After several years of no real changes, we have something newsworthy to share this year. Just after we sent off last year's Christmas letter, we found out that the Bible League was closing down its North America department, so we were out of a job as of New Year's.

We're spoiled and foolhardy enough to want to continue working together, as we have since our marriage 7 years ago, so we decided to start our own business. After not very much thought at all, we settled on cat sitting.

SeattleCat.com (Pet Sitting & More!) officially opened for business in February 2005. Our first client came along in March. Hooray! She asked for references. Sigh.

But now it's December, and we're at maximum capacity and expecting to hire employees in the coming year. God has been good in blessing two stubborn, poverty-kissing lovebirds with his provision.

People keep asking us two things about cat sitting: What is it, and why are you doing it? Whenever we had gone away for vacations in the past, we had the difficult decision of what to do with Luna the cat. Since we didn't have any nearby family members or convenient neighbors to impose upon, we discovered that you can pay a professional to come over to your home once a day and feed and play with your cat, scoop the litter box, even give medications if necessary. We thought two things when we hired our first cat sitter: (1) Wow, she's really good! (Luna was sad when we came home and kept looking past us to see where the fun person with all the toys went); and (2) Man, cat sitters charge a lot of money. So when we needed a business, we thought, we can do that.

So this year has been an adventure in cat sitting, as well as other exciting odd jobs. Besides working, we've managed to visit with family several times. We went to Pembroke for a nice blizzard in January; the Caldwells came out in August for their second foray into Seattle fun; and Amanda's grandma's memorial service was a sad but good occasion to see family in Indianapolis. We flew out to California in July for a family wedding and Lansingh reunion. Amanda got to meet many relatives she hadn't seen before, and Steve got to impress his cousins with how much more grown-up he is now. Well, maybe not. We also squeezed in a weekend trip to Vancouver, British Columbia, in April, and enjoyed cheap sushi! [Editor's note: As you can see by the lack of links so far to picture galleries from these trips, we have much less time to update this site now that we're working for a living....]

At church, we've continued to coordinate all the c.groups (community groups, or small group Bible studies) and lead our own, based on a daily Bible-reading track. We enjoy getting to know people at church on a deeper level and to challenge each other in our spiritual goals. When community groups took a break for the summer, we led a fun c.play (our pastor's new term!) where we watched a movie each week that someone in the group picked out as meaningful. The church also hired Steve to do some graphic design including a new bulletin, church signage, and brochures, which was another fun way to contribute.

We're continuing to write and hope we'll have more time for it in the new year as we hire employees and step back into more administrative work. (In other words, back to working in jammies.) Steve writes a monthly column you can read at SteveLansingh.com, and you can visit AmandaCaldwell.com and SteveandAmanda.com for other writings, news, and photos, although updates will be sporadic until someone hires us to post Luna pictures full time.

Hope you are having a wonderful Christmas and that God continues to bless you in 2006!