God's Fabulous Creation

Yesterday, a bald eagle swooped down and landed in our pond. He sat there majestically, taking a drink every once in a while, but mostly just eyeing the surroundings... not in fear, mind you, but with absolute confidence that he was at the top of the food chain. After about 20 minutes of having me completely mesmerized, he took to the skies and flew to one of the huge trees that line the road of the properties here.
Today I happened upon a blogger's site who had posted this video. Apparently someone from her church had set Brian Doerkson's song to clips from the BBC production of Planet Earth or something like that. Click on the rectangle above (or whatever is showing above the text here :) ENJOY!

More Pictures

This is a picture looking towards the pasture from the other acreage. We have access to it right now so we can walk the owner's dogs. Does anyone have any wisdom/experience about what an animal we should get to be a mammalian lawn mower?

Here's a picture of the entrance into the property. If you go on the gravel road to the left, you come to our house. If you go to the right upon entering, you can take a look at the other 10 acres the owner has for sale. (assuming you are here and actually driving on this road:)

It's a beautiful, sunny, clear day here today. We wake up every morning and still have to pinch ourselves!

We are in!

We are the proud owners of "a little peace of Heaven" in Sumas, Washington. 10 pristine acres, and a 2070 square foot home with 3 bedrooms, a small office, and another office/library in the master suite! The owners, who we've become friends with, did a fabulous job with this property. This is a picture of the picnic area complete with charcoal grill and fire pit. There is a pasture, where we are actually entertaining the idea of getting a beef cow or two. We moved in February 16th, and I couldn't really post until now.

This is a view from the back of the house. Yes, that is a hot tub on the the massive porch. The house is backed up by a foothill which is part of the 10 acres. Only twice have bears been seen on the mountain, so we've been told. There is a fellow who lives at the top, on the other side side of the mountain, so he'll be the first to deflect any wildlife, I'm sure:) There are 3 apple trees that draw lots of deer in the summer, although we are keeping the owners' dogs until they get settled in Idaho, so we might not see them as often as we would like. I know there are coyotes that come around, and we have inherited a nice barn cat who has already left us a mouse on our walks.

This here's the wood stove that is practically standard issue in Washington. There is a separate little gated building which holds several hundred logs... enough to last a couple of winters, I'm sure, although Jim has actually used the CHAINSAW to make some logs and an axe to make some kindlin'. He's in heaven for sure. He loves to make the fire every morning, although he did buy a small blowtorch, which he feels is "cheating." :) We learned from the best, though: Some friends from church let us stay at their house for three weeks while we were waiting for the house to close and the sellers to move out. He is the one that showed us how to really make a fire in a woodstove.

There is another 10 acre lot next door which they are trying to sell also. It has the water well already dug, electricity, and the septic is ready to install, if any of you would like to move out to the gorgeous northwest and join us!

One of the bedroom's is completely set up as a guest room, with built in queen bunkbeds! Come see us! I'll post more pictures as soon as we take them.

What do you think?!!!!

Our House

We've made an offer on this home and land. If you want to know more details, YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO LEAVE A COMMENT!
Thank you and Goodnight.

Happy New Year!

My only resolution this year is to allow God to shine His Light through me. Whatever that entails....May He do the same in you.
Here's some pictures from the last few days. It was so incredibly wonderful having JW here in Washington with us for Christmas and the New Year. He's leaving on a jet plane... tomorrow morning. I'm NOT looking forward to that. Over the holidays I've realized what awesome children we have. Sure, they accidentally break windows in our 100 year old rental home... Yes, they "miss" when they are in the restroom... Of course they generate messes like it was a full-time job... But, they are talented and sweet and sharp as tacks, loving and full of life and confidence... And, they LOVE God! Who could ask for anything more.
Here they are all lined up for their Baptisms on December 23rd.

Christmas Eve Eve getting to open one present

JW came into our room at 3:11 a.m. and announced that it was Christmas. (to his credit, it WAS 5:11 a.m. in Texas-time, which he was still acclimated to). Suffice it to say, we told him to go back to bed, but since we couldn't sleep after that, we DID get up an hour later!

Some wonderful new friends not only invited us over for dinner after the Christmas Eve service, but they gave us access to their cabin in Glacier on the road to Mount Baker. Jim took the boys overnight and they did lots of sledding down the steep incline at the cabin. In the morning, I came to get them and we took a walk at the Nooksack River; resplendent with snow on the trail and trees and rocks.

Family Portrait at Bob's Burgers in Sumas. (Yes, that's a stuffed turkey behind us. It was that, or the moose head over the fireplace...)

WE ARE BLESSED!

Results of our second snowfall...

Here is Joseph's snowman. He made it all by himself while we were bringing in all the Christmas decorations. The next day, it began to rain which caused all that flooding in Chehallis. Up here, it just melted all of our snow, and left a few lakes where there weren't any before....

To the left of the Dead End sign and in between the cut corn stalks lies the road to our house. As you can see, or NOT SEE, there is no road! It was tricky driving around the little bit that we did, because it was anybody's guess where the road was!

The snow got pretty deep around here in just a few hours. This is a fire hydrant which hopefully conveys how much snow there was! It was absolutely gorgeous.

Jim's birthday was yesterday and he took the day off! We went to Red Robin in Canada for a lunch date, then after school we took the boys to see Enchanted. What a wonderful movie! I encourage everyone to see it. On Saturday night we went to Lynden Lighted Christmas Parade. Companies and individuals put light on their vehicles for the parade. There were 70 entrants, including the Well's Fargo stagecoach! Since this is farming land, there were all kinds of huge farm vehicles (that I embarrasingly don't know the names of) in the parade. The winner in the commercial division was this entry by our favorite dairy, Edaleen. They have a storefront that you can visit to buy milk, cheese, ice cream, etc. and they serve up the BEST fresh ice cream in cones at the lowest prices I've ever seen! We try to go once a week to get our milk and enjoy the new flavors.

SNOW!

Our first Washington snowfall happened last night! I had asked Joshy to go feed Zoie (the cat that came with the house) and he ran back in and said, "It's snowing! I'm not kidding!" We grabbed our coats and fought our way out the door to see big old flakes of gorgeous white purity making their way down onto the trees and yard! First of all, we Texas folk aren't used to a continual downpour, or for it to actually accumulate and provide us with enough snow to have a decent snowball fight! I have pictures, but I don't know how to download them.... I will post them when they are ready!

Unfortunately, it's in the upper 30's right now, so the snow is melting. There is more in the forecast, though, so we are totally pumped!

A couple of weekends ago Jim and I went with another couple to Leavenworth,a charming Bavarian village that is literally a Christmas wonderland. 2 million visitors come throughout the year to visit this amazing town. We ate German food, went to the little shops, and took lots of pictures that I will eventually post... Here's one from the website to wet your whistle:


On November 29th, Leavenworth will be featured on "Good Morning America Lights Up the Holidays" at 7a.m. Pacific Time. (9:00 a.m. in Texas?) It ranks as the number one Christmas Village in the United States. No wonder.

http://www.leavenworth.org/

It snowed on our way home, (which is one of the most beautiful drives up here;) there are dozens of little waterfalls literally coming out of the roadside rock walls, and there is the most gorgeous river that winds its way alonside much of the road up the mountain.

On November 16th, Jonathan and I performed at the Lynden Community Center for over 200 people. Besides his Johnny Cash numbers, I sang "Jesus Take the Wheel", "Over the Rainbow" (Martina McBride's version) and an acapella rendering of "Amazing Grace." It was SOOOO fun and the people were wonderful. The gals that had scheduled us for the Trailblazer's event were there with their husbands, and during one of our songs, came up to the stage and each threw a dollar bill on it. More people came up and threw some dollars here and there, then afterwards a few came up to us to press some bills or change into our hands. When all was said and done, we left with $70! We don't charge anything for our performances, so to be blessed with that kind of monetary gift blew us away!

Inevitably when I sing, someone always comes up and tells me they want me to sing at their funeral. I never know which way to take it. Is it a complement? I mean, they won't REALLY be in attendance, now will they. I guess there aren't enough occasions on earth to have a song sung just for you. We need to make some up so they can hear it now!

Comments and emails appreciated!!!

Smooches,
Betty