Grace Church (our shameless plug!)

Hello friends and family!!!

As you know, Ben & I have been in Utah for 2 years now and are loving the climate, the scenery, the adventure, and experiencing God's grace in our lives in new ways all of the time.

One of the major ways we have experienced God's amazing grace has been through our church family here. Grace Presbyterian Church is a PCA church about 15 minutes from our home in Ogden, UT. Since we have been in attendance our church has met in a wedding reception center that although beautiful, is not our own. For 10 years the church has been praying for an opportunity to move into a permanent building in order to enhance our opportunities to build God's mission in the predominantly Mormon/LDS culture of our state. (There are less Christians in Utah than in Egypt!)

We are currently seeing God's hand leading us to an answer to those prayers. There is a Lutheran congregation within a few miles of our current meeting place who is looking for a buyer for their property. We have made them an offer and they have accepted it! This is a very exciting time for our church!!! We praise God for this opportunity!!!

Ben & I are writing to you to inform you of this development with the hope that you will join us in praising God as well as in praying for the continued success of this endeavor. Although we are confident that God has led our church on this path, we are also aware that our small congregation cannot raise the funds on our own. After praying together as a church, and as families, the Grace congregation came forward with their offerings and pledges for this campaign. With some outside support added, we are nearly halfway to our goal of $425,000!

We are praying for God to work in the hearts of our friends in and out of Utah to support us either in prayer or in prayer and financial gifts to help close the $225,000 gap. (That is only 225 individuals, families, churches or organizations giving $1,000 each in one lump sum or pledged in monthly amounts for up to 3 years!)

The church website http://www.graceutah.org provides lots more information and details if you are interested in learning more or in making an investment in our church building fund. There is also a site specific to this building fund at http://home.netcom.com/~sdkelley/gracepresbyterianchurchofutah/

So, what do you think???? Do you have any questions...or would like to encourage us by telling us that you are praying with and for us in this? Will you join us in making an investment in our church building fund??? We are excited to see what God provides for us in this new adventure!

This is what they pay me the big $$$ for!

Check out what I did at work on Wednesday morning...

http://spotted.standard.net/photos/index.php?id=105825

I love my job!!!!

(sorry, you have to click my title or copy and paste the link into your browser...it won't show up as a link...weird!)

Natta says: "Pretty blog!"

So you may have noticed that I finally figured out how to make our blog cuter! When Natalie and her boys were visiting I asked her about how she got her blog to be so cute and she showed me...so if you are like me and need these things spelled out for you...here it is...
visit the link in the top left corner (thecutestblogontheblock.com), choose a background, follow the easy directions and enjoy your new cute blog.
yep, it really is that easy...so why did it take me so long to figure it out???? thanks for the help, Natta! oh, and you all should check out her blog so you can see some of her pics from their visit. http://www.nattascattachatta.blogspot.com/ i haven't gotten so far yet as to upload our pics. i'll get to it-maybe next week when school is out!!! just pray for me to make it through this week. :)

Why we volunteer with Youth For Christ Teen Parents

We received this email this week and I wanted to share it with all of you so that you might understand why we volunteer with and financially support YFC Teen Parents in Utah.


Please pray for a teen parent. She is 17 and is a few weeks pregnant by her 22 year old boyfriend. She has told no one other than him and her best friend. The baby's father is pushing for an abortion and the mother is against that. This pregnancy is a result of failed birth control pill. She plans to come to our meeting next week. I also referred her to Pregnancy Care Center for help if she wants to talk to a counselor about the pressure for an abortion. Please continue to lift her up. She will graduate from High school in just 4 days!


Can you imagine the fear, anxiety and pressure this young woman is facing right now? She "should" be rejoicing in her graduation with friends and family but is more likely feeling alone, isolated, scared and confused. Please join us in praying for her and the other teen moms that we help to serve. Your prayers mean a lot!

Storm's first road trip and other Besther adventures

So I know it is already May 16th-Happy Birthday Dad-but April was busy and fun so we wanted to be sure to fill you all in on what we were up to. :)

I had a short Spring Break so we decided to take a trip to St. George, UT to save some time and $$$...It was about a 5 hour drive down and we took Storm with us which made it her first real road trip. After about an hour in the car (the longest we've ever taken her at once) she started to shake and pant a lot so we were kinda worried that she might be sick. So we pulled over, let her out and walked her around a bit. She was quickly back to herself so we put her back in the car and she was fine for about 10 minutes. Then it was back to the shaking. We decided that I would just try to comfort her until we stopped in a half hour for a short lunch. She was able to calm down before we stopped and stayed calm the rest of the trip. It was a bit of a "shaky" start to our trip but we were proud of her after all...we think she may have been worried that she couldn't get out if she wanted to, but we made frequent enough stops to make her comfortable. We left plenty of space in the back of the CRV for her to sit on her seat or lay on the floor, but she refused to sleep in the car.

We would frequently turn around to see her dosing like this or in some other funny position that did NOT look comfortable...but she refused to sleep on the floor...Silly puppy!

We drove through some rain in our own area to get to this-the gorgeous city of St. George where palm trees sway and the sun shines! We were only about an hour from Las Vegas but didn't head that way since we "saw" it last summer. Our first meal was at In-N-Out Burger, our favorite fastfood burger joint...even though the one in St. George is the closest one we have-so far! We settled into our room with Storm at the Super 8, which was suprisingly nice and allowed pets, even 90 lb. puppies! We took Storm to the dog park in town (the major reason we decided to bring her with us) and did some exploring.

The next morning we left her in her crate in the hotel and headed out for the 50 minute drive to Zion National Park.

We didn't have much of an idea of what to expect but we were not disappointed. We hiked and saw some beautiful rock formations in this legendary canyon for the Virgin River.

We got to do some fun climbing on red rock and took the shuttle all over the park to see the different amazing views.

Saturday was rainy so we took a day off to explore more of St. George and do some shopping. We found a great breakfast place and awesome thai food. We also found out that just above town there is a "park" with red rock bluffs that you can hike and climb for some great views. We did that on Sunday before leaving town.

We were able to take Storm with us which was nice since we couldn't take her to Zion NP. I love this picture of one of my best buddies...she really is a sweetheart-even if she can be a huge pain in the neck. :)

After packing the car and leaving St. George we got back on I15 North back to Ogden but Ben wanted to take a detour to see Brian Head ski resort just outside of Cedar City, UT (go firgure ;). So we got off of the highway about an hour into the trip and drove about 12 miles up to 10, 420 feet!

After just having been hiking in the red rock bluffs and sun, it was a little weird to be in the snow watching skiers but it was a worthwhile detour.

We noticed some red rock in the midst of the snow-very pretty!

And then we drove back down-in 2nd gear.

Storm finally got too tired to stay awake-we caught her like this after hours of trying to stay awake. So Cute!

So we spent a good bit of our Easter Sunday in the car, but we read the story of Christ's life, death and resurrection to each other as we drove and had some good discussion and reminders about who Christ is and why He is not only our God but our Friend. It was neat to worship together in the car in the midst of such natural beauty as we were able to see.

We didn't "celebrate" Easter with any friends or family, but Storm did get a present.

Which she immediately destroyed.

Sorry, Easter Bunny, but you look even worse NOW...it is inside out and unrecognizable.

Storm's friend Buster was a little gentler with the bunny. Buster's family travelled some in April too and asked us to dog sit which we gladly did b/c he is a sweetheart, and kept Storm exercised which gave us more time for other things-like Spring house projects.

Aprli 26th marked Ben's 30th birthday and we celebrated at home with some good friends, chinese food and ice cream cake. Later we went bowling and had a blast. Originally I planned to take Ben and some friends paintballing but the weather and some schedules didn't allow, so we took a rain-check on that, but Ben's birthday was a success anyway. :)


Last weekend we replaced the back panel of our fence, so we'll have to fill you in on that a bit later. It was a lot of work, but it looks great!

Spring Honey-Do

Ding Dong the Birch is dead! Well actually it has been dead since we bought the house but now it is gone! No more dead trees in our front yard!


Ben had fun with the chainsaw. I was ready nearby with my phone handy-just in case. :)

Now we just have a big tree stump in the front and a TON of firewood in the backyard-oh, yeah, you know Storm is having a ball dragging it all over the place!

Safety first-no injuries! So we got the old tree out and have planted a new tree-a flowering pear. I hope it is as pretty as we expect and that it will help shade our west-facing front rooms. We also planted a new maple in the backyard. Ben would like to plant one more tree in the front yard by the driveway to help shade the front of the house and the car in the driveway. Anyone have any suggestions for something that grows up to 35 feet high and only 20 feet wide? That is what we want!

This weekend we are replacing our back fence. It is supposed to be gorgeous so hopefully things will go well. The front gate we replaced turned out really well, so we'll wait and see...

We have a lot more to catch up on (Storm's first road trip to St. George, UT, Zion National Park, Ben's 30th Birthday, and Buster the Boxer-don't worry we were just dog-sitting)...we'll catch you later...Happy Cinco De Mayo!

A Snowy April Day...

Ben & I drove up to Powder Mountain last night to close out the ski season and we were hit with several inches of snow while we were there. :) It made for a cold night but some really great, soft snow. At first I was a bit shaky and unsure of skiing this type of snow since I hadn't really seen it since our first ski day in December 2007 (some of you may recall that I had a really bad experience that day). But it didn't take me long to figure out how fun it is to swish through a top layer of powder snow and let it catch the edge of your ski as you glide along. So before I knew it Ben was saying "I think you're ready for a blue." (For those of you who don't ski, a green circle is an easy slope, a blue square is steeper and then a black diamond is expert or very difficult.) I started out a bit concerned when I stood at the top and couldn't see much further than 10 feet b/c the drop was so steep but was very proud of myself when I made it to the bottom (almost) unscathed. I did take one turn too wide into a couple feet of soft powder and landed squarely on my butt! That was my only fall of the night (and only my second fall of the year) so I feel confident that beginning next season I will be able to ski more WITH Ben instead of only riding the lift together (he gets very bored of the green runs that I like). So we had been skiing for about 5 hours when the cold finally got to us and we decided to head home where there was NO snow.
I am proud to call myself a Utah skier. Now I will look forward to next year's season to continue to learn and improve. So, who's gonna come skiing with me next year???

Do you ever watch Rachel Ray?

Well, I don't watch Rachel Ray, but my good friend Jamie does and she was on the show this week. Check her out http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/show/segments/view/500th-episode-giveaways/ Jamie is mother of Micah and Lydia and is pregnant with twins. She and Nathan moved the family from Utah back to Wisconsin in November and I haven't seen her since, so you can imagine how fun it is for me to see her ON TV! Doesn't she look great-especially for being severl months along with twins???? She also blogs about the whole experience at http://fivefikkerts.blogspot.com/

Miss you Jamie!!!!

Is it really March already?

Ben and I are surprised at how quickly 2009 seems to be passing us by. Here we are in March, the second day of Spring, Winter on it's way out and making Summer plans.

But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, we want to tell you all about what we've been up to since our last post in early February.

On President's Day, Swanson's North Fork Environmental Center invited all Weber School District Employees to come and try out their cross country skis and snow shoes. We had never done either and were excited to try it. We arrived at the very same time as a co-worker, Susie, and her two boys, Cameron and Zach, who are students at Lakeview. It was a lot of fun to be able to spend the day with them, getting to know them better and seeing them outside of school. :)

I really really enjoyed the cross-country skiing. You can see so much of your environment moving around on these very lightweight skis in the tracks they provide for you. You can go uphill and downhill, and if you are at all used to regular downhill skis, they are very easy to use. We were tucked back in the valley away from any real "civilization" so it was very quiet and definitely relaxing-a good way to spend a day off.

The snow-shoeing wasn't as much fun, but to be fair, I got a fever and a terrible cold within a couple of hours of being home, so I just may not have been feeling very well by the time we tried them.

So, after that big adventure we are excited to go again next year. Anyone who happens to visit over President's Day is welcome to join us!

I spent the next two days in bed, sick, and then we started getting ready for the arrival of Steve and Kristie. Steve was Ben's roommate during our engagement so we spent a lot of time that summer with the also engaged Steve and Kristie. He was a part of our engagement story, the boys were in each others weddings (2 weeks apart), they taught us to play Canasta, and we have travelled to Vermont and Mexico with them. So we were thrilled when our good friends from New York State planned a ski weekend with us in Utah. And skiing we did! We spent a day together at Powder Mtn and the boys spent a day at Snowbasin while we girls went shopping. :) It was great to hang out with old friends in a new place. :)

Da Boys!


Kristie & I meet the boys at the lift.

It was a GORGEOUS bluebird day.

Steve at Snowbasin, Ogden and the Great Salt Lake in the background.

Thanks for coming Steve & Kristie...let's do it again!

In local news, Storm is enjoying the warmer weather. We had a week of shedding her winter coat, right before the arrival of Steve and Kristie (thank goodness), when there was white fur EVERYWHERE and we were cleaning constantly to keep up with it. Huge chunks of undercoat would come out at a time and it would look like we had a snowstorm inside the house. Just another reason she has the PERFECT name. :) Saturday she had her first riverwalk of the year.

She also had her first non-snowy playdate of the year...after which she looked like this...

So we had to give her a bath...

So she could look like this again...

The cats are glad that we have had 60+ degree days so we could open some windows up again. What do you think they are looking at?

Could it be Storm, taking a nap in her chair???

Happy Spring ya'll! We hope it is as fun for you as it is already for us!!!

The Rocks Cry Out

As I expected, my buddy Mike was able to spread plenty of Baltimore flavor all over vanilla-bean UT during his 5 day visit out here at the end of January. Mike is a whirlwind of energy, and I had some trouble keeping up with him.

Mike's visit also happened during a 3ft dump in the moutains. I would sometimes voice my need to slow things down a little bit, and I think this pic above shows a brief moment where Mike may have realized that I was right in trying to call it an early night prior to our big ski day. We were due for men's prayer breakfast at 6AM, followed by a full day of skiing at Snowbasin. No matter, Mike picked himself up and still lifted weights at the gym that night while I sat in the sauna.

We got to goof around a lot, Mike picked up his ski skills very quickly. Our only trouble was when the groomed trails suddenly ended, and we found ourselves off trail amidst deep powder that we couldn't ski on well, and was exhausting to walk through.

Up top, Mike reminded me of the scripture of the rocks crying out in praise to God even if we are silent. I hadn't pondered this thought, and it was stirring in front of the rocky bowl of Mt Ogden soaring up above 9,000 ft.

.

Thankyou Mike for your perspectives, energy and brotherhood!