The Hunt

I hate shopping for a swimsuit. I absolutly hate it. This year pretty early on I found one at Target that was cute, it fit me, and it was not to expensive. Then when my stuff got taken out of the car in Santa Cruz, there went my bathing suit. So I decided to really splurg and order a bathing suit from speedo online. I was sure that it would be here before our camping trip tomarrow. So, I waited until the last minute. No bathing suit. So by the time I got to run to the mall it was 8pm. The mall closes at 9pm. I had 45min to find a bathing suit that looked good on me (with my post baby body). I ran in, tried on 3 suits and took one home. It is completly boring, all black, but it fits and I am ready for a weekend at the lake camping and swimming. I might hate shopping for a swimsuit but I LOVE to swim!!

Kickball Party!!

Last night we celebrated Levi's 25th birthday by having a kickball game. We started out the day though on the river. The kids were at my parents and so we took the canoe out and went down the river. Everthing was going really good and then we decided to take a detour. Well, it led us to this.






We ended up having the best time. It was an adventure and so beautiful. We swam a little and ate lunch and then ended where we had parked the truck. It was a very nice way to spend our day.

Then we got the last stuff together for the party and went to the park to set up.






Then we played some kickball!!!









It was a blast. I was so happy that so many of our friends and family were able to make it. Everyone was really into playing and we had a fun time all together. Levi felt really loved and he said that it was the best birthday party ever. It was one of the easiest parties I have ever put togther but also the most fun and relaxing.

I am glad it all turned out. Levi is such a great husband and he does so much for me that I really wanted him to know that I love him and that a lot of other people really care about him also. He is always thinking about what he can do for other people and taking care of me and the kids. I am happy he got to have a day that was all about him. And the fact that everyone took the time to come, play, hang out, and share that day with us meant a lot.



Happy 25th Birthday

It's Hot and Not Getting Any Cooler

I cannot believe how hot it is. It is like summer started officially and decided to just burn us up. It has been so hard with the kids and the heat. I feel like I should take them somewhere to cool off so we go to a pool or like today we went to this place that had a man made waterfall and creek that they could play in. They had a lot of fun but by the time we get home I am so tired I can't even move. Then we are just kind of stuck inside. It is too hot to really enjoy doing anything outside. We are blessed with a/c so I should not be complaining at all. It is like the heat just sucks all of your energy out. Thankfully Levi is home now and we can all spend the weekend together. Me and the kids really miss him when he is gone. It is not supposed to get any cooler so I guess we will just have to spend the weekend in the water. Not that I mind all that much. I never thought I would do a whole blog on the weather but it is STINKIN HOT!!!!

Quotes

A couple that I like:


Be who you are and say what you feel
because those who mind don't matter
and those who matter don't mind.

-Dr. Seuss



Somewhere, somthing incredible is waiting to be known.

- Carl Sagan

Life with kids

It is Thursday and I am sitting here just waiting for my daughter to take a nap. My husband has been gone all week and will not be back until tomarrow. I really need her to take a nap. Why is it that the days that you really need them to sleep they just don't and the days that it is no big deal they take a 2 or 3 hour nap. I just might loose it if she does not sleep.

It is hot here this week. In the 100's and it is hard to find stuff to do with the kids that we don't just melt doing. We went to a singing class at the library today and yesterday we went to the pool. My oldest is out of school for the summer so I have to find stuff that we can all do together.

I am also in the middle of planning a birthday party for my husband. It is on Sunday and we are playing kickball. I hope it does not end up being to hot. This is the first time I have put on a party where the men coming to the party are actually excited.

So, not a lot to write about and my brain cells are pretty much fried from taking care of the kids 24 hours a day for a week. But I thought I would share a little story.

Last night my husband did come home for the night. He got here late and left kind of early but at least he was here for a little bit and I did not have to sleep in an empty bed. Anyway, when he woke up this morning he could not find either of his pillows. That's right they were just gone. He looked all over with no memory of taking them anywere are anything. He finally found them in the washing machine. He must have put them there in his sleep. Am I married to a crazy man?

The Lord Is Good

I am sitting in bed tonight totally exhausted. Levi is in San Francisico at a conference for the week and that means its just me and the kids. We just got back from spending the night at my parents. We had a really nice time there and it was nice to have so much help. I always get to rest more there and there are more hands to get the kids the million and one things they always need. The kids are both in bed now so it is time for me to do what ever I want until I crash and fall asleep.

Yesterday I got a phone call from a girl that wants me to be her doula, which is a birthing assistent, and I think I am going to do it. Before I had my second child I had taken a class to be a dula and read some books. Then I got pregnent and just got busy and never finished the classes to become, certified. Then I get this call out of nowhere and she wants me to do it for her. I told her that I have not been officially trained but that I would love to do it if she still wanted me to. This is her second child so she is pretty comforable with the whole process but wants someone there that is not family that will help her. I am such a stong believer that giving birth should and can be a really great experience. It is really so natural and what our bodies are made to do. I think we tend to get in the way and not let our bodies do what is so instictive. I know that there can be complications and I think that it is really great to have a doctor there when you really need one but most of the time our bodies would do just what they are supposed to do when they are supposed to do it. So, anyway, I will get off of my soapbox now. I am just really excited about this opportunity. I am going to need to do a little refresher reading and then I will meet with the woman and her husband and write up a birth plan. That way I know what they do and do not want and all of that kind of stuff.

I was discouraged a couple of days ago and really feeling like I did not have anything that was mine to identifiy with and I feel like God brought this along to encourage me. It is something that I have always been interested in and this way I can see if it is somthing I really like and if so I could look into it more and maybe finish my classes.

I had both of my kids at home with a midwife in the water and it was wonderful. Maybe I will talk about that more sometime but that is a long story. I have also been there when one on my friends had her baby at home in the water. What I have not seen is a hospital birth personally. I am looking forward to the new experience and something that I can really throw myself into that is different than my every day life. The Lord is really good and He really cares for each one of us individually.

Update

I wanted to show you the things that have changed in our lives or that we have gotten. First is our garden. It is completly out of control. I posted when we first planted stuff and it looked like this







And now it looks like this





I cannot believe how much it has grown. We are really hoping that it will actually produce but only time will tell.




Then I got my hair cut. No big deal really but it is quite a bit shorter. I am really liking it now that it is so hot here.








And one more thing. Levi got a scooter and I thought I would share that to. It is really fun to drive. I have only taken it to the library once but that was fun. He uses it for work when he is driving around in the city which is most of the time. It is a huge gas saver, and also just fun.






So that is just a little peak into the new things in our lives right now. Nothing ground breaking but it is our life.

Sometimes It's Just Hard

I can tend to make things always seem better than they are. I have a hard time telling other people that I am having a hard time. On the other hand I know that it is good to get it out and to talk about it. Last night I had a little break down. I am just having a hard time feeling like there is not anything that I am doing that is making a difference. I finally had the school that I was working on and then that is not happening anymore. I feel like everything my husband sets out to do he does and is very successfull at. I want to be happy for him but it gets kind of old always hearing how amazing he is and how incredible it is that he is doing so good at his work. Then I tell myself that I have the kids and I am working really hard on them but on the other side I am always hearing how great it is that Levi is with the kids so much and he is so good with them. Nobody means it this way but it feels like a slap in the face. Sometimes I am totally content with where I am and what I am doing. But then other times I feel like everyone I know is working at or on some type of goal. I am not really sure where I am going with this but to say that it has been a hard couple of days and I am a bit down. I would be lying if I said I was not dissapointed about the school. It was a fun project that I really felt like I was making a difference with. I guess I should just be praying that God would bring me something else that would fill that void. I am going to try to make that my personal focus now.

On a different note, I read in a magazine to fill a pitcher with water and cut up a whole orange and split a vanilla bean in half and put all of that in the water. Then you let it sit in the fridge for a day or so and then it tastes so yummy. It tasts like a creamcsicle ( one of those orange popsicles with ice cream in the middle. I want to drink it all day. You really should try it.

Birthday Trip to the Beach

This weekend we went to a place called Costanoa and it was wonderful. It is between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. We stayed in their tent cabins that were just so cute. Levi said they were very romatic and since it was for his birthday I think I picked a good place. He is going to be 25 in a couple of weeks so we thought we would start the celebrations early. My parents kept the kids and we had a very restfull weekend togther. We had a picnic on the beach both days. There were hikes all over the place we stayed and of course we ate very well. I love that after all these years with my husband we still really enjoy being together. He is one of a kind. We also went into Santa Cruz and looked around and saw the movie Mission Impossible 3. It was actually a pretty good movie. We read a lot and spent a lot of time having conversations that were not interupted by our kids. So, thank you mom and dad for taking the kids and giving us a great weekend. And thank you Levi for marrying me so that we can spend many more birthdays togther.

My Own Stars Hollow

I have always wanted to live in a town like Stars Hollow on The Gilmore Girls. It is small and they can walk to everything they need. The coffee shop/diner, the bookstore, the theater. I like that they run into people that they know. It has always been a dream of mine. I even looked up Stars Hollow to see if there was a place really like that with the thought that maybe we could move there. My husband and I have really felt like Sacramento is where we are supposed to be. We really figured that out about two years ago and since then I have not really thought alot about the small town thing. Then the other day I thought about it again and I realized that I live in my own version of Stars Hallow. It is not a small town but I think Sacramento has that feel. I can walk to almost anything I need and I run into people I know sometimes. It just made me smile because it made me realize that God cares so much about us. He even cares about our little dreams and either gives us peace about where we are or like for me makes Sacrmento look like Stars Hollow in my eyes.

Stupid Three Mile and the Ones That Got Away

It has been a really long weekend. I decided to go to Santa Cruz with my friend Vanessa to visit our friend, Joanna. We left Saturday afternoon, had a nice ride there and arrived at Joanna's house ready to have a nice relaxing weekend at the ocean. We pretty much just went into her house to say hello, get a little tour, and then back in the car to drive to the beach. We park our car at Three Mile along hwy. 1 with about 6 other cars and head down to the beach. As we are running around on the beach little do we know that some " really mean people" are up at our car making off with all of our stuff. Yes, that's right, they broke the window of Vanessa's car and took ALL of our stuff! They got all three of our purses, my overnight bag with EVERYTHING that I had brought on the trip. A couple of other bags and two cell phones. The one amazing thing was that Vanessa had her work lap top in the back of the car in a bag and they did not take that. That was a miricle. Talk about complete shock as we walk back from the beach and see the window broken and then start realizing all that was in there. So, here are three girls in Santa Cruz with no money, no way to get money, no IDs, one cell phone and a car full of broken glass.

So, we drive to Joanna's house and start calling all of the credit card companys and all of that. They had already used Joanna's credit card to buy gas. Thanks to Joanna's dad ( who had left her some emergency cash we were able to get by and have a great weekend anyway). We decided that we did not want to ruin our time so after we did what needed to be done we headed out to a great dinner.

The next morning Joanna had to work so she went to work and we went out to breakfast. Let me tell you, that was the most amazing food I think I have ever had. We went to Cafe Brazil and it was so yummy. I have to tell you that I think my favorite part about this place is that while you are waiting to be seated they have coffee that you can serve yourself and enjoy while you wait. I think more places should do that.

Then off to the beach. I know we were kind of asking for more but what are you going to do when you are in Santa Cruz? Go to the beach! So, we had a really nice time laying on the beach, reading, and trying to swim ( it was pretty cold). While we are there we get a call that maybe someone has turned in one of the purses to the police station. We track down the leads we had being very ( private eye) and we came up empty handed.

Later that day we went to the beach once again and filed our police report. Then off to church with Joanna and then home. Driving home with an open window late at night was a bit cold. We bundled up and turned on the heater and just had to laugh at all we had been through.

Then this morning my husband and I went to replace my phone and I got the messages that had been sent to my "old" phone. A couple of friends had called because my phone had called them at weird times and with nobody talking. To all of you I am sorry and yes I am fine. The person who had my old phone thought it would be fun to call all of the numbers in my phone. What a day.

It is so weird how violated you feel when someone just takes your stuff. It was not even that I had that much or that expensive of stuff (except for my phone) but it was my stuff. My jeans, my flip flops, my swimsuit, my makeup and lotion. That kind of sounds selfish but I liked what I had and I don't want to have to replace it.

I think I will be more carefull and maybe I have learned a lesson but I do not like to live my life afraid of people or suspicious of others but it might take a little while to wear off. I still think it was very mean. If it is not yours, please don't just take it.