These Pilgrim Days

Annie's Hair...the Real Story

2012-01-20T11:59:00.000-08:00

If you've read my blog before, you may have seen references to Annie's hair and comparisons to other "characters" with similar hair (here, here, and here). I decided to give you a better idea of what Annie's hair is like and my perspective on it. So here goes.

Annie's hair is thin and wispy, and it is constantly tangled. The movie, Tangled, really ought to be about her...except the plot would be totally different but she definitely would use a frying pan as a weapon (because her amazing mother once used a frying pan to kill an animal, but that's for another blog post). I mean, when you and I sleep on a pillow, I guess we subconsciously know that if we rub our head around with abandon, there will be consequences...but not Annie. Here was literally her hair at breakfast last week (I did nothing to enhance it):
Kind of reminds you of this:
But maybe it means she's going to be a genius, like her slightly older male twin:
She and I both aren't fussy about getting all dolled up...I thought I would be with her, but I'm learning that I'm not. It is so much work to get her to sit still and not cry/whine/scream/pout when I try to comb her hair.

There's a little gang of girls at church who all were born within a few weeks of each other. One has hair like this:
The twins' hair looks fine like Annies, but much more manageable, it seems:
And then there are these girls, whose hair is the envy of all the mothers in Sunday School:
(And they always look as flower-y and darling and well-groomed, it puts me to shame!)

Annie's style is just a little more like this:

One of Annie's problems is the way she sleeps, another is the way she plays. This is literally the 3rd time she has done this to herself (the first time it was done TO her by her pesky brothers and I felt so bad for her and scolded them and then she turned around and did it to herself without batting an eyelash).

She doesn't even cry, just kind of shrugs her shoulders and yet she cries the minute I pull out the comb and the no-more-tangles-supposedly spray.

The other day, I took some really cute pictures of her that a lot of people have seemed to like:

Is it because she's wearing a hat??? No, I don't think so.
I actually think it's her personality coming through. And you know what? I hope her personality stays as quirky and spunky, even if her hair never gets thick and flow-y. I think it adds to her charm.

Even though I've compared her to a gremlin and a scary albino who lives in a pit of despair, I really think she is starting to remind me of one of my favorite childhood characters: Pippi Longstocking.

(I may have even wanted to be her when I was young)

But I do need to teach her to be a lady and to be able to make herself presentable, which I guess could start if I took her to a proper salon instead of chasing her around after a bath with a pair of craft scissors.

Though, I was looking at pictures of possible haircuts for myself and found one that looked very familiar. And I liked it! :)

Miniature Van on the Prairie

2012-01-05T07:10:00.001-08:00

So, here's the final installment in my recap of our Christmas break trip to Kansas...a picture tour of our travels into the heart of the Midwest.

I was disappointed that I didn't get to take pictures on the way there because it was very rainy and/or dark the whole drive. I had done my normal research on RoadsideAmerica.com (where you can find Cadillac Ranch, a giant pair of legs in a field, the Largest Ball of Twine, etc.) and had so many delightful attractions to point out to the fam. We did see teepees--"Look, kids! Teepees!" (They looked with pained expressions on their faces and went right back to DSi/DVDs), Route 66 memorabilia--"Look, kids! The longest-mural-of-Route-66-painted-on-a-fence!"--(feigned interest, game-playing and movie watching resumed), and had The Great Candy Corn Incident of 2011 in which the large bag of candy corn was somehow opened on both ends. The devastation was widespread in the newly vacuumed and cleaned minivan.

The kids were more engaged the 2nd day when we started our travels from Amarillo, TX. They saw horses and cowboys, a copy-cat version of Cadillac Ranch done with VW Bugs, and were dutifully impressed with The Largest Cross in the Western Hemisphere in Groom, TX. They were also impressed with our scenic tour of Elk City, Oklahoma (looking for non-existent pizza restaurants found by the GPS) the delicious and cheap ice cream at Braum's.

Our final destination was Shawnee, Kansas--Jeremy's "hometown". Shawnee. I just like to say it.
We stayed with an old high school friend of Jeremy's named Kevin who is married to Leslie. They have 2 kids and one on the way. It was so fun for our kids to be able to play with other kids after such a long trip.

Captivated (mostly) by Leslie's goodnight story about the Nutcracker

Watching "Annie"

Jeremy took us on an informative tour of Shawnee which included such sights as, "This is where I used to rollerblade" and "I did donuts in my car in the snow in that parking lot." The kids were pretty good sports.

Then we started the tour of places Jeremy used to live (yes, his family moved a lot--he lived in 28 places by the time he was 31--we counted!):

The kids started saying "Are we going to go see another one of the 100 places you used to live?"
from the backseat. Often. They thought it was very funny.

What I thought was funny was going back to Kevin's house and hearing the two guys reminisce about the old houses, saying things like "Were you still able to coast from the stop sign, around the corner, and exactly into the driveway without braking?" "Wasn't that the house where you put a dent in the wall by snowboarding down the stairway?" and "I tried to catch air at the dip on the big hill but it just isn't the same in a minivan."

New friends, Isaac and Olivia (who Evan called Oliver)

My new-ish friend and my latest hero, Leslie--she is a nurse in the cancer wing of a children's hospital (I don't know how she does it!), is involved in MOPS, and is deaf in one ear which I'm sure has caused her much heartache in her life but makes her that much more strong and beautiful and spunky in my mind! I hope we can hang out again soon!

Kansas City is a really great place to take kids--there were so many things to do that were cheap or free! Our favorite thing is Kaleidoscope...it is a free place for kids to come and be creative at Hallmark's national headquarters. There are just all kinds of craft supplies everywhere and no rules...and it's all free!

Uncle Jack and Sam colored a cardboard square which was then cranked through a machine and turned into a puzzle!

I made a crown and tissue paper cape for Annie.

There is a whole space-themed room that is glow-in-the-dark. The kids loved it, and did I mention that it's free?!

The sign of how good a place really is is in the bathrooms--these ones are an adventure in themselves!

The weather was beautiful and the Christmas decorations were unabashedly festive!

We avoided the lunch crowds while walking around in Union Station.

Chocolate-dipped Rice Krispy Treats from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory,
where Jeremy's cousin Hayley was working

The best model train displays we've ever seen...all free!
There was a whole room of them but I didn't get a picture

We had lunch at Fritz's...

Here's how it works. You decide what you want to eat while jumping up and down because there are trains going everywhere...

...you call in your order on a phone at the table...

...in the kitchen, they load orders on baskets hanging down from little train engines that run on the tracks above your heads...

You watch for a train to come down the track...

Every table hopes that the train is delivering their order--you can hear anticipation and then "Oh, man!" when the train passes by each table.

The lucky table whose food the train is carrying sees a little lever drop down that stops the basket of food on a little platform above them as the train continues back to the kitchen. The platform lowers the food down to the table.

Then you enjoy your mediocre hamburger but you don't care because you are so excited that a train brought it to you!

Here's a little video of us getting our food:

So many things to look at at the Crown Center downtown. Here's an amazing gingerbread village, there's a Crayola Cafe, and there's supposedly a LegoLand Discovery Center and Aquarium coming soon.

And then of course we went ice skating:

We spent a lot of time at Jeremy's Grandma and Papa's house. I could never figure out why in such a charming little suburb full of white people and ponies there was always a limo with a license plate that said, "WTF" in front of Jeremy's grandparents' house.
At Jeremy's grandparents' I realized that Annie's hair is starting to look less like the chef on the Food Network or the Dumb and Dumber guy and more like the albino on Princess Bride.

We consumed so many cookies, frozen custard and other treats that members of our family often went into a sugar coma.

Sam kept accidentally calling it a "Sugar Comma", which I think was fitting because a comma is a pause before you continue, which is pretty much what happened...extreme consumption of sugar (comma) then more sickening amounts of sugar consumption.

We drove around downtown again on Christmas Eve. Jeremy took us to the Plaza (in the southwest we would say "Plah-zah" but in the Midwest they say "Pla ("a" as in apple)-za". It was beautiful and I loved it!

There were lighted carriages pulled by teams of horses and all kinds of interesting fountains. We even saw a marquis on an old theatre with a marriage proposal to Brittany from Brody (or something totally young and Midwestern-sounding).

Annie liked it, too.

I already wrote about Christmas, but one thing we did that day was go to a really amazing park in a woody area by a lake with a dam you could walk on. The park was great because it had 4 playgrounds and the slides were tall and fast and curvy and there were toys to play on that I had never seen at any other park (and I consider myself a park connoisseur), not to mention dozens of stumps to jump on and rocks to climb and bridges to explore.

The day after Christmas, we went to a place in Shawnee that has a Nascar racetrack, a Great Wolf Lodge, cool restaurants, and lots of shopping. One of the places we visited (without paying) was like Rainforest Cafe but with dinosaurs instead.

This T-Rex moved and growled and roared. You can see Annie doing what I call her "opposite battery" move where she moves backward while you walk forward as if she is being repelled by a force greater than herself. We splurged and got the boys 51 cent souvenirs from the machine that stamps a penny and they were thrilled and then promptly lost them within the next hour.

The fountain was more to Annie's liking

Jeremy was hanging out with Kevin one last time so I couldn't resist taking the kids to Fritz's again, this time at a new location in Shawnee.

Ordering all by himself

Waiting...

Here it comes!

We (me) also couldn't resist getting Tubby Custard (frozen custard, but we started calling it Tubby because that's what it was making us) again, and then Jeremy's brother gave us tons of free dessert that night at his restaurant, so there were more sugar comas.

On our way home, we stopped in Manhattan, Kansas--the Little Apple--where Jeremy went to K-State University for a few years.

The kids were good sports and liked the old buildings--"A Castle!"

Jeremy showed them one more place he used to live--Haymaker Hall. The boys were more interested in their imaginary battle in the backseat ("Oh yeah? Well, I'm going to shoot icicles out of my mouth at you!" "Well, that's okay because I'm putting my power-ups in my cup holder" and so on). Oh well, they'll get it someday.

We traveled on Scenic Hwy. 177 and I was lost in thought about the pioneers and early settlers. I read outloud from Little House on the Prairie as we passed things like this:

You couldn't help but feel like it wasn't long ago that it looked like this:
We passed through small towns like Council Grove, where the wagon trains used to meet up to cross through the Indian Territory together. We passed the Last Chance store where they got supplies for the last time before beginning their journeys. And to think I used to assume that states in the Midwest didn't have any history compared to California. I think I like this history better than making a sugar cube mission!
It was then that I put it together--no wonder Jeremy moved so much! He's from Kansas, the Land of the Pioneers! Actually, it is interesting because I have always said that he would have been the first to sign up to go on a wagon train west if we had lived in the days of Ma and Pa Ingalls. I guess it's fitting.

When we got to Oklahoma, I convinced the family to stop at one last attraction from RoadsideAmerica.com. It was the Oklahoma Land Run Memorial. It was put up to commemorate the founding of the state, which came about by the land run they held on April 22, 1889.

Over 50,000 people lined up to do their best to claim one of 12,000 parcels of land that were free on a first-come, first-served basis.

People of all backgrounds came to make a new life for themselves or their families. There was surprisingly little violence, though the whole thing was not really well planned out. There were some people who claimed land to only find out later that it had been claimed by someone else, there were others who jumped off of moving trains in all the excitement to grab land. Some people went early and staked their claims unfairly, and that's where the state gets the nickname of Sooners.

The statues depict all kinds of people--young farmboys (you had to be at least 21 and unmarried women could participate, not just men), doctors, freed slaves, and families are depicted.

I loved this fierce woman riding side saddle and using her claim-marker flag as a whip.

I guess I really just enjoyed thinking about the unique beginnings of our nation and how significant it was that people could make a way for themselves no matter how humble their status was. I know there were lands taken from Native Americans and everything wasn't perfect, but it is fun to sit for a moment and marvel in the grit and determination of people in those days.

And then we got back into our (by then) stinky, crumb-filled, overstuffed minivan with our dvd players, GPS, cell phones playing Pandora and candy corn stuck in every crevice and continued the long trek west to our home in Flagstaff. I guess that took some measure of grit and determination as well.

To Be With You (Christmas 2011)

2012-01-01T14:04:00.001-08:00

We spent Christmas with Jeremy's family in Kansas City. That means we drove 2 days each way to spend the holiday with Jeremy's mom's parents (Grandma and Papa), her sister Rhonda, a handful of cousins and second cousins, and Jeremy's oldest brother (Tommy). Jeremy's next oldest brother, Jack, was there (from Tucson) as well. Jeremy's parents went to Atlanta to be with his younger brother and little sister and their families and my family was in Orange County.

Jeremy's family is a lot different than mine...there are lots of siblings and aunts and cousins and most everyone is quite opinionated and it can be very noisy. Jeremy's grandparents met in November 1948 at a pie sale in Appleton, MO where Jeremy's grandma was the teacher of 8 grades in a one-room schoolhouse. They were married on Christmas Eve, just one month later. They had 5 daughters--Glenda, Rhonda, Sondra, Brinda, and Janda (I think I heard they were called the "Da Sisters" in high school). Jeremy's family has 5 children as well--Tommy, Jack, Jeremy, Kyle, and Stacey, and his cousin Janelle seems like a sister to me because she lived with them in high school. So even though much of the family were in other places for Christmas, it still was full and lively.

Christmas with family is always interesting, no matter how big or small the family is...Jeremy's family has its share of strengths and weaknesses, blessings and hurts, like any family. And like any family, they not only share genes but a common history and have been shaped by common events. Jeremy's family, despite its ups and downs, is fiercely loyal and everyone (including me) cherishes his grandparents (one of Jeremy's cousins even gave her kidney to Papa so that he could live more years with us!). It was wonderful to be with them on Christmas Eve, their 63rd anniversary, and to hear Grandma tell me again about how they met and how they care for each of their offspring. I wish I could have video-ed her talking, but it would have ruined the moment!

Dogs and cats are an important part of the family--I loved watching Annie get to know Grandma and Papa and Jigger and Allie.

Family holidays always cause me to ponder family relations...how there is so often so much unsaid beneath the surface. We struggle to love our family members sometimes, yet there is no one we would rather sit around stuffing our faces with on any given holiday but them. It's like everyone gets together and wants the best for each other but doesn't always know how to show it. With Jeremy's family, I was so thankful for their hospitality and for hosting us and our rascally kids...and I wanted so much to be a blessing and show love to them. I guess I showed it by trying to work hard in the kitchen.

"X-Boxing" at Uncle Bryan and Aunt Janelle's house--with more
dogs, Ajax and Isis

Though most of Christmas was spent wrapping/opening presents and preparing/eating food, Jeremy's simple prayer before dinner was what kept going through my mind the whole day, "Thank you for sending Jesus to rescue us from ourselves." We sure need rescuing, no matter how functional or dysfunctional our family gatherings are, no matter how much food is on the table, whether we got what we wanted or not. None of those things really bring the sense of satisfaction that we think they are going to...I know for me that laying my head on my pillow at night knowing the world isn't on my shoulders, it's in the hands of One far greater than me, that brings me peace.

Grandma and Papa's on Christmas Eve--a Christmas tree full of Christmas
memories and a family room full of...family!

Here are some of the highlights of sweet moments:

...Watching Grandma show Evan and Annie her special Christmas decorations and explain their meaning or how/why she got them.

...I got to make Grandma's famous fudge with her but didn't get a picture of it--it was difficult! She was stronger than me at stirring and holding the hot pan!
...the kids helping to bring people together and give us something to watch instead of t.v.!

...orange slices on the table, just like my grandpa always had at Christmas....watching my kids' expressions of wonder and excitement while driving around looking at lights at the Plaza.
...how Samuel got so into giving special gifts--he made homemade things for all of us...
...painted a special picture of a fish for Papa...
...and saw how much his brother loved the handcuffs he got as a birthday present that he put them back in the box, wrapped them himself, and put them under the tree for Evan. Priceless!
...watching people play so sweetly with Annie. Thank you for entertaining her!
...getting to connect with loved ones who were far away through technology. Here is Sam talking to his Gamma (Jeremy's mom) on my cell phone...they were talking about fudge and what dishes we used and who was there at Christmas eve.
...here's Papa talking with so much love and care to Janda, his youngest daughter who recently lost her husband to cancer and would be staying in Seattle for Christmas.
...and here's Annie opening presents with her other grandparents (my parents) via Skype. Fun!
...Seeing Jeremy's brother Tommy for a short time at his restaurant. Bittersweet.

I made a slideshow of our family time in Kansas City...I kept thinking about the lyrics to the song (it's by Sara Groves, of course), while we were with the family. I'll include them below if you want to see them. Kansas City family and family scattered around the country, we love you and wish we could have spent Christmas with all of you! (If you want to watch the slideshow in fullscreen mode, click this link: http://youtu.be/OQvT_NHb0mE otherwise, just watch it below. Stay tuned at the end for a surprise from Sam and Evan).

To Be With You

By Sara Groves, Ben Shive and Andy Gullahorn

Back to Album
Back to Lyrics Menu

We come in from our travels
Lay our gifts beneath the tree
my mother's in the kitchen
the parade is on tv
my father's with his father
they're setting out some toys
the kids all want the train he's had
since he was a boy

to be with you
to be with you
i love this time of year
it always brings me here
to be with you

I fall in with my sisters
just like when we were young
my grandma holds the baby
she rocks and softly hums
we gather round the table
we close our eyes and sing
Praise God from whom all blessings flow

to be with you
to be with you
i love this time of year
it always brings me here
to be with you

Praise God from whom all blessings flow

We set our milk and cookies
the kids are quick to bed
they know St. Nick is coming
and nothing need be said
we gather by the fire
reminiscing by it's light
the kids will be up early
but it's hard to say goodnight

to be with you
to be with you
i love this time of year
it always brings me here
to be with you

I Guess We Agreed to Let Him Turn 7...

2011-12-29T07:40:00.000-08:00

We told Sam many times that we weren't letting him turn 7, that he would have to stay 6, that we would put books on his head to squish him down, etc. (and he got a little upset everytime we said it...like he really thought we were serious or had the ability to do it--we're so mean!). But we finally relented, after much begging and pleading. I mean, all the other kids in his class are doing it, why shouldn't he?

Actually, I finally accepted the milestone after he lost his 2 front teeth...it just didn't seem fitting for a 6-year-old to have so many adult teeth in his mouth. And he really is a good boy, he deserved it.

So we celebrated with his school friends by having a Hot Wheels birthday party. I always carefully direct the brainstorming of possible birthday party themes to center them around decorations I can find around the house or in nearby dumpsters. I'm really so green, you should be proud.

I got a little caught up in making driver's licenses for the boys off of the Hot Wheels website--you can upload photos and edit them to make them personalized. I heard from one of the moms that the boys are still trying to solve the mystery of how I had a driver's license with their picture on it ready when they got there (they don't know that I used photos from a field trip I helped with and that I had them ready in time because I was throwing piles of papers and laundry into the bathtub to hide with the shower curtain because I ran out of time to clean the house).

The boys wore their Hot Wheels shirts to get in the spirit...

...and Annie didn't want to be left out so we dug this shirt out of the boys' old clothes

Because I was running so late, I convinced Jeremy (who was out test-driving the Fun Bus for a youth group function the next day) to go pick up the party-goers from school in the Fun Bus...I wish I could have been there to see their reaction!

So, we played relay races with Hot Wheels cars and tubes (that I got out of a dumpster) and Happy Meal buckets from Halloween, we played Hot Potato (with a Hot Wheel, of course) and then the big event was making their own Hot Wheels tracks out of cardboard and tape.

When the frenzy of cardboard cutting and taping started, I was certain that someone was going to cut their hand or get their eye poked and I should have had them sign medical waivers or gotten safety-scissors or something (but of course, my main concern was what the other mothers would think of me, not that a child might be bleeding--I'm so shallow sometimes!) but everyone did okay and seemed to have fun, and the other boys' mothers made vague references to future playdates, so I think I've retained my standing in the Mother-hood.

It was fun to see how each boy's creation showed his personality...Evan's was well thought out and carefully constructed (and decorated)...

...Dylan, who is quiet and thoughtful worked by himself in the hallway and made The House of Pain "because if you crashed into any of the obstacles, it could really hurt."

...Noah, who is a creative thinker, made a rocket ship and spent most of the party inside of it...

...and Sam spent most of the time going from one friend to the other and encouraging
them and working together with them (and ate a lot of cookies while doing it).

We celebrated Samuel's actual birthday in Kansas City. We had a fun day in downtown KC and then dinner and cake at Grandma and Papa's home (Jeremy's grandparents).

First stop, Kaleidoscope at the Hallmark headquarters. It's totally free and kids can make all sorts of crafts using all kinds of supplies. It was perfect for creative and crafty Sam!

The kids can make a puzzle that gets cranked through a machine that cuts the pieces. I don't know who had more fun making them--Sam or his Uncle Jack!

We had lunch at Fritz's--where there are lots of miniature trains and a train even delivers your food!

We did what seems to be turning into a family tradition--taking pictures of silly faces while we wait for the food to come!

The ice skating lessons paid off--we went ice skating outside by the huge Christmas tree, accompanied by Christmas music and sunshine-y weather.

Sam did great! He skated on his own most of the time (I posted this picture to show him skating, but also because I think the man in the foreground is very brave and slightly out-of-place)

My back was a little tired because of a lot of holding Evan and Annie up...so I decided to go for a couple of loops with just Evan and Sam...

...and Annie stood on the side with Daddy and cried through the glass.

The cake back at Jeremy's grandparents' house really was pretty big, though Jeremy's hand in the foreground makes it seem the size of a cupcake.

So now he is officially 7 and he makes weird jokes and pulls suitcases all by himself and gets embarrassed if Barney is on t.v. but still likes to snuggle and play dolls with Annie. But 7 feels so grown up...just wait, next he'll be driving!

Recently...

2011-11-30T09:41:00.001-08:00

Recently...

...we hiked Walnut Canyon (and Jeremy did his best to disobey all the rules)
...the kids took ice skating lessons (so fun!)

...Evan wanted to take his toy microphone into church and I let him only on the condition that he use it to interview people

...I decided I have a new motto in life: "Don't fight it, find the joy in it." So I've been trying to say yes more often and let go of my agenda a little. A little. One example is letting an afternoon of errands go longer than necessary so that the kids could do one of their favorite things in Flagstaff: climb on the rock wall that separates the parking lot at Target from Michaels. Don't ask me why they love it, I really don't understand, but we do it almost every time!

...we stopped on our way past Little America to partake in 50 cent ice cream cones and climb on the dinosaur.

...I enjoyed a mid-morning snack of cupcake tea and a spaghetti cookie, delivered right to the computer desk.

...I cooked dinner on my grandmother's old waffle iron (with her special recipe that was one of my favorite family traditions at her house) and (I think) my great-grandma's cast iron skillet. I felt so connected to the past!
...these two have become great friends and dressed up like prairie people.

...they didn't have plates on the prairie so they ate lunch in their cabin in front of the fire using muffin tins.

...we enjoyed a warm, pre-snow afternoon at the park.

...we did another of our favorite activities: leaving Annie at home--just kidding, we did "rolling down the hill". I like it as much as them!

...we had fun with my cell phone camera and the sunset. We never got the timing just right, but we did get one picture where Sam looks headless and he thought that was awesome!

...we went and saw the Lollipop Nutcracker--a shorter version of the nutcracker for kids. I shouldn't have told Evan that he would get a lollipop at the end because he asked me for it about every two minutes.

...we discovered our tickets were for the seats right next to my old college roommate (and dear friend) Amanda. I complained that the picture of me would look wrinkly and she suggested that in a few years, I would think it looked great comparatively speaking so I decided to stop complaining about wrinkly pictures because she makes a good point.
...Sam lost his first upper tooth on his first snow day ever (I got the nerve up to pull it out). When many adults mentioned that if he lost the other one, he could sing" All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth", he started really working on the other one that didn't seem very loose, and 3 days later, we pulled that one out, too!

(And he learned all the words to the song by himself and sang it in front of all the residents in a retirement home this weekend! So cute!)

The Reason for the Name

2011-11-21T08:31:00.000-08:00

It's Thanksgiving week (I like how a one-day holiday has turned into a week-long ~~reason to get off of work and school~~ celebration) and I was reflecting on the name of my blog and my affinity for pilgrims.

A little known fact about me that I am very proud of is that I am a Mayflower descendant (and I have papers to prove it!) Most of the time I wear sweats and let my kids eat candy they find on the floor of the grocery store, but I have papers to prove that my ancestors came on the Mayflower, so every Thanksgiving, I stand up a little taller because I am pedigreed...or something.

The papers say that I am a direct descendant on my mom's side to John Alden and Priscilla (Mullen) Alden (I think they are in the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Movie so that adds to the celebrity-factor of my lineage, I think). If I remember what my mom taught me, my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great Grandmother was the first white baby born in New England (Elizabeth Alden). She lived until she was 94! It looks like John was 21 when he came and Priscilla was only 18...I wonder if they got married on the ship? So, you see, when people ask me what my ethnicity is, I emphatically answer American (though not if I am talking to a Native American because then it could get a little dicey).

Okay, it's not really that big of a deal to have Mayflower papers and to be a descendant of a pilgrim, but I think it's fun to wonder about how my life has been shaped by my heritage and to feel connected to a bigger story than just my own life. I like to imagine (and it is very likely) that they left to escape religious persecution in England, though all that is recorded was that John Alden was a barrel-maker. It's interesting that all I "want" in life is to put down roots and stay forever in one place, but I married a man who would have been one of the first to sign up for passage on that ship so long ago. Maybe he was like John, and maybe Priscilla only went because her father said their family was going...maybe she cried like I would as she watched her beloved homeland become a speck in the distance. But I bet she found strength she didn't know she had and put her heart into making a new home in the New World. That's how I felt when Jeremy and I went to Kazakhstan...and Jeremy often reminds me that even though I was reluctant at first to go, it was the hardest for me to leave.

So I guess I like this idea of being a pilgrim...to be a sojourner in a world that is not my home but to be looking ahead to where I really belong. We are studying the book of Genesis in the Bible with our youth group and God takes so many of his people out of their homeland and somewhere new because he wants to do something through them and show his greatness and his plan--Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, even Mary and Joseph and many of the disciples. It kept them looking to God for their security and provision instead of themselves, and helped them see that God transcends their culture and customs and is bigger than they ever thought.

The thing that really inspired me to name this blog "These Pilgrim Days" were the words to one of my favorite songs that is an old hymn redone by Indellible Grace (I'll put it here in writing that I want it sung at my funeral, whenever that is)...here's the last verse:

Haste thee on from grace to glory, Armed by faith, and winged by prayer. Heaven’s eternal days before thee, God’s own hand shall guide us there. Soon shall close thy earthly mission, Soon shall pass thy pilgrim days, Hope shall change to glad fruition, Faith to sight, and prayer to praise.

Happy Thanksgiving and thank you, God, for so many blessings in my life!

Difference Between the Boy-kind and the Girl-Kind

2011-11-11T15:25:00.001-08:00

Here's how the Girl-kind thinks (evidenced by how she talks to herself while playing with the following objects):

"Hello Mommy, Daddy, walk walk walk. Mommy Daddy. Okay, bye, Okay, bye."

"Hello, how you? Baby crying. Oh no! Mommy, Daddy. Mommy, Daddy, Sam, Edit (Evan), Annie, Mommy, Daddy. Baby cryin'." (and then they always seem to be kissing or whispering to each other).

And here's how the Boy-kind thinks (as evidenced by Evan's description of his drawing):

"This is a robot. He's thinking about red. This is another robot. He's thinking about black."

I'm beginning to think it really can be possible for my husband to be answering me honestly when I ask him what he's thinking about and he says, "Nothing."

Pics from CA, Broken Stereotypes, and a Cool Story

2011-11-04T09:46:00.001-07:00

Here's a glimpse into some of the fun we had on our recent trip to CA (and some of my random thoughts, of course)...

As per CA stereotype #1, the weather was perfect and gorgeous like it always seems to be (except for when we're trying to have a garage sale).
One of my kids even got nekked in the public fountain...not sure whether that's culturally acceptable in the OC, but we did it anyway. (Well, actually at least for a while she was wearing her brother's hand-me-down, stained, saggy training underwear)

Here she is trying to hand said underwear to older brother

I think we ate outside on the patio for every meal, so nice!
Our friend, Dottie, came to visit and admire my kids, which is a nice change from everyone always seeming to admire my sister's Vizla (dog) and overlook my human children when we are in Southern CA (always happens in Sedona, too).
We went to my hometown Heritage Days Parade. Because of CA stereotype #2 (you have to arrive at least 2 hours early for any event), I tried to convince everyone to go at like 8 am to Save Seats! Sam and I ended up going an hour early and there were like 3 empty lawn chairs set up on the entire block...we had plenty of room to choose from.

CA Stereotype #3--Un-practical, Semi-ridiculous Fashion
Here, I'll zoom in so you can really see...and mind you, it was HOT (almost 90 degrees) that day!

(I guess being in CA brings the paparazzi out in all of us).

CA Stereotype #4--Everything in CA is better-produced than smalltown USA-- more polished, professional, entertainment-y. Yeah, this parade broke that stereotype...Flagstaff's 4th of July Parade blew this one out of the water. So long, huge gaps, no candy, mediocre announcers, etc. We made our kids endure till the very end so we could see our high school band march by, and when it did, we were kind of underwhelmed.

El Dorado Alumni might recognize Wild Bill in front of the band in this picture...he's still doin' his thing!

The best part of the day was hanging out with old Band-Os, Amy and Tricia. We have 5 boys and 2 girls between us...time flies!

We went to a "festible" at the park afterward, and again, I think I like our small-town festibles just as much if not more. Here are Sam and his friend, Andrew standing inside the cowboy's lasso. I couldn't dislodge grumpy Annie from my lap for a better photo. (Annie may have been grumpy because I had just walked off and left her in the busy crowd of people).
Oh, but our festibles don't ever have the massive Titanic slide, so that was pretty cool, except that (true to CA stereotypes) it cost like a million dollars to slide down it twice.
Also true to stereotypes (this one just in general), Grandma said yes to all requests to eat snacks and go on over-priced slides. Thanks, Grandma!
Here's a stereotype that I know isn't true, but I still enjoy seeing it broken..."People in CA are snobby". My parent's neighbors are some of the nicest people I've ever met! They give me hand-me-downs, share toys with us when we come, and even invite my kids to their kids' birthday parties! While we were there, Sam and Evan were invited to the next-door neighbor Connor's reptile birthday party. A Reptile Guy came and did a really fun and interesting presentation (big-city folk have moved beyond clowns and bounce houses for birthday parties).
In this picture, Evan (the littlest kid there) is eagerly volunteering to hold something I thought for sure he would shy away from.

This would have completely embarrassed me as a teenager...the entire birthday party (adults included--and I swear one of the moms is a Real Housewife of Orange County) come out into the front yard to throw water balloons and my dad is hanging out in the back of my van with an old holey jazz band t-shirt of mine on, making faces as he tries to fix something in my car. At least he wasn't wearing his mad-scientist robe over his Donald Duck sweatshirt this time.
Evan is usually one of the littlest kids and yet he has such a cool personality that older kids like hanging out with him and even let him lead the games sometimes.

CA Stereotype #6ish--Everyone in Southern CA cares more about appearances than reality. My friend Carlee broke that stereotype because even though I think she is super stylish and a trend setter and has this amazing line of animal hoodies for kids (zoodies.com) and her husband is a model and actor (mostly extra-work for commercials) and aspiring rockstar, she is so real and unapologetic about life raising 3 boys and the messes and the stresses of running all their businesses out of their home, etc. Here are all 5! of our boys completely destroying her clean tablecloth and she doesn't seem to mind. She even fed a Nutella-covered pretzel to a squirrel that stopped in to visit us.

Here's her hubby in a commercial, just for the fun of it...he sits down on the couch wearing a green shirt about 6 seconds in...

And I couldn't resist putting up this video that her husband made with his band, the Pseudo Rebels.

This little stinker is a girl but she's fearless!

And one of my favorite things I did on this trip was visit with my friend Masha. I met her in Kazakhstan when she was 18 and now she is married and lives in the OC and has a brand new baby girl. She has grown so much and is thankful for her life in CA but still struggles with feeling like an outsider and missing her grandmother (the only real family she had most of her life) back in Kazakhstan. She told me a cool story about how she came to find someone trustworthy to care for her ailing grandmother while she is here in America--when I was in KZ in 2003, I visited Dubai and bought a beautiful silk dress. I wore it out to dinner back in KZ and got black car oil all over it when getting out of a taxi. I took it to a dry cleaner and they asked me if I knew someone who could teach English to their daughter. I gave them Masha's name and she ended up becoming a tutor and then friend of the daughter of the dry-cleaner. The daughter ended up becoming a Christian through Masha (who was learning about the Bible through Jeremy and I and our team), and now works for a ministry in Shymkent and cares for Masha's grandma, a woman who needs Christ's love so much in her life right now!
Seeing Masha was a good reminder that even though people can appear one way in Southern California, there's a lot more beneath the surface than what you necessarily see. And, Masha would agree that despite America's problems and the temptation to be materialistic, America truly is a land of opportunity and freedom. That's one stereotype I hope continues.

Les Mis & Les Kids (and Motorcycles in Mexico)

2011-11-02T09:27:00.000-07:00

I recently went on a spur-of-the-moment trip to my parents' house in CA. I went because Jeremy decided to go on a spur-of-the-moment motorcycle trip with his friend, Jason. They went to Mexico, which made a lot of people more nervous than me (I only pretended to be nervous when I heard other people's reactions to their plans)...they even slept on the beach a few times and the only people they ran into on the beach were not banditos, but Japanese fishermen.

But this post is not about their trip (though I will post photos at the bottom), and it's not even about my trip...just my car ride out to CA.

I had planned for the kids to watch DVDs the entire way there and I was going to listen to talk radio or whatever I wanted and all was going to be well and quiet and happy and smooth.

Until I discovered that the DVD player just wouldn't work. Really, I spent a lot of time that I should have been packing messing around with it in desperation...which means that when I finally got around to packing an hour before we were supposed to go, I did the technique where I basically dump every drawer of my kids' dressers into the car and then pile toys and bikes and scooters on top and then throw the contents of the refrigerator into the passenger seat and feel thankful that no other adult is going to be riding in the car because it's really embarrassing to see all my STUFF rolling around.

So, instead of a DVD player, we resorted to playing I Spy and Car Bingo and talking and telling stories and it was actually pretty wonderful. As the sun was setting and I was heading into the Exact Middle of Nowhere (the 3 hours of desert between Needles and Barstow...and I know it's The Exact Middle of Nowhere because I have broken down there, become very sleepy there, and also almost run out of gas there), I was feeling nervous about getting sleepy and driving off the road and crashing and all my STUFF scattering everywhere, not to mention possibly killing my children. So, I decided to do a little music appreciation time with my kids where I took CDs randomly out of the case and put them on and we rocked out to whatever played. We enjoyed some Garth Brooks, No Doubt, Mongolian Nose Singing, and then I put The Original Cast Recording of Les Miserables in the player. I thought the boys would say, "Naaah" as they are accustomed to doing to things I like, but they instantly asked me to turn it up. Here's how the next 2.5 hours went:

Overture & Prologue: I tell Sam and Evan about the characters and the story, about the tragic past of Jean Valjean and the cruel police chief Javert. They like the song about the prisoners ("Look Down").

Act I: I tell them about Fantine and Cosette

We SKIP "Lovely Ladies" (ahem).

(Act I continues:) I keep thinking the boys are asleep but they keep shouting (because I may have had it turned up really loud in my excitement about telling them one of the greatest stories I have ever read and my favorite Broadway musical that I have seen twice on the stage) "Who's singing now?" so I keep telling the story. Sam reminds me of what happened the last time I got excited while playing a CD in the car--it was Prince of Egypt and I was telling them the story of Moses and I got so excited I was going over 80 MPH and got pulled over. I slowed down.

(Still Act I) Annie starts screaming that she needs to go potty and I tell her to go in her diaper because we are in The Exact Middle of Nowhere but she refuses until she cries herself to sleep. Sam sticks with the Les Mis story, Evan's voice sounds sleepy and we lose him in the next song. I am so impressed with Sam's maturity to be following the complex storyline, I almost forget that he is just 6...then, during "Do You Hear the People Sing" he starts to tell me about how they could build the barricade and how they could fight the Clone Troopers and use their missiles, etc. and I remember that he is just 6.

Intermission: Sam melts my heart when he asks me if we can get dressed up and go see Les Mis on Broadway someday.

Act II: I throw some candy at Sam so he'll stay awake with me because I'm having so much fun, I don't really care about his health or sleep at this point.

Two Thirds of the Way Through Act II: We both get really sleepy (which always seems to happen to me during Broadway musicals, no matter how excited I am to see them...something about the long, slow, soliliquy-songs as the antagonist or protagonist learns an important lesson about him/herself). Then I find myself explaining Javert's suicide, and I realize that I have just filled my son's head with thoughts of the French Revolution, scavenging for bullets and weapons from the bodies of dead people, thieves hiding in sewers, and now suicide. Oh well, we're too close to the end and too close to my parent's house to stop now.

Final Number--"Do Hear the People Sing?": I tell Sam all about the themes of the law and grace and heaven and fighting for freedom and the sadness of war and then he falls asleep the minute the last note is played.

30 minutes later, we arrive on my parents' driveway, open the doors, and all my STUFF explodes onto the concrete.

The next morning, I hear Sam asking my mom if she knows about Jong-a-Zhong (Jean Valjean) and remember the story I told Sam the night before and think, "What have I done???".

Curtain closes, The End.

Jeremy's motorcycle, packed for the trip...I have to admit
that the gas tank strapped on DID make me a little nervous for some reason.

Motorcycles in Mexico

Sunset in Mexico

Is this a pile of stuff or someone sleeping?

Oh, someone sleeping...and my husband's hairy chest in the foreground.
But if the other lump is someone sleeping, then did Jeremy take a picture
of himself and pretend to be asleep? And if so, can I make fun of him?

This is why they went to Mexico.

And this.

And especially roadside taco stands.

They should have taken video footage and made some documentary
like "Motorcycle Diaries" or something. Or not.

Here's where they stayed one night.

Or maybe here, I don't know...he didn't tell me much about that.

One thing I do know is that they definitely took more pictures of their motorcycles than themselves!

El Fin.

A Little Bit About Me, For a Moment

2011-10-12T12:05:00.000-07:00

It was my birthday last month. I had a nice day, except for the part where I said something that made all 3 of my children cry. When the weekend came around, I got to go downtown with some friends to sort of celebrate.
Jeremy gave me the newest Sara Groves CD...he splurged and got the special package that comes with a t-shirt and the director's cut of the CD, which I highly recommend you listen to because it explains the songs and then they take on a whole new level of meaning. Now I cry when I listen to them.
I have to admit, I wasn't that surprised with the CD. But what DID surprise me was the neat little photo collage he made of pictures of us together. Here are most of the pictures he chose:

Malaga, Spain

Somewhere in the CA Redwoods

Main Street, USA (Disneyland)

Turkistan, KZ

On a water taxi in Dubai, UAE

Some small village in Kazakhstan, where we were at a concert and there were critters crawling around in the dilapidated ceiling above us.

Snowboarding in the Italian Alps (not as glamorous as it sounds)

Hiking in Tucson, AZ

Visiting friends in Park City, UT

Edinburgh, Scotland

I liked seeing the pictures that he chose...I probably would have chosen ones of our wedding or the birth of our children, but he chose ones that represent fun stuff we have done together. My goodness, we've gotten to go a lot of cool places!

Last weekend, I went to Lost Canyon Young Life Camp for our church's Women's Retreat. I had a lot of fun, like always. I dressed up in a lot of silly costumes for some skits I was in and a lot of people took pictures of me, but I haven't seen any of them yet, so I'm wondering when they will appear and how embarrassing they will be :) Oh, here are 3 that I found.

We played a game where you had to stand in the middle and tell something you are afraid of (it was kind of a theme of the weekend) and then everyone who also was afraid of that thing would get up and change seats. We always called it Fruit Basket Upset when I was a kid. I never got to the middle of the circle, which is good, because that is honestly something that I get afraid of--a game where you have to come up with something clever on the spot like that and everyone is looking at you from all directions--I'm much more comfortable with a microphone in my hands on a stage or something...weird, huh? But this time, I had a few ideas of things I could say, so here they are:

1) standing in the center of Fruit Basket Upset
2) black widow spiders
3) having only one gallon of milk in the fridge
4) opening refrigerated biscuit dough or anything that might pop while I'm opening it.

I know some of those sound silly, but they all create the same creepy, anxious feeling inside of me where I want to crawl out of my skin a little bit.

The young life camp was awesome and I wasn't too afraid of going on the zipline into the freezing cold lake or riding the Screamer swing...though after teasing everyone about losing their swimsuit on the zipline, mine (yes, the youth pastor's wife) was the one that came undone...but luckily it stayed in place. But it still was embarrassing.

Here's me with some youth group girls who came to help serve at the camp. Jeremy was there at the camp, too, but I think he was avoiding me because Women's Retreat stuff made him uncomfortable.

Some of my sweet friends, Brooke, Molly, and Sarah.

So now you know some things about me. And I only mentioned my kids once (though they were implied in the statement about how much milk is in the fridge...they go through that stuff so fast!).

This is How It Goes

2011-09-28T09:40:00.000-07:00

This is how it goes.

We ride scooters with one leg warmer on and our eyes closed.

Or we ride scooters to school dressed in our "handsomes" (and then we remember too late that it was art day and the white dress shirt comes home with orange paint on it).

We do crafts at the counter with a pink mitten on amidst laundry, chips, and a lot of cups.

We style our hair after infamous reality t.v. personalities.

We order free things from the back of cereal boxes like Pocket Translators in 6 languages even though we can't read or write yet and think that cupboard is covered and mine is mind and cliff is clift. Oh, and we write with pen on our faces, too.

We trap poor caterpillars in old cereal boxes and shake them repeatedly to see if they are still alive and exclaim with great consternation that, "It's NEVER going to hatch into a raccoon!" (That was actually Evan, not Annie).

We make funny faces. This one's called "The Moment Before the Sneeze".

We drop Sam off to school (actually, drive by at 8:39 and shove him out of the door before the car stops, confusing him by rolling down the window and alternately calling out, "Bye! I love you!" and "HURRY!" "But I love you!" "Stop dawdling and get in there!" then feeling guilty and not wanting to end on that note so adding, "See you after school!" and so on) and then walk through the park on our way home. We stop at the resting bench where Evan points out that we're sitting in order "from tiniest to mediumist to...to...to longest."

Then Evan takes our pictures:

And then tries to figure out who made the "bookmarks" on the sidewalk (I say "black marks" but he thinks I'm saying bookmarks, so that's what they are now called).
Then we go home and play with fake teeth, even though the dentist gave us strict instructions to avoid all spit-swapping in our home.

Doesn't this look like a preview of what Evan is going to look like when he is growing into his adult teeth? He's not allowed to ever get that big!

And that's how it goes.

Holes

2011-09-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

I'm loving that Samuel is now a bonafide reader...he is gobbling up books like I gobble up chocolate chips and baked goods.

We just finished reading Holes by Louis Sachar. I really love his writing style and how he ties up little details in subtle ways. I really liked reading Holes to my middle school students when I was a teacher.

I decided to do a Holes party and let them watch the movie. We made our plans and gathered our supplies (Sam is a good party-planner!) and then got the movie from the library. I was trying to remember how PG it was from years ago when I last watched it...I looked the review up online and realized I would need to do some editing, so the party ended early (no movie for the kids but Jeremy and I watched it after they went to bed and I took notes of where to skip or mute). If you haven't read Holes, most of what we did at the party will not make sense to you. Maybe the fact that I read a book about a curse and a murder and juvenile delinquents will not make sense to you, either. I'll let you read it and decide for yourself, but I think that the whole point is that there is actually a greater plan at work than what we can actually see, you can retain good character even in the midst of difficult circumstances, and that greater love has no one than this: that a man lay down his life for a friend. But I told you I would let you decide for yourself.

The weather is finally nice again after a couple weeks of rain!

If you haven't read the book, the sign says "Camp Green Lake" (no Girl Scouts) and has a picture of the deadly yellow-spotted lizard.

Making yellow-spotted lizard puppets

The boys wore orange, I wore cowboy boots (I was the Warden) and they dug holes (of course) and looked for interesting things (if they found something, they brought it to me and they might get a minute's rest from their digging). We hid toy lizards in the sand and if they touched one, they came to me and had to eat some raw onion. They are also holding a canteen and sunflower seeds (important in the story) and we played "3 Flies Up" or whatever that game is, but they had to catch tennis shoes instead of a ball.

They liked eating the onion waaay more than I thought they would!

Here's Evan (I mean Zero) hiding behind his Sploosh (peach juice and Sprite served in a jar).

And of course, for dessert, they got to dig holes in some chocolate pudding with Oreo "dirt" on top (and gummy ~~worms~~ rattlenakes hidden inside).

Stanley and Zero

So tonight we will watch Holes together (though I hope that the kids will agree with me that the book is way better). Evan can't wait; he keeps asking me, "When do we get to watch the movie with the scary parts and bad language?" Please don't judge :)

Almost a Dropout

2011-09-14T14:48:00.000-07:00

Just when you're starting to gasp because you think this post is about something scandalous you never knew about me, rest assured, it's not what you're thinking. But it IS about how I almost dropped out of the Motherhood.

December 21, 2004

I was a brand-new mom who had spent the previous 9 months imagining pushing a stroller in the park with other stroller-pushing moms or having the "knowing" conversations I had seen other young moms having with each other as they talked about childbirth or starting solids. Jeremy and I were in a period of transition, having returned home from Kazakhstan, delivering Samuel in San Diego, and then moving to Phoenix when he was 6 weeks old.

We were struggling--financially, spiritually, emotionally, and I felt pretty isolated and unhappy (disclaimer here: I am going to talk about how I felt like I didn't have any friends, but Mariah and Heather were 2 people who always cared about me while we lived in Phoenix). I had always wanted to go to MOPS or a moms' group like it and I set out to find one. I visited one and was called out of the meeting rather quickly to get my screaming son (who I had a hard time picking out of the room full of babies and then I felt like the nursery worker thought I was an unfit mother and I wondered if it was true myself) and then I tried to keep him quiet during the meeting with Cheerios which he dumped all over the floor and then proceeded to start eating off the floor. I was so mortified and I felt so conspicuous. I'm sure no one was laughing at me, they were probably trying to lighten the situation, but I was so uncomfortable, I never went back.

I tried a Moms' Group at my church and I just felt...invisible. Except for the one time when I asked if I should give Samuel aspirin for teething pain (and I meant "pain medicine that is safe for babies because it says so on the label" but it just came out "aspirin" because I was nervous and said it wrong). The other mom acted shocked and backed away from me saying, "No! Never!" but didn't offer an alternative. I kept looking at the clock and wishing it was time to leave. And, there was also the time that they had a Spa Day and someone was giving haircuts. I almost started to cry because we were struggling so much financially that we didn't have money for haircuts and I thought, "Could this be a chance to get a FREE haircut? How lucky I am!" and I went to stand in line at the haircut station. A leader of the group casually walked by and laughed and said, "Honey, you can't just STAND there and get a free haircut. We had a drawing for that WEEKS ago!" Again, I looked at the clock and wished I really were invisible.

If I couldn't be successful in making "mommy-friends," I probably couldn't be successful as a mom, period. I'm sure it wasn't as bad as it seemed, but to someone who felt so discouraged, everything felt like a criticism.

I just put this one in for comic relief. Wonder what those moms would have thought of THIS?

When we had moved to Phoenix, we had been excited about "the rest of our lives" before us. We were grown up now, parents, and Jeremy was starting seminary. I went and bought a dish full of smooth, flat stones that I would write on to document the good things God did for us so we could be reminded and tell our children someday. I wrote "Samuel born 12-21-04" and "Jeremy starts seminary March 2005" and then left the stones sitting on the table, ready for more great steps into our future.

Throughout that hard season of our lives, when I thought that my baby was the only one who understood me, that I would have to leave my God or my husband, that things were never going to get better, I would look at those blank stones and feel angry at what God hadn't done and how he had seemed to have forgotten us. All those unfulfilled promises and reminders of my loneliness...I wanted to throw them one by one out the window. During that time, Mariah gave me a book, Hind's Feet on High Places, to read. In it, the main character, Much Afraid, is asked by the Great Shepherd to go with him up a high mountain. Though she has crooked legs and is often discouraged, she goes...and it's not easy. Each time she encounters a difficulty along the way, the Shepherd asks her to pick up a stone to carry. Near the end of the story, she is in despair and wants to throw the stones out of the cave where she has taken shelter from the rain. I could relate.

Jeremy and I had the opportunity to get out of our situation in Phoenix and eventually ended up in Flagstaff, slowly rebuilding our trust and closeness and beginning to feel like we might actually fit in. I still was reticent to attend MOPS because of my difficult experiences in the past, but because it was at the church Jeremy was working at, I decided to give it one more try. It wasn't necessarily easy at first, but I began to make friends and grow in my confidence as a mother and leader. By the second year in MOPS and the birth of my second child, I finally felt like I had found my place.

This May at my last MOPS meeting as a leader, I looked out over the room of faces that I had grown to love over the past few years of serving and leading them. There were so many friends, so many lives I had gotten to be a part of, so many hearts that were intertwined with mine.

I thought about the end of Hind's Feet on High Places, and how the Great Shepherd had lead Much Afraid faithfully to the top of the mountain and asked her for the stones she had carried. As she pulled out each one, each reminder of the pain she had endured, he turned them into jewels for her crown. The ladies at MOPS are like that for me...the jewels in my crown. When I think about how I have been able to relate to them as I led them, it was out of all the most painful parts of my early motherhood. God had really withheld no good thing from me, and had ended up showering me with rich blessings.

I'm not leaving MOPS for good, in fact, I am moving on to a different leadership position called a Field Leader. I will be serving all of the ladies in Arizona and New Mexico along with a team of 9 other ladies. I got to go to MOPS convention this summer to be trained and grow in the vision of MOPS International. (And I got to hear Sara Groves live at the convention...can I write that on one of my stones?) It's a little intimidating once again to be starting something new after being so comfortable and satisfied in my previous MOPS roles, but I don't think the Great Shepherd wants me to stay comfortable, does he?

My new team at Convention in Nashville, TN.

Other MOPS leaders from AZ and NM

Our silly centerpiece...MOPS Worst Case Scenario Survival Game

My friends from Flagstaff--Beth, Sarah, Gina, and Misti

And in true Flagstaff style, they ignored the rules and smuggled very strong-smelling breadsticks into the Mandisa concert.

A special treat--running into an old friend from when we lived in KZ (well she lived in Madrid...long story)

One of my favorite parts of convention was getting to spend time with some of the ladies
I met in the UK last fall!

I even got to go line dancing with them--so fun!

Hot, muggy, flavorful downtown Nashville (with my friend, Sandy)

A surprise, intimate, amazing mini-concert with Plumb

And last but not least, the inspiring Sara Groves.

Samuel, the Soccer Player

2011-08-29T21:08:00.000-07:00

Sam played soccer for the first time (officially) this summer and loved it. I loved it. I think Evan, Annie and Jeremy liked it, too. I loved watching Sam excited to put on his uniform and listen to his coach and interact with the other kids on his team, the Tigers. Since he can read now, I am going to write this post in a little "mom-code". See if you can get my drift.

Sam's cheering section, ready to go. As long as I packed enough sweets to keep them in a good mood.
Sam missed the first practice when they handed out uniforms so he had to wear a size huge. But, to his mother's delight, we turned it over and saw that it was my old soccer number, 13. (Oh! Now I know why it was the only one left. Silly superstitions.) He looked cute!
Sam always seemed aware of (distracted by) my use of the camera, so I tried to just stick to action shots.

So here are some action shots:

The huddle before the game with their sweet coach, Amy, who I found out was 4 months pregnant but she ran around out there with them and was awesome.

Samuel got to play goalie a few times...nerve-racking for his over-zealous spectating mother. Not so much worried about a kick to the face as I was the blame for an opposing team goal.
Sam handled it well...in fact, many aspects of the game didn't seem to phase him (like whether the other team was coming straight at him with the ball or whether it was time for kick-off...you know, stuff like that). Here he is, demonstrating his ability to make up imaginary games and talk to imaginary people while alone in the goal box:
Did I mention that he was GREAT at interacting with the other members of his team?

Remember, these are action shots.

This kid, Antonio, was actually a pretty good little soccer player...

...when he wasn't distracted by the social scene midfield.

Here's Annie, ready to take care of twins:

Here are some real action shots...Sam really liked doing throw-ins.

(And then standing back with great pleasure and smiling as his team followed through with his throw)

I have heard this level of soccer-playing affectionately called "Cluster Ball"

Sam was also really good at pretending to be really competitive and intense, but it usually only lasted for a few seconds until he was back to smiling and talking and fist-bumping.
He's also really good at rallying the team and preparing them for battle.
But what makes us the most proud of him is how much he loves other people. Here he is with his good friend, Daniel, who was on the opposing team.
Watching him "play" soccer reminded me of when I was pregnant with him and we were living in Kazakhstan. Someone asked me what I dreamt or hoped my child would be like. I remember strolling through the bazaar and answering, "You know, I don't care if he or she is the smartest or most athletic, I just want my child to love other people."
(and be cute)
So now soccer season is over and I can check one more thing off of my list of Things That Good Mothers Sign Their Kids Up For. Now I guess it's time for swim lessons.

First Day of School and the Events Leading Up to the First Day of School

2011-08-29T18:39:00.001-07:00

(This post is kind of an insight into my mind and how it works. Enjoy, or not or whatever.)

So...suddenly summer was almost over and we hadn't completed everything on the (imaginary) Things We Must Do This Summer Or We Will Not Have a Complete And Happy Childhood List. So, being the good and conscientious mother that I am, I proceeded to drag my children around town and forced them to have fun.

They are so cute, how could I deny them any good thing?

We rode the city bus to the library...

...went to the Aquaplex so Sam could climb the rock wall and go on the big slides one last time (until the weekend or any afternoon when we can just use our annual passes and go again, but don't you see--there was such a sense of urgency because school was starting!) (oh, and our trip was cut short because of a fecal emergency and subsequent pool evacuation) (see, Elizabeth, I didn't use the word "poop" this time)
...we went for a hike and saw lots of grasshoppers, butterflies, and interesting birds...

Sam thought this tree was just his height. This was the last calm moment before the moments when I thought we were lost in the woods and that Evan was going to have a low-blood-sugar meltdown and Annie was going to demand to walk and I was going to have to scream. We were almost lost and almost stuck in a lightning and thunder storm and it was almost very dangerous, but it wasn't.

Having been hit in the face or head many times by Annie carrying an object made this almost very dangerous also.

Little did these two know, they would be thrust together as sole playmates in just a few short days when Samuel re-entered the grown-up world of first grade.

Jeremy suggested that we go camping and I jumped on it, even though it meant messing up the finally-very-clean house and no sleep and the dreaded event of taking children outside the tent to pee in the middle of the night. Here we are, headed off for ONE night...there was hardly room for any of the children.

Annie immediately took to the old hammock I used to play in all the time when my family went camping as a kid...the hammock my sister used to wrap me up in and bounce me around in and make me laugh uncontrollably and then make fun of me if I lost control of any of my bodily functions in the process (really, Elizabeth, I am sorry, but I warned everyone that this was an insight into my mind and I guess my mind is in the potty a lot).
The boys were fascinated by Jeremy's large knife (completely oversized for the job it was being used for...and I think that's the only time it was used but it was definitely a necessary thing to pack in the car). He bought them air soft guns or whatever they are called and they played with them the whole time and I am happy to say that no one shot their eye out.

How come after 11 years of marriage, Jeremy still looks like a boy and I look like

a tired wrinkly crazy person...with a zit, nonetheless?

The whole time, I was certain it was going to rain and there was going to be thunder and lightning and it would hit me or one of the children or a tree and then the tree would fall on us and we should just sit in the car just to be safe...so here are the kids chillin' with the raincoats on standby and mom wringing her hands and looking at the sky every 30 seconds.In my defense, here's what the sky looked like most of the afternoon:

But somehow, the rain passed us by (though I heard it rained violently in town, which was only a few miles away!). Then (don't tell Jeremy), I felt a little let down that nothing exciting had happened on our camping trip (except when our fire sort of exploded and when I heard an elk...mooing? calling? squeaking? (you have to hear an elk call to know what I'm talking about--it's freaky to a former city girl like myself) in the middle of the night...well here, I'll just post a quick video (it's pretty funny) of it so you can know what I'm talking about.)

We went to the NFL Cardinal's training camp (they practice up here and you can go watch) and caught a glimpse of the team...but the kids were more interested in this fun little area where Cardinals staff were letting them feel like football players.

I think Evan got a crick in his neck while running the obstacle course?

She looked a little timid but said, "more, more, more" every time she finished!

You gotta click this one to see Sam's face up close...awesome!

Oh yeah, here's the Cardinals...just an afterthought.

We actually crammed a lot more stuff into the last few weeks of summer, but I purposefully didn't bring my camera so that I could just be "in the moment" with my kids.

And so, here's the first day of school...Samuel the proud first grader! We took some more pictures but they all break the rules of cyber-safety that I sort of but not really follow but today I will follow so I did not post them.

Sam is so proud to go to school and loves it so much...don't tell him that this is what he's missing out on at home!

Annie's 2nd Birthday

2011-07-29T12:39:00.000-07:00

Due to the wisdom of my wise, sometimes-balloon-bursting-but-always-loving husband, we spent Annie's birthday quietly at home with just us 5. If it had been up to me, there would have been stress expressed poorly, money spent foolishly, and lots of messes quickly shoved in corners or behind the shower curtain in an attempt to have a party worthy of our cute little girl. Instead, we spent time enjoying each other, playing on the floor, converting her room from baby-ish to big girl worthy, and just being a family. It's probably good that we (I) didn't try to live up to or exceed the sweetness of last year's party anyway...you can't replicate the essence of what the weather was like and how the kids were playing so wonderfully together and how our friends sang songs to Annie anyway.
We just opened presents right away (which goes against my general "Let's wait until later, when it is the Right Time to open presents" but doesn't actually make sense because opening them early gives the kids the fun of playing with the new toys all day!). We hid the presents for Annie to find and she did it all like a pro. One of her presents is my old My Little Pony nursery and she (and the boys!) love it--diapering the ponies and putting them to bed, so cute! We did venture out to Peter Piper Pizza because we had free coupons and we ended the day with the Birthday Donker and *pink* cake and ice cream.

Annie at 2 years old loves climbing, eating salad, and following her brothers. She is brave and confident yet still very attached to Mommy. She loves to say "My Nannie" which means "It's mine" (mine Annie) and pretty much says it about anything little or pink or cute. She speaks pig latin without trying--"ump-jah" (jump) "am-sah" (Sam) "up-kah" (cup), and also says "mink" (drink), "wank-ke" (blanket), and "bubbies" (brothers). She likes babies and she plays so differently than the boys, but she loves to take her shirt off and wrastle on the bed with them. She makes funny faces and sleeps in one place (not travelling all over her bed like Sam). She loves the water and is nervous around dogs. There's so much more I could write but there's just not time. Here are a few videos that are special related to Annie. The first (1 min.) is the precious one of us bringing her home from the hospital after she was born. The second (4 min.) is a little compilation of pictures I've taken over the past 2 years as she's grown.

Oh For the Love...

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

I don't know where the statement, "Oh for the love..." came from, but it has been in my mind as I have been thinking about some random things I love about my kids and life. So I write this post for the love of...

...the creative mind of my 6-year-old, who constantly comes up with ideas to send to magazines or to share with the world or his Sunday School class. Here's one of his latest inventions/concoctions--"Banana Corn Pops" (the recipe is written out behind it)

(and here he is with a Lego creation he made from his Lego magazine--mommas, you should go on lego.com and sign your kids up for it because it's free!)

...the proliferation of funny, mad, scary, crazy, etc. faces

...Annie's hair, which has gone from looking like Anne Burrell (food network) to more like Jeff Daniels from Dumb and Dumber

(I don't know why everyone keeps politely asking me if I'm going to cut it...I guess I like my kids to look like ragamuffins. I think that's how I liked to look when I was their ages.)

...brothers just bein' brothers
...Samuel playing tea party with Annie (Evan sort of joined in later). That earned Samuel some gold stars (I don't know what that actually means, I just like to say it). He also earned them for saving Annie's life (or at least her neck and head) when she stood up and dove head first out of the shopping cart (he got a bloody nose in the process) and when he saw his former Sunday School teacher, whose appearance and cognition have changed dramatically due to her battle with brain cancer, and instead of shying away he ran up and threw his arms around her in the biggest hug. Yep, that's my kid (tear).
...the joy of dressing up and then going outside and splashing in rain puddles.
...playing wild animal park and other imagination games.

...friends who are neighbors (or neighbors who are friends--whichever way you look at it, it is a blessing!) over for dinner in the backyard

...entertaining another neighbor with a dance and music performance complete with curtains, signs, and a surprise entrance.

...coming into the living room and catching Annie sitting on the couch dressed in her raincoat (sweaty), wrapped up in Christmas lights (fire and strangulation hazard), sucking on a lollipop (stains on the couch), watching her first big monsoon rainstorm with wonder and excitement (priceless)....silly poses and intricate "set-ups" (when they put all their toys "just so" and then NEED me to come see them RIGHT THIS MINUTE...remind me to come right this minute because it's never as exciting if I put it off "in just a minute" or "after I finish this really boring grown up thing that isn't really important").
...summer traditions on our Things to Do This Summer list like eating blizzards at the Rolling Down Park (small hill by NAU). Check!
...eating snacks in laundry baskets
...watching t.v. in laundry baskets

...riding bikes on a beautiful day (if you click on the picture--which was taken on my cell phone while I was pedaling after them and towing Annie--you can see that they are trying to catch up with a very speedy unicycler riding a very large...wheel. I'm still sort of laughing about it.)

...beautiful rainbows after violent thunderstorms and children who tell me about God's promises from the backseat of the car as we drive by. Love.

More Fun, All Caught Up

2011-07-14T11:54:00.001-07:00

Evan's 4th Birthday...breakfast on the red plate:

Our new birthday tradition, invented by Evan--The Birthday Donker:
For Evan's birthday, he wanted to go on "a aventure" in the woods, so we did. Samuel said, "Mom, this isn't fun. THIS IS AWESOME!!!":

Evan's birthday party, a conglomeration of all things Super Hero-esque:
Here's me, with an apron as a cape, explaining the Super Hero Training Obstacle Course to the eager Super-Heroes-in-Training:

Over the benches, across the balance beams...

...through Super Hero Headquarters, down the slide.......jumping through the hoops, crawling through the tunnel, across the hot lava, and then smashing through a brick wall to land on pillows behind it:

Each Super Hero had their own unique style as they crashed through the wall:This one did a somersault landing every time:

Hands out, brace yourself...
...landing successfully, but don't forget to open your eyes!
This one has mastered the opened-eyes-landing technique:

And this one enters daintily, giggling the whole way:

We made Super Hero communication devices out of Jello boxes (Joseph is having fun, I promise!):

Here I am, being Dr. Octopus for freeze tag (hey, it's for the kids!):
The Super Heroes were supposed to pose for the camera in daring acrobatic poses:
It didn't work out quite as I had planned:

Evan was so nice to include Annie in all his birthday festivities:
Otter Pops!!!

Kindergarten Graduation, at which I wanted to stop and have an Assembly Etiquette lesson for all the parents, but instead just told my dad to shove his way to the front and take a picture like all the rest of the parents:
Cookies!!!

Walking to school one last time for the all-important Board Game Day Because the Teachers Have All Packed Up and Don't Want To Do Any More Teaching:
Reading with Grandma:

Look! Annie and Evan playing together! Take a Picture!

New house colors and flowers blooming (grass is still a work in progress):

A post-kindergarten-graduation-and-birthday trip to CA (just Sam and Evan with Grandma and Crampaw and without the pesky little sister). Here they are at La Jolla Cove going into a cave/tunnel out to the ocean with Aunt Kendra (check out Evan's face...I'm not sure how he's feeling about it):

Contemplating life on his thinking tree:
I guess it was cold at the beach?

The boys and my mom and sister stayed in a beach house right on the beach at Camp Pendelton. In addition to walking out the back door and being at the beach, they got to see tanks everywhere!

Angry Birds!!!
I think my sister told them to drop and give her 20:

Going up in the Big Orange Balloon at the Great Park in Orange County. Everything in Orange County is so Great and Big and Exciting compared to our little life in Flagstaff (or so the people there seem to think):

Snuggling on Grandma's love seat:
Playing games, beating Grandma :)
Loving his beach ball so much he decided to lick it, I guess:

Neighborhood friends at Grandma and Grandpa's--Conner and Abby live next door and often invite them to go swimming (in the same pool I used to stare out my window and dream of swimming in most days in the summer when I was a kid):
Andrew and Anna live in the next house. They went to Scooter's Jungle with Sam and Evan and Grandma:Then, we came back to CA a few weeks later and look! Annie and Evan playing together again (this time at the Discovery Science Center):
Making a bug out of kitchen utensils--kind of clever:

Laying on a bed of nails:
Reunion with old friends from youth group (Kristyn, Tricia, April, and Ann Marie):
Annie playing with my friend Ann Marie's daughter. We follow each other's blogs and have decided that they are very much the same...our two cute little stinkers:
My family at the table for Jeremy's birthday...I like it that Ranger (my sister's dog) even stuck his head through the door to be in the picture:

We got to go down to my parent's friends (the Lasters) home in San Clemente. Their backyard is the beach. Here are the kids, checking out the surf, watching the sets come in:

Man, Annie and Evan played together a lot recently! But don't tell Evan or he will be sure to prevent it in the future:

The boys wanted to dig The Biggest Hole in the World. That's an idea that no other boy has ever thought of or tried before.
Jeremy dutifully studying...at the beach, not too shabby!

Ice Cream!!!
Playing games with Crampaw, not sure what the deal is with the barretts in her hair:
Shooting guns with Crampaw:
Now I am all caught up. Phwew.

Fun is...

2011-07-06T14:05:00.000-07:00

...dressing up in cowboy costumes for VBS (Annie didn't officially attend but she wore a costume anyway)

...helping lead the singing at VBS
...tagging along with the big kids every night to Gold Rush Mining Camp (i.e. VBS)

...and then being so tuckered out you can't keep your eyes open for the short car ride home

...being invited to a pirate birthday party
...putting together costumes for your kids from your costume stash

...watching your daughter dress up in your old costumes

...marching in the 4th of July parade with friends to celebrate a birthday (our country's and a special seven-year-old's)

...waiting for the parade to start while enjoying otter pops
...watching the parade from the only open spot on the sidewalk (in front of the port-a-potties)

...standing next to a storm trooper (we're still arguing about whether it is a storm trooper or a clone trooper)

...seeing the Batmobile up close
...watching a seven-year-old get the special thrill of riding on a car in a parade with the "Tangled" soundtrack playing as a birthday present from her cool Aunt Rachel
...4th of July parade with people cheering, the audience spontaneously singing "Happy Birthday" as we passed, being escorted by the Star Wars color guard...
...proudly waving your American flag

...getting to follow the cool antique tractors (a little stinky but very quaint)

...passing out candy while Beth rides circles around you on her unicycle

...tiger masks and balloons
...oh no, not fun...losing your balloon and watching it drift into space

(heartbreak)
...a surprise Storm Trooper attack

...spraying yourself in the face with cool water after a long (actually short) parade
...walking back to the car with smiles on your faces and all the candy passed out (actually, all the candy was passed out a third of the way into the parade route by our eager candy-passer-outers...oh well!)
...4th of July grub eaten outside in the cool Monsoon weather
...homemade 4th of July decorations
...friends and family to celebrate with at your own home in the land of the free, home of the brave! Thanks to God and to all those who serve this country and keep us safe and prosperous!

Jo-Ja (That's How I Say "Georgia" in My Fake Southern Accent)

2011-06-15T14:38:00.000-07:00

In an effort to get back up to speed on my blog, I'll give you a narrated slideshow of our recent trip to Georgia for Jeremy's sister Stacey's wedding.

Excited to get on the plane for the first time (Evan and Annie) with Sam, the old pro :)

Our (mostly) good travelers in the Atlanta airport (there may have been a small meltdown by Annie at one point...in which we bribed her to be quiet with all kinds of candy):

We had to wait for Jeremy's brother, Kyle, at the airport...luckily there was live jazz in the atrium that the kids and I enjoyed while Jeremy haggled with the baggage people about why they were or were not responsible for the smashed handle on our checked bag (we received a $25 Air Tran gift card...woohoo! That makes up for it!)
I had fun sitting off to the side on a bench and watching the people watching my kids. The boys laid down with their heads on their backpacks (copying the dozens of army recruits waiting to be picked up to head to basic training that were laying in the same position). Annie brought her doll and laid it carefully under her blanket next to the boys:
Annie went back and forth, sitting on Sam, laying on him, putting her doll on him, etc. Sam put up with her antics for awhile, then said "Annie! Go away!" She's lucky it was Sam she was messing with, not Evan!
There was a big dinosaur skeleton/statue...look out, Sam, it's about to eat your head!
But Sam stays cool and searches for his own snack:

This is the only good picture I got at the rehearsal dinner. It's hard to be relaxed when you are trying to help a stubborn almost-two-year-old eat hot spaghetti while wearing white (both of us were...what was I thinking??)

The wedding was on a Friday morning at a beautiful old plantation-style mansion...felt very Jo-jan (see the title of my post if you don't understand that word). The cousins enjoyed being together at the wedding...here's Sam, the "ring-bearer" (more about that below) and Hadleigh (Kyle's daughter) the flower girl:
Two handsome guys :) Jeremy performed the wedding:
Our family at the wedding...totally impossible to get a good family picture while wearing heels and a dress and in the middle of a graham cracker snack:

Jeremy's brother, mom, dad, grandma and grandpa (who is called "Papa"):
Here comes Sam down the aisle, taking his job so seriously. What was his job? Well, he was heart-broken to hear that he wouldn't actually be carrying the rings but instead, cheap imitations of the rings, and then on the day of the wedding, the pillow was accidentally forgotten, so he became a junior groomsman. This is a point that is very important to him, so please don't mention that he was the ring-bearer or he will correct you and be a little frustrated with you for not understanding the ins and outs and specifics of these important roles:
Here comes Stacey down the aisle--she looked gorgeous and I LOVED her veil!
The sweet ceremony--my sis-in-law Danielle (married to Kyle) and the mother of the bride (Glenda) watching, John (Jeremy's dad) giving Stacey away, Jeremy and Jack encouraging the couple to have a marriage based on Biblical principles, and the audience sweating in the Georgian heat :)
And the sweetest thing of all was Jae's smile as he couldn't take his eyes off of Stacey:
Well, at least this is what I gathered after looking at the pictures because most of the wedding I was managing this:
and this:
No, just kidding, I got to watch most of it.

Here's Sam and Gamma (Glenda):
Here's Evan and Annie salivating over the "Candy Bar" at the reception that was strictly not open yet:
The reception...so classy and southern!

Instead of cake there were delicious cupcakes! I think I ate four. I'm not kidding.
This is what happens when the Candy Bar is open and cupcakes are served:

Sam starts fighting imaginary enemies with a dinner knife (actually, that happens on a ~~daily~~ hourly basis):
Here was a theme of our trip to GA (oh, that reminds me of the British lady voice on the GPS in the car that would say "Gah!" instead of G-A for the names of state roads...it was funny but I guess you would have to be there). Anyway, one of the themes of the trip was "Hadleigh's Little Doll Named Annie":

Annie loved the attention...
...most of the time:
Here's all the cousins on Jeremy's side together! (Evan 3, Sam 6, Braeden 9, Camden 3, Hadleigh 6, Annie 1):
Cousins with a frog--so much excitement!
Camden and Annie...the cutest little gremlins you could ever lay eyes on! (But don't take your eyes off of them, not even for a second...)
Braeden had a birthday party while we were there and invited us to join him at his party at the park. It happened to be extra hot that day...Jeremy's grandparents were troopers for showing up and staying for quite a while!
Did I mention that it was hot? Thanks, Danielle, for all the water bottles!
It is becoming a tradition to take cross eyes pictures everywhere we go, I guess:
Sunday we went to church with Kyle and Danielle and had a really nice, relaxing day afterwards. We went to BBQ lunch with some of Jeremy's family (Aunt Kathy, John's sister, is pictured here...we sure love spending time with her!):

Sam calls this face "Up Eyes":
Cross Eyes at lunch:
Our little family went for a scenic drive (thanks for lending us your car, Aunt Stacey! We really appreciated it!) and loved looking out the windows at small houses with screened in porches and large estates. We even found a covered bridge and took a walk in the woods:

Another frog--this one was so tiny it sat on the end of Sam's finger (Evan and Annie would have nothing to do with it):I'm not sure why the bridge is covered and what's so special about covered bridges, but it was fun to look at and listen to cars drive through on the wooden slats:
Annie looking through the bridge into the swamp...I doubt there were alligators but imagined there were and that was good enough:
Around a bend in the road, we found a guy selling boiled peanuts. We bought some and tried one and wished we could get our money back...I ate a few more when I got over the fact that they tasted like very large pinto beans, not peanuts--but seeing as beans are Jeremy's least favorite things in the world, I think he was glad when we finally got them out of his sight (and smell):
We spent the afternoon with the extended family at their rental house that had a powerful air conditioner :) and a park across the street:
Isn't he handsome?
Pa J (Jeremy's dad) with the kids...he has such a sweet and patient way of playing with them...I love watching them together:

These two, Evan and Camden, could have been brothers...they were the same height with the same hair and the same love for the swings:

It was really great to see Jeremy's grandparents (who live in Kansas City):
I enjoyed my time with my sister-in-law, Danielle (we go back to college days before we were both married)...she's the only one who knows what it's like to be married to a Lundgren (well, now Jae does too :) That doesn't really mean anything except that I'm glad to have her in the family!)
Like all families (I assume), there was a lot of time spent sitting on the couches and talking about anything and everything with the t.v. going in the background and kids coming in and out:
Saying goodbye is always bittersweet--I love seeing my husband with his extended family...it's like getting a glimpse into all of what makes him who he is, because I know him as my husband and all our memories together, but they knew him as a baby and a boy and a young man and they all love each other unconditionally.
Our last day in Jo-ja was spent in downtown Atlanta...the big (free) attraction for our kids was the fountain at the Centennial Olympic Park.
The boys got right into the action...
Annie needed me with her at first...
"Mommy, come on!!!"
But finally she headed off on her own, and, as usual, was followed around by adoring older girls:
We explored downtown and rode a super high elevator to a great view of Atlanta.
We wanted to have dinner at somewhere uniquely "southern"--someone said the most authentic Southern cooking we would find would be in a greasy joint attached to a gas station...I think we found a good one. Mrs. Winner's, where the fried chicken came with a gallon of sweet tea and at least a gallon of grease. We tried valiantly to make a dent in the tea, but had to throw most of it away:
Oh, and we had fresh Georgia peaches for dessert in the hotel room (yes I'm letting my kids eat juicy peaches right next to the comforter and over the carpet...I guess that's one of the perks of staying at a hotel--I don't have to clean up the mess!)
The end.

Passages and Then Some Cross Eyes at the End

2011-06-13T07:23:00.000-07:00

*Disclaimer: I do not endorse any advertising or questionable material in any of the blue links on this post...but the video/blog links are pretty funny and you should check them out*

I haven't blogged in a while...there have been too many other important things going on (hence the title, except for the cross-eyes part). We've had lots of important events, some that I'll include here, some that I'll write about later, and some that just were lived and don't need to be documented.

The beginning of my busy season (or maybe the beginning of the end of my busy season, depending on how you look at it) started with a baby shower for my friend, Mariah. We've known Mariah and her husband, Jason since college days...when Jeremy and Jason were goobers dying their hair orange together, leading ill-planned trips to Mexico, asking girls on dates and then acting like it wasn't a date just to confuse them, jumping on cars with food on their faces, and embarrassing themselves left and right (though what made them cool was their lack of awareness of their goober-ness...or maybe their way of leaving you guessing as to whether they were aware of it or not...I'm still not sure, but in any case, Mariah and I each married one of them despite their antics, so there you have it).

Always purposefully managing to mess up what would have been a nice picture for other people

Newlyweds

Jeremy and I lived with Jason and Mariah when Samuel was a wee little baby, and they expressed their desires to have a baby of their own. Mariah doted on Samuel and loved him like a true aunt, and each year that Sam celebrated a birthday and they still had no children was very bittersweet. Mariah shared her ups and downs with me over the years...what a good friend she was to be open and vulnerable with me even though I eventually had 3 children and she still had none! She was truly excited for each of my pregnancy announcements, and even was at the hospital as my "doula" when Annie was born. I remember when she really became at peace with God's timing and what He was doing to refine her character...her demeanor totally changed (even though she still wanted babies)...she had such a peace and joy about her! I never ever once saw bitterness in her--and that says a lot, because I think it would be really hard to not become bitter or jealous in her situation.

After Jeremy and I got back from Europe last fall, Jason and Mariah were eager to come over to see us and tell us the news that they were pregnant! It was so exciting to watch Mariah and Jason grow (literally and figuratively, sorry Mariah, I couldn't resist) as they prepared to be parents. Whenever people mentioned how long they had to wait to get pregnant(Samuel is 6 and a half, so that's at least how long it's been), Mariah would always give glory to God and His timing in her life. Once she said to me, "The baby is the answer to prayer. The MIRACLE is my contentment in the waiting."

So...hostessing a baby shower for her was a true joy and privilege. You might think I went a little overboard with the theme and decor and all, but everyone who was there would agree that she and this special baby were worth it!

The theme was India/Nepal (places she and Jason have both been)

I had lots of help with the shower from these ladies and a few other friends!

Here I was reading a card from Samuel to Aunt Riah that brought tears to her eyes. Since they didn't know whether they were having a boy or a girl, he wrote one to a boy baby and one to a girl baby.

Mariah calls this picture, "Welcome to your crazy family, baby!"

Some other passages have been the end of leading MOPS for me (maybe more on that later), Samuel's graduation from kindergarten, Aunt Stacey's wedding in Atlanta (more on that later), another wedding here, Evan turning 4 (more on that later), the painting of our house and Jeremy's 2nd knee surgery. But as always, there's just a lot of daily life mixed in!

These pictures are from Sam's field trip to the park at the end of the school year. Annie and Evan got to tag along.

A big rite of passage for Evan was climbing the chain ladder at the park by himself. All the kindergartners cheered him on by name...it was so sweet!

Silliness and cross-eyes:

Here's Jeremy recovering from a major knee surgery. He's been known to suffer from a man cold in the past, but he's being a pretty good patient with this. He tore both the inner and outer miniscus, tore the ACL (which ripped of a chunk of bone that flipped back and rubbed the cartilege away), tore his MCL and had fractures in his femur and tibia (I think I'm getting everything). And yet, he painted our house and worked on the roof by himself, walked around Atlanta, performed/helped with 2 weddings, and hardly complained. I'm not sure what was holding his knee together besides his skin for all of that!

Post knee surgery excitement=cruising around Walmart in an electric shopping cart. I'm surprised I captured him on film considering his speed and swift maneuvering.

Last day of picking Sam up from Kindergarten in the gym.

Crampaw and Grandma visit for graduation and birthday celebrations

Sam was so concerned about making Evan feel welcome at his little classroom graduation party--it was so sweet!

I made a cake wreck for the graduates at youth group. I don't think any of them noticed.

The most exciting passage of all was the safe one of this little GIRL into the world on Saturday, June 11th--Welcome to the world, Karli Anne Rohr! You are loved!

Here We Are, Just Doin' Our Thing

2011-05-10T09:26:00.000-07:00

I started this post and had a train of thought and then somehow didn't save it right, so now I am throwing these pictures on here to show you us...doin' our thing.

Ignore how hideous I look (though I seem to say that in 85% of pictures lately) and check out more of Annie's wild hair:

Looking cool in her sunglasses and snow hat, playing by the pool:

"Oh, it's cold! On my face!"

Evan swinging:

(Notice the red stripe around the bottom of our house. It's gone now...more about that in a later post)

For all you future MOPS leaders out there that think it is too much work or you don't want MOPS stuff to take over your house, here's one of the fringe benefits--doing stuff with the kids with the leftover supplies (these boxes were leftover from our cardboard testimonies at our last MOPS meeting):

I actually went out with Annie to the store and she had taken off her pants and shoes and just had on leg warmers. Add that to her crazy hair, stained shirt, and my sloppy sleeping pants and we were a paparazzi photo waiting to happen :) Just kidding, but it is interesting because I feel like people treat us "differently" when we look like that...

Sam took a Pee-Wee basketball class at the Aquaplex. This is the best picture we got, sorry Sam.

Now we signed Sam up for AYSO soccer. We asked Evan quite a few times if he wanted to sign up, too, but he was certain he didn't want to. He's more into dancing, sorry Jeremy.

Here's Sam climbing all the way up to the top of the climbing wall at the Aquaplex. (Bragging alert) Jeremy said the coach only helped once.

Annie is so lucky...there are always superheroes showing up to rescue her (and make her cry):

Trying out the zoom on our new camera while Evan gets the mail. The zoom is a good feature. The rest of the camera is frustrating me.

Another new camera experiment:

Here's a a once-in-a-blue-moon occurence...Sam sleeping in so long that he has to be woken up. I know the days are fast approaching when he's going to sleep in every day, so it's making me enjoy these early mornings more lately. I sent Annie in to wake him up--her method was putting puzzle pieces on his pillow. It didn't work, but it was cute.

Easter Saturday breakfast--pancake balls:

And lastly, a glimpse into our Easter Sunday photo shoot.

The only picture where they're all cooperating. But why is Sam standing like an old man?

The Kids/Animals Personality Match-Up Game by Kaci

2011-04-18T13:30:00.001-07:00

If my kids were animals, here's what they would be (in my humble but accurate opinion):

Samuel would be a puppy:

Not a little tiny breed, but a big, sturdy kind of puppy, like a labrador or golden retriever. He is friendly, loyal, eager, easy to teach, makes messes, and leaves his pawprints all over the place. He loves to climb on you (even if it causes you bodily injury) and makes a mess when he eats. He's the leader of the pack. He has accidents but you can't help wanting to rub his head, scruffle his neck (I made that word up), or join in his exuberant games.

If Sam is a puppy, then Evan is something equally furry and cute, but a little more out-of-the-box...a little more unique. He's smart but in a more subtle and sneaky way. Like I said, he's cute...but a little pesky. I was mentioning this to a friend and she suggested that he's a raccoon...which is so cool because that's what Sam called him the whole time I was pregnant--Raccoony! So it must be so!

He can be a little aloof and is more prone to hang back and wait until you are not watching to do something. He pays attention to details and wants to figure out how things work (which I hear that raccoons are good at...getting into trash cans and pet doors despite numerous attempts to secure them). He is very fun to watch, especially because he isn't in your face hamming it up like his older brother. He's a stinker, but still cuddly and sweet most of the time...and he makes you wonder what he's thinking and what he's going to do next.

So that leaves Annie. This is what I have so far:and just when you are saying, "Aw, how cute and cuddly!", remember the other side to this creature:

She gets attention when we go out because of her silly antics and sweet smile (and also the fact that her hair is usually sticking up in every direction). She loves to sit on my lap and take care of her dollies. She is happy when she's happy and sings more than she talks. She persistently gets into the things she's not supposed to (like the toothpaste/toothbrushes/hairspray/lotion stuff in the bathroom, her brother's lego or paper creations, and the dishwasher in general), and when caught she squeals and runs away and tries to use her charm to get out of trouble. But...when she decides to be in a bad mood (like if I walk out of the room or she can't have the thing she wants or you feed her after midnight), she becomes a terror. We say she is the queen of "I-Want-It/I-Don't-Want-It" and refuses to communicate with words or baby signs. Though I say she doesn't talk, she is very good at "No!"...but she also gives loves and kisses upon request. Jeremy says she needs some discipline and training, but I say, "Oh, she's my baby and my only little girl" so there you have it. Here's our gremlin in action:

"Nice dolly, I'll pet your hair and be sweet while mommy takes a picture."

"What? You want me to smile and cooperate?"

"No way!!!"

What are your children's animal personalities?

Spring Break Part 2

2011-04-11T08:55:00.000-07:00

After returning from Mexico, Annie and I drove to San Diego to pick up the boys, who had stayed with my parents for the week (Annie stayed with Jeremy's parents in Tucson). We spent a few days with my sister...we had big plans to go to the beach, the USS Midway, and Sea World. The weather didn't cooperate (neither did Annie's constipation problems)...but we managed to do the Midway and Sea World.

The boys were so cute with Aunt Kendra in their flight suits. They were so proud and got so many comments from people on the ship.

Annie and Evan had a few things in common...like not being tall enough to go on the special tour with Aunt Kendra and also loving all the knobs and buttons.

There were a lot of knobs and buttons.

Sam's special tour included getting to sit in the Commanding Officer's chair up in the tower. Don't tell Evan.(Though I doubt that the Commanding Officer sits "criss-cross applesauce" in his chair while commanding the aircraft carrier).

Even though Annie didn't have a flight suit, she is absolutely adorable in this picture. Click on it so you can see how excited she is (not so much about the planes, more about the fact that she is about to run away from me at top speed).

The kids loved the open cockpits that they could sit in and pretend to be flying...Annie loved them so much that she would never look for the pictures.

Super awesome and totally realistic souvenir photo...Evan's face is the best!

The sky was clear, we paid our admission to Sea World, got suckered into the extra fee for feeding the dolphins and then it started to rain and hail so this is the only picture I got...

The sun did come out and we ended up having a nice day (except for Annie's continuing tummy troubles and separation anxiety).

Here's some cell phone pictures of Annie in Tucson, terrorizing Uncle Jack's dog:

"Come here, Tanner, let me brush you!"

"Now I'll put my shoes on you. You'll like it."

Annie really liked Aunt Sonnie.

Gamma did a good job trying to manage Annie's flyaway hair, but here is a picture that shows how Annie looks most days (especially when I'm in charge):
I always think she looks a bit like this Food Network Chef, whose name coincidentally is Anne:

Now we're back at home and back to busy normal life...I'm finishing up my MOPS year (I won't be coordinating next year) and the boys are back to eating picnic lunches and plotting world domination.

Mexico 2011

2011-03-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

Well, I am finally managing to find time to write about Mexico! I know it's long, but I tried to stick to the good stuff, and hey, you haven't read anything by me for a month!

To give you a little idea of the structure of our trip, we went down to Mexico with 10 high schoolers, 7 college students, and 6 leaders. We stopped for a night in Tucson at Jeremy's parent's house on the way in and way out. We went to church in the community of Empalme, where we did most of our work last year. I found myself as one of the stronger Spanish speakers on the trip (which isn't saying much...I decided that I talk like a cross between Yoda and Annie (my daughter)), so I led the children's program that night at the church and I wonder if they got anything out of it. The next day, we put sealant on the inside of a pastor's house and leveled the gravel in the yard. The pastors' houses we have worked on have been built because pastors decide to move in amongst the poor to really be a part of them and we get to help! We also worked on painting the large inside of a tall church. Did I mention that it was large and tall? At each place, we played with kids and passed out little toys and gifts. I liked that part more than the painting.

On the second day, we went back to Empalme, where I had made some connections with the young moms last year. We handed out food baskets, prayed for people, did spa day for the girls, and gave out clothes to the moms. The day ended with a rowdy soccer game in the playground with many of the local people. Each night, we would return to our hosts at Corazon del Dios...the home of a couple named Art and Brenda, where we got hot showers, a beautiful patio, and delicious homemade food. We usually had a team meeting where we sang and talked about our lives and the Bible each night under the palapa. One night, we went to a mid-week service in another poor area called Fatima. We got to visit the beach a few times, and even got to go out on a super-fancy yacht (through a friend of a man at our church who used to have a beach house in San Carlos). We finished our work back at the pastor's house in Fatima where we painted and gave more clothing and spa stuff out to the ladies and kids.

I decided to tell you my thoughts on the trip by showing you a few of my favorite moments through pictures. At the end, I will post the 6 min. slideshow with music that we played at church when we got home. It's good, you should watch it :)

As I said last year, I loved watching Jeremy get to lead and serve on this trip, because I am often at home with the kids during youth group events. He had some unique experiences...his first baby dedication:

Preaching with a translator and background music on an electric keyboard...

...to, apparently, a headless man.

(actually, that's one of our students who fell asleep during his sermon).

One of my favorite parts of the trip was getting to spend time with the people in our group. I loved watching our high schoolers become better friends with each other and I always love spending time with our high school leaders (who I consider to be some of my closest friends, even though they're 10-15 years younger than me...I'm so blessed!)

Another favorite part was going back to Empalme. I loved when we drove into the neighborhood and saw Perla's house and most of the people on the Fun Bus cheered out loud. We built her house last year and it was touching to see it standing, looking well-cared for and full of love in the middle of a very broken area.
I loved seeing the ladies I met last year and working with them to hand out all the clothes the MOPS moms from FCF had donated for us to take.

Even a dog came inside the church to see what all the excitement was about!

Some of our hosts mentioned that maybe the clothing giveaway was a little crazy and we should reconsider how or if we do it again next year, and I felt a little self-conscious and bad about it. But then, as I hung out in the late afternoon sunshine at the neighborhood church with all sorts of moms and their little kids, I felt touched that caring for them brought them together in community with the ladies of the church. And, I thought about our MOPS group in Flagstaff that came together to give the clothing and how 60 women in Arizona got to be blessed by serving these women and I felt so moved to have been a part of this act of love...though I do think we can figure out how to organize it better in the future.

I loved getting to walk around the neighborhoods and talk to people. I marveled at the connectedness of the community...how we could tell one small child that we were going to play games and wash hair at the church and scores of people would arrive an hour later.

I had been sad because I had brought some craft stuff to do at a kids club that had never ended up happening (actually, a friend from MOPS had donated a bunch of the things we needed). During the last hour of our work project for the whole trip, I met the pastor's wife at her home (that we were painting) and asked her if she could use the supplies for the craft. I was careful to explain that I wanted the items to be used for the children of the community because that's what they had been donated for. She got very excited and said they were going to have a kids' outreach the next day and the craft tied in with what they were already planning to do. She saw some popsicle sticks that I had randomly thrown in at the last minute and got even more excited and said that there was going to be a big parade downtown and that the church was going to march in order to invite people and tell them about Jesus. She said that the kids would make crosses that said, "Cristo Te Amo" (Jesus Loves You) to hand out along the parade route. So my little loaves and fishes (paint and popsicle sticks) in the hands of Jesus went a lot further than I could ever have dreamed! She also thanked me for doing a clothing giveaway at her house that day (we had "randomly" missed a huge box of women's clothes and toys for the kids during our giveaway in Empalme so we did a second one in Fatima) because it was the first time the community gathered at her future home, and that is her vision--that it would be a place of gathering and community, with worship music playing speakers in the morning. See, more loaves and fishes.

Even though I loved talking with the people and was a little apprehensive about my usefulness in the physical labor projects, I really enjoyed the work that we did. Last year, we went to a church service here:
...and this year, we got to paint the almost finished building. We heard that the people of the church sold thousands of tamales to raise the money to complete the building, and everyone pitched in to help: men who worked on ships did the welding of the roof and everyone collected rocks and gravel to use in the foundation and therefore made the neighborhood look cleaner.

We affectionately called this paint color "Grandma's Bathroom"

Our high schoolers were such hard workers...it was fun to watch them!
While we worked, I loved asking our Mexican hosts about their testimonies. They were all so touching, but this young man, Alex, really had a story to tell.
He grew up on the streets, using drugs and alcohol at age 7, ended up working for the circus (which was really run by the mafia), participating in all the things you can imagine (and can't imagine) that go with that. His aunt invited him to church for a year, and he refused, and then one weekend, he didn't want to get drunk and ended up at this aunt's house where she fed him and invited him again. He went, and stood outside, too ashamed of his piercings and tattoos and long braided hair. But, the pastor (named Nacho...who couldn't like a pastor named Nacho?) came and hugged him and welcomed him and said they had been praying for him for a year. It was really an amazing story!

Something else that was amazing was the food. 'Nuff said.

The "staff" at the place we stay are so gracious and hospitable, and excellent cooks, too. They would bring hot meals to the job sites and always had smiles on their faces.

Eating hot lunch served on scaffolding.

Our hostess, Brenda (with her mom).

The place we stay at is just so special...nothing flashy or fancy, just the gift of hospitality at work.

Some of the team's best moments were in the evenings at "the compound" (as we liked to call it), under the palapa.

I loved watching God work in the students' lives...before we left, that had been a question in my mind--could I see God work in the students themselves, not just teach them that He can? The answer was an astounding yes...especially the night that this young man shared his story with our team.
He shared about some of the struggles he had had in his life, which included the deaths of his mother and brother. He was stoic and strong and shared about what God had taught him so far, even though it is still a work in progress. Our students reached out to him in compassion, and he really became a leader through his vulnerability and insight. But, the best moment was when, "randomly", Jeremy asked the worship leaders to play a song to end the night. "How about...'Before the Throne of God Above'" Jeremy said offhandedly, and the guitarist almost declined because she didn't know it very well, but played it anyway. It was an emotional song, most were crying, and at the end, the student wiped away tears and said, "Who chose that song? Who chose it? That was my mother's favorite song. Thank you. Thank you." More loaves and fish? I think so.

Another student shared with me, through tears, that she wasn't sure why she had come on the trip and how she didn't feel useful because of some slight physical challenges she faces due to a medical problem she had as a child. We talked about it through the trip, and I tried to encourage her the best that I could.

As we were trying to get across the border on the way home, the fun bus was running out of gas, the battery was dead, and we were stuck in a long narrow line of cars trying to make it through before the border closed. Jeremy and another leader were outside with the hood up, and the team decided to pray...led by this student. She offered her broken, self-conscious prayer up to God and as she said "Amen", the Fun Bus roared back to life. Everyone cheered, for her and for God. I am crying right now as I write this, that our God is so personal and so mighty that he could answer a teenager's prayer at the right moment, that he could save a young man from the Mexican Mafia, that he could provide the perfect song at the perfect moment for a boy still struggling with so much loss, and that he could part the Red Sea and turn 5 loaves and 2 fish into a meal that can feed thousands.

(Us at the border...it's the diagonal line across the GPS screen)

100th Blog Post Giveaway Celebration and All That

2011-03-09T11:54:00.000-08:00

This is my 101st blog post. I've liked most of my blog posts except for one that I never got around to deleting. So this is like my 100th blog post. Many people celebrate their 100th blog post with some sort of giveaway or something. I'm cheap, so here's what I give you: Videos of my two boys. The first is Sam (who is in kindergarten) showing his reading skills. The rest are instructional videos about how to catch a leprechaun. Very informative. Enjoy. I probably won't be posting again until after spring break, so see you in a couple of weeks.

Something Very Exciting Happened

2011-03-07T07:48:00.000-08:00

I got to do this a couple nights ago:

If you don't understand the picture, I realized I could put a teeny-tiny braid in Annie's hair! Now, I know this signals the start of 15+ years of battles over hairstyles and tears about bad haircuts and "Mom, you're hurting my head--comb softer!", but I think it was an exciting moment. It is in many ways one of the first truly unique aspects of having a girl. I mean, yes, she likes playing with dolls and pretending to do household chores, but my little boys would play kitchen and even push dolls around in the stroller. Dressing Annie in dresses and tights and shiny shoes is fun, but I thought dressing little boys in football shirts and cute little hiking boots was fun, too. But braiding hair...this is brand new! Despite the stresses of girls and their hair, there was a lot of female bonding done in front of mirrors in my house growing up, and I think it has been a theme with girls and their mothers throughout history. I remember my sister and I sitting on the stairs and french braiding each others' hair (and comparing the thicknesses of our braids, but that's another story) and I remember my mom rescuing me from hair disasters before a few formal dances. So I am glad for it to have begun!

Here's another picture to enjoy--it really sums up the 3 kids and their stages right now: