so i talked with my MPD* coach this afternoon and told him that i felt like we were getting to a spot where the “honeymoon” phase of fundraising was coming to a close.
right after New Staff Training we were all fired up, excited to make appointments, and confident with the tools that we’d be given.

now after 3 weeks…we’re juggling a 40hr work week, kids determined to live in a messy house, and people forgetting or rescheduling the appointments they’d previously set with us.

but through it all God is faithful. i have a job that i’m thankful for and enjoy doing. we’ve been blessed with a babysitter who not only watches kids, but cleans as well. and deb have enjoyed getting to spend unexpected time together when our schedule is suddenly “freed up”.

plus, after FOUR appointments this week that were cancelled, rescheduled, or simply forgotten we were blessed with another couple who have partnered with us for $100/month.

that’s exactly what we needed at exactly the right time.

thanks God, you rock! :)

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*MPD = Ministry Partner Development – that’s the name given to the process of us raising a team of supporters so we can report to Little Rock as fully funded staff missionaries with FamilyLife

ok, so i just got these pictures from deb a few minutes ago and had to write this quick blog post about it.

the first email simply had the picture below with this subject line: Naomi’s belly button disappeared

and then 5 minutes later i got another email with this picture and the subject line: Then it came back

it also had the text:

I tried to wipe off the dirty line left behind, then it just twisted back into a knot with the dirt still inside.

this past tuesday I took the day off to spend a day with the family.

we decided to take family pictures. our last set of family pics we did when deb was still pregnant with the twins, so we decided it was about time we welcomed them to our family portraits.

also the last time we took pics they were more dressed up and looked like they were from a studio (actually it was just a bed sheet hung up in our living room). so this time we decided to go more casual.

we all wore hoodies and headed for a local park. deb’s mom told her about an orchard near her home that had some pretty fall leaves still on them. when we drove by we thought it was the perfect place. so we just pulled over, set up the tripod and clicked away.

here’s one of the pics I took on my iPhone. below you’ll find a link to more pics from our 300+ photoshoot.

flickr set iWeb set

so I took my first “free” ride with the van pool today. it was nice. I didn’t feel like making friends too much so I just listened to my iPhone and read some emails. I guess that’s the introvert in me. it’s not that I don’t like people, it’s just that I like to be alone more. (that last sentence won’t make sense to an extrovert.)

anyways, at work today Charlie and I went on a “house call”. actually the couple lives on a motor coach. the last motor home I was in was pretty old so I was really surprised at how nice the place looked.

it had a queen size bed, a washer and dryer, a huge 40″ LCD screen above the windshield, wireless hi-speed internet, and granite counters in the kitchenette. and for being a mini home on wheels it was quite roomy. naturally, it’s not something I’d want to move my family of 8 into. but perhaps it’d be something deb and I would love when we’re retired. it’d be fun to travel the country doing missions work or visiting all our grandchildren scattered around the country.

so how about you, would you travel in a motor home in retirement?

so if you follow me on Twitter then you already know Deb and I’s big news…

we got our iPhones today!!!

so how did these turn of events happen?

we were already planning on getting them this tuesday, but circumstances changed when (through my constant talking about it) our pastor decided it was time for him and his wife to also get new phones.  

to be fair… our pastor is already a big apple fan and was planning on getting an iPhone sometime in the future already.  he just wasn’t thinking it had to be on the very day that our sprint contract ended.  but after we talked last wednesday about some details about transferring our phone numbers he said he’d talk to his wife about possibly getting them some iPhones too.

well I was planning on getting our phones on tuesday during my lunch hour.  and then have the at&t guys call pastor to get the information they needed in order to port our numbers over. (for those who didn’t know our sprint phones are on the same “family plan” as our pastor’s and his name is the main one on the account, so i would need his authorization if i wanted to keep my same # on the iPhones.)  well once pastor decided that they also were going to get phones then it was more convenient for us to do go together on a weekend then during the week sometime.  he had talked with the at&t store and asked them if there was any way to pay/get the iPhones now, but not have the number ported over until tuesday when our contract ends (neither one of us wants to get charged $200/phone line by sprint for canceling early).  the guy at at&t said they would be happy to set up our phones with a temporary number now and then have us call an 800 # on tuesday (or anytime afterwards) to have our old numbers ported over.

and i was none to eager to agree that that would be a great idea.

i’m also excited that deb is so enthusiastic about her iPhone as well.  a few weeks ago when i asked her if she would also like to get one she was indifferent and said she’d be fine with just a “regular” phone.  but now that she’s had a chance to play with it for a little bit she loves it.  she was having so much fun browsing the AppStore on the drive home from the tri-cities- playing games, listening to music and surfing online.

yes, this is going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship…

- – - – - – - -

PS.  i think this is going to allow me to start blogging on a more regular basis, since i’ll be able to write and publish posts from anywhere, not only when i’m in front of my computer.  plus the fact that i’m joining a “van pool” to get to work starting on monday, i’ll have plenty of time to write, read, listen to podcasts, etc.

if you want to know what our temporary numbers are you can see this tweet.  you’ll just have to know us well enough to know what our area code is where we live, or be good enough with google to figure it out.

it’s amazing the difference a week can make. i’ve been at my new job at efcom for a little over a week now.

so what’s so different. for one, i actually like going to work now. and if some one asked i’d even say i love my job now. for those who don’t know, efcom is an Apple Reseller and Service company in yakima. and if you’ve known me very long you know that i like computers. but not just any computers, Apple computers. so to get to come to work and help others with their computer issues or helping them make up their mind about which mac to buy is just awesome. i’ve been doing that for years already and now i get paid to do it.

and now i’m getting to learn about taking apart the machines and doing hardware repairs. and i’ll be studying to actually become “Apple Certified” on the software and perhaps later on the hardware as well.

i actually really enjoy having a commute. i’m more of an introverted type of person. that may be hard for some to believe since i do such a good job of “pretending” to be extroverted sometimes. but i truly do love being by myself. and so i like the times in the morning and afternoon to just be by myself in my car with either nothing to clutter my thinking, or as a chance to catch up on podcasts or audiobooks i’ve been meaning to listen to.

there’s another guy that works here that lives about halfway between grandview and yakima so we’ve been carpooling from his house on. one week i’ll drive and then the next he’ll drive. so it doesn’t cut my gas bill all the way in half since i still have to drive to his house, but it does help cut it down a bit.

one of the things i was looking forward to about the commute was the chance to catch up on my un-played to podcasts and i thought that commuting with someone else would interrupt that. but trenton likes listening to them as well and even asked me to bring my shuffle and car adapter with me on the weeks that he drives. so that’s cool.

but i’d have to say that the biggest change that’s happened this past week is that i can now say i’m a “family man”. now for a guy with six daughters it might sound odd to say that i wasn’t a family man before. but i now see that at best i had good intentions, and at worst only vain words.

you see before i disliked my job, i felt the need to have my “alone” time to recharge, and yet still wanted to spend time with my family. but since i hated my job and hadn’t had time to myself all day i would come home seeking time to be alone. so every-time that my girls would run to come climb on me or want to tell me all about their day i’d be annoyed because i hadn’t had my time yet. yes, it’s probably selfish but that’s how i felt.

but now i have plenty of time to myself and can fully devote myself to being with my family as soon as i walk in the door. i come home everyday excited to have the girls run out and give me a hug. i walk in the door ready to help deb and lift her load after a long day alone with the kids.

in fact the week before i started deb and i were talking about how little family time i would be getting with the girls. i leave home around 7:30a, sometimes one or two of the girls are awake but not always. so i don’t always get to say “good morning” or “good bye” to them. and then i get home around 6pm. so we have dinner, have a little time together and then put them to bed around 8 or 8:30. so i only get to see my kids for 2 or 2 1/2 hrs a day! and then time alone with deb is just maybe a 0.5-1hr beyond that.

so i now i cherish every moment i have with my family. the downside to all this is that my blog has been neglected, twitter updates are becoming fewer and farer between. and honestly i’m not sure if either will pick back up again.

maybe i just need some time getting used to my new schedule and will find a time to squeeze in blogging somewhere. but right now that’s not the case.

so until next time (when ever that may be), so long blog world. i hope to get to know you again a little better sometime. but i can’t have you come between me and my family, so i’m gonna have to say good bye.

so do you have any tips on how i can balance life, work, family, blogging, twitter, etc?

——————–
// today i’m thankful for:
1. my family
2. my kids
3. my job
4. my sister’s birthday
5. my new car tires.

PS. my personal iPhone day is only 21 days away!!!!

so the twins are 5 months and 1 week old today and i can finally say with all confidence that i know which twin is which.

this is naomi:

i don’t know what other parents of twins do.

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yesterday (saturday 8.16.08) i had the privilege of participating in the beautiful wedding of Jessika Babcock and Emmanuel Perez. (aren’t they a cute couple!)

this was the second wedding that i’ve had a part in conducting – the first was my sister’s last year. hmm, two consecutive years of weddings in august. whose will i be a part of next year?? hint, hint @rhondaberghoff ;-)

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so over a month ago our church held an outreach in the park. we actually held two; one for kids at one park, and one for teens at another park. we had great fun interacting with our community, mostly people that wouldn’t normally come to our church. and we also enjoyed hosting two ministry teams from Northwest University. Deb and I dressed up as clowns, it was great.

there was only one problem … we lost our camera. this was a real bummer for me personally because i had lost (or had stolen) my new black iPod nano earlier in the week. i had only gotten it about 2 weeks before from ebay.

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