If You Blog it, it Will Come

So, soon after I blogged that this morning, I got THE call! We went over there this afternoon and got the keys. And......are you ready for this......he said we can move in any time!!!!! We don't have to pay until the 15th, but we can move in any time. So Rich and I talked about it, and we'll be moving next weekend. Excitement is jumping out of my fingers onto this keyboard right now!!

It does need quite a bit of clean-up. That's why we're waiting until the weekend. That gives me all week to get the place "Katie Clean". It just needs a good scrub of the baseboards, walls, cabinets. We've talked about maybe painting a few rooms this week - before we get all of our stuff and our kids in there. I can get all the shelf paper in - and let me tell you peeps - this place has TONS of storage: Four different linen style closets, walk-in closets in the boys' room and our room, a regular closet in the office/extra room, and a double-door pantry. The pantry isn't very deep, but it's wide, and it's a whole lot better than the cupboards I'm in now!!

At least this week I'll have a legitimate excuse for my possible silence.....but oh the stories and pictures I shall have on my return.....

Thank you Lord for Your favor! Please bless our efforts this week!

Chomping at the Bit

That's what I'm doing right now!! I am anxiously awaiting THE phone call from Mr. Homeowner Vince. When he calls, it's our green light to go sign the lease and get the keys. We can't officially move in until the 15th, but I will have those keys in my grubby little hands and I can dream about moving things. Also, I will be able to clean so that everything will be ready to go on the 15th. Maybe we'll even get to paint a little before we move....who knows.

Last night Reed woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep. I tried rocking him back to sleep, but he wouldn't have it. I pulled out the bed in the living room, and tried to make him sleep there with me....nope, he wanted to crawl. So after some time, I decided to go for a drive. I drove over to the new hood - and that's what I found, the hood. Or hoodlums. As I was turning onto the street that leads to the street that leads to our street, there was a group of three delinquents on bicycles roaming about. But it was the last one in line that bothered me.....he had a metal bat! Call it profiling or whatever, but no good comes from three juvenile delinquents riding around with a bat at midnight.

So my heart slowed down to a more normal pace, and I drove by our house. I drove up and down the street praying over all the houses. I was praying that God would give us ideas to reach that street, and ultimately that neighborhood, and evangelize it! I drove a couple streets over, continuing to pray. As I was getting ready to turn back on to the main street, there they ran in front of my car....with their bat. I think this time, my heart stopped. I was saying "O Jesus, protect my baby and me." The one in the lead stared me down a bit, but they kept right on cycling. In hindsight, I suppose I could've just run them over had it come to that....after all, I had four wheels and they only had two (each).

So my heart slowed down to a more normal pace, and I kept driving and praying. I drove through my parent's neighborhood and stopped at their house to pray for awhile over them. Then we drove home, put my sweet pea to bed, and I hit the hay. A few short hours later.....here I am!

A Refreshing Baptism

Recently (yes, this is still catch-up and wasn't included in my last blog), The Way Fellowship (our church) had their first baptism. We partnered back up with our sending church, The Oaks Community Church, and we did all of our baptisms together. Though it was a very hot day, it was so refreshing to watch.

From our church, we had Dennis Fraze get baptised. He and his wife, Susan, recently started attending The Way, and they are from that area. Awesome people! What a critical addition to The Way they have been. Susan has really jumped in to help anywhere she can. Here's his baptism experience...

Then there's the Hodges. I cry every time I think about their spiritual journey. When you have been through what we've been through to be a part of a specific ministry, and then you get to witness the fruit of the ministry, it is the most amazing and rewarding feeling ever! What an amazing couple Allen and Amy are!! They recently dedicated their lives to the Lord and immediately signed up for baptisms. Here's their pics and video, but I encourage you to read about their experience from Amy's perspective...here. Amy frequents The Cupboard here, and blesses me quite a bit!!

Last but not least, I don't know who this family is, but they really touched me. This is a family of 8...yes, that's right....8! They all were baptized at once. I cried.....oh yeah, waterworks in full force! Right before the dunkin', the father said a few words. In a nutshell, he was committing his family to Christ, and through this act of obedience, was submitting to the Lord's help in raising all of their boys. Wow....I wish you all could have been there!

All Rolled Into One

Okay, I have proven that my blogging catch-up skills are not at their peak. I hope I have not lost the few readers that I had. In any case, I decided that instead of trying to do individual posts to get caught up, I'd just roll them all up in one. Brace yourself....you can only imagine what an eclectic mess of photos this shall be!

So without further ado, and in no particular order, our past weekish in photo...

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We went to Riverwalk Park after dinner on Tuesday and let Rusten use his fishing pole and we played on the toys.

Reed loving the swings!

Okay, so maybe my lighting could've been better...but what a cute baby!

Daddy and his two boys!

"This is silly, mom...."

The boys picking a place to fish.

Reed is very fascinated by the camera - more by the wrist strap...

Let me give you an audio of the bonding experience:

"Rusten, push the button and let it go....easy son, wind carefully....no, you don't push the button now, only wind....okay, be careful, you're about to poke your brother's eye out...."

I think this picture is so precious!

Poor Reed was going blind in the sun.

Yep....this is the life!

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Rich was watching the boys the other day and took these pictures...

Sweet Reed enjoys a good finger every now and then.

Okay, THIS is my new favorite picture!!

The boys throwing back a couple drinks after a nap.

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The other day, I walked down the hall to find this...

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Rusten has recently decided that he would prefer to "shower my own"...

We have to maintain some decency here on the blog, peeps, so we settled for clear shower curtains.

A strategic shot. He stands in the water and just wipes his eyes constantly.

Brother and he were playing peekaboo, however, this time it turned violent. This is for the future when I can prove to Rusten that he wasn't always the sweet that he pretends to be! They really do get along so well - it's such a blessing!

Wrestle Mania!

This is my favorite picture. It shows a beautiful smile of Reed, and Rusten's face cracks me up!

The other day (yes, I'm still catching up), I looked over, and Reed had Rusten pinned down and was trying to kiss him. It was the funniest thing and was making Rusten laugh!

Reed finally won!!

I'm Are A Horsey!

Rusten decided to put on a rodeo for us! So cute! He actually came out to Rich and asked him to take pictures of him......I know, I was shocked too! I usually have to sweet talk, bribe and/or threaten just to get a half-hearted smile and a still pose, but you give that boy some boots, a hat, and a musical horsey, and you just look out!

So after the rodeo was over, Rusten followed me into the bedroom and said "I'm a horsey mom!". I said "YOU are a horsey?". "Yeah, I'm are a horsey." That's a grammar lesson at it's finest, peeps.....kudos to mom!

Enjoy!

(And please know that no real animals were injured in the making of this video. The fake ones took a beating though!)

Rusten ready for his ride.

"Yeah, it was an 8.5 second run...no problem..."

Ain't She a Beaut?!

I call her Savannah Darling. She shall have new paint soon, and two toddlers running her halls. Oh the memories to be made...

God's Got Us On The Move

This was a very eventful weekend, and I have pictures and video and stories to tell. I have many a blog lined up and ready to scribe in my head. Hopefully I'll have time soon to write them all. But this one couldn't wait!!

We have recently begun the search for a new place to live, as our lease is up at the end of September. One of our big desires was to be near the school where our church meets. We have been praying that God would guide us. Rich found a house and talked to the owner a couple of times. It's right at the edge, and maybe dangling over a little bit, of our monthly budget, but the deposit was only $500 - praise God we've actually been able to save that up! So we went to see it on Saturday. That's almost a whole post itself!

The house was filthy! The people were moving out, and the owner (who lives out of town) was completely embarrassed by the state of the house. Let's just say they had a few pets and a severe clutter problem. Anyway, the owner told us that he was going to have to come back another time for a week and clean the place. So we turned in an application. At that point, he told us that he had 5 other applications already. Oh well, WE have God! We just submitted it to God and prayed that if He wasn't in this and wasn't going to provide, that we wouldn't get the house.

So yesterday, while we had the youth doing a scavenger hunt at the Marketplace, we were talking to Kristina (our only other youth leader) about the house. As we were telling her about it, Vince (the landlord) called Rich and told him that he looked over all the applications, but he felt like we were the ones for the house. Wahoo! We were ecstatic!

I'm so excited, I cannot even begin to tell you! We are finally getting to move out of this apartment! It's going to be a stretch because we'll be moving sooner than we planned. We'll have to pay our full rent here for September, then a half month for the house on the 15th, then a full month for the house October 1st. I'm not sure how that's all going to play out, but I do know that God has not let us down yet!

We have been talking this weekend about hearing God and about how you tend to hear Him more when you're praying about His plans and not yours. It's interesting that we set our sights on being missionally minded and desire to work where He's working in the Stonecreek area, and when we submitted that to Him, He gave us peace! A few blinks later, here we are! We will live less than 1/2 a mile from the school.

God is good! I'll catch you up on the rest of our life soon! Just to bait you....we saw Ryker, a crazy rodeo, and a few dunks!

How's YOUR Refrigeder?

As we were driving tonight, Rusten was talking about looking at new refrigeders, followed by:

"REFRIGEDER, WHERE ARE YOU????"

We were cracking up! Papa and Miss Becca didn't want to have to move their fridge from upstairs in their old apartment, so they just bought a new one out of the paper. It's turned out to not be such a great deal after all, so he took Rusten this morning to run errands with him and look at new refrigeders!

I love living with a two-year-old learning how to talk!!

I Wonder Why I Have Ants?!

This was the scene after dinner tonight (and before I vacuumed!). Reed is trying table food now, and tonight, he dumped his whole plate of chicken, rice, carrots, broccoli, and fruit on the floor. He was quite upset by the loss of food, but mommy came through with more! I just thought I'd document his first dinner (of solids) here on the blog!

By the way, today WAS a good day.....not because everything in it was good, but because every time I started to get upset, I remembered what I blogged and the "Bubbly" song would start going through my head.

We went to the local museum for a water day - kinda a let down! I was really expecting something more than was there...but I guess it was only $2. Just as we were leaving to go eat at Jack in the Box with Mandy, Luke and Abby, Rusten tripped in the gravel and gouged his knee pretty good. He's generally fine if you tell him to kiss his booboo. Not this time, no way! He was screaming for all to hear, and all did hear, and all stopped, and all stared - except for one little boy who was following me as I was trying to maneuver my way out of the sun for a better look at the damage. He was insisting that I show him the cut:

"Let me see the cut, just show me"

"No, I'm trying to get it to stop bleeding"

"Well just let me see it real quick"

"Um, no, not right now"

A little help here, little boy's mom?! She thought it was funny....I do too - now!

We screamed our way through lunch at Jack, and came home for naps. Then we went swimming and that was fun and relaxing. A good day, a good blogging, now for some ice cream!

Maybe the strawberries or kiwi were a bit too tart? Maybe he just wanted to give his mommy a kiss? I bet that's it!

Get that food, messy boy!

Just the beginning...

"What, mom? What's so fascinating that you're taking a hundred pictures?"

Bubbly!

I decided that today is going to be fun! I even commemorated my decision by making you listen to a song entitled "Bubbly"! Uncle is coming over and then we're meeting Luke (and Mandy and Abby) out at the Kern County Museum for a water day. Then we're going to go swimming this afternoon with uncle. It's going to be a good day!

One of THOSE days!

Do you ever have one of those days that you just can't seem to win? Yeah, that was today!

I started out running behind. The attorney I work for from Susanville called to discuss a petition I drafted, and I have to tell him "I'm sorry, I'm changing a diaper and need to bathe two kids!" How professional is that, I ask you?! We all get ready and go running out the door for what was supposed to be a FREE well-baby appointment for Reed. As you may, or may not, know, we have shelled out many a peso (because that's the currency here in North Mexico) in the last few weeks paying for Reed to see the doctor and try different medications. We calculated about $250 in about two weeks for two doctor visits, Amoxicilin, Claritin, and Albuterol. Ouch! (But on a bright note, through that time, God blessed us several times from a couple different sources, and we were able to pay for it all!!)

So we go in today. We are 21 lbs 4 oz, 29 inches tall. Then she looks in his ears......oh, hey there familiar ear infection, sir....welcome back! Then she listens to his chest, as it rattles with phlegm. We left, after a LONG discussion of paying for future follow-up visits, and gingerly turned in our prescription, afraid of what the nasty Pharmacy Assistant is going to say it costs.

So we stop by the church, complain about the lady hacking into my stuff at the church, and go home. The boys are down for their naps and I'm tidying up around the house before settling in to work, and I call to make sure that the prescriptions are ready. I ask how much.....mistake! Our new antibiotic is $43 and our new inhaler that we have to do twice a day.....are you ready.....$183!!! Can you believe that?! I was floored! We have been able to save some money up lately, so we have it - Praise God!! We were able to knock down the price of the inhaler a bit. That was a blessing! Rich went and picked it up for me so I didn't have to traipse my children all through their pharmacy again....I'm sure Kaiser thanks him!

I'm sure I have you riveted at this point....and it even gets better! We are getting ready to leave and run errands before we head over to Uncle Pat's for dinner. I bring in a massive pile of junk mail that has collected in my car over the last week, and I'm gonna throw it away. Not paying attention to the fact that I had just seen the stroller lying on the living room floor, I come through the door, heading to the trash can, and in my head I'm cursing the people who make and send junk mail. Suddenly, me, the junk mail, and the cup of koolaid are all lying in a heap on the floor. Let me tell you, it hurt! My knee, shin and elbow all took a beating, and my kitchen floor and dining room carpet took a Blue Raspberry Lemonade shower. What a mess. At that point, I'm not just teary because it hurt, but because I just can't handle one more thing!

Now I'm home and in my comfy clothes. The kids are in bed peacefully sleeping, and I'm getting to vent to those of you reading my blog. Tomorrow will be brighter....I just know it!

You Again?!

***This blog was going to be posted two days ago, but blogger wouldn't let me upload my video. So, the joke about lots of blogs was funny then....not so much now!***

I'm sure that's what you're saying right now, because I just keep coming back here with all sorts of mind-numbing cinematography and photography of my children and life. Well, yep, I'm back with more! This one just couldn't wait....and besides, I got a picture of Rusten!

Reed fed himself for the first time today at lunch. He would try to grab food, and when he was unsuccessful, he would try to eat the air, or the plate, or something...I know it's kinda long, but I couldn't get him to do the funny stuff for a bit...

I like to call this one..."a paparazzi shot".

I seriously have to catch him eating, or something else distracting, or he won't let me get a picture!

Good Times

We went to my parent's house for dinner on Saturday night because my mom's cousin was visiting from out of town. We took a few pics, just not of the visiting family....oi! I think my mom might have, but I was a slacker!

I just thought I'd put up a few pictures from the past weekend.....enjoy! I realize there are none of Rusten, and it's not that I love Reed more, it's that Rusten HATES having his picture taken and avoids it at all cost!

"Ooohhh, shiny helmet...."

"....uh....little help here...."
"....whew....now I'm ready...."
Taking a ride in the toy wagon!
"What...huh? Oh, just hangin' out with my juice...no big deal..."
Mmmmm.....Apple Juice!

We Need a Miracle!

This sure illuminates a much bigger picture, in spite of my last whiny post!! This video is of my best friend's family: Matthew, Lisa, Abby and Emma Ritter. Lisa has been a very dear friend of mine for many years. This short video shows the fight of her little daughter.....

What Do You Even Say?!

Last night, as we were thinking about going to bed, the people upstairs were making quite a bit of noise stomping about. Rich was getting mad, and I just figured it was no big deal because we sleep in the back of the apartment, and they were making noise in the front. So we go climb in bed.

Immediately afterwards, there is a huge crash and screaming upstairs. I swear to you that crazy woman was beating her daughter. They were screaming at each other and thrashing about. I threw on some shorts and ran upstairs, pounding on their door. I knocked several times, thinking that little girl was in trouble. Rich was at the bottom of the stairs with the phone. I told him to call 911 because she was beating that girl and wouldn't open the door. Just after I said that, she opened the door.

The door opens, and before I can say much, she says "Sorry, but my daughter's throwing a fit. I can't control her, and I'm sorry you have to listen to this, but there's nothing I can do. I'm a single mom....blah, blah, blah, excuse, blah, blah...." ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? Who's the adult in that apartment....just curious? She proceeded to tell me how her daughter was throwing a fit because she had asked her to get off the computer and go to bed. Very obviously, she didn't want to! The mother told me that 'hopefully' she'll want to go to bed soon.

She made sure to show me her daughter because I think she knew what I was thinking. The daughter had her arms crossed and was looking down, and when she looked up at me, she looked mad! The mom made her apologize to me. I made sure they knew that we hear quite a bit of what they do, and that they do wake my children up. She said....get this....."I know, I tell her that you have a baby, but I just can't control her." I wanted to beat that mom!!!!!

As I walked away I said "thank you"???? What was I thinking...she apologized, so I thank her?! Oh well! I came down the stairs in shock. I walked to bed in a stupor, not believing the line I had just been fed! I've heard of parents like this, but I've never actually met one!

Even as I'm typing this, I can hear stomping upstairs.......

So Lackluster

I don't know what my deal is lately, I'm just not in my blogging groove! Angela at The Painted House put it so well recently, describing how she lost her blogging mojo. I laughed when she wrote that, because that's how I've felt recently!

Today I'm going to try to take the kids to look at some older furniture stores downtown, maybe even some antique stores. My original search was for the old Disney movie "Babes in Toyland", starring Annette Funicello. I'm not real sure where to find that, but that sparked my intrigue to look at other old things. I would love to redo the style of my furniture when we move! I'm already brewing some painting and purchase ideas. I shall keep you posted. Right now, I'm looking for a place to move to!! Please pray for us that God directs us to the perfect place!

Now I'm off to feed kids and wait for my mommy to wake up so I can bug her about going shopping later!

Using What We Like to Call "The Right Way"...

...to eat a banana. After having a little banana with our breakfast this morning, apparently Rusten was insatiably craving them. I walked into the kitchen to clean it up and found this, my last banana.....

All this time I've been peeling those things, and here I could have just left the skin on! Sheesh!

**When I downloaded this picture, I found these two and thought I'd share! They are from Saturday morning.

Reed would crawl around and then go to the pillow and lay down for a few seconds. So sweet!

Rusten hates having his picture taken, so he's acting silly!

Hooked on Houses

If you're looking for something fun to do today, I mean instead of working and everything, check this out! Hooked on Houses is doing a blogger house tour. Fun stuff! You get to see all different houses - get decorating ideas!! Have fun!

My Baby Vaccuum

Who needs a Roomba when you have a Reed?! He had some crackers the other day and spilled 99.9% of them on the floor. So when I put him down, he commenced to cleaning them all up! A self-cleaning baby....I may be on to something here! I used this opportunity to snap some pictures of the boys (except Rusten didn't really want his picture taken), since it's been awhile. And I'll use this early morning opportunity to blog! Rich left early this morning for his Friday Biblestudy, and no sooner did he leave did the people upstairs decide to start stomping and slam a door! Thank you upstairs dwellers!! Rusten immediately started crying and came out of his room for the day....crying "I want watch my daddy!". That's what I hear all day long, and it's said with a pouty lip out.

So anyway, we're getting a running start on this fabulous Friday! We have a couples fellowship at our church tonight, and that should be fun!

So funny....every time I'd get ready to snap a picture, he'd pose and smile!
....except for when he's eating!
He was stuck under the chair, but stopped for a big, toothy grin!
Rusten requested that I take pictures of his sponges, so...here's how they start.......
....and here's our new shark, sperm whale, manta ray, and crab! He was so insistent that I take this picture, he laid them out and got them all ready for their photo session!