New Family Additions

"We are never getting another dog!"  "Okay, maybe we'll get another dog, but we will never get another puppy!"  Have you ever heard the saying, never say never?  Well, here we go.  A while back, maybe three weeks now, Jim and I started looking at dogs.  Erin has been wanting another dog, and of course she really wanted puppy.  Jim had found a couple of dogs on Craigs List and he inquired of them.  We did not hear back right away and when we went back to find them again, the ad was gone also.  I had seen a dog on line and inquired of it.  It seems to fit all our requirements: adult, female, housetrained.  I received a response and was told that the dog had been adopted that weekend.  We decided to go to the Humane Society and look with the kids.  While there, we saw two dogs we were interested in.  The first one didn't seem to fit our family well, but the second one seemed like a good match, to us at least.  We decided to adopt her and proceeded to fill out the necessary paper work.  We were getting very excited and when they called us to let us know that our new dog was ready to take home, we got a different story.  We were told that our family would not be a good match for this dog. You see, even though we have older children in our house, we have younger grandchildren and the dog was labeled as adult only house or house with older children.  I guess the grandchildren coming over every now and then was a problem.  Erin was devastated.  She was crying and we were all very unhappy.  As we were standing there, my cell phone rang.  It was the people that had the dogs from Craigs List. We made arrangements to meet them.  We all loved the dogs and we decided to add them to our family.  Okay, remember the never having any more dogs?  Now, do you remember the never having any more puppies?  Well, so much for no puppies, our new dogs are 4-1/2 months old and 6 months old.  They are mostly housetrained and have done quite well.  They are very friendly and the did great meeting the grandchildren today.  This was a huge thing because some of the grandkids have been afraid of dogs.  We were able to work through on time when Princess barked and lunged toward Preston.  I held her harness and called him over.  I made sure Preston knew that I was holding Princess.  He did come over and allow Princess to smell him and it went very well.  We did not intend to get two dogs but I guess with the way everything turned out, it was just meant to be. 

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So, here are Cinnamon (4-1/2 months) and Princess (6 Months).  They are Lhasa Apsos.

Princess lives up to her name.  She loves to be pampered and have her hair combed.

Cinnamon looks like a cute stuffed animal when she's not moving.

Brooklyn (4) had a good time brushing Cinnamon.

And of course, I can't go over to see the grandkids and not take pictures of them too. 

They are growing up so fast. 

Terrel (8)

Dylan (almost 6)

Baby Samuel (4 months)

Apparently I didn't get pictures of Preston or Victory.  Although my heart was filled with joy when Kristen called just after I left saying the Victory woke up and was asking about Grandma.  He's been slower than the other kids to warm up to me.  I guess he knows who I am now.

Back to Normal or Something Like That

Life is beginning to get back to normal or something like that.  We finished moving into our new house and Jim began working again last week in San Jose.  He went back to work for Adrian who he had worked for for twenty-nine years prior to moving to Mexico.  He is enjoying being back to work after two months off.  He certainly kept himself busy during those two months with painting, yard work, and other assorted things.  But it is nice to know that he will be bringing home a paycheck.  God is good!

School is also back to a normal pace except for Erin being sick this week.  It seems that the kids are getting reaquainted to all the germs they missed out on while being out of the country for 15 months.  This is about the third time Erin has been sick since returning home.  Jonathan has been sick once or twice also. Please be praying that we are not catching all these bugs all winter. 

I have been attending Ministry Training Institute (MTI) at our church since the beginning of September.  It is a class that is held every Tuesday night.  It is meant to prepare a person for minstry and we have a practicum time where we practice in small groups what we learn in class.  It is a huge commitment but from everything I hear, it is well worth it.

We are also having fun with our grandchildren.  Last weekend, I was able to have five of them overnight.  Samuel stayed with his mama since he is just a few months old.   My hat goes off to my daughter for the hard work she does with six children.  I think back to having four children but there was 8-1/2 years between James and Jonathan.  We are very proud of Kristen and Taylor as they raise their children for the Lord.  They are such great children. 

Well, there you have it, an update on life in the Carlson home. 

We're Moving In

We began moving into our new house yeterday.  I am enjoying setting up a house and home again.  As I sat today looking around our new home, I was in awe at God's goodness and faithfulness.  I sat and looked at the things He has provided for us through the generosity of friends, garage sales and Craig's List with tears filling my eyes.  I was amazed to see how our new home was coming together.  We continue to thank all of you who have supported us either finacially, through gifts of furniture and very importantly, through prayer.  As you continue to pray for us, please pray that the water gets turned on at our new house.  We would have been sleeping there tonight if it had been. We called the water company on Thursday to have the water turned on Friday and they said there would be no problem.  Unfortunately, they didn't get it turned on so there is still not water at the house and therefore, we can't sleep there yet.  Erin was very disappointed but we hope to be sleeping there on Monday.  Here are a few pictures of our new home.

Living Room

 Dining Room and Kitchen

Jim's bother and sister-in-law gave us an armoir and we are using it for a bookcase.  It helps to hide some of the clutter that can happen with bookcases.  I really enjoy this piece of furniture.   Thanks Luke and Angie!

 Desk and Armoir (Closed)

 Closer picture of the kitchen.

What's Been Happening?

     I realize that it has been a while since I updated our blog so I thought I would take a moment and update you on how we have been doing.
     We are still adjusting to being back in the United States which comes with everything from shopping, driving, missing the kids and people at Esperanza Viva, living arrangements, jobs and lots more.
     We are currently living with Jim's mom in our old house.   It has been an interesting thing to move back into the house we left but it is not really our home.   Jim's mother has been living here for the past year and loves it.  The house is 1512 square feet with three bedrooms, two baths and an office which is now serving as Mother's bedroom.  It's a little snug but we are getting along.  With prices and interest rates so low, we decided to put in an offer on another house on our same street.  It is a bit smaller, 1220 sq. ft. but the floor plan is great for us and we are looking forward, Lord willing, to be moving into it by the end of September or earlier. 
     As far as work, Jim is going back to work for Adrian in San Jose once more.  We are looking forward to that.  Also, I have applied for a job at our church as the administative assistant in student mimistries.  This would be quite the change for me as I have not worked outside the home for many years.  If I do get the job, we would most likely be putting Erin in a private christian school, which is what she is rooting for while Jonathan would continue to do independant studies at home.  The job would be Tuesday through Friday, five hours each day.  The school we would like Erin to go to is half day every Monday and then full days Tuesday through Friday which would work well for my schedule since I will need to oversee Jonathan's school on Monday.  It is a lot to think about and we are leaving it in God's hands.  If this is what He wants, then everything will fall into place.  For now, we beginning our 2010-2011 homeschooling journey.  Please keep us in prayer as we continue homeschooling and for God's will to be done in the job situation.
     I will be starting Ministry Training Institute at our church tonight.  This is an intensive, one night a week class for 36 weeks, that prepares you and trains you for many types of ministries.  I am really looking forward to it.  It will be a lot of work, but I think I am up to the challenge.
     We have been going to a lot of garage sales picking up things we will need.  We bought a beautiful solid oak table with six chairs, a mission chair with an ottoman, a glider rocker with an ottoman, a coffee table and many odds and ends.  The kids have enjoyed the garage sales also.  Erin got a small CD/Radio stereo for only $1.00.  One speaker wasn't working but thanks to my very talented husband, she now has a perfectly good stereo with two working speakers.  Jonathan got three extra controllers for his X-Box for only $10.00 for all three and it included the X-Box.  Okay, the X-Box has what is called the red ring of death, but he is having fun taking it apart to see if he can fix it under the supervision of Jim, just the controllers run $50 each new so it does not matter if the Xbox ever gets fixed for it to be a great value. 
     We continue to enjoy getting together with friends, hugging our grandbabies and seeing our adult children.  We are also checking out a small group at our church and went to a Labor Day BB-Q.  It was a lot of fun and the kids had a blast also.

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The house we are trying to buy.

The kitchen.

The living room/dining room area

The pantry.

Some of our garage sale finds...

glider rocker and mission chair

Our grarage sale oak dining room set - it also has a leaf to make it bigger and two more chairs. The dining area in the new house is smaller so we wanted a table that could be round most of the time.  This is perfect.

coffee table - only $10.00

Erin's $1.00 stereo

At the small group BB-Q visiting with new freinds.

Erin and I play a game of Mexican Horse Shoes. At least that's what they called it.

Jim visiting with our great friends, Rod and Lynn.

Jonathan playing on the trampoline with the kids.  He is so good with the younger kids.

The whole group.

Adjusting to Being Home

     We have now been back in Oregon for almost two weeks.  There have been a lot of adjustments since returning and acclimating ourselves back to life in the USA.  I found it quite humerous the first time we went grocery shopping.  Here's an example:  oranges are forty-nine cents a pound.  Is that a good deal?  Is it cheap, expensive, or what?  Okay, let's see...forty-nine cents is how much in pesos?  That's 4.08 pesos, but it is per pound.  We've been buying fruits and vegetables by the kilo for the last 15 months and a kilo is 2.2 pounds.  So, it's really like we're paying 8.976 per kilo.  We were paying about 9 pesos per kilo so, yes, it's a good deal.  Okay, now on to the next fruit or vegetable.  This could take all day. 
     We have so enjoyed reconnecting with friends and family.  Sunday we went to a small group at a friend's house.  We never joined a small group while we were here before but we are considering it now.  We had such a great time.  There is even one women there that is fluent in Spanish so when everyone was introducing themselves, she introduced herself and told a little about herself all in Spanish.  It was really neat.  For right now, we will continue to attend.
     We continue to look at all our options for housing for the long term.  Currently, we are living in our former house with Jim's mom.  She had moved in here while we were gone and we have her house rented out.  Please pray as we make choices in what to do.
     We continue to try to practice our Spanish but it is interesting that the Spanish speakers look at us little weird when we try to strike up a conversation in Spanish.  Perhaps they are not used to people taking an interest in their language who are not Hispanic.  We'll continue to keep working on it though.
     Last Wednesday night we went to our first Mission Leadership Team (MLT) meeting at our church.  We were on the MLT prior to moving to Mexico and we will continue to be a part of the team now that we have returned.  We care for our long term missionaries and after 14-1/2 months on the field, we have a new perspective in what that takes.  We so appreciate the care that the team took with us while we were out on the field.
     Erin went to church camp last Friday and returned today.  She said she had a wonderful time and was very jazzed when we picked her up.  It was a great time to reconnect with friend but it was a great spiritual time for her also.
     We thank you for your continued prayers as we continue to adjust to life here.  When we know more about work for Jim, we will update you.  For now, we continue to look for God's direction in everything.