Sunday, August 30, 2009

When did this become Home

I grew up in the California High Desert. I lived there for ten years from the time I was 8 to 18. When I was 18 years old I moved to San Diego. I so wanted out of the dry hot desert. Away from the stupid choices I saw many of friends make. I wanted something new, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. So in August of that year, 1999, I moved here. I went to a small Christian college, Point Loma Nazarene University. I remember packing up my parents mini van and them driving down here. I was excited and yet at the same time, sick to my stomach (I get very nauseous when I am nervous about something). My parents moved me in, I met my roommate, Anne, a girl I had never met before from the OC. She seemed nice enough. My parents hung out for a few days during freshman orientation and then on Sunday they left. I cried. I was scared.
Classes started and I quickly learned that to get the grades I got in junior high and high school I would have to study (something I did not have to do a lot of before). I would often call my parents, missing them, missing my little sisters (they were only 14 and 10 when I moved). I remember calling them one weekend and my family was at my grandparents house, I felt left out, I was missing out on a family thing. I cried out in hallway of my dorm for a long time (roommate was sleeping still).
Things quickly change, I met friends I got involved on campus, I was studying. The year quickly went by and at the end of the year I move home for summer. At the end of summer I moved back down to school. That was the last time I would move from there to here. From then on I started to forge my own life, get involved with a church, met Chris, made lifelong friendships and finally picked a major and towards the end of my time at college I picked a career to shoot for (yeah I had a major without an end goal for a while there). After getting my B.A. I choose to stay in San Diego, for a little while longer. I went to grad school, while in grad school Chris and I got married. We bought a condo, although we thought we would leave when I was done with grad school. I graduated again. I got a job in San Diego, despite what we thought would happen. We thought we were moving for sure, we only planned to stay for a little while. I even applied all over the state. We prayed about the job offers. The day I was offered my current job, Chris (who wasn't really looking for a new job), got a great job offer that allowed him to some great connections in his field. We prayed and felt God was open doors telling us to stay a little while longer.
We had Ethan!! I continued back to work. Chris took the opportunity to work for himself doing freelance design. Ethan gets bigger. We became youth pastors.
At some point along the way, over the last ten years, San Diego county became my home. I am not sure when that happened. I still miss my family and one day maybe they will all move down here with me. hehe It is still amazing to me that I have lived here as long as I lived in the Desert.
We have no idea what God has planned for the next chapter of our lives, maybe we will be here for another 10 years, maybe not. Overall though I am glad I made the move I did 10 years ago, I have some amazing friends (I am still great friends with Anne, my freshman roommate) and had some wonderful opportunities.

PS. I am trying to find some photos to show of my college years. I have tons, but none are digital. I will have to do some scanning soon and make an old school post to show you all.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

BLAH

I have been planning to do a specific blog posting...but I have not been feeling very creative or artistic in my writing right now. Truthfully I have not really felt motivated for much in the last few days. I don't know what the deal is...I am feeling out of sorts, pulled in 50 different directions, just tired. I am all over the place. The last couple of weeks, week and a half has had some major ups and some major downs. First school/work is in full swing for me. We just finished our 7th day of school this past Friday. September and October are looking like they will be VERY busy months for me (I have already had a number of referrals for testing), but there is not much I can do know to prepare for them. I miss playing with Ethan during the day. He is getting two molars and two eye teeth right now, so he is a little out of sorts as well. I love my job, but I really miss being with him and I don't think I cope as well as I like to think I do; I use a lot of denial. We celebrated our five year anniversary, we had a fabulous time at the hotel we stayed at on our wedding night. That was a huge highlight!! And oh yeah my purse got stolen out of the back of my car.
The purse getting stolen has probably been the biggest issue these last two weeks. It is a nerve racking feeling knowing people were in your car rummaging through things and now have your purse and all it's contents in your possession. At first I was very preoccupied about getting a new drivers license, and new bank cards and credit cards and flagging my credit that I did not really stop to think about what they now had access to; I was in auto pilot doing what I needed to do to remedy the situation. But a couple night ago I started waking up with nightmares that they were in my house robbing me as I came home. Kinda creepy. Bottom line it was just stuff, just possessions.
But I am not even sure if that event is everything that is bothering me. I just don't know, but I do know this funk needs to end soon. So I promise tomorrow I will post the post I was originally planning to post today. It should be more uplifting than this.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Five Year Anniversary


Five years ago today I married my best friend. I love him more and more everyday. He is the person I laugh with, cry with, get mad with, am crazy with...he is my everything. We have been together in good times and bad and our love only grows stronger. I can't wait to see what another five years brings us!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Here's looking at you kid


Ethan is 18 months (almost 19 really, but hey I am back at work so I am a little behind on things). So I thought I would mark this milestone by writing him an open letter...so here it is:


Ethan,
I can't believe you are already 18 months. It seems like just yesterday we were bringing you home from the hospital. You were so adorable and tiny. You only weighed 6 pounds 2 ounces when you were born and now you are 23 pounds. You are such a big boy. You have gone from a person that was completely depended on me and dad to this VERY independent little boy. You love to do everything for yourself and get upset if we do it for you. You love to run outside and chase the dog. You are obsessed with balls and you have a good arm! We even have a picture of you throwing a split finger fast ball. You love to read (something you did not begin to enjoy until recently) and your favorite thing to read is your children's Bible before bedtime. You love music and you actually prefer it to not be children's music. When you hear a song with a good beat you stop what you are doing and hold out your index fingers and drum the air. It you see someone playing the guitar you point and trying to run up to them. When you see something you want very badly or something to eat, you emphatically point to the item and then to your belly. Cute now, but if you do that when you are older it won't have that same effect. You love being with other children and love to play with Ms. Shannon's kids while mommy and daddy work. You love the water, although you hated it until about 2 months ago. You really want us to let you go in the pool with just floaties on your arms and not your floaty ring...next summer big boy. You love adventure and entertain yourself by "flopping." Flopping is when you body slam anything fluffy, our bed the couch pillows your grandparent's dog Lucy, anything. You laugh and laugh when you do this, although it gives your mommy a heart attack. You love your sleep and when you need a nap if we ask you, you will shake your head yes and go right down. You have a little seahorse that plays music and you love to listen to it while you fall asleep. You talk some, although I really think you can say more than you do. Every now and then a random word slips out and we don't hear it again for quite some time. hum...But you regularly say: momma, dadda, ball, door, ut-oh, apple (babble), dog, more, eyes, and hi. Brushing your teeth is one of your favorite morning things and when you see us brush our teeth you run to the draw and get your toothpaste out, hand it to us and say "brrbrrr." You adore dogs, although you have thrown one to many things at your dog and she is a little leery of you right now. She will come around.
You bring so much to mine and daddy's life. I can't imagine my life without you. You are an amazing gift from God and he has truly blessed us with you. We pray everyday that God protects you and God gives us wisdom when raising you. This has been amazing journey being your mommy. I love you Ethan!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Tricks of the parenting trade

Recently I was hanging out with my friend/coworker, Michelle and her daughter at one of her good friends, Molly's house. It was just three moms sitting around talking while the three kiddos played. I had a great time and I think I made a new friend in the processes.
We were talking about our many trips to the beach that we had each individually taken and found that we all had in common that we despise the sand. So I shared my secret. Well it was given to me by another mother of three little kiddos, so it is not my original idea. When I told my secret Molly suggested that I blog that secret. What a great blogging idea. Molly you should totally start a blog, you already think like a blogger.

So here it is my beach/sand trick: When you go to the beach the sand sticks to your skin. If you have small children you know the sand gets EVERYWHERE, places you never even imagined. Well baby powder acts as a sort of repellent. If you sprinkle and rub baby powder over the skin the sand will brush right off. No lie. I did not believe it when I first heard it either. But I gave it a whirl, I even use this stuff on myself. I will never go to the beach without baby powder ever.

There is my trick of the parenting trade. I am thinking about making this a bi-weekly post (I know a lot of bloggers do a weekly one, like wordless Wednesday, but hey I am a working mom and don't have a lot of time to blog now that I am back to work). Let me know what you think.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

T-shirts


One of the cool things that has been going on in our lives lately is the new t-shirt company. Chris is a very talented graphic designer (if I do say so myself) and he has always wanted to start a t-shirt company that has a meaning behind it. So last spring he bought a URL for the company and started. Then he bought some screen printing materials and Cross Your Heart Clothing was created. The cool thing about the company is that 50% of the proceeds go to a charity or ministry. Currently the company is donating the proceeds to an organization called Hidden Treasures which working on getting girls/women out of the human/sex trafficking industry. Sex trafficking is a huge problem in San Diego and so we are pleased to be working with the ministry which is backed by the Rock Church here in San Diego.
Check out the website and see what you think. The current website is temporary, and the new and improved one should updated by the ned of next week. It has been tons of fun doing social networking for CYH this summer. I just might have a new career in the future.

Monday, August 10, 2009

One Day Down...189 to go!

Well today was my first day back to work after having the summer off. Now I only have 189 more days to go. I can get through it.
As a family we had a wonderful summer. This was the first time that I was off for the summer and Chris did not work for super-intense advertising agency (read: you must be a workaholic to work for them). Being that Chris now works for himself, he had some flexibility to hangout with Ethan and I doing the variety of activities that we did all summer. We had some wonderful family time, but that makes it even harder to go back to work. I am so blessed to have been able to spend this summer working getting closer to the kids in our youth group as well.
So what all did we do? Well here is a quick run down in case you weren't here:
  • swimming lessons with Ethan
  • became an aunt and uncle welcoming Ethan's first cousin into the world (we love you Madison)
  • surprised Aunt Sam by going to Santa Barbara, with my parents, to pick her up from her first quarter at school
  • took Ethan on his Avo's (Chris's dad) sailboat for the first time
  • multiple beach trips
  • multiple play dates
  • saw Auntie Jolene and Uncle David, visiting from South Korean (they moved when Ethan was only 4 months old)
  • went to the waterpark
  • a couple of swim parties
  • helped Chris print shirts for Cross Your Heart (CYH)
  • went to an Artshow that CYH was invited to
  • took lots of naps
  • organized the house
  • went shoe shopping (of course)
  • bowling
  • new hair-do (me not Ethan, still can't cut off the curls)
  • went to the San Diego fair
  • baked cookies
I am sure there were plenty of other things we did...I can't remember everything. But this summer was amazing. I saw God work in my little family, and draw us closer together. So I guess my summer officially ended Sunday night and today began my first day back at work/school. It went well, nothing too exciting yet; kids don't start until the 20th of this month. One day down...189 more to go.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

All Good Things Come to an End

I have been in denial for a few days, but I must face the music. My summer vacation is coming to an end. I have less than a week left before I go back to work and less than a week until Ethan goes back to daycare. We have had such a great time this summer, as a family. We have gotten to do some many things. I love my job, but I am very sad to have to go back full time. I wish I could stay home a little more to play with E, to take him to the beach some more, bowling, zoo, playing ball, all those good things. I have loved every minute I have gotten to spend with my family.
I guess I am just saying that tonight I am a little sad...

Monday, August 3, 2009

Bowling

Last week Ethan got to go bowling. Some family friends called up and invited Ethan and I to go bowling with them and their kids while Chris was at work. Since Ethan has an absolute obsession with balls, I figured he would really enjoy this. So we went. Ethan had a blast, although he did have a hard time waiting his turn. The bowling alley had this cool ramp thing for the smaller kids to use. They get to set the ball up there and push it down the ramp onto the bowling lane. It was so cool.


Ethan was really contemplating which bowling ball to use. He LOVES to throw balls and he was totally overwhelmed with having to pick just one to use at a time.

Ethan pushing his bowling ball down the little ramp. He would get so excited.
Ethan watching to see how many pins he knocked down. We had a fabulous time. I wasn't so sure taking an 18 month old to a bowling alley was a good idea, but it worked out great and we both had a great time.