Halloween!

So the kids had fun but I was quite the hag. I put on my witch hat and that was quite fitting. However, it got better....it was good to walk....talk with Marcia....see all the cute kids out in their costumes....watch my kids faces light up when they opened the overflowing candy bags!

Here is Kade and Trevor as beat up soccer players.....they've been planning this since soccer season started




And Keira and Jennaye as Daphne and a cheerleader

Fire Storm

Today is so eerie. It's only about 2:30 in the afternoon but it's like night.

All of the fires around SoCal and 60 mile per hour winds have created a very creepy atmosphere. Streetlights and headlights are on.

The air is so thick and glowing and orange red, beautiful colors but you know they are being created by disaster elsewhere. The pictures tell the story - I did no photo editing to these. Praying for an end to this soon.

More Catching Up

Soccer has started! Well it started like 2 months ago but since I haven't been keeping up, it's new here!! Kiki's team in the 'Pink Sparkly Puppies' and mommy is the coach. They are actually doing really well this year....and even though we're not supposed to keep scores or stats - we do have a winning record. hheehhee

Kade is on the Cyclones this year and they have an incredible team. Watching them play is exciting. These boys have skills!

But of course there is a little competition going on in my house between my kids. Who will score the most goals this season? Right now little sister is ahead with 4. Kade has 2 but has less of an opportunity to score since he's usually playing goalie or fullback. Keira has 2 more games......Kade does too but he also has playoffs to try and and catch up. We shall see who is victorious and of course the only prize is bragging rights!

Catching Up

So lots of things have happened this fall and I am way behind. So let's start with this one.

Kiki started Kindergarten!!

and Kade started 4th grade!!!



I cannot believe how quickly these 2 are growing up!!

Need to Talk - Don't Know What to Say

The above is one of my favorite quotes from Grey's Anatomy. Do you remember how great it was being a kid? All we had to worry about was making sure we were in by the time the street lights came on.....making sure we strung the right pattern with our macaroni beads....just all the random things that then seemed huge. I wish that was what was huge now.

But now we're grown-ups...and with being a grown-up comes grown-up crap....death, infidelity, divorce, disallusion, disappointment, illness, loss.....some of these have touched my life....some have not....some have in a round about way......

I look at my husband and my kids and I praise God for my life. And then I'm on my knees praying for the hedge of protection He can provide them from 'the flaming arrows of the evil one.' I am just overwhelmed lately about the spiritual battle that is raging around us.

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood,

but against the rulers, against the authorities,

against the powers of this dark world and

against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

Ephesians 6:12

But I still am going to keep praise on my lips because there's hope. I am finding peace in reading the Psalms right now. Songs of sorrow and joy....and hope.

ECO Wednesday

I like to think that I am an environmentally concious person. My dad calls me a 'hippy' but I think that's a bit too far....I do shave under my arms and I can't stand bare feet. There are things that I do that I am sure are not fantastic for the environment so I try to make up for it So I have decided that on Wednesdays this will become ECO blog. Not sure what form it will take but I'm going on the ride nonetheless.

So for the inagural ECO Wednesday I thought I would share some of the things we do in my household to try and be good stewards of the beautiful earth.

Recycle! Yep, everyone does it I'm sure. But it should be more than the bottle and the can. We break down every cardboard box and container, toss in every newspaper and magazine....even junk mail!

Take your own bags to the market. Let's quit using all those plastic bags at the grocery store. I have some great canvas bags I take with me. And one of my faves is one I got at Trader Joe's. It's insulated so the cold foods stay cold.

Buy local. I know there's a debate on whether or not organic food is good for the planet in the long run. But I do try to buy meats and dairy products that come from animals that have not been treated with hormones. I just don't want to feed it to my kids. And I love buying our produce at the Farmer's Market. It supports the local farmers and nothing beats a tomato fresh off the vine in my salad.

Plant Something. Get that fresh oxygen flowing. Plant something in your yard once a month.

Okay - so those are some of the things I am trying to incorporate into my family's lifestyle. How about you? Any ideas I can add?

Who Am I?

So this is a blog challenge from Liz over at EBB Creations . It's supposed to be an introduction about yourself. I guess I assume if you read my blog you know me....but maybe there are some things about me you don't know. So I guess I will share some 'deep dark secrets'.

1. I am extrememly claustrophobic and have serious space issues
2. I can't eat food if it still has bones in it
3. I have owned 8 cars in the last 20 years
4. I have been rapelling - Australian style.
5. I've spent a lot of time in school....I have an Associate of Arts degree, a Bachelor's Degree in Business Managment with a Minor in Finance, California Real Estate License, California State Teaching Credential with a Clear Credential and a CLAD Credential and a County of Ventura Level II Technology Certificate.
6. I have a 3 inch scar on my right foot from getting my foot sliced open when I was 2....broken glass in a lake.
7. I am enthralled by clouds.
8. I could never be a podiatrist or beautician because other people's hair and feet creep me out.
9. I eat plain yogurt and granola for breakfast almost everyday.
10. My nickname in Jr. High was Ralph.

Now what about you? Tell me something I don't know about you!

12 Years!!

4,380 days , 105,120 hours, 6,312,600 minutes......that's us!

She's 5!!

Back from Chicago!!

G and I got home from the Windy City last night. It was weird...we flew in together, then he and I got into different rentals cars and went our different ways only to pull back into the rental return at the same time yesterday am! For G, his trip was many hours/miles in the car - Chicago to Champaign-Urbana to Indianapolis to Peoria and then the return. For me it was Chicago-Schaumburg-Rosemont but I also found myself on the tollroad to Milwaukee by mistake more than once!

G golfed and I went to the scrappers eye candy store - CHA!! Can you imagine it? A whole convention center filled with scrappers and their accoutrement? I picked Kathy up at the airport and we were off. Many adventures to share - I'll have to post those later. Here are a few of our goofier pics -

Kathy and the talented Tim Holtz ------




Self-portrait at the Cloud Gate in Milennium Park...I think Silver Kidney Bean would be a much better name!





Cruising downtown on the blueline during the late hours......




That's it for now. More later. Because in less than 48 hours this family is back on the road again and there is laundry and grocery shopping to be done!

Have a great day!

Champions!! And a plug for the power of prayer

Look at these boys!! Champions of the Summer Kick Off Baseball Tourney 8U!! What a great weekend of awesome baseball! Kade had some defensive plays that were unreal...in fact he caught a long fly to center to end the game which was amazing. Of course I got a little weepie!

But what made me even more weepie was the little guy in the back row on the right. Do you see him? With the patch on his eye? The fact that he is in this picture, standing with his teammates is a true testimony to the power of prayer.

At his first at bat of the day he was hit in the eye with a pitch. The boys had been clocked throwing between 45 and 50 mph that day. When he went to the ground he wasn't really crying, but the words that came out of his mouth were more terrifying - "I can't see." His mom, who is an ER nurse, and his dad scooped him up and took off for the hospital. His dad called me with updates all throughout the morning...broken nose....burst vessles....torn muscles....and the worst - the don't know if they will be able to save his eye.

So we prayed....and prayed hard...parents and fans for both teams....also for the little boy who had thrown the pitch. All the while we didn't want our boys to know how bad things could be. They won the first game and then were to advance to the championship game. They knew their teammate and friend was in the hospital and wouldn't be back so they hung his glove at the entrance to the dugout and touched it each time they went out on the field.

The game was a battle....and our boys battled hard. They got to the 5th inning and just busted it open. The hit and hit and hit and scored 9 runs. Then my phone rang again and it was Larry. The doctors were going to release Reese and he wanted to get back to the game. Did he think I could get them to hold off on the awards ceremony until they got there? I would sure try! The announcer announced to everyone that the injured player was on his way and could everyone be patient just for awhile. After a bit the other team started getting restless so they were beginning the ceremony and then I saw this..........

They were there!! Everyone went crazy! The players mobbed him...the parents and fans wept. An amazing day! Reese's mom said to me, "He shouldn't be standing here getting this trophy right now. With this kind of injury. If it weren't for the prayers on his behalf....this is all because of prayer."

So if you pray, you can continue lifting this family up. There are still many medical appointments in the very near future for this little guy. And there are still no definite answers as to his prognosis...but yesterday...prayers were answered...and tomorrow they will be too!

This is my kid!

I just was cleaning out my email inbox and found an email from Sara (thanks!) with a simple message "This is your kid" and this picture. Yep - he's all mine!! heehee

Happy Birthday Gram!

Happy Birthday dear Gram! I miss you so much. Even more so today. I'm wearing my Union Jack t-shirt in your honor today. Some will look at me like I'm unpatriotic....you wouldn't like that...with how much you loved your adopted homeland.....but then I remember that there is no sadness in heaven....and for that I am so glad....things have happened in the last few years that wouldn't have made you happy....especially between me and Pop.

Things have been said....by both of us....things that can't be taken back......you know the 2 of us are so much alike.....but we have completely different opinions about what's happened....and who is right or wrong....I've admitted my part but you know Pop better than anyone.....I haven't even spoken to him since Christmas....and even then he could hardly look at me across the table....I wonder if it's because he really is mad...or maybe feeling a bit guilty....sad....who knows....I want him to take responsibility for his part in this though....to feel that he should be held accountable.....

You would have been happy though to see all of us together....except Raymond and Pop....up at the beach house.....Mike & Amber and Hailey Lauren....Brian and Reece....my mom and dad...Eric and his fiancee Jen....Kimmy, Evan and Austin.....Greg, Keira, Kade and me....Keira made sure to remind everyone that it was your birthday! Dad and the boys were all out surfing....40 years since your #2 boy had been on a surfboard! We thought about you during all of the fireworks. Brian and Reece even went out to the cemetary and lit some off for you.

I miss you Gram............

Happy Birthday Sparky!

Yep - my little guy is 9 today!

Hi There!!

Haven't posted for awhile....life gets busy! I came across this video today....I totally dig it!

Music Video:WORLD ON FIRE (by Sarah McLachlan)

Music Video Code provided by VideoCodeZone.Com

Budding Artist

Tonight was Kade's art show. They've been working with a professional art teacher this year which I love! So glad that his school and his teacher value art! They got to pick their 2 favorite pieces to show....and we got to buy them! He calls the one in the picture Grassy Forest and when you come to visit me you'll find it hanging in the family room. His other piece was called Cloudy Moon Night and Greg is going to hang that one in his office!

Does it really start this early?!?!

I came home from a friend's house the other night to find the kids all snug in their beds - and Keira clutching her Princess Wishes diary. Sweet! So I asked her about it in the morning and her answer was "Oh, mommy, it's filled with all my privacy things."

EEK! Already?!?!? So of course, being the good mom I am, I read it when she was out playing. I love her version of 'privacy things'....it's a list of the words she knows how to spell and drawings of her family. Hope it is always that sweet!

Looking for Something to Do on National Scrapbook Day?

NSD and Cinco De Mayo!! What could be better! If you don't have plans, some hang out with me at EBB :)

Here is the scoop straight from the top on the events happening at the EBB Scrapbooking & Crafts Center in Simi Valley for NSD on Friday May 4th and Saturday, May 5th. Upcoming class schedule will be posted soon. You can also pick up a class and event calendar in the store for full details. Any questions or registration please contact the store at 805-582-9150.

All Month Mon. – Fri. 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Free Cropping

Events
National Scrapbook Day & Cinco De Mayo Celebration Saturday May 5th
5% store discount on all merchandise
Spin the prize wheel with every purchase

Classes
10% off all purchases on class day

Paper Flower Class
Sat. May 5th 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
This class is for all levels of scrappers
Instructor: Julie Bergman
Includes Coffee, Orange Juice, Tea, and a morning snack $15.00

Friends Mini Album Class
Sat. May 5th 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
This class is for all levels of scrappers
Instructor: Kathy Wise
Includes Coffee, Orange Juice, Tea, and snacks $15.00

Explosion Mini Album Class
Sat. May 5th 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
This class is for all levels of scrappers
Instructor: Melissa Hancock
Includes Coffee, Orange Juice, Tea, and snacks $15.00

Crops
10% off all purchases during crop

Friday Night NSD Crop
Fri. May 4th 5:00 p.m. to Midnight
Snacks provided Hourly Prizes (spin the prize wheel and win) $20.00

NSD / Cinco De Mayo Crop
Sat. May 5th 5:00 p.m. to Midnight
Catered Event by Baja Fresh burritos, taquitos, salad, chips, and salsa will be served for dinner Hourly Prizes (spin the prize wheel and win) $30.00

You can call to sign up or visit the website at www.ebbcreations.com

Heroes Leading Us Through Dark Times

Got these two tidbits from Glenn today....a must read story and a must see video. So I read and watched and contemplated.....then went to Yahoo to check the news....great to see that our top stories were that Hugh Grant is in trouble for throwing baked beans at a photographer and Richard Gere is considered a lewd kisser!


Heroes leading us through the darknessLA Daily News ^
04/24/2007 BRIDGET JOHNSON

ALONG with exposing the darkest side of human nature, the shootings at Virginia Tech last week reminded us that there are true heroes among us - like Holocaust survivor Liviu Librescu, a professor who blocked his classroom door to allow students to escape through the windows.
After the Holocaust, the Romanian Librescu - whose career stalled, said his son, for refusing to swear allegiance to the regime - risked arrest under the Communist system by having his science papers published in the West, until intervention from the Israeli government allowed him to immigrate there in 1979. "This saga epitomizes the life of an entire generation, which has known two of the harshest regimes of history and then reached the promised land of freedom and prosperity during the era of the 'end of history,"' friend Gedeon Dagan, a professor at Tel Aviv University, wrote for the BBC on Saturday.

"The tragic death of Liviu comes as a sombre warning that this might have been a temporary lull and that brutal and dark forces are once again casting their shadow on society."
Indeed, the communism that imprisoned Eastern Europe is not done with humanity. And the heroes are not done battling it.

Last Thursday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously approved a resolution introduced by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., demanding human-rights reforms in Vietnam. At the center of the country's shameful record is Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Roman Catholic priest and editor of a pro-democracy publication who was sentenced March 30 to eight years in prison simply for peacefully opposing the Communist regime.

After hearing the verdict in this farce Vietnam called a trial, Father Ly shouted "Down with the Communist Party of Vietnam!" - and was then dragged away. Like most events nowadays that threaten tyrannical regimes, this stirring moment was caught on camera and distributed across the globe on YouTube.

Other "conspirators" sentenced along with Ly likewise vowed to continue to fight for democracy and freedom. One of these dissidents, Nguyen Phong, who received a six-year sentence, founded the Vietnam Party of Progress to work toward open, peaceful struggle against the oppressive Communist Party.

In a letter to the international community penned after the March 30 verdicts, Phong wrote, "In the face of this utterly unscrupulous behaviour by Vietnam's communist government, I am just an ordinary human being. But I am firmly resolved not retreat before this unjust court. I am firmly resolved to struggle even more for freedom, democracy and human rights.
"I am ready to offer my own personal suffering in exchange for these values for Vietnam."
Father Ly has spent much of his life - about 14 of his 59 years in prison, before this latest sentence - suffering for the cause of Vietnamese democracy and human rights. Ordained a priest in 1974, Father Ly was jailed by the regime by 1977 and spent a year behind bars. When authorities tried to remove him from his parish by force in 1983, surrounding the church, Father Ly got on a loudspeaker and rallied the local population about the need for freedom of religion. Catholics and Buddhists united around the church to try to keep authorities from arresting Father Ly - which 200 policemen eventually did, throwing him back in prison.
The priest has been sent to a labor camp, defied orders from the government to cease religious activities, and planted himself firmly on land to be seized by the government. No amount of police surveillance, harassment, cutting off his phone line or, frankly, prison time has stopped Father Ly. Despite a ban on leaving the country, he submitted testimony to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom for a 2001 hearing, resulting in another arrest by 600 policemen storming his church.

"If the United States and other countries truly sympathize with my ill-fated people and truly care about human rights, especially the right to religious freedom, of the Vietnamese people, you must not help the Communist Government prolong its totalitarian rule," Father Ly wrote in the testimony urging the U.S. to nix a trade agreement with Vietnam.
These are my heroes: Librescu, who stood up to evil throughout three dark chapters of history, and Father Ly and company, who continue to stand up to the darkness of an evil and repressive regime.

Librescu, who leaned against a door and took five bullets so that his students could live, and Father Ly, who languishes in dank confinement - again - so that his country might be free.
Bridget Johnson writes for the Daily News.

The YouTube link on Father Ly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dzk1WmmHoBI

It was a Great Night!

We had such a great time last night - I think G really was able to enjoy himself. So a huge thanks to Dave, Tracy, Clint, Gina, Glenn, Liz, Rachel, Jeremiah, Luke, Roy, Zya, Mimi, Elijah, Eddie, LaDonna, Lily, Tommy, Dara, Alex, Celeste, Dan, Katie, Kim, Gabby, Lynette, Ian, Sue, Brian, Scott, Cathy, Bryan, Sarah, Dan, Sara, Avery, Bobby, Sandra, Ren, Amanda, Tara, Sean and Sam for coming out and helping us celebrate!

This picture captures the highlight of my night though....when Miki came....just for a minute....to tell G she was thinking of him and loves him....and was happy to see him happy. That was the best!

So here are pics from all our fun....and here is a warning....the pictures suck! Just like Tommy told me, if you think you are a bad photographer you will be....and I was!!