Canyon Life

Junes almost over. Schools out, summers on, the schedule is about to get crazy. Next week we start summer sports camps through our church. I oversee, and my kids assist the counselors, except Matt. He's still young enough to be a camper. First up is baseball camp. I love sports camps. There's nothing like running around with a hundred or so kids and playing fun games, sweating up a storm, and then finding creative ways to spray them with water so they don't overheat. 

Fathers day, at the beach. Football in the waves with dad. Do you know that my husband is the best dad in the world? No? Well now you know.

Fathers day weekend, Friday night. We went down to Doheny to fish and do some s'mores. James caught his very first fish. It was a barred surf perch. He was pretty stoked.

Brett's getting that fishing bug back as well. Lake fishing never seemed to be too productive, but ocean fishing. Oh dear. You just never know what you are going to catch. This night included two lobster.

Ty and James.Knott's Berry Farm, choo choo train. Staring contest.

Stagecoach ride, Knott's. The boys look so excited. Brett took an impromptu day off this week, and we went to ride some coasters for a bit. I wonder if we'll ever grow out of loving scary rides? I hope not.

 Practicing a skit for Camp Compass in Amman, Jordan. Only two more meetings to practice, then we leave. The final details are getting worked out, and I am getting nervous. Mostly because I have never been on a trip overseas, and I've never been away from my family for this long. I know it'll be fine, my moms coming out to help Brett, my kids are old enough to be self sufficient anyway. And of course Brett is fine on his own, but I'll miss them. I got my international phone stuff all handled tonight, Skype is set up, and my list for packing is done. Brett is loading my iPad up with some movies and my kindle will have a few books. I wonder if I'll be able to sleep on a flight? I'm going to bring benedryl just in case. That stuff knocks me out.

Oh yes. Can't forget about more adventures in hospitals with my youngest. This kid. I tell ya. He woke up with a mystery illness two weeks ago. All broken out in a rash, eyes swollen shut, face swelled up. It was BAD to look at. Of course Matt didn't even complain, said it didn't bother him. Took him in to the doctor, she said poison oak, but wasn't positive. Uh. Ok? Poison oak on a kid who hates tromping through nature? Well, it got much worse. So we went back. Another doctor looked, and was again unsure. She sent us to the ER, where he was hooked up faster than you can say ouch to an IV. Blood work done in record time, admitted to a room, where another doctor walked in, looked at Matt, and said, "chicken pox". Excuse me? But he's had the vaccine! It doesn't look like chicken pox! The doctor said this was a nicely mutated version, happens when you have the vaccine and get the virus anyways. Wow. They gave him some meds for comfort and Matt missed his last week of fourth grade. He wasn't sad about it, he got honor roll and his class sent a big get well card. Matt was happy to be quarantined with some video games. He's such an easy going kid.

Day four of crazy chicken pox. I won't post a picture of what day five and six looked like. It totally amazes me how good he looks now, just some marks and a few healing spots. Crazy how the human body heals.

Chasing chickens and roosters at Knott's.

Last week, friends camping at Doheny invited us down to fish. They caught two bat rays. Like I said, you just never know what you are going to pull out of the ocean. They also got a shovel nosed guitar fish.

Brett's first ocean catch, a yellow finned croaker.

Knotts. Matt went on his first looping coaster. He's hooked.

These new tiny baby kittens like to sleep on your face. Mostly Brett's. 

James got baptized. He went up and shared his testimony in front of hundreds of people. James gave his life to Christ almost two years ago, but he waited to get baptized, and I'm glad he did. I thought I was a Christian when I was his age, and I sure was not. I wasn't regenerate until my later twenties. James' has really shown a changed life. If you don't know what baptism is, Jesus commanded His followers to get baptized after you become a Christian as a public acknowledgement of your commitment to Christ. It doesn't save you, it's an act of obedience. It symbolizes the washing away of our sins with the blood of Christ. I always wonder, if I read about Christianity, not knowing anything about it, and stumbled across an explanation of baptism, what would I think of this practice? I'd probably think it was weird. It's so funny, once you read the bible, in context, with all the history behind each book, the politics, the way society worked at the time, it sure is not what I thought it was. Baptism makes sense in the context of Christianity. Have you ever read the bible? There's a story about a talking donkey in it. No joke. There's a whole book about sex. It's a depressing account of the human race, how gross we are, how evil we are. And the people back then, thousands of years ago, are no different than today. Self centered, self serving, manipulative, gossiping, lying, cheating thieves. All of them. Just like us today. There is no hope for the human race, that's why Jesus came. To save us, because we can't save ourselves.

June! Love summer, love love love it. I am excited for the next few months. Kids are out of school next week, then we jump right into summer camps and a crazy work schedule. My mom is coming to visit, as well as both my brothers, and maybe we'll make it up to Reno. In a few weeks I leave for my big trip to Jordan, and we are in the final prep stages for that. It's already been a chaotic last few weeks. 

Last weekend we had a little baby shower for a friend, she's having a girl. Everyone is having babies this summer. I used to think I wanted another baby, but working with babies all week will cure you of that.

 Bike riding is a new favorite thing. Lots of my friends are picking up the hobby and we are riding the trails in the canyon and elsewhere.

 Oh my Candice. She just cut off and donated all her hair. She's never had short hair EVER. Brett almost killed her. Apparently I'm a bad influence.

Brett took the day off last week and we had a great walk in San Clemente and breakfast afterwards. I love stolen morning dates like this.

We finally hit the beach with the kids a week ago too. Was a beautiful day for swimming and boogie boarding. It's funny, the kids never want to go to the beach, they drag their feet the whole way. But then, they get there and have a great time. I guarantee if I asked to go again tomorrow, it'd be the same story. They won't want to go. So weird. When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was hang at the ocean.

This weekend the Jordan Team had to go up and present ourselves to the congregation. We also had a meeting to discuss the curriculum, review the daily schedule, figure out who's staying where and get our itinerary. It's going to be insanely busy and awesome.

Finally got all three of us to Disneyland, a miracle. The schedules never work out to where we can all hang at the same time.

Beachy beach. San Clemente State.

Different Disneyland trip with Sharon.

Ninja. She's new at our house. She was an orphan at a vet's office my friend works at. Itty bitty baby kitten, six weeks old. The kids are in love.

Petunia, Ninja's lil sister. Two kittens. We officially have a zoo. 

Walky walk on beach.

These girls are fantastic. 

Middle of May is here. FOR THE LOVE OF PETE! Ugh. Time flies when you are a senior citizen. Mother's Day was yesterday, and what a nice day it was. I worked til the afternoon, came home to a few surprises and a husband who worked tirelessly on the house and projects and a fancy dinner. Then he let me sit on the couch and not move for a few hours. That never happens, since there's always something to be done, someplace to go, someone coming over. I played xbox and drank sparkly spritzers. Awesome day. 

In a few months, I am headed to the Middle East. My husband is staying home with the kids, and letting me travel half way across the globe for two weeks with a group of 11 other people from my church. We have a sister church over there, and we are putting on a camp for the kids. I am really excited. A few of us have been writing curriculum, organizing crafts, snacks, games and other fun stuff to do. It's been busy with work and training for this trip, and we still have a lot to do. I think Brett wishes he was going now, I wish he was too. Except for the plane ride. He won't miss that. He hates planes.

My cat ran away. I think we all know what that means here in the canyon, but I'm going to pretend he found a cave to live in and decided to be a wild animal instead of a house cat.

Nests are everywhere right now, this one fell out of the carport.

 Brett and I have been shooting a bit again, we rented some new guns to try. A Sig 9mm, and an 1911 .45. I liked the grip on the Sig, Brett's severely in love with the 1911. We stopped by the gunsmith on the way home and had the trigger weight changed on my gun, so now it isn't as hard to fire. I hope to try it soon.

This is what I came home to on mothers day, a little herb garden, all done by my kids. Note the wonderful little things they wrote on the pots. Funny boys.

This is my last week teaching at church for this semester. I'll miss these little boogers. 

 We had a pig party for some classes at church over the weekend. They were having a fundraiser, winning class had cupcakes and other treats, runner ups got pig pops. My kids and I stayed up til midnight making 350 pops. My kids are awesome.

 Mother's day weekend is also the weekend we host the annual women's tea. This year my friend and I had two tables. We had a perfume bar at each table, the ladies took home custom scents in hand blown Egyptian bottles. That was fun. The decorating didn't turn out exactly as I planned, but that's ok. It was all kinds of fun. My mom is in Texas, so my mommy's identical twin came instead, since she lives nearby. My oldest son got to wait on us. He does it every year. Good kid.

 A text I got from my nine year old in the late evening. This kid. Seriously. He makes my life insanely more interesting.

Like I said, this kid. Here he is pretending to be the pearl in an oyster.

This was my husbands idea of a wonderful mother's day dinner. Most meat groups are accounted for. He cooked it all himself, and then made dessert too! He also cleaned the house, built a some structure, went shopping, and did some work. He's a super man.

We got a new espresso machine. Heaven. I'm drinking a cappuccino right now. With four shots of espresso. And a spoonful of condensed milk in my steamed milk. I've been doing that a lot lately, husbands idea. Tastes fantastic. I'll be remembering this delicious cup of hot beverage at 2am, when I can't sleep and I've run out of books to read. I already have run out of books to read. Yikes. I better start sweeping Amazon in search on something new to throw on the kindle. Or maybe I'll just read Jane Eyre again. I have a lame habit of getting a new book the minute it comes out, staying up late into the night to finish it, and then by morning I have no book to look forward to. But I can't help it! I love reading. I love it so much. It's how I relax before bed. Except for the very recent introduction to that Downton Abbey mini series, I never watch TV. I don't know why. The only time it's on is when we climb into bed at night, and Brett puts on the news. Or lately its been the home shopping network, they've been showcasing all these knives. Cracks me up, how many different types of pocket knives can there be?? Hundreds, I've learned. You can get like, thirty knives for thirty bucks. He's convinced we are going to give everyone knives for Christmas. 

Look at poor Tyler this morning. So tired. He just loves school.

Know what this is? It's a team. A team headed off to someplace in the very near future to do some stuff. Yep. I'll tell you sooner or later. Unless you already know.

Well hey! There's Tyler again! Making balloon animals at the ministry fair. Tyler is full of weird talents. Ask him to shuffle for you.

This was the commissioning of new pastors for a new church. I loved this night. So awesome to be a witness to this brand new lamp stand in a dark place.

I renamed my cat. He's just Kitty now. Because he's not around enough to have a real name.

Mmmmmmmm. Vietnamese noodle bowl.

Brett's mouse catching gloves are so busy.

Girls night out with some of the ladies from our bible study. We went to dinner and a play. Love these girls.