Placement

Big ups for Chelsea;
She was placed in the VA hospital this Fall. Come to find out, this is known as the best placement in the school. It's to be a great learning environment and a great place to be. More details later...
Yay Chelsea! feeling blessed, mega excited

is this thing on?

Yup, still here. Have you lost interest in our blog...that's alright, we deserve it. Recap of the past, let's see, FIVE MONTHS! (What?) That's bad.

Chelsea finished year one graduate school! She did a great job, by the way.

Payette turned 1! (highlight) Go Pay...you go, get old!

Derek was hired at a sweet place

Chelsea is getting awesome at tennis

Payette is controlling the bug population in Idaho

Back to MI for Jake and Kelly's wedding, yay marriage

Church is awesome

Chelsea started her final year at ISU

Tons of fires in ID, CA, CO....booo fires

2nd anniversary!

Celebrated one year in Idaho

That's it in a nutshell, catch you in January

The year here has been pretty spectacular. We have had a lot of challenges, doubts, fears...etc.

upon arrival we weren't sure how long it would take to find a job and if school would go well. Thankfully we persevered through the difficulty in finding work and the overwhelming work load at school. God has seriously blessed us with legitimate growth. It's easy to see now how worthwhile the challenges were considering the growth...yeah, He knows what He's doing.

What a season this has been. We are having a blast together and Payette is the best. We are meeting new and really great people and are excited to build relationships with them.

We kept wanting to believe we were celebrating our first anniversary but it really has been two years. 

I don't know if it's supposed to be easier or harder the second year, but it was really great. It has been great to finally be on similar schedules and to see each other and spend time together. 

Ummm, yea, that card says 'Jaywad'

We had a picnic in July with our church. What a great time to meet people and enjoy the park!

Derek was baptized (with Doug)

Great day! Tons of people.

DEATHLY HALLOWS sticker!!

We had this idea...we would go to the beach...

It wasn't what we expected

But the mountains are great, so we take what we can get

Wouldn't be right if we didn't showcase our bizarre cat

She lays with her legs spread...no idea why, but it's what she likes

It's easy to not become attached (lie)

There are a lot of things I have skipped over, but we are trying to get back into this.

Why is everyone so mad with March? Who changed my clock?!

We have quickly reached the half-way mark of Chelsea's semester. I'm sure most know how challenging this semester has been. The workload has increased and there are many challenges with her clients as well. But, despite the challenges, Chelsea has maintained great grades and has done an incredible job in clinic. I'm really proud of her diligence in studies and I applaud her modesty given her reputation with her peers. We greatly appreciate everyone praying for the many tests Chelsea has endured. I think Chelsea has really high standards for her marks and she has been able to do terrific things in her classes. Chelsea is at a hearing screening right now in Boise. She has learned a lot of new information and some pretty exciting things. Chelsea is incredible, and she is doing an incredible job. She is doing a good job balancing her school work and extracurricular requirements well and is excited about the effectiveness she has had and the difference it can make in lives. It is, indeed, and incredible things, and she does a great job at it. It's no surprise that this is her gifting, but we are praying for clarity for where we will go and where she will be called and most effective. I am crazy proud of what she is doing.

This week we had to take Payette in to the vet to help control the pet population. After about a week of telling Payette (through song) that the day was coming we finally dropped her off with heavy hearts. Our little rascal was so sad when we walked out of the room and was not very happy when we returned. Minus her lovely lady lumps, Payette looks incredibly thin, and incredibly frail. She is finally starting to come back to life, but the first 24 hours were pretty tough. She wandered around the apartment with her mouth hanging open and glazed eyes as if she was sleep walking in slow motion. We know it is all for the best to live a longer, happier life, but we do not like having our little buddy down.

My search for work, extra work, another job, a better job...basically anything that will help pay off student loans, continues. Alright, my ambitions are more advanced, but I feel like I would take any of those options just to feel like I'm progressing. I have taken many interviews for many positions and have been rejected by all. From server to architect or janitor to sales rep, I am either over-qualified, under qualified, not a good fit,... etc.

It has been a frustrating time. There seems to be no explanation beyond the economy, but it hasn't helped to build the confidence. Last wee I returned home from an interview that I thought went well, checked my messages and heard back from Hummel architects. I had interviewed a while back and heard they NEEDED to hire two people. I have been pursuing them since we came out for our first visit, so I was excited about the news. But after talking to them, calling them, visiting them, emailing them, calling them again, visiting them again, emailing them again, I finally heard they were not going to hire anyone after all. Then I checked my email and received a message that another company decided not to move forward with me. Disappointment in the situation and myself followed. But within the next minute after reading that I read Isaiah 41:10 in three different locations, out of the blue. It seemed like I was immediately inundated with that message. It certainly helps to know that promise. So, I keep looking.

We heard this week that it was really nice back in Michigan. We hope everyone got to enjoy the outdoors. We were surprised because after the hot summer and mild winter we thought we would have the warm weather first. But good for Michigan! It was actually raining and 38 here that day. We have had an opportunity to break the rollerblades out once this year and are looking forward to the warm weather. We are disappointed that we didn't have enough time to explore more of the Idaho winter landscape this year. Here are a few pictures of the past couple weeks that Chelsea took.

The cool news is that we never had to put our winter tires on. I sure am glad we drove eight tires out here and carried them up to the third floor. I'm just kidding, who would have known it would be this tame.
I had an opportunity to explore some caves this past month. I had never been caving before, so I was excited about the prospect, while Chelsea shared her disdain for the activity and, thus, chose to stay home. I went with a few guys to Mountain Home and explored a fissure cave in a field that was supposed to be one of the more challenging caves nearby. It was indeed very tight and allowed us to channel our inner Yukon Cornelius...did he cave? Or was he a surface dweller? either way, I'm keeping it. It was a good little adventure and challenged us athletically. One section named 'the birth canal' required us to bridge ourselves over water and through a small opening to the second half of the cave. Long story short, I could barely fit through the opening, almost lost my drawers and got my rear wet. We clipped though the cave quickly though and found another one nearby. The second cave was far more challenging and consisted of a series of ropes throughout. After going down two of the ropes and across a gap we turned around after seeing a hole with two ropes and no evident bottom. We will return at some point with gloves and a little more rest, because this cave is taunting me.
I do apologize for this post. I wrote this entire post last night, but lost the information. My previous version rivaled any literature written by Hemmingway, but my autosave didn't autosave. I would love to take time to do a better job, but I promised I would get it done because we haven't updated and I am extremely hungry and seriously angry for not saving. I am trying to save face...not our best post. But seriously, if you could have read the earlier version...I didn't think that kind of magic could come from these hands.
We love you all and miss you. We cannot thank you enough for your prayers and remembering us out here. We do miss a lot of information that people share in passing, so if we can pray for anyone, let us know, please.
Also, we just got news today that Ted Vanderson passed away last night. Please pray for his wife, Shirley and their family. Celebrate his relationship with Jesus Christ and remember where our home is.

Hot Springs Day Trip

When we got home from MI, one of the things we wanted to do before I had to go back to school was to head back up to the hot springs along the Payette River in the daytime. So the other day we did just that and I am so glad we did. It was amazing to see the area in the daylight. There are quite a few pics to follow because everything was breathtaking; we had a hard time putting the camera down.

Our cat's namesake

I like taking pictures of the cows here because they roam free in the fields like they should everywhere.

Getting very close to our desired destination...

This is stepping out of the car and looking beside us to the right

And so begins the lengthy, but beautiful hike straight up the mountain to the hot springs

Resting while I snap some phots

The Payette River was a bright blue-green color

In this picture you can kind of see the man-made trail winding along

The 'upper pool'

You can see in this picture the rigged piping that allows you to change the water temperature

Both times we have been here we went to the 'upper pool' so we decided after we got our clothes back on (that is over our swimsuits ;) ) we walked down to check out the 'lower pool'. This one was actually bigger and had a little waterfall. Derek took this picture standing at the 'upper pool' looking down.

Derek liked this sign... ? I dunno

Water flowing down from the 'upper pool' into the 'lower pool'.

Yes these hot springs are called the Skinnydipper hot springs and the sign says under the name "built and maintained by skinnydippers" Yikes.

Dereks take on the hot springs : ) Oh this is one of those times where I just nod and smile and think to myself, "yes that is my husband".

View sitting in the hot springs

Back down to the base of the mountain where we took a lot of pictures of the water. The river was not frozen at all, but it had some ice where little waterfalls flow into the river from the mountain above. They looked like tiny glaciers since the water was so blue-green.

Derek also decided to mimick Payette "paddy-warming" in honor of her namesake.

Getting ready to leave we could see the steam from the springs come all the way down the mountain. Crazy since it is a good 12-15 minute hike up to them.

I am not sure... while Derek was messing around with the camera I discovered that I could make my hand into the shape of Idaho. Derek however, was not as impressed.



We are so blessed for the opportunity to live out here for a little while. Sometimes it is easy to feel like we are not home, but these small trips we are able to take help settle those emotions. It is incredible to be surrounded by such different creation. It is so magnificant and such a great reminder to us of how big our God is and how much He loves us. We are thankful.