We listened to Christmas music, the guys went into the sauna (and almost didn’t come back to us), Yunis was on the phone, Israel ended up with burns on his face and hands (from trying to make our dry sauna into a steam sauna…manually), the girls made history by creating a stylish head-band by weaving it with 16 fingers, Sebastien was using up all of the toilet paper (for his nose), and we had a great time.   

Sikhu sporting our infamous finger weaving headband. 

Dan and Bjorn practicing the song.

Sebastien on the computer, but also humming along the bass part…

The girls and Bentley

The guys

The guys pretending to be little Korean girls…

“He Leadeth Me” at Houghton SDA Church

Lake Superior from McLain State Park

Skipping stones on Sabbath afternoon

Happy baby as Jen keeps him warm.

The girls

Jen posing for the picture while Bentley struggles to breathe…

Imanuel climbing up onto everything!

God bless you all!  May we always lift each other up and draw closer to Him every day.  We love you guys!

They left earlier this morning and the house seems so empty and quiet.  It really was such a blessing to be able to spend time with Christian friends.   We appreciated the quality time together in nature, eating good food together, playing games, laughing, going shopping, uplifting conversations, and even discovering who “Satan’s best buddies” are (sermon by C.D. Brooks).  We are sad to see our friends go, but we’re glad that in about month we’ll see them again at GYC!  🙂  Here are some pictures that will help us remember the memories from this past week.

Playing Trump…”You’re fired.”

Playing on the GIANT playground…

The giant slide that we took turns going down…

Dan failed to read this sign and went face first and even went down backwards…(or did he?!) 

Posing by the canal…

Dan trying to throw Jen in the lake…but PTL he showed mercy.

Next to an Isle Royale boat

The beautiful U.P. sunset

Sikhu and Jen in front of the Houghton/Hancock bridge…

Being buddy-buddy and running Sikhu into the tree…

The shepherd and his lamb…

Jen and Imanuel

On the computer and/or sleeping–what Sebastien did most of the time…(Because “he hates nature”.) 

Imanuel and Sikhu bonding…

Some of the food we had for Thanksgiving (Tofurkey, fried “turkey” nuggets, mole, tamales, corn muffin stuffing, mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes, Dinner Roast, and more).  We spent the whole day cooking.

THEN, we played a “fun and exciting Thanksgiving game”. 

After that, we played the paper game.  Winners beat the Losers by 1 point.  Bentley was the frisbee holder.

Jen showing everyone how to eat Ramen.  Bjorn watches carefully…Imanuel watches Sikhu carefully.

Israel throwing up the sign for the cooking gang he joined.

Bjorn, waiting to eat after working at Cyberia all day long.  He even got Israel and Dan (BURNING) HOT APPLE CIDERS.  None for the girls.  Thanks, Bjorn. 

Friday night after vespers, we practiced our song for special music the next day.  Dan conducted while Israel arranged the hymn for us.

The girls, Sikhu, Yunis, and Jen practicing the song on the couch.  We sang “He Leadeth Me”.

Imanuel eating lunch.

Bentley showing Dan his impression of a psycho dog.  Pretty good, yeah?

What Sikhu did all Thanksgiving Break long.  We couldn’t stop her…

There are a whole bunch of other pictures that Yunis took with her camera, so once I get those from her, I’ll post those.  It would include pictures of our special music, going to the lake, and just hanging out.  We also watched 3 DVDs.  They were all pretty horrible…especially “Aliens of the Deep”, with most of it showing the evolutionist scientists and the green cartoon blob, and not enough of the actual animals!  Also, there was the other documentary (that we won’t mention) that JEN suggested.  Dan is scarred for life.  Actually, we probably all are.  Thanks, Jen.  You’re officially disqualified from suggesting good videos to watch. 

We miss all of you guys already.  We prayed for you guys tonight during our evening worship.  We hope you had as much fun with us as we did.  May God bless your trip home and keep you safe!

Last week, my mom came up to visit.  She stayed with us for a week and it was SUCH a blessing.  Israel was gone for most of the time for Ruth’s wedding and then a pastors’ meeting in Lansing.  She helped me keep sane by taking care of the baby, cleaning, and cooking!  🙂  The rest of the time (after I finished GYC stuff), we watched these Korean videos called “Dae Jang-Gum”, went into the sauna to sweat it out, and went food shopping at Walmart.  It was so nice to have her here and I didn’t want her to leave!  Here are some pictures from that week.

One of the many piggy-back rides from Grandma.

Fighting for Grandma’s lap.

After coming home from church.

A picture in honor of one of baby’s favorite aunts.  (Hint:  The picture and she have the same name.)

Grandma and baby in front of Lake Superior.

AND, a glimpse into the near future..

He pulled himself up for the first time in this picture- (yes, onto a pile of board games)!  Now he tries to pull himself up onto everything…

Well, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  God has been so faithful in His Goodness to us.  We hope all of you enjoy this weekend with family and loved ones.  We’ll have to post about this long weekend soon.  We’re having a blast with our guests (Jenny, Sebastien, Sikhu, and Dan)…Take care!

Upon some reflection, this is what I came up with:

1. Best:  Beautiful Scenery.  We truly live in the boonies.  Seeing squirrels frolicking in the snow, deer nibbling on frozen apples that have fallen off our tree, coyotes staring at you as you’re driving along…
    Worst:  Too Boonies.  No one comes to pick up our trash.  We burn whatever we can in our wood-burning sauna in the basement, and the rest we have to drop off “in town” and PAY $1 PER BAG.

2.  Best:  Nice Drivers!!  People always give you the right of way.  Driving can be so relaxing and stress/care-free.
    Worst:  Slow Drivers!!  When you’re late for church marathon on Sabbath morning (IR preaching at 3 churches and they’re all 20-30miles apart), you’re almost doing more passing than driving in your own lane. 

3.  Best:  Staying at Home.  I’m realizing more and more that I love just being at home.  It’s so relaxing just spending time with your family.  Sometimes I don’t even leave the house the whole day!
    Worst:  Money for Car.  Up here we needed a reliable big car, so we bought a Ford Freestyle.  We then found out that we need to buy snow tires…everyone up here has snow tires.

4.  Best:  Our Own (Free) Water.  We have our own well so we don’t have to pay for city water.  And, the water tastes so good and clean!  We can drink straight from the tap!
    Worst:  Our Own (Dirty) Septic Tank.  We have to pay to get our septic tank cleaned out.  I’m not sure how often this needs to get done, but Israel says it’s almost full. 

5.  Best:  Eagles in Sight!  We’ve seen a few bald eagles last month.  They are really incredible to see in the wild!  Israel always gets very excited about them.
    Worst:  False Hopes.  Any big bird that Israel sees just might be a bald eagle.  (Even crows!)

Speaking of the Best and Worst, Imanuel got his first round of immunizations a couple days ago.  We were into the whole debate about whether we should have the baby have them or not.  That’s partially the reason why we waited so long (he’s 8 months).  But, after speaking with a few doctors, (our pediatrician sister-in-law included), we decided that the risks of not having them are far greater than if getting them.  Here are a few pics of him the evening of.  He ended up getting 4 shots total.  3 immunizations and 1 flu shot.  He did pretty good though.  He screamed bloody murder when he got the four of them (2 on each thigh), but when it was over and I picked him up, he stopped.  He was fine the rest of the day.  After the shots, though, I felt so bad for him that I went to Walmart and bought him some teething toys for a couple dollars.  He’s playing with them in the pictures.  I included some other pictures from last week when Israel was in Ann Arbor. 

Bugs Bunny band-aids. 

 

He actually smiled with the ring in his mouth. 

The morning of November 2nd, 2006!   A view of our backyard.

That’s the birdfeeder on our back deck.

The baby decked out in winter gear. 

Bentley and his new, but short-lived friend, B1.   He found B1 at our friend/head elder, Ole’s work and took him home.  (Then within the next couple days, he shredded him to pieces.)  


And finally, we’ll leave you with Imanuel’s “I’m Chinese” imitation.