Busy Summer So Far!

My goodness time does fly when your having fun! 

Lots has been going one since my last post in May!  I (E) spent time in California with my mom, aunts, and cousins.  We were celebrating one cousins graduation, and then also just enjoying being together...it had been a really long time!  We went to 11 wineries over the course of our 6 day trip, we toured, drank, and played. So much fun!

I got back just in time for J to have some knee repair work done.  Thankfully that went really well and his recovery has gone great and goes back to work in just a couple days!  Praise the lord, because it could have been really invasive with really long recovery so we are SO THANKFUL!

We went to Idaho for the 4th of July (and my birthday), and spent time with family and some great friends.  It was so good to see the M family and the C family, thank you both for making the drive over to Idaho!   Then we headed on further up into Idaho to visit my in-laws, and had a wonderful and relaxing time there.  We are just so thankful to have our family within driving distance that we can spend time with them! :-)

Now that J is feeling so much better we are working hard to get the house move-in-ready...there are still important things that need to get done, but we have the time (and health) to do it again!

More fun things are on the calendar for this summer so I will keep you posted!

And I will try to get some pictures up soon too!

Blessings on your summer, and stay cool!

An End In Sight

Its been a long time since I have written about whats been going on in our lives, and I am just trying to start with where we are now.  But to understand the title I must do a small amount of back tracking.  In August of 2011 bought a house!  Hurray!  Oh, wait, this is like the 4th piece of property that we have purchased, but still Hurray!

This house is in the town where I work and a little further from where James works but still we are so excited.  It was a bank owned property that we have been working (and working and working and working) on since last fall.  But finally now there is an END in sight!  We are so excited at the prospect of finally living in the house that we have spent so much time in but haven't been able to live in!  Such and exciting thing to move in! Well, almost.  We still have several steps to go, but I can SEE the light at the end of the tunnel!  We have been pushing, and pushing, and pushing out the date of move in! First it was by Christmas, then it was Valentines, then it was by April, now we have to be moved in before June 25th!  James is having knee surgery and we need to be moved before then, bottom line, it has to happen.  So we are working as much as possible, as often as possible to get things ready!

I will post a couple of pictures soon of the house, and then I hope to do a before and after post later.  I am looking forward to that, it'll mean we're done! 

We pray that our hard work will help to make for a warm and welcoming home, a place to live and love to the glory of our Awesome God! 

"It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built." Luke 6:48

Social Life???

Not at at our house! We have been spending almost every spare moment since August working on a house in Colfax that we bought! Uuugghh! It's taking so long!! But I know it will be very worth it when we are done!

We are getting SO close to the finish, some more painting and flooring! Then we just have to install a few cabinets! There isn't much left on the list and I am so excited!!!

We hope all the moms out there had a wonderful day!!! We love you and appreciate you!!!

Making a Fresh Start....

At blogging that is! This is hopefully the beginning of a new trend to actually update the blog and fill family and friends in on what is happening in our world!

I am writing this blog from my phone! I know, welcome to the real world Erin, I am a bit behind the times with this one! But hopefully this will aid in my goal to stay up on this blog!

So hello again world, we are back online and hoping to bring you more and more life updates!

Time to kick-it in the Mountains!

So I am trying to be good about updating this blog!!! I have put it off the past couple of weeks, so here goes! Lots of fun things have happened in the past month...

I got to spend a fun filled day with my niece T, she is 7! So for her birthday we spent a fun filled day doing what "big" girls do, we got our nails done at the salon, had lunch in Coeur d'Alene at Dockside, then took an unplanned trip to camp(this is my way of getting her hooked on camp at this very formidable age ;) !!!

So posh! They even used the warm towels on our hands ;)

Time to eat!

T and the Monster Birthday Sundae! T says "Come on Auntie, DIG IN!!"

The wreckage after we did our best!

Enjoying our day together!

Camp Lutherhaven!!!

Checking out the Chapel!

I did wear her out! (when she saw this pic "Auntie, you took a picture of me sleeping?" and gave me the cutest scowl! ;) )

The next weekend was T's 4th dance recital! She is growing and learning so much! She is such a sweet little dancer girl! The theme of her recital was calendar girls, and she was the month of July and September so she is all red-white-and-blue, she will be wearing part of her costume for my birthday/4th of July celebration this summer! Good Job Bee, you did great!!!




Then the day after the recital was Bloomsday! This is an event that ranks right up there with a holiday for my family! We all gather and cheer eachother on and have a great time "celebrating" this annual race in Spokane!

The runners getting ready to run!

Helping E fly his Birthday Kite! What fun!

Now we are heading out on vacation with some good friends of ours! We are headed to the Canadian Rockies, we love it there and are greatly looking forward to being there again!

Happy Mothers day to all who are mothers, who love others in a motherly way, and those who are thankful for their mothers! I am so very thankful for my Mom, she is an amazing, strong, and vibrant woman...and I am proud to be her daughter! Happy Mothers Day Mom! Love You!

Making The Time

So I find myself needing to 'make' the time for a lot of things.... blogging included! I apologize to anyone who was checking this blog with any regularity, I kinda slid off the grid and never 'made' the time to log on and put up a little of our lives!

However, tonight I find myself 'making' the time! Yay, I made the time for a hot bath, I made the time to load some pictures onto my computer, I made the time to play with the dogs, and now...I am making the time to fill you in on our life on the Palouse!!!

Things are mostly the same... no house on the land (yet, but as always its in the works), the dogs (yes there are two of them now) are keeping us busy, and work continues to call us out of the house most days to ensure that we don't get 'stuck' at home! We are continuing to pray that God guides through our struggles with infertility, and we find that we can take steps with joy and peace knowing that His ultimate plan lays ahead for us! "I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing." Ezekiel 34:26 I am finding peace in this season and feel the showers of blessing in the here and now!

We are looking forward to spring and summer! Another veggie garden is well in the works (seeds are ordered), plans for a get-away are made (Canada!!!), weddings begin to fill our summer schedule, and we eagerly await the family we get to see each summer (James' mom comes from Alaska each June and stays through August... this is the last summer though and then his dad and mom will move to Idaho permanently!!!)!! I find my self rushing to the next big event and forget at times to just STOP and make the time for now, time for a hot bubble bath, time for a walk, time to just enjoy the small things that happen each day!

So with those few small thoughts I will attempt to plug in a couple of pictures and hopefully that will be enough for now, but I hope to 'Make' more time for filling you in on our little life!

Peace and blessings to each one of you!! ~Erin~

Auntie A, T and C Sharing the LOVE on Valentines Day!!!

C and Baby H visiting! I miss them!

Me and the Coug at WSU when C was here to visit me! We had so much fun, I miss my BFF! ;)

Me and our newest pup Daisy, relaxing on the couch!

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Me, Mom, and C Bowling for T's Birthday!!! So fun!

C is ready for some Birthday Cake!!

T, the Birthday girl is ready to open some presents!!! Happy 7th Birthday beautiful girl!!

T, C, and E Pose before the Easter egg hunt!

T, C, and E Pose before the Easter Egg Hung!!!

And the hunt is on!

C, finds an egg!

E shows off is great find!

T makes the this egg hunt some serious business!

"Oh, I see another one!!!"


E is just too cool for school!

Mom celebrated her 57th Birthday on Easter this year!
We love you mom, and appreciate you for all that you are and do in our lives! Thank you!
Happy Birthday!

And my niece is just the sweetest girl, with her sweet treat! I couldn't resist!

Start of the Pics

The Graduate on her Big Day!

Cap and Gown Pic! Yay Ann, you are an EWU grad!!!

James trying to chase the cow off of our land! This could become a common occurrence as the cows live right next door!

The best picture I got from Fathers Day!

I got these to post and I am running into problems again! I will try for more soon!

An Almost Picture Post

Sorry for the lack of posts this summer, we have rarely (if at all) been home on any weekend to do posting! So as summer has crawled into fall I have the time to sit on my couch, candles burning, the warmth from the oven warming the house, and the smell of fresh baked cookies still lingering... Fall has arrived!

So I was going to post pictures but my computer has had problems with loading pictures... I hope this resolved so that I can share our summer fun!

We are finally home for a weekend and it is so nice. We have been out having lots of fun every weekend this summer! July at the lake to Labor day in the mountains it has been so fun, and nice to get away. So once the computer is working I will share those with you!

As for a house update we are still living in our trailer in Pullman, but we are hoping to go to the bank this week to start building the guest house where we will live until we build our main house. Please keep us in your prayers as we start this long process!

In fertility news we looked into some other potential treatments but the tests came back that because of other issues we are unable to do anything other the the IVF. So again please keep us in your prayers, a family is something we both long for but we are doing our best to be patient in Gods will and time.

So as a side motivation I am going to begin this week training for a Half Marathon in March of 2010, with the hopes of doing a full Marathon in July of 2010. Happy 30th birthday to me!

Well I wish you all Fall Blessings and I will try to get summer pics up as soon as possible!

Yard Work!

We have been doing lots of yard work to get our yard to a half way usable space. This has entailed many many things... Pulling weeds, cutting down trees (over 100 cotton wood saplings), and digging up the stumps of those trees, mowing over weeds, cleaning up dog doo, putting in a garden and continuing to beautify the space. Here are a couple snapshots of this evening and James getting more work done!

James mowing up the weeds!!

Maggie trying to enjoy the yard with her invisible fence collar on

My garden, I go out about 3 times a day to see what is growing!

We also had the opportunity to go to a couple of graduation parties this Sunday as well, we went to one for Laurie ( a former youth group kiddo) and Luke (I babysat him when he was 2) ! We had lots of fun, I can't believe how much they have both grown into amazing young adults! Congratulations Grads!

James, Laurie, and I (she was 5 when I met her!)

Lukie, he was 2 with the sweetest little smile when I met him. Now hes 18 with the same sweet smile!

A Birthday at the Boat

Ethan becoming a true man of the sea!

Batsch Family: Dennis, Ethan, and Tina having a thumbs up time!

Saturday last weekend we went to the boat for the first time this summer, it was so wonderful walking the dock down to the boat. It felt like summer! It was my dads birthday on Sunday but since James worked Sunday we went Saturday along with my cousin Tina and her family. We had a great day with lots of sunshine and nice boat ride down to Echo Bay. It was very relaxing and nice to spend dads birthday with him!

Dad, Mom, James, Erin
Zoe, Tina, Ethan, Dennis

Thanks mom and dad for having us out, it's nice to be going to the boat again! We'll be out again soon!