Merry Christmas

We are here in California and stettling into our new appartment. We are enjoying our relationship with our Landlord. He is a great guy. I have been baking up a storm this week. It has been nice to have a slower pace of life for a while. We have a tiny little tree next to our tiny little wood stove. We have not had to use the stove though. It is nice because Cal keeps the house at 70 degrees all the time. Our little kitty is adjusting well to her new life completely indoors. We are still not sure if we will let her back out or not. We have visited 2 chruches in the area. The church we went to this week was nice...Dillon knows a few people and he so that makes relationship building a bit easier. It is a 2 year old church plant and the just signed their "charter membership" I guess that means they are not a "plant" any more.
I would like to wish each one of you a very merry Christmas. Take time to love your family and remember Dillon and I love you bunches and bunches but Jesus loves you more. I'm not ready to say I would allow my only child to die for you...gosh, that would be hard, but I do love you. Our camera was on vacation for a while so no new pictures today. sorry.

I'm sorry for the trouble

So it has been 45 minutes since I wrote the last post and have already received several comments on my writing style or lack of writing style. I am sorry that this is difficult to read, I suppose all my GOOD friends will look past this HUGE flaw in my skill set and continue to be my friend anyway. As Peter says, that despite the poor readability of my last blog "... We STILL love you two." You can't put any of the blame for my poor written communication on my husband either, he encouraged my to continue stating "it's not a research paper" Love you, bye.

Moving to the sun

Hello. I truly hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Dillon and I had a wonderful time with family and friends. We got to spend a day with Dillon's mom and step dad. She made a wonderful ham dinner that I am sad to say I missed. I had to drop little Meg off at my life saving Aunt's house. My aunt is some kind of Cat genius and offered to watch our little devil for the few weeks while we are getting settled and moved to California. Meg has already forgotten us. She did not even bother to get down from the bed when we came to visit, little stinker. Now that we are home, I really miss her little fuzzy butt but am happy she is with someone who is taking such good care of her.

We ate wonderful, as always, Thanksgiving dinner that my mother and aunt prepared, drank wine and held my nephew. He is soooo cute, he is the screaming one in the picture. The Raiders fan would be my brother, I'm sorry. I can't wait to watch him grow, my nephew that is, as you can see my brother is already grown. Today he has his first set of shots :( Saturday we drove up and spent the night with wonderful friends along the Trinity River, one of the most beautiful places I have seen in a while. All the way back to the freeway we mused about how rich we are in the friends the Lord has blessed us with. I can't say much more as the tears of love, gratitude and wonderment blur the keys. If you are reading this I hope you feel a warm hug from Dillon and I as we love you and value you as the source of the richness we have in life and are forever indebted to you for your love and friendship. A sincere and heart felt Thank You So Much to Jen and Steve. You are both a blessing.

We found a great little basement (basement in that it is under the main house but is, in no other way, a basement) apartment in Loomis. We will be living with or under rather, a man named Cal who has 4 sheep and 2 Llamas and like a million feet of land to play on. It is a beautiful property and is close to many things, Dillon says, but far from everything. I'm still not certain how to get there but I do know my address so I can give that to the police when they find me lost in a few weeks. It is quiet and wonderful. I thought about posting a picture but would rather you come and visit instead. So give me a call and we can set up a date. Here is Dillon and I looking very happy on the property, near where I get to have a garden, of our new home, for a while. This week we are back in Portland packing and having dinner with several wonderful friends and hoping to miss the next storm coming over the pass next weekend. Love you all.

It's almost time

Today is almost the day. Today we are packing up Dillon's shop and sail boat to take to his moms house for storage for a while. We will be in Placerville for a while and eat some Turkey and then back to Portland for the big move. The final move date is December 3rd...or terd as some dear friends in Portland like to call it. Love you Margaret :) So our house is in complete disarray, we have a "for rent" sign up in front and I am continuing in denial. I suppose that is how I work, I will come to realize the impact of our move about a week after we arrive, maybe after the kitchen in unpacked.
Today it is raining, surprised? You shouldn't be, we live in PORTLAND! But not for long. If you are inclined please pray for us this next week, we are looking for a place to live and Dillon is going to follow up on a job possibility, not a ministry one but a job none the less. It is astounding to me how I can be so sad to leave but so sure it is the "right" thing to do....oh, well, another mystery for another time. Love you all, here is another picture of my nephew just because.

Long time

So, it's been a while since we posted anything here, but I am fairly certain my mom is the only person who checks but just in case. This summer, which is long gone judging by the cold wet weather outside my Portland window, has been an adventurous and life changing one. I say that not because anything super duper has happened that changed our live view but rather because we are having to make some "grown up" decisions.

I am an AUNT--now I know that is not about me, but it sure is fun. My little nephue was born last month and he is the sweetest thing ever. I don't have any super recent pics but here is one. His name is Noah and Congratulations to momma Angie and daddy Brandon. Love you guys.

We had a great 2 weeks traveling around Montana with friends Tony and Megan Stover. We spent time in BEAUTIFUL Glacier National Park which I would recommend to any one who wanted a beautiful vacation spot, as well as a day at Yellow stone which was subsequently disappointing after marveling in God's Glory at Glacier. If anyone wants to go to Glacier any time we are already looking forward to another trip.

Dillon has started and is well on his way to completing his work of genius (his Thesis). It is exciting for me to watch him talk to others about the topic. He is looking into the historical significance of the social gospel as value in the emerging church movement....or something like that. It seem to have struck a cord with a lot of people. Pray for him as he ties up the loose ends.

Lastly and largestly we are moving from Portland. This is a hard decision for me and for us a long time coming. I have to purpose not to cry as I write about the move. It is definitely a good thing. We have identified a few areas in our lives where God is at work and they are pulling us back home. We have looked into several job options here in Portland and nothing has been in God's will for us. We are looking to move to the Auburn area as it and the surrounding areas are huge areas of growth as would likely have many options (when compared to other areas) for construction and new growing churches to plug into. We are very excited about this opportunity, however, my heart is aching. I have had a few sweet relationships here and am heart broken to have to change those to long distance ones. Please be praying for us in this move which we have slated to happen at the end of November or first of December. Thank you so much for all your support and love.
xoxooo
KB

Just some things

So I have some things I have been thinking on for a few weeks now and I think I want to try to share them with my little world, at least the few of you who visit here. They are not big things, well for me they are but mostly I need to get them out of my head so I can get a handle on them.

First, I have been struck ( as I often am) by the abounding blessings of the Lord on my life. I could list all the ways but....Well, how about a short list. Have you meet my husband? That should be enough, he is amazing to me and to so many others. I am overjoyed that I get to be a part of his life and what God has for his future. Right now he is working on cutting metal and has been painting and fiberglassing and sanding and varnishing ect ect ect because I said I wanted to go camping. He has been working this AM for 90 minutes and it is 9 am on Saturday. He was up last night until 12:30 (this is LATE for the Barbers) doing the same. I love him so much. Oh, and this camping trip was for HIS birthday which is the 15th of august for any of you who want to give him a call to spread the love, he is always open for more love. Other blessings include the amazing way God has blessed me with friends/family everywhere we have traveled. We now have 3 full families that we love and adore. Our birth families, our Chico families and our Portland families. There have been and are amazing people, saints if you will, in all three places that have helped us through the maze of life, have loved us through them really. I won't name names because I don't want to risk my fingers getting tired and not listing every one and hurting the feelings of someone who I love so dearly. Just know, if you are reading this, you ARE one of those people and I can only scratch the surface of what you have meant to me. I love you too.

I am not sure why I have been so blessed except that God loves to bless us, my only hope is that He has been glorified in that blessing. I hope he is pleased with the way we have treated His blessings.

Second thought. We have been visiting many churches in the Portland area just to get a feel of "what is out there", how others "do church" in what can be observed on a Sunday morning....In that process I have instead been observing the diversity and wholeness of the Body of Christ (in Portland at least). Let me explain, if I can. I expected to get many perspectives on order of service, structure of small group ministry, efforts to welcome, ect ect ect. Instead I have observed thousands of believers and their "families" as they have invited me in to share in their worship of God. I have been struck by the intimacy of "church". I have never ever thought on this or even experienced this before. You know how it feels to celebrate a major holiday with a friends family? Well imagine attending Thanksgiving dinner with a strangers family but feeling like part of the family...Like with the family of a 3rd cousin twice removed, the bond of family is there despite the intimate knowledge of eachother. I am not sure if I am expressing this well or if any of you know what I am trying to say but I have been amazing, expanding my understanding of and interaction with a worship service. I love it.

One last thing before I go pack for camping, We visited a church "The Well", It was amazing. If any of you are visiting Portland or live here and have time to visit I would recommend it. Nothing was overtly spectacular but the sense of being there was wonderful. The pastor spoke on Proverbs, we was just starting the book and preached a sermon that drew a picture of the Grace of God in proper balance with the Glory or Majesty of God. I am still thinking on this one. The tension that that brings is awesome, really. Any-who. I have to go. Thanks for the ear. I truly love you all and hope to see you soon. I pray your lives be blessed abundantly above you hopes and expectations. Bye. K-

Were Home

Dillon and I were visiting family in California this week. We celebrated babies and birthdays all week long. We also had great pasta dinner with our good friends Tony and Megan, I forgot to take a picture of them so this one will have to do. They are the best.

If you don't live in California let me tell you, this last week was HOT. Now I know if you are reading this from Oregon or some other place you are thinking "yah, it was hot here too" but you are wrong. It was 106-109 every stinking hot day! BUT despite all that Dillon and I had a wonderful time. Here is a picture of my beautiful sister-in-law (who is working on aunting me), her mother on the left and my mother on the right (Angie is in the middle.) Congratulations again Angie, Dillon and I are both proud and excited for you, Brandon and little Noah. We love you.

So while Dillon and I were gone our wonderful friend Haley came by to feed and pet our pitiful kitty. She (Haley) is the best. We both love her dearly, if you don't know her you should and if you do know her you should tell how how much you love her. Here is her picture, it is fun to introduce every one. I hope you all think this is fun! Our little kitty is happy we are home, I think she is punishing us though because if we go out side she sits at the door and wines and refuses to come out of the bedroom, I think she is scared of all the fans, it is 100 degrees here at our house today.

So, all week, while in CA I could not stop thinking about my garden, I am a bit obsessed but it is the most fun ever, please note previous pictures of the garden. Well, short story, I took a bunch of squash home for family, as I have no use for 15 lbs of the stuff, Dillon's cousin Jessica, who I have no pictures of but she is a cute blond thing, grew a zucchini that was like 3 feet long. I felt so pitiful with my little 4-6 inch squash. All the books said to harvest at 4 inches to ensure a good crop, to heck with that, look at what was waiting me when we got home, that's right, another picture. Ok, so picture formatting is kicking my butt right now......Grrrrr. Any how.

So, down here now I guess. Back to work tomorrow for me and Dillon is headed back to the dungeon for more studying. Oh, I meant to point out that those squash above are not next to any ordinary shoe, that is my mammoth size 10 my friends, that's right, you now have a whole new respect for the size of the squash, as I knew you would. There is a lot left unsaid about this week, like the wonderful reunion of me and an old friend for brunch, Dillon and how he and his sister build a magnificent deck despite she scorching heat for his mother, seeing my cousin for a short visit ect ect ect. Well enough for now, I love you all and hope you are doing well. Hope, as always, to see you soon.

Languishing....

So, I am here in Oregon desperately missing my wonderful husband who is home in California building a new deck for his mom. I am finding myself sitting at home waiting for him to come home, quite pitiful really, but what can I say. Next week I will be joining him as we continue to visit family.
I have been trying to find something to write about. I have lots on my mind but not much to write about. I am thinking a lot about the next step in life for Dillon and I. We are not sure where that will lead but have confidence that we are headed in the right direction. We are following up on some leads for Dillon in regard to jobs. I am trying hard not to think about leaving my wonderful friends and "family" at my current job. It is so hard when two aspects of your heart don't jive. Any tips? Lots of prayer is all I have come up with, it seems to be working OK.

I have a question...Does it mean anything that I love stories of tragic love? I don't mean like love and death, not like Romeo and Juliet, but like the "hard" love. Movies like The Notebook, I cry, and I mean CRY every time I watch it. I guess that's what makes a good movie, if it was nice love that just fell into place with no "conflict" then it would not make a good movie. Well, never mind, I guess I figured it out.
Well, enough of that useless rambling, if you happen to see my Husband this week give him a big hug for me and know there is one jealous girl in Portland.

The Basement

I’m sitting in my familiar place of solitude in the basement floor of the Multnomah Seminary Library. I’ve spent many an hour here over the past three years but not nearly as many as I will spend in the next eight weeks. Recently Kristen and I came up with a plan, and as odd as this may sound it is the quickest way to be without a plan that we could think of. On August 30th Kristen will be quitting her job at Sunset Pediatrics. Rather than spending what’s left of the summer looking for a summer job, we decided that I would spend my time more effectively doing everything I can to finish the first draft of my thesis. So I will be coming to this place in the basement of the library for the rest of the summer when Kristen is at work. I’ll be doing a lot of reading and hopefully a lot of writing. The trouble is I’m not sure exactly what I’ll be reading and writing quite yet, but perhaps I’ll have a better idea in a couple of weeks.

The unique thing about our plan is that beyond August 30th we don’t really have a plan at all. Well, I guess we are planning a trip to Glacier National Park the first week of September with Tony and Megan Stover, but after that we don’t have a plan. I am continuing to look for a job, as I will be until I find the right one, so perhaps I’ll have a strong lead by the end of the summer. If not we will probably pray a lot and see if the Lord puts a certain place on our hearts, then sell most of our stuff and move to that place. So if anyone wants the Lord to place a certain town or city on our hearts, you had better start praying too.

For the next two weeks I will be in California, the first week I am building a deck for my mom, the second week Kristen is coming down and we are hanging out with family and taking a break. I’ll write again when we return.

Blessings,
Dillon

First fruits

OK, this is mostly for my mom. Hey mom look at what I grew!! oops, I forgot that the picture of the squash is not on my computer yet. It is also early and I have to go to work soon so I don't have time to put it here, maybe later, sorry mom.
I do have some sad news today, well sad for Dillon and I, happy for others though. Our dear fridends Mike and Gretchen have moved from Portland back "home." We saw them off yesterday in their trailer and truck. We are both very excited for their adventure this summer and beyond. They have been such a blessing to both Dillon and I.
We will miss them lots and lots but know God is directing their next move and we are excited to see where that will take them. You guys are in our prayers and in our hearts today and forever. We love you!

The size of my zucchini

Here, check out the size of my zucchini!! I have never grown anything in my life. My wonderful husband suggested we grow a garden and now look.
I am even growing tomatoes and peppers. It is the funniest thing ever. I would highly recommend it, even if you only have a small area like we do.

So, I have one question, what does a gal do with 27 lbs of zucchini?

Well, here we are

Hey there, Dillon and I have decided to start this Blog in an attempt to keep you, our friends and family, up to date as our life, and the lives of many of our friends begin a season of Major change. We are saddened as once again many friends are scattering all around the country. We are happy because we have been blessed by many more people and God has taught us many things through all of them.

We are here in Oregon still, living in Troutdale. I am still working with children and Dillon is tying up some loose ends for his degree and looking for work. We are making some major minestry changes as well. We are fine tuning out goals for this life. God has blessed me with such a patient understanding man who is willing to act as my husband. My brother's wife is having a baby, that is a change, never been an aunt before. ....change, what is life without it? Childhood I guess.

Well, I am going to try to figure out how to work this thing, post pictures and stuff you know and get more thoughts down later. See ya. K-

Ummmmm....

Lets see if we can figure out how this thing works.