Insane?

Am I insane? probably. Why am I asking? Well,.... At this moment I have recently added to my family with our precious baby boy, potty training our sweet daughter, started becoming a big stickler about her eating more variety in foods, am in a Beth Moore bible study, doing daily reading with our church (which I can say are both awesome), creative activities leader at MOPS, and I'm sure a lot of other stuff that I can't remember. (That is part of my problem I don't remember the other stuff I got to do sometime, LOL.)

But in any case, I started another blog. This one is more where I write down some of the things that make me happy. So maybe it's a good outlet. Who knows. I titled it "These are a few of my favorite things". I'm posting some things I like to do like cooking (by trying new recipes), reading (mostly anything I can get my hands on), traveling (if I ever get a chance again with kiddos), crafts (the random stuff I do because I don't have enough to do), art (looking, doing, it's just soft on the eyes), music (oh, my favorite past time), and of course Jesus. Basically a little bit of everything. Hope you enjoy.

a steady hand

Everything that has been happening in Haiti is so sad. And for anyone who is over there I sure hope you feel our prayers. Our church supports an orphanage over there called Child Hope International. And I also had an instructor I was very close with in College who was born and raised in Haiti and has her whole family over there at the North Haiti Christian University. If you want to do more please contact either one of these resources. But sometimes I know that you feel like it just isn't enough. That whatever you pray or do is not enough. That is NOT true. I have seen God come through. Don't give up people!

Here are some quotes from the Child Hope Orphanage. I hope the Bill and Sue don't mind me taking pieces of your posts to show God's mighty hand in the praise reports. Don't forget to pray people!

We have been blessed with steady flow of nurses, local doctors and others that have assisted us. And, of course, Brooke and Ashley have been working very hard. Also, many of the MDL kids are putting in a lot of time to care for the injured. But, praise God, no injuries to the kids have occured outside of Daphne who had a wall fall on her and is currently in traction awaiting treatment by a pediatric surgeon due to a broken leg.

I am crying as I type this because we have been so blessed to have everyone here during this time. God is good, always, and His ways are perfect even when we don't have all of the answers.

We also have our dear brothers and sisters from Mission Viejo Christian Church. They have been so phenomenal and supportive. They've jumped right in to help where there is need-no questions asked. A zillion thanks to them and to the people back home that helped send them to us.

We were blessed with a great doctor who showed up to help. He is an orthopedic surgeon. He and his wife lost their home when it collapsed. He lives in our neighborhood and he drove by and saw what was going on at our place and jumped right in. He will be casting little Daph's leg today, Lord willing.

Everyone has pulled together so amazingly well, working endlessly. It is truly Jesus Himself, sustaining us.

Three people accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior last night. Praise Jesus!

The Mission Viejo team has been remarkable and an unbelievable Godsend.

The MDL kids are doing remarkably well

We closed the clinic and said we were unable to help any new people. Someone told me the CNN wanted an interview. We thought if we could get the word out, maybe one of the relief organizations here might hear about our dilemma and find a way to get us supplies. i waited on hold for about 30-45minutes with CNN and they ended up postponing the interview. By the time i made it back to the clinic our doors were open and they were receiving new patients. When i asked what happened, they said an SUV full of Haitian doctors and nurses arrived with supplies. i guess God wants us to stay open -- at least for another day or two (which is how long the supplies may last). Praise God!!!

We got an influx of Haitian doctors and nurses show up to help us. Much needed meds arrived yesterday (right after we'd officially closed the doors to dozens of people waiting outside). We were running out, and then the supplies arrived. Amazing timing, as always.

Daphne finally got her cast yesterday.

People are praying-everywhere.

I haven't seen people pull together like this, EVER. I have been blessed to see what I've seen.

We want to say a very special thank you to those of you in the States helping us coordinate in a way we could never do from here. People like Lucas and Alicia Simmons, the Beck Family, the Bohlingers and so many others that are blogging, Facebooking, Tweeting and whatever else is necessary to help the efforts out hear. Most importantly, thanks for those that are praying and staying on their needs. Haiti was shaken up, not just physically but spiritually. And we need to continually pray that hearts and souls will find Christ through all this.

Our faithful God continues to sustain us and keep us moving forward. Please make it a point to pray daily for all of us here – especially those on the front lines in the triage. We thank you beyond words for all your love, encouragement and prayers. God bless.

All our staff has been amazing. I cannot begin to name all the dedicated missionaries, employees and MDL kids that are sacrificing under such duress to help. I am humbled be their dedication and hearts.

The Haitian people are incredible. They have been very strong, peaceful and completely cooperative with us under a very difficult situation.

Praise God, no patients have passed away.

Friends from the DR have been driving in food shipments of whatever they can find.

Thank you, Jesus, that we can still chuckle in light of such overwhelming circumstances. The joy of the Lord is truly our strength!

UN structural engineers came and inspected all our buildings and gave thumbs to the kids returning to live in the homes.

This has been an absolute blessing and so has been our med team that has faithfully manned the unit since hour one. Hundreds came through. Many lives were saved. All left alive. Amputations occurred. Bones were set. Wounds stitched. God sent doctors, nurses and others to keep this going non-stop 24/7 since Tuesday.

Many have selflessly volunteered to come. Over one hundred. Thank you. We are in the process of filtering through your emails and compiling teams based on priorities.

1:30pm Hurray! The American's are here! Army of L.A. Search and Rescue fireman showed up at our front door.

Right as I was writing “Still no supplies” an army of Los Angeles Search and Rescue Firemen showed up at my front door. Brian Wells, the chief of the team goes to my sending church – King’s Harbor. He just wanted to make sure we were alright and to let us know that we are not forgotten.

Thank you, Lord, that your hand was upon our little make-shift clinic -- that lives were saved and that no one died in our care. Thank you for sending doctors, nurses and others to help make it happen. You are a great and awesome God!

We are relocating our community clinic to the new home and will start-up regular hours again soon.

Today, we received our first rain since the earthquake. It came after we closed our outdoor clinic and after most of the kids’ mattresses were moved indoors. Again, God shows His presence.

A group of our boys who had, just a few days before the quake, went on a prayer and fasting up in the mountains shared that they had just prayed for the safety and well-being of the kids at the orphanage and for God to demonstrate His presence. Wow! Was that prayer ever answered! Their faith humbles me.

Great news – Marval was able to purchase 100 gallons of diesel today. What a miracle! Now we are on the hunt for food. Fritz purchased one large sack of beans and 7 small bags of rice. Praise the Lord! We feel like we have this little village where we send out our best hunters and wait. When they return with their prize we all celebrate! .


With my professor that had her family in Haiti. I know most of her family but one niece was accounted for. I haven't heard recently if they have found her. But it is amazing that God kept the people safe that are known to be safe.

If you need to know what to pray for look here: for recent updates. But the latest please pray for protection for the Orphanage and everyone that works there.

Here are some painting I have of Haiti from a missions trip I took.

Anniversary, Birthday Fun, and Pregnancy...Our life is full!

Today is mine and Russell's 3rd Anniversary! Happy Anniversary Honey! These past years have been really great. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you. A year after and 3 days before is our daughter's birthday. And our next one is due right in the middle of the 4 weeks that separates our birthday's. We really know how to pick the timing, don't we! : )



Here is a picture of us at a recent date. Today Penelope and Russell are both feeling a little under the weather. They finally caught the cold that I have. (I still have a little bit of a lingering cough.) But Russell always gets over colds a lot quicker then I do. So I'm hoping we will be back to good state of health soon.

We had Penelope's birthday party on Sunday, on her actual birthday. It was really nice. We had a pool party at our pool and used the grassy area next to the pool to enjoy food, refreshments, and cake! We mostly invited family, seeing how that made up about 16 people and then a few of her friends. My original plan was to have a laid back party, compared to her first birthday where we had 50 people. But it was still a substantial party in the end. Maybe next year we will have a classic Stade party. Or maybe I'm just not the type to have them with my kids. Only time will tell. LOL. Here are acouple of cute pictures from her birthday.



Russell and I bought her a tricycle for her birthday so in the morning she came down stairs to her pink tricycle. As you can tell she is still in her pj's and she hasn't had her hair brushed. But she really likes it! Russell has to adjust the seat a little closer, she can reach the handle bars and petals but it is still too far away for her to actually cycle. When we are all better I can't wait to have a family day at the park and teach her how to use it!

Here are a couple of other pictures. Here is one of her eating with her friend Jada near the pool.



Her playing in the grassy area with the bubbles.



Her playing with her Uncle Darty.



Her birthday cake, isn't it cute!



And she actually blew out the candle for this birthday. It was so adorable!



Thank you everyone who came it was wonderful to have you all there and thank you for all the kind gifts. It was such a blessing. Here a couple pictures of Penelope enjoying her presents the next day. A castle with little people figurines that her Uncle Darty bought her.



One of the many dress up clothes that her Grandma and Aunt Nicky bought her. Yes we are going to become one of those ridiculous families that show up to Disneyland with their daughter in full fledged princess and fairy outfits. : )



My pregnancy is going well so far. I'm 25 weeks which is over 5 months. There hasn't been any complications, but I have been trying to take it easy. We are thinking about baby names. Right now we are calling him Austyn Thomas. Russell is in love with the name. I really like it too, but I don't know if I am finished looking at names yet. I don't think I am very decisive. Austyn moves all the time. He surely is a bouncing baby boy. And I seem to be getting bigger and bigger. I'll have to have Russell take a picture of my belly soon so I can post it up on here. Other than that we are slowly preparing for our little blessing to arrive. Penelope really doesn't have any idea. We talk about it and I rub my belly to say there is a baby in there. And right now she has only learned to rub her belly and say baby and when I do it to myself she fake bites my belly. It's somewhat of a joke to her. But I am sure that she will do fine with the little addition. She loves kids and babies. And she always had the personality that she wouldn't be good as an only child. So I'm not too worried about her with the little boy.

Welcome to our world!

I just wanted to send out some congratulations. Some people close to me have recently had a blessing come into their life.







First, Nate and Hatie Loper gave birth to Caden Elijah Kenyan on
January 23rd weighing 9 lbs 3 oz. The top picture is of first time Grandmother Loper holding the little bundle at one day old. And the second picture is of the proud parents Nate and Hatie. Soon after all the other duties as a new mom, Hatie will update her blog with more information.







Also on January 26th Yvonne and Chris Wong had little girl Caris Elisabeth weighing in at 5 lbs 11 oz. I received more pictures via email but for some reason I am not able to save them to my computer. More pictures to come I'm am sure on their blog.

I'm having a party

I'm having a PARTY on Monday. Drop me a comment if you haven't got the evite and I'll send it to you. It's a Pampered Chef party by one of my friends. And we are doing decadent desserts or like I like to say "death by chocolate".

Shout out for PA!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I guess life creeps up on you. I just put Penelope down for a nap so I'm going to try to get a few things done around the house and thought I would take a little time to do a post. I couple of things first.... Aunt Corky and Uncle Tom are in town. Sorry no pictures on my camera of my visit yet. But Nicky has been dragging around her camera so maybe she will post some soon. Aunt Corky did tell me of the faithful patrons in PA who read Nicky and my blog. So I just wanted to say "hi" to all of you out there. The pictures of Colton are adorable and Kate and Jeremie you guys look so happy together. Can't wait to see you guys in July!

Some news! Penelope has two bottom teeth and for the last week and a half is working on one of her front top teeth. So she can get quiet fussy. But in the grand spectrum she does very well. She went to her first Dodger game on Saturday. She was so cute! There are two photos that she got online. one and two. Russell, Penelope, and I have joined a home group. And in support of one of our members we went to a fraternity graduation through our church. I am so proud of you Chris.
















Quickly....I just wanted to let you know I added some new web sites to my internet high points and updated and moved my book corner. I haven't done my reviews of books with the latest ones. But if you guys really miss it let me know. Otherwise I'll just leave it as it is.

a little update about a lot

Well...I feel like I haven't posted in forever. So much has happened. A few major details. I officially quit UCLA. My last day is March 22nd. At the same time I was able to get my old job back at Torrance Memorial and I am already working there.

Penelope is growing and developing in leaps and bounds. She is sucessfully eating solids and we are just trying to start all the different type of foods. She has her first teeth. She got her bottom two at the same time. She just started crawling acouple of days ago, so she still is a little uncordinated. She also is able to pull herself up to a standing position. She hasn't realized she can do it on other items. But we have been trying to show her how by having her hold onto other stable items. I am trying to get pictures of her doing all the new things. I have most of them....I will post them soon.

In addition I got Easter photos of our little girl and will be posting those shortly.

Anyways pictures to come. I promise.

Happy Birthday Papi!

I just wanted to say before my weekend got to busy....Happy birthday to my husband, Russell. He is turning 31 on Monday but our close family will be celebrating it tomorrow. I hope you get everything you want this year. (If you are a close family or friend and would like to come to Russell's birthday event, let me know. It involves dinner and birthday cake.)

Also tomorrow is our little one's 3 month old birthday. Happy birthday Little Nelly. We love you!

Precious Eden

Baby Eden was born on Saturday, October 13th at 3:46 pm. She was a darling little girl and brought a smile to everyone she was around. She did pass away October 15th at about 4 am, but she was able to experience three days with her family and loved ones. So until they meet again, Jesus will be babysitting little Eden for them.

Update

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted, beside being busy with having a brand new baby! My internet has been down and I finally got it back up. Some updates: I just started work and am going tomorrow for my 4th day (start of my 2nd week of work). So far I haven't had any problems but I have been spending the whole day of work braging about how cute my little girl is (new pictures to come soon). Also one of my cats, Princess, just had abdominal surgery today to take a sample of her bowels to see if the reason she isn't feeling so well is lymphoma. We should get her back tomorrow after spending 4 days in the vet. I hope it comes back with a good report and that she is cancer free.

Also! Just as a reminder Alexis is due soon and if she doesn't go into labor before will be having a little Eden on Saturday by C-section. We are all still praying and expecting a fully healed baby with one of the large Anderson heads. Prayer and encouragement go your way, Alexis. I pray that strength and faith go to your whole family.

Big Bouncing Baby Boy

A big bouncing baby boy was born today, September 8th, at around 11:30 am EST. Colton Thomas Payne was born 10 lbs 1 oz, 21 inches long via C-section. Here is a beautiful picture of the little boy.

the stork is coming....

The Stork is visiting the Payne family (my husband, Russell, cousin). Keep Nicole, who probably is in labor right now, in prayer for a smooth labor. I will announce as soon as I hear of little boy Colton and when he has made his appearance to his new parents Kyle and Nicole.

My sis

I first want to say that I am very proud of my sister, Cherrella, who is going to be taking a expensive leap of faith in extending her education. She is starting Monday at Woodbury University. Woodbury University was founded in 1884 and is located in Burbank, Ca. Her major is in Architecture and she minoring in Art History. The University has one of the only accredited Architecture programs in the area. The school emphasises that area so much that 2/3 of the students major in Art or Architecture.

Cherrella is also going to be turning a year older on August 29th. Happy Birthday!

Caleb's born

My friends from nursing school, Yvonne and Chris, just had their baby yesterday. Their baby boy, Caleb Joshua Wong, was born on June 27th at 10:45 pm. He weighed 6 lbs 13 oz and was 18 inches long. Isn't he so cute!