Las Vegas

I have a confession to make: even though I intended to bring a camera and take lots of lovely pictures for you of Las Vegas, it seems that our camera was that one thing thing we forgot! I thought about buying a small digital camera while we were there, but it turns out that Las Vegas is not really the place to get quality at a decent price. Sorry! So instead, I will take some pictures from online to give you an idea of what we saw.



On Friday (before we left), Kayle and I hosted a board game night at our house. Sarah and Gary Burns came over and we played Wits and Wagers and Settlers of Catan (SeaFarers). We also enjoyed M&Ms, chips and salsa, strawberries, and fresh pineapple...and, of course, some great conversation. Gary and Sarah were in our old CG, so it was delightful to see them again and share a love for board games. We invited our current community group members too, but they were all unable to come. They say, "the more the merrier," but sometimes small groups can be even more fun.

On Saturday morning, we went to go help the Salvation Army in Renton install some computer software. They had about 10 computers donated with nothing on them, not even an operating system. Armed with Windows 7 and Office 2010, Kayle and I were determined to get those computers in good working order, so the after-school tutoring program could finally use them after almost 2 years of waiting. When we first arrived, Kayle promptly announced that it would take us no more than an hour to install everything. We left about 5 1/2 hours later, tired but satisfied that we did a good job. We needed to install Windows XP before we could load Windows 7, so we basically had an assembly line of discs and command prompts. Meanwhile, Kayle also replaced some of the CD drives that weren't working and installed more memory, taking needed parts from the computers that would never be fully operational. All in all, we got 8 computers fully installed and connected to the internet despite many, many obstacles involving codes and missing discs. We did it (and I actually helped a lot...you can even ask Kayle)!


That night, we came home and packed for our trip. On Sunday, we woke up bright and early to pick up another Microsoftie at 5:30am. Our plane left at 7:50am, so we were all dragging ourselves around and looking forward to just a little more sleep. We arrived in Las Vegas around noon and picked up our rental car, a silver PT Cruiser. Then we checked into the Bellagio hotel, where Kayle's Visual Studio conference was held.

We had a nice view of the courtyard with the hotel pools as we stayed on the 21st floor. Everything in Las Vegas is over-the-top so there was a lot of artwork and a beautiful botantical gardens area to explore, right in our hotel.

After checking into the conference, we bought tickets to see Blue Man Group, a comedic, and somewhat strange, percussion show.

It played in the Venetian hotel, so we had plenty of time to walk around. We also ate at the Bellagio's buffet and discovered our own gluttony. Both of us were full beyond enjoyment, which was probably aided by the fact that we entered the buffet at brunch and stayed until they put out the new food for dinner. Alaskan King crab legs (which I'm still mildly allergic to, I re-discovered), prime rib, steak, amazing desserts, sushi, quail, and pretty much every side dish you could ever want! Very delicious! We went back to the buffet later in the week and did not over-indulge ourselves to the point of regret...we learned our lesson!

Monday was Kayle's busiest day for Microsoft, so I had three large chunks of time to spend on my own. We ate the continental breakfast together before parting ways. Kayle spent most of his time standing at a booth for Visual Studio languages and answering questions about new features of the 2010 product.
He knew about 10 people from work and they fed him nice lunches every day. Kayle also attended the keynote speakers and a session or two of interesting lectures/training. On Monday night, he had a lovely work dinner (without me!) and enjoyed the amazing food there.








Meanwhile, I got out my walking shoes and book and decided to tour the Strip. I sat by the pool for a while, sat by the aquarium in Caesars Palace (hotel next door), walked by the exceeding expensive shops (Prada, Armani, Rolex...ooh la la), and looked for a camera. I walked from my hotel all the way to the Venetian in one direction and the MGM Grand in the other direction, stopping at the M&M World store, a Ghiradelli ice cream shop, and a few camera stores. Mostly, I liked just walking around in some of the luxurious hotels, all decorated according to theme and many with something interesting and free to see. Unfortunately, I got shin splints from all that walking around, so I was less inclined to tour with Kayle when he was done with work. Everything in Las Vegas is so far apart, even if it looks close on a map. It's a maze sometimes to get from one hotel to another or find your way through a casino and many hallways of shops! Kayle was impressed with my navigating skills once we did walk around a bit!

On Tuesday, we mostly hung out at the hotel and enjoyed a much-needed restful vacation. Our room was cleaned about 4 times/day, so we were amazed to come back to an immaculate room almost every time we returned. That evening, we ate dinner with Sendhil, a guy who leads Children's Ministry at church and happened to be going on this trip as well. We had a great conversation over dinner, although we did walk really far before ending up at the Bellagio buffet again. On Wednesday, we had to check out around noon, so we brought our luggage down in the morning and ate breakfast together again. I finished my second book, The Pearl by John Steinbeck (The Lovely Bones was the first book I read). I also started writing some postcards and sat in the one of the many courtyard hottubs. One of the closing events involved free ice cream, so we each enjoyed a dark chocolate Dove bar before going to the closing session together where they gave away all kinds of prizes. Kayle did not feel compelled to enter any of the drawings, so we mostly just laughed as the radio talk show hosts made all the winners answer silly tech-related questions.

By Wednesday afternoon, I was sore and both of us were tired and ready to go home. We ate at the Flamingo hotel cafe and walked around the gardens featuring flamingos and other birds. We decided to try to catch an earlier flight, since our scheduled flight did not arrive in Seattle until midnight. Of course, I just had to stop at the discount Disney store we saw on the way to the airport and, as a result, we arrived at the gate just after the first potential plane home left. Oops! Luckily, we were about 15th on the list to fly standby and just made it on the second and last flight before ours. We landed around 10:30 and arrived home soon after 11, exhausted and not entirely looking forward to work the next day.

On Friday, my only students decided to take the day off to celebrate a birthday. So, I got the day off! I did some much-needed grocery shopping and several loads of laundry. I also cleaned the house and unpacked for both of us. Of course, there was some napping and TV involved as well as my new Wii Fit exercise routine. At night, I went to a youth group movie and theology night where I popped lots of popcorn, watched "Where the Wild Things Are", and hung out with my girls (about 5 of my girls attended plus a girl I know from volunteering at Eastside Academy).

On Saturday, Kayle left early to meet the guys from community group at a doughnut place. When he returned, I took the car to meet a woman who is going to start leading youth group with me soon. We talked in a coffeeshop for almost 2 1/2 hours, just getting to know each other and discussing some theology. I think we will start meeting every other week or so to study through Wayne Grudem's "Systematic Theology" together. I am very excited to have some deeper theology conversations, since Kayle loses interest in most topics quicker than I do. Afterwards, I came home long enough to wrap my present before departing again for a baby shower all afternoon. At night, Kayle and I needed some time together, so we watch a date movie and just talked.

Finally, today, I taught in primary at church and Kayle discussed some tech decisions to be made. We attended the second service together. Our campus is gearing up to lease a new building in downtown Bellevue, which is very exciting. We will have much more space, permanent rooms (no elaborate set-up and tear down every week), and some of the relocated central operations. Pastor Mark would also preach live at our campus much more often. So, we're hoping and praying the new building inspections go well! After church, I took a long nap and we played some tennis at a nearby school.

Well, we love you and miss you! We have been much busier lately, so I hope to find time to post soon! Until then...

Angie and Kayle

Happy Easter!

This week is a slow week at work. Most of my EA2 students are on vacation for Spring Break, so I only have a few students each morning (the ones that come to EA2 as their only school). This week, Kayle has two days off (Wednesday and Thursday) while the furniture and offices in his building get rearranged. I came home after work on Monday to clean the house and do the laundry that has been piling up. On Tuesday, I volunteered at Eastside Academy for a few hours before subbing at another EA2 location in the afternoon. Tomorrow, Kayle and I hope to use his day off to go to the aquarium, Pike's Place Market, and Boeing's Museum of Flight after I finish teaching my morning students. On Friday night, we are trying to have a board game night at our condo, but I'm not sure if anyone will be able to make it. And finally, next week, we are off to Las Vegas for Kayle's product release!

Easter weekend was crazy busy for us yet incredibly joyful. Altogether, Kayle set up and programmed lights for about 24 hours over 5 days. On Friday, I attended one Good Friday service taught the Sunday school lesson at another. The video they played at the service was a half hour reenactment of Jesus' last days. The church actually taped the whole thing on the Spartacus movie set in California, so it was well-done and very powerful. The hard thing about teaching a Good Friday service is hearing all the stories of deaths and funerals that the kids have experienced. As soon as you mention a topic, it is inevitable that kids will raise their hands and share their own experience with the topic. One pair of sisters shared how their baby cousin died when a blanket got stuck on his face and he suffocated. Praying for these kids and hearing their fears and sadness was at least as powerful as the Good Friday service itself.

On Saturday, I woke up early to tutor a girl from church in math. Her parents can’t afford to pay a tutor right now, so I sat down to teach for about 2 hours in Panera Bread. It is fun and rewarding to see kids suddenly understand a concept and gain confidence. At night, my youth group girls came together to eat dinner and watch the Passion of the Christ movie afterward. I had mixed feelings about watching it again and haven’t seen it since it debuted while I was in high school. It is a historically accurate yet brutal movie of Jesus’ crucifixion. I remember thinking “thank you Jesus” over and over again when I watched it for the first time. It hurts to watch someone you love so dearly suffer so much, but I am glad I decided to watch it again and experience Jesus' death with 3 of my high school girls. Afterward, we just sat in silence in a big group hug before quietly talking about it all.

On Sunday, I partied all day long with my church family. After the heartache of Good Friday, celebrating the resurrection is so amazingly joyful. I sang my heart out, cried happy tears, and smiled until my cheeks hurt. It is incredible to see God change people as they believe for the first time and talk about the new freedom they have. It’s so exciting to see people baptized as a symbol of their identification with Christ’s death and resurrection. One of my high school girls and several kids from Sunday school were baptized as believers. It reminds me of the day when I suddenly knew God loved me and died for me and trusted in Him myself. My life and my heart were completely changed for the better that day and I have so much hope for how much I will continue to grow with God’s help. I stayed at church all day, attending two services and teaching Sunday school at the other two. In between the morning and evening services, Kayle and I went to Claim Jumper restaurant for our Easter meal with 3 other friends. I sat in my purple, flowery Easter dress and shared a full rack of BBQ baby back ribs with my husband, licking my fingers and all. I never was much of a lady...

Easter at Mars Hill Church feels like the giant celebration that Easter is supposed to be. Easter should be the most exciting day of the year for all Christians, since we celebrate Jesus rising from the dead. If Jesus actually resurrected, then we know he is truly God, his promises are trustworthy, his words are truth, and we will one day rise from the dead with new bodies just like he did! If it didn't really happen, then the Bible tells us, "your faith is futile and you are still in your sins." The sermon showed video from Israel of many of the places Jesus went during his last hours, including the Garden of Gethsemane, the jail where he was held, the place where the crowd chose Barrabbas, where Simon of Cyrene was told to carry Jesus' cross, Golgotha, and the garden tomb. It was a short sermon and very interesting to see the places we read about in the Bible. You can watch it here: http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/easter/easter-2010

Mars Hill sure knows how to party for Jesus. We had over 2000 people attend at the Bellevue campus on Sunday (600 more than usual) with about 50 people being baptized (about half became Christians or decided to get baptized on the spot that day). Church-wide, over all 9 campuses, almost 7000 people attended a Good Friday service, almost 13,000 people celebrated Easter with us in person, another 19,000 watched Easter online from all over the world, and 376 people professed faith in Jesus by being baptized. God was working powerfully in the hearts and lives of many, many people and I, for one, was just overflowing with worshipful happiness at the glory of my risen Lord and Savior. This is a cool video of baptism stories and a summary of some of the cool things God did in our church on Easter this year: http://blog.marshillchurch.org/2010/04/04/mars-hill-easter-stories/

Well, that's all the news for this week. I'll try to post in Las Vegas and maybe even take some pictures to show you all!

We love you!
Angie and Kayle

Breaking Out Our Green Thumbs

The past two weeks have not been too eventful. I guess that's why I didn't even realize I waited too long to post! Well, that and my mom and dad have been in Jamaica for the last week to celebrate their 30th anniversary, so I haven't received any phone call reminders from mom. Dani and I laughed on the phone, because I haven't heard from mom and dad for over a week now (too expensive to call from out of country). I told Dani that, when mom called, I would say, "Why, you do love me after all! You forgot to call your dear old daughter for over a week. I was beginning to think you forgot about me. And I noticed you haven't posted on your blog for a LOOOONG time..." Oh mom...queen of the motherly guilt trip! Well, I guess it means I'm loved a lot!~

Two weekends ago, Kayle and I went out on a Friday dinner date at CoHo cafe and then stayed in for the rest of the night. Saturday was pretty busy, with a 2 hour coffeeshop leader's meeting with my youth group girls. We planned a few events for the month and started brainstorming what we could do for a service project for mother's day. At night, Kayle and I went to babysit Grace while Caleb and Laura went to revisit the site of their first date, which was apparently going out of business the next day. Kayle helped me with dinner for an hour or so before heading to a lighting training at church for the rest of the night. I had a great time playing with Grace and babysitting solo...until bedtime, that is. It took about a half hour of crying and rocking and singing and screaming for Grace to calm down and get to sleep, although it definitely seemed like a lot longer. Then, I had a glorious hour and a half of silence to buy some wedding and baby shower gifts online before Kayle and the parents came home.

On Sunday, we greatly enjoyed a week off from children's ministry and a much needed sleep-in. Instead of arriving at church by 8am, we were able to get some things done at home, make waffles for breakfast, and attend the 5pm service. A couple new to the booth were scheduled to serve at the 5, so we ended up sitting in the booth with them, just in case. But, all in all, it was a refreshing Sunday.

Last Tuesday, Kayle decided to go to a memorial service with some guy friends. We found out via e-mail on Friday that one of the guys from the Microsoft Bible study we used to attend died suddenly. He called in sick the day before with the flu and didn't show up the next day for work. Ian was an enthusiastic guy, passionate about his faith and all things geeky. It was shocking for both of us to find out, but we also felt a lot of peace about his death. It was clear that Ian was a devoted Christian who dearly loved God, so we were confident and happy for him to be in Heaven. At only 26, Ian struggled with multiple allergies and walked with a cane, so it was delightful to picture him running into Jesus' arms with a new body. His memorial was solemn at times but mostly a celebration infused with joy and hope. Meanwhile, I went to our regular community group where we enjoyed a meal of baked potatoes, rolls, salad, soup, and strawberries. Lately, our group has been talking a lot about going deeper and becoming more vulnerable with each other about our personal struggles. We are really working on building a strong, authentic community in Christ that holds each other accountable and encourages everyone in life and growth. I'm excited to get to know the other ladies more as we share our life stories in the coming weeks.

At Proxy on Wednesday, we had a wonderful discussion about our prayer lives and the purpose and power of prayer in faith. The girls were sharing and engaged as we continued in Ephesians 2 and prayed for one another and the church. I always stay until about 10pm, talking to the girls after group and catching up on their lives. It has been a joy to see the growth in them and in our community as a whole.

On Friday, after cleaning our home all week, we planned to have some friends over for a game night. We have been planning to break in our hospitality for a while but never quite got around to inviting people over. Unfortunately, we didn't give quite enough notice and, with various illnesses going around, no one was able to come. I guess we'll put a date on the calendar a little farther ahead next time! Instead, Kayle and I rented District 9 to watch together.

On Saturday, we woke up late and made a big breakfast. In the afternoon, we went to Thad and Marilee's new house to help them tame their huge yard and many gardens. The couple who previously owned the home were horticulturists and put in many hours of their retirement into making a beautiful landscape. Since they moved on, weeds have overrun the flower beds, vines invaded the fruit trees and mini-greenhouse, and sticks piled up everywhere. Various people came and left to help for a few hours throughout the day. We caught the afternoon shift for about 2-3 hours. Kayle focused on weeding a large square of dirt that would soon become a vegetable and spice garden. I worked on weeding two large flowerbeds with baby Bolder as my gardening companion. They will have quite a treasure once the plum, apple, and cherry trees start bearing fruit later this year and fresh produce starts growing in their backyard. One day of work sure made a lot of difference! (Grandpa Oskamp would just love it there...)

This Sunday was just delightful. After the scheduled teacher arrived late, I ended up teaching the Sunday school lesson. Armed with a bowl of cut-up strawberries, grapes, apples, blueberries, and melon, the class was more engaged than ever. We had a lot of reviewing to do in the lesson, so each kid got to pick one piece of fruit for every question they answered. I had so many hands raised and so many insightful answers, even from the 6-year-old girl who just moved here from Georgia! We talked about everything from the Trinity to the Fall, from incarnation to revelation, and from sin to the cross and salvation. Then, we finished the class with me dressed up as a judge with a maraca as a gavel while we discussed the evidence that Jesus really did rise from the dead. What a great class!

At night, Kayle and I got our exercise in by playing the new Wii Fit Plus game that Kayle bought off Craigslist. It took him several hours to get it all hooked up and working with the computer monitor as the screen and the digital piano as the speakers. The goal is to make exercise more fun, so we can be more consistent and keep it up even during the rainy months. So far, so good!

Finally, we are greatly anticipating a business trip to Las Vegas in two weeks. Kayle's product, Visual Studio, is being released in April and he was selected to go to the development conference with 7 other guys from his team. The great thing is that I can come too and enjoy some quality time with Kayle in the evenings. We are staying in the Bellagio hotel, where the conference is being held, and are still looking for tickets to go to a show together. While Kayle helps man a booth for his team and attends training sessions and networking events, I plan to lounge by the pool and get in some leisurely reading. We will be gone from Sunday April 11 until Wednesday April 14, so feel free to call me during the day as I will have plenty of time to chat!

We miss you all and love you dearly!
Angie and Kayle

Busy Weekend with Friends

Last week, I still had under 20 hours scheduled at EA2, so I've been filling up my extra weekday time with volunteering at Eastside Academy, going home for a nap, and some errands/cleaning. Several students are approaching the end of their class with me soon, but it sounds like most of them want to take another math course. I also am hearing of a few new students for the following weeks, though none of them for many hours. Today, we have quite a wake-up at EA2, because Lou, another teacher who opened up this morning, punched in the wrong code for the alarm system and it went off (LOUDLY) for about 20 minutes. The police came and went, but we still couldn't find the number to call to turn it off (other co-workers didn't answer their phones). Finally, another staff member showed up and knew the alternate code needed to shut off the system, and peace was restored!

Kayle's work is going really well lately. I think he is enjoying the projects he's been assigned, working on new features for the next release. He said he is giving a demonstration of his work to his team on Thursday. Visual Studio 2010 is being released next month, so Kayle will have the satisfaction of seeing his hard work pay off in an actual product.

At community group, we had Italian night with some delicious pasta dishes. We brought crazy bread (our first time making it) and asparagus (with oil and crushed red pepper). Both were a hit with our friends and I had to admit to everyone that Kayle did most of the cooking this time!

On Wednesday, I had my youth group Bible study. Youth group has been going really well lately. The girls are starting to take ownership in leading and planning events and our discussions are becoming more authentic. It has been fun watching them grow and mature in their faith and helping them build a true Christian community.

As you can probably tell by the title, our weekend was incredibly busy. On Friday night, I went to Kat's house to watch a movie, catch up, and eat pizza. Meanwhile, Kayle dropped me off and went to a brewery in Bellevue to meet up with some guys from CG. We both enjoyed bonding with our same-sex friends and got home pretty late that night.

On Saturday, I had a CG leaders training at church for 4 hours (9am-1pm). It turned out to be pretty informative and, as always, I enjoyed meeting and networking with other people from the church, many of whom I've seen as names posting things online. I was one of about 5 women out of 50-60 total attendees, but I met a guy hosting a theology discussion night, another with a wife possibly interested in co-leading my youth group girls, and another who coaches and trains the groups in my region. Overall, it was a productive training!

After a long nap at home, Kayle and I set off for Rachel and Tom's house. The couple has been married for 10 years and goes to our community group although this is the first time we've seen them outside of group events. Rachel and Tom made us a wonderful dinner of green beans with cherry tomatoes, salmon, red-skinned potatoes, and rice. They also had ice cream sundaes and truffles for dessert. But, most of all, we enjoyed just talking to them and getting to know their story of finding each other and coming to Seattle. While Rachel fed the baby, I had the chance to talk to her, just the girls, while Kayle sat down to talk to Tom. We greatly appreciated their invitation and hope to return the favor sometime soon.

Finally, after dinner, Kayle dropped me off at the youth group sleepover party at Hannah's house. We watched two movies, played some spoons, and, of course, talked and talked. I was glad that I found a replacement for Children's Ministry the next day, because, with the time change, I was up until 3:30am and would have needed to be at church by 8am to serve!

On Sunday, I met Kayle at the 11:15 service where he decided to work in the booth to cover someone who was sick. I sat up there with him although I got less out of the service that usual due to being so tired. The sermon was all about being in a CG, so I guess, with the training on Saturday, I mostly had that topic covered. After church, we went grocery shopping and watched the movie, "Iron Man". I also slept a good portion of the afternoon to catch up of sleep for the workweek.

Well, I guess that's it for this week! I can't really compete with Kristen for frequency of posts and number of pictures...she is really having fun and experiencing new things in Australia! My student for the afternoon is almost here, so I have to go back to work! Take care, and we miss you...

Angie and Kayle

Out and About on the Tandem Bike

This week was less busy than usual, a nice break from what had become pretty chaotic. I had fewer hours at work and some breathing time in between students. (It gets hectic when they come in 4 hours in a row- it takes me more than a minute or two to completely switch gears!). Surprisingly, my mornings are filled up but my afternoons are mostly empty with only one or two students after lunch each day. The afternoon is when I'd usually have tutoring students, and we don't usually get new tutoring kids until the end of semester panic period. So, I might have a lighter, 25-hour/week schedule for a while. I will probably start going to Eastside Academy again for my longer breaks. On a side note, I am totally geeking out about my boss buying Mathematica, a program that does math and science demonstrations on the computer. I've had a fun time browsing the website and finding cool models to show my students. The program has gotten so much cooler since we used it in high school and college!

Tuesday, we did not have community group for the regional meetings. On Wednesday, we had a great bible study time at Proxy, studying Ephesians chapter 1. Youth group has been going really well lately, and I just found out that one of the other leaders is coming back soon. Lisa took some time off to find a better job, and she has just found one. I'm excited to have another adult leader to bounce ideas off of and share the load of planning and teaching with. Dustin, the main youth pastor, is also back, so youth group should become more active and dynamic again.

Thursday and Friday night, we stayed in and rested at home. One night we watched Spiderman 2 (I won it at the SuperBowl party). We also made homemade pizza with ham and bacon. On Friday, I picked up our wedding vows from Eastside Academy. The art teacher, who is amazing at calligraphy, wrote out our wedding vows in deep purple and decorated them with doves on the edges to put in our silver, engraved frame. They are already hanging on the wall, right next to the counter where we eat our meals every day.

Saturday was a great day. We slept in and then made a huge pile of oven french toast using thick slices of artisan bread. In the afternoon, we rode the tandem bike to Marymoor Park because it was a beautiful 60 degree, sunny day. The park had hundreds of people- we saw people playing cricket, lacrosse, soccer, ultimate frisbee, rock climbing, flying remote control airplanes/helicopters, and doing bike tricks. There were more dogs and kids than you could ever count. We rode around, watched and puzzled over the cricket game, and threw the frisbee around on an open, astro-turf baseball field. Parks are well-loved and well-used here and it is quite an experience going to one. For one thing, I heard probably 10 different languages in just a few hours!

At night, we went to Gary's birthday party (a guy from our old CG). We played classic video games (Mario and the original MarioKart) and, of course, the daughter of a Nintendo employee was amazing at Mario. Then, the nine of us sat down to some Texas Hold'Em, which turned out to be pretty ridiculous. We had to look up on a Blackberry which hands won and had the hardest time deciding how much the chips should be worth. With several lucky hands (including one I won with a pair of twos and another with Ace high), I ended up winning the poker game and a giant candy bar. We laughed a lot and enjoyed spending time with people we hadn't seen for a while. Kayle and I plan to host a Settlers game night soon, since that's the one we didn't have time for last night. Oh...and we both ate more dark chocolate covered pretzals than we ever should have!

Today was the first Sunday in a long time that we have slept in (two days in a row!). Neither of us were signed up to serve, so we decided to go to the 5 o'clock service and the extended worship afterward. We mostly just lounged around all day, but we did have nice lunch of sage chicken, caesar salad, and corn.

We're looking forward to a slightly busier week and, as always, missing all of you. We love you!

Angie and Kayle

Women's Retreat

Since I last posted, we have been go, go, going!

The women's retreat was awesome. Last weekend, about 240 women from our Bellevue Mars Hill campus convened at a summer camp for teaching, community, and worship. Kayle dropped me off at Costco for dinner (pizza) and to catch a ride with Marilee (from my CG), Marilee's sister, and Michelle Bates. Marilee was also one of about 8 nursing mothers on the trip, so little Bolder came too. We arrived just in time for the 1st session, relieved to be out of the car because the sweet bundle of joy cried for the last 1/2 hour or so of the drive. I stayed in a cabin with some of the Proxy girls, though the cabin assignments were pretty fluid and we gained a few and lost a few for the 2nd night.

The theme of the weekend was Freedom in Christ- "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Therefore, do not submit yourselves again to a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1). The teaching was very insightful and authentic with several very vulnerable testimonies and some great group discussion. I came away with a deep admiration for the other women in my church who spoke and led. The teaching that stuck with me the most was how God delights in me as His daughter. I, perhaps not totally consciously, thought that God was always disappointed in me whenever I mess up and sin, because I can never live up to the perfection He calls us to strive for. However, I realize now that that is a lie I've been nurturing. Instead, God rejoices in me and sings over me, just like I love to tenderly hold a baby and sing her to sleep. "The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." Isn't it beautiful that God loves us in this way?

The talks focused on our identity in Christ and how freedom from sin and shame is found in the security of our salvation and ongoing help in Him. I thought a lot about what I allow to "define" me- my status as "married without kids", my job as a teacher, my university education, my geekiness... No, my identity is caught up with Christ, my worth secured by His work in choosing, rescuing, and sanctifying me. "I am" a work in progress for sure, but, above all, a precious child of God on mission to glorify Him. I could go on and on about the things I learned or re-learned on the retreat, and I even came home with a long list of things to tell Kayle about. Just ask if you want to know more!

A few other highlights: The ladies all participated in a regional rodeo competition involving several very funny events. We laughed so hard in the chicken herding event, when 7 other ladies and I chased a very fast hen with a mind of her own! I also took part in a relay that involved lasso-ing another person and running back and forth with the rope. One of the ladies in our CG looked so disgusted as she untied a ribbon from a goat's tail during a different relay- it was all too funny. The event culminated with a line dance to Cotton-Eyed Joe.

The other highlight for me was more personal. One night before dinner, I walked by myself to the arena where the rodeo was. With the stars sparkling above and in pleasant solitude, I sang praises to God for about an hour. It was such a heartfelt outpouring of worship that I desperately needed and enjoyed.

I arrived home on Sunday afternoon just before Kayle got home from serving in the booth at church. He spent his weekend at a video game night with the guys, playing piano, and programming. Kayle has been practicing a new Chopin song a lot lately. It sounds lovely to hear music in the house so often now. Even though it was only a weekend, it was nice to see Kayle again- I sure missed him! We finished the weekend with some serious laundry to do!

On Monday, I stayed home sick in the morning with a stomach bug. I missed my four morning students and slept until 11:00. My boss called to see if I felt better enough to come teach my two afternoon kids, since he had trouble finding a sub for them. Well-rested and feeling much less achy, I went in to work for a few hours. In the evening, Kayle went to help the Connolly's (new to our CG) move to their new home. While he was gone, I read and listened to the sermon from Sunday as well as watched a tv show. I was still a bit groggy, so I took it easy to recover.

By Tuesday, I felt fine again, so I probably had just underestimated the energy loss from the retreat or caught something random from one of the many women I talked to. Last week was the first week I was scheduled for over 30 hours, so I was busy, busy, busy. Tuesday night, I went to a Proxy (youth group) Reconnect event at another leader's house. To our surprise, over 40 students and 10 leaders showed up to reconnect with each other after a long period of small groups. We talked, played Wii, ate tons of junk food, and competed in an extended charades/Catch Phrase game. They hope to have these events about once/month, but with CG on Tuesdays, I'm not sure how often I can go. It's tricky to have only one car sometimes and I don't want to be missing CG quite so often. Kayle did childcare at CG this week and I picked him up and joined the women for prayer time after my event was over. Long day!

Wednesday, my youth group small group had a feedback session to re-orient our focus and make some adjustments. We're going to switch from studying Luke with the sermons to studying Ephesians. We're also planning some events, tweaking the leadership meetings, and changing our prayer time among a host of other suggestions. Now, you all know how great I am with change, so this whole process has been emotionally exhausting and very humbling as a leader. Overall, I am excited with the direction of our youth group and the ownership of it that my girls have recently shown. It's been quite a year of changes though!

On Friday was the 3rd youth group meeting of the week. A local church built a huge rec center with a pool and gym. They host weekly open swims and open gyms (alternating) on Fridays for only $2, so my girls were begging me to check it out. I met 3 other girls at the pool, with ice cream beforehand, and we enjoyed talking, floating, playing Marco Polo, hitting a blow-up volleyball, and hanging out. There were a lot of young kids, but they mostly stuck to the side of the pool where cartoons were playing on the wall. I think everyone had fun and we decided that open swim was a definite social event to repeat.

Saturday morning, Kayle and I helped another couple from our CG move. There was a whole army of guys lifting and hauling everything, so I mostly occupied myself with holding Bolder so Marilee could direct the whole process. At the house, we unloaded everything, ate some frozen pizza, and marveled at how fast the job got done. Kayle and I decided to let the rest of Saturday be a time to rest from the busy week reconnect with each other. We went out to dinner at night and devoured some baby back ribs and parmesan crusted halibut. Both were amazingly delicious!

On Sunday, we got to church at 8am to set up for teaching primary. It was my last week of teaching on the "month on, month off" system. I'll help out every other week for the next month before teaching again in April. Kayle stayed in primary with me, since he wasn't scheduled in the booth, and I loved watching him be "it" for class-wide freeze tag. The kids really enjoyed playing with him. I taught on the parable of the Pharisee and tax collector praying in the temple. I brought a scarf, towel, and headband as costumes and the kids acted it out "reader's theatre" style. I think the kids understood that we need to approach God with an awareness of our need for Him without thinking that we are so much better than everyone else because of what we can do. After all, God is the one who gave us all our talents and possessions. The sermon was also good, about Jesus healing the leper and paralytic. After church, I took a long nap, went to Kat's house to talk for a few hours, and finally ended the day with a youth group leader's meeting (yg event #4 for the week!).

This week, I was a bit nervous about work because I had a new student scheduled to take physical science every day with me and enough students for 35 hours total. However, on Monday, 3 of my students either stopped coming for good or changed their plans for my class. None of them were my fault, just a coincidence of varying life changes and parent decisions. So, a week that started with 35 hours was promptly reduced to 25 hours in one day. This was actually a bit of a relief, since I have been feeling pretty exhausted lately with all the additional hours and evening events. I should get more students soon and I am happily falling into a solid routine with the ones I have.

Today is Tuesday and our second weeknight at home in a row. There is no CG this week because of the regional meetings, so we are finally catching up on sleep! Spring seems to have arrived with pink flowers blooming on the trees and temperatures in the upper 50s all week. It is unusual for us to have so much sun at this time of year, so everyone seems especially chipper lately. We miss you and love you all!

Angie and Kayle

P.S. I will try to find and post pictures from the women's retreat soon!

Happy Valentines' Day!

I'm posting again a little sooner than usual, because I will be gone all weekend at a women's retreat for Mars Hill church. About 200 women are going to a local summer camp from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. I'm looking forward to bonding with some ladies, hearing some great speakers, and sharing a cabin with my youth group girls. While I'm gone, Kayle is planning to program and hang out with some guy friends, though I think his plans are still tentative.

Last weekend, Kayle and I babysat little Grace so her parents could go out for Valentines' day. It was sweet to see them all dressed up for a nice restaurant outing. Grace was pretty easy this time and growing cuter as she learns new words and games. Of course, bedtime was still an ordeal, but we are becoming old pros (or something like that).

On Saturday, I spent most of the day with youth group girls. We had a leadership meeting in a coffee shop in the morning followed by watching the movie, "Dear John". The girls have lots of ideas for our bible study and are eager to go in every direction at once, it seems. So, as the main leader, I'm a little overwhelmed but optimistic. The movie was a chic flick with some cute and funny scenes but mostly unrealistic and not very hopeful about love. A relationship loses a lot of depth without Christ at its center. Afterwards, we went to Courtney and Emily's house to make valentines for some girls in Brazil. The opportunity came through Hope Unlimited, the place where Cody visited last summer. We ended up making 25 beautifully ornate valentine cards with messages and Bible verses in Portuguese. Not bad for a couple hours work!

On Sunday, I taught in primary and Kayle worked in the tech booth. My lesson was on the parable of the wedding banquet, so I brought wedding pictures and cards and let the kids make their own wedding invitation. Even the boys had fun with that! I learned that that particular parable is hard to explain to kids, so I'm not sure if they understood the overall message or not. Or maybe, it was just confusing to them why people would choose to reject God's invitation to Heaven. We spent the rest of Valentines' Day relaxing, watching our romantic short films DVD, and eating chocolate truffles. Yum!

Monday was President's Day, so I had the day off from school. I had some laundry and cleaning to catch up on, so I enjoyed being able to do some backed-up chores at a leisurely pace. In the middle of the day, I picked up Kayle from work and we had lunch together at Applebee's. I felt well-rested going into the rest of the work week!

This week, I have only 4 days at work and a new student from Australia for 3 days/week. I told him all about Kristen studying abroad and he has been telling me some differences between math there and here. For example, they call the slope of a line the gradient and distinguish 5's and s's by making a mark called a "hat". Overall, my 11 students are doing well and I'm especially enjoying getting to teach through entire math courses.

Yesterday was community group. Another family joined our group, bringing the toddler/walker total to 5 and the baby total to around 4 or 5 any given week. It's a crazy full house every Tuesday night! Our women's prayer time was excellent and several of us are looking forward to going to the retreat together. Of course, I still need to find a ride there, because I forgot that Kayle would need the car! Oops!

I'll try to post about the retreat sometime next week, but we expect to be quite busy. We love and miss you all!

Angie and Kayle

Kristen in Town!

Last weekend, we greatly enjoyed having Kristen around. She motivated us to take some pictures of our home and where we work, so all of you in Michigan and beyond can have a better idea of our daily life. She seemed to indicate that everyone thought we have no furniture. You can see from our pictures that our home has indeed become more home-like in the last year or so (though not entirely clean).

Kristen arrived after our workday on Friday. Kayle and I both went to pick her up from the airport. At home, we spent the evening playing some of the new rules for Settlers that came with the "Traders and Barbarians" version we got for Christmas. On Saturday, we decided to use a coupon for an authentic Greek and Italian place in Bothell. Though farther than we have ever gone by bicycle, we decided to bike on the trail to enjoy what turned out to be a warm, sunny day. The trail was paved most of the way though we hit some spots north of the University of Washington campus where the path was under construction or gravel or dirt. We also had an adventure trying to find the place, since we had never been there before and needed to find some new trails. We took the tandem bike and Kayle's bike, and Kristen and Kayle alternated between the two. Finally, after about an hour and 12 miles of pedalling, we made it to Tona's restaurant...only to find it closed. We arrived at about 11:45 and they were scheduled to open at noon. Around 12:20, the owner showed up saying that traffic was all backed up. She was wonderful and cooked all the food herself. The restaurant is a family business and she is the primary chef. We shared warm pita bread with the only hummus I have ever considered delicious. Kayle had a flaky calzone. Kristen enjoyed some sort of chicken/teriyaki salad, and I had the Greek sampler platter. We are very glad we waited "just a little longer" and resisted the urge to cross the street to McDonald's. The way home was less eventful, but we were all definitely sore. We walked our bikes up the entire last hill to our condo and then promptly took a two-hour nap. In the evening, we lounged around and watched "Ever After" (one of my favorite movies and one that Kristen had never seen).

On Sunday, Kayle and Kristen dropped me off at church to teach Sunday school and proceeded to Snoqualmie Falls, about an hour away. They hiked about 1 mile down to the base of the falls before coming back for the 11:15 church service. We went home for about an hour before going to Jeff and Paula's for a Super Bowl party. There, we ate chips and salsa, veggies, and chili while cheering on the Colts/Saints. Jeff and Paula traditionally have everyone try to guess the winning team, spread, and final score to win a DVD as a prize. Almost everyone bet on the Colts to win, so I had the winning guess with the Saints up by 10. I was a little torn cheering for Reggie Bush's team after his role in the crushing defeat of Notre Dame vs. USC several years ago. However, our family has a long history of cheering for the "underdogs" or whichever team everyone else/Aaron doesn't pick.

On Monday, Kayle went to work as usual, but I took a day off to take Kristen into Seattle. We visited both of my schools and then went down to Tukwila to Seattle Chocolates. About two weeks ago, I bought a coupon for chocolate and a romantic short films DVD (selected as the best short films of hundreds of film festivals). Since we have busy weekends both before and after Valentines' Day, Kayle and I wanted to spend the holiday at home. Of course, the 1 lb of chocolate that came with the coupon just wasn't enough! They had a deal running where you could fill a bag with the slightly defective truffles for $7.50. So, we filled 1 bag with another 2-3 lbs of espresso, dark chocolate, raspberry, blackberry, and toffee truffles. Good deal money-wise but perhaps not health-wise. Afterwards, we drove back to Overlake Transit Center (near Kayle's work) to take a bus into Seattle. We walked around Pike's Place Market, bought some fresh produce at a stand, and hiked about 2 miles to Seattle Center and back. At Seattle Center, we saw the space needle, enjoyed a musical fountain, and shared an Orange Julius and coffee. All in all, I think Kristen got a good feel for Seattle life. Of course, the all-day conversation was a highlight as well. At night, we picked up Kayle from work and made a homemade rosemary chicken and bacon pizza for dinner.

On Tuesday morning, we said our goodbyes. Kristen had a few hours home alone to pack while Kayle and I were at work. In the middle of the day, Kayle took her to the airport for her plane to LA and, eventually, Australia. Meanwhile, after work, Kayle and I went to CG with a pineapple and some clementines. I recently started with a new student on Tuesdays until 6, so it will be quite a rush to make it to CG by 6:30. I think our menu contributions will be more pathetic for a while. Wednesday was a smaller group than normal too (only 4 couples), since 3 or 4 other famililes are all sick. We enjoyed the smaller group discussion and prayer time especially when we were interrupted at one point with a very loud and cheerful celebration over a lost tooth.

Yesterday was youth group after work. Two girls did a great job leading the discussion. I'm also excited about a brief service project this weekend. Hope Unlimited (where Cody went in Brazil) sent a letter asking people to make valentines for the girls in their orphanage. I called the office and got the names of all 81 girls they house. On Saturday, we're going to have a 2-hour valentine-making party to make as many as we can. My youth group girls are very artistic, so I hope they have fun with it!

Well, that's all for this week. We're planning to babysit for Grace tonight and then have a relatively quiet Valentines' Day weekend. I have off on Monday for President's Day too. We miss you and love you!

Angie and Kayle

Pictures from Kristen's Visit

Here is a link to some pictures from Kristen's visit to Seattle. I also included pictures of our house (with furniture!), both of my schools, and the building where Kayle works. I'll try to post a longer update soon!

http://picasaweb.google.com/Angie.Hinkle/KristenSVisitToSeattle#

Girl's Night Out

What's new? Not too much. We're both working hard at our jobs and attending CG, youth group, and church every week. In February, I'm teaching the elementary kids in Sunday school and Kayle is now a leader for the lights and powerpoint crew at Mars Hill. Maybe I'll try bullet points this time:

- I'm officially up to 26 hours at EA2 this week with 3 new students and more expected.

- On Friday, I went on a girl's night out with the women in my CG. Seven of us went to a fancy wine bar in downtown Bellevue and enjoyed several hours of food and conversation. The guys will have a night out soon too...but, since they're in charge of planning it, who knows when it will be!?!

-This weekend, we toured two condo complexes to get an idea of what we might be looking to buy. We're still not sure that buying will pay off over renting, but we have been keeping an eye out.

-On Monday, I had a dentist appointment to pick up my "night guard" retainer thing. Apparently, I grind my teeth in my sleep and need to protect them. I've had it for one night so far. It's bulky and a bit awkward (feel like my lips are sticking out), but at least I was able to sleep! The dentist said that teeth-grinding can cause headaches and shoulder pain, so maybe this is part of my problem...

-There was no CG this week, but I have youth group tomorrow. One of my high school girls is leading discussion instead of me. In fact, different pairs of girls are leading for the next few weeks. I'm hoping to help them grow in confidence and leadership.

-Kristen arrives on Friday night and will be in town until Tuesday. We're busy cleaning and planning for her arrival and stay.

That's about it for the week! Sorry for the abridged version this time. I'm feeling pretty tired and need to rest up for the upcoming busy-ness.

We love and miss you, as always!
Angie and Kayle

Happy Birthday Kayle!

As I'm sure you know, Kayle turned 24 on January 12. We celebrated with dirt cake at CG, and I think Kayle even managed to go the whole day without anyone singing to him (as he prefers). The next day, I brought the leftover dirt cake to youth group and the girls liked it so much that they asked me to post the recipe. Not much else was new for that week.

On Martin Luther King Day, I had no school at both EA and EA2. I found out that we only get 3 days off for EA2 the whole semester: MLK, Memorial Day, and Presidents' Day. I knew that EA2 didn't take off for normal breaks like Christmas break and spring break, but I just learned that we don't take off for summer either! Apparently, we get quite a few students in the summer who want to make up credits or continue their coursework. Luckily, my boss has been very good at giving me all my requested days off for Kristen's visit, coming home, and various weddings. This also means I don't have to search for a summer job this year- hurrah! My day off was much appreciated. I ran a whole bunch of errands, including getting a haircut, Kohl's, Radioshack, grocery store, and chiropractor. I also cleaned and did laundry. Of course, I did my share of lounging around and taking a nap too. Unfortunately, Kayle had work that day (which never happens- he has many more federal holidays off than me!).

Last week, I also got a new full-time student for 5 hours/week. I should be getting 2 more new students soon as well. It's very possible that my ~20 hour/week job becomes more like 30 hours/week soon. This limits my time at Eastside Academy, but I love working with my EA2 students too. I still help out at EA when I can, scheduling speakers, writing letters, and grading online classes. Most of my students at both schools had final exams last week, so there was general frenzy everywhere. I even subbed for a Calculus student whose 1st session was an emergency study session the day before the test. Whoa!

Besides work, CG and youth group also went well. We enjoyed soup and sandwiches last week and had a new couple originally from the Philippines visit. They have a 16-year-old son in Proxy (who I haven't met yet) and a 4 year old. I hope they join our group- it was nice talking to them. In youth group, we've been studying along with the sermon series, so we talked about the temptation of Jesus and how to deal with our own temptation. We are also working on planning some social and service events for our group as well as helping the girls step up into leadership by leading discussion. My co-leader had to take some time off to look for a new job, so I'm leading by myself for a while. With the new Bible study meeting style, I went from having no planning responsibility to pretty much all of the responsibility. Eek! Pray for me! We had our first "event planning" meeting on Friday and only 2 girls (out of about 12 total) showed up. We have a lot of good ideas but a lot of work ahead.

On Saturday was our long-anticipated date in Seattle. We went grocery shopping in the morning (not part of the date) and ate a nice, big breakfast. In Seattle, I had my massage appointment from the coupon I bought a few months ago. It was 70 minutes of amazing-ness, but, unfortunately, my neck and shoulders were hurting again within a few hours. Alas...no quick solution. (Kayle has me on an exercise/stretching/strengthening regime that he hopes will reduce my chronic back pain. We also might get a Wii Fit. If it doesn't work soon, I might go see a back specialist to see if there's anything else we can do!) After the massage, we happened on a nice restaurant on Lake Union for lunch. We had planned to go somewhere else, but it was closed for some reason. We ended up right next to the harbor and the parmesan-crusted Dover sole and huge cheeseburger we ordered were much enjoyed. I think we found a new favorite restaurant to visit while in Seattle! Our meal over, we proceeded to Seattle Center (where the space needle is) for our movie. We were there before 3:00 for a 4:10 movie and the line was already very long to get in. Apparently, everyone wants a good seat for Avatar in 3D on IMAX. It was entertaining to be in line though, because there was some type of anime convention going on with all kinds of teenagers in strange Japanese cartoon costumes taking odd pictures of each other in the park. Kayle said that he wished he had brought a camera! The movie was worth the wait- very visually stunning even if the whole spirtuality aspect was off. It's exciting to think of all the cool movies they could produce with that technology.

On Sunday, we waited until the evening service to go to church, since Kayle needed to fill in for someone in the tech booth. It was a special Sunday. Pastor Mark, with a long list of miracles, ended up in Haiti last week to survey the needs of specifically the churches there. He told his experiences along with video and pictures of the wreckage left behind by the earthquake. Mars Hill is now co-founding an organization called Churches Helping Churches to assist local churches in rebuilding after disasters and empower them to serve their commmunities and provide aid in the name of Christ. In addition to great physical need, the people of Haiti and everywhere have great spiritual and emotional needs that come to the fore-front after a catastrophe.

Here is Sunday's touching sermon on Haiti:
http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/special/32-hours-the-church-in-haiti

Here is one of the slide-shows Pastor Mark showed on Sunday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esUu2C6kLu8

Here is a link to the Churches Helping Churches site:
www.churcheshelpingchurches.org

The sermon was very touching and challenging and, for the first time since I initally heard of the earthquake, my heart is broken for the people of Haiti. Please be in prayer for the relief efforts there but also for the hearts of the Haitians who so desperately need the hope of Christ.

This week starts a new semester and should prove to be quite busy. I am looking forward to a CG girls night out (and guys night out) this weekend. All the ladies are going to dinner on Friday night, but I'm not sure what the guys are planning to do. I'm also hoping to see Kat and hang out with her.

As always, we miss our friends and family who are far away. Much love and prayers!
Angie and Kayle

Settling Back Into Routine...

Not too much is new since my last post. We've gotten back into the old work routine and are finally sleeping at our normal hours. It took us about 3-4 days before we were going to bed after 9:00 pm and waking up after 6:00 am! We kind of liked having so much time in the morning, but our evening activities require us to be up a little later than that.

Kayle has been busy at work, since their team has a lot to do before an upcoming deadline. Meanwhile, I'm still teaching at EA2 about 20 hours/week and Eastside Academy about 5-8 hours/week. One of my students is finishing up a calculus class this month and is excited about hearing back from colleges for next year. Several others are gearing up for big tests soon. Eastside Academy's quarter is over at the end of next week too.

There was no CG this week, because most of our group attended the West regional meeting for church. Kayle and I have been going to the North region because that's where we live and where my youth group CG meets. Youth group went really well this week as we looked at spiritual gifts and making a vision/legacy plan to set godly goals for intentionally living out the gospel in every area of our lives. It was nice to have a new middle school girl show up as well.

On Friday, we babysat for Caleb and Laura after work. It was Laura's birthday, so Caleb wanted to take her out to dinner. Watching Grace was fun...until bedtime. She's at the age where she knows what she wants and lets you know it too. We finally got her to bed and sleeping before her parents came home!

On Saturday, Kayle and I rented a movie, "The Soloist," and spent a restful day at home. Today, we went to church in the morning where Kayle did lights for both morning services. Meanwhile, I was planning to meet a student for some math tutoring and managed to do about 20 minutes of fractions and decimals before the 2nd service. Of course, if you linger in the back of the service, you might get asked to help out in children's ministry! Sure enough, the regular PreK teacher's car broke down and I stepped in with the 3-5 year olds. It was a fun lesson about the wise men with a follow-the-star game and a story with everyone crowding around to hear and see the pictures. We did have one major meltdown over not getting to be the line leader, but I think watching Supernanny episodes may have improved my handling of the situation. :) After church, we made meat sauce for CG later this week and drove into Seattle for dinner and to buy IMAX tickets for Avatar. We plan to have another Seattle trip in two weeks to finally get my massage, go to lunch, and see the movie. Sounds pretty great to me!

Kayle turns 24 this Tuesday, so wish him "Happy Birthday" if you get a chance. So far, our only plans are to make dirt cake for CG, which happens to fall on his birthday. I guess that's all for this week!

We miss you and love you!
Angie and Kayle

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Phew! The longer I wait to update my blog, the harder it is to find the time to sit down and post everything! It's been a busy December with Dani's visit and the 2-week trip to Michigan. Here are the highlights in probably more detail than you could ever want:

Since my last post, I only had 1 1/2 more weeks of work before Christmas break and Dani's visit. My students are all making good progress except the one who is MIA about half the time. We had an EA2 Christmas party on Friday, Dec 11- it was held at an Irish pub restaurant with good Irish food and an open bar. It was funny to meet a couple from Michigan that also met in advanced math classes, played trumpet, and even knew someone Kayle knows from Caledonia High School band. The wife also works for EA2 and the husband works for Microsoft. All in all, talking to them was kind of eerie and, despite all the similarities, I maintain that we are a bit less geeky than they were...

Saturday the 12th was super busy. I went to a girl's brunch at Brenda's house in the morning. Brenda made a delicious breakfast spread and we sat around and talked for a few hours. After, I rushed off to practice Christmas carols and go caroling with my youth group girls at a senior center. I was very nervous that we might not have enough singers, but, with 10-12 of us, everything went smoothly and the seniors were rocking it out with us by the end. Finally, I finished out the day by meeting Kayle at Jeff and Paula's house for a cookie baking/Christmas party. Kayle went with some other friends earlier in the day. I was exhausted by the time I arrived, but I still enjoyed some chili and yummy Christmas cookies.

On Sunday, I was the primary (1st-5th grade) Sunday school teacher with Kayle helping out in the room too. Then, we came home, made two meals for new moms in our CG, and delivered the meals to their homes in Bellevue. Both said afterward that they enjoyed the chicken picatta with pasta and veggies. At night, I went to a youth group leader's meeting. (Now, can you see why I didn't post earlier?)

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I had CG and youth group respectively. We celebrated Christmas with a big meal together for CG and we saw many faces that have been busy attending to babies lately. We also surprised Kim and Jay, our hosts, with a gift card to a fancy restaurant so they could go on a nice date. In youth group, we studied advent by talking about Christ's second coming and how we anticipate both Christmas and Christ's eternal kingdom at this time of year. We had a good conversation with lots of questions and things to wonder about.

On Thursday Dec. 17, Dani arrived in Seattle! I picked her up from the airport in the late-morning and let her settle in a bit. Then, we went grocery shopping together and made pasties as a surprise for Kayle. On Friday, Dani and I went into Seattle while Kayle was at work. Dani got a massage for her Christmas present (I was supposed to get one at the same time, but one of the massage therapists was sick that day). Meanwhile, I walked to a nearby bookstore and enjoyed a gingerbread latte in the Starbucks next door. Afterward, we headed to Pike's Place market and downtown Seattle where we shopped a little and ate at a lovely Chinese restaurant. We finished by touring the Seattle aquarium, touching the urchins and anemones, staring at the cute seals and otters, and enjoying an octopus presentation. Of course, there were lots of colorful and odd-looking fish too! We took the bus back to Redmond and picked up Kayle from work.

On Saturday, we enjoyed a delicious seafood dinner in downtown Bellevue and went to "Snowflake Lane," an outdoor Christmas celebration at the mall with fake snow and drummers dressed as toy soldiers. On Sunday, we went to church in the morning. While Kayle served in the tech booth, Dani and I went out to breakfast at Denny's. We spent the rest of the day making cookies for our neighbors. We made many, many gingerbread cookies and decorated them all! We also made almond bars, chocolate chip cookies, and cranberry walnut cookies. We delivered them on Monday morning before our flight, and they were much appreciated by our neighbors. Several said that we made their whole day!

On Monday, we began the Michigan chapter of the month by flying home with Dani. We finally made it, after a short delay in Detroit, around midnight Michigan time. In Detroit, we laughed when they announced over the intercom that we would need to take another plane from a different gate because (and I quote) "this plane is broke!". My mom and a bunch of Hinkles met us at the airport. It is so nice to see family again!

I couldn't possibly tell all the adventures of being home in Michigan, because it seems like we saw so many people! We enjoyed several family days with a Maxey celebration and prime rib lunch on Christmas morning, a Hoksbergen family gathering also on Christmas day, and a Hinkle Christmas bash on the 26th. We enjoyed seeing all the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins as well as opening gifts, having a white-elephant exchange, eating many cookies, and playing some board games. I also enjoyed going with my dad to serve food to the homeless one morning and eating lunch at Sam's Joint with my brother, Aaron. The Hinkle household was also quite busy with 3 Burmese foster sisters now (there are now two Esthers and Siang), bringing the total Hinkle family count to 10 if you include the two of us.

Of course, we also saw some high school friends over break. One evening, I went to a girl's night at Bridget's new house. I reminisced with the other 7-8 girls for 7 full hours of non-stop talking. I also visited with Emily J that day by going to see the Princess and the Frog Disney movie in the theater and sleeping over at her house at night. On New Year's Eve, we had a co-ed high school party with about 10 friends at PJ and Lisa's house with board games, Euchre, more Christmas cookies, talking, and watching the ball drop. Our friend, Conall, also stopped by the Hinkle house to visit with us one afternoon. All in all, it was refreshing to catch up on the lives of our friends.

We returned to Seattle on Saturday, Jan 2. With the time change, coming back is physically much easier than heading to Michigan. We left Michigan around 1:30 and arrived at home in Seattle by 6:30. After some quick partial unpacking, we relaxed and went to bed early.

Today we went to church in the morning, including helping out in the booth and in children's ministry. We spent most of the day just catching up on e-mails, doing laundry, and relaxing. It's hard to believe that we need to go back to work tomorrow!

We love you all dearly and can't wait for our next trip to visit!
Angie and Kayle

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Two weeks ago, we enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving long weekend. With only 3 workdays and a few teachers out, I had a full 7-hour schedule at EA2 on Wednesday and was glad for the break when it came. On Thursday, we enjoyed a lovely dinner at Caleb and Laura's house with loads of side dishes. We brought grilled asparagus, corn, sweet potato casserole, and dinner rolls. There was also turkey, gravy, stuffing, pumpkin pie, coffee cake, jello dessert, and green bean casserole. And all for only 6 of us! (Two other Microsoft guys we knew, Henry and Alex, also came to the dinner.) Of course, baby Grace was there too, but I didn't count her in the total because she didn't eat much. We were all sent home with a large plate of leftovers.

On Friday, we mostly rested around the house for the day. At night, Kayle was called over to Caleb's house for a guy's movie night. I was content to watch one of my television shows and start the book, "Pride and Prejudice" (I'd never read it before.). The guys watched "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," a Western film. On Saturday, we babysat for Caleb and Laura so they could have a date night. We had fun playing with 1-year-old Grace, who is running around and just learning to talk. She had a stuffed nativity scene that could be played with and, after I told her the baby was sleeping, she kept making a snoring sound. She thought it was fun to have everyone crammed in the little barn so they could go to bed. Kayle was very cute playing with the baby too.

On Sunday, I started my three-week turn at being the primary teacher for Sunday school. We learned about baptism and the story of Paul and Silas in (and out of) prison. It was hard to explain what a sacrament is to 1st-5th graders and when I wrote the word on the board one girl triumphantly read it "Sacramento!" They are so sweet. I am looking forward to teaching about communion tomorrow.

This past week, we have been mostly busy with the usual work schedule and activities. We are eagerly anticipating Christmas break and I am especially hoping for some snow. I heard that it snowed quite a lot in Michigan and I hope to see snow here before we head for the Midwest. The temperature has recently dipped below freezing for part of the day, but of course those had to be our only sunny days for a couple months. It just doesn't feel like December without snow! However, I have been belting random Christmas carols in anticipation of our youth group going caroling next weekend.

Lately, I have been teaching about 15-18 hour/week at EA2 and tutoring at Eastside Academy about 10 hours in the afternoon. Since I have EA2 students scheduled for 10:30 or so each morning and until 6pm in the evening, we have grown accustomed lately to sleeping in a few weekdays. It is a nice schedule, especially on days when we have activities at night. This week, we had CG on Tuesday (as usual) and enjoyed a breakfast dinner together. This theme is such a hit for our potluck dinners that we have it about once/month. Both of the pregnant women also had their babies, both healthy boys (Bolder and Tommy Jr.). On Wednesday, I had my regular youth group Bible study. We talked about the role of the tabernacle and temple in Jewish worship and how Jesus fulfills and surpasses those roles, rendering the old temple system no longer necessary. It is exciting to see Jesus as the new temple (literally God's presence with us), Christians as a holy priesthood of believers and temple of the Holy Spirit, and eternity when the whole earth will be a temple to God's glory with His holy presence enjoyed by all His people.

We can hardly believe that Dani arrives in less than two weeks! We have a busy weekend next week with an EA2 Christmas party, caroling with youth group, a Christmas cookie party, Sunday school teaching, youth group leader meeting, and making meals for the two new mommies. We spent today cleaning the extra room of science camp supplies (so Dani would have somewhere to sleep) and running errands. Hopefully, the house will finish getting cleaned tomorrow!

We love and miss you so much!
Angie and Kayle

Only 1 Month Before Christmas...

I didn't even realize that I forgot to post for two weeks until I received my weekly letter from grandma. It said: "Angie: Checked your blog, but nothing was added." How's that for a reminder! :) It made both of us laugh, and, apparently, it worked.

The last two weeks, work went very well for both of us. Kayle's job has been interesting lately and it seems like he is being productive. I have been transitioning to working more hours at EA2 and volunteering fewer hours at Eastside Academy. This is mostly because I have two students that now meet in the morning, breaking my day into smaller sections and making it harder to go back and forth. I still manage to volunteer in person at the school about 10 hours/week, but I've been doing more behind-the-scenes work like making food for the Thanksgiving meal, getting books donated, arranging a talk on science/faith, and writing letters to students on leave. The most exciting news is that one of the students at Eastside Academy became a Christian this month. It's amazing to see how much his life and attitude have changed in such a short time! Another cool moment was when the health class focused on what kind of legacy they wanted to leave and presented about their imagined future life in a mock obituary. It's always special to see students dream about their future and share what is most important to them.

Last Saturday, I went to a meeting about doing graduate school for teaching at Northwest University (a smaller Christian college nearby). I am looking into doing their year-long Masters in Teaching program. There are still a lot of variables affecting whether this is a good option, not the least of which are questions about whether my certification would transfer to Michigan should we move back. We are also saving for a home right now and should probably wait until after we make a down payment so that I would be eligible for some financial aid. Right now, I have an excellent job and am content to continue there while we figure things out.

This past week was also a pretty normal week. On Tuesday, we had community group as usual and made pinwheels for appetizer night. They were a big hit and both pans were completely eaten. (Pinwheels are ham and cheese in crescent roll dough.) We also had a new couple visit our group. Two of the women (Marilee and Rachel) are past their due date, so we should have a couple more babies in our CG soon. We were all saddened too by the news that two other women in our church recently lost their babies when they were nearly 9 months pregnant. Many are praying for them in their heart-breaking loss.

On Wednesday, we had the monthly regional vision meeting instead of regular youth group. We discussed how we can better represent Christ in the places God has already put us. Instead of worrying about adding more events and projects to our busy lives, we focused on how we can best love people in the relationships and opportunities to connect that we already have. It was cool to hear how God is working in and through the daily lives of other church members who live near us.

This weekend, we are mostly resting. Kayle and I watched a Netflix movie together last night. We were planning to babysit for some friends, but, since the baby now has a cold, her parents opted to go out next weekend instead. So, I guess we'll do our regular chores (grocery shopping, laundry, etc.) and maybe go out for dinner tonight. Tomorrow, we have church and a training meeting for children's ministry teachers and room leads. I'll also be cooking a lot for Thanksgiving at Eastside Academy and at Caleb and Laura's house.

We miss you all...only one month until Christmas!
Angie and Kayle

Social Butterflies!?!?

Last week was a pretty busy social week for us, with something going on almost every night. On Tuesday, we went to CG and had a Mediterranean food potluck. In practice, although we intended to get some yummy Greek food or at least something out of the ordinary, we ended up eating Papa John's pizza, salad, pitas with hummus, and Milano cookies. The Papa John's and Milano cookies were our last-minute, no time to cook this week contribution. We held group at Thad and Marilee's house this week, since Kim and Jay (our usual hosts) were sick. It was a smaller crowd but a good discussion on what it means to be "Spirit-filled" (like John the Baptist, his parents, and Jesus among others). Group is going well, but it's sometimes difficult to pray with a toddler or two running around, attracting attention by being cute. The last few weeks, I've lost my train of thought while praying aloud because something was either thrust into or taken out of my hands. We love the kids, but they sure don't let you forget they're around! In particular, 1 1/2 year old Silas managed to get hold of quite a few Milano cookies when the adults weren't looking...

On Wednesday, I went to youth group bible study. Lately, it's been quite a rush to get from work, which ends at 6pm, to Microsoft to pick up Kayle, to home to drop him off, and back out the door to someone's house by 6:45-7pm. Last week I bought some fast food on the way. This week I grabbed an apple and granola bar and ate them in the car for dinner. We've been discussing lately how we want to serve together as a girl's bible study. We hope to do one or two service projects before Christmas.

On Thursday, Kayle and I came home for dinner before going to Caleb and Laura Bell's house for dessert and games. We went to their house last year for Thanksgiving but haven't seen them much lately. It was nice to catch up and talk to them for a while, since we usually only see them in passing at church or an event. We ate brownie sundaes and played a casual board game called Imaginiff (Imagine if...). It sounds like they're planning to move back to Texas with their 1-year-old so they can live by both of their families. We should enjoy their company while we still can!

On Friday night, I went to Kat's house to make a pumpkin pie and watch "Back to the Future". Last year, Kayle and I bought a store pumpkin pie and it tasted so bland that we ended up throwing most of it away and shunning pie for the rest of the season. My pumpkin pie with Kat turned out great, so I will probably make another by myself for Thanksgiving. Kat and I have been trying to get together every two weeks or so and she is becoming a great girlfriend to talk to. Meanwhile, Kayle enjoyed a night at home playing computer games and not missing pumpkin pie (which apparently he doesn't like...).

On Saturday, we went with some other members of our CG to volunteer at a new thrift store. It was a cold, rainy day (it rained much harder than usual for Seattle) and we ended up waiting in our cars and at the grocery store coffee shop for over an hour before the staff showed up. Apparently, the lines of communication were crossed and they forgot we were coming to volunteer. So, when the store finally opened, we ended up doing some odd jobs for two hours. Altogether, it wasn't the most productive, but I guess that is what can be expected from a brand new program that isn't super organized yet. After volunteering, we came home for bit before venturing out again on another social call, this time a fondue open house at the home of someone in our old CG. We saw a lot of people from CG and church that we haven't talked to in a while, so it was a fun time to sit, chat, and eat chocolate. We stayed for a few hours and then decided a dinner date night sounded pretty good. We ate at our favorite restaurant, CoHo cafe, and enjoyed prime rib and a bacon cheeseburger. Then, we came home and relaxed watching a tv show together. All in all, a busy but good day!

Today, we had the week off for children's ministry so we relished the opportunity to sleep in until 9am! Deciding to go to the 5pm service, we spent the morning making waffles and pasties and doing laundry. After lunch, we went to Joe's house to listen to Focus on the Family's radio rendition of C.S. Lewis' "The Screwtape Letters." It was done well and pretty entertaining and funny. Next, we rushed off to church and heard a sermon on the birth of Jesus (and it's not even Christmastime...Pastor Mark pointed out that we don't know which day Jesus was actually born anyway!).

Phew! If hearing about our social calendar isn't enough to make you tired, we also had a pretty busy workweek. I really enjoyed being able to go to the end-of-quarter awards ceremony at Eastside Academy. One of the girls, who is married with two young kids, finished up her credits to be able to graduate and is planning to go into nursing next fall. She offered the advice to her fellow students: "if I can graduate with two kids, you all have no excuse!" Good for her! She worked really hard and ended up with excellent grades. Many of the other kids were also touched by the awards they received as the teachers brainstormed to ensure every student there got two awards and a personal Bible verse. We also shared some yummy food. I clapped so hard my hands turned bright red!

The biggest victory at EA2 was from a student who had previously failed 4 quizzes in his algebra/trig math class. He came only a few sessions before the 4th quiz, and, despite studying really hard, still failed. It seemed pretty hopeless as we went into the unit exam, which would cover the material from all 4 previous quizzes with only a few tutoring sessions in between. My boss called to tell me that the boy got his unit test back this week and passed it with a C! He said that both mom and son were crying and laughing when they received the grade. They were so relieved to have seen some progress after so much hard work and disappointment. I'm so happy for him too! Another student at EA2, this one in Calculus, also did well on his 2nd test with me. We are cruising through the course faster than a college class since he is assigned 6 hours/week with me, and he is doing very well so far. I also received one new student this week and will have another new student next week too.

We can hardly believe it is already November. This past week, it has finally turned to the perpetual cold rain and gray skies of a Seattle winter. The temperature dropped quite a bit and I don't think we'll see much of the sun until the spring. Time seems to being going by so much faster lately, so it feels like Christmas is just around the corner! We miss you and love you all so much!

Angie and Kayle

P.S. Happy Birthday to my siblings, Dani and Aaron! I can't believe how old the two of you are now. My baby brother and sister are growing up so fast!

A Happy Halloween

This past week, we didn't have many plans that were out of the ordinary. Now that I have a job, it seems like the weeks have taken on much more of a routine. We still enjoy our church community group on Tuesday nights (only two more babies on the way...) and I still go to youth group on Wednesday nights. Now, the weekdays are more regular too, with school all day (at EA or EA2 or both) and picking up Kayle from work afterward.

On Friday, Eastside Academy cooked a meal (pasta, bread, fruit, cookies) and brought it to two different homeless shelters in Seattle. The girls went to one place and the guys to another. The girls also got lost for two hours, since no one specified the exact location where we'd be serving among the many programs under the same organization. When we finally made it there, the high-schoolers were complaining of hunger and very cranky. They stopped whining immediately upon seeing the more difficult position of the people they would be serving that day. It seems they suddenly realized that a late lunch and warm car ride is still much better than not knowing when your next meal would be and spending all day out in the cold. It was a learning experience for them to meet and serve the homeless of Seattle, many for the first time.

After returning from Seattle, I tutored a teen at EA2 before picking up Kayle and going to a Halloween party. Michelle and Tony Martin from Eastside Academy hosted it at their home in Issaquah, and Kayle came along to meet them and some more of the students I work with. About 10-12 students came with some of their kids and cousins in tow, and we enjoyed pizza, popcorn, and candy while playing some games and watching a scary movie. It was a pretty relaxed time, and we enjoyed it a lot.

On Sunday, Kayle and I served in Children's ministry in the toddler 1 room. With the time change and a long sermon, the kids just were not happy campers and we had a few more "criers" than usual. In particular, I had two one-year-old boys that kept alternating between playing and crying and would come sit on my lap during the crying phase, usually both at the same time! We also had a full room with over 20 toddlers, so, even with 6-7 volunteers, we were kept really busy. I'm glad nap time doesn't usually fall right in the middle of the morning service! The sermon was also very good, especially the last part about the recent creation of a stage called adolescence. Pastor Mark had the women laughing so hard about boys who refuse to grow up! Well, you should just watch for yourself and be entertained:

http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/luke/the-birth-of-john-the-baptizer

(Skip forward to the 38 min. mark)

After church, I was very excited to be productive around the house. We cleaned the kitchen and bathrooms, did several loads of laundry, cooked a new meal, cleaned/vacuumed out the car, and prepared lessons for EA2. Kayle also finished getting the new computer hooked up with remote desktop connections to our laptops and a wireless connection to the printer. We even read 10-12 chapters in Isaiah together! Yippee!

This week, I'm looking forward to a game night with Caleb and Laura on Thursday as well as a dessert night with the girls on Friday. It's a busy social week for us, but a pretty slow week for school, since the quarter is ending at Eastside Academy and we have no school on Friday.

We love and miss you and are ever more excited for December...
Angie and Kayle

Eastside Academy Charity Auction

I guess it's been a while since I posted last. Mostly I have been getting used to my new job at EA2 and continuing to volunteer at Eastside Academy. I now have 5 students at EA2, two of which are taking classes with me for credit and three which come for homework support. I'm up to 16 hours/week there though I could still be assigned another student or two in the coming weeks. I'm enjoying my job very much!

I've also been pretty involved in Eastside Academy although I've understandably had to cut back my volunteer hours there from 20-30 hours/week to about 15 hours. Last Friday was a movie and smoothie night featuring Shrek and multiple blenders, fruit, ice cream, and whipped cream. I made a delicious strawberry/pineapple/mango smoothie and got brain freeze trying to eat it so fast! I especially enjoyed hanging out with the students outside of school and meeting one of the girl's two kids and husband. She is currently working really hard to finish her senior year and be a mom at the same time!

On Tuesdays, community group has been going really well. I'm starting to really connect with the other women and our prayer time has been especially meaningful lately. We've been talking about the sermon series on Luke and had some good discussion. Our potluck meals (which I'm in charge of planning: eek!) have also been delicious lately. On Wednesday, I visited Kim (who hosts our CG) during the day to hang out and talk before work. It was nice to get to know her outside of CG too.

On Wednesday, we went to the regional vision event. The Eastside of Seattle, which is served by our Mars Hill Bellevue campus, has been divided into 4 regions each aiming to improve at serving our communities where we live. Eventually, the goal is to have a new campus church plant in each region after the idea of "being the church in our region" has been more internalized by the members. Right now, the meetings are intended to brainstorm ideas and equip the church to better serve and meet the needs of our neighbors, so the community feels well-loved by Mars Hill before a new church starts there. The last meeting involved breaking the 200 or so attendees into groups of 8-10 to share how we are already loving our areas and what needs we are aware of. It was pretty cool and I'm interested to see how these ideas are put into action.

On Saturday, Kayle and I attended our big event of the week: the Eastside Academy charity auction. With a sliding scale tuition schedule, EA only makes about 6% of its budget from student tuition. The auction and dinner is the biggest fund-raising event of the year. Kayle and I went together and met Charles (from church- a guy who "loves" charity auctions :) ) and his guest. We got all dressed up and went to the Bellevue Hilton, ate a wonderful salmon and beef dinner, participated in the silent auction, listened to some student testimony, and sat in awe at the craziness of the live auction. Another cool part was a "dessert frenzy" in which each table bid money and the pick of dessert depends on how your table's total ranks compared to other tables. Our table came in 4th from last (out of about 30) but we still got a wonderful cherry chocolate cake to share since our runner actually sprinted to stick our flag in the cake when we were called (a few other runners took their time to get to the table). We ended up coming home with a gift certificate for a weekend at the Bellevue Hilton and a large basket of organic, fair-trade chocolate bars. We both had a lot of fun, and it was nice to be able to introduce Kayle to some of the staff and students I work with. In particular, we sat right next to the math teacher in whose room I spend most of my time at EA. I should also say that I am still so impressed with the work and mission of EA, particularly the way the students are so loved, encouraged, disciplined, and cheered for. Coming from all sorts of tough situations, I can honestly say that the staff never gives up on any student and is really changing the direction of many lives. I feel so happy to be able to support their work by volunteering and cheering on the students myself as I get to know them.

Today, Sunday, we were pretty tired from having arrived home late the previous night. We made it to church at 8am to serve in tech and children's ministry. I greatly enjoyed teaching the primary class (1st-5th grade) for the first time this morning. They are learning about the Lord's Prayer and their comments and eagerness to read the Bible and discuss it are so touching. We spoke about forgiveness this week and read the story of Stephen from Acts. I found myself smiling often as they wrestled with the meaning of different words (like debts, debtor, and forgive) and I challenged them with many questions. I might be filling in as a primary teacher for a few months (every other month rotation). Things are still up in the air as our campus might start a new service time, since almost all the seats at the morning services are full. They urged members this week to start coming to the evening service at 5pm to make room for guests.

Well, that's about all for this week. Next week is more of the same with no plans for Halloween yet. We will probably end up hanging out at a friend's house. We love you and miss you all!

Angie and Kayle

New Job Going Well...

This week was an exciting one for me, because I started getting acclimated to my new job. On Thursday, I was originally scheduled to go to EA2 to start my job training. However, I got a call earlier in the day, and my director asked me to sub for 3 students in math on my first day instead. I was nervous to have to prove my teaching skills so early and without much notice, but the sessions all went fine. On Friday, I came in again to fill out paperwork, go through the training manual, and get fingerprinted. As I was about to leave, the sub for that afternoon hadn't shown up yet (he was in a car accident earlier that week and then got sick), so I ended up subbing again for two more math students. The director and other staff are very supportive, so I'm looking forward to getting to know them more and growing as a teacher at EA2.

On Saturday, Kayle and I helped our friends, Jeff and Paula, move to a new house. Along with a whole contingent of friends, we loaded the U-Haul at their apartment with a seemingly never-ending stream of boxes coming down the stairs. We had to adjust the piles in the driveway a few times to let other residents get their cars out, but we eventually fit everything in one trip with only a few items in various cars. We took a break from unloading to enjoy some pizza together and finally finished the job in only about 2-3 hours. Many hands really do make light work (unless you consider those deceptively heavy boxes of books).

On Sunday, we slept in and rested before going to the evening service at church. I had a youth group leader meeting afterward, so Kayle sat in the car and read "The Last Battle." (He's been reading all the Narnia books lately.) The meeting went well, but our youth director is leaving soon to plant a church so we'll be phasing into having a new leader of youth programs. It's sad to see Dustin go, but the new leader is the current head of the community group ministry, so I'm sure he'll do a great job too.

On Monday, I had the first students of my own at EA2. I'm going to be teaching a calculus course for credit for one boy and tutoring another in algebra II. Both sessions went really well. Soon, I'll start teaching an algebra/trig course for another student and possibly an AP statistics course. This job will certainly force me to re-polish my various math skills! I've already brought one problem home to Kayle and we've been enjoying figuring out how to do some of the proofs so I can show my students in class. It's pretty geeky how a challenging math question can bring us together.

I've also been continuing to volunteer at Eastside Academy (or EA1- ironic that my two schools are EA and EA2). I was there for most of the schoolday Monday and Tuesday, since my EA2 students are coming after-school so far. I've been helping out mostly in math lately although I still go next door to English or sit in on the film class sometimes. I enjoyed helping a new student in trigonometry catch up to her classmates by teaching her one-on-one. Yesterday, I taught at the board how to graph each of the main 6 trig functions by hand. I'm also excited for a fancy dinner/auction that is coming up as a fund-raiser for Eastside Academy. It is next Saturday at the Hilton hotel in Bellevue.

Well, that's all for now. I'm going to my second calculus session this afternoon, picking up Kayle from work, and then proceeding to the monthly 4th week feed for youth group (pizza and discussion with all the families). I didn't go to EA1 today, because Wednesdays are always half days.

I love and miss you!
Angie and Kayle

Angie Got a Job!

I just wanted to post quickly that I secured a job! The small private school that interviewed me last week called this morning to give me the news. It is a small private school with about 30-40 students that teaches in an exclusively 1-on-1 setting. Some of the students come to take classes for credit in just one or two subjects and then transfer their credit to their regular high school. Others go there full-time as their primary high school. Still other students just go for tutoring in particular subjects that they are taking somewhere else. I will be teaching and tutoring math, science, and possibly English with my own set of students coming in regularly for hour-long intervals. I go in tomorrow for training and paperwork and start officially on Monday. I'm very excited to be paid again for what I love to do!

Kayle's Retreat and My Interview

Kayle came back from his retreat last Sunday with more than wisdom. He really enjoyed getting to talk with other guys from our church and play ultimate frisbee. About 200 guys flooded the camp and listened to some talks as a large group and some divided between single/married. I loved watching Kayle light up and tell me all about what he learned and did. One funny moment involved an open mic night and several guys who "testified" how hard their wives worked to get them on the retreat; apparently there were wives sick at home and moving single-handedly all the while insisting that their husbands could NOT miss the retreat. I suppose I did my share of "reminding" so that Kayle could grow and be influenced by some other godly men. Now, I say he brought home more than wisdom, because he developed a nasty cold that kept him home two days from work. He's still sniffling today but is almost better.

My weekend was fun as well. During the Science Adventures training, I missed a call from someone asking to set up an interview for a paid tutoring position I applied for. I called back afterward but had to leave a message. That night, I went to the Casting Crowns concert with a high schooler in youth group. We really enjoyed ourselves and I find it amazing how much I like every one of their songs. Even the new ones that I couldn't yet sing were so meaningful, and I eventually started losing my voice long before the concert's end.

There was no school on Monday for a teacher inservice day, and I still hadn't heard back from the potential interviewer. I was disappointed when I called again that morning, because, in the span between Saturday morning and Monday morning, they already filled the position without calling me back. However, that same day, another teaching/tutoring position was posted online for a private school very near to the one where I'm volunteering. I had a phone interview with the president/founder of the small network of private schools on Thursday morning (he called from the beach in Puerto Rico) and an in-person interview on Friday with the directors of the school in Bellevue. EA2 specializes in tutoring and teaching for middle/high school credit in an exclusively 1-on-1 setting. I think both interviews went well, so I'm waiting to hear back on whether I secured the job.

On Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, I went to volunteer at Eastside Academy. I help out in the math (several), English, physics, and public speaking classes. I still love the staff and kids there and one of the most rewarding days was watching some of the students I coached in public speaking finally give their speeches about themselves for the class. Despite being nervous, they all gave touching insights into their hobbies, heroes, and dreams, and the two girls I coached gave their best rendition yet.

Last night, we went to a board game night at Joe's house. My new favorite game is called Wits n' Wagers in which you estimate numeric answers to random trivia questions and then bet with chips on which of the estimates is closest to the real answer. With disparate questions like "how many pounds does an empty Boeing 747 weigh?" and "what year did Shakespeare compose Romeo and Juliet?," there is a lot of room for hilarious error and the real answer is usually quite surprising. It's even funnier to hear how others reasoned to their answers. With the Boeing question, my reasoning involved elephants weighing about 2 tons (4000 lbs) and trying to guess how many elephants would equal a plane (the answer is about 100 elephants or 406,000 lbs). Sometimes you estimate based on as much semi-related information as you can think of and other times you just flat-out guess and hope you're not out too far in left field. Add Tiramisu, apple crisp, and sweet rice to the mix and, yes, board game night was very fun!

Today, Saturday, ended up being a laid-back day. I finished up the last Harry Potter book, and Kayle finished book 6 and is working on book 7. (I think he likes them more than he will admit.) We planned to go to Kohl's and maybe dinner out, but Kayle didn't really feel up for it today. We'll probably reschedule both for Sunday or Monday night.

Anyway, I think that's all for this week! We miss you all and can't wait for December...

With love,
Angie and Kayle