here is my napping christmas baby

one more stretch mom!

huh? what?

A QUICK AWANA NOTE
trinity this year has shown great growth from her awana class. I just love the way children so readily accept Jesus without any of the questions we struggle with. On one lesson we were supposed to write down a promise and then help them keep it. I asked her what she wanted to write down (thinking something easy like "help mom bake cookies" ) and trinity pipes up with, "I want to promise to always love God and Jesus!" okay, I said and how are you going to do that? she things a minute. . ."by reading my bible". Good answer I say. (wohoo!) so then about a month later I come out of the kitchen and she is on the recliner with her little picture bible "reading". I said what are you doing? she says. "reading the bible so I can know about God". of course my heart melted. On the funny side this girl is smart so I was amused and a little dismayed by her behavior the other day. She got mad at me and (I think becuase she thought it would hurt my feelings) yells at me "you are just a person who doesn't like God!". I can't believe I am already getting tailor made insults. yikes!

Christmas

In preparation of Christmas. . .

so things have been crazy, I have consistently been wearing blake and even trinity out with so much shopping, baking, and general running-arounding. Last week trinity fell asleep on the couch (she never naps) and of course after an hour and a half I rousted her and dragged her out (in terrible weather) to the children's museum (because it is free on friday evenings and it's the holidays so lets do something special!). Of course she thanked me but not when I dragged her off the couch. We have been practicing for our Churches christmas music tomorrow and now there is a huge storm I am afraid all of church will be cancelled. I will be sooooo bummed. I am having a great time playing organ and strings on the keyboard. So in honor of Christmas and the Lord's birth I wanted to write down our many many blessings this year. (in random order)

1. Healthy Children (big 1rst birthday and dedication for blakey)

2. Healthy mommy and daddy

3. new baby niece!

4. steady work

5. new church family

6. beach vacation

7. new van (well maybe that was last year but I'm still thanking God for it)

8. home group friends

9. another year almost over with all grandparents still alive (praise God)

10. more time to read (I keep a list of what I've read)

11. lots of visits to and from spokane safely

12. highlights for the children (zoo, beach, christmas, sports class, awana)

Christmas decor

my new flocked tree!!!!! since there is not much snow here I love the way it makes it feel like it just snowed in my house. = ) I'm dreaming of a white christmas. . .

cool idea huh mom? thanks for the wall hanging!

trinity really loves her pink tree. thanks nee nee! it really lights up the calico critters' lives; they are ready for christmas. lol.

my special blankie from nat, it has all of our names appliqued on it

here is my christmas decorating. Thanks for sharing Lynne' you got me all excited to decorate!

catch up

okay well my last posts on activites was our vacation and my slightly depressed thinking aloud. this post shall be factual but nevertheless exciting and informative. . .whatever that means!
Trinity - we are doing pre-school this year, just her and I. She does activity books and is working on her alphabet. so far we have capital A,T,B and little a,b,t, and i. We only do it three or four days a week during blake's nap time. Then she has awana where we do all the review verses (extra work) to help her with memory skills. On wednesday and sunday she has organized story/project time at church and bible study. Last but not least in the school-ish arena she is doing a sports "sampler". 3 weeks soccer - 3 weeks basketball - 3 weeks t-ball. So far we have completed soccer and she is by far the slowest child there. She is always ten feet behind the other players. pretty funny stuff! She tries though, I would like to work more with her, too bad it is almost winter. . .okay so what else? She has a couple bosom buddies over here so that is nice. I think she would miss her friends if we moved now and that is a good feeling. (sounds weird I know, but you get what I mean) We just got her hair cut. Super cute! She is just so grown-up! Her favorite things are going to the library, park, and going out to eat. Unfortunately she is deprived of much more than that becuse anything else costs money! hee hee. We plan to visit honorary aunti laura's live-in sailboat soon. I KNOW she will love that. Oh and she is going to be a butterfly for halloween. Upcoming major events? the DENTIST. I can tell she already has a cavity and she needs a cleaning. We'll see how it goes. . . .

Blake - says "dah-gie" (doggie), "di-shee" (fishee), "buh-die" (birdie), momma, daddy, please, and the phrase that only I can understand "look at that!" started walking a month ago at mom's. Been way too much fun ever since. Life is sooo much easier. Has a temper, knows what he wants and tells you what he thinks about not getting it. Down to one nap, and all his teeth but his molars are almost in. Crazy right? mouth full of chompers at 15 month even though he took a while to get the first one. Missed his 15 mo appt. but I figured it's all good. We will go in nov. He is a devil and an angel and everyone says "to die for adorable". There is a certain twinkle in his eyes and when he flashes his dimples your toast. Then he bites you. . .hmm. . . I would say the worst thing right now is that he is an extremely picky eater on a limited diet. I can only pray he grows out if. Complicating it is a major sweet tooth which I am re-thinking encouraging in any way, shape, or form. So no current stats but some current pics. Tomorrow I will post on Jeremy and I. Aren't you thrilled? = ) love to all!

well people, I've got a new hot button

so I have been grabbing books out of the month's top pics section at the library. It's usually pretty random grabbing at the shelf with blake in the stroller and trinity at the library computers. I usually grab titles that I think will broaden my horizon in some way. I have read a couple of great novels but also some really great current travelouges and autobiographies. Well the title "Not on our Watch" and the picture of the young african girl grabbed my attention. It is an '06 book so not that old, co authored by Don Cheadle (actor from Hotel Rwanda) and John Prendergast (major africa activist, highly schooled in political awareness). Wow, it really opened my eyes to the situation in Darfur. It is heartbreaking; what is going on in the African continent. I know it 2008 now but aspects of the genocide continue. Over 400,000 native people have lost their lives so far through village burns and gang raping of young women. It is horrifying. The book however difficult to read is encouraging in that it is very forward about what we CAN DO to change the situation. I'm all fired up about it! I'm not much of an acitivist but my mother has always insisted that someday I would be some sort of non-profit fundraising sort of freak. Well I don;t know about that but if anything prompts me it would be this. So one of the things they suggested was getting the word out on our blogs and providing links so here you go people. this is IMPORTANT stuff. http://www.enoughproject.org/ provides up to date coverage of the situation and other links for more information. I have included it in my favorite links to the left. Check it out for yourself and oh yeah, the family can expect some interesting presents this christmas in support of my new cause. . .lol

scrapbook catch-up

so Lynne's posts have inspired me to post some of my layouts. this should catch all you scrapbooking fans pretty much up, minus a few layouts. Zach and Angie gave me a pack of transparencies and I LOVE USING THEM. they are the best thing ever. some of the layouts are from Blakes first year 8x8 and the rest are from this years 12x12 which is already obviously going to be my largest yet. Look out Lynne it's going to rival yours for thickness. = )

hmmm

so today I just feel like journaling a little. Jeremy's company seems to be losing some momentum and this makes me stress a little. I hope so much for it to be successful but it takes hard work and the reality is that start-ups more often than not don't really go anywhere. There is talk of moving production to New Jersey and to that I say "boo". Also, it just seems like such a struggle to get anywhere financially. I mean, you make good wages for a one income family and yet there is nothing to save? Jer and I live comfortably but certainly not lavishly and I can't afford to put Trinity in pre-school or even sign her up for soccer. I need to check out some options at the community center. I don't know, it's like you feel good about where you are at but you have to ignore all the things that aren't happening. Like saving for the kids' school, health benefits, retirement/investments for our futue; if I even start to think about this I get depressed. How can you have everything you need and still feel so burdened by what you don't have? Jeremy would remind me the biblical quote (sort of) from O Brother where art thou?. . ."consider the lillies of the G*& Da*n field" (of course he would have to quote it blasphemously). It's funny becuase I have friends who post some of their deeper thoughts and I always think that it's kind of funny/awkward to know quite so much of what they are thinking but it's refreshing as well to know that people have the same highs and lows as you do. There are so many things that I am in a holding pattern about these days. Renting housing is not my favorite thing and I am really starting to get antsy about not knowing exactly where we are supposed to be. I suppose the option to move back home may become available soon but is now the time? What if they really do want to move to Jersey? If we stay here, how long must we rent and how do I get okay with that? Also, I still don't have a friend my age that I can really talk to. Unfortunately natalie and mom get an earful regularly. Thank heavens for Stephanie my mentor. I am trying to give her the job of bosom buddy for the moment. Still when it has been a year and a half and I can't think of anyone to call to go shopping with me (awfully hard when we all have two or three kids) it's a bummer. I have had a hard time with the kids today. Just not very much patience after our wonderful vacation. I am denial about the boredom of day to day life. Took trinity in for her four year pictures at Penny's. What a monkey! She refused to calm down and take a nice picture. I mean, it was funny but also not helpful for my lack of patience. The lady didn't try very hard to get her to do well though so I don't put all the blame on my four year old. I mean. come on. Actually I got several scrapbook layouts done today and it was really fun! Ah well, there are alot of bright spots as well I am just obviously in the mood to focus on the negative. That's where I'm at and now I'm going to bed. = )Ah sweet sleep, come and give your blissful oblivion! (man that sounds way more depressed than I actually feel, I think I have a flair for melodrama). lol.

beach vacation

So this is some pics from our beach vacation. We went to pacific beach for three night, four days and were joined by Zack/Mishael/Morgyn and Nathan/Daniel Weathers. It was soooo much fun.

Day one we arrive unload the car and immediately hit the beach. It is a nice little walk down a hill with a shell-strewn path to the water. Sort of cloudy and windy so we head back for a late dinner followed by games and tea. Hello, of course there is much tea. We are staying at a lovely house called Hodgepodge Lodge in the Seabrook community. A developement literally designed to be vacation rentals. About half are lived in and the rest rented and they are WONDERFUL. All beachy looking with sea colors and faded natural shakes on the exterior. Fabulous. Anyway, day two is spent with more games, more beach, and much tea with more games. Hot tubbing is thrown in as well as some catching up on the olympics. Day three is kite-flying picnicing at the beach followed by "say what?" that right. More tea and games. Mishael and I got to take a fabulous little bike ride on the free retro bikes around the neighborhood. It was great. Friday (boohoo) the weathers leave early and Jer and I roust ourselves early to go sea shell searching during low tide. Many sand dollars but no spirals. Several cool pelicans though. They are awesome birds. We sadly pack our things and head out already planning our return. Ah, so there you have it.