Mt. Rainier

This past Friday we visited Mt. Rainier and it was some of the most beautiful creation I have ever seen personally. It is about 75 miles south of Seattle and towers in the city's skyline on a clear day. It is a part of the Cascade Mountain Range.














The girls' favorite part of the trip was getting to play in the snow. Hannah loved having snow ball fights and Kaitlyn loved eating it. Snow ball fights in June - never would have thought we'd do that!




























The scenic pictures don't do it justice, but at least they give you an idea of our experience.
























































The following are pictures of Mt. Rainier's peak.

Change

Change. Sometimes it's good. Sometimes it's not. For me it's almost always a challenge either way. Here are a few interesting changes, for better or for worse, we are having to get used to in a new place....

1. Wearing jeans and sweatshirts in JUNE. Yes, the weather has been quite chilly even during the day. People are telling us that this is unusual for June. I'd say. I do feel bad complaining too much though since our friends in Nashville and TX are sweating in the 90-degree heat! We do have a nice gas fire place that comes alive at the flip of a switch. That's pretty cool.

2. Living in a 2-story house. I know I'm out of shape when I'm feeling a little sore simply from living in a 2-story for 2 weeks!

3. Having a microwave that is smarter than I am. For instance, if you want to reheat pizza. You push "reheat". Then it gives you a choice of several food options, pizza being one of them, so you push "pizza". Then it gives you the option of choosing "thin crust" or "thick crust". Once you've made that choice, then it asks how many slices you are reheating. Once you've inputed all the appropriate information, it automatically sets itself and the pizza is heated to perfection. Amazing. Some of you may think this is no big deal. But, up until now, we've had a hand-me-down microwave that was probably one of the first ones out on the market.

4. Living in a brand new house - no remodeling necessary. Hallelujah!

5. No Blue Bell Ice Cream - This one's a tough one. We finally got it in Nashville a couple of years ago, then we left. Shame on us!

6. Seeing snow-capped mountains in the distance as we drive around town. This is very nice.... very, very nice. In fact we are about an hour away from the nearest ski slopes. Can't wait for ski season!!

7. No Sonic or Chick-fil-a. In fact, while there are a variety of fast food restaurants here, they are not on every corner as we are used to. No Taco Bell either. Although there is "Taco Time", which we haven't ventured into yet.....

8. Seeing the sun come up around 5:30 a.m. and not go back down completely until almost 10 p.m. It's definitely got Hannah confused about bed time!

Downtown Seattle

After a week and a half of mostly unpacking, painting and settling in, we went sight seeing today downtown with my parents. It was a nice June day with a high of 59! No rain though.

Our first stop was lunch at Ivar's right on the Puget Sound. We ate fish 'n chips and then fed our left-overs to the seagulls. They were eager and Hannah got a kick out of it!














Then we headed to the famous Pike Place Market. Wow! We'll have to go back to experience it fully - 3 levels of cool restaurants and vendors selling fresh farm produce, flowers and many other items. This picture is taken right in front of the fish market. We even saw them throw a few.














Here's the group (decked out in jackets) just after seeing the very first Starbuck's. It's really not much to see. Just a coffee shop - and a small one at that.














After Pike Place we visited the Seattle Aquarium located right on the Sound as well. Kaitlyn's favorite part was posing in this octopus. Really. We could hardly get her to leave this spot. She also really liked looking at all the colorful fish and pointing at them.














Here's Hannah being "attacked" by a huge octopus! It's a good thing she escaped b/c she had a blast going through the aquarium.














These last pictures are of us at Kinnear Park on Queen Anne Hill overlooking the city and the Sound. It's really a beautiful place. If it was a clear day you could see Mt. Ranier just to the right of the skyline. Kaitlyn missed out since she was sound asleep and we dared not wake her.










































Being in the NW has made us all a little crazy!!!

Hannah's "Pre-Birthday" and Other Pictures

Today we celebrated what we called Hannah's Pre-Birthday. She will turn 4 on June 25. But since Grammie and Pawpaw are in town, we celebrated with them today. The theme, of course, was Princesses. We had chocolate cake and banana splits.














Here's the big gift - a sandbox! It's one thing we can actually fit in our back yard. It was a big hit as you can see. Thanks Grammie & Pawpaw.














Kaitlyn thought the sand looked tasty. The little dab on her chin is the left overs.














Here's Hannah going to town on the drums. Dale is so excited that we finally have some space for them. We have a great little music room stocked with his drums, guitar and our piano. It's already made for some great conversation starters with delivery and installation people who have been in our home.














We decided to have an indoor "beach party" today since it's too cold to have a real one. It's been in the 50's and 60's during the day here!! Is it really June? I need some summertime weather!!

Airport Adventure

Janet didn't know what she was getting herself into when she offered to take the girls and me to the airport last Tuesday for our flight to Houston. But I sure don't know what I would have done without her!

First, we park. Then we begin unloading the car. As I am attempting to get Kaitlyn out I notice some stuff on her arm and then the stench hits me. My first thought is, "Surely, this isn't happening NOW!" As I explore, my fears are confirmed. Yes, poop has exploded out of Kaitlyn's diaper and it's all over her and the car seat. Since I am exhausted, overwhelmed and emotional BEFORE this incident, the next few moments consist of exclamations of panic.

If someone had videoed the next several minutes I'm sure we could get some money from it. The Shrum vehicle happened to be stocked with a bath towel and a comforter. So, I take Kaitlyn out of her seat and wipe her down as much as possible with the towel. By then Janet has laid the comforter on the parking garage floor. So, I lay Kaitlyn on the comforter, strip her down and use most of my wipes trying to clean her lower half. All the while, Hannah is yelling from inside the suburban, "I want to get out! I want to get out!" Thankfully Janet had me laughing about all of this or I might have had a major breakdown. So, I pull a new outfit from the suitcase, restock my wipes and Kaitlyn is good to go. In the meantime Janet is trying to clean the car seat as best as possible with some baby shampoo. It helps a little. We put one of my t-shirts in the car seat as a buffer between it and Kaitlyn and back in she goes. We calm Hannah down and convince her to roll her own suitcase and between the 3 of us somehow get all of our stuff into the airport.

Once in the airport the action never stops.... check the luggage, get through security with 2 small children, grab something quick to eat for dinner at the gate... By the time we get to the gate we have about 10 minutes before we begin to board. We say our goodbyes to Janet and I am left to get the 3 of us successfully on the plane, which was a bit of a chore.

We finally get settled in at our seats and I am just beginning to catch my breath when Hannah says, "I need to go potty." "Of course you do!" I think to myself. Janet and I both tried to get her to go potty before we got to the gate and she adamantly refused. By now everyone on the plane is seated. Not wanting another accident, I flag a stewardess to see if we have time for a potty break before we start taxiing down the runway. We do. So, with Kaitlyn in one arm and Hannah in front of me we make our way to the very tiny airplane restroom. The 3 of us squeeze in as I assist Hannah with getting onto the seat and then washing her hands, all while holding Kaitlyn. Thankfully she's so laid back she could have cared less where she was at that moment.

The rest of the trip was comparatively uneventful. Although about mid-way through I began to smell Kaitlyn's car seat. I just prayed the people around us couldn't!

Insights Gained: 1) Always arrive at the airport really early when traveling with small children. You never know what might happen. 2) In such an event, it's helpful to have a friend along who happens to keep random household items in her car, can help you see the humor in it, and will still talk to you later. 3) Baby shampoo doesn't mask a poop explosion for long. 4) Without children I wouldn't have nearly as many interesting stories.......

Pictures

Here are some long awaited photos....

Hannah and Kaitlyn trying to stow away in a box as we're packing in Nashville.














The boys took lots of pictures of their road trip. Here's a few:
St. Louis, MO - the first big city they went through on the trip.














Kansas City, MO














The grand state of Iowa. Dale said this is what the whole state looks like.














The guys tried to see Mt. Rushmore but it was too overcast to see it. They were pretty bummed about that! But seeing the famous sculpture of a bull's head in South Dakota brought their spirits up....... What in the world?!














Here's our moving truck towing our Saturn in Wyoming.














Some beautiful Montana mountains.














The Columbia River in Idaho.














And here they are at our house in Seattle! They look pretty good after a 3 1/2 day road trip!

Seattle Residents

We are finally in Seattle! At least Dale and I are. The girls will arrive next Saturday after a week w/ Grammie and Pawpaw in Houston. Dale, Kevin and Caleb arrived in Seattle safely with all of our stuff intact Thursday. They had quite a journey. My week has consisted of flying the girls from Nashville to Houston Tuesday night, having quick, but meaningful visits with my sister and old friends while there, and flying to Seattle yesterday. I've been here less than 24 hours and I've already been treated to two meals by different people, attended a wedding amidst the tallest evergreens I've ever seen by a lake on an absolutely beautiful day (This would be Chuck & Angila's, two of our church planting team members), and been to Lowe's twice to make major purchases for our house. And as I'm standing at Lowe's looking through an idea book for kid's rooms I hear "Well, hello there new neighbor!" I turn and it's Jeannette, who works with a lot of the church planters here. She happens to live close by. This may sound silly, but I was so pumped about actually running into someone we know already! What are the chances of that?

So, it's been a whirlwind and quite an emotional one at that. We miss our friends in Nashville terribly. But God is good. He's reminded me of all that I have to be thankful for, which is a lot: a new adventure, friends that will remain true despite the great distance between us, a husband that loves the Lord so much he's willing to obey no matter what, Hannah and Kaitlyn - enough said, a family that supports us, a God that is providing what we need every day.... We couldn't ask for more.

Well, Dale and I are taking this opportunity to go see a move - Prince Caspian! I'll post some pictures and a funny story later.

Work and Play

Well, we have less things in our closets and on our shelves and more in boxes. The question I've been pondering as I've been packing is, "Why do we need all of this?" Some has found it's way to the trash and to the give-away pile. But I wonder if we'll ever be completely freed from being masters of accumulation!

Despite all the preparations to move, we've made time for play. Since I haven't posted many pictures in awhile, here are a few of the girls....

Check out Hannah with her new kite. She and Daddy had lots of fun flying it on a recent windy day.














Kaitlyn has found a new joy.... pulling out all my pots and pans.














A moment of sharing between sisters, and I actually captured it on camera!














When Hannah walked in dressed like this I asked her if she was going on a trip. She said very matter-of-factly, "No, I'm going to college."



















Kaitlyn playing outside in her playhouse wondering "What can I get into next?"














Hannah running from the camera.

Moving...

So, for those of you who are interested, our moving dates have changed again. At this point does that really surprise anyone? Dale and the boys will be heading West on May 26. Yes, this is our story and we're sticking to it!

American Idol

Okay, I am still very disappointed about last nights' results. I just knew Carly and the Davids would be in the top 3. I really, really like Brook and will probably buy some of her music one day. But she's still not as good as the other 3. And Jason, let's just face it. The fact that he is still in it is proof to me that many voters are teenage girls that don't know any better. No offense to my many young friends who are teenage girls! The only hope that I have is that Carly has gotten enough exposure now that she will be fine I'm sure. But watching American Idol from here on out will not be nearly as fun.

Wagons and Caterpillars

The last couple of days in Nashville have been beautiful! So, we've been eating a lot of meals outside on the picnic table. The girls have been enjoying the swing set with their friends, riding in the wagon, and making up stories about the many creatures they have found in the grass. Actually, Hannah makes up the stories and Kaitlyn tries to eat them, the creatures that is. She hasn't gotten anything past me recently. Although Dale informed me she had part of a snail in her mouth a few weeks ago. Ugh!!

Ed Stetzer

I don't know how many of you who read my blog know who Ed Stetzer is, but you can find out more here. He is one of the church planting gurus of our time. Dale has read a few of his books. And he happens to be the interim pastor at First Baptist Hendersonville, right down the road from us. Dale had the opportunity to meet with him last week and he was so gracious to him and served as a big encouragement at this point in our church planting journey. Since we're church hopping we decided to go hear him preach on Sunday - which was phenomenal - and I got to meet him after the service. Super nice guy! Well, he informed us that we would be showing up on his blog, and low and behold here we are on the post entitled "Sunday is for Friends". Just scroll down until you see the "Dale Braswell" heading with our picture. How amazing is that?!

Life at the Braswells

Here's the latest with...

Hannah: She is handling our church hopping rather well, especially considering the fact that she had a hard time our last week at Inglewood. I just never imagined our leaving would have such a deep affect on our 3 1/2 year old. But her little heart has been so sad about leaving her friends. We've been to 3 different churches in the last 3 weeks and today was the first time she didn't say, "But I want to go to my church." She still gets to see her 2 best buds, Ethan and Naomi, quite a bit, so that is helping.... She is growing and maturing so much it seems lately. She makes us laugh all the time with her vivid imagination and silly sense of humor. She has also begun saying the sweetest things - like, "Mom, you're the best mom in the world!" "Mom, I will never leave you.", etc. I know she has no one else to compare me to and that she will in fact leave me one day. But it's nice to relish in these words now. I need to video her at some point so I can play it back when she's 13!

Kaitlyn: Our 13 month old - She is just happy to be Kaitlyn. She is so curious and into absolutely everything.... She is cutting 2 teeth at the same time and I could have sworn I saw a couple more on the bottom about to come through. Poor thing! She's a slobbery mess!.... The funniest thing about her right now is that she loves to quack like a duck. She will point to a picture of a duck and just go to town. Except now we've got to work on other animal sounds b/c she was quacking at our friends' dog the other night.... She is developing the same love for books her sister has. I know she's ready for story time when she either points to or brings me a book saying, "gook". She is learning to keep up with Hannah quite well these days. She'll be a tough one that's for sure!

Seattle Plans: We have not sold our house yet. But, things have worked out for us to be able to be more certain about a May 20 closing on our Seattle home. So, Dale, Kevin and possibly a couple of others will head out with the trucks on May 19 and hope to arrive in Seattle by the 22nd. That should be some road trip! I and the girls will be flying to Houston that week for a few days before I fly up to meet the moving crew, leaving the girls to have some Grammie and Pawpaw time while we get things in order at the house....

So, we are making a dent with our packing, thanks to great friends who take care of our children and pack boxes with us. We have lots more to tackle in the next few week. Fun, fun! The days are passing quickly. It's been a weird time for us living in limbo-land, as we call it. We're not ready for the goodbyes of our move, but in one sense we're ready to be where God has been leading us for a year and a half. So, we pack, spend time with friends while we can and wait...

Hallelujah....

....After a year of existence Kaitlyn is finally sleeping through the night on a consistent basis! I had to share the joy!

Things are ever changing....

Many are asking when we're moving and what's the latest with plans for Connect Church, so here ya go....

We're already learning that if you're in church planting, you must always be ready for your plans to change.... Which goes completely against my "plan ahead" nature. But God must have been conditioning me for this, because I'm not going completely crazy! We still have not sold our Nashville home. So, first and foremost, if you're reading this, please say a prayer that it will sell very soon. Because of this, we've had to adjust some things with the purchase of our Seattle home. Therefore, we don't have a definite move date yet.

This brings me to another issue. Dale and I made the decision a couple of weeks ago for him to look for a part-time job in Seattle in order to stretch out the funding we've currently received. Because we don't know how much longer we may be in Nashville, he's decided to look for a job here that will allow him to work even though we're moving soon and/or one that could transfer to Seattle when we move. So, you can also be praying that he finds such a job that will also give him the flexibility he needs to still focus much of his time on Connect Church.

We are not discouraged. We know that everything will happen in God's timing and it will turn out better than what we had planned. God continues to show us daily that His hand is upon us and that He is providing for what we need. As a good friend reminded me recently, God is faithful to provide our DAILY bread, so we need not worry about tomorrow.

March Events

Since March was so busy I didn't have much time for blogging. But there have been some very important events I want to post about. So here's a rundown........

1) We celebrated Kaitlyn's first birthday Friday night, March 14 with family and friends. All the grandparents were in town and our friends the Shrums came over.

We ate yummy ice cream cakes, which I actually made. I am no Martha Stewart, so I was quite proud of myself! One of our students' moms gave me a mini cake mold - aren't they cute?!














Here's a sweet sister moment














Kaitlyn beginning to destroy the cake and enjoying every minute of it!















2) Then the following evening we hosted a Couples Shower for our young friends Sarah and Keith who are getting married in July. It was a blast! Their wedding will be our first excuse to come back to Nashville after the move. :)

Don't they make a great couple!















3) Kaitlyn was dedicated the next day at church. She did so well! Here she is with Kevin














Us and the grandparents...














Such a sweet picture of Kaitlyn with my dad!















4) That night there was an Easter egg hunt for all the kids, including Kaitlyn. Although she was not very interested in finding eggs. She had some help putting eggs in her basket.

Hannah and the Easter Bunny















5) Our Easter was great. My sister, Tara, was able to visit for about a week, which was great. We had lots of fun with Auntie Tara!

Here are the girls before going to church.














Our beloved Auntie.. . :)














As has been our Easter tradition since moving to Nashville, we ate lunch and spent the day with the Shrum's. Here's a great picture of Hannah w/ Janet.














I couldn't resist posting the picture of our chocolate bunny massacre! Interesting things are always happening at the Shrum's. :)

Goodbyes

Yesterday we ended 5 1/2 years at Inglewood Baptist Church. And it was actually an entire weekend event. It's really hard to believe. When you've been a part of something for that long it's hard to imagine not being a part of it. And we absolutely loved being a part of this church. The students we've been able to get to know have been incredible, so many of them being called into the ministry over the years. We are so proud of them and humbled that God would allow us to walk alongside them during these years. The church body has been like a family to us as they've walked with us through difficult times, supported us, encouraged us, loved on our family. We are SO incredibly spoiled with an array of baby sitters, who have never allowed us to pay them! The friends God has brought into our lives here are amazing and will be lifelong. We've never had a better pastor than Kevin Shrum....

So, the weekend of "goodbyes" was rough on my heart, but very full of good and meaningful moments. It began Friday night with a benefit concert for Connect Church, featuring our friends No Other Name, Stacy Beam, and other local artists. What an incredible night! The music was awesome and if the night hadn't raised a dime I would have gone away encouraged. But, God used it in a big way to help provide for us financially. These artists, some of which we just met Friday night, raised about $5,300 for us! We are so thankful!

Saturday night, my sweet friend Tricia hosted a party just for me to get together with the other women in the church. It was so nice to be able to leave the kids with Daddy for awhile and hang out, eat some great food, have good adult conversation... :)

Here's Tricia and me














A group picture of some of us.....














Sunday was a full day. That morning we had a special time with our students who were so sweet to us. Our youth praise band and His Hands did an incredible job of leading worship during the church service. We gathered together again that evening as Kevin spoke some meaningful words to us, the church prayed over us and gave us an awesome reception. We were so humbled by the many words of encouragement and all the great gift cards we received!

I can't resist posting this picture. Ethan, of his own volition, went to the microphone and said, "Hannah, I'm going to miss you a lot and I love you!" It was just too sweet. And look how cute he is! Can we bring back arranged marriages? :)














I couldn't have imagined ending any better than this. Although it hurts... If the intensity of the pain involved in parting signifies the intensity of love, then we have loved to the depths. And that is really a blessing and a gift. So, I guess I'd rather go through this than leave feeling empty. Instead I get to leave filled to overflowing with wonderful memories and relationships and with the goodness of God.

So, we say goodbye to Inglewood. But we do not say goodbye to the people who have come into our lives and changed us forever.

Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!

I can't believe my baby is a year old today! She was born at 9:00 p.m., March 14, 2007. She was little and long, weighing 6 lbs, 10 oz. and measuring 19.5 inches long. Here are some early pictures...










































She's been such a good baby. She is so happy and well-mannered, unless she's hungry! The girl can eat! Now that she's eating people food, she can't get enough it seems. I think she'd eat dirt if we put it before her! She's an expert traveler, having flown to Seattle and back 3 times in her young life. She is laid back and just goes with the flow. She absolutely loves her sister, even amidst Hannah's not-so-gentle ways at times. Her face always lights up when she sees Hannah. She's very cute when she gets excited. Well, she's cute all the time! But, when she's excited she gets a huge smile on her face, starts bouncing, and wiggles her arms and legs. This is the kind of reception the Cheerios box receives! Again, food! She can say words like, ma ma, da da, goo (for book), bye, hi......... She loves to wave hello and bye-bye, clap, and sway to music.

She's got 2 teeth and still very little hair. We thought Hannah was a baldy! But we could actually clip a bow in her hair by the time she was 1 - not so with Kaitlyn! She is an expert walker now - crawling is so last month! Her new nickname from Paw Paw is "wobble bottom". She is so cute and lovable we just don't know what we'd do without her!

Here are some pictures taken just this week.





























We love you, Kaitlyn Vanessa!

A new generation of family entertainment

We are avid American Idol fans - as avid as you can be with our crazy schedule. And it's a whole family affair. Hannah loves it. And now Kaitlyn even gets into it by swaying and clapping to the music. It hit me last night as we were watching the guys perform... when I was Hannah's age, this was my family, except we were sitting around watching Hee Haw and Barbara Mandrell! Wow!

Speaking of Idol..... I have failed to make note on my blog of a very important sighting when we were last in Seattle. For those of you who have followed previous seasons, we saw Blake Lewis at a restaurant. He walked right by me while we were waiting to be seated. I must confess that I had a crazed fan moment, which I'm really not inclined to. But it sounded something like this: "Is that Blake Lewis? That's Blake Lewis! Oh my gosh, it's Blake Lewis! Ya'll, he's coming this way!" I really tried not to be a gawker. Deep inside I was wishing I had the guts to see if he'd take a picture with us. Oh well.