Catch up

I'm doing a catch up in pictures. When I post on my iPhone I never know how the order pictures will appear so I will attempt to explain each.

First pics should be of our family on a trip to oak glen Riley's farm. We went with Kevin's parents and saw this awesome bridge and had them take a picture and it was one heck of a surprise but the pics turned out great (warning you will see these on Christmas cards).

Next is the girls thanksgiving feast at preschool. They played their self made drums and ate their awesome feast. It was a good time. There is also a pic of ethan at his feast with a few of his friends. Owen was there too but I forgot to get a pic.

Next was the 1 pic of thanksgiving of my parents and the grand kids in the lobby of the hotel we were at. Every thanksgiving we go to the central valley in ca and spend time with our family out there. We always have a great time and they put on such an awesome party- thanks this year to Margie and aunt barb for hosting the 2 days.

Oh ya, there are a few of laila, Cassie and the kids and I at Disneyland. It's so magical this time of year.

Last picture is of emery with her new bling. I took it with my phone so it's bad but I had to document the ear piercing.
She now looks like a girl-- I'm thrilled!!!

We are back to school and work and passing illness after illness around out house. We have all been sick and it sucks. Anyway sorry for the short post on my phone but I've been so bad about blogging I felt I had to post something.

Orphan Sunday Video

Our church makes Orphan Sunday a big deal. It is a wonderful day with a big lunch after with speakers and reps from Adoption and Foster agencies. This year they asked to do a video on our family that was shown in the service. I think it turned out great! I was shocked they were able to put together anything in the chaos of the taping as the kids were all over the place, but it turned out awesome! Here it is!

Finleys Halloween hair

Pictures from Finley's Birthday

Finley had a great birthday weekend! She had her fun cousin sleepover at my parents and then a partying sunday. I attempted another do successful photo shoot in the back yard before the party but my good camera was dead ( for lack of use) and the girls were not overly cooperative. I got a few usable pics but at least it was documented. Finley was sick of cake by the sunday party so she asked for pumpkin pie instead. We were happy to skip the cake:). Great birthday with one happy birthday girl!!!

By the way. I have no idea why it is arranging the pictures this way. I've tried to change it to Finley's birthday pic first but it won't let me. I'm on the blogger app and it's ticking me off. Anyway Finley's alone pic was meant to be first- uggg!!

Happy birthday Finley!!! We love you so very much!!!!

Making Finley's birthday cake

*sorry for any errors. I dictated this on my phone.

Lots going On around here. We have been very busy but honestly I just have not had much time for blogging. By the time i am done with work and we get dinner on the table and kids ready for bed and finally I have time to relax, I'm literally falling asleep on the couch. I hardly ever watch TV anymore as I'm pretty much ready to go to bed by 9-930 at night. I have been waking up pretty consistently in the morning to work out, so 5:15am comes pretty early. I am enjoying it though and truly has feel better since I've been working out. I'm still not eating very good so I'm not losing any weight but I feel much stronger and healthier just because of the workouts.

Tomorrow is Finley's 5th birthday. We are so excited and she is even more excited than you could ever imagine. I'm kind of sad that her school does not allow us to do any parties or send any cupcakes so we were not able to make the planned cupcakes after school today but we did make a cake instead. It was fun to bake with the girls as I always enjoy doing but finley greatly enjoyed making her own birthday cake that we will you tomorrow. Tomorrow we will take her to get her gift that she is going to get choose from the toy store. Again, she could not be any more excited. After that she has a sleepover over at my parents house with all the other granddaughters that has been planned for several weeks. Back when it was planned we didn't realize it fell on Finley's birthday but it's really cool now because my mom is planning a big party at the same time so it will be like a big sleepover for her birthday just at her grandparents house. She is so excited she can hardly sleep. We will have a little family party on Sunday after church and that will be her celebration for this year. It is so fun to watch how excited they get over the small things that we tend to disregard as we get older. I hate counting my birthday now but for them, five years is a monumental accomplishment. I will try to take actual camera (not iphone- sorry) pictures of her birthday to post on the blog a bit later.

Overall things of been good just really busy. Having the boys in so many sports is just really hard to keep up with. We now have an official rule of only one sport at a time from now on. We have learned our lesson with Ethan being in football and in hockey. Never ever ever again will we allow two sports.

The girls are doing great and loving kindergarten. Mia is ridiculously far along and is pretty much at the first grade level in most things. Finley is perfect for the transitional kindergarten program. She definitely is not kindergarten material yet but she is coming along nicely. I always say, she is been learning a language for the last year and a half and the academics will come later. Her teacher agrees. Emery is just a little freaky sweetheart! She is so much fun and has such a great personality and is truly loved by all. My mom and mother-in-law have been watching her each every other Wednesday and they just enjoy thoroughly the time they have together with her. She is so much fun one on one and just keeps you laughing with her little personality. She is learning so many new things in her speech is coming along. Overall we're doing pretty darn good. Not many complaints :)

Library time!!

Yes im the pitiful mom That never takes her kids to the public library. I know it's a wonderful place and we have an amazing library close to home but I still never take them. The girls have been asking to go to the library since now that they are in kinder they get to visit the library at their school. So today I decided I get my first library card and take the girls to the library after school(plus I'm off Fridays so it works well to make it a weekly thing.). Needless to say, the girls loved it. Even emery had a great time. They each got 2 books an their friend addy came too. Great time and for sure a new Friday tradition!!!

An Empty Pool

We had to drain the pool because the water was not holding any chemicals and it was just time for nice clean and clear new water. I had to get a few pics of the girls in the pool while it was drained since it only happens every 3 or 4 years. So here are the drained pool pictures.

4-0

Turning 40 this year has been an interesting endeavor. It has been a realization on many aspects of my life. I don't think I intended on turning 40 and doing a lot of self analysis but I have and I think it's a good thing. I've looked over where my life is spiritually emotionally, financially as well as many other aspects and I have really been motivated and convicted to do things differently. I think this is part of turning 40 that many people go through, be it a midlife crisis or whatever, but it is something I think is valuable for most of us to look at halfway through our lives. There are many aspects of my life that I'm very satisfied with and continuing to grow such as my career. Feel very comfortable in my career and where that is going and I think it is in a good place. There are also other aspects of my life that I feel need some major growth and an example of that would be my interaction with my kids and the time element I discussed in the last post. All of those areas need growth and I feel devoting time towards solutions at this point in my life will be exceptionally positive. One area that I like to ignore that has been really pushing me at this point in my life, especially after turning 40, is dealing with my health.

As many of you know I had melanoma last year and have continued you have to be monitored and have had many more pre melanoma issues that I've had to deal with. As of date I have had something like 50 pre-melanoma spot laser off. I know that is scary but it doesn't bother me that much but it does remind me I need to pay attention to my health. In general my health seems to be something that I have never addressed nor have I done anything about. I have never really been sick and I've never had any major scares besides the melanoma and I just always been a pretty darn healthy person. But turning 40 has really made me think that there are some issues that I need to address. As healthy as I have always been I have absolutely never worked out. I have tried for very short periods of time here and there throughout my life but pretty much throughout my whole adult life I have never worked out on any sort of a consistent basis. My work out usually consists of taking care of the kids and occasionally feeling guilty enough to get out and go on a walk but that is about it. Turning 40 has made me look at this part of my life. Everyone says your metabolism slows down when you turn 40 and frankly that scares me because I like to eat Secondly it scares me that I am just going to continue to put on a few pounds a year and eventually become an unhealthy chubby mom that looks her age and frankly that is not something I'm interested in. Because of this fear and because I have no interest in looking my age although maybe I do and I'm just ignorant but I have decided over the last two months to implement a workout regimen.

Midsummer I started fearing the reality of becoming the Chubby mom I do not want to be and I decided to start looking into working out. My brother and many friends that I have have done P90 X and they seem to have really liked it although it is a very intensive and very difficult to stay with. I thought, "man I need to do this." Of course the second I decide I want to do this all the thoughts of I'll never stick with it come into my head and why bother starting because you know you're just going to quit came over my mind and I questioned if I should even think about doing this. I finally decided to go ahead and give it a try. I found the program for super cheap and was willing to buy it and just see if I was able to stick with it but remember historically I'm horrible at that and never stick with any sort of exercise regimen for more than no week. Well I began the program and started trying to just eat okay. I was trying to do the low-carb thing and that works to an extent
But I'm not the type person that can deprive myself of things for very long or I'll just quit the diet altogether. So in general I was working out and trying to eat better. Sounded like a good plan. The question is what I stick with it.

I started during summer and the way to P90 X works is it is three weeks of intensive workout six days a week well over an hour each workout and then rest week where you are doing less intensive workouts but they are still every day and at least an hour. You then go into another three weeks with a rest week and another three weeks and a rest week hence the reason it is called P90X for the 90 day program. It started out pretty hard especially since all three girls decided they wanted to workout with me and every time I tried to go down to do anything on the ground they will pretty much jumped on top of me but somehow I managed to stick with it even over our vacation which was a shocker for me. One week turned into two weeks and two weeks turned in three and so on and shockingly, I have stuck with it for the last eight weeks. I have not been perfect on the diet by any means and recently not doing that well at all but in general I always tend to eat pretty well eating many veggies etc. but I have stuck with the diet to an extent and things are really changing.

I totally feel more in shape and believe it or not my saggy body is actually toning up a little bit. I think I've lost some weight -not a ton - but some and that feels really good. It's just a trip that I stuck with it this long and it's been even more of a trip since school has started I have to work out at 5:15 in the morning which is absolutely my most un -favorite time of day to be awake. But, I have been diligent with it and I see the results paying off and honestly I don't want to stop because I like the way I feel. The physical results are great but the tiredness just is not there nearly as much as it would be if I was waking up that early and working all day and coming home and dealing with the kids and then going to bed. I am forcing myself to go to bed no later than 10 PM and it really feels good waking up at 5:15 and having that alone time to work out and just think about things. I use the time to pray and ponder and really just work out. Never in my life what I have expected to enjoy waking up that early but for some reason it seems to have stuck. Maybe it's the realization of being 40 and the fear of becoming that mom that gains 10 pounds every year and eventually is 50 pounds overweight or maybe it's just the fact that I feel good about myself. What ever the reason, I am thrilled by the fact that I have stuck with it for eight weeks and am completely committed to continuing this not only throughout the next four weeks to finish up the 90 days but to continue on with it for much longer. I have never in my life been able to stick with something like this and while the eating may not be perfect the working out sure feels good and that alone is motivation for me to continue.

I think at the age of 40 I'm trying to find balance. Trying to find balance between being busy or not so busy - trying to find balance between my health - trying to find balance between my relationships - trying to find balance in all aspects of my life. I think turning the big 4-0 has caused some really good analysis that I think I am trying to act on and it's a good thing.

We like to push academics early in our family!!!

Ya right!!!!

WEIRD: Because normal isn't working

We are going through a book  in our Sunday School class right now called WEIRD: Because normal isn't working by Craig Grocel. It is a book about how we work so hard at being "normal" in our lives but because of this we are missing out on the joys of being "weird for Christ".

Im only on the 3rd chapter but it is really convicting me. It starts talking about how Craig (the author) was a normal frat boy in college until a girl he knew died suddenly in a car accident and it forced him to look at his life and ask the big question. He started a frat bible study which lead to his salvation and he eventually became a pastor. He talks about how normal in the US is being overworked, over scheduled, over committed, no time and stressed which caused our relationships to be shallow and to deteriorate, our health wanes and our family suffers. He talks about how our joy is gone in an attempt to be "normal". This applies to our time, our money, our relationships and many other things in our lives.

It is so darn true especially with the time factor for us. We all feel like we have to have our kids in all the sports and extra curricular activities because God forbid we are the one parent who does not give our kid every opportunity known to man. We feel pressure to make sure our kids are enriched and our families suffer because of it. I was so darn convicted in this one. The boys are so busy with sports that we are running from place to place all the time. Besides working, I drive an obscene amount of miles everyday carting kids from place to place. It is so exhausting and I find myself ragged and ticked off much of the time. I hate being like that. The joy is gone. Sure, there is joy here and there, but on a normal day, it is not joyful AT ALL! It is stressful and busy and crazy and we choose to do this almost on a daily basis. When we finally have an evening where we dont have to go anywhere, it is like a treasure where we can take a deep breath. 

The book talks about this being true with finances too. We lived that life for a long time but happily with our commitment to Dave Ramsey's program and Financial Peace, we now are pretty squared away in this area but before we were in the never ending pursuit of more and more and more. We wanted the best and needed a toy for just about everything. We were buried in debt and sinking day by day. Much of this was in an  attempt to be able to do a lot of the things our friends were doing to be "normal" in our circles. This attempt to be normal was not worth it-- everyone has an RV-- everyone has toys-- everyone has nice cars-- but we did not need any of those things but got them anyway. So, we decided to be weird and to give most of those things back to the bank and start living on a tight budget and paying cash for 100% of things. I will tell you this-- being weird financially is the best decision we ever made-- I finally for the first time in my life fee l financial peace and it feels amazing!!!

So, why cant I take the weird part of having financial peace and apply it to the time element in my life. God wants us to be fulfilled and if I can be weird in our fiances, why cant I be weird with time too? Why cant I just do the minimal so our lives are simple. Why do I feel like Im a bad mom if I dont give my kids every opportunity? I dont know. Im not sure why I am always consumed with guilt but I am. I am needing to de-clutter my life and stop the insanity of my schedule. I need to say "OR" rather than "AND". So I can work the snack bar at Ethan's game OR go to that meeting they asked me to attend OR take the boys and their friends to wherever. I need to use OR rather than AND. If I can pick and choose my activities then life will be so much more simple and I wont feel so overwhelmed and our relationships will be maximized.

I know I am kind of rambling but this is really on my mind right now. I am going to take some active steps but have not figured out which ones yet. I will keep you informed but for now, Im contemplating all this stuff and wanted to mull it through here. Thanks for listening.