Robyn's Nest

Missions Trip to Africa

2012-01-30T12:28:00.000-08:00

My husband, Rob is going on a missions trip to Africa in just under two months. I am attaching his support letter below and asking for you to prayerfully consider supporting him financially and/or through prayer.

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I am writing to share withyou some of my plans for the upcoming spring. On March 20^th, 2012 I will be traveling on a short-term mission trip to Nairobi, Kenyawith North Albany Community Church. Our team will return on April 4th.

Since 2007 North Albany Community Church has supported Huruma Nursery Schoolin the middle of the Mij wa Huruma Slum on the outskirts of Nairobi. The school has 3 classes that include 3, 4, and 5 year olds that totalalmost 100 children with 3 teachers. Along with the 3 teachers and the cooks salaries we also provide a dailymeal of ugali and vegetables at noonand a cup of porridge during the morning break. This meal will often be the onemeal a day that most of these children will have. Without this school most of the childrenwould not be able to continue on to primary school.

Our team of five istraveling to Nairobi to support the ongoing work, continue our relationshipwith Huruma Community Chapel (local church) and make needed repairs at theschool.

Additionally, Robyn and I have sponsored a boy throughCompassion International for nine years and it appears I will be able to meethim during this trip!

I am writing to friends andfamily seeking support. You can support me in two different ways.

Your prayer support is needed. At the timeof this writing I am quite nervous about our trip. It is a long distance to travel and I’venever been apart from my wife and kids for this long. I deeply need your prayers in preparation forthis trip. Your prayer support is alsoneeded for our team’s unity and wisdom. We’ll be faced with unexpected needs, and we desire to meet the mostpressing needs.

The second way that you can partner with me is bygiving financially.

The cost to me is approximately$2800. My trip costs will include; workproject, airfare, lodging & food. Shouldyou have any questions please feel free to contact me.

With Gratitude,

Rob Buhl

P.S. Monetary gifts shouldbe directed to: North Albany Community Church,(memo: Kenya Team). 1273 NW Thornton Lake Dr. Albany, Oregon 97321. Gifts are tax deductible.

Titus's 6th Birthday

2011-12-04T18:51:00.000-08:00

Titus turned six on Friday. Six! If you'd like to know how I feel about it you can head over here, to my other blog. This one is about preserving family memories. That one is about my thoughts and feelings and things I ponder from time to time.

Anyway, here on our family's blog I now present... Titus's sixth Birthday!

His special day started out with breakfast with Daddy. Daddy almost always takes the kids out to a special breakfast of their choosing for a special date. Titus chose Cork's donuts. He enjoyed his huge donut and strawberry milk before heading off to school with some extra donut holes to share with his classmates.

We enjoyed a super fun party with friends and family at McDonald's. Despite my last minute party planning, everyone he invited was able to attend which made for a really big, really fun, really crazy adventure. He even had a couple of friends from school attend, which was a first for our family--and totally awesome!

These are Titus's presents from the friends (and family) at his party. Legos, Starwars and Nerf. Yup, that's my son! He was so excited about all of his fantastic new presents and they couldn't have been more perfectly fit for him.

And the "adults" at the party, minus the mom driving around town to calm her fussy baby, had a little too much fun with the Ronald McDonald lips on a stick that our Birthday party hostess brought out to us... just because they had them lying around. Apparently we looked like the type of people that would make good use of them I guess!

It was so wonderful to have a stress free party where the food, cake and ice cream all came with the package and there was plenty of space to play and have fun. All we had to do was show up and bring the Birthday boy and his presents. No set up, no clean up, no planning. Having a kiddo who's Birthday falls smack in the middle of the holiday season makes the relatively few dollars spent on the party worth their weight in gold!

The night before the party I did Titus's six year-old interview since I knew we wouldn't have time to do it the next day. Titus watched me type his answers verbatim as he said them and he literally corrected my spelling, grammar and dictation skills all within the course of this short interview. He's one smart cookie!

Titus’s 6 Year OldInterview

(Questions by mom, answers by Titus)

What is your favorite toy? Starwars and Legos.

What is your favorite food? Macaroni and Cheese.

What is your favorite book? Starwars books.

What is your favorite place to eat? The place where we eatpeanuts and drop them on the floor. The warehouse? I don’t remember what it’scalled… (Roadhouse Grill).

Who are your best friends? Logan, Weston, Josh and Bruce.

What do you want to be when you grow up? Lot’s of things.Police officer, fire fighter, a cowboy, a worker, a builder, a racecar driver,and that’s it.

What is something you are good at doing? Going through tinyholes. Playing Lego Starwars. Playing the Wii. And that’s it.

What’s your favorite movie? Starwars.

What is your favorite treat? Cookies!

What is your favorite subject in school? Mostly English andSpanish.

What is your favorite thing to do? My favorite thing to dois playing with Legos and my Lego sets.

Where’s your most favorite place to be? At Josh’s house orLogan and Weston’s house and Disneyland and Legoland.

What’s your favorite holiday? Christmas.

What do you like most about yourself? I have no idea.

What is your favorite game to play? Sorry.

Do you think you’ll ever get married? Yup, of course.

How many kids do you want to have? Ten! Actually, 20. Well,I think 30. I think 40. 20 girls and 20 boys!

Tell me about your family. Daddy’s the funny one. And helikes to wrestle. Leeann’s sometimes freaked out by people and she’s alsofunny. And mommy likes to do the computer a lot. She does the phone a lot too.

What are you looking forward to about your Birthdaytomorrow? Getting lots of Starwars stuff. McDonalds, friends and that’s it.

California Adventures! Day 7

2011-11-21T20:44:00.000-08:00

Saturday was Rob's Birthday. Though it was technically a "down day" (i.e. non-park day), Rob and I snuck into Disneyland real quick to fix an error on our Annual Passports while the kiddos waited oh-so-patiently just outside of the gates.

Rob got a quick Birthday picture on the fire truck inside of the fire station next to City Hall, just below Walt's apartment.

And we also took a quick horse-drawn trolley ride down Main Street. Since it pulled up right in front of us we just couldn't pass up the opportunity!

Then we ventured to Downtown Disney and ate some lunch. After lunch the four of them did a random little boat racing thing and then we headed toward Rob's not-so-secret Birthday surprise. Technically it was a secret, but Rob had long suspected that we would do exactly what we did for his Birthday.

The kids were instructed to take him by the hand and without saying a word walk him toward his Birthday surprise. It didn't take a lot of convincing to get him inside of the Ridemakerz store since he's dreamt of building his own remote control car since the first time we walked through Downtown Disney together.

He got to splurge on accessories and upgrades to his very own hand-picked, hand assembled remote control car. It's kind of like Build-A-Bear for grown men!

Leeann seemed genuinely interested in watching daddy choose his car pieces and assemble his new creation. Titus was more interested in watching the Monster Trucks that were pouncing cars on a t.v. inside of the store.

Next we went over to the World of Disney store and picked up the last of our souvenirs.

After that we strolled through Downtown Disney some more and enjoyed some fresh kettle corn together.

Leeann chose to get some Minnie Mouse ears as one of her souvenirs.

We hurried back to the pool and Rob and the kids got some swimming time in before the pizza man delivered some pizza to our hotel room. Once they got out of the pool and our tummy's were full we all fell into bed exhausted. It was a nice way to celebrate the Birthday of an amazingly wonderful man!

California Adventures! Day 6

2011-11-21T20:15:00.000-08:00

I know I'm way late in finishing out blogging our trip since we've been home for several weeks now, but it's better late than never, right?

I am afraid that the following posts will not be complete with play-by-play updates like I usually provide of our trips. Though I wrote down which rides we went on once upon a time, I currently have no idea where those details are written down at.

On day 6 of our trip we took our kids on "An adventure". We got in the car early in the morning and just started driving without giving them any clues about our destination for the day.

After getting stuck in Anaheim traffic and experiencing a scenic drive down the California coast we finally made our way to Carlsbad, California. Much to the delighted surprise of the three kiddos in the backseat we pulled in to... Legoland!

We have maps of Legoland from previous Disney trips we've been on (brochure freebies from our hotels) that Titus has religiously studied. He's dreamed about going to Legoland for quite some time now. We figured that now was as good of time as any to go to Legoland since Josh, Titus's Lego-loving cousin was with us.

The day started off beautifully, with hardly anyone else in the park. We walked straight on to most of the rides throughout the morning and enjoyed all of the Lego-themed rides and attractions.

Our first ride was fun, though we came to realize pretty quickly that this theme park was geared a little more toward the younger crowd.

Titus showed off his mad driving skills by intensely passing every other kid on the Junior Driving School race track.

Leeann showed off her less-than-mad driving skills in the Driving School where she broke just about every traffic law in the book. Granted, Titus had it much easier since his track was only an oval and Leeann's had multiple lanes, traffic signs and stop lights.

Rob... well... I have no idea what to even say about this picture.

Josh took the kids on some crazy twirly pirate ship ride while Rob and I sat by and watched. It was nice having Josh along!

Chewbacca and R2-D2 made out of Legos. Does it get any better than this?

There were huge Starwars scenes made out of Legos. The boys especially loved these exhibits.

Titus posed in front of a model of San Fransisco complete with trolley cars and vehicles that actually drove around the city.

This part of Legoland was especially cool. We loved seeing tons and tons of well known American icons reconstructed out of Legos.

I don't have any pictures from the rest of our Legoland adventures because it was about this time that I started not feeling well. I spent the next couple of hours leisurely shopping in the Lego store and hanging out on a park bench until I eventually met back up with the others and went on a few more rides to finish up our day.

I loved this bathroom sign so much that I just had to take a picture. Odd, I know!

The whole gang in front of Mr. Jack-O-Lantern.

On our way out we saw this really neat Lego family that looked like they were in desperate need of company.

It has to be sad to be so close to Legoland but never go in. Poor little family...

Hidden Mickey

2011-11-17T17:47:00.000-08:00

You know your family might be a little bit strange when your 5 year old looks in his bowl of Cheerios and excitedly declares, "I found a hidden Mickey!"

California Adventures! Day 5

2011-10-29T22:06:00.000-07:00

We spent day 5 of our vacation at California Adventure Park.

We were once again one of the first few people through the gates and we promptly went on my all-time favorite Disney ride, Soarin' Over California.

Then we headed over to Ariel's Undersea Adventure, which is a ride that only recently opened up. It was really cool!

Josh and Leeann went on the Tower of Terror. Leeann came out in tears, but insisted that she'd go back on it again... funny girl!

Meanwhile I rested a bit and Rob took Titus on some rides in Bug's Land since Titus didn't want to go on the Tower of Terror.

Titus LOVES this ride because it was one of the first rides he was tall enough to meet the requirements of the measurement stick. He insists on measuring himself up against it every time even though he's been able to go on it for years.

Daddy and his sweet little girl, both sportin' Beavers shirts.

Josh with Hip Hop Mickey.

Our munchkins with the mouse.

Titus staring in awe and wonder at the new Cars Land being built. He got a good view from the top of the Jumping Jellyfish ride.

While Josh and Leeann rode Goofy's Sky School a couple of times (Titus wasn't quite tall enough) he begged us to take him to King Triton's Carousel, which he and Rob rode twice. My head was spinning just watching these two... no crazy carousels for me!

Leeann and I enjoying some Jumping Jellyfish.

At the top of Mickey's Fun Wheel. It's a long way up, but it offers beautiful views at dusk!

The World of Color is an amazing water show. We got a great front row view from the bridge this year unlike the view of a bunch of people's backsides our short family got last year. It's a standing show, and we can't exactly see over other people very well. It's much better when you can actually see, I assure you!

Paradise Pier.

About half way through World of Color Titus crawled into the jogging stroller and went to sleep. He was all tuckered out and ready for bed. I don't blame the kid, if the stroller were big enough I would have been in there first!

Rides and Attractions:

Soarin Over California

Ariel’s Undersea Adventure (2X)

Golden Zephyr (Rob, Josh, Leeann and Titus)

Operation Playtime (featuring the green army men) (Rob,Josh, Leeann and Titus)

Toy Story Mania

Turtle Talk With Crush

The Aladdin Musical

Monsters Inc. (Rob, Josh, Leeann and Titus)

Muppet Vision in 3D

Tower of Terror (Josh and Leeann)

Francis’ Ladybug Boogey (Rob and Titus)

Tuck and Roll Drive ‘Em Buggies (Rob and Titus)

Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train

Disney’s Dance Crew Performance

Grizzly River Run (Robyn, Josh and Leeann)

Jumping Jellyfish (Rob and Titus)

Silly Symphony Swings (Rob and Titus)

Silly Symphony Swings (Robyn, Josh, Leeann and Titus)

Goofy’s Sky School (Rob, Josh and Leeann)

Dinner at Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta and Paradise GardenGrill

Goofy’s Sky School (Josh and Leeann 2 more times)

King Triton’s Carousel (Rob and Titus, 2X)

Mickey’s Fun Wheel

World of Color Show

California Adventures! Day 3

2011-10-29T21:14:00.000-07:00

I know I'm going a little out of order here, but between being utterly exhausted and having spotty internet access I haven't been able to blog every night. These pictures are from day 3 of our trip, which was a "down day" (i.e. non-park day).

We spent the day mostly in Downtown Disney, then Rob and Josh ventured out to the grocery store to get our breakfast and lunch items for the week.

Obligatory picture in front of our hotel.

We took a walk to Downtown Disney from our hotel, but stopped by a few of the Disneyland hotels first. Here the kids are posing by a statue in the Paradise Pier Hotel. We like to go in and imagine what it would be like to stay there. Then we quickly leave and head back to reality!

Rob and I got annual passports this year, since we plan to go back for our 10 year anniversary in December. Because of this Rob and I needed to go inside of the gates and get our pictures taken from a Disneyland photographer. Josh and the kids stayed just outside the gates while Rob and I snuck in a few minutes on Main Street. The first photographer we found happened to be in front of this cool looking pumpkin so we stopped for a quick picture as a couple and I'm really glad we did!

The kids stopped by the front gates to "smell the Disneyland air", since it would be another whole day before they would get to go into the park.

We are sad that they took the CALIFORNIA letters down, but we are glad they put this sign up for a photo opportunity.

Pictures in front of the Lego store.

There's something about these giant legos that just demand being climbed on!

I think both of these boys would be more than happy to display this statue in their rooms!

Howdy Partner!

The best part of our time in Downtown Disney was meeting up with some of Rob's family. It was really random that we all happened to be in Southern California at the same time, so we decided to meet up for lunch in Downtown Disney. Aunt Barb and Uncle Ken are from Indiana and his cousin Aaron and his wife Tamara are from Texas. They were nearby on vacation themselves and were kind enough to make the couple of hour trek up to see us. It was so good to catch up with them, though the time went by way too quickly!

The kids stopped for a picture with Elmo the bird.

And I happen to think this picture is incredibly adorable! Okay, truth be told, this kid is adorable. I think 5 is a fantastic age!

California Adventures! Day 4

2011-10-26T21:41:00.000-07:00

Today was our first day inside of Disneyland. We started out the day at the very front of Gate 13 (of course!) and quickly made our way to the end of Main Street where we waited for the rest of the park to open. We made great time, standing in line for no more than 10 minutes on most of the rides.

All in all, today was a very magical day. We had several impromptu character interactions which included following some princesses around the castle, being kidnapped by Storm Troopers (I kid you not!) and strolling down Main Street with Mickey Mouse to create the perfect ending to what might just be the perfect day!

Our Day in a Nutshell:

Dumbo
Peter Pan's Flight
Mad Tea Party
Alice in Wonderland
Matterhorn Bobsleds
Star Tours
Pictures with Princesses (Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty)
Indiana Jones
Tarzan's Treehouse
Jungle Cruise
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Laughing Stock Company at The Golden Horseshoe
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
Jedi Training Academy
Kidnapped by Storm Troopers
Space Mountain-Ghost Galaxy
Hungry Bear Restaurant
Splash Mountain
Winnie the Pooh
Haunted Mansion
Mickey's Soundsational Parade
Casey Jr.'s Circus Train
Strolled Down Main Street with Mickey Mouse

Walked back to the hotel with sore feet, tired kids and one delightfully happy family!

We were the first people to the end of Main Street at the beginning of the day.

Star Tours was a much anticipated ride. Titus loved it a ton, and I think Josh loved it even more than Titus. It was a little too bumpy for my liking, but it was fun to experience with the boys!

We randomly ran into a couple of princesses headed toward the castle. They were very friendly and talkative. We don't usually see them roaming around in the park so this was a special treat.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad!

Both kiddos got to train at the Jedi Academy today!

Then we randomly got kidnapped by a pair of Storm Troopers. They made us all put our hands in the air and paraded us through Tomorrowland.

Then they took pictures with each of their captures!

Josh was so excited to get this picture with them!

At the end of the day we were strolling down Main Street and lo and behold, Mickey just came up and grabbed our hands and started strolling with us. He even kissed mine and Leeann's hands! What a perfect ending to a delightfully magical day!

California Adventure! Days 1 & 2

2011-10-25T18:32:00.000-07:00

We left Sunday after church for a California Adventure. And so far, an adventure it has been!

We drove down to my mom and step-dad's house in Klamath Falls on Sunday night where we enjoyed a yummy dinner and a comfy place to lay our heads. We left around 6:30 on Monday morning hoping to get down to Anaheim by 8:00 or so that evening.

I'll spare you the unnecessary details but it turned out to be a rather trying day emotionally and physically and we didn't actually make it to our hotel until closer to 11:00 pm. But by the grace of God, we made it. And when we saw the lights of Disneyland the long trying day seemed to disappear amongst the beauty and magic of the area.

In the end we were really glad we didn't try to make the entire trip in one day or else we wouldn't have gotten in until the middle of the night and that wouldn't have been pleasant for anyone. We're hoping for a much less eventful ride home. But, in the meantime we are all very much looking forward to our time here in Southern California.

Rob and both feel like the timing of this trip has been such a blessing. Only God could have known how much our family could use this trip right now. As a family, we simply can't think of anywhere else we'd rather be or anything else we'd rather be doing.

Our nephew, Josh, Leeann and Titus rocking out in the backseat.

A beautiful sunset over Klamath Lake. This picture doesn't begin to do it justice!

Titus running out some of his energy at one of our many stops.

Josh with one foot in California and one foot in Oregon.

Welcome to California!

Poor Titus, who's prone to getting carsick threw up three times before lunch. He was on the mend after that though.

Titus wanted a picture with some palm trees. So a picture, I took!

The boys enjoying their In-N-Out burgers. We really need to get one of those franchises in our neck of the woods!

Leeann caught a fly with her bare hands. She's my little karate kid and she was very proud of herself!

We were all happy campers. Er, I mean, passengers, after such a yummy lunch. After a late lunch the rest of the trip was long and desolate but pretty easy sailing.

Kindergarten!

2011-09-12T10:24:00.000-07:00

Today I dropped my son off at Kindergarten.

I know I may be a little bias, but he was definitely the best looking kid in his whole class!

He was all decked out in his favorite shirt (Lego Starwars... what else is there?), sporting his Cars backpack and his Starwars lunch box.

He seemed only slightly nervous this morning. Mostly he was just excited to finally be experiencing this thing called school.

He's gotten to experience a fair amount of school and school related activities due to having a big sister, so he's been around enough to be comfortable with the whole idea, yet it's still been somewhat mysterious to him up until now.

I walked him to the playground where his class was lining up getting ready to go inside. I was really glad that I wasn't the only ~~paparazzi~~ parent present. He lined up along with the other class, in a mass of 50+ five year-olds with his backpack on his back and his lunch box in hand while his teachers gave them instructions and told them what to expect when they line up each morning.

I looked over at Titus at one point and suddenly I saw him blow me a kiss. My heart just about melted. A few minutes later his signed "I love you" to me from afar, which is something I often do with my kids when we aren't within speaking distance.

Then, before I knew it, he walked in a single (not so straight) line through the gym and off to his classroom along with a whole bunch of other kids who will likely include his future best friend(s), his future nemesis(es) and his future crush(es).

But for now, he's still my baby, despite the fact that he's in school. Some people can't wait to get their kids off to school, I can't wait to pick him up so I can hear all about his first day of kindergarten. I bet he's having a blast! He loves people, he loves learning and he loves to be on the move... I think he'll do just fine!

Mommy on the other hand... well, I'm warming up to the idea. I haven't cried (yet). Though I admit, my house is currently much too quiet for my liking!

Should I nap? Should I write? Should I clean? Should I read? Should I tackle a project? Visit a friend? Go shopping? The choices are plentiful.

Or, I can stare at the picture at the beginning of this post of my handsome son and count down the minutes until I get to go pick him up. The latter seems like the most likely prospect at the moment!

Here's to a new school year and a new chapter in life. Happy first day of kindergarten Titus!

Second Grade!

2011-09-06T10:49:00.000-07:00

Today marked the first day of second grade for Leeann. Titus doesn't start kindergarten until next week, so he and I are hanging out at home today.

The other day I was asking Leeann what kind of things she might want to pack in her lunches so I could put some things on the grocery list. She suggested sandwhiches, fruit, vegetables, love notes, crackers, etc... throwing love notes into the conversation as if it had been as common or expected as your every day food item!

I certainly wasn't going to turn down her simple request, so I made sure to include a napkin love note in with her lunch this morning.

She got water, a banana, a frozen green smoothie (this one had kale, banana, strawberry, peach, blueberries and watermelon in it), a peanut butter roll-up and a chocolate zucchini muffin that she and Titus helped me make yesterday.

After a little bit of a traumatic morning (due in large part to the fact that the kids 'forgot' that I'd told them to eat breakfast while I was in the shower despite the fact that I told them to go do that just before I shut the door), I finally got to Leeann's hair. It ended up being a little messy due to the fact that it had dried a little too much while they finally got around to eating breakfast. But it still turned out cute. We're trying to perfect the side swept fish tail look because Leeann loves side braids and pony tails.

Then after a little more drama trying to get out the door (this time due to the fact that Titus got an owie on the top of his foot and couldn't bare the thought of putting on his socks and shoes or walking to the car) we finally headed to school. Titus and I walked Leeann into her new classroom and took the obligatory first day of school picture at her desk.

(Advice Needed: How long is acceptable as a parent to walk your child into their class and subject them to an embarrassing first day of school picture?)

Then she quickly headed off to get a little before school recess in with her friends.

And just like that, my daughter is in second grade! By this time next week my son will be in kindergarten and I'll be wandering around aimlessly trying to determine my new role in life as a stay-at-home mom with both kids in school.

But as for today, today I have a Lego date with Titus while Leeann is in school. We're trying to rebuild one of his broken fire trucks, which is quite a feat when you have to find teeny tiny specific pieces among his massive amounts of Lego's.

Stay tuned next week for a first day of Kindergarten post, where I will undoubtedly turn into a big blubbery mess about sending my youngest child off to school for the first time... it should be a fun read!

Fun at the Fair!

2011-08-08T13:56:00.000-07:00

This year the kids and I decided to enter a few baked goods into the fair to see how the whole process worked. We didn't really have the opportunity to do any baking until the morning that the fair entries were do so we only got to do a couple of things between the three of us.

We did pretty well though, and I think with a little more advanced planning (which isn't easy for me... truth be told) I think we'll definitely amp up our fair entries next year.

After all it was fun, educational and it even made each of us a little bit of cash!

Leeann made a white chocolate pop corn snack mix. She was able to do this one entirely on her own. It won a blue ribbon (1st place) in the adult division. Granted, it was the only one in the adult division, but still it won a blue ribbon (and $3) non-the-less!

Titus earned $1 and a black ribbon (3rd place) for his Crispy Caramel Marshmallows. He was able to do these all by himself too, though doing it by themselves is not a requirement in the children's division which is reserved for kids 8 and younger. Leeann will still qualify for the children's division next year, with only a couple of days to spare!

These are made by sticking a toothpick in a marshmallow, rolling it in caramel ice cream topping then rolling it in Rice Krispies and setting it on wax paper to dry.

Titus proudly displaying his creation!

Leeann and I both won 1st place blue ribbons and Reserved Grand Champions for the creations pictured here. Ribbons are given out for 1st-4th place in each in each lot. Grand Champion and Reserved Champion are given to the overall winners and runners up in each class (which is the best of all of the lot winners in each particular class... see below if you're confused).

My scones were in Class 2, lot 9. I got a blue ribbon for lot 9 and Reserved Champion for Class 2.

Leeann's toffee was lot 12 in class 9. Titus's marshmallows were in the same class, so we didn't plan that very well. Whoops! I'll plan better next year!

The sales from the fair cookbook get dispersed out to the Grand Champion and Reserved Champion winners so in total our family earned $16 at this year's fair. We certainly didn't do it for the money, but I'll admit, it was a nice bonus!

Here are the recipes:

Almond Chocolate Toffee Crunchies Recipe

Ingredients:

1 sleeve of saltine crackers
1 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup chopped almonds, toasted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray cookie sheet with non-stick spray. Line crackers on cookie sheet close together. Melt butter and brown sugar in a medium pan on medium-high heat. Stirring often, heat the mixture for about 3-5 minutes until it turns into a nice caramel looking sauce. Pour the sauce over the crackers until they are completely covered. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle chocolate chips over the cookie sheet. The chocolate should start to melt. Spread chocolate over the toffee mixture and top with nuts. Allow to completely cool before breaking toffee up in pieces. Enjoy!

Sweet and Salty Pop Corn

Ingredients:

8 Cups Popped Popcorn

1 Bag of White Chocolate Chips

4 Cups Fritos

4 Cups Corn Pops

Directions:

Pop 8 cups of popcorn on the stove or in the microwave according to package directions. Remove unpopped kernels from the popcorn. Add the Fritos and Corn Pops to the popped popcorn. Melt white chocolate chips in the microwave 30 seconds at a time, stirring between each cooking segment so you don’t burn the chocolate chips. Repeat until the chips are all of the way melted.

Pour the white chocolate chips over the popcorn mixture and let harden. Store in an airtight container.

Petite Maple Pecan Scones

SCONES

3 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cups sugar

5 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon Salt

2 sticks (1/2 Pound) unsalted butter, chilled

1 whole large egg

3/4 cups heavy cream (more if needed)

½ cup chopped pecans, divided

ICING

1 lb powdered sugar

2 tsp maple flavoring

½ cup whole milk

¼ cup melted butter

¼ cup cold brewed coffee

1/8 tsp. salt

Directions:

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cut butter into pieces, then cut it into the flour mixture. Mix in pecans. In separate bowl combine heavy cream and eggs. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Roll dough out onto floured cutting board until it’s about a half-inch thick square. Cut into small triangles and place ½ inch apart on a greased baking sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 18 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack.

For the frosting: Mix together all ingredients listed and stir together until smooth. It should be thick but pourable. Taste and adjust as needed.

Put the icing in a plastic Ziploc bag and cut off a small piece of the corner, using the plastic baggie as a piping bag. Pipe icing onto cold scones and sprinkle additional chopped pecans on top if desired.

First Grade

2011-08-06T16:20:00.000-07:00

Leeann's first grade year has come and gone. Soon she'll enter second grade, then I'll blink and be sending her off to college... I'm sure of it. Before it's too far gone I want to make sure and document a small snippet of her fantastic year.

Titus and Leeann posing in between her two classrooms on the first day of the first grade.

This is a picture of her Spanish classroom. She's in a Dual Immersion Program so she spends one day learning entirely in Spanish and the next day entirely in English.

I took pictures of all of the first graders one day for a project they were doing. Here's Leeann's picture.

This is Leeann and some of her classmates preforming during Dia De Los Ninos.

She was especially excited to preform the Macarena! She took this performance very seriously!

This was her hair for crazy hair day. I think she has every last hair pretty we own in her hair. We called it The Volcano!

This is Leeann with her teachers Mrs. F and Mrs. C. Having not one, but two great teachers is one of the coolest parts about the Dual Immersion Program.

Toward the end of the year I got to go on a field trip with Leeann to a set of science exhibits at OSU. She had a lot of fun.

In all she had a really good year. She grew leaps and bounds in her ability to read and showed great confidence in math. Her Spanish teacher spoke well of her eagerness to learn a new language despite the fact that she was starting in the program a year later than most of the kids.

She seemed to have liked all of her classmates, but has yet to emerge with a "best friend". She liked to spend her recesses swinging and jump roping and really liked doing performances at school functions.

I look forward to seeing her grow even more in her maturity, her intelligence, her social interaction and her language acquisition in the year to come. Second grade--ready or not, here she comes!

Picture Perfect Wedding

2011-08-04T16:27:00.000-07:00

Despite the fact that I've been coordinating weddings for years, and Rob's been preforming them for years as well, we had never done one together until a few weeks ago.

I'm not sure I've ever been to a more picturesque wedding. It was very small and quaint at an old country church way out past West Salem, which happens to be very near where Rob and I lived when we first got married. Maybe that's why I thought it was so beautiful?

The bride and groom really wanted our kids to be there, and despite the fact that Rob and I were both busy working at different points in time the kids behaved really well. I am pleased with how grown up they're able to be when necessary... for the most part anyway!

The Bride and Groom provided a nice catered picnic lunch on blankets in the grass (there were some tables set up, but we enjoyed our food on a blanket) where Titus enjoyed using his butter knife to ~~cut up~~ play with ants.

Then we enjoyed some cupcakes and root beer floats (complete with old fashioned paper straws, Cold Stone ice cream and fresh brewed root beer served in the most adorable mason jars).

After lunch they pulled out some Nerf guns for the kids to play with. There are few ways to get to my son's heart faster!

Leeann joined in the fun too.

And my other child couldn't resist either!

All in all, it was a beautiful day that made for some really fun family memories! And it's always fun to see such giddy newlyweds. It reminds me of the joy of marriage. I can't believe it's already been almost 10 years since Rob and I said "I do".

Donuts!

2011-08-03T14:03:00.000-07:00

Back in February a couple of the cousins stayed the night at our house and we got up in the morning and headed over to Cork's Donuts for a special treat.

While the breakfast itself was memorable enough, the most memorable part came after the donuts. We stopped in the Starbucks parking lot so Rob could get a drink. The kids and I decided to rock out to some Hannah Montana while we waited.

While each of these kids are super funny on their own, and even more funny while they're rocking out, you'll find an especially funny part if you pay attention to the boys in the back about half way through.

The End of an Era

2011-08-03T10:13:00.000-07:00

My bulletin board.

My kids' bulletin boards. This is where all of their beautiful artwork went!

This was part of my office. It was huge, but there were a lot of kids and volunteers making use of this space on a regular basis.

Another view, showcasing the kids' toys and play area.

I had to do my best to keep it clean since there was a giant window looking into the office from the lobby. The window served as our Children's Ministry Help Desk where kids could register and parents could get information.

The best view in my office on that particular day. I loved being able to take my kids to work with me when needed. Of course anytime they were with me it took 1 hour to do what I could do without them there in 15 minutes!

This artwork wasn't mine, though it was left on the wall for my enjoyment. How can you not smile when you see this beautiful piece of art painted by Brenna?

I'm making an attempt to get caught up on this blog, which chronicles our family's adventures. I've been horrible about keeping up on our public family journal because I've been so caught up in my writing my love story over on my own personal blog, Real Life Pastor's Wife.

But this week I have some extra time on my hands, so I decided to go through my photos and blog about some of our family's long forgotten adventures.

These pictures are pictures of my office, just before I packed up my personal belongings and said good-bye to one of the many hats I'd been wearing over the last several years.

I began juggling a part-time job as the Children's Ministry Director at our church since Titus was about six-months old.

At the time taking on that job was a good fit for our family. Rob was just transitioning from his position at the church as a Youth Pastor to his new role as an Associate Pastor, and despite the fact that it was a good job, it didn't quite pay enough to support the needs of our family at the time.

With a new baby and a toddler joining our family in just over a year we had made the decision for me to go back to work for two reasons. First, and most obvious, we suddenly had two more mouths to feed.

Second, I looked forward to putting my degree to use (especially with plenty of student loans yet to pay off along with the new mouths to feed) in a ministry that I was passionate about. After all how many jobs could I get with a Bachelor's of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies with an emphasis in Bible and Education with a minor in Theology that would be relevant to my degree? The answer? Two. I could teach Bible at a Christian school or be a Children's Ministry Director. Or a Pastor's Wife... but that's not a job that pays real money... just lots of treasures in heaven!

Third, I desired to have the ability to do something meaningful beyond wiping snotty noses and picking Cheerios up off of the floor. Not that those things don't have very important meaning, but at the time I honestly felt like I needed some time to just be 'me' and if I was going to be spending time away from my kids and/or taking them to work with me, why not do something I loved and help pay the bills at the same time?

When I first started working at the church I was gung-ho and passionate about all of the possibilities for reaching kids for Christ through the ministry of the church. I spent tons of time reading, keeping up with the latest tips and trends affecting kids, and gaining insight into how to best lead volunteers in a Children's Ministry setting.

I wish I could say I kept that passion up throughout my time as the Children's Ministry Director, but there came a point in time where it began to be more and more difficult to juggle the demands of being mom to a toddler and a preschooler, the wife of a Pastor, and an employee of the church all at the same time.

I felt like I was always dropping the ball somewhere. This became especially evident when we became foster parents to my two half siblings, giving us essentially two sets of twins over night. Logan is three weeks younger than Leeann and Hope is 9 months older than Titus. When they came to live with us we had a 3 year old, a 4 year old and two 5 year olds. I was overwhelmed. During those six months the only thing I was able to do as a wife, a mom, a foster mom/sister, and an employee was simply to hold it together.

In January of 2009 Rob was beginning to transition into the role of Lead Pastor at our church. In February Rob's mom passed away. In March Hope and Logan moved in. They left that September and Rob was officially offered the role of Lead Pastor in December, assuming his new role at the beginning of 2010.

2009 was more or less a blur for me.

After Hope and Logan left it took a while to regain a sense of balance and normalcy in our home. And in that time an amazing thing began to happen. God starting turning my heart toward home.

I recognized that Rob was going to need my support more and more as he delved into his new role and I saw how quickly my children were growing up. As much as I'd been trying to fight through the constant neediness of my children when they were young, I suddenly found myself wanting to hang onto as many of these precious moments as I could--since it was becoming obvious to me that those days of being constantly needed were fading fast.

All of that, coupled with the fact that we had recently paid off all of our debts (most notably those pesky student loans which took half of my income each month to pay off) and we were hoping to add a baby to our family (which obviously hasn't come to fruition) made me quitting my job make sense for our family.

And so I did... when the time was right for the church as well. A good friend and ministry partner, Melissa, stepped into part of my role while Pastor Joel stepped into another part of it, which I think is a better fit for the overall ministry.

It's been a little bit strange, but really nice to watch the ministry go on so well in my absense. I now have a bit more time on my hands, though I am nannying one day a week, doing some ocassional wedding coordinating and being a foster parent (which can be like a full-time job depending on the child) from time to time.

It's really nice to finally have the freedom to "stay home" with my kids. It's also a bit ironic that they'll both be off to school in just over a month. I have a sneaky suspicion that Rob's going to assume that'll mean I have more time for housework.

I also have a sneaky suspicion that he's going to be very disappointed when he realizes that our less than perfect house is more about lack of motivation and desire than it is lack of time. Sorry, Rob!

Sweet Finds!

2011-07-14T14:57:00.000-07:00

Today the kids and I went to a school district warehouse sale and purchased some sweet finds!

Just yesterday as I was cleaning out the kids' stuff getting ready for a garage sale this weekend, I told Rob that I'd like a desk for Leeann's room. In fact, when we were in Washington last week I was scoping out inexpensive desks at IKEA, but even then I was looking at $50+.

So today when we walked into the warehouse sale I headed straight to the pile of school desks that were stacked on a corner of the lawn.

$1. No joke. A buck! Some desks were more worn than others but these ones are actually in great condition.

Leeann paid for hers with Birthday money and Titus paid for his with a dollar that he was rewarded with when he woke up on his own in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom two nights ago.

They already took pride in the desks because they paid for them with their own money, so now they're washing them up "til they sparkle".

I also got a box of books, including a dictionary, which we're in need of. Fill a box for $5. Yes please! We got some advanced readers, an Atlas, some geography and history books and even an Amelia Bedelia and a Judy Moody book!

I'd say that was an hour well worth my time! They do this every two weeks, on Thursdays from 12-2 here in Albany. We'll go back and see if we can score some $1 chairs to go with our new desks.

In the meantime they will be perfect for Leeann's Italian Soda stand which she will set up at our garage sale. $1.50 will get you an Italian Soda of your choosing from the world's cutest little barista! Stop by Saturday 9-3 if you'd like one! Oh, and feel free to take home some of our ~~junk~~ very useful things... we have plenty to share!

Titus's Big News!

2011-06-30T22:41:00.000-07:00

The week of VBS is a crazy, awesome, exhausting week for our family. Even though I'm no longer the Children's Ministry Director, therefore not completely in charge of VBS, the kids and I have still been at the church for lots and lots of hours over the past couple of weeks.

During weeks like these the pace of life is so hectic that we simply do what we can to make sure that everyone has clean clothes to wear and something that resembles food to eat. We pop out of bed early in the morning and fall into bed exhausted each night.

This morning was day 4, however, and we didn't need to be at the church quite as early as we've had to be the last 3 days. So when Titus climbed in my bed to snuggle this morning, with an armload full of cars, I took advantage of a few peaceful minutes together to chat with him about what he's been learning at VBS this week.

We were talking about yesterday's lesson, trusting Jesus, when Rob walked into the room to give us kisses before heading off to work. We each told Titus about the first time we trusted Jesus, and Rob asked him if he wanted to trust his life to Jesus as well. Titus said he did so he prayed and asked God to forgive his sins, and thanked Jesus for dying on the cross so he could have a relationship with God forever.

Then we got up and rushed through the house to get ready for VBS since we got a little side tracked with one of the coolest conversations ever! Once we got to church he told some of the leaders who all showed great excitement for him and his decision to trust his life to Jesus.

And when we got home we celebrated with some homemade ice cream complete with strawberries, chocolate and caramel sauce! Does it get any better than this?

A Day at the Circus (And More Grammy Adventures!)

2011-05-04T11:16:00.000-07:00

Confession: I wrote this in March. I even had the pictures edited, but I'm just now getting around to posting it. Pathetic, I know!

The kids and I just got back from spending 5 days at my moms house in Klamath Falls over Spring Break. I think I’m going to need a 5 day fast just to recover. My mom is a fantastic cook! The kids met their quota for the year of both sugar and movie/t.v. consumption. Okay, truth be told, so did I!

On Monday afternoon we got a special treat. My mom and Keith took us to the circus! I don’t recall ever getting to see a live circus. It was way more fun than I had imagined it would be.

We ate pop corn and cotton candy and we saw high flying trapeze artists, aerialists, tight-rope walkers, synchronized dancing camels, horses and ponies, flame throwing and knife jugglers, obedient tigers, crazy motor cycle drivers, high-flying dogs and more.

During the intermission they opened up the floor for face painting, pony rides, bouncy sliding and ELEPHANT RIDING—for a price that is! So, like any good mother would do, I took my kids down to the elephant ring so they could get close to a real live elephant.

And, like any good blogging mom would do, I had to capture a picture of them close to an elephant. Titus, however, fought back the tears as he realized that you had to have tickets to actually get to ride the elephant.

And, of course, like any good Grandma would do, my mom rushed off to buy elephant riding tickets for my kids.

Before too long, my kids were sitting on top of a real live elephant! Titus was so excited that his foot got to touch the elephant’s ear.

Keith and I decided that we should buy ourselves an elephant and take people for rides. Apparently my mom wasn’t the only one that got suckered into paying a small fortune for two turns around an elephant ring. The line to ride the elephants was a mile long. With two elephants we figured they made about $160 every 4 minutes or so. That’s a salary I could go for!

Truth be told though, it was really cool. I’m glad my mom got suckered into it. How many people can say they actually got to ride an elephant?

We ended the night with some pizza, and a little bit of time doing laps in the back yard in an effort to work the sugar and excitement out of the kids. They were out like lights in no time flat. Just another day at the circus!

And, as if they needed more sugar, my mom made cupcakes first thing in the morning.

And of course, she let the kids help "decorate".

They didn't seem to mind!

And then we got to do the whole "sugar-high, sugar-low" thing all over again!

Breakfast In Bed

2011-03-17T11:32:00.000-07:00

I was awoken at 7:10 this morning (when Leeann has a day off of school, mind you) to Leeann telling me she had a surprise for me.

Without even opening my eyes (I was afraid if I opened them I wouldn't be able to shut them again and a whole day where I would be able to sleep in would have been wasted) I told her I wasn't ready for my surprise yet and that I wanted to sleep in a little more first.

I heard Titus whisper, "Just put it in the fridge, Leeann." In that moment I almost felt bad for 'ruining' the suprise by not getting up and eating breakfast, but I just couldn't bring myself to open my eyes so early on a free morning.

Soon the kids came back up and asked if they could get breakfast and watch a movie. I, of course, said yes, and snuggled back into my blankets.

Then, 9:45 came around (I know, I'm so pathetic) and Leeann asked me if I was ready for my surprise yet. She brought up a shoe box lid covered in a hand towel with a bowl of cereal resting in the middle. I thanked her profusely for her thoughtfulness then I politely asked if she wouldn't mind making a fresh bowl since cereal gets soggy in the fridge.

She happily obliged and bounced downstairs to pour me a fresh bowl of cereal.

It was the best cereal I've ever eaten. Except for maybe the last time she brought me breakfast in bed, when she was 2 years-old and Titus had just recently come home from the hospital.

Have I mentioned lately, that I love my sweet daughter to bits and pieces?

My Birthday "Tea" Party

2011-03-15T22:57:00.000-07:00

My 29th Birthday was a few weeks ago. This year it happened to fall on a Wednesday. Wednesdays are impossibly busy days for our family, so Rob planned a dinner out with some friends over the following weekend, but we didn't have anything special planned for the actual day of my Birthday.

On the way home from picking Leeann and her friend, Alex, up from school she started quizzing me about the party I would be having that night. I told her we weren't having a party, but she wouldn't stand for such an injustice!

She told me that we could skip Kidstruction and she'd throw me a party (as if parties take 5 minutes to plan and execute!). Titus said he didn't want to miss Kidstruction but asked us to save him some cake!

As we pulled into the driveway Leeann asked if she could call Rob to see if she could do something special. Before long, plans were being put into motion for a secret something. All I knew is that I needed to wear a dress.

After fighting the need to wear a dress (settling on a skirt that didn't even match my shirt), and waiting curiously upstairs for Rob and the kids to finish the surprise they were working on, I was called down stairs.

And there, much to my surprise, Leeann had arranged a "tea" party so that my special day wouldn't pass by without a party. Rob helped her make some white hot chocolate and she set out her tiny tea set and dressed up in her very best.

She even gave me the yellow cup, since she knew it was my favorite color. The hot cocoa was delicious and the company was amazing. The party planner/hostess was the high-light of the party though. It was such a thoughtful gesture from a sweet 7 year-old girl. And if you ask me, it was a well executed party on such short notice!

Snow Day!

2011-02-24T13:22:00.000-08:00

We woke up this morning to a decent dusting of snow, then we had some huge beautiful flakes that started piling up on the ground. I kept watching the school reports, waiting for our district to cancel school, but they never did.

So I sent a disappointed Leeann off to school and came back and dug through our snow gear so Titus could go play outside. He ended up having to wear pink Hello Kitty boots, because that's what we had in his size, but he didn't mind so much if it meant he got to go play in the snow!

He could have played all day, but I didn't have snow gear on so I didn't last long. We came inside for some warm tomato soup and played some Wii games together.

Here's to hoping there's at least enough snow when Leeann gets off of school for her to play in a little bit. If the status of my facebook friends is indicative of the rest of the district, I'm going to guess about half of the parents declared it a snow day anyway, so I'm pretty sure today was an uneventful day for her at school.

I'm still holding out hope that tomorrow will end up being a real, "official" snow day. You know, one of those days where I don't have to get out of bed so early?

Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T21:14:00.000-08:00

Rob and Leeann went out on a Valentine's Day date at a little cafe in Corvallis. They enjoyed some gellato and warm drinks together.

She made me promise this morning, that she could come home after school and change into her prettiest dress before her much anticipated date with her daddy.

Titus took me to Red Robin! We played some tic-tac-toe and had some great conversation... like why animals have babies even though they don't get married!

He did the ordering for us, confidently and with precision, and paid for the bill!

And he got a tummy ache from eating a little too much mile-high mud pie!

I can't get enough of this kid! He's a great Valentine!

Rob and I both enjoyed our dates with our kiddos today. We don't celebrate Valentine's Day like normal people do. Instead, we take our kids out, in hopes of showing them our love and teaching them how to be great dates themselves someday. You can read about it my latest blog post over at Real Life Pastor's Wife.

SOCK WAR!!!!

2011-02-07T20:10:00.000-08:00

After a little bit of wrestling tonight (my kids love to wrestle with us on our bed), I taught my kids not one, but two bad habits!

First I taught them the "Don't hit yourself" game. Ooooo, that was fun... for me anyway! But, pretty soon they started making each other hit themselves-- I quickly began to regret teaching them that game.

So I decided to switch to something a little more wholesome? A little less violent? A ~~little~~ lot more fun! We had a full on, all out SOCK WAR!

It was inspired by, well, the pile of socks at the end of my bed that needed to be folded. We mated all the socks then started pelting each other with them. I have a feeling I might be finding random pairs of socks stuck in all sorts of crazy places in my room over the next couple of days.

Rob's at a meeting tonight, so he missed out on this particular bit of fun. But the kids and I had a blast. And, now, all the socks are folded!

Where oh where did January go?

2011-02-01T14:49:00.000-08:00

January came and went in a flash. I'm not sure I stopped to breathe for more than a few minutes during the entire month. It's all kind of a blur!

I quit my job at the church at the end of December and started a job nannying just 3 days later. My nanny duties are temporary, just until the middle of March, but it encompasses 3 full days out of any given week. So, the reality is, I'm working even more hours than I was working before. People keep asking me if I'm enjoying all my new found spare time since I'm not working anymore. I just laugh!

Spare what? Time. Shoot, what time is it? What did I forget? Am I late for something?

That's about how my mind has been functioning lately.

In January we also got some lessons from the school of hard knocks. In the nearly 3 years that we've been landlords we've had relatively few problems with our rental and/or renters. In the last 3 months we've had nothing but problems however. We've become very familiar with rent law and court proceedings lately!

The good news is that I got to spend a couple of days helping my dad (a very, very handy handy-man) fix the damage done to our home so our new renters could move in. There's always a bright side, right?

More than ever I wish the condo would sell so we can be back down to one mortgage! Now that we have new renters in the other house though, we likely wouldn't move back in there until it becomes vacant again. It would be nice to know that we could move back in when it does become vacant though.

Initially, our adventures in condo dwelling were supposed to be a very, very short term adventure. Then the economy started to collapse, real estate prices plummeted, yada, yada, yada. So here we are... still in the condo. We're actually officially listing on the market today. I would be delighted if it would sell... soon!

But, this also means that I have to be prepared to have someone stop by on 1 hours notice at any point. That, folks, is my least favorite part of having my condo on the market!

Remember me talking about how little time I've had to breathe lately? Try breathing, and keeping the house in show-worthy condition! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

In other news, I still haven't blogged much of anything besides our trip to Disneyland for the past few months. I have yet to post about Christmas, but I finally finished Titus's Birthday post (yes, his birthday was 2 months ago for those keeping track at home!). The worst part is, it was already 95% done, I just needed to finish up his interview.

I have stayed pretty busy keeping up on my Real Life Pastor's Wife blog though. I've been posting lots of green smoothie recipes this month, and recently blogged about Leeann's wildly successful coffee shop last weekend where she raised lots of money for our local pregnancy resource center.

You should hop on over and ready about Leeann's fundraising effort. It's an inspiring story of a sweet faith-filled little girl!

It's a beautiful day?

2011-01-22T14:53:00.000-08:00

My kids begged me to go outside today. You know, since it's actually sunny and all? So, they got all bundled up, in hats, gloves, scarves and jackets, they're playing on our tiny back porch with bubbles as if it's 80 degrees outside! It is 51 degrees out, which isn't too bad, but Titus honestly asked me if he could get his swim trunks on and go play in the sprinkler. I think these two are beyond ready for some warmer weather!

2010 Christmas Letter

2010-12-29T10:22:00.000-08:00

The year of 2010 was yet another wonderful year for the Buhl family! I’ll recap some of our high-lights in this officially unofficial Christmas letter! Never mind the fact that Christmas has already come and gone...

While the majority of the year consisted of just the four of us, we had the opportunity not once, but twice, to open our home to foster kids. In February we fostered a 3 week-old baby, baby Smith, for 10 days while his adoptive family finalized some paper work so they could take him home. In June we welcomed a pregnant 15 year-old girl, Abby into our home. She spent nearly 2 months with us before she returned home. On the 1st of December, she welcomed her son, Wesley into the world! Mom and baby are both doing well. The most ironic part of our having provided foster care for 4 kids in the last year and a half is that while we are certified, we’ve never actually been on an active list to receive foster kids. Apparently God’s plans are different than ours!

After a year of transition, Rob officially became the Lead Pastor at North Albany Community Church at the beginning of 2010. He started working at NACC in 2002 as the Youth Pastor, and then took an Associate Pastor position in 2006. We have very much enjoyed being part of such a wonderful church family and we are hopeful that we will be able to call Albany home for a very long time!

This was a big year for Rob. Last Christmas I gave him the gift of a half-marathon. He trained for several months and ran the Vernonia half-marathon in April. Despite the snow, wind and rain he finished in less than two hours! I asked him if he wanted me to give him the gift of a full-marathon for Christmas this year. He respectfully declined.

I have continued to enjoy working part-time as the Children’s Ministry Director at NACC, as I have done since 2006. The end of 2010, however, will mark the end of my time officially serving in this capacity. I am excitedly looking forward to primarily being a stay-at-home mom, and to serving Rob more fully as his responsibilities are far greater in his new role.

My high-light for the year was a 10 day “Mommycation” to New Jersey/New York/Pennsylvania where I got to spend some time with SaraJane, a friend of mine from college. Rob did a wonderful job being both mommy and daddy while I visited Amish country, toured Ground Zero, enjoyed a breath-taking view from the Empire State Building, and enjoyed many other New York City sites. On that trip I also got to meet Mike Huckabee, and attend a taping of the Huckabee Show. It was definitely a trip to remember, and a much needed time of rest and relaxation for me!

One of my other high-lights for the year was getting to meet a blogger, cook, author and photographer that I have learned a great deal from. I got to meet The Pioneer Woman at a book signing this Spring!

Leeann turned 7 years old this summer. She continues to be a compassionate, sensitive, helpful, sweet, caring little girl. She loves Tinker Bell, Polly Pockets and all things purple!

Leeann opened up her own seasonal coffee shop this summer. During the four days her coffee shop was open this year she earned enough money to purchase her very own Nintendo DSi XL! We are very proud of her hard work, diligence, saving, and patience. And we are grateful to all of her generous patrons who helped us teach her some very valuable lessons and life skills!

Leeann started first grade at a new school this year. She got an opportunity to be part of a dual immersion program, which is a pilot program in our district. She spends every other day learning all of her school subjects entirely in Spanish. If she continues to do well in this program she should be testing at or above grade level in English and Spanish by the time she completes 5th grade. She’s doing well so far. We are very impressed by how much Spanish she has picked up in just a few short months!

Titus turned 5 a few short weeks ago, and he’s nothing short of an absolute character! He is such a funny kid—a party waiting for a place to happen! He is constantly laughing, chattering, smiling and making new friends. He loves all things Lego and Starwars. And for obvious reasons he has a special place in his heart for anything Lego Starwars!

The high-light of his year was fighting Darth Vader at the Jedi Training Academy during our recent trip to Disneyland. I think it’s pretty safe to say that our trip to Disneyland was probably the high-light of the year for our family! We enjoyed 5 days at the Happiest Place on Earth at the beginning of December. This year, our 17 year-old niece, KayLee, got to join us. We enjoyed getting to spend some quality time with her, and we also thoroughly enjoyed getting to build a whole host of great family memories!

An overview of 2010 wouldn’t be complete without a nod to our becoming debt free. We turned a corner in our finances that we will never round again. Fourteen months after we set out to attack our debt with a vengeance we freed ourselves (due to God’s incredible provision) from $25,000 dollars in medical bills and student loans. We are committed to living our lives debt free and to being good stewards of what God has trusted us with, regardless of how much, or how little.

The feeling of freedom we felt getting out from underneath the burden of our debt is surpassed only by the feeling of freedom we feel by being free from our sins thanks to the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is the one who took our sins upon himself so that we can live for eternity in the presence of God. I can’t think of a greater gift this Christmas, or a greater reason to celebrate during this season and every season!

From our house to yours, Merry Christmas!

Robyn

p.s. You can keep up with us all year long on this blog http://www.visitrobynsnest.blogspot.com/. This is where we post family memories. It's essentially an on-line scrap book that we get to share with our friends and family.

If you are interested, you can also visit my other blog Real Life Pastor's Wife http://www.reallifepastorswife.blogspot.com/. This is where I post non-family related things such as musings, commentary, recipes, hair-styles and such.

A Christmas Eve To Remember!

2010-12-24T19:01:00.000-08:00

Something interesting happens when you end up unexpectedly spending your Christmas vacation in a hotel.

You slow down. Or at least I did! Not by choice, but by force.

Yesterday we were well on our way to visit Rob’s family in the Seattle area for Christmas when Titus started throwing up in the car. At first we chalked it up to motion sickness because this seems to be happening quite often lately. We didn’t want to turn around and drive three hours back home only to find out that it was another bought of car-sickness.

But, just in case it wasn’t, we didn’t want to ‘bless’ Rob’s family with whatever it is that he has, so we decided to just go ahead and get a hotel and wait it out, hoping that we’d end up getting to see his family for Christmas after all.

So, we settled into a nice little hotel overlooking a golf course and enjoyed a quiet evening, just the four of us. The kids built a fort that they slept in and Rob and I spent the evening watching The Princess Bride (which, I confess, I’d never seen).

As much as I was really looking forward to seeing family, it was strangely nice to slow down and breathe a little. It, in some ways, is nicer than being at home because at home I have a never ending list of projects to do, and I’d want to bake and cook a nice Christmas dinner. Here, at the hotel, I have nothing to do other than hang out with my family. I am a little bummed that I’m missing out on yummy Christmas food though!

Rob and Leeann went over to his sister Shelly’s tonight to enjoy a Christmas Eve celebration with his family. Titus and I are enjoying a dinner of saltine crackers and an episode of Winnie the Pooh.

Titus is really, really bummed that he doesn’t get to play with his cousins. We were already scheduled to have an exceptionally short trip since Rob has to be back to preach on Sunday. But now, he’ll be lucky if he gets to see them for just a few short hours tomorrow. I am hopeful we’ll get to join them tomorrow since it’s been almost 10 hours since he last threw up and he’s actually kept quite a bit of food down today.

It’s really hard explaining to a kiddo that they’re still contagious even if they feel better. I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve had to try to explain to him why we can’t go to Aunt Shelly’s tonight.

This will undoubtedly go down as a Christmas Eve to remember!

The fort the kids made to sleep in.

I, personally, would have chosen the comfy bed, but apparently, this is what memories are made of!

Since Titus and I are chilling at the hotel by ourselves on Christmas Eve, we decided to make a date of the 6 pm fresh cookie time!

Yummm, cookies! And Starwars talk.

And silliness. And apple cider!

And this was him slyly asking, "May I have another one?"

With a look like that I said, of course you can have another one, after all, it's Christmas! Here's to hoping that decision doesn't come back to haunt me!

Disneyland! 12/13 & 12/14

2010-12-18T22:28:00.000-08:00

Our final day came and went so quickly! We got to Disneyland around 7:30 and headed straight to the Matterhorn when the gates opened at 8:00. We got right on then headed over to Small World where we got right on as well (there had been probably an hour + line all day the day before). We got off Small World at 8:30 and headed to the Princess Fantasy Fair where we waited only a few minutes to see three delightful princesses!

I loved seeing how much he grew next the Soarin' Over California height stick, so I decided to take this one against the Indiana Jones requirements. We'll see how long it takes him to get there!

We decided to catch the Jedi Training Academy one last time. Really, the show doesn't change but the kids can't get enough of it! Leeann was chosen to train again, much to Titus's dismay. After they said they had all of the Padawan's they needed Titus turned around and buried his head into my shoulder and tried not to cry.

We got lucky and saw both Woody and Jessie together!

On our way back to the hotel Leeann squealed from the back seat that Titus had licked her. When I asked him why he licked her he just said, "Because she was right next to me!"

Daily Recap:

Matterhorn
Small World
Fantasy Fair
Pirates of the Caribbean
Haunted Mansion
Splash Mountain
Tiana's Jazz Show
Thunder Mountain Railroad
Indiana Jones (Rob, KayLee and Leeann)
Indiana Jones (Rob and KayLee)
Jungle Cruise (Robyn and Titus)
Tarzan's Treehouse
Billy Hill and the Hillbillies
Tom Sawyer's Island--Pirates Lair
Jedi Training Academy
Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln

The Drive Home

The drive home was pretty long, boring and relatively uneventful.

We left at 5:15 in the morning. Unfortunately it took us an hour and fifteen minutes to go those first 31 miles. What's even more unfortunate is that the stop and go traffic made Titus throw up in the backseat. What is fortunate however, is the fact that I grabbed a couple of hotel plastic cups that I was able to give to Titus before he lost the banana I'd just given him to tide him over until we stopped for breakfast.

Ironically we stopped at the same place for lunch (Quizznos) that we had stopped for dinner on the way down. And we stopped at the same place for dinner (In & Out) that we'd stopped at for lunch on the way down. At the exact same locations even!

Some how the drive seems so much longer when you are driving away from Disneyland than when you're driving toward it!

We got home about midnight and were greeted by a house that was just over 50 degrees inside and a broken furnace. We left all of our stuff on the floor and we all crawled into our warm beds as quickly as can be. Lucky for us we have a lot of really warm blankets handy that were made by Rob's Grandma. I think we may have used every one of them that night!

And, no need to worry, we got the furnace repaired by the next evening. I am incredibly grateful for living in a home with heat!

I can't believe our time there is already over. It was such a great trip, and such a relaxing time for all of us. It was great to build family memories, and to get to spend some quality time with our sweet niece!

I'm so ready to go back already!

Disneyland 12/12

2010-12-18T17:16:00.000-08:00

Ultimately we'd love to visit Disneyland once a year. But at the very least we will (hopefully) be back in 2012 when Cars Land opens at California Adventures.

These are a few of my favorite toys!

Thunder Mountain Railroad!

This is Terrance. He's Tinkerbell's friend.

I had quite a headache and I really wanted ice cream. I wanted ice cream badly enough to wait in a really really long line to get it. Titus and Rob waited patiently for us!

Titus and Leeann shared a caramel apple. Some how after a few minutes there was only apple!

We have pictures at this statue from every trip we've been on.

What a goof ball!

I was trying to mimic the statue and ended up cover Chip's eyes. Or was it Dale? We may never know!

This is a special spot for our family.

This is Snow White's Wishing Well.

We were lucky enough to see both Minnie and Mickey together when we got off of Space Mountain!

I wish the background was a little better, but regardless of the background we got a whole big family picture with Mickey AND Minnie, and no one looks entirely goofy!

We ended that night at ElecTRONica. It was basically a big ole block party.

Leeann and I hula hooped for a while. She was really good at it!

We ended the night with a really, really, really yummy bag of hot Kettle Corn. It was sooooo delicious!

Then we decided to ride the mono rail around the park and we ended up seeing our old neighbors in Downtown Disney! They recently moved down to Southern California. How crazy was that?

Daily Recap::

Blue Sky Cellar

Tower of Terror (Robyn, Titus and KayLee)

Monster's Inc. (Rob and Leeann)

Soarin Over California

River Belle Terrace (Lunch)

Thunder Mountain Railroad

Pixie Hallow

Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage

Ice Cream at Gibson's

Flag Retreat Ceremony

Snow White's Wishing Well

Fantasy Fair

Disney Railroad

Electronica

Mono Rail

14 rides/shows/attractions

4 Characters (Terrance, Tinkerbelle, Mickey and Minnie)

Disneyland! 12/11

2010-12-11T22:40:00.000-08:00

We slept in a little today, got ready at a leisurely pace, then headed to Downtown Disney.

We purchased our souvenirs, then got some Jamba Juice for lunch.

The kids and I shared this smoothie. Let me see, nearly $5 each for us to have our own, or just over $6 for a really big one that we can all share? Let. Me. Think. I'll take the savings, even if it means swapping germs with my kids!

Leeann chose a Build-A-Bear (well, Build-A-Dog) as her souvenir. She bought Violet the other day when we were in Downtown Disney. She decided that Violet was lonely and needed her mommy so she went back today and bought Isabelle. Then she bought them a bed, and a rainbow fairy costume for Isabelle.

We ended the night at the Rainforest Cafe with Uncle Spencer. It was so good to spend more time with him! Some day I might even convince him to come into Disneyland with us!

Oh, I lied. We actually ended the day by going to the grocery store. I asked KayLee if we could get anything for her and she asked for carrots and celery! Then we came back to the hotel and she put herself to bed before 9. What 17 year-old does this? She's such a joy and a delight. I'm really glad we get to experience this with her!

Disneyland! 12/10

2010-12-11T22:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was an insanely crowded day! We mostly saw shows because the lines for the rides were all way too long. We still had fun seeing the shows and experiencing the magic, though!

I don't have a picture of it, but Leeann got pulled out of the crowd to dance with Mary Poppins in this random street show!

Titus was extremely excited about the upcoming Jedi Training Academy. They choose 30ish kids from the audience to train to be padawans. Leeann was chosen twice last year, and Titus was chosen once.

Leeann was the first kid to be chosen, and Titus was chosen shortly thereafter. How could they resist a kid dressed as Darth Vader?

He was so excited to get to do this! A lot of people wait to take their kids to Disneyland until they're old enough to ride all of the rides. I love taking them when they're little because everything is so magical through the eyes of a young child.

Titus knows this isn't really Darth Vader. Yet, even with that knowledge, because he's 5, it some how feels like he's really battling Darth Vader. Priceless!

She's ducking to avoid getting her head chopped off by Darth's light saber!

All tuckered out! Leeann couldn't keep her eyes open while waiting for Rob and Titus to make it up the elevator so she rested on a concrete parking post.

And sir wets-a-lot. Or PeeWok. Or Peedawan, as we've been calling him slept through the firework show even. He was out like a light! When Rob picked him up to put him the car, his pants were soaked... for the second time, apparently. As Rob was putting him in the car he informed me that Titus had wet himself before the Jedi Academy as well. He said, "I couldn't go to the bathroom because I was preparing for my battle with Darth Vader!"

Good thing he was wearing black!

Daily Recap

Flik's Fun Flyers

Heimlich's Chew Chew Train
Tuck and Rolls Bumper Cars
Monsters Inc.
Newbury High School Wind Ensemble
Turtle Talk with Crush
Disney's Animation Studios
Aladdin Show
Christmas Fantasy Parade
Day One Disney Gallery
Mary Poppins Show
Jedi Training Academy
Innoventions Home of the Future
Princess Fantasy Faire
Firework Spectacular

15 rides/shows/attractions
8 Character signings/sightings (Mr. Incredible, Fro-zone, Fairy Godmother, Stitch, Ariel, Belle, Tiana)

Disneyland! 12/9

2010-12-09T23:20:00.000-08:00

It took a sock folded over into thirds stuck under his heel inside of his shoe, but Titus measured up at the required height of 40" to be able to ride the much anticipated Soarin' Over California!

You can see his last year's picture trying to make himself tall enough here.

I love this ride! This is my all time favorite ride. I love the sights, the smells, the feel of flying. I could ride it again and again and again. I don't think I'd ever tire of riding this ride!

KayLee skunked me at Toy Story Mania!

The crew sporting sweet 3D glasses.

We went up in Mickey's Fun Wheel. It's high up... really, really, really high up!

Leeann wanted to go on this. Rob and KayLee didn't want to get wet, so I went on it with her. We got a little wet, but not too bad!

This pretty much sums it all up!

This face right here is what I love about Disneyland! There is so much here that is worth being excited about. This particular face was after seeing Jack Jack (The Incredible's Baby) shooting fire out of his head.

And these beautiful faces were thrilled to see bubbles fall from the sky.

We ended our night by watching the new World of Color show. Our viewing area was right on the water front. The view would have been absolutely amazing... if we weren't a really, really short family!

This is the view we almost had! I got this picture just after everyone started filing out of the viewing area.

It was a wonderful day. I wish I had the ability to write more, because there's so much more I'd like to journal about. But, I'm sooo tired, so I'll have to consider this one of those something's better than nothing posts.

Daily Recap:

Soarin Over California
Toy Story Mania
Mickey's Fun Wheel
Green Army Men Show
Monsters Inc.
Disney Channel Rocks Show
Golden Zephyr
Jumping Jellyfish
Silly Symphony Swings
Grizzly River Run (Robyn and Leeann)
Soarin Over California (Rob, Titus and KayLee)
Disney Dance Crew Show
Turtle Talk with Crush
The Sorcerer's Workshop
Tower of Terror (Robyn, KayLee and Leeann)
Monster's Inc. (Rob and Titus)
Monster's Inc. (Rob and Titus)
Monster's Inc. (Rob and Titus--Yes, 3 times in a row while they waited for us!)
Pixar Play Parade
Soarin Over California (2x in a row)
World of Color Show

22 shows/rides/attractions (though some repeats and some with only part of us on the ride)
4 character sightings/signings- Hip Hop Mickey, Mr. Incredible, Sully and Handy Manny

Disneyland! 12/8

2010-12-08T22:34:00.000-08:00

We arrived at Gate 13 just a few minutes later than planned, but still more than a half hour before the park opened. Apparently the book was spot on, because this is the view from the roped off area at the end of Main Street. We weren't the first people at the rope, but we still had a front row view of the park before it opened.

Ready, set, go!

Go where? I'll getcha wherever you need to go!

Our first ride was Dumbo. The name of the touring plan we used from the Unofficial Guide to Disneyland 2010 is Dumbo or Die in a Day. This is the plan recommended if you have young kids in your group.

Titus was so excited! I love the excitement in the air at Disneyland. Seeing the magic on my kids' faces is worth every penny!

TOON TOWN:

KayLee tried to get this to go off tons of times. She was quite proud of herself when it actually happened!

A special spot for our family. In honor of Mee Maw!

My favorite ride- Pirates of the Caribbean!

The cutest little boy in the whole universe!

Leeann didn't exactly love Indiana Jones--but her daddy did!

I'm glad I have 9 years until she turns 16... she's got a lot of learning left to do!

This is Leeann on Autopia.

And the boys on Autopia. Titus couldn't see over the wheel!

We were trying to catch 'snow' with Goofy after the castle lighting.

Our last picture of the day.

We actually decided to go back to our hotel even before the park closed at 8:00. We'd had quite a long, adventurous day, and we were all pretty much ready for bed. It's 10:15 right now and the rest of the crew has been asleep for almost 2 hours.

I'm still up though. Someone has to blog about the daily adventures! My memory is too short, I have to get these things written down right away or these memories might be lost forever!

Today was a crazy, wonderful day. We packed more into this one day than we have in several days worth of previous trips. I'm not sure if it was because it was a Wednesday and the lines were all really short (our longest wait time was maybe 20 minutes, but most lines were only 5-10 minutes). Or maybe it was because our kids are so much older? Maybe it's because Rob was diligent to lead us in following the touring plan? All of the above? Yeah... probably that one!

Daily Recap:

Dumbo
Peter Pan's Flight
Storybook Land Canal Boats
Mad Tea Party
Alice in Wonderland
Matterhorn Bobsleds
Area just outside of Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin
Gadget's Go Coaster
Goofy's Playhouse
Chip and Dale's Treehouse
The Haunted Mansion
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Pirates of the Caribbean
Jungle Cruise
Tiki Room
Indiana Jones
Tarzan's Treehouse
Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters
Jedi Training Academy
Autopia
The Laughing Stock Show at the Golden Horseshoe
Big Thunder Ranch
Snow White's Scary Adventures
Pinocchio's Daring Journey
Castle Lighting/Snow on Main Street

25 attractions/shows/rides/adventures
4 Character signatures and pictures (Goofy, Pooh, Tigger and Buzz)

Disneyland! 12/7

2010-12-08T21:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a 'down' day for us. We took a long walk to Downtown Disney mid-morning.

Our first stop was a tour through the lobby of the Disneyland Hotel. They have this nice display set up for people to get their pictures taken with Santa. He was out for a while so we decided to take advantage of a nice photo-op!

Next stop? The Lego Store!

This was seriously SWEET!

I caught Rob trying to douse the girls with fountain water.

Then we stopped for lunch at Jamba Juice and toured a few more shops. Downtown Disney is so much fun, and it's a perfect way to start the trip with some holiday Disney magic if you get there a day or two before you actually get to get into the park.

After lunch we stopped by the front gate. The kids stuck their noses inside the gate to 'smell the Disneyland air'!

Rob posing beneath his favorite gate: Gate 13. No, 13 is not his lucky number. Gate 13 is the gate that The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland 2010 book told him to line up at. Who are we to argue with the book? Gate 13 is our gate!

Then we took some pictures in front of California Adventures.

I love that the letters are 'dressed up' like candy canes this time of year!

After trouncing through Downtown Disney we headed over to Long Beach for dinner with Rob's Great Uncle Spencer. This was the view we saw from our table! Not bad, eh?

KayLee tried to catch the sun :0)

The gang with Uncle Spencer! I'm so glad we got to see him again this time around. He's a lot of fun! We plan to see him again on Saturday too.

And this is the kiddos with Uncle Spencer's friend, Steve and dog Casey.

After dinner we headed out to Signal Hill to see the beautiful city lights. Then we headed back to the hotel and all of the kids were out within minutes! Rob went grocery shopping so we could eat breakfast at our hotel, and pack our snacks and lunches into the park with us.

We were both out before too long as well. It's amazing how tuckered out we got on our 'down day'!

Disneyland! 12/6

2010-12-07T21:23:00.000-08:00

Rob and I had been hoping to take another family trip to Disneyland for quite some time now. We were tentatively planning one in February. However, several weeks ago we were looking at our calendar and we realized that there really was no way we could manage to go in February, due to various other commitments we had going on around the time we were planning our trip.

At the same time we were recognizing that we were in definite need of some time off, and we had some time that we could take off of work, so we decided to take the plunge and take a trip to Disneyland a few months earlier than we originally planned. Because we're crazy like that!

And, because we decided to go at this time only a few weeks out, we decided to keep it a secret from our kids! So, yesterday morning (and by morning I mean 4:15 am), we woke the kids up, took them down to the couch and put on our Disneyland DVD for them. This wasn't much of a surprise to them considering we actually watch this DVD fairly often!

Then Rob asked them if they wanted to go to Disneyland right now and they both looked at him like he was crazy. And, like it was way too early to be asking them such a silly question!

At first Titus actually said he didn't want to go. But after he woke up a little more he quickly changed his mind!

This is the kids cuddled up watching the DVD. There faces totally give away how each one felt about it. Titus seriously just wanted to go back to bed!

Our first stop of the morning was Starbucks. We stopped there for breakfast. And, no I didn't take a picture of some random person at Starbucks... this is our 17 year-old niece, KayLee. We were lucky enough to get to have her join us on super short notice. Thank you, Chuck and Shelly for letting her join us!

Our second stop was just down the road, at the California border.

This was KayLee's first time to Disneyland, AND to California!

Our next stop was In & Out in Redding, California, where a couple of Rob's friends live. Jenny and her son, Lincoln were able to meet us for lunch. We ended up missing Breanna this time around. I guess we'll have to come back again soon so we can see her too :0)

We left our house at 5:00 am and arrived at our hotel at 10:45 pm. 17 hours, 45 minutes. 928 miles.

Whew, that was a long day!

Titus Turns 5!

2010-12-02T13:36:00.000-08:00

(Click on the collage to see larger pictures)

Today my baby turned 5!

He celebrated Lego Starwars style with his sister, cousins, and his friends Carter and Alexa.

Titus is such a spunky, happy, silly, fun loving kid. Seriously, this boy is all smiles, all of the time!

He has more energy in his left foot than I can manage to muster in my entire body. He still pretty much runs anywhere and everywhere he goes.

His favorite color is, "All of the colors, but not pink and purple."

When asked what he wants to be when he grows up, he says, "I don't know what I want to be."

His favorite movie is "Starwars."

His favorite toy is "My Starwars toys."

His best friends are "Logan and Weston."

His favorite things to do with Logan and Weston is "Play Lego Starwars."

His favorite books are "My Starwars books."

His favorite food is "Macaroni."

His favorite restaurant is "McDonald's."

His favorite ride at Disneyland is "I would like the Starwars ride even though I haven't been on it yet."

He wants "9 kids" when he grows up.

"When I grow up I want to be a Jedi. Jedi's help people to be safe and to call police men to arrest the bad guys."

And that pretty much wraps up my 5 year-olds life in a nutshell!

The Quest to Mommyhood

2010-11-21T22:52:00.000-08:00

Six years ago today, I became a mom. Not in the typical, good ole fashioned way, but in a way that only God himself could orchestrate!
I held my sweet little daughter for the first time when she was only 12 hours old, though I did not get to enjoy the title of being her mommy until 16 months later.

Leeann’s birth mom, Kyndall was barely 15 years old that day we stopped by to visit her and her brand new baby in the hospital. She’d been one of our youth group girls for the previous several months and we’d been praying diligently for her and her baby. I was so excited when we got the call that Leeann had been born and that mom and baby were both healthy.

Ready or not, Kyndall began the journey of teenage single parenthood the day Leeann came into the world!

Over the year and a half to come Leeann and Kyndall would spend a great deal of time with Rob and I. We fell in love with both of these girls, and knew from the beginning that they would both have a special place in our lives and in our hearts. We had no idea just how involved in our lives they would be at the time. But, God did!

On November 21st, 2004, at our church’s annual Thanksgiving Service, we announced to the congregation that we would be adopting Leeann. We took her home with us from church that day, and we’ve been a family ever since.

On this very day, six years ago, Kyndall shared with me the most wonderful gift any human has ever given with me. She trusted me with her precious daughter. She let me become Leeann’s mommy! Is there a greater gift to be given?

This morning, as I was already a little overwhelmed with emotion just thinking about the significance of this day being on a Sunday, the day of our Thanksgiving Service again, I was already on the verge of tears of thanksgiving from the time my feet hit the floor this morning.

Just a few minutes before we had to leave for church I got a call from Kyndall. She was giving us one last phone call (though we snuck another one in this afternoon!) before she boarded her flight to serve overseas with her United States Air Force unit for the next 6 months.

Man, I’m going to miss her! I love this woman. I love that chose life. I love that she chose to care for her daughter for 16 months at such a young age. I love that she made a difficult decision to release Leeann for adoption when she realized that it would be best for Leeann. I love that she chose us. I love that she trusts us. I love that her love for Leeann hasn’t changed, even though she’s no longer her primary care-giver. I love that she stays involved in her life.

Leeann is so blessed to have such a large family that loves her to pieces. I am so blessed to be the recipient of the greatest gift a birth mom can share!

And, at this very moment, Kyndall is proudly wearing her military uniform. She is on a flight to the other side of the world. She is serving and protecting our country. She is probably scared, nervous, and excited all at once. She is loved. She is already missed.

Yes, I feel blessed beyond measure today. Being a mom is the coolest job in the world! It’s hard to believe that 6 years have come and gone so quickly. I have treasured every moment, every kiss, every hug, and every “I love you.” I am blessed.

Our "see you later" dinner!

Our family went out to dinner at Red Robin the other night to see Kyndall off. Her dad, Grampy and her boyfriend, Andre joined us.

Leeann gave Kyndall a necklace for Christmas. It took her several minutes to get it on her.

It was a wonderful evening at Leeann's favorite restaurant, eating her favorite foods, surrounded by her favorite people. I love that she has so many people that love her so much.

Birthday!

2010-10-30T21:40:00.000-07:00

The kids and I made Rob a pumpkin pie for his Birthday yesterday. We also took him to Corvallis to get a new OSU jacket (which he wore to the OSU football game today), and to dinner at Applebees.

It's crazy to think about the fact that I've known Rob for almost 10 years now. How time flies!

Next up, Titus! He turns five in just over a month. Seriously?

Don't blink. I'm tellin' ya, don't blink!

Blessings Abound!

2010-10-25T19:56:00.000-07:00

Leeann got her DSi on a Monday. She had $18 left over after her purchase, which wasn't quite enough to buy a game. Besides, she needed to buy more cups and lids for her upcoming coffee shop... which ended up costing $17 and some change.

Her coffee shop was that weekend, and it was wonderful! But we ended up planning for more people than were able to make it and she ended up leaving the coffee shop with only the $18 she originally had in her envelope. Granted, she does have plenty of cups, lids and straws on hand, so that will make for more profitable future coffee shops. This would have been disappointing to her, but she is only 7 and she doesn't fully understand the cost vs. profit ratio. All she knows is that she worked hard, served lots of friends and made some money. She didn't seem to connect the fact that she finished the day with the same amount she started with.

The reason she didn't connect this fact is because the item that she was saving for was a DSi game. By the time she left the shop she had 5, and one promised to her!

The day before coffee shop started a friend of mine from college who has been following Leeann's adventures told me that she and her husband both own a copy of Animal Crossing, and they wanted to send one of their games to Leeann to support her work efforts. She was so excited to be getting a game... and one she really, really wanted!

Then, at the coffee shop, one of her most faithful fans (my former Youth Pastor's family), stopped by. They came with 5 games that they wanted to share with Leeann. These were games that they had either played so much that they were no longer enamored by them, or games they'd already beat. Or, perhaps, games they just wanted to share! It was such a HUGE blessing!

(This is one of the spider cookies Leeann made all by herself)

Then, I got a call from my secretary early the next week that Leeann's packages had arrived. "Packages? I didn't order anything," I told her. So, out of curiosity I had her peek in the packages. Lo and behold, there was a much needed DSi case, to protect her investment, and a Tinkerbell game!

These were from her Great Grandma in Texas, and were a huge surprise!

Leeann took pictures of her patrons this time. The family on the bottom left were the ones who so graciously shared their DSi games with Leeann. They've been faithful coffee shop fans :0)

The whole process has been such a neat learning opportunity. She's learning that there's value in hard work, value in patiently saving for the things you want, and value in serving others. She's also learning that God blesses, sometimes beyond measure, way above and beyond what she would have even thought to ask for! And as we've seen in our own lives time and time again, He often multiplies our money and makes it stretch farther than we could imagine!

Thank you again, for all of you who have supported Leeann, and who have helped us teach her some really, really awesome life lessons!

DSi

2010-10-11T19:37:00.000-07:00

Today there was a sweet deal that came through my facebook stream. There were DSi XL's on sale at Fred Meyer for $55 off. $55!

So I squealed and had Rob go check Leeann's envelope to see how much she had in her spend category.

The answer? Enough to take advantage of this SWEET deal!

So we picked her up from school and headed to Fred Meyer where she picked out her very own DSi that she had worked very hard for! She was able to get it far sooner than any of us were thinking she'd be able to. I was really hopeful that she'd get it by Christmas!

She counted her money out to the cashier. I was super impressed that she was able to count it out, and accurately even! This is one of the many skills she's learned from running her coffee shop!

I am so proud of this girly for working so incredibly hard to earn her DSi. Not only did she work for every penny (though admittedly she had some very generous tippers!), but she saved every penny until she met her goal. I can promise you, she will cherish this item for a really long time!

In case you can't read this she wrote, "This is my DSi" on her little writing pad.

Unfortunately she didn't have quite enough money to buy Animal Crossing, Hello Kitty, Hannah Montana or Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure, which are the four games she's had her eye on. Thankfully however, the DSi came pre-loaded with a couple of basic games that are enough to keep her excited until she can purchase one of her games. Plus, she's opening up Leeann's Coffee Shop & Bakery this weekend, so she'll have another opportunity to earn a little bit of money.

I want to say thank you, very much, to all of Leeann's patrons who have participated in helping her learn some really awesome lessons about money and stuff! She has enjoyed serving each of you and I can attest to the fact that she has learned so much from these adventures.

If you are interested in enjoying some tasty seasonal treats and drinks at Leeann's Coffee Shop & Bakery, she'll be set up at a local In-Home Holiday Fair on Saturday from 2-6. Email me, or leave a comment with your email address and I"ll give you directions if you are interested in coming.

She's teaming up with a few other ladies that own local in-home businesses that will have their products on display and available for purchase just in time to satisfy your holiday shopping needs.

There will be consultants from Discovery Toys and Pampered Chef, as well as the owner of Eroica Bierly Photography who will be available to make an appointment for your Christmas portraits.

Yes, this is my shameless plug. I am totally open to making shameless plugs for my adorably cute and sweet, hard working 7 year old! After all, there are only so many ways a 7 year old can earn a living... and she's only capable of mustering up so many customers on her own, considering her peers cannot yet drive!

(End of shameless plug!)

Happy DSi Day, Leeann. I'm so proud of you!

Little Mr. Know It All

2010-10-04T20:43:00.000-07:00

Titus is at this really funny stage where he knows EVERYTHING before it happens.

"I already knew you were going to do that mommy."

"I already knew that's what she was going to say."

"I already knew so-and-so would be here."

"I already knew that's what were going to have for dinner."

"I already knew, I already knew, I already knew..."

Funny kid, he has no idea how little he knows!

Rocket Launch!

2010-09-22T22:14:00.000-07:00

We went to a rocket launch after church a couple of weeks ago.

Many of the kids got to take turns pressing the launch button. Titus was so excited for his turn!

And boy, was he proud!

A whole bunch of kids and families from our church were there. A guy who goes to our church put this on.

This one was my favorite, R2D2!

All the kids would chase the rockets as they parachuted down. These boys did their best to catch one and had a blast... (pun intended)!

Could there be any greater fun for a kid?

Hot Air Balloons

2010-09-21T22:01:00.000-07:00

We normally get up in the wee hours of the mornings to see the hot air balloons. But this year Leeann was having her Italian Soda Stand on the same days so we opted for the night show where they light up the balloons. It was kind of cool, don't get me wrong, but next year we're definitely going back to the morning showing.

Two Weeks

2010-09-18T09:18:00.000-07:00

Two weeks of school have now come and gone. I feel like we're getting into the groove of this 'being in school all day' thing.

Titus and I have, so far, survived our days without the princess. In fact, we've kept quite busy, which helps. Yesterday I went to her school to have lunch with her. She was so surprised, and so excited! I was there just shy of an hour and I heard about all sorts of school rules in regard to the lunch room and the playground. I think she secretly loved having something she could teach me!

I really enjoyed getting a small glimpse into her world. I just found out my background check has been cleared so I'm hopeful to get to spend some good quality time in her classroom soon, too.

I do wish her school days weren't so long, but I recently realized that when you add up all of the days they have off, and the ones that they come home early on, she really isn't outside of my care as long as I imagined she would be. And, she seems to be doing well with it, which is very important to me. I can't imagine how difficult it is for parents whose kiddos hate going to school.

Anyway, all that to say, two weeks into it, she's doing well and enjoying her new school and new teachers. She's found some friends to buddy up with and seems to be finding her niche, as well as a first grader can in the first weeks of school. But right now, it's the weekend, and I'm not-so-secretly glad to have her home!

Grass!

2010-09-17T10:24:00.000-07:00

This was the 'back yard' area we've had for the last two years. Not much to look out on, that's for sure!

My husband and kids tore out the deck for me as a Mother's Day present when I was in New Jersey, and at some point this summer they gave me an instant yard by laying some sod, bark and bushes.

And now, I actually want to open up the curtains, which lets the sun in, which puts us all in a better mood! What a difference a wee bit of grass can make!

Thanks, love!

Sprint Tri

2010-09-12T13:07:00.000-07:00

Rob and I participated in a sprint triathlon last month to benefit the Albany Options Pregnancy Resource Center. Andrea (who we had been paired with, but hadn't met before the event) swam 1/3 mile. I biked 12.5 miles and Rob ran 3.1 miles.

I tell you what. My backside hurt at about mile 3. It hurt really bad about mile 8. By the time I got off of my bike at mile 12.5 I could barely walk. And, I'm not exaggerating!

The start times were all staggered between 8:00 and 9:00. We, unfortunately, started at 9:00 which meant that by the time I hit mile 1 pretty much everybody in the race had already passed me. There were a precious few. And by few, I mean maybe 1 or 2, possibly 3 people who came in after me on the bike leg. It was an extroverts worst nightmare. I spent an hour and 3 minutes looking at desolate roads, sheep and horses, literally praying that I wouldn't be the last one in!

But, I made it, and Rob passed quite a few people during his run so he wasn't the last one finishing the race That is why I really, really didn't want to be the last biker in!

All in all, it was a lot of fun. It was also fun to train for it, though I could have used more time to train for sure. I've contemplated doing the whole thing next year, but I'm not sure I have it in me. I like to be around people way to much to train that hard in 3 very isolated sports. We'll see what the year brings however!

Leeann's Coffee Shop

2010-09-11T19:55:00.000-07:00

Leeann hosted another coffee shop today. This time it was in our home and a number of friends and family members stopped by for an Italian Soda, Iced Coffee or Hot Chocolate. She's getting quite good at making some of these drinks!

As I was helping her count and divide her money (10% tithe, 30% car and 60% spend) tonight, I realized that there are an awful lot of skills that she used today. Talk about a real-life learning opportunity!

Here are some things she that learned, practiced, or improved upon today:

Sanitation
Proper food handling
Measuring
Mixing
Pouring
Customer service
Customer satisfaction
Money handling
Change making
Reading
Manners
Serving
Patience
Taking orders
Saving for what you want
Hard work
Busing tables
General clean-up
Business and entrepreneurial skills
Cost vs. profit
Money changing (including exchanging money for the proper bills and coins to be able to split her income into the three categories)
Money counting (she counted back her spend and car money to me to see how much she had in each area)
Skip counting (as she counted with bills of many denominations. $20, $40, $50, $55, $60, $65, $66, $67, etc.)

I'm proud of my little girl. She's growing up so fast! It's hard to believe that she's old enough to really be able to do well at being a genuine barista! Someone said today, "She'll be able to put being a barista on her resume." Yeah, I can see it now: Leeann at 17 years old applies at a local coffee shop and puts Barista: 10 years experience on her resume!

She seems to really, really enjoy it. Of course, we only have such a wide circle of people to sell too, so I don't know how often she'll actually open up her shop. But, I can certainly see her doing more of them in the future.

We were talking a little bit about maybe taking orders for some baked goods, like homemade cinnamon rolls, maple pecan scones or frozen cookie dough. Think there'd be any market for that? She sure does love to bake with me, and the idea of putting in some hard work in exchange for money is one that's catching on quickly.

Have I mentioned that I'm incredibly proud of Leeann? She's an incredible girl!

First Day of First Grade

2010-09-11T10:43:00.000-07:00

Tuesday marked the first day of the first grade for our little princess. It's so hard to believe that this day is already here! I feel like my life is quickly flashing before my eyes. Where did my baby go?

She enjoyed her day and made some new friends. Titus and I survived our day without her as well. It's so strange to just have Titus during the day. We purposefully kept busy, including a date to Starbucks and to Surefire which is a pottery place. He painted a little lady bug that we should get back next week, and he was so proud of it! We had plenty of fun together, but we were both incredibly excited to pick her up. Our trio's not the same without her!

Leeann had good reports coming home. She was too busy talking in the lunch room and lost track of her class apparently, but other than that had a great day.

Leeann is in a new school this year so she can be involved in a dual immersion program. She wasn't the least bit nervous about starting a different school, which I was really grateful for. She also seems to be quite okay with the fact that every other day she's in her Spanish speaking classroom where it's the only language spoken for the duration of the day. All of her subjects are in Spanish every other day... how crazy is that! I'd go stir-crazy, but she's excited about learning Spanish. We'll see how it progresses!

Does it ever get easier to let go of your kids? I think I want them both to live with me forever!

A Mommy Daddy Date Day

2010-09-10T22:04:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday Titus was invited on a play date. He was slated to be gone for a couple of hours so as soon as we dropped him off we turned to Leeann and offered that she make a plan, any plan, for how to spend a couple of hours with just mom and dad. Because honestly, this NEVER happens.

We threw out the options of bowling, mini-golf, going to a restaurant, Starbucks, Cold Stone, the park, a bike ride, etc.

She determined, without wavering, that she wanted to go home and she wanted all of us to get our jammies on, bring our blankets and pillows downstairs, snuggle, eat pop corn and enjoy one of "Mommy's yummy smoothies."

We honestly tried to talk her into doing something that she normally wouldn't get the chance to do. We even went so far as to tell her we could do something else, then the jammies, movie, pop corn and smoothie once Titus got home. You know, the best of both worlds?

She wouldn't be deterred however. So we came home and did just as she planned. And it was a fun, delightful, relaxing afternoon!

Ready Or Not...

2010-09-06T20:11:00.000-07:00

First grade starts tomorrow. Leeann is so excited and so ready for this. I am so not ready for this!

6.5 hours a day. 5 days a week. Friends, lunches, homework, play-dates, tears, triumphs, accomplishments, struggles, memories, teachers, games, field-trips...

The good, the bad and the ugly begin tomorrow. First grade!

As we begin a new school year my prayer for Leeann is this:

Lord, help me to navigate the waters of life with my daughter. Please, help me to be the kind of mommy that is deeply involved in her life and her education. I am begging that you teach me how to be the kind of mommy that she wants to talk to, share with, bounce ideas of, confide in, cry with, dream with and pray with.

I pray that you would protect her heart and her mind. I am not asking you to keep her from 'mean kids', but that you would be her strength, her hope and her refuge as she interacts with the world. I pray that you would help her see each and every person's need for you. And with that firmly grasped in her mind I pray that she would be your light and your mouth-piece in this fallen world.

Please bring around her some good, life-long friends that she can grow and learn with. Help her to stand strong, and to always do what's right. Please help her to navigate through the waters of peer-pressure ahead. When she succumbs to it, help her learn and grow from her mistakes. Help me to be sympathetic and to do more correcting than punishing. Help me to point her toward you, the one who loves her even more than I could ever imagine. She is yours and you have trusted me with her for this short period of time. Grow her into the young lady, and eventually woman, that you have planned for her to be. Thanks for letting me be her mommy! Amen.

Fruit and Vegetables

2010-08-30T20:44:00.000-07:00

We've had a ton of fresh fruit and vegetables this summer thanks to a very generous family with a huge garden! Because of this we've talked quite a bit about what makes a fruit a fruit and what makes a vegetable a vegetable.

Well tonight we had sauteed squash, turkey meat balls and mac n' cheese with corn mixed in. After analyzing his dinner Titus asked, "Is macaroni and cheese a vegetable since it doesn't have any seeds in it?"

Cute kid!

Italian Soda Stand

2010-08-29T20:20:00.000-07:00

Leeann opened her own business this weekend-- An Italian Soda Stand!

She used her own money (mostly from her Birthday) to buy cups, lids, straws, club soda, whip cream, ice and half and half. Mommy and Daddy contributed some flavored syrups.

She set up her stand at our friend, Eroica's garage sale. Due to a little advertising geniusness on her Mommy's part (facebook and an email to just about everyone we know in Albany!), she had customers come by from far and wide!

She seriously had so much support from so many wonderful people. It makes me giddy to watch her work so hard and to watch others go out of their way to support her and to give generously to her 'cause'. She made more than 50 cups of Italian Soda over a two day span and also earned some wonderful tips for what I kept hearing were, "The best Italian Soda's ever!"

"What is her cause?" you may ask. Well, you can read all about it, and what she's doing to get there on Real Life Pastor's Wife (my other blog), but in short, she's working toward a Nintendo DSi. She's saving her money and working hard to accomplish her goal, and I couldn't be more proud of her!

My heart belongs in Disneyland

2010-08-24T09:24:00.000-07:00

I don't think words can begin to express our family's love of Disneyland. We have so many great family memories there and it's a place that we can go and truly "get away". We talk and dream about Disneyland on a near daily basis. Since our 2007 trip we are always in the planning process for our next trip. It may sound silly, but it's just what we love to do!

We plan to go in 2012 (when the new Cars Land opens), but we're hoping to take a trip between now and then too. We've been talking perhaps, February. Or maybe next Fall?

I just found a one day deal on air fare between Portland and Long Beach for $69 each way if you travel between August 31st and October 27th. I want so badly to book these tickets. I've thought so much this month about just getting in the car and driving down there. Though, summer is NOT the time to go if you can help it. And depending on the price of plane tickets driving can actually be nearly as expensive. And well, driving to Disneyland on a moments notice isn't necessarily the most responsible thing to do.

But maybe flying is? :0) Then again, do I always have to be responsible? Sometimes I wish I could let myself be less-than-responsible and somewhat impulsive. Would it truly be impulsive if it's been "in the planning process" for some time? I wish money grew on trees. I wish I could go to Disneyland at least once a year. Maybe once each season? I wish I could work there. Or live there. Or maybe split my time between here and there. I can feel myself "Soarin' Over California" as I type this!

Maybe if I walk to my mail box today and find a random $1,000 check out of the middle of nowhere, I'll book the tickets. See, that's about as impulsive as I get. Darn my responsible nature...

Maybe if I get something in the mail from Disneyland? They send us things from time to time. Can I take that as a sign? Maybe if my husband calls me back and tells me we can go (Yes, I called him at work and told him about the deal. He laughed and said he'd call me back after his meeting). He's the one working on our current Disneyland budget.

Maybe my garage sale this weekend will net enough to go earlier than we'd planned? Then again, I really don't have that much to sell. Maybe I can sell my house by this evening? Or a kidney? Platelets? All of our kitchen appliances? My first born? Perhaps not my first born... but you get the picture.

Perhaps I ought to stop blogging and thinking about Disneyland and start thinking about swimming lessons? Because a responsible person would be getting their children ready for swimming lessons that we need to leave for in a half hour. Darn it all, I don't want to be responsible today... can you tell?

I just want to be a kid...

Cute conversation

2010-08-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here catching up on some blog reading while my kiddos color at the table with their friend, Kaylee who is hanging out with us for the day. Kaylee is 5 and cute as can be. She wears glasses too, just like Titus.

Titus has talked for quite some time about marrying "Kaylee with the glasses". Well, Leeann just told Kaylee, "Titus wants to marry you." Kaylee just kind of said, "Oh."

Then Titus chimed in. "Kaylee, do you love Jesus?"

"Yup," she said.

"Okay, then I'm going to marry you so we can both be cowboys together."

Ah, to reason like a four year old!

Swimming Lessons

2010-08-20T21:22:00.000-07:00

The kiddos have been taking swim lessons at the Cool Pool this last week. Leeann has taken lessons for a couple of years and has become quite a good swimmer. As you can see in the first picture she swims side ways for the most part, it's really cute!

This is Titus's first time getting to take lessons though. He's finally gotten to the point where he'll actually let go of his instructor instead of hanging onto him for dear life. He even 'swam' on his own holding onto just a noodle today. You should have seen the look on his face, he was so proud of himself!

Portland's Cutest Baby

2010-08-18T09:27:00.000-07:00

K103 - Portland's Soft Rock

Click on this link to vote for my adorable nephew in the Portland's Cutest Baby Contest. Because seriously, he's adorable! The prizes are awesome and it just takes a quick second to vote. You don't need to sign in or register, just click on this link and vote for Jace. You can do this once a day until August 20th.

My brother asked me to post this (which I was of course, happy to do) on my blog. He seems to think I have some fantastic readers (which I do... I think?) that might take a small minute out of their day (which you will... right?) to help Jace win a $1,000 contribution to his 529. Please help me out with this blog readers!

Kyndall

2010-08-13T20:39:00.000-07:00

On our way back from The Pike Place Market, we decided to see if we could get a hold of Kyndall, Leeann's birth mom, to see if she could meet us for dinner. I wasn't able to get a hold of her on her cell and I was really bummed. I was especially bummed after I talked to her dad and found out that she was actually working the evening shift. So sad to drive right past her base and not get to see her!

When we were about 45 minutes from her base I got a text from her though, and she was able to squeeze out a long lunch (why is it called a lunch break no matter what shift you're working)? This whole time we kept it a secret from Leeann. She just thought we were going to the food court at the mall for dinner.

After a few minutes Kyndall walked down the long corridor in her fatigues. I almost cried. Leeann didn't recognize her at first, but then flew into her arms when she realized who it was.

We enjoyed some food court food and then snuck over for some Krispy Kreme doughnuts before she had to head back to work.

It was so good to see her! I can't believe how strong, and confident, and poised this young lady has become. The statistics surrounding teenage mothers are astounding. Kyndall has defied all odds however. She is proudly serving our country, and has grown up into quite an admirable young woman.

It's hard to believe she's the same shy, scared, quite teenage girl that came to our youth group seven and a half years ago. Who could have ever imagined our lives would be so entwined, and that we would be forever connected in an awesome way by the little life that was growing inside of her?

I had a very special connection with Kyndall from the very beginning. And for obvious reasons, an even more special connection with her now. I'm so glad that God brought us into each others lives. I'm more grateful than I could ever adequately express at the fact that Kyndall made the choice to let me share in the joy of motherhood to what might be the world's most amazing little girl.

And of course, I'm extremely proud of her for serving our country!

The Pike Place Market

2010-08-13T20:16:00.000-07:00

On our way back to Oregon we decided to take a detour to The Pike Place Market. It was Abby's first time in Seattle and we wanted to give her at least a little taste of the city. What better place to do that than at this well known market?

We saw fish fly, tasted some yummy samples and sat on a famous copper pig. I'm not sure why the pig is famous actually. Hmmm...

We also wanted to get some yummy drinks at the first ever Starbucks. Our family has a little, um, obsession with Starbucks.

Too bad we already ordered our drinks before we found out that the Starbucks we patronized was actually a sister store to the very first Starbucks, but not the store itself. The first one was just down the street. Oops, guess we'll have to go again sometime?

Gingerbread Houses

2010-08-13T20:02:00.000-07:00

We did gingerbread houses with Rob's family in July this year. It was a special treat to share this time with Rob's Aunt Barb and Uncle Ken, as well as his cousin Stacey and her family who flew in from Indiana.

Gingerbread houses were always a special thing Rob's mom and step-dad did with all of the grandkids who were 3 years old and up. The last Christmas Janice was alive she was in the hospital so the already assembled gingerbread houses didn't get decorated. She passed away in February, so we decorated them near her Birthday in her memory. This year we were going to do the same but decided to wait a little while longer so the Indianans, Indians, Indianites, Indys... I'm an Oregonian, but I'm not sure what they are... could join us.

It was so great to have so much family together and to continue a well-loved tradition in memory of a well-loved woman. Shelly was of course, a gracious hostess to a million and one family members, and her family wore are kiddos out with all of their love and attention.

It's always great to be up in Washington, and this time was certainly no different. My kids just got a larger sugar-high than normal!

Kindergarten Celebration

2010-08-13T19:10:00.000-07:00

Why yes, yes I'm INCREDIBLY behind on blogging. So far behind I almost don't want to blog anymore because there is so much left unblogged. My summer has been insane. Dare I say it's winding down just a little? At least enough for me to finally try to catch up a tad bit?

These are some pictures from Leeann's kindergarten celebration. She was so excited to perform in front of all of the parents. She sung nice and loud and knew all of the motions. It was very clear that she was taking her job very seriously. Her music teacher made sure she was right in the middle. I'm pretty sure that was because she had so much gusto!

You'll notice that all of the parents were acting as if their child was the star in a Hollywood production. This went on for a good 5 minutes before the program started!

Leeann's Grampy and his then-fiance, Sally came to cheer her on.

And finally, this is a picture of her with her teacher, Mrs. M.

Shortly after school ended we received her end of the year report card. She met or exceeded all kindergarten standards and reportedly did exceptionally well in math. And, it comes to no surprise that she got along very well with her peers and was a delightful helper to everyone around her.

I can't believe Kindergarten has come and gone and first grade is just around the corner!

My Little Barista

2010-07-31T17:55:00.000-07:00

Today I was making myself and Rob both blended mocha's. After I got done making mine I sent Leeann out to ask daddy what flavor he wanted. He told her to choose, so she came back and told me that she wanted to choose gingerbread.

I asked her if she wanted to make daddy's mocha for him. She quickly washed up her hands and went to work!

She was excited to give it to him... that girl loves to serve others, and help in any way she can. Her first blended mocha turned out delightful according to Rob. This could be a good skill for her to learn!

Meanwhile, Titus spent way too much time perfecting his Lego Starwars skills. At one point he came outside and questioned why Leeann got to help in the yard but he didn't. He didn't stick around long enough to hear the answer or volunteer however... there are more characters to unlock!

So Leeann went to 'work' with her daddy and Titus continued his adventures of conquering... I'm not quite sure actually. I still don't know the Starwars plot. Is that awful?

Seven!

2010-07-26T12:27:00.000-07:00

A few days ago my sweet, sweet baby girl turned seven. Seven!

She now stands just below my chin (which is a testament to both of our heights!). She's a beautiful, delightful, thoughtful little girl.

She loves polly pockets, princesses and Hannah Montana. Her best friend is her brother, and her favorite color, without a doubt is still purple.

She loves to watch movies, and is especially fond of the American Girl DVD's. She's really into crafty things, like painting, crocheting and creating other art projects out of anything that's available.

She honestly LOVES to help. She seems to feel most accomplished when she's helped someone with a task. She's always looking for ways to help someone around her. She even honestly loves to help with household chores... especially when we do them together. She regularly switches loads, empties the dishwasher and puts her laundry away.

She looks for opportunities to help those in need too. Especially those who are sad or hurt. The other day she looked up at me and said, "Mommy, you look quite sad today. Are you doing okay?" She's so insightful, and so sweet and caring.

Perhaps I should let her contribue to her updates from now on. Afterall, she is seven now!

An interview with a seven year old: (I'm typing this as I interview her)

What's your favorite:

Toy- "I like my special Leeann teddy bear. And I also like my best favorite toy is the one that I got from my mom and dad for Christmas. My purple puppy."

Movie- "The movie we just watched (Chrissa) because they were being bullies first but they ended up friends. Because Chrissa needed to tell the truth so the bullies would stop being mean so that they could be nice. Because being a bully is bad."

Place to go- "To Aunt Suzy's house, and Aunt Shelly's."

Song- "Hannah Montana. Pop it, lock it..."

Restaurant- "Red Robin. I like macaroni."

Color- "Purple."

Food- "I like macaroni and cheese. And I got two favorite desserts. Pudding, and ice cream... home made ice cream!"

People to play with- "Titus, Weston, Logan, Ashly, Amanda, KayLee, Josh. Even Landon."

What do you grow up:

What do you want to do- "A doctor. To care for people."

Do you want to get married- "Yeah. To a guy who loves Jesus."

How many kids do you want- "10."

Boys or girls- "5 of boys, 5 of girls."

Names- "I don't know yet."

At school:

Grade last year- "Kindergarten."

Favorite thing to do- "Play. I liked to play blocks."

Favorite friend- "Sam."

Favorite subject- "Reading."

What did you like about your teacher- "That she was nice and was telling us what to do so that we would know."

General:

What are you good at- "Taking care of people."

What's your favorite way to help around the house- "Mopping. Cause it's fun to do."

What else should people know about you- "That I'm a good friend. Cause I like to make friends and I like to be nice."

Move over Martha!

2010-07-21T00:08:00.000-07:00

Leeann is having a Tea Party for her 7th Birthday which is on Thursday. Abby and I began preparing some of the yummy mini treats tonight. Move over Martha Stewart, we made baklava! And we made pecan scones (we'll make the maple topping tomorrow) and bite sized brownies that will be topped with home made salted caramel.

We will also make some orange mini muffins, mini cup cakes, french pastry puffs and chocolate covered strawberries tomorrow and/or Thursday. I know we'll have WAY too much food, but you just can't halve the recipes on some things. They're all cut into really cute tiny bite sized pieces.

And we'll serve fresh squeezed lemonade instead of actual tea. I decided not to make an actual Birthday cake for Leeann this year, which is a little bit hard for me because I love making her fancy cakes. But, it seemed unnecessary given the fact that we will have so many yummy sweet treats already.

I realized tonight that baking is so much more fun with someone else. It was nice to have Abby help me tonight, especially with the baklava. The phyllo dough used to make it is very tempermental and needed a lot of care and attention that was much easier with two of us!

We found out today that Abby will be going home Thursday. I'll be honest, I'm going to miss the girl! It's been fun having her around. I'm hopeful we'll keep in touch. Especially since she's having a baby boy in December and I certainly want to meet him!

I should be headed to bed, there's lots of baking and Birthday prep (and packing for Abby) ahead of us tomorrow!

OMSI

2010-07-17T17:36:00.000-07:00

(Click on image to make it larger)

I'm so far behind on blogging that I'm not sure I'll ever catch up. I had once thought this would be a fairly relaxing summer. Ha!

In fact it's been so crazy that we were quick to steal one 'free' day a few weeks back and head to OMSI in Portland. That place is full of endless fun for kids of all ages-- you should have seen Rob in the vacuum ball room!

We really enjoyed time with each other and our kiddos and even headed to St. Helens for the night. We got to have lunch with Hope, Logan, Brent and my daddy. It was nice to see the kiddos, even if for only a short time. It's hard to believe that it's almost been a year since they lived with us! Hope is getting so tall and Logan's sporting a pink mo-hawk. They seem to be doing well and that's wonderful to see.

And now I'm one post closer to being caught up. Only 20 something more to go!

Mom-1, Dad-1, Titus-0

2010-07-08T09:11:00.000-07:00

I felt a strange sense of satisfaction on Monday when Rob pulled Titus's glasses out of his pocket and they were snapped in half! Rob broke them while trying to tighten them.

At least I'm not the only one! I can't get over the fact that Titus has worn them all day, every day, for a year and a half and has yet to break them. That's extremely impressive for a 4 year-old! What's less impressive is the fact that his parents apparently aren't nearly as careful!

I thought he'd go several more weeks without his glasses again, but they had his frames in stock so we were able to replace them quickly this time.

Field Trip

2010-06-27T21:35:00.000-07:00

Leeann's class took an end of the year field trip to the Discovery Village in Salem. And I got to chaperone! We brought 60 kids and there were two other groups the same size. It was a zoo. An absolute zoo! But, it sure was fun.

Sleeping Angels

2010-06-27T21:25:00.000-07:00

During the school year we've let the kiddos sleep together on non-school nights.

I actually caught this picture a while ago. I went to check on them and this is how I found them!

I love when they crawl in bed with me in the mornings and sprawl all over me. Rob... well, he likes his own sleeping space. They've learned to crawl on my side, and I'm not complaining :0)

VBS

2010-06-26T16:54:00.000-07:00

It's the time of year where there is so much to blog but not an once of leftover time to blog about it! Or should I say, it's the end of that time of the year, hence my return after a 16 day absence. That's gotta be a record!

That time of year--Vacation Bible School. It's been a crazy bunch of weeks for our whole family as we prepared for, set-up for, participated in, and cleaned up after VBS. This year was exceptionally crazy for a whole host of reasons. One of which was the obvious addition to our family just 2 weeks prior to the big event. Poor Abby, she's put in a lot of time at the church with me in these last several weeks! She's been very helpful though, and a delight to be around, so that was actually quite nice in a lot of ways.

The kids had a blast. I slept several hours early in the afternoon and after an incident with a wii remote that was part of a Lego Starwars brawl between my two overly tired, over exerted, completely exhausted kids (who didn't get to sleep until 11:00 last night!)... they are both sleeping peacefully too. And Lego Starwars is in time-out for the foreseeable future.

I'll hopefully download some pictures of my kiddos when I get a chance. Though VBS is often like Christmas. There's so much to blog about, and it comes after such an exhausting (though rewarding) time, that I often never get around to it. We'll see. But just in case I don't get around to the rest of them, here are a few I already have on my computer:

Titus hanging with the "Big Boys" during extended day VBS (extra fun stuff for just 4th and 5th graders). We let the kiddos of the leaders staying for extended day be a part of the fun.

The day you see pictured here? Messy Olympics!

Because who doesn't want to slip and slide in top ramen, creamed corn, mustard and baby shampoo?

Sadly, I couldn't participate. Someone has to take the pictures! I was devastated. Absolutely devastated!

"Twister"

And one heck of a food fight. I stayed far, far away from that action!

Confused?

2010-06-10T20:29:00.000-07:00

If you're confused as to why my last post seemed out of place... it's because it was. Somehow I posted it on the wrong blog. These are the kind of things I'm trying to keep off Robyn's Nest. If you'd like to read more about FlyLady and my efforts (if you could call it that) at organizing my little piece of the world you can hop over to Real Life Pastor's Wife.

Flying as I can!

2010-06-10T17:04:00.000-07:00

I like to think of myself, not as a failure, but as a little late at getting things together. See, I decided to do the 31 day FlyLady beginner steps (as you all well-know) several weeks ago. I think I'm still on day 3 or something!

I have been following her on facebook and via email so I am implementing some of her ideas, but I haven't been precisely following the baby steps as I originally set out to do. First we had a holiday weekend, then a couple of house showings, then we randomly started fostering a 15 year-old foster girl. Oh, and VBS is a week and a half away (I almost panicked as I wrote that... is it seriously just a week and a half away?).

Anyway, she hasn't been on the forefront of my mind, but she has been there. I've actually been thinking a lot about the control journal. I have my notebook, paper and plastic sleeves. I've even started writing some things in there. I really hope to actually make good use of it because it sounds so logical, helpful and useful. We'll see I suppose!

I am one of those people that will think through a logical, fool-proof, fantastic system that I never get around to implementing. The idea works. The function works. I just have to use it. Novel, eh?

I'm really hoping my control journal isn't that way. The best tools are only helpful if you use them. I think FlyLady told me that!

Maybe I need to stick my baby-steps in my control journal so I don't have to log on to the internet and remember to go to the site first thing in the morning... which I obviously haven't been doing! Though it would require me to actually open up my control journal. Uh, am I beyond help?

Because we're crazy!

2010-06-08T09:50:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday I got a call from our adoption case-worker (she's still our case-worker from when we pursued adopting a teenage girl 2 years ago, as our case hasn't yet expired.) She asked if we were interested in doing foster care for a teenage girl with some special circumstances.

I found out a little more about her and her situation and told our case-worker that I'd chat with Rob and give her a call back. Much to both of our surprises, I think, Rob and I agreed to take her in. We had just been commenting a few days earlier about how we have the extra room, and a good home that we could share with someone in the right circumstance.

We've had several situations where people lived with us in the past, and it's usually worked out well. Over the years we've had a teenage boy live with us for 8 months, Rob's sister and her two boys live with us for 8 months, my half-siblings who were 4 and 5 lived with us for 6 months and we fostered a baby for 10 days a few months ago.

The hard part is in this situation, we had no idea what her personality was like or what we'd be getting ourselves into. She was a perfect stranger outside of the few details we knew about her. And frankly, you never know what you're going to get with a 15 year-old! Nevertheless, I left work early and headed down to DHS to meet Abby. We met together with her case-worker to find out a little more about each other and I brought her home.

I can't imagine being 15 and driving in the car with a complete stranger to a strange house, with no idea of what's in store. But, that was almost a week ago, and we're not strangers anymore! She's a sweet girl and I think it's actually been a really good fit so far. The kids are enjoying having her around, and she's good with them. Personality wise she's been a joy, but the sheer nature of having a teenager around is a little over-whelming. I'm suddenly managing social calendars, appointments, friends, shopping trips, etc.

I'm trying really hard to remember what it was like to be 15, and to have as much sympathy for her in her situation that I can muster. I'm attempting to parent her the way that I would have found most helpful if I were 15 and in foster care. We'll see how it goes. Like all of the rest of the kids we've interacted with, she doesn't come with an instruction manual!

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know our current family dynamics. I find it beautifully humorous that in spite of the fact that we're not on any sort of 'list' for foster care, we've know had 4 kids placed here in the last year. It seems like God's got a plan and is determined to work it in spite of whether or not we're on a 'list'. God is good, all the time.

You Are Missed

2010-05-27T12:45:00.000-07:00

Janice, you would have been 59 years old today. You've been gone for a year and a half now. Sometimes it feels like you've been gone for soooo long. Other times it feels like I should still be able to pick up my phone and call you. I have so much I want to tell you.

I have an endless amount of memories from the few short years I had the pleasure of calling you mom. Even though you went to see Jesus when my kids were quite young, they still both talk about you often. Every once in a while Leeann just bursts into tears and says, "I miss Mee Maw". Sometimes I do to.

I look at the amazing son you raised each day, and I am so grateful for your role in making him who he is. The lives of so many others are blessed beyond belief because of him--but especially the kids and me. You have also raised 3 other children who are strong and courageous, and constant sources of blessing to their own families and to so many others. I know I am blessed by each of them, and so are my husband and children.

Leeann and Titus are beginning to grow out of the last sets of clothes and shoes that you bought for them. They are outgrowing (or have broken) many of the toys and treasures you have gave them. The earthly things that remind me of you are becoming fewer and fewer with each passing year. But, the eternal legacy you leave in the lives of your kids, and grand kids, and someday great-grand kids will continue to live on.

I can't thank you enough for the great memories I had the pleasure of sharing with you. I only wish there were more. I wish I would have taken more pictures. I wish I had more of your voice recorded to listen to at times like these. I wish I had more 'things' to remind me of you. I wish I had taken more time to tell you how much I love you and how much you mean to me. But I take joy to think about the fact that there is a little piece of you in all of the people that surround me that I love so much. You aren't here, yet you are everywhere around me. You are so, very, very missed. I love you mom. Happy Birthday!

Update Central

2010-05-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

This is set to be a post full of random updates. For no particular purpose I suppose...

Leeann has 13 days of school left until she's in 1st grade. If every year flies by as fast as this one she's gonna be graduating before I know it!

Titus has new glasses (finally) and talks about Lego Starwars ALL DAY LONG. His brain has one wave-length, and one wave-length only.

Our crossover was not covered under warranty and not only did we have to replace the power steering pump, but the back breaks as well. I miss those Uncle Ben's already.

I didn't leave anything in New Jersey, and I'm proud of myself for that! I finally finished posting about the rest of my trip. You can read about here if you'd like Real Life Pastor's Wife.

I am knee deep (and perhaps in over my head) in planning both VBS (4 short weeks away) and my 10 year class reunion (August 6th). And, on top of that I have this random inclination to totally make-over my world and how I function. I all of the sudden have an intense desire to spend days on end baking food from scratch and cooking to store food in my freezer. And I want to get myself on a cleaning schedule. And I want to deep clean every area of my house. And I suddenly want to organize and re-organize everything. And I really want to keep my eye-brows plucked. I made a list of things I want to do before summer starts and another list of things I want to do before summer ends. And like every other list I make (and I make them often), I now have no idea where it is and may never look at it again. But hey, at least I wrote it down, right?

Today is the last day of our Biggest Loser challenge at church. My final weigh-in leaves me down just over 4 pounds from my starting weight. It's not quite what I wanted, but given my recent lack of discipline I'm just happy to see that I'm not back at my starting weight. I have a goal of running a 5K by summer's end, so hopefully I'll shed a few more pounds in that process. But as for tonight, I'm making some of Pioneer Woman's salted carmel brownies for our small group party. I haven't stopped thinking about them since she posted them. So tonight... I'll make them... and eat them... and enjoy them immensely!

I still need to post about some recent events (or not so recent events), like our trip to Eastern Washington, Leeann's field trip, Rob and Titus's man trip, and last year's Christmas. And the Christmas before that come to think of it...

Why is it that I never manage to blog about Christmas? There's so much going on and no time to blog during that season. I'll put that on my, "Things to do before Summer end's list". If I can find it...

Playmates

2010-05-19T09:42:00.000-07:00

Today when Titus and I got home from walking Leeann to school he immediately asked to play Lego Starwars. I usually let him play for a little while once we get back, while I'm taking a shower or finishing getting ready for my day.

Well, today I told him he couldn't play right away because he spent so much time playing yesterday (the cousins came over for a little while so he'd gotten some extra-long play time). You should have seen the dejected look on his face!

He very sadly stuck his quivering bottom lip out and started to whimper as he lay face-down on the stairs. I sat next to him and encouraged him to play with some trains, cars or lego's. "But I want someone to play with me." he said through his tears. The look on his face was just so sad! I told him he should go pick out a book and he just continued to talk about how he just wanted someone to play with him!

Then all of the sudden I realized--Leeann will be in first grade next year. ALL DAY! That means that instead of needing to entertain Titus from the hours of 8:40-11:15 (relatively simple), I'll be needing to entertain him from 8:40-3:00.

I don't usually need to entertain him that much because he and Leeann play so well together. And, again, she's gone at school for relatively short periods of time. The thing that you need to understand about Titus is that he is an extrovert. He loves being around people. He might even make me look like an introvert in comparison, and that's saying something!

Take this moment in time for instance. He is sitting so close to me that he's practically sitting on me as I write this. He's holding his beary bear and he's just singing and talking to himself. Occasionally he'll ask me what certain buttons on the computer are for. Or he'll stick beary bear in my face and marvel at the fact that I can still type even though beary beary is covering my eyes. Right now he's singing his ABC's to his bear. The boy just wants to be near someone-- or playing Lego Starwars.

I have the feeling that I'm going to have to be super-prepared to keep this guy entertained (and keep me sane) while Leeann's in school full-time next year. Hopefully I'll be diligent enough to make the most of it though, because all too soon he'll be in school all day too, and I'll have to find something to do to entertain myself!