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Couple of quick updates, just to let you all know what's been going on.

1. First of all, for those of you who've been following Malachi's baseball career, the bad news is that his team suffered a brutal loss in the playoffs. They hit the ball extremely well in the quarterfinal game, but their defense smelled worse than stagnant pondwater. The other team played similarly, and the game was eventually stopped due to darkness after 7 innings with an 18-18 tie.
   
   The 8th inning resumed the next day (BEFORE the semifinal game) - Malachi's team batted first, scoring 3 runs, and then they only needed to hold the other team on defense. The made the first two outs quite easily, and then twice they had the final batter to 2 strikes, only to give up significant hits. The other team ended up scoring 4, and that was all she wrote. Sigh.
   
   Here's the good news though - Malachi made All-Stars, for the first time ever! Woo hoo! We are extremely excited and proud of him. Of course, it means another month of baseball, which just kills our evenings, but oh, well, we'll suffer :-)
   
   
2. Second, as some of you know, Micah has been saving for a fly rod for a long time now. He had ordered an Orvis for his birthday, which then got back-ordered, and then back-ordered yet again (eg. end of July if lucky), so we cancelled the order and got him a Winston rod instead. Nice rod. Made in Twin Bridges, Montana. Lifetime guarantee.
   
   Micah practiced casting for a couple of evenings, and then on Saturday we headed down to the Bighorn River with Grandpa Mike and Uncle Jake - poor Malachi, he had All-Stars practice! Actually, he didn't miss much, because we didn't catch a thing. Skunked. Awful. Actually, what made the whole thing worse was the fact that a) we could actually see lots of fish (big ones, HUGE ones, like 5+ pounds big), and b) the schmucks floating down the river behind (the ones who couldn't cast a fly rod to save their lives) - well they absolutely KILLED the fish. As in 30+ fish while we caught nothing. All I can say is that they had a darn good guide, who evidently knew the river like nobody's business.
   
   The bright note? Well Sunday afternoon Micah and I ran up past Columbus to fish for a few hours on the Stillwater, and MICAH ACTUALLY CAUGHT A FISH!!! Woo hoo! It was really great! And I got pictures and everything. I'm very proud of him - he is officially a fly-fisherman now. Way to go son!
   
   
3. Rebekah is the proud owner of a brand new mountain bike. Actually, its a brand-new-really-old mountain bike that Grandma Clarice has never really used. Grandpa fixed it up for her and now she's riding all over the place on it. Now all we need is one for Marilyn.
   
   
4. You may be wondering - Christian, where are all the pictures??? Yes, it's true, I usually post pictures when I blog. And yes, its true that I actually TOOK a lot of pictures over the past week or so. The problem however is that after Micah and I finished fishing on Sunday evening, I set the camera down on the hood of the car (you see where this is going, don't you?) and then forgot about it and drove off. All this to say, there's a really nice Canon digital camera somewhere in a ditch between Billings and the Swinging Bridge fishing access site above Columbus. But I don't know where exactly - believe me I looked. Sigh.
   
   The problem is, we use (and need) a digital camera. And so last night I went online and bought a replacement. Should be here in 5-7 days, so don't expect much in the way of photos over the course of the next week. What sucks is that these things are not cheap. Sigh. There went the bike for Marilyn...
   
   
5. Finally, it looks like we're heading back up to Missoula this weekend to look at houses in person, rather than just over the internet. Pray for us, if you think about it. The market is tight and our wallet is not as thick as it needs to be to get the kind of house we'd like for ministry. So ask God to do something surprising (but preferably not 'Elk Tent on National Forest Service land' kind of surprising!!!!)
   

That's pretty much it for now! We'll keep you posted on how things go. Feel free to drop us a line and let us know how life is treating you in your neck of the woods!