Meeting friends, Preachers Meeting, Election and Seattle

We've had an interesting last couple of weeks! The first Sunday of November we went to Hillsboro, OR (outside of Portland) and I got to meet one of my online friends, Tammie House! We know each other through an online group for IFB Moms but we'd never met in person. It was great to meet her and her family, and it was like we'd always known each other! The church was great and we had a good time. They're looking at building their own building in the future, so they were excited about our ministry and had a lot of questions about it.

After that we drove back along the Columbia River to get to Josh and Rochelle's house. The highway along the river is so beautiful and I love driving that highway. On one side there are huge cliffs and mountains with waterfalls and beautiful vegetation and on the other side is a gorgeous river with boats and barges floating along, and lots of birds to watch. I love imagining the 1800s when the wagon trains went through and had to cross that same river. I think of the game Oregon Trail where you had to float your wagon down the river and find a safe place to "land". Driving through this part of the country it's fun to think about the wagon trains going through and how in the world they made it! Sometimes I don't think us in our minivan with a paved road is going to make it, much less a wagon pulled by oxen. I have developed deep respect for those that braved the land to come out here. That was my deep thought for the month!

One Monday when we got back "home" we found out there was a Fellowship Meeting going on that week on the other side of the mountains so we decided to wash some clothes real fast and pack up, and we left at 5:30 in the morning to make it to the meeting by 9am. We were still late because we hit rain, sleet and snow in the mountain pass, and Caleb didn't have any dress socks or white undershirts even though we both KNOW we packed some so he had to go to the store, but it was a good meeting and Caleb was able to set up some meetings in some empty spots we had. I was just so tired from traveling and being sick that I ended up sleeping the entire afternoon and missed the Ladies Meeting! I was a little upset because the Pastor's wife from Hillsboro was there, and I was looking forward to talking with her more. But I was just so tired! So sleep won out.


While we were there, the Raes let us use the hotel room they were using. I'm not sure if it was their time share or someone else's but we were able to use it and it was so nice! It was in downtown Seattle and they had full concierge service, seperate bedrooms and a huge bathroom! The only downfall was that we were in downtown Seattle on election night! So after Obama accepted the Presidency bid there was honking, screaming, and drum playing until about 3am. At first I didn't know what in the world was going on, but when Caleb got back from the fellowship meeting (Lela and I didn't go at night, Lela was sick) he told me there was practically a riot going on! But we were still able to sleep and it's something exciting we can always tell about!

Wednesday night we were in Gold Bar, WA for their services. Our hotel room was in the only hotel in town, and it just happened to be above a bar! I was so tired that I fell asleep immediately but Caleb said he had a hard time sleeping. It was a good thing we were there on a Wednesday night and not Saturday night! I am so proud of Caleb and his preaching. He's gotten really good at it and he really just wants to say only what the Holy Spirit wants. We've never had a negative reaction to his preaching, and I believe it's because he is so passionate about only saying what is from God, and not him. Even though he only preaches the same two messages (he's working on a third) and I tease him about sleeping during his preaching, I love hearing him preach both messages and I love to feel the reaction from the people in the congregation. Before he preaches Noah and I "bet" about which message he's going to preach and whoever chooses the right one gets the first piece of gum. Noah also sings the song that goes along with our video presentation. I try to keep him quiet, but I do let him sing because at a certain part I like to sing along too! He can sing the entire song, he's pretty good!

Before we went to Gold Bar on Wednesday we decided to walk around downtown Seattle for a little bit. It's a very neat place with lots of culture and things to see. Everyone was wearing Obama shirts because of the election, and everyone was talking about it, but it was still fun. We got to watch them make cheese, and then we ate some cheese that they had made there in the store. We tried some Turkish Delight. I've always wanted to try it since I first read The Chronicles of Narnia and Edmund gets sick after eating it from the White Witch. It was pretty good and not at all what I was expecting! It's more like a gummy candy, I thought it would be a cookie-type candy. We also got to go to the Sound and chase the seagulls and pigeons. We saw the Pike Place venders and got suckered into buying goat cheese. I pretty much know that if Caleb tastes a sample of something, we're going to buy some! We had "truffle sauce". I have no idea what it was but it was way too rich for me, I almost threw up right there in the street. But Kayla loved it; she ate hers, mine, and Lela's! The kids were also excited, they got to ride a bus! We took the bus down to the Market and walked back. We stopped at Old Navy and I found some maternity t-shirts for $2! I was excited. We had a great time and we loved downtown Seattle!!

Caleb's parents are visiting right now and so we went to Fort Simcoe (sp?) today. Half the buildings were burnt down and half of the remaining buildings were replicas and the original buildings were closed for the winter! But it was still fun to walk around. The kids pretended they were in jail and we went into the blockhouses and pretended we were under Indian attack! The kids had fun at least, so that's all that matters!