"P" Family Post

Waiting: Fear and Faith

2012-01-11T00:59:00.005-06:00

A little over a year ago I wrote about waiting. We were waiting for a foster placement. Now we find ourselves again waiting. We have two precious children we are currently caring for and we are waiting to find out where they will be permanently placed (ours being one of the homes considered). In the midst of the waiting, two words keep coming to mind: fear and faith.

Fear first popped up on Kailee's face one morning a couple months ago. My beautiful late sleeper woke up to find that the little ones were not here. I told her that they were already gone and that is when I saw it - fear. It was written all over her face. She thought I meant they were gone forever, but she had forgotten and I wasn't specific that they had already left for their visitation that was scheduled that morning.

I also see and hear fear reflected in the precious face of one of the boys. Fear calls out in the middle of the night often. The fears of going hungry, of losing another Mommy disguise themselves in the cries of his voice. The other night I closed the door to a steamy bathroom so that the cold would not sneak in. The fear that I was rejecting him and keeping him away from me was clear in his panicked face.

Then there is my fear that if we lose them what will happen? Will they be OK? Will Kailee and Benjamin be OK going through that loss? Will we be OK and will it have been worth it just for them to be torn away from another home? Fear = lots of questions without answers.

That is where Faith comes in. My faith sustains me where my fears leave me off. Faith tells me that God will grant me and my family the comfort and peace in the midst of painful loss. Faith tells me that God's plan for these boys is more important and ultimately greater than my desires for them. Faith tells me that my God is not a God of impossible and that He can work His good even in a situation that I don't think would be a good place for them. Faith is what has to answer my children's questions about our future with these boys. Faith is what these boys have to have when they are not sure if they can trust my words that I will be here in the morning when they wake up and that Mommy is still there even though I can't see her in the middle of the night.

Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. Hebrews 11:1

As long as we live on this earth, we will be waiting for something. Something to happen, something to stop, someone to come along, someone to leave. In the waiting there will be fear. But at what point do we move from the fear to faith?

Mark 4:35-41

35 On that day, when evening had come, He told them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the sea.” 36 So they left the crowd and took Him along since He was already in the boat. And other boats were with Him. 37 A fierce windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38 But He was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke Him up and said to Him, “Teacher! Don’t You care that we’re going to die?”

39 He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Silence! Be still!” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm.40 Then He said to them, “Why are you fearful? Do you still have no faith?”

41 And they were terrified and asked one another, “Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey Him!”

Christmas 2011

2012-01-04T16:37:00.006-06:00

We had a relaxing Christmas at home this year. We still had our two special little ones with us, so it was extra special with extra presents and assembly required. As the kids grow older and have now discovered the true meaning of Santa and Christmas, we enjoy this day together even more.

Big Kids and Little Kids

2012-01-04T15:49:00.003-06:00

Well we have not fallen off the face of the earth. We have welcomed two little ones into our home and that keeps us busy. Since the last post, the big kids, Kailee and Benjamin have had birthdays. We had a blast hosting a Jedi Party for Benjamin's 7th birthday and a make your own stuffed animal party for Kailee's 9th! Here are some pics from both.

We didn't get pictures of all the things we did for Benjamin's party - it was a lot of work, but the boys had fun. Kailee's party was much easier and a good way to end that very busy weekend in November. I can't believe that another year of their lives has passed. What a joy and a blessing they are!

Lesson #2

2011-09-12T01:59:00.005-05:00

So on to what happened this weekend. And if you guessed that it involved soccer than you know our family well because we are in that season of the year.
Sweet P Kailee taught me another lesson this past weekend. In my play by play typing voice....Kailee was fighting for control of the ball when she was kneed in the thigh. She could hardly put weight on her right leg, her kicking leg, for several seconds (mom voice- it felt like so much longer). She slowly started to try and walk it off as the game went on around her (mom voice again- I know she is tough, but I could see the pain on her face as the seconds, seemed like minutes, go by). Other parents have noticed that she is in pain and cannot run; we need her to run. It's a tough game and she is counted on to be a good offense player, but she is still not able to keep up. Then I hear some parents yelling for her to be taken out of the game. The yelling becomes louder as I am thinking to myself (okay yelling back in my own mind) that she's almost there, she's trying her hardest to shake it off and keep going. Finally the coaches hear some people are frantically yelling at them, and they ask Kailee if she is OK and get ready to sub her out. But my tough little Sweet P says she is fine; she wants to keep on playing. I am thinking to myself,
Oh no, she better really be OK or some of these parents are going to lose it if we lose because she can't keep up. Then within a minute, Kailee gets a great pass from her teammate and kicks it with her hurting leg and, in my best soccer announcer voice now, GOOOOOOOAL!!!!
My mommy voice wanted to roar out that's my girl; I knew she was tough, but God thankfully kept me firmly seated in my chair. Really I was holding the tears in I was so proud of her for pushing through the pain and seeing it pay off (also thinking boy I'm glad I have sunglasses because I would embarrass her if she saw me crying).
God used this to remind me of the times in life when we fall down or mess up and get hurt. It feels as if people are screaming for us to get off the field and give up. But God is there with His promise that we can do all things through Him who gives us strength. Am I listening more to people's opinions, which can seem so much louder, or am I listening to Him who truly knows what I am capable of? He knows the best because He made me and He strengthens me in my weakness to do His will.
In this game, there was the pressure of losing. In life, as believers, we already know that we have the victory in Christ. So I shouldn't waste my time trying to keep everyone else happy or comfortable, but only press on to please my Lord.

"For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ." Galatians 1:10

Lessons from my Sweet "P"

2011-09-12T01:27:00.005-05:00

I often call Kailee my Sweet P because she is just that, a sweet little girl with a very sweet tooth. Today I was reminded of how proud I am of her and what God has taught me through her.

Lesson 1:
Earlier this summer Kailee was part of a creative arts camp at our church. She auditioned for a special singing part in the musical which was Beauty and the Beast. Our church is big, well very big compared with most other churches in the world, so she is one of many kids trying to get a special part, so she was one of about 50 kids who were given the role of "Villager." This means that the week before the camp she has to go to special practices for a couple hours a day some days the week prior to camp. I remember at one of these rehearsals the director said she was trying to block, or set, the kids up on stage so they all could be seen because she understood how each parent wanted to be able to see their kid on stage. Admittedly, this is no easy feat with that many kids and only a certain amount of stage to work with.
The day of the performance was a tough one. She could not find a piece of her costume that she had been given (supposed to be bobby pinned in her hair, but she was not given bobby pins) and was upset about not being able to find it after the dress rehearsal. And I was upset because after sitting through the dress rehearsal, I realized there was no way I was going to be able to see her on stage. She is not a push yourself up to the front kind of person, nor is she a state my case to the costume manager type of person either (although she states more than a few cases to her Mommy). But when I was able to see her singing with the choir, she was singing her little heart out.
We made it to show time and she more than willingly gave up her front row choir spot and moved to the back, and I literally did not see her but maybe but for a fleeting moment on stage. As I sat there in my seat pouting about how much time she had invested "for nothing," God reminded me that we are to do our best for Him not for others. Kailee was singing her heart out, doing her best as I had seen earlier, not so she could be the star of the show, but because she enjoys it and wants to give her best. God used her to show me the lesson of doing my best for Him and His glory, not for praise or attention from anyone else. It's about His glory, not mine, and dare I say it not even my child's.

"And don't just do the minimum that will get you by. Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you'll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance. Keep in mind always that the ultimate Master you're serving is Christ." Colossians 3:22-24 (The Message)

Angels and Dirtbags

2011-08-04T14:18:00.006-05:00

As summer is nearing an end (although it doesn't feel like it :-( ), I am just now getting around to posting about our spring ball players. Benjamin joined back up with his team the Dirtbags and Kailee played softball for the first time ever with the Angels.

Benjamin played pitcher for his team and was awarded the "King of the Hill" award for his outstanding defense. The Dirtbags took 2nd in their division even though most of their players were playing up an age division. We get a lot of remarks about their name which was inspired by his coach's opposing team from Long Beach St. I thought it was funny when I overheard one mom telling her son to "go be a Dirtbag," as she was encouraging him to sit with the team.
Benjamin was one of three boys selected from his team to be on the all-star team. He enjoyed the all-star game since they allowed him to try out different positions. We got a kick out of seeing him waddle up behind home plate with all the catcher gear on.

Kailee was new to the whole bat and glove concept, but she enjoyed being with her teammates most of whom are on her much loved soccer team. This was the first time Ozzie was able to assist in coaching one of her teams. She loved that, Mommy had to adjust to not being able to count on his help during games (especially when we had foster kids). Kailee played in the outfield most of the time and her batting continued to improve throughout the season. The Angels took 3rd place in the tougher division in her age group which we all thought was great considering only a couple of the girls had ever played softball before. By the time her season ended in mid-June, we were ready for a break from team sports. On to the pool!

The Next Lesson

2011-05-27T13:44:00.002-05:00

Last week we said goodbye to our latest placement. She was a little baby who was fun to hold and a blessing to care for. We had more of a heads up as to her leaving, so that made it a little easier. God, however, was good to me again in giving me His word to sustain me in times of questioning the decision of the powers that be in the CPS system. When I would question her safety in giving her back, God comforted me with the thought of Moses' mother who had to trust her child to Pharoah. Pharoah was an Egyptian; they were considered the enemy. I'm sure she had seen the abuse her people suffered at the hand of the Egyptians, yet she obeyed God and trusted Him with her son. How could I then not trust God with this tiny baby that I had known only for a short while. I am grateful for God's comfort and assurance speaking right to my exact need.

First Quarter

2011-04-01T06:29:00.009-05:00

Well, the first quarter of 2011 is gone before I blinked. Where did the time go for us? Most days were filled with slow mornings in our pj's, loving sweet foster kids that we were blessed to love on. We would squeeze in a couple hours of homeschool learning about the establishment of our country and the move westward. Kailee is now learning multiplication and Benjamin is a strong little reader. We joined a science center that we like to visit and even learn while we are having fun. Kailee is taking art classes and Benjamin is persevering with piano lessons. We normally take one day off each week for Mommy's sanity and the maintaining of some sort of cleanliness of our home. Throughout the week, we have some type of sports practice in the afternoon/evening that gets us rushing out the door scampering for water bottles and the right sports gear. It was an extra challenge to pack a diaper bag as well.
Saturdays were spent watching Kailee and Benjamin use the athletic ability God has given them on either a basketball court or soccer field. They each did really well and enjoyed their sports and I managed to muffle my cheering if foster-baby was in my arms. Saturday evenings you would find us at church. We love our church and our church friends. I have no idea what we would do without the support of the body of Christ. Benjamin has now joined us in the service and it is neat to worship as a family. Sundays were varied and different from slow days at home to busy on the run from this to that days.
Here are some pictures from the last 3 months.

This was the first time the kids played on basketball teams. They had fun and we have discovered a new sport to have fun with. The newly added basketball goal has been a great addition to our backyard. You will often hear Benjamin shooting hoops here and there throughout the day.

There were quite a few snow days this winter. A kind neighbor took a picture of the whole family; this is a rare shot of all 4 of us plus the dog!! Below is one of many action shots of a snowball fight that I happily offered to keep record of rather than participate in.

Dallas hosted the Superbowl and the kids and I took advantage of the opportunity to visit the NFL Experience.

We also were an official Verizon Superbowl Watching Party and enjoyed watching the Packers win. At halftime all the kids danced away and I'm sure the whole neighborhood could hear how much fun they were having.

Once the snow cleared, we thought it was warm enough for a family fishing outing. Funny thing was a cold front came in at almost the exact time we were getting out of the van to fish. We made the most of it and found a different slightly warmer spot. Memories made and no fish harmed = success??

Yet another soccer season was upon us. Benjamin decided to try his foot at it once again and on a different, much more successful team, so this has been an enjoyable season for both of them; goals made and winning games has been icing on the cake of soccer fun!

Soon baseball/softball season begins. Hopefully I'll post those pics before Labor Day!

Keeper of Comings and Goings

2011-04-01T06:28:00.001-05:00

I know it has been a while hasn't it. Well, since I last blogged, we have had another foster placement. We were blessed with a sweet little boy who was a lot of fun and we became attached to pretty quickly. We were told that this would be a longer term placement, so we moved forward with that mindset. However, our plans and even CPS' original plans are not in control. After one month, we were surprised to find out we had one more month with him, but then the next day, he was gone.
We were sad and surprised, but trust in God's plan not only for us, but also for this little one. The day we learned that we were not chosen as his permanent home, I made myself sit down and do my Bible study. That day the passage was Psalm 121. It was verse 8 that God used to encourage me, "The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore." God is the Keeper of not only my coming and going, but each child that is placed with us; we just need to trust His keeping!

Late update of the latest

2011-02-09T10:37:00.003-06:00

Well, we finally got the call we had been waiting for on Dec. 29th. It wasn't the best day to get a foster placement (chest x-ray for Benjamin for possible pneumonia), but it was a "long shot" for us to be picked so I said OK to throw our name in the mix. Well, God doesn't know the term "long shot" and we had about 3 hours to get ready to welcome two brothers into our home. The next month would be a long one filled with sleepless nights and argumentative days. Benjamin and the big brother were too close in age and just didn't mix well. This added stress made me question our decision to foster. The comfortable days with just our two kids were looking so good.

We did survive the tough times and were blessed with times of multiplied fun and laughter. We were blessed by the help of friends (we have the best friends and family ever!!) and strangers and now that they are gone, I can look back and see what God wanted to teach us in this refining fire experience.

I think we all learned a different lesson, but I am sure that one reason God placed these boys in our home was for the following....
We made it a point to read a Bible story every night before bed. The older brother was old enough to let us know he had not been to church nor had he heard any part of the Bible. While we were reading one night, he asked me "Who is God?" and that is when I realized that this placement was not about me. It was about God and being able to share who He is with some children who had never heard of Him.

We were blessed to be able to show them God's love for one month. Our prayer is that the seeds planted in their hearts will take root.

"So shall My word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it." Is. 55:11

Waiting...

2010-12-11T05:36:00.002-06:00

About 4 weeks ago we became officially licensed foster parents. We were just sure it wouldn't be long until we had a new child or children in our home to pour God's love on. Well we are still waiting.

Ps. 37:7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him; fret not....

Last night we were blessed again by the Christmas performance at our church. Kailee has been having so much fun and along with many, many others sacrificed a lot of time over the past few weeks to present "The Gift of Christmas" to thousands of people. At one point in the show, they is a video explaining how long the people were waiting on God to send His son. They waited for about 400 years. As I lay in bed this morning thinking, I thought about how our waiting process is just a small glimpse of waiting on God to send His child.
I can't make it happen; I must wait on God to move. The people of Israel probably thought they could make it happen, make a king for themselves, but only God would provide the true King of Kings.

Matthew 25:13 "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour."

The agency workers keep telling us (we get calls for possible placements and our home-study is submitted, but our family has not been chosen yet) that we just need to be ready. They could call us at anytime, so I always have my phone with me checking to make sure it's on and loud enough. That made me think of if I'm putting that much thought, time, and energy on being ready for God's Son who is coming again. I don't know when I'll hear God's call with the voice of the archangel, but I know it will sound much better than my chosen song/ringtone. It will be louder (although my own ring startles me often) and so much sweeter, beyond comparison.

Colossians 4:2, 5 "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the best use of the time."

With each phone call I receive about a child needing a home, I am given background information on the situation, sometimes the name of the child. I am blessed that at least I can pray for these kids and their hurting (oh so much hurt) situations and families. I am thankful that I can lift them up to the Father of the Fatherless. Then I am thankful that there are moments like last night's show or the kids birthday parties when I didn't have to worry about new little ones to care for.
I also have to have the house ready. At any time, we could be chosen and then the flow of case workers, lawyers, and other representatives of multiple agencies will be coming through our door. Our house can no longer look like a typical Sunday night when everything is out of place and piled up. I have to be ready making the best use of my time. 5 minutes here sweeping is better than just putting my feet up to play Scrabble on my phone. 10 minutes putting the laundry away is better than checking Facebook for the upteenth time that day. I am enjoying a neat, tidy house. But am I applying the same fervor and energy to being ready for God's call. Am I doing all I can to be prepared for His return? I know I have failed on this part. I have not given the 10 minutes to invest in a relationship that would allow me to point my neighbors or family members to the Word who became flesh and is coming again.

Isaiah 40:28, 31 "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable...but they who WAIT FOR THE LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."

A Time for Everything - November

2010-12-03T11:15:00.009-06:00

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die...." Ecclesiates 3:1-2

The month of November is always a special one for us because both kids celebrate their birthdays in November. This year their birthdays fell on extra special days, for Benjamin that was election day which was the also the special Tuesday he was born. Kailee's birthday was on Thanksgiving for the first time in her eight years of life. It was also the first time we had separate parties for them. Due to soccer and business of life, the parties were on back to back weekends. We had a lot of fun with our all -boy GI Joe party at the park and the all-girl spa sleepover. Here are some pictures of our fun.

The day after Benjamin's birthday, my dad called to say that my grandfather had passed away. He had been ill and through our sadness, we can rejoice that he is in heaven where there is no pain or sorrow. So the day after Benjamin's party the kids and I drove to Arizona for the funeral. Our trip was short as we had to a few days later so we could be home in time for Kailee's sleepover. The business of birthdays surrounding the funeral made me think of the verse above how God has made a time for everything. A time to celebrate the years we've been blessed with the precious lives of our kids and a time to mourn the passing of a dear grandfather. As we also reflect on all we are thankful for, I am most thankful for the blessing of knowing that in all seasons of life my God is in control and His love endures forever!!

September/October goings-on

2010-11-05T06:55:00.023-05:00

Since I'm up (see previous post for explanation), I might as well update the blog. It's been over 2 months since I've posted anything. We've been busy with soccer and a new sport, flag football. We've continued on our journey of being licensed for foster care and most likely we will be official by my next post. We've been on some fun field trips with our "Polanco Homeschool." Here are some pictures we've taken this fall.

One field trip was to the Astronaut Training Center. The kids got to dress up in the heavy astronaut suits and pretend to walk on the moon. They had fun and I thought they made cute astronauts because it's all about how you look in the suit right?

Kailee was able to hold a large python at the Fort Worth Zoo much to her father's horror (he hates snakes!). Benjamin also enjoyed the climbing wall and made it to the top, but I only have a video and cannot for the life of me get those to post on here.

We were able to tour the state capitol and see Austin. It was neat for Ozzie to show us where he went to college and lived for several years. The kids were most amazed at the cool "desks" in the lecture halls and the lack of kids on campus. They kept asking if they were the only kids there. It proved to me that a college campus is kind of in a world all it's own. We also happened to wander into the English Dept. building (my major) which was very old and honestly ugly and unappealing, a regular boring college building. We later went to the Business Dept. building. There were leather couches, flat screens, cool electronics, lots of computers, etc. That is a microcosm of life. Business is where the money is. English not so much. I have to say though that English teachers helped those businesspeople get where they are today.

Kailee continued to improve on her soccer skills. She's fast and a great passer.

She also competed in her first triathlon. She did great and asks about when she can do this again. We were so proud of her especially for how well she did in the swimming which is not her area of strength.

Benjamin began his turn in the world that is known as Texas football (although his team was the Gators). He is super fast and scored a touchdown in each game. He says he enjoyed playing defense the most. It's funny to me how opposite they are with sports. She is very offensive-minded and he loves playing defense and each just comes naturally to them.

I even had time to squeeze in some time for my own athletic event. I finished my first half-marathon. We'll see how long it will be before I have time to run another.

4:45 AM

2010-11-05T06:42:00.003-05:00

"The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy." John 10:10
This verse popped into my mind about two hours ago as I lie awake in bed. I think Satan is stealing my sleep. I only needed to make a middle of the night potty run. But as I walking half-asleep back to bed, I stepped wrong and my toe let me know it. This is the toe that has been hurting more on than off the last 6 weeks. The same toe that I broke 5 years ago. So then my brain has turned on as it evaluates the time passed, the pain, and whether or not I should see the doctor on top of my long to do list I have waiting for me today. Two hours later and I am still awake and now convinced that I have for the second night in a row been robbed of sleep.
Last night I was awake due to a throbbing cheekbone (Benjamin's head vs. my cheek during a race to give mommy a hug moment) and a loudly snoring husband. 9 hours of sleep isn't bad, but when those 9 hours are stretched over two nights, that's when I start to miss my lost time behind closed eyelids. I wish I could fall asleep quickly and be able to stay asleep, but that's not me.
One of Kailee's AWANA verses for this week was 2 Corinthians 12:9. God assures Paul (and me and you) that His grace is sufficient in our weakness. Being a light sleeper is my weakness and although I feel a lack of sleep headache coming on, His grace will be sufficient for me today.

Fun in Arizona

2010-09-17T04:01:00.024-05:00

This is the view as we drive from my parents' home in Sonoita, AZ into town (Tucson).

A month ago we visited my parents in Arizona (and I'm just now blogging about it :-0) We had a great time despite the storm early on in the trip. Here are a few highlights....

There is a theater in Tucson called the Gaslight Theater. They perform original comedies and the night we went we saw "Space Wars" which was a spoof of Star Wars. This was a lot of fun and we still quote lines from the play. Here is a picture of the kids w/ some of the actors dressed up as characters from Beauty and the Beast since they had a third act of the show that included different scenes from different children's stories.

Another fun thing we did was take a tour of an underground copper mine. The Queen Mine is located in Bisbee, AZ. Once you're dressed the part, there is a mine train that takes you into the middle of the mountain where there underground tunnels dug out to mine for copper. There are over 200 miles of tunnels in Bisbee.

This is a picture of the mountain in which the Queen Mine is inside.

This is our tour guide who used to work in this mine. He had a lot of interesting stories. Here he is showing how they would put sticks of dynamite into the rock to dig further on. If you're ever in Bisbee, I would highly recommend this tour. It doesn't hurt that its also 47 degrees in the mine year-round. I think that's a big selling point during the summer months.

This is a picture of an open-pit copper mine in Bisbee. When I was a kid, my dad worked in a mine like this before he entered college/seminary in good ol' Dallas.

We were blessed to visit with Grandpa and Grandma Larkin, my mom's parents, while we were in town. Grandpa looked really good and we thought it was funny that he was convinced that he knew Ozzie from some sports team they were on together. He told Ozzie "you had a lot of potential!" Grandma is still amazing and we enjoyed visiting with her. How many people can see they are Facebook Friends with their grandma - she's the greatest!

The kids had turns driving the riding mower. Kailee especially enjoyed her turn behind the wheel and found it more special when it dark enough to need the headlight.
Below are pictures of each of the kids driving the boat we rented at the lake. Let's just say this was definitely not a speed boat and rumor has it that it ate the dust of the paddle boat we also rented.

Ozzie and the kids had a blast in the water. They invented new ways of splashing each other such as the Texas Tornado and Hawaii Hurricane.

If you've already read my previous post, then you know that there was a huge hail storm on the second night we were there. Ozzie got a great shot of the lightning once the 45 minute barrage of hail was over.

The following are some pictures showing the effects of the storm. The one below is a before picture of my parents' garden. You can see it blooming in the background behind Benjamin.

Here is the garden after the storm. The other day when Benjamin was reading about the plague of hailstones, I had a new respect for the damage that hail can do especially to vegetation. There was really nothing left of their garden.

We're not sure why, but after the storm most of the fish/frogs/tadpoles in the pond died. We know that the pond became more of a rushing river the night of the storm, so we're not sure if something from upstream came in and killed everything or if it was just the power of the water upsetting the little ecosystem of the pond. Whatever the cause, we found this huge dead frog the first morning after the storm.

Below is what was left of the frog the next day after the vultures had their little snack. I think its neat that God thought of everything when He created animals and how these ugly birds are really a vital help to man since they dispose of carrion that would otherwise be a breeding ground for disease.

Below is a picture of "Turtle Mountain" (the little peak shaped like a turtle on the left side of the picture). Whenever the kids see Turtle Mountain, they know we are getting close to Nana's and Tata's house.

I guess there is treasure at the end of the rainbow: wonderful time with our family. Even our dog had fun!

Blessings in Disguise

2010-09-08T11:20:00.008-05:00

"See I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God." Deuteronomy 11:26-27

A 45 minute hail storm is more likely to make you think of a Biblical plague rather than a blessing from God, but God works for His good purpose for those who love Him in ALL things (Romans 8:28) even damaging hail storms.
We traveled to Arizona to visit my parents last month, August (boy am I far behind on blog updates). We had a great vacation which I will share in the next post, but this post is about the hail storm we experienced on Sunday evening, August 15th.
We could see the clouds coming in, but in a matter of moments the quiet skies were emptying themselves of hail in various sizes from dimes to golfballs. The size may not have been that remarkable, but the fact that the hail did not let up for at least 40 minutes is what was astonishing to us. It was so loud as it bounced off the metal roof on my parents' home. They have big windows which let you take in the beautiful surroundings of Sonoita, AZ, but these windows became targets for the hail stones.
As the storm moved in from the east, we stood at the west facing window to see the hail bounce off all 4 vehicles parked in front of the house, our minivan among them. As I stood staring at our van being pelted by chunks of ice, I wasn't worried about the van, but I did think that surely we would lose a window or two on it. Once the storm passed, I was surprised to find all windows on the vehicles were intact. The darkness, however, concealed the rest of the damage.
The next morning we were able to more closely inspect the dents on the vehicles. Our hood looked like it was covered with dimples along with the passenger side of the van, but overall we didn't think it was really that bad.
My brother works for an insurance company, so we gave him a call to get his advice on what to do next. He said it would be best if our van was paid off. Paying it off has been a goal we have been diligently working towards for months and we were so close to our goal and were going to meet it in two months.
Let me back track a moment to my last blog post in which I stated our goal was to be out of debt before we started fostering or the process of adopting. However, we felt God wanted us to go ahead and start on this journey as we continued to meet the debt-free goal. So when my brother mentioned having it paid off, Ozzie started doing the math with our pay-off amount and the money we had saved up in various emergency/Christmas accounts. Wouldn't you know that these amounts matched up almost exactly, so my wonderful, financially and technologically gifted husband transferred over all our funds to pay off the van, not knowing what to expect next.
Fast forward a couple weeks to when we have the lien released on the van, we called out the adjuster from our insurance company. Upon his arrival, he said it would just take about 10 minutes to inspect the van and give us the damage estimate. About 40 minutes later, he said that was one of the worst hail cases he had seen. He told me that in all likelihood our van was "totaled." I really was surprised to hear that, but had peace knowing we were prepared. Here is the good news part - after negotiating with the insurance company, we were blessed to receive a payout from them that is more than 3 times what we took out from all of our accounts. So we will now have a bigger emergency fund, we are out of debt, and we have some extra money for wiggle room to buy those things we'll need for having another little one in the house.
This long detailed story is really meant to share what an amazing thing that God has done. My life-verse is 2 Corinthians 2:9 which states that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him. My eyes and ears have never witnessed a storm like that night and mind never conceived that God could use that storm to bring such an unexpected blessing to us. I am excited to see what else He has prepared for us!

"But I'm comfortable"

2010-08-20T19:03:00.003-05:00

Ozzie and I are about to enter a new season of life. We are being licensed to become foster/adoptive parents. We are excited to see what God is going to do, but also at the same time unsure of what is ahead of us. How did we get here?
We have always had a deep down desire to adopt, but left it at just that. I had always thought that we would adopt internationally, but Ozzie was open to adopting through the foster care system. I thought that was too risky because the kids might be taken away or it would have to be an open adoption where the birth families are involved. As time went by, God began to change my heart and I gave up those excuses. Ozzie then was waiting for the right time to start the process. You know just like before having kids you want to have all your financial ducks in a row. God also changed his heart so that even though our "ducks" weren't completely lined up, we needed to be obedient and take the step of faith of starting the process.
We anticipated the process of being licensed would take about a year, but so far it has gone faster and easier than we expected.
As things began to come together, my anxiety began to kick in. I began to wonder all the "what ifs" that might happen, all the practical "what ifs" of bringing a new child into our home. As I began to pray more and get to the bottom of my fears and excuses, it all boiled down to the reason that I kept repeating to myself, "But I'm comfortable"
It was as if God was asking me to open my home, my life, my family to minister to a child who needs a home, love, a family and my response was But I'M comfortable. What a pitiful excuse for not being obedient to my Savior who gave up His throne in heaven to live a life of serving and giving on earth and then give His life for me.
I know that we all will have to make sacrifices on this path, but as Romans 12:1 says we are living sacrifices. The remainder of the chapter spells out for me what this means: let love be genuine, love one another, show hospitality, contribute to the needs of others. I can't be comfortable and sacrifice at the same time. But I also have all His promise that His divine power will give me everything I need to do His will (2 Pe. 1:3). So is there any place more "comfortable" than being in the center of His will - absolutely not!

Summer of projects

2010-08-09T16:26:00.000-05:00

This has been the summer for projects. A break from homeschool means I have more time to get some "stuff" done around the house. We've been busy both indoors and out. Here are the projects we have taken off our to-do list.
1) Painting exterior of our house - most of it is done in the front at least. Once the heat hit full steam, I chose to work on indoor projects. We painted our front door a dark brown color and we have been pleased with how that turned out.

2.) Scraping popcorn ceiling in family room - We spent Memorial Day weekend on a project that has been at the top of our list for quite a while. We scraped the ugly "popcorn" texture off the ceiling in our high-ceiling family room. We then painted and learned an important lesson that caulking before painting is not necessary, nor should it be rushed. At least we were done by Memorial Day, so we could go swimming with the kids.

3.) Glazing kitchen walls- I have never really liked the color of the walls in the kitchen. They were a little too yellowy for the texture of the walls. I had this perfect glaze left over from the countertops/hutch, so I thought I would try it in the kitchen. I was very pleased with how it turned out and it cost me nothing and only took a couple hours.

4.) Laundry room - Our old laundry room was boring. I have to walk through it all the time to go between kitchen/school room (computer) not counting the hours of laundry. It was plain white with dinged molding, very yucky and sterile. I wanted a laundry room with personality, something that inspired me to be better about laundry (hopefully :-)). I serarched the internet and found some inspiration - with inspiration.
These are "sheets" with verses hanging on a clothesline. My painted version is no where as professional as my inspiration room, but at least it gets the same idea across. I also painted a message center on the main wall. It is a magnetic chalkboard which will hopefully help keep us organized. I took down the old paper measuring "sticks" and put up real wood ones. Lots of paint was involved in this little room, but I am pleased with the outcome.

5.) Garage shelves- Not a smart time to take on a garage project, but we took it on anyways and now have an organized garage. It's nice to have organization greeting us when we come home. This was also a fun wood-working project for Ozzie and I. Which encouraged us to take on the next, prettier one.

6.) Ketchup's loft bed - We wanted to have an extra bed in Kailee's room and she picked a loft bed from my new favorite website www.knock-offwood.com
It took a week and it is really sturdy. Not bad for only $115 on supplies (not including mattress). The hard part was having to rearrange the whole room after the ladder was too close to the ceiling fan. Here is the pretty new loft bed with a reading area below. When it was finished, Kailee made sure that Benjamin knew that when she was at her desk that she was having her "quiet time" and he should leave her alone.

So why all the rush to finish projects......you'll have to find out in the next post.

Summer camps

2010-08-09T11:48:00.007-05:00

Kailee and Benjamin were allowed to pick one summer camp to participate in this summer. Benjamin chose Superhero Camp and Kailee chose Creative Arts Camp.

Superhero Camp came first and Benjamin had a lot of fun as they learned about staying fit and healthy. His favorite part was the "fun bus" which was a gymnastics class in a green polka-dot school bus. The last day they could dress up like a superhero and then they performed a couple songs they learned for all the parents. I had wanted him to wear his Ironman costume (which is red), but he opted for Wolverine instead. It's a good think because he would have been really hard to find in the middle of all those red t-shirts if he wasn't wearing the bright yellow Wolverine get-up.

Kailee had auditioned for a role in the musical they were doing for creative arts camp, "Music Man Jr." She was able to be an Iowa townsperson, performing in the song "Iowa Stubborn." This was our first experience with CAC and I am so impressed with all the talent these kids have and what they were able to do in just 2 weeks, which is amount of time they practiced and presented in.

Here is a picture of her on "Wacky Wednesday" when she could dress up wacky and crazy. She went into her closet the night before and came out 5 minutes later dressed like this. Reminded me of a hot pink 80's version of Madonna.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2010-08-05T14:36:00.005-05:00

Yesterday, Ozzie had a birthday celebrated with a birthday rap and followed by cake and a baseball game. We have been blessed with a wonderful daddy for the kids, husband and best friend for me, and man of integrity to lead our family.

Summer is here!

2010-07-12T18:44:00.015-05:00

Wow has it been a while since my last post. We've been up to more house projects indoors and out. Ozzie and I celebrated our 10+ years of marriage by enjoying a wonderful trip to Mexico. Hopefully that will be another post. Today with the kids' help we are going to share about our vacation to Brownsville last week.
We were able to go bowling with our family one rainy day (our dolphin watch trip was cancelled because of the weather). We found that we all preferred bowling on the Wii to bowling in real life.

Here is Ozzie's Dad, "Buelito," bowling with us. He is almost 75 and still has enough energy to bowl with the best of us.

Benjamin and his cousin Paul. Paul is a "miracle baby" who was born with his intestines outside of his body. After months in the hospital, years on a feeding tube, and numerous surgeries, he is a very strong and active 11-year old.

We also had our annual trip to the beach at S. Padre Island. We enjoyed a warm, sunny day in the cool Gulf water.

We took along Ozzie's nephews and niece. His nephews Frank and Oziel spent quite a bit of time digging a deep, deep hole in the sand. They reached water eventually.
Ozzie and his niece Abby pretended the hole was made just for them to dive into, their own personal pool.

The oil spill is still in the Gulf of Mexico although we did not see any tar or oil on the beach, we did see this huge Coast Guard ship right off the beach. I was amazed at how close the ship came (right up to the buoy) and it stayed there for quite a while. We think they were testing the water for oil.

More time was spent outdoors as we all gathered at the park for a family picnic. It was fun as the cousins played soccer (in honor of the world cup of course) and the adults chatted.
Here is the first great-grandchild. Joseph is now the life of the party and enjoys all the attention he gets as being the youngest member of the extended family.

Our trip would not have been complete without eating a meal at Buelito and Buelita's favorite restaurant. They eat there every day; no seriously, every day. We didn't join them every day, but we did join them two times. They know all the waitresses and have their own area they always sit at. It's like Cheers, Brownsville style!

Even the little things

2010-05-09T21:57:00.002-05:00

Today I was reading from 2 Kings 6:1-7. In this passage, we see that God worked a miracle to retrieve a borrowed ax head for one of His prophets. The commentary I was reading by Dale Ralph Davis pointed out that this is a great example of how God is also involved in and controls the seemingly little details in our lives. I already knew this, but He reminded me of that again this evening.
Ketchup will be auditioning this week for a role in the summer children's musical at church. The musical is "The Music Man" and today we've been practicing a part of the song she needs to sing in the audition. The song is "Wells Fargo Wagon." After several more practice runs, I turned off her CD and turned on the TV. Guess what was on - that's right - "The Music Man." We were watching for about 5 minutes before the Wells Fargo Wagon song started. She was so excited to see it and the whole idea of the song/musical make much more sense to her.
God is concerned in every aspect of our lives, even musicals!

Science, science, science!

2010-05-04T21:45:00.006-05:00

We've been on a science kick over here at P family homeschool. The kids had a science fair with our homeschool group. I just love the fact that they are doing real presentations at their young ages. Here are they are talking about ants and radars. You'll have to follow the links to youtube because the videos were too big for me to put directly on the blog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShRFvEIiGdI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui9-VSD3Xmo&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPWhkp_EqIo&feature=channel
(I apologize for Ketchup's shaky video. I let Bounce attempt to play videographer, but soon realized he needs more training.)

Here is a cool video of the ants. Although I was not thrilled about having an ant farm in the house, I was quickly won over. They are super strong as you can see here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrTMRd9gWe8&feature=channel
We also have a butterfly habitat in the house. Here is a picture of one of the cocoons.

We now have 10 beautiful butterflies that are ready to be set free.

How amazing God's creation is!

Polanco Version of ESPN

2010-04-11T21:26:00.004-05:00

Bounce had his first baseball game this season on Saturday. We were mostly pleased with him overcoming his fear of "live batting" because of being hit by the pitch several times in practice. But he really excelled at defense as he got five outs at home plate. Here's a video of him sliding home for one out. He received the game ball for his hard work.

Ketchup had her playoff game for soccer against their arch rival. It was a tough loss, 2-1, but our Patriots played hard. Here's a video of her taking the ball down field.

He is Risen!

2010-04-04T21:19:00.007-05:00

Happy Easter! We have just wrapped up a fun filled, blessed Easter weekend. We started our fun on April 1st with our annual April Fools recipe. This year we tried "Chicken Pot Pie."
It was really white chocolate pudding w/ laffy taffy pieces cut up to look like veggies and chunks of white chocolate was the most delicious chicken I've ever tasted. We joked that Ketchup now loves to eat chicken pot pie; only if it's this recipe of course since veggies never touch her lips.

On Good Friday, we made our first Easter Garden. We had a lot of fun and I was really pleased with how well it all went and then turned out. On Easter, the kids rolled away the stone to show the empty tomb. In the future, if we give ourselves enough time, we can use real seeds on Palm Sunday and hopefully by Easter we would see some grass growing.

Then Ketchup and Bounce wanted to add some characters to their scene. Polly Pockets and army men have probably never had such prized roles as the two Marys, an angel and soldiers guarding the tomb.

We attend church on Saturday nights, so we celebrated our Savior's resurrection early. The kids enjoyed dressing up. I really like Ketchup's new shorter haircut; she likes it too! I don't even have to fight her to brush her hair now.

The best part of Easter weekend is that the kids were eager to explain to their neighbor friend that Easter is not really about the Easter Bunny, but it's about Jesus. They told her about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. When she had questions they then had Ozzie explain in more detail. What a great Easter blessing! I am so proud of them and yet convicted at the same time that they were unashamed of the Gospel of Christ. I pray that I will be more like them.

Feb/March in pictures

2010-03-27T06:41:00.015-05:00

Where has this last month gone? To soccer, spring break, snow and school. Here are a few pics of each.

Here are a couple videos of the kids playing soccer. Try to imagine these clips multiplied by hours and that has been our life over the past few weeks. Also, notice in Bounce's clip that he is doing cartwheels. I guess the actual soccer game does not utilize enough of his energy, so he needs to throw in some cartwheels as well.
(Bounce is #8 and Ketchup is #15)

We had some nice snow days over the past couple months. Dallas even set a record for most snowfall accumulated in one day - 11 inches. We all had fun. The kids enjoyed pelting each other with snowballs and then realized that if they threw them at the dog (Bella), she couldn't throw them back.
Picture of Bella after she had been bombarded with snowballs.

We enjoyed the Fort Worth zoo on homeschool day. We were blessed to eat lunch right in front of this alligator. It was the opening day of their new reptile exhibit. We saw all the newspeople and got first row seats for the action.

As the weather has warmed up, we have enjoyed playing outside. Here is Bounce with his ninja face.
Ketchup wanted me to photograph her. This is her favorite shirt and she would wear it everyday if I let her. She's our little fashionista and she definitely did not get that from me.

Finally, we took an extended spring break and spent a few days in Brenham, TX to visit family. Here are the cousins sitting on a fallen tree. They had so much fun playing outside all day and were so exhausted each night.

Daddy/Daughter Project

2010-02-18T17:38:00.006-06:00

Ketchup got her wish for an American Girl this past Christmas. She then started dreaming of a bed for her dear Felicity. Daddy proposed the idea that they build one, so they began a fun project together. We now joke that they can start their own business making American Girl beds and beds only as they're not quite ready to expand yet.

PS...
I'm sorry about the video from the previous post. We're having technical issues and my support guy/hubby has another job besides my honey-do list, if you can imagine that.

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T15:01:00.005-06:00

I was serenaded when I came home from work today.

School update

2010-01-22T16:08:00.004-06:00

I haven't updated in quite a while about school, so here's to now.
We have really enjoyed our "storytime." We've read some great books so far this year: A Lion to Guard Us, Little House in the Big Woods, and we are currently enjoying The Cricket in Times Square.
Today, after we finished reading an extra "keep reading" chapter, the kids wanted to play "Cricket". Bounce was Chester Cricket, Ketchup was Mario, I was Tucker Mouse and our dog Bella played Harry Cat. I have to say that Harry Cat stole the show and we all had a great time.
One more story to share. The book A Lion to Guard Us is about a family that is trying to sail from England to Jamestown. The book is actually based on a true story about a ship that was shipwrecked on an island for several months before finally sailing on to Jamestown. It was interesting because the people were so frustrated that they were shipwrecked for so long. However, once they finally arrived in Jamestown they found very few survivors left and those who were still alive had little to no food left. That winter, while the others were shipwrecked, most people died of illness and starvation in Jamestown. The once shipwrecked people were not only saved from death and disease, but they brought food from the island they sailed from.
It reminded me of how God was working behind the scenes. Those shipwrecked probably saw no reason for their situation. They probably thought they were doomed there on that secluded island, but God had really saved them and used to save the lives of a few others ultimately saving the colony of Jamestown.
Isaiah 55:8-9 and Ro. 8:28 in action.

Christmas 2009/New Year 2010

2010-01-14T13:49:00.014-06:00

We were blessed to experience the first white Christmas here in nearly 80 years. It started snowing on Christmas Eve and the snow stayed around until later in the day on Christmas.
We made a miniature snowman when the first snow fell. He's little, but he's a snowman.

The kids were excited to make snow angels and catch the snow on their tongues.
Their big gifts were a Wii, DS for Bounce and an American Girl doll for Ketchup.
Here's a pic of Ketchup asleep w/ Felicity (her doll). Ketchup received some pajamas that had a matching sleeping mask. I couldn't resist taking this one.
Bounce and Ketchup have also enjoyed playing with the Batman Castle he received from Nana and Tata.

As the end of the year came, I wanted to give myself a gift - new counters. Well, that is new-looking counters. I took on the project of painting our 1970's laminate counters to look like granite. There were several steps involved in the process. Here's a summary of what I did.

Step 1 - I painted a base coat on the counters. It was suggested to use a metallic paint, but I used paint we already had and sprinkled glitter on it while wet.

Step 2 - Sponge on your mid range color. If you have 3 different colors (lighter, medium and dark), it would be your medium color. The sponging didn't take that long and was fun (at least to a painting freak like me).

Step 3 - Sponge on the darkest color of the three you've chosen. This was the scariest step for me because I was really afraid I was going to end up with black airbrushed looking counters.

Step 4 - Sponge on your lightest color leaving some spots of black in random areas coming through. As you can see this really covered the black a little too well for my tastes, so I needed to do step 5 to darken it a little.

Step 5- I sponged on a caramel colored glaze to warm up the counters while letting the other colors come through.

Step 6 - Cover with a poly-acrylic top coat. This step took the longest because we had to apply 3 coats and each coat took several hours to dry.

Here is the final product although Ozzie and I agree that they look better in person than in the picture.

I am very pleased with my $50 faux-granite counters. Merry Christmas to me!

Thanksgiving in the Valley

2009-12-03T22:20:00.001-06:00

We traveled to Brownsville, TX (aka The Valley) for Thanksgiving. There are few places where you can celebrate Thanksgiving and go to the beach in the same vacation. The kids had a lot of fun with their cousins. They played a lot of soccer both in the driveway and at the park. Then a funny thing happened at the park (well, funny depending on who you are in the story, sorry Daddy). We all learned that a nearly 40 year old body is not meant to race a 14 year old. The loser is the almost 40 year old hamstring. Daddy ended up on the ground and Mommy quickly learned that he did not pretend to fall and lose the race (anybody seen Mr. Mom?), but he really was hurt. We now are big fans of Icy Hot patches and are grateful he is returning to a computer job rather than one where he’s on his feet all day.

Birthday Time

2009-12-03T17:08:00.016-06:00

Both Ketchup and Bounce have November birthdays. Both Bounce’s birthday and their original party date were interrupted by the flu. The good news is that Daddy and Bounce were able to have a fun day out on his birthday and we were able to easily switch the date of their combined birthday party. Here are a few pics from their Hello Kitty/Transformer party.

Now a few pics of the last 7 years with Ketchup and the past 5 with Bounce. They are beautiful, sweet kids who make me very proud to say God has blessed me to be their mother.

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

Swine Flu – a different perspective

2009-12-03T17:01:00.004-06:00

Ketchup started a fever on November 1^st and thus began our families’ journey with the swine flu. God protected us from the worst of it, so I can lightheartedly look back at it. Here’s our take

Days 1 & 2 – spent in bed either asleep or watching TV. Mommy got some good facebook time in while Ketchup watched her shows.

Days 3 & 4 – We progressed to playing board games or Webkinz. Ketchup also enjoyed playing hairstylist/makeup artist to Mommy.

Days 5 – 7 – spent by the window staring at the other kids play. In between coughing fits, she would beg to join them.

Finally we were able to venture out of the house for a couple of days before Mommy had her turn. My bout with the flu was cut in half thanks to the God-given drug Tamiflu. The doctor was also kind enough to prescribe it as a preventative for Daddy and Bounce.

I progressed in the same order as Ketchup just with fewer days. I thought it was funny that I was playing hairstylist for their crazy hair day at AWANA just as Ketchup had done for me the week prior.

Although life was interrupted for a short while, we were able to have a little fun with H1N1.

October Pics

2009-12-03T16:48:00.009-06:00

Bounce showing off his muscles. He is convinced by a smart Tata (grandpa) that with each green bean that he eats, his muscles grow automatically!
This was a lego house built to celebrate our study of the poem "The Little House." This is Ketchup's house.
Our homeschool group had a historical figure day. Ketchup and Bounce acted out a play about Christopher Columbus. Ketchup was the Queen of Spain who sent Columbus out on his voyages. I attempted to record their play, but you can't hear anything they say, so I'll spare you those eight minutes of your day.
A homeschool fun field trip day allowed the kids to roller skate for the first time. We were all exhausted after an hour and a half. Maybe when we're feeling up to it, we'll try again. They did very well and were able to go around the rink without falling by the end.

We ended the month at our church's Fall Festival. Our Ladybug and Wolverine had fun and we're still enjoying their candy!!

Fall Fun!

2009-10-16T15:36:00.008-05:00

We have had a fun week in our family. Ozzie and I were able to see U2 in concert at the new Cowboys Stadium. Although we learned where NOT to sit if we ever attend a concert there again, we enjoyed a night out and a good show.

We also went as a family to the great State Fair of Texas this week. We had a lot of fun and were greeted in style by the Governor of our state, Rick Perry

The kids were able to participate in a couple of kid shows at the fair. The first one was called the PeeWee stampede. The kids put on a stick-horse rodeo. Ketchup's event was to rope the "cow" and Bounce was in the highlight event - "bull riding." Here is a video of his trophy winning ride.

Here is a picture of Bounce with his trophy. After his big win, the lady asked him what he was going to do now and since we hadn't prepared him in advance with the token "I'm going to Disneyworld" response, you can see he is thinking about what to say. For once he didn't have a quick-witted reply and only said "I don't know."

They were also looking forward to being a part of the "backyard circus." This is Ketchup performing as a butterfly ballerina (she's the tall one in the back with the red tutu).

And for the big finish....a tribute to all the "moms" in the world - what we have to put up with....

End of Sept. update

2009-09-29T10:02:00.006-05:00

I can't believe tomorrow is the last day of September. It seems like each month is flying by even more quickly than the previous month. We have been moving on with school and finally, using balloons, hung up our model of the solar system. I should have taken a picture of it last Monday when we hung it up because now Saturn has shrunk and its rings are hanging by one piece of tape. (hopefully I'll get around to repairing it and post a pic one day). The kids at least repeat their mnemonic phrases of the order of the planets often so the model keeps it fresh in their minds. In case you need to remember the order of the planets then maybe their sentences will help you: My Very Energetic Monkey Jumped Sideways Under Nickie's (or Nathan's) Piano (or Planet) which reminds them of the order Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
Another nice addition to our homeschool this year has been workboxes. Here is a picture.

I put the kids' assignments in hanging folders and as they complete each they move the number on the folder to the outside of their box. This system is the hot trend in homeschooling (I bet you didn't even know homeschooling had fads), but it is making me be more organized and incorporate other activities that I've picked up here and there. The kids like the boxes because they know exactly how much work they have left.
On another note, last Monday night ended up being an eventful one here at our house. It had just started to storm, and we were all sitting in the living room reading our bedtime stories when we heard a light boom sound. It sounded like something fell off the wall somewhere or hit some wall in the house. As I walked to the kitchen to see what happened, I glanced outside into the backyard and saw that one of our trees had been blown over and was laying/leaning on our roof.
By Tuesday night the tree had been cut down and the TV satellite was working again and all was back to normal. Now I still take a second look when looking into the backyard expecting to see the tree. Now our little garden will have more sun so we may see more results next year (hopefully).
On a completely separate topic from the above and my original reason for typing out this update right now before our school day was to highly recommend a book.
I have been using commentaries from Dale Ralph Davis for my quiet time in the mornings and each day I am blessed by doing so. If you're looking for a new Bible study, as my dad recommended them to me, I highly recommend any of them to you as he has several (Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings). Right now I am reading through 1 Samuel and it is a highlight of my day.

Now I've gotta go fill those workboxes I was blogging about!

Homeschool Update

2009-09-18T11:49:00.009-05:00

We have just finished our third week of school this year and we are really enjoying our new curriculum. I thought I should start keeping a digital record of all that we are learning and doing.
We'll just see if I can keep up with the updates or if my next blog doesn't come until November :-)

We our using a new curriculum this year from Heart of Dakota Publishers. It is a Christ centered, history based curriculum. It is very organized which I love because it is less work for me.
Since Bounce is a little young age wise for this book, we are taking it half-speed, so we'll take 2 years to complete the lessons rather than one.
Despite working at half-speed, our days are full since we're also adding in Apologia science and Calico Spanish. The science curriculum is creation based and we study one day of creation for an entire year. This year our focus is astronomy. I am so grateful that we are able to bring everything back to God. For example, we were learning how God uses the stars as signs (ex. star of Bethlehem) and then we looked at the whirlpool galaxy online.

Ketchup was so excited about the cross that God put in the heavens that she wanted to print out a picture of it to show her friends.
Spanish has also been a lot of fun. Calico Spanish is a brand new immersion based Spanish curriculum. It incorporates a lot of music which the kids love. They walk around the house singing the songs. Daddy is really impressed with what they have already learned in these few weeks. I am glad that when I say "Nino y nina escuchenme. Ahora es la hora de espanol (Kids, listen. It's Spanish time)," they squeal with delight.

I also like this Spanish because it has a script for me to read so that I am saying everything in Spanish and as a result my Spanish has improved as well. Above is our bulletin board that we use; everything came ready to just put up and use - Mommy/Teacher likes!!

We are studying the colonial time period and also learned about Christopher Columbus. The kids are enjoying the texts so much that they are disappointed when I stop reading. Below are their portraits of Christopher Columbus (with 2 objects representing his importance in history: a ship and the Atlantic Ocean) and their blue water paintings with fish that we completed in Spanish class following my instructions completely in spanish.

Another of our favorite activities we have done was something we called "geography jump." We taped the outline of the earth and it's continents on the floor and jumped from continent to continent. We used it several times to mark Columbus' journeys and then the kids also wanted to put their stuffed animals in the continents in which they live.

Finally, we were able to join our homeschool group for a field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art. One of the paintings we saw was by Pissaro and used what I believe the guide called "pointallism" which is the technique of using small dots of color instead of strokes of paint. The day after our field trip, the kids' assignment was to paint a picture based on the poem we had been studying. The poem was "The Storm" by Sara Colerdige and talks about a storm with its rain, lightning and thunder (I'm reciting it in my mind as I'm typing, but I'll spare you the recitation) and then the sun starts to peek out. Here are their paintings: Bounce focused on the lightning, and I was especially impressed with Ketchup's use of pointallism with no prompting from mom.

Note that the kids are still in their pajamas which is how we often are dressed as we learn. It seems as if every day there is one reminder of why I am so glad that we are blessed with the freedom and opportunity to homeschool from pajamas and sleeping in to being able to truly see how God has created all and holds everything together. Looking forward to the rest of a fun year!

Relaxing Vacation

2009-09-03T16:51:00.019-05:00

We were blessed to spend two weeks in beautiful Arizona last month. Our time was filled with lots of animals: newborn baby bunny, swarms of hummingbirds (there were literally 15-20 hummingbirds at one feeder at one time) , tarantula, fish, frogs, tadpoles, dogs, horses and cows. Here are some of those pictures.
We also experienced a few firsts:

Ketchup caught her first fish (I guess it counts!)
Bounce caught his first fish (what a great look of amazement!)
Bounce rode a bike without training wheels for the first time. The dirt and rocks were the ultimate motivators to get him to take off those crutches.
The kids saw their first "shooting stars" and meteor showers as we were blessed to enjoy true stargazing outside of city lights. These have really meant more as we began to study astronomy in homeschool this week.

The kids experienced their first cave at Kartchner Caverns and were able to see science in action as the drips of water cause amazing formations underground.
They also had their first ride on a rowboat and had their turn at the oars - resulting in lots of circles in the water :-)

My parents blessed their grandkids by getting them an inflatable waterslide. Ketchup and Bounce spent a lot of time on this and we enjoyed watching their re-enactments of "Wipeout."
I enjoyed running in the mountains and chasing off longhorn cattle and deer.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures (as if you wanted even more):

Every evening God painted the sky for us. We are thankful that we were able to enjoy so much of His amazing creation!

Benjamin's surprise for Daddy!

2009-08-08T14:59:00.003-05:00

Look Daddy

Our Spring in Pictures

2009-05-22T08:50:00.007-05:00

Wow, has it really been 2 months since I blogged last. Time flies!! Here are a few pics of what has kept us busy. The kids have left soccer and moved on to new athletic endeavors (Bounce - tball and Ketchup - gymnastics).

My parents bought the kids some Mexican attire at a Mariachi conference in Arizona, so the kids posed for pictures. The other day we found a sombrero at Target's dollar spot, so Bounce was thrilled to bring it home and wear it with his pancho. As he modeled for me, he said "I FEEL MEXICAN!"

We are still attempting to garden although we don't get enough sun in our shady backyard to be very fruitful. Our lettuce is doing OK, so we may just have a lettuce garden next year. I did learn that in partial sun that plants where you don't eat the fruit or the root do best.

Ozzie has been building the kids a playhouse in the backyard. They have been able to "move in" and enjoy playing back there.

Both kids had end of the year choir concerts and AWANA ceremonies. I am always amazed at how quickly the time goes by. I know it was just May 1st yesterday wasn't it??

Ketchup had a big day May 9th as she was baptized and lost her first tooth!

We are nearly finished with school for the year. Both kids have drastically improved on their reading and math and it's encouraging as their "teacher" to see progress. We'll be using Heart of Dakota next year (mostly anyways), so I'm looking forward to less planning on my part, but having everything revolve around the TRUTH (the Bible).

Hopefully it won't be September before my next post!

Our New Backyard

2009-03-26T14:57:00.006-05:00

This is the before picture of our backyard. A failed attempt at grass seed, untrimmed trees and nothing of "beauty."
Here are the afters taken after a week of pulling weeds, laying sod, planting a garden and some "beauty" in the form of rose bushes. Hard work, but it's no nice to see green grass instead of brown dirt. Our dog also enjoys not having to have her feet wiped for 10 minutes before coming into the house.
Also, I had been checking craigslist for the past couple of weeks looking for a patio set since we have more than dirt to admire and as I was chasing our kids down the street on their bikes, our neighbor had a rattan set sitting out to give away and kindly passed it on to us. A nice surprise blessing!

My 33rd Birthday!

2009-03-16T05:05:00.003-05:00

I won't forget where I was when I woke up on my 33rd birthday because I was in ICU. The day before I had a scheduled hysterectomy that did not go quite as scheduled.
Monday morning I had a successful surgery done by scope so that pain and recovery was minimal. The calls and e-mail updates went out that I was doing great. As the afternoon rolled on the nurse remarked several times that my vitals didn't look quite right and wanted to order blood work just to be sure. About 6:30 pm she came back in and said her guess was right, I was bleeding internally and my doctor was on his way to take me back to the operating room to find and stop the bleeding. Within 20 minutes my doctor was back and you could tell he was worried. He told us "this never happens to me," and he would probably have to make a large incision to find the bleeding. He also said I would need a blood transfusion. Everything was happening really quickly.
Within several minutes, there were 3 new nurses in the room starting a new IV for the blood and they were followed by the anaesthiologist and the surgical nurse. I vividly remember the concerned looks on everyone's faces especially Ozzie. I have to say I was concerned but also felt God's incredible peace and knew that I had the easy job of being put back to sleep while Ozzie had to wait. As I was being rolled out of the room, I heard the nurses tell Ozzie that he would need to take our stuff because I was going to ICU after the surgery.
That is where I woke up later that night. I'm not sure what time it was, but I remember the ICU nurse telling Ozzie that I was going to have another blood test at 4am to make sure everything was OK.
So I laid there awake for most of the night, by myself (there wasn't a bed for Ozzie in the room so he went to the waiting room to sleep a little), unable to see the clock or really move because I was hooked up to things from my nose to my toes. It was a long, long night yet I was glad to be awake and alive - it was a very special birthday.
I know God knew what was going to happen and He was in control the whole time. Looking back, He was taking care of me by having the hematologist decide against putting me on blood thinners (another story in itself) prior to the surgery because if I had been on them the bleeding would have been much more critical. He also kept me from vomiting even one time after the second surgery. We think my inability to stop vomiting after the first surgery is what caused the bleeding to begin with. I have never NOT vomited after anesthesia until this time.
He blessed my nurse with wisdom and knowledge to be on her toes so the bleeding did not get any worse. I was amazed as I saw prayers for the doctors and nurses wisdom being answered right before my eyes. These are just a few of the ways God was working. I cannot go into every detail for lack of time and space and I probably don't even know all the details God was working out in this situation.
I do know that God was in complete control the entire time and throughout my recovery. Yesterday I was able to jog for the first time not only after the surgery, but even before due to pain. If felt so good to be back to "normal."
"Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His unfailing love endures forever." Ps. 118:1

The first "have-to" haircut

2009-02-23T14:43:00.002-06:00

Ketchup sat in the worship service with us on Sat. night and I saw her playing with her hair. I noticed something white in it, and told myself it's just glue since she had done a craft during her class right before the service. I had forgotten all about it until I was showering her last night. That is when I asked how she got the glue in her hair and then I heard those dreaded words, "It's not glue, it's gum." Since I had completely forgotten about her hair and let her sleep on it already, there was no using ice or peanut butter solutions for this one. Only one thing would work, the scissors. At least I didn't have to cut her hair up to her ears. She kept saying that she wanted her hair short anyways. Needless to say, only Mommy and Daddy will be enjoying gum for a long time to come around here.

I'm Back!

2009-02-17T16:30:00.002-06:00

Today is the best I've felt in a long time. Very little pain and well-behaved kids made for a great day, so I'm able to finally blog again. I will have to blog about the whole surgery experience, but there's not enough time today.
I will say that Ketchup's reading has taken off and she also begs to do math (she is so unlike me in that way). Bounce has also started reading and seems to be catching on well.
Last week we studied kangaroos and I could overhear them playing for a while not quite sure what the game was. But when I saw all the reading flashcards scattered all over the floor, I had to ask. They said they were kangaroos and Ketchup was the mommy kangaroo who was teaching her joey (Bounce) how to read human words. That is definitely a fun way to learn!!

Different worlds

2009-01-19T14:50:00.002-06:00

I've been meaning to share a funny conversation we had with Ozzie's nephews during our Christmas vacation. We were eating ice cream with them and one of them (ages 7 and 9) told us that they had made up rapper names for themselves. I think they were something like "Funny Bonez" and "Gangsta Boy." We continued talking about rapper names and their bling for several minutes. Bounce then finished off the conversation by telling us why he liked rappers so much, "because they have candy in them."

Is it mean???

2009-01-12T16:28:00.002-06:00

Bounce used to have a horn on his bike. He thought he had lost it, but found it in the backyard yesterday. If you were to ask him about it, he would probably looked at you with a puzzled look on his face. That is because he doesn't call it a horn; he calls it a "honk."
Ozzie and I think it's so cute and funny at the same time that he calls it a honk that we find ways of getting him to say "honk" again. Bounce has yet to catch on and we might be mean parents for not correcting him. Someday we will I guess, but if he's 18 and driving and says he had to use his honk in traffic, you'll know what he means.

Christmas Conversations

2009-01-04T21:31:00.012-06:00

I was reminded that I'm way past due for a post so this is for you Cara.

We spent Christmas at Ozzie's parents house this year. We arrived on Christmas Eve around dinner time. We had only been in the house about 2 minutes (I'm not exaggerating either) and Bounce asked "Where is the chimney?" I said they didn't have one, not understanding where this was going. He wanted to know how Santa was going to get into the house without a chimney. I assured him that lots of houses don't have chimneys and Santa can also come through the front door. There must have been doubts swirling in their heads because after they had opened their gifts both Bounce and Ketchup continued to state their amazement that Santa actually "got their lists."
A few days later I was privileged to be sitting in the van and waiting for Ozzie and his parents and overhear the kids conversation about Christmas. It went something like this.

The kids were quoting from a Veggietale movie about a kid wanting lots of toys like Billy and Ketchup went on to explain to her brother that the true meaning of Christmas is Jesus.
Ketchup: Christmas is not about presents or candy or lights.
Bounce: Yeah, its not about toys. Its about Jesus Christ.
Ketchup: No, it's about Jesus' birth. You say Jesus Christ at Easter.
Bounce: Oh, okay it's about Jesus' birth.
Ketchup: But remember to say Jesus Christ at Easter. You can say it then.
Bounce: (shouting at the top of his lungs) Jesus Christ is Lord!

Sometimes waiting is such a blessing!!
Here are a few pics from Christmas

I love their excited reactions in these first 2 pictures.
This is Bounce wondering how he actually got this gift because he asked Santa for it. But I had told him I didn't think Santa would get it because it said ages 8 and up. So Bounce said after opening it that "Santa got me what I wanted even though it was too big for me."This is a picture of our complete Jesse Tree (a great type of Advent "calendar" that traces God's plan throughout the Bible leading up to Christ's birth). This was a new tradition for us that we all really enjoyed and learned a lot from. A great picture of the kids and Ozzie's parents.(for those who noticed (i.e. Ozzie) the above descriptions aren't really links, I just can't figure out how to change it and I'm ready to go to bed.)

Disney Dreamin'

2008-12-08T12:17:00.013-06:00

Bounce woke me up last night as I was in the middle of a disney dream. I dreamed I was shooting brightly colored sour cream containers with my Buzz Lightyear gun. I almost told him to hold on and let me finish my game, but sanity took over and I realized my dream is showing how my mind is moving from Disneyland - the happiest place on earth- to home - the normalcy of life. So in my dream I combined Bounce's favorite ride with my grocery list for today. Now if grocery shopping were really that fun, I would have no trouble getting the kids to come along and behave better.

Here's a few lessons from Disney:
1.) Wear very comfortable walking shoes and start training for all the walking at least a month beforehand. My thighs were cramping as I walked down Tarzan's treehouse for the 2nd time in a row.
2.) Do not go in the summer if at all possible. I cannot imagine having to wait in line for hours with young kids in tow. We were blessed to be able to go when most kids are in school. We literally walked onto rides like Buzz-astro blasters and Pirates of the Carribean. I remember waiting for hours for Star Tours as a kid and was thrilled to know we only waited 10 minutes for that ride.
3.) Take strollers or set aside a large chunk of change to rent them there. We didn't do this until the 2nd day and it saved us a big headache from kids whining about sore feet and wanting to be carried everywhere.
4.) Most importantly, spend more time looking at your kids' happy faces than at the rides themselves. I got such a kick seeing Ketchup squeal in delight on Star Tours and Mulholland Madness. She is my new rollercoaster buddy. Bounce starts off with fear and by the end is laughing and smiling and wanting to ride again.

Here are a few of the over 500 pictures we took.

Both kids had some one on one time with one of their favorite characters. Buzz and Bounce showed each other their muscles and Ketchup and Minnie went for a little walk. Ketchup couldn't believe she was just walking off with Minnie.

The lights everywhere in the park were amazing. This is right in front of "It's a small world."

The kids squeals and screams at the fireworks were one of my highlights.

Thanks Mickey Mouse for wonderful fun and memories!!

Happy Birthday Ketchup!

2008-11-25T10:01:00.019-06:00

Six years ago today, little Ketchup was born. She was a beautiful little baby and I was amazed as I held her that this tiny person was my child that I was responsible for. Reality hit the second night in the hospital when she screamed the entire night. There were many times that night that I wished I could have given her back, but six years later, I am so thankful that God has blessed our family with her. She is caring and sincere and has a laugh that is so contagious. Her is a walk down memory lane....

"Finally"

2008-11-24T16:05:00.002-06:00

Bounce has been a little perturbed at the attention given to Christmas despite not even celebrating Thanksgiving. Today we were setting up our Christmas tree and the characters on the kids show he was watching were talking about Thanksgiving to which he excitedly yelled out "Finally, somebody is celebrating Thanksgiving instead of just Christmas."
We are thankful for many things this year and since we'll probably be out of touch for the next couple weeks (Thanksgiving in AZ and our Disneyland trip!!), I thought I would focus on Thanksgiving for this post- before I start stringing the lights on the Christmas tree!

We are especially thankful for God blessing us with the sale of our house and purchase of our current house. We feel so at home in our new house. We have so much more time to enjoy instead of spending it in traffic and feel so less rushed as we are much closer to everything (except God :-)).
We are also thankful for God's blessings despite the economy. When you see so many people hurting and struggling, we are so grateful for all that we have been blessed with.
We are thankful for our healthy kids, fantastic family and friends and the freedom to learn about God and His world as we homeschool.
We are thankful for Christ for "of Him and through Him" are all things!!

Off the wall

2008-11-04T10:41:00.003-06:00

We celebrated Bounce's birthday by going to one of those big pizza/game places. As Ketchup and I were crashing into each other on the bumper cars, Daddy and Bounce were losing money fast on all the games. Then they got to the "Big Bass" game and Bounce pulled the lever. An alarm sounded, Bounce won the grand prize - 1,000 tickets!!!
Daddy said people gathered around in amazement at the mass of tickets spitting out of the game. At the end of the night, we had totaled about 1200 tickets. The kids were excited because they finally were able to pick out a prize "off the wall" instead of just the cheap ones in the case right in front.

Here's a link to a pic of the big win!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3070/2999288051_d2311404f5.jpg?v=0

Happy Birthday Bounce!

2008-11-02T06:28:00.011-06:00

Four years ago today it was election day and we were able to watch all the news as we held our new little baby "bounce" in our arms. He was a little baby (6lbs. 5oz.), but very happy. We had no idea how much personality our little boy would have. He is so much fun and has so much energy. He can talk your ears off and remember everything you said even when you think he's not listening.
We look forward to many more fun years with him. Here a short walk down memory lane.

3 more things

2008-10-22T17:40:00.004-05:00

I had wanted to post about 3 things but hadn't had time until now.

1.) Ketchup's Tata left sweet notes for Nana at our house since they stayed with us at different times, so Ketchup was inspired to leave "I love you" notes under all of our pillows on several nights. She left a big heart for Benjamin under his pillow the night before his surgery.

2.) We surprised the kids by telling them we are going to celebrate their birthdays in Disneyland this year. They were so excited and Ketchup started to well up tears of happiness. She's going to be a crier like her mommy I'm afraid, but now they both understand what it means to cry when you're happy; they just didn't get that before.

3.) After Bounce's surgery, he was in pain. He told me his tummy hurt, but he didn't want me to tell the doctor. It didn't make sense to him that he felt fine before the surgery, then after the surgery that we explained would fix something in his tummy, he actually felt worse. How could he be hurting if he was supposed to be "fixed?"
It made me think of how God has to prune us of things in our lives. We feel fine; life is good. We are perfectly comfortable, but God knows that there is something in our life that needs to go; it is keeping us from being "better." So God has to fix us by doing surgery, or pruning us of that thing or person that is not His perfect will for us. After the pruning, we are in pain. We hurt and it doesn't make sense to us how this is supposed to be better. Only He knows and can see the perfect, completed picture of our lives. I'm glad He knows best even if I have to be painfully pruned, but you'll have to remind me of that the next time I get cut by His scalpel.

Time to Catch up

2008-10-22T17:11:00.009-05:00

Here are some pictures to fill you in on our fast flying month of October.

After studying frogs and giraffes, we had a fun day at the zoo with some close friends. It was neat to see the animals we had been studying up close.

My parents have had to come in town this month at different times in order to help out with Benjamin after his surgery. Ketchup and Bounce enjoyed their Tata while he was in town at the beginning of the month. They were able to wrestle and wrestle some more and my dad proved to be here at the right time to use his post hole digging expertise to help us put up a new fence.

This is a picture of our new backyard. We are enjoying the big, established trees and have completed the fence (just needs stain). I also put my "farming" skills to the test by getting the yard ready and then laying grass seed. We now have the beginning of a green lawn, but it took me about 3 weeks to recover from those 3 days of physical labor.

Bounce had his hernia surgery on Oct. 16th. He did really well. He was nervous at first, but relaxed and that "goofy juice" worked like a charm. My mom came in town to help me with the near impossible task of keeping him from bouncing or running or anything active for 10 days after. We have a countdown going and he has 2 more days to go. Here is a picture of my mom helping him figure out the DS that his cousin lent him to keep him on the couch. I think I can safely bet that a DS will be on Bounce's Christmas list.

Doesn't seem like that much when I put this all together, but it's amazing how much time has passed since I last posted. Life is busy but good!

Things heard around our house this week

2008-09-27T14:58:00.002-05:00

During school:
1. A song about metamorphosis that I made up so the kids could remember the word.
2. Lots and lots of frog stories (The Frog and Toad books are their favorite).
3. Weird facts about frogs like only the males make noise and the females have smaller ears.

During chore time: On sheet day (the day I wash the sheets on the beds), Bounce and Ketchup ran up to me and he asked, "Can we serve you by doing your bed?"
What a sweet kids to know they are serving and not just doing to do things.

During meal time: We watch the squirrels every day as we're eating and on Friday two squirrels began to mate. I nervously waited to see what would be said or what would happen next. Ketchup said, "Look, it's a piggyback ride." Then the female squirrel would have none of it and they started wrestling. Bounce after watching them for a few minutes rolling around and wrestling said "I wish I was a squirrel."

Our First Week of School

2008-09-21T20:56:00.003-05:00

We finished our first week of school on Friday. In theory, Ketchup is in kindergarten and Bounce is in preschool. We studied clocks to start off the year with the theme of using time wisely. We had fun making our own sundial and pendulum and I had great pictures to show off, but I can't find the usb connector for the camera. I thought I had checked everything off the I haven't found it yet list. Oh well.
The kids enjoyed their first week. Ketchup had her first spelling test and aced it. Bounce will have his first letter test this coming week, so he has that to look forward to.
We also had our first soccer games of the season. We pretty much picked up where we left off last season. Ketchup scored 5 goals and Bounce was good to want to play in the second half since most of the boys were tired (it was hot). His poor little team just becomes timid on field although they pretty much matched up in size with their opponent. He said he had fun though, so it was a success for him.
The kids were disappointed we couldn't do school this weekend as they're excited to learn about frogs as our next theme. I better go get my plans for the week ready. Hopefully I'll have some fun frog facts in the next post (and some clock pictures as well).

We're IN!!!!!

2008-09-09T09:24:00.002-05:00

I wanted to title this post - Moving in - AKA - world record number of Walmart trips in one week topped off with another trip to Lowe's/Home Depot.
Finally I have a chance to update the blog. We are in our new house and the picture of Kailee from the previous post is how I feel today. I have about 5 more boxes to unpack- hooray! It is starting to feel like home and I even was able to put up a few things on the wall yesterday.

Highlights of our new home:
Seeing the kids squeal with delight as we watched a squirrel during breakfast.
Playing hide and seek and finding really cool hiding spots.
Kids taking a "short-cut" to get to other rooms of the house. Our old house was like a box with one hallway; this house has options.
Bella, the dog, chasing squirrels in the backyard.
Being able to cook and eat dinner last night after soccer practice because our drive home took 15 minutes instead of 45 minutes!

The kids have discovered me (see it's easy to get lost in this house) and are now asking for things; gotta go for now!

What's going on....

2008-08-22T11:27:00.004-05:00

I thought I'd fill you in since I posted last

The Olympics - the kids and I have enjoyed watching the Olympics. They now recognize Michael Phelps and enthusiastically cheer him on. They were awed by all the gymnasts could do and attempted to perform their own gymnastic feats on our couch. I let Ketchup stay up late 2 nights and watch the women's gymnastics. She almost made it to the end both nights, but not quite.

We also quickly made the transition from keeping the house in a near to perfection showing state to an anything goes, see how many messes the kids can make at once state. While we were still showing the house and I was cleaning all the time, I wondered if how easily I would transition to a real-life looking house. Well here is the answer (the kids tent in the living room).

And I'm letting them fingerpaint as I blog, so I must have made the transition a little too well!

We also have seen God use our mission trip to Guatemala to help Bounce. A while back I asked Ozzie if it was OK for Bounce to have one testicle larger than the other one. He told me that was normal, so I didn't think any more about it. In Guatemala, Ozzie translated for a man who had the same problem but on a larger scale for 15 years. The man was treated and left the clinic healed and pain free. Upon returning home, Ozzie thought it would be best to have the doctor check Bounce just in case. Well, he does have a hernia and will have surgery mid-October. Who knows how long it would've taken us to realize something was wrong if God hadn't brought our attention to it in Guatemala. I even was able to witness a hernia surgery there, so I have a better idea of what the doctors will be doing. It is amazing to see how God is always working even when we don't realize it.

We are moving next week, so I don't know when I'll be able to post next. We are excited about our new house. It will be closer to Ozzie's work and the church. Originally, the kids weren't too thrilled about moving from our neighborhood, so I explained how many things we would be closer too. They quickly came to the conclusion that we would be closer to everything. This was the kids conversation about it the other day...

Bounce: Will Preston (their cousin) be able to spend the night again?
Me: In our new house, yes.
Ketchup: We'll be closer to Preston in our new house. Don't you remember we'll be closer to everything!
Bounce: Except God.

So I guess we're moving closer to everything, except God, but hopefully we are continuing to draw closer to Him as we trust in Him for the kids' health and all the details that go with closing and moving. He has been so faithful and we are excited for the next season of our journey with Him!

If....

2008-08-12T17:02:00.003-05:00

Conversation overheard today while the kids were coloring:

Bounce : If you weren't my sister, I would want to be your friend.

Ketchup: If you weren't my family, I would like being the only child. It would be quiet around here and mommy wouldn't have so much work and it would be really quiet during quiet time.

Bounce: But I am your brother

Ketchup: I'm just saying IF.

Bounce: (still questioning and confused)

Ketchup: It's OK because if you weren't my family, you would be my friend or my cousin and we could still play together.

Bounce: (content with her answer moved on to the more important superhero conversation).

By Request

2008-08-10T15:38:00.003-05:00

This post is only here because of Ozzie's request (you'll understand why in a minute).

We were eating lunch today with the kids and Bounce started talking about Wall-E. He first mentioned how it was so funny when Wall-E was trying to play the Wii without a TV. Then he said it was so funny when Wall-E couldn't see because he had covered his eyes with "that thing." We asked him what he was talking about since we didn't know what "that thing" meant. So Bounce stood up and walked over to me and pointed to my chest area and said "You know that thing that covers this big thing and this big thing (as he patted each one)." Bounce then learned that the original "thing" he was referring to was called a bra.

Daddy's new favorite phrase now is "that big thing." See why I would've rather not posted!

Totally Awesome!

2008-08-09T11:41:00.002-05:00

Last night Ketchup and Bounce's cousin spent the night and we all were wowed by the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Ozzie and I enjoyed the show and seeing the kids' reactions to everything. It was neat to hear their comments, so I thought I would share.
Just imagine 3 kids screaming the following:
"Totally awesome"
"That is so cool"
"Amazing"
I think Bounce wins the commentary award for his comment "That is unbelievable!"
Definitely a memorable night for all.

On/Off Switch

2008-08-06T05:22:00.002-05:00

My mind has a very touchy on/off switch. This is why I'm awake before 5am this morning. If the kids get up during the night, my mind will usually remain off and I can quickly go back to sleep. Tonight Ketchup's nightlight went out. Thought was required to find a new bulb and replace the burnt out bulb (note to self: never again buy light bulbs at the dollar store), so my mind quickly switched on to accomplish the task.
However, switching it back off is a different story. It's as if I am pulling on the switch, hanging from it, trying to get it into the off position, but it just won't budge. So I lay in bed thinking about what I should be doing instead of just lying there in the dark.
Turning off my mind is typically difficult to do without the help of Tylenol PM or Nyquil and I'm afraid Ketchup has this disorder, too. It takes that little girl a LONG time to fall asleep. Bounce, on the other hand, is just like his daddy, within 30 seconds he is out like a light.
So, here I am blogging instead of sleeping - plotting how many cups of coffee I'll need later this afternoon!

We are so blessed - Guatemala trip

2008-07-30T09:50:00.008-05:00

Last week we were blessed to be able to leave the kids at home and travel to Guatemala. We had the intention of blessing others with medical and dental care, but I think we were the ones ultimately blessed. I have listened to people return from mission trips and say how blessed we are here in America. I now understand what they mean. It is hard to describe the poverty that we saw in Guatemala. Yet despite their lack of wealth, the people (especially the children) seemed so happy.
We had planned a VBS for 70 kids (which we thought was overplanning) and we had 225 kids come. Needless to say, we had to improvise. Each kid was given only one crayon and some type of paper to color as there was not enough of anything for each child, yet they were excited to have their one crayon and paper.

The children there didn't complain about not having the color they wanted or the same thing as another kid; they were just happy to have something. It's hard not to keep saying to Ketchup and Benjamin when they start to whine or complain about something since we've been back, "You know the kids in Guatemala had nothing and they didn't complain."
I also experienced the joy of serving. Selfishly, I didn't want to spend our money (we also had a lot of generous friends and family give their money to help us pay for the trip - thank you!) to go and work in a clinic and sleep in a bunk bed all week. I would've rather used the money for new furniture or a "real" vacation to Disneyland. But it was more fulfilling and enjoyable than I can describe to you to allow God to use Ozzie and I.

It really was the best vacation I have ever experienced. I totally understand now how God has created us to serve others and when we do that, He blesses us with true joy that is indescribable. When I take my focus off myself, I am able to be truly happy.

Now the transition back to the overindulgent North Dallas area begins. It is hard to go from what we experienced in Guatemala to looking for a new house and making plans for that. Selfishly I want to make plans for new furniture and decorating rooms, but I remember the dirt floors, sheet metal walls, and homes with no furniture at all.

As we go back and forth this week on negotiations for the home we want to buy, it all seems so small. I have seen that joy is not in what we think we have or own, but it is in serving and giving to others.

When God speaks....

2008-07-18T23:41:00.002-05:00

This week has been an eventful one. We received an offer on our house and have been in SLOW negotiations all week. We are also planning to leave on our mission trip to Guatemala. I had so many worries and wonders running through my mind this last week. I knew I just needed to sit down and be still before God. My Bible study assignment was to FLAP (facts, lessons, application, prayer) John 14. So I started with verse one. Do you know what God said directly to me? "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me." Thank you God for saying just what I needed to hear.
It looks like we'll reach an agreement with the buyer this weekend, so we're off tomorrow to look at potential houses since we'll be homeless in a little over a month. That's a good thing though!!
I'll have lots to blog about when we return from Guatemala - be prepared for some reading!

Why can't we go to the dentist now?

2008-07-12T00:41:00.002-05:00

This was Bounce's question to me this morning before we began to get ready for the kids dental check up. I thought his question meant he was finally eager to go and it would not turn into the meltdown like last time. I was hopeful, all was going well as we entered the little room that they took us into. (They reserve a little room for him with a door to try and muffle his screams so he won't frighten the other kids there.) He was excited to see the Spiderman movie he had picked out to watch. He was smiling and happy UNTIL the dentist walked in the room. The smile turned to a face full of fear. Then she asked if he could wear the special "watch" to take his blood pressure and the meltdown began. The dentist was reassuring that there was progress over last time because the screams were much less intense and they actually completed 4 x-rays (that room had a door too, but occassionally I could hear him cry out). Poor little guy! The good news is that both kids are in the "No Cavity Club."
We also had our first Friday Family Movie Night tonight. We watched "Underdog." It was a cute movie and we all had fun. Daddy wanted to be extra nice tonight since we're leaving next weekend for our mission trip, so he let the kids watch Ratatouille in our room and then sleep in there all night. Bounce said he wished every night was this fun. I don't agree because it's already tomorrow and I'm still awake. I really like it when every one is in their own beds, but at least it makes for good memories which I'm awake for every last one.

Where do I begin?

2008-07-08T14:13:00.003-05:00

Since I posted last, we have had an eventful week. Depending on how many interruptions I get, I'll try to catch you up in one post.

Part 1 - Expect the Unexpected
Last week Daddy's parents and sister and her son were in town for a visit. His sister wanted us to plan a camping trip. This would be a great opportunity to use the new tent that we gave Daddy for Father's Day, so despite our reservations about camping in the July heat, we agreed to plan and participate. The day of our camping trip arrived and Daddy's sister decided to return home early leaving us and his parents and other sister. His parents and other sister were not thrilled about spending all night out in the wild woods, but our children were thrilled to go camping, so we ended up going (for most of the time as they came for the first few hours) by ourselves.

Part 2 - What else did we forget
I knew we had packed quickly, so I assumed we would forget something, but you never know how much you need things until you don't have them. Daddy forgot his sandals and walked around in my fashionable pink flip-flops for some of the time. Mommy forgot to bring sausage and tortillas to make Daddy's eggs extra yummy. I also forgot the bug spray which will lead us to part 3 in just a minute.
Overall, we had a lot of fun camping. The kids loved swimming in the lake and riding their bikes in the street instead of on the sidewalk. The highlight had to have been seeing our first live armadillo. We have seen them upside down on the side of the road, but not up and walking around in the wild. We were just about to go to sleep when our dog started barking and we heard rustling in the bushed behind us. I thought it was a raccoon, but it was a dumb armadillo who just kept waddling over to our campsite despite a barking dog and our flashlights right on him.
We enjoyed more camping fun and headed home about noon the next day. Just the right amount of camping for me.

Part 3 - I thought camping was cheap.
When we got home, I kept complaining about all my mosquito bites. Then on Sunday, Daddy had some bites and the kids had a few as well. By that time, I looked like someone had painted red polka dots all my stomach. We had to go to the doctor anyways that afternoon to get our shots before we leave for our mission trip, so we asked the doctor about our bites. She thought they might be chiggers or bed bugs, so after buying new pillows and prescription creams and anti-itch medicine, Daddy wanted to know how camping was supposed to be cheap and fun after all this. Wal-mart definitely makes money when the "P" family goes camping!

Another shout out....

2008-06-30T15:57:00.002-05:00

Actually this is another thank you, but not a sarcastic one this time and it goes to Jon and Kate Plus 8. The kids and I like to watch this show and it has inspired not only conversations, but cleaning tips. Since we're almost constantly cleaning around here (yes, the house is still on the market), we saw some little brooms and dust pans that each Gosselin kid had
to use to clean up their own crumbs and messes. We bought something similar at Wal-mart. It was well worth the $2 each. The kids love their "sweepers" as Bounce says and they have a contest to see who can sweep up the most dirt. Competition is productive!!
Just an update, that we have returned to our normal sleeping in schedule - hallelujah!

Thank You VBS (sense my sarcasm?)

2008-06-22T21:31:00.002-05:00

Last week was VBS at our church. The kids had a blast with all the crafts and stories and friends. I was working and had to be there at 7:30 each morning, so I would wake the kids up about 6:50 each morning to give me just enough time to get them dressed and in the van. After only 4 days of this schedule (Ketchup was sick on Friday so we stayed home), they have been waking up at 6:50 each morning since (even on our sick day). I'm hoping they revert back to our nice schedule of waking up around 8:00 am. Here's for hoping I guess.

Bounce's new outfit

2008-06-11T14:02:00.003-05:00

I finally found the perfect outfit for our little Bounce....

Instead of the riddler, Bounce's name will be The Questioner!
I need to attempt to count how many questions this little boy asks me in one day. Even as I type this he is asking me, "what is a blog?" Last week the question of the week was "How do you make a car?" I know he asked me this at least once a day. And you know how it goes, one answer just leads to another question.
His brain must be on hyper-speed when we get into the van because as soon as we get buckled the question start flying out of his mouth. And in between questions, he asks me to turn up the music just to have me turn it down again 3 seconds later so I can hear his next question.
When I met a friend for coffee the other day, she vented about something and apologized. I told her no apology needed because there was not one question I had to answer - I just had to listen. So if you see me and I don't answer your question, it's because I'm all answered out.

Our Latest Headlines

2008-06-03T17:40:00.005-05:00

** Pull-ups Free! **
Bounce has graduated from wearing pull-ups at night. We have been all undies all the time for about a week and no wet beds in the morning. Can you hear me singing "Hallelujah, Hallelujah"?

** Mystery Solved **

Ketchup had lost her little blankie a few months ago. It just disappeared. Even after packing and cleaning to put the house on the market, I still couldn't find it. She hadn't really missed it, but I wanted to keep it for memories. About the last week, she had been asking for it and we made another fruitless search. She was in her room whining (not a big surprise there) one afternoon and pulled her jewelry box down from a small decorative shelf on the wall. Surprise - blankie was tucked inside! It was right above our noses the whole time.

** Little Fish **

After finally feeling better (what wonders antibiotics and rest can do!), I was able to join my family at the pool. In just the week and a half I was sick, my kids turned into fish. The last time I had taken them to the pool they wouldn't even put their face in the water to blow bubbles. Sunday afternoon they were both jumping into the water by themselves and would go under and come right back up. Bounce has a floatie suit that lets him swim around all by himself. Ketchup is the hit of the pool with her little barbell float. It was neat to see so much progress in such little time.

** Little Hips **

Ketchup is a hula-hoop master at age 5. This little girl has got talented hips. She can keep it spinning for a good minute. I just sit back and laugh in amazement. She reminds us that she is the only one in the whole family that can hula hoop. She can even spin it around her neck. And then she gracefully brings it off her leg. She stopped traffic the other day when she was doing it in the front yard.

Maybe Letterman is in her future - maybe not since we would never let her out of the house in that outfit.

Does Daddy Know He's in Charge?

2008-05-27T13:03:00.002-05:00

I've been feeling sick for almost a week now and it's all thanks to allergies. I thought it might be strep throat, but who knew that allergies could be so yucky. It's raining today, so maybe that will clear some things up along with the new meds I'm on.
Needless to say, the kids have had a lot of Daddy time over the past several days. They learned the first night he came home to sick mommy that I was happily relinquishing my role of keeper of the house and kids.
Ketchup: "Mommy, can I have some juice."
Mommy: "Daddy is in charge now. Go ask him."
Ketchup: "Does Daddy know he's in charge?"
Mommy: "I don't know. Go ask him." (Anyone noticing a theme here?)
Ketchup: runs off to ask Daddy and all too quickly returns, "Daddy wants to know what he is in charge of?"
Mommy: "Daddy is in charge of you and your brother, so go ask him for juice."
Ketchup: "OK"
and she leaves finally getting the point and I guess Daddy got it too because I got to rest in peace and quiet.

Daddy did a great job keeping up with the kids and thanks to their daily trips to the community pool, I think they may be expert swimmers by now.
For the few times when I did have to entertain them by myself, I learned a few couch-friendly
tricks: blowing bubbles with my gum, hitting a balloon up in the air to them, asking them lots of questions and of course a lot of TV (thank you Jon & Kate Plus 8 for entertaining my kids).
And then last night I had moved to my bed and Ketchup and I repeated history. We watched my favorite movie from when I was a kid together - E.T. She held on to my E.T. lunchbox and asked about a million questions, but she really seemed to like it. She also liked that she was able to stay up late with me because Bounce was a little scared and tired and had already gone to bed.
Despite Mommy being sick, the kids had a great time with Daddy in charge. Thank you to the best Daddy in the whole world!!

Ketchup's new trick & AI Finale

2008-05-20T21:33:00.003-05:00

Ketchup stopped me today and said "look, I can make the number one with a different finger." Well, you can probably guess which finger it was and no I didn't teach her this trick. Maybe she learned it from Daddy after his encounter with Misty.
I tried to keep a straight face and tell her "Yeah, I see, but the best finger to make a one is still your pointer finger." She seemed to go right along with it.
Speaking of right along with it....she was singing right along with all the songs on American Idol tonight. Although I think our (I brainwashed her) favorite David Cook will probably lose, it was a good show.
Ketchup was excited that the winner would make a CD. She also wanted to know why the stage looked smaller-that was a sign she's been paying too much attention! She also was concerned that once the show was over would it ever come on again and was relieved when I told her they would start all over next year. She'll probably be counting down the days.

Top 10 Highlights of our Vacation

2008-05-12T21:15:00.007-05:00

Last week we were blessed to be on vacation in beautiful Arizona. Here are our top 10 highlights
10. It was a break from cleaning our house
9. Enjoying the yummy Tucson food (eegee's and Lucky Wishbone)
8. We all attempted to catch the 6 fish in the pond at my parent's house. Attempt is the key word.
7. Ketchup had her hair braided for the first time and has now discovered a new hair-do. In fact she has a hair full of braids tonight, so she can have that crimped look in the morning.
6. Bounce wrestled his little heart out.
5. Riding the quad and learning (or confirming as we already assumed) that Mommy is faster.

4. The kids learned to cross the pond all on their own despite the super cold water. They would tell you they swam across because they paddled their hands as they walked.

3. Bella, our dog, learned to swim and now hates our small fenced in yard compared to 40 acres.

2. Daddy survived a vicious dog attack - we will never name our dog Misty. (Misty might have been small but those super sharp teeth packed a mean bite).

1. Spending a wonderful, relaxing time with family.

Sing it like a singer

2008-04-29T18:32:00.002-05:00

When I get tired of the kid songs, I like to play upbeat Christian music in the van. The kids have a new favorite CD, Addison Road, and they request their favorite songs and are quickly learning the words to sing a long. Bounce asks what every word means. I don't know how he understands each word, but he repeats the word he hears and wants to know what it means. Good thing it's Christian music!
Ketchup is the singer. She sings her little heart out. Then Bounce asked her to sing it like a real singer and that brought out all the serious facial expressions. I think I have American Idol to thank for her serious singer faces. Too bad I don't have a video camera hooked up to the rearview mirror to share these songs.
Here is the band's website if you want to sing along, just remember to sing it like a singer!
http://www.addisonroad.com/home.htm

The Jacket

2008-04-27T18:22:00.002-05:00

It was a little cool this weekend, so being the good mom that I am (or so I thought) I took jackets for the kids to church. Well, by the time we hiked all the way to the van after church, I realized I had forgotten both jackets. My wonderful husband and the kids march all the way back to retrieve them. What seemed like 15 minutes later they return empty-handed. Both jackets were gone. Here's the funny part. Bounce's jacket was new or new to us as is practically everything else we have. I had bought it last Saturday at a children's consignment sale. It was a nice tan Ralph Lauren jacket but I only paid $2 for it. However, I did not write his name in it (note to self - do that next time).
When Bounce's teacher saw the jacket on the counter and saw that it was a Ralph Lauren jacket, she did not assume it was Bounce's because why would a nursery worker's son have such an expensive jacket she thought. So both she and another teacher thought it was Pastor Graham's grandson's jacket because it was Ralph Lauren it had to be his, and since his Grandma picked him up, she didn't know if it was his or not. She probably thought well it's Ralph Lauren it has to be his, too.
So about every hour Bounce wants to know when he'll get his jacket back since he never even wore it. His teacher and I had a good laugh about the "expensive" jacket. We'll have to see if we get it back.

"I Love It!"

2008-04-24T19:10:00.002-05:00

Those were Ketchup's exact words as she went across the monkey bars for the first time today all by herself. Once she had it down, she did it several more times. Who wants to bet she won't be able to lift her arms tomorrow?
So if the showing today doesn't amount to much, at least it gave her time to learn a fantastic new life skill!

Finally - Spiderman!

2008-04-17T13:58:00.004-05:00

We've been renting the Best of the Electric Company on DVD with the hopes that on each disk we would see Spiderman. The kids have been disappointed up until now. Today they finally saw him on disc three - third time is the charm I guess.
Despite not being able to see the superhero, they have enjoyed the shows and have been learning too, so I guess the wait has been well worth it. Despite being an "old" show, it can really hold their attention and I tell myself that it's good for them too.
It's funny to go back and look at shows I watched as a kid. I don't remember the skits, but I remember some of the songs. Bounce asks me after each skit, "did you watch that when you were little?" He is amazed at what we used to do and watch when we were kids. He loves the song "Stop in the name of Love" because that is what his Nana and Tata used to listen to.
The good old days - how f------ un f---- un f--- un f-un fun!

Lesson learned (I hope)

2008-04-13T21:08:00.002-05:00

(this may be a long read, sorry)
So I've kept the house pretty spotless for the few weeks it has been on the market. Everything ahs been pretty much under control. But we have had only one showing so far. Our open house was today, so yesterday I was cleaning even more so things would look extra perfect. I had just started cleaning the ceiling around the airvents. This made a mess as the little white specks of popcorn ceiling fell to the floor below. I knew this would happen so I had even moved the furniture out of the way so it wouldn't get messy. I thought I had it all planned out - under control.
Then the phone rang. I listened to the message stating that we had a showing scheduled from 1:30 - 2:00 pm. I looked at my watch and it was 1:45 pm. Panic mode set in. I was not in control. I started to run out the front door to tell Daddy, who was mowing, that we had people coming over. As I stepped out I saw the realtor's car out in front of the house. I'm sure they could see the look of disgust and panic on my face. Oh well. They came in and saw our house far from the "near perfect" condition that it is described as being in.
After they left I thought about how God knew they were coming. Why didn't He just give me a feeling to wait just 20 minutes before I started? Why didn't He distract me with something else so I wouldn't have had the house looking so out of sorts.
Well, I resorted to press on. I took control again and poured all my energy into cleaning. I was up until midnight and then up at 6am this morning to make things just right.
Then as I drove out of the neighborhood, I noticed a police car parked next to a fence off the main road through our neighborhood. In the biggest yellow letters possible there was a profane word spraypainted on the fence. Our neighborhood has never had graffiti until today. I wanted to cry. I had tried to make everything perfect, but I could not control everything.
Again I began to question God as to why today, why that. I continued driving and the CD in the car continued to play. Then I heard the following words in the song...

Even before there was a drop in the ocean even before there was a star in the sky even before
the world was put in motion You were on Your throne You were on Your throne.

[chorus]
You reign glory in the highest You reign let creation testify by Your name every knee will bow
and every tongue proclaim that Jesus reigns.

And you know that even before I had made such a mess of the house and another "bad guy" made such a mess of that fence - Jesus was seated on His throne. He reigns. He is in control.
I hope I get it now that I'm not in control and can't expect to control everything. In fact in spite of everything, not one single person came to the open house today. But you know what only one single person matters in this whole thing - that is Jesus Christ. He is in control and it is His power that holds everything together (Col. 1:17). That was the subject of our sermon at church last night. So do you think that God is shouting to me or what?
And since He is holding it (everything, the sale of our house, our car, our trip to Guatemala) together, I can stand steadfast and firm, strong in the Lord, not shifting from the HOPE in the Gospel (Col 1:23) (not in the hope of the sale of our house or the hope of a bigger, better house).
I hope that you have hope in the right thing too!

The winner (by a mile) is.... & the return of normalcy

2008-04-09T15:34:00.003-05:00

Good ol' buzz has gone on to greener pastures. Last week Daddy called our insurance agent to add our new car and adjust the insurance since we wouldn't really be keeping Buzz much longer. Well, the receptionist asked a lot of questions about Buzz. To make a long story short, her nephew who has just returned from the war in Iraq needed a car for college. The great news is that he is now driving the car and we were able to help out a young man who fought for our country.

So now we just need to sell the house although it's starting to feel like that will be much more of a marathon. Our open house is this Sunday, so we'll see how that goes. We watched a show last night where no one came to their open house, so we wonder if that was a warning. We'll keep you posted!

Life is getting back to normal. Who knew that a normal routine would be so welcome. We resumed school this week and I've had time to exercise rather than just clean and complete a house project.

I've gotta run now because there is a meltdown occurring in Ketchup's room because Spiderman won't marry Barbie - see we're back to normal!

Bye-bye buzz - hello whitey!

2008-04-04T09:36:00.002-05:00

Well, it was totally a God thing and Daddy now has a nice "new" car to drive. It's a white Camry, super clean and super quiet! I can actually hear Daddy now on his cell when he's driving.
So that means that our little "buzz" has to go; we are not only selling our house but our car as well. We'll have to see which sells first. Maybe they can race each other to the selling line.

Ketchup also had a fantastic soccer game last night. It was her team's most competitive game and it was fun to watch. Ketchup sported a serious game face a couple times when she was determined not to let her opponent beat her to the ball. She scored one of their three goals in a tight 3-2 win. She had fun and we have fun watching her.

Likely story (bad guys part 2)

2008-03-31T09:28:00.002-05:00

Since we've been busy getting the house ready to list, Daddy hasn't had a chance to repair our stylin' car w/ keyless entry and keyless startup. That means I had my first "thief" tutorial this weekend so that I could start the car w/ our handy screwdriver and drive to work Sunday.
I was assured since I was a quick learner (maybe I'm not as innocent as I seem :-)) that I would be fine and have no problems.
Well, I was off and running early Sunday morning. I had even remembered my IPOD since our radio is now a big black hole in the dash. I was jammin to "You are God Alone" singing along that God is on His throne through the good times and bad (good thing because I was just about to get to the bad part) and I stopped at a red light at a major intersection. I was the first car in the center lane and then the engine died. I'm thinking "don't panic," so I pulled out the screwdriver to turn the car off and try to start it up again. That didn't work. I am in the worst place possible so I turn on the hazards and call 911. What seemed like half an hour later (more like a super long 10 min.), I see the wonderful flashing lights behind me. This is maybe the only time I've been glad to see those bright lights in my rearview mirror.
My next dilemma is about to begin as the cop walks up and I have to try to explain why I'm driving a car w/ no ignition and using a screwdriver for a key.
Despite my worry, he was very kind and I must have either looked innocent or too scared to have actually been the "bad guy" and he laughed about my having to drive that way.
Long story short, our little "buzz" is in the shop again and we went to look at a "new to us" car yesterday.

Bad Guys

2008-03-26T21:35:00.002-05:00

Today I answered the phone to hear the words ...."This is 'so and so' with the Dallas Police Department...." Those are never good words to hear. Well, the bad guys struck and broke into Daddy's car at work. They broke the ignition and stole the radio. They drove the car from the first floor of the garage to the sixth floor.
We are ready to get rid of the car anyways, so I wonder why they just didn't take it. Come to think of it the car is so LOUD (Ketchup and I unaffectionately call it Buzz because it sounds like a giant bee), they couldn't have snuck away with it so they gave up.

Daddy just told me that another good thing is that the cd I had just given him for Easter was not in the car because I took it out to put it on Itunes. The other cd's in the car were sermons on the holiness of God. Too bad they didn't take those; they could have used them.

The dreaded words....

2008-03-12T15:38:00.003-05:00

We went at lunch today at McDonalds (our normal Wed. routine), and I asked Ketchup if she played on the playground outside or inside at church. I was not prepared for the words I heard next.
"Me and a boy played boyfriend and girlfriend on the outside playground."
Oh, I can feel the knife in my heart as I type this. Boyfriend & Girlfriend- eeck!
I tried to calmly find out more about this "game" as my mind started racing to her wedding day (ok, I'm exaggerating a little:-)) She said she doesn't remember his name (oh, no!), but can remember what he looks like. He has blond hair and the last time he was there, he wanted to play this game with her. I asked if there were other "girlfriends" and she said she was the only one. She said today she planted flowers for his birthday. I guess that can't be all bad.

If I'm not posting as often (like I did anyway), it's because we're putting our house on the market. We would love to be closer to daddy's work and our church. Less time in the car equals less money on gas and tolls. God willing, we can sell quickly and get back to a normal life. Until then, we have to have a clean and clutterfree house. Needless to say, I'll be busy around the house for a while.

This is a picture of what the kids were doing as I blogged. They're going to hate it when I have to pack up some of their toys. Now they have proof of which ones they might be missing.

Meet our new family members!

2008-03-07T12:03:00.002-06:00

SnowKetchup and SnowBounce. They joined our family yesterday, but have just about melted completely now. We had lots of fun in the snow. We got about 4 inches of really nice thick snow. Winter isn't bad when you just have it for about a day and a half. I can't imagine having to bundle kids up like that every day for a few months.

Snow!

2008-03-06T14:11:00.002-06:00

We were supposed to be studying plants this week in school and take a field trip to the arboretum, but this is Texas. That means that it did not snow one flake all winter long and this week it has snowed twice (each time on soccer practice night - thank you God!). There are big, fluffy flakes falling as I type. So we will be studying the fine art of snowman making tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll have some good pics to share.

A Tale of Two Teams

2008-03-01T14:41:00.002-06:00

Since we have 2 soccer players, the past two Saturdays have been soccer filled. The difference between Ketchup's team and Bounce's team is striking. Ketchup's team is the one scoring all the goals and every player is interested in playing and does a great job. Bounce's team is much younger and is the team being scored on most of the game. The coach is often just looking for a player who isn't crying and who wants to play. Bounce was a "cryer" the first game, but since has improved so much. He is excited to go in and play and actually played a large portion of the game today. We are proud that he didn't quit. He is so much smaller than most of the boys (who are older) that he does well to keep up.
Ketchup had a great game and scored 2 goals. She is very fast (her long legs help a lot) and often breaks away from the rest of the players to score. Today we were proud that she was a great teammate and didn't take the ball away from her teammate as they both ran down the field to score.
It is interesting to experience both sides of the game: the dominating team and the team just trying to play and learn the game. Regardless of the score, they both had smiles at the end of their games and were happy to devour their snacks!

Our museum

2008-02-26T19:39:00.008-06:00

Yesterday Ketchup was drawing on the white board and asked me how she could put her artwork in a museum. She was disappointed when I explained that you have to be asked by the museum, but then I suggested she could make her own museum somewhere in the house. This idea was the hit of the year! Both kids plotted and planned how to organize their museum and what they would put in it.
They never want to sleep together, but last night they wanted to so that they could wake each other up early to open their museum bright and early in the morning. After one hour of talking, I had them go to their own beds to get some rest. Ketchup explained that they were only talking about the museum, so I should have let them stay in the same bed. I told her that if she didn't go to sleep, she wouldn't be able to wake up in the morning to open the museum. Minutes later, both kids were asleep.
I should have gone straight to sleep, too because they were both up bright and early this morning moving their "art" into the room. (By the way, Ketchup kept telling Bounce as he was doing his art that "It's OK to scribble-scrabble because it's just art.")
The big moment finally arrived, and I was invited to be the first guest at the museum. They each had a picture (Bounce-first pic & Ketchup-second), and they had Sandman there to be a sculpture to show what "bones really feel like." This was by far my most memorable trip to a museum. Hope you enjoy the pics.

Our newest soccer player

2008-02-21T10:18:00.003-06:00

The kids are busy playing, so I thought I'd steal a few moments to update our blog. Bounce is now a soccer player too. He is on the Pirates soccer team and he thinks that is pretty cool. He had his first practice on Monday and was tired and eager to stop, but he got a second wind when he got to play "Star Wars" (a soccer drill in disguise). After practice I asked him what his favorite part was and he said it was getting the goodie bag filled w/ candy at the end of practice. That's my boy-the reward at the end is the best part!
He was so tired that whenever he wasn't doing anything, he was the first one to sit on his ball. He's got that skill down really well! The Pirates actually have 2 games this Sat., so we'll see if our little Bounce has enough energy to keep up or not.

Transportation

2008-02-07T10:13:00.000-06:00

Last week we studied transportation, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to take a field trip using public transportation. We took the lite rail to the train to the bus which ultimately took us to the Fort Worth Stock Show. The kids had a lot of fun riding the trains and bus and Mommy and Daddy actually enjoyed relaxing for a while instead of fighting traffic. The relaxing was quickly replaced by a lesson in patience. A trip that normally would have taken a little over an hour took 3 hours. That's right - 3 hours of public transportation and that is just one way. Needless to say we only spent a few hours at the stock show. We still were able to see a baby chick hatching from its egg among numerous other animals.
The kids did have fun and I was sure glad when we finally made it back to our van, put the kids in their reclined seats and drive off on my own schedule as the kids quickly fell asleep. Ahhh-that is relaxation!
Speaking of the van, we were in a car accident yesterday and thank God are all fine. My airbag deployed, so we need to have the van put in the shop. We picked up our rental van last night and as soon as I pulled out of the parking lot, Bounce started saying "Don't bump, don't bump." He was worried I was going to "bump" into another car with our "new van."
All in all we have had several lessons in transportation over the past week and I am glad to be sitting at home not having to use ANY transportation at this moment!

Rainbow Brite

2008-01-31T21:39:00.000-06:00

I can't believe it's been that long since I posted last. Anyways, I think we might have to change Ketchup's name to Rainbow Brite. She thinks that she has to have every color in one outfit. I mainly let her get away with this at home or for bed, but if you ever see us out and wonder what was I thinking letting her dress so ridiculously, well I just couldn't break her little stylin' heart. The other night she was so proud of her purple pants, yellow long sleeve shirt with a pink nightgown on top. She was excited she had so many colors in one outfit.
Tonight she started soccer practice again. I bundled her up and then Bounce and I sat in the van and watched. It was so cold outside, but she said she didn't feel it because she kept all of her clothes on. This time I was the one who dressed her up in countless layers of various rainbow colors, not for style but for warmth. No wonder the poor girl is so confused why mommy lets her wear these rainbow brite outfits one day and not the next.

Thank God!

2008-01-17T15:50:00.000-06:00

Way back in the '80's Amy Grant had this song that I would listen to . I can't even remember what the name is or even the exact wording of the verse, but in the song she sings that she is not aware of how she has been protected while driving. She alludes to God keeping from her a dangerous accident that she had no idea she even avoided.
Today we almost had one of those near accidents. We have been learning about the letter "P" for pillow and reading different bedtime stories, poems, and legends, etc. Our project for the week was to make pillows (the no-sew fleece type). I was sitting on the floor today working on cutting the fleece and just as I brought up my scissors to start cutting another strip, Bounce jumps falls head first on me so that I can hold him. The scissors hit him right in head. He cried out of pain, I wanted to cry out of horror and then when I saw he was OK (I really thought he was stabbed in the eye) , I wanted to cry out of thanksgiving because he barely has a scratch on his forehead.
Less than 2 inches and what a different story it would be. I am so thankful that God already knew what would happen and protected his little eye.
So now whenever I look at his pillow, I will be thankful for God's protection.
btw...I think the song is "Angels watching over me"

The Fat Glove

2008-01-10T22:35:00.000-06:00

We've been studying winter and snow this week although the kids are probably wondering if snow really exists since we hardly ever see any around here. Today we did this cool experiment to illustrate how the layer of fat in arctic animals protects them from the cold. We put shortening in between two zip-lock bags to make a "glove of fat." We then put our hands in the glove and submerged it in ice water. It was incredible how insulated our hands were. Too bad that my "body glove" is not that useful.
Then tonight as I was driving home (and thinking way too much due to forgetting to say decaf on my starbucks order at 8pm) I realized that the verse I wrote down this week to memorize reminded me of the glove. Romans 13:14 says "but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires." I know I am supposed to put on Christ, but I hadn't really thought about that protecting me, but much like that glove, when I am clothed in Him and making no provision for my flesh to take over, then I am protected from getting into some really treacherous sinful situations.
So I now understand polar bears and this verse a lot better. Just thought I'd share.

Reality Check

2008-01-07T10:20:00.001-06:00

Sat. night I had the great opportunity to go to a Christian rock concert with two friends. We had fantastic 2nd row seats and a great time. The band was Leeland if you're interested; they're great. We were probably the only ones in there (besides the band's parents) over the age of 25. We felt pretty cool; we're hip for our age right?
The reality check came Sunday night as I was pulling coupons out of the newspapers. I was so excited that there were 6 coupon inserts in this weeks paper and then I had 4 papers. That is a lot of coupons. Then I started to think that I must be so NOT COOL to be this excited about coupons. Oh well.
If you are interested in starting to use coupons, this week's paper is a great starting point. I also recommend the Grocery Game because it makes it so easy to do.
At least this uncool mom will be saving us some serious money (free peanut butter and soap)!

New Year's End Shout Out

2007-12-31T12:56:00.000-06:00

We received a thank-you call from a ministry that we support today. It was a blessing to hear of how God is working through this ministry. It reminded me of all that God has done for me and my family this year, so I thought I would just give a shout-out to God for His goodness and mercy in 2007.

What I'm thankful for:

both Ketchup and Bounce learned how to snap their fingers (he did just today!)
my "new" ipod that helps me clean, dance and sing praise all at the same time
our new floors in the house that look fantastic
the freedom to homeschool and so many fantastic resources available to do so
family and friends who make life fun and help make burdens lighter
a wonderful husband who can "fix anything" and fixed our floors along with being a fantastic daddy.
two precious children who bring so much joy to our family
our country and the soldiers and leaders who protect our freedom
a wonderful God who is always acting to accomplish His good, pleasing and perfect will even if I do not understand why or how (Is. 55:8-9)

Happy New Year!!

Newest Christmas Carol

2007-12-22T15:32:00.000-06:00

We've been singing Christmas Carols at bedtime and last night we sang "O Come all ye Faithful." As we were walking off to bed, Bounce continued to sing. His song, however, was a little different...."O come muddy faithful...."
The kids are becoming very excited for Christmas. I think we've answered about 1,000 different questions about Santa. They are concerned because we now have our dog Bella and they don't want Santa to be scared of her and leave. They also don't want Santa to leave because Nana & Tata will be staying with us on Christmas Eve. Bounce has decided that he is now 3 years old and is brave enough to see Santa, although he begins to panic everytime he hears sirens (he thinks Santa is coming around again on top of the firetruck).
Hope your Christmas is as fun-filled as ours!

World Record

2007-12-13T21:17:00.000-06:00

Bounce set a world record tonight for a 3 year old in the 25 yard dash.

Every year our town has Santa ride through the neighborhoods on top of a fire truck. He passes out candy to the kids who come out of their homes to greet him. These would be normal kids. Our children are not normal. Bounce found out Santa was coming and ran at world record speed. At first I thought he was running to the front door with excitement, but then Bounce turned the corner. He was running to the back of the house out of fear. We found him hiding under the covers in our bed. Both kids were crying that they didn't want to see Santa. They said they still wanted presents, but they do NOT want to see him. At least this saves us from waiting for an hour in line for a picture with Mr. C.

A good reminder

2007-12-13T16:21:00.000-06:00

I often have to remind Ketchup not to whine or complain, but I often fail to remind myself. My grandmother sent me this e-mail and I thought it was a good reminder at this time of year. I could have used while I was waiting in line for 20 min. the other day at the store.

Letter from Jesus about Christmas --

Dear Children,

It has come to my attention that many of you are upset that folks are
taking My name out of the season. Maybe you've forgotten that I wasn't
actually born during this time of the year and that it was some of your
predecessors who decided to celebrate My birthday on what was actually a
time of pagan festival. Although I do appreciate being remembered anytime.

How I personally feel about this celebration can probably be most easily
understood by those of you who have been blessed with children of your
own. I don't care what you call the day. If you want to celebrate My
birth, just GET ALONG AND LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

Now, having said that let Me go on. If it bothers you that the town in
which you live doesn't allow a scene depicting My birth, then just get
rid of a couple of Santas and snowmen and put in a small Nativity scene
on your own front lawn. If all My followers did that there wouldn't be
any need for such a scene on the town square because there would be many
of them all around town.

Stop worrying about the fact that people are calling the tree a holiday
tree, instead of a Christmas tree. It was I who made all trees. You can
remember Me anytime you see any tree. Decorate a grape vine if you wish:
I actually spoke of that one in a teaching, explaining who I am in
relation to you and what each of our tasks were. If you have forgotten
that one, look up John 15: 1 - 8.

If you want to give Me a present in remembrance of My birth here is my
wish list. Choose something from it:

1. Instead of writing protest letters objecting to the way My birthday
is being celebrated, write letters of love and hope to soldiers away
from home. They are terribly afraid and lonely this time of year. I
know, they tell Me all the time.

2. Visit someone in a nursing home. You don't have to know them
personally. They just need to know that someone cares about them.

3. Instead of writing George complaining about the wording on the cards
his staff sent out this year, why don't you write and tell him that
you'll be praying for him and his family this year. Then follow up. It
will be nice hearing from you again.

4. Instead of giving your children a lot of gifts you can't afford and
they don't need, spend time with them. Tell them the story of My birth,
and why I came to live with you down here. Hold them in your arms and
remind them that I love them.

5. Pick someone that has hurt you in the past and forgive him or her.

6. Did you know that someone in your town will attempt to take their own
life this season because they feel so alone and hopeless? Since you
don't know who that person is, try giving everyone you meet a warm
smile; it could make the difference.

7. Instead of nit picking about what the retailer in your town calls the
holiday, be patient with the people who work there. Give them a warm
smile and a kind word. Even if they aren't allowed to wish you a "Merry
Christmas" that doesn't keep you from wishing them one. Then stop
shopping there on Sunday. If the store didn't make so much money on that
day they'd close and let their employees spend the day at home with
their families

8. If you really want to make a difference, support a missionary--
especially one who takes My love and Good News to those who have never
heard My name.

9. Here's a good one. There are individuals and whole families in your
town who not only will have no "Christmas" tree, but neither will they
have any presents to give or receive. If you don't know them, buy some
food and a few gifts and give them to the Salvation Army or some other
charity which believes in Me and they will make the delivery for you.

10. Finally, if you want to make a statement about your belief in and
loyalty to Me, then behave like a Christian. Don't do things in secret
that you wouldn't do in My presence. Let people know by your actions
that you are one of mine.

Don't forget; I am God and can take care of Myself. Just love Me and do
what I have told you to do. I'll take care of all the rest. Check out
the list above and get to work; time is short. I'll help you, but the
ball is now in your court.

And do have a most blessed Christmas with all those whom you love and
remember: I LOVE YOU,

JESUS

Christmas Happenings

2007-12-07T15:48:00.000-06:00

We are finally decorated for Christmas with a clean house and new floors!! It is a beautiful day today, more like September than December.
One of my favorite things about Christmas at our house is listening to the kids as they play with the nativity set. To recount all the silly little things they say would fill pages, but it is cute to hear them discuss whether or not it is OK for Joseph to be the bad guy. Yesterday, Ketchup was playing by herself and it sounded more like a sermon than play as she kept telling all the characters that they were supposed to "worship the Lord." I'll probably share more quotes in the days to come.
Today, Bounce came running into my room yelling "Mommy, look at all the stickers I have on me." Well, my back was turned to him and I excitedly agreed until I turned around and saw that his "stickers" were our Christmas card stamps. I tried to salvage them as best I could, but if you get a card from us that has the stamp taped on, you will understand why :-)

Halfway There and New Feet

2007-11-29T08:50:00.001-06:00

I apologize for the delay in posting. It has been a little crazy here since before Thanksgiving and I'm trying to catch up on things this week and I'm only halfway done. I've done the laundry but only halfway as it still sits in baskets waiting to be put away. Only half the house is clean as I am having to REALLY clean up from all the dust our flooring project has created. Finally, only half of the Christmas tree is decorated (this is priority number one on the kids to do list). I think I've lost half of my brain in the middle of all this mess. Soon (hopefully by Sunday) our house will return to normal mode as Daddy only has to finish the floor in the last half of the family room and then we're done!!
One quick funny story. While we were visiting Daddy's side of the family at Thanksgiving, Ketchup had a birthday and is now five. I asked her the day before her birthday if she thought she would look different the next day (like a five year old rather than a four year old) because of the remark she made about her brother still looking like a two year old. She said she would look different. So the next morning she woke up and came right over to me instead of the mirror. She asked me to measure her feet to see if they were big five year old feet now. Well, what do you know they had grown overnight, and she had new five year old feet to go with the big five year old girl!

Naptime Psychology

2007-11-15T22:53:00.000-06:00

The good days of daily naptime have left our family. We now have an hour of rest time every day in which the kids have to stay in their rooms and read (20 min), play by themselves (20 min) and then play with each other (20 min). This seems to work well enough most days, but then there are those times when a nap is necessary. In order to get them to both sleep we have to all lay down together in mommy and daddy's bed so I can keep them both contained and increasingly quiet so that they will actually fall asleep.
Yesterday was one of those days. As I struggled with them to get them to go to sleep, I noticed that there are several stages they go through before the precious quietness of sleep reigns in our house. I thought I'd share:
Stage 1 - Bargaining - I have already given the countdown to taking a nap and yet they still try to negotiate for more time. "Just one more minute (translation-maybe if we keep playing she'll forget about the nap)." Didn't work, so we move on to the next phase.
Stage 2 - Denial - I'm sure if you were outside our house yesterday, this stage would have been very evident by the screams and cries of "NOOOOO" coming from both kids. I don't know why they think this will change my mind; it just convinces me even more how tired they are.
Stage 3 - Bargaining part 2 - They try to convince me that they are dying of thirst or hunger and if they could just get a drink or a snack then they will go to sleep. I also thought about calling this the guilt trip phase because they act like I'm torturing them by not letting them get that life-sustaining drink that they didn't need just 10 minutes ago. Then again maybe they are thirsty from all that screaming, but they still had to wait.
Stage 4 - Blameshifting - This is Ketchup's area of expertise. She will lay really still for a while as her brother sings and moves around and then she will sit up and blame him for waking her up. She thinks that I'll fall for it and let her get up since she supposedly already took a nap.
Stage 5 - Physical Resistance - Both kids will do anything to keep themselves awake. They might kick their legs up and down or wiggle their fingers in some type of repetitive way. This is the stage I look forward to because I know that soon after those crazy leg kicks or finger games that we will finally reach the all important Stage 6....

Sleep! Finally it is still and quiet.
I guess I forgot that there is usually a stage 7 where mommy tries as quietly and slowly as possible to get out of the bed without waking them up so that I can enjoy these few precious moments.