Looking Forward to Next Week

Thank you again, so much, for those of you who are still carrying us in your prayers. We can definitely tell we are being prayed for - God is demonstrating his faithfulness to us in so many ways. And he is helping us to enjoy so very much the many blessings has been lavishing on us these past weeks. Please keep praying that we will be faithful as he is faithful! (I'm thinking this is what "they" mean when they say, if you haven't experienced suffering in your life, your time is coming...but it hardly feels like true suffering with the King of Kings holding us up...He is the wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God and worthy of all our praise.)

We are eagerly looking forward to next weekend when we will - Lord willing - be flying out to Seattle to spend a little over a week with our family and friends there! We fly from one Des Moines to the other on Christmas Eve, and it can't come soon enough! We are really enjoying where we're at - life in Dubuque is only getting more fun with the snow - really, we are loving it! It's crazy, you'd think I'd dread each morning having to go out in the freezing cold to scrape my windows and sweep the snow off my car, but I'm not really minding it...yes, it's still very new, and maybe, come February when this snow is hiding under another few feet of accumulation I'll be sick of it, but for now it's wonderful. We love seeing the beautiful snow and being able to enjoy the novelty of it...almost everyday these days! Pray that we won't get snowed in, however, come next Thursday night when we'll be driving to the Des Moines in Iowa - I can't even imagine driving all the way to Seattle, that sounds crazy in this weather! :o)

Nic just finished up all his finals yesterday. He thought he may have to take one today, but when he went to his class he was instructed that he had an A in the class and there was no need for him to take the final - per Mr Glock (Sr.) He has done incredibly in his classes, has enjoyed each one for many reasons....and is so glad for a break from all the intense studying and reading! I'm happy for him, that he's worked so hard and now gets a mental break. He intends to put himself to work while he's on "break" in whatever ways present themselves, whether that means more hours at Emmaus cleaning floors or getting on with a snow removal crew (which he is doing tonight!)

Work is going well for me - I am learning new things everyday. I am so thankful for the people I work with....their patience and willingness to lend a hand whenever it is needed. The Lord has been showering his blessing on me with this new job. I am amazed at how something that can seem so "everyday" like a job can be such a joy.

Here are a few pictures of our new apartment - we love it so much! These were taken...by Nic...while our apartment was very messy...please excuse us :o)

Ok, this one is looking straight on our apartment - ours is the one up the steps with the lights on!

Isn't the snow beautiful?!

This is the church building directly across the street - and you can see that it's snowing!

And it rings bells...at least every Sunday...these last Sunday's it has been a Christmas hymn ringing!

Our living/office room - You can see our feeble attempt at Christmas decorations - Thanks to Cheryl Seeman we have any at all! We can't believe that our decorations were some of the things we chose to leave behind - what were we thinking?!

Lauren and I - baking in our cute little kitchen

(I LOVE having Lauren as a neighbor - and her roommate Megan is just as wonderful!)

This is the view from our apartment steps looking South down Locust Street

Just past the street lights on either side, depending on the day, is where we park at night!

Another view of our....messy....living room/office :o)

The entry into our apartment - up those steps is Lauren and Megan's unit

We LOVE our neighbors!

(Not to mention, Lauren is one of my very best friends, it's unreal to live by someone I love so very much!)

Oh, haha, and that thing hanging on the wall by our door, there, that's the only Christmas decoration that made it...we're not sure how it got here :o)

Our short hallway that leads to our bedroom, our storage closet, the kitchen, and then the bathroom...

Our bedroom, again, please excuse the mess...I know! The bed isn't even made :o)

Another view of our room - pretty good closet space, for this we are so thankful!

The other side of the kitchen - We've turned one of our dressors into a pantry - creative, huh?

Well, we had to be with our limited space!!

And it's actually not as cramped as it may look...

Bathroom - it's tiny! But...cozy, sure!

And the view out back - into the main courtyard/parking area - parking for those with more seniority than us :o)

For good measure, a picture of the other side of our kitchen.

I was baking ginger cookies this night and Lauren came down to hang out - love it!