Jeremy's Spring Break and Baby Names

I decided to post some pictures of the youth group trip...I felt like I participated vicariously and am so glad it turned out well. A missionary from our church saw these photos (and many more) and asked, "Where are you guys? Are you even in America?" which went right with Jeremy's heart for the trip, so I was proud. The first picture is some of the kids in the Tiki Room at Disneyland--most had not done that attraction and Jeremy kept referencing it as a joke and so they went first thing in the morning and some of the students said it was the strangest thing they had done at Disneyland.

Here's the kids (and leaders) being ecstatic about oranges at Richfield Community Church.


The group went on to L.A. where they worked at the Union Rescue Mission for 2 days and even got to sleep on the roof. I asked if it was noisy and Jeremy said no because no one drives around Skid Row at night and all the people who "live" there don't have cars...but they could look down and see all sorts of rats among the people sleeping in their tents and on the street. During the night, a homeless guy came up on the roof and stole one of the student's clothes and some money, but they loved sleeping up there anyway.



One of the nights in LA, a friend of a friend took the group to the different ethnic neighborhoods near the mission and helped the students get a sense for what innercity ministry is like. The second night, they went to Santa Monica.

Then they went on to San Diego, where a friend of ours arranged for the group to stay at a church that does a lot of work with refugees from Sudan, Burma, Uganda, Iraq, etc. They spent 2 days there learning about the ministry, listening to people's stories, and playing with the kids.



It might have been hard to not have specific "work" to do the whole time, like finishing a roof in Mexico, but I know they blessed the refugees by paying attention to them and occupying their children for a few afternoons. If I was a mom struggling to survive in a foreign country, I would appreciate the break! We wanted to show the kids the documentary "God Grew Tired of Us" about the Lost Boys of Sudan, but it didn't work out--but I HIGHLY recommend that you watch it!

The boys and I went to the creek today with our friends and fed the fish at a Trout Pond (and stopped at my favorite Dairy Queen, of course!).
I didn't mention that one of the things my mom and I did in CA was begin to plan how to decorate the new baby's room...I think we are going to use Mary Engelbriet art and fabric and make it bright but girlie.

It's going to be fun...but I am a little sad to give up the 3rd bedroom that we have been using as an office/storage/place to sleep when our spouse is keeping us up in the middle of the night because of tossing and turning/place to display all our kitschy little travel knick-knacks...I don't know if our camel collection will ever see the light of day again! Oh well, this little girl is worth the sacrifice...speaking of "this little girl," I have just now started to refer to her as "her" instead of "it" or "the baby," and have begun looking at a website with baby names. Today I was perusing the M's and here's some of the names I came across today: Macarena (really?), Maconaquea (a strong contender if I could pronounce it), Madge (oh, good old Madge), Meliffany (what's that all about? could you just not decide between Melissa and Tiffany so you squashed them together? that doesn't count as a name!!!), Minerva (she could be friends with Madge and they could play Bingo), Myfanwy (if you look at that one quickly or just change one letter, it becomes quite funny...but boy would your kid get made fun of!). So, that's an insight into what goes on in my head when I am reading the names...as my friend Tricia and I were discussing, they put so many crazy names in the list that when you finally get to something sane like "Marlena" you say, "Oh, Marlena, how cute" and it goes on your list and then your husband vetoes it later and wonders how you picked it. I think I had Harvey and Otis on the list of suggestions for Evan because of that reason. We haven't narrowed anything down and it will probably be awhile...we always wait until the end anyway. Except my friend who just delivered at 28 weeks makes me a little nervous...I bet they didn't even have the crib put together yet!

Spring Break 2009

I'm finally making time to post about Spring Break. We had a fun, tiring time going to CA. The youth group had an awesome trip there, too, though theirs looked a little different than ours. Here's a little recap of the boys and I:

First, we stayed the night in Peoria with my mom and her friends, the Rinards. They took us out in the lake on their boat and the boys got to drive and sit on a pole.


Then we drove to Orange County, with a stop in Morongo to see my cousin Jenny and her husband Jon. The time was too short with them, but we were eager to be done driving!

Then we helped get the youth group settled at my parents' church. The Flagstaff kids were CRAZY about the orange grove next door to the church...I think they were giving out oranges to homeless people the rest of their trip! My parents, sister, the kids, and the youth group all went to Disneyland on Monday.

We loved the new additions to Small World, and I can't believe that I would say that riding it with Evan was one of my favorite parts of the trip. He and I went on it together while everyone else (including Sam!) rode the big, fast rides. Here is a photo from our 2nd time through it with grandma and grandpa:

There were soooo many people at Disneyland and I began to resent all the double strollers people were trying to push around through the crowds! Evan was brave enough to go on lots of rides. We rode the Disneyland Railroad twice...an attraction I haven't been on since the silly days of having an annual pass when we would do all kinds of random stuff. Tuesday we recovered from Disneyland and hung out with my sister...getting Chocolate Extreme Blizzards is one of our favorite traditions. We had a tailgate pizza party (just with the family) and enjoyed the warm night...Sam and Evan rode bikes and scooters with Grandpa. Sam's FAVORITE thing to do with Grandpa is race--Sam on his bike and Grandpa on an old razor scooter he dug out of the neighbor's trash. Wednesday, Grandma, Grandpa, and the boys and I were off to California Adventure. I sent Sam and G&G off on Grizzly Rapids first thing (I had the excuse of sitting it out due to pregnancy) and they were wet the rest of the day, I think!


Sam was too scared when Aunt Kendra tried to take him to the Bug's Life 3D show last time--they had to leave when he started crying (I mean come on, a spider shooting poison quills at the audience...what 3-year-old wouldn't be scared) but this time he was proud to watch it. Evan watched it too, and trembled on my lap the whole time but didn't cry. I felt a little like hyperventilating myself when the black widow spiders descended from the ceiling! I HATE black widows! Here is a picture of Sam's proud moment afterward:

We had so much fun at California Adventure...it always surprises me how much we love it because I am such a big Magic Kingdom fan. I think it appeals to Sam because of all the Pixar characters.

Thursday was another relaxed day at my parents...the boys sure love all their toys and the nice weather. Friday afternoon, we went back to Disneyland to meet my friend Tricia and to watch Fantasmic!--my absolute favorite thing at Disneyland.

Here's my mom and I eating our picnic dinner as we (well, mostly my mom) saved awesome seats for 3 hours before the show. Thanks, Mom!


Fantasmic! was amazing like always. I get a little emotional when I watch it. Sam was armed with his squirt gun to shoot the bad guys if he got scared, but afterwards he told me that he didn't even need to use it once! I think going to heaven is going to be like the final scenes of Fantasmic! (only much better, of course)--the hero vanquishes all the evil villians and you get to see all your favorite characters together at once. And there probably will be sights that put the fireworks to shame...but I'll keep enjoying the fireworks while I am here on earth. Disneyland's new fireworks show was pretty creative and fun--we loved it! Here is a picture of the boys passed out on the floor of my parent's front room while we were unloading the car that night...they were EXHAUSTED!

Here's some other pictures from our time...Grandma always does special things with the kids like make pancakes and play games.



We had a good trip back to Flagstaff except for our stop in Needles, my favorite town (not) where Sam sat on the floor of the McDonald's restroom with no pants on...eww! We were glad to get back to our house and regular routine and hear about Jeremy's trip. I'll have to post a few of their pictures here so that you can see some of the cool things they did. I have to go mop up the huge puddle--no, lake--on the bathroom floor that the boys have made during their bath as ignored them and wrote this.

It's a Girl!!! (but keep the receipts)

We just got back from a lonnngg ultrasound appointment--the baby looked healthy but wouldn't open it's legs! It also had a hand down there...which made me think boy but the ultrasound tech said, "Or it's a modest little girl!" But, she said she's 96% sure it's a girl. Here's two other pics:


Sam has already suggested the names Samuel, Pinnochio, and Alexander. Guess he doesn't quite get it yet. He said we should have 6 girls and a million boys but then we would need a million beds and that would take all night for everyone to go to sleep. So...a girl! I guess I'm following in the footsteps of my favorite singer, Sara Groves, and my beautiful friend Cassie Rinne after all (those were the only 2 families with 2 boys and then a girl that we could think of). Here's a picture of the two proud big-brothers to be. Since they are going to help raise her and we don't have any room for girl toys in our house, she will just have to be a tomboy. (This picture was taken when I came home from a Bridal Shower and the boys were with Daddy wrestling on the bed--having Bro time).


In other news, Evan has begun saying "Whoa" for yes. "Evan, do you want yogurt?" "Whoa." Like the suggestion has taken his breath away.

Sam has taken to making pudding juice...for those who have a weak stomach, don't keep reading. He spits the pudding back out of his mouth after it has dissolved and then drinks it like juice...YUCK!!! Will a girl do these things, too? I hope not!

We've had a lot of fun at the new Aquaplex for the last few months. Here's some pictures of the boys swimming and Sam rock climbing.

Week's Events in Random Order

It's Monday morning after a good but tiring week of house cleaning, travel, and class with Jeremy. Here's a look back at the week:



This was a lovely lady whose writings we got to peruse in our seminary class. Wouldn't you like to meet her? Actually that was kind of the point of why the professor shared her work with us--to show the effects of abuse and how much it hurts people. She became a feminist and had a really strange, hard life and...well, just look at her.






In stark contrast to my exposure to Andrea Dworkin, here's another lady we came in contact with last week. I told Jeremy that I wanted to meet a little gray haired lady at the retreat center (since he was worried I would be bored while he studied). This is who I met, a sweet lady named Gail Kittleson, the essence of what I had hoped for! She was there doing some grief/loss retreats and it turns out she was a survivor of terrible sexual abuse growing up. She shared about how God brought her out of it and the struggles she has had. She wrote a lot during her recovery, and started a line of sympathy cards using her own verses. What an interesting and encouraging story to hear in the midst of attending our class and having just finished reading Mending the Soul by Dr. Steve Tracy.

For my friends who knew that I was agonizing over what books to read on my getaway, here's what I ended up reading.

First, Unspoken by Francine Rivers (story of Bathsheba). I enjoyed reading it, but didn't like it nearly as much as some of her other books. It was interesting to read it now because I have been learning so much about David lately--how he handled his sin and what he could have done differently to prevent his children from following in his footsteps. Second, I worked on Francis Shaeffer's Trilogy...I kept getting sleepy while reading it so I ended up putting it down to read later. It is so relevant to understand our culture, even though it was written in the late 60's, just a little dry for the mood I was in. Lastly, I read and almost finished Jane Austen's Persuasion. Basically, I was at the library before we left and was running out of time and couldn't find anything that stuck out to me. The librarians recommended a few books, but I didn't know if I could trust that they wouldn't be raunchy. I like romance in a book, don't get me wrong, but only when it is there as part of a bigger story or statement about life. I told them I liked Anna Karenina and they got a list of other books that dealt with "extramarital affairs" off of their database...not quite the direction I was intending to go. Yes, Anna Karenina is about an affair, but it is about so much MORE--that's why I like it. Anyways, I feel like my book selections were kind of boring, but I enjoyed reading them. And now I am back to my real life where there just isn't a lot of time for reading.



These are some pictures of the retreat center--Living Water Retreat Center in Cornville, AZ. Yes, my out-of-state-friends, Cornville is exactly as you can imagine it...except I didn't see any corn growing. I knew I was in for a QUIET retreat when I read the list of things to do at the camp: pet the petting horse, sit on a sitting bench (there were benches everywhere!), listen to insects at the creek. I think there were horseshoes and volleyball, but we were the only people staying there and Jeremy was reading the whole time. But, the staff were nice and it was relaxing.

Class was good again...I told Jeremy that I don't think I will be the same after taking it. Not in some earth-shattering emotional way, but what I have been made aware of will change how I view hurting people. I also have learned about the significance of humans being made in the image of God--I just won't look at people in general the same, I hope. Jeremy says he has felt that way after all of his classes at Phoenix Seminary, so I think that says a lot about the school. We watched Slumdog Millionaire before class on Friday...AMAZING! Everyone needs to see it! We were excited to be reunited with our kids Saturday evening. I guess Jeremy wanted to put some of the things we learned in class into practice, so on the way home he asked Sam about what the difference between boys and girls is. Here's a sample of the conversation as far as I can remember it.

Sam: "Well, girls have longer hair than boys."
Jeremy: "What else?"
Sam: "Ummm (long pause)...oh! They speak different languages."
Jeremy: "They do? How do the languages sound? Can you understand Mommy?"
Sam: "Yeah, but you speak in your language and she speaks in the girl language."
(We talked and laughed about that--Sam imitated both of our voices)
Sam: "Another difference is that girls paint their toenails red. Boys don't do that."
Kaci: "What about babies?"
Sam: "Oh, the boys don't have babies. Just the girls. And crocodiles."
Jeremy: "How do they get the babies?"
Sam: "Oh, the baby pushes really hard and then it pops out."

There was so much more--we were laughing so hard...God is really good!