Our weekend

Well, I have to say our weekend didn't go how I thought it might. That seems to happen quite a bit to us. We have learn to just adjust and laugh about it. Friday was pretty uneventful. We just hung around the house. Oh wait, there was one eventful thing. I can't believe I am going to share this. Okay well anyway, Megan wanted to go to the park, so Ben suggested we take a family bike ride to the park and hang out. So, we head out on our bikes and we are almost to the trail and I was in the lead, then Ben took the lead. Okay so in that process of that, I didn't make a wide enough turn and ended up trying to go up the curb. Yeah, that didn't work out so well. I went up over my bike. I am sure it was a sight. I did injure myself a bit. I hurt my elbow, my shoulder, and some bruises and scraps on my leg. I was embarrassed and hurting. At first I told the kids that they were to tell no one about this. Now, I can look back and laugh. I am such a nut.

Then on Saturday we took out time getting ready to head to the balloon fest. Heidi and Dalin came over to go with us. At the Balloon fest there was suppose to be a Civil War reenactment until 12:00. Well, we showed up at 10:30ish and we didn't not find any reenactment of any kind. They had some different booths there, really not much to see. We did get to see a real astronaut. That was kind of cool. So, we were there for about 15 minutes. Whew hew! After that Heidi, Megan, Dalin and I went shopping. We always have a good time together. That night we went back to the balloon fest to see all the balloons lite up. There were a bunch of different kinds of hot air balloon. There was a United rental truck, the Energize bunny, regular ones and then the flying pig. It was pretty but didn't last very long. Maybe next year we can get up early enough (6:00a.m.) to see the balloons lift off. As for this year it was okay for us.

So, Sunday we were suppose to try a new church. Yeah, still trying to find where we God is calling us to be. Well, we didn't make it to first service. Which is what service we needed to go to so we could help clean a house of the family from Ben's work. The husband/dad needs the house to be very clean before he can come home from the hospital, so he doesn't get sick again. The wife/mom also has MS which makes it hard for her to do stuff. So, we skipped church and headed over to clean. Not really what I was expecting at the house. It was great to go help as a family. Jacob and Ben worked outside in the yard. They did a great job out there. I was proud of how Jacob did and his attitude. Megan & I worked inside. Megan worked with another girl on cleaning pictures and walls. She did really good too. I worked in the kitchen with another lady. It was a bit difficult cleaning up someone else dirt, especially if you don't even know them. There was a lot of work to be done, by the time we left there was still a lot of work to do. We were there for about 5 hours. I am glad we had the opportunity to help this family. I am really happy that my family was so willing. It was great serving another family. The husband/dad is suppose to come home from the hospital on Friday. I pray that it all works out and they are able to bring him home.

That is about all that happen this last weekend. We definitely were busy all weekend, but it was all good.

Happenings

Well, this week has been a rough one. I am adjusting better without my dog. I do miss him very much. I am working through it.

So, yesterday (Thursday) Ben & I went to Jacob's back to school night. It is still just hard to believe that my son is in Jr. High. We had the chance to quickly meet his teachers. We had about 8 minutes in the class and then 3 minutes to get to the next class. We enjoyed meeting his social studies teacher. He is funny. I think that is one of Jacob's favorite classes. All of his teacher seemed to be nice. Jacob made it a point to tell me that I had to meet his friends mom. He told me which classes to look for her in. He talked to her earlier in the day and she told him to have me find her and that it should be easy because she was probably the one Asian in the class. Jacob thought that was funny. By the way, she was not the only one, which I knew she wouldn't be. I got the nerve up in the last class. She was really nice and I believe she is a stay at home mom too. I told her we should have coffee sometime. That is me trying to step out a little. Now I just have to work up the nerve to call her and invite her to coffee. That is the tough part. I am glad to see Jacob making friends so quickly and being excited about it. He really wants his friend to come over which is why it was so important that I meet his friends mom. Well, hopefully we will have is friend over soon.

Our weekend plans are looking good. There is a balloon festival that is about 10 minutes from our house that I think we will be going to. I remember when we lived in Albuquerque they had a balloon festival every October. But believe it or not we never made it to it. How sad is that. So, we decided that we are going to this one. I think we will go to some of the activities that are happening during the day and then go to the balloon launching at night. I think that will be really neat to see. I will be having my camera ready. Heidi and Dalin are going to be coming along with us. We always have fun together. Then on Sunday we are going to try a new church. After church we have a great opportunity to go help a family from Ben's work. Ben got an email at work asking for help. The story is that this guy that works at the same company as Ben got sick and rushed to the hospital. He has leukemia. He has been in hospital for 2 months. In order for him to be able to come home from hospital his house has to be sterilized, outside and inside. His wife as MS, so is not able to do it by herself. I am actually very excited to help with this. We are going to take the kids with us. What a great opportunity to share Christ's love. Is this not what God has called us to do? I look forward to see what God will do with all of it. I love the chance we get to work with others in this. I am really excited that my kids are helping too. I believe that it will be a lot of fun. To think of cleaning as fun, yeah when you are doing it for Christ. It is the least we can do after all He has done for us.

We knew God was going to use us and this is just the beginning. I look forward to what else God has for us to do for Him. We know we are here because that is where He has called us to be. That is an awesome place to be, in God's will. I pray we will always be in His will. I will keep you up on how things work out with our weekend.

A Sad Day

As I sit here to share with you today, I come with sadness in my heart. Today is one of the toughest day for me since we have moved here to Colorado. We have been having some trouble with our dog, Rusty. He is a great dog, although he doesn't like other dogs. Then with moving here we have a lot lightening & thunder storms (almost every night). We all are not use to that but Rusty especially didn't' deal well with it. So, he started to try to get out of the backyard. One time he went through the fence. Then he was able to climb over the gate. So, our next step was to put a shock collar on so he wouldn't go over. Well, today we find out that none of that matter if he wants out, he is gone. And today there was no storm happening. As hard as it was, we had to make a choice for our dog and our family. Rusty has been a part of our family for about 3 1/2 years. He has been in our Christmas pictures. We took him camping and water skiing with us. He slept on his own bed next to my side of the bed. Yeah, I had spoiled this dog. This also caused a bit of arguing between my husband & I. We have talked a lot about finding him a new home. Well, today we took him to a place to be adopted. I love this dog very much and it was like losing a family member. I cried like a big baby. I know that it was best for our family. Although it may be the best thing for us, it was very hard. It is going to take some getting use to not having him around all of the time. It is a sad day. The kids are dealing pretty well with it. They both cried a bit. I know with time we will be okay. I will always love Rusty and I am praying that he finds a great home. A place where he can run and someone to love him. So, this was my day in a nut shell.

I just got done putting my kids to bed and I sit here just crying. I think it is going to be harder than I thought. I miss my dog. I miss him laying next to us where ever we were. I miss him following me around the house. He was funny because he had to be with us in the house. We should have called him Shadow because he was our shadow. I almost feel that I can really just let myself cry now that my kids are with me. They saw me cry, but not like I am as I type this. I felt I needed to hold it back a bit for them. They are dealing with it better than I am. My kids had popcorn for a snack and I saw some on the floor and thought oh, Rusty will eat it. He loved eating our food droppings. I realize there is no Rusty to eat those now. I am just feeling so sad.

It is just makes me realize that there is always a battle going on. As hard as things may be from time to time we have a choice to make. Do we dwell on what bad things or sad things are happening or do we deal with it and move forward. This maybe something that takes a little time to move forward on, but I know that is what I am suppose to do. I can focus on the negative of it all, but I need to look at what God has for us now. I need to learn from it all. God has a lesson for us in every situation. The question is are we will willing to look at what we can learn. What can we be thankful for? God is bigger than it all. I am so grateful for that.

I hope this all makes sense, I feel as though I have just babbled here today. To be honest it has helped me to feel a bit better. Thanks for all of you who listened.

Me again

Hello!

It is me again. I thought I would share some more of what is happening here. Things are still going well. On Tuesday night we had Nate & Heidi over. Our plan was to go water skiing for about an hour and then have dinner. Oh, and have Nate help Ben move our washer, dryer and fridge into our rental and move the other ones out. It is so nice to have my things. Anyway, back to my story. So, we took the boat out to a lake that is about 10 minutes from our house. We got there and got the boat in the water and wouldn't you know it, it started to rain. Yeah, so Nate, Jake and I were in the boat in the water & rain. Needless to say we took the boat back out of the water and went home. No one was able to ski. But before we took the boat out we had the privilege of having a duck follow us for a while. It was funny, we would speed up and so would the duck. Then we would stop and the duck would come up real close to the boat. Nate was taking care of the commentary, which of course, made it even more funny. We ended with a nice night at our house. It is so nice having them close. Dalin is doing great and is such a joy to be around. I have included a picture of the sun set that night. It was so beautiful.

Okay, so today I had a bright idea to go for a bike ride with Jake to Safeway. So, we took off at about noon. The ride there was mostly up hill. Mind you anywhere you go here is not flat, it is all up & down hill. Well, as we are riding I am realizing that it is a bit further than I have actually thought. It was about 3 miles one way. We had a good time though. On the way back we got rained on. I don't mean a light sprinkle. It was pouring. I was laughing so much. We saw some lighting and heard some thunder. It was great. Jacob & I really enjoyed ourselves. He told me that we need to make this a weekly thing. I think that is so great. I love being able to do these things, building to a place that I can stay home and have time to do things with my kids & my husband.

Still missing everyone!

Our trip to the "Garden of the Gods"

Well, here are some pictures from our trip to the "Garden of the Gods". We had a great time. The picture with Jacob & Megan is taken at the "balanced rock". The deer picture was exciting. We were driving and it ran out in front of our car and then paused on the other side for us to take a picture. The funny thing is that when we were done taking the picture it ran off. It was almost like it had posed for the picture. We spend about 2 hours there yesterday. We hiked, climbed rocks and simply took in the view. The kids loved climbing the rocks.

It was just amazing to go to a place like this and just be in awe of all that God has created. I love to be outdoors taking in God's incredible creation. It is also wonderful to have the time to go as a family and just have fun. I have to say, since we have moved here we have done so much more as a family. I am really enjoying it. It just confirms to me that God has placed us exactly where He wanted us to be as a family. I get excited to think of all the things we have to look forward to. What is God going to do? What does He have in store for us? It is an amazing thing to know you are in God's will. He is so amazing!!

I look forward to family & friends coming to visit so I can bring you to all the wonderful places here. So, who is coming to see us? :~)

Just another day

Hello!

Not much has happen since my last blog. Today, was a good day. Ben & the kids went fishing at a lake that is about 10 minutes from our house. Yeah, you can actually see it if you walk to the end of our street. It is so nice. Anyway, I think they left the house about 6:00. They had a great time. Didn't catch any fish, but caught other things. I guess Megan caught a rope with an anchor at the end. I hear it was pretty funny, they just kept pulling in rope and finally got to the anchor. Then they found a full, unopened can of Red Bull floating, so they rescued it. The kids were very excited about it all and couldn't wait to share with me. I am so glad they had that time with dad. As for me, I was able to wake up and have a quiet house for about an hour. I really had some quiet time. I love that.

We were suppose to go to the Garden of the Gods, but that didn't happen. I believe the plan is to go tomorrow after church. I am really looking forward to going. I have been wanting to go since we got here. I have heard it is a really neat place to check out. I will have to share what it was like tomorrow with you all.

As I sit here typing this, I have more time for just me. That is nice from time to time. Everyone is already in bed from having such a long day. So, I sit here watching the Giants play against the Padres. Yes, I am a baseball fan. Go Giants! I was able to see Barry Bonds hit 755. I know some of you reading this are going, "eah whatever", "who cares". I think it is pretty cool though. That is a lot of home runs. Ok, enough about that.

Well, I guess I should go ahead and close this blog for tonight. Just wanted to say "Hi" to everyone and let you all know I miss you! Bye for now.

My first blog

Hi there!

Just thought I would update everyone on how my family & I are doing in Colorado. We have been here for about a month now. So far, we really like it. The house we are renting for now is in a great location. Not bad for doing it all over the internet. Well, not all Heidi did a drive by and took some outside pictures for us. We are really please with the kids we have on our block. Jacob & Megan have made friends rather quickly. It has been great.

Megan started school the week after we got here. She is still on year round. She really likes her teacher. It was a little rough for her at first. Having to start over with friends. She has some great friends in California. But things are looking up for her. We have had many talks about making friends and such, it has been great. She has about two and a half weeks left before she tracks off. She has already joined choir, which starts for her this Friday. That is about all going on with her.

Jacob will start school on August 13th, into Jr. High. Wow, that is still hard to believe. He will go tomorrow to check in and find out all of his classes. I think he is really going to like Jr. High. He already knows some kids from the school, so that is good. He has been doing good since we have been here. His attitude has improved. He has been helpful and everything. He is really growing up.

Ben is really liking his job. He is not stressed anymore. I am so glad God has brought him to this place. He really has had no complaints so far. He is in his third week there. The kids & I came and took him to lunch last week. The office is really nice. They have this huge kitchen with all kinds of food & drinks for everyone. Ben loves that. :~) He really seems happy. That makes all the difference in the world. I feel like I have my husband back. Yeah!

As for me, I am adjusting ok. It has been a little hard at times. I haven't really met anyone yet. I have signed up to help at both the kids schools, so that should help. I know in time I will make some new friends. I really do miss my family & all of my friends. I have some real awesome friendship in California. I know that I will always have. I do miss my daily talks with Janice & Michelle at work. We had some really fun times. I miss being able to go have coffee or lunch with my friends (Tawyna, Janice & Shawnie). I want ALL my friends to know that you are all very important to me and have touched my life more than you know. Each one of you have given me something that I will always cherish.

We started attending a new church, which can seems strange. The church is nice, and the kids really like it. That is a big bonus. I do miss sitting next to my parents in church. That is different. We were at New Life for 7 years. That is a long time. I miss seeing all the familiar faces. But God is good and we know He has plans for us here. We are excited to see what He has next for us.

Well, I should close this for now. I hope all is well with everyone. Know that I think of you all daily. Love & miss you all!