Spring is Nearly Here!

Ahhh... Spring is nearly here at last. How do they say it in Narnia? Winter is nearly over? Above is a picture from one of the snow falls we saw here in the Northwest. There's our prius covered in almost a foot of snow! We've been seeing the sun almost EVERY day lately though. So we have hope that summer will be here before we know it.

... So I wanted to post SIMPLY because I love reading everyone's comments. Now I realize there's nearly nothing else to report.

OH! I know... Please Be praying for us.

AJ & I are continuing to act as Young Life leaders here in our area called "Northlake Young Life" which is Kirkland, WA and the surrounding areas. There hasn't been a Young Life group at the high school down the street from us and it has been an uphill battle getting it going again. We've had two Young Life nights (Monday night events formerly called "Club"--but it was getting confusing for kids who thought it was really "clubbing"--if you need an explanation on this, please see Janaye or someone around the age of 20.) And so far our big number of new kids is 3. They're 3 GREAT kids... and we've got some old-timers (as in, they've been brought up into Young Life after participating in WyldLife in Junior High), but we're having a hard time having more than 8 kids at a single event.

We've met some awesome kids at El-Dub (LW) as the kids call it, but AJ & I are beginning to see how difficult ministry in the Northwest can be. There's a lot of resistance from school administration, staff, and even kids. We don't even have enough leaders right now to really establish any kind of presence at the school. AJ coached Sophomore team basketball all winter and had an interesting season, but the rest of us are having a difficult time reaching out to the farthest kid. For more information on Young Life, go to www.younglife.org, or ask, and we could really use all the prayer we can get for God to develop new leaders, give us strength and innovation to reach new kids, and instill motivation and a sense of urgency to really meet our goals of getting more than 10 kids to camp this summer.

This is a picture of Malibu, the camp that our kids & we will attend in August (Lord Willing).

It's marketed as "the best week of your life, guaranteed, or your money back." And it truly is the best week of these kids lives. Ask AJ or Travis--they'll tell you. Well, I'm sure Travis & AJ could NOW say they have events in their lives that have trumped this week, but at the time...

Camp is where so many kids actually hear the Gospel and commit their lives to Christ. It was a beautiful thing to witness last summer, and I hope and pray that there will be more "Say-So's" this year with these new kids. If you'd like to pray for some of our specific kids that we pray for, their names are Marissa, Derek, Tony, Katy, Tina, Danielle, Kealey, Sienna, Yaritza, Raine, Jarrell, and many many more.

We love you guys! Thanks for checking in on us. And I'll have a much more exciting March post after Stacie & Darek visit us next week, and then Janaye & Brady B. visit us later in the month. Hoooo-Weeeee. : )

Love, LERA & AJ.

I Am Legend = I Am Terrified

So I haven't posted in like a half a year. We live in Kirkland, now, which is right across the bridge from Seattle. Down the street from where we live is a park where we can sit on the shore of Lake Washington, at the marina, and we can see the Seattle skyline right across the water.

Anyways, I'm trying to distract myself because AJ and me are watching I Am Legend with Will Smith... and I'm just terrified.

Someone please tell me what happens. : )

Thanks for checking in fam!! Birthday 25 is in two days--Hooray! : ) I'll be able to rent a car for the same price as you!

Love, Lera (& AJ) ... The Newlyweds! : )

And... This picture below is from Vegas. We went last month for a trade show (which was full of laser machines, and water jet machines, and welding machines, and robots) ... but we got to enjoy some warm weather for a couple of days--and a show! We saw Mystere which was AJ's favorite Cirque du Soleil show. The cotton candy is from the buffet we ate at for dinner. We even rode the roller coaster at New York, New York. Amazing. I do still see the sun though here, too. : )

Another Great Weekend in the Books

Last night (Sunday) Lera and I both said to one another, "what an amazing weekend!" It was a very relaxing weekend and we loved every minute of it. On Friday evening Lera went to Amanda's birthday at Pizzaria Bianco, rated #1 pizza by Oprah, USA Today, Bon Appetite. I spent Friday evening playing Fugitive with our Young Life kids. It's kinda like Cops and Robbers where the leaders drive around in cars with high power flashlights and we search the streets trying to find the "fugitives." The kids have different check points they must reach without being identified by the people in cars. We have played this game 3 times now and the kids love it more and more each time we play. This past Friday we had about 80 high school students!!!

Saturday gave us both a chance to relax and have moore fun. We cleaned the house and layed around all day. Lera had been looking for a new mountain for the past few months and we finally found her the perfect bike on Craigslist. So after church on Sunday we went to take a look at the bike. She was perfect and Lera made the lady an offer and we took the bike with us!!

We arrived home around 2:30 pm and spent the rest of the day riding our bikes. Lera has always told me she loves riding bikes but I had no idea. Our friend Katie even heard about Lera's new bike so she brought her bike and we all went for a ride. We live in the foothills of the White Tank Mountains and so there were some great biking trails.

Thanks for reading our blog everyone.

New Life

Spring is such a beautiful time. Here in Phoenix, it has already come and past. But in our hearts, we feel spring still because the Lord has just blessed us both with a new niece and nephew in our lives. Check out our beautiful niece and adorable nephew on these sites:

Eliana Grace Lane (new baby girl to Brady & Katherine Lane) at OurLane.com

and
Calvin Montgomery Moore (new baby boy to Travis & Ariana Moore) at MooreLiving.blogspot.com.







After hearing the cries recorded on the Lane's website, we have officially declared these will be the only babies in our section of the Moore family until at least the next decade. Thanks Brady! : )

Blessings to the loving parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and the beautiful new miracles themselves.

(We'll update soon, perhaps).

Aren't we too old for Spring Break?

Lera and I both have next week off...9 days to go play. She has school spring break and so I am taking my vacation. We have not much of an idea of where we are gonna go. We are gonna pack up the car and probably head west. We have both always wanted to see wine country and think this might be a good opportunity for that. That is in Napa Valley, CA.

We are planning on leaving Buckeye, AZ on Saturday morning and are gonna go where the wind takes us. We are bringing our tent, cooler, books, guitar, and swim suits. I will hopefully be getting my cast removed before we leave. Feel free to give us a call on our trip, we just may be in your state. I am hoping we get to see Zion National Park in Utah which I've heard great things about as well as the Grand Canyon!! Any other recommendations be sure to let us know.

We will do our best and drive safe but we could still use your prayers for safe travel.

My husband

I just wanted to send a little note of love to you AJ. you work so hard to make me happy. and nobody's ever done that in my life. (Admit it you guys... it was not the object.) AJ is over here next to me brooding about writing an approvable blog.

anyways, wish us luck this weekend in california. it'll be a fast, fun trip. homecoming always seems so exciting because you look forward so much to seeing everyone you miss and love... and you totally forget that you have to see all thoes other people that you thought you finally could forget about. well, maybe they all decided they were "over" homecoming.

hey, we had our second club of the semester tonight for young life. AJ led the competition--he's so funny. he pretended to trip as he walked up the stairs with his crutches. it was ridiculous. we haven't exactly told anyone we may not still be here in 6 months... and that is a weird feeling.

gosh--the days feel so long. sometimes i wish my job was a "errand runner" for aj and me. i can never get to the mailbox. (and yes that is the reason why you don't get mail from us, and presents come late).

i'm almost better. gotta love those antibiotics. just a few more days i hope. and speaking of work... 4 months to go!!! and then it's baby time in wisconsin (no, not my baby time. Katherine's! http://www.ourlane.com)

on that note, i must go to bed. i'm exhausted : ) and aj always makes sure i get to bed in time and wake up on time. but he hasn't made my lunch since he's been on crutches. : ( can anyone come move in for a couple days just to help us take care of us? Thanks...

LOVE YOU FAMILy. bye.

Momma I'm Comin Home

After Lera and I were so anxious to be done with school at Pepperdine and ready to leave Malibu, now we find ourselves so excited to return.

Next weekend is Homecoming and we are loading up the car for what should be a great weekend. Whoo Hoo!! GO WAVES!! We can't wait to catch up with many of our "old" friends (pun intended). It is so hard to believe that it has been about two years since moving away from many of them. I truly miss my early morning walks to class gazing at the ocean, the food in the cafe, staying up late laughing histarically with roomates, playing in the ocean, and most importantly, the loving community at Pepperdine.

I have recently discovered that my ankle is broken, but am determined to not let this wreck our trip. It will be a great roadtrip. I feel like a very lucky man returning to campus with my beautiful wife, Lera "Danley." She broke so many hearts at Pepperdine.

I have a feeling that because we have been writing our Blog so intermittingly, that we will not have many readers out there. Nonetheless, we appreciate you! I will try to get Lera to write the next entry. She good writer. She English major. She better than me.

Peace.
AJ