An arteest.

I mentioned in my earlier post that Mikey just had his last art class today. He took a 2 day a week workshop for the past two weeks from this AMAZING artist that we have come to adore. We met her for the first time down at Spirit West Coast last month in San Diego, but turns out she lives just a few miles from us. :-) I love this woman. Never have I met a more talented, God-loving and God-serving artist in my life.

Well that day we bought two of her paintings. We must have visited her booth 12 times that day in between concerts, and we loved ALL of her artwork so we couldn't decide what to get. So we started out with this cool patriotic painting that she had actually just painted the day before (at SWC) that Big Hunk loved. We immediately took that out to our car and pondered our next one. lol It was a hard choice!

She had so many others that we LOVED. Several different types of Jesus' profile (my favorite being one that was red, green & yellow- very me); two separate paintings of a boy and a girl on their knees praying; a beautiful painting with a monarch butterfly... We seriously were giving ourselves ulcers. Well, after our gazillionth visit we finally made up our minds. We had decided on this:



A picture could not even begin to do it justice. I fell in love with it at first sight, but you can't truly appreciate it and all it means until you watch this. (Seriously. Watch it! ;))I was in complete awe and love with it from that moment. It just has so much meaning. The finished product at the very very end of the video is what we have- but the video is what makes the painting so amazingly special to us. And what is even more awesome about her paintings is that every one of them has things hidden. This one, for instance, when you look at it from an angle (so that you can see the light reflecting off the glaze) has several words scratched into the surface like heaven, joy, forgiven, etc. It's so beautiful. Other paintings are painted over pages of the Bible, or have mustard seeds painted into it, among other things.

So naturally, when we found out she was doing summer workshops for kids, we couldn't pass it up! Even if Mikey decided that he didn't like art that much after this, the fact that we'd have 4 originals of this legend made it worth it. Something we'll definitely treasure forever!

But turns out Mike LOVED his art classes and Charlene is madly in love with him now, and we may even sign him up for a second session later this summer (next week if Mikey has his choice). (When I picked him up from his first class she said she just wanted to make him cookies. lol) And he did so well!! I think he really needs to do stuff like this- get out with other kids and have someone other than his mom teaching him all the time. I love homeschooling, but I think just a couple times a week once in a while he needs this. He created 4 paintings- a Monet style of lilypads in a pond; a tuscany style with a house on a hill; a still life of a pitcher of flowers (probably his best) and a small red white and blue one of some blue stars on a white canvas. Click here to see Charlene's video from today, with Mikey on it. :) He's the cutie with the lisp. And just you try not to fall in love with him too!! (I keep watching the video over and over again, and he is so freaking cute!! Gosh I love that kid.)

If you like Charlene's work, her website is www.worshipthruart.com She also puts up new videos on YouTube and GodTube every Thursday, so you can even subscribe to those to get emailed when she has a new one. She is one awesome woman!!

Q: Melody? A: Absent

I haven't posted here in ages. There has been a lot going on in our lives, so this blog has been the least of my worries.

The kids are well. Ikey just celebrated her 4th birthday yesterday and her party is this weekend. To say she's excited would be the understatement of the year!! We began counting down to her birthday probably about 2 weeks ago, and she was the happiest girl when we woke her up with our singing (I know, yikes) yesterday. But she still refuses to believe she's 4 until her party, and she is looking forward to her party more than I've ever seen her excited for something! It's so cute. She keeps asking me "How many sleeps Mommy?" and she corrects me every time I say "party" by saying "No Mommy. My birthday pawty." LOL We are having a Littlest Pet Shop party but Mommy has been a real slacker. Normally I am all gung-ho with their parties but with getting back from vacation 2 1/2 weeks ago, Mikey's K graduation and all the other chaos surrounding us, she's getting minimal. ;) But we're having about 35 people over (over half of those kids) for swimming, lunch and a pinata.

Mikey is doing well! Like I said, he just graduated Kindergarten! I really need to share those pics. Well, tons of pics actually. He just got done today with an art workshop with our new favorite artist Charlene Rice (check her out!! We <3 her!!) and he did so well. She fell in love with him, understandably. ;) She only lives 2 miles from us, though we "found" her when we visited her booth at Spirit West Coast last month in San Diego. She is an AMAZING artist and we adore her!! We bought two of her awesome paintings that weekend in SD, and can't wait to get more! But now we have Mikey originals and those are even better. :)

Anyway, Mikey's birthday is next month, and he'll be 6! He's so happy to be all done with school for the summer and did SO well last year. I can't believe he'll be in 1st grade now!

Well, I need to get things done for Ikey's party this weekend: pinata and loot bags filled, food planned, etc. Bye!

Tornado watch

We are in Michigan right now; this is actually our last night. For the past week we had been staying in Northern Michigan but drove back down to Detroit this afternoon for our flight tomorrow.

I know that tornado watches aren't a big deal to a lot of people that live out here (or other areas that have them), but I will just say they scare the crap out of me! Just like people always say they could never live in CA because of the earthquakes, I always shrug that off because we get SO few- and ones that are never too serious at that. But why is it every time I come to Michigan there is severe weather?

Last year (to the day) when Mikey & I came out here with my mom, our first night at my grandpa's house we had massive thunderstorms and supposedly a tornado watch. I was so nonchalant before we went to bed (and before the storm hit) but when I woke up at 2am to loud thunder and almost constant lightning, my teeth were chattering and I couldn't stop saying the name of Jesus! Now, here we are again and as we sat at the Tigers game I watched the evening sky go from a beautiful blue to an intimidating gray.

I can say though that I feel safer here than I did a few days ago! At least here we're on the bottom floor of the hotel!

I know we'll be fine and the more massive storms are hitting in IN, but I'll be happy to be away from this. :)

M to the I

Today is day 5 that we've been up in northern Michigan visiting my grandpa. We have had the BEST time and though we're not leaving here until Friday, I am already missing it here so much.

In the 5 days we've been up here we have rafted 10 miles down the Au Sable River, visited Mackinac Island (my new favorite place on earth) and biked 10 miles- and bought tons of fudge!, went bowling, kayaked and went out on the paddle boat, and have gone to our favorite ice cream house twice (so far!). Yet with all the fun we've had and the time we've spent with my grandpa and his wife, it is all marked with a hint of sadness because I am so so sad to be leaving here in two days. I already miss my grandpa so so much.

I feel like I could spend the next 3 years with him and it wouldn't be enough. Why is it you don't really appreciate your grandparents and the time you get to spend with them until you're older (as are they) and your time together is so seldom? My grandpa is 78 years old and I don't know how much time I have left with him, but I wish I could just move here now and spend every moment with him.

My grandpa just adores Ikey. It is so cute. He has only seen her once before, and she was just a month old. She just has him wrapped around her little finger. :) My grandpa never smiles much, but the few times I have seen him grin ear-to-ear the past few days are when Ikey is in his sights. Today we went out for ice cream and she kept making funny faces while she ate her bright yellow, red & blue ice cream. He couldn't take his eyes off her and would laugh at every little thing she did. She could ask him to rope the moon in full daylight and he'd find a way to do it.

Like I mentioned, we went to Mackinac Island on Monday. My gosh, how I love that place!! Mikey & I had gone last year when we came out here with my mom, but I never realized how much of the island we had missed! I think last year all we saw was several fudge shops (they are 10 feet apart there!) and the Butterfly House. So this year we rented bikes (Mikey on a tandem with Big Hunk & Ikey in a toddler seat) and went the 8.5 miles all the way around the island. I took sooo many photos. The kids had a blast too, and were so worn out! Mikey was falling asleep on the ferry ride back and slept so good that night. :)

Well, we're about to watch a movie. Bye!

Lovin my life!

Wow, what a fast weekend! I couldn't believe it last night when I realized we were about to start our week over again, but the great ones often do go quickly. ;)

What an awesome Mother's Day. I had the best day, and wish I could do it all over again. First off, we had my parents and my sister's family over for a BBQ Saturday night, and that went really well. Everyone came over about 4pm and we spent the evening swimming, eating and hanging out. This was only the second time the cousins have really gotten to hang out much since Thanksgiving, and they had a blast together. And boy did I give birth to two little fishies!! My kids love swimming SOOO much!! Ikey is full-on swimming now! She has always loved the water (which made us quite fearful when she would dive right in) and it has always just clicked with her. Mikey learned how to swim exactly a year ago-- last Mother's Day when we spent the weekend in Palm Springs-- but looks like Ikey wanted an earlier start.

So anyway, my sister and parents left our house at 9:30pm and 10:30 pm, respectively. I didn't get to sleep in too much yesterday because I wanted to go to church, and even the 11:30am service had me getting up 2 1/2 hours ahead of time to get ready. ;) But BH and the kids surprised me with a yummy Starbucks breakfast and coffee,and tons of goodies that were mine all mine. The best part was the cards though; I was a basketcase reading them!! I literally had tears pouring out of my eyes as I saw that Ikey had written "Mommy" for the first time, and the beautiful cards the kids had made me at my Bible study last week. Then, my sweet husband got me a beautiful card that took my breath away with the amazing things he wrote. I really am so blessed. And thankful.

We went to church, then just spent the day around the pool after lunch. We really weren't used to getting home from church so late! LOL We are usually home by 11:30am so it seemed like the whole day flew. After swimming for a couple hours we took the kids to see Speed Racer, and we went out to dinner afterwards.

It was an absolutely perfect day.

Now we are off to our busy week! I have my final mandatory homeschool meeting tonight (where did the year go?), Bible Study tomorrow morning (again, my final one until September) at which we will also have two baby showers, our monthly women's fellowship and study tomorrow night, Awana for the kids Wednesday, and a pizza party on Friday for Mikey's reading incentive program. Dude! The kid didn't know how to read anything but his name when he started school in September, and as of the final count in March (which clearly doesn't even count what he's read April & May) he had read 786 pages!!! I am so so proud of him!! He has BY FAR exceeded my expectations for this school year. I can't believe that next month he'll be promoted to 1st grade! It has been the most fun, rewarding year homeschooling him. Now I know not every year will feel this way, but I have had the best time and am looking forward to next year!

Well, gotta get some stuff done! I have to figure out something to bake for tomorrow's baby shower, and get some more unpacked. I am skipping a trip to the old house today just so I can focus on stuff that needs to be done here. So much to do!

Oh my.

When did I get so old?? Seriously. I feel like I went to bed one night (coincidentally, before moving), and woke up the next morning with not even NEAR enough energy to get through the day!!

I have been on my feet all day, and I finally have to call it quits. Unpacking, cleaning (I feel like I've been cleaning my kitchen for 3 days and am just NOW done!), playing with the kids, shopping... it never ends. And now I have to get up early in the morning so I can sweep and mop this gargantuan of a house before Mike's baseball game (you know, before the 2 hour drive to Malibu, a one hour game, then a 2 hour drive home!), so my parents and sister's family can come over. I can't even tell you how much tile is in this freaking house. All of upstairs (the bedrooms) is carpet, but all downstairs is this really pretty tile (I believe marble, but I'm not sure) except for two small areas. Like I can sit here at the computer and look clear across the house and see nothing but tile. Thaaat's gonna be a fun morning.

Ike is in her bed for the first night tonight, and I'm praying she sleeps well. She has been in our bed every night since we moved, and I feel like I'm getting no sleep. Of course, having her clear down the hallway might not be too good for my sleep either, but we got a monitor today to ease my worries. And not even of her safety! But because that child is a little stinker! One night, quite a while back (a year and a half?), we had rabbits and had gotten them a large cage. We put it in the living room, and that night, I woke up to see the hall light was on. I saw that she was gone from her bed, and as I rolled my eyes and sighed down the hallyway, I found her IN the cage with the rabbits. IN it!! Not just her head, her whole freaking body. At like 3 o'clock in the morning!!! Other times have found her sneaking candy out of the pantry, etc. So needless to say we always put a gate up after that so she couldn't get down the hall, but hence the monitor now. ;) The playroom is right next to her bedroom so I can already see the wheels turning, thinking of a midnight Barbie party.

So not much planned for Mother's Day, but I am so looking forward to it! It's one of my favorite days of the year, being I can expect to be spoiled without looking selfish. LOL Like I said, my parents and sister & her family are coming over tomorrow evening to BBQ (can't wait to try a new shrimp skewers recipe!). Then, we will head to church Sunday morning and hang out the rest of the day. This is one of the few weekends Tom doesn't have baseball, so I will take full advantage of having him home on a Sunday! If the weather cooperates, we'll probably just spend the day out by the pool in the sun. Of course the weather was chilly and overcast all day today though, so we'll see. It changes constantly.

Well I hope everyone has a fabulous Mommy's Day!! ((hugs))

Oy, what a week.

We are all (sorta) moved into our new house. We still have til the end of the month to get out of our old one, so sadly that is not much of a motivator to get done early. Yet it's still looming over our heads and I can't wait to just be done with that house.

If anyone were to come over my house right now, they'd surely wonder what in the world I've done with my time. So, I'd show them my nicely lined kitchen cupboards and pray they'd understand how very long it took to wipe down every cupboard and drawer (because the last tenants definitely did not do it the entire time they were here!).

I've unpacked ONE box.

I am now in the process of stripping the dirty, peeling shelf paper from my gigantic pantry before I can even put our food in there.

But I really shouldn't complain about all of this because this house is wonderful and we are so blessed.

So bees are a blessing, right? ;) Because we have thousands. They weren't there the first few days we were here, but yesterday while I was out swimming with the kids I noticed quite a few swarming around this one corner of our yard. Sure enough, there were even more by the time Big Hunk got home from his baseball game, and we could tell they were all going under this large plastic rock that's there. So, Hunkie decided to give them all a bath last night. ;) You would not believe the PILE of bees after he did that. It was disgusting. But, most of them were still alive and kicking today. So needless to say no swimming for a couple days. He got some bee killer tonight and hopefully that will do the trick, because a local exterminator wanted to charge $250 to take care of it!!

I started this entry on Monday, and it's now Tuesday night. I am so stinking tired. I am getting NO down time right now, so by the end of the day I am just wiped out. Tuesdays are always a bit crazy anyway, but today especially. I had Bible study this morning (only one more week until we break for the summer) then after that the kids & I headed over to the old house to load up some stuff and knocking down my to-do list there. I only planned on staying a little bit, but we ended up being there until like 5pm (we got there about noon) and Tom had to pick up dinner on his way home. Augh. I got a lot done there, but nothing done at the new house and we are still living out of boxes. I hate having to dig through stacks and stacks of clothes to find something to wear.

Well I'm tired and I should go because I don't want to do anything but complain. ;)

Hairs cut

Okay! It's all gone! 12 inches of ponytail now sits in a Ziploc bag on my counter, and is all ready to be shipped off to Locks of Love. And, I have lost about a pound and a half during this process, just showing WHY I always felt so frumpy with all this hair on my head. LOL

A couple befores...

Right before going on the chopping block!


Last month, Easter



Long braids I won't be seeing in a while!




This was in Feb, right before a trim- prob the longest it got to. Yuck.



And drumroll please...






And this is the back...




I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!! And I am madly in love with my new hairdresser. :) She is awesome! She is exactly what I wanted in a hairdresser- someone that would listen to what I wanted and really took the time to make it look like it should. I have been deprived all these years!! Both Cecilia and I got our hair done (she got a cut, I got a cut and color) and we were there 3 1/2 hours!! But we are both so happy- Cecilia looks so freaking good! I have to tell her to send me her before and afters. ;) She has the most flawless skin, and I told her she looked like Kate Beckinsale when she was done. She's beautiful!! Anyway, this hairdresser is mine forever and I will never never go back to my old one!

All the haps.

Last night I went to the BarlowGirl concert with my friend C. Oh. My. Gosh. It was so stinking awesome!! If I didn't adore them before, I am just in LOVE now. That was the best concert I have ever been to, and I can't wait to see them again!! The church they were at was a relatively small sanctuary (compared to most concert venues) so even though our seats were closer to the back, it was still a great view. They gave the best concert!! I am so in love with them!

It has been years since I went to a Christian concert- probably like 6 or 7 years when we used to go to these big Good Friday shows in Orange County (where we got to see Jeremy Camp before he even had an album out!). But I have forgotten how amazing it is to be in this ridiculously crowded room with tons of people and loud music that hurts your ears, with people lifting their hands and praising God. It's just such a beautiful thing.

And it was so great hanging out with my friend C! We never get to hang out because we're both so busy, so the only times we really get to see one another is at Bible Study or if we run into each other at church. But we always have so much fun and so much to talk about (I swear, never a quiet second!); I adore that girl.

(**Oh my gosh. We're watching a movie and Jackie Chan stuck a baby up his shirt to hide it, and then it started to nurse on him. LOL Jackie Chan's face was priceless as they kept showing the baby suckling on him while he's still trying to pretend it's not there.**)

We're in Malibu for the weekend; Mike had his first baseball game this morning! He did so well, and he had a blast. I swear, it seems like just a year ago we were taking my stepson Cracker Jack to his first baseball game.

Because I'm clearly never going to get to a more in-depth, personal update, I guess I should hit everything I can. ;) I am constantly wanting to sit and just pour my heart out, but I never have even a second.

Well, about a month ago, actually the day I got home from my women's retreat, I took a pregnancy test and it confirmed what I already knew- that I was pregnant!! I was SO overjoyed and Big Hunk was so surprised (I think after 4 kids he still doesn't know how it happens)! But, on March 10- just 8 days after I had found out- I lost the baby. :*( I was so upset, but I know God had a plan. And one day, when I see Him in Paradise, I will be with my two beautiful babies again forever. Of course it has been hard, but I have no choice but to get through it.

And, in other news that is consuming our lives, we are moving soon. Our lease is up June 1st and even though our landlord would probably let us stay longer (since the market is so bad right now and he'd probably have a hard time selling), we have just put off a bigger yard for the kids long enough. We've been at our house 2 years and the kids can never even play outside because our yard is literally the size of a patio. So we've been looking for the past few weeks. We had originally thought of moving out here to Malibu and found a house we really liked, but of course the rent out here is just ridiculous, and we thought of what an amazing house we could get in other areas for less than half we'd be paying here. We found a house in one town over that we LOVED but it didn't work out. So, right now we have a proposal in on a house that is HUGE. It is just beautiful!! By staying in an area relatively close to where we are now, we are wanting to stay at our church and closer to my parents, so this house (and others we're looking at) are perfect for those reasons. But this one has a huge yard and a pool, even with a big playground for the kids- and security cameras all over so we can watch the kids! LOL But, we shall see what the Lord has in store for us. Whatever it is, we know it's good!

Burdened beyond belief.

I am so heartbroken. After reading everyday (sometimes over and over again) what someone is going through, my soul is weary from making intercession. Sometimes, we don't receive explanations this side of heaven. Angie, the wife of one of the members of the group Selah, is going through a time most of us can only fear. She is about 32 weeks pregnant, and back in January her baby girl was diagnosed as terminal- having an enlarged heart, and undeveloped lungs because of lack of amniotic fluid. You can follow her journey here. After much prayer and medical advice, they are delivering their baby girl Audrey by c-section next Monday, April 7th. Just reading about the intense emotions surrounding them is saddening, but that they also have 3 other daughters that are experiencing all of this as well just breaks my heart.

Just a few minutes ago I was putting Mikey to bed. I didn't want to leave him. I am reminded of how few our days are with our children, no matter how healthy they are. One day, even if I live to be 80 and my children outlive me, it will seem like the blink of an eye. As I was singing "Every change reminds me of how the years have flown. I cherish each step that you take, and I praise God for change, though it makes my heart break..." I couldn't help but cry. The past 5.5 years being a mom have flown. How in the world am I going to look back on 18 years of parenting and think it was enough?

Today the kids were watching as I moved all of their keepsakes into bigger boxes (Holy cow do I save everything!). Seeing their homecoming outfits, hospital bracelets, ultrasound photos, first artwork, etc just blew me away. I swear, it was just yesterday that I was choosing homecoming outfits for Mikey's birth (we didn't know what we were having), or decorating the house for Ike's baby shower. Even if I had a hundred years, it would not be enough. I'm not ready for my kids to grow. Yet, in complete disobedience, they do it everyday. With no regard for my feelings whatsoever.

Mikey lost his first tooth yesterday. Well, second really, but this is the first he's pulled out (the other he broke when he was a baby and it kept breaking off until almost nothing was left, and the dentist finally pulled it out recently). Someone stop time! He'll be in first grade next year! Ike is going to be four this summer!

Okay- another song I love says "I'll never catch all the memories I'm chasing, I'll never be ready to let go." Holy crap am I in a sentimental mood tonight. But I just hurt so much for Angie, and I don't want to look back on all the years I did have with my kids, and see how much I missed. I want to see what I experienced with them. How I played with them. How every single day was filled with laughter and kisses. But most of all, I hope they see that too.