A Night Away

It's been a while since we've been able to sit down and update the blog on our most current events. I thought I would take this opportunity while Eric is at the dentist to post a few pictures and give a summary of what we have been up to.

January was a very busy month for us with 3 regular respites plus two medical emergency coverages and a few days at the beginning of the month when we were covering Christmas vacation. We were certainly feeling the exhaustion of it all by the end of the month and so I planned a night away for us in Scottsdale, AZ which is 2 hours north of here. I found a nice room with a "just for two" package deal so that we could go spend 24 hours away from Tucson and explore some more of Arizona. The room was great--a small whirlpool bath, a bottle of wine, fireplace, and a great view of the golf course. We also had a gift card to a nicer restaurant that we used while we were up there. The food was definitely more expensive than we would have paid for if we didn't have a gift card but it was fun and tasted great. Eric enjoyed barbecued pork and I had pasta with a "flirtini" on the side. Our favorite was a great smoked salmon appetizer.

After dinner we indluged in some Coldstone ice cream and then went back to our room to enjoy the bath tub. We learned from our honeymoon that I can be a little over zealous with the bubbles so I tried to cut back this time but I still managed to overwhelm us with foam. Don't worry Eric is still smiling.

It was a great time for us to get away and talk and enjoy each other's company before heading back to Tucson to start running errands and working on our projects in the apartment. We are always finding new things to work on with the apartment whether it's putting up wire molding for our speaker wires, finding a bigger TV, looking for an end table, or deciding how to decorate our big empty walls all in the cheapest way possible. It is easy for us to get caught up in all the projects and we are striving to continually put our focus first and foremost on our Savior each day. So this is a good item for prayer and growth in our lives; but it is lots of fun to see our apartment evolve into a cozy place!

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to go up to Mt. Lemmon with the ladies in our small group as a way to celebrate birthdays that we've all had in the past three months. I was in for a total surprise as we drove up there. I looked out my window and realized that I was all of a sudden looking at tall evergreen trees instead of tall green cactus and that there was small amounts of snow on the side of the road! We also drove by a sign that said we were at 8000 feet! Once at the top, I realized that this was the place to go if I ever wanted to be reminded of home. There was snow, a ski lift, running streams, tall trees, and forest. The views were spectacular and it was a great sunny day to be outside. I had a great time with the ladies and can't wait to take Eric up there to show him around.

We've been off work since Monday and tomorrow night we start up again at our most difficult house. So far, February is set up with a pretty regular schedule of 3 5-day respites and Eric doing extra computer work so that he can stay at his salary. My salary has been cut back since we have decided to work 15 days instead of 18 each month.

Praises: A chance to get away and be together. We have become good friends with a set of house parents that we now work for and feel like we can rely on each other for a lot of support which is a blessing! We had a good review with our staff manager and they are pleased with the work we are doing in GAP.

Prayers: Please pray for wisdom and discernment as we pursue church membership at our church and how that will look with our job. Strength, energy, patience, wisdom, courage as we head into this next respite. GAP is quite under staffed right now which places a lot of burdens on its employees and lots of couples won't even be getting a respite for a while.