Well, the house is pretty quiet now with Christina off to Teen Missions and Suzanne at Masterworks. But, we have been staying plenty busy.

40th Anniversary Party
A couple weeks ago was Dad and Mom’s 40th anniversary. We had a surprise party for them with 47 people total at our house. (I was quite nervous about how the parking would work!!). It turned out really well. Suzanne’s graduation party was in the afternoon the same day, so Mom and Dad just thought we were cleaning up for that, when really we had two parties in mind! Their party followed in the evening, to their surprise. I think they had some suspicions, but never imagined 47 people! Click here for more pictures.

Woodland Planter’s Day Fireworks
Woodland Planter’s Day festival was a great success and the weather was very nice. The festival started Thursday with a few different events and then a Fireworks show at Horseshoe Lake. I went down to practice taking pictures of Fireworks and got a few nice pictures: Click here for more pictures.

Woodland Planter’s Day Parade
Saturday was the big parade and I rode my unicycle through while Dad rode his big wheel bike. Rebekah did us a big favor by riding the Irish Mill through the parade for us (Suzanne decided to ride with Sarah this year). The picture of Dad shown here is courtesy of Ruth. Click here for more pictures.

Vertical Cave Practice
Two Saturdays ago, several of us from the Oregon Grotto (caving club) did a vertical practice at Breakdown Cave on Mt. St. Helens. The next weekend was a trip to Dynamited Cave, which requires vertical work, so we wanted to brush up on our skills. Breakdown Cave has a 35 foot drop into the entrance pit, with an undercut lip, which is just what we needed. Vertical caving is done on static rope with mechanical ascenders and descenders. It is quite fun, but a little scary when you consider the possible consequences of a mistake. The weather was perfect with some great views of the mountain. After a few practice climbs and rappels, we visited some other caves in the area. Click here for more pictures.

Rachel’s Dedication
We were invited to David and Michelle’s church for Rachel’s dedication two Sundays ago. It was a nice service. Click here for more pictures.

Goat Marsh
Last Tuesday we went on a hike to Goat Marsh near Mt. St. Helens with the Mattilas. The weather was great for pictures and the mountain was reflecting in the lake nicely. It was a fun trip. Click here for more pictures.

Haying
Wednesday we put 210 bales of hay in the barn for the llamas and goats. Thanks to Jon, his truck, and his children, we only had to make three loads (two trailer loads and Jon’s truck)! Click here for more pictures.

Dynamited Cave
This last Saturday I had the opportunity to go to Dynamited Cave with the Cascade and Oregon Grottos (caving clubs). This is a vertical cave, which means you need a lot of vertical gear (harnesses, ascenders, descenders, ropes, etc) in order to explore the cave. It was a really fun trip. There were 10 of us in the cave for 8 hours, 45 minutes. We saw sand castles, lava falls (up to 40 feet!), and lots of other formations and colors. I did four drops, up and down - a 15 foot undercut drop, and 40 foot lava fall, a 55 foot pit, and a 25 foot undercut drop. The scariest part of the trip was "traversing" the 55 foot pit. That is to say, the 55 foot pit was right in the middle of the cave, and we needed to get across it in order to coninue exploration. One person free-climbed along the wall to the other side with a rope, and then the rests of us attached our harnesses to the rope for safety while we climbed across. Footholds and handholds were somtimes hard to find, but I made it both ways! One lady did fall, but her safety "cowstail" caught her safely after a few inches. Still, it was quite scary traversing over 55 feet of space. Anyway, I hope to write a detailed trip report about it soon. The picture of me shown here is courtesy of Jansen Cardy. Click here for more pictures.

Ape Cave (Horizon Air Magazine)
Next time you fly Horizon Air, be sure to check out the magazine in your seatback pocket. The August 2006 issue is going to have an article covering NW caves, and it may have one or two of my pictures in it!!! Last Tuesday I got a call from Horizon Air Magazine. My mom answered the phone, so when I heard who it was I assumed it must be a telemarketer, and I even considered having her tell them I wasn’t interested….good thing I didn’t. Turns out it was the magazine’s Art Director inquiring about a certain cave photo of mine. The photo she was interested in was taken a few years ago at Ape Cave, and I didn’t have a camera with high enough resolution for magazine printing. However, she is still interested and yesterday I went up to Ape Cave to duplicate that picture and to take some new pictures for possible publication. She is also interested in pictures of Horne Lake Caves, on Vancouver Island, which I also have. The article will be covering about 12 caves, but those are the only two I’ve been to. Anyway, this is very exciting. It would be sooooo awesome to have a picture printed in Horizon Air’s magazine.  Wouldn’t it be fun to be a professional photographer? There’s no gaurantee they’ll use my pictures, but it is still exciting. Anyway, my new pictures of Ape Cave are here: Click here for more pictures.

Well, that’s all for now. God bless, and have a great summer!

June 6, Reprinted from World Net Daily:

June 6, Check out the TV News Item on this page.

More News Items:
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/6/52006h.asp
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50497
http://www.worldmagblog.com/blog/archives/024829.html

Reprinted from The Great News Network:

June 7, this story has been picked up by the Associated Press and news agencies across the country. Please keep these ministries in prayer.

June 22, Wheelchair-bound man claims Secret Service said, ‘You’re passing out counterfeit money’

June 23, Judge: Secret Service can seize tracts

May 18th was Mt. St. Helens’ 26th anniversary since the last big eruption. To celebrate, all of the Mt. St. Helens Visitor Centers were open with free admission to the public. Jon was planning a trip and he invited me to go along. There were 22 of us total and we had an awesome day! Can you believe I’ve never been past Silver Lake on State Route 504 before? People come from all over the world to visit these Visitor Centers and Observatories and I live right here and have never visited them.

First stop was the Silver Lake Visitor Center where we enjoyed our first view of the mountain, various displays, and a movie about volcanoes. I read about skiers who were hoping to build a ski area on Mt. St. Helens (before the eruption), but gave up the idea due to avalanche dangers. I also read about Ed Robbins (Quentin’s uncle?) who packed supplies in to settlers on the south side of Mt. St. Helens. They also had a display where you could walk down under a volcano display and see the different layers of rock and how the magma comes up from the center of the earth. We also watched a movie about volcanoes of North America.

By this time it was getting close to lunch time, so we had a picnic outside the Visitor Center.

Next we headed up to the Seven Wonders museum, a creation scientist museum. There we learned how canyons (and other features that we are told take millions of years to form) can actually form in a very short time. In 1980, Mt. St. Helens demonstrated how quickly God can make changes in His creation.

After that it was starting to get late so we headed straight to Johnston Ridge Observatory. This is the closest Visitor Center to the mountain and we had great views inside the crater where we could see the new lava dome emitting steam. Here we also enjoyed a very life-like movie of the 1980 eruption – how powerful and deadly volcanoes can be! The children got papers and began doing research to become “Junior Rangers.”

Fourth stop was Coldwater Ridge Observatory where we listened to a ranger talk and enjoyed views of Coldwater Lake and the mountain. There were more displays and the children completed their Junior Ranger program. They all earned badges, a free ice cream cone, a small glass animal from the gift shop, and more.

By now it was dinner time so we drove down to Coldwater Lake for another picnic. After dinner we had a fun game of tag in the empty parking lot – I think I need to run more often! We then sat around and enjoyed the evening next to Coldwater Lake before heading for home.

We only made it about a mile before we saw a herd of elk. We stopped and looked at them through binoculars for a half hour or so. The sun was starting to go down which made for some good photo opportunities. We made it home around 10:30 p.m. It was a wonderful day and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you Jon for inviting me! Click here for more pictures.

Well, the results are in and it’s official: I failed the Math GRE. I guess I won’t be worrying about graduation for a while. God must have a greater plan. Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement as I prepared for and took this test.

So now what? Now I either have to spend about two years completing math correspondence courses or switch majors. I know two years sounds like a long time to complete this degree when I’m so close, but I’m not sure I can take more than one or two math correspondence courses at a time, and I need about 21 more math credits. Maybe I can challenge some classes, but it’s still going to take a while.

I’m considering the possibility of changing my major to Business Administration, Computer Science, or Computer Info Systems. Anyway, I’m planning to stick with this until the end. I’m still happy with the way I’m pursuing this degree since it has saved me TONS of money and time and has allowed me to run my business at the same time….this is just a small delay in the process.

Please pray that I would be sensitive to the Lord’s leading and trust and obey Him fully.

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:5-6

Well, the Educational Testing Service estimated they would be sending out GRE Subject test scores on May 5th. A few more days and I’ll find out whether or not I passed the Math GRE last month!

Thank you all for your prayers for me as I prepared for and took that test. The test day went well for me, but to tell you the truth, I’m really not confident that I passed. I guess my past failed attempts at this test make me a little cautious. Plus, my score depends on my percentile score (related to all other test takers) rather than how many correct answers I get. I’m trying not to worry about it. If I pass, great…..if not, then I’ll have to look into other options.

In the meantime I’ve finished up a couple electives through CLEP tests. Two weeks ago I took Principles of Accounting and last week I took Introductory Sociology. I passed them both, praise the Lord! I like CLEP tests so much more than that GRE Math test! It’s so nice to have an instant score report and see whether I passed or not.

Guess what? By my calculations, if I pass the Math GRE I’ll have completed all the classes/tests for my Bachelor’s degree! Yea! Thank you Lord.

Besides school, I’ve been filling my time with web site work, gardening, piano, and lots of photography. Last Saturday we celebrated three birthdays - Michelle’s, Elizabeth’s, and Brooklyn’s. I’ve included my favorite picture from that day with this posting (that’s my nephew Jonathan). For more pictures of the party, click here.

I’ll let you know when I get my score report on the Math GRE. Oh, by the way and in case you were wondering: Flickr didn’t pay me post that last article. I just think Flickr is great and wanted to recommend the service to my friends and family. God bless.

Okay, so I decided to come back to the world of Xanga. Wow! It’s been like 9 months since I last posted. So much has happened since then. The last thing I mentioned was that I was going to Ethiopia.

Well, I did go to Ethiopia and got back at the end of September. Ethiopia was awesome. I took care of 2 little boys ages 4 and 6. The family I lived with was from Australia and they were really fun. I got to know them very well and enjoyed my time with them. I also got to know their 3 Ethiopian workers quite well. Actually, only one of their workers spoke English so it was kind of hard to get to know the other two, but you can communicate quite a bit with hand motions and facial expressions.

I went to Mexico on a mission trip with a dental team in November. It was a very new experience for me. I got a lot of experience being a “dental assistant” and got to assist with TONS of extractions as well as many “amalgum” and “comoposite” procedures (fillings). I learned two main things through that trip: 1. God truly can use you if you are willing even if you don’t have a clue what you are doing, 2. I don’t want to be a dentist or a hygienist.

December was a pretty bad month for me. Things kept going downhill and I didn’t accomplish much. I was getting depressed and just plain sick and tired of everything. I was overwhelmed, but right before Christmas I came to Psalm 61 in my devotions. I found great encouragement there and things began to improve. On December 31st I was pumped and ready for the new year. Things were going to be better and I was going to depend on God and trust Him and on and on and on…January 1st (Sunday) I slept in and my family forgot I was even home and went to church with out me. Perfect way to start the new year, right?! Well, inspite of a bad start things really did improve. My attitude towards life in general improved most of all and that was mostly because my focus was back on the Lord where it should have been all along.

So anyway I had lots of time for praying, planning, and growing in January. In February I went back to Mexico with the same dental team. Why did I go back if I don’t like dental work? Well, it is a practical way that I can serve the Lord by showing His love to the people in Mexico. Dental work is something that I am not willing to do for money, but I will do it out of love for the Lord if He leads me to. That second trip to Mexico was very rewarding. It was great to see friends I had made the first time down.

In February I started praying about being a team leader with Teen Missions this summer. I had received an email in early February asking me to look into it and pray about it. I went to a missions conference at the end of February at Multnomah Bible College. It was an awesome conference. Right before I left for Mexico I called Teen Missions and told them I would be a team leader. They asked me if I would go with a team to Siberia! I said sure. So that’s the plan for this summer.

All of March was full with getting started with preparations for going to Siberia. I am really looking forward to this opportunity. I am excited about missions and one of the main purposes of Teen Missions is to expose young people to missions with the idea that they will one day be involved in full time missions. I really support that idea and think it is great to give young people the opportunity to serve the Lord overseas. My prayer is that God will use me in each of the the lives of each of the young people on my team. May we all come away from this experience more Christ-like and with a deeper love for God.

So there you go…6 paragraphs and that about sums up the whole of the last 9 months of my life. Of course I spared you from a lot of the details. Now as I plan to update more often, well, there will be more details in my future posts.