Visit from Aunt K

We just finished a very fun visit with my sister Kristina for a whole week. We were all sad to see her go. Elizabeth cried real tears when we got in the car at the airport after dropping her off. But it was much fun and we hope we will make it to PA this summer to see Kristina and lots of other family too!!

While she was here we had a busy week. We went to the zoo, the library, the mall, and on Friday we took a ride out to Monterey, one of my favorite places - such a gorgeous area. It was a cold, windy day there, however that did not deter the kids from playing industriously on the beach. Emma had a rough day, so I spent some time hanging out with her in the warm car while the others enjoyed the sunshine and fresh air. We went climbing on the rocks, which you're not supposed to do, but how can you resist? Caleb is quite the adventurer and puts fear into my heart and I need to let him go - to some extent anyway - and be the little boy adventurer that he is. I missed the picture of him clinging to a sheer wall of rock. Yikes! We also went to a park there where they got to climb on the train engine. Don't miss Caleb's camo sunglasses. He loves them! (Actually, I had to do some work to convince him NOT to get the sparkly pink ones.) Much fun.

So we will attempt to return to our "normal" schedule now. But we will miss her. Anyone else who wants to come visit is so welcome!!!

A bad hair day

Ever feel like that? I mean, a really bad hair day? Emma doesn't care, of course. I've been putting the long part up in a little ponytail sometimes, and after I took it out - wooo!

It's been so beautiful here - mid-70's. Perfect! Today I was out in bare feet scrubbing window screens and doing some other cleaning. Yesterday I was weeding my flowers for a couple hours. I'd much rather be doing that than shoveling snow. I'm sorry for all of you easterners right now....

My sister is coming tonight! Yay! I have to go pick her up at the airport at 1:15 a.m. That's why I'm up late blogging. I could go to bed and get up later, but....

Elizabeth is learning about George Washington since Monday is President's Day. Just a little bit anyway. And she's learning to tell time. That is a feat. She is resistant to it for some reason, but she can do it very well.

I've realized that I'm actually enjoying doing school with her in the mornings. It should be that way, shouldn't it? For awhile it was just part of our routine, but today I missed it. I think I like sitting down with her, just the 2 of us, and her learning. Usually she likes it and it's fun to watch her. She is super-excited for Aunt Kristina's visit. Me too!

L.A. trip

Last weekend we headed to Los Angeles. It was one of those weekends that was good but such a rush and busy that lots of it feels like a blur. We went for a conference on Organic church planting. Very cool stuff. It's what the staff here in Fresno are trying to do. Definitely a totally different mindset from traditional church. If you want to know more, let me know...

I got to see about half of the conference. All our staff went and we took some babysitters with us for our kids. Emma needed some mommy attention though. We stayed with a very fun family on staff in L.A. - the Voss family. They have kids almost the same ages as ours, and they LOVED playing together! I guess Elizabeth had a theological struggle while watching amovie about Jesus with them. "Wait!" She said, "I don't know if this is right. Jesus was a man, but He's God too!" She's also been trying to grasp with her very concrete mind the idea of the Trinity. "But there's only one God, right? But Jesus is God too." And conversations like that...

And of course, no trip to L.A. would be complete without a stop at the beach. So we made a very quick stop in Santa Monica before heading home to Fresno. I love the beach.... Just smelling the ocean air for awhile and listening to the waves just is so peaceful for me. I can't wait for a vacation at the beach house! Our kids love playing and exploring on the beach too. An hour definitely was not enough for them.

Hopefully pictures soon....

our weekend

<---"Caleb's Dinosaurs are yummy!! And I have sweet potatoes on my shirt. They are yummy too!"

It wasn't like it was any significant weekend, it was just a typical one I guess. Friday night was Tower Christian's Dinner with Dads. Tower is the homeschool group we're part of, and every month I have to go to a teachers' meeting on a Friday afternoon where we hand in attendance and get to hear about field trips or other important info. and fellowship and pray with other homeschooling moms. But a few months they do something different and so in February they have dinner with Dads where we get to bring our husband. It was actually quite fun! We sat at a table with people we know pretty well already and we ended up laughing a lot. We had to bring dessert and a drink and so in the interest of using up some of our abundance of pre-freeze lemons, we brought tons of lemonade and lemon bars. Both of which are yummy, but we've already had them several times this month....

Saturday I had a meeting for the ballet Elizabeth's going to be in with her class in May. Rehearsal schedules and information and stuff like that. Then I grabbed Thai food and brought it home to eat early so we could do our part and babysit for the co-op that night. (I think Thai food is becoming my favorite...) During babysitting Emma rolled from her back to her front for the first time. She's done front to back many times, but the other was a first!

Sunday we did watch the Super Bowl. No party this year. We ate dinner on a blanket in front of the TV and Elizabeth kept saying, "This is my dream!" Huh.

Today, back to the week. School and stuff, which was easy today. A couple weeks ago our DVD player just stopped working, so finally we went out and got a new one tonight.