All you need is love...

Traditions... TRADITIONS!

2011-12-10T11:23:00.001-08:00

I have no business taking time out of my busy head elf schedule to be writing a blog right now but my heart is so full at the moment that I feel it important to document this feeling, even if only for my kids to one day read and recall the memories. This morning I made Christmas sugar cookies with my girls. A tradition that I remember doing with my Mom for as long as I can remember. We use this recipe that is called Sue's Sugar cookies. Now, I have no idea who Sue is but thank God for her cookies. They are the best sugar cookies I have ever had. I will not even eat any others. I think the secret is there is sour cream and nutmeg in the dough which makes them super soft and smell amazing. Just the aroma of those cookies flooding my kitchen brings back so many warm and fuzzy memories of Christmas' past. This morning my girls helped roll out the dough and cut the shapes and then frost them. Peyton was actually a big help this year and she decorated them really cute (like I can actually give them away to people and not be embarrased) Amber...well she is only two...I think she spent all morning decorating one cookie but managed to put every frosting color and sprinkle that we had on top making a large mond that made it unable to even see what the cookie on the bottom was in the first place. but she was so proud of her cookie it didn't matter. Once the cookies are all baked and decorated we will pass them out to our neighbors, a tradition that I remember doing with my family as a kid and we have now done each year with our own kids. Peyton blessed me so much a few weeks ago when I was getting out some of her old clothes that she grew out of for Amber to start wearing. We came across a pair of princess sneakers that light up when you walk. Peyton's faced lit up and she excitedly explained "Amber! These are the shoes I wore one Christmas when we were passing out christmas cookies to our neighbors." How on earth did she connect those two, I will never know but the important thing is that it stuck with her and we made a memory from an old tradition. In case you haven't guessed it I am a huge advicate for traditions, for several reasons, but the most important one is that I believe they bind a family together in such away that is unique and special to only your family. Not only that, traditions benefit kids in so many ways, making them feel like they belong and are apart of something bigger then themselves. I believe that it imprints a marker on their hearts of a memory that hopefully they will cherish forever, even if it is just a pair of princess light up shoes that carried cookies to the nieghbors. :) What are some of your favorite family traditions???

I miss NANA!

2011-10-20T08:27:00.000-07:00

After a long couple weeks of go go go fun fun fun with my mom being here while Brandon is away. I was really looking forward to my bed. I put the girls to bed and fell right to sleep the moment my head met the pillow. Around 3am I was awaken to the sound of a small wimper that quickly continued to get louder until it turned into a full blown cry. I rushed into the girls room and flew open the door to find Peyton sitting up in her bunk bed sobbing. I noticed Amber was awake too. My first few thoughts were... she had a bad dream... she is feeling sick... she is scared...I ran over to her and asked "Peyton, what is wrong?" with a sniff sniff she burst into tears again and cried "I MISS NANA!"
After a trip to the bathroom, a cup of water, a few hugs and reassurance that we would see Nana again soon she went back to bed. As I headed back to my own bed, slightly annoyed at being woken up at 3 am and upset that Amber was now awake, I could not help but smile and send up a quick prayer thanking God for the special relationship Peyton has with my mom and for the fact that she has the ability to love so deeply and completly.

Baby girl names...Help!

2011-09-25T20:27:00.000-07:00

Brandon and I finally had a chance to sit down and talk about baby names tonight. I have to say having to name three girls is HARD! We have some wonderful boy names picked out, but alas, here we are once again having to come up with a girl name. We have narrowed our choices down to three and litterally can not choose between them. We asked both Peyton and Amber today which one they liked best and everytime we asked them they had a different answer, so they were not much help. So I decided to go ahead and take a poll here on my blog. Not that the winning name will necessarly be the one we choose but maybe it will give us some perspective. I also like the idea of waiting until we meet her to give her a name so most likely that is what we will do, but in the mean time we would like your input! :) So here are the three choices!
PAIGE
HOLLY
EDEN
What do you think?

Girl #3 - My poor husband

2011-09-23T14:56:00.000-07:00

We just found out yesterday that baby girl #3 is on her way. We took the kids to the ultra sound appointment which was really fun. Their little faces lit up when they saw the image of the baby on the screen for the first time. They sat there in awe of the whole thing. Amber kept her little hand on my arm and every once in awhile she would whisper "I love you, mommy." Truly a family moment I will never forget. When it came to the part of investigating wither we were looking at a baby girl or a baby boy the nurse finally declared "Its another girl!" and Peyton slapped her forehead and said "Oh No!" We left the appointment, Amber holding the new pictures of our baby girl and shouting down the hall "That's my baby!" to everyone we passed, as we all giggled at her cuteness, I could not help but notice the disappointment written all over my husbands face. We both knew this was our last shot at a boy. There will be no more babies for us and I know he was really hoping for a son. I spent the rest of the day trying to talk about it with him trying to say all the right things like, "God knows what He is doing", "Maybe we wouldn't be good at raising a boy?", "Your girls can still play sports and watch football with you" But he mostly just remained quiet and I could see he just needed some time to process, So I left him alone.
Early this morning, we woke up to the sound of little girls giggling and chatting, much like we do every morning. Neither one of us wanted to get out of bed, so we laid their waiting to see which one would get up first. Finally my husband broke the silence between us by saying:
"I guess I should get up with them before they get into something they shouldn't"
and then the moment came...the one I had been waiting for all day the day before...my husband began to vent:
"Its rough getting up with them because I know the moment I get out there they are going to want a drink, and then they are going to fight over who gets the princess cup, and then they are going to want breakfast and they are going to fight over who gets the pink plate and now we are Going TO Have Another Girl and We are Going to have to Buy more PINK STUFF!!!"
I thought he was finished and I was about to interject my thoughts about maybe this time buying purple or yellow when he continued:
"And they just talk so much....they never stop talking...I noticed that when Micah comes over (a friends son that we watch one day a week) He just makes sounds for everything but he doesn't talk very much, and its not That He Can't Talk Its Just that he Doesn't HAVE TOO!!!! "
I figured he was finished this time because he threw the covers over his head as if to hide from all the progesterone in his home. I couldn't help but smile at his sudden outburst.
We talked for a little while longer and decided that more then likely this new little baby was going to be completely different then the two we've got, and who knows maybe she won't even like pink. If there is anything about parenting that we both have learned in the last five years it's that you never know what you are going to get and we need to be prepared to face a whole new set of enjoyment and challenges with this new child. I think the thought of meeting this new little one got us very excited and so my husband bravely hopped out of bed to get the girls breakfast.
The rest of the morning went on as usual until I heard some strange conversations between Brandon and the girls in their bedroom as they were getting dress. I walked in to see if he needed any help picking out outfits and doing hair, like I do every morning, but to my surprise I walked into the girls dressed in the cutest outfits and Brandon brushing Peyton's hair and Amber's hair was already in two little pig tails with pink bows to match. My husband has never (and I mean never) attempted to do the girls hair and I have to say he did a pretty good job. I can't tell you how much this blessed me. Not unlike my husband, I could tell that he had contemplated his circumstances and decided to go ahead and dive right in and be the best he could be. I just love him so much!
So here's to a house full of happy, giggly, chatty and most of all loved little girls, and my promise that one day we will get a boy dog for my husband to confide in! :)

Hyperemesis Gravidarum

2011-07-06T15:53:00.000-07:00

Hypermesis Gravidarum (HG) is a fancy medical term for "pregnant lady can not stop throwing up!" Apparently it is a pretty rare condition, only 2% of pregnant women experience it so I guess I am one of the lucky ones. Ha Ha. I understand this blog is going to be mostly boring to the outside world but I figured I could at least document my experience for my children to read someday since research shows that HG can be hereditary. So read at your own risk. :)

Not much is know about HG in fact most doctors don't understand it and or even dismiss it as common morning sickness but it is anything but common morning sickness. If you have had morning sickness that other people can relate to and give you tips on how to manage than you don't have HG because if you have HG you will know that eating a few crackers or small frequent meals does not help at all and can even make the problem worse. I am at the point now that if one more person tells me to eat a few crackers before I get out of bed in the morning I can no longer give you a smile and thank you for your advice because you obviously don't understand my condition. I can not even take a sip of water without throwing it up so why would a few crackers do the trick? I have been researching this diseases over the last few days and have found a few articles of women who have either taken their own lives or chosen to have an abortion just to stop the torment. I know this sounds extreme but having been there myself understand their pain. Its a horrible, helpless feeling that has left me fearing death myself and of my unborn child and worse part is that nobody understands what you are going through or how to help.

I first found out that I had Hypermesis Gravidarum when I got pregnant with my first child (Peyton) I found out I was pregnant because I started throwing up and I thought it was the stomach flu but after a week of no relief I finally took a pregnancy test and found out that I was indeed pregnant. Now this pregnancy was not planned (as you will soon find out that this is the case with all of our pregnancies) So we were not prepared and had no medical insurance. Little did we know what was in store for us in the months ahead. After weeks of throwing up 5 to 6 times a day, loosing about 10 pounds and my pee turning black (sorry to be so graphic) I finally had no choice but to go to the ER for IVs. That trip cost us $1000.00 but they prescribed a nausea medication for me called Compazine that we were hopeful would give me some relief. After a few days on the medication I started experiencing a very strange feeling in my throat. At first I just thought I needed to throw up but as the hours passed I realized that I was having trouble catching my breath and soon after that it got so bad that I could barely talk or breath but I motioned to Brandon that we needed to go to the ER. I was in fact having an allergic reaction to the medication and that was one of the scariest nights of our lives. I have never seen my husband look so scared and helpless and I saw my life flash before my eyes. After a few shots of benadryl in the ER I was stable and we left that night with another $1000.00 bill but one that possibly saved my life. After months or tortures paper work we finally qualified for medi-cal that helped with the rest of the pregnancy bills and by 4 months pregnant I was starting to feel human again. And on Feb. 8th 2007 a healthy, beautiful, perfect baby girl was born.

Much like woman forget labor pains soon after birth well I forgot what HG was like and a year and half after Peyton was born we began talking about having another baby, which just talking about having a baby between my husband and I apparently means that in a few weeks we are pregnant. We were excited to have another little one on the way and I actually felt good for the first month. I was hopeful maybe HG wouldn't happen to me again but as soon as I got comfortable it hit! One morning I will never forget after spending the night with my girlfriends and planning on spending a nice summer day laying by the pool. A very familiar feeling hit me and I began relentlessly throwing up. This time was different because I had a toddler to take care of that I could not even get out of bed for. I remember having to stay at my moms house so she could take care of us and crying to her that I wished I would have never gotten pregnant again because at that moment I would rather have died than to have gone through HG again. A few trips to the ER later I finally got a doctor who knew what to do with me and prescribed me a medication called Zofran (used primarily for cancer patients going through cemo) The medication helped control the vomiting although I still felt horrible, my amazing family and friends came together and made sure someone was always with me to take care of Peyton and I until I felt better and by the third or fourth month I was able to function again like a normal pregnant person, and on January 13th, 2009 another beautiful healthy baby girl was born (Amber).

On Father's Day of this year we happily yet reluctantly told our families that we were expecting again. I say reluctantly because although we really want this child to complete our family we knew what was instore for our family in the months ahead. I have to say, yet again this pregnancy was a surprise. Without getting to specific, lets just say that some form of protection was being used, but God had other plans. It was hard to be overly excited about the news because all I could think of was what my family was about to go through. All our summer plans that we were so looking forward to flashed before my eyes as I realized it was very likely that I would not be able to attend them. I was sad for my young children who wouldn't understand why their mommy was so sick and for my poor husband who I have seen go through this twice before, I know how hard it is on him having to work full time and come home to a sick wife and have to take care of the kids and all the household responsibilities. Sure enough about a week after announcing our pregnancy I began to get very sick. I knew to call in for Zofran first thing and they were able to get it to me quickly and that seemed to help for a few weeks. But, last weekend everything turned from bad to worse. The Zofran stopped working and I went over 36 hours without being able to keep down any food our water. I began feeling numbness in my arms and legs and painful, splitting headaches. After two trips to the ER in two days the hospital decided to admit me to see if they could get my HG under control. I remember saying a quick prayer that God would give the doctors wisdom and somebody would know something new to try. The afternoon of my first day in the hospital I met the doctor on call and loved her immediately. She told me that during her residency in San Fransico she had been put on a case study for Hyperemesis Gravidarum and using steroids to control the nausea. She told me they had great success with the trial and often found that within three days the women were feeling much better. There was never any harm to the babies reported. I know steroids in a pregnant lady sounds scary but when you are as sick as I am you fear for your baby anyway so I felt like I had no other option but to try it and who knows maybe this was the answer to my prayer. I have been home from the hospital now for three days and I have to say I feel much better. I am hopeful that this is working. I still find it hard to do much more then lay around and I have to take everything really slow so not to stir up the nausea but the vomiting seems to be under control. YAY!

So that is my Hypermesis Gravidarum story thus far. To my children I want to say you are beyond worth it. I would not take back a second of this sickness if it meant you could not be in this world. I know you were each meant to be here for very specific purposes and I am so proud to be your mom. Always remember during hardships that you might face that you, in Christ, have the strength to overcome! Our God is a God of wisdom and compassion and nothing gives Him greater joy than to overcome. And lastly, take the help! Through all of this I have become ever grateful for my supportive family and friends who have gone out of their way to help. You will find blessings in their love so remember in return to be a blessing.
I love you all dearly. Love always. Mom.

Dandelion Wish

2011-05-13T14:14:00.000-07:00

Not sure who taught her this...was it me? I don't remember. But, some how my 4 year old daughter knows that when you find a dandelion you are to blow it into the wind and make a wish. Some time in the last year she must have done exactly that because she reminds me of the wish she made every day! I am reminded of it mostly during the mundane activities of life, such as a spur of the moment bike ride around the block, or finding a shiny penny on the sidewalk, getting a Popsicle after dinner and splashing with bubbles in the bathtub. "My dandelion wish came true mommy!!" She often says, "I know baby, You are one lucky little girl," I say, but I know full well that luck has nothing to do with it. She is to young to understand what a powerful thing it is to be able to grasp the scientifically proven fact that happiness comes from savoring the simple things. Her wish.... that every day would be the best day of her life.

Children can teach us a lot about how to be happy. Sure we can read all the self help books in world on the subject of happiness but for me (since I have little to no time to read anyways) its sometimes easier for me to take a moment and watch my children. A child can find joy in the simple things. A child without even knowing it can savor the mundane. I am learning that my children often remember and enjoy the simple moments more than the ones that were planned out for months and cost the most money. The biggest moments are often the smallest ones and we are to savor them.
My dandelion wish for you is that today you will look for joy in the unexpected places, that you would be able to savor the simple moments and that you would not stop until happiness has undeniably consumed you.

Romans 15:13 - May the God of hope fill you with all JOY and all Peace, so that you may over flow with Hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Darn you Rob Bell!

2011-03-18T15:37:00.000-07:00

Darn you Rob Bell for stirring up passion in me once again. I am sitting here trying to stop myself from getting involved but passion has taken over and even if it is just on this small platform I call my blog:"All you need is Love", I must speak what is on my heart.

I understand that I am not a theologian, I don't write with big words, correct grammar and perfect spelling but I write with my heart, and I write what I know for sure, and what I know for sure is Christianity in America is in trouble! The statistics are baffling. While at Catalyst a few weeks ago I attended a lab done by Samuel Rodriguez, the leader of the Hispanic evangelical movement, who shared some of these staggering statistics:

- 85% of churches in the US are in a numeric decline

- Americans who identify themselves as Christians has declined 10% in the last decade

- Christianity has less influence on American Politics and Culture than it did 5 years ago.

- Newsweek published an article recently entitled "The end of Christian America"

BUT CHRISTIANITY IS NOT DECLINING IN THE REST OF THE WORLD

-In Communist China there are said to be 28,000 new converts a day

-In Africa Christianity has grown from 5% to 45% in the last decade

-The only Church that is growing in America is the Hispanic church

Something is very very wrong with Christianity in America. I have heard it said that "the church is producing atheists", and who can argue against that statement? We have to know that something is terribly broken. At this point change is crucial.

Rob Bell's new book "Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived" is creating a stir in the christian community. I have not read it yet but I have been keeping up-to-date with the heated debate by reading reviews and blogs on the book and the whole thing has left a bad taste in my mouth. In a time when change is crucial in the christian community why are we arguing and bickering over the same OLD stuff. I find it ironic that Rob Bell is preaching on LOVE and all we can seem to do is belittle each other over our opinions on theology and doctrine. I am not going to share my thoughts on whither or not I think there is a heaven or a hell or if Rob Bell is a universalist, clearly there is enough being written on that subject and my two cents is not needed, but one thing I know for sure is that Rob Bell believes that Christianity in America can be saved. I think we can all learn a lot about love from Rob Bell and the church that he pastors. Does he have all the answers? I am sure he does not but at least he is asking the right questions: "In a gospel whose overwhelming theme is love, why are we not living that out?" I plan to read the book and try to answer that question for myself and I hope you will do the same...stop being afraid and start answering the questions! In the words of Rob Bell, "God can handle the conversation."

The good news is that many giants in the American christian community believe that a time of young pastors doing bold and visionary ministry is emerging. Samuel Rodriguez said "This generation is eager to infuse the world with beauty and grace and the best of Christianity in America is yet to come" I don't know about you but I want to be a part of that movement!!!! I want to hold to the greatest commandment of all LOVE, and offer ALL who are hungry a radically different but far more beautiful, way of doing life. I don't have the answer to the change that needs to be made but I would bet that it has something to do with Love. We are called to manifest God's UNIQUELY beautiful love and bear witness to the reality of Jesus Christ by how we share our lives and serve others. The judgment needs to stop. The arguing needs to stop. The belittling needs to stop and Love needs to start winning! Lets be the change people!
I really like this guys blog about the book and it gives insight into what Rob Bells church is all about.

Dear Amber

2011-02-23T14:04:00.000-08:00

Dear Amber,

When you were only a few months old I knew you were something special, you were so observant of the world around you and we would often tease you about your "starring problem", you would stare at everything and everyone, especially people and things that were new to you. People would stop me in the grocery store and say "your baby has been staring at me now for several minutes!" I would just laugh but deep down I knew that a very special personality trait was forming in your tiny body. When you were born we gave you the middle name Hallel which is Hebrew for Praise. Your Dad and I agreed that there was power in that name and with some prophetic notion we believed that you would grow up to be a worshiper. Now of course your Dad would love it if you picked up the guitar one day and lead worship services around the world, but we are both fully aware that worship does not only come from music, and even if you are not musical you will find a way to bring glory to God through your actions. Now I understand that you are only two years old and you have a lot of growing and changing to do but I am amazed by you! You are the most caring, loving, thoughtful, silly, funny little girl that ever walked the earth. How on earth did God think up you I will never know. I am starting to think that the reason why you stare is because you are trying to figure out what that person needs and if you can help. Nothing makes you happier than when you are helping someone else. Every morning you help Daddy unload the dishwasher, and get Laurie up ready for Breakfast. The other day you tried to pour Laurie's cereal into a bowl for her, it didn't go so well but I could not stop smiling over the fact that you would even want to try. Last night as I was leaving the house for a quick trip to the grocery store you ran into the room and brought me out my coat and all I could think at that moment was: how on earth can a two year old be so thoughtful? I am reminded of few verses that suit you well that I hope you will hide in your heart one day.

1 Cor 13: 13 "Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly, but remember the best of these three is LOVE."
Philippians 1: 9-11 "This is my prayer: That your love will flourish and that you will not only love others much but well. Live a lovers life, a life Jesus would be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul making Jesus attractive to all, greeting everyone with the glory and PRAISE of God!"

If you love and serve people the way Jesus did I can't think of a better way to "Hallel" to Praise. I thank God for the things he is going to do through you little one. I am so proud to be your mommy.
love always,
Mommy

Thoughtful gifts are the Best!

2011-01-04T15:41:00.000-08:00

As a gift this Christmas Brandon's Mom presented him with a scrapbook that she put together of his childhood. This was HUGE since up until that point all of her pictures of Brandon were in the bottom of a box somewhere...we can all relate right!? :) At first glance I loved seeing him as a kid and of course comparing his looks to our children, Peyton has his eyes and Amber has his nose...but as I got through to the end I could not help but notice how parallel his childhood was to mine. A lot of the parallels were just little stuff like we had the same color soccer uniforms on the same year, and that our Dad's both liked to take us fishing and that we both attended prom our feshman year. (crazy I know! :) ) but what was even more shocking was how similar our faith journey's were. We were both raised in the church...our parents not Christians when they met but soon found their faith after their children were born. As young kids we were involved in a children's evangelism outreach called King's Kids (a ministry founded by YWAM) I was in the LA branch and he in the San Diego... we both fell in love with performing through Kings Kids and began doing community theater were we both performed in the musical Grease...King's Kids also brought out our love for evangelism so as teenagers we went on several mission trips one was to Atlanta Georgia during the 1996 Olympics. Due to our experiences during our mission trips we made commitments to serve the Lord with our lives and chose Azusa Pacific University to study Bible and ministry...it was there that we met for the first time in a "Marriage and Family Life" class and fell in love while performing in a musical...Hello Dolly!. Now is it just me or is that a product of God's incredible handy work... and sense of humor! :) Now of course I knew all of these things before looking at the scrapbook but for some reason seeing it mapped out like that was very powerful for me (can anyone say visual learner?) Like any marriage we have had our far share of ups and downs...during the lows it was easy to question wither or not we were made for eachother but I was reminded yet again of the divine nature of our relationship all thanks to a little scrapbook. Amen to thoughtful gifts and Amen to a God who knows our beginning and our end. Thank You Jesus for being the author and perfector of our Faith!

Weaknesses vs. Strengths

2010-11-14T13:45:00.000-08:00

Do you focus more on your weaknesses or your strengths?
Did you know that when a survey went out asking this very same question to huge organizations all over the world 30% said they focused on their strengths and 70% focused on their weakness. Why do we this?
This question was brought to my attention after listening to Marcus Buckingham speak at the Women of Faith conference this weekend. As I sat their listening to Marcus I became increasingly convicted on the fact that I as a parent tend to focus more on my children's weaknesses rather than their strengthens. It was brought to my attention how very backwards this way of thinking truly is.
For example: My youngest daughter Amber is not what you would call an "easy" child. From the day she was born I had this sense that she was going to be very different from my first born (who I like to call an angel baby). Amber was born with pixy in her eyes, she is extremely stubborn, short tempered, clingy, overly curious and above all trouble waiting to happen!!! In the last month she has gotten into a bottle of Zicam and thrown it up all over my poor moms blow up mattress, (She has also gotten hold of a baby Tylenol bottle and figured out how to open it regardless of the safety system on it...we luckily got it from her before she took any but not without a fight) She has also learned how to unlock the double bolted front door and numerous times I have caught her just before she made it to the middle of the street, we have had to put one of those baby door knobs on the inside of her bedroom door just to keep her in her room at night but she has recently learned how to tear them apart and get out anyways, not to mention her new found fascination with toilets and the countless times she has backed them up due to flushing inanimate objects down them. I could go on and on about this child and the fun never stops, its all day everyday!!! I have recently become aware that I complain way to much about Ambers behavior and perhaps I need to hold my tongue a bit...So if you hear me ranting PLEASE you have permission to slap my wrist...and I am serious.... I really am working on not talking about her so much in fear that she may hear me and for the rest of her life label herself as TROUBLE, and that is the last thing I want for her.
I have struggled to know exactly how to handle her behavior until this strengths vs weaknesses came to my attention...what if instead of focusing on the above written paragraph I were to tell you that Amber is in fact extremely loving and caring. Already, at one years old, we can tell she has a servants heart and looks out for others often before herself....what an amazing quality right!? She loves to be Mommy's little helper...in fact I caught her this morning trying to unload the dishwasher for me

So I made a commitment to start focusing on my children for what they are rather than what they are not. For Amber I think that means keeping her busy with chores.. LOL...my hope is that by keeping her hands busy it will keep her out of trouble...we will see how it goes. :)

World Changers!

2010-11-02T12:58:00.000-07:00

I attend a women's bible study on Tuesday mornings that has been such a blessing for me. Every Tuesday I walk out of there feeling refreshed and alive and today was no exception. We are towards the end of our study and the lesson today was on "Our Calling" The leader of the study shared that she once was at a conference and the pastor stopped in the middle of his sermon and told the crowd that he felt strongly that in the midst of them there were World Changers and he wanted everyone to go to one of those people and pray for them. Looking around she wasn't sure who she should go pray for until she realized that a group of people were laying hands on her and praying for her... Tears began to pour down my face as I found myself taken back to a similar time in my own life when I was 15 years old and a group of people laid hands on me and encouraged me to commit my life to full time ministry. I remember being overwhelmed with the fact that I felt so ordinary yet these people saw something in me that was world changing. I remember feeling my whole body shake because I had never felt like anything was so right before. After that experience I went to college to study ministry and married and pastor and have been serving God ever since but these last few years I have felt sort of lost in my calling. Since becoming a mom I find it difficult to spend time with God like I used to, I can no longer volunteer my time at church, or lead mission trips, and I so desperately desire to work with my husband and his youth ministry but it is just to hard to do these things with the kids. I have spent many days and nights feeling trapped in my own home yet desiring so desperately to be out there changing the world. After the lesson was over our table leader saw that I was emotional and asked if I would share what was going on inside me...I shared with her my feelings of wanting to do and be so much more for
Christ but feeling trapped in this season of raising my young children. She than told me that God gave her a vision as I was sharing...that I was not to worry God has me right were he wants me. She said her vision was of me as a gardener planting seeds and the flowers that grew from those seeds were my children and they were the ones that were world changers! Wow.
Its so funny how we often feel this call on our lives and we see it so differently than God sees it. For me I want to be out there on the mission field getting dirty for God but instead God brought my mission field right into my own home with my two little girls. Maybe for you...you might want to be like the seeds still in the pouch never wanting to get dirty never wanting to grow but God has so much more for you outside of your comfort zone. Ask God today what your calling is...Maybe you are a World Changer too!

I am thankful I am able

2010-10-19T13:40:00.000-07:00

Don't you hate it when it seems as though God has you on this "thing" wither its a conviction or a thought or a change of mind its just this thing that no matter how hard you try to get away from it, its everywhere and everyone you know is talking about it, and the pastor preaches his sermon on it, and your friend brings it up in conversation and you get to this point when you finally are like "Is God trying to tell me something?" duh!
Well that is what has been happening to me in the last couple of weeks. The subject matter is nothing deep or life changing its sort of basic really it has to do with house cleaning. yup, house cleaning. It started a few weeks ago when I started to notice my husband making frequent comments about my lack of house work. Comments such as "Wow there are a lot of dishes in the sink today!" or "How long has it been since you pushed the button on the automatic vacuum cleaner?" At first I took offense to his comments and my women's rights side of me emerged and I would strike back with "Well I have been a little busy with YOUR kids all day long" Or "Its just as easy for you to push the button on the vacuum than it is for me" but in my quiet moments his words would sting a little because I realized how little house work I was actually doing and I could probably be doing a better job. So I started to put more work into the house during the day but God could not just stop there (He knows me to well) So it seemed everywhere I went people were talking about this subject of doing your job and doing it well. So I thought I would share just some quick lessons I have learned this week. 1. You should clean your house for your family and you should tidy up for your company. (Yea think on that one for awhile...I know in my house those two are reversed) 2. Be the best you can be in the job God has you in because you never know how that job (as mundane as it may seem) may be preparing you for something bigger in the future. 3.Instead of saying "I HAVE to clean the house today" or "I HAVE to take care of the kids today" instead change it to "I am ABLE..." Putting praise and thanksgiving into your work makes its so much easier to get done. I am by no way saying that because I am a women my duty is the house work. Brandon and I made a commitment on our wedding day that stigmas like that would not be apart of our household but I have come to the realization that for this season of life, I am home with the kids and the house and for now that is my job, and I am to do it well. I have to say that I cleaned the house with a thankful heart yesterday and my husband actually noticed and that felt good. So for me, I need to clean my house more, what can you be doing better in the season of life you are in?

"I'm not perfect..."

2010-10-01T20:30:00.000-07:00

Its so hard to come home from vacation! I suggest that we start a new tradition that after a week vacation you get another week at home to let your body adjust to the real world. Brandon and I just got back from a 7 day cruise to the Mexican Riviera. We had a BLAST to say the least. 7 days and 7 nights with NO kids! I think we most appreciated the undisturbed sleep. The first morning we slept until 10am (We were bummed we missed the morning buffet.) We were like kids again...we ate whatever we wanted when we wanted, we stayed out late dancing, we went down the Cruise ship twisty slide several times, we went on several adventures like ATV rides, zip lines, water skis and racing horses along the beach...I can't even begin to tell you how much I needed to feel...well...Free again.
So coming home has been an adjustment, to say the least. We have gotten through the week dragging our feet through the mundane tasks of everyday life. I feel like Brandon and I have talked only when necessary...both trying to morn and adjust in our own way I guess. And I have not been the most energetic mom this week either...if you know what I mean.
Well today, after spending the day picking apples at a local farm with our good friends from play group, I finally had a fun day in my REAl life and it was just what I needed to snap me out of my vacation woos. But, the best part of the day was that my 3 year old enlightened me! Yup, you heard me right! Don't you just love the moments when you think you are about to be super mom and teach your child a very important life skill, like baking a pie, and than your child turns around and teaches you something so much more important. Well it happened to me like this: I got Petyon all set up on a chair by the sink washing the apples while I was peeling and coring. I was already getting a little teary over the fact that my baby was able to wash a basket full of apples like a pro...when and how did she learn to do such a thing...and when did she get tall enough to reach the faucet??? But to seal the deal on the tear flow my little princess starts singing a song from our latest car CD by Laurie Berkner:
"I'm not perfect, no I'm not.
but I do the best with what I got!
I do my very best, I do my very best,
I do my very best each day
but I'm not perfect and
I hope you like me that way!"
"sing it with me mommy!" Peyton shouts. So away we worked singing this song at the top of our lungs. Peyton even changed the lyrics to "WE are not perfect" and with each verse I felt more and more free. As I sang "We're not perfect!" all the not so perfect mom moments of the past week began to flash before me, like the fact that I plopped my kids in front of a movie so that I could sneak off and catch up on Project Runway Episodes, or the time that I faked being asleep while my husband got up with the baby. "I'm not perfect but I do the best with what I got" I shouted, this time with feeling. It felt amazing! Seriously try it! We sang it over 26 times (which I would NOT recommend) but really...It just feels good to accept and acnowledge that we are not perfect every once and awhile....and guess what...Its ok! I wish you all could have heard my 3 year old sing this song, you too would have been enlightened! :)

So...I have a Secret Admirer!

2010-08-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

My husband and I have been going through a book for about a year now called "101 nights of romance" by Laura Corn. I know, sounds a bit scandalise but let me explain. Its basically a book full of what it calls "seductions" or otherwise known as dates. When we feel like we might have a little free time that week for a date night or two we each pick an envelope out of the book one says for HIS EYES ONLY the other says for HER EYES ONLY and inside the envelope is a recipe for a wonderful surprising romantic adventure that you plan for your spouse. I can't begin to tell you how much I recommend this book to every married couple. We believe in it so much that we have given it as a wedding present at every wedding we have gone to in the last year. It simply brings back that portion of your relationship that is quickly left behind soon after marriage and that is the ROMANCE! This book has forced us to practice our romance and make it a priority in our marriage. Because after all, it's the thrill of the chase that makes the capture so sweet!
Well not all of the seductions go off without a hitch but they always create amazing memories...for example, Brandon's seduction this week must have been to romance me with flowers. All week long I have been finding flowers hidden for me...Some of my favorite places I found them were on the churches kitchen sink because he knew I was meeting someone there that night...or I had to pick up our car from the shop and the lady that gave me the paper work handed me a flower...I found several on my car windsheild before leaving places too...all the flowers were left with little love notes like "I think you are beautiful"..."I'm thinking of you" etc...and signed - your secret admirer - Yesterday while at swim lessons one of the pool staff ladies walked over to another mom that was sitting at the edge of the pool with a bouquet of flowers and said "I think a Man just left these for you...he said to give them to the lady in the white top sitting by the pool" Well she was wearing a white top and so was I...Mine was white with little flowers on it but, MEN not the most detailed of creatures. I was kind of smiling because I knew they were for me but watching this lady squirm and read the note that said "Love, your secret admirer" was classic. Well she refused the flowers and said they could not possibly be for her because she was married and had two kids. Ha ha ha ha!! Too Funny! So the pool staff lady walked over to me with the flowers and said "I guess these are for you then" I said "Sure, I will take them, I never pass up flowers!"
Well Today at swim lessons that lady came over and introduced herself to me and we small talked for a little bit and than she began to bring up the flower incident from the day before. She said she was very disturbed that a man would send flowers to her child's swim lessons because that was such an inappropriate place to do such a thing! She also began to point out all the strange men that were around the pool that she had caught staring at us and that her husband was very uncomfortable with her coming today and told her to be careful...I told her I was pretty sure the flowers were from my husband...she looked at me shocked! It was hilarious!
Just goes to show how far out of romance practice us married couples can be. Why is it so shocking for a husband to send his wife flowers in a public place? And more than that...are we so consumed with fear that we can not accept or even see the romance in it? Hopefully this has inspired you to bring a little romance into your relationship today...but maybe not at a public pool!

Be kind to your introvert.

2010-08-19T15:00:00.001-07:00

I was reminded last week of just how much of an introvert I really am. In my younger days, when I cared to much about what people thought of me, it was hard for me to admit that I was an introvert. I guess I didn't want to be labeled as shy, or a person that didn't know how to have fun and socialize, not that I think introverts are those things but it seems to me that the rest of the world does. So I spent many years failing at being an extrovert until I grew tired and came out of the closet and decided to openly except my introverted personality. For the most part I believe that I am a well-adjusted introvert. I adapt well to the challenges that come with being an introvert but every once in awhile I feel myself becoming overwhelmed. Last week, for example, I came to a head with my introverted side. The kids and I had the joy and privilege of spending three straight weeks with our beloved family members. Even though I love these people dearly and would not take back a second that I spent with them, by the end of the third week I began to feel a bit strange. The best way I can describe it is it feels as though the walls are about to cave in and all I want to do is dive into an air pocket where I know I will be safe. Just for fun I did a little research on the subject this week and I came up with some fascinating facts. So for all my fellow introverts out there this is for you...and for my extroverted friends maybe this will help you understand us...maybe.

1. Did you know that introverts only make up 25% of the population? Although a minority they make up 60% of the gifted population!
2. On average for every hour of socialization an introvert needs two hours of alone time to recharge.
3.Extroverts are easy for introverts to understand But, Extroverts have little to no grasp of introversion. They can not begin to comprehend why someone would want to be alone.
4. Introverts can find small talk easy but tiring – and sometimes boring. They'd rather have meaningful conversations about the depths of human souls and minds.
5. Introverts' personality traits include increased blood flow in the frontal lobes, anterior thalamus, and other regions associated with remembering events, making plans, and problem-solving. An introvert's brain is literally wired differently than an extrovert's!

- I found these facts in a wonderful article published in the Atlantic Magazine, written by Jon Rauch called "Caring for your introvert" http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2003/03/caring-for-your-introvert/2696/

Even though I have full heartily excepted my introvert status I thought just for fun I would post this list entitled "all the things I don't like about being an introvert." Because trust me there are some...

1.I dislike having people assume I won't be comfortable doing something...they are probably right but it's not nice to assume.
2.I don’t like it when I know I’m not being my normal charming self because I am mentally exhausted (probably from being charming).
3.I don’t like having to explain introversion to people as if it’s a “condition”.
4.It bothers me when people tease me for being “in my shell” or even worse when they comment on when I decide to come out.
5.I sometimes don’t like that I think about and analyze things way to much. I have trouble sleeping a lot because I can't shut down my thoughts! Sometimes this trait is good but it can be frustrating.
6.I dislike it when people confuse introversion with being shy, stuck up, conceited or uncaring. I think I’ve been all of the above listed things before, but not because I’m an introvert!
7.It ticks me off when people think I should be saying something when there is nothing for me to say. If I had something of importance to say, I’d pipe up! Otherwise, it’s better to let everyone else run their mouths.
8.It bothers me when I am perfectly happy doing “nothing”,and someone suggests that I do something more fun. What might that be–heading to the nearest club with the loudest music?. Personally I would take sitting and staring at a flower any day.

-posted july 28th by livingintroverted

A moment in the life of Amber

2010-07-20T19:29:00.000-07:00

So Amber is 18 months old now and she keeps us busy to say the least. Today I happened to catch a wonderful video of her just doing what she does best...being herself. When she is not driving us crazy she is cracking us up. Such a strange yet wonderful little baby. Hope this video makes you smile like I get to everyday being her Mom. (Sorry for the poor video taping skills with my camera.) The first part of the video she is, for whatever reason, smelling a dirty dish towel and I think she realizes it smells bad...well you will see...she is so funny! :)

"A Wonderful Life"

2010-07-15T17:10:00.000-07:00

I love when strangers inspire a blog posting. Does this happen to anyone else but me?...There you are minding your own business and out of no where a stranger can say something to you that stops you in your tracks and forces you to analyze your life. Crazy but happens to me all the time. Today was no different...
So I just got back from a wonderful, amazing girls weekend, hanging with some of my favorite people in the whole world, doing all the things I love, and most importantly living hour by hour for me...just for me. An amazing feeling for a full time mom! I could eat when I wanted, shower when I wanted, take time styling my hair the way I wanted...all things that are hard to do in my daily life. On the last day while laying on a raft in the middle of a lake with my girls I might have sighed and said,"tomorrow I HAVE to go back to being a mom..." It just slipped out. Oops! One of the girls, who does not have kids yet, turned to me and said..."so I need to know...is it worth it?" "Of course its worth it!" I said "everyday I smile because of my kids...everyday I feel indescribable love because of my kids and everyday I feel accomplished because of my kids...that is worth it! But if I am being completely honest tomorrow before I go home I am going to have to sike myself up again before I go back into the world that is no longer mine but theirs."
See I do this thing sometimes where I start throwing myself a pity party. It happens if I start to think to long and hard about the body that I once took for granted before I had kids and now fear I may never get back...or the moments when I think of the dreams I have had to let go of... and the time that I once cherished to just sit, either by myself or with a good friend, and ponder life and its meaning...those moments now seem few and far between. They are short pity parties that often quickly pass but I do have them. I wish I could say that I am a mom like my mom was and many of you are that just LOVES everything about being a Mom! Don't get me wrong I love being a mom but EVERYTHING?...no not everything.
So today was a day like everyday for me. kids, laundry, cooking dishes, cleaning, crying, whining, laughing...but today I decided to get out of the house. The sun was shining in Santa Cruz and this was the first sight of it in weeks, so in the midst of the chores that had to be done I had the bright idea of taking the kids down to the beach for a few hours. Now with children as young as mine you can't just plop them in the stroller and go, it takes about an hour or more to even get to the stroller. After several melt downs, sibling fights, time outs, owies, and not being able to find the right shoes we were out the door. Tear stained faces and all. As I was grumbling to myself walking down our street this nice older lady walking home carrying a bag of groceries took one look at me and said "Wow...you must live a wonderful life!" It wasn't what she said as much as how she said it that made me want to slap myself for the pity party I was throwing only moments before. Seriously...I do live a "wonderful life!" I mean look at me... with my two beautiful children, on a sunny day, walking down to the beach...what is wrong with me to be thinking anything less?
I have been reminded a lot lately about the power and destruction of negative thoughts...After my encounter with the stranger I came to a realization that any negative thought that enters my mind has nothing to do with my kids, or my husband, or my circumstances, it has to do with me! I choose to think negatively or positively about my life, I choose to focus on my shortcomings rather than my blessings. Also, I know that not one of my negative thoughts comes from God, because nothing about the way He thinks and acts is negative, in fact he tells us over and over again in scriptures to change our thinking...to have right thoughts.
One of my favorite verses...dedicated to me by the wisdom of my parents on the day of my high school graduation has often been a wonderful way to get me back on track in my right thinking. Today I looked it up for the first time in the Message Bible here is what is says: "Summing it up my friends, I say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things that are true, noble, authentic, compelling, gracious - the best, not the worst, the beautiful, not the ugly, things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies." Philippians 4:8-9
May the God who works in perfect harmony bless you today with positive thinking and remind you... that you live a wonderful life!

These Are My Girls

2010-07-12T15:40:00.000-07:00

Just got back from our 6th annual girls weekend with my best friends from college. The older we get the more we appreciate and value the friendships we have with one another. We have over 10 years of memories with each other. Its something rare and special that many do not have. One of the girls, Jes wrote us a song this year. She surprised us and had it recorded before hand and then booked a recording studio for us while in Nashville (on music row I might add) so that we could all do the background vocals together. Of course we were all in tears when we first heard it so it means a lot to me to share with you this amazing blessing I have in these girls. Enjoy!

So... my daughter might be a bully!

2010-07-01T18:36:00.000-07:00

I hate to admit this but its true...my daughter (Amber...the baby) is suddenly exhibiting bully like behavior. I first noticed it the other night when we had some friends, who were in town from LA, over for dinner. They have a boy a few months older than Peyton and a girl a few months younger than Amber. The boy and Peyton quickly became fast friends (which I expected) but the babies reacted a little differently. At first Amber would just glare at Emma from across the room but one touch of her stuff and Amber was not having it. Pushing, hitting, screaming and tug o war for toys went on all evening between the two of them. I have to admit that Emma was not letting down either, she put up a good fight...one time even winning a battle for a toy...pretty impressive stuff. Although this little cat fight was quiet entertaining for the parents it made me start to worry a bit about the behavior I saw coming from my 16 month old.
Well if my concerns were not real after that night they certainly are after today. We went to the park to let out some energy. Right away Peyton jumped in with a group of girls who were playing fairies and Amber went straight for the slide (typical). Amber went up the stairs and down the slide several times before another little girl, a few months older than her, started up the stairs at the same time...well for whatever reason Amber was not happy about sharing the stairway and began elbowing her way up, well the other little girl, being bigger than Amber, won the battle and got to the top first Amber just sat there glaring...I am beginning to learn that no good shall come from this look. Amber literally waited for that little girl to come back to the stairs and she began to attack her (well attack may be a strong word but I had to pull my child off of her in fear of her safety) The other little girl had fought back and left scratch marks on Amber's face. For the rest of our time at the park Amber had it in for this girl. She would see her coming and would give her "the look" or let out some harsh baby babble at her...it was crazy. I couldn't believe this was my child. I was that mom at the park who had the kid that all the other moms were whispering about. On the way home we stopped to grab some fast food for dinner while waiting for our food Peyton wanted a toy from the coin machine so in a weak moment I gave in. She got a little blue bouncy ball that was in the shape of a panda bear. Cute! She played with it all through dinner. Back in the car again Amber was picking a fight with Peyton over the last of the ice in the bottom of the soda cup. I heard the fight begin so I encouraged Peyton to give Amber a piece of ice so that we wouldn't have to hear whining all the way home. Peyton was apparently not moving fast enough for Amber and all the sudden I hear Peyton screaming "My blue Ball!!!" I look in my rear view mirror and see Amber with "the look" on her face while she is Chewing on Peyton's blue ball. "Amber" I said "You spit that out!" she just kept chewing while Peyton was screaming. I told Peyton she better give her a piece of ice if she ever wanted to see her ball again. Sure enough as soon as Peyton gave Amber a piece of ice, with vengeance, Amber spit out the ball and handed it back to Peyton. What the heck?!
I have always said "this child is going to be the death of me" from the moment she was born she came out fighting. Hopefully one day I can get her fighting for what is right and she will use that energy to change the world! In the mean time... look out for her at the playground!

Where did my sweet baby go?

2010-05-13T19:33:00.000-07:00

5:00 - Just got home from a long day of running errands with the girls to find that we had no power in the house. Because of past history in our area I knew that the power could be off for hours or days so I began to form a game plan for the evening. Looking at my grubby little girls I decided that baths were most important and I wanted to get them over with before it got dark. So I got both girls in the bath.
5:25 - Amber had all she could take of Peyton pouring water over her head and demanded to be taken out so I got her dried off and into her PJ's and then quickly did the same for Peyton. Next step of the game plan was to clean the house up a bit. I had company coming for the weekend and not knowing how much longer I would have daylight I grabbed the 409 and hit the bathrooms, not soon after I hear a cat fight break out in the living room. Amber was apparently trying to take the baby doll stroller from Peyton and no matter how hard I tried to get her to play with another toy she was not having it, so I eventually had to take the stroller away which lead to even more tears so what did I do? What any good mother would do... I flipped on Sesame Street and hoped they would get over it. (the power came back on by the way) It seemed to be working so I went back to the bathrooms.
6:00 - Peyton came wondering in asking if she could color so I stopped what I was doing and got her set up on the kitchen table which only led to Amber fussing because she too wanted to be sitting at the kitchen table. As I was getting out the coloring book Amber had already climbed on top of the chair and onto the table. I decided maybe this would be a good time for dinner to I placed Amber in her highchair and began to heat up hot dogs. I cut the hot dogs up and poured them on her tray along with some blueberries and handed her a fork. I figured she would be happy there for a bit so I went back to work.
6:10 - I hear Amber starting to complain so I rushed out to the kitchen to find that she had squashed every blueberry on her tray and rubbed them in her hair. Back into the bath she goes.
6:20 - Amber is clean and dressed...again... so I sit her in front of Sesame street and leave to start a load of laundry. Mins later I hear a very scary sound...the scariest of all sounds for a mom and that is the sound of "silence." No good shall come from long periods of "silence." So I rush back into the living room to find that Amber had found a bottle of Snapple and some how manged to figure out how to twist the top off of it and had poured the whole bottle all over herself. I take off her 2nd pair of PJs for the evening and go in search of the third pair.
6:22 - In the laundry room trying to find a clean pair of jammies when I hear another interesting sound coming from the kitchen. I rush in and find Amber on top of a chair sifting through a box of markers on the counter. I decided she would probably be ok for one more sec while I found a pair of clean PJs.
6:23 - Found a pair! Walk into the kitchen to find Amber holding a permanent Black marker which she had successfully taken the cap off of. She saw me coming for it so she looked me square in the eyes and as quick as she could she marked a long black line across her bare chest. NO! I shouted and grabbed a baby wipe and tried to get it off. No such luck (if a baby wipe can't get it off nothing will, those things can get spots out of the carpet.) So I decided what the heck and put her third pair of clean jammies on her for the night. By the way, this whole time she is screaming and trying to slap me in the face, which is becoming more of a trend these days. ugh. So I get her to calm down by giving her a sippy cup of juice and sat her once again in front of Elmo hoping this time she would stay there.
6:45 - I finally finish the bathrooms and peak in to check on the girls. Amber was sitting in front of elmo holding her sippy cup in one hand and the lid to it in the other. Somehow, once again, she had managed to twist off the lid to the sippy cup and spill it all over herself. How is this possible!!! My three year old can not even twist off the lid to a sippy cup! I asses the spillage and decide most of it got on the carpet and she was only a little wet so she could stay in her PJS (plus I knew she didn't have any more clean ones anyways) but it was indeed time for her to go to bed. I had had about as much as I could handle for one night!

New Discoveries

2010-05-07T15:29:00.001-07:00

Amber has been growing and changing at a rapid rate these days. I am calling this month of her life the month of new discoveries because it seems as though everyday she is learning something new. One of her favorite discoveries has been her legs and she has learned how to use them very well, which is driving mom crazy! I chase after her all day long and if I turn my back on her for one sec. she is out of sight, up the stairs, down the street, on top of the kitchen table, I don't underestimate what she can or will do these days in fear of her safety.
She has also learned the word NO! When she says it (which is ALL DAY LONG) its not just no, its a very high pitched shrieking NOOOOOOOO! So its kind of cute and hard not to laugh at but I am trying to bite my lip and teach her that that behavior is not acceptable in this house. So far no success.
A few nights ago while we were eating dinner around the table she must have realized for the first time that she was the only one that did not have a fork and she was not pleased about this at all. After much shrieking and crying I finally figured out what she wanted and she has been eating with a fork everyday since, she is not bad at it either and it makes dinnertime last a bit longer for mom and dad.
Mom's least favorite new activity that Amber has discovered is pulling open the bottom drawers of the girls dresser and unloading all that is inside. Poor Peyton has been wearing wrinkled clothes lately because of the many times they have been in piles on the floor.
By far Amber's favorite new discovery this month has been the ocean. Due to the beautiful weather lately and the fact that we live within walking distance from the beach it has been hard to keep us away. Now that Amber is able to walk around she has discovered that not far from the beach towel is water, and she loves the water! So I spend most of the time chasing her up and down the beach so that she does not get washed away. So much for the days that I could sit and relax on a beach towel and watch her eat sand.
But my very favorite thing about this month is that my children are learning to love each other! They are finally able to play nicely together and is blesses my heart. The other day I heard them laughing in their room and Peyton was sitting in her doll stroller and Amber was pushing her around the room. They love giving zurberts on each others tummies and chasing each other around the house. Last night I was about to put Amber to bed and Peyton came running after me practically in tears saying "she forgot to give her sissy a kiss goodnight." So sweet. Maybe they will be friends after all.

Cinderella

2010-05-07T14:04:00.000-07:00

Never in my best dreams would I have ever though that my daughter would love Cinderella more than I do. And those that know me, know that I LOVE CINDERELLA. For me it started when I was a child and my father used to call me Kenderella and I felt nothing short of a princess when he did that, so ever since Cinderella has been my favorite Disney character. So much so, that Brandon asked me to marry him in front of the castle at Disneyland and I believe his exact words after getting down on his knees were "Will you be my Cinderella forever?". We even had a Cinderella wedding...well as much Cinderella as I could get away with and not be too cheesy but, a special moment that I will never forget was our first dance to "So this is love." So there is a little past history on my love for Cinderella and why I would want to share it with my daughter.
Well it all started a few weeks ago when I decided Peyton was finally old enough to appreciate watching Cinderella for the first time. We got in our jammies and snuggled up on the couch with bowls of ice cream and popcorn. I was determined to make this a magical moment for the two of us. I expected her to loose interest half way through (once the popcorn was gone) but she didn't, she was glued to the movie and when it ended she gave me a huge hug and said "Mommy that was the greatest movie I have ever seen." I was a puddle on the floor. Since that night she has watched Cinderella almost every day. A few days ago she began randomly quoting the movie and singing the songs and just yesterday she decided that she, in fact, WAS Cinderella. If you tried to call her Peyton she would politely correct you and say "You mean Cinderella." (Oh Boy, What have I created?) So not going to lie, I got her to help me pull weeds in the yard yesterday because I told her Step Mother told her to do so. As we were pulling weeds she was chattering away about the mice and the birds and the mean cat and the ugly step sisters and her step mother that was very sad. Sad? "Why is the step mother and step sisters sad?" I asked her, and then my three year old had a profound thought, she said "because they never go out of their house so they don't have any friends and they are lonely." Isn't that so true! Relationships are the most important thing in this life! Way to often we get caught up in our own world and our own schedule and don't make time for other people and then we wonder why we are so sad and lonely. Once again, the world could learn a lot from a three year old...and Cinderella.

Things parents shouldn't do

2010-04-29T15:16:00.000-07:00

Yes its true, and even healthy to admit every once in awhile that we parents make mistakes! But in our household those mistakes are mostly made by my husband....ha ha ha...NOT! I was sadly reminded of this fact a few days ago! but first let me tattle-tell on Brandon because that is more fun anyways...don't worry I will get to me.
A few weekends back we decided to go on a family picnic. I had just spent the day cleaning out the shed and found a wicker picnic basket that was given to us for our wedding. I thought it would be fun to pack up dinner and walk to the park with our authentic picnic basket and have some fun family time. As I was doing the last min packing (If you are a mom you understand what this means. Running around the house like a crazy person trying to think of anything you might need that would make this outing easier on you. Grabbing things like jackets, a change of clothes, your child's favorite drink, toys, and lollipops in case of an emergency bribing session. This process is very important because if you forget anything your entire trip may be ruined and end in tears and tantrums and I am not talking about the kids!) Brandon was outside loading the kids into the double stroller...unattended I might add. The evening was beautiful, the sea breeze was sweet. We took off singing "the ants go marching" it was perfect. Well almost. The stupid authentic wicker picnic basket was to big and heavy to fit in the bottom of the stroller so after watching Brandon make many failed attempts of holding onto the heavy basket with one hand and pushing the stroller with the other I offered to push the stroller and Brandon carried the picnic basket. We happily made it all the way to the last crosswalk before the park and I realized that the curb for the crosswalk was rather high and I was going to need some momentum to get over it. So I sped up and gave the stroller a strong push but instead of the stroller going over the curb it full force hit it and Peyton went flying out of the stroller onto the sidewalk! Of course my first reaction was to cradle my crying daughter in my loving arms and kiss the injury's....well ok maybe not my first reaction...My first reaction was to yell at my husband of course... "You didn't strap her in! What are you thinking?" Peyton's foot was bleeding and scratched up in several places and I made the mistake of showing her the blood which made her cry even harder. So Brandon scooped her up and carried her the rest of the way to the park. I got the stroller safely over the curb with Amber still in it. Concerned about Peyton's foot I began walking quickly to catch up with them when all of the sudden I felt the weight change in the stroller and I stopped and looked down and Amber had slid down into the basket of the stroller. In disbelief I thought, He didn't strap her in either?! I yelled at the top of my lungs "This is why you aren't allowed to be alone with these kids for any significant amount of time because they might die!!!" It was at that moment that I noticed a nice elderly couple walking by us with disapproving glances...oops. We asked Peyton if she wanted to go home and she said no. So we stayed at the park despite the constant complaining and crying out "I miss my foot!" which I thought was very philosophical of her. Brandon feeling a tad bit guilty I am sure, told her we could stop for ice cream on the way home and that seemed to heal it right up. I of course forgave Brandon but not without telling the story to several friends and family and giving him a hard time for the next few days. Brandon told me later that he made the conscious decision to not strap them in because he decided that they were old enough now. Whatever!
Ok so fast forward to this weekend...this is my failed parent story...told you I would get to it...So I was vacuuming the house. Amber is our little scardy cat. She is scared of a lot of random things like, a voice talking back to her on the telephone, or when mom has a towel on her head after the shower and Santa Clause, Easter Bunny forget it but, nothing is more frightening to her than the vacuum. So the moment she saw me getting the horrible thing out she hurried into her bedroom to hide. Peyton loves to "help" me vacum so she was "helping" and I could tell Amber was feeling left out. She wanted to be apart but just couldn't get up the nerve. I watched her out of the corner of my eye peeking around the doorway at us but then jumping back in if we got anywhere near her. It was pretty cute. When we were all finished vacuuming I thought I would have a little "fun." I waited by Amber's door for her to peek out again and I was going to pretend to push the vacuum towards her. (I know mean huh?) Well instead of her peeking out this time she must have finally got up the nerve to walk out of the doorway and she walked right into the vacuum...not knowing that it was there she freaked out and thinking that she was running back through the doorway she ran smack into the wall!!! In just the few sec that it took me to get to her and scoop her screaming body up I could see a huge bump already forming on her forehead. Boy...did I feel horrible and of course Brandon did not go light on the guilt trips.
So the moral of the story...we are not perfect. At least our kids forgive us and still love us despite our faults. Well at least for now they do, I don't even want to think about the teenage years. I try to pretend that those don't exist for us.

Lead Me

2010-04-27T13:26:00.000-07:00

Heard this song on the radio the other day that captured my attention so much that I had to sit in the driveway waiting for the song to end so that I could hear who it was by. It was written by a band called Sanctus Real and the song is called "Lead Me". Here are some of the lyrics.

I see their faces, look in their innocent eyes
They're just children from the outside
I'm working hard, I tell myself they'll be fine
They're independent
But on the inside, I can hear them saying...

“Lead me with strong hands
Stand up when I can't
Don't leave me hungry for love
Chasing dreams, but what about us?

Show me you're willing to fight
That I'm still the love of your life
I know we call this our home
But I still feel alone”

So Father, give me the strength
To be everything I'm called to be
Oh, Father, show me the way
To lead them
Won't You lead me?

Ok...confession time. There are days I just don't feel like being a mom. There... I said it... and I would bet money that I am not the only mom that has ever felt that way. The last couple of days have been very difficult for me because I have been exhausted. I just came home from a 3 day conference that was full of late nights and early mornings and not only that I was awakened several times during those nights with an unhappy baby wishing she was in her own bed at home. It drained me. People who are not moms can come home from a trip like that and get some rest, but not a mom. I was up at 6:45am the next morning and back to mommy duties. There was one moment between unpacking, laundry and dishes where I found myself drifting off to sleep on the couch while the kids were watching TV ( I know horrible isn't it?) and I was jolted awake by Petyon practically jumping on my face saying "Mommy, get up. You have to play with me!" I tried explaining to her "mommy is tired she needs to rest" but of course that was like speaking a foreign language to her. Right than I had this sort of Deja vu moment except I was the little girl jumping on my exhausted mom not having a clue in the world why she JUST WOULDN'T GET UP! oh so funny how the tables turn. Yes God..."Give me the strength to be everything you have called me to be. Lead me."

The Child's Angel

2010-04-24T11:55:00.000-07:00

My brain is full at the moment. I don't even know how to begin to process all that I witnessed at the Catalyst conference this week. (If you want to know more about Catalyst you can go here: http://www.catalystwestcoast.com/catalyst.php) For me, when I feel I am in a fog of emotion, I write and it helps to clear the air. So this entry is more for me than anyone else but maybe it will help clear the air for someone else too.

Before Catalyst I was becoming more and more sickened by the growing statics of child abuse in our world today. Its funny how before you have kids these things bother you but after you have kids these things keep you up at night. I have been kept up at night more times than I can count after hearing things like 20,000 images of child pornography are posted illegally online every WEEK, or that 1 in 58 children are being raised in abusive homes this year, or that every year 15 million children die of hunger. These things bother me beyond words and I have questioned why God would allow it. I recently went through Beth Moores Bible study on Revelation and got some comfort on this topic after coming to the realization that God does not let these things go unnoticed and there will be a day when God will avenge the blood of those who have been abused. I have great comfort knowing that there is a day coming when God will say ENOUGH! and all the abuse will stop in an instant and his wrath will be poured out on the earth. For those who have been wronged he will create a new earth for them where they will not think about nor even remember what has happened to them and the sound of weeping and crying will be heard no more (Isaiah 65:19). I love, love, love Isaiah 65:20 "Never again will there be an infant who only lives a few days" and vs 23 "no longer will there be children who are doomed to misfortune for they will be a people blessed by the Lord!" Amen to that right!

So I was extremely moved that Catalyst would spend sometime on the topic of abused children. Kay Warren and Wes Stafford (the President of Compassion) both gave incredible talks on behave of children here are just a few of there points.

1. Did you know that if one family from every four churches in America would adopt a foster child there would be no more foster care in America???
2. Mathew 18:10 - Children have their own personal guardian Angels and if we were able to see them we would fall down in fear of them and never lay a hand on a child again.
3. Did you ever notice that Jesus said "LET the children come to me" He did not say "BRING the children to me" If we would just get out of the way they would come to him.
4. Very soon after the account of "Jesus blessing the Children" found in the gospels, he was put on the cross. Children were among the last people to bless Jesus.

So just in case you ever had any doubt rest assured that JESUS Loves Children! Even now as Peyton is running down the hall with a balloon between her legs screaming "I love my Balloon Horse!" and Amber is throwing every single DVD off the shelf for the 5th time today I can not wipe this smile off my face knowing that the GOD of the universe finds great delight in my Children.

Easter or Bust...

2010-04-06T14:17:00.000-07:00

Well this Easter was a different one for the Kertson household. Thanks to a very contagious case of the stomach flu things were not so Eastery around our house. I had really been looking forward to this Easter, for one because Peyton now understands holidays and she has been looking forward to this since the day after Christmas. She was so excited to go on an Easter Egg hunt and to see the Easter bunny and of course this made mom just as excited to experience these things through her eyes. I was also looking forward to my parents joining us for the holiday. My Dad had a meeting with someone in Monterey the day after Easter so they thought they would make a weekend out of it and drive up the Motor home and be with us for Easter. So Everything was lining up nicely until...
It all started Thursday morning when I went to go wake Amber up and noticed she had thrown up all over her crib. At first I didn't think much of it since I had tried a new milk out on her that night and just thought that it had upset her stomach but as soon as I had got her all cleaned up and dressed for the day she threw up again. Ugh. My parents arrived that afternoon and I warned them of the sickness but in true grandparent fashion they did not care and jumped right in playing with their grand kids. By that night Amber seemed a lot better even ate a little dinner and was playing happily, she went to bed and slept through the night so I did not think much more about it until Friday night...it hit me! Spent the night at the toilet wanting to die! It reminded me of being pregnant which reminded me to fulfill my birth control prescription. Well all went down hill from there Saturday night Peyton...poor little baby threw up all night and Sunday night Aunt Laurie got it which lead a call to 911 for an ambulance to take her to emergency to get IVS. Monday my poor parents had to take the long 6 hour drive home throwing up the whole way in the motor home (they didn't even get to go to their meeting that they came down here for in the first place)...I could not feel more terrible about that. Of course they said seeing their grandchildren made it worth it but I think they were just being nice. Brandon was the only one in this family that some how escaped the wrath of this bug. He said its because he prays more than the rest of us...whatever! Looking on the bright side there is one good thing about having the stomach flu on Easter and that is that I actually lost weight on a holiday!
Today was a great day! The sun was shining the kids were healthy. I cleaned cleaned cleaned the whole house from top to bottom. Peyton spent most of the day making all her stuffed animals throw up. They even had little bowls that they threw up in. She actually is pretty good at making a gagging sound...not that I am proud of that. So much for Easter. Better luck next year.

Peyton's well Earned Day at DisneyLand

2010-04-06T13:52:00.000-07:00

Just realized I hadn't post these from Peyton's Day at Disneyland...so here is a sneak peek into her day.

Peyton waiting in line with her ziplock bag of money.
Its hard to tell but this is Peyton watching the lady at the ticket window turn her money into a ticket. My mom said she watched very carefully to see what they were doing with her money. cute.

This is inside small world. My mom said this was her favorite ride of the day (If you ask Peyton she says it was the Toon Town roller coaster) Although we have caught Peyton singing "Its a small world" to herself several times since than.
This is in the car on the ride home. happy and tired. My mom bought her this big stuffed Mickey. (not in the budget but Grandma will be Grandma) It has been her favorite toy since that day, even eats with us at the dinner table some nights. :)

Peyton's quest for Disneyland - part 3

2010-03-11T11:01:00.000-08:00

Well I just sent my baby off to Disneyland with her Nana. We figured since we pretty much paid for Peyton's tickets through her earnings it would not be economical for me to buy another ticket for myself so Peyton is having some one on one time with Nana today. (The two people on this planet that couldn't love Disneyland more!) I pray this time is special for the both of them.

I guess I got a little ahead of myself...my last update Peyton only had $20 something so let me fill you in on the last $40 earned.

We arrived in LA on thursday night with piggy bank in hand. Peyton was excited to show Nana and Papa her piggy bank and tell them all about how hard she has been working. She was super excited that first night so Nana bribed her by telling her if she went to bed without crying and sleept through the night she would get $5. (Its alot easier to get money at Nana's house) So she went right to bed and sleept through the night. The next day was my Dad's Hillbilly birthday party so we were busy most of the day decorating and setting up. Peyton stayed home with Papa. I heard she earned a few dollars picking up her toys and eating her lunch. That evening we had a band at my Dad's party called the Saggy Bottom Boys lead by my brother on a wash board. When we arrived the band was rehearsing. Peyton ran up on stage with them and asked with she coud join them. They of course thought she was adorable and handed her a shaker and she stood on stage and danced and played her shaker through out the whole rehersal. When they were through one of the guys bent down to Peyton and said "well, I think you are hired" and as a joke handed her a one dollar bill. Well that was no joke to Peyton. Her face lit up and she came running to me waving her dollar bill saying "this is for my piggy bank!" The guys face was pricless...I am sure he was thinking...what three year old gets that excited about a dollar bill?

So she worked to earn money Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday morning Papa sat her down and dumped out her piggy bank to count all her money. The grand total $42 and some change. "Thats alot of money!" Peyton said. Papa and I agreed. So I took her to a coin star and cashed in her change (That little piggy bank held $23 in change alone) and than went to the bank and got out a $20 to make a grand total of $62, enough to buy a ticket. I put her money in a ziplock baggie and told her she had enough to go to Disneyland and she jumped up and down in the middle of the store for a good minute. The rest of the day was spend trying to explain to her the meaning of tomorrow since she didn't understand why she couldn't go that very moment to buy her ticket. Last night Nana put her to bed early. I was sceptical that she would go to sleep that early but Nana explained to her that she needed a good nights sleep for Disneyland and when she woke up it would be time to go. She went right to sleep!

So all in all I think some great lessons were leanred. I think I will keep up the piggy bank earning money thing so that the next time she wants something that cost money I can say "well how much money do you have?" Nana is going to have Peyton give her money in her ziplock bag to the cashier at Disneyland herself. I can't wait to here that story and all about her well earned day at Disneyland!

Peyton's Quest for Disneyland - Part 2

2010-03-02T19:32:00.000-08:00

Well the other night we dumped out the piggy bank to count all the money that Peyton had made over the last couple of weeks. She has been working very hard, never letting a day go by without asking if she can make some money. She tells everyone that will listen about her little project too (like her gymnastics coach, Sunday school teacher and the bag boy at Safeway, to name a few) and along the way she has cheated just a little by being so cute and charming while telling her story that people have donated to the cause! lol. oh well, I figure a little charming never hurt anyone. But back to the money count...when we poured out the money from the bank onto the table Peyton said "wow! That is A LOT of Money!" We began to count, Peyton helped by counting the dollar bills (which by the way through this little project she has learned what a dollar, a quarter and a penny are and calls them by name) and daddy put the coins in piles amounting to a dollar so she could count those too. When we were all finished counting the grand total came to $26 and some change. When we told her the amount she put her face in her hands and said "Oh man!" I asked if she had enough to buy a ticket yet and she sadly said "no". So as you can see she is taking this seriously, which I think is amazing that a barely three year old can even grasp this concept. With a little more than a week left before Disneyland day she still has a lot of work to do (or a lot of charming to do). But apparently Nana has some projects waiting for her when she gets there so we will see what those are. I think she will make it *wink*wink.*In other news...Amber has all of the sudden in the last few days decided to make her voice known in this family...literally! She is starting to talk a lot more! Instead of crying when she wakes up from a nap she yells from her crib "Mommy? Daddy?" Today after hitting Peyton over the head with a toy and than screaming at her I scolded her and than told her to say she was sorry (not expecting her to actually say it) and this little baby looked right up at Peyton and with a quivering lip and every thing said "sory." She also knows several animal sounds and can count! no joke! I held up two pacifiers the other day and without us even asking her to she said "two." She's a genius! :) I was telling Brandon last night that it is a good thing she is so cute and smart because her strong-will makes me want to strangle her most days. As cute as she is, she is doubly as stubborn and I don't say this lightly, she has me scared to death of what the future has in store for me as far as parenting this little one. I just try to keep reminding myself that if I can successfully channel this behavior for good, she may just be able to change this world for the better. I am convinced that the great leaders of our country started out as stubborn and strong willed children, so I feel privileged to be given this challenge but a "challenge" I am sure it will be.

Peyton's quest for Disneyland - part 1

2010-02-19T19:42:00.000-08:00

In a couple weeks we will be taking a mini vacation! yay! We are going to be visiting my parents to celebrate my Dad's 70th birthday (we are having a hillbilly party for him...hee hee) and than we are leaving the kids with Nana and Papa and Brandon and I are going to Arizona for a few days. It's actually really exciting, Brandon was chosen to present a paper he wrote at the society of biblical languages conference... more on that later.
Well I usually wait until the very last min to tell Peyton that we are going somewhere fun because as much as we have tried to teach her about days, weeks, months and years the concept is still very foreign to her. One week in our world means any second in hers, so you can imagine why I try to wait. Well my wonderful husband (in true husband like fashion, which is not his fault, he is not with her all day everyday and does not have to listen to the constant questioning, so he does not know that some things MUST be kept secret for the sanity of the MOM... I digress) told Peyton that she was going to see Nana and Papa soon. Well this was about a week ago and sometime during the course of having to explain to her everyday...no we are not going to Nana's today... she got her in mind that not only is she going to Nana's house she is also going to DISNEYLAND! If you know anything about my child you know that it is not easy to talk her out of one of her ideas. She could tell you that the sky is green and you could try all day long to tell her that the sky is not green it is blue and she would continue to tell you that in fact the sky was green, so trying to tell her that she was NOT going to go to Disneyland was not going well. So I decided to try to rationalize (with a three year old this can be tricky) and tell her that we did not have enough money to go to Disneyland. The conversation went something like this:

Mom: Disneyland cost a lot of money. Daddy would have to work a long time to save enough money to go to Disneyland.
Peyton: But all we have to do is get a ticket!
Mom: Yes, but tickets cost a lot of money and we do not have alot of money
Peyton: We can go to the store and get more money
Mom: no that is not how it works. You have to work hard to earn that much money.

So that morning after hearing about her going to Disneyland for several hours I finally got her on the phone with Nana in hopes that Nana would be able to explain things better than I. That conversation went something like this:

Peyton: Nana I want to go to Disneyland with you
Nana: You do?
Peyton: Yes and ride all the rides like the Carousel and the train and the elephant! but mommy said no because we don't have a ticket.
Nana: Well we just might have to see what we can do about that!

So as you can see Nana was of no help.

The next morning after exhausting her father and I at the the Breakfast table with all this Disneyland talk I finally had a brilliant idea. I told her that she could go to Disneyland if she could raise enough money to go. (Secretly knowing that Nana and Papa would not be able to refuse her little pleading face and would eventually buy her a ticket to go to Disneyland anyways, I might as well get a lesson out of this... right?) So we got her piggy bank off the shelf and counted the money she had in it. She actually had, to my surprise, $12 in it. Than we looked online to see how much tickets to Disneyland were and found out they are $62 dollars! (holy cow!) So I told Peyton she had to work to raise $50 more dollars to buy a ticket to go to Disneyland. We talked about things she could do to work for the money like picking up her toys (at that moment she immediately jumped up and did that) helping mom match the socks from the laundry, emptying the dishwasher, washing her dishes and being nice to Amber (which will be the hardest of all the jobs and worth the most money!) It has been a few days now and let me tell you I have a different child on my hands!!! She has been so helpful and asks me all day what she can do to get money and jumps at the task and does it well!!! I pretty much have her trained to fold socks and empty the silverware from the dishwasher and today while Amber was being fussy in the car instead of shouting at her to be quiet Peyton reached over and grabbed Amber's hand and said "Its ok Amber, we will be home soon" I just about died. I caught her eye in the rear view mirror and she said "did I earn some money mommy?"
So we will see how long this last. I will keep Peyton's quest for Disneyland updated...I am not sure if this is going to be a great lesson learned for her if it will back fire on me and from now on she won't help around the house unless she gets some money for it. But a parent's role is ultimately a big guessing game right?

REVELATION

2010-02-18T11:56:00.000-08:00

Thanks to my new found love in Beth Moore and her Bible Studies God has really been teaching me A lot. I love Beth Moore's approach to the scriptures and her passion for understanding them. (I especially look forward to seeing her choice of outfit and hairdo week after week! :) ) In the fall I finished my first study of hers through the book of Esther. It was, to say the least, life changing for me. Just a few weeks ago I gladly jumped in to a new study of hers through the book of Revelation. I don't particularly love this book of the bible, I have been through studies of it before and came away from them with nothing more than fear, but I was very curious as to what Beth Moore had to say about Revelation so I joined the study. After only three short weeks she has once again left me inspired and wanting more. Here is what I have learned so far.

The theme running through the book of Revelation is to OVERCOME!!! That was so eye opening to me and has allowed me to be able to come to this book with hope rather than fear! What a wonderful reminder that God's will for his people is to overcome! It is NOT his will for the ones that love him to be in bondage over addiction, depression, anger or rejection. We are more then conquers in Christ Jesus who loves us.

We have also been studying the person of John to see what we can learn about being able to receive a fresh revelation from God and so far the biggest thing that has stuck out to me is that he simply WANTED IT! In Revelation 1:12 John says "and I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me" He just turned around....he made the choice to turn toward Jesus. How often do I make the choice to turn away from Jesus and seek answers elsewhere and than wonder why I am not hearing form God? Some other things we can learn from John is first, he overcame and endured through his hardships (When he received his revelation he was in fact cast away from all that he knew and loved and put on an island to be persecuted.) second, he feared God! and third, he trusted God! If only we could apply these few things to our lives on a daily basis, think of the new Revelations we might receive!

And lastly (for today) I have learned that in order to receive a new revelation I must first come back to my "first love" JESUS. There are two distinct ways to turn from Jesus, one is to purposefully do so. To make that choice not to follow him and look for truth elsewhere. which is so easy to do these days with all the psychological mind games that the world can play with us it is easy to start believing the world rather than God. The other is to just to simply let him (our first love) slip away. I have to tell you that I was convicted this week to ask myself "is God my first love???" Have I (unknowingly) in the business of life, and kids, and day to day activities let Him slip away?

This I know to be true...It is impossible to receive a fresh revelation from God by accident, it has to be a choice. I encourage you to ask yourself some tough questions today. I don't know about you but I WANT to receive a fresh revelation from God and step by step I am making that choice.

"I can see the whole world from up here!"

2010-02-16T14:02:00.000-08:00

Both of my children are amazing and beautiful but today I want to spend sometime updating you on the life of Peyton. Well she turned three just a week ago and much to her delight and her parents fear she is now a little lady. The things that come out of her mouth have me smiling constantly even when she is in trouble, I try to bite my lips but can't help it she is just to funny. It is Drama Drama Drama all the time in her little world. Her newest thing, at the moment is that she pretends that she is falling down all the time. Like ALL the time. At least 10 times a day she will be walking and all the sudden she "pretends" to fall down and cry's out for help in the most dramatic fashion. The only explanation we can come up with for this behavior is that her one year old sister is starting to learn to walk and falls down a lot and she would like to have some of that attention on her as well. (as if she doesn't get enough already).
In the past few months she has found (much to my delight) the joy of watching and making home videos. She has learned that my phone can make a video so often once Amber goes to bed she asks me to record her dancing or singing on my phone and then she will watch over and over and just laugh and laugh. I am not sure how well she understand the concept of our home videos because often when we are watching tv she will come in the room and look at the tv and say "Mom is that you on the tv?" The other night we were watching Olympic Ice skating and she said "mommy look at you skating! you are doing such a good job?" I said "Why thank you!" :0)
Some of her favorite things at the moment are Sausage (don't know how this started but it is one of the only things she will eat) WordWorld (A TV show all about words! Its wonderful because its teaching her some of the fundamentals of reading through songs and phrases. I will catch her singing them sometimes and it blows me away.) Riding her bike (not just down hill anymore) The other day she road her bike around the whole park! And Gymnastics! The thing she lives for week after week. She can now walk across a high balance beam all by herself, swing on the rings, and jump from a high platform into a foam pit with no fear! This week will be her last class in the mommy and me level. Starting next month her teacher thinks that she is ready to move on to the next level! I am such a proud mommy. She is working so hard and listens so well during class. I think I might just shed a tear on her first day of class when I will be sitting on the sidelines just watching her do it all by herself without moms help. She is growing up way to fast!
Lastly, This morning we were rushing out the door because we were running late to Bible study and as I was putting Amber in the car I yelled for Peyton to get in the car too but, no such luck, so I turned to grab her and I saw that she was standing on our porch railing stretching on her tiptoes to peer over the side and with a look of amazement and said. "Mommy I can see the whole world from up here!" My first thought was to grab her from that railing and briskly walk her to the car saying "no you don't the world is much bigger than what you can see from that railing!" But than I caught myself, and for just a moment I tried to imagine what it would be like to be able to behold and dwell in the beauty of the world that was just outside my porch railing. What kind of peace would I find in the cool sea breeze, or the beautiful tall oak trees that give our little house shade, or the fact that on a clear day you can see the ocean from our porch and what about spending sometime in awe and wonder over the thickness of the morning fog. So instead I picked Peyton up and together looking at the view from our porch railing I said "Yea...isn't it amazing!"
May you find safety and peace from the view of your porch railing today!

Birthdays, Birthdays and more Birthdays....

2010-02-02T16:03:00.000-08:00

So it's Birthday season here at the Kertson household. For those of you who don't know already...all four of our birthdays are within a month of each other, only two weeks separating each with Brandon starting the extravaganza on Dec. 31st, Ambers being Jan. 13th, Mine Jan 27th and lastly Peyton's being Feb. 8th. (Poor Peyton...this is the first year she actually understands her birthday and is soooooooooo looking forward to it and has had to watch all her other family members birthdays go by before hers.) So there you have it...poor planning...or just no planning...however you want to put it, that is our situation. So with this situation comes many challenges, the first of course is the money issue...especially after the Holidays things are a bit tight. Before Amber was born I didn't see this as such a huge crisis. Brandon and I were willing to take a back seat to presents and things on our birthdays so save up money for presents and parties on Peyton's birthday but that little plan soon went out the window a year later when a new little gift came along in the form of Amber in January. So now we have delicate decisions to make regarding how we celebrate birthdays. Now I understand that there are the kinds of people who grew up in households where birthdays were not a huge deal but I WAS NOT ONE OF THEM, so Birthdays are big for me. I want to go all out and make them special so that is why I am struggling with our situation.
So how are we handling it this year you ask? Well...as a good friend (who shall remain nameless) has pointed out...not well. It all started with this idea that seemed to make a lot of sense to me, here it is: invite the same amount of friends to your child's party as the age they are turning that year. So when Amber's 1st birthday rolled around we invited her ONE best buddy Micah and his family over for dinner and cake. It was a nice evening...very different then Peyton's first birthday where there was 30+ plus people and lots and lots of presents (not that that was not fun too) but following this new rule I tried it out. Unfair to Amber? I don't know...At the moment I don't think she knew the difference. All she knew was that she got to play with balloons and people sat around and watched her eat cake. (which was homemade with less sugar...different then peyton's store bought chocolate cake which put her in a sugar coma. Unfair too?) Will Amber ask why she didn't get a big 1st birthday party like Peyton did when she is 16 and looking at family photos? That I don't know...
When it came time to plan Peyton's party I started it with the new rule in mind although I knew I had to fudge it by two. Inviting five friends and their families. I blame it on being apart of a wonderful church family where peyton attends play group on Friday and Sunday school on Sunday and has accumulated some very close friends that she speaks of on a daily basis by name so we could not pick three and leave the other two out. Well some how in the last couple weeks the guest list has grown to somewhere around 30 people!!! How this happened...well once again...I blame it on our wonderful life where we have so many wonderful friends that love peyton and want to celebrate her. Unfair to Amber? Maybe...but at this point what has been done this year has been done. But it takes good friends to make you think...so that it what I am doing in this blog. Thinking. I know in my heart I do not favor one of my children more than the other and I only had their best interest at heart in the planning of their birthdays. Next year will bring even more challenges as Amber grows and starts to understand her birthday we are going to have to decide how this is going to go down and how it is going to go down fairly. So any suggestions would greatly be appreciated. Obviously for me I want to throw them both individual birthday parties and make them feel loved and celebrated. I hate the thought of them having to have combined birthday parties for the rest of their childhood but as anyone knows who has planned a birthday party before they are freakin expensive!!!! So what to do....what to do. Well I guess I dwell on it all year and hope to come up with a fair yet wonderful solution for next year. Again any suggestions are much appreciated!!! and don't worry another little gift to arrive in the winter months is NOT in the plan this year....and yes there is a plan! :)

long time no post.

2009-10-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

I just realized that I have not blogged in a long time!!! I guess I will just do a quick update to catch up.

We are all doing well. the girls are growing and changing everyday. Amber is now 9 months old. She is "army crawling" all over the place. She has two teeth and one on the way! She knows how to wave, clap and stick out her tongue. She is full of giggles and smiles and loves playing with her big sister. She has recently found her screaming voice and every once and awhile she will let out an ear piercing scream that leaves my ears ringing and her giggling with her success. She is doing really well on soild foods and it has been fun for me because I am making all my own baby food for her. She pretty much will eat anything, which may be the reason why she is HUGE. Almost weighing 20 pounds and now wears 12 months clothes. I think she may pass peyton up soon.

Peyton is now 2 1/2. When she turned two I thought that maybe we were going to escape the terrible two curse. She has always been such an easy kid to deal with. Well 2 1/2 rolled around and watch out! Not that she is NOT a good kid because she is, but she is just testing the waters, as my mom would say, so some days are more challenging than others as far as her sassy attitude goes but she is a joy to be around most days. She is so so smart, already knows the whole alphabet and the sounds of all the letters which allows her daddy to work with her to try to sound out words. Not joking you she sounded out the word cat the other night. don't believe me just come over and witness it ;) . She recently started gymnastics and loves it, to the point of not being able to sleep at night she is so excited about going. She is fully potty trained. We did a three day potty training boot camp and that did the trick. She dosen't even wear a pull up at night and hasn't had an accident in weeks!!!

Brandon started working on his masters again. He is taking two classes, one of them is a weekend class which leaves me alone alot with the girls but I try to stay busy and thanks to our wonderful friends here in Santa Cruz so far we have found fun and exciting things to do every weekend he has been away.

Well that is a short catch up but I will try to keep my blog up to date from now on. (yea right ;) )

A cup of coffee...

2009-08-06T11:15:00.000-07:00

Don't get me wrong I love my life. Being a mom is not only rewarding its lots and lots of fun! But there are moments like this morning that the only thing that gets me through is taking long, deep, breaths.
Warning: Don't read on unless you care a whole lot about my day to day life because its sort of laborious. (I warned you)
After a long night of kids crying and a tooth ache keeping me awake my husband got up with the kids and let me sleep in until 9am. Which I was delighted about. He and Peyton came into my room to wake me up so Brandon could leave for work. Peyton leaped up onto the bed and gave me a huge hug and said "Mommy wake up...I missed you." Needless to say she melted my heart and I got up with a smile on my face. Staggered into the kitchen looking for the coffee pot and started a pot of boiling water for my oatmeal. I noticed that the baby and Aunt Laurie were still asleep and Peyton was happily watching a tv show so I was looking forward to enjoying a quiet moment with my cup of coffee. Just as the coffee started perking Brandon came in to kiss me and peyton good bye and left for work. (I am always a little jealous at this time of day but alas...)
I hear the baby starting to cry so I look at the coffee pot and see it needs a few more min to finish so I go in to get the baby up. I soon realize she is NOT a happy girl. She had her 6 months round of shots the day before and I could feel she was warm with a low grade fever and probably a bit sore. Poor baby I pick her up and try to comfort her but she is not having it. Screaming I noticed that she was also cutting her first tooth. Delighted at the sight of her first tooth I smiled at her and she stopped and smiled back before she continued on with her crying. I took her out to the kitchen and sat her in her highchair and handed her a cold teething ring to munch on. That seemed to calm her so I looked back at the coffee pot. Its finished and ready...hurray! My water for the oatmeal is boiling too so I pour in the oatmeal flakes and some apples and start to stir. Just then Peyton comes skipping into the kitchen exclaiming that she would like to get dressed. BY HERSELF! "Were is my coat?", Were is my pants", "I get dressed by myself!" I tell her "Peyton, mommy is busy right now. she is trying to eat breakfast." "NO...I get dressed" (throwing herself onto the ground) I normally don't give into this behavior but at that moment all I wanted to do was eat and have a cup of coffee. So I go into her room pull out a coat, some pants, sunglasses and shoes and tell her to get dressed. I figured that would keep her busy for awhile. As I walked out of her room and decided to stop into Laurie's room to see if she was ready to get up and have some oatmeal with me. The moment I walked into her room I smelled it. The unmistakable smell of urine. Sure enough she had wet her bed. (A rare occurrence but it does happen) Deep Breaths...I quickly get her out of bed and into the bathroom for a shower. I pull off her sheets put them in the wash and hear the baby starting to cry again. So I pull her out of her high chair make her a bottle and lay her on her boppy. (luckily she can now hold her own bottle now) I pass by the coffee pot and see that the red light is still on, happy at the sight that at least it is not getting cold. I go back into the bathroom and get laurie into the shower. Peyton comes walking into the bathroom with one arm of her jacket on, her shorts around her neck and pair of sunglasses upside down on her head. "What are you doing mommy?" "I am giving Laurie a shower" I smell she is poopie but that will have to wait. I finish laurie's shower and begin to get her dressed all the while hearing the baby crying...again. I leave Laurie for a moment to check on the baby and see that she had finished her bottle and was not happy about it. So I put her in her walker with some toys to play with and run back into the bathroom...still not happy. I finished with Laurie and get her into the kitchen for some oatmeal, that is now cold. Baby still crying. So I pick her up and take her into her crib to see if she will fall asleep to take her out of her misery. I go back into the kitchen and see Peyton again. She was walking around the living room so proud that she had dressed herself I had to stop and find my camera to snap a picture. Baby still crying. I go back into the room to give baby back her pacifier and grab some clothes and a diaper for peyton. I change Peyton's diaper and get her properly dressed for the day and turn back into the kitchen and realize that Laurie had spilled her drink all over the table and kitchen floor. Deep breaths...I clean up the mess and sit laurie in the living room chair where she seems happy watching peyton dance around the room to "Yo Gabba Gabba". I stop myself for a moment take a deep breath and realize that the baby must have fallen asleep at some point, peyton was happy watching her show and laurie was happy watching her so maybe now was the time I could finally get my cup of coffee I walk into the kitchen coffee light still on. I pour my cup just the way I like it with cream and sugar and take a drink. It is Delicious! Hot, creamy and sweet. I sit down close my eyes and enjoy this moment. With every sip I feel more and more alive like it was assuring me that I was going to make it through the day. With two sips left of my cup I felt like I could muster up the energy to begin to think about cleaning up the kitchen when I hear the baby start to cry... again... Deep Breaths...Is it wrong that at that moment I was actually looking forward to the babysitter coming so that I could go my dentist apointment?

The girl's first boat ride!

2009-07-31T09:01:00.000-07:00

During our trip to San Diego to visit Brandon's family we took a ferry ride to Cornado Island. It was the first time both girls had been on a moving boat. So it was really exciting for them (and for mom) Amber loved it. She laughed and giggled the whole way because of the wind. She kept lifting her arms up to feel the wind blowing. It was pretty cute. Peyton liked it too but was a little scared at first. She held on to Auntie B's arm very tightly but had a smile on her face the whole ride.

Cute video of Amber and Mimi blowing in the wind! :)

A Tribute to My Mom

2009-07-07T11:36:00.000-07:00

Today is my mom's birthday. I won't post her age on here but it is a good one and it ends in a 0 :). I stayed up all night making this video for her. The goal was to make her cry but while putting it together it made me cry! Whenever I see pictures of my childhood or think about the memories I always get choked up because I realize how very blessed I was to be born into this family. When I think of me as a little girl I get warm fuzzies. :) My childhood was just that good! Don't get me wrong we had our fair share of trials, for example I lost all four of my grandparents in the span of two years. But even during that time I have good memories because everything we did my mom was sure to make it fun! She went out of her way to make us feel safe, secure and loved! My only wish is that I will be half the mom my Mom was. I also hope that I look as good as she does when I get to her age. My mom is beautiful and anyone will say so! (Even my guy friends in highschool thought so! :) ) So this is a tribute to my mom! She deserves it for all the warm fuzzy memories our family has. I hope this video captures a glimpse of my mom's heart, because it is big! :) I love you mom!

"The Girls"

2009-07-01T14:01:00.000-07:00

Anybody who knows me at all knows that I have a group of friends in my life whom call themselves "The Girls". We have been "The Girls" for over a decade now starting when we all met freshman year of college. (Lindsay and I have been friends since high school) I feel so lucky to have these girls in my life. Not everyone has friendships like this and I don't take for granted that these friends have been there to see me grow up. They knew me before marriage and kids and I love that they never let me forget who I am. Through the years life has taken us all in different directions but we have still kept our friendship alive. Last year ALOT of big changes happened to all of us. I had a 2nd baby and moved to santa cruz and Jes moved to Nashville. I am not going to lie there were days that I was sad because I doubted that our friendship would last through the changes but last week we got the oportunity to meet up again in good old LA and had a few days to spend together. All my fears where gone the moment we all group hugged and started off again like we had never left eachother. I could cry just thinking about how special these girls are to me. I picture the four of us as old ladies and still meeting up somewhere in this world to group hug and continue on like we had never left. I love you girls more than you will ever know! Can't wait until 5th annual GGW 2009!

The 1st Annual Strawberry Day!

2009-07-01T13:28:00.001-07:00

Gizdich ranch is a farm here in Santa Cruz that you can go and pick your own seasonal fruit. The Marchassault's had gone and told us how much fun it was so they were kind enough to go again with us. It was a delicious day all around. here are some fun pics of our strawberry adventure.

The Dad's took it upon themselves to carry the babies they did not apreciate us wives calling them "cute" but we could not help ourselves, don't you agree?
Caleb and Peyton LOVED running through the fields and picking strwaberries they even ate a few right off the bush...shhhhh don't tell :)
My pretty strawberry girl. Yes I put this dress on her because I knew how cute the pictures would be in it. hey atleast I admit it! :)

this pretty much sums up their relationship....awwww black mail for the jr high years!
this is a picture that peyton drew of the strawberry fields. When I asked her about it she told me they were sad strawberries. I asked her why they where sad she said because they lost their mommy and daddy. I was confused by this until I told my friend sarah about what she said. She thinks in Peyton's head we ate the mommy and daddy strawberry's and left the babies still in the field. Makes sense? what do you think?
that night we decided to have a strawberry feast back at our house so the kids played while we made dinner.

Strawbwrry margaritas, strawberry salsa over grilled chicken and strawberry salad. Yum! And of course we did not forget dessert!
Such a wonderful day with good friends and strawberrys nothing could be sweeter. We had such a good day we decided to make it a tradition. hopefully there will be several more strawberry days in the years to come with us and the Marchassaults!

Father's Day and Dedication

2009-07-01T13:07:00.000-07:00

On Father's Day we had are two girls dedicated before the church. We never had Peyton dedicated so it was special to do both girls together. Even though Brandon and I dedicated our girls to the lord the moment they were born it is always special to do it publicly and in front of a body of Christ knowing that we have accountability and support from others. During the dedication our pastor presented us with a red rose bush. the bush represents new life because it was full of new little rose buds and the red of the rose represents the blood of Christ over this new life. I am trying really hard not to kill the bush! So far I am doing good with it :) Praise God for my family and all the blessings he has given me. I dedicate these little ones to you Lord and promise to raise them to the best of my ability to grow into Women of God that will change this world! Amen

Stranger Danger or Not?

2009-06-20T18:13:00.000-07:00

This last weekend Our life group decided to go to a local park near downtown and have a Bar BQ and pass out food to the homeless people living at the park. It was a great day! A feel like several people were blessed. I was able to pray with a lady in particular that had recently had a heart attack and was discharged from the hospital to live on the streets. She had to take her heart medication with food but had none. She said she was about to take her medication when I came walking over with a hamburger. She had tears in her eyes when she told me she felt like God was hearing her prays and providing for her needs.
I have done alot of outreaches such as this in my day but this was the first one I did with kids of my own. Its funny because when brandon and I lead King's Kids groups to feed homeless people the parents of the kids would often be very afraid and not allow their kids to go on our outreach or insist they go and stay with their child at all times. Brandon and I used to comment on how over protective that seemed and how sad it was that those parents didn't understand the value of exposing their kids to different types of people and teaching them to love ALL just as Jesus does. Well if any of you parents are reading this I want you to know I GET IT! I have to admit I was in overprotective parent mode with my two year old. I was sizing up each and every person that got near her and never took my eyes off her. But even in my mama bear mode their was one moment when I saw her run over to one of the homeless guys sitting on the grass and sat on his lap! Not even joking you! she sat in this scruffy, dirty, homeless mans lap! I love this quality in her that she is not afraid of people and jumps into every situation with both feet in but that was a little to much for me to handle. I pray that she never looses that quailty in her but I think we are going to have to have a talk about stranger danger very soon!

A Conversation with Peyton

2009-06-15T16:23:00.000-07:00

Setting: Peyton sitting at the table eating mac and Cheese, Laurie sitting next to her, mom getting Laurie dinner.

Peyton: Mommy I scared of Caleb.

Mom: Why are you scared of Caleb?

Peyton: (nothing)

Mom: You don't need to be scared of Caleb. He is your friend. He might chase you sometimes but that is because he is playing with you, because he is your friend.

Peyton: (Nothing)

Mom: Who else is your friend?

Peyton: Laurie is my friend

Mom: Good. I am glad Laurie is your friend. Who else?

Peyton: Mommy and Daddy are my friend

Mom: That is good mommy and daddy are your friends but they are also your parents. Who else is your friend?

Peyton: Cookies are my friends
Spoon is my friend
Cheese is my friend

Mom: Ok...those are not your friends. They can't talk to you. It is good to have friends that can talk to you.

Peyton: (quiet and thinking for a moment then shouts)
Elmo is my friend!!!!

shoe fetish at two??!!!

2009-06-14T15:36:00.000-07:00

So my two year old has a shoe fetish. Every afternoon when I get her up from her nap she has gotten into her shoe drawer and is wearing a pair of shoes. Her shoe of choice is of course her fancy church shoes. She gets very upset if I try to take them off of her so she usually keeps them on for the rest of the day. If this keeps up into the teen years I think we are in trouble.

baking time!

2009-05-18T21:23:00.000-07:00

One thing I used to love to do with my mom when I was a kid was to bake. So I decided Peyton was ready for her first baking experience. Plus GAS (Great Aunt Sally) Just made her an apron so it gave me the idea to put it to good use. We made Brownies and she loved it! She actually did a good job pouring the ingredients and than stirring. I think her favorite part was licking the spoon though! :) I even taught her to wash her dishes when she was done. Thanks GAS for the cute apron!

The Gape!

2009-05-17T19:02:00.000-07:00

After Amber was born Brandon's Grandma gave us a gift card to babies R Us. We decided to use it to get a gate to go across our porch. Since we don't have a yard Peyton does not get to play outside much. I would often take her out there but it is hard because I have to always be with her because she likes to run into the street. This does not work well when you have a baby that is inside and you are chasing your toddler down the street. I swear it would be so much easier on us Mother's if we could be two places at once! So we had this idea to get a gate so that she could play out there with out constant supervision. The day we got the gate Peyton watched as dad set it up. she was excited at first but soon realized this was something that going to take away her freedom. She actually called it a cage at first. (now she calls it a gape) once we got it all set up she sat and cried in front of it for a good 20min. Funny because we got it thinking that we were giving her more freedom to be able to play without us having to watch her all the time but she saw it has taking away her freedom. Now that the gape has been up for a week now she is starting to get the idea that she can play on the porch and she is warming up to the idea. THANKS GRANDMA for the gift Card. It is so nice for me to be able to leave the door open and let the wonderful Santa Cruz air flow through while peyton gets to play in the sun shine!

Mother's Day Fiesta!!!

2009-05-17T18:08:00.000-07:00

Well sadly I don't have any pictures of this because I forgot my camera that day. maybe I will steal some from Rachel when she gets them up. But this Mother's Day was the best so far. It was only my third one but it will be hard to beat.
mother's Day morning I preached my first ever sermon. Preach it sister! Actually I was kinda stressed about it and even the morning of I told Brandon...this was not very nice of you to do to me on mother's day. I am suppose to be relaxing today! he said to me...I did this because I know how much you love to be used by God so it was my gift to you on mothers Day. Well I sort of shrugged him off but actually he was right.Tthe morning was such a blessing to me. I really felt God spoke through me to touch people's hearts and it was an amazing feeling. Its been awhile since I have felt that feeling so it was truly a gift.
That afternoon Rachel picked me up and we went and got pedicures and did some shopping at the mall while the boys took the kids and were setting up a party for us. When we got to the Marchassult's house There were Margarita's, a sound system with Mexican music playing, carna asada and even a Pinata. The Boys told us that since our pastor's wife Julia got to go to Mexico for Mother's Day they thought they would bring Mexico to us and give us a Fiesta. So cute!!! I think they had more fun blind folding their wives and spinning us around to hit the pinata than anything!!!
I can't say enough how blessed I am by these friends. They truly are a blessing in our lives. Having to live in a place were we don't have family around is hard especially on holidays but thankfully God has given us a family here with our friends the Marchassult's. Love you guys!

A Mother's Day Message

2009-05-15T22:58:00.000-07:00

Peyton's emergency room scare!

2009-05-12T16:59:00.000-07:00

Well I wasn't sure I was going to blog about this but I decided maybe it would be good therapy for me and also to let family and friends now exactly what happened.
A week ago Sunday we were sitting down for dinner and Brandon put Laurie's (Brandon's Aunt that we take care of) pills on the table and while our backs were turned for a few short secs. Peyton reached over and got a pill and took it. The pill she took is called Topamax which is an anti seizure medication. She took 200mg which is about 10 times the dose they would give a child peyton's size. We rushed her to the emergency room and for 24 hours she was hallucinating and going in and out of consioucness. She suffered from insonmia (I don't think she slept for 24 hours) and she could not walk or talk to us this whole time. It was so scary!!!
I have learned alot from this experience. One...she is alot faster than I give her credit for. But probably most importantly God has worked on my heart and mind alot. After this happened I began to become a little parnoid about her well being. Like laying awake at night thinking of all the other ways she could get hurt while my back was turned. I was having so much fear in my heart that all I could do was pray. During those long nights following the accident God really ministred to me. He told me that this fear I was having was not from Him. He does not want me to parent out of fear but out of Faith. Faith that He has a plan for her and He will take care of her. A friend of mine reminded me that as much as I love her God loves her that much more. I thought I had given her to God when she was born but during those long dark nights I REALLY had to give her to him. I finally just had to surrender and give him control of her life and the most amazing thing is that as soon as I did that God took my fears away!!
Praise God Peyton (and I) are happy and doing well. We are back to normal life and honestly I don't even know if she remembers what happened to her.
Last Sunday I had the oportunity to preach at our church for Mothers Day. My recent story made for a good sermon and I know God used what he taught me to touch others as well. God works all things together for good! I will put up the link to the pod cast of the sermon soon for those who are interested in hearing it! Thanks to all those who prayed for us during this scare. Prayer works! To God be the Glory!

Road trip to LA!

2009-04-28T22:35:00.000-07:00

Last week the staff at our church went to the Catalyst Conference in LA. So instead of being home alone with the kids all week Rachel and I decided to get away ourselves. Rachel's parents live near LA as well so we packed all four kids in the car and made the 6+ hour trek to LA. We were not sure if we were crazy for doing this or not but it indeed up being ALOT of fun. Caleb and Peyton entertained each other the whole time. We actually had to turn off their little TV screen in the backseat at 10pm because they would not fall asleep. The babies did really well too! Micah does not like being in his car seat so he had to cry himself to sleep but Amber was fascinated by another baby crying that she stayed quiet just listening most of the way. And Rachel and I talked and talked and talked and I realized just how blessed I am to have her in my life. Here is the photo blog of our road trip!
we put the toddlers together in the back hoping they would get along and they did! They were so cute back there singing and dancing and watching their movies together. I think Peyton offically has her first crush!

We stopped at a McDonalds for Dinner and PJS. They had these cool video games that Caleb and Peyton loved playing with.
Caleb cutie patootie in his PJS
lolliepops kept them happy!
we made it to LA. Rachel droped us off at my moms house. The first day we went to Victoria Gardens out to lunch and played in the water fountain. It was nearly 100 degrees that day!
Got to spend some time with my brother and his wife. here is my brother holding amber for the first time! So cute!
Amber in the car on the way to see her boy friend micah in big bear. so excited!
We drove up to Big Bear to spend the day with our friends
Caleb and Peyton threw rocks in the lake for nearly an hour. They are super cute together!
on the way home we stopped at yet another Mcdonalds for dinner and PJS

This picture sums up how precious these two are. Caleb asked to hold Peyton's hand on the way to the car. It is not the greatest picture because I pretty much had to drop everything I was holding (including the baby) to find my camera to capture the moment in time. It will be great black mail for when they are older though! :)

Yeah for fun friends!!!

update on the girls...

2009-04-28T13:36:00.001-07:00

The girls are growing and changing so fast I thought it would be a good idea to do an update on them. They do new things everyday its hard for me to keep up, let alone people who don't see them everyday. So here is what they have been up to!

Amber is now 3mo. old. She is turning out to be a beautiful baby (not going to lie we had some fear when we first saw her with a swollen face and thick black hair lol) She smiles all the time at anyone who will give her the time of day. she is a very good baby but gets easily over stimulated with her big sister around so we have to be careful and make sure we let her sleep.

she giggled for the first time two weeks ago while Peyton and I were singing the 'Wheels on the Bus'
she is very close to being able to sit up. She is a big strong girl weighing over 13 pounds all ready!
her hair is so long I like to play with it. I can even get it into a pony tail!

Peyton is now 26 months old. I think she says at least a new word everyday. Some of my favorites have been 'adorable', 'amazing', 'cute', 'hungry', and 'munchies'. She is starting to get very interested in swimming. she kicks her feet in the bath tub and blows bubbles. I think we are going to sign her up for swim lessons this summer. We just got finished with "toddlers sports academy" a six week class that taught her a different sport every week. I think her favorite was basketball. She actually could dribble the ball!!! she also liked picking flowers on the grass during soccer!
she all the sudden likes to play with her doll that Nana gave her for Christmas. I think it is because she sees mommy with Amber and now knows what to do with it now.
She is a good big sister. A few days ago I took her out with me while Brandon stayed home with Amber. The whole time we were running errands she asked "where Amber go?" It made me realize she has adjusted to Amber being apart of our family and it feels weird to her now when she is not with us.
She is really into dress up!! The bad thing is that the dress up clothes are taking over our house with no place to keep them. On a daily basis she is a butterfly, a princess, a bunny, or going to a tea party. I love that she has an imagination and is not afraid to use it!

So those are my girls! Never a dull moment. They keep me happy, tired, frustrated, elated but most of all full of love!

freak accident...

2009-04-27T21:04:00.000-07:00

I am sooooooooooooooooooo behind on blogging. Guess it has been busy around here lately. So my goal this week is to get caught up.
A few weeks ago it was a really windy day in Santa Cruz. I was driving to Small group with my two girls and while on the frwy a huge tree branch was blowing around and hit my left head light and then hit the wind sheild. It happened so fast that I hardly knew what had happend. Peyton even said "ut oh mommy!" I continued on the frwy not knowing that my head light was shattered and some major damage had been done to the body of the car. My first thought was thank God it didn't hit my wind sheild first because I think it might have broken it and thank God that we are all still alive. I am starting to feel like I have nine lives but I am pretty sure this is like my 7th! I think I am running out of them. It is freak acidents like this that get me thinking... I must still be on this earth for a reason! It kind of got me motivated to rethink my life and my purpose and why God has me here.
So the real bummer is that head lights and body work is very expensive so for now I am driving around with my car looking like this and I get fliped off atleast once a day because people think I am not using my blinker on purpose.
So if anyone has an extra $500 bucks laying around hand it over. :)

My blog got a face lift!

2009-04-16T15:49:00.001-07:00

I used all of nap time today trying to figure out how to make my blog cuter (that's a word right?) Well this was the outcome. Hope you like my new look!

Easter in santa Cruz

2009-04-12T22:49:00.001-07:00

So I am 28 years old and this is the first Easter EVER that I have not been with my family. My mom always does a big Easter brunch at our house and the extended family comes over and the whole day is full of TRADITIONS that have been that way for as long as I have been alive. So the anticipation leading up to my first Easter away from every thing familiar was getting to me. So I decided this would be the perfect time to start some traditions of my own. Thanks to my amazing Mom who always made holidays so fun and special I really have a deep desire to do the same for my own family. So this Easter I went crazy...Easter baskets, egg dying and hunting, pictures with the Easter bunny, church breakfast, pretty new dresses the whole nine yards! Here are a few pictures of our weekend. we had a blast and even my husband (who doesn't really understand the whole big holiday tradition thing) ended the day by saying "We live a great life huh?" I smiled back and said "Yeah."
Thanks mom for teaching me the importance of family memories and holidays. I Love you!

Easter egg hunt as Santa Cruz bible
Amber found and egg too!
Caleb's family was there
face painting

Going down the BIG slide with Daddy!
Egg Dying

Babies first Easter!

sneak peek of family photo shoot...

2009-04-08T20:30:00.000-07:00

So for those of you that can't wait any longer there are some pics up of our family photo shoot this last weekend.When I get the CD of all the pictures I will post them on my blog. But if you want a sneak peek go to http://amynave.blogspot.com and seriously if you know someone who is getting married and needs a wedding photographer or an album made she is your girl! she is amazing as you will see. :) She also has a web site WWW.AMYNAVE.COM go check her out.

Ya Ya and the Easter Bunny!

2009-04-06T21:43:00.000-07:00

Last week I took the girls to see the Easter Bunny. We decided to drive out to Plesenton and meet Sarah at the Mall. I always have huge anxiety right before my kids get their pictures taken just because you never know how its going to go but this was one of the easiest times yet. We got to the mall and found the Easter Bunny. There was no line so we walked right up. Peyton loved him and practically ran over to sit on his lap. Amber did great too! I think she is learning to follow her big sisters lead. Within 10 min we had our picture and its pretty cute too!

After seeing the Easter Bunny we decided to go to one of the many beautiful parks in the area. We found this one and it was pretty cool with huge slides and fun stuff to climb on, even a water park. We decided this is a great meeting place to hang out! Ya Ya of course had some surprises up her sleeves. She made us Easter cupcakes with fonda. Each cupcake had a pretty fonda flower on top. Peyton eat the flower off of five cupcakes and that is all she would eat of them, but she had fun!

Amber looking pretty in her Easter outfit.

Crazy Slides!!! Peyton wanted to go down them herself! She has no fear, it is scary!

Ya Ya went down the slide too... ;)

The last surprise was an Easter hat, gloves and purse for Peyton's growing dress up collection! She absolutely loved it and she looked pretty cute too!Thanks Ya Ya for making our day so fun! We will have to do it again soon!

The gold shoes incident

2009-03-27T21:12:00.000-07:00

So it happened!!! One of my worse fears as a parent finally happened! My child tried to pick out her OWN outfit. I know I know....nothing to be this dramatic about but to me it hurt! I am one of those moms who loves picking out my kids outfits...I get a high out of it...its one of my favorite parts of the day. People have always told me "just wait for the day that she decides she gets to dress herself." and I always cringe at the thought of sending my child out of the house in mixed matched clothes. but I knew it was bound to happen and a necessary step into becoming the person she was made to be. I just thought I had a few more years. Well it happened a few days ago. I told Peyton to go get her shoes because we were going bye bye to the park. She ran into her room and came out super excited with her gold fancy shoes that went with her Christmas dress last year. Long story short...a few min later we were in the car with tennis shoes on and a tear stained face. This incident made me start thinking though...as a mom one of my jobs is to see the personality traits that God has given my children and allow them to develop so that they become their own person. I really really don't want to be that mom who's kids are in highschool and she is still laying their clothes out for them on their beds, but it is going to be hard to let it go. This is just one of the many many things I am going to have to let go of and I am beginning to realize just how difficult this is going to be. My Mom and Dad told me somthing once that I will never forget. They said that from the moment a child is born they instincly start to pull away from their moms starting with the seperation from her body to the day they move out of the house. Its natural, its all part of the plan. As moms we have to realize that our children are not ours they are Gods...He has given them to us to be nurtured and loved and to ultimatly be given away...but its so hard...a concept that I have to remind myself of daily. After the gold shoes incident I have begun this letting go process by realizing it starts with prayer. Before Peyton goes to bed at night I pray with her. Not just a ho hum repetitive prayer but a deep meaningful prayer about her life and the desires I believe God has for her that they would come to pass. And that she too would desire to be the person God has made her to be. Peyton sits quielty peeking out of one eye as I pray...I have no idea what she is thinking...but she always has a huge smile on her face when we both say Amen together. I hope one day she will begin to echo those prayers for herself and desire to become the person God made her to be.

Play Day Beach Day!

2009-03-19T15:01:00.000-07:00

" I love Where I Live!" That's what I told my husband as I left the house this morning. We had a play date planned with our friends Rachel Caleb (2), Micah (1mo) and Jill, Jenna (2), Carlee (3mo). Trust me we got ALOT of attention walking the few blocks to the beach...three double strollers with one toddler and one infant is a sight to see. I feel so blessed to have these friends that I can share this stage of life with. here are few pictures from our day!

Peyton tickling Caleb with a Feather
Micah and Amber

Jenna and Carlee
Pretty cute couple huh?

Dear Peyton

2009-03-18T17:02:00.000-07:00

Dear Peyton,

I just spent the day with you, much like I do everyday, but today as I watched you play with your friends at the park, ride your new bike, pick flowers in our yard and dance to your wiggles I was taken back by how big you are! how did you get to be so big! I found myself holding conversations with you and you understood me and I understood you...I am almost in tears just thinking of how fast your childhood is going to fly by and I feel like everyday that goes by is one less day to spend with you as my little girl and that makes me so sad.
When you were born I never dreamed that I would be blessed with such a beautiful, smart, funny, sweet little girl as you. Not even in my best dream could I have created you and that is why God is so cool! Before you were born your Dad and I talked about raising you and our biggest hope was that we would raise a daughter who was full of love. Love for all ,even those who are different or less fortunate than you. Today as you were picking flowers you told me that you were picking flowers for your aunt Laurie. As I watched you skip into Laurie's room and place your flowers on her bed I realized that our wish for you was already coming true because even though you are only two you made the day of a handicapped women and that meant a lot to me.
I hope that in the years to come your heart when only grow bigger for the "least of these." I look at your little face and I am convinced that you are going to change the world! I only hope that I do my part in raising you to use the gifts and talents that God has given you and when the time is right I will be able to let you go.

All my love,
Mommy

10 * 7 * 5

2009-02-20T16:12:00.000-08:00

So I learned on Dr. Phil today that he has all his guests fill out something that is called 10 * 7 * 5 (10 Defining moments in your life, 7 critical choices you have made, 5 pivotal people that have written on the slate of who you are.) So I decided to go ahead and fill this out for myself. Who knows maybe I will learn something. So this is more for me than anyone else but if you care read on...
10 defining moments in my life
1. Going to a healing service when I was three and getting healed from a milk allergy. I know I was young but I remember this moment and I thank God for that memory because it was the first time I truly knew in my heart that Jesus was real!
2. Winning the Title of the best baton twirler in the region and realizing hard work and confidence pays off.
3. The first time I shared Christ with a homeless black man when I was 15 years old in the streets of Atlanta during the olympic games. The man rejected me and Christ and I was crushed. I sat in the street crying and realizing just how much I loved Jesus and how important it was to me that others did too!
4. Driving through the streets of Honduras and seeing poverty for the first time.
5. Meeting Josh Hunt during an open house for high school and falling in love at first site. That moment lead to an 8 year relationship that was truly heart wrenching.
6. Praying for a fellow team member to be healed while in Africa and she was!
7. Walking to a college class after spending the whole night studying with this squirrely little freshman named Brandon and realizing that I could not wipe the smile off my face. It was then that I knew I could love again.
8. All of brandon and I mentors laying hands on us and praying for us during our wedding ceremony and being moved to tears because I realized that everything I had ever dreamed of or hoped for was comng true!
9. Taking a pregnancy test and seeing that little pink line for the first time and coming to grips with the fact that my life as I knew it would never be the same.
10. waking up in the hospital the night after my baby was born in panic because I thought she wasn't breathing...it was that moment that I knew I was truly a mom!

7 critical choices I have made
1. Signing up to go on my first 3 month mission trip when I was 15 years old
2. Walking forward during an alter call to comite my life to full time ministry
3. choosing to go to Azusa Pacific University
4. Saying "Yes" to marry Brandon
5. closing my dance studio
6. Choosing to go ahead and try to have a 2nd child
7. making the decision to move to Santa Cruz

5 pivitol people who have written on the slate of who I am
1. My Father
2. My baton Coach who taught me to be the best I can be
3. Josh Hunt my first boyfriend
4. Rita My mission trip leader who was the first person to believe in me and the call God has on my life
5. Brandon

Happy Heart Day!

2009-02-18T17:20:00.000-08:00

Last night at Life group we were talking about time management and how we are all just to darn busy! Blah blah blah heard it all before right!? Well Rachel's mom, who is not usually at life group but here because Rachel just had a baby, shared that when she looks back at being a young mom she wonders if she was really "Present" in her children's lifes or if she just got caught up doing life around them. I suddenly began to feel very convicted. I am totally guilty of doing life around my kids and not always necessarily with them. I often spend my days putting tv show after tv show on for Peyton, or plopping her in front of her coloring book or playdoe set hoping to buy just a few more quiet moments so that I can get that load of laundry done, or the dishes, or check my e-mail or maybe watch a tv show or two, and before you know it the day is over and I start the whole process over again. I guess I just realized that months had gone by and the moments that I actually was truely present with my child were few and far between. So today I decided to try out this new way of living and try to live life to the fullest with my child, and you know what?? it was one of the most fullfilling days I have had in along time! I decided to take the scary trek to the beach all by myself with the two girls...yes it took me two hours to get them ready and out the door...yes there were a few melt downs...yes their were messes to clean up and boo boo's to kiss but by the end of the day we were singing and laughing on our way home and I found myself completly and utterly satisfied! So today the house is a mess...I don't have dinner ready...and there is laundry to do but I have a happy kid and more importatly a happy heart and that is all that really matters!

Amber Hallel "Praise" Kertson

2009-01-15T20:10:00.000-08:00

Amber was born January 13th at 4am. She came right on her due date and I couldn't be happier to not be pregnant anymore!! Yay! She has been a joy so far. We all came home from the hospital today and everything has gone alot smoother than I thought. Peyton has been so amazing and has fallen right into the big sister role like a champ. She is concerned when the baby cries and hands me anything I need for the baby. She loves her and it has been so fun to watch. I feel so happy and blessed to have two healthy girls...its amazing how adding one more to the mix makes you feel even more like a family. I continue to be amazed at how God chooses to bless us. There is nothing like a new born baby to make you realize how cool God is. :) Here are a few pictures of the hospital and going home day!

Christmas tree hunting with the Kertsons

2008-12-13T19:11:00.001-08:00

Peyton....SUPER excited about Christmas tree hunting
Our search begins for the perfect tree...
Peyton found one just her size...
Here it is!!!!...now Dad has to cut it down...
Peyton wanted to help!
He did it! My strong boy...:)
Love this pic...
Peyton helped decorate the tree...
Dad even helped a little this year and was super excited about it
There it is folks!!!

Yea!!! Fun day!

to my love...

2008-12-13T19:02:00.000-08:00

my sweet husband every once and awhile surprises me and does something really thoughtful. Poor guy has had to put up with my pregnancy woes. Lately I have been complaining so much about my back and my hips and I can't sleep and I feel fat and ugly...the list goes on. Well today he went out to run some errands for me and when he came back he had a dozen red roses for me with a card that was labeled " to my love" In the card he explained that eight of the roses where for the eight months of hard work I have put in for this pregnancy and the four roses where for the four weeks I have left until my due date. I didn't even realize that today I have exactly four weeks until I am due. Ahhhh...isn't he sweet??? :)

Caroling on the Wharf

2008-12-09T22:34:00.000-08:00

Tonight our church put on a fabulous event called Caroling on the Wharf. I was so impressed by the quality of this event. We are guessing that around 400 people from our community came out to enjoy time with their family and friends. There was crafts and cookie decorating for the kids, free hot chocolate, apple cider and brownies and our pastor dressed up like santa clause. (He was very good at it too) The last hour our churches band led the crowd in Christmas carols and there were snow machines that really really made it look like it was snowing. It was so much fun! Here are a few pictures of the event.

2008-12-01T23:05:00.000-08:00

Well its been over a week now since we got back from out Disney Vacation but I here are a few pictures from our trip. We had so much fun (even though I was eight months pregnant and had a major back ache most of the time) We got to stay at a hotel and go to Disneyland for three days. We celebrated our five year anniversary (we got engaged at Disneyland five years ago...) Then we were able to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family and catch up with our So. Cal friends before heading home. Over all it was a great time!!! Thanks Again Christal you are a blessing!

Christians need a change

2008-11-05T15:09:00.000-08:00

I have to say that last night was pretty emotional for me. On one hand I could not believe that I was witnessing history being made right before my eyes like something out of a TV show. On the other hand I felt excited and scared for change all at the same time. All day I have just been reminding myself that I am to be concerned of my heavenly kingdom and not my earthly one. All things are God's....All things. This morning I read this bulletin posted on myspace from Brandon's brother. I haven't been able to get it off my mind all day. This is exactly why I feel like Christians need a change .

GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS
"Well the good news is Barak Obama won the Presidency by a LANDSLIDE! And all though they are saying it is still too close to call, the bad news is that it appears the bigots of California are going to win the Prop 8 fight and our state constitution will be raped, will be used to deny a whole group of people a basic human right. It is disgusting and vile and it is one of the reason why I would rather burn in hell for all eternity than EVER step foot inside of a Christian church again! I'm sure Jesus is really proud of you all."

Justin if you read this I hope you don't mind and thanks!

Halloween Night O' Fun!

2008-11-03T23:50:00.000-08:00

Our church put on a harvest festival on Halloween night. I have to say I was so proud to be apart of this event. It wasn't about trying to get people to come to our church or trick them into some religious hidden agenda. It was just about loving our community and providing a safe place for families to have a good time. Like our pastor said "We showed our community how to put on a party" and it was great! Peyton had the time of her life. here are a few pictures to highlight the evening.
The entry of the church was made into this huge pumpkin that you could walk through that led into a corn maze.

We got to hang out a little with our friends Rachel and Caleb. Caleb was dressed like a Pirate and he looked pretty cute.
Peyton got her face painted...
rode a pony...
They had "trunk or treating" were members of the church decorated their trunks and the kids went from car to car to get candy. Peyton learned how to say "Trick or treat" and went to every car at least twice.
Her favorite Candy was the lollipop after her third one of the night I decided that was enough and had to take one away from her well this did NOT go over well, as you can imagine and she threw a huge tantrum while yelling "But trick or treat...but trick or treat!"
Peyton with Pastor Ed. They are buddies!
The night ended with a hay ride around the neighborhood. unfortunately it began to pour rain and we got soaked. All and all the night was a huge success. Here is a video of peyton dancing and enjoying one of her lollipops.

2008-11-03T15:11:00.000-08:00

I apologies in advance for this entry but we had such a fun week last week that I just have to blog about it. I am sure someone out there cares. lol. Well our week started on saturday when we picked up my mom from the airport. She was able to come for her first visit to Santa Cruz since we moved. We decided to take her to a pumpkin patch so she could see for herself just how much Peyton loves her "punkies" Here are a few pictures and a funny video of the event.

On Sunday After church we walked down to the Capitola village to march in the Halloween Parade. My mom brought with her a bunny costume that she has made for me when I was two years old. We were running late for the parade so we quickly threw it on Peyton and needless to say she was not that pleased about wearing it at first and she refused to wear the bunny ears until we got down to the parade and she saw all the other kids dressed up then she left the ears on the rest of the time. It was so funny to see the light bulb turn on in her little head as she started to understand this dressing up thing and wanted to be apart of it. All the stores along the parade route were handing out candy and she got her first taste of a lollipop and LOVED it!!

On Monday we took my mom out to the warf and out to dinner for a real Santa Cruz experience. Peyton loves looking at the SeaLions. We had a nice dinner down town and my mom got to experience some of the culture homeless guys got in a fight and thrown out of the resturant during our meal. It was awesome! lol

On Wednesday we went to the Capitola Library for a Halloween Story time. We met our friends Rachel and Caleb. Caleb and Peyton looked so cute playing together with their Halloween outfits on.

On Thursday Peyton had play group in the park. We dressed her up in her bunny costume again and this time she was happy to put it on she even let Nana paint her face like a bunny!

So that was our Halloween week O' fun and that was just the week before. I will have to do a separate blog on the actual day but I feel so blessed to live somewhere that has this many fun and safe activities for kids. It occurred to me that next year Peyton will be so different. She will probably understand the whole thing a little better and I am sure that will be fun to see but this year was so precious full of new discoveries. I am sad that she will probably never call a pumpkin a "Punkie" again.

Moments with the Kertson's

2008-10-22T22:08:00.000-07:00

Here are just a few moments that we have had over the last few weeks. the first picture is of our cute little house...little is the key word but it certainly is not lacking in charm. Notice the big satellite, Brandon is very excited about this because he gets every Chargers game. The pictures and video of the beach were taken walking distance from our house. The park is where I take Peyton for play group every Thursday morning. The park over looks the Santa Cruz Bay. (Such a hard life we live) Peyton is getting so good at climbing all the play ground equipment and going down the slide by herself. She makes her mom nervous but she is having a great time! notice in the video that Peyton is scared of the waves and yells "Oh No" every time they break. She is so dramatic it is hilarious.

Prop 2: cruelty to Animals act

2008-10-22T20:34:00.000-07:00

A recent episode of Oprah brought my attention to Prop 2. ( Yes I watch Oprah...don't judge) Ever since watching the episode I have become very passionate about learning more about this act. Even talking to Brandon at dinner tonight about it I almost started wheling up with tears (yes I am prego so that isn't hard to do). For those of you who are not familiar with the proposition it basically bands the use of animals living in small cages. While this sounds like a great idea, and at first, I myself was all for the act, the more I have thought about the outcome if it were to pass the more I am against it. For one, I feel like the people who are for Propostision 2 have put little to no thought into what this could do for the farmers who run these farms. It will literally put hundreds of them out of business because the costs of having to provide larger cages means either housing less animals or buying more land. Now don't get me wrong I am a true animal lover at heart and totally disagree with torturing animals but I get hung up when we start putting animals rights over humans. I just can't stop thinking of those farmers who have been in the farming business for years that would have to shut down their farms and put their families well being in jeopardy because of some law that was passed to allow a chicken to be able to spread its wings. Is that not crazy to anyone else? I just wish there was some happy medium to it all. I know there are farms who wrongly abuse their animals and probably should be shut down but I know their are also farms that don't and they shouldn't have to loose their livelihood. A law like this just isn't necessary in this day and age when people can make a choice to buy from free range farms or not. I for one buy organic milk because I don't trust the hormones and things in regular milk. I just feel like we have opportunities to make choices, so make those choices but leave peoples jobs out of it!

Punkies!!!

2008-10-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

So we took Peyton to a pumpkin patch last week and let her pick out three pumpkins. (they are so cheap here it is ridiculous!) She calls them punkies and talks to them like they are her friends. here are a few pictures from the event.

My top ten Santa Cruz discoveries...

2008-10-18T20:55:00.000-07:00

1. Everyone drives with their windows down
2. Produce is better and cheaper!
3. No one uses their air conditioning
4. Everyone owns a bike
5. There is alot of talk about tourist
6. Water conservation is very important
7. There is alot less road rage but people drive slower
8. They don't believe in drive thru's
9. The nearest Wal Mart is 45min away
10. Homeless people like to ask for your restaurant leftovers

We Are Not in Kansas Anymore...

2008-10-18T11:13:00.001-07:00

Well I have officially been living in Santa Cruz for over two weeks now and I have to say I have enjoyed myself very much. In my short time here I have experienced some cultural differences from my life as I knew it in LA.
For example... The first time Brandon and I went to the grocery store here we were only going to get a few items so he decided to just go in by himself and leave Peyton and I in the car. Well he left the car running (because it was only going to be a few min...he was just running in...and it was hot and I needed the air on and of course the radio was keeping me entertained...well you get the idea.) Brandon had only been in the store for a few min when this older lady came out of the store and began to put her grocery's away in her van that was parked next to us. I noticed that she was giving me strange looks and putting away her grocery's very slowly but I just kept smiling at her and minding my own business. Well this went on for quit sometime and finally the lady came up to my window with her handkerchief over her mouth and yelling "The fumes...the fumes...your car letting off horrible fumes!!!" Startled and a bit confused I turned off the car and politely said I was sorry. She said thank you and hurried off to the store across the street with her canvas reusable grocery bag in hand. It was at that moment that I realized "I was not in Kansas anymore" or at least not in polluted...hurried...ugly...hot... selfish LA anymore. I took a moment to thank God for where He had brought us. I think I could get into this new way of living. I mean being a new creation in the Lord means taking care of the things He created, right? I have to admit that I am ashamed that this is such a novel idea for me all of the sudden. I guess that is why Jesus often referred to us as sheep. Well this sheep is once again following the norms of her surroundings but this time I believe it is for the better and it is refreshing for once. As of this week I have changed our recycling trash can to the larger one and the normal trash to the little can and I have purchased the canvas reusable grocery bags and intend to use them when at all possible and I have to say that I have not sat in my car with it running since that day. Thank you lady, where ever you are, for opening my eyes to the selfish way I was living! This is a whole new chapter for me and who knows where it will go from here...