We greatly appreciate your prayers! We definitely felt them this past week. For those who don't know, we took an unplanned trip to Tennessee for a family emergency. L's grandma is in the hospital and isn't doing well. She goes back and forth between ICU and the med/surg floor. We aren't sure how much longer she will be with us and that's been really hard. Also, while we were in TN, my father-in-law ended up in the hospital, he isn't doing so great either. He's been fighting colon cancer, and now congestive heart failure. Please pray even harder for us. For L, its hard to work when his mind is on family back home. It has been a really rough few months, won't go into detail, and its taken a toll on both of us and we are tired. The verse that has been my rock through tough situations has been on my heart a lot lately:


"Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,
while we look not at the things with are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."
                                                 2 Corinthians 4:16-18


Love y'all!

A few weeks ago, one of my fellow oil field worker's wife and I were talking about school pictures coming up, and how expensive the packages are compared to the quality. It gave me an idea. Lane and I both love photography, so I talked with him about it and we decided to offer to take some pictures of the boys for free. Shanna wanted pictures and we love taking them so all were happy. Lane had the idea of taking them on one of the routes he drives frequently. In ND, no one demolishes old structures, so there are randomly placed old schools, churches, and clapboard houses along the main roads. We used an old church as our backdrop. We aren't professionals or trained photographers by any means, we just really enjoy the art. Here are a few of the pics. Sorry its really long, The photo gallery app on this thing isn't working today for some reason.

This is going to take some getting used to: Walmart, 46 miles, Target, 123 miles. Ahhhh, just shoot me now!
Side note:
<--this is Main St, btw. Driving from one end of town to the other takes about 5 minutes. 

Its not that bad....


It is strange, though, for everyone to know who you are...before meeting them. Or, to even ask "Where are you from?" before you open your mouth and a Southern drawl comes out. Obviously, not only do I sound like I'm "not from around here" but I must not look it either. It helps that I have the only red Honda CRV in town too. 


The cool thing is that I walk in the bank, they know who I am. I walk into one of the 3 gas stations, I'm asked how my husband likes his new bike (granted, it was the wife of the guy who sold it to him, but still, I don't know her from Adam!). 


Both grocery stores extend their service to helping customers carry their bags to the car. I can walk to the post office to check our mail, go over to the Farmer's Union Insurance to pay for L's car insurance, drop of the rent check, stop in Jack and Jill's grocery to grab a few necessities and walk back to the apt within 30 minutes. Crazy!


Back to Walmart. Obviously, since its not within the comfortable distance of 15 minutes, one must plan the trip. A fellow oil field worker's wife and I decided to go today. When I go, it seems I never spend less than $100, which sucks but what can you do when you have to stock up until the next trip. 


On to another subject. L and I have decided that for this Sunday's Bible study, to split up having the girls here at the apt and the guys will meet up at one of the parks. That means that I will be leading the girls, so I will be needing lots of prayer that God will speak through me and that He will give me exactly what these girls need to hear. Will keep y'all posted! 
~ S