A bad hair day

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

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

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

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

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

L.A. trip

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

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

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

Hopefully pictures soon....

our weekend

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

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

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

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

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

How do ya like it?

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

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

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!!

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!!

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

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...

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!!

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

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

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

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....

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

The Raughley kids

Harvest fun times

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

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

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

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!!