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.