Well, great things are happening at our church. We just go our new
logo. Our friend Teresa designed it for us. We also just completed a project in the santuary. Tons of people showed up to help. We painted a nice "Bonjour Biege" color as well as installed a theater type curtain along the back wall. It gives us a bit more of a blank canvas to work with and makes the stage and the room look bigger.

Ben also got us the Aviom system which allows each person on the worship team to create their own mix of all the instruments and vocalists in their ear according to what they want. It is amazing and a big time saver.

The girls got to go to the Children's Museum with Grammy on Monday and spend the day with her, then on Tuesday they spent the day with Grandma and she made them an amazing and huge fort under the table (including a door). On Wednesday they were with Grandma B. and went for a nice long walk in their neighborhood. They were excited to get to go back to Grandma and Papa's house that afternoon. It was so great for them to be able to get to spend so much time with their grandparents while we were working at the church. We are so blessed to have such good family.

Our Church - Our Passion

We have been at our new church now for almost 2 years now. The story is amazing about how God brought us here but to make it short - God joined our hearts together to go and lead worship in this brand new church where they were going to worship to DVD's. Not that that would have been horrible or anything but come on, live music is much better. We thought that it would be just Ben and I going solo for a good while - pretty much bare bones - but as God would have it, we have had a full band nearly from the beginning. Our drummer, guitarist, bassist and back-up singer all drive in from different locations in Oregon. Yes, we meet in Vancouver. It's quite amazing. We have a super committed group of people that show up each week with a passion to serve. A lot to be thankful for.......... Ben has morphed into this amazing worship leader. It has been so awesome to see it all happen. Although his addiction to Starbucks is still thriving, he is equally addicted to his music. When he's not fighting fires and saving lives, he is working on new things to add to our worship experience. It's always changing which is fun and challenging. We are now playing to a click (metronome) and he is throwing in a drum sequence here and there to add more depth to the drums. We've been able to add in synth sounds and other various strange, yet appealing sounds on the keyboard now that he is leading more. Yes, that means I am on the keyboards. I know how to play the piano so I am learning a new instrument. It's been a lot of fun........ We have had a bit of a challenge learning to work together in a creative environment. We've had a time or two when practice was more like an episode of the Jerry Springer show. Yikes! Working on that ............- if I would just be quiet we'd probably be just fine. Like the book of James says, "be quick to listen and slow to speak." ........... There's a novel idea. It really works! God is working in us and through us as a worship team. We've learned to really celebrate in worship and that it's ok to have fun in church........... We wouldn't want to be anywhere else!

Our trip to beautiful Idaho

The girls and I made our way to Idaho for a week to visit family and friends. This was their first time flying that they both could remember. They did great on the plane. We stayed with Uncle Jerry, Sarah and Bekah for a day and then headed off to the quiet comforts of Grandma and Papa Long's. The girls had a blast playing with and getting to know Grandma and Papa. We visited Uncle Charlie one day at his work and went out for lunch at the local mexican restaurant in Kuna (pronounced Q-na). He took the girls back to the store where he works and let them shop with the miniature kids carts - they had a blast, as their usual grocery shopping experience is hurried and without much of their participation. We also got to spend one morning with our good friends (that we miss) Nate and Melissa and their daughter Addison and brand new baby Stephen. The girls had fun playing with Addison and her little girl toys and are still talking about her. We got to visit with Noel and Sydney's old babysitter, Sarah Austin and her roommate Jessica who is also from our church at Real Life. We went out for ice cream followed by the witnessing of a great motorcycle accident. You know, just the usual. Mom got to have a girls night out with all the cousins and then the whole family got together for birthdays the night before we left so we got to see everyone and the girls got to play with all of my cousins' kids. The girls each came home with a boyfriend. Noel claimed Isaac (a friend of my cousin's) and Sydney had to fight for her claim to Uncle Charlie - but in the end she did win out over Noel. All in all we had a great and relaxing time thanks to all the family that pampered us! The only thing missing was daddy - but hey, someone's gotta pay the bills!

Our first post

Welcome to the Sims family blog. I am new at this so hopefully I can make it work so you, our friends and family can stay updated on what's going on with us. Firefighter daddy (as Noel and Sydney would say) is busy busy busy being a fireman, a great worship leader and a really awesome dadda (the latest title). He's also playing in a band with Ben and Kevin. He has been doing a lot of experimenting with loops and sequences with the worship team so that's been a bit of fun.
Noel is looking forward to school this fall and is enjoying learning to cook, sew, paint and do crafts, all of which keep me more than busy. She loves to sing and write her own songs (most of which are about God). She is planning on recording an album with daddy, well two actually. One is going to be a "mexican" worship album.
Sydney is talking like crazy now. Sometimes we have to ask her to repeat what she has said several times in order to figure it out. She has a personality all of her own and is actually very funny. Noel says she's the funniest one in our family - I would have to agree. The girls are sharing a room with bunkbeds which is working out quite well, which means I now have a sewing/painting/crafting room. What a dream....well, it will be as soon as I get it all organized anyway.
As for me, there's always something keeping me busy. I have been painting on canvas, sewing, trying my hand at some jewelry making and reading. Other than that, I pretty much just sit around and watch the dust collect.