End of Another Year, Another Decade

Can you believe that we are ending the first decade in the new millennium? Do you remember the hype of Y2K and our wondering if the world was going to shut down? :-) It's amazing to look back at the last 10 years of our lives and be overwhelmed at the goodness of our God. We have experienced huge change, several times. We rejoiced in becoming parents, grieved over losing parents, moved to 2 different states/ministries since SC, said "goodbye" to friends and family, made new friends, etc. Lots of change, but our God has never changed! He has taught us more of Himself, and with and by His grace, we have been stretched and grown over the years. Life is about Him and His glory, and we pray that we have and will continue to live that out. God is always good, in all circumstances! We have prayed Philippians 3:10 many times and watched how God has answered our desire to know Him better in ways we could have never imagined. Those ways have not always been easy, but we know they are good (Romans 8:28). It is always good for us to be conformed to the image of Christ. We look forward to seeing God continue to work in the next decade. Let's follow the two greatest commands, as spoken by Jesus in Matthew 22:37-40--Love God! Love People!

As the last couple of hours of 2009 come to a close, we sit with our girls having fun playing games and watching fun things on TV, but most importantly, we stop to thank God for what He has done and look ahead to a new year, new decade of trusting Him! May you come to know Him and/or continue to grow in your knowledge of Him and have a very Happy New Year!!!

Works of God Monday

God has blessed us with a wonderful daughter who turned 10 yrs. old today! Yes, she has hit the double digits. It's hard to believe that we have been parents for a decade. We celebrated the day by giving her a new bike in the morning and then heading to Disneyland. Of all days to rain and be "cold" in SoCal, it was today. We had a memorable experience, to say the least. We made sure that we had fun though. Here are a couple of pics from the day. I'll have to write more later because I am exhausted and ready to go to bed.

Whirlwind of a Fall

Well, I'm back! I know, I do this so often. I get on a blogging kick and then disappear for a while. I have to say though that this Fall has been full of activity for us, and I have spent little time at the computer (well, except for Facebook). Last month was a fun, but crazy month of going non-stop. We went to SC to see my parents, sister and her family, Kris's brother and his family, as well as several dear friends. We were gone for a week and a half and so much enjoyed our time of celebrating birthdays, enjoying fellowship, and just getting away for awhile on vacation. We got amazing prices on flights from LA to Charlotte, NC--under $800 for all four of us! My family lives just under an hr. and a 1/2 from Charlotte, so it worked out fine. It was better to fly the beginning of Nov. than at Christmas. We knew our friends from MI would be coming to visit us here in CA right after our getting home from SC, but we figured we could do it all. :-) It was great, but I don't think we could have packed more into a month! My body reminded me that I was nuts, but I'm glad it all worked out. We did so many fun things with the Browns and continued to learn more about SoCal ourselves. We were able to count a few field trips in for the girls--everything from the San Diego Zoo, botanical gardens at a local university and tide pools at the ocean, to a cultural day in LA, visiting Chinatown and Olvera Street ("Little Mexico"). We were able to get some Disney days in there as well and have Thanksgiving in the midst of all the traveling around. We are so thankful that the Browns came out for those 12 days, and we have really missed them since they left! I have TONS of pictures up on Facebook of our trip to SC and the Browns' visit here with us. Send me a friend request, if we aren't connected there. I don't think I am going to try to put the pics up on my blog too.

Well, now I am trying to get into the Christmas season. It seems that it is already passing me by. I am still in the process of decorating. Normally I start Thanksgiving weekend, but we still had company, so I figured I would start the day after they headed home. I was too exhausted and had started getting sick, so I took time to rest most of this past week instead. I'm still fighting it but am getting somewhat better. Anyway, we'll get the decorating done in the next couple of days. People are more important, as well as getting healthy, so I'm not bothered by it being later this year. I AM stressing a bit about Christmas cards. I don't have a plan! I need to get on that this week for sure.

The first order of business for this week is celebrating our special "little" girl's 10th birthday! I can hardly believe that Emma is going to be 10 yrs. old tomorrow. God has blessed us with an amazing daughter, and I thank Him for the very special gift of her and the relationship that He has allowed us to have. I have a very big lump in my throat, realizing the awesome responsibility of raising a child and knowing that the first decade of her life is done. We look forward to the next decade with all the changes we know are ahead, trusting God for His continued grace and wisdom in raising a godly young lady for His glory. My sweet Emma is such a blessing, and I wish her the happiest of birthdays as she enters the double digits! :-)

Works of God Monday

Hooray! God gave us a good night's sleep last night, and we had two happy girls today who felt much better than they have been. After they woke up, we surprised them by telling them that we were going to go to Disneyland. They were SO excited! I was so excited that they felt better and were able to enjoy the whole day there. It was a great family day.



Fall has arrived at Disney! The flowers and decorations are amazing all over the parks.


Olivia loves Tinkerbell and wanted to get a pic by Tink's pumpkin.


Emma's shirt has Tinkerbell on it, so we had to get one of her too.


The teacups are a favorite! We got ours spinning quite fast.


Check out the cow! We thought that was pretty funny.


It's Woody!


This whole area we were walking through was beautiful and had lots of picture spots.


Check out the Disney pumpkin crown! Emma said it was heavy on her head.


Olivia wanted to try too. The lady in the background carved all the pumpkins. There were so many of them around that area. They were amazing!

Continuing to Learn Patience

OK, so last week was a hard one. Last Sunday during our worship service, Emma looked up at me and told me that her throat hurt, and she couldn't sing. On Monday she was sniffing constantly and saying she felt like she had a cold. Monday night was not good--she was up for 2 hrs in the middle of the night with a headache and feeling terrible. I took her to our chiropractor on Tues. because he has really helped us with adjustments and supplements lately with the girls. Basically Emma was showing signs of bacteria again, and we gave her a big boost of stuff to "kick it." On Wednesday Olivia said her throat was hurting and she had a 99.4 temp and just didn't feel well. I kept them both home from gymnastics and church that night. I was really down!

I was thankful to see improvements in Emma by Wed. night, and on Thurs., both were doing somewhat better. The plan had been for 2 wks that we would go to Disneyland on Friday with our friends, the Foxes, because we knew the girls had been better with their coughs and should be fine to go. Our passes expire next weekend, and we are not sure about renewing them as of yet. Well, Thurs. night I was a little leery of whether or not we should go, but Kris and I decided that if the girls slept well that night, and if they woke up on Friday feeling well, we would go for at least some of the day. God gave us a CLEAR answer through the night Thurs. into Fri.--Olivia started coughing right before we went to bed. Coughing had been nearly gone during the nights, so I was really surprised at how bad this was. It was like we were stepping back a couple of weeks. She continued most of the night and was up several times. We hardly got any sleep. We did NOT go to Disneyland. Everyone was bummed, but we talked about God's ways being best and that He clearly gave us an answer, so we enjoyed the day together as a family at home. Thankfully the sore throats ended in the middle of last week, the sniffing has drastically decreased with Emma, and both girls were able to go to church today. We've had a good day, and Kris and I have a plan on getting Disney in this week! :-)

Our family Bible passage that we have recently been working on is Psalm 145:1-3. As we recited the verse with the girls this past week, I was reminded that our Great God does all things for our good and His glory. He deserves all of our praise--EVERY day, no matter what! God is always good!

Happy Fall?!?!

Well, the calendar says that Fall has begun, but when the Weather Channel said just a little while ago that we are 104 degrees, windy, with 3% humidity, it's hard to believe that Fall is here! I LOVE this season. . . in MICHIGAN! It is my favorite time of year. I can just smell the apple cider mills and imagine the pumpkin patches, brilliant colors of leaves, as well as feel that chill in the air. Now my husband would be saying right there, "Who wants to feel the CHILL in the air? I love Southern CA!!!" He definitely likes this weather WAY better. People who know him well know that he never got used to MI weather, especially the harsh winters.

I have to agree that having warm weather most of the year is quite nice, but I DO miss 4 real seasons. I'm a MI girl. What can I say? Southern CA IS an amazing place with never-ending things to do and see. Who wouldn't love to live so close to the ocean, mountains, and deserts? Talk about variety! Besides, I am so thankful to be here because this is where God has called us to be part of His work. AND if God is burdening any of you to help with church planting in the West, we would LOVE to have you come join us!!! :-) We really are praying about/looking for people who would partner with us in the ministry here.

Well, I thought I would post a few pics from years past that take me back to that wonderful time in MI, enjoying a real Fall. I grew up there and had many, but with my own family, we enjoyed four--2004 to 2007. We moved in the summer of 2008. Hope you enjoy looking back with me. All these pics are taken in October of each of the years.

2004:


Olivia, not quite 1 1/2 with Daddy in the apple orchard


Emma in K-4 on the playground pile of wood chips (soon to be put out)



The two above are just pics I took while driving around town. Amazing, I tell you!

2005:


Fun at a local pumpkin patch for Emma's K-5 field trip



The above two are from our backyard. We had a few mature maples that were beautiful!

2006:


Here's the problem Kris had with so many trees in the backyard. :-) Olivia was being a little helper. hee hee


My mom and dad came for a visit, and we drove up North for a fall color tour of that part of MI. What fun we had and beautiful sights we saw!!


It does snow at amazing times in MI. This was taken in the middle of October!

2007:


My sister, Sarah, came for a visit. We took a drive to see color, but it was just starting. Still it was a beautiful day full of fun.


Sarah's little boy, Jonas, and the girls


A fun Fall field trip with Olivia

Works of God Monday

I will keep this short and sweet tonight. :-) Our God is working every day, not just Monday, but I have enjoyed this weekly post that my friend Jenny got started a long time ago. We get to read and share what God is doing in our lives. We can share our hearts and pray for one another. I would encourage you to leave comments as well to share with me/us how God is working in your life, and we can rejoice together! Today, I just want to say how thankful I am that we have God's precious Word. Too often it is taken for granted, and we have no idea just how fortunate we are to be able to own a Bible (or many in our houses). How special is this book to us? I know for me, I don't treasure it as I ought, and God has convicted me of that recently. It has been a joy to be reading through the New Testament lately. Currently I am following a schedule to read through the NT in 90 days. I would encourage you to try this as well, if you are wondering where to read. The same Jesus I am reading about right now in the gospels is MY Lord and Savior because of God's grace. Oh how I love Him and long to live for Him more each day, resting and trusting as I should.

Getting Out and About

Wow! It is so good to have been able to get out of the house more in the last few days. I am happy to say that Emma is breathing better, coughing less, and getting back to her normal self. In fact, Kris and she just went to the pool. She was SO excited, as this is the first time to the pool in over a month. Crazy! We are above 90 degrees today, and I saw that we will be 100 or above this week. Aaaaah--welcome Fall?!? Well, at least we still have plenty of swim time left. While I've been missing MI lately, because Fall is my favorite season, and friends have been posting about the change in the air, I know we would not be enjoying many (if any) days of swimming left there. Olivia is not quite ready to be out at the pool yet, so I am hoping that she and I will make it over there later this week.

I did enjoy a day of shopping with Emma yesterday. She is growing, growing, growing. We went to the mall and hit some sales at Gymboree and Crazy 8. I have hardly ever shopped at Gymboree, although I would have liked to. :-) They can be quite pricey for us, and we didn't have one in Midland for me to check out anyway. I have gone to the one here a few times and found that the sales are better than I realized, and too I had a 20% off coupon that could be used on anything yesterday. We found a couple of cute t-shirts, an adorable skirt, a short-sleeved knit dress and a long-sleeved one. I was able to get Gymbuck$ that can be redeemed in Oct., so I need to look through Olivia's closet and drawers next. Crazy 8 is a store owned by Gymboree, and their prices are a little lower. I had never heard of it before, but I love this store! We found a few things Emma needed there as well. Payless Shoes was our final stop to get Emma some sandals and black dress shoes. Gotta love the sales there and the $2 coupon I got for their store as well. It just so happened that the mall was doing a promotion yesterday, and I was able to get a $10 mall gift card that I used at Payless for the shoes. Praise the Lord for providing great deals for us and the clothes and shoes Emma needed! It was also a blessing to spend some Mommy/daughter time with my oldest. I can hardly believe that she will be 10 yrs. old in December. I'm taking advantage of these special times.

We appreciate the prayers for our girls. This has been a long haul--worst sickness we've ever seen. It all started 5 wks. ago today with Emma. This past week was so much better for her. For Olivia, it was her worst. The coughing really peaked and was almost constant throughout the day and night, even with meds. She was throwing up often from coughing so hard. Her antibiotics have been done for a while. The sickness is just running its course. The same thing happened with Emma for the most part. Olivia seemed to be better yesterday and had a decent night last night, so she and I stayed home from Sunday school but went to the morning service today and then out to eat afterward as a family. She had a few coughing episodes but did fine. It was great to be with God's people and have opportunity to reach out to those who don't yet know the Lord. Olivia really enjoyed getting out of the house and seeing people too.

We are looking forward to starting our 3rd week of homeschooling this week. It's going well so far! A highlight of this week should be our trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. I know that I can't wait! :-) I've heard great things! They are having Homeschool Days this week and offering $6 admission for each of us. We are going together as a family, so it should be a wonderful day. Well, I best go see what Olivia is up to and spend some time with her while Emma and Daddy are gone. Hope you all have a great start to a new week!

Works of God Monday

Today I thank God for providing the unexpected blessings. Dinner was provided for our family tonight by someone that I don't know very well. I met this sweet sister in Christ, Tina, last year at the first mom's night for our homeschool group, and we had a great time talking then. She hasn't been able to be very involved with that group, so I've only seen her a few times in the last year. I found out that she went to church with the daughter of a couple in our church. Also, her husband and a new guy in our church, Jeff, witness and hand out tracts at the courthouse building in our city. I had no idea. We helped Jeff out last month by housing some Australian guys who were coming to the US for evangelism training with Way of the Master, which Jeff is a trainer for. He wanted us and the Aussies to go to dinner with him and his wife one night. I found out on the way that Jeff's friend and his family were going to join us. Guess who walks in the door at the restaurant? You guessed it--Tina! We were both surprised to see each other, and everyone else is like, "You know each other??" Ha ha We got to share some wonderful fellowship that evening.

I wrote Tina recently to tell her about my girls' infections and to see if her kids had come down with anything after playing with mine. Tina knew we were at the beginnings of doctors visits with Emma then and heard her cough that night. We were all thinking it was allergies and asthma only. Ha! I was hoping her kids wouldn't have gotten sick with the same thing. Well, when Tina realized that we have still battled sickness here and that Olivia was quite bad, being up through the night lately, she just wanted to do something nice for us. She wrote me on facebook and asked for me to let her bring dinner and that she would be blessed to do it for us. Wow! WE were certainly blessed by her generosity and caring heart!

I have to say that I was really fighting discouragement on Sunday, not getting to go to church again and having this sickness go on and on with the girls. I've been very tired, and things have just been "getting to me." God used Tina to be a real help, and He also used His word yesterday to get me thinking like I should. It's been wonderful reading through the book of Matthew in the last week and seeing God's power. We serve that same God today and His love overwhelms me! I pray you know Him and are seeing Him work in your own life as well. Have a great week!

First Week of School

Well, we did it! We got started with school again. I have a 1st grader and a 4th grader this year. That's hard to believe! Both girls were sick--Emma getting better, Olivia getting worse. The girls were practically begging me to start school though, so how can I refuse such eagerness. Wouldn't it be great if that eagerness continues? I'll pray to that end. :-) I didn't want to push the girls and start school on "the wrong foot" with them not feeling well. I was kind of hoping to start on Aug. 31, but there was no way with all that was going on. Next we hoped for that Thurs., but again, we held off. That day was spent at the dr.'s office. Emma was so cute. She asked me last Sunday, "Mom, is it illegal to have school on a holiday?" I laughed and told her no, but I wondered why she asked. She informed me that she was feeling good enough to start school the next day--Labor Day! I knew we couldn't go anywhere, and I had everything ready to start school, so. . .we DID! I am going to attach some pics here for you to see. Both girls are doing the BJU press Hard Drive for school this year. It's been great for us! Emma used it last year. We are still part of Olive Tree Christian School, which is an Independent Study Program (ISP) organization for homeschoolers. We also are part of The Grove homeschool support group, so we have field trips, activities, etc. with other families throughout the year. We missed a park day with each group, but I think we will be well enough for us to go to the Trader Joe's field trip this week. Both girls are doing well in their new grades, and I am anticipating a great 2nd year of homeschooling!


The girls are ready to begin their new school year!


Part of our classroom


Another part of the classroom


Olivia's ready for first grade! Can you tell she didn't feel quite normal? She was so excited though and told me she couldn't wait until the next day when we were done. :-)


Emma's ready for fourth grade!


Olivia started with Bible. She watches each subject, but I am there with her. She is learning how to pause the program and do all of this with the computer. She's doing quite well!

Here is the "old pro!" :-) Emma is a lot more independent now. We set her up with an old monitor and 1/2 a laptop (she broke the screen when she was 3 yrs. old :-/) in her room. It may look funny, but it works well for our situation. The computer is just used for school.


Olivia working on a page--We moved her desk to be in front of the computer desk now.


Emma decorating her reading contest page--She LOVES to read! We moved this desk into her room to give her more room/desk space for writing.

Works of God Monday

Yes, I am back. :-) It's a LONG story, but I haven't been on my blog for quite a few reasons. The week that I started reminiscing about our move out here to CA and wanted to post more on that, I couldn't get into blogger. I have a draft saved from WEEKS ago that I was going to add more pics to of our farewell reception at Calvary, but it wouldn't let me post it. For the next couple of weeks after that, I still couldn't get blogger to work. I gave up and didn't think about it again for quite a while, and then life got really crazy! There were some overwhelming situations one right after another that took up a good bit of my time and emotions, and I did not want to get on the blog at all during that time. I am happy to say that God has definitely been working in our life here, in others' lives, and He is getting the glory!

The most recent difficulty here has been Emma's and now Olivia's sicknesses. Basically, Emma's lungs haven't been functioning well for over 3 weeks. I believe it all started with particles that blew in from the Santa Barbara fire last month that added to our already smoggy air. I have never seen the smog so bad since we moved here as I did in that week to follow. The dr. informed me that Riverside has more asthmatics than L.A.! She also told me that we are pretty much in the worst part of Riverside, as far as air quality, because we live close to several freeways that connect. After 3 office visits and an ER visit in between, Emma's asthma/allergy problems went into pneumonia (at least the "walking" kind). The dr. didn't even do a chest x-ray because she could tell Emma's lungs sounded bad, and she "hit" her with lots of meds to kill infection, get her breathing better, etc. Today is the last day for prednisone and zithromax, and we get to back off some of the other things completely or go to smaller amount--inhaled steroid, nose spray, rescue inhaler. Singulair will be our "friend" for a long time though. Oh, and doubling Emma's dose of that was not a good idea! She HALLUCINATED, two nights in a row! The first night was the really bad one though. I hate this much medicine but know we were desperate and had to do this. We haven't had one normal night for 3 wks. and have been so sad watching Emma suffer and struggle to breathe! We are going to have to build up her immune system for sure after all of this.

Olivia does not have quite the same problems as Emma, but she sure is coughing badly now, a very "junky" cough. It started as a dry cough just over a week ago. She was at the last dr. appt. with us last Thurs., and the dr. said that even though she had a cough, it was just allergies. I wasn't so sure about that then and am definitely not now. She's been on Zyrtec since last week and all she's done is gotten worse. :-( I'll be calling in the morning. We certainly appreciate your prayers for our girls. We would love to get out of the house, do something fun, be active, but that's not been best for them. I know this is just for a time, and I have had opportunity to grow through this and also have sweet time with Emma sharing God's love and faithfulness from His word when she has felt very discouraged and without hope. It is really hard to keep telling your child that you are doing everything you know to do to help her get better and watch no changes. Praise the Lord that we have seen some change in the last few days and think we've turned the corner!

In other news. . .Kris has encouraged anyone who wants to join him to read the New Testament in 90 days, following a schedule that he has. We started today, and I was so encouraged reading through the first four chapters of Matthew. We have an amazing God! Here is the blog Kris has started where he can post his thoughts as we read. There is a new couple in our church who has been coming faithfully for many weeks. They have not trusted Christ as personal Savior yet, but we have seen Him working in their lives and are so excited about the opportunities we have with them and their little girl. The wife asked Kris yesterday for a reading schedule to go through the NT with us! :-) Please pray for this family. Thanks! With that I'll close. Hopefully I'll be back soon! I have been so "stop and go" with my blog but hope to become more consistent. (Facebook has been my place of update on a regular basis.) Hope all of you are well and seeing God work in your lives. Grace to you!

Works of God Monday

What a big day today was for us! We took our "baby" and dropped her off in the middle of the Mojave desert for summer camp. I know Emma is not a baby anymore, but it is hard to believe that she is now the age of a junior camper. I am so glad that she has this opportunity. God provided through a couple of different ways for her to be able to go to camp this year. We praise Him for working out all the details. I know that this will be a fun week for Emma, and I pray a time for spiritual growth in her life. We were excited to get to meet the speaker, counselor, and several other staff members at camp today. It was nice that we didn't have to drop her and rush off. The workers were so welcoming and kind. They drove us down to the cabin area where we were greeted with lots of excitement. We were able to get Emma settled in her cabin. She was the first camper in that cabin to arrive, so she was able to pick out her bunk bed (top, of course) and then unpack a few things out of her suitcase. I hid a card in her sleeping bag after she got it set up on the mattress and was looking around at things with Olivia. :-) Speaking of Olivia, she is definitely missing her big sister already! Our girls' lives changed so much this year, and they have grown so close to one another. It's been a wonderful blessing. They always have been sweet to each other and played well even in MI. Now they are homeschooled and in a very small church with no kids their ages yet, so it's created a deeper bond between them. It will be interesting to see how things are around here this week, but I have some plans with Olivia. I'm going to enjoy some special time with her that we don't often get to have by ourselves.

I had our camera with me today, so I snapped some pictures before we left:


A true Western experience!


Excitement and nervousness all running through her. . .


The cabin she'll "call home" this week.


Posing with Miss Elizabeth, her counselor


Setting up the bunk bed she chose


Beautiful scenery around the camp!


Kris and Olivia stopping to pose during our exploration of the camp.


This is part of the room where Emma will be for services.


Here is where the kids eat their meals.


Emma can hardly wait to ride a horse! I tried to snap a quick pic on our bumpy jeep ride back to the parking lot and got a bit of the seat in there.