Half a Dozen

Days like today...

2011-02-28T23:15:00.000-08:00

Days like today just can't happen all that often. I know other moms have the energy to handle days like today all the time, but I just do not. It's not that it was a bad day. It's just that it was a long day, a busy day, a full day. But it ended with whiny kids, a screaming babe, and a mom who was too tired to give baths tonight. (And a mom grateful for a dad who willingly helped out with those baths...)

I enjoy the days where I feel like we have as much time for school as we want or need. When we can spend as long as necessary figuring out the long division problems or reading about and discussing the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Days when I get to play a game with Caleb and do a craft with Emma, when I get to play on the floor with Ben till he giggles.

Nope, those things didn't happen today. But I am grateful that there will be other days this week that they will. At least, I hope they will.

What about you? Which kind of day do you prefer?

Sweet

2010-08-27T21:40:00.000-07:00

Sweet

summertime spent

spinning

splishing

and

splashing.

Splendid!!

Hey I'm just like Brett Favre!

2010-08-22T22:53:00.000-07:00

Yep, just when you thought I was gone for good, I'm back! Ha!

I often have these random thoughts that I think it would be fun to blog about, but I haven't been very good at doing it. So here I am. Doing it.

Do you know that my darn shift key on my right hand is stuck with something kiddish and sticky so that when I capitalize things, it's like I'm on cap lock. SEe? Even though of course I NEVER let my kids eat when using the computer.....

Okay, so I told you it would be random. Or maybe sometimes not so random.

DO you know that this kidtotally cracks me up? Yep, I posted on FAcebook (I'm ignoring that sticking shift key right now) about his leg discipline and Caleb vs. CRying. BUT he totally rolls on the floor whenever Luke does the pulling-the-finger-off trick. I think CALeb is freaked out cause he thinks it's real. SO tonight I was doing it for him, and he just laughs and his eyes get so big and then he asked if I could drop it on the floor. (the pulled off part). I said no cause I might lose it.

SO that's it for today. DON't lose your finger. AND ignore my caps, okay?

AMA

2009-08-02T22:22:00.000-07:00

So we'll see who's reading my blog.

Yep, I'm officially AMA. That means I'm pregnant and 35. So I'm old. Advanced Maternal Age. (AMA). Baby #4 is due at the beginning of February. We are very excited!! But I have to admit I'm feeling old this time too. The nausea sends me to bed, and, well, okay, pretty much anything sends me to bed these days! So, sadly, the other 3 have spent lots of time in the play room amusing themselves. (And sometimes screaming at each other too.)

But yes, we are excited! The kids are happy too. Emma and Caleb are both pretty vocal about wanting it to be a boy. Emma says, "There is a boy baby in your tummy". Very cute. Elizabeth doesn't really care either way, I think, although she does not want to share her bedroom with ANOTHER girl!

So as August begins and I look ahead to starting school with Elizabeth and Caleb in the next few weeks, I think, "Am I nuts?!" But clearly this baby, which we did plan for, has already been designed by our heavenly Father. And I may be (or go) nuts, but it will be worth it!! =)

My kids crack me up...

2009-04-29T23:20:00.001-07:00

Caleb is often saying things that crack us up. He's not intentionally funny, it's just his comments about life, etc.

Tonight he and I had finished eating dinner and he was anxiously asking for dessert. I told him that he and I were the only ones finished, everyone else was still eating. And he says, (complete with accent), "High five, Girl." I'm surprised he didn't suck his teeth at me.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, didn't crack me up, just made me kind of shake my head, when she said at dinner, "Mommy, I learned about hydrophilic and hydrophobic things today, and surfactants." She proceeded to then define them accurately and give examples of them all. How does my homeschooler learn these things without me knowing? By watching Fetch on PBS. It's a great show. And when she says stuff like that I'm sometimes kicking myself thinking that I could be teaching her so much more because she can obviously learn so much more. But she's okay where she's at right now, and I am working on it for next year.... And she does still love to learn.

And right now, it's too late and I need to sleep...

I'm Back! (Or am I?)

2009-04-29T16:10:00.000-07:00

So it's been super-long since I've blogged. Yes, Facebook has eaten away at my computer time. But so often when I'm on there posting pictures or whatever, I'm wishing I could add a bunch of commentary to what I'm posting. So this is where I do it, right? Well, I'll try....

Okay, was that my 2-year-old who just came out of her room from her nap mostly unclothed because "I couldn't get them back on." Why did she take them off? No answer.

And was it Emma 2 nights ago crying for me at 10:30 PM from the bathroom, again unclothed and with her hair soaked and the hand soap pump in her hands and lots of soapy, lathery bubbles in her hair? Why? "Because I couldn't get it out."

Sigh.

Somehow though, (because she's the "baby"?) I don't get angry with her, and I manage to make it all right for her again. Because it's easy right now. Putting clothes back on, washing hair in the middle of the night, praying the monsters away -- that's all easy. And as tiring as it may be, I have this feeling that it's nothing compared to the things that she'll need to be made right in the future. Things that maybe I can't make right for her. But that's all down the road. So right now I'm enjoying her sitting on my lap, watching me type, smelling her sweet (clean!) hair, and even her whining for some apple juice ("Pretty please?")

So I'm off. For apple juice.

More Poconos...

2008-08-10T15:48:00.000-07:00

One afternoon most of the family went to Tobyhanna State Park for a hike. (I stayed back for Emma's nap and Lydia stayed to nap too). Luke and Jeremy took turns hauling Mario in the backpack. Caleb picked wild blueberries and enjoyed eating them all! (Reminds me of Blueberries for Sal. Anyone else remember that one?) He did bring home a couple in his pocket to show me, and he also showed me sadly that one got smooshed. Caleb also became "the Tobyhanna Ninja" and stopped everyone from passing him until they told him their favorite color. He loves being a warrior....

Almost every evening we were able to swim in the indoor pool in the community center. What a blessing! All of our kids loved it. Two mornings we ladies also went to the pool for high impact water aerobics. We younger ones were surprised by how sore we were! Ha! (Most of the ladies at the class were probably 60+) =) It was very fun. In these pictures are Aunt Kate with Emma and Elizabeth and then Caleb floating on his back, which is quite funny. He always closes his eyes.

One morning we went horseback riding. The kids were all too young, but thankfully Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Rachael volunteered to stay home with them. Since Elizabeth and Caleb got to ride horses just a couple months ago, I didn't feel too badly. I loved riding the horses through the gorgeous PA woods, enjoying the ferns and other trees and plants. Sooo much more beautiful than California. At least to me! We got to ride the horses across a stream, too, which was fun. Here's Luke on his horse, Sarge.

Our Pocono vacation - part 1

2008-08-06T16:47:00.000-07:00

We just returned from a 10-day trip to PA/NJ. The majority of the time - 1 week - was spent at a huge, beautiful rental home in the Poconos. Luke's grandmother lives in the Poconos and invited us all to her 90th birthday party, which she began planning 3 years ago. So Luke's parents thought it would be a perfect time for us to have a big family vacation there.

We started the trip with 4 of the 5 of us (not me) having the stomach flu. Yuck, yuck, yuck! Luke, Caleb and Emma all threw up on the plane. But by the time we landed in Philadelphia and were picked up by Luke's sister Kate and her husband Josh to drive to their house 1/2 hour away in New Jersey, everyone felt much better. (Unfortunately we must have still been carrying it and passed it on to several more people that week...)

Sunday we went to church at Kate and Josh's church and then drove up to "the big white house that's sometimes yellow", as we called it all week. It has 6+ bedrooms, a 72-inch T.V. a pool table, hot tub, an amazing kitchen and many levels of decking. The next morning we discovered a deer in the backyard with her fawn. She seemed to be waiting for something, so....we fed her. Which made Luke very mad. But the kids liked it. =) She came back daily at mealtimes hoping for more.

We spent lots of time hanging out at the house - the kids quickly became addicted to playing the Play Station on that huge T.V. Lots of games were played and most nights after the kids were in bed various ones of us hung out in the hot tub. What great times those were - talking, laughing, and sharing.

One of the best things about the week was getting to meet our first-ever nephew Mario, brought home from Guatemala by Papa Jeremy and Mama Lydia only 2 weeks before! He is 1 and such a cutie with smiles and hugs for everyone! Here is Luke with Emma and Mario. He's bigger than her, I think!

More to come...

I love summer weekends

2008-07-08T14:59:00.001-07:00

Last weekend was almost the perfect summer weekend for me. On the Fourth we headed to Tulare, CA for a birthday party with friends including a wonderful pool to swim in and delicious tri-tip to eat. Okay, if you're not from CA, you probably don't know what tri-tip is, so it's a specific cut of beef and there's only one on a cow, it's kind of like a steak and when we looked up a definition online, it said, "most cuts of tri-tip are sent to California" So we greedy Californians get to eat it all. Then we headed west to Hanford, CA to see our usual fireworks show. To hold to tradition, the kids ate snow cones, and shared them as you can see. I love to see Elizabeth being a little mother and sharing with Emma to make her happy. It was a gorgeous day, only about 92 degrees, so by the time it got dark, it actually felt cool! Emma screamed when the fireworks started, but I put my hands over her ears, and then she was okay. The kids loved the fireworks and so did I, as usual.

Saturday I headed up to Shaver Lake, CA with a group of 15 women - some on W.I. staff and some from the community - for a one-night camping trip/mini-retreat. There is a retired couple who built a beautiful home and on their property also built a camp area for people from the inner city to experience camping. There are 3 tent cabins with cots and sleeping bags; an outdoor cook tent; and these amazing showers that are open to the sky. How fun it is to take a shower and be looking up at the incredibly blue sky and towering pine trees... Our host also has a large pontoon boat and took us all out on the lake for a few hours. He always takes us to a cove that it only accessible to boats so there are way less people. We hung out and swam, jumped off rocks, sat in the sun, etc. We also had awesome worship times and a "God date" on Sunday morning.

What else can you ask for on a summer weekend?

Summer is upon us...

2008-06-26T13:03:00.000-07:00

This week Elizabeth and Caleb are going to VBS - although at the church they're going to they call it VBB - Vacation Bible Blast instead of School. They explained why once, but I can't remember now. They are having a great time, and this year I did not have to peel Caleb off of my leg on the first day. He's getting older.... Tomorrow is the last day, and tonight they are having a dinner for the families to eat hot dogs and come and see what they've been doing. I don't really want to go (Luke has a meeting of the Police Chief's Advisory Board), but the kids are very excited, so we probably wlll.

I can hardly believe that my little watermelon is big enough to climb the ladder to the slide all by herself. Ahh, it is bittersweet as they grow. Wonderful for them to be able to do more on their own, but so sad as they leave behind their cute, sweet baby ways. Just now as she was playing in the kitchen she was singing, "hug-a-baby, hug-a-baby" in a very cute voice, sounding like all one word. The things I hope to remember...

The heat of summer has hit us off and on, this week it is only in the mid-90's. That means it's nice and cool at night and in the mornings. I am glad for the kids to have activities like VBS - oh, VBB - and swimming lessons to keep them somewhat occupied. This has been the first summer that I really have felt like Elizabeth needs SOMETHING to do other than hanging around home asking me what she can do all the time.... Although it was also nice last week for me to have a "week off" from kids' activities. No driving, rushing out the door, etc. I am hoping to re-charge and be excited for new curriculum for school in the fall and have some new ideas for creative ways for Elizabeth to learn next year...

Our own Kit Kittredge

2008-06-15T23:11:00.000-07:00

After Elizabeth's ballet performance - for which her hair needed to be in a bun - she declared that she needed to have her hair cut - it was just TOO long and hot for summer. So when I asked her how short she wanted it cut, she said, "About here, like Kit Kittredge." For those of you without a girl of the right age, Kit is an American Girl living during the Great Depression and also the subject of a movie coming out this summer. Elizabeth has read pretty much all the American Girl books, some series twice. (Felicity is a particular favorite of ours.) So here she is, looking amazingly like Kit. (check out www.americangirl.com if you want to see the real Kit)

Awana celebrations

2008-05-15T15:32:00.000-07:00

I can hardly believe it's time for year-end celebrations already (uh, maybe since I have another MONTH of school to do?!) but it is, and we celebrated at Awana for the last 2 weeks. Elizabeth got her first book award for Sparks. She's a good way into her second book for next year when she'll have her last year of Sparks.

Caleb also got his first book award for Cubbies. There are only 2 books in Cubbies and they do one each year. So next year will be his second year of Cubbies. He just loves it, and I am so thankful for the leaders and everyone who invests in him, because he is often shy and Cubbies has helped him overcome that tremendously. He loved his leaders too.

So Wednesday nights will be free for awhile....

PE for today

2008-05-15T15:26:00.000-07:00

It's only mid-May and we're being bombarded with the 100's already. Ugh! So I finally decided it was warm enough to let the kids swim in their inflatable pool. (ya think?) These two love it. But...Emma screamed when I put her in. So she stayed in the bucket that we use to wash off feet. Maybe next time.... All was fine and dandy till I decided it was time for Emma's nap and we tried to go in the house. Luke had been home for lunch and when he left he locked us out! I always have my phone and keys, but I had put on my swimsuit too and so they were in the house. Not very helpful. So I told the kids we were not going to wait outside for 4 hours in 100-degree heat for Luke to return. We (not too gracefully) climbed over the fence and walked to the neighbor's house to use their phone! Hey, maybe it's God's way of nudging me to visit my neighbors more. After we got home I decided it's just too stinkin' hot and I turned on the air conditioner. Usually I try to wait till mid-June. At least I will enjoy the coolness for a few lovely hours and then turn it off in the evening.

why I don't blog more often...

2008-05-03T00:09:00.001-07:00

So earlier I was getting ready to post about our trip to the beach house (which began 2 weeks ago...), when in walked this:

Luke and the kids were outside repairing the chicken coop on his day off. And apparently digging in the mud too.

And now it's entirely too late...

Trip to the ranch!

2008-04-07T15:30:00.001-07:00

The next morning after bowling we took a field trip to a ranch where the kids learned a bit about ranch animals and also got to ride on horses. In her continuing spirit of trying new things, Elizabeth climbed right up on that horse. At first, they even let her walk the horse on her own, as you see above, which made me nervous because she's never been on a horse before. Eventually someone came and led the horse. Caleb also got to have a ride although he was led the entire time. They loved the animals and whole ranch scene, so I'm considering enrolling Elizabeth in a little day camp there this summer. They do have a homeschool class there on Thursdays, with more ranch learning and horsemanship. But right now we're committed to ballet, AWANA, T-ball. I think that's enough, but am willing to consider it for next year.

Emma loves birds. She followed the "quack quack"s (ducks) all around and then she saw these geese headed down the road and became extremely excited. She called them "quack quacks" too, and chased them until they ran into a horse corral. she was even flapping her arms. I think that in this picture she looks like she's one of their little gaggle waddling along. Very fun.

"Fun" activity...

2008-04-07T15:19:00.000-07:00

Ian, Caleb, Elizabeth and Abby (Above)

A couple weeks ago our staff went bowling. We're trying this quarterly fun activity thing, so this was our first one. It was pretty fun, it was the first time our kids had been bowling, which means that I have not been bowling in over 7 years! So we went to the lanes at the student union at Fresno State, which are a good family place to go. At first Elizabeth said she did not want to do it, but since everyone there is like extended family, I said she had to She did, and she did so amazingly great! She beat everyone on her lane, including the grown-ups. Yes, the bumpers were up, but she still beat the grown-ups on her lane! And actually, she beat everyone on the staff except for Luke. Little miss competitor keeps saying that, sounding disappointed that she didn't beat Daddy too. I know as a child - and sometimes even now - I have a hard time trying new things, and I do not want her to have that same hang-up. So I am thankful that she was somewhat successful and also that she enjoyed it.

.

A glorious day

2008-03-24T15:41:00.001-07:00

Easter was truly a glorious day for us. I love celebrating Jesus' resurrection, and this year we satisfied my need for traditional celebration by attending First Presbyterian Church downtown on Easter morning. Most of the time I am fine with our very non-traditional church plant, but on Easter I very much enjoy celebrating with lots of people and singing joyous hymns. So we did! The kids even got dressed up in fun Easter clothes. Luke chose these dresses for the girls, and since he rarely expresses any preferences about the clothes I buy for them, I happily agreed and we bought them beautiful dresses this year.

The rest of our day was rather quiet at home, eating ham and potatoes and asparagus. Quiet, that is, other than the sounds of our neighborhood coming to life in springtime - people playing basketball at the park across the street and our neighborhood wheelchair man who blasts the tunes as he rolls by daily. (He won't speak to me, so I'm not sure what his name is.)

Our cherry tree is in full bloom and is quite beautiful and smells amazing. The bees think so too. Yesterday you could hear the buzz from several feet away, there were so many bees pollinating our tree. But on the day we took the picture with Elizabeth in the tree, it wasn't quite as warm out and not as fully blooming, so it was safe for her to climb in it.

A retreat

2008-03-14T19:16:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we headed to World Impact's camp in the high desert, The Oaks for the W.I. West Coast Staff Retreat. This was the first one since we've been here (7 1/2 years). It was good, albeit tiring with three little ones who decided not to sleep well. There was a great speaker who is the director of YWAM in San Francisco but just returned from 25 years in India.

On Monday afternoon I got to hang out with Elizabeth and Caleb while Luke attempted to get Emma to nap. So we painted pottery, took 2 hayrides (we're on one above), decorated and ate cupcakes, and just enjoyed a beautiful sunny day. That was fun for me. I think we're finally about caught up on our sleep, although Elizabeth had to fight off a yucky cold after we returned. I hear lots of people in L.A. ended up sick too.

We also enjoyed yummy (and, I fear, very unhealthy) Oaks food and great child-care during the sessions by awesome volunteers. It was good to get away and fellowship with fellow urban missionaries.

Our little flower

2008-02-25T11:21:00.000-08:00

Emma loves to dress up, so thanks to Target's $1 bins for these cute dress-up things. She's at such a great age - that I love anyway. And it's easy to enjoy her very laid-back happy personality. She's rarely angry - although she has started to express her will about things she can't have. She still loves to be the center of attention and to make us all laugh.

She is finally learning to talk, and it makes me laugh when she changes the way she says something. So far she can say words like "eye", "no", "bubble", "birdy", "baby", "what", and others I'm sure. She also says, "mmhmm" for yes right now.

There's also a picture here of Emma with Jonathan Zuniga, her "partner in crime". He's a couple months older than she is, and they take care of each other at babysitting, giving hugs and sharing toys. It's very cute. so enjoy our cutie!

A sad day.

2008-02-22T10:20:00.000-08:00

I am feeling very sad about this still. Our dog contracted parvo virus and died Wednesday night. Apparently it can live in the soil or in rodents. So if he ate a mouse..... He was very sick Wednesday morning and some friends who had nursed their dogs through parvo gave us websites, medicine, etc. I knew we could not afford the thousands of dollars that vet visits for parvo would cost. So I diligently gave him his medicine and pedialyte hourly on Wednesday till bedtime. But during the night he took a turn for the worse.....

So Hines is buried with many chickens and bunnies and who knows what else in our backyard.

Sad days...

How could I forget....

2008-01-25T09:30:00.000-08:00

When giving a recap of our week, how could I forget Caleb and Emma's nail polish adventure?! On Wednesday morning I was at women's covenant (our staff women's coffee time) and Luke was at home with the kids. He was on the phone talking with a guy from a supporting church when Caleb ran in with paper towels covered in bright red and yelling, "It's not blood! It's not blood!" He yelled loud enough that the guy on the phone said, "It's not blood?" So Luke got off the phone and went to investigate. They had completely emptied a bottle of red nail polish in the living room. I'm not sure what the extent of the painting was. I know there is still asmall spot on the rug because they ran out of nail polish remover. But at least it's not blood....

A week with us...

2008-01-24T15:00:00.000-08:00

Sunday was a beautiful day with sunshine and 60+ temperatures, and a rare day when our whole family could spend a good amount of time together, so we decided to head to our favorite park, Oso de Oro. It was designed for the handicapped, so everything is very low to the ground - perfect for little tykes, too! Emma's favorite part was the duck pond. She stayed there just running around and laughing at the ducks for quite a long time. Whenever we're leaving the park, it's tradition for them all to climb on the bear. Yeah, it's not a golden bear (like the park's name), but it is a bear. It's always been a milestone when each one could climb on with no help. Emma's the only one who's not there yet. It felt like spring to me, ahhhh... But alas, the rest of the week has been cold and rainy. I know, I use the term "cold" like a Californian, because by that I mean highs in the 40's.

On Tuesday night after meeting with my LTG (Life Transformation Group, like an accountability group), I helped our friend Maytag roll egg rolls. Maytag is a junior at Fresno Pacific University (FPU) and grew up in the ministry of W.I. She's raising money to go on a missions trip to Vietnam this summer - as the group's translator! By the way, her name is Hmong. In Hmong, "May" means "girl" and "tag" means "last". Her dad was hoping she'd be the last girl, but she does have one younger sister - hee hee! Anyway, I love the egg rolls and she had to make 500 of them! We feasted on some at our house.

Today we enjoyed a field trip with Tower Christian to Young at Art, a kids' art studio. Our kids each got to work with clay and they were able to choose 2 pieces to fire. Next Thursday we can go and they can glaze them, then we have to wait another week to pick them up. I think they enjoyed it. Elizabeth loves anything "craft"-y, and Caleb just enjoys new things. Emma sat and watched wordlessly.

That was our week - oh yeah, interspersed with strategic planning meetings and work at the thrift store, and school.... Yikes! I was hoping life would slow down in January. Maybe February....

more pirate pictures....

2008-01-18T15:33:00.001-08:00

Birthday Ahoy!

2008-01-18T15:24:00.000-08:00

Caleb turned 4 on Wednesday and celebrated with a boys-only pirate party! He was very rigid about the boys-only rule and instructed me that even I could not attend. Even as I was making his favorite mac and cheese for them to eat, he told me, "Mommy, after you make the food, you have to leave!" So I took Elizabeth and Emma and went to the mall.

Meanwhile, Luke ran a pirate party full of "Aargh"'s and "Matey"s and he even said there were some English accents! They had a treasure hunt with a treasure chest of "booty" (candy) at the end, they played "walk the plank" and "sharks and pirates", both made up by Luke. Then they ate beans and weanies, mac and cheese, grapes, carrots and the pirate ship cake.

Caleb loved it. I think his friends did too!!

Christmas fun times

2007-12-16T09:47:00.000-08:00

Last night we went to Tower Christian School's Christmas party held at a local church. It was a very fun family time, with a gingergread house-making contest (using graham crackers), a potluck, a "fruitcake" launching contest, and then family square-dancing! Sounds corny, but it was really fun for the kids from Caleb's age on up. And our house won the prize! A Starbucks gift card - yum. Elizabeth is holding our A-frame house above, and maybe you can tell that the night before she lost one of her top front teeth. The other is loose too. I told her she'll be able to sing, "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth". The dancing was fun and probably kind of silly too. At the end we did the Hokey Pokey and the Chicken Dance. The Chicken DAnce is not such a big thing out here, so can you believe that some people didn't know how to do it? Anyway, a great Christmas party!!

A new family member?

2007-12-13T17:14:00.001-08:00

Okay, we got a dog! We haven't finalized the name, but it seems we're calling him Hines, after a favorite Steeler and also it's pronounced the same as Heinz, so it's like their stadium too! He's a black lab puppy. I thought he'd be an inside dog, but Caleb goes absolutely nutso when he's in the house-shrieking and crying and everything. So....I guess he'll be an outside dog. It's kinda sad for me, but oh, well! He'll protect our yard.

Elizabeth was on a First Lego League Jr. Robotics team this fall. They learned about alternative energy sources. They didn't compete like the older teams, but they did get to display all of the things they made at the competition. She really enjoyed it even though she was the only girl. It adds a different dynamic - her house didn't have guns and force fields like the boys' houses. Hers was the only one with a yard!!

Children's Museum of the Sierra

2007-12-13T17:02:00.001-08:00

In November we took a field trip to this great museum in Oakhurst, in the Sierra foothills. Everything was hands-on, and the kids loved it. Basically it's just play time with lots of cool toys. Emma loved climbing on everything, Caleb enjoyed the fire truck and pirate ship, and Elizabeth just had fun doing lots of things with her friends.

More entries to come....

Harvest costumes

2007-11-12T16:20:00.000-08:00

Okay, so it's been 2 weeks since Halloween! I couldn't get my pictures to upload into a slide show for some reason, so here's one picture of the kids dressed up. We went to 2 World Impact harvest parties in 2 different neighborhoods that night. The kids had a ball! They didn't get much candy, but the fact that they got some was enough for them. Elizabeth decided to be a ladybug using her costume from her ballet performance. I found Emma's bee costume at our thrift store very cheaply! Caleb wanted to be Jack Sparrow. I just happened to be walking through a store and saw a Jack Sparrow costume in his size on sale. It even included a head thing with hair!

Caleb was hilarious. He went around saying to everyone in his trying-to-be-menacing little boy voice, "I'm Jack Sparrow!" At the second harvest party it was run by teens from our teen club, and he recognized 2 teen girls who have been his babysitters, so he chased them all around the yard with his sword. He had a great time.

Emma just walked around kind of aimlessly in her little bee outfit. She loves men, so whenever she saw a man she knew, she was happy to get some attention.

Vacation!!

2007-10-27T21:34:00.000-07:00

We just returned from a week of vacation at the W.I. beach house in...Southern California. Hmmm, what's been happening there this week? Oh, that's right, wildfires!! While we weren't close enough to be in danger of them, they were burning all around us. On our first full day, Sunday, those horrid Santa Ana winds were blowing so strongly that we could not be on the beach or even outside at all because the sand was whipping around and in our eyes. Then later that day the big black cloud of smoke rolled in. It was so strange and eerie. I had a bathroom window open and when I went in, everything was black! I cleaned it and when I swept up, it looked like ash from a fireplace. So we were stuck indoors for a couple days.

So Monday we decided to check out the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library nearby. It was so windy up there too. We wanted to see Air Force One, and by the pictures you can see that we did. That part was very amazing. The building that houses it is just awesome, it looks like the plane is going to take off out the window. The whole museum was pretty interesting and "impressive" to borrow a word from Elizabeth.

Finally on Wednesday the winds died down for us on the coast and it was a beautiful beach day - over 90 degrees I think! Our Elizabeth was in the chilly water in her wet suit forever. She got to the point where she can boogie board on her own. She's growing up... Emma chased birds all over the beach. she calls them, "Fwa fwa". I don't know why. Caleb just ran and ran and attacked the waves.

Thursday and Friday returned to normal beach weather - 60's and cloudy-ish. Still the kids loved it. Since Luke's sister Kate and her husband Josh joined us for the week from New Jersey, Luke and I got to ride in the sea kayak and see seals and go out for lunch one day too!

I love the beach. It's my most favorite place to visit...

A tiring morning....

2007-10-18T15:40:00.000-07:00

Today we spent the morning at the pediatrician's office. No one is sick, it was just time for Elizabeth's well-child check-up. Of course we waited a long time to see the doctor and then she suggested that we do flu shots for all 3 kids today. "Sure, why not?!" I said. Elizabeth was the most nervous, but she hardly even noticed the shot and said it didn't hurt at all. Caleb was next. He started screaming and threw himself onto the floor. My tough guy. I finally wrestled him onto the table and he let out a bloodcurdling shriek that everyone in the office heard. Meanwhile, Emma stood and watched it all and looked at me as if to say, "Don't you dare get me up there, Mom." But she's little and I had no problem getting her onto the table. She made no sound at all the entire time.

Betcha didn't know that Emma had such big feet, huh? She loves shoes. She loves wearing her big sister's shoes especially. She actually CAN walk in them. She is a big ham and will smile and laugh at the camera. Emma loves to have everyone looking at HER.

We had an interesting weekend at the Oaks for the Directors' Conference. Lots of talking. It was kind of exhausting for me, an introvert, to make conversation all weekend with people I really don't know. But it is always good to be reminded of the big picture with World Impact. Keith reiterated our commitment to planting churches, which is always great to hear. Hey, if you haven't heard of TUMI, it is very exciting. Right now we have 35 TUMI satellites in 14 states and 6 countries! AND Prison Fellowship is using TUMI in prisons. That is so cool. If you want more info, check out http://www.tumi.org

The other picture is a view driving home from the Oaks. The wild west.

Six Great Years

2007-10-10T22:59:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth celebrated her sixth birthday yesterday. She and I discussed several party options, and she chose to have a tea party with just two of her friends, Abby and Leanna. So they came for lunch (checkerboard PB& J, fruit salad, yogurt, pretzels) and tea (chocolate milk) served in a friend's Japanese tea set. Then they made tiaras and ate her teapot-shaped cake and ice cream, and played with her new presents. I think she felt pretty special, she said she wants to have a tea party again next year! it was fun, especially since Luke took Caleb and Emma on a picnic during the party. I especially enjoyed hearing the girls talk while they were eating - they are growing up!

Life has been such a whirlwind here lately. Last Thursday was our fundraising banquet, and things are usually pretty hectic around that time. It went pretty well. We haven't had one in a few years, so we are getting back into practice. I'm glad it's over for this year! Tomorrow Luke and I are going to tthe Oaks for the annual Directors' Conference. This year they invited spouses for a change. I don't have to go to all the boring meetings, so hopefully I will get some rest and quiet and also some time to fellowship with the other wives. I am going to miss our kids though. Especially Emma. She seems so little still...

A week after that we are headed to the beach house for VACATION!!! I am so ready for that....

Soccer once again

2007-09-16T14:41:00.000-07:00

It's soccer season again, and this year we have two little players.

Elizabeth is playing on a 4-5 year-old team even though she'll be 6 in a couple weeks. Last year she was kind of behind the rest of the team ability-wise, so I decided to keep her in that group this year. So....she towers a head over all the other players now. She plays much better though, and she was very upset that her team kept kicking the ball the wrong way! She told her coach, "We need a plan!"

Caleb is playing in the 3-year-old division. They are supposed to have their parents on the field with them. I missed his game since Elizabeth's was at the same time. But Luke said he was the only one who actually let go of his dad's hand! He scored 7 goals! 2 for his team and 5 for the other team. hee-hee! When Luke told him to score on the other goal, he said, "But Dad, this one's closer!"

It's hilarious.

A hike

2007-09-10T20:54:00.001-07:00

A whole entire week ago, on Labor Day, we headed up to Yosemite (or "Oh-semite" in Caleb-speak) to take advantage of a day off. We were having super-hot record-breaking temperatures for a couple weeks, and of course it was hot in Yosemite too. 95 when we were there, which is hot for the mountains. So we did a 2-mile, totally-uphill-the-one-way hike. With 3 youngsters. Needless to say, we stopped more times than I can count on the way up and downed several bottles of water. When we got to the top - for us, anyway, since the trail connects to the several-hundred-mile John Muir trail - we were at the bottom of a waterfall. Now in our mountains in the late summer, the waterfalls are pretty dry. So the kids got this look like, "we did all that for THIS??" Especially Caleb with his flushed little face. Happily, Luke let them "dip" their feet in the stream, which technically you're not allowed to do, but everyone does it and we did it in a pool-type area, not an area of rushing water. Then they were happy. In all, we "dipped", as the kids called it, in 3 streams that day. This one, at the bottom of the Vernal Fall, was definitely the coldest and your feet eventually turned kinda red. The last one, in the Merced River, was fun and Emma plopped right down in it!

No matter how many times I visit Yosemite - and I've been there countless times now - I am always in total awe at the beauty and uniqueness of it. All hand-crafted by God for His glory and maybe a bit for our enjoyment as well. =)

A sad loss

2007-08-25T22:01:00.000-07:00

We are sad to say that one of our chickens, Big Mama, has died. Many of you met Big Mama; she was a colorful and large chicken, much beloved by our kids due to her slowness. There seems to be no apparent cause for her death, other than the fact that she was getting on in years - chicken years, that is. Caleb is a little bit sad, and Elizabeth seemed kind of mad, but overall they handle chicken death very well. So here's a few pictures to remember Big Mama....

More vacation pics

2007-08-12T23:10:00.001-07:00

Okay I'm finally getting around to adding more pictures from our trip. When we visited Luke's sister Kate and her husband Josh in New Jersey, they took us to the beach! It was a super-windy day and sand was in EVERYTHING. But it was still very fun and the kids loved it, of course. Emma went strong all day long and crawled all over the beach. Later back at Kate's we had corn on the cob. We had LOTS of corn on the cob on our trip. Kate and Josh wanted us to rate all the corn because they have a corn rivalry with Luke's other sister Lydia and her husband Jeremy in Wooster, OH. We did have corn at their house as well, and I have to say that .....hmmm.... well, we won't make any judgments. Although Kate's corn was fresh from the farm! But we also had delicious corn at my friend Shannon's house near Cleveland, OH AND we played cornhole, a native Ohio game! hee hee. You know, cultural experiences...

Prior to Kate's house we visited my grandmother in Mt. Jewett, PA. She and my aunts took us to Twin Lakes for a day,and it was so beautiful. The trees, and the lake and everything. It was a very relaxing day for me. Elizabeth and Caleb splashed in the lake and I let Emma crawl all over the grass. They have soft grass in PA. Not like our poky grass.

We also stayed with friends Geoff and Michele in Pittsburgh, but I did not take any pictures at their house! Shame on me. It was great fun seeing them and their kids.

On our last day we met up with Luke's mom and dad and sister Margaret at the Pittsburgh Zoo. We got to see the new polar bear exhibit. I thought it was just a below-water viewing area, but it was a tunnel! I was so surprised and it was amazing. They had just fed the polar bears before we went through, so they were swimming above us and beside us - very cool! Then for fun we stayed at a hotel the night before our flight and swam in their pool. And flew home the next day.

So all that was 3 weeks ago... Now... Emma is walking finally. Still very stumbly, but so cute. Caleb is finally going on the potty... ALL the time. So everyone is growing up. Next Monday (Aug. 20) Elizabeth and I will start first grade. She's excited, especially about spelling. I'm excited about spelling too. In school, I always wished I could be the teacher and give the spelling words for tests and use them in a sentence.

I am very much rambling. It is past 11 and I'm tired.

Emma's First Birthday

2007-07-27T22:59:00.001-07:00

Emma turned one and we celebrated with a little party at Aunt Kristina's house! We had yummy cupcakes with icing made by Grandma and we got to celebrate with my Uncle John, Aunt Jacque and cousin Jelena too. Emma took a few steps on her birthday, but since then she hasn't. We used a bit of her birthday money to buy her a little push toy that she can walk behind now and ride on later. Today she used it and she loved it! She's so little, but the other 2 walked so early. We are all so thankful for Emma!

Fourth of July with Grandparents!

2007-07-27T22:42:00.001-07:00

Well we have returned from our huge trip to PA/OH/NJ!! It was a long trip for sure! But really, with everyone we visited, I just felt like I wished we could see them longer. So it was good. I think we were all happy to return home in our own ways. The kids are re-adjusting to routines and bedtime and things like that.

So - our first week was spent in Point, PA - near Bedford - with Luke's parents and we got to see all of his sisters and their husbands at various times. The Fourth of July we spent at his parents' in-progress home on a hill. We cooked over the open fire for lunch and dinner and ate in what will be the dining room. Then we all headed to the river for fireworks. It rained a bit, but the fireworks still happened. Emma loved them and Caleb fell asleep - again.

We also enjoyed trips to swim in the lake at Shawnee State Park near their home. It was, as usual, a great time with family.

One busy week

2007-06-25T16:19:00.000-07:00

If you read this during the week and have a few moments, please pray for us! Or me, anyway. It is a super-busy week, and I am not a super high-energy person who thrives on that sort of thing. So please pray for me to make it through with some sort of grace and patience for my children!

Caleb and Elizabeth are going to VBS every morning this week from 9-12, which is mostly good, it's just a rush getting out of the house - then we pick them up and speed to swimming lessons at 12:20. We have meetings/events every evening this week. This morning I had another appointment at 9:45 plus staff fellowship at our house at noon. Tomorrow Emma and I will head out early to Tulare, CA with a few other women to check out a thrift store there and get ideas for ours here. Then we head back to Fresno and I'll maybe meet up with Luke at the swimming lessons and take the kids swimming at a pool to meet our summer college interns!

And next Monday we leave town for our 3-week east coast tour!

Whoever said summers were lazy???

Babysitting Co-Op Fun!

2007-06-18T14:10:00.001-07:00

Last week was our last turn babysitting all the kids for the wonderful co-op - at least till fall anyway. So we had a water fun time! We even broke out the slip 'n slide. Luke is such a big kid himself, he enjoyed it too! So enjoy the pictures!

And the music is in honor of Caleb, our own pirate boy.

Friends and family

2007-06-02T21:26:00.001-07:00

We've enjoyed more visits with friends and family. This is the year when everyone is visiting us, and it's such a huge blessing for us. Last weekend Luke's sister Hannah and her husband Steve were on a cross-country driving vacation and they stopped with us for a few days. We took them to Avila beach one day. It was 55 degrees there when we arrived - and only about 58 when we left. Such is the nature of CA beaches. But of course our kids went swimming. Caleb loved the frigid water. Emma ate lots of sand and crawled around chasing birds. Oh - and Elizabeth lost her first tooth last Saturday! She is growing up...

Today my friend Kerry (from middle school, high school, etc.)and her husband and kids came to see us for just a little while. They live near San Jose now, so we've been able to see them a couple times a year, but they are moving to Washington, D.C. in the fall! We will miss seeing them so often. sigh...

Our kids love to have visitors and count the minutes until more arrive. I think now it is our turn to be the visitors - only 4 weeks until our big trip.

Recent fun kid quote:
Caleb: God is in Pennsylvania. We better go there.
Mommy: God is everywhere, Caleb.
Elizabeth (very thoughtfully): Except Canada.

Sorry to any Canadians out there!!! We know He's there too!!

A Skelly family visit

2007-05-20T20:35:00.001-07:00

This weekend we enjoyed a fun little visit with the Skelly family! Andrew and I went to high school together and he also went to PSU with Luke and me, where he and Luke became better friends. Now he lives with his wife Jocelyn in Orange County, so we see them.....hmm, about every 3 years?! They have 3 kids about the ages of ours but opposite gender. They enjoyed playing together!

Also, on Saturday, Caleb had his last t-ball game and got this bobble head trophy. He loves it and has been sleeping with it at naps and bedtime.

Okay, I don't know what happened to the slide show. If y0u click on "view all images", you should see it. Sorry.

another day trip

2007-05-11T20:31:00.000-07:00

Today Luke had a day off that was actually a day off, so we decided to escape the ringing phones and go to the mountains. This time we opted for Kings Canyon National Park, which is a little closer than Yosemite. We lunched on grilled hot dogs near the giant sequoias and were inundated with a tour bus full of French tourists whose picnic lunch included bottles of champagne! They were very nice and shared some yummy chocolate cake with us. We wanted to ask them what "cherchez l'intrus" means. In some hand-me-downs for Emma there was a little outfit that says that. Luke thinks that literally it means "watch out for the intruder", but there must be something more to it since it's on a cute baby outfit. Does anyone know?

After lunch and a walk through the sequoia grove we drove to Hume Lake where the kids and Luke splashed in the frigid water. Frigid because it's melted snow from the tops of the mountains. And Emma munched on cheerios - and attempted to munch on the pebbly sand.

Later we drove home and stopped at Taco Bell for dinner. Elizabeth showed me that on the drive home she discovered she has her first loose tooth! I was skeptical because a week or so ago she thought one was loose, but it wasn't. This one, however, is very loose. So of course she tried to eat her taco on the SIDE of her mouth. Very messy. She is growing up!!!

Ladybugs

2007-05-03T23:09:00.000-07:00

Here's Elizabeth ready for her ladybug dress rehearsal. After I pasted her hair into a bun and put her lipstick on, she looked in the bathroom mirror and said, "I don't look like Elizabeth anymore!" She looked like a little ballerina! I stayed and watched the entire dress rehearsal, which was very fun. The ballet is Snow White and it's so cute. Her class did a very much 5-year-old type of job. Too bad we can't videotape it!

Hello summer?

2007-04-27T21:17:00.000-07:00

So how did we miss the 70's and 80's again?? Okay, we had a week in the 80's back in mid-March, then it was in the 50's and 60's for the last few weeks and now today - 95!!!! What is up with that? I forget how we have practically no spring. Just summer! So - out came the pool and swimsuits and sunscreen today. Emma took her first dip in the pool and you can see by her face that she LOVED it. As soon as she got in, Caleb dumped water on her head, but she grinned anyway. The older kids like to jump off of a stepstool into the pool.

Poor Emma had to go for a blood test this week. At her 9-month appointment her iron levels were low, so I had to take her to get real blood drawn. Elizabeth was so traumatized, she stood in the corner of the room facing the corner with her hands over her eyes. Emma didn't seem to mind much at all.

Elizabeth has been having lots of Garden Ballet rehearsals. Tomorrow is their first rehearsal at the theater. Then Thursday will be dress rehearsal. How will I get her very short hair into a bun? That will be my challenge this week. Lots of hairspray and bobby pins, I am thinking. Here is a recent quote from Elizabeth: "Some words are hard for me to say, Mommy. Like 'diminutive'. That means small." She has a large and ever-growing vocabulary.

Caleb's new phrase is, "I strong like Samson." Sometimes he says that Daddy is "Strong like Samson". He is very interested in how big God is and where He can fit. "Can God fit in our swimming pool? Can He fit in Pennsylvania? How about in THIS country? [Meaning California]"

Okay I'm off. Since it's summer and all, I have to water the lawn.....

very happy feet

2007-04-11T15:31:00.000-07:00

Those are my happy feet! Last year for my birthday (almost an entire year ago!) Luke bought me a gift card to a spa to have a pedicure, since at that time I was very pregnant - and it's hard to paint your toenails when you've got a big belly! But I put off scheduling it, so....I finally went today! It was only my second pedicure ever, and it just is so luxurious! Such an un-necessary thing, but I'm thankful to my wonderful husband for a fun, pampering gift.

Our Easter was pretty quiet. Church and ham. Talking on the phone to our long-distance relatives. It was a nice day overall. Today I'm making some amazing split pea soup with the leftover ham. Well anyway it's amazing when my friend Kim makes it. We'll see if mine can come close! It's a rainy and cool day, so it's great for soup.

Anyone out there have any expertise on running a thrift store? The great people who manage ours are leaving town on us =), so we're gathering ideas, information, etc.

Happy spring and happy feet to you too!!

Family

2007-04-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

Last week Luke's sister Lydia and her husband Jeremy visited us from Wooster, OH. We were so happy that they chose to spend her spring break with us. Most of the week we enjoyed gorgeous weather and on Thursday we had a beautiful day at Yosemite. It's the perfect time of year for the waterfalls. I even caught a rainbow in this picture of Bridalveil Fall. It is so beautiful in Yosemite, I never tire of visiting there! We also enjoyed many late-evening games with them. We're looking forward to seeing everyone in July. Actually, Elizabeth is already anxious for Aunt Kate and Uncle Josh to visit us at the beach house - in October. She asked why they can't just come now! But it's another visit to look forward to.

springtime!!!

2007-04-02T10:32:00.000-07:00

Caleb had his first t-ball game on Saturday. They have a 3-year-old division, and the parents have to be on the field with their children, so I thought it was pretty chaotic. I have to admit, sometimes I have a hard time entering into the parent craziness. (Jumping onto the field to film them, crowding around yelling, etc.) But I also noticed that many of the participants are the oldest children, so.... Caleb has wanted his own activity for awhile. Elizabeth has lots, so we are giving him the chance to play t-ball. He did pretty well after some initial shyness. I was surprised at how aggressive he was at fielding the ball. He was on the ground a couple of times! And he's very excited that his team's color is blue!

Elizabeth has begun rehearsals for the garden ballet on most Saturdays into May, so she is not playing t-ball this year. It is very cute. She's also started going to Awana. A church near us started it, so we don't have to drive her very far. She is almost obsessive about it. Last week she was very proud because she memorized all the verses, etc. to get her vest and handbook. Then she read the entire handbook and is memorizing as much as possible to get the next patches or whatever.

Emma is scooting around on her belly fairly quickly. Sometimes she actually crawls, but she's still getting that part down. lately she's been exercising her voice a lot - by screaming. We don't enjoy that a whole lot! She also says "Mama" and "Dada" a lot. She usually says "Dada" when she's happy and "Mama" when she wants something! She loves to eat whatever food we give her.

Fun times. We're still working on our summer trip schedule. Although we were hugely blessed to receive funds which more than cover the rental of a minivan for us. God is good! And the people He works through too!

You are my sunshine....

2007-03-14T15:36:00.001-07:00

We've been enjoying some unseasonal (for us) warm temps in the 80's, so we've been having some fun outside everyday. Today I took some pictures. Emma was looking so cute! You can see her two bottom teeth (just the beginnings of them) in the one picture. She's wearing an outfit that Elizabeth briefly wore. What a beautiful day!

Ridin' bikes at the park

2007-03-09T21:12:00.001-08:00

We've had a string of beautiful days above 70 degrees! Today was Luke's day off so we went up to Woodward Park and took the kids' little bikes for them to ride. Elizabeth did great. Caleb was kind of tired to start, I think, and Luke ended up carrying his little bike a lot of the way. Spring is definitely here. Lots of flowering trees and my allergies are in full bloom as well. Yikes! Instead of suffering for weeks first, I decided to head to the doctor early this year and get my prescription, so hopefully in a few days I'll start feeling better. When they hit, they hit hard!

I'm about to buy plane tickets for a 3-week trip to PA this summer. I'll let everyone know the exact dates after I've bought them. We're still debating between 2 different ones. I'm already excited about it and it's at least 3 months away! But we have lots of planning to do - visiting supporting churches and friends and family. Still - I'm very excited! Yay!

A new 'do

2007-03-09T20:59:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Elizabeth, our big five-year-old, cut her hair. On both sides, some higher than her ear. So....I took her to have it cut. Not liking the mullet look myself, I insisted that they cut it all short, so it's chin-length with layers higher. And a chunk or two still higher, but we didn't want to go THAT short. I think it actually turned out reallycute. She misses her long hair though. A friend said it matches her personality - kind of spunky. Hopefully she won't do it again!

Visit from Aunt K

2007-02-24T21:58:00.001-08:00

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

2007-02-17T22:51:00.000-08:00

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

2007-02-14T21:12:00.000-08:00

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

2007-02-05T23:09:00.000-08:00

<---"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.

How do ya like it?

2007-01-31T22:48:00.000-08:00

I decided our blog needed some updated changes. So how do you like it? Let me know... I have to admit I do get ideas from friends' blogs....

Yawn. It's bedtime!

Caleb and Ch

2007-01-26T23:11:00.000-08:00

It's super-late and the last thing I should be doing is blogging, but....here I sit! Luke would say I'm not so smart - but he's asleep! Plus I'm feeling lousy, but like I said,....

I just wanted to share some silly Caleb stuff. He's been playing with this little dolly lately that Elizabeth got when she was a baby, but she's never been a doll type of girl - she likes animals more. So - he's been playing with it and one day I asked him, "what's your baby's name?" And he said, "Ch". I said, "What?" because sometimes he stutters a little bit, but he repeated, "Ch". So. Baby Ch was born. Now he plays with and talks about Ch all the time. And don't add any vowels when you pronounce it. It's not Cha or Chi or Che or anything like that, or he'll correct you - it's just Ch. Is it weird that he plays with a baby? I think it's because of Emma. He wants a baby too.

He had his well-child check and he's grown! Yahoo!!! In his weight he went from 25th percentile a year ago to the 45th percentile this year. And in height he went from the 50th to the 70th. Maybe he's not destined to always be shorter than his 90th percentile sister....

I watched the show tonight on abc about Camden, NJ and the kids there. Wow. I was thankful for our calling to the city and just reminded of why we're here. It was a pretty real and good depiction of the kinds of things we see all the time. And the call for people to come help is great! People investing in the lives of the kids and adults by mentoring them is so what is needed!

Okay I'm going to exercise some wisdom and go to bed!!

the things we're doing

2007-01-23T14:34:00.000-08:00

January....It's been busy for us so far. Okay, maybe not as CRAZY as December, but pretty full of activity nonetheless. Emma is 6 months old now and had her dr. appointment yesterday. She's still in the 50th percentile for height and weight but her little head is only in the 25th! It's always been small....the doctor is not worried though. She had her shots, including her first flu shot. Elizabeth did not think Emma should have shots and wanted us to slip out quickly before the nurse came back to administer them! But we stayed.

Emma and Caleb have yucky colds. Lots of runny noses. But at least Emma is on the upswing now. Caleb goes to the doctor Thursday for his 3-year well child check, so we'll see what they say then. Going to the doctor takes up a lot of time....

Today Elizabeth and I went on a field trip to the planetarium with Tower Christian. I thought it was fun, I'm not sure she enjoyed it all that much. She's a little young for it, I guess. SHe enjoyed running around outside with some girls beforehand.

In his picture Caleb is saying, "You ALWAYS want to take our pictures." That's his new thing, "You ALWAYS...." in his pouty voice and face. He still is a fierce pirate most of the time. Emma is enjoying her $3 thrift store exersaucer. We got it for Caleb. It's missing a few toys, but it's done very well for them. She's laughing in her picture, by the way, not crying. She's always so happy! I love babies...

Happy Birthday to Caleb!!

2007-01-16T20:51:00.001-08:00

Caleb celebrated his third birthday today. Actually he had a little party yesterday, since it was a holiday. He had some boys over in the morning to play, then they had McDonald's cheeseburgers for lunch because Caleb loves them (forget homemade or other fast-food burgers, only McD's). After that we had some other people over to share in the cake and singing fun. Yep, I made a fire truck cake. It was actually very fun because I gave myself lots of time to do it. I totally copied it from one I found online - lest you think I am that creative.

Of all his presents, I think his favorite was a cheap thing I picked up at Target - a pirate outfit. He LOVES pirates and loves to say "Aargh Matey". That's really what he was saying when I took that picture. He's been wearing the outfit around all day long. He wanted the sword in bed with him but I said no to that request!!

Emma's new trick is sitting up. From this picture you can tell she has a yucky cold. Last night she developed a cough, which I don't like because it scares me sometimes. We did not get much sleep last night! Despite her miserable-ness, she is still a very happy baby. She's the quietest one of all the kids! Sigh.....

Christmas and SNOW for us!!

2006-12-28T20:55:00.001-08:00

Christmas day was pretty laid back for us. We opened up presents in the morning and the kids had a ball, as you can see. Later that day some friends came over for a very low-key soup and appetizer dinner. I always miss our family a lot around Christmas, so in some ways that was hard for me.

Two days after Christmas we went to the mountains to see some Christmas snow!!! The day we drove up it was perfect. It was raining when we left Fresno, so it changed to snow when we got high enough. As soon as we got to the snow I said, "It's Christmas!" I love to be there while it's snowing. The kids just loved it too. Elizabeth just kept throwing herself down in the snow to make snow angels. That night we stayed at a hotel with an indoor pool near the mountains. Then today we went up into Yosemite. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the snow was beautiful. The kids love to run and play wherever we are. I am thankful for snow at Christmas, even if it's not at our house!!

The Chaffee Zoo

2006-12-21T21:22:00.001-08:00

On a nice day in December, when W.I. has suddenly changed their vacation policy to a "use it or lose it" just before the end of the year, what to do? Go to the zoo!! Now, our kids get to go to the zoo ALL the time, and it's not that big of a zoo. But they still LOVE it! Usually Luke takes them and it's an "adventure". They love to go on adventures with Daddy. Often on Luke's day off Caleb will be yelling "bencher, bencher" which is his version of the word. So we all headed to the zoo yesterday after my usual Wednesday morning "coffee with the ladies" which is what Elizabeth calls Women's Covenant - the time when our staff ladies have coffee at a coffee shop every week and just talk, encourage, share advice, vent, etc. It was a fun time. Coffee and the zoo.

stolen cars and such...

2006-12-20T19:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning a nice truck showed up in the car port of our neighbors' house across the street. No big deal except that they moved out a couple months ago and no one has lived there since. Later in the morning some guys walked across our yard and then went over and took out the battery and some other parts of the truck and walked down the street with them.

"Huh", I thought, "I bet that truck's stolen." Wanting to be a good citizen, I called the non-emergency police line to report it. I could not believe the run-around I got and I eventually hung up without reporting it as I was on hold for yet another department.

Earlier today the daughter of the home's owner came by and wrote down the license number and called it in. Wouldn't you know it. Right now a cop was looking at the car and a tow truck just showed up to tow it away.

So much for trying to help out.

Christmas fun!!

2006-12-14T15:22:00.000-08:00

One of our traditions is to walk down Christmas Tree Lane every year. It's a 2-mile stretch of road through a neighborhood of OLD houses, mostly very large, with huge tall pine trees along the road, and there are lights strung in the trees all the way to the top all the way up and down the road. Plus the houses are all very elaborately decorated. THe last house at the end is insanely decorated, and this year they added 3 fake snow machines!! They close the road to traffic 2 nights each December for a walk-through, and it's packed. It's very fun. We walked all the way from start to finish and back, and the kids did great!

Some more fun pics

2006-12-08T15:36:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! I figured out how to put slide shows on here, so now you can see lots of pictures! Yay!!!! Hope you enjoy it! If you click on the + sign, the pics will move faster, and if you roll over them, the titles will show.

Operation Nineveh

2006-12-07T22:07:00.000-08:00

Hey! Check out this website. If you know of any college students who are interested, it would be an awesome opportunity. Hint: Click on East Side or West Side and then play the video, it's cooler than the website.

http://www.worldimpact.org/nineveh

Cuttin' Down the Tree

2006-12-03T21:27:00.000-08:00

Once again we headed out to cut down our tree at Cobb's Ranch. Here are Luke and the kids standing by our tree. Caleb picked this tiny, 2-foot tree that reminded him of the Charlie Brown tree, and that's the one he wanted. Sorry, Caleb.

So this was decorating weekend. It is done! I even put together some things I'd bought previous years and made a wreath. And today I made whoopie pies (or gobs). Yummy, not so healthy. We're going to share them with the staff tomorrow when they come over for our weekly staff fellowship.

Last week we had several nights with temps in the 20's here, which is cold for us, and the citrus growers were worried. I think they came through it okay. They run warm water through the groves when it's cold like that and use fans to draw the warmth up to the tops of the trees. Interesting...

Tomorrow starts about 2 weeks of busy-ness. In some ways I'm looking forward to it, in others I'm not. In the midst of it all I really should send our Christmas cards. And presents. Yikes! But after the 16th things will slow down till Christmas, which will be nice. Fun days...

Holidays....

2006-11-28T13:58:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I blogged, so here are some pictures of the kids from today. Elizabeth and Caleb are with their "100 babies" as she said. Hmmm, does it really look like they need MORE toys for Christmas? They love to play in our huge play room. Lately Elizabeth has really been into building club houses and Caleb plays with his Geo Trax a lot. They are a hand-me-down toy from some friends whose boys were too old for them, and Caleb has loved them.

Emma is getting bigger - and her hair is getting longer and still not laying down on her head! She loves to grab things and put them in her mouth. We've been playing around with the rice cereal, one of these days it will become part of her routine.

Thanksgiving was a fun day. We had 17 people at our house - not counting babies. With babies I think it was 19 or so. It was hectic but fun. The next day we had some staff over for a game night which turned out to be a little hectic as well. Some of the kids are getting older and want to play games too which the adults hadn't counted on, so.... We've decided we need to re-think our game nights a little bit.

Not much Christmas stuff yet. I think we'll get our tree on Friday and decorate over the weekend. I did make some fudge. Mmmm.....

Cutie kids

2006-11-01T16:09:00.000-08:00

The Raughley kids

Harvest fun times

2006-11-01T15:59:00.000-08:00

So now it's November and time for Christmas? No!!! Not yet! Not until we get to be thankful first, right? But I'm trying to go into Christmas mode and think of present ideas at least. We'll see how well I do when Thanksgiving rolls around....

Anyhow, we did go to a harvest party on Halloween. I let the kids choose their costumes and I was rushed and non-creative. So Caleb is Spiderman and Elizabeth is a princess. They got to run around and play some games and eat some candy.

I'm still adjusting to darkness in the late afternoon. The kids have all adjusted to the time change I think and are sleeping till 7 again. Our great sleeper, little Emma, sleeps until 7:30 or even closer to 8:00 sometimes! She goes to sleep around 10 P.M. so it's going well on the sleeping end for her. She's great all around. Speaking of Emma, it's about time to feed her, so.....

Chirpy's Adventures

2006-10-28T22:11:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth's pet chicken Chirpy has lots of adventures, goes to lots of parties, and always has advice. Here's the latest:

Yesterday Luke picked up Emma and took her out of the room because she was crying.

Elizabeth: Well, Emma's off to Chicago.

Me: Chicago, huh?

Elizabeth: Yeah, Emma's going to see Chirpy's Auntie. Chirpy called her on her cell phone and she didn't pick up so she sent Emma to check on her. And did you remember, Mom, that Chirpy has a pink computer?

Me; A pink computer? No, I didn't remember.

Elizabeth: Yes, and she plays toon town on it.

Later...

Elizabeth: Emma took Max (Elizabeth's stuffed doggy) to Chicago with her, but she lost him because he chewed through his leash. Emma sent me a postcard.

She makes all this stuff up on a dime. It's hilarious.

Pennsylvania Guests

2006-10-24T13:36:00.000-07:00

Last week/weekend we enjoyed a visit from my Nana, Aunt Sue and Aunt Nadine. We love it when people visit us! Here is a picture of everyone on our little excursion to Yosemite National Park. It is so beautiful there...

Anyhow, we just enjoyed being together and I think they all enjoyed the kids. Caleb put on a good show of chasing chickens for them and I think they all even held a chicken! Elizabeth talked their ears off, of course. And Emma just smiled at them - and cried sometimes too! So, yay! They have returned to the coldness of PA now and we are having nice days in the 80's.

Back to life. I am actually enjoying our warm fall this year. At least it's not in the 100's anymore! Today we stopped at a grocery store and the parking lot was full of trees with bright red fall leaves, which was nice.

Okay, I'm off. Emma's screaming!

the Big Fresno Fair

2006-10-14T21:36:00.000-07:00

This week we had 2 fun field trips with Tower Christian School. Tuesday we went to the Big Fresno Fair. That's what it's called, really. I have never been there before, but it IS huge. Luke reminded me that we do live in the #1 agricultural producing county in the U.S. The Livestock pavilion had pens and pens reaching as far as the eye could see. And since the fair lasts 11 days, the kinds of animals in the pen changes every few days. When we were there we saw lots of swine. And black angus cows and goats. There were even some baby lambs that had just been born less than 2 hours before we came! And they judge every possible type of produce and plant you can imagine! Plus there's a rock and mineral exhibit, other exhibits, tons and tons of yummy unhealthy food and a huge midway with rides and games (which we pretty much avoided). Elizabeth had her first funnel cake. I think they are a PA thing. But they had them at the fair and they are SOOO good! Caleb's favorite thing was the pirate ship play area they had. When we left the fair he was crying, "I want my pirate ship!!"

Then Friday we went to the pumpkin patch. It was very fall-ish and festive. The kids listened to a little story then we went on a little walk in the woods. They also got to take a very brief hay ride, then we ate our picnic lunches and the kids got to pick out pumpkins. It was fun and just about the right length for youngsters.

So -- fun days!!

Another birthday...

2006-10-08T20:36:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth is turning 5 already! I can hardly believe it! Her birthday is actually tomorrow, but we had a little party for her tonight. She did such a great job being thankful and polite. Last year at her party she had a meltdown over sharing her new presents with her friends. We had lots of talks about it this year and she did so well. Caleb is wanting to play with her toys a lot though and she's not dealing with that as well. Tomorrow her present from us is a trip to the Build-a-Bear Workshop. She's looking forward to that.

I'm looking forward to a little breather from busy-ness, but it won't last long. We have 2 field trips this week and then Luke's boss from L.A. will be here for a few days and then a visit from my Nana and 2 of my aunts and I know there's something after that too! Most is fun stuff, but still busy!!

Luke just spoke with a friend who was on staff with us in Chester and found out that a young man who Luke and I used to meet with (we met with him and his girlfriend) just got life in prison for shooting and killing another man. Yikes. It's discouraging to hear stuff like that. There are encouraging stories too though. There have to be to keep us going!!!

Yay for fall!

2006-09-25T16:30:00.000-07:00

I guess it's fall anyway. I put out my few fall decorations, but now it's hot here again. Oh, well, soon anyway!

We had a good but busy weekend. Friday was our first park day with Tower Christian School - the homeschool group. They have one each month and they do P.E. for awhile, then have a meeting and eat lunch and sometimes have a guest speaker or something. It was fun, Elizabeth enjoys anytime she gets to play with other kids, and Caleb enjoyed it too! Saturday she had another soccer game and then Saturday night we had our date night courtesy of our babysitting co-op. We had a yummy dinner out and then got free coffee at a new coffee place called Dutch Bros. They were having a grand opening and giving away any drink for free all day Saturday so I had a yummy iced mocha (decaf of course, for Emma's sake!). I, too, love Starbucks. This coffee was very good too, but it's not close to the places I usually go.

We were excited this weekend because both the Penn State and the Steelers games were on here, which almost never happens. Sadly, they both LOST! What is up with that?

Today, back to the week. Elizabeth did great with school. I was running around cleaning up to have our staff here at lunchtime and she did all of her phonics lesson herself! Without complaining! I am thankful for small blessings like that!

Soccer and other fun things...

2006-09-18T15:35:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth had her first soccer game on Saturday. It's at the same church where she played tee ball. It's great because it's so non-competitive and there are no practices during the week - just a little bit before each game. Anyway, it was fun to watch and it was a great, cool day (that means 70's for us). She's also taking ballet class again. They're doing Snow White this semester, so for the last 15 minutes or so of each class they dress up and dance like some characters from Snow White. Last week they were diamonds because the dwarves work in the diamond mines. They had very fun sparkly silver sequined outfits and then Miss Marcia turned out the light and shined a spotlight on them so they were super-sparkly. It was fun and of course the girls loved it!

Caleb loves the Steelers. Hmmm, I wonder why? And he loves trucks and dinosaurs. He has a bit of a cold and is runny nosed right now, but other than that he's fine. He loves to play outside and dig in the dirt when we let him.

Emma's fine. She's so amazingly cute. When she's eating we've started this routine that part way through she "sits" on my lap and looks at me and she just smiles and smiles and coos at me. It's so fun! When I look at her I think, "Oh, I could have another one". Help! I need someone to talk some sense into me.

I'm doing okay. Enjoying some cool weather - at least the nights and mornings anyway. It's crazy how these hot, dry months get to me. I'm so thankful and relieved for the coolness. And next month maybe it will even rain! Last week we had a disconcerting day when I looked outside in the afternoon and our street was blocked off at the corner where our house is - by police cars. Noticing the large group of people standing and staring, I went outside and looked and 2 houses down there were 6 or more police cars and many cops with guns drawn and pointed at the house. I went back inside with my kids! By the time Luke got home from work the cops had started leaving and he went out and talked to the guy who lives in that house. Turns out there was a shooting nearby and they had implicated him, so he let the cops search his house, and they didn't find anything. Still a little crazy. But good to live in the neighborhood where we are and LUke could go out and talk to him and be a neighbor.

Enjoy your almost-fall days wherever you are!

Emma

2006-08-31T17:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of Emma today with her eyes wide open! They are still very blue. She's a cutie....

Last night some friends here had a shower for us and Emma. It was a couples shower, the first I'd been to, and it was definitely different having men there! But fun - they added some laughter for sure! And yummy food too....

Sleeping beauties

2006-08-28T20:37:00.000-07:00

Well here's a picture of Elizabeth and Emma, our two little girls, on my bed. I went to try and take a better picture of Emma to post, but realized that Caleb got ahold of our camera yesterday and must have turned it on, so.... dead batteries. That's Caleb. He is very possessive of Emma and whenever anyone outside our immediate family is holding her, he says, "That's not your Emma. That's MY Emma."

Emma's doing well I think. She started skipping her 1 am feeding about a week ago so now we get to sleep from about 1o:30 till about 4:00 am. What a great improvement! I think she'd sleep past 4, but we're not letting her try that yet. Maybe another week or so. She still has very light blue eyes and is awake and alert more and more. She loves the ceiling fan and our huge living room window. She smiles at them often!

Elizabeth started school last week. Homeschool, that is. So far so good. She loves it and asks to do school first thing every morning. She'll be an easy one to homeschool. Caleb, who knows? But for now it's going well. She's doing better and better at writing her name, and she very much enjoys her math. It's hard squeezing it in between feedings sometimes, but we have an okay routine for now.

Today we met our new neighbors across the street. They're white, which is weird for this neighborhood. They have a granddaughter who is 5 living with them temporarily, so she came over and played with Elizabeth for awhile. Elizabeth is beside herself to have a playmate across the street. She could hardly finish her dinner! Girls!!!

More fun

2006-07-25T14:15:00.000-07:00

Things are still going well here. Elizabeth LOVES to hold Emma. Actually, she loves to talk to, read to, and sing to Emma and does that for quite awhile everyday. What a good big sister she's been so far! And Emma seems to be calmed by Elizabeth too.

Caleb is into being Superman. The kids went with Daddy to Burger King while I was in the hospital, and Caleb got these Superman glasses there. He came to the hospital wearing them and Luke and I were laughing so hard, it was hurting my incision. When the kids went to walk the halls with me in the hospital, Caleb still wore them the whole time. Very funny. Anyway, here he is with a "cape" and he likes to "fly" when he's Superman. He has learned that there are times when I can't get to him (when I'm feeding Emma) and then he is very mischievous and disobedient. I have to remind myself that he IS two....

We are having a super-long, hot heatwave here. We have had two days of 113 temperatures and many near or at 110. At night the lows are around 90! I am so thankful for air conditioning, but dread our next electric bill. Actually, I guess the whole state of California is in danger of power outages due to such a prolonged heat wave. I hope that doesn't happen.

So all is well. Mommy and Daddy are TIRED. Emma is still learning about night time sleeping. But she is such a cutie and generally a very good baby. She only really cries when she's hungry and sometimes when she wants to be held.

I enjoy your comments!!!

Emma Grace

2006-07-20T16:42:00.000-07:00

Emma's here!! These are a few pictures of her and our kids in her first couple days. We are home now and enjoying being here. There's more sleep here and better care!! =)

Emma still sleeps a lot but not necessarily at night. Oh, well. For now it's hard to keep her awake, we'll have to work on that next week. Elizabeth and Caleb are pretty happy with their new baby sister. Elizabeth is trying very hard to be helpful. She told us when she first saw Emma at the hospital, "The most important thing babies need is lots and lots of love!" Caleb wants to take Emma to the park and show her the ducks as soon as possible.

I am doing okay. After c-section #3, the pain is under control for now. I'm still on the pain meds, but I can walk normally at least. And I'm tired, but Luke is being very helpful letting me get little naps whenI can. Of course we miss having family around to come visit us and share our joy, but you all can do it from afar!!

4th Fun

2006-07-05T14:37:00.000-07:00

We did venture out to Hanford, CA for fireworks and fun on July 4th. It's a very family-oriented time and they had some live bands playing. One was really good and played Christian rock music - familiar songs. The kids were dancing and jumping, it was really cute. Elizabeth is working really hard on trying to do a head-stand, she's very close. When the fireworks happened she did hold her ears, but Caleb loved it and all morning today just kept saying, "Fireworks. Dark!" The fireworks display was really long and had lots and lots of fireworks the whole time, I was surprised. I think they had more than other years.

We do have some fun stuff coming up in the next couple weeks - pre-baby. We have some college interns for the summer who need a certain number of hours working with W.I. So one morning they're going to take the staff kids to the zoo! Luke and I are going to have a breakfast date! Next week they're going to watch our kids one morning too so some ladies can have a ladies' breakfast and then a long God Date. That sounds so good to me!!! And one morning next week some friends are going to come help me clean my house for one last time before the baby's born. So.... not just sitting around waiting for the baby will be nice. the kids and I all get bored of that pretty fast!

Hot and heavy....

2006-06-30T16:26:00.000-07:00

Hee hee! It's hot outside and I'm getting heavy!!! I personally think my stomach is huge, but at the store today I saw a girl whose baby belly must have been twice as big! Something like 17 days to go now. I'm definitely more and more uncomfortable as this baby gets bigger and "delivery" time gets nearer. Hey, if he/she wants to come early, that's great with me. Anytime now .... I'm past the 36 week mark, so we're good to go. Maybe I should pack a hospital suitcase just in case....

Elizabeth had her last swimming lesson today. She has improved SOOO much in 2 weeks. I've thought of signing her up for the next session too, but the thought of sitting out in that heat again everyday is yucky to me. One of her teachers, Leon, told me today that if I bring her back at the same time next week, he'll give her some lessons for free. She's so close to swimming - she can float on her own and put her head all the way underwater and kick around on the kickboard using her arms at the same time. We'll see....

Tuesday is the Fourth. No big plans here. Maybe we'll barbecue. maybe not. 103 degrees is not so fun for a picnic. We'll probably go again to a little town near us called Hanford where they have a very fun celebration/fireworks in the evening. Elizabeth asked if we could buy 2 snow cones this year instead of one for both kids to share! We'll see...

Happy summer weekend to all of you!!

kids

2006-06-20T14:46:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday our church plant, Home Fellowship Celebration Church, had their monthly celebration time at a park. I opted to stay home since it was 101 that day. But Luke and the kids went. The kids were anxious to try out their new bright greenish fold-up chairs, as you can see. Their friends Toby and Abby liked them too!

Elizabeth has had 2 swimming lessons now. I signed her up at a park in our neighborhood for a couple reasons - because the pool is only a learner pool so it's only 2-4 feet deep - I thought she wouldn't be intimidated by it - and also because I knew there wouldn't be many students in her class! I was right, there's only her and one other girl. So they get lots of individual attention. And I knew it would be an urban experience. I mean, I was okay with the large group of guys smoking pot at the entrance to the park and even with the kids coming up and asking the lifeguards every 2 minutes why they couldn't swim yet. The mom with at least 8 youngsters coming by and cussing like crazy at the lifeguards and our kids because it wasn't time for her kids to swim yet was kinda crrazy. I guess I haven't been out in the neighborhood as much as usual lately!!

And this week Elizabeth is going to VBS every night at a large church in Fresno. Luke has to speak at the VBS every night because they are focusing on World IMpact for their missions emphasis, which means all their donations will go to the W.I. Fresno budget, which is awesome. So she is having a super-fun week. Poor Caleb gets lots of one-on-one time with Daddy and Mommy, but he misses Elizabeth.

Okay, I better rest for a couple minutes before the kids' naptime is over!

Chicks 'n stuff

2006-06-16T21:10:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth got 2 new chicks last week. It's been almost a year since our last chick adventures, so we decided to try it again. They've lived a whole week so far! Actually Caleb isn't as obsessed with them as he was before, so they MIGHT live. She named them shadow and Sunflower. Good names, I thought.

And for those of you who have wondered, there is a picture of me with my big baby belly. I don't love those pictures, so there aren't many of them!!

Today was a busy, fun summer day. Luke took the kids to the zoo for a little bit this morning - before it got too hot - and they had fun seeing lots of animals and seeing the bird show. Then this afternoon we decided to check out a local pool at a high school that is very nice. It has waterslides (which we didnt' go on) and the main pool has a beach-like entry so it's great for little ones like Caleb. It also has fun water attractions like a waterfall mushroom, etc. The kids loved it. Caleb loved jumping into the pool from the side over and over and over..... Elizabeth loved the mushroom. We stayed until almost 6 pm. then we had a yummy and cool dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. So, a busy fun day and now I'm ready for bed!!! BUt it's our watering day and this house does not have automatic sprinklers so I'll be up for awhile turning sprinklers on and off so our yard doesn't die. It won't rain again till October, so we have to be pretty vigilant with the water.

School stuff

2006-06-10T17:31:00.000-07:00

This weekend I got to attend (kinda) a home school conference here in Fresno. I went off and on and attended a couple sessions but mostly looked at curriculum for Elizabeth for next year. And bought some. It was fun. Friday night Luke and I both went and looked and talked a lot about what we saw and liked/didn't like. Then today I went back and bought some stuff. I'm thankful that I didn't spend too much money. Just bought basic stuff like phonics, writing, math. And a couple of 1st grade level books in science and American history because Elizabeth reads so well already. And she's been asking lots of questions about freedom. Anyhow, it was good and I'm excited about what I bought.

I also need to get on the ball registering her with Tower Christian School, which is a private homeschool group here in Fresno. (They have a website: towerchristian.com) That is exciting too. Elizabeth is very excited that she will be having school at home in the fall. She is a great learner.

Caleb is talking SOOO much these days. He also still needs lots of "big hug"s. A very favorite library book of his (which we've probably taken out 4 or 5 times lately) is called HUG. It's about a little monkey going around the jungle seeing all the baby animals hugging their mommies. Then he gets sad until his mommy finds him. And hugs him of course. Caleb loves it.

We're getting busier and busier these days. Then the baby..... Not long now!

Spring flowers

2006-05-30T11:51:00.000-07:00

Here's Elizabeth with some of our beautiful spring flowers. The jasmine smells so pretty, and we can smell it in our living room when the windows are open. Geraniums do wonderfully here, you can see my Martha Washington geranium. And then there's both kids climbing the cherry tree!!

End of May??!!

2006-05-30T09:49:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that tomorrow is the last day of May! Time is flying by these days. Before we know it the baby will be here - yikes! - and I am not ready! I guess I'd better get moving .... sorting through the kids' old newborn clothes, cleaning the car seat and baby bath tub....those things should be done soon I guess! Things here will continue to be busy until a few days before the baby's birth. Summer is just really busy here. Thankfully Luke has cleared his schedule for a couple weeks after the birth so he can help out at home a little more.

Last week Luke and I enjoyed a night away alone together in Monterey. Our 10th anniversary is June 22, and by that stage I will not be able to go anywhere, and also things are so busy we wouldn't be able to anyway. So this was just a little getaway for us. It was great, it's so beautiful in the Monterey area and it was SUNNY while we were there, so we enjoyed a gorgeous sunset over the state beach nearby. And dinner in our favorite seafood restaurant. Very nice.

Well it's off to do laundry and maybe if the kids cooperate I can start to sort through some baby clothes. We'll see....

Pirates

2006-05-17T22:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Elizabeth had her last ballet class of the semester, and the students did a special pirate dance for us parents. You can see her at left yelling " Yo ho ho!" And on the right she is taking her turn showing off the different steps they have learned this year. It was pretty cute. I think we're going to take the summer off from ballet and hopefully pick up with it again in August. She will miss it, but life will be very busy.

I had a great Mother's Day. The kids and Luke brought me pancakes in bed in the morning with some roses cut from my garden. They made lots of great Mother's Day cards for me too. Luke's was so nice. Caleb kept saying it was my birthday! And for dinner we went to my favorite Thai restaurant, which is one of Elizabeth's favorite restaurants too. And I got to have my favorite chicken with green curry. YUMMMM....... She had sticky rice and ate the whole bowl! Caleb ate several helpings of Luke's chicken. That's always an amazing feat - Caleb eating, that is.

The kids have been swimming in their pool every day. It was 99 degrees here today. We're supposed to have a cool-down into the 80's soon, so that will be welcome.

I did schedule the c-section for July 17. So our new baby will be born that day - or sooner if he/she decides to, but given my past history, that is unlikely.

Luke's tired, can you tell??

2006-05-09T21:21:00.000-07:00

Warm weather

2006-05-09T20:53:00.000-07:00

We are starting to have WARM weather in Fresno. That means 90's. To me it's hot, but compared to 105, it's nothing! So the kids swam in their new pool for the first time today. Even Caleb splashed around quite a bit in it. He's not as fond of the water as Elizabeth is. She is going to take swimming lessons this summer.

I went to a women's retreat last weekend in the foothills at a place called St. Anthony Retreat. It's a Catholic retreat center that I've been to a few times before, but I really like it. It's so pretty and peaceful there and they make yummy food too! There were only 7 of us in our group from W.I. and our church plant, but it was still a really good time to be quiet and spend some time with Jesus. And we played Mexican Train Dominoes until very late on Friday night! We were all a little giddy.... to say the least!! Anyway, it was good to get away for a day and a night.

Luke's had some tough director-stuff to do lately. He's done it though, and I'm proud of him. Not that there aren't residual effects that he has to deal with still, but it's all good. In the end anyway. He's tired. Allergies are driving both of us nuts right now.

Well, time for us to gear up for summer. And the baby too. Not sure the exact date he/she will be born yet, but I'm thinking probably around July 17. I see my doctor on Friday and I'm going to ask her if we shouldn't be scheduling that soon??

That's it for now. Ta ta!!

Happy Easter!

2006-04-17T15:06:00.000-07:00

I hope you all had wonderful weekends celebrating the resurrection of the Lord! Ours is different here, of course, and I do admit that Easter is the one time when I do long to go to a church with more of a liturgy and solemnity about the whole occasion. Easter Sunday, of course, is a time of celebration. And our church plant held celebration that day, although we couldn't have it outside due to rain. (It's been raining almost every other day here for the past 2 months....) We had a potluck brunch. The teen band played worship songs accompanied by some adults, and we heard the easter story, and then there was an egg hunt (in the W.I. gym!!) for the kids. Then our family came home and enjoyed some rest and a yummy roast beef dinner.

The day before, on Saturday, Elizabeth and I colored some eggs. Caleb didn't quite grasp the concept and had to go outside with Daddy to prevent the whole kitchen from being dyed. And the kids did get easter baskets with a little candy and a couple fun toys. So we had a good weekend. We're looking forward to a whole week (at least till Saturday) with no rain in the forecast. Maybe we can get some yard work done. Hmmm....

The picture of Caleb has him holding a chicken we call Big Mama. Some of the chickens have names ( Big Mama, Chirpy, Speedo and one Elizabeth calls Fly of Death) but some don't because we can't tell them apart!

Disneyland

2006-04-10T10:11:00.000-07:00

We were also blessed to be able to go to Disneyland free for a day through a contact we have with someone who works there. It turned out to be a cold day in Southern California and it rained a couple times, but that just helps cut down on the lines! We all had a great time. Elizabeth even went on Splash Mountain with Luke. We were able to go to Calilfornia Adventure too and on all the Bug's Life rides there. Elizabeth's favorite ride was the new Buzz Lightyear ride and Caleb loved all the rides. When it was almost 10 p.m. he was yelling "more rides, more rides!!" They both made it all day long, but the fireworks were canceled due to high winds so we left, and they both fell asleep in the stroller before we got out the gates! I bought Caleb his first gun - his Buzz Light year AstroBlaster. He runs around the house yelling "Bad guy, bad guy" and shooting whoever the bad guy is. One of my highlights was riding the teacup ride together after dark and making it spin so fast, the kids were both laughing so hard, it was very fun. Another blessing for our family!

Beach vacation

2006-04-10T10:01:00.000-07:00

We returned on Saturday from our week at the World Impact beach house in Oxnard, CA. It's always such a blessing to visit there, a whole big beautiful house to ourselves for a week with the beach just a couple blocks away! What a blessing it is. Although it was cold on the beach, as usual, the kids actually did get wet a couple of times and just enjoyed running and exploring on the beach daily. One day Luke took both of them out in the sea kayak for a very long ride. I was a little nervous about Caleb staying in the boat, but he did fine. I love to just sit on the beach and enjoy the waves and the smell of the ocean and the sunshine. We also got to go to Disneyland - I'll post another entry about that!

T-Ball

2006-04-01T10:37:00.000-08:00

Today Elizabeth had her first T-ball game. We decided it's good for her to have new experiences. She is still very much the ballerina and loves her ballet classes, but she had a great time at her t-ball tame today too. She's playing with a church called People's Church and so all the kids have Pittsburgh Pirates hats, which Luke thinks is really cool. And her friend Aaron is on her team too. Caleb's too young to play, but he wishes he could! He's very much the ball-player, you can see him with his glove he got for his birthday. When Elizabeth went to buy a glove, she chose the pink and purple one. It was quite the thing to see the 4-5 year-olds try to play t-ball, but they did a pretty good job! They all hit the ball and Elizabeth fielded it a couple times and Luke got to help "coach". (He's not the coach, but they need parents' help!!) So it's fun. We're off now for our last pre-baby vacation to the W.I. beach house for a week. Yay!!

Excited kids

2006-03-15T17:13:00.000-08:00

Here are the kids, excited for their "sleepover". Elizabeth is growing out her bangs at her request, so we have to be creative about how to keep them out of her eyes!!!

Beautiful snow

2006-03-15T17:05:00.000-08:00

We just returned from our annual staff retreat - and where do California missionaries go for a retreat? To the snow!! We were blessed to go to Hume Lake Christian Camp again, which is only about an hour away from Fresno in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The one day we were there it SNOWED a lot! About a foot where we were, and when we got up for breakfast today, this is what it looked like. Beautiful! The retreat is so great: staying in a lodge in hotel rooms, eating yummy food that the camp cooks for us, worshiping together, sharing what we are learning, taking long walks (although the snow made that a bit more challenging!), laughing a lot, and ice skating! Oh, did I mention no kids? Elizabeth and Caleb stayed with their friends Toby (2 1/2) and Amanda (9 years) and their family. They were excited to have a sleepover! You can see from the pictures above that they were very eager togo, and they had a great time although they missed us a bit. We're happy to be back in the land of sunshine and no snow, though!

And it's a....

2006-03-07T20:58:00.000-08:00

Today was my 20-week ultrasound and we were hoping to find out the sex of the baby, but wouldn't you know it, it's a modest baby who wouldn't show us very well!! The technician said she's about 70% certain it's a girl because she didn't see any boy parts, but the view wasn't great, so it could have been hiding!!!

I was sad to not be able to know. I have felt like it's a girl and others have guessed that, but I guess that's not enough to say for certain. Guess we'll have green and yellow ready.....

Other than that, we're getting lots of rain here. We've seen multiple rainbows everyday. That's one of Caleb's new words. "Rainbow". And "milkshake".

Hopefully I'll post some pics soon.

Kids and life...

2006-02-13T18:56:00.000-08:00

Life was busy there for a few weeks, but now it should settle down - at least for awhile! We've been enjoying warm temperatures in the 70's here for a couple weeks, but in a day or two it will be back to the 50's. Spring is the best time in Fresno and the most beautiful months - I think - are March and April. It's like summertime is in Erie. Our flowering trees are already flowering, which makes me laugh because they just lost their leaves around Christmas.

Oh! The picture is Elizabeth with her friend Abby dressed as princesses at one of our nights with the babysitting co-op. They are both so girly! It's fun....

Things in our neighborhood have settled down considerably. Some of our other W.I. staff had a shooting on their street last night. At least 2 young guys who we all know were shot and have lived but have extremely serious and possibly still life-threatening injuries. It was a gang thing. It's hard when the children of good people are involved in things like that.

The pregnancy is going well. Now that I'm past the sickness and extreme tiredness, I'm feeling happier in general. I still at times feel scared of having 3 kids, but I think it will work out. Elizabeth and Caleb have been playing nicely together more and more often, and it's so awesome to see.

Well I'm off. One thing - I keep getting colds during this pregnancy! My lowered immune system plus kids bringing in every sickness around has hit me hard, so I have another miserable one right now!

Happy Valentine's Day tomorrow!!!

Lemons!!

2006-01-21T17:41:00.000-08:00

Our lemons are ripe on our lemon tree, and the kids are so excited! So today Luke and the kids picked a dozen lemons and made lemonade. We'll be tasting it at dinner time......
By the way, Luke is super-excited about tomorrow's STEELERS game, and we are not having a party tomorrow so that we can have a big one for the super bowl!!! Yay!!

Caleb is Two!!

2006-01-19T13:53:00.000-08:00

Well Caleb turned 2 on Monday and had a little party with the staff at our house. He especially loved blowing out the candles on his cake, and he did a great job! Now, whenever I mention his birthday, he makes a blowing noise. He got lots of Thomas wooden railway things, so now we play with "choo-choos" almost all the time. Luke also got him a very cute little baseball glove and a wiffle ball. Today was his annual doctor's appointment and he is doing well. In his usual tough-guy fashion he didn't cry at all for his shots - just gave the nurse a look like, "What are you doing to me?" When I told him it was all done, he actually shrugged, as if to say, "That's IT??"

Here's Baby 3!!

2006-01-12T19:24:00.000-08:00

I don't know how well you can see it, but that's little Raughley #3. Hopefully in a couple months we'll find out the gender. Elizabeth is praying for a girl!

Can you believe I took NO pictures on our 2-week trip to PA?! What was I thinking?!!!

Christmas in our neighborhood

2005-12-17T14:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I wished I had a camera next to me as I sat eating lunch with my kids and looking out our window onto the street. Down the street came an obviously drunk man stumbling along, pushing his shopping cart with a santa hat on his head an holding a half-full bottle of wine. It wasn't even in a bag as usual, just out in the open. Anyway, I thought it would make a great "Merry Christmas from the Raughleys" picture. Too bad....

Thursday World Impact held what I like to call our Christmas Flandango. It's a huge Christmas party for the community with tons of craft and ethnic food booths. We try to make it a family-centered event for people to make memories together. Since we haven't done it in a few years due to many reasons, our numbers were down from 600 to about 250-300. But that's okay with us! In addition to food and crafts, we had a petting zoo, health fair, prayer tent, living nativity, and a paintball target-shooting trailer. Since I was on the planning committee, that's been occupying most of my time these days. Needless to say, my Christmas cards and presents are not ready or mailed yet. Hopefully by the beginning of the week....

THat's all for now. I still need to recover.