I have an amazing opportunity this February to serve in an orphanage in China. It is called Morning Star Family Home. An American couple, Bill and Lynsay Lewis, run it and take care of babies that have medical and surgical needs. The goal of the Morning Star Foundation is to provide each child they touch with the best medical care available, treating each child with the same love, care, and prayerful thought as we would our own children when making decisions that affect their daily life, health care and future. They provide the children a home with medical care they need, including raising money for their care and any procedures or surgeries they might have. In China, this is harder than it sounds. Sometimes the children are even taken out of the country to get the care they need. Recently one of their children had heart surgery in Israel, because they had no one who had the expertise to do it in China. If you want to, you can find more information at www.morningstarproject.org or visit their blog which has links to their website at www.morningstarproject.blogspot.com .

My opportunity to serve with them comes in February. February is the Chinese New Year and their staff all go home to celebrate with their families. They have volunteers come and take care of the babies and that is what I will be doing. I will be going from February 8 – 17.

First, I would like to ask you to pray for me. I know the trip will go more smoothly if I have many people praying for me back home. I would also ask that you keep Morning Star in your prayers. I will also need to raise the funds for the trip. The main portion of the cost will be the airline ticket, which is approximately $1100.00; I will also need to get a visa that costs $130.00. The remaining cost is only about $45.00, which is $5 a day for food. So the total cost is about $1300 total for this trip. If I raise any extra money I will use it to buy supplies to take with me. If you would like to donate to my trip please make a check out to Flipside church and mail it to me in the enclosed envelope. I will then turn it in to the church.

I would like to thank you for taking the time to consider being a part of my trip. I know God has great things in store for me during this trip!

Carmel with Paul

Paul and I went to Carmel for our 12th anniversary. We had a great time. My pictures are backwards sorry. I'm still trying to figure out how the downloading works. It was beautiful and we got lucky with perfect weather. We went to the Monterey Aquarium and the next day we went to Pebble Beach and the 17 mile drive. The last day we drove down the coast on the way home. I feel so lucky to live in such a beautiful state.




















































This is what we came home to. The kids worked very hard to make our homecoming nice. Devon especially has a hard time when we leave but she wanted to make our homecoming special. She cut out all the letters herself and Nicole and Merrick helped with all the signs. Devon also made us a card that poured on the guilt. She told us how she cried and cried when we were gone because she missed us so much. I just have to remind myself that one of the best things I can give my children is a strong marriage. I also have to keep reminding myself to enjoy the fact that she wants to be with me and Paul because, we don't have many more years before she doesn't want to.

Look at the fancy food which was really good by the way. It was nice to go to restaurants that we usually wouldn't because there would be nothing that the kids would eat.

Merrick never wants to leave...

During the summer I turned 16, in 1988 I went on a short term mission trip with an organization called Royal Servants. I think it was an 8 week trip and it was a huge defining moment in my life. I think that is the summer that God became really real to me and my faith became my own and not my parents. I went again the summer I turned 19 (1991), this time as a discipler which is like a counsler. I had 3 girls in my tent, Noel, Cydil, and Jessica. I lost touch with Jessica and Noel a long time ago, but I knew what Cydil was up to due to yearly Christmas Cards. When I joined facebook I tried a search and I found Noel. In fact she and her family came to Disneyland for a couple of days last month and I met up with her and got to meet her family and introduce her to my kids. If you look on my facebook profile there is a picture there of us and our kids which are coincidently the same age as mine. Probably a week ago I was contacted on facebook by my discipler from my 1988 trip and since then have gotten back in touch with around 5 other people from that trip. So I have been talking to my kids about my trips and showing them pictures of those trips. I was sitting with Merrick at the computer on Friday looking at a newly found friends facebook page and explaining to him who she was and how I knew her. I made the comment that I would really love if he and Devon were able to go on a trip with Royal Servants when they were older. He got a worried look on his face and asked how long the trips were. When I told him they were about 6 weeks now, which is about a month and 1/2, his eyes welled up with tears and he said he didn't want to leave me and Paul for that long. I assured him that he didn't have to leave, but that when he got older he would probably want to. That thought is unbelievable to him. I enjoy moments like this when both he and Devon want to stay forever because I know that in not too long they are going to be teenagers and they will be dying to leave. So I guess this is kinda a double post. I wanted to write down a little laugh I got from my son and my excitement with finding old friends.

New link list

I have to send a Thank You out to Carrie. I noticed on her blog was a list of her friends blogs and it had when the blog was last updated and the title of their new post. I finally remember to ask Carrie how she did that. She told me how she did it and I came home and did it. Yeah! Now I don't have to click through my whole list, I can see who has a new blog ready to read.

San Clemente

We went camping to San Clemente on the President's day weekend. Our kids had friday and Monday off. We left after school on Thursday and we took Lauren and Gracie with us. We were a little worried since it was forcasted to rain all weekend but we figured we'd try it. We were only an hour and 1/2 away if it was too miserable we could always go home. On Friday we went down to the beach and the girls almost immediatly ran to the water. They were only suppose to get their feet a little wet, but of course that didn't work out all that well and those waves are sneeky, so it wasn't too long until all 3 girls were soaked. It wasn't sunny, it was overcast and
cold. That water must have been cold! (I, of course did not test the water). Merrick mostly played (rolled around) in the sand until it was almost time to go, then he too ventured into the water where a sneaky wave got him soaked too! That was a fun walk back to the trailer.







We also did a lot of bike riding and some hiking
too! Did you know that if you ride your bike when it is raining or through puddles the back wheel kicks up mud in a stripe along your back. Did I mention the kids rode through every puddle they could find. We had a ton of wet muddy clothing. I had brought extra clothes and I wasn't sure that we were going to have enough dry clothes. It rained lightly off and on Friday, but Sat was beautiful. The sun was shining and there were a few fluffy white clouds in the sky. In fact everyone got a little sunburned on their faces. Sun was overcast and cooler but no rain. The only day it really rained was Mon. Paul sacrificed himself and went out in the rain to put everything
away and hook the trailer up. The rest of us stayed dry and warm in the trailer. Our only casulaty was our awning. It was windy and rainy on Sun after we all went to bed. The awning, while not the original one that came with the trailer was pretty old and starting to rip at the pressure points anyway and the storm was a little more than it could take. I'm hoping we will have a new one in time for family camp at the end of April. So if you are at family camp you can come and see our new awning.

Tagged

I was tagged. You have to go to where you store your pictures and pick the 4th picture from the 4th folder. I got 2006 Christmas pictures. The 1st one is my 4th picture but it was a test picture when Paul was still setting up the lights, so I added a couple other pictures from the folder I liked. Merrick is posing like he saw Devon posing, we have a few of him posing like her until he realized that boys don't pose that way.











Devon has always been my fashion model. She can be grumpy and mad but when Daddy pulls the camera out she is smiling and posing.















Merrick is not as excited taking pictures and I'm pretty sure Devon was trying to get him to do something he didn't want to. I have so many more pictures of Devon because she loves to pose and smile but Merrick is just not that in to it. I love his face in this picture.













Photo shoots with dad are always fun. I think we ended up using a picture like the last one with them dancing for our cards.

It's that time again...

So a couple of years ago I was really unhappy with my weight so I joined Weight Watchers, and I did really well and I lost a little more than 30lbs and I felt great. I wasn't down to my goal weight, but I figured I knew what to do and I could save the money I was spending on WW. I kept the weight off for a while but I have gained it all back in the past year. So, once again I am unhappy with my weight, my clothes don't fit right any more, and I am not feeling all that great anymore. So I'm heading back to WW. I need that accountability of stepping on the scale every week. When Paul tries to keep me accountable I despise him (lol), isn't it funny how that works. I will go to my first meeting next week and I am dreading stepping on the scale. I am also dreading the first week. It was not fun last time because I felt hungry the whole time, and I am not looking forward to that this time. It only lasted about 1 week, but it wasn't fun. I am looking forward to losing the weight again. I am not brave enough to give everyone my starting weight or post one of those before pictures in a bikini (I seriously doubt anyone wants to see that), but maybe I will post an after picture (I can pretty much promise that it won't be in a bikini). So wish me luck on my weight loss journey!

Paul's pictures

My husband never ceases to amaze me with the pictures he takes. I always wish we had a bigger house so we had more wall space for all the incredible pictures he has taken. He helps me see God's creation in a new way. Thanks babe, I love you!

3 days of Christmas and New Year at the Beach Condo

Yes we had 3 days of Christmas, which actually works out really nice since we aren't trying to cram everything into one. On Christmas Eve both Paul and I had to work so we ended up going to my mom & dad's for a late lunch/early dinner. It was nice we all got to open presents and then I got ready for work and everyone else went to Christmas Eve service. Devon and Merrick sang in both the 6:00 and 11:15pm services. When I got home Christmas morning around 7:50 everyone was sound asleep. I knew if I layed down it was all over so I was stomping down the hall and trying to make a lot of noise, but the kids were so tired they slept until 8:30 - 8:45. If you notice in the picture, Devon has pj's on, which she put on that morning, and Merrick has on his clothes from the day before which he slept in. They were both asleep by the time they got home.
We opened presents and then I went to sleep for a couple of hours. Then we went to Paul's brother's house for dinner and more presents. The next day we went to my sister Deanne's house for my extended family. We decided that there were too many of us trying to do 2 families on Christmas so we moved our Christmas celebration to the day after and it is so nice. On Tuesday afternoon we headed down to Oceanside to spend the next 4 days at my in-laws beach condo. It was so nice. The beach pictures ended up on the top of the page, sorry. The kids had a great time playing in the sand. I took a couple of pictures right after midnight on New Years. The kids actually fell asleep about 11:30 so I woke them up. Merrick didn't want his picture taken because he popped a popper in his hand and it put him in a bad mood.



























On Friday we went to the San Diego Zoo. My mom & dad got the whole family passes for a year for the wild animal park and Zoo. We had a lot of fun but it was a little cold. I will post some of Paul's pictures of the beach and Zoo. He got some awesome sunset pictures the first night we were at the beach and some great pictures at the Zoo too. We actually saw a couple of the Koala bears moving. Usually they are just sleeping gray lumps in the trees. What was really cool was that one of the moving Koalas was a mom and her baby. All of Paul's pictures are on his laptop so I will have to post from there. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years! I'm hoping that 2009 will be a good year!

Christmas already!

Here is the required Christmas tree picture. I also have a hodgepodge tree. I think it is hard not to have one like that when you have kids. Of course I am so sentimental I have always had a tree like this. I have ornaments from when I was little and ones my grandma and mom made. The kids and I wrapped presents last night. It's nice that they are able to help now, of course , as you can see, we love gift bags. I decided to go with mostly gift bags the year I was up until 3am wrapping presents on Christmas Eve.
This is my Christmas Angel that I love so I decided I'd post a picture of it. I got it in the early 90's from FAO Schwartz in Chicago. I pulled it out every Christmas and put it in my room, but it didn't get to be a tree topper until I got married, when it bumped Paul's lighted Christmas star off the tree.
This is the Stocking I made for Merrick for his class on my new sewing machine. I thought it turned out cute so I took a picture for my blog. I have this weird thing were I feel I can't blog if I don't have a picture, which of course isn't true, maybe my next blog will have no pictures on purpose so I can get over it.
Now onto the title of my blog. I feel like this year Christmas just snuck up on me. In fact I did a big chunk of my shopping yesterday and Sunday. Usually I maybe have 1 or 2 gifts still to buy that late but not this year. I hate going shopping that late. I told Paul the other day that I still have so many gifts to buy it's making me feel like hyperventalating. I also have to work Christmas Eve this year, which I haven't had to do since I started working, so that is going to be a bummer. It makes it hard because Paul works too. I told the kids they couldn't open their stockings without me, so they are going to have to wait until I get home. I'm hoping they will still be sleeping since they will be at the 11 o'clock Flipside service, but I am pretty sure that's just wishful thinking.

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving was a little different for us this year. Paul's family was all up in Cambria at his brothers house so we just had my family to celebrate with. My extended family (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) decided a couple of years ago to celebrate holidays on the day after the holiday so we actually get to spend some time together instead of all rushing off to multiple familes in one day, so that celebration was on Friday. Thursday we went to my parents house in the morning and they made breakfast for us. A little later we went to help serve lunch with my parents. Then we went home and had our own Thanksgiving feast. I pulled out my good china and silverware. I love these plates but I never use them. I have decided since the kids are older it is time to start pulling them out for special occasions. The kids were so excited about the plates and candles and fancy cups. We had steak, mashed potatos, and salad. For dessert the kids and I had made a cheesecake the day before.
Devon decided that her stuffed animals needed a Thanksgiving feast too so she and Merrick set their own little table.
Everyone enjoying their dinner! Of course I didn't take any pictures the next day. I need to start putting my camera in my purse and taking it out and carrying it around so I take more pictures. The next day was our big feast and the kids love hanging out with all their cousins and it is so nice to not have to worry about leaving for the next party.
PS. I have some funky underlining in the beginning of the post. I don't know how it got there or how to get rid of it since there is no underline button on the editing toolbar. So just ignore it.

Los Rios Ranch

Merrick went on a field trip to Los Rios Ranch in Oak Glen a couple weeks ago. First his group got to tour the apple orchard with "Johnny Appleseed". One kid kept yelling "He's dead". He told them a little about the apple trees, but mostly he talked about the animals in the orchard and how they ate the apples. His favorite thing to do was show the kids bear poop.





Next they got to go see the machine that washed
and sorted the apples. The thing was huge, old, and noisy.











Last they got to make apple cider. Which they
didn't get to drink because the school won't let them since it's not pasturized. I bought some from the store and it was really good. It's sooooo much better than the stuff you buy in the store. Each of the kids got to put in about 3 apples each. They grind up the apples, then use a press to press all the juice out.






The last picture is of Merrick's class. His teacher
is the mom of one of Devon's best friends in school. We met when our girls were in kindergarten. She is a great teacher and I love that Merrick is in her class. It was perfect weather the day we went. It turned out to be a really nice day.