Summary of 2009

As I look back this year I realize that there were a lot of things that we have done or big changes that we have made. I realize this was our first full year of actually being married and we have a lot to talk about when it comes to our life together. Here are some snapshots of this year.

*Kathleen celebrated her 25th birthday.

*Celebrated the life of our landlord Angie who passed away before Christmas last year of lung cancer.

*Andrew celebrated his 26th birthday.

*We went to Napa, California and toured some wineries with our friends the Magsuci's.

*We went to a Houston Rockets versus Sacramento Kings. Got to see Shane Battier play!

*Kathleen spent time up in Oregon for over a month to get health situations figured out.

*Went to Bidwell Park in Chico, California with our friends the Magsuci family.

*Went to San Francisco with our friends the Hostetters to watch a Giants baseball game on July 4th with ending the night at a church 4th of July party.

*Went to see Lion King on Broadway in Sacramento for our first anniversary, which was a gift given to us by Andrew's parents.

*We went to San Francisco with Kathleen's parents at the end of July to go watch a Giants baseball game and walk around San Francisco. Ended the night with us getting lost trying to meet up with my parents who went back to get the car.

*We went to a Sacramento Rivercats baseball game with our landlord Ray, his daughter Pam and her husband Kevin, his oldest daughter Kristina with her husband Eric and son Aiden, and Andrew's dad.

*Kathleen moved to Gresham, Oregon in August while Andrew stayed in Sacramento, California.

*Kathleen participated in her alumni soccer game at Corban College. She might be officially retired now.

*We were able to see Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in 3D.

*Andrew completed his first master's degree (MABTS).

*Kathleen was able to work by substitute teaching, babysitting, and working for the Portland Spirit for money to save.

*Spent countless of hours together do to neither of us having jobs in California.

There are a lot of changes that have happened this past year, but we are glad God is leading us in each of these directions. Plenty of change, but we hope 2010 will be even more memorable and we are able to be settled for a bit here in Oregon until the next God leading change.

Number 2

This little guy turned two just 5 days ago!

He celebrated with family and friends last night.

L-R Jazzy and Josh (Daughter and Dad), Madison (Stephen and Terri's Youngest Daughter), Jasmine (Stephen and Terri's Oldest Daughter), Jazmyne

Thanks Uncle Andrew for the warm sheets. Thanks Uncle Josh and Cousin Jazzy for the clothes.

Grandma Studenny with Augustine with his new quilt that she made him with two pillows. (Sorry for the blurry picture).

Mommy (Sister Saundra) with Baby #2, Daddy (BIL Trent), and Augustine with his new cowboy belt. Augustine playing with the light switch on his new big boy bed.

Plenty of fun with all the siblings there except Andrew! We will have Andrew there when we celebrate more birthdays! =)

Wrap Up

Things that have kept us busy the past few weeks.

*We went to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert on November 20th.

*We spent Thanksgiving with my family.

*We went black Friday shopping which we got some good deals.

*We (I mean Andrew) stood in line to get a sofa at IKEA the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Later that night after hanging out at the Woodburn Outlets with friends, we went back to IKEA to get some pillows. Very disappointed in HomeGoods in their stock of pillows.

*We viewed two places to live which both of them turned out to be both no.

*Andrew was able to register for classes up here at Western Seminary.

*We are both finishing our classes with only a few weeks left.

*We are getting excited for 2011 because this is coming! I think we are going to try to save our money for it.

*Working at the Portland Spirit on the weekends and subbing during the week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! We (Andrew and I) are spending the day with my family at our oldest sister's house with the Studenny/Hardy/Finch families. Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!

It's Official

Andrew is accepted into Western Seminary's ThM program up here on the Portland campus. ThM stands for Master of Theology. He will complete his first Master's degree in just a few short weeks in which his degree is MABTS which stands for Master of Arts in Biblical Theological Studies. We are excited where God is leading us now up to Portland to complete my Master's and his Master's. No, we hope not to be students for life. Congratulations Andrew and I look forward to having you up here in Portland with me as we embark on this new journey.

Thank you, Thank you

I just want to thank my lovely body for getting H1N1! I am over it, but I just have to rest to make sure I do not want to get this sickness again! I hope I can get a cool award for this because not everyone is special enough to get this! ;)

Soup

This past week I have made two different soups. I made a Taco Soup and then today I made a Chili Soup. These both are delicious in their own rights and I am glad that my parents had the ingredients to make them.

Taco Soup with Chicken
Black Beans
Kidney Beans
Onion
Chicken
Stewed Tomatoes
Chicken Broth
After dishing add avocado, shredded cheese (I used Tillamook Colby), and tortilla chips.

Chili Soup with Steak
Black Beans
Kidney Beans
Onion
Steak (cubed)
Stewed Tomatoes
Beef Broth
Have with corn bread.

Both of these are delicious especially on an Oregon fall day. Yum, off to go enjoy my chili soup.

Removal

I forgot to remember an important date on Tuesday! The date of REMOVAL four years ago! Cheers to the gallbladder.

Imagine

Imagine if your mom tragically dies in a fire, you and your four other sisters are burned severely, and your dad does not speak English except for a few words. You deal with the grief of your mother, but also you grieve over the fact you will have numerous surgeries to fix the scars left from the fire. Well, over the years you deal with being in and out of the hospital, moving from place to place because the housing is not stable since your dad cannot work, and also being the oldest of five you have to be a grown-up to help your other four sisters. On top of that, your dad is dying from cancer, not getting treatment, knowing that he will die soon. Then one day you see him at the hospital passed away because he dies from cancer. What do you do? You have 4 sisters to take care of, you have yourself to take care of as well as trying to graduate from high school, trying to lead a "normal" life, and seeking to depend on God's direction in all that you do. Well, all you and I can do is imagine because this is the life of five girls in Sacramento right now. Yesterday, the father passed away and two of our friends David and Maxine have taken the five girls in. Maxine is a social worker, so she has been working with these girls for the last x-number of years.
Please pray for David and Maxine as they are seeking after the Lord's guidance on what God wants them to do with these five girls.
Please pray for the five girls that they will be able to grieve and be able to talk to people about what they are feeling.
Please pray that these girls will be taken into a home that is a Christian home and encourages them in their personal relationships with the Lord.
Please pray that people come to the sides of these girls as well as D&M to bring food, bring necessities, to provide transportation, or whatever is needed.
All we know is God has an amazing plan for all five of these girls. God has provided them through their life and He will not stop providing. Thank you Heavenly Father for being a guide to these girls and letting them experience your abounding love during this time and more!

November Already!

Well, Andrew and I have made it to November and we only have 13 more days until we will actually be back together for more than 24 hours. Andrew comes in on the 22nd and we have lots planned. We have a Trans Siberian Orchestra concert to attend, Thanksgiving with my family, hang out time with each other, look for a place to live, finish homework, me working a lot while he is here, and just enjoy each other more. Wow, there is no other way we could survive living apart like this except that God continues to provide and give us strength on a daily basis. I am glad that these last few months have gone quickly, but I just hope I can kick whatever that is in my system making me sick, I can kick out the door before Andrew arrives. Plenty of stuff to keep me busy between now and Andrew's arrival.

Surprise!

October 30th was a date that I had to keep open on my calendar. I did not know why and I was totally confused. My family kept telling me what are you doing Friday...do you have any plans? Half my family was in on what was going on and others told me I do not know what your brother is talking. Well, Friday came around and Katie Casebeer came up here so we could go to IKEA, so I thought. Well, I had to work until 3:30pm so Katie was going to come up here then and we were supposed to head off. Well, my dad kept telling me what I had to wait, wait, wait and I felt bad that Katie was having to wait. Well, my oldest brother came back from picking up his dog from the vet and handed me something. Well, it turns out they were Rascal Flatts tickets, I was going with Katie, and it was a surprise! Katie was in on the surprise and no we were not going to IKEA that day comes to find out. Here are the pictures to prove that we were there. We were about 14 rows up from the floor which were amazing. Rascal Flatts was great in concert and very thankful that Katie and I got to go. Thank you Josh for getting us tickets! I took more pictures...but I do not have the time.

Working, Working, Working

Well, as of late I have been getting sub jobs at schools which is amazing. Yes, I said schools. Today through Friday, I will be working at a school that I subbed for a lot before Andrew and I got married. A total blessing to be able and get work through them since they are normally supposed to contact teachers that were cut from the district first to sub for them! I am totally thankful. Also, perfect timing because my sister's school has today through Friday off due to conferences. Last week I subbed at my sister's school all last week either 4 hours or 8 hours! Grateful for that. This school is where I have picked all of my sub jobs until just this week. Lately, I have been able to go to Salem to babysit some girls that I babysat in college so that picks up a little bit of cash after gas. It is just fun to hang out with them and give there parents some time away or for them to work later in their jobs. THEN as of this week I am back to work for the Portland Spirit!!!! I am very excited and totally shocked when they contacted me to come back to work for the weekends in December. I am very thankful to our Heavenly Father who continually provides with jobs. I cannot complain. Even when I feel weary, God provides a day of rest for me to get rested and also get ahead in school work.
Prayer Requests:
*That I will continue to stay healthy and kick this whatever I have out of my system.
*Focus on my homework and finish my master's classes strong.
*Andrew will be able to find a job up here.
*Andrew and I will enjoy each other when he comes up for Thanksgiving even though I am working. He says it is a good thing since we will be able to have money to rent an apartment/house whatever God provides.
*That Andrew and I will be able to find a reasonable priced apartment or house rental for when we officially will be back together in the same state.
Thank you so much for your prayers and we appreciate them. We are excited that the Lord always continues to provide even though small or big things. How can we ever doubt God because He does know what He is doing. =)

How can we be praying for you?

Fall Things

As we look out our window, we realize fall has definitely come upon us! As the rain falls heavily from the sky, as the wind whips our hair in our faces, and seeing that we now need to take a coat wherever we go (which Kathleen doesn't mind at all, but Andrew on the other hand which is another story), we have realized there are some things we see as a pattern.

Lately, we have been observing pictures of other people attending pumpkin patches. We do not know if it is just us or just where we are at in life, we have noticed a trend that people with their own children go to pumpkin patches. Us Finches have never gone to a pumpkin patch together and we first wonder why we have not gone, but then second we realize that it mainly is for the enjoyment of children.

The next thing we have noticed is people are starting to announce more and more that they are expecting their first child, their second child, and the list goes on. We guess it is something you do after college and being married, you decide to get pregnant. There is NOT even a chance we are pregnant plus very hard when we are in two different states, but wow we could not imagine being 25/26 and having a child.

These are just some observations that we have made and we realize that God brings different seasons in our life at different times. Right now, we are in a season of drastic change, but we are ready to hold onto God's hand and let Him lead us. This season we just want to celebrate fall, the rain, the leaves changing colors, but also celebrate what Jesus has in store for us.

Hmm...guess that is our random thought for the day.

Kings Game

I usually don't post (this is Andrew by the way) but I had to tonight. I just got back from the Kings game vs. the Warriors. It was already a great day because I received two tickets for free from a friend. So I got to go to a game for free. Next I got to go with David Sudarma and if you know him he likes the Kings also. So it was fun going to the game with him. So we were walking into Arco Arena and I had some Kings worker put his arm around me and ask me to be in a game that night. Me being my shy self I pushed it onto David and said he would love to do it. But after we continued talking David talked me into it. So we signed up to do the Hamster Ball race at the end of the 3rd quarter. So now both of us were nervous like crazy. Then halftime came and the same guy came and got us. He said, "I am going to take you somewhere closer." So to our astonishment he took us to the second row right underneath the basket. That was so amazing being that close to the action. It really gave me a new perspective of how aggressive and how fast the NBA game really is. But on to the next piece. So we have to get into these huge vinyl balls that were blown up with a leaf blower in our faces. Then we were ushered out onto the Kings floor (Yes, I shared the same court as Kevin Martin, Tyreke Evans, Jason Thompson, and Spencer Hawes)!!!! David and I were encouraged to run into each other while navigating around 3 different cones. I was pushed along by Slamson in the back which kind of threw me off balance and gave David the win. But what was great is we got $20 bucks to share at the team store. I was paid to attend a basketball game, woohoo! And then we got to stay seated in our second row seats for the entire 4th quarter and to make it even more great the Kings WON!!!! I am so excited and can't wait to see the video that our friends took of us!

We made it on the highlights...if anyone cares. Here is the link

http://www.nba.com/video/games/kings/2009/10/17/0010900075_gsw_sac_recap.nba/index.html

We show up around the 2:20-2:32 mark. We are second row...as one of the players is running away you can see me and David smiling and clapping!

Insurance

Today, I was on the phone with my insurance company about a bill that I owe the doctor's office. This bill is a substantial amount and I was just trying to figure out details about what the insurance paid and what the doctor billed it as. Well, come to find out when you call the insurance company, you have to be professional insurance agent as well. The woman on the other end was telling me that I should be able to understand what she was saying even though I kept telling her I did not understand. I don't understand the insurance lingo and that is why I am not in that profession. I was getting real annoyed with her as she kept telling me it is just like car insurance too. Ugh...I am calling because I do not understand. Well, around and around we went, and finally I just said okay after getting some answers. All I know is that I have a deductible and I have to pay a lot to the doctor. I know God will provide for Andrew and me, but it is just upsetting and frustrating to see an amount that you have no clue where the money is going to come from. Our prayer is that Andrew is able to find a job quickly, I am able to get more sub jobs, and that our main focus is to honor and glorify the Lord in all that we do. The bill will get paid, but it will be little by little.

Jazzy's Pumpkin

Our niece Jazmyne grew this pumpkin in her garden and was so proud to finally pick it. This pumpkin is a good size and once again a wonderful addition to her garden. Pictures are with my parents, her dad, myself, and all by herself of course with the pumpkin.

PS- pardon my mother's apron! She was in the middle of cooking.

The CUCUMBER

Our niece went out to my parents backyard to look at the vegetables that are still growing. Jazzy came back in and showed us that she found this HUGE cucumber. Notice the size difference between the HUGE cucumber and the regular size cucumber. Pictures do not do justice for how HUGE this cucumber is. Jazzy is going to be 8 years old in a few days and I can't believe how much older she looks and how goofy she is.

Date Day Continued

Andrew was able to come into town for 24 hours and it was great to see him. Andrew along with his dad drove up all our stuff to store in a storage unit to pull out in January to set up our new home somewhere in the Portland-area. We decided to do it now instead of wait for winter because we did not want to have Andrew or his dad drive over the pass with a big Budget truck. After helping Andrew and his dad unload the truck, Andrew and I enjoyed a date night. I am not sure what normal married date nights look like, but this one consisted of Toy Story 1 & 2 in 3D! You heard right....a Disney Pixar Movie! We both love Disney and we both love Toy Story, so this was perfect. Even though it was 3 1/2 hours and past my bedtime, I am glad that we had the opportunity to go thanks to Andrew's parents blessing us with giving us tickets to see the movie. This morning, we had breakfast with my oldest brother in Gresham and then we were off to pick up Andrew's dad who was staying at a hotel. I took them to the airport which their flight was originally scheduled for 12pm and did not fly out until 1pm. I left them at 11am because God worked out perfectly a half day sub job right at 12 so I could drop them off and I was 7 minutes away from the school I taught at!!! Before I went to sub, I went to a new Target right by PDX which is huge where I found some gifts for our nieces and nephew and then spent $1.24 at Taco Del Mar for a taco salad!!! Yahoo!!!! Well, the next time I will see the hubs, it will be November 22nd and another date day with going to see Trans Siberian Orchestra!!! This time the day will last more than 24 hours because he will be here for 9 days!!!!!!! =)

Date Day

Off to see my husband....more on this later!

My Husband Would Disagree

Right now, it is literally pouring rain outside! I am so excited for this time because first off I love the rain! There literally were days when I missed this in California because it hardly even rains. Plus when it did rain, I would celebrate when others (those Californians) would be bitter about this thing called water droplets falling from the sky. I love being able to sit by my bedroom window and hear the water pound the roof, pound the streets, and most of all just seeing the droplets fall off of the trees. This sign of rain is a good indication that fall is here and it will be staying around for awhile. It means that it will nourish the leaves to make them change different colors. It will mean that there is mud...oh the days of playing soccer in the rain and mud. Being able to slide tackle or do a diving header after a good rain because that means you can go the distance and get all dirty. A good rain means that God's creation becomes that much greener (of course if you live in the Pacific Northwest). A good rain means that after it gives a good down pour you are able to go outside and smell the freshness that the rain provided. A good rain means that you are able to sit inside the house, wear sweats and be bundled, and enjoy a good book (in my case homework). I just love this time of year and how I missed you Oregon Fall. Bring on the rain and bring on a new season of life for God to reveal new things to me. Enjoy the rain Oregonians/Washingtonians and remember God is blessing us with many things as He brings the rain. Sorry Mr. Californian you soon will have to be an Oregonian and hate the rain while I love the rain.

I Need This....

and this

First Day Done!

Today, I had my first day of substitute teaching after taking a year off of any work. I am so thankful that I was able to get 4 hours in the classroom. I am praying that God continues to provide sub jobs that way we can start paying off bills and save money for rent coming January. Oh I know God will provide.

No Explanation

There are times when I have felt I have given my all in different situations. Some situations for example are in the classroom trying to do the very best that I can. Another situation would be on the soccer field when I have given my all and I just wanted to be dragged off the field because I could not give any more. Another situation would be in my personal relationships with those that are around me I try to be the best possible friend that God has instilled me to be. Lately (the past year and a half or so), I have been discouraged with friendships. I have felt like I have been let down more than once in numerous occasions. I have felt that I have given my very best in each friendship that I have had and then I get slapped in the face by some circumstance or for some reason the friendship turns sour. There are times when I do not know why the friendship has turned sour. There are times when I understand the circumstance and our friendship just has to move on and then there are times which still baffle me to this day. I have been trying to wrap my head around this whole concept of friendship, but I still struggle with this from time to time. The one thing that I do know is that God knows my heart and He knows how much I care for people. Even though this is a tough time, I realize He is in greater control that I am. God has instilled me a passion for friends and I just ache for when I lose a friend and I rejoice when I gain a new friend. Even all of this said, I still struggle with friendships.

My Dad's Birthday

This past Monday was my dad's birthday, so after staying the night in North Bend, Oregon after Amy's wedding, we decided to drive up the coast to enjoy the scenery and let my dad have a walk on the beach. It was a gorgeous drive and we saw rain and sunny weather up the coast. We stopped in Lincoln City for lunch and for dessert and then for dad's walk. After we ate lunch, we were off to Woodburn Outlet mall to arrive to many people as well as lame sales. It was a great day to two days to spend the wedding with my parents + Katie and also spend my dad's birthday with him.

Introducing....

Matt and Amy Myers!

These two lovebirds got married yesterday and I am very excited for these two!!! It was a gorgeous wedding that was in her parents' backyard and an intimate setting. Then we had some delicious food at the Culinary Institute. Congratulations Matt and Amy and excited to see you two grow in the Lord as He leads you two.

*FYI I saved Amy from a bird omitting some waste on her during the ceremony. Instead of Amy getting the omission, I received it on my leg during the prayer and sand ceremony. Katie and I had way too much fun with that. Oops!!!!!

Katie....A certain someone is waiting for you with these flowers! ;)