Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
Ephesians 2:7-10 The Message

Monday, June 30, 2008

Sorry for the lack of posting:)

Wow, have we been busy or what!?!?!?!

This last month has been a whirlwind of activity for the Hallenbeck's. I'll go back and try to catch you all up on life in Round Mountain.

The last week of school was crazy busy. Spencer graduated 8th grade on May 27th. Of course we get there and I forgot to bring back-up batteriies for the camera, so I got like 2 pictures and that's it:(

Butch had the privilege of speaking at the Senior Baccalaureate Service May 29th. They have the Senior dinner, the Senior awards, and then the service. It was a little different than what we are used to in Washington. He spoke to the kids (and parents) about the kind of Legacy we leave. How will you be remembered? It was a great opportunity for us to minister to families. We had several students come up afterwards and say how much they appreciated what he had to say. It has also opened the door for us with others in the community.

That Sunday, June 1, we left right after church for our annual Staff conference. This year we stayed with Village Missionaries in Graeagle, CA on the way to conference. Their youth group is coming out to help us with Vacation Bible School so it was a chance to meet some of the group that is coming. Then we drove on to Scotts Valley, CA, near Santa Cruz for our week of rest! We went to the Mystery Spot on one of our afternoon outings. That was interesting. Check out themysteryspot.com to find out what it is.

On our way home from conference we spent a few days in Sonora, CA and explored some of the old Gold towns there. We spent one day in Columbia, which has been preserved as a State Historic Park. It was fun to go in the old shops and see hwat they were like in the good ol' days. We went to Yosemite one day as well. We didn't hike much but did go to Bridal Veil Falls. We might go camp there next year.

We got home the 9th and played "catch up" pretty much that whole week. Then....the bathroom sprung a leak. Great, back to Reno to get what we needed to fix the bathroom. We were going to remodel it anyway so we decided it must be time. The last week and a half have been spent trying to get the bathrrom done before my mom and step-dad get here, this Wednesday. We are pretty much done, except for a couple of minor details.

So now today, I get to update you all on our lives so you don't think we've forgotten about the blog.

This week will be a little busy too. We're trying to get everything done by Wednesday so we can enjoy our visit. This Friday our church will be hosting the Pancake Breakfast at the 4th of July fishing derby. This will be another great opportunity for us to have a presence in the community. Then we will go to the Picnic put on by the mine. The kids will play all day, carnival games, inflatables, cotton candy and sno-cones. That night we will host and ice cream social for the church family and watch fireworks. The town puts on a pretty good show, provided the Thunder Storm stay away. Our first year here we did not get fireworks because of the weather. Last year we had a great show and very little wind. We haven't had a lot of Thunderstorms yet so hopefully they will hold off until after Friday:)

I have a ton of pictures to edit. I will try to get some online in the next few days. In the ,oidst of all that I am trying to keep up on my scrapbooking for this year's pictures at least. I haven;t done any digital pages since I finished the calendars (last December:) But I will try to get some of what I am working on posted as well.

That's all for now. Beacca is doing something with the Middle School cheerleaders for the 4th so I have to take her to practice. She is also swimming 4 days a week. She will have a swim meet July 12th. Pray for her to do her best and to not be intimidated by the other team.

Take care and have a safe 4th.