It's official!

We're closing on our house Monday morning 9:30AM!

Our Christmas events began Wednesday as we drove on I-5 North which had spots of ice still on the road. We hopped off and took Hwy 99 the rest of the way to I-205 almost at Hwy 212. We were doing great in the Rodeo until the bottom of the culd-e-sac of Randy's parents and just couldn't make it up. Scott, Randy's dad, tried to tow us with the quad, then the work truck. The rope broke and Randy's not exactly sure what happened but it was either the transmission or the clutch. We had to wait till the roads were plowed more and after Christmas to get it towed. Friday we had the Rodeo towed. Our insurance only covers 15 miles and it was 14.8 to the mechanic's! How cool is that? Also, the mechanic said it sounds more like the clutch than the transmission! It was a day of great news and that's when we found out we'd be signing papers Monday! Answers to all of our prayers. God always provides, just not always in our time frame, but that way we HAVE to give Him credit.

Christmas Eve we went to Randy's grandma's place in Gresham to celebrate, VOGL style, that included gifts from Rite Aid, drinking, laughing, laughing, and more laughing. Stephanie wore shoes that were nicknamed "hooker shoes" and I got nicknamed "bitch." The guilty party will remain anonymous. :) It was a blast. Stephanie made an amazing lasagna. It was smaller than the Randall/Hageman/Borek shindigs but was fun and special in its own unique way.

Christmas Day...SANTA CAME!!! But the best gift was money for a WASHER and DRYER!!! Couldn't come at a more perfect time, when we have to use money to fix the Rodeo. God is definitely in all the little things!!! We attempted to go see a movie at the theater in Sandy but they were full so we decided we'd attempt Friday. Christmas day, Vickie made a delicious prime rib dinner with home made rolls and asparagus and twice baked potatoes!! Derek and Kim-Derek was Randy's best man and Kim ran with Leisha in a Half Marathon-came over to join the family for dinner. After dinner everyone proceeded to play the Wii, which as you can imagine was HILARIOUS! Did I also mention, Christmas Day we drove out to see Scott and Vickie's new property in Gresham and the guys pushed a TON of people out of the snow, ditches, etc. Leisha got to use her Spanish to interpret for one individual who only spoke Spanish and was stuck.

Friday we went to the theater again to watch "Marley and Me" which is a great movie but SOOOO SAD!

Snow and freezing rain...

Yesterday and Saturday there was a ton of freezing rain leaving everything already on the ground, couple inches of snow, really icy and thick. All church events for the weekend were cancelled. Randy and I got all our Christmas shopping done though using his 4 wheel drive Rodeo. We were bored yesterday late afternoon and thought we'd rent a movie, only problem is we have our DVD player and monitor packed. Randy's computer's DVD player is broken and my laptop doesn't have a DVD player. So next best thing, we'll go see a movie a the cheaper theater down the street. We pulled up, parked, and turned off the car only to witness the transformer for that block and a ton of others nearby BLOW...TWICE!!! Ok, no movie, we went to Costco and got gas, then drove by our "house" to make sure no branches has broke off and damaged the roof or anything. We found out that a coworker of mine lives literally 4 doors down from our house!

Today we were hoping to sign papers but this morning at about 5AM the roads were fine, a little icy but drive-able, then about 6-9AM it snowed like crazy dropping at least 5 inches!!! No one worked today at the mortgage place so no further progress on papers has occurred. We're praying and hoping we can SIGN TOMORROW!!!

Thanks for all our thoughts and prayers.

Closing after Christmas

So before our broker told us we didn't need a clear P/D (Pest and Dry Rot) and we didn't need an appraisal. Well, now he's telling us we need both so Randy's been working hard to make sure everyone got out there yesterday to do their thing. Our inspector signed off on the P/D and all the papers got in today. Our realtor told us she'd be surprised if we closed before Christmas. SO PLEASE PRAY WE CLOSE THIS COMING WEEK!!! Everything is in boxes, even our food and we only have our apartment till the 8th of January. Here are some specific requests:

-Pray we are able to sign papers MONDAY and get keys no later than WEDNESDAY
-Pray the broker pays for the appraisal, as our realtor's office paid for the re-inspection for the clear P/D report
-Pray we are able to move, paint, and get settled before January 5th when Leisha starts work and school again
-Pray there are no more complications or road blocks

-Thank God that we can trust Him in all things to work for our good
-Thank God that He's led us this far and He won't leave us hear

We need to close!

So we were scheduled to close Monday or Tuesday at the latest this week; however, the weather has impeded the process from going very quick. The papers on our end are done just waiting for everything to arrive at Escrow. Ideally we'll be able to close tomorrow or Friday but otherwise it gets really hard with the holidays. Please pray that everything comes together in the next 24 Hours so we can close and move.

Everything is in boxes, including most of our food and clothes so... :-D

We want to be PARENTS

It's not what you think...Look at these faces...how could anyone resist wanting a puppy? Not just any puppy, a LAB! Oh my goodness, we're obsessing just a tad but as long as we close on our house our next big investment is a kid. A PUPPY kid...little pitter patter of little paws. We thought we wanted a yellow lab until we started looking at pictures and they're all so cute so it will have to be whatever the litter is...THAT will be our baby!

Thanksgiving...

We went to Depot Bay, Oregon near Lincoln City with Leisha's extended family. It was a ton of fun. Not only did we eat way too much food but we got to be with a bunch of family we don't see very often. We played games, watched, movies, went running, went shopping, etc. Both of us enjoyed just being lazy for 4 days!

For Thanksgiving dinner, Leisha was in charge of a salad...only problem was the jello didn't set so it was like a cold, strawberry, banana, and nut SOUP! Oooops...Luckily when she made dinner for everyone on Saturday it was Spaghetti, garlic bread, and a GREEN salad so it was hard to mess up. Speaking of Saturday...

THE DUCKS SLAUGHTERED the BEAVERS!!! We weren't going to watch the game but thought we'd go with some of the family to the casino to watch kick-off. Ended up being an amazing game and stayed till the end!!! It was a GREAT day!

REACH 2008

Reach is a missions focused weekend event for mid-high schoolers. "I am willing, if God allows to give my life as a foreign missionary." This year's theme was Africa. Scott Erickson spoke about how God used "just a painter from Seattle" in foreign missions. He uses his work to tell the stories of those who don't currently have a voice. Logan led worship and he is a part of Mocha Club which is an organization that asks for people to give 7 dollars a month for someone in Africa to have clean water for a MONTH, which is the price of two mochas. Over 80 kids filled out cards either recommitting to be foreign missionaries if God allows or made new commitments! One girl, Kim, who dedicated her life to Jesus at our Fall Retreat this year made a new commitment to be a foreign missionary if God allows! Our goal now is to begin plugging these kids into different missions trips we have through the youth group and the church and maybe eventually "Roots." Roots is a discipleship training program through the Missionary Alliance, similar to YWAM but at the end instead of being on a team you go alone or with one other person to join with a missionary in another country and are amerced into the culture.

Buying a Home

The sellers accepted our offer on the house today! There was an addition that we weren't sure if it was permitted but we got the copies of the plans and permits today. Now we just need to have the inspector take a look at all the notes and make sure we can afford to finish the addition eventually. The ball is rolling and rolling fast! We're so excited...please pray that God gives us wisdom as well the inspector. Here are some pictures of our possible house.

REACH

Leisha's Oregon Cohort

This was from September this year but we just got the copy from our professor. Unfortunately, Courtney and Jessica aren't there because Jessica was really sick so they started heading home. Everyone is from all over Oregon: Burns, Powell Butte, Pendleton, Salem, Oregon City, Portland, etc. Every semester we meet at the Willamette ESD, convenient, for one weekend per class to go over information for the 1st half of the semester. It's pretty much fun, granted you're in class all weekend but the friendships and laughter is worth it!

October

We have not been good at posting but life is very busy...

Mid October we went on the Fall Retreat with the high school group. The theme was "PURE" not just sexual purity but holiness. It was fabulous. It was at Winema near Pacific City. Three girls got baptized in the ocean and one girl gave her heart to the Lord. Her family is Buddhist and mom left the family here to go back to China, as in never coming back. Her friends in high school were the witness and then she started asking questions...When she gave her testimony Saturday night she said it was no big deal, "Ya, except that the angels in Heaven are having a huge party!!!" said my friend Paula. The slide you see is a slip'n'slide into an oatmeal pit! Hilarious...we also went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. My cabin had some great talks and they were fabulous in helping the others out with their faith, tough questions, various verses to look at for answer, etc.

We also went to Seattle for Randy's friend's wedding. We stayed with some great friends up there which was so fun! Saturday afternoon we hopped the ferry to go to the wedding at 5pm little did we know we had the time wrong and it started at 2pm! So we turned around and rode the ferry again. We ended up going to PF Chang's for a date night since our friends were out with their friends...We determined we HATE the big city traffic, etc. We had a blast with our friends though. They have puppies, Leisha's jealous!!!


We celebrated Leisha's dad's 29th birthday! ;) He got a new book by Rob Bell and some chocolate and such. My brother brought his girlfriend, Laura. She's fabulous and fits right into the craziness that is the Randall/Vogl family! She understands Jason with that right there, she's a keeper ;) Haha, no she's very nice and funny. All Leisha's living grandparents were there to celebrate and play "Apples to Apples" where Randy won BOTH ROUNDS!!!!

September

Leisha started seeing her kids finally and is excited to be working at the Spanish preschool again and then this year Wednesday afternoons she's at Oregon School for the Deaf.

Randy's job is going great and just started a class to get his license to be an official tax preparer.

We started officially working with the high schoolers at church and LOVE IT! Brian and Paula are awesome pastors and it's excited to hear and share their passion for these kids. Randy's praying about leading a guys small group and Leisha is just starting this week as leading the worship team. She's not directly leading worship but helping raise up the leadership already there, students, and mentoring them as well as overseeing the practices, etc.

Leisha ran a half marathon middle of the month. It was very difficult since it was a trail run, the last 7 miles were uphill and the trail was marked 2 miles longer than an actual half (15.1ish miles instead of 13.1); but she finished and is looking forward to running another half marathon in January. Though this time she's thinking it'll be a road run.





One of our favorite things to do together is photography so one Saturday we went all around Salem taking pictures with different settings and lighting. Here are some of our favorite pictures.

Updates on High School Ministry

Randy and I went to the leadership meeting for "Flipside" the high school ministry at Salem Alliance this last Tuesday and are convinced this is where God has us for now! We're so excited to start getting involved and serving. Please be praying for us as there are many different opportunities to lead as well as serve within the ministry.

*I am praying about helping out the worship team.
*Randy is praying about leading a "D" (discipleship) group.

The group begins again this weekend which is hard for me with school but eventually the weekends will work out well. The group meets Saturday 5pm and Sunday 11am with small groups throughout the week.

Thanks for everyone's continued prayer and support!!!

Luke Jeffrey Eischen

Mandy and Jeff helped us celebrate our anniversary by welcoming healthy baby Luke into the world! They are now a party of four: Jeff, Mandy, Maddy, and Luke. Congratulations!

August 18th, 2008 1:43 pm

He was 8 pounds 9 ounces

20.5 inches

1st Year!

Today is our one year anniversary!!! It is crazy to think that it's already been a year. Randy and I were talking about some of our favorite things about being married. One is that we're best friends so it's a blast to spend so much time living with, playing with, and growing with your best friend. We love going to sleep next to each other and waking up next to each other instead of having to say good-bye. We feel it hasn't been a very big adjustment like some suggested it would be. Number one on our list, WE'RE HAVING SO MUCH FUN!

For our anniversary we celebrated this last weekend. I knew we were going somewhere special but didn't know where until an hour before we left. We went to Elizabeth Street Inn on the coast in Newport. It was gorgeous. We don't have any clear pictures of the coast or the hotel however because it was so foggy. I guess when it's 100+ degrees inland, the air pressure sucks all the fog in to the coast line. On Saturday we went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, walked downtown where we got a bunch of salt water taffy and laughed at the sea lions bullying each other around. It was an amazing weekend to spend together celebrating one of many anniversaries to come!

One thing Randy didn't know is that this whole time I was also planning a special gift for him. With the help of my amazing cousin, Jamie, I recorded our song "Like Red on a Rose" for him and then also made it his ringtone on his phone for when I call. He was so shocked I had to explain exactly what it was :)

Camping Trip

One of the many camping adventures this summer was with our Shepherding Group at Salem Alliance, Synergy. The first night it was just Shelly and Brian, Danielle and Josh with their one year old Vanessa, and Randy and I. Saturday a couple more couples came to join us. We went up the Santiam River where we hiked, some fished, and played games around the camp fire. We're hoping to get one or more trips in before it gets too cold.

Tiffany Marie

Tiffany "Felt" soon to be "Knutson" and I have grown up together since we were in the nursery together at church. Our families have celebrated numerous holidays and camping trips together. Tiff and I were on the youth group's worship team and in leadership under Pastor Lance. I'm so excited for her and Jason to start their lives together as husband and wife!!! This is a pic from her shower in Eugene.

Summit Mt. Hood

Randy summitted Mt. Hood this weekend with 5 other guys. Dan and Chris are some of his best friends from college and all lived and managed, at some point, the Alpha Omega House. Dan's dad is experienced on this adventure and led the team up the mountain starting around 10:30PM Saturday night. It was a new moon that night so you could see not only stars for miles but it was impossible to not see a shooting star! Starting at Timberline Lodge the team made it up past all the ski slopes and then took a nap before the rest of the more strenuous hike to the top. There were places where you would hike on narrow paths gripping your ice axe just in case. Since it's a volcano the smell of sulfur was prominent and often made it difficult to breathe since it's not oxygen. Everyone made it up there safe and made it down safe! Let the adventures continue!

Our Road Trip!!!

Finally, here are pictures from our amazing adventure! We left at 3:30AM Friday June 13th and drove to Disneyland. The next day we spent literally all day (opening to closing) from 8AM to midnight at both Disneyland and California Adventure. We were so exhausted that Sunday we rode a few rides and then met a ton of characters, like MICKEY MOUSE!

Sunday afternoon we took off for Las Vegas, NV. We toured hotel after hotel walking for miles within each building. It was incredible! One hotel actually had gondolas INSIDE the hotel! We stayed at the Excalibur in our chateau. To truly experience Vegas we did see one show, Steve Wyrick, a magician who was pretty amazing. No time to gamble, on to Grand Canyon on Tuesday morning.

On our way to the Grand Canyon we stopped and took a tour of the Hoover Dam.

Grand Canyon is where we wish we had more time to backpack down into the canyon and camp for a day or two, but it was still fun to look from the top. We did hike about 1/4 to 1/2 of the way down the canyon one day. We were able to find a FREE camping spot just outside of the park.

We arrived at Bryce Canyon that Thursday and hiked the next day all around the hoodoos and such. Also, camping there...

Zion National Park took up our Friday afternoon and almost all day Saturday. This was our favorite part of the trip, which wasn't even planned. We were able to go "canyoneering" up the Narrows of the canyon which is hiking up or down (we went up) stream in the river with steep canyon walls on each side of you. There was no risk of flash floods since there were no storms or rain reported within at least a 200 mile radius. This is another place we'd love to go back and backpack at the top of the Narrows and hike down them (12ish miles). There were a few people doing that and they absolutely loved it.

Saturday late afternoon we took off for home and drove from Zion National Park to some little town in Idaho where they carded Leisha to make sure she was at least 18 years old! Apparently, they thought Randy might be trying to take advantage of her! HAHAHAHA!

Overall, we had a blast and can't wait to go on more exciting adventures together!!

Updates...

I'm not very good about updating our blog yet, I apologize; but here are the latest updates.

1) Our road trip was amazing and more pictures and details to come...

2) We still have yet to coordinate schedules with the high school pastor about joining that ministry at our church, though we're still pumped about it!

3) Randy started a new job a couple months ago as the I.T. guy and accountant at a small firm here in Salem. He LOVES it!!! He just got an iPhone and is addicted!!!

4) I am finishing my 1st of 3 years of my graduate program in Speech-Language Pathology online and working full-time. I'm currently training for my first half marathon in September at Timberline Lodge near Mt. Hood.

5) The rest of our summer is mainly devoted to weddings and wedding and more weddings. We've gone camping here and there but no more major travel/vacation plans in store until our family Thanksgiving endevour to the coast.

High Schoolers Rock It

Randy and I attended an informational meeting tonight about student ministries at our church, Salem Alliance. If you could be keeping us in your prayers as we pursue God's will for us as a couple and individuals serving. We both have a passion for high schoolers but the next step is still somewhat of murky territory. Luckily we have a long road trip ahead of us to digest it with each other and God.

Friday June 13th we're driving to DISNEYLAND
Saturday and Sunday we're going to DISNEYLAND then
to Las Vegas for a couple days
the Grand Canyon to camp a couple nights
and finally to Bryce Canyon to camp and hike a couple days!!!

We'll be coming back on Randy's birthday, June 22!!!

Ava Bransom

I love my best friend and cousin Krista. She is a fabulous mommy. During Spring Break we got to spend an entire day together with Jamie and Ava as well. Ava turns one year old April 5th and Krista will be 24 on April 6th!!!

Krista just got diagnosed with Chrone's Disease, which sounds horrible but it's a more accurate diagnosis from before. It's not curable but treatable.

Happy Easter

We went to Eugene for Easter weekend and had a blast hanging out with family. Unfortunately, there are no pictures AGAIN although we did at least take the camera.

Randy took me to go shoot his shot gun on Saturday and Jason was the navigator. Between the two of them and some very thick gravel we got stuck in a mud bank near Crow, Oregon. No cell phone service and the closest town was probably 5+ miles. So we prayed and just after the "amen" a 4x4 drove by. He didn't have rope but was playing paintball with a ton of friends and would come back down with either rope of people to push us out. He never did come back but about 15-20 minutes later a group of highschoolers drove by and pushed us out. We did get to shoot but not in an ideal location. I ALMOST hit the target the second time I shot. My brother's been shooting my late grandma's gun that he inherited. Overall that was an eventful day.

Easter, I found out that CRISTA FREES is engaged!!! Whoo hoo to MATT NICE!!! I'm going to be a bridesmatron (as she says) sometime in August.

All the family came to the Randall house since the Borek house has been in and out with the flu. All the kids were stinkin' cute and hilarious. Reece is obsessed with piñatas and will even say over and over and over again "pi-ña-ta!" It didn't get old after 3 hours. Gaige just turned 3 and when I asked him what animal he was pretending to be he said, "I four." He never did understand the question. He is potty training and so eventually he came downstairs with his pants on backwards only for us to realize that was the biggest problem, his underwear were missing. I asked him where they were..."upstairs." So I go upstairs to the bathroom where you see everything that should be in the toilet was in the toilet but for some reason his undies and a ton of toilet paper are in the shower and the water is dripping. We're not exactly sure what happened.

I found out that Sarah Savelich has an amazing job opportunity that she's taking starting yesterday in California to be the youth pastor at Lance's church!!!

So much exciting news....

6 Wonderful Months...

No new pictures but we've now been married for 6 wonderful months!!! :) Randy made Leisha dinner and they had a date night in the middle of Leisha's midterms. School is crazy for Leisha but she enjoys every moment of it. Randy recently turned in his notice at work and will be looking for a better working environment.

Happy Birthday Grandma Juanita

Grandma Juanita was an amazing woman of God, wife, sister, mother, grandma, great grandma, and friend. Many have come to know the Lord because of her example everyday. Today would have been her birthday but she passed away this last September 2 (exactly4 months ago). Many lives were blessed by her and she is greatly missed. Her younger sister, Marion, passed away just a week ago.

Happy Birthday Grandma. Though we miss you we can't wait to celebrate with you one day in the throne room of our God and King!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!