Mission Accomplished

This be-lated blog is for you Meaghan!
I know this is Nate's blog, but now that we are married he never updates it. I threatened to start my own, but it is easier to just hijack the updating of Nate! :) As soon as I figure out how I will change the title to "Wallace Quilts" (jk). Nate is busy with rehearsals for Christmas concerts both for Flute Choir and Church. You would think that since Christmas music is all basically the same every year that musicians would have it memorized and not require so much rehearsing. (Really, I'm just kidding!) I love Christmas Music and try and start listening to it in September.
It's been a crazy year. Less than a year ago we got engaged, then married, moved to a new state (Vancouver, WA). Yes, I know it's just a suburb of Portland but they have different license plates here and let you do U-turns! Okay maybe "let" isn't the word I am looking for.
Okay now for what I am really excited about I/we finished 4 quilts this year! Kim's was finished in August, only 13 months late. Beth and Cam's quilt was finished in September - only 4 months late. Sean and Amy's was finished on time, with matching pillowcases! and Autumn and Dan's was only a little over 2 months late. (They got a little skipped to finish Amy and Sean's - which was Nate and I's first combined effort quilt!) My husband, Quilter extraordinaire. I guess he decided to join the insanity rather than fight it;). And to full the craziness of quilting we found a place that has excellent coffee and crepes in downtown Vancouver called MonAmi. They put foam art on my coffee! And didn't charge extra for soy!

Beth and Cam's quilt. They were married 5/5/07



















Sean and Amy's quilt. They were married 10/27/07.

















Autumn and Dan's quilt. They were married 9/8/07


While with Nate's help, I've accomplished the goal I set for myself, please, don't anyone else get married this year!











(Quick addendum to this post. Also found in the post entitled "Yet Another Frozen Lake)

I thought I'd add one random picture to this post: this is the quilt that Andrea and I made for my parents for Christmas. I think it's the biggest and brightest quilt she's ever made. That made five total quilts on the year! My wife is a rock star!!

Quilt Redemption

The emotional impact of seeing something I made damaged became a reality a couple weeks ago. My sister's dog, Lily, is a 10 month old Lab Australian shepherd mix. She lives exuberantly, with all the grace of a bull in a china shop, and with a tail that wags ferociously. She likes to lounge full sprawl on my parents couch. The same couch on which I left a quilt that I made as a wedding gift for my friend Kim. She wasn't able to pick it up the day that it was finished and I should have moved it to a safer place. But I didn't. A few days later, I walked in the door of Mom's house and Sarah was in the living room looking at it. "Who's this quilt for?" she asked. Kim's wedding present I told her. "Lily kind of chewed a hole in it, do you think you can fix it?" When I went over to look at it I was filled with despair, I couldn't help but cry. Lily had chewed through the quilt top, the batting, and the back fabric. The hole was probably only 3" x 4" but it looked like a gigantic gaping wound. When I looked at Lily she had batting (Batting is the stuff in the middle of the quilt) hanging out of the side of her mouth. We had to wait until Mom got home to figure out if it could be fixed. Mom is amazing. She ripped out my quilting and the 6"x 6" block with the hole in it. I made a new block and fitted a piece of batting into the hole. She was able to piece the new block in through the back of the quilt. We sewed the new batting into place and put a patch on the backing. We covered the patch with a label saying who the quilt was given to and who made it. I was able to re-quilt it and the quilt was saved...
I guess it's like Jesus blood patches the sin in my life. God made me and how he must sorrow that sin has eaten holes in my life. But Jesus redeems me, kinda like how mom was able to redeem the wedding quilt. Very cool.

Some Sites to See

September is usually a busy month for me, and the one is no exception. I've started to get caught up on work though, which makes life easier, and I'm not nearly as burned out as I was last year. Just one more six day week ahead, and it's back to normal for the next eleven months!

Lately, I've gotten really excited about some websites. I stumbled upon this radio program called Way of the Master Radio. This took me to the Way of the Master website. Of course, the radio program has it's own website too. I've put the links on my side bar.
(Yes, this is Kirk Cameron witnessing to gang members!)

These sites lead me to several others: Adventures in Christianity is a blogging site for people to share their witnessing encounters. Even audio clips of these adventures are posted, so you can hear the conversations yourself! It's incredible. And encouraging.



Another one is called Pyromaniacs. They're on blogger too. They have taken a stand for truth in a rather radical way (and when I say 'radical', think back to the context of the '80's ;). While we at Good Shepherd get to see many positive aspects of the emerging church, there are many others out there being poisoned by the postmodern version of the emergant movement. The Pyromaniacs counter this with boldness and humor. Check them out!!




Lastly, sermanjams.com. Listen to John Piper, Allasteir Bagg and others preach with music running in the background. My explanation doesn't do it justice. It's really really well done and tasteful. Just try it. I think you'll like what these guys have put together.

Check these out!!

The Growth of Tomatoes (or The Birth of a WOTM Head)

So I (Andrea) wanted Nate to write about our beautiful and delicious tomatoes that are ripening on our deck. The best part of late summer really - vine ripened tomates - YUM! They are doing really well considering they live in small pots. But Nate is not as crazy about tomatoes as I am and wants every one to know about the cool podcast he's been listening to - "Way of the Master" (WOTM). He has been listening to it for about a month, one because he enjoys it, and two because then he doesn't listen to AM radio all day at work. His favorite part of WOTM is when they go up to people on the street and witness to them. He's played some clips for me and it is pretty amazing. Especially when the guy that does this (I don't know his name) nails down what they say they believe and it's as if you can hear them squirm across the radio. (Technically it's a ipod mini, but it sounds better if I say radio.) Below is the picture of one of the people as he was presented with the Gospel.
I've decided that blogging is a lot of work. There are way too many punctuation and spelling choices, but Nate is in the busy rental season at work and hasn't had time to post. So I am helping ! :) That is usually what I tell him right before I break some project we are working on together.

September 7, 2007
Please pray that God would save Mike the Gardner.

The Streets of San Francisco

We just took our first vacation together! Our official honeymoon that we had been planning for a few months now. It started out in hurry. We planned to head down to San Francisco early to see a baseball game on Sunday, but I still had to work on Saturday till 5:00! So off we went. We drove to Redding and got there about 1:00am. Then, we got up about 7:00 and raced down to San Francisco and got there in plenty of time to see the game. It was great. The rest of our time there was exciting too. Take a look:

Day 1: Giants vs. Dodgers

It was a great day to watch a baseball game. AT&T Park is one of a most beautiful parks in the country. There were lots of fans for both teams there. The Dodgers won 5-3.









































After the game, we decided to ride the cable car up the hill. Here's Andrea taking her first cable car ride.

























Day 2: Golden Gate Park

Monday was kind of a free day. We were supposed to check into our official hotel today (we stayed at a different hotel in Pacifica on Sunday), so we had an extra day to play. Andrea wanted to see Golden Gate Park, so we walked around checking out the sights:

Stopping to smell the roses at the Rose Garden.



























Here's the Horticultural Center.






















The wonders of the Arboretum










































After getting done at the park, we went and checked into our hotel. Mom and Dad have had a time share here since I was little. Here's a view from the window of our room.















Next, we hopped onto another cable car and went down to Fisherman's Warf and Ghirardelli Square to get some chocolate. Here's Andrea standing on the running boards for the first time.















Here we are with the loot.

















Well, that's all I have time to show you today. There's lots more from San Francisco, and then we'll head to Lake Tahoe and beyond! Stay tuned!

The War of the Roses

I discovered aphids crawling on the roses the other day! This upset me. Aphids are bad. I don't know how they ended up on a second story deck far from any flowers. I think they came in with some other flowers we were given. I discovered them on the double delight, and soon they were found on the other two bushes as well.

In the words of the great philosopher, Bugs Bunny, "This, means war."

More Walupt

Time for the annual Walupt Lake camping trip. This year, like the last, was not without adventure. We had two additions to our traveling party this year. Andrea's cousins, Kate and Michaela (8 and 12 respectively) were in town from Upper Michigan, and we invited them to come along. It was cool to show them the mountains of the Northwest. There was only one disappointment that later turned into a blessing.

Andrea and I love going through Trout Lake on our way to the lake. It's a great place to stop and eat and pick up anything to do with huckleberries! Last winter though, was devastating to the roads in the mountains. In particular, it was devastating to the road that we use to get from Trout Lake to Walupt Lake. This was a big bummer. It meant that we would be driving the boring way up I-5 to US 12. With two young girls in the car from out of town, that was not a pleasant option.

So, off we went at 5:30 on Saturday evening on a drive that was supposed to take close to 4 hours (I had to work that day, so we couldn't leave till then)! Let's just say I managed to get there in a lot less time and set up camp quickly. It was good to see Mom and Dad and Curt and Marie and their friends there. We all have a great time together!

We took the girls for a hike on Sunday and then hung around camp and the lake. It was fun, if uneventful. We hiked to the creek and back, stopping on the other side of the lake. Picture time!

Michaela:













Kate















Kate and Michaela


















Then it was our turn.





















The next day, we headed home a different way. I just have to say that it was a glorious drive! The sun was shining, the temperature was mild, the road was winding. A man cannot ask for anything more!

Too bad the kids weren't more excited. ;)






Kirby actually enjoyed being between the girls, who lavished attention upon him!









We went up to Windy Ridge to see Mt. St. Helens. Along the way, we got a great view of Mt. Rainier.

















Here we are, less than six miles from the crater.














Here's an interesting stump that Andrea got a picture of.



















One more stop in Cougar, and the obligatory shot with the statue of the town's namesake.



















Andrea and I had a great time showing the girls around the mountains. They are really fun to hang out with. I Hope we can do it again! Next time, girls, we won't do so much driving. I promise!