Tales of the Munch Bunch

Catching Up...

2012-02-11T18:47:00.000-08:00

We went to sing with the old folks that live in a nearby retirement home. We had a great time singing carols and playing Bingo!
Grandma and Grandpa came for a visit after Christmas- which means we really had two Christmases! Lots of fun.
Our little happy guy. Always fun to be had around him. Doesn't that face make you smile?
A day trip to Blowing Rock- what a blast. It was absolutely frigid, but we could not forgo the park. Then we had to go get ice cream at Kilwin's.
I know I'm really late posting these...but life is busy. What can I say? I hope you had a lovely Christmas.

Camdyn's Field Trip (Yes, this was last year)

2012-01-24T18:30:00.000-08:00

So I've become a HUGE fan of sending a camera to school with my kids on days that they go on field trips. I love the pictures they bring home, and it's always amusing to see what their photo-taking tendencies are. I HIGHLY recommend doing this for the sake of precious memories and just for fantastic laughs. But first: 1) make sure you have a camera that you don't care much about. 2) get a long strap and attach around their neck (see Camdyn's above). 3) threaten them about removing that strap under any circumstances. I would also recommend that you give them a couple of suggestions before they leave- like make sure that you're in at least one picture! And, "snap away till your heart's content!!" (I love the world of digital cameras!) Isn't this a sweet pic of Cam?
I doubt that anyone captured this moment besides our animal loving Camdyn. Of course we have about a hundred pictures of the animals and only ONE of her. Oh well. Better than Shea's field trip when she took about a hundred pictures of her feet with her friends' feet! (and not ONE picture of the place they went to FOR their field trip!!)
Animal food. So glad she captured this. I was wondering what the turkeys ate.
Here is her first grade class. Great job Cam! And we still have the camera. It's probably lasted through 10 field trip days with four different children!

Material World

2011-11-25T08:49:00.000-08:00

I know you all would probably prefer a family update, but this morning I've got some thoughts that I want to organize into more clearly defined ideas. Blogging is a good way for me to do that, as well as to encourage whoever still manages to come across this completely outdated blog.
I woke up this morning to the sounds of toddler feet at 5:00a.m. I love that sound, because I know that he's still up for sleeping and that means a snoodlefest with me for a couple of hours. I treasure those sweet moments when I can kiss his little forehead and caress and smell his little head.
This morning, however, the "Black Friday" sales kept me from falling back to sleep. I hadn't even looked at any ads, but I lay in bed wondering if there was something I might be able to get for the kids and if it might just be worth it to get up and run out. I slipped out my arm from under the baby's head and sat down at the computer to peruse those enticing ads.
Thankfully nothing jumped off of those pages that was compelling. Maybe that was my selfishness since I wasn't looking for me, but I soon crawled back into bed and fell asleep content that I wasn't missing much. It was a much sweeter morning snuggled up with my precious baby.
Later this morning I was cleaning my closet- hanging up clothes that had been piling up on my dresser. As I neared the bottom of the pile and saw the other mounds of clothes that I hardly wear my stomach began to get tangled up a little. Maybe I'm just emotional but when I see all that I have (and of course everything I buy is at bargain prices), I get uncomfortable. I've been exposed to poverty and I know what could be purchased- even for the price of one of my cheap $4 or $5 shirts. And there are a lot of cheap shirts in my closet.
My mind quickly goes right to Dwight Stone. Who? Dwight is a missionary to Romania from our church here. He has laid down his life for the gospel and continues to do so. I love to be around him. He is encouraging, he knows the Word, he is passionate, he is winsome and just a sweet older man. He convicts me. He has poured himself out. He eats a can of beans for dinner many nights. He lives in a tiny apartment so that he can use all that he has for God's purposes. He has a ministry to gypsies in sector four. These are people who are not acknowledged by the government. They are not born in hospitals, so they don't have birth certificates, aren't allowed in schools, and are uneducated, unable to get real jobs, and are the poorest of the poor. On top of that, they are despised by their own country. Dwight reaches out to them with education, food, medical care (several nurses on staff) and hygiene items. But, above all, he is preaching the gospel to mothers, fathers, grandparents and children. His means of reaching hearts is through helping them with what they perceive to be their real needs. He then helps them to see their One True Need- Jesus Christ.
So...I guess this perspective that I'm sorting out in my own heart goes like this.
Another cheap t-shirt, or a bottle of ibuprofin for Dwight to bring to those hurting?
Another cheap t-shirt, or a jacket to bring to a child who will freeze in the cold snowy season?
Another cheap t-shirt, or a warm meal for a mother of a nursing infant?
These things Dwight can use to reach the hearts of the gypsies. To advance the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Where are my priorities? Am I shutting my eyes and pretending that these needs are just too far away for me make any difference?
I think God can do amazing things with my small sacrifices. It's embarrassing to even call them sacrifices. A sacrifice means that I go without something for the benefit of someone else. I'll never go without a clean, nice shirt. I'll never be in need of a warm jacket. I have to choose which warm jacket matches best with my outfit.
So this morning, by God's design, I happened to land in I John. I end with this.

"Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever."

I like to think that I do not love the world. When I look in my closet, I'm embarrassed. I wonder if it doesn't tell me something else.

Dax

2011-06-20T08:24:00.001-07:00

Okay, so this morning we pulled out the kids journals of their birth through the first years of their lives, and have had so much fun remembering the little cute things they did (and some of the not-so-cute). Poor baby Dax has very little journaling of these first two years of his precious life, and I want to play a little catch up here on the blog!
I guess the first thing that makes him such a fun little munchkin has been a habit over the past couple of months as he's watched Reilly playing baseball. We would go to the games, but had to be sure to bring Dax's own baseball gloves. Yes, I said gloveS. That would be one for each hand. And two times (at least) he has taken a nap or slept with them on at night. He is serious about his "guzge". That's the closest to the pronunciation I can get. "Guhshz" is Kurt's preferred spelling. He also loves to take the catcher's stance with the glove, but with such tiny hands trying to manipulate the glove, he can't really catch anything yet (in the glove).
His other sweet affinity is jumping. I've put some of that on the blog, but it has since evolved into jumping off of things. Last week, it was jumping off of the piano bench like 50 times in a row. He was sweating profusely in our 74 degree living room. I got out the video camera just when he decided to be done. This morning, he was jumping off of Kurt's chest while Kurt was laying on the floor. I'll have to say, he's very stable and very athletic.
He's also into calling everybody's attention to "WATCH! WATCH!!" while he performs some athletic feat or does something funny...yesterday in the car he kept saying, "WATCH Shea Shea!!" (and in between the "watch" and "Shea Shea" is this really cute pause that he has developed as he's learning to put words together). When he had gotten her attention (or perceived that he had) he would perform the Count's (from Sesame Street) evil laugh- which he has down pretty well! He probably did this about ten times in the car.
Dax has recently learned to climb out of his crib...much to the dismay of his parents. Yesterday he climbed out a couple of times, and after realizing that he was not supposed to be climbing out, he decided to take cover in our bedroom and I found him (after who knows how long) sitting in the corner on some pillows with a sippy cup just chillin'...while he was supposed to be taking a nap! He typically gets out of bed (knowing that he's not supposed to be up), and comes out of the bedroom with a sheepish grin and greets us with as much sweetness as he can muster- at two years old he TOTALLY understands how to schmooz!! He says with such put-on schmooz, "Hi Mama! Hi Poppa!" I was startled at 3:00 this morning when I woke up to see Dax standing next to my bed! Though I didn't hear him, Kurt said that he came out of bed asking for his blanket! Kurt searched the house at 3:00 while Dax layed with me and when Kurt found it Dax went right back to sleep snuggled up with "Deedee" (as he used to call it! He now says "blanket" quite clearly!)
Speaking of schmooz, Dax has just about everybody he knows wrapped around his little finger. He LOVES to give hugs to just about anyone at anytime- even perfect strangers. He layed a big smooch on Marissa (Shea's friend) yesterday at church. And I mean on the lips. Anyway he is such a love, and is super easy-going.
We've been swimming a lot this past week, and being so easy-going has been such a blessing to me. He doesn't demand to be in the pool- in fact he's quite content just hanging out with me as I watch the kids- as long as I have some food for him ;). He will just sit with me and walk around and watch all that's happening.
Dax loves to eat! He will eat just about anything, and will eat off anyone's plate if it's left out. He has upset many kids when they come back to their plate only to find it emptied by the little man. He loves kiwi, melon, cukes, all vegetables and fruit, really. I can hardly think of a thing that he has turned down in the past month! He does love sweets too.
I can't believe the sweet little munchkin is two!! We celebrated his birthday at Cherokee Cove again this year- he opened his presents on the deck from Aunt Maggie and Uncle Chuck- Mr. Potato Head (which he LOVES and plays with quietly by himself for long periods of time), a Mets t-shirt from Pop and Granny Dee (he said, "Let's Go Mets!!" when he opened it), a crawl tunnel from grandma and grandpa (which I nearly bought for him myself) and "little surfer" outfit, and three balls from mom and dad (various sizes and shapes).
Dax has been learning to command people to do things that he wants them to do recently. It's rather hilarious to receive a command complete with hand gestures in case you were wondering exactly where he wanted you to be. "Sit down here" he tells me when he wants me to feed him lunch. And he points to the chair where you are to sit. Of course we're helping him with "asking" and not "telling" people what to do. But it's awfully cute anyway to see him with such command.
Last night after we had put Dax to bed I decided to go in and check on him (about 30 minutes later) to see if he was still in bed (little stinker). I went in, and he was laying on bis back awake playing with the velcro on his slippers. I said "Hi sweet-pea" quietly. He looked up at me, and with all seriousness he reached up with one hand and waved me out of the room. "Go away" he said. I cracked up at his sweet innocence. He wasn't being rude at all. "Go away" he said again. No malice. Just two year old sincerity lacking a little in the social politeness area. So I said, "Please, mommy?" "Please Mommy"- he repeated. "Good night sweet-pea". "Good night mommy". And off he went to dream-land.

Macy-ism

2011-06-02T07:41:00.000-07:00

I was doing a little clean up in my room when Macy walked in.
"Mom, can I please have some string cheese?"
"Sure, but I don't know that we have any more."
"We do mom. I smell it."
Hm. All kinds of things come to mind. First, how does a four-year-old, or anyone for that matter, 'smell' string cheese? What does it smell like? Second of all, if the string cheese really does 'smell', I'm pretty sure she wouldn't want to eat it at this stage in the game. Third, I'm almost confident that there is no string cheese left. Which leaves me to wonder, what did she smell? Most likely, as is the case these days, her imagination is running wild with all kinds of sights and smells, and her world of pretend sometimes crashes in on the real world. That's all just fine with me. She's as precious as can be!

2011-05-08T14:57:00.000-07:00

Singing an old song from TMC chapel many years ago this afternoon while cleaning the kitchen...

"And I would rather be a doorkeeper in your house..."

Shea was listening and gave me quite a puzzled look. The question that followed sent the house into a giggle fest.

She was dead serious. And seriously questioning my ridiculous song. "Mom, 'a dorky bird?'"

March Visit from Grandma and Grandpa

2011-04-11T04:55:00.000-07:00

Blowing Rock is a sweet town that our family loves, so we thought it was about time to introduce it to Grandma and Grandpa. The pics are out of order, but we'll go with it.
Kilwin's in Blowing rock. The smell of this ice cream and candy shop wafts through the town, and you can't help but be drawn in for a bite! It's pretty yummy ice cream too. Free fudge samples rock.
Sweet Macy loves this version of vanilla with fruit. Not sherbet. I happened to like it too.
Sugar Shea.
Sweet Kinlers.
It's pretty fun to watch those workers making all kinds of delightful treats.
The park in Blowing Rock. Mom and dad hadn't been there yet, and it has quickly become a favorite spot for our family to spend the day.
Dax didn't really feel comfortable on grandpa's shoulders. Ya think? I'm pretty sure he left marks...
The girls wearing their "Little House" dresses that grandma made for them. We are Little House on the Prairie fans.
Never knew a kid his age could love a book so much. Now he has two "Llama Llama" books, and without fail, every time you ask to read to him, will pick out one of those two books. I have to admit, I have "Red Pajama" memorized.
Here is the crew at our park in Blowing Rock. It truly was "our park" on this day! There were hardly any people there all day. It was a beautiful day for a picnic, playing catch, a few volleyball instructions, Lucky's first swing ride (he was hilarious and several park patrons asked for a snapshot), and lots of smiles. It wasn't until the end of the day as we walked past the park sign that we read, "Absolutely NO PETS ALLOWED". Oops.
Thanks for entering our world, grandma and grandpa, and for making your trips to NC a regular part of your lives! We love you!

Photo Shoot

2011-04-07T19:16:00.000-07:00

A little photo shop does a lot of good! Look at my handsome young man...
Sweet Boo!
Camo Kya in typical "fun" gear. She asked to wear the leggings. Of course. She is so colorful on the inside too!
The sparkly girl. Always a smile on her face.
Mrs. Photogenic. It's hard to get a bad picture of Shea. She's also the little photographer. She was competing with me to arrange my subjects creatively.
Sweet baby Dax! Today I asked him, "What's your name?" Very curious to know what he thinks. His answer: "BUBBA!"
Those silly Gebhards kids.
These two have become pals recently. They get along great, and Kinley is included in the boys club which meets under our house (a pretty cool "hideout") for after school play with neighborhood boys.
Almond eyes. Runs in the family.
It's been far too long since I've posted pictures or any Gebhards' happenings...so here's a few pics. The kids brought home school pics that I could purchase today (love those new techniques!) and all of them wanted to buy theirs...so I promised that I would take some of our own with a REAL background (not the old school waterfall with two live ferns perched beside them) and that I would copy them whatever size they wanted to share with friends. So we got them all cutesied up and went to our photo shoot destination which happens to be our own backyard. Amazingly beautiful! We had lots of fun as you can see. There was such sweetness between them! I love it!

2011-04-06T05:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was struck by something I'm sure I have read many times in my "Proverb of the day" ventures. If you're keen on the Proverbs, you might be a little surprised since you may realize that Proverbs 5 is largely devoted to avoiding the pitfalls of the adulteress. The phrase that really caught my attention is in fact a description of the adulteress. But, a description which I think we can all relate to on some level. Here it is.

"She does not ponder the path of life." (v.6)

I highlighted and emboldened the word ponder. I don't think we take much time to ponder anything. Life is too busy. We have lots of things to do. And we have everything we need (or so we think). So this morning I spent an hour pondering with the Psalmist and I have been greatly blessed.
Just to note, the "end" of the one who gives in to the adulteress (and no doubt the end to the adulteress herself) is this:

"And you groan at your final end, when your flesh and your body are consumed; and you say, 'How I have hated instruction! And my heart spurned reproof!'"

I don't want to wait until my "final end" to ponder life. We MUST resolve daily to meditate and ponder on truth, or our bodies will be consumed, and we will be left without hope, wanting nothing more than to go back and settle our matters with God.

Fun in the Mountains

2011-01-27T10:06:00.000-08:00

Again, these pics were taken around Thanksgiving...but we had such a great time roasting wienies and riding four-wheelers. The kids were rockin'! Mom and dad were here to enjoy the fun too (and capture some pics too!). Thanks to our friends the Reese's for providing the fun afternoon in the beautiful mountains of NC!!

Thanksgiving

2011-01-18T20:27:00.000-08:00

Grandma and grandpa joined us for a couple of weeks around the holidays.
Dax loves Turkey.
The girls learning "Settlers" with the gaming expert, Mr. Hohn. A patient teacher.
The official Thanksgiving picture.
Four-wheeling with Grandpa.
Okay, so yes, I'm really behind posting pictures. But here they are. There's a great website that will load your blog into a book (we've done it once) and I need to catch up with pictures now so they make it into the book for this year. Check it out- "blurb" is the name of the website.
Anyway, these are pictures from Thanksgiving last year...I know, I know.

Crafty Girls

2011-01-12T11:36:00.001-08:00

The girlies decided that they wanted to contribute to the school's craft show, so we came up with an idea and they delivered! They cut, sewed, and beaded little stockings that fit gift cards. I think they sold all but one of them! I wish I had taken a picture of the display. They did such a great job! So proud of my little crafters!!

Catching up...

2010-12-02T16:35:00.000-08:00

Well, once again time has slipped through my fingers. My hopes of being a diligent blogger have been dimmed by the sights and sounds of yet another Christmas- so quickly approaching! Here are a few pics from not too long ago...
The first three are from the "Seeds" family worship concert that we hosted sometime in the not too distant past (sort-of). Jason Houser brought a great evening of fun worship for all ages! You can see that my kids seemed to enjoy the concert.
The last two are from "Reformation day" at school. Shea chose to dress up as "Melchizedek" since they had been studying him at school. The funniest part was that when Shea conceived of this whole idea in her head and was discussing it with me, McKinley piped in. "You're really going to dress up as a boy?" Shea was undeterred. "Yes." McKinley was shocked. "I would NEVER do that." She meant it with all her heart. I thought it was great. This little interaction was just a little display of how extremely different God has made these two little girls! And just in case you were wondering- Macy dressed up as Laura Ingalls for reformation day.

Deck Camp-out

2010-11-06T07:40:00.000-07:00

Being that Friday is "Family Night", we attempt each week to come up with a little fun plan for the kids. Last night we set up the tent on the deck, brought up a mattress and cushions and LOTS of blankets. The weather was very cold- it got to 36 degrees! But the girlies snuggled up under the blankets and managed to stay somewhat comfortable through the night. This morning we woke up and roasted smokies over the fire, had hot cocoa and just a fun morning as a family. Reilly had Austin over for the night and they slept in the basement (close to the video games) and watched a little "Lord of the Rings". Austin joined us for breakfast and enjoyed a little "Gebhards family time". He is a sweet neighbor! I think the girls may spend the majority of this day in the tent- I hear their little voices out there now. I think we got six thumbs up for this family night!

Grandfather Mountain

2010-10-18T19:54:00.000-07:00

We finally took a trip to Grandfather Mountain...a beautiful mountain afternoon getaway. We went with our friends the Hoolehans and the Kricks and had a blast! It was a great fall day with all of the beautiful colors on display. We enjoyed the beauty of creation as well as some amazing fudge from the mountain's famous fudge shop...

I LOVE my kids

2010-10-15T19:37:00.000-07:00

I don't have much to say. Nothing momentous happened today, but I just wanted to take a minute to express what's bubbling over in me. Kurt and I were out tonight, so didn't get to spend time with the kids, but when we got home the sentiment is always that we LOVE to be home with our kids. We say over and over to each other every day things like, "can you believe we have such wonderful kids?" and (loving on Dax), "can you believe God gave us another son?", or "I just LOVE them so much!". I know that might sound funny and even unbelievable (for some), but it's true. I took a nap today with the sweet little girls on the couch- Cam was laying right next to me (snoring unbelievably loudly), Macy on the couch we moved over next to us so I could hold her hand. It was a precious time! Sweet Shea was so eager to help this afternoon so she made a burrito casserole (with no supervision) for the kids for dinner (it was a little heavy on the sour cream-her fav). I am so thankful for her growing eagerness to help and serve the family. And Dax is the happiest baby on the planet. We can't help but snoodle them all when we get home (while they're sleeping)- and that always includes getting the baby up when Kurt and I head to bed just to get in a few more snuggles. We certainly have our moments, but we love that our home is filled with sweetness and joy and the fruit of the Spirit most days! Tonight I am so thankful for my sweet family. I love them and am so proud of them. That also includes my rockin' husband who pours himself out for these kids and loves them all so much, and loves me well. I am so glad to be partnered with him in this life and in parenting!

North Carolina Zoo

2010-10-14T19:14:00.000-07:00

We love the ZOO!!!
Me with the crew I brought to the zoo.
Macy and Mia...bosom buddies!
My sweet good friend Julie McG with her little girls Mia and Gracie.
Silly girls on the praying mantis...
McGraths and Gebhards kiddos (at least half of our twelve!!)
The NC Zoo bore little resemblance to the L.A. Zoo when it came to size of the exhibit. This was just one of the larger ones.
The stubborn way to fall asleep. "I will NOT lay down...I will NOT lay down...I will NOT lay down!"
("Ostrich eggs") Macy: "MOM!! I want to go climb into those EYEBALLS!!"
Sweet second grade pals Gracie and McKinley.
So on the way home from the zoo we were reviewing animal sounds (especially for Dax's benefit). "A lion says 'RRAAAAAHHHHHHHRRRRRR'" (complete with throat growling). Dax, on cue, growls just like a lion.
"A cow says 'MMMMMMMMMOOOOOOOOOO'" (I know that's not a zoo animal, but I was staying in Dax's range). Dax, again, moos like a cow.
"A bear says 'GGGRRRRRRR'" (or whatever). Dax mimics the sound.
"A leopard says 'mama'" (stick with me). Dax, confused but caught up, said "MAMA" for the first time!!!
YES!!! I did it! It was SO sweet to hear that little boy call me Mama!! Okay, so he wasn't really calling me mama, but I heard that sweet little voice say it! Music to my ears!
He's brilliant, but very stubborn. Once he realized that I tricked him, he refused all night long to tell me what a leopard says...

Baldhead Island

2010-10-07T18:32:00.000-07:00

The sweetest sissies ever...they had so much fun together. Okay, so here I am posting pics from over a month ago...yikes. I'm a little behind in life. Baldhead is likely the most unique family vacation we have ever taken. You travel there on a ferry, and the island is the most quaint, beautiful place with ONE market, a couple of shops, a couple of "clubs" (pools), a golf course, and NO CARS. Everyone drives around in golf carts. It's a pretty small island- you can drive from one end to the other in about ten minutes. It was a really cool experience.
Sweet Bubba crashed hard. We rocked and rolled all day until he would poop out.
Is this not quaint and beautiful? It was wonderful!
This is how we roll. Pretty sweet.
The girly girls. It was a windy day!
The kiddos had a blast everyday playing on the beach. We had many people counting kids, as you can see.
Hip hip HOORAY!
Standing in front of the market. You bring most all of your groceries with you since everything costs twice as much here. However, for a little excitement, we would pick up ice cream from the market for the kiddos.
Morning exercises in our place. Not sure who Reilly is talking to.

Sweet Potato Pie (BFL style) for Lunch

2010-10-06T10:43:00.000-07:00

Well, here's another recipe of randomness, and it's not for the faint of heart. I'm eating it at this very moment, and LOVING it. Call me weird. Brace yourself. It's a bit strange. These will all be approximate measurements.
1/2 cup baked apples (lots of cinnamon)
1/4 cup cottage cheese (a BFL favorite)
1/2 cup sweet mashed potatoes
3 Tablespoons of fat free cream cheese
1/2 scoop whey protein (vanilla)
2 Tablespoons of crushed graham crackers
Keep in mind, I do live in the south now. Sweet potatoes are a staple. And, I just had dental work done, so the consistency of baby food is important too. Enjoy!!

Lime-a-licious Pie

2010-10-05T17:48:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm a total blog slacker and now I want to post a recipe of randomness. Kurt and I have been doing "Body for Life" (well, he has a lot more than I have...but we've lost a total of 33 pounds so far!) and I've been attempting to come up with a few recipes outside of the book that work for us. At this very moment, I am enjoying the best creation of late. Let's call it "Lime-a-licious Pie". Just for fun.
It's SUPER easy and tasty, and has almost NO calories. Really. Here's what I did.
Ingredients:
1 Cup cottage cheese
1 box sugar free lime jello
lite cool-whip
graham cracker crumbs
In the blender, toss a cup of cottage cheese. Mix a box of lime sugar-free jello with a cup of boiling water, and don't add the second cup. Pour part of that into the blender until the cottage cheese is smooth. Mix in the rest. Let it set up in the fridge. Then, scoop out around a half cup of the yumminess, and add a couple of tablespoons of cool-whip. Top it with a tablespoon or two of the graham cracker crumbs, and voila!!!
Lime-a-licious PIE!!! Not only is it not bad for you, it's loaded with protein!! So if I go back for a second bowl of it right now...it's NO BIG DEAL!

All Mornings are NOT Created Equal

2010-08-30T05:45:00.000-07:00

...and Sunday mornings (before church) are by far the most inferior mornings. Satan's attack? God's testing? I'll let you know if I figure that out. Anyway, I know I'm not alone in my assessment. I've heard lots of other mothers testify to this paradigm. Literally, yesterday was a typical Sunday morning for us, and I'm really not exaggerating. I'll take you through my morning event by event. It started off with a bang, so brace yourselves...
"MOM!! Dax has poop on his hands!"
Hmmm...thoughts went racing through my head. "Honey, I gave him a couple of bites of chocolate muffin this morning. It's NOT poop!" (Wishful thinking...) I came into my bathroom where Dax was found and still wasn't sure what had transpired. As I got closer to him, the scent turned all of my fears and stomach churnings into reality. Sick. I literally almost threw up. After cleaning him up, the rest of the kids needed to be scolded for NOT flushing the toilet. Really scolded. And that wasn't the sweetest they had ever seen their momma. That's for sure.
I began working on our crock-pot lunch like a good wife and mother. The kids disappeared for a while. Dax was fussy. I thought he was recovering from his "event". I moved him to his play yard and gave him some books. He loves books.
Time for hair. "GIRLS! Come down so I can do your hair!" I worked for a while on each of the girls hair and was finishing up with McKinley. Blood curdling scream. Right in front of my face. I burned her forehead with the curling iron. UGH. Tension rises (in me). "Sorry girl. Are you okay?" She's slightly irritated with me because she's pretty afraid of the curling iron and is always telling me to be careful. Notsosweet mommy moment, not much real sympathy exuded from me. I head back to the kitchen.
Camdyn comes sauntering down the stairs with "the reporter" following close behind. "Mommy," says the reporter. "Camdyn has lots of hairspray in her hair!" I leave my chicken chopping to check out the damage. Wow. It must have been a half of a can of hairspray gummed up and nearly dried into her baby fine, previously neatly curled, otherwise CLEAN hair. UGH. Here comes the notsosweet scolding for this little incident, along with some notsosweet brushing out of the hairspray. "Why did you do this, Camdyn?" The answer wasn't terribly surprising. "Mommy, Ashlyn did this and curled her hair and put this in her hair." Of course. She did it because she admires her sweet 11 year old cousin who actually knows how to use hairspray. End of scolding. My tension level continued to rise. Dax was still fussy. I turned on a movie for him. He's never fussy.
"Kids, would you like some hot chocolate?" I love treating my kids to little things that bring a smile to their faces (and let's try to change the course of this morning). Nothing big, just little things they wouldn't normally expect. "YES! YES! YES!" Came the happy response. I threw a little milk into a pot, and heated it up in between working on lunch. One of the kids walked into the kitchen, and watched me with a sweet smile anticipating the treat. Her eyes turned to the pot of heating milk, and her expression changed. "Mom, is that ALL you're making? For ALL of us???!!" I hesitated, as I calculated my snarky response. "No, honey, that's just for the rest of the kids. None for you." She knew I was teasing, but then I had to give her a tidbit on thankfulness, including a short word on orphans and starvation. She was really moved. I was a little more agitated. You know, the "when are they going to get it?" agitation. When you say the same things over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, etc. and they still don't get it. This was notsosweet mommy moment #...5? 6? of the morning. Dax was still fussy. Reilly had tried to help him with sweet brother love, but it wasn't working. He wasn't interested in the video either, for some reason. I finally figured I needed to try to see why he was agitated. As I neared him, the thought crossed my mind that he hadn't worn those shoes in a while. I carefully removed them, as he screamed and jerked his feet. Poor kid. They left marks all over his feet, and really significant marks on his pinky toes. Sweet little pinky toes...thus ended his fussiness. I felt like a bad mommy. Anyway we made it to church, nearly on time. I gave out a couple of apologies for my sinful frustration on the way to church. The kids were sweet in response, as usual.
What a great morning at church! I had one thought that I'd like to share with all of those mommies who experience the Sunday morning madness. Although Sunday mornings are a (not so fun) revealing glimpse into my sinful heart, they are always followed up by a sweet reminder of God's grace and kindness to me as I drink in the mercy of God in the worship service and am so quickly brought back to Him! I guess my conclusion is that I would rather see my sin on Sunday morning when I can quickly recover and refresh and repent of my attitude, than on any other morning when I'm left to myself most of the rest of the day, and struggle through on my own. I know His mercies are new every morning, but some mornings it's a little difficult to discern them...

Lamentations 3:19-23
"Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope.
The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness."

2010-08-19T09:37:00.000-07:00

Mud is just plain fun.
Waterslide fun! One thing I really like about NC- people don't go crazy about rules. I think there is a healthy sense of personal responsibility that is lacking in other places. This slide had two rules. No standing, and no pushing (something like that). Otherwise, it was free for all! So much fun!
The three meter diving board. This is Reilly, doing a lovely swan dive. Just kidding. I requested feet first of the kids. All of the big kids did this and survived, with only minor injuries (Sugar Shea got a little slap pain and water in the eyes...).

I love this pic! This epitomizes the day of fun we had here.
Waterslide train!

California Cousins, part two

2010-08-19T09:26:00.000-07:00

Creek fun!
Kool Park water fun. Clean up those boys!
Love this face on Ashlyn!
Fun with the littles!
What a great shot!
Boys banned from the computer today. :) Time to find another outlet. Lord of the Rings risk with grandpa, happening right now.

California Dreamin'

2010-08-18T07:43:00.000-07:00

So the one thing that the kids were really disappointed with when they learned that we were moving to North Carolina a year ago was that they would not see their grandparents and cousins (Adam and Ashlyn) enough. Big bummer.
For the last three weeks, and I am not exaggerating, EVERY DAY Reilly has been planning and asking about getting Adam out here to visit. He wanted to save birthday money to fly Adam out, he wanted to use his money, he really would do just about anything to make it happen. Little did he know the plan that was already in place...and what fun for me to keep the secret...until yesterday.
First they were greeted with the unexpected guests as they came home from swimming.
Then the cousins were hiding in the bedroom closet...which I videotaped so don't have pics of that event. It was very loud, and very exciting. The boys hugged, then RAN downstairs to play. This is what they love to do together.
Last night we played some bingo with "coupon prizes". This morning they redeemed "Panera in Pajamas". Now they're outside in the creek playing and getting really muddy. Pics of that to come!
Thank you, Bryan and Julie for letting them come all the way across the country without you and for letting them miss "a little" school... and thanks grandma and grandpa for bringing them to us!!

More Vacation Pictures

2010-07-24T20:38:00.000-07:00

Sweet Kinley with her unscarred face. See below.
Creek fun! These kids worked all day on this amazing dam. Such kid fun!
Not for the faint of heart... I happened to catch this funny (sort of) moment on camera, since I had my camera in my hand for lots of other pics. She got pushed a bit too hard (I wonder who could have done that...?) and split her chin on the zipline platform. She's doing fine now. No stitches.

Our little monkey!The real, functioning mailboxes in the Mast General Store. You could see mail through the glass.
Boo-boos enjoying her ice cream...I love that look!
Shea looking at the rocks in the Mast General Store
Lots of fun looking at the goodies in the store!
Drink Coca-Cola.
Reading stories with Poppa.

Mountain Vacation

2010-07-23T18:07:00.000-07:00

Macy and I hiking around the lake. She needed a little rest.
Sweet Dax!
We love this little half smile on sweet Shea.
Getting ready for the "big race". Kurt created all kinds of foot races for the kids.
Relaxing at the General Store.
Hiking around Price Lake with the McGraths. That makes for a lot of kids (and they only brought half!!)
Reilly and Tommy admiring their dam. They worked all day on this!
Eating dinner on the beautiful deck.
Mast General Store. The oldest general store around. (not sure how far around) A really cool place.
The whole crew. We had a great time!

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-20T13:52:00.000-07:00

Well, I can't let the day go by without acknowledging the man in my life-or should I say "men"... First of all, I must send a shout out to my dad who is a great dad. He is a hard-working man with strength of character and strong integrity. He prioritized his family and sacrificed much to provide for us and to make many special memories for us during our growing up years. We spent summers on the lake with my dad teaching us to water ski, patiently driving the boat in circles MANY times as we learned, giving us kind and patient instruction. He took us all to Hawaii with his hard earned money, spent FIVE weeks driving us (my two brothers, my mom and I) all around the country to see thirty-something states (while we kids bickered and pulled each others' hair in the back seat). He allowed us to have WAY TOO MANY animals living in our house. We had rats, snakes (not in the same cage), a crow, cats, dogs, hamsters, more snakes, lizards, rabbits, and more. He supported me through sports, drove to many college tournaments and even drove five hours (each way!) to come to an important volleyball game (maybe even a couple of times??) Anyway, thanks, dad, for all that you did for me to raise me up into who I am today! Thank you for the sacrifices you made. I love you!
Second of all, I am married to an amazing man, and one of the primary reasons for his "amazingness" is his love for his kids and the way that he finds ways to express that with each of them. Besides our house being filled with his physical affection for all of us, he selflessly finds a way to connect with even the littlest of the crew. Baby Dax now raises his hands in (ready for this strange description?) {"hitler" style salute/"hold me!!" zeal} whenever he hears his poppa enter the room..probably because when his poppa sees him, he throws his head back and shouts chants to his little man. Dax responds with great excitement to his baby cheers from poppa, and settles for nothing less than being held. From the smallest to the biggest...Kurt throws the ball around with Reilly every day (now that his back is cleared by the doc for "normal activity") which is what Reilly loves the most. Kurt spends nearly an hour each night tucking in the kids, spending loads of time with the girls talking, praying, listening, and loving on them. I need to snap a picture of this procedure sometime. Anyway, I do have to conclude that I am married to a GREAT man who is more of a dad than I could have ever imagined for my kids. They love him with all their little hearts!! I love you, Kurt!

Sweet Sugar Shea

2010-06-19T20:33:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that our Sugar Shea is turning 9!! We love our "big sissy" so much and are so thankful that she is a part of our family! God has richly blessed us in giving her to us. We are thankful for her teachable spirit, her love for her sisters and brothers, her sense of humor, her care for others, her growing love for God, her creativity, and her sweet smile. We love you Sugar Shea!

One (plus a few days...)

2010-06-09T19:00:00.000-07:00

Sweet Dax

2010-05-18T06:23:00.000-07:00

Unbelievable. Dax is almost ONE. A whole year of life has gone by, and I barely blinked! This morning I was thinking about our sweet little man and what sweetness and joy he has brought into our lives, and figured I'd share a little.
Dax was greeted almost a year ago with a sweet song Shea made up, and we still sing it to him regularly. It goes like this. "Hi Dax, welcome to the world, your name is spelled, D-A-X, Go Dax, you rock!!"
I must also include his nicknames. My preferred nickname for him is "Bubba". Most of the kids use this one too. Kurt calls him D.A. or Dax Attax. He's also "stinky" at times (not associated with potty thoughts, people! It's just a nickname!) I think that's all. I occasionally call him "worm" or "squirmy worm". He can NOT sit still.
Dax, not unlike most other Gebhards kids, almost never cries. He is very happy, and all who know us and spend time around us are amazed at his sweet and content spirit. The church nursery loves him, since he never causes a fuss. He easily goes to most anyone, as long as he's not tired. Then he becomes Momma's boy. I love that.
Dax is growing into a little boy! He swings his arms and smacks things (and people too- watch out!), and he has a growing love for balls. He loves to throw (but stresses when the ball isn't in his hands) and loves even more to catch (or at least try).
He LOVES being outside. He's been having some tummy issues and has been a little fussy, but as soon as we walk out the front door, his little demeanor changes and his face relaxes (those little eyes squint) as he looks all around him (and there's usually a ton of neighborhood kids to keep him entertained!).
He's starting to attempt some words...okay maybe just one. He has been trying to say "Kitty" for quite some time now. It usually sounds like a combination of the "t" and "k" sound, with a long "e" sound following. And it's always a whisper. He knows what he's saying, because he says it on his own whenever he sees one of our kitties. He must be brilliant.
He has an uncanny affection for baseball caps. If you're wearing one, he MUST have it. He immediately reaches with both hands, then does a pretty spastic death grip pull (complete with shaking) to get it off your head. We think it's cute. But if you're trying to cover bed-head with your ball cap, you might not want to snoodle him. Or bring an extra cap...please.
You may wonder if he's walking yet (okay maybe just my mom is wondering)...the answer is...no. He is pulling up on everything, and moving rapidly around the house in one of those recalled walkers that they don't make anymore. Everyone in our house has ankle bruises. But the alternative is that we have to keep the floors clean so he can crawl on them. I choose ankle bruises. Anyway, how did we get here? Back to the sweet baby...
Little Dax man wakes up with smiles for everyone, and is greeted by five sweet siblings that absolutely adore their little brother. Mornings are precious. Kurt usually brings him out (of our closet!) and announces his "waking up" to all of the kids who are getting breakfast and getting ready for school, and they all find a way to greet him with a sweet "hello" and a snoodle. He is a blessing to us all, and Kurt and I still say to each other (probably on a weekly basis!), "Can you believe that God gave us another son??!!"
We love our bubba! Pictures to come.

Encouraged, and Passing it on!

2010-05-03T12:33:00.000-07:00

What a WONDERFUL day. I just enjoyed one of my favorite days in this short life. God is so kind! I love my sweet friends here in Hickory! There are so many wonderful girls that I love to be with. Ironically, after a sweet day like today having had a great time with some of them, I am brought back to the simple and sweet reality of my life.
I am a mother. I am a wife. My identity in Christ and my desire to live for Him brings me to the simple and sweet reality that this is who I am. A wife to Kurt, and a mother to my six sweet little blessings. My identity as a volleyball player is gone. My identity as a pre-school teacher is gone. My identity as a Little Caesar's pizza employee is gone. (this one wasn't so hard to let go of) My identity as a crafty creative woman is generally now confined to use as it relates to small children. Some of these "identities" were difficult to give up because of my pride. I still find myself clinging to them at times. But there is no greater joy than to pursue God's design for me, and to pursue it with eagerness and trust! He has proven Himself faithful to me as I have "given up" little parts of my life in pursuit of fulfilling His desire for me. I couldn't be more joyful and thankful for how He has worked in me, despite my multiplied failures. I love my life, because God has been at work.
This afternoon, I came home to six little chatty people and a somewhat spent husband. He had patiently dealt with the kids all morning and it was time for us to do a little "tag-team". After homework and chores, we finally took out all of the cereal boxes (and other boxes) I had been saving (our recycling pick-up doesn't take cardboard!!??)- it was time to do something with them. I started building with them and using duct tape for mortar. Soon I had six little bodies all wanting to participate and all contributing their creative ideas. We had SO MUCH FUN! We built a drive-thru restaurant with multiple windows. It's now on my kitchen floor. What a blast.
Kurt then took the oldest three to a concert at the church while I was going to settle the littles down for bed. I was tired. However, they were more tired and resorted to crying and whining as the older three left. Thus began the scolding. "No more crying. Life isn't always fair. If you don't stop crying...." Blah blah blah. AGH!! I had to stop myself once again. This is an ungodly and totally ineffective way to change the tone and bring a sweet aroma of Christ into the home. "Okay girls. I know it's stinky to not get to go with the big kids." (crying persisted) "We are going to have fun." (still crying) "Okay, let's face it. It's not fun to be left behind. It kinda feels like this." I started the whole stick your tongue out of your mouth, puff the cheeks, spit/raspberry noise, complete with crossing of the eyes. I did it as long and loud as I could. And you know what? Both of the girls were laughing hysterically by the end of it, and then joined me for several minutes while we challenged each other to the loudest raspberry noise, then the softest. We had a blast. I sent them up to get their P.J.'s on with the promise of something REALLY fun when they came back down. With all of the energy I could muster, I presented the most fun thing of all time. "A dance party ON the dining room table!!!!!" They could hardly believe their ears. They quickly climbed up on the table as I turned on the music in the kitchen. We rocked out to three songs together (no, I didn't dance on the table this time). They were again laughing hysterically and super giddy. To finish up our most fun night, we did a drive-thru Starbucks. They put on their aprons and chef hats and proudly prepared coffee and hot cocoa for me and presented them through the recycled box "window". Macy even prepared an extra hot cocoa. "Mommy, here you go. This one's for your honey." Wow, where does she come up with this stuff?
Anyway, I am still tired, but so thankful for the encouragement that I received today, and am resolved again to do what God has called me to-wife and mother (yes, I'm using those as verbs!)- with excellence. He has abundantly blessed, and I want to gladly lay my life down to serve Him by serving my family! There is no greater joy!
I know the world clamors loudly in our ears, calling us to not "lose our identity". But in Christ, our identity is found in serving and following Him. And in following Him, He calls us to serve in our homes- to support and respect our husbands, and to love and raise up our children with selflessness and joy. This is who we are. This is who I am. I am a wife. I am a mother. I desperately want to have no regrets in these identities.

More California Pictures

2010-04-24T17:50:00.000-07:00

Disney adventures with the cousins and grandparents. 3-d shows offer the best photo opps for kids! Love this!

My dad with the baby. Dax was a champ for the entirety of the long vacation. After day three of Disney, I video-taped him as we were leaving after three days of virtually no naps.........cackling non-stop. What a sweet baby!

My brother heading up the crew at the "L" at the entrance to California Adventure. That's his daughter and son on either side of him.

Dax LOVED Westin! He was trying to eat him all evening. Poor Westin! He took it well. :)

I got to spend some good time with Wendy, my volleyball team-mate from college. We go way back, and usually when we get together we act like we did way back then. I love it. It's so fun to see her with her kids and I miss her!

I've fallen so far behind with the blog! I've got all kinds of excuses, but we'll just say that I really want to keep updating regularly so I can keep the journal of our family current and complete! Anyway more to come.

Family Vacation & the Boys

2010-04-13T19:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've posted lots of pictures of the girls (well three of them) and feel like I'm a little imbalanced...the others just not as easy to take pictures of. Cam's glasses (reflection) and fake smile (pained, more like it) make it difficult to capture good ones. Dax is a wiggle worm, and Reilly HATES the camera. Well I guess he likes it, but only when he can be a complete goof ball. So here are a few more from our trip.

Beach Fun

2010-04-12T12:21:00.000-07:00

These sweet girls played so well together for three straight days at the beach. It was such a blast!

Photo Fun

2010-04-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

I took a few other pictures of the girlies and played around with Picasa 3- a FREE photo dealie (I know that's not a word). Anyway I had lots of fun playing with color and other alterations or whatever you call them. These are of Kinley and Shea.

Macy Boo

2010-04-10T19:20:00.001-07:00

We were sitting at the dinner table tonight when I noticed the lighting outside at the unoccupied (and recently marked down!) house across the street from ours, then noticed that Macy's eyes about perfectly matched her new little Wal-Mart $5 dress that she got today. I swept her up before the sun went down completely and took some fun shots! She's a pretty good little poser too, I might add.

Sweet Girls

2010-04-03T18:29:00.000-07:00

I love these girls! They sure know how to fight, but I'm so thankful that they know how to make up. They are so tender hearted toward one another! They sent these notes through the mailbox out in the front yard after their "blow-up" this morning. Pretty cute.

Big Ouchies

2010-03-31T18:18:00.000-07:00

Our house has been buzzing all afternoon. The kids were out of school at noon because of testing. I used to love those days! We had friends over this afternoon, and all of the boys went down in the creek and were building. Digging. Having a blast in the mud. I was sitting in the kitchen with a friend, enjoying the beautiful sunny afternoon as we listened to the kids outside playing and getting filthy. I've heard so many versions of this story so I'll have to give you several different angles. First from Shea.
Shea: Mom, Brayden just walked over to us and said (she mimmicked him- straight-faced, matter of fact approach), "if you want to see a lot of blood, go look at Reilly's hand."
I don't remember who came into the house with the news, but no one seemed really shaken up. I caught a bit of someone's words though, and realized that Reilly had cut his hand. He was slowly making his way over to the house.
Anyway, I don't need to make a short story really long, so I'll cut to the chase. He had been digging in the creek, and came upon a large piece of glass that did some significant damage to the palm of his hand near his pinky. It wasn't even bothering him that much. By the time he got to me, I could see the blood, but not a tear or even a hint of one. I had to coax him to let me look at it.
"Come here, Reilly." I brought a clean rag with me. The skin had sort of flapped back over the cut, so it was a little hard to see how bad it was. I grabbed his hand and squeezed it a little to see the damage. YUCK. It was deep, and bleeding a lot now.
Anyway, I had to throw him in the shower (he had mud dried in his eyebrows and everywhere else) and then dress him since he couldn't do it himself. Kurt came home and I took him to see our kind doctor (who opened his office after hours to serve us!!). Shea wanted to come with. So we got situated in the office and Dr. Glenn began to check it out. He was talking about the needle for numbing, the stitches, etc. Shea was very fascinated and interested. She was standing and watching him clean it out, when something I was NOT expecting happened.
"Mom, I can't really see anything." I turned to Shea, and she wasn't looking too good. I kept watching her for a moment, and she said, "Mom, I don't feeeeeeeeeeeel too goooooooo..." she sort of trailed off in slurred speach as I grabbed her and moved her backward to the chair. I still wasn't sure what was happening, because it happened so quick, but her head leaned back and her eyes rolled back into her head...I put my arm behind her head as the doctor suggested we lay her down across the two chairs. We got her laid down, and he picked up her legs to get the blood flowing back to her head. She quickly snapped back with it, and looked like a deer in the headlights. She had NO idea what was going on. I couldn't help but laugh out loud and attempt to take pictures with my phone!! She was still unable to recognize what was happening, but soon came to enough to realize that she had "passed out"! I had no idea that an eight year old could even do that!
Anyway, Reilly is doing well with his six stitches and hand wrapped neatly up in gauze. He's excited that he doesn't have to write tomorrow at school and I have a feeling he's going to milk this as much as he can! He's such a stud! He didn't even flinch or cry at all (okay, maybe one cringe when the doc hit a spot that didn't numb). We're so proud of him!!
Shea is so excited to tell her friends that she passed out! I just couldn't believe how pale she looked. Her lips really turned blue and she did not feel good at all- thankfully that only lasted for a couple of minutes!
Speaking of medical matters... Kurt is doing better with his back. He saw a doctor today, and since he seems to be feeling better, there is still no surgery in the immediate future. His foot is regaining feeling (though it fluctuates), and he is feeling stronger. If you're not on facebook, you may not have heard that Kurt ruptured a disk in his back recently and has been battling with that. Anyway, he's seeming to be on the mend! I did take pictures of Reilly's hand, but am not sure how to get them to the blog. Check out facebook.

Stupid Cat

2010-03-23T20:33:00.000-07:00

Lost Kitty!!
Buddy is a friendly Kitty who loves to run into your home…
He loves to eat pacifiers…
He loves to climb on your table…
He loves to climb trees…
We miss Buddy! If you have seen him, please call Reilly, Shea, McKinley, Camdyn, Macy or Dax. They miss him dearly!!
1(800)lost-kitty
Kurt and Julie sort of miss him too. Before you send him home, please train him not to eat pacifiers.
Thank you!

Kurt wanted me to post this on the blog...this is the flyer Reilly and his buddy posted around the neighborhood when "Buddy" wasn't seen for over 24 hours. Just before the boys left the house with their backpack, tape and flyers, Reilly said, "Wouldn't it be funny if we put up all of the flyers and then he was home when we got here..." And yep, you guessed it, when they returned on their bikes, they found Buddy in the driveway under our car...

California Trip

2010-03-22T08:49:00.000-07:00

Just like back in the good old days. Josh Crooch always keeps us laughing...

We got to spend some time with Chad and Carly Brannon and their two little boys, along with Matt and Jenny Poladian. So good to see long-time good friends!!

We spent an afternoon with Midori...what a treat. She had thoughtful goodies for each of us and we had such a blessed time of fellowship with her!

It was great to visit with Grandma and Grandpa (the Gigis!). We surprised poor grandma with all of the kids, and she cried happy tears when she saw all of them. So sweet. I happened to have no shoes other than the bright salmon colored fuzzy slipper flip-flops, and although grandpa doesn't talk much anymore, when I first went in and hugged him, one word came out of his mouth in a sort of exclamation..."Shoes!" Yes, grandpa, you're right.

It was so much fun to see Wendy and to let the kids run around the park together! Wendy and I played volleyball together in college and when we get together we pretty much revert to acting like college students. It's always fun to hang out with her and take a mental break from real life. I love Wendy!

Well, it's about time that I do a little updating with some pictures from our adventure to California. We stayed for two weeks and crammed as much as we could into that time! I'll probably attempt to throw up a few pictures a day for a while to stay on track.

Marriage Advice from an Eight Year-Old

2010-03-21T11:57:00.000-07:00

So today at lunch we were having a little family discussion and some encouragement from poppa. We were sitting around the table and Kurt launched into a little "thankful for my wife" moment. He looked at Reilly and said, "Reilly, if you want to have a productive life on earth, you need to follow Christ with all of your might and find and marry someone like your mom." I thought I'd add my two cents. "Reilly, you should not look for the prettiest girl." Shea felt moved to add her two cents at this point. "Yeah, or a Goth." ................................................................................................................................ Goth??? First of all, where in the world had she heard that term? Second of all, was she making the link that "Goth" girls were attractive? Because they're not. Third of all, WHAT IN THE WORLD?? Okay, it was a little strange, but she was very serious with her advice. It was precious, especially when she elaborated. "Yeah. She would lead you down a bad path. Because they have their belly buttons pierced, they have lots of tattoos, they wear black clothes and sometimes have their noses pierced." He listened intently, and I'm confident he's taking that advice to the bank.

Wishes Come True

2010-03-17T08:24:00.000-07:00

Well, we returned from our awesome trip to California with six completely exhausted but happy kids (it's 11:30 a.m. and Macy is still sleeping, 2 days after our return!). We had a great time! I'd have to say that one of the highlights happened at a pretty random moment. We were leaving Disneyland, and had parked in a far off lot which meant a late evening stroll through Downtown Disney. The kids were in relatively good spirits after three days of Disney thrills. Kurt led the pack with the double stroller, and the rest of us trailed behind. Downtown Disney was relatively quiet, being midweek, though there are always kids and parents around. Kurt approached a small round two-tiered fountain and in usual "Kurt" fashion, began to circle the fountain again and again (as he does the round-about at the front of our housing development, much to the kids' delight). The kids happily followed, and I eventually reached the fountain. As I approached, the kids were beginning to slow down in their circling, and they were gazing into the fountain with fixed eyes. I leaned over to see what the deal was, and realized that the fountain was dried out (for the most part), and there were glittering coins at the bottom, nearly within the kids' reach... I glanced at Reilly as I felt his gaze turn to me. He had the ten-year-old "wow" eyes, and I also picked up on his thought pattern that was so clearly displayed by his expression. I knew exactly what he was thinking. It went something like this. "Mom, I know this is probably imprudent of me to even think of this, but I would really like to see if I can't extend my reach into that fountain and grab a few coins??" I'm not sure what came over me, but with three pairs of eyes now looking at me, I took two seconds to think about it. Kurt had walked a few feet away by this point, so the decision was mine. Here's my thought pattern. "Hmmm. It's not stealing. There's not too many people around. I think they'd remember this the rest of their lives. I wish I got to do this when I was a kid. This opportunity will likely never present itself again. And, the final thought that sealed the deal was this: Susie Muxlow would certainly have let her kids do it!!" Decision made. "GO FOR IT!!" (I really said it??) They were so stunned they didn't move. I actually had to repeat myself. "GO FOR IT! GET THE MONEY!" Without further ado, three pairs of hands reached as far as they could, and three pairs of feet came off the ground and into the air as they teetered with their hips on the edge of the fountain. The three big kids frantically scooped up as much coins as their hands could hold, then started dumping into their pockets. I think I was having more fun watching than they were having actually doing it! What happened next will forever be etched in my mind. All of the sudden, a fourth pair of small hands and feet joined in the madness. However, this prudent parent couldn't handle the fun...as I stood and watched (and listened), the mother grabbed the back of the kids sweatshirt and tugged him out of the fountain. "Honey! Honey! You can't take those!" She was sort-of "shout-whispering" as she leaned in close to him. "Honey, you can't take those. Those are people's wishes!" After I got over the moment of slight embarrassment over my kids' silly and excited display (and after that sweet mother was out of range to hear me!), I nearly cried tears with laughter!! Kurt stopped the kids after a minute or two (when the fountain was a little less glittery) and as the kids were counting their money, we just had the best laugh over it!! Wishes do come true at Disneyland!!!

My Testimony

2010-02-22T18:59:00.000-08:00

Ha!! I declared it "national share your testimony on facebook" week since I was writing mine out...and I decided to post it here. I am SO thankful for how the Lord has worked in my life and blessed me beyond anything I could've dreamed. He is so kind! I hope I'm blessed reading hundreds of others this week on facebook!
I grew up in a Christian home and attended church every week. My parents sent me to camps as a kid, and I loved going and hearing about the Lord, but as many kids who grow up in the church, I wasn’t saved until a bit later. The first echoes of God’s grace in my life came in my junior high years, but even stronger in my high school years. God’s story in my life really began on a mission trip to Mexico in high school.
Anyway, one warm summer evening in Mexico, I remember being out under the stars debriefing about the day, and being interrupted in that pleasant evening by a glance turned gaze into the evening sky. I remember looking up at the vastness and immensity of the sky- (the small portion that we can actually see!) and feeling so small and insignificant as I recognized the "hugeness" of God. I was horrified in fear and even overcome by it. At different times, maybe even that night, I remember weeping in fear that I didn’t know this God the way I needed to. I remember feeling terrified and traumatized because I knew that I hadn't been reconciled to the God who created the heavens. I knew that I hadn't "come clean" with Him and was deeply troubled by that reality. Romans 1:20 really explains my situation- "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." I could almost "feel" his eternal power and divine nature that night as I looked up in sheer terror of His immensity. I wasn't honoring God with my life, and was beginning to recognize the foolishness of my heart (by His Grace! Romans 1:21ff). God was definitely drawing me at that point, and I didn't want to displease Him (this was my fear), yet I was still clinging to my sin- and was confused and unable to recognize much of it. God was forcing me (in His kindness!!) into doing some soul-searching.
It was fearful to see what turned up in my soul-searching. 2 Timothy 3:2-5, which although is talking about end times, described my state pretty accurately. "For men will be lovers of self (yes!), lovers of money (yes!), boastful (yes, mostly with volleyball, but then again there were lots of other things I would boast about too…), arrogant (oh yes), revilers, disobedient to parents (oh yes, though most of it was subtle, some of it did get pretty ugly), ungrateful (wow, I don’t think I knew of what I should’ve been thankful for!), unholy (yes, very unlike God), unloving (pretty hateful in many ways), irreconcilable, malicious gossips (extremely so), without self-control , brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power..." On the outside, I was pretty "good"- by the standards I gave myself (mostly comparison to others), but when I look back and see the wretchedness of my heart, it saddens me. I really was a lot of those things, and if I wasn't living out those things, I was only proud and self-righteous to not be. Anyway, God pushed me to really wrestle with those things that I was questioning and to search out answers. It was sometime in that time period that I decided I wanted to go to a Christian college. I wanted to know more and "figure things out". I was really turned off and confused by the hypocrisy in our church-which was not unlike many churches. Good and bad churches alike face their share of hypocrisy. That is what God used to challenge me and move me in the direction that He did- which makes me thankful for my church. Though I knew that “no one was perfect”, my conscience said that grave sin should be dealt with in some way in God’s church, rather than ignoring it altogether as our church seemed to do. I wanted something more, and God's grace stretched far to reach me and answer my heart's cry!! Anyway, God graced me through my parents’ sacrifice to attend The Master’s College, which I shamelessly dare say is the greatest Bible teaching college ever. At The Master's College I was struck by the unapologetic and straight-forward teaching of the Word. I was impressed at the way they respectfully and thoroughly taught Scripture, and believed that though God is mysterious in some ways, that His Word is not meant to be so mysterious as to mystify us and leave us wanting for answers. It is intended to be understood (Deut 29:9), and with thorough study and the Holy Spirit, we can understand it. Praise God!! After all, God gave it to us so that we can know Him!! He is able to communicate with us clearly (is He not??) and I was so thankful to gain an understanding of His Word that I had previously never thought possible. I had been blinded to that before, and I would say primarily for two reasons- 1) my slavery to my sin which blinded me, and 2) teaching that didn't exalt the perfect Word of God in its perfection but degraded it to an obscure book that we could never understand. The Bible had been denigrated in my mind because it was disregarded by so many people whose position in the church I respected. In some cases, it was hardly even used. I think in my heart, I even put God at fault for not communicating clearly in the Bible... now that is shameful arrogance and horrifying criticism of the GOD OF THE UNIVERSE!! Praise Him for not striking me dead!
During that first year of college, I believe God saved me from my sin. I think it was then that I even saw clearly my sin for the first time. I had more Bible classes than I could take in, chapel three times a week, and then church on Sundays. With the holiness of God being defined and shown to me, I cowered in fear of His wrath on me. But then the Grace of God in Christ was so lovingly presented to me and explained in such clear terms- my heart exploded with gratitude when I understood what He had done for me!! When I understood the reality of my sin separating me from God (Isaiah 59:1,2), which is what created in me that real sense of distance that I felt- the dots began to connect and I could see and understand the gospel for the first time. It wasn’t HIS inability to communicate through His Word, but rather MY sin that had kept me from a right and close relationship with Him. Previously, I had a shallow understanding of sin. I thought that sin was drinking, doing drugs, using bad language, cheating, and things like that. But I learned that sin was a condition of my heart and that I had been sinning in thought and other ways that were far worse than the above mentioned list. I was hateful, envious, lustful, prideful, and rebellious. I tried to stop doing some of these things at different times, but always in vain. I was a slave to sin as defined so clearly in Romans 6:16-20. "But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness." That sums it up in my mind in many ways. For the first time, I was freed from the bonds of my sin, after receiving the clear teaching and becoming committed to it. As I understood my sin and saw it for what it was, I hated it. I longed for cleansing and longed to purge sin from my life and heart. In a word, I had repented of my sin. My heart was drawn to the Word of God and rejoiced when I heard it taught and when I read it myself with the Holy Spirit’s illuminating power. I now saw clearly all that I had to be thankful for! I was overwhelmed with His grace and kindness toward me, an undeserving wretch! I still struggled and struggle with sin, but the direction of my life and heart took a radical turn (2 Corinthians 5:17). I had an insatiable appetite for the Word of God (Psalm 42), unlike anything I had experienced before. A hunger and thirst for truth welled up in me and multiplied the more I was exposed to it. When I recognized what Christ had suffered on my behalf, I wanted to live my life to please Him and bring honor and glory to His Name (1 Corinthians 10:31). I wanted to be done with bringing recognition and praise to my own name. "He must increase, I must decrease" (John 3:30) became a desire I longed to (and still do) impose on my life. I saw His worthiness (Revelation 4:11) presented and saw so many people living to prove that He was worthy. I saw holy lives and struggling believers who desperately wanted to honor the Lord with their lives, and was encouraged by their faith. I joined the “evangelism team” at the college and went to the park, downtown Santa Monica, and other places and told people about Christ.
He has continued to work in my life and purge sin, and yet the more I grow in my relationship with Him (and the more I listen to my husband’s preaching!!), the more I recognize how short I still fall from the grace of God (Romans 3:23). I am so thankful that when God looks at me, He doesn’t see my spots or blemishes, He doesn’t see my wretchedness. Instead, because of what Christ did on the cross, and because I have placed my faith in Him, what God sees when He looks at me, is the perfect righteousness of Christ. What a shame that this truth doesn’t make me strive harder after holiness than I do…but again, praise Him for His abundant grace that covers my sin and weakness!

OCD Cat

2010-02-20T15:41:00.000-08:00

Stupid Cat: "I love pacifiers."

Stupid Cat: "I REALLY love pacifiers. Maybe he'll share with me if I'm nice."

Stupid Cat: "Oh that looks so good. I want it. Really."

Dax: "See this?? It's MINE." (A little baby taunting...)

Cat: "Oh how I LOVE silicone...I want it. I want it so badly."

Cat: "I love it. I just love that chewy yummy silicone...or rubber...or whatever that stuff is."

Cat: "If I can just get a little closer...I can smell that yumminess...I want it SO bad!"

Cat: "Please share it with me. I promise I'll be nice. Please just let me have a lick. Chew."

Cat: "I love that thing. I just love the color of it. The smell of it. The texture. I want it."

Cat: "I'll just chill here for a while and maybe I'll get my chance."

NEVER. I'm telling you, this cat has a problem! If anyone has "OCD", it's this cat!! Can we prescribe him something??

Stupid Cat

2010-02-19T06:47:00.000-08:00

Okay maybe just one. Or two. 1)Stupid Cat. 2)Pacifier number 7, in the trash. In one week. Okay, maybe three. 3)Stupid cat is obsessed with silicone, including Polly Pockets. It feels good to get that off my chest. AGH. I'm leaving right now to buy MORE pacifiers at Target. I'll take donations. I hide the pacifiers, and he sniffs them out. He was IN THE CRIB this morning trying to steal it from Dax.

PARTAY!

2010-02-18T10:19:00.000-08:00

silly tired girl hugging her "Littlest Pet Shop" toy

the happiest little three year-old alive

Macy's friends

"Laura". She has been correcting me non-stop if I call her Macy. We made a deal. As long as she was obeying me, I would call her Laura. As soon as she was not listening to me, I'd call her Macy. Laura doesn't disobey. And she smiles like that all day, mostly. I love it!

Happy Birthday Boo!

2010-02-16T17:37:00.000-08:00

Today, our little princess turned 3!! We had a fun day with her, and tomorrow will celebrate with her friends. She LOVED her "Little House on the Prairie" dress that Grandma made- she wore it all day. I will have to get a good picture with her bonnet on tomorrow (SO precious!). She enjoyed opening a couple other family gifts we received in the mail too- thanks to aunt Maggie and uncle Chuck, Grandpapa and Granny Dee, and Grandma and Grandpa for all of the fun books, puzzles, and clothes! Her sweet little face lit up with delight as she opened each gift. We sang to her and ate cupcakes tonight and she crashed hard after a long day. We LOVE Macy Boo! Here are some reasons... 1) She is a joy machine. Smiles all day long. 2) She LOVES to give out smooches and hugs like no other! 3) She is sweeter than candy. I tell her all the time. 4) She loves everyone. She invites grown-ups to her birthday party! 5) She loves to make other people smile.

Today I asked her a few important questions on this, her third birthday.

Me: Macy, what is your favorite color?

Macy: Pink.

Me: What is your favorite food?

Macy: Grapes.

Me: Where is your most favorite place to go?

I expected to hear, "the park", "the toy store", or "Disneyland", perhaps? But no.

Macy: Sam's Club!!
Yes!! Next year I'll invite all of her friends and their moms to meet us at "Sam's Club" for a PARTAY!! (Cheap food and entertainment!)

Spelling Bee CHAMP

2010-02-03T17:43:00.000-08:00

Spelling bee champion with his buddy Tommy cheering him on.
Aren't they so sweet?! We celebrated tonight with hot fudge sundaes and a climb to the top of the 15 foot snow pile in the Hobby Lobby parking lot. I pretended to drive away and they went into a fake panic mode on cue. It was quite amusing.
This is Reilly nervously picking at his fingers (I think he did this a little bit today) while getting the definition of "manicure". Yes, that was one of his words. And he did ask for the definition.

Wow. Today was the school spelling bee, and I didn't even know it. This afternoon I got a call from Kurt (who picked up the kids for me) and he told me about it, and that Reilly was "a part of it". Boys aren't really good at giving details, so I never even heard that it was going to be an event. I knew that he had won in his class, but that's about all. Kurt couldn't keep it in...so he just spit it out. Reilly had won the spelling bee for the ENTIRE 3rd through 8th grade classes!! He beat out all of the 5th graders, 6th graders, 7th graders and 8th graders to win!! He's in 4th grade, which makes him the youngest kid to ever win the spelling bee at his school. We are so excited for him and proud of him!! Okay, so you may be thinking that this is a small little Christian school, and I guess you may be right. But this school does happen to be the number one private school in North Carolina. (Okay, so here's the proud mama coming out in me...) And in case you're wondering, there's probably an average of 35 kids per grade level. SMART kids. :) Anyway, my favorite part of all was when I was driving Tommy and Reilly home from their basketball game tonight and they were telling me about the spelling bee. I asked,
"So, Tommy, were you excited that Reilly won?" Not really prepared for his response, he said,
"Oh yes, Mrs. Gebhards! I jumped up and yelled like this!!" He fist pumped and shouted out a loud "WooHoo!!"...it was the sweetest thing ever! Could you ask for a better friend??
Kurt had them do a "reenactment" and these pics are from that. How I wish I had been there!

You Know Your Baby is Sick When...

2010-01-30T18:10:00.000-08:00

Okay, so a good friend Kim recently posted a "you know when your 3 1/2 year old is sick when... and she gave her version. Here's mine.

Camdynism

2010-01-30T18:07:00.000-08:00

I made hot cocoa for the kids today when they came in from the snow. Cam was particularly excited and exclaimed,

"Mom! When I drink this hot cocoa really fast it feels like my throat is going to droop!!"

2010-01-30T17:56:00.000-08:00

After a nice run down the hill at the church. I tried so hard to get him to wear a jacket.
Funky kids. They love having fun!!
Okay, so these pics are from "retro/tacky day" at school. I really don't know what Reilly was aiming at, but I think he hit it head on. And that's a pink, polka dot towel over his shoulder.
I thought she was good with just going 80's, but then she threw in a little "tacky" with it. She loved her hair. She asked me to do it again the next day.
Being our little "fashionista", McKinley really didn't want to wear this outfit. I'm sure you can tell that I MADE her pose and smile for the picture. However, I think she's the cutest 80's girl that school has ever seen! Reminds me of Napoleon (whatever the girls name was), only way cuter! And when she got home, she didn't want to take off her new outfit!

Christmastime

2010-01-28T19:20:00.000-08:00

Shea's homework. Remember contractions? I guess she thought they forgot one. The "southernizing" of our sweet Shea...
Grandpa with the Christmas kitties "Buddy" and "Jovie". My dad is a cat magnet.
One of the kids wanted to take some pics of mom and dad, so there's about 10 shots like this one.
Oh, so cute. Looks a little uncomfortable to me. You know, I pushed for kittens, and to be honest, these little cuties have proven to be a pain in the neck. They wont stay off my kitchen counters or the dining room table. And they have plenty of their own food and water!! Tomorrow they're getting the squirt bottle approach.
Buddy certainly had a particular affinity toward my dad. But he is a licker. He licks my toes while I do dishes. He's always licking. In fact, both of them are. They lick feet, faces, arms, cupboards, tables, etc. A little strange if you ask me.

Finally, a Picture Update!

2010-01-27T17:42:00.000-08:00

Well, I can never seem to get these in the proper order, so we're going from most recent backwards...first are some pictures from our little post Christmas getaway with some of our favorite people, the Bells. Jackson is the tallest, Lizzie is next to him, and Anna Kate in front of Lizzie. We love them! This was the indoor swimming pool. It was 20 degrees outside. Lots of snow on the ground. The kids thought it was great to get a swim in!

This is Mr. Mike Bell holding baby Dax. We stayed in a beautiful condo in Blowing Rock. It was amazing! Thank you Bell family! We loved our time with you!

The boys had their own room and enjoyed being together. True buds.

Lizzie and Kinley. Dax is obviously not wanting his picture taken.

Into town we hauled them all for some really expensive ice cream. It was frigid (outside) but we all had a great time.

This was our family on Christmas Eve at our sweet little theater in town. It only costs $2.00 per person. Our whole family can go for a mere $12.00 since Macy and Dax are free!! We love it, and frequent this place. Isn't it cute??

Christmas dinner all by little lonesome selves...as if that isn't enough for a par-tay!! We had a great time and I made lots of food-even cooked a ham. Mom, aren't you proud?

My first attempt at bagels for our Christmas Eve morning. The kids actually loved them! It really wasn't too difficult, and I only plan on making them once a year.

So this was a few days before Christmas. I let the kids make "gingerbread houses". Stale graham crackers, lots of cheap icing, and leftover halloween candy!! They loved it. I even made my own house. I think it's the one in front of Macy. The roof was all M&M's. I ate it.

McKinley and her good buddy Rachel. She is the youngest of 6 kids. There are lots of big families around here! These girls are so much fun together. Rachel is a sweet little ball of energy and she and McKinley get along fabulously. Many more pictures to come in the near future. I have lots of catching up to do!

Mrs. Bell

2010-01-22T18:27:00.001-08:00

I've been cracking up at Macy-Boo recently. She is quite the story-teller and is full of it. We were leaving church on Sunday and as we were getting into the car I was saying good-bye to a good friend Dave Duncan. Macy loves the Duncans. She shouted out, "Good-bye Mrs. Bell!!" (Hmmm...) Then we drove over and parked the car for a few seconds and were saying good-bye to another family and Macy looked at the driver (John McGrath) and said, "Good-bye Mrs. Bell!" (?????) So I think either Mrs. Bell has made a very strong impression on Macy, or she is really confused. She didn't bat an eye, nor was she being a ham. She was genuinely and heartily shouting her good-bye greetings...to all the "Mrs. Bell"s out there.

Driving...or trying to!

2010-01-22T06:12:00.001-08:00

Okay, I forgot one more thing. Though I don't really miss the freeways in Los Angeles, I do miss the simplicity of them. To get to our old house from, say, Topanga, you would drive north on the 405, you would then hop on the 5 going north, then you simply took the Hasley Canyon Road exit. Turn right on the Old Road, left on Hillcrest, and right on Beryl. Simple.
I entered "Charlotte-Douglas Airport" into my iPhone map search and thought I had a short in the phone. From my housing development, here's what the map search came up with.
1. Head NW on 24th Ave. Ln. NE toward 14th St. Ln. NE
2. Drive 151 ft then take first left onto 33rd St. Ln. NE
3. Drive .3 miles then take the 2nd right onto 24th St. Ave. NE (yes, thats a different 24th than the first direction)
4. Drive 194 feet then take the 1st left onto 18th St NE/State Rd 1401
5. Drive .9 miles then continue onto 10th St. Dr. NE (wait, continue? Yes, it changes from 18th St to 10th St. Dr.)
6. Drive 1.8 miles then turn left at 10th St. NE (WHAT? Turn from 10th onto 10th?? Ludicrous.)
7. Drive 46 feet then turn right to stay on 10th St. NE. (Turn right again to stay on 10th St. NE????? City planners must be playing a mean joke on the citizens of Hickory or they were drunk while planning, or they are a very conflicted bunch.)
8. Drive 512 feet then continue onto Lenoir Rhyne Blve SE/State road 1534. (CONTINUE ON? So you have to follow all of these turns to do your best to stay on 10th St. Dr. NE, and then they just pull the rug out from under you and change it to Lenoir Rhyne Blvd.??? All for naught. Unbelievable. I give up.)
9. Drive 1.7 miles then merge onto I-40 via the ramp to Asheville. Ah. The first simple driving instruction. However, it's about to get insanely crazy.
10. Drive 1.8 miles then take exit 123-123A-123B for US-321 toward N Carolina (you mean the state that I'm in??)127/Hickory/Lenoir/Lincolnton/US-70 Say it isn't so. If I hadn't seen it on my very own iPhone, I'd be tempted to disbelieve. I really thought there must be some mistake when I saw the directions on my phone, but was convinced that my phone was only trying to confuse me. What topped the shock charts was that the iPhone had the exact wording of the freeway sign. Verbatim. I know, because I nearly caused an accident while comparing the two- which took around 10 minutes with my mom's help ("driving time"- kinda like cat years). No way. Invitation to car crashes. I just checked the internet for accidents around this interchange, but obviously the city planners have been removing them from public access. :)
So, I wonder to myself, why on earth is driving somewhere made to be so complicated? Most people search their directions on mapquest before they leave their house, right? So once you're on the road, wouldn't it be easier if the sign just said, "321-South"? Maybe I'm just too simple. Maybe I'm missing something. Actually, if we stay in Hickory, and my kids learn to drive here, maybe this will help them to gain some trouble-shooting and problem-solving skills, and serve to improve their SAT scores. They'll learn how to read faster, that's for sure. Hey, combined with the DMV drivers test, they'll be ready for grad school before you know it. Maybe I owe a big thanks to the state of North Carolina for the bettering of the education of my children through hands-on practical life quizzes. That is, if their mother doesn't crash and severely injure them before they turn 16!
Or maybe the bottom line is this: I miss L.A. Freeways!!
By the way, my NC driver's license arrived in the mail yesterday! I'm official!

North Carolina vs. California

2010-01-20T17:05:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I've been noting some "differences" between North Carolina and California and have found some things quite interesting. I won't bore you with the way they talk here or things of that nature. However some of the things that have made my list are pretty benign. They're just different, and I think it's interesting, so I'm blogging the differences.
1. There is NO dust here. None. I haven't dusted in forever, and I never see dust on anything. I must have dusted once a week in California, and it was still so dusty. All the time.
2. Here in NC, the grocery store has sticks of butter vs. cubes. I had maybe seen sticks (much longer and skinnier than cubes) in California, but not often. And I haven't seen cubes yet here. Life-changing, I know.
3. They don't sell refried beans at Sam's Club here. I guess we're just a bit too far from Mexico. I had a very hard time finding them at the grocery store too, but finally found them in the "foreign foods" section. Needless to say, there is no "Tresierras" Mercado here.
4. Street lights all "hang" on electric lines here. There are no posts, just yellow hanging street lights.
5. AAAAAHHHHHHHHH, there is no traffic. I didn't realize how much this would mean for me. It takes 7 minutes for Kurt to get home from work! Never more than 7 minutes. Some days in California, it would take him an hour or more. I don't miss that!
6. Granulated sugar is less granulated here. Seems the crystals are bigger. Strange observation, I know. Maybe I'm baking too many cookies. (see #2)
7. "You might could try this..." ??? We hear this phrase all the time. A mind bender. I actually said it once.
8. Restaurants have smoking sections. When you walk in, you are asked, "smoking, or non-smoking?" I haven't heard that in SO long.
9. Ever heard of a "rising 4th grader"? That's a phrase used here all the time. I heard it mostly in the summer of kids that were entering 4th grade (or whatever grade was next). Interesting.
10. EVERYTHING in Hickory is "5 minutes from there". Everyone lives 5 minutes from everyone else. If you ask how far it is, if it's in Hickory, it's 5 minutes. At least that's what they say.
11. People shop second-hand here. There's lots of second-hand stores- I mean lots. I've always loved second-hand stores, and now I'm in good company. And they're ALL just 5 minutes away from my house! :)
12. "Pocket-book" = purse. Got it.
13. Hickory has the strangest city street plan in the entire world. I'm convinced. It's so bad, that people don't even use street names (or numbers). It would only confuse people. No joke, when driving to McKinley's friends house, we drove past FOUR 10th Street Blvds, Drives, Places, etc before arriving at the correct 10th Street Avenue that we were to turn on. Here's how we give and receive directions. "Turn right at the Walgreens on 127, drive past where the old gas station was, and turn right. When you see the row of trees, turn left. Drive past the road construction and turn left again. It'll be on your right." HA! We live on 18th Street, but all of the other addresses here are "St Dr", or "St Ct" or "Ave Dr", and even some with THREE. "Avenue Boulevard Place". Even our fellow Hickorians don't approve. The nice thing is, once you live in Hickory for 6 months (because it's pretty small), you are pretty familiar with all of the important landmarks (except for the ones that don't exist anymore and people STILL use them to give directions!!) and navigating isn't too difficult (as long as you can see the sun or have a compass with you). HA! Our friends did give us directions using street numbers, but we got lost. It was tough when we had to turn off of 4th St Dr onto 4th St Pl.
Well, that wraps it up for now. We miss our friends in California, but love it here. Come visit us. Just take 24th Blvd until it turns into 10th St Dr. When it turns to 14th Blvd Ave and crosses 29th St Pl, stay on it until you see the neatly groomed row of trees. Turn right just before those. Turn right again at the entrance to the housing development, and when you hit the L in the road, turn left. Our house is second on the right.

I PASSED!

2010-01-12T18:23:00.000-08:00

Wow, that was a long post. Anyway, if you hadn't been on facebook, you might not have heard the good news. I PASSED! I decided that I had had enough, and didn't feel the need to go back for more (decided not to fail on purpose as I had previously considered doing). The questions were repeating already and I had seen most of them. Okay, so I did as promised and smuggled the iPhone into the testing area. I felt so high-schoolish and so nervous that I might get caught! (That is sadly how I lived during those years). I successfully took MANY pics but don't know if I can figure out how to get them from my phone to the blog. I posted one of the licensing officer ("Hello California Girl") on facebook but none of the test yet. Okay, he was a real sweetheart. I may just have to rent the movie he recommended to me "Julia Julia" (about Julia Childs?) because he was so sweet. There is such a strange vibe there- all of the "officers" are so sweet, but all of them take their job SO seriously. I'm telling you, not one person will ever get a North Carolina drivers license who hasn't taken the proper steps and passed through their fine-toothed comb! Anyway the officers gave the girls lollipops while I took the test and we were out of there in a flash. I only missed ONE question!! The questions today were ridiculously easy! (Must be the test Kurt got yesterday :)
Okay, so today's events were not quite as humorous as yesterdays, but I'll break it down a little for you. First of all, I'm sure you would have gotten a good laugh if you were sitting in the car with me before I walked in. I was trying to figure out how I was going to smuggle the phone in there and to the computer area without getting caught. I was tucking it here and there, and even took a few practice pictures. I decided it might not work out, but still made sure to keep my phone on me just in case. I was SO nervous when I walked in there! The office was much more crowded today, so we had to wait a few minutes longer. They were just as friendly today, and welcomed me back with kind words. "Back again, are you?" and "Ready to try again?" They were all cheerful and sweet with the kids. Thankfully I didn't have to go through the vision test thing. However, I had studied the sign shapes and colors just in case! So once again, I was sent back to the computers. Yes! They sent me to the furthest one away. I decided to put Dax on the chair next to me in his car seat, to help camouflage my picture taking. He wasn't quite high enough... and the glaring lady was there at the same desk again today. However...after the first two questions, Dax woke up and started crying. Hmmm....my wheels started turning...perfect! I carefully unstrapped him (so as to let him cry enough so no one would be suspicious of why I would choose to hold a baby while taking the test). I held him in my left arm while taking the test, and my camera was safely tucked out of sight! Picture taking was a breeze! And the office was so busy, no one was really paying much attention to me!
In case you're wondering about the "woman" question, I got it again today, with a picture as well. Here it is. "Studies have shown which of the following to be a serious traffic hazard?"
A) Middle-aged drivers.
B) Slow drivers.
C) Women drivers.
For REAL. That's when you start to look around you to see if there are hidden cameras on you. Are you kidding me? Put the ACLU on that one! But seriously, I would like to know who wrote that question and what in the world they were thinking. Really. And then I have to wonder how many people have chosen C as their answer.
Here's a question that I liked. "When litter is thrown from or blown (??)from a vehicle:
A) It's a problem only if it hits someone.
B) The driver is held responsible and may be charged with littering.
C) It's no problem, since someone will eventually pick it up.
My four year old got this one right. And the picture. Litter on the highway median. Excellent. I was thankful for the questions that had only one logical answer, and thankful for fun pictures.
Okay, one more complaint. The question first.
"If a driver refuses to take the breath test, which of the following will happen?"
A) The driver is assigned to a driver improvement class.
B) A six month revocation of the license by the department of motor vehicles.
C) A twelve month revocation of the license by the department of motor vehicles.
Now, is it really important to have this fact memorized? I do understand and am glad to comply with knowing certain driving facts that actually affect the drivers around me or the safety of those in my own car. But they really expect us to tuck this one away? I don't save space in my brain for things like this. And I think this is the one I got wrong. But it was completely worth getting it wrong just to see the picture of the guilty woman with the Breathalyzer in front of her facing the sheriff. I snapped one of this too.
Let me break down the pictures and then I'm done.
The question was about littering (I got two of them). The second question had the best picture. A red car driving down a nice road, and a hand stretched out the window holding a piece of trash in it. Accurate representation of littering.
Another question about giving your license to an under aged person to allow them to purchase alcohol. The picture was of two women (one younger than the other) under some trees (obviously hiding) and doing the hand-off of the drivers license- passing it back to the older lady, alcohol in hand!
And my favorite picture...the arrest of the black-sandal white tube sock man!! Check him out on facebook unless someone can tell me how to load my iPhone pics onto a blog.
Okay, enough already. Thank you for reading and for rejoicing with me in my victory!

Who Wants to get a North Carolina Driver's License??

2010-01-11T18:04:00.001-08:00

Okay, I know I have been slacking, but I promise a few posts here in the next few days. I am compelled to write today because I am slightly annoyed, and I'll tell you why. I think it'll make me feel a little better.
A few months ago, we were warned by some friends that it's not really easy to get a drivers license in North Carolina. Admittedly, Kurt and I were sure that we would not face the same difficulty that they did. Then we heard it again. "The computerized test is quite a deal..." We've kind of put it off for a while, and then we've faced several difficulties (Ugh, I hate to admit it...). Anyway, as of today, we've been to the drivers license office a combined total of... well, more times than we've wanted to. Anyway, we've had to pull together way too many documents to appease the "licensing officers" (who, by the way, look very official in their cop-like uniforms), and we were SO excited to have all of the papers we needed in one envelope ready to go today. Finally we arrived at the office with all of the acceptable documents in order. Before we were even asked, we plunked those papers down on the counter proudly, and were granted our number tabs. Ahhh, the relief and sense of accomplishment! You wouldn't believe the crazy hoops we've had to jump through. We sat down with the other fine citizens of Hickory and waited our turn. Our numbers were called simultaneously, and behind the official counter we went to sit down with two different officers for our next set of challenges.
With my documents paper-clipped neatly together, I sat down with a pleasant middle-aged officer and handed him the goods. "Hello California Girl", he said with a smile as he took my old license (don't be fooled). He muddled through the papers and asked me a few questions about my vision, and something else. "Okay, now look through this (some sort of vision testing thing) and read the first line for me. "B, A, C, D, R, O, M, X." Pretty sure I passed. "Okay, now what's on the next line?" "Um, a Stop sign, a yellow circle sign" "Ah, yes," he interrupted. "Now what does that yellow circle sign represent?" My heart is now beating a little faster. "Um, railroad crossing?" "No, it's (shoot, I've already forgotten what he said)______. And what about the next one?" Stink!! I'm looking at that sign that's like a yellow square with a yellow triangle on top of it, but I know that's not what he's asking! However, I have to say something. "Uh, it's a yellow square with a triangle on top???" "And that represents... what?" I think I resigned that I was done. I would have to take home the manual and do some studying. "I don't know. Pedestrians?" "No. School Crossing." Well I recognize that sign if the people are in it!! After a few more of these, and not knowing what any of the shapes represented, there was a sense of defeat. Oh well. Now really, who in the world knows what the SHAPE and color of a sign represents?? Isn't that why they make signs with words or pictures?? And I don't remember studying these in drivers ed.
After I finished the vision test, I was a little surprised that he didn't shut me down and send me home, but instead sent me over to a computer where he had set me up to take the computerized part of the test. He gave me some clear instruction and sent me to the last computer for my multiple choice test. "There are 25 questions, and you have to get 20 of them correct. Skip the ones you aren't sure of, and come back to them at the end." Okay. I haven't taken a test in who knows how long, but I felt like I was ready. How hard can it be? After all, I have been driving for nearly 20 years and have never been pulled over for a traffic violation. And, I usually like taking tests. This will be a breeze. I sit at the computer and carefully read the directions. "There are pictures to the side of the question to help you. If you want to zoom in on the pictures, simply drag the mouse over the picture and double click. After you've chosen your answer, the computer will ask you to confirm. 'Is A your final answer?" Click on the box that says 'yes,' or the box that says 'no'." Welcome to "Who wants to get a North Carolina Drivers License!" (Okay, that's not exactly what it said, but the "final answer" part is true!) And I'm guessing that the odds of winning the prize are about the same.
Question number one. "If a driver is pitting and swerving, this is a problem with A)Brakes, B)Suspension, or C)Steering. WHAT??? First of all, WHO CARES what the problem is, I've just got to avoid him, right? Be safe? I'm not a mechanic, and I don't think I'm going to stop the guy and let him know what kind of mechanical problem HE'S having with HIS car. Or is it law in the state of North Carolina for me to identify others' mechanical problems and help them fix their car?? Don't you think the question should read, "If a driver is pitting (whatever that means) and swerving, should you A)speed up and pass them to protect yourself, B)pull off to the side of the road and call the cops, or C)slam on your breaks and stop all traffic behind you? or something like that. SKIP.
Question number two. It is illegal to drive with a blood alcohol level of A)0.5, B)0.05, or C)0.08. I have NO idea. I don't drink a lick, so I have no idea. Nor do I think it is helpful for the safety of any drivers around me if I have this tidbit tucked away in my brain. In fact, I think it's a silly question. I don't know of anyone who checks their blood alcohol level before getting behind the wheel to drive. Do you? SKIP. (Maybe that tucked away fact from drivers ed. 20 years ago will pop back into my head in the next 15 minutes even though it hasn't in like 18 years).
Question number three. When approaching a right hand curve in the road, you should A)Brake in the middle of the curve, B)slow down 30 feet before the curve, or C)gradually slow down as you approach the curve and drive at a safe speed through it. Hmm. B and C both sound good to me. However, I think if the word "safe" is in the answer, I better pick it. C it is. Final answer. YES!!! I got one right!! At this point, Kurt is now sitting two computers down from me taking his computerized test.
Question number 4. You will have your license immediately suspended if A)you are convicted of driving while impaired, B)you are convicted of reckless driving, or C)you are eating while driving. AGH! Two answers with "convicted" in them!!?? Both sound pretty bad to me! Isn't the point that I should NOT drive while impaired and NOT drive recklessly? Are they trying to get me to choose to drive either recklessly or impaired (whichever one won't get my license taken away?) SKIP.
Question number 5. If you are taking medications, you should A)never drive B)drive carefully or C)read the label on the medication to see if there are any warnings. AHA!! Got another one! YES! It didn't look so bad on the bottom of my computer screen to see "2 Correct, 0 Wrong". I looked up at Kurt. I was rubbing my hands together being silly and whispered "How are you doing?" He smiled and we were just giggling, when "SSSSSSSSSHHHHHHH" went the official she-officer. Seriously?? We're not cheaters. I felt like I was in high school again.
Question number 6. When passing on a two lane highway, A)the law says you must have 50 feet of clearance (clearance where?)B)you should look both directions and make sure you have a safe distance (aha! "safe"!!) with which to pass or C)some other answer that didn't make sense. Pretty sure I got this one, but let's just sit on that for a while. SKIP.
I won't bore you with all of them, but I will tell you that I got going and gained some confidence with 19 right answers. I had skipped 6. I wasn't sure if I would cycle back to the same questions, or if I would be fed new ones, but sure enough, the same ones popped back up. At this point, Kurt was firing through and seemed to be pretty confident. I glanced at him, and just past him directly in my line of sight was she-officer giving me a nice teacherly glare, scaring me slightly. I really wanted to ask how he was doing, but was seriously intimidated. Anyway, with 19 right, all I had to do was to answer ONE question out of SIX correctly. Just ONE. That's all. No problem. Back at it. Trying to figure out what "pitting" is. Know what swerving is. Sounds like a steering problem to me. C. Final answer. WRONG. Stink. 19 correct, 1 wrong. Tainted score.
Blood alcohol. No idea. Guessed wrong. 19 correct, 2 wrong. Starting to sweat. "Um, I'd like to phone a friend??" Nevermind. I felt the glare again.
"Convicted" question. Reckless or impaired. Wrong guess again. 19 correct, 3 wrong. My confidence is waning. I give myself a pep-talk. I can beat this thing. Moving on.
50 feet of clearance, or "safe" distance. C'mon. Let's just be safe. B. Final answer. WRONG-O. 19 correct, 4 wrong. Yikes. Really? At this point, Kurt gave a little fist pump, and hopped up from his computer. I REALLY wanted to cheat at this point. But he was gone. I felt helpless. With only one question left, I started praying. Really. Lord, I do NOT want to get up from this computer and have wasted an afternoon. I do not want Kurt to beat me. (I am SO competitive! Still!) Lord, please help me to get one of these questions right. Please. I had to guess again. This was IT. Either I passed, or I didn't. It all came down to ONE stinkin' question, with three really obscure, meaningless, silly, answers. Wanna know the question? Here it was. Most freeway accidents are A)Rear-ending accidents, B)Side-swiping accidents, or C)Driving into the shoulder accidents. I guess we're supposed to really avoid one type, and only sort-of avoid the other two? And yes, there was a picture. Only it wasn't helpful at all. It was a picture of the freeway. Of cars. Driving at a safe distance from one another. Not of a freeway accident, (it would have been helpful if it was a picture of a car rear-ending another car). Just a picture of a normal-old freeway. I guessed side-swiping. I was wrong. After clicking the "final answer" button, I heard the horns go off, and saw the lights come up, and Regis said, "I'm sorry, you've just lost everything. No prize for you today." The computer told me I had failed, and sent me back up to the "officers desk" where everyone had a good laugh. Kurt was a gracious winner and the prize was bestowed on him with smiles and congratulations from all of the officers. They didn't seem to mind sending me away with nothing. They said I could come back tomorrow but could only take the test once a day. I sure hope I pass tomorrow.
Oh, and there were pictures with all of the questions. The alcohol question had a very helpful picture of alcohol of all different kinds. There was a wine glass, a beer bottle, and some other booze. And to think, I still got the question wrong. The "conviction" question even had a picture of a nice lady sitting in a police station having a discussion with a police officer. I couldn't quite tell what she was convicted of. She was facing the other direction, or I might have been able to read her expression.
And the curve question? Yep, you guessed it. A picture of a curve in the road. Now I guess it would have been helpful if they had foot markers on the side of the road labeled 30 feet behind the curve where the car happened to be, brake lights on, and a police officer giving a thumbs down to the car as it entered the curve. No such luck.
Okay, now I'm actually looking forward to going back tomorrow. Just for the pictures. I'm going to look closer tomorrow.
I almost forgot. There was another silly question about someone driving poorly, and I'm going to make sure I ask about it tomorrow. No joke, the second answer read B)a woman.
Last thing. Now, I have to be careful how I say this. The most ironic part of this whole thing is when you consider who they handed that license to when we walked out the door. I'm NOT saying that Kurt is a bad driver. He is a self-declared "skillful driver" (and he likes to test those skills) though he is very sensitive to me when he drives. But I have to say that if you were to compare the two of us and the way we drive, hands down, without argument, 99.99% of all the people who have ridden with both Kurt and I would say that they are more comfortable with the way that I drive over the way that he drives. But he is the one who can now legally drive in the state of North Carolina. Me? Well, I get to do this all over again tomorrow. And I still may not pass if there are a bunch of those ridiculous questions on the test. However, I've determined I'm going to attempt to smuggle in my iPhone and get real photos of the test along with the pictures. Pray that I don't get caught! And I just might fail on purpose so I can read more questions and gather a few sermon illustrations for my husband along the way. (at least I'll say that now so I have an excuse).

First SNOWFALL!!

2009-12-18T10:49:00.000-08:00

Well, after several faulty snow predictions, we have finally experienced our first real snowfall! The kids were let out of school early for their last day before Christmas break- what a great start!! We had so much fun getting all geared up (thanks Del-Charcos, for all of the gear!) and the kids have been playing non-stop. Love it!!

Macy-Boo, getting herself ready. Leotard, ballerina sheer skirt, Dorothy shoes, and a nice warm hat and jacket.

REAL snow falling at OUR house!! What a dream!!

Reilly and Jackson enjoying the flurry.

Shea love and Camdyn in the backyard.

Mommy in a make-shift hat. Yep, that's Dax's blanket! Unprepared California girl.

Living in a Two Year Old World

2009-12-04T05:47:00.000-08:00

Well, Macy has been making us laugh so hard recently...she at this moment is looking at Kurt's watch telling me, "It's thirty degrees, mommy! We have to go to the store!!" She's so earnest- it's precious. (And somehow she got the thirty degrees right on!)
I actually sat down to recount how funny she's become with adding "ee" to the end of all of her words. Sometimes three, four, even five words in a sentence can end with the "ee" sound.
"Mommy, could you please get me some milkee?"
or, "Daddy, my shoesies are upstairsees in my roomee!"
It's getting a little ridiculous, and these are not exaggerations.
However, what is even more ridiculous is that I (mommy, grown up etc.)was just talking to Dax (mind you, he's six months old) and I said to him, "Dax, let's find your sockees so we can keep your feeties warmee!"
Welcome to my world.

2009-11-27T16:12:00.000-08:00

Mr. Hohn is here for a visit! The kids are thrilled to have our good friend here for the long weekend, and Kurt and I are blessed with his cheerful presence. We love Mr. Hohn!

Bad hair day. Maybe choking too.

John and Julie McGrath opened their home to us for Thanksgiving. What a blessed day! We sang praise songs together, and shared what we are thankful to God for.

The "big kid" table. Tommy, Reilly, Kinley, Gracie, and Shea.

Julie and Viktoriya.

Pastor Jon and Pastor Kurt. A dynamic duo in so many ways. We are so blessed to have the Kricks here in Hickory! What a blessing!

Fall Fun

2009-11-14T18:51:00.000-08:00

So today was an absolutely beautiful fall day here. It was around 73 degrees out, the sun was shining, and the kids were outside all morning getting as muddy and dirty as they possibly could. But it was loads of fun (and loads of laundry) and worth the joy that it brought to them to let them at it. And Dax slept for 4 hours straight while they played and I cleaned house! Here is Reilly and a couple of his buddies "building" in the creek.
One of our leaf piles. It's probably 15 feet across, and two feet deep. I guess this is our first "real" fall.

This, my friends, is our backyard! It really is breathtaking.

The boy worked hard. That is sweat on his brow!

That is the back of our house. Macy thought I was taking the pic of her.

Here they are, all working together! It was worth the dirt and grime that I had to clean up just to see them all having so much fun together. One common goal (I think it was the dam that they built), and they were unified! Great word picture, huh? I'll probably see this in a sermon illustration soon...

The sweet sissies- Shea and Cam.

See the two holes in the ground in front of her? That's where her feet got stuck. She actually panicked a little when she couldn't move. Then she pulled her feet out, and last came the shoes. They were a mess. She was so cute!

Precious Kinley.

Oh that smile! It brightens up anyone's day, doesn't it? Sweet Boo...

Wow.

2009-11-13T11:37:00.000-08:00

Wow. I can be so shallow. I can get antsy about finding a pair of jeans to fit Shea. About a milk spill on the dining room table. About a trail of mud into my bathroom.
Wow. I can actually get mildly irritated by a slow driver on a one lane road. Or when my keys go missing. Or when my son spits up on an outfit that I just put on him.
Wow. I can spend entire days just making mental lists and checking things off when they get done. Going from one task to the next, with hardly any thought for anything beyond the "to-dos".
Today I am so thankful to be shocked again out of my monotony and apathy. I just watched Nichole Greene's memorial service live on-line, and was forced into wondering what would be said about me if I died today. I would be honored to have things said about me like what was said about Nichole. I was reminded today to live for the line, not the dot (eternity, rather than the "dot" of this life). James 4:14 says, "Why, you don't even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." How about that? Psalm 90:12 says, "Lord, teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."
I want to resolve today to live each moment for the Lord Jesus Christ. What else matters?

A Legacy of Faithfulness

2009-11-09T11:45:00.000-08:00

Please pray for the Greene family! Nichole went home to be with the Lord Saturday morning. She battled cancer and was suffering greatly near the end. It is a joy for her to be free from the pain she was enduring, but very sad for her husband and four sweet kids. Ansel, Noah, Josie and Levi will miss their mommy and Norm is grieving the loss of his wife, though all know that she is praising God and free from all earthly troubles and pain. Please pray for them!

I wanted to post just an excerpt from Nichole's version of her story that she wrote in early May. I pray that you are encouraged and blessed by her courage and great faith! You can read the whole story on her blog (in my blog roll, posted on her blog May 11)

And thank You Lord. After my surgery I had a fever for about eight weeks, hospitalized, and on Christmas Eve diagnosed with a c-diff infection which I may have picked up in the hospital. The effects of the radiation have also damaged my uterus. I have had two kidney infections, three nephrostomy tubes placed to drain my kidneys, three stints in my uterus and massive pain in the pelvic-thigh region that is relentless and constant, and which I am trying numerous drugs to relieve. Now for the good news: I am "NSD", or "No Sign of Disease"... for now. Bottom line: it hasn't been an easy year. Nine surgeries, five hospital stays, twelve blood transfusions, and a whole lot of suffering. (Can you even imagine what she went through?) Yet, praise be to God, through all of this my heart has soared! (Her heart was soaring!!?? Wow! What an example of great faith!!) God has given me joy, peace and strength because of Jesus Christ my friend, my Helper, my Great Physician and Lord. I can't tell you my story without telling you about my relationship with Jesus Christ. It is my story because God is the author of it. It is His story.
This battle with cancer for most of us is not only a battle against this nasty disease, but a battle for hope. My hope has waxed ane waned in this battle, yet my hope has been anchored on the bedrock of a cliff that is higher than me. Jesus Christ is my life, my love, my Savior.

Though this was written some time ago, Nichole remained this trusting and faithful to the Lord to the very end. She told me of SO many people she had shared the gospel with including all of her doctors, people she roomed with, and people she went through treatment with, etc. She wanted to be used of the Lord the whole way through and was so excited to see how He would open doors for her to proclaim His grace and goodness! Who wouldn't listen to a mother suffering from cancer? She lit up with each opportunity and most of her prayer requests (when asked) weren't for her next surgery or about the cancer, but for the Armenian girls she had witnessed to and invited to church who had been visiting their mom who happened to be in the bed next to Nichole, or for her Jewish doctor that Nichole desperately wanted to see come to the Lord. I am rejoicing that Nichole is in the presence of the Lord, but sad that so many will miss her so much.

If I could ask her what to pray for now, I know that she would ask us to pray for her family and friends that don't know the Lord. She would want all of us to be praying that her memorial service would bring glory to Him and that especially those that she loves would repent and come to know the Savior!

Fall Fun

2009-11-07T07:33:00.000-08:00

Kurt's new office. Another pic toward the bottom. It is beautiful!

Halloween night. Kinley is a butterfly, Shea a Jedi Princess, Reilly a hobo, Cam and angry Rhino, and Macy-boo a sweet mouse. The night was peppered with rainfall, but we had fun anyway.

Our little dalmation. He barked if you squeezed his paws.

Grandma with the happy baby.

Grandpa with the happy baby.

A shot of Kurt's new office. It is expansive and beautiful!

Our little contortionist twisting out of the bumbo seat...

Grandpa relaxing under the awning he designed in the big girls' room. It's not quite finished (the room) but the girls are happy! (check them out in the mirror!)

Celebrating Reformation Day (Oct 30) at school. Another reason I am so glad my kids are at a Christian school! They spent the day learning about the reformers and singing praise to God! Grandma made all of the costumes for the kids. Reilly is Moses, Kinley is Mary, Cam is Sarah. When I asked Shea who she wanted to be, she told me, "Mom, I'm going to be Bathsheba." I was a little stunned. She's only 8, so I knew she didn't really know what she was saying. "Um, no you're not." She could tell my mind was running and I think she didn't think I meant what I said. "Ya, I am! I am going to be Bathsheba!" Hmm. How should I go about this. "Uh, do you know who Bathsheba is??" "Yep I do. She was David's wife." How do I tell her... "Well, she was David's wife, but she really isn't someone you want to dress up as." Shea proceeded to argue with me a little bit more, but I just put my foot down and told her no. Some day we'll have a good laugh together about that one...

Another shot of the bedroom. Grandpa also lengthened She's bed so that we could arrange the beds like this. Grandma and Grandpa came and spent just over two weeks with us. It was great to have them here! We enjoyed our visit with them and were greatly benefitted and blessed by them. Grandpa was hard at work on little house projects and grandma was just grandma... helping out with the food and laundry and spending lots of time loving on the kiddos. Thanks grandma and grandpa for spending time with us and for all of the love you pour out on us! We love you!

Catching Up...

2009-11-04T13:37:00.000-08:00

A perfect fall visit to a local apple farm. What a treat!

I love Dax's expression. He's so into this book! What a sweet big sis.

Shea bringing Reilly his "birthday cake" (a huge chocolate chip cookie). Reilly doesn't do many sweets, and cake is on the black list.

The Party! Pizza, bowling, grandpapa and granny Dee, and a HUGE surprise visit from Daddy who flew home from Chicago because he couldn't miss the big event. Certainly a birthday to remember! It was the sweetest moment when Reilly realized that Kurt was home- there was a stunned silence, then huge hugs and many tears for both (okay, and me too).

A brilliant solo. The boys were captivated, and Shea may be a little to close to the vocalist. Looks like she's plugging her ears??

I have been a slacker! It is my goal to bring this blog up to date. That will mean lots of posting in a short amount of time. Here goes!!

Nichole

2009-10-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

My heart is hurting for a good friend Nichole from back home. She is suffering greatly from cancer and is in much pain. There was an update recently on her blog (in my blog list) and I want all of us to uphold her and her sweet family in prayer.

Remembering the Good Old Days

2009-10-22T07:45:00.000-07:00

Can't help but post this one! I love that our screen saver rotates through old pictures. This one is a favorite! These families are some of our favorite in the world...the Lyons, the Becks, and the Smalls. We love you guys! This was from a vacation that we took to Tahoe for a week (2 1/2 years ago!). We had such a good time together! We miss you all!

Macy Boo

2009-10-14T05:15:00.000-07:00

Macy is entering the cutest phase of talking, and I know she'll be out of it soon. I want to document some of those so we don't forget these sweet attempts at making sense!!
This morning, Macy was trying to get her breakfast ready while I was feeding the baby. She walked over to the couch and we had this conversation.
"Mommy, I need some milk."
"Okay Macy, I'll be there in a couple of minutes to help you."
"But-but-but it's blowing all over the place." hmmmm. I can see that she's being distracted by what's happening inside of her head, and I was beginning to be amused.
"What's blowing all over the place, honey?"
"Um-um the houses are blowing all over the place!"
When she sees the amusement on my face, she suddenly comes back to reality and breaks out into one of those huge half-embarassed Macy grins...I love it! I have a feeling I'll be back at the computer later today with more Macyisms!

2009-09-28T20:07:00.001-07:00

I surrender to the sleep monster.

Happy Baby!

Grandma snuggles.

More Reception Pictures

2009-09-28T07:49:00.000-07:00

The "Welcome to Hickory" reception that the ladies from the church threw for me was absolutely beautiful. I finally got the pictures from the "photographer" and wanted to post a few more. No explanation necessary, it was a stunningly beautiful event and I felt warmly welcomed and cared for!

"It's a Good Mornin..."

2009-09-25T05:04:00.000-07:00

"I'm smellin' coffee, Birds are singin' just outside.
Here comes Your mercy, streamin' in with the morning light.
My heart is racin' wakin' up to Your smile, it's a Good Mornin...yeah".

Chris Rice must have it made- at least he must have for a couple of days while he was writing this song. Truth is, I'm not smelling coffee (because that would mean that I had to make it for myself), and I don't hear any birds singing (maybe they heard me yelling at the kids this morning and are scared to come near the house). I haven't gotten enough sleep recently, and this morning sure hasn't gotten off to a very good start.
I've been frustrated recently with the start of the school year as the kids seem to be unable to keep their papers and notebooks in order. No joke, I have to sign approximately 10 different papers EACH NIGHT for the kids, and then they manage to leave them on the coffee table, the floor, the counter, or elsewhere. I've reminded them again and again that soon, I won't be reminding them when I see the papers laying around (hmmmmm). This morning was another reminder that "no reminders" will be coming soon. Layer number one of frustration.
It's Reilly's birthday today. The girls sang to him this morning while I was downstairs making lunches (with a birthday note for Reilly) and cookies for Reilly to bring to his class. They came down, and immediately Reilly was fishing in his lunchpack for his LUNCH birthday note. I scolded him irritably- he said he just wanted to "see" what I put in there for him. "Well, maybe I didn't put ANYTHING in there for you!" Then he was dressing his special birthday breakfast-swedish pancakes- with peanut butter. In his rush, as I watched him dip his knife into the peanut butter, he required another scolding for the way in which he dipped the knife into the peanut butter. Much too far into the jar, and careless. Peanut butter way too high up on the handle for this mom. Layer number two.
"Shea, could you please help Camdyn with her show and tell?" After one attempt to find paper (for Cam's 'clues'), she gave up without telling me. 2 minutes before their ride was supposed to show up, I asked again, and received the third layer of frustration. A lame answer to excuse her incompletion of the task that was put before her. Another scolding for Shea.
I found myself in a huff running around trying to get them all together for school, and putting on an air of "I'll just have to do everything myself and you all will have to deal with whatever doesn't happen." Soon, I realized that they too were putting on an air of frustration as they tried to get their things ready to walk out the door. Ouch.
I'm not even sure what my point is in writing this, and the intermittent cries of my four-month-old are a little bit of a distraction too.
Three things that I am thankful for (though my heart doesn't want to be thankful right now because it's wanting to be stinky). 1) I could still see straight enough to run out to the car when their ride came to seek their forgiveness for being grumpy, rude, and "a mean mommy" this morning. Kids are SO forgiving. 2) Even though I don't "feel" His mercy "streamin' in with the morning light", it still is. His mercies are new every morning- and I desperately need His mercy. Every day. All the time. 3) I can actually hear the birds now (during the intermittent part of the crying). One more thing. I'm usually not so irritable about the peanut butter on the knife. And I usually don't require the older kids to help the younger ones with homework. That only happens when there is something (open house) that takes up homework time the night before and I ran out of options. I gotta go now and feed the baby and spend a little time getting my heart right with the God of Mercy...

I Wish They All Could Be California Girls

2009-09-23T19:20:00.000-07:00

Mandy, Shayna, Nikki, Susan and Kim at around 11:30 in the parking lot of Carrabbas. We couldn't stop talking.

Mandy, Susan, Nikki, Me, and Kim.

Shayna, Kim and Nikki. Nikki kept having everyone say "haaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiii" for the pictures.

Mandy, Nikki and Kim. We were all BFFs by the end of the night.

In a "North Carolina" rocking chair in front of Cracker Barrell. The California girls miss southern comfort food. We all ate breakfast for dinner this night.

Eating brownie sundaes and watching "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". PJ party!

It was so much fun having some of my closest girl friends from California out for a visit! We had such a great weekend together. We stayed up WAY too late every night- I think we were up until 2:45 the first night they were here. We didn't ever get to bed before 1:30, I believe... those wild party girls! We had such a blessed time and I'm pretty sure they're all moving out here soon. :)

Monday night had to be the highlight- I planned an evening out for "Coastal Connections" (Nikki, you are such a cheeseball!) and we went out to dinner with four girls from the church here. (I forgot to get a picture before two had to leave!) We shared our testimonies of God's faithfulness to us and how He has worked in and through us, and were blessed beyond measure. It was amazing how the Lord knit our hearts together in such a short time! We arrived at the restaurant at 6:00 and didn't leave until around 11:30. I'm voting we make "Coastal Connections" with no kids a regularly scheduled event, and even extend it for a weekend!!

I absolutely love my new friends here but I do miss these sweet girls! I am SO thankful and humbled that they would make the huge trip out here to spend some time with me, as well as to help me to get the house situated. They decorated, unpacked a few more boxes, helped with the kids, and blessed me so much with their sweet presence! I love you girls!

Memories from the weekend:

"Doogers" (you know, the family with 17 kids)- Nikki's pronunciation

Grits (I had never had them before Cracker Barrell)

"All of the Gebhards' children look so much alike!" (Shayna, commenting on the stickers on the back of my car)

"IT'S SNOWING!!" (Shayna, as the plane was landing)

Faith is your Companion (profound)

Gather Prayer (more profound)

"Set down and eat your mill!" (Kim and her ????????? accent)

Hobby Lobby experience

All Y'all are WRONG!

2009-09-13T13:37:00.001-07:00

Well, though I probably shouldn't be excited to tell you all that all of you are wrong, it is kinda fun, I admit. So the answer is (and I have NO cash prahzes to give!!)............REILLY! Can you believe it.... it is really funny. He spends a lot of time outside with the neighbor boy who talks with a sweet drawl. I was talking to Reilly about Austin's accent, and Reilly looked at me like I had four eyes. "Are you saying that Austin has an accent???" I about fell out of my chair laughing. Austin quite possibly has the hugest southern accent I have heard thus far! I have to admit, it is awfully cute to hear the boy drawing out his vowels into multiple syllables...it won't be long before the girls are southern bells themselves!

Put in Yer Vote- Cash Prahzes for the Weenner

2009-09-10T12:24:00.000-07:00

Okay folks...someone in this family has already picked up the southern drawl. Today as I listened to this individual talking about school, I was astonished. I = "Ah", and My = "Mah". I didn't think the changes would come this quickly. Please feel free to put in your guess and I will keep you all posted.

youtube

2009-09-03T05:04:00.000-07:00

Hi all! I have posted a couple of videos to youtube but don't know how to post them on the blog (or if I can even do that). Our user name for youtube is "themunchbunchcrunch"- and I think you can find both videos pretty easily that way. One is titled "attax giggles" and the other "the bouncing boo". Soon I'll figure out how all of this works so it's easier for you to find!

Cousins!

2009-09-02T16:42:00.001-07:00

Playing outside! It's a little hard to see, but Lucas has been collecting flyers for all of the houses for sale. He is a little "collector" and keeps everything he collects safely in his backpack. He has shared his flyer with Cam in this pic, and she's studying it while on the ride toy...

Lucas with baby Dax.

Aunt Moe, photographed by either Shea or McKinley.

Sweet Quinn... she was so sweet!

We had so much fun spending time with the cousins here in NC! They live only a couple of hours away and I know we will enjoy more time with them. Quinn is almost 4 and Lucas is already 4. It was a joy to get to know them and their little personalities! They are both so sweet and have distinctly different personalities, but are a joy to be around. Aunt Moe is a great mommy! She was a great help here and brought some sanity while Kurt was away. Can't wait to have more time with them!

Reception

2009-08-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

The sweet ladies of Hickory Harvest Church hosted an amazing reception to welcome me to the church. We joked around that it was like I was getting married- it was so beautifully detailed! There were stunning flower centerpieces in greens and browns on each table, and I would have chosen exactly what they did if it had been my own wedding reception! I absolutely loved it. The vase in the picture was in the entry to the clubhouse. The girls who hosted it put together a basket of goodies for me (left side of the pic) including some of what you see above- notecards, giftcards, a door mat, a beautiful candle with the holder, and more. The treasure box on the right was opened and filled with cards welcoming me to the church family from the ladies who attended.

There was a beautiful spread of food as well, also perfectly presented and delicious! To my delight, the dessert table was not lacking in any way, especially in chocolate... I hope to post pictures of the actual reception soon! The "wedding cake" was a three tiered cake iced with green and brown- it may be the most beautiful cake I have seen!

What made the evening perfectly enjoyable was meeting and interacting with all of the sweet southern ladies from the church. I wish I had a day to spend with each of them! These people have taken our family into their fold and have embraced us with so much love and kindness. We have loved our time here so far and look forward to years of ministering with these people!

"The Nut" and Company

2009-08-24T17:29:00.000-07:00

"KIDS!! It's time to head upstairs and put on your P.J.s! I'll be up in a minute!" The kids dutifully (sort-of) went upstairs, and soon it was pretty quiet. All except for some faint giggling coming from the back bedroom...
Upon further investigation, this is what I found! Two very happy nudie bootie monkeys jumping in the crib! I passed up the scolding for some pictures instead. How can you resist?? I'll save the PG pictures for our fam. :)

Strange and Obscure Item #6

2009-08-21T19:58:00.000-07:00

If you haven't been keeping up, we are in the midst of posting a series of strange and unusual items left by the previous owner. Before anyone told me of this piece, I stumbled upon it in the storage space downstairs and at first glance was taken aback. These little guys are frighteningly life-like. Now honestly, is this a piece of art? I'm not so sure. There is more to come, still.

At Home with Mommy

2009-08-20T19:13:00.000-07:00

While the big kids were at school, Macy and I had a little fun of our own! We made cookies and enjoyed a little finger lickin' as well. Macy was double dipping the beater every time I turned around (she didn't know I saw her reflection in the microwave)... but when she's just about as sweet as the cookies it's easy to let that slide!

First Day of School

2009-08-20T12:53:00.000-07:00

McKinley May.
Shea love.
The Nut. I'm pretty sure that she loves dressing like the big kids. She gets to go to pre-school for three days a week and is SO happy about that!
Reilly
The kids were so excited for their first day of school! We are so glad that they are able to attend a Christian school here. The staff is great and we are receiving a classical education. Reilly and Shea are already learning Latin! Lots of fun, especially for daddy. I'm loving the uniforms. No more discussions (or debates) about what we wear to school. Reilly had to get a hair cut, and misses his long hair. He wanted me to tell everyone that. Well, I still have LOTS more pics from the summer, so I will keep posting daily so I don't get even more behind!

Thunder and Lightening

2009-08-19T20:07:00.001-07:00

Tonight Kinley came to me and asked if it was raining. "What? No Kinley. We were just outside and it was really nice." She proceeded to tell me that she thought she saw lightening (not sure how she could identify it) and heard a "noise" so we peeked out of the blinds. Sure enough, it went from nice and clear to a thunder and lightening rain storm! Our first one since being here. The kids all got out of bed and watched for a while...but school starts tomorrow so they needed to get to bed.

Strange and Obscure Item #5

2009-08-19T19:47:00.000-07:00

So he's kind of cute, but not something I would purchase for my lawn. Or my front porch. Beary is now at the dump.

Working Hard, or Hardly Working...

2009-08-18T19:04:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's an over-used phrase, but very fitting. You be the judge of which way it applies. These are some pictures from one of the big moving days- I promise, these are all from the same day. It was certainly a ton of fun, and we did actually get some work done. Some of us. Oscar, are you scrubbing your pits with my daughter's horsey ride toy??

Vanessa looking a bit "wet". It was a hot day so we all ended up in the backyard on the slip and slide. Most of the grown ups even gave it a shot. It didn't feel very nice for most of us, but it was worth the thrill (sort-of).

Aha! This is how we actually got some work done... these girls were awesome!

Dolly and Shenell had tons of fun with the little girls. They were all soaked by the end of it.Ayemi giving a "how to" seminar on wrapping and packing. I actually have a sequence of four pictures of her step-by-step showing us how to wrap the pitcher, and for some reason, she thinks it's helpful to wrap with her mouth open. She did a great job. The pitcher made it here safe and sound.

All teasing aside, we are SO grateful for all of the help we received at the house before we moved. It would be impossible to post pics of all of the people that helped us, but please know that we were so blessed to receive your kindness. We couldn't have done it without everyone's help. And, as you can see from the pictures, it wouldn't have been nearly as fun!!

Strange and Obscure Item #5

2009-08-18T19:01:00.000-07:00

Strange and Obscure Item #4

2009-08-17T20:37:00.000-07:00

I mean, my kids were so excited to finally have a dog!! Okay, so not really. But this gem is a life-sized drool-less replica of a really ugly dog! I think it would be humorous for anyone who feels led to leave a comment to tell us what you think went on in the previous owner's head when he was purchasing this piece. Have fun!

4th of July at Mission Springs

2009-08-17T16:47:00.000-07:00

Camdyn and my cousin (sort of) Kelsey.
Kinley and Katie (Kelsey's sister).
Grandpa holding Kinley while barbecuing...hmmmmm I'm glad I didn't see that while it was happening.
The annual "un-birthday party" hosted by Aunty Earlene and (my cousin) Kristen. Lots of sugar.
What is there to say about this one? Once again, Camdyn is "the Nut". So much fun.
Shea and Ashlyn sang in the talent show. It was a show stopper. Can't you feel the energy?
Kinley enjoying a melted Reese's Peanut Butter Cup "out" of the pool. No snacks allowed "in" the pool.
Grandpa and Macy splashing away.
The Grandmas -my mom is on the right holding Dax as he gives a "shout out" to all his peeps.
Macy-Boo sporting the Mets colors and that sparkling smile.
Can you guess what day this was?
A beloved tradition of our family's! We love spending the 4th of July week at Mission Springs, the family conference center that I grew up going to regularly. It's always fun to spend time with old friends and extended family. This year seemed to be especially unique with extended family members. My mom's cousin Carol has been battling cancer for over a year, and the Lord brought her home the week of the conference. We all spent some time with her before she left us (she lived a couple of miles from the conference center). She got to hold baby Dax and really seemed to enjoy it. She smooched his little head and snuggled him. It was a touching moment for us all- the beginning of life and the end- all in one frame. I think it brought a unique unity to our family. It was a special week! Special thanks to grandma and grandpa for hosting the entire munch bunch in the cabin. We love you!

DAX ATTAX

2009-08-16T20:59:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since we've posted pics of the little man. He is doing so well! He is smiling all the time now and cooing so sweetly! He loves his brothers and sissies and is such a charmer. We love baby Dax! Please pray that we would quickly find a great pediatrician. He will be needing to see one soon!

Random and Obscure Item #3

2009-08-16T20:56:00.000-07:00

I promised, so I'm delivering!! Please feel free to post your description. Once again, I have nothing to say.

2009-08-15T19:40:00.000-07:00

(Kurt here) We have been praying for Julia and Tim today. They are getting married right now as I write. May Christ be exalted in their ceremony. Congrats to you both!

We greatly miss our time with Midori and J-Lo! We love our friends in the Foundry!

Strange and Obscure Item #2

2009-08-15T16:44:00.001-07:00

Please feel free to leave your description. I'm speechless.

The New House

2009-08-15T16:31:00.000-07:00

Day three...I promised daily updates (for a while), and here we are! So here are a couple of pictures of the new house and neighborhood. Somehow they're a bit out of order... the first one is the back of the house. You can see a bit of the trampoline, and the playhouse that the prior owner left behind. How perfect! The second one is the front of our beautiful house. We love it! Reilly is on Kurt's shoulders, if you can't see. I wanted to capture a bit of the neighborhood as well, so took one down the street into the cul-de-sac. We live toward the end of a "double cul-e-sac" - the first one you can see, and the second one is off to the left. Reilly has a 9 year old boy next door to play with, and there are quite a few kids around all the time.
Last night we spent the evening after the kids were in bed at a "driveway party" next door. Apparently this is a regular occurance around here, and a good number of the neighbors were in attendence, including the old owner of our house (he's joking about moving in downstairs!). It was a jolly occasion...including a few beverages we didn't partake in, and also the second ranked whistler in the world joined us and whistled "Happy Birthday" to our new neighbor Cheryl, and also "The Lord's Prayer". It really was beautiful (the whistling) and a very entertaining bunch of people! We're excited for the opportunities here and really are enjoying our new neighborhood.

Strange and Obscure "New York" Decor

2009-08-14T16:46:00.000-07:00

That's the only explanation I have for some of the stuff that the previous owner left behind (he's from NY). I understand why he didn't take these things with him. I think I'll post a pic a day. I would love to hear your description of each of the items- so here's the first!

Garage Sale

2009-08-14T16:26:00.000-07:00

The Gebhards girls with Ali and Emma sipping their orange Crush through Dax's baby bottles...
We had a garage sale on July 11 at the house. Tons of help from the Foundry with the sale and with beginning to pack the house! Steve Lai was amazing with the customers- he would introduce himself and host them, offering them a bag to carry their things in and making some great deals. Everyone walked away happy!
Shea and the girls made a lemonade stand and and had lots of fun. I think it was around 98 degrees or something, but the hat was "necessary" for some reason, along with the jeans.
Kurt and Reilly slept on the mattress for sale on the driveway to protect the goods through the night. We set up all of it on Friday, so it sat out all night. Fun bonding for the two of them.
Bright and early...what faithful friends we have! The garage sale was great and we off-loaded a lot of stuff that we didn't need to cart across the country. We had a lot of fun doing it, too! Thanks to all of the people who helped us out!

Hickory, North Carolina

2009-08-13T19:05:00.000-07:00

One of the MANY treasures the previous owner left for us. This was a "toad house" wind chime or something. We also got a ceramic life sized wiener dog, a stork with his mouth open large... and the list goes on into even stranger things. However, the house is beautiful!
The kids ready to go swimming at our new friends' house this morning.
The lovely welcome Shea received from the mosquitos. She itched like crazy!
Where to start...we arrived in Hickory North Carolina just a few short days ago, and I haven't seen a computer in over two weeks, so I apologize for any of you who actually expect somewhat regular updates!
So from June 15 (I believe that was my last post) until now- almost two months later -our lives have basically turned upside down. We decided right around June 15 that the Lord was calling our family to North Carolina. We sold the house (no small thing!!), bought one here in Hickory, and spent the next month and a half packing boxes, tying up loose ends, saying difficult good-byes and getting SO excited to meet our friends here in Hickory.
The good-byes were difficult- we will miss our friends and family dearly, but the welcome we have received here has been royal. I'm just waiting for them to realize that we're pretty normal people- at least let me speak for myself... So the pantry and fridge was filled to capacity- I'm talking 6 jars of peanut butter and 7 jars of grape jelly "filled". They found out exactly what we like, then everyone at the church shopped with the list! We are well cared for here, and already feel at home with the church family. They are warm, kind, sweet, and exceedingly generous! I can't say the same for the mosquitos, though they think my kids are warm, sweet, and exceedingly generous (for playing outside in the evenings). Shea is apparently allergic to the mosquitos here. See the picture.
Well, I am going to make a promise to you all that I am going to post updates here on the blog daily to catch everyone up to speed with our life adventure (and make sure I have no gaps in my memory book!), so keep checking! I can't wait to catch up with all of my blogging friends!

2009-06-17T19:15:00.000-07:00

Our little man. This pic was taken tonight. He is nudie because he messes up all of his clothes multiple times every day!
Dax loves to be swaddled tightly like a burrito- I love it!
I love this- Reilly snuggled up to Dax and the two of them were chilling together on the couch...
Reilly receiving his AR award from our principal
Well, as you can see, I'm finding it difficult to keep up the blog... Anyway, the end of the school year arrived so quickly! Reilly and Shea were both in the top twenty readers in their whole school this year. They both received awards from the principal, Mr. Evans, for this achievement. The kids earn points when they take on-line quizzes after reading a book. Depending on the length and difficulty of the reading, the points vary. These two pics at the end are from the "AR party" (accelerated reader).
Reilly also participated in the spelling bee and after winning in his classroom, he went on to take second place in all of the third grade! We are so proud of him! He reads like a maniac- in the car, in bed, on the couch (as you can see above!), anywhere and anytime. He loves books, which means he is a great speller.
All is well here! Dax is growing well, the kids are glad to be out of school, and we are filling our summer with park days and fun with friends (until it heats up around here!). It's been in the mid 70's all of June so far- we have been enjoying that!
We decided to go to Disneyland yesterday (last minute plan) as it was the last day SoCal season pass holders could go for the summer. When we arrived at around 1:00, Disney was already full to capacity, and there were a mess of people backed up for parking...so we left! We spent the day in the car as we hit major traffic on the way home because of a bad accident. Certainly NOT one of the perks of living in LA. Well, I hope to be posting a little more regularly, but we'll see about that...

Reillyism

2009-06-08T19:11:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder what exactly is going on inside the mind of a nine year old boy. Tonight at the dinner table I got a glimpse. Reilly was telling us what he envisions his life being like in the future. "When I grow up, I'm going to have two dogs, a talking bird, and a Ferrari." I wouldn't be surprised if he really means that. A nice car, the bird riding shotgun, and the dogs in the back seat...ahhhhh, the perfect life.

Dax Has Arrived!

2009-05-31T12:52:00.000-07:00

Our faithful friends, the Becks

The evening Dax arrived

Sweet sissy Shea loving on the little man

Sweet little face

Andrew and Michelle, Justin and Jenny, visiting us the night of Dax's arrival

The Munch Bunch meets Dax- they were SO cute and SO excited to meet Dax!

A little out of order...this was just after Dax was born and the nurses put him on me for the first time to meet mommy

Shortly after arriving at the hospital

More to come! I'll post a few details of his arrival soon. For now, here are the stats:

Dax Haddon Ryle

Born Thursday, May 28 at 6:32 p.m.

7 pounds, 15 ounces

19 inches long (shorty!!)

Tell us who you think he looks like!!

On our Way

2009-05-28T12:50:00.000-07:00

We're leaving for the hospital! We'll keep you all posted!