Wait, wait, don't tell me.....

 Now for a brief update about our lives for our loyal fan base (thanks again for reading so faithfully, mom.) I used to play oregon trail when I was a kid.  I don't know if any of you remember that game.  Even though on that old school computer that measured its memory in tiny prefixes , with its blocky- pixilated figures, there was some tension and excitement.  Will I have the ammo I need to kill a deer?  How do I fix this broken axel?  Will my wife get dysentery? What is dysentery?  Life feels a bit like that.  Like the game, not dysentery, though Im sure I could draw a few similarities.  

  We were originally just planning on being in town til the start of the new year. But as obtaining my CA license became more of an uncertainty, we decided to accept the offer to extend here at Poudre Valley.  We have extended now 4 times, I think.  It's kind of like the fiscal cliff thing, where we extend the deadline at the last second only to face the same situation in a few weeks. 

I swear I'm getting stupider.  Measurably stupider. I will have flashes of great ideas, thoughts to write down or clever ways to teach the boys, then they just vanish from my mind like .  Chances are I have had several ingenious witticisms since I started writing this, but damned if I remember them.  I chalk my widening stupidity to the fact that not many things in our lives are stable.  Thinking is for agrarian societies.  We have digressed to hunting and gathering.  Mostly thinking of where the buffalo will be next.

  If I were wanting to sound platitudinous,  I would insert a big BUT here and say how we are "learning so much" and use lots of cloying Christian vocabulary; paint a word picture in Thomas Kinkade pastels about how everything is really apple red happiness even though I just took such a long time explaining how frustrating a situation we are in.  But the gospel has death in it. I don't want to skip to the resurrection part and how life is all fine. Winter always precedes Spring.  Death before resurrection.  Amber and I are frustrated, in some ways.  Its hard to be in between.  I don't think we are handling it with all-star Christian attitudes all of the time.  There's some death that needs dying to. 

  So I say this with death in one hand: God has been good.  He has bound Himself to us to always do us good.  We have a job, we have a great living situation thanks to the kindness and indefatigable grace of our friends the Jacobsons.  

  So the plan as of today is to see if my license comes from the California Board of Nursing by tonight, which has roughly the same odds as me not wanting to punch them in the face. Like one in a million. The same as me not wanting to punch them. Meaning I do. Want to punch them.  If it does not come, then we will extend through mid April, where we are praying the board of nursing will grant me a license for my birthday. 

  Anyway, I digress.

love, tim

This is what God's faithfulness looks like

And this is what I mean.

We have been looking for an ER travel nursing position in Colorado for about a month now. Tim and I have frequently prayed for something, ANYthing, in the state that might have a contract for Tim to work sometime after this current contract runs it's course on Nov.2nd.

Nothing.

For a month.

There was one in Boulder that opened then closed like a flash pan. It was so popular that Tim's submission was cancelled because there were too many submissions. He called. He left a message in hopes of reconsideration. No news.

You know, God can do whatever He pleases. That could be scary save that He IS love to go with that omnipotence. And He doesn't waste anything. And so we took Him up on His offer to ask Him anything. I prayed for an ER position at PVH, in Fort Collins. Mind you, this being a hospital that doesn't take Travel Nurses. Why not go crazy and see what He can do?

Then this week we got the call saying that our contract here could be extended 4 weeks. We hemmed. We hawed. This wasn't what we'd prayed for but it seemed to make the most sense while we trusted that God had a plan.
We said, "Ok." on Tuesday.

Yesterday we woke up thinking, "We'll be in New Hampshire four more weeks, then we'll just have to drive thru Colorado for a visit."
Cut a few hours later when this email shows up in Tim's inbox.

"Hi Tim! Happy Accident!... PVHS, COLORADO wants you back as a traveler!!!!!"

WHAT.

I have a feeling God is creating a pile of impossible situations just so He can show Himself able. There is no reason why the hospital should open up a Travel Nurse position in the ER when it has never done so, and when they didn't advertise. This is what God's faithfulness looks like to us.

And so, Ft.Collins. We shall meet again. Nov. 11th.

We're coming for ya!

Quotable quotes-school edition

I thought I'd share some of our more hilarious or quotable moments in this adventure of homeschooling!

Last week at Classical Conversations I had (finally) prepped the boys for their "presentation" for the morning (much like Show-n-Tell but with a bit more teaching). The boys had chosen some favorite toys of theirs to share about. We had been absent the week before and hadn't gotten the memo that the theme for the day was to share your favorite Bible verse or story. Woooops.
Disappointed and confused, we tried to quickly re-prep both the boys for what they might like to share. Tim talked to Vrai, asking,
"Hey buddy, what do you think you'd like to talk about? Do you have a favorite Bible story or verse?"
Vrai cooly answered,
"I'm just gonna make something up."
(WHAT!)
Trying desperately to stifle his laughter, Tim recouped and asked again,
"Well, what are you going to say?"
"You'll see."
----------------
GAH! We DIED. Thankfully Vrai didn't say anything heretical and made it short and sweet. We were covering our faces to try to hide the fact that we wanted to fall down in tears of laughter. (whew! I'm cracking up just thinking about it!)

Here's another gem for those of you not on social media. Wyatt has started some really interesting and awesome historical revisions in his cursive book. He's got an historical image to color after each practice letter. Well, being Wyatt, simply coloring will just not do. Here you can see his mind at work.

Joan of Arc becomes Joan of Shark with a light saber

King John signs the Magna Carta while a knight casts a spell ala Harry Potter style on the Monk. 

In other news, I currently know all my 1st person Latin endings for present and imperfect tenses. Look at me, so special, woo hoo hooooo! :) Actually, I can't get the songs out of my head. They're super catchy almost to the point of annoying, which I think is a good thing.

It's never a dull moment at our little Travelers Homeschool. Pray for me.