New week

Well, I have SO much to do this week. But I figure I'll sit here and type out a quick blabber or it will never get done, because heaven knows I'll barely have time to breathe for the next 5 days!

Thank you so much for your prayers on the fire. I appreciate them so much, as I'm sure so many others in Malibu do as well, even if they don't know. ;) Wow, what a weekend! As of this morning, the fire is 90% contained, praise God!!! 53 homes were destroyed and another 34 were damaged, it's so heartbreaking. Thankfully our apartment complex was perfectly fine, but it is so horrible to look at the addresses of destroyed structures, and just see this HUGE list of homes. BH heard on the news that there was one family that just moved to Malibu from Italy the day before the fires, and at that time they didn't even know if their home made it. :( But of course, the biggest blessing was that they were okay, and homes can be rebuilt.

A couple weeks ago when we visited Malibu for the first time since the previous fires, it floored me how different everything looked. We drove past Pepperdine University and couldn't believe how incredibly close the fire had come (right up on the lawn of this beautiful school!). There were several homes and a beautiful church that had been destroyed at that time, and it was so weird to drive through the canyon and see nothing but black, burnt trees and hillside. I took a few photos, so I really should post them (seriously- why do I take pictures? I never do a thing with them! lol). Now it will be so sad to drive through there once again (except a different part of the hills were affected this time) and see so much more destruction. In reality, the fire from last month was just as large (that fire burnt 4500 acres, whereas this was about 4700), but that one had only burnt 6 homes (and 2 businesses and a church) because it was mostly hillside. It's so sad. Even worse, the fire was caused by human activity. It just hasn't been determined yet if it was intentional or not.

So please, continue to keep these families in your prayers. I cannot even imagine losing everything I own in a split second, and being forced to start completely fresh.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and things went really smoothly. We had dinner over at my house with my parents, my sister-in-law and my nephew, and everything came out really good. I couldn't have asked for a better dinner! It seemed like we had tons of food, but really we didn't hardly have any leftovers! :) God provided the perfect amount, as He always does. My sister-in-law brought over a ham, green bean casserole and veggie tray so that helped me out a great deal, as well as tons of appetizers that my mom brought. So I was in charge of the turkey (my husband couldn't stop raving about it!), yummy sweet potatoes, rolls, corn, stuffing (homemade for the first time ever), and I think that's it. I actually had started garlic mashed potatoes, but they were taking too long so I just called it quits on that until after dinner. Now I have a TON of them in the fridge and they're sooo good. All in all it was a great day because I was really organized with it all, and I'm finding in my old age that I just have to allow tons of time to do things and I don't get overwhelmed. This all even included my dad breaking a glass in the middle of my turkey cooking, and causing me to slash my foot.

The rest of the weekend we just relaxed and did NOTHING. For a couple hours on Friday (you know, that black one) Big Hunk & I went to a couple stores while my SIL watched the kids, but nothing major other than that. It was a great weekend! I loved just having nothing planned and being able to enjoy our family. I think the only other time I left the house was yesterday- for church and to go shopping with my mom.

So today marks our new week and I'm looking forward to all the things planned. It will be a lot. Today I am moving the office back downstairs and the kids' playroom upstairs. When my grandma came to live with us last year we moved our office upstairs (when BH was still working from home) and what used to be my grandma's room is now the kids' playroom. But, the kids always have it SUCH a mess (not to mention every time we have guests their kids help mess it up but never help clean- augh) and I'm sick of seeing it down here. And, with my desk upstairs I am totally unable to organize or do anything because it is impossible to spend any time up there without the kids needing my attention and/or trying to kill one another. I am so looking forward to having order. :)

Well this has turned into a huge post, so I'm out.

Prayers

I just wanted to ask really quick if you would mind saying a prayer for this new fire in Malibu. It has been only about a month since there was a huge, devastating fire out there and so much of the beautiful canyons are covered in black- as well as old churches and beautiful homes. Now there is a huge fire again that started this morning, and they have evacuated the apartment complex that we have out there (my husband's company has a lease on two units). Before, the fire was far enough away that it didn't effect them. But now it's right there and we are praying for the people in the complex, the homes around, and the firefighters. They just said there is no containment at all and this just breaks our hearts.

I hate to see this area that has such a special place in our hearts be up in flames.

Thankful for it all

Happy Turkey Day!! I have been wanting to make a bit more organized post before now, but since it looks like that will never happen, guess I'll just settle for the thrown together type. ;)

Today was Big Hunk's birthday (39!) and we had a great day. Hopefully he feels the same way. We started off the day by letting him sleep in til about 10am (or later, I can't remember now since 12 hours have passed), then smothered him with a few presents as soon as he had the sleep wiped from his eyes. ;) It was totally his call to spend the day as he wished, but he was so sweet to choose to do stuff the kids would want to do, and we all had a blast. We headed out to Arcadia (where we used to live) to first see a movie, then went to this awesome play place that the kids would live in if they could. We stayed there for almost 2 1/2 hours (getting incredibly worn out in the process) and then ate out so the kids could fall asleep in the car during the 40 minute drive. They were so wiped out!!

I'm having a hard time this Thanksgiving. *sigh* It helps that I have the distraction of getting my house and food ready for Thanksgiving dinner, but it's still a sad time. First, tomorrow marks the 2-year anniversary since I lost my precious baby. :*( The approaching date has already been fresh in my mind, but it hit me hard when we were sitting at dinner tonight and Ever the Same by Rob Thomas came on. Every time I've ever heard that song, it has been a constant reminder of the little life we lost, and it makes me miss her so much. You see, it was the song playing on TV during my actual miscarriage, and it has been an extremely special song to me ever since. It's such a beautiful song anyway, but it just touches my heart so much. So hearing that in the middle of our dinner was kind of mood killer to an otherwise awesome day.

Second, because music is such a huge part of me, we will change this evening's soundtrack to Homesick by MercyMe. ;-) Ah, so many things going through this little head of mine. Well, as some of you may know, my grandma passed away on December 29th last year. She had been diagnosed with gallbladder cancer in January, and did pretty darn well until about September, when she went downhill rather quickly. On December 1st she came to live with us, and I had no idea how little time I'd have with her before she went to be with the Lord. Last Thanksgiving was the last time we all had together as a family before she got really bad, and when she was herself. I remember the day so clearly. My uncle dropped her off at my house and it was her first day using her walker because her strength was starting to go. She was so happy about being to eat a good Thanksgiving dinner, because for months she had deprived herself of the foods she'd loved because of the vomiting and nausea she had endured, but by now she was on medication to help and knew to just eat in moderation. We had a really good day. My grandma even brought Christmas presents for all her great-grandkids because she didn't know if she'd get to see them for Christmas. :*(



I have just have so many emotions right now, but I need to get some work done before I go to bed. I have a big dinner to cook tomorrow (woo hoo!) and still have stuff to do to my house before everyone comes over.

I hope everyone has a very blessed Thanksgiving Day!! Love you all!

To my one reader ;)

I have been waiting for 2 hours for Home Depot to bring my new fridge (that's not counting the 4 days I already had to wait! Come on people!) and it's killing me. They gave me that 4 hour window and stupid me rushed back at 10am thinking they'd be here on time. LOL Why is it we never learn?? I could have had all my errands run and my grocery shopping done in this time! But I guess I can't complain because I did get my kitchen completely cleaned top to bottom (both today and yesterday, it was THAT bad- not dirty, just disorganized) and mopped today. And cleaned out the old fridge so it can be moved into our garage.

I have felt SO swamped lately. And there's no particular reason that stands out to me as to why we are so much busier than normal! As it was, I missed my Bible study Tuesday morning because Big Hunk needed to go to Malibu and so we just stayed out there for the night. We'll be doing that again tomorrow morning and I'm missing a servants seminar at church on Saturday morning, for which I feel quite guilty. Then they kids have their usual Awana meetings on Wednesday evenings, but no new, unusual activities that are taking up our time. I think that if Mikey weren't homeschooled I would have a bit more free time (to do errands or things around the house), but can't dwell on that. ;) All I know is when I look at my house, I see nothing but a to-do list a mile long. I actually had to make a list yesterday of day projects I need to get done! Stuff like cleaning out the garage (an ongoing project that is still not done), hall closet, etc. That fun stuff.

Well, guess I've done enough rambling for right now, and I should get back to my house. I want to completely wipe down the old fridge so I don't have to do it later, and I haven't started any laundry yet today. *sigh* If we are heading to Malibu again tomorrow, I'd like to make sure I come home to a clean house!

Great day

It's so funny that we couldn't go to Big Bear yesterday because it was too cold to take a boat on the lake (61) so instead we headed over in our shorts and flip-flops to a different lake in the 92 degree weather. Who says we don't get seasons in Southern California?? We just get them all in one day! ;)

We had a great weekend, though it went way too quickly as they always do. Hunkie let me sleep in yesterday and it took us a while to get out of the house, but we headed out to this new, man-made lake. It was gorgeous and so peaceful. We were only out there for about an hour and 20 minutes, but it was just what we needed to spend time alone, enjoying our little family.

Today, despite the time change, we decided to go to the 3rd service at church instead of our normal 2nd, so BH could sleep in and we could relax a little. So I hung out with the kids this morning (and headed to the store for some much needed coffee creamer! I'd gone without long enough!), and we all left about 11am. We had originally planned on just relaxing today and not making plans, but when we saw my parents at church it turned out my mom wanted me to go shopping with her. Seems to be our new Sunday tradition. ;) We shop while the guys watch football! It's a win/win! lol

Well, just wanted to pop my head in! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

late night

It's been so impossible to even tackle in my blog all the things that are going on, so I haven't even tried. How in the world did we get to be SO busy, seemingly overnight?

Now it's 10:30 pm and I'm exhausted, so don't expect much from me. ;) I'll be shocked if I make sense at all! We got home from couple's study a little while ago and the hunk is playing XBOX (something he rarely does), so I figure I'll stop breathing down his neck and let him enjoy himself. lol

Gosh, where do I even start? Well, our dog Roxy almost died two weeks ago, how about starting there? ;) She's 5 months old and came down with Parvo, but didn't show any signs until we were on the long 7-hour drive to AZ to see my stepson. We kept hoping it was just something she ate (being a puppy, it could have been anything!) but when she was getting worse instead of better I got extremely worried. My normally rambunctious, affectionate puppy wouldn't even lift her head- let alone get up- when I called her. So, late on a Saturday night in a strange town I headed to the emergency vet to find out what was going on. Poor thing would barely walk to and from the car. :( I felt so horrible for her. None of her symptoms gave the vet a red flag at all (being her stool was not bloody, as are most parvo cases), but I agreed to the parvo test just to rule that out. I thought for sure that we would have to do test after test (resulting in a hospital stay) to determine what was wrong- I was shocked when the test came back positive!! So because she was severely dehydrated from her constant vomiting, diarrhea and non-existent appetite, she stayed there right away to get an IV and meds to help her fight this- as well as get rid of the nausea. (Are you beginning to get an idea how much this cost?!) I was SO worried about her! I never dreamed before Roxy that I would ever be a dog person, but my goodness how I love that dog. I have bonded with her more than I thought possible and she's my little baby. ;-) Anyway, she stayed in the hospital for two nights/one day. And it cost almost the same as one month's rent. But you know, I wouldn't change it for a second. When we picked her up (on our way back to California) she already looked so much better, and within just a couple days she was a million times better. Now you can't even tell she was ever sick. Such a horrible experience that I would never wish on any pet owner!

The kids are doing well! Mikey LOVES school (aka our dining room table) and is doing so amazingly well. He has already learned the entire year's worth of sight words that I had planned, so we're on to the bonus words! He is such a smart kid, something I can take no credit for. He just has such a precious heart; he is such a sweet kid. So many times lately he surprises me by offering a toy or game he's playing with to his sister (when he could so easily tell her no!), or wiping down my kitchen table because he knows it gives me less work. :) It is just breathtaking as you watch, almost overnight, these kids grow into these strong beings that take in so much around them. He amazes me with how perceptive he is about things I so easily take for granted!

Ikey is the little diva of the house, and she wears her title proudly. We are currently trying to curb the snotty mouth when she doesn't get her way or wants something NOW, but she is such a sweet girl at the same time. So many times she will say "Mommy, I want to tell you something in your ear" and will then whisper "You're the most beautiful mommy in the whole world!" She melts my heart. Lately she's also been saying "I want to be like you when I grow up." Well, either that or Belle, it changes often. ;) It's just so cute to watch the kids together, their mutual adoration is just so sweet. I love watching them hold hands in the car or see Tommie lay her head on Mikey's shoulder when they're watching a movie. My cup overflows.

Big Hunk & I are doing well, but the poor guy is so busy! His business has been so blessed, and now he is so excited to be opening a new venture in his business. Now instead of doing just weekly/monthly vacation rentals, he will also have another part of his business that does vacation memberships. Basically, people will buy a yearly membership at any of the offered price levels, and with that will get a certain amount of time in any of the beach houses available. It's a bit more complicated than I'm making it, but that's it in a nutshell. Suffice it to say I am just so proud of my husband, and I am continually blown away by his brains and business knowledge. You could never know by looking at him that 1)he's never owned a business before, and 2)he has only been in business a little over a year. God has undoubtedly had His hand on this business from day one, and we are overwhelmingly thankful.

Well, just a lot of surface updates there, but I'm so tired tonight. :) I need to post pics of Halloween and stuff, so I'll see if I can get to it tomorrow. Who knows? We were thinking of heading up to beautiful Big Bear, but it's a tad chilly so I doubt that will happen. But, I hope everyone has a very blessed weekend!!