Day 10

Nothing exciting happened today. I hung out with the kids, went to work, came home. Russ hung out with the kids, took the kids to the park and went to costco.

Austyn is talking more. He says "hi", "hot", "mama", and "dada". He is signing "all done" with his hands when he's done eating. You can see his personality come out more, as he's more affectionate. Russ says everyday during the day he comes up to Russ and puts his head against Daddy's head. He is really enjoying cuddling more (which is so nice for me). Penelope likes to imaginary play a lot. Today she pretended there was a castle in her bedroom. I try to take pictures of the kids but Penelope doesn't hold still long enough. And as soon as Austyn sees the camera he starts crying so he could hold it. Pictures of him crying aren't exactly the cute smiley little boy that I see and want to get across.

Day 9

Today I called in sick. I woke up with no voice and shortly after the phone call went back to bed and slept half the day. It's so awesome that my husband is home and lets me do that. Thank you hubby! I am feeling better so will be returning to life as normal tomorrow.

In good news my camera DID come today! It is a bit more technical then my last one, so I'll have to read the instruction manual. The kids of course didn't hold still for me to take a good picture. But I got one. I haven't figured out where the stabilization mode is. My other camera was made by the same company so I know they will have that function it's just a matter of figuring out where. With the picture below I had it on some setting, accidentally, where you take multiple pictures and it sets it up in a landscape for you. Ya, I got to read the instruction manual. LOL.

the kids before bedtime. Austyn is still brushing his teeth. He likes his tooth brush. : )

Day 8

Well today went well. I just got home a little bit ago from being with my mom. She is doing well and all the small things I was worried about happening never came to pass. She is resting well at home. I feel a little better at the end of the day with my sickness. The good thing about waiting around for my mom to have her procedure is that I had to sit around. I also have been feeling who ever is praying for me to get better soon. I know my husband is but maybe some of you out there too. It really does make a difference and I want you guys to know that.

My camera did not come today. I was wrong, it is going to be delivered tomorrow. Too bad tomorrow doesn't come quick enough. I tracked it on UPS and it is still is San Pablo, CA. Which at first I thought was San Pedro until I looked closer. And then I had to google it to find out that where in the world San Pablo is? For your information San Pablo is in the Bay Area of San Francisco.

Penelope did fantastic at her orientation. The teachers said she was really well behaved in class like she had all done it before. We were only there for an hour, so she wasn't really ready to go when it was time to go. She cried pretty bad when we had to leave. At least I know she will have a good time. Monday is when she officially starts I hope it comes quickly for her sake.

I almost finished the book "One in a million: Journey to your promised land" by Priscilla Shirer. It is so good. Each page has been a talk between God and I. It is a perfect read for this stage in my life. But I really want to quote you some part of it. I just have a hard time picking which one that gets the full affect of the whole book. There isn't anything I can take, but here is a good part I read recently.

"What situation are you in right now that's going to require a 'turning' if you're ever able to embrace the will of God for your life? What kind of changes is He asking for? And what do you expect will happen if you continue resisting this new direction for whatever the reason--inconvenience, fear of the unknown, distaste for the whole situation?

Paul speaks of how we are to 'run in such a way' not merely to survive the race but to run with purpose and persistence--to run 'that you may win' (I Cor 9:24). And the writer of Hebrews gives us specific instructions on how to do it (Heb. 12: 1-2):

* Turn--'let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us...'
* Set--'fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith...'
* Go--'let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.'

God was moving Isreal from one place to the next, preparing to put them into position where their hoped for destiny would be clearly within reach. But in order to go where God was leading them, they were being told to take dynamic action, to do things differently then they had before. They were being expected to believe that what He had called them to conquer next was worth every challenge. They were being instructed to march boldly out of safety into a new phase of following Him. Breaking barriers depended on it.

...Moments like these--times when God prepares us to go to the next leg in our journey--remind us why Sinai is so important. The intimacy God invites us to experience with HIm in our darkest, driest, dustiest seasons is not some isolated occurrence. It's not as though we're supposed to walk ahead merely remembering what it was like to be there when God met us in our pain and brokenness and reestablished our relationship. Like the Hebrews emerging from Sinai, we're not simply to march onward but to march onward with God. We're not to leave His presence behind us at the mountain. We will find ourselves lost and gasping for breath before we know it if we think we can move ahead without maintaining our continued connection with Him. The fellowship and faith garnered at the Mountain of God are designed to keep us from rocking off balance when the new possibilities (as well as the new obstacles) of entering our destiny begin to appear."

There is so much. For me to continue writing it in. I would have to write in everything. I hope what I have extracted out of the book has spoken to you and stirred you to grab a copy for yourself to dig through.

Day 7

Day 7: Nothing exciting. Today, I finally got the cold bug that had been hitting our family. As the rest of our family is on the mend I am completely exhausted and under the weather. Ugh. I hope I get over this one quick. I have all those extra vitamins I am taking, right?

Exciting stuff that happened today? Um....I don't know if I got much for you. But tomorrow will hopefully be a interesting day. My camera should be coming in the mail! yay! We will be going to Penelope's Preschool orientation tomorrow. And I'm going to take my mom to a hospital procedure. So maybe something more exciting. For right now, I'm going to bed.

Super Bowl

Today was a beautiful day! The high I saw on the car was 68 degrees, with the sun shinning great. So happy the gloom has been gone for a while. I could never live in Seattle. I need the sun. One month of gloom isn't too bad when you know the end is in site.

Unless you were on another planet today you would know that Super Bowl was today. Whether or not you watch it is another story. "We" watch it in some form, well, Russ really does the watching. I on the other hand watch when the comercials come on and really spend most of the time eating. We had a great time over at some new friends house. They invited us over and, man, did we eat! One of the things I made for the Super Bowl is my Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies (The recipe was developed with thanks from Jen Graham). Below is the recipe.

Ingredients
1 package of your favorite brownie mix (with ingredients called for in the mix)
1 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 large semi-chocolate candy bar

1. Mix brownie mix and preheat oven as described by your favorite directions, then set aside.
2. mix peanut butter and powdered sugar. If too sticky add more powdered sugar. Spread evenly on top of chocolate bar.
3. place half of brownie mix in prepared pan. Place the peanut butter/chocolate bar on top and cover with other half of brownie mix. Cook as directed.

** if you like it gooey eat it right away. But eating it after it has cooled is yummy too when you have a thick piece of chocolate in the middle.

Tomorrow back to "eating right life-style change". LOL.

house hunting

Today we ended up looking at open houses after a lazy morning. We went out to look at 4 houses. The first one needed A LOT of work inside and had a swimming pool (which we are trying to buy without). The second was Russell's favorite. And I do have to admit it was quite nice and if it was $30,000 less I would really like it too. LOL. It had new paint and new carpet throughout. It was built in 2004 and was on a large lot. The only thing it had going wrong with it is since it is a foreclosure a couple of random things were missing. One of the things that were missing is the dishwasher. When the previous owners took it out they broke several tiles in the process. And there was a little bit of mildew damage behind the dishwasher from probably a leak from the dishwasher, no sign of it coming from anywhere else. The third house we looked at was pretty nice but it had a very small backyard. The fourth house ended up not having an open house after all. Which was a bummer--I was really looking forward to that one.

Not a whole lot of interesting things going on today. We drove around a little and stopped by the store, made it home in time for me to cook dinner and give the kids a bath and send them to bed. Russ and I are sitting around a little exhausted. He's watching his recorded Jeopardy shows. LOL. We are not too exciting today.

I need to come up with something better to talk about on here. I don't know if our daily lives are that exciting. LOL.

Day 4

This family has gotten hit by a small "cold bug". Penelope woke up with a little cough, Austyn has had a runny nose for a while, Russ says he feels a little under the weather, and my throat is scratchy. It's a very mild cold in this household so far. But I'm hoping and praying that we all get better soon. Did I tell you my vitamins came in the mail today? I'm super excited about that! I also got some vitamins for the kids so maybe they will get over their sicknesses before Superbowl. Superbowl is a great time when it involves socialization in this family. LOL. Meaning this family is full of people who love to just be around other people.--Somehow just being around each other isn't enough. ;) Anyways, because Penelope was coughing a lot this morning we canceled orientation at the Preschool. We rescheduled it for Tuesday. Doubtfully I'm going to most likely miss Women's Bible study, always a bummer when it involves Beth Moore.

I ended up hanging out with the kids before going into work. AND! I ended up getting off work early today! AWESOME! I went in at 11 and got off at 6! My kids were so happy to have me home. I miss being home with them. Since we had the evening to spare we ran over to Guitar Center, one of Russell's favorite places in the world, and browsed a little. We needed new strings for his guitars and a tuner (since we got rid of the piano). Since I have the tuner I also tuned the violin. I need new strings for the violin too but they don't sell them at guitar center. It's been a long time since I picked up the violin. I'm going to need a lot of practice before I can play in front of anyone besides my most forgiving husband. I'll have to work on the calluses on my fingers too; they need to toughen up some.

We are tossing up what we should do tomorrow. I really wanted to go to the snow. But we still have to buy snow boots for the whole family and a jacket for Russ. That would defiantly set us back some. I think it is suppose to be a beautiful day tomorrow (a high of 65 and mostly sunny). Trying out some of the trails with the hubby and the kids in a jogging stroller sounds nice. Maybe there are some open houses we can stop by at? We still haven't taken Penelope to see Tangled. Is that still in theaters? Or maybe in the 3-dollar theaters?

I do have to say Russ is really getting the hang of being home. He's doing well with the kids and taking them out, working around getting things done and their nap schedule. He is doing fairly well with keeping the house clean. I'm really proud of how well he's handled switching roles with me. And I respect him for that.