The new year...

So being a part time stay at home mom has become a true blessing for us. Since having Nathan I have a strong desire to stay at home full time. However, our wallet doesn't allow us to do that. I was doing full time child care but again, our wallet would not allow this either. So I went back to subbing part time. I am able to watch children part time as well and be at home.

This new arrangement has its blessings and curses. But I work really hard to see the blessings. One, I am still home most of the time with Nathan. Two, I am bringing in about 20% more income than I did before I started to sub (even after paying childcare). Three, I get to miss Nathan. Fourth, some days I get to sub at Joel's school and we can have lunch together. Lastly, Nathan gets to miss me!

I have these wonderful two college girls that love Nathan and lucky for me, Nathan loves them in return! We have it worked out that on their days off from school and their other job, they sit at our home, play with Nathan, read and relax when he is playing on his own, and take a nap when he does! Plus, they can eat and do homework all they want.

I love that when I come home, Nathan sits in my lap and looks at me with such a love that I am so excited to be with him and play with him every chance I get.

Some day, I hope God blesses us with the finances for me to stay at home full time but for I am ok with being a part time stay at home mom!

Vacation?????

Joel, Nathan and I snuck out to CA. during fall break for a little Disneyland and great-grandparents visits!

We started out with a late start and that got us into Hacienda Heights later than planned because of all the traffic due to construction on the I-10. And Nathan wasn't the greatest of travelers. It was a stressful day all around. But a great reunion with Nathan and his great gram!

The next day was Disneyland day one. It was rainy and cold but we decided to power through. And it was worth it! We got there around noon and stayed for about 3 hours! Nathan loved Small World! He smiled and laughed his way through it! We also took him on Dumbo and the Carousal. He was not a fan of either. He kept reaching for Joel to get him off the horse but we were moving and he was buckled so we had to keep him seated on it.

The one time he held on!

I swear each pumpkin had a different carving.

After a few hours we went to the next Grandma. Nathan's Ama. Totally forgot to get pictures of it all. But he was great and loved up on his Ama! Following her around the house and smiling at her whenever she was around! Good Times!

Day two of D-land was extra rainy and extra uneventful! We got there in the morning before Nathan's nap. The first ride we did was Peter Pan, because let's be honest, that ride rocks! After that Nathan was ready for his nap. So we did what we always do at nap time at Disneyland, we went on Pirates of the Caribbean! Nathan falls asleep every time on that ride. So we got on and within a minute he was out on me! We laid him in his stroller and went to lunch! He slept right through lunch, so Joel and I thought that we would go and hang out in the Animation building at California Adventure! Its dark and plays clips of all the disney movies with their theme songs. Oh and they have the most comfy seats. So we sat there while Nathan took the longest nap ever! But about ten minutes into the rest time there Mr. Incredible, Mrs. Incredible, Pluto, and Dopey (who made out right away) showed up and started making a fuss. So children swarmed them left and right. And of course this all took place right by Nathan's sleeping body. My fear of characters is back in full force after what happened to us! We were sitting there quietly, working at making sure Nathan's stroller did not get pushed and well... you will just have to look at the following pictures to understand my fear!

He kept bothering Nathan and looking in on Nathan and trying to push the stroller and drink from Joel's water bottle. All very disturbing to me when a bunch of kids are waiting for your autograph!

And these are the view I got while he tried to serenade me!

Not the greatest view!

Pluto dancing right by Nathan's stroller! Oh the Choas!

Then at one point Pluto jumped on the seat right next to me and started kicking his legs at me and Mr. Incredible tried to give Pluto CPR! I am totally afraid of Disney characters now!

Then we came home late Thursday night to a note on our door! Our neighbor Jesse, told us that our front yard was flooded and he turned out water off and would be willing to help us with this easy fix! Well, after calling a plumber and scheduling a late morning meeting, out other neighbor Alan came over with a pot of water for us and also told us he would help with this easy fix and also that we needed to get rid of the bees in the wall of our garage! So after stuffing a paper towel in the hole hundreds of bees swarmed there and stayed there. 3 bee stings later and whole bunch of other stuff, they are dead. But that story is to come!

Well, the easy fix was not so easy, after an estimate from 3 different plumbers that told us it was about a $2000 fix, Jesse, said we could do it ourselves and all the men from the neighborhood would help for the cost of cookies! Because that is what neighbors are for! We had to replace the whole pipe line to make sure that we got everything! so 10 hours later, lots of soda and pizza too, the pipes are in and the trench needs to be filled in and we have water! All for the low, low cost of $100, two pizzas, sodas, bread, and a lot of cookies and casseroles coming their way!

open trenches all in our front yard!

Then our neighbors said they have the right stuff to make the bees go away and save us from another $200 bill! So the men sprayed and killed the bees on contact! And now we have one more step that will cost us $5! To fog the hole and kill the bees in the wall!

All the dead bees!

Now we get to redo our front yard and our backyard at the same time! That is the silver lining to the saga that was our vacation!

Church Hopping, House Church, or the Wilderness?

I noticed that on the Flying Zehrings post Joel wrote that he would hope that I would blog about our recent experiences of where we believe God is leading us.


Well, it started two years ago on a whim. My friend Kadi and I were on our way to Youth Specialties (a youth workers conference) in San Diego. One of the speakers, who also happens to be my all time favorite speakers, was Francis Chan. He just wrote a book called "Crazy Love" which I haven't finished so I can't comment on yet. But he was also talking about his recent sabbatical that he took from pastoring a church. The whole theme of the week was about telling a story. And Francis talked about how churches were today. He said something from the stage that stuck with me. He said, "If all we had was the Bible to use to show us how church was to be, would it look the way it is?" I was pretty much kicked off my seat. I didn't even need to think about it, the answer in my mind was no.


At this time, I was a youth pastor at a church. I was loving what I was doing but I was plagued with this thought. I took it to the staff and tried to talk about it but I couldn't get a peace about what they were saying about this topic. I was confused and very much trying to figure out what it all meant for me and my calling into full time ministry.


At one point, I threw the idea out to Joel about starting a house church. You know doing it how it was done in the Bible. I had no idea what that meant or that house churches even existed. In my mind if a church was meeting in a house it was a church plant. But Joel started taking this idea and running with it .


But my mind was made up. I was called into full time youth ministry how was I suppose to start a house church with this calling. Well, it turns out, having a baby, changes it all. Once Nathan was born and I spent 3 weekends in a row at camps without my newborn, I was ready. God was leading us for over a year to take this step of faith. A step of faith with our future church, our finances and our ministry to people.


We were ready to walk away from the institutional church and start a house church. But of course, we still had no idea of how to do it. So we found the small pocket of house churches or simple churches and started networking. What we weren't prepared for was the way these bodies of God were "doing church" was not what we believed God has laid on our hearts to start.


We are looking to start a church in our home, that does life together. Its not a once, maybe twice a week thing. We want Bible studies that are discussions not sermons, we also feel led by God to have meals together, to "break bread", to serve and witness to others together, we want to help the widows and orphans. We want the Lord to be the leader! No pastors, just facilitators. We want there to be unity with the tithes and offerings. We truly believe that God has laid all of this on our hearts to seek out how to make this happen. Please prayerfully remember this when you think of us.


Is it lonely? Yes. We have stepped away from the comfort of an institutional church with a heart not to sheep steal. So with that means setting aside friendships and relationships that we value so much. We didn't want to, but that kind of comes with the territory. We are wandering right now but we fully believe and are at complete peace about this new calling on our life! Joel and I are more than willing to talk more about this with anyone! So it looks like we may just start one up and meet as a family until some one else joins us. But we are excited and we are ready!


Sorry for the extra long post, but that is the benefit of a blog. Its my heart spilling out onto a post!

As Promised!

So on Wednesday Taylor got picked up about an hour early which left Nathan and I some extra free time. So we decided to surprise Joel at his school. On Weds. Joel doesn't come home until 8PM because he privately tutors kids all afternoon. So this extra time for Joel and Nathan was well received all around. Since I remembered my camera I took pictures of Joel's classroom. It looks way better than the last time I was there. I just wish I remembered to take pictures of Nathan making laps around desks in another teacher's room or all the teachers oohing and ahhing over him outside as he walked all over the grassy areas. The funniest part was when we got outside on the grass Nathan kept grabbing his feet because he wanted us to take his shoes off so he could feel the grass on his feet. He is our mountain man! This is taken from Joel's desk. He has almost 30 kids and loves to have an open floor space for discussion times. You can see Nathan exploring and making a mess with his snack. Here is the front of his class. Joel's classroom is located to the left of the school and the only one that has a gate by the front door. These are the boards I decorated before school started. I always enjoy doing this part but it was not fun with a little one climbing on your legs the whole time! The mascot is the rattlesnake and the students are called rangers. So Joel has a board dedicated to badges of honor. When the class gets a certain amount he gives them free play or a Super Happy Fun Time Hour! The cleanest his desk will ever be! Let's be honest its the start of the year and Joel hasn't had time to get things piled up.
Just a fun shot to take!



This is a fun Saturday morning for us! Oh and did I mention that Nathan is walking everywhere now. He has the best balance too! Especially when he has juice. He will never give up the juice cup and I think this proves it!

2 days later, The Sand Box!

This weekend, Joel and I built a sandbox for Nathan. Now, its not your ordinary sandbox and its not very small either. This idea of ours started out about a couple of months ago when we took Nathan to the beach in CA for the first time and he loved the sand. He played for hours before it was time to leave. So Joel and I got to talking about buying/building one for him. We know that there are places that sell already made single person sandboxes and we thought that is an option. But if you have ever seen Nathan he can rival a toddler in size! So a small single person one was out. Next we thought of buying a playground with a built in one but those are way out of our budget. Last, we thought, why don't we build one, I mean, how hard can it be?


Well, technically, not that hard, and the labor not that long, if you don't have a kid that needs attention and job that takes up time. Just to give you the info. of the sandbox, its 138 sq. ft. and has 3 tons of sand in it.


This is Joel laying the boards out so that he can nail them together after he digs the trenches.



Next was the part I did after Nathan went to bed and that was filling in the trenches and laying bug killer down, then the weed blocker. I did it at night so there are no photos of that part.


Lastly, the back breaking part of hawling the 3 tons (that is 6000 lbs.) of sand from the front yard to the back yard.


After that part, which didn't take as long as we thought it would, Joel raked the sand, made it level, washed the table and added some toys and we were done!



And the pure enjoyment on Nathan's face was totally worth it all!

Oh wait! That's my enjoyment. Nathan was still napping when I tested it out. Here is a video to show his...

The life of a stay at home mom!

School is back in session and with that means having to watch Joel walk out the door every morning and Nathan, Taylor and myself along with any other babies that I may be watching on a part time basis start our day.

Nathan is a full time mobile baby. He will be 10 months on Aug. 10 and already walking and exploring every thing he can. However, the voice of his mom middle naming him usually works to stop him from doing whatever it is at the time that a he should not be doing.



Taylor is her usual keeps to herself baby. She is by far the easiest baby ever! She's lovable, talkative and hardly ever cries! Plus, her and Nathan love each other so much! They are truly buds!


The main thing that they are learning right now is to share things. Mostly books right now. Nathan will sit directly on the book if Taylor won't let him look at it with her! And Taylor will try to take the book away from Nathan. So our lessons right now focus of sharing!

Joel has started school and as much as I wanted to get a picture of his classroom I forgot. So that will be in a later post!


Now the fun begins. Around 4 pm every day Joel walks in the door and so does Taylor's mom Victoria. They talk about their school day and then we discuss babies and how their days were. Nathan starts to fuss because he wants Joel's attention and then the evening begins!

Most days are uneventful but busy. I love nap time because that is when I eat and for a little while there is quiet in the house. Except for the times when Nathan talks in his sleep!

Blogging?

This morning I woke up and came from the bedroom and share with Joel something that came to mind. Maybe I should start a blog. "Why?" he asked. I answered with the typical "I don't know, to see if I can." So now with Nathan napping the day away, I thought I might set it up.

I have no idea what may come of this or if it will be interesting but I thought I would give it a try.

You all reading will be my guinea pigs for this experiment.

Thanks and tune in for more to come of whether or not this becomes an addiction of mine!