Stop #1!

Well we are (well I am) at stop number one of our travels to our new home in Saipan! Today was my last day out on the family farm in Potlatch, Idaho. Mark is still down there until tomorrow enjoying a day of blue grass harvest and driving the combine before taking off. Then tomorrow evening he will join me in Spokane (where i am now). We fly out of Spokane on Tuesday evening to Seattle where will will spend a day with Marks sister Julie and her husband Rob, and crossing our fingers, our niece. Julie is about 5 days past her due date.... All in Gods time though.

Please be praying as we say our goodbyes. They began today with Marks family, and to be perfectly honest, it sucked =). I miss you guys already. I love you.

Also - this last week i found out about some medical problems that i have, and will hopefully get it figured out once we arrive on the island. Until then, i am going to keep it low, but just please be praying for peace for both mark and i about the situation. Nothing life threatening =).


Until next time....

B.

Almost there...

Kara & I. Oh I love you.

Mark0 & I Boating.

Nicolle & I boating on the lake.

Shakespear in the Park... It was awesome!

Sara & I.

13 days and counting... Thats how many days until we begin our traveling journey to our new home. We fly out to Seattle July 29th from Spokane and will be visiting Marks sister Julie and her husband Rob for a day and then from there we fly out of seattle to Saipan. We are hoping to meet our new little niece (Julie and Rob are expecting any day now). Hopefully she will be around so we can meet her.

Our time is running short in this part of the world and it is now just beginning to feel real. Until now it felt like a dream. But lately, not so much. I have begun to get butterflies in the tummy. Last weekend was my first real realization of us moving. Mark and I got the chance to take a road trip back down to Boise and play with friends... Most of all spend some time with my best friend Kara. We had a weekend full of fun; boating, shakespear in the park, dinners out, and just being together. It wasnt until we were about ready to drive away and saying good bye to Kara that it hit. I am not going to see her for a year, unless she comes and visits (hint hint). But as we drove away the tears started flowing. I am going to miss you Kara Marie.

But for those of you who werent there to see the tears, we only have about 13 days left, and we are hoping to see as many friends and family as possible.

Beyond the realization that this is actually happening, we are getting very excited! Quite Jealous i may add. Jake and Jackie, a couple from Iowa and who will be also teaching with us on the island as first timers are on their way, last we saw they were sitting in the Tokyo airport, and we were wishing it were us. We have been waiting for this for 6 months, and it is almost here! Wahooooo.

Please be praying for us as our time with family and friends shortens. Please be praying that moving preparations work out, and that we can just enjoy this time left.

This time is definatly bitter sweet. We are so excited to land on the Island of Saipan, but sad to be saying so many goodbyes.

We will keep you updated through the next few weeks as to where we are. Also, be checking back with us, because once we arrive in Saipan, we will have lots of blog posts coming! Oh- and if you have a blog, please let us know so we can check them out!

Love,
M & B.

Summer has begun!

The Mid-Columbia Group! 49 students, 5 leaders, 7 high-school!
Our Club (Connell/Kahlotus/Washtucna High School)
Mark & I - Formal Dinner - Mark had to pull out his Levi's suit.

Some of My girls on the giant swing. 30 - 35 feet high!
My Pink gang. Not planned at all. Some of my girls and a staff's daughter Taylor.
Pool Party! In your Clothes! At Night! Mark with some of our kids!
One of our kids on the Ridge Runners (Go Carts).
Marks and my kids, at the rock pile. Each rock in the pile represents every student who has accepted christ or re-dedicated their lives to Christ at Camp... this piles represent the past 10 years at WildHorse.

Well Summer definatly has begun, and hasn't slowed down since. Since school got out on June 7th for both Mark and I, we have packed up our home in Kahlotus, WA, said some goodbyes, and moved back to the farm in Idaho for the summer. But since moving there we have only spent two nights there. On June 14th, Mark and I and three other Young Life leaders packed up a tour bus and Marks pickup with luggage and 49 high school students from 7 high schools in the central Washington area!

After a 6 hour drive and one stop at McDonalds, we arrived to the beautiful land of Central Oregon and Antelope, OR which the home of Wildhorse Canyon - a Young life Resort! We spent a week with these students along with 650 other students and leaders from around the U.S. building relationships and hillarious memories! We couldnt have asked for a better week! The weather was perfect, 80's all week (it is usually in the high 90's to 100's). But besides the fact that we did go carting, ropes courses, zip lines, good food, mountain biking, and a large swing, we had some amazing talks with these students and many lives were changed, not only students, but leaders.

At the end of the week, James, the weeks speaker did an alter call at 7:30 in the morning. And that is early for high school students, especially in the summer, and on a lack of sleep. But to Marks and My surprise 9 of our students (we brought a total of 14 from our club) either accepted Christ or re-commited their lives to Christ! It was an amazing time! What a week well spent!

After getting home on Friday the 20th, Mark and I headed to Spokane, where we did loads of laundary, packed up again, got a good nights sleep, had lunch celebrating my brother Andy's 22nd birthday, and headed to Ross Point Baptist Camp. The Camp where we actually met in the 7th grade and started dating my senior year of high school. Mark and two of his close friends, along with his sister Suzanne, and I are leading Jr. High Camp. Suz is the director, i am the computer tech and Mark and his buddies are leading music. It is only Tuesday, so we have 3 days to go. But since we are dealing with jr. highers we are getting sleep, so this has been a good week =).

Only 37 days until we fly out to Saipan. We are actually flying to Seattle on July 29th and spending two days with mark sister, Julie. Hopefully our new niece will arrive on time so we can spend some time with her also (Julie and Rob are expecting their first little one on July 23rd).We then fly out of Seattle on July 31st to our new home.

Time is running short and we would love to see as many friends and family before we take off, so please get ahold of us if you can hang out! BBQ at the Sawyer farm is possibly a go for the 3rd weekend of July, but we will keep you posted!

Love you all!

Counting Down the Days... Literally.

Our Guest Room.. Can you see the Toilet? We cant, yet.

Life has been getting busier and busier since we accepted our positions at Saipan Community School. We are now 64 days away from flying out (July 31) of Seattle. Our 10th Box went out today, our house looks like a bomb has exploded due to the packing, sorting and shipping. Our guest bathroom is unrecognizable due to all the empty boxes needing a place to be stored...

Along with moving in 64 days, school is out in 6.5 days... FINALLY. We are sooo burned out right now because of the end of the year activities, trying to move, spending time with family and friends and winding down our last 2 weeks here in Kahlotus. We are hoping to be moved out by June 12th. And then 2 days later headed to Wildhorse Canyon a long life resort with 14 of our club kids for a week long camp. Please be praying for funds to come in to get all of these kids to camp.

Last weekend in the process of moving a bed to my parents, getting things out of their garage and moving them to farm to put in a storage shed Mark built we did get to have some R & R with family. On Saturday afternoon, in Spokane, we were able to go see the Spokane falls that are over filling with water, flooding some places. It was amazing to see though. Then we headed to the Bowl and Pitcher where we played on the swinging bridge with higher waters then usual.

Then on Monday we had a little BBQ with the Sawyer side of the family on the farm.

Now we are back at work, Awards Banquets tonight, Ballet Recitals tomorrow, then graduation on Saturday, along with packing... We are sooooo ready for June 13th to be here!

Bowl & Pitcher...

Spokane Falls...

Chicago and 99 Days and counting until Saipan!

Why hello there!

Hope all is going well with those of you who read this! We just wanted to share some photos with you of our weekend to Chicago. Just like last year, this year we joined 11 young life staff/volunteers from our area on a 3 day quick trip to Chicago for a Young Life conferance. It was a blast of a weekend except for the 2 hour delay home and driving over snowqualmie pass at 10pm through a white out of snow and getting home at 1:30 am, and then teaching the next morning!

Besides that is was a ton of fun. The speakers we wonderful and the shopping was great! We spent Saturday afternoon touring the magnificant mile and visiting one of my favorite stores, H & M.

Other then that we are busy with the last month or so of school and now getting ready to move. Only 99 day to go until we are "Leavin on a jet plane..." We are now in the process of deciding what we want down there and deciding when we should send it. We are having to start shipping things in the next few weeks if we want it to be there when we arrive... yikes...

Still looking for a home for border our kitty, for the year if you know of a good and lovin home!

Hope to see you sometime soon. And we pray that warm weather will come all of our ways!

We have JOBS!!! and we are MOVING!!!

So these last two weeks have been weeks of confusion, excitment, frustration, lots of prayer, trust and questioning... But exactly two weeks after we started this quest (we began march 9, sunday) the quest has come to a conclusion... We both have jobs, and we are moving...

It has long been on our minds, well mostly Mark's to move literally in this direction, but i have always had doubts and things holding me back from making this commitment, until 2 weeks ago. I dont know exactly what popped into my head or gave me this sudden urge to go for it, but after walking out of church on sunday I said mark, we need to do this before i change my mind. And literally within 10 minutes of walking in our door, Mark was on the phone making connections...

After two weeks of emails, applications, phone calls, and lots of questions, we got the conformation we needed... the school principle who will be watching over us this upcoming school year called and offered us jobs and we accepted on the spot!

Now you are probably like, okay get on with it, tell us where you are moving and teaching... Well, are you ready? Do you think you can handle it? Hope your sitting down, because i had too, i never thought this would happen.... drum roll please................



We are moving to SAIPAN!



A little island in the south pacific, near guam! We will be moving there August 1st and will be there roughly 10 months or so... depending on if God is calling us to stay longer or not... The temperture there is roughly 75 to 85 degrees year round, white sand beaches and beautiful.


We will be teaching at Saipan Community School which is a private christain school on the island, and it is english speaking. The student body is made up of mostly phillipeano and Koreans. Mark and I are sooooooo thrilled with this opportunity... We get to talk about Christ and pray in our classrooms!

Mark will be teaching junior high (grades 6-8) language arts... and i will be teaching the 3rd grade... The school is also located on the beach...Mark will walk downstairs to his classroom and i will walk across the parking lot!

They have an apartment ready for us, which is about 100 feet from sand and beautiful blue water... and we are ready to be there... however we are going to deeply miss our family and friends... but you know where to find us and we have a spare bedroom if you would like to come visit us...

Marks sister Suzanne taught here for one year and Mark had the chance to visit her there, so Mark knows completely what we are getting in for, and we are both sooooo excited! Praise God!

We are going to continue our young life ministry while on the island. We are going to try and begin wyld life, which is the junior high branch of young life...

Please be praying for us in the upcoming months, as we begin to say our goodbyes here in Kahlotus and Connell. Please pray that leaders will come to our ministry in young life in Connell and be willing to take over. Please pray mark's connections with the guys here in Kahlotus will still be as strong as when they started...Please pray for packing to go well and we decide what we want to take and leave behind... please pray for a safe home for my kitty, border... a home in which i can have him again when we return... hes my kid until we have one of our own =). And please pray for Gods guildance throughout this drastic change in our lives...

Here are some photos of the beautiful island we will be moving to that mark took while visiting....





Thank you in advance for your prayers... we are so excited for this opportunity... please stay in contact with us though, and if you want to get together before we head out August 1, please let us know, we want to spend as much time with family and friends as possible...

We will keep you posted as time goes on.....



WAHOOOOOOO SAIPAN HERE WE COME!

I have been Tagged....

Well, to be honest i didnt know there were "tag your it" games in the blogging world, but apparently i was incorrect... As i was just looking around my families blogs i decided to look at Angela's, my sister in-law, and read these 7 interesting facts... then i decided to check my own blog out and see when the last time i had written was. Much to my surprise Angela had tagged me. So here are my 7 interesting facts... but i dont know if they are that interesting...

The rules:
Link to your tagger and post these 3 rules on your blog.

1. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

2. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

3. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Here goes!

1. I love eating canned Raviloi with Apple Sauce... I know gross, well i know thats what most people say when i eat it or they hear i like it. But to me it is soooo yummy. Its a mix between sweet and salty....

2. I am obssessed with reality shows - the bachelor, dance wars, top model, the newly weds.... i am actually watching the bachelor right now... kinda bumming though, i think there are more ditzy girls on this one then i have ever seen on any other...

3. I am addicted to Soda-pop. mostly coke or diet coke, but if you hand me one, i am likely to drink it. I try to keep it to one a day, and i usually succeed.

4. I am so excited to become a parent someday, but at the same time i am deathly affraid of it... just everything that comes with it... yikes. But i do love kiddos.

5. I am a clean freak. Now i dont mind it going a couple of days, but thats it... after that it is time for cleaning... and if i just cleaned it, like 3 min ago. dont mess it up!

6. I dont know how, and physically cant shuffle a deck of cards...

and 7. I LOVE GARLIC!! on bread, in pasta, on veggies, anything. I love garlic... i think mark is sick of it as this point... but i still love it! mmmmmmmmmm.

okay so there are 7 things about me that i find weird...

now i am going to tag......

Julie, My sister Julie, Tom my brother, and Suzanne my sister in law... i know it says tag 7, but i dont know very many people with a blog.... =)

Ta Ta for now!