Last weekend on the Ranch

Isn't it funny to think that we humans don't know what we need, and very often don't even know what we want. We think we want something until we get it, or we tell God what is that we think we need but we never really know. I think He laughs. Like a Father who laughs at a kid for declaring the ability to live off a strict diet of ice cream.



So if it's true that we don't have the ability to plan our own paradise, it must also be true that we have no clue as to what heaven holds. In fact I think it's biblical. I'm trying to let go of my idea of heaven, and realize that my eternal life has already begun.

I really enjoyed the rain this weekend. There are my deep thoughts for this post.

Ruth and I also really enjoyed kicking it with Birthday girl Annie!



Annie turned an undetermined age this passed Thursday, and we helped her welcome her new year with a party Saturday night. It was probably the coolest party in Fremont. Everyone who was anyone was there. Except Brenda. Brenda's somebody and she missed it. Josh Taylor is also a somebody and he missed it too. There were probably a few important people who had other plans...is also possible there were cooler party's going on in Fremont.

But I doubt it.



Ruth and I also started packing this weekend. Some people say your home seems most empty when you remove pictures from the walls. I say it feels most empty when you remove notes, magnets, pictures, and comic strips from the fridge door. A stark white fridge is terrifying. So this is the last picture taken before the chaos of packing boxes. We're going to miss this little place where we started this journey together. God taught us many things within the walls of this apartment.

Inspection day...

This Sunday marked the end of a long four months that Ruth and I have endured.

And Henry. Henry endured it too.
And so did Chelsea. They're our realtors.

The housing market in Puget Sound area is a raging bull. As the market begins to soften around the rest of the country, Seattle-lites continue to try and outbid each other for the race to escape renting. People are make "site unseen" offers, waving inspections, and expecting property to sell well above asking price.

Ruth and I had our offer accepted this Sunday on a beautiful house in Bothell. Today was the inspection and the results are undisclosed, but I can tell you that it was exciting to walk around our first home, and by far the biggest purchase we've ever made.

This is a milestone in our lives. Well it feels like it anyway. I'm sure we'll buy many homes in our lifetime but we will always remember this, our first.

Many thanks to Henry and Chelsea (and Tams) for all their hard work, and to Warren for doing an excellent inspection today, and Uncle Curtis who's working out our mortgage, and all of our friends and family who stopped at 9:ooam Sunday morning and said a little prayer for us as we filled out the offer. It is only by the grace of God that we got this place. It's more than we deserve. It's Him who gave us not only the ability to buy, but the availability of this place.

I'm making this sound like an award show acceptance speech. I guess it was Ruth who vented her frustration last month by saying "it seems like you can't buy a house around here, you have to win it!"







Ya you might not want to scale the chimney, I'm sure there aren't any deal breakers up there.



Let's close the door on this deal and move in!

Birthday in the Millerhouse

That's right. Josh got old. And I'm late posting this, becasue these are from a week ago last Friday. Josh and Brenda regularly host our eastside community group. So we all piled in to Claim Jumpers and piled food into our mouths. Happy Birthday Josh!

Liebich & Lepp

Me and Ruth's wedding produced more than just a pair of sleepy, indecisive Canadians who consider the thought of a heaven without lattes to be a challenge to our faith. There was one girl who was a friend of Ruth's who rededicated her life to God after attending our 10 hour marital marathon that we called a reception. That is a very special thought to me. The other thing we'll try to take credit for is the meeting of David Liebich, one of me and Ruth's close friends from high school, and Kristy Lepp, one of my cousins. Apparently the sparklers that were lit during our first introduction weren't the only things causing sparks. David and Kristy were married a little over a year ago and are now expecting their first child. That's right; someone who met at our wedding is married and having babies before us. Blame it on that indecisiveness I was talking about.




David and Kristy came down for the weekend, and we showed them around Pike Place Market, as well as downtown Seattle and the inside of an empty cup of coffee. It went like this, "There's the flying fish over there, see the space needle over there, now watch..this is what an addiction to caffeine looks like..."
*-Slurp-*



Thanks for coming down guys. Please come back soon.

A very strange ball of light appeared in the sky this week. Apparently it signals the end of winter and the beginning of spring. I'm skeptical. From my perspective, It's clear purpose is to make sitting at a drawing table on a Sunday afternoon seem preposterous. It rose today, accomplished it's mission, and set. Now that it's down, I can blog without any guilt.

So Ruth and I went for a bike ride on our usual loop that takes us up Norway Hill, past million dollar homes, just so we can see what it feels like to covet. Just to see how it feels. It left me out of breath, but maybe that's because Ruth is the one who's been hitting the cycling class so hard lately. She kinda kicked my butt. But just for the record, even if I could've kicked her butt, I would have let her kick mine just so she could feel good.

There it is folks, the secret to a good marriage. Make your wife think she's kicking your butt when she's not, and when she is ; blog about it.

Royden St.

Ok I know this is kinda weird. I just want to say that off the bat. I've just always kind of had a strange fascination with my name. Because it's so rare, I never see it in print. I never see it on a sign or a website unless it's my own. So imagine if you'd never seen or met or heard of anyone with your name before, when suddenly for the first time you get the urge to look up your first name under the images search with Google. I'm facinated with the results. Such as Royden St. in Camden, New Jersey. Looks like it could use some fixing up.



If I find myself in North Carolina anytime soon, you can be sure I'll be stopping by the Biltmore Village Inn in Bed and Breakfast so I can stay in the Royden room.









Construction seems to be popular.



This band from Wharton, New Jersey is sporting my name. I just ordered one of their hoodies from their website. Too bad their music sucks.

There's an old on house on the side of the road before you pull into Salmon Arm back home. I've been dieing to shoot some pictures of it and finally got my chance last time we were home.

However, after I did I kinda had the creeps for a few nights. I spent a lot of time lieing in bed wondering why I ever stepped foot in the door.

Bang Bang Sushi Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my glorious wife who deserves nothing less than a day a Wade's gun range in Bellevue. And that's what we did. I seem to remember her giddy demeanor back in our teenage days, the first time I took her out in the woods to shoot some pop cans with a .22 rifle. She had the same glee 'popping caps' in evil Mr. Paper guy. "I swear he was coming at me with a knife!". For a paper villain, he sure looks relaxed out there with one hand on his hip. If I ever do shoot someone I doubt they will look so suave.



"Are you lookin at me?" Kind of, but more precisely I'm looking at that spot...

...where my gun registering, Canadian wife put 10 rounds through paper man's right shoulder from 21 feet. Nice clustering!

We met the rest of our posse at Flo's Japanese restaurant in Bellevue later that night. And it went a little somethin like this...




Thanks for everyone who came and helped celebrate. Go visit Josh and Brenda's Blog for some more excellent pictures from the evening. http://www.themillerhood.blogspot.com/ There's a really funny pic over there of me explaining to everyone with my hands, what we did that day.