Canyon Life

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.

I was thinking today, I want to start a journal. For a year. I want to write at least one line in it everyday, for one year. Then I want to look back over the trials and joys of the year and see how God grew and stretched me. I want to see what God does in the course of a year.

The next coming months are going to be crazy. Crazy busy, crazy exciting, crazy fun, crazy stressful. I am EXCITED. I am SCARED. Some things are coming up that I want to write about. I want to journal the journey. JOURNAL THE JOURNEY. I'm going some place new. I'm getting out of my cozy Orange County bubble. I'm leaving my house for a far, FAR, away place this summer to do some good hard work.  I'll write more about it as things start to happen. But for now, I want to start a journal.

Anywho, on to other things. Here's some pictures from my phone this last week.

 Does your cat sleep like this? We have three dogs and a cat now. It's practically a farm up in here. Since we live in the forest, we tried keeping the cat locked up in the house for the night to prevent his getting eaten by, oh, I dunno. Bobcats? Coyotes? Mountain lions? All of the above? Problem is, by locking Kitty in, the dogs are also locked in, so they've been having accidents in the house. Yuck. So now we've been keeping the doggie door open, Kitty goes out all night, fingers crossed no one eats him. The problem now? Mice. Kitty brings in mice almost everyday. 5am seems to be his favorite time to bring them in. Brett now keeps gloves on his nightstand so he can get up and grab any mice and throw them outside. It's way fun.

Does your youngest son watch TV like this? I love Matt. He's just so weird.

My youngest son is also a smarty pants. Last week he got a bunch of medals for scoring very high in all his STAR testing for the last three years. Straight A's, very organized. Just like his dad. Matt has a huge concern for quality and timely work.

Yard vermin. There goes the neighborhood.

My good friends birthday! Love her. A bunch of us took her over to Slater's 50/50 in Huntington. They're famous for bacon related foods, which we all seem to love. That cake right there is bacon chocolate cake.

Yes, I ate all these burgers. 

Sisters and sisters and sisters.

This was life BD. Before David. Chris was much more manageable before David came along.

Chris and his wife Kim, David in the back. Life AD. After David.  Chaos.

The one good thing about having brothers, video games were a constant, and I loved them. I still have not met a female who can match my skills on first person shooters, or Mortal Kombat. Brothers are good for that. And soccer scrimmages. Also, when stuff got broken in the house, it usually worked to blame them. Just kidding! Maybe. And I guess Chris and Dave make good uncles to my boys. Alright, ALRIGHT. They ARE good uncles. Just took me awhile to realize how nice siblings can be.I guess we've (and by we I mean me) matured over the years. I've learned there can be pros to having brothers.

“The next best thing to being wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are.”~ C.S. Lewis

Easter! Done! Sheesh. That was a busy one. Lot's to do at church, lot's to do at home. I love Easter, but even more than Easter, I love Good Friday. I love the remembrance of what Jesus suffered for me on the cross. All so I could stand in front of a holy God. Did you know that? Do you even know what that means? Jesus died as a propitiation for my sin. And I don't deserve it. I'm not a good person. I never will be. I will never be good enough to go to heaven. But Jesus was. He led the perfect life, He NEVER sinned, and he sacrificed himself, the spotless lamb, in my place. And now because of what HE did, I can go to heaven. Insane. Amazing. Grace. LOVE. My God is so good. 

I know, I know, you don't even believe in God. You think I'm crazy for believing in a man who called himself the Son of God. But I ask you, have you read the bible? Have you studied the facts of history? Do you realize that there are over 250 DOCUMENTED prophecies that spoke of Jesus' coming in the old testament? Hundreds of years before Jesus was even born? Don't believe the bible? Too many historians can prove that the words of the old testament are dated accurately. There's too much proof that Jesus was who he said he was. But you can do the research yourself. I did. I didn't ever want to believe in something because I was told to. The more I read, the more I am convicted daily. The bible is not all stories. I always thought it was. Wow. Wrong. It's history, it's love, it's tragedy, it's the ugliness of the human heart. 

Think you are a good person? Really? Ever lie? Ever cheat? Think bad of someone? Wish harm on someone? Gossip? Lust after someone else's spouse? Sin Sin Sin. Fits of anger, bad attitudes, selfishness, drunkenness, the list goes on. God calls it sin, and NONE OF US can be called good people. NOT ONE. We are all prone to sin. God can see into your heart, doesn't even matter if you actually DO the sin, if you think it, that's just as bad! Because that's what is in your heart! We can't do enough good deeds to atone for our sin. There is no measuring stick available to see if we've done enough good in this world to get into heaven. We fall short. God cannot abide being around sin, that's just His nature.We can't stand in front of God in our sinful state. That's why Jesus did what He did. He died on the cross, as the sacrifice for OUR sin. He took the punishment meant for me, so that I CAN stand before God, blameless. God calls it love. Do you love anyone enough to die for them? To be flogged, beaten within an inch of your life, drag a giant wooden cross almost a mile, have nails hammered in between the bones of your wrist and ankles to support your own weight, and then slowly suffocate to death? Not to mention the humiliation of doing all this naked, being spit on, stoned, laughed at, and mocked. Could you do that? There's nothing in this world that can satisfy me, there never has been. Gratify, yes, sometimes, momentarily. But not satisfy. Only Jesus filled the holes I had in my heart completely, and I am eternally grateful. 

 Here's some pictures from Easter, I didn't get that many, I got home late and totally forgot to take more. Brett's sister came over with her family, and my newlywed niece Candice and her sweet hubby Josh. They were a crack up, I am so excited to see them grow together in marriage.

This is the music team at church. I'm the assistant to the kids music director, and this was a rehearsal for Palm Sunday. These kids are awesome.

Murder mystery party, airsoft wars in the canyon, boy cuddling with puppies in a holy blanket, favorite niece got married, shooting dates with friends. All good things. Thanks March!