A Divine Meeting this afternoon...

I know I keep talking a lot about God and things that have been happening, but when you are or have been struggling you tend to lean on things that happen as encouragement or support.

Mark, the kids and I all walked down about a 1/2 mile to the park after lunch today.  The sun is becoming more of a thing here right now...notice I didn't say warmth...and you have to wait until after noon but it's been coming out almost daily for a good week or so...I'm hoping I don't jinx it!! 

So we walked to the park. 

Normally this park is empty during the day cause it's next to the school which is in session while we are there.  But today there was 1 other mom hanging out while her 2 boys played.  She was friendly and we said our 'Hey!" to each other...but with Mark being there I just really wanted not to be social with anyone new...and yet I thought to myself...there's aNOTHER mom...maybe she needs a friend!! (Yes...I MISS having friends!!) 
Anyway, the boys started playing with my kids...actually Grissom spit (well at least he tried to) at the older boy...so he got in trouble and I had him tell the boy he was sorry for spitting - (I had to interpret for Grissom) and the mom kind of stepped in again and made her son acknowledge Grissom.  Things went on for awhile but we kept distance.  Then Ella got to talking to this mom.  She told her we were here from Indiana and the lady said, I grew up in Indiana...where are you from?  Ella knowing our address and being the innocent one that she is replied, "Highland."  cause we live on Highland Lake Way...this sent this mom walking right over to us and she said, "Your daughter says you all are from Highland Indiana? I grew up there!?!"  I smiled and just told her that we were from Brownsburg, the West side of Indy...one thing let to another regardless of my nonsocial attitude and we ended up sharing a lot more in common. 

She's homeschooling her first grader, the oldest boy my kids were playing with. 

She NEVER comes to this park but stopped today cause she needed to waste some time after she did her Costco shopping...

AND her husband's business has had struggles and she basically told me that they went from Feast to Famine...

She was also fellow believer!  Crazy, I know!!  We talked for quiet sometime.  I'm SO amazed at how deep a conversation can go in NO time when you are on the same common ground of knowing Christ!  She hugged me when we parted ways. Our family will be adding Heidi and her husband, Paul to our prayers and they will be adding us to theirs! 
I walked back to our apartment feeling encouraged and supported by a complete stranger who cared enough to share her story and listen to mine!!  She invited us to check out their church and to look for her if we come.  She's super busy and with us leaving I didn't want to throw out any expectations of getting together before we leave...but I know that this was a meeting that God set up...one to once again encourage us on our journey of life! 

I can't tell you how up-lifted I felt from this meeting.  Mark didn't listen to all our conversation but he heard enough to feel encouraged and up lifted...I think he was more amazed at the people God seems to seriously pick out of a crowd to be at the same places we end up and end up talking to and helping each other out!

Thank you Jesus for Heidi and our random meeting today!  Bless her and Paul as well as their boys!

P.S. My Papaw(Harry McClintic) is OK!!  He took off with a group from our church back home (Traders Point Christian Church) for Kenya...Nairobi, Kenya on a mission trip...today there was a tragic explosion...a gas problem that killed 120 and injured even more...I can't tell you the feelings that started welling up when I heard all this and made the connection that THIS is the same place that my papaw is in RIGHT NOW!  But I checked their blog and someone luckily posted that they were all safe and no one from the team was in this explosion!!  SO thankful for that!!  Pray for this team please...just for their safety and homecoming!!

It's not just MY family that makes me laugh!!

  So our weekend was super non-eventful...which you could say was much needed!  Mark, poor hubby, worked Friday AND Saturday (during the day) which gave us Saturday night and Sunday to play.  Too bad Mark was SO wiped out that we ended up with Panda Express and a Movie!  So original!
   Sunday we sat thru yet another sermon that worked Mark to the core...another very informative and encouraging one.  They are doing a funny spoof on Myth Busters...the show where they take a myth and try it out to see if it's true of 'Just a Myth!'  The sermon series that they just started is called Myth'Blasters' and they are taking certain 'myths' from the Bible and proving them right with scripture references.   During this sermon having a Christian household was talked about and what they means to create one.  He reiterated the importance of having our children obey the parents, having the wife who submits to her husband, and how the husband should love his wife as Christ loved the church.  But he took it a step farther and elaborated on the importance of a father's role in family in our world today.  I think it talked to both of us and our whole 'battle'  situation.  We need to work on our own attitudes before we can model the right attitudes for our children, etc.  So we are going to work harder on attitudes as a family!!  Yeah!!  Everyone's favorite thing to work on!!  I'm sure when Carlie reads this she will be smiling...she was the one in our family who kept our attitudes where they needed to be...she'd ALWAYS pray for our family and our attitudes at ever meal!  Thanks Car!

Something RANDOM but SUPER FUNNY!!

  So this is Keegan's first year in school, Kindergarten.  Aiden, my nephew (Carlie's oldest son) also started Kindergarten this year.  The difference, Keegan learns from home and I'm his teacher...Aiden rides the bus and has a big classroom with other kids.  I HAVE to share with you what took place a few weeks ago with Aiden at his school.  I don't share this to chastise AT all...I share this ONLY to prove this point:  Our family is not the only hilarious family around!!  So Aiden comes home from school one day and to my knowledge he had received a red card (or something that told Carlie he'd gotten in trouble that day)  I also was told that the teacher felt it was 'bad enough' that she had to call Carlie and talk to her about it! 

                                                        This must have been super serious. 

But see IF you know Aiden then you should have a wide open mouth from pure shock right now.  Aiden is your typical first child, well behaved and somewhat of a perfectionist...NOT a trouble maker! 

So you wanna know what he did?

Yea, I did too...the teacher went on to tell Carlie that Aiden got in trouble because he kissed a girl.  Now let me keep moving a long...kissing the girl wasn't the true reason for disciple...the thing that was troubling is that he kissed her then lied about it.  When the teacher asked him if he kissed her he said something like, "Yea, but I had something in my eye and thought she was my sister!!"  Now THAT'S the funniest thing I've EVER heard!! 

                          Aiden DOES have a sister...but unless this girl was only 2 feet talk with short brown hair and also who happened to go to school WITH Aiden JUST that day then it's obvious that the possibility of A's reasoning is non existent!  Isn't it cute how little people think up stuff withouth thinking?!?   

                               He had something in his eye...so he thought she was is sister??????

                          HAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! 

And I thought MY kids were great at stories!!  So needless to say Aiden didn't really get in trouble for literally kissing this little girl...he really got in trouble for lying about it.  He did a good job with sticking to his story for a little while, but just like all parents hopes, the guilt got to him and he FINALLY admitted to Carlie and Shane that he knew it wasn't REALLY his sister (otherwise he needed to visit the eye doctor!!).  he told them that he didn't want to marry her or anything serious like that BUT he did want her to be his girlfriend!! 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

You gotta know and love Aiden to completely fall apart to this...but this IS super funny!!  What a cutie pie!

I had something in my eye and thought it was my SISTER!!!!!!!!!!!

                      Once again...I LOVE my family!!

One LONG BATTLE (this will keep you busy for awhile!)

                      I think if I am going to take my time to tell you about our lives and how adventurous they are then I should also take this moment to tell you about the NOT-so good stuff as well.  There’s been a battle out here.  A battle that shouldn’t surprise you one bit.  A battle for Mark and I and we’ve been having problems. 

It’s not marital…if any it’s spiritual. 

Not the ‘we don’t believe or we don’t follow God any more’ it’s been more of a loss of hope, a feeling of abandonment, an anger issue…with God.  I’m totally a ‘victim’ who’s had the ‘BUT I deserve this NOW’ kind of problem.  It’s not even really a God problem…it’s a Mark with Mark and Stacie with Stacie.  If you are a believer in Christ then this is something I hope you understand…it might be something you are struggling with right now or have had a struggle with…if you’ve never had this problem then I must advise you to be realistic and take a DEEPER look into your life and how you’ve lived it. 

 This hasn’t been an overnight battle that I’m telling you about…this has festered within for a nice few months. 

                Let me see if I can explain a bit without typing a million pages. 

 I’ve been raised in Jesus.  I know Him, I know what He desires, I’ve been taught how to love Him and in turn I grew to love Him and have my own personal faith in Him.  I have the desire to follow Him, to make the best choice when it comes to life because of Him and who He is and who He calls us who love Him to be.  I can’t speak personally for Mark and his upbringing but I can tell you that He too was brought up to know and love God.  He and I are on the same page. 

                I’ve never questioned God, His word, or faith.  I’m the type of person that hears it and just says, I’m not super smart…so I’m not about to come up with questions…I’ll go with it, it sounds right, feels right, and most of it make sense so…I believe.  I was not given a scientific mind or a mind that desires hard proof which has been nice cause I get it without needed that.  I am not a doubting Thomas.  I don’t need to see to believe.  But as I’ve grown older I’ve learned that there are many folks in the world that have to have the hard proof…that want to argue the silly details…that need to question to find their way.  Do I understand it? Not really, but I give it respect.  There always comes a point when we can’t see all and wherever you are when you’ve seen all that you can you still have to just jump.  It always boils down to being left with the gap…do we just believe and jump into it…which is faith or do we let this stuff leave us behind?  Even the strongest believers have to come to this.  I jumped…I’ve got salvation…I believe…now what?

Ok…now back to our family. 

This is nothing new...

you’ve ALL hear this or most of this but for the sake of this whole blog I want to include it. 

Here we are…it was 3 years ago when we were told that Mark’s job would be taken…at some point…so we lived for a nice while after that with the daily fear of is today that day?  Instead of picking a day that could be handled easiest, we were given the ‘Lay-off’ notice once I was a nice 5-6 months pregnant with Grissom. 

Did we have faith?

 Yea…believe it or not, but we still believed that God would take complete care of our needs which He did!  Now during this time He also showed us that OUR needs weren’t really what He thought were our needs.  So we quickly left these things behind…we didn’t go out to eat…ever…I stopped putting money into my favorite pastime; baking and cooking new and elaborate meals, we ate simply, repeating our cheapest possible meals.  We stopped driving places, doing anything extra.  God took us down to plain old living together and being a family.  That’s all we had and we loved it.  We ended up being home more and finding good friendships with our neighbors.  I was sad to know that even a few of them were struggling in similar ways so I HAD to have faith for all of us…even when they had faith themselves.

  One of my favorite memories that I will cling to for the rest of my life was walking with Dana…we were just talking about life and we were just walking around one of the last 2 empty lots that bordered the back our houses.  I kid you not…we started finding cash…I’m not talking one dollar bills…I’m talking $50’s and $100’s…scattered and tucked into holes in the grass…we each had collected a nice few $100 each…what a HUGE blessing in the midst of what should have been complete despair!  God Has provided…I’m not here to object to that.  I can tell you time after time when these kinds of unexplained things happened during this time.  (p.s. by the way don’t worry we asked everyone and even posted it on the neighborhood’s website about the lost $$…but no one claimed it…so we claimed it as a gift from God). 

                Mark was working…not for a company but working job after job after job from referrals and friends and family to help us make ends meet.  We were able to pay bills every month…there was only 1 month we had to borrow $ for and we were able to pay that back a few weeks later.  During this time off of steady pay and any kind of real health insurance we paid for Grissom’s birth, Ella’s broken hand, Keegan’s broken foot, and a few other extra things that came our way. 

 Again…we were provided for…we just had to let go of ALL kinds of any dessert. 

It wasn’t easy but we learned, enjoyed what we could and moved on. 

                Mark was offered this job with CMS again through our church connection…it was all travel, but at this point we needed something steady and we felt God was pointing us in this direction (trust me when I tell you that this job was in the makings for almost a full year…but only (in my opinion) because I needed that long for God to prepare ME and my openness to it.  Our plan from the beginning was for us to travel with Mark as he went to different places to do different jobs, but our plan was changed once again. 

Mark had to go to a job on his own…a 3 month log project out in Vegas!  So not only did I have to trust him to go out alone, but I had to trust that I could pull the weight that needed to be done at home without him…let me tell you I think I would have handled anywhere else better…but Vegas?  I’d been there…and all I could imagine was prostitutes running after him from every direction until he gave in…yes laugh if you want but I’m just sharing with you MY real.  I trust him…I DON’T trust the world! 

Needless to say God took us through this to teach us as well.  Mark had to learn to lead from a distance.  He had to see what kind of a life he was going to lead without us all being there with him, I had to learn that I am stronger then I think…we lived…we made it through…and we feel like we came out stronger once again.  Mark’s 3 month job turned into almost 5 months and it was almost harder to adjust to him being home then not.  We were blessed with having him around until April…that’s when they told him his next job was going to be here in Monterey, California.  He INSISTED that he was NOT going without us.  I felt the same way but once again with many concerns.

                So here we are…we’ve been out here for almost 6 months now…the job was also pushed back until Dec.  I am with another child and life just seems to knock us down.  At first, being out here was fabulous.  Sure we missed home, Peanut, and our friends and family but we felt as if we were on vacation! 

The apartment is small but people have lived this way for years. 

                About 2 months ago we found out that we were being ‘assessed’ for an audit from 2009 (the hardest year we ever lived through)…this is still in progress and it looks like we just made a silly mistake and will be fixed, but this has been and continues to be a huge stress upon our increasingly strained situation…now we are out here and this guy is needing things that are home…hmmmm…it’s NOT been easy! 

But we are still living. 

                Mark’s also been struggling with the people (not the job so much as the people) he’s working for.  They don’t seem to care at all about anyone who works for them.  They seemed ok at first but there was lots said that has yet to be seen or that has changed.  So Mark’s not super excited about the company he’s representing. 

But again life goes on even when we feel yet another ‘hit’ that we are trying to move past.

After all he still HAS a job…and it’s one that IS paying our bills AND has allowed us some fun after the fact…so I’d have to say this has been a financial blessing just not without struggle. 

It’s nice to have dessert here and there again. 

                I’m NOT going to dogg’n on baby #4 but the timing was also a slight bit of stress and shock.

  Then I lost a friend to cancer?? Really!!

The why’s are creeping in…

not taking over but just hanging out.

  Not to mention the fact that we JUST received papers being summoned to court. 

Oh, did I forget to mention that in the midst of life Mark totaled his car this past January…it was considered a no fault everyone walked away but Mark’s car was a total lost and the couple’s truck didn’t look great either.  Mark was not speeding it was a light issue…the man thought he had a green turn light and turned in front of Mark…Insurance covered life and we all moved on…at least we thought.  Now we are being sued for all the pain and anguish Mark somehow caused this older couple because he didn’t stop in the middle of traffic to let them turn when they didn’t have the right away.  Here’s the thing there are no witnesses.  Its Mark’s word verses this old guy’s.  Talk about aNOTHER blow below the belt! 

                This I have to say actually just blew the top off of the pot boiling inside.  That’s it…I QUIT!

 And therefore – hence the BATTLE!

                Not to mention that fact that I am suppose to leave my husband out here in California JUST so I can be seen by my OB??  So I’m suppose to leave him out here while he’s struggling and take on our house and the kids all while being pregnant? 

Really?!?!

NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No…we aren’t faced with the pain of losing one of our family; our struggles may cause others to laugh and say…whatever, its life…get over it.  To you I say I’m SO sorry for all your struggles but this is MY blog…and YOU are reading about OUR life and OUR struggles…and this is OUR battle.

  Everyone has their own.  We all go through life getting knocked down time and time again. 

I don’t need people telling us all the things we DO have going for us…or the things other people are struggling with, that doesn’t make me feel better…there’s pain everywhere and each of us has to figure out just how they are going to get through it…and this is just our person pain and struggle. 

I really thought long and hard as to whether or not to share this…but if I am going to be real to people then I guess it was a no brainer.  The last thing I want is for people to look at me and think we are SO wonderful…or SO perfect…or everything’s going SO great.  At least we are together is all I can say…at least.

  Now in the midst of struggle I know what to do…even when I can’t pray I know to ask those around me to.  I have felt the prayers if you’ve been praying then please know that God’s talked.  I want to share that next.

                I started ‘coming’ across things.  About 3 days later we read about how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven (Mark 10:17-31) and at the end of this passage this is what it says (verse 29-31)  “I tell you the truth,“ Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age …and in the age to come, eternal life.  But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

                So…I realize that we are not missionaries out here to save California and we didn’t come out here to do that really, but we DID feel like God wanted us to do what we can to stay together as a family so in a way we did feel like we were leaving everything to come out here in obedience to Him.  So these verses were and are a bit of comfort.

  This verse told me personally that God knows where we are and how we feel…this will not be without…but it also means that it will be what HE deems a blessing not our plan necessarily. 

               Normally, I play music in our HUGE kitchen as I cook…this helps me forget where I’m at it also gives me some time to worship in the way that I LOVE – singing!!  It also sometimes allows us to break out into dance party baby!!  So unlike most evenings I was in the kitchen (I have to block off the entrance with the chairs so I can have a little time to myself) fixing dinner and playing my music.  And even though I’d heard this song several times before and even sang most of the chorus it struck me as a song I was hearing for the first time because now my heart we needing it…this song made me stop in my tracks and as I stood there listening the tears just wouldn’t stop;

it was just as if I’d written it. 

The gal singing is a lady who came out here and sang at Shoreline Comm. Church and I totally fell in love with her songs…I now have 2 of her CDs. 

 Her name is Elizabeth Hunnicutt. (Check her out…she’s really fabulous!) 

But below I’ve added the lyrics to this song.  Mark ‘heard’ it for the first time again too and felt the same way. 

HERE I AM

By: Elizabeth Hunnicutt

From her album: On the Way

No, I don’t know it all

& I don’t have the strength

But here I am, here I am

& I don’t have the words

& I don’t have the wisdom

But here I am, here I am

I am weak

You are strong

I want to feel You move

Give everything to know You

Surrender all to be used

Here I am, here I am

Here I am, here I am

Well, I don’t have the faith

& I don’t have the answers

But here I am, here I am

All of these doubts

Raining over me

Bring Your light & shine

Until they’re gone, till they’re gone

                So where are we at this point?

  We are open…we ARE here and ready to give it up…mostly…but feeling like ‘my/OUR’ story is just that…it’s MINE and Mark’s…and our focus is wrong…our focus is on US all of a sudden and just cause it’s pouring cats and dogs in our life doesn’t give us the right to take our focus off of the truth and onto just US…not when you know life the way we do…so the issue now…how to put our life back into focus on the one who gives the hope and faith that we need to make this better.

                Friday we noticed a little streak of sunshine and RAN out to Ft. Ord beach just to veg and let the kids take on the sand dunes.  I’d talked to Carlie earlier and She’d challenged me to read a book with her…I also talked about this earlier. 

 I wanted to share with you the book. 

It’s Bittersweet by Shawna Niequist.  I recommend this book with ALL my heart. 

She’s had a struggle in life but more than that she’s been stuck on her and her plan and wanting to fit God into her plan JUST like our struggling that I’m sharing with you now…just like most of us…I’m not finished with this book, but so far I’ve been just amazed at how honest she’s been with her struggle. 

 It gives me hope that our silly struggle will end. 

We just have to give up…and look up starting fresh every day.

                Meanwhile, I talked earlier about the Sunday’s sermon and how it truly change our hearts.  When Jesus asked Peter if he loved him not once, not twice, but three times He was really forgiving Peter for each time that Peter denied Him.  I found it very ironic and comforting that when Jesus first approached Peter to follow him it was while Peter was fishing, Jesus simply went up to him and said, “Follow me.” And Peter left everything and followed him…Peter the man who really knew Jesus screwed up and denied even knowing Jesus…he swore to it…how low did that cause him to feel?  How helpless, hopeless, selfish did Peter feel?  Jesus didn’t condemn him…he loved him anyway…Jesus went to where Peter was a loved him there and forgave him…even after forgiving Peter Jesus didn’t walk away and assume him useless to His kingdom…in fact He felt the complete opposite.  He felt Peter worthy enough to go to him a 2^nd time after the forgiveness in the same way he did the first time, while he was fishing and he simply stated once again, “Follow Me”  as if Jesus were saying:

forgiven…now follow Me…AGAIN! 

Which means that once we are saved we are saved…that happens 1 time…but sanctification is what we need to fill up on over and over again…in our case daily. 

The definition of SANCTIFIED is to set apart for sacred use; consecrate…to free from sin or guilt…to make holy, purify, or to make productive of holiness or spiritual blessing. 

Saved once…but sanctified daily.

                When we accept Jesus we are His…we ARE human, we are NOT Him which means we cannot live this life without messing up, without losing hope, without falling faith…it’s where we go once we are losing that counts…we are to fill back up with the Holy Spirit…when the gas runs out you HAVE to fill it back up…and when you don’t that’s when we stay down. 

Mark and I don’t mind telling you and admitting to you that we’ve totally let OUR life take over and we’ve been trying to give God the credit BUT fully excepting things to go the way WE plan and this is NOT how God works. 

So we got on our knees and just asked Jesus to help us follow Him once again!

                We are feeling a lot better about life even though none of it has changed or miraculously disappeared like we really wanted. 

We know that we are here for Him who created us and our life will only be worth something when we keep Him at the front staying focused on what God wants for us. 

This means that when I come home without Mark in October I will do my best starting new everyday to do what needs to be done even when it hurts every fiber of my being to not have my love with me…my best friend. 

 It also means that Mark is going to work and do his best no matter how bad he is treated and he will work for the glory of God and not to please any man.  

This means that we will see where God takes him next and we WILL be open to doing whatever it takes to go where He will send us and to do our best once again to stay together as a family EVEN when it feels like the hardest thing we could ever do especially when our desire is to stay home. 

We will do our best to sing even when the tears are there…WE will just be here for Him to change, direct, guide, and mold until His plans are finished…to God be the glory…trust me when I say this struggle WILL be back for us…God tells us that troubles WILL come so we need to be ready and prepared for the storms…so we will pray that God will keep our eyes open for the next time and instead of standing head on waiting for the wave to break us and knock us around and leave us broken and badly hurt and empty, we will do our best to let Him guide us…to fall into the waves and ride them to flow keeping our eyes on Him.

Please keep praying for us.

If you know and love Jesus then you will also know that living for Him is the hardest thing any human can take on and do…if you don’t know Him…please look and search...it’s worth every struggle.  I hope by sharing our struggle it encourages you. 

Can You say HOLY LAUNDRY!!

One this I will NOT miss or even think twice about once we are back home: doing the laundry here!!

Not only had we waited to 2 weeks…which I decided was a good thing cause we were able to use the entire stock of clothing that we brought…down to the last undies…but we were able to take ALL 8 of the washing machines at once…so my laundry time only took 2.5 hours (and that involves folding it all too) to complete 8 large loads of clothes, etc.  The only things that missed this cleaning were the comforters and pillows…other than that…wow…what a day!  So if I continue this new trend of every OTHER week laundry I’ll only have about 3 more huge laundry days…now each load takes $1.50 to wash and $1.00 to dry…so YOU do the math…I think we could have paid for a new washer by this point…and the kids have really done great with wearing and RE-wearing their clothes…so great that I think some of their items will have to see the trash before they get to move on…poor things!  The only thing I MIGHT think twice about is the HUGE folding table that we fill every time we do laundry!!

And IF you look close enough you'll see Keeg's head JUST above the tree.  Yes...this is just one of the things that my kids do to try to stay busy while waiting for the laundry to be done!!

My monkeys!! 

Our Little Commercial

You can get tons in the bug’s trunk…$125 worth of Wal-Mart grocery’s:

PLUS

 $19.06 worth of fresh produce:

  Plus 3 children and the parents…after being home and driving in that silly thing for 2 weeks we’ve only had to put gas in it once: $40 worth!!  SWEET!! 

 I think I can love this car!

Happy Labor Day...now STOP 'Laboring'

Monday…HAPPY LABOR DAY!! 

Things are quiet around here and this holiday is only celebrated by a few.  Most folks around here have to work…its tourist town…so their lives don’t even stop for the holidays, but ours did! 

It looked again to be a nice foggy day…so we were trying to come up with something to do that wouldn’t involve being stuck in this place or in the fog for that matter.  The kids wanted a little room time so we decided after lunch to get out beach stuff and DRIVE until we found a sunny spot! 

WE WERE DETERMINDED! 

So we packed out lunch and took off…luckily it turned out that there was fog everywhere…but close to the Fishermen’s Wharf it seemed a little lighter.  So we headed there!  Mark set up the wind tent and the kids got prepared to play in the sand.  The sun came out for a short time and the fog came back…BUT we said a quick prayer and low-and-behold within minutes the fog dissipated

(how’s that word Carlie?)

 and we were able to sit in our suites while we read and the kids played.  It was still too cold to touch the water, but just being close to it made you feel rejuvenated! 

I’m reading a new book…one with Carlie…I’m sure she’s done with it already, but I’m hoping by the time I get back to Indy I’ll have it read.  The problem with this book is that it’s from MY heart…I read that first chapter and sobbed out loud because she stated everything I’d been feeling the past few months.  I’m able to read it now without sobbing because luckily I found some difference in our story so it doesn’t feel AS personal, but I still have moments where the tears well up and I can’t see for a few minutes.  Mark make fun UNTIL I read him that first chapter and I kid you not…he too felt it was too close to home and we were sobbing together!  So now he just touches me when I start the tears because he knows its close.  I’m really enjoying this book.  The writer and I have TONS in common and it seems to be an easy read for me. 

 I’m not really that dumb, I’ve just never been a great reader so books to me were HAVE to’s because the teacher made our grades about them…I’m trying hard to turn them into GET to’s so I can have something to myself…I’ve loved all the reading I get to do with the kids home schooling…but that’s reading aloud to them and it’s fun…so technically I’m reading now more than I’ve ever read my entire life! 

OK…so the beach turned out to be wonderful.  Mark had hidden my maternity suite so I was wearing a silly looking bikini (ONLY cause I’m here in CALI…NEVER would this thing touch my bod if we were near INDY! and you will NEVER seen any pictures!) but the issues ended up being that fabulous sun that we hadn’t seen since Indiana…and we left the beach with some nice redness to us…AND my belly! 

 We put our beach stuff into the bug and decided to head to the wharf for a little fun.  We ended up hanging out at the Greek Festival for a short time watching the Greeks perform cool dances – the kids and I have talked recently about the Greeks and the gods and goddesses that they had/have.  So this was a good learning…I LOVE learning! 

                The kids kept complaining about how empty their tummies were so we had a great idea:  We’d walk down the wharf and taste ALL the clam chowder soups they always have…by the time we were done everyone was satisfied.  We each had a good 7-8 little cups of chowder!  Sweet!!  Hunger diverted for FREE!  We did a little shopping and ended up adding ice cream to our tummies just to give us the energy to walk back to the car! Ha!!  As we walked back to the bug we declared the day a HUGE family fun success!!

                Today, Tuesday, Mark didn’t have to work until 4 so after our first half of school and then lunch we took off again for the beach.  This time with our bikes!  Keegan’s training wheels have been lifted as well as his seat…my little man’s grown SO much!  And this was our first big family ride!  He’s been riding in our parking lot but without the bike rack (which Mark brought back with him after his short trip home) we weren’t able really to ride anywhere!  So today we had a great ride down our trail next to the ocean.  It was so cute to hear Keegan cheer himself on (after all this was the longest he’d ridden!).  You’d hear, “Come on Lightning and Thunder (this is what he named his bike)…you can do this Keegan Scott…petal…petal…petal man!”  He wiped out a nice 4 times and we had to stop to rest at least that many as well, but the boy never gave up!  He said falling in the sand was much nicer then when he feel not on the sand!!  I LOVE this boy!!  I can’t wait to see him riding his bike next to the ocean without those training wheels!  He’s bound and determined!  We’ve had a nice quiet evening…but we miss daddy already…it’s nice having him home for such a long time!

Also...it was time...I was ignoring the fact that my wedding ring was starting to feel tight and here and there it felt very snug...but I came to the realization that IF I didn't take it off now...it REALLY might not come off later or worst it'll have to be cut off (like my neighbor).  So after lots of cold water and oily soap and lotion I was able to swist and turn and shred my finger as I got it off!  Holy Pain!!

Never fear...we headed to Kohls to find me my 4th Fake wedding ring!  It's so shiny!!

I LOVE how big I get'em...you can go BIG when you go fake you know!

Ha!!!!

Our BIG weekend adventure!

                                   Saturday was a day…full of…driving!  We left after lunch for a grand adventure. 

The goal : drive somewhere we hadn’t been. 

 So we took off for the famous Carmel Valley!  It was a yucky foggy day here in Monterey and a high of only 60 but out in the valley they were talking a nice sunny 77 degrees…I NEEDED some of that!  The only issue was the fact that it took our family a nice TOO long of time (once again) to get out the door.  Our original plan was to grab lunch out…but it took us SO long that it made more sense to eat before we left then get in the car just to eat minutes later and go again.  So after lunch we left.  The kids were only allowed to take their game things (Ella=DSi and Keegan= Leapster) each can take pictures with them and if they got too bored play games.  But we’d been talking about the plains and valleys in school so they were going to experience them if it killed us all!  I wanted to badly to go into one of the wineries on this way, but I just could bring myself to go in…I thought about trying to play my gut off like it was just that…a nice wine/beer gut, but who’s kidding who…too obvious…so I walked through a local art gallery while Mark took his own venture: taking ALL the kids to the bathroom!  He can be SO sweet for this was HIS idea!  So I didn’t get wine-time, but I did get a little ME-time!!  I’ll throw in some of the pictures we have from this drive.  My father-in-law would have been SO proud of me…this road we were on was one of those U-turn…curvy things that makes one from the city look at and puke…but I held my own. 

                        After all we had the windows down and were jam’n to my Pandora!  We did stop and get out a few times; me to stretch and take a picture of two, and Ella just to follow and use her little camera.  Grissom and Keegan both fell sound sleep (they normally do when I sing…it’s kind of nice that I can bore them THAT much with my voice…can’t WAIT till they are teenagers!).  Ella, Mark, and I stopped at one point and the sound was just amazing.  The wind was blowing just enough to hear the grain and wheat fields hitting each other.  What a peaceful sound.  I know now how people could live out in the middle of no-where. 

We passed many little and majorly huge ranches.  At one point I had Keegan wanting to stop and taste the dressing at every RANCH (hidden valley ranch) hahahaha!  After all my kids do seem to take after their uncle Jeffrey with the LOVE of ranch on everything – yuck!  When I tell you we drove…I mean we drove!  But it wasn’t hard to keep going even the kids were preoccupied with the views and the conversations we had.  What a great time to talk to your kids about everything…they CAN’T run away!  (Note to self…remember that when I need them to listen to me!!).

We stopped at this super cute town.  In the heart of this town was a Salon…in fact it was McCintock’s Saloon!  I’d heard about this place and just because it was close enough to my maiden name: McClintic we HAD to eat there!  The kids were taken the moment we entered.  The walls were covered with animal heads…IN CALIFORNIA!!  For this dinner we got to feel as if we’d been taken to a ranch somewhere closer to home…it was yummy good!! 

 Mark wanted to try to hit the coast before sunset.  It was only about 25-30 minutes away so after dinner we headed West back to the coast line.  WE got sidetracked.  We saw the fog…and the sun setting…oh, breathtaking…easily unearthly feeling.  It reminded Mark and me of Hawaii standing atop of the Mauna Kea Mountain.  Those clouds looked thick enough to run on and bounce around on and then you add the colors of the sunset AND the mountains…WOW!  I’ll try to give you a picture, but they give it NO justice! 

 We knew at this point we weren’t going to make it to the coast so we decided to head back up to Monterey via highway 1 which runs right up to Seaside.  The problem: the fog was rolling in…the dark was coming…and the curves…well…they made even Mark nauseous!  This was the scariest drive ever…the fog would blow past the car with the wind which made you feel as if you were in the midst of a horror movie waiting for the dead to pop up from around the corner, not to mention the u-curves we faced with completely FULL tummies!  Yes…YOU know where this led.  No it was NOT me!  It happened to be Grissom…poor little guy.  We had NOTHING but a few wet wipes left in my bag to aid in this clean up.  I did my best to turn around and try my hardest to stop it by screaming, “MARK…HEEEEELPP!!!!”  I even took a bit of the puke on my arm…which almost allowed me to join in all the fun Grissom was having!  I had to get out of that car as FAST as I could and I needed this stuff OFF my arm…my gagging wasn’t going to stop until then.  So 20 minutes later Grissom’s now without clothing and wrapped in a towel.  All the wet wipes are gone and thrown over the mountain’s edge (they’re disposable…right?).  Everyone was cold from the wind and tired from this journey that seems to be taking longer than you could ever imagine (you CAN’T go very fast around these mountains)!  The problem now: the air IN the bug…I kept gagging…so we had to ride all the way home with my window down and my head out the window like a dog!  This wind was high 40’s low 50’s!  And every time Mark tried turning the heat on to help the rest of the crew from their frozen destiny…I started gagging again because the smell was only exaggerated by the heat!  Talk about a mess!!  Luckily the kids became numb enough that it put them all to sleep!  We got home at a nice 11 p.m. so we were happy!  It WAS a good day all in all!   

            I’m amazed at how God works on our family even out here.  We sat through the final sermon in Kevin’s series called Road trip with Jesus.  This has been the theme all summer because this is when folks take their vacations and road trips.  He’s gone through this summer speaking to mostly Mark and I about life and the paths and struggles that life brings and how God helps us, etc.  This final sermon was about forgiveness and following Jesus…again.  He talked about Peter and how even he denied Jesus 3 times within a short time frame (even after Peter SWORE he’d never do it) and how even Peter was forgive 3 times and Jesus asked him a second time, “follow me!”  It was so person of a message that Mark and I knew once again that this was JUST for us.  We felt renewed and convicted…it was JUST what we needed to hear JUST at the time we needed to hear it!  After church we ALL laid down for a nice little nap!!  We then went to our much loved Me’N Ed’s Pizzeria for a special its Labor Day weekend and we have NO family to be with Dinner!!  This too was a time of family chatting and chewing…we LOVED it!  Then because we are original we went home and watch Night at the Museum cuddling on the couch. 

                           I really think all this movie watching is something my kids will never forget!  I get SO tired of movies…but when the sun starts to go down ALL they want to do is grab their jammies and cuddle with mom and dad on the couch to a movie…even one we’ve seen a million times! 

Daddy didN'T have to work Friday!!

I woke up this morning to some noises in the bathroom that didn’t seem right…I kept hearing water running then stop then run the stop and this went on for awhile.  I finally realized that waiting for Mark to hear this and check it out wasn’t going to happen (EVEN though I seriously prayed to God that HE would get up!)  So I got up and to my surprise Keegan was the only one in the bathroom everyone else was still sleeping (thank goodness cause it was 6 a.m…and once again THIS mom doesn’t do 6a.m. NOR will my children!) I watched him as he worked so focused.  He didn’t see me and I love watching my kids this way.  He had 2 sheets of dinosaur tattoos…one page he was cutting up and places in specific places upon his arms then he must have gotten tired cause next he grabbed the entire rectangle sheet and laid them across his belly and sticks’em on!  I think he heard me chuckling cause he turned my way and saw me, smiled and said, “Hey mom, Morning…I’m tat’n up for this day baby!”  Later that morning Ella had to share a few of her princess tattoos with Grissom cause Gris wanted to be JUST LIKE HIS Bubby!!  So Grissom ended up with 2 princess tattoos…how manly!



So Mark didn’t end up working Friday, YEA!!!  So we headed to the mall in Santa Cruz (about 45 minutes north) to Sears and the Sprint store there to get the Bug’s oil changed and Mark’s phone fixed (too much dust in the phone!) We had a fun time.  We were able to get the oil changed at the same time we were dealing with Mark’s phone.  Both seemed to take forever and there was a fountain with benches in the center of this small mall.  So this is where the kids and I hung out they had a ball running in circles around this thing!  I took this picture below because I found it appropriate.  Ella sat next to me and as we watched the fountain she said, “Mom…even the water worships God.” I asked her how’s that? She answered, “Look at the middle fountain, it’s bigger than the rest…so it’s like God and the others who are smaller are like us or even the angels in heaven…and they are bowing to Him and His glory!”  Through the eyes of a child I sat there and looked at this fountain in a different way!

                On our way home we HAD to stop for wings…it’s NOW becoming a BIG thing…I LOVE WINGS!!  Poor Mark…he just HATES that I desire them so!  We got our dinner to go and when we got home we had a family movie night!  Transformers is a much better movie when you are eating wings then cuddling with your babies!!

Side Note:  While we were in the Sprint store a man with an arm (a.k.a. sleeve) of ‘tats’ walked in.  Grissom went crazy with excitement until I noticed this man.  I asked Grissom if he liked that man’s tattoos and he said he did…next thing you know my baby is comparing his arms to this man’s arm…it was SO funny.  Grissom was too afraid to go up to him, but wanted SO badly to touch his drawings!  This was also one of those moments in time that I was glad that Grissom was too young to be embarrassed by having the princesses up and down his arms!!

OK…so after dinner we sat down as a family like we do every Friday and read about the week of pregnancy we are in.  This Friday brings us up to 17 weeks.  I was reading and I read the phrase: hunger PANGS...Hunger pangs??  WHAT?  I’ve NEVER heard this phrase…oh, no…they are hunger PAINS…it’s always been pains…right…Mark and I had a nice discussion about this as well…I guess his household was full of knowledge around every corn while mind was…well…not…whatever!  I’m still saying PAINS!  Hunger gives your stomach pains so you eat…to satisfy these pains…makes complete sense!  I’m sure I wasn’t correct in this one I’m well known for not hearing things correctly or mixing words up and creating new ones, but ahhhhh!  This is just silly!!