13 Week Ultrasound

Here is the photo from my 13 week ultrasound. I'm now 17.5 weeks gestation and will find out the gender in just a few short weeks! What do YOU think it is by looking at this picture?? Boy or girl, this kid is mellow because I am not feeling near as many movements or kicks (in fact not really feeling any yet). That is strange to me considering I felt and SAW Marshall's tiny movements at WEEK 13 (seriously, Jake can attest to that!) and he responded to music at 16 weeks gestation by dancing all over the place. Samara kicked me hard at 15 weeks. C'mon baby, I'm ready for you to start tap-tap-tapping!

Happy Harvest!

Last night we spent our evening at the Village Church Harvest Party and the kids had such a great time! There were a lot of carnival games, a bounce house, bouncy slide, rock wall, plenty of treats and goldfish to be won. (We brought home 2 fish and Marshall named one of them "Abraham.") This morning we found that they had gone to heaven overnight so we said a little prayer and sent them "back to the ocean." (flush)

Marshall chose a superman costume this year which he was very proud of, and Samara was a "Tomboy Ballerina." You see, I asked her if she wanted a bun and flowers in her hair and she protested on the grounds that "bees would come" and attack her if she had flowers in her hair. She also refused a tiara, and honestly her personality is a good mix of feminine and tomboy, so this theme was more fitting. She is holding a pink fishing pole in the picture in case you're wondering what it is :-)

Kindergarten Days

Marshall is having a great year at school! This is his school picture and I have to laugh at the bruise in the middle of his forehead! I guess I could photoshop it out, but it's kinda cute. :-)

Marshall is really benefiting from the intensive curriculum. He is tackling general ed. math quite well and seems to enjoy his math homework a lot. The writing is clearly less enjoyable to him (thus the big heaving sighs when we do writing homework) however he has really surprised me. The other day he said "Mommy, I want to write my name!" I said "Ok" and got a paper and a pencil. This is what he came up with, all on his own with no help!! I was floored! I actually did a little dance around the room and Marshall was so proud of himself.


Parent-teacher conferences were this week and Marshall is right on track where all the general ed kids would also be, in fact he is a little bit ahead. His teacher said he is right on the brink of being able to mainstream but not quite yet. Marshall tends to need a high degree of focus on what he is doing so a less stimulating environment and smaller class size is great for him. His school utilizes "Handwriting Without Tears" http://www.hwtears.com/ which I am going to begin with Samara soon. He has even started to do some inventive writing where they allow him to sound out words and spell them phonetically. In one of his projects he got to write a sentence about a book he wanted to share. He wrote "I am going to share...a Bible Book" and drew a Bible with a cross on the front. The teacher showed this to me in our conference and I admit I had to fight back tears! I don't have a copy of it yet but I will post it when I do.

He has made so much progress, it blows me away! God is so good!

Financial Peace University

As some of you know, my husband Jacob is a numbers guy. He works for a mutual fund company so he has a good understanding of all things financial & mathematical. He is also a great "people person" which has served him well in the role of management. One gift he has that I really appreciate however, is his passion for personal financial stewardship and his commitment and desire to help others learn sound biblical principles of money management.


Jake has been doing various workshops, classes, and individual financial counseling for about 5 years now, but just recently began teaching a 13 week course by Dave Ramsey called "Financial Peace University." It is a very comprehensive course that involves homework, in-class discussion and videos. It is a big commitment but those who finish it reap a lot of benefit. This fall marks his second round of classes and it is wonderful to see Jake helping others gain knowledge, get a game plan going to knock out their debt, and sometimes simply to gain hope that they can get out of a very difficult situation. It has been very timely especially in light of the recession. The curriculum itself is extremely motivating, and the videos entertaining! (No, Jake doesn't get compensated for pitching the class, nor is he a salesman of any sort, so just know that I say these things because we are both passionate about the cause). Here is what each week covers, in case you are interested:



1: Saving

2: Relationships and Money

3: Cash Flow Planning

4: Dumping Debt

5: Credit Sharks in Suits

6: Buyer Beware

7: Clause and Effect (Insurance)

8: "That's not good enough!" (Bargains)

9: Of Mice and Mutual Funds (Investment Jargon)

10: From Fruition to Tuition (Retirement and College Savings)

11: Working your strengths

12: Real Estate and Mortgages

13: The Great Misunderstanding (Giving)



For classes in your area check out: http://www.daveramsey.com/



On a family level, I can say that Jake definitely practices what he preaches, and it has been so from day 1 of our marriage! A big adjustment for me, but one I am thankful for.



You see, when we first got married, like most young couples we didn't make very much money! Certainly not enough to save beans but just enough for our apartment. Like any wife the first request I made after the honeymoon was "Let's get some couches!" Oh, I wanted them badly. I had my Grandpa's old yucky 70's couch and no matching furniture, we didn't even have a dining table. When Jake said "We don't have the money" I offered my logical solution - why can't we finance it? His answer left me absolutely distraught at the time. Not only did he say "NO," (with a kind tone) he said "We will NEVER finance any furniture, and if we can help it I would like to avoid a car payment and not EVER use our credit cards." Well, I did the math in my head and realized that meant I probably would not have any furniture or home decor for, oh, about 8 years. I was not happy.



This sparked a series of discussions that has gone on for about 10 years! They were really hard discussions at first, where I needed to hear his heart for our financial future, & what that meant in terms of sacrifices. Where he listened to my heart for a warm and inviting home to raise my children in. Where I needed to understand his desire to retire someday! :-) Also where we would find common ground about issues like debt, the importance of tithing, our desire to give to various ministries someday, and what it was going to take to get there. More hard discussions about changing certain behaviors, or needing to cut up my credit card. At this point it was all trial and error but at least we were open to change. Again, being a numbers guy - and persuasive at that - Jake presented me with some anecdotes and statistics about savings and the power of exponents and I was beginning to change my tune and see that he really did have our best interest at stake.



I recall our very first Christmas when we woke up with great excitement & exchanged Christmas gifts with each other. It was lovely. When we later learned that we both had not paid with cash but with credit, we agreed to take both gifts back and gave each other the gift of less debt. We were very happy with our decision and were beginning to see things in a different light.



The goals, decisions, and change of habits did not come easily or naturally at first. We had successes and also made mistakes. By continuing to discuss and set goals on a regular basis though, we eventually became of one heart and mind on what was required and where we were headed. We both became inspired, and our meager goals became more aggressive, even if there seemed no end in sight. Instead of me bemoaning the new couches I still didn't have, I was thankful for the one I had because it was something to sit on! We were working toward a bigger goal.



One of these goals was to eliminate car payments. At the time, it meant I had to get up at 6 AM to drive him into Portland to catch a bus to his work, ditto for the way home, even when the Oregon freeways were a glut of rain and accidents. We were committed to having one car for however long it took to pay it off. By the time we moved to California (still with our one car) people thought we were a little weird. No cell phones, PDA's, no home computer, nothing. Jake walked to work. We had one car for 5 years. When we finally paid it off, it was such a victory for us! We worked hard and stuck with our plan and we felt like a team. (Oh and by the way, I did finally get the couches I had hoped for -after 5 years of waiting & saving - and now at year 10 still enjoy cuddling with my family on them! Sometimes cleaning vomit off of them as well. Which is another perspective for "stuff" - I try to keep in mind that someday everything will end up at a goodwill or a landfill!)



The same kind of teamwork (and leadership on Jake's part) has pervaded nearly all of our decisions since then, from buying our first home to our yearly budget meetings and our goal-setting. It draws us together as a couple and not apart. We both made sacrifices early on and we are now seeing the long term benefits. We still don't make perfect decisions all the time but have come so far in our learning that the right decision is usually readily clear.





If this is far from what you feel like today then I really encourage you to get counseling or get into a class! If you take the FPU class, right away you will learn that the ultimate goal is to become completely debt-free, starting with non-mortgage debt and then working on mortgage debt. In a society that runs so counter to this, I know it sounds a little crazy. (Cue the cuckoo sound effect) But all it takes is a few statistics like the following and I don't need much more convincing. Here is an anecdote from the FPU class:



The average household has a car payment of $415. If you eliminated that car payment, and instead invested $415 every month into a mutual fund over the course of 40 years (say, from age 30-70), how much do you think you would have at the end of the 40 years?



The answer is 5 million



That calculation is based on one of the oldest (and may I add fairly conservative) mutual funds in the U.S. that has yielded an average of 12.04 % per year even taking into account the later part of the depression and the recent recession!



Last but most importantly, I must say that as a Christian the word "stewardship" holds a very particular meaning. Managing finances is not just about saving more or getting to spend more or accumulating more wealth. While that can be a byproduct of good stewardship it is more about everything belonging to God, and we are managers of it. When we keep ourselves from financial bondage we are able to give freely and tithe to the church. Our stuff doesn't control us, we control it.

_______________________________________________


If you are reading this and have immediate questions for Jake, don't hesitate to ask or call, he loves to help and can answer your questions or direct you to the right resources.

Fall Fun at Oak Glen

This weekend we had fun driving out to Oak Glen to take in some fall activities! We got to press our own apple cider, pick out pumpkins and see the animals at a petting zoo. It was a fun day! The kids only wanted to see the sheep and goats for about 1 second before they were clinging to my legs and crying "all done!" (Last year Samara got tackled by a goat at the petting zoo and she remembers it!) We are almost through the entire gallon of cider after just 3 days! Yummy!

Samara is 3!

We had a quiet birthday celebration for Samara's 3rd this year - her request was a pink cake (of course!) I tried to make white polka dots on it which ended up looking more like a bad case of chickenpox. I was laughing so hard at my creation I was crying! (Should have tried the fondant instead!) I renamed it "The great white pustule cake of 2009." Samara certainly didn't mind, and her birthday balloons said "It's a girl!" on them. They were the ONLY pink ones at the store. I guess she IS a girl, right??

She had a bit of stress over the fact that her candles would not blow out (we won't ever be doing the trick candles with her!!!) thus the photo of her looking quite distressed. We tried to assure her it is actually funny when they don't blow out, but she didn't buy it. Any distress faded away though when she got to open care packages sent by family members. :-)

In a geographic area (So CA) where some people take out small loans and hire event planners to put on their kids' birthday parties, we are trying to go a little bit counter-culture to this. There will be a time for a party, indeed - and hopefully when our beloved family members can join us. But until then, we're just trying to keep in mind that our kids need our love & attention most of all. Happy birthday my sweetie!

Phoenix Trip

Last week we made a quick trip out to Scottsdale, AZ - it was a business trip for Jake but in the past we've had fun joining him on his trips to Phoenix (when we can) so we can enjoy the hotel he stays at and the nearby fountains and parks. The last time we were there was almost 3 years ago after Samara was born, and Marshall spent about 5-6 weeks in Phoenix during his first year! It is always beautiful weather in the winter of course, but in the months of summer (or close to it) it can be VERY hot! This last week it was no exception as it reached the 100's+!

This time around our trip was extra special because Jake's brother's family (Seth, Falon, Josiah, Alethea, & Elias) just moved to Scottsdale! Ironically, they live a half mile from the hotel we stay at and we got to hang out with them and have lots of fun! The cousins had a blast together! We are glad to have family living closer now (even if it still is a 6 hour drive).

Here are some pictures from our week. Falon and I braved a day at the pool and Josiah and Marshall were brave little daredevils and went down a very big waterslide! They were so giddy I couldn't help but laugh at them. Marshall would have gone down 100 times had I let him. I also got to take Samara, Josiah, & Marshall down the lazy river in inner tubes and that was truly hilarious. Josiah was the little botanist pointing out all the plants, Marshall wanted to get really close to the waterfalls, and Samara was a little bit chicken and wanted me really close. Everybody thought they were triplets.

We also hit a fountain and then our last day there we went to the McCormick-Stillman Railroad park. There was a little train, carousel, and park and the kids really enjoyed themselves.

We were sad to say goodbye to our family and cousins but excited to go back soon. I must admit it was a nice respite (especially in light of our recent difficult camping trip). This is sure a different speed that the great outdoors... I'm afraid I could get used to the simplicity of living in one small room, having someone to clean it and launder your towels during the day, not having to worry about food, etc...when I arrived home to my laundry piles it was back to reality!

News!

We are excited to announce that we are expecting our 3rd child in early April! I am currently 11 weeks and feeling pretty well all things considered. (First trimester was rough but I don't vomit so count myself as lucky). I'm starting to get back to normal and happy to be at the end of the nausea/yuckies/other symptoms. I'm sure most of you are wondering how the lupus factors into all of this... the answer to that question is: I am still able to take my meds while I am pregnant because they are totally safe. This is good, because they really help me. I also have to see a high risk OB doctor all during my pregnancy and will have frequent appointments, ultrasounds, and tests. This is in addition to seeing my normal OB and the rheumatologist (phew!) Since I have already had 2 normal pregnancies I am lower risk but they do have to watch for certain antbodies in my system that can pose risks to the baby. Luckily, one of those antibodies is currently negative in my system (it was positive 6 months ago). My body is most vulnerable after I have the baby because my immune system starts getting active again. Luckily this time around we know what we're dealing with and how to treat it.
We will find out the gender in about 6 weeks and are excited to tell the kids if they will have a baby brother or sister. The kids know that "mommy has a baby in her tummy." We're thankful and also prayerful that everything goes well with my pregnancy!

First Day of School

Marshall started Kindergarten at a new school this week. It is a National blue-ribbon elementary school about a mile from our home that has a program for kids with special needs. Marshall's academic curriculum will be the same the the other "K" kids, but he will have more 1:1 assistance and speech therapy during the day. It is much more structured than last year, and just after one day of observing how the school runs (and reading the parent handbook) I can tell why Irvine school district gets high rankings . Of course when I read that there are no birthday parties, period, I said to myself "REALLY?" They are serious about no distractions to learning. That's fine with me though (A change from my own experience growing up where parents brought in sugar bombs once a month for their kids' birthdays) I mainly care that my son learns and feels like he belongs. He goes from 8:15 - 2:10 M-F.
He was so excited he could barely contain himself - couldn't eat breakfast - didn't even really want to hug us goodbye once that bus pulled around the corner! Ha! He headed straight for the back of the bus - Jake said "That's my boy, he must be a troublemaker at heart cause that's where they all sit!!" (Of course the mommy in me is scheming how to convince him to sit in the middle for safety reasons!) Marshall was excited to see a familiar face in his class as well.
I had to include the pic of Samara because it is classic of how her attitude was all day long. Sulking. Jealous. Forlorn. Poor little girl! I asked her to smile for the camera in front of the school library and that's what she gave me to let me know just what she thought of this whole business. She will have her turn, in time...:-)

Cuddles

At the beginning of the summer they were fighting like cats and dogs...


I think they've grown on each other just a bit, don't you?

Camping Trip

This year we made it a goal to go on a family camping trip to somewhere in California - we value the outdoors and want our kids to appreciate simple, quiet things (which is quite a change from So. CA and numbing entertainment our kids experience, aka Disneyland). We also want to make sure that they have an actual knowledge of how to camp and don't grow up with the assumption that all vacations have to be at hotels. Since we spend so much time at the beach we figured the woods would be a good change of pace.

So we decided to try a weekend at a campground near Hume Lake Christian Camp - a beautiful area that had been recommended to us by multiple friends and close to a place where we could go fishing. We knew it was a gamble even going because I was not feeling well, but I simply didn't want to miss the opportunity and so I sucked it up. We had a memorable time, to say the least! The place itself was absolutely gorgeous and we loved the Camp/Conference Center (it is a place I would be interested in sending my kids to camp someday, so it was good to check it out). Our camping experience itself was very difficult for many reasons, mostly beyond our control:

The Not-So-Good:

- An in-ground bees nest near our site and a girl who wouldn't keep her shoes on

- A campsite that was situated on a hill, hard to find level ground for the tent and heavy sweating when we set-up and tore down (mostly poor Jake!)

- I wrongly assumed there were public showers

- First night was FREEZING even though we were well-prepared with good bags and non-cotton layers. ("In the cold, cotton kills!")

- Marshall threw up the 2nd day

- Our site was smack dab next to a road - not good/safe for little kids and not very relaxing for mom and dad

- The first night our neighbors started arguing at 3:30 for a half hour loudly, woke us all up.

- The second night our other neighbors' teenager started belching and partying from 4 am to 6 am. The entire campground was livid and they were getting yelled at and threatened by other angry campers. They left the next day. So did we! After 2 nights of virtually no sleep we were done. Bye bye, camping! When we try you again it will be in an trailer, RV or lodge, at least until our kids are old enough to respect the fire, not step on bees nests, and know better than to walk around the campsite stark naked announcing their bowel movements to the whole campground! Oy, Vey!!

On a nicer note, we did very much enjoy...

Boating on Hume Lake and catching 10 little fish, Laughing at mommy getting "slapped" in the head by a wiggling fish, Smores by the fire, seeing the General Grant Tree and the giant sequoias, the stars, hearing worship songs echoing in the canyon, and Jake's super-special-steaming hot Nalgene he would put in my sleeping bag for me every night...a trick he learned in his survival class...mmmm, it was heaven!

(If you boil water and put it in a Nalgene and screw the lid on VERY tight, put it in your sleeping bag and it will stay warm for HOURS!! It is like a heating pad without the electricity)

All in all, I'm still glad we made the memory!

Marshall inside a fallen giant sequoia

Cool Root system

The General Grant Tree

Marshall's 5th Birthday

I'm doing a bit of catch-up here! Marshall turned five 3 weeks ago and the theme for his birthday was "simple." (LOL!) When I asked him what kind of cake he wanted (I was expecting a request for a dinosaur or something) he just said he wanted a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting. I must say I was relieved since I have not been feeling well lately. So I added a Mickey candle to the top and called it good! We celebrated at home the night before and Jake took the kids to Disneyland on Marshall's actual birthday, where he got his birthday button and gift card! Here are some pics...

Surfer Girl

Samara attached the velcro band to her ankle just like she has seen all the surfers do and put on the life vest - she honestly thought she was going surfing!



Then she saw how big the waves were, and had second thoughts :-)

Just Me & My Dad

This weekend Jake and Marshall enjoyed a father-son fishing trip to the Bishop area (Rock Creek campground, East Fork river). They had a great time and Marshall caught the only fish of the whole trip! (Apparently the fish weren't biting too well.) They also did some exploring, roasted some marshmallows and read Mercer Mayer's "Just Me and My Dad" every night before turning in to their sleeping bags. They arrived home today dirty, smelly, and happy! I'm so glad they could make that memory together.

While I love the outdoors, I think someday when it's my turn to do a mommy-daughter trip with Samara it will be to beachcomb for shells or go see the Nutcracker. :-)

Bolsa Chica

I actually conquered a day at the beach with the kids by myself! (It is difficult because they like to explore in different directions). Here are pics from our fun day! We brought a lot of sand home with us as you could probably guess. :-)

Samara waiting in anticipation of the next wave...

The windblown one

& the sandy one

Village Hut

I love seeing ideas come to fruition which is why today is an exciting day! A few years ago I walked into our church's entry area where the kids are checked in, looked at the space and suddenly thought to myself "That would make a great village hut!" But since our ministry's theme had nothing to do with that I just filed the idea away for later. 3 months ago, our Children's Pastor Andy changed the name to "Kids' Village" and I got very excited - I approached him with a drawing and asked if he would be interested in a Village Hut for our kids welcome kiosk. He was all for it, and now a few months later it is a reality! God provided the right person to build it for free according to my sketch (Yay for Jim Ford at SJF construction!!), bamboo at a great price, and bam - it's done! I am so excited to see the kids' faces this Sunday and hope and pray that this is a very welcoming and joyful place for each family that walks through the door.

There are still some finishing touches left (like paint on the walls, logo, and bulletin boards, etc.) but it still looks very cool!

An empty space:

The idea:

The construction:

Finished product!

Ready to check in all of the precious kids at Village Church of Irvine! (The bamboo guy threw in some free pencil holders!)

The "Dirty Trail" Less Traveled

It was a glorious bike indeed... Yellow, HUGE handlebars, a banana-seat and a horn. For lots of honking. No helmet. That was before the days of helmets.

It took me on many adventures: To the Cutsforth's Thriftway, to the local Dairy Queen for a "Mister Misty," to Champoeg Park in Butteville (NOT BUTT-ville folks, BUTTE-ville, look it up), riding around town with my dad and out by the Dahlia farm I grew up next to. Champoeg was my favorite biking experience because it was like riding through "ferngully" with lots of hills and dips. Truly amazing for a kid with a big imagination. I thought I had conquered the world when my dad told me I rode 5 miles! Whoa!

As I grew up, riding my bike became a time just to get away and think, and a mode of transportation before I got my license. I eventually discovered the trails of Sunriver, and even did the Paulina Plunge with Jake when we were first married. Tame, really...I have never been a serious biker and probably never will be. (Unlike my mother-in-law who just completed a bike marathon and could whip Jake or I!) I have actually walked out of a spin class because I was too much of a wimp and I couldn't figure out how people could actually sit on that kind of seat. But despite my un-athleticism, I still enjoy biking (slowly) and admit that the wind hitting my face just feels... good.

I have not owned a bike in 8 years, but this week that changed! You see, two years ago when we first moved to Irvine, we had chosen our community based on it's "pedestrian nature." There are lots of places to walk and bike and that is fairly unique for a city in California which is essentially urban. So finally we realized time had gotten away from us... we still had not made "biking" a reality for our family and were anxious to do so. So with the addition of a bike for me and a trailer for Samara to chill in, we are set and ready to enjoy some family biking experiences! I'm so excited to pass on some really great memories to our kids (with helmets on!) and give them a good outlet for exercise and being in the outdoors.

Marshall and I went on our first ride a few days ago, and I had fun letting him choose our course. When we came to a fork in the road, I asked, "Which one?" as I motioned to the straight paved trail and then the dirty, narrow, winding trail. He promptly replied, "The dirty trail."

Ah yes, my son - we will take the "dirty trail" less traveled!

Shells Part 2: Textures, Colors, Patterns

Last night I couldn't sleep so I picked up my camera and my favorite objects of interest and started experimenting. I don't think I could ever grow tired of the diversity of shells, their design amazes me just as their Creator does! If you click on these pictures you can see the detail much closer, but I wanted to post them small so you could see all the colors and patterns together. So pretty!
In order (Accuracy of identification not guaranteed!) The specimens are much smaller than they seem b/c I used my macro lens:

Tiny green and pearly craft shells, Pink Urchin, Small Abalone, Purple Urchin, Limpet, Scallop (looks like a sunrise!), Purple Drupe, Small Turban, Mother-of-pearl inside a Giant Abalone, Japanese Babylon, Horse Conch?, and a mini sand dollar (1 inch).

Surprise!

Shell Pics

Practicing my macro-photography skills on shells from my collection... (in order) A Precious Wentletrap, Sea Urchin spines, a Turban, a Sharks Eye, Sea Fan, Nerites, Green mother-of pearl (on another Turban), Cowries, and Coral.

L'Engle Poetry

I just had to share this poem which I copied into my journal over a decade ago... It's by Madeline L'Engle, from a book called "Weather of the Heart."

ACT III scene ii

Someone has altered the script
My lines have been changed
The other actors are shifting roles
They don't come on when they're expected to
and they don't say the lines I've written
and I'm being upstaged
I thought I was writing this play
with a rather nice role for myself
small, but juicy
and some excellent lines.
But nobody gives me my cues
and the scenery has been replaced.
I don't recognize the new sets.
This isn't the script I was writing
I don't understand this plot at all.
To grow up
is to find
the small part you are playing
in this extraordinary drama
written by
someone else.

Family Photos

We recently had our family photos done by Will Parris, a good friend of ours whom we know from our days at University Praise (now Sojourners). (His wife Jessica took over my role as Children's Minister when I had Marshall and stepped down.) He is a very talented photographer and artist - a totally fun & easygoing guy to boot - and I'm very happy with the results! I think it definitely captured our love for the beach and some of the fun/crazy side of our family. We started the photo shoot dry, and ended up entirely sandy and wet by the end! LOL!
Check out more pics here (Click on P.S. blog):
http://www.parris-studios.com/#

He knows the number of hairs on our head...

... and the number of freckles on our nose!

Aliso Beach Firepit

Here are more pics from our day at the beach with the Gramenz Family! We had a great time getting wet and roasting smores.

Big Orange Balloon

Paul Gramenz caught this amazing photo of Samara while we were waiting to ride the OC Great Park Balloon. Stunning!

Friends & Fun!

This week my childhood friend Jane and her family (Husband Paul, kids Elijah, Katelynn & baby girl Gramenz on the way) are staying with us and we've had so much fun together! Jane and I have known each other for 30 years. Her husband Paul just finished his medical residency and they are moving back to Oregon... we are glad they could come visit us in the midst of all their transitions right now! The kids had a ball at Disneyland and we all did pretty well despite the heat. Check out the "Then and now" pics at the bottom. Cabbage patch dolls were a little easier than what we have now! LOL! (But so worth it!)
More pics of our week still to come...

Summer Spritz

I made these little watermelon cookies for a BBQ today and they were gobbled up! I used cold spritz dough to make the cookies, (cutting with a circle and scoring them in the middle) and then refrigerated them after frosting. For a makeshift pastry tube I threw the green frosting in the lower corner of a freezer ziploc, squashed the contents down and snipped the corner just a tad. That's my undetailed version of how I made them. :-)

Summer Update

Ever since we got back from our trip to NY three weeks ago it has been a whirlwind of activity! (Thus the reason for my lack of posts!) We celebrated my 33rd B-Day in June along with Father's Day, Marshall concluded his school year at the Early Childhood Learning Center, and my days got a lot more full having both kids home all day long! We have been keeping busy at the pool, beach, Disneyland, feeding ducks, and anything I can conjure up to have fun and prevent boredom! Marshall and Samara are not indoor kids, that is for sure. One thing they both really look forward to is our Wednesdays at the Lagoon pool with our church group. (Pics below) It is shallow, which is easier for me... and the slides and sand are a hit. Here are some pics from 4th of July, the Lagoon, one of our day outings to the Irvine Railroad park and our recent trip to Doheny beach. Marshall loves it when Jake makes a "ball chute" for him at the beach, it is one of our routines that he looks forward to when we go.

One unexpected surprise this summer is that the kids have been getting so tired from our daily activities and the heat that they have both been going down for nap times in the afternoon. (It's a mandatory rest time and they both fall asleep!) Marshall is growing so fast that his body suddenly needs it again - he has not napped since he was 2!!!! I am thanking God for this daily rest time since my body needs it badly as well.

As for my health, I have been on Plaquenil now (a drug for Lupus & Sjogrens) for 2 months and am feeling better than I have in almost 2 years, praise God! It is greatly relieving my symptoms and giving me just enough added energy to have a much better summer this year. (Last summer was spent mostly on the couch.) Just the fact that I made it through our NY trip (which was very tiring) without getting sick was a miracle! I am learning how to listen to my body more and ward off flare-ups. My eyes are doing SO much better - I used to have constant pain and swelling/droopiness on my right side and that has nearly vanished.

Marshall hit a milestone this month in that he finally reached 40 inches! His growth hormone shots are finally producing results (2 inches since May!) He has been so brave to take them every night and now he even helps us with his shot (we do the needle stick, he pushes in the serum). He was so excited to get to go on Soaring over California, Tower of terror, Splash Mountain and other big kid rides at Disneyland. His next milestone is 42 inches - Grizzly River Run. Mostly we are just happy to see that his body is doing what it should have been doing all along and excited to see him growing out of clothes for the first time in years. We still get "twins" comments and speculations nearly every day, but I think that will change over the course of this next year.

The summer feels like it's flying by, but there's still so much left to do - visitors that are coming to stay with us, camping trips to take, beach days and BBQ's... I'm trying to remember that they are only this little right now and to enjoy each day I have with them, even if at times it's draining.

One last thought - if the kids look mischievous in the pictures, it is because they absolutely are. :-)

Dawn and Jake in the Big City!

Last week was our 10th anniversary, and Jake surprised me with a trip to NYC, a place I had never visited before! It was quite the trip - an amazing dose of culture and adrenaline unlike anything I have ever experienced! Here are some of the highlights and reflections from our trip:

Subway System: While this was probably my least favorite part of the city, it was also very fascinating and was a great way to get around. We felt like true New Yorkers! After I got over the initial fear of being underground in a hot stinky place with fast, loud subways whizzing by... I got used to it. We never actually took a cab the entire time we were there (it saved us tons of $$ doing the subway with everything we saw, and a lot of time not being stuck in traffic). Jake once had a near-death experience in a NY cab on a previous trip so he didn't really want to go there! I am still in awe at how much pedestrian traffic there is in the city and glad that I had comfy walking shoes! I only lost my metro card once! :-)

The Arts: This is by far my FAVORITE part of NYC - we got to see 3 shows: Wicked (fantastic plot and writing), Lion King (Great Costumes), and South Pacific (I'm a sucker for Rogers and Hammerstein). South Pacific was my favorite show because I grew up hearing my mom sing those songs on the piano, and also because my Grandpa was stationed in Hawaii during the war. The songs are the type you just can't stop singing afterward ("I'm gonna wash that man right outta my hair.") But despite the "cuteness" of it all - there are deep themes that address prejudice and race. I was a bit disappointed that this revival version was risque' - especially given the fact that kids were in the audience, but that's Broadway for ya! We really wanted to also see the Ballet, NY Philharmonic and some jazz but you can only fit in so much. Next time!

Street Performers: I was amazed at how many street performers we saw in NY either on the sidewalks or in the subway system - A women's gospel choir, a string trio, middle eastern band, mandolin, banjo, guitar, keyboard, drums, violin, break dancers, klezmer music, you name it, we saw it! I was also struck by how many children I saw walking around with their instruments on the street. Somehow I gather that little league and soccer practices are replaced by piano and voice lessons in this city!

Lower Manhattan: We spent a good deal of time exploring here (NY stock exchange, Wall Street, Trinity church, WTC memorial site.) We spent a few hours in the 9/11 Tribute Center and it was a very sobering experience. The actual site is just a construction zone now, as the memorial will not be complete for another 10 years. Yet the audio tour alone was enough to bring Jake and I to tears and recall the events of that day. We were very glad we did this tour in the middle of our trip - it would have been a hard way to start out and a rough way to end - also glad that we didn't have a show to go to that evening b/c we were both so affected we just felt like chilling out afterward. One cool thing I never knew before is that St. Paul's church sits right next to the WTC site. Despite the fact that every other building surrounding the collapse had severe damage or most of its windows blown out, this little church had no window broken and a sycamore tree deflected a steel beam from the WTC that could have fallen on the church. It is the place that George Washington prayed after his inauguration. It was a very amazing, historical place to visit.

Brooklyn: I had the pleasure of reconnecting with a childhood friend, Kirsten, who lives in DUMBO Brooklyn. We have known each other since 1st grade and it was so fun to see where she lives and get a walking tour of her neighborhood. We also enjoyed yummy pizza at Grimaldi's and it lived up to its reputation!

Little Italy/Chinatown: A very interesting experience - lots of restaurants and shops... I wish we'd had time to eat a meal there but I did get to taste a cannoli in little Italy and barter for a few souvenirs in Chinatown. The fish market was not open and I was not sad about that - Jake wanted to show me fish heads and stuff (yuck!)

Central Park: We actually did not get to walk through central park until our last few hours there, when it finally started raining! And lo and behold we left our umbrella back at the hotel! We bought 2 umbrellas for $10 with a street vendor and pressed ahead! I wish we could have spent so much more time there - it is so beautiful and amazing that a place with so much foliage can exist in the middle of a city like New York! If we go back - we won't miss doing a carriage ride through the park and eating at the boathouse cafe!

National Museum of Natural History: Again, this was a place that we could have spent an entire day, but we managed to see it in about 3 hours... it is 5 stories tall and has amazing exhibits! The dinosaur bones were our favorite and all I could think about the entire time is how much my kids would LOVE it (thus fueling our plans to take them back someday when they are older!) The building itself is amazing and I'm so glad we got to visit.

Times square: This is a place you have to go to say you've "been there" - and it is a spectacle indeed, but definitely not a place I would want to be when the "ball drops!" I will happily watch it on TV every New Year and now I can say "I've been there."

Food: There is every kind of food imaginable in NY - but my favorite would have to be NY pizza (Grimaldi's and Lombardi's were both excellent) and Rosa Mexicano near Lincoln Center (Guacamole!)

Staten Island Ferry: We chose to take the free ferry across to Staten Island and back to get views of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. It would have been great to actually visit Ellis Island but we knew we wouldn't have enough time to devote to it (another thing on our list for next time - it's just impossible to see everything there because there is so much!) Still, it was great to see them and take pictures and realize the history that is behind all aspects of the city.

St. Patrick's Cathedral: I was amazed at how many historic churches and cathedrals exist in the city - in part because when everybody was immigrating to America each ethnic group established their own houses of worship. We got to visit St. Patrick's Cathedral which was beautiful - I was only bummed that I did not get to attend a pipe organ concert on our trip (I searched the entire city for a pipe organ concert!) A few cathedrals/churches had their pipe organs damaged in 9/11 from the massive amounts of dust that swept over the city.

Most Romantic Place: Ok, well there are admittedly a lot of romantic places in NY but we really liked the lobby lounge of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel at night - views of Columbus Circle, sparkling moscato and the city skyline! We also learned that just like in the movies, people really do PDA in romantic places of the city, LOL!

All in all - an amazing trip that I had to come home and "recover" from with a few full nights sleep! :-) Looking forward to going back someday!

New York Trip 2009