He is Risen indeed!

We went back to Ft. Ord Beach Easter afternoon when we got to missing home!  His beauty does great to detract one...breathless!  Praise Him!

The old train loading station @ Ft. Ord

These are the bunkers I told you about...

It was super cool to see but super spooky as well...totally ghost-like town/hood...

Seriously today...Tuesday...I LOVE funny!

Today we hung out in the Laundry room so nothing got stolen!  Afterwards I crushed Mark in tennis…hmmm, he said he could play…I totally gave NO mercy!  It hurt…him…I had fun! Ha!

Tonight (Tuesday) after dinner I told the kids if they hurried and got their jammies on they could watch a Man vs. Wild w/Bear.  Not a few seconds later all three come running into the kitchen to show me yelling, “We are tribal people, like we learned in science and how Bear taught us!” and there they are all in their undies!  Ha!  It just so happened that we had been talking about the jungle, rainforest, and of course the tribes that live there…they happen to live life in the nude so I was relieved to see they did keep some clothing on!  Then about 5 minutes later I notice both Keegan and Grissom both had red circles around their nipples…so I asked, “Boys, what’s going on, what’s turned your chest all red?”   Keegan said, “Well, Mom…I was just sitting there, and I noticed that I had boobies, and well, I’m a man and they don’t have’em…I was just pinch’n them off then Grissom did his…” He’s looking down checking over his chest and nodding his head in approval.  He looks over at Ella and told her, “Your ok to have boobies…but not me, I have muscles!”  Before I lost it I quickly said, “Keegan, everyone has nipples, but boys don’t have boobies so you can leave them just where they are!”  He jumps up and down and yells with complete satisfaction, “Yes…ELLA, I’ve got nipples, NOT BOOBIES!  This is a great day!”

Did I tell you that I LOVE THIS KID!

BTW: Grissom jumped with Keegan just like a little shadow does!  I’m happy to report that neither boy pinched anything off!  What a night!! 

P.S. Sorry if my words offend you, but I just had no other words to describe this funny act.  My Mamaw would have fallen over seeing that I actually used the word nipple! Love & miss you Mamaw!!

Monday: We found the library!

                So once daddy got up this morning we’d just finished school and were ready to take him out and find the library!  We found it and explained to the kids that quiet was important – being respectful was the key.  So we are walking in and Ella asks, “What’s a library for?” Keegan jumped ALL over this with his response.  He says, “Oh, you know…it’s for quiet…for reading books…for helping you fall asleep…” hahaha!!  I’m not sure where he got that?!?  We hung out there for a good few hours just reading and reading.  Ella was super pumped cause she found gazillions of books she can read just by herself!  Grissom even sat thru a handful!!  Keegan happened upon that book, “The Dog who farts.” And made Mark read it!!  FUNNY!  We got back into the van afterwards, and as we pull out Keeg yells with excitement, “and I didn’t even fall asleep!  That was great!”

I LOVE this family!

So there you have it…I seem to do really good with up-dates on Monday thru Thursday cause those are the nights I don’t get Mark with me…so just know that I’ll probably NOT be updating much over the weekends – But I am sure having fun with this!   

Easter Morning...He is Risen!

Easter morning came and things were smooth.  We got to church at a good time, everyone made it into the classes except for Keegan, but we were ok with taking him in the ‘big church’ with us.  He was excited and said, “Mom, I’ve never sat in YOUR class before.  This has a lot of people in it!”  We were able to get through the first song when Grissom’s number appeared on the big screen!  I totally blame his fever from last week.  We knew he was teething and really wanted to go to Shoreline the week before so we decided just to go to that family room they have.  Well, Grissom LOVED it!  He colored, ate snacks, and got to stay with us…which made him not so easy to leave this Easter morning!  They sure didn’t try to keep him long!  So…I ended up listening to the sermon sitting on a toddler chair in the back of the room so Grissom could color…I mean throw crayons and laugh real loud and Keegan could roll all over the floor!  I wasn’t having a great attitude to say the least.  Oh, did I mention that as we walked into the building there was a heavy mist/rain in the air and we all got wet!  I just wanted to go home.  But I knew I wasn’t alone and if I’d even mention it we’d have tears everywhere!  So I prayed instead.  I just asked God to forgive my selfish heart and my selfish desires to want to go home.  I asked Him to help us stay busy the rest of the day so no one would have time to have a thought about home.  On our way home we stopped by the store to pick up 2 items…Mark had his ‘grump’ set it.  I just knew the struggles he was having weren’t much different than the struggles I’d been having.  I ran through the store and we made it home in one piece…but no time for pictures…cause I had a dinner to fix.  Mark invited our neighbors last minute and by 1:30 we had the strangest looking group to celebrate Jesus Resurrection!  Try to imagine; our family of 5…Chase (20) and his wife, Katherine (19), Mike, and Greg the guys Mark works with; pretty rough kind of considered scary men…but we were all there ready and willing to celebrate…whether they believed it or not…the FACT that Jesus was killed on the cross and this was the 3^rd day…the day in which He awakened from the grave and came back to life!   Did you know that it is recorded in the Bible that Jesus told about his death 3 times in Matthew…do you think each time represented a day to equal the 3 days before He arose? Hmmm.   Anyways, our dinner was nice.  It consisted of a Ham (one that I was happy to serve cold, but Mark insisted it be warm…so HE heated it up in the microwave! Ha!!  It tasted super yummy!!) Macaroni and Cheese, Deviled Eggs, Baked Beans, and Beer Bread (super healthy…I totally forgot to add the veggies! Oops!).  We actually had a REALLY good time!  Our kids all did great!  It felt like a normal crazy family gathering!  Everyone talked, ate, and laughed for a nice few hours.  We ate the entire bunny cake that was made.  It was a great time!

After this things got too quite in a real blink of an eye.  When I wanted to sit in self pity about missing out on my comfortable Easter traditions back home, I was reminded of what Jesus truly did for me on this day.  Hang in there through this one…it’s special to my heart.  David Platt says it best in his book, Radical (chapter 2);

“But this picture of Christ and the Cross is woefully inadequate, missing the entire point of the gospel.  We are not saved from our sins because Jesus was falsely tried by Jewish and Roman officials and sentenced by Pilate to die.  Neither are we saved because Roman persecutors thrust nails into the hands and feet of Christ and hung him on a cross…Do we really think that a crown of thorns and whips and nails and a wooden cross and all the other facets of the crucifixion that we glamorize are powerful enough to save us?  Picture Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane.  As he kneels before his Father, drops of sweat and blood fall together from his head.  Why is he in such agony and pain?  The answer is NOT because he is afraid of crucifixion.  He is not trembling because of what the Roman soldiers are about to do to him.  Since that day countless men and women in the history of Christianity have died for their faith…We can rest assure that he was not a coward about to face Roman soldiers.  Instead he was a Savoir about to endure divine wrath.  Listen to his words: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” The “cup” is not a reference to a wooden cross; it is a reference to divine judgment.  It is the cup of God’s wrath.

This is what Jesus is recoiling from in the garden.  All God’s holy wrath and hatred towards sin and sinners, stored up since the beginning of the world, is about to be poured out on him, and he is sweating blood at the thought of it.

What happened at the cross was not primarily about nails being thrust into Jesus’ hands and feet but about the wrath due your sin and my sin being thrust upon his soul.

In that holy moment, all the righteous wrath and justice of God due us came rushing down like a torrent on Christ himself.  Some say, “God looked down and could not bear to see the suffering that the soldiers were inflicting on Jesus, so he turned away.”  But this is not true.  God turned away because he could not bear to see your sin and my sin on is Son…

At the Cross, Christ drank the full cup of the wrath of God, and when he had drowned the last drop, he turned the cup over and cried out, “It is finished.”

This is the gospel.  The just and loving Creator of the universe has looked upon hopelessly sinful people and sent his Son, God in the flesh, to bear his wrath against sin on the cross and to show his power over sin in the Resurrection so that ALL who trust in him will be reconciled to god FOREVER.”

Wow.  End of any complains that may come.  I hope this also hits you where it stings a bit.  Jesus wasn’t a wimp who couldn’t handle earthly death…he is our Savior who took on ALL sin and the sin still to come so I…so YOU could live eternity in heaven with Him…now that’s thick!

  So before I had too long to think we ended up skyping with my family (although the volume didn’t work so we signed to each other…then used our cell phones on speaker which was super hard to hear) it was good to see everyone, but really hard to see them altogether…and we’d not even been able to talk to Mark’s family…so we did what any family would have done to ‘SAVE THE DAY”  We headed back to that secluded beach from the day before!!  And what a beautiful sight it was today.  Funny how just the day prior and the water was dark and somber and today, Resurrection Day and the water was bright and clear and the waves crashed as if they were in celebration!  I kid you not…they were party’n high!  We laid on the beach and talked with Scott and Roxanne a bit!  They were on their way home from Mark’s grandparent’s…anyway, it was so nice to hear their voices!

                What a wonderful way to celebrate.  Like I facebooked:  You have Easter egg Hunts…we have God’s beauty that we were basking in!! 

Here’s a killer story for you:  Saturday we’d stopped by Old Navy cause the dress I sewed for myself wasn’t going to work…let's just say if I want to feel super risk a I MIGHT wear it to a bar cause the top of this dress just didn’t work…we’ll leave it at that.  Anyway, as we were leaving we passed the $1 toys and I grabbed the kids each one of those sticky hands that you throw around.  Keegan got to playing with his while we were all in the family room I hear him eating something from the kitchen.  I walked in and seriously started laughing so hard that I almost fell over!!  He’d taken that silly sticky hand and thrown it up onto the countertop and ‘happened’ to hit the bowl with our Easter candy in it…and he came away with like 3 pieces of candy…those pieces were overflowing out of his mouth cause he realized what a genius he was and knew he’d get caught…so he was moving in for “handful” #2 and that’s what I saw…it was the funniest thing ever…so finny that Mark and I couldn’t even tell him that it was a big NO…we rolled from that one!

"Mommy...Hair...do it...Sheese!"

Beautiful!

yeah...he knows The Cute!

Aren't they adorable! I'm SO proud!

Happy Easter!!

HAPPY EASTER!!

Yeah Bouncy Fun!

Just the first 3 seconds of the hunt!

The petting Zoo!

Ella now wants her own bunny...no.

Grissom did great...check out my 'hot' coffee leg - nice!

Yes...I am now a hippy?

What a cutie!

Isn't he hot!

Ella wanted a 'Tangled' hair look...not bad!

Our 'secret' beach @ Ft. Ord

Sand dunes we played on ALL day!

What a doll!

Yes...we all climbed to the top.

El wrote, "I love you family!"

Saturday was a FULL-of-TOTAL FUN day!

                     We sat down Friday night after laying the kids down…we HAD to have a good game plan cause the last 2 times we bombed the egg hunts…NOT THIS TIME baby!  So we put our hands in and threw it up and yelled, “Go team Wortley!”  Ok…so maybe we didn’t yell, but I did at heart! 

We woke up, and went to it!  Mark was in charge of preparing breakfast while I sun screened the kids and dressed them.  Did I mention the kids slept in until 9 a.m.!?! WOW!  We were out of our hole and in the van by 10 a.m. THIS IS HUGE!!  I know you don’t get it…but let me try to explain…the apartment is NOT big, which means if the kids get a second they don’t have far to run to grab 100 toys and throw them all over the place…which is what happens, esp. with Grissom! 

So anyhow, Ella’s in the back of the van and she says, “OK mom and dad…try harder then you’ve EVER tried before to get us to this Easter Egg Hunt, cause if you don’t you need to buy is one!” ha!!  The funny thing was that the hunt started @ 11 and we started out going the WRONG way once again! But this time because we were SO on top of things we had time to turn around and we made it to the hunt with 20 minutes to spare!  We did have to park and walk a nice distance, but it was worth it.  It was very funny to see that this place was a small area to have a hunt.  They’d broken up the hunt by age even.  So Ella and Keegan were at the front lawn (about the size of our front yard and the Koester's put together).  Grissom and I went behind the building to a small play set for the kids 3 and under. 

Here’s the thing;

a small side note:

                                one should be able to go to an Easter egg hunt and breathe clean air.  Now something I never wanted to learn I learned very soon after we moved in…when you think you smell a skunk…think again.  If you are in California and you think you smell a skunk it’s really marijuana.  This is called Skunk Weed.  This is what we GET/HAVE to smell almost daily at about 3p.m. cause the guy under us has a ritual.  Which is why we aren't in the house around that time!! I’ve also learned that the phrase ‘5 o’clock somewhere' is a very popular time (we back home call it the time to relax and have a drink) HERE in California they have a phrase that’s called "4:20"…this is a universal time to smoke weed!

OK…now back to the Easter egg hunt…As I stood waiting with my 2 year old I smelled this nice scent on and off until the hunt was over. 

Grissom did a great job waiting.  The rule for his age group was that every adult had to be holding onto their child and could either hold the basket for them or hand them an egg (this was their way of keeping things ‘nice and considerate’)  The whole while I’m thinking; oh, people are so nice here there should be NO problem.  HOLY Cow!!  It’s a good thing I had him in my arms because some of those moms and dads used all sorts of body parts (I’m thinking bottoms) to ‘protect ‘or help their little ones grab the most eggs.  I took Grissom back to the back side of the area and as I sat him down to help him I noticed something very warm and wet POURING out all over me.  Before I had time to even think I noticed that I had stuck my coffee mug/thermos in the side pocket of my mommy bag which was on my left shoulder…yep…I totally poured it down my side, on my sleeve, and all over my left pant leg…NICE!!  The things I do to help my child grab plastic eggs!  But he did great.  He was picking up one with each hand and throwing them into his basket and running for more.  I did have to use MY body to protect him from getting stepped on by another dad who wasn’t following the rules!  He told me he was sorry afterwards! 

After the hunt was over we met Mark, Ella, and Keegan.  Grissom was the winner who’d picked up a good 9 eggs and Ella and Keegan both came away with 3 each.  Mark said their age group had a few kid-fights!  Too many kids, and parents weren’t even allowed in to help those kids (which was probably a good thing!).  We hung out here for a good few hours.  They had bouncy jumper things that all 3 of the kids LOVED.  Then Ella made a cute hat/craft.  Then they went into this cute little petting zoo they had.  The kids loved petting the baby goats, a little lamb, bunnies, and chickens!  We ended our time by having a little lunch!  This whole event was free (except the food, but that was super cheap!!).  The boys ran around the front lawn for a bit while Ella and I created a flower headpiece. 

We left with more fun times ahead!  The sun was out and nice after lunch, and we had a ton of sand toys from early Easter ‘gifts’ so we hit the beach!  We decided to try a little north of us, it’s fort ord area.  This used to be a huge training facility for the army.  The dunes here were used for major training and shooting ranges.  When I say huge I mean huge.  We passed by old worn out bunkers – it looked like we were in a movie.  It felt like we were in the midst of ‘I am Legend’ with how many buildings were in this place…we are talking streets lined with 3 bunkers deep…I’m hoping to attach more pics.  It felt like a ghost town.  The road taking us back to this state park/beach took us all throughout this area.  We made a turn to our right and it was to coolest thing ever.  We saw where once was railroad tracks and it looked like a loading dock…this is where the trains brought in and took out supplies for training the army.  It was just super cool and again sad that it was left to just fall down with time.  We were a little concerned about what this beach was going to be like at this point, but we kept going.  We found the parking lot and found we had a little bit of a walk ahead of us. 

It proved to be one of the best beaches we’ve ever been to.  The sand dunes are totally huge and the kids had the best time ever climbing them.  I wasn’t worried about them falling cause I knew they’d roll and it was all on super soft sand!  How dirty!!  My Dad once gave Keegan a bath and told me that he’d NEVER seen such dirty water…you should have seen my kids!  I was SO proud of them!  And I must say Mark had a ball too!  No one even wanted to touch the water; not because it was too cold but because we were all too busy exploring and playing in the sand!  Mommy even got to lay out and soak up some yummy reys!!  We stayed until dinner time (a late dinner time).  When we got to our door I made the kids strip down to their skimmies before they could enter…and they went straight to the bathroom…let's just say we had to give Ella and Keegan showers cause the water was SO dirty after Grissom’s bath we just couldn’t redo 2 more baths!  We ate our dinner and watched our Easter movie!! 

They were so tired that I think all 3 kids fell asleep within 3 minutes of their heads hitting their pillows.     

Mark and I got to work…we were having the 2 men who came out here with us who also work with CMS coming over for Easter dinner and we were hoping to last minute invite our neighbors next to us over, Katherine and Chase.  So Mark made devil eggs, while I baked what was going to be a yummy chocolate Bunny cake…meanwhile I also got my Macaroni and Cheese made and ready.  Mark cleaned (a huge task…it only takes about 20 minutes to clean this place up and down!) but he did a great job!  We ran into a little challenge when we got out the Easter stuff and realized we had nothing to put it in…so we took a few of the sand buckets and filled them for the kids…this year everything is all about sharing and team work…so the kids had to share everything that was given. 

We were ready for Easter to come!

Mark had to work…FRIDAY! What?!?

                So I have found that I do great with the kids and I’m good with me handling the bedtime/evening routine Monday –Thursday…living in this 900 square foot ‘shoebox’ can only keep you sane for SO long…so by Friday, I need to have some ‘Daddy takes over time so Mommy doesn’t jump out the window’ and a glass of wine...You know…a totally normal thing for moms! 

                       It’s Thursday afternoon and about 2 hours before he had to leave for work he tells me that he will be working until 3 a.m. or so coming home to sleep and then back to work for about 4-6 hours during the day on Friday.  Let’s be honest…I mean, I’ll be honest.  I wasn’t happy!  My thoughts were mostly running about how in the world can they (CMS) expect these boys to work all night then again that next day without a good night’s rest!  Then I went into what this REALLY meant…this mean changing our Family plans of attending the Good Friday Service to not attending…this also means that our beach plans with the kids was also not going to happen.  Now what? 

                 Well, to top it all off Friday ended up being cold and cloudy which = staying INSIDE our little shoebox!  So…we 'crafted' our way thru Good Friday.  Mark got home about 5p.m. and took us ALL out to dinner.  We went to a little place called China Chili.  We ate like there was no tomorrow, but what made this fun was that the lady that served us was the owner.  She was so sweet and spoke pretty good English.  We talked with her for awhile, she loved our kids!  The food was so good that we will be going back.  I love those little hole-in-the wall places! 

                                                  Then we last minute took the kids to see the movie Rio.  Can you say TOTALLY CUTE!!  We LOVED this movie – all of us…Grissom too!  We totally gave it 2 thumbs up!  So I guess you could say we lived!!  I do know very much that I CAN BE a nice little - cute - brat!

Poor Seagull and a haircut too.

So…we are in the car on the way to Keegan’s gymnastics.  He’s super excited because Jaxson was going to be there (hopefully) and DADDY woke up a little early to go watch him.  He had his new shirt on from the gym and was all ready to go!  We are driving and Mark and I are talking when Ella screams, “Ahhh, poor guy!  Mommy, did you see that seagull?  He just bumped into the wall of that building.” I asked, “What? Seriously…what wall did the bird ‘bump’ into?”  Then Keegan throws out his version.  “No, Ella…he didn’t bump into that building, Mom…he, the sea eagle, smashed into that building and it bashed his head and, ya…he’s dead!”  Keegan then went into a second telling of this same incidence but only used sound effects!  How morbid!

I LOVE my family!!

‘Yes, Jaxson did come and Keegan had another great time at gymnastics!!  Coach Rachel is the best coach ever cause we ALL (even Ella, and Keegan) took a nap after daddy went to work!

After class we decided to get Grissom a haircut.  We were tired of people telling us ‘SHE’ was SO cute!!  But again, I just wanted a trim…a TRIM!!  We went to the salon and the 1 lady there was very nice but quiet.  Not sure where she was from but my guess would be Korea.  She did speak English, or at least enough to get us started.  I told her I was just looking to get it trimmed, and she responded, “Yes, but why you want to cut HER beautiful curls??”  I just smiled and said, “Because this is my baby SON.  I love his curls and just want him to have a good trim keeping his curls, just so he looks more boy.”  She nodded and smiled and simply said, “Yes, we can do that.”  So I stood by and helped when I could.  And about half way into it I realized that this lady was cutting off WAY too much, so I said, “Wow, You are cutting all his curls out, are you sure you aren’t cutting too much off?”  And she smiles and says, “Yes, That’s OK, we do good.”  SO I just watched in horror as each little curl fell onto his plastic cover.  No I didn’t cry but I sure came close.  It’s a good thing this boy is just too cute to let a little haircut bring him down!!  And at least he’s still got some curl left!  But I think that’s the last time we try to go somewhere other than Cookie-Cutters!!  Avon’s going to be a LONG commute just for a haircut…sorry my mom’s Grissom may come home with a ponytail! Ha!

We ended our evening by coloring Easter Eggs.  I love coloring eggs!!

Sunday to Today...

                  After church on Sunday we drove to what’s called the Fisherman’s Wharf.  This is the pier.  We got out and walked to the end to see what we could see.  It’s also the marina area.  The coolest part which I’m sure will become a huge irritant within time is the FOG.  Every morning fog comes in from the ocean and creeps (and I do mean creep) into the mainland.  There are a few areas that the fog doesn’t stick in and those are called ‘sunbelts.’   

                               We are in Seaside (which is like a town within Monterey) and that happens to be a Sunbelt area (yeah!!) which means the fog goes all around us which is kind of spooky too.  Most days the fog gets burned off by 10-11 a.m. but Sunday it seemed to hang out most of the day.  I’ll try to attach a picture or 2 of it from the Wharf when I can. 

                                                          As we walked we got to see the fishermen.  They were very friendly and willing to ‘show-off’ their catch.  They were catching Mariel fish.  These were little fish with neon green/teal markings on their backs.  And we learned that when you have fishermen here you always have seagulls (Keeg: Sea Eagles) and seals!!  We seriously had tons all around just waiting for someone to feed them.  I’ll post a few of those pics too!!

  After eating lunch out we rested most of this day.  Grissom’s getting his 2 year molars and I think he’s got to be growing as well…so it was a great day to just rest!

Missing home and everything (but tornadoes) about spring time, but I’m glad this time seems to be flying by.  I want to enjoy life out here and I don’t want to look back on this time and regret the way we lived it.  I am so glad to be making a few friends and I’m looking forward to hanging out with them.  Busy, busy, busy = time that flies = coming home.

                                          
Today is Tuesday, which is the day I’ve written this entry.  Today’s been a pretty long day but good one.  Monday Grissom was in my arms all day long still not feeling good.  Today he’s been almost too active and yet he’ll lay on the floor here and there.  I did get a nice workout in AT the beach – what a terrible place to work out!

                              Today our neighbor, Kathern came over and hung out with us for a good 3-4 hours!  We talked and talked and talked.  I really enjoyed her company and getting to know her!  We were doing laundry while she was here and while our laundry was in the dryer someone went through it and seriously stole Mark’s jeans (we’d just gotten him 3 pairs from goodwill to work in!)  So now we have to get him more and I GET to sit and watch...GUARD my laundry while it’s being cleaned! Yeah!!  I hope whoever took those jeans really needed them and I'm very thankful thet were from goodwill and not an too much money!

 If you are following this blog thing, please pray that I will stay available for those around us and God’s timing as well as wisdom and discernment.  Pray that I will stay humble but stand firm in what I know to be true.  Help protect our family from evil and pray that our time here will be pleasant and enjoyable and that we will make HIS mark before we leave! 

                                 Now if we can JUST get through Easter without a breakdown desire for home I think we really WILL survive!  I am SO grateful for what Jesus did, not only saving me from my sins and giving me an eternity in Heaven with him, but loving me for who I am and no matter what I do He’ll always love me – where I’m at!  I praise you Jesus for giving your life and being God, conquoring, and coming back from true death!  I hope YOU know Him and know that He did this for YOU too!! Happy (a little early) Easter!

Troopers for the Egg Hunt!

                                    So they say third time’s the charm? Let’s hope so cause this coming Saturday will be our third attempt to ‘find’ the Easter Egg Hunt (no pun intended!).  This past weekend we tried Friday AND Saturday morning to get to the Sea Otter Classic’s Easter Egg Hunt. 

             Friday we followed our ‘Nab-a-gation” and it took us into town…oops! So we went to what we’d been told was the ‘upper-class’ beach, Carmel Beach (hmmm funny how we have a Carmel in Indy as well).  So we went to check it out and that beach was beautiful with huge sand dunes.  We grabbed Subway for lunch and sat on the beach for a picnic.  I about flipped when a squirrel seriously came right up to Grissom and tried to take his sandwich OUT OF HIS HAND!!  Holy Rabies!!  He ducked away as I waved and screamed at him, but that little booger wouldn’t stop…he runs the other way and shows up inches from Keegan’s food!  I felt like we were fighting a fake squirrel in the movies! It was hilarious after we won!  Mark grabbed my phone and took video of it cause we don’t think anyone will really believe it!  If I can get it on here I'll try!

                                        After lunch we played until Grissom and Mark fell asleep!  Then we played MORE!  We got to see surfers too!  This made Keegan want to surf and the next thing you know he’s rolling down the dunes then sand sledding.  Boy oh boy, let’s just said this gave the sand every opportunity to hide in areas not normal! Ha!!  Ella and Keegan also played 'Bear' (from the show Man vs. Wild).  Building a raft out of wood and sand, a fire ring, and fishign poles (sticks with seaweed tied to one end)!  What a great day!!

  Then during Saturday’s attempt to get to that same egg hunt we passed the entrance and went 5 miles the wrong way by the time someone turned us around and sent us back we were too late to get there again on time!  The Sea Otter Classic is an annual event/bike race.  It was too costly to do which is why we decided it wasn’t worth it to enter if we couldn’t let the kids do the egg hunt.  They did have other things for kids, but our kids were still a little young for them. 

                       SO…off to that Denis the Manice Park that we loved so much, the one with the huge Train Engine at the entrance!  We played again as hard as possible.  As we were preparing the '10-minutes until we leave for lunch' countdowndown we went to the train.  I sat and watched the kids play on the Train and noticed this little dark haired girl in a super cute dress, a Madeline Jane dress (which is a trunk show company of super cute girlie clothes, hand sewn, based out of Indiana).  Anyway, her mom sat down next to me and I just asked her if she made the dress?  We started a little small talk and she mentioned her ‘mom’s group’ I jumped right on that one and just asked, “Do you go to MOPS?” she said, “Yes.”  SO I asked her where and she responded, “I go to MOPS at Shoreline Community Church.”  I told her that we’d just visited that church last Sunday and were planning on going back this Sunday!  I then proceeded to tell her that I was looking to get involved in a MOPS group because I really loved meeting the mom’s back in Indy…etc. She interrupted me, “Wait…hold on, just wait a second!!” She was looking at her phone.  She pulls up and reads this e-mail to me.  It was an e-mail from a gal, Jillian, a gal whom I talked to over the phone earlier that week.  She’d called me as a representative from Shoreline to welcome us to the area and the church and to see how they could help us get involved!  And she sent out e-mails to the different groups (MOPS, Men’s & Women’s Bible Study, and Small Groups) telling them about us and our desire to meet people and get involved! 

Giggle. 

What do you say?  This area is huge and there are awesome parks on every corner…and of all places to meet and randomly talk with a women who was going to be contacting me that week anyhow was just again nothing other than a total ‘GOD-THING’ I mean really…He’s been giving me confirmation after confirmation that I…we…our whole family is where He wants and needs us to be.  This woman was also blown away.  Her name is Debbie and we met her whole family and Mark got to meet her husband as well!  She even told me that they don’t come to this park often, but were driving by and just happened to stop for about 30 minutes! We planned to meet them and sit with them that next morning, but Grissom woke up with a little fever so we went to the later service and hung out in the family room with him.  But we did see Debbie and her husband and got to talk to them!

Anyway, we left the park, had lunch at home and headed to our pool here…FREEZING!!    Mark, Ella, Keegan, AND Grissom all loved it after the hypothermia kicked in and they all started feeling warmer (a.k.a. blue)!  This is probably why Grissom woke up with a fever, hmmm!?! He wouldn’t stop jumping in!!  Keegan’s swimming like a fish and jumping in as well and Ella was totally thrilled to be able to walk the entire width of the 3 foot area with her head above the water!

   Mommy hung out in the hot tub a tad and then held Grissom until he fell asleep in my arms again (I can get used to that!!)  We ended the evening with popcorn and M&M’s watching Tangled!

The ONLY thing that made this great day even better was that we got to Skype in the morning with Maria, Alyssa, and Emma.  Then that afternoon with Carlie, Shane, Aiden, Blake, and Anna…then we ended the evening Skyping with Mom, Dad, and Jeffrey!  We got to SEE tons of those we love and that always makes you feel good!    

Keegan and Gymnastics...

Keegan started HIS gymnastics class also this week.  He was SO excited!  I on the other hand was nervous.  You know, as a mom you have a bazillion questions go racing through your mind in the car all the way there; will he behave? Is he going to hurt someone? Will there be any boys in his class? Am I setting him up to ‘not be manly’ if there aren’t any other boys?  Will he be shy? Will he listen to his teachers? Will he hurt anyone? Will he be nice?  Will he hurt anyone?  Will he hurt anyone?  You know, and that list just kept going on and on until I remembered what a friend of mine told me.  SO I stopped my racing brain (one that seems to work faster than most people I know when it come to worry or sarcasm!) and said a prayer taking hold of God’s truth and I released Keegan to be who God wants him to be and not who I’m worrying that he’ll be.  After all…I’m REALLY NOT in charge! 

   He was talking big in the back himself, looking back I think it was to help him ‘be brave’ I heard him tell Ella, “So, I’ve been so good at gymnastics my whole life Ella, cause I’m so strong!”  We did say a quick prayer before we went into the building.  We asked God to be with Keegan, keep him safe, and help him be brave!”

     The second we walked in I could almost feel the pull within him.  One second he wanted to scream out of excitement the next he wanted to hide behind me and not come out.  It was interesting to watch.  Ella must have seen it too cause she grabbed his hand and took him over to the shoe boxes and told Keeg this is where his shoes and drink go.  He got them off and whispered in my ear, “Mommy, can you do this with me?”  I looked down at him and smiled and said just hang out here with mom until we see your teacher. 

It’s funny how the feelings I had at times like this come racing back to ME as I watch Keegan struggle with those same feelings.  What’s even funnier is how I want to get irritated at HIM for having the same feelings that I struggled with as a kid…poor guy.  Don’t get me wrong I’m not assuming that others don’t feel shyness or struggle with this lack of confidence.  I’m just saying it was just one of the things I fought and still fight with when new situations happen!  I was on the outside watching his feeling form wanting to break it for Keegan. 

The teacher came out, he looked at me and I could read his mind he was getting ready to tell me he can’t do this.  So before he had the chance, I wisped, “You have a choice.  You can stay here with mom and we’ll have to go home and you won’t get to do gymnastics, or you can take courage from God and go out there and try it this one time! I’m here cheering you on!” And he turned from me and walked out to the floor without a second thought!!  That teacher pulled him in and he did GREAT!!  Later she set up stations in a huge circle and let the kids run crazy!!  One station was a somersault on the wedge.  He again struggled cause he’d never don this and this involved more then just running and jumping.  He grabbed the teacher and hid behind her leg.  She asked him what was up and he just told her I can’t do this.  She helped him do it 2 times and then sent him on his way again…next thing you know she’s having the other kids watching him!  He quickly became the monkey boy beast that I knew he’d be if you just tried!  Now he’s on his way to the Olympics!!  Ha!! 

Now he can’t even wait to go do gymnastics again!!  He’s asked me every morning, “Hey Ma, is this the day I do MY gymnastics day?”

 Thank you Lord Jesus for the strength to be brave when times seem overwhelming and scary!

Just follow my ‘Nab-a-gation!’

The kids and I decided to take a walk after daddy left for work last Thursday.  We wanted to explore this area and take a path down to the pool area/mail area.  So instead of going down our stairs and turning left towards our van, we turned right towards the play set and laundry room.  When we reached the end of our building we were in new territory.  Ella pipes right up and says, “Let me see here…ah, yes, according to MY nabagation, mom, we need to listen to it, she’ll tell us where to go!”  So we waited.  Ella says, “Dag-gone-it!  This is taking forever…hold on, she’ll start up soon.  You needed to give me more time to get her started mom!” ha!!  Sounds JUST like mommy when daddy says look something up on my phone’s navigation!  Then we finally hear Ella in a funny old woman voice, “Turn left…right now onto ‘Laundry Room Road,’ “OK guys, this is the right way let’s try it out!”  I’m about to pop with laughter!  This sidewalk we are turning onto does lead us to the laundry room just the back way.  We pass the laundry room and I hear Ella almost whispering, “Yeah, this is right…there’s the laundry room.  This Nab-a-gation is GREAT!” ha!!  “Up ahead turn right onto ‘Path to the Pool Road.’ Turn right now, turn quick!” Ella is totally serious saying this in a very funny old lady voice.  We are headed down the path and realize that we have to now walk around the pool and the tennis court just to get to where we are going.  Navigation totally piped in and basically repeated everything I just had said…I think even she was annoyed!  But the funny part was when we got close to the ‘Mail Wall’ (this is what the kids call the mail area cause all the boxes are on 1 wall outside the office/main building).  We hear Ella again, “Up head turn left…you destination is on your left…your destination is on your left…you destination…’Man…she must be stuck!’”  HAHAHAHAHA!!

Even Ella finally made herself laugh!!  Thanks to her “Nab-a-gation” we were able to find our mail AND get back home!!

Mark's First LATE-Night!

So last night Mark ‘prepared’ for his first night of work by staying up until 3 a.m. (it was real hard from him he HAD to play video games the whole time, poor guy! 

But that meant this morning was also our first “get up and live in this shoebox while daddy is still sleeping” day!  AND drum-roll please…we did it!!  Yeah!  Mark was able to sleep until about 11 cause we were SO quiet…he might say we had our moments but even he had to admit we did a great job!  I LOVE cable (but still won’t be adding it when we get home) it did a great job at keeping the kids off each other while I fixed a nice breakfast.   Then we had school while Grissom played real good in the kids’ closet!   His newest fascination is putting blocks into a small basket, pick it up, then throw them back into the block box, and repeat!  Wow, I’m seriously surprised that kept him busy for a long hour!  NO LIE!!  Next on my list, keep buying this kid new blocks! Ha!

When Daddy got up, Ella and I took off (AS FAST AS WE COULD) for the grocery!  It’s nice to be cried over when I leave.  I know, it sounds mean, but daddy always gets the tears and I always get, ‘it’s just mom!”  So when Gris came running after me with tears, I had to get on my knees and prolong the moment just a bit…wink!

Then this afternoon, I got to take JUST Ella (hmmm….I know I can get used to this) to her new gymnastics class!  Keegan was suppose to go with a friend yesterday, but that class was full so he goes tomorrow…which shall be a story cause he’s told me that he’s been SO good at this his whole life! Ha.  Ella had a ball.  We met the owner, Mr. Hiroshi.  He’s a very nice man.  We also learned the sad news that he is fighting colon cancer.   So we will be adding him to our prayer list!  You can tell that he LOVES kids and teaching them the art of gymnastics, he was very impressed with Ella.  El was a little apprehensive for like 2 seconds because her teacher is a boy…an African American ‘cute’ boy!  Oh great…she’s talking about boys being cute!!  Good thing we left those Koester Boys back home! Ha!!

Mark took off for work at about 3 p.m. this afternoon…so I think we’ll hit the beach before dinner!!

Missing you all!

GOOD MORNING restful TUESDAY!

OK...GOOD MORNING TUESDAY…laundry day…no news from Mark’s work…but I do know he’ll be home in time for dinner tonight…AND this also means a short day on Thursday and a long fun weekend! We are looking forward to some mid 70’s this weekend and I think it’s a hiking weekend!  OK gotta run, laundry only cost $9.50 this week!  Holy Cow!  I’m finding that I have to take my coffee and drink it somewhere outside…sitting inside just reminds me of our super fun coffee/play dates at home! I miss my ladies!

Just another: Race to eat a picnic!

So Yesterday was our first official Monday without daddy and with the van!  So what shall we do first? We conquered school pretty easily and decided to pack our lunch and hit a park somewhere! Keegan was a little worried because he didn’t want it to hurt (when we ‘HIT’ the park!)

As I type out the phrase, pack our lunch I envision the perfect mother having a glorious time in the kitchen making sandwiches, gathering snacks, packing the fruit.  Everything fitting so nice and wonderfully…what? Then I look around to see complete chaos…there’s bread crumbs everywhere the peanut butter is not spreading in that wonderful manor like it does on TV…I can’t fit anything in the bag right and there’s no room for the drinks…oh yea, I need to refill the drinks, grab the napkins, oops forgot the fruit…how about some crackers…I find myself rushing as if I’m in a race.  But see, I am…a race for time…because if I don’t hurry I’ll miss that window – you know and totally understand if you are a mom – that window of time before the kids ALL fall apart because you’ve starved them ½ their life and you never feed them soon following right after is the meltdown!  Meanwhile I’d crammed everything into my lunch tote…and we were on our way…well…sort of!

   Ok…let me give a little information before I continue.  We live on the top floor (the 2^nd floor) so we have a small landing at the top of these fabulously safe cement stairs…IF I’m not holding Grissom I just know he’s going to walked down on his face, so when I leave I need to be sure I’m holding some solid part of his body, I need to lock the door, go down these stairs (usually with my hands SO full it takes forever), turn to my left and walk all the way around the building to the parking lot…then about ½ way down the parking lot is our space with the van in it…this I have already learned is a pain to hate!

Ok…back to my sort of…we got all the way down to the van, I’m loading Grissom into his seat, and I hear it…trying not to explode with “Let’s JUST go!!”  Keegan yells from the sidewalk, “I HAVE TO POOP!!”  So what did we do? Unloaded and went back up to the apartment…20 minutes later we tried a 2^nd time to leave this time was sucessful! Yeah!  But meltdown is starting to occur with thing 3 (Grissom).

I decided it’d be smart to hit a very close park, but have heard total rejection when it came out…so I remembered a lady told me about a park in the military housing neighborhood down our hill…it was only about a 3-4 minute drive…and they were thrilled!  We sat on my 31-picnic blanket and ate out of my super cute lunch tote.  Well, I ate, they crammed out of anticipation for that fun park!

We played here for a good 3 hours.  And while they were playing I met 2 different moms with boys that Keegan and Ella were having fun playing with!  Ms. Kris was a mother of 3 ½ yr. old twins and she goes to Shoreline Christian Church!  Her hubby is done with his army schooling at the end of this year and will be headed back to Virgina.  So she knew a ton about the area!!  Jackie, who was mom to 4 yr. old Jaxson, had just come here in March, her hubby had joined the military because he cjust had no choice, they just coudln't find work (I understood that one!) she was still getting to know the area.  They had asked me if we were military and when I said no...but when I explained that Mark was working on the base they totally took me in as one of their own (ha!). 

Jackie and I are putting Keegan and Jaxson into gymnastics together!  They are going to be good buddies I think!  She lived right across from the park.  Anyway, I had a great time getting to know these two moms and we plan on doing this again next week!

Mark came home early…but still late.  I was confused as well as scared to death at him coming to the door when he did!  He said that they (the guys who came to work) might have found espesdo (?) and now they have to run tests tomorrow (today) to see.  If it’s positive it may drag this job WAY too long!  Pray that it’s negative!

Later tater!

Our fun weekend!

First off we had a great weekend together!  Mark worked a normal man’s week of work last week (5 days of 8 hours).  Monday is when he’s supposed to start his nights…well sort of.  I love getting 97% of the facts a little before they happen and then he throws in the last 3% right before!  Monday he will work a 15-16 hour shift, then Tuesday night go back in the evening and start that p.m. business…anyway, forget all that cause it’s the weekend baby!!

What to do with seriously SO many options!  I really want to do the 17-mile drive…so Saturday morning we are going to pack our lunch and just go!  I have to say having a lot of my 31 stuff here with me is AWESOME!  I’ve seriously been using them constantly! 

Ok…we are trying to get out the door…why does this have to be SO hard…why is this place torn UP-SIDE-DOWN!  We just woke up not too long ago!  We have a large tote packed with beach towels, suites, and sunscreen (zipper pouch)…we have the large cooler bag packed with lunch, I have my purse all ready…now where did the kids go? 

                        Please just imagine my life RIGHT now if you will;

 Grissom thinks it’s funny to run into our cloth's hanging on the bottom rack of our closet and hide in the clothes! When he knocks Mark’s clothes onto the floor he throws them into a pile outside the closet…this is JUST what he’s doing right now cause I can hear him laugh at himself!  Ha!  I love his giggle!  Keegan’s under Ella’s bed waiting to grab her by the foot and freak her out…and she knows he’s down there and is jumping back and forth between the 2 twin beds in their room…Mark’s suppose to be helping me get the van loaded and he’s nowhere to be found…it’s NOT like we have many places to hide around here…I’m going to be bald by the time we get back home!  Mark comes back to tell me the van’s ready but I’m not sure how that can be seeing that nothing we packed is in the van nor are any of the people going…how is the van ready? Hm…”kids, let’s go!!”

On the way to the 17-mile drive we saw that there was a street fair happening in Old Monterey!  So we thought we’d come back!  We LOVED the drive!  It was breathtakingly beautiful and we kept telling each other how amazing this ocean is…one of the first stops we came to was called the Restless Sea @ Point Joe.  This is a part of the bay where the waves come in from different directions and crash into each other and then into the rocks and beach line.  What is the 17-mile drive? Well, it’s just a 17 mile stretch of road that runs close to the shore.  If you’ve heard of Pebble Beach that is where this is.  We came to another stop and it was called Seal Rock.  I got excited thinking we might get to see some seals!  HOLY COW!!  It was super cute to see them ALL over the rock, jumping all around the place…until you took a breath to breathe!  SICK!!  Let’s just say this was the fastest stop we made…even for the kids!  We all got out looked at the sweet sea lions then all covered our noses and went running back to the van!  It was pretty funny…even Grissom went running yelling, “Stinky!!”  This is also the area where Mansions and the Hollywood/rich people have homes.  There were some pretty amazing homes around there, but I must say most were no bigger than our homes in Indiana.  We did some research and IF we picked up our house and brought it over here it would be worth oh, about $6 million!  We ate lunch on some big rocks on one of the beaches in this area.  While exploring we saw a whole village of crabs! And we saw the beach where the sea lions were having their babies! 

The kids were tired so we decided to find a movie theater and we ended up finding the Del Monte Mall (YEA for me!)  We had a ball watching HOP!  Keegan giggled throughout the whole movie.  You know we’ve come a long way in the van because even Grissom sat in his seat and watched the entire time! We ate a yummy dinner, trying to fit in, at the California Pizza Kitchen – YUMMY!

Sunday we decided to try out that Shoreline Church that we found on the beach last Sunday.  It was a lot like Trader’s right before our big move.  Their sanctuary reminds us of when he had church in our building's gym!  They have 3 services every week…which means we get 3 tries to make it on time every week! Yes! 

Ella did great going to class, she was excited to make friends, and Keegan was super shy and wouldn’t go in.  His teacher got down eye to eye with him talking to him trying to coax him in, but nothing was working.  I joined the pow-wow on my knees and just like every mother trying to stay calm but ditch their child and sweetly said, “Son, you have a choice.  Either you give mommy a kiss and walk into this room by yourself and have a great time.  Or you can keep this up and I’ll have her peel you off my leg and I’ll leave before you have a chance to give mommy a kiss good bye.  You know we’ll be back very soon to get you.  Make your choice in 3 – 2 -…” The nice teacher kept talking to him and it was working cause he took her hand.  She totally sealed the deal when she FINALLY said, “…after story time we have SNACK!!”  Sign, sealed, delivered…and I’m out! Sweet!!  He almost started pulling HER into the room! Ha!!  I love that boy!  We went to take Grissom, but his class was full, so we were going to be lead to the ‘family room’ (This is an awesome idea.  It’s like an overflow room but with the understanding that children WILL be included.  They had little table and chairs, games, coloring books, blocks, etc. for the kids and a huge screen and chairs like a sanctuary for the parents).  This was not where I wanted to be for our first time, I wanted to LEAVE all my kids at this time…so I just prayed a quick prayer…and I kid you not as we started walking down this hallway a lady was coming towards us, seeing what was going on she grabbed a volunteer and added her to the 2’s room just so they’d have room for Grissom! YEAH!  Worship was nice but NOT home.  We did meet a few people afterwards who were really friendly.  The kids all had a great time especially walking outside.  They had huge piles of all kinds of doughnuts…we all had to grab our favorites!!  Mommy got a refill of her coffee too!! Mmmmm!  It was funny to see what we call Kiosks (booths to get involved) they had tents all lined up outside!  It was going to be a beautiful day!

After church we came home grabbed a quick lunch and headed out again.  This time we all wanted a part of that super fun Street Fair; called The Good Old Days of Monterey!  What a fun time!!  The only problem was the kids wanted to ride the 3 rides they had and it was going to cost us way more than we had on hand…so poor things had to settle for the Dunking Station – yet they both loved it! Ella took 4 tries; hit the target with her 4^th try but it wasn’t hard enough.  Keegan steps up and slugs’ one real close to the target…then totally slammed the kid on his 2^nd throw.  The guy running the booth LOVED him! He felt pretty awesome when everyone cheered until he turned around to SEE everyone cheering for him, then he runs head first into my stomach all embarrassed!  What a cutie!

Our family received a ton of attention people kept telling us how cute our kids were…I’m not sure if it really was the cute kids (which I was sold on!!) or if it was a family circus thing…most families out here don’t have multiple kids, 1 or 2 but not a lot with 3.

We hit the beach just one more time before heading home for dinner, bath, and bedtime!  As we were walking along the beach we got to see a sea lion that was making his way onto shore.  The closer he got the sadder it became.  He was obviously sick and dying.  There were some ‘super’ animal savers protecting his rights until the real rescuers could come – kind of funny!

        Also the other thing I found irritating…I mean unreal (cause I’ve only seem stuff like this on T.V.) was a silent protest.  As we drive past one of the many grassy areas there were 100’s of black boots spread out with flowers on each pair.  Then the sign stating their protest: This is the Human Cost of War! How stupid are these people…yes it IS the cost, but its bigger then this cost…it reminded me of God and the way he uses each of us to get the attention of someone else.  My life is already saved, so to take me out of this world to show someone else who Christ is and what He did for them is completely ‘worth’ it!! Anyway…funny connection!  Their cost is extremely important to me and my children.  I am very grateful and indebted to each and every soldier who gave his life so we could be free!

Kids all ready for bed.  Yes, this is how they sleep!  It works...Ella was better then the boys together! ha!! You can see how fun jumping back and forth is.

Chill'N on mommy's bed! He must have worn himself silly!

The Restless Sea @ Point Joe

On the 17-mile Drive...No, I'm not choking Ella!

Super cuties!

This spot is called the Lone Cypress.  That's Big Sur behind it.  We will discover that at some point too!

More beauty...yes this is a real picture!

Mommy and Ella eating lunch on this rock!

I’m learning that sand is SO fun on the beach…but sucks to be all over the floor at home!