Attempt to Return

***** Edited to add - I cannot, for the life of me, get blogger to post my pictures at the end of my post.  Because I am a bit obsessive compulsive, I cannot bring myself to post this with the pictures at the beginning.  They will follow in a later post.  :)  *****  

Well, I am making another attempt to rejoin the blogging world.  I, clearly, have been out for a while.  I have had many moments that I have wanted to post about, but before I am able to, something else happens and I don't want to write about it yet because I still haven't written about the first thing, and so on and so on until months have passed and I find myself here with a much out-dated blog!  So instead of trying to recap all that I've missed, I'm starting with a clean slate - only with what is currently on my mind.

We recently took a trip with the girls.  They knew we were going to go see my sister and grandparents in Napa, California.  But what they didn't know was that we were taking them to Disneyland for 3 days first.  In fact, they did not know that we were going there until about 10 minutes before the shuttle picked us up from the hotel.  To say they were excited would be a complete understatement!  

After three action-packed days in Disneyland, we headed north up to Napa where we got to see my sister and grandparents.  David and I got to do a little wine tasting, which was fun, and my sister treated the girls and I to a delicious lunch at the Neiman Marcus Cafe in San Fransisco (or An Frascisco, as Anna calls it!)  The girls got to see their "California friend" as well.  

After Napa, we completed our little tour of the west with a trip to the Grand Canyon.  I've grown up going there for family vacations and I have to admit - I had totally taken it for granted.  It is amazing.  We truly have a creative God.  In fact, Abigail told me that she was glad God was God and not her, because she would not have thought of making something so beautiful.  The girls were quite the little troopers - we hiked about a fourth of the way down, and of course, back up.  They made it all the way on their own, except for Abigail, who was carried only the last 10 steps.  She had had her limit!

After each trip, David has started making a simple bullet point list of our favorite memories from the trip to help us remember things we might otherwise forget.  We asked the girls to help out with the list this year, and while many of these won't make sense to you all, they are all special to us, so for that reason, I'm including it here:

Day 1

-Cinnamon Peanut Butter

-El Taco Tote

-messy back seat burritos

Tucson

-bad sushi

-Man Vs. Wild

On the way to L.A.

-Joshua Tree National Park

-Anna & Mommy beat Abigail & Daddy

-saw no Joshua trees

Disneyland & California Adventure

-"Errands" become Disneyland

-First ride was Dumbo

-Anna's faves:  "Winnie and the Pooh" and Dumbo

-Abigail's faves:  Thunder Mountain and the Rapids ride at California Adventure

-Churros!!

-Lunch at the Pirates of the Caribbean restaurant (not at all scary, or like the movie!)

-Princess dinner

-Interactive Toy Story rides

-Pouring down rain (on Thunder Mountain!)

-Daddy never got to see Tom Sawyer's Island 

-Mommy didn't get to ride the Matterhorn (dad gum that rain!)

-One of everyone's faves was Peter Pan

Drive to Napa

-Stopped at Hearst Castle

-Fascinating!

-Playing in the ocean at sunset (Brrrr!)

-Pasos Robles

-Slow laundry night (bad drier!)

-"Pizza Magetcha"

Napa

-Saw Aunt Amanda

-Saw Grandma & Grandpa Whitney

-Went to Stenson Beach

-Winding roads & car sick girls

-Sand castles

-Anna asking the surfer if he was sky diving

-Anna said of the surfer's (long haired, male) friend, "Look, mom.  That girl went surfing too!"

-Anna speaks "whinese"

-Wine tasting

-Hanging out with John and Claire

-Nieman Marcus Cafe - girls had bad cheeseburgers, but yummy chocolate fondu

-Sea Lions at Pier 39

-Our bare bones room at the Napa Valley Veteran's home hotel, where the heater was about 2 feet from one of the beds

-Abigail's dream about being in a room where all the walls were heaters

-Riding in Amanda's convertible

Long drive to Flagstaff

-Almost running out of gas in the Mojave Desert

Flagstaff

-Cold Stone Creamery, Thai food

-"tubey" scarf

-Grand Canyon hiking

-Popcorn and apples

-David got a little competitive the last 5 minutes (not wanting the people behind us to catch up and pass us) so pushed the girls a little more than they could handle!

General

-Out of the way Trader Joe's

-"Shcottie Dawgs"

-mouth pointing

-16 hours in the car

-Ami's faves CD

-Shuggie Otis on the dash

If there is anyone still reading (and I don't blame anyone who is not, that list was really for us, so therefore, boring to anyone who was not there!) here are some pictures:

Random

I realize I have not posted in quite a while, so as not to disappoint my few faithful readers, I offer an explanation.  My camera battery charger is lost and I have not wanted to blog without pictures!  Because the afore mentioned charger seems to have no plans of showing up anytime soon, I thought I'd share a little bit of what we've been up to around here anyway.

One short week after my previous post, we started school.  I think this just may be our best year yet.  We have bee reading more than ever and I have been encouraged to spend lots more time outside - on nature walks and just plain playing.  Until lately, these nature walks have been something I knew I should do, but did not have the drive to actually do.  Now these walks (though not as frequent yet as I'd like) are quickly becoming my favorite part of the week. I love to see how free the girls are, to run and play, and to discover the wonder of God's creation.  Bugs, leaves, trees, flowers are all of a sudden exciting to them and I love to see the joy in the girls' faces as they discover new things!

Abigail got baptized on September 20th.  She had wanted to be baptized for some time, and after a talk with Pastor Jim, she knew what it meant ant that she was ready.  She learned that being baptized is like a funeral and a birthday. A funeral for her old man, and a birthday for her new man in Christ.

We went with David's mom and her husband to see The Promise in Glenrose.  If you can get past a few cheesy songs (think Gather) it is absolutely wonderful!  I was very impressed with how well done the play was, and both of my girls were mesmerized.  Anna, in particular, was struck by the play.  During intermission she and I were talking about all that had happened so far and she mentioned that she wanted to be just like Jesus and to not be "tricked" by the devil.  Then she said, "Let's pray, Mom."  I said okay and started to pray.  She quickly interrupted me and said, "No, Mom.  I want to pray."  With her hands clasped and eyes closed, she prayed, "Dear Lord.  Pleas let me and Mommy be like you.  Except we can't make stuff.  Amen."  (Meaning, we cannot create the world, etc.)  It was very hard for me not to laugh out loud!  I'm not quite sure the retelling here does this justice, but in the moment, it was pretty funny!

Another silly thing Anna said recently comes to mind.  We has shown the girls a world map, with the 10-40 window highlighted.  David as telling the girls that we were going to start praying for the countries in this window each night.  The next day as we were driving, Anna said that she knows the end of the world.  I asked her where.  She said the end of the world was Japan (as it appeared to be on the map from the night before).  I explained to her that the Lord made the world round, but that people had drawn it smaller, and flat, so that we could see all of it better.  She thought for a minute and said, "OH, I get it.  People only draw small circles, but God draws really big ones."  I love the way her little mind works!

The last thing that comes to mind for this very random post of mine happened today.  The girls and I have been reading about the impressionists, in light of the exhibit at the Kimbell Art Museum.  Today, after running a couple of "boring" errands, I told them that I had a surprise.  We were going to the Kimbell to see the actual paintings that we, until now, had only seen in books.  Even Anna was completely in awe of the art that surrounded her and thoroughly enjoyed listening to her recorded tour.  But I think my favorite moment of the day was when we walked around a corner and Abigail saw to her right "Rainy Day in Paris" and Van Gogh's "Room at Arles" straight ahead.  Her face completely lit up and she could not, for the life of her, decide which one she wanted to see first!  The girls loved every minute we were there and were disappointed when we came to the end.  (And in case anyone is wondering, she chose "Room at Arles" first!)

That concludes this hodge-podge of a post.  Hopefully my next one will not only come in a more timely manner, but will also include pictures and be slightly more organized!!

Oh, one last thing.  Gene Stratton-Porter is my current favorite fictional author.  I'm on my third book of hers and can't wait to start my next!

Unexpected Summer

I had huge aspirations to continue to homeschool throughout the summer, with a lighter load of course, but to continue nonetheless.  One thing led to another, and somehow, three months later we haven't had school once.  While I was briefly tempted to be hard on myself about this, I got over it pretty quickly as I realized how the Lord has used our break to give me a fresh excitement for our new school year.

As far as the girls are concerned, we spent the summer playing, swimming almost every day, reading tons of books, getting together with friends, baking (and making lots of messes in the process)...   But behind the scenes I have been planning our curriculum and searching out the best deals on all the books we'll use this year - which are many.  I have frequented Half Price Books, The Book Cover, amazon, and ebay more than ever this summer - and have full bookshelves to prove it!  While I am certainly a big fan of the public library, there is just something about owning a plethora of books, not just any books, but wonderful, well-written books that you have searched for, to have available at anytime for your children.  (And for yourself as well - I've picked up a couple of classics this summer that I somehow missed in school and have loved them!)

Every time I walk into our school room and see the overflowing of books, I get giddy with the anticipation of beginning school again.  But for just one more "unofficial" week of summer, I plan to live it up!

Stepping Out

About a month ago, I stepped way out of my comfort zone and let David talk me into going camping for the first time.  My only other attempt at camping was when I was, I think, 14 and my dad had just bought some property in Colorado. At some point while he was pitching the tent, I believe the word "bears" was mentioned and I decided that I would not be joining them in the tent that night.  While my dad, little brother, and sister slept in the tent, my mom, other little sister, and I all opted to sleep in the van (which my dad for some reason had parked on a rather steep incline!)  After a very uncomfortable night, I determined that camping was not my thing.

Camping is, however, David's thing. I don't just mean drive up in your camper and call it camping.  If you don't hike in a few miles carrying nothing but your tent, sleeping bag, water, some freeze-dried food, and one change of clothes, then as far as David is concerned, it's not camping.   After convincing him that yes, a toilet is necessary, and no, the girls cannot hike in 2 miles, we were able to find a campsite that (I thought) would suit us well.  Beautiful Buena Vista, Colorado and only about 10 feet from the river.  David failed to mention that there would be no running water.  (A completely honest mistake, I'm sure!)  It's a good thing I had packed plenty of baby wipes and anti-bacterial gel, or this germ-a-phobe would not have lasted long!

It was really fun to see David truly in his element.  In an attempt to make things easier for me, he insisted on taking charge of our meals.  He made sure to stock up on his organic, "gourmet", freeze-dried food.  Perhaps if you'd been hiking all day and were in the middle of nowhere, freeze-dried frittata might actually taste good.  I hated to squash his love of Mary Jane, but I think that next time I'll be in charge of food!

One of my favorite moments while we were camping was on our first day.  We had just gotten the tent up and rigged up a rather poor rain fly for it using a too-small tarp, when it started to rain.  We were all hungry and the girls' low blood sugar in combination with being cooped up in a tent was not making for a very fun time.  David prayed,not for the rain to stop, but just that the Lord would "make it work".  The rain did not stop, and I wondered why he hadn't prayed for it to.  In faith, he just stepped out in the rain to make dinner, and it stopped!  Every afternoon it got pretty cloudy, and although we did get a drizzle or two, it never really came down or interrupted our activities!  (Which was great because I really don't think that the tarp we tied to the top of the tent would have done much good!)  We had a blast doing a little hiking, swimming in the hot springs, visiting a ghost town, and just being with each other.

Another highlight for me was watching the girls.  They loved every moment!  (Although if you ask Anna, because she is Anna and loves to answer to the contrary, she will tell you she did not have fun.)  There is something about kids being outside without the distractions of toys, t.v.s, or even books, that brings out such creativity.  They made up games, "decorated" our campsite with "nature" they found, collected leaves, looked for wildlife, played lots of go fish...  Despite my own discomforts, seeing the girls' joy made it all worthwhile!  (Yes, even the fact that the only way to shower was in a laundromat 10 minutes away where you had to pay $2.00 for 5 minutes.  Even that was worth it!)

Things that make me happy...

The way it smells outside after it rains

Silly giggles from the backseat

Hot tea in the morning in my teapot we got in China

That David is finished with school

Cookouts and swim parties with friends

A good book

The fact that I still haven't killed the flowers I bought in April

The joy in Abigail's face as she sings her cheesy VBS songs

Knowing that the Lord is working on me...however slow I may be to listen and learn

A fun girls' night out (any takers??)

Anna's full-blown (and contagious!) belly laugh

The ocean

The cardinals who come to our bird feeders

Having David as our leader and provider

Homeschooling our girls, and learning new things right along with them

Being called "Mommy"

safe landing

In celebration of our afore mentioned anniversary, and as a reward for putting up with (I mean, so graciously and lovingly enduring) David's last 2 years of school, he blessed me with a wonderful trip to Hawaii. We opted to visit the more laid back island, Kauai. Can I just say that I think it should be required by law for every married couple to visit Kauai every year? We had so much fun!


Thanks to the five hour time difference, we were up every morning before seven (we are not at all morning people.) My favorite morning by far was when we woke up at 5:30 and walked down to the beach to watch the sunrise. My first sun rise ever and it will definitely be hard to top. We spent the next week taking amazing hikes - our favorite being to a beautiful, secluded (except for all the other people who apparently had the same guide book) beach. We found what we thought was the perfect beach - Hanalei Bay. (Until we found an even better one on our last day.) We stumbled upon a random sidewalk restaurant and were hooked - we ate there at least once a day from the time we found it. And right next door was our favorite breakfast spot - a very tasty vegan juice/smoothie bar and bakery. We had a very relaxing massage and I even talked David into taking a Bikram (hot) yoga class with me. (Never in our lives have we sweat so much - 90 minutes of yoga in a 90 degree room - and we were pleasantly surprised by the lack of "new-ageness" of it all.)



And to top it all off, we had absolutely no worries about our girls. A very generous friend kept them all week and refused payment. They came home with stories of water gun fights, going to Braum's in their pajamas, fun circle time (where they learned a new song I think I've probably heard about 50 times today already!), lots of outside playtime, and Abigail's favorite: band time. My friend's husband is a gifted guitar player and singer, and they all had music time together where he led with the guitar and all the kids picked an instrument with which to play along. It has been reported that Anna has a gift of drum playing - I would never have guessed that! And Abigail has no rhythm at all, except her own (no surprises there folks, she is after all David's daughter!)



After 6 full days away, we were more than ready to come home to our girls. Tuesday was our last day in Kauai and our flight didn't take off until 9:00 p.m. We took our favorite hike one last time, discovered what would have been our favorite beach (as we left, we heard people saying that they had just seen turtles, an eel, and many other amazing fish), showered and headed to the airport. We slept pretty much the entire, uneventful flight to L.A. From there we caught our final flight to DFW. Let me just tell you that the Lord has some work to do in me. When we go hiking (in Colorado and such) I am terrified the entire time of bears and mountain lions. When we go snorkeling, I am constantly keeping an eye out for sharks. When we are out in the back yard and anything buzzes in my ear, I am outta there for fear of wasps or bees. I am ashamed to say I have quite a spirit of fear.



It is probably not surprising then that I have never been a very good flyer. I've almost cut David's circulation off more than once as we land and take off. This time was different. I had plenty of good books to preoccupy myself with and was sleepy enough to not really waste any energy being afraid of what I knew was statistically unlikely.



As we were just about to land, early if you can believe that, the pilot all of a sudden starts heading back up again. As he circles around for what feels like the zillionth time, he comes on the overhead and says, "Folks, we're having some flap trouble. Don't worry, we do have flaps to land with and our landing should be normal. The only difference will be that there will be some emergency vehicles waiting for us when we land." Say what? Flap trouble? Should be normal? Emergency vehicles? Not exactly music to my ears.



I immediately began to go into panic mode and my mind was racing with several worst case scenarios. (I have no idea where my girls learned to be so dramatic!) I sensed an uneasiness in David as well, which didn't help my own fear. He pulled out his Bible and started to read. Then all of a sudden I remembered I was a Christian too! I stopped worrying and started praying. I don't really remember specifically what I prayed, but God was good and we had a rather bumpy, but safe, landing. (Emergency vehicles and all!)



While it was certainly an awkward ending to an otherwise perfect trip, it served to David and I as a good reminder of how temporary this life is and what a gift we have in each and every day. I feel like the Lord has been trying for some time to teach me to relax and enjoy all the "little" moments of life. While I am still certainly a work in progress (in so many more ways than just this!), I feel like I'm sort of starting to get it! I've been so blessed by the seemingly mundane and small moments lately - may you enjoy yours as well!

9 years ago...

I married David! It is so hard to believe that our humble, little wedding was 9 years ago today. I look back at how young we were (and even still are!) and think we must have been crazy! We were both so idealistic and full of unrealistic expectations. In my mind, we were going to have lovely dinners together every night (which were to be prepared together, as we were both working) while we shared our every thought from the day, we were going to spend every waking minute together, and of course, we were never going to fight.

Let's just say that first year of marraige was a little hairy. Our arguments ranged from Justin's boat to frisbee golf to twix bars and budgets to contacts and everything in between. Yet as I look back, I wouldn't change a thing. It has been such a joy to "grow up" with my very best friend. I'm so thankful that when I, at 16 years old and very naive, told him I could see us getting married, he didn't go running like most 18 year old guys would have done. (And what were my parents thinking letting me date an 18 year old, anyway?) I love that after we'd been dating for only a few months how he prayed that the Lord would let me one day be his wife. (A prayer I didn't know about until years later.)

While we still have our share of petty little arguments, there is no doubt in my mind that I am loved unconditionally by this man. I am so thankful to be under his shower of prayers and while I may not always know it at the time, I always welcome his spiritual guidance - he is truely a man after God's own heart.

It's also been fun to see David become a Daddy. As an only child, he had pretty much no experience (or interest for that matter) with babies and young children. I look back to the day Abigail was born and remember the akwardness with which he changed her first diaper. By the time Anna came, he had much more confidence. As the years have passed, he has become even more hands-on. The three of them even took their very first, highly anticipated, camping trip a couple of months ago and the girls are already planning the next one. Those three share a world of silliness that I at times cannot understand. (And that is just fine with me!)

Even with my rather unrealistic expectations for our marraige, I can honestly say that David has far exceeded them all - in ways I never imagined. I thought I knew what I wanted, but the Lord knew better. So David, thank you for 9 wonderful, fruitful, supportive, loving, happy (and let's not forget flesh-killing!) years. I look forward to many more!

(For the record, blogger is listing this post as being published on May 6th. Not too sure why. I published it on May 22, our actual anniversary.)