The Kids/Animals Personality Match-Up Game by Kaci

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

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

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)