Spring Haiku

My friend, Jenny, loves poetry and is hosting a haiku challenge on her blog. She will be giving away a free Pamp*red Ch*f product to one person. Here is what I left in her comment section:

Spring equals "achoo"
Beautiful flowers abound
Thankful for Zyrt*c
:-)

It's funny because Emma just learned about how to write a haiku this year. She wrote one this winter. Here it is:

Snowman

White from head to toe
Bundled up in scarf and hat
Icy cold is he

She made a cute snowman on her paper too. :-)

Works of God Monday

Kris was putting door hangers out in the community last summer, and a lady who received one contacted us. She shared that just days before getting our info. she had been thinking about the necessity of finding a church to go to and thought it would be good to "enroll" her daughter in Sunday School. She was contacting us to find out what she needed to do to have her daughter come. We gladly told her that they could just come. Their family had not been to a church, but there was some religious background with this mom going to church in her younger years. She really has wanted to know God and believes He has a purpose for her/their lives. What a wonderful opportunity we have had to show Christ's love to this family and point them to our great God. Her little girl is close in age to Olivia. We have enjoyed having another child join us for Sunday school and children's church and have loved sharing God's Word with her. It has been exciting to watch this little girl grow and understand more of the Bible. I am so happy to say that yesterday, she wanted to trust Jesus as her Savior and prayed with the children's Sunday school teacher!
Please pray for us as we have continued opportunity to reach out to this family. May Christ be the One seen and glorified!

A Child's Opinion on Age

This morning I called a family in our church and needed to ask the mom a question. She wasn't available because last night she was out shopping with her daughter and didn't get to bed until around 1 AM, so she was still asleep. Olivia was near me when I called, so I explained the situation to her. I then told her how fun it will be one day when she's older and we go out together on shopping trips. In all serious (and even with a look of concern) she says to me, "But Mom, when I am a teenager, you will be an OLD lady!" Wow! Maybe she thinks it's a super long time until she's a teenager. I know that it will come sooner than I can imagine, and I sure am cherishing this time in her life and the funny comments that she comes up with.

Making Memories

We just enjoyed a wonderful visit from my parents that seemed to end all too soon. They came at a beautiful time of year! The weather couldn't have been more perfect, and the views of the mountains were spectacular--not always possible during the year due to our smoggy area. We first enjoyed driving across and seeing the desert, as I went out to AZ to pick my mom and dad up there from my aunt's house. We also went to the mountains and the beach while they were here. It was just a great variety of landscapes and temperatures all so close to where we live.

I am so thankful for the fact that my parents have been able to come out to see us 3 times since we moved to CA. It's hard to live this far away from family, but God has blessed us in being able to spend more time together than any of us probably ever anticipated since we left MI. We were able to be with them in SC this past Nov., and we are all making plans to have a family reunion in MI this summer. I'm so glad that my girls know and love the only grandparents that they have. This morning was difficult for them when they woke up and knew that Grammy and Papa were gone. They had a sweet time of goodbyes last night though, and today we reminded ourselves to focus on what we did have and not dwell on what we don't. Here are some of the pics of them all enjoying time together during the last 11 days, starting with the most recent:



Enjoying refreshments during the intermission of the girls' play that they made up and put on for us


Emma and Papa before the play


Olivia and Papa before the play


Girls with Grammy for our girls' lunch at Mimi's


Enjoying a ride at Disneyland


Afternoon in the mountains where we saw snow and visited Lake Arrowhead


Grammy and Emma at a tea room in AZ


Olivia and Grammy at the tea room

Beautiful Sights

Here is what we have been able to see all around us since the storms of last week have passed:


We like to drive up a local hill to get a panoramic view of the mountains surrounding the valley. Here you can see the San Bernardino Mountains to the left and the peak of another straight out. I think it is San Jacinto.


Big Bear is a big winter sports area that we have yet to visit. You can see it here--the biggest peak, I believe, all covered in snow.


This gives another shot of the San Bernardino Mountains just further to my left. A family from our church lives up there and drives down to worship with us each week.


Here is where the San Gabriel Mountains and the San Bernardino Mountains meet. The Cajon Pass runs between them.


Zooming in on the beautiful San Gabriels


Same view, zoomed out


Driving back down the hill, I asked Kris to stop so that I could get this shot of the palm trees against the snow-covered mountains. Nice combination, eh? We have a lot of variety in this area!


Another view of the San Gabriel Mountains as we were headed home. The green you see here is only going to be like that for a short while. Normally everything is brown. This is our "green time" of year!

Works of God Monday

Ten years ago today our hearts broke with the news that Kris's mom had passed away. While there was deep grief that day, there was also a relief that we felt knowing that Mom was not going to suffer one more day. She went home to Heaven to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Knowing that God does not make a mistake and has a plan better than we could ever understand brought peace in the midst of a very difficult storm. What an amazing blessing to have God's Word, His sustaining grace and strength, a wonderful pastor who came right over and shared Scripture and prayed with us, as well as godly family and friends who were so loving and helpful during that time! Mom had been battling cancer for almost 3 1/2 years, but now she could rest. She was only 57 (5 days away from 58) years old. Emma was 7 weeks old the day Mom died. We are so thankful that Mom got to have Christmas with all of the family just weeks before passing away. She met Emma and gave her a beautifully crocheted "baby" blanket that she made and finished that week we were all together. The blanket is actually huge and is folded at the end of Emma's full-sized bed. We will treasure it always!

Today we made a special effort to remember Grandma Stephens with the girls. We shared fun stories and memories. We made some of Mom's delicious recipes, written in her handwriting for me to show the girls, and watched the little bit of video that we took of her during that Christmas trip. We had just bought a new camcorder because we were becoming parents and didn't want to miss anything. :-) I just wish we had kept it on more during those last moments we had with Mom. We are thankful though for what was captured on tape! The girls enjoyed watching Mom and Dad, as he is gone too, and getting a true glimpse of what they were like--hearing the sound of their voices speaking and laughing, watching them interact with different family members. It was a special day today, and I am so thankful that Kris can tell our girls of the godly heritage that they have. God is good, all the time!

What's Shakin'?

Well, there has been a little too much shakin' going on, in my opinion. I was awakened this morning at approx. 4 AM due to a 4.3 earthquake. Now I know that the veteran Californians think that it's no big deal, and I know that 4.3 is considered a "light earthquake," but it is the 2nd one we've had this week! This past Mon. during dinner we had a 4.3 as well. Thankfully the epicenter for both were not directly under us to make it scarier and/or have anything fall. I had trouble getting back to sleep and had to go check this site that gives excellent info. on CA earthquakes. I found out that I wasn't crazy. Btw, as you look at that map, are you surprised at how frequent the earthquakes are? I was when I found out last year. We have so many on a regular basis but most are considered "micro earthquakes."

Last Jan. we experienced a 4.5 quake that was within a short distance from us and it shook us pretty good. We watched our grandfather clock, CD towers, etc. just rattle like crazy! Typically though, earthquakes of this magnitude do no damage. A friend from church who has grown up here told me on Tues. morning that it sure seems like there have been more earthquakes over 4.0 since we moved here than she can last remember. Wonderful! :-) I haven't even talked to her about this morning's. We personally have experienced SEVEN earthquakes that could be felt since we arrived in SoCal. Two of those were under 4.0 though. I'm just glad that none were bigger than that 5.4 we experienced within a couple of weeks of our move. For this all still being so new, it is so unnerving to think of the earth shifting and shaking everything. I definitely struggle with that fear of damage, more specifically loss of life, that could occur from a strong earthquake. We certainly have seen what can happen, as we watch all of this coverage on Haiti's disaster. Thankfully we have strict building codes here though that would protect us better. But really, Who is our Protector? I just need to remember Who God is and claim His promises! Psalm 46 came to mind this morning. If anything else, being awakened suddenly with the rumbling sound and some light shaking of things, I was reminded once again to pray for the people of Haiti. That's a good thing!

Praying for Haiti

My heart (as I'm sure yours is as well) has been so heavy for the people of Haiti. I've watched the incredible coverage done by CNN over the last few days and cried over people's suffering, rejoiced at rescues, and prayed for these poor people going through unimaginable trials. We've also praised God for the finding of people we know who are in Haiti and their safety through it all.

I also think of the spiritual needs of the Haitian people and pray that they will hear the Gospel and trust Christ Who loves them and can heal them. We know that God is sovereignly in control of all things and is good at all times. I came across two things that I want to share with you this morning:

1. Please read this whole article.

2. I found this on Holly Straton's facebook today--Jesus is in your house of mourning, dear Haitians. "He is w/ you in your bereaved grief. He goes w/ you to the grave to weep. Spiritual blessings will bloom around that grave, far more beautiful than flowers w/ which you deck it, if your sorrow draws you to Christ, making you acquainted w/ Him, the weeping & sympathizing Savior, the loving Friend & Brother, born for this crushing adversity." -O.Winslow

Works of God Monday

Romans 8:28--And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. ESV

I am thanking God today for these truths from His word. We started our family Bible memory for 2010 with this verse. God has given us good opportunities in the last week to be reminded of what this verse teaches us, as we have been challenged personally as well as heard of friends who are going through deep trials at this time. I pray that we all will have our confidence in God and remember that He makes no mistakes! He often sees and knows things that we know nothing of and is working His perfect will for our lives. We may think things are bad, or not how we would want them, but all of it works for our good (conforming us to Jesus Christ). That is the best thing possible for us. May God be glorified through every circumstance of our lives!

Our Start to 2010

Well, I hope 2010 has started well for you. We enjoyed New Year's Eve and coming into the new year by hanging out at home with the girls, playing some games, and watching a movie. We even went out front and took some pics before the Christmas decorations were to come down:





The girls were fading as the evening wore on, but they would get a burst of energy (probably from our laughing at Night at the Muse*m) and then assure us that they were going to make it until midnight. :-) Here they are trying to stay awake:




Well, they made it! Here is the first picture of 2010:



We enjoyed sleeping in and taking it easy on New Year's Day. Of course football was on, and I made wings for Kris, using the new Buffal* Wild Wings sauce (Caribbean Jerk) that I got him as a stocking stuffer. I enjoyed them too! The girls stuck with mild sauces. :-) Then as the weekend went on, we took the Christmas decorations down and started getting the house back in order. We had a great first Sunday of the new year with an introduction to our theme for the year--Love God! Love People! Kris took that Sunday to teach specifically on loving God and then today on loving people. Of course we want to grow in these areas and see these commands from Jesus lived out by His grace well beyond 2010!

A big step taken at the beginning of this year was putting an offer on a house! We still have not heard anything because it is a short sale (normally these take many months), but we did find out that a previous offer had been put on the same house in September. Those people pulled out, but it got the paperwork going. That means we may not have as long of a wait. We appreciate your prayers on this matter.

Before getting back into the swing of things with school, we took the girls to Disneyl*nd for a day of fun. I surprised them by asking our friend, Ruth, to join us. The girls didn't find out Ruth was coming until the morning we were going. They were very excited! Another exciting thing about the day was that Olivia got to ride Californi* Screamin' (an awesome roller coaster) in Disn*y's California Adventure. She's been waiting to be tall enough, and she finally measured up! :-) This roller coaster launches you so fast at the beginning and even goes upside down, but it is one of the smoothest roller coasters ever made. It is definitely a family favorite! I'll end with some pics from our day at Disn*y:


Emma and I always try to make a different silly face each time we ride. :-)


Olivia was NOT tall enough for the Maliboomer, so she and I watched.


Some of the Christmas decorations were still up!

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