner and went to river, only for them not to really catch anything, just loose a couple lures. Then the Gerlach's came and met us and we headed home for Rootbeer Freezes and visits and cards! It was a very fun night - so much fun to catch up with them!!!

We got a good night's sleep and got up in the morning - got the whole yard/flowers fertilized, got more done on Tonto's kennel, got the tomatoes in, laundry done and dishes washed! What a productive morning! THEN we headed out to Medora! Dropped off a bunch of pictures and headed into the badlands! Sam headed off on a long walk in search of the perfect picture for his big commission. Meanwhile, I took a much needed nap! Sam and Tonto finally came back a couple hours later, not having found the perfect picture, but worn to the bone! Neither one of them could get enough water! It was getting later in the evening, so we headed into the Park and here began "Our Game." This is where we establish a point system for each animal seen. For example: Wild Horse - 1 pt, Deer - 1 pt, Mule Deer Buck - 2 pt, Buffalo - 3 pt, Elk - probably 5 pt, Herd (3 or more) - 3 pt, depending on what type of herd. Mountain lion, cougar - automatic win the game! Etc. Anyway, Sam ALWAYS wins. I take the back, I won once. And I was feeling it this time - I was going to win! We establish prizes before we even start the game and then we're off. And seriously, I had a good feeling about this one. But by the time the score was 9-22, (Sam's favor) I was trying to give myself points for enthusiasm and anything else I could think of! To no avail.... I gave up keeping score at 10-29 or something insane like that! Besides, the real point of the game is to enjoy the surroundings, see as much wildlife as possible and just enjoy the day, right? Whatever.

But along the way, Sam did find a Rattler (3 pts.) It was a small one - more deadly, so it maybe should have been worth more, especially when he was poking it...with his FINGER! But I figured I could minus those extra points for his stupidity. (He didn't need to extra points anyway, let's get serious!) He was so insistent on bringing it home - in the same car as us?!?!??!! Is he crazy? (Rhetorical question, I can't really handle the truth right now.) Anyway, after insisting that, NO, he could not bring it home to mount it or otherwise, he decided we should probably kill it. But kill it? That's a bit extreme, don't ya think... I know that the snake could actually kill something else and would be extremely harmful to both people and other animals, and it probably would have been the responsible thing to do, but he was just laying there until Sam started poking it and I just couldn't see killing it. So we jumped in the car to head off to our next adventure, wherever that may take us! And about 10 seconds after we pulled away from the snake, a park patrol met us on the road. He must have been some young buck. We were on a turn and maybe a little in the middle of the road just getting our bearings, and so we might have scared him a bit, but we definitely didn't deserve what came next. So we are going along, thinking, that's great that the Ranger is back there, because he'll probably see the snake and so maybe he would stop and kill it. Then we didn't have to worry. Mind you, we have been driving like the oldest Sunday drivers throughout the entire park because of our game and because we didn't have to be anywhere! So all of a sudden, out of no where, this Ranger pulls up behind us and follows us for about a minute and then on go the lights! Goodness gracious - what is this all about? Surely he didn't have time to kill the snake and come back to check to make sure we were ok?! So then he comes up and tells us that we were speeding and we needed to slow down because we nearly ran him off the road! WHAT?! Are you kidding me? How in the world? So Sam said he didn't think he was speeding and the Ranger said, Yes, you were. I had to drive 48 mph to catch up to you. Nevermind that the road wasn't big enough to do a U-turn, so he had to stop and do at least a 3 pt. turn just to get turned around, and I don't know about you, but the MANVAN does not do 60 in 2.5 seconds - it's pretty powerful, but let's get real! (Maybe 60 in about 3.5 minutes!) - anyway, he took Sam's license, registration and all the good stuff and just ended up giving Sam a warning - so moral to this story - Don't mess with the Young Ranger's at the edge of dark!

By the time dark rolled around at 10pm, we decided we could find somewhere to camp and pull out all of our crap, or just stay up another couple of hours and drive home and stay in our own bed - so home won out and we drove home!!! Slept in a little on Sunday and had a nap and went to V-ball. By the way - thanks to all you pray-ers! We won. But it was bittersweet to tell you the honest truth. It determined the the top 8 and lower 8 bracket, so one of us is in the top and the other in the bottom, so that means we won't get to play each other again. All because of the stupid rain last week! It's always so much fun to be able to play against each other! Well, we did have the 7:30 slot - so we got to play till about 10pm just for fun... Then out to McD's for ice cream! Fun night had by all!!!

Monday morning dawns not so bright and no so clear - but I'm ok with a little more rain - you should see our yard. I know that's more my fault than yours that you can't see it, but I promise I will work on getting some photo's up for you in the next couple of weeks!

Well, I know that Erik's time is precious and I don't want him to spend a full 15 minutes of reading, so I'll cut this short even though I'm really just getting started!!! :)

Resting up from a tiring but good weekend in the Tundra!!!
Sarah

Half-way through!

Well, nothing new and exciting as of yesterday, unless of course you count my 20 min. nap that turned into an hour and a half - I don't know about you, but I was pretty darn stoked about that! Then I made lentils for dinner - Beth's Lentils, to be exact. And I have to admit, I wasn't really feeling it once I got everything in the pot. But I did add some sausage to the recipe because my man says if you don't eat meat for a meal, it's like a snack, not a real meal! (I feel the same way about sleeping anywhere other than my own bed - that's kind of like a nap, not a real sleep!) But I digress. Anyway, I whipped up some biscuits to go with the Lentils, which always makes my man happy! He could probably live off of biscuits, if I let him. So I thought just in case he wasn't real keen on the lentils, at least I'd have a fall back! So I served him dinner and surprise beyond surprise - the Lentils were fabulous! Definitely the highlight! He even liked them better than my biscuits and just between you and me - those were some pretty amazing biscuits!!! So here you go -

Beth's Lentils

2 TB olive oil
2 large onions, diced
1 medium carrot, sliced
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried marjoram
3 cups veg broth or water (I used Chicken Broth - all I had)
1 cup lentils, rinsed
salt to taste
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (I used dry)
2 14 oz cans stewed tomatoes

Heat the olive oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat. Cook the onion and carrot for 3-5 minutes, then add herbs and saute 1 minute more.

Add all the other ingredients, bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until lentils are tender, about 50 minutes.

Plus, like I said, I threw in a lb. of cooked Bulk Pork Sausage, I'm sure between my chicken broth and sausage, I totally ruined all health benefits, but it sure was tasty!


Other than that, I did want to give you an update on my mom! Her MRI came back clear - that is to say, there was nothing new other than what they knew about - but they didn't check the lymphnodes, that test is yet to come. So she just needs to make plans to do the lumpectomy and radiation. She is really not excited about the radiation and looking to see if there are any alternatives to that, but what great news! Thank you so much for praying - if you can keep it up - we're not out of the woods yet!

Thanks tons!!!!

Grateful in the Tundra!

Sarah

Off Roadin'

Have you ever been to the mechanic with your MINIVAN where the mechanic says, "You know, this is NOT a 4 wheel drive vehicle? It's probably better if you don't off road with it." I'd venture a bet that there aren't that many people that can say they've had that experience! But thanks to my adventurous husband, I can add that to MY repertoire of adventures! And you would think that nice suggestions from the world's best mechanic would be enough to make one stop and think, but I don't think Sambo acknowledges nice suggestions - he acknowledges more like flat tires in the middle of the dessert of Arizona on the darkest of nights. Must be a first born thing. Anyway, it's cold here. And rainy. And we went for our normal Sunday drive. He used to ask me which direction we should go for our drive - North, South, or West. That was BEFORE the pond and the massive load of rocks we found. Now, we find ourselves heading south and coming back with a load of hand picked rocks. When I show you pictures of the pond, I want you to realize that EVERY SINGLE rock was hand picked, with love, by the love of my life! So picture this with me... it's been raining pretty regular for two days straight making roads pretty muddy and the thermometer is barely touching 40 degrees - now Sam usually gives me a hard time and says that I always exaggerate everything, but this is NOT one of those times! (On a side note, isn't life much more exciting when you exaggerate a bit? That's beside the point.) Anyway, we turn off on Sam's beloved "short cut" (yes, it's another one) and we are traveling along when all of a sudden, we are in 4-6 inches of mud and swerving all over the place! He's Woo-hooing and all over the place like a kid in a candy store, meanwhile I was white knuckled and "Dear Lord Jesus, help us get out of here without having to replace our engine!" I seriously thought we'd be high centered for about 1 second and then sink in the miry depths to the Earth's core! (Ok, maybe a little exaggeration!) But it was bad. I knew it was bad when he stopped woo-hooing and started praying too - Oh goodness, I knew it was bad. But what did the Love of my life do? He just sped up till the light at the end of the tunnel - PAVEMENT! Whew, we made it. But not without palpitations and most likely permanent damage, not sure where that's going to show up, but it most certainly will! I asked him if he was trying to kill me or just give me another good story for my blog, because I really don't mind being boring - especially when I see this price tag at the car repair shop just keep ticking away!

Well, we got to our beloved rock pile, by this time, the rain was REALLY coming down. For fear of giving away our location to much - let's just say we were along the river somewhere and there were people out fishing...IN THE RAIN! Talk about dedication (or maybe craziness)! Ok, fishermen in the rain, Sam collecting rocks in the rain and there I am, huddled up in the disasteratized MANVAN pondering really deep thoughts, when Sam says - "Look, isn't it crazy what people will do for their passion?" Wherein I pipe up - "Yeah, like move to North Dakota?!" For some reason he thought that was so funny! So the next thing is - Have you ever heard of a Red neck car wash? Yeah, me neither. But Sam thought he was just the most clever thing in all the world by driving our MANVAN almost INTO the river and proceed to splash River water all over it to get earlier said mud off! So that's my life in the Tundra - sitting in a $300 half broke down van down by the river while my incredibly handsome, although somewhat loopy husband splashes the mud off it, oh yeah, in the POURING rain! Aren't y'all jealous? ;)

Whew, enough adventure for one day. VBS started last night. I have 3 kids going into the 2nd grade and 2 going into the 1st grade. One of them is a firecracker! My voice had just started coming back before VBS last night. The one firecracker took it right back out of me! 4 more nights, I can do this! :) Anyway, I'm pretty sure his parents fed him about a case of Mt. Dew before he came last night. He did mention that Mt. Dew was his favorite. But the funniest thing that happened was that he was trying to tell us a joke a snack time - "Why did the cavemen move into the Cave?" No one had a clue - and then he says, "Because it was raining!" Ha hahahahahaha. Whatever. I didn't get it, but I laughed along because I was anxious for him to stop talking. But then I had this one girl look at him and said, "I don't get it." He said you don't get it? She said yeah, I just don't get it. And then he said, weeeeeeell, I said it like I believed it - like it's a fact. So I intervened and said - it was more like trivia - not so much a joke. So she said, Oh. And then about a minute later she looked at him and said - "Are you saying that the cavemen moved into the cave because it was raining?" And the Firecracker said YES! And she said - Oh, that's not funny. She had the most serious face on and I about died! Luckily it was time to move on to the next station! But oh, more to come. We have VBS every night this week till Thursday from 6-8:30pm!

Pray for us! I'm the Crew Leader for my small troop and Sam is in charge of the Bible Stories, which he does such a great job with! Last night he was the voice of God speaking to Moses from the Burning Bush. When he said, Do you know who I am - the kids started yelling out these answers - God! Sam! Santa! HA! It was funny!

Anyway, hoping it warms up in the Tundra - ps. Just so you know, our V-ball got canceled last night due to rain, so that's why we have no updates, but this coming week, we play our other Charity Team - so I'm going to stoop pretty low and ask for some prayers that we can beat them! :) hehehe - take that Erik!!!!

Love, Sarah