The Next Step

Nice looking shed, isn't it?

Wait, a shed with a place for chickens to roost?

and lay eggs?

Be careful!

It's a jungle in there!!!!

Ahh...much better!  (By the way, yours truly cleared out all that brush by herself...with a little hacksaw!  I haven't touched a saw like that in...well...since my junior year of high school! )

Well, if you haven't figured it out yet...we are getting some hens!!!!  Farm fresh eggs!  Someone offered the Ranch some hens...and the only place for them is over here at the Farmhouse, because that is where the chicken coop is!  This is actually something we have contemplated for a year or two...and then after we moved into this house Josh started talking about getting chickens in a year or two.  And God just handed us some hens!  =D

Oh, and we also discovered that right next to the chicken coop...is the PERFECT spot for a GOAT!!!!!!  We will definitely be waiting a year or two for that one...and then there is the possibility of rabbits...

The possibilities are ENDLESS!!!

Ranch Life Seems to Agree with 'Em! (Photo Barf...)

Our Little Women/Ranch Hands

Ezra trying out the walking boots

Ready for work!

Anna sure does love that Little Man...for now anyway!

"Let's pretend we're riding horses!"

Papa hard at work.

Ezra investigating

Everybody...

working...

together!

Even Ezra!

A hard day's work finally done!

Israel

This was my last sight of Josh as I sailed away from him with Friend Ships on the first voyage to Israel in 2003.

Josh teaching Ruth the ins and outs of balancing on a seesaw...in Ashdod, Israel.

The (crazy) young Larson Family before they set sail for Israel 3 years after my first voyage.

Ruth was not allowed out on deck very often, but when we were in Port, she had to have her "hard hat" on.

The Larsons with the Galilee in the background.

The Larsons on The Galilee.

Ruth and Rebekah in the Tower of David.

Josh and a crew member in the Tower of David with Jerusalem (the new city) in the background.

The youngest member of the IDF?!

Ruth was not enjoying the walk back to the ship on our first trip out of the Port...

My heart has always belonged to Israel.  Always.  Ask my parents.  For as long as I can remember, I have loved the people of Israel, and having been blessed (oh yes, I did, Joanna!) to have been there twice...I have fallen in love with the Land!  I would live there today, if God would let us.  I'd move our family in a heartbeat!

Friend Ships is opening an office in the Land of Israel!  No...we are not moving to Israel.  But I wanted to share with you the awesome thing God is using Friend Ships to do for His People!  Just click on my last statement.  Maybe God would have YOU help Friend Ships serve Israel, in Jesus' Name.

The End of 2011

Tis been a long year, that's for sure!  LOTS of changes, lots of joy, and our own share of pain.

Our year actually started on October 23rd of 2010.  I had two months left in my pregnancy with Ezra...and we were moving.  We had known we would be leaving CMTS eventually...but not like that.  This is where the pain comes in ~  the intense desire to want to defend ourselves and say THEY were wrong.  But in reality...God had plans for us.  God planned a time of rest for my Joshua.  A much needed rest.  We moved into an empty apartment in the home of our friends, Claude and Sharon Morin.  Josh was also given a job putting together snowplows.  Not only that, but with the job came a pre-approved two week vacation when Ezra was born!!!!  What a Godsend!  

Josh started his job, and the girls and I learned to live together without Papa.  He would leave the house by 0645 and would come home between 5:30 and 11pm (on average it was 9 or 10 before he walked in the door during the snowfall months).  Ezra decided to take his time cooking, and was about a week and a half late.  What joy it was when he finally arrived after a short 6 hr labor.  My first Man child.  Truly love at first sight!

Josh continued working at Storks Automotive until the end of August.  We joined my parents as they set up for the Creation Festival in Pennsylvania in June.  When we came home, we knew it was about time to move on...but I would not let myself get too excited.  I was totally ready to see Josh more often, and totally ready to see what God had planned next for us...but I tried really hard not to put all my eggs in one basket (the basket of moving on). 

One night in early August, Josh came home from Storks and told me we needed to look up Christian Teen Treatment facilities or something like that.  We ended up finding several ranches we were interested in that first search.  We checked them out, and settled on LUC Boys Ranch.  We finally (after many attempts) got a hold of the Program Directors at the Boys Ranch, and Josh wowed them with his verbal resume!  I think Erik was salivating by the time he got off the phone!

Anyway...we moved to the Boys Ranch.  We left PA on Labor Day.  We drove to OH and spent a couple days with my family.  Then we dragged Mom and Dad on a road trip to see our new digs.  Dad must have been impressed!  He got to help skin a buffalo the night we arrived!  Mom started calling Dad 'Jeremiah Johnson.'

Family Christmas pic Sample #1

Family Christmas pic Sample #2

Sample #3

Yes, my table is dirty...get over it.  Ruth wiped it off, and she only wiped where we sat to eat!

We have been living at the Ranch for almost four months now.  Josh is settling in to his job...learning how to work on a ranch, and also how to deal with the guys who live here.  Most nights Josh comes home with stories...that actually remind us a whole lot of what we have been through (or are going through now) whilst raising our kiddos.  Kind of interesting if you think about it.

We switched houses at the beginning of December.  The house we moved into when we got here is big, beautiful (has 2 bathrooms), but wasn't Josh and Rebekah.  We could relax there, but didn't completely feel like it was ours, if that makes sense.  Josh, one night at work, had to go into one of the staff homes that was unoccupied to turn lights off.  The house is called The Farmhouse.

The Farmhouse is quite ghetto-looking from the outside.  Quite rundown, etc.  On the inside...oh my.  It is humongous!  Anyway, Josh started thinking that it would be the perfect place for our little family of six.  He felt cramped in the other house...most like a caged animal, actually.  There was no room for improvement on the other house.  This one has puh-lenty of room for improvement, and it has a basement where Josh can work on his woodworking projects to unwind at night.  (I should mention that a friend of mine knew about the Boys Ranch, and had been praying, since we started talking about moving here, that we would get the Farmhouse!)

Another cool thing that could be happening for Josh...is that since we have been here more than 3 months, Josh will be having a meeting with the higher-ups to see where they think he will fit best here.  From the scuttlebutt we have heard...it could be that Josh is being groomed to be the Farm Manager.  Do you know what that means?!?!?  It means he will continue doing farm chores, and child care just like he is now!  =P  It also means he will be more responsible for things that happen with the animals.

Anyway, that is it for the Larsons!  You may now go on with your New Years festivities! 

Christmas with the Larsons 2011

Christmas has been interesting to say the least this year!  =P

The girls and I decided we wanted to try to spend Christmas Eve with Papa who was working, so we worked together with another staff wife to get some goodies together thinking/hoping our husbands would be able to be inside with us!  The boys had other ideas, and decided to act up and get consequence time on the board...so Josh and Ron spend Christmas Eve and a little into Christmas morning out watching the boys work off their consequences (Josh got home after 1 am).  The girls Ezra and I hung out with the boys and made them Chocolate Chip cookies for their evening snack.  As we headed out of the dorm a little after 8:30p, Anna puked on the floor.  We stopped to say good night to Papa, and when we got home at 9pm, Anna erupted again on her car seat and outside of the van (funny enough, she turned AWAY from the open door to puke on her seat!  =P).    Mama rushed everyone into the shower, and threw the kids in bed (gently), and tried to relax for the evening.  Not an hour later, Anna erupted again...4 more times between 11 at 2:30am.  that means Mama got to give Anna one more shower for the night and ended up changing her own clothes...4x. 

So we laid low on Christmas Day.  Anna ate...a lot for having lost it all night long.  All the while, Shalom complained of not feeling the greatest!  =P  I am writing this at midnight...Shalom has puked 2 or 3 times since 9pm, and cried a lot because her tummy hurt.

And so...I will stop my own whining, and let Josh show you how we ended our day:

 Anna was last to decorate her house and she really got in to it. she is so cute.

Hears the construction crew hard at work to try and finish the ginger bread town in time for the ginger bred families to move in before Christmas is over.

One of our trusty engineers has just about completed their studio apartment and is waiting for headquarters to inspect and stamp the paper work

our First Engineer on the site has put up an a-frame house for a small ginger family

The General Contractor on the site is struggling to complete all the work orders and deliver all the supplies, in order to meet our deadlines.

The First Engineer has fired all her hands and sent them under the table at a much lower rate; in hops to increase productivity and finish in time.   Hope her plan works out

Looks like our Second Engineer is getting supplies ready to send her crews on to the yard detail.

There's our Contractor team working hard to clean up all the unwanted debris from the job site before the yard can be put in.   Only five of the ten workers are working on this house. The other five must be hard at it somewhere else.

The First Engineer has completed her first house.

Those hired hands are hard workers.

Well the two Engineers are looking rather pleased.   They must be on schedule.

I think our Ginger bread families are going to be quite surprised when they arrive at their new homes.

Its starting to look like quite the housing complex now.

Looks like they got the roofs on those buildings just in time for the first snow.

What a pleasant looking studio apartmen this one turned out to be.

Our local Mr. Jiff has been sneaking around our new development after hours.   He'll probably get picked up for candy snatching, or some other mister meaner.

It's getting close to the deadline.

Our Third Engineer  is not looking happy.   Hope everything is still running on schedule.

Work carries on even though there is a foot of snow on the ground.

Another snow storm is just slathering this house.  

The contractor is looking very pleased.

Looks like the Third Engineer has finished with time to spare.  (This is Mama interrupting to say that somehow Anna grew up overnight - even Josh...who TOOK THIS PICTURE got confused and thought is was Shalom...several times.)

This housing complex is about full of houses.

The yard work is just about completed.

Arranging houses and street addresses.

I would like to thank all the hard workers that put in so many long hours and so much dedication; in order to finish this neighborhood on time.  The new home owners should be quite pleased.