I feel happy!

Hey guys....soooo....it's been a while. I know. I'm a loser. And it's totally my fault. It's been my turn to write now for about a month. I guess there's just been a lot going on and it's almost too much to write about. But here are some highlights for me personally:

My first one starts about a month ago when I was in service. We had a bad morning because our car broke right in a call's driveway after we discovered that the wife wasn't too happy that we were even there in the first place so then we had to tow it which was annoying. It just seemed like everything was going wrong and we kept saying that we were just going to throw in the towel and not go out in the afternoon. We thought maybe Jehovah was trying to tell us something. But we ended up prevailing anyway and Colten, Betty and I went out for the afternoon. [Back story: There's a brother, Tim Stenstrom, from Oshkosh whose mom was never a witness but lives here in our territory and we actually came to visit Tim and Katie here at her house months ago before we even were thinking of moving here. So Tim's wife Katie told me I should call on her because she had shown interest in the past. Well Katie and I had been texting back and forth for a month and she finally told me I could call on her but then I asked her for the address and I hadn't heard back for a week] Skip forward to when this story is taking place and we were driving to Colten's territory. The moment we turned down the road I recognized it and freaked out because I recognized it being the road Tim's mom lived on! So we were searching everywhere to find it and a bunch of things happened that prevented us from getting to it but FINALLY we pulled in her driveway and found her house! I ran to the door and her hair was literally sopping so I know if we wouldn't have gotten held up and went there just a little earlier, she would have been in the shower and we would have missed her. So I definitely felt angelic direction with that whole situation. Fast forward to present day and we've had 3 or 4 studies now and they've been great :)

So that's my schpeel. Also, I got a job at US Bank and have been training there full time for the past 3 weeks and I miss service. Hmmmm what else? Oh since we last blogged we had an ugly sweater party! It was for sisters only and we did it during the c.o.'s visit so Carla got to come and that was cool because she's super awesome. And we had our first assembly since being in this hall and it was great! Besides the program being wonderful, we actually knew more people than we expected so that was a pleasant surprise too.
Big shout out to Brother Carley from Escanaba!! :P

Oh and one thing I must also mention - Abby has been having a difficult time sleeping and one thing that does not help is that our entire basement (where we live and sleep) is all windows on one wall and it absorbs ALL the light! So it makes sleeping, especially during the day, very difficult. So when she wanted to take a nap today, this is what we did:

I'm not sure if you can tell, but this is the utility closet in the basement which has the water heater and washer and dryer and very little space - but also no windows! So we made a bed on the 3 square feet of floor in there and she had a nice peaceful nap :)

We love you guys and I'm really sorry for not being punctual but hopefully this will keep you busy for a while. We miss you all and hope to hear from you soon!

Love Ky

The diagnosis is we are all farts.

     Today I woke up in one of those moods where it would have probably been better had I not gotten up at all. Royally crabby. I think it started cuz Kylah and I kind of accidentally got up this morning. We were thinking of slacking a bit because it was really cold and we could have both used a morning off and decided to just decide in the morning if we were getting up or not. Wellllllll there was a lot of mis-communications and we both ended up getting up even though it turns out niether of us wanted to. We arrived late to a random service group (we still aren't actually assigned to one yet so we go where we want haha). To put it the most positive way we can we finished a territory this morn! Then due to cold, mean ppl, car issues, and still my general crabbiness, our group (Kylah, Amber, Kent...eth, and I) cut out early and made breakfast and watched movies. Totally needed cuz at this point Kylah got crabby too haha. This morning was a day of stupid/down right mean people.
     It ended most excellent though. We went over (well actually we invited ourselves over) to Jason and Kristen's place....as we are making it our new custom. Had a lovely dinner and even better company. We ended up playing "therapist" for hours. HI-larious!! My fav was when we decided that our issue was that we were all a fart lol. Took quite a bit to solve that one ; ) I was thinking to myself as a group of us were randomly dancing in the elevator like the weirdos we really are, how funny it is I was concerned moving here that we'd be a bit much for the cong. Here's how it is though, pretty much everyone here is seriously weird/quirky/"unique" the fun part is everyone owns up to it and embraces it. Makes it kind of a lovely fit ; )
     Well I've so got to hit the hay so I don't wake up a total crab again haha. But here's a couple pix from the week.

     Jeanine and I actually are wearing masks too....ours were just clear, like for real, not even pulling your leg. And clearly I didn't get the memo to stick out my tongue.

     We stopped by the Dark family to help them build an ice castle! How cool is that?? I'll be sure to try and get pix of it complete, we're even gonna attach an ice slide!! Heck yes!!
Tata for now! Nothing but love for ya ; )

Let the good times keep on rollin'

Hello my blogger followers :) Thanks for sticking with us. We appreciate it.

We've been keeping ourselves busy up here, that's for sure.

First things first. Why are we making this face you may ask yourself?

Well, I'll tell you why. It's because of our local needs last week. Wanna know what it was?

US!

Ahhhhhhhhhh!

A brother interviewed us for ten minutes and warned...eh hmm...I mean introduced us - to the congregation.

I thought it was super sweet. We felt honored, that's for sure.

But we made it through the whole thing. He asked us questions like how we got the truth, why we started to pioneer, why we decided to move here, and how we feel about things so far.

I feel like it was good for the congregation to hear because they're really trying to encourage others in the hall to do more for the ministry - consider pioneering especially. 

So it was really awesome for them to hear how we've overcome various challenges and stuck to Jehovah the whole time. Especially Abby. I was so proud of her. She bared her soul to the whole audience and I think it was super super encouraging for people to hear because a lot of people struggle with similar things. It's always nice for people to hear that they're not the only ones out there. We gotta all stick together :)

Friday we were invited over to a family's house for dinner which was awesome! They made great food for us and the company was wonderful of course.  The couple had they're 4 year old grandson visiting and the kid was HILARIOUS! He was super quick/witty. He didn't make any sense half the time, but he always had an answer for everything. For instance, I said "Zach, you are very entertaining. Do you know what that means?" and his quick response was "Yep. It means I finished my sandwich." 

For real. We could not stop laughing. Okay, maybe it's not funny to you. It's probably one of those had to be there moments. But here's a cute pic I caught. Zach kept grabbin Abby's hand and continued eating like nothing was going on....

This weekend was the first time I've left Woodruff since we've moved here. Crazy, right?! I know Abby mentioned it before, but seriously, we're the two biggest "social butterflies" in the land. And the whole time I was gone, I kept thinking about home and how everything was going here. Don't get me wrong, we had a great time. We (excluding Abby because she has no appreciation for performing arts) went to a production of Les Miserables that the Wausau high school put on and it was AMAZING! Those kids blew my mind. They were so so so good. Then last night we had a Grammy's party and that was a lot of fun too. The whole weekend was full of music, fun, and best of all, friends. We got to know old ones better, and met knew ones that we adore just as much now. It was really a great time. 

Lately I feel like I'm in a spiritual paradise and it rocks. It makes me look forward to the real deal. But I'm glad I have what I do now. I kinda love life :)

~Kylah Joy

Sleepyhead

     Must've  been something in the water last night. I couldn't fall alseep for the life of me. Turns out Kylah couldn't either. So we ended up watching a documentary (go figure) at like 4 in the morning. Needless to say (but Ima say it anyway) we didn't get up for early morning service. We did however go out til 1 on 2 hours of sleep, I think maybe it was a good thing I didn't find anyone home because who knows what I would've done or said on such little sleep! Turns out Dave and Amy couldn't sleep either! So all of us were a bit slap happy in service. At one point we were trying to create a language of whistles and snaps. Then I was reminded of the time Jamin (my bro) and I decided to try and create a language solely with facial expressions. We did this so we could still "talk" during the bookstudy. We were such rebels : P Rebels that looked as though we had some major facial muscle control issues to say the least.....hmmmm. That was a bit random. Remember, I'm blogging on very very little sleep. Brace yourselves. Oh speaking of little sleep, Kylah has hit a slap happy wall. We were watching a show and outta nowhere she just starts cracking up. So I look at her waiting for and explanation and she just laughs harder. Finally all she says is "I'm hilarious!!" And at that moment I was tired enough to believe it and laugh along for no known reason. Oh sleep deprivation.

 So Saturday we had more of an internal ministry day ; ) Meaning we may or may not have gotten coffee and then went and got a delicious breakfast (it was-10)!! SO good! Man, I'm starting to find the little hole in the wall restaurants up here and I'm loving it! We got to work with Tatum, we love her she rocks! And has done an exceptional job making us feel so welcome and flat out spoiling us! And her super awesome kiddo Reed. It was a really really nice morning and beneficial to all of us! Looking forward to many more!....and I'm not at all opposed if they occasionally include a super yummy breakfast ;)
     Hey maybe you guys can help me out a little here. I'm having a bit of an identity crisis. Am I a nerd?? I'm a quirky dork, I'll own up to that anytime.....but a nerd?? I'm not so sure about that one. Apparently I've been described as "a  great nerd friend." What does that even mean??? Ugh. Woe is me. In the words of a tackling amnesia patient (scrubs, anyone??) "WHO AM I??!!" Haha I'm really not sweating it, but definitely some food for thought. I'm here for one month and that's how I've been described. I mean yeah, I wear glasses and have asthma, but that's almost too cliche.
     Anyways, brace yourself Woodruff, we are doing a huge push for aux pioneers come March! We want to shatter some records and get as many people involved as we possibly can, its gonna be a blast!
     Tomorrow is going to be a long day full of responsible stuff and some fun stuff as well. So I best hit the hay. Got some sleep to catch up on for sure.      My spidey-sense has been tingling a bit lately (It's clearly a spider-man reference...its not nerdy, its clever : P) hope all is well with everyone. Remember, even though there might be a couple extra miles between us, I'm always here....or there if need be.  Nothing but love for you all. Ta-ta for now!

Burnin' Ring O Fire

So here's the cliff hanger Abby left you with last time:

After the Thursday meeting Amy dropped me off at home on her way to bring her Bible study home and as I was getting out she said "Hey, could you put another log on the fire? You can do that, right?" My response "Oh yeah! Sure! No problem!" - idiot.

So I grab a log on my way in and stick it in the fire place and to my dismay - it doesn't fit! Unfortunately, by the time I realize that it's not going to stay in, the stupid log is already on fire! It's like it spontaneously com-busted because I swear it was only in there for like 5 seconds. So I'm holding on to this burning log because it HAS to go in there - it's on fire! So I'm trying to punch it in and move it around and jam it in and the thing just isn't going...as it's half hanging out I pause for a second and think to myself, "Self, this is the part where you die. The whole house is going to go up in flames and I am going to die in a fire because I'm an idiot." Just then, I get a brilliant idea! I took the flamin log out and threw it on the hearth and run into the kitchen to grab a pitcher of water and I throw it on the blasted demon of a log! And then, just to make sure it doesn't reignite itself, I threw it out the window into the snow. Partially as a safety precaution, and also partly because at this point I wanted to dispose of the evidence so I wouldn't have to tell Shmollers I almost burnt their house down.

Clearly, I gave in and confessed my sins. Which was stupid too. Because now none of them trust me with anything. Especially if it involves fire. And now neither will you.

Penguin Style!

     For those of you who don't know. I heart penguins, they are rather rad little (and sometimes not so little) creatures. Last night i opted to bust out some penguin moves at volleyball. The penguin belly slide was the big hit, and if you're wondering, yes, I am a bit sore haha. Today in service we all rocked service penguin style. Everything was covered in what seemed to be more slipperier then average ice and an abundance of black ice! We waddled a lot today. I'm pleased to inform you however that none of us went down. Not even yours truly ; ) "Baby steps to the car."
     So if you haven't figured, I'm back where i ought to be after my ventures a little bit of everywhere. Twas most excellent. So fortunate to be able to squeeze a lot of my favs and ever so loved ones into on trip. Sorry to those I didn't quite get to this time....next time ; ) Crazy thing happened. Are you ready for it? Even though I was having a most excellent time with fantastic company, by the end of it I was ready to come back. If you've known me for any period of time I'm never ready to come back. Telling ya, some weird stuff is going on here. How could it ever be that Kylah and I are just where we want to be? Since when does that ever happen?? Who knows! I'll take it though : ) Let that be a lesson to you all, thinking of reaching out? Don't you ever hesitate. You have no idea what fantastic things and people and experiences await you.
     So I guess Kylah and I are to slowly become a bit more hippie-ish......meaning we have a plethora of documentaries to watch on everything from bottled water to Nicaraguan banana pickers. We will be filled with random environmental facts of jibberish and what not. Looking forward to it. Also apparently we are crocheting tomorrow night? Ummm if there's good snacks involved I'm looking forward to that as well haha.
     So when I got back to town yesterday I napped briefly and then Kylah returned with a bonus.....Jayme and Mackenzie : ) Such sweet girls, we love them! They stayed with us and were brave enough to spend the day in service with us, good times. I woke up to "I'm entirely on the floor." That made me giggle haha. the joys of a flat air mattress.
     Memo to self: drop off cd at coffee house in boulder junction. Make them love you.   : P
Sooooo it's looking like Kylah will be set with a job soon, rock on! Me on the other hand....well haha just keep us in your prayers please. It'll all be good, no doubt about it. Oh in an upcoming post you'll get to read all about the adventures of Kylah home alone. Let's just say I almost didn't have a house to come home to.....on that note, I'm gonna catch some z's. Sorry I'm kinda all over the place on this post, think I'm still a bit tired...go figure.But I leave you with a deep question: Do you feel we are most likely to a) be attacked by a bear? b) take up ice fishing c) end up living in a van down by the LAKE (ha! you thought I was gonna say river didn't you?? There's way more lakes then rivers here so yeah) or d) decide to purchase only purple food for awhile?? and why do you answer so??          Nothing but love for you guys.

All by myself

Well, here I am. All by myself. My partner in crime is off to sunnier parts. Hope fully warmer too. It was -26 this morning here. And my car hasn't started all week because of the cold! I either need to build myself a garage or get a better car ;) Oooor I could just keep moochin off of the Shmollers like I have been. They are seriously the most generous people ever. I love them so much.

I'll bring you guys to speed on how my week has been. Tuesday we did business and there is this really awesome indoors mall but inside of it, it looks like a mini town! I don't know if that makes sense but it is SO cute! And Amber and I got two really nice ladies. One of them I wouldn't mind going back to. She was so sweet and seemed really appreciative of what we were doing. That was great.
And Wednesday I had an awesome day in service too. I got to work with a sister I haven't had a chance to yet and she is just so sweet. We all had really encouraging conversation all morning - even though it was freezing outside, our hearts stayed warm :) I honestly don't think I've had a bad day in service yet! And so far, it seems like that might be impossible around here.
People have been having really amazing calls too. Within one day, 4 different Bible studies were either started or resumed. This field definitely has a lot of diamonds, you just have to search for them. I can't wait to find one :)

I've been keeping myself busy by doing job interviews the past two days. Seriously, the power of prayer is incredible. And I am seeing Jehovah provide in a way I've never personally experienced before. Okay, lemme just tell you what I'm talking about. I've been looking for a job, even before I moved I applied at a bunch of places and I never heard back. And then this week - within two days - I've had FOUR job offers and interviews! So I definitely am being taken care of.  Now all I have to do is figure out which one will be the best for me. So maybe you guys can help me pray for that now. But don't forget to keep praying for Abby to find a job that will be perfect for her too!

I can't think of anything else to tell you guys at the moment. Sorry to bore you with my blabbering. Thanks for still reading :) You guys are awesome. I love  you all so much and I hope we can see you soon :) Later gators!