Author: Bo

Well…. we have 1 day left to prepare before our wedding and leaving for our 2 week honeymoon. About the only thing i can say now is AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Everything is going SO well and the pieces are falling into place and people are offering to help, it’s just great, but it’s also just a HUGE stress to plan every last detail of a wedding and prepare for the honeymoon as well.

We’ve been blessed every step of the way though. With plans, travel arrangements, help from family and friends, our travel agent, finances, Bo’s job, our house, or real estate agent… there are so many things. I feel like God just keeps dropping me little blessings every time I turn around to make things easier or relieve some stress.

Last night Bo and I went to our small group bible study but there was no study, they threw us a surprise wedding shower! We sat around and ate cake, opened presents, talked about Bo and I then they all laid their hands on us and prayed for us. It was a sense of community I don’t think I’ve felt much since the race and it was so awesome! We had no idea, it was a complete surprise and our whole entire group came around us, shared wisdom, listened to us and prayed for us, it just doesn’t get any better than that.

So I keep stressing and God keeps giving bits and pieces of strength, encouragement and peace everyday. I THINK we’re ready… I’m sure there’s plenty that I’m forgetting but maybe I’ll just never remember so I won’t know that I forgot it!

I got a job, well 2 actually. They are both my backup plans. I’m in the process for another job that I would really love to get and is my main goal so please keep that in your prayers. I don’t think I’ll get the chance to interview with them before we leave but hopefully SOON after we get back home so I can turn down the other 2 jobs if I do get this one. So that’s great news, I have 2 jobs available one of which I will take if this other job doesn’t come through. Our house is moving along great, more is done everyday and I haven’t even been by for 4-5 days to see it.

My family is well, dad is still doing good, mom is recovering from a kidney infection which was bad. She was VERY sick last week and in bed from about Thursday until Wednesday or so but she’s up and about now, feeling better just a bit weak from being so sick but recovering well.

Bo’s grandma is sick, please keep her in your prayers, we don’t think she will be able to make it to the wedding because of it so that’s a big bummer.

That’s all I can think of right now. I need to go get some work done, laundry done, packing done, financial organization done, preparing done then go to the salon and get my fingers and toes done!

I’m not sure when I will post again, we won’t be home until late July 31st so it may be a few weeks. Thanks for reading this and keeping us in your prayers! I’ll post pictures as SOON as i can!

Love,
Bo and Kari

Well good news and bad news. They started building the frame of our house on the 7th of July and they’ve already got over 1/2 the house up! Pretty amazing to see the progress going that quickly on the house! We’re getting SO excited!

That was the good news. The bad news… my last job lead turned me down. Sad. It’s a long story but it was kind of a depressing letdown. On the flipside of that, God closed that door but of course opened another door for me to go through. I applied for 2 positions at a medical clinic late Monday night online and received a call at 8:30am on Tuesday morning asking for an interview. It would be a job i’d really enjoy, get my foot in the door for the medical field and pay OK and it’s not full time BUT i don’t think i’d have benefits with it and i need benefits and it’s an on call position. She said they generally work their on call workers 16-24 hours per week which would be perfect, that’s exactly what i need but it would be tough to not plan anything in my life in hopes of being called in to work. I also sent my resume in to the recruiter at the Christian organization where Bo is now working and apparently they raved over my resume and said they want me. They’re not sure what for yet but they want me based on my resume. I’m not sure what i would be doing there, how much i’d get paid, how many hours, etc but that could be a promising lead as well. Another friend of me tonight let me know that a local 911 dispatch agency that i called a couple weeks ago who had JUST hired someone is now desperate for another dispatcher. I’m not sure what happened but that’s another possible door for me though it means working shift work again which includes nights, weekends and holiddays. I haven’t applied for that one yet but I probably will soon because i need to get something SOON. So i have 3 potential job opportunities now. Please keep that in your prayers.

And 1 other interesting tidbit…. I withdrew $1000.00 from my savings account for Bo and I to have spending cash on our honeymoon. I requested that on Sunday (online). I received it on Monday in the mail in addition to an $850.00 hospital bill from when i was in the hospital back in February! UGH… So i decided the better thing would be to pay the $850.00 bill with the honeymoon cash money and use the rest for the honeymoon. Well God of course has a sense of humor because when i went and checked the mail today, i got another medical bill for $150.00. Perfect huh? I had taken out EXACTLY the amount of the total of both bills that arrived in the mail the next 2 days. It sucks that it happened and ALL of our spending cash we had planned on is now gone, BUT i’m SOOOO thankful that i had the money there already and was able to pay the bills since i don’t have much of an income now. God works in amazing ways…. He creates some pretty miraculous coincidences from the small things like providing EXACTLY the amount of money needed to pay unsuspecting medical bills to the larger things like perfectly creating the universe in a way we could live in it. He’s a pretty amazing God and never ceases to amaze me in new ways every day.

On the 5th of July, Bo’s friends had 2 extra tickets to the mariners game so we bought our peanuts and headed out! We got free parking a few blocks from the stadium (saved $25 from parking in the parking garage) and headed in. I had
peanuts because that’s my MUST have for a mariners game, Bo brought his sunflower seeds then we got there and smelled the garlic fries and of course couldn’t resist. We’re both begging to gain more weight and have a heart attack at a young age so we got some. YUM! It was even worth it later AND the next day when we were still feeling the effects of the fries. hahaha. Mariners won! WOO HOO!

On the 4th of July, Bo and I went with our best friends Jerry and Anna to Lake Wilderness for the day. They had games for the kids, lawn chairs, a bbq, games for the adults, blankets, everything we needed for a day out in the sun! We got there at about noon and stayed until just after 11pm. We had a great time playing cards, some sort of golf, Bo won the potato sack race, playing catch phrase, throwing football and just hanging out together. Jerry took pictures of the fireworks display so those pictures are courtesy of him. Actually all the pictures are courtesy of Jerry and Anna because i didn’t even have my camera. Happy Belated Independence Day!!!

We put our offer on the house on May 20th and got to stick the “for sold” sign then. It was pretty exciting for us. The process has been moving along with permits, down payments, deposits and all that other stuff you can’t actually see on the property. Today was our “pre construction” meeting and the day they drop lumber. They’ve laid the foundation already and are scheduled to begin constructing the frame on Monday July 7th. Estimated closing date is September 19th which the superintendent told me has an 85% chance of being correct. He said even if they finish early, we won’t close early so I guess September 19th will be the earliest we can get in. Between house sitting, parents, friends and possibly trailers, we should be taken care of for the month and a half we will be homeless after returning from our honeymoon. Eventually the house will look like the one below but it will be blue. We’re getting so excited about the wedding, honeymoon and house! So much to look forward to! I’m still looking for a job as well…. it’s pretty amazing how a house can go from this to this in a matter of months…. so exciting!!!!

Not much to report this week. Bo started his new job and is enjoying it. They have daily devotions as well as a weekly chapel service where he works now which is pretty awesome that he can take his faith to work. He won’t be able to go to all the services because he’s the new guy and has to man the phones right now but that will change at some point. He works Mon-Fri from 8am-5pm and hasn’t had to stay late yet like he did at his last job.

I’m still looking for a job but have 2 new leads. I’ll find out from 1 this week at some point and the other probably won’t be until next week because the recruiter is out of town this week. I’m not sure which job I want more, the first one is work that I LOVE and that pays very well, BUT it would be going back to shift work again based on seniority which I have none of. It’s also only 4 days per week with 3 days off which is nice as well and there’s lots of overtime available so I’d make enough for us to buy the appliances we need for our house (washer, dryer & fridge). The other job pays less but it would be normal Mon-Fri 8am-5pm with no weekends or holidays or any of that which I love the idea of. We’ll see where God wants me if either of these leads pan out.

The house is going great, i’ll post pictures tomorrow. The foundation has been laid, it looks REALLY small and the yard is quite a bit smaller than we thought as well. The patio hasn’t been laid yet so after it is, i’m thinking we’re only going to have about 4 feet of yard from the back of the patio to the fence in the back. We’ll see. Estimated closing date is still Sept 19th though the pessimist in me is planning on October 1st.

The wedding is in 18 days, things are still being planned and being changed and being worked out. I’m so ready to be done with it all right now. I just want to get married, go on our honeymoon and come home and live together but none of it is going to happen that way. There are more details to work out for the wedding, bags to stuff, decorating to do, payments to make, confirmation to call on, dress to pick up, etc etc etc. And we have to print everything for the honeymoon, pack for 2 weeks with no laundry available and get there then when we return home on Aug 1, we have no place to live since the house isn’t going to be up until Sept 19th. We’ve got some house sitting jobs lined up for that time but just a week here or a few days there, other than that we’ll probably be with his mom depending on where she’s at, or my parents or in a friends trailer until our house is done. Not exactly how we planned on starting our new life together but we’re so thankful that we have the inconvenience of being homeless for 6 weeks to get our own home it doesn’t matter. I’m so excited for the wedding, I think it will be great. We went to a friends wedding at our church this last weekend and it was so beautiful, I LOVED it. It was simple and classy and beautiful and fun. Our wedding should be similar to theirs but we’re having food catered and we have a DJ as well which they didn’t but I’m hoping it’s similar to theirs because it was just perfect.

I’ll write more tomorrow after I have the frame walk meeting with the superintendent for our house and post pictures of what’s there so far. Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a comment, here’s how to do it again (i know it’s kind of confusing on this page) … click on the red “comments” word below. Enter your comment in the box, click on “name/url” and you can enter your name as who the blog is from. You do not have to have an account to post a blog, you just have to have a name :)

Much love!
Kari & Bo

Thank you so much for your prayers! Bo got a job! And he got THE job… the one he really wanted! It’s a temp to hire position through a staffing agency for an international Christian agency. Bo had a phone interview yesterday and went in for the personal interview today. He called me as he was leaving the interview and told me all about it. He said they told him he would hear about the results of the interview today. About 10 minutes later as we were still talking about how the interview went, the staffing agency was calling on the other line already offering him the job! He starts this week! It couldn’t have worked out better! He gets to do the desktop support/computer/IT stuff that he loves AND he gets to do it for a Christian organization… I am just so amazed and thankful for how God works things out. I still need a job, but I’m not near as desperate as I was, ready to jump into anything that was offered to me anywhere for any amount of money. I can narrow my search back down to the local community and take a lesser pay because we don’t NEED me to make that much anymore since Bo will bring in most of the income. Please keep that in your prayers.

On another note, my parents found out today that their beloved dog Sampson has Cancer. Apparently with this breed of Rottweiler it’s common. He’s such a wonderful dog and plays so well with my niece Chloe, it’s of course heartbreaking news. They don’t know to what extent yet but it’s just sad he has more medical issues to deal with after having surgery to have both of his knees replaced in the past 1-2 years. Maybe it’s just a small skin tumor, that’s what we’re praying for so it can just be removed and all will be well.

Thank you again for all your prayers, we appreciate it so much!

Love,
Bo and Kari

Most of you are aware of the situation Bo and I are in and how we’re both desperately seeking jobs right now within the next 2 weeks to try to save our house. Well, I’ve applied for quite a few and interviewed for 1 so far and didn’t get it. Bo has applied for quite a few as well and had a phone interview today with a Christian Agency needing an IT/desktop support guy which is what he does. He was so excited about this opportunity to work in a Christian environment doing what he loves. He had the phone interview today and they liked him and said they’re looking to fill the position immediately and requested he come in for an in person interview tomorrow. Yay!!!! So please keep the situation and his interview tomorrow in your prayers!

(this picture of him is about 2 years old… probably similar to how he will look tomorrow for his interview, all nice and dressed up, super excited but also scared like a deer in the headlights look)

Anna threw me the best bridal shower today! We had a lot of fun and didn’t have to play the “dress the bride up in toilet paper” game! We did play a few games one of which had everyone cracking up to the point of tears. It was a lot of fun. Here are just a few pictures…. I’m only including me, my mom, my sister and anna because they know any pictures I get are subject to being posted on the internet but i’ll respect everyone elses privacy to be nice :) Thank you so much to everyone who came, I’m so glad you could come and share this day with me and play games and be goofy. I love you all!

Well my goal was to be blogging at least weekly to have some consistency for our readers but I’ve been slacking. I have no excuse. I’ve thought about writing a blog about dependence/trust in God a few times over the past few weeks but blown it off. So I’ll give you the readers digest version here.

When I applied for the World Race, I did it for application practice, I never once actually thought about leaving for a year and what that would mean. When I got accepted, I had to finally consider that and was put in a place of dependence on the Lord to tell me what to do, when, where and how to do it. It was a big deal for me to think about quitting my job, selling my house, getting rid of my pets, leaving my family/friends, etc. That was my first big lesson in dependence on the Lord. My second was while on the race, pretty much all year long I was in a place of dependence for one reason or another and God got me through the year.

As Bo and I have been preparing for our wedding, honeymoon and new life together after we get married, we talked a lot about what we wanted from our marriage. We want a home where we can be comfortable spending time together and we want time together. We’ve never lived together so we’re really looking forward to having real time together, not just weekend time like we normally get now. We decided I would work part time to supplement his income so I could also be home taking care of the house and him as my new husband. After a few months of searching, we found a house we could afford on his salary and bought it. It’s a new construction home so it’s not built yet and closing is not expected until mid September (though i’m assuming it will be more like Oct 1)…

We were so excited, the wedding plans are going great, the honeymoon is almost paid off, I’ve been looking for part time jobs (while i’m working part time from home), he got a new job that he loves, we got our loan approved and it’s just on hold for closing time. He started his new job 2 1/2 weeks ago and has enjoyed every minute of it and is learning a lot. Then he got paid on Friday and there was a discrepancy. Come to find out, him and his boss were talking about 2 different figures when confirming his wages and what Bo was talking about as an hourly rate, his boss heard as a yearly rate and that’s what he paid him at. It’s 50% less than what we budgeted and got our loan on and it’s about 1/2 the amount of money he was making at his last job. How this big of a miscommunication occurred, we have no idea but it did and we have to deal with it. We quickly came to terms with reality that there is a really good chance we will lose our house now and the large sum of non refundable money we put down on it but we’re ok with that. It sucks of course, but we’ll get through it.

For Bo, he believes this is a lesson of dependence on the Lord. He feels that situations like this where you basically get completely knocked completely off track unexpectedly is a lesson of learning to be dependent on God. I’ve already learned that lesson, many times over… why do I have to learn this one again? For me, it’s a lesson on walking with God. Bo and I were doing everything on our own, HE got a job, WE got a house, WE are getting married, etc, and we hadn’t been giving God the glory for providing the job, the house, the relationship. We recognized this a while back and even joined a new bible study group to try to pull God back into our relationship and we love our new bible study group, but all it did for us was add a Wednesday night service into our week in addition to our Sunday morning services we attend. It didn’t refocus our relationship on God, we weren’t really spending that much more time in the Word and in prayer like we had hoped, we just added another service to our week.

We finally realized that an additional “service” added into the week won’t bring us closer to God and one another, only we can do that intentionally if we make the daily effort. So while Bo is learning his lesson of dependence on God, I am learning my lesson about walking daily with God, we’re both growing in our relationships with the Lord and with each other and it’s great. We’re facing losing our house that’s going to start being built probably on Monday and losing a substantial amount of money but we realize that’s life. Life happens. What matters is how we respond to it and get THROUGH it. We have to go through this, we can’t go around it, we can’t just skip it or ignore it, we have to deal with it and we’re doing well.

I can’t say that I did well initially… I was standing in Costco at the checkout line crying like a blubbering idiot on my phone to a friend who was trying to enjoy the Disneyland experience on her family vacation. I doubt she even heard anything that i said other than the snotty sniffing, heavy breathing occasional yelling about how upset I was that this happened. Ha. There’s another lesson for me, my initial reactions. Ugh.

Anyways, Bo and I are desperately seeking jobs, we’re hoping he can get a new job immediately making at least what he made at his previous job (a contract position that expired so he can’t go back) and I can find a part time job that pays decent and we may have the opportunity to save our house and our money. We don’t want to lose the house or our money, but it’s not the end of our world if we do. We are still getting married, we will still be starting a new life together and following where God leads us whether it’s in our new house or in an apartment.

I interviewed for a new job (full time) on Monday and should hear back next week. Bo is getting a few interviews set up hopefully for next week. I would love to get this job, it’s SUPER close to home, it’s Mon-Fri 8:30am-5:00pm with city benefits and I could do it well. The pay isn’t great, but I wouldn’t be spending really any money on gas/travel, i could leave at 8:25am and be home at 5:05pm and still have time with Bo (assuming he’ll be working days too) and have good medical benefits for the both of us. I think it would be great for us, we’ll see if God wants me to have this one though.

In other news, my dad is doing great! Cancer free and he had his first epidural cortisone injection on Friday which seems to be working great and relieved a lot of his pain. If it continues to work it may prevent him from having to have another surgery so we’re praying for that.

Mom is doing well also, she’s at home with Chloe now who is also doing great! I’ve been practicing with her to be the flower girl, she has her little basket filled with flower petals and she’s great at throwing them everywhere but not so great at walking at the same time. I’m assuming she’ll just end up running down the aisle to either Bo or her mom and not throwing anything but she’ll be so cute it will be funny anyways.

Ok back to work! Much love to you all!
Bo and Kari