Of Baseball, Poppies and Other Things

We decided to make use of our Saturday.

We awoke bright and early (what? 9am is early!) ready to tackle the world. Jon lovingly stroked my face and said "lets go to C-2's baseball game". I was, of course, overjoyed at the thought of rolling out of bed and heading out of the house with our 4 munchkins in tow. To a place with wide open spaces, with room for Liam to be free (I believe we may have already discussed his desire to be free as a wild monkey bird). Well, once again in the interest of honesty, the word donuts might have been whispered in my ear a time or two - maybe even three.

So we got ourselves out of the house, liberated some donuts and hit the ballgame. All in time to watch the last inning of the game. Out of respect for the families who are there to support their kids we try not to attend whole games. Total change of subject or direction or whatever... Especially when they are held inside! D-2 plays volleyball and we attended a number of games last season - if there wasn't an amazing array of snacks and treats for the whole game - well, we spent a lot of time apologizing to the people on the bleachers in front of us. And in back of us. Quite possibly to the sides of us too.

So yeah... back to baseball. They lost. And then my sister-in-law had snack bar duty - the time and energy it takes to have kids in sports! I really don't know how they deal with it all!

So after a quick lunch we made the decision to make the trek to see the poppies. Or if you are Luc - "poppy flowers"! For those of you who don't know - there is only one place left where you can go and see fields of poppy flowers. Located in the Antelope Valley is the California Poppy Reserve. From the middle of March to May(ish) the hillsides bloom with orange flowers. From a distance it looks like someone spray painted the hills with orange paint. My children might disagree if you ask them though. I was thoroughly rebuffed when I shared that thought with them. Anyway. It was a little windy, but beautiful to see up close.

They're everywhere!

We finished up our day with a wonderful evening at Family "C's" house. (Jon's sister and family) We had a great dinner, watched the Dodgers on T.V. and got to visit with our Sadie. Sadie has gotten fat. I think she is enjoying her new living arrangement - even Bandit the energetic puppy. At least that's what we're telling her. Not sure if she agrees about Bandit or not.

Blessings and Feeling Blessed

I'm kind of letting Jon's blog cover the deeper aspects of our lives right now, but I really wanted to share with you all how amazing it's been since we made the final decision to move out to California for a few months.

First I need to preface this by sharing with you that for the last year+ every time we tried to make something happen it has fizzled. It was easy for me to feel like God had let me down and had forgotten us. Especially when in the past whenever we tried to make things move everything would just fall into place. Life wasn't perfect, but somehow if there was a need it would be covered.

I'm sure if you paid much attention the first sentence in that last paragraph you might have noticed that I said "every time we tried". That is where the problem was. We were trying to make things happen. We were trying to plan out how we wanted to live life. We were running in the opposite direction of where God wanted us.

Once we let go and told God we would follow him where ever he wanted us - things just fell into place. In the week we've been here we have: reconnected with some great friends, Jon got a job, Jon got office space to work out of... the list goes on and on... and on top of all of that we just found out that our insurance through work will kick in by next Saturday.

Health Insurance.

Let's just say that again. Health. Insurance.

I cannot begin to express what a blessing that is. We have been without insurance since about this summer. We have also had a few medical crisis since then. When you have 2/4 of your kids with medical issues - the weight of not having coverage is extreme.

We are blessed.

No Fumar

Child: Mom? What does F-U-M-A-R spell?

Me: Fumar (said with perfect accent, by the way.) (Okay, that's probably a lie - but still - it sounds way better for the re-telling.).

Me: No fumar means no smoking in spanish.

Child: Ohhh?



(Toto, we aren't in Kansas anymore.)

We Have Arrived!

We survived the trip. Saw the Painted Desert. Saw the Grand Canyon. We've eaten Del Taco, Nico's, Carl's Jr. (not that Hardee's stuff), Boston Market... Ahh. I think the waistband of my jeans are going to start feeling a little snug. Just wait 'til I get to In N Out and Panda Express and... well, you all get the picture.

The kids are loving being around their cousins. It was so awesome to watch Lach and his cousin J. immediately click and be inseparable until the "A" set of cousins left. Laren is loving being in a house with a bunch of little girls. I am just loving getting to see my nieces and nephews. My sisters are as awesome as ever.

The kids are also tired and worn out. Liam got sick when we hit Lancaster. He's been having breathing treatments about every 2 hours.

Combine tired grumpy 3 year old with albuterol and you are having fun!

I'll keep in touch as homeschooling, family, etc. allows.

Serenity Now!

So it's official. We are joining YFC/MYM (referred to as MCYM from now on). There are lots of changes about - and right now the biggest is us moving back to California for a few months. We're going to stay with my sister and her family, so that should be interesting - 12 people under one roof. We are really excited to get all the cousins together (all of my family is in CA and Jon's other sister is right there in town also) and lets just be honest with each other - I'm in it for the food. In-N-Out, Del Taco, Panda Express, Carl's Jr... Don't even get me started about real Mexican food!

The older kids are a little nervous about all this transition. They both have awesome teachers this year and have made some good friends at school - that's going to be hard to leave behind. They are also thrilled about getting to hang out with cousins, seeing what a real beach looks like and more than likely a trip to Disneyland. Our younger 2 don't fully understand what this all means, but they sure like all the excitement.

We are packing up our household, putting it in storage, and (Lord willing and the creek don't rise) leaving next Wednesday. We will be driving cross country with 4 children. If you see a Suburban full of what looks to be asylum escapees - wave - cause that will be us! Liam will be celebrating his 3rd birthday on the road so I'm sure we'll be going overboard in some way to make it all up to him.

I will attempt to update as often as I can.