Life as "Normal"?!

This week has been busy with adjusting to life routines after being gone from Wisconsin for ten weeks plus having a week in the Bahamas! I will admit I miss the slower pace of life in Manley, Alaska, as it often seems like we don't take the time to visit with friends and make memories with our children like we did there. But, this is where God has us to be and may we be faithful until He moves us elsewhere.

Roger is back to work full-time. Praise the Lord! We are rejoicing that God provided a job through a friend, and Roger is driving a milk/dairy route for Morning Glory company. He drives to different restaurants, co-ops, gas stations, and homes delivering milk, sour cream, cheese, ice cream, and other assorted dairy products. He enjoys it, and we are thankful for a new job! (We've also received the benefits of such a job like chocolate milk, cheese, etc.!) He starts early in the morning, so we've had to adjust our evening routines a bit, so that he can get up in the morning. Roger does fine getting up about 4:30am., but I have yet to drag myself out of bed to make him coffee and breakfast. (I know...I'm working on it!) Honestly, if I had the job, they'd probably fire me on account of being too grouchy in the morning! I am definitely one of those people that needs my sleep (why do you think my kids have nap time every day?). I'm thankful for a husband that is willing to rise up early and go to work for our family. I am blessed!

Garett has been doing a little better at school, and I'm beginning to think we might survive Kindergarten! Hooray! We still have a long ways to go but every day brings us closer. I'm not sure how next year will go with having a 1st grader, a Kindergartner, two pre-schoolers, and an infant, but I know that God will give grace for every moment.

Fun for all, all for Fun

We also enjoyed another downfall of snow this week. My kids love snow, and we all spent time outside with snowmobiling, sleds, shoveling, and other fun this week. We also spent some time at the hockey rink last Saturday with some friends from church. Then everyone came over to our house for chili, snacks, and fellowship. I'm thankful for friends (Sara Scherzer) who are willing to make chili and get ready to have people over at our house, so that I could go have fun! I did ice skate (very carefully!), and the boys are much improved on their skate from last year. Travis didn't put on his skates, but he did teeter carefully around the ice on his boots.

Ice Hockey

Our good friends, the Longsines, are preparing to move to Oak Creek, WI, where God has called them to serve at a Baptist church there. We are definitely going to miss them, and I've been trying to squeeze in lots of visits before they have to leave. Beka has become a very dear friend and since they have four young children also, we have a lot in common. I brought lunch over to their house on Thursday simply so we could visit. They only live about 10 minutes from us, and Beka has rescued me on many a lonely, over-whelming day with good coffee and great company. While we will miss Jared and Beka, we are so excited about the opportunity that God has in store for them.

Also, in Robertson family news this week, we hosted a college/career activity at our house on Saturday night. I made a spaghetti supper, and then the group went snow tubing at a near by tubing hill. Although the group was small, everyone seemed to have a good time (and we'll be eating lots of spaghetti leftovers this week!).

So, in a nutshell, that condenses our week to a few short paragraphs. Hope you all had a wonderful week treasuring your families and loving the Lord.
Blessings,
 Sarah


Outdoor Fun!



Our old, but running snowmobile!

Never a Dull Moment!

The love of my life!

Bahamas, Beaches and my Babies

Roger and I enjoyed a four-night cruise to the Bahamas this past week with another couple from our church. It was great to get away without the kids, and I’m so thankful that my parents are willing to watch them for us. The weather was beautiful and warm. The average temperature was between 70-80 degrees! J The beaches were beautiful and we enjoyed a boat ride, and banana boat tour and a snorkeling trip (on which we didn’t see any fish!). I have to admit I had a really bad headache most of the week, and I was cold a lot of the time. That might have had to do with a rather abrupt transition from Alaska to the Bahamas! J

Friends

It’s always nice to see the Lord at work, and we definitely saw His hand upon our cruise. First of all, when we came back from Alaska and saw where our room was located on the boat, we noticed that the room description said that the room could not be converted to a king bed! L After multiple phone calls and e-mails, it was confirmed that the ship was full and that we were stuck with the room that did not convert! I was very disappointed as I didn’t want to spend the week with a room like “I Love Lucy” (you know, the twin beds). We called the cruise line the night before we sailed, and the customer service representative said that we could upgrade as a room had opened up. The only problem with this plan was it was an extra $175.00 that we hadn’t budgeted for our cruise. After talking it over, we decided not to do it, and we would just live with the twin beds. When we boarded the ship, the lady mentioned that we could talk to guest services aboard the ship and see what could be done. So, Roger walks over to the desk and talks to the man in charge. He calls up housekeeping and they said, “Oh sure, it’s no problem to convert the beds!” WHAT!!! Apparently, if all else fails, talk to housekeeping! J So, the beds were converted to a king…happy wife, happy life! J (Just Kidding!)

The second area that we saw God’s hand was the blessing of the cruise. I’m thankful that we weren’t aboard the ship that was stranded at sea, and our cruise had a Southern Gospel Music Tour group aboard! None of the groups were on a pro-professional level, but more like church groups that had made cds and traveled in their surrounding areas. While I didn’t like every group that sang, I was delighted with many of the old Southern Gospel songs, and my heart was blessed and refreshed. It was just another reminder that God loves me!

We also met two older couples on board that ship that became good friends with us. We exchanged e-mail addresses and hope to stay in touch. It’s good to be around sweet older couples that still love their spouses and know how to have a good time. It was an encouragement to our hearts.

The Lord blessed and refreshed us with the company of our friends, Corey and Hannah. We enjoyed meals, spending time with them, and lots of laughter and memories. It was the first time we had traveled with another couple on vacation, and we would definitely do it again.

Thirteen weeks!

After a wonderful week away from the children, it was great to come home to them. I feel refreshed and renewed energy to take on the task of raising our children for the Lord. We also are announcing our newest addition to our family coming up in August! J The Lord has blessed us with another child, and I am 13 weeks along. We are excited about this addition and the boys have all declared that we have enough boys; they’d like a girl baby! J Well, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what God has in store. We’d appreciate your prayers as we continue to seek God’s will for our future and our family.

Our love to you,

Sarah

Saving pennies + deals = FUN!

Friends, Fun and Snow

Home...it's a wonderful place to be! The week has been busy with getting back into the routine of schooling, grocery shopping, laundry, and emptying out the pig pen truck. I've had to remind the boys numerous times to "Please, flush the toilet! The ones in our house flush!" The boys have enjoyed being at home, but they are definitely more tired than normal as I think they have "truck lag" (kinda like "jet-lag")!

We have quite a bit of snow on the ground here, so the children have been enjoying being outside. I do miss the cold of Alaska, which makes the snow fluffy versus wet! \We enjoyed a nice visit with my friend, Beka, and her children this morning. Roger got out the old Elan snowmobile and dragged the kids around the yard on the sled, so they had a great time!

Roger and I are planning a vacation. About a year ago, there was a good deal on a cruise through http://eversave.com/share/RnyZ  . At the time, we had no idea that God was going to let Roger get laid off, and allow us to go to Alaska for eight weeks. We purchased a cruise package deal for a four night cruise with a hotel stay included on each end of the cruise with the money we had saved up. We are very excited about going with our friends from church, Corey and Hannah, and we are thankful that my parents are willing to watch four boys for a week!

We also would like each of you that gave financially to our missions trip to rest at ease. Each penny given for the missions trip was put towards our missions trip NOT towards our vacation. We kept a detailed expense account of our trip to Alaska, and we were very cautious about using money given to us. We tried our best to spend it wisely. All that said, I am very excited about leaving for our cruise on Saturday!

We are flying out of Milwaukee and will be taking a four night cruise to the Bahamas! We are looking forward to spending time together and with other adult company, although we will miss our children.

Fun in the snow

We put most of our coins in a jar for a little over a year. This is our extra "fun" money for the cruise. We actually accumulated over $175.00 just in coins! I know that many people think that they can't afford to take a cruise and that may be true, but I'd encourage you to start saving a little bit every day. It will all add up, and while we absolutely would not recommend going into debt for vacation, I do think it strengthens your marriage to get away together, so start saving!

Home Sweet Home!

This is actually a road in Saskatchewan!

The Robertson family has arrived back in Wisconsin! J All the children managed to survive the trip, we survived with them! J We pulled into our driveway about 3:00pm on Saturday afternoon. Wisconsin has snow (at the moment) so the boys are thrilled about that. We spent the first few minutes enjoying our nice, clean home. (Some ladies from the church had spent some time cleaning and tidying up our house for our arrival.) Our house seems amazingly huge, and as I walked around I was amazed at all the junk we have collected that we honestly do not need! J

Frank and Vivian Kelly with the boys

Frank and Vivian from Yellowknife

The boys are thrilled with their “new” toys…actually, the toys that they haven’t seen for ten weeks! J Wyatt told me, “Mom, I like this house, can we stay here for a long time?” (That is one little boy who is tired of traveling!) Chandler told me that this house is nice, but so was the one in Alaska. J It’s a relief for our family to have a little space to ourselves after the long trip home!

I originally thought that we had traveled 63 hours to home, but the Roger reminded me that I had forgotten to add all the hours after Prince Albert. So, when it’s all said and done, we traveled over 80 hours in the truck and put over 6000 miles on the truck on the ride home! Needless to say, it’s a relief to not be traveling today! J

My parents brought us supper yesterday, and our friend, Sara Scherzer had made us a welcome home cake. We enjoyed visiting with our family, and then the Longsine family came over for dessert. It was nice to visit with much-loved family and friends, but bedtime was my favorite part! The boys went to bed without a fuss in their new bunkbeds that Papa made for them. And then the house was quiet! J I slept peacefully until about 1am. when Travis realized that his parents weren’t in the same room as him. J The first time I was able to put him back in his own bed; but when he came back again at 3am., I realized that we have some work to do in the next few weeks! J Nevertheless, it’s good to be home.

We went to church at Wyldewood Baptist Church. It was the official installment of our new pastor, Jason Brenenstuhl, and it was a blessing to be there. We praise the Lord for our church, and we will continue to be faithful to serve here until the Lord gives clear direction for our future. The boys were excited to be back in their Sunday School classes, with the exception of Travis. That little boy really struggled today! L The nursery worker finally came and brought him to us after about an hour and one-half of hearing him cry! He has been with us non-stop for the past 10 weeks, and we haven’t been out of his sight. The transition might be a little tough, but we will make it, Lord willing!  Roger mentioned that Travis seemed like he was in a little bit of pain, but I thought maybe it was due to leg cramps after the long drive. However, when we arrived home about 6:00pm. and took off his shoe, we realized the problem. Apparently his shoes were a little snug and one of his toes was bent in his shoe! It doesn’t appear to be broken, but he is definitely uncomfortable! L Hopefully, it will be a better day for him tomorrow! J

We praise the Lord for His traveling mercies and protection. We are thankful for each one of you that prayed, supported, and read our blog updates! We have much to do this week as far as returning items that we borrowed for the trip, cleaning out the pig pen truck, and sorting, organizing, and putting away! But for now, I’m going to snuggle my little boys and put them in bed. Tomorrow begins a new chapter in our lives, and we are looking forward to what the future holds.

Our love to you, Roger and Sarah

Traveling Onward!

February 1, 2013

Our children are now convinced that we are NEVER going back to Wisconsin and that we’ll never get there! (I have to admit that if I didn’t know better, I’d probably agree with them! J)

The traveling is getting long, but I’m thankful for all the visits we’ve made with friends along the way back. We enjoyed services on Wednesday night at Beulah Land Baptist Church in Prince Albert. I enjoyed catching up on visiting with Kailah Webster, and we stayed up way too late talking. J On Thursday, we left Prince Albert about 10 am. and headed home with Kailah to visit her family. Catherine spoiled us with a delicious lunch, and we enjoyed visiting with them. We left later than planned and headed south again. We are headed to Winkler, Manitoba, next where we will visit Sylvia Webster for lunch and then hopefully head across the border back into the United States of America! J

God has blessed us with safe traveling journeys, but the weather has been cold! The warmest traveling day we’ve had in almost two weeks was the day we left Fairbanks, when it was 7 degrees! Since then, the warmest day we’ve seen has been about -8 degrees. Even as we travel south, the cold weather has stuck with us! Today we started out at -9 degrees, and it’s only gotten colder (currently -17 degrees). The weather didn’t seem nearly as cold in Alaska, but it is way different when you’re dressed for it versus traveling in a car! J

Since I have a lot of things I’m grumpy about, I decided to list a few things I’m thankful for including the following:

-         I’m thankful for dvd players that can help the hours in the car go by a little more quickly. J

-         I’m thankful for Roger, who has driven most of the hours and has kept the truck on the road. (We’ve seen many vehicles in the ditch and several accidents.) We’ve had challenging driving conditions almost every day, and the Lord continues to keep us safe.

-         I’m thankful that no matter how dirty, full of crumbs, and stickiness the truck gets, that it can be cleaned up! J I even let the kids have popcorn in the truck yesterday as it was a much needed distraction for them! J

UPDATE: We enjoyed lunch with both Ashley and Sylvia about 1:00pm. We had a great visit albeit very short! We left Winkler and crossed into the United States about 3:30pm. Although we are not home yet, it feels good to be back in the USA. We drove to Alexandria, MN, where we stopped for the night. We have about six hours to home, and I know we’ll be up early to head that way! J We appreciate your continued prayers, Sarah