beautiful colors and beautiful people of WNY

So much has happened in the last few months...

Our friends had a baby boy named Carson...

We celebrated Houghton's 125th birthday

Brendon went salmon fishing for the first time ever - we ate something that Brendon physically provided for the table

We celebrated harvest with our awesome Fillmore Wesleyan Youth Group friends

Julianna, traveled from MN to hang out with us for a few days in Western NY

We saw Niagra Falls in the dark light up at night

Oh New York is beautiful these days...

tiki torches and windstorms

It has been a bit crazy around these parts - working with the church and college. Balancing all our responsibilities... Still, taking great joy in the relationships we have established and that are deepening!





Here are photos from our most recent FaT's event. Because it was a rainy day, we had 150 sweaty people in the halls of the building we live for a LUAU - tons of fun!!

Clam bake

So we had this awesome, once in a lifetime meal with my six of my seven RA's!

To the right I have pictured all of the 4 girls on my newest staff - Jillian, Melissa, Emma and Brianna - beautiful ladies with big hearts who love to laugh! I can't wait for this year to get into full swing!

The Center is a pic of Jesse and Melissa two wonderful additions to my staff this year!

To the left, The yummy food and great company to enjoy it with...

We hope to do it again someday for now - we call it "Once in a lifetime meal"

when you give a mouse a cookie...

So, I was making cookies last night in our new kitchen aid and thinking...

I was thinking about how grateful I was for our kitchen aid, my mom waited 25 years of marriage before getting one... The Lord has been good to us.

Then as I began to ponder my gratitude for the green kitchen aid, I how thankful I am for many things this summer... I decided I wanted to write and acknowledge the Lord for the many big and small things this summer that have blessed us!

Yes, a gratitude list, not like Oprah's, instead gratitude toward my Redeemer and friend, Jesus. Below in no particular order.

1. my precious and loving husband, Brendon

2. open blue sky and puffy white clouds

3. the bluest blueberries one can imagine

4. driving with the top down















5. the big purple couch I sit on every day and cuddle with the Lord, in the morning, and my husband, in the evening...

6. the way you moved the fog on 7-13-08


7. the hugs of three 3rd girls at once during our soccer camp


8. freezing cold water splashing you in the face as you fall into the Genessee River while white-water rafting with my brother


9. my grandma's excitement of the simplest meal ever made ;)















10. a husband who thinks of you while you are away, and redecorates the bedroom just the way you like it, as a surprise.



11. a professional conference that reminds you why you do the job you do.




















12. Kelina's Lord ordained and beautiful wedding ceremony - thanks for the sneak preview of heaven
13. meeting the Sanisaiths... a drive in movie under the stars at the Charcoal Corral
14. the gorgeous milkyway at the cottage with the Last's in Canada and the shooting star

15. the day in MN, I got to hug, all three of my previous RD's :)

16. the book "Freedom of Simplicity"

17. and the time to finish it.
18. dog sitting for Keough

19. The book of Colossians. Lord you are great!

20. A night at the Roycroft for our first anniversary

21. The Tantalus Resturant - 2 visits with great friends.
22. 14 mile bike rides.
23. the doctor diagnosing my exhaustion.
24. chatting with friends of the heart and soul.
25. the joy of being a part of a 2nd wedding for my father-in law and the joy he now has!

26. a late night conversation with my sister-in-laws... it was the way life was supposed to be...

27. my mom.


28. our bikes


29. the youth group girls

30. a conversation with an old co-worker that was challenging and inspiring - it was like I was having a face to face conversation with Jesus.

31. my sister's excitement of being in the country and with us as her family


32. Caribou coffee


33. Butter Cafe in downtown MPLS - with all my Midwest sisters!



34. time to chat with my best friend and sister at "Cupcake" in Dinkytown



35. my dad and his sweet trust in the Lord's provision for a job.

36. discovering the blogs of others...

37. music.

38. organic farming in innercity Buffalo, and the women that have a passion for it.

39. taking up the art of painting.

40. HGTV

41. wildflowers in a vase on my table.

42. discovering soul connections with a married couple in this area in which we live.

43. winning Settlers. twice.

44. almond milk ice cream.

45. the Lord restoring my soul.

46. tubing over glass like water

47. my sister's closet

48. and her generous spirit.

49. rolling hills spotted with rows of yellow corn, black and white cows and red barns

50. "He is making all things new and his mercy is new every morning."

Oh Canada

Bren and I just got home from a three day trip to the beautiful country of Canada!





We loved seeing the place of Tim Horton's, rib joints, and hockey.


So, I got sunburned and misquito bites - made me feel like I was home in MN.


We traveled to Ben and Emily's cottage on Silver Lake and then spent one night in Ottawa walking around the city and eating yummy ribs.


We were there for a pastors retreat - Ben and Brendon spent the morning quietly floating on the boat in the middle of the lake, praying and preparing for the year together... basically, getting on the same page.


While they worked - Emily (Last) and I, chilled on the dock, basking in the sun, reading and both prepared for our years ahead (Emily is going to have her 1st year of teaching and I am going to have my first prepared year, or 3rd year of RDing)...

I thank the Lord for that time on the dock. I felt a so at rest, spiritually, talking to the Lord about the year to come and resting in his presence... honestly, it doesn't get better than that.


Some day, I would love to have a cabin on a lake, to join as a family, playing together and eating well together... with the spirit of the little boy in the movie, "Angels in the Outfield"...

"It could happen."





Here are some pics from the trip!

Below: Last pic "before we died" - at the zipline course we took...
From left to right (brendon, emily, emily, ben)

Above is Bren at his best... fluttering along glass-like water.

Above: Maybe this is really Bren at his best... on the kayak, he almost loves as much or more than me... ;)

Not much to say here... just knee boarding ;)

giggling

We celebrated our 1st anniversary yesterday... with a trip to our favorite town this side of New York - stayed at a beautiful inn, enjoyed good food and laughing together about the year. Oh yeah, and we purchased a green kitchen-aid - I am pumped... here comes the bread making!

So, this may sound funny but we made a list of our Top 10's - 10 best moments and 10 worst... the memories brought us many laughs at a coffee shop early this morning. I can't wait to pull out that list many years from now to share with our children as they begin preparing for their 1st year of marriage.

What a year... we are so thankful to the Lord for doing an amazing work on the altar just a year ago. I wouldn't want to relive the day in some ways but in others... I wish I could go back and see it again from a different perspective.

We will update more soon... until then

Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun!

The slight sunburn on my shoulders and nose and the crazy loud peepers from the creek outside our window remind us that spring is finally here... I haven't loved spring more than this year... All I can say to the sun is "Its about time!" I spent the entire day yesterday hanging out with different groups of girls in the sunshine... it was so fun to picnic with my what is left from last years Lambein RA staff members and my new favorite, our highschool youth group girls!!

I am chilling tonight and preparing for our student's last full week of classes and taking a break to "blog some" while Brendon and his friend Nate, from the youth group, are playing a quick game of Halo since they rented it for the "Fry Night" on Friday... (At the annual fry night the guys - fry anything and everything from turkey to twinkies- In Brendon's words... he didn't feel it the next day, it cleaned him out the next day) It probably doesn't help that he and I ran a 5K Saturday morning after he had been up all night eating grease with the guys... The 5K was fun because we won for "Fastest Non Houghton college students" haha... fun :) This spring we have taken up running together for fun in the afternoons - it has been a good to get me back in the swing of running again and quite fun to have quality time with the hubby!

Fun news from the Kirkbride household is we got free bikes today!! How awesome is that??? Funny, that all week we had been planning to buy bikes but the Lord just dropped these two rather nice bikes right in our laps. We had dinner at the Tucker's on Saturday night and as we were talking about living simply... I mentioned we wanted to ride bikes more this summer instead of paying for 4.00 a gallon gas but we just needed to buy bikes- they said, "Why don't you just take ours?" This morning after church Steve helped Brendon load up a bike rack and two bikes on the back of our falling apart Hyundi... and we cleaned them up this afternoon... good as new!

Work has been full of lessons learned for me this past semester... one of my RA's said to me the other day... "Em, you and I have learned a lot together this year... haven't we?" - "Why yes, Miss Steph, we have :)" It has been challenging but rewarding all the same. I was trying to describe it the other day but was at a loss for words. So, let me take a stab here. I love my job, mostly because I love the conversations with students, I love praying with them, I love listening and challenging, I love eating and laughing with them, and I absolutely love walking with them as they fall in love with Jesus more but sometimes students aren't quite ready for that - it was an awesome conversation as we cried together and it is hard for me (as it was when I was the RA.) It can be hard when students resist help and end up feeling like the "evil "authority" you can't trust" Still, this job is like running... I am getting addicted to it... I love the lessons learned and the challenge of learning how to love people in a small community.

Oh dear, I am just jabbering now... I should sign off - We promise to be better bloggers from here on out...

Photo Post: Why no blogging?

Christmas Time in MN...



This picture was taken Christmas Eve with the Simon family and of course... Kota!




Adding to the Dazzle... earlier in the week, we headed out to the city for a night out with some dear friends...

Brendon and I played in the snow some...

I took my sisters for some quality sister time to Grand Ave in St. Paul to paint some ceramics. It was such a gift to have us all in one place even if for only a day or so...

The last night in town, Christmas day with the Kirkbride's at the Anderson's - what a fun night!

Now to Orlando, FL with the Youth group...

Loving our time in the sun... this was our first time and pic by the ocean...

While the trip to Orlando was a blast - we learned much about patience and the power of prayer over the trip when the vehicle we rented to get us down to Florida with 12 teenagers and four adults broke down 2x before we got home... I ran/walked/bused and hitchhiked my way through the streets of Orlando the last day of our trip with the other female leader while Brendon worked on keeping the spirits of our youth high. It only caused us to be a couple hours late on our arrival home but with the help of some fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and other kind folks we made it home safely... all in the name of the Lord. All around a great first trip as youth leaders together...

Then it was back to life as we had once known it...

A little RA Winter Training weekend...

I hosted a surprise party for our friend and coworker Gabe... it was actually his 1/2 birthday but I am always up for a party... especially with his fun college student friends :)

Now that was in January and we have obviously still had much to do - including a trip to State College to see the Gophers battle it out with Penn State, Brendon became an officially licensed minister by taking a week of intense courses at the college, I hired a new staff of RA's that I am quite looking forward to leading this coming year, we celebrated Valentine's day for our first time as an official couple in the same state... and oh, our adventures continued...

hope...

Hope.

We finally got a tree... okay not a real one - We are friends with a local fire chief... he said it wouldn't be the best idea, since we live in a building made out of wood.

I guess it is okay.

I even got LED lights (the lights that are from head lamps that are supposed to last a lifetime and don't start fires so that I could comply with NYS fire code.)

I spent 19.99 on this new tree - decorated with strings of popcorn and cranberries and of course the KNUHA favorite ornaments... cinnamin and applesauce stars and snowflakes.

Brendon and I went to Geneseo on Saturday night so that he could prepare his lessons for the following day... I read out of a book I got for my friend Dee last Christmas, "Girl Meets God" by Lauren Winner and drank my gingerbread latte with one pump of white mocha.

Lauren never ceases to encourage my heart in things I think - but don't communicate well - (sorta like Sara Groves in that respect of my life). She writes, "It is advent, the weeks before Christmas, which means we are waiting for Jesus. It is the season of expectation, of being primed and pumped, the season during which you are supposed to cultivate longing for Him, the type of longing you feel when your beloved has been out of town for three weeks but you know he is coming home tonight."

Hmm... that resonates with me this season... as I know I must cling to hope. Hope for the days yet to come that Jesus will once again reign... hope in the smaller things like knowing that he is going to be faithful to Brendon and I - no matter what comes our way. Children or no children - Minnesota or no Minnesota, Grad-school or no grad-school, job or no job, in fighting sin and in learning to love. We find hope in discovering places where we have been led by fear instead of love for another... instead of hope and fear in our Great Redeemer.

Lauren also wrote about the Jewish tradition of celebrating Sukkoh... a time that Jews walk through the pains of their ancestors time in the desert... in present day, the build rickety huts with grass roofs (similar to what they think the huts that the Jews lived in while in the desert 40 days. This symbolically reminds them to trust in their dependence on God as they eat meals and share laughter with friends.

How cool is that.

Dependence on God, in the midst of the good.
Dependence on God, even when you need every ounce of hope.

Brendon and I want to have a Christmas party in January... to remind us that we still anticipate the coming return of Jesus... even after Christmas.

now there is longing ... turned to reminders of hope.

oh christmas trees.

Welp... here is a little Kirkbride update on our Thanksgiving break. Tonight Brendon and I are chilling in front of the TV again... watched our favorite reality TV show, Amazing Race and now a good east coast football game (Eagles vs Patriots). We are both still under the weather - fighting a bug we shared last weekend - can't seem to shake this one.

Although, we were sick... we still found room to be thankful and to celebrate along with the nation... eating some yummy turkey. We ate with the Tuckers from church - it was a diverse crowd - some of their extended family -a young family with two toddlers and their grandparents - also a "80 something" year old woman who is a 40 year native of the house across the street from the Tuckers... It was a fun experience and a great way to begin our Thanksgiving's together.

We also spent quality time with our friends the Brubakers, Sara and Joel - Joel is on my RA staff (but still a month older than me) and Sara is his loving wife that has been fun to get to know... We did lots of fun things... went to a wedding of my boss, traveled with them to Walmart and Starbucks in Geneseo and ate lots of meals together and watched a few movies. The Lord blessed us with another young married couple in a very similar place in life to share life with for this year.

So... this may dissappoint you but due to the illness in out little family - there was no trip to Cleveland to Caribou and Chipotle... and no trip cut down our first live tree together. But we did have a successful shopping trip, where we bought eachother presents with out the other knowing... man, I still hate secrets.

So ... Bren is now asleep on my shoulder... I should take him to bed... (I love this man)

We will check in again soon!

grateful for you all - thanks for reading our boring blog!

The brides.

It is begining to feel a lot like home...

So, here I am the "sneaky" blogger of the family... Brendon set this thing up but I am the one who thinks to write in it. He is off to a men's residence life event this morning, "Intercourse and Ice Cream"... I am fine with missing out on that one.

For Thanksgiving break this year... no plans to travel home, we will have Thanksgiving with a dear family in the church who have three young children (one they just adopted from Guatemala this summer) I am really looking forward to getting to know this strong God-fearing family. We do plan to bring MN to us - we are headed to the closest Chipotole and Caribou, in Cleveland, to celebrate Thanksgiving in a non-traditional sort of way- 2 days after the real celebration and feel a little Minnesota love.

I must say though, this place is beginning to feel a lot more like home. Being a part of Fillmore Weselyan, is the first time since, South Hills Community Church in California where I feel at home in the church. I know people would miss us if we weren't there (pardon the fact that we program all the needs of their children...) Sunday morning becomes a good time to reconnect with those who have been busy throughout the week. The families in the church are so kind and interesting to get to know - it is like one big adventure discovering the connections between the families and discovering their stories of why they live in Fillmore, NY.

This afternoon, I am headed to my favorite "treasure" in the surrounding Houghton area, I am taking 2 of my girls from last year to, what many of us affectionately call, "Coffee plus Coffee" because the sign out front says "Cafe plus Coffee" (Cafe is French for Coffee). It is not much like a Starbucks but it is close second... the classic coffee shop, with "the regulars." I am one now, my RD staff and our boss head out every Friday morning to hang out and catch up on life at the Coffee Coffee, Alyce the server knows what I order every week... Tall stack of pancakes and a coffee or a bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar and coffee. She wasn't there one week... her mom was... now, that was an experience.

The life and the people...

Well... it has been a while since our last post... sorry to keep you all in suspense - because I am sure you were... :)

Bren and I are currently watching a movie and I of course am "multitasking" because I have recently been finding it impossible to just sit and watch a movie with out falling asleep!

We just returned home from a trip to Minnesota for my oldest sister's wedding... everything went well and the wedding was beautiful. We are sorry that we missed seeing many of our friends and family because of the busy wedding week but for those who we saw, we were blessed and encouraged by our interactions with you! It was fun to come home to a wedding and experience the wedding from an outsider's perspective again.

I write to now allow you to explore a bit of our new community out in Houghton... those friends who we interact with daily and who are now shaping our lives during our first year together...

At the local corn maize with 30 of our youngest friends from the Fillmore Weslyan Youth group...

A group of our new friends, Houghton students, after a long roadtrip and awesome Shane and Shane concert in Grove City, PA.

A night of Settlers fun...

So the movie is almost over (interesting movie... Reign Over Me) as I have been distracted ... we are gonna sign off now.... we will update soon - Enjoy the last days of our gorgeous fall - New York, Minnesota, California and abroad!!

The Kirkbride's

Life with the Kirkbrides... our place.

September 18, 2007

So Emily here this time, finally posting some pics!! Since most of you live far away- we decided to bring Houghton to you! Hope you enjoy our photos!

Today is Brendon's first official full day of work - after being announced in the church on Sunday and pastor's traditional Monday day off - he headed off to a morning prayer meeting and other things throughout the day! Wow, we both keep looking at eachother in awe of how the Lord is orchestrating our lives day after day... God is so good - I love seeing Bren in his prime out here...

To the left is a pic of our house... just kidding it is one of the buildings I "direct" there are 4 other buildings - We just happen to live in this one!

Above is a picture of the front of the church where Bren will be spending most of his days!

Below is a little tour of the place we call home!

Here I am coming out of the bathroom into our "living room" - Grandma Kate's dinette set is working wonderfully... Bren painted the place our "Kirkbride Shade of Yellow" (the first yellow we had was disatorus... but I am thankful for Bren's painting expertise!)

This is our HUGE kitchen... love it!! I marinated 200 pieces of chicken on that counter and cut up 60LBS of potatoes - all at the same time! Thank God for hospitality and big kitchens!

Here are two pictures of our cozy living room...

Below is our tiny but cozy bedroom... I love how it all turned out - the walls are just waiting for some paint in the coming weeks... Thanks Grandma Harvey for that great blanket... it matches our bedding beautifully... who woulda known!

We love you and hope you enjoyed our tour!

Joy to you!

The Kirkbrides

1 Thessalonians 5:16 "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus... hold on to the good. avoid evil."

Amish Paradise

As I walk through the valley where I harvest my grain

I take a look at my wife and realize shes very plain

But thats just perfect for an amish like me

You know I shun fancy things like electricity

At 4:30 in the morning Im milkin cows

Jebediah feeds the chickens and jacob plows... fool

And Ive been milkin and plowin so long that

Even ezekiel thinks that my mind is gone

Im a man of the land, Im into discipline

Got a Bible in my hand and a beard on my chin

But if I finish all of my chores and you finish thine

Then tonight were gonna party like its 1699

We been spending most our lives

Living in an amish paradise

Ive churned butter once or twice

Living in an amish paradise

Its hard work and sacrifice

Living in an amish paradise

We sell quilts at a discount price

Living in an amish paradise

__________________________

On any given day it is quite common for Emily and I to see the Amish rolling around in their horse and buggies- harvesting grain and shopping in our local "marts" or the Jubliee - 5 minutes down the road. Just yesterday Emily saw an Amish woman carrying her baby into Joann Fabrics - not something you see everyday in Plymouth, MN. We find ourselves daily adjusting to living in the novelty of our little Western NY Amish paradise.

I know it has been sometime since we last posted so Emily and I want to catch you up to speed. We love married life, although it is sometimes hard, Emily and I are learning a ton about eachother which has been quite a journey (you married couples know what I am talking about). Emily has been busy transitioning from buildings and getting to know new people. She has a great staff of RA's and we spend a lot of time with them. Emily has some awesome events coming up ranging from a chicken bbq (we get to cook some 200 pieces of chicken, 60 lbs of potato's, and tons of corn for the residents living in the FaT's), and a drive-in movie which requires us to set up a 30x20 ft moving screen on the lawn in front of where we live.

I have recently been hired by Fillmore Wesleyan Church as the Assistant Pastor. I will be working with the Children's and Youth Ministry along with a handful of other things like taking out the trash. I am actually really happy to be working here. The people are great and I am doing something that I love and have a desire to do. With this position I'm pretty much like a little kid jumping into the deep end of the pool and learning how to swim. I am working with another young pastor - so we look forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for the church. It is good to begin this new journey and finally beginning to feel like the man of our family. Aside from work and ministry, I am playing on a intramural football team with some college guys (we predict winning the championship) and of course miss Emily keeps me on my toes.

As we both transition and adjust we look forward to seeing what the Lord has instore...

-the 'brides

Since the Wedding

Family and Friends,

Emily and I would both like to say how thankful we are for all of you. I know we took off in a hurry after the wedding and honeymoon and were not able to say good by to many of you, but we want you to know that you're loved and missed.

Emily and I arrived in Houghton on the 2nd of August. Some people say that life is an adventure and needless to say the trip out here was an adventure in itself. For us to move out to the college we had to rent a truck that was roughly 16 ft long and a tow dolly for our vehicle. But when the day came to pick up the truck and dolly the rental company that we were using didn't have are stuff we needed even though we had a reservation stored in their computer system. So they gave us what they had which was a 26 ft truck and a car carrier! This was way more then what we need and it felt like we were driving a Semi-truck halfway across the country. IT WAS AWESOME! With that said, Em and I arrived safe and sound and ready to begin our lives together NY. Just for the record I am still a Twins, Wild, and Vikings fan (Sorry Jake...even though I am closer to Boston then you are and in the mist of Yankee followers I can't go over to the Sox's side. Got to stay true to my roots!).

As many of you know, my BEAUTIFUL and AMAZING wife Emily is a Resident Director at Houghton. Now...some of you are thinking that she is just a glorified babysitter of out of control college students but shes not. She is actually overseeing Five, yes five resident buildings called the Town Houses and Flats (a.k.a. the FaTs). These buildings consist of upperclassman who all throughout the week are getting high, drunk, and sleeping with their boyfriends and girlfriends. Just kidding this is a Christian college people...that stuff doesn't happen here...right???! Anyway...in all seriousness, what Emily basically does is oversee and manage a staff of 5 RA's and their buildings, programs and organizes resident activities, develops student leaders, handles disciplinary issues, and among other things she will be get a masters in higher education, in the meantime she is working on getting a masters in being married to me. So she has a lot going on and she LOVES IT!

Currently I am looking for a job...which is something you can be praying about. I want to be the man and be able to provide for the wife and I can't do that if I am spending all my time reading books, playing board games, hanging with my wife, and going to 24 hour coffee shops with college students till the wee hours of the morning. The truth is that I am actually looking for a job and not just sitting around on my but all day wait for one to fall into my lap. I have had a couple of interviews and still one to come. Right know my best two options are an Assistant Pastor position at a local church and a Programing Assistant Position here at Houghton College. So really be praying for that...because...I want a job!

Well I believe this blog entries is coming to an end. Just a little FYI, Emily and I are going to be in Minnesota the third weekend of October, so mark your calenders. The reason for our visit is Emily's oldest sister Kimberly is getting married which is very exciting and something that we are looking forward too. We hope all of you are doing well. You are in our thoughts and prays. Know that we love, miss, and look forward to seeing you sometime in the future.

The Kirkbrides

P.S. We will be posting pics of the area in which we live and our apartment to give you a better feel of where we are living. So keep checking the blog for updates.