Revelation 12:11: Let's catch up, shall we?

Before reading, I suggest you grab a coffee, sit in a comfy spot, and prepare to be informed! Haha, just kidding. I just feel like I have so much to write about today that it might come out in one big long paragraph. Forgive me ahead of time for that!

Where to start? I guess I'll begin with my job. Over the past couple weeks things have really picked up with CYAK. I have been taking a couple students out for coffee/frozen yogurt and it's been SO great to get back into the swing of things. I love meeting students and getting to know them. I also got to teach my first lesson at youth group a couple weeks ago and was just really encouraged and affirmed that teaching is what I'm good at! I've always known I love to teach, but it's taken me a little bit to figure out what I love to teach. I can't tell you enough how awesome this job is for me.

Speaking of my job, I got to go to the young-adult retreat last weekend in Big Lake with a bunch of college students that go to our Arigaa ministry program on Thursday nights. We had a blast and the camp was just SOOOOO gorgeous that I took tons of pictures! I loved hanging out with my co-staffers and canoeing around the lake!

Jordan came back from Japan in early September and I LOVE having him home. It just feels right. He also gives me someone to cook for, so I have been doing a lot of that in the past few weeks, too! I've made salmon, chicken tortilla soup, six loaves of oatmeal bread, spinach sausage meatballs with spaghetti squash, a carrot cake, and a blueberry pie (made from my berries I picked in the tundra!). Anyone want to eat at the Kimbles' this week? Haha. I love cooking, and am always thinking of my father-in-law, Tom, while I'm in the kitchen and wondering... "would Tom approve?" Or, "What would he do to this salmon right now?" Needlesstosay, I'm thoroughly enjoying the "Alaskan" way of cooking up here, which is basically to live off the land, forage for yourselves, and be thrifty and homemade. I encourage you all to try it!

Jordan and I got to explore Anchorage and its surrounding a bit this month, too. We took a couple bike rides on the coastal trail, and we've also been running a ton lately. Anchorage has this really cool fall race line up on Tuesday nights, so we've been a couple times to that to run a 5.3K and a 6K. I'm really enjoying feeling in shape and challenging myself to run harder, run faster, just run. We also hiked a really popular trail in Anchorage called Flat Top where you can see a 360 view of the city. The first time we took our friends with us that had small children, so we didn't get all the way to the top, but Jordan took Layla up last week by himself and said it was beautiful!

I am currently back on the east coast now for a couple weeks visiting family and doing a little fundraising for my job. I flew into Virginia last night to spend the weekend at my sister's with her little boy and husband. Our parents drove down, too, so I'll drive north with them on Monday. I'm so excited to see my family and friends... living so far away makes it hard to visit, but well worth the trip!

Enjoy the pics!