HAPPY BIRTHDAY Scott!

Christmas week with the grandparents!

It was such fun to have Scott's parents come to California for Christmas! We made lots of good memories with them.

Checking out some "professional" gingerbread houses, then making our own

ice skating

baking cookies and delivering them & caroling to the neighbors

looking at Christmas lights
taking new family photos
guys time bowling & girls tea time (aka: ky gets grandma & auntie & the cousins to herself!)
Christmas eve services

visiting with the cousins at their house on Christmas Day

and finally exploring LAX one more time when saying our sad goodbyes. :(

Merry Christmas!

we are so blessed! praise the Lord for His Son, Jesus, who met our need for a Savior by coming to earth to live a perfect life and die in our place, that we may call Him "Father".

our body project is done!

we've been working on these bodies since october at CC.

HAPPY 72nd BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!

too much soccer?

can you ever have too much of a good thing?

hmmm...

10 soccer games in 3 days - that's how much i watched!

in 3 different cities with my little ones in tow.

hmmm...

where are we going now mom? to a soccer game. (over and over and over)

don't get me wrong. it was fun. the boys played 4 games and took 2nd place. scott coached the other 6 and the team took 3rd. we all had fun. and now we're all tired! :)

thanksgiving

we had a lowkey thanksgiving. i thought about skimping on the food, but then all the kids started talking about how much they looked forward to different dishes and in the end, i cooked the full meal for just us and my dad. it was yummmy. and a nice day too.

below is our thanksgiving feast at church.

seriously? sick again?

i have strep throat again!

it came on friday night - exactly 3 weeks after the last time. so saturday morning, with 2 kids in tow (including sy who was throwing up all night with a 24hr flu), i headed to the clinic to get some antibiotics. (i needed them right away because i had to cook at church sunday for our thanksgiving meal!)

first i texted my dearest nurse marijo, to verify what should happen when i got to the clinic. and the NP didn't know what to do with me. again she didn't think i had strep. again she told me i would be charged more for labs if the 1st test was negative. again the test was positive. and again, after much research and phone calling, i left with an antibiotic prescription. but, she said if it happens again, don't come back because she'll have to send me to an ENT - i really need to get a doctor. why won't my pediatrician just see me too? i really like him!

the amazing thing in all this sickness is that nobody else in my family is getting sick! thank you Lord for watching over us.

more books

right now we're loving:

bud & me the true story of the abernathy boys who, in 1909, rode horseback from guthrie, oklahoma to santa fe, new mexico alone with their father's permission (?!?) when they were 5 and 9 years old. (and more of their adventures!)

jed smith - another faithful follower of Christ who explored and mapped much of the west just after lewis & clark

and the kids just played oregon trail and really got something out of the game. i knew it was an "educational game", but didn't know one could learn so much!

ky soccer

sick again

i have strep throat. i have no doctor. friday night i felt yucky. saturday morning i prayed for God to provide a way for me to see my friend and fellow soccer mom, marijo. i haven't seen her much this season (if at all) because our sons are not on the same team right now. BUT today, who shows up to watch my boys play? marijo. really it was her son luke who wanted to come to the game and they finished up an appointment early, so they came. but really God sent marijo to me. so i asked her to check my throat and she confirmed i had strep and needed to get an antibiotic. i went straight to the clinic in our local pharmacy where the NP promptly told me she did not think i had strep and it would cost me extra to send my culture to the lab if the rapid-strep test came up negative. but the test came up positive and i got my antibiotic and 3 hours later, i'm feeling better!

(i'll refrain from posting pictures of my throat).

more books & incentives

okay. i have to add minute boys of lexington (historical fiction, revolutionary war) to our favorites list. if we had time to read the sequel minute boys of bunker hill, i am sure that would be on there as well.

and in-n-out is offering a reading incentive: read 5 books for a free burger! the kids signed up tuesday and yesterday (friday) they said, "can we go get our burgers?" i reminded them they needed to read 5 books and they had only read 3. they all hunkered down and read 2 more books so they could get their certificates that night before the library closed at 5pm. we went straight from the library to in-n-out. thankfully, they can earn 2 more burgers each and i think i can get a lot more reading out of them now! :)

books we're reading

we've been having so much fun with books this fall. we're still working through the chronicles of narnia series. (and watching the BBC movie after each book). our favorite book last month was Stories of the Pilgrims. and this month we're already picking our favorites: carry on, mr bowditch and alone, yet not alone.

the 2nd (alone) is fantastic. i read it first because when we first got it through interlibrary loan, i looked at it and decided not to read it to the children. the story is about a german girl who is taken during the french & indian war. the indians kill her father in their home and take the girl to their indian village to be raised as an indian. (i thought this storyline might be to scary for my kids). but throughout the book we see the girl rely on her faith in Christ and trust Him no matter what. when i finished it, i really wanted at least the older boys to read it because it was such a fine display of living out faith and trusting God through extreme circumstances. they agreed to listen to the first 2 chapters and then decide if they wanted to hear the rest. after that, they were hooked. even one of the librarians who heard me reading to them said it sounded so good she wanted to read it. i said i highly recommended it! i really love the CC resource list - we get so many great reads out of it. like this one, where we gain understanding of the french & indian war and are encouraged in our faith!

crockpot

made apple dumplings in the crockpot.

had to not make the teriyaki meatballs planned for dinner because my crockpot was already in use. (i never thought i'd need 2 crockpots until now - and now i consider that if i ever have to live in a hotel, 2 crockpots may come in handy, so maybe it wouldn't be a waste to buy another and for sure, i'll get one with a timer)...

anyway. just wanted to share, i've got a ton of crockpot recipes from

crockpot365.blogspot.com

including the super-yummy apple dumplings we just finished!

astronomy

this fall, we are studying astronomy using exploring God's creation by apologia. we are really enjoying it so far. pics of some of the experiments we've done:

LA County Fair

Scott was able to take time to go to the fair with us. I had planned to go a couple weeks ago with the DiPeppino's who we went with last year, but i totally forgot and they went alone. i was planning to go friday, but scott said if we went today he could go along, so we packed up the kids and went! here's the photos...

our day at the fair

bees

pig races

picking pretend fruit, pretend vegetables, and milking a pretend cow - it's LA

community activist

i was annoyed to find out that the city planned to make it illegal for me to cross the street near my house. i cross at this intersection, maybe, once a month to go to the local park. it turned out that they decided that since there are a few irresponsible high school kids crossing there during high traffic times, they should ban all people from crossing at all times. i say no. so i wrote to the city and said "no thank you". then took the older boys to visit our city engineer. he was fabulous and invited us all back to his office and showed us how he can see all over the city on his big flat screen right there in the office by looking at different traffic cameras! it was really neat and he was great with the boys.

still, i thought they should only ban pedestrian crossings during high traffic hours, so this afternoon, i went to the city traffic commission meeting to say so. turns out a bunch of elderly neighbors also cross there to get to the shopping center on my side of the street. consequently, they decided to take a better look at it and recommended only restricting pedestrians during high traffic hours. yay!

my new job on the AYSO board

this is my 4th year on our AYSO (soccer) board. i have served as volunteer coordinator, CVPA, and now secretary. this year, the guy who has always made the game schedule is gone, so i had the privilege of making the schedule. it was fun for me, like a big puzzle - making all the games fit, having teams play each other an equal number of times and coordinating games for coaches with 2 or 3 teams or special needs. but the best part has been the lack of complaints. so i'm just bragging a bit that i did a good job. yay me! :)

sy's first soccer game day

getting ready - got the jersey on, working on the shinguards!

tired of outings

i'm not tired of going out. but going out makes me really tired.

i forget this because i feel fine, then i go out and get myself exhausted. :)

thursday we went to the science center. it was fun because there was a man showing a real pig heart and since we're studying anatomy this semester in CC, it was perfect timing. he was at a small table and the kids got 4-on-1 time with him and the heart. neat! (but it made me tired).

friday we went to the nature center (i think i remembered i may get tired, but i felt guilty for not taking my kids anywhere for the past few weeks.) we walked the 1-mile instead of 2 and i took breaks when i needed it, but ultimately went home really tired.

saturday was the first day of the fall soccer season games, so i was at the fields (sitting - which is not normal) cheering the kids on!

mom and dad visit & soccer tournament round 2

mom & dad flew in for a funeral (a short stay). everyone was happy to see them as it's been hard not having them "close" like they were in phoenix. again their trip coincided with a soccer tournament weekend, and they were able to catch a game before flying out.

they also brought to the kids the long awaited stuffed animals that have traveled the world. each animal was sent on behalf of one of the kids and was passed from traveler to traveler, keeping a log on the way and sometimes taking pictures of its adventures. the kids were so excited to get these after 8 months of waiting!

i am still recovering from being sick. i am still tired and it seems it may be a while before i'm back at full steam. (i did, however, attend our CC orientation day last tuesday and will teach my first class tomorrow). may the Lord sustain me.

also, dad moved back home. it's sad not to have him here and not to have his help (funny how that turned out). i think he may have stayed longer if we had tv. :) but it's good for him. he's even using a cane a bit now. so just under 6 weeks after surgery, he's on his own.